Interesting Wikipedia articles?

Interesting Wikipedia articles?

Author
Discussion

Calza

1,975 posts

114 months

Friday 15th July 2016
quotequote all
wombleh said:
Letters written by the PM to the commanding officer of each trident sub, telling them what to do if the UK govt has been wiped out. I'd imagine Mrs May will be writing one soon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_reso...
Short article but powerful. Can you even imagine?

Vaud

50,192 posts

154 months

Friday 15th July 2016
quotequote all
Calza said:
Short article but powerful. Can you even imagine?
I knew about these - but I also learned yesterday that she has to nominate two nuclear deputies in case she is incapacitated.

mrtwisty

3,057 posts

164 months

Friday 15th July 2016
quotequote all
Calza said:
Short article but powerful. Can you even imagine?
I really don't think I could resist the temptation to have a peek at what they said before destroying them.

Just had a quick read about the Trident missiles & MIRVs - up to 192 independently targetable warheads? Am I reading that right? Staggering.

Vaud

50,192 posts

154 months

Friday 15th July 2016
quotequote all
mrtwisty said:
I really don't think I could resist the temptation to have a peek at what they said before destroying them.

Just had a quick read about the Trident missiles & MIRVs - up to 192 independently targetable warheads? Am I reading that right? Staggering.
Yes.

16 missiles per sub, each with up to 12 warheads. 4 subs. One at sea at any time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_...

Ayahuasca

27,427 posts

278 months

Friday 15th July 2016
quotequote all
glazbagun said:
General Gregor MacGregor was a Scottish soldier and confidence trickster who from 1821 to 1837 attempted to draw settlers to a fictional Central American territory he claimed to rule as "Cazique". Hundreds invested their savings in supposed government bonds and land certificates, while about 250 emigrated to MacGregor's invented country in 1822–23 to find only an untouched jungle; over half of them died.

If you're going to commit fraud, may as well aim big! yikes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor
MacGregor was a crap soldier too - he captured the city of Portobello, allowed his army to get drunk, lost the city back to the Spanish, but he swam to his ship and escaped, leaving his men to be captured, and many of them killed. Full first hand account here, if you are interested:

http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b21484417#?c=0&amp...

98elise

26,324 posts

160 months

Friday 15th July 2016
quotequote all
mrtwisty said:
Very grim, but fascinating. The linked article on the wider organisation (Ahnenerbe) is worth a read also.

I find it staggering the lengths the Nazi regime went to, to try and legitimise it's warped ideologies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_skeleton_co...
Its really scary that this is recent history. I find this stuff interesting, but in a way I don't want to learn more as I feel I lose a bit of my humanity when I learn what we can do to each other frown

Mr Kitten

996 posts

226 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
I found this pretty interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography

Again, not quite sure how I ended up there...

FredClogs

14,041 posts

160 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
Mr Kitten said:
I found this pretty interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography

Again, not quite sure how I ended up there...
Presumably there is a hidden message in that web page some where?

Mr Kitten

996 posts

226 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
FredClogs said:
Presumably there is a hidden message in that web page some where?
I'd feel cheated if there wasn't.

glazbagun

14,240 posts

196 months

Friday 22nd July 2016
quotequote all
From a time when the East had bigger problems than an Islamic State- Ala ad-Din Muhammad II is offered a trade deal by Genghis Khan, who is busy fighting the Chinese. He accepts. The trade caravan to one of his cities however is, however, arrested by the governor who suspects them of spying.

Outraged, Khan sends three ambassadors (one Muslim, two Mongol) to demand the release of the prisoners and the death of the governor. Muhammad instead executes the Muslim ambassador, shaves the other two and orders the prisoners killed. This makes Ghenghis angry, and 2 years and 1.2 million defending lives later, the empire of Khwarezmia is history!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_conquest_of_K...

It's amazing to think that Mongolia is such a non-player in the global game these days when they were so utterly unstoppable.

MissChief

7,092 posts

167 months

Brother D

3,689 posts

175 months

Friday 22nd July 2016
quotequote all
The last days of the Romanovs - it's intersting, but it's also really harsh...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_the_Rom...

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 23rd July 2016
quotequote all
not wiki but interesting.

http://cyberneticzoo.com/underwater-robotics/1910-...

1910 – Submarine Armor – Chester E. Macduffee (American)

and his

http://gizmodo.com/the-evolution-of-the-atmospheri...

The Evolution of the Atmospheric Diving Suit

Edited by The Spruce goose on Saturday 23 July 14:58

Project C

739 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th July 2016
quotequote all
Clicking on the first lowercase link in the main text of a Wikipedia article, and then repeating the process for subsequent articles, usually eventually gets one to the Philosophy article. As of May 26, 2011, 94.52% of all articles in Wikipedia lead eventually to the article Philosophy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Getting_to...

I leave it to others to test the theory more!

mrtwisty

3,057 posts

164 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Uncorking a bottle fished out of the sea in Elizabethan England could get you into some very serious bother.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_bottle

Edited by mrtwisty on Thursday 28th July 16:04

Prev

384 posts

182 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all
Project C said:
Clicking on the first lowercase link in the main text of a Wikipedia article, and then repeating the process for subsequent articles, usually eventually gets one to the Philosophy article. As of May 26, 2011, 94.52% of all articles in Wikipedia lead eventually to the article Philosophy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Getting_to...

I leave it to others to test the theory more!
Thier is another theory that from most wiki articles you can get to the nazi party in 6-7 wiki links. It doesn't have to be the first one link, but any in an article.

Brother D

3,689 posts

175 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
quotequote all

mrtwisty

3,057 posts

164 months

Friday 29th July 2016
quotequote all
There was an iron throne in medieval Hungary - but you wouldn't really want to sit on it if you could avoid it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_D%C3%B3z...

glazbagun

14,240 posts

196 months

Thursday 18th August 2016
quotequote all
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Russell_...

Frederick Burnham, "king of scouts". A man I'd never heard of but whose life was described as “an endless chain of impossible achievements.” Born on a reservation in America where he learned survival skills from just about everyone, he would later fight in Africa surviving a whole lot more!

FredClogs

14,041 posts

160 months

Thursday 18th August 2016
quotequote all
mrtwisty said:
There was an iron throne in medieval Hungary - but you wouldn't really want to sit on it if you could avoid it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_D%C3%B3z...
Pah... Luxury.

The Mongols had a similar execution chair which people were force to sit but I couldn't find reference to it on wikipedia, however, if a Persian ever offers you a go in his canoe - decline!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism