Jinn are basically the bogeymen of the Muslim world, haunting the Middle East, Asia, and parts of Africa today just as they have done for centuries. The term actually derives from an Arabic root meaning “to conceal,” since these are beings that for the most part are said to elude human perception. It may also…
Author: Ed Hatchet
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.
For the first time since Roswell, coverage of UFOs has entered serious, mainstream news—featuring even on the front page of the New York Times in December 2017. And while that story was more about tax dollars than extraterrestrials themselves, it illuminated some of the otherworldly beliefs (and perhaps even knowledge) that exist at high levels…
Comets and asteroids come and go, but few make as much of a stir as ‘Oumuamua. Toward the end of last year, its virtually unprecedented appearance from interstellar space made urgent headlines around the world. And, in various ways, it left an indelible footprint. While numerous mysteries remain about this curious galactic traveller, astronomers managed…
Born Joseph Carey Merrick on August 5, 1862, the Elephant Man is far better known by his freak name. His life was brief and tragic, marred by loss, rejection, and an ever worsening disfigurement. Needless to say, there are dozens of sad facts about the man and his life to choose from, but here are…
There are many dubious claims about what might lie hidden in the Vatican Secret Archives – from alien remains and time travel devices to prophecies of impending Apocalypse – all of which position the Holy See as an implausibly powerful agent in the history and fate of mankind. But a handful of historical documents made…
While Europeans were playing with rocks, the Chinese were discussing philosophy. Long before the rest of the world, ancient China mastered papermaking, printing, navigation, and the complex administrative challenge of governing such a vast territory. Arguably, the Middle Kingdom has epitomized order and stability for millennia. So it doesn’t immediately spring to mind as a…
Founded in 1611 by Pope Paul V, the Vatican Secret Archives are an ultra-secure repository for the Church’s oldest, most valuable documents. Access has always been limited; even today, only Vatican officials and qualified academics are allowed inside, and only then with a letter of recommendation. And since browsing isn’t permitted, they also need to…
As far as the universe can be said to exist at all, it probably has 10 dimensions. That’s the only way string theory makes sense. And physicists want string theory to make sense because it could be the Theory of Everything, uniting the otherwise incompatible theories of general relativity (for very big things) and quantum…
It’s always interesting to find out what people are searching for on Google. Often, they’ll ask questions they deem too silly to ask anywhere else – such as whether it’s possible to stop thinking entirely or to age backwards to get younger. A lot of the time, though, the sillier the question, the more interesting…
Once you get past the potatoes and the other humdrum members of the family, nightshades can be fascinating plants—often frighteningly so. Whether strikingly beautiful or modestly mediocre, many belie deadly poisons, potent psychoactive effects, and grisly albeit spellbinding histories. According to one theory, they might even have wiped out the dinosaurs. So it’s no surprise…
Vampires have long been seen as a threat to society. For hundreds, if not thousands of years, they’ve had us humans transfixed. As for how they came about, theories range from the anthropological to the otherworldly, but one thing’s for sure: they’re here to stay. And for better or worse—as these 10 ghastly tales go…
Skeptics may feel pretty justified in their denial of paranormal powers. By definition, the supernatural flouts natural laws. From clairvoyance to telekinesis, these abilities have no place in the established order of what we know. But nevertheless, there have been times when supernatural abilities have survived the scrutiny of the scientific method. While they still…
It’s easy, even comforting, to think of history’s tyrants as one-dimensional bad guys. That they may have had emotions and frailties as complex as our own threatens to muddy the narrative. But humanizing the inhuman can really drive home the terrifying reality of their despotic regimes, not to mention their sociopathic capacity for compartmentalization. To…