The death toll from it has yet to reach 100, but an outbreak of swine flu has gotten huge amounts of attention in the media in recent weeks. Even though regular flu viruses have killed thousands in that time, swine flu is all over the news because of worry that it could escalate into a…
Author: Evan Andrews
While most movies are mass-produced entertainment and escapism, there are some that have had a profound impact on culture. Whether intentionally or not, some films have brought social issues to light, affected laws, forwarded ideologies both good and bad, and generally changed the course of history through their impact on society. Here are 10 films…
The world is filled with ancient monuments built by master craftsmen in order to honor everything from kings and presidents to religious figures. And although most of these landmarks have been carefully studied and researched by scientists and historians, some are simply so old, incomplete, or obscure that we still don’t know very much about…
No matter what their supposed purpose, there’s something inherently sinister about a secret society. Though most are formed with relatively realistic political and religious goals in mind, their focus on mystery and secrecy has made them the target of countless criticisms and conspiracy theories involving everything from aliens and the occult to world domination. Of…
There’s no more iconic scene in Western movies than the good old-fashioned pistol duel, where the lawman and the outlaw meet at high noon to see who’s faster on the draw. In actuality, this kind of thing very rarely occurred, and the true life Western stories—like Wild Bill Hickok being shot in the back while…
Ghost ships, or phantom ships, make up a big part of the seafaring lore that has been passed down by sailors and fisherman throughout the years. The ships are said to be spectral apparitions that materialize on the horizon before quickly disappearing, and they are believed to be a sign of bad things to come.…
The notion of a utopia—a perfect, egalitarian, and harmonious paradise on Earth—has been a recurring theme in literature and storytelling for hundreds of years. It all started with the philosopher Plato’s book Republic, and it’s since been expressed in other books including Thomas More’s Utopia and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, as well as in films…
They say truth is stranger than fiction, and in most cases it’s also more interesting. With this in mind, it seems a shame that Hollywood producers don’t pull from the great lives and stories of history more often. There are plenty of fascinating and absolutely true tales out there that are just waiting to be…
A city becomes “lost” when it is abandoned by its inhabitants and left to decay. This can be the result of war, migration, or natural disaster, but in each case these cities can act as a sort of time capsule, leaving a civilization frozen in history and waiting to be discovered. While many of these…
The tradition of children receiving gifts during the month of December is relatively the same no matter where you go in the world, but the character that brings the gifts can vary quite a bit from country to country. It is true that the American version of Santa is rapidly catching on abroad, but in…
Visit even the smallest of towns in the U.S. and you’re likely to hear some local ghost stories and discover a few haunted houses. But some American cities have gained the reputation for being particularly ghost-ridden thanks to their rich and often bizarre historical backgrounds. The following are ten of the most haunted cities to…
The world has never been more technologically advanced than it is now, but that doesn’t mean that some things haven’t been lost along the way. Many of the technologies, inventions, and manufacturing processes of antiquity have simply disappeared with the passage of time, while others are still not fully understood by modern day scientists. Some…
Despite William Shakespeare’s status as a literary giant, a small but vocal group of scholars, playwrights, actors, and conspiracy theorists have long argued that he is not the true author of his plays. Even though the vast majority of Shakespeare scholars have rejected it, this theory has become increasingly prominent since the 1980s, and has…
Short films rarely get major releases these days, so it’s no surprise that even serious movie fans often neglect them. But with the rise of websites like YouTube, shorts have finally found a viable exhibition platform. The following are ten of the most famous short films available online. Whether they’re art pictures, the early works…
Session players are the unsung stars of the music industry. As temporary members of big name bands, they step in during recording or touring to fill in the gaps in an act’s lineup, and often learn their parts in only a matter of hours. While front men and bandleaders might get the bulk of the…
Thanks to urban legends, pranks, and the use of pseudonyms, there have been a number of people who managed to get famous without having to go through the hassle of actually existing. Some were used for shady marketing purposes, others served as tools for building hoaxes, and one was even responsible for encouraging early medieval…
Thanks to their sheltered lives and the adverse effects of inbreeding, a lot of history’s kings, queens, and other royals became known for their eccentricities. There was Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who delighted in torturing her servants and was even rumored to bathe in the blood of virgins; there was Gian Gastone of Italy, who was…
A format war occurs when two incompatible versions of a similar technology begin to compete against one another in the market. In almost every case, one of the two formats wins out in the end, either because of a better marketing strategy or a superior product, leaving groups of unlucky consumers with an obsolete technology…
By now we’ve all heard about the epic tennis match that happened recently at Wimbledon between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. That 11-hour marathon has now earned its place in history as one of the longest sporting events on record, but it’s certainly not the first time that a competition has simply refused to end.…
Product placement has become downright pervasive in movies and TV, but that doesn’t mean that every brand we see onscreen is something available in stores. When licensing real world products isn’t possible, filmmakers often resort to using made up brand names in their place. Some of these have become director trademarks, while others have become…
Thought experiments are mental concepts or hypotheses, often resembling riddles, which are used by philosophers and scientists as simple ways of illuminating what are usually very dense ideas. Most often, they’re used in more abstract fields like philosophy and theoretical physics, where physical experiments aren’t possible. They serve as some hearty food for thought, but…
It comes as little surprise that there are certain foreign-made cars that aren’t sold in the United States. From the Nissan Skyline to certain special editions of the BMW M3, there are plenty of high performance machines that the Germans and the Japanese don’t market to Americans. But what’s not as well known are the…
History books will often lead you to believe that the world’s great inventions and discoveries were the work of a single person with a flash of genius, but the reality is rarely that simple. In most cases, it was only after years of work and input from countless inventors that something was finally created. Still,…
The notion of a utopia—a perfect, egalitarian, and harmonious paradise on Earth—has been a recurring theme in literature and storytelling for hundreds of years. It all started with the philosopher Plato’s book Republic, and it’s since been expressed in other books including Thomas More’s Utopia and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, as well as in films…