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The Sad, Strange Life Of Sarah Baartman AKA "Hottentot Venus"

General

Colleen Conroy

Lists and lists of the things that make each US State unique, from the weirdest laws to the most popular drinks and dog breeds to the shows residents are streaming most on Netflix.

This Is America

Alcohol has an intriguing legacy in the United States, from the earliest days of the revolution to frontier times to Prohibition and beyond. As with any nation, some of the earliest structures built in America were bars and taverns -&nbsp;which often shared&nbsp;walls and ceilings with other rudimentary mainstays, namely brothels and inns.&nbsp;When it comes to determining the best historical&nbsp;bars in every state,&nbsp;it's not merely the oldest taverns that make the cut. History has layers, and some younger establishments make up for lost time with outlandish reputations. This roundup of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/pictures-of-old-bars-where-writers-hung-out/lyra-radford" target="_blank">the most historic bars</a> in the United States covers it all, from oldest to rowdiest to most creative.

The Most Historic Bar In Every US State

The Most Historic Bar In Every US State (50 Photos)

Unsettling Images

Science and lore collide when it comes to imagining what kind of creatures lurk in the deepest, darkest reaches of the sea. Some of the world's underwater trenches&nbsp;may as well be outer space -&nbsp;we've made&nbsp;more expeditions to the moon than the ocean floor.In so-called deep-sea gigantism, or abyssal gigantism, scientists have discovered abnormally large organisms living peacefully at depths of anywhere from 1,000 to 36,000 feet. To gather information about abyssal gigantism, researchers&nbsp;gleaned&nbsp;studies of the&nbsp;washed-up carcasses of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/horrifying-creatures-found-in-the-deep-sea/laura-allan" target="_blank">these</a><a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/horrifying-creatures-found-in-the-deep-sea/laura-allan" target="_blank"> ghastly creatures</a>, which include colossal squids reaching 50 feet in length, as well as&nbsp;huge deep-sea-dwelling invertebrates, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/giant-woodlouse-isopod/eric-vega" target="_blank">such as the giant isopod</a>.&nbsp;Typically,&nbsp;organisms adapt to such depths by becoming smaller, but scientists have a few theories behind the cause of deep-sea gigantism. These organisms mostly comprise water, so there's little risk of being crushed by deep-sea&nbsp;pressure.&nbsp;One theory&nbsp;known as Kleiber's Rule&nbsp;says the larger&nbsp;the animal, the slower its metabolism, which makes sense for deep-sea creatures with a scarce&nbsp;food supply.Another theory is Bergman's Rule, which states larger creatures are typically found in colder environments. It's&nbsp;another method of efficiency - bigger animals radiate less heat per unit of mass, so they're&nbsp;able to stay warmer in cool climates.Scientists have yet to form conclusive statements about the cause of this phenomenon. So most deep-sea creatures live on as <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/scariest-ocean-creatures/rebecca-high" target="_blank">some&nbsp;of&nbsp;the ocean's&nbsp;creepiest mysteries</a>.

Horrifying Examples Of Abyssal Gigantism

14 Horrifying Examples Of Abyssal Gigantism (Photos)

Gross

Mao Sugiyama, whose artist name is Ham Cybele, or just HC,&nbsp;is a Tokyo-based illustrator and performance artist.&nbsp;After undergoing gender-nullification surgery in 2012, they&nbsp;decided to create a performance piece in which they&nbsp;prepared a meal of their&nbsp;severed genitals for the highest bidders, in order to raise awareness about asexuality.Shockingly, around 70 people arrived to bid for their chance to&nbsp;dine&nbsp;on Sugiyama’s special meal. Because of public outrage,&nbsp;Sugiyama was eventually charged&nbsp;with&nbsp;indecent exposure, which&nbsp;almost landed them&nbsp;in jail.

This Artist Removed Their Genitals Then Served Them For Dinner To The Highest Bidders

Mao Sugiyama Removed Their Genitals Then Served Them For Dinner

True Crime

Evidence explains how a crime scene unfolds, yet the evidence presented in&nbsp;The Staircase&nbsp;only inspires&nbsp;fiercer debates over who, if anyone, is truly&nbsp;guilty of a crime. A&nbsp;re-release of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/true-crime-documentaries/lisa-waugh" target="_blank">famous true crime drama</a>,&nbsp;Netflix's The Staircase&nbsp;revisits&nbsp;the events surrounding the 2001 alleged&nbsp;murder of Kathleen Peterson. In one of the longest court trials in North Carolina history, celebrated author and military man Michael Peterson stood accused of the murder of his wife Kathleen, whom he&nbsp;claimed accidentally fell&nbsp;to her death. As the murder trial of Kathleen Peterson unfolded, troves of sensationalistic evidence surfaced including illicit affairs, a hidden past, and inexplicable amounts of blood.Sifting through the nearly two-year-long trial, these key pieces of evidence determined the trajectory of the trial and its aftermath. These things you might have missed in&nbsp;The Staircase&nbsp;fail to explain what happened to Kathleen, but they do reveal how the trial went from an investigation to a media sensation.

