Actors have long taken extreme measures to add authenticity to a performance, but portraying a sex worker requires a particular vulnerability. The lives of prostitutes, strippers, and porn stars are not just physically complicated but also mentally and emotionally taxing, making them some of the juiciest and most sought‑after roles. Actors will go to great lengths to convincingly inhabit sex workers, but how far is too far? Here are 10 crazy ways they did it.

10 Halle Berry In Jungle Fever

Crazy Ways She Prepared

Spike Lee wanted Halle Berry to play Vivian, a crack‑addicted woman, in his interracial drama Jungle Fever. Berry, eager to avoid being typecast after her pageant and soap‑opera days, demanded that her debut be as a gritty street‑wise character. To get into the mindset of a crack user, she spent time in actual crack dens and famously went ten days without showering. When talk‑show host Wendy Williams questioned her hygiene, Berry retorted, “Ask Sam Jackson! He had to get a whiff of it… constantly!” The commitment paid off, paving the way for later bold roles, including her Oscar‑winning turn in Monster’s Ball.

9 Mark Wahlberg In Boogie Nights

Crazy Ways He Prepared

Paul Thomas Anderson immersed himself in the porn world for a year with legend Ron Jeremy, but Mark Wahlberg was initially hesitant about the script for Boogie Nights. To embody a 1970s porn star, Wahlberg was fitted with a prosthetic penis modeled after John Holmes—so large it extended past his knee. He joked that the dummy made bathroom trips impossible and that it bounced up whenever he sat down. Despite the absurdity, he kept the prosthetic after filming, quipping, “Maybe I can auction it for charity someday.”

8 Jodie Foster In Taxi Driver

Crazy Ways She Prepared

When Martin Scorsese cast a 13‑year‑old Jodie Foster as Iris, a teenage prostitute, she was thrust into a world far beyond her school‑uniform comfort zone. Foster spent time with real street girls and went on several outings with co‑star Robert De Niro, who method‑acted as a mentally unstable Vietnam vet. De Niro would take her to diners, staying in character to convey the gritty edge of the streets. Foster later recalled how the experience taught her non‑verbal improvisation and helped launch her iconic career.

7 Anne Hathaway In Les Misérables

Crazy Ways She Prepared

Anne Hathaway wasn’t originally considered for Fantine, the 19th‑century prostitute in Les Misérables, because she seemed too young. Undeterred, she secured a grueling three‑hour audition that included singing several signature numbers and performing Fantine’s heartbreaking death scene for director Tom Hooper. To mirror Fantine’s desperate poverty, Hathaway embarked on a strict cleanse, surviving on two thin squares of dried oatmeal paste per day for fifteen days, shedding 11 kg (25 lb). After filming, she reflected, “It was definitely nuts, a break with reality, but that’s who Fantine is.”

6 Emily Browning In Sleeping Beauty

Crazy Ways She Prepared

In the Australian thriller Sleeping Beauty, Emily Browning portrays Lucy, a university student who becomes a voluntary sleep‑model for wealthy clients. To embody Lucy’s eerie stillness, Browning practiced meditation and the Alexander Technique, honing a body‑control discipline. She also rose before dawn each day to swim in the ocean, sharpening her focus. On set, she wore prosthetic skin and endured 14 takes of a male client lighting a cigarette on her neck without flinching—an experience she later described as “amazing.”

5 Matthew McConaughey In Magic Mike

Crazy Ways He Prepared

While Channing Tatum’s real‑life story inspired Magic Mike, Matthew McConaughey stole the spotlight as Dallas, the charismatic strip‑club ringleader. McConaughey rode a phone call to accept the part—his second such decision in life. To get a feel for the male‑revue world, he attended a New Orleans show with Tatum, noting the performers’ normalcy and the production’s chaotic design. He channeled P.T. Barnum at director Steven Soderbergh’s request, resulting in flamboyant sets. To stay true to Dallas, McConaughey endured regular waxing in an LA strip mall, joking that the Russian aesthetician apologized 142 times. He also pushed for a dance scene, tearing his thong in the process, and summed up his character as “a wonderful capitalist.”

4 Charlize Theron In Monster

Crazy Ways She Prepared

Monster chronicles the true story of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute‑turned‑serial‑killer. Charlize Theron bulked up by consuming Krispy Kreme doughnuts and potato chips, gaining roughly 14 kg (30 lb) in a transformation dubbed “charlize‑ing.” For a week before shooting, Theron and director Patty Jenkins visited The Last Resort—the bar Wuornos favored—practicing her walk and learning to speak with prosthetic teeth. Jenkins refused to look at Theron until she was fully costumed, deepening the immersion. After a month inhabiting Wuornos, Theron nearly broke down, but her raw performance earned her the 2003 Academy Award for Best Actress.

3 Patricia Arquette In True Romance

Crazy Ways She Prepared

Patricia Arquette’s turn as Alabama, a call‑girl in True Romance, was marked by a physically demanding method. Director Tony Scott acted as her “persuader,” delivering a slap to the actress’s face to capture the character’s bruised reality. After the initial take, Scott stepped back, but Arquette later asked for a repeat to perfect the scene’s intensity. In gratitude (or perhaps as a peace offering), Scott gifted her the film’s iconic pink Cadillac. The production also featured a harrowing moment when a prop gun’s cartridge was mistakenly left loaded, causing Dennis Hopper’s character to suffer a real head wound—an anecdote that underscores the set’s extreme dedication.

2 River Phoenix In My Own Private Idaho

Crazy Ways He Prepared

Gus Van Sant’s cult classic My Own Private Idaho follows two street hustlers, played by River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. After Reeves delivered the script’s treatment on a 1,600‑kilometre motorcycle ride, Phoenix dove headfirst into the subculture. Van Sant invited him to stay at his house, but the trio’s immersion—Phoenix, Reeves, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers—turned the home into a non‑stop party, prompting Van Sant to relocate downtown. Phoenix befriended real‑life street kid Mike Parker, interviewing hustlers and even experimenting with hard drugs and gay sex. Tragically, that reckless period foreshadowed his untimely overdose two years later at age 23.

1 James Franco In Sonny

Crazy Ways He Prepared

James Franco’s reputation as a method actor reached new heights with his portrayal of a gigolo in Sonny. Known for isolating himself to embody characters—he once cut off contact while playing James Dean—Franco took it further by shadowing a real‑life gigolo, even accompanying him into a room with a client. He observed the intimate exchange from a corner, absorbing every nuance. The film, directed by Nicolas Cage, captured Franco’s obsessive preparation, cementing his status as an actor willing to go to any length for authenticity.

Ever wondered how does hyperthymesia function inside the human brain? Let’s embark on a lively, yet authoritative tour of this extraordinary memory phenomenon, exploring its definition, origins, pros, cons, and how it differs from other famed memory types.

5 What Is Hyperthymesia?

Hyperthymesia, also known as highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), represents a near‑perfect recall of personal life events. While many equate it with photographic memory, the two differ: hyperthymesia is strictly autobiographical, not a universal capture of all visual information.

The term only entered scientific literature in 2006, though historical figures like Daniel McCartney (born 1817) displayed the trait centuries earlier. Actress Marilu Henner helped bring attention to the condition, which now appears in roughly 50‑100 individuals worldwide.

People with hyperthymesia retrieve personal details with astonishing accuracy but do not possess a blanket ability to remember unrelated facts—such as the release date of a blockbuster film or the timing of a global disaster—any more than the average person.

These individuals are not necessarily intellectual prodigies; their cognitive abilities in other domains often mirror the general population. For instance, a blind subject named HK exhibited average intelligence yet could recount his life’s timeline in vivid detail despite lacking visual input.

Neuroimaging reveals that hyperthymestic brains feature a 20% larger amygdala and heightened connectivity between the amygdala and hippocampus. The amygdala, a hub for processing emotions, works hand‑in‑hand with the hippocampus, which is essential for learning and memory consolidation.

Typical memory formation begins with short‑term storage in the prefrontal cortex. Significant events then migrate to long‑term repositories across various brain regions, such as the neocortex and basal ganglia. In contrast, hyperthymestic individuals appear to file virtually every experience—no matter how trivial—into a database‑like system, preserving it for future retrieval.

Interestingly, whereas ordinary memory fades over time, hyperthymestic recall can improve with age. Researchers hypothesize that an obsessive rehearsal of memories strengthens neural pathways, leading to heightened accuracy even years later.

4 What Causes It?

The precise origins of HSAM remain a mystery. One prevailing theory suggests that a compulsive tendency to revisit past events—akin to a memory‑focused OCD—reinforces neural circuits, thereby bolstering long‑term recall.

People with hyperthymesia often display weaker memory for recent happenings while exhibiting extraordinary detail for events further in the past. This pattern implies a gradual build‑up of memory strength rather than an innate, all‑encompassing ability.

Potential contributors span psychological, biological, and genetic domains. However, limited research prevents definitive conclusions, leaving the field ripe for future investigation.

3 Is It a Curse?

At first glance, the notion of never forgetting sounds like a superpower. Imagine replaying every joyous moment in perfect detail—birthday celebrations, first kisses, triumphs—all readily available at a mental click.

Yet the flip side is stark. Hyperthymestic individuals retain the most painful memories with the same vividness. A traumatic breakup, the death of a beloved pet, or any harrowing episode remains forever fresh, often intensifying emotional distress over time.

Jill Price, the first officially diagnosed HSAM case, described her recollections as “non‑stop, uncontrollable, and totally exhausting.” She constantly relives every missed opportunity and every choice she didn’t make, turning her mind into a relentless factory churning regrets.

