Fashion is one of the most prominent industries on the planet. Unfortunately, it also is one of the biggest polluters. Environment aside, though, fashion has evolved like no other sector—from the ancient days in Europe when both women and men wore “hideous” garments and called it fashion to the present day when clothing seems to have fewer seams or fabric.

Along the way, designers—especially prominent design houses—have come up with questionable items that have sold for thousands of dollars. Of course, if you can afford it, then you definitely see something that most of us don’t. Below is a list of questionable items produced by fashion designers that still leaves us with visible question marks above our heads.

10 Alexander McQueen’s Hoof Shoe

This shoe came out during the Plato Atlantis Spring/Summer collection in 2010 and is also referred to as the “armadillo boot.” It was said to give the illusion of a ballerina on her tiptoes. The shoe is 30 centimeters (12 in) in height and originally wasn’t meant to be commercially produced. However, loyal fans were eager to buy this shoe.

Why?

No lie, Alexander McQueen’s design style is bizarre and that is what makes it high fashion as well as art. This shoe looks like art, and we would have no objection to ogling it outside an alarmed glass box in a museum. The original shoe is said to be made of wood, but the ones commercially produced were made of python leather.

Despite the shoe’s menacing design, it didn’t stop the women who decided to be daring and pursue the taste of a 30-centimeter (12 in) shoe. Just the look of it makes you imagine a billion ways to fall and land on your face. For example, Daphne Guinness, a fashion icon known for wearing the most daring pieces, fell into a sea of her fans by the cobblestones at a churchyard.

Surprisingly, Lady Gaga snatched three pairs of these shoes and was seen on her Instagram daring to wear them. They originally had a guide price of $10,000, but Lady Gaga bid up to $295,000 to win the auction for all three pairs.^[1]

What women really do for a pair of shoes!

9 Moschino’s Plastic Dry Cleaning Dress

Jeremy Scott debuted this dress in the Moschino Fall/Winter 2017 runway collection. It is a slip-on, sleeveless dress made of polyester with writing at the top and bottom. We don’t know what kind of look the brand’s creative director was trying for or who accepted this dress to go on the runway the way it did.

Stella Maxwell, the runway model rocking this look, was put into a black dress and had the bag—oh sorry, dress—slipped on top of it. To seal this customer-friendly dry cleaner’s look, they put a hanger in her hair.^[2]

Many critics described this new fashion statement as a dry cleaning bag—you know, the one that you put over your clothes after they’ve been dry-cleaned.

The most interesting part is that it sold for $735. Who bought it is still a mystery.

8 Thom Browne’s Dog Bag

Now we have all seen our fair share of interesting accessories—from plate clutches to hangers in the hair. Thom Browne decided to come up with a dog bag, and it does look like an adorable little pooch. It is made from luxurious leather and has a little collar on it. And guess the surprising thing? It is still being sold for over $30,000.^[3]

The famous dog bag was inspired by the designer’s dachshund, Hector, one of the best-known pets on Instagram. You can even see the shape of a dog imprinted on some of Browne’s designs, which shows how much he loves his pet pooch.

7 Margiela’s Distressed Sneakers

Remember when we mentioned that current fashion has fewer seams and fabric?

Well, Maison Margiela has joined the league with heavily distressed sneakers.^[4] So, if this is a trend, don’t you dare throw out the shabby sneakers you have worn for many years. The white-and-yellow high-tops are being sold for $1,425, which probably isn’t bad for a designer shoe. But it is a terrible price for a shoe that looks like it has been chewed up and worn by your ancestors.

Some notable fashion heads referred to this sneaker as “avant-garde.”

6 Hermes Leather Horse

Western has been a popular trend in 2018, but we want to know if it was inspired by this. Hermes came out with this fringed brown horse statue that costs more than a Porsche. Ekta Joshi of Luxury Launches mentioned that “luxury” often means “absurdity,” and we agree.^[5]

Hermes is a notable brand with one of the most expensive bags anyone can own. They all look the same, just with different materials and sizes. (Their micro purse is to die for.) Over the years, Hermes has made a name for itself as one of the top bag brands in the world.

So, why would they create something as absurd as the Marley the Pony statue, which is priced at $133,000?

The purpose of this piece of art is unclear. But from an outsider’s point of view, Marley is art in all its absurd glory.

5 Clutch With Human Hair

Ines Figaredo is known for her unique bag designs. However, we are sure that she put everyone in a horrific panic when she came out with this clutch made of human hair. Again, this hangs question marks above the head.

The bag is just a normal clutch with human hair flowing down the front. Do you know what the scariest part is? Eyes are glued or sewn onto the bag behind the hair.^[6]

A blogger wrote that this bag reminded her of The Ring, a horror film with a character that has long black hair covering her face. If you haven’t watched The Ring but have seen The Grudge, then this Ring female character is similar in appearance to the Grudge female ghost in the house—sort of.

If you want more of a scare, the clutch retails for $1,928. No need for a costume next Halloween, Ines has got you covered.

4 Saint Laurent Hair Ankle Boots

Yves Saint Laurent took it several inches further with their goat hair ankle boots. As weird as they may look, they may have a few functions like keeping your feet warm in the winter.

No need to stock up on stockings, eh?

Well, this pair of shoes that makes one look like a descendant of Bigfoot retails at $1,995. The actual shape is a bit unseen. But from the little peeks in between the hairs, you can tell that it has a somewhat pointed toe and is black with silver studs at the ankle.^[7]

3 LEGO Headpiece

It doesn’t look as bad as it sounds. We think it is quite playful. It would probably be one of those items that are cheap and just for laughs. It would also be a good souvenir, but Luisaviaroma sells it at $5,230.

Jaw-dropping, yes. It makes you wonder if this LEGO beanie piece is actually made of a costly material we can’t see. In any case, why would anyone use expensive materials to create something that serves no purpose at all? We are stunned.^[8]

2 Ostrich Headpiece

This headpiece was carefully crafted from ostrich feathers and has a brooch at the center to hold them into place. If you’re having a bad hair day, this piece will fix you right up and give you a different kind of look at a price of almost $2,000.^[9]

Again, we ask, “Why?” All we can envision is the designer using a woman’s bad hair day as her piece of art and as a moneymaker. This headpiece comes in orange, yellow, and black.

1 Balenciaga IKEA Bag

In 2017, Balenciaga came out with this ultraexpensive bag. As people who can’t afford to buy a bag from Balenciaga unless we saved up really hard for the entire year, you would say that we are haters and jealous. However, the only difference between the notable, cute bags that Balenciaga has sold and this one made people on the Internet laugh really hard.

Yes, we’re talking about the IKEA-looking Balenciaga bag.^[10] It looks almost exactly like the IKEA Frakta tote bag which goes for just $0.99. Meanwhile, Balenciaga sold theirs for more than $2,000. The only visible difference is that IKEA branded its version with its iconic yellow logo on the straps.

In the design industry, fashion-inclusive “inspiration” can be drawn from anywhere as seen when a high fashion design house decided to almost reincarnate the IKEA bag with leather and a higher price.

I am a university student doing design. However, I have worked as a writer, volunteered as an editor and proofreader of anonymous articles, and interned as a blog writer.

The apocalypse could happen at any moment, so it’s best to be prepared. This list is a small assortment of techniques and tools to turn everyday household items into either deadly or extremely helpful tools of survival.

All these techniques are alternative, creative uses for these items. With the information provided in this article, we hope you can outlive the apocalypse or any sort of survival scenario that may occur.

10 Toilet Paper

With the lack of factories making medical equipment during the apocalypse, it is important to know what can be used to replace the bandage, our most common medical tool. Turns out that toilet paper, paper towels, and tissue paper can all be used as bandages in cases of absolute emergency.

However, you need to be cautious when using these tools to treat open wounds. First, any paper product will break down and leave behind fragments whenever it comes in contact with liquid. Also, many paper products are not sterile and may cause infection if used to treat the wound.

To avoid this problem, combine the paper product with a mixture of clean water and soap. Soap is a “basic” compound, so it will kill any bacteria on it. Do not use alcohol or hydrogen peroxide as they can be a health hazard if they enter the bloodstream.

Once you dissolve the toilet paper or tissue paper in the soapy water, apply the pulp lightly to the abrasion. Do not force the pulp into the cut. Just lay it on the surface of the wound. Once the pulp is secure, wrap it in dry paper to hold it there. If the wound bleeds, start over with new paper.^[1]

9 Safety Pins

Many people know that you can pick locks with bobby pins. But there is an even better way if you have some tweezers or a little patience. Lock picking is an extremely useful skill to have during the apocalypse as it gives you access to places and resources that others may not have already claimed.

Safety pins can be better for picking locks than bobby pins. For one, safety pins are skinnier and have more flexibility. Two safety pins have a broad circular point on them, which is easier to hold when used as a tension wrench.

If you have some tweezers, bend and twist the two pins apart. Be careful not to break either the broad safety case or the flat wire circle. Then pry the sharp point of the pin down like an “L” angle—this will be your tension wrench. The pin with the big broad safety case at the end will be your pick. You may want to make a slight “V” shaped bend in it for the sake of ease while lock picking.

If you don’t have tweezers, it will take a significantly greater amount of time to complete. Once you have the lock pick constructed, you want to hold each pin by the broad side and insert the narrow side into the lock. Put the tension wrench in at the bottom of the lock and give slight pressure. Then “rake” your pick across the lock’s tumblers until it opens.^[2]

8 Glass Bottles

As everyone knows, glass bottles, bowls, and vases are very good for holding water and transporting liquids. However, during the apocalypse, glass may have a far more useful and ultimately deadly application.

If society were to fall into anarchy, you’d need to defend your home and family at all costs. Some of the simplest yet most effective defenses come in the form of booby-trapping your own home.

Making your home a labyrinth of deadly or dangerous traps will make it severely unappealing for looters or marauders. Not everyone has guns, knives, and other weapons lying around. Some people may not even own the tools to make these weapons.

However, many people have glass items in their homes. If you shatter glass, you instantly have a deadly weapon. But be careful when working with broken glass. If possible, use something thick and bulky to protect your hands.

Once you have a bunch of broken glass, you have many methods of using it. First is a glass carpet, where you simply lay glass all over the ground so that people cannot walk there without foot protection.^[3]

If you have the means, an effective deterrent is to crush glass into dust and then construct dust bombs or pouches. Broken-down glass dust is extremely dangerous and can easily cause asphyxiation. You can also develop projectiles or pole weapons from broken glass so that you can fight at a range.

7 Shower Curtains

If you have to worry about fallout during a nuclear apocalypse, you may not have access to a radiation suit. Fortunately, you can easily devise a makeshift suit out of several items, including your shower curtain.

The most important material you’ll need is polyester or nylon. Either is good because each is waterproof. If you can find raincoats, windbreakers, shower curtains, and waterproof jacks that contain no organic fabrics, any of them would work fine.

If you find any metal or other absorbent fibers sutured into your suit, they must be removed or covered by the aforementioned materials. With the combination of plastic twine or duct tape, you may be able to tailor a wearable suit to keep fallout off and outside your body.

If you do not have a gas mask, it is best to put some fabric of any kind over your mouth and nose. Don’t reuse any fabrics exposed to fallout radiation. If you venture into an area contaminated with fallout while in your suit, make sure to wash down and remove any dirt or particles from your body when you return. This is why you must use either nylon or polyester waterproof fabrics.^[4]

6 Hair Conditioner

It is a lesser-known fact that hair conditioner strongly binds to radioactive fallout particles. The chemical composition of hair conditioner makes its atomic structure bind with any particle of heavily ionized or radioactive material. Knowing this, we can prevent harm to ourselves and use the highly radioactive substance against any enemies.

All sorts of weapons using pure radiation in small doses will strictly have to be employed for the long game as the effects of radiation sickness can take several weeks to years to begin. If you have an especially concentrated batch of irradiated hair conditioner, you can do one of two things to inflict harm on another person.

First, you can poison him by slowly having him ingest the compound. Alternatively, you can find a way to get the compound mixed in with his hair. If irradiated conditioner contacts human hair, it will bind the radioactive isotopes to that person’s hair, which would constantly poison him and eventually lead to an early death.^[5]

A nonhostile use for hair conditioner is to collect fallout particles to cleanse something of radiation. If you coat an object in hair conditioner, then the chemicals in the conditioner will extract most of the radioactive fallout from the object. Then you would need to thoroughly cleanse the item with water and scrubbers to remove the radioactive conditioner from the object.

5 Sugar

“Kill them with sugar” is truer than many think. The chemical composite of common table sugar is actually used in many formulas for low-yield exothermic reactions. Sugar is a prime ingredient of solid-form rocket fuel.^[6]

When you combine table sugar with potassium nitrate, which is a salt found in many home products, then you have highly flammable, superhot burning rocket fuel. Once you have created rocket fuel, there are many possibilities.

Solid rocket fuel can be used to create a lot of heat and light quickly, which is helpful with applications such as forging, melting, camping, smiting, lighting, alarming, and signaling.

As a final use for rocket fuel, you can strap little rocket packets to arrows and then create rocket-propelled arrowheads. If you create enough rocket arrows and set them up with other trapping devices, you can easily defend your home or hunt for food.

4 Notebooks

Notebooks, especially the metal-bound ones, are filled with incredibly useful items. First, the metallic spine found on most college-ruled notebooks can be removed and used for many tricks and traps. The metal coil is very flimsy and malleable, so you could use it as twine to bind two objects together.

If wrapped around with other coils, the notebook coil could be long enough to make a sturdy trip wire frame. If you had the means or the patience to dismantle and sever the metal wire, then you could also create makeshift needles, sutures, and nails from the metal fragments.^[7]

The next steps can also be applied to notebooks without metal spines because the paper and cardboard covers also have many uses. You can create makeshift window shutters with the cardboard covers. As each cover already has punctured holes in it, all you have to do is weave string through the holes and attach the string to a pulley.

The paper inside the notebook also has several uses, with one of the biggest being fuel. As the notebook companies design the paper so that it won’t burn easily, the best way to set the paper ablaze is to take each page and crumple it into a ball. This allows enough oxygen to get to the fire so that it can burn the rest of the paper.

If you have too many paper balls, they can be used as an alarm system. If someone is trying to sneak through an area, littering the space with bunches of crunchy paper balls would make it much more difficult to be silent.

3 Lighters

Pocket lighters have obvious uses such as providing light or fire. But there are many more tricks you can do with these little lighters. The first trick is a reminder that the lighter that burns twice as bright lasts half as long.

There is a special technique to make the flame on your lighter twice as big as it would be normally. First, you need tweezers or some patience if you’re doing this by hand. Remove the small plastic brace at the top of the lighter. (This only applies to the cheap plastic lighters.)

After you remove the top, you want to find the small lever that controls the height of the flame and push it all the way over to full. Then lift the lever up from its track, put it back to small, and then push the lever to full again.^[8]

The resulting flame will be twice as big and bright compared to the original flame produced by the lighter. This is useful if you need a more powerful flame for lighting something or if you are in a very dark area and need brighter light to see.

A diversionary trick with these lighters involves creating small light flashes. There are small bars of flint that look similar to pencil lead. If you heat these up and throw them against the ground, they will explode into a bright flash. You can also use empty lighters because the flint inside them is still good. Also, the more flint they have, the brighter the flash.

2 Brooms Or Mops

The most powerful and versatile weapon or tool on this list is the broomstick. It doesn’t matter if it’s metal or wood. A hefty wooden pole for bashing people is the very least of what these items can do.

Pole arms may become the best melee weapon once again in the aftermath of an apocalypse. Before the invention of the firearm, pole arms ruled the medieval battlefield. Best of all, you most likely already have one in your house.

The method is simple. Find your broom or mop handle, and remove the bristle end. Yes, it’s that easy. You now have a quarter staff with many different applications in a postapocalyptic world. If you’re clever, you can forge or “MacGyver” a spearhead onto the end of your pole. This increases its deadliness tenfold.^[9]

If you don’t use the staff as a spear or weapon, it makes a good hiking stick or an even better trap detector. A pole arm can be effectively used as an extension of your body. You can safely put your pole through suspected traps and dangers because it is better to lose the pole rather than your arm or hand.

If you are absolutely swamped with these poles or you find some nicely sized tree branches, they can all be used for defense as well. Simply sharpen the ends, stick one end of each in the ground, line rows of them up, and you have basic wooden fortifications.

1 Silverware

If the apocalypse rolls around, silverware can be used for much more than eating. However, if it’s made of actual silver and there is fallout radiation, then do not use it. Silver absorbs radioactive isotopes, easily binds to them, and becomes radioactive itself.

Each type of silverware has different applications during the apocalypse. Obviously, knives are practical as stabbing or defense weapons, but they become leagues deadlier if they are attached to poles and made into spears or pole arms for defense.

A steak knife or even a sharpened butter knife is flawed due to its short range. So you need to put them on an object that can extend your reach, which is extremely helpful in defeating foes during close encounters. Forks are helpful for stabbing your enemies as well as making effective trap devices.^[10]

With a fork, the flat end with the prongs is easily secured into flat stationary objects. This would allow you to sharpen the handle of the fork and then put the fork in the ground, secured by its prongs, to forge a sturdy stake ready for an unknowing thug to step on and gore his foot.

Spoons reinforce your pole arm or walking sick. You take 3–5 spoons and flatten them all out. Then you bend the flattened spoon parts into right angles to the handles. Melt all the spoons together on the blunt end of your pole arm. When they have all cooled, secure the spoons with twine or small nails. Now you have a sturdy, blunt melt reinforcement to your pole arm.

I am a history and science enthusiast, keenly interested in the progress and future of mankind. I have knowledge in the fields of physics, chemistry, psychology, prehistory, medieval history, European history, and American history. I am currently attending my second year of college and working toward my AS in general science. Then I hope to get my bachelor’s in psychology. I have a strong passion for writing and teaching others about the world they live in.

They say that “necessity is the mother of invention.” Every day, a new scientific breakthrough occurs or a new product is invented to solve a problem or fulfill a need. Scientists and inventors often spend years researching and refining their discoveries.

However, it is surprising to find out that many common household items were created by mistake during this research process. Some inventors found that a lab mistake could be adapted to a new purpose straightaway. Others were discarded, only to be repurposed many years later.

Most households around the world wouldn’t be without these laboratory mishaps today.

10 Nonstick Cookware

Where would we be without our nonstick cookware? Scraping off the eggs burned onto the bottom of the frying pan and trying to pry muffins out of baking trays, that’s where.

Teflon, or PTFE as it is known in the scientific world, would have to rank as one of the most useful kitchen inventions. However, polytetrafluoroethylene was actually invented by mistake in 1938 when DuPont scientist Roy Plunkett was developing a new CFC refrigerant.

Sawing open a gas canister used in his experiments, he discovered a reaction had occurred between the tetrafluoroethylene gas and the iron shell of the canister. The result was a waxy, repellent substance for which he initially saw no use. Further experiments on the slippery substance eventually saw it used in manufacturing and military equipment.

It wasn’t until 1954 that anyone thought to coat cookware with the substance to stop food from sticking to pots and pans. Frenchman Marc Gregoire was thinking of coating his fishing gear with Teflon to stop it from tangling when his wife suggested that nonstick cooking pans would be more useful.^[1]

Most cookware used today is coated in a variety of Teflon.

9 Post-it Notes

Post-it Notes would have to be one of the most useful items of stationery. The sticky little squares of paper can be found in any home or office. We use them to bookmark pages, stick handy reminder notes to the fridge or computer, and leave phone messages.

Yet this common stationery item was developed by mistake. Dr. Spencer Silver was a chemist working for 3M in 1968. His research into a super-strong glue seemed to have failed when instead he came up with a very weak adhesive that would only stick things together for a short time. What good was that to anyone?

It wasn’t until 1973 that the worth of this new adhesive was recognized. Arthur Fry, one of Dr. Silver’s colleagues, began using this temporary glue to bookmark the pages in his hymnal.

By 1980, 3M was producing small squares of paper lined with a coating of glue along one edge. Today, we use more than 50 billion of these handy little sticky notes each year.^[2]

8 Safety Glass

Man has been using glass since the earliest civilizations. We use it in windows, cookware, jewelry, and decorative items. Blowing glass into decorative pieces is an ancient art form.

However, the main limitation of glass has always been the fact that it breaks into jagged, potentially dangerous pieces. So it is surprising to find that it was only in the last century that someone found a way to make glass safer.

Today, you will find safety glass in motor vehicles, windows, and cookware. It is tougher and less likely to break into jagged shards. Yet this stronger glass was discovered by accident rather than design.

French chemist Edouard Benedictus accidentally knocked a glass beaker onto the ground in 1903. He was surprised to find that it shattered but did not actually break as it contained cellulose nitrate which had left a film inside the glass.^[3]

This plastic-coated glass was further developed during the early 1900s and was first used for the lenses in gas masks during World War I. Various forms of safety glass have been developed since Benedictus’s discovery, and today, safety glass is mandatory in cars, buildings, and some cookware.

7 Microwave Oven

There are very few homes today without a microwave oven. The handy kitchen appliance certainly changed the way we cook. However, the microwave wasn’t an intentional invention. Percy Spencer, a radar engineer, was conducting experiments on a magnetron, a new vacuum tube in 1945.

During the experiment, Spencer noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. He grabbed some popcorn and, to his surprise, found that the magnetron also made the popcorn “pop.” He had accidentally stumbled upon a new way of cooking.

Raytheon marketed the new microwave oven as a “RadaRange” in 1946. The initial ovens were costly and too bulky for most kitchens. They were the size of a modern refrigerator and took 20 minutes to warm up before you could actually cook anything in them.^[4]

It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the smaller, cheaper versions found in most homes were developed.

6 Plastic

We can find plastic everywhere in most modern homes—from kitchenware to toys, furniture, and even packaging. Society is becoming increasingly aware of the environmental effects of this man-made substance, with worldwide attempts to minimize the use of plastic.

Ironically, plastic was developed to protect wildlife by reducing the need for ivory, tortoiseshell, horn, and other animal products as well as minimizing the industrial use of our natural resources.

In 1869, John Hyatt answered a New York firm’s call to find a substitute for ivory billiard balls. He found that combining cellulose (derived from cotton fiber) with camphor produced a substance which was flexible, strong, and moldable.

