Top 10 Unusual Uses For Peanut Butter

10

Lube It Up

Peanut butter is an excellent lubricator. If your lawnmower blades are getting a little tight and rusty – smear on some of the spread and voila – perfect lubrication. This hint is particularly useful because almost every time I need lube, I don’t have any around – but I always have a jar of peanut butter in the cupboard. It can be used for virtually all your lubrication needs.

9

Animal Medicine

If you own a cat or a dog, you will know how hard it can be to get them to take their medication – especially when it is in pill form. Fortunately cats and dogs love peanut butter – so next time you have to give them some medication, mix it up with a spoonful and feed it to them. No more struggling with the animal as you hold its mouth open and try to force feed it a bitter pill.

8

Butter Replacement

Most recipes that use butter can be cooked with peanut butter instead. In cookies and cakes this can make a wonderful and subtle taste difference. Next time you are making fudge brownies, try using peanut butter instead – it will be like eating a huge Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. You can also stir peanut butter into a sauce instead of butter to give it a nutty finish.

7

Mousetrap Bait

Mice are not particularly fond of cheese – so it is strange that it is the first food people go for when they are baiting their mousetraps. What most people don’t know is that mice prefer peanut butter – how this has been proven I do not know, but the fact that peanut butter is so much cheaper than cheese, makes this tip a very handy and frugal one. So next time you need to bait a mouse trap, don’t bother loading it with camembert or 5 year aged cheddar, stick on some trusty peanut butter.

6

Price Tag Removal

Despite the major advances in science in recent years, no one seems to have managed to invent a label that can be removed easily without leaving any glue behind. Fortunately, we have peanut butter. Rub some of the tasty spread on the label glue and rub with a cloth – it works brilliantly.

5

De-fish the house

If you have ever fried fish, you will know that it leaves behind a rather unpleasant fishy smell in the house. To help eradicate the smell, take a tablespoon of peanut butter after you have finished frying the fish, drop it in the frying pan and fry it off for a minute or two. The smell of peanut butter is the house is much more enjoyable than stale fish and oil.

4

Leather Cleaner

Peanut butter is an excellent cleaner for leather furniture. Just rub a small amount on and work it in in a circular motion. Remove with a buffing cloth and there you have it! The caveat to this tip is peanut-butter smelling furniture. To avoid that you might want to mix a little perfume oil in it – but not too much. Also, if you do add the perfume, make sure you don’t mix up your jars or you will end up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that tastes like mouth wash.

3

Peanut Butter Cookies

This one doesn’t seem quite so weird, but it is included because these cookies use peanut butter as the main ingredient – there is no flour at all. The cookies are a mix of peanut butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. You can even throw in a handful of chocolate chips if you wish. The resulting cookies are amazingly tasty and it only takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. You can read the full recipe here, which is also the source of the image above. The site is my sister’s, so check out the other articles too!

2

Gum Remover

While it doesn’t happen quite so often to us adults, children often end up with gum in their hair. This would normally be followed up by a lot of tugging and pulling with a comb to remove it, and the eventual chopping of the locks. But what most people don’t realize, is that peanut butter is a perfect “gum remover” – not only will it remove gum from hair, but it will remove it from carpet and any other object that is tainted with the chewy stuff. Just rub some peanut butter into the gum and you can wipe the whole mess off with a cloth.

1

Shave With It

Believe it or not, peanut butter makes a great shaving gel. Just apply it like you would apply the gel, and shave as normal. It works just as well and anyone that has bought a container of shaving gel will know, it is a hell of a lot cheaper. The end result is a very smooth shave and, as a bonus, the oils in the peanut butter are very good for your skin, so you don’t need to spend even more money on moisturizer for your legs or face. You might want to remember to use smooth peanut butter though – the chunky stuff doesn’t work quite as well. If you want to see this in action, a rather foul-mouthed girl has made a youtube clip of herself shaving her legs. You can view it here – but be warned – there is plenty of obscene language so it isn’t safe for work.

Source: listverse

Top 10 Codes You Aren’t Meant To Know

10

Ten Codes

The Ten Codes are a list of codes used by law enforcement officers in the United States. They are available on the Internet which would make them seem inappropriate for this list, but a large number of police departments have tried to have them made illegal for distribution, so they deserve a mention. The codes were developed initially in 1937 and were expanded in 1974. The California Police use a variety of extra codes which predated the ten codes. For example, a 187 (one eighty-seven) means homicide. In the ten codes system, a 10-31 means that a crime is in progress, a 10-27-1 means homicide (the 10 is usually not said when it is a three-number sequence), and a 10-00 (ten double-zero) means “officer down – all patrols respond. Wikipedia has a complete list of the police codes here.

