Wiki-Wiki Wikipedia

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During the 1850s and 1860s, engineers carried out a piecemeal raising of the grade of central Chicago to lift the city out of its low-lying swampy ground. Buildings and sidewalks were physically raised on jackscrews.

Many of central Chicago’s hurriedly-erected wooden frame buildings were now considered inappropriate to the burgeoning and increasingly wealthy city. Rather than raise them several feet, proprietors often preferred to relocate these old frame buildings, replacing them with new masonry blocks built to the latest grade. Consequently, the practice of putting the old multi-story, intact and furnished wooden buildings—sometimes entire rows of them en bloc—on rollers and moving them to the outskirts of town or to the suburbs was so common as to be considered nothing more than routine traffic.

Traveller David Macrae wrote, “Never a day passed during my stay in the city that I did not meet one or more houses shifting their quarters. One day I met nine. Going out Great Madison Street in the horse cars we had to stop twice to let houses get across.” The function for which such a building had been constructed would often be maintained during the move, with people dining, shopping and working in these buildings as they were rollered down the street.

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Having Fun with Elvis on Stage is a 1974 spoken word concert album by American singer and musician Elvis Presley consisting entirely of dialogue and banter, mostly jokes, by Presley between songs during his live concerts, with the songs themselves removed from the recordings.

The album is unique in Elvis Presley's discography as it does not contain any actual music or songs; it consists entirely of Presley talking between numbers, recorded during live concerts.[1] Presley is frequently heard humming or singing "Well ...", which, during the actual performances, led into songs that were edited out of the recording.[1] Much of the album consists of Presley making jokes, although the recording is devoid of context.

Many critics felt that the album's material was spliced in a manner lacking continuity and nearly devoid of comprehensibility or humor.[1][3] Mark Deming of AllMusic states that "some have called Having Fun with Elvis on Stage thoroughly unlistenable, but actually it's worse than that; hearing it is like witnessing an auto wreck that somehow plowed into a carnival freak show, leaving onlookers at once too horrified and too baffled to turn away."[3] Nick Greene, a writer for Mental Floss, felt that the material presented on the record is "so incoherent, you don't really get an idea of his stage presence, despite the fact that all the audio comes from his shows."[1]

The whole thing's on YouTube and has been for a decade presumably because the Elvis estate is too embarrassed to copyright strike it:

[Uncle]

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Grandpa Indian (Portuguese: Vovô Índio) is a character conceived in the 1930s with the intention of replacing Santa Claus in Brazil. His aim was to inflate patriotic sentiments among the Brazilian population.[2] The dissemination of the character in the 1930s took place through the Integralist press, whose movement was rooted in Brazilian nationalism with fascist undertones. According to a chronicle in the 1934 Christmas edition of Correio da Manhã, Santa Claus would be deemed a "ridiculous figure" and out of place in a "land of warmth and intense sunlight", where "this chilly and stern old man was becoming impertinent".

Depicted as an elderly gentleman who is "very friendly to the trees", adorned in "feathers of all the colors of the birds", who generously bestows gifts upon Brazilian children, Grandpa Indian faced criticism and mockery upon his debut, and by 1938 he had virtually disappeared.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolai_Lilin

Lilin has stated that he was incarcerated in a maximum security juvenile prison at the age of 12 for attempted murder after stabbing a drug addict in self-defence. He also claims that he maimed a man who had driven a young boy to suicide.[22] Lilin states that he killed for the first time at age 14, with the victim being a "Gypsy" drug dealer whom he shot with his grandfather's revolver.[23][27] Still at age 14, per his narrative, he stabbed a boy in the back, leaving him paralysed for life.[27]

Lilin claims that at age 18 he began serving in the Russian army.[24] In a Vanity Fair interview, he claimed he was drafted while studying yoga in India,[6] while in an interview with Oliver Bullough he stated he volunteered.[28] He further claims to have served for two years and three months in the antiterrorism corps of the GRU during the Second Chechen War.[29][22] Some Italian sources state he served in the 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment.[5]

He claims to have briefly taken part in the battle of Grozny[30][28] and said in an interview with Il Giornale that his unit had tortured prisoners of war.[31] He claims he encountered very few Chechen guerrillas during the conflict, instead fighting mercenaries from Afghanistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.[32] He has described two instances during the war in which he was nearly killed: the first occurring when he was shot in the chest with an AK-47, surviving thanks to his body armour, the second happening when a vehicle he was travelling in was capsized by a grenade launcher which left two comrades dead and himself with damage to his hearing.[14]

