gnostek1 / 6Zimbabwean banknotes ranging from 10 dollars to 100 billion dollars printed within a one-year period. The magnitude of the currency scalars signifies the extent of the hyperinflation.
01The Z$100 trillion note, issued January 2009, was worth approximately US$0.40 on the day it was printed.
02At peak hyperinflation in November 2008, month-on-month inflation hit 79,600,000,000% — prices doubled every 24 hours.
03Zimbabwe officially abandoned its dollar in April 2009; citizens were allowed to exchange Z$35 quadrillion for US$1.
gnostek1 / 215-year-old Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ giving her testimony to the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, two months after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait . It was later revealed that she was the daughter of Kuwaiti…
01Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ's identity was hidden; she was the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter, not a random nurse.
02Hill & Knowlton received $10.8 million from the Kuwaiti government to orchestrate the testimony.
03Seven US senators cited the incubator story in floor speeches justifying the declaration of war.
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01Jones's documentary 'Trader' filmed him forecasting a 1987 market crash before Black Monday wiped 22% off the Dow.
02He reportedly tripled his money during Black Monday by holding massive short positions entering October 1987.
03The film was effectively withdrawn from circulation; Jones has never publicly explained why it must not be seen.
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01Wii Sports sold 82.9 million copies, more than any sports game before or since, entirely via hardware bundles.
02Retirement homes in the US and UK adopted Wii bowling as a weekly resident activity by 2007.
03The Mii avatars players created for Wii Sports became their digital stand-ins across every Wii game they owned.
gnostek1 / 2A Jake and Dinos Chapman fused mannequin piece from the exhibition Come and See at the Serpentine Gallery
01The original Goya plates date from 1810–1820; the Chapmans overpainted them in 2003.
02They titled the defaced series 'Insult to Injury,' inverting Goya's humanitarian intent entirely.
03Jake Chapman said ruining the Goyas was more creative than making new work from scratch.
gnostek1 / 5Front page cover of the newspaper L'Aurore for Thursday 13 January 1898, with the letter J'Accuse...! , written by Émile Zola about the Dreyfus affair . The headline reads I Accuse...! Letter to the President of the Republic .
01Zola addressed the letter directly to President Félix Faure, naming eleven officials as co-conspirators.
02L'Aurore printed 300,000 copies on January 13, 1898 — multiples of its usual daily circulation.
03Zola was convicted of libel and fled to England, returning only after Dreyfus was exonerated.
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01WannaCry used EternalBlue, an NSA-developed exploit leaked by the Shadow Brokers hacker group.
0280,000 NHS devices were hit; surgeries were cancelled and ambulances diverted across England.
03A 22-year-old named Marcus Hutchins halted the attack by registering a $10.69 domain name.
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01The Black Mesa Research Facility was designed as a structurally plausible underground complex spanning multiple biomes.
02Half-Life won over 50 'Game of the Year' awards in 1998, more than any title before it.
03Valve's follow-up Half-Life 2 in 2004 shipped with the Source engine, revolutionizing physics simulation in games.
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01304 of the 918 dead at Jonestown were children, most administered poison by their own parents.
02Jones had rehearsed the mass death at least twice before as 'White Night' loyalty drills.
03Congressman Leo Ryan was shot dead on the airstrip minutes before the poisonings began.