Post them here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Midnight_Climax

Quote :

"The project consisted of a web of CIA-run safehouses in San Francisco, Marin, and New York. It was established in order to study the effects of LSD on unconsenting individuals. Prostitutes on the CIA payroll were instructed to lure clients back to the safehouses, where they were surreptitiously plied with a wide range of substances, including LSD, and monitored behind one-way glass. Several significant operational techniques were developed in this theater, including extensive research into sexual blackmail, surveillance technology, and the possible use of mind-altering drugs in field operations."

2/4/2012 10:18:03 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

[Edited on February 4, 2012 at 1:49 PM. Reason : wow, 58 views and no one wanted to contribute?]

2/4/2012 1:48:33 PM

if i was rich enough to never work again, some days i would spend 7-8 straight hours either reading wikipedia stuff and the contained related links, or watching hours of youtube tutorials on how to build stuff

2/4/2012 1:51:24 PM

or you could skim a couple of those tutorials and then go build said stuff


but i mean that's just me

2/4/2012 1:59:25 PM

i'd do both

2/4/2012 2:02:10 PM

i know you would

i posted that before i looked at who posted it


sorry for the unintentional snoot-burn

2/4/2012 2:03:47 PM

Weird. I just read about midnight climax on Wikipedia yesterday.

2/4/2012 4:26:29 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum

Quote :

"The possibility that we are living in a false vacuum has been considered though this is only a possibility and Chaotic Inflation theory suggests that the universe may be a false vacuum or a true vacuum. If a bubble of lower energy vacuum were nucleated, it would expand, approaching at nearly the speed of light and destroying the Earth instantaneously, without any forewarning. Thus, this vacuum metastability event is a theoretical doomsday event."

2/4/2012 4:28:15 PM

Absolutely fascinating story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Jennifer

Quote :

""AZORIAN" (erroneously called JENNIFER after its Top Secret Security Compartment by the press)[2] was the code name for a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) project to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor in the summer of 1974, using the purpose-built ship Hughes Glomar Explorer.[3] The 1968 sinking of the K-129 occurred approximately 1,560 nautical miles (2,890 km) northwest of Hawaii.[4] Project Azorian was one of the most complex, expensive, and secretive intelligence operations of the Cold War at a cost of about $800 million ($3.6 billion in 2012 dollars)."

There are a few documentaries made on this which are very interesting. I still think that the CIA recovered the entire sub intact.

Here is a brief video on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZaVFwPhm5E

2/5/2012 12:52:28 AM

Quote :

"Tristan Akeen “T. A.” McLendon (born February 21, 1984) is an American football player. Alongside Ken Hall and Brett Law, McLendon is one of the most productive high school football players of all time. In four seasons at Albemarle High School in Albemarle, North Carolina, McLendon rushed a total 9,004 yards and a national best 178 total touchdowns (170 rushing) over his career. In his final game, he rushed for 289 yards and a state-record seven touchdowns in leading Albemarle to the Class 1A state championship. He played in the 2002 U.S. Army All-American Bowl. McLendon continued his football career at North Carolina State, immediately becoming the focal point of the Wolfpack's offense as a freshman in 2002, earning Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year honors. He led the team with 1,101 yards on 245 carries (4.5 avg.), setting school single-season records with 18 touchdowns (tied ACC season mark for freshmen) and 108 points scored, adding 354 yards on 42 receptions (8.4 avg.), despite being hampered by two shoulder separations and a right wrist fracture. McLendon appeared in only nine games in 2003, but still led the team in rushing with 130 attempts for 608 yards and nine scores. The injury bug would plague McLendon throughout the 2004 season. He strained his hamstring in fall camp, missing the season opener vs. Richmond. McLendon re-injured the hamstring midway through the season vs. Maryland and it limited his performance the rest of the year. He still managed to lead the team in rushing for the third straight year, gaining 770 yards on 167 carries (4.6 avg.) with six touchdowns. McLendon entered the 2004 NFL Draft as a junior, but went undrafted. McLendon tried out for several NFL teams but was unable to land a contract. On September 10, 2007 McLendon was arrested in his hometown of Albemarle for drug possession following a routine traffic stop. McLendon was charged with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to sell and deliver drugs, driving with license revoked and maintaining a vehicle to keep a controlled substance. McLendon's bail was set at $5,000 and he was scheduled to appear in court on October 8, 2007.[1] On November 20, 2008 he was sentenced to 24 months probation in Stanly County, North Carolina. [2]"

2/5/2012 2:30:23 AM

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler

This guy always gets the torture thoughts going.

