Top 10 Valuable Video Games

Pepsi Invaders sounds like the name of one of Pepsi’s many failed product lines, but it’s actually a game for the Atari 2600. Commissioned by Coca-Cola for their 1983 sales convention, the game is little more than Space Invaders with the aliens replaced by the letters that spell out Pepsi. Never intended for commercial release, only the 125 attendees of the convention received a copy. The number of cartridges that survive to this day is unknown, but the most recent one to surface was snapped up on eBay for 2125 dollars in early 2010.

9.  Ultima:  Escape from Mt. Drash

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Top 10 Over The Top Marathons

F or higher temperatures. Because of the conditions and length of the marathon, it’s often been called the toughest on earth. It has taken place since 1986 and is run throughout the Moroccan Desert. The location has definitely wreaked havoc on some of the runners, some participants have gotten lost in sand storms while 2 have died. Translated into Marathon of the Sands, this marathon literally takes place in a desert. This type of marathon is as long as 6 marathons put together and spans over 6 days and by the end of it all, runners will have travelled about 120 miles. As if the heat and distance aren’t enough, those who participate must carry all of their food and belongings with them during the race.

4. Great Tibetan Marathon

The Great Tibetan Marathon is held each year in northern India on the Tibetan Plateau where runners are able to enjoy the surrounding view of the Himalayan Mountains. Throughout the race runners get to experience the scenery within the Indus Valley. This marathon is especially different because it takes place in Buddhist surroundings at an altitude of 3,500m. At such a high altitude, runners have to learn how to deal with low oxygen levels which makes the race even harder to run as it is definitely much more of a challenge than a marathon at a normal altitude. Participants must spend time at 3,500m to allow the body to get used to the conditions before they can compete in the race. Also a day before the race, a 3km run is put into place so that runners can really get a grasp of the change in altitude. Athletes of all types can join into the marathon as they offer a half marathon, a 10km, and then a full marathon run.

3. Polar Circle Marathon

Just by the name, you can guess that the Polar Circle Marathon is definitely a little bit chilly. In fact, in many cases, runners have to make their trek in 14

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Top 10 Over Rated Acts in Music Today

9. Nirvana

This band isn’t around currently, for obvious reasons, though it seems always to be treated as though it fits in a larger pantheon of great rock musicians including the likes of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin.  This is a delusion.  With only three albums to speak of, it’s hard not to think that part of this rushed status has something to do with Kurt Cobain’s suicide.  There are much better examples of artists who emerged from the 90’s grunge movement- ones who didn’t make a conscious and painstaking effort to be so sonically dissonant (i.e. unlistenable).  Cobain despised the songs (Smells Like Teen Spirit in particular) his fans actually liked and actively sought to make music contrarily to this fact, playing poorly and sloppily to discourage enjoyment.  While Nirvana may be talent in its own way (its very own way) and the group may have tried to be true to self (which is highly respectable), people need to quit jumping the gun (no pun intended).  Start by using the phrase

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Top 10 Most Famous Women in History

find sanctuary in northern states over the next eleven years. Her efforts made her a hunted woman in the south, resulting in as much as a $40,000 price being put on her head at one point. When the Civil War broke out, her work with the Underground Railroad ended but her service to the Union cause did not.  During the war she served, in turn as: a nurse, a scout for the Union, and, at one time, even a Union spy. After the war, she remained a tireless advocate for civil and human rights and a figure in the woman’s suffrage movement right up to the year of her death in 1913. Widely known and well-respected while she was alive, after her death she became an American icon. She is frequently referred to as the

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Top 10 Otherwise Promising Movies Ruined by CGI

George Lucas’s strategy to create a saga in nonconsecutive order may have been a brilliant way to build suspense, but with suspense comes anticipation and ultimately heightened expectations.  Lucas could hardly hope to meet such expectations perfectly; so, it would seem, he hardly even tried to.  Continuity issues were the first issue to be addressed in such an ass-backward approach to film-making; you can’t embark on such an epic endeavor if you can’t maintain a consistent storyline.  For the most part, that wasn’t an issue: Anakin grew up to be Vador as planned (though, in order to procreate and produce Luke and Leia with Padme, Padme had to apparently lack the ability to age during Anakin’s adolescent years), the empire became corrupt, the rebel alliance came about, etc., etc.  The one thing not accounted for? The advent of CGI.  Somehow CGI existed in the first three but only puppets and Frank Oz’s voice did in the last three (the

