A recent post at AskReddit said, "Autopsy Doctors of Reddit, what was strangest discovery you’ve made while preforming an autopsy?" (sic) Responses came in from medical examiners, autopsy techs, EMTs, pathologists, embalmers, med students, and plenty of other folks who have seen. Some. Stuff. Here is one example.

6. "When I was in my intro to EMS class, my teacher brought in a death investigator and former autopsy examiner to speak to our class. She told us while she worked as an autopsy examiner, she got this woman who, at the time, mysteriously suffocated after a car accident. Apparently, while she was driving, she grabbed her lighter from her purse and was holding it in her mouth while she fumbled through her bag for her cigarettes. While doing this, she got T-boned."

"The airbag went off and on the way to the hospital, they kept trying to put tubes down her throat to open her airway cause she was having trouble breathing. But no luck. She said when they cut open her throat during the autopsy they found her lighter jammed down there. Apparently, when the airbag went off, it got jammed down her throat and no one knew."

—u/I_Feel_Dizzy

You can read more weird causes of death in the original thread, or the 13 best stories at Buzzfeed.  Some of them may be disturbing.

When the red delicious apple was developed a hundred years ago, it was supposedly the best-tasting apple around. But the variety became a victim of its own popularity, as the apple was altered to suit the industry. By the time you and I came along, we were unimpressed and made jokes about the use of the word "delicious." Oh yeah, the red declicious apple stayed popular for a long time after it lost its taste, mainly because it was all you could find at the grocery store. Then just in the last few decades, better apples were developed to replace it.

What we have in this video is really a history of apples that leads up to the rise and fall of the red delicious. A neat story altogether, but it bothers me that the host cites Charles Darwin to explain crossbreeding of plants to develop new varieties when it should have been Gregor Mendel. -via reddit

Veijo Rönkkönen worked in a paper mill in Parikalla, Finland. He was also an artist, but never sold his works. He made concrete sculptures that over time numbered about 500 figures, all secluded in the woods around his home. Rönkkönen's sculptures are not altogether lifelike, but neither are they abstract. They portray people doing all kinds of everyday activities. The biggest number of them resemble a young Rönkkönen doing yoga poses. The artist would sometimes add quirky things to the sculptures, like speakers inside so they could produce sounds, or human teeth. Rönkkönen worked on these sculptures for 50 years until his death in 2010. He never exhibited them or sought fame for his artworks. In fact, he was quite shy as well as eccentric, but if someone came to visit he would show them around.



The Veijo Rönkkönen Sculpture Garden is now open to the public. The 500 or so human figures impress up to 25,000 visitors a year as creepy, funny, scary, whimsical, mysterious, or haunting. Rönkkönen is one of five people featured in a Cracked article who went all in on hobbies that others would consider downright creepy.

La Madeleine is a landmark of the French capital. The structure, also known as  L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene) is a Neo-Classical masterpiece that was finished during the 19th century after being delayed by the French revolution. The building features majestic sculptures all around, along with magnificent columns. 

Learn more about this building’s massive history here! 

Image via wikimedia commons 

Tesla now has a beer. It also comes in a futuristic-style bottle. 

This isn’t a new venture for the company, as it released its own tequila last year. However, this is the first time that Tesla has produced beer. Their beer, called ‘Gigabeer,’ comes with a Cybertruck-inspired bottle. Check electrek’s full coverage on the announcement here!

Image via electrek 

Space weather is associated with solar flares and solar wind that can affect our planet’s ionosphere. This specific part of our atmosphere is a layer of charged particles, which has an impact on long-distance radio communications, and orbits of some satellites. In addition, the layer can create fluctuations in the electromagnetic field that can wreak havoc with electronics in space and down to the ground. 

In order to take precautions against any interruptions from the changing weather in space, the Australian-made space weather satellite CUAVA-1 was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station in order to help experts forecast space weather easier. 

Image credit: JAXA

We’re familiar with piñatas-- the bright and colorful sculptures made from paper used in celebrations. However, piñatas can now be used to tackle different world issues today. Take, for example, Giovanni Valderas’ work. The artist uses colorful sad-face piñatas in order to comment on the gentrification and the displacement of Latinx communities. 

Hyperallergic dives deep into the craft and politics behind the bright artform. Read their full piece here. 

Image credit: Samanta Helou Hernandez

Now that’s a paw-fect opportunity! 

The Order of Attorneys of Brazil (OAB) found a stray cat near their building. Instead of shooing the poor kitten away, they decided to ‘hire’ the animal as a ‘watchcat.’ 

The people at the Brazilian Bar Association fell in love with the cat and dubbed him Dr Leon, O Advogato. He is now the OAB’s official watchman and is in charge of welcoming newcomers and those who are visiting the office.

Image credit: dr_leon_advogato on Instagram 

This gorgeous image of Malui, a female western lowland gorilla walking through a cloud of butterflies with a serene look on her face won the top prize of the Nature Conservancy Photo Contest 2021. Don't miss the rest of the winning photos 📷!

🕘 Read the clock, literally! Author Clock uses quotes from classic books to tell the time.

Here's how to get away from it all: live in an hermitage inside a volcano.

Keempossible: Self-taught master baker paints roll cakes with designs inspired by pop culture (don't miss the one with the Giant Robot Doll from Squid Game!)

