If you are in the armed forces and decide not to obey an order from a superior, you'd better be pretty darn sure you are right, or else are willing to pay the price for insubordination. In most cases, you'd be punished and if you are lucky, no one back home would ever know about it. But some famous cases of disregarding orders made a real difference in battle, or even for the survival of the planet. Those cases where disobedience turned out to be the right decision left the soldier a hero and the story might even be made into a movie. Sometime it led to disaster. And sometimes the soldier got away with it because the person issuing the order was on his last legs anyway. Weird History tells us eleven stories of disobedient members of their nation's military forces that left a mark on the world, in one way or another.

Every year for ten years now, redditor kakalacky_guy has designed and produced a Christmas card that shows us the chaos of celebrating Christmas as a family. His 2023 card shows he and his wife and three children attempting to ski even though they don't have snow and don't have a hill, either. What could possibly go wrong? He's been bringing us these funny and creative cards since 2014, when they only had two kids, although it seemed like a half-dozen at the time, as the card implied. Most of the cards put the children in dangerous situations that children would love to get themselves into if we let them. Continue reading to see the collection of cards through the years.

There are many inspiring words that came from famous people of history or characters in a film, and many statements that we often quote to this day. We are familiar with statements like, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger" from Friedrich Nietzsche, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" from Franklin D. Roosevelt, and "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get" from Forrest Gump.

On Quora, somebody posed a question regarding the most badass things that historical figures have said. Some of my favorites include this roast by J.R.R. Tolkien when his book The Hobbit became popular and a German publisher, Rütten & Loening, contacted him in 1938 inquiring about his ancestry.

There's also this quote from the legendary Marine Chesty Puller who, during the Korean war, made this famous quote which was a great way to motivate his troops when they were facing insurmountable odds.

And this anecdote about St. Thomas Aquinas who had been ridiculed by his peers, and was called "The Dumb Ox" because he was quiet, reserved, and a bit large and slow. His response comes, I think, from the purest of intentions, not wanting to think ill of other people, but it actually sounds like the best comeback.

(Image credit: Leila Thomas, Cella Poynter, Jay Matthews/Quora)

We often think about the Middle Ages as the period when people swam in squalor and filth. Those may have been influenced by historical events like the Black Death and depictions of that time in movies or TV shows. However, contrary to popular belief, the people of the Middle Ages actually took pains to keep themselves clean.

Literature such as the Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, a collection of 360 Latin poems alluded to various hygiene habits such as washing one's hands and face with cold water in the morning and keeping warm after a bath. Peter of Eboli's De Balneis Puteolanis actually speaks exclusively about bathing.

Monarchs like Charlemagne, Wenceslaus IV of Luxembourg, and Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland, are some great examples of medieval people's obsession with bathing. Charlemagne's palace had pool-sized baths where he, his sons, members of court, and even his soldiers were invited to bathe.

Wenceslaus enjoyed bathing so much that he was said to have given his mistress a bathhouse. And Jagiełło invited his fiancée Jadwiga's knight to take a bath with him to convince her of his own hygiene and cleanliness.

Even ordinary people during the Middle Ages went to bathhouses regularly to the point that bathhouses offered auxiliary services like haircuts, massages, and even medical procedures such as wound dressing and bloodletting. Other establishments often accused bathhouse owners of stealing their clients, to which bathhouse owners responded by doubling down and further providing food and live performances.

However, the reason why many people associate the medieval period with filth and grime is due to the Renaissance period completely abandoning bathing, because of an outbreak of syphilis. Naturally, people became scared to go to public bathhouses and stopped bathing altogether. -via Atlas Obscura

(Image credit: Denghiù/Wikimedia Commons)

The closest thing to a film noir that I have watched is the 1995 crime thriller Seven which featured Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey. It left a weird impression on me, to say the least.

I liked the plot twist and how Spacey's character was completely shrouded in mystery for most of the movie. However, I'm sort of conflicted between liking the movie and being repelled by it. But one thing I know is that it made me think about the concepts of justice, truth, and hypocrisy.

