Ghost ships, or phantom ships, make up a big part of the seafaring lore that has been passed down by sailors and fisherman throughout the years. The ships are said to be spectral apparitions that materialize on the horizon before quickly disappearing, and they are believed to be a sign of bad things to come. The term is also used to describe abandoned vessels that are found adrift with no crew or passengers, often under frightening and mysterious circumstances. Whether real stories of these derelict ships or legends about phantom craft trawling the seas, the following are the ten most famous ghost ships that continue to provoke speculation and mystery in the nautical world.

10. The Caleuche

One of the most well known legends of the Chilota mythology of southern Chile describes the Caleuche, a ghost ship that appears every night near the island of Chiloe. According to local legend, the ship is a kind of conscious being that sails the waters around the area, carrying with it the spirits of all the people who have drowned at sea. When spotted, the Caleuche is said to be strikingly beautiful and bright, and is always accompanied by the sounds of party music and people laughing. After appearing for a few moments, the ship is then said to disappear or submerge itself under the water. According to Chilota mythology, the spirits of the drowned are summoned to the ship by the Sirena Chilota, the Pincoya, and the Picoy, three Chilota “water spirits” who resemble mermaids. Once aboard the phantom ship, the drowned are said to be able to resume their life as it was before they died.

9. The SS Valencia

The SS Valencia was steamer ship that sank off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia in 1906. The ship had encountered bad weather near Cape Mendocino, and after drifting off course, struck a reef and began taking on water. The crew quickly began lowering lifeboats holding the ship’s 108 passengers into the water, but several of these capsized, and one simply disappeared. The Valencia eventually sank, and only 37 of the roughly 180 people on board survived. Five months later, a fisherman claimed he had found a life raft with 8 skeletons in it in a nearby cave. A search was launched, but it found nothing. Thanks to its dramatic end, the Valencia eventually became the source of numerous ghost ship stories. Sailors would often claim they could see the specter of the steamer drifting near the reef in Pachena Point, and to this day the ship is the source of frequent wild theories and ghost ship sightings. In a bizarre twist, 27 years after the sinking of the Valencia, one of its life rafts was found floating peacefully in nearby Barkley Sound. The “ghost raft” was said to be in remarkable condition, and even still had most of its original coat of paint.

8. The Ourang Medan

The story of the Ourang Medan begins in 1947, when two American ships received a distress call while navigating the Strait of Malacca, off the coast of Malaysia. The caller identified himself as a member of the crew of the Ourang Medan, a Dutch vessel, and supposedly claimed that the ship’s captain and crew were all dead or dying. The messages became jumbled and bizarre before trailing off and ending with the words: “I die.” The ships quickly raced to the scene to help. When they arrived, they found that the Ourang Medan was undamaged, but that the entire crew—even the ship’s dog— was dead, their bodies and faces locked in terrified poses and expressions, and many pointing at something that was not there. Before the rescuers could investigate further, the ship mysteriously caught on fire, and they had to evacuate. Soon after, the Ourang Medan is said to have exploded and then sank. While the details and the overall veracity of the Ourang Medan story are still widely debated, there have been a number of theories proposed about what might have caused the death of the crew. The most popular of these is that the ship was illegally transporting nitroglycerin or some kind of illegal nerve agent, which was not properly secured and seeped out into the air. Others, meanwhile, have claimed the ship was a victim of a UFO attack or some other kind of paranormal event.

7. The Carroll A. Deering

Perhaps the most famous ghost ship of the Eastern Seaboard is the Carroll A. Deering, a schooner that ran aground near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1921. The ship had just returned from a commercial voyage to deliver coal in South America, and had last been spotted just south of Hatteras by a lightship near Cape Lookout. It ran aground in the notorious Diamond Shoals, an area famous for causing shipwrecks, and sat there for several days before any help was able to reach it. When they did arrive, the Coast Guard found that the ship was completely abandoned. The navigation equipment and logbook were missing, as were the two lifeboats, but otherwise there were no signs of any kind of foul play. A massive investigation by the U.S. government followed, which discovered that several other ships had disappeared under mysterious circumstances around the same time. Several theories were eventually put forth, the most popular being that the ship fell victim to pirates or rumrunners. Others suggested that mutiny might have been the cause, as the Deering’s first mate was known to bear some animosity toward its Captain, but no definitive proof has even been discovered. The mystery surrounding the ghost ship has encouraged wild speculation, and many have argued that paranormal activity might have been responsible, citing the ship’s passage through the infamous Bermuda triangle as proof that some kind of otherworldly phenomena might be to blame.

6. The Baychimo

One of the most amazing cases of a real-life ghost ship concerns the Baychimo, a cargo steamer that was abandoned and left to drift the seas near Alaska for nearly forty years. The ship was owned by the Hudson Bay Company, and was launched in the early 1920s and used to trade pelts and furs with the Inuit in northern Canada. But in 1931, the Baychimo became trapped in pack ice near Alaska, and after many attempts to break it free, its crew were eventually airlifted out of the area to safety. After a heavy blizzard, the ship managed to break free of the ice, but it was badly damaged and was abandoned by the Hudson Bay Company, who assumed it would not last the winter. Amazingly, the Baychimo managed to stay afloat, and for the next 38 years, it remained adrift in the waters off Alaska. The ship became something of a local legend, and was frequently sighted aimlessly floating near the frozen ice packs by Eskimos and other vessels. It was boarded several times, but weather conditions always made salvaging it nearly impossible. The Baychimo was last sighted in 1969, again frozen in the ice off of Alaska, but it has since disappeared. The ship is believed to have sunk in the intervening years, but recently a number of expeditions have been launched in search of now nearly 80-year-old ghost ship.

