Cantor's diagonal argument

An illustration of Cantor's diagonal argument (in base 2) for the existence of uncountable sets . The sequence at the bottom cannot occur anywhere in the enumeration of sequences above.

Fritz Haber , 1918

01He 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.

A Coleman white gas lantern mantle glowing at full brightness

Cantor's diagonal argument

Cantor showed in 1891 that the infinity of real numbers cannot be listed — proving it by constructing one number guaranteed to be missing from any list. Infinity has a size hierarchy; most people never heard it.

Aleister Crowley

Crowley published occult texts, ran secret orders, and maintained a heroin habit measured in grains-per-day in his personal ledgers — for thirty years. His mages followed him into addiction. Who was the ritual for?

Haber process

Fritz Haber synthesized nitrogen from air in 1909, feeding a billion people who could not otherwise exist. He then personally supervised the first chlorine gas attack at Ypres in 1915, killing thousands.

Commodus

Commodus 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.

Sicilian Expedition

Athens voted in 415 BC to conquer Sicily — 38,000 men, 200 ships — based on flawed intelligence and civilian fever. Every ship and every soldier was lost; the expedition ended the Athenian Empire.

Gas mantle

Before electricity, a mesh sock soaked in radioactive thorium dioxide burned inside every middle-class parlour lamp. The mantles crumbled to radioactive dust when touched. Millions were sold; none came with warnings.

Sutton Hoo helmet

Dug from a Suffolk garden in 1939, the Sutton Hoo helmet's iron face-mask — with its dragon-eyebrow crest — belonged to a king whose name no one can agree on.

Ninja Gaiden II

Limbless enemies drag themselves across the floor on their chins to bite the player. Ninja Gaiden II's 2008 combat generates severed-limb piles no other game has matched. The genre called it ultraviolence; reviewers called it art.

Killing of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki

Sixteen-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.