Modest by Western standards, the above guarantee represented a “momentous change” when enshrined in the 2004 Afghanistan constitution. Never had Afghan law acknowledged the equality of men and women. Yet, before this, women’s rights had already begun to improve the post-Taliban rule, with the establishment of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in 2001. Fast forward to 2022, and the Taliban are again in power following a disastrous withdrawal of U....

Whether they reveal an obscure and unseen galaxy billions of light-years away or a cryptic message from millennia ago, these pioneering methods are game changers in their fields. 10 Photographing Hidden Spaces With Wi-Fi Researchers wanted to see the world “through Wi-Fi eyes,” so they placed a cross made of aluminum foil, a Wi-Fi emitter, and two receivers (one stationary, one mobile) in a closed room. They recorded the Wi-Fi waves as they reflected off the cross to encode its image in 3-D within a hologram....

The most abundant prehistoric metal artifacts, copper alloys provide archaeologists with windows into the ancient past. A soft metal, copper is poorly suited for weapons but ideal for jewelry and ornamentation. Into it, we have carved the story of civilization. 10 Lost Treasure Of The Copper Scroll Discovered by an archaeologist on March 14, 1952, the enigmatic Copper Scroll stands in stark contrast to all other Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran Caves....

At just the right moment, indulging in a favorite candy can satisfy our sweet tooth, wash away the stress of a long work day, and even bring about moments of childhood nostalgia. While sometimes it seems as if we would be willing to do anything to fulfill a sweet craving, how far would you be willing to go? Would you willingly dish out a brutal punishment if someone took your candy or refused to share theirs?...

10Traumatic Insemination A particularly sadistic outcome of sexual selection is the intricate morphological battle waged between the sexes to produce genitalia that maximize their owner’s reproductive success during copulation. This process, in fact, is so common that penises are considered the fastest evolving bodily organs in species with internal fertilization and are common indicators of new speciation events. In males of some invertebrate species, this results in the evolution of diabolical penises bedecked with barbs and spines designed to injure the vagina in order to diminish the chances of the female mating with other partners....

While devotees think their body tattoos, skin implants, and piercings are beautiful or spiritually and emotionally uplifting, medical experts believe these extreme body mods are dangerous and sometimes symbolize mental illnesses. Either way, our role here is to provide you with what we think are the 10 most bizarre modifications people have ever actually done. On a lighter note, the information here enlightens you where the bar of “bizarre mods” is currently set....

10 Silent Sound Spread Spectrum According to a 1998 Nexus article, the US military used a mind-control system based on “silent sound.” This technology altered and entrained brainwaves to manipulate the brain’s electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns and artificially implant negative emotional states—fear, anxiety, despair, and hopelessness—directly into the minds of those affected. The theory claims that the hundreds of Iraqi troops who rushed to surrender to coalition troops were evidence that the US military must have used psychoacoustic frequencies to impel them to surrender en masse....

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Bizarre Cases of Mass Hysteria 10 The Hunt For The Liverpool Leprechauns Leprechauns are usually reserved for gaudy St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, but in 1964, thousands of children—and some adults—ventured into Liverpool’s Jubilee Park, completely certain that they were going to find leprechauns. The hunt started in June, and by July 2, police wearing crash helmets were set up in the park to protect people from each other....

10Wife Lending The ancient pre-Islamic Arabs were into a strange custom known as wife lending. This custom was not merely for gaining political or economic leverage—it served as an early form of eugenics. It was practiced mostly by families of low rank who wanted more prestigious offspring to ennoble their line. But husbands didn’t lend their wives to just anyone. Only men of distinction who possessed desirable attributes were allowed to have sex with another man’s wife....

10 Ultimogeniture And Yuan Shao’s Poor Choice Nobility and royalty often use primogeniture—the exclusive right of inheritance belonging to the eldest son. Ultimogeniture, or appointing the youngest son as heir, is one of the rarest succession laws. Mongols were known to have practiced it, while the Old Testament of the Bible alludes to it occasionally. Yuan Shao, a powerful warlord during China’s Han Dynasty, was facing both territorial conflict and conflict within his family during the first century A....

