gnostek‹›1 / 8Marina Abramović700%disturbing art workIn 'Rhythm 0,' Abramović lay passive for six hours while strangers chose from 72 objects — including a loaded gun and rose thorns — to do whatever they wished to her body. She was cut, kissed, and aimed at.+ See More01The 72 objects included a scalpel, a whip, honey, a feather, a rose, and one loaded pistol.02By hour four, a stranger had cut her throat with a razor blade and licked the blood.03She was weeping silently when the six hours ended — unaware she had been crying the whole time.
gnostek‹›1 / 4Half-Life (video game)400%Best first person shooter games ever madeHalf-Life never cuts away — no cutscene interrupts, no loading screen breaks the eye — placing Gordon Freeman inside every moment of Black Mesa's collapse in 1998, a continuous unbroken world that made every prior shooter feel like a slide show.+ See More01The 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.
gnostek‹›1 / 6Taichang Emperor1100%Chinese emperors who met an untimely demiseThe Taichang Emperor reigned 29 days before dying — reportedly after swallowing red pills supplied by a court official named Li Kezhuo, whose formula was never fully disclosed.+ See More01Taichang Emperor died on September 26, 1620 — his 29th day on the throne, cause officially undetermined.02Court official Li Kezhuo supplied the red pills; he was later exiled but the formula remained secret.03The 'Red Pill Case' became one of the Three Great Cases of the Wanli era, debated for centuries.
gnostek‹›1 / 5Anwar al-Awlaki2710%drone strikes with civilian casualtiesAnwar al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico, was placed on a presidential kill list, denied due process in U.S. courts, and killed by CIA drone in Yemen in September 2011. His lawyers were told they needed a license to represent him.+ See More01The Treasury Department ruled that U.S. lawyers required a special license to legally represent al-Awlaki in court.02A federal judge dismissed his father's lawsuit to remove him from the kill list, citing lack of standing.03The Justice Department's legal memo authorizing the killing was classified for three years after his death.
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+11‹›1 / 18A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying Duke William 's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066Bayeux Tapestry410%Most famous medieval artEmbroidered in wool on linen 70 metres long, the Bayeux Tapestry was likely stitched within twenty years of the 1066 invasion it records — by English hands, for a Norman patron, depicting the death of a king the embroiderers may have watched fall.+ See More01The Bayeux Tapestry stretches 70 metres long but is only 50 centimetres tall, stitched in eight colours of dyed wool.02It was likely made in Canterbury by English embroiderers, commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror's half-brother.03A Halley's Comet appears in scene 32, depicted as an omen above figures pointing upward in visible alarm, dated to 1066.
gnostek‹›1 / 4Mario Kart Wii4025%Wii games that make you miss childhoodNintendo packed a cheap plastic steering wheel into every Mario Kart Wii box, and 37 million families snapped it around their Wii remotes — suddenly the living room floor was a race circuit and everyone had a wheel.+ See More01Mario Kart Wii sold 37.38 million copies, making it the best-selling Mario Kart entry in the series.02The included Wii Wheel cost Nintendo almost nothing to manufacture, yet players consistently rated it as satisfying.03Online play via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection let players race strangers worldwide — a first for console Mario Kart.
gnostek‹›1 / 2Drexel Burnham Lambert800%Legendary private equity dealsDrexel Burnham Lambert collapsed in February 1990, wiping out in days the firm that had financed the entire decade of hostile takeovers. It left a $650 million crater and 5,000 unemployed bankers before a single competitor blinked.+ See More01Drexel pleaded guilty to six felony counts in December 1988 and agreed to pay $650 million in fines.02The firm filed for bankruptcy on February 13, 1990 — 14 months after the settlement — laying off 5,000 employees.03At its peak Drexel controlled 45% of the entire U.S. high-yield bond market.
gnostek+7‹›1 / 14Swordfish500%Fastest AnimalsThe swordfish heats its own eyes and brain to 28°C above the surrounding ocean, running a biological furnace to keep vision razor-sharp at depth and speed. It is a warm-eyed predator in a cold, dark sea.+ See More01A specialized organ behind each eye generates heat, warming the retina by up to 28°C above seawater.02Warmer retinas process light signals faster, giving swordfish a crucial reaction-speed edge over cold-blooded prey.03Swordfish can reach 60 mph, making the heated-eye system essential for tracking fast-moving targets in dim water.