Deep under the waves, the ocean is not just a dark place. The underwater landscapes hold ancient events, mysterious animal behavior, and vast gardens of glass and octopuses.

Each contributes new facts and riddles to this incredible aquatic world. However, the ocean also has a scary side—from wrecking the weather on land to blowing giant holes in the seafloor and countries.

10 The Loudest Fish

One can be forgiven for not associating fish with noise. More often than not, they are mute. One species, however, can be very vocal during reproduction. The Gulf corvina is a large, silver fish about the size of a snowboard.

During spring, when the tides and lunar phases are perfect, shoals migrate to the Colorado River Delta. The event is an unforgettable one and worth seeing. When corvinas gather, they pack together in a sheet that can span for miles.

In 2014, scientists followed the spawning shoal and used underwater equipment to record their sounds. The loudest noise captured during the study hit a deafening 150 decibels, which is a record among fish.

Additionally, the sound also rated among the loudest ever recorded underwater—and very capable of damaging the hearing of other creatures, including sea mammals. Researchers believe that male corvinas are responsible for the chorus. Similar to frogs and crickets, the boys produce a throaty croak to attract females.^[1]

9 Return Of The Blob

“The blob” is not as adorable as it sounds. This massive anomaly—a patch of hot water in the Northeast Pacific—affects the weather in extreme ways. The blob was blamed for the persistent California drought (2013–2015), Seattle’s hottest year (2015), and the freakish polar vortex intrusions of two winters (2013–2014 and 2014–2015).

In 2018, the return of the oceanic hot spot was caused by unusually warm weather in Alaska during the fall. Though the blob is famously crabby, it remains hard to predict the phenomenon’s moods.

When it made another appearance in 2016, the spot showed many signs of troubling times ahead but faded away before anything could go wrong. The latest manifestation leans toward weakening in the same way, but even the experts admit that nothing is certain when it comes to the blob.

Either way, Alaska has already suffered notable damage. The southeastern rain forest is in the grip of a persistent drought, and snowfall showed a record delay.^[2]

8 Rectangular Iceberg

In 2018, an unusual photo turned an iceberg into a social media star. A far cry from the usual mountain-shaped behemoths, this icy wonder was almost perfectly rectangular and flat.

As it turns out, this shape is not unknown to scientists. Called “tabular icebergs,” they form during calving (when pieces dislodge from a parent iceberg). The rectangles commonly occur after an ice shelf extends too far and then breaks off at the tip. This gives them a geometric shape.^[3]

A whopping 90 percent of the tabular iceberg remains hidden underwater. This unseen part is usually perfectly angular, too. In this case, the sheet came from the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Even though these floating tabletops are known to science, this one was unusual. For once, it was almost short enough to be a square. The size of the object remains unknown. But judging from the image, it could be as long as 1.6 kilometers (1 mi).

7 Largest Octopus Nursery

Most octopuses live solitary lives. This made the discovery of about 100 nesting together near Costa Rica a sensational find. However, this nursery paled in comparison to another found by accident in 2018.

Off the coast of California, marine biologists steered a remotely operated vehicle at a depth of 3.2 kilometers (2 mi). The goal was to study an underwater volcano called the Davidson Seamount.

As the vehicle turned a corner, it happened across the world’s biggest deep-sea octopus garden. The species was Muusoctopus robustus, and over 1,000 huddled together. Nearly 99 percent were females guarding eggs between the volcano’s cracks.^[4]

Their unprecedented conglomeration is not the only unanswered question about the Davidson group. Researchers do not know why the water appears to shimmer around the octopuses.

One theory suggests that heat is behind the glitter, which could explain why the creatures gathered at Davidson to successfully incubate their eggs. Since the volcano is extinct, the heat could be coming from an unknown source.

6 Canyon That Removes CO₂

The Porcupine Bank Canyon is an underwater trench marking the border of Ireland’s continental shelf. In 2018, an effort was made to map the sheer cliffs and contours. Near the canyon’s edge, the research drone discovered something amazing: The underwater trench removed carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere using two species and death.

Porcupine Bank came fringed with corals snacking on dead plankton. While dwelling near the surface, living plankton grow by packing their bodies with CO₂ from the atmosphere. When they die, they sink down into the ocean, taking the CO₂ with them.

In turn, the corals eat the plankton and use that carbon to build their own structures. When the coral perishes, it tumbles deeper into the canyon. Researchers found a massive amount of dead coral inside the canyon, all with CO₂ locked up inside them.^[5]

Sadly, this process cannot stop climate change. But at least, it showed that nature has ways to remove some of the greenhouse gas from the air.

5 Garden Of Glass

When the deepest volcano was found in 2015, it was not just a cone-shaped mountain lower than the rest. It was anything but plain—and very unexpected. A deep-sea submersible was investigating the Mariana Trough in the Pacific Ocean when it reached a depth of 4,500 meters (14,700 ft). There, it encountered an environment straight out of a Gothic novel.

An underwater volcano had released intertwined and blackened lava tendrils, which scientists likened to “a nightmarish garden of glass.” Inside a 4.5-kilometer-deep (3 mi) trench, cold water had rapidly cooled the lava into a glassy substance. The frozen twists and turns covered an area 7.3 kilometers (4.5 mi) long.

The visuals are heart-stopping, but something else turned the discovery into a scientific gem. The deepest volcanic eruption on Earth was also fresh. Only a few months old, the undamaged site can advance knowledge about volcanoes on land, how eruptions affect ocean chemistry, and when different species colonize a lava field.^[6]

4 White Shark Cafe

Once a year, a group of sharks confused biologists. Known as the northeastern Pacific great whites, they normally cruise California’s coast, a region rich with prey.

In December, the sharks journey into the Pacific and stop about halfway to Hawaii. Satellite studies suggested that the place, nicknamed “White Shark Cafe,” was a marine desert without prey. Despite this, the predators gathered in droves and stayed for winter and spring.

In 2018, scientists wanted to know how the sharks survived and why they found the location so attractive. They followed the whites and also tagged a few. When the research boat arrived at the cafe, they found the place teeming with fish, squid, phytoplankton, and jellyfish.^[7]

These critters took daily trips up and down from the depths. The tagged sharks showed that the predators did the same thing. During the day, they hunted up to 450 meters (1,500 ft) down. At night, they kept to shallow dives, about 200 meters (650 ft).

An unusual gender mystery turned up. During April, the males dramatically stepped up their activity to around 140 dives a day. Researchers do not understand why this behavior is displayed by only one gender.

3 Methane Craters

Recently, scientists visited craters lining the seafloor between the archipelago of Svalbard and Norway. First discovered in the 1990s, they were huge but few. Upon arrival, the team was shocked to find hundreds of previously unrecorded holes.

In a single area near one of Svalbard’s islands, the floor was pockmarked with more than 100. Astoundingly, they had been blown from solid bedrock. The sheer force created craters that measured up to 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) in diameter. The culprit was methane gas from the last ice age.

In the past, enormous ice layers kept the trapped methane in place. Once these melted, the gas exploded. The largest pockets blew 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, but some remain intact and could punch large holes south of Svalbard.^[8]

Satellite images showed that pingos, hills with ice cores, preceded most of the craters. Researchers suspect that the Norwegian pingos had frozen gas instead of normal ice and were possibly instrumental in an explosion. Incredibly, once scientists knew what to look for, they found 7,000 gas-filled pingos in thawing permafrost.

2 Lost Volcanic World

In 2018, scientists investigated something that would not raise many eyebrows—the link between the East Australian Current’s nutrient levels and how phytoplankton behaved. Part of this study included mapping the seafloor. A stunning discovery followed—a lost world dominated by dramatic volcanic peaks.

Some were sharp, while others resembled immense plateaus. Smaller cones made up the rest. Located near the east coast of Australia, the extinct volcanoes towered 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) high.

The depth of the valleys likely contributed to how this underwater wonderland avoided detection for so long. The highest parts of the mountains were still 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) below the surface.

Years of research are required to understand a large geographical area that is seen for the first time. However, researchers are positive about one exciting suspicion—this was the spot that helped Australia and Antarctica to separate 30 million years ago.^[9]

The birth of the volcano chain was pivotal to crumble the Earth’s crust in preparation for continental division. The landscape also hosts a breathtaking ecosystem, including a huge pod of at least 60 pilot whales.

1 Brewing Eruption Underneath Japan

Researchers are well aware that an ancient, underwater volcano lurks underneath Japan. The Kikai Caldera is prone to super-eruptions and, in the past, experienced three devastating episodes. The last time was 7,000 years ago. The eruption was one of history’s biggest and destroyed a vast area of the Japanese archipelago.

In 2018, several expeditions using a wide array of equipment all came to the same conclusion. Underneath the Kikai Caldera was a massive lava dome. The giant bubble held over 32 cubic kilometers (8 mi³) of magma.

Analysis showed that the dome contained lava chemically different from the last eruption. This meant that the giant structure was not a leftover of the event that razed the Japanese archipelago but a completely new formation.

For thousands of years, the magma continued building up inside this new reservoir—something scientists view as a preparation for the next super-eruption. Earlier research indicated that the probability of a caldera catastrophe in the next 100 years was about 1 percent.

The discovery of the active dome was not so comforting. Should Kikai erupt, 110 million people would be in danger.^[10]

It is said by those who have had first-hand experience there, that Skinwalker Ranch – a 500-plus acre strip of land in Utah – is one of the, if not the strangest place on the planet. Indeed, it is widely accepted to be a hub of strange goings-on and has been for decades. Here are ten reasons why Skinwalker Ranch really could be the most bizarre stretch of land on Earth.

10 Places As Mysterious As The Bermuda Triangle

10 The Skinwalker

Perhaps the best place to start here is to look at the creature from which the ranch gets its name the Skinwalker. This beastly creature is often described with glowing red eyes, tall, and with large, sharp teeth. Essentially, it evokes an image of a werewolf. However, according to folklore and legends of the native tribes of the region, a Skinwalker, is not only an evil energy, but it can take any form it wants.