Many liken the experience to an endless movie of one’s life, playing from sunrise to sunset without pause. This perpetual replay can trap individuals in a mental prison, where past traumas resurface with the raw emotion of the original event.

Rebecca Sharrock shared how her hyper‑accurate memory triggered depression and heightened anxiety. She often awakens on a given date only to recall the same day years earlier, complete with the original childhood emotions, making ordinary stressors feel magnified.

2 The Benefits Of Remembering

Despite its challenges, hyperthymesia offers distinct advantages. Author Frank Healy, who boasts over 58 years of personal memories, notes that once he learned to manage the flood of recollections, the ability became a valuable asset.

In social settings, Healy can instantly recall a newcomer’s name, occupation, family details, and hobbies, making a powerful first impression—an undeniable edge in networking, sales, or even charming con artists.

For academic pursuits, hyperthymestic individuals rarely forget birthdays, anniversaries, or other personal milestones, as long as they can tie the information to their own experiences.

Professionally, fields that demand precise recall—such as law, history, or scientific research—can benefit from the heightened autobiographical memory. Bob Petrella, another HSAM bearer, leverages his vivid recollection of past mistakes to avoid repeating them, turning personal history into a practical learning tool.

1 Differences With Eidetic Memory And Photographic Memory

It’s crucial to differentiate hyperthymesia from eidetic (or photographic) memory. Eidetic memory allows a brief, near‑perfect visual snapshot that fades within minutes or days, predominantly observed in children.

Photographic memory, as popularly imagined, would be a lifelong, generalized version of eidetic recall—retaining any visual information indefinitely. However, scientific consensus finds no conclusive evidence supporting such an ability in adults.

Hyperthymesia, by contrast, is narrowly focused on autobiographical data. While individuals with this condition can retrieve personal events with exceptional detail, they do not possess a universal photographic recall of all encountered information.

Thus, while pop culture loves to showcase characters with “photographic” minds, real‑world research indicates that hyperthymesia remains a distinct, rare, and scientifically documented phenomenon.

In summary, the answer to how does hyperthymesia operate lies in a unique blend of enlarged emotional centers, reinforced neural pathways, and perhaps a compulsive habit of revisiting the past. Whether viewed as a gift, a curse, or both, it continues to fascinate scientists and laypeople alike.

When it comes to vanishing a corpse—whether you’re dropping it into a bubbling vat of acid or coercing a victim to dig his own shallow pit—Hollywood has dreamed up more disposal tricks than it has written decent scripts. But do any of these cinematic tricks actually hold up? Here are the top 10 ways get a body out of sight, examined with a healthy dose of reality.

10 ways get: The Grim Realities

10 Dissolving A Body In A Vat Of Acid

Breaking Bad makes the whole affair look as easy as pouring a drink. Walter White tells us that you simply toss a corpse into a container and drown it in hydrofluoric acid, turning the victim into a murky slurry. The show paints the process as instant and foolproof.

In the real world, hydrofluoric acid is actually a weak acid, and it’s notoriously poor at breaking down flesh and bone. Its chemical properties simply aren’t strong enough to liquefy a human body in any reasonable timeframe.

That’s a lesson a few French criminals learned the hard way.

Three murderers in France tried to emulate Walter’s method, only to discover that after ten days the body was still recognizably intact, emitting a stench that drew unwanted attention. The acid didn’t dissolve anything; it merely turned the corpse into a smelly, stubborn mass.

A group of German chemists later published a paper dissecting White’s theory, suggesting alternative chemicals might improve the outcome. Nonetheless, anyone attempting this would still have to contend with horrendous odors and an excruciatingly slow process.

9 Pulling A ‘Weekend At Bernie’s’

Believe it or not, a pair of Colorado friends tried to reenact the 1980s comedy Weekend at Bernie’s after stumbling upon a dead buddy. Their plan? Load the corpse into the backseat of a car and parade it through three nightclubs, blowing $400 of the deceased’s cash on a strip club extravaganza.

Unlike the film’s slap‑stick chaos, the duo never actually hauled the body inside any venue; it stayed glued to the backseat the entire night. The motive for dragging the corpse around remains murky, but they certainly made a spectacle of it.

When the night finally ended, they called the police to report the death. The authorities, unsurprisingly, didn’t find the situation funny. Both men were arrested on multiple charges, including abuse of a corpse, proving that reality rarely mirrors the film’s carefree tone.

8 Stuffing A Body Into A Wood Chipper

The most iconic scene from the Coen brothers’ Fargo shows a killer feeding a victim to a wood chipper. This macabre moment isn’t pure fantasy; it’s based on the true‑crime case of Richard Crafts, who murdered his wife and attempted the same grisly technique.

Wood chippers are indeed powerful enough to pulverize human tissue, even bones. Crafts managed to shred enough of his wife’s remains that the majority of her body still hasn’t been recovered, effectively hiding a large portion of the evidence.

Despite the success in obscuring the corpse, the crime scene was littered with hair, fingernails, teeth, and bone fragments. Blood seeped into the carpet and furniture, leaving a forensic trail. Moreover, the deafening roar of the chipper alerted neighbors, prompting police to investigate the property.

7 Making Them Dig Their Own Graves

The classic Western trope of forcing a captive to exhume his own grave might sound like a Hollywood exaggeration, but real‑world accounts show it can actually happen. Victims, when faced with a shovel and a gun, often resign themselves to the grim task rather than fight back.

However, the logistics are brutal. Professional gravediggers need roughly an hour with a backhoe, or an entire day with a hand shovel, to carve a standard six‑foot grave under ideal conditions. Hard soil, bad weather, or a deliberately slow perpetrator can stretch the process to several days.

Even a shallow grave isn’t safe from detection. Cadaver dogs are trained to sniff out buried bodies, and investigators can spot subtle surface disturbances. Consequently, a hastily dug shallow pit is likely to be uncovered fairly quickly.

6 The Norman Bates Approach

In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Norman Bates keeps his mother’s corpse hidden in the family house, pretending she’s still alive. A real‑life counterpart, Timothy Fattig, tried a remarkably similar ruse after his mother died of natural causes.

Fattig, overwhelmed with grief, let his mother’s body decompose in their home while telling friends and relatives she was in the hospital. The deception held for almost a year before a curious police officer finally knocked on the door, suspecting something amiss.

When the officer confronted him, Fattig confessed. An autopsy revealed the mother hadn’t been murdered, so no homicide charges were filed. He later served time for an unrelated theft, illustrating that pretending a dead loved one is still alive is a precarious, mentally taxing strategy.

5 Fitting Them For Cement Shoes

Movies love the image of mafia goons slipping concrete‑filled shoes onto a victim’s feet before dumping them in a river. In reality, concrete takes hours to set, meaning the victim would have to stay perfectly still for a lengthy period—something hardly feasible in a violent crime.

In 2016, a member of the Crips named Peter Martinez fell victim to a modern‑day cement‑shoe attempt. After being fitted with concrete‑filled shoes, he was thrown into Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay.

Air bubbles trapped in the concrete caused his body to rise almost immediately. The tide carried him to Manhattan Beach, where families enjoying a sunny day discovered the floating corpse, exposing the method’s glaring flaws.

4 Calling The Cleanup Crew

Hollywood often features a slick “cleanup crew”—think the Wolf in Pulp Fiction—ready to erase any trace of a crime with a phone call. In truth, there appears to be no dedicated professional market for erasing murders before police arrive.

Crime‑scene cleaning is a painstaking process, typically consuming nine to twelve hours. As Scott Vogel, a veteran cleaner, explains, it’s far more than gloves and Lysol. Blood, bodily fluids, and organic matter seep into carpets, upholstery, and even walls, often requiring demolition of entire rooms.

The most stubborn obstacle is the lingering odor of death. Even with industrial‑strength machines and specialized chemicals, many cleaners report that the stench can persist. Phyllis Simmons, for example, spent days scrubbing floors after stabbing a man, yet investigators still found residual evidence when the police arrived.

3 Feeding The Body To Pigs

The 2000 film Snatch boasts the line, “They’ll go through bone like butter,” describing how quickly pigs can devour a human body. Pigs are omnivorous scavengers and will indeed eat flesh, even attacking and consuming a farmer who was feeding them.

Scientific speculation suggests that a group of fourteen lactating sows could theoretically finish an adult male within two hours, thanks to their heightened appetite. However, using non‑lactating pigs can stretch the process to several weeks.

Even the most infamous modern example—serial killer Robert Pickton—left behind a wealth of evidence in his pig pens. The animals never fully consumed the bodies, and investigators recovered bone fragments and other forensic material, proving the method isn’t a flawless eraser.

2 Burning The House Down

Television dramas love the dramatic image of a whole house ignited to obliterate evidence. In reality, a typical wood‑fire reaches only 800‑900 °C (1,500‑1,700 °F), far below the 1,100‑1,500 °C (2,000‑2,700 °F) required in crematoriums to reduce a body to ash.

Even at those extreme temperatures, cremation leaves behind small bone fragments that must be manually ground. Those remnants are enough for forensic experts to identify a victim, and investigators can also sniff out accelerants, indicating arson.

Several murderers who tried to burn bodies multiple times still ended up with bone fragments that led to their capture. The flames, it seems, rarely provide a clean slate.

1 Burying A Body Beneath A Coffin

In a memorable Dexter episode, the titular killer advises a fellow murderer to hide a corpse beneath a funeral home’s coffin, assuming no one will ever dig there. The DeCavalcante crime family actually employed this tactic for decades.

During the 1920s, the mob owned a funeral home and fabricated “double‑deck” coffins with a secret compartment under the main burial space. They would slip a victim’s body into this hidden layer, then seal it beneath a grieving family’s loved one.