5. The Octavius

Although it is now considered more legend than anything, the story of the Octavius remains one of the most famous of all ghost ship stories. The tale dates back to 1775, when it is said that a whaling ship called the Herald stumbled across the Octavius floating aimlessly off the coast of Greenland. Crewmembers from the Herald boarded the Octavius, where they discovered the bodies of the crew and passengers all frozen solid by the arctic cold. Most notably, the crew found the ship’s captain still sitting at his desk, midway through finishing a log entry from 1762, which meant the Octavius had been adrift for 13 years. According to the legend, it was eventually discovered that the captain had gambled on making a quick return to England from the Orient via the Northwest Passage, but that the ship had become trapped in the ice. If true, this would mean the Octavius had completed its passage to the Atlantic as a ghost ship, its crew and captain long dead from exposure to the elements.

4. The Joyita

The Joyita was a fishing and charter boat that was found abandoned in the South Pacific in 1955. The ship, along with its 25 passengers and crew, were en route to the Tokelau Islands when something happened, and it was not until hours later that the Joyita was reported overdue and a rescue attempt launched. A massive air search was undertaken, but it failed to find the missing ship, and it was not until five weeks later that a merchant ship stumbled upon the Joyita drifting some 600 miles off its original course. There was no sign of any of the passengers, crew, cargo, or life rafts, and the ship was damaged and listing quite badly to one side. Further inspection by authorities found that the ship’s radio was tuned to the universal distress signal, and a search of the deck uncovered a doctor’s bag and several bloody bandages. None of the crew or passengers was ever seen again, and the mystery of what happened has never been revealed. The most popular theory is that pirates killed the passengers and threw their bodies overboard, but other claims have included everything from mutiny and kidnapping to insurance fraud.

3. The Lady Lovibond

The UK has a long tradition of legends about ghost ships, and of these the Lady Lovibond is perhaps the most famous. As the story goes, the Lady Lovibond’s captain, Simon Peel, had just gotten married, and decided to take his ship out on a cruise to celebrate. He brought his new bride along—going against a longstanding seafaring belief that bringing a woman on board a boat is bad luck—and set sail on Feb. 13, 1748. Unfortunately for Peel, his first mate was also in love with his new wife, and after watching the celebrations, the man became overwhelmed with rage and jealousy and intentionally steered the boat into the deadly Goodwind Sands, a sand bar notorious for causing ship wrecks. The Lady Lovibond sank, killing all those aboard. As the legend goes, ever since the wreck the Lady Lovibond can be seen sailing the waters around Kent every 50 years. It was sighted in 1798 by a few different ship captains, as well as in 1848 and 1898, when it supposedly appeared to be so real that some boats, thinking it a vessel in distress, actually sent out life rafts to help it. The Lady Lovibond was again seen in 1948, and while there were no confirmed sightings on its most recent anniversary in 1998, it continues to be one of the most well-known ghost ship legends in Europe.

2. The Mary Celeste

Undoubtedly the most famous of all the real-life ghost ships, the Mary Celeste was a merchant ship that was found derelict and adrift in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872. The ship was in a seaworthy condition, with all its sails still up and a full store of food in its cargo hold, but its life boat, captain’s log book and, more importantly, the entire crew, had mysteriously vanished. There was no sign of a struggle, and the personal belongings of the crew and cargo of over 1500 barrels of alcohol were untouched, seemingly ruling out piracy as a possible explanation. In the years since its bizarre discovery, a number of theories have been proposed regarding the possible fate of the Mary Celeste’s crew. These include that those aboard were killed by a waterspout, that the crew mutinied, or even that eating flour contaminated with fungus led all the passengers to hallucinate and go mad. The most probable theory remains that a storm or some kind of technical issue led the crew to prematurely abandon the ship in the lifeboat, and that they later died at sea. Still, the mystery surrounding the Mary Celeste has led to much wild speculation, and others have proposed everything from ghosts to sea monsters and alien abduction as possible explanations.

1. The Flying Dutchman

In maritime folklore, no ghost ship is more famous than the Flying Dutchman, which has inspired numerous paintings, horror stories, films, and even an opera. The ship was first mentioned in the late 1700s in George Barrington’s seafaring book Voyage to Botany Bay, and since then its legend has continued to grow, thanks to numerous sightings of it by fisherman and sailors. As the story goes, the Flying Dutchman was a vessel out of Amsterdam that was captained by a man named Van der Decken. The ship was making its way toward the East Indies when it encountered dangerous weather near the Cape of Good Hope. Determined to make the crossing, Van der Decken supposedly went mad, murdered his first mate, and vowed that he would cross the Cape, “even if God would let me sail to Judgment Day!” Despite his best efforts, the ship sank in the storm, and as the legend goes, Van der Decken and his ghost ship are now cursed to sail the oceans for all eternity. To this day, the Flying Dutchman continues to be one of the most-sighted of all ghost ships, and people from deep-sea fishermen to the Prince of Wales have all claimed to have spotted it making its never-ending voyage across the oceans

It may come as no surprise to learn that, due to limited resources, many citizens of poorer countries are forced to eat whatever they can get their hands on. However, when it comes to gross foods, not all are born from utter necessity. You’d be amazed to learn what disgusting things many people eat by choice. And, while some foods can be identified as gross with a simple glance, others aren’t as easily spotted until you learn about their ingredients.