What is perhaps interesting about these legends is that many other creation stories and myths feature similar tales. Maybe the tales of ancient Greece and the god Zeus who could, and often did, take any form he chose is a good example.

There have been several apparent photographs from people who claim to have spotted such a creature. However, most are dismissed as hoaxes or something much more rational and native to the area. According to the legends, though, these creatures are very real. And what’s more, they roam the 500 acres of the ranch still to this day.^[1]

9 The Land Is Cursed

Here is a good place to mention the land the ranch sits on. More specifically the claims that the land is cursed. And rather than a myth or legend, the origins of this curse – whether it is real or not – are well documented.

Following a dispute over the land rights which would see the Ute tribe for all intents and purposes side with the American government. The Navajo tribe would curse the land as they left the area. It is from this curse, according to some, when the truly strange activity began to unfold.

To this day, the native tribes, for the most part, refuse to set foot on the land. Whether this curse was the start of the strange activity or whether such activity has taken place for thousands of years is unknown. But as the 20th century would unfold, more and more bizarre accounts would surface.^[2]

8 Many Sightings Of UFOs

There are many strange occurrences at the ranch, some of which we will examine shortly. Just one of those, though, is the multiple sightings of UFOs which date back to the 1950s.

One of the most intriguing UFO incidents with a connection to the ranch, however, took place in 1978. On the night in question, a huge object in the shape of a saucer was would make its way over the area. And what’s more, it was witnessed by multiple residents of the area in several different locations on its journey.

One witness would describe the object as silver and “surrounded by intense green light”. Furthermore, it had a distinct domed shape section on the upper side.

Despite its mammoth size, however, none of the residents could recall any type of sound coming from the craft. This is, of course, a detail that surfaces in many UFO sightings, and perhaps lends a little credibility to the incident.^[3]

7 Do Portals Exist On Skinwalker Ranch?

Given the high rate of paranormal incidents at Skinwalker Ranch some researchers have suggested that the area is some kind of hub of supernatural energy. Some have gone further, suggesting this hub is, in fact, a portal of some kind that allows all manner of strange objects and creatures access to our world.

While such a claim is almost impossible to prove – at least with the technology and collective understanding at our disposal today – it is one that might not be as crazy as it first sounds. For example, as we will examine later, many of the witnesses to strange goings-on at the ranch speak of objects and even people appearing out of nowhere or disappearing right in front of their eyes. Might this be an example or an active portal at work.

Of course, such claims are nothing but speculation. However, when we examine some of the strange happenings that one of the ranche’s owners experienced, we might perhaps give the portal idea a little more consideration.^[4]

6 The Many Strange Sightings Of The Sherman Family

Although the ranch has had several owners perhaps the most well-known are the Sherman family. Almost immediately after they purchased the ranch, they would experience some of the bizarre activity first hand.

They would describe how they would hear people speaking to them, even though there was clearly nobody there. Even stranger they would witness areas of wheat in their fields “flatten” as if an invisible person was sat there. They would also witness a “huge spaceship” which was at least the size of “two football fields” fly overhead. As it did so multiple flashing lights were also visible.

Terry Sherman would later recall to a Las Vegas newspaper that he at first believed what he was witnessing was some kind of top-secret government technology. However, the longer the strange events continued, the more he realized the events were without rational explanation.

They would eventually sell the ranch to Robert T Bigelow in 1996 who would then conduct some of the most intensive and exhaustive research on the property. And it is there where we will turn our attention next.^[5]

Top 10 Places You Can’t Go

5 Robert T. Bigelow

Robert T. Bigelow is an interesting man, of that there is no doubt. However, perhaps his decision to purchase the ranch from the Sherman family is one of his most intriguing moves. He had long had a passionate interest in the paranormal. Following the purchase, however, the billionaire businessman would then install some of the most (at the time) high-tech equipment in an effort to research the multiple strange incidents of paranormal activity.

However, by 2004 the research was suddenly shut down. It would appear that a lack of funds was the reason for this. However, there are many who believe that there was more to the decision than simply running out of money. He would form Bigelow Aerospace following the shutting down of research. And when he received several contracts from NASA shortly after it raised an eyebrow or two in some circles.

Bigelow would eventually sell the ranch in 2016, a purchase we will examine later in our list. For now, though, we will examine exactly what Bigelow discovered.^[6]

4 The NIDS Findings (Or Lack Thereof)

The results of Bigelow’s findings were to be published through his company the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS).

However, as opposed to the findings enjoying widespread coverage they were instead locked away. Even today in 2020, half a decade after research officially stopped under Bigelow, the data and findings remain, for the most part, a closely guarded secret. This despite interviews from Bigelow claiming he had an “enormous amount of data” that suggested that the UFOs seen over the ranch were “authentic” and very real.

This, as we might imagine, causes suspicion among many in UFO and paranormal circles. Is there something of significance there that Bigelow is simply keeping to himself? Or might it be that there is simply nothing to tell? Even a sceptic would have to admit if the latter was the case, 20 years is a long time to come to such conclusions.

Again, many in conspiracy circles point to the work that Bigelow did with NASA immediately following the shutting down of research at the ranch. Should we be concerned that such contracts were actually “encouragement” to suppress the data from his research?^[7]

3 Voices From Nowhere And Other Supernatural Phenomena

The strange activity would continue, though. And in the years since the ranch has changed owners (which we will move on to in a moment) many of these incidents have been well documented.

Such things as voices suddenly appearing out of nowhere, or strange whispers in a person’s ear. In most cases, at least according to those who claim to have heard these strange voices, it is as if there is a person stood right next to them.

Other bizarre incidents range from feeling a push or a shove as if from an invisible hand, seeing the ghostly images of people, strange orbs appearing out of nowhere and disappearing again, and even a case of a family pet just vanishing in front of their owners eyes.

In short, as we have expressed throughout our list, all manner of strange incidents normally associated with the paranormal take place here. However, the next point we will examine is surely one of the strangest and most bizarre of all.^[8]

2 It Is “Forbidden” To Dig On The Ranch

Without a doubt one of the strangest legends of Skinwalker Ranch is that no one should dig on the land. And while it sounds truly strange, those who have defiantly done so have experienced some of the strangest activity of all.

Some have simply begun feeling strangely ill, while others have noticed their tools and machinery have disappeared after only taking their eyes off it for a second. One rancher working on the land whose tools did indeed disappear was shocked several weeks later to find them neatly positioned high up in a tree.

Perhaps the most chilling incident connected to digging on the ranch is that of a member of the current staff. He would attempt to dig several holes in the ground in order to lay a fence. However, he would soon become ill to the point of collapsing. When doctors examined him, they would discover a sudden and bizarre swelling in his skull. And, at least according to the new TV series on History, they were at a loss as to why this was.^[9]

1 New Owner Promises Huge Scientific Research

In 2016 businessman and real estate owner, Brandon Fugal would purchase the ranch with a view to undertaking serious scientific research on the land in order to get to the bottom of the most bizarre goings-on.

He would immediately go about installing state-of-the-art sensors and recording equipment. He would also employ the services of several experts in their field in order to conduct the most extensive research to date. And what’s more, it would appear that Fugal will make his findings available to the wider public.

And while monitoring the ranch for strange activity such as UFOs or indeed strange creatures, Fugal looks set to undertake research in such diverse fields as gravitational physics and the use of energies and frequencies. The following decade, if all goes according to plan, could prove to be very intriguing indeed. He would state in a recent interview that it is “science and discovery” that drives him, and that he has no idea just what they might find as they study and research this most bizarre location.^[10]

10 Of The World’s Last Unexplored Places

Some people see a coincidence and believe it’s a sign of something more. Maybe divine intervention, aliens, fate, or who knows what. They want there to be order in the chaos and to find meaning in seemingly unrelated events. Others see it as just a weird twist of luck, something uncanny that defies the odds. No matter how you choose to look at a coincidence, though, it’s hard to ignore that they can often be very odd and compelling. 

Is there anything more behind these events that coincidentally happened in the same place at different times? Let us know what you think. 

10. There was a Battle of Thermopylae in Both 1941 and 480 BC

In 2006, the movie 300 came out and shared the tale of the Battle of Thermopylae with millions who had never heard of it before. Though the film is based on a comic that itself fictionalized the story well beyond belief, the basic idea was true. There was a battle during the Greco-Persian war in which a small army of Greeks, led by the Spartan King Leonidas, took a stand against a much larger Persian force. The battle lasted for three days and though the Greeks lost, it’s said that the few hundred soldiers killed 20,000 Persians.  

Fast forward to 1941 and there was a second Battle of Thermopylae, this time between Nazis and Allied Forces made of British, Australian and New Zealand forces. The Germans were attempting to invade Greece. Allies were withdrawing but two brigades remained as the rear defense against Axis troops.

A Panzer division and another battle group were held back by artillery fire. Though the battle was not nearly as dramatic as the original, many German tanks ended up being destroyed. Across Greece, Germans took heavy losses against a much smaller force of Allies aided by locals. Though the Germans took Greece and the entire Allied operation in Greece was considered a failure, their efforts made sure the Germans paid dearly for the progress they made. 

9. Both Alexander Hamilton and His Son Died in the Same Spot 

Dueling isn’t so popular these days but once upon a time it was the go to way for any gentleman worth his frilly shirt to settle a dispute, just ask Alexander Hamilton. Or his ghost, since he died in a duel.

It was July 11, 1804 when Alexander Hamilton took a bullet from Vice President Aaron Burr. Burr not becoming President was due, in part, to the machinations of Hamilton and the men had a long history of animosity between them. The challenge was issued, and the men met on the dueling grounds near Weehawken, New Jersey.

The location of the duel was grimly familiar to Hamilton as just three years earlier his own son had died in the same spot, during a duel, defending his father’s honor. Not successfully, obviously. The elder Hamilton used the same pistols for his own failed duel.

In 1801, Phillip Hamilton heard a speech by a man named George Eacker that was harshly critical of his father. The younger Hamilton, being 19 and something of a hothead, took great offense. The men exchanged words, and a duel was set. Hamilton’s father gave his son advice about waiting for the first round of four to pass, not shooting until the other man had shot to make him look bad, but it was all for naught. Eacker struck Hamilton and the young man died the next day. 

