In the modern West, however, influential people may be accused of converting to Islam as part of a wider conspiracy theory in which they are painted as cultural outsiders or even traitors. 10 The Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden, a Tibetan trickster spirit, has been at the center of a cult in Tibet since the 17th century. In the last several decades, Shugden followers have spread throughout the world based on the teachings of rogue monk Kelsang Gyatso....

10Iran Tricked The United States Into Invading Iraq To date, the Iraq War has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Coalition soldiers. Some estimates of Iraqi casualties are as high as half a million as well. With the emergence of insurgent factions such as ISIS, there seems to be no end to the violence in the region. Many point to the ill-advised decision of the United States to go to war against Iraq....

Seemingly innocuous things like a low birth rate, a shortage of vultures, or just having too many cattle around are, for some countries, more dire than they appear. While the following situations seem unspectacular, they could lead to worse disasters. 10 South Korea’s Birth Crisis South Korea’s birth crisis is so bad that the government is paying couples to have children. The nation’s fertility rate hit a record low in 2018....

10 Bonnie And Clyde Recommended Ford Cars For Getaways In 1934, Clyde Barrow wrote Henry Ford a letter in which Barrow praised the Ford V8 as a getaway car. The infamous letter was dated April 10, 1934, and read: While I still got breath in my lungs, I will tell you what a dandy car you make. I have drove Fords exclusively when I could get away with one. For sustained speed and freedom from trouble, the Ford has got ever other car skinned and even if my business hasen’t been strickly legal, it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8....

10Arma 100 Commonly used for home defense and law enforcement, the Arma 100 is a simple yet effective projectile launcher. Legal all throughout the United States, the Arma 100 is a great substitute for a more common household handgun or shotgun. Little more than a handheld air gun, the weapon uses single-shot gas cartridges for propulsion and is super easy to use. Provided the user can aim at least a little, the Arma 100 can be used effectively from up to 6 meters (20 ft) away....

10 Fur Seals Mating With Penguins In 2006, researchers observing the native species of Marion Island in Antarctica saw something pretty baffling—a fur seal attempting to mate with a king penguin. They made note of it in their research, treating it as an independent incident. At the time, they suspected it was something rather accidental, maybe playtime gone horribly wrong, or mealtime gone horribly wrong. But more recently, representatives of the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, have seen it happening again....

As something becomes more common, we tend to find more creative purposes for it. And there are definitely some people out there getting creative with drones, for better or for worse. 10 Orville The Drone Cat A video of a stuffed cat strapped to a small drone recently went viral . . . again. We’re not talking about a plush toy. We’re talking about a dead domestic cat that someone taxidermied specifically to be strapped to a drone and flown around....

10 Horrifying Executions As of 2015, only about one-third of all countries worldwide actively enforce the death penalty. Most severely limit their number of annual executions. So far this year, the US has put to death only 20 people—a number that still makes it one of the top executioners in the world. By contrast, Saudi Arabia has killed more than 100 people. Watch this video on YouTube The Saudis’ methods are often brutal in the extreme....

The 1900s 1901 Australia Federates 1903 Man Flies 1905 The Theory of Relativity is Proposed 1907 Picasso Gives Birth to Modern Art The 1910s 1912 RMS Titanic Sinks 1912 Republic of China Established 1917 Bolshevik Revolution – Communist Russia is born 1914 World War I Begins The 1920s 1920 Prohibition Begins 1922 Tomb of Tutankhamen is Found 1925 Television is Invented 1929 On With the Show – first 100% color, 100% sound movie The 1930s 1930 The First Full Length Color/Sound Cartoon Appears 1930 Mohandas Gandhi Leads Satyagraha Movement in India 1931 Empire State Building Opens 1939 World War II Begins The 1940s 1944 Colossus – First Fully Electronic Computer 1945 First Atomic Bomb Built 1945 First Secretary General of the Newly Formed United Nations 1946 Cold War Begins...

