Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Sinkholes now open up in Texas

The Earth expanded her ongoing campaign against the human race by opening up new sinkholes, this time in Texas.

There are two, and they are large: "One sinkhole, discovered in 1980 is 360 feet across, about the size of a football field, and the other is 670-900 feet across and was found in 2002..."

And now they are expanding, and could combine:

The study states there is a lot of oil and gas production equipment and installations and hazardous liquid pipelines in the area and when fresh water is injected underground, it "can dissolve the interbedded salt layers and accelerate the sinkhole collapse..."

The sinkholes are located a mile apart and sit between Wink and Kermit off I-20 west of Midland-Odessa, and could converge into one huge hole, a new study released by researchers at Southern Methodist University found.

Previous reports from Gaea's vengeance can be found here.

(thanks to Justin Kirkes)

Haunting for preservation

A Czech artist staged a ghostly presence at a local church.  The aesthetic effect is good - 

and so is the historical preservation impact:

 

His concept – nine hooded phantoms created from plaster and brought to ‘life’ by eerie lighting – has proved a big hit, drawing tourists from all over the world whose donations have helped keep the Church of the Nine Ghosts open.

(thanks to Jeff Viggiano)

The Earth opens up new sinkholes in Indiana

Sinkholes appeared under Indiana sand dunes, as Gaea continued her war against the human race.

It's an intriguing approach, nearly Lovecraftian:

[S]and-covered trees... left cavities behind as they decayed over the years, researchers have found.

Fungi on the covered trees formed a sort of cement that allowed the sand to keep its hollowed out shape as the wood decayed and collapsed inward, leaving holes more than 10 feet (3 meters) deep...

(thanks to Steven Kaye)

Sinkhole to stabilize in Louisiana

An already existing sinkhole in Louisiana continues to expand.  Bayou Corne (which has its own Facebook page) has been growing since it first tore open the Earth:

Assumption Parish Government officials say it has grown between 1 1/2 and 2 feet since last year, now up to about 35 acres.

But the Earth has other ideas, and is stabilizing the vast hole:

Seismic testing has shown decreasing action over the last year. Previous tests have indicated that there are no further voids that would cause another hole in the area. Other scientific modeling has suggested the hole will not reach the nearby highway or the Bayou Corne waterway.

It’s that stability that has led the parish government to slowly drop mandatory evacuation orders to voluntary evacuations.

(thanks to Steven Kaye)

 

Sinkhole opens up under Ottowa

The Earth continued her campaign against the human race this week, opening up a new front in that land of mysterious hums and severed limbs, Canada.

A massive sinkhole opened up on a main street in the Canadian capital of Ottawa causing a gas leak and evacuations of nearby businesses and office blocks.

The incident took place on the corner of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive next to a shopping mall and near several important government buildings.

City officials do yet know what caused the sinkhole and refuse to speculate where the nearby construction of the new light rail system.

[is a verb or clause missing from the last sentence?)

it looked like this:

Fearing horrific live streaming

Whenever we invent a new technology, we think of new ways to fear it.  Today's case in point involves people live-streaming horrific events.  

The Washington Post notes examples, including when "a woman live-streamed her suicide, a teenager broadcast her friend’s rape, and a man narrated his standoff with a Florida SWAT team."  And:

In one disturbing incident on May 9, 30-year-old Adam Mayo barricaded himself in his house and sent a series of nine live broadcasts showing his armed standoff with Tampa police. Despite the fact that Mayo brandished a handgun, and repeatedly promised to start shooting — “Miss,” he yells at one point, “you got a body bag ready?” — Facebook moderators didn’t step in to shut down the stream.

A day after that, on May 10, a 19-year-old French woman used Periscope to broadcast the hours leading up to her suicide, as well as the event itself.

The Post then raises the classic medicalization metaphor:

while there’s no research on streaming video specifically, there’s plenty of research to suggest that graphic, widely circulated media can have a dangerous public-health effect: Videos about gun violence or self-harm tend to be “contagious.”

To her credit, Caitlin Dewey also cites people who think this emerging fear is already overblown.