10. Television

You can’t understate the hypnotic powers of television. From commercials wrought with subliminal messages, to 24 hour TV show marathons, to recycled episodes and reruns of Sportscenter and CNN, there is no shortage of contemporary television programs. Nowadays, a basic cable connection comes complete with about 100 channels. Digital cable and satellites have literally thousands of channels available. It doesn’t help we spend countless hours sitting in front of a television screen.

Why do televisions make this list? Simply put, televisions are the primary means of conditioning for the big broadcasting companies. When leaders have a message, they take it to the screen. When there’s a new product launch, it’s taken to the screen. Newscasters plaster television screens with killing and murder so we stay glued to their. Most of what we know about the outside world comes from what we see on television. It is doubtful that televisions will ever stop being relevant.

9. Women

Women possess an interesting combination of beauty and cunning. Their ability to bear children also makes them uniquely important to the cycle of life. Women also have the unparalleled ability to persuade and influence their male counterparts. Their sensuality gives them worldwide appeal. While not all societies regard them with the respect they deserve, there is no denying a woman’s inherent significance.

We are in a new generation, a new era when it comes to women. Unlike the past, women today have more rights and opportunities than ever. They have seized the opportunity to display their array of talents and abilities and made it clear they are every bit as capable as men. Despite the fact society is still mainly male dominated, women have moved far from their once domesticated lifestyle. They have become leaders of businesses and nations, exhibited political acuity, and continue to be at the forefront of higher education.

It’s not difficult to imagine how important women are. Like a rare, delicate flower we are very protective of our women. This isn’t because they’re weaker, but more because they represent the preciousness of life, beauty, and vitality.

8. Sex

Aside from its obvious significance as the natural means of reproduction in humans, sex is also a very popular source of pleasure. We love to do it, watch it and probably think about it a lot more than we’re willing to admit.

Sex is big business as well. It is said that prostitution is the world’s oldest occupation. We may never know if there is any truth in that but the fact remains people are willing to pay top dollar to experience sexual pleasure. On the legal side, porn industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.

Sex represents a very important type of human bonding. Although not everyone subscribes to abstinence, sex is still to some a very spiritual act, used to consummate marriage, a lifetime bond. Sex has a profound effect on the development of emotional bonds in humans.

7. Drugs

Everybody loves to get high…Ok, perhaps not everybody but drugs have become a huge part of human society and culture. On a number of levels, they contribute to a lot of very important aspects of human life. Drugs have the power to influence the economy, arts and entertainment, politics, class structure, and medicine. That list is in no way exhaustive.

Drugs are big business both in a legal and illegal sense. The drug trade has influenced many a political campaign since politicians and leaders are keenly aware of the effects drugs continue to have on communities across the nation. Drugs are the foundation of medical treatment and keep many people alive despite chronic or otherwise life threatening diseases. Unfortunately, multi-million dollar lawsuits come with the territory as well.

Drugs are also a source of pleasure and inspiration. Some of the greatest minds of our time were cultivated with lots of weed, cocaine and opium. Writers, artists and musicians have all credited drugs with altering their state of consciousness, giving them fresh perspective to create. Entire generations have used drugs to fuel their counter-culture beliefs.

6. The Internet (World Wide Web)

No place is the impact of technology more evident than within the development of computers and the internet. The World Wide Web, perhaps technology’s greatest gift, has singularly changed the way we learn, teach, communicate, entertain and inform. It has made the world smaller and allows the unprecedented spread of information and knowledge.

Never has a creation so recent in its development been able to impact and change so many different things so fast and with such power. The internet has brought us closer each other as a people. It has made us a more intelligent people by allowing us to access what is essentially our past, present and future. With the internet, we no longer need textbooks to learn about the history of the world. We don’t need a television to be entertained or updated on the latest news. With the advent of smartphones, we don’t need a computer to access technology to improve our lives. At the root of this new age we live is the internet.

While natural resources remain the foundation of human life—things like water, air, oil and such—information is and has always been the key to properly utilizing those resources. The internet is the face of the information age.

5. Technology

Technology and its role in shifting the way we live have influenced the entire world on a number of levels. The cars we drive, our cell phones, computers, traffic lights, medical technology, they have all impacted the way we think, act, and live. Technology has become so commonplace and so many things have been invented for the sake of convenience that we sometimes for technology’s role in our lives.

The most obvious way we can see technology’s significance is by looking at how we judge human advancement. While there are many constants, things that fundamentally never change over time, one thing is perfectly clear. As the world and the human race grows, so does technology and at an alarming rate. Technology allows us to both organize and utilize the entire body of knowledge we possess.

4. Religion

It’s said that God rules the world. So naturally, religion should make this list, right? Religion has been around since the beginning of time. Wars have been fought over religion. Societies have been founded on the premise of religion. As a way of thinking, religion has provided billions of people with a reason to live. All in all, religion and spirituality are fundamental parts of human existence.

Many nations came to be as a result of religious persecution and the pursuit of religious freedom. Religion has remained a consistent source of personal conviction and principles by which we live every day. There are even those who use religion to justify actions that are deemed “evil” like terrorism. Religion is also a source of world history. Much of human society was developed on principles of religion and universal concepts of God and spirituality. Christianity was the motivation for the Great Crusades. The bible is the bestselling book of all time. The never ending conflicts in the Middle East have religious roots. Many of our greatest monuments were created to honor religious and heavenly beings.

Even on the individual level, faith in religion dictates the everyday lives on billions of people. Religious doctrines and teachings help many to find purpose in living and a reason to exist. Without religion, one might argue the world and its existence is but a byproduct of science and coincidence. One of the greatest debates of our time relates to religious beliefs concerning the origin of our world. Given the historical significance of religion, its continued influence over the world and its inhabitants, and the veracity of its power, religion is definitely worthy of placement on this list.

3. Science

Science is the basis of what we know about the world around us. Discoveries in science have led to the development of countless laws and theories that shape how we live and interact with the planet. Experiments and research still to this day provide hope for everything from cures for chronic diseases like HIV and cancer to increased life expectancy.

Science remains one of the most fundamental aspects of our world. Our understanding of science affects us every day. Weather forecasts, fallout plans for disaster, global warming, the laws of physics, space travel—it is all predicated on scientific knowledge.

Without science, many of the items on this list might not exist. If not for the study of electricity, we would have no technology. There would be no televisions or the internet. Without science, we wouldn’t understand architecture to build homes, or even know how to cook. Science is ever present and continually influences everything we do.

2. Politics and Government

Without politics and government, there would be total worldwide chaos…Scratch that, politics and government allow us to structure the chaos that already exists in the world. Whether you’re living in a democracy or a dictatorship, anarchical societies are few and far between. Pretty much everyone has come to the conclusion that a central government is necessary to control the day to day dealings of a nation. It also provides a means for leadership to convene and make important decisions. No matter the type of government politics and government have played a vital role in our world’s development and is the hallmark of human civilization.

Politics and government, though powerfully significant aren’t always good. They have been vehicles for mass destruction and fear and the central motivation for conquest and invasion. Entire peoples have been oppressed through government. Corrupt politics are also a major part of our world. Ruthless dictators and power seekers trigger happy rulers and underhanded politicians manipulate government to work for them in spite of their constituents. As unfortunate as it may be, people are killed and assassinated for the sake of political interests all the time. Government cover ups and scandal are at the foundation of the world’s history.

Politics and government have been and remain a powerful influence over the world as we know it.

1. Money

You’ve heard it a million times and a million different ways—“money makes the world go round”, “money is the root of all evil”, “time is money”, “if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense”. No matter how you slice it, it’s difficult to argue with money being the driving force behind much of everything in the world. Money has a sphere of influence that doesn’t include many exceptions. Money affects everything, big or small.

On a large scale money affects entire societies, builds and destroys nations, determines the depths of social class and education, and is the unit by which entire economies are measured. On a smaller scale, it can have a profound effect on our individual quality of life and as such, can easily influence individual behavior. With money you can get away with murder…literally. Money can determine the outcome of political races. Without money, you cannot keep your lights on; have food, or even running water. If you have no money, you are essentially annexed from the civilized world

Money is by far the most powerful and influential thing ever created. It is so powerful that in many ways, it dictates the presence of every other thing on this list. Without money, you won’t be watching much television. The biggest crimes are motivated by the money associated with trafficking drugs. Money can buy you women and sex. The pulse of politics and government is dictated by debt ratios, campaign funding, war costs, economic status and the like. The best and latest technology costs lots and lots of money and is rarely available to those without financial resources. Access to the latest in scientific discoveries relating to medicine and health will ultimately depend on your health insurance, also money motivated.

It’s an unfortunate truth. Money is the glue that holds the world together.

Each of the items on this list has its place. Every one of them is arguably more important than its ranking might suggest. What we do know however, is that these ten things all have significant influence on how we live, communicate, learn and ultimately survive. They are each connected to the world and to each other. So whenever you’re in a bind and having trouble figuring out what really matters in the world, refer to this list. More likely than not, you’ll find answers in the top ten things that rule the world.

10. Esteban Carlon

In a case of burglary gone horribly wrong, Estaban Carlon and his brother attempted to steal a truck in the Deerbrook Mall parking lot in the Humble region of Houston. After police began to surround the two, the brothers had nowhere to go. Estaban, believing an escape was still possible, climbed into the passenger side of the stolen truck and told his brother to book it. His brother refused. Little did Estaban know that going to jail would turn out to be the least of his concerns.

The circumstances surrounding the death of Estaban Carlon are murky at best. What we do know however, is that Estaban Carlon was “accidentally” shot and killed by Detective Craig Miller. According to Detective Miller’s story, he attempted to break the passenger window with his gun and it went off by mistake. Interestingly enough, Estaban Carlon died as the result of a single shot to the head. It appears that even by accident, Detective Miller is a pretty good shot.

Needless to say, some were a bit suspicious concerning the nature of the events that took place. Even some of Millers police buddies questioned his intentions, referring to Miller’s actions as unusual and not a part of protocol. These other officers didn’t believe Miller would have attempted to break out the window because it could have caused the gun to malfunction and break, putting his own life at risk. Miller left the force on administrative leave with pay.

9. Kenneth Harding

This case went far beyond controversial. Regardless of who was in the right, it was downright sickening. Let’s start with the graphic video of an unarmed Black teenager, Kenneth Harding, lying in a pool of his own blood, still alive, but slowly dying from gunshot wounds inflicted by police officers. Those same police officers stood around Harding, guns drawn while an angry San Francisco crowd gathered. Add to that Kenneth was being chased by police for (get ready) dodging two bucks in bus fare! Obviously, this story created a lot of drama in the Bayview area when it happened and everyone was forced to get their story straight.

After the initial incident, the San Francisco Police department was taking a lot of heat from the community. A reconstruction of the event showed that ten shots were fired in a matter of 6 seconds. According to the police, the first shot came from Harding who was firing at police with reckless abandon and no concern for others around. Police then fired back. Yet, by the time it was all said and done, Harding was dead, no weapon had been recovered, and police were being accused of excessive force.

Eventually, the police did recover a weapon and found it belonged to Harding. Autopsy results revealed that the bullet that killed Harding came from his own gun, suggesting suicide. The community however didn’t buy it and was vocal about their feelings concerning police corruption.

8. Stanley Gibson

What happens when you mix a disabled war veteran and police? Who knows, but death most certainly isn’t the first thing to pop into most people’s heads. Stanley Gibson was a veteran of the first Gulf War and was having it pretty rough in the country he once defended with his life. He was suffering from cancer related to his time overseas and had been diagnosed with a kind of chronic paranoia. He even took medicine. Apparently one night he forgot to take his meds and was driving around, trying to get home. He wound up in a neighborhood where suspicious residents phoned the police. His car was pinned by squad cars and police surrounded his vehicle. In yet another police shooting caught on tape, officers fired shots into Gibson’s vehicle, killing him. Oh, another small detail: Gibson was unarmed.

Police claimed the shooting was the result of tactical miscommunication and a misunderstanding of the circumstances surrounding the incident. No one had a story that would stick. The subsequent uproar led to discussions ranging from racism to the way America has failed to support war veterans upon their return to the states.

7. Caroline McGehee Small

Caroline McGehee Small was apparently in the parking lot of a hotel where a man saw her “heating something in her lap.” He subsequently called 911 and police located and approached Small. Small’s eyes were glazed and it was apparent she was under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. However, after the incident, no paraphenelia was recovered—just a half empty bottle of vodka. Small then drove off slowly, beginning a four mile “slow-speed” chase. She drove erratically, but never reached speeds higher than 35 mph. After she reached her neighborhood, police were able to pin her vehicle. Small, after a brief stop began to accelerate toward a gap between the squad cars. There were two police officers standing in the gap. They yelled for Small to stop nearly a dozen times before firing eight shots into the front windshield. Small was hit in the face and lost consciousness. One week later, she died in the hospital. Her autopsy results were not revealed.

