When he’s not attending Ballard memorials, RE/Search Publication’s V. Vale puts out a monthly newsletter. They’re packed with interesting info and updates, and I now have him to thank for introducing me to the small-scale Mothra V. Meganulon world of Japanese Bug Fighting. The rules are Chuck Palahniuk-simple:
1. Two Bugs to a fight
2. Bug fights go on as long as they have to
3. No outside weapons in Bug Fights
The Japanese Bug Fighting site currently showcases some 30 bug-on-bug matches. Round #7—Red Spider V. Black Scorpion—follows below:
The CIA has released its official secrets of magic (stage magic, that is, don’t get any ideas) in a just-published book. Now THAT sounds like an excellent holiday present for quite a few people I know. From Wired:
At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid $3,000 to renowned magician John Mulholland to write a manual on misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. All known copies of the document ?
This is the most disgusting thing ever. Even if I wasn’t a vegetarian it would be disgusting. In LA they sell hot dogs wrapped in bacon on the street. Sometimes when I am drunk I am tempted by them. But I never give in. And this, this. I would never be tempted by this. Tempted to do anything other than laugh. And laugh. Oh, Turbaconducken. You so crazy.
Slender Man is an internet meme created on the Something Awful forums and who now haunts the depths of 4chan’s /x/ forum. A net-brewed urban legend, Slender Man is a morbidly tall and thin man in a black and white suit who haunts forests, playgrounds, and anywhere he can blend in with scenery to leap out and drag away unsuspecting victims.
The Slender Man was created at the Something Awful Forums in a thread entitled “Create Paranormal Images.” He is described as wearing a black suit strikingly similar to the visage of the notorious Men In Black, and as the name suggests, appears very thin and able to stretch his limbs and torso to inhuman lengths in order to induce fear and ensnare his prey. Once his arms are outstretched, his victims are put into something of a hypnotized state, where they are utterly helpless to stop themselves from walking into them. He is also able to create tendrils from his fingers and back that he uses to walk on in a similar fashion to Doc Ock, the Spider-Man villain in the Marvel Universe. The superhuman stretching ability could also be seen as a similiarty between himself and Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. Whether he absorbs, kills, or mearly takes his victims to an undiclosed location or dimension is also unknown as there are never any bodys or evidence left behind in his wake to deduce a definite conclusion.
Not much is known, as no specific information is given within the thread about origins, but his objective and habitat are made very clear. He has the need to kidnap children, and is seen right before the disappearance of a child or multiple children. He seems to prefer fog enshrouded streets and wooded areas as a way to conceal himself from being noticed. It should also be noted that children have been able to see him when no other adults in the vicinity could. Children also have dreams or nightmares concerning The Slender Man before their disappearance. Confiding these stories to their parents are met with the usual parental admonition: overactive imaginations.
Even though The Slender Man is a total fabrication, people have already claimed sightings. He appears to the unwitting mostly at night, and most always peering out of wooded areas or near rivers. He has also been reported to peek inside left open windows and to walk out in front of lone motorists on long uninhabited roads. The Slender Man or men, have appeared everywhere from Japan, Norway, and America to name a growing few.
Here’s a blast from the past (well my past, not yours): some kind soul has put the outsider music piece I did for the Disinformation series years ago on YouTube. I haven’t seen this clip in years and it was weird to see myself nearly ten years younger. (It’s my birthday today, so I keep trying to tell myself “You haven’t changed much!”).
A community of dwarves has set up its own village to escape discrimination from normal sized people.
Everyone in the mountain commune in Kunming, southern China, must be under 4ft 3ins tall and they run their own police force and fire brigade from their 120 residents.
Now the group has turned itself into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters.
“As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people. But here there aren’t any big people and everything we do is for us,” said spokesman Fu Tien.