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Top 10 Dance Crazes

, the tune for this dance was written in the late 1950s by a Swiss accordion player named Werner Thomas during the time he was tending a flock of ducks. It later emigrated to the United States in the 1970s, when New York publisher Stanley Mills acquired the U.S. publishing rights. Mills focused considerable time and energy selling the song, which began to grow in popularity in the 1980s.  By the late 1990s, he was licensing the tune for use on dance compilation CDs, karaoke collections and TV commercials for Burger King and the Chicken Dance was here to stay. Today it the dance is still featured at weddings and other events, guaranteed to get both talented and untalented dancers out on the floor, since everyone looks equally silly doing it.

9. The Hustle

This 1970s line dance craze began with the introduction of a song by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony called “The Hustle“. The dance rocketed to international fame after it got the spotlight in the 1977 movie sensation

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Top 10 Customized Vehicles From Around The World

Long thought of as a homogenous culture of cubicle drones, the Japanese can actually be just as creative and weird as anyone. Dekotora (an abbreviation of

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Top 10 Strangest Animal Behaviors

strange. Here is my top 10:

10. Naked Mole Rats

The Queen Gets Pushy And Runs In (Backwards) To 10

Most commonly known as naked mole rats (also called the desert mole rat and sand puppy), they are neither moles nor rats but a type of guinea pig. They are ugly animals, often described as resembling a bloated bratwurst with teeth. The behavior they exhibit, in all its hilarity, is their ability to run as fast backwards as they can forwards, in the dark and completely blind. Even stranger, the queen mole rat is the only one to breed and bear young, similar to the queen bee. In order to secure her exclusivity to mate she will push around other female mole rats in order to cause them stress. This releases hormones that make them unable to procreate.

9. The Bowerbird

Interior Decorator at Heart

For all those anal-retentive interior designers the Bowerbird enjoys decorating too. Not only does the Bowerbird make great efforts to adorn his nest, he even goes so far as to destroy the nests of his neighbors. In an effort to attract a mate, the male Bowerbird builds what are termed,

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Top 10 Thanksgiving Movies

Home for the Holidays (1995)

After losing her job, making out with her soon to be ex-boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson has to face spending the holiday with her family. She wonders if she can survive their crazy antics. Written by Cyndi Kessler

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Top 10 Nightmare Visions of New York

The quintessential urban hellscape, The New York of the 1979 cult classic The Warriors is a city so riddled with street gangs that they can hold a general meeting in one of the biggest parks in the city with little fear of reprisal. They even seem to have their own radio station. The gangs are so emboldened that their leader suggests they actually take over the city entirely as they outnumber the police 3 to 1. When he is killed, the Warriors of the title are forced to flee back to their home turf in Coney Island. The city they cross is dirty and filled with garbage, human and otherwise. As they dodge blood-thirsty gang after blood-thirsty gang, their numbers are slowly diminished. The New York of The Warriors is so brutal that even a hardened bunch of street fighters can barely survive one of its nights. But it isn’t all horrible. Even though the streets are crawling with murderous thugs, at least they go to the trouble of coming up with interesting themes and wearing colorful costumes. It makes getting the living snot beat out of you just a little more pleasant.

9.  Gotham City (Batman)

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Top 10 Most Visited Famous Grave Sites

In a Paris cemetery, Oscar Wilde, (1854 to 1900) was laid to rest in the prestigious Paris cemetery, Pere Lachaise, after residing in a grave in Bagneaux Cemetery on a plot of ground only available for temporary lease. Temporary lease? Yes, and for this reason, he was encased in quicklime so the corpse would decompose faster. The famous Irish writer, poet and playwright is visited frequently by fans and his work is still being read throughout the world today, 100 years after his death. Fifty years after his passing the remains of his longtime friend, Robert Ross, was placed in his tomb. His tomb was sculpted by the famous American, Jacob Epstein. Oscar Wilde rests in peace at number 10,

9.  Bruce Lee

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Top Ten Acts Dissed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

in other words, these guys are the epitome of true rock stars. From all the hard partying days, scrapes with the law, through rehab and getting sober in the late eighties, they rocked! This band influenced scores of later bands, and deserves to be in the hall for that reason alone.