9

Professional Codes

In computer support, a variety of codes can be used when referring to a customer. One of these codes has become fairly well known on the internet: PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair) but there are a variety of others that are lesser known. One of these is used when reporting a fault which has been fixed: “The fault was a PICNIC” (problem in chair – not in computer), or “ID 10 T Error” – ID 10 T is, of course, IDIOT. Let us hope that you never see this noted down on your file when a serviceman is fixing your computer.

8

Time Check

Time Check (usually taking a similar form to: “Time check: the time is 12:00″) can be a code in stores for a bomb alert. It alerts the staff to follow the bomb procedure, which can be to either try to locate any suspicious packages, or to prepare to get the hell out. If you hear a time check in a store, it is probably a good idea to start moving toward the exit. Surprisingly – and shockingly, the majority of stores that use this code actually expect their staff to search for the bomb – certainly an aspect of the job that the majority of teenaged checkout operators weren’t expecting when they signed up I am sure.

7

Code 10

A code 10 in hospitals can refer to a mass casualty or serious threat (such as a bomb alert), but the majority of people experiencing a code 10 will do so for another far more common reason: a “code 10 authorization” is made by a merchant when he needs to call a credit card company to enquire about your card. This means that he is suspicious of you or your card and doesn’t want you to know it while he gets it checked out. When the credit card company hears that they have a code 10, they will ask a series of yes/no questions to the merchant in order to find out what the situation is. This will often result in the merchant keeping your card if they believe it is safe to do so. This type of call often results in a call to law enforcement.

6

Doctor Brown

“Doctor Brown” is a code word often used in hospitals to alert security staff to a threat to personnel. If a nurse or doctor is in danger from a violent patient or non-staff member, they can page Doctor Brown to their location and the security staff will rush to their aid. In some hospitals, code silver is used to refer to a person with a weapon, and code gray can mean a violent person without a weapon. Hospitals have a huge array of various codes to describe all manner of situations. They often differ from hospital to hospital and they are usually not internationally recognized. [Image courtesy of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja]

5

Code Oscar

On a ship, a code oscar means someone has gone overboard. If the ship has to maneuver erratically to handle the situation, it must also send out blasts on the signal so that other ships nearby are aware of the fact that it is about to change its course. It should be noted that ships don’t have an internationally standardized set of PA signals and they can differ from place to place, but this is a fairly commonly used one. Oh – and a code delta can mean that there is a biological hazard – though who knows what that might be on a passenger ship. And finally, Code Alpha often means “medical emergency”.

4

Code Bravo

Code Bravo is the code phrase for a general security alert at airports. Unlike most of the codes on this list, the code is meant to cause alarm – but not through knowing what it means: when this alert is raised, all of the security agents will begin to yell “Code Bravo” in order to frighten the passengers – this is supposed to make it easier for the agents to locate the source of the problem without interference from the general public. For those of you who travel on ships from time to time, you may like to know that Code Bravo means “fire” and it is the most serious alert on a ship – if it burns, you either get off or burn with it. Ships also often use sound signals, such as 7 short and 1 long, meaning “man the lifeboats”.

3

Inspector Sands

Inspector Sands (or sometimes Mr Sands), is a code for fire in the United Kingdom. Obviously it would not be appropriate for the service staff of a store to announce a fire publicly, so this code is used to alert the appropriate staff to the danger without upsetting customers. The wording differs from place to place and in the Underground network a recorded “Inspector Sands” warning is automatically triggered by smoke detectors. In some shops you will hear the code used in a phrase such as “Will inspector Sands please report to the men’s changing room” if the fire is in the men’s changing room. It was played on a continuous loop through the underground during the July 7, 2005 bombings, and has been incorrectly described as a code word for a bomb – the frequently used code for a bomb in the Underground is “Mr Gravel” – for example, “Mr Gravel is in the foyer”. Mr Sands (or sometimes Mr Johnson) is also used in theaters in the case of fire. You can listen to a recording of the Underground “Inspector Sands” warning here.

2

WalMart

WalMart gets its own item on this list because they have a large number of codes that are store specific. Some of their codes should not worry you – for example a code 10 or a code 20 just means that there has been a dry spill or a wet spill – the biggest danger this poses to you is that you might slip over. A code 300 calls for security and a code orange means there has been a chemical spill. But here are the ones you really need to worry about: Code red means there is a fire in the building – get the hell out if you hear this. Worse still, a code blue means there is a bomb in the building. Exit swiftly but don’t run – in case they think you planted it. A code green means there is a hostage situation and a code white means there is an accident. The one you are most likely to hear is a code c which is simply a call for customer service (usually meaning that more cashiers are needed). And finally – the most famous WalMart code… well, it’s so famous it needs its own item:

1

Code Adam

Code Adam was invented by Walmart but it is now an internationally recognized alert. It means “missing child”. The code was first coined in 1994 in memory of Adam Walsh, a six-year old, who went missing in a Sears department store in Florida in 1981. Adam was later found murdered. The person making the announcement will state “we have a code Adam,” followed by a description of the missing child. As soon as the alert is heard, security staff will begin to monitor the doors and other exits. If the child is not found within 10 minutes, the police are alerted and a store search begins. Also, if the child is found in the first 10 minutes in the company of an unknown adult, the police must be called and the person detained if it is safe to do so. In 2003, the US Congress passed legislation making a “Code Adam” program compulsory in all federal office buildings. A similar alert is called an AMBER alert, a backronym for “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response” but initially named for Amber Hagerman, a 9 year old girl who was abducted and murdered.

Source: listverse

10 More Things You Ought To Know

10

Highest Mountain

Where is the highest mountain?
It’s on mars. The super-giant volcano called Olympus Mons (Latin for mount Olympus) is the largest single mountain in the solar system and, at the moment, the know universe. At 14 miles (22 km) high and 388 miles (624 km) across, it is almost three times as high as mount Everest, and so wide it’s base would cover Arizona, or the whole of Britain. The crater is easily large enough to swallow London. However Olympos mons doesn’t conform to people’s idea of a mountain; its sides are so slightly inclined, you wouldn’t even break a sweat if you climbed it.

9

Nostrils

How many nostrils have you got?
Four. Two you can see, two you can’t. This discovery came from watching how fish breathe. Fish get their oxygen from water, most of them have two pair of nostrils, a forward facing set for letting water in and two ‘exhaust pipes’ for letting water out. So, since humans evolved from fish, where did the other nostrils go? The answer is, they migrated inward, towards the back of the head, to become internal nostrils called ‘choannae’ – Greek for ‘funnels’. They connect to the throat and are what allow us to breathe through our noses. Some recent research on noses shows that we may use each nostril to detect different kinds of smells.

8

Headless Chickens

How long can a chicken live without its head?
About 2 years, but that’s just the one chicken, so far. On 10th September, 1945, a young cockerel/rooster in Fruita, Colorado, had it’s head chopped off and lived. Incredibly, the axe left the jugular vein intact, and left enough of the brain stem to, apparently, keep the rooster chirping. Mike, as he came to be known, was something of a national celebrity in his time, featuring in Time magazine. His owner, Lloyd Olsen, charged twenty-five cents to see ‘Mike the headless wonder chicken’ in sideshows across the USA. At the height of his career, Mike was making around $4,500 a week, and was valued at $10,000. Mike was fed and watered using an eyedropper, but tragedy struck one night when Mike’s owner had left his eyedropper at a previous show. Unable to clear his airways, Mike choked to death.

7

Toilet Water

Which way does the toilet water spin when flushed?
It depends, not on which side of the equator you are on, but on the shape of your toilet bowl. The widely held belief that the Coriolis force, created by the earth’s spin, that drives toilet water into a spiral, is untrue. Although it does influence very large, long lasting weather patterns such as hurricanes and ocean currents, it is by orders of magnitude far too weak to affect domestic plumbing. The direction of the water spin is determined by the shape of the bowl, the direction in which water is ejected into the bowel when flushed and by vortices introduced when the flushing action begins.

6

Camel Humps

What do camels store in their humps?
Fat, not water. The fat stored in the humps of camels is used as an energy reserve. Water is stored throughout their bodies, predominantly in their bloodstream, which makes them very good at avoiding dehydration. Camels can go seven days without drinking, but when they do drink, they really go for it: up to 225 liters (50 gallons) a time! Enough to easily keep a family of four satisfied on the driest of summer afternoons. On a different note, camel-racing in the United Arab Emirates has started to use robot jockeys, in place of traditional child riders. The remotely controlled jockeys were introduced following the ban of the use of children under the age of 16 in races.

