Not every monster gets its just deserts. In this top 10 sick roundup we dive into the darkest corners of the legal system, where loopholes, technicalities, and bizarre standards have let some truly twisted people slip back into everyday life. Buckle up for a wild ride through necrophilia, cannibalism, school shootings, and more – all the while wondering how these monsters managed to walk free.

Why These top 10 sick Cases Matter

10 Carl Tanzler

Carl Tanzler became infatuated with his patient, Elena de Hoyos, just as she was dying. Rather than accept death, he bought her burial plot, pocketed the key, and later exhumed her body, smuggling it straight into his own home.

Using plaster, wire, and wax, Tanzler turned Elena into a macabre, lifelike tableau, propping her up in his bedroom. He spent nights beside the corpse, constantly replacing decaying parts, outfitting her with fresh clothing, and even fashioning a paper tube as a makeshift vagina.

It took seven long years before a neighbor finally caught sight of Tanzler dancing with the corpse at his window. By that time, the statute of limitations had run out, leaving the courts powerless. Tanzler walked away without a single charge for his necrophilic obsession.

He even begged Elena’s family to hand over her remains. When they refused, he crafted a life‑size effigy anyway and spent the rest of his days cohabiting with a mannequin of his dead lover.

9 Rick Gibson

Rick Gibson isn’t a painter; he’s a performance artist who prefers to feast on human tissue in broad daylight.

In 1988 he bought a friend’s tonsils, strutted into a bustling market, and chewed them while holding a sign that proclaimed his cannibalism. A year later he escalated, swallowing fresh human testicles in front of the Lewisham Clock Tower.

Because English law doesn’t specifically outlaw cannibalism, and because Gibson legally purchased the body parts, the only penalty he faced was a modest £500 fine for indecency when he fashioned earrings from fetal remains.

His antics didn’t stop there. In 1989 he attempted to squash a live rat for a painting, but a vigilante crowd intervened, rescuing the animal before he could carry out his grotesque act.

8 Father Mario Cimmarrusti

During the 1960s and 70s, Father Mario Cimmarrusti abused more than 250 teenage boys, most aged 13‑18, and never spent a single night behind bars.

He would summon boys for “medical examinations,” only to spank them, force their faces into his groin, and humiliate them with threats, all while the abuse continued unchecked.

The Catholic hierarchy was aware; witnesses reported priests walking in on Cimmarrusti’s assaults and simply walking away without comment.

When the accusations finally surfaced in 1992, he openly admitted to the abuse during a psychological evaluation. However, the statute of limitations had already expired, allowing him to walk away free. He lived out his remaining years peacefully, passing away at 82 in 2013.

7 James Sligo Jameson

In 1890 the heir to the Jameson Whiskey fortune, James Sligo Jameson, decided to sponsor a grotesque spectacle: he purchased a ten‑year‑old girl as a slave solely to watch her being devoured by cannibals.

Jameson joined an expedition to the Congo under the guise of humanitarian aid, but his true fascination lay with cannibalism. He paid a local tribe six handkerchiefs for the girl, then presented her to a cannibal tribe, declaring, “A gift from a white man who wishes to see her eaten.”

The girl was bound to a tree, her abdomen slit open, and left to bleed out before being dismembered and consumed. Jameson observed the whole ordeal, later sketching the horror in watercolor.

When the story broke, Jameson sent his account to the press, never disputing the facts. He only clarified that his sketches were drawn from memory after the event.

6 Vince Li

In 2008, aboard a Greyhound bus, Vince Li stabbed and beheaded Tim McLean, a complete stranger, then proceeded to cannibalize his flesh while terrified passengers fled.

Because Li was deemed criminally insane, he was sent to a mental institution rather than prison. Canadian law grants such patients a full release once they no longer pose a threat.

By 2016 Li was living independently, initially subject to daily medication checks. By February 2017 those checks ceased entirely, leaving him completely free without supervision.

When Tim McLean’s mother learned of Li’s unrestricted freedom, she could only say, “I have no comment today. I have no words.”

5 Mitchell Johnson And Andrew Golden

In 1998, teenage duo Mitchell Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11) stole nine firearms and a crate of ammunition, setting up an ambush outside a middle school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Golden triggered the fire alarm, and as children streamed out, the pair opened fire, killing four kids and an adult.

Johnson’s criminal record already included molesting a two‑year‑old girl a year earlier, a crime he never denied yet faced no jail time. For the school shooting, the two received only seven years, as juvenile law capped their sentences until they turned 21.

The age‑based system, meant to protect youth, paradoxically let both boys walk free far earlier than most adult perpetrators, with Golden actually serving a longer term due to being younger.

Since release, Johnson has cycled in and out of prison, while Golden remains out, making them the only U.S. school shooters who have been allowed to roam free.

4 William Seabrook

Writer William Seabrook was obsessed with the occult, especially voodoo zombies, and his work helped cement the modern zombie mythos.

In the 1920s he traveled to West Africa, begging a tribal chief to let him join a cannibalistic rite. The chief duped him, offering only gorilla meat, but Seabrook refused to settle for anything less than human flesh.

Back home, he enlisted a hospital worker to smuggle out human remains, then hosted a dinner party where guests were invited to watch him consume the flesh. Since eating human tissue wasn’t illegal, he faced no charges and even chronicled the taste in his books.

His private life was equally unsettling: he kept wives and mistresses chained for days, whipping them and forcing them to eat off the floor like animals. Yet, none of these acts broke any law, allowing him to live his entire life unencumbered.

3 Pedro Lopez

Pedro Lopez spent 14 years behind bars for a staggering tally of over 300 murders and rapes, primarily targeting girls aged nine to twelve.

He abducted, raped, strangled, and buried his victims in mass graves. After his 1980 arrest in Ecuador, he confessed to the killings, and authorities uncovered a mass grave confirming his claims. He received a 16‑year sentence but was released early for good behavior.

Following his release, he was transferred to a Colombian mental health facility, only to be discharged after three years when deemed fit to rejoin society.

Almost immediately after gaining freedom, Lopez fled the country, and it is believed he continued killing. He remains a wanted man for a post‑release murder, but his whereabouts are unknown.

2 Karla Homolka

Karla Homolka, alongside Paul Bernardo, became one of Canada’s most infamous serial killers, confessing to the rape and murder of at least three women, though many suspect the body count is higher.

Her gruesome spree began with the drugging of her teenage sister, presenting her as a “wedding gift” to Bernardo. Together they raped and murdered her, filmed the atrocity, and repeated similar crimes with other young girls. Bernardo received a life sentence, while Homolka struck a plea deal, serving just 12 years before her 2005 release.

Since gaining freedom, Homolka married, bore three children, and now lives in a Quebec town. Her kids attend a public school, surrounded by teachers and parents fully aware of their mother’s horrific past, bearing the indirect burden of her crimes.

1 Issei Sagawa

In 1981, after years of suppressing cannibalistic urges, Issei Sagawa lured a classmate to his Paris apartment, shot her in the neck, and proceeded to dismember and eat portions of her flesh before raping the corpse.

Police caught him as he tried to transport the body in suitcases to a lake. He confessed fully, stating, “I killed her to eat her flesh.” French courts deemed him insane and unfit for trial, sending him back to Japan.

When Japanese authorities received him, the French refused to share case documents, leaving Japan without evidence. Consequently, Sagawa was released without charge.

He later turned his notoriety into a career, giving interviews, writing books glorifying the act, and openly declaring his desire to repeat the cannibalism, saying, “There’s no doubt in my mind that I want to eat human flesh again. It’s delicious stuff.”

When you picture pivotal moments in world affairs, you probably see bold leaders issuing decisive commands. Yet, every so often a simple bout of illness flips the script, and 10 times history got a surprising rewrite because someone fell ill.

10 Gone With The Wind Was Written To Kill Time While Healing An Ankle Injury

Now hailed as one of the greatest novels and films ever produced, Gone with the Wind stands as an American cultural touchstone. Scholars argue that the book reshaped how we view the antebellum South.

But the masterpiece would never have materialized if Margaret Mitchell had not been sidelined by a painful ankle arthritis. Immobilized, she turned into an avid reader, while her husband dutifully hauled her requested books home each day.

