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Monday, February 4, 2008

Lists From Listverse

Another 20 Unfortunate Product Names

The first list in this series (Top 10 Unfortunate Product Names) was very popular and it inspired one of our readers to send in an additional 20 unfortunate products. For your viewing pleasure, may I introduce another 20 unfortunate (to say the least) product names:

20. Barf!

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Top 10 Bizarre Biblical Tales

The Bible is full of many fascinating tales - many good, and some bizarre - here are the top 10 bizarre tales from the Bible.

10. A lesson for those who dare mock male pattern baldness

Found in:4 Kings 2:23-24

One of the more inspirational passages in the Bible tells the story of Elijah, a wise man, yet one cursed with male pattern baldness. One day he was minding his own business, making the long walk to Bethel, when he is attacked by a roving band of children who tease him with names like “bald head.” But Elijah was having none of this, he turns round and curses them in the name of the Lord, and instantly two female bears emerge from a nearby wood and maul all 42 children to death.

The moral of this story? Don’t make fun of bald people. Frankly, why this story isn’t included along with the Ten Commandments is anybody’s guess, but I think it would serve as an excellent lesson for children who think baldness is something to be made fun of.

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Top 10 Things I Have Learnt From This Site

Since the site started way back 6 months ago, I have come to learn a lot about myself, the readers here, and life in general. This is my personal top 10 list of things I have learnt from this site.

10. You Shouldn’t Mention Led Zeppelin on a Beatles List

In a historic moment for the site, the top 15 Beatles Songs became the most commented on list with over 200 comments (that was eventually surpassed by the Geek Movies list). The reason? Someone mentioned Led Zeppelin on the list and World War II.5 broke out on the site. There are some classic comments in the list so be sure to check it out.

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Top 10 Bizarre Animal Mating Rituals

Here is a topic about the birds and the bees - as it relates to the animal kingdom. This is a selection of 10 of the most bizarre mating rituals known to man.

10. Red-Sided Garter Snakes

These snakes are small and poisonous, and live in Canada and the Northwestern United States. Their highly unusual mating takes place during an enormous orgy. Hundreds snakes slither together in a large den, eager to copulate. In that pile, one female may have as many as 100 males vying for her. These ‘nesting balls’ grow as large as two feet high. Now and then a female is crushed under the heavy mound.

Interesting Fact: Some male garter snakes are able to release the same scent that females release, causing them to be mounted by hundreds of other snakes. Scientists believe this may be for warmth and protection.

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Top 10 Zombie Movies

This has been a tough list to put together. I have selected many films that will be known to you all, but I have also included a couple that are lesser known - they are still brilliant films, and hopefully this list will help to expand your zombie viewing horizons! So onwards, the list:

10. 28 Days Later2002, Danny Boyle - UK

The reason this is so high on the list is because of the fact that its characters are not undead (my preference in a zombie flick) - they are merely infected with a virus. The plot, which most of us already know: Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

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Top 10 Bizarre Things You Can Buy on Amazon

So, you are shopping for the man/woman who has everything and have no idea what to buy? Here are ten unique and unusual products that can be bought on Amazon.com:

10. Wolf Urine

100% pure wolf pee. Use this pee to deter unwanted creatures from your home. Its effectiveness is vouched for by one Amazon reviewer who said:

My Uncle Jared had been under the weather since his wife passed away. He was also in a lot of debt and doing drugs. So one day he bought this Wolf Lure, apparently covered his body in it, and went into the forest. We held his funeral last Thursday, but there was no body to place in a casket so we just remembered him the way he was, and placed flowers by the forest where his mauled clothing and remnants of teeth and flesh lay in eternal slumber. The local news ran a report of him, and we all wish him well with his wife.

Please note: this product can not be shipped to California due to state regulations on the importing of animal pee.

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Last Drinks! Logo Competition Nears Its End

As you (hopefully) all know, we are currently running a competition to find a new logo for the site. The competition has been running for two months and the prize is $200 US. You can find the rules and regulations on the original post.

You now have four days in which to enter this competition!

This is our largest prize so far so be sure to be a part of this monumental competition. The winning logo will star on the site and all of our merchandise!

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Top 10 Books of All Time

What a daunting task it would be to write a list like this, but fortunately for us, Norton (of the Norton Anthologies) asked 125 of the greatest living writers to select their top 10, and then (using statistics) produced a final list of the ten greatest books ever written. I certainly agree with the majority of the selections. This is a list of the top 10 fictional books of all time - needless to say, if you have not read these books, you probably should.

