America’s Ugly ‘Ugly Laws’

May 4, 2022

In the 1880s, you could be fined for being ugly in public. Ordinances across the United States disallowed anyone who was “diseased, maimed, ...

Why The Soviet Union Advertised Products That Didn’t Exist

May 4, 2022

The purpose of commercials is to advertise products and drive sales, but in Soviet Russia under communism they served an altogether differen...

Ne Win: A Story of Power, Tyranny and Dolphin Blood

May 3, 2022

Once upon a time, there was a man who bathed in dolphin blood. He believed it would keep him young and healthy while his Stalin-inspired reg...

The Fish That Swims Upside Down

May 2, 2022

Fishes are great swimmers, and this ability comes not from practice but from anatomy. Fishes have a slender body which they flex back and fo...

How a German Air Raid in Bari Helped Discover a Cure For Cancer

Apr 28, 2022

On December 2, 1943, the Germans launched a surprise attack on a key Allied port in Bari, Italy, sinking more than 20 Allied merchant ships ...

Uncombable Hair Syndrome

Apr 27, 2022

In a world of 7.87 billion people, there are only about a 100 cases of Uncombable Hair Syndrome (UHS). It is commonly visible in children of...

Rohonc Codex

Apr 26, 2022

The Rohonc Codex is a 448-page illustrated manuscript book written by an unknown author in an unknown language that has baffled scholars and...

Kugelpanzer: The Mysterious Nazi Ball Tank

Apr 25, 2022

When the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria in 1945 after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Red Army recovered a strange vehicle from the pos...

Mike The Headless Chicken

Apr 25, 2022

Once upon a time in 1945 there was a couple who owned a farm in Colorado. Lloyd Olsen would spend afternoons chopping off chicken heads, whi...

Can Tapeworms Make You Beautiful?

Apr 23, 2022

“The loveliness of a rival eats into a girl’s heart like corrosion;” says The Ugly-girl Papers: Or, Hints for the Toilet . The Victorian era...

Deciphering Fragments of Egyptian Ceramics

Apr 22, 2022

In February 2022, archaeologists discovered over 18,000 Egyptian ostraca in Athribis. The news was full of headlines about pottery fragments...

The Flying Santa of New England

Apr 21, 2022

Every Christmas, the families of lighthouse keepers along the coast of New England receive presents from a flying Santa Claus, but the jolly...

The Lake of The Dead: Roopkund

Apr 21, 2022

At a breathtaking altitude of 16,500ft, pristine waters of the Himalayas lay frozen to their depths for most part of the year. Come summer t...

Murchison Falls: Uganda's Most Powerful Waterfalls

Apr 20, 2022

Murchison Falls, also referred to as Kabalega Falls, is located on the Nile River between Lake Kyoga and Lake Albert in Uganda. The waterfal...

The 17th Century Astronomer Who Designed The First Steam-Powered Vehicle in History

Apr 20, 2022

On October 9, 1623 Ferdinand Verbiest was born in the town of Pittem (present-day Belgium). Of his early years it is only known that he stud...

A Cannulated Cow Lives With a Hole in Its Stomach

Apr 19, 2022

Imagine being able to look inside a cow. Call it curiosity, or the craving to reveal all of the world’s truths, but the cannulated cow is ma...

The Hammersmith Ghost Murder Case

Apr 18, 2022

In the winter of 1803, residents of Hammersmith, which at the time was a small village on the outskirts of London, was terrorized by a ghost...

The Day BBC Had No News

Apr 18, 2022

You could be idle, but the world is still unfolding. Even in hours of boredom within the four walls of our homes, we are aware of the tremen...

Burana Tower, Kyrgyzstan

Apr 16, 2022

Set against the backdrop of lofty, snow-covered peaks of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too mountain range in northern Kyrgyzstan, stands a tall isolated mi...

Reverse Waterfalls: When Water Flies Up

Apr 16, 2022

Every monsoon, the Indian subcontinent turns into a land of natural marvel. Cascading waterfalls, dense greenscapes and the smell of earth t...