Interesting Wikipedia articles?

[Milkyway]

Camp Century; Also saw this on an interesting series on BLAZE catchup. ‘Secrets in the ice’.
( It’s amazing what is buried around the world)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Century

Edited by Milkyway on Thursday 25th November 19:53

[WCZ]

mrtwisty said:

The luckiest unlucky man in history:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frane_Selak

I love how life knew he'd had a hard time so wung him a lottery win to say sorry late on!

[Skyrocket21]

Thought I would revive this thread:

Sir Gregor MacGregor, who created one of the biggest scams in history, creating his own country in South America and selling the land off to unsuspecting investors and even sending a colony of 200 to their doom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor

[TTmonkey]

Skyrocket21 said:

Thought I would revive this thread:

Sir Gregor MacGregor, who created one of the biggest scams in history, creating his own country in South America and selling the land off to unsuspecting investors and even sending a colony of 200 to their doom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_MacGregor

What a read. Astounding.

[e600]

WCZ said:

mrtwisty said:

The luckiest unlucky man in history:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frane_Selak

I love how life knew he'd had a hard time so wung him a lottery win to say sorry late on!

Wiki article concludes along the lines that perhaps not all his tribulations were true

[Brother D]

glazbagun said:

The Spruce Goose said:

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

Howard Morgan, a retired officer of the Chicago Police Department, was shot 28 times by four active Chicago police officers:

Imagine this today..

Unbelievable. Imagine it in 2005! Also he is either a very tough guy, or the police are awful shots!

TBF the trauma wards in Chicago are exceptional. Of the 4-5,000 people shot each year only 800 actually die so if you can make it to the hospital you are in with a good chance of surviving.

Not exaggerating the figures BTW (independant site tracking shootings/murders) -> https://heyjackass.com/

[Morningside]

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

"Cannon ball" baker - Famous for doing point to point racing.

[The Don of Croy]

The Tongan castaways - six boys shipwrecked on a remote island for more than a year;

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

- and it has a happy ending. A fascinating empirical study that rebuts The Lord of the Flies, but is somewhat less well known. One of them should have been on Desert Island Discs by now.

[glazbagun]

Everyone knows about the Fukushima nuclear power plant and the disaster that unfolded after the 2011 earthquake. But less well known is the closest nuclear power station of all to the earthquake- Onagawa, which survived almost unscathed, correctly turned itself off and kept its reactors cool. It functioned as a refuge in the aftermath for three months as the nearby town was largely destroyed.

The disaster resistance of the plant is attributed to engineer Yanosuke Hirai who referenced historical tsunamis from as far back as 809 and recommended a 14+ metre high wall and a channel that would provide water for the reactors if the sea shrank back dramatically. He died in 1986.

[Sway]

The Don of Croy said:

The Tongan castaways - six boys shipwrecked on a remote island for more than a year;

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

- and it has a happy ending. A fascinating empirical study that rebuts The Lord of the Flies, but is somewhat less well known. One of them should have been on Desert Island Discs by now.

I'm likely wrong, but I don't think it does disprove LotF...

AIUI, the group dynamics from LotF are rooted in the concept of 'us' having a fairly defined maximum group size. Once the group is larger than that, it'll self fragment into 'families/tribes/whatever'. IIRC, it's something like 15-20 people being the limit of a 'family'.

As this was a group of six, they'd be more likely to co-operate and work together - also not being too small a group that conflicts between two of them would be too destabilising.

[Brother D]

What. The. Litteral. fk.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove

Has anyone ever heard of this place?

[Truckosaurus]

Brother D said:

What. The. Litteral. fk.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove

Has anyone ever heard of this place?

The Jon Ronson documentary - mentioned on the wiki article - is good about it (also covers other similar secret societies like the Bilderberg Group)

[wombleh]

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

Lake created by a nuke, surprisingly it's fairly radioactive!

Was part of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_f... 115 nukes set off for "peaceful" purposes like mining/etc.

Edited by wombleh on Wednesday 16th February 18:30

[Huff]

mrtwisty said:

The luckiest unlucky man in history:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frane_Selak

I think that is arguable: Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times in his life, all better documented - and survived:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan

Edited by Huff on Wednesday 16th February 20:15

[MissChief]

Huff said:

mrtwisty said:

The luckiest unlucky man in history:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frane_Selak

I think that is arguable: Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times in his life, all better documented - and survived:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan

What a shame. On the morning of September 28, 1983, Sullivan died at the age of 71 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

[andym1603]

Robbie Risner, F84 pilot who pushed his wingman to a safe zone to bale out. Despite not ending well for the stricken pilot.
Never knew you could push another plane.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robinson_Ris...

[Ivo Shandor]

The Roanoke colony whoch 'disappeared.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony
Mr Ballen tells the story!
https://youtu.be/ogjgVGtkzJc

Cave of giant crystals, a pathway to the centre of the Earth?!?!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Crystals
It does remind me of a Stargate/Star Trek ep

There were several real-life Around the World in 80 Days, he race between the two reporters sounds fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_World_in_...

Good advice for life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1vam%C3%A1l

A now extinct plant which was a great preventative for pregnancy, apparently. The ancient world went nuts over it and ate it to extinction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium_(antiquity)

[Ivo Shandor]

mrtwisty said:

 A piece of India within a piece of Bangladesh within a piece of India within Bangladesh.

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

I think I've seen a video on that by Map Men.

Man found near a Burger King, had amnesia for...40ish years, maybe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjaman_Kyle

[Ivo Shandor]

C n C said:

For some reason this struck me as extremely funny - particularly the table towards the end listing how the goat(s) each year had been destroyed. The decade 1970-1979 saw the goat destroyed every single year by:
fire
smashed to pieces
collapsed
stolen
fire
collapsed
hit by car
fire
kicked to pieces
fire/broken.

Excellent.

ETA - and in 2009, for protection it was monitored by 2 webcams, which were put out of action by a co-ordinated denial of service attack instigated by hackers just before it was (once again) burnt down!

Edited by C n C on Thursday 3rd September 18:38

I know arson isn't a funny matter, but same, "It has been the subject of repeated arson attacks, and, despite security measures and the nearby presence of a fire station, the goat has been burned to the ground most years since its first appearance in 1966." Made me cackle, the obstinacy of locals, god love 'em.

[Roofless Toothless]

I had occasion to visit Golders Green Crematorium yesterday to pay respects to a departed cousin. It is a very interesting place to go to, an even better one to walk out of.

The Wikipedia article lists both some of the people cremated and interned there as well as those cremated and interned elsewhere. It is a quite staggering read.

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