5

People From Certain Small Towns Are Basically Immortal

Jake Whitman / Today

Every culture has their old wives' tales about how to live longer -- drink eight glasses of water a day, laugh frequently, consume the blood of the innocent. But no one knows for sure why only a lucky few live to an almost supernaturally long age. Hitting the triple digits seemingly happens at random.

Except, that is, on the remote Italian island of Sardinia, where it's practically a given that you'll live past 100. Sardinia's rate of centenarians (people over age 100, not bore-headed mythological creatures) is twice that of the rest of the world. Scientists have attributed the island's fountain of youth to everything from an undiluted gene pool to their pure and simple diet of foods like red wine, fresh olive oil, and organic vegetables -- this latter explanation helped kick off the Mediterranean diet craze.

Jake Whitman / Today
These men are 90 years old, drunk as fuck, and can kick your ass without breaking a grape-scented sweat.

4

Glasgow And Las Vegas Are Depressing Their Residents To Death

WikiMediaImages / pixabay

In addition to being the birthplace of Gerard Butler and two members of AC/DC, Glasgow, Scotland is also noteworthy for having a mortality rate that is significantly higher than similar UK cities (it is unclear whether these two distinctions are related). One in four Glasgow men never reach their 65th birthday, with the majority of excess deaths being caused by "drugs, alcohol, suicide, and violence," or "not gently in their sleep." Despite numerous studies, this phenomenon, known as the Glasgow Effect, has everyone completely stumped.

Warner Brothers Pictures
He didn't act in 300. He did what does every day, only this time while wearing a cape.

Scientists examined everything from Glasgow's weather to Scottish people's penchant for diving headfirst into coin vaults. But Glasgow's weather isn't unique within the UK, and the coin vault thing is sadly specific to wealthy Scottish ducks. One assumption is that the woes of Glaswegians (we didn't make that up) are related to the city's struggling economy, yet residents in similarly unemployed cities like Liverpool and Manchester live 30 percent longer.

More left-field theories range from Glasgow being the center of an epidemic-level vitamin D deficiency to the fact that Scottish people die sooner because ... they're Scottish. Specifically, because Scottish culture tends to produce cantankerous, pessimistic bastards. This explanation is troubling, as it means that even if you move away, the early-death time bomb is still ticking away in your psyche.

David Newell Smith/The Observer
Post-Shithole Stress Syndrome affects ten out of every ten salty Scottish dogs.

3

African-Americans In The Southern U.S. Are Prone To Collapse And Faint Without Warning

AndreyPopov / iStock

Remember that old cliche about the fainting Southern Belle? You know, the rich plantation owner's daughter who, upon receiving distressing news about her fiance from the front lines of Lincoln's War, faints dead away into the arms of her handmaidens? Well, it turns out that old stereotype is pretty much spot-on ... in terms of the symptoms, anyway. In terms of the cause of said symptoms and the social group affected, it couldn't be more off-base.

Known as "falling out" in the Southern United States and "indisposition" in Haiti, this odd condition causes a sufferer to experience severe dizziness, followed by a sudden collapse. Individuals who experience these spells report being conscious of their surroundings, but completely unable to move. In some cases, they can't even see. In stark contrast to the stereotype, falling out usually occurs in direct response to "intense anger, rage, or fear," like the most ineffective imaginable version of the Hulk's superpower. You get so mad and/or terrified that your spirit temporarily evacuates your body like a falling spaceship.

AndreyPopov / iStock
Taking "fight or flight" to its logical, yet utterly terrifying, extreme.

2

Healthy Young Men From Southeast Asia Are Going To Sleep And Never Waking Up

Prasit Rodphan / iStock

Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome -- or SUNDS -- is a mysterious disease that is killing sleeping men in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, and other countries throughout Southeast Asia. The syndrome is precisely what the name implies: A person goes to bed and wakes up significantly more dead than they were when they went to sleep.

The men who succumb to this syndrome are all relatively healthy, and there is often no discernible reason why it occurs -- "toxicology, heart disease, sleep apnea and other sleep disorders, genetics, metabolism, and nutrition" have all been ruled out. And you can't outrun sleep death by leaving the region, as the syndrome practically haunts Asian men no matter where they go. For example, in the 1980s, U.S. immigrants of the Hmong ethnic group were frequently sleep-dying without warning.

RamseyCountyMN / Wiki Commons
This is less a town hall meeting and more a dress rehearsal for that guy's funeral.

1

Engineering Schools Are An Inexplicable Breeding Ground For Terrorists

Shaiith/iStock

First off, we are absolutely not saying that all engineers are terrorists. That's crazy talk. What we are saying, however, is that a disturbingly high percentage of extremists are engineers. And no, we don't mean that terror groups send recruits to engineering schools so that they can learn techniques to use later. We mean that engineering schools appear to be breeding grounds for terrorism, and nobody knows why.

StartupStockPhotos / pixabay
It can't be all wanting to blow up the teacher for refusing to grade on a curve.

Researchers examined 207 Middle-East-born Islamic terrorists who pursued higher education, and found that a whopping 45 percent of them studied engineering. For perspective, regular, law-abiding college students in 19 Middle Eastern countries were also examined, and only 12 percent studied engineering. And this isn't a uniquely geographical phenomenon. Of 71 Muslim terrorists who grew up in Western countries, 32 of them studied engineering.

"Oh," you figure, "So Jihadists probably target and recruit these populations because they'll be useful." That would make sense on the surface, since an engineer could help a group of terrorists create explosive devices or craft attractive recruitment websites. Well, researchers looked into it and found that in most instances, the engineers were not recruited -- they joined the groups of their own accord. Also, of 228 terrorist plots reviewed, a mere 15 percent of the engineers crafted the incendiary devices involved. Their engineering skills weren't even put to use.

Olichel/Pixabay
So yet another example of your diploma being worthless for the career you end up in.

"Okay," you think, "Maybe there's some kind of other weird connection between extremist Islam and the type of Muslims who pursue those fields?" Not really -- it turns out that other extremist groups, such as white supremacists and neo-Stalinists, also feature a disproportionate number of engineers. What the fuck?

Is there something about that field that attracts angry, antisocial types? Is there something about that field that turns normal kids into angry, antisocial types? Is it all a big coincidence? Nobody knows.

d97jro / pixabay
Until we do, we should probably cover MIT and all who attend in a thick blanket of cement. Just in case.

Check out Patrick Coyne's blog for more funny articles of this ilk.

For more bizarre phenomenon that happens in only certain locations, check out 5 Mental Disorders That Only Occur In One Place On Earth and 6 Mental Illnesses That Only Happen In One Place On Earth.

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