10. Middlemarch George Eliot

Middlemarch is considered by many scholars to be one of the most important novels of the Victorian era. It was written by George Eliot (pen name of Mary Anne Evans) and was first published in 1871 to 1872. It is set in the 1830s in Middlemarch, a fictional provincial town in England, based on Coventry.

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Top 10 Evils of Scientology

This list is a combination of other lists I have already written about scientology but with more of a focus on the deaths caused by the organization. Be sure to read the afterword for details on the up coming protests against the group.

“I have taken what 1 consider to be the most expedient way out of my present predicament. I harbor no resentment against anyone, except the Church of Scientology. They have a great deal to do with my demise. To play with people’s defense mechanisms in the manner that they do is a criminal thing at best. l hope they can be outlawed.” — Suicide note by James Hester

10. Scientology is a Secret Organization

The swift and calculated responses from the group have managed to do what no other organisation or government has done - censor certain information from the internet. You can find out how to make a bomb on the internet, but you can not find out what you have to do to pass the top levels in the Church of Scientology. Ironically, considering they are so secretive, it does not stop them using information taken from people they audit against them if they turn on the group. This would be the same as a person confessing to a priest, leaving the Church, and having the priest publish their confession on the internet.

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Top 20 Geek Movies Of All Time

The list includes a competition - details below] If you have not seen at least 15 of these movies, you can hand in your geek membership card right now - or you can buy them and join the ranks of the enlightened! So, here are the top 20 Geek movies of all time (in no particular order except number 1). Use the comments to tell us which of these movies are the top five.

20. Pirates of Silicon Valley1999, Martyn Burke

I love this movie! It tells the tale of the start of Microsoft and Apple and has a brilliant cast who do a great job of portraying their characters. Noah Wyle (as Steve Jobs) was so good that he was invited to walk on stage at an Apple Conference to pretend he was Steve Jobs - the audience were fooled (briefly) and it has become a great moment in Apple conference history.

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Top 10 Unusual Food Combinations

While some people know about these little tricks, the majority do not. These are small tips to help you improve the foods we commonly eat - most are recommended by top chefs and others by very experienced home cooks.

10. Carrots and Sugar

While it may seem strange to add sugar to vegetables, it is a very common method of preparing carrots in France. The technical term for this dish is Vichy Carrots, in which you combine Carrots, Salt, Pepper, sugar, and Vichy water (a sparkling water from the Vichy region) and cook them down until the carrots are glazed. The sugar heightens the flavor of the carrots and the end result is a stunning dish of brilliantly orange vegetables

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Top 10 Bizarre Piercing Images

Body piercing is something of a modern fad amongst youngsters (and some oldsters). It involves inserting metal objects in to places in the body that really don’t need to have metal objects in them. Some people have become so fascinated by this practice that they have “extreme” piercings. This is a list of the top 10. These images are all safe for work - though I can not be held responsible for your dry-cleaning bill if you are viewing this after eating.

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Top 10 Celebrities Who Destroyed Their Reputation

This is a list of celebrities who have destroyed either their career or their reputation through foolish actions - intentionally or unintentionally.

10. David Hasselhoff

The star of Bay Watch has recently been suffering with alcohol abuse and in 2007 his daughter released a video of him drunkenly trying to eat a Wendy’s burger whilst arguing with her on to the internet. The result was that Hasselhoff lost custody rights to his daughters temporarily and lost all respect. In 2006 he was refused access to a British Airways flight due to drunkenness though his publicists insisted that he was not drunk, but rather unwell from taking antibiotics. Yeah right.

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Top 10 Bizarre Mustaches

I am at a loss for words to describe this list - it is probably the most unusual one we have done so far and certainly the one that comes closest to giving me the creeps! So - here they are, the top 10 bizarre mustaches:

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Top 10 Assassination Attempts

This is a group of ten of the most famous assassination attempts. While several on the list eventually were killed, they thwarted an initial attack (or two) and lived to see another day. The top 10 Assassination Attempts.

10. Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson would become the first (and only US President) to personally beat the crap out of their would-be assassin. On January 30, 1835, President Jackson was attending the funeral of a South Carolina Representative when Richard Lawrence made his move. Lawrence fired two pistols at Jackson both misfired then the President charged at the man and began to beat him with his cane. It took several aides to restrain the 67-year-old Commander in Chief while Davey Crockett apprehended Lawrence.

