12 People Who Died in the Dumbest Possible Ways

Social Networking Speed Demon

A Brazilian teenager named Giovana Alves Dias de Souza seemed like a normal girl, but she had a need for speed. She decided it would be cool to post a picture to her Facebook page of her spedometer at 180 km/h. Somehow, she got away with it and lived to tell the tale.

A few months later, Giovana decided to repeat her daredevil stunt. The police found her mangled car after she lost control and hit a support pole. Her phone was found with a picture of her spedometer at 170 km/h.

Macho Man

A 47-year-old man from Germany was trying to prove to his wife that he was still as strong as he ever was. So of course he decided to dangle from their 7th floor balcony and do pull ups. After doing a few, he no longer had the strength to pull himself back up and fell to his death. The coroner proclaimed the cause of death as "machismo."

Pit Crew Blues

In the parking lot outside of Skagit Raceway in 2010, two pit crew members came up with the genius idea to fill a barrel with methanol, light it, and ride it across the parking lot like a rocket. As most normal people would expect, the barrel simply exploded and sent the two men flying into the air. One man died and the other suffered from serious injuries.

Bungee Bungle

In 1997, a Virginia fast food worker named Eric Barcia decided that he wanted to bungee jump off of a 70-foot hight railroad trussle. He had a bunch of individual bungie cords and strung them all together to make a bungee rope. Aside from being a dumb idea in the first place, the problem was that his makeshift rope was also 70-feet long. Obviously, he wasn't slowed down at all by the rope before hitting the ground.

Ain't No Party Like a Hurricane Party

Hurricane Camille took 259 lives when it hit the Gulf Coast in 1969, but 20 of those deaths could have been prevented. A group of friends decided to host a hurricane party in their second-story beachfront apartment while they waited out the storm. They figured they were safe on the second floor, but a 24-foot wave proved them wrong and destroyed the entire apartment.

Tigers Leave No Survivors

A German couple were visiting a drive-thru safari park in Spain filled with all sorts of wild animals. For whatever reason, the pair decided to stop their car and get out when they reached the tiger enclosure. It was only a matter of seconds before three tigers pounced and made the dumb tourists their next meal.

Free Falling

A Texas construction worker was once hired to reinforce the structure of a communications tower. He was simply going about his work until he suddenly plummeted over 200 feet to his death. The worker had accidentally loosened the bolts on the bar that he was hanging from.

Shocking Fish Tale

Some people love fishing for the sport, but this fisherman from Sri Lanka didn't play by the rules. He regularly came out to a local canal and made an easy catch by electrocuting fish with an electric motor. One day, the motor suddenly stopped working and stepped onto it before remembering to shut off the power. The shock from his own deadly tool reportedly sent him flying about 12 feet into the air and caused him to drown.

Ashes to Ashes

In 2005, a man in Croatia named Marko was trying to sweep out his chimney. He discovered that the opening was too high for him to use a broom, so he decided to attach a brush to a chain instead. He needed something to add to weight the brush so it would go down the chimney, so he grabbed the first object he could find... a hand grenade. As he attempted to weld the grenade to the chain, the grenade predictably exploded and killed him.

The Smoking Gun

This dumb death goes all the way back to the Civil War era. Clement Vallandigham was a criminal defense lawyer who was representing a client on trial for murder. He argued that the victim drew his own gun in a way that caused it to go off and kill himself. Vallandigham offered a demonstration in the courtroom with the victim's original loaded gun. The gun fired and killed Vallandigham, but he won the case!

Road to Rio

A young Brazilian couple were driving along the largest freeway in the country when they suddenly got the urge to get freaky. They pulled over and parked and starting getting busy right there in the middle of the road. Since there was a thick fog that morning, it wasn't long before a massive truck slammed into the couple's car and quickly ended their lovemaking session.

Goldenface

Two criminals were quite competent when it came to robbing a cell phone store in South Carolina, but they were terrible at coming up with disguises. One of the robbers, named James, had spray painted his face gold in an attempt to protect his identity. Spray paint fumes are extremely toxic, so it was no surprise when James had trouble breathing and eventually died. Ironically, the witnesses were easily able to identify James despite his "disguise."

contagious yawning: must read

12 Most Disturbing Torture Methods Ever Invented

Scaphism

Possibly the most disgusting torture and execution method of all time was invented by the ancient Persians. Scaphism involved suspending the victim above a swamp or a pond between two halves of a log or two boats. The exposed area of the victim was coated with a mixture of milk and honey, and is repeatedly fed the same mixture. Insects are attracted to the scent and slowly infest the victim's entire body until it's been eaten away from the inside and outside.