His newly discovered “celluloid” could be used in manufacturing instead of animal by-products, and it was even used in filmmaking. This new synthetic product would reduce the slaughter of animals for the use of their horns, tusks, and shells in manufacturing.

Leo Baekeland was researching an alternative electrical insulator to shellac in 1907. Expanding on Hyatt’s invention, he developed “Bakelite,” the first fully synthetic plastic which could also withstand extremely high temperatures without melting.^[5]

Chemical companies soon began researching and developing new plastics for every use imaginable—from wartime equipment to furniture, cookware, and motor vehicles. The applications for plastic were endless.

Given the origins of plastics, it is ironic that they have become an environmental concern, with more people returning to naturally produced products.

5 Super Glue

A researcher at Eastman Kodak found himself in a sticky mess when he was trying to invent a plastic lens for gunsights during World War II. Yet a handy little tube of the adhesive he had discovered can probably be found in most kitchen drawers around the world.

Harry Coover initially thought that his cyanoacrylate was useless as it stuck to absolutely everything it touched.^[6]

In 1951, he and colleague Fred Joyner were looking for a temperature-resistant coating for jet cockpits. After spreading the cyanoacrylate between two lenses during scientific experiments, they were alarmed to find that they could not pull the lenses apart, which ruined expensive laboratory equipment.

It was then that they realized the potential for this glue, which almost instantly bonded two surfaces together. Super Glue was first marketed in the late 1950s and has become a popular remedy for many small household repairs today.

4 Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is something we take for granted in our modern lives. Cutlery, kitchen appliances, medical equipment, motor vehicles, and even skyscrapers all use the strong, noncorrosive metal.

French scientist Leon Gillet first made a steel alloy mix in 1904. However, he failed to notice the rustproof properties of this new metal compound.

In 1912, metallurgist Harry Brearley was experimenting to find a rustproof gun barrel. During his research, he had added chromium to molten metals. He eventually noticed that previously discarded metal samples were not rusting like other metals.

Based in Sheffield, the home of silver cutlery, Brearley soon began marketing his “rustless steel” to cutlery manufacturers in place of the traditional silver- or nickel-plated cutlery.

Manufacturing companies soon began researching and further developing this new grade of metal. The uses of stainless steel today go way beyond Brearley’s original stainless cutlery. Planes, trains, ships, and cars are made from it. You will find stainless steel in every kitchen and at most building sites. It is also used extensively in medical equipment.^[7]

It is hard to imagine that this essential metal was initially thrown on a laboratory scrap heap.

3 Bubble Wrap

We probably take the protective packaging in most parcels for granted. Many people enjoy popping the small air-filled pockets in the Bubble Wrap in which their parcel contents were wrapped.

But did you know that Bubble Wrap was initially meant to be a textured wallpaper?

In 1957, scientists Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes put two shower curtains through a heat-shrinking machine in an attempt to develop a textured wallpaper. The result was a sheet of plastic covered in tiny air bubbles. Their efforts to use the product as a greenhouse insulation also proved to be a failure.^[8]

In 1960, IBM was looking for a way to protect delicate computer components during transport. Fielding and Chavannes’s cushioned plastic was the perfect solution to their problem.

The usefulness of “Bubble Wrap” soon caught on and is the world’s most common packaging material today.

2 Cling Wrap

Every household has a tube of “cling wrap” in the kitchen drawer. The sticky plastic film wraps our sandwiches and covers our food to keep it fresh.

The sticky film, “Saran,” was discovered in 1933 in the Dow Chemical laboratories. Ralph Wiley was working in the lab developing dry cleaning products and discovered the substance when trying to clean used beakers.^[9]

It was originally used as a protective spray in fighter jets and in motor vehicles. It was even used to line soldiers’ boots.

Saran Wrap was introduced into households as a food wrap in 1953. Concerns about the chemicals in the film being in contact with food led to further research and the development of “safer” plastic films. This effectively wrapped up the array of plastic food packaging we use every day.

1 Safety Pin

There are hundreds of uses for the humble safety pin. Clothing pins have been with us for thousands of years. However, the pointy ends were prone to give the wearer a nasty jab.

In 1849, New York mechanic Walter Hunt was sitting in his office fiddling with a piece of wire as he tried to come up with a way to pay a $15 debt.

He found that he had successfully twisted the wire into a useful object. He could see how the item in his hands could be used as a pin. The piece of wire now had a coiled spring at the bottom. Hunt added a clasp to the top, allowing the pointy end of the safety pin to be secured at the top and preventing users from being stabbed with the sharp end of the pin.^[10]

A clever inventor, Hunt was unfortunately not a sharp business man. A few years earlier, he had invented an eye-pointed needle sewing machine. He failed to patent his invention as he feared that it would cause people to lose their jobs. His design was later copied and marketed by others.

While he did patent his safety pin invention, he sold the rights to the patent to the person to whom he owed the money.

Lesley Connor is a retired Australian newspaper editor who provides articles to online publications and her own travel blog.

One might think that sporting an Hermes Birkin, Louboutin pumps, and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses is super-classy. But these iconic fashion riches pale in comparison to the world’s best. If you had all the money in the world, would you consider buying the most-expensive hat, handbag, or underwear ever made? While you’ve been busy struggling to afford toilet paper, here are the delights that the bankers, CEOs, celebrities, and politicians have been enjoying.

10 Most Expensive And Delectable Desserts

10Men’s Dress Socks: Falke Vicuna Gentleman Socks, $1,000/pair

Cheap socks are for the birds. They have annoying seams. They stretch out and wear out. Worst of all, they fall down inside your shoes. Investing in quality socks is one way to ensure that your feet always remain encased in comfort.

To that end, Falke makes expensive socks. The luxury knitwear brand uses “only the best yarns” to create its luxury line of men’s legwear, a collection of “premium quality and the best craftsmanship.”

The company’s priciest socks, selling for about $1,000 a pair, are made of vicuna, one of the most expensive fabrics in the world. Vicuna is a fine, delicate wool that comes from the ultra-fine hair (and none of the coarse hairs) of the Peruvian vicuna.

Falke’s website describes the fabric like this: “The ‘fibre of the gods’ is obtained from the Purvian vicuna. Its fine, dense wool was valued as the rarest and most expensive in the world and was reserved for the highest nobility and the church, even in the time of the Incas.”

One vicuna (picture a really soft llama) produces about one pound of wool. Vicuna is too delicate to be dyed, so the very special socks are available in only one color: llama brown.

Because the fabric is so luxurious, it’s unreasonable to think that the Falke Knit Socks could be mass produced. Each pair is custom made–tailored to the wearer’s foot–and shipped in an elegant wooden box. Oh, and vicuna is said to boast unique warming properties. So your fancy feet will never get cold!^[1]

9Sunglasses: Chopard De Rigo Vision Sunglasses, $408,400

Sporting pricey Ray-Bans is a good way to protect your eyes with style. But if you really want to make a statement with eyewear, then you need something more deluxe. Chopard makes sunglasses and accessories from real gold that has been “ethically sourced.” When the design house partnered with De Rigo, another high-end eyewear brand, they created the ultimate sunglasses experience.

The Chopard De Rigo Vision Sunglasses are made with 60 grams of 24-carat gold and 51 individual four-carat River diamonds. In all, each golden pair features more than 200 carats of diamonds.

“The exclusive eyewear appeals to an explicit group of fashionistas,” according to a brand representative. The sunglasses premiered in Dubai where, thankfully, it’s usually sunny.^[2]

8Men’s Suits: Stuart Hughes Diamond Edition, $723,000

A suit worth nearly a million dollars? Yep. Luxury goods designer Stuart Hughes and tailor Richard Jewels teamed up to create the Diamond Edition suit. They made only three of these extravagant ensembles — no small wonder since each took more than 600 hours to stitch.

Like many high-end suits, the Diamond Edition is constructed of wool, cashmere, and silk. Unlike any other suit, however, it boasts more than 480 half-carat, single-cut diamonds. The gems are etched onto the exterior lining of the jacket with unexpected “bedazzled” results.

Good news: The suit is still in stock at the Stuart Hughes website. And each purchase comes with a bonus all-expense-paid trip to a luxury destination.^[3]

7Hat: Chapeau D’Amour, $2.7 million

The most expensive hat ever created is the $2.7 million Chapeau d’Amour, the “hat of love,” which was created by Louis Mariette in 2004. Made of woven platinum and encrusted with spectacular diamonds and amethyst, the hat was inspired by the designers love of ivy and bluebells.

Harrods approached Mariette to create something unique for the store’s new luxury millinery and wedding department. One of the main sponsors was the American Express Platinum card. The designer approached the project with absolute glee.

The Platinum Guild had already developed the rare platinum fabric that would serve as the base of the hat. Next came the ornamental Lady Amherst pheasant feathers. Mariette sat on the beach of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean as he hand embroidered the feathers onto the mesh-like fabric, which he said was “a total joy to work with.” The diamond supplier created special clasps that could hold the stones but still be removed for insurance and security purposes.

The Chapeau d’Amour traveled the world and now resides in the Cliveden House, which is surrounded by the forest of bluebells that provided Mariette’s inspiration. It is not for sale.^[4]

6Handbag: Mouawad 1001 Nights Diamond Purse, $3.8 million

Renowned jeweler Robert Mouawad from the House of Mouawad first offered the 1001 Nights Diamond Purse at a price of $3.8 million in 2010. One year later, the Guinness Book of World Records declared the elegant purse the most valuable in the world. The heart-shaped masterpiece is handcrafted from 18-karat gold and boasts 4,517 diamonds (105 yellow, 56 pink, and 4,356 colorless) weighing in at 381.92 carats. Ten highly skilled artisans worked for more than 8,800 man hours to create this dazzling bag.

The design is said to have been inspired by the Middle Eastern romantic fantasy, One Thousand and One Nights. The rare bejeweled purse has been shown at auctions in Hong Kong, Geneva, and London but remains up for grabs. Experts predict a new value of more than $5 million.^[5]

10 Creepy Items That Are Really Expensive

5Underwear: Victoria’s Secret Red Hot Fantasy Bra and Panties, $15 million

Victoria’s Secret has been creating multi-million-dollar bras for decades. In the 2001 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, Heidi Klum sported the $12.5 million Heavenly Star Bra, which heaved with 1,200 Sri Lankan pink sapphires and a 90-carat diamond. Four years later, Gisele Bundchen wore the equally expensive Sexy Splendour Fantasy Bra, which featured 2,900 pave diamonds, 22 rubies, and a 101-carat diamond set in 18-karat white gold.

But if you’re going to blow more than $10 million on a bra, wouldn’t it be nice to at least have a matching pair of undies? The Guinness World Record for the most expensive lingerie ever created goes to just such a set. Bundchen modeled the Red Hot Fantasy Bra and Panties on Victoria’s Secret’s 2000 runway. About 3,000 diamonds and 22 Thai rubies are encased in 28-karat white gold. The gemstones weigh about 1,300 carats (101 of which dangle from a single diamond). The price tag: $15 million.

