Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

The robot dances to distract you from pain, children

Sometimes the Uncanny Valley is quietly creepy, rather than shriekingly nightmarish.  For example, consider this dancing robot.

It's not an art piece, but a therapeutic artifact:

The robot, called MEDi (short for Medicine and Engineering Designing Intelligence), interacted with 57 children aged four to nine during their flu shots last fall. MEDi can walk, play, speak, dance, high-five and even perform Tai Chi as a way to distract a patient during such a procedure, and the robot also taught the children to breathe deeply and relax ahead of the shot.[emphases added]

No terror, apparently:

Researchers were surprised to see just how much impact the machine had on the children. Those who interacted with the robot recovered quickly from their shot and reported little to no pain compared to the kids who just had a wall to stare at.

...except for the cold grimness of that last image.  Poor kids.

(thanks to Randy McCall)

Biomechanical Lego

HR Giger's art oozes its way into Lego form at last.

First, a neatly done chestburster:

Next, a more ambitious work from a creator who wants to "make LEGO look non-LEGO":

I'm intrigued by his use of Bionicle Legos.  Didn't know they were so strange.

(thanks to Amanda Lee)

The digital world versus boys: regendering internet fear

A new book charges that the internet ruining boys.  Specifically, "Video game and porn addictions" are bringing about The Demise of Guys (2012).

From the TED Books catalog copy,

excessive use of videogames and online porn is creating a generation of shy and risk-adverse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment.

More, "our young men are suffering from a new form of 'arousal addiction'".

I haven't grabbed a copy yet, but this CNN editorial by the authors looks descriptive.  First, porn:

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that "regular porn users are more likely to report depression and poor physical health than nonusers are. ... The reason is that porn may start a cycle of isolation. ... Porn may become a substitute for healthy face-to-face interactions, social or sexual."

Next, gaming:

Similarly, video games also go wrong when the person playing them is desensitized to reality and real-life interactions with others.Violence in video games is often synonymous with success. Children with more of a propensity for aggression are more attracted to violent video media, but violent media, in turn, can also make them more aggressive. 

So far this seems like a mix of classic fearsome digital media discourse: games cause violent behavior, porn saps real life intercourse and relationships, children (boys) are at risk of corruption, medical language (addiction), a high firewall between virtual and offline lives.

 

Global ghost towns

Der Spiegel discovers modern ghost towns and cities.  Their perspective is nicely global, including China, the former USSR, the current United States, Cyprus, and Japan.

"These ghost towns make us wonder how long we will all be here," [Museum head Dr. Hans-Dieter Nägelke] said. "A thriving city can turn into a ghost town much faster than we imagine."

This view of an abandoned Azeri oil town reminds me of the great Syberia game:

I admire this futuristic vision of Dubai after its hypothetical abandonment:

(thanks to Alison Furlong)

CDC denies zombie plague

Concerned that this is the week of zombie apocalypse?  Let the United States Centers for Disease Control set you straight.

"CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," wrote agency spokesman David Daigle in an email to The Huffington Post.

This, after years of CDC publications on the topic!

(thanks to Andy Havens)

 

Day of Infocult, extended: cannibalism in Maryland

This gory week of real-life-imitating-horror just keeps shambling along.  Now there's a report of cannibalism in Maryland.

Parts read like a low-budget horror film:

Kinyua’s brother went down to the laundry room of the house and saw a blanket on a box. He pulled off the blanket and saw two metal tins. Police say he opened them and saw a head and two hands. 

Kinyua apparently admitted to having eaten both brain and heart.

Meanwhile, Google Trends shows "zombie apocalypse" as a leading meme this week, according to CNN.  See screenshot on this post, to right.  Which makes sense, given the Gothic-level gore we've seen this week in Canada, Florida, and New Jersey.

