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However, there have also been many cases of people who disappear in the most mysterious of circumstances, only to reappear—sometimes decades later—in equally mysterious and intriguing circumstances. What follows are just ten examples of such bizarre cases. These people vanished into thin air and then reappeared just as strangely . . . 10 Amber Smith—Discovered In A Place Previously Searched Although two-year-old Amber Rose Smith was missing for only a day, her case is truly one of the most bizarre and intriguing....

You’re probably thinking that there is no way that a police officer could get you to confess to a crime you didn’t commit. But certain tactics are grueling and are known to break down even the toughest people. 10 They Lie About Having Physical Evidence It is legal for the police to lie to suspects to get a confession from them. One of the things that police officers and detectives can legally be untruthful about is physical evidence....

However, many people don’t know that he also had some positive qualities as a person and ruler that have been overshadowed by his violence and enraged nature. Nero did many positive things for Rome during his early reign. He was quite a good leader and won the love of the Roman people. Later, he became a really cruel man… but that’s another story. 10 Nero Helped Rebuild Rome After the Fire Believe it or not, during the fire in Rome, Nero was a very generous leader and helped rebuild Rome after the devastation....

You know their books—but you probably don’t recognize their names. Like many authors, they published their work under pen names. In fact, some of the most famous names in the world are not actually their owners’ real names. 10 Pablo NerudaNeftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto Neruda was a 20th-century Chilean poet and political activist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He began using his pen name, which he chose as a tribute to Czech poet Jan Neruda, when he began his career in 1920....

10 The Painted Smile There is something unnatural about the fact that clowns are always smiling. We are logically aware that this red, painted smile is fake. Yet it makes it more difficult to tell when the person wearing the makeup is showing actual emotion. Johnny Depp was quoted as saying that when he was a child, he had nightmares about clowns. He claims that painted-on smiles make it impossible to figure out if clowns are happy or hiding the fact that they are about to bite your face off....

10Standin’ On A Corner “Well I’m standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona / Such a fine sight to see / It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford / Slowin’ down to take a look at me.” So goes the middle verse of the Eagles’ 1972 classic “Take It Easy”—and though the song’s author, Jackson Browne, likely picked the town and state for the sake of meter (and for rhyming somewhat poorly with “corner”), the small town has managed to kindle a respectable little tourism industry centered around the statue and mural installation pictured above....

Well, it’s not quite so simple as that. While we all know the dangers of alcoholism, it turns out alcohol may be far more harmful than most of us realize, maybe even more so than any illegal drug. We’d never go so far as to argue for prohibition, but once you look at the data, getting horrendously drunk starts to look less like an amusing diversion, and more like a portal to your nightmares....

Top 10 Animals That Surprisingly Make Good Guards 10 Heat Smell Dogs have a tremendous sense of smell. Their noses are “up to a hundred times more sensitive” than those of people. They can even smell radiation, or, more specifically, thermal radiation, or heat, even when it’s “weak.” Their ability to sniff out the body heat of potential prey serves them well when they develop “impaired sight, hearing, or smell,” because their being able to detect body heat with their noses enables them to hunt, even when their senses aren’t as sharp as they used to be....

Hardcore music fans think of these four decades as the ‘golden age’ of music. It marked the rise of influential bands and artists such as The Beatles, Queen, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Prince, Whitney Houston, John Denver, Percy Sledge, Blondie, Lionel Ritchie, Nirvana, and so many more. A study has even shown that music from the 60s through to the 90s are far more memorable than modern songs, even among millennials....

10 Brendan EichBanned For Homophobia, Or For Profit? Brendan Eich is a brilliant programmer, the creator of JavaScript, and a prominent member of Mozilla, the organization that develops (among other things) the Firefox browser. He was also the short-lived CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, until it came out that he’d contributed $1,000 to the 2008 California campaign to ban same-sex marriage. Amid the outrage, Eich was forced to resign. The outrage seems manufactured....