8. Hitler Made France Surrender in the Same Train Car as Germany in WWI

This doesn’t qualify as a coincidence, rather a planned humiliation thanks to a historic callback. There is a train carriage in France where, on November 11, 1918, Allied Forces and Germany signed the armistice that ended World War One. It took place in a train car because of all the damage that had occurred in the town during the war, making it infeasible to hold the historic event there. 

Jumping ahead to 1940 and the German war machine was storming across Europe. Hitler had taken France and brought a new armistice agreement for them to sign, just as they had made Germany sign the first one years earlier. For the occasion he had the same train carriage used. It was revenge for what he deemed a humiliation in the past, now to serve as the same for France.

7. Two Air India Flights Crashed Into the Same Mountain 16 Years Apart

It’s hard to say how many planes have crashed in history but if you’re thinking of commercial passenger jet airliners, it’s a little easier to gauge. In 2017, that number was just under 2,000 in history. All things being equal, that is a relatively low number compared to total flights and something like car crashes. That air travel is relatively safe and crashes are relatively rare makes it even more remarkable that two flights, from the same airline, crashed into the same mountain, 16 years apart. 

The first crash occurred in 1950 when a plane crashed into the southwest side of Mont Blanc, taking 58 lives. In 1966, a miscommunication with flight control caused a Boeing 707 to crash in nearly the exact same spot, claiming an additional 117 lives. 

6. Jackass Cast Member Ryan Dunn Flipped his Car in the Same Spot He’d Later Die

The cast of the show Jackass have all put themselves through preposterous things over the years. They’ve been electrocuted, bitten by many deadly creatures, beaten, shot, exploded and then some. But, despite how it sounds, it was all meant to be fun. That said, there was some tragedy along the way as well, notably with the death of Ryan Dunn, who died in 2011.

Dunn was drunk and got behind the wheel of his car. He was going 130 miles per hour when he hit a tree. He died along with a production assistant named Zachary Hartwell.

Bam Margera, Dunn’s best friend, pointed out afterward that he always suspected Dunn would get into an accident sometime and that, in fact, the two of them survived one in the same place Dunn died five years earlier. According to Margera his friend flipped their car 8 times in that incident but they both walked away from it. 

5. Two Women, in Incidents One Year Apart, Were Buried Alive in Greece

Being buried alive is probably a fear no one has until the first time they hear it can happen, and then it haunts them forever after. It may not be a common occurrence but it has happened in the past and maybe a little too often over around Peraia, Greece.

The first incident reported in 2014 involved a 45-year-old woman. She was buried in a cemetery in the town of Peraia after being comatose for a time and dying in a private hospital. Locals, including some children playing nearby, heard her calling out after the funeral and attempts to rescue her fell short. She died from asphyxiation.

Later it was reported a 49-year-old woman who had been treated for cancer was also buried after doctors thought she had died. Her screams were heard after the funeral so she was exhumed but by then it was too late. Her official cause of death was cardiac arrest. 

Some of the news reports seem to mix up details between both stories and it’s possible this was reported wrongly, and it was a single incident, but the ages and details differ enough that it’s just as likely it was two separate occasions.

4. Bobby Farrell of Boney M and Rasputin Died on the Same Date in the Same City

If you don’t know the name Bobby Farrell you probably at least knew his voice. He was the singer for the band Boney M, most famous for their disco-era hit “Rasputin.” The song is about the infamous Russian mystic who is killed for sleeping with the wrong women. 

In real life, Rasputin’s death has long been the subject of much mystery and exaggeration, in particular about how he was shot and poisoned and drowned and so many other things before he finally died. What everyone agrees on is that he died on December 30th in St. Petersburg. 

Rasputin’s death took place in 1916. Fast forward to 2010, December 30th, in the city of St. Petersburg and that’s when and where Bobby Farrell also passed away. He had just performed a show and complained of not feeling well. He died of heart failure in his hotel room.

3. Steph Curry and LeBron James Were Born on the Same Floor of the Same Hospital

Any time you hear of famous people coming from the same place someone will make a joke about there being something in the water. Maybe they attended the same school or the same town and it’s a fun coincidence. In that same vein, you’ll discover some athletes often attended the same schools. Less common is discovering they were born in almost the same place. Not just the same town, not just the same hospital, but the same floor of that hospital.

Basketball legends Steph Curry and LeBron James were both born in Akron, Ohio. Just 39 months separate the two stars, who were born at the Summa Akron City Hospital.

2. Keith Moon and Mama Cass Both Died at 32 in the Same Apartment Four Years Apart

The music world is full of weird and morbid conspiracies and coincidences, most notably the infamous 27 Club. There’s another grim coincidence out there that’s much more dramatic than artists simply dying at the same age and that’s the connection between “Mama” Cass Elliot and The Who drummer Keith Moon.

On July 29, 1974, Cass Elliot was staying in the apartment of songwriter Harry Nillson in London, England. Nillson was rarely there and let friends use it when they were in town. After a pair of performances she collapsed in the apartment and died of heart failure at age 32. Her weak heart was blamed on years of crash diets.

Four years later, Keith Moon was staying in the same apartment. Nillson is said to have not even wanted to loan it out, now afraid that the place was cursed. Moon talked him into it. He was also 32-years-old.

Moon’s body was found in the same bed where Cass had died. He had overdosed on a prescription drug called clomethiazole, which he was using to treat alcoholism. 

1. A Simulated Attack Was Conducted at Pearl Harbor 10 Years Before the Real Thing

Pearl Harbor is one of the most well-known events in American history and it’s been taught in school, written about in books and immortalized on film again and again. One thing that’s not usually mentioned, however, is that 10 years before the infamous attack, pretty much the same thing happened in the same place but for very different reasons.

In February, 1932, the Second World War hadn’t started. But, with the First in the rearview and tensions on the rise everywhere, America was preparing for anything. Rear Admiral Henry Yarnell was in charge of something called Fleet Problem #13. This was a military drill designed to simulate an attack from an Asian enemy on Pearl Harbor. 

Yarnell, with 152 planes, staged an attack to take out the American airfield in Pearl Harbor, catching them unaware. He attacked Sunday morning, just as the Japanese would later do, in an effort to catch them off guard. Because the “Americans” anticipated an attack from sea, they never saw the plans coming. Yarnell’s forces dropped bags of flour, simulated bombs, and laid waste to the US base. Not a single American plane got in the air. 

Though the attack was just a drill and Yarnell proved Pearl Harbor vulnerable, the military decided his efforts proved nothing. He attacked on a Sunday which they basically called cheating.

When the actual attack on Pearl Harbor happened, it followed many similar paths as Yarnell’s mock attack. Later, military officials would be absolved of culpability under the reason that the attack could never have been predicted. This gave rise to a conspiracy theory that the Japanese learned of Yarnell’s fake plan and the US has since covered it up.

The world is full of places with names that would have most of us struggling to stifle laughter. For instance the UK is home to the childishly funny likes of Netherthong and Lower Swell! Sometimes the reasons why places end up with names that leave their residents red-faced are just as strange as the names themselves: like these 10.

Top 10 Places You Can’t Go

10 Truth or Consequences

Up until 1950, this town in the south-west of New Mexico went by the name of Hot Springs, which made sense because it was mainly known for its spas made out of natural hot springs. These made it a fairly popular place for people from out of town to visit, but apparently not popular enough for those running the town, who came up with a bold idea to boost its tourist trade.

One of the most successful shows on US radio in the early 1950s was called Truth or Consequences and it was decided to rename the town after it. This decision was made after a referendum, which proves again that direct democracy is a bad thing, and it led to the radio show visiting town for a broadcast not long after the big renaming – on April Fool’s Day. That was not the end of it though, as the host of the show Ralph Edwards went on to make a trip to the town every single year after that until he died. Furthermore it even managed to feature in an episode of Doctor Who called The Zygon Invasion, so maybe they were right to do it after all.^[1]

9 Frog Eye

This article could easily be made up entirely of places in Alabama, which seems to be the weird name capital of the world, but as no-one knows how Boar Tush got its name (perhaps they prefer not to ask), we are focusing on Frog Eye. This town can be found on the banks of the Tallapoosa River and there are a number of different tales that are told about where its name comes from. It might seem like something the residents came up with when they were drunk, but a local woman called Michelle Fortson has studied the history of the area and she believes that it actually happened during the prohibition era.

The story goes that its saloon sold alcohol illegally under the counter during this period and that it had to find a way of preventing this from being found out by the state police. So the saloon owner put a ceramic frog statue in its window and used this as a secret signal to local drinkers. If the frog had both of its eyes open, it was safe to ask for alcohol, whereas if one eye was shut, it meant the police were in the bar and they should stick to ordering soft drinks.^[2]

8 Tightwad

There is a good reason why this little spot in Missouri ended up with such an unfortunate name, but thankfully it has nothing to do with wedgies. The story goes that sometime in the early part of the 20th century the town was home to a watermelon farmer. One day, when the mailman was delivering to this farm, he asked the farmer if he would put aside one of the watermelons for him to collect when he had finished delivering the rest of the mail. According to the local legend, the farmer said that he would but then opted to sell the watermelon to another customer who had paid him 50 cents over what the mailman had offered.

Annoyed at being robbed of his fruit the mailman called the farmer a tightwad and continued to do so every day after that until the name stuck. Up until that point, the town – which has just 69 people living in it – was called Edgewood. These days, the small population seems happy to embrace the name and that is understandable when you think it could just as easily have ended up being called You Owe Me A Watermelon, Missouri.^[3]

7 Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound is a fjord that can be found in south western New Zealand and at 421 meters it is the single deepest fjord on its South Island. Part of the curious name was given to it by the British naval explorer Captain James Cook after he first set eyes on it upon arriving at the island back in 1770. Viewing the mysterious fjord shrouded in fog from his ship, he started to doubt that he could steer the vessel successfully in and out of the inlet, thinking it would be too tight a squeeze. That led him to christen it Doubtful Harbor.

