Category: World Culture

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People Share NSFW History Facts That You Might Not Be Familiar With

I consider myself a history lover, but even I was pretty blown away by the facts that people threw out here in the article you’re about to read.

Are you ready to see a side of the past that you don’t usually get to check out?

It’s time to get some naughty history lessons from folks on AskReddit.

1. Iceland.

“There is a legal p*nis size in Iceland.

It’s an old law from the Middle Ages after a woman was married off to a man and on her wedding night was so disappointed with how small his p*nis was that she took him back to the church to have an annulment.

Because of her a law was made that a man must be at least three inches while hard to marry.

There is a wonderful documentary called “The Final Member” in which this is an actual problem.”

2. A carving.

“There is a carving on the side of the belfry in Ghent that depicts a man suckling the breast of a woman.

The story is that the man was condemned to die unless he could prove his innocence by surviving imprisonment without food for 40 days. He could have visitors during his imprisonment but they of course were checked for food.

His daughter visited him everyday. She was a wet nurse ….

He was let go after 40 days having survived.”

3. Yikes.

“In ancient Egypt, soldiers proved their battle prowess by presenting the severed p*nises of their slaughtered enemies.

Traditionally, severed hands were presented, but in 1182 B.C. Libyans, and other allies invaded Egypt and were defeated by the army of Ramesses III, and Ramesses suspected that some soldiers were claiming extra credit by presenting the hands of women as well as the male soldiers.

So he demanded p*nises instead. His victory inscriptions mention 12,535 foreskins and hands, and has images of the piles of the body parts at the Medinet Habu mortuary temple.”

4. Whoa.

“Shi Pei Pu was a Chinese opera singer turned spy active during the 1960s. He pretended to be a woman for 20 years to seduce a French embassy employee and obtain classified documents.

His charade went so far as to fake a pregnancy and purchase a child and pretend it was theirs. He managed to fool everyone, including his lover, for over two decades before finally being exposed to the world.”

5. The high seas.

“Back during the age of sail, sailors would go months and months without any women or any privacy. When they’d get to port, hundreds of prostitutes would take boats out to the ships to greet the sailors, who would almost all have s*x with at least one.

This included the ship’s boys. Like I said, there was no privacy at all – the crew would share one huge room, dozens or hundreds of men sleeping in hammocks slung 28” apart. So the ensuing copulation took place in the wide open, hundreds of people having s*x all over the ship in plain sight.

This wasn’t a rare thing. It was almost universal, though some more religious captains wouldn’t let the prostitutes on board. STDs were therefore incredibly common.”

6. The Bad Pope.

“Pope John XII was interesting. He became Pope in 955. His high points are.:

Turned the sacred palace into a whorehouse

Fornicated with, among others, his father’s concubine, various widows and even his own niece

Castrated and then murdered a cardinal

Blinded and then murdered his confessor

Took payment for ordaining bishops and even ordained a 10-year-old boy as a bishop

Ordained a deacon in a stable

Refused to make the sign of the cross

Toasted the Devil

Invoked the names of pagan gods while playing dice and when he lost, used money from the papal treasury to pay off his debts

Granted, he was a teenager when he became Pope, thanks to his dad buying the office, but still…”

7. Harsh times.

“When the Roman statesman Sejanus, the Emperor Tiberius’ right-hand man, fell from grace and was executed, The Roman people were eager to take their revenge on his family as well for all the tyranny he had put them through.

So they decided to kill his young son and daughter as well. There was no real issue about killing the boy, but when it came to the young girl there was a sudden outcry.

It was against all precedent to execute an innocent young girl, and above that, deeply impious to put to death a virgin maid.

So they had the executioner r*pe her first.”

8. Well, that’s different.

“Mary Toft put baby rabbits in her v*gina and then pretended to give birth to them to confuse doctors.”

9. What a way to go.

“The actual death of Ratcliffe (you know, the oddly proportioned villain from Pocahontas?).

From the Encyclopedia Virginia:

The colonists, led by Captain John Ratcliffe, walked into an ambush; about thirty-three men, or two-thirds of their number, were killed.

The Indians captured Ratcliffe, and their women skinned him alive using mussel shells.”

10. Big boy.

“Ferdinand VII of Spain had a huge d*ck, so much in fact that its rumored that one of his wives died of a hemorrhage derived from having s*x with the monarch.

He almost died without a heir bc he couldn’t have s*x with the queen consorts without any damage (he only had a daughter, and he had to go through hell to change some old laws that prevented his daughter from reigning).”

11. Wrap it up.

“Roman troops were provided cow intestine condoms, as STD epidemics could decide the fate of entire wars.”

12. Messed up.

“At the temple of Aphrodite in Cyprus, overlooking the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, young virgin girls would tie a bow string around their head and await a man to come along and throw a silver coin of any value into their lap.

The man would say ” I demand thee in the name of the goddess”. The girl then had to have s*x with the man. In this way the girl would make her “first fruit” offering to Aphrodite.

It is said that some girls had to come back for many days before they were chosen.”

Okay, history buffs, now it’s your turn.

In the comments, tell us some more crazy history facts that most people don’t know.

Thanks a lot!

The post People Share NSFW History Facts That You Might Not Be Familiar With appeared first on UberFacts.

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What Are Some NSFW Facts About History That We Don’t Hear Very Often?

Calling all history fanatics!

Here’s an article that we know you’re gonna love!

Yes, we’ve all learned most of the basics, but what about the dark underbelly of the past that we don’t usually see?

What are some NSFW history facts that a lot of folks don’t know about?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.

1. You fools!

“In 1488 an Italian noblewoman Catarina Sforza-Riario locked herself in a castle to save herself from her enemies.

Her enemies managed to capture her children and threatened to kill them if she wouldn’t surrender.

She climbed on ramparts, lifted her skirt to expose her female parts and shouted “Fools! Don’t you see that I can make myself more children?””

2. A little uptight.

“In colonial America a guy was arrested and charged because he drew a lewd image of his wife in the snow.

Puritans didn’t appreciate the art.”

3. Getting it on.

“In 1992, two astronauts did not disclose they were married to NASA until it was too late to replace one of them and thus became the first married couple in space.

