Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Sequential cannibalism in Pakistan

Pakistani police arrested a man for alleged cannibalism.  It's pretty horrific stuff:

Mohammad Arif Ali, who has previously admitted to cannibalism, was arrested when neighbours reported the stink of rotting flesh from his house.

Police say they recovered the severed head of the child from his house.

And it wasn't the first time Ali's been involved with long pig.

Arif Ali and his brother, Mohammad Farman Ali, were jailed for two years for stealing the body of a dead woman from her grave in 2011.

They later admitted to chopping her lower limbs and making them into meat curry. They were sentenced under the law of desecration of the grave, because Pakistan has no law relating to cannibalism.

Their sentences ended in May 2013. Their release from jail sparked public protests in Darya Khan town. The brothers have since kept a low profile, away from the public eye.

Have there been more news items about cannibalism of late?

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

A failed cannibal/vegan venture

PETA almost opened a restaurant on the site of Jeffrey Dahmer's old house.  Yes:

The plan was to call the restaurant "Eat for Life: Home Cooking" but zoning laws stood in their way.

Alas! 

(thanks to Todd "Gourmand" Bryant)

World War II Gothic in northern Russia

The Nazis built giant concrete circles north of Murmansk, and some remain visible today.

At least one set is entirely under water:

Imagine what stories might crop up around these circles as the decades advance.

Sinkhole attacks Kazakhstan

A sinkhole devoured a Kazakhstan house, as the Earth continued its war on humanity.

It went as deep as 330 feet down... The young homeowner, Anastasia, and her toddler survived: “I was at home and then suddenly the chandelier started shaking on the ceiling. I went outside and saw a hole behind the house.”

Watch this video through the end:

Be sure to note the crash sound, followed by the ascending plume.

We an Infocult have been watching the sinkhole campaign very closely.

 

The ruins of malls

Watch the continued decay of America's 20th-century mall culture on this page.

(thanks to Christel Broady via Facebook)

More books bound in human skin

There's been some web buzz about anthropodermic bibliopegy at Harvard this week.  This Atlantic piece is a good example, offering some good images and quotes.

"On examination of the bookbinding, numerous follicular ostia are clearly visible and provide a raised, coarse texture to the front and back covers," Harvard dermatologist Vinod Nambudiri writes. "The pages are gilt-edged. The bookbinding has an even, golden-brown background hue."

"Focal areas of darker brown pigmentation likely reflect variation in the literal 'skin tanning' process underlying the binding’s production and consequences of handling over the book’s existence rather than melanocytic proliferations in the native skin based on examination with epiluminescence microscopy."

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