8. Styx

Yes, I have heard all the arguments about the commercial sound. In other words, this band played the music that people wanted to hear, and wanted to buy. I certainly don’t understand how that could be construed as something negative. Four consecutive albums certified multi-platinum, including The Grand Illusion through Paradise Theater.

7.  Electric Light Orchestra

One of the biggest selling bands in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, ELO was an English band that had much more success in the United States. After a career selling more than 50 million albums worldwide, including 12 different studio albums and more than four dozen singles, is there really any doubt that they belong in the Hall of Fame? And what about that crazy spaceship?

6. Judas Priest

I was tempted to say

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Top 10 Under Appreciated Silent Horror Films

but backwards.

8. The Student of Prague

1913

Directed by Stellan Rye and Paul Wegener

The Student of Prague is an early German horror film that contains a basic retelling of the classic Faustian tale.   It involves a poor student named Balduin becoming completely obsessed with a countess.  He ends up making a deal with a sorcerer named Scapinelli to give everything he desires, including great wealth.  In return, he must sign a contract.  You can figure out where the plot goes from there.  The film is notable for several different reasons.  First, it contained some very prominent special effects that were considered quite extraordinary for the era.  The most famous is where Balduin shares the screen with a double of himself.  Also, Scapinelli is an incredibly important figure in the development of horror films.  He was one of the first characters who would seduce the protagonist with deals and bargains instead of defeating him with demons and infernal magic. It was due largely in part to this film that the entire trope of

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Top 10 Scariest Video Games

a special ops branch of the US Army that deals with paranormal threats. You play as a new member of this team during an investigation into a facility where research into telepathic powers has gone wrong.

Heavily inspired by Japanese horror films, F.E.A.R. drops a creepy little girl into the middle of an otherwise standard first person shooter. She spends the game toying with you, popping up every now and then to taunt you or force you to experience unpleasant hallucinations. Wondering when she’ll show up next keeps you on your toes, to the point where it becomes draining to play for more than a couple of hours at a time. The contrast between being able to gun down most opponents with ease, only to be left helpless in the face of a little girl, is remarkably effective.

7. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Dark Corners of the Earth is inspired by the work of famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and it faithfully recreates several of his most famous settings and creatures. You play as a private detective who’s been given the job of finding a missing person in the shadowy town of Innsmouth, an investigation that soon turns into an encounter with evil cultists, sea monsters and several ancient horrors.

To make matters worse, you’re forced to sneak through most of the game; enemies can easily overwhelm you if you’re spotted. And, much like in Eternal Darkness, you need to maintain your hero’s sanity. Expose him to too much horror and he’ll start to hallucinate, suffer from schizophrenia, and even kill himself. Nothing makes a game more nerve-wracking than being forced to listen to your character babble about how he has no hope of surviving.

6. Condemned: Criminal Origins

Condemned has you playing as a crime scene investigator who’s been framed for a double murder. You try to prove his innocence by tracking down the serial killer who was really responsible, a process that involves a mixture of crime scene analysis and beating homeless people to death with rusty pipes.

Don’t worry, they had it coming; they all turned into violent psychopaths for no apparent reason, which is another mystery you have to solve. And that’s part of what makes Condemned so scary- the brutal, hand to hand combat is genuinely unsettling. Factor in some tense exploration of dark and dreary abandoned buildings and all together you have a rather disturbing experience. Oh, and Condemned also managed to give us a lifelong fear of mannequins; watch the video clip to see what we mean.

5. Penumbra: Black Plague

No, this isn’t a game about the actual black plague. That would just be depressing. Instead, you’re exploring a ruined research facility where all the staff have either been killed or turned into zombie-like creatures that are looking to make a meal out of you.

Black Plague is ostensibly an adventure game, as you progress by exploring and solving a variety of puzzles. Unfortunately, it’s tough to crack riddles when you’re worried by the prospect of a monster jumping out and ripping your face off. You can fight back, but you’re weak, so  you’re better off avoiding conflict. Luckily, there aren’t a lot of monsters, but that’s actually part of what makes Black Plague so scary. There are just enough enemies to keep the tension running high while you explore the mysterious setting, and you know that if you’ve been safe for a while then there’s trouble coming soon.

