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The true story of how partisan U.S. politics, Jeffrey Epstein’s 2008 conviction, Russian bots, and good old-fashioned witch hysteria launched the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. If you weren’t active on social media during the 2016 US presidential election, you can be forgiven for asking “what is Pizzagate?” While the conspiracy theory made headlines in 2016 after it led to a shooting in a Washington, D.C. pizzeria, it is still one of the more opaque moments of what turned out to be a pretty wild year in the news....

After five-month-old Sabrina Aisenberg vanished right out of her crib in 1997, police suspected her parents Steve and Marlene — then uncovered disturbing evidence when they bugged their home. somebodies_angel/FlickrSabrina Aisenberg, mere months before her baffling disappearance. A missing child is a parent’s worst nightmare. And Marlene and Steve Aisenberg appeared to go through that agony after their 5-month-old daughter, Sabrina Aisenberg, disappeared from their Florida home in the dead of night....

L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1954 to supposedly rid his parishioners of self-doubt. More than half a century later, the religion is under more scrutiny than ever. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: What Happened To Shelly Miscavige? Inside The Mysterious Disappearance Of Scientology’s ‘First Lady’ Rape Case Against Actor Stalled By Church of Scientology Despite Compelling Evidence...

It’s safe to say that most people have experienced the occasional sore throat or a rough bout of seasonal influenza. Yet for all of the ordinary, run-of-the-mill afflictions we deal with on a day-to-day basis, there are just as many unbelievably bizarre diseases that exist throughout the world. Here are some of the most incredible illnesses you’ve probably never heard of: Incredible Illnesses: Jumping Frenchman of Maine The Jumping Frenchman of Maine were first discovered in a medical journal article written by Dr....

In July 1947, something crashed on the Foster Ranch in New Mexico. What that object was, what the government said it was, and what the public thought it could be has created a near-mythical confusion that has lasted ever since. In the summer of 1947, something crashed on the Foster Ranch in south-central New Mexico. The site was about 30 miles southeast of the small town of Corona, but it was 75 miles northwest of the larger town that gave this event its name: the Roswell incident....

“With all the bad news coming out about things in the natural world, this gives me hope.” Clay BoltA size comparison between a standard European honey bee and the Wallace’s giant bee. For nearly 40 years, scientists believed that a species of gargantuan bee had gone extinct. Until now, the bulky insect — which is about four times larger than a European honey bee and the size of a human adult’s thumb — hasn’t been seen since 1981....

In 2017 alone, there have been 76 homicides in Chicago. The most recent murder was of a 2-year-old boy, Lavontay White Jr. On Tuesday afternoon, the child was killed in his carseat when a shooter opened fire in an alley on the city’s West side, the Chicago Tribune reported. Police assume the shooter was aiming for Lavontay’s uncle, a 26-year-old known gang member who was also killed. The car was being driven by the uncle’s pregnant 20-year-old girlfriend, who was streaming a Facebook live video at the time of the incident....

Scientists say the global supply of helium will be gone in 30 years. Should we really be using it for Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade balloons? “When it’s gone, it is lost to us forever.” That’s what University College London chemist Andrea Sella said regarding helium, the element that is used to bring the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons to life each year. As many families gather by their TV screens — or, for some in New York City, Manhattan sidewalks — this Thursday morning, they will bear witness to one of the United States’ most revered holiday traditions....

“I’m just happy he survived and I didn’t eat him.” Rarely do stories of finding unintended items in packaged food end well, but in one exception to the rule a California woman gained a new friend after discovering a surprise in her Target salad. The Los Angeles Times reports that last week Becky Garfinkel discovered a small frog in the salad she purchased from a nearby Target. The 37-year-old Corona, California resident was already mostly through her Taylor Farms spring mix salad when she noticed the frog....

Celebrities are in a unique position in modern society. Like the aristocracy of the past, today’s most successful actors and singers have a great deal of license in how they conduct themselves. This means that they sometimes go completely off the rails and cause a great deal of harm. Of course, any reasonable person knows that being really good at hitting C-sharp doesn’t make you an international authority on the wealth of nations, just as having a perky butt isn’t quite the same as earning a doctorate in immunology....