Quote :

" Vlad had the Turkish envoys killed on the pretext that they had refused to raise their "hats" to him, by nailing their turbans to their heads."

[Edited on February 5, 2012 at 4:43 AM. Reason : Ah]

2/5/2012 4:38:20 AM

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gropecunt_Lane

2/5/2012 10:53:24 AM

^lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_sparrow_campaign

Quote :

"The campaign against the 'Four Pests' was initiated in 1958 as a hygiene campaign by Mao Zedong, who identified the need to exterminate mosquitoes, flies, rats, and sparrows. Sparrows – mainly the Eurasian Tree Sparrow – were included on the list because they ate grain seeds, robbing the people of the fruits of their labour. The masses of China were mobilized to eradicate the birds, and citizens took to banging pots and pans or beating drums to scare the birds from landing, forcing them to fly until they fell from the sky in exhaustion. Sparrow nests were torn down, eggs were broken, and nestlings were killed. Sparrows and other birds were shot down from the sky, resulting in the near-extinction of the birds in China. Non-material rewards and recognition were offered to schools, work units and government agencies in accordance with the volume of pests they had killed."

2/5/2012 4:09:03 PM

interesting people right off the top of my head. not in order of coolness or anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hackworth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

10/13/2013 5:24:18 AM

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-place_artifact

10/13/2013 6:19:03 AM

why is there a m in that wikipedia link bricktop? u r mislead?

if they find my foot up your ass in like a million years ago and it 2013 would that qualify as a misplaced artefact?

10/13/2013 10:35:03 AM

Quote :

"There are a few documentaries made on this which are very interesting. I still think that the CIA recovered the entire sub intact. "

Nah, it broke in half before they could get it aboard the Glomar Explorer. I don't think they got the missiles, which were which they were primarily after. They actually recovered bodies of some Soviet sailors and gave them proper funerals/burials.

10/13/2013 10:56:38 AM

I always found this interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

And this is kind of interesting as the most terrible way to die ever
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism

10/13/2013 11:56:37 AM

^Gross; it took that one guy 17 days to die from that.

10/13/2013 12:13:03 PM

My god what a way to go.

10/14/2013 8:32:21 AM

I was curious about Delaware's curve shape along its northern border w/ PA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-Mile_Circle

10/14/2013 2:59:44 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mad_Gasser_of_Mattoon

Da fuk?

10/15/2013 10:23:42 AM

For some reason, I found the bible related articles fascinating. Probably because they establish that much of what churches think they know is wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_source

10/15/2013 10:29:20 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_bomba

Quote :

"The heat from the explosion could have caused third-degree burns 100 km (62 mi) away from ground zero. A shock wave was observed in the air at Dikson settlement 700 kilometres (430 mi) away; windowpanes were partially broken to distances of 900 kilometres (560 mi).[10] Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage at even greater distances, breaking windows in Norway and Finland. The seismic shock[verification needed] created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth.[11] Its seismic body wave magnitude was about 5 to 5.25.[9] The energy yield was around 8.1 on the Richter scale but, since the bomb was detonated in air rather than underground, most of the energy was not converted to seismic waves. The TNT equivalent of the 50 Mt test could be represented by a cube of TNT 312 metres (1023 feet) on a side, approximately the height of the Eiffel Tower."

10/15/2013 9:11:45 PM

^ That's crazy.

Quote :

"The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage Teller–Ulam design hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 to 58 megatons of TNT (210 to 240 PJ).[5] This is equivalent to about 1,350–1,570 times the combined power of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki,[6] 10 times the combined power of all the conventional explosives used in World War II, or one quarter of the estimated yield of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, and 10% of the combined yield of all nuclear tests to date."

Now this, this will blow your mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa

Quote :

"At 10:02 A.M, is the biggest explosion, the 3rd explosion was so violent that it was heard 3,110 km (1,930 mi) away in Perth, Western Australia, and the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues near Mauritius (4,800 km (3,000 mi) away),"

Quote :

"Barographic recordings show that the shock-wave from the final explosion reverberated around the globe 7 times in total.[3] Ash was propelled to an estimated height of 80 km (50 mi)."

Quote :

"Pyroclastic flows killed around 1,000 people at Ketimbang on the coast of Sumatra some 40 km (25 mi) north from Krakatoa."

Quote :

"The town of Merak was destroyed by a tsunami 46 m (151 ft) high."

