6 Brutal Leaders And Their Ridiculous Secret Hobbies Everybody needs a hobby, but people find release in many surprising ways. A mechanic might unwind by knitting, a ballet dancer might take up boxing. But what do you do to unwind after, say, a long day at the genocide factory? Hitler Loved Disney and Sketched Characters Everybody knows Hitler was an artist, and while paintings of his have supposedly popped up before, recent sketches discovered in 2008 shed a little more light on the twisted mind behind the madman: He was a Mouseketeer. Everyone needs a hobby. Hitler wasn't just a casual fan either. Osama Bin Laden Ruled the Volleyball Court Osama Bin Laden hates America. We're not making this up; stories of Bin Laden's volleyball prowess come from insiders like his former bodyguard, Nasser al-Bahri. So why is America's number one enemy also the number one fan of the homoerotic near-orgy from Top Gun? You might say he's "built for the game." Hey, it worked for Robin Hood. Saddam Hussein Wrote Sappy Romance Novels.
The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in ghosts, there are some places in which none of us would want to spend a night. These places have well earned their reputations as being so creepy, tragic or mysterious (or all three) that they definitely qualify as "haunted." Places like... Aokigahara is a woodland at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan that makes The Blair Witch Project forest look like Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood. It probably has something to do with all the dead bodies scattered around. What Niagara Falls is to weddings, Aokigahara is to suicide. More than 500 fucking people have taken their own lives in Aokigahara since the 1950s. The trend has supposedly started after Seicho Matsumoto published his novel Kuroi Kaiju (Black Sea of Trees) where two of his characters commit suicide there. Also skulls. Besides bodies and homemade nooses, the area is littered with signs displaying such uplifting messages like "Life is a precious thing! Winchester Mystery House Oh, bitch...!
The 7 Creepiest Places on Earth (Part 3) Even the best Hollywood set dressers in the biggest budget horror movie can't outdo real life. As part of our continuing effort to find real-world locations that you wouldn't want to spend a night in regardless of the number of shotguns and Bibles you were allowed to bring, here are some of the creepiest places on Earth. In case you missed them, here are Part 1 and Part 2. #7. The Abandoned Takakonuma Greenland Park, Japan Takakonuma Greenland Park in Japan today stands abandoned not only by people, but also by joy, hope and the foolish belief that life ends in anything but lightless hollow death. The amusement park first opened in Hobara in 1973 but abruptly closed only two years later. We don't know for certain because there's virtually no official information available on Takakonuma, a fact which, when paired with the images below, arouses no suspicion of any kind. artificialowlWe're sure the final wail of a fading life never echoed against this twisted metal skeleton. #6. #5. #4.
The 6 Most Strangely Convincing Real-Life Curses The world is full of bullshit "curses" that turn out to be retroactive prophecy or outright fabrication. But there are a few eerie coincidences out there that combine the truly inexplicable with creepy details that make you have to wonder ... Oetzi, or the Iceman as he is known, was discovered in the Alps between Austria and Italy back in 1991. In the 13 years that followed, seven people associated with his discovery died. Oetzi: made of evil. The first death occurred in 1992 when Rainer Henn, the forensic pathologist who put Oetzi in a body bag with his bare hands, was killed in a car crash on his way to a world conference to discuss the Iceman. These gentlemen are presumably boned as well The list gets creepier: Helmut Simon, who with his wife was the person who actually found the Iceman in the first place, went missing for 8 days in 2004. While he may not believe in curses, Konrad would probably agree that irony is a scientific fact. "Just pile them all here. Skull magic = World War II.
5 Insane Ways Words Can Control Your Mind On some level we already know that language shapes the way we think. We're automatically more afraid to fight a guy named Jack Savage than somebody named Peewee Nipplepuss, even if we've never seen either of them before. It's totally illogical, but you probably run into an example of that every day, and don't notice it. While we tend to think words are just sounds we make to express ideas, science is finding that language is more like a fun house mirror, warping what we see in mind-blowing ways. For instance ... Speaking English Makes Us More Likely to Blame People Let's say your roommate Steve is jumping on your bed. How will you answer? Keep in mind, Steve pulls this shit all the time. The answer largely depends on what language you speak. Stanford scientists did experiments on this, by having speakers of various languages watch videos featuring, in various situations, people breaking eggs or popping balloons, sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident. Will nothing stop his madness?
8 Creepy Video Game Urban Legends (That Happen to Be True) The urban legends of every era always seem to reflect whatever teenagers are doing at the time: Forty years ago, they told stories about serial killers attacking kids making out in cars and escaped criminals hiding in someone's backseat, because they didn't have jetpacks yet. Today, most young people seem to spend their time sitting or standing in front of video game screens, so it makes sense that we should get legends like ... Super Mario Galaxy 2 -- The Shadow People of Hell Valley In a game like Mario, you're usually too focused on not falling off the crumbling catwalk into the lava below to ever really stop and look around. GettyFor the same effect, we recommend huffing spray paint. But if you ever do get the chance to stop and stare into the distance, you'll find some extremely creepy shit. Anywhere you go on that level, if you look up and to the left, they'll always be there. Via gonintendo.comThey're just THERE. But couldn't they just be, we don't know, trees or something? Getty
6 Abandoned Places That Will Make Awesome Supervillain Lairs That, henchmen, is the No Man's Land Fort -- a huge Victorian-era sea fortress sitting in the English Channel, roughly a mile and a half off the Isle of Wight. It was built between 1867 and 1880, and no expense was spared in its construction: The whole thing ended up costing a cool $43 million (adjusted for inflation). More than a century later, after seeing action as a set location for Doctor Who, No Man's Land was sold to businessman Harmesh Pooni, who converted it into a luxury hotel. Daily Mail/Mike WalkerSure, and that's a "therapeutic shark pool." Among its features are two helicopter pads, five bars, 21 extremely well-equipped bedrooms, a roof garden and its own functioning lighthouse. Guardian/Mike WalkerOtherwise how would Superman ever find your base? Man, that doesn't need "converting" into a supervillain lair; that's just an "unpack your bags and start drunkenly firing your shrink ray at the moon" lair. Daily Mail/Mike Walker"I say. Oh, and the fort?
