Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

City devoured by giant holes

Giant holes are devouring a Russian city.  Mines underneath Berezniki are collapsing, ripping holes in the surface as water surges through old tunnels.

Some are pretty big holes, too.  The hugest, nicknamed "The Grandfather,"

is now 340 yards wide and 430 yards long, and it plunges right to the salt strata underneath the city — 780 feet, or the equivalent of 50 stories, straight down.

The story also has some powerful Cold War Gothic:

Berezniki, a city of 154,000 that began as a labor camp, was built directly over the mine — a legacy of the Soviet policy of placing camps within marching distance of work areas...

the local government has moved some residents to new buildings constructed on top of the cemetery of the old gulag without moving the bones and that it is not paying fair compensation for condemned apartments.

Labor campus on top of mines.  Housing built on gulag dead.  What a grim symbol for multilayered horror and memory.

(thanks to Tanya, Jesse, and all other story-pointing friends of Infocult; images via BLDBLG and English Russia)

Fracking unlikely to release Cthulhu

Good news: fracking is fairly unlikely to unleash underground demons.

Roy Hobbs, an engineer with Shell, said: "By my calculations the Shadow Lord Cthulhu currently rests nine leagues deeper than the shale gas so I'm sure it'll be fine.

"Nevertheless, we have some of the best hooded, eyeless priests in the industry who will be on call 24 hours a day to maintain the sanctity of the work site through a series of incantations and holy artefacts, as well as checking for hard hats and security passes."

This lets us reinterpret some events in recent ecological history very nicely indeed:

residents of other shale gas sites are suing over fracking side-effects including earthquakes, exploding tap water and 120ft long tentacles pulling their house into the netherworld.

One Pennsylvania family were admitted to hospital after an unexplained outbreak of screaming succubae attached to their faces, which lawyers blamed on a nearby wind farm.

(thanks to Ed "Clean Cthulhu" Webb)

A Victorian ghost story puppet film

This trailer for The Narrative of Victor Karloch (forthcoming) looks fascinating:

(via Coilhouse)

From the inside of Laura Palmer

A blast from the past: Laura Palmer, Fire Walk With Me.  That's from Twin Peaks, kids:

The artist is Chris Buzelli.

(thanks to jason kielbasa)

Dolls vs dinosaur

Today in creepy doll stories we bring you "You Look Pale".  Let the author describe it:

I felt inclined to cast away the bulbous, gaseous and utterly inane humans and do with a more malleable, collected crew.  Further, what way to make something horrific then to do so by dolls.

Follow two humanoid dolls and their awful assailant here:

(thanks to Jim Groom's Twittery)

Teachers fear cyberbullying students?

A San Francisco school punished three students for Webbing up their criticisms of the school. Interestingly, the administration deemed this cyberbullying.

As Reason points out, there's something sad/comic about those in power (teachers, administrators) invoking legal protection from being "bullied" by those without power (students).  The story is also an example of how digital fears migrate from the original location - here, students bullying each other.

Ghost town microclimates

Ghost towns may generate their own microclimates, according to one University of Colorado scientist.

This study investigates whether declining populations affect local temperature patterns, creating a reverse urban heat island effect. This reversal has been demonstrated to exist in former Colorado mining towns whose populations have dramatically decreased in the last century.

It's not just an American West thing:

The research is currently being expanded into the "Rust Belt" regions of the U.S., focusing on how declining factory emissions (due to shutdowns) have altered the urban heat island effect.

Rust Belt Gothic.

Reminds me of that classic ghost story trope of the ominous cold spot.

(link via Bldgblog; image from krystian_o)

What lurks beneath the sweater vest?

Another American presidential candidates drops out of the Republican primary, and we naturally wonder if there's a zombie factor forthcoming.

(thanks to Ed "Brains a-plenty" Webb)

Happy Alien Easter

Have a very Infocult Easter, or "The crew of the USS Chocstromo really should have seen this coming":

EDITED TO ADD: Bonus from Randy McCall:

(via MetaFilter)

Science explores the uncanny valley

The uncanny valley makes sense to most of us, but is still largely unexplained, at least by science.

From the cognitive science perspective:

"If you look humanlike but your motion is jerky or you can't make proper eye contact, those are the things that make them uncanny," Saygin told InnovationNewsDaily. "I think the key is that when you make appearances humanlike, you raise expectations for the brain. When those expectations are not met, then you have the problem in the brain."

Mori's metaphor might not work beyond the heuristic level, at least for these scientists:

All Too Human Saygin and fellow researchers don't think the phenomenon follows the valley metaphor exactly. Instead, they suggest the uncanny valley sensation arises when an artificial figure looks or behaves real enough to trigger a mental switchover - the viewer's brain suddenly begins to consider the figure as a possible human. The artificial figure almost inevitably fails such close inspection.

(thanks to Ed Webb and all other friends of Infocult)