While the two astronauts in question are not the kiss and tell types, most people assume this means space s*x has happened (obviously you don’t have to be married to try it, but it does make it harder to figure out the couples).

NASA’s official stance is that it hasn’t, but I’m not sure people really believe them.”

4. Sounds like a party.

“From the 13th to the 15th of February the Romans celebrated Lupercalia (Roman precursor of Valentine’s day), which was a festival of love and fertility.

Priests would sacrifice a goat and then cut the goat skin into pieces. Part of this they would wear on their heads, and other parts were cut into thongs. The men would then run around the city of Rome naked, hitting as many women with these thongs as they possibly could (being hit would help with pregnancy or becoming pregnant).

So depending on what they wanted, the women would either deliberately stand in the way of the men, or try to run away while pretty much everyone was naked.

In another part of the festivities men would draw names of women from a jar and the goal was that they’d stay together for the duration of the festival. This would often result in a lot of… you know… intercourse, and sometimes people actually fell in love and got married after they met during Lupercalia.”

5. Uh oh.

“The CIA once considered sending the Soviets condoms that were large labeled “small” to convince them that the US was well endowed.”

6. Hmmmm…

“In Pisa on St Catherine’s day, students would search for and capture the fattest Jew they could find and demand a ransom of his weight in sweets.

Source: The Great Mortality, John Kelly.”

7. Come on in!

“A lot of people banged in the White House on the day of Andrew Jackson’s inauguration.”

8. Really getting into it.

“French modern philosopher Michel Foucault, in addition to studying crime and deviance in a Criminology sense, also applied his theories on punishment to his fascination with BDSM, having also written a number of kink-based works.

He eventually moved to San Francisco and partook in gay bathhouses (notorious for casual s*x).

He eventually caught HIV and some have speculated (it may be written somewhere?) that he purposely contracted it as some sort of poetic social commentary.”

9. Go for it!

“In Ancient Egypt they held a fertility festival each year and at this festival it was the Pharaohs responsibility to strip down and jerk off into the Nile.”

10. Ugh!

“There was a guy that tried to prove that yellow fever wasn’t contagious and so he would pour the infected vomit into his freshly cut opened would, pouring it into his eyes, and drinking it.

And soaking into a bath of it. And smearing his body with blood, piss, and spit. He was fine because yellow fever isn’t spread through direct contact, it’s spread through mosquitoes.

So he did all that for nothing. His name was Stubbins Ffirth, look it up.”

11. I’d like to see that!

“In 1511 a bunch of people in Brussels took part in the building of 110 vulgar snowmen as an act of protest.”

12. One-track mind.

“Romans loved depicting s*xual acts.

On many everyday items, like oil lamps, combs, bowls, etc. you often see images of people f*cking.

Like p*rn, but in daily life.”

13. Brutal.

“During war time some armies would wipe sh*t on their spears so that when they stabbed/slashed enemies they’d get that extra poison damage.”

14. Sick.

“Slave owners in the US had a “health official” who would lick slaves to see if their health was of good standing.”

How about you?

Do you know some NSFW history facts?

If so, please share them with us in the comments. Thanks a lot!

The post What Are Some NSFW Facts About History That We Don’t Hear Very Often? appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Talk About the Question: How Are We Supposed to Save The Planet When It’s Cheaper to Trash It?

Reddit has a forum called “No Stupid Question,” and this one is pretty great.

The OP (original poster) points out that even if a person wants to do the right thing for the environment and the planet and such, the fact that it’s literally cheaper to like, throw out your entire printer instead of buying a new ink cartridge make it hard.

How are you supposed to do what’s best for the environment when it’s cheaper to purchase a whole new printer than it is to buy ink cartridges? from NoStupidQuestions

That’s just one example of course.

Let’s see what these 16 folks had to say in reply to his not-a-stupid question, shall we?

16. Be the bigger person.

Same way you expect governments and corporations to spend money to protect environment – you do what you know is best even if it costs more or is less convenient.

Also last I heard you can refill the cartridges instead of buying new ones

15. You might just have to work harder.

Assuming you’re using printers and cartridges as an example, that’s the point. Environmental damage exists because it is in general easier and cheaper to do things that are worse for the environment.

This ranges from throwing recyclables away instead of recycling, to chemical plants throwing unprocessed waste away directly into rivers.

At some point, you have to evaluate whether the damage to the environment of some action is “worth” the alternative.

In your case, this would be the cost of buying ink cartridges rather than new printers (buy a laser printer).

14. Make a choice.

If you’re concerned about the environment, you do the thing that’s better for the environment… If and when you can.

You’re not compelled to do the cheapest thing possible all the time, to the detriment of your values.

13. A fair alternative, at least in this case.

I guess the best you can do is recycle the old printer, but even then, you can’t guarantee that any of the components will actually be put to use.

12. They’re trying…sort of.

Fortunately, manufacturers have started bringing refillable ink tanks to their printers. Canon G2000 for example, comes with a full tank of ink that should last a home user a couple of years.

And refilling it is quite reasonable. 40$ gets you all the colors you need and lasts another couple of years.

It has it’s drawbacks though. For example if you don’t print that much, air can get into the ink tubes which is easily fixed by a printer cleaning but it’s troublesome.

11. The more you know.

Here. From PC World:

Costco inkjet refills ($8 to $10, plus sales tax where applicable; HP 60 refill for black or tricolor cartridge, $8) Vendor URL: Costco Inkjet Refill Service

10. You’re probably wrong.

I simply stopped using a printer. I have “needed” to print something exactly 4 times at home since 1999.

When I need to print, I go to Staples/FedEx/whatever is nearby somewhere I will already be anyway.

You may think “that’s ridiculous, I cant stop printing?!?”… Well tbh, you’re probably wrong, and if you think about it very little of what you’ve printed has needed to be printed, or at least been printed immediately at home, on demand.

9. If you want to get technical about it.

The best thing you can do for the environment is elect a government that will enact systemic reforms forcing corporations to pay the cost of repairing the damage they do to the environment.

The printer isn’t particularly relevant.

