Warning: This list is not for the faint of heart. There are invisible monsters living in your tap water, creatures that swim and multiply by the billions inside every drop of brisk, refreshing water you slurp down your gullet, tiny demons that…well, okay, they’re actually not all that bad. All water has bacteria and protozoans to some extent, most of them completely harmless. But once you see what they look like up close and personal, you might never get the image out of your head. Here are 10 microorganisms that could be living in your drinking water right now.

When cities pump water out to their residents, they put the water through a series of filtration and disinfection steps first. This is obviously beneficial because when you pull water from lakes and rivers it’s most likely going to be filled with bacteria. Filter it, and you can get most of that bacteria out. The important word there is “most,” because even the most advanced filtration techniques are not infallible. And for many people, that means drinking tiny doses of cryptosporidium every day.

Cryptosporisium is what’s known as a protozoan—a single-celled organism—and is most famous for giving people bouts of crippling diarrhea, a condition affectionately referred to as cryptosporidiosis. The protozoa works like a parasite, latching onto the intestines and laying eggs in a person’s fecal matter—and that’s how it spreads: when drinking water becomes contaminated with infected fecal matter, crypto moves on to new hosts. We have safeguards in place to stop it from happening, but on a good day it only stops 99 percent of the cryptosporidium. In 1998 a crypto bloom broke out in Sydney, Australia. Officials noticed the rise, but didn’t act for a few days because the levels were still “within acceptable health limits.” That means that there are acceptable levels for a diarrhea-inducing parasite that comes from poop in your water.

This pleasant looking slinky is Anabaena circinalis, a cyanobacteria that lives in freshwater reservoirs around the world, notably Australia, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and North America. Cyanobacteria like this are believed to be some of the first multicellular organisms on earth, and as such have evolved to do some very curious things. In the case of Anabaena spp., those things are the production of neurotoxins. The discovery of Anatoxin-a was one of the first cases of a neurotoxin being produced by cyanobacteria, and we found out in a big way: An outbreak in the 1950’s got into the drinking water supply and was responsible for a series of mass die-offs at cattle farms across the U.S.

In Australia, freshwater Anabaena bacteria have been found producing saxitoxins, a type of neurotoxin that causes respiratory arrest, followed by death. The military has even gone so far as to classify saxitoxins as Schedule 1 substances with “no practical use outside of weapons manufacture.” Fortunately, cyanobacteria are one of the easier microorganisms to filter out of drinking water. For now.

Rotifers are a relatively common microorganism that can be found pretty much everywhere in the world. And they’re also one of the most common drinking water contaminants, despite growing as large as 1mm at times (which is hardly microscopic—you can see that with your naked eye). Some of them swim, others crawl around with an inchworm motion, but none of them are known to be harmful to humans. And that’s good, because they show up in tap water fairly often.

What’s not good is that the presence of rotifers in a municipal water supply usually means that there is a problem with the filtration system—organisms that large should not be able to make it through. And rotifers are also known to act as hosts to protozoans (like cryptosporidium) and bacteria. That leads to a mirrored benefit, of sorts: rotifers can be used as a warning system to let officials know that there’s something wrong with their systems, but by the time they’re seen, there could be other things that got through as well.

The link in the previous entry pointed to a Connecticut public health bulletin meant to advise residents who might find tiny bugs swimming around in their tap water. It addresses two types of near-microscopic invertebrates: rotifers, and copepods. Of the two, copepods are larger, and possibly even more common. They can grow up to 2mm (double the size of rotifers), and they’re actually a type of crustacean, sort of like miniature shrimp. And they’re everywhere.

In the Connecticut incident, which happened in 2009, residents began finding thousands of them in small samples of water. One resident compared them to “tiny polliwogs,” and stated, “It was completely disgusting. We were drinking them, washing out clothes in them, and it was just completely nasty.” But if anything, copepods are beneficial because they often feed on toxins. Again though, the fact that they can make it through the filtration system means plenty of smaller bacteria can too.

We all know about E. coli, or Escherichia coli, a bacteria that lives in, on, and around fecal matter. It’s been publicized more times than you can shake a stick at, until by now it’s practically a legend of the bacteria world. From food to water to even more food, it’s hard to get away from. Which is why it’s sort of disconcerting to find out that all drinking water invariably has E. coli in it; it’s just kept down to levels that are considered “safe.”

Here’s the data sheet on drinking water contaminants from the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, of the United States. According to that sheet, E. coli is acceptable as long as it doesn’t appear in more than 5 percent of the water samples collected in a given month. So if the municipality tests their water 100 times in a month, 5 of those samples can be infected with E. coli, but the water will still be permitted to go out to the city’s residents. And once you get down to decimal places of hundredths or thousandths of a percent, you are pretty much always guaranteed to find some E. coli swimming and playing in your water.

In the world at large, the more colorful something is, the more fun you can probably have with it. And based on that logic, these mycotoxic mold spores are just a big barrel of laughs. Until they start showing up in drinking water; then you have problems. Rhizopus stolonifer is more commonly known as black bread mold; leave a piece of bread out in the open, and this will be just one of the molds that take over it.

Widely considered the most common fungus in the world, it’s not surprising that this mold shows up in tap water as well. Fungi reproduce with spores which, much like flower pollen, float through the air until they find a suitable place to land and grow. In 2006, a study looked at the concentrations of mold spores in tap water, and found that Rhizopus stolonifer appeared 2.9 percent of the time, which, arguably, is fairly low in the realm of contaminants (remember, E. coli can legally show up nearly twice as often). It’s believed to release toxins that are harmful to humans, although they’re only dangerous in higher concentrations.

This organism doesn’t look as terrifying as some of the other creatures on this list—really it just looks like a few mold splotches. It’s actually an amoeba, though, and it eats brains. To be scientific about it, the amoeba attacks a person’s nervous system by entering through their nasal cavities, killing 98 percent of its victims.

N. fowleri infections are rare, mostly because it isn’t effective if it’s consumed orally. But in 2011, two Louisiana residents died from meningoencephalitis (the disease caused by Naegleria) after making a nasal flush out of salt and tap water. When the deaths were investigated, the brain eating amoeba was found on the bathtub, shower heads, and sink faucets—the house was literally covered in it. Despite this case, most infections aren’t caused by tap water infected with N. fowleri. No, usually people get it by swimming in lakes and rivers. Have you ever accidentally sucked water up your nose while swimming?

With a name like Legionella, this bacteria already sounds dangerous. And since it was named after an American Legion convention in 1976 where it was responsible for 34 deaths and a total of 221 infections, that might be a fair assumption. The condition caused by L. pneumophila is now called Legionnaires’ disease, and it sends 18,000 people to the hospital every year. And it comes from, you guessed it, contaminated water. Symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease include confusion, fevers of up to 107 F (41.5 C), loss of coordination, vomiting, diarrhea, and muscle aches. It shows up sporadically; in 2001, more than 700 people in Spain were infected in one centralized area.

As if L. pneumophila wasn’t already dangerous enough, the U.S. military decided to take a crack at weaponizing it, leading to a genetically modified version with a 100 percent kill rate. But even if you’re not on a government hit list, you would do well to stay away from water in general.

Here’s another type of mold, and one that looks slightly more terrifying than the psychedelic funhouse in number five. Like black bread mold, Chaetomium species are fairly common in everyday life, usually floating through the air in moist locations, which can encompass everything from a swamp to your bathroom ceilings. This appears in tap water fairly rarely, but when it is there it usually makes the water taste and smell slightly “off”—normal signs to stop drinking a glass of water in any case.

Chaetomium sp. spores aren’t particularly dangerous, although in some cases they can cause an infection known as phaeohyphomycosis, which is something you definitely do not want to Google. They can also present a hazard to people who are allergic to the spores, and even that typically only happens with chronic exposure.

One of the first things we learn as children is that you always cook chicken, and if you handle it raw you better scrub those hands nice and good. The reason, of course, is salmonella, which has such a long history of infection it’s not even possible to link to them all here. Usually salmonella shows up on food such as beef, spinach, and of course, chicken (hedgehogs too, surprisingly). Less commonly, salmonella causes outbreaks through none other than our friendly neighborhood drinking water.

In 2008, Colorado tap water was responsible for 79 cases of salmonella poisoning, which caused fevers and vomiting. People with weak immune systems, like the elderly, are especially susceptible to salmonella. Another study looked at the water supply of Togo, Africa, and found 26 cases of salmonella contamination, suggesting that developing countries are at a greater risk for bacterial infections from drinking water. It’s sort of common sense, but it’s beneficial to have figures to see what exactly is causing illnesses in these areas.

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” We’ll take the wine.

The world is filled with unique and vibrant cultures. These traditions and customs have spread throughout local communities and abroad. Some are delightful, but some may be shocking and unorthodox.

10Taarof

Taarof is the Iranian practice of performing a gesture of respect and deference, although it is generally understood that such a gesture should be refused. For example, in some establishments, it is considered polite for the shopkeeper to refuse payment from a customer of a higher social rank. The customer understands, however, that the proper response is to insist upon paying. The shopkeeper may refuse payment several times before allowing the customer to convince him to accept. This practice can be very confusing to hapless foreign shoppers.

Taarof may also extend to social invitations. It is understood in Iranian culture that an invitation to one’s home, no matter how enthusiastic, is a mere formality. Should the invitee accept, they may inadvertently put their host (who may not have wanted them in their house at all) in a very awkward position.

9Mano Po

Pagmamano is a gesture that symbolizes respect for one’s elders. It is akin to bowing, with the addition of taking an elder’s hand and pressing it to one’s forehead. The practice is predominantly found in the Philippines and some parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. It is said to have been borrowed from the Chinese centuries ago, when Filipinos began to acclimate to the culture of travelers and merchants. It is quite common at family gatherings to instruct children to ask for a blessing in this manner from their elder relatives.

A similar custom of addressing one’s elders with respect is the use of the words po and opo. For instance, “Ano yun?” (“What is that?”) is a common statement. However, adding po (“Ano po yun?”) signifies respect to the person you are addressing. When an elder or anyone of a higher status asks you a question, you should say opo to indicate the affirmative rather than oo, the common Filipino word for “yes.” In some cases, po and opo are also used as terms of endearment for others of equal stature.

8Bayanihan

Another unique aspect of Filipino culture is bayanihan, the practice of literally moving an entire home to a new location. The villagers gather to lift up the structures, carrying them over quite a distance. In some cases, it’s done to avoid damage to the home from impending floods or landslides, but it’s sometimes done simply to oblige a good neighbor.

Bayanihan occurs mostly in rural provinces, since the abodes found in these areas are made of lighter materials like bamboo and nipa palm wood. While it does take place in urban areas, it is limited to moving items such as hardware, playground contraptions like swings and seesaws, and basketball courts.

7Henna Weddings And The Blackening

Islamic weddings are steeped in centuries-old traditions and rituals. For one thing, it is generally believed that the best day for the ceremony to take place is on Thursday, since Friday is the holy day among Muslims. Another tradition is mehndi, or “henna,” night. Two nights before the wedding, the bride is surrounded by women from her side of the family, who paint designs on her hands, arms, and feet. This was to symbolize the bride’s entrance to womanhood. Some symbols are also meant to provide luck and fertility for the woman.

While henna night is an artistic and beautiful display, the same can’t be said for a custom practiced in parts of Scotland called “the blackening.” It involves friends of the bride and groom tying the two together in bathtubs, large crates, or behind pickup trucks before parading them through the streets to be pelted by passersby with an array of disgusting material. Feathers, soot, rotten eggs, curry, shoe polish, and mud are just a few of the horrors in which the couple can expect to be covered. This fun-filled tradition is believed to ward off evil spirits, and it also provides a bonding moment for the couple that symbolizes the hardships they are to endure and conquer together.