10. Casu Marzu

Sometimes referred to as ‘maggot cheese’, casu marzu is a Sardinian cheese made from goat’s milk. But what makes this food so disgusting is the way it’s prepared. Early in the fermenting process, the larvae of cheese flies are introduced. Over a period of weeks, the larvae hatch and begin feeding. As the cheese’s fats are broken down, a special flavor is produced which many consider to be delicious. When the time comes for human consumption, many people meticulously remove the maggots. However, some leave them in, believing that they add an extra flavorful punch.

9. Balut

If someone placed balut on your plate, you might think they were serving you a hardboiled egg. That is, until you cracked it open and a fully intact duck embryo spilled out. Balut, considered a delicacy in many Asian countries, is produced when fertilized duck eggs are placed in warm sunlight. After about eight days, the eggs are held up to the light and checked to ensure that the budding embryo is ready. Then, the eggs are cooked and served with a dash of salt and a few squirts of lemon juice.

8. Potted Meat

Potted meat is not some strange foreign delicacy. In fact, this inexpensive meat product produced by Hormel is available at most any North American grocery store. However, when it comes to grossness, this well-known product rivals anything you’ll find in a third world country. A check of the ingredients listed on the label is proof enough: mechanically separated chicken, beef tripe, partially defatted cooked beef fatty tissue, beef hearts, water, partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue, salt, and less than 2 percent: mustard, natural flavorings, dried garlic, dextrose, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrite. Yummy!

7. Fermented Salmon Heads

Referred to as ‘stink heads’ by people who won’t eat them, fermented salmon heads are a traditional Alaskan delight. After the heads are lopped off, they’re buried in the ground for at least a few weeks. As you’d expect, during this time the heads begin to rot. Before they have a chance to disintegrate completely, they’re dug up, mashed into a sort of pudding and served cold in bowls.

6. Jellied Moose Nose

This gross food is also enjoyed in the northernmost of the United States. Preparation is relatively simple: first, the moose’s nose is removed. Then it’s boiled for a bit until the hairs become loose and can easily be plucked free. After a few spices are added, the meat is boiled even longer until it disintegrates into a gelatinous mass. Finally, it’s sliced and served chilled.

5. Bat Paste

This delightful dish is considered weird even in the few Asian countries where it’s eaten. First, a live bat is forced into a vat of boiling milk. Then, once it has reached optimum malleability, the bat is sliced into fine bits, mixed with various herbs and spices and mashed into a pulpy paste.

4. Hasma

In China, many people consider hasma dessert the perfect punctuation to a great meal. This disgusting dish is basically the fallopian tubes of frogs. Sold in a dried shrunken form, these amphibious reproductive organs are able to swell up to 10 to 15 times their dehydrated size once they are rehydrated with water. Afterward, a bit of sugar is added to give them that special sweetness most people desire from a dessert.

3. Haggis

A traditional Scottish dish, haggis is really nothing more than a type of sausage. However, this particular sausage is comprised of a sheep’s lungs, liver and heart. Many describe haggis as resembling stuffed intestines more than sausage. However, although they admit it looks unappealing, Haggis-lovers swear that those who are brave enough to taste it will come running back for more.

2. Cockscomb

If you’ve ever seen the floppy red mass resembling an upside down glove on the top of a rooster’s head, then you’ve seen a cockscomb. Once served as a garnish along side many traditional French foods, cockscomb is still used as a common ingredient in many Italian dishes and sauces.

1. Blood Pudding

This dish is comprised largely of blood drawn from pigs, cattle or sheep. However, it doesn’t become blood pudding until the blood is allowed to coagulate, a filler of oatmeal, barley or sweet potato is added, and the entire mass is brought to a boil. During the cooking process, a delightful skin is produced atop the goo. While some like to remove the skin before plunging their spoon into the pudding, others enjoy its chewy texture and prefer to eat it last.

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If there’s one thing movies do better than any other art form, it’s weirdness. The combination of sight, sound, and music make for a perfect cocktail to take the audience away on a wild and spaced-out ride; and in recent years filmmakers have even started using film as a way to explore heady philosophical ideas like the nature of identity, time, and consciousness. With this in mind, the following are ten movies that have some of the most far-out, inventive, and thought-provoking plotlines in film history. There are countless honorable mentions that could have easily made this list, so please feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments section.