Besides for recording idiots on the road, it turns out that dashcams can be used to track down meteorites.

Here are two kittens re-enacting Mufasa's Death Scene from the Lion King.

Is it just pandemic ❤️ romance? This cat loves delivery drivers.

Here's (yawn) why warm milk makes you sleepy ... Zzzzzz ...

Medical mystery: doctor baffled when a blind dog aced an obstacle course.

More neat stories over at our new network of sites: Pictojam, Homes & Hues, Pop Culturista, and Supa Fluffy. Please check 'em out!

When Gustave Eiffel erected his eponymous tower in Paris, the deal was that it would be the cornerstone of the 1889 Exposition Universelle, and then remain for twenty years. Yet 132 years later, the tower is still there. Finagling longevity for his creation required a bit of cunning on Eiffel's part. To make the tower useful enough to avoid demolition, he made it a radio tower. Or rather, a "wireless telegraph" tower, harnessing the new communication technology that was at first limited to the military. To make the military staff more unobtrusive, a bunker was dug beneath the tower to house the radio operations. The radio transmissions were experimental at first, but later proved to be quite important.

During World War I, its bunker took on an even more important role as a potential escape route with a complex underground network and secret tunnels. The Iron Lady’s communication infrastructure proved especially useful when French forces jammed German communications, a significant factor in winning the First Battle of the Marne. The French military were also able to decrypt enemy messages; notably, an intercepted communiqué between Germany and Spain led to the arrest of exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari.

The bunker beneath the Eiffel Tower is still there, no longer a secret, although it's not open to the public. Read the history of this facility and see what it looks like now at Messy Nessy Chic.

What's the scariest movie you ever saw? If a particular horror film keeps coming back to keep you awake at night, part of the reason may be its spooky setting. Many horror films rely on someone visiting a new and unknown place that turns out to be haunted or maybe occupied by a killer lunatic. And those places are out there, somewhere, because that's where they filmed the movie. You might even want to visit someday, maybe to relive the thrill, or maybe to reassure yourself that it's not like the movie. You can still go to the gas station featured in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and eat barbecue), tour the lighthouse from The Fog, or climb the stairs where the priest and the demon battled it out in The Exorcist. Check out eleven iconic horror film locations and make your plans for a pilgrimage with the help of Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Rshao)

The Civil War consumed all of President Lincoln's time in the White House. He presided over the battle campaigns, of course, but he also worked outside the military on several fronts to bolster the Union. These schemes ranged from boosting morale on the home front to enticing southern states to leave the Confederacy with a bit of a bribe. This came in the form of the Land Grant College Act, in which the federal government pledged help to establish higher education across the country- but only in states that stayed loyal to the Union.

There was also the continued construction of the US Capitol Building. There was the Emancipation Proclamation, telegraphing the stakes of the war to the enslaved people of the rebellious states. Then Lincoln resurrected the forgotten holiday of Thanksgiving, designed to build unity and a sense of purpose. In 1863, there were actually two days of Thanksgiving.

Another of Lincoln's non-battlefield accomplishments was the Lieber Code, written by Francis Lieber. This military code set the standard for how to run an army that became an inspiration worldwide, and no doubt contributed to the relative cohesiveness and sense of moral superiority of the Union army that helped to win the war. Read about all these programs that, along with the fighting, took up Abraham Lincoln's time and last full measure of devotion at Military History Now.

What’s your style of kayaking? Do you like to tumble through rapids? Do you prefer the rigors of the open ocean? Or, like redditor /u/twitch119, do you enjoy quiet, still waters?

The water calls to him in more ways than one. Aside from kayaking, his favorite hobby is painting with watercolors. To combine them, he built an easel onto his boat. You can read a description of his build process here. The unit, which has a side table attached to the easel, fits around the rim of the cockpit. Paracord keeps it snugly secured. The top can be adjusted to different angles and will even fold flat.

Something really weird happens to Baxter the cat on RamsesThePigeon's security camera. Don't blame me if it gives you the willies. You'll need to watch this more than once to catch all the easter eggs, like the sampler on the wall.

Continue reading to see that scene again. You might learn a little more from this version.

At the almost-900-year-old village church in Sauherad, Norway, you'll find murals that are hundreds of years old. But look closely at one wall, and you'll see that it is covered with tiny devils and demons, crowded together like doodles in a bored student's notebook. This is the demonveggen, or demon wall. The mystery of the demon wall is not in how old it is or who did it, because those things are known. The real question is why.

Experts in historical preservation and restoration are dedicated to bringing history to life accurately. But in 1940, Gerhard Gotaas, a renowned conservator of medieval church art, completely painted over an artwork on one wall of the church in Sauherad and left it with the demons. Locals who knew the church were confused, but bowed to Gotaas' authority and reputation. It was assumed that he found and revealed what had been there for hundreds of years. Then World War II came along and the demons on the wall were ignored due to other priorities. Gotaas continued his work elsewhere with no complaints, and his alterations in Sauherad were only recently discovered. Now, Norwegian cultural heritage laws say Gotaas' demons must remain as a historical artwork of their own, despite the fact that they cover a painting that is 300 years older. Read the story behind the demonveggen at Atlas Obscura.

The article is part of Atlas Obscura's Fright Club series for the month of October.