6Mudras

Mudras are seals, marks, or gestures unique to Hinduism and Buddhist cultures, most notably India. No fewer than 500 different meanings can be expressed by the way a person moves their hands and fingers. These movements are believed to allow the individual to control the flow of prana, or life energy, and focus their attention toward a certain goal. They can be seen in statues, paintings, dances, plays, yoga, and meditative techniques.

The gyana mudra, wherein the thumb and index fingers touch while the other fingers extend away from the palm, is said to promote mental clarity and calmness, making it the most popular mudra to use for meditative purposes. The abhaya mudra (simply raising one’s right hand with an open palm and fingers extended straight up) shares an almost universal meaning with other symbolic gestures of various religions and cultures. It’s related to the heart chakra and communicates openness and honest intent. The agni mudra (the thumb touching the middle finger while the rest extend away from the palm) symbolizes fire and is said to aid the digestive process.

5Arriving Late

In many parts of the world, arriving late to a social gathering is considered quite rude, but that’s not the case in South America. In Chile, if the host says that dinner will be served at 8:00 PM, guests are expected to arrive around 8:15 or even as late as 8:30. Arriving on time or earlier could mean catching the host unprepared, and the offender will be regarded as “too eager” for a meal. In Ecuador, arriving 15–20 minutes late is also considered being “on time,” and Brazilians consider meeting times “elastic,” showing up whenever they please.

Even parts of the United States have adopted these traditions, because they have attracted large populations of immigrants from these countries who brought their customs with them. For instance, in Miami, it’s more common for dinner to be served late and guests to be less punctual than in other parts of the country.

4Alcohol And The Devil

Although stereotypes can be harmful, it is true that Russia is one of the highest-ranked countries in the world in alcohol consumption. The country’s love of vodka is also its leading cause of death, from liver disease and alcohol poisoning to fatal accidents and crimes.

Since it’s such an integral part of their culture, there are many rules of etiquette surrounding drinking in Russia. For instance, you can’t place a glass of alcohol back on the table after a toast—it should be bottom’s up and empty. Arriving late for dinner means that you have to drink a full glass of vodka, no questions asked, as you’ll have to catch up with the rest. Between the first and second shots, there must be no interruptions whatsoever. Lastly, you should never make the mistake of offering a toast with an empty glass. If you do, you’ll have to drink the entire bottle.

Russians also love to swear, but their custom is steeped in superstition. It is said that when you curse another person’s health in a manner without malice, you should spit three times over your left shoulder. This symbolically spits in the eye of the devil, preventing bad omens or a temptation of fate. If the curse is made in writing, you should write the guttural sound, “Tfu, tfu, tfu!”

3Pearly Whites And The Tooth Fairy

There are several variations of the tale of the tooth fairy. In Denmark, the tooth fairy is called Tann Feen. In many cultures, the mythical figure is actually a mouse, known in France as La Petite Souris, in Spain as Ratoncito Perez, and in Colombia as El Raton Miguelito.

In Greece and Mauritania, a child does not simply leave his tooth underneath his pillow. Instead, children throw it as hard and as high as they can toward the roof of their home. In Greece, this provides good luck and strong teeth. In Mauritania, if there’s a rooster crowing by daybreak, he could keep the tooth.

In Jamaica, children are told horrible tales about a calf that will take them away unless they place their lost tooth in a can and shake it vigorously. The noise is said to drive the calf away. Malaysian children take a more spiritual view of their lost teeth—they bury them in the ground, as what was once part of the body must be returned to the Earth. In Turkey, lost teeth can be used to convey parents’ expectations to their children. For example, if they want their child to be a doctor, they might bury the teeth near a hospital.

2Bushido And Seppuku

Bushido, the warrior code of Japan, emphasizes strength, loyalty, and integrity. Some analysts and academics have recommended its implementation in the world of business, given the many irregularities that have faced corporations in the past and present. Conducting business inspired by bushido means working effectively and honestly, with the best interests of your superiors and the public in mind.

Seppuku, or ritual suicide as an alternative to defeat introduced by samurai, has a less vaunted reputation. It was particularly vilified in the wake of World War II, when thousands of Japanese soldiers carried on the practice by choosing to take their lives rather than surrender, but it continues to this day in many parts of Asia. Notable instances include the suicides of Yukio Mishima while protesting Japan’s military policies in 1970 and Masaharu Nonaka after he was laid off by his company in 1999.

In Korea, many people feel unbearable guilt and shame in the wake of great tragedy and see no other choice but to end their lives. When the MV Sewol sunk on April 16, 2014 and left hundreds of students dead or missing, the vice principal was so intensely plagued by guilt that he committed suicide.

1The Haka

The haka is a tradition of the Maori people of New Zealand. The spectacle involves menacing facial expressions, grunting, guttural howling, loud chanting, stomping, clapping, chest-thumping, and tongue-wagging intended to strike awe and fear into the tribe’s opponents.

Today, it is most often seen when it is performed by New Zealand’s national sports teams. Their rugby team, the All Blacks, perform the haka on the field prior to a match, as seen in the video above. During the 2014 FIBA tournament, the basketball team nicknamed the “Tall Blacks” performed the haka much to the bewilderment and surprise of their US opponents.

But the haka is more than just a war dance or a challenge for a fight. It can also invoke poetry and art detailing the history and the lore of the tribe, or be used to communicate peace, a welcome greeting, or a show of respect. One example is a moment that occurred after the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was filmed on the island and included many local actors. Viggo Mortensen was known for performing many death-defying stunts that earned him the respect of the team, so on his last day of filming, the Kiwi cast performed a haka for him and another crew member.

Jo is fascinated by various cultural traditions across the globe. Do you partake in any unique to your nation? Let him know via email.

Caves aren’t just for bats and ancient bones anymore. Although many caves have incredible natural beauty and rich histories, some also have cool things that you’d never expect to find there.

10Mountain Biking

Mega Cavern Bike Park in Louisville, Kentucky, is home to the world’s first underground mountain biking course—and the largest indoor bike park ever built—with something for bikers at all levels. Even expert bikers will be able to maneuver through advanced trails and jumps in caverns with 30-meter-high (90 ft) ceilings. “Think about riding or skiing down a mountain,” says co-owner Jim Lowry, describing the trails. “You don’t go speeding straight down, you go back and forth, over bumps and smooth sections. You are moving fast at some points and more slowly at others.”

Designed by Joe Prisel, a bike park creator for the ESPN X Games, Mega Cavern Bike Park is built in a modular fashion. That way, a lot of the trails can be modified during the year to create new challenges for riders. With a consistent temperature of 16 degrees Celsius (60 °F) underground, bikers no longer have to worry about weather that makes riding dangerous outdoors. There will be a riding school, too.

The 92-acre cavern also sports a business park and entertainment attractions like the Lights Under Louisville, a drive-through display of over two million Christmas lights. The cavern runs under the Louisville Zoo and some commercial buildings. But the way the texture of the high limestone walls and dirt varies, it feels like you’re outside instead of enclosed beneath the ground.

There’s so much solid limestone above the ceilings that the cavern was considered safe enough to use as a fallout shelter for up to 50,000 people during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Initially excavated in the 1930s, this man-made cavern, the largest in Kentucky, was mined as a limestone quarry for over 40 years. Under new ownership in 1989, the cavern eventually housed a recycling center and over 11 acres of office buildings. It became a huge complex almost completely hidden within massive limestone cliffs.

9A Nightclub

A part of Hotel Las Cuevas in Trinidad, Cuba, Disco Ayala lets you experience a rave in a cave. With three bars and five dance floors, the club blasts disco-salsa music from a DJ booth while colored lights play off the stalactites on the walls. Although some of disco’s intense heat is released through a big hole in the roof, the opening really serves to prevent the sound waves from causing a cave-in. Up to 5,000 people can fit inside. The disco also features live acts that include acrobatics, glass-eating, fire-walking, and snakes.

Legend has it that the cave was once home to a notorious Cuban serial killer, psychopath Carlos “Coco” Ayala, who kidnapped children and killed them in the cave. When Cuban children misbehave, their mothers often warn them: “Be good or Carlos Ayala will come looking!” Supposedly, Carlos deserted during the 19th-century Cuban War of Independence and hid for safety in the cave. “I always heard that this man [abducted] children, leading [them] to a cave to rape and kill them as part of a ritual to the saints,” recalled an old resident of Trinidad as quoted by Cuban newspaper Escambray. “His misdeeds ended when the people captured and beheaded him.” Exactly how much truth exists in the legend is unknown. But there is historical evidence to confirm that Ayala did kill several people in the cave in the late 1800s.

Strangely, the owners of the nightclub kept the Ayala name. However, the disco was constructed for entertainment only, not to remember the evil deeds of a murderer.

8A Church

Although we don’t know its date of origin, the spacious Spassky Cave Church is located in Kostomarovo, a Russian village in the Voronezh region of the country. It’s the larger of two churches in the ancient cave monastery called the Svyato–Spassky Convent. Although the Spassky Church is carved into a chalky cliff, it’s big enough to accommodate 2,000 people. There’s even a large “Cave of Repentance” for sinners to make their confessions. Much of the surrounding area is named after the Holy Land, including a Calvary, a Gethsemane Garden, a hill of Golgotha, and a Mount Tabor.

Before the rise of Christianity in Russia, monks hid in ascetic cave cells in the region to avoid religious persecution until the first monastery was constructed in the 12th century. One of the purposes of the monastery was to shield parishioners from enemy attack, even if the siege continued for a long time. Monks and hermits lived in small cells cut into the shrine walls. They were completely isolated from the outside world except for a tiny window carved out of the rock.

As the communists swept into power, the monks were executed, and the Svyato-Spassky Convent was closed like so many other places of worship in the country. However, the caves once again provided refuge, this time for the country’s soldiers, when the Soviets fought the Nazis in World War II (also called the “Great Patriotic War” in the Soviet Union). Although the churches were officially reopened in 1943, Nikita Khrushchev directed local officials to close them again in the early 1960s. They flooded the cave and burned the exterior of the buildings.

In 1993, after the fall of communism, the church, convent, and caves were rebuilt. Even today, some Russians make a pilgrimage to the church every year.

7A Whole New Ecosystem

The Er Wang Dong cave in the Chongquig province of China is so big and isolated that it has a unique ecosystem, including its own weather. Scientists didn’t venture far enough into the cave to discover its secrets until 2012. Partly, that’s because they needed a lot of specialized equipment to lower themselves through the opening at the top of the cave, which requires a descent of more than 250 meters (820 ft). When the explorers got inside, they also found some openings to the outside around the floor of the cave. However, the scientists were less astounded by the almost 13-acre size of the cave than by the clouds that obscured their view of the ceiling in what is known as Cloud Ladder Hall.

Clouds get in, but they can’t get back out. Although the cave had been mined for nitrate near its entrances, there was lush vegetation, including trees, in the interior chambers. But there was also danger from rushing rivers that can carry you over one of the interior waterfalls to your death.

Explorer Robbie Shone explains that we really know very little about the mysteries of our planet’s caves. “More people have been to the Moon than to some of these caves,” he says. “Each time we go into these caves and bring photographs or video back to the surface, it’s all new stuff we’ve never seen before.”

6Modern Cavemen And Cavewomen

Over 30 million people in China still live in caves, including an entire community in Shaanxi province. There, the porous soil of the loess plateau makes it easy to dig a cave home, called a yaodong, out of the mountainside. These no-frill, one-room dwellings substitute rice paper or a quilt for a front door. If you have the money, it’s possible to buy more rooms, as well as electricity, running water, and a yard. These caves conserve energy and provide residents with more land to farm.

Some of the caves are in high demand from people looking to buy or rent. But apparently, nobody wants to leave. Most cave dwellers have lived there all their lives. Even some of the residents who’ve moved on for various reasons dream of returning to their caves. “It’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter,” says forty-something Ren Shouhua. “It’s quiet and safe. When I get old, I’d like to go back to my roots.”

Historically, that wasn’t always safe, though. On January 23, 1556, the Shaanxi magnitude 8 earthquake struck, and it was the deadliest one ever recorded. The quake killed 830,000 people, and many lost their lives when their yaodong collapsed on them.