10. The Prestige

If you want to mystify an audience, you can’t go wrong by taking a page out of the magician’s book of tricks, which is exactly what director Christopher Nolan did with his 2006 film The Prestige. The story follows two turn-of-the-century magicians who get into a fierce rivalry after one of them invents an extraordinary—and totally inexplicable—new trick. It’s a film filled with twists, reversals, and red herrings, and it asks some pretty lofty questions about the nature of identity and obsession which are bound to keep you thinking. It’s like a ninety-minute magic trick transplanted to the screen—but unlike so many magic tricks, it features a payoff that’s actually worth sticking around for.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
The Prestige is at its best when it’s showing the two magicians, played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, performing on stage. Of these scenes, the best is surely the first occasion when Bale’s character performs ‘The Transported Man,’ the trick that sparks a deadly rivalry between his and Jackman’s character. The trick is simplicity itself—Bale’s character bounces a ball across his stage and manages to somehow teleport between two doors, reappear, and catch it—but it’s so elegantly portrayed in the film that it’s easy to understand why Jackman’s character would become so obsessed with discovering its secret.

9. Seconds

If you’re in the mood for a movie that’s really going to make you think, look no further than Seconds, a little-known gem from the late 1960’s starring Rock Hudson. The film follows the story of a middle-aged banker who is contacted by a shadowy organization that offers a most-tempting service: new life. For a fee, the company fakes the man’s death, sets him up in a brand new career and house, and gives him plastic surgery so that he comes out looking like the famously handsome Mr. Hudson. Not a bad deal, right? Well, think again. These being the movies, things are much more complicated than they seem, and the story soon takes an abrupt turn toward the creepy. Director John Frankenheimer used some truly revolutionary shooting techniques for the movie, and the result is a harrowing and hallucinatory experience that you won’t easily forget. Brian Wilson sure didn’t. According to his biography, seeing Seconds while in the middle of his drug years and teetering on the edge of schizophrenia affected the Beach Boys front man deeply, and he claims that after watching the film he didn’t go to the movies again for almost fifteen years.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
Early on in Seconds, the company drugs the main character in order to con him into accepting their service. The filmmakers used ultra-wide angle and fisheye lenses to create a feeling of unease for the sequence, and in some shots they even mounted the camera on the actor’s body, a technique that has some really disorienting effects. To top it all off, they even built a room with an off-kilter, warped floor that resembles something you might see in a funhouse. The result is one of the weirdest and most effective dream/drug sequences you’ll ever see.

8. A Clockwork Orange

When it comes to weirdness in film, Stanley Kubrick is king. From 2001, to The Shining to Eyes Wide Shut, he was a director always interested in exploring the deeper, more twisted reaches of the subconscious. Nowhere is this more apparent than in A Clockwork Orange, his 1972 masterpiece of satirical science fiction. The story takes place in a dystopian future and follows the exploits of Alex, the sociopath leader of a gang of ‘droogs’ who go around terrorizing people on the streets of Britain. Alex is eventually arrested for murder and given a radical treatment that attempts to instill an extreme aversion to violence in him—with somewhat mixed results. A Clockwork Orange was quite controversial upon its release, and was even briefly banned in the UK, but today it has become one of the quintessential cult movies for its bizarre style and philosophical undertones. Mostly, though, it’s remembered for being one hell of a strange ride, at turns disturbing and hilarious—sometimes both at the same time.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
A Clockwork Orange has so many seminal scenes that it’s hard to pick just one, but when it comes to the bizarre, it doesn’t get much more unsettling than the scenes where Alex undergoes his “treatment” to scrub his consciousness of all tendencies toward violence. He’s put in a movie theatre, strapped to a chair, and forced to wear a nightmarish helmet that holds his eyes open while the screen shows one act of violence and murder after another. It’s not an easy scene to watch, but it is guaranteed to stick with you for a while.

7. The Man From Earth

Taking your viewers on a wild ride doesn’t always require millions in special effects and a convoluted plot—sometimes it’s just about taking a good idea and exploring it for all it’s worth. Such is the case with 2007’s The Man From Earth, a small independent film that unfolds like a mixture of a well-written stage play and a brilliant philosophical treatise. The story centers on John Oldman, a college professor who, during a party with some friends, makes the bizarre claim that he is immortal. He explains that he was born in Cro-Magnon times, but never aged, and that for 10,000 years he has been walking the Earth, moving every five years so that no one will catch on to his secret. His friends are understandably skeptical, but they are willing to play along with what they think is a game, and what follows is a lengthy dialogue on the nature of time, knowledge, and aging that never ceases to be fascinating. It’s a film that’s confined to a single room and a single subject, but even though it’s shot on the smallest scale possible, the ideas it presents and the questions it raises are bigger and more ambitious than movies with budgets ten times bigger.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
The Man From Earth might as well be a filmed play, so there are no big set pieces to remember. There are several memorable moments, though, and of these the most notable has got to be the scene where John first lets his friends in on the secret that he is more than 10,000 years old. At first, they take it like a joke or some kind of parlor trick, but when the realization finally hits them, it’s a sight to behold.

