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Biologically speaking, developing a phobia is as easy as experiencing a traumatic event and consistently relating that event to something (often arbitrary) that was present when the event transpired. So while it’s possible for someone to develop an irrational fear of almost anything, one wonders how the afflicted parties of some of the following strange phobias manage to successfully function in their everyday lives: Strange Phobias: Barophobia Source: Edu Blogs...

How and why many of us still observe one of humanity’s oldest rituals. Observing the sabbath is one of humanity’s oldest – and on the surface, strangest – rituals. Today, roughly three billion people adhere to one or another religion that teaches them that God has personally mandated vacation time, as if He was a really understanding boss. Humans being humans, some communities have taken the ritual command to observe a day of rest each week to extremes, with some designating entire years as unproductive, while others put a lot of energy into subverting the tradition and getting some work done, albeit by unconventional means....

From an opulent former cathedral in the Netherlands to a converted palatial theater in Argentina, these are the world’s coolest bookstores. For bibliophiles the world over, great bookstores–which are becoming increasingly rare–are like cathedrals. And then, sometimes, a great bookstore actually is a former medieval cathedral. Or sometimes it’s a converted palatial theater, or an entire urban neighborhood. Whichever the case, these six coolest bookstores from around the world will inspire awe, reverence, and wonder among book lovers and neophytes alike…...

Discover the astounding true story that gave birth to Saving Private Ryan and see where fact and fiction diverge. To this day, Steven Speilberg’s Saving Private Ryan continues to move audiences with its gripping portrayal of D-Day and its aftermath. The 1998 film, which centers on a group of American soldiers tasked with finding the titular comrade whose three other brothers have been killed so that he can be brought home, received 11 Academy Award nominations and earned praise for its realistic portrayal of World War II....

We’re coming up on the third anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge March that catapulted the Occupy movement into international recognition. At first, OWS was the brainchild of a Canadian anti-advertising, anti-consumerist magazine called AdBusters. Many catalysts were at play: just months prior, WikiLeaks released numerous sensitive documents and video footage regarding American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kelly Thomas had just been murdered by police in California. The American government was about to raise its “debt ceiling”, effectively forgiving the 1% for the housing crash and widening the gap between the upper and middle classes....

In many ways, modernity can be viewed as little more than the the product of centuries of dumb luck. As you are about to see, some of the world’s most significant milestones were the result of nothing more than happy accidents. Accidental Discoveries: Penicillin Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming changed modern medicine and saved countless lives by not being a very tidy man. Fleming left for vacation in 1928, failing to clean up his lab beforehand....

These rulers weren’t just cunning tacticians and diplomats — they also proved themselves to be exceedingly capable warriors in the heat of battle. Heritage Art/Heritage Images/via Getty ImagesLord Oda Nobunaga Viewing the Restoration of Kiyosu Castle by Yoshifuji Many of history’s great leaders were excellent tacticians, cunning politicians, or charismatic negotiators — but leaders intending to live long lives rarely get their hands dirty, often delegating the bloodshed and battles to their subordinates....

The man experienced no discomfort from the spoon lodged in his esophagus until he was punched in the chest a year later. Xinjiang Meikuang General HospitalAn x-ray of Mr. Zhang’s chest with the spoon lodged in his esophagus. A man in China is recovering after the removal of an eight-inch spoon from his throat. The utensil had reportedly been inside his esophagus for an entire year. In 2017, the man in his early 20s identified as Mr....

In July 1976, three men abducted a school bus full of children in rural California in an attempt to hold them for ransom — but then the students and their bus driver dug their way to freedom. In July 1976, dozens of parents in rural Chowchilla, California, faced their worst nightmare when their children went missing. A school bus carrying 26 students mysteriously vanished on the way back from a summer field trip, and three wealthy young men were the top suspects....

Cockroach milk is packed with essential amino acids and sugars that fuel energy. NDTVfour times as much protein as cow’s milk How does a cockroach milk latte sound? While it may not sound as appealing as other non-dairy milk options like soy or almond, according to a 2016 study and a recently reshared Marie Claire article, scientists have found that cockroach milk could be a new superfood. The study found that the nutrient-filled milk crystals produced by the Pacific Beetle cockroach contain four times as much protein as cow’s milk....

