Friday's entry was on Mary McEnnery Erhard (ca. 1885-?), and many more! Check it out.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wonderful Weird Tales Site
Tellers of Weird Tales
This tells the story: "Welcome to Tellers of Weird Tales, a compilation of biography and bibliography on the men and women, writers and artists, who contributed to Weird Tales magazine and its companion titles, Oriental Stories and The Magic Carpet Magazine, from their founding in the 1920s and '30s until the revivals of the 1970s and '80s."
Friday's entry was on Mary McEnnery Erhard (ca. 1885-?), and many more! Check it out.
Friday's entry was on Mary McEnnery Erhard (ca. 1885-?), and many more! Check it out.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Did Cthulhu get hit by satellite?
From the Call of Cthulhu:
... heavily armed steam yacht Alert of Dunedin, N. Z., which was sighted April 12th in S. Latitude 34° 21', W. Longitude 152° 17' with one living and one dead man aboard. ... The Emma, he says, was delayed and thrown widely south of her course by the great storm of March 1st, and on March 22nd, in S. Latitude 49° 51', W. Longitude 128° 34', encountered the Alert, manned by a queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes. ... and in S. Latitude 47° 9', W. Longitude 126° 43' come upon a coast-line of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth’s supreme terror—the nightmare corpse-city of R’lyeh...
While we are uncertain of the precise locations of Cthulhu, it is likely that the creature is both mobile when it wants to be, and its domain extends over a wide swath of territory. As in the recent Cloverfield movie, a satellite awakens a great beast when it falls into its domain.
Nasa's UARS spacecraft fell to Earth north-east of the Samoan islands.
Orbital tracking experts have now established that the defunct satellite entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 14.1 degrees South latitude and 170.2 degrees West longitude. Any debris that survived Saturday's fiery descent would have plunged into open water, the US space agency says.
While we are uncertain of the precise locations of Cthulhu, it is likely that the creature is both mobile when it wants to be, and its domain extends over a wide swath of territory. As in the recent Cloverfield movie, a satellite awakens a great beast when it falls into its domain.
Nasa's UARS spacecraft fell to Earth north-east of the Samoan islands.
Orbital tracking experts have now established that the defunct satellite entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 14.1 degrees South latitude and 170.2 degrees West longitude. Any debris that survived Saturday's fiery descent would have plunged into open water, the US space agency says.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Yuggoth Update: A new Planet "X" Uncovered?
A computer simulation has shown that our solar system couldn't have formed without an extra planet. But if that theory is true, what happened to it?
Yuggoth Article
David Nesvorny from Colorado’s Southwest Research Institute reached the conclusion after performing around 6,000 computer simulations about the formation of the solar system, nearly all of which required the extra planet .. The computer simulations also explain the fifth planet's fate ... the five gas giants begin tightly wound together. But soon the lighter planets of Neptune and Uranus get pushed into a further orbit by Jupiter and Saturn, and the fifth planet gets ejected from the solar system ... somewhere out there, there may still be a solo gas giant ... floating aimlessly through space.
Yuggoth Article
Monday, September 26, 2011
Fungus Among Us: Patagonian Galls
Dateline Patagonia, 23 August 2011.
Lovecraft's Fungi From Yuggoth may have been horrific, but German lager would not exist without a boost from the yeast of Patagonian beech tree galls.
The entire article can be found here.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Buy Books at Miskatonic Books
Fellow lover of weird fiction,
For the past several months we’ve been busy building our new site at www.miskatonicbooks.com to better service all our customers who love weird tales, ghost, mythos and dark fantasy.
We have only scratched the surface of our inventory and will be adding hundreds of more books from your favorite genre authors and publishers daily so check back often. Check out our featured author page here FEATURED AUTHORS
Like our old bookstore, our new site will cater to Lovecraftian fiction and weird tales in general. You’ll find our new site is easier to navigate, quicker checkout, and faster page loads. You’ll also get $5 media rate shipping on any size order that ships in the US and 5% back in points to be used on future purchases for anything at www.miskatonicbooks.com
If you’ve ordered a book through our store at Horror-Mall your order is still valid and there is no reason to reorder on the new site. All orders placed through Horror-Mall will be filled as usual.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me at miskatonicbooks@me.com
Please click the banner below to check out our new site and be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay up to date on all the new titles at www.miskatonicbooks.com and our own publications through our Arcane Wisdom imprint.
Thanks so much for your continued support!
