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Is Genuine Multiple Personality Disorder as Depicted in Movies Actually a Thing or a Hollywood Invention?

May 31, 2022 Gilles Messier

Looking back at the long and storied history of literature, film, and other narrative art forms, one trend becomes abundantly clear: writers love mental illness. From depression to bipolar disorder to schizophrenia, psychiatric disorders have been used by artists for hundreds of years to heighten drama, make heroes more heroic, villains more villainous, and allow actors to flex their acting […]

Why Do We Need Oxygen and What Does It Do in the Body?

May 16, 2022 Scott

Jean D. asks: Why do we need oxygen to live? Take a deep breath. Now repeat. Do this about 16 times per minute and you usually get all the oxygen your body needs. Every wonder why you need oxygen to survive in the first place? All life as we know it occurs because of how atoms and molecules interact with […]

What Do Scientologists Actually Believe?

May 12, 2022 Karl Smallwood

Laura A. asks: What exactly do Scientologists believe? Oh boy, we can already tell that the comment section for this one is going to be a ton of fun, so let’s just get straight to it. The Church of Scientology has a reputation as an infamously secretive and litigious organisation that hides its inner workings far from the prying eyes of […]

How Dangerous are Rubber Bullets and Stun Guns?

May 12, 2022 Karl Smallwood

Ashley K asks: How dangerous are rubber bullets? Utilised the world over, rubber bullets and stun guns are controversial additions to the arsenals of police forces and militaries due to their tendency to do the exact opposite of what they’re designed to do, rather than be non-lethal, occasionally killing the people they are leveled at. But how dangerous are they […]

How are Guide Dogs Trained?

May 11, 2022 Karl Smallwood

Dignified, loyal and, above all, very fury, guide dogs are a vital tether to the outside world for many blind and visually impaired people that allow them to live more independent, if dog hair covered, lives. As you’d expect, training one of these wonder-dogs is no easy feat and requires teaching the canine in question to ignore many of its […]

Has Anyone Ever Actually Stuck a Rodent Up Their Butt?

May 6, 2022 Karl Smallwood

Nick G. asks: Please do one on the myth of people sticking small rodents up their anus. Few people are more creative than horny men and if you’ve searched around online for the more… unusual ways people get off, like we’ve had to do EXTENSIVELY in researching this article… only for that reason…, you may have stumbled across allusions to […]

What’s the Deal with the $2 Bill?

May 6, 2022 Karl Smallwood

Contrary to popular opinion the $2 bill is neither rare nor out of circulation, with millions of them being printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing each and every year. Despite this, you’ll occasionally get cashiers who refuse to accept them, thinking them fake, and even the occasional news report of the cops being called on someone who […]

That Time British Witches Tried to Stop a Nazi Invasion Using Magic

May 5, 2022 Gilles Messier

In the summer of 1940, Britain stood balanced on a knife edge. The British Expeditionary Force had narrowly escaped the beaches of Dunkirk, and on July 10 the German Luftwaffe launched a massive air assault, starting what became known as the Battle of Britain. As the bombs fell, the nation braced for the inevitable German invasion. With much of the […]

How the Nazis Teamed Up with IBM for Mass Murder, and the Incredible Story of the First Ethical Hacker

May 5, 2022 Gilles Messier

In the era of Big Data, few figures are more divisive as that of the hacker. On the one hand, malicious or “black hat” hackers cause billions of dollars of damage every year, breaking into private and public networks to steal money or personal data or simply to create chaos. On the other hand, so-called ethical or “white hat” hackers […]

That Time a U.S. President Killed a Man in Cold Blood and Got Away With It Scot-Free

May 5, 2022 Daven Hiskey

On May 30, 1806, Andrew Jackson dueled with famed marksman Charles Dickinson, killing him, after Dickinson insulted Jackson in a variety of ways including calling Jackson’s wife of bigamist. This latter point was a sore spot for Jackson as his wife really had married him while she was still married to her former husband. She had separated from her first […]

What Happened to the Members of the Fellowship of the Ring After The Lord of the Rings?

May 4, 2022 Matthew Theriault

“Well, I’m back.” Not including the six appendices, these are the last words of the final chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. They’re spoken by Sam Gamgee to his wife Rosie as he returns from seeing Frodo and the rest of the Ring-bearers depart from the Grey Havens into the True West. Implied, but not overtly stated, […]

We Still Don’t Know How Bicycles Work

May 4, 2022 Gilles Messier

“It’s as easy as riding a bicycle” – so the old saying goes. And indeed in the wide world of transportation few vehicles are as mechanically elegant as the humble bicycle, which at its most basic consists of little more than a tubular frame, two wheels, a steerable fork, a seat, pedals, and a chain drive. This basic configuration has […]

What is the Record for Most Languages Spoken By One Person?

May 4, 2022 Karl Smallwood

If you speak one language, you’re a normal, functioning human being. If you speak two, you’re bilingual. If you speak three, you’re an overachiever and everyone hates you. But what about if you speak 10? Or 20? Or 30? Well, then you’re considered a polyglot or a hyperpolyglot depending on how awesome a word you think you deserve to describe […]

A Crisis of Minds- The Fascinating Tale of Fixing People By Destroying Their Brain

April 17, 2022 Gilles Messier

In November 1941, Rosemary Kennedy, the eldest sister of future American president John F. Kennedy, was admitted to the George Washington University School of Medicine to undergo a radical procedure. The then 23-year-old Rosemary had for many years exhibited erratic behaviour, mood swings, and mild learning difficulties that left her high profile parents exasperated and publicly embarrassed, until her father, […]

A Corpse an Audacious WWII Plan to Score a Major Victory for the Allies

January 30, 2022 Gilles Messier

Winston Churchill once wrote “In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” Throughout the Second World War, the subtle art of deception proved time and time again to be among the Allies’ most formidable weapons. Prior to the 1942 Battle of El Alamein, the British disguised their tanks as ordinary trucks […]

The Real Story Behind Spider-Man

January 27, 2022 Karl Smallwood

According to an anecdote told by Stan Lee in virtually every interview he’s ever given about Spider-Man, the genesis of the hero began when he saw an insect crawling up a wall while brainstorming ideas and figured that a hero who could stick to walls would be kind of cool. In reality though, the origins of everyone’s favourite friendly neighbourhood […]

That Time Sony Secretly Installed Rootkit Software on Hundreds of Thousands of Computers

December 31, 2021 Karl Smallwood

To echo the sentiment of 2006 nerdcore single, Download This Song, the rise of computers, the internet, and MP3 technology made music a far more customer-centric medium, and boy do company’s hate that. Enter Sony and a rather misguided attempt to limit how consumers consumed music via secretly installing malware on possibly even millions of customer’s computers. So what happened? […]

Can Humans Breathe Liquid Like in The Abyss?

August 13, 2021 Gilles Messier

At the end of James Cameron’s 1989 underwater thriller The Abyss, oil rig diver Bud Brigman, played by Ed Harris, dons an experimental diving suit in which instead of air he breathes a special oxygenated liquid. This allows him to avoid the lethal effects of extreme water pressure and descend to the bottom of a deep ocean trench to defuse […]

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