Science has identified somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.2 million different species on the planet earth. Of all those species, few are as disliked as the rat. While some people really enjoy rats and keep them as pets, and evidence shows they are quite intelligent, most people are not so forgiving. They are considered disease…
Author: Ian Fortey
There are some actors who have done some amazing things over the years, playing incredible roles, doing their own stunts, or just cranking out a lot of movies over their lifetime. As with anything else in the world, if you can be the only person to have ever done something, that unique status can be…
How good would you say your reflexes are? And how many reflexes do you even have? Strictly speaking, a reflex is an action your body performs in response to some kind of stimulation but without any conscious effort on your part. Most of us will get tested at a doctor when they tap our knee…
It’s been predicted that the global weight loss industry will be worth over $400 billion by the year 2030. With a world population of 8 billion people, that means it’s worth about $50 for every single person out there. It’s safe to say that there’s a lot of money to be made thanks to weight…
If you’ve ever been fired before you know it’s not always the easiest pill to swallow. Most of us would disagree with an employer when it comes to reasons for being fired, though there are of course situations where it’s warranted. If you steal, do your job poorly, leave early and so on, your dismissal…
Most people don’t remember much from the movie Wild, Wild West starring Will Smith except for the fact there was a giant steam-powered tarantula in it. That’s the kind of thing that makes an impression. When villains choose to express their villainy with some technological know how, it makes an impression. Not just in movies,…
Everyone needs a little help now and then. Most of us get through life without anyone knowing about when we need to rely on others or why. If you’ve ever hired a gardener or a masseuse or an entire petting zoo to come entertain you, that’s probably your business. But the higher profile someone gets,…
Fear of spiders is one of the most common fears among humans. Some estimates suggest anywhere between 3% and 15% of the population suffer some form of arachnophobia. Unfortunately for those people there are about 45,000 known species of spider in the world and their density sits at around 570,000 spiders per acre. That would…
For all the marvels of the modern world there’s something to be said for things that were created in the distant past that still astound us to this date. With the technology we have today we often smugly think of ourselves as far more advanced than our ancestors. But then we come across something truly…
Some criminals are meticulous in their planning. They will stalk a victim and commit their nefarious deeds with a mind to how they will escape authorities and never be tied to the scene of the crime. There have been killers that actually shaved their bodies and wore clean suits ahead of time just so they…
A staggering 600,000 people go missing every year in the US. And while the vast majority of them turn up again within the same year, far too many do not. That doesn’t necessarily mean those people are never seen again, but with each passing year, the likelihood decreases. Which is what makes it so remarkable…
There’s a saying that goes “fake it till you make it” which basically means if you can’t do something or don’t know something, you can still have success by at least lying about it convincingly. It’s oddly optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. And there are real world examples of it apparently working out.…
It’s hard to find uniqueness in the world sometimes. A million people probably have the same haircut as you, or love the same movies, or have the same favorite food. The animal kingdom is no different. But for every feature or trait there will always be one thing, one creature, that was first to display…
Have you ever stopped to think about what you’re allowed to do in the world in a general sort of way? There are laws against things like murder and stealing of course, but those make sense to most people right away. And there are also rules that apply to certain people and not others like…
No one likes to feel embarrassed for any reason. It’s one of the more unpleasant sensations you can deal with that doesn’t include any physical pain and in the worst instances it can really harm someone emotionally or psychologically. There are ways to deal with embarrassment to make sure it doesn’t affect you but not…
Two things are often very true of the modern world. No one wants to get sick, and no one wants to see the doctor. Getting sick makes you feel bad, so that’s a given. But there is ample evidence that people in need of doctors avoid care for a variety of reasons ranging from nervousness…
The machine of progress can’t be stopped, but it does need to be tempered. You can’t go about innovating all willy nilly without testing your ideas. Whether it’s something as simple as a new recipe for brownies or as complex as quantum computing, we live in a world where everything needs to be (or at…
Pop culture has really exploded into a monster since the emergence of streaming technology and a million cable channels. There are video games, books, shows and films coming out constantly telling old stories, reimagined stories, rebooted stories and brand new stories. It’s all content, as some people say, and there is a lot of it.…
At a certain point numbers begin to lose meaning. The human mind isn’t good with large numbers and the vastness of large numbers and what they represent becomes too diffuse and too vague for us to conceptualize. That’s part of the reason why guessing how many jellybeans are in a jar is such a reliable…
There are a small handful of basic things we deem necessary for life. Food, water and shelter are often considered the basic three and, in a pinch, you might just get away with food and water. And even then, if you had to choose between the two, water is the one you need most. A…
It’s not every day that you run across a shrine in the Western or secular worlds but there are plenty of them out there. Many people in the modern world use the word in a joking fashion, like if someone is a fan of a certain celebrity or athlete they may have a shrine in…
There’s an old joke about how Twinkies and cockroaches will be the only things to survive a nuclear holocaust because they last forever. That’s obviously not true, but do you know how long a Twinkie does last? We’ll actually get to that shortly, but it brings to mind a curious question about the shelf lives…
They say that there are only two things guaranteed in life: death and taxes. And you can at least commit tax fraud for a while if you try. But that death thing has so far managed to catch up with literally everyone. If it were only as simple as one day being alive and another…
There’s something to be said for being humble and keeping your accomplishments and blessings to yourself. If you’re living well and doing good things, you don’t technically need to tell anyone in the world about it. But sometimes it’s hard to resist the urge to show off. Throughout history there have been people who said…