User:Adambondy
This is the user page for Adam Bondy. He thinks he ought to flesh it out someday.
I'm going to do this by transferring my rather extensive watchlist to a list of items of interest.
Physical
[edit]Animals
[edit]Munchkin cats - A modern breed of cat with very short legs. Unlike most specially-bred cats, these short legs actually improve the cats' hunting and climbing skills.
People
[edit]Ben Charles Padilla - A flight mechanic who was aboard a former American Airlines 727 which took off illegally and disappeared but for sightings throughout Africa and the Middle East.
Christopher and Cosmas - Two Japanese men, known only by Western names, who travelled on Spanish galleons and later with English explorers from 1587-1592.
Count of St Germain - One of history's odd characters, first recorded in 1745 by Horace Walpole as being arrested and released uncharged. Little was known about him and he caught the interest of the Prince of Wales. In 1752, he may have been governor of Chengalaput in India. He was spotted again in 1757 by Giacomo Casanova as a favorite of Louis XV of France. Further sightings are claimed in 1896, 1926, and 1930.
Eilmer of Malmesbury - 11th century AD English monk who is known for attempting flight with mechanical wings after reading the Daedalus fable. He glided for about 15 seconds, covering 220 yards.
Ernst Chladni - Inventor of Chladni's euphonium, a musical instrument made of glass rods. Also the discoverer of guitar plate modes.
Felice Beato - One of the first photographers to document East Asia, Japan, samurai and war.
H. H. Holmes - A serial killer who built a maze-like structure that he operated as a hotel in 1893, torturing and killing hundreds of people he lured into the maze.
Helen Clark - Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Hugh Capet of France - Early king of France who is credited with the beginning of the modern concept of France and the establishment of Paris as the capital.
Julian of Norwich - A female English mystic of the 14th century who conceptualized God's love in terms of joy and compassion rather than law and duty.
Juliane Köpcke - Only survivor out of 92 passengers on LANSA flight 508. At the age of 17, she fell two miles out of the plane and traversed dense jungle for 10 days with injuries to return to civilization.
Mark Matthews - He was the last surviving Buffalo Soldier in the U.S. Army. He served in the army from 1910 to 1949, seeing action in the pursuit of Pancho Villa and Saipan. He retired from his second job in 1970 and died at the age of 111 in 2005.
Mitford family - An English aristocratic family famous for controversy. Of the 6 daughters, two married nephews of prime ministers and two married wealthy aristocrats. Two became well-known writers. Two became fascists and one became a communist.
Nicolas Grollier de Serviere - A 17th century French inventor of fantastical machines including floating bridges, ball-powered clocks, machines to trace landscapes into perspective views, a reading wheel to read multiple books at once, and many others.
Places
[edit]Antillia - A mythical island of the Pacific, also known as the Isle of Seven Cities.
Ball's Pyramid - A very steep island remnant of a shield volcano discovered in 1788, first landed on in 1882, and first successfully climbed in 1965. It is 562m high but only 200m across.
Blue Bridge - The Blue Bridge, of course.
Buffalo Ranch - A tourist attraction located where Newport Beach is today.
Chimborazo Volcano - An inactive volcano in Ecuador whose summit is the farthest surface point from the center of the Earth (disputed with Nevado Huascaran.
Cathedral of Learning - An impressive 42-story building at the University of Pittsburgh with 26 "nationality" rooms.
Fingal's Cave - A sea cave on Staffa, Scotland, famous for hexagonal rock structures (see also Giant's Causeway.)
Giant's Causeway - 40,000 interlocking usually hexagonal columns in Ireland ((see also Fingal's Cave.)
Heligoland - A small German archipelago connected until 1720. After World War II the British Royal Navy attempted to destroy the island using 6,800 tonnes of explosives in the "British Bang".
Kitezh - A legendary town in Russia that supposedly floated away when attacked by the Mongols.
Kolmanskop - German ghost town in Namibia built in a German style.
Kowloon Walled City - An anomalous area of Hong Kong that was essentially free from government control and, as of 1987, had a population of 50,000 in 0.026 square kilometers (or 1,900,000 per square kilometer) It was a no-go zone and a lone European was likely to disappear. The block was demolished in 1992.
Living Shangri-La - A skyscraper under construction in Vancouver, British Columbia, that will be the tallest building in the city. The building will contain a 5-star hotel, offices, condominiums, spa, specialty grocery store, and a portion of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Moresnet - A tiny former European territory of about 3.5 square kilometers and 3000 people. It existed from 1816 to 1919 between Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Nevado Huascaran - Mountain in Peru where a 1970 earthquake caused a mile-long block of the mountain to fall and obliterating the town of Yungay, killing 20,000 and leaving 400 survivors (see also Chimborazo Volcano.
Artifacts
[edit]Baghdad Battery - Several ancient pots that may have been used as batteries inside such objects as the Ark_of_the_Covenant.
Copper Scroll - One of the Dead Sea Scrolls, unique in that it is written on metal. It purports to list 63 locations with hidden treasure and the location of another document with more details.
Cyrus Cylinder - A Persian Empire artifact containing a declaration by Cyrus the Great. It was discovered in 1879 and is dated to ~October 29 (Julian calender), 539BC.
Kensington Runestone - A stone with runic writing on discovered in 1898 in Minnesota. Although widely-believed to be a hoax, if confirmed, it would verify the presence of Viking explorers in 14th century America.
