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10 The Sacrificial Ritual Of The Khonds In the 1840s, Major S.C. Macpherson lived among and studied the Khonds of Orissa in India. Over the next few decades, he wrote about and documented beliefs and practices that seemed shocking to Western eyes, such as killing infant girls to prevent them from growing up to cause trouble and become the target of witch-hunters. He also recorded, studied, and lobbied for putting an end to a sacrificial ritual that he observed when he was living among the Khonds....

Stroll through the streets of London where serial killers have stalked their prey and thousands were killed by plague, fire, and wartime bombs. Travel to the countryside where Norman churches reveal gruesome secrets and medieval towns hide shameful pasts. While many seek only to walk in the steps of Jack the Ripper or visit the Tower of London to check of their “dark tourism” box, many other dark places can be experienced....

10AIDSCameroonian Chimpanzees The history of AIDS is extensive, and there have been many efforts to trace its origin, perhaps most famously with the first “patient zero,” Gaetan Dugas. The initial scapegoat, Dugas was a Canadian flight attendant who came to be known as Patient Zero through a misunderstanding, as the zero was not a zero, but rather the letter “O,” for “out of California.” While Dugas took the blame for HIV and AIDS in the 1980s, the virus—in humans, at least—predates Dugas by several decades....

10Coffee Gives You The Ability To See Dead People In 2009, UK tabloid The Daily Express ran a story that turned caffeine into an M. Night Shyamalan movie. According to them, scientists had claimed that “too much coffee can make you hallucinate and sense dead people.” By drinking as little as seven cups a day, it was possible to put yourself into a hallucinatory state whereby you could contact dead relatives....

But if you thought Greek mythology was a bit edgy, you’ll find that even the most disturbing antics of Olympia’s ancient gods seem patently tasteful compared to the macabre legends associated with Native American mythology and culture. These monsters have haunted various corners of North America for thousands of years. Because their tradition was an oral one, many of the stories have variants as diverse as the people who still tell them, but they all have one thing in common: eerie details and gruesome facts that’ll make your skin crawl....

It wasn’t always this way. If you’re old enough to have been eating Freakies cereal out of the box while you watched Land of the Lost, you know that TV ads of the ’70s were just as trippy as the shows we watched. Heavy on animation, the commercials used bizarre characters to try to sell us their junk. One of the stock scenarios we always saw was the cartoon villain....

From plasma waves that dance to tiny stars that put the Sun to shame with surprising power and real-life “water worlds” infinitely more extreme than anything dreamed up by Hollywood, these discoveries run the spectrum of the seemingly impossible. 10 Ganymede’s Unrivaled ‘Chorus Waves’ Space seems to be mostly empty, but there are loads of charged particles zipping about. And under certain conditions, they can “dance,” or move in rhythmic waves....

Seven of the officials—including Adolf Hitler’s successor, Karl Donitz—were sentenced to imprisonment in Spandau Prison in Berlin. Their story inside Spandau is largely forgotten, and the prison is now a shopping complex. But their years in Spandau are somewhat fascinating as the “Spandau Seven” were an eclectic mix of pure evil and genius. 10 Albert Speer Wrote A Memoir On Over 20,000 Sheets Of (Mostly) Toilet Paper Albert Speer, the Minister for Armaments and War Production within Hitler’s government, was largely credited with keeping the huge German army working while they were under constant bombardment by the Allies....

10Flutie Flakes For those who aren’t big sport fans, Flutie Flakes are likely not a cereal you have heard of. Flutie Flakes were created in 1998 for the Buffalo Bills starting quarterback at the time, Doug Flutie. His success made these frosted corn flakes sell well, and a portion of the profits went to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism in honor of his son. However, controversy brewed after the Miami Dolphins took down Flutie’s team in a 1998 playoff game....

Along the way, people have come up with very interesting ways to fight one another. Despite their novelty and ingenuity, these weapons have remained relatively obscure. In this list, we’ll explore 10 weapons that deserve that little additional attention—even if they fell into obscurity for a good reason. 10Plumbata When people think of Roman hand-to-hand weapons, centurion shields, spears, and gladiator equipment usually come to mind. One of the lesser-known weapons the Romans used was called the plumbata, also known as a martiobarbalus....