6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Writer Charlie Kaufman has come up with some pretty heavy premises in his time, but his best foray into the realms of the strange and bizarre came in 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a sci-fi romance story notable for its mind-bending plot and mesmerizing visual style. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet star as Joel and Clementine, two former lovers whose dysfunctional relationship leads them to a technology company that specializes in erasing painful memories from subjects’ minds. This ingenious premise allows director Michel Gondry to really have some fun playing with time and space, and in some scenes objects and people will disappear out of the shot as they are systematically being erased from a character’s memory. All this makes for some amazing sequences, but what really makes Eternal Sunshine such a weird trip are all the questions it forces the viewers to ask themselves: are we nothing but the sum total of our memories? Would it be worth it to delete bad experiences from your mind even if you lost a little of yourself in the process? That kind of depth of subject matter is a rare find in movies, and it’s a big part of what makes this film such a strange and memorable experience.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
The trip the film takes through Joel’s memories stops at a number of odd points in time, but by far the strangest and the funniest has got to be a scene where we’re taken all the way back to when Joel was a baby. Gondry shoots the scene from the floor up, as baby Joel sits under his kitchen table desperately trying to get his busy mother’s attention, nearly losing his mind in the process. It’s a hilarious, wonderfully imaginative scene, and easily one of the most memorable parts of the film.

5. Primer

Time travel movies are always one of the easiest ways to throw an audience for a loop, simply because of the inherent paradoxes and logical traps that jumping back or forward in time creates. It’s a plot device that’s been used time and again, but rarely has it been employed as effectively as it was in Primer, a 2004 science fiction film about two struggling engineers who accidentally invent a time machine. Primer is a movie that’s notable for two things: being made independently for $7,000, and having one of the most convoluted, mind-blowing, and intentionally dense plot lines of all time. The filmmakers choose not to spoon-feed their audience any information, and the result is a movie that features a good deal of technical banter and hard science. The heady dialogue and twisty plotting is guaranteed to lose some of the audience, but for those that get into it, Primer is ultimately one of the most rewarding and thought-provoking movies of the last few years.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
This is a movie that is focused entirely on studying the paradox of time travel, so every little scene is a part of a bigger, more meaningful whole. But none of this is made apparent until about twenty minutes into the film, when the character of Abe takes his friend Aaron out to a field by promising to show him “the most important thing that any living organism has ever witnessed.” When they get there, Abe hands Aaron a pair of binoculars, and the two watch as Abe—a second Abe, fresh from the time machine—leaves the storage unit where the device is being stored.

4. Mulholland Drive

Pretty much every movie director David Lynch has made could be put on this list, but if you’re looking for a good intro to the carnival of weirdness that is his career, start with Mulholland Drive, a 2001 psychological thriller that ranks among his best films. The story follows a young actress who moves to L.A. with the intent of breaking into the movie business. She soon meets up with a mysterious woman with amnesia, whom she tries to help recover her identity. From there, the narrative unravels into one of the most unsettling, complex, and downright fascinating movies of the last few years. It’s the kind of movie where each viewer is destined to come away with their own personal reading of what it means, and there’s little doubt that this is what Lynch, who has refused to comment on what he believes it’s all really about, always intended.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
Outside of its main plot, Mulholland Drive is made of up small vignettes, many of which are based around characters that have little or no contact with the major players. But it is one of these scenes that provides the film’s most unforgettable moment. The sequence takes place in a diner, where two men are eating breakfast. One begins to describe a terrible dream he’s been having, and as he does the details of it start to unfold around him, right down to the gruesome creature that’s hiding in the diner’s back alley. It’s a masterful scene that rivals the best horror films in terms of creepiness. Try as you might, you won’t easily forget it.

3. The Matrix

What is there left to say about The Matrix? This film was a real game-changer in Hollywood, and when it came out in 1999 it immediately became established as one of the weirdest, most influential, and stylistically inventive movies of all time—and all this despite having Keanu Reeves in the starring role. The film is essentially based around a simple philosophical idea that’s been troubling philosophers since the days of Descartes: how do we know what is real? The filmmakers took this thought experiment and built their story around it, throwing in a dose of heavy firepower and kung fu for good measure, and the result is a movie that is at turns thought-provoking as well as pure, simple fun. It features some of the most eye-popping visual effects and action scenes in recent memory; but what The Matrix will really be remembered for is pushing the envelope of the kinds of subjects that can be tackled in movies, whether it’s the nature of sensation and experience or our ever-changing relationship with technology.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
During Neo’s training in how to bend the rules of space and time while in the Matrix, there is a scene where he and Morpheus are transported to a dojo straight out of a Hong Kong action movie and forced to square off in hand-to-hand combat. All of the best parts of the film—from its intriguing concept to its superior fight choreography—are on display in this scene.

2. Fight Club

1999 was a big year for mind-blowing movies, and of these Fight Club is the one that still hits the hardest. Insomuch as it can be explained, the story follows a nameless office drone (played by Edward Norton) that comes in to contact with a flamboyant soap salesman played by Brad Pitt. Together the two start an underground bare-knuckle boxing club, and after it catches on, they slowly mold their group of disaffected young men into an unofficial guerilla army that rebels against the status quo by performing bizarre acts of sabotage and vandalism. Anyone who’s seen Fight Club knows this is just a tiny part of the story, but that’s why this film continues to be one of the weirdest experiences you’ll ever have at the movies. The filmmakers keep throwing new curves at the audience, each more preposterous than the one before, and it all leads up to one of the most warped, mind-bending, and truly surprising twist endings of all time. But the film doesn’t just work on a gimmick. It’s also one of the most thematically audacious stories of the last few years, tackling everything from violence and masculinity to advertising and consumer culture.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
Fight Club is filled with memorable moments, some of them hilarious and some of them downright disturbing, but one of the best comes when Norton’s character, fed up with his job, literally beats himself up during a meeting with his boss. After punching himself in the face and throwing himself through a glass table, he tells security that his boss attacked him, and manages to walk away with a hefty settlement that allows him and Pitt to really shift their mischief making into high gear.

