Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Beware the fetal food menace

One American state lawmaker introduced a measure to prevent a very Gothic thing: the presence of human fetal matter in food.

Freshman Sen. Ralph Shortey said his own Internet research led him to believe such a ban is necessary and prompted him to offer the bill aimed at raising "public awareness" and giving an "ultimatum to companies" that might consider such a policy.

The amount of matter is, or would be, quite small:

Shortey said he discovered suggestions online that some companies use embryonic stem cells to develop artificial flavors, but added that he is unaware of any Oklahoma companies doing such research.

Alas for real-life Gothic, this is apparently just a fantasy or urban legend.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy said: "FDA is not aware of this particular concern."

Infocult: we see the Gothic dreams in lawmakers' heads.

Death by gaming

Another East Asian man dies while playing computer games.

Besides the games-are-scary theme, there's a leftover corpse horror level:

A 23-year old League of Legends player named Chen Rong-yu was found dead, sitting upright in his chair, in an Internet cafe in Taiwan. According to the report from Sky News, the young man could have been dead for up to 9 hours before anyone took notice.

MSNBC brings these two levels together very neatly, in mordant Gothic fashion:

Chen Rong-yu, 23, checked into a cafe on Tuesday night, where he would spend the rest of his life.

Apparently the poor man died from heart failure, or blood clots, either caused by... sitting around too much.  I will wait for the next campaign against things-which-make-us-sit-down-too-long.

(thanks to Todd Bryant; image via League of Legends Wiki)

From horror radio to horror comics

A dark current of productive influence ran from American radio to horror comics.  Classic audio theater from the 30s and 40s fed the rising comic industry.

Examples:

Lights Out, May 18, 1943, "The Spider": Two men discover and try to capture a giant spider the size of a dog, with grim results. The same plot occurs in "Sucker for a Spider", EC's Tales from the Crypt 29, 1952.

Lights Out, December 1, 1942, "The Story of Mr. Maggs": A haunted chest murders the occupants of a house one at a time. Also "The Visiting Corpse" (from Mysterious Traveler, August 10, 1948): A man kills his wife and hides her dismembered corpse in a trunk before being forced to hid the trunk and getting crushed to death by it when he falls down a flight of stairs dragging it down to the basement. Those two stories are echoed in "Tight Grip", EC's Tales from the Crypt 38, 1953.

The Strange Dr. Weird, December 19, 1944, "White Pearls of Terror": A ruthless criminal takes refuge on a remote island only to realize too late that he has disembarked on a leper colony. The same plot is recycled in "A Rottin' Trick" EC's Tales from the Crypt 29, April 1952.

Gothic media circulation is a terrific subject.  It's important to investigate how creepy stories and memes migrated across platforms: movies, radio, newspaper, magazines, urban legends, books, games, music.

(via SFFAudio)

Silence from the hidden lake expedition

The Lake Vostok expedition fell silent, right after launching their final probe into that mysterious body of water.

What a dramatic moment!  Such a fine pulp tale, drawing on classic Gothic themes.

Fortunately the Russian team is actually safe.  Their silence was caused by just being very busy., and fears of alien invasion are more likely to run the other way.  Still, we had an Infocult moment, if only for a little while.  

(via This Week in the Future)

Newt Gingrinch, Gothic horror candidate

A host of Gothic monsters have settled around Newt Gingrinch's sprawling shoulders this week.  The Huffington Post has fun aggregating them, starting with "Gingrich has clawed his way back from the grave again and again."

• ...zombie ("one Newt-observer related to Karl Rove, "He looks enraged. He looks like a man in a full ski-mask and a chainsaw in his hand.'")
• 
  ...ghoul + zombie ("the cold, unthinking drive of a zombified ghoul")
• ...immortal monster ("the unkillable Newt Gingrich"_
• ...Whatever this is: "he will stay in the race until his spirit is crushed and his body is ground to dust"

(thanks to Ed Webb's Diigo; hearty image via 'pedia)

Today's fine zombie plan

Repurposing old tech to fend off the zombie menace:

(via Ainsley Cripps