Since surveillance has become so prevalent in the world, a large number of crimes have been recorded and used as evidence in court. In many cases, these tapes are extremely sensitive and sealed from the public eye. This is to protect the families of the victims and prevent the spread of the videos via the Internet. However, this doesn’t stop people from searching the web for the clips. This article will examine ten real videos that you will not be able to find on the Internet. Most are part of an investigation or display sensitive material.

In the research for this article I came across a large amount of urban legend clips that supposedly show a wide range of disturbing images. These videos were not included in the list because I intended to focus on real videos. In some cases there have been videos that were thought to be lost forever and then suddenly appeared on YouTube. One example is the 1969 short Mickey Mouse in Vietnam. The short is one minute long and shows Mickey Mouse being shot to death in Vietnam. It was thought lost until April 22, 2013 when a silent version of the video was uploaded to YouTube. The clip has since been removed from YouTube and is once again hard to locate.

On February 18, 2013 eight masked gunmen stole approximately US$50 million in diamonds from the belly of a plane at the Brussels Airport. The heist was carried out after the men accessed the airport through a hole created in a security fence. After breaching the airport fence, the criminals, who were dressed like police officers, drove two vehicles directly to the area where the a Brink’s armored van was moving diamonds to the plane. In 15 minutes, the robbers loaded 130 bags of diamonds into their vehicles and left. They used automatic weapons, but never fired a shot during the heist.

It is thought that the robbery was an inside job because the criminals had prior knowledge of an unlocked gate, construction work at the airport, and arrived immediately after the diamonds had been unloaded. The men also showed knowledge of how to quickly work the plane’s hatch and had military training. The heist occurred during a five minute window in which the diamonds were being transported to the plane. It has since been realized that a large percentage of the diamonds were uncut, which makes them extremely hard to trace.

The entire event was captured by the airport’s security system. The police have since attempted to identify the culprits, but have not been able to because of their masks. The video remains sealed to the public and it is unlikely to be released in the near future. This has caused some people to express concern because exposure of the tapes could help find the diamonds. It is possible that somebody could recognize specific mannerisms of the criminals.

In May of 2013, it was announced that police in France, Switzerland, and Belgium had arrested more than two dozen people who are thought to be involved with the diamond heist. The police confiscated a significant amount of cash and diamonds. However, a huge percentage of the stolen gems remain at large. It was reported that one of the people arrested in France is thought to be one of the eight masked gunman who participated in the heist. It has also been reported that the robbers thought they were stealing money instead of diamonds.

On three separate occasions in the last ten years a major diamond heist has been carried out in the middle of February. All of the events have been connected to Antwerp. They include the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, the 2005 Schiphol Airport diamond heist, and the 2013 Brussels Airport diamond heist.

On February 10, 1976 episode #847 of the American children’s series Sesame Street aired on television. The episode features Margaret Hamilton in her famous role as the Wicked Witch of the West. The Wicked Witch is one of the most notable villains in history and the character seems to have an influence on children. Hamilton was aware of her impact on children and continually tried to explain to kids that she was just acting. Margaret even appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in which she showed children how she dressed up as the witch. Despite this, when Hamilton is viewed on television as the witch, kids get freaked out.

In episode #847, the Wicked Witch comes to visit Sesame Street and loses her broom. The broom falls into the hands of David, who refuses to give it back to the witch. This doesn’t make her happy and the witch threatens to turn Big Bird into a feather duster. Meanwhile, Oscar the Grouch becomes friends with the witch. As the episode continues, the witch tries to regain her broom in a variety of ways. Even dressing up like a harmless old lady in order to deceive the group. The educational curriculum for the episode is fear and the value of planning, which was used by the witch to develop methods for retrieving her broom.

After the episode was aired in 1976, the television station received a large amount of complaints from parents. It was reported that children were scared by the show and refused to watch any more Sesame Street. Some kids had problems sleeping and others experienced fits of terror. The response was so abundant that the creators of Sesame Street decided to conduct an experiment with the episode.

The group organized a large sample of kids who were willing to watch the episode in the presence of their parents. It was reported that the children were much more attentive during the scenes with the witch. However, the emotion of fear was difficult to judge as the kids had their parents present. After the experiment was completed it was requested that the episode with Hamilton not be shown on television again. The creators of Sesame Street agreed and the episode has not been aired since 1976. It is currently impossible to find on the Internet and has not been released on DVD.

One of the most disgusting stories you will ever read is that of Armin Meiwes. In 2001, Meiwes ran an advertisement on a website named The Cannibal Café looking for a willing victim to be “slaughtered and consumed.” A man named Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes from Berlin responded to the message and agreed to meet Meiwes. On March 9, 2001, the two met at Meiwes house in Rotenburg, Germany and Brandes was killed. The entire event was filmed on a 2 hour long videotape. The details of the massacre are gruesome and hard to describe.

Meiwes started by amputating the penis of Brandes and the two ate it. Meiwes then slaughtered Brandes and placed the body on a meat hook. Over the next 10 months Meiwes consumed approximately 20 kilograms (44 lb) of the flesh. He even ground up some of Brandes’ bones and tried to use the substance as cooking flour. All of the events were recorded on the video, which was later seized by authorities and forever sealed from the public.

In December of 2002 Meiwes was arrested by the police after they had received a phone call from a concerned man who had seen a new advertisement from Meiwes on the Internet. It was also discovered that Meiwes had bragged about the crimes in chat rooms. On January 30, 2004, Armin Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and given a prison sentence of eight years. It was ruled that Brandes was a voluntary participant in the killing, so it was not murder. However, in 2006 the case was revisited and Meiwes was convicted of murder and given a life sentence in prison. It has been written that Meiwes is sorry for his crimes and has become a vegetarian in jail. He believes that there are about 800 cannibals living in Germany.

Timothy Treadwell was a bear enthusiast that was fatally mauled at Katmai National Park in Alaska on October 5, 2003. At the time of his death Treadwell was with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, who was also killed in the attack. For thirteen straight years, Treadwell had visited Katmai in the summer months to spend time with grizzly bears. He loved being with the bears in their natural habitat. Treadwell recorded over 100 hours of videotape at Katmai and took countless still photographs. The material was later used by filmmaker Werner Herzog to produce the documentary titled Grizzly Man.

In the years before his death, Treadwell had received a considerable amount of media attention for his annual trip to the park. He appeared on U.S. talk shows and was often criticized by researchers for his lack of safety in the presence of bears. In October of 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend decided to stay in the park for an extra week in order to locate a bear that had not been viewed that summer. It was a dangerous decision because grizzly bears always become more aggressive in the fall months as they fatten up for hibernation.

On October 5, 2003 Timothy spoke to a friend in California on a satellite phone and indicated that he was having no problems with the bears. The following day, a Kodiak air taxi pilot went to pick up Treadwell and Huguenard and discovered an abandoned camp. Park rangers were called to the scene and it was revealed that Timothy and Amie had been mauled and partially eaten by grizzly bears. The rangers located a bear protecting the camp and shot it. A few minutes later a smaller bear charged the men, so they killed it as well. It was the first time in the history of Katmai National Park that a human had been killed by a bear. The deadly bear can be seen in one of Treadwell’s last recordings in which it is referred to as “The Grinch.”

In the moments leading up the mauling, either Treadwell, but probably Huguenard turned on a video camera and captured audio of the attack. The camera was either in a bag or had its lens cap on because the video is completely black, but the audio is chilling. The tape lasts roughly six minutes in which Treadwell can be heard screaming for two-thirds of the time. Sadly, Timothy struggled for his life. The bear makes very little noise during the attack and it was reported that only small growls and grunts can be heard from the animal. Towards the end of the recording, Treadwell is heard being dragged away from the camp by the bear.

After Treadwell is killed, the screams of Amie become extremely loud and the tape stop. It is believed that Amie was mauled shortly after. In the film Grizzly Man Herzog is recorded listening to the tape with headphones on, but no sections of the video are played in the movie. His reaction to the material is horrifying and Herzog urges the videos owner to destroy the tape. The recording has since been placed in a bank vault by Treadwell’s ex-girlfriend Jewel Palovak. In 2008, a section of the clip was supposedly leaked to the Internet, but the recording is thought to be faked. The real recording has never been released.

The Scarborough Rapist is a man named Paul Bernardo who terrorized the community of Scarborough, Ontario during the late 1980s and early 90s. In 1988, the police began to realize that a serial rapist was attacking young women in Scarborough. In response they created a task force to find the rapist. Between 1987 and 1989 Paul Bernardo attacked around 20 separate women and raped half of them. In 1990, the police gathered DNA evidence from 130 suspects in the case. One of the suspects was Paul Bernardo, who submitted DNA evidence and was released in November of 1990.

In 1990, Bernardo also got engaged to a woman named Karla Homolka and became infatuated with her younger sister Tammy Homolka. Bernardo eventually convinced Karla to drug her sister and allowed him to rape her. The two videotaped the event and mocked Tammy. During one attack on Tammy she began to vomit and choked to death. In response, Karla took the camera and filmed herself in Tammy’s clothes and pretended to be her. After an investigation, Tammy Homolka’s death was ruled an accident.

On June 15, 1991, Paul Bernardo kidnapped a young girl named Leslie Mahaffy and brought her back to his home with Karla Homolka. The pair attacked the girl and videotaped themselves torturing her to the music of Bob Marley and David Bowe. The following day Leslie Mahaffy was murdered by the couple. Bernardo claimed that Homolka killed Mahaffy with an overdose of Halcion, while Homolka claimed that Bernardo strangled her. In April of 1992 both Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka abducted a girl named Kristen French. French was taken back to the couple’s house where they filmed themselves torturing her in horrible ways. The following day Kristen was murdered.

Twenty-six months after his DNA evidence was submitted, Paul Bernardo was linked to the Scarborough rapist case and arrested. However, authorities could not implement him in the murders, so they turned to Karla Homolka who was given a plea bargain deal in order to testify against him. Homolka accepted the deal and was sentenced to 12 years in jail for her role in the murders. During the trial, Karla painted herself as a victim to Bernardo and in 1995 Paul Bernardo was sentenced to life in prison. He is eligible for parole in 2020.

In 1993, after Homolka was given the plea bargain deal, Bernardo led the police to a collection of videotapes that were hidden in his house. He also confessed to over thirty rapes. The tapes showed Karla Homolka participating and instigating the crimes. She was seen sexually assaulting and drugging multiple victims without Bernardo in the room. If admissible in court, the content of the tapes probably would have led to a conviction of murder for Karla Homolka.

In response to this fact, the Canadian media began to refer to her plea bargain as the “Deal with the Devil.” In December of 2001, Canadian authorities determined that they had no need for the torture tapes and destroyed them. An interview taken with Homolka as she watched the tapes with police remains sealed to the public. In 2005, Karla Homolka was released from prison and is currently living in Guadeloupe with her husband and three children under the name Leanne Bordelais.

On July 15, 1974 Christine Chubbuck committed suicide on live television during her program Suncoast Digest. The program was a community affairs talk show in which Chubbuck interviewed guests on a wide variety of issues. Chubbuck started her career with WXLT-TV as a reporter and then was given the opportunity to host the talk show. WXLT-TV was an ABC affiliate station in Sarasota, Florida. Leading up to her suicide Christine was said to be severely depressed. She had told her family that she was having a hard time connecting with people and had not had a boyfriend for a long time.

Three weeks before the event Christine did a news story on suicide and visited a local sheriff’s department to discuss the risks. During the interview, a police officer explained the most efficient way to commit suicide, which was said to be a gunshot to the back of the head with wadcutter target bullets. Sadly, Chubbuck used the same method to take her life. In the week leading up to her suicide Christine told a news editor at the station that she had brought a gun to work and joked about killing herself on the air. She was also disappointed with the news stations decision to focus on “blood and guts” stories instead of educational and inspirational news.

