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Frank Dux says he became a ninja at 16, won an underground mixed martial arts fighting tournament in 1975, and was a top-secret CIA operative during the 1980s. Génération JCVD/FacebookFrank Dux (right) with Jean-Claude Van Damme. When Bloodsport hit theaters in 1988, no one quite knew what to make of the film’s outro text, which claimed it was based on a true story of Frank Dux, who participated in the same secret international martial arts tournament depicted in the film....

Originally designed to create multiple copies of a single document, the Thomas Edison electric pen would end up revolutionizing the tattoo industry. When people think Thomas Edison, they naturally think of all of his inventions. The lightbulb, the motion picture camera, the phonograph and the zoetrope are all things we can thank Edison for giving us. Another thing we can thank him for? The tattoo gun. In 1875, Thomas Edison designed an electric pen....

Often deemed the music performance that defined the 1960s, music expert and Jimi Hendrix scholar Joel Brattin has picked up on some of the most interesting elements of Hendrix’s iconic performances that you may not have otherwise known: Hendrix performed with a temporary band. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, with which he had recorded three smash albums and electrified crowds at the Monterey Pop Festival two summers before, had broken up. Hendrix assembled a group he called Gypsy Suns and Rainbows, which included two musicians he had played with at the start of his career on the Chitlin’ Circuit in Nashville: bassist Billy Cox and guitarist Larry Lee....

The macuahuitl was plenty deadly enough to take you down. But the Aztecs would rather bring you to the edge of death, then sacrifice you alive. Wikimedia Commons Aztec warriors wielding macuahuitls, as depicted in the Florentine Codex in the 16th century. Little is known for sure about the macuahuitl, but we do know is positively terrifying. For starters, it was a thick, three- or four-foot wooden club spiked with a number of blades made from obsidian, said to be even sharper than steel....

According to a new report, some 380 Southern Baptist officials and volunteers are believed to have abused more than 700 victims since 1998. Houston ChronicleComposite of mugshots of some of the Southern Baptist church workers convicted of sex crimes. Multiple decades, hundreds of accused abusers, hundreds more victims. A wide-ranging new investigation has revealed just how bad the problem of sexual misconduct among Southern Baptist church officials has been for a very long time....

This may be the wildest plan scientists have come up with to keep sea ice from melting. A group of scientists has devised a way to save the Arctic Ocean: re-freeze it. Recently published in the scientific journal Earth’s Future, the plan calls for 10 million wind-powered pumps to continuously draw seawater up from beneath Arctic ice caps and spray it atop the Arctic. The thinking is that the water will then freeze, and thus thicken melting sea ice....

Yes, we have a lot of fascinating content; don’t be overwhelmed. With these All That Is Interesting articles that you haven’t read, we’ll let you catch up. We’ve been bringing you everything from the bizarre to the beautiful for over three years now–and often writing at length about some of our more fascinating findings all the while. And just in case you’ve missed some of them, here’s a quick way to catch up!...

Triangles have three sides. The sun sets in the west. The United States is composed of 50 states. All are taken to be self-evident, but up until August 21, 1959, the latter was simply not true. Of course, that all changed when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation that allowed Hawaii to become a state exactly 56 years ago today. Known for its lush, tropical landscape and best remembered as the site of the 1941 Pearl Harbor bombing, Hawaii adds much to the nation’s diversity: the state is the only one to grow coffee, and it supports about one-third of the world’s commercial supply of pineapples....

When you’re as old as the Catholic Church, you’re going to have picked a lot of fights — and some are more absurd than others. Sean Gallup/Getty Images There are two types of people in this world: cat people, and not cat people. Pope Gregory IX, who held the papacy from 1227 to 1241, most definitely fell in the second camp — largely because he believed that the fluffy hairball-hackers embodied Lucifer himself....

Pope John Paul I’s death remains a point of contention even 40 years later. Wikimedia CommonsPope John Paul I In 1978, Pope Paul VI died. As is Vatican custom, the College of Cardinals went into the conclave and began to decide who would be the next pope. It was the largest papal conclave in history and the first since 1721 in which three future popes participated. After the fourth ballot was submitted, Cardinal Albino Luciani was elected as the next Bishop of Rome....