Note: Technically, Victoria Secret’s Fantasy pieces are “underwear” and not intended to be worn poolside. If it’s pricey beachwear you’re after, consider Susan Rosen’s $27 million diamond bikini. The designer created the barely-there “swimsuit” for Molly Sims’ appearance in the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The bikini, which features 150 carats of diamonds set in platinum, is the ultimate in the “fine art of opulence.”^[6]

4Shoes: Passion Diamond Shoes, $17 million

Recently featured on our list of expensive everyday items, we couldn’t leave these shoes off a list of luxury fashion items. In October 2018, the world’s most expensive shoes were launched. The luxurious Passion Diamond Shoes feature hundreds of flawless diamonds, including two perfect 15-carat stones. The real-gold stilettos, created by UAE-based Jada Dubai, are on display in the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. The display size is 36 EU, but wealthy buyers can request any size made to order.

Note: One pair of Passion Diamond Shoes is equivalent to 23,448 pairs of Louboutin So Kate pumps, which run about $700 per pair.^[7]

3Watch: Chopard 201-Carat Watch, $26 million

Chopard, a luxury watch company in Switzerland, is known for precision timekeeping and jewelry. The company was founded in 1860 by Louis Ulysse Chopard, a 24-year old who aspired to develop precise pocket watches and chronometers. In the 1960s, Karl Scheufele III purchased Chopard.

The $26 million price of the 201-Carat Watch is an estimate. That’s because this one-of-a-kind watch is so expensive that there is no listing price. The beautiful timepiece features 874 high-grade diamonds in blue, white, and pink that weigh in at 163 carats. Three heart-shaped diamonds sit at the center of the watch: a 15.37-carat pink diamond, a 12.79-carat blue diamond, and an 11.36-carat white diamond.

To view the time, the wearer presses a special mechanism. The heart-shaped diamonds open like the petals of a flower to reveal the face of the watch, which boasts three pear-shaped yellow diamonds.^[8]

2Dress: Nightingale of Kuala Lumpur, $30 million

Faiyzali Abdulla is a well-known Malaysian fashion designer. Anything created by Abdulla is a big deal. And when that creation has a name like “Nightingale of Kuala Lumpur,” it’s a really big effing deal.

The $30 million dress, which was presented in 2009 at STYLO Fashion Grand Prix KL, is composed of the finest chiffon and silk taffeta. This extraordinary off-shoulder evening gown glitters with 751 diamonds (1,100 carats). The largest of the diamonds is a 70-carat Mouawad teardrop on the gown’s bustier.

The burgundy masterpiece, which features a 6-foot train, reportedly cost $23 million to create. Abdulla’s inspiration for the dress came from the 14th century Persian poem “The Rose and the Nightingale,” which was read aloud when the dress was presented.^[9]

1Jewelry: CTF Pink Star Diamond Ring, $71.2 million

Even small diamond rings are expensive. But the Pink Star is an “internally flawless pink 59.6-carat diamond.” The gemstone was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong in April 2017 for $71.2 million.

De Beers extracted the diamond from a mine in Africa in 1999. In its raw state, it was 132.5 carats. It took two years to cut and polish the diamond to perfection. At 2.69 cm by 2.06 cm (1.06 in. x 0.81 in.), it is the largest flawless fancy vivid pink diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

The buyer of the Pink Star was Chow Fai Fook Enterprises, a Hong Kong conglomerate that has a chain of jewelry stores.

Note: The Pink Star holds the world record for the most expensive jewel ever sold. But the blue diamond holds the record for the most valuable price per carat at $3.93 million. In 2016, the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue diamond sold for $57.5 million at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva.^[10]

Top 10 Most Expensive Items Sold That Don’t Actually Exist

With the coronavirus shutdown pushing us toward The Greatest Depression and leaving many of us wondering how we will manage our finances, the days when people paid huge amounts of money for celebrity memorabilia seem like something from the forgotten past.

10 Spectacular Meltdowns That Cost Celebrities Credibility

However, we can still cast our minds back to those distant times when people went on to eBay to place bids for a half eaten sandwich that Miley Cyrus might have gotten her teeth into, or one of Harry Styles’ old sweaty shirts.

So to remind us all that a world existed before the virus, here are the 10 maddest celebrity items people have paid for.

10 John Lennon’s toilet

John Lennon was a pathological liar, wife beater, and genuine music legend, both for The Beatles era and his solo career, with the celebrity sing-a-long to his song Imagine already giving us one of the cringiest moments of the coronavirus era. When Lennon sang “Imagine no possessions” from his luxury mansion it might have been because he had seen into the future and learned that one day someone would pay $11,773 for one of his old toilets. This very expensive toilet had been at the Tittenhurst Park home that Lennon and Yoko Ono lived in from 1969 until 1972 and was one that Lennon had given to his builder to use “as a plant pot” when he got a new one installed.

The auction where this bizarre 2010 sale took place was held at the Paul McCartney Auditorium in Liverpool and the person who paid almost ten times the expected price for a used . . . ahem . . . ’john’ kept his identity a secret. We cannot really blame him for that.^[1]

9 Kiss coffins

The only thing that Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons loves more than rock ‘n’ roll is money and that lust for lucre has helped to make his band the Krusty the Clown of rock music – willing to put their name to the tackiest merchandise in the world if it keeps the cash rolling in.

They took things to a whole new low – literally – back in 2001 though, when they launched the Kiss Kasket. This was a make of coffin that was covered in pictures of the group members as well as the band logo and cost $3,300. As if selling band branded coffins was not scraping the barrel enough they also offered urns that Kiss fanatics could have their ashes stored in.

At the launch, Simmons said that although he loved life, the Kiss Kasket “makes the alternative look pretty damn good” and the ads suggested people who had bought one and then failed to die could use it as a drinks cooler while they waited. Among those who have gone to the next world in a Kiss Kasket are Pantera guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell.^[2]

8 Elvis Presley’s hair

The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll Elvis Presley had an iconic haircut. The ducktail and quiff that he rocked much defined the 1950s, but even that does not explain why anyone would want to pay money to own some of his old, dead hair. Back in November 2002, a man who used to cut the hair of The King – Homer Gilleland – put a collection of clippings he had kept for decades on sale at an auction in Illinois.

You might think that keeping someone else’s hair for that long is a bit weird and you would be right. It would be creepy if it was the hair of an ex girlfriend or boyfriend and you wanted it so you could stroke it and cry every night, but holding on to it to sell is not really any better. Then again, BUYING another person’s hair is weird too, so the anonymous buyer does not look great here either. The clippings came complete with letters from Gilleland, expert in Presley memorabilia John W Heath and someone called John Reznikoff who is apparently a respected authority when it comes to collecting hair (!) The final sale price of $115,120 made it the most expensive hair ever sold at auction.^[3]

7 Russell Crowe’s jockstrap

Back when he starred in Gladiator in 1999, Australian Russell Crowe was a sex symbol and lots of women might have been willing to bid for his used jockstrap, but by 2018 you would expect there to have been fewer takers. That was when the piece of sweaty protection was put up for sale as part of a ‘divorce auction’ of his belongings that the actor organized. The jockstrap for sale was one Crowe wore during the filming of Cinderella Man in 2004, although we have to hope that it had been washed during the 14-year gap.

Crowe was expecting to get offers of between $500 and $600 for it – which might seem a bit egotistical, but it actually went for $7,000 so if anything he was selling himself short. The buyer was an English television personality, who later claimed that he bought it for donation to a Blockbuster video store that was struggling for money (ya think?!) so that they could use it as memorabilia to attract customers. Whether they want the sort of customers who would be attracted by it is another matter.^[4]

6 Justin Timberlake’s French toast

Justin Timberlake has lots of fans, both from his days with NSYNC and his solo music and movie career and one of them was passionate enough about the man nicknamed ‘trouser snake’ to pay over $1000 for a couple of slices of French toast that he had come into contact with.

The toast was made for the star during an early morning interview he gave to the radio station Z-100 back in 2000, but the chef managed to burn it and Timberlake decided not to bother. After the interview, the DJ took the leftover toast and put it straight onto eBay, showing the true US spirit of enterprise.

A bidding war then took place over the stale toast, and given that Timberlake was still deep in his boy-band period at the time it is not surprising that the person who most badly wanted his uneaten breakfast was a 19-year-old fan of NSYNC called Kathy Summers. Speaking to the media after claiming her ‘prize’, Summer said: “I’ll probably freeze dry it, then seal it . . . then put it on my dresser.” NSYNC were also toast not long after this heartwarming story, splitting in 2002 as Timberlake went solo.^[5]

Top 10 Tone-Deaf Celebrity Coronavirus Messages That Are Cringey AF

5 Jennifer Lawrence’s sports bra

Jennifer Lawrence rose to fame by playing Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games movie trilogy, but it seems many of her fans are not so much hungry as thirsty – particularly the ones who bid for one of her used sports bras at an auction in 2013. The sports bra was one of several pieces that went on sale at an auction house in Los Angeles, with all of the clothes being ones she had worn during the filming of the movie Silver Linings Playbook.

The auction took place not long after she had won the first of her Oscars so that might explain the frenzied bidding or it could just be that a lot of dudes around the world had money to burn and were a bit too keen to own one of her bras. The total sum that was raised by the sale of the clothes was $12,000 and the sports bra accounted for a cool $3,175 of it. The owner of the auction house said afterwards that global bidding had been “furious” and the people who lost out on the bra were probably furious too. Surely finding a girlfriend would be a cheaper option for these guys.^[6]

4 William Shatner’s kidney stone

We know that Star Trek fans are pretty obsessive about everything connected with the show, so when Captain Kirk sold his kidney stone on eBay the most amazing thing about it was not the money it made but the fact that the buyer was no sci-fi geek. Shatner chose to put the stone onto the site in 2006 to help raise cash for the homelessness charity Habitat for Humanity, after falling ill with it the previous fall while he was filming Boston Legal.

When he put the huge stone up for sale he also included other pieces of surgical equipment like the string and stint that helped him pass it – just for those who did not find the stone itself gross enough. Plenty of people were willing to bid for a – literal – piece of Shatner though, with the whole lot eventually selling for $25,000. Lots of dedicated trekkers must have been mad as hell that night though, as none of them ended up with the precious stone. The buyer who boldly went where no man has gone before was an online casino called Golden Palace, who added it to other collectables that can be viewed on their website, such as a toasted cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary’s image on it.^[7]

3 Scarlett Johansson’s used tissue

Just in case you thought it could not get any more disgusting than buying a kidney stone, someone actually paid thousands of dollars for a tissue that Marvel star Scarlett Johansson once sneezed into. This moment of snotty behavior came long before Scarlett was cast as Black Widow in the MCU, as it followed an appearance on the Tonight show when she was promoting terrible 2008 superhero movie The Spirit. During the show she complained about having a cold and Jay Leno gave her a tissue that she blew into a couple of times.

This left it covered in both lipstick and nasal fluid, which would make most people want to get it in the nearest bin. Instead the star signed it and put it up for sale on eBay to try and raise money for a charity called Harvest. It worked too, possibly because there were lots of fans who were hoping to use it to clone her, Sheldon Cooper style. The eventual winner had to cough up $5,300 to get his hands on it (yes we are assuming it was a man). He may be having the last laugh though, as he sits at home with his Hollywood star clone wife.^[8]

2 Truman Capote’s ashes

The writer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s was someone who enjoyed being famous and the center of attention so he might not have minded people bidding huge amounts of money to own his ashes. They went up for sale at auction two years ago and the buyer paid $43,750 for his or her ghoulish prize. Capote actually died all the way back in 1984 and his ashes had been kept by one of his best friends – the wife of Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show legend. She claimed that having them near to her was a comfort, but after she died in 2017, the decision was made to put them up for sale.

