The bottle of ancient piss was found by workers digging trenches on Seaview St. in Cleethorpes, a small town of nearly 30,000 on the East Coast of England. The workers initially thought it was a bottle of rum, perhaps left behind by pirates centuries ago. They were all set to crack it open and give it a swig when the project manager stepped in.

The project manager wasn’t trying to save the workers from their stupidity by thinking they could just crack open and start drinking from an old bottle found buried in the ground. They understood there was probably some kind of historical significance to the bottle, so they had it analyzed by a student named Zara Yates from the nearby University of Lincoln.

Yates used crime scene technology to determine that maybe the liquid in the bottle was rum at one point, but is now definitely a whole lot of piss. Speaking to the BBC, Yates said “It’s very usual to find an object with this amount of liquid still inside.”

The only reason the iridescent bottle remains intact after excavation is that the digging machine couldn’t quite reach into a narrow passageway, so the work crew had to start digging by hand. If they’d been using the machine, they probably would’ve crushed the bottle and released the evil spirits of 200-year-old piss.

The shape of the bottle indicates that it was likely hand-made in 1790, as the mass production of such bottles using molds didn’t begin until 1840. There is no way to definitively know why this bottle is filled with piss, but Yates and her fellow researchers at the University have some theories.

One is that it was a “witches bottle” buried to ward away evil spirits. I like to believe it’s a distant cousin of the piss-filled water bottles you can see strewn on the side of long stretches of highway lacking rest stops.

The post Beautiful Handmade Bottle Full of 200-Year-Old Human Pee Found in England appeared first on VICE.

The 2025 list is full of beloved landmarks like the Buddhist Grottoes of Maijishan and Yungang, China, and the historic lighthouses of Maine in the United States. And now, the moon that hangs above us all in the night sky.

The logic here is that, as we enter a brand-new Space Age, the moon and its over 90 historic sites—including such iconic spots as the Apollo 11 landing site where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took humanity’s first steps on the lunar surface—are going to need some kind of protection as we further explore and perhaps even colonize the moon.

Think of it as a form of preemptive protection against the rich assholes who are going to try to ruin the moon before the rest of us can get there.

According to the organization’s press release, since it was launched in 1996, the WMF watchlist has contributed over $120 million to the preservation of around 350 sites around the world. Its lists have generated independent interest in maintaining these historic sites and generated upwards of $300 million dedicated to preserving them.

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For quite some time now, I’ve wondered whether manifesting is real. Books like The Secret by Rhonda Byrne sell the pseudoscientific concept called the law of attraction, which basically says that simply believing things will work out for you will ensure that they do. 

Many gurus in this space discuss the power of positive thinking, claiming our thoughts affect our reality—and I believe, to a large extent, they do. But the way it’s presented often makes manifestation sound more like a “woo-woo” practice than an effective self-empowerment tool.

Tanya J. Peterson, NCC, DAIS, licensed therapist, spoke with Parade about the truth of manifesting. She noted that, as a concept, it’s mostly “fluff.” But as a practice, it can improve your self-concept and, in turn, lead to more inspired action. 

“This is where concepts from positive psychology come into play, particularly optimism, resilience, and character strengths,” she told the outlet. “When you can accept and acknowledge that life has negatives and setbacks, identify your own strengths and positive character traits, and use your strengths every day to take steps toward your goals, you position yourself to manifest your deepest dreams and desires.

“Because you know that life also is full of positives and triumphs, you keep going despite obstacles and setbacks,” she continued. “This is the true power and meaning of manifestation.”

In other words, by telling yourself you will get everything you desire—no matter the roadblocks you might face along the way—you’re more likely to keep trying for it. Naturally, this sets you up for success.

So, before you completely write off the power of manifesting your goals, consider this anecdote: I have called in a book deal, my dream career, my dream partner (down to the exact date we met, mind you), a beautiful apartment, and a supportive, loving friend group—all through manifestation. But…it wasn’t achieved by some magical spell-casting ritual. Instead, it entailed years of self-work and healing, coupled with a refusal to give up.

It wasn’t until I got clear on what I desired, truly believed I deserved it, and told myself day after day that I would get it, that I actually made it my reality.

Because of these self-affirming beliefs, I finally moved through the world with a higher sense of self-worth and confidence. And because I knew exactly what I deserved and wanted, I didn’t settle for anything less along the way. Instead, I was open to receiving the best of the best.

So, is manifesting magic? Probably not—but you are.

We are much more powerful and capable than we believe.

The post Yes, Manifesting Really Works—Just Not the Way You Think appeared first on VICE.

The easiest way to think of DNA and RNA is that DNA contains our genetic code, along with the instructions that tell a cell how to grow and function. RNA carries out those instructions.