Pallbearers often remarked on the unusual weight of the coffins, exchanging puzzled glances, yet no one questioned the arrangement. The scheme remained undetected until 2003, when a mob informant testified in court, revealing an 80‑year‑long burial subterfuge.

When it comes to covert police work, the phrase “10 undercover operations” conjures images of daring infiltrations, secret dossiers, and high‑stakes drama. Yet not every secret mission ends with a badge‑clad triumph; some end in bewildering blunders, courtroom drama, or outright fiasco. Below we count down a dozen of the most eye‑watering fiascos, each a lesson in how even the best‑trained agents can stumble when plans go sideways.

Why These 10 Undercover Operations Flopped

10 Operation Wheelchair

Vancouver police sergeant Mark Horsley hatched what seemed like a clever ruse in 2015: disguise himself as a wheelchair‑bound citizen to lure a gang that had been targeting disabled people on the city’s east side. For five days he roamed the most crime‑ridden streets with an open‑fanny‑pack full of cash, hoping thieves would seize the opportunity.

Instead of being robbed, Horsley found himself on the receiving end of public goodwill. Over 300 passers‑by approached him, offering money, conversation, and even pizza. Only one well‑meaning stranger actually tried to zip his fanny pack shut, gently reminding him to watch his belongings. Even former crooks Horsley had previously busted recognized his disguise and offered assistance. The episode left investigators questioning whether the alleged wheelchair‑robbery ring was ever as prolific as reported, or whether the undercover unit had a serious information leak.

9 Operation Have It Your Way

In 2016, freshly minted Thurmont, Maryland officer Nicole Fair was thrust into her first major assignment: infiltrate a local Burger King rumored to be a drug‑dealing hotspot. Posing as a crew member, she spent two months flipping burgers, learning the grill’s rhythm, and building rapport with fellow staff.

Her patience paid off when she coaxed two employees, Tommy Lee Miller and Jonathan Moser, into showing her a stash. Fair later told the town’s newspaper that she felt “deeply honored to protect our community,” emphasizing how rewarding it was to confront a problem that had been gnawing at residents for months.

The haul, however, was embarrassingly modest: a mere five grams of marijuana (about $50 in value) and two prescription pills. Thurmont residents could finally breathe easy, even if the operation’s bang was more of a whisper.

8 Operation Autistic Kid

School‑based drug bustes have a long, controversial history. In 2012, an undercover officer who went by “Dan” embedded himself at Chaparral High in Southern California. On his first day, he befriended Jesse Snodgrass, an autistic student with bipolar disorder who struggled with social cues.

“Dan” asked Jesse if he could source weed. Naïve but eager, Jesse promised a small amount, later purchasing $20 worth of cannabis from a legal dispensary and handing it over. The officer promptly arrested Jesse, charging him with drug distribution.

A judge later dismissed the charges, noting that the crime would never have materialized without the officer’s provocation. Jesse’s family pursued a lawsuit against the school district, but the courts also dismissed that claim, leaving the episode as a stark reminder of the fine line between sting work and entrapment.

7 Operation Backfire

In 2012, the ATF opened a façade shop called Fearless Distributing in downtown Milwaukee, hoping to lure illegal gun dealers. Agents staffed the storefront, intending to purchase firearms from felons and build a case against a gun‑running ring.

The operation quickly unraveled. No genuine gun‑running network was uncovered, and most of the arrests involved mentally disabled individuals rather than high‑level traffickers. The store itself was robbed of $35,000 worth of merchandise, while agents caused $15,000 in property damage, prompting a landlord lawsuit. A mishandled gun transaction even resulted in a military‑style machine gun ending up on the streets.

After the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed the fiasco, further investigation revealed similar botched storefront stings across at least six other cities, underscoring a pattern of poor planning and execution.

6 Operation Helping Hand

From 2010 to 2012, Florida’s Tri‑County Task Force—comprising the Bal Harbour Police Department and the Glades County Sheriff’s Office—went undercover as money launderers. Their goal: infiltrate the financial pipelines feeding the state’s drug trade and hand critical intel to federal partners for a big bust.

While the task force publicly announced seizing $30 million in illicit cash, deeper digging revealed a far more troubling picture. In reality, the undercover agents had facilitated the laundering of over $70 million for drug cartels, more than double the seized amount. They skimmed $2.4 million for personal expenses, splurging on luxury hotels and high‑end meals. Once the Miami Herald exposed the scheme, the heads of both agencies were fired and the operation was dismantled.

The fallout highlighted how a seemingly noble sting can be corrupted from within, turning protectors into profiteers.

5 Operation Illegal Business

In 2015, the Center for Medical Progress released undercover videos alleging that Planned Parenthood engaged in illegal activities, including the sale of aborted fetuses. The graphic footage sparked nationwide outrage and prompted several states to consider defunding the organization.

A grand jury convened to examine the allegations and concluded that Planned Parenthood was not committing any crimes. The videos were deemed heavily edited to create a false narrative. Consequently, the video makers—David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt—faced felony charges for tampering with governmental records, and Daleiden was additionally charged with illegal procurement of human tissue.

Although those charges were dropped in July 2016, Planned Parenthood’s civil lawsuit against the duo continues, illustrating how deceptive undercover tactics can backfire legally and reputationally.

4 Project Gunrunner

During the mid‑2000s, the ATF launched Project Gunrunner, a nationwide effort to curb the flow of firearms into Mexican drug cartels. The strategy hinged on facilitating “straw purchases”—legal buyers acquiring guns for illegal traffickers—so agents could trace the weapons’ journey.

Unfortunately, the operation fell spectacularly short of its tracing goal. Instead, it inadvertently funneled roughly 2,500 firearms across the border, effectively “running guns” rather than stopping them. Critics argue the ATF may have exaggerated its successes to secure funding, while others suggest the program was fundamentally flawed from the start.

The debacle prompted further scrutiny, revealing that Project Gunrunner was just one of many ATF initiatives that unintentionally bolstered the very arms trade they sought to dismantle.

3 Operation Fast And Furious

Launched in 2009, Operation Fast and Furious aimed to track illegal gun sales by allowing firearms to pass through “safe houses” under the watchful eye of ATF agents. The directive was to let the weapons reach higher‑level traffickers, then seize them and expose the cartel’s supply chain.

The plan catastrophically backfired. Over 2,000 guns were allowed to cross into Mexico, and the operation came under fire after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with a firearm that had been part of the sting. Subsequent investigations linked dozens of the released weapons to violent crimes on both sides of the border, with at least 150 Mexican civilians injured or killed.

2 Operation What Private Property?

In early 2012, Craig Patty, owner of a modest North Texas trucking firm, received a shocking call: a driver hired just five weeks earlier had been gunned down inside one of his trucks, which was filled with enough marijuana to fill the vehicle. Unbeknownst to Patty, the driver was an undercover DEA operative using the truck as a decoy to bust a smuggling ring.

The sting spiraled out of control when the smugglers attempted to hijack the truck, killing the undercover agent in a hail of bullets witnessed by dozens of federal and local officers. The chaotic scene even saw a Houston police officer inadvertently shooting a sheriff’s deputy.

Patty sued the DEA for over $1.3 million, alleging negligence. The court dismissed the suit in 2015, ruling the agency bore no liability for the tragic outcome. The decision remains under appeal, leaving the trucking company’s fate uncertain.

1 Operation Never Mind

In 2013, Worcester, Massachusetts police launched an online sting targeting child predators. An undercover agent pretended to be a 14‑year‑old girl, engaging with a user named Latenightcop171, who turned out to be Officer Neil Shea, a member of the department itself.

Even though the conversation quickly turned sexual—Shea wrote, “We’d have sex”—the supervising agents decided to terminate the chat, citing insufficient evidence and claiming no line had been crossed. Shea then sent a friend request to the undercover persona, further blurring the line.

Rather than face criminal charges, Shea was allowed to resign and continue collecting his pension benefits. The episode sparked outrage over police accountability and highlighted the perilous gray area of online entrapment.

Here are 10 things you think work but actually don’t, ranging from gadgets in your hotel room to the drinks you sip after a run. You’ll be surprised how many everyday items are little more than clever façades, designed to make you feel in control while they quietly pull the strings behind the scenes.

Why 10 Things You Think Work Are Actually Illusions

10 Hotel Thermostats

Ever cranked the dial on a hotel AC unit only to wonder why the room still feels like a sauna? That’s no coincidence—most hotel thermostats are essentially decorative. They exist so you’ll ask the front desk to tweak the temperature, giving the impression you have control while the actual settings stay locked within a narrow band.

Some of these devices double as motion and heat sensors, automatically adjusting the set point based on your movements and ambient temperature. They can even shut off the cooling system when you exit the room or open a window, all without your knowledge.

Even when a thermostat appears to let you change the temperature, it usually has hidden minimum and maximum limits you can’t see. Pushing the dial beyond those thresholds won’t make the room any hotter or colder, and seasoned travelers are learning clever work‑arounds to outsmart the system.

While conserving energy is a noble goal, the primary driver for these fake controls is profit. Hotels save money when guests use less power, and they avoid negative reviews by giving the illusion of personal climate control, even though the real thermostat is managed centrally.

9 Progress Bars

Those sleek progress bars that flash percentages or countdown timers while you download a file aren’t the reliable gauges they appear to be. A bar stuck at 50 % might mean half the data is already on its way, or it could mean barely a byte has arrived—because the bar tracks milestones, not actual bytes transferred.