Nevertheless, the caves have provided refuge for the Chinese during important moments in history. Mao Zedong once retreated to caves in the north of Shaanxi province when the Long March ended in the 1930s. American journalist Edgar Snow wrote about a Red Army university located in bombproof caves. During the Cultural Revolution, even Chinese President Xi Jinping spent seven years living in exile in a Shaanxi province cave.

However, not all modern caves are inexpensive or spartan. The deluxe Cave House in Bisbee, Arizona, was listed for sale for over $1 million dollars in 2012 when one of the owners died. It’s even possible to find a cave home on eBay as Curt Sleeper did in 2003 in Festus, Missouri. But he soon learned it’s difficult to get a bank to finance the purchase of a cave. The Sleepers moved in, but they fell on hard times and had to put the house up for auction.

5Medical Treatment Centers

When two middle-aged Frenchwomen became convinced that electromagnetic radiation from the modern world was making them sick, they took up residence in a cave. “I’ve been treated like a crazy woman,” said one of the pair, Bernadette Touloumond. “I’ve lost a lot of friends, and my family find [sic] it hard to understand.” However, many people trek to medical treatment centers set up in caves throughout the world to supposedly help them with their ailments. We’ve already talked about the Gastein Healing Cave in Austria that contains the world’s biggest pain management center.

Especially popular these days are salt caves, some natural and some man-made, designed to treat respiratory ailments like asthma and skin conditions like eczema. The man-made caves are often just indoor rooms that coat their ceilings and walls with salt, although some blow particles of cave salt into the air with a generator. In these halotherapy chambers, you simply relax in a chair and breathe the salt air. However, doctors caution that conditions such as asthma may be worsened by these treatments.

A German named Dr. Schutz is credited with dreaming up the notion of a salt cure gallery in Berchtesgaden, Germany, after noticing how the air around a Polish salt mine healed wounds faster during World War II. In Eastern Europe, salt caves are considered by many to be therapeutic. However, there are few studies on salt rooms published in the English language to either confirm or deny these claims.

4A Controversial Movie Set

Devetashka Cave is a huge cave close to the village of Devetaki in Bulgaria. In the 1950s, the cave was used as a military warehouse for oil tank storage. Devetashka was also inhabited by humans in ancient times, but the landmark is only home to a protected bat population, including some endangered species.

In 2011, the cave became most well known for a controversy over a movie set. The producers for The Expendables 2 (starring Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis) shot an action scene where Stallone crash-landed a plane into the cave to take out Jean Claude Van Damme’s hideout. Environmentalists complained that the movie shoot reduced the bat population by about 75 percent. “The shooting harms the bat habitat—with the placement of props, the cutting down of vegetation, as well as disturbance by the presence of large numbers of people and the noise they make,” said Bulgarian zoologist Nikolay Simov from the Center for Bat Studies and Protection. Supposedly, all the noise caused the bats to come out of hibernation too early, to the detriment of their health.

Simov also stated that local authorities had no legal right to issue a permit for filming at the cave because regulations allow only scientific research and tourism there. After an investigation, however, the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters found that most of the bats were hibernating at the proper time and the number of dead bats wasn’t excessive.

3Astronomical Knowledge & A Fertility Light Show

A cave on Gran Canaria, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, has revealed that its aboriginal inhabitants had an impressive knowledge of astronomy. It appears that the cave was originally used as a temple. But the way that equinoxes and solstices are marked inside the cave suggests an advanced knowledge of astronomy.

The temple also creates a unique fertility light show throughout the year. “It’s like a projector of images from a vanished culture,” says archaeologist Julio Cuenca. That culture is the aboriginal Guanches, who are believed to have come to the Canary Islands about 3,000 years ago. After Spain conquered them in the 1400s, their culture disappeared.

But apparently, their fertility myths are illuminated in the cave, revealing images that change according to the season. For the six months from March to September, sunlight shining onto the cave walls produces phallic images on top of engravings of female pubic areas. Over time, as fall approaches, these images transform into a pregnant woman and ultimately a seed.

2An Amusement Park

While technically not a cave, the Wieliczka Salt Mine outside of Krakow, Poland, doesn’t qualify as a mine anymore, either. No salt has been mined there for over a decade. Approximately 300 kilometers (186 mi) long, it’s a huge complex nine levels deep with chapels and important sculptures of religious and historical figures. From the 13th century on, generations of mostly Catholic miners built incredible structures beneath the ground, including a huge cathedral. Wieliczka even has an underground lake and chandeliers made of salt. Like the salt caves already mentioned, Wieliczka has a spa for people with respiratory difficulties. The complex became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

Thrill seekers congregate in its depths 300 meters (1,000 ft) underground to bungee jump, ride hot-air balloons, and even windsurf across the salty underground lake (although they need a giant fan to provide the wind). Wieliczka also has its own underground brass band to provide music during the festivities.

1Hidden Treasure

In March 2015, a 21-year-old member of the Israeli Caving Club discovered buried treasure in an undisclosed cave in northern Israel. Authorities don’t want to identify the location of the ancient stalactite cave for fear that poachers will rob it of other hidden treasures.

In the cave with his father and a friend, Hen Zakai was crawling along a particularly narrow area when he spotted something shining in the darkness of a nook. It was two silver coins minted during the time of Alexander the Great, who conquered Israel in the late fourth century BC. Each coin showed an image of Alexander the Great on one side and Zeus on the other. Hen also discovered a cloth pouch with silver jewelry nearby, with some earrings that were incredibly well preserved along with bracelets and rings.

“The valuables might have been hidden in the cave by local residents who fled there during the period of governmental unrest stemming from the death of Alexander, a time when the Wars of the Diadochi broke out in Israel between Alexander’s heirs following his death,” said Dr. Eitan Klein of the Antiquities Authority. “Presumably, the cache was hidden in the hope of better days, but today we know that whoever buried the treasure never returned to collect it.”

Further exploration of the cave revealed ancient pottery hanging on stalagmites. Some of the pottery had fused with the limestone and couldn’t be removed. The newly discovered artifacts date from the Hellenistic period about 2,300 years ago all the way back to the Chalcolithic period about 6,000 years ago.

You know the happiest place on earth, but what about the creepiest place on earth? Even though Disney parks are known for bringing magic and good cheer to everyone that enters, they have their fair share of unsettling, creepy, and downright scary features. From ventriloquist dummies to human remains on rides (that’s right, plural) these are some creepy things you’ll only find in Disney parks.

Top 10 Ways To Get Banned From A Disney Or Universal Theme Park

10 Caesar the Ventriloquist Dummy

This prop you’ll find in the queue of Tower of Terror in Disney World’s Hollywood Studios may be even scarier than the ride itself. Caesar comes from an episode of The Twilight Zone titled “Caesar and Me” where he manipulates his owner into making questionable decisions. While Caesar isn’t a part of the ride itself, you’ll find him waiting for you at the exit of the ride. Cast Members at The Tower of Terror claim they must say hello and good night to Caesar every day or he will cause mischief around the attraction. Tower of Terror has plenty of nods to the original Twilight Zone series, but Caesar is by far the creepiest.^[1]

9 Visiting Hell in Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Disneyland is…a lot. It’s dark, loud, dizzying, and intense, and to top off the bizarre storyline, Mr. Toad (and you as the rider) end up in Hell. Yes, Disney Imagineers actually put Hell in a children’s ride. The temperature heats up to set the scene and riders are greeted with a demon, devils, and a giant dragon that breathes fire. It’s a bizarre moment and feels pretty unsettling compared to the rest of the park. Given the ride’s consistently long lines and nauseating effects, it’s probably only worth a single experience.^[2]

8 Human Ashes at Haunted Mansion

Disney parks attract people celebrating many occasions including weddings, birthdays, and…funerals? Apparently so. Disney has been forced to officially ban the spreading of ashes in their parks because it happens so often (FYI, you’ll be kicked out of the park if you’re caught). Guests have scattered ashes on rides from Pirates of the Caribbean to It’s a Small World, but the Haunted Mansion seems to be a fan favorite. “The Haunted Mansion probably has so much human ashes in it that it’s not even funny,” one Disneyland custodian told the Wall Street Journal. While the idea of spreading your loved one’s ashes in a place that meant a lot to them is sweet, maybe don’t do it at such a public place. It actually has its own violation code (HEPA cleanup) and requires a special vacuum to be used.^[3]

7 Boardwalk Inn Nanny Chairs

Disney World’s Boardwalk Inn is a Deluxe Resort themed for places like turn-of-the-century Atlantic City and Coney Island. In the late 1800s when boardwalk attractions like carousels were becoming popular, the chariot-style benches for parents to sit on while their children rode the wooden horses didn’t exist. Instead, parents sat on Nanny Chairs. These chairs weren’t required to be creepy, but the replicas at the Boardwalk Inn decided their Nanny Chairs needed arms, legs, and faces. You really need to see them in person to get the full “why would anyone do that” effect. They’re almost a weird as the giant clown statue in the pool area that holds an uncanny resemblance to Pennywise. Can we all agree that most stuff from the 1800s was weird and doesn’t have a place in modern society?^[4]

6 Real Skeletons in Pirates of the Caribbean

When Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride first opened in 1967, the Imagineers decided it needed a more realistic feel. Apparently the fake skeletons at the time seemed too fake and unrealistic. Their solution? Procure real skeletal remains from the UCLA Medical Center and add them to the set. While this certainly gave the chilling effect Disney was looking for, the technology to create realistic skeletons eventually improved and the real bones were sent back to their countries of origin to have a proper burial. However, there are plenty of rumors out there that insist some real human remains still sit inside the ride. Try to imagine that the next time you’re floating down the bayou and it will add an entirely new feel to the attraction.^[5]

10 Disney Characters With Controversial Histories

5 The Stretching Room in the Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion ride (found at Disneyland and Disney World) understandably gets several spots on this list. While the ride itself has its fair share of creepy moments, the pre-show in the Stretching Room is undoubtedly the most frightening. Guests cram into an octagonal room where they are welcomed by a Ghost Host and greeted with four paintings that hang above on the walls. Each painting seems relatively normal (a bearded gentleman holding a piece of paper, a young woman holding a parasol, an old woman holding a rose, and a man in a bowler hat) until the room seemingly stretches upward and reveals grisly hidden context to the rest of the paintings. The bearded gentleman is revealed to be standing on a lit pile of dynamite, the young woman is balanced on a tightrope above a snapping alligator, the old woman is sitting on the tombstone of a man killed with an ax, and the man in the bowler hat is on the shoulders of two other men sinking into a pit of quicksand. To top it off, the Ghost Host laughs and tells the crowd they can always escape the mansion “his way” before a loud clap of thunder is heard and a man hanging from a noose is revealed in the rafters above. A portrait of that man is seen later in the ride where he is shown holding an ax with the noose still around his neck, implying that he cut himself down after he died. Pretty creepy stuff for a children’s ride.^[6]

4 Abandoned Parks

Anything that’s been abandoned is a little creepy to begin with, but abandoned Disney parks have a particularly eerie quality to them since they contradict to starkly with the colorful, crowded, cheerful parks currently open. Disney actually has two abandoned parks to its name: Discovery Island and River Country. Discovery Island, which sits in Bay Lake on Disney World property, was initially opened in 1974 under the name Treasure Island as a premier tourist destination/bird sanctuary only reachable by boat. It was renamed Discovery Island in 1978 and served its purpose until 1999 when it was closed for various reasons, including bacteria found in the water and roaming alligators. The animals in the sanctuary were moved to Animal Kingdom Park and the island has been banned to tourists ever since. River Country, opened in 1976, was Disney World’s first water park and was instantly a popular tourist attraction. Unfortunately, the park had its part in several deadly incidents that ultimately led to its closure. In 1980 a young boy died from an amoeba he contracted after visiting River Country, but there was no enough evidence to prove Disney was at fault as he could have contracted it somewhere else. Two years later a child drowned coming off a waterslide, and seven years after that another boy drowned in the park. The park continued to operate until 2001 when it closed for maintenance and never reopened. Disney official announced the park’s closure in 2005, and it continues to be waterlogged and moss-covered to this day.^[7]

