A town is generally accepted as any region bigger than a village and smaller than a city. It has its own government, name, and boundary, complete with marketplaces and people spread throughout the area. However, some towns have turned out to be very unique, including those built to look like other towns, and those built and then not inhabited. Some towns have only one resident, while the residents of other towns all live under one roof.

10The Villages
Florida

The Villages is a town in Florida that was built for retired people. It covers an area larger than Manhattan, and has over 100,000 inhabitants—most of whom move around in golf carts. In fact, it holds the Guinness World Record for assembling the longest golf cart parade in the world, with 3,321 total golf carts. The town—where children are forbidden—is also home to controversies and scandals. Old men and women have been caught making out in golf carts, and the men are known to fight over women. There is also a black market for Viagra, which costs about $12 for a single pill.

Unsurprisingly, the town—which has 10 women for every man—has also seen a massive rise in sexually transmitted diseases. In 2006, a gynecologist said she encountered more cases of herpes and human papillomavirus in the town than she did when she worked in Miami. Inhabitants are also known to drive under the influence (in golf carts), use illegal drugs, and engage in bar fights.

9Busingen Am Hochrhein
Germany

Busingen am Hochrhein is a German town in Switzerland. The town is separated from mainland Germany by a narrow strip of land, which measures about 700 meters (765 yards) at its narrowest point. Considering its unusual location, Busingen am Hochrhein is more of a Swiss town than a German one. It also enjoys public services from both Switzerland and Germany. It has a Swiss postal code (8238 Busingen) and a German postal code (78266 Busingen). It also has two telephone codes: +49 7734 (for Germany) and +41 52 (for Switzerland).

In case of an emergency, the Swiss or German police can be called in, although the Swiss police usually arrive first. Everybody living in Busingen is allowed to work and own properties in Switzerland, even if they do not possess Swiss citizenship. And, if a German citizen lives in Busingen for more than 10 years, he or she receives a special status similar to Swiss citizenship. The town’s football team—FC Busingen—also plays in the Swiss football league.

But the town never started off like this. Back in the 14th century, it was ruled by Austria. After the Lord of Busingen was killed by members of a nearby Swiss town, Austria vowed not to hand over the town to Switzerland. They later handed it over to a neighboring German town, and it was eventually claimed by Germany. In 1919, 96 percent of the locals voted to leave Germany and join Switzerland, but the Swiss wouldn’t offer anything in return, so the German government threw a fit and refused to let them go.

8Whittier
Alaska

Almost all of the 200-plus inhabitants of Whittier, Alaska live inside a single 14-story building called Begich Towers. The rest live in their vehicles, boats, or another, similar building. Begich Towers was built in 1956. Back then, it served as an army barracks, but today, it is a town complete with a police station, post office, store, church, video rental shop, playground, and health center—all located inside the building.

The only way to access the town is either via sea or through a 4-kilometer (2.6 mi) one-lane tunnel which has gates that open twice every hour, allowing cars in or out of the town. The tunnels close at night and do not reopen until the next day. Before 2001, the tunnel could not accommodate vehicles, and the only way to get to the town was a 100-kilometer (60 mi) train ride. Then, trains ran only few times a week. During summer months, Whittier gets about 22 hours of sunlight, and during winter, it could get covered in over 6.35 meters (250 in) of snow.

7Colma
California

The town of Colma, California has more dead people than living people, with 1,500 living inhabitants and over 1.5 million dead inhabitants. The history of the town can be traced back to the Gold Rush of 1849 which led hundreds of thousands of people to migrate to nearby San Francisco. They brought diseases and, subsequently, death. By the 1880s, the 26 cemeteries in the town had been almost filled and, by the late 1880s, cemetery owners began constructing cemeteries in southern Colma because it was easily accessible.

In March 1900, San Francisco’s government banned new burials within the city. They said this was necessary because the land was too valuable to be used as cemeteries. Later on, in January 1914, cemetery owners were ordered to remove all bodies buried in San Francisco. Politicians said that the cemeteries spread disease, but the cemetery operators believe it was because of the rising cost of real estate. Nevertheless, the operators removed the bodies, and moved them to Colma, leaving it sprawling with graveyards. Today, over 73 percent of Colma’s land is destined to become cemeteries.

6Monowi
Nebraska

Monowi was founded by Czech migrants in northeast Nebraska, and it has only one resident: 77-year-old Elsie Eller. Population-wise, Monowi is the smallest jurisdiction in the US. Elsie runs the town’s only tavern and library, which is made up of about 5,000 books owned by her late husband, Rudy. She also serves as the town’s mayor, clerk, and treasurer. She also runs the council. In the 1930s, the town had a population of about 150 people, but by 2000, it had two: Elsie and her husband, Rudy. Elsie’s husband passed away in 2004, leaving Elsie as the town’s lone resident. Every year, Elsie pays tax to the town to maintain its four streetlights and provide other basic amenities. Several abandoned buildings in the town are covered with grass, slowly fading into obscurity, while others have collapsed.

5Ordos
China

The city of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, has been called the largest ghost town in China. It was built to accommodate more than a million people, but only 2 percent of it was ever occupied. The remainder is unoccupied and was left to decay. The history of the town began more than 20 years ago during the coal rush of Mongolia. Investors soon began building apartments, hoping to rent them out. However, demand didn’t keep pace with the builders, and many investors pulled out or went broke before the buildings were even completed.

Today, streets are filled with incomplete houses. Even the completed buildings are hardly occupied thanks to their high prices. Many of the residents occupying the town are also leaving for elsewhere. In just five years, price per square foot fell from $1,100 to $470. To encourage people to come to the town, investors have reduced prices. Fresh graduates who move to the town to start a business are even given office space, Internet connections, and several other utilities for free.

4Longyearbyen
Norway

Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen in Norway is the northernmost city in the world. It contains the world’s northernmost church, ATM, museum, post office, airport, and university. In Longyearbyen, dying is forbidden. Anyone found ill or dying is immediately flown by airplane or ship to another part of Norway before he or she passes away. And, if someone suddenly dies there, they would not be buried.

Dying is forbidden because bodies buried in the town’s cemetery do not decompose thanks to its extreme cold weather. Scientists recently removed tissue from a man who died years ago, and discovered that it contained traces of a deadly virus that caused an epidemic in 1917. Aside from not being allowed to die, citizens are also allowed to move around with high-powered rifles, thanks to the over 3,000 polar bears hanging around. Cats are also forbidden because they pose a threat to the bird population.

3Asymmetric Warfare Training Center (AWTC)
Virginia

The Asymmetric Warfare Training Center (AWTC) in Virginia is an uninhabited town built by the US Army to train its soldiers. The town is complete with a school, church, mosque, train station, and a five-story embassy that’s likely the tallest building in Virginia’s Caroline County, where it is located. It also has a gas station, football field, bank, subway, and bridge. The school is built to replicate schools in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the subway resembles that of Washington, D.C. The trains even have the same logo as those found on trains in Washington. Costing $90.1 million to build, it is run by the US Army Asymmetric Warfare Group.

Another similar town is called Yodaville. It was built in the middle of the Arizona desert by the US Air Force. The uninhabited town, built to look like towns in Iraq and Afghanistan, is meant to teach Air Force pilots how to carry out bombing runs.

2Marloth Park
South Africa

Marloth Park is close to the Kruger National Park, which is filled with wildlife including lions, hippopotamuses, and crocodiles. What makes the town unique is that, despite the dangers of having these wild animals close by, residents are not allowed to build fences around their houses. The only fence that separates the townspeople from the park is a small 1.2-meter (4 ft) fence that was built more to keep humans out of the park than to keep the animals in.

It is not unusual to see wild animals walking about the town. Baboons are known to enter houses through windows to steal from the refrigerators, and giraffes and elephants are known to block the road. Lion attacks on humans are also not uncommon. Eyebrows were raised when a lion attacked, killed, and ate a burglar fleeing with his loot, leaving only his head and a foot. Even after the deadly attack, most of the town’s occupants want the lions to remain. Some said the burglar was shot while escaping, and his corpse was eaten by lions. Others said the lions would serve as a form of crime control for the town, which was seeing a rise in burglary.

Cyclists are often the victims of attacks. This belies underlying race issues in the town, as most of the town’s residents are white and have cars, while the bicyclists are mostly black people who commute there for work. One cyclist managed to escape an ambush staged by four lions, abandoning his bicycle and fleeing to safety. Townsmen have nicknamed people riding bicycles at night “meals on wheels.”

1Hallstat
China

The real Hallstat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Austria. The Chinese Hallstat is a similar mock-up town built in Guangdong province, China. The town, which cost about $940 million to build, looks like the real Hallstat, including its roads, church tower, and wooden houses. The town’s construction was sponsored by a Chinese millionaire, and it caused quite a stir among residents of the real Hallstat who were not aware of the project.

Residents of Austria’s Hallstat (including the mayor) later visited the town. They said they were proud that their town was copied (it wasn’t like they could do anything about it), but they did not like the way the Chinese went about it. They were supposed to have met with the owners of the buildings they copied and asked if they were comfortable with the idea of replicating their buildings elsewhere, rather than just building them. The company that built the mock-up town, called Minmetals, had sent several of its workers to Austria’s Hallstat where they took pictures of places to replicate.

Elizabeth is an aspiring writer and author.

We all love a good festival. Community gatherings to celebrate everything from the coming of spring to a good harvest or religious milestones have occurred around the world since man first learned how to party. Many of these events are time-honored traditions, steeped in history and local custom. Modern festivals celebrating food, music, and culture are happening every week somewhere around the world.

However, there are also some truly bizarre festivals that make the barn dance in the hay shed look positively boring. Some are based on traditional ceremonies, others have commercial origins, and a handful are held in support of a good cause. From jumping over babies to mud fights and a parade of all things phallic, here are some of the most unusual festivals from around the world.

10 Boryeong Mud Festival
South Korea

Tourists and locals alike are happy as pigs in mud during July in the town of Boreyong in South Korea. For two weeks, the Boryeong Mud Festival draws millions of visitors from around the globe. Here, you can wallow in mud along the coastline and enjoy the cosmetic benefits of the mud’s mineral qualities.

The festival began in the late 1990s to promote the region’s mud-based cosmetic products but has developed into a major tourist event. Truckloads of mud are laid out on Daecheon Beach, where festivalgoers enjoy mud wrestling, mud skiing, mud slides, and even body painting with specially colored mud. You can also enjoy a rejuvenating mud massage.^[1]

9 Kanamara Matsuri
Japan

You wouldn’t imagine finding a penis-themed festival anywhere in the world, let alone in Japan, a culture often associated with modesty. The Kanamara Matsuri festival in honor of all things phallic arose from a local phallic shrine. According to legend, a large iron phallus was constructed to thwart a penis-eating demon and enshrined outside the village. Prostitutes would come to the Kanayama Shrine to pray for protection from certain occupational hazards, namely STDs.