(thanks to fellow foodies Steven Kaye, Ladi, Steve Burnett, and other shambling minions of Infocult)

The Day of Infocult: Canadian body part Gothic edition

Canada returned to its old severed body part game this week, concluding our day of Infocult life-imitating-Gothic news items.  Now the mysteriously amputated flesh bits have moved inland.

First, a severed human foot appeared in Canada's Conservative Party's headquarters.

Police were called shortly after a receptionist opened a blood-soaked box at the headquarters of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's party. The first officers to arrive saw what appeared to be blood stains on the package and immediately called in a special hazardous-material unit. When the specialists opened the package, police found the severed foot inside.

Police said the package was addressed to the Conservative Party of Canada and not to a specific person. 

"Conservative Party staff remain traumatized by the incident", according to one report.

Second, a severed human hand turned up in Ottawa's Postal Terminal.  Perhaps it was on the way to another local destination.

Third, a limbless human torso stank up a suitcase in Montreal.  This led to a gory apartment, leased by a splendidly named porn star, Luka Rocco Magnotta: 

Building superintendent Eric Schorer came in to cart away the stained mattress; small puddles of blood lay on the box spring beneath it. More splotches of blood covered the floor of the fridge, leading to speculation that body parts may have been stored there.

Now that most of a human body is complete, we can sum up by adding cannibalism and international crime:

[A] man in his 30s was killed, cut to pieces and partially eaten in Magnotta's one-room apartment in west-end Montreal...

The international crime-fighting group Interpol has joined a global manhunt for porn actor and suspected sadistic killer Luka Magnotta...

One classic American serial killer detail has apparently been adopted by Canada:

The building manager said... there were never any complaints about noise in the unit, and that Magnotta passed a credit test to rent there.... "He seemed like a nice guy," the manager, Eric Schorer, told The Canadian Press.

Bonus fearsome media points:

A video purporting to show Magnotta stabbing a man repeatedly on a bed has been circulating online and was sent to the Montreal Gazette. The Gazette has been unable to confirm that this is the same video that police received. The Gazette has not been able to confirm whether the video was staged.

Police have obtained a disturbing video of the crime and are taking steps to have it removed from a website where it was posted, the Gazette has confirmed.

Since this is the Web, we can find copies in various places.  The original page is still up; search for ""1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick" for mirrors. No, children, that's definitely Not Safe For Work.

(thanks to the many members of the Infocult Legion: D'Arcy Norman, Randy McCall, Steve Kaye, Steven Burnett, Len Warner; foot photo by cogdog)

The Day of Infocult: aggressive New Jersey disembowelment edition

A New Jersey man took a Gothic approach in dealing with visiting police offices.  He stabbed himself, then threw pieces of his intestine at the cops.

This excerpt from the news item reads like a slice of a monster tale, either from the Gothic side of the house or the science fiction realm:

When police officers arrived at the Clay Street home, they kicked in a door to his room, which had been blocked with furniture, said Lt. John Heinemann.

Carter was in the corner of the room with a knife in his hand, and he stood up, he yelled at police while stabbing himself all over his body. Officers noticed that his intestines were protruding from a wound in his abdomen, Heinemann said. Carter allegedly threw some of his skin and intestines at officers as they tried to enter the room, Heinemann said.

The officers ordered him to drop the 12-inch kitchen knife, but he didn’t. Carter is accused of swinging the knife at officers, police said. The officers sprayed two cans of pepper spray at the man without any effect.

Wisely, "The officers retreated and called the Bergen County SWAT Team..."

(story thanks to Steven Kaye; photo by Spec ta cles)

The Day of Infocult: Miami cannibal zombie edition

Today is a fine day for Infocult, as the world offers all kinds of real-life Gothic news.

To begin with:

"We have new details about just how much of the man's face was bitten off."

Yes, there is more news coverage about that Florida facial cannibalism/zombie event, which we gleefully noted yesterday.  As one local source put it,

the naked man [police] shot was trying to chew the face off another naked man, and refused to obey police orders to stop his grisly meal, which one source now claims included his victim’s nose and eyeballs.

(It's not too often we find such Gothic phrasing as "grisly meal" in mainstream sources these days.)

The zombie story skeleton has obtained a bit more flesh:

A witness to the disturbing crime, Larry Vega, had been riding his bike past the scene. He tried to get the “cannibal man” to stop, but he would not relent.

 “I told him to get off and the other guy just kept eating the other guy away,” he told WSVN-Fox 7.
Vega then notified authorities, who commanded the “cannibal” to stop. 

“The guy just stood, his head up like that, with pieces of flesh in his mouth. And he growled,” the cyclist added.

To make the story even more frightening, when the officer fired, police said the attacker continued to chew on the other man’s face, forcing the officer to continue shooting until the suspect was dead.

Classic.  And there's more:

• The hungry man now has a nickname, The Causeway Cannibal. (Remember Thomas Harris describing this process?)
• Classic serial killer background detail: "neighbors remember him[:] 'The only thing I remember was he was a quiet boy,' said Micheline Barret."
• Pulp fiction alert: Miami reports keep referring to the attacker as having "superhuman strength."
• Bonus drug war: news reports are blaming all kinds of drugs (not the internet!) (not yet), from LSD varieties to bath salts to meth.  Wait for the next cautionary tale - "Don't do drugs, kids, or you'll end up chewing somebody's eyeballs."

One digital aspect is that a surveillance camera captured part of the scene, from a tantalizingly weird angle.

More as stories come in.  But first, on to other real-life Gothic tales.

(thanks to the many culinary friends of Infocult)

When the plague started

Real-life Gothic: here's how all kinds of scary stories begin.

(via io9; thanks to Amanda Lee)

The zombie apocalypse begins

It begins in Florida, of course.

A Miami police officer on Saturday fatally shot a naked man who was chewing on the face of another man on a downtown causeway off-ramp...

The flesh-eater's response was what we've come to expect from zombie stories:

Witnesses said that a woman saw two men fighting and flagged down a police officer, who came upon a naked man mauling the other man. The newspaper quoted witnesses as saying that the officer ordered the naked man to back away, and when he ignored the demand, the officer shot him. Witnesses said that the naked man continued his attack after being shot once, and the officer shot him several more times.

When there's no more room left in hell, the dead will return... to Miami.

Cannibalism performance with culinary flair

A Tokyo resident offered an unusual dinner to select paying guests: "his"(former) genitals, nicely cooked.  Yes, "his" and "former" refer to sexual reassignment surgery.

On Sunday, April 13, Tokyo illustrator Mao Sugiyama (who goes by the nickname “HC”), publicly seasoned and braised his own genitals on a portable gas cartridge burner, and then served them to five eager diners who each paid about $250 for the meal (a sixth was a no-show). The genitals had been returned to the asexual Sugiyama, frozen and double-bagged in plastic, following elective genital removal surgery on his 22nd birthday in early April.

Very social media oriented event:

Sugiyama told the tense but giggly crowd during the pre-dinner interview that he would be contributing his genital recipes to the Japanese recipe website Cookpad.com.

Here's an inoffensive image.  If you'd like more, ah, charcuterie-themed photos, click to the original story.

(via Marginal Revolution)

Useful zombies from British Columbia

Medical teams and disaster management keep the zombie meme going.  This time it's western Canada.

Fresh from sending severed body parts around, these BCers want you to use the zombie metaphor as a goad for real disaster prep.

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When should you vote for a vampire?

A Colorado political scientist reflect on the viability of vampires for public office.  As it were.

I like the way vampires are just more of the same:

The top traits that a young voting demographic associated with vampires and politicians was power-hungry, narcissistic, and selfish – what do you think that tells us about our trust and belief of our political candidates?

It's hard to know from your question -- people may apply these traits to many people in positions of authority, including CEOs, athletes, celebrities, etc...

(thanks to Steven Burnett)

The real HP

Sometimes a company needs to take its name seriously:

(via Steven Burnett)