5

US States

How many states are there in the USA?
This is merely a technicality, but there are actually just forty six. Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are all officially Commonwealths. This grants them no special constitutional powers; they simply chose the word to describe themselves at the end of the war of independence. Virginia, named after the ‘Virgin’ Queen Elizabeth I, was one of the original 13 states (hence the 13 stripes on the flag, although common knowledge in the US, this bit of trivia is an excellent little factlet for us non-Americans) and the first of the states to declare itself a Commonwealth, in 1776. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts followed suit shortly afterwards, and Kentucky, which was formally a county of Virginia, became a Commonwealth in 1792.

4

Thai Capital

What is the capital city of Thailand?
Bangkok, although it hasn’t been called that for around 200 years. The city’s day to day name is actually Krung Thep (pronounced Grung Cape), and is referred to as such throughout Thailand. Only us ignorant foreigners call it Bangkok. Krung Thep means ‘City of Angels’ (the same as Los Angeles) and is an abbreviation of the full name, which is possibly the largest place name in the world. The full official name is ‘Krungthep Mahanakhon Amorn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yudthaya Mahadilok Pohp Noparat Rajathanee Bureerom Udomrajniwes Mahasatarn Amorn Pimarn Avaltarnsatit Sakatattiya Visanukram Prasit’. In Thai, this is written as a single word of 152 letters. It translates roughly as ‘Great City of Angels the supreme repository of divine jewels, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital city full of nine noble gems, the highest royal dwelling and grand palace, the divine shelter and living space of reincarnated spirits’, quite a mouth full I’m sure you’d agree.

3

Ice Age

When did the last ice-age end?
We’re still in it. Geographers define an ice age as a period of the Earth’s history when there are polar ice caps. Our climate is in an ‘interglacial’ period, which doesn’t mean we are between ice ages, but means we are in a period of time when the ice retreats to the poles because of warmer temperatures. The period started 10,000 years ago, in what we think is the fourth Ice age. When the ice age will end is anyone’s guess, estimates range between 12,000 to 50,000 years (without man-made influences). Causes of the natural fluctuations in global temperature are not well understood, theories range from the locations the continents happen to be in, atmospheric components, the position of the Earth’s rotation, and even the position of the Sun’s rotation in the galaxy!

2

Sound Barrier

What was the first invention to break the sound barrier?
The whip. Whips were invented in China 7,000 years ago, but it wasn’t until the Invention of high speed photography, in 1927, that the ‘crack’ of the whip was shown to be a mini sonic boom, and not the leather hitting the handle/floor. The sound is caused by the small loop that forms in the whipping action of the leather, as the loop travels along the loop, it builds in speed, until, at the end of the whip, it breaks the sounds barrier at about 742 mph! The first aircraft to break the sound barrier was the Bell XI, piloted by Chuck Yeager, in 1947.

1

Evolution

What did Human beings evolve from?
This will probably be the best known fact on the list, but I thought I’d include it anyway. At no point did Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, or any right-minded evolutionary biologist since, ever insinuate that human beings evolved from chimps, or any ape for that matter. The theory of Evolution through natural selection states that Homo sapiens share a common ancestor with all members of the Ape family. The common ancestor lived more than five million years ago. This organism evolved from squirrel-like tree shrews, which, in turn, evolved from hedgehogs, and way before that, starfish.

Source: listverse

10 Things You Ought To Know

10

Henry VIII

How many wives did Henry VIII have?
The answer? Two, not six. Henry’s fourth marriage to Anne was annulled, as the marriage was never consummated, in other words it was seen to that the marriage technically never took place, also Anne happened to be betrothed to Francis, Duke of Lorraine. At the time ‘betrothal’ would bar the individual from marriage. So that leaves 5 wives. Henry’s second marriage to Anne Boleyn was declared illegal by the pope, because the king was still married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Henry, as the head of the church of England, declared himself that his first marriage was invalid on the grounds that a man cannot sleep with his brother’s widow. He did the same with his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, bringing us down to two wives.

9

Huge!

