Top 10 Prestigious Bottles of Champagne

Top 10 Prestigious Bottles of Champagne

Unknown   2:23 م

No other drink on Earth can capture the romance and euphoria of a single moment of celebration into such a tangible act as when the seal of a bottle of champagne is broken. The cork pops, the bubbles fizz and the wine bursts out of the bottle with the enthusiasm of lava erupting from Krakatoa. Like all good wines, champagne possesses the depth, character and prestige to command a special place on the dinner tables of many royals, celebrities and businessmen in the uppermost echelons of society. Because of its unparalleled position in the global wine market, this list focuses exclusively on sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France, there are no Cavas, Sekts or Spumantes to be seen here. Oh – and happy New Year! Hopefully you are able to enjoy some delicious champagne while reading this New Year’s list.

10

Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill

This very unique prestige cuvée was introduced, in 1984, by Pol Roger, in honour of their most loyal and ardent customer, Sir Winston Churchill. From the time he ordered his first case of the 1895 vintage, in 1908, right up until his death, in 1965, the former British Prime minister insisted on drinking Pol Roger champagne at every occasion. So much so, that in the time of war, borrowing one of Napoleons slogans, he stated that “In defeat I need it, in victory I deserve it”. His love affair with the wine was further enhanced in 1944, while attending the British Embassy’s Armistice Day party in Paris. Here he met the stunningly beautiful Odette Pol-Roger, who as Grande dame of her family’s champagne house, captivated a fascination from him through her charm and finesse. After this meeting, she would send a case of his favorite vintage to him every year on his birthday. In the last ten years of his life, he managed to work his way through over 500 cases. As a sign of respect, after his death, all Pol Roger bottles bound for the U.K. would receive a black border around the label. This Sir Winston Churchill cuvée has been created to reflect a personal style the great man most adored, possessing a rich and full-bodied flavor. Usual retail price is around $215.

9

Moët & Chandon Dom Perignon White Gold

This huge 3 liter Jeroboam of Moët & Chandon’s prestige cuvée, Dom Perignon, appeals to the more extravagant and cavalier of Champagne buyers who love to show off in front of their friends and family. The primary factor commanding the enormous price tag starting at $11,200 lies in a plated white gold bottle sheath, as opposed to the actual wine itself. The 1995 vintage, of which there were only 100 produced, is laser engraved with the Dom Perignon label, and is available to purchase at Harrods, London, for just over £7,750 [$12,000.] The Jeroboam is four times larger than a standard champagne bottle, of which the more ubiquitous 1999 Dom Perignon is priced at around $150. And just for the record, it is pronounced “mow-ette” not “mow-eh”.

8

Krug Clos d’Ambonnay

Krug, one of the more exclusive champagne houses, unveiled this extraordinary Ambonnay cuvée to the world, in 2008. It is an exception to Krug’s unique and traditional style of champagne cuvées because it is produced from a single grape variety, a single year and a single vineyard. Although it was preceded by the 1979 Clos du Mesnil, which is of a similar nature, Krug’s prestige cuvée and main product line, the Grande Cuvée, is a non-vintage blend of up to 50% reserve wines. As the Clos d’Ambonnay name suggests, the grapes are sourced from a tiny 0.685 hectare Grand Cru vineyard near the village of Ambonnay, Montage de Reims. With production limited to only 3,000 bottles, and a price tag of $2,500+, this is certainly not your average bottle of bubbly. It is, in fact, Krug’s only blanc de noirs cuvée [white wine made with red grapes] at 100% Pinot Noir. The Krug family actually purchased the Ambonnay vineyard in 1984, but did not announce the acquisition for more than twenty years, until they were ready to reveal their first vintage from this vineyard, the 1995 Clos d’Ambonnay.

7

Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque

For a short time only, this particular brand of bubbly offered an experience to its purchasers like no other witnessed in history. One hundred very wealthy clients from across the globe were invited to spend the day at Perrier-Jouët’s headquarter’s, the Maison Belle Époque, to create their very own personal cuvée and receive a champagne experience dedicated solely to them. Patrons were taken on a guided tour of the premises by the Maison’s 7th Celler Master, Hervé Deschamps. After the perfect blend had been selected, their twelve champagne bottles, designed by the exquisite artist Émile Gallé, were allocated an optimum spot in the Maison’s cellar to age for several years. The sets were sold for $50,000 each. Like Moet and Chandon, Perrier Jouet is pronounced “zhew-ette” not “zhew-eh”.

6

1928 Krug

To give you an idea of significance, the exquisite 1928 vintage Krug was described by the Head of Sotheby’s Wine Department, Serena Sutcliffe, as “one of the greatest champagnes ever made”. In 2009, a standard size 75cl bottle was taken from the “Krug Collection” [the Krug family’s ultimate library of wines] and auctioned off in Hong Kong for $21,200. Previously, in 2004, another bottle, signed personally by the brothers Henri and Remi Krug, was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for $2,100. Joseph Krug, the grandfather of the brothers, once stated that engineering the 1928 vintage from the outstanding variety of grapes available to him at the time was one of his greatest achievements. It was served for King George VI and his guests at the first royal banquet at Buckingham Palace after the Second World War had ended in Europe, and featured at the great Millennium tasting of champagne in Sweden, 1999.

5

Louis Roederer, 1990 Cristal Brut

Cristal, for many wine lovers, is the most opulent prestige cuvée. The most widely accepted theory over the wine’s origin rests with the paranoia of Alexander II of Russia. During the late 19th Century the political climate in the Tsar’s home country was becoming increasingly unstable. Fearing an assassination attempt using the dark glass of a wine bottle to conceal a weapon, he commissioned a Flemish glassmaker to create a clear, flat bottomed bottle. Due to the intense gas pressure, all champagne bottles needed to have a bell shaped bottom to avoid the glass breaking. To overcome this issue the Flemish glassmaker had to use a type of lead crystal to make the bottle, which resulted in the wine becoming known as “Cristal”. As a result, this champagne has a truly royal and exclusive heritage, which is reflected in the superior presentation of the bottle. A bottle of Methuselah [8 times larger than standard size] 1990 Cristal Brut Millenum cuvée was sold at Chrisites, New York in 2005 for $18,800.

4

Hiedsieck 1907 Diamant Bleu cuvée

Now this vintage cuvée has some serious history to brag about. During the middle of the First World War, the wooden freighter Jönköping was chartered on a course from the Swedish port of Gävle to deliver fine spirits and wine to the Imperial Court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. On 3rd November, 1916, en-route to its destination, the ill-fated ship was struck on its hull by a projectile fired from a deck gun on the German submarine U-22. Predictably, the vessel flooded and began to sink, eventually falling to its final resting place 67 metres below the surface of the Baltic Sea. Onboard were over 2,000 bottles of Heidsieck 1907 Diamant Bleu cuvée. The ideal storage conditions of the cold, dark and relatively low pressure sea floor preserved the bottles for over 80 years, until the shipwreck was discovered by Swedish divers, in 1997. In a moment of pure excitement, members of the diving team opened some bottles to test their quality, and were elated to discover the content was delicious. The rest of the bottles have been sold in various auctions around the world, averaging a price of $3,700 each. That makes this bottle of bubbly an ultimate purchase for many wine collectors.

