10 of the Most Covered Songs in Music History

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"Unlike movies, where it's rare that a second (or third) attempt at remaking a film can ever match—let alone top—the original, music is different sort of creative beast. Just because The Beatles did a bang-up job on one song doesn't mean that Joan Baez or Elvis Presley couldn't do the same tune justice in their own unique way. Which is a very good thing, as The Beatles's catalog is one of the most copied in music history. While not an exhaustive list, here are 10 of the most covered songs."

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Via: Mental Floss

Harvesting cork in rural Spain

I knew cork came from trees but this is not exactly what I expected. The video in the link shows  expert axemen carefully harvest the thick exterior bark from cork oak trees at the Las Varas del Zumajo estate in the La Mancha region of Spain.

After the tree is 25 years old, the cork can be havested - once every nine years. Seems like cork should be more expensive than what it is.

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Via: The Kid Should See This

The Origins of 25 Monsters, Ghosts, and Spooky Things

Though dressing up as an angel is acceptable, it’s ghouls and goblins that truly capture our imaginations during the Halloween season. As lit jack-o’-lanterns beckon and monsters lurk in the shadows, we explore the origins of 25 frightful things that go bump—or boo—in the night.

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Via: Mental Floss

Remember that you will die

Sometimes we need a remember our mortality. Not mankind, our own.

"We are fixated on asking how such an evil could happen to the detriment of more valuable questions."

"As a potential remedy, I propose reviving memento mori, the practice of remembering death."

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Via: The Week

14 Serial Killers Who Were Never Captured, In Order Of How Frightening Their Media-Created Names Are

14. The Babysitter

13. The Moonlight Murderer

12. Jack the Stripper

11. Bible John

10. The Rainbow Maniac

9. The Grim Sleeper

8. The Zodiac Killer

7. Beer Man

6. The Doodler

5. Jack the Ripper

4. Axeman of New Orleans

3. The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run

2. Servant Girl Annihilator

1. Charlie Chop-Off

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Via: The Awl

5 Civilizations That Just Disappeared

Have you ever misplaced your keys? How about the remote control? Maybe forgot where you parked your car? It’s a pretty frustrating thing, isn’t it? I know it always drives me crazy. Now imagine for a second that instead of your keys, what you lost was an entire city. First of all, people would probably be pissed at you, talking about you behind your back and snickering about how you’re always misplacing important things. But just how hard is it to misplace an entire civilization, really? Considering how frequently it’s happened throughout time, apparently it’s pretty easy.

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Via: Weird Worm

10 Jewish Messiah Moments

By the 1st century, Roman occupation led to a flourishing belief in the messiah among the Jews of Israel. He would be a descendant of King David, defeat Israel’s persecutors – that would be Rome — and restore Jewish independence in the land. A savior.

For Christians, the issue was settled between Christmas and Easter. But for Jews, the question remained open and, for the next 2,000 years, particularly in periods of harsh persecution, slaughter or expulsion, Jews experienced repeated messiah moments. At best, they didn’t end well. Here are 10:

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Via: Mental_Floss

The Strange Tale of Phineas Gage

Even if you're not a neurologist or a psychotherapist, you may have heard of Phineas Gage. When a guy survives being impaled with a three-foot iron rod in the skull, he tends to gain a certain notoriety. What makes Gage's case interesting isn't the fact that he survived, it's how he changed after his accident.

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Via: Neatorama

The 14 Freakiest Serial Killers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

We all know of the Mansons, Dahmers and John Wayne Gacys of the world—the mass killers that are media darlings. But for every nutbar killer who are splashed all over the headlines, there are plenty who never make the limelight. Some are from other parts of the world, some from too long ago to remember. But each of them is interesting and terrifying in their own right.

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Via: Pop Crunch

The Lost Art of Bloodstopping

Back in the days before modern medicine, in the parts of North America where the work was rough and a doctor might be a day’s ride away — the Ozarks, the mining towns of Appalachia, and among the lumberjacks of the great North woods — there existed a trade, a kind of faith-healing, really — called bloodstopping. Legends and folktales of bloodstoppers and their inexplicable medical miracles have been passed down through the generations, though I had never heard of it recently.

