What’s the scariest job in America? That probably depends on your own personal fears. If you have a deathly fear of snakes, you’d probably say herpetologists have the scariest job. To settle the issue, Harris Interactive and CareerBuilder.com polled more than 4,300 workers in a nationwide survey in late summer 2011 and found the following 10 occupations rated as the scariest in the United States.
Some social trends come and go. Think goldfish swallowing, streaking and dwarf tossing at your favorite neighborhood bar. Other social trends, however, might start out silly, fun or even useful but then morph into something twisted, out-of-control — or even dangerous. A UCLA professor once claimed an adult male could eat up to 150 live goldfish without suffering any bodily harm, but several of the following trends that have gotten out of hand have the power to kill you in an instant.
Hollywood remakes motion pictures for essentially one reason — their money-making potential. Some remakes perform quite well financially, but most fail to meet their expectations. Often helping to heighten those expectations is the stature of the original movie. The more fans a film has, all the more reason there is not to revisit it years later. Although the list grows shorter every year, most of our best-loved movies have generally been left untouched. Rather, it's remakes of mediocre, obscure or even bad pictures that more frequently lead moviegoers to ask, "Why in the world did they go there?" Actually, filmmakers' reasons for doing so are sound. Titles in the horror genre, for instance, are routinely revisited since there are only so many ways to scare people, as well as for their franchise possibilities. If Hollywood were willing to widen its horizons and peruse other genres for remakes, it could easily identify several movies from the past that, while intriguing at the time, haven't stood the test of time, or were good but could've been better. In addition, there are many classic motion pictures that have through no fault of their own become dated and could benefit from an update. So, as a recommendation, here are five films, crossing decades and genres, that studios might want to take a look at instead of dumping many millions of dollars into the latest sure thing.
5 Presidents With the Biggest Approval Rating Declines
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 18:03 Published in PoliticsPresident Barack Obama’s poll numbers have plummeted since the early days of his presidency, as the troubled economy takes a toll on his approval rating, which has dropped 37 points from its high. If there’s any consolation for Obama, from an historical perspective, the majority of presidents in the past half-century have seen even bigger slides in the polls. That did not bode well for any of those leaders seeking reelection. Here are the five presidents since World War II with the biggest declines in approval ratings.
Top 10 Busiest Airports in the United States
Monday, 24 October 2011 13:42 Published in MiscellaneousSo you’re stuck in a passenger boarding area at Chicago O’Hare International Airport as your departure time comes and goes and the surly gate attendant announces for the fourth time that “boarding will begin shortly.” Such is life for frequent and not-so-frequent flyers who must fly into or out of O’Hare and the other busiest airports in the United States. Here’s a look at the top 10 busiest airports in the United States as of 2010, according to the Airports Council International.
When most people think of the military conflicts the United States has been involved in they tend to think of the big wars like World War II, Vietnam and the War on Terror. Yet the U.S. has been involved in dozens of smaller interventions and conflicts around the world in the course of its 235-year history. These operations have helped shape U.S. domestic politics as well as its foreign policy. While not an imperial power in the tradition of its European cousins, from its inception the U.S. has sometimes found it necessary to insert itself into the affairs of sovereign governments to protect its economic, diplomatic and security interests.
Lost tribes. Cosmic catastrophes. Fictitious species. If it sounds too incredible to be true, it often is. We’ve all heard of such classic cons as the Cardiff Giant or the Halley’s Comet scare of 1910, but modern-day hoaxes persist. What follows is a list of the top 10 hoaxes that have fooled journalists, the public, and yes, occasionally even the scientific community in recent years.
In another case of truth being stranger than fiction, earlier this year the FBI established a website containing thousands of files, formerly papers tucked away in file cabinets for decades. The ominous-sounding FBI Vault allows anyone to go online and sift through documents detailing everything from unexplained phenomena (UFOs) to investigations that seem ridiculous now (hundreds of pages dedicated to the immorality of a rock ‘n’ roll song or artist). You can check out the FBI Vault yourself — don’t worry, this won’t bring the Men In Black to your front door — or you can check out some of our favorite excerpts below. Please note that this is not meant to disparage the fine men and women who have worked at the FBI, or currently work for the agency, but these files, most from 40 or 50 years ago, reflect a very different era.
With Halloween right around the corner, kids are picking out their costumes, and parents are fretting about their children eating a month's worth of sugar in one night. You've probably heard tales about the roots of Halloween and how it actually began as part of a religious celebration. But have you ever wondered about more recent Halloween "traditions," such as the fear of tainted candy and torching abandoned buildings? And is it possible that some store-bought costumes are still quite flammable? The facts may surprise you.
For those readers who got cut from their high school’s varsity football or basketball team and are still seething with resentment, even 40 years later … it’s time to get some professional counseling. But it’s normal for us mortals to be a bit in awe of those athletes who star in high school, earn a college scholarship, then achieve fame and fortune in pro sports. Then there are the athletes who somehow manage to achieve great success in two, three or even several sports. These athletes almost defy explanation. Here are the top 10 most successful multisport athletes in American sports history.