Ufo's?
Lovecraft wrote often about "aliens on Earth" in a fictional manner, and much of what he wrote has seeped into Fortean and cult interpretations.
Unless one counts the 1890's reports, it has been nearly 2/3 of a century since the modern flying saucer phenomenon swept the Cold War world. Surely we have learned something since then?
In fact there is a lot we know, but not what we might have suspected. Beginning shortly after the WWII victory in Europe by the allies, an immediate cold war began inciting rampant paranoia in the United States not seen again since shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Unbelievably vast sums of money were expended to create clandestine organizations - most who did not even know each other existed - and they immediately set about to create spectacularly frightening and innovative technological marvels.
We also learned that humans are remarkably observant and equally poor at interpretation of those observations. Many of the clandestine airborne objects were sighted and reported setting off a frenzy in the government. Some thought this evidence that the Soviets were ahead in technology, not understanding they originated from sister, yet clandestine, organizations. Others were shocked that defense strategies were impotent to see or stop “something” that thousands were seeing. Retaliation was not analysis, but threats to civilians to shut up, and later to discredit vocal individuals with ridicule or with other socio-psychological techniques.
However, once the threat was perceived as relatively non-existant, a second wave of “cover-up” began. First, recruiting scientific types to counter observations and reports, then to coerce media to ignore or ridicule observations, and finally to simply ignore any reports.
Thousands of amateur civilians began to suspect something was strange, and since true scientific inquiry was marginalized by government pressure, they began to take their own reports and go down numerous blind alleys. Often, psychologically impaired individuals muddied the water, but by the 21st century some answers were forthcoming. Freedom of information acts also assisted in discovering that the intelligence agencies were mostly clueless as well for most of this time.
Humans experience complex reactions. An ordinary object perceived through extraordinary circumstances prompts layers of interpretation by the brain. A candle seen through a greasy window does not look much like a candle, but under usual circumstances we know it is a candle. But not when we are tired, have experienced collateral trauma of some sort, or are in a dream-state, or influenced by disease, or drugs, adrenaline, or other chemical modifications.
As hundreds of thousands of reports flooded into amateur organizations, they quickly began to see a wide range of phenomenology that did not fit well into “alien invasions”. Some did try to categorize a plethora of alien species based on innumerable reports, but one may as well categorize things based on dreams and nightmares. This is not the first time organizations faced this problem. Scholarly, but paranoid clergy once tried the same thing with demons, fairies, and in other cultures, other categorizations. This, in turn, corrupted the input because people began to read written descriptions of other reports and reinterpret what they experienced through those filters. A sort of cult-feedback loop happened, well-known to folklorists. Instead of reporting what they experienced, they put on a primary filter using language extracted and influenced by those who were actually taking the reports.
It took a great while to recognize this, and again, true academic and scientific researchers were unavailable due to self-exile. Real examination of this phenomenology might have made theses and jump-started careers, but no, they ran. A notable exception was Carl Sagan who tried for a short time, until he also seemed to either become exasperated or began to feel marginalized by colleagues and perhaps worried it might impact his career and income.
In any event, our world may have indeed been invaded by some aliens. There seems some solid evidence that alien microbes are here, and maybe at least once or twice a ship or probe may have landed. But with all the hoopla we would never know it for certain, and the leaders of our governments might be the last to know. It has taken most of sixty-years to begin to divide the paranormal experiences from the real experiences. When real experiences are uncovered, and examined carefully, a large number of these have been found to be clandestine government objects, devices, and activities - most by errant sub-contractors with the military quick to cover it up. Other observations have been found to be meteors, space debris disintegrating in the atmosphere, electrical or electro-magnetic effects, and so forth. This validates the keen observation ability by humans, and documents how poorly we can interpret phenomenon out of our ordinary experience. These same observations have been attributed to aliens, conspiratorial agents, ghosts, alternate-dimensions, devils, visions, deities, or angels.
It should be about time for experts and professionals to assist those who labor part-time as amateur investigators. Yet even as investigators close in on answers, our government is broken and dysfunctional, and professionals (such as scientists) are more than ever marginalized and fearful for their positions.
Unless one counts the 1890's reports, it has been nearly 2/3 of a century since the modern flying saucer phenomenon swept the Cold War world. Surely we have learned something since then?
