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In Japan they have an ancient saying: "The most beautiful flowers grow only in the shit of Godzilla." And you know what? They're right. Great things not only happen despite horrible disasters, but often because of them. We're not saying that we're glad these horrible things happened, or that it was even worth it. But a lot of what's great about the world today is a result of history's darkest hours. Like... #5.
The Black Death
We know this statement is going to be pretty controversial down in the comments section, but we're going to say it and stand by it: the Black Death was bad. We want to make it clear right off the bat that when we talk about a silver lining, we are not advocating that the Black Death be brought back. We would not support any such proposal. The Black Death, a.k.a. The Plague, utterly ravaged humanity, killing between 30 and 60 percent of Europeans, and dropping the population of the entire world by 20 percent by some estimates. The Plague came in three forms. Bubonic was the most common and easiest to spot: Sufferers developed huge buboes under the armpits, on the neck and in the groin, which grew to the size of a small apple or egg.
Death often occurred less than a week after infection. Pneumonic was the second most common form, and it infected the lungs. It also had a mortality rate of 95 percent, which seems impressive until you learn that Septicemic Plague, the third variety, had a mortality rate close to 100 percent, and even today there is no cure for it. The only reason that the two latter examples were rare is because they killed so quickly that you didn't have time to pass it on before you died. Much like attacking Bruce Willis on Christmas, if you contracted Septicemic Plague, your life expectancy was about a day, and the end was not going to be pretty. The Silver Lining: The birth of the freaking modern world. So how could one of the deadliest pandemics in human history have any positive outcomes? Well, before the plague there had been massive overpopulation in many European countries, the likes of which the world really hadn't seen to that point. Along with it came famine, poor sanitation, overcrowding; all of which helped to accelerate the progress of infectious diseases like, well... like the plague. Disease, starvation and predators make up Mother Nature's three-pronged population control failsafe, and things had gotten to the point where it was going to be the Plague or lions.
But that ensuing wave of death and horror set off a series of dominoes that would help create the modern world. First, the Plague left behind a sudden shortage of labor, thus landlords were forced to compete for workers by offering higher wages and better treatment. A lower population also brought cheaper land prices, more food for the average peasant and a relatively large increase in income among the lower classes over the next century. In fact, it has been argued that the Black Death brought about the end of Feudalism, the establishment of Capitalism and was one of the major factors that caused the Peasant's Revolt and ultimately, the Renaissance. So if you're fond of modern-day culture or the mere fact that you aren't a peasant, go ahead and thank the Black Death. If you are a fan of being a peasant; how did you get the Internet?! GET THEE BACK TO THE MILL, THADDRICK, THE MILLET SHALT NOT GRIND ITSELF. #4.
Thalidomide
If you've heard of thalidomide, then you almost certainly know it as the stuff that caused all those deformed babies back in the day. Thalidomide was a chemical sold all over the world between 1957 and 1961 as a sedative and a treatment for morning sickness in pregnant women. However, it was swiftly banned in 1962 when scientists discovered that it caused severe birth defects in the children of women who took it. So, on the plus side, it made pregnancy a lot more bearable, just at the expense of those pesky "child" things.
With tens of thousands of victims of the drug worldwide, thalidomide has been called "the biggest medical tragedy of modern times." So how do we find a silver lining here? Did the babies grow up to have superpowers? What else could possibly even begin to repair this drug's reputation? The Silver Lining: How about a possible cure for fucking cancer? It turns out, despite being banned, thalidomide didn't fully disappear from use. In the mid 60s an Israeli doctor prescribed the drug to leprosy patients who were having trouble sleeping, because fuck it, you know? When a dude's limbs are falling off, he's pretty much game for anything.
What the doctor accidentally discovered was that the lesions and fevers of his leprosy-ridden patients quickly disappeared. Since the medical professional in question was not named Dr. Jesus, it became clear that the drug was having positive effects, and by the 1970s, the Public Health Service began a program to hand out this "Wonder Drug" to sufferers.
But we said it cured cancer, not leprosy. It also turns out that thalidomide stops the growth of blood vessels, which is what caused all those defects in "Thalidomide Children" in the first place. However, researchers believe that these very same side effects could be used to stop cancerous cells developing the blood vessels which they need to grow, thus limiting the size of cancers to a pinhead. But we're not done yet! Scientists are also experimenting with thalidomide for diseases including AIDS, brain cancer, lupus and autoimmune diseases. You'd better come through, thalidomide. We put up with a lot of your shit to get here. #3.
