Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

How to create a zombie bunny

Found on Twitter, an account of accidentally creating a zombie.  From a bunny, thanks to a cat and children:

The source is Facebook.  Will FB become the new "I heard this from my cousin's friend's hairdresser"?

(thanks to Neurovagrant)

The ghosts of LinkedIn

An Associated Press article describes "ghost accounts" on LinkedIn.  These are fictional profiles, possibly created by various intelligence agencies.

Katie Jones doesn’t exist, The Associated Press has determined. Instead, the persona was part of a vast army of phantom profiles lurking on the professional networking site LinkedIn. And several experts contacted by the AP said Jones’ profile picture appeared to have been created by a computer program.

(thanks to Jesse "Not Looking To Connect" Walker)

A cranial surprise

A New York surgical procedure was supposed to remove a patient's brain tumor.  But the medical team found something quite different.

Let's arrange the story in proper Gothic order.

First, the setting:

In September, scrubbed-up surgeons in an operating room at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City opened Palma’s cranium and steeled themselves for a malignant brain tumor, said Jonathan Rasouli, chief neurosurgery resident at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Next, the surprise:

But instead, Rasouli said, they saw an encapsulated mass resembling a quail egg.

“We were all saying, ‘What is this?’ ” Rasouli recalled Thursday in a phone interview with The Washington Post. “It was very shocking. We were scratching our heads, surprised at what it looked like.”

Then the revelation:

The surgeons removed it from Palma’s brain and placed it under a microscope to get a closer look. Then they sliced into it — and found a baby tapeworm.

Behold:

We at Infocult are all about scary stories, and are therefore pleased to see the patient anticipating us:

“I want people to understand that this was such a rare occurrence,” Palma said about the tapeworm that was in her brain. “Every headache is not going to be a parasite.”

(thanks to Steven "My Brain Hurts" Kaye)

Climate change Gothic: ghost forests

Climate change is starting to show Gothic aspects.  In North America people have observed ghost forests, stands of trees killed off by salt water seeping into their roots.

 

As saltwater seeps into the forest soils, the trees die of thirst because their roots cannot take up water with high salt content. They may grow weak and die slowly, or, if a storm brings in a flood of seawater, a whole stand of trees might drown at once. What’s left behind are bare trunks and branches—a ghost forest...

Another real-world Gothic theme for us to follow.

(thanks to Steven "Ghostfinder general" Kaye)

When ancient ghosts peer out from carved eyeholes

Recent archaeology continues to give us glimpses of the disturbing past.  For example, deer skull headgear from 11,000 BCE, possibly worn for ritual use.

Here's one that's extraordinarily well preserved:

Archaeologists have a tendency to associate non-utile pre-agricultural artifacts to religion, but the Cambridge archaeologists involved at Star Carr raised the postulation that the deer headdresses “may have been items of camouflage worn while hunting.” While the visual of 30 plus hunters creeping through a woodland dressed as deer sets one’s imagination on fire, Dr Joy told reporters that “part of the antlers were removed… One suspects the deer wouldn’t have been fooled!”

Humanity has always been Gothic.

(via the Green Mountains of Madness Facebook group)