Fascinating Wikipedia Articles Master Thread

[SkinnyBenny]

I spent like a whole workday once going through serial killer articles. pretty much traumatized myself

Any good ones?

Not a serial killer, but some seriously nutty crap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes

holy crap

Yeah. Was eating a bbq chicken pita while reading that. Wish I hadn't been. Germans are rough ridin' awful.

[GoodForAnother]

oh man. I am a huge wiki fan. 100% chance this will be my new fav thread. this one led to about two hours of reading for me the other day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_Solar_System_probes

[asava]

This thread could be extremely dangerous and time consuming. Should come with a warning.

[puniraptor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents

[bubbles4ksu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_headache

This one scares the crap out of me.

"Our patients were disabled by the disorder and suffered from bouts of pain from two to twenty times a week. They had found no relief from the usual methods of treatment. Their pain was so severe that several of them had to be constantly watched for fear of suicide. Most of them were willing to submit to any operation which might bring relief."

[ben ji]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

The commander of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team, Lt. Jack B. ReVelle, said of the bomb, "How close was it to exploding? My opinion is damn close. You might now have a very large Bay of North Carolina if that thing had gone off." He also said the size of each bomb was 3.8 megatons, more than 250 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb, and large enough to have a 100% kill zone of seventeen miles. Each bomb would exceed the yield of all munitions (outside of testing) ever detonated in the history of the world by TNT, gunpowder, conventional bombs, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts combined.[12]

[SkinnyBenny]

This thread could be extremely dangerous and time consuming. Should come with a warning.

You want time consuming? I'll give you time consuming.

Jim Jones and his cult/mass suicide! I bet you thought you knew a lot about it, but you don't know crap until you read about this!

Got stuck in a Jonestown K-Hole one night and couldn't get out. Read about it until, like, 4 in the morning. Totally crazy crap. Did you know that the group suicide wasn't actually carried out with Kool-Aid, but instead with a knock-off called Flavor-Aid, thus invalidating the phrase "drink the Kool-Aid" and subjecting Kool-Aid to an eternity of framing/bad press? (I made that last part up, I doubt they've suffered any actual financial repercussions from the misrepresentation.)

Did you also know that a newsman and California congressman were killed on their airfield, ultimately prompting the mass suicide?!?

This one's really a two-parter if you wanna get the whole timeline down.
Start here, with their time in California: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Temple (Skim up to part 4, make sure you get the idea, then move on to the Jonestown page itself.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

Some crazy crap. "White nights"??? No thanks! 

[puniraptor]

yeah thats crazy stuff. when you are done with that branch out into other cults. fascinating.

[puniraptor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

The commander of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team, Lt. Jack B. ReVelle, said of the bomb, "How close was it to exploding? My opinion is damn close. You might now have a very large Bay of North Carolina if that thing had gone off." He also said the size of each bomb was 3.8 megatons, more than 250 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb, and large enough to have a 100% kill zone of seventeen miles. Each bomb would exceed the yield of all munitions (outside of testing) ever detonated in the history of the world by TNT, gunpowder, conventional bombs, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts combined.[12]

 

Five of the six arming mechanisms on one of the bombs activated, causing it to execute many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as charging the firing capacitors and, critically, deployment of a 100-foot-diameter (30 m) Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!) parachute.

the pilot’s safe/arm switch was the only one of the six arming devices on the bomb that prevented detonation

[SkinnyBenny]

puttin milford, ks on the map. the map of cutting edge medical science

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Brinkley

John Romulus Brinkley (later John Richard Brinkley; July 8, 1885 – May 26, 1942) was a controversial American medical doctor who experimented with xenotransplantation of goat glands into humans as a means of curing male impotence in clinics across several states, and an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blaster radio.

Goddamn if that isn't a hell of an introductory sentence. Absolutely fascinating article btw, read every word of it. One of the better parts (of many) was this:

...The Mexican government allowed Brinkley to up his wattage to 150,000 watts. Several months later, Brinkley was allowed to increase to one million watts, "making XER far and away the most powerful radio station on the planet" that, on a clear night, could be heard as far away as Canada. According to accounts of the time, the signal was so strong that it turned on car headlights, made bedsprings hum, and caused broadcasts to bleed into telephone conversations.[26] Local residents didn't even need a radio to hear Brinkley's station; ranchers reported that they received it through their metal fences and in their dental appliances.

[GoodForAnother]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake

[kstate16]

Thank you so much for this thread. How this is the first Wiki thread I will never know.

Now, three hours of workday left, three hours of Wikiing commenced. 

[puniraptor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake

Fascinating! But deep lakes can also be scary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption

[GoodForAnother]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Lake

Fascinating! But deep lakes can also be scary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption

Dang...that's right up there with the heat burst as far as "oh holy crap, wtf mother nature" articles go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_burst

[Mr Bread]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

The commander of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team, Lt. Jack B. ReVelle, said of the bomb, "How close was it to exploding? My opinion is damn close. You might now have a very large Bay of North Carolina if that thing had gone off." He also said the size of each bomb was 3.8 megatons, more than 250 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb, and large enough to have a 100% kill zone of seventeen miles. Each bomb would exceed the yield of all munitions (outside of testing) ever detonated in the history of the world by TNT, gunpowder, conventional bombs, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts combined.[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

[kstate16]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_(Metallica_song)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun

[puniraptor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri

Warning: will make you afraid to let water near your head ever again.

[ben ji]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

  If they dropped that on Kansas City you would get third degree burns in Topeka

[ben ji]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri

Warning: will make you afraid to let water near your head ever again.

O man, someone died in Winfield KS of this in 2011

[GoodForAnother]

This lady probably had one of the most awesome lives ever.

Her life at first followed convention. In 1915, she married the well-to-do Richard R. Peabody, whose family had arrived in New Hampshire in 1635. They had two children, but following Richard's service in World War I, Richard turned into a drunk who loved to watch buildings burn.[4]:79 She met Harry Crosby at a picnic in 1920 and they had sex within two weeks. Their public relationship scandalized proper blue blood Boston society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caresse_Crosby

[puniraptor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_(Metallica_song)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun

this was like a whole semester of sophmore english class. the song is really written based off the movie though. metallica read books?? LAWL

[puniraptor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptids

[Fedor]

I spent like a whole workday once going through serial killer articles. pretty much traumatized myself

I've actually done this as well. Bundy's was prob the best with the whole escaping from prison hijinx

Me too.  Houston mass murders (Dean Corll).     Torture boards, man rape, live castrations, etc.  Ultimately shot by one of his accomplices.  Worst stuff you've probably never heard about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

Always enjoyed this one, there are some other sites with drawings of the "murder castle".

[puniraptor]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

Always enjoyed this one, there are some other sites with drawings of the "murder castle".

ya! ive been trying to find that to post here

[pissclams]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_headache

This one scares the crap out of me.

"Our patients were disabled by the disorder and suffered from bouts of pain from two to twenty times a week. They had found no relief from the usual methods of treatment. Their pain was so severe that several of them had to be constantly watched for fear of suicide. Most of them were willing to submit to any operation which might bring relief."

i get these, tons of fun