4. Siren: Blood Curse

Siren tells the story of an American TV crew that’s come to Japan to do a report on a legendary

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Top 10 Athletes Who Lost Their Olympic Medal

Canada

Though born in Falmouth, Jamaica, Ben Johnson, during the Olympic Games, represented Canada as he migrated there during the 1970s. After living in Ontario, Johnson came into contact with Charlie Francis, a track and field coach, and eventually Johnson joined the Scarborough Optimists track and field team. With an Olympic coach behind him, Johnson was able to succeed and in 1982 was able to win 2 silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in Australia. In the 1984 Summer Olympics Johnson earned a bronze medal as well as another bronze medal at part of the Canadian 4x100m relay team. His first top success came in the 1986 Goodwill Games when he won first place. Johnson’s success continued as his endorsements continued to grow. In 1987 he was invited to be a member of the Order of Canada because of the fact that he had broken multiple records held by Canadians.

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Top 10 Feral Children

(cliffnotes.com). Those who believe in the nurture part think that humans learn according to how they are taught and what goes on around them. Those debating from the nature side say that we act according to genetic predispositions, as well as through animalistic instincts (i.e. Freud’s id).

What do you think? Are individuals a product of their environment, their genes, or a combination of both? Feral children are interesting aspects of this debate. A feral child is often defined as a young human being that is either abandoned or confined in some sort of situation that takes them away from any type of human interaction or communication. As a result, these children often lack social skills; even something as simple as speaking can be a skill they never learn. Many of these children are

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Top 10 Most Haunted Cities in the U.S.

this Halloween.

10. San Francisco, California

San Francisco’s rich cultural makeup, large immigrant population, and a history of natural disasters like earthquakes have helped it develop a reputation as a Mecca of all things haunted. Chinatown alone is home to countless ghost tours and creepy folklore, but the city also boasts a wealth of haunted hotels, mansions, and army bases. Of these, one of the most famous is the Queen Anne Hotel, which served as a school for girls in the 1890s and is said to be haunted by the ghost of its former headmistress, Mary Lake. There are also a number of stories concerning Mary Anne Pleasant, the so-called

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Top 10 Reasons Why Baseball is Better Than Football

Unfortunately professional football is normally played on Sundays.  With exception to Monday nights, and other mentions, football lovers simply don’t get to see their beloved sport on a normal basis throughout the week.

Baseball is quite the opposite.  Games are played on every day of the week, including the weekends.  We can even add day and night games to boot, which clearly puts football to shame with the possibilities of games.

9.  Longer Schedule

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Top 10 Funny Zombie Movie Moments

deadites’ featured in these films are actually demon-possessed corpses, not zombies.

If you don’t agree with my choices, please share your favorite funny zombie movie moments or zombie one-liners in your comments below.

(Note about video clips: I’ve included the location of each quote for longer clips

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Top 10 Grossest Halloween Candy

If you’re a true Muggle, you might not have any idea what these special jellybeans are all about. But true devotees of the world of Harry Potter are quite familiar with Bertie Botts and her confectionary concoctions. Borrowing a page from the best-selling novels and popular film franchise, this collection of jelly beans come in such delightful flavors as dirt, ear wax, rotten egg, soap and vomit. There are some regular good tasting jellybeans in each batch but buyer beware!

9. Sour Flush Toilet Candy

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Top 10 Best Movie Monsters

especially the ones that had a penchant for destroying whole cities or otherwise terrifying a clueless population with their wanton destruction. They also appeared to be indestructible

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Top 10 Disgusting Shots

Instructions: Mix one part tequila or whisky with one part Tabasco sauce, then add a sprinkle of pepper to taste.

Tabasco sauce is a staple of disgusting drinks, because it’s easily accessible and guaranteed to set your mouth on fire. You’ll be guzzling glasses of water immediately after shooting this, and it will do you absolutely no good.

9. Liquid Steak

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Top 10 Unusual Cemeteries

dark’ side of tourism, is a growing phenomenon around the world.

Here is my list of top 10 unusual and most visited cemeteries:

10. World’s First Public Pet Cemetery

Cimetiere Des Chiens

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Top 10 Zombie Costume Ideas

Make your face pale and apply the dark circles under your eyes and paint your lips black and you’re good to go. You can also find a rubber leg or arm to carry as a

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Top 10 Places to Fear on Halloween Night

Do Not Enter

In the weeks before the murders, strange events took place around Camp Scott.  Personal items began disappearing from the cabins and tents.  In one incident, a counselor reported that her doughnuts had been stolen, and inside the empty doughnut box was a disturbing hand-written note.  The author vowed to

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Top 10 Substance-Addled Writers

in Macbeth to explain the hijacking of normality by paranormal encounters, and even the Bible references a burning bush that apparently talked to Moses (hallucination or miracle?). There is a fine line between persistent divine intervention and a drug problem, the latter calling more for an intervention that involves family members and rehab admittance.