The police maintain that they feared for their lives and believed they were in danger when Small began to advance toward them with the car. There is now debate over whether the officers should be charged in a court of law with either voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

6. Patrick Limoges

Police were responding to a call about a man who was armed with a knife and causing havoc in downtown Montreal. After they found him, they fired ten shots, killing the suspect. Unfortunately, Patrick Limoges, a hospital tech who was walking to work, was hit by a stray bullet and killed as well. As if the circumstances surrounding the incident weren’t enough, more controversy was created when the public began to criticize the decision making skills of the officers. The community pleaded for an independent investigation. They were rewarded with an investigation by a neighboring police force already notorious for looking the other way. Rather than question the shooter and those involved directly, the investigating agency used statements written by police officers whole days after the incident happened. Needless to say the public wasn’t happy and advocated the creation of a separate investigating entity chaired and run by a civilian.

5. Antonio Cooks

Antonio was gunned down after police officers responded to a call from a woman who claimed there was a man with a ski mask on, dressed in all black attempting to break down her door. Once the police arrived, armed and ready to respond, they encountered Cooks along with another man and opened fire. Cooks died on the scene. Minutes earlier, Cooks had been standing side by side with police officers. Cooks and his partner were actually bail bondsmen and were attempting to apprehend a criminal who was apparently trying to jump his bail. Both of the bondsmen were wearing black shirts which read “Surety Agents”.

The bondsmen had called the police earlier for backup. When they knocked on the door initially, no one answered. After the officer left, Cooks put on a ski mask and attempted again to get into the house. Unfortunately, the house was in a patrol zone serviced by two different police departments. The second set of officers had no idea that the men outside the home were bail agents, no clue about their call to police just minutes earlier, or any information about the situation at all. So when they arrived and saw the armed masked man, the officer immediately shot Cooks down.

4. Deonte Rawlings

The case of Deonte Rawlings is a bloodsoaked tale that includes two off duty police officers, a stolen mini-bike and a fourteen year old boy. The two officers, James Haskel and Anthony Clay were driving around a neighborhood in Southeast DC looking for Haskel’s stolen bike. Both were officers and both were off duty. After searching for a bit, they find Deonte sitting on the bike. Haskel yells for the boy to drop the bike and by his account, was then fired upon with a gun. Haskel then fires eight shots from the driver side window with one hitting Rawlings in the back of the head. Without even checking to see if Rawlings is alive, Haskel flees on foot and flags down another police officer who is on duty. Haskel reported shots fired to the police department and he is then dropped off at his mother’s house. All the while, Rawlings died on the scene.

The fallout from this incident was major. There were press conferences, FBI investigations and a host of very angry DC citizens demanding justice for the brutal slaying of a child. Despite Haskel’s account of the incident, no evidence was found at the scene to suggest that Rawlings fired a single gunshot or that he even had a gun.

3. Mark Duggan

In August of 2011, Mark Duggan was shot dead after reported shootout. Police had been following Duggan in what was supposed to be a pre-planned arrest. Duggan was in a minicab. Eventually, shots rang out and Duggan was dead. Initially, the reports were that Duggan fired first mainly because of a bullet lodged in one of the officer’s radio. Duggan’s death led to a riot that required officers from at least four different towns in London and that went down in English history.

After an independent investigation into the matter, there was no evidence found to suggest that Duggan fired a gun. The lead investigator admitted his mistake that initial reports that Duggan shot first were inaccurate. Duggan’s family had lost all confidence in the police investigation and felt their chances of receiving justice were slim at best. They were upset that the media attempted to portray Duggan as a gang member and thug who fired at police officers. There were even members of the investigation committee who quit because of foul play during the process

2. Amadou Diallo

While standing near his apartment, Amadou Diallo was spotted by a group of officers dressed in plain clothing. They believed he fit the description of an at large serial rapist. The officers yelled for Diallo to put his hands up and identified themselves as NYPD. A confused Diallo ran and belted up the stairs toward his apartment. Breaking the cardinal rule, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dark object. One of the officers, Sean Carroll yelled out to his other officers that Diallo had a gun. The other police, believing themselves to be in immediate danger, opened fire on Diallo. To make matters worse, Carroll fell backwards off of the stairs leading the other agents to believe he was shot. A grand total of 41 shots were fired, 19 hitting Diallo. He died on the scene. Turns out the dark object was his wallet and the serial rapist was later apprehended.

1. Sean Bell

Sean Bell was attending his bachelor party at a club Jamaica Queens. He and several of his friends, including Joseph Guzman were in attendance. A group of seven undercover police officers were in attendance as well, dressed in plain clothes. At some point Guzman got into an argument with someone outside of the club. One of the officers claimed to have at that point heard someone mention a gun, prompting him to notify the other officers. They met up with Bell and his entourage as they attempted to get in the car and leave. While Bell and his friends were preparing to leave, an unknown male approached the car with a gun. One of the detectives, Gescard Isnora claimed to have identified himself as a police officer and ordered Bell to stop. Bell, however, did not stop and accelerated, only to be hit by an unmarked, police vehicle. At this point, Isnora thought he saw Guzman reach for a gun and yelled out “Gun!” to his fellow officers. They all opened fire at the vehicle resulting in 50 shots. Bell was killed from shots to the neck and torso.

Guzman survived and claimed the officers never identified themselves at any point, including as they approached the car with a gun. A number of other conflicting accounts would eventually emerge, including some suggesting that the officers started firing immediately upon leaving their vehicles with no warning whatsoever.

When dealing with life and death, there is a very low margin for error. Inevitably however, mistakes will be made, lives will be lost, and people will be disappointed. In a number of these cases, the officers who made those mistakes were exonerated of any wrongdoing. That just goes to show, what may seem obvious to one person isn’t always apparent to others. Perception is reality and the gaps between what we see set the stage for controversy. What we’ve done here is try to count down the top ten most controversial police shootings.

There are no limits to the damage chemical warfare agents can cause by virtue of the way they work. The use of these weapons has been largely condemned by those who consider themselves a part of the “civilized world”. However, as we continue to see in the world today, there are many nations run by callous, cold military leaders who will stop at nothing to inflict pain on others—even if it means stockpiling weapons considered to be too dangerous for even war.

Here are the top ten chemical warfare agents on the market at this very day and age. Let’s hope we never get the pleasure of experiencing these effects firsthand.

10. HN3 Nitrogen Mustard

HN3 Nitrogen Mustard hits the enemy hard and deep. Its effects penetrate at the molecular level, even affecting human DNA. It also disintegrates bone marrow. HN3 nitrogen mustard causes interruptions in the body’s immune responses and can damage the respiratory tract as well, essentially shutting down airways and passages in the body. It also damages the eyes and skin tissue. To make matters much worse, the cellular effects, although immediate, don’t necessarily cause immediate pain. Most of the symptoms relating to HN3 nitrogen mustard are delayed. It should go without saying that if exposed to too much of this agent, death is certain.
HN3 has never been used on the battlefield or in war. If inhaled, easily permeable membranes in the body are at risk and sweaty skin as well enhances the effect of HN3. As a spray, HN3 can contaminate food, water and crops.

9. Ortho-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile

Tear gas is a very popular agent of chemical warfare. It’s usually the quickest way to quell a crowd. Ortho-chlorobenzylidene malonitrile or CS is one of the most common forms. Its effects include affecting circulatory functions, vomiting and just flat out bringing people to their knees. CS is low on the toxic scale and as such has become a regular part of most countries’ chemical arsenal. But don’t let that fool you because its strong effects, while not deadly are known to be extremely debilitating.

Depending on the concentration and dosage, the effects CS has on humans vary. Sweaty soldiers are in for it since CS burns when in contact with moisture on the body and also causes uncontrollable tears, coughing and extreme amounts of mucus coming from the nose. Interference is also caused with breathing and CS also causes confusion and a loss of bearings. Luckily, most of these effects wear off in a short time.

8. Adamsite

When someone makes you sick, return the favor with a sickening compound of your own. Adamsite will definitely do the trick. This chemical warfare agent appears as a crystalline solid that becomes smoke when heated. It causes massive onset of vomiting and is particularly effective in closed spaces, common in hostage situations or standoffs. It is typically used for riot control. Although the effects of adamsite typically wear off in thirty minutes or so, prolonged exposure to high concentrations can result in chronic illness or even death.

Through aerosol, adamsite can be spread in thin layers in the air. It’s difficult to dissolve so it’s not a reliable weapon to contaminate water sources. With that said its primary effectiveness as a weapon of chemical warfare is inhalation and contact with the skin or eyes.

7. Diphosgene

Diphosgene appears as a gas with no color and has a white, cloud like form. It can also be found as a light golden liquid at lower temperatures. Diphosgene has become a staple in the chemical warfare arena since its original use in the First World War by Germany. When released in high amounts, it has the power to suffocate the enemy. Diphosgene has a very undesirable odor which can make it difficult to breathe and affect the senses. However, the odor only lasts for a short time. So in addition to its suffocating effects, enemies may not know if they’ve been exposed to lethal doses until it’s too late.

While known for its quick effects, diphosgene breaks down too rapidly to effectively contaminate water, food or crops. Given that, it has more use in stunning an opponent on the battlefield. It is typically inhaled by the enemy and its immediate effects include severe irritation to skin tissue and the eyes.

6. Diphenylcyanoarsine

The Germans used Diphenylcyanoarsine gas as a weapon in World War I. This agent appears as small crystals and has a distinct odor. Its effects range from nausea and motion sickness to headaches and vomiting. It can also cause uncontrollable crying. One of its more devastating effects however, is the buildup of fluid on the lungs which can cause death.

Although not particularly flammable, diphenylcyanorasine can explode in the air as a result of compounds formed. It is also dangerous when in close proximity to metals and while in containers. The tendency of this agent to contaminate waterways makes it a dangerous weapon to use in sewers and in close quarters. It is highly toxic and even small contact with the skin can result in injury or death. To make matters worse, its toxic effects are sometimes delayed making for one heck of a weapon on the battlefield.

After the Second World War, large amounts of diphenyclyanoarsine were dumped and disposed of in Japan and Europe. Today, many are concerned about the impact this may have had on the environment and rightly so.

5. 3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate

What better way to stun your enemy than to get them high? Quinuclidinyl Benzilate otherwise known as QNB is known to cause mass discombobulating effects and hallucinations. This drug causes severe sweating episodes and can even cause over-salivation. How annoying is that? While not necessarily a deadly chemical weapon, the effects can be extreme if the dosage is high. It also causes problems with circulation in the body and can disrupt the digestive system. Aside from the hallucinatory effects, QNB can impair vision as well.

QNB appears a solid, white crystal and can be ground into powder for dissemination. Like other agents, it can be spread through aerosol and can contaminate air, water, food and crops. It can also be inhaled, swallowed (when dissolved in a liquid), and affect enemies through contact with the skin or eyes.

4. Chloropicrin

When the riots break out, Chloropicrin is the weapon of choice. It has effects similar to that of tear gas and can irritate the eyes and lungs. It was used initially in the First World War and stored for later use during World War II. It is no longer allowed as a weapon in the war zone. It is a slightly yellow liquid and has a very pungent odor. It also has painful effects on the eyes and nasal cavities. One of the worst fears related to this agent is pulmonary edema or fluid buildup in the lungs. Pulmonary edema can lead to failure of the entire respiratory system and heart attacks. In World War I, Germans used the agent successfully against Allied troops. While chloropicrin itself wasn’t as lethal as some of the other chemicals used, troops were forced to take off their gas masks and vomit. Consequently they were exposed to other deadly gases. A large number of soldiers on the Italian front died as a result. When Chloropicrin makes contact with the eyes it can cause them to swell and liquefy the cornea. Imagine your eyes literally leaking from the socket. This agent is truly one of the most horrifying on this list.

It can be spread through aerosol sprays and can contaminate water, food and crops. Given its high stability, it is not easily broken down like other chemicals which make it that much more difficult to treat when exposure occurs.

3. Methyldichloroarsine

The best way to describe Methyldichloroarsine is poison ivy on steroids. First used in World War 1, it is a violent irritant and used by militaries who desire a biting effect on their enemies. Its effects are almost instantaneous when it makes contact with the skin or is inhaled. The effects of Methyldichloroarsine can linger for days if not addressed immediately. Within 32 hours, blisters can form and it can kill in minutes if the dosage is high enough. This agent can also penetrate rubber and even gas masks. This agent is particularly dangerous to its effects on muscles. It can cause spasms and involuntary muscle contractions including affecting the eyelids. Imagine being effectively blinded because you can’t open your eyes. For this reason Methyldichlorarsine was the first of its kind to be used in war by the Germans.