Richard Lawrence was later declared not guilty by insanity and spent the rest of his life in the Government Hospital for the Insane. John Hinckley Jr would be housed here under it’s present name St. Elizabeths Hospital. (See #9)

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Another 10 Evil Women

As promised, we finally present our sequel to the Top 10 Most Evil Women list. The women on this list are all infamous for the horrors they caused. It is a very difficult topic to rank so I have done my best to do so in an objective manner. If you think anyone is missing from either of these two lists, be sure to tell us in the comments.

10. Williamina “Minnie” Dean1844 - 1895

Death Toll: 3+

Minnie Dean was the first, and only, woman to be executed in the history of New Zealand. She was executed by hanging. Under the guise of helping poor young girls, this evil woman murdered their children and took what little money they had to improve her own lifestyle. At the time, a young woman becoming pregnant without a father was severely stigmatized by society. This gave rise to a phenomenon called “baby farming” in which people would offer to take the children and raise them for a moderate regular fee. Dean was one such farmer, but rather than raising the children, she murdered them at the soonest opportunity and kept the money. This was made possible because “adopting” parents were not required to be registered by law. In many cases the children simply vanished in to the homes of these “farmers” never to be seen again. Dean murdered at least 3 children but it is likely that there were many more whose bodies were not recovered. In my youth I was given a tour of the New Zealand Police private museum and I saw the bones of the 3 recovered children - it was something I will never forget.

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Top 10 Westerns

[This list includes a competition - read the afterword for details] The time has come for another movies list - this time it is the top 10 westerns. It is a fascinating genre that has provided the film world with some of the greatest cinemaphotography in all moviedom.

10. The Searchers1956, John Ford

Ethan Edwards, an ex-Confederate soldier from the Indian Wars, finds that his family has been massacred and his niece captured by the Comanches and vows to bring her back and kill everyone of the Indians who did this to him. He travels for five years in order to find her and when he does realizes even though she has been found she has become one of them.

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Top 10 Cartoon Villains

Cartoons would not be cartoons without an evil villain! Presented below are ten of the worst from cartoons throughout the ages. If you feel that there is a villain missing from the list, be sure to speak up! Onwards… the top 10 cartoon villains:

10. BlutoPopeye

Bluto is the arch enemy of Popeye and, like Popeye, wants to do the dirty with Olive Oyl. Despite having a superior strength to Popeye, he is usually beaten because of the super strength Popeye gains through eating spinach. There are some cartoons that show Popeye and Bluto as friends and navy buddies, with Bluto usually turning on Popeye when an object of interest (usually Olive) is put between them.

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Top 10 Most Polluted Places

Here is another list to help you with your travel plans - at all costs avoid the ten places on this list! This list was originally compiled by the Blacksmith Institute.

10. Dzerzhinsk, Russia

A center of Cold War chemical manufacturing, the city’s 300,000 residents have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world thanks to waste injected directly into the ground. “Average life expectancy is roughly 45 years,” Robinson (of the Blacksmith Institute) says. “Fifteen to 20 years less than the Russian average and about half a Westerner’s.”

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Top 10 Wealth Building Books

Get rich quick is a myth - building wealth is something that needs strategy and time. Get rich quick schemes tend to prey on people with the desire, but not the willingness to truly achieve financial security. This is a list of books that will truly help you to attain great wealth - but the right way… slowly.

10. How to Get Out of Debt…

The first book on this list is designed to get you started on the road to wealth - by eradicating your debt. As long as you are burdened by debt, you can’t build your wealth. Once the debt is gone, all of the money you have available can be put towards your financial growth. Remember, you are also paying interest on your debt - once you pay it off, that money can start earning YOU interest.

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Top 10 Things You Need To Survive The Streets

This is the first in what is going to be a series of lists on surviving the streets. Living on the streets is not an easy thing - it can be as arduous as a full time job. Therefore it is essential that you carry only the most important things with you. Unlike a camping trip, you have to live light. You can’t carry a backpack with all your worldly goods - it is simply not practical. So, what do you need when living on the streets?

10. Sleeping Bag

A sleeping bag - preferably one made of down because it is lightweight and very compact. This is the most vital piece of equipment you will need. You can either stash the bag, or carry it with you. Carrying it with you makes you more mobile because you can sleep wherever you end up. If you can’t get a good quality down bag, double bagging two poor quality ones will do the job (though definitely not as well).

