this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Saving the world from nuclear war is a good unique one:

Vasili Arkhipov

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

These are great examples.

I knew about Petrov. Great humans both of them!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Born under a bad sign? This guy is the only officially recognized person to have survived two nuclear bomb detonations.

https://www.damninteresting.com/eyewitnesses-to-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I remember reading about that guy a few years ago....unlucky / super lucky.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

atomic elements, there are 19 named after 20 people.

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Curium is named after both Pierre and Marie Curie

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maria SkΕ‚odowska-Curie

jk btw

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Kurva!

*Toasts with pivo in the general direction of Poland/*

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Curium is named for Marie and Pierre Curie.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thomas Midgley Jr. Invented putting lead in fuel and using CFCs for refrigeration. He died when he was strangulated by the machine he invented to help him get out of bed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

For length there is a Smoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot

Edit: it's 1.702 metres/ 5'7"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Being the first to do x, first man on the moon for example. Or be the 28th president

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The first person to be the 28th President

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

He was number 1!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

There's a whole series of books about this lol

(Referring to Guinness)

[–] ertai 1 points 2 months ago

Art is unique.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Having a species named after you, even if you're a fictional character

Testudo Aubreii

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Gary Larson has several species of animals named after him. He also named the spiked part of a stegosaurus tail in a comic (the thagomizer, β€œafter the late Thag Simmons”) and had that name adopted as the official name by paleontologists.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Absolutely fantastic people still know this and share it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I loved that story; in my imagination paleontologist 1 (P1) sees the cartoon and wonders what the official name is. Gets to work and asks old and wise paleontologist 2 (P2) what the official name is.

P2: I don't know. I'll have to ask my venerable colleague (P3) about it next time we are together.
P1: ok cool, I'll just use "Thagomizer" until we find out the official name.
P2: seems reasonable.
a few months pass...
P2: hey P3 what is the official name of the Thagomizer?
P3: um, I have no idea. I should know, I'm a steggy expert, how about we just keep it as Thagomizer!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Probably played some golf on the moon.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Ad hoc weapons (Vjatsjeslav Mikhajlovitsj Molotov)?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Being a complex oragism is pretty special, to think that so many potential civilizations have met Great Filters and not survived enough to grow past having a large body, let alone the challenge of climate change is telling of the unique phase we find ourselves in.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

You dont know any of this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

[citation needed]