3

Ca. 1820 Juglar cuvée

In July 2010, Swedish divers discovered a collection of 168 bottles of champagne on a shipwreck 55 metres below the surface of the Baltic Sea. Although the exact vintage of the champagne is unknown due to extensive label damage, many experts agree they originate from the early part of the 19th Century. The extremely cold and dark storage conditions of the sea floor preserved the bottles in ideal conditions for the duration of the 150+ years during which they were lost. Quite astonishingly, when initial tastings were conducted, it was discovered the sparkling wine was still drinkable. Further examination, in November of 2010, revealed that, of the bottles discovered, only three originated from the world famous Veuve Clicquot Grand Marque. The other bottles were produced by the now defunct champagne house Juglar. Local authorities have recently decided to auction off all of the bottles. They are expected to sell for in excess of $62,000 each.

2

1825 Perrier-Jouët

Seventy feet underground, deep within Perrier-Jouët’s cellars, resides a collection of champagne second to none on Earth. Since the earlier part of the 19th Century, the prestigious champagne house has saved and stored bottles of wine from its greatest vintages. In the third month of 2009, twelve of the world’s top wine tasters were invited to a very special tasting session. Twenty bottles from different vintages were taken from the cellar and opened in a once in a lifetime event. One of these bottles was the oldest drinkable wine on Earth, the 1825 Perrier-Jouët. At the time there were only three bottles of this vintage in existence, of all which resided in the same cellar. Once the cork had been popped by cellar master Hervé Deschamps, the legendary tasters which included such distinguished wine personalities as Michel Bettane, advised the wine had lost most of its fizz but was still a very enjoyable beverage, with a distinctive flavor of truffles and caramel. Other vintages at the tasting were the 1846 and 1874, the latter of which was still very sparkly.

1

1893 Veuve Clicquot

In July of 2008, while hiring a locksmith to cut a key and open an antique piece of furniture in the Scottish residence of Torosay Castle, owner Chris James discovered a treasure chest of alcoholic delights. The crown jewel of this discovery was a bottle of 1893 Veuve Clicquot in near perfect condition, including the famous hallmark yellow label. After also finding a bottle of claret, brandy and a port decanter, it became fairly obvious that the aged sideboard was a personal drinks cabinet that had been locked since the late 19th Century. Upon contacting the Grand Marque Champagne house directly, Mr. James was informed it was the only known such bottle in existence. It is considered by many to be priceless and is now on display at the Veuve Clicquot visitor centre in Reims, France. Ultimately, champagne is all about exclusivity, and by that measure as there is only one example in existence, this bottle of 1893 Veuve Clicquot is the most exclusive champagne in the world.

Top 10 Bizarre Uses for Human Skin

Top 10 Bizarre Uses for Human Skin

Unknown   7:42 ص

Leather—the tanned and cured hides of animals—is a vital component in mankind’s history, from practical uses like shoes, straps, saddles, holsters, etc. to car interiors, handbags, briefcases, hooker boots, and BDSM gear (I’m looking at you, Fifty Shades of Grey). The most common leather is cow. The rarest leather is, like Soylent Green, made of people.
Everyone’s heard of books bound in human skin, a staple of horror fiction and supernatural films and TV shows. The practice is called anthropodermic bibliopegy. However, books aren’t the only items on this list. For one reason or another, someone somewhere at some time wanted something wrapped in or made from the skin of hero, victim, killer, or weirdo. You’ll find the top ten of these macabre human leather goods here.
Caveat lector: A few of these items, particularly those pertaining to the French Revolution, are considered apocryphal – likely propaganda – among some historians.

10

Drum

A fifteenth century, undefeated Hussite military commander, Jan Ziska – real name Jan z Trocnova – wouldn’t let a little thing like dying bring an end to his Protestant uprising against the Catholic church. He’d already led his forces into battle to whip the Holy Roman Emperor’s armies, invaded Austria and Moravia, and participated in a civil war even after losing both his eyes! Legendarily, when he lay dying from the plague while on the march to Bohemia, Ziska ordered that after his death, his body should be flayed, and his skin cured and stretched over a drum to continue terrifying the enemy on the battlefield with his sheer badassery.

9

Waistcoat

During the Reign of Terror in an eighteenth century France torn apart by revolution, Saint-Just rose to become a political leader, military commander, and close friend of Robespierre as well as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, which condemned quite a few people to the guillotine. In a story attributed to de la Meuse’s “Anecdotes”, Saint-Just’s romantic advances toward a tall, young, beautiful woman were spurned. In a hell-hath-no-fury moment of madness, he had her arrested, executed, her skin removed by a surgeon, cured by a tanner, and made into a fashionable waistcoat which he wore every day. Another version of the story is that the woman was a thieving maid who got her just desserts.

8

Cigar Case

Henri Pranzini, the late nineteenth century French conman-turned-murderer – nicknamed the “Splendid Darling” – made a splash in more ways than one. He trial caused a worldwide sensation, and he ended his days with a visit to the guillotine. As a grotesque, unconfirmed, but entirely possible coda, it’s said that bits of his body were sold to collectors hungry for a piece of the infamous killer, including one of his teeth knocked out for a woman who had it set into a ring. The report goes that a member of the Sûretè (secret police) got hold of some of Pranzini’s skin as a souvenir du jour, and had a cigar case made from the leather.

7

Book

One of the more famous items on this list. Today held in the collection of the Boston Athenaeum library, the book has the title, Hic Liber Waltonis Cute Compactus Est (this book ia bound in Walton’s skin). James Allen – real name, George Walton – was a notorious nineteenth century highwayman who died of tuberculosis while incarcerated in 1837. Before he died, he requested that his skin be removed and used to bind a volume of his autobiography to be presented to John Fenno, a former robbery victim who’d bravely stood up to him after being shot. The book remained in the Fenno family until donated to the library.

6

Calling Card Case

The nineteenth century body snatchers and murderers, William Burke and his partner, William Hare, killed seventeen people in Edinburgh, Scotland, and sold their bodies to a doctor for dissection. Burke was convicted and hanged, but didn’t go peacefully to his grave. His body was dissected – his skeleton and death mask are in the University of Edinburgh’s Anatomical Museum – and other parts of his corpse made into useful items such as the binding of a pocketbook, and a very elegant calling card case made from the skin of his left hand, now on display at the Police Information Centre on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.

5

Wallet

In Morristown, New Jersey, in 1833, French immigrant Antoine LeBlanc battered three people to death, stuffed a pillowcase full of their valuables, and fled the blood splattered scene. He was caught, convicted, and sentenced to hang. The judge also ordered that the infamous killer’s body be dissected after death. According to reports, LeBlanc was flayed, his skin tanned, and some made into wallets and change purses. Other strips of the skin signed by Sheriff Ludlow (the man who’d caught LeBlanc) were sold as mementoes to curiosity seekers. Long considered mere rumor, the stories were proved plausible in 1979 when LeBlanc’s death mask and what appeared to be a human leather wallet were discovered in the house of the town’s unofficial historian and collector of nineteenth century artifacts.

4

Boot

In this case, the skins’ unwitting donors are unknown. In 1876, Mr. Mahrenholz of H&A Mahrenholz in New York, a shoemaker who enjoyed experimenting on various types of leather including catfish and anaconda, procured the stomach, back, and buttock skins of a pair of unidentified elderly men who’d died and been previously dissected. After tanning the pieces of skin in dog manure and water – yes, there was a roaring trade in dog poop gathered and sold to tanneries, it was called “pure” – he made a handsome display boot and sent it to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. where it remains in their collection.

