Castles aren’t the popular form of residence they once were. Mostly because advancements in civilization have rendered them obsolete. But there was a time when castles were a practical real estate choice, as both a sign and means to protect wealth. Now these sort of accommodations are much more discreet, yet there are plenty of ways to let the world know you’re successful than to build a pile of stone that is visible from far distances (Donald Trump notwithstanding). Let’s go back in time to when castles were in and technology was out. Here are ten interesting castle facts.

Fact: No Toilets (at least not as we know them).

This is perhaps one of the most uncomfortable features of the castle, as if the castle weren’t uncomfortable enough; there were no toilets, but rather little constructions called “garderobes,” a hole through which users would aim their waste products, which would ultimate go through shoots which wound up in the surrounding moats. Adding to the wretchedness, these “bathrooms” were often cold and breezy, hardly conducive to progress. Another gross detail: the “garderobe” was called such as residents would keep their clothing inside, as the odor would repel insects (and any human with a sense of smell, most likely).

Fact: The First Castles Were Wooden.

When the Normans (who came from Normandy, France) came to England almost a thousand years ago, they built wooden motte-and-bailey-styled castles, which were essentially castles built on a mount, whereby low-level residents and enemies at naturally lower altitudes had to hike up sharp inclines to reach the castle itself. While this was a clever way of putting the earth to good use, the walls which enveloped the castle, as well as the castle itself, were made of wood, which could easily be burnt down.

Fact: Windsor Castle is the Oldest Still-Occupied European Castle.

At about 900 years old, Windsor is still occupied by Queen Elizabeth II (one of the many facilities she calls home). Originally, it was a wooden motte-and-bailey-type castle built by William I as the first in a series of nine castles. Later it was renovated with stones and was given a few additions by way of some outer walls and a round tower by a generous Henry II. Sounds similar to the way every elected U.S. President has added a new feature to the White House (most recently with President Obama’s basketball court). Whatever you can do to call it home…

Fact: They Were Built Strictly for Defense.

Just looking at all the apparatus and features of a castle gives you a pretty good idea of its purpose: moats, turrets, ramparts, murder holes, gun and arrow loops, etc. Every single one of these design elements was meant to keep enemies out and down. A few that stand out: murder holes were holes in the ceiling through which scalding liquids would be poured on the enemy. Gun and arrow loops were slits out of which arrows could be fired from with little detection. It seemed foolish in any context to even approach a castle without a written invitation.

Fact: Stairs Always Turned Clockwise.

Castles were always built with a spiraling staircase that turned clockwise. This was a purposeful design element that served an incredibly practical purpose; the idea was incoming siegers would ascend the stairs, but be given a huge disadvantage in the way of their sword arm, as most people are right-handed. On the other hand, castle occupants descending the stairs would be given the advantage of a staircase designed with their sword-arms in mind. Damned they were though, if they were attacked by an entirely left-handed infantry.

Fact: There Are 1500 Castle Sites in England.

This is according to the Castellarium Anglicanum which is supposed to be the ultimate authority on castles in England and Wales. Note the intentional use of the term “site,” as many of these castles are ruined to the point of invisibility, while over 800 have some remnants, and more than 300 are still standing and structurally intact to a large degree. Also note, there is some debate as to what constitutes a “castle,” as some structures claim to be castles even as they are definitively not so.

Fact: Castles Used to Be Completely Uncomfortable.

When you think of a castle, you usually think of lavish amenities and grand-scale poshness, but who cares how big the barn is, when its still slathered in mud and smells like horse manure. Similarly, castles were often poorly lit (the sun came through tiny slits for windows); they were damp; and they had poor air circulation (think of all they body heat circling around the place). After all castles were build primarily for defense; creature comforts were on the back-burner. Eventually however, castles came to be outfitted with pretty rugs and artful stained-glass windows as somebody had the bright idea to make these things livable, and to have the interior be a reflection of wealth as well as the exterior.

Fact: Eating Was the Primary Means of Entertainment.

The castle was a very boring place. Essentially, all anyone did was stick around making sure nobody touched their stuff. Outdoors, recreational activities included hunting and a whole bunch of combat training. Manly things indeed. Indoors however, it was much more bleak. Chess was one of the few games that did exist in the day, but the number one way to cure boredom was to eat (which people still do to this day). There’d be great feasts full of food and drink (lots of booze), jesters and minstrels. Nowadays, we have T.V. dinners and six-packs. And you don’t need to be of high social standing to enjoy those (and you usually aren’t).

Fact: Personal Servants Received Some of the Luxury.

The personal servants in the Middle Ages were treated like the family dog… and that’s not a bad thing. They got to sleep in the same isolated quarters as the castle owners, which, while the rest of the castle may have been cold and dreary, was heated by a personal fireplace and definitely the warmest place in the castle. While they did sleep on the floor, they were given warm blankets. Elsewhere in the castle, residents of lower social standing slept in the towers and relied upon body heat and light bed dressings for warmth. They only wish they could be the lapdog of the nobility.

Fact: Achilles Heel? The Well.

The well was like that one weak spot on the Death Star; it was an ultimate source of vulnerability. Sure there were dozens of ways to pour sand and molten substances on oncoming aggressors, and the structural soundness of the castle ensured impenetrability, but if the well wasn’t properly-secured, or if it ran dry, the rest was very useless. Invaders could very well poison the water supply, if left unattended, and virtually guarantee defeat.

After the Great War that was Word War I, the people of the globe mourned the substantial loss of life and prayed that history would never repeat itself. Of course, it did. World War II used more horrific weaponry than previous battles, and aroused new strategy in wars to come. Once again, the world was thrown back into its helpless coma. Human nature dictates that we all will speculate as to the date of another war, of another horrific act of hatred and violence that reaches its cold hand to all the corners of the world. This list discusses past and present events that have almost triggered that war – the war to end all wars.

Many people will argue against this entry, either because they aren’t familiar as to why it is here, or aren’t familiar with this event at all. Theo van Gogh was a Dutch Film Director, who worked in close collaboration with Somalian writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali to produce the film ‘Submission.’ This film depicted the harsh and cruel treatment of Muslim women in Islam, and as a result sparked considerable controversy amongst the Muslim Community. On November 2nd 2004, Gogh was assassinated by Dutch-Moroccan Muslim Mohammed Bouyeri.

Uproar ensued after his death, and on the weekend of 5-7 November, mosques were attacked in the Netherlands, and many were set alight. The Dutch Monitoring Centre of Racism and Xenophobia reported 107 acts of assault against Muslims on that weekend alone. Mosques were targeted 47 times, it is said, and Churches 13 times. The reason this is on this list is due to large amount of violence against the Muslim community, and how that could have been the ignition on a very short fuse in the Muslim community. If they had retaliated in equal measures, it would have continued in a vicious circle until other countries had to get involved; hence a potential World War.

This entry is a more obvious one, but that doesn’t deduct from it being a significant event in the history of the United Kingdom, but also of other countries anticipating retaliation. A series of coordinated attacks were carried out in the early morning rush hour on 7th July 2005 in London. As this was the busiest time of day, there were many casualties. 700 were injured, and 52 people killed in the 4 bombs that were detonated on the fateful day, one of them being a double-decker bus.

After any offensive attack from an opposite nation, whether it was the country directly or even a small minority, an enemy is made. And with this many wondered as to whether the United Kingdom would retaliate. Of course, we now know they didn’t. Governments and media outside the UK have regarded successive British governments as unduly lenient towards radical Islamist militants, so long as they were involved in activities outside the UK. People at the time were filled with anger, and many would have waged war had they had their way because of their deluded visions of revenge; of course the war raging through Afghanistan may have sparked the attacks, but the attacks that caused innocent civilians to fall will never be condoned.

This was was 9-year conflict spanning from 1979-1989 (9 years 50 days) between the Marxist supporting Soviets against the Afghan-Mujahideen, the latter who were all receiving aid, money, and armaments from the USA, UK, China, Saudi Arabia and many more. Toward the end of the Cold War, the engagement between the Soviets and Mujahideen became known as a Proxy War, where the countries use third-parties to attack each other directly, as opposed to wasting their own military. The attack was launched under leaded Brezhnev, and the last troop withdrawal was carried out by Gorbachev.

The reason this features on the list is the fact the UK and USA, amongst others, were aiding the Afghans fighting back against the Soviets, when now in the present day a war rages through their country, with our countries at the helm. Jimmy Carter is quoted saying that the attack was “the most significant thread to world peace since the Second World War.” Now his troops march those streets, shedding blood through an almost progressive-less war.

Dubbed the ‘Hunt for Gaddafi,’ Libya’s 42-year Dictator has finally been cast aside from a joint effort of the NATO forces and Libyan Rebels. His cruel, strict regime has been rejected for years but to no avail, that was until the recent uprising. The rebels have fought their way through the capital of Tripoli and other cities close by, and with the aid of NATO air support they have bombarded Gaddafi’s home complex.

NATO have been heavily involved with the uprising in Libya, seemingly nonchalant that Libya’s allies Venezuela and Zimbabwe could attack at any time in assistance. Of course, these two countries don’t hold massive amounts of military power, but they could provide enough armaments to fight the NATO forces leading to more countries being called in. Should this happen, and given Libya’s position bordering countries such as Egypt, it would be easy for many countries to join the battle. World War III could be closer than we think, however unlikely it seems now.

I am sure that the following entry has found a place in the knowledge of many of you, whether that is through relatives talking to you about it or through history lessons; and of course Billy Joel’s hit ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ The Suez Canal Crisis occurred in 1956 when Israel carried out the auspicious move of invading Egypt. An ultimatum was handed to Egypt by Britain and France, and after a dismissal of this, they began bombing Cairo.