In fact there is a lot we know, but not what we might have suspected. Beginning shortly after the WWII victory in Europe by the allies, an immediate cold war began inciting rampant paranoia in the United States not seen again since shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Unbelievably vast sums of money were expended to create clandestine organizations - most who did not even know each other existed - and they immediately set about to create spectacularly frightening and innovative technological marvels.
We also learned that humans are remarkably observant and equally poor at interpretation of those observations. Many of the clandestine airborne objects were sighted and reported setting off a frenzy in the government. Some thought this evidence that the Soviets were ahead in technology, not understanding they originated from sister, yet clandestine, organizations. Others were shocked that defense strategies were impotent to see or stop “something” that thousands were seeing. Retaliation was not analysis, but threats to civilians to shut up, and later to discredit vocal individuals with ridicule or with other socio-psychological techniques.
However, once the threat was perceived as relatively non-existant, a second wave of “cover-up” began. First, recruiting scientific types to counter observations and reports, then to coerce media to ignore or ridicule observations, and finally to simply ignore any reports.
Thousands of amateur civilians began to suspect something was strange, and since true scientific inquiry was marginalized by government pressure, they began to take their own reports and go down numerous blind alleys. Often, psychologically impaired individuals muddied the water, but by the 21st century some answers were forthcoming. Freedom of information acts also assisted in discovering that the intelligence agencies were mostly clueless as well for most of this time.
Humans experience complex reactions. An ordinary object perceived through extraordinary circumstances prompts layers of interpretation by the brain. A candle seen through a greasy window does not look much like a candle, but under usual circumstances we know it is a candle. But not when we are tired, have experienced collateral trauma of some sort, or are in a dream-state, or influenced by disease, or drugs, adrenaline, or other chemical modifications.
As hundreds of thousands of reports flooded into amateur organizations, they quickly began to see a wide range of phenomenology that did not fit well into “alien invasions”. Some did try to categorize a plethora of alien species based on innumerable reports, but one may as well categorize things based on dreams and nightmares. This is not the first time organizations faced this problem. Scholarly, but paranoid clergy once tried the same thing with demons, fairies, and in other cultures, other categorizations. This, in turn, corrupted the input because people began to read written descriptions of other reports and reinterpret what they experienced through those filters. A sort of cult-feedback loop happened, well-known to folklorists. Instead of reporting what they experienced, they put on a primary filter using language extracted and influenced by those who were actually taking the reports.
It took a great while to recognize this, and again, true academic and scientific researchers were unavailable due to self-exile. Real examination of this phenomenology might have made theses and jump-started careers, but no, they ran. A notable exception was Carl Sagan who tried for a short time, until he also seemed to either become exasperated or began to feel marginalized by colleagues and perhaps worried it might impact his career and income.
In any event, our world may have indeed been invaded by some aliens. There seems some solid evidence that alien microbes are here, and maybe at least once or twice a ship or probe may have landed. But with all the hoopla we would never know it for certain, and the leaders of our governments might be the last to know. It has taken most of sixty-years to begin to divide the paranormal experiences from the real experiences. When real experiences are uncovered, and examined carefully, a large number of these have been found to be clandestine government objects, devices, and activities - most by errant sub-contractors with the military quick to cover it up. Other observations have been found to be meteors, space debris disintegrating in the atmosphere, electrical or electro-magnetic effects, and so forth. This validates the keen observation ability by humans, and documents how poorly we can interpret phenomenon out of our ordinary experience. These same observations have been attributed to aliens, conspiratorial agents, ghosts, alternate-dimensions, devils, visions, deities, or angels.
It should be about time for experts and professionals to assist those who labor part-time as amateur investigators. Yet even as investigators close in on answers, our government is broken and dysfunctional, and professionals (such as scientists) are more than ever marginalized and fearful for their positions.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Kappa Alpha Tau Report: Willow
Dateline: NEW YORK (15 September 2011) — A calico cat named Willow disappeared from a home near the Rocky Mountains five years ago. Willow escaped when contractors left a door open during a home renovation. Willow was suddenly found Wednesday on a Manhattan street, identified by an implanted chip, and will soon be returned.
How she got to New York, nearly 1,800 miles away, no one knows. Whatever happened, Willow dodged coyotes and owls in Colorado, life on New York streets, and everything in between. Willow was just five and a half pounds.
A Kappa Alpha Tau Lovecraftian Salute to Willow!
interlude
Today: Not about Lovecraft, but still funny ...
“Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.” Attributed to Jack Benny.
“Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.” Attributed to Jack Benny.
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