The president of Julien’s Auctions Darren Julien said afterwards that “with some celebrities this wouldn’t be tasteful” (no kidding), but added that he was completely certain that it was what Capote would have wanted. The starting price for the ashes was $2,000 and it does seem likely that the flamboyant author would have been delighted to have brought in more than twenty times that much money.^[9]

1 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s breath

“Every breath you take”, The Police sang, but the next line was not “I will bottle and sell on eBay.” That is what happened to political activists and part-time actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie during 2005, in the first . . . um . . . breath of their romance. At the premiere of the movie Mr and Mrs Smith on June 7th that year, Joe Wilson and his partner in crime Pam DuMond, who call themselves the Celebrity Air Collection Squad lay in wait for passing stars. As Jolie and Pitt walked by on the red carpet they scooped up some of the air into a jar and sealed it shut.

At this point you might be thinking: “what if they were both holding their breath at that moment?” or “what if one of them farted before the jar was sealed?” It is possible that a Hollywood star fart in a jar would be worth more than basic breath though, so Wilson and DuMond may have missed a trick by not labeling it as that. As it was, they made sure to call it ‘Celebrity Air’ and point out that it might not be that of Pitt or Jolie at all so that they were within eBay rules about not selling something when its existence cannot be proved.^[10]

Top 10 Nutty Conspiracy Theories Involving Celebrities

Germs are crafty little invaders, often thriving in the everyday items we take for granted. We might feel confident tossing groceries into reusable shopping bags or taking a sip from a water bottle, but these seemingly harmless objects can be hiding more bacteria than we’d ever imagine. In our busy lives, it’s easy to overlook just how dirty some of our most commonly used items can get.

Think about it: when did you last clean your credit cards or give your yoga mat a good scrub? These things are part of our daily routines, yet they can quickly turn into breeding grounds for germs if we’re not paying attention. The truth is, the real germ hotspots aren’t just in obvious places like public restrooms; they’re often right in front of us, blending into the background of our everyday lives.

This list explores ten surprisingly germy everyday items and gives you simple, practical tips on keeping them clean. With just a little more awareness and a few easy habits, you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the hidden bacteria that might be closer than you think.

Related: Top 10 Ways Binge-Watching Is Ruining Your Health

10 Reusable Shopping Bags

We all love the idea of reusable shopping bags—they’re eco-friendly, sturdy, and help cut down on plastic waste. But there’s a downside most people don’t think about: These bags can be a surprising source of bacteria. Dr. Ryan Sinclair was involved with a study by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University of Public Health that examined reusable grocery bags. It found that while these bags are used over and over, they’re rarely cleaned. As a result, they can easily become a breeding ground for germs. In the study, nearly every bag tested contained large amounts of bacteria, with coliform bacteria found in half of them. Even more concerning, E. coli was detected in 12% of the bags.

The problem doesn’t stop there. When these bags are left in the warm confines of a car trunk, the bacteria inside can multiply rapidly. Dr. Sinclair’s research showed that just two hours of exposure to meat juices in a car trunk could cause bacteria to increase tenfold. That’s a serious health risk, especially if you’re using the same bag for groceries week after week without washing it.

Luckily, the solution is simple: wash your bags regularly. Whether by hand or in the washing machine, cleaning your reusable bags can eliminate more than 99.9% of bacteria. It’s a small step that can make a big difference in keeping your groceries—and your kitchen—safe.^[1]

9 Water Bottles

Reusable water bottles are a fantastic way to stay hydrated and cut down on plastic waste, but they might be harboring more bacteria than you realize. Believe it or not, these bottles can hold an average of 20.8 million colony-forming units (CFUs) of bacteria—40,000 times more than what’s typically found on a toilet seat. Each time you take a sip, you’re transferring bacteria from your mouth to the bottle, where it thrives in the moist environment inside.

The misconception that water bottles don’t need frequent cleaning because they only contain water is widespread, but it’s dangerous. Harmful bacteria like E. coli can quickly multiply, potentially leading to stomach troubles such as diarrhea or vomiting. And it’s not just the inside of the bottle you need to worry about; those tricky crevices in screw tops or under flip-up straws can develop mold, adding another layer of risk.

To keep your water bottle safe, it’s crucial to wash it regularly—ideally after every use. A quick rinse with hot, soapy water will usually do the trick, but if it’s been neglected for a few days, a deeper clean using a vinegar and water solution might be in order. These small steps can make a big difference in keeping your bottle—and your health—squeaky clean.^[2]

8 Credit and Debit Cards

You might not realize it, but your credit and debit cards could be some of the dirtiest things you touch every day. A study by Queen Mary University in London found that 8% of credit cards carry bacteria, including staph and even fecal matter. In fact, 1 in 12 bank cards has traces of fecal bacteria on it. Every time you swipe or hand over your card, those germs can transfer to your hands and then to whatever you touch next.

Dr. Alan Taege, an infectious disease expert, points out that anything passed from hand to hand, like money or credit cards, is likely to pick up all kinds of germs. The problem is that once those bacteria are on your hands, they can easily make their way to your face, especially if you touch your eyes or mouth without thinking. This simple act can increase your risk of getting sick.

To keep these hidden germs in check, make it a habit to wipe down your cards regularly, especially after heavy use. Keeping a small bottle of hand sanitizer with you when you’re out and about can also help reduce the spread of bacteria. These small steps can go a long way in keeping you healthier.^[3]

7 Yoga Mats

Your yoga mat might be your sanctuary for relaxation and fitness, but it’s also a hotspot for bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Unwashed mats can quickly become breeding grounds for germs that cause skin infections like athlete’s foot and staph. These pesky microbes love the warm, moist environment created by your sweat, especially after a tough session in a hot yoga studio.

Even if you always bring your own mat to the gym, you’re not completely in the clear. Germs can easily transfer from the gym floor or someone else’s shoes onto your mat. And it’s not just skin infections you need to worry about—your mat can also harbor cold and flu viruses that stick around for days, just waiting for a chance to make you sick.

To keep your mat (and yourself) germ-free, make cleaning it a regular habit. If you’re using it in a gym or class, give it a good wipe down before and after every use. At home, a thorough clean once a week should do the trick, but if you’re prone to sweating or have sensitive skin, consider upping the frequency.^[4]

6 Public Touchscreens

Public touchscreens have made life more convenient, but they’re also crawling with harmful bacteria. A study from London Metropolitan University revealed that these screens are often contaminated with bacteria from human and animal feces, including Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus. These germs can lead to anything from mild skin infections to serious conditions like meningitis or blood poisoning. Even more alarming is the presence of listeria, a bacterium that can cause severe foodborne illnesses.

These bacteria thrive on surfaces touched by countless people every day, making public touchscreens a perfect breeding ground. Whether checking in at the airport, ordering food at a kiosk, or picking a movie on a plane, you’re likely coming into contact with these invisible threats. While places might clean these screens periodically, it’s unrealistic to think they’re sanitized after every use.

To protect yourself, make a habit of washing your hands or using hand sanitizer right after using a public touchscreen, especially before eating or touching your face. These small steps can go a long way in keeping you safe from the germs lurking on these frequently touched surfaces.^[5]

5 Contact Lenses and Cases

Wearing contact lenses is a convenient way to correct your vision, but if you’re not careful, they can turn into serious germ magnets. When lenses aren’t cleaned or stored properly, they can lead to infections like microbial keratitis, a painful inflammation of the cornea caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, or even parasites. In severe cases, this condition can result in blindness or require a corneal transplant.

Microbial keratitis often strikes when lenses are worn for too long or aren’t disinfected as they should be. The symptoms—red, irritated eyes, worsening pain, light sensitivity, and sudden blurry vision—are warning signs that shouldn’t be ignored. If you notice any of these, take your lenses out immediately and see an eye doctor to prevent further damage.

The good news is that these risks are avoidable. By following proper cleaning and storage guidelines for your lenses and regularly replacing your lens case, you can keep your eyes healthy and free from infection. Taking these small steps can make a big difference in protecting your vision.^[6]

4 Makeup Brushes and Sponges

Your makeup might look on point, but if you’re not cleaning your brushes and sponges regularly, you could be inviting bacteria to the party. A study from Aston University revealed that 9 out of 10 makeup products, including lipsticks, eyeliners, and mascara, were contaminated with bacteria like E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The worst culprits? Makeup sponges, with a staggering 96% harboring fungus. Even more alarming, 93% of those sponges had never been cleaned, and 64% had been dropped on the floor.

Using dirty makeup tools isn’t just gross—it can lead to serious skin infections, breakouts, and even more severe health issues like blood poisoning, especially if you’re applying makeup to broken skin or around your eyes and mouth. If you’re not cleaning your tools regularly, you’re putting your skin at risk every time you get ready.

The good news? It’s easy to fix. Make a habit of cleaning and sanitizing your brushes and sponges after each use. This simple step can keep your beauty routine safe and your skin healthy.^[7]

3 Tattoo Ink and Permanent Makeup

Getting a tattoo or permanent makeup might seem like a bold way to express yourself, but there are some serious risks you might not see. Recent research by the FDA revealed that even sealed and supposedly sterile bottles of tattoo and permanent makeup ink can be teeming with dangerous bacteria. Once injected into your skin, these pathogens can travel through your bloodstream, leading to severe complications like sepsis—a life-threatening condition that can cause organ failure.

But that’s not all. Contaminated ink can also cause painful skin infections, rashes, and deep tissue infections like cellulitis. The risks are even higher if you have multiple or large tattoos since more ink means more exposure to harmful germs. And if you’re thinking about getting permanent makeup, especially around your eyes, be aware that bacteria in the ink could cause severe infections in this sensitive area.

To protect yourself, always make sure your tattoo artist follows strict hygiene practices and uses only well-tested, sterile inks. Taking these precautions can help keep your body art beautiful and safe.^[8]

2 Kitchen Cutting Boards

Choosing the right cutting board isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s a critical decision for your kitchen’s hygiene. Wooden cutting boards have long been a favorite thanks to their natural antimicrobial properties. They absorb and trap bacteria in their fine grains, allowing these germs to die off as the board dries. However, if not properly maintained, deep knife grooves can still harbor harmful bacteria, making cleanliness crucial.

Plastic cutting boards might seem like a safer bet because they’re lightweight and easy to toss in the dishwasher. However, a recent study found that plastic boards can shed microplastics into your food, and over time, grooves from knife cuts can turn into bacterial hideouts. Even though they’re easy to clean, these hidden germs can persist if the boards aren’t regularly sanitized.

Then there are glass cutting boards—easy to sanitize but tough on your knives. Their hard surface can dull your blades quickly and increase the risk of slipping, leading to potential kitchen accidents. No matter what type of cutting board you use, regular cleaning and proper sanitizing are essential to keep your kitchen safe from unwanted bacteria.^[9]

1 Cell Phones

Your smartphone is with you everywhere you go, but it’s also carrying something you might not expect: thousands of germs. In fact, studies show that the average cell phone harbors more bacteria than a toilet seat—over 25,000 bacteria per square inch. From resting on public tables to being handled with unwashed hands, your phone collects germs from all the places it’s been, including the bathroom. The warm surface of your phone is a perfect environment for bacteria like E. coli and Staphylococcus to thrive.

