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

The Great Chairman Mao decided sparrows were the problem with their food production, so they instructed the citizens of China to bang pots and pans to scare them away. The plan was a success, unfortunately they did not think through the consequences...

They've been talked about a lot here. The video has even been posted. It's pretty gruesome. If the wiki disturbs you, don't watch the video.

I i could go back in time i don't think i'd watch it. I think you would have to be a bit messed up to be able to handle that.

thanks. i cant stop laughing at this awesomeness

My 2 additions:

Surviving Free-Falls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall#Surviving_falls)

JAT stewardess Vesna Vulović survived a fall of 33,000 feet (10,000 m)[4] on January 26, 1972 when she was aboard JAT Flight 367.

In World War II there were several reports of military aircrew surviving long falls: Nick Alkemade, Alan Magee, and Ivan Chisov all fell at least 5,500 metres (18,000 ft) and survived.

It was reported that two of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing survived for a brief period after hitting the ground (with the forward nose section fuselage in freefall mode), but died from their injuries before help arrived.[6]

A skydiver from Staffordshire plunged 6,000 ft without a parachute in Russia and survived to tell the tale. James Boole, from Tamworth, said he was supposed to have been given a signal by another skydiver to open his parachute, but it came two seconds too late. Mr Boole, who was filming the other skydiver for a television documentary, landed on snow-covered rocks and suffered a broken back and rib.[7]

Eli Cohen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen)

Mossad spy for Israel. He is best known for his work in Syria, where he developed close relationships with the political and military hierarchy and became the Chief Adviser to the Minister of Defense and third in line to the presidency. He was eventually exposed and executed in Syria in 1965. The intelligence he gathered is claimed to have been an important factor in Israel's Six Day War.

With apologies to our Chinese posters, I lolled pretty hard at those consequences.

kinda funny...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipediaon%27t_delete_the_main_page

then....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped..._the_Main_Page

Well thats easy. She did it

Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Deepest image of the universe, contains ~10,000 galaxies from ~13 billion years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_...nes_Flight_007

Civilian Flight enroute from Anchorage to Seoul shot down after crossing russian airspace after a miscalculation in navigation. A wicked read.

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

the day before world war two started. It was the excuse germany used to invade poland.

The real James Bond.

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

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

worst nuclear disaster in history

There is a lot of good reading about Mossad on wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossad#Known_Activities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wrath_of_God (the story told in the movie Munich)

Great thread idea

one of these days someone is gonna die reading that list.

My favourite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kar%C3%A1nsebes


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Uxbridge%27s_leg

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

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

Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their mummification.

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

was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superso...titude_Missile

List stolen from elsewhere:

Evil People / Events / Murderers / Victims:


General Crime:


"Eccentric" People:


Unexplained Phenomena:


Science:


Wars / Snipers / Nazis / Japanese Toruture / Medal Winners / Weapons:


History:


Conspiracy Theories:


Misc (including Natural Distasters):


Just Plain Bizarre:

One of my favourites:

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

"Numbers stations (or number stations) are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually female, though sometimes male or children's voices are used.

Evidence supports popular assumptions that the broadcasts are used to send messages to spies. This usage has not been publicly acknowledged by any government that may operate a numbers station, but in 2001, the United States tried the Cuban Five for spying for Cuba. The group had received and decoded messages that had been broadcast from a Cuban numbers station.[1] Also in 2001, Ana Belen Montes, a senior US Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, was arrested and charged with espionage. The federal prosecutors stated: "Montes communicated with the Cuban Intelligence Service through encrypted messages and received her instructions through encrypted shortwave transmissions from Cuba”. In 2006, Carlos Alvarez and his wife Elsa Alvarez were arrested and charged with espionage. The U.S. District Court Florida stated: "defendants would receive assignments via shortwave radio transmissions”. In June 2009, the United States similarly charged Walter Kendall Myers with conspiracy to spy for Cuba and receiving and decoding messages broadcast from a numbers station operated by the Cuban Intelligence Service to further that conspiracy.[2] [3]

It has been reported that the United States uses numbers stations to communicate encoded information to persons in other countries"

Supposedly this tree is praised in the Bible and according to legend its fruit had healing powers. I did some searching and the tree was brought back and supposedly this year (the tree will be 4 years old if not mistaken) scientists will be able to find out if the tree is male/female. If it ain't female then it won't bear fruit. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks to this thread I've spent about 2 hours today reading about number stations and other related stuff. There's something about the mix of technology, secrecy and radio that makes me feel all tingly

Great list Disturbance.

Can't believe this hadn't been posted yet:

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

Here's a good list of 'screamers,' those typically calm videos that suddenly turn into something scary/bizarre:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ga...omputer_pranks

Another good list of articles:

http://bestofwikipedia.tumblr.com/