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cptn_dr posted:On the subject of Bunyips, this video always creeped me the hell out as a child. The first time I went to Australia after seeing it, I refused to go to the zoo at first, just in case. As soon as someone mentioned the bunyip, I thought of this! Thirty years since I first saw it and it still freaks me out. Honestly, I am slightly disappointed that the "actual" bunyip is supposed to look way different.
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Feb 26, 2013 11:54
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tnimark posted:To contribute, this case occurred one town away from where I live. A sad, lovely story in which the likely killer was tried and found not guilty. Then years later, an inquest determined that he 'contributed to the child's death and likely disposed of the body', but is unable to be re-tried due to double jeopardy laws: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jaidyn_Leskie More Australian murders: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_family_murders The guy killed his pregnant wife and young daughter with a spear-gun, dismembered his wife's body and dumped it near a local landfill. Then covered it up by saying they went missing and their marriage was over. There's was a similar murder that happened in 2006 in Sydney to woman named Jody Galante, but her husband dumped her in a nature reserve and lied that she went missing at Parklea Markets(our version of flea markets here in Australia). It doesn't have it's own Wikipedia page. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/husband-on-murder-charge/2006/03/01/1141191732157.html P.S. The new Wikipedia layout sucks. magic pantaloons has a new favorite as of 12:03 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 12:01
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magic pantaloons posted:P.S. The new Wikipedia layout sucks. It's just the mobile layout.  (Cut the .m out of the URL and you'll have regular Wikipedia)
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Feb 26, 2013 12:29
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Son of Thunderbeast posted:Microburst This happened in Belgium 2 years ago in a horrible case of wrong place, wrong time: middle of the day, on the second biggest musical festival in the country, 65000 people. My brother told me how the person standing next to him died, it must have been pretty horrible. It is so strange to see footage from my country where normally there is a complete absence of strange atmospheric phenomena, when suddenly the skies turn black in the middle of the day and it feels like the world is ending. Only a few people lost their lives in the end, but still, horrible. My brother was taking shelter in the tent you see at 2:22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSF6g-LtpUU For those that don't speak dutch: 1:39 --> It's coming down! kanonvandekempen has a new favorite as of 12:46 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 26, 2013 12:41
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kanonvandekempen posted:This happened in Belgium 2 years ago in a horrible case of wrong place, wrong time: middle of the day, on the second biggest musical festival in the country, 65000 people. My brother told me how the person standing next to him died, it must have been pretty horrible. It is so strange to see footage from my country where normally there is a complete absence of strange atmospheric phenomena, when suddenly the skies turn black in the middle of the day and it feels like the world is ending. I had to turn that video off when the girl started screaming, horrible horrible thing to happen. A few of my flatmates friends were there, and all I remember from that weekend was her being out of her mind with worry. Getting out of there, from what I was told, was a nightmare, they were told that the festival was over and that they had to leave, but obviously there was no way of getting home, the people I know had to walk about 5 miles in the aftermath of it, beg some local to use their phone so they could try and get in touch with their parents. One of their parents had to drive over from Germany to collect them. I couldn't find anything confirming it, but I'm fairly sure 2 of the 5 people killed were a couple, just married, on their honeymoon.