In modern times, the focus has shifted to fertility for young married women, and the festival also raises funds for research into HIV. Each April, three large phallic shrines are paraded through the streets for an hour-long parade. At the end of the parade, festivalgoers can feast on local foods as well as phallic-shaped lollipops and carved fruit or even try their hand at a spot of penis-carving with fruit.^[2]

Not surprisingly, a large number of novelty souvenir items are also on sale.

8 Night Of The Radishes
Mexico

Fancy refining your pumpkin carving skills to something a little smaller? Carved radishes are the feature of a Christmas festival in the Mexican city of Oaxaca.

Noche de Los Rabanos (Night of the Radishes) began during the 19th century, when market stall holders aimed to attract Christmas churchgoers to sample their wares in the village square with intricately carved radishes to decorate the Christmas table. December 23 was officially proclaimed the Night of the Radishes in 1897.

Tourists and locals alike flock to admire carvings themed on everything from traditional nativity scenes to historic local culture. Radishes for the event were initially sourced from local farmers. However, the popularity of the contest has grown to the point where a dedicated radish plantation has been established outside the city to provide contestants with material for their artistic sculptures.

A large cash prize is up for grabs today for the best carved radish display.^[3]

7 Hair Freezing Contest
Canada

Winter in the North is so cold that you wouldn’t imagine setting foot outside without headwear in case your hair freezes. Yet in Canada, there is an entire festival dedicated to creating the most bizarre frozen hair sculptures. In February each year, the town of Whitehorse, Yukon, holds the annual International Hair Freezing Competition.^[4]

With temperatures at around minus 20, festivalgoers converge on the Takhini Hot Pools to create their icy coiffures. Simply soak your head in the water, and when you lift it out, the freezing air outside will complete the sculpture for you. The winners are announced in March.

6 Pidakala War
India

Being hit by a flying cow pie is said to bring the utmost good luck in an Indian village in the Pradesh region. Each April, villagers of Kairuppala hurl cow dung at each other at the end of their Ugadi festival.^[5] The bizarre street fight is said to bring health, prosperity, and rain to anyone fortunate enough to be hit by the smelly missiles.

Thousands gather to watch the reenactment of a mythical marriage dispute between the goddess Bhadrakali and Lord Veerabhadra Swarmy before eventually celebrating the nuptials. If you happen to be injured by a piece of flying cow dung, never fear: It is said to contain special healing qualities.

5 Monkey Buffet Festival
Thailand

Visit most animal sanctuaries around the world, and you will be asked not to feed the animals. However, in Thailand, there is an entire festival dedicated to feeding the monkeys. On the last Sunday of November each year, the residents of Lopburi, one of the oldest cities in Thailand, prepare a massive banquet specifically for their resident monkeys.

Long-tailed macaques inhabit the ancient Khmer ruins and also freely roam the streets of Lopburi, gnawing on everything from food scraps to electricity cables. However, the monkeys are considered to be descended from the Monkey King and to bring good luck, so the locals are unwilling to engage in any sort of pest control. Instead, they hold a banquet in their honor, and local residents decorate their homes with fruit sculptures to attract good fortune and prosperity from the long-tailed inhabitants.

The festival is held at the ruins, where huge banquet tables of fruit, salads, and sticky rice are set out for the monkeys to share with festivalgoers. Just don’t be surprised to find a monkey perched on your head to share your food.^[6]

4 International Worm Charming Festival
England

Catching worms might not be everyone’s idea of a fun way to spend a day, unless you are a keen fisherman looking for some fresh bait. Nevertheless, hundreds of people flock to a small town in Devon for an annual worm charming festival. The event is held each May in Blackawton.

Teams of three are allotted a small field, from which the aim is to collect the most worms in 15 minutes. Contestants can use any means to entice their worms to the surface, including tapping like a bird, using a fork, or pouring liquid on the surface. This was apparently how the idea of the worm farming festival was conceived. A couple of pub patrons relieved themselves in the sand on the way home and were amazed to see worms wriggling to the surface.

The competition itself is over in a very short time, but there are numerous other activities throughout the day to entertain festivalgoers.^[7]

3 Underwater Music Festival
United States

Singing in the shower is a popular pastime, but an entire music festival held underwater can be found off the Florida Keys. The event was established in the 1980s to raise awareness for preserving the Keys’ coral reefs.

Divers and snorkelers hit the water each July to watch musicians dressed as fish and mermaids “play” on mock nautical-themed instruments, such as the “fluke-a-lele” and “trom-bonefish.” Those in the water enjoy ocean-themed music streamed from the local radio station via underwater speakers. “Landlubbers” can still enjoy a range of festival activities on the shore.^[8]

2 Water Gun Festival
South Korea

There’s nothing like a good water fight to cool off on a hot summer day. A festival in the Sinchon district of Seoul, South Korea, has taken the fun to a whole new level. The festival originated as a bit of midsummer fun for the local college students to beat the heat and has developed into one of the most popular summer festivals in Seoul.

Festivalgoers, sometimes in fancy dress, battle it out amid the music and market stalls with water guns of all shapes and sizes. If you happen to wander into the water battle zone unarmed, you can purchase a weapon on-site and join in the fun.^[9] Included in the events on the day is a “water gun wedding,” a whole new take on the Western “shotgun” wedding.

1 Baby Jumping
Spain

There are some unusual baptism traditions around the world, but the baby jumping festival in Castrillo de Murcia, Spain, may be the most bizarre in the Western world. Since the 1600s, local villagers have brought their babies to be blessed during the Feast of Corpus Christi in June each year.

During the El Salto del Colacho (Devil’s Jump), men dressed as the Devil, wearing red and yellow suits, jump over babies laid on mattresses in the streets. The “Devil” cracks a whip and clacks castanets as he jumps to ward off evil spirits, before the babies are sprinkled with rose petals. Though it was originally only a local custom, people from around the region now bring their babies to be blessed in the somewhat bizarre ritual.^[10]

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

Sheep leap through the minds of insomniacs, and for some, that is about as interesting as these creatures get. However, sheep are not just farm animals waiting to become mutton. They are at the cutting edge of lifesaving technology and revealed a solid clue about a mysterious and devastating autoimmune disease.

Studies aside, sheep stories are often weird. There was the Auschwitz sacrifice, sheep enrolled in a French school, and a dramatic cliff rescue that got up the RSPCA’s nose.

10 The Pit Hybrids

Around 400 BC, an Iron Age group lived in southern England. In 2015, archaeologists happened upon the ruins of their homes and found several pits. In the absence of refrigerators, the villagers had cunningly dug holes in the chalky ground that kept edibles cool.

These “fridges” appeared to have had a life span of about a year. Afterward, they were ritually decommissioned by leaving a sacrifice within. Most offerings consisted of whole animals like dogs and pigs. Others were weird mixes. There was a six-legged sheep and another sheep with a cow’s skull on its behind.

Apart from the sheep-cows, there were horse-cows and a woman. Cut marks on the woman’s shoulder suggested that her throat had been cut. That was not the only thing suggesting that she was also a sacrifice. This could not have been a burial because locals never buried their dead during this era. Also, her facedown body was arranged to match the limb positions of the animals on which she rested.^[1]

9 Methuselina

According to Guinness World Records, the oldest sheep that ever lived was 28 years and 51 weeks old. During her lifetime, she produced 40 lambs. However, she passed away in Wales during 1989.

The next living oldest sheep was Lucky, an Australian ewe that was a Polwarth-Dorchester cross. After she died in 2009 at age 23, Guinness World Records searched for a new champion. As it turned out, it was a sheep called Methuselina. She lived on the Isle of Lewis and Harris, close to the coast of Scotland.

The blackface sheep’s age was recorded on her ear tag. When she died in 2012, she was 25 years and 11 months old. She never received the title of “world’s oldest sheep” because her owner never applied for recognition with the record-keeping organization.^[2]

Sadly, as her demise was not natural, Methuselina could have grown to be a lot older. The sheep fell off a cliff to her death.

8 The Auschwitz Demonstration

Auschwitz was the biggest death camp used by the Nazis during World War II (1939–1945). Located in southern Poland, over a million people were killed because they were “undesirable.” These included Jews, Poles, Romas, prisoners of war, and others. The site is now a museum.

In 2017, a group of people decided that it would be the perfect location for a demonstration. While nude, they gathered at Auschwitz’s iconic entrance and chained themselves to the gate. That was just the tail end of their tasteless act, which started with fireworks in the car park and a huge banner with “love” written on it draped over the gate.

The 12 protesters did not practice what the banner preached. In full view of everyone, they slaughtered a sheep. The demonstrators also filmed the whole thing using a drone. The museum guards eventually pried the naked people off the gate and arrested them.^[3]

In 2018, the group was convicted of desecrating the site. Their claims of protesting against the war in Ukraine did not help. Two were sent to prison for a year, and the rest were fined.

7 The Wales Rescue

In 2019, a ewe took a tumble off a cliff in Wales. She was unhurt, but the animal became trapped on the rocks. A Canadian tourist arrived at the cove in Pembrokeshire and noticed the sheep down below. The unnamed man’s decision to attempt a rescue was photographed by Andrea Williams, a walker who noticed the unfolding drama.

Remarkably, the ewe stayed calm and even allowed the man to haul her back up the cliff by the scruff of her neck. When the photos hit Williams’s Facebook account, people quickly lauded the man’s actions as kind and heroic.

The RSPCA was not so fond of the Canadian, whom they said had performed a “dangerous stunt.” The Coastguard agreed, and both organizations called for people to contact trained professionals in the future.

Williams’s husband, a retired police officer, felt that the man had put himself in minimal danger. The Canadian had climbed carefully, and had he dropped into the sea, the water was only 3 meters (10 ft) deep.^[4]

6 They Go To School

In 2019, French parents heard that a class at a local school might shut down due to dropping student numbers. They were understandably upset. After all, the “drop” was small. For some reason, the national education authority decided it would be the best move after numbers went from 266 to 261.

The primary school, located in the French Alps, served the village of Crets en Belledonne. One of the village’s farmers took his flock of sheep and went to the school. He had a plan.

After arriving at the school, he produced birth certificates for 15 sheep and enrolled them as students. In most other places, the act would have caused a legal incident, a call to the police or animal welfare, or perhaps a psychiatrist.

However, in this case, the woolly students were signed up during a ceremony watched by the school’s staff, children, and the kids’ parents. Although the sheep never sat through a history lesson or received homework, the initiative worked. The class stayed open.^[5]

5 The Dolly Clones

Dolly the sheep was born on July 5, 1996. She was the first cloned mammal. But despite making history, the ewe’s medical problems were obvious. When she was a year old, Dolly’s DNA was already aging. At five, she limped about with arthritis. A year later, she died from a virus. Her six-year-old life was usually twice as long for the rest of her breed.

