5 Major Cities That Are Going to Be Destroyed If you turn on the news and hear that some city is being devastated by its fourth flood in 20 years, or that a village at the foot of some volcano has just been buried under lava, there is a 100 percent chance that someone in the room will ask, Why don't those people just move? It's a good question, and the answer gives us a nice insight into mankind's absolute refusal to back down from nature, even if it means certain destruction. Brave? Stupid? You be the judge. All we know is that a whole lot of us are in the same boat. #5. Back in 2001, before 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a short list of the three most likely disasters to hit America over the coming years. Getty"FEMA: Using our powers for good, and occasionally the lottery." Withholding speculation as to whether FEMA are in fact wizards, that's a pretty "oh shit" moment right there if you live in San Francisco. And there is nothing we can do about it. Holy Shit! #4. Wikipedia Getty"Crap.
6 Mind-Blowing Ways Zombies and Vampires Explain America Here's the weirdest graph you'll see all week. It's graphing the popularity of zombie movies versus vampire movies, split out by whether the president at the time was a Republican or a Democrat. There are exceptions, but in general when a Republican is in office, it's all about zombies. When it's a Democrat, it's all about vampires: Via mrscienceshowAnd apparently all our apocalypses started with Eisenhower. Night of the Living Dead shambled into cinemas during the Nixon era. Actually, it makes perfect sense. #6. Vampires represent a combination of all the things the right fears about the left -- a breakdown of traditional morality and sexuality, a rejection of religion (there's a reason you can ward off a vampire with a cross), and the seduction and corruption of the innocent. They're really afraid of this: Via TimeTo be fair, we're pretty sure this crew could whoop the cast of Twilight hard. Via mydisguisesNo, vampires wouldn't need razors. A fate worse than crumpets. #5. ... #4. ...
5 Things That Are Way Easier Than They Look in Movies When we debunk movie myths, it's usually bad news for lazy people. We've found that movies often undersell the difficulty of activities like saving lives, fighting crime, seducing women and even shooting people. And I've verified through independent research that doing all four at once is not a realistic career goal. The dream will never die. Fortunately, it turns out there are some fairly idiot-proof tasks that movies pretend are difficult. #5. Where You've Seen It:Ocean's 12, The Thomas Crown Affair, Entrapment The Myth: In the world of heist films, art thieves are the Ivy League. The wealthy art thief from Ocean's 12 does gymnastics through the laser beams that protect all works of art. Not only do they outclass bank robbers -- with their regional American accents and bargain basement ski-wear -- not caring about money seems to be a prerequisite for stealing art. More than anything else, the art thief is drawn by the challenge. In Reality: #4. Where You've Seen It:L.A. #3.
6 Military Units Whose Training Would Traumatize Rambo If you haven't guessed by their names, special operations forces are all about finding men who can perform wartime tasks above and beyond those performed by the average soldier. So how do you train somebody to survive the unsurvivable? Well, let's just say you have to think outside the box. #6. United States Army Special Forces Create a Massive Real-Life RPG ShadowspearLike training for the inevitable war on Pandora. What sort of thing do these guys do for practice? The Insanity: Exercise Robin Sage is a month-long training exercise focused on blending in in a foreign land and training guerrilla units to liberate their country. Yes, that's North Carolina. The People's Republic of Pineland is an entirely fictional country created for one purpose: to put the USASF through their paces. "... lightning bolt?" Everyone who takes part does it for no more than the cost of the gas they use during the month the exercise takes place. But hey, at least the citizens were in on it. #5. Yeah, right. #4.
6 Global Warming Side Effects That Are Sort Of Awesome The way things are going, we can expect global warming to wipe out humanity in the next few years. Or never, it's not completely clear. So why dwell on negatives like drowning deaths and widespread panic? Like... It Could Delay a Far Worse Ice Age In general, humans do better in extreme heat than extreme cold--a lot more of us live around the warm equator than the frigid poles. A new Ice Age isn't the stuff of science fiction, either. Maybe it will at least stop this one. On the Other Hand... Of course, some might call this a draw as we may be trading an Ice Age for living on an overheated desert planet where everyone has to wear suits that make us drink our recycled pee and take sandworms to commute to work in the Spice mines where our boss is Sting in a Diaper. In other words, the Earth doesn't have a thermostat that we can adjust up or down one or two degrees to keep us comfortable. Warmer Winters Means Fewer Deaths No exceptions. Extreme cold makes literally everything worse.