What is most significant about this event, is that shortly after the attacks many people became to blame the whole thing as planned, and despite heavy denials by France, Britain and Israel, people began questioning their motives. France was seen as the aggressor, the instigator. Britain was seen as the belated partner, feeling obliged to fight alongside their ally. The entire war was caused by President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser’s decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal, after the refusal to help fund the construction of the Aswan Dam. The Suez Canal Crisis found its way onto the list because of the persecution the allies faced after being told they had ‘planned’ the whole thing for months. This could have caused other opposing countries to aid Egypt in their time of peril, and would have made a minor dispute (in the scale of war) into a full fledged assault.

Another recent entry, and for many a very traumatic resurfacing of a memory best left buried. This event occurred in November of 2010, when North Korea launched 160 missiles onto the island of Yeonpyeong, occupied by South Korean troops.

It will be common knowledge for Listverse readers about the relationship between North and South Korea, and how whenever a conflict between the two countries appears in the news we all worry that the hostility has reached its pinnacle. Well this story was one of those times. The world held its breath to see if the border that separated the two nations was no longer enough, and that World War III was on the ever-drawing-near horizon.

The Persian Gulf War will be fresh in the minds of almost all of you due to its recency. And of course, any video game fans will be familiar with Conflict: Desert Storm, set in the era of the gulf war.

This war began when the State of Kuwait was annexed by Iraq, and as a response 34 Nations led by the USA waged war against Iraq. U.S. President George H. W. Bush deployed American forces to Saudi Arabia, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the Coalition. The great majority of the military forces in the coalition were from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. Around US$36 billion of the US$60 billion cost was paid by Saudi Arabia.

Probably the entry with the most connotations of sadness for readers, this would probably be higher if it weren’t for number two, which due to obvious reasons has to be higher. The Twin Towers were the most iconic structures in New York, and most of America for that moment.

On September 11th 2001, 4 flights were hijacked and diverted back to America. One of these airliners, carrying hundreds of passengers crashed into The Pentagon, another was rescued by the brave occupants and crashed in a field near the White House. The other two, however, found their destination in The Twin Towers. Over 3000 people lost their lives on this fateful day, and because of the act of hatred orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden, Number 2 on this list shows how one act of aggression becomes a brutal campaign, potentially leading to a future global war.

On October 7th 2001, less than a month after the attack on the Twin Towers, The War in Afghanistan began. US and British troops began aerial bombing campaigns in an attempt to quell Taliban activity in the region. Known simply as Operation Enduring Freedom, the goal was stated to be ‘dismantling the terrorist organization known as Al-Qaeda and ending its use of Afghanistan as a base.’

The War In Afghanistan is still active today, and many question why the war has gone one for so long, and whether the substantial loss of life is in vain. When the invasion began in October 2001, polls indicated that about 88% of Americans and about 65% of Britons backed military action in Afghanistan, but in today’s community it is hard to find anyone who backs the war and those who give their lives for a seemingly unobtainable goal. This war is as close as we can get to World War III at the current moment in time, but it seems unlikely that further countries will get involved unless they are directly attack through Terrorism, similar to 9/11, in which case they will almost certainly join the war.

And we arrive at the number 1 spot, and take a few steps back in time to 13 days of anarchy. The Cuban Missile Crisis will be known by all reading this list, and during the 13 days that Missile Silos were stationed on Cuba, America was in range for global nuclear annihilation. The White House was the scene of nervous dispositions and sickening worry as the USA prepared to be a part of a Thermonuclear war.

The Cold War, nicknamed so as there wasn’t any direct fire fighting conflict other than Vietnam, was a stressful period for not only America and the USSR, but the world. The missiles stationed on Cuba could hit any city in America, except for the Pacific Northwest, and would have easily wiped out the majority of America at the press of a button. When they were removed, in the eyes of the world, Kennedy had won. But behind closed doors, and to the less-known knowledge of the public, Kennedy had removed his missiles in Turkey as part of the deal struck with Khrushchev. Kennedy had actually backed down his own weapons, and Khrushchev and succeeded in applying sufficient enough pressure. to the American Government. The generation that did not live through the 13 days of trepidation will never know how close their world came to a Nuclear War.

Judaism is one of the oldest religions still alive today, and is the oldest of the Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism). Famous Jews such as Albert Einstein, Jesus, and Sigmund Freud, are considered some of the greatest people ever. However, Judaism, like every other religion, has its sociopaths. People like Trotsky and Karl Marx, who were born Jews, will not be included to get rid of some controversy. No. 2 will be considered a Jew because he was born Jewish. If you have any other candidates for this list, please discuss in the comments.

This list is the fourth in our religious “bad-name” lists – the first three being:

Top 10 People who Give Christianity a Bad Name
Top 10 People who Give Atheism a Bad Name, and
Top 10 people who Give Islam a Bad Name.

The largest Ponzi Scheme in history was operated by the famous investor, stockbroker and entrepreneur Bernard Madoff. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 felonies. He claimed that he began the scheme in the 1990s, but several government officials think that it began in the ’70s. The amount of missing money was an astounding $75,000,000,000. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, which he is currently serving. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market. Strangely, he was widely trusted in the business world before the scheme was revealed.

Jack Ruby, born Jack Rubenstein, was a nightclub owner who had connections to the Jewish Mafia. He is known for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the most likely culprit of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th president. He was seen in the Dallas Police Headquarters, where Oswald was being held. He took out a Colt Cobra .38 revolver, and shoot Oswald. He was arrested right after the murder. Interestingly, the murder was during a press conference and was being televised live. He said that he murdered Oswald because, in his own words, he wanted Dallas to “redeem” itself, and that Oswald’s death would spare “Mrs. Kennedy discomfiture of coming back to trial.” While I hate Oswald, Ruby had to be included here. Ruby died in 1967, of lung cancer.

Nicknamed “The Brain,” Arnold Rothstein was behind one of the worst moments in sports history: The Black Sox Scandal. In it, the White Sox would lose games on purpose, so The Cincinnati Reds would win The World Series. Rothstein’s plan was to bet heavily on the Reds. When he was younger, he developed an interest in crime, while his older brother studied to be a Rabbi. His illegal activities made him a millionaire by age 30. He was shot in November 4, 1928, and died the next day.

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were geniuses, and were obsessed with committing the perfect crime. They attempted at this when they murdered Robert “Bobby” Franks with a chisel, stuffing a sock in his mouth, and pouring hydrochloric acid on the body to make identification harder.They were caught when a detective found eyeglasses near the body. These glasses were unusual for having a hinge mechanism. Only three people in Chicago, where they lived, had this type of glasses. One was Leopold. When they’re alibis fell apart, they confessed, and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Leob died when a fellow inmate stabbed him multiple times in the shower with a razor. Leopold died from a heart attack. Their crime is considered one of the most famous in history.

Why are they here, above people who murdered? The Rosenberg’s actions could have resulted in thousands dying, if Nuclear War broke out. Julius And Ethel were convicted of passing atomic bomb secrets on to the United Socialist Soviet Republic, or USSR (The Soviet Union). The trial was dubbed the trial of the century (At least until Dahmer). They were executed in 1953, and while many contest their guilt, Martin Sobell, who wast tried along with them, revealed in 2008, that they, indeed, were guilty.

Nicolai Bonner was born in Moldovia to non-Jewish parents, but was allowed to go to Israel, under the Law Of Return, because his wife was Jewish. He became the first Israeli serial killer, and his victims were all immigrants from the USSR, three of them homeless, and all were beaten, then there bodies were set on fire to hide evidence. In 2007, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, for attempted murder, rape, assault, and interfering with judicial proceedings. He is currently in Israel, serving out his sentence.

Lansky was a Russian-born American Mobster, known as the “Mob’s Accountant,” he was one of the most powerful men in the USA back then and was important in the creation of Las Vegas. Now, after WWII,in Cuba, a dictator, Fulgecio Batista, offered Lansky the control of all of Havana’s racetracks and casinos. Lansky became the center of gambling operations in Cuba. In 1946, the Havana Conference was held. Notable mobsters attended, including Joseph Bonanno, Frank Costello,and Vito Genovese. Representing the Jewish interest, was who else but Meyer Lansky. Lansky made millions from Cuba, until 1959, the year of the Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro got rid of Lansky, in one of the few good things Communism has ever done. After an escape to Miami Beach, he attempted to leave to Israel. He was caught by the Israeli Government and sent to the USA. However, the USA failed to convict him, and he died in 1983.

The worst mobster on this list, Buchalter was a true psychopath. He was the head of Murder, Inc., a mafia organization that was made up of hitmen. Murder, Inc. assassins once gunned down a New York businessman named Joseph Rosen. Another more infamous instance was when Dutch Schultz, another Jewish-American mobster, asked The Commission to kill Dutch’s enemy, prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey. The Commission decided to kill Shultz instead, to prevent the assassination. Buchalter had the immigrant Albert Anastasia kill Shultz. The murder of Rosen, however, proved essential to Buchalter’s downfall. He was indicted of the murder, which was caused when Rosen failed to leave town, and was executed in 1944 by electric chair.

Okay, strictly speaking he was a satanist, but because he was born Jewish, I have included him on this list. Berkowitz was one of the most famous serial killers and arsonists in the USA. He killed six people and wounded many from 1976 until his capture in 1977. When asked why he committed these acts, he said that he was being commanded by a demonic dog belonging to his neighbor. He is still alive, and is currently living in prison. He was nicknamed “The Son of Sam Killer.” However, easily the creepiest aspect of this man is a quote of his: “There are other Sons out there, God help the world.”