The crimes of Patrice Alegre so rocked French society that some talked in the early 2000s about mass insurrection against Paris. In a nation with a revolutionary history, such talk is not idle. Alegre, a lust killer, became the centerpiece of a murder story that tantalizingly promised to reveal evil deeds carried out by the supposed pillars of European society. 10 The Birth Of A Monster Patrice Alegre was born in Toulouse in 1968....

The key phrase there was “almost any.” Royals are still people, with all the proclivities of people. To err is human, and as we will see below, just like everyone else, the British royal family is far from perfect. 10 Paradise Papers Although it has been pretty widely acknowledged for decades that the rich hide their money in offshore tax havens, the leaking of 11.5 million documents known as the “Panama Papers” in 2015 grabbed the public’s attention, as it finally gave them some familiar names and faces....

10Operation Snow White The largest domestic espionage campaign ever conducted against the American government came from the Church of Scientology. It started in 1967, when the IRS revoked Scientology’s tax-exempt status, ruling that the church wasn’t legitimate and “operated for the benefit of L. Ron Hubbard and his family.” The church refused to pay up. They began a massive campaign to find information on the IRS to use it against them....

10 Goliad Massacre Texans have honored the brave martyrs of the Alamo for nearly 200 years. However, those who lost their lives in the Goliad Massacre just three weeks later have been largely forgotten. During the Texas Revolution, the Mexican Army overwhelmed a smaller force at the Battle of Coleto Creek on March 19, 1836. Although the Texans defended themselves admirably, Colonel James Fannin, their leader, decided to surrender against the insurmountable odds....

Musical collaborations can bring the most disparate of artists together to create something altogether new. They invite contemporary artists to work with legends, allow two genres to meet, or simply bewilder us. 10 Bob Dylan And Michael Bolton Rather surprisingly, the track “Steel Bars” from Michael Bolton’s 1991 album Time, Love and Tenderness was cowritten by Bob Dylan and Michael Bolton. Even more astounding is that Dylan instigated the collaboration....

But it might not stop there. Because it’s not just factory workers who are being replaced by robots; it’s everyone, from the creative to the personable. Some of the last jobs—and even just social roles—you’d ever imagine are being taken over by robots, including some you would never have considered. 10 Buddhist Monks A Japanese company called SoftBank Group Corp. has created a robot you never knew you needed: Pepper, the digital Buddhist monk....

The common housefly beats its wings between 200 and 300 times every second. When they find food, they walk around on it first because the tiny hairs on their legs taste it to make sure its good. While doing this, they’re constantly in motion to make themselves a more difficult target for predators, and their eyes—which can see in 360 degrees at once—stay on the lookout when they finally settle in to eat, because that’s when they’re most vulnerable....

10 Carrickfergus CastleCounty Antrim Carrickfergus Castle is an impressive Norman stronghold located just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland. Built between 1180 and 1205, the castle has been occupied by the Irish, English, Scottish, and even the French due to its strategic location on the northeast coast. Over the years, the castle has seen more than its fair share of death and violence, which has led to a number of alleged ghosts wandering its grounds....

10 Why Pedophilia’s Not That BadPiers Anthony In 1987, a 15-year-old boy ran away from home to live with his favorite fantasy author, Piers Anthony. The boy hopped on a plane, tracked down where Anthony lived, and showed up at his door with a bag full of his things. Anthony welcomed the teen into his home with open arms. That story made its rounds on NPR’s This American Life and seemed like a touching, adorable moment in a child’s life....

10Gay Men And Blood Donation Prevalent in a number of countries, including the United States, France, and Germany, bans on homosexual men are often based on unfounded fears or overt homophobia. Since the 1980s, as AIDS began to be seen as a public menace, laws were put on the books in the US that banned blood donations from people who were seen as overwhelmingly likely to contract the disease. (They’re placed in the same high-risk category as intravenous drug users....