The doctor claims she was “set up” by the vengeful patient. Mike Christen/The Daily HeraldA sign for the medical practice of Dr. Suellen Lee. A doctor in Columbia, Tenn. allegedly asked to borrow $300,000 from one of her longtime patients. But when the patient asked to be repaid, the doctor diagnosed her with dementia in an apparent attempt to avoid repaying the loan. According to The Tennessean, Dr. Suellen Lee, 79, borrowed the money from the patient, identified as E....

Remains of early transatlantic slave trade victims analyzed, ancient English mill put back into use, mystery of 2-million-year-old stone ball tools solved. 500-Year-Old Skeletons Unearthed In Mexico Reveal The Horrors Of The Transatlantic Slave Trade San José de los Naturales Osteology LaboratoryThe 500-year-old skulls of three presumed slaves unearthed in Mexico City. Found in the cemetery of a former Mexico City hospital dating back to the 1530s, several uncovered skeletons belonged to what were likely some of the transatlantic slave trade’s very first victims....

Elephant Man’s bones likely uncovered, ancient shaman’s drug pouch discovered, nuclear-tainted Pacific sea creatures found. Remains Of Deformed “Elephant Man” Found In An Unmarked London Grave Jo Vigor-Mungovin/TwitterJo Vigor-Mungovin lays flowers on an unmarked grave suspected to belong to Joseph Merrick, also known as “The Elephant Man.” A biographer for Joseph Merrick, better known as “The Elephant Man,” believes that she has discovered the infamously deformed man’s remains 130 years after his death in an east London hospital....

The world lost 97 percent of its wild tigers in the past century as aggressive poaching continue to contribute to dwindling populations of this big cat. Gallery HipThere are only under 4,000 tigers that exist in the world, both in the wild and in captivity. Looking at the abysmal numbers of the world’s tiger population today, it is stunning to think that there had been more 100,000 wild tigers roaming Asia and its surrounding areas just a century ago....

Michele Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, hasn’t been seen in more than a decade. There’s plenty of cause for concern. In August 2007, Michele “Shelly” Miscavige — the so-called “First Lady of Scientology” and wife of David Miscavige, the religion’s leader — attended her father’s funeral. Then, she mysteriously disappeared. To date, what exactly happened to Shelly Miscavige remains unknown. Though rumors abound that she was sent to one of the organization’s secretive camps, Scientology spokespeople insist that their leader’s wife is merely living out of the public eye....

The “Tiger Lady” has been identified as Wendy Louise Baker, a 16-year-old from Pennsylvania whose decomposing remains were discovered near Interstate 80 in Knowlton Township, New Jersey. Warren County ProsecutorWendy Louise Baker, New Jersey’s “Tiger Lady,” whose remains were finally identified after a 30 year search. Since 1991, the body of a 16-year-old girl found off Interstate 80 near the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania was known only as “Tiger Lady” because of a Bengal tiger tattoo on her calf....

The Middle East — birthplace of civilization — stands to lose millennia of history due to ongoing conflicts, ISIS, and climate change. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization — more commonly referred to as UNESCO — has honored over 1,000 cultural and natural destinations around the world as World Heritage sites of “outstanding value to humanity.” But many of these UNESCO sites are under threat. In the Middle East, 15 sites are officially designated as endangered....

Dali was at once an artist and a work of art himself – these delightful Salvador Dali pictures of the legendary surrealist prove it. Like ballerinas, Salvador Dalí was simultaneously an artist and a work of art. When not piecing together some of the most mind-bending paintings known to man, Dalí employed the bizarre and sublime when concocting his inimitable public persona. As the following photos show, Dalí was as much an extension of his art as art was an extension of Dalí:...

Authorities have no idea where they came from, who they belong to, and how they got there. The Siberian TimesThe 54 severed hands laid out in the snow in Khabarovsk, Russia. Only in Russia. A bag containing 54 severed human hands was just found near the Siberian city of Khabarovsk, near the southeast border with China, according to The Siberian Times on March 8. Initially, just a single hand was spotted near a popular fishing spot along the Amur River....

The latest incident occurred on Tuesday, April 11 in Tabqah, Syria. An airstrike ordered by American troops fighting the Islamic State accidentally killed 18 Syrian allies, the U.S. military announced on Thursday. The incident occurred on Tuesday, April 11 in Tabqah, Syria, and marks the third time in a month that American airstrikes have unintentionally murdered civilians and allies. The previous two attacks — which are currently being investigated by the Pentagon — killed and wounded an unknown number of civilians in a Syrian mosque complex and in a building west of Mosul, Iraq....