Interesting Wikipedia articles for killing time and expanding your mind!! - Page 41 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

OOT life tricks thread reminded me of the Spanish flu pandemic. I learned about this fairly recently and it seems not to be widely known for some reason, perhaps because the two world wars and Bolshevik revolution from around that time dominate history classes and discussion.

Yeah. The fact that this is such a huge deal but barely ever gets mentioned makes me feel like I imagined this or something.

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02-19-2011 , 03:23 AM

#1002

Aytumious

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JaredL

global pandemics.

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02-19-2011 , 04:49 AM

#1003

johnny 187

adept

Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 926

Somehow the spanish flu pandemic got me to this page.

Worth a read if you're interested in evolution/catastrophes.

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

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02-19-2011 , 03:53 PM

#1004

NoahSD

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^^ That lead me here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

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02-19-2011 , 09:19 PM

#1005

YouR_DooM

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Quote:

Originally Posted by johnny 187

Somehow the spanish flu pandemic got me to this page.

Worth a read if you're interested in evolution/catastrophes.

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

Very interesting. I've never heard of it before ( and I study genetics ).

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02-20-2011 , 08:26 PM

#1006

NoahSD

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Kinda NSFW, pictures of really extreme deformation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Another thing that I've sort of heard of but didn't really know much about.

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02-21-2011 , 02:01 AM

#1007

prohornblower

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I think I've heard of the Spanish Flu but didn't know it affected and wiped out that many people. Walt Disney survived it. Boy, we really dodged a bullet there...

Anyway this one has maybe been posted already and I'm sure people are aware of it but it's interesting nonetheless. US Presidents and a list of how they are related, as well as related to English, Scotish, and Irish royalty. Thus endeth the worst constructed sentence on 2+2 all day.

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02-21-2011 , 04:53 AM

#1008

Andz

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The most underreated batlle of all time, 1.2 million people died(was fought in Slovenia which has only 2 million people) , lasted for 2 years , fought in high mountains...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_the_Isonzo

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02-21-2011 , 12:51 PM

#1009

YouR_DooM

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Originally Posted by Andz

I really don't see why you would add the number of people Slovenia ( which didn't even exist at the time - they went indipendent in 1992 IIRC ) has now, considering the battle was fought in what was Italy at that time, by italian and austro-hungarian soldiers. It's not like Slovenia had 3.2 million people and then 1.2 million died.

Last edited by YouR_DooM; 02-21-2011 at 01:02 PM.

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02-21-2011 , 01:14 PM

#1010

YouR_DooM

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If you want another serious kick-ass battle, read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War

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02-21-2011 , 02:00 PM

#1011

RazzSpazz

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Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 399

Haven't read the entire thread so not sure if this has been posted, but this one is guaranteed to correct at least one incorrect belief you hold:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...misconceptions

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02-21-2011 , 02:14 PM

#1012

Jintster

grinder

Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 676

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andz

I think you've (understandably) misunderstood the Wiki article.

Cumulative casualties of the numerous battles of the Isonzo were enormous. Half of the entire Italian war casualty total – some 300,000 of 600,000 – were suffered along the Soča (Isonzo). Austro-Hungarian losses, while by no means as numerous were nevertheless high at around 200,000 (of an overall total of around 1.2 million casualties).

I take this as saying 300,000 Italians died out of 600,000 total Italian casualities in WW1, while 200,000 Austro-Hungarians died out of 1.2m WW1 casualties. So a total of 500,000 casualties from the 12 battles (not one).

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02-21-2011 , 03:09 PM

#1013

NoahSD

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Quote:

Originally Posted by prohornblower

Anyway this one has maybe been posted already and I'm sure people are aware of it but it's interesting nonetheless. US Presidents and a list of how they are related, as well as related to English, Scotish, and Irish royalty. Thus endeth the worst constructed sentence on 2+2 all day.

FWIW, that wiki article should be entitled "People tend to be related, and also there are some presidents that you haven't heard about since high school and at least one president that you didn't know existed." Benjamin Harrison? Who the **** is that?

