Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

The Cthulhu tie

Call it the Lovecraft knot:

(thanks to Seb Paquet over on the Facebook)

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)