3 Pirate George

Another one for Pirates of the Caribbean, but this time we’re focusing on the ride in Disney World. According to popular Disney legend, while being built in the 1970s, a welder named George who was working on the ride died in a tragic accident. His cause of death is a legend in itself since no one seems to know exactly how it happened, but those who believe it happened say George’s ghost haunts the ride to this day. Throughout the years Cast Members working on the ride claim to seen everything from ghostly apparitions on security footage to props being moved with no explanation. According to tradition, Cast Members must say “good morning” and “good night” to George every day to ensure things will run smoothly and George won’t wreak too much havoc. Luckily he isn’t a malicious ghost and most of his spooky actions are pretty harmless, albeit creepy.^[8]

2 Snow White’s Scary Adventures

Remember the one scene in Snow White where she runs through the woods and feels like monsters are closing in on her? Picture the feelings you had during that scene made into a ride, and you get Snow White’s Scary Adventures. This Disneyland attraction is legitimately one of the creepiest few minutes you’ll spend in the park, without the happy ending Disney is known for. The ride starts out relatively pleasant but quickly becomes dark and cold with an ominous soundtrack playing in the background. You’ll also see the queen turn into the old hag right in front of your face, which is a guaranteed “jump out of your seat” moment. Top it off with some dungeon skeletons and simulated lightning before the ride comes to an abrupt end. Luckily, it’s currently closed for refurbishment to give it a more upbeat feel.^[9]

1 Haunted Mansion Cast Members

The Haunted Mansion is easily the creepiest attraction in the Disney parks, which is why it gets three spots on this list. The last honor goes out to the Cast Members’ amazing ability to get in character when they’re working this ride. While many Cast Members in the Disney parks are known for being over-the-top friendly and cheerful, Haunted Mansion’s staff give a more appropriate feel of somberness and gloom. If you ever feel eyes on you while waiting in line for the ride, you might turn around and see a Cast Member staring at the back of your head. Don’t worry—if you have a question or problem, they’ll be glad to help! Just don’t expect any jokes or smiles from their end.^[10]

10 Ways Disney Parks Hide Things Right In Front Of You

About The Author: Anne Taylor is a freelance writer and theme park blogger. She loves to talk about all things Disney and Universal Studios, and her helpful articles can be found on tayloredtripsblog.com. You can also find her on Instagram at @tayloredtripsblog.

Humans share the Earth with a plethora of different bacteria, distant relatives of ours who inhabit a variety of different environments and perform countless functions—some of which we welcome, and some of which we fight against. It could be said, however, that it is the bacteria who are nice enough to share the Earth with us, considering there are roughly 5×10^30 bacteria on the planet—forming a total mass greater than that of all plants and animals combined.

We tend to think of them existing only in places where other life forms can be found, such as in our gut, the kitchen, forests, and ponds. However, plenty of bacteria require no such environment and can be found in some truly obscure and surprising places on this planet and beyond.

10Inside Solid Rock

It was long believed that one of the requirements for life to exist was sunlight. Even organisms not directly exposed to the Sun (such as those residing in your gut) would consume organic matter that at one point was synthesized with the help of sunlight.

Recently, however, this dogma has been called into question. A team of scientists investigating a South African gold mine has discovered bacteria over 1.5 miles below the ground that seem to subsist purely off of radioactive waste.

The uranium, thorium, and potassium in the surrounding rock formation seem to have just the right amount of energy to break down water molecules, which leads to the production of hydrogen peroxide and sulfates. The radiation breaks down the water molecules into two atoms of hydrogen and a single atom of oxygen, which combine with other water molecules to form hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide then reacts with pyrite (fool’s gold) to produce sulfate ions, which the bacteria feast upon with great relish.

And these lonely microbes seem to be in no rush to leave their rocky fortress. Whereas much of the bacteria we encounter on a daily basis—such as E. coli—divides almost daily, this rock-dwelling bacteria is estimated to divide between once a year and once every 300 years.

9The Cleanest Place On Earth: Nasa ‘Clean Rooms’

If you have ever given your kitchen or bathroom a thorough cleaning, you doubtless have walked away with a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that any living microbes that once were there have been eviscerated. Now imagine you work for NASA, and your job is to make the “clean rooms” (where everyone is required to walk around in triple-layer, sterilized body suits) as clean as possible. And NASA wants them really clean.

These rooms are what “hospital operating rooms are to patients,” says Mike Weiss, Hubble’s technical deputy program manager at Goddard. “Surgeons wear sterile gowns, gloves and masks during surgery, and operating rooms must be kept free of germs to keep patients healthy. In our case, [the spacecraft] is the patient.”

Anyone who enters must pass through a series of “lobbies,” the first of which contains special adhesive to remove dirt particles from shoes, the second of which provides a high-pressure air shower, and the third of which forces you to cover yourself from head to toe in protective clothing.

This painstaking procedure made it all the more upsetting when an entirely new genus of bacteria was discovered in not one, but two NASA clean rooms. Named Tersicoccus phoenicis (“Tersi” is Latin for clean), this bacterium has earned a reputation for outwitting the most intense industrial cleaners and sterilization techniques.

Scientists at NASA make sure to keep samples of this resilient creature on hand to compare it to any potential bacteria brought back from space.

8Sheets Of Ice

When we think of ice, we inevitably think of cold, which brings with it very little movement and therefore very little life. The freezer is where we put food for long-term storage not because we necessarily want to make more room in the refrigerator but because we want to slow down the various chemical processes that will cause the food to spoil.

This is why it is all the more surprising that large populations of bacteria have found a long-term home in some of the world’s largest glaciers—with some bacterial strains lasting for millions of years.

The Transantarctic Mountains in Antarctica contain the oldest known ice on Earth and are home to microbes that have lived there for millions of years. It is estimated that the entire microbial cell population encased in the ice sheets of Antarctica outnumber the human population of Earth more than 10,000 times over.

And now that the Earth is warming and the ice is melting, these little guys may soon be liberated into the ocean, where they will have to adapt to an unfamiliar but perhaps more hospitable environment.

7Boiling Water

Every boy scout knows that if you come across a natural source of water, the water must be boiled before consumption to remove any harmful bacteria. Be careful, however, the next time you take solace in this technique, since some bacteria, such as Clostridium botulinum, can survive in boiling water.

Clostridium botulinum, which is responsible for botulism (a serious paralytic condition caused by a nerve toxin that can enter the body either through food intake or an open wound), prefers environments with relatively little oxygen, which is why it can grow and live in the most unnerving places, such as in your camp kettle or along the inside of a sealed can.

Since a botulism diagnosis often comes with aggressive antibody treatment and a trip to the hospital, it is best to use bleach, sodium hydroxide, and extreme temperatures (around 120 degrees Celsius) when trying to eradicate this pesky beast.

6The Lowest Place On Earth

Any ocean enthusiast knows that the Mariana Trench is the most mysterious place in the ocean and perhaps the planet. Located to the east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea, the Mariana Trench is the deepest part of any ocean on Earth, with a maximum depth of roughly 11,000 meters. The search for new forms of life at the bottom of this black, mostly inaccessible cavern has been a major goal for oceanographers for years, and now, in the Challenger Deep (the lowest point of the Mariana Trench), researchers have found heterotrophic bacteria, which can sustain themselves in part from tiny bits of organic compounds found in particles that fall from high above.

Bacteria found in the ocean past the reach of sunlight (beginning around 100 meters below the surface) must break down compounds such as sulfur and ammonia for sustenance, which makes the presence of these heterotrophic bacteria all the more mysterious.

5The Upper Atmosphere

Usually, when we think of bacteria, we think of them living somewhere in the animal kingdom, coexisting with and in some cases feasting off of organic matter. This is not the case, however, when it comes to a large microbe population that was recently discovered in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Although there are no life forms in our atmosphere on which to feast, there is plenty of carbon, which provides these gravity-defying bacteria with sustenance, even at altitudes of six miles or more above sea level. In fact, bacteria may make up roughly 20 percent of the small particles in the upper atmosphere at any given time.

Although it is not entirely clear how these bacteria made the unlikely journey into the atmosphere, scientists believe that high winds and alternating atmospheric pressures drove the little critters into the heavens, much like the process by which salt and dirt arrive in the same place.

4Your Eyeball

Although it is common knowledge that the human body contains multitudes of bacteria (in fact, a human body contains more bacterial cells than human cells), we like to think of these friendly bacteria as residing peacefully in our gut—carrying out their end of a symbiotic relationship by aiding in the digestion of food, as well as producing chemicals that help us squeeze every last drop of energy out of what we consume.

What we do not like to think about, however, is that a more sinister type of bacterium resides on our eyeball, specifically the conjunctiva—a mucus membrane covering the sclera of the eyeball. The bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeaehas seem to have an affinity for the human eyeball, and although our tears do their best to keep these little critters at bay by dispatching enzymes such as lysozyme, these defenses are not enough to rid the eyeball of them completely.

And yes, these bacteria are the same ones responsible for the chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, respectively. Best to keep those eyes clean.

3Antarctica

If you are a seafood lover, you have inevitably fielded warnings about eating too much fish, due to a widespread fear that you may be ingesting too much mercury. A major culprit when it comes to mercury in fish may be a recently discovered strain of Antarctic bacteria. The bacterium, named Nitrospinia, seems to have an affinity for converting mercury to methylmercury, which is far more dangerous than mercury and has been known to cause developmental problems in children. After ingesting and converting the mercury into methylmercury, these pesky bacteria are consumed by a variety of different fish, which then end up on your dinner plate.

And since many of our most beloved fish dishes come from the Southern Ocean, this could be a major problem for seafood lovers, especially since more commercial fishermen are heading south to chase after depleting fish supplies.

2Your Glabela

The glabela, more commonly known as the smooth section of skin between your eyebrows and above the nose, may seem like an unlikely home for bacteria since it lacks significant protection from the environment. However, being exposed for all the world to see is no deterrent for an especially monstrous-looking bacteria named Demodex folliculorum (also known as eyelash mites), which spend their days roaming around your forehead in search of carbon-containing matter. While these and the more commonly known Propionibacteria bacteria are generally harmless, they can occasionally cause an infection that leads to acne vulgaris. So the next time you discover a pimple between your eyes, you can blame these little guys.

1The Dead Sea

Given its name, the Dead Sea is understandably one of the last places one would go in search of life. This would be misguided, however, since although the extraordinarily salty water of the Dead Sea is inhospitable to most forms of life, some bacteria have discovered a loophole: freshwater springs.

Just within the last decade, several new forms of life have been discovered at the bottom of the Dead Sea—bacterial life that has become accustomed to both extreme salinity and fresh water (a necessary prerequisite for living in the Dead Sea, since the salinity of the water fluctuates so rapidly).

These prokaryote bacteria cling to the rocks at the bottom of the Dead Sea, as giant underwater craters shoot fresh water and sulfides into the surrounding water—forming a thin white film and proving wrong the notion that bacteria can only either survive in fresh or salt water environments, not both.

When you go shopping, do you look for name brands? Some people will only purchase something if it has that name-brand appeal. And there is something to be said for a trusted name, especially one that has a lot of years behind it. It stands to reason, even if we don’t have proof, that a business must be good at what they do if they’ve been around for a long time. Whether that’s always true doesn’t matter, it does give you some extra cache in the business. And with that in mind, here are some of the oldest brands in the world that you can still enjoy to this very day.

10. Fruity Pebbles Was the First Brand of Cereal Marketed Around a TV Show 

Once upon a time, some brilliant marketing executive realized that if they started linking products to TV shows, then they would technically have a built-in customer base already. If you love The A-Team, surely you will love A-Team brand sneakers. In the cereal world, the first person to stumble upon this idea decided that if you like The Flintstones, you’re going to love Flintstones cereal. and thus Fruity Pebbles were born. 

