Chess in pairs... with a fun twist

Bughouse Chess is a chess variant where two teams of two players face off against each other. Captured pieces on one board may be placed by their teammate, on their teammate's board, in place of a normal move.

"Partners are normally allowed to talk to each other during the game. They can for instance ask for a specific piece, for more trades, ask to hold a piece, suggest moves or ask their partner to stall. Shouts like "Knight mates!" or "Give me pieces!" are common, and can lead to seemingly absurd sacrificial captures on the other board."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bughouse_chess

John McCain- even tougher than you might think

It's well known that McCain was a POW during the Vietnam War.

However, did you know that he refused to accept an early release when offered, despite serious injuries and illness?

"..the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release^[44] because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes,^[45] and also to show other POWs that elite prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially.^[44] McCain turned down the offer; he would only accept repatriation if every man taken in before him was released as well. Such early release was prohibited by the POW's interpretation of the military Code of Conduct: To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain#Prisoner_of_war

The mobile game to parody all mobile games

"The player is initially given a pasture with nine slots and a single plain cow, which the player may click once every six hours. Each time the cow is clicked, a point also known as a "click" is awarded; if the player adds friends' cows to their pasture, they also receive clicks added to their scores when the player clicks their own cow. As in other Facebook games, players are encouraged to post announcements to their news feed whenever they click their cow. "

"Unexpectedly to Bogost, Cow Clicker became a viral phenomenon, amassing over 50,000 players by September 2010—many of whom understood the game's meaning and used it as a symbol of objection to Zynga's practices. In response to its sudden popularity, he committed to improving the game with new features. Updates to the game added awards for reaching certain milestones (such as the Golden Cowbell for 100,000 clicks), the ability to earn Mooney by clicking on other users' Cow Clicker news feed posts, and the chance to randomly gain or lose Mooney on every click. New cow designs were also introduced, such as an oil-coated cow to commemorate the BP oil spill, and the "Stargrazer Cow", which was only a mirror image of the original cow that cost around $20 USworth of Mooney."


After $700 worth of extensions, the countdown clock expired on the evening of September 7, 2011. At this point, the game remained playable, but all the cows were replaced by blank spaces and said to have been raptured. Bogost intended the Cowpocalypse event to signal the "end" of the game to players; when addressing a complaint by a fan who felt the game was no longer fun after the cow rapture, Bogost responded that "it wasn't very fun before."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Clicker

Terrible materials to make billiard balls out of

...explosives.

" In 1869, with elephants having been poached to near extinction, the billiards industry offered a $10,000 prize to whoever came up with the best replacement for ivory billiard balls. John Wesley Hyatt created the winning replacement, which he created with a new material he discovered called camphored nitrocellulose—the first thermoplastic, better known as celluloid. The invention enjoyed a brief popularity, but the Hyatt balls were extremely flammable, and sometimes portions of the outer shell would explode upon impact."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrocellulose