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SEE ALSO: 10 Accidental Inventions That Changed The World 10John WalkerMatches You may have thought that people were lighting fires with matches for hundreds or even thousands of years, but the invention of the friction match came about in 1827. English inventor and chemist John Walker created the matches we know today and sold them in his hometown of Stockton. He marketed them as “friction lights,” but most people called them “lucifers” as slang....

Editor’s note: Inflation numbers throughout were estimated here. 10 The Galphin Affair While the death of President Zachary Taylor (pictured above) has long been the subject of conspiracy theorists, mainstream historians suspect that the political climate of the time had more to do with the stress that eventually led his death. Taylor was a rare sort who prided himself on his straightforwardness and honesty, and he expected the same of those he put in power....

Here are ten cases of killer dentists. So maybe the dentaphobes truly have something to fear after all! 10 Glennon Engleman Well-respected St. Louis dentist Glennon Engleman was not the most handsome of men. In fact, it would probably be fair to describe him as physically unappealing. Yet Engleman somehow managed to manipulate several of the women in his life into taking part in his elaborate murder-for-money schemes. After divorcing his first wife, Ruth Ball, he continued to give her money and dental care, and they still hooked up....

Four armed men entered the upmarket jewelry store (“Jeweler to the Stars”) shortly before closing time, 3 of whom were dressed in wigs and women’s clothing. After cleaning out the display cases, they forced staff to loot the storage area, as the millions worth of jewels in the display cases just wasn’t enough for these guys. They cleaned the place out, without firing a shot. Harry Winston stock fell 9% the next day after word of the robbery got out....

These ten creatures aren’t cute enough to end up as the star of their own Disney movie, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less interesting. Most are decidedly more nefarious, while a few are benevolent. One or two may even have had some basis in reality. 10 Adaro The ocean can be an unforgiving place. If sailors were gone for too long, they would sometimes go insane. Children who disobeyed their parents would slip into the water without ever struggling or splashing before they drowned....

Logical thought, also called scientific thought, is the process of reasoning and testing in order to deduce the truth in any situation so that it may be more widely applied. For example, noting that every time anyone eats a certain berry they grow sick and die leads to the conclusion that the berry is likely poisonous. However, noting that when one ate a certain fruit the rain began to fall should not lead to a conclusion of ‘eating fruit makes it rain’ because the process has not been repeated or tested to confirm the link....

Cabinets of curiosities displayed these natural marvels—with strange specimens and amazing artifacts from distant lands. More than mere amusements for the idle rich, these displays helped people to better know and understand the mysterious world around them. 10 Kunshtkameroy In 1714, Russia’s Tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725) established the Kunshtkameroy (“cabinet of rarities”) in Moscow. It has since been moved to St. Petersburg’s Summer Palace. By Peter’s order, travelers returned home with anything “exceedingly old and unusual” they’d found in their journeys....

This week, we’ll be continuing our brand-new policy of completely ignoring the dumpster fire that is US politics in favor of stuff less likely to make you want to hang yourself. So strap yourself in and prepare for a giddy ride through the turbulent waters we like to call “news that doesn’t involve Washington, DC.” 10 Canada Got Legal Pot It was like all an old school stoner’s dreams come true at once....

This week was the antithesis of its companion exactly one month ago when President Trump made positive headlines around the globe for his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. His Monday summit with Vladimir Putin in Finland sparked the sort of controversy that is rare even for such a “shoot-from-the-hip” style of president. More on this below along with all the stuff you might have missed while the news was focused on Helsinki....

As our scientific tools get better and we get a deeper insight into the inner workings of the most important part of the body, we realize that it’s capable of much more than we previously thought. Here are ten of the most mind-blowing things you had no idea the human brain can do. 10 Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field The ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field has been extensively found and studied among animals....

10Robocop 2 (1990)First Feature-Length Film To Use Real-Time Computer Graphics Robocop 2 doesn’t have a lot of fans compared to its undisputed classic of a predecessor, but it does have the distinction of officially ushering in the CGI generation. Real time computer graphics—also known as digital puppetry—require a human adding motion to a 3-D virtual image. This is done via simple keyed-in orders such as “look left,” “blink,” and “open mouth wide,” the results of which make a series of bits and bytes positively lifelike....

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Mysteries And Crimes Solved By The Internet 10The Secret Of Death Valley’s Sailing Stones Fron the 1940s till recently, the Racetrack Playa, a dry lake bed with a flat surface in Death Valley National Park, was the setting for a “sailing stones” mystery that left people scratching their heads. With years or even decades between each occurrence, an unseen force appeared to move hundreds of rocks across the ground at the same time, leaving long parallel trails in the dried mud....

On display in the Louvre, the tiny portrait is often touted as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.” As such, a deeper investigation into the mysterious smiling woman on the canvas reveals much more than meets the eye. 10 Who Is She? The true identity of the portrait sitter remains a mysterious aspect....

10JFK Said He Was A Doughnut “Ich bin ein Berliner” is the crowning line of one of the most famous speeches of all time, delivered by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 in Berlin as a show of America’s support for West Germany. The memorable one-liner is simply meant to state, “I am a Berliner,” but the word soon spread that JFK made a humorous gaffe and actually said something else—that he was a jam doughnut....

Plenty of adults have applied their imaginations to their old childhood favorites as well. However, for anyone who grew up listening to classic bedtime stories or watching their film adaptations, the fan theories below may or may not make you see them in a different light . . . 10 ‘Snow White’ “Snow White” is a quintessential example of a fairy tale that has enchanted kids around the globe for many years....

We often think of stars as huge, hot, round masses of hydrogen and helium even though they are not always so. Astronomers have detected lots of stars that destroy our well-established notions. These discoveries are odd and ultimately fascinating. 10 The Egg-Shaped Star What is cooler than a round star? Obviously, one that’s shaped like an egg. Enter Vega (aka Alpha Lyrae or Alpha Lyr), an egg-shaped star located 25 light-years away from us....

But science’s progress has shown some bizarre turns and freakish results. It has also raised troubling ethical questions. Below are 10 of these oddities of reproductive science. 10 Baby Hair Lassos And Salamanders Scientist Hans Spemann found that his standard tools did not work well on his test subjects, very early stage salamander embryos. They were just too slippery. While holding his nine-month-old daughter, Spemann had an idea. He snipped off a lock of his daughter’s hair and returned to the lab....

10Abe no Seimei Abe no Seimei was the Japanese Merlin. However, unlike the European wizard, Seimei’s historical existence goes unchallenged. He served six different emperors as an omyodo, a yin-yang master. The court wizard oversaw matters of divination, protecting the Japanese emperor with rituals to banish evil spirits and illnesses. Legends and folktales ascribe to him all sorts of supernatural powers. The famous kabuki play Kuzunoha says he inherited his magical power from his mother, a white fox....

But there’s indulging your lazy side, and then there’s dedicating your life to extreme acts of procrastination. The following people all have one thing in common: They took one look at your average lazy person and decided, “I can do better . . . as soon as I can be bothered.” 10 The Oxford English Dictionary Outdated Itself Before Release Compiling the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was always going to be a monumental task....

10 Vegan Condoms Like any other lifestyle, veganism has different extremes. Dietary vegans may not consume any animal product—not just meat, but milk, eggs, and honey among other things. Ethical vegans eschew using any animal product altogether, including leather clothing or cosmetics tested on lab animals. This is an extraordinarily difficult moral code to live by; animals are used in many more ways than you might imagine. Strangely enough, this extends to condoms....