The discrepancy arises from the many variables that affect a transfer: fluctuating internet speeds, network congestion, and the speed of your hard drive all play a role. A fast connection can zip a large file past the 50 % mark in seconds, while a slow drive might crawl over the same percentage for minutes.

Hard drives also behave oddly when handling many tiny files versus a single massive one. The former forces the drive to locate and process countless directory entries, slowing the overall copy speed even if the total data size is smaller.

Because accurately estimating remaining time is a nightmare, programmers opt for preset milestones. The progress bar only updates when a milestone is reached, so the visual cue is more about the software’s internal checkpoints than the real‑world progress of your download.

8 Pedestrian Crossing Buttons

Ever stood at a crosswalk, hammered the “walk” button, and wondered if anyone ever noticed? The truth is that pedestrian buttons fall into three distinct categories: always‑effective, never‑effective, and sometimes‑effective, depending on the intersection’s programming.

In the first scenario, the signal stays red until a button press triggers the green “walk” indication. Here, your fingertip genuinely matters. In the second case, the system cycles on a fixed schedule, rendering the button useless—press it and nothing changes.

The third, more nuanced situation, sees the walk signal appear automatically during periods of heavy foot traffic, but still requires a button press during quieter times. The logic aims to balance flow efficiency with pedestrian demand.

Because the programming varies from city to city (and even street to street), it’s often impossible for a passer‑by to tell which category a button belongs to. The safest bet? Press it anyway; you might trigger the green light, or you might just be adding a little extra pressure to the sensor.

In practice, many pedestrians simply wait to see if the light changes on its own, especially at bustling intersections where the system tends to favor automatic cycles over manual input.

7 Fitness Trackers

Modern fitness wearables are excellent at keeping tabs on your heart rate, delivering readings within a five‑percent error margin—perfectly adequate for most casual users. However, when it comes to estimating calories burned, even the most premium models stumble badly.

A 2017 Stanford study examined seven popular devices, including the Apple Watch, Fitbit Surge, Microsoft Band, and Samsung Gear S2. While heart‑rate accuracy hovered around a respectable sub‑5 % error, calorie calculations were wildly off, with error rates ranging from 27 % to a staggering 93 %.

The culprit lies in the simplistic algorithms many manufacturers employ. Calories burned depend heavily on personal variables like height, weight, age, and metabolic rate, yet many trackers default to generic assumptions, ignoring the wearer’s actual data.

Consequently, while you can trust the device to tell you that your pulse is racing, you shouldn’t rely on its calorie‑counting feature for precise nutrition planning. For most users, a simple manual log or a reputable fitness app will give a more accurate picture of energy expenditure.

6 Close Buttons On Tube Trains

London’s Underground still sports “open” buttons that passengers can press to trigger the doors, and some trains even display a “close” button that promises to seal the doors just before departure. In reality, those buttons are decorative; the train driver has full control over door operation.

Until the early 1990s, riders could manually open and close doors, but operators soon discovered that driver‑controlled doors reduced station dwell time dramatically. Safety concerns also played a part—over‑eager passengers sometimes slammed the “close” button while others were still boarding, leading to accidents and injuries.

After a few high‑profile mishaps, many tube lines either disabled the passenger‑controlled buttons entirely or removed them during refurbishments, leaving only the driver’s controls to ensure smooth and safe door operation.

5 Sunscreen

Sun protection seems straightforward: slather on a lotion, and you’re shielded from harmful UV rays. Yet a 2017 Environmental Working Group (EWG) study revealed that only about one‑quarter of tested sunscreens actually lived up to their SPF claims.

The EWG examined 880 products and found that roughly 73 % performed as advertised, while the remaining 27 % either fell short of their labeled protection or contained questionable ingredients that could pose health risks.

Many sunscreens fail to block both UVA and UVB rays effectively, and some brands exaggerate their SPF numbers, leading consumers to believe they’re more protected than they truly are. This misinformation can result in insufficient protection and increased skin‑damage risk.

4 Ultrasound Mosquito Repellents

Those pocket‑sized ultrasonic mosquito repellents and their smartphone app cousins promise to send pesky insects fleeing with a high‑pitch buzz. The premise is that the sound mimics a dragonfly’s wingbeat, a natural mosquito predator.

Unfortunately, the devices emit frequencies around 15 kHz, far above the 20‑170 Hz range produced by a dragonfly’s wings. Moreover, mosquitoes don’t react to dragonfly wing sounds at all, rendering the whole premise scientifically unsound.

Another popular claim suggests the ultrasonic tone mimics a male mosquito’s mating call, supposedly deterring blood‑seeking females. In reality, male mosquito wingbeats hover near 700 Hz—still nowhere near the 15 kHz emitted by these gadgets.

Extensive research shows that female mosquitoes are indifferent to both the purported male call and the dragonfly‑like buzz. The myth persists, even inspiring a Brazilian radio station to broadcast the ultrasonic noise across the airwaves in a futile attempt to clear the area of mosquitoes.

3 PC Cleaning Software

Premium “PC cleaning” utilities promise to purge your computer of junk, boost performance, and restore it to its out‑of‑the‑box speed. In practice, many of these programs are digital snake oil, inflating minor issues into alarming problems.

These third‑party cleaners often flag harmless files—like browser cookies or temporary internet files—as performance‑draining culprits, even though modern operating systems already manage such data efficiently without user intervention.

Additionally, they tend to exaggerate the severity of minor hiccups, convincing users to purchase expensive upgrades or subscriptions. Most operating systems include built‑in cleanup tools that do the job just fine, rendering the pricey add‑ons unnecessary.

2 Office Thermostats

Just as hotels hide thermostat controls, many office buildings employ “fake” thermostats that appear functional but are deliberately limited. Studies suggest anywhere from 2 % to a staggering 90 % of office thermostats are essentially dummies.

Originally, some offices had fully operational thermostats, but tenants struggled to agree on a comfortable temperature. To avoid endless complaints, building managers began installing preset units that could only be adjusted within narrow bounds, if at all.

When occupants call HVAC services to tweak the climate, the companies often respond by swapping in these restricted devices, effectively silencing temperature disputes while maintaining a façade of control.

1 Sports Drinks

Sports drinks are marketed as the ultimate hydration solution for athletes, promising to replenish electrolytes and prevent dehydration. In reality, they’re mostly sugary water with a dash of sodium and potassium—ingredients that most casual exercisers don’t need.

Excessive consumption of any fluid, whether plain water or a sports drink, can lead to over‑hydration and hyponatremia, a dangerous drop in blood sodium levels caused by diluting the body’s electrolytes.

While elite athletes engaging in prolonged, high‑intensity activity (over an hour) may benefit from the added electrolytes, the average gym‑goer is better off drinking plain water. Over‑hydration has already claimed the lives of marathon runners, with 16 deaths and over 1,600 hospitalizations linked to hyponatremia since 2012.

In short, unless you’re training for a marathon or an ultra‑endurance event, reach for water instead of a sugary sports beverage to stay safely hydrated.

Many folks cringe at the idea of laboring for free, especially when the employer is a trillion‑dollar behemoth like Google. Yet, in a single sentence, the reality is simple: we’ve all been employed by Google at zero cost, and many of us still are.

top 10 ways you’re already working for Google

10 Book Translators

If you have ever typed those wobbly, distorted letters to prove you’re not a robot, congratulations—you’ve been a silent partner in Google’s massive book‑digitizing effort. Each time you cracked a CAPTCHA, you were actually transcribing a word for the Google Books archive, all without a paycheck.

Every CAPTCHA presented a pair of words: one was a control to confirm you were paying attention, the other was a fresh term Google needed to add to its database. Since the system never told you which was which, you gave equal effort to both, unknowingly feeding the engine that powers their searchable library.

Through this clever crowd‑sourced scheme, Google managed to scan its entire book collection and even every New York Times issue dating back to 1851—accomplishing the feat in just two years and spending not a single cent on labor. Kudos to the invisible army of CAPTCHA solvers!

9 Autonomous Car Trainers

If you thought regular CAPTCHAs were annoying, reCAPTCHA is the turbo‑charged cousin. Those image grids of traffic signs, cars, buses, and streetlights you’re asked to tag? That’s reCAPTCHA, and it’s a training ground for Google’s driverless‑car AI.

I know I sound a bit harsh, but have you ever paused, squinting at a photo trying to decide whether a pole belongs to a traffic light or stands alone? That frustration fuels the very technology that will one day steer cars without human hands.

Why do these puzzles feature only road‑related objects? Because Google is harvesting your selections to teach its autonomous‑vehicle algorithms how to recognize real‑world obstacles, one click at a time.

The company openly admitted on its developer blog when reCAPTCHA launched in 2012 that it was “redirecting the effort” you pour into solving puzzles into machine‑learning training. In other words, your annoyance is their progress.

So the next time you’re stuck on a reCAPTCHA, remember you’re not just proving you’re human—you’re also a volunteer data labeler for future self‑driving cars.

8 Image Labeler

Google’s Image Labeler stands as perhaps the most blatant example of turning play into unpaid labor. Launched over a decade ago, this web‑based game paired two random users, showing them the same picture and challenging them to tag its contents before a countdown expired.

The scoring system rewarded you when any of your tags matched those of your partner, and a live leaderboard let you see who was ahead. In essence, you were gamified crowdsourcing for Google’s image‑search algorithms.

While the original game has faded, the underlying mechanic persists: Google now presents a single image and asks simple yes/no questions like “Does this image contain water?” or “Is this a drawing?” Every click still feeds the massive visual database that powers Google Search.

Thus, even when you think you’re just having a quick time‑wasting session, you’re actually contributing to a massive, free‑labor effort that sharpens Google’s image recognition capabilities.

