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Don’t get us wrong attorneys; we’re not saying that George Lucas hates all minorities. After all, his first bunch of Star Wars movies handled the subject pretty well with a notable exception or two. But somewhere between the first and second Star Wars trilogies, Lucas’ imagination seems to have deteriorated to the point where he started basing all of his alien races on stereotypes. 5. Watto and the Toydarians Watto runs a pawn store in Mos Espa where he owns Anakin Skywalker and his mother. He’s is a greedy merchant, so obsessed with money and property that he even buys and sells humans as slaves. George Lucas obviously thought long and hard about what characteristics to give his ultra-capitalistic greed alien, and then decided that the most important feature was a long, hooked nose. The B’nai Brith isn’t going to like this one. As if the nose and the noticeable Middle Eastern accent didn’t beat the audience over the head enough, in the second movie, Watto has gained both a beard and a spiffy hat that somehow looks familiar. Well that’s really not so ba… Oh. That’s right, Watto is Jewish. And apparently, he’s also embraced Hasidism by the time of Attack of the Clones. Perhaps that’s why Jedi mind tricks, associated with Christianity in The Phantom Menace via Anakin’s virgin birth story, don’t work on him? He obviously doesn’t accept the Midichlorians as his personal lord and savior. 4. The Sandpeople Sandpeople, or Tusken Raiders, are Tatooine-based vicious brutes who live out in the desert. They wear long pale robes and keep their faces covered. And they’re apparently so incompetent and backwards that Ben Kenobi calls their blasting skills less accurate than those of the Imperial Stormtroopers. Yeah, these sharpshooters. And then there’s the fact that they are called sand people, for god’s sake. It’s no huge leap to figure out which ethnic group Lucas is trying to smear with this particular race of aliens. They have much nicer robes though. That’s right, the Arabs are next on the long list of groups that Star Wars apparently has a problem with. And when it comes to the new trilogy’s depiction of Sandpeople, it’s no longer enough just to embrace racial stereotypes. Lucas must also make his main characters act towards them with chilling bigotry. After Anakin attacks a village of Sandpeople, ruthlessly slaughtering their women and children, he confesses the act to Padme, one of the enduringly ‘good’ characters who we’re presumably meant to find heroic. “They’re like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals,” he says. “I hate them!” “Anakin,” Padme responds to his anguished confession. “What’s wrong?” In other words, a man has just told her that he has slaughtered a bunch of innocents of a different race, and she’s asking him what the problem is. 3. Nute Gunray and the Neimoidians Neimoidians are the race who ran the Trade Federation, several members of whom conspired with Emperor Palpatine and several other evil dudes to undermine the Republic. They tend to talk in a funny accent, mixing up their ‘l’ and ‘r’ sounds. Their colony planets had Japanese-sounding names like Cato, Deko and Koru. They also wear funny hats and gowns that make them look like a cross between Chinese emperors and felt elephants. Also, a chin butt that would make Ben Affleck blush. We’re a bit confused about these aliens, though. Sure, they’re evil, cowardly and scheming like all the non-white races in Star Wars are, but Lucas didn’t really go for any of the ripe ethnic stereotypes that he could have. Nute Gunray is at no point shown enjoying Sarlaac tentacle porn, and the Neimoidians never once come at Anakin one by one to beat him with their kung-fu skills. But hey, maybe these scenes were just left on the cutting room floor.

We all know that since the dawn of time man has wanted nothing more than to get inside another person’s mind and see what kind of stuff they are thinking about. If you don’t feel this desire you’re probably not a psychologist and therefore are in serious danger of being experimented on by the government/ mad scientists and just about anyone who decides they should run an experiment. Just so you can prepare yourself here is a list of unethical experiments that could be run on you: 1. Robbers Cave Experiments Thanks to sites that publish interesting lists everybody seems to know about the Stanford Prison experiment. By now anyone you ask will tell you that this was a horrible study where university students were placed in one of two conflicting groups in order to replicate the conditions inside a prison. The experiment was so bad that it had to be stopped weeks before it was supposed to end. What few people know is that the same experiment was done with twelve year old kids that didn’t even know they were in an experiment, and it was done THREE TIMES! A group of scientists led by Carolyn Wood Sherif gathered several 11 and 12 year old boys and took them on a summer camping trip, without telling anyone that this was actually an experiment. The scientists had them divided into two groups, making sure to break apart any friendships that the boys had established previously. Once on the campgrounds the scientists encouraged the boys to call each other names and pull pranks on the other group. But don’t worry they also had planned some group-building activities at the end of the whole experiment, such as cutting the water supply and let the kids figure out how to avoid thirst. In both of the first and second experiments the boys rebelled against the experimenters, probably realizing they were mad scientists. Of course these two experiments were not published originally; Sherif only publicized the results from the third test where the boys apparently resolved their conflicts at the end of camp. This prompted the scientists to declare this a successful experiment in conflict resolution; although the study did not monitor the boys over long periods of times to see if a summer spent in a camp where they were constantly insulted did any lasting psychological damage. This looks like a great place to conduct a traumatizing experiment 2. Monster study The last study might have left you with a sliver of hope that maybe scientists didn’t run such bad experiments after all. If that is the case, please consider the case of the monster study. This is an experiment that tells you right from the title it’s going to be painful to read. The only purpose of the experiment was to destroy the self-confidence of 11 children in hopes that psychologists could discover why stuttering happens. Even if the experiment was successful, nothing would have been gained aside from abstract knowledge; no one is interested in making more people stutter. Yet for some reason that is exactly what Iowa speech professor Wendell Johnson set out to do. He picked out orphans, because no parent should willingly submit their kid to this kind of experiment, and over the course of six months constantly belittled everything they did. He would point out every tiny imperfection in pronunciation and every small mistake in spelling, all so that he could prove a theory that claimed stuttering was a learned behavior. None of the children became stutterers, but several of them remained traumatized for life. Depression and loss of self-esteem were the most common problems among the 11 children that participated in the study. But at least the university sent them all an apology letter, years later after they got sued for allowing this study. Don’t worry, he’s just a scientist pointing out every speech flaw in order to generate long-term trauma. 3. Little Albert Of course the previous example is not the only case of scientists being completely insensitive tow[...]