3

Slippers

Around 1633, the French king Louis XIII founded the Cabinet du Roi, a private museum or cabinet of curiosities at the Palace of Versailles containing some interesting oddities. In the late eighteenth century, it’s reported by Valmont De Bomare in his Dictionnaire that a Paris surgeon, Pierre Sue, donated a pair of slippers made of human skin to the Cabinet du Roi, which already contained a human leather belt (nipple still visible). Eugène Sue, a descendent of Pierre, continued the family tradition by having an 1854 volume of Le Mystères de Paris bound in peau de femme – the skin of a woman who loved him.

2

High Heeled Shoes

A noted Dutch physician and botanist in Leyden in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Hermann Boerhaave is said to have owned a private collection of curiosities – including what’s been reported as a pair of ladies’ high heeled shoes made from leather obtained from the skin of an anonymous, executed male criminal. The contributor’s nipples were neatly centered on the uppers to form a grisly accent. How Boerhaave acquired this fashionable footwear is not known, but in Notes and Queries Volume II, Series II (1856), Henry Stephens wrote about seeing the shoes himself in 1818.

1

For the People, of the People

During the French Revolution, as the story goes, someone noticed that a potentially valuable resource was being wasted – the corpses of people executed by the guillotine. Accordingly, the Committee of Public Safety gave permission to use the castle of Muedon outside Paris as a tannery to process leather from human skin. Quite a number of gentlemen allegedly wore breeches and boots made from the product, which is said to have been supple and high quality. In fact, if you believe the author Montgaillard, men’s skins were preferred for fashion, having the texture of chamois. Women’s skins were too soft to be very useful.
Over the centuries, a few of the deceased have taken on new life by contributing body parts to dentures, fertilizer, fashion, the decorative arts, and other pursuits. Does the thought make you shudder? You’re in good company. The living will probably always have a morbid fascination for objects made from the dead … perhaps a reminder of our own mortality.

10 Extinct Animals That Science Could Bring Back From The Dead

10 Extinct Animals That Science Could Bring Back From The Dead

Unknown   7:10 ص

In early 2000, a tree landed on the last living Pyrenean ibex, turning that proud creature into just one more statistic on an ever-growing list of extinct species. Then, in 2009, a goat gave birth to a cloned Pyrenean ibex in a government-funded miracle that marked the first time any species had been brought back from extinction. Seven minutes later, the baby clone died, and the Pyrenean ibex was granted the further distinction of being the only species that had managed to go extinct twice. But the precedent was set, and now we’re looking at a whole new lineup of animals that just might be heading down the path of the Pyrenean ibex. That is, we’re totally going to bring them back to life.

10 Gastric Brooding Frogs

It’s a shame when any species goes extinct, but it’s almost a special flavor of shame when it’s an animal as unique as the gastric brooding frog. This mid-sized Australian frog doesn’t seem like much at first, but we never had much time to study it either. It was discovered in 1972 and declared extinct in 1983. But the gastric brooding frog has a unique trait: It converts its stomach into a womb and gives birth by vomiting its offspring through its mouth. While the eggs are forming, the frog stops eating and diverts its stomach acid to a different part of its body—meanwhile its stomach bloats so much that its lungs collapse and it begins breathing through its skin.
A zoology professor at the University of New South Wales named Michael Archer is leading the crusade to bring the gastric brooding frog back from the dead. And he’s doing more than crusading—he’s succeeding. In 2011, Archer and his team created a cluster of gastric brooding frog cells that began reproducing on their own. Despite their success so far, progress is slow because of the surrogate species they chose—barred frogs, the closest DNA match, only reproduce twice a year. If they miss that window of opportunity (and they have) the only thing to do is wait until the next year for viable eggs.

9 Thylacine

The thylacine, otherwise known as the Tasmanian tiger, was officially declared extinct in 1986, although it had already been 50 years since the last sighting. Once an abundant part of Tasmania’s natural wildlife, the Tasmanian tiger became so much of a problem for sheep farmers in the 1800s that the Tasmanian government offered to pay £1 for every Tasmanian tiger killed. Unsurprisingly, it was hunted to near-extinction, and the last known thylacine died in 1936.
However, the thylacine may have been dead, but it wasn’t lost—in 1918, the Museum Victoria in Melbourne preserved several dead thylacines in tubs of alcohol. And with just these few remaining tissue samples from nearly a century ago, two researchers from the University of Melbourne began picking apart the creature’s DNA. By 2008, they had patched together enough of the thylacine’s genome to insert it into a mouse embryo, and the mouse began displaying traits from an animal that hadn’t walked the earth for 80 years.

8 Aurochs

A predecessor of modern-day European cattle, aurochs were declared extinct in 1627 after slowly losing their natural habitat to the spread of civilization in the Middle Ages. Although there hasn’t been a living specimen in nearly 400 years, their descendants are still closely related in terms of DNA structure, which makes aurochs one of the top candidates for de-extinction right now.
A Dutch group called Stichting Taurus is digging into the problem—they’re studying bone fragments from the aurochs to piece together the DNA structure. The next step? Evolve a cow. Once the aurochs’ DNA sequence has been recreated, the Dutch scientists will systematically test living European cows to find the closest DNA match. If they find a potential surrogate, they’ll introduce the aurochs DNA into an embryo, then selectively breed that new line of cattle through several generations. Essentially, they will be reversing 400 years of evolution in the space of a few years, in the hopes of reintroducing aurochs to the Dutch countryside and replacing the domesticated cattle that already live there.
This isn’t actually the first attempt to clone aurochs—during World War II, the Nazis made a similar attempt, producing a bastardized cattle strain that became known as “heck cattle.”

7 Dusky Seaside Sparrow

When the Kennedy Space Center was built on Merritt Island in 1965, NASA was faced with a problem it hadn’t foreseen: The area was chock full of mosquitoes. So they set to work flooding the surrounding salt marshes to kill all the mosquito larvae, but they also inadvertently destroyed the only habitat of the dusky seaside sparrow. The species never recovered, and the last captive specimen died in 1987.
Named “Orange Band,” that final sparrow was given a martyr’s funeral—but not before its heart and lungs were removed and packed on ice so that they could be cloned in the future. Although there haven’t been any attempts to bring the species back yet, we have been working on mapping the dusky seaside sparrow’s DNA from those preserved tissue samples. Once the process has been tweaked a little more, this will likely be one of the first species in line.

6 Irish Elk

The biggest obstacle in de-extinction right now is finding surrogates to give birth to animals that have long been extinct. With the method being researched currently, DNA from the extinct animal is placed in the embryo of a modern-day counterpart that’s similar enough to carry the baby clone to term. In the case of prehistoric animals like the Irish elk, part of the megacerine family of giant deer, the problem gets even harder—where do you find a modern deer that can give birth to something that will grow to a height of two meters (about seven feet) with 4.2-meter (14 ft) antlers?
As it turns out, sometimes you just need to look in your back yard. Researchers at University College London discovered the closest relative to the Irish Elk was none other than the fallow deer, which is relatively common in England and Ireland. They’re now mapping the DNA from a 13,000-year-old Irish elk fossil in the hopes of bringing one back from the grave in the near future.