Edit: Ohhhhh, right. The dude who Grover Cleveland sandwiched.

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02-21-2011 , 03:19 PM

#1014

Andz

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Quote:

Originally Posted by YouR_DooM

Sorry dont mean to argue with you but Slovenia beacame Slovenia in 1848(for information first written document in Slovenian language dates in year 1000), but became fully independet in 1991 IIRC. The battel was faught in Slovenia and Italy. Just in Slovenia there were 300,000 cassulties( among those 50,000 Slovenians and the rest where soldiers from other countries)

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02-21-2011 , 03:29 PM

#1015

Andz

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Jintster

Some authors claim that 1.5 million people died in Soska fronta(those who were killed + civilians+ wounded who died later) but the most common number is around 1 million to 1.2 million.

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02-21-2011 , 04:57 PM

#1016

prohornblower

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Quote:

Originally Posted by NoahSD

True. They do say:
"many [American] family trees going back ten generations or more will connect to more than one dozen U.S. Presidents"

Another interesting quote I enjoyed was: "As a result, all of the listed people are direct descendants of Alfred the Great. All are also descended from William the Conqueror. In addition, according to Genealogics and Roglo, HM Queen Elizabeth II is among the closest living relatives of George Washington, through their descent from Augustus Warner, Burgess of Virginia."

Bluebloods gonna blueblood.

After kicking around a bunch of presidents' pages, I discovered that John Quincy Adams (6th pres.) is the earliest-elected president that we have a realistic recorded physical representation of. His wiki page shows a copy of a lost daguerrotype from about 1843 I think. The first 5 presidents...we only have painted portraits of, etc.

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02-21-2011 , 05:17 PM

#1017

NoahSD

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Too bad the guy was so ugly

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02-21-2011 , 07:57 PM

#1018

lew189

old hand

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

"Phineas P. Gage (July 9?, 1823 – May 21, 1860)[n 2] was an American railroad construction foreman now remembered for his improbable survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe..."

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02-21-2011 , 08:33 PM

#1019

prohornblower

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Damn that pic of Cage sitting with his iron is really scary. A horror movie about this guy who carries his iron around and does unspeakable deeds would be awesome.

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02-21-2011 , 08:37 PM

#1020

LVGambler

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V.S. Ramachandran would've wet his pants to study Gage.

fwiw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.S._Ramachandran

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02-21-2011 , 09:20 PM

#1021

prohornblower

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Quote:

Originally Posted by prohornblower

Damn that pic of Cage sitting with his iron is really scary. A horror movie about this guy who carries his iron around and does unspeakable deeds would be awesome.

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02-21-2011 , 10:22 PM

#1022

blackchilli

Pooh-Bah

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Quote:

Originally Posted by LVGambler

V.S. Ramachandran would've wet his pants to study Gage.

fwiw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.S._Ramachandran

VS Ramachandran's first speech at TED about the mirror box was mind blowing to me even though I'm not interested in neurology at all. The video can be found on youtube and I recommend everyone to watch it.

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02-21-2011 , 10:43 PM

#1023

NoahSD

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+1. Mirror box is a sick story.

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02-21-2011 , 10:48 PM

#1024

LVGambler

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The Charlie Rose Brain Series (and other docus on neurology) is the most fascinating viewing I've ever experienced (besides porn when I was a kid). Can't get enough of it!

Last edited by LVGambler; 02-21-2011 at 10:50 PM. Reason: phantom limbs! phantom limbs!

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02-22-2011 , 12:12 AM

#1025

prohornblower

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After kicking around on Rama's page, and reading up on synesthesia... is it uncommon? They have a list of people with it and it's a very short list. Obviously those are only known cases, but I would assume nearly everyone has some form of synesthesia. I know I see months in colors and I have a number ladder type thing that I visualize (notably a calendar year ladder).

I have no idea how to draw it out though. It's sort of like a dream. It always looks the same but I don't know if I can replicate its likeness correctly.

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