10 Brutal Historical Weapons of War

Today’s weapons of war are increasingly geared towards felling an enemy in as humane a way as possible, with high velocity firearms ensuring a quick death. Soldiers are also trained to kill enemies quickly and (well, almost) painlessly, with bladed side-arms. However, in times gone by, humane weapons were the last thing warriors were looking to wield. Pain and maximum suffering were the order of the day, and the popularity of a weapon could be measured by its brutality. For good reason, too! A weapon that scared the crap out of your enemy was a useful tool, as well as an empowering asset.

Let’s take a look at some of the more fearsome, and downright nasty, weapons employed by warriors of times gone by. In no particular order (I wouldn’t fancy encountering ANY of these!):

10

Knobkerrie

A knobkerrie refers to any blunt impact implement located at the end of a shaft weapon or staff. Usually a small ball of wood or metal, a knobkerrie would be used by being slammed into the nose or groin at close range. This type of weapon has been used in many different incarnations over time, but was originally used in Africa by tribal groups as a means of self defense. This weapon is still used today and can be found on the end of most hunting knives, in the form of a small ball or point of metal at the end of the handle.

Notable appearance: The Knobkerrie is employed by numerous Zulu warriors in the movie “Zulu”.

9

Caltrop

Most famously used in ninja movies, and the like, a caltrop (or caltrops) are objects with multiple sharp points, designed to be dropped when under pursuit, in order to either catch your pursuer off guard and cause nasty injury to the feet, or to force approaching enemies in to following a certain path as a trap. The primary idea behind these nasty implements is to be used as a trap which will render your foes immobile, or at least in great pain!

Notable appearance: Caltrops appear in a number of James Bond movies as a feature of Bond’s car, dropped from the vehicle to puncture the tires of pursuers.

8

Morning Star

The mace’s nastier cousin, the morning star, consists of a solid wooden or metal shaft atop which sits (in most designs) a large metal ball adorned with a number of spikes or blades. The morning star was used by infantry and horsemen, alike, in medieval times. The primary method of attack was to simply swing the weapon at your foe. The most common target was, logically, the face or head, although the blow could be directed at the legs or knees in order to disable a foe. Morning stars have returned in different forms since medieval times, and are often confused with the mace, the difference being that a mace has no spikes, instead favoring metal studs. Another form of this weapon is the well-known flail, which incorporates a chain between the shaft and spiked ball, allowing the weapon to be swung harder with less exertion.

Notable appearance: The Cave Troll appearing in The Lord of the Rings books and movies wields a huge Morning Star as his weapon of choice.

7

Chakram

Often misidentified as a Glaive, which is actually a pole weapon similar to a pike, a Chakram is akin to a large throwing star (or shuriken). Also known as a war quoit, the weapon is of Indian origin and was usually a large bladed metal disk. Chakrams were used both for throwing, like a Frisbee, or in melee combat, where slashing was the usual method of attack. Another form of the Chakram was the Chakkar, another bladed throwing weapon in the shape of a hoop rather than a disk. Chakkars were used by Sikh warriors, again, as both a throwing and melee weapon. The weapons have a frightening range of up to 100 meters, if well manufactured.

Notable appearance: Xena, in the Xena: Warrior Princess series often uses a Chakram as a throwing weapon.

6

Maul

Similar to a modern sledgehammer, the Maul is a nasty blunt force weapon, initially appearing in use by French citizens. Mauls were not originally used particularly as a weapon, rather as tools, but in time they have been employed by various factions for combat purposes. There is no particular method for using a Maul, aside from striking almost anywhere on the body for severe damage. Common target areas would be (as is common with blunt force weapons) the head, arms or legs. A single blow from a Maul is sufficient to shatter bones and cave in skulls, even when a helmet is worn. The length of the handle allowed for the Maul to be wielded in two hands. A common tactic was to break the legs of the victim with a stout blow to the knees or shins, then finish the poor guy off with an over-head smash to the skull.

Notable appearance: Leatherface in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, uses a sledgehammer as a Maul to incapacitate one unlucky victim.

5

War Scythe

Adapted from the common farming tool, war scythes were altered so that the blade pointed straight from the top of the shaft. War scythes were used as both a slashing and a stabbing weapon, their weight and aerodynamic shape making them devastating. Capable of cutting through a metal helmet, the weapon is thought to have originated from use as an improvised weapon by peasants, which was then adapted for military use. Arguably worse than the military form, the version wielded by peasants in revolts would often be blunt from use in farming, meaning the victim was likely to survive numerous slashes before dying.

Notable appearance: The grim reaper, death himself, is usually depicted wielding a scythe type weapon.

4

Dragon Beard Hook

This nasty piece of kit was employed by Chinese warriors as a means of ensnaring and immobilizing a victim. The weapon consists of a metal head bearing two or more serrated hooks, attached to a length of rope or chain. Used by “casting” out the head, the aim was to pierce, or snag, a part of the foes body with one of the hooks, and then reel them in for the kill by pulling on the rope. This often resulted in tearing the victim’s body as they struggled to escape. Arterial damage was common and the victim was often killed by the hook itself, before they could be reeled in. The Dragon Beard Hook originates from the Song Dynasty.

Notable appearance: The Mortal Kombat character, Scorpion, uses a weapon similar to a Dragon Beard Hook to drag distant opponents into close range.

3

Nunchaku

Originating as a tool for threshing crops, nunchaku are an Okinawan weapon consisting of two lengths of wood, or sometimes metal, joined by a chain. The weapon is used by holding onto one of the wooden arms and swinging the other extremely quickly at the victim. The target area would usually be the face or arms, with the aim of breaking bones or causing blunt trauma. Nunchaku come in various flavors, ranging from the basic wooden or metal arms, to arms with attached blades or razors for extra damage. Nunchaku use is considered an art, and a skilled wielder can operate the weapon at such speed, passing from hand to hand, that they could potentially strike a victim a number of times per second. A trained user is also able to “bluff” swings, making it very difficult to defend against, since it is nearly impossible to predict where the blow will come from. Nunchaku can also be used in pairs, with one pair in each hand.

Notable appearance: Almost any martial arts movie!

2

Bardiche

This weapon lies somewhere between a polearm and an axe (a family of weapons known as poleaxes), consisting of a long pole with a wide axe head attached along the side and tip of the shaft. The Bardiche is of Eastern European and Russian origin. Used as a slashing or cleaving weapon, the weapon was wielded in two hands and swung both horizontally and vertically. Bardiches were often wielded alongside a firearm for use in the event of close-quarters encounters, although weapons of this style were in use long before the arrival of firearms. The power of the weapon came from the weight of the blade, which was usually over 2 feet wide. The method of attack would usually consist of cleaving at the limbs or torso of the foe.

Notable appearance: Bardiche variants are often seen in fantasy and manga stories, often in the form of a giant axe with a short handle running behind the blade.

1

Blunderbuss

The only firearm to make this list, the Blunderbuss was an early form of shotgun, using powder and shot. The weapon was muzzle loaded and is identified by the distinctive flared muzzle. The nasty part of the Blunderbuss was actually a flaw in the design, the flared muzzle caused the shot to spread quite widely and reduced the muzzle velocity, meaning that shots outside of very close quarters resulted only in shrapnel wounds rather than death. A blunderbuss could, in theory, be loaded with any kind of shrapnel or shot, small stones or scraps of metal were used as ammunition at times. The gun was used by armies of various nationalities, although the weapon originates from Europe. A smaller, one handed version of the Blunderbuss, called a Dragon, was also used. Wounds sustained from a close range hit from a Blunderbuss would be brutal, potentially blowing away whole chunks of the body.

Notable appearance: Jack Sparrow, of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, wields a handgun similar to a Dragon, while at least one member of the undead pirate crew seen in the first movie uses a Blunderbuss type firearm.

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10 Most Annoying Time-Wasters

There are all sorts of annoying things in life – people who cut in line, aggressive drivers, people talking on cell phones in public. This list is a specific subpart of that very large category. It focuses on the top ten things that both annoy and waste your time, or, more accurately, steal time away from you. These things steal time from your life that you would ordinarily have kept and used for, presumably, more fun and productive endeavors. Sit down and try to calculate how much time you estimate you have spent dealing with these annoyances. It’s startling to consider how much of our lives are spent overcoming these annoying obstacles. In all ten of these examples, I tried to focus on those annoyances that you either cannot avoid, or which are very difficult to avoid. Though this list contains, of course, some of my own most hated time-wasting annoyances, I tried to choose those that are universally annoying and wasteful. I hope you have fun with it.

10

Blow-in Cards

How much time does the average person waste picking off the floor, and throwing away, the magazine subscription cards that fall out when you open the magazine? These annoyances are meant to fall out into your lap, but this assumes the reader is sitting down when they open the magazine, and also assumes it will land in your lap, not on the floor, or be blown away by the wind or a fan. Invariably, these little cards end up not in your lap or hand, but everywhere you don’t want them – under the couch, in between the seat cushions, on the kitchen floor, blowing down the driveway as you get the mail. These cards are typically 3’x5” in size and are called “blow-in” cards, because in the magazine manufacturing process these cards are typically blown into the magazine, between the pages, one at a time. Of course, sometimes the machines accidentally blow in more than one card, so your issue of Sports Illustrated barfs nine of these cards onto the floor when you open it. Some cards are called “bind-in” cards and these are OK, they are bound into the magazine and do not fall out (typically they have perforated edges and can be torn out by the reader). It is the blow-in cards that are so annoying and waste your time when you have to chase one down the street or pick it up and throw it into the trash.

How effective are these blow-in cards for magazines? One magazine estimates that 12% of their magazine subscriptions come in as a result of blow-in cards (compared to only 10% through the paperless internet subscription services). And cost is another reason blow-in cards are not going away anytime soon. It costs the magazine, on average, about $10 to acquire a new subscriber using blow-in cards, compared to $25 or more using direct mailing.

9

Extension cords and water hoses

It may be possible to go through life and never have to use an extension cord or a water hose, but for the average homeowner, these are both essential tools of the trade. And both can be incredibly frustrating to use and waste many hours of ones life. The culprit for each is kinks and snags. No matter how carefully one unwinds, and rewinds, extension cords and water hoses, no matter what anti-snag device one uses, inevitably, they become twisted, ensnared, tangled, pinched and stuck. Untangling an especially complicated tangle in an extension cord or water hose can take minutes. Sometimes, the extent of the tangle is so maddening, one throws the cord or hose down in disgust and simply walks away in defeat. All manner of hose reeling devices and extension cord wrapping devices are available – all of which promise to prevent tangles, kinks and snares and all of which inevitably fail.

