10Mammals’ Ancestors Ruled The Earth Before The Dinosaurs Mammals and reptiles don’t look alike, but they do share a common ancestor. As they went their separate ways, reptiles such as the ancestors of dinosaurs became diapsids. The forefathers of today’s mammals became synapsids. That rivalry lasted for over 230 million years, and mammal-synapsids totally dominated dino-diapsids for the first half of that time. Dimetrodon, for instance, a sail-backed mammal ancestor, was the dominant land carnivore of the Permian period....

10Mayan Decapitations In 2013, archaeologists discovered 24 decapitated and mutilated bodies at the ancient Mayan city of Uxil. The burying of the victims was quite elaborate: They had been stored in an artificial cave that served as a water reservoir, were covered by a layer of gravel, and then were sealed shut in the caves by a layer of clay. The bodies were discovered after an examination of Uxil’s drainage system; they had been forgotten entirely before then....

So begins Patrick Suskind’s classic novel Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer, which tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an ambiguously human peasant who is driven to kill to satisfy his powerful sense of smell. The novel is considered fantasy, yet a truly gifted and abominable man did live in 18th-century France. He was known as Tarrare, and he was always hungry. 10Enfant Terrible In the early 1770s, a monster was born in the lush countryside of the Rhone valley, not too far from the booming silk-weaving town of Lyon....

The tragedy of the Titanic has proven to be just as horrific, as shocking, and as mysterious today as it was the night it sank. Even though it seems like we’ve learned everything there is to know about that awful night, we still make discoveries about it that can chill us to the very bone. Here are ten chilling and eerie facts about the Titanic tragedy. 10 A Graveyard Of Shoes In 2004, a photograph was taken of a pair of shoes lying on the ocean floor at the wreckage site....

10Dionysius Lardner’s Railway Error Dionysius Lardner was a 19th-century Irish professor, mathematician, and popularizer of science. He was a staunch supporter of Charles Babbage and would often give talks on the difference engine, an early calculator. Lardner also wrote several mathematical papers, but his crowning achievement was the Cabinet Cyclopedia. The 133-volume series presented topics like science and history to the average reader. It featured contributions from numerous learned figures of the day such as John Herschel, Mary Shelley, Walter Scott, and Thomas Moore....

Animals do this for many reasons. Often, it has to do with predation. Some prey animals take on the look of some other, more dangerous animal that their own predators avoid. Conversely, a predator may mimic an animal that its prey doesn’t fear. 10 Hornets And Hornet Moths We all know hornets can deliver quite painful stings. Several species belonging to the Sesia genus, such as Sesia apiformis, have evolved to mimic hornets in look and behavior....

Family matters in countries as diverse as Iran, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia are governed by religion-based personal status codes. Many of these laws treat women essentially as legal minors under the eternal guardianship of their male family members. Family decision-making is thought to be the exclusive domain of men, who enjoy by default the legal status of “head of household.” These notions are supported by family courts in the region that often reinforce the primacy of male decision-making power....

These societies can be anything from small, functional villages to tribal empires that span half a state. So instead of reveling in the fall of civilization, let’s look at the rise of new ones. Warning: Spoilers ahead. 10 New California RepublicFallout Spanning three games in the Fallout series (1, 2, and New Vegas), the New California Republic (NCR) upholds the ideals of the United States that existed before it: rule of law, democracy, safety, and freedom....

10 A Disturbing Fan Base Despite the fact that Manson undoubtedly has had a lot of “alone” time—over four decades locked away in protective custody in a California state prison—he receives plenty of fan mail to keep him occupied as well as continuous meet-and-greet requests. In fact, Manson has received more mail than any other prisoner in the US, begging the question: What the hell is wrong with his fan base?...

Nevertheless, as incredible as it may seem, some of the most revered landmarks on the planet have been put up for sale. Several of them have actually been sold, a few more than once. 10 Carter’s Grove Plantation Carter’s Grove Plantation occupies one of the most historic sites in the United States: a parcel of land near colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, overlooking the James River. It was privately owned for centuries before it was donated to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in the 1960s....