Although not exactly a film genre, film noir has been used to refer to movies with a distinctive dark style, accentuated by stark lighting effects, amoral protagonists, and existential themes. They generally include a femme fatale and very complicated plots.

Everybody knows about Pulp Fiction, and there are debates about whether it's a film noir, neo-noir, or just a crime film featuring certain noir elements. But there are other relatively obscure noir films which we should know and watch. Here are the top 11 noir films from The Collector.

(Image credit: Maxim Hopman/Unsplash)

For over 1,000 years, the Kokusekiji temple in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, has been holding their annual hadaka matsuri or "naked festival" every winter. Although it's called a "naked festival", very rarely are the participants completely naked. Rather, they would usually wear a fundoshi loincloth, sometimes topped with a happi coat.

The chief priest of the temple, Daigo Fujinami, recently announced that they will be holding their last festival on February 17th next year from 6 PM to 11 PM. They said that, since most participants are already aging and there was a lack of people to whom they can pass the baton to carry on the tradition, this will be the end for the festival.

For the festival held at Kokusekiji, participants will be fighting over a sack filled with talismans. They believe that the talisman will help them ward off bad luck, diseases, or any kind of disaster.

Despite the end of Kokusekiji's hadaka matsuri, it's not the only one that holds such festivals. Other places hold their own hadaka matsuri with slightly different elements involved such as the one at Konomiya and Saidaiji.

The Konomiya hadaka matsuri features a shin-otoko or 'man of god' who is selected beforehand and is given the blessing of the priests before he runs into the crowd. The goal is for the participants to touch the shin-otoko to transfer their bad luck to him. Afterward, all the bad luck is transferred to a giant black mochi which is buried in the forest.

On the other hand, the Saidaiji hadaka matsuri involves a purification ritual and the throwing of a pair of shingi sticks which is believed to bring the catcher good luck and happiness throughout the year. Before this, though, 100 smaller sticks called kushigo are thrown, representing a portion of the luck from the shingi.

(Image credit: CES/Wikimedia Commons)

Days before Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces, many Japanese people, who had previously been brought to Manchuria as part of the Japanese government's plans of conquering China and cultivating the resource-rich region in the northeast, had been making their way to Harbin to catch a train and go back to Japan.

After August 15, 1945, there were many stragglers with young children, toddlers, and babies who had already lost any hope of finding a way back home. So, in a moment of desperation, many Japanese mothers left their children behind hoping locals would be kind enough to take them in and some asked Chinese couples to take care of their babies.

Despite the pain, agony, and hatred that these Chinese locals experienced, they adopted these Japanese war orphans and raised them as their own children. Many, if not all of these foster parents, thought the same way, that these children had nothing to do with the war, and they were victims as well.

Throughout their lives, these Japanese war orphans were showered with care, affection, and even favor by their Chinese foster parents. They made sure to keep their adoption secret because they feared these children might become targets of bullying or harassment.

Even though some of the foster families were poor, they made sure that the Japanese orphans received the newest clothes or were well-fed, even if their own children didn't get those. That's why it was an extremely sad moment when the last of the Chinese foster parents died in 2020.

Majority of the Japanese orphans have been repatriated to Japan while some stayed in China, although several of those who returned to Japan later came back to China because of discrimination.

These war orphans have served as a bridge for China-Japan relations, since diplomatic ties began in 1972, and repatriation programs in 1981.

(Image credit: Wang Xiaonan/CGTN)

Theoretically, the chances that heads or tails will come up when we toss a coin should be equal. That is, if we were to toss a coin 100 times, the outcomes for either heads or tails should be 50/50. However, scientists are now disputing that commonly held belief.

A study from the University of Amsterdam shows that coin tosses aren't immune to biases. PhD candidate František Bartoš, along with a team of researchers, have built upon the initial research done by Stanford University statistics professor Persi Diaconis and his team, which hypothesized that flipped coins generally fall on the same side they started. They coined a term (no pun intended) for this phenomenon, "same-side bias".

It is a vexing proposition but when Bartoš' team conducted a trial flipping coins from 46 different currencies for a total of 350,757 times, they found that the coins came up on the same side they started around 51% of the time. It's not a big difference, but it's not 50%.