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

The late 90s might have been a renaissance of inventive style and bold ideas on screen, but none of it would have been possible if not for the 1968 release of Stanley Kubrick’s seminal film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It might be difficult to understand now, but before 2001, the kinds of ideas that would become the staple of modern mindbenders just weren’t being addressed in mainstream film, and science fiction was certainly not taken seriously as a genre. Kubrick not only spent millions constructing the most realistic vision of space travel then possible, but he matched it all with a story that actually tried to tackle not just the origin of humanity as a thinking species, but also speculated on where our next scientific leaps might take us. I won’t even pretend to know exactly what the final third of the movie means, and I don’t know if anyone really does for sure, but what is certain is that 2001 gave its viewers more food for thought than any movie before it, and forty years later it still hasn’t lost one ounce of mystery or inventiveness.

Most Unforgettable Scene:
2001 is divided into four chapters, and of these the most mind-blowing is certainly the last, a section called ‘Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite’ that features an astronaut being sucked into a ‘star gate’ and getting hurtled through space and time. What follows is a lengthy explosion of color and sound that can only be described as a psychedelic. It’s one of the trippiest sequences in film history, so much so that when 2001 first premiered, it gained a reputation with the youth culture as a popular movie to see while high on acid.

While almost everyone agrees that earning a degree is very important for both economic and personal success, there is a lot of debate over which degrees are the best. And often the the least popular degrees can be the most rewarding, again, both economically and personally.

Students are lined up to get the popular MBA degree, with its promise of a big paycheck. However, possessing one of the remarkable, if not popular, degrees on this list could also lead to success. Quite a few of them are unusual enough that competition in their respective fields is minimal.

The definition of the word remarkable is “unusual” and “worthy of notice”. The degrees listed here are “unusual”, because their focus of study is unusual, they are not offered at many schools, or most people don’t even know the degree exists.

10. Taxation

Paying taxes is annoying but it is definitely here to stay, so if you pursue a degree in taxation you will most likely always have a job. A degree in taxation provides you with in-depth knowledge of the taxation system, usually much more than an experienced lawyer would know. This degree allows you to work with people and organizations that regularly need their taxes done. In essence, every company and individual you can call to mind. While this degree isn’t uncommon by numbers, the number of things you can do with it trumps so many other careers that it makes specializing in taxation priceless.

But, you will most likely have friends who have ulterior motives (free tax advice) or few friends who don’t like being reminded they have to pay taxes every year.

9. Radiologic Sciences

As of mid 2009, only 34 colleges in the United States offered Bachelor’s degrees in Radiologic Sciences (centralfloridafuture.com). As a result, most Associate degree holders are treated with the same deference as someone with a four-year degree. A Radiologist’s job can seem simple at times – reading x-rays. Yet, becoming a master in this field awards the practitioner permission to administer radiation treatment to help patients deal with injuries and diseases.

8. Archeology

Archeologists get to travel the globe, search for unseen artifacts, and unearth strange grounds when they’re not roaming through secret caves as though they’re Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. Earning a degree in Archeology requires a great level of training and field work, but the rewards can be off the charts. Being able to discover 10,000 year old fossils, then taking such finds to the world’s largest museums with their name attached is every Archeologist’s grandest dream. These people help preserve the earth’s history while having the opportunity to make each day a load of fun. With the degree being popular but still rarely acquired in the US, the chance to become a real-life Indiana Jones is still very much up for grabs.

But, usually this is a low paying job and often you are trying to convince someone or some organization to grant you money. Like Indiana, you probably should have a second job for financial stability.

7. Oriental Medicine/Herbology

In our modern consumer culture, which values the newest trends, it seems like most people hardly want anything to do with things that are old. Scientists use technology and new research data to come up with new leads in medicine, but did you know some “new” discoveries are also based on the evolution and synthesis of ancient medicinal practices? Many of the alleged revolutionary health products on the market today are made from herb extracts and ancient medical practices.

In other words, an Oriental Medicine major knows how to make you healthy without needing modern medicine. To this date, Herbology degrees are only slightly rarer than your standard medicine degrees, but perhaps that could be related to an excess of people flocking to where the money’s at, instead of where the world’s health could be. http://education-portal.com/archaeology_degree.html

6. Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the art of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale especially to build microscopic devices. People with this degree are not only trained to observe and study objects that are too small for the human eye to see, but they also learn how to build revolutionary products from the ground up: new technologies, new infrastructure—even talking robots.

