I was reading a post about unique things you wouldn’t want, such as a nasty medical condition named after you.

That got me thinking.

What is the most unique thing.

Being the tallest person doesn’t count, because there is always a tallest person…

I thought maybe units of measure, there are not really that many units named after people. Newton, Pascal, ampere etc… Turns out there are quite a few.

Next thought was atomic elements, there are 19 named after 20 people. That is fairly unique 20 people out of the ~110 billion to have ever lived, have an element named after them.

  • @5oap10116
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    2 months ago

    Robert Liston performed a single surgery with a 300% mortality rate (probably).

    • @[email protected]OP
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      22 months ago

      I wonder how much is embellishment over the years.

      If you sawed off your assistants fingers (hard to do with a hand saw); good chance they would also catch gangrene. Far more likely is that at the first sign of a saw hitting your finger, you move it out of the way.

      The third person “died of fright”, could have been heart attack. So definitely plausible.

      • @shalafi
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        22 months ago

        These surgeons were moving fast, I can see it.

        I was sawing wood one night and barely touched my thumb webbing, split open like a mouth. Bet you could take 3 fingers an single forward and back stroke. You can for sure with modern blades.

        (If anyone is considering a new saw, get the kind with this sort of edge: https://www.amazon.com/REXBETI-Folding-Camping-Pruning-Quality/dp/B07BLQBN8X/ Those are modern day light sabers.)

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          These surgeons were moving fast, I can see it

          Everybody was limb-fu cutting (hiya!)

          Those cats were fast as lightning (hiya!)

        • TheRealKuni
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          12 months ago

          Can confirm, I cut down an entire small tree with one of those very easily when I was younger.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        Surgeons back then were basically professional limb amputaters. Note that he went through a whole leg in 2.5 minutes. He would have blown through some fingers in no time.

    • @very_well_lost
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      2 months ago

      Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley “had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history”

      Ouch.

      • @Subtracty
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        12 months ago

        I have often thought about who the person with the worst carbon footprint would be if you accounted for factors like inventions/policies/war etc. This answers my question, unless there are even worse contributors.

        • @very_well_lost
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          12 months ago

          I don’t think Midgley really did anything to increase the amount of carbon in the atmosphere — just the amount of lead and CFCs.

          • @Subtracty
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            22 months ago

            I was wrong to say carbon footprint, I suppose I’m curious about who has contributed the most to polluting the environment and damaging our climate.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      32 months ago

      I love the Smoot; but for weird units of measure… gestures vaguely in the direction of North America

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        Off the top of my head though I can’t think of any that are based on a persons name. Rod, Chain, Peck, Hogshead etc.

  • nudny ekscentryk
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    82 months ago

    atomic elements, there are 19 named after 20 people.

    What do you mean? There’s one named after two persons?

  • Skvlp
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    62 months ago

    Ad hoc weapons (Vjatsjeslav Mikhajlovitsj Molotov)?

  • Tiefling IRL
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    32 months ago

    There’s a whole series of books about this lol

    (Referring to Guinness)

    • @[email protected]OP
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      12 months ago

      True.

      I haven’t looked at one since I was a kid.

      I know they do, tallest/fastest/biggest etc… But they are all things that always exist.

      E.g. the biggest pizza in the world, well before that there was also a biggest pizza it was just smaller than the current one, and before that etc…

      I guess anything with a single record, not just the latest in a long string should count.

    • Iapar
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      62 months ago

      It says at the end that is an Aprils fool?

      • @ch00f
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        32 months ago

        Ah, I remember finding it on stumbleupon like 20 years ago. I always thought it odd that there was no video or follow up story.

        Hunted for a link at 1am last night and wasn’t really paying attention. Plus the whole thing grossed me out, so I didn’t look too closely.

        Sorry for wasting everyone’s time.

      • Dyskolos
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        22 months ago

        … To which i fell victim. Thanks to the commenter before you for wasting time. And thanks to the world being weird enough to make me believe this without hesitation.

        • Iapar
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          32 months ago

          Me too^^

          I was shouting to a friend sitting next to me “look at that shit! I can’t believe it! Why! Why would someone do this shit?! Its fucking nuts I mean lo… Oh nevermind…”

          • Dyskolos
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            12 months ago

            Yeah like that 😁 But I’m on the net since day1 and i stopped asking WHY a long time ago 😂