8

Tamper Resistant Packaging

Tamper-resistant devices or features are common on modern packages. There are also tamper-evident packaging methods, which make it noticeable that a product has been tampered with or opened. Whether they are seals, caps, wrappings, twist-off devices, hooks, anchors, twist-ties, or the dreaded hard-plastic clamshell packaging used on such things as children’s toys, all manner of tamper-resistant and tamper-evident packaging wastes hundreds of hours in an average lifetime as you pry, cut, twist, shear, punch and otherwise manipulate the packaging to get at what you want.

Tamper-resistant packaging as we now know it is a relatively new invention, which dates back to the Chicago Tylenol murders in the autumn of 1982. Seven people died after taking pain-relief capsules that had been poisoned. The Tylenol poisonings took place when Extra-Strength Tylenol medicine capsules were maliciously laced with potassium cyanide. The incident led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter substances, and to federal anti-tampering laws. The case remains unsolved and no suspects have been charged. However, the incident did inspire the pharmaceutical, food and consumer product industries to develop tamper-resistant packaging, such as induction seals and improved quality control methods. Moreover, product tampering was made a federal crime.

The benefits of tamper-resistant packaging are therefore substantial; they have prevented untold loss of life and bodily injury since the new packaging measures were implemented. However, there is no denying the modern tamper-resistant and tamper-evident packaging wastes many hours of the average Americans lifetimes. as one struggles to open or get through these devices.

7

Red Lights

Red lights are a common device that have been around almost as long as the automobile, yet red lights are a huge time waster. Why? Because there are other options to control traffic flow at many intersections – namely, the traffic circle or roundabout. A roundabout is a type of circular junction in which road traffic must travel in one direction around a central island. Signs usually direct traffic entering the circle to slow down and give the right of way to drivers already in the circle. These junctions are sometimes called modern roundabouts in order to emphasize the distinction from older circular junction types, which had different design characteristics and rules of operation. Older designs, called traffic circles or rotaries, are typically larger, operate at higher speeds, and often give priority to entering traffic.

In countries where people drive on the right, the traffic flow around the central island of a roundabout is counterclockwise. In countries where people drive on the left, the traffic flow is clockwise. Statistically, roundabouts are safer for drivers and pedestrians than both traffic circles and traditional intersections. Because low speeds are required for traffic entering roundabouts they are not designed for high-speed motorways.
The first modern roundabout in the United States was constructed in Summerlin, Nevada, in 1990, and roundabouts have since become increasingly common in North America.

Under many traffic conditions, an unsignalized roundabout can operate with less delay to users than traffic signal control or all-way stop control (intersections with red lights). Unlike all-way stop intersections, a roundabout does not require a complete stop by all entering vehicles, which reduces both individual delay and delays resulting from vehicle queues. A roundabout can also operate much more efficiently than a signalized junction because drivers are able to proceed when traffic is clear without the delay incurred while waiting for the traffic signal to change.
Roundabouts can increase delays in locations where traffic would otherwise not be required to stop, and do have some disadvantages such as motorcycle safety concerns. However, modern roundabouts would save the typical driver many hours otherwise spent sitting at red lights at intersections.

6

Microsoft Products

“Do you want to send this error message”? “Sorry but Windows needs to shut down”. How many times were you moving along through your PC and all of a sudden one of these annoying messages popped up on the screen and you were cut off, stopped dead in your tracks and had to wait for your PC to reboot? If you are like most PC users, it is a lot of wasted time. And most hated of all is the dreaded “blue screen of death” which would suddenly appear with no warning or error message at all – just a blank blue screen staring back at you. And, of course, how much time have you wasted redoing the content that was lost when Microsoft products decide to just shut down or lock up on you?

This is not meant to be a specific criticism of Microsoft, all computer programs, operating systems and hardware have problems, and can lock up or shut down or lose data for unexpected reasons. However – because Microsoft has the lion’s share of the PC and software market, they account for the vast majority of the time we waste because of computer software and hardware malfunctions. And, of course, they were responsible for the travesty that was Windows 98, which single-handedly wasted millions of hours of human time until Windows XP was released.

5

Telemarketers

One bright spot on this depressing list is the advent of “do not call lists” which have drastically cut down on the number of telemarketing phone calls the average person receives. But the time wasted by answering the phone at 5:00 PM, in the middle of evening dinner, as some telemarketer pedaled their product can never be recovered. These calls are, perhaps, not one of the biggest time wasters (measured in sheer volume of minutes wasted) because you could always just hang up, or screen incoming telemarketing calls with an answering machine, but they were certainly one of the most annoying. And the shear intensity and volume of the annoyance led people to finally say, “enough is enough” and demand legislation, which led to the creation of the National Do Not Call Registry in 2003. How effective has this legislation been? In 2007 it was estimated that over 70% of Americans have registered their telephone number with the registry and 77% feel the registry has drastically reduced the number of telemarketing calls they receive (down from an average of 30 calls per month to only 6).

Editors Note: The same system was introduced in Canada in 2008, and has had far less success. With over 300,000 complaints received, and over $73,000 in fines levied, only $250 has been collected, as of March 1. Sadly, we Canadians are still having our time wasted by this modern day menace!

4

Telephone directories

If you like this list – press one now. If you dislike this list, press two. If you hate telephone directories press three, or stay on the line and an operator will assist you. We all have these annoying menu options branded into our brains – seldom can you call a company, or individual, and not be confronted with a menu of options and/or recorded messages you must wait through, or push through, to reach the person you want to speak with. Anyone old enough to remember the days when you called a person and either they picked up, or they didn’t (there were no answering machines) and you called a company and an actual human being picked up the phone on the first or second ring and talked to you, know just how far we have devolved over the last thirty plus years, and how much time we waste. Telephone directories may help company’s route incoming calls and improve their operating efficiency, but they are certain to annoy the caller, and waste their time. [JFrater: I hate this so much that I chose my electricity and gas company specifically because they have humans who answer the telephones.]