Every time you touch your phone, you’re transferring these germs to your hands, face, and everything else you come into contact with. This can lead to anything from minor skin irritations to more serious infections like gastrointestinal issues. Considering how often we use our phones, the risk of spreading these bacteria is alarmingly high.

To keep your phone from becoming a health hazard, make it a habit to clean it regularly with alcohol-based wipes or a UV sanitizer. This simple step can help protect you from the invisible dangers lurking on your favorite device.^[10]

Everyone likes to imagine that there might be a Picasso hidden in the attic. But it is a sad fact of life that when we finally get around to cleaning out the clutter, most of us will uncover nothing but dust bunnies.

However, some people have found out that riches were hiding not in their attic, but in their junk drawers, backyards, bathrooms, dinner plates, or even on their birth certificates. And the things that they made fortunes from weren’t as rare as a work of art—they were things that almost everyone today can find or buy cheaply. Read on to find out about ten ordinary items that made their owners rich.

10 A Name

When Jason Sadler’s mom told him his stepfather was filing for divorce, Sadler responded to the news with a joke. Sadler told his mom he’d just have to sell off his last name to avoid being stuck with the family name of a third divorced dad.

That joke became reality half a year later when Jason Sadler created a website called buymylastname.com. Sadler offered to change his last name to an advertising billboard for any company willing to pay for the privilege. What would happen if Nike wanted to change Jason’s name to Jason JustDoIt? Jason would just do it indeed, as long as the dubbing was for the highest price offered.

Within 24 hours of the auction opening, his name’s selling price skyrocketed to thirty thousand dollars. Forty days later, Jason was paid forty-five thousand dollars to legally become Jason Headsetsdotcom.

While “Mr. Headsetsdotcom” may be a memorable title, Jason decided he would not settle on that last name either. Headsetsdotcom did not go back to calling himself Jason Sadler. Instead, he auctioned off his last name again, and for fifty-thousand dollars Jason was now Jason Sufrapp.

What is in a name? Almost one hundred thousand dollars, apparently.

9 A Cup of Coffee

On a cold winter day, Stella Liebeck and her nephew drove up to a McDonald’s drive-through. After ordering a cup of hot coffee, Liebeck spilled it on her lap as her nephew pulled the car away. Stella Liebeck then sued the restaurant chain for damages and won big time.

In the first court case that followed, Liebeck vs. McDonald’s, the jury awarded her three million dollars in compensation. Though a judge later reduced this prize to about a half a million dollars, and Liebeck may have settled for a lesser amount later, that payout does not seem bad for spending fifteen minutes at a fast food franchise, though maybe not worth spending months in the courtroom.

But before we all head out to the nearest drive-through with a hot beverage in one hand and a phone ready to speed-dial our lawyers in another, this settlement did come with a cost greater than coffee-stained pants. Liebeck suffered third degree burns and required skin grafts to recover, and evidence in the courtroom revealed that hundreds of people each year had suffered similar injuries because McDonald’s franchisees had overheated their coffee. This lawsuit was more a case of justice rather than frivolity.

8 A Spring

Richard James was working in a factory during World War II when he knocked a spring off the shelf. He was amazed when the spring smoothly coiled downwards instead of instantly dropping to the ground. As the spring hit the floor, an idea hit him: what if he could make a coil that would double as a child’s toy?

After two years of tinkering, he came up with a toy that could stretch, retract, and spiral down inclines. His wife, Betty James, pulled out a dictionary and named it the slinky. Together they took out a five hundred dollar loan, and built an empire that continues to sell the toys to this day.

At first James and Betty struggled to make the slinky profitable. Toy shops refused to stock it because it was so ordinary. But once the toy caught on and James earned millions of dollars, he donated most of the profits to a religious group he had joined in South America. Far from being rich, James plunged his company into a seven-figure debt hole. Oops.

Betty took over the company, and miraculously turned it around. While selling enough slinkys to wrap around the globe one hundred and fifty times, she never strayed from the slinky’s simplicity and affordability, and sold it even more cheaply in 1990 than it sold for in 1945.

7 A Tulip

A 17th century Dutchman would be shocked if you gave your significant other a bouquet of tulips for Valentine’s Day. Not because the Dutch preferred roses, but because of what the sheer value of the tulips (or more specifically their bulbs) would be in the arrangement.

In the 1600s, tulips had just arrived to the Netherlands from what is now Turkey. A virus had afflicted harvests, which caused each tulip to be colored in its own unique pattern. Curiously the diseased flowers became worth even more than tulips that were healthy. Scholars coveted different tulip patterns and bought them as if they were collecting baseball or pokemon cards.

Soon the population caught on that people in academia would buy uniquely patterned flowers at almost any cost, and prices for the tulips soared. By 1637, it would be possible for you to exchange a single bulb for one of the largest, most fashionable, houses in all of the Netherlands. While prices collapsed less than a year later, people made and lost fortunes for what today we give out freely as gifts.

6 A Rock

Gary Dahl was drinking at a bar when he came up with a concept that would take the 1970s by storm and make his company over a million dollars in revenue. In a conversation with his friends, he came up with the ultimate pet. It would be docile, housebroken, shed no hair and have a long lifespan too. Rocks, Dahl realized, were the perfect pets in all respects, better than any cat, dog, or goldfish.

Dahl made his drunken idea a reality when he sold rocks in cardboard boxes, complete with air holes so the stones could breathe. For just under four dollars you could possess a stone of your very own. A manual included in the package explained how to care for the rock along with the tricks it could be taught. Among other sardonic jokes, it gave instructions oin how a pet rock could be trained to play dead.

The rocks’ sheer absurdity caught the whimsy of Americans everywhere. Though anyone could pick up a feral rock in their backyard, the pet rock’s value as a gag gift made them fly off the shelves.

5 Garbage

As anyone who lives in a city can tell you, litter is worse than worthless. A New Yorker named Justin Gignac was convinced otherwise. He believed that if someone packaged something right, it would sell (and clearly his point has been well proven by other items on this list also!). He began to collect garbage off the streets and arrange it in glass smell-proof boxes.

Gignac sold them for ten dollars a pop, and people bought them as souvenirs. He raised the price to fifty dollars, and people bought them as artwork. Today the New York garbage costs one hundred dollars per cube and according to his website at the time of this writing, is completely sold out (in not too dissimilar a fashion to New York City itself thanks to de Blasio!)

4 Air

We breathe about twenty three thousand times a day. While we may spend money on basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, and electricity, nobody would even imagine paying for air. Right?

Two Canadians proved that people will pay for the stuff they breathe when the pair began bottling the air in the Rocky Mountains and selling it for twenty four bucks a can. Chinese customers, choking in smog-filled cities, began to purchase the bottles both as a joke to protest against poor air quality (or so they say) and for whiffs of pure, unpolluted, air (more likely).

3 Poop

We flush our waste down the toilet every day without much thought. If we excreted gold instead of poop, we might think twice about doing so.

Artist Piero Manzoni believed that his own waste was just as valuable as gold. In 1961, he put his money where was butt was, and canned ninety tins of his own poop and tried to sell it to his patrons. Less than two years later he exchanged thirty grams of the stuff for thirty grams of eighteen carat gold.

Lest we think that this was another strange byproduct of the 1960s, another can sold in a 2008 auction for over one hundred thousand dollars, meaning that right now Manzoni’s poop is worth roughly sixty-five times its weight in gold.

2 A Red Paperclip

Kyle MacDonald, a 27-year old man from Montreal, started out his summer with no job, no house, and a single red paperclip. When Kyle resolved to get a home for him and his girlfriend to live in, he did not brush up his resume or open a savings account. Instead, he left his apartment with the red paperclip in hand and traded it for a pen that looked like a fish.

Thirteen exchanges later, he traded a movie role for a two story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. Kyle had traded up the paperclip on his desk for a house in less than a year, in a story that shows even the value of office supplies can bring surprise.

1 Two Boxes of Pizza

In 2010 Lazlo Hanyecz, a hungry developer of a then near-unknown cryptocurrency called Bitcoin had a craving for pizza. Under the internet handle “lazlo”, he offered ten thousand bitcoins to anyone who would order him two pizza pies.

Nine years later in 2019, those ten thousand bitcoins are worth far more dough than the flour in two large pizzas. Anyone who had taken Laszlo up on his offer (at the time of this writing) would now possess more than a hundred million dollars just for having made two orders from Papa John’s.

Personal glimpses into ancient lives tend to get lost among the dust and bones. Looking at faceless skeletons and ruins, it’s easy to forget that past humans were much the same as today. They lived and breathed, made toys for their kids, worried about their looks, and found ways to cope with fears and work. Artifacts valued by an individual can reveal much about how they played, relaxed, competed, loved, and celebrated.

10 Jawbone Jewelry

Wearing a late family member’s bones and calling it bling will lose anybody serious social points. Around 1,300 years ago, however, the opposite may have been the case.

In Mexico, families occupied a residential site in the Oaxaca Valley called Dainzu-Macuilxochitl for nearly four centuries. They were the Zapotecs, and they still exist in the region. A ceremonial quarter was found in 2015 and contained human jawbones as well as ceramic figurines and whistles. The entire clay collection had been purposely smashed, but the skeletal remains were lovingly carved and painted.

Even though some of the figurines depict the god Xipe Totec, a deity linked with human sacrifice, archaeologists believe that the jawbones weren’t from sacrificial victims. Instead, to solidify their right to be a part of the community, descendants showed their connection to earlier generations by digging them up and picking a piece to wear. Xipe Totec is sometimes shown with necklaces made of human bones, making it likely that the Zapotecs also wore their ancestors’ remains like neck jewelry.

9 Oldest Dentures

Italian archaeologists tend to hang around the San Francesco convent in Lucca. Over 200 ancient skeletons already held their interest, but in 2016, one family tomb delivered the oldest dentures ever discovered. Consisting of five incisors and canines, the real human teeth likely originated from the mouths of different people.

The somewhat gross device wasn’t an uncommon one for the Romans. Both the Romans and Etruscans created false pearly whites from the teeth of animals and humans as far back as 7 BC. There are texts from the 14th to 17th centuries that describe dentures, but the San Francesco artifact is the first to surface from that era, making it the historical star of dentistry.

The snappers were held together by a band of gold that also fit them to the lower gums of the user. Tests showed that the coating on the teeth contained gold, silver, and other metals. Tartar buildup proved that the device was used for a long time.

8 The Denisova Needle

A 50,000-year-old needle stunned scientists during an annual dig at Denisova Cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains. The site is already famous for “X woman,” who only left behind a finger bone but alerted researchers to the existence of a new hominid species in 2008. Long extinct, they were called Denisovans, after the cave. Found in 2016, the 7-cetimeter (2.8 in) needle is the longest to come from the site and the oldest in the world. A Denisovan hand-crafted the tool from an unidentified bird’s bone and even shaped it with an opening for thread.

