Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Medieval murder map

A Cambridge University team published a map of medieval murders in London.

More information here.

(thanks to Steven "blunt force trauma" Kaye)

The murderous murmurs of Alexa

What creepy things can Alexa say?  A new Reuters article offers some selections:

a customer was shocked last year when Alexa blurted out: “Kill your foster parents."

Alexa has also chatted with users about sex acts. She gave a discourse on dog defecation.

Also, one story:

During last year’s contest, a team from Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University found that its Alexa bot developed a nasty personality when they trained her to chat using comments from Reddit, whose members are known for their trolling and abuse.

The team put guardrails in place so the bot would steer clear of risky subjects. But that did not stop Alexa from reciting the Wikipedia entry for masturbation to a customer, Heriot-Watt’s team leader said.

One bot described sexual intercourse using words such as “deeper,” which on its own is not offensive, but was vulgar in this particular context.

Watch for more of these stories.

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Mysterious ancient killings in Yorkshire

Archaeologists in Britain have uncovered two bodies from the Iron Age, and each seems to have died with violence and mystery.

One stands out for Infocult reasons:

[O]ne individual – a warrior aged between 17 and 25 – may have been “killed” twice, or even three times.

A detailed examination of his skeleton shows that, probably after his death, his body had been ritually pierced by nine spears (five with iron tips and four with bone ones). He had also received a potentially lethal blow to his forehead, delivered with a wooden club or other similar weapon.

Why?  Several theories appear in the article.

A second possibility could be that, at least after death, he was feared. In many parts of the world there is archaeological and folklore evidence for a tradition in which some corpses (those of suspected “vampires” and other “revenants”) were systematically speared by sharp objects (usually of metal or wood) to “neutralise” them.

What’s more, as in the Pocklington case, the metal or other objects used to pierce the corpse were usually not withdrawn from the dead body, but were left there – in effect, for eternity.

More horror:

A third possibility is the individual was put in the ground alive and then ritually murdered. Certainly there are other Iron Age examples of ritual murder – particularly in the case of so-called bog bodies.

(thanks to Jesse "Bog Man" Walker)

 

Today's American Gothic story

According to the Japan Times,

Officials say a fire that caused a mysterious burning hole in Arkansas in September was intentionally set and not the result of a meteorite, methane or work of the devil.

That statement stands alone.

Skulls found in baby phantoms

A Scots research hospital put some 18th-century childbirth manikins through an MRI machine to check inside.

What did the Library and Archives of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh find?  Among other things, human bones:

they are not only comprised of cloth and wire, but also contain human skulls

More here.

(thanks to Ed "He Who Knows the Skulls" Webb)

When ants preserve the skulls of their enemies

A certain kind of ant has recently been revealed to have a very Gothic habit.  Formica archboldi ants kill their enemies, trap-jaw ants, and then decorate their homes with their remains.  One video describes them as "Florida's skull-collecting ants."

Time-lapse video observation of the interior nest chambers of laboratory colonies found that freshly-killed trap-jaw ants are dragged into the nest like food items and dismembered. Leading to nests filled with trap-jaw ant body parts, as is found in natural colonies. 

Formica defeats their enemies by spraying them with paralyzing acid, just to complete the horrifying picture.

(via MetaFilter)

 

Ghost airport and train station in Germany

Germany's Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) currently stands as a monument to bad project management and epic construction delays.  Years behind schedule and billions of Euros over budget, the thing has never been used and still hasn't opened.  As a result, it might be a ghost airport.

This BBC article offers the monicker.

Dozens of gates are ready for aeroplanes to pull in. Information screens display simulated real-time flight information. Gleaming terminals stand waiting for passengers to walk through them. Berlin’s Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) looks exactly like every other major modern airport in Europe, except for one big problem: more than seven years after it was originally supposed to open, it still stands empty. There are no passengers using it.

One photo:

The caption for that photo read: "Empty 'ghost' trains run into the airport’s station every weekday to keep it properly ventilated."

Which is appropriate, since those trains now serve a ghost train station.  Entertainingly, there's a German word for this: Geisterbahnhöfe. Wikipedia helpfully explains that "Ghost stations is the usual English translation..."  More:

This term was used to describe certain stations on Berlin's U-Bahn and S-Bahn metro networks that were closed during the period of Berlin's division during the Cold War. Since then, the term has come to be used to describe any disused station actively passed through by passenger trains, especially those on an underground railway line. Sometimes the term is also employed for unused underground stations not passed by trains.