Lilin claims that after leaving the army, he attempted to find work in Saint Petersburg, but was rebuffed for being a war veteran.[6] While there, he was arrested for illegal firearm ownership and held in custody for several months, during which he claims to have been regularly beaten.[33] Per his narrative, he later worked as a private security guard for a Russian opposition group with links to Chechen terrorists.[34] He later spent three years[26] working for a private Israeli security company as an antiterrorism consultant.[24] He states that at one point he worked as a drill instructor for the Afghan National Security Forces.[35]

He concluded his service after injuring his leg in Iraq while working as a bodyguard for Western businessmen. In an article he wrote for L'Espresso, he stated that he had been shot,[35] while in his interview with Elena Chernenko, he stated that his leg was injured by a landmine,[36] subsequently elaborating that it had been triggered after an American serviceman jumped on it.[20] He states that he later moved to Siberia to live with his great-uncle by the Lena river, while struggling with PTSD.[32] After retiring, he claims to have been contacted by an ex comrade offering him a position in a pro-Gaddafi mercenary group during the Libyan civil war, which he refused.[35]

He says he had originally intended to settle in Ireland to work as a fisherman, but was tricked into going to Italy by his mother, who lied about having cancer.[6][14] He claims that, from 2005, he spent two years working for a Vatican-affiliated security company infiltrating Satanic cults, during which he claims to have uncovered a child sex ring operating in Europe and Russia.[40][41] He also credits himself with uncovering the presence of MS-13 in Turin.[41] He further claims that he once suffered an assassination attempt in Turin by Islamic radicals who planted a bomb under his car.[3]

 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

If we summarise the information from Nicolai Lilin's book [Siberian Education], his interviews in the Western press and his speeches at book fairs, then by the age of 23 the author had managed to: serve two terms in a Transnistrian prison, be under investigation in Russia, serve three years as a sniper in Chechnya and a couple more years as a mercenary in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. At 24, he got a job as a fisherman on a ship in Ireland, then moved to Italy, where he got married, opened a tattoo parlour, wrote a bestseller and almost became a victim of a politically motivated assassination attempt.

Zakhar Prilepin compared the premise of the novel to a contemporary German author writing about "a squadron of former SS officers hiding in the forests outside Berlin, listening to Wagner with their children and grandchildren, reading aloud from the works of Junge and banging on tin drums as they rob passing trains".[51]

Oliver Bullough, in a 2011 interview with Lilin, wrote that "it contains tales so unlikely that most editors would surely have spotted them as false, such as when Lilin finds a Chechen with a rifle loaded with hyper-accurate bullets filled with liquid mercury. Such an idea is nonsense since the liquid would shift in flight and render them useless". He also drew attention to a scene where an urban battle resulted in the loss of 13 lieutenant-colonels.[28] Tim Kucharewski notes how the novel perpetuates the myth of anti-personnel mines being deliberately disguised as toys or boxes of crayons, which Lilin claims were manufactured in San Marino and used extensively by Chechen fighters. Kucharewski points out how the legend originated during the Soviet–Afghan War, but that it made even less sense in the context of the Chechen wars:

What would be the tactical motivation for the Chechens to conceal mines in toy-shapes on their home turf when confronting Russian soldiers as their only opponent? If the notion is disregarded that this had been done to seduce the inner child of potentially looting Russian conscript or contract soldiers, one is hard-pressed to find an explanation. Using underage "child soldiers" or bringing [one's] "own" civilians into the combat zones as human shields are among the few war crimes that have never been alleged against the Russian federation during these wars. The only persons that these alleged toy mines could actually bait, would be Chechen children. Therefore, from any perspective other than one claiming that these Chechens were "barbarian" "bandits" that for some sadistic reason intended to kill or maim their own side's infants and children, the old yarn of the toy mine seems even less credible here than in other wars. Yet, Nicolai Lilin indeed stated this claim, in one of the more implausible paragraphs within the text, of which there is certainly no shortage.[57]

[chronovore]

Sounds like Steven Seagal found his inspiration in characters like that Lilin.

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By the end of season 1, Weekend had attracted a cult following. Fans dubbed the first weekend of each month a Weekend weekend. "Is this a Weekend weekend?" was often heard around office water coolers.