What’s the largest living organism?
The elephant? The blue whale? The T-Rex? No. The largest ever living organism is a mushroom. And not even a particularly rare one. The Armillaria ostoyae or ‘Honey fungus’ is very common, and is probably in your garden as we speak. However, lets hope it doesn’t grow as large as the largest ever recorded specimen, in Malheur National forest, in Oregon. It covers 2,200 acres (890 hectares)!! And is between 2,000 and 8,000 years old!! The majority of the organism is under ground, in the form of a massive mat of tentacle-like mycelia (the mushroom’s equivalent of roots). The giant honey fungus was originally thought to grow in different clusters around the forest, but researches have confirmed it is in fact one very, very large single organism!

8

Chameleons

Why do chameleons change their skin color?
Not to blend into their background, never have, never will. They change their color depending on a number of emotional states, they change often, and so it’s no wonder that eventually they will match their backgrounds, but only until the next change. They change color when frightened, when mating, when fighting another chameleon etc. A chameleon would have little use for blending in, their main prey, insects, tend to have eyesight unfit to spot them when they are still anyway, and being an apex predator, chameleons don’t tend to have any natural predators.

7

Matter

How many states of matter are there?
Three surely? Solid, liquid and Gas? Actually, it’s more like fifteen. Although the list grows almost daily, some examples are: Solid, amorphous solid, liquid, gas, plasma, super-fluid, supersolid, degenerate matter, neutronium, strongly symmetric matter, weakly symmetric matter, quark-gluon plasma fermionic condensate (pictured above), Bose-Einstein condensate and ‘strange matter’. The most interesting is possibly Bose-Einstein condensate, or ‘bec’. which occurs when you cool a specific substance down to a fraction below absolute zero (-273 degrees), at this point, things get peculiar. For example if you put a ‘bec’ in a beaker, and keep the beaker at the correct temperature, the bec will actually climb the sides of the beaker. If you don’t believe me: YouTube. This happens because behavior only before observed at atomic levels are observed at greater levels. Some scientists believe the behavior is a result of the bec trying to “reduce it’s own energy”.

6

Number of the Beast

What is the number of the Devil?
616. For 2000 years, 666 has been the number of the dreaded anti-Christ. An unlucky number for many, even the European parliament leaves seat number 666 vacant. The number is from the book of Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible. However, in 2005, a translation of the very earliest known copy of the book of revelation clearly shows it to be 616, not 666! The 1,700 year old copy was recovered from the city of Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, and deciphered by a palaeographical research team from the University Of Birmingham, UK. The team was led by Professor David Parker.

5

Golden Skies

What color was the sky in ancient Greece?
Bronze! There was no word for blue in the ancient Greek language. The nearest words to blue – glaukos and kyanos are more like expressions of relative light intensity than descriptions of color. So when the Greek referred to the sky as ‘bronze’, they meant that it was dazzlingly bright, like the sheen of a bronze shield, rather than actually bronze-colored. It seems the ancient Greeks described things based on other qualities, so when a word is used that, to us, seems to indicate ‘yellow’ or ‘light green’ really just means fluid, living and fresh, and was therefore used to describe flowers, blood, the sea and sheep. It would appear to us that the Greeks were referring to all of these things as yellow colored, but that’s because of the way we describe things. Interestingly, in Russia, there are two words for blue: goluboi and sinii, one word referring to light blue, the other dark, which to Russians are two different, distinct colors, not shades of the same color, much like other cultures perceive pink to be a shade of red, rather than a color in it’s own right.

4

Senses

How many senses do you have?
At least nine. The five we all know about: Sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, were first proposed by Aristotle, but there are now four more which are agreed among scientists to be official senses, these are:
1. Thermoception – the sense of heat (or it’s absence) on our skin,
2. Equilibrioception – our sense of balance, which is determined by the fluid filled cavities in our inner ear.
3. Nociception – Pain.
4. Proprioception – or ‘body awareness’. This is the conscious knowledge of where our body parts are without having to look, for example, close your eyes and waggle your big toe, you still know where it is in relation to the rest of you.
Some neurologists also argue that there are even more than 9. What about hunger? Or thirst? It’s certainly a grey area.

3

Over the Edge

What shape did medieval people believe the earth was?
Wrong again. Since around the fourth century BC, almost no-one, anywhere has believed the earth to be flat. This misconception that people where ignorant of the shape of the earth comes from the partially fictional text ‘The Life And Voyages Of Christopher Columbus’ (1828), which incorrectly stated that Columbus set out to prove the earth was round. Truth is, nobody would have disputed the theory. Evidence shows that almost all cultures of the world worked out, through mathematics or just observation, the spherical nature of the Earth.

