The city of Benevento in southern Italy has buildings that go back a couple thousand years, but its reputation as "the city of witches" began in 1428. The Catholic church has begun building a body that would become the Inquisition, and the crime of witchcraft had to be dealt with. Almost anything could be evidence of witchcraft, and confessions could be produced under pressure. Matteuccia di Francesco was convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake. She wasn't even from Benvento, but her confession contained a poetic sequence, or incantation, that told of witches gathering at a walnut tree in the town of Benevento. Ever since, Benevento has been known for witches (called Janara or Strega), not so much among the residents, but a destination for witches from all over Italy.
Older Benevento residents know all the superstitions to ward off the Janara, but they also embrace the legends for commercial purposes. Benevento became a tourist draw when the local Liquore Strega (advertised in the image above) went into production. The town also has a museum of witches called Janua and is the setting for a series of children's books. Read about Benevento and its witches at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Halloween HJB)
Hobbiton is the original location of The Shire in The Lord of the Rings movies, meaning that's where those scenes were filmed. The movie sets were preserved, and the area is now a pilgrimage destination for fans. It is also a popular venue for weddings. Sharik and Jess Burgess-Stride are both avid LOTR fans, and held their wedding at Hobbiton just a few days ago. All the guests were wearing Shire attire. Elijah Wood, who played Frodo, was not.
When photographer Cath Ullyett saw Wood walking nearby with his family, she rushed to invite him. Wood was hesitant, not wanting to invade the couples' privacy, but the photographer knew it would thrill them. So Wood ran up to greet the happy couple and pose for a few photos.
It was the first time a cast member had been to any of the many weddings held at Hobbiton over the last twenty years. The bride and groom were ecstatic. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit on Rubber Chickens pic.twitter.com/AxELDIg7Eg
— Lord Vinheteiro (@Vinheteiro) October 30, 2025
Fabrício André Bernard Di Paolo, who goes by the name Lord Vinheteiro, is a Brazilian musician who is a classically trained pianist. It's worth noting that he is not actually a member of the nobility of the defunct Empire of Brazil. He is, though, a princely master of many musical instruments, including the rubber chicken.
In the past, we've seen Lord Vinheteiro play "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on a single rubber chicken. Now he plays the most famous work by Nirvana on an array of 14 rubber chickens.
Question: what kind of instrument is a rubber chicken? Some people on the web says that it's a percussion instrument, but I think that the sound comes from the movement of air inside, not the striking of the rubber itself.
There is a species of spider that craves human blood. The jumping spider Evarcha culicivora sniffs out the odors of humans and human blood as well as the blood of animals. But there are two reasons you don't need to worry about being bitten by a blood-sucking spider. The first is that the vampire spider only lives in Kenya and Uganda, around Lake Victoria. And even if you live in those countries, this spider will not bite you. They are around 5mm long, and their tiny teeth cannot pierce human skin.
So how does a vampire spider drink blood? They prey on female mosquitoes that have recently gorged themselves on blood. New research shows that the vampire spider relies more on sight and color than on the smell of blood. They are likely to feast on mosquitoes that have been fed red dye, but have no smell. And even though they eat the mosquitoes that carry malaria, they are no help in controlling the disease since they only eat mosquitoes that have already bitten someone. Read about vampire spiders at Discover magazine. -via Damn Interesting
The international distress signal in Morse code is SOS, but it was never intended to be an acronym for anything. In fact, the three dots and three dashes was once internationally a code for S5S. The backronym "Save Our Ship" is useful when you are learning how to recognize it, so that phrase became a common explanation.
The telegraph and Morse code were developed in the 1840s, but the system was no use for ships at sea because it required wires. But then Marconi gave us a wireless telegraph system, or "radio," first demonstrated in 1896. Suddenly, communications from ships at sea was possible, but it took some time and some left turns to work out standard international codes. The most important was a distress signal, calling any available ships for immediate aid. For some time, this code was CQD. Simon Whistler of Today I Found Out explains how that got (slowly) turned into the SOS signal that we all recognize today, despite the fact that ships no longer use Morse code. -via Laughing Squid
Charles Oldrieve dreamed of one day walking across the English Channel—and perhaps even the Atlantic Ocean. https://t.co/lxePFj5cnV
— Smithsonian Magazine (@SmithsonianMag) October 30, 2025
The early 20th century was full of strange entertainment acts like pole sitters, escape artists, and wing walkers. Charles Oldrieve was a water walker, or an "aquatic pedestrian" if you're fancy. Oldrieve started out as a tightrope walker, but found that novelty acts drew better crowds. He fashioned large wooden shows that resembled canoes so that he could walk across lakes and rivers. He kept setting distance records for walking on water, and dreamed of walking across the English Channel.
But the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers offered a much longer route, and in early 1907 Oldrieve set off from Cincinnati and walked on water all the way to New Orleans! His wooden shoes were specially designed to gain traction in water, and he only walked during daylight. Still, it was a grueling journey through dangerous currents. By the end, he said, "I wouldn’t walk that river again for five times the money I won.” Oldrieve supposedly began the stunt to win a $5,000 bet. Read about Oldrieve's ridiculous but spectacular journey at Smithsonian.
Redditor /u/amp123 made this beautiful handbag that's shaped like an isopod. Given its size, it closely resembles the giant marine isopods that are so popular in Taiwanese cuisine.