Ratting

This brutal torture method involves placing a live rat inside of a bucket or cage and then strapping it to the victim's stomach. The end of the container is heated up using fire or hot coals which forces the rat to try to escape. Of course, the only way out is by digging through the guts of the tortured man.

The Rack

The Rack is probably the most famous method of torture in history, and it's also one of the most barbaric. The victim is strapped to a table with his arms and legs tied to two large axles. The axles are slowly cranked which increases the tension and stretches the victim to his limits. Eventually the ligaments and bones would snap, causing extreme physical and psychological pain.

The Brazen Bull

Being cooked alive sounds like one of the most painful things imaginable, but that's exactly what the Brazen Bull did. The victim was placed inside of a large brass bull after having his tongue cut out, and then a fire was lit beneath it. The inevitable screams of pain came out of the mouth and sounded like an angry bull. Ironically, the inventor of the Brazen Bull was executed using his own evil device.

The Knee Splitter

Even though it wasn't deadly, the Knee Splitter is one of the most evil-looking inventions ever. The large spikes dug into the knee of the victim as the crank was turned, causing pain and permanent damage. This device was also used on elbows, arms, and lower legs.

Death By a Thousand Cuts

Also known as "slow slicing," this torture method was invented by the Chinese as a way to torture the victim for as long as possible. The skin is cut in just about every location, and some body parts are completely cut off in the process. This method of torture was also meant to follow the victim into the afterlife, as the Chinese believed that a body cut into pieces could never be whole again.

The Head Crusher

This cruel torture device was used to extract information by applying increasing pressure to the victim's head. The large metal cap of the Head Crusher is slowly pushed farther down until it literally crushes the victim's head. The torturers used to enjoy keeping the victim's eyeballs after they popped out of their sockets.

The Scavenger’s Daughter

The Scavenger’s Daughter is a torture device that wasn't necessarily deadly, but likely condemns the victim to an even worse fate. This large metal binding locks the victim's body into a kneeling position and prevents them from moving. The victims were trapped in this cruel device for weeks or even months, which usually crippled them and made them go insane.

The Pear of Anguish

The Pear of Anguish was a small and simple device that was capable of causing extreme pain. This small, metal tool was inserted into one of the victim's body orifices and the expanded on the inside. It was mainly used to torture those accused of rape or homosexuality. At the least, it caused pain and discomfort, and at the most it caused internal bleeding and even death.

The Spanish Tickler

The Spanish Tickler was used to torture victims by tearing through skin and even bones. It was mainly used on thieves and adulterers, and was most often raked down the victim's back. Despite the intense pain, the victim was usually killed by infection instead of the injury itself.

The Breaking Wheel

Torture devices don't get much more cruel than the Breaking Wheel. Victims were strapped to the top of the wheel with their libs draped over the sides. The wheel would be placed on a pivot in a public place, and then the torturer would crush the victim's free-hanging limbs with a club. The victim was often left alive to be eaten by the birds.

Waterboarding

Waterboarding is a torture method that has been used since the Spanish Inquisition and is still in use today. Cloth was placed over the victim's mouth as water was poured over the top of it. This torture method creates an intense sensation of drowning that can lead to lung damage, brain damage, and physical injuries.

15 Things China Doesn't Want You to Know

Poverty

Even though China is the world's most populous country, at over 1.35 billion people, it still has some secrets it doesn't want us to know. But we dug some of them up just for you!

For instance, despite the fact that the US borrows a lot of money from China, a lot of it's population is still living in utter poverty. In fact, about 100 million people in China are surviving on less than $1 a day, which works out to less than $365 a year! And nearly 400 million people live on less than $2 a day!

Death Penalty

In 2005, China executed more than 4 times as many convicts as the rest of the world combined. That works out to over 1,770 executions, most of them done by firing squad.

Air Pollution

China's air pollution is so bad from its rapid industrial growth that many people wear masks outside just to be able to breathe. But their problems aren't limited to their own country. Due to the jetstream carrying their air over to the United States, much of that pollution has traveled to northern California. In fact, abouta third of the air pollution in San Francisco comes from China!

Reincarnation

The Chinese government has actually banned Buddhist monks from reincarnating. That is, unless they get permission from the government first. In reality, what seems ridiculous is actually a move to limit the influence of the Dalai Lama.

Empty Mall

China can proudly boast that it has the world's largest mall, the New South China Mall, with space for 2,350 stores and 7,000,000 square feet of leasable space! The only problem is that 7 years after it opened it is still 99% empty. The only things actually in the mall are a few fast food stores near the entrance.