10 Italian Conquest Of Ethiopia In 1937, just before the onset of World War II, Italian soldiers under the direction of Benito Mussolini came to the town of Aksum (or Axum), which housed one of Ethiopia’s most revered treasures—the Obelisk of Aksum, a monument which dates back to the fourth century AD. (Technically, it’s a stele, as it doesn’t have a pyramid at the top.) The city of Aksum was of the holiest places in Ethiopia and a central figure in the rise of Coptic Christianity in the country....

10 Harry Houdini On August 6, 1926, Harry Houdini got into a metal box, had it dropped to the bottom of a pool, and emerged safe after staying in the water for 91 minutes. The trick was done to discredit Rahman Bey, an Egyptian who had performed and survived the same trick two months earlier but attributed his success to magic. After the performance, Houdini wrote a letter explaining how he did it to Dr....

10 Evolutionary Advantages Of Seemingly Weird Body Functions 10 They Burnt Their Beds Border Cave in South Africa was once home to an early community of humans. Around 200,000 years ago, these individuals were the ancestors of modern humans about to appear on Earth. When researchers examined the cave in 2020, they found something interesting. The cave dwellers torched their beds. Besides confirming that they produced fire at will, it also showed that they were pest-control experts....

10Orvar Arnarson And Andrimar Pordarson Orvar Arnarson was an Icelandic skydiving instructor with over 1,000 jumps under his belt. Andrimar Pordarson, while nowhere near as experienced as Arnarson, had jumped eight times himself. In 2013, the pair were part of an annual Icelandic skydiving excursion to Florida. Having already completed two jumps, they intended to make their third jump on the clear morning of March 23. They were seen jumping from the plane separately, but never returned to the ground....

Sometimes these villains are played by actors so good at being bad that we unintentionally root for them. Other times they’re so evil our despisal of them dominates the feature. And, sometimes, we realize that maybe they’re not as in the wrong as we initially thought. The following ten films all feature a villain that, according to critics and audiences alike, outshined the story’s intended protagonist for one reason or another....

10 Kharijite The first identifiable sect of Islam was the Kharijite sect, one that remains relatively unknown among non-Islamic people. After Muhammad died, a string of caliphs followed him, but there was constant discussion and debate about how the religion should actually proceed. When an assassin killed the third caliph, Uthman, the Muslim community split between two factions, each fighting for control of the community and doctrine. The main debate was over who should be the next caliph....

However, there are many other forms of Satanism that haven’t quite achieved the same fame as the Church of Satan. Some of them are atheistic like LaVey’s version, while others do see the Devil as a literal being. Some of them have received some mainstream attention, but others have remained extremely obscure. Regardless, followers of the Left-Hand Path have devised many ways to express their own version of Satanism. Here are just a few....

Hackers are everywhere. And they’re constantly finding new ways to gain an advantage over other players, which you can understand would be highly annoying for anyone trying to play by the rules. You can, of course, report these players on the games themselves, but it often takes multiple reports for players to get banned. These hackers know this, and they usually have multiple accounts running at once anyway. Sometimes, you just have to take matters into your own hands and give those hackers what’s coming to them....

The dead house held locals in morbid fascination. It was the center of entertainment for thrill seekers, and it was a place of gossip. Newspapers from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s often published stories about the inner workings and troubles within the gruesome walls. 10 Poor Conditions Of The Houses For the “unfortunates” who died in Albany, Western Australia, in 1889, there was no dignity in their deaths. Their bodies were placed in a little shed on the prison grounds where water would rain down on their bodies from the leaky roof....

Here are ten heartwarming Stephen King short stories and novels that are perfect for reading at Christmastime. Light on the horror elements that are the hallmark of Stephen King’s oeuvre, these entries are more heartwarming than spine-chilling. 10 Blaze Written under King’s pseudonym, Richard Bachman, Blaze is an entertaining but tragic tale that was obviously influenced by Of Mice and Men. More of a crime thriller, this 2007 novel tells the story of Clayton “Blaze” Blaisdale, Jr....