People find all sorts of interesting things in Google Earth, some of which are more unsettling than others.
These include:
Halloween Horrors: Google Earth Mysteries
October 26th, 2025Halloween Horrors: The Five Levels of Dreams
October 25th, 2025This video about the five levels of dreams shouldn’t be horror…except it is.
Between the loud, jarring section starts to the disturbing visuals to the eerie use of liminal spaces, the video seems designed more to induce nightmares than explain them.
Some of this jibes what what I experience when dreaming, and some of it doesn’t. Your mileage may vary.
Halloween Horrors: Sharks in the Basement
October 24th, 2025Remember those fake photos of sharks swimming in subways that showed up after “Superstorm Sandy”?
Well, this photo of sharks in a guy’s basement in Hudson Valley, New York…
…was absolutely real.
Turns out he was smuggling them in the back of his truck to sell on the black market.
So now add “basement sharks” to the list of things to irrationally be afraid of…
Halloween Horrors: Dueling Krakens
October 23rd, 2025There are not one, but two films called Kraken out soon. The first one is from Norway and appears to be due in early 20206:
The other one is Russian, so I don’t suppose I’ll be watching it any time soon:
Discounting a few oddities (like adult Clover from The Cloverfield Paradox), this is probably the largest titular kaiju of any film.
Library Addition: Signed First of Joe Lansdale’s Essential Horror
October 22nd, 2025Another Lansdale book came in:
Lansdale, Joe R. (Joe Hill) The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale. Tachyon, 2025. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy, signed by Lansdale. According to the publisher, Joe showed up for their 30th Anniversary Party and “signed all the books.” I’m not sure if it means he signed all mine, signed all preorders, or signed every single book. Joe Hill provides the introduction. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
I will have a small number of signed copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, which I’ll start working on next month.
The Brilliant Business Model of Spirit Halloween
October 21st, 2025The Fat Electrician unleashes a profane rant of admiration on the brilliant business model of Spirit Halloween stores:
They make $1.1 billion in revenue per year despite being open only 6-8 weeks…
Library Additions: Two Signed Stephen Hunter Firsts
October 20th, 2025Stephen Hunter is a mystery/thriller writer I’ve heard good things about from people I trust, and I’ve picked up some first editions of their work, but haven’t actually read any yet. But I keep an eye out for cheap firsts of his work, and actually chanced across two signed firsts at a Half Price Books.
I should try to read a Hunter novel next year…
Halloween Horrors: Cat Ouija Board
October 18th, 2025UK online retailer Pets at Home was selling a cat Ouija board toy.
I say was because that page is now 404.
This is what it looked like:
Now, this is just a theory, but I’m going to guess they pulled this right after Mr. MummpyMittens summoned Morax one too many times…
Halloween Horrors: Rocko’s Basilisk
October 15th, 2025Rocko’s Basilisk is a thought experiment that would be terribly frightening if it weren’t so fundamentally stupid.
To quote Wikipedia, the source of all vaguely accurate knowledge: “Roko’s basilisk is a thought experiment which states that there could be an artificial superintelligence in the future that, while otherwise benevolent, would punish anyone who knew of its potential existence but did not directly contribute to its advancement or development, in order to incentivize that advancement.”
The really crazy part is that those who actually believe in the theory think Rocko’s Basilisk would become so all-powerful that it can retroactively punish those in the past, including subjecting them to eternal torment for failing to help the basilisk, while rewarding those who do. So instead of an interesting thought experiment, it’s just a funhouse inversion of Christian theology on salvation and damnation.
Someone has put up doznes of AI created videos on this theme. This one is, I think, the most amusing.
Shades of Philip K. Dick!
But surely no one is foolish enough to be fooled that this half-assed through experiment actually reflects reality, right? Wrong. “In the 2020s, the philosophy of the Zizians was heavily influenced by the Roko’s basilisk thought experiment. Ziz LaSota, the leader of the cult, believes the basilisk to be real and wrote on her* blog: “Eventually I came to believe that if I persisted in trying to save the world, I would be tortured until the end of the universe by a coalition of all unfriendly A.I.s.” If you haven’t heard of the Zizians, they’re a radical vegan transgender cult that’s also anti-AI. At least six people have died due to their actions…
* His. Born Jack LaSota.
Library Addition: Michael Swanwick’s Under A Harvest Moon
October 14th, 2025Another Dragonstairs chapbook:
Swanwick, Michael, with Marianne Porter. Under A Harvest Moon. Dragonstairs Press, 2025. First edition chapbook original, #5 of 80 copies signed by both Swanwick and Porter, a Fine copy. “A very short, dark and romantic story of love and death,” and an outgrowth of Swanwick’s online ‘fallen leaves” project. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, probably out next month.