7 Mobile Traffic Sensors

Ever notice how Google Maps seems to know exactly when a road is snarled? The secret isn’t a hidden fleet of traffic cameras—it’s the billions of Android phones you already carry.

When a cluster of devices remains stationary on a stretch of road, Google interprets that as congestion. Conversely, when phones are spread out, the system assumes traffic is flowing smoothly. Your phone, without you even lifting a finger, becomes a moving sensor in Google’s traffic‑monitoring network.

German artist Simon Weckert demonstrated the vulnerability of this system by loading 99 Android phones onto a cart and pushing it through Berlin. Google Maps instantly flagged every street the cart crossed as “congested,” despite there being no real traffic jam.

Weckert even rolled his contraption past Google’s own headquarters, and the company’s spokesperson praised the creativity, claiming it helped improve the product. In reality, Google simply welcomed the free data feed—another example of unpaid contributions from everyday users.

6 Unaware Cartographers

A cartographer draws maps, and for a time, anyone could become one using Google’s Map Maker, a tool launched in 2008 that let volunteers tag roads, rivers, businesses, and more.

The platform suffered a critical flaw: moderation was limited to brand‑new users. Existing contributors could upload images and information without oversight, opening the door to abuse.

One disgruntled user exploited this gap by posting a photo of Android’s logo urinating on Apple’s logo in place of a legitimate location image from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, accompanied by a scathing note about Google’s review policy.

Google’s response? They shut down Map Maker altogether, ending the volunteer‑driven cartography program and pulling the plug on the free‑labor pipeline it had created.

Top 10 Disturbing Facts About Google

5 Human Seismometers

Seismometers detect earthquakes, but they’re pricey, leaving many quake‑prone regions unable to afford them. Google has taken a novel approach: turning billions of smartphones into a massive, low‑cost seismic network.

The idea is simple—your Android phone already houses an accelerometer, the sensor that tells the device whether it’s in portrait or landscape mode. While a single phone’s accelerometer can’t spot a quake, millions of them working together can register subtle ground movements.

Google’s program, known as ShakeAlert, aggregates this data to create the world’s largest and cheapest earthquake‑detection system. You don’t need to opt‑in; just have your Android device in your pocket, and you become part of the global sensor array.

Just as with traffic monitoring, you’re providing valuable data without any compensation, effectively serving as a human‑powered seismometer for Google’s benefit.

Like Google’s other crowd‑sourced initiatives, this effort hinges on the sheer volume of unpaid contributors—every phone adds a tiny piece to the seismic puzzle.

4 Google Local Guide

Half of Google’s users search for local businesses, yet the company refuses to hire staff to gather that granular information. Instead, it created the Local Guides program, a gamified volunteer network that populates Google Maps with reviews, photos, and details.

Local Guides earn points for every contribution they make. Accumulate enough, and you receive a badge—each badge larger than the last, yet ultimately as ornamental as graffiti on a crumbling wall.

Google dangles modest rewards: a pair of socks, a phone case, or a terabyte of cloud storage. However, the storage perk expires after two years, at which point Google begins charging for the space.

The company also touts “partner” perks, though it never clarifies who these partners are. Some guides report receiving Udemy course discounts, but Udemy already offers universal discounts, making the benefit feel hollow.

If you think these incentives are generous, remember that the biggest perk is merely a badge—an emblem of unpaid labor that fuels Google’s local search ecosystem.

3 Content Moderators

In 2017, thousands of advertisers pulled their ads from YouTube after they appeared alongside controversial or extremist videos that didn’t reflect their brands. While YouTube does employ a sizable team of paid moderators, the sheer volume of uploads makes it impossible for them to review everything.

Google estimates it would need over 50,000 full‑time employees or contractors to manually police every video—a cost running into hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.

Instead, the platform relies on ordinary users like you and me to flag inappropriate content. Paid moderators only intervene when enough unpaid volunteers have reported a video, meaning the system’s effectiveness is directly tied to the community’s willingness to flag violations.

2 YouTube Translator

In March 2017, around the same time YouTube was under fire for showing ads on contentious videos, the platform rolled out a feature that lets users translate video titles and descriptions into other languages. This crowdsourced translation effort is entirely unpaid, despite the substantial workload involved.

Google marketed the feature as a way for creators to “connect with audiences” who don’t speak the original language. In reality, the move simply expands viewership, driving more ad revenue for YouTube—again, at no direct cost to the translators.

1 360 Photographers

Street View lets you virtually stand on any spot and spin 360 degrees, but the images you see are captured by people Google dubs “trusted photographers.” Despite the critical role they play, Google does not directly pay these contributors.

To become a trusted photographer, you must first submit 50 high‑quality 360° photos, earning a Google Street View badge. Once badge‑earned, you’re upgraded to “Trusted Pro,” gaining free training on how to market your services to businesses eager to appear on Street View.

Google then lists these professionals in a directory, allowing local businesses to hire them directly. The business pays the photographer, while Google remains a neutral facilitator, refusing any involvement in payment disputes.

Google sweetens the arrangement with modest perks: discounts on stickers that encourage customers to view the business via Street View, and a suggestion to purchase a $7.59 Google Cardboard headset for clients.

Seasoned 360° photographers advise newcomers to bypass Google entirely and sell their services straight to businesses, ensuring they get paid for every shot and can even replace Google’s stickers with their own branding.

One photographer invested $2,390 in 360° cameras, internet, and gear to join the program. When he finally hit the 50‑photo milestone, Google’s “reward” was a $0.99 movie rental offer—hardly the compensation one would expect for such an investment.

Top 10 Ways Google Does Evil

When you bring something into the world, you naturally develop a sense of ownership over it. Whether it’s a story, a character, or a concept, it feels like an extension of yourself. So when that creation lands in someone else’s hands and gets reshaped, it can feel like a betrayal. Even the most well‑meaning artist can become bitter, or outright angry, if their masterpiece is twisted in ways they never imagined. Occasionally, the frustration reaches a point where they truly despise the final product.

10 Roald Dahl Hated the Willy Wonka Movie

Roald Dahl, a figure many today would label “problematic,” earned fame for his wildly imaginative children’s books, most notably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Though his personal life was marred by anti‑Semitic remarks, racial caricatures, and infidelity, his literary legacy remains vibrant.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been adapted for the screen several times, but the most iconic version is the 1971 musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Dahl was alive to see it made, and he didn’t hide his displeasure.

He compiled a long list of grievances, beginning with the title change. He also famously detested Gene Wilder’s portrayal of Wonka, even though contemporary audiences often celebrate Wilder’s performance. Dahl loathed the on‑screen Charlie, the musical score, and essentially every deviation from his original manuscript.

9 Legendary Animator Chuck Jones Hated Space Jam

For many, the 1996 hybrid of live‑action and classic Looney Tunes, Space Jam, remains a nostalgic favorite. Yet the film’s very existence sparked outrage from animation legend Chuck Jones.

Jones helped build Warner Bros.’ cartoon empire, co‑creating icons like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck during a three‑decade tenure from the early 1930s through the 1960s.

When asked about Space Jam, Jones reportedly answered bluntly, “I thought it was terrible.” He criticized the storyline, noting that Porky Pig would never claim to have wet himself, and argued that Bugs Bunny wouldn’t need assistance to defeat alien opponents, suggesting the cartoon could have wrapped up in under seven minutes.

8 Charles Schulz Hated the Name Peanuts

The Peanuts franchise, now valued at over $17 billion, has become a cultural juggernaut. Yet its creator, Charles Schulz, never intended the strip to bear that moniker.

When the comic debuted in 1950, Schulz originally titled it Li’l Folks, a name he felt carried dignity. However, a newspaper editor, wary of potential legal entanglements with existing strips like Li’l Abner and an earlier Little Folks, unilaterally renamed it Peanuts before Schulz’s first installment even hit the press.

Schulz despised the new title, believing it suggested insignificance. Despite his objections, the name stuck, and he continued to produce thousands of strips under the “Peanuts” banner for the remainder of his life.

7 TMNT Co‑Creator Peter Laird Hated the 5th Turtle, Venus de Milo

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been a mainstay of pop culture for over three decades, originating as a parody of superhero comics before evolving into a beloved children’s franchise.

During the late 1990s, a television series introduced a new female turtle named Venus de Milo. Co‑creator Peter Laird was vehemently opposed to the addition, labeling the concept “creatively bankrupt.” He objected to the notion that a fifth turtle could simply appear in the canon without prior introduction.

Laird’s lack of creative control meant his dissent was limited to commentary. Nevertheless, his aversion was so strong that director Kevin Munroe later confirmed the production team was forbidden from even joking about Venus around Laird, underscoring how deeply the character irked him.

6 The Live‑Action Dragonball Movie Forced Its Creator Out of Retirement

Both critics and fans slammed the 2009 live‑action adaptation Dragonball: Evolution. The film’s poor reception struck a nerve with original series architect Akira Toriyama, who had stepped away from the franchise years earlier.

Toriyama’s outrage at the botched adaptation spurred him to re‑engage with the Dragonball universe, prompting new manga chapters and a revitalized animated series. In a twist of fate, the disastrous movie inadvertently saved the franchise from stagnation, catalyzing fresh content that fans eagerly embraced.

5 Paul Newman Paid for Ads to Keep People Away From One of His Movies

While many artists simply voice displeasure, Paul Newman took a proactive—if quirky—approach to distancing himself from a film he deemed the worst of the 1950s.