Goldstein was an American born-Israeli physician and mass murderer who was responsible for the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron. He killed 29 Muslims praying there and wounded an incredible 125. He believed that these Arabs were attempting to kill Jews, and thus, according to Ian Lustick, “Was reenacting part of the Purim Story.” Goldstein was overcome and beaten to death by the survivors. Goldstein’s grave site turned into a shrine for Jewish extremists. The shrine was destroyed by the IDF under a law banning shrines to terrorists. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin called Yasser Arafat, a notorious Palestinian terrorist, and apologized that the mass murder had taken place. Many people still love Goldstein, even though he is the worst Jew of all time. Goldstein was widely described as a psychopath after the massacre.

A recent trend in media is the idea that children are scary or creepy. Girls seem to be particularly popular – from pale-faced, stringy-haired ghosts to demonically possessed victims, creepy girls are becoming a common feature in horror films and other genres. This list covers ten creepy girls who have appeared in films, TV and video games in the past thirty or so years, to frighten or fascinate audiences. Most can be terrifying but have a sense of sympathy to them, or some are just unstoppable creatures of evil wanting to rip the world apart.

Swedish film Let the Right One In and its American remake Let Me In are a pair of delightful horror/romance films featuring a twelve-year old boy befriending and eventually loving a vampire girl, respectfully named Eli and Abby in the two films. While appearing young due to their immortality and are seemingly innocent, both girls need human blood to live, forcing their guardians to venture out and murder people. This is to be expected of vampires, but without blood, it is implied that the girls have a more bestial side to them. In both films, Eli and Abby are left without blood and are forced to attack people like animals and drain their blood by force. They also show an ability to move at lightning speed and scale buildings and trees easily.

Two particular creepy scenes in both films involve Eli and Abby lapping up spilt blood like a dog when their friend cuts his finger, and when they enter the boy’s apartment uninvited and start bleeding from every orifice until he invites them in. In a surprising turn, it turns out in the novel the films are based on, Eli is in fact a boy who was castrated when he was turned into a vampire. However, this plot point was not passed over into the films.

This poor psychic girl had a rough life living in Silent Hill. Pretty much born and raised by her mother to be a host for an evil god which Alessa would eventually give birth too. Through a traumatizing ritual to impregnate Alessa, she received severe burns, and part of her soul split away to be reborn as baby Cheryl Mason who would have a role to play in future events. Alessa was hidden away in the basement of the local hospital, forced to stay alive due to an incantation put on her by her mother. Wishing to cease to exist and stuck with a dormant unborn god inside her, Alessa’s life has been pretty miserable. Alessa’s suffering and hatred materializes as the shifting worlds of Silent Hill, complete with twisted, inhuman monsters that stalk the streets, representing different parts of Alessa’s psyche.

In the 2006 film, Alessa was considered a demon by her crazy aunt Christabella and burnt alive to “purify” her. And it didn’t help that beforehand, she was bullied by her fellow students and raped by a janitor. Alessa was saved, but ended up in hospital with a charred body and a fury to match. She manifested her anger into Dark Alessa, a burnt, sinister and delightfully creepy incarnation of herself, who engulfed Silent Hill in darkness to punish those who had wronged her. Dark Alessa is a particularly creepy girl who wants nothing more than to exact revenge of her tormentors and dance in their blood. Alessa also frees her goodness as Sharon Da Silva, who is later lured back to Silent Hill to reunite with Dark Alessa. With help from Radha Mitchell’s character, Alessa is able to break into the church of the evil cult who condemned her to exact bloody vengeance upon them.

The iconic daughter of the creepy and kooky Addams Family. In the television show, Wednesday was a friendly, sweet girl whose only oddity was to collect spiders. But her more familiar appearance is a pale-faced, gothic girl who never smiled, had a deadpan attitude, and was obsessed with physically harming or even killing her brother Pugsley. Maybe it was her own way of showing love for her brother. She has a collection of severed dolls heads, and her favorite doll was guillotined by Pugsley. Together, the two kids are quite sadistic, enjoying the misery of others and consider touring graveyards and torturing one another to be fun. Thankfully the Addams Family is a comedy, or Wednesday would have been sent off to the nearest mental hospital years ago, although the ironic thing is she would probably enjoy it.

Alma is a key character in the F.E.A.R. games and the main antagonist and source of the supernatural goings on. While she is quite similar to Samara Morgan in terms of appearance and powers, Alma isn’t stuck in a videotape. In fact she is a constant presence in the video games, appearing to players throughout the games as a disturbing little girl whose face is hidden under black hair. Having powerful psychic powers, Alma can turn her surrounding environment into a warped, hallucinogenic nightmare and possess people. Alessa had a terrible childhood, developing psychic powers from an early age, and spent her life stuck in a laboratory as a lab rat. And then she was forced into a coma, impregnated twice to create super soldiers who become the series’ main hero and secondary antagonist, and she gave birth to both at the ages of 15 and 16, and she eventually died. That was until her psychic energy pretty much resurrected her as a vengeful spirit. And to make matters worse, in the second game she causes more mayhem, appearing as a naked adult woman and rapes Michael Becket to conceive a third child, although the pregnancy only brings her more pain.

Elfen Lied is a heartbreaking, emotional and bloody manga and anime, focusing on a subspecies of humans called Diclonius, notable for having horns and psychic powers which materialize as deadly transparent tendrils called “vectors”. Most of the Diclonius are physically and mentally abused by a research centre which imprisons and tortures Diclonius, removing even their basic human rights on the basis that they are not even humans. As a result, most of the Diclonius are mentally unstable and violent, taking great pleasure in slaughtering humans. Lucy, the main heroine, suffers a lot in the series and makes a gruesome breakout of the research facility using her vectors to slaughter everyone in her path. During her escape, she is hit by a bullet which causes her to develop a second personality named Nyu, who is curious, child-like and has no memories of her other self. When she receives an injury, Lucy returns and resorts to her homicidal ways.

Other Diclonius appear in the series. Nana, younger than Lucy, manages to maintain her sanity thanks to her attachment to scientist Kurama, but ends up getting into a fight with Lucy and has her limbs chopped off. Marika Kurama, Kurama’s biological daughter, is even worse than Lucy. Cute and in a wheelchair, Mariko is deceptively deadly. Trapped in a cramped container with no human contact aside from the voice of a scientist, Mariko is understandably quite psychotic for her young age and uses her twenty-six vectors to maliciously rip people apart for fun. She eventually reunites with her father who was responsible for locking her up, leading to an emotional encounter between father and daughter.

I was unsure whether or not to put Samara Morgan or Sadako Yamamura of The Ring films onto this list. I decided to go with Samara. The iconic stringy haired ghost girl from The Ring lingers in the minds of moviegoers, tossed down a well by her foster mother and rose again as a vengeful spirit haunting a cursed videotape which kills whoever watches it within seven days unless certain conditions are met. The film has audiences sympathize with Samara, until it becomes clear that she is willing to drag the whole world down to hell to make everyone know of her suffering in life and “never sleeps”.

Sadako was good-intentioned and relatively gentle before she turned into a ghost, whilst Samara seemed to be homicidal even when she was an eight year old, willing to murder her parents’ beloved horses just to get their attention. And another creepy factor is that Samara actually torments those who watch her tape, causing them to suffer from realistic hallucinations and nightmares until she crawls out of the nearest TV to scare them to death. While can be speculated that Samara is simply a poor little girl wanting to be loved after being betrayed by three parents, she has a quality of creepiness to her that brings the former theory into question – she wants you to know her suffering and then she wants you dead.

A step up from Samara and Sadako is Kayako Saeki, the terrifying antagonist of The Grudge/Ju-On series by Takashi Shimizu. While Samara has at least some degree of reason to do evil, Kayako is completely consumed by a blind, unending fury. Murdered by her husband Takeo after he discovered she loved their son’s teacher, Kayako, her son Toshio, Takeo himself and the family cat Mar were all killed and their combined rage resurrected them as vengeful ghosts in the form of a curse. Whoever steps into their haunted house becomes part of the curse and will be eventually killed by the ghosts to spread the curse. While in the American films, the curse only spread to those who enter the container of the curse, in the Japanese films the curse was spread from person to person and place to place, even by mere association.

Anyway, the scariest aspect of The Grudge is Kayako herself. Since her ankle and neck were broken by her husband, Kayako can barely walk as a ghost and must crawl her way around, letting out a chilling death rattle with her black hair dangling over her face. She does have an extension of other powers, able to appear as a phantom made of hair, and materializes out of photos and popping up out of nowhere to drag her victims into an unknown oblivion; although in later films, it is revealed that the victims can turn into ghosts themselves to spread the curse. Kayako’s most iconic scene is crawling her way down a staircase to kill, crawling her way out of her own body bag. And the most disturbing thing is that she does this again and again, unable to end the curse and move on.

The Shining is considered one of the greats of horror films, and it is no surprise, with Jack Nicholson’s performance and the numerous iconic images and lines of the film. The Grady twins who appear in the movie give a brief but memorable performance. Nicholson’s son Danny encounters the two girls whilst cycling around the corridors of the Overlook Hotel, standing in the middle of the corridor and invite Danny to play with them. The scene is intercut with shots of the twins lying on the ground in a pool of blood, having actually been hacked to pieces by their father would went mad and killed his family before taking his own life. It is rumored that the way the twins stand side by side is based on the Twins photo by Diane Arbus, although Stanley Kubrick denies this despite studying the works of Arbus including the photo.

A relatively new member of the creepy child family, Yuno Gasai is the lead heroine, if you want to call her that, of the manga Future Diary. The series focuses on Yukiteru Amano, a lonely kid whose cell phone is given the power to predict his future by the resident god of time and space Deus Ex Machina. However, it turns out Yuki and eleven other people are in a survival game where the last man standing will become Deus’ successor. Yuki’s closest ally is Yuno Gasai, who happens to be obsessively, madly in love with him and has been stalking him for a year.

