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10Childermass Europeans in the Middle Ages took their holidays seriously. For example, Christmas wasn’t just celebrated on a single day. Instead, the entire 12 days of Christmas were observed, with each day representing a different Catholic belief. These were days of merry festivities which gave overworked peasants the opportunity to relax. There was one day, however, that wasn’t so merry. Well, at least not for children. Celebrated every December 28, Childermass (aka The Feast of The Holy Innocents) represented the killing of newborn boys by King Herod....

How could such events be connected? Well, they were all apparently linked to a secret organization known as Propaganda Due (P2). History is littered with conspiracy theories, most of them unproven or actively ridiculous. But the P2 were very real—as were the men behind it. 10Michele Sindona In 1979, Michele Sindona was a desperate man. Despite rumors of his Mafia ties and shady dealings, he had risen to become Italy’s most prominent banker, even acting as a financial adviser to the Vatican....

Sometimes, though, we end up wishing it had stayed dead. Sometimes, the parts they don’t teach you in high school aren’t just unfit for a Disney movie but would make Quentin Tarantino blush. Here are ten nightmarish vignettes from history that you may not be familiar with. 10 Pavlov’s Forgotten Experiments Anyone with any knowledge of psychology knows about Ivan Pavlov. His experiments on dogs in the late 19th century made him a household name, at least if your house is full of Psych majors....

A highly unusual, yet undeniably fun race, swam over 200 meters. Competitors first had to swim to a pole, climb up and down the pole, then swim a bit, clamber over 2 boats, swim under two more boats, and then swim to the finish. This was held only once, during the 1900 Olympics, and was won by Frederick Lane of Australia. A silly event that almost certainly attracted equally silly people....

However, this can lead to some of the purest and most honest works you’re ever likely to see. With the quality of these ranging from high to low, the creativity that’s on display is never up for debate. So, let’s take a look at ten of the best outsider artists today, starting with… 10 Chris Sievey (1955–2010) Manchester-born musician Chris Sievey’s career started off fairly normal as, like so many others in working-class 1980s England, he would get heavily involved in the punk scene....

10Charlie Chaplin The Worship: Charlie Chaplin is widely credited as being the world’s first international film star and one of the very few silent film stars whose work is still popular today. But one of his monologues, the idealistic and stirring “Let Us All Unite” speech from his anti-Nazi classic The Great Dictator, has proven more enduringly popular than any of his silent performances. Chaplin was asked to deliver the speech at political gatherings for years afterward....

10The VillagesFlorida The Villages is a town in Florida that was built for retired people. It covers an area larger than Manhattan, and has over 100,000 inhabitants—most of whom move around in golf carts. In fact, it holds the Guinness World Record for assembling the longest golf cart parade in the world, with 3,321 total golf carts. The town—where children are forbidden—is also home to controversies and scandals. Old men and women have been caught making out in golf carts, and the men are known to fight over women....

There have also been quite a few notable science stories to digest. First, there is that black hole picture everyone is talking about. But there is also a new species of humans and the discovery of an incredible tome of knowledge from 500 years ago. 10 Breakthrough In Cat Studies A new study published in Scientific Reports confirms something that most cat owners probably already suspected. Their pets can recognize when people call their names, but usually, they don’t care....

“Make You Feel My Love” was written by Bob Dylan but was released first by Billy Joel under the title “To Make You Feel My Love” in 1997. Dylan’s version appeared on his album, Time Out of Mind, later that same year. To date, the song has been covered by more than 450 singers, with Adele’s version arguably getting the most attention. On this list are some original recordings that led to success for those who covered it later....

At that scale, it’s no wonder there have been so many controversies and scandals. Most people have heard of the hot coffee incident in which 79-year-old Stella Liebeck was severely burned by the fast-food chain’s scalding coffee. She was hospitalized for eight days and awarded millions by a jury. Ultimately, McDonald’s settled the lawsuit with Liebeck privately. Although that’s one of the most publicized cases, McDonald’s has faced other outrageous scandals, like the ones detailed below....