Sunburns are the result of cellular damage caused by exposure to UV-B radiation. The long-held belief was that DNA is much more vulnerable to damage by ultraviolet light than RNA, which was commonly considered to be highly resistant to UV light damage. The sunburn research, led by molecular biologist Anna Constance Vind, challenges that belief.

Vind found that RNA damage is what triggers the body’s defenses when sunburn is setting in. Damage to RNA causes immediate cellular stress, which alerts the rest of the immune system to the threat.

By using genetically modified mice lacking a protein called ZAK-alpha, which helps cells respond to RNA damage, Vind and her team found that her modded mice didn’t develop typical sunburn symptoms after UV-B radiation exposure. Another round of testing, this time on human skin cells, confirmed that RNA damage is the first trigger in a chain of reactions that eventually lead to a sunburn.

Vind’s findings upend everything we’ve known about how sunburns work. If further testing by independent research teams from around the world confirms Vind’s results, it could eventually change the way we treat and even prevent sunburns in the first place. It could mean better, more effective sunblock formulas or more effective treatments for sunburns after they happen.

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Mittens the Maine coon was moving with her family from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 13 when she was unfortunately missed by ground staff during the unloading process.

After hours of waiting for Mittens at the plane’s freight area, the owners learned their beloved furry friend had been overlooked in the cargo hold. By the time they realized the mistake, Mittens was already on her way back to New Zealand. 

“It was not a great start to our new life in Melbourne because we didn’t have the family, we weren’t complete,” said Margo Neas, Mitten’s owner, per the Associated Press. 

Thankfully, ground staff alerted the pilot that the poor cat was still on board, and he turned on the heating in the cargo area to ensure a comfortable flight. Once she arrived back in New Zealand, Neas’ original pet moving company retrieved Mittens at the airport and got her boarded on another flight to Australia.

“She basically just ran into my arms and just snuggled up in here and just did the biggest cuddles of all time,” Neas said. “It was just such a relief.”

Air New Zealand has since reimbursed all associated costs and released a statement apologizing for the incident. “We’ll work closely with our ground handler in Melbourne to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” said spokesperson Alisha Armstrong.

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Donald Trump repeatedly talked about banning TikTok during his first stint as president. He even went as far as to sign an executive order “on addressing the threat posed by TikTok.” Trump eventually got his wish after the House and Senate passed a bipartisan bill banning the app in 2024. It was signed by then-President Joe Biden, and eventually stamped with the US Supreme Court’s seal of approval.

It was “saved” by Donald Trump at the beginning of his second term after some truly embarrassing ass-kissing on TikTok’s part, knowing full well that the direct way to Donald Trump’s heart is through bribery or ego-stroking.

MrBeast Wants to Buy TikTok

TikTok is owned by a Chinese company called Bytedance, and is, therefore, a major national security risk—or so we are being told by American politicians of every ideological stripe as the rest of us roll our eyes and do a big, showy jerk-off hand gesture in response.

While TikTok’s ass-kissing essentially provided them a temporary stay of execution, the app’s ultimate fate in the United States remains unclear. Enter MrBeast and his enormous wealth racked up from churning out videos that gingerly walk the line between entertaining and dystopian.

He’s joined up with a group of investors and plans on throwing a bid at TikTok soon. He’s going to have stiff competition as every billionaire hoping to add a Vehicle for propaganda to their portfolio is dying to get their hands on the app used by half of America and has entranced all of Gen Z.

The post MrBeast Wants to Buy TikTok Along With a ‘Bunch of Billionaires’ appeared first on VICE.

The group revealed that sales were down more in Colorado than the national average. The state saw a 3.2% decrease compared to the 2% drop-off nationwide.

Colorado Lost 41 Breweries in 2024—Another Sign of Craft Beer’s Decline

Shawnee Adelson, who is the executive director for the Colorado Brewer’s Guild, told Ark Valley Voice that a few factors contributed to the decline seen in the state. This includes inflation, supply chain issues, staffing shortages, and the declining interest in drinking alcohol.

All of these have led to the 41 closures seen this past year and the 140 taprooms that have closed since 2020. Adelson says the ramifications of the pandemic continue to be a factor behind the pain inflicted on the beer community.

A popular brewery in the Denver area, Fiction Beer Company, cited these reasons behind its difficult decision to announce its closure on Dec. 31. Speaking with the Denver Gazette, the brewery pointed to the difficulties of the industry, “What it comes down to is that the craft beer business is a difficult and demanding one and it’s time to move on to a less stressful venture for the sake of our kiddos and ourselves.”

