In some cases, though, there are those who are fortunate enough to escape the clutches of madness. Their stories serve as lessons in survival that we can all learn from, lessons that could very well save a life. 10Maria Viricheva Three months pregnant and unmarried, 19-year-old Maria Viricheva was working as a saleswoman at the time of her encounter with one of Russia’s most notorious serial killers—Alexander Pichushkin, also known as the Chessboard Killer....

Also known as: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric (POEE) Symbol: The Sacred Chao, symbol of the hodge and podge Founded by/in: Malaclypse the Younger (aka Greg Hill) with Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (aka Kerry Thornley) in 1958 or 1959 Definition/main doctrine: “The Discordian Society has no definition.” Info: It’s still up in the air as to whether on not Discordia is a mock religion or not. Discordia is mostly about nothing; they teach that discord and anarchy are paramount....

Did your premonition come true? 10 “You were right about that too.” Suzan Saxman is a popular, if reluctant, psychic from Woodstock, New York. From a young age, she’s had terrifying visions of death and tragedy, and this only encouraged her to try and ignore her gift. However, she eventually embraced being a psychic and also wrote a book about her experiences. She’s had several visions and premonitions upon meeting clients who want a reading....

Conspiracy theories range from long shots to events that might be real, and that is what makes them so interesting. Some especially interesting ones concern the current and past presidents of the United States. 10 George W. Bush And 9/11 We’ll begin with one of the biggest and relatively recent conspiracy theories that has shaken the United States. On September 11, 2001, two commercial airplanes flew into the World Trade Center towers....

This is obviously because every law has consequences. And unfortunately, it is often impossible to predict the intended and unintended effects of every law. 10 Thai Queen Drowns Because The Law Forbade Anybody From Touching Her Nineteen-year-old Queen Sunandha Kumariratana was the queen consort and one of the three wives of King Chulalongkorn of Siam (now Thailand). In 1880, she drowned alongside her daughter after their boat capsized in Chao Phraya River....

Not everything, of course, is clear in the country’s annals. Some of China’s most interesting historical figures are shrouded in mystery, the victims of assassinations and disappearances that will probably never be solved. 10 The Execution Of Kawashima Yoshiko Kawashima Yoshiko was a Chinese princess who worked as a cross-dressing spy for the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Ethnically, she was Manchu, and her birth name was Aisin Gioro Xianyu....

10Why Do We Have Fingerprints? Despite the known usefulness of our unique fingerprints and the myriad ways they can help identify a person, science isn’t actually sure why we even have them in the first place. Some scientists have designed elaborate computer models to determine how fingerprints form, but despite understanding how they grow, we aren’t really any closer to understanding the evolutionary reason why we have individualized ID badges on our fingertips....

Yet despite the rapid changes in technology, it is amazing how many experts failed to recognize the significance of the inventions which have shaped our modern society. A number of famous quotes from inventors, media organizations, and world leaders illustrate just that. Viewing these pundits’ statements in hindsight shows just how thoroughly they’ve been proven wrong. 10 Nobody Would Want A Home Computer There is no doubt that you are reading this article on a computer....

So it might seem strange that many famous people, even long into the 20th century, rarely or never appeared on film. Unless a new home movie or forgotten broadcast is discovered somewhere, each of these 10 people only made a few appearances on surviving films. 10 George Orwell George Orwell is best known for his dystopian novels 1984 and Animal Farm. Many terms from 1984, such as “thought police” and “Big Brother,” have made their way into everyday language....

Some fatalities even stemmed from Project MK-Ultra, and what follows are 10 of the most interesting figures to have involvement with this CIA-sponsored testing. This is MK-Ultra and its real victims. SEE ALSO: 10 Conspiracy Theories About MK-ULTRA You May Not Know 10. Ken Kesey Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and a source of inspiration in the counterculture movement, was first exposed to LSD and other psychedelic drugs as a part of the MKUltra project while still a graduate student at Stanford University....