Here're All The Most Important Pieces Of Evidence Presented In 'The Staircase'

Here's Everything You Probably Missed In Each Episode Of 'The Staircase'

Interesting

On December 9, 2001, a lurid, alcohol-fueled tale began to unfold,&nbsp;full of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-murder-defenses-make-sense/timothy-ryan-white" target="_blank">unreasonable defenses</a>,&nbsp;unthinkable coincidences, an alleged&nbsp;affair, and an angry owl. Durham, NC,&nbsp;had never seen a case like the death of Kathleen Peterson.

In many ways, Michael Peterson is an unlikely&nbsp;suspect to be&nbsp;charged in the first-degree. A military man and celebrated author, Peterson was the one who called for help after he found his wife, Kathleen, at&nbsp;the bottom of their mansion&#39;s&nbsp;staircase. However, as the case unfolded, questions surfaced&nbsp;regarding evidence that was not consistent with a fall down a flight of stairs.&nbsp;

For years,&nbsp;Michael Peterson&#39;s murder allegations have&nbsp;perplexed&nbsp;true crime followers.&nbsp;The case has inspired&nbsp;a variety of television and radio specials, including The Staircase, a French documentary that was picked up for re-release by Netflix in 2018. A <a href="https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/harrison-ford-the-staircase-series-1203411141/" target="_blank">series adaptation</a> of&nbsp;The Staircase&nbsp;is rumored to be produced by and star Harrison Ford in the lead role.&nbsp;

Even when Peterson accepted a plea bargain in 2017, many were not satisfied&nbsp;as, before he was set free, the accused was made to admit there was enough evidence present to find him guilty.&nbsp;

A Man Was Charged With Murder - But Was An Owl Really To Blame?

This Accomplished Author Was Charged With Killing His Wife, But One Theory Blames An Owl

Did Michael Peterson Really Kill His Wife In Cold Blood, Or Did An Owl Do It?

Conspiracies

Ever since she was discovered in a pool of blood at the foot of her North Carolina&nbsp;mansion's staircase on&nbsp;December 9,&nbsp;2001, the world has been spinning&nbsp;Kathleen Peterson murder conspiracies. Her husband, best-selling novelist&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/michael-peterson-murder-case-facts/colleen-conroy" target="_blank">Michael Peterson</a>, was&nbsp;charged with first-degree murder&nbsp;in 2003, but the conviction&nbsp;did little to dampen the imaginations of&nbsp;true crime fans and&nbsp;those involved in the case.&nbsp;The case was fraught with inconsistencies and dramatic twists, with&nbsp;an ousted key witness and patterns that materialized and disappeared just as quickly. Did Michael Peterson kill his wife? And if so, why? As with any controversial murder case, the colorful conspiracies run the gamut.&nbsp;Theories about Kathleen Peterson's murder range from an extramarital affair gone awry to a bloodthirsty bird attacking in the wee hours of the night. From pine needles to feathers, these are some of&nbsp;the crazier conspiracy theories speculating on&nbsp;the death of Kathleen Peterson.

Conspiracy Theories About The Death Of Kathleen Peterson

Lists about the past, present, and future of atomic explosions, just in case you don't already have your bunker prepared.

Going Nuclear

History

The US government seems to know far&nbsp;too much about its citizens, so it's&nbsp;disturbing to realize how little citizens&nbsp;know about the governing body. Learning&nbsp;what happens&nbsp;inside <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/raven-rock-nuclear-plan/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">presidential bunkers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/where-the-president-goes-during-an-attack/christopher-myers" target="_blank">where the president would go during&nbsp;a nuclear attack</a>&nbsp;is useful information, though.These bunkers were built in the middle of the 20th&nbsp;century, largely as a&nbsp;response to the mounting&nbsp;nuclear panic that accompanied the Cold War.&nbsp;Raven Rock, built in 1951, was one of the predominant&nbsp;shelters.&nbsp;From the&nbsp;underground&nbsp;city at the Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania, to the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/history-of-apocalypse-bunker-in-greenbrier-resort/cleo-egnal" target="_blank">Greenbrier Bunker</a> that's&nbsp;hidden in plain sight under a luxury resort in West Virginia, to the top-secret NORAD lair at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, these bunkers are incredibly secure.These doomsday safe houses&nbsp;don't benefit the humble civilian. Rather, they are&nbsp;members-only lairs for a&nbsp;select number of government officials, havens for&nbsp;times of despair.

What's It Like Inside The Cold War Bunkers Designed To Keep The President Safe During Nuclear War?

What's It Like Inside Raven Rock Bunker, Designed To Keep The President Safe During Nuclear War?

Joe Paterno&nbsp;developed a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/real-cults-of-personality/will-gish" target="_blank">cult of personality</a>&nbsp;during his decades-long reign as the head coach of&nbsp;Penn State's prestigious football program. He was admired by football and Penn State-loving Americans across the country.&nbsp;For athletes and fans at Penn State, Paterno wasn't just a coach; he was a rare&nbsp;bridge between&nbsp;academics and athletics, and he and his wife donated millions of dollars to various organizations and the school itself.But it's sometimes too easy to turn a blind eye to the ones you love. Paterno&nbsp;turned a blind eye to illegal actions by his right-hand man, Jerry Sandusky, and in turn, Penn State&nbsp;— and football-loving America at large — almost let them get away with it.HBO's 2018 film&nbsp;Paterno&nbsp;(starring Al Pacino)&nbsp;explores the&nbsp;slow unraveling&nbsp;that came with Paterno's&nbsp;silence toward injustice. In what is now known as the &quot;Penn State child sex abuse scandal,&quot;&nbsp;assistant&nbsp;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-fictional-sports-coaches/ranker-entertainment?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">football coach</a> Sandusky used his power and connections to a charity organization to gain access to minors whom he assaulted and abused for 15 years, sometimes in the locker rooms of Penn State. He was charged with more than 50 counts of sexual abuse and&nbsp;ultimately found guilty, though he has maintained his innocence.&nbsp;Paterno allegedly knew about all of this, but took no action. Despite being tenured and nearing the end of a long and illustrious career, the 84-year-old was fired in disgrace only a year before his death from lung cancer.&nbsp;Once celebrated as one of the most successful coach in the history of college football, Paterno's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-drastic-falls-from-grace-in-history/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">fall from grace</a> is a tragic reminder of what can happen&nbsp;when one stays silent about abuse.&nbsp;Despite its ubiquity in the States, tipping is not actually an American invention. It was first practiced in feudal Europe (roughly 800-1400 CE), and was&nbsp;rooted in the extensive aristocratic history of the continent.

How Joe Paterno's Silence In The Face Of Abuse Led To His Stunning Fall From Grace

Entertainment

Many of the elements that make history exciting are the same ones that make movies worth watching: heroism, scandal, intelligence, and tragedy. While <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-historically-inaccurate-movies/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">Hollywood frequently uses past events for inspiration</a>, there remains&nbsp;a good number of historical events and figures that have yet to be tapped.Plenty of celebrities <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/celebrities-who-look-like-old-photos/michelle-nati" target="_blank">look like they've been time-traveling</a>, but the question of who should play historical figures in biopics probes a little deeper.&nbsp;Similar appearances&nbsp;help, yes, but <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/people-who-should-have-biopics/matthewcoleweiss" target="_blank">these historical greats</a>&nbsp;deserve&nbsp;actors&nbsp;who can truly capture the small details.&nbsp;

Historical Figures And The Actors Who Should Portray Them In A Biopic

Person

Lists about bizarre real crime stories that are almost unbelievable - but are actually 100% true.

Stranger Than Fiction

Criminals

Malachi Love-Robinson is by no means the first person to pretend to be a doctor, but he may be the youngest, dumbest, and boldest. Of all the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/fake-doctors-who-conned-people/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">people who have pretended to be doctors</a>, Love-Robinson is a unique case, as well as a repeat offender. He&nbsp;first gained national attention when, in 2015, complaints arose of what appeared&nbsp;to be a teenager making rounds at a West Palm Beach hospital in Florida. Doctors were shocked to discover that the 17 year old was wearing a doctor's coat with the hospital's logo&nbsp;and wandering into exam rooms at will, offering advice to patients. He was booted out, but not charged, and the whole event was deemed&nbsp;an exceedingly strange incident.Only a&nbsp;year later, &quot;Dr. Love&quot; opened his own illegal practice, built on a&nbsp;foundation of&nbsp;false credentials and a lot of bravado. The&nbsp;man who had pretended to be a gynecologist went on to rob his patients, draining one 86-year-old woman's&nbsp;bank account of nearly $40,000. Now facing time in prison, Love-Robinson has learned the same lesson as most people who have impersonated professionals: it can only last so long before you're found out. These Malachi Love-Robinson crime facts are shocking, and they explore&nbsp;how the baby-faced criminal got away with passing as a legitimate doctor.

A Teen Doctor Pretended To Be A Gynecologist - And Then Things Got Super Weird

Malachai Love Robinson Pretended To Be A Gynecologist - And Then Things Got Super Weird

Fun and horrifying facts many weird, gross, and excruciatingly painful things that can happen to you & your body in your final moments.

Terrible Ways to Go

Lists about American living and culture before the modern era.

