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29 Puzzling Objects That Somehow Inhabit the Same Universe As You

Objectively cool objects

29 Puzzling Objects That Somehow Inhabit the Same Universe As You

August 18, 2024

We wouldn’t describe ourselves as materialistic, but if certain objects have deep, interesting backstories, they get us licking our chops for sure. Their rarity increases our reverence, too.

Since our office is basically a broom closet, though, we’re more than happy to revere them from afar. Even if we could afford them, we don’t have the space. We’re tripping over brooms and mops as it is.

Okay, you caught us. It’s an actual broom closet.

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29

IN-CAR NAVIGATION Mim - MADE RUS SAM - РОСМИ 1.54m 230 0.25 1:57 г M - 1.25m A40 Cumberland Gate temsom WAS AVAILABLE IN 1932 The early models consisted of a paper map that would scroll relative to the car's speed. The driver was required to stop and change 313 the scrolls if he turned or went on a different route. GRAGKED.COM — Source

28

You may think that the A 14 10 20-sided die C 2 20 91 8 has only been around as long as S ungeons & Dragons... but similar polyhedra dating to as far back as Ancient Egypt have been found. Although it is thought that they were most likely used in Divination, ancient tabletop gaming remains a possiblity. GRAGKED.COM — Source

27

Think your new Tesla is a modern idea? Think again. The first crude electric vehicle was invented in the 1830s, and America's first electric car was built in 1891. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

The first submarine dates way back to the 1620s and was made by Cornelius van Drebbel. Called the Drebbel I, it was basically an enclosed CRACKED COM rowboat and was proprelled just like one. — Source

25

The idea of 3D printing is over 150 years old. Photosculpture by François Willème from 1865. And printers that could pull it off were invented three decades ago. In 1986, Chuck Hull patented the method of manufacturing called stereolithography. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

War photographer Robert Сара was with the U.S. troops on D-Day, and took 106 up-close pictures of the battle. Не handed the negatives to Life magazine, where an overeager 15-year-old assistant turned the heat up way too high while developing them, destroying 95. The heat gave the 11 surviving photos a blurry, haunting quality that helped make them memorable, so ... at least there was that? CRACKED.COM — Source

23

In 2013, when contractors at the Indian Museum in Kolkata broke a priceless lion sculpture from 250 В.С., the museum kind of just shrugged. They tried to put it back together using chains and pulleys, instead of modern equipment (which was how it got broken in the first place), leaving visible cracks. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Yorkshire's Brimham Rocks formed over 320 million years. Before After Until 2019, when some teenagers goofing off ended up pushing one of the boulders over a cliff, smashing it to pieces. Professionals were sent to see if the damage could be repaired, but it's kind of hard to patch up something 320 million years in the making. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

When a da Vinci sketch was found in 1998 among drawings by Italian artist Stefano della Bella, restorers got to work on it. (A portrait of da Vinci, not the sketch) They screwed up spectacularly, by dropping it into an alcohol and water solution that erased da Vinci's fine vegetable-based inks. They didn't even bother to test the technique on a small area, as is standard protocol. All that art historians were left with is the hope that one day, high-tech methods can bring back the sketch. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Monkey Jesus

Disrespectful uses of priceless artifacts Monkey Jesus Around 1930, Spanish artist Elías García Martínez painted the unremarkable Jesus portrait Ecce Homo. In 2012, untrained amateur artist Cecilia Giménez just said to herself, Sure, I can restore it, how hard can it be? Such childlike obliviousness gave us the artistic monstrosity our godforsaken age deserves. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Disrespectful uses of priceless artifacts DAVID CANTES The other, secret Louvres The Louvre being such a respected, classy, high-end museum, even its leftovers stash must be cool, right? In fact, the stuff they don't consider worthy of showing is in underground storage all over Paris. It looks like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with masterpieces. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Disrespectful uses of priceless artifacts Coolest bathroom decoration ever After Leonardo's death, the Mona Lisa was acquired by his benefactor, King Francis I. The French king hung it in his bathroom at the Fontainebleau palace, where it stayed for a bit until the French court was moved to Versailles. Of course, bathrooms were way different, bigger, and classier if you were a French royal. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

BS Ancient Artifacts Drake's Plate of Brass LIVRE IT ISU. E IT THE namedo BALLY EGGINIANTO HERE ITALE galla THU SANDA ORG TARD Policia the adidas INDUSTRYER UNIVERSIS 16.00g DARIO BY The RES MERAS California, 1936. A late-16th century brass plate allegedly left by Francis Drake is found, and professor/Drake fanboy Eugene Bolton squeals in excitement. But it was all a practical joke by Bolton's own colleagues, who were just tired of his fanboying. Bolton died before his colleagues could come forward, though. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

BS Ancient Artifacts The London Hammer Found in 1936 in London, Texas (everyone's favorite London), this man-made iron hammer is encased in a limey, Lower Cretaceous rock concretion, which doesn't make any sense and would change our understanding of human history. Except non- Creationist scientists (A.K.A. scientists) just consider it a curiosity: A normal old-timey hammer that got some sediment hardened around it. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

BS Ancient Artifacts The Baigong Pipes There's still discussion on just what the pipe-like features in China's White Mountain are, but the evidence suggests they're just fossilized trees or tree roots. They're not 150,000-year-old plumbing tech, but rather parts of trees whose outsides have been replaced by iron and calcium. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

BS Ancient Artifacts The Tiara of Saitaphernes In 1896, the Louvre was all cocky about its recently-acquired, mint- condition 3rd-century Greek crown. But then actual experts said it was too neat to be real, and the creator even came out. In 1903, Russian artist Israel Rouchomovski proved he made it, and the Louvre hid it away in shame, only to later display it as a fake. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