I trust this, don't need to see a citation at all.

[Potato]

Can stuff from The Conversation belong here too?

This was a really cool read

https://theconversation.com/hindi-greek-and-english-all-come-from-a-single-ancient-language-heres-how-we-know-264588

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was an enslaved man from Virginia who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 to abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1849, with the help of James C. A. Smith, a free black man,[4] and a sympathetic white shoemaker named Samuel A. Smith (no relation), Brown devised a plan to have himself shipped in a box to a free state by the Adams Express Company, known for its confidentiality and efficiency.[6] Brown paid US$86 (equivalent to $3,250 in 2024), which was more than half of his savings of US$166 (equivalent to $6,274 in 2024), to Samuel Smith.[6]

On March 29, 1849 (176 years ago), the trip finally began.[6] Over the next 27 hours, Brown's box was transported by wagon, railroad, steamboat, wagon again, railroad, ferry, railroad, and finally delivery wagon. Despite the instructions on the box of "handle with care" and "this side up", carriers often placed the box upside-down or handled it roughly. Brown remained still, however and avoided detection.[citation needed]

The following day, on March 30, 1849 (176 years ago), the box was received by Williamson, McKim, William Still, and other members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, attesting to the improvements in express delivery services.[6] When Brown was released, one of the men remembered his first words as: "How do you do, gentlemen?"

[Uncle]

Can stuff from The Conversation belong here too?

This was a really cool read

https://theconversation.com/hindi-greek-and-english-all-come-from-a-single-ancient-language-heres-how-we-know-264588

they don't include japanese here, even though one of the first japanese words you learn is namai, which is name

[Potato]

It's όνομα (ónoma) in Greek.

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Originally a part of a traveling act called the Atwood Orangutans, Cha Cha and Bobo are separated from their trainer Tommy Atwood (Tim Dunigan) after he is knocked unconscious in a car accident while the act is traveling from Arizona to California. Frightened by the commotion caused by the accident, Cha Cha and Bobo both run away. Cha Cha is eventually found and sent to a government research center in Washington, D.C.. Weeks later, Cha Cha escapes from the center and ends up in a research lab where he finds an experimental mixture to increase human intelligence being developed. After drinking the mixture, Cha Cha is able to talk (his voice was provided by series executive producer Ed. Weinberger)[3] and is later determined to have an I.Q of 256. He is then renamed Mr. Smith and, due to his high intelligence, becomes a political adviser. Mr. Smith's old trainer Tommy later becomes his assistant while Mr. Smith attempts to solve various political problems and his surrounding staff, which includes his secretary Raymond Holyoke (Leonard Frey), attempt to keep his identity hidden from the general public.

edit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbLzKniuNYk4U055QafjcWap-AHLsRrnD

[Uncle]

when you're casually reading a wikipedia article about the jim jones cult and your mouse is just kind of hovering in place on the right side, and you're scrolling with the scroll wheel, and then suddenly without any warning at all:

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

no it is not censored, I did that

[Uncle]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_neon_tetra#Credit_card_fraud

Credit card fraud

A black neon tetra inadvertently caused its owner's credit card to be charged during a 2023 livestream by "Mutekimaru Channel" on YouTube. The owner was using motion-tracking software to turn the fish's movements into Nintendo Switch inputs, letting them "play" video games. In 2020, the fish beat Pokemon Sapphire after 3,195 hours, a feat that takes about 30 hours for a typical human. On January 14, 2023, Pokémon Violet crashed at 1,144 hours, giving the fish free access to the main menu. They entered inputs that opened Nintendo eShop, added 500 yen ($3.85 USD) to their owner's account, and exposed his credit card details on the livestream. Mutekimaru later requested a refund of the 500 yen from Nintendo. Several media outlets facetiously described the fish as having committed "credit card fraud."

The fish also downloaded an N64 emulator, set up PayPal, used reward points to buy an avatar, and changed Mutekimaru's Nintendo account name to "ROWAWAWA¥". After about seven hours, their movements shut down the Switch.

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In July 1870, when Prussia invaded France, starting the Franco-Prussian War, Melgarejo asked one of his high-ranking generals to immediately send Bolivian troops to help the French army defend Paris. This was city that Melgarejo was fascinated by with its stories of sophistication and elegance but which he did not even know how to locate on a map. The Bolivian general replied that the plan was impossible, since it would take a long time to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Enraged, Melgarejo replied, "Don't be silly! We'll take a shortcut!"

