Cats With Thumbs

Tamburina says, "If I ever decide to go into politics, my campaign slogan will be “Less children, more kittens” and my platform will encourage people to say yes to abortions and then go adopt a kitten."

I'd vote for her.

So would cats with thumbs.



P.s. Some of them have Hands

On FIRE!!!

(Here and Here)

"The arms and legs are the first to go. Relatively thin and surrounded by oxygen, they're like kindling, easy to ignite and quick to burn. At temperatures of only a few hundred degrees, the skin quickly blackens, the fat beneath the skin starts to sizzle, and within a matter of minutes the skin splits open and the flesh begins to burn.

As it does, something remarkable and eerie happens. The limbs begin to move -- the hands and feet clench, the arms curl up toward the shoulders, and the legs spread slightly apart with the knees flexed. It's a function of biomechanics and muscle strength: The flexors, the muscles that cause our arms and legs to bend, are stronger than extensors, the ones that cause our limbs to straighten. As fire cooks and dries out the muscles and tendons of the body, they shrink, just like a steak on the grill, and the flexors overpower the extensors."



"An arson fire -- one fueled by gasoline or some other flammable accelerant -- can reach temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit; at such extreme temperatures the bone undergoes a chemical and structural metamorphosis. Bone, like the rest of the body, contains carbon, and at extremely high temperatures that carbon burns out of the bone. What's left behind, called "calcined" bone, might still retain its shape -- just as a coral reef retains its form even after the organisms that built it die -- but it will be very lightweight, grayish in color, riddled with head fractures, and so fragile that it can crumble in your hands, and will certainly crumble underfoot." ~ Dr. Bill Bass, Death's Acre (76-78)

The Red Riding Trilogy

Loosely based on the Yorkshire Ripper case, one of the grittiest examples of noir I've ever seen. Includes all of the essential ingredients: crime, corruption, temptation, secrets, murder. Separated into three segments, they are all expertly interwoven. I had no intention of watching all three back-to-back (at 5 plus hours that is a lot of rain and chain-smoking and "bollocks") but was easily sucked in by the story and acting.



Andrew Garfield, Paddy Considine, Mark Addey, David Morrissey, Sean Bean and particularly disturbing performances from Sean Harris and Robert Sheehan.

Moody, dark, unsettling, disturbing. This is not a "fun" ride -- lots of dreary, grimy, bleak stuff here including child exploitation, rape and murder. None of the characters are altogether likable and there is a strong theme of the futility of trying to fight the system. The (relatively) good guys have victories but they are not happy endings. Repeated throughout -- Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. But what we learn by the end of the story is that sometimes it triumphs even when they do something.

I really liked this and if Netflix Instant weren't hiccuping I would've turned right around and watched it again. (Note to Netflix -- those accents warrant subtitles.) A++++++++++



I can't say enough how utterly captivating Robert Sheehan was, playing "BJ", an eerily androgynous prostitute.

The Outcast Dead

"Here lay your hearts, your flowers,
Your Book of Hours,
Your fingers, your thumbs,
Your "Miss you Mums".
Here hang your hopes, your dreams,
Your Might Have Beens,
Your locks, your keys, your Mysteries."

http://www.crossbones.org.uk/

The bronze plaque on the rusty iron gate reads: Cross Bones Graveyard. In medieval times this was an unconsecrated graveyard for prostitutes or "Winchester Geese". By the eighteenth century it had become a paupers' burial ground, which closed in 1853. Here, local people have created a memorial shrine. The Outcast Dead, R.I.P.

Makeshift shrines have always fascinated me. Their impermanence, spontaneity. Teddy bears, flowers, balloons, ghost bikes, letters, candles, signs, all piled up roadside where someone has died. I know some people consider it litter but it doesn't bother me. I get the sense we do it in order to not forget rather than to remember. In other words, it's more about us than them.

This is a nice collage. Neat to think there is even a place for the misfits. Kind of like Midian.

The Soap Maker of Correggio

Female serial killers are anomalous enough but this one was particularly crafty. Literally. She made her victims into soap and tea cakes.



Leonarda Cianciulli

Describing her final victim, "She ended up in the pot, like the other two... her flesh was fat and white, when it had melted I added a bottle of cologne, and after a long time on the boil I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbours and acquaintances. The cakes, too, were better: that woman was really sweet."

