Deep in the bowels of the internet, I came across an exhaustive list of interesting Wikipedia articles by Ray Cadaster. It’s brilliant reading when you’re bored, so I got his permission to post the top 50 here.
Bookmark it, start reading, and become that person who’s always full of fascinating stuff you never knew about.
The top 50 Wikipedia articles by interestingness
1. Marree Man
2. War Plan Red
3. Vela Incident
4. Tybee Bomb
5. United States Numbered Highways
6. Wow! Signal
7. Tube Bar Prank Calls
8. Kola Superdeep Borehole
9. Back to the Future Timeline
10. Year Without a Summer
11. K Foundation Burn a Million Quid
12. Sokal Affair
13. Blue Peacock
14. Veerappan
15. Person From Porlock
16. Eternal Flame
17. U.S. Color-Coded War Plans
18. The Wedge (Border)
19. Mohave Phone Booth
20. Stanislav Petrov
21. Valery Sablin
22. The Man on the Clapham Omnibus
23. Special Atomic Demolition Munition
24. Piracy in the Strait of Malacca
25. Prometheus (tree)
26. Zone of Alienation
27. Fan Death
28. Outlawries Bill
29. Raymond Robinson (Green Man)
30. Scoville Scale
31. Kardashev Scale
32. Larry Walters
33. Joshua A. Norton
34. Fabergé egg
35. Issei Sagawa
36. Joseph Jagger
37. Traumatic Insemination
38. James Joseph Dresnok
39. Ivy League Nude Posture Photos
40. Jim Corbett (Hunter)
41. Just-World Phenomenon
42. Nicholas Bourbaki
43. Humanzee
44. Old Man of the Lake
45. Alexamenos Graffito
46. Fairy Chess Piece
47. Michael Fagan Incident
48. ETAOIN SHRDLU
49. Palomares Hydrogen Bomb Incident
50. As Slow as Possible
*Copybot is not responsible for the hours and hours that disappeared while you were exploring this list. But she is responsible for the fascinated responses you get at the water cooler tomorrow.
Edit: If you enjoyed this list, I’ve since posted 50 more of Wikipedia’s most interesting articles. The second list is less war-focused than this one.
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Tags: Wikipedia
It seems that Cadaster had an apparent interst in war, the Soviet Union, and bombs.
There are much more interesting articles on Wikipedia, considering you can group roughly 15 of those articles together in the aformentioned list.
amaze to see 14. Veerappan in the list.
good……….
Great share….Thank you.
This list is incomplete! This entry deserves recognition if not #1 status…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Malloy
Fascinating. I spent a day, off and on, going through these. Very informative. Thank you.
Very interesting. Liked #50.
Can’t believe this didn’t make it on here, although I guess the wikipedia page doesn’t quite convey just how ridiculously mysterious these things are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
Interesante blog!
‘marree man’ and ‘as slow as possible’ are very interesting.
Great articles! I thought this WWII sniper should get a mention –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4
War Red was great
Looks as if you have a good start. I’ll check this stuff out
Eternal Flame very well written .. great article
If you like these try “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo”—- it’s an awesome wiki article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_pass_accident
I’ve always been so happy this article exists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_country_subdivisions_by_area
I think you’re missing this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Station_UVB-76
“UVB-76 is the callsign of a shortwave radio station that usually broadcasts on the frequency 4625 kHz (AM full carrier). It’s known among radio listeners by the nickname “The Buzzer”. It features a short, monotonous UVB-76.ogg buzz tone (help·info), repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, for 24 hours per day. The station has been observed since around 1982.[1]
In rare occasions the buzzer signal is interrupted and a voice transmission in Russian takes place. Only three such events have been noted.
There is much speculation; however, the actual purpose of this station remains unknown.”
schorsch would love them articles
complete and total FARK
…but thanks for sharing.
No ties for 36th place?
Astounding.
Inconceivable.
Expecting an imminent rift in the space-time continuum.
Will an inverse tachyon beam possibly save us?
Not to be grouchy, but wouldn’t it have been courteous to post a link to Ray Cadaster’s list?
72: He asked me not to post a link to his list, or the name of the site where it’s hosted.
Thank you!
8. Back to the Future Timeline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_future_timeline is of course broken, now redirecting to the main BTTF trilogy article with (unsurprisingly) no mention of time travel theory. The typical reason for this is simpleminded overzealous Wikipedia exclusionists who relentlessly and arbitrarily destroy WP value. First they claim an article’s content should be merged, but after doing so, they delete the merged content under some other false pretense. Result: luddite victory dance. For anyone curious about the timeline itself, see http://bttf.wikia.com/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_timeline
Wow. I’m kind of shocked that the Dancing Plague of 1518 didn’t make it on there.
This is inaccurate. The most interesting article on Wikipedia is Documentary Hypothesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Back_to_the_future_timeline&oldid=7869068
Link to here for the BTTF timeline, because it’s been deleted and changed to a redirect
I think we should not see “interesting” in wikipedia, instead we need to see “usefulness”.
wow nice thanks for sharing informative articles
Hi
Interesting!
But one quesstion; What are the parameters to decide these 50 articles?
Just being curious!
I have seeing only the 3 first ones, and they are amazing.
I was glad to see my state of Delaware make the list at #18. I was surprised, but then not surprised, to see it here. I knew of our border’s history and how interesting it is, but didn’t think that others would know.
This is going to be a lot of bedtime reading!
I am 74 and still greedy for a wide range of subjects.
Thank you for your hard work to give me so much pleasure.
Some of these are mildly interesting but how about the article “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo”? Some of the truly coolest articles seem to be overlooked.
Wow! signal one is really interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
Great Post! Love it!
Thanks for such a nice post.
Thanks for the list, and curse you for the time I will be wasting when I get into these stories! haha
This list is awesome and very useful.
Wow, really suprised The taman shud case isn’t on here.
Wow I don’t even know what most of that stuff is.
Surprise for me Veerappan is still one of the hot topic.
I was just thinking “Where is the tamam shud case?” also you should have Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
nice info ..
very informative ..
I’m amazed that the Voynich Manuscript isn’t on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript
dont agree with some articles, but good post though.
can you post new list (of course only if you’ve changed mind XD)?
hi there
some of them are really cool
Some seriously fascinating stuff here. Plan to spend a while. Some of it isn’t all that fascinating, depends on your interests. But I read through this entire list. Note: They should have included Catch-22, my favorite book and the susequent introduction of the phrase into our everyday..
Is it bad that I already knew most of the stuff listed here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Valentich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Le_Prince
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy
Where’s the My Little Pony: Friendship is magic article on here?
Great list, superb and original
Very Intresting … Liked Just – World Thesis
I like “Blue Peacock”
Liked Just – World Thesis
I like it. Awesome. Thanks.
Gotta love wikipedia, awesome articles, i can read it all day long!
As Slow as Possible…. Well written..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Park