These hilarious pictures show what happens to you in the Russian army when you make a mistake. Forgot your rifle? Maybe carrying around a huge wooden rifle will help you remember next time! However, while these photos show the lighter side of hazing, the reality is often much more grim. Dedovshchina is Russian for the unofficial…
Spiders can hear you ‘walking and talking’. If you’re already scared of spiders, you’re not going to like this next part. A new study published Thursday in Current Biology found that spiders — specifically a species of jumping spider — can hear sounds from further than 10 feet away. Previously, scientists believed spiders, which lack eardrums, could only…
The human eye. According to scientist and photographer Dr. Roger Clark, the resolution of the human eye is 576 megapixels. That’s huge when you compare it to the 12 megapixels of an iPhone 7’s camera. But what does this mean, really? Is the human eye really analogous to a camera? A 576-megapixel resolution means that…
Pain relievers in ancient times. Many believe that patients before the early 20th century had to endure dental repairs, tooth extractions, or general surgery in agony, largely unrelieved except by slugs of whiskey or wine. Archaeology suggests that such was not the case — at least, not for everyone. Some of our ancient ancestors were quite creative…
Area 51 is most commonly thought of as the place where the government keeps UFOs and alien secrets, but no one outside the highest levels of government knows the truths that hide in the top secret base. Only one document has been declassified for public knowledge concerning Area 51, and it doesn’t tell us much.…
A 5000 year old toy chariot was found! The ancient settlement of Sogmatar, which thrived 5,000 years ago, back to the Bronze age, might seem like a world detached from our own. By legend, this is the place where Moses came after killing an Egyptian overseer and had to flee the palace where he grew…
Library books kept vanishing and then reappearing. The Auckland Central Library in New Zealand’s largest city has a long history of providing for the city’s homeless population. After a local charity told administrators that the library served as a kind of “lounge” for people with no fixed address, they welcomed them into the space, asked…
The green children of Woolpit. One day, out of the woods, two children walked into the English town of Woolpit. This was back in the 1200s, so children mysteriously appearing wasn’t as odd back then—due to, you know, parents having a much higher rate of death because of diseases and the whole living-in-the-1200s thing. But…
In between bouts of pirate-talk and rocking out to Alestorm (or Lazy Town, whichever you prefer), you may have wondered what life would’ve been like if you actually were a pirate. As it turns out, your life on the seas would’ve been drastically different from the one seen in movies like Treasure Island and Pirates…
Fire ants may not be cute or cuddly, but they have some pretty cool tricks. They can form rafts to survive floods, and researchers have now figured out how they form towers to escape danger or surmount obstacles. The ants don’t consciously decide to throw themselves on top one another to build towers. Rather, it takes a…
You may be all happy and carefree today celebrating public holidays, but don’t forget about the end of days. Luckily, there’s a way around it – a survival pod built by a Chinese inventor who claims it can withstand the end of the world. It’s big, it’s round, and apparently it will keep you alive…
Freshwater cultured pearls. Pearls are produced by mollusks, mussels or oysters belonging to the Unionidae family. Saltwater pearls are produced by oysters in the ocean, while freshwater pearls come from mussels growing in lakes, rivers or ponds other than the ocean. These mollusks create a substance called nacre when an irritant object enters its shell.…
You’ve probably heard legends about planes and ships mysteriously disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle. But those legends don’t come close to the serious disappearances that have plagued Alaska for decades. There’s a region of wilderness known by names like ‘Alaska’s Bermuda Triangle’ and it’s far more deadlier than its tropical cousin. Missing In Alaska The…
Panda patches. Giant pandas’ patches are among the most striking of any mammal: black ears and eye spots set against a white face, with dark limbs and shoulders abutting a white neck and torso. Science Scientists have proposed dozens of reasons for the animals’ piebald appearance. They could be warnings, like the black and white stripes…
Sandro Botticelli, an early master of the Italian Renaissance, is celebrated for his contributions to the major art motion. He is well known for his larger-than-life mythological scene of The Birth of Venus, even though his work features secular portraits and Biblical depictions. This monumental painting has been admired and analyzed for centuries. The masterpiece…