Methyldichloroarsine can be spread through aerosols, explosions, and other gas based methods like foggers and humidifiers. Inhalation of Methyldichloroarsine is extremely dangerous. The agent is poisonous and can have disastrous effects on the lungs and respiratory system.

2. Phosgene Oxime

One surefire way to turn your enemy red with anger is phosgene oxime. As a nettle agent, phosgene oxime is highly corrosive and can cause hives and insatiable itching. Ouch! It has a variety of appearances including as a solid, crystal like structure or as a liquid. Although little is known about its direct effects on humans, what we do know is phosgene oxime works extremely fast. In fact, this chemical warfare agent is in a class of its own, as no other chemical agent produces pain at a quicker rate than phosgene oxime. It immediately destroys tissue (known as necrosis) and can work its way through clothing, rubber or other protective barriers much faster than other chemical warfare agents. Although phosgene oxime is yet to be used in an actual war zone, militaries around the world are wary of its devastating effects on the skin and how that can make soldiers more vulnerable to other chemical weapons. To add insult to grave injury, phosgene oxime really stinks.

Like many other chemical weapons, phosgene oxime is generally disseminated as vapor. Subsequently, it can contaminate air, food, and water. It is a deadly chemical if it is inhaled, contacts the skin or gets in the eyes.

1. Cyanogen Chloride (CK)

If you think you’re going to survive one dose of this chemical, don’t hold your breath…literally. As either a liquid or gas, cyanogen chloride interrupts the body’s respiratory system and makes it difficult to use oxygen. A fast killer, cyanogen chloride affects the entire body. Low oxygen levels affect a number of vital organs including the brain, lungs, heart and blood vessels. In its gaseous form, it can even choke a person to death if the vapors are inhaled. Although used for commercial purposes as well, it is noted as a possible chemical warfare agent.

Highly toxic, the effects of CK are rapid. It can cause drowsiness in the enemy and symptoms of nausea. It can even paralyze humans rendering them defenseless and can cause them lose consciousness. Significant swelling can come as a result of edema or the buildup of fluid beneath the skin. This can impair movement and be extremely painful.

There are a variety of ways it can be used in war. Cyanogen chloride can be disseminated through the air as a gas or through aerosol. Using the latter method of liquid spray, it can contaminate water supplies, crops and food. It can also be deadly if it is ingested or makes contact with the skin or eyes. It is possible that CK can penetrate gas masks as well. Due to CK’s reactive nature, it can explode unexpectedly.

There are number of reasons why chemical warfare has become a common practice among nations. Rather than blunt destruction, damage can be dealt through toxic contamination and effects at the nuclear level. They are far from conventional and make for new, creative strategies that can turn the tide in battle. Depending on the method of delivery, chemical weapons have the potential to do lots of damage on the field. Elements and their atoms are unique in their reactive properties and there are a myriad of known and unknown compounds that are capable of causing death or severely hindering enemy resources. From incapacitating the enemy for the purposes of surprise attacks to contaminating resources for a slow and painful death, chemical weapons are some of the most dangerous means available to those involved in war. Nations have gone through great trouble to stockpile these weapons for future use despite efforts by international entities such as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CVC) to eradicate them. Given that, there are number of agreements and treaties already in place to curb their use. Hopefully, those agreements and treaties do their job.

10. Being buried alive

It’s got to be the worst way to go out: knowing you shouldn’t be going out. There are a million different reason why this could happen, but for the, oh, let’s say 10 hours it takes for your to exhaust the air where you’re buried, it will be the worst experience of your life. It’s probably pretty dirty and dusty, which complicates the breathing scenario further, and your legs are about to start tingling, and not in a good way. There’s no way you can push though the casket, certainly not with all that dirt above you. And the smell is horrible, what did you last eat? Don’t bother wondering why you weren’t embalmed, that’s outside the scope of this article. If you can get past the craziness that come with lack of oxygen, confined spaces, and the fear and guilt you will feel for those you are leaving behind, you might pray or hope or dream about waking up, or getting out, or that someone might come, just one last time to see if you are really dead. Except it won’t happen: somewhere, lots of people (let’s hope you were well liked anyways) are eating casserole and drinking punch, remembering your life. Somewhere someone is checking out your wife and commenting how hot she looks despite the whole “grieving widow” thing, and making plans to play daddy to your children. If that doesn’t make it hard to concentrate on other things while you wait to die-what would?

9. Being in a coma and hearing what’s going on around you but not being able to respond

Laying down on a bed where a (maybe) hot nurse is giving you sponge baths isn’t half bad, unless you can’t feel it or move, or smile or talk, or respond in any way to physical or emotional stimulus. Being in a catatonic state, unable to interact with the people visiting you, let’s hope they still show up in a year from now. It’s got to be quite a chore to wish for death when you can’t even wiggle your toes, and even worse than that: if you wiggle your toes, they may try to rehabilitate you. That’s going to be a rough three years. Eventually they will pull the plug, but your family will never pay off the bills that you racked up in that bed. That’s got to nag you a bit huh?

8. Being in jail without any friends

Being in jail, no matter where it is, is probably not anyone’s idea of fun. But to be stuck in a hardcore prison without anyone to watch your back, except the huge gangbangers, murderers, and rapists that want to violate your body in ways that gets movies banned in many countries-that’s probably going to make you wish you were dead. If you don’t fight back, you become that big guy’s girlfriend; if you do fight back, you can guarantee your sentence just got longer. How about solitary confinement-that can’t be fun. The dark isn’t so scary when you know you are going to go back to having to protect your own back in amongst a sea of predators when you get out of solitary. It’s best if you start making friends.

7. To the Pain-Torture

“To the pain means the first thing you lose will be your feet, below the ankles, then your hands at the wrists. Next, your nose…” A classic quote from Mel Brook’s The Princess Bride, but hardly the worst form of torture out there. It’s hard to imagine being stoked about torture when it’s happening to you-one would assume that the only thing keeping you going is the Chuck Norris like revenge you are plotting out for the fool providing the torture methods for you. One memorable torture method is Count Rugen’s torture machine from the princess bride pushed all the way to level 50, it literally sucked 50 years of life from Wesley. How about impalement-Vlad the Impaler style: with a 3 inch thick sharpened pole inserted in your anus and through your body careful to cause internal bleeding and out through your mouth so you remain alive for hours or even days, or being tarred and feathered, burning the tar into your skin with almost no hope of getting it off of you. Then there is the vagina spreading medieval speculum made exclusively to puncture the uterus and cause a slow bleeding and death by excruciating infection. I think water torture is looking pretty decent now.

6. Never feeling purpose

Going through life bouncing around with no sense of meaning probably makes for one depressing opening line to a hallmark card, but that doesn’t mean that millions of humans don’t feel this way every day. Depressed and useless that’s a horrible combo. Not only can you do no right, but now you feel sorry about the fact that you suck at everything. That’s no kind of life. It could probably make even the toughest guy wish for death. To feel that your life will never have meaning must make it pretty hard to get out of bed every day. No amount of anti depressants is going to control the feelings after a certain point, and that is going to make your existence pretty lame indeed. It doesn’t help that you just got out of prison wrongfully accused and sentenced for a crime you didn’t commit and stuck in a prison where you played girlfriend to any number of large, hairy and aggressive men, who didn’t even practice safe sex. Yeah, that’s worse than Death.

5. Being forced to listen to looped recordings of songs like “MMM Bop!”

This one is a bit of a stretch, but imagine you have been abducted by tetrodotoxin-using abductor, and they have a penchant for the 20 most annoying songs of all time. Tetrodoxin is the potent paralytic neurotoxin found in triggerfish, and commonly called the zombie powder. First up on the playlist: it’s Crash Test Dummies with “Mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm”, followed by the Hanson Brothers with “Mmm Bop!”, but wait that’s not all, the list reads like a ‘Candid Camera’ script, if you could move, you would look around for cameras to ensure you weren’t being ‘Punk’d’. Following those gems of pop are 7 of the most disturbingly annoying songs in the history of the world, including: Chumbawumba, “Tub Thumper”, Cher, “Believe”, Sisqo, “The Thong Song”, Ricky Martin, “Livin’ La Vida Loca”, Baha Men, “Who Let The Dogs Out”, Los Del Rio, “Macarena” and Meatloaf, “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”, all on loop. Bet: after listening to meatloaf’s song 72 times, “You would do anything for a gunshot wound to the head”.
It’s about this time that you begin to think you just got Rick-rolled.

4. Never knowing love

Feral children are humans reduced to their animalistic tendencies due to lack of love and affection. They physically change to become more animal like and aggressive, and cannot function as normal integrated members of society because their brain is programmed and wired to tell them to rely on instinct. They will scratch your eyes out to protect their toy or playground, or gnash at you with their teeth to let you know you are getting too close. It’s a real phenomenon, feral children are fascinating if not very sad to watch. Imagine never having love as an adult. Feeling like there is nothing better out there for you, and convinced that you will never find someone to love you or accept your love. It is a physiological and emotional necessity to seek out love and to people to love. Imagine for a minute you are the cat lady. That’s one possible result. Had she just been able to convince that married man she hooked up with at that office party in 1978m that she was the one for him, she wouldn’t be looking for love and affection in domesticated house cats. It’s depressing to think that there is a portion of society that will never find love or the special person to make them feel the way they always dreamed they could. Depression, thoughts of suicide and an overwhelming sense of bitterness are all byproducts of never knowing love. Feral adults are almost as depressing as feral children. Do whatever you have to do t find someone to love, because cats are fiercely independent and you will realize that after only a short time.

3. Being the only one you know of who is immune to the virus which started the Zombie apocalypse

Zombies are scary because it’s not a matter of if, only when. The mad horde of flesh and brain eating scavengers will hear you eventually. And then it’s just a matter of time. Oh you didn’t sock away a bunch of food and water, and invest in the hydroponic underground vegetable garden to go in your bunker? Well at least you didn’t turn into one…yet. You should have played the lottery with that kind of luck. Not that the winnings would have mattered, since no one who is still alive cares much about money. It’s about day 160 that the overwhelming feeling of despair and lack of nutrition will set in, and from that point on, it will no longer give you great pleasure to hack of zombie heads with a rusty machete you found in the severed hand underneath the Dodge Durango your neighbor used to drive. The moral of the story: stock up in preparation for the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse, or endure many lonely nights wishing you had.

2. Being the guy who pushed the button which caused the disaster

“…I am become death. The destroyer of worlds.” Words famously recited out of the book of Bhagavad-Gita quoting Vishnu, told by J.Robert Oppenheimer. Yeah he’s THAT guy. The voice of the Nuclear bomb. Imagine you are him, and must live the rest of your days knowing you have changes the world by creating more death. Having to live with the guilt, or pressure, sickness, or whatever it is that comes from knowing you caused so much suffering, pain and loss, has got to be difficult. Intense suffering not only for the people who died in some way from you, but the suffering you would have to endure as a result, it would probably have you praying for death or wishing for no conscience. Chernobyl, the origin of AIDS, the atomic bomb, it doesn’t matter which one it is, just that it didn’t necessarily have to happen. That is what will haunt you every time you close your eyes to sleep.

1. Immortality

This is the dead ringer. Nothing is worse than having no chance of dying. Everything else above this on the list can end with death. Immortality however, is permanent. Not only can you not die but there are hundreds of even worse scenarios within the scope of immortality. Could you imagine the pain and sadness you will go through at least every 70 years: losing someone you love, to death? Wash rinse and repeat that a few dozen times. Your pain and hurt will know no end, and you will inevitably relive it over and over again just for that spark of happiness that comes from someone you can spend your lifetime with….err…scratch that, the next 70 years with. Assuming something doesn’t kill them sooner. Then there is the eventual inevitability of getting stuck somewhere under a collapsed building, or in quicksand, or deep in a Mayan ruin. That’s probably going to start sucking pretty quickly. How about everyone hounding you for your ‘ability’ once they find out. That’ll turn you into Carmen San Diego real fast; you’ll be all around the world trying to avoid being nabbed by the next guy who wants to dissect you to find the secret to eternal life. It seems glamorous, but it won’t be for long. How many lifetimes will you live before you just can’t take it anymore? Two? Three? Probably before your 100th birthday you will have serious doubts that this is the way to spend eternity. With all the potential downfalls of immortality maybe you should cross “Finding the holy grail” off your bucket list, unless of course, you like really long bucket lists. Buckle up for the ride, it’s going to be a long one.

10. Baggage Fees

Airlines invented this one out of thin air to offset skyrocketing fuel costs without raising fares. But, now that the price has stabilized at the pump, the fees are more common than ever. Just the concept of paying for luggage to travel on board is ridiculous and goes against logic. Not only that, but it’s an insult to loyal customers as well as the general flying public when airlines have the audacity to assess fees for something as basic and integral to flying as luggage.