Early Days in the USA

Johnny has dysentery! Sarah has a snakebite! In a way that somehow mixed gruesome history with the fun of&nbsp;pixelated&nbsp;color, the Oregon Trail computer game taught kids not only how to skillfully buy enough hardtack for a cross-country voyage, but also numerated the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/oregon-trail-deaths/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">many ways to die on the Oregon Trail</a>.&nbsp;Stretching about 2,000 miles from the Missouri River to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, the Oregon Trail claimed the lives of one&nbsp;out of every 10&nbsp;of its travelers. Pioneers set out in parties numbering from one family to thousands of wagons teamed up together. However, no matter the number, one fact remained:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-life-was-like-on-the-oregon-trail/jacobybancroft&nbsp;" target="_blank">life on the trail was brutal</a>.Unlike the beloved computer game, dangers on the Oregon Trail couldn't be fixed by a reset button. Disease ran rampant, weather was unpredictable and often deadly, and people often dropped dead just from the exhaustion of the trek itself. Here's how&nbsp;people really died on the Oregon&nbsp;Trail: just how&nbsp;the game told you it would happen, and then some. How do you think you would have fared? Vote up the&nbsp;causes of death you're thankful to have left along the pixelated trail.

Remember Playing 'Oregon Trail'? Here's How Those Causes Of Death Would Have Played Out IRL

The Real Deaths People Suffered On the Oregon Trail

Fun facts and seedy stories  about "the world's oldest profession," its willing practitioners, its unwilling participants, and notable figures throughout history who have paid for the company of prostitutes.

Ladies of the Night

Culture

Sex: it&#39;s&nbsp;arguably one of the oldest trades in the world, and Amsterdam&#39;s Red Light District knows how to do it well.

Amsterdam is one of not-so-many&nbsp;places in the world where <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/legal-prostitution-facts/lyra-radford" target="_blank">pleasure work is legal</a>, and the city has worked hard to blend their reputation of tolerance with one of accountability when it comes to pleasure work. However, when it comes to dealing <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/amsterdam-red-light-district-rules/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">in terms of flesh, regulation</a> is easier said than done, and the history of this district&nbsp;reveals the ups and downs encountered along this controversial road.&nbsp;

Working women and men have&nbsp;flourished in Amsterdam since the 13th century, back when the port city was flourishing with riches and imports from the spice trade. Sailors and money often lead to&nbsp;cathouses and women, and there were no jobs&nbsp;for these workers for&nbsp;the next few centuries.&nbsp;

Technically, Amsterdam actually has three districts, but the largest and most infamous remains the one that originates from the oldest part of the city (De Wallen, as it&#39;s known in Dutch).

Today, Amsterdam cathouses remain some of the city&#39;s premier tourist attractions, as well as means of work for literally thousands of pleasure workers, both forced into the business&nbsp;and not. In the&nbsp;infamous &quot;window [cathouses],&quot; women (and even some men) sway and beckon to potential customers, tapping on the glass and partaking in a trade that for Amsterdam, has become tradition.

The Strange, Seedy History Behind Window Shopping For Prostitutes In Amsterdam's Red Light District

The Strange, Seedy History Behind Amsterdam's Red Light District

Need to summon a spirit? Set up your Ouija board, light some candles, and follow these guides to get chatting with parties who have shuffled off this mortal coil and onto the next.

So You Want to Talk to Ghosts

Ghosts

Despite what you may have been led to believe, it turns out&nbsp;that sufficient discernment is necessary when it comes to <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/ghost-types-haunted-house/juliet-bennett-rylah" target="_blank">navigating the paranormal.</a> For example, what is the true difference between a ghost and a poltergeist? Or, what even are ghosts to begin with? Are they&nbsp;the same as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/differences-between-ghosts-and-shadow-people/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">shadow people</a>? Are they dangerous? Humorous? ...Are they even real?Although the term &quot;ghost” is often used as an umbrella term for various spirits and spooks, ghosts and poltergeist&nbsp;typically get lumped into the same package. However,&nbsp;there are actually numerous ghost and poltergeist differences to take note of, many of which are fairly important once taken into consideration.&nbsp;For starters,&nbsp;spotting a poltergeist is pretty easy: they are&nbsp;definitely good at&nbsp;making&nbsp;their presence known. In fact, the whole point of being a poltergeist is to basically&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/poltergeist-signs/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">wreak havoc</a>, whereas ghosts tend to have more of a&nbsp;stuck-in-time-and-space thing going on. Some argue that poltergeist&nbsp;aren't spirits at all, but are manifestations of energy that are being controlled by living, breathing humans who aren't even aware of it. But regardless of which entity is following you around, it's important to know what you're dealing with.

Ghosts And Poltergeist Aren't Actually The Same Thing - Here's How To Tell The Difference

What's The Difference Between Ghosts & Poltergeists?

Exploring plagues and pandemics throughout history.

