5 Great Men Who Built Their Careers on Plagiarism As anyone here at Cracked will tell you, without even the slightest provocation, writing is hard. When the strain of coming up with new material becomes too great to bear, a writer has two options: He can pepper his work with penis jokes and pictures of cute animals (see our entry on T.S. Eliot, below), or he can steal his words from a better writer. Occasionally, a brilliant (or at least sort of clever) mind comes across a bad spell of writer's block and gives into the temptation to be a cheating plagiarist. What'd He Do? In a nutshell, Ambrose invented pop history. "You know, the Nazis had little pieces of flair they made the Jews wear." Ambrose also wrote award-winning biographies on Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon. What's the Problem? In 1995, an almost unknown historian named Thomas Childers published the book Wings of Morning. In the writing business, that's what we call "textual rape." Show me on the table of contents where Dr. Is That All? "Holy shit. Did He Pay? He really didn't.
13 World Mysteries Without Explanation | Beyond Science Chinese mosaic lines These strange lines are found at coordinates: 40°27’28.56″N, 93°23’34.42″E. There isn’t much information available on these strange, yet beautiful mosaic lines carved in the desert of the Gansu Sheng province in China. Some records indicate they were created in 2004, but nothing seems official. Of note, these lines are somewhat near the Mogao Caves, which is a World Heritage Site. Unexplained stone doll The July 1889 find in Nampa, Idaho, of a small human figure during a well-drilling operation caused intense scientific interest last century. The find has never been challenged except to say that it was impossible. creationism.org The first stone calendar In the Sahara Desert in Egypt lie the oldest known astronomically aligned stones in the world: Nabta. During this time, the area was a savanna and supported numerous animals such as extinct buffalo and large giraffes, varieties of antelope and gazelle. 300 million year old iron screw Ancient rocket ship Pyramid power
Proof That The World Is Nuts » The WVb In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death. (Like THAT makes sense.) In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. (Do they look different reversed?) Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. (A brick??) The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation. (Much worse than “going blind!”) There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry. (Let’s just think for a minute; is there any job anywhere else in the world that even comes close to this?) In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. (Ah! (Ah, geez.) 1.
15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy Luminita Saviuc, Purpose FairyWaking Times Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? 1. 2. “By letting it go it all gets done. 3. 4. “The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. 5. “A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind.” 6. 7. 8. 9. “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” 10. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” 11. “The only fear we have to fear, is fear itself.” 12. 13. 14. 15. About the Author
6 Horrifying Implications of the Harry Potter Universe We have a feeling that Harry Potter is never going away, in the sense that franchises like Batman and Star Wars never went away (and Star Wars never got its own amusement park). And why not? It's the perfect storm of wonder, charm and innocent, family-friendly adventure that everyone can enjoy. Which is why we love talking about how pants-crappingly terrifying that whole universe is. For instance ... #6. In the Harry Potter universe, the people in photographs and paintings can move and talk. "I am innocent but love screaming like a madman." And as such, some portrait subjects serve as security guards for locked rooms, while others are used as errand boys to deliver urgent messages (they can travel to any room that also has a painting). Dumbledore is asleep all the time? The Horrific Implications: Who cares, right? Especially if getting attacked and slashed up is just considered property damage. That brings us to our second point. One of the crappier animated gifs available. #5. "Arrgh! #4.
Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived Additional notes from the author: If you want to learn more about Tesla, I highly recommend reading Tesla: Man Out of Time Also, this Badass of the week by Ben Thompson is what originally inspired me to write a comic about Tesla. Ben's also got a book out which is packed full of awesome. There's an old movie from the 80s on Netflix Instant Queue right now about Tesla: The Secret of Nikola Tesla. It's corny and full of bad acting, but it paints a fairly accurate depiction of his life. The drunk history of Tesla is quite awesome, too.
Facebook Fiascos: 15 of the Worst Facebook Fails to Make You LOL Although Facebook is a highly convenient way for people to keep in touch with their loved ones, sometimes the sharing we do on Facebook can have disastrous results! Updating your status badmouthing your boss without realizing that your boss in your friends’ list is one of the most common mistakes many Facebook users make. Apart from such blunders, there are other friends who leave unexpected comments on your posts and photos. All of this works together to provide us material for our today’s list – 15 of the worst Facebook Fails. 8 Best Free Tools for Internet Security If you're one of those Internet users helping to make "password" the most popular online password for the umpteenth year in a row, you desperately need some help with your Internet security. Online security threats get more sophisticated every year and now, more than ever, it's important to keep your protection tools up-to-date. Luckily for you, web users are often frugal, and you can use and download a multitude of great security tools free of charge. We've compiled the eight best free security tools available. You can use this list in conjunction with the link above, detailing the best free antivirus options to secure your computer and data from harm. What are some other free security tools that you use? Note: This gallery is organized alphabetically. Image: Flickr, webhamster
6 Fitness Tips Everyone's Heard (That Don't Work at All) So this last year, I've been trying to do the old lose-weight-get-strong thing, so I can fit into a bikini and smash through walls. You know, the same thing millions of other Americans are striving for. Deep down, we all want to be She-Hulk. When I started out, I thought, naively, that different things work for different people and I should look around and try different ideas to see what works for me. You MUST Eat Breakfast This advice comes with one or more all-capped words most of the time, for some reason, as if implying that if you DON'T eat BREAKFAST you might DIE. Why is breakfast so LIFE and DEATH? The other reason given for the supreme importance of breakfast is that if you wait until lunch, you'll be so hungry you'll eat the entire buffet, heat lamps and all, and end up taking in more total calories over the course of the day than if you'd just eaten your crappy toast and fruit at breakfast. Via Spencer195The trays aren't bad, if crunchy. You Must Get Your BMI Down Via Brett L.
72 Facts That Will Actually Teach You Something | Education Hub - Health, Finance, Schools and Jobs 1. Chocolate milk was invented in Ireland. 2. You can’t breathe and swallow at the same time. 3. The girlfriend of the guy who founded Match.com left him for a man she met on Match.com. 4. This is what it looks like when a star meets a black hole: 5. 11. 13. 17. 22. 111,111,111 × 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321. 23. 26. 29. 33. 36. 38. 42. 45. 50. 55. 62. 67. 70.