And they didn’t stop there either. Once people started filling up the already crowded overhead bins with bulging carryon bags in order to avoid having to pay the new fees, some airlines started charging for that too. The obvious question is why don’t passengers just go to another airline that doesn’t charge baggage fees? Because of frequent flyer programs.

Since so many people have a vested interest in earning miles for their frequent flyer programs, airlines know passengers are not going to sacrifice the opportunity to earn miles for fees. To illustrate how far this scheme has evolved, a major airline recently aired a commercial actually offering a free baggage coupon for signing up with their particular frequent flyer award credit card. While airlines are making money hand over fist, their loyal passengers are being suckered from every direction imaginable.

9. Fees in general

There are fees for everything, ranging from things like food and drinks to pillows and blankets, and passengers are left with little choice other than to deal with them. Just remember to have your credit card handy the next time you fly because many airlines are also phasing out the practice of accepting cash on flights (money must weigh too much to be fuel efficient these days).

8. Long Security Lines

Air travelers have serious and justifiable reasons for hating the long lines at the security checkpoint. To their credit, the TSA has improved wait times over the last few years, and they have also tried different ways to streamline the process. But, many travelers feel much more can be done to reduce the hassle and time consuming process of just simply getting to the gate.

7.  Overbooking

Airlines have been doing this for decades, and for good reason. People don’t always show up, and there are those empty seats that airlines would love to fill. So, by selling more tickets than there are seats, airlines have a better chance of departing with more passengers.

Unfortunately, this system doesn’t always work well for travelers who have experienced the time honored tradition of being bumped from their flight. Despite decent compensation from some airlines, it still rubs people the wrong way when they realize their travel plans can be derailed just because an airline thought they could squeeze a couple more passengers on board.

6.  Outsourcing telephone customer service representatives

In another popular move to shave costs of operating budgets industry wide, airlines are taking an interest hiring overseas call centers to act as customer service representatives. This move comes at a premium despite the savings the airlines are enjoying. Not only do many travelers have to contend with language and cultural barriers, but now some airlines are charging passengers for booking their reservations over the phone as well.

5.  Cancellations and delays

Everybody knows that airlines are not to blame for bad weather and mechanical problems. However, how these situations are handled can be much more passenger friendly. Most airlines offer meager compensation packages, but they can do a lot more in terms of making their displaced passengers more comfortable throughout these frustrating interruptions.

4.  Lost luggage

Considering the fact that millions of bags find their respective owners at the right time and place is nothing short of a miracle, but if you are one of the few that fall through the system, be prepared to be patient. Long lines, complicated forms to fill out, charges for delivery and confusing policies regarding the claims process leave many travelers shaking their heads in frustration more often than not. Getting an airline to replace a simple suitcase with a few days of clothes and toiletries can end up causing a headache that will be remembered long after the trip itself.

3. Internet travel sites

While they are constantly advertising the best deals and lowest fares, the truth is that they are all connected to the main reservation systems that many of airlines themselves use. While this has allowed for lower and more competitive fares, one nasty side effect to this convenience are the hidden terms and conditions that go along with it.

Getting a ticket can seem simple, but if someone needs to change or cancel a trip it can be a time consuming nightmare that literally makes no sense. Here’s an example.

Say someone buys a one way ticket from New York to Honolulu. They pick the lowest fare, and the trip includes a change of planes in Los Angeles. The airline that they bought the fare from may not be the airline they actually end up flying. Sound strange? It is, but it is a common practice called code sharing.

2.  Code sharing

Code sharing is a very complicated way for airlines to earn commission by putting their passengers on another airline’s flight. This works well for airlines that have complimentary route networks and allows them to link their passengers in ways that provide more options for flyers and more revenue for the carriers. But, this also means that a passenger may book a flight on one airline in particular and end up flying on another one altogether.

Code sharing is one of the reasons that online travel sites can access and offer such a wide range of ticket options for customers. But, when problems do come up, like an unwary passenger who needs to change their travel plans, it can be a complicated problem to solve. Compounding the problem is that many times a passenger won’t even know what carrier officially owns their ticket. More often than not, a passenger will book a flight on airline x, but fly on airline y and z.

This is a pretty unnoticed and seamless process, and its only when there’s a problem that some of the seriously annoying flaws make themselves known. It’s not easy to re-book a ticket when three airlines are involved, and what makes matters worse is that it is the airline that owns your ticket that makes the rules, even if that isn’t the airline you chose to fly on. This goes on virtually unnoticed millions of times per day, and is a great experience to have if you are looking for a good dose of high blood pressure after making a last minute change to the ticket.

1. The magic is gone

The romance, the fantasy and the wonder of taking to the skies has been reduced to a system that isn’t much different than boarding a crowded subway during rush hour. Despite all of the advancements that make flying seamless and as trouble free as possible for millions of people per day, the airline industry has lost its charm.

Maybe it is because of what happened after 9/11, or perhaps it was a slow economy that forced airlines to start running on a lean mixture, but somewhere along the line passengers became little more than breathing cargo. Above all else, all of the delays, all of the reservation hassles and lost luggage, the thing that irks people the most is that they don’t feel valued or appreciated anymore.

It’s ironic that people used to pay a premium for legendary and world class service while airlines would fight tooth and nail for the frequent business traveler’s patronage. Now they pay top dollar for baggage fees and pillows and find a mindless robot from across the world trying to solve their travel related concerns.

Airlines blame the cutbacks in service and the addition of fees on a wide range of problems, from a tight economy to soaring fuel costs. But why does customer service have to suffer along with the rest of us? Wouldn’t it be nice if the number one reason that people hate flying became the number reason they love their favorite airline instead? Maybe fees wouldn’t sting so much if there was a little bit of that long lost airline magic thrown into the mix.

Given the opportunity, would you want to be immortal? It certainly sounds tempting. Death is terrifying to most people. We mortals keep companies in business buying products to make them look younger, feel younger, and live longer. The science of cryonics and cryonic suspension offers possible immortality, where there is a demand someone will work on supplying it. For many, the idea of living forever and having immortality is a much better alternative than death. If everyone were to become immortal, there are the obvious social problems of overpopulation and lack of resources to consider. To be immortal may be a bleaker prospect than you think. Contemplating the realistic effects of living forever may change the “happily ever after” perception of immortality. For the purpose of this article, the focus is on you as an individual being immortal as an adult in good health, while the rest of the human race goes through the normal aging process.

10. Outlive Everyone In Your Family

A part of life that makes it worthwhile is having family to share it with. A spouse, children, grandchildren, and extended family are the nucleus of life for most people. If you were immortal, you would outlive everyone you loved that made up your family. The personal recognition of family gives us a sense of belonging; special things in life are shared and celebrated together. It can feel like a slow death that lasts forever, to be alone with no family connections to the rest of the human race. Generation after generation, the gap between you and family relations would grow wider, until you would have no roots. Seeing families caring for one another would be painful. As you would be immortal, there would be the chance to start anew repeatedly with spouses and more children. But the prospect of losing loved ones to death repeatedly would soon thwart any motivation to initiate these relationships.

9. Lack Sense of Purpose

Immortality is a length of time we can’t imagine. When you know you will outlast everything and everyone, you may feel any purpose is futile. Our sense of purpose drives us gives meaning to our lives. Self-discovery may seem to have many unexplored corners, until you are immortal. The purpose of being responsible to care for others would not exist eventually. The purpose of a healthy lifestyle to prolong your life would be meaningless and unnecessary. The purpose to travel and experience the world would be a “been there, done that” thing far too soon. With our uncertain and relatively short normal life span for humans, we may have so many things we want to do with this life that we think we could never do them all. But eventually, you would achieve all the goals you had dreamed of. The task of finding new things worthy of giving your life purpose, that you want to do, would be daunting.

8. Mental Stress

Immortality would allow you time to mentally process a never-ending barrage of life situations and circumstances. But thinking about the reason you are here, dealing with continuous death of the people around you, feelings of abandonment, despair, and witnessing generation after generation of war and human error would take its toll. Experiencing this onslaught of life events would cause extreme mental stress. Your mind could slip into a state where you are subconsciously trying to escape the never-ending whirl of life, losing your grip on reality. Dealing with so many traumatic life circumstances could eventually break the strongest of minds, causing you to fear that if you do lose your mental grip, no one will be there for you to pick up the pieces. Mental stress causes you to be easily confused, forgetful and fosters a negative attitude. A chronic state of mental stress also causes anxiety, depression and social withdrawal. You need to maintain a healthy mindset in order to function, be productive and absorb new ideas. Without these things depression ensues, with the possible desire to commit suicide to the end the depression and stress; but the inability to do so as you are immortal.

7. Ongoing Financial Burden

Most people think of all they would do if they were immortal, and all the time they would have to do it in. The downside is that you need money to do all these things. The traveling, the leisure time, and the adventures are hard to do when you are also maintaining a job for income. You aren’t instantly rich just because you are immortal. You would be the same you, with the same bank account. You do have to provide for yourself financially through the many, many years you are going to live. Your intelligence is also the same, unless you take initiative to improve it. You certainly have the time to further your education, go to college as many times as you like…but you have to pay for it. You still have to maintain a job and pay your bills. There would soon be no family to turn to in times of need, so you must stay financially independent. You would not have “job burn out” once – but repeatedly. Even if you changed occupations regularly in different areas, being accountable for your financial welfare indefinitely would become a burden. There would be no goal of eventual retirement for you, as you would have the “gift” of immortality.

6. Disinterest in Socializing

Life as an immortal would change who you are, in time. Watching every generation die would have a significant affect on you and how you view others. Finding common ground with others would become harder as time wore on. Identifying with others and the ability to form a close connection would be difficult for a variety of reasons. You would soon have no one that had any history with you; your whole existence would be establishing relationships over and over again. You may need to keep your immortality a secret from others, significantly hindering the possibility of forming close relationships. You likely will avoid becoming involved with others, after the loss of so many over the years that you cared for. This can cause you to become cold emotionally out of necessity, and live reclusively. Hardening your self against emotional pain and living a solitary life is no life for anyone. Human beings draw on the strength from others to validate us and support us through the ups and downs of life.

5. Decline of Personal Morals

We place value on having moral standards because being moral and decent is a requirement for human survival. Morals keep people from harming others and their selves, allow us to live peacefully, refrain from destructive behavior and are good for interpersonal relationships. If you were immortal, would you see the value in keeping your moral standards, or would you feel they didn’t apply to you? Your perception of the value of morals would likely change over the years, causing you to see nothing wrong with anything you feel like doing. The need to do something different, relieve boredom or make easy money could drive you to things you never would have done before immortality. With so much time to focus on your self, your character could turn cold and selfish. You may not feel a strong sense of right and wrong; reasoning there is no “judgment or consequence” for wrongdoing.

4.  Lose Sense of Identity

Your identity, your sense of self, who are and who you want to be is intertwined with what stage of life you are in. In a normal life span, you are evolving with each life stage. Each passing stage is a marker to measure the success of these goals. The goals, values and connections that define who you are during these normal life stages are absent with immortality. Your beliefs morph and change through the years, until you may not believe in anything. With no stage of life to progress to, the years would run together and have no significance, until you are left the question of who you really are. The person you knew yourself to be as a mortal would be no more, your goals having no urgency or defining you as they did. A mortal can look back on their life and know who they are by the path they have chosen; an immortal looks back on so many years of life they become a blur. Your sense of identify will also be blurred when no life path points to who you are as a person.

3. Resentment Towards Others

The thought of being immortal conjures up the illusion that life would be wonderful if you lived forever, as there would be no fear of dying. The beginning of being immortal would feel like you were special and others were doomed. But as years progress in your immortal state, you watch the people around you, resenting their ability to form close ties, to love, fearless of what the future brings, to live with appreciation and awe of the things that you have come to think of as mundane and commonplace. You watch them have children, go shopping, obsess about their weight, buy homes and build their lives with anticipation. You have the weight of centuries on your shoulders, while they are oblivious to the pain, heartache and experiences you have endured. Their lives seem light, happy and free compared to yours. They grow up together and have memories that bond them. They savor family, moments and events; knowing their time is limited on earth and these things may not come again. You see the excitement of a new experience in their faces and anticipation in their voices. And you miss being that way, and know you likely will never be again. Jealousy of the blissful naivety of their lives would cause resentment to be harbored.

2. Witness All of Mankind’s Mistakes and Earth’s Demise

People always speculate about the future of mankind. Human error is inevitable. There are all types of chaotic disasters to live through, such as economic ruin, erosion of resources due to pollution, the sun eventually burning out, or even a meteor colliding with earth. You will have much more time to wait around for these things to happen than a mere mortal. Mistakes, greed, and poor judgment abound. Immortality will give you a front row seat to the tragedies and disasters born from mankind’s imperfections. Man is not satisfied to simmer contently in the comfortable world we have made for ourselves. The world that you enjoy as an immortal could come tumbling down in years, decades or centuries. It is inevitable that at some point a major catastrophe will occur. War can cause destruction that the earth may never recover from, obliterating most of the human race and leaving the world a barren wasteland. You would witness this anguish and live through it all, possibly being the only one left standing. You wouldn’t be living at this point, but merely existing. With everything and everyone gone, you would have a lonely existence – assuming you still have your sanity.