Eventually, weary of the endless trips, he gifted her a typewriter, urging her to entertain herself by writing. He quipped, “Peggy, if you want another book, why don’t you write your own?” That playful nudge birthed the manuscript that became Gone with the Wind.

Mitchell never intended to become an author. She would hide the draft beneath pillows or under rugs whenever friends visited. By 1929, her ankle had healed, and the manuscript was complete, yet she showed no desire to publish.

It took a decade before the book finally saw the light of day. A friend’s skeptical laugh—”Imagine, anyone as silly as Peggy writing a book!”—finally pushed her toward publication.

9 Farts Drove Hitler Crazy

Adolf Hitler suffered from chronic meteorism—a fancy term for excessive flatulence. He consulted numerous doctors, trying diets and remedies, but nothing proved effective until 1936 when Theodor Morell finally curbed the issue.

To treat his gas, Morell prescribed “Dr. Koester’s Anti‑Gas Pills” alongside weekly amphetamine injections. While the pills reduced the odor, they contained potent extracts of belladonna and strychnine.

Belladonna, a known poison, can trigger excitement, confusion, and hallucinations; strychnine induces agitation, fear, and restlessness. Starting in 1940, Hitler ingested twenty of these pills daily, in addition to regular amphetamine and cocaine doses.

The combined effect on his nervous system was profound: delirium, violent outbursts, paranoia, and vivid hallucinations became his norm.

High on meth, Hitler berated Mussolini at a 1943 meeting, fracturing an already strained alliance. As the war dragged on, his mental instability grew, culminating in a frantic, meth‑fueled final days in the bunker.

By April 1945, trapped in his underground stronghold, Hitler’s condition had deteriorated into a raving, paranoid frenzy. In his last hours, another dose of meth accelerated his descent, fueling the aggression and paranoia that accompanied his suicide.

8 Hong Xiuquan Got Sick, Thought He Was Jesus’s Brother, And 20 Million People Died

Hong Xiuquan is a relatively obscure figure in the United States, yet he ignited a civil war that claimed more lives than the American Civil War. Both conflicts unfolded simultaneously, but the Chinese upheaval lasted three times longer and cost roughly twenty times as many lives, also contributing to the downfall of the Qing dynasty.

The chain reaction began when a disgruntled civil servant suffered a fever. Hong, fascinated by Protestant missionaries, was reading their teachings when a sudden illness rendered him unconscious for four days.

During his coma, he experienced a vision: he was the younger brother of Jesus, taken up to Heaven, and witnessed a bearded figure urging him to “slay all the demons.”

Emboldened by this divine encounter, Hong’s movement gained massive traction. The “Heavenly Kingdom” doctrine, fueled by his fever‑induced revelation, framed dissenters as “demons”—those who doubted his teachings. This fervor sparked the catastrophic Taiping Rebellion, tearing apart an empire.

7 Communism Started As A Skin Rash

Karl Marx’s seminal work Das Kapital remains one of the most influential treatises in human history, laying out the blueprint for communist theory. Marx believed that a covert conspiracy among the wealthy suppressed the poor.

According to Professor Sam Shuster, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, Marx’s paranoia may have been sparked by a rare skin disorder called hidradenitis suppurativa. Beyond its painful boils and pus, the condition can generate feelings of exploitation and alienation.

Marx linked his personal physical suffering with the plight of the proletariat. The chronic torment of his skin condition helped cultivate a mindset that ultimately gave birth to communist ideology.

6 A White Woman Lost Her Voice, And Thousands Of Black People Gained Theirs

The blues emerged from the suffering of the Jim Crow‑era South, and record companies initially hired white women to cover the genre. Everything changed when Mamie Smith recorded “Crazy Blues.”

Smith became the first African‑American artist to be commercially recorded singing the blues. Her opportunity arose only because white vocalist Sophie Tucker fell ill and withdrew from a recording session.

Songwriter Perry Bradford persuaded the studio that audiences were ready to hear a Black singer perform a genre they had created. While the song itself became a classic, its true legacy lay in the explosion of African‑American recording artists that followed.

For the first time, Black blues and jazz musicians were recorded en masse, inaugurating the era known as classic female blues. Legendary performers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey entered the public ear.

In a decade that also saw the rise of Louis Armstrong, Robert Johnson, and Duke Ellington, it’s remarkable that Sophie Tucker’s illness opened the door for a flood of Black talent, reshaping American music forever.

5 A Torn Groin Killed JFK

In September 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s rampant womanizing culminated in a particularly vigorous encounter, leaving him with a torn groin muscle. Doctors ordered him to wear a stiff canvas brace that spanned from shoulder to groin to prevent further injury.

This brace forced Kennedy into an upright posture. Combined with a habitual back‑brace he always wore, the restriction rendered him unable to bend over. While most people would simply develop an awkward gait, for Kennedy the limitation proved fatal.

When the assassin’s first bullet struck, Kennedy remained rigid, unable to duck like Governor John Connally did. The stiff posture allowed Lee Harvey Oswald to fire three shots before Kennedy could react. Doctors Charles Carrico and Malcolm Perry testified before the Warren Commission that, had Kennedy not been constrained by the brace, he might have survived the initial wound.

4 Martin Luther Pooped Out A New Religion

The Protestant Reformation is credited to Martin Luther, yet his theological revolution was sparked by chronic constipation. Luther spent countless solitary hours on the toilet, where he contemplated and drafted many of his groundbreaking ideas.

It was on that very throne that he penned the famed “95 Theses,” the document that ignited the Reformation. Moreover, his formulation of Sola fide—”faith alone”—was also drafted while seated on the privy.

Luther’s writings are peppered with fecal metaphors, including references to “shitting on the Devil” and “breaking wind at the Pope.” He openly credited the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to the insights he received “on the privy in the tower.”

3 Napoleon Got Hemorrhoids And Lost His Empire

Waterloo remains one of history’s most iconic defeats, and its tragedy deepens when you learn that Napoleon’s loss may have been caused by painful hemorrhoids.

During a severe flare‑up, the French emperor could no longer ride his horses or issue clear commands. Even when he managed to communicate, his directions were erratic, prompting him to delegate authority to the inept Marshal Michel Ney.

In the days leading up to the battle, Napoleon attempted to treat his condition, but his physicians accidentally overdosed him on laudanum. The sedative left him drowsy, and he even fell asleep during the engagement.

This delay forced the battle’s start time to shift repeatedly—from a 6 a.m. kickoff to 9 a.m., and finally to noon. The postponement allowed Prussian forces to join the British, and Wellington later credited the reinforced coalition for turning the tide.

2 The First Time That A Door Defeated Nixon

While most recall the Watergate scandal’s duct‑taped door, an earlier incident involving a car door cost Richard Nixon his first presidential bid.

During the inaugural televised debate, Nixon’s sweaty, gaunt appearance eroded public trust. The root cause? A painful bang on his knee when he slammed a car door while exiting his vehicle.

He spent twelve days in the hospital, lying on his back to recover from an infection that followed the injury. Even after release, the lingering pain left him gaunt and feverish—his temperature spiked to 102 °F during the debate.

Exhausted and weakened, Nixon perspired profusely on stage, a visual that cemented his image as untrustworthy and contributed heavily to his electoral defeat.

1 The Throat That Caused A World War

Under Emperor Frederick III, the German Empire was moving toward liberal reforms, constitutional accountability, and a more democratic parliamentary system, while steering clear of aggressive militarism.

Tragically, his reign lasted only 99 days because he succumbed to a treatable laryngeal cancer. Misdiagnosed three times as a benign lump, Frederick never received the proper treatment that might have saved his life.

Had he survived, the trajectory toward World War I could have been dramatically altered. His successor, Wilhelm II, pursued aggressive diplomacy, naval expansion, and antagonized Britain, eventually leading the continent toward conflict.

Frederick’s brief, reformist vision hinted at a Germany that might have restrained Wilhelm’s ambitions through a strong parliament, potentially averting the catastrophic chain of events that culminated in the Great War.

Everything in moderation, as the old adage goes. As it turns out, 10 surprising ways the modern world is making us sick, and research keeps unearthing how our daily environment is quietly eroding our health. We may be living longer than our ancestors, but the present era isn’t exactly a health haven.