5 Carolina Parakeet

Parrots and parakeets are usually found in tropical locations, like Central America. But less than a century ago, one species of parakeet made its home along the Eastern seaboard of the US—the Carolina parakeet, which went extinct in 1918. Like many now-extinct animals, the Carolina parakeet was driven out of existence by mass hunting. The bright coloring of its feathers drove demand for use in hats and clothing, and by the early 1900s, the bird had all but disappeared from the wild.
Fortunately, there are dozens of specimens left over from the era of the Carolina parakeet, and the mitochondrial DNA was sequenced from eggshell fragments at the New York State Museum last year. For years, biologists and historians have been clamoring for a Carolina parakeet clone, and although there aren’t any official plans in place to actually create a clone, the same researchers who obtained the DNA sequence went a step further and declared the Nanday parakeet to be a possible surrogate—you know, just in case.

4 Huia Bird

The huia bird was a large waterfowl endemic to New Zealand that was most distinctive for the long, curved beak on the female members of the species. To the Maori tribesmen of New Zealand, the huia was a sacred animal, killed often but only so that its feathers could be turned into ornamental headdresses. When Europeans visited the island, they liked the idea of huia feather–hats so much they just sort of killed the rest of them. The last confirmed sighting of the huia was in 1907, but although it’s generally considered extinct, it’s possible that there may be a few huias living deep in the Te Urewera National Park on New Zealand’s North Island.
Not content to speculate on possibilities, a group of geneticists met in New Zealand in 1999 to figure out whether it would be feasible to clone a huia and bring the species back for good. The overall consensus was that it would be possible, and a US start-up called CyberUni agreed to fund the project. Even the Maori agreed to participate in the cloning of their sacred bird. Nothing has happened yet, but the plan has been laid: to make it work, all we would need to do is find a viable cell on one of the few museum specimens left, extract the nucleus from the cell, then implant that cell into an ovum taken from another bird and deliver either an electric shock or a dose of UV radiation to kick-start the cell division. Simple, really.

3 Steller’s Sea Cow

The Steller’s sea cow, a relative of the manatee, was first discovered in 1741 off the Bering Island near Russia. Large, slow, and a surprisingly bad swimmer for a sea creature, the Steller’s sea cow population had already dwindled by the time of its discovery to the point that it was only found around that one section of the Bering Sea. Sailors and fur traders loved them, and it took less than 30 years to mop up the rest of the Steller’s sea cows—they were officially declared extinct in 1768, 27 years after their discovery.
Although there hasn’t been a living Steller’s sea cow in nearly 250 years, their bones are still washing up on beaches, and a 2011 Russian research team provided a DNA sequence from several specimens, paving the way for a cloning project.

2 Passenger Pigeon

Like the thylacine, passenger pigeons were once extremely abundant (a single flock could number in the millions) and they were found all across the Eastern and Central United States in the 1800s. But through the unfortunate combination of being both delicious and easy to kill, they were also hunted by the millions, and despite conservation efforts in the early 1900s, there soon weren’t enough to maintain a sustainable population.
A project is currently under way at the University of California to revive the passenger pigeon using DNA from Martha, the last pigeon to die in 1914. Right now, passenger pigeons are the most likely candidate for de-extinction. They have two important things going for them: We have relatively well-preserved DNA samples, and there are other closely-related species that can serve as a surrogate. At this stage, the project is focused on comparing DNA from passenger pigeons and the still-living band-tailed pigeon in the hopes that a female band-tailed pigeon could, sometime soon, lay an egg containing a passenger pigeon.

1 Woolly Mammoth

The woolly mammoth is one of the more popular candidates for resurrection, and for good reason—it might actually work. Although there hasn’t been a living mammoth for about 200,000 years, the fact that they died during an ice age in a region that’s still pretty frozen to this day (modern-day Siberia) means that we’ve been able to dig up whole specimens that are practically still gooey because they were preserved so well.
In 2011, a team of Tokyo-based researchers announced a deadline: They would have a living, breathing woolly mammoth within five years. But while it’s technically possible to clone a mammoth by the normal method—extracting cell nuclei, putting it into an embryo from another species, and implanting the altered embryo into a surrogate mother—the thawed mammoth cells have an annoying habit of dying before a nucleus can be extracted.
But there’s another possibility. In 2006, we found that introducing four simple proteins into an adult cell will revert it into an embryo stem cell. The process is quicker than extracting nuclei, and stem cells will live much longer than most other cell types. And with stem cells as a starting point, it’s possible to create reproductive cells based on sex—for example, sperm, if the original cell was from a male mammoth, or gametes if it was from a female. And with those two pieces, anything’s possible.
Of course, the question that hangs at the back of all of these examples is, would a resurrected species ever be able to survive in the wild again? And if it did, would it crowd out some other species to find a new habitat? And most importantly, where are the dinosaurs?

10 Lake Monsters That Aren’t Just Nessie Rip-Offs

10 Lake Monsters That Aren’t Just Nessie Rip-Offs

Unknown   6:19 ص

Almost 2 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by freshwater. Much of that is contained in lakes with legendary monsters that are low-rent rip-offs of the Loch Ness monster. But the best of the local lake monsters terrorize their communities in unique ways and spark their own local legends.

10 Ahuitzotl

Photo via Wikia

In the Aztec Nahuatl language, ahuitzotl means “spiny aquatic thing” or “thorny thing of the water.” It was described as a five-handed amphibious hyena that inhabited bodies of water around Tenochtitlan, now the Mexico City area.
The ahuitzotl could mimic the cries of a child or distraught woman to lure people into danger. These creatures drag their prey underwater using the hands on their legs or the hand at the end of their terrifying tail.
However, this may just be undertow branded as monsters that look like Mesoamerican native dogs. These dogs were culturally associated with lightning, sunsets, and death by the Aztec people. If ahuitzotls are somehow an aspect of the death god Xolotl, their moist murders could be attributed to a religious belief by Tenochtitlan locals.

9 Mishepishu

Photo credit: D. Gordon E. Robertson

The Ojibwa people around the Great Lakes region named their lake monster the mishepishu (“great lynx“). The great lynx, a beast which might inhabit any lake, was said to be responsible for strong waves, rapids, and whirlpools in lakes and rivers in the region.
These spiritual pseudodragons are extra-large lynx with broad paws and scales on their backs. Sometimes, they come with horns in different places on their bodies. The tail may be made of pure copper, which was common in the land around Lake Superior.
One folktale talks about a woman who cut off the end of a mishepishu’s tail, which transmogrified instantly into a chunk of copper. Some indigenous populations figured that these great lynx must be guardians of the copper-rich lands around their waters, drowning people foolhardy enough to venture too far offshore or into rivers that are rarely traveled.

8 Emela-Ntouka

Photo credit: Tim Bertelink

Emela-ntouka means “elephant killer” in the Lingala language of Central Africa. The creature is allegedly an elephant-sized uniceratops that stomps around the lakes and rivers of the Congo River basin. It sounds exactly like a rhino but much larger and with better horns than any rhinoceros on Earth.
The emela-ntouka belongs to a group of theoretical living dinosaurs that are often said to inhabit Africa as well as Western imaginations. Cryptozoologists think that this elephant killer might be an extant ceratopsid that’s like a triceratops without a ridge on its head.
However, ceratopsid fossils are found in North America. That makes the Congo a weird place for that kind of living fossil to roam. If there ever was an emela-ntouka, it was probably just the great white buffalo version of a rhino. If that’s the case, there may be a easy explanation as to where the emela-ntouka went.