8. Yeah, man. Totally.

Planned obsolescence is the enemy of the environment.

7. Damn the man.

You’re not. The idea that any individual person can significantly impact the environment—by reusing bags, by buying a Prius, by turning down the AC in the summer, by buying organic—is a myth propagated by large corporations to shirk responsibility for modern climate change.

Within the current dominant economic system (i.e., capitalism), not only is it completely impossible to live in an eco-friendly way, but even if you could do that, you’re only 1 person out of 7.5 billion (and counting). You have no power to help the planet except by fighting capitalism. Capitalism’s only way to exist is to grow, extract, grow, extract, grow, extract, ad infinitum, which is not sustainable. Capitalism can never coexist with widespread, genuine care for nature.

Also, capitalism is inherently both racist and imperialist (look up “mlk three evils”).

We gotta change this sh%t up.

6. Invest in quality.

As people point out there are better lasting printers out there, but a lot of people think affordable rather than long term.

In terms of printers, i’ve rarely needed one so buying a new one has literally been every 7 or 8 years.

But its the same for a lot of things people buy. Why is it cheaper to buy a heap of junk food instead of eating healthy? Because junk food tastes nice and people will buy more of it than health food.

I once bought shoes from Kmart for $30 and in a month became so uncomfortable, they were torture to stand/walk in. Saved my pennies and bought them from a proper shoe shop for $180 and 6 years later they are still going strong.

Those who make cheap things with shoddy quality dont care about the environment.

5. Well maybe you can make a difference?

This isn’t entirely true, I’m actually studying sustainability and climate change and thought it is true that an individual’s chooses have less of an impact that that of a large company it can still have a significant effect. People indirectly control the industry if 10% of people stop buying beef that’s a 10% drop in profit for beef producers. That can have a serious effect on how a company operates so while it is important to change the policy regulating large corporations it is still important for individuals to live more sustainability especially since the implementation of new policy is painfully slow.

If anyone wants advice on some minor changes you can make to live more sustainability here are some of the best things you can do.

fly only when absolutely necessary. Flying is one of the most environmentally damaging things an individual can do if possible drive or take a train/bus.
reduce your consumption of beef and dairy products. Cows are responsible for a significant amount of global warming due to their emission of methane which is a much better greenhouse gases than CO2. Cows are the biggest offender but generally meat is the worst offender the least environmentally damaging meat that is available is chicken.

try to repair devices and applications whey they have broken and simply buy less stuff especially if it is single use this reduces your impact as you will consume less and will cause you to produce less waste.

4. I think it’s the walking that’s the key.

Personally, I walk to the library or the UPS store.

This is one of the reasons cities are a pretty eco way to live—strangers can share instead of buying their own shit.

3. Just wait for evolution to catch up.

We need to evolve as a people. It has to do with consumer demand. We need to demand longer lasting or products.

Maybe have our government s subsidize the good stuff. And tax the single use type crap.

2. Even that’s a scam.

Recycling has so much better of a reputation than it deserves. It’s just one small step above throwing stuff straight in the garbage.

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is in priority order. Recycling is a last ditch option before throwing stuff away. The best option is to just use less stuff.

1. We can only do so much one person at a time.

Doing what’s best for the environment isn’t really about what you and I do day to day. On an individual level, we could be vegan as fuck and be completely carbon neutral without making a dent on the vast, global environment. Even that #TeamTrees thing on YouTube will do next to nothing, as great as that was.

What needs to happen is companies and governments need to take immediate, drastic action. That’s the only way we can save the planet. If you still want to do something yourself, then the best thing to do is get involved in politics and campaigns, and make sure to vote for people who genuinely want to tackle the climate crisis.

Of course consumers are gonna pick the cheapest options that are worse for the environment. Especially if they have to pick between the environment or feeding their kids. It’s up to companies and those in charge to make the more environmentally friendly options more accessible.

It’s kind of depressing when you lay it all out like that, don’t you think?

What are your thoughts on companies making it harder than it should be to do the right thing?

Let’s talk about it in the comments!

The post People Talk About the Question: How Are We Supposed to Save The Planet When It’s Cheaper to Trash It? appeared first on UberFacts.

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Read About the Mysterious, Medieval Viking Coin Found on the Coast of Maine

For decades, an argument has been brewing that Columbus was likely not the first European to make it to the Americas. People believed the Icelandic sagas that spoke of Vikings landing on land green, and lush, and full of grapes, and thought they must have been talking about Canada, but perhaps they’d even landed as far south as what would become the United States.

Many, if not most, of the claims to have found proof of these visits, though, have been debunked – but there’s no consensus from experts on whether or not the mysterious 11th century coin found by amateur archaeologists Guy Mellgren and Ed Runge found on the coast of Maine in 1956.

Image Credit: Maine State Museum

They initially found stone chips, knives, fire pits, and some other artifacts on a natural terrace about eight feet above the high tide line of the day. They, along with the help of some professional archaeologists, unearthed the coing the following summer.

For 20 years, Mellgren described the coin as being minted in 12th century England – which would have been strange as well – but as Mellgren never sought wider attention for his find (this will be important later), it wasn’t until 1978 that the find made its way into publication.

A dealer in London was the one who saw the photo and new immediately the coin hadn’t come from England. Mellgren died two weeks before the coin’s re-identification as a mid-11th century Norse penny hit the news.

Experts from around the world descended, wondering not for the first time if they’d found evidence for Viking contact with North American, pre-Columbus. Prior to Mellgren’s coin, only the items excavated at L’Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland, are thought to be authentic.

Since 1978, no one has really questioned the coin is an authentic Norse penny from medieval Scandinavia, but the debate continues to rage as to how, exactly, it might have landed on Maine’s shore. Even Kolbjorn Skaare, a Norwegian expert on Viking-age coins, agreed it was an authentic Norwegian penny from the second half of the 11th century.

Image Credit: Unsplash

He saw a “dark-grey, fragmentary piece,” that was a little less than two-thirds of an inch in diameter, with a cross on one side with two horizontal lines. On the other side was an “animal-like figure in a rather barbarous design,” with a curved throat and hair like a horse’s mane.