She comments that it's functional as a small purse, but will not take large items. She also suspects that it will be an effective deterrent against pickpockets.
When you name a product, you want that name to be simple, memorable, and pleasant. It would be nice if that name were descriptive of the product, but that can be hard in a world where there are so many products already named. It's also crucial that the product name not be something offensive in another language, but that isn't addressed in this video. Coca-Cola is an example of a perfectly-named product, because it rolls off the tongue so easily, yet it was simply named for its ingredients.
Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) gives us some tips on using certain letters and sounds to name your product so that people feel a certain way about it. Then when you come up with the perfect name, you'll find that someone else has already trademarked it. And remember, the perfect product name won't mean anything unless it'a something people need or want. The video is only around nine minutes; the rest is promotional.
It's not easy being queen, especially if you're a honeybee. Sure, you don't have to work and you have a staff of workers to tend to your every need, but you are in this position for one purpose- to produce hundreds or even thousands of eggs every day. The queen keeps her minions loyal by secreting a bee pheromone.
But is a queen were to become ill, from, say, a common bee virus, that pheromone production drops, and so does her egg-laying. The workers become aware that the queen isn't upholding her end of the deal, and they can expel her from the hive! It's brutal, but probably best for the overall health of the hive in the long run. Worker bees have other queens in waiting, but until one matures enough to take over egg-laying duties, the hive is vulnerable to failure. Read how this happens, and what it means to the honey industry, at Popular Science. -via Damn Interesting
Luke Pickman is a composer and multi-instrument musician. And by multi-instrument, let's emphasize the modifier multi. He's an avid collector of instruments from around the world. As his collection grows, he adds their use to his repertoire.
In the past, we've seen him perform the 7-note piece known as "The Lick" on 92 instruments (including mayonnaise) and a longer original piece on 111 instruments. For this video, Pickman performed the C major scale on his expanded collection. The instruments now include a double ocarina, a toy piano, a double bawu, a piccolo trombone (which apparently exists), and an Aztec death whistle.
-via Born in Space
The TV special It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown debuted in 1966. It was the third Peanuts TV special, after A Charlie Brown Christmas and the baseball-themed Charlie Brown's All Stars! I had just turned eight years old, and was a Peanuts fan, both from the comics page in the newspaper and from the earlier Christmas special. In those days, everyone at school had watched the same TV shows the night before (we only had two channels), so we spent the next day discussing the show. It gave us the catchphrases "I got a rock" and "Dog germs!" Relive those memories with a list of trivial facts about It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!.
Yes, I noticed that the video clips here borrow heavily from later Peanuts specials. The Halloween special had no Franklin, no Peppermint Patty or Marcie, and Snoopy didn't do aerobics in 1966. If you want to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown this year, you'll have to buy a disc or pay for Apple TV+ (or check the comments). -via Laughing Squid
Christi VanSyckle of Car & Driver magazine learned about and then entered the Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship. Dan Leber founded this annual contest in recollection of watching his mother expertly slip the family car into parallel parking spots.
The contest rules are precisely calibrated to handicap cars by length, although all must slide into a standard 20-foot long space bounded by two of Leber's own cars. Scores are a combination of speed and precision. Each contestant maneuvers until shouting "Done!" to mark completion.
The winner this year was Ephorm, who is pictured above. VanSyckle placed 25th among 183 contestants, which isn't bad for a first timer.
-via Instapundit | Photo: Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship
Sometimes you'll see a horror film with opening credits that say "Based on a true story." By the time the film is over, you're horrified and wonder what kind of true story it was. Then there are films that say "Inspired by a true story," which could mean anything, since it implies that a story has been greatly altered. Or it could say "Based on a real account" which means little to nothing, because it could be inspired by a hoax, or a story someone else came up with.
That being said, there are a lot of terrifying horror films that were inspired by stories that made the news somewhere at some time. A lot of slasher films drew inspiration from real murders, some you've heard of. Purely supernatural stories about haunted houses are less credible, but movies can be based on what people said happened. And wherever the story came from, they are usually changed enough to make the movie pure fiction. Read about the news stories that led to twenty of our most horrifying movies ever at Bored Panda.
The Dodo usually brings us feel-good stories about rescued animals who find a loving home. This is different, because Halloween is right around the corner. You may want to turn the lights on before you watch this. You've been warned!
Amanda is being terrorized in her own home by a malicious entity called The Dark Lord. He watches her from a distance, or he is hidden frightfully nearby, ready to pounce without notice. He stalks her at all times. He thwarts her every purpose, from enjoying a cup of tea to baking cookies. He sits on top of the refrigerator like a gargoyle, following her with his creepy glowing eyes. You might catch those eyes from a hidden place when you least expect them. What horrible fate awaits Amanda from The Dark Lord who rules over his peasant with an iron fist, er, paw?
If you enjoyed this eerie tale, there's plenty more like it at The Dark Lord's Instagram account.
Fit to Survive is a YouTuber and maker of custom survival gear for everyday carry. Years ago, he restored a few Swiss Army knives and realized that he could improve upon their designs. He modified them in practical and sometimes fanciful ways.
I'm not sure which category this particular knife fits. A crossbow is not a standard tool that folds out of a knife case. But this tool is so precisely engineered and machined that it's functional as a weapon under unusual circumstances. With a carbon fiber bolt, it's able to puncture a soda can.
I wonder if it would be possible to add a ghost ring sight to improve accuracy of fire.
-via The Awesomer