Chernobyl
Chernobyl is considered to be the worst nuclear disaster in history, and the only one to ever reach 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Seven is as high as the scale goes. It started when engineers at the plant wanted to see if, should power to the plant itself fail, they could keep the cooling pump system going from the reactors themselves. We can see how someone would be eager to break up the drudgery of life at a communist-run power plant, which probably consisted of hauling atoms back and forth in drab, gray wheelbarrows and standing in line for Enriched Uranium. But deliberately fucking about with nuclear safety regulations just to "see what happens" seems to be taking it too far.
And we all know how well this little experiment went down: Two huge explosions blew off the reactor's roof, the highly radioactive contents were spewed into the atmosphere, air was sucked in which ignited carbon monoxide gas and the reactor was set on fire for nine days straight. Because the Soviet Union couldn't be bothered to house the Chernobyl reactor in a concrete shell, as was standard, 100 times more radiation was released than in the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings combined. So let that stand as a lesson to the remaining communist nuclear powers: Next time, just play some fucking Minesweeper.
The Silver Lining: It ended the Cold War. Or helped to, anyway. Back then, what happened in the USSR, stayed in the USSR. Secrecy is what having a police state is all about. So at first, the Soviet authorities stuck to their communist policy of "ignore the disaster and hope it will go away." The only problem was that you can't just explode a nuclear reactor--and release a cloud of death in the process--and expect nobody to notice. Officials in Sweden raised worldwide alarm about the huge levels of radiation sweeping over Europe from Russia, and The Kremlin was forced to break its customary silence after 48 hours. Three weeks later, among international pressure and wild rumors about damage and death tolls, Mikhail Gorbachev finally commented, with unprecedented honesty. This is the point when, against the will of the hardliners, the light came shining in.
Gorbachev was forced to be completely honest, and give journalists "unparalleled information," and access to nuclear officials and doctors. This was the turning point of "Glasnost," Gorbachev's policy of freedom of the press that had gotten mostly lip service up to that point. And once the press was allowed to start tugging at loose threads, the entire pants of communism came unraveled. When the citizenry found out that bread lines were not, in fact, "more awesome than ten million rollercoaster blowjobs," this led to mass dissatisfaction and that fueled the eventual end of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union. |
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dang, fellow commenters, chill! Let us all hold hands and sing kum-ba-ya together... it'll make everyone feel much better. promise.
The end of the Cold War isn't the only good thing to come about as a result of Chernobyl. After over twenty years with no humans in the area, it's becoming a wildlife haven. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4923342.stm
Note to below commenters: Read the Cracked topic page about trolls. It's funducational! (Epic fail, but you get my point). Nice article. Can't wait for more! (Keep it friendly, keep it nice...)
this was fun and well written. (if anyone even reads these comments below please see http://www.cracked.com/funny-2724-trolls/ )
you guys want to know what i'm f**king sick of? i'm sick of all your little pissy comments complaining about teeny tiny mistakes in the articles. you want to re-write the thing and add in the whole facts? be my f**king guest, but i can hardly get through the two pages of information as it is. i don't know about half this s**t, i don't care about half this s**t, it's 4.25 in the morning, i want to be entertained without using so much brain power. that is what cracked is doing, reading through the worthless s**t and turning the stuff that actually is something worth reading into an article. you wanna go read up about crusades and f**king thalidomide children? google it. no one cares about "radical islasm vs. "plain" islam" i'm sick of everyone slamming these articles man. the humor is intelligent in the way that it's about history, if they talked like this in my high school history classes, i surely would've paid more attention. SO STOP YOUR FUCKING WHINING AND THANK CRACKED.COM
Ah... so. Humor and serious thought obviously can never be friends? Strange, considering some the best humor in the world stems from otherwise very serious topics... But I take it your not much for intellectual humor. Cracked is, I guess, you altar of high funnies. Still, your "scathing" review of our discussion lacked even the ability to form one sentence without profanity shows all I need to know about your sense of "humor".
Ahahahaha! All you f**king morons are talking about this s**t (and by this s**t, I mean every God damned thing being said in the comments that doesn't say 'funny' or 'not funny') on f**king Cracked.com. Are you f**king serious? No one gives a s**t if you're the foremost expert on Islam or thalidomide or any of this! You're all f**king retarded, and can go jump into a lake and drown. Please. Otherwise, that was okay funny. Not the best, but I got a chuckle. Shit, why can't you idiots grow up? Let the flame wars begin anew!