For as long as there have been political parties there have been joke political parties that poke fun at democracy with silly policies and insane promises. Most are just poor attempts at satire that die out after a year or two, but some enjoy surprising amounts of media coverage and political success, becoming internationally famous and even winning elections. Looking at the history of these weird political parties can be a nice break from listening to some crazy guy on television talking about how Barack Obama is a communist or how every single Republican is racist. 5. Union of Conscientiously Work-Shy Elements This Danish party was founded in 1979 by comedian Jacob Haugaard and a few of his friends, and he ran for parliament in every election until 1994. His campaigns were always based around strange ideas, such as better Christmas presents for all or more bread to feed ducks in parks. Best of all, at the end of every election he would spend all of his funding on beer and sausages for his supporters, an election promise which in the US would probably be enough to secure victory for pretty much anyone. Haugaard wasn’t trying to make a bold political statement, he was just having fun. So it was probably as big of a surprise for him as it was for everyone else when he won a seat in parliament in the 1994 election. That election produced a minority government and a complex, divided political landscape, so as a result Haugaard often ended up casting the deciding vote on important issues. So, did he hold the budget hostage, refusing to pass it until his promise of better weather for the Danish populace was met? Sadly for us, but fortunately for the Danish Government, Haugaard took his job as a member of parliament very seriously, and after four years of responsible service another election was called and Haugaard announced his retirement. We assume he marked his last day in office with the best damn sausage and beer party the world has ever seen. 4. Canadian Extreme Wrestling Party This party of professional wrestlers chose their leader by holding a 12 man battle royale. That alone should be enough for the CEWP to go down as one of the greatest political parties ever formed. Imagine if that same decision making process was used by the Democrats and Republicans; voter turnout would skyrocket. Hell, the winner of the fight was named Quentin Barboni, a name which sounds more appropriate for a silent movie villain than a politician, giving voters yet another reason to support him. Strangely enough, once you got past the amazing name and ridiculous decision making process, these guys were actually pretty serious about politics. They issued policy statements and held interviews with the press that addressed serious issues, including gun control, foreign policy, and whether or not it was ethical to perform atomic drops on captured terrorists. Sadly, the CEWP accomplished nothing in the only election it ever fought, which was truly a sad day for democracy in Canada. While the party has been inactive since 2000, we’d like to think they inspired kids from around the country to attempt to wrestle their way into parliament when they grow up. 3. Rhinoceros Party of Canada Canadian politics tend to be terribly boring, which might explain all the strange parties that are created to spice things up. The Rhinoceros Party, formed in 1963 by Jacques Ferron, was the most famous, as it contested elections for an impressive forty years. In early elections they ran just a single candidate, but as time went on they offered up as many as 120, each free to make their own frivolous campaign promises. The party was mostly made up of artists and comedians, and promised to, among other things, annex the United States, pay off the national debt with the party’s Visa card, and end crime by abolishing all laws. At their highest point they managed to finish second in numerous parliamentary elections, embarrassing the traditional candidates that came be[...]

Humanity has come a long way in the field of medicine. No longer are we to subject ourselves to magical spells and leeches, instead relying on the modern advances of science. The terrifying, bizarre science which makes us question the very sanity of the people behind it. Strangely, the weirdest cures science has come up with in the last couple of years might actually be worth something. For example… 6. LSD to cure Alcoholism The 60s were basically about two things: The Beatles and acid, and only one of those wasn’t totally horrible. This assessment might change soon, after Professor Erika Dyck from the University of Alberta has unearthed psychiatric research from over half a decade ago, concerning the treatment of alcoholics using LSD. A long time ago in Saskatchewan, Canada, someone apparently filled the most baffling research application imaginable for gathering a bunch of alcoholics and having them taste acid to treat their addiction. The science behind this idea was that LSD would cause “delirium tremens”, the feeling most easily described as “hitting rock bottom, grabbing a shovel and starting to dig”, which surprisingly gives the person perspective on their life, helping them to kick their booze dependency. Today, many of the experiment’s participants have declared that they did not have a sip of alcohol since that time in the 60s. The survey also did not state that any of them offered to perform fellatio on the surveyor for some LSD money, so there appears to be hope for this treatment. 5. Parasites to cure Asthma/Diabetes Do you have asthma or diabetes? Did your mother tell you to not put dirt in your mouth when you were a kid? Well, go and thank her, because it might actually be all her fault that you can’t run for more than 10 feet or enjoy an ice-cream sandwich without nearly dying. Scientists from Nottingham, Cambridge and London have formulated a theory that due to the modern obsession with cleanliness the human immune system has been shot to hell. Back in the good old days of cavemen where we ate raw meat off mammoth feces, our immune systems had to be something of an internal Terminator, eliminating all the bad stuff inside our bodies and keeping us alive. Today though, with all the anti-bacterial products and sterile dishware, we turned our personal Schwarzenegger into Billy Crystal, allowing such diseases like asthma or diabetes to spread worldwide. The idea is to fight this by introducing a controlled amount of parasitic worms into patients, which combined with some other scientific magic, might kick their immune system into balance. Think of it as a sort of more aggressive vaccination against dreaded childhood ailments. Only with icky worms. 4. Herpes to cure Cancer Researchers at the NYU of Medicine possibly came up with a new form of cancer treatment by observing what happens to lab mice injected with a new strand of the herpesvirus. The virus known as the leading cause of the most awkward conversations between couples on the globe, proved to eradicate certain tumors in laboratory conditions, like prostate cancer, for example. The treatment allegedly has no ill effects on the human body because the new herpesvirus spares regular tissue, attacking only the cancer cells. This is possible because the virus is literarily “crippled” by the researches, probably something like the equivalent of virus torture, and reprogrammed to work in our favor. There is still a long way to go before we know for certain if this works on humans too, so if you have cancer don’t go looking for crusty lipped hookers in back alleys just yet.