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Feb 26, 2013 13:41
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I was just reminded of this industrial disaster that, like some of the others mentioned earlier in the thread, had it's death toll increased by management locking and/or chaining fire doors shut to "keep employees from sneaking out." The Hamlet Food Processing Plant Fire was a deadly fire that destroyed a plant responsible for turning chicken meat in to chicken nuggets and other processed foods. quote:There were 90 employees in the facility at the time of the fire, which began when a 25 foot (7.6 m) long deep fat fryer vat may have spontaneously ignited at around 8:30 AM.[1] This cooker's temperature was controlled by thermostat and was maintained at a constant 375°F (190°C), which was variable by design to 15°F (8°C) either way.[2] The fire spread rapidly, causing a panic so that some workers suffered trauma injuries during a rush to escape.[1] Large quantities of smoke were produced by a combination of burning soybean oil and chicken, and melting roof insulation. The smoke was later found to be hydrocarbon-charged and had the potential to disable someone within a few breaths.[2] Several gas lines embedded in the ceiling also caught fire and exploded.[3] The people involved in the fire are still experiencing lasting effects. quote:Twenty-five people died and 54 suffered injuries or aftereffects such as burns, blindness, respiratory disease from smoke inhalation, neurological and brain damage, and post traumatic stress disorder.[1][6] Of the dead, 18 were female and 7 were male.[2] Many still suffer or died early from their injuries, and some are addicted to their medications or to alcohol.[3] The resulting investigation found that fire doors were locked and/or chained. Members of the plant's management staff was eventually sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. I was reminded of this because Mojo Nixon and Jello Biafra recorded a song called Hamlet Chicken Plant Disaster for their album Prairie Home Invasion, which is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyU-PvbOjlo
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Feb 26, 2013 18:00
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghe_Special_Steel_Corporation_disaster At 7:45 AM local time, the ladle in question separated from the overhead iron rail that connected it to the blast furnace while it was being positioned over a worktable in preparation to pour out its contents.[3] All 30 tons of liquid steel, which were at a temperature of approximatively 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,730 F), were spilt.[3] This liquid steel then burst through the windows and door of an adjoining room five meters (fifteen feet) away where workers had gathered during a change of shifts, engulfing the room entirely.[3][5] 
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Feb 26, 2013 19:06
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Vladimir Poutine posted:While we're on criptids, I'm not sure any of them (except maybe the random big cat sightings) are necessary believable or even physically possible but I do have some favourites from my part of the world. I basically just like them because they're usually fairly surreal. I love the idea of Aborigines sitting around in Australia and going, "You know what this place is lacking? Dangerous and scary animals. gently caress it, let's make some up."
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Feb 26, 2013 19:08
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Holy poo poo. Since they had to wait for the steel to cool down before they could go in, I'd assume the people who died were literally encased in steel? What a horrible way to go, drat. I wonder how they managed to get the bodies out of it.
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Feb 26, 2013 19:10
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DeepThought posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghe_Special_Steel_Corporation_disaster  6 people survived it, how is that even possible? Even if the steel hadn't hit them, and apparently it did, wouldn't it give off enough heat to kill you?
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Feb 26, 2013 19:16
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Stargate posted:Led me to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll The Mongol conquests is pretty unnerving. During one campaign they not only completely destroyed Baghdad and eradicated the Assassins but also caused the end of the Islamic golden age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258) They're also the only known army to have successfully invaded Russia during the winter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Rus'
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Feb 26, 2013 19:19
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quote:"the most serious accident to hit China's steel industry since 1949." So, uh... what happened in '49?
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Feb 26, 2013 19:21
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Tagra posted:So, uh... what happened in '49? Not a whole lot of steelworking, that's for sure.
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Feb 26, 2013 19:24
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General Panic posted:This is actually news to me, although from what I remember of the case the girls had a rich fantasy life, so perhaps it's not that weird that one should end up as a writer. I study a lot of Asian history, it's a hobby of mine, and what always shocks me is how no one involved in Israel/Palestine ever has looked at this conflict. It turns out that when you push a group of people with a very strongly held religious/social belief up against the wall for hundreds of years and explicitly destroy, mischaracterize and barbarize everything they hold dear that they eventually lose it. Just like in Palestine Authority the Boxers had roots in legitimate forms of protest and resistance to the occupying government, their secret Tong is one of if not THE oldest Tong operating in Asia right now and at the time. But over time all the people who supported the previous pattern of using economic and political means to advance their agenda died out and the newer people got to a point where they felt that the old ways were useless. They struck out against their oppressors and committed genocide and horrible acts but in return they were slaughtered by a ruthless coalition force made up of all the big baddies of colonialism. This was even after the US and Britain had sent in filibusters who had personally trained the army of China in western tactics, so they saw their countrymen as mindless pawns of western powers (which is what lead to their adherence to the use of many traditional Chinese weapons). And what did we get for it? Sure we quelled a rebellion, but it dicked us hard in the long run. Firstly the very people who made up the