3

Malware

An especially virulent form of modern time wasting is caused by various forms of computer malware that infect and slow down your computer, or slow down your interface with the computer (or both). Of course if we simply did not use computers, this extreme time waster would not be an issue for us. However, in our modern high tech lives, not using a computer is becoming more and more difficult. It is estimated that at least 60% of all home PC’s are infected with some form of malware. Many home PC’s are so infected as to render the machines almost unusable. Unknowing and not especially tech-literate home PC users waste untold millions of hours of time on slow, unresponsive malware-infested computers, and do not even know it. It is debatable which is worse – living with things that waste your time, unbeknownst to you, or living with things that waste your time, and of which you are painfully aware. Regardless, computer malware (not to mention the time spent installing anti-malware programs and time spent running and maintaining those computer security programs) is a huge waste of your time.

2

Customer Support

Very closely related to telephone directories is the modern annoyance of poor (or non-existent) customer support. You have a problem or a question, or perhaps a complaint about a product or service? You pick up the phone and call the company (or you can email them but the result is typically the same). You weave your way through the labyrinth of confusing telephone directory menu options until you finally arrive at (possibly) a human being to talk to. You think you have wasted many minutes of your life so far? The time wasting has only begun. If you are lucky, you will have called a company that “gets it” and has excellent or even good customer support, you will reach a knowledgeable, helpful, trained and friendly customer support person. But sadly, more often than not today, you reach a person who is just the opposite. In fact, many companies today deliberately use customer support people who are anything but supportive. The customer support person you reach is often overworked, burned out and doesn’t care. Whatever the reason, you are about to enter the Twilight Zone of time wasting frustration.

You all know the routine. The customer support person can’t help you, or delays helping you because “their computers are down”. Or they can’t help you so they transfer you to someone else who can, and you wait on hold for untold scores of minutes. This other support person never answers, or takes a very long time to answer, and it ends up they can’t help you either in which case they transfer you to a third person, or refer you back to the person you first spoke to. In the phone call transfer process, often times you get disconnected and the line goes dead and you need to call back and start through the labyrinth all over again. All of this wastes hours, days, weeks, months of your life.

1

Too Many Choices

Have you ever gone into a grocery store to buy, say, a box of Wheat Thins and been confronted with an entire wall of different varieties of Wheat Thins? You just want regular, old-fashioned Wheat Thins. But to find them, you must search your way through a dozen or more different types of Wheat Thins in the grocery store display. Big Wheat Thins (an oxymoron George Carlin would have loved), Artisan Cheese Wheat Thins, Ranch Wheat Thins, the list goes on and on. This takes time and becomes very frustrating. In fact, recent research has shown that, when confronted with too many different choices, grocery store shoppers tend to not buy the product at all out of sheer overload and frustration. Now, take the Wheat Thin choice overload model and apply it to most every other product you want to buy in a grocery store. You end up spending half a day shopping for groceries where before it took an hour – simply because you can’t find what you are looking for, or have to ponder too many choices.

The “tyranny of choice” is not just about grocery shopping. It’s in almost every consumer choice we have to make. There used to be GM, Ford and American Motors (and a few European and Japanese car models). Now there are dozens of car manufacturers and hundreds of available models to chose from. There used to be one single provider for a utility – say one gas provider, one electricity provider, etc. Now consumers have to choose which utility they want to buy their electricity from. It used to be you worked a job and received healthcare benefits and a retirement program. Now there are many different “benefit menus”, and “plan options” to review and choose from. All of this takes time and can be very frustrating.
Do we really need such an over abundance of choice in almost every aspect of our modern lives? Multiple options to choose from may or may not be a modern benefit to life, but there is one thing too many choices always are – time wasters.

Bonus

Knots

How much time have you lost in your life trying to untie a knot in a pair of shoes, or the drawstring on a swimming suit or other piece of clothing? Invent a string device that when tied is 100% guaranteed to never knot and the world will beat a path to your door.

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10 Final Recordings of Airline Crashes

When a plane crashes we can often recover the black box to determine what happened. This box keeps a recording of any talk in the cockpit. Here we present the recordings of the final moments of 10 crashes as found on the black box. Due to the nature of the recording method, some of the audio is very difficult to hear, so listen very carefully. Some content may disturb. This list is courtesy of AircrashDB.com.

10

LAPA Flight 3142

On 31 August 1999, a Boeing 737-204C, operating as LAPA Flight 3142, crashed while attempting to take off from the Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires. The crash resulted in 65 fatalities, 17 people severely injured and several people with minor injuries, making it one of the deadliest accidents in the history of Argentinian aviation.

As the aircraft started its take-off run, a warning sounded in the cockpit, indicating that the aircraft was not correctly configured for the maneuver. The crew continued the run, not realizing that the flaps were not at the required take-off position, and were instead fully retracted, thus preventing the aircraft from lifting off. The jet overshot the runway, breaking through the airport’s perimeter fence, crossed a road, hitting an automobile, and finally collided with road-construction machinery and a highway median. Fuel spilling over the hot engines, and gas leaking from a damaged gas regulation station, resulted in a fire that totally destroyed the aircraft.