Nanotechnologists help create a cleaner planet, easier lives, and nearly anything else they can think of to make the world a better place. From uncovering how many bedbugs secretly nest within your bed, to knowing what is required to launch a rocket into space, opportunities for Nanotechnologists always remain plentiful. The only strange thing is that though technology claims to be the way of the future, you’d be hard-pressed to find more than a dozen places in the US where you can obtain a quality degree in Nanotechnology. http://www.nano.gov/html/edu/eduunder.html

5. Blacksmithing

Nowadays this career is more often found in video games than in the real world. Blacksmiths can tune different metals (usually iron or steel) to create unique and original items: gates, furniture, tools, knives, swords. But the true magic of blacksmithing can happen when one transitions into “Artist Blacksmithing.” This art form allows the creation of custom-made decorations, ornaments, and some rather fine jewelry. Think of what could happen if a good blacksmith teams up with a pro jeweler. Ca-ching! Herefordshire College of Art & Design and Southern Illinois University currently offers the degree,

4. Aromatherapy

The smell of something can be just as infectious as the sight, and someone skilled at aromatherapy can work miracles. Aromatherapists can create a concoction of different scents to produce many desired results. Great aromas can change a mood just as easily as a hit song. But the beauty of an Aromatherapist is that they provide therapy which can improve the health and well-being of patients. On the more extravagant side of things, aromatherapists also play a big part in the introduction of things such as new perfume lineups. So exactly how rare is a degree in aromatherapy? Both Napier University and The University of Westminster currently have the program disguised under a different name: “BSC in Complementary Therapies”. Perhaps they are trying to put potential students off the scent.

3. Global Governance

This degree teaches students about politics, sociality, humanity, philosophy, economy, and world conflict. Basically, this degree provides you with the knowledge and skills you need to run a country upon graduation. This degree isn’t as rare as many of the others on this list, but it’s rare enough that you’re not usually allowed to purse a degree in Global Governance without already having a Bachelor’s degree in a related field. With the extra benefits this degree carries, such as the capacity to comprehend various cultures and aid humankind, this degree can truly help someone imprint a solid legacy across the globe.

2. Comedy Studies

“Ha ha ha.”

“What’s so funny?”

“I have a degree in Comedy.”

“You’re right, that IS funny.”

The first degree in Comedy was awarded in mid 2009 by Southampton University. From the course description: “On this highly innovative and exciting degree you will examine comedy through both production and performance. Comedy will be studied as a media industry in its own right as well as how humour and jokes occur in everyday life.”

Majors in this field are going to be the only ones laughing when aspiring professional comedians discover that they may have to break through an additional educational barrier should they want to find success. Laughter will always be the best medicine.

1. Enigmatology

How would you feel if you were the only person in the world who had a particular degree? Yep, just you; no one else. That’s how Will Shortz probably feels as he remains the only graduate with a degree in Enigmatology from Indiana University since 1974. Enigmatology deals with the creation and solution of puzzles. If you think this degree isn’t much, then you really aren’t thinking. Should anyone ever master the field of Enigmatology that person could surpass the greatest philosophers who have walked the earth. The average mind is indeed a terrible thing to waste, so what happens should someone find a way to maximize every portion of it?

The importance of Saints is something that is debated, but is a part of many religions, particularly Christianity. Some denominations of Christian religion (most notably the Roman Catholic Church) have many patron saints. A patron saint is a saint that is an advocate in heaven of a certain person, activity, location, or illness. Because patron saints transcend into the metaphysical once canonized, they are able to carry out certain tasks and focus on certain needs when it comes to their own special patronage.

Though many pray to God, some Christians also pray to patron saints as a way to show their humility and true passion and love for God. Some believe that it’s better to pray to a saint than God, as it shows they are seeking an intercession and not an answer from God. Maybe it is true we all have some sort of angel on our side, since there seems to be a patron saint for anything and everything imaginable. Here is a list of ten patron saints that are a little ‘high in the clouds’. No pun intended.

10. St. Ambrose – Patron of Beekeepers

St. Ambrose was born into Roman nobility and educated himself in the Greek classics, Roman philosophy, and also became a poet during his time. There is a legend that as an infant a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey. His father considered this a sign of his future eloquence and honeyed tongue. Saint Ambrose was given the title ‘Honey Tongued Doctor’ due to his ability to calm the crowds and preach the doctrine to many.

Ambrose also made use of the bee metaphor in his writings, comparing virgins to bees:

“[40.] Let, then, your work be as it were a honeycomb, for virginity is fit to be compared to bees, so laborious is it, so modest, so continent. The bee feeds on dew, it knows no marriage couch, it makes honey….”

9. St. Anthony the Abbot – Patron of Swine & Gravediggers

Saint Anthony the Abbot’s relationship with pigs, and his patronage of swineherds is a little complicated. At the time, many skin diseases were treated with applications of pork fat, which helped reduced inflammation and itching. As Anthony’s intervention aided in the same conditions, he was shown in artwork often accompanied by a pig. People who saw the art work thought there was a direct connection between Anthony and pigs – and people who worked with swine quickly took him as their patron. Late in life Anthony became a close friend of Saint Paul the Hermit. He buried him, leading to his patronage of gravediggers.

8. St. Sebastian – Patron of Cranky Children

St. Sebastian lived in Milan and became a captain of the Praetorian Guard but the leaders, Diocletian and Maximian, were unaware that he was a Christian. During his time it is said that St. Sebastian performed miracles and converted many Romans to Christianity, while keeping his Christianity a secret. He became known as the patron saint of cranky children after helping to reconvert Marcus and Marcellianus, two boys who were arrested and were told to worship the Roman Emperor and make sacrifices to Roman gods. They were given the choice to leave Christianity behind or suffer a death sentence, and St. Sebastian convinced them to stay true their beliefs.