Ahahahaha! All you f**king morons are talking about this s**t (and by this s**t, I mean every God damned thing being said in the comments that doesn't say 'funny' or 'not funny') on f**king Cracked.com. Are you f**king serious? No one gives a s**t if you're the foremost expert on Islam or thalidomide or any of this! You're all f**king retarded, and can go jump into a lake and drown. Please. Otherwise, that was okay funny. Not the best, but I got a chuckle. Shit, why can't you idiots grow up? Let the flame wars begin anew!
You're reply neglects answering the core point of my posts, the proof and numbers of dead by Islam's hands, radical or not. The website keeps tabs of terror killings by Islamic motivated individuals around the world. Whether the site views all muslims or just a few as evil is beside the point. These people killed others because of their belief and that is the only guideline of the measurement. Every incident is verifiable and established. Your arguement of radical islam vs "plain" islam is ilrelavent and frivolous. But I'll address it, separately, below. But let's not give good ole islam a bad name... in 1915, between 1 and 1.5 million Armenian Christians were massacred. Now.. correct me if I'm wrong, but to whack that many people, by gun and butt stock mind you, requries a group of 10,000 (assuming 2 seconds each per individual) alittle under four minutes to kill 100 people each... Considering it is known that more than 10,000 were participatory and rape was not unknown as well as it is unlikely everyone stood still, the slaughter took more than 200 seconds and was propogated by more that "just a few radicals". Just how many out of the whole must be radical before you start to wonder about the religion, not just the individuals? Just how many lines from the Koran calling for the death all of all who will not convert must you read before you get alittle worried? But what do I know? The numbers tell the truth for themselves and I don't have to put out conjecture on whether some or many believe in this "command from God". The earth soaked in the blood of innocents can talk to those who listen. The answer is that enough seem to believe their book and its exacting commands regarding those "unbelievers" and Islam's history of empire making in the first 100 years exceeds Christianity in its first 1000. Islam's founder wasn't even dead before the conquering began.
Resolute, are you f**king kidding me...that website completely ignores that there is a difference between radical islam and islam. Its whole argument is if youre islamic, youre a terrorist.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks That should get you in the right location. I'm sure you can find your way from there.
@Ogre check out the links under Islamic terror on the main page... each of the years in question show a table of injured and killed.... copy these tables into the office product of your choice (Excel or whatever) and then, when you have all the years in question that I used... write a sum calculation at the bottom and let your software add it up.
uhumm, just FYI, I seriously doubt some woman from the US made the first Apple Pie, and also we icelanders (and scandinavians in whole) have a game very similar to Baseball called KÃló (don't know what it's called in other countries) where you have up to six or ten bases and you have two teams, one is out and the other is throwing. The throwing team has a ball and, instead of using a bat, punch the ball out onto the field and run to the bases, the other team tries to either catch the ball thus making everyone from the other team that is running have to return to the initial base, or wait for the ball to land and get it to one "goaley" who then has to put the ball at a certain spot and shout KILO! very similar from what I can tell.
cool story bio
BioHazard6601: Oh yeah? Well ...... ..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
RayZR : a chiral molecule is a molecule that is NOT a mirror image of itself, that is correct. however, an isomer is a molecule with the same components but a different configuration. an example of isomers is hexene (C6H6) and benzene (C6H6) same components but if you look at them drawn out they will not look similar at all. Chirality is not necessarily related to isomerism, chiral molecules dont have to have isomers but they can. Achiral molecules can still have isomers. and after looking at a drawing of thalidomide, it does appear to be chiral. but, a molecules isomer will have different chemical properties and it will not be named the same: butane vs. methylpropane
deel gets it right. redjimmy:Practically the only time people have been "given a choice of death, conversion to Islam or pay Jizya and become 2nd class citizens" is nowadays from insurgents in Iraq. The apostasy laws have only been put into practise under 2 governments since 1844: the Islamic Republic of Iran and of Afghanistan. Forced conversions are not allowed in Islam and are rare. Alcohol is not illegal in Islam, just several - by far not all - Muslim countries. And Greeks and Persians were never "colonised" by Europeans. Windona: That's like with me:My grandparents would never have met if it weren't for World War 2 and the Cold War.
justarandomguy:Could cracked.com be the silver lining? Anyway, apple pie was around well before the Crusades, let alone America.
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@Russ: click the link firstt of all. Secondly, if it wasn't for WW1 then my Grandma would never have been able to become one of few female doctors. And she would have been unable to meet my grandpa in WW2. In other words, many people who have stories like that wouldn't have been born. Look at your family history: I bet that some major disator lead to one of your ancestors being born. So f**k off about it. These weren't good tragidies, but they resulted in good things some times.
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