Weird male monsters get a lot of play these days. But what about terrifying monsters who happen to be ladies? After all, just because you happen to be female, doesn’t mean that you can’t emerge from the grave or the depths of Hell to stalk, hunt and kill the innocent. Here are some unique female monsters from around the world. 1. Aswang (The Philippines) Okay, she has a funny name, but apart from that this female vampire-like creature is pretty scary. She’s a shapeshifter that can pass as a normal person during the day, but turns into a winged creature or animal by night. She has wings that sound louder when they are further away, and softer when they’re close by, or maybe RIGHT BEHIND YOU. Aswang often eat small children or corpses, and then replace their bodies with a copy. They can be repelled by coconut oil, salt, or uh, certain bodily fluids. A supposed ‘real shot’ of an Aswang. We know, we know, but it’s a change from UFO photos. One special form of Aswang is Manananggal or ‘self-segmenter’, which can detach her winged upper body from her lower torso and fly away. You can kill these things by finding the abandoned torso and smearing salt or garlic on the open wound so the upper half won’t reattach. Although if you stumble upon a standing torso and aren’t 100% sure it’s an Aswang, you might want to call the police first. 2. Rusalki (Russia and the Ukraine) Rusalki are the spirits of women who have died while carrying an illegitimate child, who died in or near a body of water, or who committed suicide. At night, they emerge from the bodies of water in which they live to climb trees. They can also be found dancing with other Rusalki. Usually they’re pale, beautiful young women with very long, wet hair. They can often be seen combing it, and if they allow their hair to dry out, they die. These girls aren’t very friendly. They’ll often seduce men or lure them into the water, after which they will drown him. Other times they are said to ‘tickle people to death’, which is surely a lot less fun than it sounds. According to legends, just hearing the laughter of a Rusalka can kill you. Occasionally they can also be found in meadows and near rivers singing and dancing, and they often use this to lure in men as well. According to some sources it’s possible to capture, baptize and marry them, although we wouldn’t recommend trying this. The teachable moment here is: If you meet a Russian or Ukrainian babe in the forest who looks like she just got out of the shower and wants to seduce you, do the wise thing and tell her to use a hairdryer first. 3. Lamia Lamia was originally a human, the queen of Libya, who had an affair with Zeus and bore several of his children. For those of you that don’t know, Zeus was really a bit of a jerk both when it came to cheating on his wife and the way he treated his mistresses. Unfortunately, Zeus’ wife Hera was also a bit of a jerk, and when she found out about the affair she punished Lamia by uh, making her eat her own children. Apparently Lamia then developed a taste for them. Either due to her guilt or due to Hera’s curse, she also transformed into a monster. Sometimes she is depicted as a mixture of creatures, other times as part-serpent. Interestingly, the name actually means ‘great shark’. We’re not quite sure what to make of that. Ripped straight from Greek mythology. There are many similar female monsters from all over the world who are said to prey on young children: Lilith in Jewish mythology, Abyzou in Eastern Europe, and Gylou in Europe and the Near East. A lot of these female demons are used as threats on poor kids who have been misbehaving: “If you don’t behave better, Lilith/Lamia/etc will come and take you.” 4. Baba Yaga (Eastern Europe) Baba Yaga is another monster who is often used as a bogeyman to threaten kids with. She flies on a mortar (no, not that kind of mortar, the type you use to grind grain. Although the other type would also be cool) and lives in a log cabin sup[...]

Almost every profession has its own awards honoring the best and the brightest. Science and Literature have the Nobel, Journalism has the Pulitzer, and Cinema and Television have the Emmys, Oscars and People’s Choice Awards. But among many awards ceremonies there are several awards for which you would rather not be the recipient. These tongue-in-cheek awards celebrate the worst and most awful of achievements a person could attain. Below we list some of the best awards that celebrate the worst of this world. 1. Golden Raspberry (Film) The Academy Awards are the preeminent film honors in the world. Lifetimes are spent crafting the best film or performance to earn the acclaim of Hollywood. Here the best and brightest shine. But there are only a few great films even worthy every year and many more crappy films that filled the theaters for no apparent reason. For these celluloid disasters there are the Gold Raspberry Awards, commonly referred to as the Razzies. Occurring every year just before the Academy Awards, the Razzies celebrate the worst in film from the prior year. It has the usual awards for the worst directing, screenwriting and acting, but throws in categories for the Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, Worst Screen Couple and Worst New Star. The Razzies haven’t just included the Ed Woods and Michael Bay types. Even good artists have been Razzie Awardees. In 2005 Hallie Berry won the Worst Actress Award for Catwoman, only three years after winning the Best Actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball. She showed up to the award ceremony carrying her Oscar and parodying her emotional Oscar acceptance speech. 2. Bad Sex in Fiction Award (Fiction Writing) Many a struggling writer has had trouble trying to revive a lagging story. Some turn to more action, others use contemplative philosophy, while many more just shelve the manuscript and go back to playing endless rounds of Bejeweled online. Some, however, try to use romance, particularly sex, to draw interest from reader. Used well, sex can move a story along, add new depth and entertain the reader. Used gratuitously and it goes downhill fast. Literary Review, a scholarly journal, has an annual “Bad Sex in Fiction Award” to showcase the worst aspects of sex used in literature. And this award isn’t for those Harlequin romances on the dollar store book rack. Winners include such literary luminaries as John Updike (2008), Norman Mailer (2007) and Tom Wolfe (2004). Here is a sample of Tom Wolfe’s winning writing: “Slither slither slither slither went the tongue, but the hand that was what she tried to concentrate on, the hand, since it has the entire terrain of her torso to explore and not just the otorhinolaryngological caverns – oh God, it was not just at the border where the flesh of the breast joins the pectoral sheath of the chest – no, the hand was cupping her entire right – Now! She must say ‘No, Hoyt’ and talk to him like a dog…” - Tom Wolfe, I am Charlotte Simmons 3. Stella Award (Frivolous Lawsuits) Many people grew up wanting to be the next Atticus Finch or Perry Mason. Standing up for the little guy to get justice in an unkind world is the passion that drives many law school students. But law school is expensive and there are bills to pay when you get out. The reality of pro bono gigs hits home and suddenly they find themselves hustling slip and fall cases to fend off the student loan corporations. A idealistic young lawyer, one day hoping to have great cases cited in major cases and law journals, may find himself instead the recipient of the Stella Award for the most frivolous lawsuits. The award is named for Stella Liebeck, a New Mexico women burned when she spilled hot coffee on herself while adding cream and sugar in her car. This led a jury to award her $2.9 million in damages. The Stella Award put the spotlight on such cases as a sitting judge that sued a mom-and-pop dry cleaners for $65 million over one lost pair of pa[...]