He was arrested for betrayal and sentenced to death. He was tied to a tree and shot with arrows but he survived. After being nursed back to health, he performed another miracle and was again ordered to be killed. This time he was sentenced to death by beating.

7. St. Bernardine of Siena – Patron of Hoarseness

Also known as the ‘Apostle of Italy,’ St. Bernardine was born to a noble family in a Sienese town. He was said to be very weak and hoarse at birth – this is how he became the saint of hoarseness. As a young man, St. Bernardine fasted and prayed as much as possible. At the age of twenty, he arrived at a hospital during a time when a plague was running rampant through the town. The plague had killed many as no one was sure as to how to cure or isolate the plague. To serve God and the people, he worked for four months to help the patients, as well as clean and organize the hospital. Near the end of the plague, St. Bernardine died of exhaustion.

6. St. Clare of Assisi – Patron of Television

Born into a prominent and rich Roman family, St. Clare spent much of her time practicing prayer and mortification. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies after hearing a sermon and becoming inspired to dedicate her life to God. St. Clare became the patron of television when she was extremely sick and unable to fully serve God as she fully intended to do. In fact, she was so sick she could not attend mass. However, she was able to have a strong visual that she was in mass and claimed to have seen and heard mass on her wall. This event led to her becoming a patron saint in 1958, as well as the saint of telephones, clairvoyance, eye diseases, and others. Her vision on the wall is strongly correlated to us today watching TV.

5. Gabriel the Archangel – Patron of Stamp Collectors and Postal Workers

Gabriel the Archangel is one of the most well-known saints. Gabriel is one of only three patron saints mentioned in the Catholic Bible. In the Bible, Gabriel acts as God’s messenger. He is known for bringing information regarding bearing children, and is popularly known for delivering a message starting off with the widely used ‘Hail Mary’. He told Zachary that he would soon have a son, John the Baptist. He also punished Zachary for his disbelief by making him mute. Gabriel told Mary that she had been the one chosen to bear the Savior. Because of this, many believe that he is the symbol of salvation of mankind. Gabriel makes the perfect patron saint of stamp collectors as well as postal workers, as his holy deeds included getting messages from one place to the next.

4. St. Drogo – Patron of Unattractive People

St. Drogo was born in Epinoy, Flanders. He was an orphan, which would play a large role in his life’s path. When he discovered that his mother had died giving birth to him, he began to feel extremely guilty and went to the extreme when it came to his penances. When he turned eighteen he got rid of his belongings and decided to take on pilgrimages to Rome, in order to show his guilt and live a more holy life. He went on about ten pilgrimages and then became a shepherd. On one pilgrimage he became sick with an unsightly bodily disorder that made him deformed. His looks frightened people in the town, so he had a holy cell built so that he could still attend church but not be seen. He lived on water, barley, and the holy Eucharist for 40 years. It is said that he could bilocate, being at two places at the once, but with his looks why would you want to see two of him?

3. St. Dominic Savio – Patron of Juvenile Delinquents

Born in 1842 in Italy, St. Dominic Savio was one of ten children. At age four he disappeared, but his mother later found him in a corner praying, unlike most of the other children. At age five he became an altar boy and at age twelve he joined the Oratory School in order to become a priest. Despite his age, Dominic knew all of his prayers, and often worried about other children who may be sinning and weren’t living as holy as he was. One day at school a boy brought a magazine full of inappropriate pictures and all of the boys gathered to look. He explained that they were sinning and the boys agreed to confession. Soon after, Dominic got sick and died. However, he stands as the patron of juvenile delinquents and the falsely accused. Despite his early death, he was able to save his classmates from becoming juvenile delinquents.

2. St. Isidore of Seville – Proposed Patron of the Internet/Computers

St. Isidore of Seville was born to parents who were well known for their piety. After his father died, he was raised by his brothers, and they soon became his father figures. Though he was poor, as was the rest of his family, he realized that God could possibly help him, so he became a priest to show his devotion. He became the Archbishop of Seville after succeeding his brother. During this time, he wrote plenty of literature, including an encyclopedia and a dictionary. St. Isidore learned, studied, and completed Mozarabic liturgy, spread Aristotle’s works throughout Italy, and was said to be the Doctor of the Church in 1722. In 1999 he was said to be the patron saint of the Internet because of his interaction of spreading information. He also became this certain patron saint due to his wide knowledge of information.

1. St. Fiacre – Venereal Diseases

Born in Ireland, St. Fiacre soon made his way to France and set up a hospice for fellow travelers. This is how he earned his fame as the saint of venereal diseases, as he often treated those with this sort of ailment when on his travels. After his journey, he became a hermit and sought holy isolation, as many people did during his time, since religion was seen as a way of life. However, because of his popularity due to providing healing herbs and other medicinal needs, Fiacre was usually surrounded by people wanting his herbs or wanting to experience his knowledge. Consequently, this didn’t allow him the isolation he wanted and sought, so he went to another saint, St. Faro, who gave him his own hermitage in Brie, France. Here he gardened, fasted, and held religious vigils. St. Fiacre is also the saint of gardeners and taxi drivers.