Cool Wikipedia pages
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- “Death by laughter”, and more old Greek artsy banter
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- There used to be a large market ($660m in 2010 terms) for ice (from the artic!) pre good ice machines!
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- In-flight surgery with a coat-hanger and silverware!
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- “As recently as 1999, it was widely believed by medical professionals that babies could not feel pain…”
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- 0 fire related deaths; 13 alcohol poisoning deaths from drinking the potent whiskey flowing through the streets.
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Destruction Under the Mongol Empire
- Ghengis Khan killed about 10% of the world’s population, on par with the Black Death (WW2 killed about 3%)!
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List of Popes who died violently
- Of the first 31 popes, 28 were killed…!
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- Dancing Plague of 1518; also see the Tanganyika laughter epidemic
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- Not just a barber, not just a surgeon, but a barber-surgeon.
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1994 British Army Lynx Shootdown
- “Meanwhile, an IRA unit had mounted a Mark 15 mortar on a tractor, concealed behind bales of hay.”
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- the BBC told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best”
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- High levels of badassery
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- Contraception could not be purchased without prescription by unmarried couples till 1985!
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- “A dish any fool can prepare”
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- Cocaine bear the movie is loosely based on a real story!
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- The CEO of Southwest Airlines… ctrl + F “arm-wrestling”!
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- A Catholic celebration in Central + Eastern European “where the men wander around the town in colourful handmade costumes in search of a woman to soak”
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- 1960’s CIA moonshot project to produce undercover cat spies
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- A Syrian brown bear adopted by the Polish Army, and eventually “[promoted] to the rank of Corporal”
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The Most Dangerous Writing App
- A web app which combats writers block by “deleting all progress if the user stops typing for five seconds”
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- Yikes…
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- Naturally occurring beams of light via suspended ice particles reflecting light!
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- Infamous performance art work which brought out the worst in human nature when power and vulnerability is involved.
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- Real life James Bond gadgets via the pre-Snowden US government surveillance teams.
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- Prank where a chimp’s art was exhibited as those of an avant-garde artist, impressing many “art critics”.
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- A giant organ built in a cave in Virginia, USA, which uses stalactites to produce sound. It covers 3.5km of the cave - making it the world’s largest instrument!
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- Perhaps the most successful (experimental) art college to exist… Cy Twombly, the De Koonings, John Cage and more came through it.