1. Eternal Life In Heaven After Death

“The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. –Romans 6:23
People with spiritual faith in God believe they do have eternal life after death. The faith that heaven awaits them after death sustains them through the trials of their life on earth. It gives their life greater meaning, and they perceive life here on earth to be a small grain of sand in the hourglass of time. The personal relationship they develop with God diminishes much of the fear of dying, and replaces it with anticipation of being with their Creator. They have the peace of mind that they will see loved ones again, and be in a place where there is no suffering or pain for them or others. This spiritual faith and belief in eternal life after death make being immortal in a suffering world undesirable.

10. Giant Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

Hundreds of stone spheres have been found scattered in the Diquis Delta of Costa Rica, ranging from a few centimeters to 6 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons. The spheres are near perfect in shape. Stratigraphy is the only available dating method for these stones, and most of them are no longer in situ, so guesses to their age range from 200 BCE all the way to 1500 CE.

United Fruit Company is responsible for the sphere’s discovery in the 1930s, as they stumbled upon many of them with their bulldozers clearing a location for a banana plantation. Many of the spheres have been damaged by both the heavy equipment, and from sticks of dynamite used to break apart the rocks.

The stones are clouded with mystery. Some theories suggest the Indigenous people had means of softening stones with a magic potion, making the stone’s creation possible. Others are convinced they come from the lost city of Atlantis. Still, some believe the spheres are a creation of nature, without any hand of man in their creation at all.

9. Easter Island Moai

The Moai statues of Easter Island are monolithic human statues carved around 1300 BCE, each weighing around or over 50 tons. Half of the statues are clustered together at the main Moai quarry, while hundreds of others were transported and set around the island’s perimeter.

This feat depicts remarkable creativity and sophistication of the Easter Island people, as some statues are as tall as 33 feet, and others weighing 86 tons.

Oral traditions tell of various individuals with the ability to command the statues to walk at their will with the use of divine power. Many modern attempts to move the Maoi in an upright position, walking them, have failed, due to instability and difficulty navigating rougher terrain. The most successful attempt was moving using sled runners atop log rollers, taking only 25 men two minutes to move a ten-ton replica 150 feet.

8. The Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only surviving of seven cited wonders of the ancient world, and still baffle and impress scholars worldwide. Every ten years or so, the mystery of The Great Pyramid’s construction is allegedly solved, with another engineer or Egyptologist coming to the media with his or her own theory or hypothesis, but as no clear written record exists, these are additionally speculative.

Theories abound from massive slave labor, use of ramps and sleds, kites, the use of harmonics or manipulation of the Earth’s magnetic field, or even alien intervention. The current theory exciting the media is perhaps they were built with ramps spiraling from the inside out, as opposed to the outside in. Evidence of this internal ramp does exist, depicted by a diagram of the pyramid found by the French in a high-tech survey of the pyramids conducted in the 1980s.

7. Stonehenge

A giant prehistoric monument, erected between 3000-2200 BCE, Stonehenge has been a subject of mystery and legend for thousands of years. Folklore suggests they were built by the devil from stones purchased from an Irish woman, and according to Old English Arthurian legend, magician Merlin had the stones removed from Ireland and reconstructed it near Amesbury.

Know one knows exactly the purpose of Stonehenge, but speculations have been made with suggestions as a celestial calendar, burial monument or gateway between life and death, or a ritual place of healing. Because the creators of Stonehenge had no written documentation, knowing the exact function is impossible. The stones were constructed symmetrically, with their axis of symmetry aligned perfectly with the summer and winter solstices.

The bluestones involved in Stonehenge are not indigenous, with the closest natural location being from Wales, transportation for the bluestones from Wales to Amesbury has presented scholars with the mystery of their transportation. Several methods have been tried; proving advanced feats of engineering and that even with an incredibly organized tribe, moving the multiple stones through the densely wooded landscape would have come with tremendous difficulty. One geologist, Aubrey Burl, suggests instead the bluestones were carried to near Amesbury with the help of glacial activity.

6. Nazca Lines

This collection of geoglyphs created with agreement of most scholars by the Nazca culture in Peru date as early as 200 BCE. These shallow sculptures were made with removal of the red pebbles abundant in the Nazca desert revealing the white ground below.

Different geometric designs, with the largest between 650-900 feet across, depict animals, insects, humans, and geometric shapes. While essentially easy to construct using simple tools, the curiosity of the Nazca lines is the large pictures as a whole are only viewable from the sky. Even considering flight was not an option, they must have been created using a very sophisticated sense of mathematical knowledge with very careful planning, as seen by the exactness in the images from above.

Alternative theorists suggest flight may have been possible for the Ancients, either by means of hot air balloon, or advanced technological flight machines. Erik Von Daniken, author of Finger Prints of the Gods, use the Nazca lines as evidence for ancient astronauts.

5. Japanese Under Water Pyramid

Beginning In March of 1995 with excavations continuing to this date, divers off the coast of Okinawa have discovered several structures resembling pyramids, roads, and some semblance of an ancient city.
The most notable of these stone structures is a rectangular ziggurat type structure 90 ft high and 600 ft wide. Smaller pyramids were located nearby. As the area of under water land was last at the surface before it was submerged at end of the most recent ice age, these structures could date to 8000 BCE, 5,000 years older than the oldest recorded pyramid in Egypt.

Many scientists, however, believe natural processes of erosion and splitting rocks could have created the pyramid, and underwater road-like structures created by natural phenomena are not uncommon. While natural erosion is a possibility, examples of natural erosion and rock splitting in the conspicuous sharp nature of these underwater pyramids have not been seen elsewhere in underwater geology.

4. Coral Castle

Coral Castle’s construction commenced in 1920 by Latvian American immigrant Edward Leedskalnin in Florida City, FL. Leedskalnin spent 28 years working on Coral Castle, alone and exclusively at night, not allowing anyone to watch him work.

The castle is constructed completely from oolitic limestone blocks each weighing several tons. The castle is not fastened together using any mortar, simply using the weight of the limestone alone as means to keep the structure together. When a few teenagers reported as being eyewitness, they claimed to witness Leedskalnin levitate the blocks, floating them like balloons.

Leedskalnin asserted he knew the secrets of the pyramids, but never disclosed what these were. He did however, have beliefs contradictory to contemporary science, and believed all matter was made up of magnets and he “rediscovered the laws of weight, measurement, and leverage,” which involved a relationship between celestial alignments and the Earth. Additionally theories include using harmonics as means to move the 30-ton blocks, as scientists and Tibetan monks alike have played with sound as a means for anti gravity.

3. The Sphinx

The Sphinx, partnered alongside The Great Pyramids of Giza, has been a target of mystery for many years. It is commonly supposed among some archaeologists and Egyptologists the Sphinx dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Khafre, circa 2500 BCE.

In the early 90s, however, geological evidence surfaced that dates The Sphinx much earlier than previously speculated. The crux of this evidence revolves around erosion. Erosion by means of water, and that by means of wind and sand, has two very different looking results. The evidence of erosion on The Sphinx points directly to that of water. Not only that, but as some conservative Egyptologists suggest flooding of the Nile as possibility for this water erosion, the heaviest signs come from the top of the body, suggesting heavy rainfall, not the bottom. This evidence possibly dates the Sphinx much earlier than commonly supposed, at 5000-6000 BCE.

Additionally, the head of The Sphinx is disproportionally smaller than the rest of the body, which lead to assumptions that the head was more recently carved from the original structure, possibly in the epoch of original dating at 4500 years ago.

2. Puma Punku and Tiahuanaco

The means of construction at Puma Punku is an engineering anomaly that is not even comprehendible by modern scholars. Presumed current knowledge of the Tiahuanaco culture alludes to no writing system or familiarity with the wheel, the architectural accomplishments at Puma Punku are incredible. The largest of the megalithic stones used in construction is 131 metric tons, and made from red sandstone. The nearest quarry for red sandstone is 10 km away from the archaeological site, and the stones would need to be carried up a steep incline.

The stones are cut with extreme precision to lock together like pieces of a puzzle. Sophisticated knowledge of geometry is exhibited in this construction, as well as advanced masonry. These stones are so meticulously cut they suggest technology of mass production, and they fit together so perfectly even a razor blade cannot fit in between them.

One carved stone at Puma Punku has a perfectly straight line, with drilled, equidistant holes, an impossible feat with copper or stone tools.
Archaeologists argue about the dating of Puma Punku, with claims ranging from to mere 440 CE to more outlandishly 15,000 years old. One thing is for certain, modern engineers still find construction of Puma Punku impossible today, even with the use of our modern day technology and engineering tools.

1. Göbekli Tepe Temple in Turkey

Beginning excavation in 1994, Turkish and German archaeologists are currently uncovering what is now the oldest megalithic monument. Only 5% of this site has currently been excavated, and Archaeologist’s predict it could take another 50 years. So far, it has been dated through the radiocarbon method at 11,000 BCE, predating the pyramids and Stonehenge by over 6,000 years. The pillars of the round stone structure are carved with reliefs of animals including vultures, foxes, lions, gazelles, reptiles, and waterfowl, suggesting the surrounding location of the temple upon construction was far more of a lush landscape than the current conditions of modern day turkey.

This discovery puts a definite spin on the way we view human history, the development of civilization, and the origin of religious practice. It has previously been conceived that man practiced religious ritual post-agriculture, yet bones found at this site clearly suggest a pre-agriculture hunter-gatherer society. Some archaeologists speculate this site, mostly due to its geographic coordinates, as the location of Eden; if not the Biblical Garden itself, than it marks the location to where man made his transition from hunting and gathering to farming, the suggested allegory of the Eden story.

The biggest part of the mystery of Göbekli, however, is that man systematically and deliberately buried the site in around 8000BCE, creating the artificial hills the site was uncovered under.

The first five dilemmas deal with life or death situations. They are not as common as some of the other ones, but they are commonly used as examples to teach and preach.

10. Marriage and divorce

Two years ago you went through a terrible divorce. You have nothing to show for the pain you went through, but a four year old that you only get to see every other weekend. You’ve moved on to a nice handsome man who really loves you. He’s been married twice; both marriages failed, and he ended up broken hearted each time. The two of you have a great and healthy relationship; he gets along with your daughter wonderfully. You two decided to move in together, and rarely seen without one another. After awhile, you find out that you’re pregnant. Obviously, you want to stay with him, but what about his family? His family is extremely religious, and when they find out that you’re pregnant, they expect the two of you to be married as soon as possible. Both of you have been so hurt in the past that you’re reluctant for this to happen. Do you agree to marry him, for the sake of your child, and for the sake of his family? Do you stay “living in sin” with him, because you’re afraid of what has happened in the past, and want to take things more slowly this time around? There are other similar situations like this, finding out you’re pregnant with someone you’re not married to. Do you stay with the person? Do you marry them? What if it was a one night stand? What if you cannot afford a baby on your own?

9. Cheating

You have two mutual friends who are dating. They are both very close to you, and you knew them separately before they even knew each other. You find out that he cheated on her. It was a one night stand, and he has not talked to the girl since it actually happened. He has been faithful excluding that one time. Also, it’s been a few months since it happened. You know that your friend is the type of girl that would stay with him; she would forgive him if it was only once. Do you support his decision not to tell her, because it won’t happen again and it will only cause her unnecessary hurt? Do you keep your mouth shut because it is none of your business and you want to stay out of it? Do you want him to tell her what happened, because she deserves to know the truth? Or do you take it upon yourself to tell her, even though that may mean the end of their relationship or the end of your friendship with him? What if it is you that has cheated on your significant other? Do you tell them right away? Do you wait, knowing that it won’t happen again? Do you keep it from them because you know that they’ll leave you if you tell them what happened? Do you keep it from them because you know they WON’T leave you?

8. Teenage Party

Underage kids are having a party. They are all about to graduate high school, and one of the student’s parent’s are out of town. Every kid brings a little beer, wine, or liquor that they have sneaked out of their parent’s liquor cabinet. With all of the alcohol together, it really starts to add up. The party is fun at first, until one boy drinks too much alcohol. He is hyperventilating and throwing up profusely. He can’t stop. All of the other kids can tell he is really sick, not just someone who throws up after a bit of drinking. None of the other kids are in the condition to drive him to the hospital. Do the kids call 911, and risk getting in trouble with the police, in order to save their friend, or do they risk driving him to the emergency room, even though they are drunk, if it means they might not get in trouble? Do they leave him at the emergency room and go away, as to not get into trouble? Does someone call their parents and risk getting in trouble with parents instead of the police? What if the kids aren’t sure whether of not the boy is really sick, or just passed out?