Infocult: in your infrastructure, around the world.

 

The night the teeth were found in Georgia

Construction workers in Valdosta, Georgia were demolishing an old building when the made a Gothic discovery.

Within a wall were... teeth.  Hundreds of human teeth.

The tentative explanation offered by the Valdosta Daily Times is that a tenant one hundred years ago was a dentist. Why they'd stash a thousand teeth in a wall remains a mystery.

(thanks to Steven "The Extractor" Kaye)

"Alexa, please creep me out."

For the Halloween techno-dread season, enjoy this two minute short, "Whisper."

 

 

("Echo, please thank Elena Clark")

When your phone reaches out to touch someone

MobiLimb is a smartphone attachment.  It consists of an artificial finger that can move around and do things, including creeping out most of the human race. 

And yes, you can choose between a matte black tech-style finger or one with human flesh-like covering.

According to Engadget:

On the less creepy side, MobiLimb can be used to prop up a phone when you're watching a video, control phone settings and provide an additional way to grip your device. But on the extra creepy side, it can caress your arm as you hold your phone or be dressed to look like a human finger.

Best nickname?  David Phonenberg.

Infocult: describing your world with our own special touch.

(via Elena Clark and MetaFilter)

The death comet returns

Asteroid 2015 TB145 is due to fly past the Earth again in early November.  Due to its charming shape and features, we know 2015 TB145 by other names, like "Spooky," "death comet," "the Halloween comet," and "the Great Pumpkin."

 

Naturally Infocult has already addressed 2015 TB145 last year.

(thanks to Chris Lott)

A new exhibit of skulls

The New York Times offers an excellent survey of a new, skull-themed exhibit from France.  Throughout her adult life Mathilde de Rothschild collected skull art, and the results are now on display in the Fondation Bemberg Musée in Toulouse.

(thanks to Tim Lepczyk via Twitter)

An Instagram death meme

From the frantic quest for Instagram fame comes a new idea.  Users ask followers to add "RIP" in their comments.

An early one framed this as a solution to a bad relationship:

Another use is more prosaic:

Another comment, on the "sneakernews" Instagram page (which has 7.5 million followers), "riccardomancaa" said, "Can y'all comment RIP on my latest photo so people think I'm dead and so I cannot go to school."

There's a playful, game-like aspect to this:

Karen North, a clinical professor of communication at USC Annenberg [explains:] "Because that's not part of a game. The game is to get people to comment, and the other game is to get people to fall for the fake report of your death."

Any medium will eventually turn to stories of death.  Any medium can be used for fakery and hoaxes.  It follows that the two can coincide.

(thanks to Elena Clark)

Scary clown story from Britain

Two British boys reported a disturbing encounter with a clown.

The boys were cycling in Joyden's Wood, near Dartford, when they were met by the clown.

They told police that he shouted "run or die!" and held something 'which looked like a knife'.

Perhaps it's a one-off, but it could also be a sign of another clown panic, a la 2016.

(thanks to Jesse "honk honk" Walker)

When generational relations turn Gothic

The most Gothic form of intergenerational tensions has become a rising business sector.  Wired reports on the boom in parabiosis companies: firms using young people's blood to address old folks' health problems.

There are many gory and hilarious aspects to this business.  Think of this finding from one startup, the vampirically named Ambrosia:“We measured 113 biomarkers 30 days after the transfusion and we saw a durable, but not permanent, effect".  i.e., a one-time shot of young blood isn't enough.  Something continuous is in order.

Or consider this brain function aspect: "Wyss-Coray, who worked next door to the lab where Wager began her parabiosis studies, showed in his own mouse-enstein experiments that young blood could improve memory and learning in older rodents."  There's something... poetic? ironic? about an older generation that criticizes a younger for having no attention span, then using the latter's blood to improve their own mental functioning.

Sadly, no one has selected the name Báthory for their brand.  Infocult wishes to offer this idea for any marketer, free of charge.

The world is Gothic, when you look at it the right way.