About 340 million years ago, something important happened. Some amphibians, who at the time grew larger than today’s giant river salamanders but lived similarly, began to produce amniotic eggs. These were eggs which had thin shells, allowing the embryo to breathe, but still solid enough to contain the water an embryo needs. The early creatures who laid such eggs were immediately successful, as this adaption enabled vertebrates to finally conquer land....
At a certain point, the first human is going to have to try an experimental drug or procedure for progress in treatment research to occur. The dangers sometimes seem in direct conflict with the Hippocratic Oath, which states that medical practitioners must “utterly reject harm and mischief.”[1] Here, we document cases of morality deeply skewed yet peppered with the hope of improving treatment for STIs. 10 The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was conducted over a 40-year period, from 1932 to 1972 in Macon County, Alabama....
10 Using Disposable Chopsticks Chances are good that you don’t even think about environmental impact when you pull a pair of wooden chopsticks out with your order of takeout, but those chopsticks are having a devastating impact on China’s forests. China produces a whopping 80 billion disposable chopsticks every year. The vast majority are used—and thrown away—in China itself. A mind-blowing number, 80 billion is enough to blanket Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in at least 360 layers of chopsticks....
10 Philippe Pozzo Di Borgo And Abdel Sellou According to French aristocrat Philippe Pozzo di Borgo, he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. It was a golden one. The second son of a French duke, he grew up to become a champagne magnate. But the upward arc of Philippe’s life descended into sorrow in 1993 when he lost the full use of his limbs in a paragliding accident....
10 Scorpions Scorpions share the flamingo’s love of precoital dancing, even if they don’t have the same appreciation for showmanship, since they limit the event to a single couple. The so-called promenade a deux usually occurs on a moonless night after a male scorpion has already spent 20 or so minutes juddering around a female waiting to make his move. When the time is right, he reaches out and grabs her pincers in his own, and the duo shuffles about in a kind of arthropod tango, which can last an entire day....
SEE ALSO: Top 10 Times Animals Held Grudges Against Humans And Took Revenge In the early 1900s in Europe and the United States, a phenomenon known sometimes as “living village exhibits” and more crudely as “human zoos” made rounds and grew in popularity. Billed as a form of entertainment, these exhibits were also highly degrading to various groups of people and were designed to display the alleged superiority of the white man....
Grigory ordered freshly painted building facades erected. One herd of animals was transported along the way to make it appear the countryside was teeming with livestock, bags of wheat actually filled with sand were presented, and peasants were told to stand along the road with smiles plastered on their faces. Supposedly Catherine passed by the show without any idea she was being duped, and the term “Potemkin village” was born....
Azulejo is a form of Portuguese or Spanish painted, tin-glazed, ceramic tile work. Typically, azulejos can be found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses and even train stations or subway stations. They constitute a major aspect of Portuguese architecture as they are applied on walls, floors and even ceilings. They were not only used as an ornamental art form, but also had a specific functional capacity like temperature control at homes....
10 The Human-Sized Sea Scorpions We all know that the prehistoric world had terrifying creatures. In 2015, another was discovered in the fossil remains of a meteorite crater in Decorah, Iowa. After the meteorite hit Earth around 470 million years ago, the area was flooded with ocean water. The resulting thick, brackish ocean water created the perfect environment for the human-sized sea scorpion that scientists have named Pentecopterus after a type of ancient Greek warship....
10 Blackburn B-20 During World War II, floatplanes and flying boats played a big part in the air forces of the world powers. Floatplanes had the advantage of being more flexible in water operations, but they were often small and struggled with maneuverability due to the large float on the bottom of the plane. Flying boats were often used as patrol bombers, but they were large and slow. So the Blackburn Aircraft Company decided to design an airplane that joined the best elements of floatplanes and flying boats, ending up with the oddball B-20 (somewhat similar to the one depicted above)....