If you’ve never had Fruity Pebbles they are small, arguably fruit-flavored sugary bits that are very brightly colored and feature The Flintstones on the box. Pebbles, as you may recall, was the name of the Flintstones’ daughter. That kind of makes eating the cereal weird because are they suggesting it’s dried-out bits of this cartoon child? Best not to think about it.

Fruity Pebbles was the first brand of cereal that was marketed as a tie into a TV show all the way back in 1971. According to Post, the company that makes the serial, about 1.4 billion bowls of their cereal are eaten every year proving that, even though The Flintstones was only on TV until 1966 originally, people will still enjoy a bowl full of sugar with your cartoon on the label over half a century later.

9. Buick is America’s Oldest Car Company Still in Operation

Car brands come and go throughout history. You will not find a new Pontiac on the road anytime soon, or an Oldsmobile, or a DeLorean. But if you want a vehicle with a lot of history behind it, you have a few choices. Everyone knows Ford and Chevy have been around for a while. Chevy dates back to 1911 and Ford dates back to June 1903. But if you want real old school? Buick is the oldest car brand in America which just sneaks past Ford as it was founded in May 1903. 

If you want something even more classical than a Buick, you’re going to want to look to Europe. Peugeot is the oldest car manufacturer in the world that’s still running, and they were manufacturing their first vehicles in the 1890s.

8. Fry’s Chocolate Cream is The World’s Oldest Still Available Chocolate Bar 

Do you have a sweet tooth? If you put a lot of stock in old family recipes, then you may have a preference for classic candy bars. Everyone knows Hershey, Nestle, and Cadbury had plenty of chocolates to offer and have been around for a while, but none of them can claim to have the world’s oldest chocolate bar that’s still on the market today.

If you want a taste of history you want Fry’s Chocolate Cream. Even the name sounds horribly antiquated and maybe not as enticing as it did back in 1866 when Joseph Fry invented it. 

The company itself dates all the way back to 1728, and it ceased being a company in 2011. However, Cadbury took over production of Fry’s products, including cream eggs which everyone knows, and the chocolate cream bar which is still on sale today. It features chocolate covering a creamy fondant center if that’s your cup of tea. 

7. Vernors is The Oldest Soda Brand

The global soft drink market was worth over $400 billion in 2021 and is expected to keep rising. That’s a baffling sum of money for something most people consider bad for you. Of course, alcohol is over one trillion dollars and that doesn’t include what’s sold at restaurants and bars, so maybe soft drink sales aren’t so remarkable after all. 

Regardless of the cash going into them, there are plenty of soft drinks on the market and many of them have extremely long histories. Drinks like Pepsi, Coca Cola and Dr. Pepper all date back to the 1800s with Dr. Pepper being the oldest from 1885. Still, the good, pepper doctor is not the oldest soda available in the modern world. That honor falls on Vernors ginger ale.

Vernor’s goes all the way back to 1866 when it was created in Detroit. Like any good drink of the era it was named after its inventor, in this case James Vernor and, of course, he was a pharmacist because pharmacists used to make a lot of weird stuff back in the day. Most early soft drinks were originally created as medicinal tonics because apparently no one knew what medicine was until sometime in the 1950s, maybe. 

Of course, if you like a little scandal, there’s also some debate about the exact year of Vernor’s creation with the potential for it being in 1880, which would still make it the earliest. However, the formula may have changed in the last several years as well and, if that’s the case, the Vernor’s you’re drinking may not be the original Vernor’s and therefore may not qualify as the oldest brand still available. 

6. Good & Plenty is the Oldest Candy Still Available

If Fry’s is the oldest chocolate bar still available, does that mean it’s the oldest candy still available? Or is that another category altogether? If you’re looking at non-chocolate candy, then Good & Plenty gets the title of the oldest one that’s still available on the market today. The tiny white and pink candy-coated slivers of black licorice were first sold back in 1893.

It is somewhat ironic that the oldest candy available in America is flavored with black licorice since black licorice is regarded as one of people’s least favorite flavors. It’s unpopular enough that there are news articles written about how unpopular it is, something you don’t see with most other candy flavoring out there.

5. Beretta Has Been Making Guns Since the 1500s

In the US alone 663 companies manufacture guns and ammunition. While many of those companies date back years and a few go back well over 100, none come close to Italian gun maker Beretta. The company has been manufacturing firearms since 1526. 

The company is a family-owned business and for many generations has been passed from father to son or nephew, all maintaining the Beretta family line. The company helped arm Napoleon’s forces back in the day. Who knows how many historical figures have shot or been shot by guns made by the Beretta family? It’s quite a legacy.

4. Zildjian Has Been Making Cymbals Since 1623

If you’re not a percussionist, you probably have devoted very little time in your life to thinking about cymbals. You may, however, have seen a drummer banging on one and noticed the name Zildjian written on the cymbal in a fancy script. Zildjian makes cymbals, and they have done so since the year 1623. If you want the oldest cymbals in the world, that’s where you need to go.

The story of Zildjian is more bizarre than you’d guess. In 1618, alchemist Avedis Zildjian was not looking to make musical instruments, he was trying to make gold. As you may be aware, alchemy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and instead of creating gold, he stumbled on a recipe for metal that made exceptional cymbals. 

The alloy Zildjian created is not widely known, and the company keeps it under wraps, lest every other musical alchemist out there tries to steal their thunder. The metals are copper, tin, and silver but exactly how they are combined is unknown. 

3. White Castle Is The Oldest Fast Food Burger You Can Get

In 2021 the global fast food market was worth just shy of $650 billion. There are also over 536,000 global fast-food restaurants out there, serving everyone quick and delicious or sometimes not-so-quick and vaguely horrible meals. All of that adds up to a lot of people eating a lot of fast food and that’s a hell of a legacy for the people who, many years ago, thought that churning out burgers like they were on a factory line was a good idea.

If you’re in the mood to get a real taste of that legacy, you need to go to the source. You need to find the oldest fast-food restaurant in America. Lucky for you, it’s also the first fast-food chain restaurant, too. It’s White Castle. 

White Castle began selling 5-cent hamburgers back in 1921. That was 19 years before the McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant, 31 years before the first KFC, and  33 years before the first Burger King. The closest you can get in terms of burger chains is A&W, which was founded in 1919 but didn’t become a restaurant until 1923. Before then it was just a roadside root beer stand.

2. Conciato Romano Seems to Be the Oldest Kind of Cheese Still Produced in the World

According to Wisconsin cheese makers, there are over 1,800 varieties of cheese in the world. Other sources will say over 2,000. Suffice it to say that you’ve got a heck of a lot more than just mozzarella, cheddar, gouda, and Velveeta.

Cheese-making dates back around 4,000 years. It’s believed that a lot of those ancient cheeses were probably pretty salty and briny. We don’t have a lot of recipes on explicitly how it was made when it was first discovered. That said, some cheese, by definition, must be the oldest, right?

Conciato Romano seems to be the oldest variety of cheese still produced today.  It’s been produced since the Roman Empire and the Samnite civilization around the 4th century BC. While it may not be an everyday cheese for most of us, it’s still probably worth trying if for no other reason than to understand what Roman emperors used to eat on their crackers.

The process of making the cheese today is labor intensive and obviously not something that many people are going to do. It needs to be made from goat or sheep’s milk, it’s washed in a very specific kind of water that is used to cook a dough first, and then it’s tanned in beechwood buildings. It’s quite an artisanal endeavor, and the cheese is not cheap. The price for 200 grams, less than half a pound, is close to 60 Euros.

1. Weihenstephan is a 1,000-Year-Old Brewery

In the world of alcohol, age means skill. Every brewer and distiller that has been around for more than a decade will probably include on the label or website somewhere just how long they’ve been around. None of them can come close to competing with Weihenstephan.

This Bavarian brewery isn’t just old, it’s ancient. While some might measure their progress in decades and a select few can even claim a century or two, Weihenstephan is the only brewer that’s about to start tossing the word “millennium” around.

The brewery was founded in the year 1040. It started life as a Benedictine monastery because 1,000 years ago monks were all about making beer in the name of the lord. In that whole time, it has never stopped doing what it does, so for nearly a thousand years they’ve been brewing different kinds of beer and, you would hope, really perfecting the recipes.

Most of us try to accomplish necessary life tasks in the easiest way possible. Rube Goldberg, however, entertained the world by drawing cartoons of machines that accomplished simple tasks in the most complicated, humorous way possible.

His machines used everyday objects, in addition to humans or animals, in a creative, convoluted way that really would work. For example, his self-operating napkin machine wipes his fictional Professor Butt’s mouth automatically using a contraption that starts with the spoon to his mouth pulling a string, along the way throwing a cracker to a toucan, dropping a bucket, igniting a lighter which sets off a rocket, cutting another string that drops the napkin to his mouth to wipe it.

Goldberg lived from 1883 to 1970, but his cartoon inventions have inspired popular culture ever since. Let’s look at 10 places you might find a Rube Goldberg-inspired machine.

Related: 10 Times Computers Went Rogue

10 Board Games

Many board games have tried to capitalize on the popularity of Rube Goldberg machines. Some of these include Internal Contraption or Factory Fun.

The most iconic machine game, however, is the 1963 game Mouse Trap. Mouse Trap requires players to gradually build a contraption as they play the game and then finally using the contraption to catch a mouse playing piece. Steps along the way include a shoe kicking a bucket, a diver, and a bathtub. The original game box illustration looks much like Rube Goldberg’s cartoons, even using capital letters to designate steps in the machine, just as his cartoons did.

This game has been so popular that it even inspired a life-size version of the game that toured the United States and taught people about basic machines.^[1]

9 Computer Games and Apps

Computer games and apps have been inspired by these fun machines, sometimes without it even being the game’s intent. For example, one of many Goldberg machines built in Minecraft performs an enormous number of actions that alter the scenery before finally ending by blowing up a tower.

Other games were designed specifically for building Rube Goldberg machines, such as The Incredible Machine computer game or the official game, Rube Works Game. These games allow you to build your own machine to complete a challenging task of some kind. Typing “Rube Goldberg” into the Google Play or the App Store will bring up lots of games you can try, from educational to purely entertaining. In addition to these, many other games seem to be influenced by Rube Goldberg machines, such as Pull the Pin, Cut the Rope, and Fruit Ninja.^[2]

8 Fine Art

Goldberg himself created over 50,000 cartoons that included his crazy machines. Other artists have taken on the challenge and included Goldberg-type machines in their own artwork.

In some cases, the artwork clearly portrays a Goldberg machine. For example, Clint Hansen’s, A Simple Coffee Machine. Others are a little more abstract or surreal and just have Goldberg-like elements, like Vanessa Bates’s Klockwerk Orange Patent Pending or Mike Savad’s Steampunk—Coffee Break.

Some of the more recent artistic conceptions don’t even show a machine that works but instead express frustration, chaos, or other emotions about a topic in a machine-like way, as seen in Election Recap by Peter Kuper. This is a very Rube Goldberg-like cartoon on the first take, but looking closely, you can see that skips are stepped—alphabet letters are missing. There is no “A” telling us where to start or end. The egg on Uncle Sam’s face and various people booted out of the room express something about the election that we might feel.^[3]

7 YouTube

YouTube has been a perfect medium for people to share their homemade Goldberg machines. Some popular machines have been built for everyday tasks like turning pages, watering plants, and lighting Christmas trees.

One of the most popular machines on YouTube was created by OK Go, with their “This Too Shall Pass” machine. This one started with a toy truck knocking over dominos and included various devices starting music playing and individuals singing along its long path. Some of the most interesting additions to the machine were spoons playing water-filled glasses, a falling piano, a typewriter, a smashed television, and the grand finale—paintball guns firing at the singers.

