Counting Down to Hallowe'en: Seaborne Monsters and Mysteries

The MV Lyubov Orlova in 2010 before it was abandoned. Image Source: Wiki.

In January 2014, reports circulated across the Internet that an abandoned 1,400 tonne Russian ship, Lyubov Orlova filled with cannibal rats, was drifting across the Atlantic and headed toward Ireland. After a few weeks of speculation, news outlets dismissed the story. For all the sensation, ghost ships are actually fairly common (see here and here).

Counting Down to Hallowe'en: Howling Dogs and Flightless Moths

Image Source: Youtube.

Horror has a philosophical side. Western horror stories are usually social commentaries, not that different from morality plays of the middle ages. A regular at Scans Daily remarked: "a lot of horror ... raises the question of 'Who is the real sick man ... in this so-called society?'"

In Asia, there is a greater sense of continuity between non-being, being and death, so hungry ghost stories often involve reincarnation or karma (see related posts here and here). You can find no better blend of eastern and western traditions than the ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), an American who lived in Japan. I have previously mentioned his 1899 collection of ghost stories (which you can read online here) in this post.

Sometimes, the bridge between different human traditions is a non-human perspective. Other creatures bear witness on the other world, or afterlife, or the paranormal world beyond our senses. Youtube has many videos made by dog owners who claim that their dog can see a ghost.

Lafcadio Hearn came to the conclusion that domesticated creatures' lives are so intertwined with human lives that they, with their fundamentally different ways of being, mirror some of the things we cannot understand about ourselves and our existence. These creatures are so tied to us that they mirror these hidden truths within the human space. Our pets also perceive some of the things we cannot usually sense - including, in Hearn's view, ghosts.

The alien familiarity of silkworm moths (Bombyx mori); cultivated for over 5,000 years in China (possibly since the end of the Neolithic Age) to produce silk, the insects no longer exist in the wild. They can't fly and are completely dependent on humans in order to eat and survive. Image Source: Science Image.

If you don't want to read Hearn's stories, you can hear them below the jump. They have been prepared as an audiobook by LibriVox recordings. It is not shock or gore and can seem dry, but if you have time to listen to this video, In Ghostly Japan conveys the real meaning of horror. Hearn ponders mundane subjects, then veers off into horror, relating it to life's greatest mysteries and philosophical questions in a mind-blowing, sometimes very scary way.

Photos from an Epidemic

Images Source: Getty via Creepy Reality.

These are October photos from Liberia, scenes from the ebola epidemic from Getty Images (Hat tip: Creepy Reality):

It has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people across the world so far. Now, a series of photos has captured the grim reality of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, West Africa. The shocking images, taken by photographers John Moore and Mohammed Elshamy, show the brutal effects of the virus on victims and their loved ones. One features a woman crawling desperately toward the body of her sister as a burial team carries it away for cremation on Saturday [11 October 2014].

Counting Down to Hallowe'en: One World Trade Center

Image Source: Ellie Photography Blog.

One World Trade Center is the sky-scraper built in New York City to replace the Twin Towers, which were destroyed by hijacked airplanes on 9/11. Completed in 2013, the new building, also known as the Freedom Tower, made an eerie wailing sound when the wind blew in a certain way. This was during construction, when the building formed a natural aeolian wind harp. Or perhaps the surrounding buildings make a wind tunnel. See videos below the jump which recorded the haunting sound. Despite the rational explanations, one can hardly blame people for being superstitious in this case.