Author: Ed Hatchet

Ed travels the world (wide web, mostly) to write lists for you to read over breakfast. For more of his stuff, click here.

Generations can be a useful way of thinking about society, allowing us to trace social trends through the ages. But they’re also overly simplistic. Beginning from before the turn of the century, here’s the history (and future) of America in ten generational stereotypes. 10. The Gilded Age Though not usually seen as a generation per…

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When animals get together in numbers, they become a different beast altogether. Often deadly, almost always injurious, and without fail horrifying to behold, the best place to be when a swarm starts up is, well, somewhere else. In rough order of death toll, here are the ten worst encounters with swarming animals we could find.…

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Aside from levitating beds for the super-rich, there hasn’t been a lot of advancement in bed design of late—or at all, for thousands of years. There’s only so much you can do without compromising the functionality of a horizontal thing to lie down on. But that doesn’t mean the history of beds is not without…

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Paleontologists love amber. Unlike sedimentary fossils, this fossilized coniferous tree resin preserves flora and fauna basically intact–often right down to the color. As creatures end up in amber by getting caught in free-flowing tree sap, many are frozen mid-action. They can even look like they’re alive. Really, though, these are fossils too. Their flesh has…

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With a couple of recent exceptions, cosmic phenomena (often hyped up in the media) tend to be underwhelming. Which, to be fair, is probably a good thing. But history has recorded plenty of genuinely spectacular events in the centuries and millennia before modern astronomy. 10. The Julian Star Caesar’s Comet, aka the Julian Star, appeared…

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Never mind lunatics taking over the asylum; history shows they’ve always been in charge. From human experimenters to genocidal maniacs, here are the 10 craziest psychiatrists, psychologists, and neurologists ever let loose on the world. 10. George Rekers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYDlXfaivD4 Southern Baptist minister and UCLA-trained psychologist George Rekers came to public attention in 2000 when the…

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It’s natural to assume those in power, including celebrities, are involved in evil conspiracies. And they are. But probably not one of these. 10. Billie Eilish is an industry plant The industry plant conspiracy theory is one of the less esoteric on this list. There are no secretive cabals or shapeshifting monsters, just record labels…

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As futuristic as it sounds, weapons forged from meteorites date back millennia. In fact, after gold and copper, the earliest metal objects ever made by humans were probably made with outer space iron. In other words, the Iron Age came from the stars. Not just any meteorites can be used, however; they need to be…

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Ever wondered what the future of photography might hold? It’s notoriously tricky to pre-empt technological advances but we might get an idea by looking at where we’ve been, where we are, and what we can’t yet photograph—however audacious the expectation that we should be able to might seem. In that spirit, here is the past,…

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The natural world is full of reminders of how inferior we are as a species. Not only do we lack (or rely on technology for) superpowers like night-vision, flight, or any meaningful level of strength, we also fail miserably at the most basic of tasks—like feeding ourselves, raising our young, and disposing of waste.  Most…

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Continuing our journey into overpowered weapons from mythology, we now look to the Middle East and the three main Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Despite appearances, they have plenty in common—at least mythologically. Adam, Abraham, Moses, and others (most notably God) all feature prominently in their scriptures. Basically, if they were comic books, they’d…

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Ever lamented how your favorite childhood board games seem smaller now that you’re bigger? No? Well then here’s a solution you definitely didn’t ask for: board games blown up to life size! In order of spectacle, here are 10 classics… 10. Connect Four https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZSUxdzgA08 Perhaps because it’s so basic, Connect Four attracts a lot of…

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Extreme conditions do some pretty weird things to the brain. Here, in order of increasing severity, we look at 10 hostile environments and the unsettling hallucinations each has provoked during prolonged exposure. 10. Space You’d think the novelty of space flight would keep the mind from distraction and fantasy. But hallucinations are common. Described by…

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Celtic mythology is mainly from Britain, though not so much England. These are the tales of the druids, the Irish Otherworld, the folklore of Wales and Scotland. It’s also, in part, the basis for Arthurian legend.  Unsurprisingly for tales of gods in battle, there are plenty of crazy weapons. From swords and spears to monstrous…

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We’ve already covered a few animal trials, but there are many more cases worth mentioning. Far from being an oddity, trying animals for crimes was a solemn and frequent affair, especially in medieval Europe. It was also legally important, persuading people that everything was under control—its control. And of course punishing “theft” whatever the species…

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In cities the majority of space is off-limits. Parks and streets may account for up to half the total area, but when you factor in the vertical axis—the floors inside buildings (many of them empty)—you get a different picture. And that’s just the space that we know about. Often there’s a lot more underground. In…

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‘Insect’, from Latin, literally means “cut into”, referring to the divided bodies of ants, beetles, bees, and so on. But this list isn’t about insects; it has the broader focus of ‘bugs’, a word that somehow—mysteriously—rolls into one that massive diversity of animals most feared by domesticated humans. The origin of ‘bug’ isn’t clear. It…

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We’ve all heard of Area 51 but what about its equivalents around the world? Here are ten of the most intriguing, all but three of which are still in operation. 10. Station 13, South Africa (Closed) In the grasslands outside Johannesburg, near the not-quite-rural Bapsfontein, Station 13 was—allegedly—operational from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. But…

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We’ve mentioned Monturiol’s Ictíneo before—a pedal-controlled sub launched from Barcelona in the mid-19th century. But he didn’t invent the submarine. In fact, there are precursors dating back more than 2,000 years.  From the earliest submarines to ancient diving bells, here are ten of the oldest—all from 1800 or earlier—ranked in reverse chronological order. 10. Nautilus,…

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There’s a reason the state can’t defeat the cartels—and it’s not just that people love drugs. It’s also about technology, which the state no longer controls.  Over the past decade, technologies developed and even invented by Mexican and Colombian cartels have come to challenge not only the state’s monopoly over drug pushing and violence but…

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We’ve scoured the internet for ten of the most unusual modes of travel that money can buy (either now or in the not-too-distant future), and ranked them in order of price. 10. Hoverboard (concept) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhCcC2smGMI While it’s clear by now that Marty McFly’s 2015 must have been on an alternate timeline, hoverboards are actually possible…

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Are you experiencing symptoms of imbalanced frequencies? Low cellular voltage? Psychic aberrations? Well, sit back and relax. There’s a wellness device just for you—even if you don’t feel diseased. Warning: This list may contain misinformation, if the title wasn’t enough indication already. 10. Spooky2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1IbUVC84Ig Did you know that all medical conditions have specific electromagnetic…

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