Quote :

"Some of the pyroclastic flows reached the Sumatran coast as much as 40 km (25 mi) away, having apparently moved across the water on a cushion of superheated steam. "

Quote :

" It is estimated that as much as 18–21 km3 (4.3–5.0 cu mi) of ignimbrite was deposited over an area of 1,100,000 km2 (420,000 sq mi), largely filling the 30–40 m (98–130 ft) deep basin around the mountain."

Quote :

"In the year following the eruption, average global temperatures fell by as much as 1.2 °C (2.2 °F).[citation needed] Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years, and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. "

Quote :

"The eruption darkened the sky worldwide for years afterward, and produced spectacular sunsets throughout the world for many months."

Quote :

"The ash caused "such vivid red sunsets that fire engines were called out in New York, Poughkeepsie, and New Haven to quench the apparent conflagration." "

Quote :

"For several years following the eruption it was reported that the moon appeared to be blue and sometimes green. Blue moons resulted because some of the ash-clouds were filled with particles about 1 micron wide—the right size to strongly scatter red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue, and sometimes green. People also saw lavender suns and, for the first time, noctilucent clouds. "

10/15/2013 9:44:55 PM

No, this will blow your mind.

During that fraction of a second it detonated, it released 1.4% the energy output of the Sun (during that same fraction of a second).

10/15/2013 10:14:38 PM

^ mind=blown

Also

Quote :

"There are numerous documented reports of groups of human skeletons floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of volcanic pumice and washing up on the east coast of Africa, up to a year after the eruption."

10/15/2013 10:19:02 PM

http://io9.com/5805244/what-would-a-teaspoonful-of-neutron-star-do-to-you

Not wikipedia, but fun anyway.

10/15/2013 10:28:36 PM

^^^ source plz. that's impossible. one bomb (or volcano if you are talking about that) equal to 1.4% of the sun...? that's ridiculous. do you know how big the sun is?

EDIT: found these on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(energy)

1.7×10^17 J..... total energy from the Sun that strikes the face of the Earth each second
2.1×10^17 J..... yield of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever tested (50 megatons)
3.8×10^26 J..... total energy output of the Sun each second

the first two numbers above make an amazing fact! but yeah, that's a billionth of the energy produced by the sun in a second, not a hundredth.


[Edited on October 15, 2013 at 10:49 PM. Reason : ]

10/15/2013 10:35:51 PM

Holy shit. Scaphism. What kind of crazy person thinks of that? Wtf

10/15/2013 11:08:37 PM

I misspoke, 1.4% the power, not the energy, of the Sun during the 39 nanoseconds of detonation.

During that time period the bomb released 5.4 yottawatts.

Look up orders of magnitude (power) instead, OEP.

10/15/2013 11:30:44 PM

OK power, that makes sense.

Found these here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power)

33.8 YW – tech: peak power output of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever built.
384.6 YW – astro: luminosity of the Sun

10/16/2013 12:00:12 AM

Came here to post

Quote :

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism"

It's known as "The Boats" in most classical literature. I think the following description from the article deserves a direct quotation here:

Quote :

" "[The king] decreed that Mithridates should be put to death in boats; which execution is after the following manner: Taking two boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, they lay down in one of them the malefactor that suffers, upon his back; then, covering it with the other, and so setting them together that the head, hands, and feet of him are left outside, and the rest of his body lies shut up within, they offer him food, and if he refuse to eat it, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes; then, after he has eaten, they drench him with a mixture of milk and honey, pouring it not only into his mouth, but all over his face. They then keep his face continually turned towards the sun; and it becomes completely covered up and hidden by the multitude of flies that settle on it. And as within the boats he does what those that eat and drink must needs do, creeping things and vermin spring out of the corruption and rottenness of the excrement, and these entering into the bowels of him, his body is consumed. When the man is manifestly dead, the uppermost boat being taken off, they find his flesh devoured, and swarms of such noisome creatures preying upon and, as it were, growing to his inwards. In this way Mithridates, after suffering for seventeen days, at last expired." —Plutarch, Life of Artaxerxes[3]"

10/16/2013 12:10:51 AM

It's pretty badass.

10/16/2013 12:12:23 AM

This isn't really a wikipedia article, but it is very interesting:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/07/how-deaf-people-think/

It basically explains that deaf people will think in sign language and how language is so hardwired to our brain

Quote :

"Interestingly, if you take a deaf person and make them grip something hard with their hands while asking them to memorize a list of words, this has the same disruptive effect as making a hearing person repeat some nonsense phrase such as “Bob and Bill” during memorization tasks."

