Sometimes, you’ve got to wonder who started up and maintains the various Twitter accounts devoted solely to the most unusual of topics. And then you start wondering who exactly those thousands of followers are.
We’re not talking about parody or comedy accounts. No, we’re only interested in the ones that exist for very specific topics and rarely, if ever, stray from their chosen subject. Here are some of our still active favourites (follower numbers correct as of writing).
Combustion Safety (416 followers)
Don’t get us wrong: fire safety and preventing explosions are very serious topics that we shouldn’t make light of. But having a whole Twitter account dedicated to reporting on fire-based accidents is catering for what we’d imagine is a very small niche indeed. The people behind the account should probably go easy on the overzealous hashtagging too.
3 hospitalized in Valdosta, Ga., #chemical #plant #explosion; nearby area evacuated http://t.co/AL6FytkdcL
— Combustion Safety (@CombustSafety) August 16, 2013
Mafioso Today (1,183 followers)
How organized crime has adapted to globalization http://t.co/kTUiGwf8BL
— Mafioso Today (@MafiosoToday) August 17, 2013
All Mafia, all the time - Mafioso Today scans the web for news and articles about gangsters and shares the links. They might only be generally related to mob activity (lots of articles about authorities’ wars on drugs) but if organised crime is involved, Mafioso Today will be sure to tweet about it. And also an article about Edinburgh Zoo’s pandas, for some reason.
Edinburgh Zoo panda turning 10 http://t.co/JFHEhVElap
— Mafioso Today (@MafiosoToday) August 16, 2013
Empire State Building Lights (6,297 followers)
This account - unaffiliated with the Empire State Building, which makes it even stranger - posts nothing but details of what colours the Empire State lights are going to be on any given night. Visiting New York and too lazy to look up for boring old white? We recommend you follow this bad boy.
Tonight's colors: All tiers white (No occasion) #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NYC #Aug17
— Empire State Bldg (@EmpireLights) August 18, 2013
Sheboygan Scanner (12,471 followers)
Have you ever wanted real-time updates of what goes on in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin police scanner? No? Well, you can get them anyway. With tens of thousands of tweets updating almost constantly, it’s an insight into the day to day activities of an American police force - from the minor concerns...
mead library - backpack in bushes
— Sheboygan Scanner (@sheboyganscan) August 19, 2013
… to the more dramatic.
15th st & geele ave - male threw hatchet, is being chased through yards by females
— Sheboygan Scanner (@sheboyganscan) August 19, 2013
Bible Summary (28,560 followers)
The Bible is a long book, and modern life is busy, busy, busy. Bible Summary has got you covered: 140 character ‘cliff note’ summaries of every chapter in the Good Book, one chapter a day. You’ll be an expert before you know it. Actually, given the account has been working away since August 2010, it might be a while: they’re still only on Colossians.
Col1: Paul, to the saints in Colossae. May you be filled with wisdom. The Son is the image of the invisible God. I make known the mystery.
— Bible Summary (@biblesummary) August 19, 2013
Snapchat Life (33,363 followers)
Love Snapchat? Want dozens of daily tweets containing the word ‘Snapchat’? Snapchat Life is the account for you. More than 33,000 people are following this most one-note of accounts, perhaps the most baffling of all the profiles we’ve mentioned.
Snapchat: It's like giving you a puppy for a few seconds then taking it away. Forever.
— Snapchat Life (@SnapchatLife) August 19, 2013
Horse ebooks (200,723 followers)
Years later, and this most enduring of spam accounts provides the single greatest concentration of comic gold on Twitter. Set up by a Russian developer, the Horse ebooks account was built on code that tried to disguise its ebook advertisements by placing them between random nonsense tweets automatically plucked from ebooks about horses. The results remain almost poetically ridiculous and mysterious, even as suspicions continue that only a human hand could continue crafting the transcendent rubbish Horse ebooks spouts day after day.
The 3 misconceptions of sweating
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks) August 19, 2013
smoothly immediately after the first kiss is finished.
— Horse ebooks (@Horse_ebooks) August 19, 2013