On the morning of her suicide, Chubbuck told her co-workers that she had to read some news stories before starting her Suncoast Digest interview. Christine covered three stories and then started to discuss a shooting that had occurred in a restaurant at the Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport. The station attempted to run a short clip of the shooting, but the tape jammed and the camera went back to Chubbuck. At this time Christine spoke her last words: “In keeping with Channel 40′s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first, attempted suicide.” She then drew a gun and shot herself in the back of the right ear. It was reported that Chubbuck fell violently forward, hit her head on the desk, fell to the ground, and then began to violently twitch. The camera quickly went to black and the station ran a public service announcement.

It was later realized that Chubbuck had scripted the entire event, including her suicide. She told her colleagues to list her condition as “critical,” which they did. Chubbuck died at the hospital 14 hours after the shooting. She was only 29-years-old. Following her death, Christine’s family filed an injunction against the news station to prevent the release of the video footage. The tape was seized by the police and then given to the family. No copies have surfaced and the video is thought to have been destroyed. The event occurred before VHS tapes were widespread, so it is unlikely that it was recorded by a viewer. However, it is possible that someone captured the event with a primitive form of videocassette recording, such as the U-matic.

On April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon and caused horrific damage, including the deaths of three people and the maiming of dozens. Due to the location of the bombs, thousands of videos and pictures of the event were taken. The FBI immediately asked the American public to send in videos to help with the investigation. Others conducted their own investigations over the Internet in an attempt to locate suspicions characters.

A couple of days after the attack, the FBI directed their attention to a pair of brothers named Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. A manhunt was carried out for the brothers and they were located in the Boston suburb of Watertown. After a shootout in which a MIT police officer was killed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot dead and Dzhokhar escaped only to be captured alive later in the day. It was realized that the brothers were born in different republics of the former Soviet Union, and are half Chechen and half Avar. They hold strong Extremist Islamic beliefs and blamed America for wars in Muslim countries.

One of the main factors that caused the FBI to directly target the brothers was video surveillance footage. It was widely reported that the police hold a video of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dropping his backpack at the site of the second explosion. This is an extremely important piece of evidence that can be used to prove that Dzhokhar planted the bomb. For this reason, the video should be released under public domain for all to see after the trial has taken place. However, it appears the video could be sealed from the public.

A huge collection of conspiracy theories have emerged surrounding the bombings The attack sparked one of the largest Internet investigations in history, which caused many people to be misidentified and accused. One of the most notable cases involved a Saudi national named Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi who was detained at the scene of the bombings and later released. In the wake of the disaster, conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck insisted that the Saudi national was responsible for helping the Tsarnaev brothers.

On the day of the attack, it was reported by multiple witnesses that a bomb squad drill was being conducted at the marathon. People were warned not to be alarmed by the large presence of officers at the scene. It was also widely reported in the wake of the disaster that multiple bombs had been discovered and that a controlled demolition was going to take place, but this information was later disregarded.

Probably the most prevalent conspiracy theory surrounding the bombing suggests that a series of members from the elite private security firm Craft International were behind the false flag attack. This has been suggested because in the initial days after the bombings numerous pictures surfaced on the Internet of team members at the marathon. The men were filmed with communications gear and wore large black backpacks. One of these individuals was photographed fleeing the scene with his backpack missing. To add more fuel to the fire, the black backpack on one of the Craft members looked very similar to one used in the first attack. A couple months before the bombings, the leader of Craft International Chris Kyle was murdered.

On September 11, 2001 American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked by terrorists and flown into the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing all 59 people on board as well as 125 people in the building. The event was witnessed by dozens of people and was recorded by a large number of security cameras surrounding the Pentagon. Despite the large amount of footage, the FBI confiscated the tapes and refused to release them to the public. This has caused people to speculate about why the videos are being kept secret.

In the wake of 9/11, it was widely reported that a Citgo service station right next to the Pentagon had recorded the impact of Flight 77 on its security cameras. The plane traveled over the gas station at an altitude of 50 feet and crashed three seconds later. The FBI visited the gas station minutes after the event and gathered the tapes. In the wake of the crash, the FBI confiscated approximately 85 surveillance tapes, including one notable clip from the Doubletree Hotel.

Despite all of the evidence, the U.S. government initially refused to confirm that the videos showed the crash. In response, a group named Judicial Watch filed a request on December 15, 2004 under the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the “Nexcomm/CITGO gas station, Pentagon security cameras and the Virginia Department of Transportation videos.” On May 16, 2006, the Department of Defense released the first official videos of the crash with only one video showing Flight 77. The clip was taken from a security camera at the Pentagon and shows a blurry image of what appears to be a plane for 1 frame. The Citgo and Doubletree videos were also released, but Flight 77 is not visible.

Despite the release of the videos, the FBI continues to hold at least 84 surveillance tapes of the crash. There is currently an ongoing lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to have all the tapes made public. According to Special Agent Jacqueline Maguire of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, the FBI has gathered approximately 85 tapes that are “potentially responsive,” but the plane was only captured on one, which was released in 2006.

Steve Irwin was a wildlife enthusiast that devoted his life to helping animals. On September 4, 2006 Irwin was killed by a stingray while traveling in Port Douglas and filming an underwater documentary titled Ocean’s Deadliest. During the event, Irwin was snorkeling at Batt Reef (part of the Great Barrier Reef) in Port Douglas, Queensland when the weather turned bad. In response, Steve entered the shallower waters of the area and decided to film some segments for his daughter Bindi’s television program named Bindi the Jungle Girl. As Irwin approached a stingray in hopes of getting some good television shots, the creature turned and jabbed its spine into Steve’s chest.

The spine of the stingray pierced Irwin’s heart and caused extensive bleeding. Steve was pulled from the water, but it was too late and he died shortly after being struck. It is believed to be the only time in history that a person’s death by stingray was caught on video. After the tragedy, Irwin was given a private funeral at the Queensland Zoo, but it is unclear if he currently holds a grave at the location. He was not given a coroner’s report and very little specific information is available on his death.

It has been reported that Irwin’s last words were “Don’t worry, they usually don’t swim backwards,” which shows that he recognized the stingray was acting strangely. After the accident, the video of Steve Irwin’s death was reviewed by law enforcement, but was eventually destroyed at the request of his family. Despite the fact, millions of people continue to search the web for Steve Irwin’s Death Video.

On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people in Sandy Hook Elementary School. Following the tragedy, it was reported that the school had recently upgraded their surveillance system and installed video cameras, so visitors who attempted to enter the school during business hours were required to be individually identified by video. The system was placed at the front of the school, but it is unclear if other cameras were spread over the grounds.

At about 9:35 am, which was five minutes after Sandy Hook had locked its doors for the day, Adam Lanza shot his way through a door at the front of the school with a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and started the killing spree. At this time, he was caught on camera by the school’s security system. However, the tape has yet to be released to the public for viewing. The police have not even released a still shot of Lanza at the school, which has only fueled the incredible amount of conspiracy theories that exist around the event.

Immediately after the shooting people all over the Internet claimed the attack was a false flag attempt by the U.S. government to pass more severe gun control laws. The media initially made numerous mistakes in reports about the shooter, how he entered the building, what weapons were used, and his social history. Helicopter footage was taken at the scene of two men running from the school into the woods. These men were later identified as SWAT police officers, but it was never explained why they were fleeing the scene. During the attack, it was reported that the school’s principal turned on the intercom system and a collection of different shooters were heard by witnesses. In some accounts, one shooter is said to have been tackled and taken into custody.

The culprit in this attack was an expert in the area of high powered weapons, military tactics, and assassination. This has caused some to step back and wonder how a 20-year-old American boy could have carried out the Sandy Hook shooting. In the Sandy Hook Elementary attack, every victim was shot multiple times by Adam Lanza. He made sure that the victims were deceased. In one case, he shot a victim 11 times. In response to this, it has been suggested the massacre looked like the tactics of a trained death squad.

A large collection of bizarre conspiracy theories have been presented on the Sandy Hook shootings, including one that says the entire event was staged, which is quite absurd. Others have pointed to smaller coincidences, such as the fact that the words “Sandy Hook” appear on a map in the movie Dark Night Rises when Commissioner Gordon is talking about an attack on “Strike Zone One.” Others have pointed to the fact that Lanza’s father worked for GE Energy Financial Services and that Adam committed suicide with a handgun that was initially not identified among his weapons in the school. In response to all of this information, it would be nice if a short section of the video of Adam Lanza in the school was made public.

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In 1966, 23-year old Bobby Fuller and his band, The Bobby Fuller Four, were taking the music world by storm as their hit single, “I Fought the Law”, reached #9 on the national charts. However, it all came to an abrupt end when Fuller was found dead on July 18 inside his car, which was parked outside his Los Angeles apartment. The initial ruling was suicide, but no one could understand why a singer on the verge of stardom would take his own life.

Fuller had been doused with gasoline and a gas can was found on the floorboard. However, a witness claimed he saw a detective throw the gas can in a dumpster instead of saving it for evidence. Authorities believed that Fuller had died from inhaling the gasoline fumes, but there were also bruises found on him and blood was on the car seat. His body was also in full rigor mortis, indicating that he had been dead for several hours. Yet his car had only been parked in front of his apartment for a short time before he was found, and one theory is that the perpetrator was in the midst of torching the evidence before they were forced to flee. There have been numerous conspiracy theories about what happened to Bobby Fuller—ranging from an accidental overdose to being murdered by the likes of the mob, his record company, and even Charles Manson—but his death remains clouded in suspicion.

At the age of 17, Christa Helm left her Milwaukee home to pursue a career in modeling and acting in New York City. After garnering a lead role in a low-budget movie called “Let’s Go For Broke”, Helm traveled to Hollywood to further her career and earned a few bit parts on television. She became a prominent figure in the gossip columns because of her rumored escapades with noted Hollywood celebrities. On February 12, 1977, the 27-year old Helm was stabbed 22 times before being bludgeoned to death outside her agent’s home in West Hollywood.

Helm was rumored to have kept a secret diary and recordings of her sexual escapades with her celebrity boyfriends. Since the diary and the recordings mysteriously vanished after her death, some people speculated that they may have been the reason for her murder. It was also theorized that Helm was killed by Lionel Ray Williams, who had murdered Sal Mineo in a similar fashion in the same neighborhood exactly one year before Helm’s murder. However, there has always been a debate about whether Williams was in jail on the night Helm was killed. 30 years later, a DNA sample found under one of Helm’s preserved fingernails was determined to be from a female, and Helm was rumored to have been sexually involved with a female singer shortly before her death. In spite of all these leads, the identity of Christa Helm’s murderer is still unknown.

In 1943, David Bacon was an aspiring 29-year old actor who had just played his most prominent role after being cast as the title character in the film serial, “The Masked Marvel”. However, Bacon’s life came to an end on September 13, when he erratically drove his car off the road in Santa Monica, California. He stumbled out of the car wearing nothing but a swimsuit and after collapsing and dying, a small knife wound was discovered in his back.

The most crucial clue left behind was a camera inside Bacon’s car. The film in the camera was developed to reveal one picture of Bacon nude smiling on the beach and it’s been theorized that the photo was taken by his killer. Prior to his death, Bacon had told his wife—an Austrian cabaret singer named Greta Keller—that he was going for a swim. Shortly before the murder, Bacon was spotted driving around with another man in his car, and it was later discovered that Bacon had recently rented a house for a male friend whose identity was never established. Keller has always alleged that her husband was a closet homosexual and had an affair with Howard Hughes, the man who originally discovered him. However, none of these claims have ever been substantiated and David Bacon’s murder remains an unsolved mystery.

Tammy Lynn Leppert was a model from Rockledge, Florida who spent her childhood competing in over 300 beauty pageants, winning a large percentage of them. She was hoping to transition into an acting career and wound up securing bit parts in a couple of movies, including the 1983 gangster classic, “Scarface”. However, one weekend in July 1982, Leppert attended a party where something seemed to happen which prompted her to start displaying patterns of erratic, paranoid and violent behavior. During the shoot for “Scarface”, Leppert suffered a complete emotional breakdown during the filming of a violent scene and became extremely frightened over the sight of fake blood.

