Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Ontario, world center for severed human body parts

Still more severed human body parts have appeared in central Canada.  This time it's two hands, and they surfaced not too far from last week's other Canadian human remains discovery.  

Maybe it's a pair.

It’s not clear if the left and right hands are from the same person as the severed foot and head, but it seems safe to assume so, [Sgt. Pete] Brandwood said. “The likelihood of it being the same person, common-sense wise, is probably pretty high...”

Probably no connection to that other, more recent case of Canadian severed limbs:

Brandwood said there is no indication the gruesome discoveries are the work of a copycat killer in the shadow of Luka Rocco Magnotta, who is accused of the murder and dismemberment of a Montreal student.

Canadian Gothic: as endless as the prairies, as chilling as the far North.

(thanks to Randy McCall; photo from Sarah Stierch)

The Dracula-Twilight connection

The relationship between Dracula and Twilight explained:

(thanks to Annette)

BBC ghost stories drifting onto DVDs

The British Film Institute is releasing a set of classic BBC ghost stories for DVD. I think they're all MR James adaptations, based on titles listed at that link ("Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You," "The Stalls of Barchester", "A Warning to the Curious"), which is good news.

(via Mark Wardecker)

Olympic Gothic, part 2

The glorious ruins of the Olympics: what happens to Olympic sites years after the games have finished?

Quiet, sad remnants of old power.

(thanks to Tony Frederick)

Your rolling doppelganger

How to make your own doppelganger?  Stick a tablet computer onto a Segue and call it Double.

I've seen examples of this in science fiction, mostly recently as part of the world in Alastair Reynolds' Blue Remembered Earth (2012).

(thanks to The Great Maker on Facebook)

Severed head, severed foot found in Canada

Canada continued its lead in the mysterious severed body part game this week.  First, a human foot appeared in a park in Mississauga, Ontario.  Next a severed head surfaced.

The modular question: "until pathology tests are done investigators cannot say if both the head and the foot are from the same person".

(thanks to Ed Webb and Randy McCall)

The Louisville Slicer

Striking out in style: behold the Louisville Decapitron.

Infocult: they never let us play sports anymore.

Apocalyptic cult emerges from underground

A Russian sect emerged from underground - literally.

[Fayzrahman Satarov's] followers were encouraged to read his manuscripts and most were banned from leaving their eight-storey underground bunker which had been dug in the basement of a building...

Seventy members of an Islamist sect who have been living in an underground bunker without heat or sunlight for nearly a decade have been discovered living on the outskirts of the city of Kazan in Russia, local media reported. The sect members included 20 children, the youngest of whom had just turned 18 months. Many of them were born underground and had never seen daylight until the prosecutors discovered their dwelling on August 1 and sent them for health checks.

A 17-year-old girl turned out to be pregnant.

Soviet Gothic, from the first days of the Cold War's end.

(thanks to Steven Kaye)

Small town Gothic

Alan Levine offers this microtale of American Gothic, "A Model City".

Look at how neat the mayor's house is, with the shiny brick facade and the rows of roses down the path. Out in the shed is a table with a note and a rope tossed over the rafters.

Leftover jars of brains

Here's a new twist on Cold War Gothic: a Soviet research team "hastily abandoned" its lab, leaving behind medical specimens.  Years later the remains are discovered, including jars of human brains.

For an additional Gothic touch, the story is clouded by doubt:

There are few details on this abandoned neuroscience lab, so we'll have to take the photographer's word that it's the real deal.

So many possibilities.  And which one of them belonged to an Abby Normal, hm?

(thanks, Saramin)