10 Kenyan Sand Boa Boa constrictors are known as inhabitants of the rain forest, but the sand boa species are novel boas that have conquered the desert rather than stick to more humid environments. One of the smallest species of boa in the world, the Kenyan sand boa lives most of its life buried under the surface of desert sands or literally living under a rock. In the cool of the morning and evening when the harsh desert sunshine fades, the Kenyan sand boa emerges from its lair to track, subdue, suffocate, and finally consume its prey whole....

10George Bernard Shaw On Shakespeare George Bernard Shaw, the only writer to receive both an Academy Award and the Nobel Prize for Literature, produced a variety of well-known (and award-winning) plays, the most famous of which was Pygmalion. Apparently, his success as a playwright led him to believe he had the credentials to make a few scathing comments about Shakespeare himself: “With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare....

10 Saliva Can Actually Digest Parts Of Us Saliva is the sticky, watery substance that coats the entire human mouth and is responsible for a plethora of functions. It was designed mainly to protect the organs within your mouth from dehydration and to help in digestion. This latter function is due to an enzyme called amylase which helps to break down carbohydrates—an essential chemical component in numerous foodstuffs that is, freakishly, also found in parts of our bodies....

These first-person accounts are all, in their own words, a view of a dark world where they met with some of the most notorious and cold-blooded killers on the planet… and lived to tell the tale. Top 10 Gruesome Ways Serial Killers Disposed Of Their Victims 10 Myra Hindley Myra Hindley is considered one of the evillest women who ever lived. Alongside her partner Ian Brady, the twisted duo killed five children aged between 10 and 17 between July 1963 and October 1965....

SEE ALSO: 10 Unnerving Secrets Of The FBI It’s vitally important that an organization as powerful as the FBI be kept on a short leash of public accountability at all times. Given the chance to overrun its mandate, the agency could quickly transform from a defender of the weak into a malignant force of oppression. But what if the FBI has already run amok and is now a puppet of special interests driven by anti-American agendas?...

The war was unmatched in its duration and intensity—conflicts like the Hundred Years War actually contained long periods of peace, but the Thirty Years’ War saw fighting continue for three straight decades, making it Europe’s longest continuous conflict. Many dramatic incidents unfolded over the course of those fateful decades, but these 10 tower above the rest. 10The Defenestration Of Prague In 1517, a disgruntled priest named Martin Luther nailed a list of complaints to his local cathedral and unleashed a religious revolution....

Long before computers, hackers were already around, breaking into phone networks, punch-card machines, and even into telegraphs. Some hackers plied their skills for profit, while others did so for more altruistic purposes. And of course, a few hacked for the time-honored tradition pranking others. 10 Nevil Maskelyne Hacked A Wireless Telegraph Demonstration: 1903 The second it became physically possible to hack into something, somebody did it. That somebody’s name was Nevil Maskleyne, history’s first hacker, and he was around a lot earlier than you might expect....

10Fargo1996 The Easter egg in the Coen Brothers’ classic crime film Fargo actually led to a bit of an urban legend—that the musician Prince had a cameo as a dead body. This is based off the credits in the film for the person who played “The Victim in the Field.” In the credits for this minor character, instead of a name, there is a symbol that looks very much like the one that Prince used from 1993 onward, except the symbol was turned on its side and had a smiley face in the circle....

Yes, plain old chewing gum. The simple act of chewing on a stick of gum can suppress your appetite, thereby preserving limited food supplies from overindulgence, while aiding in necessary saliva production. While it will not substitute for a turkey dinner, and despite the common myth about its digestive properties, a stick or two also can be used in a pinch for short-term nutrition.
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But then you have words where there’s no way of even telling whether you’re misusing them or not. We use these words without knowing what they really mean—or if they even have a widely accepted definition at all. 10Orwellian At this exact moment, some journalist, somewhere, is turning out a political article that uses the term “Orwellian.” On a single day, you might see it used it to describe cars that disable themselves if an owner skips payments, Obama’s net neutrality speech, and U2’s latest album....