Newman’s debut, The Silver Chalice (1954), earned his scorn as “the worst movie made in the entire decade.” Determined to dissuade audiences, he spent $1,200 in 1963 (roughly $12,000 today) on newspaper advertisements urging viewers not to watch the TV broadcast.

The ads famously read, “Paul Newman apologizes every night this week.” He even hosted a private screening for friends, handing out pots and wooden spoons so they could drown the film’s audio with clattering noise—an eccentric yet earnest display of his disdain.

4 Don Henley Hates People Covering His Music

Eagles frontman Don Henley may be less recognizable to younger listeners, but his influence on rock remains undeniable. He’s fiercely protective of his catalog, especially after contemporary artists began sampling or covering his classics.

When Frank Ocean incorporated a snippet of the Eagles’ “Hotel California” into his mixtape track American Wedding, Henley threatened legal action, likening the act to vandals painting mustaches on museum masterpieces.

Henley’s vigilance isn’t idle; he successfully forced indie band Okkervil River to withdraw a free cover of his song “The End of Innocence,” demonstrating his willingness to defend his work against reinterpretation.

3 William Friedkin Hated The Exorcist Sequel

Legendary horror director William Friedkin, who helmed the original Exorcist, never shied away from expressing disdain for its follow‑ups.

The first sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic, was panned for its incoherent plot and was labeled an “abomination” and a “f‑ing disgrace” by Friedkin himself. He famously compared the film to turning a Dickens novel into a pornographic musical.

Even years later, when rumors of another sequel floated, Friedkin took to Twitter to declare there was “not enough money or motivation in the world” to bring him back, underscoring his enduring contempt for the franchise’s extensions.

2 Writer Michael Ende Hated What They Did to The Neverending Story

Michael Ende penned the beloved fantasy novel The Neverending Story in 1979, which later inspired a wildly popular 1980s film adaptation.

Ende initially negotiated a deal granting him significant creative control, including casting input. However, the production rights were sold to another entity, and he soon received an unfamiliar script he detested.

When Ende attempted to contest the changes—threatening legal action—the studio warned of a lawsuit if he impeded production. Frustrated, he tried to sue but ultimately removed his name from the credits after the filmmakers refused to halt or rename the project.

1 Clive Barker Disowned Hellraiser: Revelations in No Uncertain Terms

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser franchise stands among horror’s most iconic series, birthed from his short story The Hellbound Heart and introducing the infamous Pinhead.

After the original film, the series fell out of Barker’s hands, leading to a succession of sequels. Many of these later installments were produced solely to retain the franchise’s rights, resulting in subpar quality.

The 2011 entry Hellraiser: Revelations epitomized this decline, allegedly shot in a matter of weeks and lacking the original Pinhead actor Doug Bradley. When the movie was marketed as a Barker‑originated project, he responded on Twitter, stating, “I have NOTHING to do with the f***** thing. If they claim it’s from the mind of Clive Barker, it’s a lie. It’s not even from my butt‑hole.”

From San Diego to Singapore, we all want to get to work as quickly and conveniently as possible. For many of us, our commute consists of spending an hour underground with next to no personal space or stuck in traffic for what can seem like an eternity. That’s why the top 10 crazy methods below are worth a look – they prove that ingenuity (and a dash of daring) can turn a boring slog into a story worth telling.

top 10 crazy Commutes That Defy Convention

10 Paramotor

Most workdays, Paul Cox strolls into his office with a four‑stroke motor tucked into a suitcase. He isn’t a mechanic or a budding engineer – he simply straps on a paramotor when the weather permits. His ten‑mile trek across Anglesey, Wales, lets him literally soar over the traffic, landing at Holyhead Boatyard where he serves the Royal Navy.

The £8,000 motor does demand a morning ritual of assembly and checks, but Paul swears the panoramic coastal views make it all worthwhile. The thrill comes with a price, though. In 2019, Tom Prince, who learned to paramotor solely to commute, tragically crashed into an electrical power line, reminding us that high‑altitude commuting isn’t without danger.

9 Rail Cart

A quick online image search for the Philippines will show hundreds of beautiful tropical islands and lush forests. Yet beyond the tourism brochures, the nation grapples with over 4.5 million homeless residents, 21.6 % of the population living below the national poverty line.

In Manila, a group of homeless individuals known as “trolley boys” push makeshift rail carts – essentially wooden benches fitted with train wheels – along the sprawling network of active train tracks. For many, these carts double as sleeping berths after a grueling 16‑hour workday.

At just two cents per kilometre, the carts are dramatically cheaper than conventional buses or trains and cut straight through traffic. The trade‑off is a constant risk: the tracks remain live, and accidents are not uncommon. The trolley boys rely on intimate knowledge of train schedules to keep themselves and their passengers safe, and most commuters can recount a narrow‑escape tale.

8 Climbing

As kids, many of us got to school via a short walk, a bus ride, or in the back of a parent’s car. For the children of Zhang Jiawan, a village in southern China, the school commute resembles an extreme sport. An intricate network of precarious wooden ladders helps students – some as young as five – scale the Badagong mountains to reach their school perched on the summit.

The ladders are unsecured, simply resting against the rock face, and there are no safety harnesses. Children are warned not to look down as they ascend. While the government has pledged a $10 million project to build a safer route, the 100‑person village will have to wait longer for relief.

If the ladders don’t appeal, families can opt for a four‑hour cross‑country detour that skirts the mountain entirely, turning the daily trek into a marathon rather than a climb.

7 Wicker Sledges

In the 19th century, wicker sledges resembling toboggans were the go‑to method for locals sliding down the hills of Monte to the city centre of Madeira. Two “carreiros” – still dressed in traditional white cotton and straw hats – would push the sledges, once the preferred transport for businessmen in the region.

Today the toboggan‑style sledges are largely a tourist attraction, with thousands of visitors sliding their way down each year. The popular 2 km route to Livramento takes roughly ten minutes, reaching speeds of up to 48 km/h. A ride costs about €30, and occasional locals still use the traditional mode to commute.

6 Swimming

If you were asked to swim through a river teeming with water snakes to get to work, you’d probably decline. Yet for Abdul Malik, a teacher in Kerala, India, a 1.5 km swim across the river is far faster than the 24 km road journey to the Muslim Lower Primary School where he teaches.

Since 1994, Malik has equipped himself with an inflatable tube around his waist and a waterproof bag for his daily supplies. After emerging from the water, he changes into dry clothes and completes a short walk to the school. Even during monsoon season, he prefers the swim because it shaves off the time lost in traffic and bus transfers.

Malik also turns the commute into a lesson, taking his students swimming and collecting floating plastic waste along the way. However, in the past two years he’s been forced to adopt the longer route after taking on additional responsibilities following the headmaster’s retirement.

5 Kayaking

Anyone who has braved the London Underground at rush hour knows the definition of cramped and uncomfortable. Opened in January 1863, the Tube now ferries roughly two million passengers daily, and its capacity is limited by the original tunnel dimensions.

George Bullard, a seasoned kayaker who once crossed the North Atlantic, grew tired of the subterranean bottleneck. He swapped his hour‑long Tube ride for a more tranquil 90‑minute paddle along the River Thames. The journey, while peaceful, isn’t without challenges: tidal shifts, unpredictable weather, and a constant stream of larger vessels mean there’s no chance to catch up on missed sleep before work.

George jokes that the Thames weather is “all part of the parcel,” embracing each splash and gust as part of his daily routine.

4 Zip Wire

When most people think of zip wires, they picture James Bond‑style action scenes. For families in Acacías, a small town 40 miles southeast of Bogotá, Colombia, a 1,300‑foot steel zip line is the quickest way to cross the valley and reach the nearest town.

Children zip across at speeds up to 64 km/h, soaring 365 m (1,200 ft) above the Rio Negro river. They control their descent by pressing a wooden fork against the cable, while younger siblings are carried in jute bags. The system dates back to 1804, when German explorer Alexander von Humboldt first observed locals using hemp ropes for transport.

Although a newer hiking trail offers a two‑hour trek, locals still favor the zip line for its speed and ease. It isn’t just for people – goods are also shuttled across the valley via the same cables.

3 Rowing

From 1997 to 2016, 74‑year‑old Gabriel Horchler rowed to work each morning as the Head of the Law Cataloguing Section at the Library of Congress. The idea struck him while stuck on a motorbike in heavy traffic, glancing at the Anacostia River and wondering if the water could be his shortcut.

His routine combined a short bike ride to the river, a 90‑minute rowing session, and another quick bike leg to the office, totaling about 90 minutes door‑to‑door. He chose this method for the serenity, the health benefits, and the chance to observe wildlife along the banks.

Rowing isn’t without risk: sudden rainstorms and shifting winds capsized him three times. Gabriel retired from his library role in 2016 but still rows the Anacostia on occasion for pleasure.

2 Swimming

Another aquatic commuter is 42‑year‑old Benjamin David, who grew weary of Munich’s congested streets. He packs his laptop, suit, and shoes into a waterproof bag, dons a wetsuit, and plunges into the Isar River, swimming directly to his riverside bar where he works.

David credits the river’s current for the ease of his commute. The roughly 2 km swim takes just twelve minutes, and he spends most of the time floating, aided by an inflatable waterproof bag he carries. He finds the experience more relaxed and faster than the traditional, drier route.

To protect his feet from hidden riverbed hazards, he wears rubber sandals throughout the journey.

1 Private Jet

A private plane is a dream many of us never get to live. For Curt von Badinski, however, a single‑engine turboprop is his daily ticket between Los Angeles and San Francisco – a 568 km hop each way that consumes six hours of his day.

After passing a background check, Curt bypasses the usual security hoops that ordinary travelers face. He pays $2,300 a month to Surf Air, granting him unlimited flights on the aircraft. To offset the sizable carbon footprint, he drives a hybrid vehicle from Oakland Airport to his San Francisco office.

Every morning, Curt checks the Bay‑Area weather, aware that San Francisco’s climate can differ wildly from Los Angeles. He sometimes wonders if moving closer would make sense, but the convenience of his airborne commute keeps him aloft.

0 Paddleboard

Our bonus entry goes to Scott Holt, a comedian who once turned a delayed train and pricey ferry into a viral moment by paddle‑boarding across the Hudson River in a full suit. When the train stalled, Holt grabbed his board, hopped on, and paddled his way straight to a crucial meeting.

The daring crossing captured worldwide attention, showcasing how a single‑person watercraft can replace an entire public‑transport network for a brief, high‑stakes dash. Though this stunt was a one‑off, it earned Holt a spot in the annals of unconventional commutes.

While Holt didn’t make the official top‑ten, his impromptu paddleboard sprint remains a testament to creativity when the usual options fall short.

Poaching is spiralling out of control, threatening the planet’s priceless variety of life and shaking up ecosystems in ways scientists are still trying to decode. Traditional anti‑poaching tactics are draining resources, so conservationists are forced to think far beyond the usual playbook. In this spirit, we’ve compiled the top 10 bizarre conservation ideas that actually deliver results, proving that a little creativity can go a long way in safeguarding our wild friends.

Why These Top 10 Bizarre Conservation Innovations Matter

10 Saving Water By Turning It Into Art

Living in luxury often comes at the expense of our planet, but a design student named Simin Qiu showed that a faucet can be both chic and eco‑friendly. The Swirl Faucet doesn’t just deliver water; it transforms the flow into a mesmerizing, glass‑like pattern that looks like a living piece of art.

Qiu achieved this effect by sending water through a double‑turbine system and a set of specially engineered nozzles that spin the stream into intricate designs. At the same time, the device throttles the flow by about 15 percent, which translates into massive water savings when you consider how many taps are turned on each day. The award‑winning Swirl Faucet also stabilises temperature, cutting down unnecessary heating costs and giving homeowners a stylish, sustainable solution.

9 Saving Lions By Painting Cows

In the African savannah, swift antelope outrun predators, but lions and cattle move at a more leisurely pace. As a result, hungry big cats are increasingly eyeing livestock for a quick meal, prompting farmers to shoot any lion that approaches their herd—a practice that threatens the already endangered African lion population.

Back in 2015, a desperate yet inventive conservation team began painting the backsides of cattle. The idea was inspired by two observations: first, lions are ambush hunters that abandon a chase the moment they realize they’ve been spotted; second, many butterflies sport eye‑like patterns on their wings that deter predators by giving the illusion of being watched.

Researchers in Botswana painted realistic “butterfly eyes” onto the cows’ hindquarters and monitored a herd of 62 animals for ten weeks. While three unpainted cows fell victim to lion attacks, none of the marked individuals were killed, suggesting that the faux eyes successfully discouraged the predators from striking.

8 Letting Grannies Count Toxic Snakes

New Caledonia’s sparkling bays attract tourists who love to swim, yet the waters also host the lethal greater sea snake—a 1.5‑metre ribbon of potent venom. After fifteen years of cataloguing the region’s reptile fauna, scientists shifted focus to this particularly dangerous species.

When a group of seasoned snorkelers in their sixties and seventies learned about the project, they offered to photograph any greater sea snakes they encountered. With official permission, these senior divers spent years documenting the snakes, capturing breeding behaviour and tallying hundreds of individuals that had previously gone unnoticed.

The data revealed that the species is far less aggressive than assumed, and despite the high concentration of toxic snakes, no swimmer has ever been bitten in the area. The grandmothers’ contributions dramatically expanded scientific understanding of the species and helped shape more accurate safety guidelines for beachgoers.

7 Stalking Fish With Another Fish

Enter SoFi, the Soft Robotic Fish, a lifelike underwater robot that swims alongside natural schools without raising alarm. Developed by researchers at MIT, this clever contraption mimics the appearance and movement of real fish, allowing scientists to observe marine life up close without the disturbance caused by human divers.

As oceans face mounting pressure from pollution and overfishing, gathering authentic behavioural data becomes ever more urgent. SoFi’s design lets it glide among reef inhabitants, recording videos of natural interactions that would otherwise vanish when humans are present.

Beyond capturing candid footage, the robot provides a reliable gauge of ecosystem health. Its unobtrusive presence means that, in the future, fleets of SoFi units could serve as continuous monitors, alerting researchers to shifts in reef vitality before catastrophic damage occurs.

6 Growing A Monster Jungle From Orange Peels

In the early 1990s, a team of Princeton scientists approached Del Oro, a Costa Rican juice company, with a bold proposal: use the company’s orange‑peel waste to enrich a nearby reserve’s soil. Del Oro agreed, dumping roughly 12,000 tons of peels over two years before a rival firm challenged the practice, prompting Costa Rica’s Supreme Court to deem the dumping a legal defilement.

When the court halted the experiment, the orange‑peel site was left untouched for sixteen years. In 2013, a Princeton researcher revisited the area out of curiosity and discovered a remarkable transformation: the once‑barren ground had blossomed into a thriving jungle, dense with vines and towering trees.

One fig tree grew so massive that three people had to link arms to embrace its trunk. The rapid regeneration baffled scientists, especially given that the orange‑peel waste had been added for only two years before abandonment. The unexpected fertility highlighted how organic waste, when left to its own devices, can catalyse astonishing ecological recovery.

This phenomenon, documented in a striking series of photographs, underscores the potential of seemingly “defiled” land to become a green haven, offering a hopeful glimpse into nature’s resilience when given a chance.

5 Making Cows Burp Seaweed

Cattle are notorious for emitting massive amounts of methane—a greenhouse gas produced during digestion that significantly contributes to climate change. As cows chew, swallow, and regurgitate their food, a specialized enzyme in their gut generates methane, which they then expel as burps.

Scientists experimented with feeding cows a small proportion of a red seaweed called Asparagopsis taxiformis. The seaweed’s compounds interfere with the methane‑producing enzyme, effectively slowing its activity and reducing emissions.When researchers incorporated just 2 percent seaweed into the animals’ regular diet, they observed a staggering 99 percent drop in methane output, while the cows continued to eat, chew, and burp normally. This simple dietary tweak offers a promising avenue for curbing agricultural greenhouse‑gas emissions on a global scale.

4 Hunting Poachers Like Foxes

South Africa’s Kruger National Park, a flagship wildlife sanctuary, has long suffered from rhino poaching. Traditional anti‑poaching measures, such as tracker dogs on leashes, proved sluggish, allowing many poachers to escape after a kill.

Park officials learned about the Texas coonhound—a breed bred for generations to chase escaped inmates with relentless tenacity. While these dogs were naturally aggressive, the park’s team worked with American trainers to re‑condition them not to bite, focusing instead on speed and scent‑tracking abilities.

After a rapid deployment—flying the retrained pack into Kruger and releasing them from helicopters—the hounds quickly proved their worth, intercepting poachers within days of arrival. Since then, the coonhounds have contributed to a 54 percent capture rate for poachers entering the park, a dramatic increase from the previous 3 percent success rate.

3 Leaving Cell Phones In The Forest To Catch Loggers

Illegal logging crews are swift, often armed, and operate in regions where rangers are understaffed or too frightened to intervene. To combat this, conservation technologist Topher White repurposes discarded smartphones, rigging them with AI software to listen for the sounds of chainsaws, trucks, and snapping timber.

White’s nonprofit, Rainforest Connection, operates on a budget exceeding $1 million, thanks to donors such as Google and Huawei. By 2019, the network had deployed listening devices across several nations, collectively monitoring an area of roughly 2,590 square kilometres (about 1,000 mi²).

The phones can detect noises from up to 1.6 km (one mile) away. When the AI identifies logging activity, it instantly alerts authorities via a mobile app, enabling rapid response. This system led to the arrest of a prolific Peruvian logging duo and dramatically slowed illegal cutting on a heavily impacted island in Sumatra.

2 Serving Up Poisoned Rhino Horns

Rhinos with pink‑tinged horns have become a deterrent for poachers, who recognize the discoloration as a sign of a toxic product. In 2013, wildlife managers bought a common tick‑dip, mixed it with bright pink dye, and injected the concoction into the horns of 100 rhinos.

The strategy is completely legal and is paired with a transparent media campaign that warns both poachers and potential buyers about the hazardous nature of the treated horns. Conservation areas also display signage alerting would‑be customers to the danger.

The pink toxin is detectable by airport scanners, even when the horn is ground into powder, making it virtually impossible for traffickers to sell the product without being caught.

1 Going Undercover Like Nobody’s Business

The EAGLE Network stands apart from typical environmental NGOs. Rather than organising rallies or opening sanctuaries, EAGLE operates as the world’s only non‑governmental enforcement agency, focusing exclusively on law‑enforcement tactics to protect wildlife.

In 2015, the group targeted Ansoumane Doumbouya, a high‑ranking wildlife official in Guinea who was secretly trafficking great apes—an activity that threatened an estimated 3,000 wild apes each year. EAGLE agents posed as buyers, gathering incriminating evidence that led Interpol and Guinean authorities to arrest Doumbouya.

This high‑profile bust was just one of many; EAGLE has spearheaded over 1,000 arrests worldwide, striking a powerful blow against wildlife crime networks and demonstrating that undercover work can be a game‑changing tool in conservation.