What has been lost to history is why it ended up changing from Doubtful Harbor to Doubtful Sound – although it is known that it was whalers who came up with the revised version, several decades after Cook had visited. Perhaps they were trying to convince themselves that they could not actually hear cries from the whales they were killing. The fjord may be a Doubtful Sound, but it is also a glorious sight, with its stunning natural beauty making it a beloved tourist attraction today.^[4]

6 Saint-Louis-du Ha! Ha!

This sounds like the name of a French sitcom featuring too much slapstick, but it is actually a town in Quebec, Canada. It is not far from the US border, but its weird name makes it sound like it belongs to a different world entirely. This owes its origins to several sources, with the ‘Louis’ bit believed to be the name of one of the men who founded the town, but the reason for the ‘Ha Ha’ part is more unusual. It was not stuck on the end of the name because everyone laughed at poor old Louis, but because of a lake situated just outside the town. ‘Ha-ha’ is an old-fashioned French word that means a block of some kind that brings a route to an end. Lake Temiscouata does just that for the town, as the start of the lake marks the limits of it and thus the ‘ha ha’ part of the name probably refers to that.

The one thing that no-one seems to know is why two exclamation marks were added; maybe someone thought the name without them was just too forgettable! On the plus side, it gives the 1,300 people living there the claim to fame of living in the sole town in the world to have two of these in its name.^[5]

10 More British Places With Hilariously Rude Names

5 Deception Island

This sounds like the title of a B-movie thriller, but it is the name of a real place. Deception Island is one of the South Shetland Islands, in the Antarctic Regions, and it got its name courtesy of a very frustrated visitor. In 1820, the US hunter Nathaniel Palmer stumbled across it with the crew of his ship while they were on an expedition to hunt seals. Thinking it to be a perfectly normal island, they decided to approach and land there. The very tight inlet that you have to sail along to get to the shore of the island is called Neptune’s Bellows and it is only once you have made it along there that it becomes clear that the island is in fact the edge of a huge volcano.

Although this volcano had collapsed by the time Palmer and his crew arrived, the shock of discovering it instead of what he had expected led him to name the land after its deceptive appearance. The volcano may have fallen in on itself, but it was not extinct – and it remains technically active to this day.^[6]

4 Intercourse

You will find the town of Intercourse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but it is Amish country so you should probably not get your hopes up too much based on the name. The picturesque little village has not always had its current eyebrow-raising moniker, as it went by the much less exciting name of Cross Keys when it was first founded in 1754. What is known is that the big name change took place in 1814, but varying reasons are cited for why it happened.

One of the most popular tales behind the name is that it was just a reference to the fact that two important roads happened to intersect in the village. A more interesting theory is that there was a race track there at one point that had an entrance known as Entercourse, with this name gradually mutating over time to become Intercourse. The third possible reason for the name is that the word ‘intercourse’ can mean sociability, community and friendship of the type that was common in rural villages of this sort. Of course, there is a fourth possibility, but we will leave that up to your imagination.^[7]

3 Wet Jacket Arm

Certain parts of the world seem to produce a lot of weird names and the Fiordland region of New Zealand is one of them. We have already looked at Doubtful Sound, but that is a boringly normal name compared with Wet Jacket Arm. This inlet owes its name to that man Captain Cook once again, who visited it with his crew during a New Zealand voyage in 1773. It seems they did not pick a particularly good time of year for the weather in Fiordland as they got caught up in severe rainstorms for most of their time there. This left their naval uniforms soaked through and a combination of annoyance at that and a real lack of imagination led them to name the area Wet Jacket Arm.

Although it is a name that does nothing to capture the wonder of an area that is so beautiful it is now part of a National Park, we should probably be grateful that they were most upset about their jackets. After all, who would want to visit a place called Damp Underwear or Soggy Socks?^[8]

2 Glen Campbell

Who would not want to name their borough after the Rhinestone Cowboy? Well the 306 people who live in the tiny part of Pennsylvania called Glen Campbell apparently. Despite having the same name as the Wichita Lineman singer, the origin has absolutely nothing to do with him. Instead it dates all the way back to 1889 and was actually a tribute to a man called Cornelius Campbell. Now we know what you are thinking: why did they not just call the borough Cornelius Campbell? Well, for one thing Cornelius Campbell is a stupid name for a place.

Apart from that though, Campbell also worked as superintendent at the most important company in the borough at that time – the Glenwood Coal Company. A lot of the men in the area had jobs mining for the firm, which took the ‘Glen’ part of its name from the Scottish word that means ‘valley’. Thus Glen Campbell as a name for the borough was a combination of the name of the company and the man who ran it. None of this prevented Glen Campbell the country singer from being flattered enough to visit in 1971 though. Maybe the people living there were too nice to tell him the truth.^[9]

1 Slaughter Beach

For a coastal town hoping to attract carefree sunbathing tourists, sounding like a straight to video slasher about a holiday resort stalked by a maniac with a chainsaw does not seem like an advantage. Slaughter Beach in Delaware was founded in 1681 and there are many theories for where its delightful name comes from.

One is that an attack by Native Americans on a group of settlers there led these settlers to ask the tribal chief to meet with their god on the beach for peace talks. The story goes that this ‘god’ was in fact a cannon that was used to kill the Native Americans. A second, almost as grim tale is that it was named for the horseshoe crabs that crawled up it to spawn. According to this version, these crabs often found themselves flipped onto their backs by waves and unable to get back to the ocean, causing them to fry to death under the sun. A third suggestion is that the name comes from another nearby area called Slaughter Neck. This last one makes a lot of sense and is less morbid than the first two, but then…how did Slaughter Neck get its name?!^[10]

Top 10 Places You Don’t Want To Visit

About The Author: I am a freelance writer who lives in Dundee. In addition to my writing work, I make short films as one half of a duo called Wardlaw Films.

We often expect a drug prescription when we visit a doctor. However, physicians seem to be gradually shifting from solely recommending the use of medications to prescribing other unconventional things. These bizarre prescriptions could be issued alone or to supplement a medication or some other treatment.

These newer treatments include playing, cycling, singing, visiting museums, bird-watching, and even consuming alcohol. Cool! At least we may get a perfect excuse to miss work and do what we love at the same time. These prescriptions were all issued by real doctors and backed by state and even federal health departments, so they are not some fraudulent moneymaking scheme.

10 Guinness

Guinness has always been promoted for its health benefits because it contains several medicinal properties including antioxidant compounds that may prevent heart attacks. It also contains iron. A pint of Guinness contains 3 percent of the 19 mg per day iron requirement for an adult.

This is why Guinness used to be prescribed to pregnant women and patients recovering from surgery. Due to the beer’s iron content, free cans of Guinness are also given to Irish blood donors right after they donate blood. As if that’s not enough, Guinness also contains phytoestrogen, which improves mental abilities, prevents obesity, and makes bones denser.

Little wonder that Australian doctors prescribed Guinness for a patient in 2017. The patient was Dave Conway, an Irishman from Dublin—the home of Guinness. And what could be more Irish than a bottle of chilled Guinness Extra Stout?

Conway had ended up in the hospital after falling from a seven-story construction site in Brisbane, Australia. He landed on his feet, causing horrific injuries to his feet and body. He underwent 26 surgeries, which included amputations of both legs below the knee. Conway was learning to use a wheelchair when his doctors issued him a prescription for a pint of Guinness a day.^[1]

9 Playing

We would all agree that children nowadays don’t play as much as they did a few decades ago. This is probably because many parents erroneously believe that play is just another avenue for children to run around and get dirty. Besides, many children also prefer watching television these days instead of playing.

Physicians say that a lack of play is damaging to a child’s health because play is important for learning, creativity, reducing stress, and ensuring mental and all-around development. This is why the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised physicians to regularly issue prescriptions for play for children.

AAP and the CDC advise a minimum of one hour of play per day and another hour of some other physical activity. However, doctors often write the prescriptions as “Play Every Day.”^[2] At least, children now have one more excuse to get dirty.

8 Cycling

You are not motivated to cycle often? Your doctor has got you covered. For example, doctors in Cardiff (UK) and Boston (US) are allowed to prescribe cycling to patients who are not getting enough exercise or need to lose weight.

Physicians will issue the prescription along with a membership card of the partner bike-sharing business where it will be redeemed. In Cardiff, the prescription is redeemed at nextbike free of charge. Physicians in either city are allowed to write six-months-long, 30-minutes-a-day cycling prescriptions for their patients.

In Boston, the prescription is redeemed at Blue Bikes (originally Hubway). Initially, Hubway charged $85 a year for its bike-sharing services. However, the prescription was worth $80 for low-income patients, who were responsible for paying the remaining $5.^[3]

7 Bird-Watching And Strolling By The Beach

In 2018, the National Health Service of Shetland, Scotland, revealed its plans to allow doctors to prescribe bird-watching to patients with chronic and debilitating diseases like diabetes, mental illness, and heart disease. Doctors can also write prescriptions for the patient to stroll by the beach or just wander around.

Patients issued a bird-watching prescription will receive a tour organized by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. They will also receive calendars and lists of walking routes complete with the birds and plants they could find on the way.

Patients who receive prescriptions to visit the beach will spend their time watching the seabirds or finding oyster shells in the sand. Alternatively, they could walk up the hills to watch the birds. During the winter, patients would be allowed to visit select locations where they could enjoy the strong ocean winds.^[4]

6 Gardening

In 2016, it was reported that the UK National Health Service (NHS) was considering offering gardening prescriptions to patients suffering from cancer, obesity, and a range of heart and mental problems, including dementia. According to the NHS, gardening and several other outdoor activities improve sleep and reduce loneliness, anxiety, stress, and depression.

Gardening also aids recovery, makes patients active, and gives them a sense of fulfillment. A study revealed that dementia patients near or in gardens were 19 percent less likely to resort to violence than those who did not visit gardens. In fact, at the time of the study, violence among dementia patients who did not visit gardens increased sevenfold.