On The Farm

Comment about Dr. Bill Bass's book, Death's Acre reminded me of this.

If you want to donate your corpse to the Body Farm.

http://web.utk.edu/~fac/pdf/DonationDoc.pdf

http://web.utk.edu/~fac/pdf/Questionnaire.pdf

More fun stuff HERE

And if you need more ideas: Ten uses for your body after you die

Guild of Funerary Violinists

http://www.guildoffuneraryviolinists.org.uk/

"Nullus Funus Sine Fidula" (No Funeral Without A Fiddle)

Bookin'

Having a pathetically difficult time getting into any of my books lately. I've started, like... five. Sometimes, this is okay. I settle down to do some reading and ask myself where I want to go -- Haiti (Serpent and the Rainbow)? Russia (The Killer Department)? Or what I want to do -- sneak around a secret bioweapons lab (Lab 257)? Be a SPY (Codebreaking)? I assume it's similar to flipping channels on TV.

But I haven't been able to get interested in any of these. Feeling restless. Can't concentrate. Don't know what my problem is. Maybe I'm just tired. Very clear thought popped into my head yesterday though:

I need forensic books.

That has been the one subject I can always count on to utterly hypnotize me. So went tromping about looking for some good candidates. For the record, a lot of forensic anthropology (maybe favorite subset) books are painfully expensive (over $100) even used. But I keep an eye out for good deals (thank you eBay). So far I've tagged some less expensive alternatives -- Colin Wilson's history of forensics, "Written in Blood" and The Poisoner's Handbook which has been on my wishlist for Ever.

Need books

RunPee.com

Really!

I so rarely go to the movie theater anymore but I got a chuckle out of this. Looks useful too!

RunPee.com

The mission of RunPee.com – to help you enjoy your movie going experience and relieve your bladder at the same time:

* Every movie has a few scenes in there somewhere that aren’t crucial to the plot, or can be easily summed up for you on our site.
* Every movie has a few minutes you can miss and not be lost when you sit back down.
* No more guessing when to run and pee.

Cutesifying Monsters

The Groovy Age of Horror recently had an awesome post concerning the cute n' cuddly monster phenomena. Why do we turn our nightmares into plushy toys? Typical of an LOTTD member, it is an articulate and wonderful essay with links to other bloggles about same subject. I really like this part:

Cute, funny monsters are the endpoint of an instinctive and damn-near inexorable progression that begins the moment we're exposed to something frightening. The initial encounter provokes an instantly aversive response that gives way, in time, to approach and exploration, as I mentioned in my Horror Myths post, and as illustrated by the case of Darwin's monkeys. Konrad Lorenz, though, traces the full arc of this progression, as he observed it in ravens:

'A young raven, confronted with a new object, which may be a camera, an old bottle, a stuffed polecat, or anything else first reacts with escape responses. He will fly up to an elevated perch and, from this point of vantage, stare at the object literally for hours. After this, he will begin to approach the object very gradually, maintaining all the while a maximum of caution and the expressive attitude of intense fear. He will cover the last distance from the object hopping sideways with half-raised wings, in the utmost readiness to flee. At last, he will deliver a single fearful blow with his powerful beak at the object and forthwith fly back to his safe perch. . . .' In the end 'he will grab [the object] with one foot, peck at it, try to tear off pieces, insert his bill into any existing cleft and then pry apart his mandibles with considerable force. Finally, if the object is not too big the raven will carry it away, push it into a convenient hole and cover it with some inconspicuous material.' [quoted in Arthur Koestler's Act of Creation]

I'd venture the suggestion that all horror falls somewhere on this continuum, and functions as part of this process of domesticating what scares us and making it our own.

The Young Wizard's Handbook

Okay, I realize this is for children, yeh yeh yeh, but I want one!

I decided to write the book that a ten-year-old me would not only want to read, but would treasure as my favorite book. I envisioned Young Wizards Handbook as a scouting guide for the fantasy world. What would a young wizard interested in monster-hunting need to know? What activities would prepare a wizard-in-training for a career in monster-hunting? [...] When the book was finished and I had a chance to see the final copy, I fell in love with it. If I ever get a time machine, I’m traveling back in time to give this to [ten year old me] so she can make a monster-hunting pack instead of carrying a rough burlap sack, dry some fruit to take on her adventures, and construct a lantern to keep away the monsters when it’s time to sleep.

"The Big Idea" A.R. Rotruck