Science & History
![The 7 Most Terrifying Pirates from History](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/0/9/7/75097.jpg?v=1)
The 7 Most Terrifying Pirates from History
Between Johnny Depp and numerous sports logos, pirates have become cartoon characters in modern culture. It's easy to forget that the real thing did exist, and that in many cases they were much more badass than the Hollywood version.
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- By Eric Yosomono, Jean Flynn
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The 6 Most Mind-Blowing Ways Your Brain Can Malfunction
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- By Lana Frankle
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5 Mind-Blowing Scientific Answers to Life's 'Big Questions'
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- By Cezary Jan Strusiewicz
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The 6 Deadliest Animals Too Adorable to Run Away From
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- By Tom Hohle
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A ROUNDUP OF INTERVIEWS, DEEP DIVES, & TRIVIA
6 Mind-Blowing Ways Genetic Engineering Might Save Your Life
Genetic engineering scares a lot of people, partly because we love making sci-fi movies and video games starring walking humanoid horrors that resulted from experiments gone wrong. And, while the idea of something like growing a human heart in a sheep's body just seems wrong somehow, it probably seems less wrong to the person who actually needs a h
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- By Jesse Clark
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6 Weird Fashions From History (With Weirder Explanations)
If you intend to do any traveling in a time machine, you'd better invest a whole lot of money in costumes. After all, people in the past looked weird. Why the hell did they, for instance, wear giant white wigs everywhere?
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- By Eric Yosomono
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5 Scientific Reasons Your Idea of Happiness Is Wrong
Our two favorite subjects at Cracked are the elusive concept of human happiness and Batman. This article is about the first one.
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- By Kimmy Dee
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6 Ways Bacteria Will Prevent the Apocalypse
There are some strains of bacteria that not only can perform massive, superhero-level feats, but are probably going to be what stands between us and an apocalyptic future.
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- By Kristi Harrison, Tom Hohle
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7 Questions You Didn't Know Could Be Answered With Math
Nine out of 10 of you have probably used some variation of the term 'I'll never need any of this in the real world' when you were studying math in high school. True, the mechanics of long division and PEMDAS don't seem as important in day to day life as, say, knowing how to change a tire. But according to science, a lot of the problems you face eve
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- By CRACKED Staff
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7 Real Insect Superpowers That Put Spidey Sense to Shame
Insects and arachnids, like humans, have their superheroes with incredible powers. The only difference is that their superheroes are real. And, pound for pound, consistently more impressive than the human version.
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- By Karl Smallwood, Monte Richard
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The 5 Weirdest Things That Control the Global Economy
The global economy is an insanely complex system of labor, money and goods all governed by laws to keep each facet in check. So it'd be pretty depressing if researchers discovered that the whole thing was actually the end result of a bunch of seemingly random bullshit, wouldn't it?
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- By Cezary Jan Strusiewicz
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5 Supervillain Tactics Science Is Using to Kill Mosquitoes
What is the deadliest animal in the world? Lions? Sharks? Bears? Bees? Snakes? Rats? It was bears, wasn't it? Is it bears? No, it's the lowly mosquito, and it's not even close.
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- By Rory Lynott
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6 Lies About the Body You Learned in Kindergarten: Classic
When we reach the age of two, we start to have a few questions about our bodies. At first they're simple. 'Will that toy fit into the wet hole in the middle of my face?' But as we mature, the questions become more complex and too numerous for any reasonable human being to answer. It's no coincidence that around this time, your parents ship you off
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- By Karl Smallwood, Eddie Rodriguez
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7 'Ancient' Forms of Mysticism That Are Recent Inventions
Some 'ancient' practices are about as authentic as the ill-fated Chinese tattoo on your arm that the lady swore meant 'pure warrior.'
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- By C. Coville
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