Like many Rube Goldberg machines, this one can only be activated once—at least without rebuilding parts of it. ^[4]

6 Education

Rube Goldberg was, unsurprisingly, an engineer. Because the machines show interesting principles of engineering and physics, they are often used in education. An organization founded in Goldberg’s name offers lesson plans and contests, and many schools have students create Rube Goldberg machine-making projects.

In addition to teaching science principles, schools have used Rube Goldberg projects to teach project management and leadership. Building the machines are supposed to help with creativity and problem-solving skills, though some students have just claimed they learned a lot about what you can do “with random junk.” Regardless of why the machine is built, no one would deny that the process is fun.^[5]

5 Toys

Any toys that use chain reactions could be considered Rube Goldberg in style: marble runs or roller coasters, Lego contraptions, and domino chains. All of these trigger a chain reaction, the key Goldberg feature, from one little push, drop, or other action. A lot of different construction sets could be used to make crazy contraptions, even if that wasn’t their original intent.

But, of course, you don’t need a special product to make a Rube Goldberg contraption. Gather up anything you have around the house that moves or can be made to move. You can include objects that have various weights, string and rope, duct tape, broken pieces of toys, kitchen utensils, balloons, and anything laying around that seems to have no use. Search through the garage, the toy box, and the attic, and you will find all sorts of possible machine elements.

What can you trigger with a running blow dryer? What can you use to turn it on? How can you get a toy car rolling down a track? Anything you can think of is game.^[6]

4 Private Homes

Schools aren’t the only places making these contraptions. A lot of families make them at home. In fact, in 2020, during COVID quarantines, homemade Rube Goldberg machines became particularly popular on YouTube. Some took a humorous look at social distancing by creating machines to allow space for simple tasks like passing the salt across the table without getting near each other. One family made a complex machine throughout the house that ended with a foosball goal. I’m sure it was much more fun to make that one than to clean it up!

Making Rube Goldberg machines is a great way to entertain children when they aren’t in school. Just get them started with launching a teddy bear off the dresser by knocking over a stack of books with a nerf gun dart and see where they take it from there!

Of course, they don’t have to destroy your house with their contraptions; they can just draw them as Goldberg did. Some kids (or kids-at-heart) might enjoy this more because they can include elements they couldn’t practically create in real life—like a canary that sings when something pulls its tail feathers or a monster truck that triggers an avalanche, thereby chasing a giant snow-spider into a booby-trapped cave.^[7]

3 Sports

One of the most common final results of a Rube Goldberg machine is to make a basketball or other ball shot through a complex chain reaction of silly events. Even the Harlem Globetrotters have gotten into the contraption craze and made their own version.

Red Bull created an ad with their own sports machine that featured various famous athletes from skydiving to skateboarding and racecar driving. The stunt of each athlete triggers another stage of machines that releases the necessary sports equipment for the following athlete, blending human and machine in a balanced way.^[8]

2 Music

A few musicians have even invented music playing Rube Goldberg machines. One machine, for example, uses dropping marbles to make music. Another features various spinning components and strings that drop balls on piano keys to play a song. One of the most fun and complex Rube Goldberg music machines incorporates a variety of percussion instruments—drums, cymbals, chimes, and xylophones create a beautiful rhythmic melody as balls fly through the machine—with a little help from a computer.^[9]

1 Movies

Movies are a natural place for Rube Goldberg machines because they can best be enjoyed visually as the chain reaction unfolds. From Home Alone and Toy Story to The Goonies and Edward Scissorhands, wacky machines inspired by Rube Goldberg are all over the movies.

Some of the most memorable movie machines are breakfast machines, seen in such classics as Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang, Back to the Future, and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. It’s the perfect nerdy-but-entertaining way for an eccentric character to prepare a meal.

A slightly less obvious Goldberg machine shows up near the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones triggers a death machine in a cave, triggered by removing an idol from its perch [LINK 35]. Ask yourself why removing the idol didn’t just cause instant death in a quick, decided way. Well, because Rube Goldberg machines are much more entertaining (plus, our hero needed a chance).^[10]

Keep your eyes open, and you’ll see these humorous machines everywhere!

The human body is a marvelous thing. If you get a scar, the body heals itself within a couple of days. A woman’s body changes to accommodate and grow another human being. Our eyes take on beautiful, speckled colors. As we make advances in medical science, we learn just how amazing our body is and how much it can take in terms of injuries and illness. 

Yes, your body can do some pretty surprising things. But it is home to some pretty weird things, too. From strange growths to skin conditions to unwanted inhabitants, here are 10 of the strangest things you can find on your body. Which, when you’re done reading, you may want to forget.

10 Dandruff: The Great White Way

Dandruff is a skin condition on the scalp that causes itchiness and aching. The body is always making new skin cells on the scalp and shedding the dead ones. But with dandruff, these cells shed faster than usual, and the scalp’s oil causes them to clump together. Those white flakes you see on somebody’s shoulders or in their hair are the result.

So what causes dandruff? Well, there are a bunch of different reasons. First, your scalp skin may be flaking (seborrheic dermatitis). Seborrheic dermatitis causes red, greasy skin covered with flaky white scales. It mostly affects oil-rich areas such as your scalp, the back of your ears, your nose’s sides, and sometimes your armpits. Treatment for this type of dandruff usually involves medicated shampoos, creams, and lotions. Infrequent shampooing has been linked to dandruff because oils and skin cells from your scalp can build up and flake off. 

Though it may be annoying and embarrassing if you have it, plenty of people suffer from dandruff. It’s just one of those strange things you can find on your body.

9 Holy Moly

Moles are benign growths that can manifest as bumps or appear on the surface of the skin. You can get moles at birth or any point in your life. Moles can be brown or black; they can be hairless or have hairs sprouting out of them. Generally, they’re round and quite red. Moles typically remain harmless up to a certain point. You should only start to worry if they change in appearance.

If your doctor suspects your mole is cancerous, they might advise you to go for a biopsy. A doctor will remove a little piece of the mole and send it for analysis. The pathologist will reveal if there are cancerous cells present in your body. If the mole is cancerous, the doctor must surgically remove both the mole and the surrounding skin.

Doctors can easily remove moles surgically for cosmetic reasons, too. It requires only a small incision, and voila! It’s done. The surgery leaves a small scar that fades over time. 

8 Count Lice-ula

Now here’s a strange thing you can find on your body but would prefer not to. Lice are parasites that develop by feeding on the host’s blood. These little hair vampires are really small, which is why it’s hard to see them. Lice are wingless insects, black mites that look as if they might fly but never will. That’s why they stick to your body, be it on your scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, or groin.

This is not the worst of it, though. Lice nits are just as bad but more troublesome. They are smaller than a pinhead and can be mistaken for ordinary dandruff. Eggs are the worst of the parasite set, and they’re what keeps a lice problem going. If someone in the family has lice, you should search for eggs diligently and thoroughly check the house and car (as some possible egg-infested areas). And don’t share hats!

7 Ring Around the Worm

Ringworm is not a worm. It’s a skin infection caused by fungus. I know, first, we find parasites on the body, and now fungus? Not just one fungus. Many fungi cause ringworm, but it typically comes from trichophyton, Microsporum, and Epidermophyton. Ringworms can infect different parts of your body. Although it spreads easily, it’s less harmful than other highly transmittable diseases (because of the ringworm-causing fungal species). Your body also offers natural protection against ringworm. Keratin, which is outside your body, protects your hair, nails, and skin cells. It also keeps ringworms from getting deeper into your skin and eating your internal organs. 

What should you do if you contract ringworm? The doctor will probably shine a harmless blacklight on you for diagnosis. Some ringworm fungi fluoresce naturally. But most of the fungal species that cause the disease don’t.

Instead, the doctor might decide to scrape the skin from your infection and mix it up with a potassium hydroxide solution. The potassium hydroxide dissolves the skin cells but won’t mess with fungal cells because the cell walls comprise chitin and other complex carbs that don’t break down. With the skin cells gone, it’ll be easier for your health care provider to spot the remaining fungal cells under a microscope.

6 Bacteria, Virus, and Microbial-Related Cells

Believe it or not, only one in every ten of your body cells are human! The remaining ninety percent of the cells consists of over ninety trillion microbes, viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms that call your body home. They all work together to keep their home—your body—healthy and functioning well. Of course, bacteria can be good and bad, and if naturally growing bacteria gets out of hand, you can get sick.

Helicobacter pylori is a bacteria that causes stomach ulcers. Many people used to have this kind of bacteria, but the pylori predominance is steadily reducing. Only half of the world’s population has it. Many don’t show the symptoms, but a few grow painful ulcers in the digestive tract.

5 Snot Galore

We usually get grossed out over the thought of boogers. But boogers do serve a purpose. The mucous traps invading viruses and bacteria before they can enter your body—so don’t, you know, eat them. Unfortunately, it turns out that we naturally swallow about a quarter of snot per day. The mucus that we don’t spot running out of our nose travels from inside our nose to the back of our throat. Then down it goes. This is because our sinuses connect parts of our faces.

It is hard to think about boogers in a good way, but they play a significant role in defending your health. That’s why when fall sick, the production of mucus almost doubles. In general, mucus warms the air you breathe, humidifies the air, and confines particles that don’t belong in your airways. 

4 Lipoma Livin’

A lipoma is a benign growth composed of fat cells and sandwiched between your skin and muscle. A Lipoma can develop in deeper tissues, like the abdominal organs, too. Lipomas grow slowly and often do not show any symptoms or require medication. It’s just another strange growth your body can form. 

We aren’t sure what causes lipomas, but doctors do know that it has nothing to do with being overweight. While they don’t tend to run in families, they can be congenital.

Since you can see them, you may want them removed solely for cosmetic reasons. You may also want them removed if they’re causing you pain or get infected. Lipoma removal generally requires an outpatient surgical procedure. Here, a doctor will usually inject a local anesthetic and make an incision, removing the tumor, before stitching you back up.

3 Twinkle Toes

Ever wonder why your toes might turn yellow? The thing is, your feet touch some of the dirtiest surfaces on the planet. And they’re exposed to every kind of germ existing in nature daily. Your toenails usually end up collecting millions of various microorganisms every single day, including fungus. This is why your toes turn color. When you see a yellow toenail, you’re actually looking at the fungus that is living there. So, trim your toenails whenever possible! This is the best protection you can get.

2 Waxy Differences

We typically see ear wax as uniform and universal, but that is not quite the case. Ear wax (skin cells inside the ear that help lubricate the ear) comprises two different wax kinds: wet and dry. The type of wax you have will depend on genetics. It sounds a little gross, but it’s just the body being its weird self.

Your ear manufactures earwax to wash and defend itself. The glands discharge it into the skin that lines the outermost half of the ear ducts. The wax and tiny hairs in these canals lure dust and other alien specks that might harm your eardrum or other parts of the ear.

While people with too little earwax have higher chances of experiencing itchy ears (and more liable to diseases), an ear duct chocked up with earwax can cause mild deafness, earaches, or tinnitus, a sensation of fullness and ringing in the ear. It also causes infections and other problems.

1 Bat your Lashes

If you think your face is spotless after washing it, think again. We all have mites that live in our face’s pores, especially eyelashes, and they feed off our oils and dead skin. These mites are called Demodex mites, and their population increases as you age. It might be a bit disturbing to think about something living so close to our eyeball. But they are so tiny that we don’t see them, and you can’t even feel them.

Demodex folliculorum is a type of mite. There are two types of Demodex mites, the other being Demodex Brevis. Demodex Folliculorum lives in the hair cavity of human skin, eating dead skin cells. Unlike Demodex Brevis, we find this kind on the face. 

Demodex Folliculorum only becomes troublesome if they worsen advanced skin diseases, like rosacea. Furthermore, there’s growing proof that large amounts of this can cause skin complications. 

As we move into 2013, a large number a cities around the world have started to use video surveillance in order to help solve crimes. In many cases cameras have been installed on public streets and in office buildings to watch over the area. This has made it extremely difficult for important events to go unrecorded and helped authorities uncover mysteries. The advancement was never more evident than on April 15, 2013 when two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon. After the terrorist attack, thousands of videos and pictures of the event were taken which helped police find the culprits.