After a violent outburst in June 1983, Leppert had a brief stay in a mental health center. On July 6, she left her family’s home with a friend who dropped her off at Cocoa Beach after an argument. The 18-year Leppert has never been seen again. Police initially suspected that she ran away, but there have been numerous theories about her disappearance. One involves her being the victim of Christopher Wilder, a notorious Florida serial killer who was targeting young models around this time, and there’s also been speculation that Leppert was murdered because of her knowledge of a drug and money-laundering operation. However, none of these theories have ever panned out and Tammy Lynn Leppert remains missing 30 years later.

Barbara Colby was a 36-year old actress who had enjoyed reasonable success on Broadway and in Hollywood. After spending much of the 1970s working in television, her career received a major boost when she was offered a full-time role on the sitcom, “Phyllis”. Colby had filmed three episodes of the series and was teaching an acting class in Venice, California on the evening of July 24, 1975. While walking to her parked car with an acting colleague named James Kiernan, they were both gunned down by two male assailants.

Colby was killed instantly, but Kiernan was able to describe the shooters before he passed away. There had been no attempt at robbery and Kiernan claimed he did not recognize the two men, so no one could figure out the motive for these murders. Approximately 40 minutes before the shooting occurred, three armed men had murdered another woman named Gloria Witte in a robbery attempt in Santa Monica. At the same time, yet another robbery took place in the same vicinity when two other couples were ambushed by six armed men while returning to their homes. The perpetrators were all caught and charged for these crimes, but police could find no evidence that they might also be responsible for the Colby and Kiernan murders. It continues to be a baffling unsolved mystery nearly 40 years later.

Ylenia Carrisi was the daughter of the popular Italian pop music duo, Al Bano & Romina Power, and granddaughter of legendary Hollywood actor Tyrone Power. It seemed like Carrisi was destined to follow in their footsteps and have her own entertainment career, and she became a minor celebrity in Italy after earning a gig as the letter-turner on that country’s version of Wheel of Fortune. After turning 23, she decided she wanted to do some traveling on her own, but after taking a trip to New Orleans, she mysteriously disappeared on January 6, 1994.

Most of Carrisi belongings were left behind in the cheap hotel she was staying at. It was discovered she had been sharing a room with a 54-year old street musician named Alexander Masakela, who had a history of drug use and sexual violence. He was evicted when he attempted to use Carrisi’s passport and traveler’s checks to pay for the room after her disappearance. Masakela was also arrested weeks later after an ex-girlfriend accused him of rape, but he was released for lack of evidence. A security guard also reported seeing a woman matching Carrisi’s description jumping off a bridge the night she vanished, but no body was ever found to verify his story. There have been unconfirmed sightings of Carrisi in the years following her disappearance, but no conclusive evidence about what ultimately happened to her.

For years, Peter Ivers had a cult following as an alternative musician. He recorded numerous albums during the 1970s and was asked to write a memorable song called “In Heaven” for David Lynch’s infamous cult classic, “Eraserhead”. He was probably best known for being the host of a late-night television variety show called “New Wave Theatre”, which featured a unique line-up of punk and New Wave musical performers. However, the show came to an end after the 36-year old Ivers was found dead inside his Los Angeles apartment on March 3, 1983. He had been bludgeoned to death in his bed with a hammer and there were no signs of struggle.

Ivers was very well-liked and had numerous celebrity friends in Hollywood, many of whom showed up at his apartment once word spread about his death. Unfortunately, since police were completely overwhelmed by the large gathering of people, they neglected to seal off the crime scene. Since Ivers’ friends were able to walk through his apartment, potential evidence might have been destroyed. The main theory behind Ivers’ murder is that he was killed by an intruder during a robbery attempt, as the lock appeared to have been jimmied and some pieces of video equipment were missing. However, even after 30 years, authorities have never been able to find a solid suspect for the crime, so Peter Ivers’ senseless murder is still unsolved.

Joe Pichler was a child actor who had prominent roles in such films as “The Fan”, “Varsity Blues” and two direct-to-video “Beethoven” sequels. In 2003, he put his acting career on hold to return to his hometown of Bremerton, Washington and finish high school. The 18-year old Pichler had plans to go back to Los Angeles and resume his career when he mysteriously vanished during the early morning hours of January 5, 2006. After leaving a get-together and talking to one of his friends on his cell phone, no one heard from him again.

When his family went looking for him, the door to his apartment was discovered to be unlocked and the lights and television were left on. Four days later, Pichler’s abandoned car was found with all his possessions inside, except for his wallet and car keys. There was speculation that Pichler was suicidal, as he left behind some poetry which indicated he might be depressed, along with a note where he expressed his wish to be a “stronger brother” and to give his possessions to his younger sibling. Police theorized that Pichler may have taken his own life by jumping off a nearby bridge, but search dogs could not trace his scent there. Since there is no hard evidence that Joe Pichler committed suicide, his ultimate fate is still unknown.

In the late twenties and early thirties, Thelma Todd was one of the most prominent actresses in Hollywood, appearing in nearly 120 films and acting alongside such comedy legends as the Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy. However, her life came to a sudden end on the morning of December 16, 1935 when the 29-year old Todd was found dead inside her car of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. Her vehicle was located inside a Pacific Palisades garage belonging to Jewel Carmen, the wife of director Roland West, whom Todd was romantically involved with.

The death was initially ruled an accident and later changed to suicide, but there was nothing to indicate that Todd was suicidal and there were a lot of suspicious elements to suggest foul play. She appeared to a have a broken nose and other injuries, and blood was also found on her face and dress, leading to the belief that she may have been knocked unconscious and placed in the car before it was started. Roland West was known to be very controlling and possessive of Todd and allegedly gave a deathbed confession implicating himself in her death, but this was never officially confirmed. Mobster Lucky Luciano and an abusive ex-boyfriend of Todd’s were also looked at as possible suspects, but unfortunately, since Todd’s body was cremated, a more thorough autopsy could not be performed. Her suspicious death remains one of Hollywood’s biggest mysteries.

One of the biggest mysteries in Hollywood history occurred on the evening of October 7, 1949 when 26-year old Jean Spangler disappeared. Spangler was a model and aspiring actress who had done bit parts in a handful of films. She left her daughter with her sister-in-law and claimed she was going to meet her ex-husband to talk about child support before going to work on a film shoot. However, there were no film shoots scheduled that night, and Spangler’s ex-husband claimed he never saw her. Spangler’s purse was found in Griffith Park two days later.

Things took a bizarre turn when a note was found in the purse which read: “Kirk, Can’t wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away”. Spangler had recently worked as an extra on a Kirk Douglas film and some eyebrows were raised when Douglas contacted police to confirm he wasn’t the “Kirk” in the note before they even considered questioning him. Police also heard rumors of a local man named “Scotty” who was known for performing illegal abortions, leading to speculation that Spangler was pregnant and that he was the aforementioned “Dr. Scott”. Spangler was also rumored to be involved with an organized crime figure named David Ogul, and there was even a sighting of them together in Texas three months after she disappeared. In spite of all these theories, the Jean Spangler saga is still a mystery.

Robin Warder is a budding Canadian screenwriter who has used his encyclopedic movie knowledge to publish numerous articles at Cracked.com. I am also the co-owner of a pop culture website called The Back Row.

The post 10 Entertainment Careers Cut Short By Unsolved Mysteries appeared first on Listverse.

Found guilty of sexual assault and murder, 28 year old Michael Anderson Godwin was sentenced to death in South Carolina. An appeal rescued him from the electric chair, but destiny apparently wasn’t done with him. In March of 1989, Godwin was perched on a steel prison toilet, attempting to fix a pair of headphones attached to his television set. He bit into the wire, and was electrocuted.

The city-state of Singapore is well known for its bizarre, often draconian laws. The sale of chewing gum is prohibited, as is pornography, and the possession of durian fruits on mass transit. Punishment can range from extreme fines to prison terms, as well as corporal punishment, and the death penalty. One of the stranger rules involves toilets. If you use a toilet in public and neglect to flush, police (who check randomly), can arrest you. You can be subject to a $500 fine and even a public caning for leaving behind a present for the next unsuspecting patron.

It is believed that the first toilet shown on television was featured in a 1957 episode of the sitcom “Leave It To Beaver”. In the episode, Beaver and his big brother Wally order a pet alligator named “Captain Jack” from a comic book ad. Hoping to hide their pet from their parents, the boys stashed Jack in the toilet tank. It is interesting to note that network censors so feared a public backlash that they only showed the tank, not the complete toilet.

In 1973, perhaps having no more pressing concerns, a Wisconsin congressman named Harold Froelich voiced a concern that the United States faced an impending paper shortage in the coming year. The story made very minor headlines, and would have ended there if the staff of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” hadn’t happened across the article. Like today’s late show hosts, Johnny Carson was well known for riffing on the headlines, but on December 19, 1973, viewers took him quite seriously when he warned of a nationwide shortage in toilet paper. The next day, shoppers went wild, buying every roll off their store shelves and hoarding it. Some stores took advantage, price gouging customers on this suddenly scarce commodity. Although Carson took to the air the following night to assure his viewers the warning had been meant in a purely tongue-in-cheek fashion, the damage had been done.

In February of 2008, authorities were summoned to the home of Kory McFarren in Ness City, Kansas. McFarren reported that there was “something wrong” with his girlfriend. What was wrong was that 35 year old Pam Babcock had been sitting on his toilet for some two years, so long that her skin had grown around the seat. Paramedics were forced to remove the seat, where it was surgically removed at the hospital. It has since been revealed that Babcock suffered from some mental disorder; when McFarren asked her to leave the bathroom, she would reply “Maybe tomorrow.”

Although there was some debate as to whether or not the boyfriend would face charges, McFarren was eventually convicted of misdemeanor treatment of a dependent adult for waiting so long to seek help. He was sentenced to 6 months probation. Strangely enough, this is not the only case of a woman holding long time residence of the toilet; a Chinese woman in Singapore also held a two and a half year vigil on the bowl beginning in March of 2009. She claimed that she “felt a force holding me down”.

Toilet paper as we know it is actually a very recent innovation, only about a hundred and fifty years old. Before Charmin, almost anything at hand was used; leaves, corncobs, and shells amongst other items. In some Asian nations, it was customary to use the left hand and a pitcher of water. This goes to explain some of the prejudice exercised toward left-handed people; throughout India and the Middle East, the left hand is considered unclean, and using it to pass someone an item is considered an insult. The use of actual paper came with the rise of department stores, who distributed catalogs to their customers. Indeed, there was a terrible backlash when the Sears & Roebuck catalog began using glossy, non-absorbent paper to publish photos.

The modern bathroom is far from a universal convenience; billions worldwide have little or no access to sanitary facilities. In many Third World nations, people are lucky to have a hole in the ground. In many places, especially heavily populated slums, even that luxury is often denied. In the harshest sections of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, the most commonly used method of waste disposal is the “flying toilet”. Euphemisms are rarely more gentle; a flying toilet is little more than a plastic bag that is defecated in, then hurled away as far as possible. The streets are covered with mountains of such filth, a hazard that allows diseases such as malaria and typhoid fever to thrive. The rainy season is especially treacherous, with floodwaters washing the waste through people’s homes and into their drinking water. Some entrepreneurs have begun installing public toilets and charging the public a small fee to use them, but progress toward improvement is very slow.

In Germany and Austria, it is common to encounter “washout toilets”, which feature an inspection shelf to catch your deposit. Upon rising, you are able to inspect your leavings for health reasons (mostly to check for the presence of worms or other parasites). While this construction eliminates the possibility of the dread “splash back”, it is reported that a near immediate mercy flush is required to alleviate the odor. For this reason, many Germans find it quite important to employ a good plumber in the case of emergencies.

There are few more vulnerable moments than those spent sitting on the toilet. Indeed, visiting the bathroom is not without its perils from the local wildlife. Modern plumbing has greatly minimized human contact with the deadly black widow spider, who loved to dwell in outhouses (dark areas teeming with edible insects). However, all of our innovations fail to save us from rats, who have been known to swim up through pipes and enter homes through toilets, even attacking those unfortunate enough to be sitting there at the time.

The design of toilets has not changed much in generations; in the Western world, most toilets are of a simple flush design. However, there is a growing trend for computerized “smart toilets”; the Japanese in particular are well known for their high tech commodes. With some varieties priced well over $5,000, Japanese toilets sport an array of options more advanced than those found in most cars. High-end models have automatic lids, temperature controlled bidets, heated seats, driers, deodorizers, music, and even medical sensors with options for measuring the pulse, blood sugar, and body fat of the user. In addition to more practical developments, the Japanese have also developed bathroom video games such as Sega’s “Toylet”, a urinal game controlled by the stream of the player.

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist. He always keeps plenty of 2-ply on hand.

The post 10 Bizarre Toilet Tales From Around the World appeared first on Listverse.

In 2012, author and Harvard professor Steven Pinker wrote a book explaining that, contrary to popular belief, modern people are much less violent than their ancestors. Among other things, he cites the decline in murder rates, a drop in capital punishment, and lower war deaths (proportionally speaking). However, others call the 20th Century the bloodiest, cruelest time in history, fraught with endless wars and unprecedented cases of genocide. According to the Polynational War Memorial there were an astounding 237 wars between 1900 and today, starting with the Boxer Rebellion and continuing to the current war in Afghanistan. So, even if Pinker is right and things are better than they used to be, we still have a craving for war that we just can’t shake.

After watching any of the military training documentaries on the Discovery Channel, it indeed appears like some men were born for battle. They absolutely thrive under the high-pressure, aggression-filled environment of war. Not to mention, they really, really like their weapons. It makes you wonder what these men would do if there was no need to fight—could they even survive a desk job?

Essentially, the question boils down to—are we warring because we have to or because deep down we like it?

It doesn’t take much online exposure to realize people on the internet are inexplicably mean. Skim through any comment board on any site to see some of the most hate-spewed, dialogue around. What’s weirder is it’s usually unprovoked and over inconsequential stuff that logically shouldn’t trigger so much vehemence. You can’t even post a picture of a cute puppy without someone calling you a douchebag or saying only brainless liberals/republicans post pictures of puppies.

So, what gives? Why are people so stinkin’ mean online?

Many say it has to do with anonymity, which allows us to say things without fear of getting punched in the face. Others theorize many folks have a lot of pent up anger and the internet is a “safe” place to unleash it, and Scientific America claims it’s a result of lack of eye contact. Regardless of how we get away with it or why we do it, it’s evident that in unbridled, anonymous situations many people resort to cruelty.

If we want to analyze this issue from a genetic point of view, it makes sense to look at our closest living animal relatives for some insight. Unfortunately, this kind of complicates the matter since we are equally related (share 99% DNA) to both chimpanzees and bonobos, and while chimps have a propensity for violence, bonobos follow more of a ‘make love not war’ philosophy (literally). So, what kind of ape are we? Dr. Christopher Ryan, author of Sex at Dawn, tends to think we have more in common with bonobos and would be happiest in a non-competitive, sexually open society.

However, when you watch footage like the violent chimpanzee attack shown in Planet Earth, it’s easy to see the similarities between an organized chimp ambush and our own guerrilla warfare practices. In some cases, the chimps will cannibalize their victims—and any regular reader of Listverse knows humans have their own history with cannibalism.

Some argue we might be more relaxed and free lovin’ too if, like bonobos, we evolved in an environment where we didn’t have to compete for food. Still, we have to consider that today there’s plenty of food to go around if we were all willing to share, yet we continue to fight for resources and power as if it’s a lot more fun than making sure everyone has what they need. That being said, we all know humans are capable of living peaceably and, as scientist Dr. Christopher Boehm points out, it wasn’t until the emergence of human hunter-gatherers that primates started resolving conflicts through truces, trades, and peace pacts. So, while we all have the genetics for peace, it’s unclear whether it’s stronger than our penchant for violence?

Many of us have a romanticized perception of hunter gatherers, envisioning them as “noble savages” spending most of their days picking berries, hanging out by the fire, and having no concept of jealousy or personal property. There’s a common notion that if it wasn’t for agriculture and industrialization we’d all be stress free and hanging out in hammocks too. Of course, while it is true that hunter gatherers needed an extreme amount of cooperation and sharing to survive, their communal lifestyle didn’t mean there was never bloodshed.

For instance, things aren’t all smiles and rainbows (from a social perspective) in the few remaining hunter gatherer societies left in the world. The Sentinelese people in the Bay of Bengal, for example, have welcomed any would-be visitors to their island with a barrage of arrows and spears. In an incident in 2006, a couple of inebriated fisherman accidentally drifted too close to the island and were promptly killed and buried by the inhabitants. All outside attempts to recover the bodies proved too dangerous, so the island remains the men’s final resting place.

The Sentinelese aren’t the only ones who prefer fighting over negotiation. Anthropologists say two-thirds of modern hunter-gatherers are in a state of nearly constant tribal warfare, and 90% go to war once a year where they lose about 0.5% of their population. What’s worse is their high homicide rate, which results in the deaths of 25-30% of adult males.

Thus, it appears our modern lifestyle isn’t to blame for our violent tendencies, since people who have clearly avoided the industrial and technological revolutions are just as brutal as the rest of us (possibly more so).

The most convincing evidence that at least some of us are inherently violent is the existence of the so called “warrior gene.” This gene is technically known as monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), and while everyone has it, in a certain percentage of the population this gene exhibits low or no activity. Interestingly, those who have a low-performing MAOA gene are more prone to aggression and violent behavior—hence, the name “warrior gene.”

Just having the gene doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a violent person, yet it does mean you are predisposed towards aggression and impulsive decisions. Researchers have found those who have both troubled upbringings and the warrior gene are most likely to act out negatively. For instance, in a 2009 murder trial, a man was facing the death penalty for sadistically carving up and murdering his wife and her friend. The lawyer cited the warrior gene and an abusive childhood as the man’s defense, and apparently the man’s bad luck in both the nature and nurture departments convinced the jury to give him 32 years in prison instead of death.

It turns out, around one-third of people in the Western world have the warrior gene, and it’s present in as much as two-thirds of people in other, especially tribal, populations. Incidentally, women are less likely to have the gene since women have two copies of the X chromosome (where MAOA is carried), and it’s suspected the availability of two MAOAs would counteract any deficiency.

In some ways we aren’t much different than the ancient Romans with their gladiator games and fascination with blood and gore. For instance, prime time TV is full of shoot em’ up cop shows and gruesome crime scenes, most news agencies stick with the ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ philosophy, and one of the most violent sports in existence, mixed martial arts fighting, has been dubbed the fastest growing sport in the world. Without a doubt, we have a definite attraction to violence.

While most of the research regarding violence in entertainment has to do with how viewing it affects our behavior, perhaps the bigger question is why we like watching it in the first place? Maybe we’re drawn to it as a way to vicariously live out our savage instincts, or possibly we’re not so much attracted to the violence as we are the excitement. Some scientists argue our humdrum, civilized lives lack sensation and the thrill of conflict and danger provides a type of escape. The only problem with that theory is it doesn’t explain why native people also have ritual violence—unless it breaks up the monotony of their days too.

Towards the end of his life, Freud became largely disenchanted with the human species and considered us one of the worst types of animals. Granted, a lot of his feelings were based on the tumultuous time period in which he lived, as he witnessed World War I and died just as another major war, World War II, was getting started.

In his 1930 book, Civilizations and its Discontents, he wrote “…men are not gentle creatures, who want to be loved, who at the most can defend themselves if they are attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness.”

Hundreds of years before Freud, philosopher Thomas Hobbes had a similarly pessimistic view of humanity and famously wrote that the life of man in his natural state is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Essentially, he believed all men were equally capable of killing, and when two people want the same thing the inevitable outcome is war. In his mind, government and civil society were the only ways to curb the brutishness, yet he admitted even governments and the elite were full of corruption.

So, if we ignore Freud and Hobbes for the moment and assume other thinkers are correct, like Jean Jacques Rousseau who thought humans were naturally good or John Locke who believed we all started as a blank slate. Then it makes sense to presume babies—people who have been influenced the least by the world—would lean towards goodness or neutrality. But, is that really the case?

It’s difficult to say because, if you’ve spent any time with a toddler, you know at one point in the day he might be smashing his brother on the head with a wooden block and then five minutes later he’s generously offering you the soggy portion of his half-eaten cookie. Also, we have to teach them how to behave in a socially acceptable manner (i.e. don’t hit, bite, steal, and always, always share). If humans are naturally good, why do we have to spend so much time teaching children how to behave?

Despite all the social instruction that goes on during people’s formative years, researcher Arber Tasimi at Yale University believes his studies prove babies are naturally altruistic. The majority of his tests involve putting toddlers in various situations where they can choose to be selfish or helpful without reward. Surprisingly, in many instances the toddlers went out of their way to help others even when it was inconvenient and offered no incentive.

Regrettably, Tasimi’s theories go out the window when a mere cracker enters the equation. Yes, the toddlers in the study would quickly side with a “bad guy” or be unhelpful if it meant getting three graham crackers as opposed to one. Evidently, like most adults, children can be convinced to do wrong if the price is high enough.

The simple fact that we have any type of government suggests we believe society would spiral into absolute mayhem if there wasn’t someone making and enforcing laws. Essentially, we have very little trust in our fellow man to not kill or steal from us, so we willingly give up many of our own personal freedoms for the sake of protection. This in itself is pretty strong evidence that we believe a large portion of people aren’t innately good.

But would pandemonium actually ensue if we abolished government and lived in an anarchist state? It’s hard to say since hardly any major anarchist groups have existed throughout history—and perhaps that’s proof enough they don’t work. Even most hunter gatherer and tribal people, like the Australian Aborigines, rely on a group of elders to guide their community.

However, there was at least one significant anarchist society in history, which existed in the Ukraine between 1918 and 1921. It was named the Free Territory and consisted of around 7 million people who lived and worked communally to meet their collective needs. Still, even the Free Territory ended up having a leader of sorts in Nestor Makhno who served as the group’s main military strategist and advisor during the Ukrainian Revolution battles. In the end, the Bolsheviks branded the Free Territory as a warlord regime and forcibly overtook their land. Who knows what would have happened if this Ukrainian enclave was left to its own devices for the long term.

Apparently, our instinct to stay alive and compete for resources starts early… really early. Recently, high-clarity MRIs have shown twins fighting for space in the womb by kicking and pushing their sibling out of the way. Doctors initially planned to use the MRIs to study a different “selfish” condition, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, where one identical twin siphons blood away from the other. If stealing blood wasn’t bad enough, in cases of vanishing twin syndrome, a fetus will absorb their weaker uterine companion until it miscarries or simply “vanishes”—a legitimate survival of the fittest situation.

In truth, the twin who’s making off with the extra blood or nutrients isn’t consciously choosing to “steal” from his womb-mate, yet it’s interesting to see how even as fetuses we have to properly balance the available resources if everyone is to survive.

When it comes down to it, all our seemingly violent or egocentric impulses may be ingrained survival instincts. In other words, we’ll do what’s necessary to stay alive and make conditions more comfortable for ourselves. In our modern world some of these self-centered instincts are likely unnecessary, yet it’s quite a challenge to suppress millions of years of evolution.

S.Grant created this list in the spirit of debate and doesn’t really think all humans are evil, as there are just as many examples of true altruism (perhaps a topic for another list). Contact S.Grant here.

The post 10 Reasons Humans Are Naturally Evil appeared first on Listverse.

During WWII, Frankfurt, Germany became one of the nerve centers of the war, and the city suffered no less than eight bombing runs by the Allied forces. It’s no surprise then that the area is filled with WWII era bunkers, even today. On the East harbor of the city lies an industrial labyrinth of old warehouses, buildings, and quite a few of those old bunkers. The German architecture firm Index Architekten took one of those bunkers and converted it into state-of-the-art music recording studios.