10 Feeling Guilty Can Damage Your Health

Every January, people worldwide set resolutions to ditch bad habits and kick‑start self‑improvement. A few weeks later, many start feeling a pang of guilt for slipping up. While a little guilt can be a motivator, too much becomes harmful. Feeling guilty isn’t just uncomfortable—it can actually suppress your immune system. Researchers at Hull University discovered that guilt‑laden individuals showed lower levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A in their saliva. So, if two friends unwind with wine and trashy reality TV, the one who feels guilty is more prone to catching viral and bacterial infections. In short, that “guilty pleasure” may be the reason you catch colds more often than a peer who simply calls it a pleasure.

9 Light Pollution

Astronomers say most Americans under 40 have never truly experienced darkness. Urban “sky glow”—where artificial light scatters off water droplets—creates a luminous dome over cities. Even inside homes, tiny LEDs on alarm clocks and TVs stay lit 24/7, and our bodies weren’t built for constant illumination. Light pollution in developed nations now reaches a point where it harms health. Physicist Eric Vandernoot notes that humans are hard‑wired for a light‑dark cycle; excess evening light is linked to diabetes, obesity, depression, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.

Sleep disorders are another major fallout. Light pollution may have reshaped how we sleep. Before the Industrial Revolution, people often slept in two four‑hour blocks separated by an hour or two of quiet wakefulness. Studies show that once artificial light is removed, many revert to this biphasic pattern. Even if you buy blackout curtains, streetlights still bathe neighborhoods in light. Turning off streetlights has been found to dramatically reduce crime—because even criminals need to see—but it also protects your circadian rhythm.

8 Added Sugar Is Worse Than You Realized

Sugar itself isn’t evil—glucose fuels the brain and body. The problem is that we now consume far more sugar than ancestors ever did, and too much of a good thing is dangerous. While our forebears got sugar from fruits and grains, today most added sugar sneaks into processed foods. The average American swallows about 27.5 teaspoons of added sugar each day. The brain’s satiety trigger gets blunted, making it harder to know when to stop.

Only recently have scientists fully grasped sugar’s damage. In the 1970s, public concern over dietary fat led manufacturers to replace fat with sugar, causing a spike in consumption worldwide. Excess sugar is now tied to high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, premature skin aging, dementia, brain damage, poor metabolism, and liver disease. Some researchers even suggest added sugar may damage DNA, putting it on par with alcohol and tobacco as a health hazard.

7 Climate Change

We know climate change is sickening Mother Earth, but it also threatens human health. Warmer oceans boost toxic algal blooms, such as Alexandrium catenella, which can poison seafood and cause vomiting to paralysis. Drier conditions lift dust into the seas, fostering dangerous bacteria; Vibrio‑related seafood poisoning has risen 85 % since 1996. Rapid urbanization strains sewer systems—Milwaukee, for instance, sees overflow with just 4.3 cm (1.7 in) of rain in a day. As flooding becomes more common, water‑borne diseases could re‑emerge in developed regions.

6 Lack Of Sleep

It’s a cliché, but in our fast‑paced world many people simply don’t get enough shut‑eye. Researchers warn that chronic insomnia, especially under six hours per night for men, dramatically raises early mortality. One study found 51.1 % of male insomniacs died within 14 years versus just 9.1 % of regular sleepers. The effect appears gender‑specific; women with chronic insomnia show only a slight mortality increase, perhaps because men experience more severe insomnia.

Insomnia isn’t lethal on its own, but it erodes health by denying the body time to recover. Long‑term sleep loss can cause irreversible brain damage by killing neurons. Night‑shift work further harms health, and “catch‑up” sleep on weekends doesn’t offset weekday deficits. In short, skimping on sleep is a silent killer.

5 Phones And Tablets

Beyond insomnia, the glow of smartphones, tablets, and e‑readers before bed sabotages sleep. Harvard Medical School ran a study where participants read a paper book for five nights, then swapped to an iPad for the next five. The iPad dramatically delayed sleep onset and reduced REM sleep, leaving participants groggy the next morning.

On a cellular level, bright screens postpone melatonin release by about 90 minutes, confusing the brain’s circadian pacemaker. According to Pew Research, 61 % of Americans aged 18‑29 keep their phones by the bedside to avoid missing updates. If you need a nighttime tech fix, consider a non‑illuminated Kindle, which won’t interfere with melatonin production.

4 Suppressing Anger

Refusing to voice constructive disagreement can wreak havoc on health. Bottling anger spikes stress hormones, shortening lifespans. While healthy anger can be adaptive—fueling risk‑taking—chronic, explosive anger links to high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, strokes, cancer, heart disease, and digestive trouble. A University of Michigan study found couples who suppressed anger faced higher mortality than those who argued it out.

Learning to manage anger effectively is vital, yet many people lack the tools, leading to low self‑esteem and broader mental‑health issues. Properly expressed anger can actually be a protective mechanism.

3 Antibiotics Can Kill Helpful Bacteria

The 20th‑century miracle of antibiotics saved countless lives, but it also carries unintended side effects. Humans host roughly ten times more bacterial cells than human cells, and antibiotics indiscriminately wipe out both harmful and beneficial microbes. Gut bacteria aid digestion and bolster immunity, so antibiotics often trigger diarrhea and stomach upset.

New York University researchers showed that newborn mice given antibiotics later developed metabolic disorders, as early‑life gut colonization was disrupted. This suggests that infants exposed to antibiotics may be predisposed to obesity and diabetes later. While judicious use remains essential, awareness of collateral damage is crucial.

2 Noise Pollution

A sudden loud bang can damage hearing, but the constant hum of modern life—traffic, sirens, fans—creates pervasive noise pollution. About 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous occupational noise annually, and many more endure “secondhand” noise. Hearing loss can lead to communication breakdowns, discrimination, reduced academic or work performance, loneliness, and depression.

Low‑frequency vibrations from traffic raise stress hormone levels, and the World Health Organization flags noise as a risk factor for heart disease. Chronic exposure also spikes blood pressure, disrupts sleep, provokes breathing problems, and can alter brain structure. Children exposed to high noise levels show diminished cognitive performance.

1 Retiring

Many Americans dream of working hard, then retiring to relax, but health‑wise the equation isn’t simple. A job you hate can damage mental and physical health; only 13 % of Americans say they enjoy their work. Even satisfied workers who log long hours—average workweek now 47 hours, with 21 % clocking 50‑59 hours and 18 % exceeding 60 hours—face health risks.

Retirement itself can trigger a decline in wellbeing. Compared to age‑matched peers who keep working, retirees are up to 40 % more likely to develop clinical depression and 60 % more likely to have a diagnosed physical ailment. While some ailments may prompt early retirement, the data underscores the importance of balance: neither over‑working nor extreme idleness is optimal for health.

Kristance is a freelance writer and travel addict living in Argentina. She’s that person who blurts out facts at awkward moments, blogs about her adventures on diggingtoroam.com, and adds quirky posts to instalaugh.tumblr.com. Her most exciting moment in 2014? Jewel retweeted her. Follow Kristance on Twitter for more.

When you hear the saying “hindsight is 20/20,” it feels especially true for the way many people have reacted to change—particularly when that change makes life easier, faster, or simply better. In this roundup we spotlight 10 even more modern conveniences that most of us now treat as essential, yet each of them initially ran into a wall of doubt, ridicule, or outright bans. Buckle up and travel through history to see how skeptics missed the memo and how these inventions survived the storm of resistance.

10 Cold Start for Ice Cubes

Living in icy climates meant you could harvest natural ice during the cold months, but turning ice into a worldwide commodity didn’t happen until the 1800s. Enter Frederic Tudor, a determined New England entrepreneur who spent years trying to convince people to buy blocks of ice he cut from frozen lakes. He eventually thought outside the box and reached out to the Caribbean, proposing that islanders might crave his frozen goods. When word got back to his Massachusetts hometown, neighbors laughed, calling his idea absurd. The Boston Gazette even mocked him, writing, “We hope this will not prove to be a slippery speculation.”

Undeterred, Tudor shipped a 130‑ton cargo of fresh and frozen water to Martinique in 1806. The islanders, bewildered, didn’t know what to do with the ice; they treated it as a curiosity rather than a commodity. Faced with melting blocks, Tudor improvised by whipping up as much ice cream as he could from the leftover water. Though his first venture cost him dearly, the experience taught him valuable lessons, and soon he built a thriving ice‑delivery empire that stretched from Louisiana to India.