As time went by, Dolly was often cited as proof of cloning’s failings. To test the rumor, the University of Nottingham cloned 10 lambs from Dolly using the same technique that created her. They were born in 2007, and only four survived longer term.

For health comparisons, the four “Nottingham Dollies” were raised with other sheep. The latter consisted of non-Dolly clones and normal sheep. They were given a peaceful life, and nine years later, the scientists announced that the four Dollies were looking healthy for their age.

Only one had developed moderate arthritis. It would appear that cloning does not accelerate aging as their cardiovascular, joint health, and metabolic levels were the same as other nine-year-old sheep.^[6]

4 World’s Oldest Sperm

In 1968, the University of Sydney froze the sperm of prize merino rams. The batch sat in liquid nitrogen for 50 years. As it was considered to be the world’s oldest sperm, scientists were curious about how time had affected its quality.

Once thawed, the semen appeared to be as active as samples frozen for only a year. To test for fertility, 56 ewes were artificially inseminated. Just 34 gave birth. However, the 61 percent pregnancy rate was higher than the 59 percent average from sperm stored for 12 months.

The lambs were healthy but more wrinkly than normal merino offspring. This trait was inherited from their sires, who lived during a time when merinos were bred to have more folds. More skin meant more wool.

The wrinkles were later erased from the breed because they made shearing difficult and increased pest problems. Having lambs with extinct characteristics was welcomed by modern geneticists. Also, their successful births meant that endangered species—and men undergoing fertility-killing cancer treatments—can have their sperm saved for decades.^[7]

3 The Blood Vessel Experiment

Children with certain heart defects sometimes need to have their blood vessels replaced—in particular, those linking the heart and lungs. The material of current reconstructed vessels cannot grow with a child. This unfortunate mismatch means that patients must receive up to seven surgeries to replace old vessels with larger ones.

In 2016, researchers tested a new technique on five-week-old lambs. They replaced the animals’ own heart-to-lung blood vessels with something grown in a tube. The graft began as sheepskin cells that grew into a sheet. After a while, the cells were flushed out and left behind a protein-based structure that was implanted in each lamb.

The first success came when their immune systems accepted the transplants. Best of all, the blood vessels grew with the maturing lambs. When they were a year old, the vessels functioned almost like normal adult arteries. Once refined to meet human standards, the procedure could reduce the operations for children to a single surgery.^[8]

2 The Multiple Sclerosis Link

Multiple sclerosis (MS) interferes with spinal cord and brain communication, often with devastating symptoms. Doctors do not know the triggers, and there is no cure.

Past research already showed that MS patients had more antibodies to a toxin called epsilon. In 2018, a study tried to gain more clarity on the matter. The University of Exeter analyzed 250 volunteers, half of whom had MS. Once again, they found a massive toxin difference between the two groups.

Around 43 percent of those who had the disease displayed antibodies for epsilon. The MS-free group’s level was at 16 percent. Interestingly, the toxin is created by the bacterium Clostridium perfringens.

The organisms mainly live inside the gut of sheep. Statistics also showed that the MS rate is usually higher in areas with large numbers of sheep. However, this does not mean that hugging a lamb will cause multiple sclerosis.

All researchers can say for sure is that a link exists between the toxin and the disease. If proven beyond a doubt, the information can help researchers to design a vaccine capable of preventing or curing the early stages of MS.^[9]

1 Artificially Born Lambs

In the United States, the leading cause of infant mortality is extremely premature births. Such babies are born before the 26th week of pregnancy. In 2017, scientists tested an artificial womb designed to save early infants. Eight lambs were chosen as test subjects. They were also premature, having only reached 100–115 days of a normal 152-day sheep pregnancy.

In terms of human babies, their lung development was the equivalent of an infant at 22–24 weeks of pregnancy. Survivors that age often have chronic lung problems for life. The aim was to keep the animals alive for long enough to ensure healthy organ development.

After the lambs were placed inside the artificial womb, they lived in and breathed a liquid like amniotic fluid and received nutrient-rich blood. Some survived as long as 28 days, opened their eyes, and developed normal organ function. Most of the lambs were euthanized for investigative reasons, but two of the sheep are still alive and living on a farm.^[10]

The artificial womb worked. However, years of additional tests are required before it can receive the first human baby.

Most of us just want to pee and flee the bathroom. Urine does have its fans, though. Scientists are coddling the warm liquid to grow vegetables on Mars and generate electricity from pee-powered batteries.

The fluid is also central to several weird moments and studies. From walls that nobody wants to urinate against to advertisements that readers can pee on, our bladder brew is far from boring.

10 The Pool Pee Test

People like to pee in swimming pools. Unfortunately, chemicals in urine react to compounds in the water and form by-products that can be harmful. There is no effective way to know how much urine visitors deposit in your pool with a straight face.

However, in 2017, toxicologists from Alberta found a way to track some of it. First, the team needed a chemical excreted by urine that did not change within the body or water. They chose an artificial sweetener called acesulfame potassium, a packaged foods mainstay.

The study scooped water from 22 swimming pools and eight hot tubs from two Canadian cities. It also collected tap water, which had been used to fill the pools and tubs.

The concentration of the sweetener was up to 571 times greater in the pools and tubs than in the tap water. Based on the levels of acesulfame potassium, the pools contained 30–75 liters (7.9–19.8 gal) of urine depending on their size.^[1]

9 The Urine Database

Pee is a chemical wonderland. In 2013, after seven years of investigating the chemical composition of urine, scientists finally had the full picture. As it turned out, human whiz holds a staggering amount of chemicals. The team logged over 3,000 compounds and published an online database for anyone interested in the unusual encyclopedia.

Bacteria brewed the least, around 72 chemicals. The body produced 1,453, but the most—around 2,282—came from outside influences. Their composition came from drugs, diet, cosmetics, and environmental exposure. Together, the compounds represented 230 different chemical classes.^[2]

The total tally and variety surprised even the scientists. The study also identified over 480 chemicals unique to urine, which dispelled the belief that blood was the better option for analyzing a patient’s chemical profile.

8 The 21-Second Rule

In 2014, researchers timed how long it took for mammals to urinate. The team stared at animals at Zoo Atlanta and watched YouTube videos. Incredibly, any mammal bigger than a rat took roughly 21 seconds to urinate. The size of the animal made no difference. Cats to elephants all peed within the same time frame even though elephants dump around 18 liters (4.8 gal) of urine while cats tinkle about a teaspoon’s worth.

The unexpected discovery made sense when researchers looked at the urethra, a tube that carries urine from the bladder to the bathroom. In another unexpected twist, the tube kept a length-to-width ratio of 18 in all mammals and this caused the strange time rule.

What fascinated engineers was that volume did not matter and that the pressure pushing the pee forward increased with a longer urethra. There is no reason why the phenomenon cannot one day be applied to large artificial water systems.^[3]

7 Full Bladders Create Better Lies

Fibs and bladders are secret friends. As it turns out, people holding in their pee make more convincing liars. During a 2015 study, 22 volunteers were either given a small or large amount of fluid to drink. They were asked to wait for almost an hour. The group then completed a survey and spoke to a panel. By then, some already longed for the bathroom.

The panel questioned the volunteers about moral and social issues. The participants had to lie and argue for viewpoints entirely different than their own. Interestingly, those with ballooning bladders told epic lies. They were more convincing, came up with more elaborate details, and appeared more truthful.

The latter, researchers believe, could be tied to the self-control we need when suppressing an overwhelming urge to pee. The theory suggests that the brain’s cognitive regions are not truly separate. The so-called “inhibitory spillover effect” (ISE) starts with intense control in one area (suppressing the bladder) which then spills over into another (better lying).^[4]

6 Pee Bales

Wimpole Hall is a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire. A group of people caring for Wimpole decided to go greener. In an effort to save water and make compost, male workers are encouraged to urinate on straw bales. Women need not feel left out. One suggestion mentioned doing business in a bottle and then tipping it out onto the straw stacks.

It might sound weird, but there is a method to the madness. The straw is destined for the compost heap, and the pee is an excellent pretreatment. Urine is a known compost “activator” that is packed with nitrogen.

The initiative also saves water because Wimpole’s loos are flushed less often. The whole thing comes with a big caveat, however. Workers only pee on the bales, which line the walled gardens, when visiting hours are over. One staff member aptly explained, “We don’t want to scare the public.”^[5]

5 Space Fertilizer

Mankind’s dream of colonizing Mars includes urine-fueled food. The Red Planet is too distant for deliveries from Earth. If Mars is going to become a successful territory, it needs its own vegetable garden.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is apparently having some success with tomato plants and a tank of human urine. The recycling of bodily fluids is nothing new. Astronauts already donate their sweat and urine to a recycling system on board the International Space Station.

But to sprout a Martian harvest requires an Earthlike biological system that includes fluids, microbes, and oxygen. One of the experiments saw pumice stones placed in urine. The porous volcanic rocks contain bacteria that flourished in the urine and turned the pee’s ammonia into fertilizer elements such as nitrites and nitrate salts.^[6]

Ultimately, the scientists plan on using greenhouses aboard satellites to simulate Martian gravity and see if bacteria in synthetic urine can fertilize tomatoes.

4 Urination Electrocution

In 2013, Matthew Zeno left a bar in the early hours of the morning. When nature called, he decided to find relief at the G-train subway line. He reportedly died after tinkling on the electrified rail and electrocuting himself in the process.

Years prior, Joseph Patrick O’Malley had undergone an autopsy after being struck by a train. Electrical burns on his privates, thumb, and forefinger suggested that 600 volts had traveled up O’Malley’s urine stream and electrocuted him after he peed on the rail. He was probably dead before the train arrived.

The television program MythBusters bravely decided to test the plausibility of such cases. They found that peeing on railway lines would rarely result in electrocution because the urine stream tends to separate into drops. This should prevent a current from traveling up the stream.^[7]

However, they found that peeing against an electric fence was asking for trouble. As the fence is higher up, there is no time for the urine to separate into drops.

3 Pee Power

In 2015, scientists used urine to generate electricity. The technology is called microbial fuel cells (MFCs), and it uses organisms that thrive on organic material. Urine allows the microbes to feed and grow, a process that releases a tiny amount of electricity.

This biotechnology can already charge phones and fuel lights. Additionally, specially adapted loos at fairs have successfully turned pee into power. This promises upliftment where power grids are not always functional, like in rural regions, disaster areas, and refugee camps.

The scientists also tested previous studies that suggested MFCs had disinfecting properties. They dumped the Salmonella bacteria—a pathogen responsible for food poisoning—into an MFC system. Water tested at the end of the purification process showed that the Salmonella had been reduced to levels acceptable in conventional sanitation practices.^[8]

Overall, in a world trying to move away from fossil fuels, MFCs are a prize. The batteries can now treat waste, generate power, and kill pathogens at the same time.

