10 Thank You, Mexico Chewing gum originated in Mexico. It was introduced to the United States by inventor Thomas Adams in 1866, and it was nothing like the chewing gum we know today. Instead, it was a little brown ball of chicle. Chicle originates from the sapodilla (aka Manilkara zapota) tree. It is a white latex that the tree exudes when the bark has been cut. As it weeps from the tree, chicle collects bits of bark and dirt, giving it the brown coloring of “natural gum....

In Christianity, one of the 7 archangels, Uriel plays a role in the rescue of Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist from the massacre of the innocents. He carries John and his mother Saint Elizabeth to join the Holy Family after their Flight into Egypt. Their reunion is depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks. From medieval Jewish mystical traditions, Uriel is also the Angel of Sunday and the Angel of Poetry....

10 Rome’s MSG-Laden Food The most popular condiment in the Roman world was garum (sometimes called liquamen), a sauce made from filling pots with layers of fish or fish guts and salt and leaving them out in the sunlight for awhile. As the mix lay in the Sun’s heat, the stomach acids of the fish would eat through their bodies and break them down entirely, leaving behind a brown goo. As proteins in the fish broke down, they released amino acid chains, including glutamic acid, which would combine with the sodium to create a salty fish sauce absolutely packed with monosodium glutamate, or MSG....

10 US Defense Spending is Insane It’s common knowledge that the United States spends a lot on defense, but most of us are probably unaware of its true extent. According to this map from Bank of America’s “Transforming World” atlas, US military spending comfortably dwarfs that of the rest of the world’s nations combined. In case it isn’t quite clear, the map above gives each country a total area based on their defense budgets in billions of dollars....

10Jean Lanfray And The Absinthe Murders If absinthe is associated with anything, it’s the questionable allure of its supposed hallucinogenic properties, its appeal to a certain bohemian crowd, and its potential for addiction and destruction. That’s the story that’s gone along with the drink for decades, and it all got its real momentum with some incredibly unfortunate events in a very unlikely place. Commugny is a rural town in Switzerland. It’s a fascinating little town with a history that dates back to Julius Caesar and Roman occupation....

Several locations across the globe—from man-made buildings and structures to natural habitats that contain dangerous species, religious mysteries, and secrets—make these areas forbidden to outsiders. 10 The Red Zone France Not all scenes in France are made of rolling green hills filled with gorgeous villages. In fact, there is one deserted area that has been forbidden for nearly a century. In a region near Verdun, France, lies a virgin forest known as the Zone Rouge (aka the Red Zone)....

Please note: The following list contains spoilers. Do not read if you do not wish to know plot details of these films. 2. Incase it wasn’t already obvious, video clips depict disturbing content, so watch with caution. 3. Movie lists are always subjective, so bear in mind that I claim no definitiveness to this list. Feel free to comment with your own selections. Describing the plot of a David Lynch film is always a challenge, but loosely, Mulholland Drive follows the troubled romantic relationship of two actresses....

Whether it’s to assume a person’s identity, to collect huge amounts of insurance money, or even to make good on a prearranged agreement with the victim to commit their own murder, the world of homicide is dark, depressing, and despair-inducing. It’s also a world where, at times, truly unique events unfold in ways that both shock and captivate most of us. 10 Sharon Lopatka Arranged Her Own Sex Murder Online When police discovered the body of 35-year-old Sharon Lopatka in a shallow grave in North Carolina in October 1996, it would not only result in one of the strangest of cases but one widely regarded as the first to use e-mail exchanges as a huge part of the evidence in court....

SEE ALSO: 10 Secrets Surrendered By Burial Grounds Virginia Macdonald lived with her father in New York City and became ill, died, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. After the burial, her mother declared her belief that the daughter was not dead when buried and persistently asserted her belief. The family tried in vain to assure the mother of the death of her daughter. Finally the mother insisted so strenuously that her daughter was buried alive the family consented to have the body taken up....

10 Sasaeng Fans K-pop idol worship attracts millions in South Korea and beyond, but some take it a little too far. Sasaeng fans, or “private fans,” are generally females between the ages of 13 and 22 whose obsessions with their favorite pop idols reach unhealthy levels. One overzealous fan of 2PM’s Taecyeon sent him a letter written in her own menstrual blood, reading: “I dedicate to Taecyeon my period blood letter Ok Taecyeon, You cannot live without me Sprinkled with a few strands of my pubes” JYJ’s Yoochung found things getting a little too close to home when sasaeng fans either installed or hacked into cameras in his apartment complex’s parking lot, posting voyeuristic photos of his comings and goings online....