It’s unfortunate to see these local businesses struggling through price hikes, rent increases, and the general downward trend of new drinkers.

In 2023, Colorado had the fifth most breweries per capita in the country. Vermont, Maine, Montana, and Alaska were just ahead of them, per Statista. To date, Colorado has more than 400 breweries, but it saw more businesses close up shop in 2024 than it did new ones open up, so we shall see where the future of craft beer lies.

Seeing one of the top states in the industry going through its struggles is likely indicative of what’s to come for many other states across the country.

The post Why Are So Many American Breweries Shutting Down? appeared first on VICE.

An animal rights group, Nonhuman Rights Project, brought this to the attention of the state’s Supreme Court. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that the elephants have no legal right to pursue their release because they’re not human.

An actual real quote from the ruling per NBC News, “Instead, the legal question here boils down to whether an elephant is a person… and because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim.” Seriously, that sounds like what I would say to explain to my toddler—well, not the habeas corpus part—as to why we can’t bring an elephant home when we visit the Philadelphia Zoo.

A Colorado Court Ruled That Elephants Aren’t Humans and Can’t Be Released From the Zoo

The activist group brought this up to the higher court after believing that the elephants were showing signs of brain damage as a result of their stay at the zoo. The Nonhuman Rights Project aimed to relocate the animals to one of the two elephant sanctuaries in the U.S. That didn’t anywhere in court as the zoo argued the elephants don’t want to join others or want a change of scenery.

If you think is all ridiculous—the idea of arguing over whether an animal has rights or not because it’s not a human—this very same case happened in 2022 in New York. That was when Happy, an elephant at the Bronx Zoo, was the subject of another Nonhuman Rights Project movement to release him from captivity before a 5-2 decision by the Court of Appeals determined human rights do not apply to animals.

This is likely not the last time the group will attempt to push the envelope and fight for animal rights in zoos. That being said, the one thing that is interesting about all of this, is if even just one case goes their way and an animal is given human rights per se, I imagine a giant can of worms could open up. That’s likely why these courts are doing what they can to avoid that.

Let’s just hope the elephants are doing okay in their habitats.

The post Elephants Aren’t People and Can’t Sue to Leave the Zoo, Says Colorado Court appeared first on VICE.

Couple that with the fact that 20 percent of Japan’s elderly population lives in poverty and it’s easy to see why some inmates at a Japanese women’s prison would rather stay locked up than be released into a world of solitude.

CNN ran a fascinating feature on the inmates of Tochigi Women’s Prison in Tochigi, Japan, a prefecture just north of Tokyo. Many of its inmates are elderly women who prefer the stability and community of prison over the realities of life on the outside.

It’s understandable. With so many elderly inmates, it functions more like a nursing home than a prison, one that provides those inside with better care and attentiveness and they would get on their own.

The women all receive necessary assistance as they walk, bathe, and eat. They receive regularly scheduled meals, free healthcare, and a sense of community and companionship that they would struggle to find outside the prison walls.

When faced with the prospect of being reintroduced to society, some of the prisoners, like 81-year-old Akiyo and 51-year-old Yoko, commit crimes just so they can go right back to prison, the one place someone their age wouldn’t be forgotten and neglected.

Yoko has served multiple sentences over 25 years for a variety of drug charges. “(Some people) do bad things on purpose and get caught so that they can come to prison again if they run out of money,” she told CNN.

The post Elderly Women in Japan Are Choosing Prison Over Loneliness appeared first on VICE.

Dr. Chen Wei-nong’s video went viral and quickly racked up millions of views. He and his wife already had three kids so she put her foot down and declared her birth canal had been through enough trauma. No more. Time for him to shut down those testicles. He figured, hell, he had all the skills of a plastic surgeon—might as well snip his own vas deferens. How thrifty and DIY of him.

The video does sort of function as a step-by-step guide on how to perform your own vasectomy… not that you should do that. Please, God, do not do that. Dr. Chen outlined the 11 steps required to pull off a successful vasectomy—including being sure to administer local anesthesia before you start chopping into your semen tubes.

A procedure he admitted was quite strange to perform on himself…

Surgeon Gives Himself a Vasectomy on Instagram

Dr. Chen said that he conducted the whole operation under the supervision of a urologist, who was presumably holding the camera, which is not the valuable equipment the urologist should have been holding in this scenario but whatever.

In a little bit of “do as I say, not as I do,” Doctor Chen encouraged viewers to seek out a medical professional to perform their vasectomies rather than attempt to do it themselves like they’re trying to defuse a bomb in their groin.

If you’re wondering about the legality of all of this, the local Department of Health looked into this whole escapade and somehow came to the conclusion that no laws were broken, which seems a little broken in and of itself.

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