Today, Frederic Tudor is celebrated as the “King of Ice,” though we like to call him the “King of Ices” for a snappier ring—think king of hearts, king of spades, king of ices. His story reminds us that what seems ridiculous at first can become a global industry.

9 The Skateboard Skates It to Stardom

The 1960s saw the birth of skateboarding, a pastime that quickly captured kids’ imaginations but terrified their parents. In 1965, Pennsylvania traffic safety commissioner Harry H. Brainerd warned in the Pittsburgh Press that skateboards were “an extremely hazardous fad,” urging parents to keep their children away until they learned proper safety rules. The fear wasn’t isolated.

By 1979, the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action petitioned the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban skateboards outright, claiming the design could never be made safe. Their argument fell flat as the sport grew, proving that the skeptics had misread the cultural tide. The skateboard survived the backlash, evolving into a global phenomenon and a staple of youth culture.

8 The Printing Press Prints Paper to Perfect Shame

When the printing press emerged in the late 15th century, not everyone celebrated its potential. Johannes Trithemius, a monk and scholar, penned an essay titled “In Praise of Scribes,” arguing that handwritten manuscripts were morally superior to printed pages. He proclaimed, “The word written on parchment will last a thousand years… the printed word is on paper… The most you can expect a book of paper to survive is two hundred years.”

Ironically, Trithemius’ prediction ignored the durability of rag‑based paper used in Gutenberg’s era, which has allowed copies of the Gutenberg Bible to survive for centuries. While he dismissed printed books as prone to spelling errors and poor appearance, the press proved him wrong, democratizing knowledge and reshaping society.

His lament serves as a cautionary tale: new technology often faces disdain from traditionalists, yet history tends to favor the innovators who broaden access to information.

7 The Cell Phone Calls on Reason

In 1981, telecommunications consultant Jan David Jubon expressed skepticism about the upcoming era of portable phones. Speaking to the Christian Science Monitor, he quipped, “But who, today, will say I’m going to ditch the wires in my house and carry the phone around?” Even the so‑called “father of the cell phone,” Marty Cooper, shared a similar doubt, telling a reporter that cellular phones would never replace wired systems because they wouldn’t become affordable in anyone’s lifetime.

Both Jubon and Cooper missed the memo. Within a decade, mobile phones became ubiquitous, reshaping how we communicate, work, and navigate the world. Their early misgivings highlight how even industry insiders can underestimate a technology’s disruptive power.

6 Sony’s Walkman Walks the Walk and Talks the Talk

When Sony unveiled the Walkman in 1979, many executives doubted its market potential. In his memoir Made in Japan, CEO Akio Morita recalled an engineer asking, “It sounds like a good idea, but will people buy it if it doesn’t have a recording capability? I don’t think so.” Even Sony’s own marketing team was skeptical, predicting the device wouldn’t sell.

Defying expectations, the Walkman captured the imagination of listeners worldwide. The Daily News of Bowling Green, Kentucky, reported in 1982 that the Walkman and its successors were “now clear… from Anchorage to Ankara” and had become a permanent fixture on people’s ears. Some municipalities even attempted to ban the device, fearing that headphones would distract pedestrians. In Woodbridge, New Jersey, a $50 fine still applies to anyone caught crossing the street with Walkman headphones, whether or not they’re playing music.

5 People Didn’t Want to Hear about Car Radios

By the early 1930s, the idea of listening to radio broadcasts while driving seemed futuristic. A 1992 article in Outlook praised the novelty, calling it “the very latest development of inventive genius for the amusement of the radio fan.” Yet the reaction wasn’t universally positive.

The New York Times highlighted concerns that car radios could cause drivers to miss critical sounds like horns or sirens, and imagined a chaotic scene where “fifty automobiles” broadcast a football game simultaneously. A 1934 poll of the Automobile Club of New York found that 56 % of members considered car radios a distraction and an unwanted addition to highway noise. Today, however, car radios are standard, and the idea of a silent commute feels almost absurd.

4 “Movies Don’t Need Sound!”

When talkies burst onto the scene in the Roaring Twenties, not everyone celebrated the new technology. Newspapers ran headlines such as “Talking Films Try Movie Men’s Souls,” and industry insiders labeled sound films “squeakies” and “moanies.” Director Monte Bell decided to test the market by commissioning three producers to create separate analyses—one championing silent cinema, another defending its continued relevance, and a third praising talkies as the future.

The experiment revealed a clear preference for sound; audiences and studios quickly embraced dialogue and audio effects. Critics who once decried the loss of silent artistry soon joined the chorus, acknowledging that movies without sound would feel incomplete in the modern era.

3 New York Times on Smartwatches: “Wearable Tech Could Cause Cancer”

In 2015, the New York Times published a headline suggesting that smartwatches might be as harmful as cigarettes. Nick Bilton, the technology columnist, initially framed the issue as a health crisis, prompting a flurry of criticism that forced the paper to soften the headline to “The Health Concerns in Wearable Tech.”

Bilton’s argument relied heavily on a 2011 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report that labeled cell phones “possibly carcinogenic.” He presented this as the definitive study, overlooking the fact that the IARC had merely noted a lack of conclusive data and urged caution. Subsequent research has not substantiated a direct link between smartwatches and cancer, and the initial alarmist tone is now viewed as a misstep in science reporting.

2 Motion Picture Association of America Tried to Get VCRs Banned

The MPAA launched a campaign in the early 1980s to curb the spread of home video technology. President Jack Valenti testified before Congress, warning that without protection, the industry would “bleed and hemorrhage” and likening the VCR to a “Boston Strangler” for the home viewer. The association initially pushed for legislation that would have effectively priced VCRs out of reach for most consumers.

Eventually, the industry settled on licensing rather than outright bans. By the late 1980s, VCR sales exploded, with 2.3 million units sold worldwide. The attempted ban serves as a classic example of how quickly the entertainment sector can misjudge consumer demand and the durability of new technology.

1 “Email Hurts the IQ More Than Pot”

A 2005 survey investigating the psychological impact of electronic communications revealed a startling claim: constant interruptions from emails, texts, and calls seemed to diminish concentration and even IQ scores more than marijuana use. Participants reported symptoms like dizziness, an inability to focus, and general lethargy. Some even described a drug‑like addiction to their devices.

Psychologist Glenn Wilson of King’s College noted that the participants’ biggest challenge stemmed from a lack of disciplined handling of electronic messages. One in five respondents admitted abandoning meals or social gatherings to answer a notification. While nine out of ten agreed that checking emails during meetings felt rude, many still considered it a sign of diligence—a paradox reminiscent of the Stanford Prison Experiment’s insights into human behavior.

10 even more: A Look Back at Resistance and Triumph

From frozen blocks shipped across oceans to tiny chips that fit in our ears, each of these ten even more conveniences faced a chorus of doubters. Yet history shows that when an invention truly improves daily life, it eventually overcomes even the loudest objections. So the next time you enjoy a cold drink, a favorite song on headphones, or a quick text, remember the skeptics who missed the memo—and celebrate the resilience of human ingenuity.

10 facts about body hair that will make you squirm are finally laid out here, because we all know the weird fascination (or revulsion) we have with those stray strands. Body hair isn’t just a fashion faux pas; it’s a full‑blown biological mystery that deserves a spotlight. Let’s dive into the ten most eyebrow‑raising, sometimes downright creepy, truths about the hair that grows on us.

10 facts about body hair you never considered

10 Sexy Beard Facts

If you imagine a silent, sound‑proof chamber, you might think you could hear each individual hair strand stretching in the night. That’s a tall tale, but the reality is that hair is the fastest‑growing tissue in the human body, outranked only by bone marrow, which churns out blood cells. It’s a quirky little fact that makes you appreciate how industrious those follicles really are.

Dreaming of a longer, fuller beard? The secret might be more intimate than you think: more frequent sex. Yep, libido and facial hair have a surprisingly direct connection.

When you’re gearing up for a romantic encounter, testosterone levels spike, sending a clear signal to the beard follicles that it’s time to kick into high gear. So while you’re enjoying the moment, your beard is secretly working overtime, growing faster than it ever has before.

9 Dandruff Is a Fungus

There’s an unwelcome fungal resident living on your scalp, and it goes by the scientific name Malassezia globosa. This yeast‑like organism is a normal part of the skin’s ecosystem for most newborns, coexisting peacefully until it decides to set up camp deeper in the follicle.

When Malassezia globosa dives into the hair follicles and makes itself comfortable, it triggers the classic symptoms of dandruff. The fungus accelerates the shedding of dead skin cells, pushing them to the surface faster than the body can manage, leading to those tell‑tale white flakes.

There isn’t a definitive cure for dandruff, but certain shampoos can keep it in check. Look for products containing zinc pyrithione, which helps calm the inflammation and control the fungal overgrowth.

8 You’re Going Gray for a Reason

While this fact may not make you sick, it certainly makes you think twice about your lifestyle. Stress and aging both diminish pigment production in hair follicles, resulting in those silver strands we all love to blame on our kids or our jobs.

The scientific term for gray hair is canities, a classy word that masks the biological drama happening at the follicle level.

Another surprising cause of premature grayness is internal bleaching. When hydrogen peroxide builds up inside the hair shaft, it acts like a self‑bleaching agent, stripping away natural pigment from the inside out.

And here’s a kicker: it’s not just the hair on your head that can turn gray. Every single hair on your body—be it on the arms, legs, or even the eyebrows—can lose its color, turning an entire canvas of hair into a monochrome masterpiece.

7 The Best Mop for Oil Spills

Hair possesses a unique chemical personality: it repels water (hydrophobic) but loves to soak up oil (lipophilic). This makes strands an excellent natural sponge for oil, so much so that people have actually used hair to help clean up oil spills.

Because of this property, sharing hats or helmets can unintentionally turn you into a carrier of other people’s oils. So next time you borrow a cap, remember you might be picking up a whole lot of greasy residue.

This isn’t a hypothetical scenario. Since the late 1980s, hair has been employed in real oil‑spill clean‑ups. Most recently, in 2020, a massive spill off Mauritius saw salons donate cut hair to create an eco‑friendly absorbent material, helping to soak up thousands of metric tons of oil.

6 Hair, Teeth, Nails, Skin, They’re All Made of the Same Thing

Keratin is the superstar protein that builds not only hair but also our teeth, nails, and the outer layer of skin. This tough protein is also found in animal hooves, claws, beaks, horns, feathers, and tails, highlighting its versatile structural role across species.

Ever wondered why “keratin shampoo” is such a buzzword? Manufacturers actually add keratin proteins to the formula to coat each hair cuticle, creating a stronger strand that resists frizz and breakage. Consistent use is key, as the protein builds up a protective layer over time.

With a regular keratin‑infused regimen, you can transform your mane into a glossy, model‑ready display—proving that science can indeed make you look like a runway star.

5 It’s Dead, Jim.

Every strand of hair you see is, in fact, dead tissue. The only living part resides deep within the follicle, where blood vessels supply nutrients. Once the cells exit the follicle and become the visible hair, they are essentially a collection of dead keratinized cells stacked like tiny shingles.

And contrary to the urban legend that hair continues growing after death, it actually stops. When the body ceases to circulate blood, the follicles receive no nutrients, so hair growth halts entirely.

4 A Witch’s Brew Will “Do”

Modern hair masks might seem odd, but imagine a 16th‑century physician concocting a potion of boiled slugs, emerald oil, honey, saffron, soap, and cumin, all rubbed onto the scalp in hopes of regrowing hair. While it sounds like a medieval horror story, this was a genuine attempt at a hair‑growth elixir.

That era also boasted some truly grotesque hair‑removal recipes, including a mixture of cat feces and vinegar, as well as a potent blend of boiled arsenic and quicklime. The earliest chemical depilatory, known as “rumsa,” originated with the Turks and combined yellow sulfate or arsenic, quicklime, and rosewater.

So, if you’re looking for a truly “hair‑raising” experience, you might want to stick with a simple avocado‑egg‑white mask instead of medieval alchemy.

3 You’ve Got Something Crawling Around, There

While your hair itself is dead, it serves as a cozy habitat for tiny, living creatures—specifically, the mite Demodex folliculorum. These microscopic organisms inhabit hair follicles, feeding on dead skin cells, oils, hormones, and other fluids.

Most commonly found on facial areas like the eyelashes, a single follicle can host up to 25 mites, and a female Demodex can lay numerous eggs within the same space. An overgrowth can contribute to acne, hair loss, rosacea, and various skin irritations, especially in individuals with weakened immune systems or high stress.

These mites spread primarily through direct skin‑to‑skin contact or via dust that contains their eggs, which are essentially tiny packets of dead skin cells and hair fragments.

2 The Life Cycle of a Hair

Humans are unique among mammals because we need to trim our hair regularly. Unlike other species that maintain a naturally tidy coat, our hair grows in distinct cycles, making regular cuts essential to avoid looking like a soggy cat.

Hair growth follows three phases: anagen (active growth), catagen (transition), and telogen (resting). Depending on its location, each strand reaches a predetermined length, pauses, then sheds. During the growth phase, hair elongates about 1 cm every 28 days, and a single strand can live up to five years before falling out.

1 You Don’t Have Pubic Hair on Your Face But…

Surprisingly, the hair on your face, underarms, and pubic region all belong to the same category: terminal hair. This type starts fine and soft, then thickens and darkens after puberty, thanks to the development of sebaceous (oil) glands.

While pubic hair’s sebaceous glands are smaller than those on the face, the underlying structure is identical. The term “terminal” simply reflects the hair’s mature, coarse nature, not its location.

So, even though it feels odd to think of a beard as a distant cousin of pubic hair, biologically they share the same roots—and that’s just a quirky fact about our bodies.

They say “hindsight is 20/20,” and when it comes to how people react to change—especially when something promises to be easier, better, or quicker—this saying rings especially true. That’s why we’ve assembled the top 10 modern conveniences that most of us now treat as indispensable, yet each of them once sparked fierce push‑back, bewildered skeptics, or outright bans. Keep scrolling to see how bizarre and stubborn public opinion could be, both in the past and sometimes today, toward inventions that ultimately reshaped our daily lives.

Why the Top 10 Modern Conveniences Matter

10 Vaccinations Were, Well Vaccines

Online harangues label today’s dissenters “anti‑vaxxers,” yet the opposition predates COVID‑19 by a century and a half. In the 1800s they were called “antivaccinationists,” a coalition that rallied against the small‑pox inoculation program and later against the very concept of deliberately introducing a harmless pathogen to provoke immunity. The movement sprouted in both the United States and England, spawning leagues that warned of bodily intrusion, loss of liberty, and even alleged health hazards. Even the ancient practice of variolation—deliberately infecting a person with a milder strain—was met with public alarm. While modern science ranks vaccination among the twentieth‑century’s greatest public‑health triumphs, the underlying fear of the unknown and a deficit of trust have kept the debate alive through the ages.

9 A Birthday Party Could Ruin A Kid’s Character

The Ladies’ Home Journal of 1913 ran a scathing editorial that warned parents that the burgeoning habit of children’s birthday celebrations was “a dangerous seed for the future.” The piece argued that such parties could corrupt a child’s moral nature, disrupt health, and even upset the whole physical system with sugary treats and excessive excitement. The author feared that the ritual would erode character, instill poor habits, and jeopardize happiness through needless indulgence. The tone was unmistakably alarmist, casting what we now consider a harmless rite of passage as a potential threat to both virtue and well‑being.

In today’s world, the same concerns sound absurd, yet the historical outrage reminds us how cultural norms can shift dramatically. From towering chocolate cakes to frosting‑filled chaos, the very celebrations once decried as harmful have become cherished family traditions.

8 The Bicycle Would Cripple You—Or Worse

During the Victorian era, the medical establishment launched a full‑scale panic against the two‑wheeled contraption, especially when women dared to ride. Physicians claimed that cycling would corrupt a lady’s graceful gait, turning it into a “plunging kind of motion,” and warned of bizarre ailments like “bicycle foot,” “bicycle hand,” and the dreaded “bicycle face,” allegedly caused by wind‑blown strain. They even suggested the sport would masculinize women’s frames, rendering them too robust for genteel society. In short, the doctors of the day treated the bicycle as a menace to health and propriety, refusing to recognize its potential for exercise and freedom.