We all have strange family traditions, but however traumatizing it may be to see your uncle get drunk every Thanksgiving and wrestle with the turkey because it’s “tradition” we are certain your stories are nowhere close to these bizarre traditions that are still celebrated around the world. So without other delays, please put on your xenophobic hats and let’s jump into the bizarre world of foreign traditions: 1. The Danube Race for the Cross It’s January and somewhere around minus “damn it’s cold” degrees. Sounds like it’s time to throw a blessed cross into the icy waters of the Danube river and have teenagers swim for it. Wait what? This tradition is just what you’d imagine: an orthodox priest throws a cross into the river, and as a hundred or more people watch; young men decide to get pneumonia by swimming in the freezing cold water. People applaud and the priest throws cold holy water over everybody, blessing them. A good time for Romanians This tradition is celebrated all along the Romanian and Serbian side of the Danube and is supported by the Orthodox Church as a celebration of the baptizing of Jesus in the Jordan River. Because throwing a cross in the half-frozen Danube and baptizing someone in the desert are somehow equal in the minds of Romanians. Probably the home-made vodka everybody drinks before the event helps make the connection between the two. An alternative take on the tradition is that throwing the cross in the water will make the devil run over the fields and wolves will hunt him down. It’s really unclear how the two are connected and why the wolves chase the devil, but like we said before the vodka probably helps. The best part of this tradition is the prize: If you manage to get the cross back to safety first you are guaranteed good luck for a year, luck which will hopefully cure you of hypothermia. Some other fun traditions related to this day in Romania are blessing your clothes so moths won’t eat them and not beating your children so they won’t swell…which alternatively could mean that beating your children on this day will make them swell like a balloon and fly away… 2. Polterabend A lucky couple in Germany is ready to get married tomorrow, sounds like it’s time to go over to their house and break every piece of pottery we can find, then laugh at the couple trying to clean the mess. Wait what? The above video displays a group of cheerful Germans breaking plates on a wall, to the sound of dramatic plate-breaking music. Although the video doesn’t show this, apparently the couple to be wed must clean the mess made by their so-called friends before midnight. All this time the friends try their best to prevent the couple from making their front yard look less like a garbage dump. It turns out that breaking plates is a popular pass-time activity in many places including Poland and Greece. Generations of Europeans are convinced that breaking grandpa’s chamber pot will bring you great fortune and good luck. But what makes the German tradition stand out is the fact that it’s your friends who break pottery in front of your house the night before your wedding, expecting you to clean the whole mess and provide food and drink. And somehow this is equated to having fun. Your browser may not support display of this image. One explanation might be that, according to Wikipedia, the ones who take part in this event are those people not invited to the wedding. Such as Uncle Pat, the one who gets drunk every thanksgiving the, and not having him at your weeding might be worth the night of hassle and broken plates. German friends are a#$holes 3. Wife Carrying contest- Finland It’s Columbus day weekend, which means that it’s time to hoist your wife on your back and start running like nobody’s business. Wait what? Wife carrying is a contest that started out in Finland, some say as a joke. However, there are historical records showing that this game was practiced every year since at least the 1800’s. Theor[...]

Con-artists are a clever bunch. They make entire careers by tricking everyday people like you or I into believing the most absurd nonsense possible. The below hoaxes and cons managed to be both highly successful and unique in the field criminal lying. 1. De Grote Donorshow De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor Show) was a reality show that aired in the Netherlands in the summer of 2007. The show revolved around a terminally-ill woman and her decision to donate one of her kidneys to three contestants awaiting a transplant. Viewers at home could take a shot at playing doctor by sending text messages to the ill woman with suggestions of who deserved the transplant the most. Naturally the show was very controversial. In the end, however, it was revealed that the woman was only an actress. The contestants really were kidney patients, though, and all the profit made from the text messages were donated to the Dutch Kidney Foundation. The show had been devised as a means to generate awareness about the low number of organ donors in the country. However, if you were one of the people who were too offended by the show’s concept to make it to the end then you probably didn’t know that until this very moment and feel very, very foolish right about now. 2. Jumping the Brooklyn Bridge On July 23rd, 1886, a man named Steve Brodie claimed to have survived jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived. Several newspapers reported the event as fact (fact checking itself hadn’t been invented until the onset of World War II) and soon Brodie was known as the champion bridge jumper, which is a given when you consider most other people jump off of bridges to end their lives, thus removing themselves from the running. Brodie made his claim hoping to gain massive publicity and it worked. When the media frenzy was at its highest he opened a new and highly successful tavern. His name also became synonymous with stunts as people began using the phrase “pulling a Brodie” which isn’t at all related to masturb@%$On. 3. Cardiff Giant William Newell hired two men to dig a well on his property on October 16, 1869. Their rather dull task was made much more exciting when they found the skeleton of a ten foot giant where the well was to be. Dumbfounded, Newell decided the best course of action to take upon discovering this important piece of the evolutionary puzzle was to charge people twenty-five cents to gawk at it (it should be known that twenty-five cents in those day could buy you quite a bit, but apparently not common sense). Archeologists quickly called it a hoax while geologists noticed that the spot chosen for the well wasn’t fit for the project in the first place. Eventually a showman made a replica of the skeleton after Newell refused to sell the original and both were revealed to be fakes in court. As it turns out, Newell’s cousin George Hull planned the whole as a means to disprove a fundamentalist preacher after the two argued over a line in Genesis in reference to the existence to Giants. 4. 54 Berners Street Hoax On Novermber 27th, 1810, Mrs. Tottenham started receiving an abnormal number of visitors to her home on Berners street in London. She must have thought it odd when people didn’t stop arriving, and even more so when packages from people she never heard of were delivered to her home. Eventually the street became so crowded that fist fights were breaking out so people could get a better view of Tottenham’s house. Eventually the author Theodore Hook took credit for the practical joke, claiming to have written over four-thousand letters requesting visits to the home. Why? Because he bet a friend he could. Oh, and he was sort of a dick.