Interestingly, the program was already in existence in areas like Bromley and Lambeth (both in London) at the time that the NHS was planning to make it nationwide. In Lambeth, the gardens were established on hospital grounds where patients spent their time growing food. They sold their harvests to the hospital, which used them to make meals for other patients.^[5]

5 Singing, Music, Sports, Arts, And Other Hobbies

The UK National Health Service is also contemplating allowing doctors to write music prescriptions for dementia patients. According to Matt Hancock, UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the plan was part of the government’s attempt to reduce the persistent problem of “over-medicalizing the population.”

The government reached the decision after observing that dementia patients who sang and listened to music appeared less distressed and took less medication. In another study organized by Hull’s stroke recovery service and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, almost 90 percent of stroke sufferers experienced improved health after they were treated to music therapy.

The stroke patients also suffered less dizziness and anxiety and fewer seizures. They slept and concentrated better than they used to and showed improved cognitive abilities. Physicians in Gloucestershire also prescribed singing to patients with lung problems.

Besides singing and music, UK doctors may prescribe sports, arts, and other hobbies of a patient as part of their treatment. Hancock mentioned that, by 2023, the NHS would allow doctors to prescribe “community activities” and related pastimes for patients suffering from loneliness.^[6]

4 Museum Visits

In 2018, new legislation allowed doctors in Montreal to prescribe museum visits for their patients. To make the experience sweeter, patients were issued free tickets and allowed to visit along with their friends, relatives, or caregivers. The program was launched in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA).

According to Nathalie Bondil, the director of MMFA, the program will work because museum visits have a positive effect on the nervous system. Helene Boyer, the vice president of Medecins francophones du Canada (MdFC), added that a visit to the museum increased the secretion of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which boosts mood.

Boyer said that walking around the museum was equivalent to exercising for elderly people and for those suffering from chronic pain. She added that viewing art also had a positive effect on people suffering from potentially deadly conditions like cancer.^[7]

3 Electricity

Even in medical circles, doctors are often criticized for writing drug prescriptions for almost every medical condition under the Sun. This has become so normal that patients expect to receive medication prescriptions when they visit a doctor. Some patients even start to doubt a doctor’s credibility if this doesn’t happen.

Well! Doctors are slowly becoming aware that not all medical conditions require a drug prescription. Instead, patients could receive something as mundane as an electricity prescription for their health problems. This does not mean that doctors will have their staff administer huge jolts of electricity to their patients. Nope! The shocks are so weak that the patient will not feel them.

To be clear, the procedure is not available yet. However, scientists believe that it will work because the human body works on electricity. Our brains often send weak electrical signals to our nerves to order parts of our bodies to perform certain functions. This is the reason why nerve injuries often lead to paralysis—the paralyzed body part is unable to receive signals.

Scientists plan to send the signals from an electrical device implanted in the body. Besides managing nerve damage, scientists also intend to use it to treat other health conditions like diabetes and heart problems. This is achieved by using electrical signals to make the pancreas produce insulin or to increase or decrease the rate at which the heart beats.^[8]

2 Food

Not all patients need drugs. Some just need a perfect diet. However, they could not get food prescriptions until California doctors moved in to change that. Under the program, Food is Medicine, California doctors are allowed to issue prescriptions for food. There is a snag, though. The prescriptions are only planned for 1,000 poor patients suffering from congestive heart failure.

The program is based on a 2013 study by Philadelphia nonprofit Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA). That year, the nonprofit gave three square meals and a snack to each of 65 patients suffering from congestive heart failure.

Twelve months later, the nonprofit discovered that the study group had spent less on health care than they used to do. Their average monthly medical costs also declined to $28,183 from $38,937 before the program.

Patients involved in the study also visited hospitals only half as much as the control group and had shorter stays at the hospital whenever they were admitted. They were also likelier than other patients to be sent home after receiving treatment rather than going to rehab or some other specialized treatment center.

The program probably worked because congestive heart disease patients often require specialized meals with low salt content to manage their conditions. However, they often find it difficult to get these meals because we have lots of high-salt meals like chips out there.^[9]

1 Park Visits

In 2015, the South Dakota Department of Health and the state’s Game, Fish and Parks Department launched a limited pilot program that allowed doctors to write prescriptions for park visits for their patients.

Patients who received the prescriptions randomly visited any park or recreation area owned by the state. A few other US cities have similar park prescription programs—for example, Baltimore, which calls it “Docs in the Park,” and Albuquerque, which calls it “Prescription Trails.”^[10]

Many locations around the world are home to mysterious legends, tales of ghosts, and even sightings of UFOs. However, New York’s Hudson Valley is undoubtedly one location that contains these strange accounts in abundance. And what’s more, these range from sightings of UFOs to Bigfoot and even the existence of ancient portals. Here are ten incidents that truly make the Hudson Valley one of the most fascinating and mysterious places on Earth.

Related: 10 Truly Unbelievable Claims Of UFO And Alien Encounters

10 The 1980s UFO Wave

Perhaps the best place to start would be the UFO wave that took over the Hudson Valley in the early-to-mid-1980s. Many of the sightings of these strange otherworldly crafts were often seen up-close, with the objects in question passing over highways or housing developments at an extremely low altitude. What’s more, most of them featured multiple witnesses.

A typical sighting, for example, would often see motorists pulling their cars to the side of a normally busy highway. Their occupants would then often leave their vehicles to stare upward at the aerial show taking place above them.

Quite often, the crafts were a distinct triangle shape. This, in recent years, has led some researchers to speculate that the sightings were not those of alien spaceships but of secret military vehicles. As we shall see later in our list, these sightings continued long after the actual wave ceased, albeit they were fewer and far between.^[1]

9 The Pine Bush UFO Connection

Shortly after the UFO wave of the 1980s began to die down, a similar wave of strange sightings unfolded in the Pine Bush region in the early 1990s. And while the sightings of the 1980s were largely of strange craft in the skies, reports of anything from bizarre animals to disappearing entities surfaced from the Pine Bush region during this time.

Many paranormal researchers descended on the area. And with them came a multitude of theories and claims. For example, some believed that portals existed in the region, and these were responsible for the UFOs and strange beings that were being reported. There were even many claims of alien abduction taking place during this time. And the more the reports of strange activities surfaced, the more people with interest in such events arrived in Pine Bush in an attempt to see them for themselves.

Perhaps some of the more outlandish claims were that the area was “an exact replica” of the Cydonia region of Mars. Furthermore, this was the reason for the wave of strange activity. The sightings in the region continue today, but with much less intensity.^[2]

8 The Crushing Ghost Of Room 4714

Without a doubt, one of the most unnerving encounters to come out of the Hudson Valley is the strange and menacing entity in Room 4714. The chilling events took place in October 1972 at the then Scott Barracks at West Point, one of the most well-known military academies in the United States. It was also officially documented in one of the internal newsletters of the base.

Several of the cadets began to experience spooky goings-on. These included the moving of a robe as it hung on a peg as if by invisible hands, the unraveling of toilet paper, and the turning of the shower handle from warm water to ice cold and then to burning hot.

Unfortunately, after these acts of mischief, things took a more drastic turn. One evening, one of the cadets—Jim O’Connor—was walking out of the shower room where the strange events had occurred. However, something suddenly caught his eye. When he turned his head, he witnessed a strange man holding a 19th-century musket and dressed in clothes of the same era. More unnerving, though, were the glowing eyes. After several moments, the figure faded and was gone.

As the intensity of the events increased, the superior officers of the facility began to take them more seriously. So much so that they requested a “volunteer” spend the night in the room while they monitored the proceedings. As the night progressed, things began to heat up. Shortly after 2 am, the volunteer suddenly awoke to see the same mysterious figure in 19th-century clothing over top of him. What’s more, he could feel a crushing weight on his chest and was struggling for breath. As those watching the events ran into the room to assist, the spirit moved away and disappeared through the wall.

The room was ultimately put “off-limits,” and the case remains unsolved to this day.^[3]

7 The Whang Hollow Portal?

Several intriguing accounts also come from the stone enclosures at a place named the Whang Hollow Portal. Or at least by those who believe such a gateway exists there. The stone structure itself has been there for around 3,500 years and is thought to have been some kind of astronomical calendar.

However, according to some paranormal researchers, many who have ventured inside have experienced some bizarre things. And these range from hearing strange “flute-like” music to seeing strange, glowing red eyes peering at them out of the darkness and even the appearance of a strange, cloaked figure.

Perhaps one of the most bizarre incidents, though, was when one person who had stepped inside this apparent portal was prevented from leaving by some kind of invisible force field. Not only couldn’t they move through this strange shield, but they were physically thrown to the ground by it. Eventually, the strange force disappeared, and they escaped the mysterious stone enclosure.^[4]

6 The Elting Memorial Library Ghost

In more recent times in October 2007, the security cameras at the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz appeared to capture footage of an otherworldly figure. The footage was recorded around 3 am in the days leading up to Halloween.

It appears to show a shadowy entity walking into the frame and standing near one of the bookshelves. It almost appeared as if the apparition was studying the books and did so for several seconds. It then moved out of the frame heading into a nearby doorway.

Millions of people went on to view the clip when it was posted on YouTube. And what’s more, there were many suggestions of who the ghostly figure might be. Perhaps one of the most popular is that it was the wife of Edmund Schoonmaker, who held the position of a librarian for over two decades. Paranormal researchers also point out that many other ghostly reports are connected with the building, especially when construction work occurs, which there was during the time the footage was captured. ^[5]

5 Hudson Valley’s Bigfoot Encounters

As we might imagine, such a place of bizarre activity would surely have several Bigfoot sightings to its name. And that is very much the case with the Hudson Valley region. Although many Bigfoot sightings have only been officially recorded since the mid-1980s, unofficial accounts and recollections of these strange creatures go back at least several decades before that. The woodlands and mountainous terrain within the Hudson Valley make it a perfect environment for a Bigfoot to reside.

What’s more, the fact that many UFO sightings are also reported here is of particular interest to some researchers. It is often found that UFO hot spots or waves of sightings often coincide with Bigfoot encounters.

