gnostek+16‹›1 / 23Golden eagle200%Fastest AnimalsAt 150 mph in a stoop, the golden eagle strikes with talons exerting 750 psi — roughly the grip of a hydraulic press on a soda can. Civilizations from the Mongols to Rome named themselves by this bird.+ See More01Golden eagle talons exert 750 psi on impact — exceeding the bite force of most large predators.02Mongol hunters trained golden eagles to take wolves and foxes across the Central Asian steppe.03The eagle appears on the flags or seals of over a dozen modern nation-states.
gnostek‹›1 / 7Bear River Massacre200%Violence in the Wild WestColonel Patrick Connor's cavalry attacked a Shoshone winter camp on the Bear River at dawn, January 29, 1863, killing between 250 and 400 people — mostly women and children — before the sun was fully up.+ See More01Colonel Connor reported 224 Shoshone dead; tribal oral histories count closer to 400, including infants.02Soldiers destroyed 75 lodges and seized 1,000 bushels of grain, leaving survivors to freeze in January cold.03Connor was promoted to brigadier general and praised in San Francisco newspapers within weeks of the massacre.
gnostek‹›1 / 2Hit 'Em Up100%Most cultural significant rap beefsOn a 1996 Death Row single, Tupac claimed to have slept with Faith Evans — Biggie's wife — while Biggie was alive. He said it over his own label's production, for all radio to hear.+ See More01Tupac named Faith Evans directly, implicating a living woman in a public adultery claim.02The track also threatened the entire Bad Boy roster by name, including Puffy and Mobb Deep.03Released on 'All Eyez on Me,' one of rap's best-selling albums, giving the insult maximum reach.
gnostekCIH (computer virus)1100%Malware programsCIH 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.+ See More01CIH was written by Taiwanese student Chen Ing-hau while attending Tatung University in 1998.02It triggered on April 26, the Chernobyl disaster anniversary, earning the nickname "Chernobyl virus."03Unlike most viruses, CIH overwrote BIOS firmware, making infected machines unable to boot at all.
gnostek‹›1 / 4Red Bird – watercolour on paperChris Ofili1000%Critically acclaimed modern artOfili painted the Virgin Mary with a clump of elephant dung as one breast and pornographic collage for her halo. Mayor Giuliani called it 'disgusting' and tried to evict the Brooklyn Museum in 1999.+ See More01Giuliani threatened to cut $7 million in city funding to the Brooklyn Museum over the painting.02Ofili, a Catholic, said the dung was a reverent material — he used it in nearly every painting.03A man entered the museum and smeared white paint over the canvas; he was arrested on-site.
gnostek‹›1 / 4Tiryns400%City walls of antiquityWalls 17 metres thick at Tiryns conceal vaulted stone galleries within their mass — corridors carved not to defend but, ancient Greeks believed, to house the Cyclopes who built them.+ See More01Tiryns's walls reach 17 metres thick — enough to tunnel entire corbelled galleries through the interior.02The limestone blocks weigh up to 15 tonnes each; no Bronze Age tool marks explain how they were moved.03Homer described Tiryns as 'wall-girt'; later Greeks believed only giants could have raised the circuit.
gnostekTsutomu Miyazaki500%most gruesome serial killersTsutomu Miyazaki killed four girls aged four to seven near Tokyo between 1988 and 1989, ate one victim's hands, and mailed her charred bones to her family in a box with photographs. Police found 5,763 videotapes stacked in his room.+ See More01He mailed Mari Konno's cremated bones and teeth to her family along with a postcard taunting them.02Miyazaki drank the blood of one victim and gnawed her hands before returning her skeleton to her home.03His bedroom contained 5,763 videotapes, mostly horror films and anime, stacked floor to ceiling.
gnostek+6‹›1 / 13Commodus300%The History of RomeCommodus renamed Rome 'Colonia Commodiana,' rechristened the months after his own titles, and descended into the arena as a gladiator — charging the treasury a million sesterces per appearance — until his wrestling coach strangled him.+ See More01He renamed all twelve months after himself: Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius.02In the arena he killed ostriches with crescent-headed arrows, then waved the severed heads at senators.03His lover Marcia, his chamberlain, and his wrestling partner Narcissus conspired together to poison then strangle him on 31 December 192.
gnostek‹›1 / 7Paper300%Legends of the Ancient Silk RoadAt the Battle of Talas in 751 AD, Tang China lost to an Abbasid army — and among the Chinese prisoners were papermakers. Within 50 years, Baghdad had its first paper mill. Rome had none for another 400 years.+ See More01Chinese prisoners captured at Talas in 751 AD transmitted papermaking to the Islamic world — the technology spread faster than any army.02Baghdad's first paper mill opened around 793 AD; by 900, Islamic scholars were producing books on a scale China alone had managed.03Europe's first paper mill appeared in Fabriano, Italy, in 1276 — 525 years after Talas, and only after Moorish Spain passed the technique.