Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Giant Legos wash ashore

A giant Lego-like statue has been invading world beaches.  It appeared in Florida - of course - most recently:

No severed feet, you will note.

(thanks to Thomas Burkdall, Occidental College)

Teaching emergency response with a zombie attack

Zombie pedagogy for disaster prep?  An Ohio project uses a fun zombie event to teach emergency response.

From the official site:

Delaware County Emergency Management Agency wants you to die this Halloween. [!]

Ok, not really. But we would like you to come out and play one of the 250 "living dead" that we need for our Zombie Hazardous Materials Exercise.

Kudos on the fine logo (on left).

(via PAXsims)

Death by computer games, continued

A man is sentenced to prison for murdering his son.  The important bit?  He was playing a video game.

In the article's fonts:

Man sentenced to 27 years for killing infant son during video game

Gamer, 19, pleads guilty to second-degree murder

Later on:

Johnston gave a written statement saying he became irritated when the infant was crying in his bassinet, interfering with Johnston's playing of video games... 

Would this article have been newsworthy without the video game angle?  If the wonted focus was, say, tv or a friend, would MSNBC have rolled out the fonts?

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Zombies on the right

Zombies summoned by Dr. Caligari via weird concoctions, mind control, and voodoo mobs: more Gothic politics.  In this Antiwar.com article the zombies are creatures of the right, mobilized to gnaw at Occupy Wall Street.

Vlahos breaks down her zombies into two categories, quick and slow:

rapacious zombies look almost virtuous compared to the slow-moving ones, however. Establishment types — those who have “made it” and whose identities and livelihoods depend on the corporate wheel turning in rhythm with the political powers and authority invested in Washington, Hollywood, and New York — are typically slow to bare teeth over such issues, but they smell their own lifeblood at risk now and have responded with sanctimonious lectures and smug, condescending putdowns of the Occupy rallies.

For instance:

These include people like New York Times editor Bill Keller, who in essence said the protests are boring, and the Washington Post’s Anne Applebaum, who claims they will “hurt democracy.” Even naughty Howard “King of Media” Stern, typically a beacon for the disaffected fringe, has dismissed the demonstrators as “foolish dirty hippies who have no idea what is going on in the world.” But with an estimated $400 million Sirius XM radio contract, he certainly knows where his bread is buttered, and it’s clearly not on the side of the rabble screaming “oligarchy!” at the base of his penthouse tower.

I really like the idea of ZRF - zombie radio frequency.

(thanks to Jesse Walker)

Haunted Lego houses, continued

Another haunted house, built of pure Gothic Lego goodness:

We previously noted earlier instances of this project.

(via Master Xirdalium)

Haunting a media house: BlackBxx

Telling a haunted house story through rich, multipoint media is the aim of BlackBxx. It's not done yet, but the concept is afloat, and Kickstarter the venue for raising funds. 

The Gothic concept and media strategy are familiar:

a supernatural thriller in which a paranormal investigation goes tragically wrong, the entire story is confined to the eight rooms of a suburban house, each covered by several video cameras.

The new media angle is also familiar, at least from its predecessors in digital cinema:

a narrative in real time from every possible point-of-view, put it up on the internet, and let each user experience it on his or her own terms.

Let's see if it gets made.

(thanks to Jesse Walker)

iPhone of the dead

Fear in a speaking handheld:

(thanks, Colin)

Darknet vs Lolita City

Hackers vs pedophiles!  An Anonymous swarm goes after some kiddie porn networks, and it's like a cage match of fearsome internet monsters.  Anonymous hunts the "sick and sadistic abominations of the world":

Anonymous’ attack was focused on a hosting service called Freedom Hosting, which the group claims was the largest host of child pornography on Tor’s anonymized network. “By taking down Freedom Hosting, we are eliminating 40+ child pornography websites,” Anonymous claimed in its statement. “Among these is Lolita City, one of the largest child pornography websites to date, containing more than 100GB of child pornography.”

How will fearsome-internet-focused mainstream media cover this story?

The entity which bestrides our narrow world like a colossus

The world is run by a powerful, complex organism, according to a 2011 paper.  

It's a titanic cluster of power, a mighty super-entity.  Behold our global overlords! ... mapped by connections:

147 transnational corporations control the majority of the global economy, and largely direct human affairs.

The paper has some flaws.  The 2007 data's a bit out of date - Lehman Brothers no longer commands the heights, to put it delicately.  And it's possible to overstate the power of connections, when many of them are also relationships of intense competition.  But the shape remains, describing a powerful aggregation of resources and influence.

There's a bit of plup villainy involved, once connections are mapped closely.  The bad guys sport a bow tie shape:

Can we find some railway tracks to tie a helpless heroine upon?

"The network of global corporate control." Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston.

(thanks to Jesse Walker)

Make yourself a simulated GF

More digital artificial beings: Fake Girlfriend.co provides lonely folks with a pretend partner.  At least, a named girlfriend who sends text messages, letting one pretend they have a significant other.  

(thanks to Todd Bryant)