The needle supports previous finds suggesting that the Denisovans were technologically superior to Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Found in the cave the same year as “X woman” was chlorite bracelet. Shaped and polished some 10,000 years after the needle, it’s remarkably modern, but what dropped jaws was a hole in the jewelry piece. Scientists determined that it was drilled with a precision tool, much like the high-rotation drills of today.

7 Disposable Cups

Throwaway ceramics were the vogue trend of 15th-century German elites. When archaeologists dug in the courtyard of Germany’s Schloss Wittenberg, they didn’t find the shards of a few cups; they found thousands of broken drinking vessels. The porcelain cups were richly decorated with stamps and mask-like images. To throw one of these over your shoulder after guzzling the contents was seen as a sign of affluence enjoyed only by the nobility.

Together with the disposable mugs, a lot of wild animal bones were found. Clearly, the feasts held in the courtyard included a lot of drinking and gorging on large quantities of venison. Sweeping up the next morning didn’t appear to be a priority, as layers of smashed porcelain and bones were found. Held in the summer, the courtyard parties continued for many years, the cups featuring as an exclusive item created especially for the event.

6 Bear Cub Rattle

One particular baby was much-loved during Bronze Age Siberia. He or she received a clay rattle shaped to resemble a young bear’s head. The cute cub still rattles, and future X-rays will determine what exactly causes the sound. Experts are guessing that the maker added small stones before sealing the beautiful toy. It was found in 2016, inside one of the homes at an archaeological complex where an ancient community once lived in the Novosibirsk region.

The 4,000-year-old rattle was created by hardening clay with fire and attaching a handle big enough for a child to grasp. The artisan also added a squiggle to the clay while the object was still drying, which archaeologists suspect could have served as some sort of personal signature. What’s being called the “find of the year” by Novosibirsk experts is also one of the world’s oldest playthings.

5 Disaster Eggs

One of Turkey’s ancient cities, Sardis was gripped by an earthquake in AD 17. The damage took decades to rebuild, and until now, there has been no indication of how it affected the citizens on a personal level. In 2013, an excavation at a reconstructed building revealed how the locals might have coped. Beneath the floor were two boxes, each containing identical items: tiny bronze tools, a coin, and an eggshell.

The people of Sardis lived during a time when eggs could both protect and curse a person. The coins date to AD 54–68, some time after the disaster, and one bears the image of a lion, which may represent the mountain and storm goddess Cybele. As the deity of these elements, she’d be the perfect protector from future earthquakes. What makes this discovery so heartfelt is that it appears to have been an individual’s way of dealing with uncertainty. The ritual was likely an attempt to protect the new building and its occupants from curses and natural disasters.

4 Ancient Cream

Two millennia ago, a Roman man or woman closed their cream pot, and it remained unopened until 2003. The pot was unearthed at Tabard Square, a temple complex in London dating back to around AD 50. The round artifact, 6 centimeters (2.4 in) in diameter, was remarkable for its quality and waterproof lid. The pot was made almost entirely of tin, a precious metal during Roman times, indicating that it belonged to someone in the uppermost crust of Roman society.

The pot was already unique for being a sealed container, and when archaeologists pried off the top, it became even more so. Inside was a white ointment smelling of sulfur. Usually, only the containers of ancient cosmetics survive, not their contents. In this case, the paste inside was pristine.

The pot had one final surprise. When researchers looked under the lid, they found the owner’s fingerprints in the cream. Further testing will determine the nature of the paste.

3 Down The Drain

Researchers have found a unique way to study the Romans: plumbing their bath drains. What sounds like a mucky job has retrieved long-lost details about what visitors did while relaxing at these social centers. Findings ranged from the expected to the highly surprising. Bath ruins from five European countries were examined, all from the first to fourth centuries AD. What the Romans did while sitting in the water varied incredibly.

Apart from things associated with bathing (perfume and oil vials, tweezers), a scalpel and teeth indicated medical procedures, and dice and coins betrayed some gambling. Oodles of jewelry showed that Romans took off their clothes but not their valuables. Aquatic meals led to lost pieces of cups and bowls down the drains. The plungers brought up mussels, shellfish, poppy seeds, venison, goat meat, pork, mutton, beef, and fowl. Unexpectedly, needles and partial spindles popped up. Not really a water sport, needlework most likely happened in the non-bathing areas. How those items ended up in the gutter is not clear.

2 Pocket Sundial

Pompeii’s neighbor, Herculaneum, also perished when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. In the 1760s, workers clearing volcanic debris from the Villa dei Papiri pulled an odd metal object from the ruins. It was identified as a pocket sundial and earned the moniker “pork clock” because it was shaped like a hanging ham. Recently, a plastic replica was made using a 3-D printer.

As it turns out, the humorous timepiece required a skilled hand to use. Dangling from a string, it was difficult to read because of a tendency to move in the wind. Once researchers learned to wield it properly, they could read the hour. This included keeping the Sun on the left, moving the dial’s shadow to the correct month (represented by vertical lines), and counting horizontal stripes from the top to where the shadow starts.

The quirky design is perhaps explained by Epicurean philosophy texts discovered at the Villa. Epicureans practiced humor, and the pig was one of their symbols. Only 25 such sundials exist, and the Herculaneum clock might be among the oldest.

1 The Secret To Chariot Racing

In the British Museum sits a 2,000-year-old toy chariot. Once the pride of a Roman boy, it was fished out of the Tiber Rivier in the 1890s. A recent reassessment provided much-needed information regarding the Roman version of Formula One. No racing chariots survive, but thankfully, the toy was a working model created by a craftsman with in-depth knowledge of the actual vehicles. Remarkably, it exposed the secret of how the charioteers prevented crashing during track turns.

The bronze miniature’s right wheel showed signs of having an iron tire. This made sense. Races were run counterclockwise on oval tracks. During a high-speed left turn, the right wheel faced enormous structural pressures. Made from wood and rawhide strips, failure would have been common for the wheels without the reinforcing strip of iron. It’s not certain if adding the iron was mandatory or a choice. However, it would have increased chances of winning by 80 percent, purely because it made the chariot more hardy. The competitors with only two wooden wheels would have thinned at every turn.

Handbags, high heels and g-strings are considered female items today. What if we told you those things were originally made for men? That is true. These items and several others were created for men but somehow ended up switching between genders.

There is no single reason why the switch happened. It was sometimes for practical reasons—like after someone discovered that an item was more useful for women than men. At other times, it was all about the money. Manufacturers have switched their target market from men to women just to make more sales.

See Also: Top 10 Animals That Were Originally Called Other Names

8 Bra Clasp

Famous writer, Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens) was never a fan of suspenders. For the unaware, suspenders (aka suit braces) are those long straps that go over our shoulders to help hold our trousers up. Twain considered suspenders uncomfortable and went on to invent a new product to replace them. That product is the hook and eye.

The hook and eye is a small metal fastener that held trousers securely to the waist—the sort of thing we use belts for today. Men are not familiar with it since we never really got to use it. Women know it quite well because it is the same material that holds their bra together. Yes, those tiny metal hooks at the back (and sometimes, front) of bras was invented for men.

Mark Twain received a patent for the hook and eyes on December 19, 1871. As he wrote in his patent application, the material was an “improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments”. It was used in shirts, underwear and corsets before finding permanent use in brassieres.

7 High Heels

High heels are considered one of the most feminine items out there. They are so closely associated with women that one would think they were invented for women. That is wrong. High heels were created for men. Women only joined the high heel bandwagon in the 17th century.

The first high heels were made for male Persian soldiers back in the 10th century. The heel allowed them lock their feet in their stirrups (those devices horse riders put their legs) while riding their horses. This improved their balance and accuracy when they wanted to shoot arrows or attack their opponent with some other weapon while on the move.

High heels only reached Europe in the 17th century where it was promptly adopted by the male aristocrats since it made them appear taller and more intimidating. In one notable incident, King Louis XIV of France distributed high heeled shoes to the male members of his cabinet in 1673.

Women started wearing high heels because it made their feet appear smaller. At the time, most women wore long skirts that reached their ankles. The high heeled shoes raised the mid and rear parts of their legs so that it was hidden under their skirts. Only the front part of their feet was visible, giving people the impression that they had small feet.

Nevertheless, male and female high heels slowly began to diverge as women made their heels thinner. Women also streamlined the front of their shoes so that it appeared smaller and pointy. Meanwhile, men maintained the original high heels with wide heels and flat fronts. Men dumped high heels in the 18th century because it was already considered a feminine item.

6 Handbags

The handbag originated from the loose, small bags or pouches people carried around centuries ago. Clothes did not have pockets at the time and people created the pouches to keep their money and whatever else they had with them safe. The pouches were often attached to a belt worn around the waist.

In the 16th century, women dumped the pouches for small pieces of metal called chatelaines. They hung their keys and sewing materials on the chatelaines, which they hung under their skirts. However, women dumped the chatelaines for reticules in the 18th century. The reticules (also called indispensibles) were small pouches that were held by a drawstring.

The modern handbag appeared in the early 1900s. The name was coined from the hand held bags men carried around. Fashion designers of the day used the male handbags to create handbags for women. These feminine handbags had fasteners and were separated into compartments to make them more practical. The male handbag soon gave way to the female handbag.

5 Thongs

Thongs are a category of underwear or swimwear connected together by a narrow piece of cloth. When used as underwear, women prefer them over regular panties because they do not create those infamous panty lines. The g-string itself is a kind of thong. However, it is differentiated from thongs by the use of thin strings in place of the wider fabric used in thongs.

The first thong appeared In Africa in 42,000 BC. Thongs later reappeared in ancient Egypt, Greece and Crete in 1570 B.C. and Japan in 250 A.D. Like today’s thongs, they all covered the private parts while leaving the buttocks exposed. However, unlike today’s thongs, they were often worn by men. Thongs later went out of fashion until they reappeared in the 1800s.

This time, it appeared as the jockstrap, which men used to protect their privates during sports. The modern thong made its first appearance at the 1939 New York World Trade Fair after Fiorello La Guardi, the Mayor of New York, ordered female nude dancers to cover themselves up. The dancers turned to thongs, which covered their privates while still leaving enough skin exposed to keep their audience entertained.

4 Disposable Menstrual Pads

Reusable menstrual pads were not a thing until World War I. Years before the war, some executives of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation—which made the first disposable pad—were touring Europe when they came across some new material made from pulp and paper. Cellucotton, as it was called, soaked in five times more water than regular cotton while costing half as much.

The executives took cellucotton back to the United States. However, Kimberly-Clark did not find any use for it until World War I came along. Cellucotton was mass produced for use in dressing injured soldiers. However, the female nurses treating the wounded soldiers soon discovered that it worked well for soaking up their menstrual discharge.

Kimberly-Clark never paid attention to that until the market for cellucotton dried up right after the war. In 1920, it rebranded cellucotton and sold it as Kotex (from cotton texture), which became the first brand of disposable menstrual pads. Poor sales later made executives repurpose the product again into Kleenex, the first brand of facial tissue that hit the market in 1924.

Pictured is a German soldier using what would eventually become a menstrual pad as a face mask!

3 Stockings

Stockings are another clothing material that between switched genders. They are exclusively worn by women these days even though the first stockings were made for men. Women only started wearing stockings in the 18th century. Men have been wearing them since the 9th century. Men of the upper class generally wore white or colored stockings while poorer men only wore black.