10 Great Salem Fire1914 In summer 1914, approximately 18,000 people—nearly one-half the residents of Salem, Massachusetts—found themselves homeless. On the afternoon of June 25, a fire started in “Blubber Hollow,” an area in the leather manufacturing district unprotected by fire prevention sprinkler systems. Over the next 13 hours, the fire raged, consuming a swath of land 1 kilometer (0.5 mi) wide and 2 kilometers (1 mi) long. Over 250 acres and 1,750 buildings were in ruin, which was nearly one-third of the city....

While animals may do it, somehow, we see as ourselves separate until a complete madman reminds us that we, too, are susceptible to cannibalistic tendencies. Is it possible that, pushed far enough, any one of us human beings possesses the ability to turn into a cannibal? The human race has been pressed plenty since the dawn of history, and we’ve resorted to cannibalism for many reasons. Today, the modern sciences can tell us a lot about cannibalism as we piece together the story of human history and its relationship with the practice....

Scattered throughout the history of the real samurai, though, are a few weird little details that we tend not to talk about because if we did, it would ruin the fantasy played out on the silver screen. 10They Wore Inflatable Capes Samurai would wear massive, 6-foot-long capes called “horo.” They were stuffed full of light materials and designed to catch the wind and blow up. The horo was supposed to stop incoming arrows, to protect a samurai from attacks from behind or the side....

Many scientists have concluded that it only took 20,000 workers a period of 20 years to build the Great Pyramid. This is quite astounding, when our history tells that us they only used wooden implements with ropes and pulleys. With all the detail and precise alignments, it is hard to believe that such magnificence could be gained in a 20-year period by so few workers with such limited tools and resources....

DeAngelo was caught when his third cousin uploaded their genetic profile to 23andMe and using familial DNA, police were able to strike off every family member as a potential suspect until they got down to DeAngelo. Now that law enforcement is legally allowed to search these genetic databases to potentially catch criminals—it looks like even more justice is on the horizon. Teamed with the help of online sleuths and new breakthroughs; these are the following cold cases that could be solved in 2021....

With all this coverage, we may think we understand serial killers—what drives them and how they strike. And yet, oftentimes, the stories involving the real killers are even more bizarre than their make-believe counterparts. 10 Debbie Harry And Ted Bundy On several occasions throughout the last decades, Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry claimed that she narrowly evaded one of America’s most notorious serial killers—Ted Bundy. She first told the story in 1989....

There are tribes that don’t even wear clothes who still use costumes in ceremonies, imbued with functions and meanings that, today, are barely understood. As time churns on and the world homogenizes, these costumes are fading out of use and memory—and the stories behind them are being lost. 10Yup’Ik Shamans The Yup’ik people come from the cold, hard winters of Siberia. In their part of the world, food can be scarce....

10Luminol While TV shows like Bones and CSI often rely on unrealistically advanced technology to the chagrin of real crime scene investigators, there is one substance that is exactly as futuristic as it’s depicted: luminol. Luminol is a powder made up of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon that glows blue when it comes into contact with the hemoglobins in blood. This chemiluminescence is the same process that causes fireflies to glow....

Urban legends and sinister tales of The Devil’s Hour can be found in Anglo-American, Native American, and Hispanic culture, but what is it about this hour that both fascinates and frightens us? There are many sides to The Devil’s Hour—as the explanations are a divide of both science and evil. See Also: 10 Marks Supposedly Left On Earth By The Devil 10 Satanic Significance The Devil’s Hour being 3 AM is considered significant as it’s the opposite hour to the death of Christ....

Often, the process unearths fresh facts and finds which inject more life, mystery, and quirks into historical accounts. From medical conditions that gave famous artists their brilliance to exorcisms on modern saints, plenty remains on offer about well-known lives. 10 10 Hidden Picassos During the 1970s, the empress of Iran helped create a museum for modern art. In 1979, when she and her husband fled the country due to demonstrations against him, the last shah of Iran, the art was quickly hidden in the museum’s basement....