Top Lost City
1. Machu Picchu
Of all the lost cities that have been found and studied, perhaps none is more mysterious than Machu Picchu. Isolated near the Urubamba Valley in Peru, the city was never found and plundered by conquistadors, and it was not until historian Hiram Bingham visited it in 1911 that it became known outside of the region. The city is divided into districts, and features over 140 different structures bordered by polished stone walls. It is said to have been built in the 1400s by the Incas and abandoned less than 100 years later, most likely when its population was wiped out by smallpox brought over from Europe. There has been much speculation as to whatMachu Picchu was used for, as well as why the Incas chose such to build it in such a strange location. Some have said it was a holy temple of sorts, while others have maintained that it was used as a prison, but recent research suggests that it was probably a personal estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti, and its location was chosen because nearby mountains figured prominently in Inca astrological mythology.
Top Dangerous Toothpaste Ingredient
1. Menthol
One last ingredient to add a minty note to your breath. Without menthol, toothpaste might taste like, well, chalk, glycerin, paraffin, detergent, titanium dioxide, and seaweed! Go ahead and ingest menthol if you like, but sipping some tea containing menthol is a far better idea than chewing on your tube of toothpaste.
Top Heist and Robbery
1. The Antwerp Diamond Heist
Antwerp, Belgium is one of the diamond capitals of the world, with 80 percent of the world's diamonds passing through the city before being sold on the market. A number of heists have taken place there, most recently a still-unsolved $28 million robbery in 2007, but the biggest of them all took place in 2003, when a team of master criminals known as the School of Turin managed to walk away with $100 million in uncut diamonds from the Antwerp Diamond Center vault. For sheer scope, ingenuity, and risk, few robberies will ever measure up to this one. The criminals had been planning the heist for years, and using copied keys and faked security camera footage, they managed to bypass the vault's multi-million dollar security system, which had been thought to be impenetrable. The thieves escaped without incident, but DNA left at the scene allowed them to be tracked to Italy, where most of the gang has since been captured. The $100 million in diamonds, meanwhile, seems to have disappeared for good.
Top Movie Icon Immortal
1. Wolverine
How is he an immortal? Wolverine's mutant healing factor keeps him in perfect health and long-lived.
X-men legend Wolverine is about to get his own film, courtesy of Hugh Jackman and the movie moguls at Marvel Studios. The reason being is that Wolverine, or Logan as he's otherwise known, stands out as one of the superior Marvel characters, thanks mainly to his superhuman healing abilities and deadly claws. Wolverine's skeleton - and claws - are unbreakable, made from a fictitious metal called adamantium, meaning he is hell on wheels and an excellent fighter. The downside? He feels pain like mortals - especially when he extrudes those notorious claws.
His ability to heal from nearly any wound and his resistance to all disease have Wolverine at the top of this list for all time, as his life won't come to an end as long as he can avoid being killed. Hmmm, maybe he won't be on this list long after all.
1. Machu Picchu
Of all the lost cities that have been found and studied, perhaps none is more mysterious than Machu Picchu. Isolated near the Urubamba Valley in Peru, the city was never found and plundered by conquistadors, and it was not until historian Hiram Bingham visited it in 1911 that it became known outside of the region. The city is divided into districts, and features over 140 different structures bordered by polished stone walls. It is said to have been built in the 1400s by the Incas and abandoned less than 100 years later, most likely when its population was wiped out by smallpox brought over from Europe. There has been much speculation as to whatMachu Picchu was used for, as well as why the Incas chose such to build it in such a strange location. Some have said it was a holy temple of sorts, while others have maintained that it was used as a prison, but recent research suggests that it was probably a personal estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti, and its location was chosen because nearby mountains figured prominently in Inca astrological mythology.
Top Dangerous Toothpaste Ingredient
1. Menthol
One last ingredient to add a minty note to your breath. Without menthol, toothpaste might taste like, well, chalk, glycerin, paraffin, detergent, titanium dioxide, and seaweed! Go ahead and ingest menthol if you like, but sipping some tea containing menthol is a far better idea than chewing on your tube of toothpaste.
Top Heist and Robbery
1. The Antwerp Diamond Heist
Antwerp, Belgium is one of the diamond capitals of the world, with 80 percent of the world's diamonds passing through the city before being sold on the market. A number of heists have taken place there, most recently a still-unsolved $28 million robbery in 2007, but the biggest of them all took place in 2003, when a team of master criminals known as the School of Turin managed to walk away with $100 million in uncut diamonds from the Antwerp Diamond Center vault. For sheer scope, ingenuity, and risk, few robberies will ever measure up to this one. The criminals had been planning the heist for years, and using copied keys and faked security camera footage, they managed to bypass the vault's multi-million dollar security system, which had been thought to be impenetrable. The thieves escaped without incident, but DNA left at the scene allowed them to be tracked to Italy, where most of the gang has since been captured. The $100 million in diamonds, meanwhile, seems to have disappeared for good.
Top Movie Icon Immortal
1. Wolverine
How is he an immortal? Wolverine's mutant healing factor keeps him in perfect health and long-lived.
X-men legend Wolverine is about to get his own film, courtesy of Hugh Jackman and the movie moguls at Marvel Studios. The reason being is that Wolverine, or Logan as he's otherwise known, stands out as one of the superior Marvel characters, thanks mainly to his superhuman healing abilities and deadly claws. Wolverine's skeleton - and claws - are unbreakable, made from a fictitious metal called adamantium, meaning he is hell on wheels and an excellent fighter. The downside? He feels pain like mortals - especially when he extrudes those notorious claws.
His ability to heal from nearly any wound and his resistance to all disease have Wolverine at the top of this list for all time, as his life won't come to an end as long as he can avoid being killed. Hmmm, maybe he won't be on this list long after all.
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