Curiosities

<!--qv q:id=7n q:key=vcaa:Films which focus on the power of fear in one way or another have become a staple of the Halloween period over the years. As well as stories which focus on the supernatural itself, horror films which...

Grimoires date back as far as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, but they became widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages — until the Catholic Church began targeting them.Library of CongressAn excerpt from the Picatrix, a Latin translation of an...

Claim: A video authentically shows U.S. President Donald Trump waving to and saluting nobody prior to boarding his helicopter, Marine One, on Oct. 19. Rating: ContextEvidence from photojournalists on the scene confirms Trump was appearing to wave at people working on the...

<!--qv q:id=7n q:key=vcaa:Back in the late 1950s, Sylvia Plath and her husband, the poet Ted Hughes, had a regular guest at their table—a spirit they called Pan—and they reached him the low-budget way. In his notes to Plath’s Collected...

Helheim, the frigid underworld ruled by the goddess Hel in Norse mythology, isn't a place of punishment but rather a continuation of life where the deceased eat, drink, sleep, and fight.Public DomainThe Norse goddess Hel sits in Helheim with...

The claim that North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un is dead is unfounded. The rumor stems from U.S-based Chinese dissident Wanjun Xie, who has a history of spreading false or unverified claims on social media.  Snopes found no verifiable evidence...

<!--qv q:id=7n q:key=vcaa:Sometimes all it takes is a funny joke to pull you out of a bad mood and into a better headspace, especially if that headspace is spooky season (and all the goblins and gore that go along...

Archaeologists digging at Cap Corse along the Bay of Meria uncovered a sturdy foundation made of carefully-carved stone blocks, with rooms separated by large monoliths of schist.Brice Chevaux, InrapThis ancient Roman-era dwelling was found during preventative excavations ahead of...

During the first half of his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the federal government to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Denali to Mount McKinley and Lake Ontario to Lake America. In October,...

<!--qv q:id=7c q:key=vcaa:The year 1816 was anything but ordinary; some even recalled it as haunting. -->The year 1816 was anything but ordinary; some even recalled it as haunting. <!--qv q:id=7h q:key=vcaa:The eruption of Indonesia's Mount Tambora shot particles into the atmosphere,...