As to how it got in that particular place, most believed it had either passed through the hands of traders, possibly when Norse explorer Leif Eriksson was there through a winter. Others figured it could be yet another hoax, and that one of the “discoverers” had obtained the coin through other avenues and planted it at the site.

The coin didn’t look like others from the era that had been circulated, though, and it was more worn than was typical, too. That, combined with the fact that Mellgren never sought notoriety for his find, let most experts to come down on the side of the coin being a genuine discovery.

Some, like anthropologist and archaeologist Edmund Carpenter, disagreed.  He said that 1957 was “a bumper year for Viking fakes.” The year before, a book called Explorations of America Before Columbus had been published, other de-bunked artifacts had been displayed in London, and in the book, the author described the Viking Thorwald Eriksson catching sight of Maine’s Mount Desert Island…which was just across the bay from where Mellgren discovered his coin.

Image Credit: Surrey County Council

Carpenter found the coincidence “remarkable” and couldn’t believe others didn’t, as well. He noted as part of his skepticism that Mellrean collected coins as a hobby, and also worked part-time at an auction house, so he could have plausibly come across a Norse coin in one of these places. Mellgren also had a documented interest in pre-Columbian contact.

There’s evidence on both sides, though the former chief archaeologist of Maine State’s Museum believed that the “balance of evidence argues it’s an honest find.”

More recently, a renowned numismatist at the University of Oslo took another look at where the coin may have originated, and published in the Journal of the North Atlantic.

“The pennies of this type, class N, are rare by any standard.”

He notes that even among the most common source of medieval Viking coins, only a small percentage are this particular type of coin. Major finds around the globe contain no pennies of this type, in fact.

He concludes that “the Norse penny cannot have originated from any recorded Norwegian hoard or single find.”

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Which is to say, the coin is real, but no one knows, still, how it might have gotten there.

The coin was sent for Raman spectroscopy at one point, which showed that it had lain in a horizontal position for a long time, that the corrosion was consistent with water trickling over it for some time, and a few other indicators that it could have, in fact, been buried for centuries.

Basically, the wear and tear wasn’t faked.

No other Norse artifacts have been recovered from the same site since Mellgren and his associates mined it in the 50s, but they did find artifacts that told of trade contact between Native American groups. Excavations have turned up arrowheads, pottery shards, and stones that came from hundreds of miles away – and no one really knows why the site was so popular or so good at connecting people.

We might not have answers, but it’s pretty amazing to think about how brimming with life North America was, long before Columbus – or anyone else from Europe – set food on her soil.

The post Read About the Mysterious, Medieval Viking Coin Found on the Coast of Maine appeared first on UberFacts.

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Sailors Share All the Crazy Stuff They’ve Seen at Sea

Sailing sounds very romantic or very awful, depending on your affinity for the sea.

Regardless of whether or not you’d actually go get your own sea legs, you’ve got to be at least a little bit curious about what’s out there, right?

I know I am, and these 13 stories from sailors really deliver.

13. I think I would have left, too.

Off the coast of Mombassa – a super pod of dolphins stretching as far as I could see in all 4 directions.

Porpoising like mad – hauling a**.

Chasing sardines or outrunning orcas.

12. Ghost ship?

A good friend of mine captains a beautiful Sportfish boat for his boss. Spends its winters in Florida and summers in New York. I usually fly down in the spring to FL to give a hand running it back north and we always have a ton of fun and fish on the way. One night on the journey we decide to keep steaming through the night to get to a spot we wanted to fish at first light the next morning. Probably ~100 miles offshore so there’s basically nobody around.

Little about the boat, absolute beast. Radar, AIS for ship tracking and info from other craft with AIS, FLIR night vision camera, depth Sounders…….literally every gadget to keep you safe even on the darkest of nights….

So we’re cruising along in absolute PITCH black night, just cruising 12-15 knots with every electronic on. Now, If you’ve never been offshore at night, you don’t know true black night. There’s nothing, like nothing. Spot lights, LED panels……you can see the waves a few feet in front of the boat and that’s it….we always have at least 2 guys up, one on the wheel and one keeping an eye on the electronics. So, somewhere off the Carolinas, we pick something up on radar….definitely a large boat. We had the range at like 10 miles on the machine, so we should definitely see this thing by now…..a guy could light up a smoke 5 miles away and you’ll see the lighter (THAT dark). But……nothing. No AIS readout on it so it’s not broadcasting its info. We keep getting closer and closer, miles counting down, blip getting bigger on the radar screen….still, nothing. Now we’re within a mile of this thing (whatever the F it could possibly be) and we have all eyes up top……..

Literally out of the most insane darkness is this broadside fucking NAVY SHIP. Absolutely massive. Not a single light on. Not a single person out on any of the decks. Just there. Floating. It creeped me so far the f*ck out.

11. What a way to go.

Got roped into sea trials for an aircraft carrier several years back when I worked for Huntington-Ingalls.

Couldn’t sleep one night and decided to go up to the flattop in the middle of the night to get some fresh air. It was eerily quiet and the water had this odd obsidian black mirror sheen. Kinda hypnotic.

Dunno how long I stood there but apparently it was long enough to warrant a roving watch to get my attention and escort me back below.

Got chewed out by my supervisor the following morning when he found out; turns out a lot of civvies and sailors over the years have fallen/”fallen” into the sea at night.

10. Stop playing with your dinghy!

Seamen jumping overboard to capture their dinghy which somehow got away from the ship.

9. That’s a mystery.

We found a human finger in a sea chest (basically a filter for sea water that’s used to cool fresh water etc).

The thing is though it must’ve been pulled in when deep at sea because the chest was cleaned every 2-4 weeks and we’d been deep Sea for 6 weeks at that point.

Was creepy and we reported it but nothing came of it.

8. So many questions!

I was in a cruise boat and we were chugging along the very busy waterways of Shanghai approaching the area where the Huangpu river joins the Yangtze.

The waterway is colossal and one of the busiest shipping routes, with traffic heading in all directions which creates a lot of large swells.

