Hi! This is a blog devoted to collecting a wide range of Wikipedia articles that I consider to have some notability - either covering esoteric and unusual topics, or subjects that one wouldn't expect to have a devoted page. Credit to Depths of Wikipedia for inspiration.
I do not claim to be an expert on any of the information presented here, nor can I vouch for its integrity - if anyone is aware of erroneous information presented on this account, please make me aware and provide a proper source for correction.
Today's article is on the Great Thunderstorm of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, a weather event in 1638 that appears to be among the earliest recorded instances of ball lightning. Witness describe a "great ball of fire" tearing in from outside and shunting through the church - many of those present were burnt or hurtled across the room, causing 4 deaths and 60 injuries.
Today's article is on lost lands, mythical cities, islands, or continents claimed to have existed in prehistory but have since disappeared. This disappearance is typically attributed to submergence or other catastrophic geological phenomena, but lost lands may also be described as being magically inaccessible. While the majority of lost lands are wholly mythical, some have been connected to land masses that were submerged with the end of the last glacial period and subsequent sea level rise.
Today's article is on jelly-falls, events in which sudden die-offs of gelatinous cnidarians and tunicates cause mass deposition of nutrients to benthic organisms, similar to more popularized whale fall events. Jelly-falls are triggered typically by phytoplankton blooms caused by seasonal changes and upwelling, clogging the feeding apparatus of gelatinous organisms and resulting in their mass die-off.
Today's article is on Nazi UFOs, a branch of UFOlogy that attempts to link unidentified flying objects with pseudohistoric claims of advanced aviation vehicles developed by Nazi Germany. Theories vary from identification with proven German technology (such as V-2 missiles or the Me 262 fighter plane), with prototype technology that did not see widespread use, or with wholly fabricated conspiracy theories. This is often associated with the myth of "Nazi superscience", which purports that Germany possessed a scientific superiority to the rest of the world (a claim that does not hold up under scrutiny).
Today's article is on Lavender Town, a location featured in the first generation of Pokémon games. The town is notorious for its stark and atonal background music, as well as its associated plotline around the haunted burial ground for deceased Pokemon. The town is also subject to an urban legend that the background music was responsible for a wave of attempted suicides in the initial release of the games, due to alleged high-pitched tones or supernatural influence.
Today's article is on Kaffeklubben Island (Inuit Qegertaat in Greenlandic), the northernmost (mostly) undisputed point of land on Earth. The island is only 700 meters long and 300 meters at its widest point, and lies a few dozen kilometers off Greenland's northernmost coast. Since its scientific documentation, its status has been challenged by gravel banks discovered at further north latitudes, but it has retained its title with confirmation that these banks are deposited on sea ice rather than the seafloor.
Today's article is on the Most Serene Federal Republic of Montmarte, a micronation created by Manhattan playwright Barry Alan Richmond. The micronation was briefly involved in a court hearing concerning its placement in New York City phone books, which it ultimately lost.
Today's article is on language deprivation experiments, historical attempts to uncover the origin of language by raising infants without the use of spoken or sign language. Few, if any of these experiments have been well documented, and none have produced any tangible results. It is very unlikely any future variations will be carried out due to the several psychological disturbance and violation of ethics it would result in.
Today's article is on Herobrine, a figure from urban legend and creepypasta around the game Minecraft.
The character originates from a post made on 4chan's /v/ board in 2010, where an anonymous user claimed a series of supernatural encounters while playing the alpha version of Minecraft. The concept was built upon by other creators with videos, staged livestream encounters, and mods to add the character to the game. Development studio Mojang has made multiple references playing into the legend, most infamously repeatedly including "removed Herobrine" in patch notes.
Today's article is on Green Boots, the cadaver of an unidentified climber whose remains served as a landmark on the northeast ridge of Mount Everest.
The cadaver was first documented in 1996, resting in an alcove at 8500 m along the main northern expedition path; it was named for the bright green mountaineering boots on the body. The identity of Green Boots has not been discerned, but the prevailing theory is that it is the corpse of Tsewang Paljor, who perished in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster.
As bodies are typically not moved out of respect for the dead (as well as the risk involved for climbers at such altitude). Green Boots was left to rest for nearly 20 years, becoming both a landmark and memorial to climbers. It was allegedly moved by an unknown party in 2014, though later reports suggest it was simply covered by rocks.