On the positive side, when such dalliances with illicit substances go unchecked, great literature is often the result. Substance-addled writers who fail to seek solace in a fellow human often find it on a blank page, which is always willing to listen without scrutiny to their deepest fears and darkest confessions (even if fiction is the medium). These folks pine for an outlet to quell the turmoil which rattles their brains, be it self-induced or not. In either case, one man or author’s pain/inner derangement is another man or reader’s spiked interest.

What follows is a list of the top ten substance-using-and-abusing modern writers that seemingly got high for our amusement, in spite of the consequences:

10. Charles Baudelaire

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Top 10 Australian Mythical Creatures

wherein the universe was created, mankind was created, and the Creators laid down the rules for how humans should interact with themselves and their environments.  During the Dreamtime, the Ancestor Spirits came to earth and gave birth to the land, plants, animals, and humans.  Afterwards they turned into other objects, such as animals and geologic locations such as hills.  If you are still confused, the topic of the Aboriginal Dreamtime is further discussed and detailed here on the internet.

10.  Bunyip

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Top 10 Inventions of the 21st Century

an embryo won’t be confined to humans either; by the year 2100 we might well have the ability to breed elephants no larger than a Golden Retriever or make a mouse the size of a house-cat. Who knows, we might even be able to merge DNA strands from two different kinds of animals and create a hybrid elephant/mouse mix. Ready to play God everyone?

8. Hypersonic Transportation

Just as the airplane revolutionized travel in the twentieth century, there is no reason to believe that evolution to ever faster speeds is going to end anytime soon. As such, it is likely that before the dawn of the next century people will be able to fly between London and Tokyo at Mach 10 speeds and arrive at their destination in just over two hours. It is said that by the end of the 19th century, the fastest a man could travel on a regular basis was 60 mph (by train). By the end of the 20th century, that speed had increased ten-fold, to 600 mph (by plane). By the end of this century, it is not inconceivable to predict that we’ll see another ten-fold increase, making it possible for the average man, woman, or child to regularly travel at speeds in excess of 6,000 mph! Imagine: a person could fly from Boston in mid-afternoon, grab lunch in Tokyo, and be home by evening. Consider the frequent flyer miles one could rack up doing that!

7. Free Energy

The holy grail of science has been the acquisition of energy that comes from non-polluting sources (i.e. oil, natural gas, coal, etc.). By the end of the century it is likely that dream will become a reality. However, it will come from several sources and in very different ways. Geo-thermal, wind, biomass, clean coal, nuclear and solar energy will be a part of the change, but other more exotic technologies may also emerge. Technologies such as fusion and zero-point energy generators, either of which would provide an inexhaustible source of non-polluting, non-radioactive energy. At this time, however, both energy sources are considered fantasy technologies- I imagine much the same might have been said about nuclear power a century ago.

6. Artificial Intelligence

It’s one thing to make a robot do daily chores around the house; it’s quite another to get it to think about how best to carry out its task. Welcome to the world of artificial intelligence, where machines will actually be capable of learning, planning, deciding, considering, comparing and even abstract thinking. They won’t be quite on par with the human brain

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Top 10 Biggest Internet Communities

there are plenty of discussion forums out there for you. Interested in vacuum cleaners? There’s a site that has you covered. Looking to find people who love Japanese schoolgirls as much as you do? They’re just a click away. Most Internet communities are small and specialised, because there are only so many people in the world interested in a certain TV show or disgusting fetish. But the following ten are so big they’ve become Internet landmarks.

10.  BuddyPic

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Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock Cameos

a body of work spanning half a century.

The Master of Suspense tipped his directorial cap to influential filmmakers D.W. Griffith and Charles Chaplin, both of whom stepped from behind the camera onto the silver screen.

As Hitchcock became bigger in fame and physique, so his cameos grew from simple walk-ons to key moments of comic relief, pin pricks of humor during stretches of taut suspense or subtle introductions to impending madness.

Here’s my top ten Alfred Hitchcock cameos in a game of

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