Since surveillance has become so prevalent in the world, a large number of crimes have been recorded and used as evidence in court. In many cases, these tapes are extremely sensitive and sealed from the public eye. This is to protect the families of the victims and prevent the spread of the videos via the Internet. However, this doesn’t stop people from searching the web for the clips. This article will examine ten real videos that you will not be able to find on the Internet. Most are part of an investigation or display sensitive material.

In the research for this article I came across a large amount of urban legend clips that supposedly show a wide range of disturbing images. These videos were not included in the list because I intended to focus on real videos. In some cases there have been videos that were thought to be lost forever and then suddenly appeared on YouTube. One example is the 1969 short Mickey Mouse in Vietnam. The short is one minute long and shows Mickey Mouse being shot to death in Vietnam. It was thought lost until April 22, 2013 when a silent version of the video was uploaded to YouTube. The clip has since been removed from YouTube and is once again hard to locate.

On February 18, 2013 eight masked gunmen stole approximately US$50 million in diamonds from the belly of a plane at the Brussels Airport. The heist was carried out after the men accessed the airport through a hole created in a security fence. After breaching the airport fence, the criminals, who were dressed like police officers, drove two vehicles directly to the area where the a Brink’s armored van was moving diamonds to the plane. In 15 minutes, the robbers loaded 130 bags of diamonds into their vehicles and left. They used automatic weapons, but never fired a shot during the heist.

It is thought that the robbery was an inside job because the criminals had prior knowledge of an unlocked gate, construction work at the airport, and arrived immediately after the diamonds had been unloaded. The men also showed knowledge of how to quickly work the plane’s hatch and had military training. The heist occurred during a five minute window in which the diamonds were being transported to the plane. It has since been realized that a large percentage of the diamonds were uncut, which makes them extremely hard to trace.

The entire event was captured by the airport’s security system. The police have since attempted to identify the culprits, but have not been able to because of their masks. The video remains sealed to the public and it is unlikely to be released in the near future. This has caused some people to express concern because exposure of the tapes could help find the diamonds. It is possible that somebody could recognize specific mannerisms of the criminals.

In May of 2013, it was announced that police in France, Switzerland, and Belgium had arrested more than two dozen people who are thought to be involved with the diamond heist. The police confiscated a significant amount of cash and diamonds. However, a huge percentage of the stolen gems remain at large. It was reported that one of the people arrested in France is thought to be one of the eight masked gunman who participated in the heist. It has also been reported that the robbers thought they were stealing money instead of diamonds.

On three separate occasions in the last ten years a major diamond heist has been carried out in the middle of February. All of the events have been connected to Antwerp. They include the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, the 2005 Schiphol Airport diamond heist, and the 2013 Brussels Airport diamond heist.

On February 10, 1976 episode #847 of the American children’s series Sesame Street aired on television. The episode features Margaret Hamilton in her famous role as the Wicked Witch of the West. The Wicked Witch is one of the most notable villains in history and the character seems to have an influence on children. Hamilton was aware of her impact on children and continually tried to explain to kids that she was just acting. Margaret even appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in which she showed children how she dressed up as the witch. Despite this, when Hamilton is viewed on television as the witch, kids get freaked out.

In episode #847, the Wicked Witch comes to visit Sesame Street and loses her broom. The broom falls into the hands of David, who refuses to give it back to the witch. This doesn’t make her happy and the witch threatens to turn Big Bird into a feather duster. Meanwhile, Oscar the Grouch becomes friends with the witch. As the episode continues, the witch tries to regain her broom in a variety of ways. Even dressing up like a harmless old lady in order to deceive the group. The educational curriculum for the episode is fear and the value of planning, which was used by the witch to develop methods for retrieving her broom.

After the episode was aired in 1976, the television station received a large amount of complaints from parents. It was reported that children were scared by the show and refused to watch any more Sesame Street. Some kids had problems sleeping and others experienced fits of terror. The response was so abundant that the creators of Sesame Street decided to conduct an experiment with the episode.

The group organized a large sample of kids who were willing to watch the episode in the presence of their parents. It was reported that the children were much more attentive during the scenes with the witch. However, the emotion of fear was difficult to judge as the kids had their parents present. After the experiment was completed it was requested that the episode with Hamilton not be shown on television again. The creators of Sesame Street agreed and the episode has not been aired since 1976. It is currently impossible to find on the Internet and has not been released on DVD.

One of the most disgusting stories you will ever read is that of Armin Meiwes. In 2001, Meiwes ran an advertisement on a website named The Cannibal Café looking for a willing victim to be “slaughtered and consumed.” A man named Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes from Berlin responded to the message and agreed to meet Meiwes. On March 9, 2001, the two met at Meiwes house in Rotenburg, Germany and Brandes was killed. The entire event was filmed on a 2 hour long videotape. The details of the massacre are gruesome and hard to describe.

Meiwes started by amputating the penis of Brandes and the two ate it. Meiwes then slaughtered Brandes and placed the body on a meat hook. Over the next 10 months Meiwes consumed approximately 20 kilograms (44 lb) of the flesh. He even ground up some of Brandes’ bones and tried to use the substance as cooking flour. All of the events were recorded on the video, which was later seized by authorities and forever sealed from the public.

In December of 2002 Meiwes was arrested by the police after they had received a phone call from a concerned man who had seen a new advertisement from Meiwes on the Internet. It was also discovered that Meiwes had bragged about the crimes in chat rooms. On January 30, 2004, Armin Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and given a prison sentence of eight years. It was ruled that Brandes was a voluntary participant in the killing, so it was not murder. However, in 2006 the case was revisited and Meiwes was convicted of murder and given a life sentence in prison. It has been written that Meiwes is sorry for his crimes and has become a vegetarian in jail. He believes that there are about 800 cannibals living in Germany.

Timothy Treadwell was a bear enthusiast that was fatally mauled at Katmai National Park in Alaska on October 5, 2003. At the time of his death Treadwell was with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, who was also killed in the attack. For thirteen straight years, Treadwell had visited Katmai in the summer months to spend time with grizzly bears. He loved being with the bears in their natural habitat. Treadwell recorded over 100 hours of videotape at Katmai and took countless still photographs. The material was later used by filmmaker Werner Herzog to produce the documentary titled Grizzly Man.

In the years before his death, Treadwell had received a considerable amount of media attention for his annual trip to the park. He appeared on U.S. talk shows and was often criticized by researchers for his lack of safety in the presence of bears. In October of 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend decided to stay in the park for an extra week in order to locate a bear that had not been viewed that summer. It was a dangerous decision because grizzly bears always become more aggressive in the fall months as they fatten up for hibernation.

On October 5, 2003 Timothy spoke to a friend in California on a satellite phone and indicated that he was having no problems with the bears. The following day, a Kodiak air taxi pilot went to pick up Treadwell and Huguenard and discovered an abandoned camp. Park rangers were called to the scene and it was revealed that Timothy and Amie had been mauled and partially eaten by grizzly bears. The rangers located a bear protecting the camp and shot it. A few minutes later a smaller bear charged the men, so they killed it as well. It was the first time in the history of Katmai National Park that a human had been killed by a bear. The deadly bear can be seen in one of Treadwell’s last recordings in which it is referred to as “The Grinch.”

In the moments leading up the mauling, either Treadwell, but probably Huguenard turned on a video camera and captured audio of the attack. The camera was either in a bag or had its lens cap on because the video is completely black, but the audio is chilling. The tape lasts roughly six minutes in which Treadwell can be heard screaming for two-thirds of the time. Sadly, Timothy struggled for his life. The bear makes very little noise during the attack and it was reported that only small growls and grunts can be heard from the animal. Towards the end of the recording, Treadwell is heard being dragged away from the camp by the bear.

After Treadwell is killed, the screams of Amie become extremely loud and the tape stop. It is believed that Amie was mauled shortly after. In the film Grizzly Man Herzog is recorded listening to the tape with headphones on, but no sections of the video are played in the movie. His reaction to the material is horrifying and Herzog urges the videos owner to destroy the tape. The recording has since been placed in a bank vault by Treadwell’s ex-girlfriend Jewel Palovak. In 2008, a section of the clip was supposedly leaked to the Internet, but the recording is thought to be faked. The real recording has never been released.

The Scarborough Rapist is a man named Paul Bernardo who terrorized the community of Scarborough, Ontario during the late 1980s and early 90s. In 1988, the police began to realize that a serial rapist was attacking young women in Scarborough. In response they created a task force to find the rapist. Between 1987 and 1989 Paul Bernardo attacked around 20 separate women and raped half of them. In 1990, the police gathered DNA evidence from 130 suspects in the case. One of the suspects was Paul Bernardo, who submitted DNA evidence and was released in November of 1990.

In 1990, Bernardo also got engaged to a woman named Karla Homolka and became infatuated with her younger sister Tammy Homolka. Bernardo eventually convinced Karla to drug her sister and allowed him to rape her. The two videotaped the event and mocked Tammy. During one attack on Tammy she began to vomit and choked to death. In response, Karla took the camera and filmed herself in Tammy’s clothes and pretended to be her. After an investigation, Tammy Homolka’s death was ruled an accident.

On June 15, 1991, Paul Bernardo kidnapped a young girl named Leslie Mahaffy and brought her back to his home with Karla Homolka. The pair attacked the girl and videotaped themselves torturing her to the music of Bob Marley and David Bowe. The following day Leslie Mahaffy was murdered by the couple. Bernardo claimed that Homolka killed Mahaffy with an overdose of Halcion, while Homolka claimed that Bernardo strangled her. In April of 1992 both Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka abducted a girl named Kristen French. French was taken back to the couple’s house where they filmed themselves torturing her in horrible ways. The following day Kristen was murdered.

Twenty-six months after his DNA evidence was submitted, Paul Bernardo was linked to the Scarborough rapist case and arrested. However, authorities could not implement him in the murders, so they turned to Karla Homolka who was given a plea bargain deal in order to testify against him. Homolka accepted the deal and was sentenced to 12 years in jail for her role in the murders. During the trial, Karla painted herself as a victim to Bernardo and in 1995 Paul Bernardo was sentenced to life in prison. He is eligible for parole in 2020.

In 1993, after Homolka was given the plea bargain deal, Bernardo led the police to a collection of videotapes that were hidden in his house. He also confessed to over thirty rapes. The tapes showed Karla Homolka participating and instigating the crimes. She was seen sexually assaulting and drugging multiple victims without Bernardo in the room. If admissible in court, the content of the tapes probably would have led to a conviction of murder for Karla Homolka.

In response to this fact, the Canadian media began to refer to her plea bargain as the “Deal with the Devil.” In December of 2001, Canadian authorities determined that they had no need for the torture tapes and destroyed them. An interview taken with Homolka as she watched the tapes with police remains sealed to the public. In 2005, Karla Homolka was released from prison and is currently living in Guadeloupe with her husband and three children under the name Leanne Bordelais.

On July 15, 1974 Christine Chubbuck committed suicide on live television during her program Suncoast Digest. The program was a community affairs talk show in which Chubbuck interviewed guests on a wide variety of issues. Chubbuck started her career with WXLT-TV as a reporter and then was given the opportunity to host the talk show. WXLT-TV was an ABC affiliate station in Sarasota, Florida. Leading up to her suicide Christine was said to be severely depressed. She had told her family that she was having a hard time connecting with people and had not had a boyfriend for a long time.

Three weeks before the event Christine did a news story on suicide and visited a local sheriff’s department to discuss the risks. During the interview, a police officer explained the most efficient way to commit suicide, which was said to be a gunshot to the back of the head with wadcutter target bullets. Sadly, Chubbuck used the same method to take her life. In the week leading up to her suicide Christine told a news editor at the station that she had brought a gun to work and joked about killing herself on the air. She was also disappointed with the news stations decision to focus on “blood and guts” stories instead of educational and inspirational news.