Yuno has two sides to her personality – a relatively normal, sweet side with a strong sense of loyalty and affection towards Yuki; and a psychotic, obsessive, murderous side that has zero empathy and considers anyone who even gets close to Yuki to be a potential threat. She wields knives and axes like a maniac, and seeing her interswitching between cute and psychotic is quite unnerving. Her personality is based on the Japanese character archetype called “Yandere”, a character who has an unhealthy romantic obsession, is violent and mentally unstable. Yuno has a tragic past like most of the characters on this list, and became attached to Yuki through a promise to go stargazing with him by becoming his eventual wife. Yuno’s violent tendencies and seeing how far she will go to protect Yuki make her a compelling character, and definitely one of the most disturbing characters to come from a manga.

At the top of the list is Regan MacNeil, a cute, harmless twelve year old girl. Who is possessed by the devil, better known as the demon called Pazuzu. The Exorcist was one of the most terrifying, and back in the 1970s, controversial horror films. Regan is possessed by Pazuzu and it is up to Father Damien Karras and Father Lankester Merrin to exorcise the demon from her. Linda Blair does a fantastic job as the possessed Regan, although the voice of Pazuzu was done by radio star Mercedes McCambridge. Linda had quite a lot to deal with in the film, not only was she thrown around a lot in stunt work, but the iconic exorcism scenes were shot inside a freezer, with Linda only wearing a nighty

Nevertheless, Regan is a marvelous horror villain even though it is Pazuzu who is in control, because everything she does is creepy and disturbing. Her body slowly undergoes a demonic transformation; she speaks in Latin and curses a lot; able to speak with the voices of the dead; telepathically throw stuff around; and spit out green vomit on characters. But those are just the tip of the scary stuff Regan does. She curses a lot as said before, telling her own mother to molest her and is a shocking scene, stabs herself in the privates with a bloody crucifix. The way she “spider walks” her way down the stairs on her back, and the awesome scene where she spins her head around a full 360 degrees. The exorcism scene is a moment of sheer chills, Regan putting up quite the fight against the two holy men, spitting slime in their face, tormenting Karras with the voice of his late mother, and even faking the release of Regan by floating up into the air and down again.

A concert can be a communal experience. As countless strangers bond silently over the sounds of the one thing they surely have in common, music presents itself as the great equalizer, a benevolent force that knows no wrong. But sometimes things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes a concert ticket can be more than just a guaranteed gateway to unabashed glee; it can also be a death sentence, or at least the cause for witnessing some incredibly messed up occurrences. Here are ten things you don’t expect to see at a concert, which a select few unlucky ticket-holders have.

Pink Floyd Pig Disappears During Concert, Safely Returned.

Starting off the list rather light, this concert was surely messed up (at least for one man); during Coachella 2008, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd unveiled his floating, politically-charged, Obama-endorsing pig during a rendition of the Floyd song “Pigs,” from the anti-greed album Animals. Soon thereafter, the pig floated away into the night with waters telling the crowd “that’s my pig.” It obviously meant a lot to Waters as the owners of two driveways on which the pig found its way and ultimately landed were offered a $10,000 reward. The irony of the matter is, who else could afford to offer such a large sum of money but someone directly benefited by a capitalist society? To be fair, it is a pretty sweet-looking pig.

Kings of Leon Cancel Show Due to Inclement Bird Droppings.

On July 23rd at the Verizon Ampitheater in St. Louis Missouri, The Kings of Leon had to cancel their show due to an intolerable torrential downpour – not of rain – of bird poop. And try as they did to trudge on, bassist Jared Followill threw in the towel after he claims some droppings found their way into his mouth. He said, “I was hit by pigeons on each of the first three songs. We had 20 songs on the set list. By the end of the show, I would have been covered from head to toe.” While concert-goers were reimbursed, it seems this kind of unforeseeable circumstance was rather unprecedented. How many pigeons could there possible have been? Followill said, “The last thing I was going to do was look up … but if that was only a couple, we must have caught them right after a big Thanksgiving dinner.”

Big Valley Jamboree Stage Collapses.

August 2009 during a Canadian country music festival called Big Valley Jamboree, a gush of wind blew down the main stage, like the Big Bad Wolf were merely blowing down a house of sticks. The result, one death by a falling speaker and upwards of 60 injuries. Also, a handful of lawsuits against contractors who failed to ensure a proper level of safety. What’s most surprising is how few people were actually killed, given how dramatic and terrifying the whole scene was, at least according to the video footage. But you’ll also notice how fast concert-goers fled at the first signs of collapse, only to fall back in to assist any possible victims.

Hell’s Angels Do Security Detail for Rolling Stones, Goes Awry for Some Reason.

The date is December 6th, 1968. The place, Altamont Speedway Free Festival, which along with the Stones, featured some Woodstock notables. The show, less than about peace and free love, turned nasty however in the middle of the Stones’ performance of “Under My Thumb.” Hired as a form of rudimentary security and paid with $500 worth of beer, the Hells Angels got into a scuffle with one individual who attempted to rush the stage. The Angels saw to it, through the use of violence, that he didn’t get very far, and when he – while high on meth at the time – went to pull out a revolver, they stabbed and stomped him to death. Other incidental deaths and property damage took place, but nothing was quite as gruesome as this scene. Meanwhile on stage, the Stones finished up their set as if nothing had happened. The Grateful Dead however, scheduled to perform right after them, decided to pull out. (It seems they weren’t so interested in becoming grateful.)

“Dimebag” Darryl Murdered Onstage by Deranged Concert-Goer.

“Dimebag” Darryl Abbott, co-founding guitarist of the recently split up heavy metal band Pantera, was performing with his new band Damageplan on December 8, 2004 in Columbus, Ohio. While doing so, a member of the audience leapt onstage, gun in hand and shot Abbott three times in the head, the third immediately fatal. This individual, who from written accounts appeared to believe from their lyrics that the members of Pantera could read his mind and were laughing at him, continued firing, killing three more people (including the band’s head of security who had leapt upon him) and wounding seven more, as he had brought an ample supply of ammunition for the occasion. Ultimately, he was subdued by way of a shotgun blast to the face after cops rushed in.

Korn Concert Attendee Beaten Brain-Dead.

On the Atlanta, Georgia date of Korn’s 2006 Family Values Tour (irony), a man asked some excessively drunk moshers to be careful around his pregnant girlfriend (as a well as a mentally-impaired child who was with them), only to be slammed headfirst onto concrete and left unconscious and bloody. While declared dead (being effectively brain-dead and on life support to preserve organs for donation), police launched a full-on homicide investigation as they deemed the incident a proper murder.

Death, Destruction, and Sexual Assault at Woodstock ’99.

The return of Woodstock led countless baby boomers to believe their day had come once more; flashbacks deep in their spinal chords to the days of peace, love, and understanding …and being trampled to death? Out was the love-promoting sounds of Jefferson Airplane and the Mamas and the Papas, in was the fear and hatred of Nine Inch Nails, Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Bush. Especially during Limp Bizkit’s set, utter and primal chaos ensued; during the song “Break Stuff,” people did just that, and it was reported that a bodysurfing woman had been gang raped. Aside from myriad counts of sexual assault, rapists running free, bonfires and unrestrained carnage and humans being trampled to death ensued, as if the stage for the apocalypse had a distinct grunge and nu-metal tinge.

Pearl Jam Concert-Goers Crushed to Death.

June 30th, 2000, Roskilde rock and dance festival in Denark. Several fans slipped on the muddy earth only to be steamrolled by an overzealous mob. About 8 or 9 died, while 26 more where injured by the human avalanche. Upon hearing of this, Pearl Jam stopped their set abruptly and the Cure, scheduled to follow, canceled as well.

Who Fans Crushed, Unable to See Show.

In December of 1979, the Who played the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio to fans who were way to eager to get in the door. While general admission seating was on a first come, first serve basis, several fans rushed the doors (which were closed to prevent concert stowaways) as they mistook a soundcheck for the beginning of the show. As layers of humans compressed before the hermetically-sealed entrances, so did the lungs of those who were trampled beneath the impending wall-ward stampede. Eleven fans were literally dying to see the showing (many others injured).

Great White Pyrotechnics Misfire, Fans Suffer.

Just a few days ago (May 18th), Great White released an album called Elation, which goes to show that the band can still find pleasure in the face of great tragedy. Great White are an prototypical eighties trash rock band, with the hair and stage theatrics to match. Unfortunately on one night back in 2003, their insistence upon flashy visuals ended in panic and horror at Station nightclub. A fire was caused by some unruly – not to mention indoor – pyrotechnics which ignited the highly flammable sound insulation which enveloped the place. With blocked exits, thick smoke, and a veritable hellfire, 100 people died, while 230 more were injured. In spite of one of Great White’s comeback venues becoming a literal deathtrap, the band presses on, releasing albums and touring as if it never happened. They still, as it turns out, have a capacity for elation, some might drown to self-loathing guilt and alcohol. Well, they might still do the latter, as that goes with the territory: rock and roll! (That is, after you “stop” and “drop” first.)

One of the biggest viral news stories of 2011 was the discovery of Comet Elenin (C/2010 X1). For a wide variety of reasons, people began to think the comet posed a threat to Earth. Articles were written that examined Elenin. People were intrigued by the comet and its close approach to the Earth in October, 2011. Some predicted Comet Elenin was a sign that the Maya prophecy was valid. In response to the attention, NASA was forced to give a collection of statements. They said the comet posed no threat to the Earth. On August 19, 2011, the story burst into flames and quickly disappeared. Here are ten interesting facts about Comet Elenin.

In ancient history, comets were traditionally considered to be bad omens. They are small Solar System bodies (SSSB) that will display a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) when close to the Sun. The main difference between an asteroid and a comet is that a comet shows a coma. Asteroids are also thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System. This gives the orbital history of comets more importance.