If we dig into some of the latest research, though, we find the exact opposite of the disappointment we fear. T-rex was a terrifying animal, and if anything, Jurassic Park was low-balling it. 10 There Were No Booming Footfalls To Warn Of Its Approach As dramatic as that scene in Jurassic Park is, a real T-rex wouldn’t make an Earth-shaking boom noise with every footfall. To the contrary, as famed paleontologist Robert Bakker (aka that awesome bearded guy from every dinosaur documentary ever) explained, dinosaurs’ feet were mostly soft on the underside....

10The Loss Of Palmyra Was The Regime’s Biggest Blow Yet In May, ISIS took the modern city of Tadmur, which includes the magnificent ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra. In the West, the media has mostly focused on the danger to Palmyra’s ancient archaeological treasures, which ISIS considers idolatrous, but the loss might actually prove to be the beginning of the end for the Assad regime. Tadmur/Palmyra stands at a strategically vital crossroads....

10 The Brain Thief In July 2016, police raided the home of Pennsylvanian Joshua Lee Long looking for evidence relating to a series of burglaries in the area. They found more than enough to arrest him, but they also found something rather unexpected in a Walmart shopping bag underneath the porch—a jar of embalming fluid containing a human brain. Joshua had named it “Freddy.” Police are pretty sure that the brain was stolen, too, perhaps from a lab or university....

10Webcam Spying Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania issued 2,300 MacBooks to students in 2010 for use at home. That seems like a great deal for the students, until you learn that the laptops included built-in iSight webcams that school authorities remotely turned on to monitor students. Sophomore Blake Robbins was disciplined for eating at home (the school claimed he was taking pills, though he was actually eating Mike and Ike candy), something the school had discovered by watching through his webcam....

10 The Lies Of Mother Teresa Although Mother Teresa was beatified as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2003, in reality she was far from the saint the Church would lead you to believe. In fact, Mother Teresa isn’t even her real name; she was born Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Albania. The issues certainly don’t end with her pseudonym. Researchers today have called Mother Teresa an empty “PR ploy” by the Vatican to rehabilitate their tarnished image....

It is no surprise then that, on average, thousands of North Koreans defect each year, although this number has been drastically declining. Less talked about, however, are the shocking times when people decided to defect to North Korea. In this list, we look at ten of the most shocking defections to North Korea. 10 James Dresnok One of the most high-profile defectors to North Korea was U.S.-born James Dresnok. A U....

SEE ALSO: 20 Incredible And Thought-Provoking World War II Photos 10The Japanese Soldier At the swirling center of the Pacific theater, a claustrophobic battle was unfolding on the tiny tropical island of Guadalcanal in 1942. Under a cloud of choking humidity, surrounded by swarms of mosquitoes so determined that they sometimes had to be cut out of a soldier’s skin, Allied forces fought an unseen enemy inch by inch through a nearly impenetrable wall of vegetation....

Some actors have to undergo shocking transformations to correctly fit their roles. At times, they will wear hideous makeup, grow out or cut their hair, grow a beard, or wear tattoos. But there are other times when they have to gain or lose considerable amounts of weight. Here are 10 times that actors underwent some amazing weight transformations for a film. 10 Adam DriverSilence Adam Driver is best known for playing artist Adam Sackler on the HBO TV series Girls and for his movie roles in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Paterson, and Inside Llewyn Davis....

Police have estimated that up to half of the art sold on the international market may be forged. Major museums are estimated to hold collections that are about 20-percent fake. In April 2018, one museum in France discovered that 82 of their 140 Etienne Terrus paintings were counterfeit. The forgeries were only spotted when an eagle-eyed visitor noticed that some of the buildings featured in the paintings were built after the artist’s death....

10 Braille Edition Few publications would lend themselves less readily to braille editions than Playboy, but for those blind folks who want to catch up on the dirty jokes section, the library has got your back. Beginning in December of 1970, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped began producing a braille version of the magazine, which has no advertisements or pictures. In December 1986, the Library of Congress stopped making the magazine, which led to a huge lawsuit by several blind rights organizations....