and the shadow singer will stand and linger in places no one ever goes

Goddamn it Steve--

"It looks like you're trying to play Minecraft..." Wau. A LOT of work went into that punchline.

Silk is the fiber of the future! (No, really. It is.)

Some cute little baby squids are going to die for the sake of humanity. That sounds melodramatic, and sure, it is, but be honest--the early research out of space labs is SCARY for anaerobic environments and micro-gravity conditions. For one, harmful bacteria become more lethal. (Look it up, I'm not kidding.) So what's the next experiment? Sending squidlings into space. What scientists are hoping is that, since squid have evolved cooperatively with beneficial bacteria, by sending up babies that have not yet bonded with these bacterial chains, then dosing them in space, we'll be able to see how good bacteria changes.

I'm hoping for good things, not the return of the Elder Gods. But hey, keep your fingers crossed.

As usual--Facebook being the source of all evil--a company has decided to use mathematic analysis of linguistic style to enter social media updates after the death of that account holder. I guess this is some persistence-of-life gimmick (which I also am hoping is a joke). Still, Envoy seems serious enough--if creepy beyond all reason.

Bet you just can't wait for the thrilling new game adventures of Hitman: Subtitle, can you? CAN YOU?!?

Sadly, I'm kind of with the commenter on that--I'd buy a copy. Just for the novelty factor.

Of course, you think that's bad, try the poster for the video game RUSE--which was actually published. Yeah.

"Yes, I'll take Things You Never Want to See in Minecraft for $500, Alex..."

I'm not sure if any of these are right--can there be "right" where mythology is involved?--but some of these mermaid anatomy drawings look amazing.

"Did you remember to have your man-servant crank the mill of the Analytical Engine?" I'm sure we've all been asked that question.

Based on a casual mention near the beginning of Mark Z. Danielewski's work, House of Leaves, I've been trying to track down more information on Ted Serios. I still don't know if I fully buy "thoughtography"--especially since he seems to be the only known "thoughtographer"--but some of the images are interesting. More to the point, no one seems to have been able, since then, to reproduce the work. How odd.

Finally, to end this meandering link-fest, there's a Flickr group exploring early spirit photography. It's worth a perusal or two if you're intrigued by Victorian paranormal activity.