Blinded by anger, Melgarejo arranged to gather a troop of 3,000 men to embark for Europe and help France. Attending a horse race in Oruro, he suffered a broken foot that stopped him for a month, and planned to cross the Amazon jungles of Brazil to reach the Atlantic Ocean and reach Europe. Resuming his march, Melgarejo received news that France had already capitulated to Prussia but he refused to believe such events.

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Brych arrived in New Zealand in November 1968 after being accepted as a refugee. He initially found work as a laboratory technician at Auckland Hospital. After about a year, he successfully applied for a provisional medical licence on the basis that he held the equivalent of a medical degree and doctorate, claims which were subsequently found to be false.[5] According to Myrek Cvigr, who acted as interpreter for Brych upon his arrival in New Zealand, Brych initially claimed to be a psychiatrist rather than an oncologist.[6]

After completing an internship, Brych was hired by the radiotherapy department at Auckland Hospital on the basis that he had worked in oncology in Czechoslovakia.[5] A later investigation found that his supervising consultants had found that he lacked knowledge in the fundamentals of medicine, but they had not raised concerns as they believed his qualifications had were not in doubt.[6] By 1971, Brych had begun to treat patients with a series of injections which he claimed could induce remission of cancer. His claims received substantial media coverage and by late 1972 he had established a separate private practice and begun to treat overseas cancer patients from Australia and North America.[7]

Medical authorities in New Zealand were immediately skeptical of Brych's claims, as he refused to provide details of his treatment methods on the basis they might be stolen by other doctors or by pharmaceutical companies. He also refused to provide patients' medical records to the Auckland Hospital Board and begun making claims that he was being prosecuted by the medical profession.[7]

Wright's report concluded that Brych had not developed any novel treatments for cancer.[8] It also cast doubt on Brych's qualifications and criticised his "virtually complete absence of proper medical records".[9]

He eventually withdrew his appeal shortly before a hearing date was scheduled in early 1977, claiming that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the Communist authorities in Czechoslovakia which had destroyed evidence of his academic and professional record.[10]

At his eventual criminal trial in 1983, he admitted that he had charged as much as $9,600 for monthly injections of drugs that had cost him approximately $10 to obtain.[9]

One of Brych's methods of "treating" cancer was based around laetrile, an extract from apricot kernels which has no medical benefit and may in fact lead to cyanide poisoning.[12] On various occasions he falsely claimed to have isolated "specific antigens, and/or specific antibodies for individual patient's individual cancers", which no researchers had achieved.[13]

The symposium's organiser Hans Gerhard Schwick [de] later swore an affidavit that Brych had not presented any papers nor participated in any discussions at the symposium, and had stated that he was unable to disclose his research as he was concerned about listening devices being planted by "gangsters organised from America who wished to steal his secret".[6]

Despite the federal government's opposition to Brych, in March 1978 Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen publicly invited Brych to set up a practice in Queensland, which he suggested could become a "world centre" for cancer treatment. Bjelke-Petersen described Brych as a "man of great skill and knowledge" and said he should be allowed to establish a self-financed clinic, subject to being registered by the Medical Board of Queensland.

Brych claimed to have studied medicine at the Masaryk University in Brno. It was later revealed that at the time he claimed to have been studying, he was in fact in prison.[1]

I was criticised in the same way for my support of cancer therapist Milan Brych... I was the only politician in Australia who said he ought to be given a chance to show his therapy worked. Like Stephen Horvath's car, his methods may yet be vindicated.
Quote from Joh Bjelke-Petersen's autobiography, 1990

 Sad that the lib establishment organized so successfully against someone thinking outside the Western capitalist box just because they couldn't understand his advanced methods.

[Potato]

If you haven't already, you should read the Sir Joh page. That guy would really tickle your fancy.

[Uncle]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Animated_gif_of_topless_woman_with_%22GIF%22_painted_above_her_breasts.gif

[Alpacx]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Animated_gif_of_topless_woman_with_%22GIF%22_painted_above_her_breasts.gif

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[Uncle]

"thornton's plan was rejected" doing heavy lifting for the other guys' reactions

   

"n-no...no, we're not...gonna do that...sorry bud"