There are some less than awesome things that can be rightfully blamed on our favorite morning brew, like insomnia, jitters, and heartburn. But people tend to overlook the truly incredible things that coffee does for us. Of the 150 million Americans who drink a collective 400 million cups of coffee each day, most of us only give it props for its magnificent flavor and its ability to help us wake up and stay that way....
Every house has a legacy, but if the walls could talk in the houses listed below, they would scream. 10Fox Hollow FarmWestfield, Indiana Despite racking up a considerable number of victims, serial killer Herb Baumeister isn’t what you might call a household name, probably because he committed suicide as investigators closed in. Despite a diagnosis of schizophrenia and a history of bizarre behavior, Baumeister founded a chain of thrift stores and became quite wealthy....
10 Weldon Kees Although far less-known than contemporaries like John Berryman and Robert Lowell, the poet Weldon Kees is considered to have been one of the best of his generation, with a cult following and admiration by such figures as esteemed literary critic Harold Bloom and poet laureate Joseph Brodsky. One of his admirers, the poet Donald Justice, remarked that “Kees is original in one of the few ways that matter: he speaks to us in a voice or, rather, in a particular tone of voice which we have never heard before....
10 Nanking Massacre Denial For the city of Nanking, the months between December 1937 and March 1938 were so brutal that the word “nightmare” doesn’t begin to cover it. Mainstream historians estimate that between 250,000–300,000 people died, many of them women and children. Often, the victims were first beaten, raped, or both. Many also witnessed the horrific murders of their loved ones. However, some Japanese historians believe that the events in Nanking have been blown out of proportion....
These lines from “The Lepracaun, or Fairy Shoemaker” by Irish poet William Allingham (1824-1889) pretty much sum up the little guy’s stature, shoemaking trade, and the myth that capturing one leads to great wealth. But these mischievous elves have acquired throughout the centuries many other interesting traits and attributes that might well be worth exploring, for as the old saying goes: “Catch hold of a leprechaun and don’t let go, for he will tell you the address of the gold that is unknown…”...
In some cultures, the afterbirth is usually discarded as medical waste once the baby has been born. Others deeply revere the afterbirth and its role in the development of a new life, while scientists have extensively studied the possible medicinal uses of the placenta, umbilical cord, and fetal membranes. This has led to some fascinating rituals and uses for human afterbirths. Here’s our rundown of the ten most interesting ones....
It may seem that the mythology around golems is not as rich or interesting as that of the aforementioned creatures. Well, that is not the case. In the following list, we will analyze the stories surrounding golems, and we will see that these beings are as fantastic and intriguing as any other legendary creature. 10 What Is A Golem? Let’s start by defining the physical nature of these beings. A golem is an anthropomorphic creature created from inanimate matter such as clay....
10 Lightbulb—Joseph SwanCredited To Thomas Edison In recent years, much has been made of the possibility that Thomas Edison borrowed some of his designs from competing inventors. Anyone who has attended primary school will likely tell you that Edison was the sole inventor of the lightbulb, but this is untrue. If anything, he simply improved upon the design from a Brit named Joseph Swan. Swan had filed a patent in Great Britain for a filament bulb a full decade before Edison’s 1879 patent....
But the drama isn’t limited to her books. Her own life has all the components of a best seller: backstory demons, a plotline that takes the main character from rags to riches, dramatic subplots intersecting and adding to the main storyline, and, of course, a love interest. But as with any masterful best seller, it’s the hard-charging, larger-than-life protagonist—who rides motorcycles, pilots helicopters, and hangs Dr. Seuss art on the walls of her Boston penthouse apartment—that’s truly the most interesting part of the story....
10I Love Lucy Long before I Love Lucy made television history, the decision of moving forward with the production of the show’s pilot was faced with considerable dilemmas that could have potentially led to career suicide for both Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Everything they had worked up until that moment came down to one decision: Play it safe, or take a chance on the untried medium of television. The answer that would ultimately cement Ball as television royalty was manifested in a dream she had in which her deceased friend appeared to her....