7 A Refrigerator Cost A Fortune

An American couple in the early 1920s faced a classic dilemma: “Honey, should we buy a new refrigerator or a new automobile?” The husband argued that a fridge would spare them frequent trips to the market with a horse‑drawn wagon, while a car would grant them freedom to shop whenever they wished. Their wife suggested buying both, only for the patriarch to interject that the refrigerator would cost far more than the car. The reality was stark: a Ford Model‑T sold for about $260, whereas a Frigidaire refrigerator fetched roughly $450—nearly double the price. For a household earning $2,000 a year, the fridge alone represented a staggering 35 % of annual income.

Initially, ice‑harvesting businesses and vested interests resisted mechanical refrigeration, fearing loss of livelihood. Yet the technology eventually won out, ushering in modern kitchens and spawning frozen‑food empires such as Birds Eye. The anecdote underscores how a seemingly simple appliance once seemed a luxury beyond reach.

6 Coffee Was Satan’s Drink

When coffee first surged through the Ottoman Empire, its invigorating brew earned the moniker “Satan’s Drink” from Roman‑Catholic and Protestant critics, who viewed the caffeinated potion as a threat to moral order. Sultan Murad IV even threatened execution for anyone caught sipping it, yet the habit persisted. Pope Clement VIII, after tasting the beverage, famously declared it “delicious enough that it would be a pity to let the infidels enjoy it alone,” thereby granting the drink papal approval. From the hostile streets of Istanbul to the sanctified halls of Rome, coffee’s journey illustrates how a simple bean can become a flashpoint of religious and cultural controversy.

5 Taxis Were Deemed Necessary (By One Man)

In 1907, a disgruntled New Yorker named Harry N. Allen was slapped with a $5 fare for a quarter‑mile ride in a horse‑drawn cab—a sum equivalent to about $130 today. Fed up, Allen launched the New York Taxicab Company, importing 65 French gasoline‑powered vehicles, painting them a garish green‑and‑red, and deploying drivers across the city. The novelty soon sparked a rivalry with horse‑drawn cabs, and the fleet’s visibility led to the iconic yellow paint scheme we recognize today. Allen’s entrepreneurial spark turned a personal grievance into a lasting urban fixture, proving that a single complaint can reshape a metropolis’s transportation landscape.

4 The Umbrella Was Persecuted

When English philanthropist Jonas Hanway first appeared on London’s streets brandishing an umbrella, the public reacted with derision. In 17th‑century Britain, the device—imported from France—was deemed a feminine accessory, and crowds jeered Hanway as “effeminate” and even shouted “Frenchie,” the ultimate insult of the era. Cab drivers, fearing that a man with a “brolly” would forgo rides in the relentless rain, hurled rotten fruit at him. Undeterred, Hanway persisted, eventually normalizing the umbrella as a practical rain‑shield for both sexes. His perseverance turned a mocked oddity into a staple of everyday life.

3 The Airplane Was A Toy

In 1911, French General Ferdinand Foch—later an Allied commander in World War I—dismissed the fledgling airplane as “interesting scientific toys” with no military value. This assessment came despite the Wright brothers’ eight years of successful flights and the burgeoning use of aircraft for reconnaissance. Just eight years later, a Curtiss seaplane completed the first trans‑Atlantic crossing, shattering Foch’s skepticism. The episode highlights how even high‑ranking officials can underestimate revolutionary technology, mistaking a future cornerstone of warfare for mere frivolity.

2 The Laptop Would Die

Back in 1985, a New York Times editorial proclaimed “Laptops Are Dead—Or Will Die,” arguing that portable computers would remain prohibitively expensive and that no one would want to lug a machine while fishing or enjoying the outdoors. The piece failed to anticipate the coming explosion of the World Wide Web, Wi‑Fi, and ever‑dropping hardware costs. Ironically, Nikola Tesla had already conceptualized wireless communication decades earlier, yet the skeptics of the 1980s missed the impending digital revolution that would make the laptop an essential tool for countless professionals and hobbyists alike.

1 The Light Bulb Was Unworthy

In 1878, a British parliamentary committee was tasked with evaluating Thomas Edison’s incandescent lamp. The panel concluded that the invention was “good enough for our Transatlantic friends, but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men.” Their dismissal reflected a British bias that dismissed an American breakthrough as merely adequate for overseas use, ignoring its potential to revolutionize lighting worldwide. Had they embraced Edison’s work, the committee might have illuminated the path forward much sooner.

Top 10 American Inventions You Can’t Live Without

Everyone has a bunch of foods that they like, another set of ones that they hate, and a whole lot of “it’s fine, I guess” in between. 

However, there are some very special foods that don’t readily fit in any of those categories. These are the foods that really make you feel something, and not in the greatest possible way. They might taste fine, but contain ingredients that wreak havoc on your body in ways you could never believe. They might give out a smell that sends even the proudest skunk sulking in the corner. They might be extremely healthy, unless you make a small mistake that completely flips the script. The dangers they pose come in many forms, but they all have one thing in common: They’re the foods with the ability to make us sick. 

10. Chili peppers

When you’re talking about foods that make people sick, there’s no denying that chili peppers must be included on the list, simply because of the sheer physical reaction they incite. The capsaicin that the heat comes from is the same stuff they use in pepper sprays, and though its heat doesn’t actually burn us, a strong enough pepper will be able to convince your brain that its hotness is of the touching-the-stove variety. Which, as anyone who has eaten hot enough chili peppers can attest, is no picnic when you just ate said hot stove.

Perhaps surprisingly — or unsurprisingly, depending on your personal stance on spicy food — the fact that chili peppers can make us physically sick doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily bad for us. In fact, they’re pretty healthy. They might sometimes taste like hell incarnate, but chili peppers are very rich in minerals, vitamins and an assortment of beneficial substances. They have also evolved to repel harmful bacteria, which keeps them from spoiling and, ironically, prevents you from getting sick.

Still, “It’s actually pretty healthy” is probably not going to be the first thing on your mind if you eat a ghost pepper on a dare.

(Please don’t eat a ghost pepper on a dare.)    

9. Raw oysters

Oysters and other molluscan shellfish are delicacies that are commonly eaten raw, which is all fine and well — if the water is clean. The problem here is that they’re filter feeders, and as you can imagine, the whole “filter” part means that the dirtier the oyster’s home waters are, the more nasty stuff it contains. Lots of things can affect the oyster’s cleanliness, from the presence of fecal bacteria and biotoxins to rainfall and river flows. Basically, if your oyster lived in a sewer, you’ll eat the worst bits of the sewer. 

Apart from the various possible problems the oyster’s eating habits bring, there’s also the fact that you have to be very, very healthy to be able to safely eat a raw oyster. There’s a long list of health conditions and diseases that basically overrule your ability to eat raw shellfish, ranging from the fairly unsurprising (cancer, various metabolism and/or gastrointestinal conditions, drinking too much alcohol) to borderline commonplace (diabetes). 

Should you eat a raw oyster and be unlucky enough to be in a risk group and see the risk become reality, you could be looking at a whole array of illnesses, or even death. The Virginia Department of Health mentions that the delicacy could give you hepatitis A, norovirus, or Vibrio infection — which means a wide selection of potential symptoms that include (but are not limited to) “vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, stomach pains, severe weakness,” or perhaps “skin rashes and blisters, shaking chills, and high fever.” That’s a pretty heavy schedule, even disregarding the possibility of death mentioned earlier.

8. Ackee fruit 

Ackee fruit was imported to Jamaica from West Africa, and its uniquely creamy, buttery tang proved popular enough that it’s now their national fruit. There’s just one minor problem: you have to wait until it’s ripe before eating it, and be really, really sure that it is before you eat the thing. Otherwise, it can literally make you sick. There’s even a disease named after the adverse effects of the fruit: “Jamaican Vomiting Sickness.” 

Unripe ackee pods contain tons of hypoglycin, a poison gas that eventually goes away when the pods ripen and open. Crack a pod open too early, and the remaining poison can kill you. If it doesn’t, it’s Jamaican Vomiting Sickness time. The symptoms can be exactly what you can probably imagine, but if you’re really unlucky (though not quite “dead” unlucky), you might also look into symptoms like “coma, convulsions, delirium, toxic hepatitis, acute dehydration and a state of shock.” Yeah, Jamaica isn’t messing around when it comes to national fruits. 