Earth has plenty of natural disasters and tragedies; we have tornadoes that rip up the Midwest yearly, hurricanes that flatten and drown cities, and volcanic eruptions that evacuate entire island nations. But the rest of the solar system is a much harsher place, with disasters that would end life as we know it if they happened here. 1. Volcanoes on Io Volcanoes are a big deal here on Earth; they are worshiped as gods, and rightfully feared for their ability to both create and destroy. I haven’t heard of any other natural disaster that has caused entire civilizations to disappear or to have to pack up and move; In my lifetime I can cite Mt Pinatubo and Montserrat as two cases where an entire island nation has had to jump ship because the volcano they lived on tried to kill them. And we have some doozies; calderas are what we also call super volcanoes, which are volcanoes that stretch for hundreds of miles and have the power to kill us all. A moon of Jupiter, or a teenager's face; you be the judge. On Jupiter’s moon, Io, that kind of thing is a daily occurrence. The stress of passing through Jupiter’s massively powerful magnetic field, along with being bathed in radiation from the giant planet causes the moon to boil over with sulfur volcanoes constantly. The volcanic explosions can toss material up to 120 miles into the sky, and generate lava flows that are hundreds of miles long. That would be like Krakatoa, which changed the world climate for several years after it blew up, every day, several times a day. Imagine the planet where Anakin Skywalker got his legs chopped off (you saw Revenge of the Sith, right? Oh, *SPOILER*), except without an atmosphere, and constantly bathed in radiation. 2. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 On earth, we have one event that appears to have been a comet impact. It happened back in the early 20th century over Tunguska in Siberia. The impact leveled every tree for 1000 square miles. We got off easy. See those little brown bruises on the upper right part of the image? Each one of those was an impact site. What happened was this; the comet broke into several pieces because the same gravity and magnetism that causes Io to burp sulfur all over itself also ripped the comet apart. And then the gravity dragged those pieces into a crash course with the big planet. The result was a cataclysm that would have likely pushed the reset button for life on Earth. Many of the stains in the picture were the size of Earth, with the fireballs from the impact reached 24,000 ° Kelvin, that is 42740.33 ° Fahrenheit. The surface of the sun is 9941 °, by contrast. That was over four times the temperature of the sun, over an area the size of our entire planet. The apocalypse in the movie 2012 was pretty lame, by comparison. 3. Jupiter’s great Red Spot Speaking of Jupiter, it is home to the worst hurricane in the solar system. The Red Spot is a storm that has been raging for anywhere from 180 to 345 years, and is roughly 3 Earths in diameter. That should really put Jupiter’s size into perspective; our entire planet is the scale they use to measure parts of it. And to think, most buildings make us feel insignificant in comparison... Hurricane Katrina was awful; it was huge, and had winds gusting up to 175 mph, and pretty much wiped New Orleans off the face of the earth. The winds in the Great Red Spot are around 268 Mph, which is more like a tornado than a hurricane. at that speed, it could put a piece of straw through the moon. Scientists aren’t quite sure why the spot has persisted for so long, or why it is red. Apparently sometimes it disappears from sight in the normal human spectrum of light, but it is still there and shows up on infrared. Apparently, some day it may just wink out of existence, when whatever is driving it stops. Or maybe if the monoliths get pulled into it.