It's an Epidemic

Explainer

In the early 1900s, germ theory was a relatively new concept, and many &ndash; including doctors &ndash; were unaware of how&nbsp;diseases spread. At the time,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-people-who-died-of-typhoid-fever/reference" target="_blank">bacterial diseases</a> like typhoid and dysentery could still wipe out an entire family.

Mary Mallon&nbsp;was an <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/horrible-things-in-ireland-history/philgibbons" target="_blank">Irish immigrant</a> who worked as a cook for affluent New York families. In her wake, she&nbsp;unknowingly&nbsp;left an outburst of&nbsp;typhoid fever, earning her the epithet &quot;Typhoid Mary.&quot; By that&nbsp;time, doctors knew the disease&nbsp;was most commonly spread through excrement, and&nbsp;they were able to trace outbreaks by locating the start of an epidemic and following its spread.&nbsp;

By the time of her first quarantine in 1907,&nbsp;doctors determined that&nbsp;Mallon&nbsp;had infected 22 people&nbsp;and caused the death of a little girl. When she was permanently quarantined in 1915, she had ultimately infected an estimated 51 people, at least three of whom died from the disease. Since no healthy carriers had yet been identified,&nbsp;Mallon&nbsp;refused to believe that she &ndash;&nbsp;a healthy, middle-aged woman &ndash;&nbsp;could possibly be the culprit behind the disease&#39;s spread.

Eventually, public health officials in New York traced the outbreaks to the outwardly healthy&nbsp;Mallon, who landed herself in quarantine for life on <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/strange-history-north-brother-island/bailey-benningfield?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">North Brother Island</a> after numerous fights and blatant refusals.&nbsp;In an almost decade-long battle that struck fear into many city-dwellers&#39; hearts, the legendary lady played a game of disease-riddled cat and mouse with New York&#39;s Public Health division.&nbsp;

The True Story Of Typhoid Mary Is Way Sadder Than You Think

How Typhoid Mary Accidentally Infected The People She Served Food To

Lists of very bad things in the Good Book.

Organized Evil

The End of the World

The Bible has no shortage of creepy stories, but arguably, <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/stories-from-the-book-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark/christopher-myers?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">the scariest stories</a> come from the Book of Revelation. Here one finds a plenitude of biblical horror stories in which we&nbsp;earthly beings are warned of the end days to come.Scholars debate endlessly over the identity of&nbsp;who exactly wrote the Book of Revelation (some say it's John the Apostle, whose writings were known for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/abaddon-facts/matthew-lavelle" target="_blank">swinging attention from Satan to Abaddon</a>), but what can be agreed upon is&nbsp;there are plenty of terrifying visions in the Book of Revelation about the apocalypse.According to the Book, we are in for some dark days: The skies will rain fire, angels will spit swords, mankind will be forced to retreat into caves for shelter, and we will be harassed by at&nbsp;least three terrifying dragons and beasts. Angels will sound seven&nbsp;trumpets of warning, and later on, seven&nbsp;plagues will be dumped on the world. At the end&nbsp;there's some redemption, but not before Earth is scourged over by the Heavens as <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-is-the-anti-christ/cheryl-adams-richkoff" target="_blank">punishment for straying from the Divine</a>.&nbsp;So, what's with all the fire and brimstone? Well, that's the thing: there's a lot of symbology in the Book of Revelation, and depending on which historical or theological lens you choose to view it through, all this terror can be interpreted in very different ways. The Book was also written at a time when Christians faced persecution from the Roman Empire, which was&nbsp;beginning to impose emperor worship; a little propaganda is nothing new when it comes to religion.All of that aside, here are some things you missed in the Book of Revelation, and some new ways to consider the fire and fury of God's supposed wrath.

The Scariest Things In The Book Of Revelation, The Bible’s Hallucinatory Fever Dream Of Apocalypse

Scandals

Teen pregnancy can be a controversial matter, involving conversations regarding sex education, contraception, and responsibility. In June of 2008, when 18 <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-massachusetts-stories-legends/lyra-radford" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> teens got pregnant in an alleged &quot;pact,&quot; the sleepy fishing town of Gloucester exploded in a moral panic.

The Gloucester teen pregnancies became a national scandal&nbsp;after a Time magazine piece revealed the backstory. Reportedly, the principal of Gloucester High School claimed that many sophomore&nbsp;girls deliberately got impregnated so that they could be mothers together. He also maintained that&nbsp;at least one student&nbsp;pursued a 24-year-old homeless man to father her child.

In the tight-knit Irish-Catholic community, the blame-game began. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/states-that-mandate-sex-education/ranker-news" target="_blank">Sex education</a> was suggestively lacking, yet so were prospective futures for the oft-bored youth. Parents blamed the media while school health officials blamed the hospital board for lack of resources. During this time, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-teenage-mothers/celebrity-lists" target="_blank">teen pregnancies</a> at Gloucester High School quadrupled since the previous year.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Inside The School Pregnancy Pact That Allegedly Led A Teen To Beg A Homeless Man To Father Her Baby

Inside The High School “Pregnancy Pact” That Led A Teen To Beg A Homeless Guy To Father Her Baby

On April 26, 1986, an accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, caused a blast & fires that released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere, contaminating everything around it for years.