Coconut crabs produce “tapping-like sounds” to communicate with each other and they make a variety of clicking noises during their entire mating sessions. Wikimedia CommonsScientists discovered that coconut crabs create “tapping-like sounds” to communicate, especially during sex. Turns out humans aren’t the only animals that talk during sex. A new study published in Zoology found that coconut crabs — those “monster” crabs that are strong enough to break a seabird’s bones — are quite chatty during their entire mating sessions....

In 1821, Gregor MacGregor made a fortune off of European elites by selling them shares in his fake utopia — then got off scot-free. National Portrait GalleryGregor MacGregor, Prince of his fabricated kingdom of Poyais. As Europe raced to conquer vast tracts of undiscovered land in the Americas, a Scottish conman named Gregor MacGregor hatched a plan to capitalize on the lucrative colonization game. In 1821, MacGregor fabricated a colony called Poyais on the Bay of Honduras in Central America and scammed the British into investing in it....

Tired of racism in Missouri, George Washington Bush decided to explore the American frontier. And in 1844, he became the first Black man to settle in Washington Territory. Henderson House MuseumA sketch of the Black pioneer George Washington Bush. In 1844, a group of American pioneers headed west out of Missouri. Like the countless others who ventured west, they hoped for a better life on the American frontier. But unlike most frontiersmen, this group included one unusual member: a free Black man named George Washington Bush....

This 3D bioprinter is capable of creating functional human skin that doctors can transplant onto burn patients. Spanish scientists have unveiled a 3D bioprinter that can create functional human skin. The scientists, from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, CIEMAT (Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research) and the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, report that doctors can transplant the 3D-printed skin onto patients or that cosmetic, chemical, or pharmaceutical manufacturers can use it to test their products....

Theodore John Conrad ended his shift at Society National Bank on July 11, 1969, by taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the vault and then disappearing from town. Ross Anthony Willis/Fairfax Media via Getty ImagesTheodore John Conrad evaded detection and went by the alias Thomas Randele for 52 years. On a summer day in Cleveland in 1969, a young bank teller named Theodore John Conrad took $215,000 from his bank’s vault, walked out the door, and disappeared....

Determined to end slavery at any cost, militant abolitionist John Brown led the failed 1859 uprising at Harpers Ferry, Virginia — and helped push the nation toward the Civil War. Long before his failed raid on Harpers Ferry, John Brown occupied a place all his own in the abolition movement — and not just because he was white. After all, many white people in the United States opposed slavery on purely moral grounds....

Known as the Woodford Slasher, John Joseph Joubert IV was just 16 when he stabbed a pencil into a six-year-old girl — before going on to murder at least three young boys. Public DomainJohn Joubert said he was grateful to have been caught — and would have killed again. Seeing his own father attempt to strangle his mother, serial killer John Joubert had a difficult childhood. He would spend the rest of his life determined to inflict that pain on others....

An outspoken socialite from Arkansas, Martha Mitchell tried to pull back the curtain on Watergate, but she was gaslit, dismissed, and discredited at every turn. National Archives/Wikimedia CommonsAlthough Attorney General John Mitchell’s wife Martha Mitchell attempted to blow the whistle on the Watergate scandal, America simply wouldn’t listen to her. Whistleblowing is a lonely road. Without knowing whether the public will deem them heroes or traitors — or even believe their claims at all — whistleblowers take an incredible risk with no certain payoff....

Excavated at the turn of the millennium, this 72-million-year-old fossil was left gathering dust in storage for a decade. It is now one of the most complete baby dinosaurs ever found. Darla Zelenitsky et. alThe unhatched oviraptorosaur was estimated to be between 66 and 72 million years old. When workers found the unhatched oviraptorid embryo, it had been sitting in a box for about a decade. The dinosaur was originally unearthed from Chinese soil in 2000 but ended up in storage during construction of a museum....

He’s the oldest preserved human ever found, and now scientists have extracted the food from his stomach. M. Samadelli/South Tyrol Archaeology MuseumResearchers at work on Ötzi the Iceman. In 1991, two tourists hiking in the Ötztal Alps of southern Austria happened upon the remains of a human in the ice. Because the body showed only some decay, the hikers assumed that it had belonged to some mountaineer who’d died only recently....