The coma of a comet is formed when it passes by the Sun. The coma is generally made of ice and dust, and can grow to be incredibly large. In October 2007, comet 17P/Holmes briefly had a tenuous dust atmosphere larger than the Sun. It has been estimated that roughly one comet is discovered each year that is visible to the human eye. In some rare cases, a Great Comet can form which is brighter than any star in the sky. It has been estimated that one Great Comet will appear every decade.

The requirements for a Great Comet include a large and active nucleus, a close approach to the Sun, and a close approach to the Earth. In 1996, Comet Hyakutake, which had a similar sized nucleus as Comet Elenin, made an extremely close approach to Earth. The Ulysses spacecraft crossed the Hyakutake’s tail at a distance of more than 500 million kilometers (3.3 AU or 3×108 mi) from the nucleus, showing that Hyakutake had the longest tail known for a comet.

On December 10, 2010, an amateur Russian astronomer named Leonid Elenin discovered a long-period comet in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The near-earth object was given the name of Elenin and was estimated to be 3-4 km in diameter. Almost immediately after the discovery was announced, articles began to appear on the Internet that claimed the comet was dangerous to Earth. People began to make connections between Elenin and extinction level events.

It was originally estimated that the comet would pass within .24 Au (Astronomical Units) of the Earth, which is pretty close. The distance is closer than the Hale-Bopp Comet of 1997, which gained more media attention. The story reached a larger audience after it was disclosed that while using the JPL Horizons system with an observed orbital arc of 235 days, the comet shows an orbital period of approximately 11,800 years. In the history of Earth, 12,000 years ago was a sensitive time and the bridge between the Pleistocene and Holocene geological epochs.

One of the reasons Comet Elenin has received so much attention is that it holds similarities to the blockbuster movie Deep Impact (1998). For starters, in the movie, the comet is found by a teenage boy named Leo and referred to as Elle (extinction level event). In reality, it was discovered by a young Russian astronomer named Leonid Elenin, who was born in 1981 and 17-years-old when Deep Impact came out. It is a coincidence that a man named Elenin discovered a near-earth comet.

After the discovery was announced, articles began to appear on the Internet with acronyms for ELENIN, including extinction level event, near impact or extinction level event nine (indicating 9 out of 10 on the danger scale or the end of the ninth wave of the Mayan Calendar). Some said 11/9, as in November 9, when the debris tail of Elenin was predicted to be closest to Earth. In Deep Impact, a black U.S. president decides to send a mission to blow up the comet with nuclear weapons. The mission succeeds and the comet is separated into sections. However, a piece still hits Earth. After the impact, the president declares martial law, and reveals that the government has been building underground shelters. In the end of the movie, humanity is spared after the larger comet is demolished.

Since Comet Elenin was discovered, NASA was adamant in the fact that the comet would not come close enough to strike or harm the Earth in any way. People responded by using a collection of hypothetical scenarios for disaster. For example, if Elenin was to hit an asteroid while passing through the Main Asteroid Belt, it could have been thrown off its predicted trajectory and pushed toward an imminent crash with Earth. People began to fear the comet’s massive coma.

By August, 2011, Elenin’s coma exceeded 200,000 km. (124,274 miles). It was predicted that on November 6, 2011, the Earth was going to pass through the comet’s debris tail. People began to make a connection between the comet and its alignment with the earth, sun, and moon. Some felt that the gravitational pull of Elenin caused a collection of earthquakes and geological events. The story reached a new level of popularity after the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami because a number of websites had published the date of March 15, 2011 as an alignment event. Comet Elenin was predicted to be closest to Earth on October 16, 2011 and the debris field arrived in early November.

In early August of 2011, NASA decided to get a picture of Comet Elenin, so they rotated the STEREO-B spacecraft and photographed it. In the picture, the comet appears to be a deep blue color. The color has caused people to make comparisons between the object and the ancient Hopi Indian prophecy of the blue star. The legend states, “When the Blue Star Kachina makes its appearance in the heavens, the Fifth World will emerge.” The Maya also have stories of a dangerous blue star. The color of Elenin has caused Richard C Hoagland to suggest it is the Hopi Blue Star, a claim which has spawned a number of articles.

A man named Carl Johan Calleman, who is a Swedish toxicologist that specializes in Maya history, also claims that Comet Elenin was the blue star featured in ancient history. Calleman holds a different interpretation of the Maya Calendar all together. He says that the calendar points to the date of October 28, 2011 (not December 21, 2012) as the most important, a day when people will experience a slow transformation of consciousness and reach a higher unity. Before the discovery of Elenin, Calleman identified the time when the comet passed by earth (end of October, 2011) as the critical time.

45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková is a short-period comet discovered in 1948. The comet has an elliptical orbit of 5.26 years and a nucleus estimated to be 0.5-1.6 kilometers in diameter. On August 15, 2011, Honda made a close approach of only 0.0600 AU (8,980,000 km; 5,580,000 mi) to Earth. On August 19, the same day that Comet Elenin was destroyed by a coronal mass ejection, Honda was studied by the Goldstone Deep Space Network. The network detected echoes from the nucleus of Honda and it became only the fifteenth comet in history to be detected by radar.

After the discovery of Comet Elenin was made public, people began to examine the trajectory of the comet in relation to Honda. It appeared that the two objects would come relatively close to hitting on September 28 or 29 of 2011. For this reason, people began to fear the date and predict earthquakes and disasters for late September. Articles were written that hypothesized that the shifting of Elenin’s path could push it into Honda. 255P/Levy is another comet that was mentioned with Elenin. Levy came within 0.2359 AU (35,290,000 km; 21,930,000 mi) of Earth on January 26, 2012.

Meteors are generated when debris enters and burns up in Earth’s atmosphere. Some astronomers have reported that meteor swarms correspond closely to the orbits of known comets. Meteor showers are not threatening to the Earth because the comet’s tail usually doesn’t hold large objects. On December 28, 2005, a potentially hazardous asteroid was discovered by Robert S. McMillan and named 2005 YU55. It is approximately 400 m (1,312 feet) in diameter and caused concern for NASA.

On November 8, 2011, YU55 passed by Earth at a lunar distance of 324,900 kilometers (201,883 miles). It was the closest pass by a large asteroid since 1976. Another object this size in not predicted to come this close to Earth until 2028. After Comet Elenin started to gain attention, people began to connect it with 2005 YU55 because of the date November 9, 2011 (11/9/11). On this date, the tail of Elenin was predicted to be the closest to Earth, along with 2005 YU55. This has caused some people to speculate that a collision between the two objects was possible.

After Comet Elenin was discovered, many people expected the story to be mentioned in the mainstream U.S. media, but it wasn’t. This caused some to suspect that NASA was keeping secrets. The general significance of Comet Elenin was large. In the United States, NASA has a congressional mandate to catalogue all near-Earth objects that are at least 1 kilometer wide. The impact of such an object would be catastrophic to Earth. Studies show that the United States and China are most vulnerable areas to meteor strikes.

The general rule is that NEOs have an apsis distance of less than 1.3 AU. As of May 2012, 8,971 NEOs have been discovered. Of these, only 91 are near-Earth comets and 8,880 near-Earth Asteroids. This makes the discovery of Comet Elenin rare. Even rarer is how close the remnants of the comet came to Earth on October 16, 2011. It passed at a distance of 0.2338 AU, which is really close in comparison to other famous comets of size.

A number of smaller asteroids have made closer approaches. One of importance was asteroid 2010 AL30, which passed by Earth on January 13, 2010 at the distance of 122,000 km (76,000 mi). AL30 was only 10-15 m (33-49 ft) wide, but if the asteroid had entered the Earth’s atmosphere, it would have created an air burst equivalent to between 50 kT and 100 kT (kilotons of TNT). The Hiroshima “Little Boy” atom bomb had a yield between 13-18kT. This shows how important it is to keep comets of any size away from the Earth’s atmosphere.

By August, 2011, the visibility of Comet Elenin was around 8.3. The comet followed the predictions of NASA until August 19, 2011, when it was destroyed by a coronal mass ejection (CME). A coronal mass ejection is a massive burst of solar wind. During the event, Comet Elenin disintegrated and broke apart. According to NASA officials, it was a rare occurrence and only 2% of new comets that approach the sun are destroyed in this manner. By mid-October 2011, Elenin made its closest pass to Earth, but was nothing more than a pile of rubble. The object was not visible by even large ground-based telescopes.

The post-disintegration appearance of Elenin was compared to the debris field of Shoemaker-Levy 9, which was abundant. The remnants of the comet will “act as other broken-up comets act. They will trail along in a debris cloud that will follow a well-understood path out of the inner solar system. After that, we won’t see the scraps of comet Elenin around these parts for almost 12 millennia.”

With all the controversy surrounding Elenin, the unusual destruction of the comet has caused a lasting image. In the week prior to the coronal mass ejection, articles were posted online that suggested the European Space Agency had a plan to destroy an asteroid headed toward Earth. Specifically, the website of the Daily Mail posted an article titled Fact following fiction? Scientists plan mission to blow up an asteroid hurtling towards Earth. The article was last updated on August 18, 2011, one day before Elenin was destroyed. It discussed the Don Quijote space probe. The probe could be used to study the effects of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid.

NASA has released a collection of statements regarding Comet Elenin. In each case, the organization has downplayed the importance of the object and its potential impact on Earth. After the comet was destroyed in space, Don Yeomans of NASA said: “I cannot begin to guess why this little comet became such a big Internet sensation. The scientific reality is this modest-sized icy dirtball’s influence upon our planet is so incredibly minuscule that my subcompact automobile exerts a greater gravitational influence on earth than the comet ever would.”