The bunker itself is the square concrete block on the bottom of the picture above, and the recording studios are located in the section built on top of it. In designing the structure, the original plan was to house the studios down in the bunker, but the roof had suffered major structural damage. Rather than replace it, they made the decision to fabricate the entire studio section out of wood and perch it on top of the bunker. Musicians can record there, then walk down to the living facilities located in the bunker proper.

The New Dutch Waterline was built as a defensive shield over the course of centuries. It started in the 17th century, when the Dutch began flooding specific regions of their land to protect key cities. These massive moats were perfectly planned—too deep for foot soldiers to cross, but not quite deep enough to accommodate ships. During the first and second World Wars, the Dutch further fortified these regions with rows of bunkers and pillboxes to protect their defenses against artillery strikes.

This example isn’t as visually striking as many of the other entries on this list, but from a historical standpoint it provides a wealth of information. In 2010, Rietveld Landscapers cut through one of the remaining bunkers, Bunker 559 (there were 700 in total), giving tourists a cross-section view of the inside—a slice of history, so to speak. A stairway leads down to the bunker and runs directly through the middle of it, before leading out across the waters of the natural preserve in the background.

In the heart of Shanghai, China, an approximated 2,000 leftover bomb shelters lie dormant from the tense period between China and the Soviet Union during the 70′s. In recent years, the government has released many of these bunkers to the public, and they’re being put to good use. One of the most striking examples is The Shelter, an underground nightclub that was built inside the framework of a 600 square meter (6,500 sq. ft.) bunker in the Xuhui district of Shanghai.

The atmosphere inside the nightclub is dense and moody, echoing with pounding drum and bass tunes—the perfect location for all-night partiers. Most of the original cement structure is left visible, but combined with 21st century furniture and interior design, not to mention some of the best sound systems in the area. Some sections rely heavily on the intrinsic nature of the bunker—”dark rooms,” with no light at all, just the music.

China isn’t the only country cornering the market on bomb shelter night life—on the other side of the imaginary Cold War conflict line, Moscow is joining the arms race with its own specially designed bunker. Bunker 42, formerly known as the Tagansky Protected Command Point, was built in the 50′s and operated up until 1986. The massive underground space (7,000 square meters, or 75,000 square feet) was designed so that 3,000 military officials could survive for three months without resupply. Now, it’s a bar, club, and restaurant.

It’s actually still in development, but the design is evolving into something that looks like a set piece from 2001: A Space Odyssey, especially the main lounge area, which was placed inside a long hallway with curved ceilings, complete with signature Russian opulence in the furniture and decor. While most of the bunker is being reimagined as a club, a small part will be retained as a Cold War museum.

Bomb shelters aren’t the only remnants of modern warfare—missile silos also played a deadly role in the clash of superpowers. And they present some very unique opportunities for remodeling. The SiloHome is built from an abandoned missile silo in Saranac, New York. Although the silo reaches an incredible 185 feet (56 meters) below ground, only the top two levels have been converted into living quarters.

The best part about the home is that—except for the wooden lodge above it—the entire structure is underground. And like any good bunker, it was built to withstand a nuclear attack. You enter through the above-ground lodge (which, it has to be said, is a very decent home on its own). Inside, a keypad encoded steel door swings open into a stairwell that takes you down to the first two floors of the silo, outfitted with every modern convenience you could ask for—yes, even a jacuzzi.

This 19th century fortification isn’t quite as ritzy as some of these bunkers, but what it lacks in glamor it more than makes up for in elegant style. The once-derelict tower sits on the picturesque coast of Suffolk, England, and for the longest time it was preserved by the English Heritage and Suffolk Coastal District Council as a national monument.

When it was bought by the architectural firm Billings Jackson Design, the plan was to turn it into the private home for the owner of the company, Duncan Jackson. The remodeled tower preserves the original brickwork, and the outer walls are almost unchanged, providing a stark contrast between the early 19th century style as seen from the outside and the sleek modern view from the inside.

The Tea House On Bunker in Vreeswijk, The Netherlands beautifully proves that bunker renovation doesn’t need to stick within the boxlike confines of the original structure.The bunker was built in 1936 as part of the line of defense along the New Dutch Waterline, mentioned in entry number nine. The project, developed and implemented by UNStudio, aims to alter the original structure of the bunker as little as possible, and it achieves that goal through a removable stainless steel installment that fits over the top, clicking into place like a couple Lego bricks.

Using the grounded weight of the bunker as a counter balance, the steel structure is able to jut out at an angle that seems to defy the laws of physics, giving the Tea House its unique profile. As a result, the actual meeting area (it was designed for business conferences) is left hovering over a 6 foot (2 meter) block of empty air.

Germany has, arguably, more derelict WWII bunkers than any other country. There are thousands of the structures across the country, and while many of them are left standing because they represent historical landmarks, others are still there simply because demolishing them would be an expensive process—they were, after all, built to withstand bombs.

A German architect named Rainer Mielke is doing his part to contribute to a solution by recycling some of them into apartments. He calls the project Bunker Wohnen (bunker dwelling, or bunker habitation). His apartments utilize the upper floor of the bunker along with an additional level built onto the roof as the living space, while the lower level is used as a parking garage for the residents. When one of the residents, Hans-Albert Eike, moved into the refurbished bunker, he invited the neighbors over for a housewarming party—and actually met several people who had used the bunkers as children during WWII.

During the Cold War, the U.S. government spent billions of dollars peppering the Midwest with missile silos. Some of them were so large they were practically cities buried deep beneath the ground. One of these hardened bunkers, in Topeka, Kansas, was specially built in the 60′s to accommodate a 4 megaton Atlas E nuclear missile—and nearly two decades later, the then-abandoned silo was bought by a schoolteacher named Ed Peden.

Twelve years later, Peden had drained the silo of decades worth of stagnant floodwater, shoveled out mountains of scrap and slag, and converted 604 square meters (6,500 sq. ft.) of the massive bunker into a veritable mansion, where he now lives with his wife. Their living space only encompasses a third of the entire site. Their whole house is underground except for a small sunroom on the surface. As Peden puts it, “We take the garbage up, and we mow the roof.”

Finally, one of the most impressive repurposed military bunkers is the Bahnhof Data Center, built inside an old Cold War era nuclear bunker 99 feet (30m) below the surface of Stockholm, Sweden. When Bahnhof, a Swedish internet service provider, purchased the bunker, they decided that with such a uniquely eccentric location at their disposal, they might as well design it to harmonize with that, frankly, villainous ambiance.

So Bahnhof went all out. The photo above offers a glimpse into the facility, but with over 1,100 square meters (nearly 12,000 sq. ft.) of space in the bunker, a glimpse is really all it is. Since the workers are underground, the bunker has simulated daylight, a series of greenhouses, and waterfalls flowing directly out of the walls. Beautiful, yes, and also nearly impenetrable—the front door is 40 cm (16 inches) of solid steel, and the facility itself was built to hold up against a direct hit from a hydrogen bomb. That security isn’t wasted either—the Data Center also houses private servers, including the sensitive servers for WikiLeaks.

The post 10 Jaw-Dropping Recycled Bomb Shelters appeared first on Listverse.

As far as the law is concerned, tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Which is kind of a shame, as Apple is currently in the process of hoarding enough money offshore to literally end world poverty. I kid you not: according to the Guardian, Apple is hiding around $100bn—with charity Oxfam putting the figure needed to end global poverty at sixty percent of that. Even at our current low(ish) corporate tax rate of 35 percent, getting Apple to pay their dues would yield enough cash to completely eradicate poverty in South America.

But hey, it’s their money, right? If you used this ‘give to the poor’ logic, every business on Earth would be out of pocket; which they may well be, if Apple keep up their insane avoidance strategy. See, having the clout to skip out on taxes and then pull a John Galt before congress isn’t something most companies possess. By bending the rules, Apple gain a hugely unfair advantage over competitors—sort of like if an Olympic sprinter turned up to the starting line in a Ferrari. This screws over any business smaller than Apple (in other words, most of them), while creating fertile conditions for a monopoly. But even worse than running a monopoly is their current strategy of…

Imagine for a second that the IRS came calling and you tried to broker a deal whereby you only paid tax if you set the rate. What do you think would happen? At best, everyone would laugh at you; at worst, they’d probably throw your ass in jail and seize your property. But not if you’re Apple CEO Tim Cook: a few days ago, Cook basically told congress they could tax his company only if they changed the rate to suit him. And, since his proposed rate is nine percent, congress should probably have just laughed then turned him upside down and shook him until $35bn came out his pockets. Instead, they spent hours cooing over how wonderful Apple products are, like those deluded Chris Brown fangirls who still defend his misogynistic butt. In short: Cook openly blackmailed congress, who responded by telling him how awesome he was.

‘Aggressive litigation’ is when someone with a lot of money sues someone else as a way of censoring or damaging their business. And Apple files lawsuits like a professional road accident victim. Take their epic, global battle with Samsung: while both companies come out looking like belligerent, soulless multinationals, only Apple stands accused of using lawsuits to freeze out the competition. If you aren’t following the various cases, they basically amount to Apple attempting to make Samsung phones illegal by trying to patent the entire concept of ‘smartphones’. For example, they tried to patent the idea of unlocking your phone by swiping; the use of square icons to denote apps; the ability to enlarge documents by touching the screen and making the phones rectangular. In case you’ve never seen one before, that basically describes a smartphone. And Apple is trying to patent them faster than you can say ‘anti-competitive’.

On the subject of the Apple v Samsung case, did you know Apple lost their tablet-patent suit in the UK? Now, Samsung have lost elsewhere and—as I mentioned above—both companies ‘do evil’, but what makes this notable is the way Apple openly flouted a UK court order to apologize to their rival. And I mean ‘flouted’—forced by a judge to put an apology on their UK homepage, Apple first posted a notice so objectively unapologetic they were legally required to write another, which they then hid so nobody could read it.

Just think about that for a second: if you openly flouted a court order—twice—chances are you would get hauled in on contempt charges and carted off to the Tower of London. For all Apple’s actions here are essentially harmless (and also kinda funny—the apology is wrapped in a page element called “sosumi”), it more-or-less shows exactly how much respect they have for the laws you and I have to live by: none.

Condensed to three little words like that, Apple’s practice of allowing their suppliers to dump toxic sludge into rivers perhaps doesn’t sound so bad—especially if you consider ‘environmentalism’ code for ‘wishy-washy liberalism’. So let’s break it down into something we can all understand: in taking advantage of Chinese environmental loopholes, Apple allowed its suppliers to release giant clouds of toxic gas over nearby villages. In those villages, people are now dying at a phenomenal rate from cancer. In other words, entire families are being wiped out just so Apple can save a few bucks. On top of that, in 2011, a factory making Apple products managed to poison 137 of its workers when a cheap chemical used in making iPads gave off a cloud of nerve gas. Apple’s response? The corporate equivalent of ‘meh’.

In 2006, it came to light that Apple’s Chinese plants were using sweatshop labour—a practice so vastly immoral it ranks right up there with stealing Christmas. Workers at the Longhua plant near Hong Kong were forced to work 15 hour days with no breaks for as little as $40 a month, a wage that would have been low in the slums of Victorian Britain. And guess what? The conditions were much the same: employees were found to be sleeping in crowded dormitories, forbidden to have contact with the outside world and forced to do army-style training in the morning. In other words, the place was less a factory than a prison camp—and it was far from a one-off. Five years later, another Apple supplier was discovered forcing students to work on assembly lines in return for nothing but a chance to graduate. For the record, that’s as unethical in China as it is over here. And that’s before we even get onto Apple’s use of…

Child labor is one of the few universally agreed-upon evils in the world. So it should come as no surprise that Apple’s Chinese suppliers are all in favor of it.

