Interesting Wikipedia articles?

Interesting Wikipedia articles?

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Discussion

SpeckledJim

31,608 posts

252 months

Monday 8th May 2017
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FredClogs said:
^ Dan Carlin's wiki page.

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

Hardcore history is without doubt one of the greatest series of spoken word resources ever, and let's face it who can be arsed reading 1500 years of human history? Wrath of the Khans is particularly excellent.
Thanks for this, I gave it a go over the weekend and 4 hours of nuclear war and diplomacy flew by!

His voice is pretty annoying though, it would be better if performed by someone with a nicer speaking voice.

dudleybloke

19,717 posts

185 months

Monday 8th May 2017
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glazbagun said:
Some Japanese monks would attempt to enter a form of mummification whilst still alive. First they would live on a strict diet which stripped all fat from their body, then they would slowly dehydrate themselves to death, leaving a dry, well preserved body in the mountain air.

Only 24 bodies have been found to have made succesful use of the technique. Makes the Atkins diet look decidedly softcore!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu
Now that is dedication to desiccation!

glazbagun

14,257 posts

196 months

Tuesday 9th May 2017
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A whole Wiki page on various mechanical calculators. It was only fairly recently that I learned that "computer" was originally a job description for a person who sat there doing maths all day!

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

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 10th May 2017
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glazbagun said:
A whole Wiki page on various mechanical calculators. It was only fairly recently that I learned that "computer" was originally a job description for a person who sat there doing maths all day!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_calculato...
there is a film about the black computers, very interesting.

Hidden Figures

computer - computation

generationx

6,645 posts

104 months

Wednesday 10th May 2017
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The Spruce goose said:
there is a film about the black computers, very interesting.

Hidden Figures

computer - computation
It´s very good too

Edited by generationx on Wednesday 10th May 07:12

glazbagun

14,257 posts

196 months

Sunday 4th June 2017
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Jack the Signalman was a Baboon employed by the South African railways who worked changing the signals under the guidance of his owner:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_(chacma_baboo...

BrettMRC

4,037 posts

159 months

Monday 5th June 2017
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This is an interesting one, we hear a lot of stories about Graf Spee, Bismarck & Hood, the uboats etc... not much is ever said about Scharnhorst...a ship which had an interesting life, lauded by both sides and literally fought to the very last.

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

SpeckledJim

31,608 posts

252 months

Monday 5th June 2017
quotequote all
SpeckledJim said:
FredClogs said:
^ Dan Carlin's wiki page.

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

Hardcore history is without doubt one of the greatest series of spoken word resources ever, and let's face it who can be arsed reading 1500 years of human history? Wrath of the Khans is particularly excellent.
Thanks for this, I gave it a go over the weekend and 4 hours of nuclear war and diplomacy flew by!

His voice is pretty annoying though, it would be better if performed by someone with a nicer speaking voice.
Further to the above, I'm about 14 hours into the First World War now, and really really enjoying it. (you know what I mean).

I'm listening at 1.5 times normal speed, and find not only do you get more info quicker, but it reduces the annoying dramatic pauses he bungs in everywhere!


matchmaker

8,463 posts

199 months

Monday 5th June 2017
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BrettMRC said:
This is an interesting one, we hear a lot of stories about Graf Spee, Bismarck & Hood, the uboats etc... not much is ever said about Scharnhorst...a ship which had an interesting life, lauded by both sides and literally fought to the very last.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Sc...
Second last ever fight between battleships.

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 6th June 2017
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycenter

The Earth doesn't revolve around the Sun. It's actually revolving around the solar system's center of mass.


E24man

6,654 posts

178 months

Wednesday 7th June 2017
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The Spruce goose said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycenter

The Earth doesn't revolve around the Sun. It's actually revolving around the solar system's center of mass.
Thank you Goose, that's an excellent find.

glazbagun

14,257 posts

196 months

Sunday 11th June 2017
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Not wiki, but a guy set up an experement to prove that pitch (like tar) was still liquid at room temperature. He put some pitch in a funnel and waited for it to drip out.

So far nine drops have been counted... since 1930!

http://thevintagenews.com/2017/06/07/nine-drops-si...

Blown2CV

28,697 posts

202 months

Sunday 11th June 2017
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glazbagun said:
Not wiki, but a guy set up an experement to prove that pitch (like tar) was still liquid at room temperature. He put some pitch in a funnel and waited for it to drip out.

So far nine drops have been counted... since 1930!

http://thevintagenews.com/2017/06/07/nine-drops-si...
apparently the old glass CRT screens on TVs would (I say would as it's not really that testable) drip once every 900 years or so!

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 11th June 2017
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Blown2CV said:
apparently the old glass CRT screens on TVs would (I say would as it's not really that testable) drip once every 900 years or so!
even though is is neither a solid or liquid, the actual flow rate would/could be measured in millions of years if that.

it all stems from incorrectly thinking glass made a few hundred years ago, thicker at the bottom, it had had melted, when it was made that way.