In fact, there are so many Bigfoot sightings that the region has its own dedicated organization—the Bigfoot Researchers of the Hudson Valley—who record and document as many encounters as possible. ^[6]

4 The Forest Park Cemetery

One of the most intriguing areas of Hudson Valley is the Forest Park Cemetery, also known as the Pinewoods Cemetery. According to some, the entrance to Hell even exists here. As a result, many researchers insist that the cemetery is the “most haunted” in New York. And as such, it has many legends that are unique to it.

A regularly repeated legend is that of the apparent phantom female hitchhiker. This apparent spirit has been encountered by numerous people who happen to be driving past the cemetery. According to the legend, the unsuspected motorist will notice the young lady walking by the roadside, appealing for a ride. Then the motorist usually accepts and opens the door for the young lady to get in. However, as the vehicle passes the cemetery, the mystery girl will simply vanish into thin air. Some reports even speak of the motorist noticing the girl has hooved feet before she disappears.

There are a number of other reported sightings of ghostly figures. These include floating orbs and lights, hearing the sounds of children crying, and some completely visible apparitions.^[7]

3 The Only Legally Declared Haunted House?

While there are several claims of haunted houses in the Hudson Valley, one, in particular, stands out. It is perhaps the only haunted house to be legally declared as such. The case arose in the early 1990s when the buyers of Helen Ackley’s home would take her to court to have the sale canceled and their deposit returned. The reason was they had since discovered that the house had seemingly been the center of hauntings and the appearance of ghosts.

Ackley had not informed her buyers of the hauntings, despite her having spoken of them in the media as far back as the late 1970s. She had even had her home included on local ghost tours for a time. What’s more, she described this paranormal activity in great detail. She would speak of hearing invisible footsteps on the stairs, possessions going missing, and even strange jewelry appearing out of nowhere.

The buyers won their case, leading to a change in U.S. law. It is now required that sellers of houses declare any untoward activity that has taken place there. And this ranges from murders and violent crimes to alleged cases of hauntings.^[8]

2 The Many Other Haunted Hotels of the Hudson Valley

Several apparently haunted hotels are also within the Hudson Valley area. The Shanley Hotel, for example, is said to be home to a small plethora of paranormal happenings. Such things include hearing footsteps walking around the property and going up and down the stairs. Other people have reported being pushed or prodded with an invisible hand. Further still, some witnesses have reported seeing rocking chairs in some of the rooms rocking of their own accord—as if someone is actually sitting in them. Of even more intrigue, there have even been strange, glowing orbs captured on film.

Much the same can be said for Smalley’s Inn, which can boast plenty of the same strange activity. It is unclear what the cause of the paranormal activity is. However, some researchers point to the seemingly high number of child deaths that have occurred in the building, including some who died during childbirth.

Others, though, point to an apparent Ouija board party that took place in one of the rooms in the early 1980s. It was shortly after this ill-advised get-together that many believe the strange incidents and ghostly activity began.^[9]

1 The Arthur Kill River UFO Encounter

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

We started our list with UFO reports, and it is perhaps fitting that we should end it with one. The Arthur Kill River incident that took place in mid-June 2001 would see multiple residents of the region witness glowing orbs in a V-shape over the New Jersey Turnpike. Although some reports would state the orbs were individual objects and others would state they were part of the same, large craft, the fact that so many people witnessed them makes it one of the more credible UFO reports on record.

In fact, the incident was very similar to the kind of sightings that were witnessed regularly in the 1980s. For a short time, this even had UFO researchers and enthusiasts focusing their attention on the region once more.

UFO sightings continue to occur in the Hudson Valley region today, as do the reports of many of the other strange encounters on our list. There is little doubt that the Hudson Valley is not only one of the most serene and beautiful parts of the United States but also one of the strangest.^[10]

Out-of-place artifacts, called OOPARTS for short, are a popular source of evidence among those who support theories of ancient aliens’ visitation, creationists, paranormal activities believers, and other forms of pseudoscience and fringe science. What are they? They can be evidence of technological achievements centuries before such ability was known to exist. Or they can present “evidence” of human habitation prior to the accepted emergence of humanity. Or they can present evidence of human emigration centuries earlier than believed.

An important part of an OOPART is its ability to baffle experts, seemingly unable to explain the evidence before their eyes. According to Act for Libraries.org the term is “rarely used by historians and scientists”, and OOPARTS are instead cited, often erroneously and sometimes fraudulently, as evidence supporting fringe theories. Here are 10 such OOPARTS which have been debunked by mainstream science, though they still have their supporters.

10. The Tamil Bell

In 1836 a Christian missionary to New Zealand named William Colenso discovered Maori women boiling potatoes in a bronze vessel, which he recognized as a damaged bell. Further examination by Colenso, who was also botanist and explorer of note, revealed the bell was manufactured of bronze, and bore an inscription in ancient Tamil, using characters which had long before fallen out of use. The inscription identified the Maori cooking pot as a ship’s bell.

Since its discovery by Colenso, numerous theories developed as to how a Tamil bell arrived in New Zealand from Asia, when no previous evidence of Tamil contact with the Maori had been unearthed, as well as none since. The bell is an OOPART because of its inscription linking it to a Tamil ship, though that in itself does not mean the Tamil made contact with the Maori several centuries before its discovery. The waters of the region were plied with numerous vessels, including the Portuguese, French, English, and Spanish. Pirates roamed the area as well. Any number of plausible explanations for the bell’s presence are thus available.

It could have been recovered from a derelict vessel which washed ashore in New Zealand. It could have been taken as a prize by sailors from one ship or another, and traded to the Maori. Before the New Zealand coast and adjacent waters were charted by Captain James Cook in the late 18th century, the unknown shoals and currents of the region claimed many an unwary ship. How the Tamil Bell arrived in New Zealand remains undetermined, but it was likely more due to accident than exploration.

9. The Shroud of Turin

Few Christian relics are more controversial than the Shroud of Turin, claimed by believers to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth, marked with a negative photographic image of His body by unknown, but miraculous means. To others it is a deliberate hoax, created by an unknown artist or artists during the Medieval period. Carbon dating supports the latter theory, despite claims by believers which state the carbon dating is inaccurate, and other means of measuring its age dates it to the time of Christ.

The Shroud did not appear in any documented record until 1353 AD, which corresponds to the window established by carbon dating as to the time of its creation, more than 1300 years after the events some believe it proves. Subsequent legends and folklore placed the Shroud in the hands of Byzantine invaders and others during the period when its existence, at least the existence of the Shroud of Turin known today, was hidden. Since the 14th century appearance of the Shroud, the Catholic Church has carefully noted its existence, but has never confirmed its authenticity.

Recently DNA testing has been conducted on the cloth, with inconclusive results, as would be expected from an artifact which has passed through so many hands, tests, examinations, and studies for over six centuries. To the faithful, the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. To those who follow science, it’s a carefully created forgery, so skillfully done the means of doing so remain hidden. To them, it is an OOPART, formed in the 14th century, and not an ancient relic of Biblical times.

8. The Dendera Lamps of Ancient Egypt

The Dendera Lamps stem from a collection of motifs in the temple at Dendera, Egypt. Supporters of ancient alien visitation theories claim the motifs depict the use of projecting electric lights a la cathode ray tubes, or arc lamps. Influential support of the theory came from Erich von Daniken, author of numerous books citing alien visitations among the ancients, including Chariots of the Gods? Science widely disregards his theories, yet his books continue to sell and have spawned a growing number of believers that the Ancient Egyptians, as well as the Hindu, Tamil, Incan, and Mayan civilizations, benefited from alien technology.

The theories of Daniken and his supporters make the Dendera Lamps, also called the Dendera Lights, an OOPART since they clearly show the use of technology previously believed to have been unknown by the Egyptians of the day. To them, anyway. Mainstream science and archaeology disagree. To them, the portions of the motif which ufologists claim represents light beams are actually depictions of the rising sun emerging from a lotus flower, in accordance with Egyptian legend.

The Dendera Lamps remain controversial among pseudoscientists and ufologists, some of whom cite them as irrefutable proof of alien intervention in Ancient Egypt. They ignore the inscriptions which appear along with the motif, which describe each panel. The inscriptions link each panel of the motif with a corresponding scene from the Ancient Egyptian creation myth, rather than depicting the use of electric light, as all too many believe.

7. Piltdown Man

In a 1912 meeting of the Geological Society of London, Charles Dawson claimed he had received a portion of a skull discovered four years earlier in a gravel pit at Piltdown. Dawson informed the meeting he had visited the site several times, and discovered several pieces of fossilized bone in the spoil pits surrounding the gravel pit. Arthur Smith Woodward of the reputable British Museum joined Dawson on some of his diggings. In 1915 portions of additional bone fragments were discovered at a similar site in Sheffield.

Piltdown Man, as the bones came to be called, was claimed by its discoverers to be a previously unknown hominid, the so-called missing link of evolution from ape to man. Almost from the beginning, scientists and anthropologists disputed the findings, and the subject became one of dispute for several decades. In 1953 a group of scientists and researchers provided TIME Magazine with information which established Piltdown Man as a forgery from the outset, a composite of fossils from at least three different hominids. The discussions over Piltdown Man shifted to speculation over who perpetrated the hoax.

That has never been determined with certainty, though Charles Dawson remains a prime suspect, as do many others. Among them was Arthur Conan Doyle. Named as the hoaxer in 1997, more recent scholarship exonerates him. Piltdown Man was an OOPART which has been clearly debunked. There has never been a final determination of who created Piltdown Man, nor why, but there is general consensus the entire scheme was a fraud.

6. The Iron Pillar of Delhi

It’s difficult to determine just how out of place the artifact known as the Iron Pillar of Delhi actually is, since it has been moved numerous times. Its origin is debated, as is the authenticity of various inscriptions on the pillar, as least as far as its chronological history is concerned. Conflicts between Muslims and Hindi led to the artifact being relocated several times, with aspects of its history etched into the metal of which it is made. It is the metal itself which qualifies it as an OOPART, at least to some. To others it stands (literally) as a 1,600 year old monument to ancient knowledge and craftsmanship.

