gnostek‹›1 / 3The Apicius manuscript (ca. 900 AD) of the monastery of Fulda in Germany, which was acquired in 1929 by the New York Academy of MedicineApicius1200%Controversial CulinaryMarcus Gavius Apicius spent a fortune building Rome's most extravagant culinary reputation, then calculated his remaining wealth and drank poison — the reduced budget made life not worth living.+ See More01Apicius reportedly spent 100 million sestertii on food; when 10 million remained, he poisoned himself rather than eat cheaply.02His cookbook, 'De Re Coquinaria,' lists recipes requiring flamingo tongue, dormouse stuffed with pine nuts, and roasted parrot.03He reputedly drowned a live mullet in a fish sauce vat to watch it change color as it died, for aesthetic pleasure.
gnostekBen Johnson (Canadian sprinter)1400%Worst sports cheating scandalsBen Johnson ran 9.79 seconds in Seoul — the fastest human ever timed — with visibly yellowed eyes. Within 72 hours, stanozolol was confirmed in his urine, and the world record was erased as if it never happened.+ See More01Johnson's urine sample tested positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid; his world record of 9.79 was formally struck.02His eyes were jaundiced yellow at the finish line — visible in broadcast footage, a physiological sign of steroid use.03Of the eight finalists in that 100m race, six have since been linked to doping violations or investigations.
gnostek‹›1 / 8Mengistu Haile Mariam000%Nuttiest African republic and their leadersColonel Mengistu Haile Mariam ran Ethiopia's Red Terror from 1977 to 1978, killing between 30,000 and 750,000 citizens; families of the executed were billed for the bullets used in the executions.+ See More01The 'bullet fees' charged to grieving families — typically around $1 Ethiopian — became a symbol of the campaign's bureaucratic cruelty.02Mengistu was convicted of genocide in absentia by an Ethiopian court in 2006 and sentenced to death.03He has lived under the personal protection of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe since his 1991 flight from Addis Ababa.
gnostekKommandokorps4025%South African farm killingsBoys as young as ten are circumcised, sleep in the veld, and recite Afrikaner identity oaths at Kommandokorps camps — a private paramilitary operating openly in the post-apartheid state.+ See More01Kommandokorps founder Franz Jooste describes the training as 'preparing boys for the coming race war.'02Participants undergo a ritual 'blood brotherhood' oath; some are as young as ten years old.03The South African government has investigated but never legally disbanded the organization.
gnostek‹›1 / 6Greek fire6017%Inventions that changed the course of historyByzantine warships sprayed Greek fire through bronze siphons — it burned on water and could not be extinguished. The formula died with the empire in 1453, and no chemist has fully reconstructed it since.+ See More01Greek fire was first deployed in 672 AD, repelling the Arab siege of Constantinople by sea.02The weapon burned on water — witnesses described ships continuing to burn as they sank.03The recipe was a state secret; even modern analysis cannot pin down all its components.
gnostek‹›1 / 82023 Tour de France710%Tour de France crashesOver seven decades, press motorcycles weaving through the peloton have shattered collarbone, kneecap, and career — one cameraman's vehicle knocked Joseba Beloki into a fracture pattern that ended his season in 2003.+ See More01Beloki's femur, wrist, and elbow all fractured in a 2003 crash partly triggered by a race vehicle.02Armstrong famously cut across a field to avoid the same crash — an improvised off-road detour mid-stage.03Tour motorcycles carry cameras, doctors, and sponsors, yet have no mandatory speed floor or collision protocol.
gnostek‹›1 / 3Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871300%Violence in the Wild WestOn October 24, 1871, a Los Angeles mob of several hundred dragged nineteen Chinese men from the Coronel Building and lynched them from wagon tongues and awning beams. Every murder conviction was later overturned on a technicality.+ See More01Nineteen Chinese men were lynched in a single night — roughly 10% of Los Angeles's entire Chinese population.02The mob looted an estimated $40,000 in cash and jewelry from victims before hanging them.03Eight men were convicted of manslaughter, but all convictions were vacated within a year on procedural grounds.
gnostek+27‹›1 / 34Dura-Europos100%City walls of antiquityWhen Sasanian forces breached Dura-Europos's walls around 256 CE, they buried the city in rubble — accidentally preserving inside the walls a synagogue, a Mithraeum, and the world's oldest surviving Christian church murals.+ See More01The Christian house-church at Dura-Europos contains wall paintings dated to around 235 CE — the earliest known Christian pictorial art.02The city's walls were deliberately packed with earth as a ramp during the Sasanian siege, sealing entire buildings intact.03A single city block within those walls held a Christian baptistery, a Jewish synagogue, and a temple to Mithras simultaneously.
gnostekKilling of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki3805%drone strikes with civilian casualtiesSixteen-year-old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen eating dinner in Yemen, was killed by a drone two weeks after his father. The Obama administration later said it was a mistake. His grandfather asked why.+ See More01Abdulrahman was born in Denver, Colorado — an American citizen by birth, killed by American order.02He had run away from home to find his father; he never made it back alive.03White House press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested Abdulrahman should have 'had a more responsible father.'