7 El Cuero

Photo via Wikia

Cuero is Spanish for “leather” or “cowhide,” and El Cuero is a giant flap of ferocious flesh inhabiting Lago Lacar in the Andes. El Cuero is said to be a meaty tarp covered in daggerlike claws or teeth with eyestalks extending from wherever this creature might keep its brain.
The Scully explanation is that it’s a giant freshwater stingray like the kind that can be found in South Asian rivers. But there’s not much reason for a stingray to snatch a baby from an Andean shoreline or suck blood through a straw coming from the part of its body that doubles as a face.
Stingrays don’t have eyestalks, and their skeletons are low profile. But they do have large eyes for their height. People might just make a cute animal into a creepy mutant through their imagination filter.

6 Dobhar-Chu

Photo credit: Bango Art

The Irish dobhar-chu is a huge creature that is part otter and part wolf. It has impenetrable skin and an insatiable bloodlust. For centuries, legends of the “Irish crocodile” species in inland Irish waters have told of these animals tearing through humans and horses that wander too near a dobhar-chu habitat.
Unlike other lake monsters, there are no real animals in the area that sound like a dobhar-chu. If these animals were numerous, faster than galloping horses, and fully comfortable on both land and water, they could best be rationalized as animal representations of a natural phenomenon like flash flooding.
These creatures would have to exist in the imagined intersection of several factors. For example, a flood would have to carry a person to a place where the corpse is discovered by a critically endangered bear that shreds the body and leaves it for other humans to find later.

5 Lake Worth Goatman

In summer 1969, Fort Worth, Texas, residents reported a series of encounters with a “fishy man-goat” on the shores of Greer Island on Lake Worth. The goatman may have inspired Friday the 13th with his violent hatred of boning teenagers. Several accounts of the goatman come from visitors to the area’s make-out point late at night when that activity was still popular with kids on weekends.
This monster was the approximate size and shape of a person in a gorilla costume. That might mean something, but the creature allegedly cut a 45-centimeter (18 in) gash in the side of a car and later chucked a tire at another car.
Several people have written to local news outlets to claim responsibility for the goatman’s activities. There are so many local stories that it’s hard to say what really happened. But it was probably just kids who didn’t have enough homework to keep them indoors at night.

4 Grootslang

Photo credit: Jeff McArthur

Like something out of a B movie, the grootslang is a serpent with the head of an elephant that slithers through darkest Africa. This is not exactly a lake monster because it’s said to live primarily in the Wonder Hole—a sea cave that stretches 65 kilometers (40 mi) inland—as well as in some of the lakes and rivers surrounding it. The grootslang is a natural enemy of child slavery as it automatically protects the diamond-stuffed Wonder Hole from greedy human hands and eyes.
The danger of the Wonder Hole may be intrinsic to the nature of an oversize sea cave lined with raw diamonds. But the legend has been kept alive by disappearances of and attacks on explorers in the area. For example, Peter Grayson disappeared without a trace in 1917 on an expedition into the Wonder Hole.
Other stories of the grootslang might be exaggerated sightings of pythons and monitor lizards. This seems to be especially plausible because the birth of this legend coincides with white Afrikaners doing their best to survive in “untamed” lands populated by animals that had previously seemed unimaginable.

3 Shellycoat

The Mighty Boosh’s Old Gregg is basically a humanoid trickster that creeps around in northern British waters. It’s mostly just a jerk.
Some legends claim that the shellycoat is humanoid enough to portray itself as a drowning human until someone comes to save it. Then it laughs in the Good Samaritan’s face before it swims away.
Unlike most of these monsters, a shellycoat isn’t a violent or wild beast. As a monster, it’s more like an anthropomorphic imp whose skin is covered in shells.
These creatures definitely aren’t representations of a natural phenomenon. Shellycoats may have evolved as the bro version of mermaids for Scots who preferred a good laugh from their water nymphs rather than titillation.

2 Loveland Frogmen

Photo via Wikia

The frogmen of Loveland, Ohio, are as many as three creatures, possibly aliens, who have been seen around rivers in the area since 1955. Some accounts give them an extraterrestrial dimension, claiming that they might be signaling remote observers. Otherwise, they are leathery frog or lizard people with webbed hands and feet that are 1 meter (3 ft) tall.
In one account that was supposedly witnessed by 80 people in Brazil, a rash of captive animal deaths occurred in an area where two frogmen were captured. These creatures could be a combination of many things, such as an incompetent zookeeper or some overconfident swimmers. It’s also possible that the frogmen were one or two alligators that got lost over the 50-year span of sightings.
In some cases, the frogmen might just be the products of vivid imaginations. For example, a police officer who had claimed to see a child-sized frogman in 1972 changed his story in 1999. In the later version, he said that he had actually seen a normal lizard.

1 Beast Of Busco

Photo via Wikia

Oscar—the beast of Churubusco, Indiana—was supposedly a snapping turtle that weighed 225 kilograms (500 lb) and was the size of a dinner table. From 1898 to 1949, this creature allegedly inhabited a lake on a farm. Oscar gained brief but widespread attention when the farmer drained the lake to capture the huge turtle and make some big money from it.
Although Oscar isn’t a hard-to-imagine monster, there’s something captivating about a normal animal that is 10 times the size of an average specimen. Of course, there are factual examples of oversize man-eaters in the world. A notorious one was Gustave, the 6-meter (20 ft) Nile crocodile who supposedly killed more than 300 people in Burundi. Other animals, like lobsters, will continue to grow indefinitely if they aren’t killed.
But Oscar was never found, so it might have been some kind of light trickery. Although the original “discoverer” claimed to get close enough to carve Oscar’s name into his shell, no shell or turtle was ever recovered. This makes it seem like a bit of fun local folklore and little more.

10 Ways Video Games Affect Your Brain

10 Ways Video Games Affect Your Brain

Unknown   5:03 ص

Video games are everywhere. With kids starting to play simple iPhone games as young as two years old, video game addiction has become a problem. But video games can affect our brains in other surprising ways.

10 Sibling Relationships

According to the old saying, “the family that slays together stays together.” Nothing improves sibling relationships more than brutally slaughtering each other in Call of Duty. And now, science has proven it.
In 2015, Brigham Young University conducted a study to determine how playing video games together affected sibling relationships. They had brothers and sisters report how often they played video games, how often they played with their siblings, how often they had conflict with their siblings, and how they would rate their sibling relationships. Then the researchers asked the study participants to name the top three games that they liked to play with their siblings.
The results surprised the researchers. Siblings who played violent video games together had less sibling conflict. This goes against most video game research that says violent video games increase aggression. But one has to consider the context. Most of the time, the siblings are defending each other against violent opponents. It’s kind of hard to stay mad at your little brother when you remember that he saved your life in Halo.
Researchers also found that video games increased affection between siblings due to shared experiences. “By immersing themselves in the video game world, siblings can share experiences, play together, and strengthen sibling bonds,” explained researcher Sarah Coyne.
The researchers theorize that playing video games together may be a new way to strengthen sibling relationships like never before.