I looked over the edge and down about fifty feet away and there is a man, he was sitting precariously cross legged paddling along on a door.

7. I like this guy.

I wouldn’t say anything I saw was particularly strange. But maybe my standard for “strange” is a little skewed.

I saw a lot of wonderful things though, like massive schools of giant manta rays feeding in the bay, clouds of mayflies dying by the millions on our bow, sea birds in the absolute middle of nowhere, and the best view I’ve ever had of the milky way.

There were also some odd and funny things that were usually products of civilization more than anything, like giant cat fish eating our cooked sewage as we pumped it over the side, people boating in the shipping lanes on rafts made of garbage, and sailing through what looked like a post-apocalyptic hellscape while riders tried desperately to con the crew out of everything we owned. The most ridiculous thing I saw was using a 1000ft ro-ro to go trawling for tuna, while staying close enough to land to be able to pick up the playoffs for the captain.

Sailing is weird, and while there are some truly awesome sights like Saint Elmo’s fire and the like, the vast majority of the strange stuff you run into is just part of civilisation.

Edit: my buddy says “if you’re talking about sailors, there’s nothing strange to me anymore. Sailors have a reputation as weirdos for good reason. As far as everything else out there, it’s classified.”

6. A nightmare tour.

I’m not a sailor but one time I went on a glass bottom boat tour. The captain accidentally went the wrong way to come back in and took us out to sea. There were maybe 60 people staring down threw the glass bottom in a 3 foot swells.

Didn’t take long before people starting throwing up. Id say about 40 people puked on the glass. It was a nightmare. Barf sloshing around. Everyone moaning, kids crying, women screaming.

It was f*cking terrifying and disgusting. It was traumatic. I’ll always remember that

5. What happened down there?

A bunch of us were smoking on the starboard fuel deck, and we saw the front half of a shark float aft.

Like, cleanly cut, from about 4 inches behind the dorsal fin.

Conversations went kind of quiet as about 45 people just stared at it and wondered about ocean madness.

Good times!

4. Kinda spooky is wild.

Found this odd if not strange when I started sailing. On ships we can have days which are more or less than 24 hours.On multi day voyages clocks are advanced as we travel east and retarded as we travel west to adjust with local time.

The wall clock in our cabins were analog but the advancement or retardation was automated by some mechanism. For an hour of retardation the minute hand would smoothly glide anti-clockwise a full circle.

This was usually done at mid night. Kinda looked spooky if you were awake.

3. Everyone has to scratch that itch.

Was on bow watch on the tall ship Bounty back in 1997 sailing down the St Lawrence when the ship shuddered to the side by like 2 feet.

Looked over the railing to see a 65 foot Right Whale scratching it’s back on the side of our boat. I was about 10 feet from it and at 6’7″ I felt incredibly small.

Only time in my life I was completely speechless

2. Ah, the joys of the sea.

Not a sailor per se but I spent a couple of years recreationally sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. I rarely spent the night out on the boat, but was out almost every day. I was out one evening with a friend who was visiting.

I want to say it was between 10pm-11pm and the boat started violently rocking back and forth for a few seconds, even though waters were pretty calm. We can’t really see much but we saw these three really dark and large shapes swim underneath the boat.

Scared the sweet Jesus out of us, we definitely felt for a second that we were going to capsize and then likely die.

1. The hazing will be brutal.

A glowing iceberg.

I was on the bridge at night, it was getting fairly foggy out so we had to be extra vigilant. I started to see this little light on the horizon. I knew it wasn’t another ship or shore light because we were in the middle of the Arctic Ocean with no land for miles. I wanted to get a better visual on it so I didn’t report it right away. As time went on I could see this light getting bigger and it was looking pretty…. icebergy.

So as weird as it was to me; I reported it to my officer of the watch stating that it was a “glowing iceberg”.

Super confused he took a look in and what he told me….I will never live it down.

…it was the moon. I reported the moon.

How utterly fascinating!

If you’ve seen something super cool out on the water, please share the story with us in the comments.

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This Artist Uses Tech to Show What Historical Figures Really Looked Like

Sometimes it can be hard to imagine what people from the past looked like before cameras were invented.

Yes, we have paintings and sculptures we can admire, but it sure would be nice to know what ancient leaders and famous artists of centuries past REALLY looked like.

Well, thanks to a photographer and artist named Bas Uterwijk who specializes in computer graphics and 3D animation, we have an idea of what some famous figures from history might have looked like.

Uterwijk started tampering with the likenesses of historical figures in 2019 and his work is really something. Here are some faces that the Dutch artist made come to life.

Let’s take a look.

1. Is that Bill Shakespeare?

Why yes, it is!

2. Albrecht Durer.

A German painter, FYI.

3. Portrait of a lady.

This one is pretty interesting.

4. That’s Lady Liberty.

If she was a real person…

5. Alexander the Great.

A giant historical figure.

6. Emperor Caligula. 

A lot of crazy stories about this fella.

7. They lived in Pompeii in AD 79.

What they must have seen…

8. Playwright. Politician. Philosopher.

Taken from a sculpture. I like this one.

9. Marcus Aurelius.

An emperor and a philosopher.

10. Julius Caesar.

We all know what happened to him…

11. The one and only Vincent van Gogh.

A master Dutch painter.

Those are awesome! I love all the detail. His creations seem to jump right off the screen.

Who else would you like to see given this treatment?

Share some fascinating historical figures with us in the comments. Thanks!

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People From Other Countries Share Quirky Things They Love About America

Hey, they like us! Well, at least they like some of our weird quirks…and I guess that’s better than nothing.

In case you didn’t read the title of this article, I’m talking about folks from other countries and the strange and quirky things they like about Americans.

I guess we do tend to entertain the rest of the world with our music, movies, TV, and fashion, so it’s only natural that a lot of folks around the world would pick up on the weird things we do.

Let’s see what they had to say!

1. We need to stop saying this ASAP.

It’s not a good look for us.

2. We need to Lysol this entire house.

Yeah, I guess we do say that.

3. It’s the best part of the year!

Halloween lovers for life!

4. My house is as big as three football fields.

Wow! That’s impressive!

