10 Lafayette Municipal CemeteryLafayette, Colorado For some unknown reason, certain cemetery headstones attract urban legends. In Rhode Island, the headstone of Nellie Vaughn, which reads “I am Waiting and Watching For You,” garnered enough attention from thrill-seekers that they made the dead woman into the undead. Elsewhere, ordinary headstones or ordinary tombstones become the objects of irrational fear. This seems to be the case with poor Theodore “Fodor” Glava, an immigrant laborer who died of influenza at the young age of 43....

It was a symbolic moment in the history of the United States when the last racial barrier in American politics was overcome. Just 143 years earlier, the man who would now hold the supreme office in U.S. government could have been a possession, another man’s property. President-elect Obama said, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer....

This saccharine World War 2 romance, beloved of teen girls of the 21st century, stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple from different social classes who meet in the midst of global warfare. Inevitably, they are torn apart by circumstance and the film is narrated by their regretful elder selves. Dying for someone you love is a classic Hollywood act of romance. Erasing yourself from existence from just before the moment you met the one you loved is an even grander gesture....

10The First Women’s Prisons Women’s prisons are a relatively new concept. In the past, the rare female scoundrel was usually housed in a separate part of a men’s facility. The first women’s facility in the United States, Indiana Women’s Prison, was built in 1869 and received its first prisoners four years later. The first federal prison for women would not follow for decades. The Federal Industrial Institution for Women was built in Alderson, West Virginia, where it opened on April 30, 1927....

There are things to be proud of, however, and first among them is the bravery and willpower of the men and women who served in the conflict. During one of the most harrowing periods in history, a generation of heroes emerged. 10The ANZACs At Gallipoli On April 25, 1915, the Allies began the Gallipoli landings—the start of a campaign that would go down in history as one of the most disastrous operations ever undertaken....

Certain people are not remembered for their greatest accomplishments or their most infamous deeds. Rather, they are immortalized for other exploits which have become more memorable in the eyes of history for one reason or another. 10 Robert FitzRoy English Vice Admiral Robert FitzRoy is primarily remembered today for serving as captain of the HMS Beagle during the iconic voyage of Charles Darwin. The two became friends even though the former was a devout man who thoroughly opposed Darwin’s profane ideas....

As we enter the 21st Century, political acts of self-immolation are, once again, on the rise. When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight, on Dec. 17, 2010, he sparked flames far greater than the ones that would ultimately kill him. The Tunisian man, an unemployed college graduate with children to feed, had tried to find work hawking vegetables, but was thwarted by police, who insulted him and confiscated his cart. His appeals of protest were ignored so, in a grisly act of protest and anguish, Bouazizi doused himself in gasoline and set himself ablaze....

Nevertheless, those in the know realize fan projects can be extremely beautiful. The ones on this list might fall in that category, but they’ll also likely provoke a slightly different reaction. 10‘Bus Stop ‘Jorwal Gartakilagayan My Neighbor Totoro is highly regarded among animation fans, including Roger Ebert, who said it made him “smile, smile, smile.” It has been named one of the best animated films from Japan of all time....

10Glen Larson The late ’70s were a good time for American science fiction. As Star Wars debuted and Star Trek found new life on the big screen, Hollywood executives were scrambling for a piece of the space-pie. It was against this backdrop that a California-born Mormon named Glen Larson secured funding for his own sci-fi epic: Battlestar Galactica. After scoring a couple of hits with his band The Four Preps, Larson transitioned into the TV industry in the late ’60s....

10 Top Notch HamburgersDazed And Confused The film Dazed and Confused followed various groups of teenagers on their last day of school in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The movie was filmed in various locations in and around Austin, but one of the more recognizable places was Top Notch Hamburgers. Dazed and Confused was Matthew McConaughey’s first shot at an acting career. In his first scene of the movie, he pulls up in his Chevelle to Top Notch Hamburgers’s drive-in and starts talking to a redheaded girl....

