Interesting Wikipedia articles for killing time and expanding your mind!!
Help me start my first non-poker thread.
Post interesting random Wikipedia entries about something people have never hear
Stéphane Breitwieser (born 1 October 1971) is a French art thief and author, notorious for his art thefts between 1995 and 2001. He admitted to stealing 239 artworks and other exhibits from 172 museums while travelling around Europe and working as a waiter, an average of one theft every 15 days.[1] The Guardian called him "arguably the world's most consistent art thief".[2] He has also been called "one of the most prolific and successful art thieves who have ever lived",[3] and "one of the greatest art thieves of all time".[4] His thefts resulted in the destruction of many works of art, destroyed by his family to conceal evidence of his crimes.[5]
Guy lived in his mother's attic surrounded by billions of dollars worth of stolen art and artefacts. When he was arrested his mother destroyed $1.4bn worth of it. He had originally been telling her he'd just been buying the pieces at flea markets.
just shared this elsewhere and figured i'd double post
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_kil...
The "My Way" killings was a social phenomenon in the Philippines, referring to a number of fatal disputes which arose from the singing of the song "My Way", popularized by Frank Sinatra,[1] in karaoke bars (more commonly known as "videoke" in the Philippines). A New York Times article estimated the number of killings to be at least six as of 2010. Between 2002 and 2012, numerous people were killed for singing this song.
turns out the taiwanese were major pirates in the early days and held some mariners captive for over 30 years
I'm very interested in cults, so was surprised I'd never heard of this one until recently.
Ant Hill Kids, warning: gets rather grim
Roch Thériault ([ʁɔk te.ʁjo]; May 16, 1947 – February 26, 2011) was a Canadian cult leader and convicted murderer. Thériault, a self-proclaimed prophet under the name Moïse [mɔ.iz] (French for "Moses"), founded the Ant Hill Kids in 1977. They were a doomsday cult whose beliefs were based on those of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Afong Moy, first Chinese womane to be brought to USA. Likely purchased from her father then placed on exhibition throughout the country.
Guy lived in his mother's attic surrounded by billions of dollars worth of stolen art and artefacts. When he was arrested his mother destroyed $1.4bn worth of it. He had originally been telling her he'd just been buying the pieces at flea markets.
I read the book about him and his gf, it's amazing, def recommend.
Not a wikipedia article but saw this on my IG feed and thought instantly of this thread
tall before the age of basketball? the Potsdam Giants will recruit you
After Frederick William I ascended to the throne in 1713, he proceeded to strengthen his military, including hiring 40,000 mercenaries. He had already begun to recruit taller soldiers and needed several hundred more recruits each year. [...] The king was about 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) tall himself.[2]
Spoiler
Frederick tried to pair these men with tall women, in order to breed giants. In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin mentions this attempt as the only case of intentional selective breeding in humans
Spoiler
At times he would try to cheer himself up by ordering them to march before him, even if he was in his sickbed. This procession, which included the entire regiment, was led by their mascot, a bear.
Spoiler
The Kentucky meat shower is a weird one. I find it disturbing that two people tasted the meat, especially given the leading theories for what it was.
Ironic that they were defeated by Napoleon
The Kentucky meat shower is a weird one. I find it disturbing that two people tasted the meat, especially given the leading theories for what it was.
Disturbing is a charitable description.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Cana...
3,000 tonnes of maple syrup stolen from the maple syrup strategic reserve (yes, that's a thing in canada) - it remains the largest heist in the history of lol canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Cana...
3,000 tonnes of maple syrup stolen from the maple syrup strategic reserve (yes, that's a thing in canada) - it remains the largest heist in the history of lol canada
I'm picturing the Breaking Bad train heist. "This is taking too long!"
Đorđe Martinović incident
Đorđe Martinović (also spelled Djordje Martinovic; Serbian Cyrillic: Ђорђе Мартиновић; 1929 – 6 September 2000) was a Serb farmer from Kosovo who was at the center of a notorious incident in May 1985, when he was treated for injuries caused by the insertion of a glass bottle into his anus. The "Martinović affair", as it became known, turned into a cause célèbre in Yugoslav politics. Although the facts of the incident remained in dispute for years afterwards, it played a role in worsening ethnic tensions between Kosovo's Serb and Albanian populations.
just think we should all be thanking richard gere for not declaring that the gerbil rumors were false but rather that he didn't say "it was put in there by haitian migrants"
Maurice Wilson MC (21 April 1898 – c. 31 May 1934) was a British soldier, mystic, and aviator who is known for his ill-fated attempt to climb Mount Everest alone in 1934.[1][2]
Often characterised as "eccentric",[3] Wilson wished to climb Everest as a platform to promote his belief that the world's ills could be solved by a combination of fasting and faith in God.
With little/no experience in either aviation or mountaineering, or any real preparation, decides to climb Everest by initially crash-landing his plane near the top, then summiting from there.
Results:
Spoiler
As expected
You kind of ruined the spoiler by having his death in the quote as the same year he decided to hike Everest alone. Kind of connected the dots there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena_...
small town mexican whore asked help with conmen in impersonating an incan god ends up believing she is the god and goes blood filled orgy streak
Maybe not super interesting, but just found out about
, a filipino type of lotto run by local 'trusted' people and prevalent in poor communities.
The Prince Philip movement is a religious sect followed by the Kastom people around the villages of Yaohnanen and Yakel on the southern island of Tanna in Vanuatu. It is a cargo cult of the Yaohnanen tribe,[1] who believe in the divinity of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921–2021), consort to Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022).
I watched the American Experience episode on this last night. Hoo boy they didn't teach us about this in school.
Wilmington NC, had a lot of elected black leaders and successful black businessmen, which didn't sit too well with the white folks apparently.
The big trigger was a black newspaper in Wilmington defending against a propaganda campaign that there was some kind of rape epidemic by black men (which was of course drummed up by whites whose primary stated goal was to end black “domination”😉. The editorial pointed out that sometimes white women have affairs with black men, and then claim rape when the affair becomes known. White women’s honor had now been besmirched and the whites started heavily arming themselves.
Basically like the Tulsa massacre, a bunch of whites ran all the black leadership and business owners out of town, stole all their property, and killed a bunch of people. A few black people shot back, so of course the story was they started it. The NYT, WaPo, Colliers all reprinted the white men’s version of events and never bothered to interview any of the black survivors. The men who organized the coup bragged openly about it for the rest of their lives and went on to long celebrated careers in national US government.
And then within a generation the history was totally quashed and no one learned about it in school.
Poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses were implemented to make sure black people couldn’t vote again until the historic Voting Rights Act in the 60s (which is now dead). The last national black congressman from North Carolina left office in 1901 and there wasn’t another black Congressperson until 1992.
We learned about the Trail of Tears in high school. Then much later you start to learn there were dozens of Trails of Tears, and hundreds of Wounded Knees. We didn't even learn about the Tulsa Massacre in high school. But now I'm assuming there were dozens of Tulsa Massacres around the country as well.
really appreciate your thoughtful perspective suzzer, especially that last paragraph
We learned about the Trail of Tears in high school. Then much later you start to learn there were dozens of Trails of Tears, and hundreds of Wounded Knees. We didn't even learn about the Tulsa Massacre in high school. But now I'm assuming there were dozens of Tulsa Massacres around the country as well.
victims tend to suppress or not remember tragic events let alone repeat them
when combined with guilty parties in power taking pleasures controling school history book curriculum
welp here we are at a time when nobody knows nothing
a reminder we should all keep top of mind
first came here to post this