5. Wait, it’s not?

I’ve been lied to all these years!

6. Now, this is one of the best things about the U.S.

We don’t tolerate that over here. Not even for a second.

7. That means were done.

Just so you’re sure.

8. Let’s eat! Keep it coming!

Hey, it’s what we do.

9. We did it!

I guess that is kind of weird…

10. Get your head out of the gutter!

Oh, wait, that is kind of funny, I guess.

11. Pasta salad is LIFE.

One of the best things about summertime.

12. Don’t catch the ‘Rona!

Hey, that’s kind of catchy!

Okay, now it’s your turn!

In the comments, tell us what quirky things YOU like about Americans.

And tell us what country you’re from, please. Thanks a lot!

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People Who Grew up With Very Religious Parents Talk About Their Experiences

Religious extremism has always kind of scared me.

I’m all for people having their beliefs and worshipping the way they want to, but when those beliefs become extreme and it starts to affect the folks around you, that’s when there’s a problem.

And it seems like more people than you probably think actually grew up this way.

Let’s take a look at some interesting stories from folks on AskReddit.

1. Out the door.

“Let the beatings commence.

Spanked, paddled, whipped, and beaten for minor offenses.

That’s why I joined the military to get away from that nonsense.”

2. In retrospect…

“Terrifying in retrospect, but I didn’t realize it at the time.

You just start to think that all the bullsh*t that’s going on around you is normal, and then when you start meeting people in the real world outside of the religious bubble you slowly start realizing how f*cked up everything was.”

3. Cult-like.

“Grew up in a non-denominational Christian Church. The resemblance it had to a cult didn’t really dawn on me til I was older, probably 14-16.

My parents were the stereotypical helicopter parents- watched our every move, put screen mirroring apps on the very first cell phone we were ever given at age 16, shaming the hell out of us for what they would find on our phones talking to our secret girlfriends, etc.

Our church was full of families with 7+ children, the largest family having 12 kids and single mom (the dad was in jail for molesting some of the eldest girls). Out of a population of about 5-600, me and my sister were the only kids enrolled in public school, because mom was a school teacher. As a teenager, life was absolutely miserable.

Around the age of 14 I decided I hated Christianity and the absolute perversion and abuse of power this church was capable of inflicting upon me. One suicide attempt and psych ward trip later, around the age of 16, I decided I was done with the church punishing me, I decided if I couldn’t escape my parents house physically, then I would escape it mentally.

This led me to start using drugs of any sort. I started drinking cough medicine and smoking weed. Fast forward a few months, I started chemistry and synthesized multiple plant-derived psychedelics in my room. This led me to overdose and panic and have a second psych ward trip. After the church hears of this, they expelled me from the congregation. (They also expelled multiple people for being gay and all sorts of other lovely things)

Long term, I’m now almost 21 and I’m not gonna lie I have a substance problem. I think there’s some very deep emotional scarring I’ll never be able to completely deal with. I’m trying to stop my substance abuse issue and turn my life around for the better, but after being so bright in high school I feel like a retard now from all of the oxys.

My goal now is to go to trade school and get certified in welding, hopefully make a pretty ok life for myself. I wanted to go to college, but I have a few drug charges on my record, so I’ve pretty much abandoned hope of an easy future. I know I’ve f*cked up my life a lot, I’ll be honest it’s hard.

I think about suicide often, but I want to give life one last clean try for I abandon all hope. If it doesn’t work out and I wind up homeless, I do plan to kill myself. I’d rather be dead than homeless.”

4. Growing up Mormon.

“Grew up hardcore Mormon. I’d like to stress that my childhood isnt as common for other Mormon kids.

Most of the time Mormons are fairly understanding and loving to their kids. BUT, the mormon culture does promote the mentality my parents had.

When I was growing up I wasnt punished like some others here. I was spanked, and experienced the belt but that isnt why I have some psychological problems now. The real punishment was shame. From the earliest age I can remember (around six) I was told that I was lazy and I was pissing my life away (This was the strongest language my father would use).

When I first heard the word s*x, around eleven, I looked it up on the family computer. I was a pervert from then on, and had to talk to the bishop every month for a checkup. Hell, in every school I went to my parents told school counselors that I wasnt allowed on computers because I might look up pictures of naked women. (I never did this)

This is just the sparknotes version but I internalized the shame. Being so young I just accepted that I was what my father called me and hated myself for it. I was a lazy faliure at six, I was a pervert at eleven. It didnt stop me from doing any of the things I was doing before, I just learned to fear my fathers footsteps as if it was the devil himself walking down the hallway.

I lived my life in the brief intervals between punishments. I am still not beyond this at 24 years old.”

5. A bad situation.

“Oh, where to start?

Spankings that were borderline beatings for every offense. I wasn’t allowed to “talk back” at all. Asking “why?” Was talking back. I spent my entire childhood believing that all my problems were because I didn’t love god enough.

When I was 9, I was convinced that if I didn’t shape up, God was going to kill me. So I spent six months being a perfect angel but also living in constant terror. Just completely convinced that if I did one thing wrong, lightning would blow me off the planet.

Last thing I’ll mention is how my parents wouldn’t feed me as a child if I talked back. Many many nights I was sent home with no food for the most minor of infractions. (Finishing a chore a minute or two late)

They have largely turned things around. And even apologized for some of these actions. But I still have no interest in talking to them.”

6. Strict.

“Very religious parents, we have to abstain from eating onions, meat and garlic for nine days twice a year.

My parents always think that their religion is the best they sometimes criticize other religions.

The think homos*xuality is a sin.

My mother wants me to stop eating non-vegetarian food after I get married

I’m only allowed to eat Non- veg on Sunday, Friday and Saturday

My mother frowns when I tell her that I dont believe in god.

Yes, I’m Hindu.”

7. Still working on it.

“Was forced to attend a Christian cult for years. I told my parents every single time that I’m an atheist. Didn’t matter, had to go.

Couldn’t sleep, couldn’t study, they burned my books, couldn’t go out, so I was literally confined in my room with absolutely nothing. I had a bed and a wardrobe and clothes. No music, no drawing, no reading, no PC because only my little brother could use the computer.

