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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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 Posted: 19-Nov-2006 21:15 Post subject: Looking for "accidental history." |
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This is something that I'm doing for work.
In order to give my students practice in critical reading, I've been trying to piece together paragraphs and short essays that they'll have to answer questions about.
To make it interesting for them, I'm trying to focus on odd little tidbits that are often ignored but are quite interesting.
Among these are incidents where people made history without even having any clue that they were making it.
Thing is, I'm running out of ideas.
Does anyone have any possible stories they'd like to share?
Thanks.
*****
Some of the things I have so far:
Microwave cooking - discovered when a radar technician's candy bar melted.
Penicilin - discovered when mold got inside an improperly sealed bacteria sample.
"Video Killed The Radio Star" - a music video set to a song about the music video industry destroying radio; if that wasn't ironic enough, the band behind it had broken up by the time MTV decided to make it their very first video aired.
Coleco Adam - inadvertently led to the Nintendo Entertainment System.
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"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Rudel Gurken
Allisters Light Thunder
Major
Joined: 15-Jun-2005 00:00
Posts: 1456
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 20-Nov-2006 13:24 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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Maybe this is something for you:
Source: Wikipedia
Quote:
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Post-it
The idea of a low-tack adhesive note was conceived in 1974 by Arthur Fry as a way of retaining bookmarks in his hymnal while singing in his church choir. Fry's markers had fallen from his hymn book on multiple occasions. He was aware of an adhesive developed in 1968 by Spencer Silver, a 3M researcher, who, while attempting to design a strong adhesive, had instead developed one that was very weak. No immediate application was apparent and the adhesive remained unused until Fry's idea.
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Reality is where the Pizza-man comes from!'Gucken, petzen, verpissen!' (Look at it, squeal it, get the hell away from it!) – Motto of the recon troops'Artillery doesn´t know friend or foe! They only know worthwhile targets!‘ – Kuritan Infantrist
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Fang
Federated Suns
Captain
Joined: 11-Sep-2006 00:00
Posts: 290
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20-Nov-2006 14:22 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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One must be very careful when using Wikipedia as a reference. No telling what some people have put in there.
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one by one the rabbits are stealing my sanity....
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Rudel Gurken
Allisters Light Thunder
Major
Joined: 15-Jun-2005 00:00
Posts: 1456
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 21-Nov-2006 12:22 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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I know this from other sources too but i was too lazy to write it all on my own (and didn't remember the names!) so i took a quick sidestep to Wiki ! 
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Reality is where the Pizza-man comes from!'Gucken, petzen, verpissen!' (Look at it, squeal it, get the hell away from it!) – Motto of the recon troops'Artillery doesn´t know friend or foe! They only know worthwhile targets!‘ – Kuritan Infantrist
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Rarich
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 991
Location: United States
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| Posted: 26-Nov-2006 20:55 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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Wikipedia does have notes about verified or not. The adhesive I know about from a different source, I think History Channel, Modern Marvels "adhesives"
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Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side & a dark side, and strings also lie under it all.
Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease.
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Rarich
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 991
Location: United States
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| Posted: 29-Nov-2006 03:35 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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silly putty
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Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side & a dark side, and strings also lie under it all.
Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease.
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Warhammer: 3025
Freelance
Captain, AFFC (Ret.)
Joined: 29-Jan-2005 00:00
Posts: 1856
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| Posted: 29-Nov-2006 14:08 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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IIRC, the Slinky was/is a part on the space shuttle. On day, someone dropped it at the top of some stairs, and it slinked down the stairs.
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Evil is like a bowl of oranges. Only one, instead, is an orange of DOOM. That orange has a fate to rule over the other oranges with an iron fist. That orange is me.
Because sometimes, there are many guards in the castle.
Ya Rl'yeh!
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Rarich
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 991
Location: United States
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| Posted: 30-Nov-2006 23:02 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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Slinky was around way before the space shuttle. It might have been an accidental, but I do not know where from. I had one back when I was still single digit old, the spaceshuttle wasn't even in development.
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Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side & a dark side, and strings also lie under it all.
Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease.
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Warhammer: 3025
Freelance
Captain, AFFC (Ret.)
Joined: 29-Jan-2005 00:00
Posts: 1856
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| Posted: 01-Dec-2006 06:51 Post subject: RE: Looking for "accidental history." |
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Space shuttle, apollo program, gemini... the slinky was developed by NASA, from what I remember.
_________________
Evil is like a bowl of oranges. Only one, instead, is an orange of DOOM. That orange has a fate to rule over the other oranges with an iron fist. That orange is me.
Because sometimes, there are many guards in the castle.
Ya Rl'yeh!
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