Ships
[edit]Baychimo - A cargo steamer repeatedly abandoned in 1931 that was sighted encased in ice and boarded several times until 1969.
Cap Arcona - A luxury ocean liner pressed into service to evacuate POWs from Germany to neutral countries after Hitler's suicide. The POWs were from 26 different countries, including Russia and Poland. For unknown reasons, the RAF attacked and sank this ship, killing all but 350 of the estimated 7,000 to 8,000 POWs on board.
HMS Ganges - One of the longest serving navy ships, launched in 1821, taken out of service in 1923, and broken up in 1930. Also one of the last sailing ships in navy service.
MV Blue Marlin - A lift ship that partially submerges underneath oil platforms or other ships (including things as large as destroyers) and then rises up beneath them to carry them around.
MV Doulos - The world's oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship. Built in 1914 and currently used as a travelling bookshop, she has previously been known as SS Medina, SS Roma, and MV Franca C.
Books
[edit]Codex Seraphinianus - A book that appears to be a visual encyclopedia of an unknown world, written in an incomprehensible (for us) script. The numbering system has been cracked and is a variant of base 21.
Codex Tchacos - Manuscript discovered in 1970 and deciphered in 2001 that contains the only known surviving copy of the Gospel of Judas.
Gospel of Judas - A Gnostic text that implies that Judas believed he was helping Jesus.
Hansard - Printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in England and other Westminster systems of government.
Inventio Fortunata - A 14th century book describing the journey of a priest to the North Pole, depicted as a magnetic island surrounded by a whirlpool. No copies survive.
Other/Misc
[edit]3753 Cruithne - An asteroid in 1:1 orbital resonance with Earth that approaches fairly closely (astronomically speaking).
90377 Sedna - A trans-Neptunian object discovered in 2003 that ranges between 975 and 75 AU from the sun. It may be classified as a dwarf planet.
All Red Line - The informal name for the system of electrical telegraphs that linked the British Empire.
Doyle Owl - An unofficial mascot of Reed College. I've touched it! Whee!
Eternal Flames - A flame that burns continuously, usually to commemorate an event or person. Such flames also exist in nature.
Geneva drive - A mechanism for turning continuous rotation movement into intermittent rotary movement.
Hawks - A great comedy about two terminally ill patients who break out of hospital to really live... "Dum vivimus, vivimus."
Hebban olla vogala - The first three words of a fragment of old Dutch, found in the margin of a 12th century Latin Manuscript. The full text runs: "Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic andu thu. Wat unbidan we nu?" and is roughly translated as ""All the birds have begun nests, except me and you. What are we waiting for?"
Iapetus - Unusual moon of Saturn with as-yet-unexplained coloring and mountain range that circles the equator. One theory postulates that it is made of mirror matter.
Hood Canal Bridge - One of the longest floating bridges, with a very unusual opening mechanism to allow ships to pass.
Non-Physical
[edit]Theories
[edit]Ancient astronaut theories - A set of theories that the Earth was visited in ancient times by aliens.
Mirror Matter - Postulated counterpart to ordinary matter that would solve the τ-θ puzzle. Also called shadow matter or Alice matter.
Principle of Evil Marksmanship - Phenomenon observed in many movies and TV shows where the "bad guys" consistently have much poorer firearm accuracy than the hero.
Conceptual
[edit]Boosterism - Promotion, generally of small towns, with the goal of improving public perception.
Copyright_trap - Deliberately false entries in dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, etc. Also referred to as a fictitious entry.
Criticality accident - Accidental nuclear chain reactions such as those that killed Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotin
Culture jamming - Attempts to get mass media to produce negative commentary about itself. Culture jamming is widely associated with anti-consumerist movements and is often interpreted as vandalism.
Hikikomori - Japanese word describing the acute social withdrawal phenomenon observed in some adolescents and young adults.
Human zoo - A phenomenon of the 19th and 20th century wherein "primitive" people were displayed in their "natural" state for Western audiences.
Jumping the shark - A metaphor used to describe the point at which a TV series passes its peak by introducing plot twists illogical or inconsistent with the series and previous events in order to boost ratings.
Knight's Tour - A mathematical problem that has the knight of a chess game visit each square exactly once. Several authors have used this as a literary device or a way to order chapters.
Kyrie - Vocative case in Greek meaning "O Lord" and is the name of an important prayer in Christian liturgy.
Lost cities - Including cities completely lost, cities preserved in stories, and cities which are no longer inhabited in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Some of these are actually quite recent.
Military slang - Self-descriptive.
History
[edit]54 Berners Street prank - One of the earliest known and recorded pranks, involving the Duke of York, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Mayor of London, among others. Otherwise known as the Berners Street Hoax.
Goiânia accident - An incident of radioactive contamination by abandoned medical equipment that killed several people.
Organizations
[edit]E Clampus Vitus - A fraternal society focused on Californian history which often plays practical jokes.
Songs
[edit]Child Ballads - A collection of 305 English, Scottish, and early-American ballads collected by Francis James Child.
Lists
[edit]List of Disasters - Natural and manmade disasters from prehistoric to the present day.
List of House Types - Various architectural types of single family homes.
List of People Who Have Disappeared - Where did they go?
List of songs with titles of twenty or more words
List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions
List of wars and disasters by death toll
Lost cities - Including cities completely lost, cities preserved in stories, and cities which are no longer inhabited in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Some of these are actually quite recent.
in progress