10Richard Williams And Enoch Bartlett Outside of Asia, the most common variety of pear is the Williams pear, a special offshoot of the European pear tree species. It’s named after Richard Williams, who raised the trees in his nursery and spread them across England. It’s said that the first ones came from the yard of a schoolmaster in the village of Aldermaston. An American named James Carter (not the peanut-farming President) brought several Williams pear trees to the United States....

10 Vincent GaddisThe ‘Bermuda Triangle’ The Bermuda Triangle is one of the most famous supposedly mysterious spots on the planet, and its history goes back pretty far, long before the ill-fated Flight 19 left Florida and disappeared into the mysterious waters of the triangle. Even Christopher Columbus made notes about the strange lights and even stranger compass readings that he was getting within the confines of what would be called the Bermuda Triangle much later....

10 Henry “Peg” Gilbert In 1947, the police in Georgia, USA, were searching for a black man who was a suspect in the killing of a white man. Henry Gilbert was a 42-year-old African-American who was a successful farmer in Harris County. Police arrested Gilbert, a married father of four, and suspected him of harboring the fugitive. Gilbert had no idea what the police were talking about. The governing officials didn’t have an arrest warrant, and Gilbert didn’t even live to see the inside of a courtroom....

10 Zahra Kamalfar Zahra Kamalfar and her husband attended a protest against the Iranian government in 2004. They were both arrested. Two years later, Kamalfar was given a two-day pass to visit her family. They told her that her husband had been executed. She decided to flee the country. Kamalfar obtained false documents for her family. She and her children boarded a plane to Canada, where her brother lived. The family had to switch flights in both Russia and Germany....

Iconic places are associated with a shared mental image, but you might be surprised how often such places look nothing like you think. Sometimes, our imagination fails to encompass all a place has to offer; other times, we just get the whole thing wrong. 10Texas Is More Than A Desert From Western movies, you might get the impression that Texas is a godforsaken desert wasteland. The imagery of cowboys galloping through the unforgiving, barren heat of a Martian-looking landscape is a staple of the genre....

10 A Dream About A Wasp Inspired Science Fiction’s Scariest Creation It’s a scene that’s terrifying just to describe. Someone is sitting around and enjoying their life. Then they feel a stabbing pain. A creature bursts out of their insides. The host is left to die as the murderer goes on to find a new victim. Cinephiles will recognize that description of the famous chestburster scene in the 1979 film Alien....

10Susan LeFevre30 Years In 1975, Susan LeFevre was arrested for selling a small amount of heroin to an undercover Michigan state trooper. She pleaded guilty and was given a sentence of 10–20 years at the Scott Correctional Facility in Wayne County, Michigan. One year and 19 days into her sentence, LeFevre climbed over a barbed wire fence and escaped. She was helped by her grandfather once she was outside the prison....

Early civilizations didn’t share our prudishness. The ancient myths that made up classic religions were full of obscene and ridiculous stories. Your teacher might have left enough slip by to let on that Zeus slept with everything he saw, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Some of the other classic myths are filthier than anything you’ve ever heard. 10 The Egyptian Creation Myth Starts With A God Pleasuring Himself The Egyptians had more than one version of their creation myth, but one in particular stands out....

10 Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ Was About Birth Control Esther Anderson was a native Jamaican who helped build Island Records in the early 1960s. She was an actress and a photographer and co-wrote songs and lyrics for the Island Records label. Anderson was in New York City in 1972 when she met Bob Marley at a hotel party They began dating, and Anderson, almost from the start, collaborated with Marley on his songs....

While this is an outlandish notion for most people, when broken down, it isn’t as crazy as it first seems, not least when you consider what might become of ourselves should a sudden end announce itself without warning. Chances are, should life begin again, nobody would remember that we had even existed. If that’s the case, then, who’s to say that advanced civilizations didn’t exist thousands of years before our own recorded history?...