As the thumbnail for this article depicts a human corpse (although any physical features are obscured), it will be placed under the read more for viewer discretion.
Today's article is on hypothetical planets beyond Neptune in the Solar System. The search for trans-Neptunian planets began shortly after the discovery of Neptune in 1846 to explain disturbances in the orbits of the Jovian planets that were thought to be unexplainable by Neptune. The discovery of Pluto in 1930 was briefly thought to solve the conundrum, but quickly identified as too small; decades later, Pluto would be reclassified as a dwarf planet. New measurements by the Voyager-2 spacecraft in the 1990s showed Neptune's mass had been miscalculated and resolved the discrepancies. Subsequent discovered trans-Neptunian objects have been classified as dwarf planets at most, but the idea of Planet Nine has been reexamined in the past decade to account for eccentricities in the orbit of the furthermost trans-Neptunian objects.
Today's article is on MacHomer, a one-person play by Rick Miller blending the Shakespeare play Macbeth with the characters and humor of the American comedy series The Simpsons. Miller performs all of the characters of the play, the majority of which are performances of Simpsons characters in the role of Macbeth's cast, such as Marge as Lady Macbeth or Ned Flanders as Banquo. The play is supported by a projection of images, a cauldron containing a video camera for Miller to project his face, and a puppet show recap at the play's halfway mark.
Today's article is on the Hollow Moon, a collection of similar pseudoscientific hypotheses that the Moon is either fully or partially hollow.
Some lunar folklore and early science fiction literature posits the idea of a hollow Moon, but conspiratorial theories have only advanced following the Space Race and first Moon landing. The breadth of the theory can range from a naturally cavernous or hollow Moon, to an artificial nature of the Moon as a creation by an ancient alien civilization. Alleged inconsistencies used to support the Hollow Moon theory have been solidly debunked with advanced lunar geology and seismology.
Today's article is on John Allen Kuchar Zegrus, a man arrested for identity fraud and passport forgery in Japan that developed into an urban legend. In 1959, Zegrus entered Japan and was arrested three months later on suspicion of identity fraud for cashing a traveller's cheque. His passport was determined to be counterfeit, and the records of his travel fabricated; Zegrus was sentenced to one year in prison and summarily deported to Hong Kong.
Sometime afterward, the story was picked up by Canadian tabloid The Province, albeit with significant alterations. It was claimed that Zegrus was an Ethiopian citizen and spy for the Egyptian government, who carried a passport from the fictional nation of Taured. The story would later mutate into a man arriving at an airport with a Taured passport who identified the country as being in Andorra, and disappeared mysteriously from a guarded hotel room.
Today's article is on humanzees, hypothetical hybrids between humans (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and the attempts to create such organisms.
The only confirmed, serious attempt at creating a human-chimpanzee hybrid was by Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanov, who made three failed attempts at inducing pregnancy in female chimpanzees with human sperm. Other alleged attempts have been either proven false or lack credible documentation. The theoretical likelihood of success is still debated based on the cellular mechanics of inter-species fertilization; regardless, it is likely a human-chimpanzee hybrid would be infertile given the differing chromosomal numbers between both species.
Today's article is on "Hot Coffee", a minigame from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas where the player (as protagonist CJ) has sexual intercourse with his girlfriend - the minigame was cut but, unfortunately for Rockstar, not removed from the files.
Following the breakout popularity of Grand Theft Auto III, director Sam Houser sought to increase the complexity of role-playing elements in the game's sequel, as well as push the boundaries of graphic and obscene content in the series and the video game industry at large. However, the inclusion of in-game nudity and explicit sex would have bumped the rating of San Andreas up from an "M (Mature 17+)" ESRB rating to a "AO (Adults Only)", significantly limiting the game's market. By the time the dev team had received such guidance from company executives, the game was too close to release to remove "Hot Coffee" without damaging the source code; as such, the content was simply made inaccessible to the player.
A few months after release, modders on the PlayStation 2 release discovered the character animations and file names, and began plans to gain early access to the Windows version to obtain full access to the content. Following this, a mod was released patching "Hot Coffee" back into the game. The resulting public reaction resulted in major backlash against Rockstar Games, with legal consequences for their failure to disclose the extent of graphic content, and ill will from the game industry for their silence.
As the thumbnail for this article depicts low-poly virtually-simulated sex, it will be placed beneath the read more to prevent anyone's boss from seeing it.
