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The recall was announced as a last-ditch effort to convince Canada to remove the garbage it illegally left at a Filipino port in 2013. J Gerard Seguia/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty ImagesA protester holds a poster of the Canadian shipping container in the port of Manila. The Philippines has been raising a stink over Canada’s unclaimed trash for years now. Canada has illegally dumped tons of its garbage at a port in the island country and now, the trash talk has escalated toward a possible severing of ties between the two countries....

My grandma likes to tell me that things were different – better – back in her day. Share Flipboard Email There were no Kardashians, nice pretty girls didn’t cover themselves in tattoos, and people certainly weren’t as sex-crazed as these horny, internet-porn-fueled millennials. But after a trip to New York’s Museum of Sex I learned that grandma couldn’t be more wrong. At least on that last point. People have been getting weird sexually since the beginning of time....

Discover the real facts about Christopher Columbus, from the explorers that beat him to the Americas long before 1492 to his notorious boat troubles on the Atlantic. Just about everyone thinks they know the basic facts about Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the New World: He sailed from Spain in 1492 with three ships — the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria — in search of a new route to Asia....

The position of advocatus diaboli, or devil’s advocate, existed at the Vatican for centuries. Playing “devil’s advocate” is a phrase we’ve all heard or said before. It’s used by a person taking a contrarian stance, especially when they’re espousing an idea they don’t truly believe in order to have a vigorous debate. This can play out in classrooms, boardrooms, and even movie theaters, but as it turns out “devil’s advocate” was an actual person within the Catholic Church....

You might think that “living fossils” is an oxymoron, but this fascinating list of incredible animals that are living fossils proves otherwise. You might think that “living fossils” is a bit of an oxymoron, however you’d be mistaken. To be considered one, the living organism in question must more or less maintain the same anatomy and behavior over millions of years while watching the rise and fall of many other still-evolving species....

A terrifyingly large snake that once lived in modern-day Colombia, Titanoboa measured up to 50 feet long and weighed up to 2,500 pounds. Deep in a South American jungle, a huge snake once stalked its prey. After slinking closer and closer to an unsuspecting animal, the silent hunter would strike in a flash and snap its victim’s neck in one swift move. The prey didn’t even hear the Titanoboa snake coming amid the cacophony of the prehistoric jungle 60 million years ago....

The fascinating story about the reemergence of Villa Epecuen in Argentina, an underwater city that reemerged in 2009 after being underwater for 25 years. While many have excited themselves over a recent scientific discovery of what appears to be a millions-of-years old Brazilian Atlantis, relatively few seem to have reveled in the astonishing re-emergence of a previously sunken city within the same continent. Just a couple hours south of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Villa Epecuen was once a thriving resort community nestled near the therapeutic salt lake of Lago Epecuen....

The year’s best animal, space, and news photos as well as Russia’s reindeer wranglers and some terrifying deep sea creatures. National Geographic Picks Its Favorite Animal Photos Of The Year Politics and foreign conflicts dominated the U.S. news cycle this year, which left comparatively less time and space for news on advances and problems among flora and fauna to reach mass audiences. Thankfully, what we may have missed in the moment, photography has immortalized....

There was no shortage of cheap thrills in the 80s — and if you wanted to find them, Los Angeles was the place to be. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 1 of 45A punk girl sports liberty spikes at The Starwood.Gary Leonard/Corbis via Getty Images 2 of 45Punk rock singer Wendy O. Williams (in background), lead singer of the Plasmatics, and guitarist Wes Beech perform at the Whisky a Go Go....

Leather was a highly-valuable material during the Tudor era in the U.K., which makes this discovery all the more unusual. MOLA Headland InfrastructureThe 500-year-old skeleton in thigh-high leather boots by thw river Thames. The skeleton of a man that is believed to date back 500 years was uncovered face-down in the mud by London’s river Thames. What’s remarkable about this particular discovery is that the skeleton was found wearing thigh-high leather boots that are nearly fully intact....

