Our common goal is to make colorful worlds, but I am sure we can all agree that our world is in many ways equally colorful, if only you look for it. In fact, throughout history, remarkable things have happened (or still happen) that an author would have been hard pressed to convince his audience were plausible.
With the advent of the internet and the open sharing of information much knowledge formerly deemed obscure is now commonplace (at least in our circles). Yet, ever so often, I'm sure that even the most ardent student of history on this forum finds something completely new, an idea or facet of life so mind-blowing or surprising that you would never have thought it existed or took place.
Since we deal in mutual inspiration on this site I thought I would share a few of the rarer tidbits I know of, while encouraging the rest of you to do the same!
- Spawning at Lake Victoria once every year at Lake Victoria in Africa, millions of flies hatch on the same day resulting in a dense fog of insects. The locals actually celebrate this. The children run wild in the streets with pans covered in oil, catching the flies on the sticky surface. The women then scrape the pans and form the fly/oil mass into patties which are baked, resembling black bread. (a note on it here (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1104292/Hell-earth-The-rampaging-super-swarms-birds-insects-invading-suburbia.html), but I originally saw it in this documentary (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gkrm2))
- Kyrgyzstani Freestyling The kyrgyz and kazakh people have an improvisational lyrical tradition somewhat reminiscent of freestyle rap, with two Akyns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akyn) battling each other in aytysh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aytys) in the process of which they may "make backhanded political statements, criticise each other's style, flirt (if of the opposite sex), and flat-out insult one another". They are also one of the few groups who can (sometimes) openly criticize the government. The tradition is on the amazing UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_Intangible_Cultural_Heritage_Lists) list.
- Mechatronic Snake God Worship In the first century, a false prophet set up shop in Greek Anatolia in the city of Abonoteichus where he convinced the local populace that his pet snake was Aclepius incarnate (http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/5614/snake_or_fake.html). He hooked the snake up with a linen mask and a set of pipes allowing him to speak through it Wizard of Oz style. (I have this from a legit history book in case you are distrustful of the link, but the link lists historical sources as well)
It is surprisingly difficult finding good internet sources on e.g. the first one, but hope there is enough here to intrigue you!
Sir Richard fucking Burton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Richard_Burton)
Quote from: Kindling
Sir Richard fucking Burton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Richard_Burton)
for the present moment, you win the Internet. Truly Awesome and inspiring.
My humble addition...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang (http://anearlierversion)