2 Revenge Against People Who Urinate In Public

St. Pauli sees more than its fair share of al fresco urination. It is the red-light district of Hamburg, a city in Germany. Additionally, the area is one of the city’s main party zones.

The income potential is marred only by plenty of drunk folks who consider the place a giant latrine. Those who have to live in St. Pauli often gag at the smell of soiled walls and alleyways. The cost of daily cleaning became so high that something had to be done.

In 2015, a wicked solution was devised. After identifying the walls that were the most frequented by people urinating in public, the surfaces of these walls were sprayed with hydrophobic paint, which strongly repels any liquid. Pee hard enough, and the wall instantly returns the favor, most likely on the person’s shoes.^[9]

1 Pee And Get A Discount

Advertisers are a creative bunch. However, few can beat the crew tasked by Ikea to design an ad that targeted new parents. In 2018, the Swedish chain placed the finished product in a popular magazine and invited readers to pee on the page. If you were female, that is.

If the woman was pregnant, the ad changed and revealed a sale on cribs. To achieve this effect, Ikea partnered with an agency called Akestam Holst and Mercene Labs. They chose the normal pregnancy strip test as the foundation of the project.

During the development of the page, the team focused on mirroring the pregnancy test’s ability to react to the antibodies known to grab onto hCG, a pregnancy hormone. Once the antibodies were detected, the page “knew” the woman was pregnant and offered her a discount on a crib.^[10]

Researchers are inquisitive creatures. They leave no stone unturned. Especially the weird ones. In recent times, studies were sprung on volunteers and the unsuspecting alike.

Tests to determine their neuroticism, honesty, and appreciation of bad jokes were borderline strange. The answers even more so. They also threw the common cold at cancer, considered chocolate’s extinction, and took Godzilla’s growth rate very seriously.

10 Correct Way To Pet A Cat

Some cats are confusing. One second, they love having their heads scratched. The next, they claw irritably at their owners to make them stop. A recent study blamed their ancestry.

Felines have been mewing for a saucer of milk for the past 4,000 years. While cozying up to humans, their genes stayed similar to those of their ancestor the African wildcat. As domesticated as cats are, one foot stays firmly planted in their feral past. This clashes with human nature. People touch their pets to show affection. The African wildcat is solitary and actively avoids its own kind.

The solution?

The cat must be in the driver’s seat. The study found that when kitties initiated bonding, they allowed their owners to bestow physical affection upon them for longer. They also enjoy having their chins, ears, and cheeks scratched, although not as much their backs, stomachs, or tail bases.

The owner must also watch his fuzzball’s body language for negative signs and then back off. In the end, it all comes down to respecting your cat’s wild-at-heart boundaries.^[1]

9 Canned Laughter Helps Bad Comedy

Television critics are not fond of laugh tracks. They view it as a decades-old relic that should have disappeared with the time’s bad actors and mundane story lines. However, viewers still hear laugh tracks as a cue to comedy.

In 2019, a study picked 40 jokes. They were all bad. The researchers wanted to see if canned laughing could improve their fun factor. First, 20 students were tormented with the flat lines without any prerecorded giggles. Predictably, the jokes were given low scores. On a scale of 1 to 7, none rated higher than 3.75.

Eventually, 72 adults rated the jokes without laughter, then with obviously faked laughter, and finally, with spontaneous laughs. Ratings were boosted about 10 percent with forced humor. But the best spike—between 15 and 20 percent—happened when volunteers listened to laughs that communicated real enjoyment.^[2]

The kinder ratings could have been triggered by people’s reactions to what laughter is—a primitive signal critical to human bonding. Inherently, it was more about joining the group than enjoying a bad joke.

8 Tempting People With Wallets

In 2015, a group of behavioral scientists decided to test people’s honesty. More specifically, the better side of civic workers. The scientists went all out. They traveled the world and visited 40 countries, dragging along over 17,000 wallets, a lot of cash, credit cards, and around 400 keys.

Research assistants pretended to be tourists who picked up a wallet. They handed it to staff from 355 cities’ banks, museums, police stations, and other institutions—and requested that the staff member must find the owner.

The study attempted to answer two questions. Do certain countries return more wallets, and does the amount of cash inside influence the decision?

When the outcome was published in 2019, it surprised 300 expert economists who predicted that people would swipe the wallets with more money. However, those entrusted to return the wallets were more likely to do so when they contained larger amounts of currency. The country made no difference when it came to this unexpectedly wholesome behavior.^[3]

7 Phone Movements Reveal Personality

A trusted way to determine someone’s personality is to measure that individual against the Big Five test. Originally from the 1980s, the test relies on five main traits. They include openness (curious vs. cautious), extraversion (outgoing vs. reserved), agreeableness (compassionate vs. detached), conscientiousness (organized vs. easygoing), and neuroticism (confidence vs. nervousness).

Starting in March 2010, scientists followed 52 volunteers for over a year. The group tried a different spin on the Big Five—seeing whether their personalities could be determined by the way they handled their phones.

Each phone was equipped with an accelerometer to track physical movements as well as software that logged the calls and messages. Interestingly, the method matched certain traits captured on a Big Five survey that the participants had completed.

The data was good at predicting extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. These traits produce more physical activity, which could explain why the phones failed to analyze openness and agreeableness.^[4]

6 Spiders On Drugs

In 1948, spiders annoyed H.M. Peters. The zoologist studied spiderwebs at Germany’s University of Tubingen. The orb-web spiders in his study were early birds. To watch them spin, Peters had to wake up between 2:00 AM and 5:00 AM.

He asked pharmacologist Peter Witt to dose the arachnids with something that would make them spin at later times. To delay their webbing hours, Witt fed sugar water to the spiders. The sweet drink was laced with caffeine, amphetamine, mescaline, strychnine, or LSD.

The drugged spiders happily changed the patterns and sizes of their webs, but they stuck to the ungodly hours of the morning to do so. Peters gave up, but Witt continued his study on spiked spiders.

In 1995, NASA successfully replicated Witt’s work. This time, the spiders produced certain patterns after gorging on caffeine, marijuana, speed, or chloral hydrate.^[5]

The severity of the web’s deformity hinged on how toxic the chemical was. This reaction might change how laboratories test poison. Using spiders instead of complex mammals like mice is a cheaper and more humane alternative.

5 Chocolate Extinction

Chocolate addicts reacted with horror when news outlets claimed that their favorite snack could be extinct by 2050. The reason was that cacao trees, the source of chocolate, continue to face an uphill battle against the usual evils.

Several studies tracked fungal diseases as they destroyed Central America’s cacao trees and suggested that these diseases might spread to the world’s other cacao patches. As a harbinger of epic weather events, climate change can also throttle the plantations.

Worryingly, half of the planet’s chocolate is produced by two African countries. If Ghana and the Ivory Coast experience a climate shift, it could leave the entire industry vulnerable.

Cacao trees are sensitive to temperature changes and love to roost in a rain forest environment. As predicted for 2050, an increase in temperature and dryness could spell trouble for chocolate lovers. Scientists are exploring the avenue of genetically strengthened cacao trees, but then chocolate would no longer be as natural as some might like.^[6]

4 Climate Apartheid

A scary study in 2019 suggested that climate change could divide humanity. This future hypothetical scenario is called “climate apartheid.” The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) released a report detailing how the dark side of human nature would rise once nature goes to hell.

The consensus is that climate change would eventually affect every living thing on Earth. A frightening thought considering that the cards predict famine, widespread death, and natural disasters. As conditions worsen, people will be divided between those who can afford to protect themselves and those who cannot.

The HRC report was the concentrated opinion of over 100 studies focused on how climate change threatens the basic necessities for human life. These included housing, food, water, and health.^[7]

The conclusion warned that millions are doomed to die without a radical shift in environmental policies and immediate plans to safeguard the vulnerable. Ironically, these citizens live in the poorest countries which are least responsible for the pollution driving climate change.

3 Anxiety Makes Godzilla Grow

In 2019, scientists pondered Godzilla’s growth rate. The monster has grown considerably from the first movie in the 1950s when it stood 50 meters (164 ft) tall. In the latest 2019 release, it towered 120 meters (393 ft) high. This spurt is 30 times quicker than anything alive on Earth. Had the creature been real, it would have smashed growth and evolutionary records.

The study looked at several possibilities to explain why the creature seemed to grow bigger with every movie. It concluded that Godzilla was a metaphor for people’s existential anxiety. Politics, environmental issues, and personal problems keep stress alive and well.^[8]

Apparently, Godzilla represented major problems that humanity must unite against—like climate change and terrorists. However, Godzilla could just be competing against itself. With moviegoers demanding bigger and better, the classic creature must evolve to please.

2 An Unknown Shape

Epithelial cells form our skin, line organs, and help embryos develop their myriad structures. As important as these cells are, scientists could never pin down their shape. For lack of a better understanding, they were assumed to resemble tubelike prisms, or a frustum—a kind of bottle-shaped pyramid.

In 2018, scientists decided to conduct a study to see which one it was. They turned to computers to unravel the shape of epithelial cells. The result was weird. Not only was it neither suspect, but the shape was unknown to mathematics and science.

Bizarrely, it resembled a Y-shaped prism. The top of one branch had five surfaces, and the other had six. The new geometric shape was named the scutoid. The data suggested that the peculiar form helped epithelial cells to bend with curving tissue.^[9]

The discovery has wider applications than merely adding a new shape to science. Understanding how scutoids construct tissues could refine the production of artificial organs for transplant patients.

1 The Common Cold Beat Cancer

The idea to attack cancer cells with a virus is almost a century old. However, it was not until 2019 that the hunch proved to be correct. A study gathered 15 patients with early-stage bladder cancer. Using a catheter, each person was infected with coxsackievirus A21. This is one of the viruses that slaps people with the common cold.

They kept the catheters in for an hour before repeating the procedure. This was to pump higher concentrations of the virus into the bladder than a natural infection would normally give a person. Then the patients were carted off to surgery to remove their tumors.^[10]

Throwing a common cold at cancer sounds flimsy, but the results were stunning. In many patients, the coxsackievirus severely damaged the tumors and drew a legion of immune cells to attack them. Best of all, one patient’s tumor was completely destroyed.

Overall, beating cancer could be as simple as using a virus that occurs in nature to refine effective treatment. Interestingly, none of the study’s superinfected patients developed a cold.

You don’t need to go to a desert island and find the x on a map to discover hidden treasure these days. As it happens, hundreds of homeowners and businesses are routinely discovering things hidden in their walls. Sometimes they’re treasures, and sometimes they are decidedly not. 

10. The First Appearance of Superman

In the history of comic books, few of them are as coveted as Action Comics issue one. This is the legendary first appearance of Superman, and it dates back to 1938. At the time, no one could have imagined what a pop culture force the book and the character would become. The cover price was 10 cents.

Fast forward to 2013 when contractor David Gonzalez was renovating an old house he had bought for just over $10,000. The walls had been filled with old newspapers and, in among them, was a copy of Action Comics #1. The book was in rough shape, and the back cover had been torn off, but it was still the real deal. Gonzalez had it appraised based on its condition and it was rated a 1.5 out of 10, which means it was in close to the worst condition it could be in.

Despite the shoddy condition, the book sold at auction for a staggering $175,000. That’s a huge return on investment. If the book had been in good condition, Gonzalez could have expected a much more lucrative deal as another copy in good condition sold two years earlier for over $2 million. In 2014, a copy in excellent condition became the most expensive comic book ever sold when it took in $3.2 million at auction.

9. $500,000

Who among us hasn’t entertained the fleeting fantasy of one day running across a secret fortune in buried treasure or just a sack of money on the side of the road somewhere? That was the reality waiting for a couple in Arizona who bought a rundown house “as is” intending to perform some renovations to improve it. 

The story has more twists and turns than you might expect. While doing renovations, a contractor’s employee found ammunition cans hidden in the walls. Inside the cans was $500,000 in cash.

The worker told his boss, but the boss neglected to mention the find to the homeowners, opting to keep the cash for himself. Luckily, the honest employee informed the homeowners and the police came to take possession of the money. Now you’d think it would go to the homeowners at this point, but that was not the case.

Several lawsuits were filed. The contractor sued the homeowners, and they sued the contractor. But the daughter of the previous owner sued as well, claiming the money was rightfully hers as part of her father’s estate. The courts agreed, saying that when they sold the house as is, they did not know what they were giving up as it related to the cash, and it was still rightfully theirs. 

8. Surveillance Equipment

When it comes to creepy things in your walls, there are not many things that will set you on edge quite like discovering evidence that someone has been secretly watching you. That was the weirdness one couple in Arizona had to deal with upon buying a new home and giving it a thorough search.

The new owners had noticed that there was a mirror in the bathroom that seemed out of place, so they decided to take it off the wall. Unfortunately, someone had permanently affixed it there. So they cut the wall. What they discovered was that the mirror was actually a 2-way mirror and behind it, in the wall, wires were set up for video equipment. There was also plumbing for a sink set up and cabinetry.

Some people speculated that this was not an insidious set up for filming people in a bathroom and maybe even was a setup for something as innocent as a wall aquarium. But if that was the case, why had someone installed a two-way mirror at some point?

7. Prohibition-Era Booze

Every so often people find some unusual or exotic treasure in their walls but when it comes to the real, practical goods if you can’t find gold or money, maybe the next best thing is what a New York couple discovered hidden in the walls of their upstate home: 60 or more bottles of prohibition-era whisky.

Neighbors had told the couple that their new home had once been owned by bootleggers about 100 years ago, but it seemed like nothing more than a charming story. That was until they started renovating and discovered the illicit stash. Dozens of bottles in the walls and under the floor, many of them still unopened. 

They dated the bottles of Old Smuggler whisky to the 1920s, so the bootlegger stories seem to have been real. Experts said the full bottles could be worth between $500 and $1000 a piece at auction.

6. Bones

Imagine buying a new home and as you go through the process of moving your things in and going over the house, you discover something inside the attic wall. Something that looks suspiciously like human bones. That’s what one couple had to deal with in their new Houston area home back in 2017.

Bones had been stashed in the wall, along with a pair of glasses resembling those worn by the home’s previous owner. The same owner who had been missing for two years. She had been a quiet, pleasant woman as far as the neighbors knew. But one day she vanished and her mail began to pile up. A missing person report was filed, and eventually, firefighters came to clear the home out. At the time they noted the place smelled terrible, but it was also full of cats that hadn’t been taken care of since the owner disappeared.

Within two years, the bank foreclosed on the property and it was sold. The new owners were the first to discover the remains despite firefighters, police, animal control, and even roofers being through the house before they got to it.

The medical examiner later confirmed the remains as belonging to the previous owner, Mary Cerruti. But as to the mystery of how she died and ended up in the wall, that remains unsolved.

5. Missing Boy

Your mind can go to some dark places when you think about what could be hidden in the walls of a home. The idea of finding a body is, as we’ve seen, not impossible at all. But what you’re less likely to find is not a dead body, but a living one. 

Ricky Chekevdia was believed to have been abducted in 2007. His father had just been awarded custody and the boy’s mother disappeared with her son. For two years the father had no idea if his son was even alive or dead. And then, in a baffling twist, authorities discovered the boy had been living in a secret room behind the wall of his grandmother’s house the entire time.

The mother had claimed that the father was abusing the boy before she disappeared with him, but officials say there was no evidence to support those claims. What they did have evidence of was the boy being kept in a windowless room for two years, during which time he never even saw the sun and was not allowed out for any reason, even medical treatment.

The mother and grandmother both faced charges for their involvement, and Ricky was returned to his father’s custody.

4. 100,000 Bees

If you were to compile a ranked list of all the things you hope are never in your walls, probably somewhere near the top would be a massive population of stinging insects. And that’s why this particular story is so disturbing since it involves one Canadian homeowner discovering that their walls were home to a nest of about 100,000 bees.

After buying an old Victorian-style home in a historic part of town, homeowner Chantelle Ryan noticed a curious affectation – her walls buzzed. After realizing what the problem was, Ryan called a local beekeeper who came to help with the issue, but no one at the time appreciated the scale. A colony of bees up to 100,000 strong that was likely growing in the walls for the better part of a decade.

Along with the bees, 250 pounds of honeycomb was removed from the walls as well. And Ryan took the time to sample the honey and share it with her new neighbors as well.

3. Stolen Painting

The last thing any art gallery wants is to lose its exhibits. Whether it’s to a disaster like a fire or thieves, if a priceless painting gets destroyed or taken, that’s a piece of history lost forever. That’s exactly what one gallery in Italy thought happened to an important piece of their collection.

Known as “Portrait of a Lady,” the painting by Gustav Klimt dates back to 1917. The painting had been a part of the collection at Galleria Ricci-Oddi in Piacenza since 1925, but in 1997 the painting was stolen. They found the frame near a skylight that was too small for the actual painting to have passed through. 

In 2019, gardeners found a hidden, recessed portion of the wall outside in which a bag was stashed. Inside the bag was the missing painting. It’s not known if the painting was there the entire 23 years it was gone, or if someone returned it later, but either way, the museum is returning it to the collection for viewing.

2. Chuck Palahniuk Time Capsule

Although he’s written over a dozen fiction novels as well as non-fiction and short stories, Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel Fight Club sealed his legacy as a quirky, visceral author whose creativity was only matched by his weirdness. So maybe it makes sense that he takes care of houses like he writes books.

A homeowner in Portland, Oregon moved into a house that the author had previously owned and, while doing renovations, discovered a gift. Palahniuk had sealed up a time capsule in the wall of his old home, complete with a signed copy of Fight Club, some old family photos, and a house history.

The time capsule had been added to the walls in 2002, while Palahniuk and his family were also doing renovations. At that time he’d published 4 novels and Fight Club had already been made into a movie, but he still signed off his time capsule letter saying he assumed whoever found it would have no idea who he was.

1. Message in a Bottle

Typically, when you hear about a message in a bottle, it’s a story that takes place at sea. And every so often a tale shows up in the news about a very old bottle coming to shore with a message inside. Maybe that was the intention of the person in this story, they just couldn’t get to the ocean in time so instead they sealed their bottle in a wall.

A Boston homeowner discovered an old whisky bottle sealed between the chimney flue and an interior wall of their home. There was a rolled-up note inside that was dated September 23, 1894. And as for the note itself, it simply said, “Tom Ford 6 on Shea.”

The note was shared on social media with people speculating on what it might have meant. Popular theories include a betting slip indicating someone had bet 6 on a horse named Shea, or something to do with 6 games at Shea Stadium. Others guessed Tom Ford lived on Shea Street at number 6. But without further evidence, it’s going to have to remain a mystery.

The giraffe ranks among the most familiar of the zoo and park animals. Even so, giraffes continue to harbor surprising facts. The creatures can turn black or white and make inexplicable noises at night. They even ogled a Chinese emperor during the 1400s.

There are funny things in their armpits and a puzzling disease creeping up their legs. Even though giraffes are endangered, it is often conservation breeding programs that decide whether they are allowed to live or die.

10 There Are Four Species

Until 2016, there was one species of giraffe. For those who cared to squint harder at subtle differences between ossicones (head “horns”), coat patterns, and different habitats, there were nine subspecies. As the classifications had been made between 1758 and 1911, modern researchers felt that the requirements were unreliable because giraffes had not been studied as deeply as other big African mammals.

Unlike lions and elephants, there is plenty that remains unknown about giraffes. To discover the truth, a five-year-long study became the first to genetically analyze all the nine subspecies.

The DNA tests proved that the “nine” were actually four distinct species—the reticulated giraffe (G. reticulata), Masai giraffe (G. tippelskirchi), northern giraffe (G. camelopardalis), and southern giraffe (G. giraffa). As they do not breed with each other, the correct identification of species is a positive step forward to ensure that all four survive.^[1]

9 The Imperial Giraffes

During the 1400s, Emperor Yongle of China wanted to explore the world. He sent a fleet of ships on seven expeditions which made it as far as South Africa, landing at the modern-day Cape of Good Hope. Yongle liked to collect exotic animals, and foreign nations gave him rhinoceroses, peacocks, elephants, and bears as gifts.

During the fourth expedition, the Chinese arrived at Bengal and met with envoys from Malindi (Kenya). The latter handed over a giraffe, which was promptly stabled aboard one of the Imperial ships. The animal’s size was not a problem. The vessels that sailed during this expedition remain the biggest wooden vessels ever constructed in history.

Despite Yongle’s vast collection of strange animals, the giraffe made such an impression on the emperor that it became the only animal he asked the court artist to draw. The image added a mythical flavor, suggesting that it was a qilin—a creature comparable with the West’s unicorn.

A year later, a second giraffe arrived at the royal court. Despite the animals’ strange story, there is no record of what became of the spotty pair.^[2]

8 They Like Carcasses

National Geographic photographer Corinne Kendall visited a reserve a few years ago. Once inside Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, she took photos of a macabre incident. Two adult giraffes were busy with a dead wildebeest. Not only did they mouth the carcass, but they occasionally tossed it into the air.

