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Computer, Define "Down the Rabbit Hole" - The Thread of Interesting Wiki Articles

Bulgakov

Yes, that Russian author.
(He/Him)
Here's a place for the interesting Wiki articles you stumble across when you're researching random things late at night. Feel free to post anything from Wikipedia, TVTropes, The Snorks fandom wiki. Wherever, so long as it's something you want to share from a collection of articles!
 

Bulgakov

Yes, that Russian author.
(He/Him)
Ever wonder why nations have the right to, y'know, be nations? As far as international law is concerned, it's all based on the principle of Westphalian Sovereignty, which comes from the peace agreements that ended the 30 Years War in the mid-1600s.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
How come more people aren't making all the movies, comics, etc about Vidocq. He's got one of the most perfectly fictionalish life stories and the best we get is a movie by the guy who did Catwoman?
 

Bulgakov

Yes, that Russian author.
(He/Him)
How come more people aren't making all the movies, comics, etc about Vidocq.

When "Years of Wandering and Prison" is one of your Wikipedia subheadings, and it includes descriptions of the man's repeated prison escapes with the help of his ex-girlfriend, I feel like there's at least some room for a dramatization there.
 

Bulgakov

Yes, that Russian author.
(He/Him)
I can't decide what I like more. The idea of "let's use neutral fake bridges to make everyone feel good about our currency," or a Dutch city planning department looking at them and thinking "Yeah, it's worth the resource costs to troll the entire EU on this one."
 

Felicia

Power is fleeting, love is eternal
(She/Her)
I was recently reminded of an old Wikipedia joke, where apparently people were going around writing overly detailed and verbose synopsises for hip-hop songs. Sadly, most of them have been edited since, but looking through history, I found this gem, for instance.
 

Lady

something something robble
My main takeaway is that the Egyptians perfected the mod floral design pattern and color palettes, long before the 1960s.
 

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
I was recently reminded of an old Wikipedia joke, where apparently people were going around writing overly detailed and verbose synopses for hip-hop songs. Sadly, most of them have been edited since, but looking through history, I found this gem, for instance.

It was a better time.
 

Bulgakov

Yes, that Russian author.
(He/Him)
A reply to a tweet about Biden's dog being the first rescue dog in the White House, but NOT the first rescue pet, led me to this amazing page on Rebecca the Raccoon.

The "Other Animals" section is particularly amusing.
 

conchobhar

What's Shenmue?
Two interesting historical events: the Bone Wars, "a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery"; and the Brown Dog affair, a political firestorm ignited over the vivisection of a dog, that began as a case for animal welfare activists but grew to involve feminists and trade unionists.

Lazarus taxon is a really fascinating one: list of species thought extinct, then re-discovered. Everyone knows about the coelacanth, but there's dozens more, and stories for each of them.

For a laugh, have a look at Talk:Tiger versus lion, where editors have heated arguments about which big cat would win in a fight, and accuse others of having a "pro-tiger bias".
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Lazarus taxon is a really fascinating one: list of species thought extinct, then re-discovered. Everyone knows about the coelacanth, but there's dozens more, and stories for each of them.
I am delighted by the related "Elvis Taxon" ("a look-alike that has supplanted an extinct taxon through convergent evolution")
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I have no idea how to feel about learning what the Bone Wars actually is.

Because I’m simultaneously thrilled and disappointed
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
There are only 17 mathematical groups of wallpaper patterns, which is way more limited than I would have expected! Also, there's plenty of math to define them.

I love this how did I miss this

A reply to a tweet about Biden's dog being the first rescue dog in the White House, but NOT the first rescue pet, led me to this amazing page on Rebecca the Raccoon.

The "Other Animals" section is particularly amusing.

I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been a rescue dog before now!
 

conchobhar

What's Shenmue?
Mama and papa explains a fascinatingly widespread pair of false cognates: mama and papa (or similar), for "mother" and "father", are used by languages the world over despite no common ancestry or even contact.
 

Bulgakov

Yes, that Russian author.
(He/Him)
Berserk Llama Syndrome is a condition in male llamas where they imprint on humans too much and become unable to distinguish human beings from other llamas when they mature. As a result, they instinctively attempt to get into llama-style fights with people to display their dominance.
 
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