Are you aware that there is no Amazon rainforest anymore? Ok, that’s not true. But do you know what is true? There is a form of ethnic cleansing occurring in China right now. Corruption, disease, a growing income gulf, food shortages. How will the public even know about any of this unless clued‑in, virtuous people decide to wear a brightly coloured lapel pin for a month? Many awareness campaigns work wonders to, well, raise awareness. Others, like the entries in this list, backfire. Hard.

top 10 awareness Highlights

10 The Gray Ribbon for Zombie Awareness…not Diabetes, Brain Tumours or Borderline Personality Disorder.

Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons and wrist bands and badges, we’re changing the world one piece of apparel at a time, folks! have you seen a yellow ribbon on someone’s sweater recently? Maybe you have. Know what it means? Yup, neither do I. So, look it up. Ah, it could mean one of several things.

Perhaps the best example of this sort of messy messaging is the gray‑coloured ribbon. It could be for Diabetes awareness month, maybe brain tumours. Perhaps the wearer is supporting increased awareness for borderline personality disorder. But, most likely nowadays, they’re raising Zombie Awareness, (check for neck beard and/or barbed wire wrapped baseball bat in their hand to know for sure). Confused? Let’s look at the month of November, what should we be aware of? Movember, right? Prostate Cancer and Men’s Health awareness, no? Well, it’s also Alzheimer’s Awareness month…and No Nut November, promoting abstinence…and COPD Awareness month…and National Novel Writing Month. So plenty to do, along with early Xmas shopping, Guy Fawkes Night (in Britain) and your job and family duties. Just make sure you don a gray ribbon so that people know you also care about the inevitable zombie apocalypse (even though that should be done in May).

9 Justice for Jussie

We’ve all heard the story; Juicy Smulliet was a French actor who was subject of a rather implausible racially‑motivated attack in January 2019 by two white supremacist Nigerian brothers in Chicago (the city known as ‘MAGA country’ since the 1871 fire), prompting a host of his celebrity brothers and sisters to speak out in support of him.

The real story isn’t much less ridiculous, in fact, I’ve barely changed anything except for comedic affect (thank you, Dave Chappelle!) The outpouring of support for the actor, whose testimony was quite obviously inconsistent and implausible, was immediate and telling. There was so much confirmation bias that the whole thing seemed orchestrated, not just the ‘attack’ itself. We can forgive our cognatively challenged, elite but guilt‑ridden celebs, but politicians? No dice, I’m afraid. No sooner had the story gained traction, Democratic Senators Corey Booker and Kamala Harris had described the ‘attack’ as an attempted lynching, Booker going as far as trying to pass a federal anti‑lynching bill. Good timing, eh? And all the while, nobody could locate Kanye West…(Dave Chappelle is the GOAT).

8 Environmentally Friendly Seafood (Bought by the People who Already Know)

This is a sad case of preaching to the choir. Overfishing is a serious issue, whether you are an eco‑warrior or not. So how could one expect to combat this phenomenon? First step, raise awareness. Maybe put an eco‑friendly sticker on products that are from stable seafood populations? Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, according to research, the only people who take the time to look for such stickers are people who already care about the cause and, furthermore, already know what to buy and not to buy. Corporation and state‑level measures seem to be a better way o combat the issue in this case. Maybe the arming of supermarket frozen fish aisle workers? Ok, too far.

7 ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ Campaign may have led to Increase in Suicide by Rail

Millenials, when they get to their late sixties, will look back at the song and app ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ like Boomers look back at Abba and Space Invaders at the gaming arcade. It was huge. I downloaded the game and hummed the tune on more than one occasion.

As awareness campaigns go, it was very effective, gaining many prizes and accolades to go with the millions of downloads. The problem? It didn’t quite work the way the Metro Trainsrail franchise in Melbourne, Australia intended it to. Not only was the original claim of a ‘20% decrease in risky behaviour’ a tad suspicious, some evidence suggests that the campaign served to take away the visceral nature, and even glamorize, suicide by rail.

6 The Vaccine that fewer Kids get and the STD they probably will get.

Do you want your child to have a potentially fatal disease? If you answered ‘no’, not only are you sane and I don’t need to call the authorities, but luckily there is probably a vaccine for to immunise your little tyke or tykette from contracting a fatal disease. One very effective vaccine is the HPV vaccine. So why do only around 49% of kids aged 11‑17 in the US receive the vaccine? A bad awareness campaign certainly didn’t help.

When parents hear about this particular vaccine and the diseases it prevents, one question seemed to become a rallying cry against uptake—why do you assume my child is sexually active? The campaign seemed to force parents to face up to a (probably untrue and, to many, morally reprehensible) fact about their beloved little ones—they’re having sex. Along with the usual anti‑vax campaigns, this one can be chalked up as a big loss for the medical community, underlining the dangers of mixing science, politics and values without providing a clear delineation or just focussing on . . . you know . . . the medical side of things.

5 BDS Movement Opposed by President of Palestine

What? That was what must have been the first word uttered by supporters of the ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanction’ movement against the state of Israel when the President of Palestine said he did not support their wide‑ranging, global campaign. Ooft, that’s got to hurt. Well, at least rock legend Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame supports the movement, right? Ok, that doesn’t really help…

Abbas did support a boycott of firms that operate out of the so‑called ‘illegal’ settlements, the disputed territory where Israeli people have built homes. Makes sense. But Abbas, and many other people who oppose “Israeli aggression” and the BDS movement, realise that if Israel were to be brought to her knees economically, any possible outcome would be terrible for Palestine too. Well, it didn’t last. Abbas has since adopted the campaign as an official strategy of his administration. Yet another step towards peace in the Middle East. Wait…

4 The Burger King ‘DGAF’ Meals

Does a ‘Happy Meal’ make you happy? That is one of the points of the beloved fast food offering aimed at kids, I mean, it’s in the name. What about a ‘pissed meal’, fancy one of those? One would expect such a meal to contain a cold chicken sandwich, an empty box of fries, a thumb in your soda and an action figure of Al Gore. I’d be pissed. Burger King’s “Rea Meals” campaign aimed to normalize and raise awareness about mental health. Not schizophrenia, Borderline Personality Disorder or Drug Abuse induced Psychosis, don’t be silly. The campaign wanted to let the world know that people can feel a little ‘DGAF’ sometimes, and that’s OK. It’s tough to imagine a campaign that downplays the very thing it’s trying to boost more than this one. Now shut up and eat your Whopper.

3 Melania Trump’s ‘Be Best’ Campaign for Better Social Media Use…Yeah.

This entry seems like a worse decision than Juicy Smulliet’s (ugh, for legal reasons I’ll say this—suspected) hoax hate‑crime. Melania Trump knows who her husband is, surely? Maybe this campaign to help, in part, improve the nature of social media use is aimed at President Trump and his Tweets. But, to avoid this list being labelled as ‘fake news’, I must immediately retract the previous statement…

All in all, it was a noble cause. In the words of Mrs. Trump herself: “As we all know, social media can be both positively and negatively affect our children, but too often it is used in negative ways…When children learn positive online behaviours early on, social media can be used in productive ways and affect positive change.” Alright, let’s just move on to the next entry.

2 Anything Celebrities are Doing During the Covid‑19 Pandemic

Ooft, I think my cringe bone has broken. Ricky Gervais must be spinning in his, uh, house. The current pandemic has really exposed the tenuous grasp humanity has on everything from law & order to logic, reason and the truth. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that our modern day gentry, Hollywood celebs, are awful at doing anything except what they are famous for. Remember when actors just acted? Singers sang? Me neither. It seems that a Hollywood celebrity can be as famous for speaking out for some cause de jour as they are for whichever movie they’re starring in alongside Dwayne Johnson.

We covered much of this on Top 10 Tone‑Deaf Celebrity Coronavirus Messages That Are Cringey AF, but if you don’t have time to check it out here’s a summary: first off they sang a song, (‘Imagine’ by John Lennon) which advocates for a world without borders and nation states…during a pandemic which, as has been shown, is better combated by closing borders. Along with a slew of instagram stories, YouTube clips, Tweets and TokToks showing celebrities going a little bit loopy during quarantine, we saw the single most cringe‑inducing video in response to the BLM protests. If you can watch the clip above without spasming so hard your retina detaches, you’re a woker man than I, bucko. Or buckette. Nobody is pleased, commentary from all sides of the political compass deriding these clueless elites and their self‑serving faux flagellating. This is not unique to the current period though, they’ve been at it a while. Stop. For the love of Snoopy. Stop.

1 Lush Take on the Police

This is probably the most controversial entry, (yes, even after I’ve talked about vaccines, the dreaded ‘Orange Man’, and the Israel Palestine situation, but stick with me on this). Cosmetics and Toiletry company Lush have a history of taking ethical stances (albeit often self‑determined). They tend to be supportive of environmentalist issues, animal welfare stuff, transgender pronouns, and anything your local Green Party will stand for, so will Lush. You may disagree with their opinions on any given matter, but they do tend to stick to certain principles. On the other hand, they sell bath bombs…why should we care what they think or tolerate being preached to by a corporation who sell Karma Kream body lotion?

The now infamous #SpyCops campaign, raising awareness of honey trap tactics used by police in Britain against environmentalist activists, certainly got people talking. In the main, the loudest voices were in support of the police, viewing the whole campaign as unfair and anti‑police, too general in the messaging. Stats show, however, that Lush’s numbers didn’t take the hit that many commentators expected in light of the negative PR situation; defenders of the company are keen to point out that their numbers went up in the period after #SpyCops. But was that the point? I thought it was about spying cops? Ah, whatever, Karma Kream is lush, I’m off to the powder room.