I was studying programming in high school ffs. Had to hand-in my homework written on a paper instead of programmed in various languages.

Shamed me for being a woman. Shamed my body. Made me think I’m stupid. The “Pastor” kept saying how he sees god’s light on my face and how I’m clearly a devout Christian. I was thinking how to…uhm… evil stuff evil stuff… anyway not so nice thoughts about him during these conversations so yeah I don’t think he saw what was really in my mind.

Almost snapped. That would have ended in a sad, messy way. Thankfully I was banned, most likely because in the end I let my true thoughts show on my face. Claimed it was because they saw me walking with a boy or some other bullsh*t. I think they realised I’m not a sheep like the rest but a bloody angry wolf. Don’t try to indoctrinate the psychopath.

I left my family, moved a few thousand kilometers away, I have a great job, a great husband (he knows all my past), travelling constantly with my BOOKS. Yeah I love my books. Noone will ever take them again. I’m planning on building my own tiny library with a mahogany desk and heavy drapery on the windows.

Also I learnt I’m not stupid (quite the opposite) and I’m not that ashamed if my body anymore. My brain still have some trauma to work through. But I might even be a completely normal human in time!”

8. Homeschooled.

“I wasn’t in a true cult but I was homeschooled for religious reasons.

Mom replaced the word “millions” with “thousands” in our history/science books. Words like “liberal” and “democrat” and “secular” and “muslim” were insults, deserving mockery and shame. Went to church 3-4 times a week, mission trips every year.

Didn’t do Halloween (but always had “fall festivals”) or Easter Bunny or Santa. We weren’t allowed to say “holy cow” or “holy smokes” because only God is holy. Couldn’t watch Disney movies because of the “follow your heart” messaging, since the human heart is evil, it’s God’s heart we should follow (and also cuz Eisner supported equal rights).

No Pokemon because of “evolution” and a Satanic Panic fear that they were based on Japanese demons.

I’m 30 now and ashamed of the person I was, but I try not to be too hard on myself… It wasn’t all my fault. I was a Bible thumping Republican until late in college, and even though I’m an entirely different person, I still encounter chunks of bullsh*t in my psyche that I try to pluck out.

Therapy and reading and introspection and travel and empathy will do a lot! But we’re all on a journey…”

9. Demonic!

“All non-Christian gospel music was considered demonic. All fantasy was demonic.

I couldn’t watch how to train your dragon because it might as well be how to train your demon. Any time I acted up, it was because of the demons either influencing me or in me.

Church every day gets a little old after a while too.”

10. Irritating.

“My mom is a devout mormon. I was forced to pretend to believe in their church for 18 years.

I moved out a few months ago, she knows I don’t attend but she doesn’t know how far away I have distanced myself from that church.

She still calls me every week saying she’s trying to find out who my bishop is so they can send people to bring me to church with them. It’s like leading a double life but she’s micromanaging my religious beliefs from 4 hours away.

I love my mom but Jesus Christ does the Mormon lifestyle irritate me.”

11. Satanic Panic.

“It was Hell, and now I’m an athiest. We were raised in the Satanic Panic era in a Full Gospel Pentacostal church where people spoke in tongues, slithered on the floor like a snake, and fainted ( I guess thats what you call it).

We were only allowed stay overnight with friends whos family were from the same church. Only permitted to watch Rated G and PG movies. Not allowed to watch The Smurfs because they were satanic. We and other members of the church would stand on the side of the road in town and preach over a sound system to the teenagers cruising on Friday and Saturday nights.

We were forced to go to church every Wednesday night and morning and evening service on Sunday. Our stepdad was a deacon and later was “called to preach”. He beat the hell out of us on a regular basis and molested my sister. Beatings were so bad we were told no to dress out at PE in school because he didnt want anyone to see the bruises.

We were basically his slaves. We were forced to work our entire childhood. If we were caught with Rock and Roll music, it was burned. He later left my mom for another deacon’s wife which is why im not in prison because I had future plans to kill him once i got older.

There were four of us kids, one has since commited suicide, one is a crack head, my sister and her husband are very wealthy and i am a police officer. Hitler is still alive but he is paying for all of the abuse he put us through.”

12. Looks good from the outside.

“Having religious extremist parents is having a family that looks good from the outside, but is completely broken on the inside.

Having religious extremist parents is having your mother “obey” your father because that’s the only advice their pastor gave for marriage counseling. Having religious extremist parents is being told from an early age that all you’re going to do as a woman is graduate high school, get married, have a bunch of children for god and obey your husband.

Having religious extremist parents is being pulled out of school so they can “instill the proper values and beliefs”. Having religious extremist parents is being gaslit CONSTANTLY. Brain washed CONSTANTLY. Not being allowed your own views.

Having religious extremist parents is being told to not be “vain” so you spend every minute telling yourself not to feel pretty, not to feel confident, not to feel proud of yourself for your accomplishments. Having religious parents is using the bible verse “obey your elders” against your younger sister to play what you wanted to play, and realizing how much you hurt her all those years because of some stupid bible verse taken out of context (just to clarify, our relationship is the strongest out of my family).

Having religious extremist parents is being lectured for hours that “you aren’t helping your mother out around the house enough” while neglecting our education.

Having religious extremist parents is spending hours in a church service where the preacher tells you how you can’t be like the rest of the world, that the rest of the world is wrong, that other theologies are wrong, and woe is the church for having so many young people leave christianity, and don’t ever be like them.

Having religious extremist parents is realizing years later that you gave money EVERY GODD*MN WEEK to some grown man that could’ve gotten a real job to pay his bills, because if you weren’t tithing, you weren’t “christian enough”.

Having religious extremist parents is having a father who thinks the world is awful, and a mother who is so disillusioned that she can only see the rosy world in her head.

Having religious extremist parents is watching your family fall apart when you grow up. Having religious extremist parents is watching the abuse between your parents, but knowing they’ll never divorce because “it’s not god’s will”, and “divorce is wrong”.

Having religious extremist parents is knowing that there are some things, some beliefs that they will never accept you for. Having religious extremist parents is finding yourself much later in life that you should’ve.