Brooke Lajiness of Michigan pled guilty to luring two boys ages 14 and 15 into sex using Snapchat. Facebook On Monday, 38-year-old Brooke Lajiness faced sentencing for having sex with two boys, ages 14 and 15, who she had lured to her car. The married mother from Lima Township, Michigan received a sentence of at least four years and nine months and as much as 15 years in prison. She “held back tears” during sentencing, writes Fox News, saying “This has been the biggest regret of my life....

Source: Dive The natural world is capable of producing some really weird (and powerful) creatures. It’s no wonder that so many of our fictional superheroes are based on animals. A lot of them possess powers that would make even the most daring of us think twice before taking them on. Mantis Shrimp The peacock mantis shrimp is both beautiful and deadly Source: Dive Don’t be fooled by this little guy’s diminutive size or colorful appearance – he packs quite a punch....

Forget Atlantis. These real sunken cities of the ancient world that every bit as incredible as the legend. Wikimedia CommonsThe gates to the Neptune Memorial Reef, off the coast Key Biscayne, Florida. We may never find Atlantis, but the real world is full of sunken cities every bit as incredible as the Greek myths. They’re in every corner of the world; great, ancient cities that have been pulled under the water through earthquakes and storms....

Alexander Pichushkin was found guilty of murdering at least 48 people in a Moscow park — and during his trial in 2007, he demanded that the court recognize that he had actually killed many more. When future-serial killer Alexander Pichushkin was a child, he fell backward off of a swing. As he was sitting up, the swing swung back and hit him in the forehead. The event caused lasting damage to his still-developing frontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls problem-solving, impulse regulation, and personality traits....

The discovery of the ancient gate suggests that the famous king of the Israelites may not have been sole ruler of his time. The ruins of the ancient city of Bethsaida in the Golan Heights, where archaeologists just discovered a gate dating back to the rule of King David. After more than three decades of excavation efforts in the ancient site of Bethsaida in the Golan Heights, archaeologists have unearthed something miraculous: a city gate that dates back to the time of King David, who historians believe ruled the lands between the 11th to 10th centuries B....

Angus MacAskill was a true giant whose size and strength rivaled even that of Andre the Giant. Wikimedia CommonsAngus MacAskill standing next to a person of average height. P.T. Barnum was world renowned for finding the tallest, smallest, oldest, youngest and most interesting specimens that the world had ever seen, but even he was surprised by Angus MacAskill. Standing almost eight feet tall (seven feet, nine inches, to be specific), Angus MacAskill was a sight to behold....

Though in many ways Hollywood has whitewashed the Wild West, some of the first settlers were freed slaves who traveled west and became the black cowboys of the American frontier. Wikimedia Commons Black cowboys helped settle the Old West, yet their contributions are rarely in the history books. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, America turned its attention to settling lands in the Great Plains and to the west. Despite what you might have seen in movies, the American West was settled by a large portion of freed slaves....

The Beerepoots argued that God’s rule trumps Australian tax law, thus preventing them from paying off the $US600,000 they owed in income tax. Phoebe Hosier/ABC NewsChristian missionaries Rembertus Cornelis Beerepoot (left) and Fanny Alida Beerepoot (right) leave court with another family member. People will often go to great lengths to avoid paying taxes, but the recent case of a Christian family in Tasmania, Australia takes things to a whole new level....

The size of Claire Miller’s TikTok following exploded to a disturbing degree just after she stabbed her wheelchair-bound older sister to death in February 2021. Left: @spiritsandsuchconsulting/TikTok; Right: Lancaster County District AttorneyClaire Miller allegedly stabbed her own sister to death. The proliferation of social media platforms like TikTok has made millions of people around the world feel less alone. Glimpses into each other’s lives have provided the youth of Generation Z with an extraordinary outlet to connect....

The paleontologist who first discovered the fossil died before he could study it. Now, one of his former students has picked up where he left off. Peter SchoutenMukupirna nambensis had very soft teeth compared to modern wombats, as grasslands in Australia hadn’t developed yet — and they fed on softer plants. About 10 years ago, paleontologist Julien Louys accidentally discovered the fossils of a giant extinct wombat cousin. Left behind in the collection drawers of New York’s American Natural History Museum, they had been collecting dust since 1973....