Category:
Death
Death
The Big Snit
Personally, I would happily watch a TV show titled "Sawing for Teens."
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 02, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Destruction, Disasters, Domestic, Marriage, Games, War, 1980s, North America
Death by Molasses
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 01, 2009 -
Comments (8)
Category: Death, Destruction, Food, 1910s, North America
Walking Zombie Syndrome
Do you feel dull and listless? Have you lost interest in everything? Do people describe you as "dead wood"? You may be suffering from Walking Zombie Syndrome. First described in the Journal of the Tennessee Medical Association, Dec 1979:these individuals carry around with them in their unconscious mind a death suggestion, while on the conscious level they have no knowledge whatsoever of it. In fact, when told they believe themselves dead they deny it even though their symptoms and their behavior continually affirm the diagnosis of the Walking Zombie syndrome...
Walking Zombies are present on the streets of every city, and not a single practitioner will escape their complaints. Even though they may faithfully attempt work every day, they are for the most part nonproductive and often represent more of a liability than an asset to their employers, families and friends. Many are accident prone, and most Walking Zombies cost their company a great deal by chronic absenteeism.
Walking Zombies are present on the streets of every city, and not a single practitioner will escape their complaints. Even though they may faithfully attempt work every day, they are for the most part nonproductive and often represent more of a liability than an asset to their employers, families and friends. Many are accident prone, and most Walking Zombies cost their company a great deal by chronic absenteeism.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 26, 2009 -
Comments (13)
Category: Death, Psychology
Detergent Suicide
I posted last week about how Aokigahara Forest in Japan was a popular destination for those wishing to commit suicide. Another suicide fad in Japan is "Detergent Suicide," which involves gassing yourself by mixing common household chemicals:At least 500 Japanese men, women and children took their lives in the first half of 2008 by following instructions posted on Japanese websites, which describe how to mix bath sulfur with toilet bowl cleaner to create a poisonous gas. One site includes an application to calculate the correct portions of each ingredient based on room volume, along with a PDF download of a ready-made warning sign to alert neighbors and emergency workers to the deadly hazard.
A few cases of Detergent Suicide in the US have experts concerned that the fad may be catching on over here.
An interesting article by sociologist Kayoko Ueno argues that suicide is actually one of the defining features of Japanese society (think of hara-kiri and kamikaze) and one of its major cultural exports:
We, Japanese, are living in an affluent society geographically far away from the Middle East and Russian turmoil, and many of us view the suicide bombing news as an alien event, or something out of a computer game VR (virtual reality). On the other hand, there are some Japanese, especially from the wartime generation, who see the news differently, tracing the suicide bombers’ prototype to Japan’s “Kamikaze”, the suicide air attack squad at the end of World War II. In fact, one of my senior colleagues the other day came to me, pointed at one more such item in the news, and whispered melancholically, “that’s Japan’s invention.”
Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 24, 2009 -
Comments (16)
Category: Death, Suicide, Asia
Suicide Forest
Aokigahara Forest near Mount Fuji is known throughout Japan as "suicide forest" because many go there to take their own lives. It has the highest suicide rate in Japan (which itself has one of the highest suicide rates in the world). Apparently it's pretty common to find people dead or dying as you wander through the forest. Signs with the number for a suicide hotline have now been posted on many of the trees.Other suicide hotspots around the world: The Golden Gate bridge is an obvious one. It's the most popular place to commit suicide in the US. In the UK, the welsh mining town of Bridgend has a reputation as a suicide hotspot, though I think it's the locals who commit suicide, rather than people purposefully traveling there for that purpose.
Then there's Overtoun Bridge in Dumbarton, Scotland which has a reputation as a suicide hotspot for dogs, due to the fact that in the past fifty years, fifty dogs have leapt off it to their deaths.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 20, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Death, Suicide
Ride Accidents
RideAccidents.com bills itself as "the world's single most comprehensive, detailed, updated, accurate, and complete source of amusement ride accident reports and related news."People falling and jumping from roller coasters, children drowning in water rides, men leaping leaping from cable cars with a bungee cord attached to them, thinking the bungee will stop them before they hit the ground, only to realize they misjudged the distance and the cord doesn't even have a chance to grow taut before they slam into the ground. It's all there!
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 04, 2009 -
Comments (3)
Category: Death
The Baiting Crowd
I believe that the social psychologist Leon Mann was one of the first to describe the phenomenon of the "baiting crowd." He did so in a 1981 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:We assume that most people are concerned for the life and well-being of others. It comes as a surprise to learn that crowds gathered at the site of a suicide threat have been known to taunt and urge the victim to jump... In my examination of the baiting phenomenon, I searched all listings for suicides and suicide attempts in the New York Times Index for 1964-1979... The following extract from the New York Times for June 8, 1964, is an example of the data source:
A Puerto Rican handyman perched on a 10th floor ledge for an hour yesterday morning as many persons in a crowd of 500 on upper Broadway shouted at him in Spanish and English to jump. Even as cries of "Jump!" and "Brinca!" rang out, policemen pulled the man to safety from the narrow ledge at 3495 Broadway, the north-west corner of 143rd Street.
A Puerto Rican handyman perched on a 10th floor ledge for an hour yesterday morning as many persons in a crowd of 500 on upper Broadway shouted at him in Spanish and English to jump. Even as cries of "Jump!" and "Brinca!" rang out, policemen pulled the man to safety from the narrow ledge at 3495 Broadway, the north-west corner of 143rd Street.
Mann identified five factors that contribute to the phenomenon: 1) the anonymity of being in a large crowd; 2) cover of darkness; 3) distance from the victim (but being close enough so that the person threatening suicide can still hear the cries urging him to jump); 4) duration of episode (people get bored and restless waiting too long); and 5) hot temperatures.
My theory is that people are okay until you gather them together into a crowd, at which point they transform into the lowest form of life imaginable.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 01, 2009 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Psychology
Yorick’s Skull
Quite a few people, it seems, have bequeathed their skulls to theater companys. They figure that, while they may not have been talented enough to appear in a production of Hamlet during their life, once they're dead they've got the part of Yorick's skull covered. From tvtropes.org:Comedian Del Close bequeathed his skull to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago for precisely this purpose. The skull currently residing at the Goodman, though, isn't his: nobody was willing to prepare it. Other aspiring posthumous Yoricks include Juan Potomachi, Andre Tchaikovsky, and Jonathan Hartman. Tchaikovsky's skull finally made it to the stage in the 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet (starring David Tennant).
So who's going to be the first to bequeath their skull to Weird Universe?
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 16, 2009 -
Comments (5)
Category: Death
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |