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RevSyd posted:Here's the definitive book on that scenario: Motel of the Mysteries, which is about a famous archaeological discovery in the year 4022. I like that this book is somehow the #1 bestseller in gay & lesbian literary criticism.
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Sep 13, 2014 17:22
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RevSyd posted:Here's the definitive book on that scenario: Motel of the Mysteries, which is about a famous archaeological discovery in the year 4022. I remember this was on the shelf of my 7th grade english class. I also remember Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials showed up during our science fiction unit. That was a cool class, though I didn't really notice it at the time.
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Sep 13, 2014 17:28
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Getting kinda Fallout up in here.
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Sep 13, 2014 17:36
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LoonShia posted:Getting kinda Fallout up in here. It's fine, you just knock the skeleton off the bed and now you have a free motel room! On that note, I don't know if it's been posted before but I found series of Chernobyl photos in another thread along with captions telling the story. This one is post accident, while the other two in the series are interesting before-accident photos of the plant and Pripyat. Apparently some guy is compiling them for a book. Most of it is just rubble but there is one pretty  photo of one of the liquidators in the hospital so be warned.
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Sep 13, 2014 17:53
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Literally Kermit posted:
Ahh, the great and terrible plague of "FREE".
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Sep 13, 2014 18:36
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The_Raven posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Benders This page has some amazing citations I got lost in for a while, like this ye olde news paper: http://genealogytrails.com/kan/montgomery/newsarticles1.html which on its own is worth a bookmark: quote:BABY DROWNS IN A JAR And a page with colorful descriptions like this: http://www.leatherockhotel.com/KateBender.htm quote:Kate was about 5 feet 6, slender and buxom. She held herself proudly erect, head high. She had flashing, alert deep hazel eyes. Her hair was her crowning glory. It was a deep auburn, coppery in the shadows, flashing red-gold, glinting in the sunlight, a sleek, silken crest. Her lips were red, very red and pouting. It was a mouth to disturb the dreams of the young men who saw her. And this was weird but unfortunately not cited -- they found a guy killed in the same method (skull crushed, throat slit) a year before the Bender family supposedly moved to the area. I suppose skull crushing + throat slitting could have been a common way to kill people back then. quote:1869: Joe Sowers.[citation needed] Found with a crushed skull and throat cut but not believed to be a Bender victim (the Benders did not arrive in Labette County until 1870). Overall I enjoyed that wiki page very much.
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Sep 13, 2014 18:43
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I thought it would be fun to highlight some creepy/disturbing stories from previous generations.  Judge Crater, whose mysterious disappearance in 1930 made it into popular myth. "Though no longer in wide use, the phrase "to pull a Crater" means to disappear. For many years following Crater's disappearance, "Judge Crater, call your office" was a standard gag of nightclub comedians. To promote the 1933 film Bureau of Missing Persons, Warner Bros. advertised they would pay $10,000 ... to Crater if he claimed it in person at the box office." He was last seen leaving a nightclub, then ... nothing. It was very likely a mob hit. He'd spent two hours destroying all the documents in his office. Then he withdrew $5150 in cash (then a lot of money). This strongly implies that he was planning to run somewhere at the time. He hung out with a dubious crowd. His coat was later found in the home of a woman who'd offered to testify about Tammany graft; she was murdered five days after making the offer. Benjamin Bathurst, a Napoleonic-era British diplomat who got into a carriage and then ... vanished. Much play of this was later made by mystery-hunter Charles Fort; the elaborated version was that Bathurst walked around a horse and then vanished. He was murdered. His expensive fur coat was found hidden in an outhouse; it had been taken by a servant and given to her son. His pantaloons were found three miles away. In 1852, a skeleton with a skull injury was found "three hundred paces away", concealed under stable previously owned by a serving man at the inn. The servants' enthusiasm for pillaging his clothes suggests very strongly that they knew he wasn't coming back. Ambrose Bierce, an American writer who travelled into Mexico and then ... vanished. His last letter, written from Chihuahua in December 1913, closed "After closing this letter by saying, "As to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination." Bierce was travelling with Pancho Villa's army during Mexican Revolution of 1910. Any disappearance under these circumstances doesn't really qualify as unexplained, does it?
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Sep 13, 2014 19:19
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RevSyd posted:Here's the definitive book on that scenario: Motel of the Mysteries, which is about a famous archaeological discovery in the year 4022. I just bought this book in hardcover thanks to this post.
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Sep 13, 2014 19:34
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Why the hell is the book in Gay & Lesbian Literary Criticism category at Amazon?
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Sep 13, 2014 20:08
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:I just bought this book in hardcover thanks to this post. God forbid I derail further, but you are just getting started. David Macaulay was one of my favorite illustrators growing up! I recommend Unbuilding which is only really unnerving to me, because I am very fond of the Empire State Building and for some reason the idea of it being willfully and slowly torn down upset me as a kid. (The premise was it was bought up by an American-raised Saudi prince, and I completely missed the part that he tore it down in order to ship it to and rebuild it in Saudi Arabia!). He had to "unbuild" it the reverse order it was constructed, which admittedly had more impact for than watching them build it from scratch. For building poo poo from scratch and by old school methods, he has a poo poo ton of those, as well. Castle, Cathedral, Mill, City (Roman edition) and so on and so on. Probably his best known book is 'The Way Things Work' and oh my god what is this there's a new edition of it oh god yes. TELL ME EVERYTHING, RAD MAMMOTHS OF ME MISSPENT YOUTH!  Okay now what can you tiny little people tell me about the inclined plane?  Yes. YES. Giant hand guy?  Present and accounted for. I am whole once again.  But, I digress!Here's one of his illustrations from Cathedral:  Go buy all the books. Okay Derail Now Ends post more volcanic bog mummy serial killers tia.
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Sep 13, 2014 20:51
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Holy poo poo, that's a blast from the past. I had a CD called something like 'How it's made', but probably not that, full of his stuff, lots of it animated. In the topic of Chernobyl: I know there's not many disasters on the same scale, but I can't imagine any other country finding that many people willing to do a job they knew (I assume) would probably result in their deaths. Has there ever been anything requiring people like the liquidators? Also, pictures like those at and make me wonder how the USSR didn't take over the world. With a labour force like that and some of the world's best STEM types. Was it just really inefficient at actually moving all the capital around the country to where it was needed? Praseodymi has a new favorite as of 21:03 on Sep 13, 2014 |
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Sep 13, 2014 20:57
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Actually, the animated "How It's Made" was made in collaboration with Macaulay; at least, I owned a similar computer game that was. I think it even had the mammoths. Obligatory scary: Methods of execution are depressing. Go read up on breaking on the wheel, which was done well into the 1700s. The ideal was to break all the major bones and the spine without killing the victim immediately; one guy lived for three days. 
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Sep 13, 2014 21:28
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Praseodymi posted:
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Sep 13, 2014 21:36
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Praseodymi posted:Holy poo poo, that's a blast from the past. I had a CD called something like 'How it's made', but probably not that, full of his stuff, lots of it animated. A lot of them were purposefully not informed of exactly how dangerous it was so they didn't really know the risks. For instance, some of the firefighters that first responded had no idea the reactor had blown or that the smoke was dangerously radioactive, so they went in thinking it was a big electrical fire or something. The only reason Russia made the accident public at all was because foreign countries picked up the radiation release. Plus if the Soviet government came to you with orders to go to Chernobyl I'm guessing refusing wasn't really an option. Not that there were no volunteers at all, just there was definitely coercion going on too. Kimmalah has a new favorite as of 21:53 on Sep 13, 2014 |
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Sep 13, 2014 21:50
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That's just reminded me, there was a brilliant BBC documentary, I think it was meant to be 15 years on, it mainly focused on the scientists who were researching and sorting out the containment effort. It was on Google videos, but now that's gone, and I don't remember what it was called. There were some scientists in the documentary, and they definitely knew the dangers. Pretty sure they all died of cancer, poor guys  .
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Sep 13, 2014 21:58
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Helena Handbasket posted:Creepy stuff about Disappearance of Maura Murray. Sounds like she was preparing to run out on her old life then she pranged the car while drunk. I suppose she made a dash for somewhere...but never made it. Unless she hitchhiked somewhere and started a new life. Let's hope so. Remind me not to read this stuff just before bedtime....
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Sep 13, 2014 22:06
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Praseodymi posted:That's just reminded me, there was a brilliant BBC documentary, I think it was meant to be 15 years on, it mainly focused on the scientists who were researching and sorting out the containment effort. It was on Google videos, but now that's gone, and I don't remember what it was called. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Ey_vCn-iU
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Sep 13, 2014 22:48
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bonestructure posted:As for Maura, I think she had a drinking problem herself, she definitely had an unhealthy relationship with her father (though I don't agree with Renner and his hints about sexual abuse) and she had money troubles and minor legal troubles (she used the credit card of another student in her dorm to order takeout food, that's it.) She took off with a carful of booze that she was possibly drinking as she drove, she had a fender-bender on an icy, rural road, and I think she wandered off into the woods and froze to death. There's a lot of other weird, creepy poo poo around her disappearance, but I think it only becomes weird and creepy in the context that she disappeared. I'm glad somebody else is intrigued by this case. I agree that it's hard to sort important from unimportant with Maura Murray. E.g. when I was writing that post, I saw some references to the potential significance of her "clearing out her bank account," which seems to refer to the fact that she took $280 out of an ATM and left almost nothing in her account, but she had some paychecks incoming. If I had disappeared during any random weekend in college, and payday was soon, they would have noticed that I had also "cleared out" my bank account. College kids, not usually maintaining a healthy cushion of savings.
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Sep 14, 2014 01:47
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I'm Crap posted:Do you mean this? If I recall correctly, they all died of strokes and heart failure, which I suppose isn't too surprising when you combine a really unpleasant, stressful job with the amount they appear to smoke. I think it was a follow up to that one. I seem to remember it had a woman narrating, but it had clips from the one you linked. E: Yeah, I remember them quoting the guy at the end saying there had been no instances of acute radiation sickness among his men. Praseodymi has a new favorite as of 11:19 on Sep 14, 2014 |
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Sep 14, 2014 11:12
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I'm Crap posted:Do you mean this? If I recall correctly, they all died of strokes and heart failure, which I suppose isn't too surprising when you combine a really unpleasant, stressful job with the amount they appear to smoke. While we're on the topic of Chernobyl, I simply can't resist quoting this passage from the excellent and highly unnerving Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters by James Mahaffey, because it is just so  quote:Two men, Protosov, a maintenance worker, and Pustovoit, who was the “odd-job” man at the plant, were night-fishing on the bank of the coolant run-off pond, right where the plant outflow occurs, 1.25 miles from the plant. The fish really liked the warm water, and it was a clear, starry night. It seemed like the middle of summer, and the fish were cooperating. quote:“It’s just like a mule. A mule is a docile, patient beast, and he will give you power to pull a plow for decades, but he wants to kill you. He waits for years and years for that rare, opportune moment when he can turn your lights out with a simple kick to the head."
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Sep 15, 2014 13:26
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RevSyd posted:While we're on the topic of Chernobyl, I simply can't resist quoting this passage from the excellent and highly unnerving Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters by James Mahaffey, because it is just so Goddamn, you're not kidding. "Eh, no biggie happens all the time. Pass me some more bait." 
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Sep 15, 2014 13:40
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Kimmalah posted:Goddamn, you're not kidding. "Eh, no biggie happens all the time. Pass me some more bait." Most Russians would probably have the same reaction to a bear coming up and screaming in their face. Living in Russia requires you to learn how to handle the craziest thing you've ever seen being replaced every hour.
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Sep 15, 2014 14:02
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Lumberjack Bonanza posted:Most Russians would probably have the same reaction to a bear coming up and screaming in their face. Living in Russia requires you to learn how to handle the craziest thing you've ever seen being replaced every hour. Oh I know, I'm not surprised. But it still cracks me up that apparently disasters were so common at the plant that something that huge could be just "Oh well, another day at Chernobyl." Also a little frightening too I guess.
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Sep 15, 2014 14:18
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Kimmalah posted:Oh I know, I'm not surprised. But it still cracks me up that apparently disasters were so common at the plant that something that huge could be just "Oh well, another day at Chernobyl." Also a little frightening too I guess. Yeah, it's seriously hosed that fires were commonplace at the plant. The more you hear about working conditions there, the more you wonder why it took so long for the place to meltdown catastrophically.
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Sep 15, 2014 14:21
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Lumberjack Bonanza posted:Yeah, it's seriously hosed that fires were commonplace at the plant. The more you hear about working conditions there, the more you wonder why it took so long for the place to meltdown catastrophically. Apparently they actually had a partial core meltdown in another reactor in 1982. But they just fixed it and acted like it didn't happen. The plant also stayed in operation after the disaster for a few years, enough for reactor 2's turbine hall to catch on fire in 1991. 
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Sep 15, 2014 14:30
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From a list of "10 Terrifying True Stories That Deserve Horror Movie Adaptations." Sorry if any of these have been posted: The death of Elisa Lam, recounted on the wiki page for LA's Cecil Hotel  quote:In February 2013, the body of Elisa Lam, a 21-year-old Canadian student, was found inside one of the water supply tanks on the hotel roof. Lam went missing January 31, and her decomposed body was discovered on February 19 by a maintenance worker in one of the rooftop water tanks of Los Angeles' Cecil Hotel, after guests had complained about low water pressure and water that "tasted funny".  quote:Authorities later ruled Lam's death as an accidental drowning. Video surveillance footage taken from inside an elevator showed Lam acting strangely, pressing multiple elevator buttons, hiding in the corner of the elevator, and waving her arms wildly, causing widespread speculation about the cause of her death. Lam had a history of bipolar disorder, which could have contributed to her death as well as her strange behavior in the elevator. Here's the video of her elevator antics. The hotel ended up having to change its name because of this incident. The "Silent Twins," June and Jennifer Gibbons of Wales  quote:As the only black children in the community, they were ostracized at school. This proved traumatic for the twins, eventually causing their school administrators to dismiss them early each day so that they might avoid bullying. Their language became even more idiosyncratic at this time. Soon it was unintelligible to others. Their language, or idioglossia, qualified as an example of cryptophasia, exemplified by the twins' simultaneous actions, which often mirrored each other. It came to pass that the twins spoke to no one except each other and their younger sister Rose. They began writing novels, with often strange and violent themes, but after their writing careers failed to take off, they "committed a number of crimes including arson" and were sent to a mental hospital. Then, at age 30... quote:According to Wallace, the girls had a long agreement that if one died, the other must begin to speak and live a normal life. During their stay in the hospital, they began to believe that it was necessary for one twin to die, and after much discussion, Jennifer agreed to be the sacrifice. In March 1993, the twins were transferred from Broadmoor to the more open Caswell Clinic in Bridgend, Wales; on arrival Jennifer could not be roused. She was taken to the hospital where she died soon after of acute myocarditis, a sudden inflammation of the heart. There was no evidence of drugs or poison in her system, and her death remains a mystery. On a visit a few days later, Wallace recounted that June "was in a strange mood. She said, 'I'm free at last, liberated, and at last Jennifer has given up her life for me.'" That's sweet, I guess.
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Sep 15, 2014 15:32
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RevSyd posted:While we're on the topic of Chernobyl, I simply can't resist quoting this passage from the excellent and highly unnerving Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters by James Mahaffey, because it is just so  I know what I'm going to be thinking about the next time I go fishing.
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Sep 15, 2014 18:00
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Wildeyes posted:From a list of "10 Terrifying True Stories That Deserve Horror Movie Adaptations." Sorry if any of these have been posted: Not really an exact recreation, but they sort of already did make a horror movie about something like this except it was a little kid in an apartment complex water tank (who later haunts the place).  They even did an American remake.
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Sep 15, 2014 19:18
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Wildeyes posted:From a list of "10 Terrifying True Stories That Deserve Horror Movie Adaptations." Sorry if any of these have been posted: The video of her in the elevator is nothing short of unsettling. You tell me when the last time you walked onto an elevator and pressed the button for your floor, and nothing happened. She becomes agitated (as would I) and walks around, peeking out to see if there is someone or something down the hall. Eventually, since the elevator continues to refuse to do the one thing it's designed and maintained to do, she leaves and walks off, never to be seen alive again. And then the elevator doors close. It's stronger proof to me that supernatural poo poo might exist than any UFO abduction story or other spiritual phenomena. Not that there haven't been other instances of elevators not doing what they should, but that being the last image of her before winding up in a water tank is pretty creepy. That image also shows how tall the cisterns are, and how small their openings are. Still ruled as an accidental death, so I hope she was able to get away from whatever she was hiding from.
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Sep 15, 2014 19:47
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Is a machine not operating properly? Supernatural proof right there folks.
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Sep 15, 2014 19:55
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RCarr posted:Is a machine not operating properly? Supernatural proof right there folks. Its the intent of the malfunctioning machine. Obviously ghosts. Ghosts or demons. Or gremlins.
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Sep 15, 2014 20:25
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We really need a true crime thread.quote:The Murder of a Daughter Also, we just passed September 8th, the anniversary (1642, New England) of one of the first executions in what is now the US. quote:Ther was a youth whose name was Thomas Granger; he was servant to an honest man of Duxbery, being aboute 16 or 17 years of age. (His father and mother lived at the same time at Sityate.) He was this year detected of buggery (and indicted for the same) with a mare, a cowe, tow goats, five sheep, 2 calves, and a turkey. Horrible it is to mention, but the truth of the historie requires it. He was first discovered by one that accidentally saw his lewd practise towards the mare. (I forbear perticulers.) Being upon it examined and committed, in the end he not only confest the fact with that beast at that time, but sundrie times before, and at severall times with all the rest of the forenamed in his indictmente; and this his free-confession was not only in private to the magistrates, (though at first he strived to deney it,) but to sundrie, both ministers and others, and afterwards, upon his indictemente, to the whole court and jury; and confirmed it at his execution. And whereas some of the sheep could not so well be knowne by his description of them, others with them were brought before him, and he declared which were they, and which were not. And accordingly he was cast by the jury, and condemned, and after executed about the 8 of Sept 1642. A very sade spectakle it was; for first the mare, and then the cowe, and the rest of the lesser catle, were kild before his face, according to the law, Levit: 20.15 and then he him selfe was executed.* The catle were all cast into a great and large pitte that was digged of purposs for them, and no use made of any part of them. Nckdictator has a new favorite as of 20:39 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 20:30
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Nckdictator posted:Also, we just passed September 8th, the anniversary (1642, New England) of one of the first executions in what is now the US. Man, furries had it rough in colonial New England.
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Sep 15, 2014 20:55
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LawfulWaffle posted:The video of her in the elevator is nothing short of unsettling. You tell me when the last time you walked onto an elevator and pressed the button for your floor, and nothing happened. She becomes agitated (as would I) and walks around, peeking out to see if there is someone or something down the hall. Eventually, since the elevator continues to refuse to do the one thing it's designed and maintained to do, she leaves and walks off, never to be seen alive again. And then the elevator doors close. It is unsettling, but I think you're seeing what you want to see. When I watch that video, I see someone acting very strangely, not someone who pressed a button and then gets frustrated when the elevator door doesn't close. First of all, she hunches way over awkwardly, puts her face about 6 inches from the buttons, and then proceeds to press 5 or 6 of them, only 3 or 4 of which light up. One of these buttons was likely a "stop" or "hold" button on the elevator. Then she starts alternately hiding and popping in and out of the elevator before pressing all the buttons 2 or 3 more times. She doesn't appear to be afraid of anything. She eventually leaves after standing outside of the elevator gesticulating to no one in particular for a good 30 seconds. I don't think any of this indicates a person who's in their right mind. Or, you know... ghosts or something.
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Sep 15, 2014 21:01
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LawfulWaffle posted:The video of her in the elevator is nothing short of unsettling. You tell me when the last time you walked onto an elevator and pressed the button for your floor, and nothing happened. She becomes agitated (as would I) and walks around, peeking out to see if there is someone or something down the hall. Eventually, since the elevator continues to refuse to do the one thing it's designed and maintained to do, she leaves and walks off, never to be seen alive again. And then the elevator doors close. She also had a history of bipolar disorder, which in its manic phase can manifest as really strange behavior or outright psychosis. It was also an old hotel, with elevators that were also probably old (as in they were probably just lovely elevators, not haunted elevators).
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Sep 15, 2014 21:44
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Nckdictator posted:We really need a true crime thread. There's an idea. Wildeyes posted:The "Silent Twins," June and Jennifer Gibbons of Wales The movie based on this case is pretty good, too.
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Sep 15, 2014 21:47
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M.C. McMic posted:It is unsettling, but I think you're seeing what you want to see. Considering that the buttons are so low down and there appears to be a couple rows of buttons at a normal level above them, all the buttons she was pressing were likely service buttons to stop or hold the elevator. Not very surprising in that context that the doors did not close.
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Sep 15, 2014 21:47
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Wildeyes posted:The death of Elisa Lam, recounted on the wiki page for LA's Cecil Hotel I just rewatched the video of her in the elevator and a lot of her weird actions look to me like something I would do if the elevator wasn't doing what I expected and I was trying to make sure I wasn't still standing in the sensors or something. Stuff like pressing myself in the corner or smacking buttons or waving my hands around near the door seem silly but make sense, to me at least. Not to say that's what she's doing, just that I now realise were I to disappear after using a malfunctioning elevator somewhere, people would probably think I had been murdered by vengeful ghosts or something too.
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Sep 16, 2014 02:00
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Kimmalah posted:She also had a history of bipolar disorder, which in its manic phase can manifest as really strange behavior or outright psychosis. It was also an old hotel, with elevators that were also probably old (as in they were probably just lovely elevators, not haunted elevators). Oh boo, why can't it ever be a haunted elevator?
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Sep 16, 2014 02:10
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Kimmalah posted:She also had a history of bipolar disorder, which in its manic phase can manifest as really strange behavior or outright psychosis. It was also an old hotel, with elevators that were also probably old (as in they were probably just lovely elevators, not haunted elevators). One of my exes was bipolar and the type of behavior in that video is pretty much what I would expect from someone off their meds.
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Sep 16, 2014 03:47
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