7. Kidney beans 

There are few foods that are more unassuming and innocent than red kidney beans. If anything, you’d expect them to be full of healthy substances which, to be fair, they are. However, red beans also have some sneaky ways to make you sick.

Correctly prepared kidney beans are fine and safe and good, provided you enjoy kidney beans. However, raw kidney beans have tons of phytohaemagglutinin, a tongue-twistingly named protein that’s toxic. As such, incorrectly prepared kidney beans run the risk of giving you kidney bean poisoning, which is basically diarrhea and vomiting — only, it can get so bad that you have to be hospitalized.

Another, stranger badly-cooked-kidney-bean danger comes in the form of antinutrients — a group of substances that wreck your digestive system’s ability to absorb nutrients. This might not seem like a huge deal in countries where people could generally afford to lose a few pounds. However, it can be a major issue in developing countries that heavily rely on beans for sustenance.  

6. Cassava

Cassava is a starchy root crop that comes in two rough varieties: bitter and sweet. Well, three varieties, if you consider “poisonous” to be one.

As a highly flexible source of carbs that can be used in a variety of ways — including flour — cassava is a huge deal in some countries, such as Uganda. Unfortunately, there’s one catch in dealing with the root. Unless you follow a proper detoxification process that involves soaking, drying and scraping it before turning it into anything edible, it’s going to contain a ton of cyanogenic glucocide. Yep, we’re talking about cyanide, here, and if there’s enough of it in the cassava, eating it could make you seriously sick — or even be fatal. 

This isn’t just a theoretical situation, either. Cassava cyanide poisoning outbreaks absolutely happen. In one September 2017 instance, 98 people were poisoned in Western Uganda, and two of them died. 

5. Durian 

Here’s what you need to know about the durian. In the summer of 2020, a post office in Schweinfurt, Germany received a strange, vile-smelling package that launched a large-scale evacuation operation. 12 workers received medical treatment, and a total of 60 postal folks were swiftly evacuated as a full house of emergency workers, firefighters and police descended upon the nefarious package. 

It contained four durian fruits.

The durian is a tasty and incredibly nutritious fruit that’s so popular in Southeast Asia that they call it “the king of fruits.” Its creamy flesh and sizeable seeds are often used in cooking, and the whole package comes with just one minor drawback: The flesh smells awful. Like, evacuate-a-Bavarian-post-office awful. 

The German incident was not an isolated one. In 2019, the University of Camberra library in Australia was evacuated because a durian in a trash can was mistaken for a gas leak. In 2018, a similar situation caused the evacuation of over 500 students and staff at the University of Melbourne. In 2015, another smelly durian alert took place on the British island of Jersey. We could go on. 

So, there you are. The durian might not be the most dangerous or poisonous thing on this list, but the fact that it can single-handedly cause an evacuation of hundreds of people just by smelling awful is nothing short of a superpower.  

4. Hot dogs

Look, hot dogs aren’t necessarily sickening. Unless they haven’t gone bad, or you haven’t let them fester on the table for hours on end, or you avoid checking how they’re actually made, there’s no reason to suspect that they’d make you sick. 

However, you absolutely can choke on them. Hot dogs are the perfect size and shape to be a severe choking hazard for kids, especially if you cut them wrong. It’s not just a “babies can’t eat properly” thing, either. In 2014, an adult competitive eater choked to death on a hot dog. When a Washington Post journalist started digging around, it turned out that hot dogs are a leading cause of choking for kids under 14, and the situation was serious enough that the American Academy of Pediatrics has demanded that the shape of the hot dog should be redesigned.

We actually find ourselves in support of that idea, both because it’s terrifying that a 13-year-old can apparently just randomly choke on a hot dog, and because we kind of want to see just what shape a redesigned hot dog would be. Good luck to vendors trying to stuff the dodecahedron dog in a bun with dragged-through-the-garden trimmings.  

3. Sannakji 

It’s one thing to choke on food, but a completely another one when the food actively tries to choke you. That’s what sannakji, an esteemed, yet controversial South Korean delicacy, can do to you.

Sannakji is, essentially, tentacles of a small octopus dipped in sesame oil. The catch is that they’re so very, very fresh that they’re still wriggling. Some even enjoy eating the whole octopus rare. You can probably guess where the health hazards come in — the wriggling tentacles mean that they’re a choking hazard, and it doesn’t exactly help that their still-active suction cups could very well grab the inside of your throat, with potentially deadly results.       

Apart from the health risks the dish posits, animal rights activists have pointed out that the fact that the tentacles are moving mean they must still be alive, which would make the existence of the dish sheer torture for the animal involved. According to octopus expert and author Peter Godfrey-Smith, they might very well have a point. “It is not clear where the [octopus] brain itself begins and ends,” he has written. “The octopus is suffused with nervousness; the body is not a separate thing that is controlled by the brain and nervous system.” Such points, combined with the fact that the tentacles still respond to outside irritants, have caused some to believe that the sannakji octopi are still alive in their own, strange way. Could that be why they try to strangle the folks eating them from the inside?

2. Casu Marzu 

Cheese is always a little bit touch-and-go on the “making you sick” front. Sure, a slice of cheddar slowly melting on a burger patty is a thing of pure glory, but there are other cheeses. Wild cheeses. Dangerous cheeses. Cheeses from the scary side of town, with the weird blue veins and a smell that clears your sinuses from a block away. And then there is Casu Marzu. 

Casu Marzu is essentially a hard, Sardinian sheep’s milk cheese, with one significant spin on the theme: It’s completely infested with tiny, wriggling maggots. This is no accident, either. Local cheese makers specifically invite Piophila casei flies to make the cheese wheel their home by cutting a small opening in it and leaving it in the open. The idea is that once the flies lay their eggs in the cheese and the larvae hatches, the excretions involved will react with the cheese’s protein and fat, which makes it nice and creamy. 

Once the cheese starts leaking, it’s good to eat — at least, for a given measure of good. The cheese is described as a strong, gorgonzola-like thing with a strong smell and a slightly acidic taste, but there’s one little caveat: The maggots are still there, and they’re jumping around. Yep, the cheese maggots can jump “a few inches,” which means that when the wheel is unsealed, you should protect your eyes to avoid being blinded by a shower of kamikaze maggots.   

The maggots must be alive at this point, because if they’re already dead, the cheese has gone bad. However, you shouldn’t actually eat them alive, because they can damage your digestive system, causing nausea, pain, and/or vomiting. So, if you really want to taste the maggot cheese despite all obvious drawbacks, you’re faced with a choice: Either risk it and eat the jumpy maggot cheese with its inhabitants still alive — or mash them to death, and then eat their home. From their point of view, you’re the destroyer of worlds either way.

1. Pufferfish 

Pufferfish chef must be one of the most stressful occupations on the planet. Sure, they don’t have to dive with sharks, or wrestle alligators, or open the store doors on the morning of a Black Friday sale. However, they toil away every day, knowing with absolute certainty that a slightest mistake could result in the death of a human being. 

There are over 120 species of pufferfish, and they get their name from their unique defense method of rapidly expanding into a hard-to-eat ball by rapidly filling their stomach with water. Nearly all of them also have another, less strange but infinitely more dangerous weapon at their disposal: They’re poisonous. Very, very poisonous. Your average pufferfish contains enough of the highly toxic tetrodotoxin (which is 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide) to kill 30 humans. That’s a whole lot of poison, and the situation’s not made any easier by the fact that there’s no antidote.

This wouldn’t be a problem if pufferfish tasted like urine-soaked rubber bands. Unfortunately, some pufferfish taste pretty awesome, and are considered a delicacy. Enter the Japanese dish known as fugu, which is very expensive, and requires a specially trained and licensed expert to make. Prepare the dish incorrectly, and it’s so poisonous that despite its comparative rarity, as of 2018 it still caused an estimated 50% of serious food poisoning deaths in Japan. 

It’s not a particularly nice way to go, either. Tetrodotoxin starts slowly numbing and even paralyzing your body roughly 20 minutes to three hours after the meal, and if things get really serious, the paralysis eventually stops you from breathing.

No one likes to be sick, and in the age of Covid this hits home more than ever. The moment you get a cough or fever, you have to wonder if it’s just a cold or something worse. And even if it’s not a devastating and lethal illness, if you’re sick with anything, you’re going to be dealing with symptoms that make your life miserable, even if only for a few days. So when that happens, try to take some comfort in knowing that, as awful as you feel, each one of those symptoms is doing a job and trying to help you in some way.