9

Flying Tiger Line Flight 66

On 19 February 1989, a Boeing 747-249F, operating as Flying Tiger Flight 66, was flying an non-directional beacon (NDB) approach to Runway 33 at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Kuala Lumpur, after having flown half an hour from Singapore Changi Airport. In descent, the flight was cleared to “Kayell”, with a morse code of “KL”, which four separate points on the ground were commonly called by Malaysian ATC, albeit with different frequencies. Two separate radio beacons were identically coded “KL”, as well as the VOR abbreviation (Kuala Lumpur shortened to “KL”). The airport was also sometimes referred to as “KL” by local ATC (instead of the full “Kuala Lumpur”). The crew was unsure of which point they were cleared to.

ATC then radioed to the flight, “Tiger 66, descend two four zero zero [2,400 ft]. Cleared for NDB approach runway three three.” The captain of Tiger 66, who heard “descend to four zero zero” replied with, “Okay, four zero zero” (meaning 400 ft above sea level, which was 2,000 ft too low). Subsequent warnings triggered by the onboard Ground Proximity Warning System were cancelled as false alarms, and the aircraft hit a hillside 600 ft above sea level, killing all four people on board. The proper radio call from ATC, instead of “descend two four zero zero”, should have been “descend and maintain two thousand four hundred feet”.

8

Adam Air 574

On 1 January 2007, a Boeing 737-4Q8, operating as Adam Air Flight 574 (KI-574), was flying a scheduled domestic passenger flight between the Indonesian cities of Surabaya (SUB) and Manado (MDC). The plane was ultimately determined to have crashed into the ocean, from which some smaller pieces of wreckage have been recovered. The flight recorders (“black boxes”) were retrieved from the ocean on 28 August, 2007, while salvage efforts for some larger pieces of wreckage continued. All 102 people on board died.

A full national investigation was immediately launched into the disaster, uncovering multiple maintenance issues concerning the airline as a whole, including a large number concerning the aircraft. Another possibility, proposed by the families of some of the deceased, is that the crash was due to a faulty rudder valve, known to have caused previous accidents and incidents on Boeing 737′s. Debris location has indicated that the plane likely struck the ocean intact. The final report, released on 25 March 2008, concluded that the pilots lost control of the aircraft after they became preoccupied with troubleshooting the inertial reference system, and inadvertently disconnected the autopilot. Offical Crash Report.

7

VASP Flight 168

On 8 June, 1982, a Boeing 727-212A, operating as VASP Flight 168, was flying a scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Fortaleza. The flight departed Rio on its way to Fortaleza. As the flight approached its destination, it was cleared to descend from its cruising altitude of FL330 (approx. 33,000 feet Mean sea level) to 5,000 feet. Flying at night, with the lights of the city of Fortaleza in front, the Boeing 727 descended through its 5,000 feet clearance limit, and kept on descending until it crashed into a mountainside at 2,500 feet, killing all 137 on board.

Investigation revealed that the captain, possibly disoriented due to bright lights from the city ahead, continued the descent well below the 5,000 feet clearance limit, despite being warned twice by the altitude alert system, as well as by the co-pilot, of the terrain ahead. As the Boeing kept descending, it struck a wooded mountainside at 2,500 feet and crashed

6

Air Florida Flight 90

On 13 January, 1982, a Boeing 737, operating as Air Florida Flight 90, was a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight from Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. to Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a stopover at Tampa International Airport, in Tampa, Florida. The aircraft crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River, killing all but 4 passengers and a single flight attendant.

The aircraft carried 74 passengers and five crew members, when it crashed during the failed takeoff attempt. When the aircraft struck the 14th Street Bridge, which carries Interstate Highway 395 between Washington, D.C., and Arlington County, Virginia. It crushed seven occupied vehicles on the bridge, and destroyed 97 feet (30 m) of guard rail, before it plunged through the ice into the Potomac River. The crash occurred less than two miles (3 km) from the White House, and within view of both the Jefferson Memorial and The Pentagon.

5

Delta Airlines Flight 191

On 2 August 1985, a Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar, operating as Delta Air Lines flight 191, crashed while on a routine approach to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 8 of 11 crew members and 126 of the 152 passengers on board, and one person on the ground: a total of 135 deaths. This accident is one of the few commercial air crashes in which the meteorological phenomenon known as microburst-induced wind shear was a direct contributing factor.

4

Northwest Airlines Flight 255

On 16 August, 1987, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, operating as Northwest Airlines Flight 255, crashed after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, killing all of the crew and passengers except for a 4-year-old girl, Cecelia Cichan, who sustained serious injuries. Flight 255 made its takeoff roll on Runway 3C at approximately 8:45PM EDT, with Capt. Maus at the controls. The plane lifted off the runway at 170 knots (195 mph), and soon began to roll from side to side at a height of just under 50 feet above the ground. The MD-82 went into a stall mode, and rolled 40 degrees to the left, when it struck a light pole near the end of the runway, severing 18 feet of its left wing, and igniting jet fuel stored in the wing. It then rolled 90 degrees to the right, and its right wing tore through the roof of an Avis rental car building. The plane, now uncontrolled, crashed inverted onto Middlebelt Road and hit vehicles just north of the intersection of Wick Rd. The aircraft then broke apart and burst into flames as it hit a railroad overpass, and the overpass of eastbound Interstate 94.