You’d think that once a person had been executed, their debt to society would be considered paid. Well, not in China. Even after the state kills you, your body is up for dibs. You’ve probably heard stories about organs being harvested from executed criminals—which, although disgusting, is at least somewhat justifiable, since taking organs means saving a life. It’s a little bit harder, however, to justify skinning the corpses of the recently executed for skin cream and cosmetics....

10Refrigeration Fridges keep our food fresh and safe for our consumption. They are absolutely critical to our survival and the way we have flourished in the modern world. We also use them to keep our beers nice and cold, which is actually what they were created for. Brewing traditionally only took place during the cooler months, as it is an exothermic process. It generates heat, and too much heat can kill the yeast and ruin the beer....

Our understanding of the natural world around us is continually evolving, as new ideas and developments supersede those of the past. There were many unbelievable discoveries made in 2017 that scientists are incredibly excited about. Including some that could lead to significant advances in the fields of medicine and robotics. 10Chimps Can Learn to Play Rock, Paper, Scissors The gap between humans and our primate cousins got a little bit smaller this year after a Japanese study showed that chimpanzees have the ability to learn the rules of rock, paper, scissors and perform similarly to a four-year-old child....

Because crime keeps up with current technology, police forces are pressured to do the same. Thankfully, various innovations in science and technology are making police work faster and more effective than ever before. Here are some cool ways science is advancing police work. 10 High-Tech Handcuffs February 20th marks National Handcuffs Day, an unofficial holiday that commemorates the birthday of modern handcuffs. The design we all know and love was patented in 1912 by George A....

In the notorious examples listed here, throwing a tantrum to get a toy can quickly turn into convulsing from its unintended effects. Some of these banned toys were the result of oversights. Others are so glaringly dangerous that it’s a wonder they were ever put into children’s hands in the first place. 10Snap Bracelets Snap bracelets are spring-loaded metal bands wrapped in colorfully designed plastic or cloth. They can be straightened out until rigid and then slapped against a wrist, causing the bracelet to curl into place....

SEE ALSO: 10 Myths About Guns And Gun Control It’s a debate we’ve covered before, once from the pro–gun control side and once from the anti–gun control side. But this seems as good a time as any to revisit the facts surrounding guns in the US. After shunting aside the propaganda, there are some indisputable points to be made about guns and gun violence in America. 10 America Owns Nearly Half The World’s Civilian Guns Although it’s the third most populous nation on Earth, the US has less than 5 percent of the global population living within its borders, compared to nearly 20 percent of the world’s population living in China....

SEE ALSO: 10 Ridiculous Myths You Believe About Fast Food No matter how you slice it, the core of civilization always comes down, in one way or another, to food. Sometimes, we even find uses for foods that go beyond eating. Spices used to dye cloth, or in pagan rituals. Fruits and vegetables used on the skin and in cosmetics to make us look better. Then we go even farther beyond that, using food for improving our homes, even!...

10 Tvind In the 1970s, Denmark’s liberal education policy allowed state funding for any private school in the country. A group of anti-establishment teachers led by iconoclast Mogens Amdi Petersen formed the Tvind Teacher’s Group to take advantage of those policies with the intention of creating an education system that would help troubled youth while also leading to the abolition of inequality, racism, and nuclear power. Petersen was a Maoist who sought to create progressive “traveling folk high schools” where teachers and students traveled together to third world countries to help the poor....

The existence of MK-ULTRA is fairly well-known, but most people don’t know just how crazy the details were. CIA agents did some absolutely insane things with LSD. It’s not entirely clear that the government actually learned anything, but they definitely got some incredible stories out of it. 10 Agents Slipped Each Other LSD In the early days of MK-ULTRA, LSD was mostly tested on willing agents. CIA agents would very carefully take small doses of LSD and take notes on the effects....

10Earthquake Lights For centuries, eyewitnesses have reported seeing mysterious lights appearing in the sky moments before or during major earthquakes. The lights were described alternately as bright flashes, blue flames, or faint rainbows that emerge from the ground and sometimes stretch up to 200 meters (650 ft). Before the 1960s, geologists dismissed these reports as hallucinations, as no photographs or video footage existed. However, this changed in the mid-1960s, when series of earthquakes hit Nagano, Japan, giving skeptical geologists an excellent chance to document and finally acknowledge the phenomenon....