Many strange and unexplained events have been documented in modern history, events that raise important questions and baffle world populations. These events are often times initiated by a bizarre archeological discovery, strange recording, or unsolved murder. This article will be describing 10 strange and bizarre world events and discoveries. 1. The Humanzee The humanzee is a hypothetical chimpanzee and human hybrid. The DNA sequence of a human is very similar to a chimpanzee. Many experimental tests have been conducted, determining that humans share 95% of a chimpanzee DNA, as well as 99% of all coding DNA sequences. This has led to the speculation that it may be possible to breed a human and chimpanzee. No specimen has ever been confirmed. Humans do have one fewer pair of chromosomes than apes. However, having a different numbers of chromosomes is not an absolute barrier to producing young. Similar mismatches are common in nature. The phenomenon is known as chromosomal polymorphism. In the 1920s the Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov carried out a number of experiments in hopes of creating a human and ape hybrid. He began by working with human sperm and chimpanzee females, but none of his attempts created a pregnancy. He soon fell under political criticism in the Soviet Union and was sentenced to exile in the Kazakh SSR. Research conducted by J. Michael Bedford showed that human sperm could penetrate the protective outer membranes of a gibbon egg. Throughout history there have been many reports and rumors based around the existence of humanzees. The most widely discussed humanzee sighting was a critter named Oliver. Oliver was a sideshow star in the 1970s. He is said to have come from somewhere in the Congo, although this claim has never been proven. Oliver is very different from other chimps. He typically doesn’t like being in the same general area of other apes and prefers the company of humans. Oliver possesses a flatter face than his fellow chimpanzees. He has less hair, a smaller chin, a smaller and rounder cranium, and pointed ears. He also reportedly had an unusual scent, which is different from both chimps and humans. Oliver was habitually bipedal before being struck with arthritis, meaning that he walked upright. He has never walked on his knuckles like other chimps. Many reports have indicated that Oliver prefers human females over chimps. He was acquired as a young animal by trainers Frank and Janet Berger. The Berger’s eventually had to sell Oliver because he began to mount and attempted to mate with Janet. Janet Berger has indicated that this behavior started when Oliver reached the age of sixteen. In 1996, geneticists examined Oliver’s chromosomes. The test revealed that Oliver contains forty-eight chromosomes similar to other chimps, although Oliver’s owner Michael Miller claims he had the ape tested and the results showed only forty-seven chromosomes. These results have been widely scrutinized and challenged. His appearance has been dismissed as a genetic deformity. Scientists will not perform further tests on the hypothesis that Oliver could be an undiscovered species of chimpanzee. Oliver is still alive today, living at Primarily Primates in the state of Texas. 2. Marree Man Unexplained Geoglyph The Marree Man, or Stuart’s Giant, is an enormous geoglyph discovered by air on June 26, 1998. The drawing appears to depict an indigenous Australian man, most likely of the Pitjantjatjara tribe. He is hunting birds or wallabies with a throwing stick. The geoglyph lies on a plateau at Finnis Springs, which is 60 km west of the township of Marree in central South Australia. The figure is large, measuring 4.2 km tall with a circumference of 15–28 km. It is officially the largest non-commercial geoglyph in the world. The origin of the artwork remains a complete mystery. There are no historical accounts of the geoglyph and nobody reported witnessing its creati[...]

Have you ever been so hungry you’d eat just about anything? You look in the fridge and search through your kitchen cupboards for something to fill that groaning hole in your stomach. Gathering together all the edible items you then set about mixing them into a bizarre, otherwise unthinkable concoction and, to your surprise, you like it. You wonder why nobody has ever thought of mixing powdered egg, banana yogurt and paprika before. That’s probably how cannibalism was invented hundreds of thousands of years ago. Although there was probably much more slicing and dicing involved. That’s right, cannibalism is as old as mankind and we certainly weren’t the first to come up with the idea. Animals have been eating members of their own species since the dawn of time and think nothing of it. To them it’s perfectly natural. Many species of arachnid, for example, instinctively begin to chow down on their mothers as soon as they are born and some mammals have been known to do the same thing. In fact, in some cases mammalian mothers will eat their own offspring if they feel the conditions needed to rear offspring have not been met. Ever seen a hamster do this? It’s pretty disturbing. Of course, the introduction of civilization, the very thing that separates us from the animals, makes it impractical and morally objectionable to kill and eat your kinsmen. When living in a group structure it is much better to let your friends and family live so they can help you carry that massive mammoth carcass back home. But what if your intended victim is not a member of your tribe? By making a meal of a rival tribesman you not only rid yourself of a troublesome neighbor, you also get yourself a family sized bucket of tasty man flesh as a special treat for the kids. This is one widely accepted answer to the question of where all those pesky Neanderthals went. That’s right, we ate them (or some of them at least – the rest probably ate each other). Our prehistoric ancestors can hardly be called civilized, however, and things have changed greatly since the dark days before KFC. Most of us now agree that the idea of eating another person is grim and stomach turning but, historically speaking, not all human cultures have shared this view. Many cultures have used cannibalism simply as a convenient way to dispose of the dead; others have even embraced it as a religious and ceremonial practice. The Aghori of India, for example, believe that eating the flesh of a recently deceased person (or not so recently deceased as the case may be) will give them magical powers. The Aghori, an extreme and widely condemned Hindu sect, get their kicks by removing bodies from cemeteries and funeral barges, sometimes eating them raw. Here are some examples of cannibalistic societies in recorded history: 1. The Carib The Carib people of the Lesser Antilles not only had the entire Caribbean Sea named after them; their name is also the origin of the word cannibal. Christopher Columbus was the first to report cannibalism among the Carib, whom he referred to as the Caniba (a mispronunciation of ‘Karibna’, the Carib word for ‘person’). Following this many Europeans formed the belief that the Carib practiced general cannibalism but this was not true, the Carib practiced ritual cannibalism and only ever against their enemies. Any conquistador to stumble across a society of cannibals would have been utterly thrilled. At the time it was considered a Christian’s duty to punish and subjugate any society known to practice cannibalism. This led to many tribal cultures in the Africa and the Americas being falsely accused of cannibalism and may have precipitated the slave trade. 2. The Aztec The Aztec were without a doubt the most brutal society in pre-Columbian America. They made thousands of human sacrifices each year, ceremonially slaughtering their victims in a variety of grim ways. Typically, victims had their beating hearts torn out but being burned alive was also quite comm[...]