On the morning of her suicide, Chubbuck told her co-workers that she had to read some news stories before starting her Suncoast Digest interview. Christine covered three stories and then started to discuss a shooting that had occurred in a restaurant at the Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport. The station attempted to run a short clip of the shooting, but the tape jammed and the camera went back to Chubbuck. At this time Christine spoke her last words: “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first, attempted suicide.” She then drew a gun and shot herself in the back of the right ear. It was reported that Chubbuck fell violently forward, hit her head on the desk, fell to the ground, and then began to violently twitch. The camera quickly went to black and the station ran a public service announcement.

It was later realized that Chubbuck had scripted the entire event, including her suicide. She told her colleagues to list her condition as “critical,” which they did. Chubbuck died at the hospital 14 hours after the shooting. She was only 29-years-old. Following her death, Christine’s family filed an injunction against the news station to prevent the release of the video footage. The tape was seized by the police and then given to the family. No copies have surfaced and the video is thought to have been destroyed. The event occurred before VHS tapes were widespread, so it is unlikely that it was recorded by a viewer. However, it is possible that someone captured the event with a primitive form of videocassette recording, such as the U-matic.

On April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon and caused horrific damage, including the deaths of three people and the maiming of dozens. Due to the location of the bombs, thousands of videos and pictures of the event were taken. The FBI immediately asked the American public to send in videos to help with the investigation. Others conducted their own investigations over the Internet in an attempt to locate suspicions characters.

A couple of days after the attack, the FBI directed their attention to a pair of brothers named Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. A manhunt was carried out for the brothers and they were located in the Boston suburb of Watertown. After a shootout in which a MIT police officer was killed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot dead and Dzhokhar escaped only to be captured alive later in the day. It was realized that the brothers were born in different republics of the former Soviet Union, and are half Chechen and half Avar. They hold strong Extremist Islamic beliefs and blamed America for wars in Muslim countries.

One of the main factors that caused the FBI to directly target the brothers was video surveillance footage. It was widely reported that the police hold a video of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dropping his backpack at the site of the second explosion. This is an extremely important piece of evidence that can be used to prove that Dzhokhar planted the bomb. For this reason, the video should be released under public domain for all to see after the trial has taken place. However, it appears the video could be sealed from the public.

A huge collection of conspiracy theories have emerged surrounding the bombings The attack sparked one of the largest Internet investigations in history, which caused many people to be misidentified and accused. One of the most notable cases involved a Saudi national named Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi who was detained at the scene of the bombings and later released. In the wake of the disaster, conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck insisted that the Saudi national was responsible for helping the Tsarnaev brothers.

On the day of the attack, it was reported by multiple witnesses that a bomb squad drill was being conducted at the marathon. People were warned not to be alarmed by the large presence of officers at the scene. It was also widely reported in the wake of the disaster that multiple bombs had been discovered and that a controlled demolition was going to take place, but this information was later disregarded.

Probably the most prevalent conspiracy theory surrounding the bombing suggests that a series of members from the elite private security firm Craft International were behind the false flag attack. This has been suggested because in the initial days after the bombings numerous pictures surfaced on the Internet of team members at the marathon. The men were filmed with communications gear and wore large black backpacks. One of these individuals was photographed fleeing the scene with his backpack missing. To add more fuel to the fire, the black backpack on one of the Craft members looked very similar to one used in the first attack. A couple months before the bombings, the leader of Craft International Chris Kyle was murdered.

On September 11, 2001 American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked by terrorists and flown into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing all 59 people on board as well as 125 people in the building. The event was witnessed by dozens of people and was recorded by a large number of security cameras surrounding the Pentagon. Despite the large amount of footage, the FBI confiscated the tapes and refused to release them to the public. This has caused people to speculate about why the videos are being kept secret.

In the wake of 9/11, it was widely reported that a Citgo service station right next to the Pentagon had recorded the impact of Flight 77 on its security cameras. The plane traveled over the gas station at an altitude of 50 feet and crashed three seconds later. The FBI visited the gas station minutes after the event and gathered the tapes. In the wake of the crash, the FBI confiscated approximately 85 surveillance tapes, including one notable clip from the Doubletree Hotel.

Despite all of the evidence, the U.S. government initially refused to confirm that the videos showed the crash. In response, a group named Judicial Watch filed a request on December 15, 2004 under the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the “Nexcomm/CITGO gas station, Pentagon security cameras and the Virginia Department of Transportation videos.” On May 16, 2006, the Department of Defense released the first official videos of the crash with only one video showing Flight 77. The clip was taken from a security camera at the Pentagon and shows a blurry image of what appears to be a plane for 1 frame. The Citgo and Doubletree videos were also released, but Flight 77 is not visible.

Despite the release of the videos, the FBI continues to hold at least 84 surveillance tapes of the crash. There is currently an ongoing lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to have all the tapes made public. According to Special Agent Jacqueline Maguire of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, the FBI has gathered approximately 85 tapes that are “potentially responsive,” but the plane was only captured on one, which was released in 2006.

Steve Irwin was a wildlife enthusiast that devoted his life to helping animals. On September 4, 2006 Irwin was killed by a stingray while traveling in Port Douglas and filming an underwater documentary titled Ocean’s Deadliest. During the event, Irwin was snorkeling at Batt Reef (part of the Great Barrier Reef) in Port Douglas, Queensland when the weather turned bad. In response, Steve entered the shallower waters of the area and decided to film some segments for his daughter Bindi’s television program named Bindi the Jungle Girl. As Irwin approached a stingray in hopes of getting some good television shots, the creature turned and jabbed its spine into Steve’s chest.

The spine of the stingray pierced Irwin’s heart and caused extensive bleeding. Steve was pulled from the water, but it was too late and he died shortly after being struck. It is believed to be the only time in history that a person’s death by stingray was caught on video. After the tragedy, Irwin was given a private funeral at the Queensland Zoo, but it is unclear if he currently holds a grave at the location. He was not given a coroner’s report and very little specific information is available on his death.

It has been reported that Irwin’s last words were “Don’t worry, they usually don’t swim backwards,” which shows that he recognized the stingray was acting strangely. After the accident, the video of Steve Irwin’s death was reviewed by law enforcement, but was eventually destroyed at the request of his family. Despite the fact, millions of people continue to search the web for Steve Irwin’s Death Video.

On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people in Sandy Hook Elementary School. Following the tragedy, it was reported that the school had recently upgraded their surveillance system and installed video cameras, so visitors who attempted to enter the school during business hours were required to be individually identified by video. The system was placed at the front of the school, but it is unclear if other cameras were spread over the grounds.

At about 9:35 am, which was five minutes after Sandy Hook had locked its doors for the day, Adam Lanza shot his way through a door at the front of the school with a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and started the killing spree. At this time, he was caught on camera by the school’s security system. However, the tape has yet to be released to the public for viewing. The police have not even released a still shot of Lanza at the school, which has only fueled the incredible amount of conspiracy theories that exist around the event.

Immediately after the shooting people all over the Internet claimed the attack was a false flag attempt by the U.S. government to pass more severe gun control laws. The media initially made numerous mistakes in reports about the shooter, how he entered the building, what weapons were used, and his social history. Helicopter footage was taken at the scene of two men running from the school into the woods. These men were later identified as SWAT police officers, but it was never explained why they were fleeing the scene. During the attack, it was reported that the school’s principal turned on the intercom system and a collection of different shooters were heard by witnesses. In some accounts, one shooter is said to have been tackled and taken into custody.

The culprit in this attack was an expert in the area of high powered weapons, military tactics, and assassination. This has caused some to step back and wonder how a 20-year-old American boy could have carried out the Sandy Hook shooting. In the Sandy Hook Elementary attack, every victim was shot multiple times by Adam Lanza. He made sure that the victims were deceased. In one case, he shot a victim 11 times. In response to this, it has been suggested the massacre looked like the tactics of a trained death squad.

A large collection of bizarre conspiracy theories have been presented on the Sandy Hook shootings, including one that says the entire event was staged, which is quite absurd. Others have pointed to smaller coincidences, such as the fact that the words “Sandy Hook” appear on a map in the movie Dark Night Rises when Commissioner Gordon is talking about an attack on “Strike Zone One.” Others have pointed to the fact that Lanza’s father worked for GE Energy Financial Services and that Adam committed suicide with a handgun that was initially not identified among his weapons in the school. In response to all of this information, it would be nice if a short section of the video of Adam Lanza in the school was made public.

Getting an idea of what style you have, takes you one step closer to becoming the best version of yourself as well as understanding your personality and uniqueness.

Therefore, I have created a list of ten different ways for you to find your style aesthetic and hopefully some of you take this advice on board!

10. Create a Pinterest Board

Pinterest is a social media app circulated around lifestyle. There you will find many outfits uploaded by the app’s users and you can pin the ones you like to you outfit board. From there you should get a faint idea of what type of styles you like and ones you do not like. You can also create a hairstyles board and a makeup board as these two are greatly linked with finding your aesthetic. You called also make a board filled with movie quotes or book quotes etc.

9. Reinvent your Wardrobe

Look at your wardrobe and all the clothes in it. If you don’t like some of them or you hardly wear them anymore throw them away, sell them, give it to a friend or family member or give some to charity. From the clothes you have left you should have an idea of the type of things or styles you should be buying or the type of clothing you like the most!

8. Celebrity Influencers

On social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat or Tiktok follow celebrities who have a similar style to the one you are going for or if you like the style they have. You do not have to copy their style exactly but could base it off that – always be original and stay true to your unique sense of style! This should give you more of a sense on the types of clothing you should buy to fit your aesthetic.

7. Take online quizzes

You can find many aesthetic quizzes online, and, if you have the time, you could participate in one of them. At the end you will be given an evaluation – which could help you discover your type of aesthetic. These quizzes ask the most random questions concerning you, but they are all what make up your personality and are therefore your unique aesthetic. However, these do not always give you the right evaluation so be cautious when listening to their advice.

6. Find your ideal clothing store to shop at

Once you do get around to finding the type of aesthetic you might be – you’ll need to find some shops that create clothing that matches with your aesthetic. There are many online clothing stores to consider including PrettyLittleThing, Urban Outfitters, Zara, SHEIN, New Look and Brandy Melville. Remember that you do not have to stick to just one store and can branch out to several different ones if you like the clothes they have to offer.

5. Consider the type of music you listen to

Music is a big part of your style aesthetic and can heavily define you as a person. For instance, if you listen to a lot of Hip-Hop and R&B you could be more into a streetwear or baddie aesthetic. However, if you were someone more into rock music you could lean more towards the grunge aesthetic. However, one downside to this technique is that the type of music you listen.

4. What outfits do you wear most often?

You should also consider the outfits you as your style aesthetic will obviously have to be comfortable. For instance, if you wear more loungewear clothing base your aesthetic on that or if you’re into jeans make that a staple piece in your style. However, if you’re into a range of different things you can add all of those to your style. Your aesthetic can be anything you want it to be!

3. What colours of clothing are you more into?

If you are nor a fan of brightly coloured clothing you might have a more minimalistic style this includes colours such as black, white, cream, beige and brown etc. However, some people are also really into pastel colours so could have a soft-girl aesthetic. You should also note that certain colours pop more in certain undertones. The three different types of undertones are warm, neutral and cool, so you could also base the types of colours you go for on this.

2. Look at all the aesthetics available to you

This may perhaps be the most obvious advice but is also the most crucial. There are many aesthetics including the baddie aesthetic., the grunge aesthetic, the art hoe aesthetic, the wallflower aesthetic, the soft girl aesthetic, the streetwear aesthetic and the e-girl aesthetic. You may like one or more of these styles who knows? So, you could combine them with each other and add your own elements to it to make it unique and personal for you.

1. Be yourself

Sometimes being yourself is the best way to grasp what your aesthetic is. So, make sure you are original, unique and different in all aspects of your life!
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