10A Glass That Stops People From Texting In Bars Brazilian artist Mauricio Perussi was so annoyed with people using their smartphones to avoid interaction that he designed something he likes to call “the offline glass.” The glass, which has a small groove cut into the bottom the same size as the average smartphone, can only be placed on a flat surface if you also place your phone down with it. It’s specifically designed and contoured so that any condensation that may appear is directed away from the bottom so it won’t damage the phone underneath....

10 Marco Tulio Catizone Dom Sebastian was the king of Portugal in the mid-16th century. When he was killed on a Crusade, rumors spread that he would one day return to his country to free them from Spanish oppression. In 1598, it seemed that the prophecy had come true. The “king” had been arrested in Venice after having wandered Europe in penance for his defeat in the Crusades. Portuguese nobleman Dom Joao de Castro, convinced that this king was real, secured the man’s release from prison....

Movies, however, do not exist in a vacuum. Macabre troubles affect filmmakers just like anyone else; they just use their movies to cope. Death constantly pops up in projections because death constantly appears in life. The following are just ten examples. 10 A Peeping Tom Launched Science Fiction Movies More than 90 years after its release, art of all forms is still shaped by 1927’s Metropolis. Its status as the first science fiction movie of note and its unprecedented production methods are apparently not enough of a legacy....

10Who Killed Nick Deak? Even as a simple financier, Nicholas Deak was quite a character. An exiled Transylvanian aristocrat, he joined the US military during World War II and soon joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. In that capacity, he planned attacks on Romanian oil fields and trained guerrillas in Burma, where he accepted the Japanese commander’s samurai sword at the end of the war....

10Water Extractors Despite the recent discovery of some liquid water on Mars, future colonizers are going to be dependent on frozen water trapped in the Martian soil. Extracting that water might involve physically digging it up, or it might mean using microwaves to vaporize the water and bring it to the surface as a gas. Unfortunately, while machines to do both have been tested on Earth, no large-scale water extractors have yet been tested on Mars itself....

10 The Beardsley Divorce Case In November 1860, lawyer Richard Busteed presented his client’s divorce case to the Brooklyn Supreme Court. Alfred Beardsley claimed that his wife, Mary Elizabeth, had taken a ferry into Manhattan in 1854, where she met an Irish doctor named Francis Mahan in a saloon. As she left, she dropped a rosebud on the floor, encouraging the doctor to follow her. When he caught up with Mary at P....

10 “Copacabana” – Barry Manilow A conversation about whether or not there was an existing song called “Copacabana” between Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro sparked the idea for the now-infamous “Copacabana” song recorded by Manilow, which was released in 1978. The disco tune became a tropical foot-tapping hit, but beyond the upbeat music, the lyrics tell a truly dark story. It centers around the life of a Copacabana showgirl named Lola and her lover named Tony, a bartender at the club....

As with any of our roundups, choosing what to keep in and what to exclude was a real chore, and inevitably, some important stories got left out. Honorable mentions this year include Brazil getting its first hard-right leader since the dictatorship ended, the detention of children on the US-Mexico border, Macedonia’s historic renaming referendum, and the thaw between mortal enemies Ethiopia and Eritrea. For the rest of you, here’s what the world’s been up to in 2018....

The week leading us into February was a fairly depressing one, as these things go. There was violence, the potential for violence, partisan rancor, and depressing spats that involved the trampling of free speech. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, but both were certainly in high supply. Fingers crossed that next week’s news helps chase away the winter blues. 10 South Korea Suffered Its Deadliest Fire In A Decade Just before Christmas 2017, a fire ripped through a sports center in Jecheon, South Korea, killing nearly 30 people....

10 Germany Voted To Legalize Gay Marriage Despite its increasing prominence in the news, gay marriage is a bit of a rarity on the world stage. As of early July 2017, only 22 countries out of over 190 allow same-sex marriage and even some of them only allow it in certain states or territories. (Several more recognize civil partnerships.) Last week, the path was paved for country number 23. On Friday, German lawmakers voted by 393–226 to legalize gay marriage....