9 The Bystander Effect

The bystander effect is one of the darkest things that humans naturally do. Starting with the murder of Kitty Genovese, psychologists discovered that if there are more people in a given area, it becomes less likely that one of them will help a person in trouble. Most people assume that someone else nearby will take care of the problem.
A study by the University of Innsbruck found that the bystander effect also happens in video games and can linger after the game is over. When there are more non-playable characters (NPCs), players are less likely to help other NPCs. Research has proven that even if the presence of other people is imaginary, people are still less likely to help out.
The participants in the study were asked to play Counter-Strike: Condition Zero in two groups: One would play as a member of a police team against a terrorist team, and one would play as a single police officer trying to stop a terrorist.
After the game was over, the participants were asked to assist a student trying to complete his own project. They were asked how much time they were willing to spend helping the student. Participants who were solo game players were willing to devote more time to helping the student than those who played on teams. The imaginary team still existed in players’ minds despite the fact that the game had ended.

8 Moral Sensitivity

Morality video games are a relatively new idea. In the game, you can choose whether to be good or evil, and your choices affect the end of the game. As of early 2016, games like BioShock and Undertale have some of the best reviews and are surging in popularity. The idea that the entire game’s story will change with every decision is appealing to players. But how will it affect behavior?
As always, science has the answer. A study led by the University of Buffalo examined the effects of being good or bad in a video game. They asked participants to play a first-person shooter game as either a police officer or a terrorist.
The game informed the player of the motivations and goals of the characters. After the game, the participants completed a Moral Foundations Questionnaire and were asked to rate their guilt and shame about what they had done.
Participants who played the terrorist rated higher on guilt and shame. This surprised the researchers because they expected players to become desensitized to violence and moral violations.
Yet players who experienced evil intentions as a video game character actually became more sensitive to the evil in the world. But it only happened if they originally felt guilt. If they didn’t initially feel guilt for their actions, that’s a worrisome sign.

7 Desensitization To Death

Video games open up new worlds and let us experience things that would be unthinkable in real life. In video games, we save worlds, play the hero, and go to fantasy worlds that we never thought possible.
We can form harems, save or topple nations, and discover truths about the world and ourselves. We can even die and come back to life—repeatedly. In some games, characters’ deaths are essential to the story.
A study by Auburn University examined the correlation between violent video games and suicide capability. Suicide capability is defined as “the ability to overcome fear of death and a tolerance to pain to commit suicide.”
The theory behind the study was that playing violent video games desensitizes players to death and increases their capability to commit suicide as a result.
Participants were asked how often they played violent video games and the average rating for the games they played (E for everyone, ET for everyone 10 and up, T for teen, M for mature). Then they filled out psychometric questionnaires about fearlessness of death and pain tolerance.
Surprisingly, the frequency of playing violent video games had little effect on the fearlessness of death. Once a participant had completed a violent video game, the effects stayed with them. People who played more violent video games had less fear of death but not an increase in pain tolerance.
Keep in mind that this study isn’t saying that people who play violent video games will commit suicide. It simply means that they are more comfortable with the idea of death and dying than others.

6 Aggression

There has been a media storm that links violence in video games to mass shootings. Although studies repeatedly show that video games increase aggression, it again depends on the context: If you are playing a hero, you are likely less aggressive than someone who plays a villain.
Research led by the National Science Foundation found that players of violent video games in a prosocial context (such as helping a fellow character) were less aggressive than players of violent video games in a morally ambiguous context.
Participants played one of three video games: a zombie game in which the character protected a fellow character as they collected supplies, a zombie game in which the character was hunting zombies for sport, and a puzzle game that was like Tetris.
The participants were told that they were playing against another participant, but they were actually playing against a computer. The “loser” of each round had an unpleasant blast of white noise sent through their headphones. The intensity and volume of the white noise was set by the “winner.”
The computer was programmed to win 12 times and let the participants win 13 times. Although both were aggressive, participants playing the prosocial zombie game were much more lenient than the morally ambiguous players when deciding the intensity of the white noise. The most benevolent players were the puzzle game participants.

5 Regulation Of Emotions

It’s no surprise that video game therapy is now considered a legitimate form of treatment. After all, equine therapy has been an effective form of treatment for a long time. If animals can help people overcome mental issues, why not video games?
Researchers at the Eating Disorders Unit of Bellvitge Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, wondered if video game therapy would help girls to overcome eating disorders. They particularly focused on bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder in which patients binge (overeat) and then immediately purge (vomit the contents of their stomach). Surprisingly, video game therapy does help in this context.
PlayMancer is a new platform that uses a biofeedback machine to play video games. The game objectives are designed to help players control impulses and learn to relax in stressful situations.
Based on results from the biofeedback machine, the games become more difficult as the players become more nervous and stressed. In some games, the character won’t move until the player’s breathing becomes slow and steady, they make proper facial expressions, or their heartbeat slows down.
The researchers found that girls who played the games had reduced anxiety and more impulse control at the end of their treatment. The use of simulated situations through video games proved to be an effective treatment because “89 percent of the patients were abstinent from bingeing and 100 percent from vomiting, and these gains were maintained at the end of [regular] treatment.”
This study is being used as a pioneer to explore more effects of video game therapy.

4 Self-Esteem

Everyone has a favorite character, whether it is from a book, movie, or video game. People write fan fiction, draw fan art, and even dress up as their favorite characters.
Thousands of people cosplay as their favorite characters at conventions around the world. Heck, professional cosplaying is now a legitimate way to make a living. But what are the effects for growing attached to someone who isn’t even real?
Michigan State University and the University of California at Santa Barbara decided to explore the subject. They asked study participants to rate how much they agreed with statements such as “I consider my character a friend of mine” and “I can see myself getting into a relationship with my character.”
Then they asked participants to rate how much they enjoyed video games with good characters, how often they played video games, and how high their levels of self-esteem were.
Participants with higher character attachment often had lower self-esteem, even if they enjoyed the game more and played it more often. After all, it would be extremely disappointing to find the perfect girl only to realize that she wasn’t real.
This doesn’t mean that enjoying characters’ stories or writing fan fiction about them is a bad thing, just that obsession is undesirable and could have negative effects.

3 A Special Emotional Reaction

Many people have become attached to certain video games, and it expresses itself in all sorts of crazy ways—from buying extensive video game collections to killing other people in the name of video game characters. This isn’t shocking because people were obsessed with book and movie characters before video games even existed.
But it may be a surprise to learn that video games elicit a special type of reaction from players. An article by the University of Munster addresses this phenomenon of “eudaimonic reactions,” which are meaningful reactions that are not hedonic.
Those are emotions that don’t directly tie into enjoyment or pleasure. This includes how we reflect the story, how playing the game satisfies our need to be competent and enhances our cognitive function during the game, and how interacting with other characters or players satisfies some of our need to socialize.
The article discusses how the use of narrative, context, and mechanics introduces new layers of interaction and more layers of response. “Although each of the dimensions discussed above makes unique contributions to the gaming experience, it is when all three factors—narrative, mechanics, and context—interact in concert that games may be able to create the most powerful experiences,” said author Malte Elson.
Video games unleash a totally new experience for people. They play the characters, they witness the story, and they interact with the game world.