Where do Aliens go on holiday? Well, the Earth would be an obvious answer, but where on the Earth? Thanks to TV and Film, many people believe that Aliens visit the U.S.A almost exclusively, but this is simply not true. UFOs have been spotted right around the globe, from Orkney to Auckland and Panama to Pyongyang. While the U.S.A clearly holds the monopoly on flying saucers, they do not own the exclusive rights. Creating a list of the top ten countries most visited by aliens is no easy task, especially as there is no central authority on the subject. Short of pulling over a UFO and asking the aliens themselves where their favourite holiday destinations are, there can be no way of knowing for sure. Whilst in the U.S.A there are various ways to report a UFO sighting and many organizations dedicated to investigating UFO related phenomenon, most countries none, meaning that the majority of UFO sightings go unrecorded. It could be that aliens frequently visit some of the more obscure countries in the world, such as Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan, we just don’t know it (actually, the Altai Mountains region in central Asia is thought to be a UFO hotspot, with evidence of alien visitations to the region hundreds, even thousands of years ago. However, the frequency of UFO sightings here cannot be determined as most are thought to go unrecorded). While a country bumpkin in America can easily spread the word of his encounter by telephone, email, YouTube or a variety of other methods, an equally inbred person in the Ghobi Desert might not. The language barrier is also an issue, as are cultural and media divisions. By looking at the statistics you could be fooled into thinking that aliens prefer to visit the English-speaking world. But if a group of aliens were spotted enjoying a picnic just outside the capital of Turkmenistan, what do you think the chances are of us hearing about it in the West? Even dedicated UFOlogigst might miss out on the story. Second to the English-speaking world would seem to be the Spanish-speaking world, but this is likely because Spanish is America’s favoured second language. There has also been a rise in the number of reported UFO sightings coming out of India in recent years, but then many Indians do speak English and the sudden increase in correlation with the rise of Internet communications in this rapidly developing country. Of course, major UFO sightings are eventually picked up upon by English speaking UFOlogists regardless of cultural boundaries, so we can say for certain that aliens do visit countries outside the U.S and it’s ‘sphere of influence’, but determining the true numbers of close encounters across the world remains a difficult task. With no accurate statistics, perhaps it is better to focus on known UFO hotspots and so called ‘mass sightings’ around the world. The following list of the top ten countries visited by aliens has been compiled based on research conducted specifically for weirdworm.com. 10. Republic of Indonesia That’s right, Indonesia. You wouldn’t guess it but Indonesians report an incredibly high number of UFO sighting each year, perhaps relating to the country’s high population density. Unfortunately Indonesia has never experienced any particularly interesting or famous UFO sighting, but the sheer number of smaller sightings is enough to earn it a place at the bottom of the list, narrowly beating Australia (where sightings are fairly frequent but on the whole pretty unremarkable – sorry Australia). A large number of Indonesians reported seeing UFOs shortly before the famous Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, leading to claims that aliens were trying to warn them to put on their swimming trunks. 9. French Republic France has a rich history of UFO encounters, with some dating back to the middle ages. In 2007, the French government made the unprecedented move of making all of its UFO files, past present and future, available to the public, hoping that UFOlogist will be able to provid[...]

Jesus Christ is undoubtedly the most important figure in human history. You can try to argue it all you want, but the facts are against you on this one. No one else has inspired as many religious movements, wars, peace offerings or terrible pop songs as Jesus. The name carries some weight. And sure, Jimi Hendrix can play a mean guitar, but Jesus could turn that guitar into a bass guitar. Think about that. Naturally, some people would want to try to ride the Christ’s coattails by claiming to be Him. Of course, it’s a tough standard to live up to, as these stories show us. 1. John Thom (1799 – 1838) The Man: At a young age, Thom faced a crossroads in his life; he could either follow in the footsteps of his father and become a well respected politician, or he could choose his mother’s unique path and die in an insane asylum. Not one to disappoint, he dabbled in both. Sadly, politics wasn’t in the cards for Thom. He lost the Canterbury’s parliamentary seat before sporting a red cape, sword and changing his name to Count Moses Rosechild. Surprisingly, the Count lost his second attempt at the seat, most likely because the people of Canterbury weren’t ready to be represented by a flamboyant swordsman. After a stint in prison, however, the Count had a revelation: he was no politician. He was Jesus Christ. Once he was reunited with sweet lady freedom, Thom began spreading his message of salvation. He also claimed his sword was Excalibur because the costume shop he bought it from wouldn’t accept returns. The Problem: The basis of Thom’s sermons was his opposition of the Poor Law Act, which was forcing people off of their property and farmers out of their fields. As he gained popularity he rallied a group of 100 followers and lead a protest near Boughton. Several of his protesters, however, were employed workers who had left their positions to join the movement. When a constable arrived to correct the situation he and Thom had a bit of a tiff: the constable claimed they were breaking the law and Thom rebutted by shooting him dead, forever answering the question “What would Jesus do?” He would shoot people. Many of his followers, a bit freaked out by the whole murder thing, abandoned Thom. Less than half stayed, believing that their faith in him made them impervious to man-made weapons and, should Thom encounter more constables, he could put his hands together and slay 10,000 men. There couldn’t possibly be that many constables anyway, so they decided to play the odds continued to protest. The next day 100 soldiers surrounded Thom and his group in the Dunkirk woods, demanding his surrender. Outnumbered, Thom asserted he was Jesus Christ by shooting and killing their Lieutenant before being killed himself. It’s not known if he managed his infamous Killer Clap before shuffling off of this mortal coil but given that there aren’t 10,000 unmarked graves in the Dunkirk woods it’s safe to assume that no, no he didn’t. Despite the fact that he killed two men in cold blood (a very un-Christ like thing to do), there was still a fear that maybe, just maybe he was the Christ. His coroner, hearing the rumor he would rise three days after death, ordered that his heart be removed, perhaps thinking that Jesus and vampires share the same weakness. It’s never been made clear if this act was carried out out of fear or outlandish dickery. Thom never rose from the grave and his followers went back to their lives of being horribly gullible. 2. Hong Xiuquan (1814 – 1861) The Man: Pop quiz: what’s crazier than claiming to be Jesus Christ? Answer: claiming to be the brother of Jesus Christ. After failing a series of imperial examinations, Hong had a bit of a nervous breakdown. During this time he had a series of visions (a sure sign of wonderful things to come). Among these visions he dreamed that angels took him to heaven, where a man with a golden bea[...]