Lordbenny

8,575 posts

218 months

Sunday 11th June 2017
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glazbagun said:
Jack the Signalman was a Baboon employed by the South African railways who worked changing the signals under the guidance of his owner:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_(chacma_baboo...
You pay peanuts you get.......oh hold on!

rodericb

6,657 posts

125 months

Tuesday 4th July 2017
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This huge explosion was nearly two years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Tianjin_explosi...

There's a few videos on youtube capturing it. This one has a number of views all synched: https://youtu.be/31YWM3Xv5FI

Wing Commander

2,179 posts

231 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
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Axe Murder Incident

2 American Officers killed trying to remove a tree that was in the line of sight at a North/South Korea DMZ.

What I find interesting is the "show of force" after the incident

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident#...

A convoy of 23 American and South Korean vehicles. In the vehicles were two eight-man teams of military engineers equipped with chain saws to cut down the tree.

These teams were accompanied by two 30-man security platoons from the Joint Security Force, who were armed with pistols and axe handles.

A team from B Company, commanded by Captain Walter Seifried, had activated the detonation systems for the charges on Freedom Bridge and had the 165mm main gun of the M728 combat engineer vehicle aimed mid-span to ensure that the bridge would fall should the order be given for its destruction.

B Company, supporting E Company (bridge), were building M4T6 rafts on the Imjin River should the situation require emergency evacuation by that route

In addition, a 64-man South Korean Special Forces company accompanied them, armed with clubs and trained in Tae Kwon Do, supposedly without firearms. However, once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of No Return, they started throwing out the sandbags that lined the truck bottoms, and handing out M16 rifles and M79 grenade launchers that had been concealed below.[3] Several of the special forces men also had M18 Claymore mines strapped to their chests with the firing mechanism in their hands, and were shouting at the North Koreans to cross the bridge.

A U.S. Infantry company in 20 utility helicopters and seven Cobra attack helicopters circled behind them. Behind these helicopters, B-52 Stratofortresses, which some[who?] described as "nuclear ready" came from Guam escorted by U.S. F-4 Phantom IIs from Kunsan Air Base and South Korean F-5 and F-86 fighters were visible flying across the sky at high altitude. At Taegu Air Base, F-111 bombers of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Mountain Home Air Force Base, were stationed, and F-4 Phantoms C and Dfrom the 18th TFW Kadena Air Base and Clark Air Base were also deployed. Theaircraft carrier USS Midway task force had also been moved to a station just offshore.

Near the edges of the DMZ, many more heavily armed U.S. and South Korean infantry, artillery including the Second Battalion, 71st Air Defense Regiment armed with Improved Hawk missiles, and armor were waiting to back up the special operations team.

Bases near the DMZ were prepared for demolition in the case of a military response.

The defense condition (DEFCON) was elevated on order of General Stilwell, as recounted in Colonel De LaTeur's research paper later.

In addition, 12,000 additional troops were ordered to Korea, including 1,800 Marines from Okinawa.

During the operation, nuclear-capable strategic bombers circled over the JSA

In addition to this force, every UNC force in the rest of South Korea was on battle alert

Helicopters and air force jets became visible over the horizon.

At the Yokota Air Base in Japan, the base was on alert. The flight-line runway was "nose to tail" with a dozen C-130s ready to provide back-up.

All set up to protect a guy cutting down a tree (I make light of it - there was obviously a very politically serious backdrop to all of this)

Craiglamuffin

358 posts

179 months

Tuesday 18th July 2017
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Excellent article on the Korean axe murder. Hadn't heard about that before, thanks. The show of force was funny and scary at the same time!

wombleh

1,777 posts

121 months

Wednesday 19th July 2017
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Another one from Hardcore History, the Münster Rebellion.

I'm not sure the Wiki article does it justice, Mr Carlin's podcast is far more interesting although I can't say whether that's due to artistic license ! His version in brief is that a religious cult took over the city by claiming that Christ was going to be reborn there and start a new reign. Thousands flocked there to be a part of it and chaos resulted.

Vaud

50,289 posts

154 months

Wednesday 19th July 2017
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The Spruce goose said:
even though is is neither a solid or liquid, the actual flow rate would/could be measured in millions of years if that.

it all stems from incorrectly thinking glass made a few hundred years ago, thicker at the bottom, it had had melted, when it was made that way.

Bill Bryson was caught out by this...

"rocks are viscous, but only in the same way that glass is. It may not look it, but all the glass on Earth is flowing downward under the relentless drag of gravity. Remove a pane of really old glass from the window of a European cathedral and it will be noticeably thicker at the bottom than at the top"

Corrected by:

"The flow is not visible to the naked eye after such a short period. The reason glass in old windows is sometimes thicker at the bottom than at the top is because of the way the glass was made. Usually using the Crown Glass process. This resulted in an uneven pane of glass; when it came to fitting the glass in the lead frame the person doing it chose to put the thickest part at the bottom (for obvious reasons, it would stand up better) Sometimes however they would put the glass in the wrong way up and there are examples of panes being thicker at the top or at the side. Also, Roman, Chinese and Egyptian glass artifacts that predate medieval stained glass by centuries show no evidence of deformation due to any type of 'flow' effect"