Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Reanimating George Washington

Bringing George Washington back from the dead: an IO9 post claims one contemporary physican had a great idea.

[William] Thornton told Washington's wife Martha that he wanted to thaw Washington's body by the fire and have it rubbed vigorously with blankets. Then he planned to perform a tracheotomy so he could insert a bellows into Washington's throat and pump his lungs full of air, and finally to give Washington an infusion of lamb's blood.

More fun with late eighteenth-century medicine at the link.

(thanks to Tim Pendry)

Hammer claws itself up from the clammy grave

Hammer Horror is making a comeback, and The New York Times writes a friendly piece about it.

I'm looking forward to Woman in Black.  The 1983 short book is very fine indeed.

 

(via Len Warner chez Facebook)

Alien, seen by the cat

Remember Jonesy? From Alien (1979):

Honestly, humans really are stupid.  Anyhow, the hairless kitten pops up behind him, except it appears to have had some sort of growth spurt, so I hiss at it, just to show it who's boss, and that seems to work since it ignores me completely and decides to play with the can-opener instead. 

(via MetaFilter)

 

Add game addiction to British health care: MP

A British legislator called for that nation's health care system to treat gaming addiction.  Notwithstanding the lack of medical consensus that such a thing even exists, Keith Vaz (Labour) sees bad brain changes happen, and treatment called for.

He summons up some of the scary stories we've been blogging:

"In the most extreme cases, people have neglected to feed their children and suffered fatal deep vein thrombosis as a result of the extended time spent at their computer or games console.
"This needs to be recognised as a serious problem by the Government. Such behaviour can destroy lives and treatment and support should be available as it is for any other lifestyle problem which impacts upon mental or physical health."

It's an established pattern: media hype -> political noise -> state policy.

(via Reason)

The copyright monster

Yochai Benkler turns to the Gothic to describe one aspect of the copyright battle:

Criminalization has become a Golem/Frankenstein, hunting technological innovation through its own internal bureaucratic logic.

Benkler's referring to the creation of state positions for copyright enforcement:

One of the most brilliant moves the industry made over the course of the past decade has been to lobby for, and obtain, the creation and funding of various positions within the Government whose career success depends on harnessing the resources of the federal government to carry out critical parts of the industry's assault on threatening technologies and the more aggressive users.

Later on Benkler recommends we put the golem to sleep.

(link via Howard Rheingold on Twitter; image via Abode of Chaos on Flickr)

Creepy babybot

Another immigrant from the uncann valley wishes to settle into your nightmares:

Splendid combination of sounds and spasms.

(thanks to the disturbing architecture that is Ed Webb's Diigo)

Severed head finds companion pieces

A severed human head discovered near the Hollywood sign is no longer lonely.  A helping hound sniffed out two feet (presumably saved from Canada) and a pair of hands.

A "cadaver dog" from the Los Angeles County coroner's office found one hand, and later the other, in brush not far from where the head was discovered.

Unlike the head, they were not in bags.

Then, as officials were about to leave for the day, the feet were found.

Infocult knows we are just meat, Lego-style.

(thanks to James Foster and Thomas Burkdall)

Family fun in Napoleonland

The French government is planning to include some fine horror scenes in its awesome-sounding Napoleonland theme park.

Other curious potential attractions include a ski run through a battlefield "surrounded by the frozen bodies of soldiers and horses" and a recreation of Louis XVI being guillotined during the revolution...

"It's going to be fun for the family,” he Mr Jégo told the Times.

Fun for the whole Gothic family indeed!

(image via Wikipedia)

Lovecraft on the floor

Lovecraftian rugs can be yours, all monstrous on your floor:

Or hang one on your wall:

(thanks to Tim Pendry)

Fear the skies

Bruce Sterling offers this fun image of a near-future fear:

The "Coalition Against GeoEngineering" and their chemtrail pals.  Anice harbinger of tomorrow's "afraid of the sky" contingent.

If carbon dioxide was a visible gas, these guys would be out of theirminds with panic already.  There must be somebody in the nexus ofirrationality who thinks that DRONES are spreading chemtrails.  Covertdrones plus chemtrails are a marriage made in  paranoia heaven.

Urban legend waiting to happen.

Larry Summer, unstoppable zombie

We still like our zombie political language, it seems:

Zombie Larry Summers Could Reappear as Head of the World Bank

That post offers one great anecdote about Summers' unsuitability for the job.  This post goes even further, not least with a fine photo:

(thanks to Jesse "Zombie Hunter" Walker)

Infocult murmurs at speed

Infocult's vast production machinery is ratcheting down a notch for the new several weeks.  The travel monster demands sacrifices, you see.

 

Found in Hollywood: one human head in a bag

California police found a human head in a bag, near the Hollywood sign.

The remains were found by a park ranger about 3:45 p.m. in the rugged hills near the 3200 block of Canyon Drive, said LAPD spokeswoman Sara Faden.

No reports of other body parts... yet.

(thanks to Peter Naegele; image via to-be-darkened Wikipedia)

Internet addiction is like booze, or maybe not

Another study claims internet addiction is real, and works like cocaine.

[R]esearchers used MRI scanners to reveal abnormalities in the brains of adolescents who spent many hours on the internet, to the detriment of their social and personal lives...

Which reminds me of Maryanne Wolf's Proust and the Squid (2007), which was solid science.

More:

The results showed impairment of white matter fibres in the brain connecting regions involved in emotional processing, attention, decision making and cognitive control. Similar changes to the white matter have been observed in other forms of addiction to substances such as alcohol and cocaine.

But.

The authors acknowledge that they cannot tell whether the brain changes are the cause or the consequence of the internet addiction. It could be that young people with the brain changes observed are more prone to becoming addicted.

And:

Professor Michael Farrell, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia, said: "The limitations [of this study] are that it is not controlled, and it's possible that illicit drugs, alcohol or other caffeine-based stimulants might account for the changes. The specificity of 'internet addiction disorder' is also questionable."

It's fascinating, the ontological status of internet addiction.  It's either a real live thing, for which there are medical clinics and state policies.  Or it's a phantasm.

(thanks to Ed Webb's Diigo; image by Habi)

Tales to Terrify, new horror podcast

A new horror podcast has launched.  Tales to Terrify springs from the Starship Sofa, that great sf podcast.

One show so far, which I'm looking forward to.