7. Airplane

You are on a plane that is crashing. When the emergency lights come on and the oxygen masks come down, no oxygen mask comes down in front of the person sitting next to you. Do you give up your oxygen mask for this person, or do you let them fend for themselves? Another option is possibly to share, to take turns, but this could result in both people dying. For some people, it might depend on who is sitting next to them. If it was a loved one, especially someone’s child, the answer might be clearer. What if it were a stranger? Would you be as eager to give up your life for that of someone you don’t know?

6. Lifeboat

There are only so many lifeboats, and more people than lifeboats on a sinking ship. Generally, people believe women and children should go first in emergency situations like these when lives are at stake. What about babies and the elderly? The elderly have lived long lives; some would consider their lives complete. Babies have so much of life left to live, should the elderly give up their spots on the lifeboats for the babies? The chances of a baby surviving on a life boat out at sea, however, are not very good. Should the elderly fight for their spot on the boat, because they have a better chance of surviving the wait until they are rescued at sea?

5. Premarital sex

A lesser known play by William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, a law is decreed that people cannot engage in premarital sex. When a local woman, Juliet, becomes pregnant, Juliet and Claudio (her boyfriend), are put in prison. Claudio is given a death sentence by the new leader in town, Angelo. As he begs and pleads for his life and tries to find a way out of his punishment, Angelo takes an interest in Claudio’s sister, Isabella. Angelo wants to make a deal with Claudio, if he can sleep with Isabella, and in return Claudio will be set free. Not only is this a moral dilemma because Isabella does not want Angelo, but also because she is a nun. She is not allowed to ever have sex. If she violates her law of chastity she will no longer be a member of the covenant. Once she finds out about the deal the moral dilemma becomes hers to bear. Does she save her brother’s life and forever give up her life as a nun, and not only that but degrade herself and have sex with a man she despises? Or does she tell her brother he will have to find another way out of it. Mariana helps her plan a “bed trick”, and offers to stand in and sleep with the leader in her place. Eventually the Duke comes back into town to “right” all of the wrongs that have gone on in his absence. He was able to see everything firsthand, because he posed as a friar instead of leaving town.

4. Bridge

A man runs a drawbridge. His job is to lower and raise the draw bridge when the boats come through. One winter night, he decides to bring his son to work with him. His son is young and very curious about how things work. In an unfortunate turn of events, the son becomes a bit to curious and is exploring the gears of the drawbridge, when suddenly the horn sounds letting the man know a boat is coming, and he must raise the bridge. He realizes his son is caught in the gears by his shirt, but the boat is fast approaching and it is full of people. If the man raises the bridge, the gears will crush his son. If the man does not raise the bridge, the people on the boat will crash into it, and no doubt some of them will die in the icy river. Does the man risk the lives of the people on the boat to save his son? Or does he risk crushing his own son to keep all of the people on the boat safe?

3. Pregnant woman and baby

A man’s wife is pregnant, her health goes south quickly. The doctor’s tell the man he must choose between his wife and his unborn child. He must sign a paper allowing the doctors to abort his baby and save his wife, or he must take his chances, and possibly both the wife and the baby could die. In one instance the husband wants desperately to abort the baby, because in his reasoning, he only has one wife, and without her he can’t have any other babies. If they abort this baby, they can always have another one. The doctors wants to save both the wife and the baby, and risk accidentally killing both. The husband refuses to sign papers allowing his baby to be aborted. He decides to take his chances, and the doctor’s were able to save both his wife and his new baby girl.

2. Infidelity

In what is arguably one of Shakespeare’s saddest plays, Othello comes in contact with a devastating moral dilemma. Iago has strategically placed evidence incriminating Othello’s wife, Desdemona, and Othello believes she is having an affair. Iago has been causing problems for everyone throughout the entire play in order to achieve power. Othello has a tough moral dilemma ruled and fueled by strong and violent emotions. Does he confront Desdemona about this affair and believe Iago? Or does he believe Desdemona when she says it isn’t true? Unfortunately Othello decides that he does believe Iago, and at the price of Desdemona’s life. He smothers her, just moments before Emilia comes in and tells the truth and exposes Iago. Othello does not kill Iago for this aweful crime. Othello, feels the guilt of what he has done and he commits suicide. Like Sophie’s Choice, when the choices made during moral dilemmas turn out with an unhappy ending, there are severe prices to pay.

1. Choose Between your children

In the novel by William Styron, Sophie’s Choice, and the film by the same name, Sophie Zawistowska was a Polish prisoner during World War II. As a reward for not being Jewish, the Nazis told her she could keep one of her children. With only seconds to decide, Sophie did not know which child to choose. How could she choose one child and leave the other one to impending death? How could she not choose and risk both of her children’s lives? In a split second decision, with Nazi soldiers barking at her to decide, she chose to save her daughter and not her son. Her reasoning? Her son was older and stronger and had a better chance of making it through the Nazi Concentration Camps. She never heard from her son again. Eventually having to make such a decision led her to commit suicide.

You can have courage by doing nothing, or by speaking your mind. Courage is visible in children, adults, and even, sometimes, in the animals we share the world with. Every great thing we set out to do, whether its raise children, start a business, study for a degree, or change the world, takes courage.

All through history, there have been men or women who have been called courageous, but their deeds have been vastly different. Neither their circumstances nor their goals have been the same, so defining the type of person who is courageous is well nigh impossible. Martin Luther King was seen as courageous, for his unwavering commitment to ending the oppression of his people, but then, so too was Helen Keller, for having the courage to live her life, in spite of being blind and deaf. Business men have been courageous, as have soldiers on the field of battle.

Children too have been courageous, and one such example was Anne Frank, the little Jewish girl whose diary cemented the human experience of the atrocities of World War Two for all of us.

The truth is, we all have the capacity to be courageous within us. In order to bring it out, we need to be put into a situation, whether personal, professional or social, where to act would result in the greater good. If we choose to act in order to achieve that greater good.

It is therefore in our actions, rather than in our nature, that courage resides, and here are our top ten ways to apply this in your own life, in no particular order.

10. Be Guided By Your Conscience

Some of the most courageous people in the world have become that because their conscience simply would not allow them to ignore what was happening around them.

Mahatma Gandhi for example, endured great personal strife, in order to elevate his people’s position in South Africa, when the reigning regime was subjecting them to acute oppression. He did so without violence however, choosing, instead, to use his famous passive resistance technique, not reacting to anything, but also refusing to back down.

What made this courageous was the fact that had he ignored the plight of his people, he would have lived a comfortable life. He chose not to ignore it, and instead, was tormented for his resistance.

When allowing your conscience to guide you, the key is to see the injustice, whether at work, in your country or town, or your personal life, and do something about it. While ignoring this type of situation, particularly if you are not directly affected, is certainly easier, taking a stand is far more courageous.

9. Feel the Fear, and Act Anyway

Courage is not the absence of fear. True courage is feeling fear, but doing what needs to be done anyway.

This could be anything in your life. Even approaching your boss at work for a raise, if you feel you deserve it, takes courage. Anything that makes you afraid, or nervous, but still needs to be done, requires courage.

Of course, the trade off is that by having courage, by going to speak to your boss, or doing whatever else it is that scares you, you come that much closer to achieving your goals. Never plucking up the courage to do or say what you want to, will mean that instead of an active participant in your life, you become a bystander, driven and steered by others.

8. Never Give Up

When you really, truly want something, and it seems unattainable, getting it, whatever it may be, will take both courage, and determination.

In fact, the perseverance to carry on, to keep trying, when all seems lost, and your goal seems impossible to reach, is in itself a form of courage.

Imagine, for example, that you lose your job. You fail to find work, through no fault of your own, and slowly, the life you have built begins to crumble beneath your feet. The easy option would be to give up. Decide that life is conspiring against you, and allow whatever will happen to happen. The courageous choice would be to keep getting up every morning, and going out there to find a job, knowing that eventually, one day, your luck will change.

Even in this simple example, it’s easy to see that courage need not be a deed or word, but merely a state of mind. If you can cultivate a courageous state of mind, and never give up on what you want, eventually, you will reach your goals.

7. Embrace the Unknown

When you think about why we fear the dark, the answer is simple. Darkness removes sight, leaving everything that lies within it unknown.

It’s this fear of the unknown, rather than the darkness itself, that leads children to imagine monsters under their beds, or in their closets.

Of course, while most of us outgrow the fear of the dark, we remain scared of the unknown in our everyday lives. We stay in jobs we hate because they are secure and stable, rather than pursuing our dreams. We stay in unhappy relationships, because the prospect of being alone in an unfriendly world makes us afraid. In fact, we willingly accept any situation, as long as nothing in our lives is changed, or too different to what we are used to.

It is, however, in the unknown that the greatest discoveries are made, and having the courage to embrace the unknown, and to accept and welcome change, even when it is scary, will almost certainly lead you to a more fulfilling and happy life.

Maybe you can’t quit your job, or leave your marriage, but you can certainly try new things, learn new ideas, and experience more of life. Can’t you?

6. Fake it Until You Make It

Aristotle, the famous philosopher, once said: “Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

What this means is that you don’t have to be courageous to show courage. You do need to act, rather than think, speak or dream though. Even if you are quaking in your boots, if you can pretend to have courage, and do or say something, you will seem courageous.

Of course, once you’ve pretended to be courageous for a while, and discovered that your world does not, in fact, collapse around your ears, you will be able to stop pretending. You will have found courage.

5. Truly Believe

If you’re not totally committed to something, and you do not believe, one hundred percent, that what you are doing, saying or dreaming, is worth it, you will never find true courage.

There’s a saying that goes: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” This applies to being courageous too. If you are not completely sure that you’re doing the right thing, you will find that somewhere along the line, your courage will fail you. You’ll decide that it’s not worth fighting for anymore, and that will be it.

If, however, the thing that you require courage for is something that you truly want, and believe in, finding the courage to do it will be easy. You won’t have to think about it, or if you do, the answer will come to you quickly. Save your courage for those times. If you fight battles that aren’t really worth it, you’ll use up your energy and courage before you even get to the ones that are.

4. Ignore the Nay Sayers

No matter what you choose to do in life, whether it’s study towards something, open a business, go into politics, or anything else, there are going to be negative people around you, who will try to convince you that you can’t achieve your goal.

If you really want to get to where you want to be though, you’re going to have to block out their negativity, and just get on with it. By all means, take good advice when it’s given, but always remember that no one but you determines your success or failure in life. You are the architect of your own destiny, and if you allow others to influence you, you will never find out what you really could have achieved.

3. Be Prepared to Fail

Winston Churchill, famous British statesman, once said:”Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

What he meant is that on the road to success, whether professionally, personally, or in some other goal, most of us will endure at least one failure. The trick is to get up after you fail, dust yourself off, and have another crack at it.

Courage is realizing that each failure merely brings you that one step closer to eventual success. So rather than fearing failures, and allowing that fear to prevent you from even trying, rather look at failures as what they are: learning experiences. Find the lesson, think about it, take it in, regroup, and then try a different tactic.

Using business as an example, if you look at some of the most successful business men in history, their ultimate success was preceded by a string of failures. Instant success is rare, if not completely unheard of, and whatever it is you’re trying to do, you will have small failures on your way to ultimate success, so take them as what they are: steps. Remember: failure is not the end; it’s just another step in the process.

2. Start Small

Of course, looking for courage, when we’ve never displayed it before, is difficult, if the thing we are trying to achieve is so big that we can’t imagine how we will ever do that.

Finding your own courage doesn’t have to be about a grand gesture at first. You don’t have to do something that will get your name in the history books to have courage. If you’ve never stood up for yourself, start with that. Start standing your ground, asserting yourself. If you want to achieve business success, but you’re scared to leave your job, work on your idea part time. If you see an injustice, even something small, and you are unhappy about it, speak up.

Making a start is what is important, and as your confidence in yourself grows, so will your courage, until, eventually, you’ll be completely sure that you are invincible, and ready to take on whatever the world throws at you.

1. Gather Your Allies

You can bet your bottom dollar that if you look at the truly courageous through history, there was at least one person that believed in them, and stood by them. A mentor, partner or friend, there’s always someone, standing in the wings, rooting for them.

Finding the people in your life who believe in you is very important if you want to find, and maintain courage. They don’t even need to truly understand your goals, although it helps. What they are there for is to help you get up when you fall, to remind you why you want what you want, and to tell you to keep going when all you want to do is give up.

Having a support structure, no matter what the situation, is often the difference between success and failure. Even one person who believes in you can give you the strength to carry on, when you want to quit.

So look around you, at your friends, family and acquaintances, and identify the people who are going to be your allies. Tell them a little bit about what you are doing, and why. Use them as a sounding board, and ask them to stand by you. You’re not looking for approval. Just support.

I am sure, when they invented the nuclear bomb, that the men who did so never intended them to be used. However, the threat of nuclear war has urged many countries to become nuclear capable, meaning the threat really does exist. It is on the whim of the men in charge of those countries that we hang our hopes of avoiding disaster, and those are the very men who have failed us in the past.

The need for money, power and domination drives all the nations of the world, to the point that we’ve lost sight of the fact that if this happens, we all lose. There would be no winner.

While it may come swiftly, if and when it happens, and we may not all have the time to take advantage of any preparations we have made, it does make sense to be ready for that terrible day when it comes.

Here are our top ten tips to help you prepare for the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.

10. Pay Attention

The very first step in preparing for a nuclear holocaust, is to pay attention to international news and media. While the nuclear holocaust may be swift, when it comes, there will certainly be a lead up to that terrible day.

Bear in mind, the last time the bomb was dropped, in Japan in the 1940’s, ending the second world war, it followed several years of intense fighting in Europe. It was not a spur of the moment decision, but rather a last ditch effort.

Paying attention to news and media should allow you to track the sentiment and scale of any wars, and as we draw nearer to the point where either of the parties are desperate enough to attempt to end the battle by nuclear force, it should become clear.

9. Look to Space

Space may have been the final frontier, but that’s fast becoming history.

Several wealthy individuals have become space tourists, booking a once in a lifetime trip into space in a shuttle, and spending time on space stations. Of course, that’s still small scale, but NASA has confirmed that the long term goal of space programs is to colonized space.

Then consider that Sir Richard Branson, British billionaire, owner of the Virgin empire, and adventure junkie, has teamed up with an American designer of space craft, to form Virgin Galactic, whose ultimate goal is to make travel to space accessible to most, but designing their own cost effective space craft.

So it seems, whether as a part of a governmental program, or under your own steam, space travel is a possibility, and if you can book your seat before nuclear war breaks out, you may not be on the planet when disaster happens!

8. Get the Hell Out of Dodge

If and when nuclear war happens, the missiles used will be guided to land, and detonate, with pinpoint accuracy. That also means that they won’t be launched indiscriminately, but rather, targeted at the biggest cities, the most strategic military locations and similar areas.

Making sure you are as far as possible from “ground zero” when that happens increases your chance of surviving the holocaust exponentially. In fact, if you’re far enough from the blast area, hiding in your basement, or even in your car, could be enough to let you survive the blast, which will be very swift, very hot and very deadly.

Although you could rely on your powers of observation as stated in point number 10, and then make a run for it, it’s been estimated that with submarine missile delivery systems, it would now take only six minutes for warheads to reach their targets. So if you’ve prepared a safe haven, and are relying on your powers of perception to warn you in time, so you can make your escape from the big city, you might be in store for a nasty surprise.

If your perception fails you, or there is, for some reason, no warning, you would be toast.

7. Build a Bunker

OK. It may be a little nihilistic to build a bunker, and your friends may very well laugh at you if you did. However, if the need for a fallout shelter ever arose, you can bet your bottom dollar you’d suddenly become very popular with those very same friends!

Fallout shelters can be built out of various materials – depending on what you have on hand, from steel to brick, packed earth to underwater structures!

Thicknesses recommended for walls and floors vary greatly though with steel being 5 inches, brick 16 inches, packed earth 2 feet, and water three, although of course, packed earth is the cheapest, and most readily available.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that your bunker will save you, but then again, I’d rather have some chance than none at all…

6. Arm Yourself

It’s an unfortunate fact of human existence that when disaster strikes, we all go a little crazy. There will be looters, robbers, and ordinary people, mad with fear, willing to do anything to protect themselves and possibly their families.

Unfortunately, if you are prepared for the survival of yourself, and your family, you may not be able to help anyone else, and you will need to protect your shelter, stores and family from potential attack by those who are desperate enough to do so.

Chances are, even if the bomb does drop, that there will be police stations, gun shops and other areas where you can obtain weapons and ammunition afterwards, when everyone has deserted them. Of course, having a few weapons to get started will make getting from your bunker to the gun shop a lot less risky, so make sure you equip your bunker with a few weapons of your choice.

5. Get the Right Gear

If the world ends, the last thing on anyone’s mind is going to be fashion. Your clothes and other gear will need to be practical, durable, and comfortable. Not only that, but central heating and airconditioning will be a thing of the past, so you’ll need to make provision for surviving in extreme heat, or extreme cold.

A trip to a hunting, fishing or camping store, or even your local army surplus, should give you a good choice of options, and from there, you can stock your bunker with boots, coats, trousers and other necessary items.

Blankets, rain coats and other weather specific items will also need to be stocked up on, as would serviceable, practical furniture for your fallout shelter. You’ll need somewhere to sleep, sit, cook, wash and so on, so consider those requirements too.

4. Stock Up On Provisions

Another thing that you’re going to have to do if you plan to survive a nuclear holocaust is to stock up on provisions. From food, to water, to toilet paper, you’re going to need everything, and lots of it!

Remember that even supplies that survive the blast of a nuclear warhead may well be contaminated with radioactive fallout, which means you won’t be able to trust anything you find outside your fallout shelter.

Canned goods, bottled water and other non perishable provisions will be what keeps you alive after a nuclear holocaust. Of course, investing in a Geiger counter would mean that you could scavenge after a blast, and find non contaminated goods. That way, you’d be able to replenish your supplies from time to time.

Then again, if you have a dog, keeping them after the holocaust may be a priority for you, either as a companion, a protector, or a beloved family pet. Remember that they would also need to eat, so you would need to stock up for them too.

Each and every member of your family, including any animals, would need to be provisioned, with food, water and other necessary supplies, so make sure you account for them in your provisioning forays.

3. Prepare for Medical Emergencies

Once the world have effectively ended, following a nuclear holocaust, there will be no more doctors, dentists or emergency rooms.

You’re going to be flying solo, so stocking up on medical supplies, from bandages to disinfectants, and drugs, is going to be critical to your survival. Then again, if you have no knowledge of first aid whatsoever, buying a few first aid and other medical books will go a long way to ensuring you don’t make things worse!

2. All the Other Supplies

Imagine you could never, ever, go to a grocery store again. That’s pretty much what would happen if the world experienced all out nuclear war. You would have to be entirely self sufficient in order to survive.

For power, you would need to buy a generator, and stock up on fuel, or have a lot of batteries. You would need some form of entertainment, and since there would be no TV or internet, you’d probably have to read, so stocking up on books and magazines would be a good idea.

You would need bedding, clothing and utensils, pots and pans, toiletries and toilet paper. Fresh water that was uncontaminated would be in short supply, so you’d need lots of bottles of water stored.

Ideally, a means to grow your own food would be great, if you could achieve it inside your fallout shelter, and since UV light could be used for this, if you have a generator, and a lot of fuel, it may be worth while to stock up on seeds.

Essentially, your survival after nuclear war will depend on your preparation for the months and years that follow, or at least until you could find your way to an uncontaminated area.

1. Have a Plan

There’s a saying that goes: “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” When it comes to post nuclear holocaust survival, that will be especially true. You will need to have carefully laid plans to cover every eventuality, since there would be no back up, and no one to turn to, at least not in terms of government or leadership.

This list only scratches the surface of the things you will need to consider if you plan to survive a nuclear holocaust, and the aftermath, so if you are genuine about doing that, you’ll probably need to spend a lot more time thinking about it.

When it comes right down to it, you will need to plan for all of you, and your family’s needs, for several years after the event, as there’s no telling if, or when, help would come. It’s a bleak and unpleasant thought, and one that could be prevented if only governments could be convinced to give up their nuclear armaments.

Of course, that, as with most things between international power players, is unlikely to happen, as each government ideally wants everyone else to get rid of their warheads, while retaining their own. We should all realize that that is never going to happen. The only way to effectively eliminate the threat of nuclear war is to remove all warheads from the picture, whether owned by a large or a small country.

Bear in mind that no nation wishes to be threatened by those that have nuclear capabilities, so the only way to level the playing field is either to arm everyone, or disarm everyone. I know which option I’d choose.

To this day, music, song, and certain noises have the power to elevate mood, bring back memories, whether happy or sad, evoke joy or fear, and alter out emotional state in many other ways. For instance, what would a horror movie be without the slow, ominous beat, building to a crescendo, or the scream of the hero as they are caught unawares by whatever it is that goes bump in the night?

What else but a favorite golden oldie, on your car radio as you edge your way homewards from a hard day’s work, would have the power to bring a smile to your face?

We humans are so enamored with sound, in fact, that we have developed our complex speech patterns from it, eschewing the largely body language communication of most other mammals in favor of the spoken word. We’ve created several complex, highly specific tongues, all of which we feel immense pride and an almost patriotic sensibility toward.

We use our speech to create works of art, in the form of plays, and books. Armed with the tool of speech, we venture into the world, using it to make friends, learn, and find love. Speech is, in fact, the single most important thing that sets us apart from lower animals, and we should appreciate all that it’s done for us.

But aside from speech, what are the most appealing sounds?

Because of the emotive aspect to sound, each human will experience them slightly differently, and may have a slightly different list of favorites, but we’re sure you’ll find at least one or two of your favorites on our list of the top ten most appealing noises, which we bring to you, as usual, in no particular order.

10. Rain on a Tin Roof

Enjoyed while tucked under the covers, or in front of the fireplace with a loved one, there’s not much to beat the rhythmic tap tapping of rain on a metal roof. If you round out your experience with a cup of cocoa, while you snuggle, warm and dry and listen to that hypnotic sound, you’ve got a recipe for the perfect winter’s evening in.

Of course, it doesn’t only rain at night, but who could argue with the enjoyment derived from sitting, warm and toasty in bed on a rainy day, reading a favorite book? Sheer bliss, and all the more so thanks to the rain on a tin roof.

If you don’t have a tin roof, don’t despair! The sound of rain, driven by the wind, lashing on a window, has about the same effect. So next time the weather turns, draw your quilt nearer, and make yourself a steaming cup of cocoa, and settle down to listen to one of the very best sounds you’ll hear for a long time to come.

9. A Babys First Cry

This one is for the parents out there. After nine long months of anticipation, preparation and anxiety, which often endures right up to the last moment, there’s nothing better than hearing the first cry of your newborn infant. It may be thin, plaintiff, or full force, but that first cry, whatever it sounds like, is surely the one that cements the relationship between parent and child.

In fact, it’s enough to diffuse any amount of tension in a delivery room, that first plaintiff wail that proclaims to the world that your little bundle of joy, who you’ve worked so hard to bring to life, is going to be just fine.

This is especially memorable for those mothers who have had a difficult pregnancy or delivery, or if dad or other family members spends the delivery in the corridor instead of the delivery room, and while there will be many cries after, that first one is the one that will bring the biggest tears of joy to your eyes.

8. The Snuffling of a Puppy or the Purr of a Kitten

You’d have to be a very hard person indeed not to be moved by the snuffle a puppy emits when brought close to your ear, when they are still tiny enough to fit in one hand, and before their eyes even open to the world.

Holding a warm, wriggling bundle to your ear and hearing that slightly wet, sometimes wheezy sniff and snuffle a puppy produces is enough, usually, to bring a smile to anyone’s face, and even to cause the hairs on your arms and neck to stand up. It may even result in a giggle of delight. Regardless of what those puppies may one day grow into, that moment, when they are tiny and helpless, snuffling in your ear, is probably one of life’s best.

Kittens, on the other hand, seem to purr from almost the moment they’re born. It’s often surprising that such a powerful and deep rumble can come from such a small and fragile body, but holding a kitten, stroking it, and hearing that sound is surely another of life’s special moments. And the good thing is, if it’s your cat, you’ll hear that rasp of a purr for years to come too.

7. The Final Bell of School

If you are a child of school going age, or a grown up, you’ll know the immense anticipation that mounts during the school day, as the final bell approaches. By the time you reach your final period, the day seems interminably long, and you are almost sure that sound will never come.

As slow minutes tick by, however, and you edge ever nearer to that beautiful sound, the anticipation mounts once more, reaching fever pitch, and when you finally do hear that electronic peal, it’s as if the shackles have been removed. Freedom awaits once more!

Of course, if it’s the last day of school before the summer holiday, the wait seems even more interminable, and the ecstasy when that sound eventually comes that much more intense. Almost makes you wish for school again, doesn’t it?

6. The Tinkle of Change

There are no sounds that are quite like it. The musical tinkle of small change as it tinkles in your pocket. That reassuring sound of money in a money box when you were growing up, or better yet, that same tinkle, combined with the bells and whistles that indicate a win on a slot machine when gambling.

The more noise that money makes, the happier we seem to be, and there’s certainly no mistaking it. Maybe it’s because the more noise it makes, the more there’s likely to be, and while it can’t buy love, in the words of the immortal Beetles, it certainly brings security.

As long as there’s a tinkle of change in pocket, the world looks a little rosier, life a little easier to handle, and the future a little brighter.

5. The Crunch of Gravel

For centuries, driveways have been covered with gravel, and personally, I think the practice endures to this day, despite the introduction of more modern materials, in so many homes, because of the unique sound it produces.

When awaiting guests, there’s no sound better than the much anticipated crunch on gravel, enough to send kids and adults alike squealing and running to meet their long awaited visitors. Or what about the unanticipated visits, when someone arrives unexpectedly, with that telltale crunch.

Like most of the others on this list, it’s a unique noise, that would not be confused with any other, but that affects us all almost the same.

4. Ice in a Glass

Another unmistakable sound, the tune of ice cubes floating in a glass, or the fizz and crack as they meet a beverage as it’s poured in.

There’s little that evokes such a feeling of cool, even on the hottest day, as that musical melody that ice makes in a glass as it melts all to rapidly in the heat of the sun. In fact, just hearing that clink as the ice bobs on the surface in a glass can bring to mind the image of a frosted glass, filled with a long, cool draught.

Maybe it’s because of the transience of the ice, or maybe just because we know the beverage will cool us, and slake our thirst that much better because of those little irregular cubes, but it’s definitely right up there on the list of appealing sounds, for me at least.

3. Waves Crashing on Shore

The sound of waves crashing on a shore will forever evoke memories of happy family holidays by the sea, lulled to sleep gently as the eternal sea pounds the sand or rock rhythmically.

Maybe it’s the feeling of permanence that the sea evokes in an uncertain world, or simply the hypnotic regularity of the noise, but in spite of the fact that we know the sea can be destructive, that noise is one of the most peace invoking around.

Even when the sea is rough, crashing like thunder on a rocky shore, as long as you and your family are safe and warm, you will tend to feel a sense of cozy peace, knowing that today, tomorrow, and for the rest of eternity, those waves are going to be pounding that shore, at regular intervals. It’s a reminder of the permanence of the world.

Of course, this sound is best enjoyed on an isolated stretch of coast, where the human noise and hum of traffic won’t detract from its power to instill peace, but wherever you can get it, take it. It’s an enduring sound, which will stay with you.

Maybe that’s why people are so fascinated by the sound of the sea in seashells? An opportunity to take a little bit of that feeling home with them perhaps?

2. A Crackling Fire

Here’s another one that depends largely on the weather! There’s no denying, that the crackle or roar of a fire, whether in a hearth, a campsite, or as a bonfire on the beach on a cool evening, has the power to affect the soul.

The appeal of the sound is almost directly proportionate to the chill in the air, and maybe it’s also got something to do with our ancient ancestors, after all, the discovery of fire was a turning point in our evolution!

That familiar crackle means warmth, heat, and possibly a hot meal to many of us, and we instinctively gravitate towards the crack and pop it emits as is burns, hissing as steam from hidden sap escapes, the dancing flames throwing patterns on our faces.

Maybe that’s why camping is so much fun? It can’t be the prospect of the hard ground or all the bugs, that’s for sure!

1. Your Own Name

Scientists have actually proven this one. The most appealing sound to human ears is the sound of your own name.

Perhaps it’s because it’s your unique identifier, or maybe it’s because of the social nature of people, but the sound of our names, whispered, shouted in excitement or joy, or spoken gently, has a profound impact on us.

Imagine, for example, that you were stranded, as some have been, on an isolated island, with no other human company. All of a sudden, the prospect of hearing your name spoken in a voice other than your own takes on a whole new depth of meaning, doesn’t it?

Because of the power of the name, it’s a common practice for sales and business people to create systems by which to remember names. The name of their client becomes a key, with which they unlock the potential for business.

10. World War III

World War III could be the end of the world through nuclear apocalypse.

Nuclear apocalypse is one of the most common theories about how mankind will meet its doom. The World War III scenario predicts that if another global war were to occur, human beings would self destruct through the use of nuclear weapons. The weapons themselves might not blow up all of earth, but the long-term radiation effects and the atmospheric changes could eventually obliterate all life.

Many people think that the threat of World War III has diminished greatly since the end of the Cold War, when the potential for nuclear battle was at its highest. Some scholars even go as far as to call the Cold War World War III because most of the world was in some way involved. Regardless, the threat of nuclear fallout still exists, even if it has become less likely.

9. Big Crunch

The Big Crunch hypothesis is like the opposite of the Big Bang; it predicts that, eventually, the universe will stop expanding and begin retracting, ultimately becoming a black hole. The idea is that all the matter in the universe would be attracted together due to gravity. Eventually, the gravitational pull would form clumps of dense matter, which would lead to black holes. Over time, all the black holes would converge to form the Big Crunch singularity. If this were to happen, it wouldn’t be anytime soon. Scientists estimate that a Big Crunch event wouldn’t be likely until more than 100 billion years in the future.

Recent experimental evidence has made the Big Crunch theory seem unlikely. Now, most scientists speculate that the rate of the universe’s expansion isn’t slowing down, as would be anticipated with the Big Crunch. Instead, it appears that the universe is growing more quickly! But we’ll never know for sure what will be the fate of our universe. All of these ideas are highly theoretical, and the Big Crunch, like all theories, is purely speculative.

8. Ragnarok

“The Battle of the Doomed God,” a painting by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine.

In ancient Norse mythology, the Ragnarok is equivalent to the end of the world as we know it. This doomsday event was predicted in multiple Norse poems and prose writings, and it literally translates to “doom of the powers” or “twilight of the gods.” In the Norse poems, a volva, or priestess, prophesies about the final battle between the gods and evil forces. During the war, Odin and Thor, two major gods, are killed. Several other minor deities die too. After the battle, the sun becomes black, the stars vanish, and people flee their homes as the earth sinks into the sea.

Norse mythology doesn’t consider the Ragnarok to be the end of all things, however. In the poems, the earth eventually resurfaces. A few gods survive the catastrophe, and they meet to begin re-cultivating the land. Two human beings survive the Ragnarok as well, and they repopulate the earth with their descendents. A new sun lights up the sky, the next generation of gods is in power, and people live in peace.

7. Death of the Sun

This isn’t so much a theory as it is a guarantee. Like all other stars, our sun will eventually die. And when that happens, earth will either be destroyed altogether or rendered lifeless from extreme heat or frigid cold. But don’t worry. We’ve got about billions of years before that starts to happen.

Stellar evolution predicts five billion years from now to be the time when the sun will exhaust its fuel supply and become a red giant. When this happens, the sun will expand and become more luminous. If the red giant sun doesn’t envelop and destroy the earth with its outer reaches, then its increased heat will cause the oceans to boil and most all living things to die. After the red giant phase, the sun will become a white dwarf. If the earth still exists at that point, it will become frigidly cold. Any remaining life will surely perish. It’s a no-win situation.

6. Zombie Apocalypse

The zombie apocalypse scenario began with Night of the Living Dead, a 1968 film directed by George Romero. Since then, it has been a popular end-of-the-world plot in science fiction and horror novels and films. The basic premise is that zombies, or reanimated corpses, unexplainably show up and begin attacking people all over the world. Authorities are slow to react to the crisis, so the zombies eventually destroy human society. A few survivors may remain in small pockets on earth, but most people either perish or turn into zombies themselves.

Zombie theories are usually confined to the world of fiction, but some people do take these apocalyptic ideas seriously, sort of. Fans of zombie literature have been known to try to prepare for the potential apocalypse by creating web site detailing escape plans and warning about zombie sightings. And pamphlets about how to survive zombie attacks are popular as well. Some fans have even created anti-zombie weapons to use when the time comes (or to just show off to their friends). So while a zombie apocalypse is unlikely, this theory does get its fair share of attention.

5. End of the Kali Yuga

The demon Kali, wielding a sword.

In Hindu mythology, time is broken into four ages, or Yugas, that occur in cycles. The Kali Yuga is the era of moral and spiritual collapse, when humans lose touch with religion and give in to sin. Most interpretations of Hindu scriptures believe that mankind is currently in the Kali Yuga, which is sometimes called the age of darkness. According to these views, the Kali Yuga began with the death of Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, in about 3101 B.C. Traditionally, the Kali Yuga is thought to last for 432,000 years.

The Kali Yuga is marked by an apocalyptic series of events, ending with a fantastic battle between good and evil. Kali, the demon of discord who rules over the age, will wreak havoc throughout the Kali Yuga. When he has tormented mankind to the point of moral failure, the god Vishnu will be reincarnated as Kalki. He will fight and kill the demon, bringing in a new age of peace, known as the Satya Yuga.

4. Buddhist Eschatology

The Buddha Maitreya, who will bring new peace when the world is lost.
In Buddhist eschatology, or belief about the end of the world, moral denigration is the ultimate apocalyptic event. The belief derives from Gautama Buddha’s prediction that his teaching would be lost in 500 years. Since his time, this estimated time period has been extended to 5,000 years. When Buddha’s teachings are lost, the world will become amoral. Eventually, all memory of Buddha himself will be lost. The tradition believes that after this happens, a new Buddha named Maitreya will come to the earth to renew the religion’s teachings. It is believed that Maitreya is now in heaven waiting to be reborn into the world.

After Maitreya’s time, the world will again worsen. Wars will be common. Eventually, beings cease to be born. Then, great destruction will destroy much of the earth, including the realms of humans. Buddhists believe in many “worlds,” which are inhabited by varying levels of moral beings. The upper worlds will survive, but the lower ones will be wiped out. After a period of emptiness, the worlds will begin to be rebuilt, humans will reappear in a holier state, and the cycle will be renewed.

3. End Times

Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment.

In most Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, the end of the world is marked by a series of events that are collectively known as the end times or the end of days. The details of these last days vary between religions and sects, but all share a common sequence: there will be period of tribulation, then a great battle between good and evil. The battle will be followed by the return or appearance of the Messiah, who will judge the living and the dead and bring the Kingdom of God to the earth.

There are many arguments within these religions about when the end times will come. Some scholars maintain that the tribulations of the end times are an ongoing process, but others think they will happen sometime in the future. It’s also not known if life will continue on earth after the apocalypse, or if humans will only live spiritually in heaven. Regardless, belief in some kind of apocalypse that ends with a divine appearance is crucial to the three great monotheistic religions of the world.

2. Doomsday Argument

Human population through modern times.

The Doomsday argument, or DA, is a mathematical argument that postulates the fate of the human race based on an estimate of the total number of humans born so far. It was first proposed by physicist Brandon Carter in 1983. Based on the evidence used, the argument predicts we are currently about halfway through human history. Ultimately, the DA states that there is a 95 percent chance that humans will be extinct within 9120 years.

The argument uses simple logic to state that we can be 95 percent certain that we are within the last 95 percent of humans to ever live. Based on this principle, the DA states that there is a 95 percent chance that the total number of humans will be less than 20n, with n standing for our position in the lineup of human lives over history. If we use 60 billion as an estimate for the total humans born so far, we can get that the total number of humans ever to live will be about 1.2 trillion. Assuming a the population of the world stabilizes at 10 billion, and that human life expectancy is about 80 years, the DA estimates that all the remaining humans will be born in about 9120 years.

The Doomsday argument takes a lot for granted, so it has sparked many rebuttals. But it remains a topic of consideration. And the fact that it puts human existence into numerical terms makes it one of the most intriguing end-of-humankind theories out there.

1. 2012 Doomsday Prediction

A stone with carvings referring to a date on the Mayan calendar.

All around the world, there are pockets of people convinced that 2012 will bring about the end of time, or at least a huge change in life as we know it. The theory is based on the Mesoamerican Long Calendar, a timekeeping device developed by the Mayans, which will end its current 5,125-year cycle on December 21, 2012.

Proponents of the prediction claim that the Mayans knew about a catastrophic event that would take place at the end of the 12th baktun, or 400-year cycle, on the calendar. December 12, 2012 corresponds to the end of this 12th cycle, when the calendar will read 12.12.12.12.12. Since the Mayans counted in 12s, supporters claim that there can be nothing beyond this setting. Believers think that some kind of geological event will occur on that day, which may bring total destruction to life on earth. Pole shifts and planet collisions are two common theories about what will happen. Some new age predictions claim that humans will not die, but will reach a higher level of consciousness. Critics of the theory think that the calendar will just continue to the 13th baktin, reading 13.0.0.0.0.

Only one Mayan artifact that has been found so far mentions anything about the end of the calendar cycle. This tablet is in poor condition, but it appears to state that the end of the 12th baktin will correspond to the return of Quetzelcoatl, the principle Mayan god. Some proponents of the theory have taken this to mean that 2012 could correspond to the Second Coming of Christ, Armageddon or other apocalyptic events. The theory has become more popular due to recent specials about it that aired on the History Channel.

What will happen on 12/12/12? No one knows. We’ll just have to wait and see.