From counting out the exact change for a coffee cup to planning a retirement fund, numbers influence almost every aspect of one’s life. However, numbers have a much deeper influence on the world around us, often in ways that we don’t even realize. A mathematical constant determines what we find beautiful and a number decides how many friends we have; mathematics is written into our genes and here are just a few of the fascinating ways it changes our lives. 1. Dunbar’s Number Certain communities survive largely unchanged over long periods of time while other tribes or even modern neighborhoods collapse into chaos and hostility. We keep in touch with some friends and co-workers and ignore others, apparently for no reason. Even corporations seem to have trouble managing workers after, hiring a certain amount of people. Seemingly unrelated, these topics are all connected through one number. Monkey or human, turns out our communities aren’t that different. Researchers claim that human social functions are hardwired around the number 150. Looking at primates scientists realized that their social groups are larger if the monkey’s neocortex is larger. By computing research done on 38 groups of monkeys Professor Dunbar estimated the human’s ability for social connections tops at around 150. That means we can mentally manage approximately 150 relations. Any time we are in a situation where we have to deal with more people than 150 we tend to be less and less efficient. For example, if you were to plan a party for 150 people you could do it, easily remembering everyone and knowing who they would like to sit next to or who they would dislike. However, if you have to plan a party for 300 or 500 people you will most likely forget a lot of names and get confused about where “Bob” or “Jane” should sit. There are several other examples which prove that after any community reaches more than 150 members, people stop caring about each other. For example, crime becomes a serious problem once a town grows above 150 households. Throughout history, army units were almost always composed of 150 soldiers as this seems to allow for more control and a closer knit group. Even companies that have 150 or less employees in any one office are more productive than corporations that have huge offices. 2. Golden Ratio This number is the single most widely encountered constant in the whole universe. Not only do humans use it in fashion, furniture, art, music, and even economics, but the number appears in the human body, nature and even in the way the Milky Way is shaped. First discovered by the Greeks the Golden Ratio is found in all of nature and all humans are mentally programmed to find it beautiful. There are numerous books explaining how this works and why the mathematics of beauty is a pretty much an exact science. Our face as well as a healthy human body are both proportional according to the Golden Ratio. The number comes from a series of increasing spirals where the space between each spiral is exactly 1.618-times the length of the space that preceded it. It’s a constant that for some reason seems to be a universal law, guiding everything ever created, from the vines inside plants to the way our bones are structured. If you want to use a PC analogy, the Golden Ratio is the 1 and 0 God used to program the universe. 3. The Secret of Success According to recent studies, talent is not really something you are born with. According to Malcolm Gladwell all very successful people were made through practice, including Bill Gates and the Beatles. While this is not necessarily surprising, what is interesting is that we can tell exactly the number of hours anyone has to put into a subject before they can master it. Scientist claim that after 10,000 numbers anyone could be an expert in anything. Genius might very well just be a lot of practice The Beatles, before reaching international fame spent several years playing for 12 hours or m[...]

Law is the foundation of society; at least that is what they say. We live with the belief that there are people out there who understand legislature and the “system”, passing laws which are meant to work in our best interest and help us coexist with each other in peace. On the other hand, this belief falls flat on its face in the presence of these bans on common everyday items and activities. Currently, US law actually prohibits… 1. Boating and Fishing As insane as this may sound, boating and fishing on certain waters have been illegal in America since 2006. It was established by Judge Robert G. James, in the case of Normal Parm v. Sheriff Mark Shumate, after a few Louisiana anglers were caught fishing on flooded private property. Today, any body of water beyond its ordinary high-water mark is considered off-limits to the public, being as it’s a criminal offense (under federal law no less) to fish or boat in such areas without the riparian owner’s permission. Taking into account that our rivers and lakes constantly change their water levels, this means that many shallows in the US right now are not suitable for public usage like skinny dipping or dumping dead hookers. We cannot let the fish hear about this otherwise they would take refuge in these inaccessible waters. It would destroy the hobby of fishing as we know it…! 2. Selling Books Printed Before 1985 Today most people don’t even know what a book is (incidentally, it’s sort of like a blog made out of paper) and certainly cannot be bothered with things that happened in 1985 when dinosaurs still ruled the Earth. Nonetheless, lots of people still own books, really old books at that, and might occasionally want to sell them. Turns out they can’t. You see, right now there exists a ban on children books from more than 25 years ago, due to the fear that their ink might contain lead. Yeah, lead was a really big thing back in the day, when we used to put it everything: paint, toys, our coffee, you name it. And you know how it is with kids – they made it their mission in life to put every damn object on the planet in their mouths, and if they accidentally ingested a little lead, that might cause certain mildly annoying health problems like brain damage or death. 3. Collecting Rain Water Every state has its fair share of crazy old laws, mostly ones concerned with racial segregation and limiting women’s rights to nothing more than walking, breeding and breathing. But most governments are reasonable enough to not enforce any of them, unlike Colorado, which is punishing farmers and landowners for collecting rain water, under old Western water laws from more than a century ago. The practice is called “water harvesting” and is probably older than the invention of fire, but according to Colorado officials it is an undisputed case of theft. When it rains the water hits the ground, burrows deep inside it and fuels underground reservoirs or rivers, the use of which is heavily controlled by the government. So if you collect or “steal” rain water, you are indeed slowly cutting off the government’s source of income, which not only makes you a criminal, but also an anarchist, hippy and probably a draft dodger! 4. Delicious Dairy Products Some stuff gets banned in the US for health reasons, or because it’s a danger to our fauna and flora or because it’s goddamn too disgusting to even exist. Like for example the Casu Marzu cheese from Sardinia, known for being riddled with live insect larvae and a stench so foul it could kill a particularly unhygienic skunk on the spot. The ban on such products like unpasteurized cheese or raw milk is less than clear… If you are a cheese lover, you know that unpasteurized versions of it are to Kraft slices what fine filet mignons are to a can of dog food. Untreated dairy products might very well pose a risk infection (the cause of the ban) but throughout recent history there have only been a few selected outbreaks cause of it. We don’t[...]