Yeomans explains how the destruction of the comet was a rare, but possible: “comets are fragile and loosely held together like dust balls, so it doesn’t take much to get a comet to disintegrate, and with comets, once they break up, there is no hope of reconciliation.” The stance of NASA is that they don’t want to talk about Elenin because it doesn’t deserve mention in comparison to other problems. Yeoman is quoted: “Comet Elenin has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-comet.”

A kiss – so simple yet so emotional. There is something about sitting in a dark theater watching the on-screen couple embrace for the first time that gives you chills. A kiss can be sweet, seductive, messy, romantic, awkward but above all, a kiss is intimate. Kisses once considered taboo for film audiences are now common place. Some kisses are still considered too much for the censors. It makes you wonder… it’s just a kiss after all. 100 years after the first movie kiss, all cinematic embraces can thank the 12 kisses below for the groundbreaking and memorable movie moments. The kisses are listed chronologically so the reader can view the milestones in movie kissing.

“They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss and kiss and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.” – The Edison catalog

The first kiss seen by audiences, May Irwin and John Rice re-enacted a kiss for Thomas Edison. Considered a great scandal, it was, incidentally, the most popular film that year.

“Why are you here at such an hour?” – Lucrezia
“If I am late – a thousand pardons!” – Don Juan

As the first Vitaphone film that mixed sound and music, Don Juan also held the record for the most screen kisses. John Barrymore would kiss his female co-stars a total of 119 times.

“And now look at us!” – Felicita

This open-mouth kiss might have had more to do with the passionate love affair between co-stars John Gilbert and Greta Garbo rather than the screenplay. Gilbert and Garbo would start in three more films together during their brief yet intense love affair.

“You’d better go now. I’m… beginning to like you.” – Amy Jolly

Ever the seductress, Marlene Dietrich dressed in men’s tuxedo-ware and kissed a woman in this movie. She was also nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award despite knowing little English and speaking her dialogue phonetically.

“He says it’s the chance of a lifetime.” – Mary to George

In his first movie after serving in the military, Jimmy Stewart was said to be nervous about his comeback film. In one take, Frank Capra was able to capture one of cinema’s most intense kissing scenes. Filmed during the Hays Code era of Hollywood, part of the kiss was censored for being too passionate.

“I never knew it could be like this. Nobody ever kissed me the way you do.” – Karen

The famous kissing scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr was censored for being too erotic. Interestingly, the scene was a last minute decision and improvised by director Fred Zinnemann.

“I just sat here thinking about you.” – Denis

Based on a novel by Alec Waugh, this film featured four different love affairs amidst the backdrop of race and politics in the West Indies. Star Joan Fontaine was said to have received hate mail for relationships depicted in the film. The onscreen pair would kiss later in the film (the clip shows their growing affections for each other).

“We’re free to do what we want.” – Bob
“Darling… other people often do what they don’t want to do at all.” – Alex

This story plot revolved around a love triangle between a man and woman and their affair they are both having with a young man. Peter Finch famously said of his kissing scene, “I did it for England.”

“I like you, Maude.” – Harold
“I like you, Harold.” – Maude

Ruth Gordon was 74 and Bud Cort was 23 during the making of this quirky film. Cort later said about the film, “I think because it is totally timeless, reveals so much mystery and truth about the big questions of life, and contains two inimitable performances, if I do say so myself.” If Bud Cort had his way, he would have kissed Greta Garbo as Maude.

“Out of the fire of love come ashes. Even the greatest love eventually fizzles out.” – Alfredo

This brilliant scene shows the grown up Salvatore watching all the clips of kissing, nudity and general passion the local priest had the movie projectionist, Alfredo, remove many years ago. Look for kissing scenes featuring Donna Reed, Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, Gerta Garbo and Spencer Tracy to name a few.

“Close your eyes.” – Vada
“But then I won’t be able to see anything.” – Thomas J

This precious scene was Macaulay Culkin’s first on-screen kiss. This kiss was awarded the “Best Kiss” award at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards.

“Every time I think it’s impossible to love you more, I do. Ever deeper.” – Peyton

Ousting You’re in the Army Now (1941) by 18 seconds, Elena Undone is the longest kiss at 3:24. Considering that Jane Wyman and Regis Toomey’s lips were glued together, it seems fitting that a real 3 minute plus kiss now hows the title.

John Lennon is one of the most influential people in history. His message of peace, love, and happiness will forever be remembered. In the 1960s and 70s, Lennon was revolutionary in changing negative social values. His lyrical tone was unmatched and musical prowess sensational. During his lifetime, John Lennon was the focus of a negative media campaign that saw his message as a threat.

Lennon was regularly battered by the press in the United States who fabricated stories to make him look bad. This trend has continued to the present day with hundreds of online articles giving material about isolated events in the life of Lennon and making false claims about his true personality. John Lennon was a musical pioneer and peaceful man. He helped introduce the world to rock & roll and free thought. For this, we will forever be grateful.

In a time of national struggle, mourning, and suffering we always turn to the music and message of John Lennon. On October 2, 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a television fundraiser titled Come Together: A Night for John Lennon’s Words and Music was broadcast in the U.S. The event was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and dedicated to the people of New York. Thousands of spectators gathered and celebrated the message of John Lennon’s music.

A large number of popular musicians came out to attend the concert and perform Lennon’s most famous songs. The lineup included Sean Lennon, Rufus Wainwright, Alanis Morissette, Nelly Furtado, Stone Temple Pilots, Marc Anthony, Moby, Natalie Merchant, Cyndi Lauper, Lou Reed, Dave Mathews, and Kevin Spacey.

Spacey performed Lennon’s song Mind Games, which features the famous line: “Make love, not war.” Before his performance, Spacey said: “John Lennon was many things to many people, a poet, a rocker, a leader, a troublemaker, a father, a husband, a man. Growing up, to me, he was a hero. The work of John Lennon was marked by its exquisite beauty and by its brutal honesty. So in that vein, let me say, that while I’m both deeply honored to be here — I’m also incredibly pissed-off. I’m outraged because this passionate prophet of peace and so many others are not with us here — because we live in an all-too-violent world. And so in the spirit of this occasion it is up to all of us, to do what we can, not only to keep John’s songs alive, but help rebuild New York.”

When Beatlemania exploded in the middle of the 1960s, John Lennon was the target of unwarranted attacks by the media. He was asked absurd questions about his lyrical motivation. The pressure eventually took a toll and The Beatles stopped giving interviews or live shows. Lennon became interested in expanding his musical output and moved away from writing pop hits. This was met with hostility by the band’s corporate partners, who were only interested in making money. This was also met with hostility by Paul McCartney.

After the group disbanded in April of 1970, John Lennon did not focus his attention on material goods and moved toward spiritualism. Lennon and Yoko Ono undertook primal therapy with the guidance of Arthur Janov. McCartney released his first solo album titled McCartney in April of 1970. On December 11, 1970, John Lennon released his first solo album titled John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. It was a major success and showed Lennon’s versatility. On December 31, 1970, Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit against the other three Beatles in London’s High Court for dissolution of a contractual partnership.

When asked how he would trace the breakup of The Beatles Lennon said: “After Brian (Epstein) died, we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us, but what is leading us, when we went round in circles? That was the disintegration.”

A large number of false claims have been written about the true personality of John Lennon. Despite his incredible contributions to the world of music, some authors have attacked his character and falsified stories in order to sell books. In regard to woman, Cynthia Lennon wrote in her biography that John had knocked her head against the wall, which is unacceptable, but some authors have taken this information and written detailed accounts that are simply not true. John Lennon loved woman and often wrote about his admiration.

In the 1981 hit single Woman, Lennon wrote “Woman I can hardly express, my mixed emotions and thoughtlessness. After all I’m forever in your debt and woman I will try to express my inner feelings and thankfulness for showing me the meaning of success. Woman please let me explain I never meant to cause you sorrow or pain, I love you.” I think this quote is representative of a good-hearted man.

With the expansion of the Internet, some people have taken it upon themselves to publish material that was found in some bizarre books, like one written by a man named Albert Goldman. Goldman made some crazy claims about Lennon. Albert Goldman said that John Lennon was schizophrenic and a cold-blooded killer. That is ridiculous. All of these lies have caused some uneducated people to look back at Lennon’s music legacy in a false light, which only darkens the situation. Lennon once said: “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”

As people reach new milestones in life, they learn from past experiences and change unhealthy habits. People grow, repent, and often times look for forgiveness. John Lennon had a rough childhood. He was born during the start of World War II and never really knew his father. When Alfred Lennon returned from battle in 1944, Julia Lennon was pregnant with another man’s child. John Lennon was forced to move in with his maternal aunt Mimi Smith, who was often dismissive of his musical ambitions and girlfriends. On July 15, 1958, when Lennon was 17-years-old, his mother was struck by a car and killed after visiting John’s home.

John Lennon’s first son Julian was born in 1963, during a decade when his father was one of the most popular musicians in the world. John was extremely busy writing music, performing live shows, and he was at the center of important world issues, including war and religion. Lennon tried to make time for his son, but it was a difficult. John even dedicated a collection of Beatles songs to Julian, including Good Night, which was originally written by Lennon as a lullaby.

Many people have highlighted a collection of quotes made by Julian after his father’s death. He said that Paul McCartney was more of a father than John, but this stance has since changed. In 2011, Julian wrote on his Facebook page about being snubbed by Paul McCartney. He is quoted: “What have I done to be ignored in such a way?” and even threatened “maybe now it’s time to tell the truth, me and my mother will not be eradicated from history.” Apparently, Julian was not invited to a collection of intimate gatherings. In 1975, when John Lennon was given the second chance of raising a boy, he put his musical career on hold and became a good father to Sean Lennon.

John Lennon demanded attention when he spoke. People wanted to know what he was feeling and his stance on certain issues. This is one of the reasons it was so sad when John Lennon was murdered. People will never again get the opportunity hear what this man was thinking. We are going to take a look at some of Lennon’s most important quotes.