Boxers were exactly the kind of people who would have fought against the rise of Mao, and had we not treated them like dicks and then killed them the democratic army might have actually beaten the reds, or at least managed to keep part of China. And second their dissolution and exile lead to the creation of the worlds most far reaching and powerful crime syndicate. The triads, who are a direct descendant of the Boxers, are so pervasive that they touch pretty much every level of modern China and have basically spent the last hundred years creating a number of huge problems that South East Asia and the West have had to suffer through. And they have a huge gently caress-off chip on their shoulder against all the people who invaded China and the Communists, so thats always nice as well. I just see this as the eventual outcome of the Palestine issue, if Israel keeps supporting such far right political platforms. They might crush the Authority but all those people and guns are just going to become a mafia that will infest and trouble every facet of mid eastern society for the coming century. There is a lot to learn if you are educated in the US school system about China, The Four Tigers and the Delta that has a lot of interesting parallels to our history. Their thousands of years of ethnic conflict and genocides honestly makes our current problems in the mideast seem almost trivial in scope. But I guess thats what happens when you obsessively record all your history for a very long period of time. To tie this in to the thread theme, examine the White Lotus Society. To contemplate what their existence means in western history terms, imagine if the conspiracy theories about the Illuminati were true. They were born from the idea of converting Buddhism into a Dualist religion similar to Wicca or Gnosticism. They believed in essentially a creator goddess and the eminent coming of her son, the Buddha Matrea, who is the Buddhist equivalent of the Muslim Madhi or the Christian Second Coming. Somehow through their struggles to maintain their worship in a country that outlawed traditional "Semitic" style religions (they were classified in with China's Jews, Christians and Muslims) they became the main focal point of resistance against the current dynasty. For a long time they plotted to overthrow the king and restore the rule to the family that they though would support them. They went underground and in order to generate money they began to commit crimes, first just against the crown but eventually against everyone who didnt support them. This criminal element evolved into the Heaven and Earth movement, which was like old China's equivalent of the IRA crossed with the Woodworkers of the World, and from there became the Boxers and the Triads (some of the current Triad still use the term Heaven and Earth Society to refer to themselves or their Tongs). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lotus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiandihui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(underground_society) In the modern day they are totally divorced from their religious past, which lives on in the form of organizations like the Lord of Universe Church and the Li-ism sects.
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Feb 26, 2013 21:17
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WHEEZY KISS A DUDE posted:The Hamlet Food Processing Plant Fire was a deadly fire that destroyed a plant responsible for turning chicken meat in to chicken nuggets and other processed foods. Weird seeing this. I grew up one town over from this, and all I remember is that it was something we never, ever brought up. As far as Hamlet being more or less stuck in the late 19th century, still true.
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Feb 26, 2013 23:35
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Alhazred posted:The Mongol conquests is pretty unnerving. During one campaign they not only completely destroyed Baghdad and eradicated the Assassins but also caused the end of the Islamic golden age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258) The Mongols attempted to invade Japan twice, the first time they had invaded during typhoon season and their boats were not suited to traverse the sea during such harsh weather, unlike the boats of Japan. Out of the 300 large ships and 200 some odd smaller vessels deployed by the Mongol army, only 200 vessels survived during a particularly bad storm that hit Hakata bay one night. The second invasion comprised of 140,000 men and 4,000 ships sailed from Korea and Southern China and were overwhelmed by the typhoon Kamikaze. gently caress the ocean forever.
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Feb 27, 2013 00:25
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Alhazred posted:The Mongol conquests is pretty unnerving. During one campaign they not only completely destroyed Baghdad and eradicated the Assassins but also caused the end of the Islamic golden age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258) It absolutely blows my mind that, according to that Wikipedia death tolls list, the high estimate of the amount killed during the Mongol conquests represents 17% of the world population at that time. I can't even wrap my head around that. I mean I guess it was over a much longer period of time than most of the other things on that list, but still.
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Feb 27, 2013 00:50
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Stare-Out posted:Holy poo poo. I'm fairly sure that everything a human body is made of burns to ash at temperatures far below that needed to melt steel. They'd be not so much "encased" as "incinerated". e: huh, it does say that they recovered the bodies, but that they were so badly burned that they had to use DNA testing to identify the remains. I'm guessing that it was mostly some charred bones left behind, and they would have floated up to the surface of the steel as it cooled because bones are much lighter than metal. e: okay so I worked it out. 30 tonnes of liquid steel works out to 137 cubic feet of the stuff. A normal locker room needs about 10-20 square feet per person; let's assume that cause it's China they go on the small end, making it 300 square feet. Assuming all the steel went directly into the locker room, that's about five and a half inches of molten steel puddled up on the floor. Certainly fatal, but not enough to "engulf" and completely destroy everything in the room, especially if the people were jumping on things and climbing to try and get away. Probably the people died of shock from the massive burn trauma and then fell into the steel, disfiguring them but leaving behind charred remains. 
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Feb 27, 2013 01:02
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If Ghengis Khan is, as suspected, an ancestor of ~0.5% of the world population how long would it take until he's the new Y-chromosomal Adam?
