From this article:
“You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.” The Spartan ephors sent back a one word reply: “If.”Alexander would avoid Sparta entirely.
The Volkshalle was an enormous building planned by Hitler before the second world war. Here is an excerpt from the article on Wikipedia:
Although the Volkshalle was never built, critics claimed it might have severe architectural problems, such as acoustics that would (depending on the critic) either make it impossible to hear a speaker, or would magnify the speaker’s voice to such a volume that it might cause deafness.
In an interview with James P. O’Donnell, Speer said that, during his time in Spandau Prison, he constantly reviewed such criticisms of his architecture, and eliminated (in his opinion) many of them. One problem, however, remained—Speer speculated that during cold weather, the breathing and perspiration of 180,000 occupants in such a large and high dome might precipitate and fall back down. In short, it was possible that the hall might have its own ‘weather’ and create indoor rain because of its overcapacity. This phenomenon has been observed in other very large buildings that have been constructed in reality, such as the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, and (on a minor scale, with light mist as the precipitation on high humidity days) inside the Goodyear Airdock in Akron, Ohio.
For people like me who never know which engine to set in the Firefox search bar, here is a nice little add-on that will let you put both in the same window. Sure, you could always use two search bars using an add-on, but Googlepedia makes it much easier and more ergonomic.
I love life!
Is string theory some kind of insider thing? Even simple Wikipedia couldn’t help me!
The Thuggee, from which the word thug was derived, was the term used to describe a particularily violent group of murderers that infiltrated and robbed caravans in 17th century India. Pretty interesting if you liked the Hashashins‘ history from which Assassin’s Creed is inspired. Another term based on indian culture that was anglicized by the British is the word “juggernaut“.
Damn Interesting, a website that definitively deserves its name, covered the topic too.
I was reading about that man called the Angel of Death (Joseph Mengele), a doctor that performed all kinds of cruel experiments on Jews at Auschwitz-Birkeneau and fell on this:
Another of Mengeles assistants, a Jewish doctor named Myklós Nyszil, was ordered to kill a man with a hump on his back and his son with legs of different length, to then boil the meat off their bones to send it to a museum in Berlin. The doctor boiled the corpses in big iron barrels until the meat started falling off. Then he removed the bones from the barrels without keeping anyone to guard the boiled human meat. Some hungry Polish prisoners then stumbled over the two barrels, thinking it was meat going to the German soldiers, and started to eat. When the doctor, newly employed in the camp, came back and saw what they were doing, he was so shocked that the prisoners realized what they were eating. The doctor later testified to the allies against the administration of the camp when it was captured, and said he would never forget what he saw.
I am a Wikipedia addict. Since a few years, the enormous online “encyclopedia” has been my first stop for quickly available, mostly neutral information. Whether I need to understand something I saw on TV or simply want to know what the fuck a merkin is, it’s always around.
Of course with such a tool at arm’s reach, it became an habit for me to try to end arguments by saying “look, we’re gonna find a computer, go on Wikipedia and we’ll see who’s wrong”. For some reason, most of the people reply by saying Wikipedia is crap. Oh right, and the sky is green.
Yes, Wikipedia is a user-supported encyclopedia and any idiot can edit it to say they are married to Queen Elizabeth, but what most people don’t know is that such edits get fixed shortly. Also, most statements are sourced and generally neutral. There are exceptions, but it’s still far away from being “crap”.
However I quickly realized people rarely know jack shit about Wikipedia and just want to make the argument go on. Note this down people: resorting to Wikipedia is just my way to facepalm myself in front of sheer ignorance. It’s generally a sign I think you are not worth arguing and that I am seeking an end to the conversation. It means the outcome is meaningless because you don’t know jack shit about what you are talking about and I have better use of my time.
Now that this was made clear, can you please stop reducing the conversation to stupidity every time I pronounce “Wikipedia”?
PS: The Xbox 360 DOES output HD and CRT monitors display in high definition. Yes I’m looking at you Simon.
I hereby present you Vagina Dentata!
What would happen if someone really liked chess but also happened to like boxing? He mixes both and invents a new sport of course!
When I get bored and I have nothing but my PDA to entertain me, I go on Wikipedia and learn stuff. These trips last between 10 minutes and 3 hours, depending on how sleepy I am. I decided to track one of those “wikitrips”. It all started when I was looking for aerial reconnaissance photograph and I ended up learning about all kinds of stuff about the middle ages. What would I do without Wikipedia? (sleep, that’s the answer).