BS Ancient Artifacts The Hobby Lobby Dead Sea Scrolls Sirs happy Nost Bes чмл! TWO تورب 14 twite اجه 3 951 new دما mit Jupr ولا SMY la الرحيم HSV T in use invostre S 145m 949549 ألوحور gur H received ANIMAN G. A 31 Saga and your N/Kn YORK МУЧК mux LASTITYM 50 the Litter ٢١١١١ 19394 АЧУТ أدمه NISH 69481 219 my الله k 14931 T MHM gan بكة الله eyes has مال ك W 11 WAN 4.A. دول الله The owners of Hobby Lobby have a Bible Museum in Washington D.C., and it's really sketchy. Their artifacts tend — Source

12

The Tucson Artifacts

BS Ancient Artifacts (24) November a 1925 - Sword a pinces)-Depth: 72 The Tucson Artifacts In 1924, a man found two ancient- looking, 60-pound lead crosses in Tucson. Then his friends found around 30 more artifacts, and took them as proof Roman-era Jews had lived in Arizona between 775 to 900 С.Е. Plot twist: Everything was just lame forgeries, with their Hebrew and Latin messages lifted straight from textbooks. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

BS Ancient Artifacts The Crystal Skulls Claimed to have been found in 1924, the Crystal Skulls were actually bought at an auction in 1943. And once put under a scanning electron microscope by an actual anthropologist, they turned out not to be 3,600-years- old, but just made during the 1930s with 1930s tech. Or maybe it's a cruel prank by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg just to laugh at us. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

BS Ancient Artifacts The Shroud of Turin Looking like our bed sheets the morning after we pass out drunk, the Shroud of Turin appeared around the 14th century. Is it Jesus' last blankie with his lovable face? Nope. The weaving technique does not match his time, the Catholic Church probably knew it was a hoax back in the 1300s, and radiocarbon dates it to, yup, around the same time. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

The pink triangle is second only to the rainbow as a symbol of support for sexual diversity. It got its start in Nazi - Germany. The Nazis categorized people in concentration camps with colored triangles, and for gay men those triangles were pink-and also larger than triangles marking other groups. This was so that gays could be spotted at a distance and singled out for abuse. CRACKED.COM http://www. thepinktriangle. com/history/symbol.html — Source

8

When you see a pentagram, you might think of evil. But it's a symbol of protection. Although the five-pointed star in a circle has long been associated with Satanism and the occult, it's actually worn as a ward against evil. Even an inverted pentagram, which has a much more negative connotation, represents an individual's desire to face and conquer darkness. CRACKED.COM http://www.angelfire.com/id/robpurvis/pentagram.html — Source

7

The hammer and sickle stand for Marxism and communism. And also gender equality. At the time of its design, the hammer and sickle stood for worker-peasant alliance, with the hammer standing for the industrial proletariat, and the sickle representing the peasantry. Over time it took on a gender-based meaning in the Soviet Union: The sickle stood for women, and the hammer for men. CRACKED.COM http://www.ancient-symbolis com/symbols-directory/hammer_sickle.html — Source

6

Mistletoe makes people feel romantic. It should make them nervous. Mistletoe is actually the product of two traditions. In the first, the Viking god Baldur was killed by a mistletoe arrow, so it must always remain suspended in the air. In the second, Celtic Druids thought the berries looked like sperm, so they'd gleefully harvest mistletoe as the testicles of their sacred oaks. So, mistletoe represents death and castration. CRACKED.COM http://www.bartleby. .com/81/9645.html Uewellyn's Sabbats Almanac, 2009 — Source

5

A rabbit's foot is an old-timey good luck charm. They were originally seen as witch feet. Superstitious weirdos thought that rabbits were witches in disguise. So to them, catching a rabbit and lopping off its foot was catching a witch and crippling it. The earliest references to the rabbit's foot legend detail ways to maximize the evil power of the foot before you chop it off and wear it. CRACKED.COM Bill Ellis, 2004 Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture — Source

4

Barber Poles

A barber pole is a candy-striped symbol of small-town America. It's based on a bloody bandage. The pole got its start during the Middle Ages, when barbers doubled as doctors. A common practice at the time was bloodletting, where a patient would grasp a bandaged pole, and the barber would cut into their wrists and let the blood (and evil spirits) run down the bandage. That's what the pole represents. CRACKED.COM http://wordinfo.info/unit/3364/ip:17 — Source

3

The peace sign seems almost naively optimistic. It was designed to look defeated. British graphic designer Gerald Holtom created the peace sign by combining the semaphore symbols for N and D, to stand for nuclear disarmament. Не says it's also meant to look like a human being in despair, stretching his arms out and downward in desperation and defeat. CRACKED.COM http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/i/uk_news/magazine/7292252.stm — Source

2

The heart symbol isn't shaped like an actual heart. But it is shaped like birth control. If you trace the heart symbol back as far as you can, you wind up finding it on old Roman coins (above). That's the seedpod of the silphium plant, an herb so prized for its birth control capabilities that the Romans drove it to extinction. The Romans themselves thought the seeds looked like testicles. CRACKED.COM http://www slate com/articles/news_and_politics/recycled/2007/02/the_shape_of_my_heart.html — Source

1

To Christians, the ichthys fish represents Jesus. Before that, it was a vagina. One of the names given to the pre-Jesus Jesus Fish is the vesica pisces (vessel of the fish), and it was used as a symbol of every female fertility god ever, from Atargatis (the Syrian fertility goddess) and Aphrodite/Venus (the goddess of love and sex) to the pagan Great Mother goddess (specifically, her vulva). CRACKED.COM http://www. religioustolerance.org/chr_symb.htm — Source

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