Kathy Acker

A thermite mixture using iron(III) oxide

The DU penetrator of a 30 mm round from the GAU-8 Avenger

Medieval English split tally stick ( front and reverse view). The stick is notched and inscribed to record a debt owed to the rural dean of Preston Candover , Hampshire, of a tithe of 20 d each on 32 sheep, amounting to a total sum of £2…

Memorial stone to the Ems dispatch in Bad Ems

Anti-immigrant protesters in Calais hold a sign in French reading "Diversity is a code word for white genocide", above a banner calling for remigration (8 November 2015).

A Jake and Dinos Chapman fused mannequin piece from the exhibition Come and See at the Serpentine Gallery

Acker lifted pages of Dickens verbatim, inserted orgies and gang rapes, and called it literary theory. Arrested for obscenity in the UK in 1984; the charges were dropped.

Thermite

Once ignited, thermite burns at 2,500 °C — hot enough to melt through an engine block — and pouring water on it accelerates the reaction. The military uses it to destroy their own equipment.

Depleted uranium

The US Army fired roughly 300 tons of depleted uranium rounds into Iraq and Kuwait, then left the radioactive debris in the sand. Birth defect rates in Basra spiked in the years that followed.

Order of the Solar Temple

In October 1994, 53 Solar Temple members died across Switzerland, Quebec, and France in synchronized rituals — stabbed, suffocated, shot, then burned. More followed in 1995 and 1997. Leaders claimed transit to Sirius.

Tally stick

For 700 years, the English Exchequer split hazel sticks to record royal debts — the king kept one half, the creditor the other. In 1834, Parliament burned the old sticks and accidentally set Westminster on fire.

Ems dispatch

Bismarck received a routine diplomatic telegram in 1870, redacted it to read as a deliberate insult, and released it to the press. France declared war within days, and the German Empire was born from the fallout.

White genocide conspiracy theory

A claim of white genocide in South Africa — built on disputed murder statistics from Afrikaner advocacy sites — migrated from Boer forums to Brenton Tarrant's manifesto, cited by name before the Christchurch massacre.

Jake and Dinos Chapman

The Chapmans bought a complete set of Goya's 'Disasters of War' etchings — 80 prints of dismembered soldiers — and painted Ronald McDonald and clown faces over the victims' heads. They called it 'rectification.'

1995 Tour de France

Fabio Casartelli died on Stage 15; the peloton rolled neutralized through Stage 16 the next morning, completing the course where he was killed — the race did not stop.