Here are 10 delightful stories about the “Merc with a Mouth.” 10He Started As A DC Comics Rip-Off The controversial Rob Liefeld originally conceptualized Deadpool, though we use the term “originally conceptualized” liberally. Liefeld was known for basing several of his creations off of existing characters. The most infamous of these was a rip-off of Marvel’s Captain America called Agent America. It was so blatant that the ensuing dispute had to be settled in court....

10 Ebola Thanks to the media and recent outbreaks in Africa, Ebola has been accumulating an infamous reputation. Formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, it was discovered in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bats and other animals may be responsible for carrying this deadly disease, which is easily spread from person to person through bodily fluids. After becoming infected, the first thing you’d feel is a fever and sore throat....

Meet Augusto Pinochet: former leader of Chile and all-round psychopath. Between the years 1973 and 1990, his regime ruled with an iron fist, murdering thousands of ordinary people and torturing tens of thousands more. But statistics can’t convey the true horror: Over 17 years his goons were responsible for some of the strangest, cruelest and most audacious atrocities the world has ever known. 10 He Had His Closest Friends Murdered In June 1973, Augusto Pinochet was a shy, middle-aged army man with close ties to the government....

10The Pope’s Erotic Private Bathroom A rumor says the Vatican is stuffed full of ancient pornography, but that’s untrue. That’s not to say, however, that there’s nothing sexual to see—the pope just keeps nearly all of it in his own private bathroom. Known as the Stufetta del Bibbiena (the “small heated room of Bibbiena”), this private bathroom in the papal apartments was painted by Raphael in 1516 as a favor to a cardinal....

Among all of the showbiz and glamor, a few preachers have lost their way and become embroiled in scandal. Men like Jimmy Swaggert, whose tearful confession has become infamous, and Ted Haggard, whose anti-gay sermons were rapidly discredited when it became clear that he had employed the services of a male escort, are some of the more well-known preachers to fall from grace. This list aims to bring your attention to a few more people whose hypocrisy outshone their message....

10They’re Incredibly Rare (But Still Respected) The Spanish recognized that the quipu were more formidable and accurate than their own system of record-keeping. They also realized that they were extremely important to the prestige and history of the local people. They didn’t care for either fact and declared quipu satanic in 1583, burning every example they could find. At the time, quipu were extremely common, with every village in the empire using them....

People like a simple, black-and-white narrative—Allies vs. Axis, good vs. evil—but reality is rarely as straightforward as that. Here, we investigate some of the inconvenient events which challenge common perceptions of the largest conflict in history. 10 Bulgaria, Hungary, And Romania Were Axis Powers We’ve all heard of the famous Axis players in the war—Germany, Japan, and Italy—but being a world war and all, it’s hardly surprising that other nations joined their side....

For people who live in Brazil, the Wright brothers did not make the first powered flight. In New Mexico, there are nine planets in our solar system, and in Oklahoma, the watermelon is a vegetable. Read on for more regionally dependent truths. 10 Pluto Is A Planet In New Mexico Pluto was considered a planet until April 24, 2006, when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) determined it did not meet the criteria to be called a planet....

Some mischievous forgers have also devoted their efforts to making fake paintings, which they often pass off as originals painted by Hitler himself. To be clear, Hitler did create some artworks while alive. However, there have been lots of fakes created by con men trying to make a quick profit. 10 Baby Hitler In 1931, Harriet May Warren took a photo of her two-year-old son, John May Warren, outside her home in the US....

10 Nazi Crop Circles Life on the home front in the United States during World War II was understandably terrifying. No one knew for sure whether the Germans would be planning an attack, so when mysterious symbols started popping up across the East Coast, people were worried. Newspapers didn’t help, especially when they started to run photos of the crop circles and other mysterious symbols that were being found in farmland....

Whether you buy into these theories or not, they’re definitely interesting to consider. Here are 10 of the most famous “dead” people that conspiracy theorists say are actually alive. 10 Michael Jackson The King of Pop famously passed away in 2009 from cardiac arrest. Despite there being a very public investigation into his death, some people believe that he’s still alive, moonwalking to “Billie Jean.” Even his family and fans that believe he is dead think that his death is shrouded in mystery....