3

United Airlines Flight 232

On July 19, 1989, a Douglas DC-10, operating as United Airlines Flight 232, was a scheduled flight from Stapleton International Airport, in Denver, Colorado, to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. During flight the plane suffered an uncontained failure of its number 2 engine. Shrapnel was hurled from the engine with enough force to penetrate the hydraulic lines of all three of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. The hydraulic fluid from each system rapidly leaked from the aircraft, resulting in the inability of the crew to move the flight control surfaces. Only the thrust levers for the two remaining engines remained workable, so the crew had limited control by using only thrust modulation (symmetric thrust for pitch, differential thrust for yaw/roll). The aircraft was forced to attempt an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa. The plane broke up on landing, killing 111 of its 285 passengers and one of the 11 crew members.

2

Japan Airlines Flight 123

On 12 August 1985, a Boeing 747-SR46, operating as Japan Airlines Flight 123, was a Japan Airlines domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) to Osaka International Airport (Itami). The aircraft suffered mechanical failures 12 minutes into the flight, and 32 minutes later crashed into two ridges of Mount Takamagahara in Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, 100 kilometers from Tokyo. The crash site was on Osutaka Ridge, near Mount Osutaka. All 15 crew members and 505 out of 509 passengers died, resulting in a total of 520 deaths and 4 survivors. The official cause of the crash according to the report published by Japan’s, then, Aircraft Accidents Investigation Commission is as follows:

The aircraft was involved in a tailstrike incident at Osaka International Airport, on 2 June, 1978, which damaged the aircraft’s rear pressure bulkhead.

The subsequent repair of the bulkhead did not conform to Boeing’s approved repair methods. The Boeing technicians fixing the aircraft used two separate doubler plates, one with two rows of rivets and one with only one row, while their procedure calls for one continuous doubler plate with three rows of rivets to reinforce the damaged bulkhead. This reduced the part’s resistance to metal fatigue by 70%. According to the FAA, the one “doubler plate” which was specified for the job (the FAA calls it a “splice plate” – essentially a patch) was cut into two pieces parallel to the stress crack it was intended to reinforce, “to make it fit”. This negated the effectiveness of two of the rows of rivets. During the investigation Boeing calculated that this incorrect installation would fail after approximately 10,000 pressurizations; the aircraft accomplished 12,318 take-offs between the installation of the new plate and the final accident.

When the bulkhead gave way, the resulting explosive decompression ruptured the lines of all four hydraulic systems. With the aircraft’s flight controls disabled, the aircraft became uncontrollable.

1

Delta Airlines Flight 1141

On 31 August 1988, a Boeing 727, operating as Delta Air Lines Flight 1141, was a commercial airline flight that flew from Jackson, Mississippi, to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah. The aircraft crashed after takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Two cabin crew members (out of four) and twelve of the 101 passengers on board lost their lives: a total of 14 deaths. One passenger, who sat in 29C and had exited the aircraft through the aft break in the left side of the fuselage, attempted to re-enter the aircraft, received burn wounds, and died 11 days later. FAA regulations require a sterile cockpit before takeoff. This means there is to be no conversation outside of talk pertaining to the plane and pending flight. (For example, reviewing Pre-Takeoff checklists.) The CVR tapes recorded extensive talk about the CVR itself, and how, on Continental Airlines Flight 1713, crew discussions were recorded about the dating habits of the flight attendants.

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10 Most Terrifying Places on Earth

There are places on this planet that are stranger than the most alien landscapes we have ever imagined. Places that make your skin crawl. Places that induce heavy breathing and paranoia, before anything has even happened. We walk the dark, dusty steps of old castles and houses. We roam the halls of asylums and tunnels, hoping to glimpse something otherworldly. But sometimes, we wish we wouldn’t. Sometimes, our curiosity gets the better of us in the beginning, and is then squashed by a feeling that no human ever wants to be familiar with: absolute terror.

We hear screams in the night, footsteps in the hall. We see shadows flit by, and fog taking the shape of something eerily familiar. We breathe, we pray, and step lightly. We scream, we curse, and we sprint. Some encounters are mysterious, others violent, all terrifying. Why do we insist on investigating places such as these? Mere curiosity only gets us so far, and then we need a driving force embedded much deeper into our psyche in order to power on. Would you spend the night alone in these places?

10

Riddle House

The History

The Riddle House in Palm Beach County, Florida, was originally a funeral parlor. The Victorian house was dismantled and rebuilt in Yesteryear Village at the South Florida fair grounds. In the 1920’s the house became privately owned by Karl Riddle.

The Terror

Joseph, one of Riddle’s former employees, committed suicide by hanging himself in the attic of the house. Joseph, for whatever reason, hated men, and displays this hatred by attacking men who enter the attic. One man had a lid flung at his head, and men are now no longer allowed in the attic. Other places in the house are haunted as well, with furniture being frequently moved.

9

Helltown

The History

The Northern part of Summit County in Ohio is known by the eerily blunt moniker, Helltown. In the 70’s, Boston Township was the site of a government buyout, and subsequent mass eviction of citizens. The houses were intended to be torn down and the land used for a national park, but the plans never quite manifested. Legends spawned wildly, and who can blame the legend mongers? Driving through the dark, wooded landscape was enough to give you chills even when it was populated, let alone when you have to drive by boarded up houses standing next to the burnt out hulks of others (the local fire department used some buildings for practice).

The Terror

Whether based on a kernel of truth or cooked up in the heads of creative visitors, the persistent legends of Helltown add to the creep factor. The steep Stanford Road drop off, immediately followed by a dead end, is aptly named The End of the World. If you get stuck at this dead end for too long, according to ghost story enthusiasts, you may meet your end at the hands of many members of the endless parade of freaks patrolling the woods. Satanists, Ku Klux Klan members, an escaped mental patient, an abnormally large snake, and mutants caused by an alleged chemical spill proudly march in this parade. And if you stray from the roads, you may find Boston Cemetery, home to a ghostly man, grave robbers and, the quirkiest of all, a moving tree.