In addition to the world’s first Christmas cards, there were a number of other Christmas card firsts, like the first card sent by a royal family, the first card sent by a US president, the first personalized card, the first e-card, and the first mass-produced card. Some of these firsts are charming, others are surprising, and still others are endearing, but all of them are intriguing. 10 World’s First Christmas Card In 1843, Sir Henry Cole of London, England, decided to do something different for Christmas....

10Batgirl’s Transgender Villain Since the New 52 line rebooted DC’s internal continuity, Batgirl has become known as something of a progressive hero. Under Gail Simone, the comic introduced a positive transgender character and took an incredibly relaxed attitude to all things LGBT. It also approached storylines with a youthful, campy vibe with villains like Dagger Type, a Batgirl doppelganger who dresses glamorously and namedrops Kanye West. When the new writers came to unmask Dagger Type, they revealed that the character is male....

Hoax e-mails have made Camel Spiders famous, or rather, infamous, but still most people know nothing about them. First of all, these animals, as scary looking as they may be, are completely harmless to humans. They are never over 3 inches in length, have no venom glands. and although they can bite if harassed, no human has ever died of a Camel Spider bite. They are also not real spiders, but belong to a different group of arachnids known as the Solifugids, or “those who run away from the sun”....

Since 9/11, no bogeyman has loomed quite as large in the Western psyche as the specter of terrorism. According to Gallup, over half of all Americans worry “a great deal” about a terror attack while nearly one-third believe the government is incapable of protecting them from one. Hardly a day goes by without a reference to extremism on the news. Yet for all of this, the mental picture we have of terrorism might not be completely accurate....

Landmine Count: 1 million The mine problem in Somalia is a result of various internal and regional conflicts over an almost 40-year period, with the first reported occurrence of mine-laying in 1964. Central and southern Somalia are heavily contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). The UN claims that the socioeconomic impact of landmines can be seen in almost every aspect of Somali society: reduced land available for livestock and agricultural production, increased transportation costs, poor performance of rehabilitation and development efforts, loss of life, disabilities, a general lack of security of communities, and obstacles to repatriation and reintegration....

But Sinterklaas Day isn’t just an early Christmas. It’s something altogether different. Sure, a jolly old saint gives kids presents, but all the little details are just a little bit different—and, as you’ll soon find out, a whole lot weirder. Get ready for the story of Sinterklaas—complete with African slaves, kidnapped children, castrated priests, and more. Today, we’re going learn all about the Netherlands’ strange, magical, and possibly just the tiniest bit racist holiday....

This denizen of the abyss is very small (the largest species known is only 12 cms), and completely harmless, but its face is the stuff of nightmares. The hatchetfish is the living proof that you don’t need long sharp teeth or red glowing eyes to be creepy. These fish are found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world, and feed on smaller creatures of the abyss, such as copepods (a kind of crustacean)....

For the majority of them, it’s only a matter of time before they make a mistake and are caught. At that point, the families of these serial killers are informed and they find out exactly with whom they have been sharing their lives all this time. 10 The Moors Murderers The Moors murderers were British serial killing duo Ian Brady and Myra Hindley who killed five children between 1963 and 1965....

Since coming to prominence in 2009, the radical jihadist group has been waging a catastrophic war against the Nigerian state. In 2013 alone, 10,000 people died, more than have died in the entire Ukrainian civil war. But these statistics are only the tip of the iceberg. Dig a little deeper and you’ll uncover a nightmare of violence and bloodshed threatening to tear open the heart of central Africa. 10They Already Have A Caliphate When ISIS overthrew the Iraqi city of Mosul and declared an Islamic caliphate, it seemed like a nightmare....

SEE ALSO: 10 Ways The Kremlin Is Trying To Win The Information War He has recently been tied to the Clinton Campaign (and not just as a major donor) through revelations from Wikileaks and it is now known that he owns the voting machines in 16 US states, due to be used in the next election. His email archives were recently hacked and leaked showing that he was directly colluding with the powerhouses of Europe to incite a refugee crisis (to what end no one knows)....