“Everything is clearer when you’re in love.”
“For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands and the rest of you, if you’ll, just rattle your jewelry.”
“Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn’t been an Elvis, there wouldn’t have been the Beatles.”
“Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary.”
“We’re trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks. And it’s the only way to get people aware that peace is possible.”
“When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody’s noticed. Either I’m a genius or I’m mad, which is it? I can’t be mad because nobody’s put me away, therefore I’m a genius.”
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”
“I don’t mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore.”
“I’d like to say “thank you” on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition.”
“I hope I’m living off the coast of Ireland or something like that, looking at a scrapbook of madness.”

John Lennon loved musical technology and was extremely important in bringing certain techniques to the front. In the 1960s, the Beatles helped influence the way music was recorded. The band had a strong impact on the evolution of sound, including techniques such as audio feedback, sampling, Artificial Double Tracking, and the use of multitrack recording machines. John Lennon was a musical master and would spend countless hours in the studio experimenting with new ideas.

In the early 1960s, Lennon demanded to know why the bass on a certain Wilson Pickett record far exceeded the bass on any Beatles records. This caused the group to experiment with a loudspeaker and microphone. For Paperback Writer McCartney said: “we boosted the bass by using a loudspeaker as a microphone. We positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker.” This caused the moving diaphragm of the second speaker to make electric current. “It was the first time that the bass sound had been heard in all its excitement.”

Audio feedback is a musical technique which includes adding a sound loop between an audio input and output. In the early 1960s, Lennon experimented with audio feedback and the song I Feel Fine (1964) was the first single to use guitar feedback on a record. Specifically, Lennon put his acoustic electric guitar against an amplifier and the ‘A’ string on McCartney’s bass gave feedback causing distortion. Artists such as The Kinks and The Who had already used feedback live, but The Beatles were the first to put it on vinyl.

In the middle of the 1960s, John Lennon asked an engineer at Abbey Road Studio named Ken Townsend if there was a way for the Beatles to get the sound of double-tracked vocals without actually doing the work. Townsend devised Artificial Double Tracking or “ADT” and Lennon named the process “flanging.” ADT greatly influenced recording and Lennon was a master of it. Today, the process is widely used and known as automatic double tracking. John Lennon was also instrumental in popularizing the concept of backmasking. The first song to feature a backmasking message was Rain, which was released by The Beatles in June 1966.

Between the years of 1962 to 1970, The Beatles released 27 songs that went to #1 in the United Kingdom or the United States. 26 of these songs are attributed to the songwriting partnership of Lennon-McCartney. In fact, Lennon-McCartney is the most successful songwriting duo in history. When they were teenagers, John and Paul agreed that their songs would be credited to both parties.

In the early 1960s, Lennon and McCartney would often work “eyeball to eyeball” and bounce ideas off each other while writing songs. In a breakdown of these 27 #1 hit singles, 14 are thought to have been written primarily by McCartney, 7 by Lennon, 5 as collaboration, and 1 by George Harrison. It was rare that a song was published without some input from both Lennon and McCartney. During this time in history, the Lennon-McCartney writing style was unique and controversial. Their lyrical prowess was innovative and The Beatles helped spawn a new era of popular music.

In many of The Beatles songs, John Lennon writes about friendship, love, happiness, peace, and freedom. Some of his most famous lyrical masterpieces are Imagine, Come Together, All You Need is Love, I Feel Fine, Across the Universe, In My Life, Nowhere Man, and Strawberry Field Forever. John Lennon was a master of arrangement and understood how to develop of hit single. Later in his career, he wrote protest songs that examined world issues.

There is no question that John Lennon’s overall message remains 32 years after his death. “When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

In the 1960s, the spread of rock music had a powerful impact on society. Unlike anything government officials had seen before, music began to influence life activities, goals, fashion, attitudes, and even language. The Beatles became social giants and whatever they said or did was acceptable, especially for young people. The band taught people how to celebrate freedom and changed social norms. Their expression helped pave the way for modern individuality in music.

It was important for John Lennon to get his message of peace across to children. In 1969, Lennon was at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto when he came across a 14-year-old boy named Jerry Levitan who was attempting to meet his idol. Levitan said to Lennon: “John, can I come back later and bring a tape recorder and do an interview on peace, so I can let kids listen to it?” Lennon replied: “Yeah, great! Yoko, Derek, this kid has a good idea, he’s going to do an interview and take it to his school. That’s why we’re doing this! It’s great, great, great! Set it up!”

The next day Levitan returned and interviewed John Lennon for 30 minutes. Lennon was very nice and discussed his mission of peace and views on war. He is quoted: “Ask them to show you one revolution that turned out to be what they promised. Protest, but protest nonviolently because violence begets violence.” In 2007, Jerry Levitan produced a short 5 minute animated film with excerpts from the conversation. It won a collection of awards and is a must watch.

John Lennon has one of the most unique voices in the history of music. His instinctive sound is immediately identifiable, similar to Jagger, Dylan, and Mercury. Lennon performed the lead vocals on a number of Beatles songs without McCartney, including All You Need is Love, Help, Come Together, Baby, You’re a Rich Man, I Feel Fine, Rain, Revolution, Ticket to Ride, Twist and Shout, You Can’t Do That, Real Love, and I Should Have Known Better. Lennon and McCartney also shared the lead vocals on a large collection of #1 singles.

John Lennon is not known for having a finely tuned vocal range and didn’t use a coach. He had a soothing tone and used raspy interpretations in his lyrics. Lennon had more edge to his sound than McCartney and helped make The Beatles unique. John was known for his strong emotional singing and performances. Paul McCartney is also a great singer. The pair used their strengths to produce an amazing collaboration. John Lennon was also interested in altering his recorded voice to produce new sounds.

Lennon was a musical master and capable of playing a wide range of instruments. He wasn’t as good a guitar player as George Harrison, but who is. Lennon strongly contributed to the band’s sound. Lennon was once asked if he was a great guitarist and replied: “It depends on what kind of guitarist. I’m okay, I’m not technically good, but I can make it howl and move. I was rhythm guitarist. It’s an important job. I can make a band drive.” He later said: “I’m really very embarrassed about my guitar playing, in one way, because it’s very poor. I wish I could do it like B.B. King. If you would put me with B.B. King, I would feel real silly. I’m an artist, and if you give me a tuba, I’ll bring you something out of it.”

In the summer of 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War protest movement, John Lennon wrote and recorded a song simply titled “Give Peace a Chance.” The song became an international hit and fueled a large collection of anti-war protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At this time in history, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were important peace activists. They organized famous rallies and developed protest concepts such as bagism (wearing a bag) and bed peace.

The protests even caught the attention of the U.S. government and John Lennon experienced harassment from the CIA. In 1973, he was sent a deportation notice, informing Lennon that “his temporary stay in the USA was now over.” This ruling was later overturned after Richard Nixon left office. In 1976, Lennon received his “green card” certifying his permanent residency in the U.S.

On October 15, 1969, the song Give Peace a Chance was sung by 500,000 demonstrators in Washington, DC at the Vietnam Moratorium Day. The protest was led by singer Pete Seeger, who shouted phrases between the chorus such as, “Are you listening, Nixon?” and “Are you listening, Agnew?” In 1971, Lennon released the popular protest song Happy Xmas (War Is Over). In 1972, he participated in the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, which was in support of John Sinclair who was given a ten year jail sentence for the possession of two marijuana cigarettes. When you examine a list of influential protest singers, John Lennon is one of the most important.

The better technology gets, the more opportunity we have to learn more about our universe. In recent times, the heavens have opened up to us in ways we used to only imagine. Here is a list of some of the recent space discoveries, in no particular order. Enjoy!

Pluto now has four known moons. Charon was discovered in 1978, and is the largest of Pluto’s moons. It is 648 miles across, causing many people to consider it and Pluto a “double dwarf planet”. Nothing new was learned of icy bodies orbiting Pluto until 2005, when the Hubble Space Telescope discovered Nix and Hydra. They are both in the range of 20 – 70 miles in diameter. The most amazing discovery regarding Pluto’s moons came in 2011, when Hubble photographed what is temporarily being called P4. It is in the range of 8 – 21 miles in diameter. It is an amazing feat, for Hubble to photograph something that tiny, that is over 3 billion miles away from us.

Nasa’s two Voyager probes have found magnetic bubbles in the region of the solar system known as the Heliosheath, 9 billion miles away from Earth. In the 1950s, scientist believed this region of space was relatively smooth. But when Voyager 1 entered the Heliosheath in 2007, and Voyager 2 got there in 2008 they detected a turbulence that is generated by the Sun’s magnetic field, that creates magnetic bubbles up to 100 million miles wide.

In 2007, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or GALEX scanned Mira A, an older red giant star, as part of an ongoing surgery to scan the entire sky in ultraviolet light. Astronomers were shocked to find a 13 light year long, comet-like tail trailing behind Mira A. The star is plowing through the Universe unusually fast, at about 291,000 miles an hour. Until this discovery, it was thought that stars could not have tails.

On Oct 9, 2009 Nasa’s LCROSS, or Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite struck water in a cold, permanently dark crater at the south pole of the moon. The LCROSS was a nasa probe designed to impact the moon, while a small satellite followed behind it measuring the chemical makeup of the material that was ejected. After a year of data analysis, Nasa reported that it’s mission found water ice in the floor of the permanently-shadowed crater it’s probe impacted. Later data from three different spacecraft indicate a thin film of water coats the surface of the soil in at least some areas.

