gnostek+2‹›1 / 9Not Like Us300%Most cultural significant rap beefsKendrick Lamar accused Drake of grooming minors, named him a predator over a beat, then watched it hit number one — a Billboard chart-topper built on a criminal allegation.+ See More01"Not Like Us" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2024.02Kendrick performed it live at a Kia Forum concert billed as 'The Pop Out,' drawing 19,000 fans.03Drake filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group citing the song's defamatory allegations.
gnostek‹›1 / 6The eight "Chicago Black Sox"Black Sox Scandal8013%Worst sports cheating scandalsEight Chicago White Sox players threw the 1919 World Series for gamblers paying as little as $5,000 per player. A boy reportedly pleaded, 'Say it ain't so, Joe.' Shoeless Joe Jackson batted .375 during the fix.+ See More01First baseman Chick Gandil organized the fix; the players received between $5,000 and $35,000, unevenly distributed.02Shoeless Joe Jackson actually batted .375 in the Series and hit the only home run — yet was banned for life.03Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all eight players permanently, even after a jury acquitted them in 1921.
gnostek‹›1 / 6GoldenEye 007300%Best first person shooter games ever madeRare's 1997 Nintendo 64 cartridge shipped a four-player split-screen world that hadn't existed in any home console before it — the dam, the facility, the cradle — turning a Bond film into a geography that an entire generation memorized.+ See More01GoldenEye 007 sold over 8 million copies, making it the third best-selling N64 game of all time.02The game's multiplayer was added in the final six weeks of development by a single programmer, Steve Ellis.03Its analog stick aiming system established the twin-stick control standard that every console shooter still uses today.
gnostek+4‹›1 / 11Battle of Gaugamela700%Battles that were a turning point in a warAlexander personally led a cavalry wedge directly at Darius III, splitting a Persian army estimated at 250,000. Darius fled on horseback for the second time — the Achaemenid Empire, 220 years old, effectively ended in that single charge.+ See More01Alexander charged at Darius personally with the Companion Cavalry — Darius fled, abandoning his mother, wife, and children.02Gaugamela was fought in 331 BC on a plain Darius chose and had specially flattened for his scythed chariots.03After Gaugamela, Darius was murdered by his own satrap Bessus before Alexander could capture him.
gnostekTarrare800%the 10 most interesting wikipedia articles everTarrare, an 18th-century French soldier, ate live cats, eels, snakes, and a 14-month-old toddler — then vanished from a hospital ward. His autopsy revealed a stomach cavity large enough to fit a small child.+ See More01Army surgeons used Tarrare as a spy courier, hiding dispatches inside raw meat he swallowed whole.02A 14-month-old infant disappeared from the hospital ward where Tarrare was confined; he was the prime suspect.03His autopsy revealed a massively distended stomach, corroded organs, and a body riddled with tumors at death around age 26.
gnostek‹›1 / 5Ico800%Stories about legendary video game developmentFumito Ueda pinned a single photograph of a boy and girl holding hands to his office wall, then spent four years at Sony Japan building an entire game backward from that image — with no combat, no inventory, just the grip.+ See More01Ueda used a design method he called 'subtractive design,' removing features until only the core remained.02ICO was nearly cancelled by Sony twice before shipping on PS1 — it launched on PS2 in 2001 instead.03The European and Japanese releases included a two-player co-op mode cut entirely from the North American version.
gnostek+2‹›1 / 9A bile bear in a "crush cage" on Huizhou Farm, Huizhou , ChinaBile bear600%Controversial CulinaryBears on Chinese bile farms live for up to 25 years with permanent steel catheters punched through their abdomens, draining bile used in traditional medicine. Many develop liver cancer from the constant extraction.+ See More01An estimated 20,000 bears are currently held on bile farms in China and Vietnam, many in 'crush cages.'02Bear bile contains ursodeoxycholic acid — a compound now synthesized cheaply in labs, making farming medically redundant.03Moon bears on farms are often declawed and defanged at capture; some have been caged since cubhood.
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.'
gnostekBosco Ramos400%Most absurd political campaignsBosco, a black Labrador–rottweiler mix, was elected mayor of Sunol, California in 1981 over two human candidates — and held the role until his death in 1994, becoming the town's most beloved public figure.+ See More01Bosco beat two human candidates in Sunol's 1981 election and served as honorary mayor for 13 years.02A statue of Bosco was erected in Sunol after his death in 1994, commemorating his service to the 900-person town.03Chinese state media once used Bosco's election as anti-democracy propaganda, arguing it proved American elections were meaningless.