2

Moth to a Flame

How does a moth react to a light?
They are not attracted to them, but disorientated by them. The reason being that moths use natural light sources, i.e. the sun and moon, to navigate. The insects use the location of the light source from the Sun or moon to determine what direction they should be facing (i.e. what direction is up!) and how to fly in a straight line. When people come along with artificial suns and moons in their bedrooms, it confuses the insect, making it think it’s somehow moving in a curved path, because the direction of the light source has suddenly changed, to rectify this, moths try to straighten their trajectory, but the light source being so close, the only way to do this is to fly around in circles. And moths don’t eat cloths, their caterpillars do.

1

Arid Land

Where is the driest place on earth?
The Sahara desert? Nevada? Actually, it’s Antarctica. Some parts of the continent hasn’t seen any rain for two million years! A desert is technically defined as an area of land that receives less than 254mm (10 inches) of rain a year. The Sahara gets 25 mm, Antarctica gets around the same amount, but some areas of Antarctica never get rain, and haven’t for millennia. Making Antarctica the driest place on earth. Also, Antarctica can claim to be the windiest place on earth, with wind speeds of up to 200mph, the fastest ever recorded.

Source: listverse

10 Weird Religious Practices

Most religions have one or two unusual practices or devices but occasionally you find one which is just completely weird. This list contains ten of the more unusual things found in modern religions.

1. Mormom Temple Garments Wikipedia

In some denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, the temple garment (or the Garment of the Holy Priesthood, or informally, the garment or garments) is a set of sacred underclothing worn by adult adherents who have taken part in a ritual ceremony known as washing and anointing ordinance, usually in a temple as part of the Endowment ceremony. Adherents consider them to be sacred and may be offended by public discussion of the garments. Anti-Mormon activists have publicly displayed or defaced temple garments to show their opposition to the LDS Church.
According to generally-accepted Mormon doctrine, the marks in the garments are sacred symbols (Buerger 2002, p. 58). One proposed element of the symbolism, according to early Mormon leaders, was a link to the “Compass and the Square”, the symbols of freemasonry (Morgan 1827, pp. 22-23), to which Joseph Smith (creator of Mormonism) had been initiated about seven weeks prior to his introduction of the Endowment ceremony.


2. Scientology E-Meter Wikipedia

An E-meter is an electronic device manufactured by the Church of Scientology at their Gold Base production facility. It is used as an aid by Dianetics and Scientology counselors and counselors-in-training in some forms of auditing, the application of the techniques of Dianetics and Scientology to another or to oneself for the express purpose of addressing spiritual issues.
E-meter sessions are conducted by church employees known as auditors. Scientology materials traditionally refer to the subject as the “preclear,” although auditors continue to use the meter well beyond the clear level. The preclear holds a pair of cylindrical electrodes (“cans”) connected to the meter while the auditor asks the preclear a series of questions and notes both the verbal response and the activity of the meter. Auditor training describes many types of needle movements, with each having their own special significance.
A 1971 ruling of the United States District Court, District of Columbia (333 F. Supp. 357), specifically stated, “The E-meter has no proven usefulness in the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease, nor is it medically or scientifically capable of improving any bodily function.”

3. Exorcism Cogitz

Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed (taken control of). The practice is quite ancient and still part of the belief system of many religions, though it is seen mostly in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the church, can only be exercised by an ordained priest (or higher prelate), with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness. The Catholic Encyclopaedia (1908) enjoined: “Superstition ought not to be confounded with religion, however much their history may be interwoven, nor magic, however white it may be, with a legitimate religious rite”.

4. Jewish Kaparot (כפרות) Wikipedia

Kaparot is a traditional Jewish religious ritual that takes place around the time of the High Holidays. Classically, it is performed by grasping a live chicken by the sholder blades and moving around one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor, preferably eaten at the pre-Yom Kippur feast. In modern times, Kapparos is performed in the traditional form mostly in Haredi communities. The ritual is preceded by the reading of Psalms 107:17-20 and Job 33:23-24.
On the eve of Yom Kippur 2005, more than 200 caged chickens were abandoned in rainy weather as part of a Kaparot operation in Brooklyn, NY; some of these starving and dehydrated chickens were subsequently rescued by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Jacob Kalish, an Orthodox Jew from Williamsburg, was charged with animal cruelty for the drowning deaths of 35 of these chickens. In response to such reports of the mistreatment of chickens, animal rights organizations have begun to picket public observances of kaparot, particularly in Israel.

