Fun fact: the World Wildlife Fund refers to polar bears as marine mammals -- you know, like whales and orcas and dolphins – because they spend so much of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean. Here's why they are endangered.
Read MoreQueen Victoria had her supporters, but also her detractors. Over the course of 42 years, at least eight times someone tried to cut short her reign. Here's the truth about every assassination attempt on Queen Victoria.
Read More"Remember, remember," theatrically inclined teenagers will tell you, "the fifth of November." Over the last forty years, Guy Fawkes and his grinning visage have occupied an ever-growing corner of the societal hive mind. But here's the true meaning behind the mask.
Read MoreWater fountains are never the hero of anyone's story, save for One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest when Chief Bromden smashes a mental hospital window with a water fountain and escapes. But even then, he didn't drink from it. Here's how dirty water fountains are.
Read MoreThe royal life isn't for everybody, with its constant demands and unceasing visibility. Some people don't want that. That seems to have been the case with Princess Feodora, who dodged the royal throne by being born to the wrong dad. Here's the truth about Queen Victoria's sister Princess Feodora.
Read MoreThe ancient Egyptians were deadly serious about their board games, especially when it came to senet. This board game wasn’t about having fun. It was about death and the afterlife.
Read MoreEliot Ness was a Prohibition agent working in Chicago. In his 20s, handsome, and with a knack for providing good newspaper quotes, Ness led a team that really did put a crimp on the bootlegging business. Then things turned tragic.
Read MorePantera originated groove metal. Guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, bassist Rex Brown, and singer Phil Anselmo provided a soundtrack for the disaffected, and a loud one at that. This is the tragic real-life story of Pantera, one of metal's greatest bands.
Read MoreWhile the endangered whale shark isn’t a threat to humans, the massive fish often finds itself in trouble whenever it swims too close to people.
Read MoreThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that an estimated eight million metric tons of plastic enter the world's oceans annually. That's tantamount to the weight of about 90 aircraft carriers. Just how dirty is the ocean?
Read MoreGenghis Khan was the first Khal Drogo and the fifth horseman of the apocalypse. The seemingly indomitable Mongol conqueror cemented his legacy while raining searing, equine death on the Khwarazm empire in 1219. But even great warriors meet their own end. Here's the truth about Genghis Khan's death.
Read MoreAfter thousands of years of knuckle-popping physical inhumanity to our fellow man, have we found a definitive answer to the question "what's the deadliest martial art in the world?"
Read MoreThe last song Janis Joplin ever recorded was about a car. Her voice was the engine powering the a capella masterpiece, "Mercedes Benz." Of course, according to the lyrics, her friends all drove Porsches, and according to reality, so did she. But whatever happened to Janis Joplin's famous Porsche?
Read MoreDogs: they're man's best friend. They're our loyal companions. They stand by our sides when times get tough, assuming that we keep feeding them our unfinished jerky sticks and scratching those hard-to-reach places. But which dog has the best sense of smell?
Read MoreJeffrey Dahmer said of his first murder victim, "The guy wanted to leave and I didn't want him to leave." But here's how Dahmer himself died.
Read MoreMargaret Tudor was the daughter of King Henry VII and older sister of King Henry VIII. She was promised in marriage to James IV of Scotland, part of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between England and Scotland in 1502. But there's more to her story.
Read MoreLet's rip this Band-Aid off up front: Alexander the Great's horse was named Bucephalus, and no, his name didn't mean anything that you're imagining.
Read MoreIf you know one thing about Chernobyl, you probably know that it was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in human history. So it may not come as a surprise that weird, radiation-eating organisms have been discovered there.
Read MoreYou may think Ivan Pavlov discovered Pavlovian responses by conditioning dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell. But that wouldn't ring true to Pavlov, since everyone describes the iconic dog study incorrectly. Here's the fascinating and occasionally ugly truth about Ivan Pavlov and his dogs.
Read MoreBob Seger plugged away at music for more than 50 years. From his athletic background to the real reason he retired, here's the untold truth about Bob Seger.
Read MoreForget curing cancer, of finding a vaccine to prevent coronavirus. Science has finally put its money where its mouth really is by coming up with what must be the greatest discovery since Albert Einstein invented sliced bread. We're talking, of course, about a recipe for better soap bubbles.
Read MoreLate fees, man -- the clawing, creeping, unfortunate fact of the video rental age. But now that the great beast Blockbuster has been bound in the ancient tongue and imprisoned in a strip mall in Bend, Oregon, can we finally rest easy about our late fees?
Read MoreThere are many questions people ask themselves about Dan Bilzerian, such as "Why does he act like that all the time?" and "Will that beard eventually reach his eyebrows?" Money comes up a lot too.
Read MoreThe year is 1947. The Allies have slogged through years of bloody warfare, but in the end emerge triumphant over the powers of the Axis. The boys are home. The world is at peace. Nothin' but good times ahead. Right? Not for Elizabeth Short, also known as "The Black Dahlia."
Read MoreNo matter how overbooked a flight might be, one traveler that always lands a spot on the plane is latent regret. One of the times that feeling kicks in is when you realize how utterly dirty and disgusting a commercial aircraft can get.
Read MoreThere's no telling where Poppy might pop up, what she might do, and who she might be working with. But who is she, really? How did she come up with her peculiar character, and what's her endgame with all of this oddness? Let's take a look at the untold truth of Poppy.
Read MoreMarilyn Manson has spent decades crafting his legacy as a shock rocker, complete with all the attention, anger and accusations that come with this choice of profession. He collects weird stuff. He does weird things. But does he collect money?
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