Redditor mp3thief uploaded the above, saying “I’m no longer allowed near my daughter’s colouring books.”
Obviously. Brr.
For the uninitiated, the above creepy rabbit is from the movie Donnie Darko, which absolutely flopped at the box office, but became a cult favourite for it’s exploration into time travel. It’s also one of Jake Gyllenhaal’s first roles. Here’s the trailer, with a couple of glimpes of Frank the bunny:
It’s really good. Go watch it. Now!
(via)
When dealing with computer-animated characters, there’s an interesting psychological effect in the viewer. Poorly drawn or rendered characters end up looking like cartoons, even if they are still recognizable as “people.” Really photorealistic characters look, well, almost real.
But somewhere in the middle lies the uncanny valley. When something looks almost real, but not quite, it creeps people out. If it looks less real, they breathe a sigh of relief and think “cartoon.” If it looks more real, they think “well, this is real.”
But if something’s off, and they can’t quite put their finger on it, people just get the heebie-jeebies.
I’m going to theorize that the same thing holds true in other realms, and to prove it, I will present to you, via Gizmodo, the latest incarnation of Google Earth, featuring New York City in near-perfect 3-D rendering:
I haven’t exactly been able to figure out why, but it creeps me out. I love Google maps and even Street View — even zooming in close on my own home. But this is almost too much.
And yet, I’ve also seen much better zooms in television shows and movies, where they actually zoom in and show things perfectly, so there aren’t flat cars on the streets, for example.
In between, in the uncanny valley, is this new Google Earth.
But perhaps I’m just in an uber-creeped-out frame of mind already, because I just learned that IBM wants to make Minority Report come to life, with its advanced “crime prediction” software.
Happy Halloween everyone! It’s the day of celebrating and honouring the dead. And, you know, dressing up and getting lots of free candy.
In honour of the day, I thought I would post some photos I found of Halloween costumes from the days of yore.
There were no princesses, or super heroes, or everyday things slutified. Just kids in terrifying masks, dressing a little more scary, and a lot less kitschy.
No seriously, these costumes freak me out.
That last face is going to haunt my nightmares.
(via buzzfeed, who found them on flickr user stevechasmar’s photostream)
While Googling to find out where, exactly, the apostrophe in All Hallows’ Eve went, I stumbled across the picture above, on the Wikipedia page for Halloween. There, it’s described as a “traditional Irish halloween Jack-o’-lantern from the early 20th century on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland.”
It’s flipping creepy!!
To me, it looks more like a turnip — or possibly a rutabaga — than any kind of gourd I’ve ever carved. But from reading the Wikipedia page, I think a turnip is more traditional than a pumpkin. I wonder how well the colour has been preserved over the last century?
On the website for the Museum of Country Life, I can’t find any reference to this particular item, but it does seem to be precisely the type of thing that they collect and exhibit.
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According to the Anchorage Daily News, a mysterious blob had appeared on Alaska’s shore, confounding fisherman and hunters alike.
The stuff is “gooey” and looks dark against the bright white ice floating in the Arctic Ocean, Brower said.
“It’s pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it,” Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose — just bones and feathers — to the borough’s wildlife department.
Which means, as one Boing Boing commenter pointed out, that is is most obviously the thing from the Stephen King story The Raft.
Clearly.
Except, no, they took a sample to get tested, and an update reports that it was just algae.
Creepy algae that no one has ever seen before in the area. That has a mind. And will start eating people by enchanting them.
You’ve been warned.
So, Amy was trying on a few clothes at Giant Tiger (note to my international readers — it’s like a low-rent Wal-Mart) and I was just waiting around, like boyfriends do, you know?
And then I noticed this shirt. And once I noticed it, I couldn’t un-notice it. It was gigantic and green. It was staring at me. I couldn’t look away. I tried to steal its evil soul with my camera-phone, but that didn’t work. I tried to hang another shirt over it, but every shirt on the rack had the same design on it!
Look, I know that it’s supposed to be a cute baby puppy cuddling with a cute baby kitten. But you weren’t there! You didn’t see — up close and personal — just how terrified that kitten looks, as it meekly raises one paw to fend off the snarling dog.
And the dog! The dog’s wearing a … a … a bib!
I am not, nor have I ever been, a Twilight fan. In fact, the whole massive fanbase mystifies me. I’ve read too much about it being wish-fulfillment to ever care, and it creeps me out that so many people so obviously care so much.
Then I read something in the Globe and Mail that tries to explain it all away by declaring it sublimated masturbation:
I have long assumed that teen female mania about Tiger Beat-ish boys is the result of complicated relationships with masturbation: If sex-ed classes brought out and patiently explained shower-heads, vibrators and Frisky Fingers, teen idols would not exist.
uh-huh.
Also, young straight girls are, in the main, so innately bisexual, they gravitate to men like Pattinson. Not because he is, sexually, non-threatening, but because in the movie Twilight he is slender; his long hair waves, and he wears pancake makeup and loads of viscous, red lipstick. And his romantic interludes with Bella find their highest fruition when the two virgins lie in fields or bed talking, and laughing: When they kiss, Edward pulls back violently, curious, flattered, maybe a little bit interested, but no. Sex, plain sex, is too literal for females unsure of their attraction to male biology; to females accustomed to starving their lust and feeding their hearts insipid fantasies about eternal love a wealthy, chivalric man-woman. And the older ladies? They know what sex is, and cannot help but be drawn to the loyalty, the gallantry and, as if they are vampires themselves, the luscious youth of Edward Cullen.
Right.
Although, if there’s anything creepier than teen girl mania for a teen idol, it’s aging housewife mania — for a teen idol.
Weird, creepy and kind of cool, all at once. Scientists annoyed by having to pay $2,500 to run heartbeat tests on a live animal have come up with a gadget that forces pig hearts to beat on and on and on — as the story says, “straight from the slaughterhouse.” It uses pressurized saline solution to mimic the heart’s proper functioning, so they can test and develop new surgical tools and techniques.
Here’s a promo video (no sound, I think):
Original press release (via Medgadget, via BBG)
Hat-tip to BoingBoing, but the vid originally comes from the website Forgetomori, which explores and debunks weird and interesting occurrences like the one in this video:
This reminds me of the movie Signs, and the video from the children’s party where the alien walks through. Brrr, it gives me the chills.
There’s a longer, also creepy video here, where not one, but two of these weird, bipedal creatures walk through someones lawn, and the subsequent explanation for what they probably are.