From a 19-year-old who stabbed his landlord because the “devil made him do it” to the woman who underwent a series of exorcisms across 23 days, these are nine of the most harrowing cases of alleged demonic possession in history. There are some things in the world — bumps in the night, shadows in the corner of the eye — that seem to escape explanation. But the people in the stories below insist that the strange events they experienced were nothing short of demonic possession....

When Jeffrey Dampier won the lottery, he thought he finally had it all. Little did he know that someone was about to take everything from him. YouTube Jeffrey Dampier with a ceremonial lottery check. If you’re like most people, you’ve probably fantasized at least once about winning the lottery. After all, with that kind of money you’d never need to deal with going to work. You’d never have to worry about bills, or saving for retirement....

It took hundreds of signatures for journalist Carl Von Ossietzky to retroactively win the Noble Peace Prize in Nazi Germany. Wikimedia CommonsCarl Von Ossietzky as a prisoner in the German concentration camp Esterwegen, 1934; Memorial of Ossietzky in Berlin. Carl Von Ossietzky was a journalist, social activist, and pacifist who was one of the first prisoners the Nazis sent to a concentration camp. His fortitude in the face of Hitler’s dictatorship earned him terrible abuse at the hands of his captors....

Whether it was “killer,” “lover,” “con artist,” or adventurer, Catalina de Erauso was called many things. This is her story. Equally warlike and amorous, Catalina de Erauso was a warrior and adventurer of the 17th century whose mystique has only ripened with age. From the abbeys and squares of Spain to the outposts and wilds of the Americas, she earned her epithet of La Monja Alferez: “The Lieutenant Nun.” The daughter of a prominent 16th-century Spanish military family (many of whom were colonizers of the Americas), Catalina de Erauso was born on the craggy coastline of Basque Country in the town of San Sebastian....

Apparently comparing a president to a cartoon bear is beyond the pale. The Chinese government has recently added Winnie The Pooh to the many words and images blocked by the so called Great Firewall of China, reports the BBC. The censorship of a cartoon bear may seem ridiculous to some, but the China has a history of blocking any internet content that may portray the Communist party or its leaders in a negative light — and that’s exactly why Winnie has gotten the boot....

In 1983, an Oregon mom named Diane Downs pulled her car over to the side of a road and shot her three young children in the backseat. Then, she claimed she was the victim of a carjacking. Wikimedia CommonsDiane Downs in 1984. For years, Diane Downs seemed to have a wonderful life. She was married to her high school sweetheart, worked part-time at a local thrift store, and had three children, Christie Ann, Cheryl Lynn, and Stephen Daniel....

Is New York paving the road for “free college”? Not really, but it’s a step in the right direction. This week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a radical proposition: to cover college tuition costs for middle- and low-income students across the state. The plan, which was presented at a Tuesday press conference with the help of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, would cover any student who was accepted into a state or city university and whose family earned $125,000 or less....

By the time she turned 18, Sarah Rector’s net worth was estimated at over $1 million — about $28 million today. And it all came from undesirable land that the federal government gave her. In 1913, 11-year-old Sarah Rector became the richest Black girl in America, almost by accident. She had been born into poverty as a member of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma in 1902, and received, as did every member of the Nation, a plot of undesirable land in the territory when it was made a state in 1907....

In May 2013, Pearl Fernandez brutally murdered her son Gabriel Fernandez with help from her boyfriend Isauro Aguirre in their California home. The murder of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez horrified Los Angeles. Not only had the young boy been viciously killed by his own mother, Pearl Fernandez, and his mother’s boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, but he had also been tortured by the couple for eight months leading up to his brutal death....

Sometimes when something is interesting, “interesting” just doesn’t seem to do it justice. For when those times arise, check out these interesting synonyms. Wikimedia CommonsPierre Brassau aka Peter the chimpanzee. Oftentimes in writing, we end up looking for interesting synonyms, because sometimes the word you want to use is just not interesting enough. Take “interesting,” for example, a word which means “arousing a feeling of interest,” but can sometimes, depending on the inflection and the situation mean other things....