8

Stull Cemetery

The History

Stull, Kansas, is a tiny, unincorporated town in Bumfuck, Nowhere- er, pardon, Douglas County. Ten miles west of Lawrence and thirteen miles east of Topeka puts it far from anything resembling a large population center. The population of Stull is approximately 20 people. But, don’t let the deceptively quaint village fool you. A darker side lurks behind the bushes and in the shadows.

The Terror

In the early 20th century, two tragedies rocked the tiny settlement (please observe, these are not legend or folklore, but fact). First, a father finished burning a farm field, only to find the charred corpse of his young son in the aftermath. The second incident to occur was a man went missing, and was later found hanged from a tree. As far as legends go, the infamous cemetery is where you can find your fill of supernatural lore. The book Weird US has this to say on Stull Cemetery:

“There are graveyards across America that go beyond merely being haunted and enter into the realm of the diabolical. They are places so terrifying that they say the devil himself holds courts with his worshippers there. The cemetery on Emmanuel Hill in Stull, Kansas, is one of these places.”

Rumors exist stating that Stull Cemetery is one of the 7 gateways to Hell. While the old church is now demolished, many attempt to sneak in at night for a peek at the unsavory goings-on. But be warned, the police patrol heavily, especially on Halloween and the spring equinox. The place is supposed to be so unholy, in fact, that some claim Pope John Paul II refused to allow his plane to fly over eastern Kansas, on his way to an appearance in Colorado. The validity of this last claim is up for debate, but none can deny that legends or not, Stull Cemetery is a terrifying place to be.

7

The Ridges

The History

Originally known as the Athens Lunatic Asylum, The Ridges was renamed after the state of Ohio acquired the property. The hospital saw hundreds of lobotomies, and often declared masturbation and epilepsy to be the causes of insanity in patients.

The Terror

Athens, Ohio, is listed as the 13th most haunted place in the world, as per the British Society for Psychical Research. The nearby Ohio University (which currently owns most of the property on which the Ridges is located) is said to be heavily haunted. The notorious rapist with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Billy Milligan, was housed at the facility for years. The most famous story, however is that of a 54 year old female patient who ran away and was missing for 6 weeks. She was found dead in an unused ward. She had taken off all of her clothes, neatly folded them, and laid down on the cold concrete where she subsequently died. Through a combination of decomposition and sun exposure, her corpse left a permanent stain on the floor, which is still visible today. Her spirit now haunts the abandoned ward.

6

Humberstone and LaNoria

The History

These two abandoned mining towns in Chile were recently featured on an episode of the SyFy Channel’s show, Destination Truth. In 1872, the town was founded as a saltpeter mine, and business boomed. However, after several heavy blows (including the Great Depression), the business declined and then collapsed in 1958, and the town of Humberstone and it’s surrounding towns were abandoned by 1960. Treatment of workers in both towns bordered on slavery, and now the towns are left standing derelict.

The Terror

It is rumored that the dead of the La Noria cemetery rise at night and walk around the town, and ghostly images frequently show up in photographs in Humberstone. These towns are so terrifying, the residents of nearby Iquique refuse to enter them. The former residents never left, and can be seen walking around, and children have been heard playing. The cemetery of La Noria, regardless of whether its occupants actually walk at night, contains opened graves where the bodies are fully exposed, leaving you to wonder why. Is it ghosts, or is it grave robbers? As if either prospect is very appealing.

Full episodes of Destination Truth, including the episode featuring Humberstone and La Noria, can be seen here.

5

Byberry Mental Asylum

The History

The Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry, or known simply as Byberry, was the poster image for patient maltreatment. The hospital, in its most popular form, was founded in 1907, and known as the Byberry Mental Hospital. It exceeded its patient limit quickly, maxing out at over 7,000 in 1960. It housed everything from the mentally challenged to the criminally insane. Due to its atrocious conditions, and the sub-human treatment of its patients, the hospital was closed and abandoned in 1990. It had since become a nuisance for the neighborhood, as it was a breeding ground for vandals, arsonists, Satanists, and urban explorers. It was demolished in 2006, in spite of the fear of spreading asbestos, (which is what kept it standing for 16 years).

The Terror

The terrifying aspect of this location isn’t so much it’s hauntings or the unsavory characters that lurked after dark (although you would have been wise to be wary of both while exploring the building). The terror here comes from the facts of the how the hospital was run. Human excrement lined the hallways, which were also where many patients slept. The staff was abusive, and frequently exploited and harassed patients. One patient had a tooth pulled without Novocaine, while another killed and dismembered a female patient. Although the killer, Charles Gable, was never found, the victim’s body was found strewn across the property. Her teeth were found being played with by another patient. Even as the hospital was in the process of closing, two released patients were found dead in the Delaware River, two successive days after their release. Perhaps that gate in Stull Cemetery opens here.

4

Leap Castle

The History

While this Irish castle is perhaps the most popular location featured on the list, it is worth recapping the long and often gruesome history. Although it was built by the O’Bannons in the late 15th century, the castle was taken over by the ruling O’Carrolls, to whom the O’Bannons were subject. After the death of Mulrooney O’Carroll, a fierce rivalry erupted, culminating in two brothers struggling for control. One of the brothers, a priest, was brutally murdered in his own chapel, in front of the family, by the other brother. This chapel is now know as the Bloody Chapel, for obvious reasons. Many people were held prisoner and even executed at the castle.

