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10 Google X Created in 2010, Google’s research facility, Google X, is housed in an unremarkable brick building near the company’s main location. It has the mission of developing “moonshot” technologies (improbable projects) that require huge capital outlays. Self-driving cars and Google Glasses are two familiar examples. Eric “Astro” Teller, Google X’s director, said, “Anything which is a huge problem for humanity we’ll sign up for, if we can find a way to fix it....

Marijuana growers could thrive in secrecy. But not everyone is fortunate enough to hide among the silent giants. Much has been invested in guarding these secret operations, and we’re not simply talking about armored men on a murder spree. The folks on this list are more creative than that. In an underground economy like the marijuana trade, you have to be an original. How does one conceal a pot farm worth millions?...

Indeed, history is a well-known lover of heroes. Fearsome warriors have been glorified and romanticized since time immemorial. Therefore, it is unsurprising that Asia produced certain individuals oozing with martial might and badassery during the years when it was engulfed in mutual conquest. 10 Prithviraj Chauhan Hailing from the Indian Chahamana dynasty, Prithviraja III (aka Prithviraj Chauhan) was a warlord and king who is known as one of the fiercest men in history....

10The Chinese From 1368–1644, China was ruled by the Ming Dynasty. As Europe was becoming dominated by ships and sails, China was also encouraging naval exploration, and one expedition may have led to America. The theory—which has been dubbed the “1421 theory,” the year the Chinese supposedly made landfall—was popularized by British amateur historian Gavin Menzies, who noted similarities between Chinese and Native American culture. Menzies posits that during the 70 years before Columbus reached the New World, the Chinese were ruling major American tribes and interbreeding with the natives....

10The Murder Of Karla Brown In the summer of 1978, the body of a young woman was found partially submerged in a large drum of water in the small town of Wood River, Illinois. Her name was Karla Brown, and she had been brutally beaten, raped, and murdered. Although the crime appeared to be rushed and poorly planned, there seemed to be no evidence pointing toward a suspect. After two years, investigators finally noticed a set of bite marks on Brown’s shoulder....

10 Quaint Little German TownVenezuela South American country Venezuela is known for its tropical climate, its Latin roots, and its beautiful jungles. Yet in one northern corner of the country lies a tiny town that is a 100 percent German. Meet La Colonia Tovar—the quaint little town founded by 300 German immigrants who sailed to Venezuela in 1843 and managed to keep their culture and heritage intact for nearly 200 years....

Sometimes, they even wind up printing stories so improbable, you can only sit back and admire the cojones of the guy or girl who sent it to them . . . 10Journalist Fools Papers Into Printing His Hilariously Fake Diet Study In early 2015, a scientific study blew up that seemed too good to be true. According to Dr. Johannes Bohannon from the Institute of Diet and Health, chocolate had been proven to speed up weight loss....

During the thirty-odd years it was at its most impenetrable, hundreds of attempts were made to cross it, and many people from all walks of life died trying. Here are ten of the most depressing stories relating to those failed crossings of the Berlin Wall: Peter Fechter was an eighteen-year-old who wanted nothing more than to taste the sweet air of West Germany. His plan was simple: he and a friend would wait until an opportune moment, then sprint across the “death strip” (it was actually called that) and vault the wall to freedom....

That’s just one of the many controversies the doctors are hotly debating (out of public sight, for the most part). 10Doctors Can Be Deceived Or Make Mistakes Medical journals help physicians stay up to date. Unfortunately, they sometimes contain papers written by drug company ghostwriters. For instance: In 2000, a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine praised Vioxx, a new pain reliever. The writers—some of whom later turned out to be connected with the company that made Vioxx—played down cardiac side effects....

SEE ALSO:10 Whatchamacallits And Their Real Names 10Why Do Hiccup Cures Work? Hiccups are weird things, and we’re not even sure why they happen. There’s no real, practical reason for a hiccup, and we don’t know why all of our tried-and-true hiccup cures work. Everyone has their favorites, from eating a spoonful of sugar to holding your breath until the hiccups stop. There are so many ways to get rid of a hiccup that no matter where you are when you get it, someone will have a suggestion for making it stop....

On November 12, 1990, Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote a document outlining the basics of what we now know as the world wide web. Within the same year he created the first web server and web browser (which he called WorldWideWeb) on a NeXT computer (NeXT was Steve Jobs’ company when he left Apple – it was this operating system that Apple based its OS X on after Jobs returned there)....

Modern medicine has advanced considerably in recent times, and our understanding of pathology has never been better. However, history shows that mistakes are all too often made in the pursuit of scientific achievement. When it came to disease, even some of the most revered thinkers got it spectacularly wrong. As you might expect, such theories led to some rather baffling treatments. From lobotomies to bloodletting, scientists throughout the ages have offered some fairly crackpot therapies....

But those people didn’t design or develop any of the technology used by the Nazis. It was the prominent scientists and engineers who built the Nazi war machine and helped Hitler come close to world domination. 10 Ferdinand Porsche Ferdinand Porsche’s last name may sound familiar to everyone—and yes, he is the founder of the company that makes Porsche sports cars. He also worked enthusiastically for the Nazis. He designed the Volkswagen Beetle, which was intended by Hitler to be a “people’s car....

10 The Pirate King And The Flying Gang Benjamin Hornigold was an English privateer captain in the Caribbean who refused to give up the fight against the Spanish after the war had ended in 1713. Until then, the English Crown had given Hornigold permission to plunder enemy ships and sell the goods in Port Royal, Jamaica. In 1715, Hornigold launched a raid on Spanish divers attempting to recover a treasure galleon....

We’re more interested in the weird functions that seemingly serve no explainable purpose at all. Yet, they’re sure to have had some kind of advantage in our evolutionary history to have survived for so long, even if the reasons may not be as clear to us. We’re talking about functions like: 10 Depression While many people tend to equate just having a bad day with depression, it’s really not the same....

Here are ten reasons why this might be considered an accurate diagnosis of the human condition. For the sake of variety, the well-known cases of wars and genocide have been largely excluded, as most of the major examples have appeared many times on Listverse. Happy slapping is one of the most idiotic fads ever devised. It began in 2004, primarily in the United Kingdom, and spread quickly into Europe. It did not catch on very well in America....

Terrorists have also learned to make explosives from everyday products. The main culprit might be the Internet, which provides easy access to the necessary information. For example, the Australian government has started a campaign in favor of chemical security. Their plan is to raise awareness of common dangerous chemicals and have any suspicious behavior reported to their national security hotline. However, many people think that their choice to publish an official list of 96 dangerous chemicals, which are approved for use in Australia, is a big mistake....

While ASL may be the most well-known of the non-spoken languages, the reality is that it is just one of hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of varied sign languages that have cropped around the world. In fact, think of any way to communicate or make noise without speaking, and there is probably a language somewhere on our diverse and fascinating globe that uses it—be it humming, drumming, whistling, or tapping....

Yet he is also known to some as the Father of Lies. His work contains may diversions. If he found a tale that he thought would interest his audience, no matter how far-fetched, he would include it in his work. Here are ten of the weirdest tales from Herodotus, the historicity of which I leave to you. 10 Gyges Usurps The Throne Before Herodotus can tell us about King Croesus, he decides we have to learn the strange events of how Croesus’s family came to hold the throne of Lydia....

Here are ten facts about body hair that will make you sick (or maybe a little freaked out). 10 Sexy Beard Facts If you listen closely in a sound-proof room, you can hear your hair growing at night. Okay, no, that’s a complete lie. But the actual truth is that your hair is the fastest-growing tissue in your body, second to bone marrow (’cause blood cells are more important than hair)....