Blocked Sites

Facebook and Twitter have been blocked sites in China since 2009 and The New York Times has been blocked since a 2012 article didn't please the government. They are going to lift the ban in what is called the Shanghai Free Trade zone soon but it is more of a business decision than anything else.

Cave Dwellers

About 35 million people in China still live in caves. Most of these live in the Shaanxi province where the porous soil makes the caves easy to dig. They are often decorated or reinforced with bricks.

Water Contamination

About 700 million Chinese people, or about half of their population, drink contaminated water every day. One of the biggest reasons is that only about 10 percent of the raw sewage produced by the big cities is treated and the rest is dumped straight into lakes and rivers where it leaks into ground water.

Time Zones

Back in 1949, China's Communist regime decided that, even though the country is huge, in order to assert more control it all needed to be under the same time zone, Beijing Standard Time. This has led to ridiculous sunrise times such as 10am in certain parts of the country.

Piracy

78% of the software installed on computers in China in 2010 was pirated. That is a really high number no matter how you look at it. Globally, the average piracy rate is still quite high at 42%, but it is almost twice that in China.

Birth Defects

Birth defects are actually increasing in China by a rate of 40% since 2001. About 1.2 million babies are born in China every year with a birth defect, or about one every 30 seconds.

Christianity

When you think of religion in China, probably the last thing that comes to mind is Christianity. But what is really surprising is that China has a booming Christian population of about 54 million people and growing. Soon they will have the largest Christian population in the world! They already have more Christians than Italy!

Dwarf Theme Park

There is a place called the Kingdom of the Little People in China where people with dwarfism put on comical shows for tourists. There are over 100 dwarfs employed by the park.

Ghost Towns

About 65 million homes sit vacant in China. This includes some entire towns that are completely devoid of people and they sit empty. These aren't old houses and towns that died out. They are new cities and houses that were built in expectation of a population boom expanding into them that never happened.

Gobi Desert

China is home to the enormous Gobi desert which is already about 500,000 square miles or about the size of Peru and it's only getting bigger. The Gobi is expanding at a rate of about 1,400 square miles a yeardue to over grazing, deforestation and water source depletion.

Make Your Own Air Conditioner At Home Using Household Items

Necessity can make people create the most amazing things. For example, some people will do almost anything to keep cool in the summer heat. Those of you living in the warmer regions of the world can relate to how frustrating it can be to spend time in a place without proper air conditioning. Well one creative Flickr user created a homemade air conditioner to cool his apartment. Here’s how he did it.

The DIY air conditioner was made using easily available household items that cost close to nothing. The air conditioner consists of an ordinary oscillating table-top fan, fish tank pumps, copper tubing and flexible plastic tubing.

The photos show that the copper tubing has been formed into spirals and attached at the front and back of the fan. The fish tank pumps feed water to the copper tubing to ensure that the fan constantly blows cold air while the flexible plastic tubing connects the copper tubing to the cold water reservoir and allows the fan to swing in its regular fashion. The user has to add ice to the cold water reservoir every 6 hours to ensure that the water inside the reservoir stays cool

The exact cost is unknown but this is a pretty cheap solution. The only thing you have to be careful about when trying this at home is to make sure the reservoir is placed in a safe place, because electricity and water don’t make the greatest combination.

woman before and after pregnancy photos

sooooo cute

This Material Is Called Frozen Smoke. It Can Support Tons Of Weight And Is Lighter Than Air

First created in 1931 by Samuel Stephens Kistler while studying the properties of liquid in jellies and trying to replace them with gas without causing shrinkage, Aerogel is a slightly translucent, super strong and extremely light solid. Its amazing nature can very well be analysed from its name in the Guinness Records as the World’s lightest solid.

It is basically created by extracting or “supercritically drying” the liquid component of the gel; the idea is to dry off the moisture without causing the solid matrix of the gel to breakdown. Initially aerogels were formed from silica gels but later Kistler used alumina, tin dioxide and chromia to produce them.

Due to aerogel’s amazing properties it is also called “solid smoke”, “frozen smoke”, “solid air” or “blue smoke”. Aerogel comes out as a very light and porous material resulting in low density and low thermal conductivity making it a great insulator. It feels like brittle expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) and looks the same.

Even though it is so light, aerogel outdoes itself for being one of the most powerful materials in the world. Having 99.8% air and being 1000 times less dense than glass, it can support massive weight and can bear intense temperatures and sounds. A single one-pound block can hold half a ton of weight. Also, one inch thick aerogel has insulating properties compared to a ten inch glass window.

Apart from its other unique capabilities, aerogel also has remarkable absorbing abilities. Scientists and engineers speculate that it could be the future answer to big problems such as oil spills and also be used as a slow drug-delivery system for medical patients.