In 2010, the company uncovered 91 children working at its factories, up from eleven the year before. Because their suppliers are clinical psychopaths, these same juveniles were often put to work lifting heavy goods with zero training, which doubtless went about as well as you’d expect. As an additional bit of awfulness, the report also found evidence of mandatory pregnancy checks being conducted—a step so far back on women’s rights it effectively pretends feminism never happened. But hey, all that was two years ago, they’ve probably cleared up their act by now right? Think again: the most-recent audit found the number of child workers had risen to 106—suggesting either those in charge are incompetent or that nobody gives a damn.

Quick, hands up who’s heard of bonded labour? Basically, it’s a practice often used in human trafficking, whereby foreign workers are made to pay so many agency and transport fees they start work deeply in debt—meaning they have to work for free until the balance is paid off. Since this is an article about Apple, you can probably guess whose Chinese suppliers use bonded labour (clue: it’s Apple). And guess what happens to these modern-day serfs while they’re working for free? That’s right: they get beaten and forced to live in cockroach infested warehouses ripped straight from an Orwellian nightmare.

How Orwellian? Well, this report found a factory where workers are forced to stand for the company song, propaganda is pumped through speakers day and night, 34 hour shifts are compulsory and yawning is punished by having wages docked. In other words, it’s the sort of place Kim Jong-Un would dismiss as ‘needlessly cruel’—and that’s before we get to the workers who’ve died of exhaustion or been forced to sign a contract eliminating anything but minimum compensation for their families if they commit suicide. Want to guess what Steve Jobs’ take on this totalitarian hell-hole was? “It’s a nice place”.

No-one, if they have even the barest technical know-how, can resist ‘jail breaking’ their iProduct. Although it sounds kinda illegal, it’s not: all jail breaking does is ensure you can escape Apple’s rigid app store and use the device to host third party programs or move to another carrier. Sounds innocent enough: unless you happen to work for Apple. Time and again, Apple has sent out ‘updates’ designed to kill modified devices. Meaning that Apple will happily take your hard-earned money—thereby completing the consumer transaction—and then stop your new toy from functioning for no damn reason. Can you imagine if masked Swedish mechanics turned up every time you modified your Volvo and took the engine out? They’d go out of business within a day. Yet we still keep buying Apple products, because—in the end—what’s stuff like ‘ethics’ and ‘self-respect’ compared to having a really shiny phone?

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New York City experienced one of its most infamous crimes on April 19, 1989 when a 28-year old woman named Trisha Meili was raped and severely beaten while jogging through Central Park. The attack left her in a coma and she had no memory of the incident after she recovered. Five Harlem youths – Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise—had been in the park the night of the attack and were brought in for an interrogation. With the exception of Salaam, they would each make videotaped confessions to the crime. The Central Park Five were all tried and found guilty and given sentences ranging from five to thirteen years.

However, all five youths would recant their confessions and claim they had been coerced and intimidated by the police. Their statements were not consistent with the physical evidence and the prosecution downplayed the fact that none of the DNA from the crime scene matched them. In 2002, the DNA did wind up matching a convicted serial rapist named Matias Reyes, who finally admitted to the crime and confirmed that he did it alone. By that time, the Central Park Five had already served their sentences and been forced to register as sex offenders after being released. On the basis of Reyes’ confession, their convictions were officially vacated.

On July 8, 1997, a Norfolk, Virginia woman named Michelle Moore-Bosko was found raped and murdered at her residence. A neighbor named Danial Williams and his roommate Joseph J. Dick, Jr. were soon brought in for questioning and confessed to the crime. Since no trace of their DNA was found at the scene, police were forced to look for other suspects, and Dick eventually named two more accomplices, Derek Tice and Eric C. Wilson, who subsequently confessed to being involved. Williams, Tice and Dick were sentenced to life imprisonment while Wilson received 8 ½ years. All four men claimed that they only confessed and pleaded guilty after being threatened with the death penalty.

The separate confessions of the Norfolk Four all seemed to contradict each other in their details, and naval logs showed that Dick was serving on the U.S.S. Saipan at the time of the murder. An inmate named Omar Ballard eventually confessed to committing the murder on his own and his DNA was present at the crime scene. However, the Norfolk Four remained incarcerated since police still maintained that they acted as Ballard’s accomplices. Wilson was released after serving his sentence, and Tice, Williams and Dick would receive conditional pardons from Virginia governor Tim Kaine in 2009. However, the Norfolk Four are still required to register as sex offenders and they continue to fight to clear their names.

It’s bad enough when a coerced confession sends an innocent person to prison, but it’s especially horrific when it sends them to death row and almost costs them their life. On June 4, 1982, 19-year old Rebecca Lynn Williams was raped and stabbed to death 38 times inside her Culpeper, Virginia apartment. One year later, police turned their attention to a farmhand named Earl Washington Jr., who was in custody for another crime. After interrogating Washington for two straight days, he eventually confessed to five different crimes, including Williams’ murder. The other four confessions were thrown out, but he was still sentenced to death for killing Williams.

Washington had an IQ of 69 and was coerced into making all his confessions. His initial confession to the Williams murder was filled with inconsistencies and he got many key details wrong, including the race of the victim and the location of the crime. His execution was ultimately halted when a fellow death row inmate named Joseph Giarrantano contacted a law firm to file a habeas corpus petition on Washington’s behalf. In 1994, Washington would receive clemency from the governor of Virginia and had his sentence commuted to life in prison. It was not until DNA testing proved he wasn’t the perpetrator that Washington was finally granted a full pardon and released after serving 17 years. The real killer of Rebecca Lynn Williams has never been found.

On April 13, 1986, the small town of Aurora, Missouri was shocked when one of its most respected citizens, 79-year old Pauline Martz, was murdered. She had been beaten and burned alive when the killer set her home ablaze. Acting on an eyewitness tip, police were eventually led to a 20-year old resident named Johnny Lee Wilson and after being interrogated for nearly four hours, he confessed to the crime. In order to avoid the death penalty, he would enter an Alford plea and was sentenced to life in prison.

However, Wilson suffered from mild retardation and had an IQ of 76. He was threatened and intimidated by police during his interrogation and thought he would be allowed to go home if he confessed. The details about the murder were clearly fed to him and he seemed unaware of what he was doing when entering his plea in court. Wilson also had an alibi for the time the murder took place and the eyewitness who implicated him was another mentally challenged man who later admitted to lying. A convicted murderer named Chris Brownfield eventually came forward and confessed that he and an accomplice had killed Pauline Martz during a robbery. In 1996, Johnny Lee Wilson was finally granted a pardon by Missouri governor Mel Carnahan and released after serving nine years.

On November 8, 1983, a Fort Lauderdale woman named Susan Hamwi was found stabbed to death with a butcher knife in her home. To make things even more tragic, her 18-month old daughter, Shane, died of dehydration in her crib after being neglected for several days. Police investigated a neighbor named John Purvis, who suffered from schizophrenia and was looked upon as the town “weirdo”. Even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, Purvis would eventually confess to the murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

However, because of his schizophrenia, Purvis had trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. The first time he was questioned, Purvis’ mother broke up the interrogation when she saw detectives attempting to intimidate her son. The next time they brought Purvis in for questioning, they made sure mother wasn’t present and he was coerced him into making a taped confession. While Purvis was in prison, authorities seemed disinterested in pursuing other potential leads that popped up. The investigation was not reopened until 1992 when evidence came to light that Hamwi had been murdered by two hitmen who were hired by her ex-husband. They would soon be convicted of the crime and in January 1993, John Purvis was finally released after serving nine years.

The Juan Rivera case is a prime example of how much weight a false confession can carry. On August 17, 1992, an 11-year old girl named Holly Staker was raped and murdered while babysitting in Waukegan, Illinois. A tip from an informant eventually led authorities to 19-year old Juan Rivera, who had an IQ of 79 and was in custody on a burglary charge. He was questioned for four straight days and reached the point where he experienced a psychotic episode and started banging his head against the wall. Authorities eventually coerced him into signing a confession and he was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.

In 1998, Rivera received a retrial because his first trial was littered with procedural errors. This time, the prosecution produced one of the kids Staker had babysat as an eyewitness. Even though he was only two years old at the time the murder took place, his testimony helped convict Rivera a second time. In 2005, DNA tests excluded Rivera as the perpetrator and he was granted a third trial. Remarkably, he was found guilty again because the prosecution claimed that Staker had consensual sex with someone else that night… even though she was only 11 years old! It was not until January 2012 that the charges against Rivera were finally dismissed and he was released from prison.

On November 15, 1989, Angela Correa, a 15-year old resident from Peekskill, New York, went missing while on her way to class. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area. She had been raped, beaten and strangled to death. At her funeral, police noticed that one of her fellow students, 17-year old Jeffrey Deskovic, was crying profusely and became suspicious when they discovered he’d been absent from school during the time Correa went missing. Deskovic was questioned on eight separation occasions, and on January 25, 1990, he was administered a polygraph test without a parent or counsel present and told he had failed. After being interrogated for six hours, Deskovic finally confessed to the murder.

Before the trial, DNA testing was done on semen samples and it excluded Deskovic as the perpetrator. However, the confession strong enough to garner a guilty verdict from the jury and Deskovic received a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. Like the Juan Rivera case, prosecution pushed the theory that the victim had consensual sex with someone else before she was murdered. It would be 16 years before new DNA testing was done and it wound up matching Steven Cunningham, a convicted inmate who was serving time for another murder and subsequently confessed to killing Correa. In 2006, Jeffrey Deskovic was finally exonerated and released.

On September 28, 1973, 51-year old Barbara Gibbons was found murdered at her home in Canaan, Connecticut. Her throat had been cut, she had been sexually assaulted, and there were numerous injuries on her body. Her body was discovered by her 16-year old son, Peter Reilly, but police were suspicious by his supposed lack of emotion and immediately brought him in for questioning. After failing a polygraph test, the exhausted Reilly was interrogated for several hours. He eventually came to believe the police’s assertion that he had blacked out and forgotten he committed the murder, so he signed a confession. Even though Reilly would later recant his confession, he was still convicted of first degree manslaughter and received a sentence of 6 to 16 years in prison.

In 1977, Reilly was granted a new trial after evidence was uncovered that a state trooper had seen him driving his car five miles away at the time the murder was supposedly taking place. The judge decided to clear Reilly of all charges and criticized the authorities’ handling of the case. The state police has always maintained their position that Reilly was the real killer and while he has made many attempts to find out who really killed his mother, authorities have always refused to release their files about the case and Barbara Gibbons’ murder remains unsolved 40 years later.

The town of West Memphis, Arkansas was shaken on May 6, 1993 when the naked bodies of three murdered boys—Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Steve Branch—were found in a drainage ditch. One month later, police brought in 17-year old Jessie Misskelley, Jr. for questioning, and he eventually confessed that he and two other teens, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, had murdered the three boys as part of a satanic ritual. The West Memphis Three were soon charged and found guilty of the murders, with Echols being sentenced to death.

However, Misskelley quickly recanted his confession, which was filled with inconsistencies. He had an IQ of 72 and appeared to have details of the crime fed to him during 12 hours of interrogation. There was no DNA or physical evidence to link the suspects to the crime scene, and more compelling evidence seemed to point towards Steve Branch’s stepfather, Terry Hobbs. The “Paradise Lost” series, a trilogy of documentaries about the case, garnered national exposure for the West Memphis Three and much outrage about their convictions. In 2011, a deal was reached where the West Memphis Three would be released from prison if they entered an Alford plea, officially pleading guilty to the crime while maintaining their innocence. Even though they are now free, they have never been officially exonerated and the real killer of the three boys remains unpunished.

In the early morning hours of November 1, 2001, sports editor Kent Heitholt was beaten and strangled to death with his belt in the parking lot of the Daily Tribune in Columbia, Missouri. The case remained cold until 2004 when a young man named Chuck Erickson told police he believed he had repressed memories of having committed the murder with his friend, Ryan Ferguson. After being interrogated, Erickson was eventually coerced into making a full confession. Ferguson was charged and given a 40-year sentence for the murder while Erickson received 25 years.