It’s growing up and realizing the isolation, the trauma, the depression, and the brokenness in your own family and wondering why you never realized it before.”

How about you?

Were you raised in an overly religious household? Maybe even bordering on extremism?

If so, please tell us about it in the comments.

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If You Only Had 30 Minutes to Hide From a Nuclear Blast, Where Would You Go? Here’s What People Said.

This sure isn’t the most pleasant question you’ve ever been asked, but we still want to know what people would say, right?

And, hopefully (fingers crossed), we’ll never have to actually worry about this, but we’re gonna dive in!

If you had 30 minutes to hide from a nuclear blast, where would you go?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.

1. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen.

“The Eisenhower tunnel on I-70 in Colorado (1.7 miles long).

Unless it turns into Stephen King’s “The Stand”…”

2. It might work?

“I’d always heard a basement of a library is good because books may absorb some radiation.”

3. You don’t have to go anywhere!

“I work at a nuclear pharmacy which has dosimeters, geiger counters, potassium iodide tablets, Radiac spray, PPE and lead, and the break room/office is an extra vault that was made to house a particle accelerator (known as a cyclotron).

I’m at work right now. So, assuming I’m safe from the initial blast radius, I’d probably go sit at my desk, scroll through Reddit and watch the world end.”

4. Out in the country.

“The nearest city is over 30 miles away, and it’s all open country from where I am and for at least another 10 miles to the mountains in the other direction.

Either I’d jump in the truck and try to make it to the mountains thru the reservation or crawl under the house and hope for the best.”

5. Secret spot.

“There is an old building near me that has a basement. I know what boards to move to get into the basement from the outside.

It’s the only building I know of within about 100 miles that is entirely reinforced brick masonry with a basement, and I’m sure I’d spend the apocalyptic event chatting with several homeless people who also know about the board.

We’d all survive though.”

6. That’s where I’ll be.

“There’s a building at the college I work at that goes 80 feet underground and has 6 foot thick inward sloping concrete walls

I’ll be in there.”

7. All over the place.

“Pretty easy, I would just go to my nearest bomb shelter. They are all over the place here in Finland and can house up to 4 million people (so more than enough room for the entire urban population) .

Every metro station also doubles as a bomb shelter, and I can walk to one of those within 10 minutes so I would probably chill there (there are probably a bunch of shelters even closer to me though but could be busy).

You can actually walk across a lot of Helsinki centre completely underground (I often do when it is raining), the underground network of tunnels is huge. And all bomb proof.

Finland actually has one of the most thorough civil defense programs in the world.”

8. Fallout shelter.

“There’s a fallout shelter in a bank about a mile down from where I live that was built back in the 1960s.

I’d probably yank some snacks and a bottle of Jack from the kitchen and sprint down there, then hunker down for a few days.

If it’s locked, then… well… I can polish off the Jack and wait for the fireworks.”

9. Sounds like you’ll be fine.

“If I knew it was coming, I’d just drive away. Distance makes all the difference with nuclear blasts.

I’m close to mountains in the outer suburbs of a big city, I’d drive in that mountain direction as we often have winds from there. Minimal fallout that way too.

If leaving the city was not an option, I’d just hit up my basement. It’s below ground enough that I think I’d be fairly safe.”

10. Now I’m sad.

“I’d gather my dogs and cats and go up to our bedroom and cuddle my husband.

Give the doggies and kitties some treats on the bed and hope they don’t jump off so that my last moments are a cuddle fest.”

11. Wait for it.

“I’d grab a six pack, grab a chair and sit outside calling my family and friends while waiting for the end.

I’m not suicidal but any world that would exist after my city gets bombed would be unrecognizable and probably not worth surviving for.”

12. Pedal to the metal.

“I’d drive like crazy for 30 minutes.

If I drive at 100km/hour, I would be 50km from the center of the explosion. A good distance.’

13. It’s under control.

“Switzerland.

They have the 110% capacity of their population in bunkers so there’s room for me.”

14. To the library!

“There is an old library built in the 1960’s less than a mile from my house with a basement fallout shelter.

I know because I always see the old 1960’s fallout shelter signs and consider stealing one but the potential of getting caught and being banned from the library for the rest of my life stops me every time.”

Now it’s your turn!

In the comments, tell us about when you told a lie that spiraled out of control.

Please and thank you!

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The Creepy Mothman of West Virginia Gets a Closer Look in New Documentary

If you’re not into the kinds of tales that send weird chills down your spine, then you may never have heard about the mysterious Mothman who appeared in Point Pleasant, West Virginia back in the 1960s.

In November of 1966, two couples spotted a winged, man-shaped monster near the “TNT area,” a collection of abandoned bunkers where explosives were stored during WWII. The local newspaper reported on the events, and suddenly, more sightings began popping up.

Image Credit: Tim Bertelink

When nearly 50 people were killed in a bridge collapse the following December, more than a few Point Pleasant residents believed the Mothman could have caused the tragedy.

The mysterious creature’s popularity endured with the help of a 1975 novel by John Keel, The Mothman Prophecies, which also spawned a 2002 movie adaptation starting Richard Gere and Laura Linney.

While the bulk of the sightings happened back in the 60’s, some are still reporting close encounters today. The creature has inspired a statue, a museum, and an annual festival that all bring tourists (and tourism dollars) to the small, West Virginia community.

Now, director Seth Breedlove is tackling the history of the Mothman in his documentary, The Mothman Legacy. In it, he investigates the history and legacy of the creature and also interviews more recent eyewitnesses to its appearance.

Breedlove appears to be a bit hooked on the topic, as he also directed The Mothman of Point Pleasant back in 2017, which focuses on the more historical accounts, along with the bridge catastrophe.

The latest documentary, bolstered by author and expert Jeff Wamsley, who has written two books on the subject, doesn’t try to solve or disprove the mystery, but instead seems to almost celebrate the enduring urban legend.

You can watch it on Amazon Prime or YouTube.

It’s fascinating viewing any time of the year, and for any mood.

That said, if you’re looking for something delightfully mysterious and spooky, this should definitely fit the bill.

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