Nigel Tufnel Day may have passed, but the Spinal Tap madness continues!
National Geographic did an interview with him regarding the origins of Stonehenge. He turns out to have many fascinating insights as to how it was actually built, some involving dinosaur spit.
I’ve been looking for some scary videos on YouTube, and honestly, the most popular “paranormal” videos there are pretty embarrassingly lame. “Ah! A guy in eyeshadow steps out of the dark! It’s a ghost!”
Much creepier, to my mind, are the video of abandoned mental hospitals and insane asylums filmed by various urban spelunkers over the years. Most were pretty depressing places in the first place, so they’re doubly creepy and depressing at night compared to regular abandoned buildings. Here’s a sampler of a few videos I found.
A short video of an abandoned insane asylum in Maryland:
A longer video from the same asylum, with some paranormal creepiness near the end:
From Albuquerque’s abandoned insane asylum, seen in daylight:
The videos I’ve seen from San Antonio’s abandoned asylum have all been either crappy or still images, but this one from the abandoned Boys Home isn’t bad, though too long and also in daylight:
This appears to be the segment of a TV show called Scariest Places on Earth on Dixmont Insane Asylum in Pennsylvania. Full of both horrific history and cheestastic reality TV edited to hype the paranormal angle. Evidently being on a paranormal reality TV show requires subnormal intelligence. And voiceovers from the psychic in Poltergeist? Really, ABC Family?
Warning: Teenagers. Fortunately this bunch exploring the Downey Insane Asylum in California are merely teenage stupid and not reality show stupid (though sadly, this does extend to their editing choices). And the night vision lens does make their eyes look nicely creepy.
A different approach, for this mini-documentary on the Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital in Michigan:
Here’s another longer video:
Seems like there’s a lot of videos on the place.
I wonder how many places there are like this abandoned in Michigan. Probably lots.
Finally, this abandoned church and school In Gary, Indiana is more sad than scary:
I may have to do a separate post on abandoned theme parks…
Cab Calloway, Betty Boop and dancing skeletons. What more could you ask for?
According to this list, Nurse With Wound’s “I’ve Plummed This Whole Neighborhood” is the Creepiest Song Ever. Having listened to it, I do think it’s contender, though a bit repetitive and trying too hard.
(The video is a bit NSFW.)
Although I was a tiny bit disappointed by Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (I didn’t think the “Versus A.I.” single-player maps were as interesting as those in Brood War, and I was pissed that not all of the units were available for those, even if you weren’t playing online; damn it, I want my medic!), I’ll still pick this up. Pretty much everything Blizzard does is first rate.
And yes, you can preorder it.
Also: What the Hell?
Sounds like a bonus-ish, heroes-and-tower-defense type thing. Hmmm. I could really see myself getting sucked into that. Or would, if there were a way to avoid getting pwned by 17-year old Koreans…
With Halloween almost upon us, and ten days before the annual Fark scary story thread, I thought it would be a good time to put up some posts for the season, no matter how vaguely related. First up is “Hittin’ The Trail For Hallelujah Land,” one of the earliest Merrie Melodies (AKA Looney Tunes) ever made, and the first of the infamous “Censored Eleven” cartoons, which, due to racial insensitivity and general political incorrectness, have never been released by Warner Brothers on DVD.
“Hittin’ The Trail For Hallelujah Land” is now in the public domain. What makes it seasonal is that there’s a graveyard and skeleton dance sequence in it.
Here’s another video that goes into more detail about how the locking works.
I don’t usually post videos that have already been on Fark, but this one was too cool not to:
I’d seen superconducting magnet demonstrations before, but never with the adjustable “locking” they demonstrate here.
Here’s another Peter Gabriel rarity, a song called “Animal Nation” he evidently played on his 2003 tour.
Here’s Apple co-founder remembering his friend and partner Steve Jobs:
“He was lucky to have me in the beginning, but I am incredibly lucky to have him for everything in my life.”
I’ve met Woz a couple of times, and he’s always struck me as a really nice guy.
(Hat tip: Joy of Tech.)