Science & History
Meet 'Varney,' The Vampire Who Popped Up 50 Years Before 'Dracula'
One serialized novel changed everything and gave us the hip, hawt undead bloodsuckers we know and love today. That penny blood was Varney the Vampire (1845-1847), and without it the modern vampire would look a lot different.
- Authors
- By Jess Nevins
- Published
Seasons No Longer Exist, Only Hot And Cold
- Authors
- By Eli Yudin
- Published
We Started Studying Anesthesia After Toenail Surgery Went Horribly Wrong
- Authors
- By Ryan Menezes
- Published
12 Inventions That Were Accidentally Invented Twice
- Authors
- By Eli Yudin
- Published
A ROUNDUP OF INTERVIEWS, DEEP DIVES, & TRIVIA
15 Sadistic Facts About the Marquis de Sade, the OG King of Smut
The censorship of his work raised important questions about freedom of speech, but he was absolutely not the kind of guy you wanted to hang out with.
- Authors
- By Amanda Mannen
- Published
15 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About the Lizzie Borden Hatchet Murders
We all know that Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother 40 whacks -- but did she?
- Authors
- By Amanda Mannen
- Published
5 Bananas Things Apes Do In The Wild
It makes sense to fear apes: they’re humanity’s wildly unpredictable cousins. Ape violence makes us wonder what horrible instincts are lurking deep within our own natures, but it turns out reality is even more horrifying (and hornier) than fiction.
- Authors
- By Chris Corlew
- Published
Bug Eyes Hold A Weird Secret
They're a lot less human than they look.
- Authors
- By Ryan Menezes
- Published
Poppies and Politics: The History of Memorial Day
It wasn’t always barbecue and booze.
- Authors
- By Amanda Mannen
- Published
5 Nutty Moments From The Lives (And Deaths) Of America's First Leaders
They died as they lived: weirdly.
- Authors
- By Ryan Menezes
- Published
15 Weirdest Food Trends of the ‘80s
Over the course of this decade that was mostly fueled by cocaine and hairspray, food companies apparently figured that what we actually ate didn’t much matter.
- Authors
- By Amanda Mannen
- Published
26 Food Products From The 80s (That Should Stay In The Past)
It's easy to forget that not everything from the past is worth remembering...
- Authors
- By Cracked Readers, Shea
- Published
Reagan And Gorbachev Agreed To Team Up Against Aliens
See, this is why Reagan tried to build Star Wars.
- Authors
- By Ryan Menezes
- Published
The Epic War For Sealand: The World's Realest Fake Country
What if you could find a loophole so good that it effectively lets you start your own country, free from the rule of law? Well, that’s happened exactly once in modern memory, and oh boy, did it get weird.
- Authors
- By Alex Hanton
- Published
Turning LEDs Blue Was So Hard, The Guys Who Did It Won A Nobel Prize
And yet blue raspberry Jolly Ranchers won nothing.
- Authors
- By Ryan Menezes
- Published