Chernobyl

Disasters

Many present the truth about Chernobyl as such: on April 26, 1986, a&nbsp;nuclear reactor at Chernobyl&nbsp;erupted, instantly terminating two people. Over the next few months, dozens&nbsp;more people succumbed to the effects of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chernobyl-volunteers-divers-nuclear-mission-2016-4" target="_blank">acute radiation syndrome</a> (ARS). The world watched in horror as the city of Pripyat&nbsp;(then part of the USSR, now part of Ukraine) and surrounding villages fled permanently from the flood of radiation estimated to be more potent than the device dropped on Hiroshima. People didn&#39;t understand how a routine safety check could create such a catastrophe, and many were left wondering what really happened at Chernobyl.&nbsp;

Collectively, over 150,000 people in the region were <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-happened-after-the-chernobyl-disaster/stephanroget" target="_blank">immediately affected</a> by the world&#39;s most devastating unintentional nuclear incident (ranked evenly with Fukushima). That number is&nbsp;nowhere near the millions who&nbsp;have been affected by the trickle-down effects of radiation; generations following the disaster have been plagued with various forms of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/strange-chernobyl-radioactive-animals/cynthia-griffith" target="_blank">genetic diseases and mutations</a>.

The government maintained&nbsp;the incident was the result of a flawed reactor design, coupled with human error, insinuating the workers weren&#39;t sufficiently trained to handle any sort of emergency situation. However, the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-chernobyl-stories/juliet-bennett-rylah" target="_blank">truth about Chernobyl</a> remains muddied with various conflicting conspiracy theories, spanning everywhere from CIA involvement to, of course, aliens.

For over 30 years, the area remained&nbsp;largely abandoned, with any evidence of conspiracy being left to rust with time. Today, eerie ruins are open to those who dare to brave the still-questionable&nbsp;radiation levels. An amusement park&nbsp;sits untouched, schools stand empty, and strange, Soviet radio equipment rusts in the woods once razed by radiation. If the alleged ghosts of Chernobyl could speak, what would they have to say? Dive into the conspiracy theories of the devastating&nbsp;Chernobyl disaster.

These Conspiracy Theories Suggest Something Even More Sinister Happened At Chernobyl

These Conspiracy Theories Suggest Something Even Scarier Happened At Chernobyl

Exploring those otherworldly, metaphysical phenomena inexplicable by the laws of nature.

Soul and Spirit

Supernatural & Paranormal

Tarot readers say we choose the cards we are meant to see. This is all well and good when they&#39;re <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/lucky-tarot-cards/samantha-dillinger" target="_blank">positive cards</a>, but what many readers do not tell querents, however, is there are some cards you never want to see in a tarot reading. These dark tarot cards show us something we may already realize is inside us, whether it be an unhealthy dependence, betrayal, or the refusal to face the reality of a situation. While seeing these cards may help us face some aspects of our lives we have long been ignoring, it doesn&#39;t make seeing them in a spread any less horrifying.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Readers of the occult are&nbsp;quick to point out the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/tarot-major-arcana/madame-ruby" target="_blank">names of these cards</a> aren&#39;t necessarily <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/actual-psychic-predictions/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">predicting a querent&#39;s&nbsp;fate</a>. For example, pulling the Devil card doesn&#39;t&nbsp;mean <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-recordings-of-the-devil/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">a demonic presence</a> is going to wreck havoc in your life, and the Death card doesn&#39;t mean you are going to dramatically perish in the next 24 hours. The scariest cards to see in a tarot spread are figurative and hold up a mirror to our inner demons, preparing us to make significant chances in our lives.

When Your Tarot Reader Draws These Cards, They Know It's Bad News

11 Dark Tarot Cards That Are Terrible Omens

Lists about real people who were held against their will, the monsters who tormented them, and the grisly details of what went on during those dark times.

Human Captives

The dos, don'ts, and steps of survival in likely and highly unlikely, very dangerous situations.

Staying Alive

Hacks

Most of us don't want to think about the possibility of being kidnapped, let alone&nbsp;having to devise an escape plan.&nbsp;Abduction is a terrifying crime, and though reasonably rare, it happens often enough that it's useful to know the basics of escaping a kidnapper.Many <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/women-who-survived-unsurvivable-killers/cat-mcauliffe" target="_blank">abductees have escaped horrifying situations</a>, even after they've been beaten, assaulted, and in one case dismembered&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/mary-vincent-lawrence-singleton-case/laura-allan" target="_blank">left for dead</a>. Humans are surprisingly resilient, and our determination to live is often impressive when push comes to shove. If you're not able to avoid being&nbsp;kidnapped, the way you react and conduct yourself throughout the situation&nbsp;may just save your life.