2 The Avatar Effect

Half the fun of playing video games is personalizing and customizing an avatar. Games like Skyrim and Pokemon X rely on players customizing the characters to look like themselves to make the game more lifelike and personal. But what does this do when we play violent video games?
A study by the University of Sussex and the University of Innsbruck found that personalizing an avatar increased a person’s level of aggression when playing violent video games.
Participants were divided into four group: those who personalized an avatar in a violent video game, those who personalized an avatar in a nonviolent video game, those who played the violent video game with a generic avatar, and those who played a nonviolent video game with a generic avatar.
After participants played their game for 30 minutes, they were asked to help the researcher with another study. Another person would come in to taste-test some hot chili sauce. The participants were told that this new person “couldn’t stand hot chili sauce but was doing it for the good pay.”
The participants were then asked to administer the sauce because the taste tester had to be blind for the study. The researchers left the room while the participants put any amount of extremely hot chili sauce into a bowl. After the participants left, the amount of sauce was weighed.
Even though they were told that the participant didn’t like hot chili sauce, the people who poured the most sauce into the bowl were those who played the violent video game with personalized avatars. Researchers noted that it didn’t matter if they made the character look like themselves. As long as they took the time to customize the avatar, aggression increased.

1 Reaction Time

It’s common knowledge that the faster you try to finish something, the less accurate or correct it is. A hastily written paper isn’t nearly as good as one written carefully over a couple of days. Food cooked quickly usually isn’t as good as food cooked correctly.
Maybe you’ve had that one friend who says “Think fast!” and then throws something at you. Usually, you’ll miss it because you didn’t have enough time to figure out where to place your hands to catch it. If you usually catch it, congratulations. That’s impressive.
An article by the University of Rochester discussed the relationship between increased motion discrimination, task switching, and visual search abilities in those who played video games and those who didn’t.
They found that those who played video games—especially games like Call of Duty or Halo that required the player to think quickly and shoot accurately—had increased their ability to sense motion, keep track of people or items in their peripheral vision, and switch from one task to another quickly.
The article concluded by suggesting that video game training may be an effective form of reducing reaction time and increasing high cognitive functions.

10 Of History’s Most Terrifying And Brutal Pirates

Unknown   12:45 م

10 Of History’s Most Terrifying And Brutal Pirates

Commonly known pirates like Blackbeard and Calico Jack tend to take the spotlight. However, some of these lesser-known but equally terrifying masters of the sea made their permanent mark in maritime history and deserve recognition as well.

10 Sadie The Goat

Sadie Farrell was a gang leader from New York who was known for headbutting male victims in the stomach and then robbing them blind. Although she began her life of crime with petty thievery, she was inspired to become a pirate while witnessing the botched robbery of a sloop by the Charlton Street Gang. Farrell jumped to the aid of the gang and successfully led the takeover of a much larger ship within a few days.
Farrell’s crew was known for their vulgarity and recklessness—openly sailing up and down the Hudson and Harlem Rivers to rob other ships, raid villages, and kidnap people for ransom. Along with reputedly making prisoners “walk the plank,” Sadie the Goat was known for wearing an ear around her neck, a trophy that had been bitten off a rival gangster during a fight.
Farrell’s vicious crew continued their raids for several months before local farmers banded together in strong enough numbers to fight them off. Although Farrell was forced to return to life on land, she was known forever afterward as the “Queen of the Waterfront.”

9 Francois L’Olonnais

Photo credit: The Library of Congress

During the 1600s, Francois l’Olonnais was born in France as Jean-David Nau to poor parents who were forced to place him into indentured servitude. Once his servitude was complete, he ultimately traveled to Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti). L’Olonnais was at home in the rowdy colonial settlement and became a buccaneer, targeting ships with goods coming from Spain and the West Indies.
After a shipwreck in which his crew was attacked and nearly destroyed by Spanish soldiers, l’Olonnais swore revenge. He led the remainder of his men to the island of Tortuga where they raided and ransacked the town, destroying an entire rescue crew sent by the governor of Havana. L’Olonnais spared only one sailor, a witness to tell the horrid tale.
Renowned for his cruelty, l’Olonnais enjoyed torturing prisoners. A couple of his favorite methods were slicing off portions of prisoners’ flesh with his sword and “woolding,” a process in which a rope was tightened around a person’s head until his eyes popped out.
While escaping an attack by Spanish soldiers, l’Olonnais ran his damaged ship aground on the coast of Panama. When he and his crew set out to find food and supplies, they were captured by the native Kuna tribe. This proved to be the end of the fearsome l’Olonnais. The Kuna were cannibals and devoured both him and his crew.

8 Nicholas Brown

Photo via Wikimedia

Nicholas Brown, known by his contemporaries as “The Grand Pirate,” was an English pirate who operated off the coast of Jamaica in the early 18th century. Little is known about his early life, but he made a name for himself in the Americas by raiding and pillaging English, Portuguese, and Spanish ships. Eventually, he was offered a royal pardon in the hopes of bringing a stop to his savage pirating.
Initially, Brown accepted the pardon. But he soon grew bored with life on the straight and narrow and returned to life as a pirate. Enraged, the Jamaican government placed a £500 bounty on his head.
Brown had a childhood friend and naval rival named John Drudge who took this bounty quite literally. He pursued Brown and killed him. After Brown’s death, Drudge beheaded his old friend, pickled the head in a keg of rum, and returned to Jamaica to claim his prize.

7 The Victual Brothers

Photo credit: Sebastian Sonntag

The Victual Brothers were a squadron of German mercenaries hired by King Albert of Sweden to fight against Denmark during the 14th century. Instead of robbing and ransacking foreign ships for the Crown, however, the guild quickly became the Robin Hood of the Baltic Sea, plundering rich merchant ships to feed the hungry and provide for the poor.
During the siege of Stockholm by Danish Queen Margaret, the Victual Brothers led a daring attack and broke through the enemy’s blockade to deliver food, supplies, and military relief to the city’s inhabitants.
Afterward, the guild set up a permanent camp on Gotland Island and preyed the icy waters. They attacked any unfortunate ships that they encountered, causing such terror among merchant and government vessels that trade on the Baltic Sea came to a virtual standstill.
In response, King Albert and Queen Margaret temporarily united forces to oust the Victual Brothers. In 1400, the royal forces successfully captured Klaus Stortebeker, one of the guild’s primary leaders, and sent him to trial in Hamburg.
Stortebeker, along with many of his crew members, was beheaded. Afterward, it only took a short time for the Danish and Swedish governments to dismantle and destroy the remaining members of the Victual Brotherhood.

6 Edward Jordan

Edward Jordan’s short but ruthless career as a pirate began in Ireland as a rebel fighting the British Crown. In 1798, he was captured and sentenced to hang. He escaped, was captured again, and finally slipped the noose by trading valuable rebel secrets in exchange for a king’s pardon. When the Irish discovered his treachery, he fled to America to make a new life as a fisherman.
Jordan settled in Gaspe and took out a loan to buy a schooner named Three Sisters. However, he was unable to repay his significant debt. In 1809, Jordan’s creditor sent Captain Stairs to seize the Three Sisters in exchange for payment.
Initially, Jordan appeared to go along with the punishment. He even requested that he and his family be given passage on the schooner so that he could find new employment.
But once the Three Sisters hit open water, Jordan pulled a pistol and attempted to shoot Stairs. Jordan missed and killed the first mate instead. Meanwhile, Stairs escaped by jumping overboard. Rather than risk going back, Jordan took control of the schooner and set a course toward Newfoundland. He planned to hire a crew and flee to Ireland.
But Jordan’s reckless plan didn’t work. A passing ship rescued Captain Stairs, and a search party was immediately sent out for the Three Sisters. The promised reward was £100 for the capture of “Pirate Jordan.”
The schooner and everyone aboard was captured just off the coast of Newfoundland. Jordan was tried and sentenced to hang. Afterward, his body was tarred and hung in chains in the harbor as a warning to all passing mariners.