We often take the welcoming warmth of our beds at the end of a long day for granted, but do we ever consider that there might be more to the history of our safe sanctuaries and their contents than previously thought? Here’s a list of bedroom trivia that you will find more compelling than counting sheep. 10 The Cost Of A Good Night’s Sleep Although nowadays, we tend to take our beds for granted as a common sight in any bedroom, they were once considered extremely valuable items....
Slavery was officially established in Virginia in 1654, when Anthony Johnson, a black man, convinced a court that his servant (also black) John Casor was his for life. Johnson himself had been brought to Virginia some years earlier as an indentured servant (a person who must work to repay a debt, or on contract for so many years in exchange for food and shelter – image of a contract above) but he saved enough money to buy out the remainder of his contract and that of his wife....
10 The Skeleton Influences Sugar Metabolism The skeleton is actually part of the endocrine system and a regulator of sugar metabolism, and it influences the manner in which certain fats are metabolized in the body. In 2007, researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center determined that human bone cells regulate blood sugar levels and fat deposition through secretion of the hormone osteocalcin. Osteocalcin increases insulin secretion, but without the decrease in insulin sensitivity that is normally seen in association with increased insulin secretion....
10 Dutch JewsIndonesia In early 2013, a violent event took place against a community that most of the world didn’t even know existed. Assailants demolished the Beith Shalom synagogue, the most prominent synagogue in Indonesia. For the past few years, the small Jewish community in Surabaya in East Java had been under assault by hardliners in the predominantly Muslim community. Anti-Israel protests often targeted Beith Shalom, and four years before its destruction, antagonists sealed off the building....
10The Painted Ones The Picts left no written records. Almost everything we know of them comes from accounts of their enemies. In 297, Roman writer Eumenius makes the first reference to the inhabitants north of Hadrian’s Wall as the “pictus” or “the painted ones.” The Irish referred to the Picts as “Cruithni” or “people of the designs.” This close parallel to the Roman name suggests that “Pict” was a name the northern Scottish may have called themselves....
In 1981, Canterbury Christ Church University bought a graveyard property to build a concert hall, in Canterbury City. Before construction there were 200 remains that needed to be reinterred to make room for the hall. Among the plots in the cemetery was the famous cricketer, Fuller Pilch. However, the memorial above his plot was moved to the county cricket ground in 1978, so they had no idea where his grave was....
10Demon Traps To Protect King James King James I, who was king of England and Scotland, had such a strong interest in witchcraft that he passed a harsh law making certain acts of witchcraft punishable by death. Partially due to the king’s intense interest, witchcraft was near the height of its fame around the beginning of the 17th century. In 2014, an archaeological survey at the historic Knole House in southeast England discovered a relic deeply related to King James and witchcraft: secret carvings etched into the wood below the home’s floorboards....
In this list, we’ll cover real-life firefighters who went above and beyond the call of duty. Whether jumping from planes, leading men to survival, or even serving their country on secret missions, the following feats belong in action movies. A number of these heroes disregarded injuries to themselves in order to save the lives of others. 10 Deanne Shulman—First Female Smokejumper So-called “hotshot” firefighter crews (trained to fight fires in remote areas with little logistical support) are considered some of the most elite units in the country and have been referred to as the Special Forces of firefighting....
10 Wave Of Death Despite the confused appearance of zombies, most are portrayed as having a kind of sentience. It’s why you have to keep the lights off at night and keep as quiet as possible. The slightest sound or glimpse of a human is enough to prompt an attack. However, this awareness would be impossible because brain function is one of the first functions to deactivate after death. In a 2011 study performed by Anton Coenen, several rats were beheaded to test how long consciousness lingers....
What do people watch when they like getting into the spooky spirit? Just the Treehouse of Horror episodes on The Simpsons or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown? Actually, there are so many Halloween specials that are just forgotten. Here are some of the best Halloween specials—not Halloween episodes of television shows but stand-alone specials—to find and enjoy this season. 10 Mad Monster Party? Rankin and Bass were the masterminds behind Christmas classics Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jack Frost, Frosty the Snowman, and many more....