Here Are 12 Ways To Escape A Kidnapper

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Lists of great reasons to stay inside.

Chilling Tales of the Outdoors

Outdoors

Let's face it: for a country with a fairly short history, America sure has a lot of haunted hiking trails. It turns out that the country's scariest hiking trails aren't the ones with the furthest drops or raging rivers to traverse, but the ones whose pasts can't seem to rest.&nbsp;From sea to shining sea, haunted hikes abound, and the large, sprawled out country has just about every flavor of fear to offer. From wailing women to restless soldiers to indescribable creatures (looking at you, Jersey Devil), America can be a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/haunted-national-parks/amandasedlakhevener" target="_blank">pretty freaky place to explore</a>.Here is a collection of some of the more spooky hiking trails in America, as determined by your votes.

Scariest Hiking Trails In The U.S. That You Can Explore (If You Dare)

Hindu extremists&nbsp;are not often the first thing to come to mind when thinking about India, but the rise of right-wing Hindu extremism&nbsp;in the last few decades has gradually changed that. &quot;<a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/saffron-terror-tricks-fate" target="_blank">Saffron terror,</a>&quot; as the movement has been dubbed, has seen a steady increase as Hindu nationalists wage brutal, repeated attacks on non-Hindu minority religious groups&nbsp;of India, namely Muslims and Christians.

The excessively violent attacks, aided by government cooperation and complicity, range from live burnings and&nbsp;dismemberment to the destruction of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/historical-artifacts-destroyed-by-terrorists/jim-jacobi" target="_blank">mosques</a>, trains, and government buildings. Who are these Hindu extremists, and what are their motivations? It turns out that, even though they ground their claims in religion, Hindu violence is about politics &ndash; especially in a nation where the ruling government adopts an openly nationalist ideology <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/india-modi-culture/" target="_blank">that privileges Hinduism</a>&nbsp;over all other religious systems.&nbsp;Read on to discover the facts and history behind the dark world of Hindu extremists.

&nbsp;

The Dark, Unknown, Brutally Violent World Of Hindu Extremists

In 2008, estranged mother Patricia Spann married her 18-year-old son, Jody Spann Jr. By March 2010, Jody annulled the marriage, citing <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/disturbing-incest-documentaries/david-harrison" target="_blank">incest</a> as the reason for the dissolution once he discovered that Spann was actually his biological mother. But eight years later, Spann, then 42, married her daughter, 25-year-old Misty Dawn. Years prior, social services had removed Spann&rsquo;s custody of her three children, whose paternal grandmother then adopted and raised them.&nbsp;

Spann and daughter Misty Dawn reportedly &ldquo;hit it off&rdquo; when they reunited in 2014. Because Spann was not listed on her children&rsquo;s birth certificates, she was able to marry her daughter in 2016 under the name Patricia Ann Clayton. Spann&rsquo;s third child, Cody, claims his mother also tried to pressure him into an <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/incest-in-history/jordan-love" target="_blank">intrafamilial relationship</a>. Authorities in Duncan, Oklahoma, arrested both Spann and Misty Dawn in 2017. Stephens County District Court found both guilty, and Spann received a 2-year prison sentence for her misconduct.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

The Strange Story Of Patricia Spann Illegally Marrying Her Own Children

The Bizarre Story of Patricia Spann's Familial Love Triangle

Are we the only intelligent lifeforms in the entire universe? Probably not. Exploring the unknown worlds, motives, and visits of extraterrestrial life and UFOs.

Aliens.

Buckle up, X-Files fans, this one&#39;s for you.&nbsp;For decades, X-Files fans have been convinced&nbsp;that the government is hiding <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/evidence-of-ancient-mesopotamian-aliens/erin-wisti?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">evidence of aliens</a>.&nbsp;These conspiracy theorists swear that their respective states experience an inordinate amount of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/us-states-with-most-alien-abductions/jacob-shelton" target="_blank">alien abductions</a>, UFO crashes, and crop circles that definitely aren&#39;t manmade. Turns out, though, that there may be some credence to those claims.

That&#39;s right, the&nbsp;<a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/426934-ufos-were-not-the-only-thing-that-the-advanced-aerospace-threat" target="_blank">Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program</a> (AATIP)&nbsp;has&nbsp;admitted to its own existence. Up until this point, the research program was not widely known. News articles from 2017 and interviews with former program directors and Pentagon staff revealed inside&nbsp;details. Those pilots who claimed to see UFOs may have been sane&nbsp;after all.&nbsp;

This Is Not A Conspiracy Theory

The Pentagon’s Been Secretly Spending Millions On UFO Research And Hiding The Evidence From You

They're on your TV! And in every magazine! And all over the radio! What are you supposed to do? Just ignore them??