The 6 Most Bizarre Global Warming Side Effects All right, it appears the world has moved past the "is global warming happening" stage and has now moved onto, "how screwed are we?" But what is interesting is just how wide-ranging the effects will be, far beyond the normal "it will get really hot" and "the hippies will be really smug" we all have been expecting. Here are some of the effects you probably never saw coming... For most of us, the best part of our day is spending time with loved ones. Once again, Billy Carter proves to be ahead of his time. The problem for beer is malting barley. For those who like to get a fancier drunk on, the wine industry also faces some changes thanks to global warming, as many wines are region specific and as the climate changes, so too do the way grapes grow and ripen. A desperate world will have to turn to the Red Sox for quality wine. If you were hoping there was an upside to global warming then you're in for a treat. She's a hardy breed. "You know what would really bring this place together?
7 Reasons Vladimir Putin Is the World's Craziest Badass Vladimir Putin is what happens when James Bond gets one of his villains pregnant and the child grows up to kick both their asses. An ex-secret agent now in charge of the entire Eastern Bloc, he's the good and bad guys combined so that the morality cancels out and you're left with the best part of a Hollywood movie: pure, unadulterated ass kicking. Source: Getty Images He presided over a sextupling of Russia's GDP, the doubling of average national wages, signed bills mandating increased wages for teachers and nurses, and his approval rating is so constantly, ridiculously high, he's the only world leader reviewed by IGN. Flying and Fire Fighting When wildfires ravaged the Ryazan region of Russia last year, Putin didn't appear in front of a camera to assure residents that everything possible was being done, he appeared in the front of a Beriev BE-200 amphibious aircraft to do it himself. Via The KremlinUsing Air and Water to fight Fire -- he just kicked 60 percent of Captain Planet's ass.
5 Ways Your Brain Is Messing With Your Head We accept on a regular basis the premise that our minds are being screwed with. Advertisers, politicians, magicians; we accept that they know the tricks to pull the wool over our eyes. But as it turns out, the ways in which your head is being truly and royally messed with the most, are coming from inside. Please be advised that your brain does not want you reading the following list, and may kill you to protect its secrets. These include... #5. What is it? It's your inability to notice changes that happen right in front of you, even if they're hugely obvious... as long as you don't see the actual change take place. Um, What? Consider Alfonso Ribeiro. Now, if suddenly that image of Carlton blinked and changed to a different image, you'd notice it. In fact, if the entire text of this article--and the whole color and layout of this website--changed while you were gone, you probably wouldn't notice. A scientist named George McConkie started working on this in the 70s. #4. Your brain. #3. Science.
The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit) Hitler Was an Evil Genius Claimed By: The [Alternate] History Channel , Nazi admirers, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Hitler, in addition to being the go-to example in every bad debate, has sort of become history's supervillain. Why it's Bullshit: Since there are no cheap shots when it comes to Hitler, let's get this out of the way: Do you have any idea how hard it is to get rejected by an art school? Yet Hitler failed his entrance exam. His Munich Beer Putsch was basically one enormous "let's get arrested!" As a politician, he was a famous speaker despite his silly accent; had trouble breaking 40 percent in the polls despite "thinning" (assassinating) opposition. His contributions as a military tactician included allying Germany with a living cartoon character. Benito Mussolini: This dude existed. Hitler simply gets too much credit for the decisions made by people around him. FDR Knew About Pearl Harbor Ahead of Time Allegedly President Franklin D.
6 Animals That Kill Nature's Scariest Creatures For Fun We have made it our mission to celebrate the underrated badasses of the animal kingdom because in general, Hollywood has taught us to be afraid of the wrong creatures. For instance, for every animal you'd be terrified to run across in the wild, the odds are there is at least one other beast who sees it as a tasty snack. And often it's what you'd least expect. Like ... #6. The Terror: So you are a tarantula, the hairy giant of the arachnid world and the absolute worst nightmare of, oh, about 99 percent of humanity. Photos.comYour favorite hangouts include cradles, wood sheds and the bottom of sleeping bags. As you roam the landscape looking for a late night snack, you spot a potential prey: a silly-looking insect buzzing clumsily around. ... only to wake up hours later, unable to move, and with a nasty writhing feeling inside you. Eaten By: Via Wikipedia A wasp isn't anyone's favorite insect to find flying around in their house, but nobody is going to call 911 if they see one. #5. #4.