10. Vomiting

Emetophobia is the technical term for a fear of vomiting and a surprising number of people suffer from it. Though, in a severe form, it’s rare. In general, as much as 8.8% of the population has at least a mild fear of throwing up. It’s not hard to understand, either, since vomiting is not all that enjoyable. So why does it have to happen at all?

Well, from a very basic standpoint, it seems clear that you vomit because your insides want something outside and they can’t wait. And that’s exactly what’s happening. Something has triggered your digestive system to suggest you ingested something bad. A toxin, a poison, something that is a severe irritant and your body no longer wants it around.

There are mechanical reasons for vomiting as well, such as conditions that affect the nerves and muscles in your stomach, or even stress, but that’s a different issue. As a symptom of an underlying virus or infection, vomiting is your body’s way of trying to speed your recovery by forcing the thing making you sick right back out.

9. Shivering

With many illnesses, you’ll find yourself running between temperature extremes. One minute you’re cold and the next hot. And while a fever has its own purpose, which we’ll mention shortly, what’s the point of feeling cold and shivering? 

Shivering when you’re sick and feeling cold is essentially stage one of a two stage process. The second part often leads to a fever, but they need to go hand in hand. Your body wants to heat up to fight off infection, but it can’t do that out of nowhere. You need to make the heat somehow and that’s what shivering is for.

Your muscles begin contracting and relaxing rapidly. That physical process creates heat. Once your body has reached a high enough temperature, the shivering stops and then a fever sets in. 

8. Fever

The process by which a fever works in your body is not something most people consider. You get sick, sometimes you get a fever. On a deeper level, many of us understand that this increase in temperature is your body’s way of trying to fight off an illness. But how?

Fevers can be triggered by a number of illnesses, be they infections or viruses, and more. Your body is reacting to something it understands as undesirable by producing white blood cells in a greater abundance. These white blood cells stimulate your hypothalamus, which is what generally keeps your body in balance. One of the things it maintains is temperature. In simple terms, it turns up your internal thermostat so you get hotter than normal. 

As blood vessels contract, your blood goes away from the outside of your body to the inside. You shiver, producing more heat, and your body warms up. 

Most viruses and bacteria function in a host body at a stable temperature. They can only handle so much variation. Your immune system forces your temperature to rise in an effort to kill off as much of the invading pathogen as possible and return you to good health. The problem, of course, is that a fever that goes too high can be a danger all on its own. 

7. Runny Nose

When you’re sick, everything in your body seeks to get the cause of the sickness out and, more often than not, it can only do that in a gross way. In the case of a runny nose, your body needs to amp up mucus production in the hope that whatever infectious thing is inside of you gets stuck and oozes out. 

With something like a cold, the pathogen making you sick managed to get past the mucus lining in your body, which is a natural filter. Your body responds by making something called cytokines, which are proteins that can move between cells and send signals throughout your body. In this case, they signal your immune system to increase mucus production. 

Excess mucus is used to clean the mucus lining and flush out any contaminants or pathogens that may have infected it. It’s like your body trying to powerwash itself from the inside, basically. Without this excess mucus production, you would be more inclined to either stay sick or get sicker.

6. Coughing and Sneezing

The dreaded cough is one of the first and most notable signs of a myriad of conditions that plague us, especially during the winter. Cold and flu season are the cough’s natural habitat. Like vomiting, coughing is a reflex action your body takes when it senses something that it doesn’t want inside of it. Unlike vomiting, it’s a little less picky about how it operates.

Basically, anything that irritates your breathing is going to cause coughing. That’s why a cold makes you cough, but so does smoking or getting a nose full of pepper by accident. Your body has sensed something that doesn’t belong in it and is trying to force it out with a blast of air that can actually propel things outwards at up to 50 miles per hour.  Sneezing performs essentially the same function.

As we just saw, mucus production is a by-product of many illnesses, so, in those cases, coughing is a complementary action that helps clear your airways to ensure you can keep breathing. On the other hand, various proteins in our immune response can cause inflammation in our throats and airways as a method of combating infection or viruses. A by-product of this is also a cough, since your airway is inflamed. The cough itself may not be eliminating anything in those cases. In general, however, both a cough and sneeze are working to remove pathogens from your airways.

5. Sore Throat

So what tends to come along with a cough, a fever, and excess mucus? A sore throat. Something like a chronic cough can exacerbate a sore throat and make it feel worse, but it’s not typically the root cause of a sore throat. That’s actually something we just mentioned when dealing with coughs – inflammation. 

You can think of inflammation as similar to a localized fever. The places in your body that become inflamed when you’re sick get red, they swell, and they warm up. Your body is trying to fight off something in that specific location where inflammation has occurred. Many of us think inflammation is caused by what’s wrong with us, but technically, is your body trying to fix what’s wrong with you. 

The inflammation triggers the production of white blood cells that go to the inflammation site to combat whatever infection is plaguing you. When the white blood cells and antibodies reach the site of the swelling, they put pressure on nerve endings. These two things together create the feeling of your throat being thick and swollen, as well as in pain. Uncomfortable though it may be, it’s a sign your body is working as it should to fight off the illness. 

4. Loss of Appetite

Getting sick often means losing your desire to do almost anything. And while you may not be in the mood to physically run around and do things, even necessary biological imperatives like eating can take a back seat. Loss of appetite is a very common symptom of many conditions. 

Blame the cytokines again for this one, as the suppression of appetite is a method your body uses to focus on healing. Digesting food can take up as much as 15% of the energy your body expends in a day. When you don’t eat, that energy can be used instead to help fight off the illness that you’re battling. 

The other potential reason is that, if you’re vomiting because you’re sick with an infection that’s giving you stomach issues, it’s pretty clear you don’t want or need to be putting more food inside of yourself at that moment. So your body is holding off on the desire to eat until you’re physically able to do so. 

3. Pus

Pus is probably one of the most unpleasant substances made in the human body. It’s thick and can sometimes smell just awful. It’s also a prime indicator of a seriously bad infection. But it’s not the infection itself, it’s your body’s response to an infection. As off putting as it may be, if you didn’t have the ability to produce pus then you’d probably be in a pretty bad way.

When you have an infection, pus builds up around it. It’s just white blood cells looking to eliminate that infection. Problems arise when the infection is worse than your immune system can handle. For instance, a foreign body can’t really be destroyed by white blood cells, so an infection will grow. Likewise, an abscess may only get larger as tissue dies and the infection grows bigger than your immune system can manage. 

Consider, however, that if you couldn’t produce pus, then your first line of defense against infection wouldn’t exist and even a small skin infection could potentially become deadly.

2. Drowsiness

For many of us, getting sick means spending the day in bed. Even when you go to the hospital, they put you in a bed. It’s probably the most prescribed treatment in the world for nearly every conceivable condition. So the fact that getting sick often makes you drowsy makes a lot of sense. 

Sleep is necessary for life, even if we don’t fully understand the mechanisms of everything that happens when you’re out for the night. But we do know it allows your body to take the time to repair itself from damage. When sick, sleeping is especially beneficial since you’re not wasting time on waking endeavors. Everything from digesting to thinking to moving takes energy your body could be using to heal when you’re awake. You’re just more efficient at healing when you’re asleep. 

Research has shown that in worms, certain nerve cells release neuropeptides when they’re ill. These neuropeptides stamp down the nervous system and make the worms fall asleep so they can heal. It’s been speculated a similar process is occurring in humans as well. 

1. Sickness Behavior

Sickness behavior may sound like a vague term, but it kind of has to be. It’s a blanket term for that hard to describe feeling when you know you’re sick. It’s everything we already described, and then how you deal with it when you experience it. You feel slow and gross and tired and weary. It doesn’t matter which sickness you have, sickness behavior is how you personally deal with it.

Cytokines and other proteins are at the root of your sickness behavior, the suite of awful symptoms you feel when you’re ill. And while some of the individual things have functions, which we’ve covered, the overall feeling of awfulness seems to exist as a measure of preservation and isolation. You feel awful to keep yourself from getting up and doing anything else. A sort of self-quarantine, really. Stop the spread of illness to others, stop the strain on yourself, and just focus on recovery.