5. Shamanism Wikipedia

Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. There are many variations in shamanism throughout the world, though there are some beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism. Its practitioners claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering and, in some societies, the ability to cause suffering. This is believed to be accomplished by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits.
Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds. Shamans were used in Tibetan Buddhism as a form of divination by which the Dalai Lama was given prophesies of the future and advice.

6. Dowry Wikipedia

This is a cultural practice rather than a religious one. The practice of dowry exists across India. Despite laws against it, the practice continues. The girl child’s dowry and wedding expenses often sends her family into a huge debt trap. As consumerism and wealth increase in India, dowry demands are growing. In rural areas, families sell their land holdings, while the urban poor sell their houses.
To curb the practice of dowry, the government of India made several laws detailing severe punishment to anyone demanding dowry and a law in Indian Penal Code (Section 498A) has been introduced. While it gives boost to a woman and her family, it in the same time also put a man and his family in a great disadvantage. Misuse of this law by women in urban India and many incidents of extortion of money from the husband done by the wife and her family (this is called sowry) have come to light.

7. Mormon Baptism of the Dead Wikipedia

Baptism for the dead, vicarious baptism or proxy baptism is a religious practice of baptising a living person on behalf of an individual who is dead; the living person is acting as the deceased person’s proxy. It has been practiced since 1840 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where it is also called temple baptism because it is performed only in dedicated temples.
In the practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a living person, acting as proxy, is baptized by immersion on behalf of a deceased person of the same gender. The baptism ritual is as follows: after calling the living proxy by name, the person performing the baptism says, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for and in behalf of [full name of deceased person], who is dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” The proxy is then immersed briefly in the water. Baptism for the dead is a distinctive ordinance of the church and is based on the belief that baptism is a required ordinance for entry into the Kingdom of God.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vicariously baptizes people regardless of race, sex, or creed. This includes both victims and perpetrators of genocide. Some Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their supporters have objected to this practice.

8. Jainist Digambaras Wikipedia

Digambar also spelled Digambara is one of the two main sects of Jainism. Senior Digambar monks wear no clothes, following the practice of Lord Mahavira. They do not consider themselves to be nude — they are wearing the environment. Digambaras believe that this practice represents a refusal to give in to the body’s demands for comfort and private property — only Digambara ascetics are required to forsake clothing. Digambara ascetics have only two possessions: a peacock feather broom and a water gourd.
The native Jain communities of Maharashta, Bundelkhand (MP/UP), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu are all Digambaras. In north India, the Saravagis and the Agrawals are also Digambaras. In Gujarat and Southern Rajasthan, the majority of Jains follow the Svetambara tradition, although some Jain communities of these regions like the Humad are also Digambaras.

9. Islamic Niqab (نِقاب) Wikipedia

A niqab is a veil which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of sartorial hijab. It is popular in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf but it can also be found in North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
The niqab is regarded differently by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence known as madhahab. Some see it as obligatory, or fard , while others see it as recommended, or mustahab, and a few see it as forbidden. The majority of scholars believe hijab is required, but only a few see niqab as required, although this is not the common perception among the general population.

10. Jehovah’s Witnesses Refusal of Blood Transfusions Wikipedia

A fundamental doctrine of the Jehovah’s Witnesses teaches that the Bible prohibits consumption, storage and transfusion of blood, including in cases of emergency. This doctrine was introduced in 1945, and has been elaborated upon since then. Although accepted by a majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses, evidence indicates a minority does not wholly endorse this doctrine. Facets of the doctrine have drawn praise and criticism from both members of the medical community and Jehovah’s Witnesses alike.
In 1964, Jehovah’s Witnesses were prohibited from obtaining transfusions for pets, from using fertilizer containing blood, and were even encouraged to write to dog food manufacturers to verify that their products were blood-free. Later that year, Jehovah’s Witnesses doctors and nurses were instructed to withhold blood transfusions from fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses. As to administering transfusions to non-members, The Watchtower stated that such a decision is “left to the Christian doctor’s own conscience.”

Source:  listverse