The Man Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. He was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century. He initially worked in close collaboration with Joseph Breuer. Freud formed the theory that the mind is a complex energy-system … and that it is the structural investigation of which is…
You’ll never know what’s in store for you when you hear the true story of The Greenbrier Ghost. It is a remarkable case in which the victim’s spirit testified about its own violent death, and named the murderer! At the foot of the stairs One January afternoon in 1897, Erasmus (aka Edward) Shue, a blacksmith,…
Nobody wants to be in prison — if they do, then the prison’s doing it wrong. Plenty of prisoners have dreamed of escaping and living out their lives in freedom, but rarely do they get very far. In cases like the following, their failures weren’t due to the eagle-eyed guards doing their jobs perfectly. Instead,…
Flat earth. One of the great lies told to schoolchildren is that the whole round-earth thing was first proposed by Christopher Columbus, sailing toward the edge of the Earth in hopes of encountering India. The truth is Columbus knew exactly what he was doing because people have been aware of the shape of the Earth…
Dangerous railways. Nobody is actually really scared of trains, are they? Air travel, sure, and you wouldn’t be too surprised to meet someone who gets a bit nervous crossing oceans or driving on tight roads or even getting on a bicycle. But did you ever heard of somebody freaking out before climbing on board a…
The dark side of selfies. Our social media feeds are full of self-shot photos of our friends and family looking better than we do, doing things that are more exciting than the things we do, and just generally proving to the world that they’re better than we are. That’s kind of what it feels like,…
The specific point on Earth that reigns as the planet’s hottest place turns out to be a very complex, loaded question. What defines ‘hottest’ exactly? Do we mean the place that reaches the highest temperature? The place with the highest average temperature? Or do we factor in humidity to come up with a place that…
A mysterious prankster who has been dressing up as Pennywise the evil clown from the popular “It” films and trying to scare passers-by has been getting a lot of attention in Ukraine, including from prosecutors who think the people behind the stunt deserve to be locked up. The real-life Pennywise was first spotted on the…
Alone with their thoughts. In 1654, scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Now, there’s some science behind that statement. A study was conducted by the journal Science and they found that many people prefer a self-administered electrical shock to sitting…
The Saurian Monster must have left a ghoulish sight in the wake of his macabre stride. It all started in October 1886 when workers found a sheep picked clean to the bones at the Frankton Junction slaughter yards, near Hamilton in New Zealand. The reports told the story of the sheep carcass that was taken…
Unlucky people. Have you ever got a sneaky suspicion that the universe is sometimes trigger-happy to assassinate you? However, you haven’t met Ann Hodges. She wasn’t particularly special but she was still in the universe crosshairs. Ann Hodges She lived in the town of Sylacauga, Alabama, was married to Eugene and enjoyed the occasional midday…
Peter Stumpp (alternately spelled Stumpf, Stubbe or Stuppe) was a mid-16th century German farmer who was executed on Halloween in 1589. Unfortunately, we only have one surviving account of what happened in the town of Bedburg that autumn, but it’s a detailed one. Rumors were circulating about a massive wolf-like creature, seen prowling the countryside…
Everyone knows of hypnosis because of four infamous words: “You’re getting very sleepy.” But aside from old Hollywood films and sideshow parlor tricks, hypnotism is viewed by many psychiatric professionals as a credible form of therapy when added to standard psychiatric care. Hypnosis isn’t the illusion you think it is. However, while it has the…
The grey wolf. The battle between wolves and farmers has been going on since the beginning of time, and has been largely uninterrupted over the course of American history. Western Europe, over the course of the twentieth century, has hunted these predators to the point of near-extinction. In the past few years, however, grey wolves…
Anneliese Michel. Born in Bavaria in 1952, Anneliese Michel is perhaps the last embodiment of Satan you’d expect. Michel was part of a devoutly religious family, who believed that she needed to pay penance for her mother’s sins. Her older sister was illegitimate, and when the 8-year-old girl died, the message was a clear one…
Abhartach. Information on just how real this person was is sketchy, but that’s not entirely surprising. Record-keeping from the 5th and 6th centuries leaves just a smidge to be desired. We do know that Ireland was once ruled by a scattering of chieftains, who staked claim to lands and held their territories against intrusion from neighboring…
Crow rides on the back of an eagle. Phoo Chan, a talented California-based bird photographer whose photos have been featured by National Geographic, has captured an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime series of photos of a crow landing and riding on the back of a bald eagle in mid-flight. According to Chan, “Crows are known for aggressively harassing other raptors…
Artist used LSD. Countless artists have experimented with the effect drugs have on their work. User whatafinethrowaway, inspired by the “Nine Drawings” series which was the result of an experiment by the US government in the 1950’s, asked her friend to draw self-portraits while on LSD. The friend took 200µg of LSD and drew 11…
Hilarious incorrect quotes. It’s safe to say that almost everyone has a t-shirt or two with their favorite band, tv show or a movie. So, if you ever feel like wearing a t-shirt with a logo of your favorite band look no more because a shop called slightlywrong has you covered. Except there’s one small thing, their…
False facts about the Titanic. The sinking of the Titanic was a disaster on a monumental scale, ending with the deaths of 1,500 passengers in the frigid Atlantic Ocean. It’s been elevated to one of those moments in history that feel more myth and legend than real, a horrible, terrible disaster that most of us…
Vietnamese people with the same last name. The existence of last names in Vietnam dates to 111 BC, the beginning of a lengthy thousand-year occupation of the country by the Han Dynasty in China. Before this time, nobody really knows how the Vietnamese handled names, due to lack of written records. In fact even the…