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Feb 27, 2013 01:23
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More scary rail accidents - how about the crash in Southall, England? A guy running a high speed passenger train bent down to grab something in his bag, missed a red signal, and collided with a train of cement hoppers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southall_rail_crash What's unique about this accident was that it was captured on closed circuit television from an industry whose property bordered the railways. Note the coach that gets bent in half towards the upper left corner of the video. From start to finish, the whole accident is only eight seconds long, but it killed seven people and injured 139. Obviously, both of the following links are  because it's a train crash.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3a7DvXlojA Another really cool thing is this program which explains exactly what happened from the moment of impact to all equipment stopped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0nb1g3xXP4 Tex Avery has a new favorite as of 21:07 on Feb 27, 2013 |
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Feb 27, 2013 08:32
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I like how that dude runs towards the trains when he realizes what is happening. Like he's going to stop them or something.
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Feb 27, 2013 09:33
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Haha yeah, check that idiot out trying to render aid in an emergency 
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Feb 27, 2013 11:35
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jalopybrown posted:If Ghengis Khan is, as suspected, an ancestor of ~0.5% of the world population how long would it take until he's the new Y-chromosomal Adam? Quite a while unless someone makes a concerted effort to spread the possible "Ghengis Y" to isolated groups of pygmies and north african Berbers. But, seeing as these communities are dying out, it wouldn't take all that long, I suppose. Remember that the % of world population likely related to the Mongols through the invasion event is clustered very heavily in certain regions. Groups such as Native Americans, Australian Aboriginies and Pacific islanders are probably not related at all, except back in Y-0 days. Still, it's an interesting thought as with advancing extinction of these groups and vastly accelerated admixture, it can't be too far off.
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Feb 27, 2013 13:41
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King Pawn posted:Haha yeah, check that idiot out trying to render aid in an emergency Yeah for a split second at the end of the video, it kind of looked he was reaching out to use a phone or radio on the wall. Or maybe it was just a spur of the moment decision that had nothing to do with logic.
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Feb 27, 2013 13:52
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Tex Avery posted:More scary rail accidents - how about the crash in Southall, England? A guy running a high speed passenger train bent down to grab something in his bag, missed a red signal, and collided with a train of cement hoppers. I think I saw a person fall out of a carriage in that Southall video, might want to NMS that. 
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Feb 27, 2013 14:06
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Warrahooyaargh posted:I think I saw a person fall out of a carriage in that Southall video, might want to NMS that. Cryptids, huh? If you ask me, Southeast Asia has the best ones. For instance the Krasue, a pretty girl's head and guts that flies around and feeds on blood.
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Feb 27, 2013 15:50
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Intergalactik posted:If it makes you feel any better, I'm fairly certain that is a recreation of the crash, so even if you're seeing a person fall out it is just CGI. I am basing this off Youtube comments though, so I can't be sure. You know Youtube pretty universally claims all things are fake right?
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Feb 27, 2013 19:06
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Lonely Virgil posted:gently caress the ocean forever. The ocean did a pretty good job there. If anything the Japanese was probably pretty relieved that the ocean did that.
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Feb 27, 2013 19:36
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Alhazred posted:The ocean did a pretty good job there. If anything the Japanese was probably pretty relieved that the ocean did that. But what if you are on the side of the Mongolians?
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Feb 27, 2013 19:37
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HEGEL SMOKE A J posted:1491 was a decently written tertiary source for the popular market, but as far as I could tell not bad. I remember thinking it was rad. You may be thinking of 1421, which is as dumb as a box of hair. (Neither one is to be confused with 1453, which was a decent book, despite the author's overemphasis of the religious motivations of the conflict.) You are indeed correct, I was thinking of 1421 which was goddawful and I used to have students try to cite it as a source for academic papers... My mistake, carry on thread!
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Feb 27, 2013 20:40
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Intergalactik posted:If it makes you feel any better, I'm fairly certain that is a recreation of the crash, so even if you're seeing a person fall out it is just CGI. I am basing this off Youtube comments though, so I can't be sure. The first clip, the ten second one, is the original CCTV footage. The second clip, which has the explanation, uses that CCTV footage as a base for the CGI footage, hence the "camera" flying around. I'll NMS it just to be safe. However, I don't believe any bodies flew out because none of the coaches actually opened up. The one bent, but it remained a closed carriage.