Some factors lend further credence to the theory such as the coin flipper themselves. Depending on the way the coin is tossed, the chances that same-side bias will affect the outcome is higher. "Vigorously tossing" the coin is how the team described the manner the coins were tossed.

Perhaps, to remove all the biases, we should simply twirl the coin on its side. Of course, it's more difficult than simply flicking your thumb and catching the coin. Or, maybe tossing the coin sideways?

(Image credit: Andy Henderson/Unsplash)

On December 1, 1958, "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" was released. It sold millions of copies and went to #1 that Christmas season, and proved to be popular every year since then. The success of the song was a triumph for Ross Bagdasarian, who not only write and produced the song, but sang all the parts, too. What's more, he owned the song, the publishing rights, and the master tapes, which was rare for musicians at the time. "The Chipmunk Song" led to more songs, and a TV series starring Bagdasarian as Dave Seville, the guardian of three talking chipmunks and their licensing rights. Bagdasarian also had three children, who inherited all that when Bagdasarian died in 1972 at only 53 years of age.

Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. also inherited his father's media instincts. He continued the legacy of the Chipmunks, and bought out his brother and sister in the 1990s. The senior Bagdasarian had relinquished the rights to the master recording of the Christmas song to his record company, but the family retained publishing and product licensing rights. Simon, Theodore, and Alvin have appeared in numerous TV series, comic books, and four live-action movies, not to mention the toys and other branded products. The Chipmunks have sold millions of records, and "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" was streamed 10.4 million times in December of 2022 alone. This is all very lucrative for Ross Jr. and his wife Janice Karman, who run Bagdasarian Productions. But what does Ross think when he hears that song every Christmas?

Honestly, I am so thrilled every time, because it brings back my dad. I get to hear his voice.

Read about the empire that one Christmas song started at Billboard. -via Metafilter
 

Tattoos have been around for thousands of years, and are more popular today than ever. Tattoos done under standard sanitary conditions don't seem all that dangerous. But have you ever once thought about how your body reacts to the trauma of high speed needles and tattoo ink invading your dermis? Your immune system immediately rushes in to protect you from such foreign substances, but while the system works pretty well against biological invasions such as bacteria and viruses, it's a bit stumped by ink, which can't be killed because it was never alive. The macrophages that normally kill bacteria do the best they can, which ends up actually stabilizing the tattoo! Of course, nothing lasts forever, and that includes macrophages and tattoo ink, which will eventually succumb to your body's ever-renewing systems. But that takes so long that you should still consider a tattoo as permanent. This video from Kurzgesagt is only 7:20; the rest is an ad.

Just a couple of months ago, astronaut Frank Rubio returned from the International Space Station after setting an American record of 371 consecutive days in orbit. Now we find out that Rubio's time on the ISS was not without controversy. There was the case of the missing tomato.

The ISS has been growing a vegetable garden to see if space travelers could grow their own food. Rubio ceremoniously plucked the first dwarf tomato from the garden and used it to demonstrate the agricultural experiment to school children. Then the tomato went missing. On the ISS, it's difficult to keep track of things that aren't tied down (usually with Velcro) and it's also important to know where everything is, lest random objects interfere with equipment. Rubio spent between eight and 20 hours of his own free time searching for it. He mainly wanted to prove that he didn't eat the historic tomato. But it was not to be found.

Until now! Eight months after the incident, astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli notified NASA that something that might have once been a small tomato has been found on the space station. Rubio has been exonerated for the sin of eating a space tomato. -via Boing Boing

(Image credit:Koichi Wakata/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency/NASA)

I thought it would be funny to write a song about how we all hate/love @MariahCarey's amazing 'All I Want For Christmas' but in the style of The Pogues 'Fairytale of New York'.
It ended up being way more of a tear jerker than expected.
You can get it here:… pic.twitter.com/xuacn7xfXX

— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) December 11, 2023

As Christmas approached in 1994, people around the world discovered Mariah Carey's now-iconic song "All I Want for Christmas Is You." It has since become one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. For 29 years, people have heard it on radios and over the loudspeakers at stores.

