Fermi paradox

Enrico Fermi (Los Alamos 1945)

The Wow! signal represented as "6EQUJ5". The original printout with Ehman's handwritten exclamation is preserved by Ohio History Connection .

Heracles , wearing his characteristic lion-skin, club in right hand, leash in left, presenting a three-headed Cerberus, snakes coiling from his snouts, necks and front paws, to a frightened Eurystheus hiding in a giant pot. Caeretan hydria…

In 1950, Enrico Fermi ate lunch, looked up, and asked: if the galaxy is 13 billion years old and intelligence is possible, where is everybody? No one has answered him.

Dunhuang

Dunhuang was a garrison of 10,000 soldiers at the edge of the Gobi — yet its buried caves held more languages, religions, and literary genres than any site west of Alexandria. An outpost that swallowed civilizations.

Doom (1993 video game)

id Software built Doom in a rented suite above a pizza shop in Mesquite, Texas, in 1993 — John Carmack's renderer was so fast it broke every benchmark tool the team tried to measure it with.

David Parker Ray

David Parker Ray built a soundproofed trailer in New Mexico fitted with a gynecological chair, a mirror mounted above it, and a recorded tape he played to each new victim explaining what would be done to her. He called it his 'Toy Box.'

Wow! signal

On August 15, 1977, astronomer Jerry Ehman circled a 72-second spike on a printout and wrote 'Wow!' beside it. It broadcast on the 1420 MHz hydrogen line. It has never come back.

Dawn Brancheau

Dawn Brancheau, SeaWorld Orlando's most senior trainer, was pulled into the water and killed by orca Tilikum in front of an audience on February 24, 2010. She had 16 years of experience. The show had just ended.

Cerberus

Greeks slipped honey cakes called meli into the mouths of their dead to bribe Cerberus at the underworld gate. Virgil's Aeneas carries one. The three-headed dog's middle head was considered the most dangerous.

Bloodgate

Harlequins winger Tom Williams bit a fake blood capsule to fake an injury; team physio Steph Brennan then sliced his lip with a scalpel to cover it up. A doctor lost her medical license over a substitution rule.

Operation Frankton

Ten canoeists paddled in pairs into Bordeaux harbour at night and limpet-mined six ships. Eight were captured or drowned; the two survivors walked 100 miles to Spain. Hitler's Commando Order had the eight shot.