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Feb 27, 2013 21:05
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jalopybrown posted:If Ghengis Khan is, as suspected, an ancestor of ~0.5% of the world population how long would it take until he's the new Y-chromosomal Adam? Lenoon pointed your post out to me through the anthropology thread. I did a quick calculation that I posted there, I'll post it here as well. A simple mathematical model would show the quickest such an occurrence could take place: If we take the proportion of his descendants to be 0.05%, and thus 1/20 males currently in existence carry his Y chromosome; (1) Let us assume (for the sake of calculating quickest possible occurrence) that every male descendant has all of his children with women who are not descendants (thus ensuring the quickest and greatest spread worldwide). (2) Let's also assume (for the sake of calculation and a very rough representation of global fertility trends) that every male (both descendant and non-descendant) has two children. (3) Let's finally assume (again, for the sake of calculating the earliest possible occurrence) that both children born to a male descendant are male, and both children born to a non-descendant are female. Thereby, with each generation the number persons carrying Khan's Y-chromosome doubles, while the number of persons without stagnates at Generation 0. Thus it would be (if I've done my math right) as follows: Let GY=proportion of men with Genghis's Y-chromosome; NY=proportion of men without Gen 0: GY=1/20 NY=19/20 Gen 1: GY=1/10 NY=9/10 Gen 2: GY=1/5 NY=4/5 Gen 3: GY=2/5 NY=3/5 Gen 4: GY=4/5 NY=1/5 At Generation 5, by this progression, the number would be 8/5, which of course is impossible, so therefore we can say by this model, five generations (100-150 years depending on what conventionally accepted general amount of time between generations you are using) is the quickest such an event would take place. (What fun!) \/\/\/\/ poo poo you're right, when I was converting it to a fraction I forgot to move the decimal place. The method is sound, though, I'll revise it shortly. UUriffic has a new favorite as of 23:38 on Feb 27, 2013 |
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Feb 27, 2013 23:29
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Isn't 1/20 5%, not 0.05%? Wouldn't 0.05% be 1/400? (I am not good at math)
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Feb 27, 2013 23:34
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UUriffic posted:Lenoon pointed your post out to me through the anthropology thread. I did a quick calculation that I posted there, I'll post it here as well. Wow, while it's unlikely it's pretty crazy to imagine how quick that could happen.
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Feb 27, 2013 23:36
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FrozenVent posted:Isn't 1/20 5%, not 0.05%? Wouldn't 0.05% be 1/400? You're right, 1/20th is 5% (though the original number was 0.5%, not 0.05%, so it should actually be 1/200)
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Feb 27, 2013 23:38
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Come on over to the anthro thread tomorrow to continue this fascinating derail - I'm going to start a post about the genetics of the situation if i can get a few of my colleagues to comment on it.
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Feb 27, 2013 23:46
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Corrected. It would take a minimum of eight generations (160-240 years) I'll post my math, as it's pretty evident that if I made such a simple error, I may well have made a mistake here as well. 1/200 199/200 1/100 99/100 1/50 49/50 1/25 24/25 2/25 23/25 4/25 21/25 8/25 17/25 16/25 9/25 32/25 Edit: To further help in any critique, I'll post the formulas I believe manifest in those assumptions: Let png = previous proportional number of Ghengis Y chromosome holders; cng = current proportional number of non-Ghengis Y chrom holders. cng = png * 2 ;GY = cng/200; NY = 200/200 - GY UUriffic has a new favorite as of 00:10 on Feb 28, 2013 |
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Feb 27, 2013 23:47
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So if any of you are Junji Ito fans you may recall Unbearable Maze in which two girls stumble upon a Buddhist temple with a membership looking to mummify themselves, turns out that minus the maze and large group participation it did see a limited practice; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu
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Feb 28, 2013 00:36
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jalopybrown posted:So if any of you are Junji Ito fans you may recall Unbearable Maze in which two girls stumble upon a Buddhist temple with a membership looking to mummify themselves, turns out that minus the maze and large group participation it did see a limited practice; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu I won't link or inline any images because , but if you GIS "sokushinbutsu" you can see how those mummies are still displayed in much the same fashion as Catholic Incorruptibles. They're even given sunglasses and brought out for parades! 
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Feb 28, 2013 01:00
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Sex Hobbit posted:I won't link or inline any images because quote:For 1,000 days the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls.[1]  I--I don't think the Buddha would have approved, given that he thought the whole 'starve yourself into enlightenment' thing was going too far in the wrong direction. That practice, however, reminds me of the Anchorites, a type of hermit who would wall themselves up in a cell attached to a church in order to spend their lives prayer and meditation. They usually didn't starve themselves to death, however. Interestingly enough they were both men and women.
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Feb 28, 2013 09:24
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