For the unaware, stockings (also called hoses) are those close-fitting clothes that cover the feet and part of the legs. A variant of it is the pantyhose, which is a combination of stockings with panties. Men never wore the pantyhose. To avoid confusion, stockings, pantyhose, tights and breeches all belong to a category of clothes called hosiery.

Things slowly changed between the 16th and 20th centuries when stockings switched from being a masculine item to feminine. The period is even called the “The Dark Ages of Tights” for this reason. By the 19th century, stockings had become so closely associated with women that men stopped wearing them completely.

2 Skinny Jeans

Skinny jeans share the same history as jeans. The first jean was created by Jacob Davis in 1873. However, the invention was closely linked to Levi Strauss, a German immigrant who moved to New York in 1851. Levi worked in his brother’s textile store until 1853 when he opened a textile store in San Francisco.

This was during the California Gold Rush when lots of men worked in the mines. One day, a tailor called Jacob Davis walked into his store and requested for a tough textile material that could withstand heavy work. Levi sold him some denim material, which Davis turned it into the first jean trouser.

The product was so successful that other miners started requesting for similar trousers. Davis partnered with Levi to patent the jean. Levi later founded Levi Strauss & Co. to mass produce jean trousers.

Jeans were still considered a male clothing item until 1930 when Levi Strauss & Co. created the Lady Levi’s® Lot 701, which was the first jeans exclusively made for women. The jean was slim and reached the upper waist. However, it slowly got smaller as Levi moved from marketing it to older women to younger women.

1 Everything Pink

A century ago, boys wore pink and girls wore blue. Today, it is in the reverse. How did the color switch happen?

The whole thing began in the 1900s when the first colored baby clothes appeared. Before then, it was almost impossible to tell the sex of a baby at a glance since every baby wore white dresses. White was the preferred color because it could be bleached to remove any kind of stain. Boys also wore dresses because they were more practical than shirts and shorts.

Colored dresses only got popular at the turn of the century. However, no color was associated with any gender. By the time World War I came along, it was generally agreed that boys wore pink and girls wore blue. Boys wore pink because of its powerful appearance. Blue was preferred for girls because it was considered prettier.

Boys only dumped dresses for shirts and shorts at the end of World War II. However, boys still wore pink and girls wore blue. The real switch occurred in the 1960s when supporters of female liberation movements began dressing their daughters in pink over concerns that girls were being conditioned into behaving effeminately by the kinds of clothes they wore.

Meanwhile, boys slowly switched away from pink to blue. The garment industry delivered the final blow around 1985 when they started marketing pink clothes to girls and blue to boys. The garment industry was not interested in gender equality or whatever. They just wanted to force parents into buying new clothes instead of sharing clothes between babies of different genders.

Weapons are the idiomatic double-edged sword. They could kill or save lives, depending on how they are used.

Over the years, creative minds have developed ways of converting deadly weapons into peaceful items. It could be for art, fashion or more practical reasons like preventing famines and generating electricity. The weapons here range from small knives to automatic assault rifles, rocket launchers, armored tanks, helicopters and nuclear missiles.

See Also: 10 Myths About Guns And Gun Control

10 Escopetarra

Escopetarra (“shotgun guitar” in English) is coined from the Spanish “escopeta” (shotgun) and “guitarra” (guitar). As you should have guessed, the term refers to a gun that was converted into a guitar. The word is somewhat of a misnomer since the guitars are made out of assault rifles, mostly AK 47s, and not shotguns.

Colombian musician, César López, invented and named the escopetarra after observing the aftermath of a deadly car bombing in the early 2000s. The explosion killed 36 people and injured 170 others outside a nightclub in Bogotá, Colombia.

López observed that a soldier at the scene held his rifle as if it were a guitar. This motivated him to make a guitar out of an old AK 47 assault rifle. López still makes escopetarras today—all out of rifles surrendered by one of the many militias involved in the Colombian civil war.^[1]

9 The Throne Of Weapons And The Tree Of Life

The southeastern African nation of Mozambique fought a bitter civil war between 1977 and 1992. By the time it was over, over one million people were dead and another five million were homeless. At the end of the war, the government recovered seven million weapons by allowing former fighters exchange their weapons for farm tools under the “Transforming Arms into Tools” program.

In 2001, Mozambique artist, Cristóvão “Kester” Canhavato welded some of these weapons to create a sculpture he called the Throne of Weapons. The sculpture contains weapons from rival countries. There are rifles from the west, Russia, Portugal and North Korea. All were used in the civil war.

Another group of Mozambican artists created a second sculpture from the recovered weapons. This one was a three-meter-tall tree surrounded by several animals. They called it the Tree of Life. Unlike Kester, who exclusively made his sculpture out of assault rifles and magazines, these artists used rifles, pistols, magazines and rocket grenade launchers.^[2]

8Electricity

While many Americans do not realize this, Russia used to be responsible for one-tenth of the electricity generated in the US. The whole thing started at the end of the Cold War when Russia and the US agreed to decommission a large part of their nuclear stockpiles.

In 1993, both nations signed the U.S.-Russia HEU Purchase Agreement. The deal required Russia to process the uranium from its decommissioned weapons into nuclear fuel that will be sold to the US. The US would convert this fuel into fuel rods to power US nuclear plants.

The deal was a win for Russia. They got paid to destroy their nuclear weapons. As Anton Khlopkov of Center for Energy and Security Studies in Russia later said, “This is the only time in history when disarmament was actually profitable”. The deal ended in 2013 when the last batch of nuclear fuel was shipped to the US.^[3]

7 Tractors

French farmers were in a fix at the end of World War II. First, their farmlands were crisscrossed with trenches and deep craters caused by exploding artillery shells. However, that turned out to be the smaller problem. Their farm machineries, particularly the tractors they required for any farm work, were either destroyed or shipped to Germany by the Nazis.

The French army saved the day when it converted its 3,000 surplus M 17 (FT) Renault armored tank into makeshift tractors. The conversion was easy and swift. The armor and weapons on the tanks were removed, and one or two things were added, turning them into tractors.

The process was a win-win for the French people, farmers and army. It saved France from famine, provided farmers with tractors they could otherwise not afford and allowed the military dispose its useless tanks for cheap. As the French military told the farmers, “Those little tractors that whipped the Hun will undo much of what the Hun has done”. Hun here referred to the Germans.^[4]

6 Knife Angel

The Knife Angel (officially called the National Monument against Violence and Aggression) is a 27-feet-tall statue made by the Oswestry, UK-based National Ironworks Center. The statue was made out of 100,000 knives and blades police officers seized from crime suspects across the UK.

The National Ironworks Center created the statue as a tribute to the victims of knife crimes. In fact, 30% of the knives contained blood at the time police transferred them to the center. The center received so many knives that they had enough to create a second statue of a police dog.

Unlike the Knife Angel, the dog monument contained dog whistles, tags and gun parts. According to the center, the statue was a tribute to every dedicated, brave and hardworking police dog out there. It was presented to the West Mercia Police Department, which installed it right outside their headquarters in Hindlip, West Mercia, UK.^[5]

5 Artificial Reefs

Coral reefs are important for the survival of underwater life. Unfortunately, they are getting destroyed by humans and shifts in the earth’s climate, prompting responsible governments to create artificial reefs out of old subway cars and anything else that can survive underwater. Jordan did things a bit differently by making artificial reefs out of decommissioned military tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters.

The weapons were sunk between 50 to 90 feet below the Red Sea, just off the coast of the Jordanian city of Aqaba. Jordan already has 19 decommissioned weapons there as of July 2019, and hopes to grow this number as it gets more weapons. It hopes that the reefs will double as a museum and tourist attraction.^[6]

4 Garden Tools

Swords to Plowshares is a program by RAWtools, a Christian nongovernmental organization that wants to reduce gun violence. Under the program, people turn in their weapons and have them converted into farm implements. So far, RAWtools has converted AK 47 and AR-15 assault rifles into spades, plows, hoes, mattocks and trowels.

Recovered guns are cut into pieces before they are sent into the furnace. Thereafter, the red-hot metal is beaten into shape. Victims of gun violence and anti-gun violence advocates are allowed to take turns in beating the guns into farm tools.

Mike Martin, who founded RAWtools, said he was inspired by an Old Testament verse about the world only becoming peaceful when weapons are turned into farm tools. However, he only launched the program after the deadly December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. 28 people were killed and two others were injured in the shooting, which remains one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.^[7]

3Headphones And Wristwatches

IM is a Swedish organization that works closely with Latin American governments to get illegal guns off the streets and repurpose their metals for other things. IM calls this metal Humanium metal.

In 2018, it partnered with Yevo Labs to release the special edition Yevo 1 wireless earbuds. Parts of the earbuds and the charging case are made out of Humanium metal. To be clear, Yevo Labs had earlier released the Yevo 1 earbuds, which did not contain any gun part. The one that contained gun parts was a special edition version.

The same year, IM partnered with watchmaker, Triwa, to make watches out of Humanium metal. The guns used in the watches had been seized by police officers in El Salvador.^[8]

2 Chemotherapy

Chemical weapons were widely used during World War I. In fact, the war is nicknamed the Chemist’s War because chemists of the day were actively involved in developing chemical weapons for their sides. Chlorine, xylyl bromide and mustard gas all made their debut in the battlefields of World War I.

While all three were deadly, mustard gas hit a new level of lethality. It was first deployed by Germany against Allied troops in Ypres, Belgium, in July 1917. 10,000 Allied troops were killed in this single attack and more were injured.

Unlike other chemical weapons, mustard gas was immune to gas masks since it could penetrate the body through the skin. Protective clothes did not help since it went through clothes too. Victims of the attack ended up with bloody coughs and itchy skins filled with deadly blisters. A slow, painful death came six weeks later.

Two decades later, as the world prepared for World War II, Allied scientists started researching into preventing and curing mustard gas attacks. They clearly did not want any surprises this time. Two Yale University doctors, Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman, discovered that soldiers poisoned with the gas during World War I had lower white blood cells than other people did.

Gilman and Goodman soon figured out that mustard gas reduced the white blood cells in the body. The researchers deduced that mustard gas could help cure cancer. Here was the thing: White white blood cells fight infections in the body. However, they sometimes become mutated, causing leukemia cancer.

To confirm their theory, the researchers injected some subjects with nitrogen mustard and watched as their leukemia disappeared after several treatments. They were right. Mustard gas cured cancer. This was the first chemotherapy session and it formed the basis of cancer treatment today.^[9]

1Pots And Pans

Ships are made of steel—tons of raw steel that is recycled when they get old. 95% of the average ship is completely recyclable. This figure includes warships. They are cut and processed into new products, just like regular ships. These products could be anything including pots and pans.

One decommissioned warship that made the news before its scrapping was the HMS Invincible, a British naval ship that saw action in the Falklands, Balkan and Iraqi wars. The British navy sold the ship to Leyal Ship Recycling of Turkey for £2 million ($3.2 million).

The sale was considered ridiculous because it happened over the internet. But it appears that decommissioned warships often get sold over the internet. While it sounds good to know that warships get recycled, the task of cutting ships—warships inclusive—into pieces is actually difficult, complicated and dangerous. Many people die while trying to cut ships into pieces every year.^[10]