The Terror

The castle is rumored to be haunted by a vast number of spirits, including a violent, hunched beast known only as the Elemental. It is most recognizable by the accompanying smell of rotting flesh and sulphur. While renovating the castle, workers discover an oubliette, which is a dungeon accessible only through a ceiling hatch, into which prisoners are thrown, then forgotten and left to die. This particular oubliette contained three cartloads of human remains, and was filled with spikes to impale those thrown into it’s depths.

3

Shades of Death Road

The History

This New Jersey road winds through 7 miles of countryside, and along that stretch it gives us no definitive clues as to the origin of its eerie name (for those wondering, Shades of Death is not a nickname given by locals, but is in fact the road’s official moniker). While the explanation for this highly unusual name has been lost, many theories abound. Some say that murderous highwaymen would rob and kill those along the road. Others say the reason was because of violent retaliations by the locals against the very same highwaymen, resulting in their lynched corpses being hung up as a warning. Some attribute it to three murders that occurred in the 20’s and 30’s. The first murder saw a robber beating his victim over the head with a tire iron, the second saw a woman decapitate her husband and bury the head and body on separate sides of the road, and the third consisted of poor Bill Cummins being shot and buried in a mud pile. Some attribute it to massive amounts of fatal car crashes, while others consider it the fault of viscous wildcats from the nearby Bear Swamp. The most likely explanation, however, is that malaria-bearing mosquitos terrorized the locals year to year, and the remoteness of the area prevented good medical attention from being prominent in the area. This is supported by the fact that, in 1884, most of the swamps in the area were drained.

The Terror

Gruesome history and spooky name aside, you have much to fear along this byway. South of the I-80 overpass lies an officially unnamed lake, that most will tell you is called Ghost Lake. This lake is frequently the home of specter-like vapors, and the sky is supposed to be unusually bright, no matter what time of night you are there. As per the name, ghosts of the highwaymens victims roam the area, and they are most frequent in the abandoned cabin across the lake. The dead-end road known as Lenape Lane is home to thick fogs and apparitions, you may be chased off the road by a white light. I’ll let Wikipedia detail the most disturbing aspect of the road:

“One day during the 1990s, some visitors found hundreds of Polaroid photographs scattered in woods just off the road. They took some and shared them with Weird NJ, which published a few as samples. Most of the disturbing images showed a television changing channels, others showed a woman or women, blurred and somewhat difficult to identify, lying on some sort of metal object, conscious but not smiling. Local police began an investigation after the magazine ran an item with the photos, but the remainder disappeared shortly afterwards.”

2

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The History

Welcome to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, home of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This former high school was converted, in 1975, to Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge. The prison was used as a base to torture and murder prisoners. Most of the prisoners were former soldiers and government officials from the Lon Nol regime. However, the Khmer Rouge leaders paranoia soon caught up with them, and they began shipping people from their own ranks to the prison. Many prisoners were tortured and tricked into naming their family and associates, who were them also arrested, tortured and murdered.

The Terror

The ghosts of the estimated 17,000 victims of Tuol Sleng continue to roam the halls, and odd happenings around the place are often attributed to them: and it isn’t hard to see why. Most were forced to confess to crimes they didn’t actually commit. Although most victims were Cambodians, many foreigners fell victim to the death machine, including Americans, French, a New Zealander, a Briton, Australians, Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis and Vietnamese. Only 12 people are thought to have survived. To close the entry on this sad history, I’ll leave you with the actual security regulations, the ten rules all prisoners had to abide by. All imperfect grammar is said in context due to poor translation.

1. You must answer accordingly to my question. Don’t turn them away.
2. Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
3. Don’t be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
5. Don’t tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
7. Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
8. Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.
9. If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get many many lashes of electric wire.
10.If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

1

The Mines of Paris

The History

The seemingly infinite tunnels that run below the streets of Paris should not be confused with the Catacombs of Paris, the famous underground ossuary, although the mines are also mistakenly referred to as the catacombs. Exploring the mines is illegal, and penalties include heavy fines. The mines were used to dig out minerals from Paris’ varied sediment (the location where Paris is was submerged for millions of years), and the tunnels are what got left behind.

The Terror

The mines are now unkempt, unpatrolled and unsafe. As far as legends go, ancient cults and creatures patrol the depths. Spirits dwell in the infinite shadows, and if one wanders deep enough, and survives, they may even enter Hades itself. As far as reality goes, those legends can take a back seat. The tunnels stretch for close to 600 kilometers throughout the Parisian underground, and most of them are unmapped. Saying it is easy to get lost is an understatement. It is nearly impossible not to get lost. Many parts of the catacombs are hundreds of feet below street level. Some hallways are flooded, or are so narrow you have to crawl through them. There are holes that drop hundreds of feet, and manholes that are unreachable, luring unwary urban explorers in with false promises of freedom. The infinite underground maze absorbs sound, mutes it, making it unlikely you will hear somebody yelling for help, even if they are not far away. Or, worse yet, making it unlikely somebody will hear you. Thousands of human bones litter the tunnels, due to overcrowding in many of Paris’ cemeteries. Weird paintings adorn the walls. Are they ancient? Are they new? Are they warnings? Or pleas for help? If you have claustrophobia, you will want to avoid the mines at all costs. If you don’t have claustrophobia, you probably will after a trip through the mines. Bring plenty of batteries, backup flashlights, clean water, a friend, and say a prayer before entering the mines of Paris. You will need them all.

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