5 Edward Low

Photo via Wikimedia

Edward Low was born in London to an impoverished family and began thieving as a young boy. After an early marriage, he and his wife moved to America to pursue better prospects in the New World. But his wife died in childbirth, and Low quickly returned to his old habits. He became a pirate after leading a mutiny on a sloop headed to Honduras where he was working as a rigger.
Unlike many pirates, Low preferred to keep a small fleet of only three or four vessels. After capturing and looting a ship, he viciously tortured the sailors before burning the vessel and leaving it behind. Philip Aston, a member of Low’s crew, later said, “Of all the piratical crews that were ever heard of, none of the English name came up to this in barbarity.”
Low was known to tie a victim’s hands behind his back and place rope between each of the fingers. Then Low would set the bindings on fire and watch the flames go through the rope and burn the victim’s flesh to the bone.
Low was also renowned for brutally beating and slashing prisoners with his cutlass. After capturing the Portuguese ship Nostra Signiora de Victoria, he cut off the captain’s lips with the cutlass. Then Low broiled and force-fed them to the captain.
This heinous cruelty, along with Low’s reckless battle tactics, made him the most feared pirate during the early 1700s. Although no one really knows how Low met his end, there are many different theories. Some believe that his ship sank during a storm off the coast of Brazil. Some say that he died in a mutiny. Others believe that he was captured by the French and hanged in Martinique.

4 Black Caesar

Photo credit: Afrikan Martial Arts via YouTube

Known for his stature and strength, Black Caesar is believed to have been a chieftain in Africa before being captured and brought to America as a slave. After the slave ship wrecked off the coast of Florida, Black Caesar and another slave stole a longboat and a few supplies and escaped the sinking vessel.
Posing as shipwrecked sailors, he and his companion flagged down passing ships and asked for their assistance. When they were close enough to the men, they held the sailors at gunpoint and demanded food, supplies, and any other valuable items. Black Caesar collected a small fortune that he buried on Elliot Key.
After a few years, Black Caesar grew his operation by capturing a larger ship and adding a crew of pirates so that he could sail into deeper waters. He continued to frequent the Florida Keys, however, and devised a clever method of using rope and a metal ring embedded in stone to heel his entire boat over. This would hide it beneath the water to avoid detection by coast patrols.
In the early 18th century, Black Caesar joined Blackbeard’s crew as a lieutenant on the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Shortly after Blackbeard’s death, Black Caesar was taken prisoner by Virginia authorities and sentenced to death by hanging. Although none of his famous treasure has ever been found on Elliot Key, many piracy fans and treasure hunters continue to search for it today.

3 Henry Every

Photo via Wikimedia

Henry Every, known as “Long Ben” or “The King of Pirates,” led the most profitable pirate raid in history—worth an estimated $78 million by today’s standards—and then vanished into thin air.
He began his life at sea as a member of Britain’s Royal Navy, serving during the Nine Years’ War. After the war ended, Every worked as a mariner on the Charles II, which was deployed in the West Indies to capture French vessels. After a slow season, however, the crew became restless and mutinied.
Every was made captain, and he renamed the mutinied ship the Fancy. He was renowned for his mastery of ambush tactics as well as the ability to easily maneuver his ship through traps and difficult waters. After successfully pillaging several English and Danish ships, Every set sail for the island of Perim after hearing that a large Indian fleet would soon pass by.
The Fancy joined ringleader pirate Thomas Tew and several local pirating crews to intercept the convoy of 25 Indian ships. During the battle, Tew died. Several of the other pirate ships were too slow to keep up with the Indian fleet. Unfazed, Every chased the two largest of the ambushed ships.
After overtaking both, Every collected his treasure and allowed his crew to rape, pillage, and torture to their hearts’ content. Then he headed across the Atlantic to escape the manhunt ordered by the East India Trading Company. He briefly anchored off the coast of Nassau before embarking on his final escape. After departing from the Bahamas, Every, his crew, and his astounding treasure were never seen again.

2 Bartholomew Roberts

Photo credit: Benjamin Cole

With over 400 vessels captured during his illustrious career, Bartholomew Roberts was one of the most successful pirates in history. In 1719, he was working aboard the slave ship Princess when it was captured by pirates off the coast of West Africa. Roberts was quickly brought onto the pirate crew when they discovered his keen abilities as a navigator.
He rose speedily through the ranks and was chosen to lead the crew after their captain died in battle. The Royal Fortune ruthlessly pursued any ship it came upon and captured much larger and better-equipped British, Portuguese, and Spanish military vessels. Known as “Black Bart,” Roberts built his reputation on his fearlessness in battle and his ruthless treatment of prisoners.
Black Bart’s approach to the victims of his raids was simple and cold-blooded. For example, after capturing a slave vessel with 80 chained Africans aboard, he burned the entire ship without bothering to unshackle the prisoners.
Similarly, after getting into a feud with the governor of Martinique, Roberts boarded a ship while the governor was on board, killed him, and then proceeded to hang the body from the Royal Fortune’s yardarm for months.
In the winter of 1722, Black Bart was finally overtaken by the English ship HMS Swallow. In his characteristically brazen fashion, Roberts took on the larger ship. But this time, he was brutally killed when grapeshot hit him in the throat.
Dismayed and shocked at the death of their captain, his crew tossed Roberts’s body overboard in accordance with his wishes. Though the members of the HMS Swallow searched desperately for proof of their kill, Roberts’s body was never recovered.

1 Stenka Razin

Photo credit: Vasily Surikov

Stenka Razin, a Cossack rebel fighter and pirate in the mid-1600s, continues to be a beloved folk hero in Russia to this day. Traditionally, the Cossacks were given some autonomy by the Russian government. However, in the early 1600s, that began to change.
The Russian government exerted more control over the Cossacks, often doling out harsh punishments and collecting taxes. Stenka Razin had been a longtime community leader, but after his brother was executed by Russian troops, Stenka swore revenge.
He led 1,000 Don Cossacks to the Volga River and captured a large number of the tsar’s ships. Under his authority, the Cossacks sailed up and down the Volga, pillaging trading vessels and releasing political prisoners.
Razin’s actions made him a peasant hero and inspired uprisings all across Russia. Many believed that he could not be defeated. Once his army grew to over 2,000 Cossacks, Razin expanded his operations to the Caspian Sea and the coast of Persia.
In 1671, Razin planned a daring capture of the city of Simbirsk but was betrayed by his own soldiers. The defeated pirate was taken to Moscow, brutally tortured for four days, and executed. Even though their leader was dead, Cossack rebels continued to fight against the Russian tyrants and remembered Razin’s leadership through sto