However, there was no physical evidence to tie either of them to the crime scene and the validity of Erickson’s confession has been questioned. He was a known drug and alcohol user with a history of mental illness and could not provide accurate details about the murder until they were fed to him by police. The only other piece of evidence was the testimony of a janitor named Jerry Trump, who claimed he saw Ferguson and Erickson in the parking lot that night. However, in 2012, Trump claimed he had been coerced into naming them by the prosecutor, and both he and Erickson would give sworn affidavits recanting their testimony. Even though there is no longer any evidence to tie Ryan Ferguson to the murder, all attempts to secure him a new trial have been unsuccessful and he remains in prison.

Robin Warder is a budding Canadian screenwriter who has used his encyclopedic movie knowledge to publish numerous articles at Cracked.com. He is also the co-owner of a pop culture called The Back Row.

The post 10 Controversial Convictions Based on False Confessions appeared first on Listverse.

The Iguana has become a fairly popular pet in recent years, and advocates would say having this giant, prehistoric looking reptile around is like an alternative to a dog. Although herbivorous, the Iguana can be unpredictable, and possesses razor sharp teeth. On several occasions, savage injuries have resulted when “tame” but powerful Iguana have become agitated and latched on their owners face or slashed hands with teeth and claws. Iguana may weigh up to 18 pounds and reach over 6 feet in length, making an attack by this giant lizard nothing to joke about. Emergency room visits could very well follow your visit to Jurassic park.

The Leatherback Sea Turtle is the largest of all turtles, occasionally reaching over 8 feet in length. These 2,000 pound omnivores are possibly the widest ranging vertebrate animal on Earth, but are becoming rare and endangered due to development, pollution and bycatch. The turtles are usually fairly gentle giants, but can deliver a bone shattering bite if disturbed, and are extremely strong and powerful. In one bizarre case, a huge leatherback, likely weighing over 1500 pounds turned its aggression toward a small boat and charged it. The turtle had just been chased by a shark, so the boat was considered a threat.

South America’s Amazon is famous for its incredible and sometimes disturbing creatures. Sharing the rivers with Piranha and River Dolphin is the unearthly Mata-Mata Turtle. The fate of a human who stepped on a Mata-Mata has not been well tested, but the bizarre river reptiles have an elongated, snake-like neck with a strange mouth filled with two sharp plates that resemble human fused teeth. Prey items of these extraordinarily creepy exclusive carnivores include waterbirds, fish, and other reptiles. We could only imagine the effect on a boater who reaches towards the bump in the water…

The Big-headed Turtle is a bizarre chelonian species with a long, snakelike tail nearly the length of its body. This turtle is native to Southeast Asia, where it hunts for a variety of prey items in the rivers. The large head cannot be retracted into its shell, and carries immensely powerful jaws. The turtle will not hesitate to use its bone shattering beak if a threat is perceived, so it is best to keep your distance. The Asian Soft-shelled is, incredibly, capable of climbing trees, where it may perch, birdlike. Sadly, this awesome creature is at risk due to poaching, which must be combatted with increased diligence.

Looking like flattened, human/reptile hybrid out of an alien horror film, Soft-Shells make up for their shell shortcomings with a very hard bite. Among the many species of Soft-Shelled Turtles worldwide, the Cantor’s Giant Softshell, native to China is the most terrifying. It hides in the sand, waiting for prey, before striking out with sharp teeth. The sheer size and power of the bite could lead to horrendous injuries. However, this species is unfortunately now endangered, but more abundant species of soft shell such as the Florida Soft Shell occur in numbers worldwide and may chomp unwary fisherman.

The Nile Monitor shares the Nile and other African rivers with crocodiles, growing up to 9 feet in length. This terrifying lizard often preys upon the young crocodiles as an addition to its mammal and bird diet, and possesses an extremely powerful, infectious bite. When threatened by humans or other potential intruders, a Nile Monitor can seize with a viselike, bone shattering grip, which it is reluctant to release. The giant reptiles are sold as family pets, but owners should be cautious with reports of serious injuries and the fact that these lizards can “snap a cat’s neck in an instant and then swallow it whole”. Children should remain well out of reach of these lizards, as an attack is a possibility with such predators.

The Gila Monster is North America’s largest lizard at over 2 foot long, and is the only one that is venomous. Gilas are endangered and protected by law, but humans who interfere may become endangered themselves. If disturbed, a Gila Monster may latch on to the offender’s legs or arms, where it sinks its teeth in, quickly releasing a dose of extremely potent, neurotoxic venom. A number of deaths took place before greater awareness of the dangers and treatment options became known. Lacking fangs, the Gila will hold on with great force to a human hand, slowly chewing up the flesh, leaving a mangled, venom soaked mess. Submerging the monster in water may force it to let go, stopping the carnage.

The Malayan Water Monitor is the second heaviest lizard in the world, and lurks in the rivers and deep swamps of Southeast Asia. The lizard has backwards curving teeth, and is known to feed on…dead bodies. If a living human fell into the water where several Water Monitor were feeding, it is very possible that the reptile’s hunting instinct would be activated by the vulnerability of the human, provoking an attack. Water Monitors are capable of feeding on a wide range of animals, and have little trouble with large prey, weighing over 150 pounds in some cases. Length may reach…9.5 feet.

The Alligator Snapping Turtle is the world’s largest freshwater turtle, and by far the most dangerous. Weighing over 200 pounds, the bizarre looking reptile has a cone covered, dinosaur like shell, and a massive beak that will cleanly amputate any body part brought near it, and is capable of severing a broom handle with lightning speed. A swimmer accidentally treading nearby could easily lose part of a foot. Although deaths have not been confirmed, drowning may have occurred undetected. A hypothetical report of a 400 pound snapper is supported by the continued growth of this species throughout its lifespan, which may reach 200 years.

The Komodo Dragon stalks the forested lowlands, beaches and plateaus of Indonesia, posing a threat to nearly every living thing as a prehistoric apex predator. The 10 foot, 300 pound beasts are the largest lizards on Earth, forming microcosm of a prehistoric world where reptiles ruled. Komodos feed on prey as large as water buffalo, and have attacked, disremembered and consumed humans. Such large prey items are charged and knocked down, followed by a vicious attack involving large amounts of flesh being removed. The toxic saliva and bacteria will weaken an animal that does not die right away. Scientists have theorized the Komodo evolved to feed on now extinct dwarf island elephants.

Ron Harlan is a wildlife enthusiast and fan of incredible, dangerous or animals. He does freelance writing covering fascinating and scary wildlife, conservation and oddities.

The post 10 Terrifying And Dangerous Turtles and Lizards appeared first on Listverse.

While many of the procedures on this list are quite risky, the face slapping bit is in good fun. Offered by Bangkok masseuse Tata in her San Francisco massage parlor, the treatment consists of pinching and manipulating the skin and light slaps that are said to cure wrinkles and shrink pores. Whether this is at all helpful in restoring a youthful appearance is highly debatable, but it doesn’t come cheap. A single 15 minute session will set you back $350.

The use of stem cells in medical treatments remains highly controversial, with detractors claiming their use is “playing God”. Very basically, stem cells can “transform” into any other cell, and are used by the body to make repairs. The only stem cell treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration is a bone marrow transplant in the instance of leukemia, but that hasn’t stopped many patients from seeking cutting-edge plastic surgeries, wherein the cells are drawn from the body via liposuction and then re-injected into the face, to repair wrinkles. Unfortunately, the procedure is in its infancy, and there is no way to predict exactly how the cells will behave. In at least one horrifying instance, a woman grew bones in her eyelid.

The doctor fish is native to the rivers and springs of the Middle East, a toothless creature around the size of a guppy. Like a lot of fish, these guys are not particularly picky eaters. In fact, they have been used for some years to perform pedicures; gnawing the dead and callused skin away from the feet. The creepy procedure is apparently quite effective, and those who have had it done claim it is painless. However, in much of the world, just as these pedicures began taking off, they were banned, as letting fish in communal baths chew on toes of multiple customers is not in the least sterile. Seized fish have been shown to carry a wide array of bacteria, including that which causes cholera and streptococcal infections.

The ideal of the geisha is quite foreign to Western sensibilities; her role often varied, anything from servant to concubine to entertainer, and everything in between. Perhaps the best known aspect of the geisha is her white pancake makeup, which was once lead-based and ravaged the skin. To restore their appearance, the geisha used a cream made from the droppings of nightingales, which contained revitalizing enzymes. Or so the staff at Shizuka New York, a posh Japanese spa in Manhattan, would lead you to believe. For just $180, they will paint your face with bird poo, carefully sanitized under ultraviolet light and mixed with some other ingredients to hide the rather disagreeable smell. While the claims seem dubious, some customers have reported a “glow” on their face after the treatment.

DC-CIK treatment is another controversial procedure which involves drawing blood from a patient suffering from cancer. The blood is then turned over to a lab, where it is concentrated, then injected back into the body after chemotherapy or surgery. It is said to promote healing. However, some dubious clinics in Hong Kong have begun offering the treatment to give patients a more youthful appearance. At least one death from septic shock has been reported, and several others have been sent to the hospital, infected by mycobacterium abcessus, a nasty bacteria known to cause lung disease and wound infections.

Most of us have a relationship of absolute necessity with our urine; one quick flush and its gone. There is however, a small but dedicated community that extolls the supposedly restorative properties of urine. These people claim drinking urine can cure (or at least relieve the symptoms of) a vast number of diseases, ranging from lupus to multiple sclerosis, and even cancer. Urine is also used for beauty treatments; when applied topically, advocates claim it is excellent for the skin, clearing up psoriasis, eczema, and acne. The best urine is apparently taken midstream first thing in the morning, when beneficial hormones have been able to build up overnight. Perhaps not surprisingly, the legitimate medical community has not recognized any benefit to the consumption of urine.

Although many bodily modifications made in the name of beauty could be described as frivolous, toe narrowing is amongst the most foolish. A growing number of people, unsatisfied with “fat” toes, have been turning to podiatrists for help. The procedure, which is somewhat gruesome, involves splitting the toe open and grinding down the bone and fat inside. While not a terribly risky procedure, it still carries the dangers inherent in any surgery. There is also usually a long recovery time.

The micro-needle roller resembles some kind of medieval torture device; sporting hundreds of tiny spikes, it is designed to puncture the skin at the microscopic level, both inducing it to heal itself and allowing for the penetration of creams. Many celebrities are said to use micro-needle treatment, and it is particularly popular in China. While the effectiveness of the treatment itself is debatable, the danger is not: there is no way to truly sterilize the equipment, and using it on multiple people provides a vector for infections, including blood-borne pathogens like HIV and hepatitis.

Advertised as a “safer” version of botox (itself a tamed version of the Botulinum toxin, one of the deadliest known substances), bee venom wrinkle cream has become all the rage, the beauty secret of the UK’s Duchess of Cambridge and Duchess of Cornwall. Quite expensive, the cream apparently induces a reaction in the skin that causes the body to believe it has been stung or damaged, increasing blood flow and collagen and repairing the area. The venom itself is harvested in a process wherein a “harmless” mild electric current is run through a pane of glass, inducing the bees to sting. There has been a larger movement for some years to use bee venom to cure all sorts of maladies, from multiple sclerosis to arthritis, but tests have shown it to be largely ineffective. Obviously, the use of venom carries with it serious risks; those who find themselves allergic can easily succumb to anaphylactic shock.

This one takes masochism to extremes rarely imagined. A few decades ago, the vast majority of those sporting tattoos were bikers and sailors, outlaws of a sort. Today, sorority girls the world over are inked. Cosmetic tattooing is not a terribly new phenomenon, with many women getting their eyebrows or lips done. But a strange new craze has begun sweeping the UK; women getting their nipples darkened and defined. Over a dozen salons offer the treatment, and word continues to spread. Local anesthesia is administered and a color complimentary to the patient’s skin tone is added. Every year to year and a half, a follow up appointment is scheduled to maintain the appearance.

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist. He cuts his own hair, so he probably isn’t the person to look to for beauty advice.