This grated against the giraffe’s image as a gentle herbivore. Experts reviewed the photographs and found the behavior was not as deviant as it first appeared. It was likely a case of osteophagy. To keep their own skeletons healthy, herbivores need calcium and phosphorus.^[3]

For this reason, these mammals gnaw on bones. Recently, another giraffe was filmed licking the skull of a dead buffalo. One of the experts who assessed Kendall’s pictures also told National Geographic that he regularly witnessed the fascination giraffes have for carcasses during his fieldwork. An average of about six times a year, he would encounter giraffes nosing around bones.

7 Birds Sleep In Their Armpits

Snapshot Serengeti was a project that ran for years inside the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It involved camera traps that automatically took photographs when an animal moved nearby. At one point, a camera documented something that had never been seen before.

Researchers have always known that a brown bird called the yellow-billed oxpecker grooms giraffes and other large African mammals. The tiny creature removes ticks and even feeds on the host’s blood, eye goop, and nose mucus. However, this activity was only observed during the day.

One night, a giraffe triggered one of the traps, which took a series of snaps. They showed that the animal’s armpits contained clusters of sleeping oxpeckers. Never before had anyone realized that the birds sometimes chose to overnight on what was basically their food source.^[4]

Although it was a surprising find, it was not hard to see why the oxpeckers did it. Apart from ensuring that they stayed with their food-providing host, the giraffe’s armpits were also safe and warm.

6 Males Turn Black

Giraffe dudes do something unusual. As they age, their blocks become black. In 2012, curious researchers studied 36 males, all from the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. They knew the precise age of 10 and estimated the ages of the rest based on how dark their patterns were.

The animals’ data had been compiled over 33 years, which provided a rich source to plumb about the color change and lives of males. A calf weans at two years old and leaves its birth environment between four and eight.

The darkening first becomes obvious when bulls turn seven or eight. The black starts in the middle of the brown patches and bleeds outward toward the edges. This process takes almost two years, and on average, males have a full set of coal-black spots by the time they are 9.4 years old.^[5]

Although the 2012 study was the first to establish a timeline, it could not find the cause. As only males experience the change, it could have something to do with testosterone levels. Bulls mature around age 10, which is around the time that their transformation is complete.

5 A Mysterious Disease

In 2014, Arthur Muneza had to pick an animal to study for his master’s at Michigan State University. Like many others, he considered the popular choices—elephants and African predators. However, the biologist chose giraffes when he heard that they suffered from a strange and understudied skin condition.

Giraffes are somewhat neglected when it comes to megafauna studies. Even the affliction, which may be a contributing factor to their dropping numbers, received a casual name—giraffe skin disease (GSD).

However, Muneza was on fire. He dug into past research and cornered veterinarians as well as zoo and park officials. He scoured old studies for the symptoms, which include lesions on the legs and neck. The areas often turn gray, bloody, and crusty.

Just eight sources mentioned anything about it. The questionnaires he sent out to those working with giraffes only garnered 63 responses. Zoos reported 14 cases of GSD in their captive specimens. Frighteningly, the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania reported that 79 percent of their giraffes had the disease.^[6]

Muneza’s collaboration with experts is ongoing to unravel what causes GSD, how it spreads, and how it can be cured.

4 Marius

In 2014, Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark considered euthanizing one of their giraffes. As Marius was a healthy 18-month-old, thousands signed a petition for his life to be spared until a new home could be arranged. The zoo’s reason was that Marius had nothing to add to their international breeding program. They also said they could not keep the growing male in case it led to fighting with others.

Despite the local and international outcry to make an effort to relocate the giraffe, Copenhagen Zoo refused to do so. On a Sunday morning, a staff member fed Marius his favorite meal of rye bread and then shot him. The giraffe was dismembered in front of visitors before his parts were distributed among the zoo’s predators and research facilities.

The demise of Marius caused such anger that the zoo’s staff received death threats against themselves and their families. Marius’s short life and public slaughter highlighted something of which few citizens are aware. It is a common practice for zoos to kill healthy animals when their genetics fail to meet breeding standards, when there is no space, or when they do not attract crowds.^[7]

3 They Hum At Night

Giraffes are quiet creatures. So quiet, in fact, that scientists became suspicious. After all, they move in herds with social structures. This strongly suggested some sort of communication beyond the occasional kick and snort.

In 2015, a strange clue was captured at three European zoos. One theory was that giraffes get chatty on frequencies that humans cannot hear. To test this, researchers left recording devices near the creatures’ enclosures. After slogging through 1,000 hours of recordings, the researchers found that giraffes do make a sound—they hum.

The noise resembled something between a swarm of bees and monastic chanting. The humming happened at a very low frequency but still fell inside the range of human hearing. Despite this, zoo staff heard it for the first time only when they listened to the tapes.

The exact purpose of the sound remains mysterious. Since it happens exclusively at night, it could be a way for giraffes to stay connected in the dark. It could also be a passive sound related to sleeping, like snoring or dreaming.^[8]

2 Kenya’s White Giraffes

In 2017, a villager in Kenya’s Garissa County saw two white giraffes. He told conservationists about the bleached pair, and soon, the animals were tracked down. They lived in the best place for such rare creatures—the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy.

The species was identified as the vulnerable reticulated giraffe. The two animals were also family—a mother and her calf. When the cow noticed the rangers, she calmly hid her baby in the bushes and positioned herself between the infant and the humans, who stood filming a few yards away.^[9]

Not only did the camera capture the curious beauty of white giraffes but it was also the first footage of specimens with leucism. This genetic condition prevents the normal formation of pigment inside skin cells. It differs from albinism in that dark pigment can still flourish inside soft tissues, which was why the mother and calf had dark eyes and some body coloring.

1 They Are Critically Endangered

The plight of the African elephant is well-known. There are only about half a million of the creatures left in the wild. That being said, elephant numbers look fantastic against the remaining wild giraffe population—90,000. The last 15 years saw a 40 percent die-off thanks to habitat loss and poachers. Giraffes are now extinct in seven African countries.

Despite these glaring warning signs, their official conservation status remains merely “Vulnerable” as opposed to the “Endangered” African elephants. However, there is hope in small pockets.

In 2016, conservationists learned that oil had been discovered in Uganda and that prospectors planned to move into Murchison Falls National Park. A particularly vulnerable group of giraffes lived on only one side of the Nile, and unfortunately, it was the side where the oil was.

A daring mission floored 20 of the awkward but dangerous animals, packed them onto a ferry, and released them on the other side. Not only did the small herd thrive, but as researchers followed them, they filmed an unknown behavior for the first time. At night, the animals took turns watching for predators while the rest slept with their necks folded over their backs like swans.^[10]

Most people drive on normal highways every day. However, there are amazing, wildly constructed, and imaginative roads around the world with crazy stories to tell.

10 The Highway That Sings

We all know one of the major reasons for motor crashes is speeding. However, the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) curbs the speeding trend along Route 66 with a very creative trick. Route 66 in New Mexico plays the tune of “America the Beautiful” whenever someone drives over it. The highway itself is the musical instrument.

The patriotic tune can only be heard when drivers drive over the rumble strips on the right side of the highway at the speed of 72 kilometers per hour (45 mph). This is meant to act as a form of speed control, rewarding the driver with music if they do not speed. The feature was not added only for the entertainment—driving over the rumble strips prevents the drivers from falling asleep, another major cause of car accidents. The NMDOT also believes that by slowing down to enjoy the tune, motorists can enjoy the view of the state.

The construction was paid for by the National Geographic Channel as part of their show Crowd Control, which conducts experiments to understand more about human behavior.

9 The Highway With A House In The Middle

Most of us can only imagine what it’s like to live in the middle of a highway, but 67-year-old Luo Baogen of China and his 65-year-old wife actually did. Trouble started when the Chinese government wanted to construct a highway leading to a new railway station. They paid all the occupants of Xiazhangyang to vacate the neighborhood, but Baogen and his wife rejected the compensation because the money was not enough for them to build a new house.

The Chinese government went ahead and built a highway around the house. The five-story house stood in the middle of a four-lane highway. Chinese laws prevents the government from demolishing people’s houses forcefully, leading to many “nail houses.”

The building was later demolished after Luo Baogen and his wife choose to accept the compensation of 260,000 yuan ($41,000). Baogen didn’t want the attention from the media his bizarre living arrangement was causing.

8 The Highway Through A Runway

A major problem with the British territory of Gibraltar is the lack of flat land. This often results in rather inconvenient routes. The Gibraltar Airport runway runs straight through the Winston Churchill Avenue Highway. The highway is the busiest in the peninsula because it is the only road connecting Gibraltar to Spain, and it runs through Gibraltar’s only airport. Whenever an airplane has to land or depart, the gates and barriers on the road are shut, putting all traffic at a standstill. Any pedestrian on the runway is also expected to get out of the way of the aircraft.

This overlap is dangerous for both the motorists and planes. There are stern warnings around the airport warning pedestrians and motorists that dropping litter can hinder the safety of the people on the plane.

Fortunately, the airport is not a busy one, handling only about 30 flights a week. There are also plans to reroute the road so that it passes under the runway instead. Recent plans by the Gibraltar government to construct a tunnel will prevent the traffic obstructions, delays, and danger on the highway.

7 The Road With The Highest Speed Limit

If you find the average speed limit on your highway unexciting or slow, then the High Speed Test Track at Holloman Air Force Base (HSTTH) was constructed with you in mind. At the HSTTH, the average speed is 10 times the speed of sound. There’s a sign along the track that reads “Mach 10“—if you break this speed limit, you’re likely to be celebrated rather than issued a ticket.

Constructed in the late 1940s and early ’50s, the road is not intended for leisurely drives in the car; it was designed for high-speed tests. This road has aided innovations in parachute, seat belt, and nuclear technologies. The record for highest speed reached by a man on this track is held by John P. Stapp, who went at the speed of 1,017 kilometers per hour (632 mph) on the Sonic Wind Rocket Sled 1. The closest anyone has gotten to breaking the posted speed limit was mach 8.5 with another rocket sled.

6 The Atlantic Ocean Road

Atlanterhavsveien, or the Atlantic Ocean Road, is an 8.3-kilometer (5.2 mi) road located in the western part of the Norwegian coastline. The road comprises bridges, causeways, viaducts, and viewpoints for tourists. The road was originally intended to be a bridge before that plan was abandoned. Construction of the road began in 1983, and it took six years for it to be completed. Within that time period, the construction of the road was interrupted by 12 hurricanes. Twelve million Norwegian krone ($1.5 million) was spent on the development before the road was open for use on July 7, 1989.

The Atlantic Ocean Road is considered a national tourist route and acknowledged as the “Norwegian construction of the century.” It’s scenic view has made it popular among motorists and cyclists. It even has special landings along some of its eight bridges for fishermen.

5 The Tallest Bridge In The World

The Millau Viaduct, completed in 2004, is the tallest bridge in the world. Called the “marvel of art and architecture” by French president Jacques Chirac, the bridge was designed by British architect Lord Norman Foster and French engineer Michel Virlogeux. It’s 343 meters (1,125 ft) tall and 2,460 meters (8,070 ft) long. It was constructed to ease the traffic flow of motorists en route from Paris to Barcelona. The construction of the bridge took three years.

Construction of the road cost approximately €400 million ($440 million). The construction was privately financed by Eiffage, the same firm responsible for the Eiffel Tower. In return, they are expected to collect tolls until 2080—or as soon as 2044 if the bridge is highly profitable. The bridge is the tallest structure in France, slightly taller than the prestigious Eiffel Tower. On a cloudy day, the bridge sometimes gives the illusion that it is floating in the clouds.

4 The Extraterrestrial Highway

Nevada State Highway 375, popularly called the “Extraterrestrial Highway,” is a 158-kilometer (98 mi) road through the deserts of the American Southwest. The highway got its name from the numerous claims of UFO sightings by motorists who frequent the road. Adding to the credibility of the motorists’ claims is the mysterious Area 51, which is located along the highway.

Claims of UFO sighting on the route started in the 1980s, but people only began taking those claims seriously when Bob Lazar, an engineer, stated on television that he worked on an alien spaceship in Area 51 in 1989. Lazar’s television appearance led to lots of people touring the road to satisfy their curiosity. Seeing the tourism potential of their road, the state officially christened it the “Extraterrestrial Highway” in a ceremony witnessed by the lead actors of the movie Independence and some Fox studio executives.

The UFO sightings do have rational explanations. The highway also runs alongside the Nellis Air Force Base, where numerous secret aircrafts and missiles have been tested since 1950.

3 The Highway Without Vehicles

M-185 on Mackinac Island, Michigan, is the only carless highway in the country. The 13.4-kilometer (8.3 mi) road is usually only traveled by foot, horse, carriage, and bicycle as a result of an island-wide ban on automobiles. The ban was proposed in the early 1890s when tourists brought cars onto the island and disrupted the peace and quiet with all the traffic. Furious residents wanted nothing to do with the automobile, one resident reportedly calling it a “mechanical monster.” The ban was agreed upon in 1898, and the “horseless carriages” haven’t been allowed on the island since.

One small exception to the ban was made for the film Somewhere In Time, directed by Jeannot Szwarc. While cars were allowed on the island during the shoot, the actors and production team were not allowed to drive them—except while they were shooting.

After the advent of electric bikes, the island also rejected those because they might scare their horses and cause accidents on the highway. One of the very few vehicles allowed by the island is a police Jeep that assists the elderly during winter. During winter, snowmobiles may be used to move from one place to another. Children on the island can get a license for their snowmobiles at the age of 12.

Once in a while, there are small accidents on the highway. These accidents are mostly caused by tourists who choose to bike while intoxicated.

2 The Underwater Motorway

Named among the “seven wonders of the modern engineering world,” the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is a wonder to behold. The 37-kilometer (23 mi) road comprises four artificial islands and two high-level steel bridges, but that’s not what makes this motorway so special. The motorway, which was considered dangerous at first, dips below the water into two 1.6-kilometer (1 mi) tunnels.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was first envisioned in 1956 and strongly supported by Chesapeake Bay Ferry Commission chairman Lucius J. Kellam Jr. It cost almost $200 million to build. The United States Navy quickly pointed out the obvious obstacle the bridge would present to them—it would prevent their Atlantic fleets from reaching the ocean. To settle the matter with the Navy, the two tunnels were proposed. One of them can be seen at 9:00 in the video above, and the other at 14:15.

Certain vehicles are sometimes excluded from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on certain days because it is prone to extreme storms and wind gusts. This occurs about 15–20 times per year. The wind can be so strong that it can blow cars overboard.

1 The Highest Highway

The Karakoran Highway, which is about 5,000 meters (16,000 ft) high, is the highest paved international road on Earth. The 1,300-kilometer (800 mi) highway was constructed to connect Pakistan to China through the Karakoran mountain range by the Pakistani government in collaboration with the Chinese government. The construction of the road began in the late ’60s, and the road was open for use in 1986. The highway was intended to make it easier for China to access Gwadar Port in Pakistan. The construction of the road was so dangerous that it claimed a life for every mile.

After construction, the highway remained dangerous. Motorists who traverse this road have been subjected to terrorist attacks in the past. Sometimes, the road is closed due to frequent landslides, some of which can cover an entire village. Some motorists have also been known to encounter snow leopards on the way to their destination.

There is a world of weird hiding inside your Maltese—or any other dog for that matter. In recent years, scientists have uncovered the strange things that dogs use.

Besides having special muscles to manipulate people, they tap into the planet’s magnetic field to poop. Then there are the dogs that track killer whales, shoot hunters, and return from extinction as the most primitive canines on Earth.

10 The Dog That Shot A Hunter

In 2019, ex-LSU player Matt Branch and his friends went duck hunting. They took along a Labrador named Tito. The former lineman for Louisiana State University left a loaded shotgun in the back of his pickup. The safety was on, rendering the firearm safe.

The group moved a few yards away to prepare for the start of their hunting trip near Eagle Lake in Mississippi. Tito the dog decided to jump onto the bed of the truck. In doing so, he managed to step on the 12-gauge shotgun’s safety and pull the trigger.^[1]

The blast went through the side of the truck and hit the 29-year-old Branch in the left thigh. He underwent several surgeries, but the damage was too severe. Doctors eventually had to amputate his leg.

9 The Oil Rig Rescue

In 2019, oil rig workers were stunned to find a dog in the water. Their workspace, a Chevron oil rig, was 220 kilometers (135 mi) from the coast of Thailand. The lost creature managed to paddle toward the rig where it desperately clung to the bottom. The crew fashioned a loop and fished for 15 minutes before they got it around the animal’s neck and hauled him to safety.

Some spoiling was in order. The dog was dried, fed water and meat, and given a flower garland to wear. The crew also gave him a kennel and the name “Boonrod.” In Thailand, the term is used for survivors with good karma.

Once Boonrod returned to land, veterinarians declared that he was in good health and homed him with an animal rescue group. One of the oil rig workers, Vitisak Payalaw, said that he would adopt Boonrod if nobody offered him a permanent home. It remains unclear how the dog ended up miles from land, but he probably fell off a fishing vessel.^[2]

8 Dog Owners With Broken Hearts

In 2016, Joanie Simpson from Texas went through a rough patch. The 62-year-old’s son faced surgery, her daughter’s husband had lost his job, and a property deal was turning hairy. Worst of all, her beloved Yorkshire terrier had congestive heart failure. Joanie doted on the Yorkie, but her pet’s health failed so much that a euthanasia date was arranged.

When the day arrived, Meha the dog seemed fine and Joanie canceled the appointment. The Yorkie died naturally the next day but in a terrible manner witnessed by her owner.

One morning, Joanie woke with all the symptoms of a heart attack. She was airlifted to a hospital in Houston where emergency personnel were preparing for her arrival. However, it turned out that Joanie never had a heart attack. Instead, she experienced a real medical condition called “broken heart syndrome.”

The sometimes-fatal condition mimics heart attacks and can be triggered by emotions like grieving. Since dog owners often mourn their pets intensely, it should come as no surprise that Joanie’s was not the first recorded case where somebody developed the dangerous condition after a dog’s death.^[3]

7 Loving Dogs Could Be Genetic

In 2019, researchers wondered if a fondness for dogs was genetic. Sweden was the perfect place to find out. The country holds the largest twin registry and requires all dogs to be registered with the Swedish Board of Agriculture. Twin studies allow scientists to compare genetic, behavioral, and environmental data among people who share 50–100 percent of their DNA.

The 2019 study was thorough, combing through the data of 85,542 adult twins. Next, the team riffled through 15 years’ worth of dog ownership records. Only 8,503 people owned a canine pet. Remarkably, computer models found that genetics and environmental factors could equally predict those more likely to adopt a pooch.^[4]

While the exact genes remain unidentified, the dog-loving DNA patterns were slightly higher in women. The study added an interesting layer to previous research into the health benefits of dog ownership. It suggested that health perks such as better fitness and mood could be partially explained by genetics.

6 Robotic Mail Dogs

Boston Dynamics is a Google-owned firm that specializes in technology. One of their fields is robotics. In recent years, the company revealed plans to use robot dogs to deliver packages to clients. Unimaginatively called “Spot,” one machine indeed resembled a dog. It walked on four legs, traveled upstairs, and was nimble enough to resist a shove.

The company was unclear about combating the theft or abuse of the metallic mutt once it meandered off to deliver somebody’s mail. Spot had a smaller sibling named “SpotMini” which looked like a dog-giraffe hybrid. This smart creature mapped the world around it, which allowed SpotMini to skirt around obstacles.

Boston Dynamics also tested the two canines as workers at factory production lines. In retrospect, this might be a safer option for the robots.^[5]

5 A Surprising Neolithic Dog

In 1901, researchers investigated a Neolithic tomb. The burial was located in Scotland’s Orkney Islands at Cuween Hill. Around 24 dog skulls were discovered inside. A later study found that the animals were interred around 4,500 years ago when the tomb was already 500 years old.

As unusual as that seemed, the real surprise came in 2019 when one skull was reconstructed. Scientists wanted to know what Scotland’s dogs looked like during the Neolithic period. After a 3-D scan measured the skull’s particulars, the details were used to craft a “real” head using forensic techniques.^[6]

The result was a wolflike creature. As the dog was domesticated, its resemblance to the European gray wolf was unexpected. The animal, which was about the size of a collie, also lacked the high forehead of modern dogs. Besides providing a curious glimpse at ancient Scottish dogs, the skull also showed their importance in ritual burials.

4 Rarest Dog Rediscovered

For decades, nobody saw the New Guinea highland wild dog. General opinion declared the canines extinct. Nevertheless, two unhelpful photographs taken in 2005 and 2012, respectively, suggested that the dogs might still be alive.

Then, in 2016, a doglike footprint surfaced in the New Guinea highlands. Trail cameras were rigged all over the place, and within two days, the devices took 140 images of at least 15 different wild dogs.

Even better, the researchers encountered the animals face-to-face. Males, females, and playful pups proved that there was a viable population. Most had golden coats, upright ears, and tails curling toward their backs.

The DNA samples returned interesting snippets. The wild dogs are officially the world’s most primitive and ancient canids in existence, having lived on the island for around 6,000 years. They are also related to the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog. Only 300 singing dogs still exist, and they are the captive-bred version of the highland wild dog.^[7]

3 Dogs Have Manipulative Eyebrows

Fido destroys the couch. While sitting between swathes of sponge and being berated, the dog gazes up at the owner with a certain look. The raised eyebrows make the chair killer look confused, regretful, and vulnerable. It creeps underneath our best defenses.