The 5 Most Unintentionally Gay Horror Movies At some point, possibly in the 80s, Hollywood decided that a good horror movie needed to be built on a strong foundation of homoerotic subtext. We're not saying it's a bad thing, this is 2009, after all. What we are saying is that their strenuous efforts to both cram in as much homoeroticism as possible, while avoiding actual gay characters or storylines, is the stuff unintentional comedy is made of. For example... Summary: A handsome young man is targeted by vampires. After moving to the flamboyant new town of Santa Carla, Michael falls in with a crowd of bad dudes after being attracted by the gang's sole female member, Star. Michael follows Star back to the vampires' lair, where the leader of the pack, David, tricks Michael into swallowing some of his bodily fluids. Pretty soon, Star is nowhere to be seen, and Michael demonstrates his loyalty to vampire-Jack Bauer by jumping off a bridge. That's Rob Lowe, folks. Best Quote: "My blood is in your veins!" Look, it was a different time.
5 Topics Guaranteed to Elicit (Condescending) Advice Do you know what is even worse than a touchy subject like cat declawing that suddenly turns everyone around you into the Hulk? A touchy subject that turns everyone around you into Dear Abby. Try mentioning any of the below things to a large group of people -- or just try not hiding any of these things from a large group of people -- and you will have so much condescending advice on your hands that you could, I don't know, build a really annoying house out of it. You'll be surprised at how many people you like and respect will suddenly turn into advice columnists from hell. #5. Just mention you are trying to lose a few pounds, and you will be inundated with Diet Experts. "Look, here's what you need to do." People who can't keep a pound off will be telling you to stay off carbs and eat all meats, and others will be telling you to banish meats and stick to carbs. "Midnight? Whatever they tell you, they will insist that this is the only right way, that this is THE weight loss secret. #4. #3.
7 Creepy Urban Legends That Happen to be True (Part 5!) Halloween's nearly here, and that means it's once again time to prove that the urban legends that scared you as a kid should still totally scare you as a rational adult, because they're totally true. As we've shown four times before, sometimes the stories told late at night at sleepovers really did happen to that kid's brother's cousin's sister. For instance ... #7. Man-Eating Escalators The Legend: Parents can't seem to resist the urge to play amateur horror movie director when teaching you the importance of tying you shoes. Getty"I thirst for child-blood." The Truth: Escalators are hungry like the wolf -- in this case, an unseeing, unfeeling robotic wolf that appears to grow hungrier once it tastes blood. GettyAre you listening, Hollywood? Toes and entire pieces of feet have been chewed off by escalators. For instance, in 2003 a girl lost part of her hand when she reached down to free her shoe, which the escalator was in the process of eating. #6. Everyone knows the feeling. #5. #4.
Creative Uses of Magic in Your Fantasy Story Creative Uses of Magic in Your Fantasy Story by Philip Martin Return to Speculative Fiction ยท Print/Mobile-Friendly Version How can you create an interesting form of magic for your fantasy story? Or will you have several forms, as Tolkien did in The Lord of the Rings, where the dark forces use magic like a bulldozer to gain power, while the elves have a wonderful nature that is magic simply because everything they do is "more effortless, more quick, more complete" than the abilities of those around them? In fantasy fiction, magic is the central nervous system. Magic doesn't need to be plausible, but it has to work well. 1. Magic needs to work according to firm rules. Everything should be set in place long in advance. 2. For dramatic impact, as important as the powers of magic are its limitations. In the Harry Potter books, Harry's nemesis, Lord Voldemort, has great powers, but even so, those powers are limited. What will the limitations on magic be? 3. 4. This should be obvious. 5. 6.
The 5 Creepiest Unsolved Crimes Nobody Can Explain Dear Internet: We have to admit something -- we've been getting kinda cocky, recently. Whether we're explaining the phenomenon of alien abduction, debunking every textbook ever or doing some third thing, we've been spending a lot of time acting like we have all the answers. And it's started to go to our heads. But that all changes now. If unsolved mysteries are good enough for Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, then by golly, they're good enough for us. So, in apology for our hubris, please enjoy this Cracked Classic, as well as these similar articles about unsolved mysteries and also that one article where we solved a bunch of mysteries no one else could 'cause we're so smart and dammit, we're doing it again. There are unsolved crimes, and then there are the kind of creepy, "What the hell could possibly be going on here" capers that keep the cops, and anyone who hears about them, up at night. Here are the real cases that almost fall into X-Files territory: It Gets Weirder:
8 Psychologically Traumatizing Kids Halloween Costumes I recently purchased three bags of apples, five packs of caramel wrap, and 100 razor blades, which can mean only one thing: it's Halloween time! A time when millions of children are at risk. Oh, not just those trick or treating at my door, but around the world. I'm talking about the mentally traumatizing affects of certain children's costumes. Seemingly innocent, merry disguises that lead to years of psychotherapy. So here's a heads up on the top 8 Halloween costumes for causing psychological scars, replete with the faulty logic that leads to the parental purchase and the inevitable psychiatric opinion to follow years later. "Hmm, my little girl is growing, and while I can see a certain sexuality to the outfit, it's not very revealing. "Although the kids in your daughter's high school have labeled her "easy," "slutty," and "awesome," medically speaking your daughter suffers from what we call nymphomania or, more appropriately, "hypersexuality." "Aw, fuck it. "Oh, look!