Never-seen-before negatives. Some artists don’t live long enough to experience the recognition they get. Masha Ivashintsova was one of them. This Russian artist and theater critic had been heavily engaged in the Leningrad (now, Saint Petersburg) poetic and photography underground movement of the 1960−80s. Masha loved photography as it always took a major role in…
Colorful parrot. If you’re looking for a way to to make your property stand out on a real-estate website, dressing up as a colorful parrot and posing for photos seems to work wonders. At least it worked for the owner of a house in Blackrod, UK, who had asked his estate agent to come up…
Addicted rats. When police inspectors in Pilar, Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, were recently questioned about the disappearance of 540 kg of marijuana from the evidence room, they explained that addicted rats ate it all! Commissioner Emilio Portero relieved his partner Javier Specia, as head of the police department in Pilar, a town located 60 km…
Ignorant scientists. Science has enormous cachet and authority in our culture, for very understandable reasons! And that has led scientists (and non-scientists who claim the mantle of science) to claim public authority, which is all well and good in their areas of expertise. The problem is when they claim authority in areas where they don’t…
Did Saint Patrick banish all the snakes from Ireland? It turns out the story is a bit more complicated than that. Legend tells it that St. Patrick banished all the snakes from the Emerald Isle, chasing them into the sea from atop a cliff where he had undertaken a 40-day fast. As beloved as this…
The Sony World Photography Awards celebrates its 11th anniversary this year. This is one of the most respected and influential photography competitions in the world. Every single year they are sent thousands of stunning photographs from amateur and professional photographers and this year has been no exception. They received, in fact, a record total of 319,561 images this year.…
Miracle cat predicts death. Meet Oscar who is believed to have predicted the deaths numerous people at a nursing home. The 10-year-old tabby spends his days roaming the halls of Steere House and is known as notoriously anti-social. But the miracle moggy cuddles up to those residents in their final dying days. Staff and doctors at the Rhode Island center…
Mayor in stocks. In most countries, the only way you can punish politicians and civil servants for not doing a proper job is by not voting for them in the next elections. But in Bolivia, they have a thing called “social justice”. The people of San Buenaventura, a small town in northern Bolivia, recently made…
A Chinese man was recently in the news for not only winning millions of yuan in a lottery, but also for the bizarre costume he wore when he collected his prize. The man was so worried about revealing his identity that he dressed up as the popular Disney character Baymax! Speaking to reporters, the man…
Chinese casanova has to leave hospital with police escort. When a man from China’s Hunan province got into a car accident last month, little did he know that his misfortune would actually affect his love life. He was rushed to the hospital following the accident, where staff began contacting his loved ones. To everyone’s great surprise,…
Pollution creates a deadly aftermath. In 2015, about one in six of the deaths around the world were linked to pollution of some kind, a new report has found. “Pollution is much more than an environmental challenge. It is a profound and pervasive threat that affects many aspects of human health and wellbeing,” Philip Landrigan says…
In a breakthrough scientists successfully did gene editing of a human embryo to eliminate a dangerous gene mutation. The birth of an actual baby with genes selected by technological means hasn’t happened yet, but that is on the way — and soon. Science and technological capacity are racing ahead of ethics, safety regulations and our understanding…
No conspiracy theory has captured the imagination quite like that time we faked the moon landing. That’s right, we never landed on the moon. According to a 1999 Gallup poll, 6% of Americans thought the moon landings were fake, and 5% said they weren’t sure. So what gives? Why would otherwise normal, critically thinking adults believe…
The scourge of the betel nut. It is used by almost a tenth of the world’s population. It gives people a buzz equivalent to six cups of coffee and is used variously as a symbol of love, marriage and a cure for indigestion and impotence. But it is also leading tens of thousands to an…
The warning signs of online fraud and how to avoid it. Logged 207,000 Internet fraud reports to the U.S. Internet Crime Center.