In 2019, researchers discovered that dogs evolved to manipulate humans with their eyebrows. They mimic human emotions to trigger a nurturing response. This was not an evil plot against humanity but more likely natural selection driven by owners.

For thousands of years, people would have better cared for the dogs to which they felt connected. As a result, dogs developed special muscles around the eyes. Completely absent or underdeveloped in wolves, the muscles allow dogs to lift their eyebrows intensely to pluck at human heartstrings.^[8]

The Siberian husky is excluded from this behavior. As a close relative of the wolf, the husky’s “puppy gaze” eye muscles are also underdeveloped.

2 Professional Poop Trackers

In 1997, the Conservation Canine program was founded. Also known as CK9, it trains dogs to find the poop of wildlife. Most of the dogs are rescues with a strong ball drive. This ball obsession is the key requirement for picking new CK9 candidates. The toy serves as both a training tool and a reward.

The program offers a noninvasive way to gather information about threatened and endangered animals. Scats are unusually crammed with personal details. A single deposit can reveal the animal’s gender, stage of pregnancy, diet, and health. It can even allow scientists to recognize individuals.

Some dogs track caribou, cougars, and owls. Rarer species like the giant armadillo, tiger, and Iberian wolf also have ball-addicted pooches after them. The most remarkable tracking feat involves orcas off the shores of Canada. While standing on the deck of a research boat, CK9 dogs have located the floating (but quick to sink) scats of orcas on multiple occasions.^[9]

1 Dogs Use Earth’s Magnetic Field

It is a well-established fact that birds migrate by using the planet’s magnetic field. In a study that concluded in 2014, researchers announced that dogs also tap into this field. However, what they use it for is weird.

The study ran for two years, observed 70 dogs from 37 breeds, and recorded their bathroom habits. In an attempt to find a link between canine relief and the Earth’s magnetic field, the team watched 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations.^[10]

Bizarrely, the dogs preferred their business to be done along a north-south axis. This was most obvious when the Earth’s magnetic “weather” was calm. The strangest find was that the dogs actively avoided squatting along the east-west axis. Despite suffering through thousands of bathroom moments, the researchers cannot explain why dogs do this.

Some monuments and statues instill a sense of pride, beauty, and country—those unforgettable works of art that you saw on field trips and in the pages of history books. But there are also less-explored monuments—odes to the weird, the wonderful, and the just plain wacky. There are thousands of commemorative monuments out there and plenty of roadside guides and travel books to point you in the right direction to see them. These quirky monuments draw in tons of visitors per year; sometimes, it’s just too hard to resist the bizarre.

10 Boll Weevil Monument

There is nothing out of the ordinary about erecting a statue to commemorate a noble person or a period in history. However, a memorial for an insect is far less common. In Enterprise, Alabama, visitors have the unique opportunity to visit the Boll Weevil Monument, a statue of a woman proudly displaying a large boll weevil above her head. The monument was constructed in 1919 as a symbol of the perseverance of local farmers.

It seems that this particular agricultural pest wreaked havoc on the cotton crop and forced farmers to take up planting peanuts instead, a move that turned out to be extremely profitable for the town. The statue sits in the middle of Main Street and receives several visitors each year. The plaque on the monument reads, “In profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity, this monument is erected by the citizens of Enterprise.”

9 Carhenge

Nearly all of us have heard of Stonehenge, but you’d be hard pressed to find many who have heard of Carhenge. This bizarre monument sits in the grassy planes of Alliance, Nebraska, a memorial to the classic American cars of yesteryear. The cars, mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, are situated in a circle with their noses in the ground and yet more cars balancing on top of them. The roadside attraction was built in the 1980s and mimics the exact arrangement of Stonehenge.

The maker of this odd monument created it to commemorate his father. The property upon which it resides contains other automotive tributes, including a cemetery dedicated to fallen foreign vehicles. In 2011, Carhenge was put up for sale with an asking price of $300,000. That may seem like a steep price, but it is estimated that this quirky site attracts around 80,000 visitors per year from all over the globe.

8 Enema Monument

Why anyone would want to build an ode to an enema is beyond most, but such a monument does exist in the southern Russian city of Zheleznovodsk. The bronze memorial weighs 360 kilograms (800 lb), is 1.5 meters (5 ft) tall, and is balanced on the backs of three naked cherubs. The enema is considered a work of art by the director of the Mashuk-Akva Term Spa and is proudly displayed in the front courtyard of the building. The mountainous region where the spa is located is known for its digestive treatments, which involve enemas filled with natural spring water to help patients deal with intestinal discomfort. In this way, the enema actually serves as a symbol of local health services.

The statue cost a whopping $42,000 and was unveiled in 2008 to an excited crowd. A banner stuck on one of the spa walls read, “Let’s beat constipation and sloppiness with enemas.” The sculptor who created the enema said that she did so with irony and humor in mind. Her goal was to model the three angels after those seen in works from the Italian Renaissance. No doubt Botticelli would be proud.

7 Steve Jobs Monument

After the death of Steve Jobs, an interactive iPhone was erected in front of St. Petersburg’s National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics, and Optics. The memorial had a lit display with a slideshow displaying photographs and videos from the life and career of Jobs, focusing on his many achievements as CEO of Apple. The phone also had a large QR code on the back, which visitors were able to scan and be redirected to a website commemorating Jobs.

Despite being quite popular, the giant iPhone was taken down by Russian officials only a year after it was unveiled. The firm that originally put the memorial up decided to dismantle it the day after Tim Cooke, Apple’s newest CEO, announced his sexual orientation. A Russian news station reported that the monument was removed because of the country’s homosexuality laws involving minors and because it was revealed that there may be a tie between Apple’s products and national security. The college where the iPhone was displayed denies these claims and states that the phone was malfunctioning and needed to be repaired. The monument has not been put back up.

6 Shit Fountain

Artist Jerzy Kenar got tired of stepping out of his Chicago home and constantly stepping in dog poop. So, he decided to put his talents to good use and created a visual monument that would serve as a reminder to the dog owners of the neighborhood to scoop up what their pups leave behind. Enter Shit Fountain, a fecal-shaped bronze coil on top of a cement pillar with the monument’s title carved into the side.

The statue also has water trickling over the top of it in order to give it that freshly excreted look. The fountain is beloved by passersby, and people often have their photos taken squatting above the statue or mimicking quenching their thirst. The artist believes that it has helped local dog owners to be more conscientious and finds the work to be an important part of the neighborhood scenery.

5 The Headington Shark

The 8-meter-tall (25 ft) fiberglass Headington Shark is hard to miss not just because of its length, but more so because it appears to be crashing headfirst into the roof of a cozy British house. The shark was placed on the house’s roof on August 9, 1986, the 41st anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, by the homeowner as a statement about the devastation brought on by the use of nuclear weapons. The local neighborhood council wasn’t particularly thrilled about the bizarre leviathan and attempted to have it removed. However, the homeowner successfully appealed to the British Secretary of the Environment on behalf of the shark and was able to save it from being taken down.

Visitors from around the world flock to New High Street to see the shark each year. Many come to celebrate the shark’s birthday. Drinks and cake are served, and the owner of the home signs copies of his book, The Hunting of the Shark. The home (shark attached) went up for rent in 2014 for just over £2,000 a month. The owner prefers to rent to individuals who don’t mind visitors taking photographs of the shark and who don’t mind answering the occasional question about its meaning. Ironically, however, he has asked that only tenants without pets inquire.

4 Die Badende

“Die Badende” translates to “The Bather,” and one look at the statue in the Inner Alster Lake in Hamburg, Germany, will tell you why. The huge sculpture of a woman’s head and bare knees was on display for only 10 days and gave the body of water the appearance of a giant bathtub. The Bather was 20 meters (67 ft) long and weighed more than 2 tons. Tourists came in droves to view the woman before she was removed weeks later by a large crane. Swimming through her parted legs was particularly popular among boats crammed with visitors.

Artist Oliver Voss created the sculpture as an advertisement for British beauty company Glory. The company wanted to make a “big splash” in thanking the German people for embracing their latest line of products. The advertisement proved very successful; customers and a large crowd gathered to watch the woman hoisted from the water. The movers had a large towel ready to conceal her lady bits from peeping eyes.

3 Jimmy Carter Peanut

The Jimmy Carter Peanut might give you nightmares, standing at 4 meters (13 ft) tall with a wide, toothy smile and no eyes. The peanut can be found on the side of the road in Plains, Georgia. The structure started out far from Georgia, however. It was actually constructed in Indiana in 1976 to honor Jimmy Carter’s visit to the state during his presidential campaign tour. Why was a giant, smiling peanut, of all things, used as a tribute? Well, before he was president, Carter was actually a peanut farmer.

The statue also possesses the same grin that was known so fondly as one of Carter’s most handsome traits during his years in office. In 2000, a car struck the poor peanut, causing it to topple over. But don’t worry: The peanut was restored to its former glory and can still be visited today. Not surprisingly, it’s the most (if not the only) photographed thing in Plains.

2 Jeju Loveland

The salacious monuments found on Jeju Island in South Korea were made to honor sexual acts. The park itself is called Jeju Loveland and arouses more than just curiosity from its many visitors. The theme park opened in 2004 and has a collection of more than 140 erotic statues depicting sexual encounters between both humans and animals. The goals of the theme park are to break down barriers and taboo feelings surrounding sex and promote the “natural beauty of sexuality.”

The park is roughly the size of two soccer fields, and it takes visitors about an hour to see all that it has to offer. The statues were created by graduate students from Seoul’s Hongik University and have an educational function as well. Many marriages in South Korea are arranged, and as such, couples can find themselves in the situation of being new to the delights of marriage. Jeju Loveland has become a popular spot for honeymooners to visit and receive a type of crash course in sex education. The theme park wants to be open to all types of visitors and even has a playground for anyone visiting with children.

1 Brownnosers

Brownnosers, created by Czech artist David Cerny, takes the term “brownnoser” to an entirely new (and literal) level. The two statues stand, or rather bend over, outside the Futura Gallery in Prague. The two figures are positioned side-by-side with the lower portions of their torsos protruding from a cement wall. Viewers are invited to climb ladders attached to the open anuses of the figures and stick their heads inside the openings.

Inside the statue is a video depicting the Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the head of the National Gallery spoon-feeding one another. The video shows the two men (really actors) in masks, feeding each other to the tune of Queen’s famous song “We Are The Champions.” The piece is meant as a criticism not only of the political situation in the Czech Republic, but as a physical manifestation of the artist’s disdain for the National Gallery. In fact, Cerny’s hate for the gallery runs so deep that he actually refused to accept the award they gave him. He stated that upon meeting the curator of the museum, “It was hate at first sight.”

Lee DeGraw is a freelance writer with an inquiring mind.