The pillar is of wrought iron, forge-welded, and unusually resistant to corrosion. The protection from rust appears to have been deliberately achieved by its creators, and represents a knowledge of metallurgy which far exceeds that accomplished in the 4th century, when it appears to have been made. This advanced knowledge has led to speculation that the ancients who created the pillar had the assistance of alien intelligence and skills when creating the artifact. In truth, the pillar is not completely rust-free, as proponents of ancient intervention suggest. Yet its origin remains uncertain, its purpose unknown.

Recent scholarship has speculated the column reflects known metallurgical skills of the time, albeit practiced by highly advanced artisans, and is thus no mystery at all. At least as regards its manufacture. Yet ancient alien intervention proponents continue to cite it as “evidence” of ancient man interacting with advanced beings from other worlds. Their interpretation of some of the inscriptions on the artifact support their thesis. The chemical and mineral composition of the artifact, and the means of its manufacture, do not.

5. The Decalogue Stone

About 35 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a large boulder with a flat face, bearing an inscription in Hebrew. It is known as the Decalogue Stone, as well as the Commandment Stone and other names (Decalogue is a reference to the 10 Commandments). First reported to the public in 1933, the stone bears the abridged inscriptions of the Commandments, though in modern Hebrew. The stone is cited by some as proof of Semitic contact with North America prior to the arrival of Columbus in the New World.

Researchers have discovered numerous flaws which raise questions over the stone’s authenticity as an ancient artifact. There are grammatical errors, and the use of Hebrew letters which are inappropriate to the message. There have also never been unearthed other artifacts in the region which support the presence of Semitic peoples, which would certainly have been left behind given the length of time necessary to inscribe the stone.

There are also Greek letters interspersed within the Hebrew inscription. And finally, though all of these flaws are explained away by proponents of the stone’s ancient authenticity, it appears to be signed. An inscription on the bedrock of the stone reads, “Eva and Hobe 3-13-30”. The debate about the authenticity of the Decalogue Stone near Los Lunas continues between believers and the scientific community who generally regards it as a hoax.

4. The New Hampshire mystery stone

In 1872 a mysterious stone was reported to have been found near Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. It is described as egg-shaped, with a hole running through its center from top to bottom. It appears to have been bored from both ends, since the diameter of the bore is different at the top than bottom (3.2 mm at the top, 9.5 mm at the bottom).

Several carvings appear on the stone, on opposite sides, which include an ear of corn, arrows, a lunar phase, and others. An 1872 report in The American Naturalist described the stone as, “…of a higher grade of art than usual in Indian workmanship”. It also presented the stone as an artifact which “…commemorates a treaty between two tribes”. The stone changed hands several times over the years, and is today held by the New Hampshire Historical Society.

The 1872 article also speculated the bore through the stone appeared to have been cut with the precision of power tools, not available to the Native tribes which created it. But that was mere speculation. In 1994 New Hampshire officials had the stone examined by archaeologists, who determined the stone’s bore was created with modern power tools of the late 19th or early 20th century.

3. Minnesota runestone

Also known as the Kensington Runestone, it first appeared in 1898, when Olof Ohman claimed he found the stone covered with Norse runes while clearing land of brush and trees. The inscriptions recorded in runes in the stone are alleged to date from the 14th century, implying the stone was left behind by Norse explorers from that period. By 1910, scientific examinations had led to the stone being labeled a hoax by American scholars at the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and Swedish and Norwegian experts who received a copy of the transcription.

All determined the inscription to be a fake, and of fairly recent origin. Further frauds followed. Several writers published articles claiming the stone to be a legitimate artifact, and public interest in the stone, with its repercussions of the Vikings, grew. The runes have even been linked, by those prone to such things, with the Knights Templar of Malta, and other longstanding conspiracy theories.

Though the stone was almost universally rejected as a fake by the mainstream scientific community, it continues to generate supporters of its authenticity. To them, the runes stand as proof of the early Norse settlements in the central region of today’s United States, though their arguments bear little weight within the scientific and scholarly community.

2. The Holy Stones of Newark, Ohio

The Hopewell culture of Ohio are known to posterity as the Moundbuilders. They built earthworks and mounds for religious purposes, defenses around their villages, and for burials. Among their greatest is the Serpent Mound near Ft. Ancient, and the Great Mound in Miamisburg, both in Ohio. Among their burial mounds near Newark, Ohio, about a half an hour’s drive east of Columbus, was found what are known as the Holy Stones of Newark. They have been called “…one of the most infamous frauds in Ohio archaeology” by the Ohio Archaeological Council.

Like the massive inscribed rock near Los Lunas, their supporters offer them as “proof” of the Semitic occupation of the Ohio country during the Pre-Columbian era. The stones began turning up just as the United States was about to devolve into Civil War, largely over the issue of slavery. They purported to be evidence of all humanity descending from Adam and Eve and the Biblical creation story related in Genesis. Thus, to the abolitionists in America, slavery was evil as Genesis clearly stated all humans were descended from the same parents. The stones included Hebrew letters; one stone contained the Decalogue, and they also contain carvings of various symbols associated with Freemasonry.

Regardless of being almost universally rejected as fakes, the five Newark stones remain a source of debate over their authenticity. In 2019, the Center for the Future of Museums, through its annual publication TrendsWatch Report, described the stones, “Fraudulent artifacts, bearing Hebrew inscriptions planted in Ohio mounds in the 1800s to promote a combined political, scientific, and religious agenda”. Despite being thoroughly debunked, there are those who continue to use the stones for similar reasons.

1. The Face on Mars

In 1976 NASA’s Viking 1 explorer mission sent back photographs of the surface of Mars. Viking’s primary mission was to obtain photographs to help NASA mission planners determine a suitable location for the landing of the subsequent Viking 2 mission. In July Viking 1 transmitted the photograph which appeared to be of a human face, in the midst of a rocky field, clearly (to some) fashioned by something other than natural conditions. The Face of the Man on Mars became a widely referenced topic in books, magazine articles, television programs, and even films. Those were the pre-internet days, and social media did not exist to make it go viral. But it became famous.

Officially NASA claimed the resemblance to a face was a mere illusion, caused by lighting anomalies, or obstructions. In 1998 a more sophisticated orbiter took further photographs of the area where the face was seen, and additional photographs have been taken since. The face does not appear in any of them, substantiating NASA’s contention the face was an illusion in the first photograph. Light and shadow created the face, which from other angles simply does not exist. It was a mirage, of sorts.

Debunked? Not according to some. At least one intrepid seeker of truth insisted NASA covered up evidence of life on Mars, including the Face on Mars. Some claim at least one more alien face has been uncovered by robotic explorers of the Red Planet. No matter how thoroughly some “facts” are debunked, there will still be people to support their existence, claiming they have “proof” governments are covering up the truth from the public they serve.

Viruses are a particularly fearsome “germ.” Though viral infections may resemble bacterial infections, antibiotics are useless against viruses. There are very few dedicated antivirals to kill them off. But who even knows if ‘kill’ is the right word to use for something that stretches the definition of ‘alive’? Viruses: they’re like microscopically tiny zombie-robots, hijacking cells and turning them into factories for themselves. But humanity can exploit viruses’ supremely odd workings and sneaky ways for their own purposes.

10. Blue Eggs

If you’ve ever wanted to find some green eggs for some Dr. Seuss-style green eggs and ham, you’re in luck. Thanks to a virus, you don’t even need the eggs of some exotic wild bird.

Most chicken eggs are white or brown, but a few chickens lay eggs that are green or blue. These breeds include the Chilean Mapuche breed, its descendant breed, the Araucana, and the Chinese Dongxiang and Lushi breeds.

Two things are responsible for the colorful eggs: viral infections and blood. Long ago, a Mapuche fowl was infected by a retrovirus, a virus which can insert its genetic code into the host’s. The retrovirus’s effect was to trigger the buildup of biliverdin in the eggshell, a breakdown product from a part of hemoglobin that can cause a greenish tint to bruises.

The Dongxiang and Lushi breeds developed their colorful eggs independently, but from the same viral cause. According to historical evidence, the Dongxiang breed has had the bluish-greenish egg mutation since at least 500 years ago, and the Mapuche fowl since between 200 and 500 years ago. The trait is autosomal dominant, so chickens need only one parent with the mutation to lay the colorful eggs. However, those who have both copies of the gene variant lay darker-colored eggs.

9. Tulip-breaking virus

For the beauty of a virus-infected egg, one only has to pay a little more than usual. But for a beautiful virus-infected tulip in the Netherlands of the 17th century, one had to pay a lot more.

Back then, some tulips mysteriously had beautiful streaking and feathering patterns. These are called “broken” tulips. They were so expensive, they could leave their owners “broke” too, as well as the whole Dutch economy.

In 1623, some bulbs were sold for 1,000 florins, when the average annual income was 150 florins. Due to their high price, it cost less for some citizens to get still-life paintings of “broken” tulips than the tulips themselves.

Their beauty was short-lived, as the broken tulips’ bulbs shrank over successive generations. Eventually, it could no longer flower, and soon died. No one knew what caused tulips to break. People turned to all sorts of odd things, such as pigeon dung, to try to reproduce the pattern.

It was later discovered a virus called a potyvirus made the tulips break. The infection spread through aphids or by contact with an infected tulip.The virus worked by affecting the distribution of the pigment anthocyanin.

Today, such tulips are still costly, but for the damage potyvirus poses to gardens rather than their beauty. Potyvirus-infected tulips, once so valuable, are now carefully weeded out of gardens. Now there are specially-bred tulips that mimic the patterns of a “broken” tulip, without the virus.

8. Electricity-Making Virus

Computer viruses were named after their biological counterparts. Now, biological viruses lead back to electronics.

Some solids build electric charges when compressed. This is called the piezoelectric effect, and it’s most well-known in quartz watches. The piezoelectric effect has several applications, but materials used to make piezoelectric devices are toxic and difficult to work with. This limits the widespread use of the piezoelectric effect.