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Top 15 Great Alcoholic Writers

Many great writers of the 20th century (especially American writers) struggled with addictions to alcohol. Some believe that this may have contributed to their great artistic abilities, while others believe that the alcohol served as a medication for other problems in their lives. This is a list of the 15 greatest writers who were alcoholics.

15. Hunter Thompson

Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author, famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. On July 21, 1981, in Aspen, Colorado, Thompson ran a stop sign at 2 am and began to “rave” at a state trooper. He also refused to take alcohol tests. Because of his refusal he was detained, although during a trial the drunk-driving charges against the journalist were dropped because there was no basis for the charges.

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Top 10 Terrifying Women in Movies

The Femme Fatale character is not seen often enough in movies, but when she does appear, she is hard to forget. This is a list of the 10 most terrifying women in movies. Be sure to add your own favorites to the comments.

10. Louise Fletcher

Movie: Flowers in the Attic

Fletcher - also famous for her role as the cold nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest appears here as the evil grandmother who flogs her daughter, beats her grandchildren, and ultimately tries to poison them.

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Top 10 Bizarre Relationships

[WARNING: this list contains images that are of an adult nature] Throughout history there have been many unusual relationships and love affairs. Some may seem normal by today’s standards, but in their time caused great controversy. This is a list of the top 10 bizarre relationships.

10. Allen and Previn

In 1978, at the age of eight, Soon-Yi Previn was adopted by Mia Farrow and her then-husband Andre Previn who were on vacation in Korea. In 1980, when Soon-Yi was 10, Farrow began a long-term relationship with Woody Allen which lasted 12 years. In 1992, Farrow found naked photographs of Soon-Yi in Allen’s apartment and subsequently discovered that the two had been having a romantic relationship (at the time she was 22 and Allen was 56). Allen parted ways with Farrow and married Soon-Yi in 1997. Both of Allen’s biological children refused to see him. Allen and Previn have two adopted daughters.

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Top 10 Chick Flicks for Guys

[WARNING: This list contains language and images that may be offensive to some readers] This list will be especially useful for a date (not the first though - you shouldn’t go to the movies on your first date!) This is a list of movies that are aimed at the female market but still have elements of appeal for men. Next time you need to impress your girlfriend, pick one of these! Thanks to Catriona for the suggestion!

10. Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo

Why will guys like it? The video clip above says so much more than I could!

Deuce Bigalow is a fish tank cleaner until he gets a temporary job watching over a gigolo’s house. But when Deuce accidentally wrecks the house, he is forced to compensate by becoming a gigolo himself! He takes on interesting clients (a tall Norwegian woman, a rotund eater in drag, a roommate who curses every five seconds, a nurse)…and together with a detective chasing Deuce down…

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Top 15 Clever Adverts

So often advertisers fall flat on their noses with bad ideas - but from time to time, someone comes up with a brilliant campaign. This is the top 15 list of clever adverts. Enjoy!

Advert 1

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Top 10 Albums Released 20 Years After the Last

Some of the greatest musicians in the world fade in to oblivion - never to be seen again. Fortunately, some make a comeback. This is a list of the top 10 albums released 20 or more years after the artists last album.

10. American IV: The Man Comes AroundJohnny Cash

10. American Iv

Near the end of his life, Johnny Cash recorded feverishly so that there would be a great surplus of material that could be released after his death. Cash was still alive, however, for the release of American IV. The album is most notable for the brilliant cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, “Hurt,” which is included on the List Universe list Top 10 Strangest Rock and Roll Covers. The Cash recording is so popular with music fans that many do not know it isn’t his song. The album is also noted for “Personal Jesus,” “We’ll Meet Again,” “I Hung My Head” and the title track.

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Top 15 1980s Tunes For The Mornings

The 80’s were a great period to grow up in. There was still the hangover of those great 60’s and 70’s bands as well as plenty of new influences like disco and synth pop. Along with the typical pop flavors however came a few unforgettable melodies that have stood the test of time. They had the adrenaline feel of rock, the simplicity of pop and the beauty of new age music and set benchmarks of their own. This list of 15 songs below are typified by their expansive but simple sound, buoyant energy and underlying feel of optimism. They are all great songs to start the day with. Feel free to have your say on any I’ve missed as well as any that shouldn’t be here!

15. Simple mindsDon’t You (Forget About Me)

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