Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

One real-life death ship

A boat washed up on Japan's coast with a grim cargo.  But let Daily Beast give us the Gothic entrée to the story:

Ghost Ship Carrying Human Heads Washes Up on Japanese Beach

NHK provides some details:

Japanese authorities have found 7 bodies in the remains of a wooden boat that washed ashore on the coast of Sado Island in the Sea of Japan.

A police officer on patrol found the bow of the boat close to shore in the Sobama District of Sado City on Friday.

Coast Guard officers suspect the bow was part of a North Korean boat.

The Coast Guard and police found seven partially skeletonized bodies inside the vessel during a search on Saturday morning.

DB adds that "two decapitated heads [were also found] on the ship..."

As one Twitter user observes, "The backwash of North Korea's terror state produces some incredibly metal headlines, you have to give them that".

(thanks to Jesse "Not a Fisherman" Walker)

The blood business revs up

Here's an article about the booming America business of selling blood.

Key Gothic details:

• Donors turned into zombies
• Poor people being exploited
• Outlaws ("The U.S. supplies fully 70 percent of the world’s plasma, mainly because most other countries have banned the practice on ethical and medical grounds")

(thanks to saramin)

Revenge of a sinkhole victim

Two years ago a California sinkhole swallowed up a car, nearly drowning its driver in water and sewage.

Stephanie Scott, a makeup artist, suffered brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder after she escaped from the sinkhole by pulling herself from her flipped SUV, according to her lawyers. She received help from fire rescue workers as the crater filled with raw sewage in February 2017.

Now the survivor received damages from the city of Los Angeles.

(thanks to Ed Webb)