Berkeley Lab scientists could change that with a virus. They used the M13 phage virus, which targets bacteria and is harmless to humans. It’s useful for several reasons: it multiplies itself by the millions, naturally arranges itself into orderly films like chopsticks in a box, and is easy to genetically engineer. The ease in genetically engineering it helps scientists boost its voltage, and its self-arrangement helps with the goal of self-assembly in nanotechnology.

The Berkeley Lab scientists tested their approach by making a generator. The generator works by tapping a finger on a stamp-sized electrode patch coated with viruses. The viruses then turn the force of the tap into electricity, producing enough current to operate a liquid-crystal display (LCD).

With this technology, future devices could be charged from the vibrations of everyday tasks, such as climbing stairs or shutting doors.

7. Battery Virus

Some computer and smartphone owners worry about viruses that can overclock their devices’ batteries and leave them with a useless metal brick. But biological viruses could do the opposite: make batteries better.

In 2006, scientists at the University of Massachusetts (MIT) used a virus called M13 to make part of a battery. This part, the anode, is part of a pair of poles in the battery with opposite electrical charges. In 2009, the scientists completed the tricker task of making the anode’s counterpart, the cathode.

To make it work, the scientists had to tweak two of the virus’s genes. The first gene made proteins in the virus’s coat. The modifications allowed bits of iron phosphate to stick to it and bulge “like tiny fists all along the length of the virus,” in the words of study co-author Angela M. Belcher. The second gene let carbon nanotubes attach, forming a network of millions of electricity-conducting viruses.

To make similar technologies, extremely high temperatures of about 660 degrees Fahrenheit (350 degrees Celsius) were needed. However, the researchers could turn M13 into a battery-making tool at or below room temperature.

According to Belcher, a third of an ounce (10 grams) of the virus battery could power an iPod for 40 hours. However, she believes it is more suitable for large, high-power things like electric cars.

In 2013, progress was made on that goal. With viruses, lithium-air batteries of electric cars could be greatly improved. The M13 virus was used to make manganese-oxide nanowires for lithium-air batteries. Unlike typically-made nanowires of the metal, the virus-made wires had a rough, spiky surface, which greatly increased the wires’ surface area. The increase in surface area could be a big advantage in the batteries’ charging rate. The process has other benefits, too, such as increased electrode stability and less need for expensive metals like palladium for the batteries.

6. Cancer-Fighting Viruses

Herpes and cancer: two diseases people really don’t want to talk about. But using herpes to fight cancer is definitely worth discussing.

Imlygic is a new anti-cancer drug. On average, it extends melanoma patients’ lives by less than four and a half months. This is barely statistically significant, but Imlygic is special: it’s made using a virus. To be specific, it is a live, infectious, modified version of HSV-1, the herpesvirus variety that’s the usual cause of cold sores.

Though Imlygic is not especially effective by itself, its flu-like side effects are mild compared to chemotherapy. When cells turn cancerous, their virus-fighting machinery breaks down. Herpesvirus prefers to attack cancer cells. When it attacks, the debris of burst-open cells alerts the immune system, and the immune system then targets the cancer cells.However, it is unclear whether the immune system targets all the cancer cells of the body, or only those infected by the virus.

Though Imylgic is the first to get approval in the US as a cancer treatment, it is not the only one in development. Tumor-killing viruses are a popular topic among scientists, and the idea has been around for decades. More virus-based cancer treatments may join Imlygic in the future.

5. Orange Virus Vaccine

It’s tradition to treat colds (which are caused by a virus) with orange juice. But, using viruses, the orange trees themselves can fight off bugs spread by bugs.

Citrus greening (or huanglongbing, to use the Chinese name) is a deadly disease for citrus trees. It is caused by the bacterium C. liberibacter, which is spread by sap-sucking insects.

Before citrus greening came around, the most devastating orange virus was the citrus tristeza virus. (or CTV) The virus was named after tristeza, a Portuguese word meaning “sadness”, for the sadness that came from the virus’s arrival.

Now these two major citrus pests will be pitted against each other, with the fate of the USA’s orange juice hanging in the balance.

Bill Dawson, a plant pathologist from the University of Florida, modified a local strain of CTV. With this, anyone could insert new bits of DNA into the virus’s genome and make it a protein factory. One of the world’s largest orange juice manufacturers, Southern Gardens Citrus, licensed the viral vector from Dawson’s lab. With the virus as a needle, all Southern Gardens needed was something to inject. The company chose genes from spinach, which coded for antibacterial proteins called defensins.

Southern Gardens plans on infecting trees with a harmless strain of CTV. Branches from CTV-infected trees would then be grafted onto other trees to spread the virus. As the virus copies itself, it becomes a spinach defensin factory, and the defensins destroy C. liberibacter.

Since the biology of the tree is not modified, orange juice from these plants would not have to carry a genetically-modified label. This makes getting regulatory approval much easier, sidestepping the issue of distrust of genetically-modified plants.

4. Food Poisoning Protection

It’s terrible to hunch over a toilet, waiting to throw up, and idly wonder which of the things you ate was germ-filled. Intralytix, founded in 1998, has a plan to give germs a taste of their own medicine, so to speak: it uses viruses to infect (and kill) bacteria that cause food poisoning.

Each of its products has a mix of viruses that target the same bacteria species.The company’s first product, ListShield, was approved in 2006. It is aimed at Listeria bacteria, which cause listeriosis, a kind of food poisoning with a death rate of about 20%.  ListShield is meant to be applied to ready-to-eat meats, such as deli meats and hot dogs. To kill off Listeria, ListShield is sprayed on meat and the drains, floors and other surfaces of a food processing plant.

Intralytix’s second product, EcoShield, is for the O157:H7 strain of E.coli. EcoShield is sprayed on meat before it is ground into hamburger to kill E. coli. In studies with government investigators, Sulakvelidze showed the product killed 95-100% of the E.coli strain within 5 minutes.

The two treatments are odorless, tasteless, invisible and non-corrosive. The concentration of phages in the liquid spray is 0.001%, making the product as harmless as water to anything but target bacteria.

Later, another company, Micreos BV, made its own phage treatments, Listex (P100) and Salmonelex. Listex (P100) targets a Listeria species, while Salmonelex targets Salmonella.

3. Antibiotic Viruses

Bacteriophages (or “phages”) are the natural enemy of bacteria. They copy themselves inside bacteria, and the bacteria eventually burst open with viruses.

In the 1920s and 1930s, doctors treated a variety of infections with phages. However, phage therapy had some problems. Scientists at the time did not know phages had to be matched precisely with bacteria targets to work, which made phage treatments unreliable. In addition, people sometimes became sick from the treatments because they were not purified properly.

After World War II, antibiotics were mass-produced. They were more reliable than phages, so interest in phages declined. Though phages were mostly forgotten in the United States, they weren’t forgotten in the Soviet Union. Due to the Iron Curtain blocking access to some of the best antibiotics of the West, the Soviets made do with phages and made phage therapy more effective. In the modern day, phage therapy administered in several forms, such as tablets, liquids, and injections, and remains a standard treatment in Poland, Georgia and Russia.

Unlike antibiotics, phages are very precise and leave the “good” bacteria of the body alone. With the rise of antibiotic resistance, phages might make a comeback in the English-speaking world.

2. Viruses killing other viruses

Ever heard the expression “fighting fire with fire”? Well, in this case it works, if by “fire” one means HIV.

In 2011, scientists at the University of California-San Diego and UCLA made a harmless version of HIV that relies on HIV to reproduce. This virus was called a therapeutic interfering particle, or TIP. By slowing the replication of the HIV virus, TIPs might give someone five to ten extra years before AIDS sets in.

The TIP’s genetic code was stripped to one-third of its original size, and it lacks important pieces needed to copy itself. The TIP can only copy itself by sneaking into HIV’s genetic code and copying when it does. TIPs also contain HIV-inhibiting sequences and compete for the same proteins as HIV. Leor Weinberger, the leader of the team that made TIPs, likens it to a “virus of a virus.”

According to Weinberger, TIPs could help with HIV “superspreaders.” These people, such as drug users, are responsible for a disproportionately large amount of HIV infection.

In 2016, scientists orchestrated another virus-on-virus match, this time between reovirus and hepatitis C. During childhood, reovirus can cause colds, but by adulthood most have been exposed to it and are immune. It’s like an early-game enemy: inconvenient at first, but a piece of cake once one’s gotten stronger.

In comparison, hepatitis C is like a final boss, one some find unbeatable. Hepatitis C is a common cause of liver cancer, and cancers originating from the liver is the third-highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide.

When this early-game enemy is pitted against the final boss…well, it’s the player (or rather the patient) who wins. When introduced to the body, reovirus stimulates a signal protein called an interferon, which activates a kind of white blood cell called a Natural Killer cell. In experiments on human cancer samples and mice, the Natural Killer cells then kill the tumor and cells infected with hepatitis C. The reovirus therapy could also be used for other cancers associated with virus infections, like Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphoma.

1. Humans Made by Viruses

In The Matrix, bad guy Agent Smith likens humanity to a virus, a disease of the planet. In real life, he’s right… to a degree.

More than 45 million years ago, a mammal was infected by a retrovirus. By turning their RNA-based code to DNA, retroviruses such as HIV can sneak their instructions into the host’s genome. Whenever the host’s cell copies itself, it also copies the virus. This ancient retrovirus happened to infect a germ line cell and so could be spread to the primate ancestor’s offspring.

17 years ago, in 2000, a team of Boston scientists discovered a strange gene in humans. This gene, called syncytin, coded for a protein made only by cells in the placenta.

The two events are related: syncytin comes from the virus.

While the virus used that gene to fuse with a host cell, a developing fetus uses the gene to fuse some placental cells into one single-celled layer. This layer is essential for the fetus to draw nutrients from its mother.

The syncytin protein comes in two varieties, the previously mentioned being syncytin 1. Reflecting its viral heritage, syncytin 2 tamps down the mother’s immune system and prevents the immune system from attacking the developing fetus.

HERV-K inserted itself as recently as 200,00 years ago, making it the newest of all retrovirus genes in humans. It activates important genes that help with embryo development, and its viral particles and proteins help protect very young embryos from infection by other viruses.

It is estimated that over 8% of human DNA came from viruses.