In January 2005, Eris was discovered, sparking a debate among scientist about what the definition of a planet really was. Eris was originally deemed the 10th planet, but it and other Kuiper and Asteroid Belt objects were given the new class of Dwarf Planet. Eris is beyond the orbit of Pluto, and is roughly the same size, although is was originally thought to be larger than Pluto. Eris has one known moon, named Dysnomia. Eris and Dysnomia are the most distant known natural objects in the Solar System.

In 2011, Nasa released a statement, along with photos, saying they have evidence that there might be “flowing water” on Mars. The time-lapse shots appear to show liquid running down the planet’s rocky landscape to form long, dark flow patterns. Scientists’ best guess is that the flows are salty water, which warms up just enough during the planet’s summer months to melt and slosh around on the surface. Signs that Mars once had flowing water have been seen before, but this is the first time that such markings have been observed changing over a short period of time.

In July of 2004, the Cassini probe began to orbit Saturn. Because of the previous Voyager missions, Enceladus, the 6th largest moon of Saturn, was deemed a priority by the Cassini mission planners. After several flybys with Cassini in 2005, discoveries were made of water vapor and complex hydrocarbons venting from the geologically active South Polar Region. In May 2011 NASA scientists at an Enceladus Focus Group Conference reported that Enceladus “is emerging as the most habitable spot beyond Earth in the Solar System for life as we know it.”

Dark Flow, discovered in 2008, is more of a mystery than an answer. Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can’t be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon “dark flow.” By observing large galaxy clusters, scientist have found over 700 galaxy clusters moving at a peculiar velocity toward a distant part of the Universe. Some scientist have even gone as far as saying Dark Flow may be caused by another Universe pressing against our own. There are, however other scientist who have criticized the Dark Flow discovery.

The first Extrasolar Plants, or Exo Planet, were discovered in 1992. The discovery included several small planets orbiting a Pulsar. It wasn’t until 1995 when a giant planet was found in a four-day orbit around the nearby star 51 Pegasi. As of May 2012, a total of 770 confirmed exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. That count includes 614 planets in planetary systems and 104 planets within multiple planetary systems. As of February 2012, NASA’s Kepler mission had identified 2,321 unconfirmed planetary candidates associated with 1,790 host stars.

In December of 2011, Nasa confirmed the discovery of the first planet found in the habitable zone of a “sun-like” star. They named the planet Kepler-22b. The planet is about 2.5 times the radius of Earth, and orbits comfortably within the habitable zone. Scientist are unsure of the composition of the planet, but the discovery has proven to be a huge step in finding a “twin Earth.”

I love food. I do also love unhealthy food, unfortunately, and in an attempt to help myself and others with trying to eat healthier, I made this list to make people aware that what you might think of as healthy, might just be quite the opposite. But remember – if eating a kind of food makes you feel good, then do so! Being happy and content is just as important for your health as nutrition is… at least I like to think so!

Like some of us learned in Chemistry class, fat is supposed to be more healthy the more liquid it is, therefore it’s commonly believed that all vegetable oils are healthy. And hey, they’re from plants, too! So this sounds about right. It is actually a general rule that the fat is more healthy the more liquid it is, since the “healthy” double bonds in the unsaturated (or good, if you will) kind of fat will decrease the melting point. However, what most people forget, is that ordinary butter can be liquid too, if it’s just heated a little. The “oil” used for frying in fast food restaurants, is most commonly palm oil, an almost purely saturated (unhealthy) oil. It’s semi-solid at room temperature, but is of course liquid when heated and used for frying, and it’s certainly not healthy. If another more healthy oil had been chosen for frying, those tasty fries wouldn’t have been bad for you. Not at all, as long as the potatoes are of good quality. “Then why don’t the fast food restaurants use the healthy kind of oil then?” you might ask yourself. The unhealthy stuff is cheap, and the fast food companies tend to care more about their money than your health.

Although there are near infinite variations, and therefore several healthy variations of this food swell, the typical pasta you get when you buy your spaghetti, macaroni or noodles, at least in the Western World, is just plain white flour, mixed with water and eggs (although the small percentage of egg included don’t contribute much to the nutritional value of pasta). No vitamins, no minerals, and barely any fiber. Nothing, except empty carbs, shaped as pasta. And just to make things worse, “fast food pasta,” take-away Chinese food for instance, often contain loads of salt, mixed with unhealthy fat.

This is pasta, but shaped like bread. You probably already knew this, but there are still people left in the world that think that all kinds of bread are good for them. White bread is not, trust me!

I mean come on, you didn’t think that goofy green powder you mix into water could be good for you, did you? Well, it isn’t. When you eat soup, you eat/drink the water, milk, butter, or whatever else you had that powder mixed into, along with a mixture of tasty salt and preservatives. A lot of salt, in fact. Salt is sadly often overlooked as a risk-factor in food. Salt is actually a major contributor to heart disease. It has to be excreted from the body. The kidneys do this job, and without going too deep on the physiology, the blood pressure increases the more salt you consume, in order to excrete it. And high blood pressure is not good for you, which you probably already know.

Don’t let the fact that it almost got accepted as a vegetable in the United States fool you. Despite containing the antioxidant lycopene (antioxidants greatly reduce the risks of mutations in your body, and the risk of developing diseases like cancer), ketchup contains loads of sugar (as high as 26% carbohydrates, according to Wikipedia), and also a lot of salt. Most of the ketchup we eat is processed and non-organic, so the lycopene levels are much lower than what it could be from the amount of tomatoes used.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to include this item, as I’m not sure if the definition of “food” includes drinks in the English language, as it doesn’t in my native tongue, but what the heck, I decided to just go for it anyway. You probably knew that soda would never be healthy, diet or not, but did you know that it can be quite bad for you, swell? Scientists are still unsure about this. Some even say diet coke is worse than the sugar-stuffed versions. This is actually a quite controversial debate, as there hasn’t been too many scientific studies done on the health effects of diet soda, but the few there has been, hasn’t exactly proved good for the diet soda fanatics. Some studies have shown that diet soda may not be too bad for you by it self, but it still gave the test group a considerable weight gain. A theory was that diet soda actually stimulated the appetite, so that you “ate back” more than the calories you saved by drinking a diet soda instead of a sugary version. Several animal studies have suggested that the artificial sweeteners used in diet soda can cause weight gain, just like ordinary sugars. Also, some of these sweeteners, like Aspartame, have been believed to increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer, although this has not been scientifically proven, as far as I know.

It’s probably common knowledge that cheese isn’t too good for you, but processed cheese is actually -really- bad for you! Here’s a little story from my childhood, on the subject.

Since when I first ate a hamburger at the local Burger King, I wondered what kind of cheese they used on those delicious hamburgers they sold there. It was so… good and cheesy, and yellow too! Many years passed, and I, as a burger fanatic, tried many types of cheese on my homemade hamburgers without really getting the wanted result. Then, one day when I traveled over the border to Sweden, I found the cheese I was looking for in the first grocery store I went into. “American cheese” it was named, if I’m not mistaken, and I bought a couple of these which I took home to Norway, to put them to the test. And yep, that was the yellow, cheesy cheese I had been looking for! Since we all know that Norway is a much better place to be than Sweden, despite the two countries being pretty much the same, EXCEPT for the Swedes selling this cheese, I felt had to do some investigation.

And indeed, my bad feelings turned to disbelief, as I found out that processed cheese (which doesn’t actually meet the requirements for being called cheese), was so high in salt that it was actually not sold here. Some sources also showed that the average processed cheese you get on your fast food burgers contain so much salt that you can reach far past the recommended daily intake with just 2-3 slices of cheese. I’m not sure how the Burger King here gets the cheese though, but that’s probably another story…

This actually came as a shock to me, being a lover of soy sauce. I was enjoying this tasty, fat-free sauce with a good conscience until I wrote this party popper of a list. Oh well. Unlike many other soy products, soy sauce does not contain certain antioxidants known as isoflavones, but the level of antioxidants in soy sauce is still so high that it’s often viewed (or mistaken), as healthy. On the negative side, however, soy sauce contains very high amounts of salt. There has also been several studies showing that there are often chemicals known to increase the risks of certain types of cancer, found in soy sauce. Luckily, after much stricter regulations on these chemicals and the relatively fresh knowledge of the dangers associated with high salt-contents, there now excises several kinds of low-sodium soy sauces, free of dangerous chemicals. Sadly, as with most healthy variants of various foods, it is not as tasty as the real deal.

Nuts are generally healthy. Most sorts come packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and lots of goodies for your body to enjoy. Peanuts is not a horrible exception, but it might not be as good as other kinds of nuts. The majority of peanuts sold as snacks come packed with salt, and they are often roasted and come coated in unhealthy fats. But the nuts themselves are healthy, you say? Well, maybe. Of course they have the before mentioned benefits of containing a lot of vitamins and minerals, but they contain A LOT of the kind of unsaturated fatty acids known as omega-6 fatty acids. You might have heard about it before, along with the omega-3 acids.

It is a scientific fact that a food intake with a too distorted omega 6:omega 3 ratio (in favor of the omega 6 version), increases the risk for many common diseases, like diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The ratio SHOULD be 1:1, but the American diet ranges between 1:20 and 1:50, in favor of the omega 6. Maybe I shouldn’t go as far as to say peanuts are bad for you, but they should be consumed in a limited quantity, and they should be eaten as nature made them – raw and without added salt.

Controversial perhaps, but this entry is number 1 for a good reason – so many people believe fruit juice is so healthy that they substitute it for all whole fruit in their diet. Now it is true that fruit juice contains a lot of vitamins but it is at great cost; most fruit juice is pumped up with extra sugar and aside from a few varieties has its pulp removed. The pulp in fruit provides essential fibre which can be considered a good counterbalance to all the natural sugar contained in the fruit. So my advice to you: ditch fruit drinks and eat whole raw fruit instead.

If you enjoyed this list you will almost certainly love Top 10 Things that Are Surprisingly Good for You.