Book of Esther

A 13th–14th-century scroll of the Book of Esther from Fez, Morocco , held at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris . Traditionally, a scroll of Esther is given only one roller, fixed to its lefthand side, rather than the two used for a Torah…

Smoke plumes from a few of the Kuwaiti Oil Fires on April 7, 1991, as seen from Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-37 .

A thermite mixture using iron(III) oxide

God's name never appears in the Book of Esther — the only biblical book with this omission. The plot hinges on a beauty contest for a drunk king and a eunuch's wounded pride.

Kuwaiti oil fires

Retreating Iraqi forces torched 730 Kuwaiti oil wells in early 1991; the fires burned for eight months, turning noon into black night across hundreds of miles. Red Adair's crews took until November to kill the last flame.

Thermite

Once ignited, thermite burns at 2,500 °C — hot enough to melt through an engine block — and pouring water on it accelerates the reaction. The military uses it to destroy their own equipment.

David Blaine

David Blaine stood sealed inside a block of ice for 63 hours in Times Square in 2000. His legs swelled to the point of compartment syndrome; surgeons nearly amputated both. He called it a magic trick.

1I/ʻOumuamua

In 2017 a cigar-shaped object tumbled through our solar system accelerating beyond what solar radiation pressure could explain. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb argued in print it might be alien technology.

BioShock

Rapture was built on Ayn Rand's Objectivism — pure individual reason, no government, no God. By the time the player arrives, its citizens are injecting gene-splicing drugs and eating each other. The ideology ate itself first.

Pigasus (politics)

The Yippies hauled a 145-pound pig named Pigasus to Chicago's Grant Park in 1968 and held a formal press conference nominating him for president — police arrested both the pig and seven activists within minutes.

Mary (elephant)

A five-ton circus elephant named Mary was hanged by a crane in Erwin, Tennessee, 1916 — the first chain snapped under her weight. She had killed her trainer the day before. A town decided justice required a railroad derrick.

CIH (computer virus)

CIH triggered on April 26 — Chernobyl's anniversary — flashing BIOS chips into permanent silence. Written by Taiwanese student Chen Ing-hau in 1998, it destroyed hardware, not just files.