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Via Mental_Floss

Hatfield The Rainmaker: The Man Who Courted Nature

The greatest rainmaker of modern times. For more than 30 years he practiced his art and won a name for himself by filling lakes, saving crops, and breaking droughts, from the Yukon to Guatemala. He offered to clear London of its fog and to water the Sahara. But the scene of his most spectacular achievement was San Diego, California.

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Via: Socyberty

10 Book Burnings

This weekend, sadly, marks the anniversary of the bonfire of the vanities. Not that novel from the ‘80s, but the actual bonfire of the vanities, the event in 1497 when thousands of objects that might tempt people to sin were reduced to nothing but ash. Unfortunately, burnings such as this one weren’t that unusual – they have happened many times over the course of history and have cost us countless priceless works of art.

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Mental Floss

15 Big Cheats and Fakers Who Won

There are all sorts of fakers and cheats; many win and get away with it, many others get caught and shunned for their actions. Some are even found out, but walk away as though nothing happened, because the public simply doesn’t care. These are the 15 biggest cheats, fakers and frauds who won. Some kept their winnings, and some are hated and reviled to this day.

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Via:Manolith

15 Cute Animals That Will Cause You Horrible Harm

When we think of animals that will destroy us, rend us limb from limb, and leave us in a bloody mess, we usually thing of the huge and horrifying. Which means we forget about the real threats: the tiny, the cute, the gorgeous. The animals at which we ooh and aaah over, but are deadly, poisonous and generally all around nasty. And, after writing this list, I've come up with two pieces of advice. 1) Never go in the water. 2) Never visit Australia. Combine the two, and it's even more true: never go in the water in Australia! Seriously, terrifyingly deadly critters everywhere.

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Via: Brainz

6 More Cannibal Killers

In comparison to the worldwide murder rate, cases of cannibalism are rare, but they stand out because of the horror they instill in the rest of us. In addition to the six cases featured in the post 6 Horrifying Modern Cannibals, I found these six cannibal stories from all over the world.

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Via: Mental Floss

6 Horrifying Modern Cannibals

Cannibalism, as repulsive as it is, can be understood in cases where consuming the deceased is an alternative to certain starvation. Those who eat human flesh by choice, however, tend to be the kind of people who will torture and murder to satisfy their curiosity. Be warned that some of the following links are disturbing.

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Via: Mental Floss

Democracy on the High Seas: How Pirates Rocked the Vote

Everyone knows that swashbuckling types aren’t exactly known for obeying the rules. But years before the United States gained its independence, democracy was actually thriving aboard pirate ships. Perhaps that’s because they reasoned that a little law and order was better than the alternative. Crammed aboard a ship with 300 unruly sailors, pirates were quick to adopt a government rather than let anarchy ensue.

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Via: Mental Floss

The End of a Beautiful Friendship: Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle

It seems strange that a man best known for creating the quintessential detective, who based his deductions solely on reason, would also be one of the biggest proponents of Spiritualism around the turn of the last century. Equally strange is that a man who based his career of performing illusions and magic tricks was one of the most stringent disbelievers of the same religion. Perhaps strangest of all was the friendship of these two men, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.

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Via: Neatorama

The Quick 8: Eight Out-of-Place Artifacts

Imagine being on the archaeological dig of a lifetime, searching for dinosaur bones or ancient Egyptian treasures, when you finally find something embedded in centuries-old rock or sealed in a tomb that you know hasn’t been opened in thousands of years. But it’s not a bone or a gem – it’s… a Game Boy? How in the world did that get there? That exact situation hasn’t happened yet, but some similar incidents definitely have. They’re called “Out-of-Place Artifacts,” or OOPArt: things that don’t appear to make sense in the context that they were found. Sometimes a perfectly logical explanation is to be had, sometimes the whole thing is a hoax or a misunderstanding, and in some cases, we still don’t understand what happened. Here are some examples of each.

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Via: Mental Floss

6 Not-So-Secret Secret Societies

All the "Secret Societies" on this list are pretty well known. It really makes you wonder what it takes to be a secret society in this day and age. I guess remaining secret would be a start.

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Via: Mental Floss