I like it. The song has, alas, been banned from my own household's Christmas soundtrack, so I have to use headphones when it comes on. Some people who shall go unmentioned loathe the song.

Brittlestar, a Canadian internet comedian, understands the love/hate relationship that Christmas celebrants have with "All I Want for Christmas Is You." In this song, he expresses how the song has become an inevitable part of the season.

The Hollywood sign is an iconic landmark. It was first erected and officially dedicated on July 13, 1923. Originally, it didn't just say "Hollywood" but "Hollywoodland", as a means of selling property in that area of Los Angeles.

A century later, it is still standing on Hollywood Hills, although it has seen many makeovers and facelifts, and it even got auctioned off to stars like Alice Cooper and Gene Autry. After decades, they will be lighting up parts of the Hollywood sign to celebrate its centenary.

Originally, the Hollywood sign was a wooden sign but after several years, many of the letters had already deteriorated and vandals had sullied the letter H. When the locals asked that the sign be torn down, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in and offered to get it renovated.

In 1949, the new sign read "HOLLYWOOD". However, even that didn't last long, and in the 1970s, some of the letters had once again fallen in disrepair, particularly the first O transforming into a lower case "u", with its accompanying O completely falling over. So, Alice Cooper launched a public campaign to have the sign restored.

He donated $28,000 to sponsor the restoration of the sign along with eight other stars including Gene Autry, Hugh Hefner, and Andy Williams. Each one of them sponsored one letter on the sign with Cooper getting the first O, Autry, the second L, Hefner, the Y, and Williams, the W.

The Hollywood Sign Trust recently had the sign repainted in celebration of its 100th anniversary. For a gallery of the Hollywood sign's 100-year history, check out this article from Deadline.

(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

About 12 years ago, this catchy song came out and if I remember correctly, for a time the song and the artist became somewhat of a meme. That song was Friday, by Rebecca Black. She also released a music video for it featuring her and some of her friends, presumably.

Now, there was one particular scene in that video which showed Rebecca Black's friends driving a convertible, at which point, the lyrics say, "Kickin' in the front seat, sittin' in the back seat, gotta make my mind up, which seat can I take?"

My friends were having a discussion about this, saying how ridiculous the lyrics were, because there was obviously just one place for her to sit. Of course, there were other silly lyrics in the song, such as, "Yesterday was Thursday, Today is Friday... Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards".

In the same spirit, Reddit user TimeyxWimey asked redditors on the subreddit Pop Culture Chat what some funny or awful lyrics from songs are. He started the ball rolling with Hilary Duff's So Yesterday, which had the lyrics "If the light is off, then it isn't on".

Another redditor Ok-Land7757 shared this image of Jennifer Lopez with the lyrics from her song Emotions saying "I feel good 'cause I don't feel bad".

But perhaps, my favorite submission was this image from thrash_particle who had commented it after wonderful9235 had shared Lil Yachty's lyric on his song Peek a Boo. The explanation is hilarious.

(Image credit: wolf137946825/DeviantArt; TimeyxWimey, Ok-Land7757, wonderful9235/Reddit)

It has been said that Qin Shi Huang, China's self-proclaimed first emperor, was driven mad by an unquenchable thirst for power. He is considered a tyrannical ruler, who unified the seven warring kingdoms of ancient China and founded the Qin dynasty.

Born Ying Zheng, Shi Huang had taken over the kingdom of Qin after his father died. At the time, he was only 13 years old, but brazen and aggressive, he conquered the other six kingdoms and created a strong centralized government which was responsible for connecting the various fragmented state walls into the Great Wall of China as well as the construction of the Terra Cotta Army.

Researchers found documents which stated that Shi Huang believed that his reign will last 10,000 generations. And so, to see his vision come to life, he had his administrators look for the elixir of life said to give immortality to any who would drink it.

Unfortunately, none of them were able to find the elixir, and had to send awkward replies about their failed quests. Furthermore, his Confucian scholars denounced the quest as charlatanry. However, what these documents do show is how efficient his government was and how it attests to the strength of Shi Huang's leadership.

His quest to immortality actually inspired the creation of the Terra Cotta Army as he believed that the stone guards will guide him through the afterlife.

(Image credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)