Today, the U.S. is home to 63 national parks for visitors to enjoy. However, there are many other sites and natural wonders that are deserving of federal park status but, for one reason or another, have not been protected under the National Park System. Since there are so many amazing natural wonders in the U.S. and not enough space to list them all, we’ll focus on states that currently do not have a national park but definitely have a contender....
10 Stephen King Stephen King is one of the powerhouses of horror fiction. From the time he began writing novels in 1967 through the present day, he’s churned out over 50 novels (that averages to over one per year for 46 straight years). If you want to call that a long-distance writing marathon, then the eight years between 1979 and about 1987 were a full-on sprint, when King sent a massive 22 novels to the publisher....
Top 10 Best Board Games Of All Time 10 Elizabeth Magie Was Original Creator Charles Darrow was a domestic heater salesman from Philadelphia, and he is usually credited with the creation of Monopoly. The truth is that he actually stole the idea from a woman. Elizabeth Magie created a board game very similar to the one played today. Her game was known as Landlord’s Game, and she filed a legal claim for the game in 1903....
We’ve covered oddball units of measurement before, but we’ve gone and found ten more unbelievable ways that people have measured things. Reindeer pee, death, and Big Macs make our list today. Read on to find some more absolutely bizarre yet completely real units of measurement. 10 Horse’s Body The length of a horse is a well-known measurement used in the world of horse racing. It is sometimes known as a horse length, or abbreviated as simply “length,” but the original measurement comes from the physical length of a typical horse....
Top 10 YouTube Channels To Make You Seem Smarter 10 OverSimplified Ask any historian and they will tell you that the world is pretty complicated – to say the least. Any time you try to write down history you have to leave things out to construct the story that you want to tell. All history is an act of simplification, it’s just that most histories don’t tell you that they are simplifying....
The sick perpetrators tear families and communities apart with their horrible deeds. Many of the murders that occur on this already spooky night are directly related to the festivities that surround the holiday. Here are 10 of the most horrific murders committed on Halloween. 10 Egg Throwing Leads To Murder Egging someone’s home or car is a Halloween tradition for many, but it became deadly for one man. Twenty-one-year-old Karl Jackson was driving his girlfriend and her son home from a Halloween party in the Bronx when a group of young men started throwing eggs at Jackson’s car....
The films on this list vary in duration, subject matter, and tone. Some contain frightening twists, others use disturbing imagery, some use fantasy elements, and others feel all too real. But one thing each of these films has in common is that they have a pretty solid chance of leaving you a little more disturbed than they found you. 10 Mistake (2014) It must be said that New Zealand has a knack for creating horrifying PSAs regarding the subject of dangerous driving....
Sometimes, the changes are not very important and are simply to structure the events in a cinematic way. Other times, they are much more significant, and we could even go so far as to say that they distort the truth. These are ten movies that stretched the notion of “artistic license” to the absolute limit. 10 The Imitation Game This 2014 film tells the story of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician who was recruited by MI6 during World War II to help crack coded messages sent by the Nazis but whose life was later destroyed by a conviction for homosexuality....
Sequels are moneymaking machines that cash in on name recognition garnered by the original films. Nevertheless, despite all the planning, some movie continuations never see the light of day. But remember, in a generation inundated with remakes and reboots, one should never say never. Even so, here are 10 films that were rumored to have sequels but never got them. 10 Who Framed Roger Rabbit When Who Framed Roger Rabbit hit theaters in 1988, this marvel of a film combined live action and animated characters in a way that had never been done before....
Earlier this year, we published a list about mysteries that we’ve been following which have had some major recent developments. The number of cold cases with major developments has only increased within the last several months, and this has necessitated another list. Since many of the following cases have been featured on our website in the past, it seems, once again, that Listverse might be a good luck omen....