Celebs We Love to Hate

Lists about the millions of social-media-influencing, politics-affecting, gig-economy-hustling adults of the world who don't love being insulted or called entitled, lazy, etc.

Ugh, Millennials

Day or night, rain or shine, YouTube is always there for you. "Like" and Subscribe to these top YouTubers and channels to let them know you appreciate their loyal company.

Now Playing on YouTube

Mockery

Let&#39;s be honest:&nbsp;there are a lot of terrible people on YouTube. When you give the masses an online platform from which anyone can perform or preach, things are bound to go wrong.&nbsp;YouTube has over a billion users, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/259477/hours-of-video-uploaded-to-youtube-every-minute/" target="_blank">more than 400 hours of video</a>&nbsp;uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Aside from an abundance of pointless videos, this translates to a constant need for YouTubers to one-up each other. In a world where turning off the camera could mean losing out on viewers and ad revenue, vloggers&nbsp;are pushing the limits of&nbsp;what is deemed acceptable for internet consumption. This raises the question: how far is too far?

The worst YouTube stars have contributed to an online environment so offensively toxic&nbsp;that the site is <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/youtube-deletes-150000-videos-following-boycott/" target="_blank">scrambling to clean up its act</a>&nbsp;after major advertisers started a boycott.

So&nbsp;what does it take to walk among the worst YouTubers&nbsp;ever? It depends, but it&#39;s hard to defend videos that seemingly sensationalize suicide, <a href="http://https://www.ranker.com/list/youtube-parents-child-abuse/jessika-gilbert" target="_blank">encourage the mistreatment of children</a>, or promote anti-Semitism. Here&rsquo;s a roundup of some YouTubers who are the worst, no matter how you look at the situation.

The YouTuber Hall Of Shame

YouTubers Who Are The Absolute Worst

Survival

Who was Christopher McCandless? The young man whose life was chronicled in the book and subsequent film adaptation, Into The Wild, often seems more myth than man. After his untimely passing in 1992, his story made McCandless a larger-than-life sensation and touted his philosophy of simplicity and detachment from material goods. His persona became something that people all over the world over would cling to and adopt as their own dogma; he&#39;s often spoken of in the same breath as wilderness figures like <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/grizzly-man-timothy-treadwell/travis-morgan" target="_blank">&quot;Grizzly Man&quot; Timothy Treadwell</a>, who also met an untimely end seeking solace in the remote Alaskan wilderness.

However, was Into The Wild actually <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-movies-based-on-true-stories/ranker-film?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">based on a true story</a>? Or was it just <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/grizzly-man-timothy-treadwell/travis-morgan" target="_blank">another romanticized account</a> of a big-hearted dreamer who ultimately lost his life alone in the Alaskan wilderness after he realized it was too late to turn back? When it comes to McCandless, there are the facts, based on his own journal entries and family members&#39; accounts, but then there is also the speculation surrounding the truth, as often is the case when someone passes so young and mysteriously. Delve into the short, strange life of Christopher McCandless.

The Sad Tale Of Christopher McCandless, The Man From 'Into The Wild'

The Sad Tale Of Christopher McCandless - The Man From Into The Wild

The brief, sad&nbsp;life of Sarah Baartman, also known as the&nbsp;&ldquo;Hottentot Venus&rdquo; &ndash; a moniker no longer in use&nbsp;due to its xenophobic&nbsp;origins &ndash;&nbsp;was&nbsp;fraught with blatant exploitation, racism, and abuse. A South African, Khoisan woman born in 1789, Baartman suffered much misfortune early in life&nbsp;when she was smuggled into&nbsp;England to perform in human exhibitions &ndash;&nbsp;or, as they were then called, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/human-attractions-pt-barnum-freak-show/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">freak shows</a>.&nbsp;

From there, Baartman became a&nbsp;sensation across the UK&nbsp;and France, performing scantily clad in a cage while the sheltered masses of Northern Europe gasped and prodded&nbsp;at her &ldquo;unusual&rdquo; physical proportions and unfamiliar skin color. Baartman was fetishized for her perceived&nbsp;exoticism to an otherworldly extent.

Sarah &ldquo;Saartjie&rdquo; Baartman&#39;s&nbsp;relevance as a symbol of developing race relations has only grown with passing years. As recently as 2014, Kim Kardashian&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/11/13/kim-kardashian-photo-black-female-bodies-grio/18962603" target="_blank">Break The Internet</a>&rdquo; cover for Paper Magazine&nbsp;received backlash from all sides, with many critics <a href="http://time.com/3586176/kim-kardashian-saartjie-baartman/" target="_blank">arguing</a> that the cover directly evoked images of Baartman&nbsp;with its focus on Kardashian&#39;s&nbsp;prominent &ndash; and what some claim to be exaggerated &ndash;&nbsp;backside. Contemporary culture&#39;s&nbsp;ties to Baartman&rsquo;s life call for a closer examination of a lesson that should have been learned long ago.

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