Most of the hundreds of thousands of patients in the dark days of the “madhouses” were unknown paupers and not remembered. Occasionally though, throughout history, certain patients have been rather more well-known. Here are ten examples of the somewhat famous, very famous, and downright infamous locked away in an asylum. 10 King George III England’s King George III reigned from 1760 until his death in 1820 and suffered severe mental health problems at times....

10Rent-A-Foreigner In China If you visit China, you might just stumble across a ghost town. The country is overflowing with empty cities. Most folks aren’t willing to pay for overpriced apartments in the middle of nowhere, so these once-promising communities are just collecting dust, waiting for people to show up. Now, if you’re a Chinese real estate agent hoping to rent out a few pricey, isolated condos, what do you do?...

10The Parrots Of Brooklyn New York is not particularly well known for its wildlife, unless you’re talking about rats and pigeons. However, an amazing diversity of creatures make their home in the city, including turtles, raccoons, frogs, and several dozen species of bird. Among the crows and seagulls, there is one species that seems decidedly out of place—the quaker parrot. Indigenous to South America, the bright green parrot has taken up residence in the borough of Brooklyn....

Artist: Grant Wood 1891 –1942 Year Painted: 1930 Grant Wood painted American Gothic as the United States was entering the Great Depression. Wood was looking for models that would capture the essence of hard-working Middle America. The artist decided on using the family dentist, Dr. B.H. McKeeby (1867–1950), to model for the older man and his sister, Nan Wood (1899–1990), for the younger woman. The two, reluctantly, posed for the painting after Wood assured them that they would not be recognized....

10 Galician Language In 1978, Galician gained recognition as one Spain’s five official languages. This Romance tongue of three million in the country’s northwestern reaches is intelligible with Portuguese but employs Castilian Spanish spelling. For decades, debate has raged about whether Galician and Portuguese are, in fact, one language. The jury is out, as the answer is laden with political and social implications. Today, Galician and Spanish are taught together in the region’s primary and secondary schools....

10 Coptic Spell Book In spite of their naturalistic savvy, ancient Egyptians didn’t hesitate to fall back on magic to solve life’s niggling inconveniences. Many of their hexes are lost to history, although we’ve recovered others in excellent condition, including the 1,300-year-old A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power. Fortunately, the 20-page parchment booklet was written in Coptic—the most recent of Egypt’s lexicological branches—and therefore readily deciphered by researchers at Australia’s Macquarie University....

Even today, those gigantic pillars, 84 meters (276 ft) tall above the water, are an impressive sight. And if those arches don’t knock your socks off, check out that 26-meter (85 ft) deck suspended by a latticework of crisscrossed steel wires, all hanging from four cables about 38 centimeters (15 in) thick, each made up of 5,434 individual wires. It’s a bridge strong enough to hold 145,000 vehicles each day....

First a few basics: the Class that spiders belong to is Arachnida, which also includes scorpions, ticks and mites. So from a taxonomy / linguistic point of view at least, an arachnophobic would include the panic and fear of these creatures as well. It’s just as well not to think about this too much, as mites (mostly microscopic) live just about everywhere – including in just about all upholstery and plush toys....

Certain foods can also be addictive, with some even having the same chemical effects on our bodies as drugs. The result is that we become physically or mentally dependent on these foods and keep munching them to cure the ridiculous addictions. 10 Cookies Consuming a large number of cookies might seem like a habit. But as we are about to find out, it could be the result of an addiction....

10Adaptive Camouflage Ever since Predator was released, people have imagined a similar form of camouflage to protect troops and vehicles. BAE Systems has developed a technology that might keep a Predator at bay with its new ADAPTIV system. ADAPTIV uses hexagonal modules to cover the outside of an armored vehicle. These cells adjust their heat and cooling based on the environment to mask infrared sensors and also display thermal images of other objects like vehicles, animals, or the landscape to visually confuse the enemy....