I also never realized how important our "inner voice" is to how we think and even our self-awareness. This quote from Helen Keller seems to indicate that we have difficulty even differenciating conciousness from unconciousness without a language (for her it was braille):

Quote :

"Before my teacher came to me, I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no-world. I cannot hope to describe adequately that unconscious, yet conscious time of nothingness. (…) Since I had no power of thought, I did not compare one mental state with another."

10/16/2013 9:19:32 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag%C3%A2ri_Hasan_%C3%87elebi

Quote :

"Lagâri Hasan Çelebi was a legendary Ottoman aviator who, according to an account written by traveller Evliya Çelebi, made a successful manned rocket flight. in 1633"

10/31/2013 10:44:21 AM

Quote :

"Lagari proclaimed before launch "O my sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus!""

Regardless of what the rest of the article says, I'm sure he did, and that calls into question the definition of "successful."

How far can you fall into water and still live..?.

10/31/2013 11:04:39 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocoristic

Quote :

"A hypocorism (/ha?'p?k?r?z?m/; from Greek ?p??????es?a? hypokorizesthai, "to use child-talk"[1]) is a shorter or diminutive form of a word or given name, for example, when used in more intimate situations as a nickname or term of endearment. Also known as pet name or calling name. "

Essentially it explores how shorter names are formed in various languages. It's especially interesting to see how name shortening compares among Western languages that use many of the same names/versions of the same names.

English names that aren't just shortened

Quote :

" Charles ? Chuck, Chaz, Chic Eleanor, Ellen, Helen ? Nell, Nellie Elizabeth ? Bess, Bessie, Beth, Betsy, Betty, Liz, Lizzie Henry ? Hal, Hank, Harry Margaret ? Meg, Maggie, Madge, Marge, Moll, Greta, Rita, Peg, Peggy Mary ? Mae, Minnie, Molly ? Polly Philippa ? Pippa, Pip or Pippy Sarah ? Sally Virginia ? Ginger, Ginny"

TIL: Apparently in French, it's common to shorten Emmanuel to Manu.

10/31/2013 11:17:40 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumous_execution

11/1/2013 5:26:40 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners

Quote :

"Physics: Alberto Minetti, Yuri Ivanenko, Germana Cappellini, Nadia Dominici, and Francesco Lacquaniti, for discovering that some people would be physically capable of running across the surface of a pond — if those people and that pond were on the moon."

11/5/2013 8:48:07 AM

^That's awesome. The first one is pretty crazy

Quote :

"Biology – Robert Klark Graham, selector of seeds and prophet of propagation, for his pioneering development of the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank that accepts donations only from Nobellians and Olympians."

11/5/2013 9:04:35 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

11/5/2013 10:58:01 AM

Oldest Working Clock on Earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_astronomical_clock

600th Anniversary Show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjWJHEmFfPA <--- wow

[Edited on November 17, 2013 at 8:51 PM. Reason : ]

11/17/2013 8:49:08 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths

Quote :

"762: Li Po (Li Bai), Chinese poet and courtier, supposedly tried to kiss the reflection of the Moon beside the boat in which he was travelling, fell overboard and drowned.[23] ... 1552: Henry Pert a gentleman, of Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, died when he stretched his bow to its full extent and the arrow got lodged. While he was leaning over to look at it, the arrow released.[35] [improper gun bow safety] ... 1920: Ray "Chappie" Chapman, shortstop for the Cleveland Indians baseball team, was killed when a submarine ball thrown by Carl Mays hit him in the temple. Chapman collapsed at the plate, and died about 12 hours later. He remains the only major league baseball player killed by a pitched ball.[56] [how you gon let an underhand pitch take you out?]"

11/21/2013 9:44:22 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_Wonder

11/23/2013 2:17:06 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_hand_syndrome

11/23/2013 6:34:59 PM

It turns out that the titles of "Prince" and "Duke" are more similar than I thought: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_prince

[Edited on November 24, 2013 at 11:37 AM. Reason : also there's no such thing as an "Earl-ess": instead she'd be a "Countess"

11/24/2013 11:35:37 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

Quote :

"Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before SBC purchased AT&T.[1] The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room. It is fed by fiber optic lines from beam splitters installed in fiber optic trunks carrying Internet backbone traffic[3] and, as analyzed by J. Scott Marcus, a former CTO for GTE and a former adviser to the FCC, has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building, and therefore "the capability to enable surveillance and analysis of internet content on a massive scale, including both overseas and purely domestic traffic."[4] Former director of the NSA's World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group, William Binney, has estimated that 10 to 20 such facilities have been installed throughout the United States.[2]"

12/4/2013 8:50:02 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Assman

12/10/2013 10:58:48 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheWolfWeb

12/10/2013 11:01:23 AM