The post 10 Insane Beauty Treatments appeared first on Listverse.

Judging by their ability to meditate for hours on end, to abstain from food for days, and their vows of silence, most us would agree that Tibetan Monks have better control over their minds and bodies than the average person. Still, what’s particularly amazing is some of them can control physiological processes, such as blood pressure and body temperature – feats many medical doctors find astounding.

In one of the most notable exhibits of their skills, a group of Tibetan monks allowed physicians to monitor the monk’s bodily changes as they engaged in a meditative yoga technique known as g Tum-mo. During the process the monks were cloaked in wet, cold sheets (49 f / 9.4 c) and placed in a 40 f (4.5 c) room. In such conditions, the average person would likely experience uncontrollable shivering and would shortly suffer hypothermia. However, through deep concentration, the monks were able to generate body heat, and within minutes the researchers noticed steam rising from the sheets that were covering the monks. Within an hour, the sheets were completely dry.

Although, the display was fascinating to the doctors, for the monks it was an ordinary occurrence. In fact, new monks use g Tum-mo as a way of proving their meditative strength and hold contests to see who can dry the most sheets in one night.

The Buddhists say the heat they generate is a byproduct of the meditation, since it takes energy to reach a state of alternate reality – a place unaffected by our everyday world.

Multiple personality disorder, or dissociative identity disorder, is a mental condition that’s interesting on many levels. Perhaps most intriguing of all is how some sufferers not only exhibit personality and behavior changes as they switch between their different identities, but some also have measurable physiological variations between each persona. For instance, one of a patient’s personalities may need eyeglasses and another won’t. Or, one identity might be diabetic and another will have perfect health. In such cases, it isn’t simply a matter of the patients thinking they need eyeglasses or insulin, their bodies actually go through legitimate alterations, such as differences in intraocular pressure or blood sugar levels.

In one case, published by the American Psychiatric Press, a doctor noted how medications prescribed to a dissociative identity disorder patient had different effects depending on what “personality” took the drug. For example, when a tranquilizer was given to the person’s childish persona, it made the individual sleepy and relaxed. However, when the adult personality was administered the same drug it made him anxious and confused. Similar results were found with other patients and with a variety of different medications. Doctors even noticed visibly apparent traits, like lazy eye, would come and go depending on which personality was present.

This phenomenon is especially fascinating since no one, including the patients, is claiming mysticism is at work. On the contrary, it is a genuine example of the mind altering the body.

A placebo is an inert substance or belief which produces real biological effects in humans. It’s so widely accepted as fact that a placebo variable is included in most medical tests as way of proving if, say, a drug works on its own merits or because people “think” it works.

There are tons of experiments showing the proof of the placebo, but one of the most amusing to watch is a test done by a group of Princeton students who decided to throw a non-alcoholic keg party for their unsuspecting classmates. The experimenters secretly filled a keg with O’Douls (contains about 0.4% alcohol while regular beer has around 5% alcohol) and then watched as their peers acted silly, slurred words, slept on the ground, and generally acted drunk. Although it’s nearly impossible to get intoxicated on O’Douls, these college students had such a strong belief they were drinking standard beer that it affected their behavior.

Curiously, researchers have discovered the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger, and some drugs that have been on the market for years, such as Prozac, are now proving less effective than placebos. Naturally, this is a major issue for big pharmaceutical companies, which has left many scrambling to conduct neurological studies in an effort to come up with new ways to safeguard their industry from ordinary sugar pills. Incidentally, Big Pharma is currently more profitable than Big Oil, so there’s quite a bit at stake.

While placebos are generally associated with positive outcomes, like curing an illness or getting drunk on O’Douls and having fun (if you consider that positive), the nocebo effect produces negative results, such as a cancer patient vomiting before chemotherapy starts or someone breaking out in a rash because they thought they touched poison ivy, even though it was merely an ordinary plant.

One of the most talked about examples of the nocebo phenomenon was an incident published in “New Scientist.” According to the account, late one night an Alabama man, referred to as Vance, went to a cemetery and met up with a witch doctor who told Vance that he was going to die soon. Believing the witch doctor’s prediction, Vance soon fell ill and within a matter of weeks was emaciated and close to death. Vance was taken to the hospital but the medical doctors could find nothing wrong with him. Finally, Vance’s wife told the physician, Dr. Doherty, about the encounter with the witch doctor, which gave the creative physician an idea. The next day, Dr. Doherty told the couple he had tracked down the witch doctor and physically threatened him until the medicine man finally admitted he had put a lizard inside Vance that was eating him from the inside. Of course, the Doctor’s story was completely fabricated, yet he made a big show of injecting the patient with a mysterious substance and snuck in a genuine, green lizard that he pretended to extract from Vance. The next day, Vance awoke alert, hungry, and it didn’t take long before he fully recovered.

Apparently, that story was corroborated by four other medical professionals, and is often cited when explaining why Voo Doo sometimes works (i.e. not because of magic, but because of the nocebo effect).

There are a lot of stories floating around out there about people who experienced an injury in their dreams and then found real, physical evidence of the wound on their bodies once they awoke. For instance, some people have claimed to have been caught in a fire in their dreams and then woke up to find burn marks on their skin. Other common stories involve people being attacked during their dreams and then waking up to find scratch marks somewhere on their bodies. However, most of these stories are found in chat rooms or message boards, so it’s hard to corroborate if they are true.

But, there is one well documented case, reported by famed psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, about an Indian man named Durga Jatav who, during a battle with typhoid fever, had an extremely vivid dream about being held captive in another realm. To keep him from escaping, his dream captors cut his legs off at the knee. Unfortunately, his legs were already severed by the time the captors realized they had the wrong man and didn’t need to keep Jatav after all. When Jatav asked how he could leave with no legs, they offered him several pairs of legs, he picked out his own pair, and then they were miraculously reattached.

While Jatav was having the dream, his body became very cold and at one point his family thought he was dead, yet he revived a few days later. Once he was awake, his sister and neighbor noticed deep fissures around his knees that weren’t there previously. X-ray photographs showed no abnormality below the surface of the skin, which led Jatav and his family to believe the marks came from his dream experience. Dr. Stevenson met Jatav some 30 years later (1979) and took pictures of the still visible scars. Although Stevenson did not witness the event, he apparently believed the story, which was confirmed by all involved, and he even included the account and photographs in his book “Reincarnation and Biology: A contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects.”

Obviously there’s no scientific proof to this intriguing account, but it’s not too far-fetched considering what we already know about the power of the brain over the body.

Like the Tibetan monks, Indian Yogis seem to have an unusual talent for manipulating their physiological processes while in deep meditation. After hearing stories of yogis spending 28 days underground and surviving, in 1936, a French cardiologist named Therese Brosse traveled to India to see if the yogis truly did have such talents. In her experiments, the yogis reportedly slowed their heart down so slow that it was only detectable via an EKG machine.

In the 1950s Brosse’s study was expanded by another group of researchers who traveled through India with an eight-channel electro-encephalograph and various other instruments, which they used to monitor the yogis’ brain activity, respirations, skin temperature, blood-volume changes, and skin conductance. Two of their test subjects were placed in air-tight sealed boxes, on two separate occasions, and were monitored for 8 to 10 hours. During that time the Yogis showed biological characteristics similar to sleep and were able to slow down their heart rate and respiration to low enough levels that oxygen and carbon dioxide quantities inside the box remained virtually in the same proportions as found in air at sea level. Thus, it was shown that by slowing down their bodily processes and not panicking (as most would do) the Yogis could survive a live-burial for far longer than the average person, possibly even weeks longer.

Many athletes claim it helps them perform better when they “play” the game in their minds before ever stepping foot on the field or court. While we might assume doing so is just a mental exercise that enables them to better focus on the game, there might be more concrete changes happening inside the body.

Take, for example, Air Force Colonel George Hall who was locked in a small, dark North Vietnamese prison for seven years. While most would lose their minds in such circumstances, Hall went to his happy place, so to speak, by mentally playing golf every day of his imprisonment. His visualizations were extremely in-depth and included everything from hitting the ball off the tee, raking the sand traps, feeling the wind, and of course tapping the ball into the hole.

Regardless of being weak and 100 pounds lighter than before his capture, one of the first things Hall wanted to do after his release was play a legitimate round of golf. He was invited to the Greater New Orleans Open where he astoundingly shot a 76. When a member of the press suggested his performance was a case of beginners luck, Hall replied, “Luck, I never 3-putted a green in the last five years!”

So, despite his physical deterioration and not stepping on a course in over seven years, his body had developed muscle memory based simply on his imaginings.

Jack Schwarz, a Dutch Jewish writer, also lived in horrific conditions while forced into a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Like so many others, he was beaten, starved, and tortured beyond what most of us can comprehend. To cope with his situation, he began the practice of meditation and prayer, which he developed to the point where he could block out the pain of his torment and subsequently withstand his situation.

After his release, Schwarz continued his mind over matter practice and occasionally demonstrated his skills by putting a long sail-maker’s needle through his arm without injury. He also displayed his ability to regulate his body’s blood flow by causing the puncture hole in his arm to bleed or stop bleeding at will. Schwarz was studied by researchers at the Menninger Foundation who found that he could indeed control many of his bodily processes with only his mind. Furthermore, through an electroencephalograph, they determined his brain had different electrical activity as compared to most other test subjects. According to Schwarz, he could also see people’s auras, which allowed him to gauge their physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental conditions.

Undoubtedly it’s difficult to keep a positive attitude when you’re facing a life-threatening disease, but, based on a variety of medical studies, doing so may mean the difference between living and dying.

For example, in 1989, Dr. David Spiegel of Stanford University conducted a study on 86 women with late stage breast cancer. Half of those women received standard medical care while the other half were given weekly support sessions in addition to the standard medical care. During the sessions the women shared their feelings, talked with other patients, and generally had a positive outlet where they could cope with their illness. At the end of the study, the women in the support group lived twice as long as those not in the group. In 1999, a similar study found that cancer patients who have feelings of helplessness and hopelessness have a lower chance of survival.

In recent years, David Seidler, writer of “The King’s Speech,” claimed to have eliminated his cancer through meditation and imagination. After battling bladder cancer for years and only two weeks away from surgery, Seidler decided to see if he could get rid of the cancer through his imagination. He admittedly thought the idea was a little “woo-woo,” but by that point he figured he had nothing to lose. So, he spent the two weeks leading up to his surgery envisioning a clean, cream-colored, healthy bladder. When Seidler went in for his pre-surgery biopsy, the doctor was stunned to find a distinct lack of cancer – he even sent the biopsy to four different labs for testing. While Seidler believes his visualization were behind the cancer’s disappearance, his doctor labeled it a “spontaneous remission.”

It seems counterintuitive that increasing numbers of people are claiming to put a greater effort into exercising and eating a nutritious diet, yet there are more obese people in the world than ever before. Some researchers think positivity is a missing variable in the weight loss equation, and a lack of it is what’s keeping people chubby.

To prove the point that the mind has a major impact on the body, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer conducted an experiment on a group of predominantly overweight hotel maids who, judging by their daily activity levels, should have been thin. Despite essentially exercising all day long through their work, Langer discovered through a survey that 67% of the maids felt they didn’t do any type of exercise. Langer predicted the maids’ perceptions were hampering their weight loss, so she took half the maids aside and, in addition to taking their physical measurements, explained that through their cleaning work they were exceeding the surgeon general’s definition of an active lifestyle. The other half of the maids were given no information.

A month later, Langer’s team returned to the hotel and reevaluated the maids. They found an overall decrease in systolic blood pressure, weight, and waist-to-hip ratio in the educated group. The other group had no significant physical changes. While some suspect the mere discussion of exercise somehow altered the women’s behavior, Langer said there was no indication any of the maids modified their routines, and she feels the results were due simply to a change in mindset.

Content and copy writer by day and list writer by night, S.Grant enjoys exploring the bizarre, unusual, and topics that hide in plain sight. Contact S.Grant here.

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