Kiss Me Deadly Playing in the Black Mansion Tonight

On a dark country road, Mike Hammer picks up a woman who's hitch-hiking, wearing only a trench coat-- a mental institution escapee. There is a mysterious box that everyone seems to be after, but what it contains is a mystery, though it must be worth a fortune. At the end the scheming Christina finally gets her hands on it and cannot resist having a peek. The reason why the case is always warm to the touch becomes obvious, as the nuclear materials inside cause Christina to burst into flames.

Some of you will recall the reference to this scene in Pulp Fiction.

Fans of Awsomeness Observe the Vampire Squid

From the Wikipedia entry on Vampire Squid:

The Vampire Squid is almost entirely covered in light-producing organs called photophores. The animal has great control over the organs, capable of producing disorienting flashes of light for fractions of a second to several minutes in duration. The intensity and size of the photophores can also be modulated. Appearing as small white discs, the photophores are larger and more complex at the tips of the arms and at the base of the two fins, but are absent from the underside of the caped arms. Two larger white areas on top of the head were initially believed to also be photophores, but have turned out to be photoreceptors...

Like many deep-sea cephalopods, Vampire Squid lack ink sacs. If threatened, instead of ink, a sticky cloud of bioluminescent mucus containing innumerable orbs of blue light is ejected from the arm tips. This luminous barrage, which may last nearly 10 minutes, is presumably meant to daze would-be predators and allow the Vampire Squid to disappear into the blackness without the need to swim far. The display is made only if the animal is very agitated; regenerating the mucus is costly from a metabolic point of view.

They spit glowing orbs of blue light when attacked. Try to tell me you're not jealous of that superpower. That's pretty darned awesome. There's actually quite a bit more awesomeness in the article I linked to, but that was my favorite fact about the Vampire Squid.

Vampyroteuthis in low light glowing

About Those Pre-Modern UFO's

Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times
From the product description:

One of the most ambitious works of paranormal investigation of our time, here is an unprecedented compendium of pre-twentieth-century UFO accounts, written with rigor and color by two of today's leading investigators of unexplained phenomena.
In the past century, individuals, newspapers, and military agencies have recorded thousands of UFO incidents, giving rise to much speculation about flying saucers, visitors from other planets, and alien abductions. Yet the extraterrestrial phenomenon did not begin in the present era. Far from it. The authors of Wonders in the Sky reveal a thread of vividly rendered-and sometimes strikingly similar- reports of mysterious aerial phenomena from antiquity through the modern age. These accounts often share definite physical features- such as the heat felt and described by witnesses-that have not changed much over the centuries. Indeed, such similarities between ancient and modern sightings are the rule rather than the exception.
In Wonders in the Sky, respected researchers Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck examine more than 500 selected reports of sightings from biblical-age antiquity through the year 1879-the point at which the Industrial Revolution deeply changed the nature of human society, and the skies began to open to airplanes, dirigibles, rockets, and other opportunities for misinterpretation represented by military prototypes. Using vivid and engaging case studies, and more than seventy-five illustrations, they reveal that unidentified flying objects have had a major impact not only on popular culture but on our history, on our religion, and on the models of the world humanity has formed from deepest antiquity.
Sure to become a classic among UFO enthusiasts and other followers of unexplained phenomena, Wonders in the Sky is the most ambitious, broad-reaching, and intelligent analysis ever written on premodern aerial mysteries.

Halloween Reprise, Christmas Edition, With Zombie Ghost Train

As we might have mentioned earlier, we like to celebrate all winter holidays as Halloween. So we're donning costume again- decking the halls with spiders and trimming the cactus with creepy crawlies. It's a dark stormy night out there as Krampus roams in search of naughty kiddies.

Shamanic Origins of Santa Explored

Merry Christmas everyone.

Happy Holidays -- Backward Christmas Carol

We decided to sing a few carols in the Black Mansion tonight, but in keeping with our commitment to the strange, frightening and just plain backwards, we've chosen a rather novel arrangement. Enjoy.

Fans of Awsomeness Check Out These Deep Sea Squid

Time Lapse of the Solstice Lunar Eclipse

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Advice from West Texas: Don't Get Your Sister Twisted

Because if you get your sister twisted things can take a torturous turn. Truly. Kinky has this to say on the subject, as they are today sojourning in these parts and have seen sister twisting up close. You'll note it's a veritable apocalypse, which means it's about normal for these parts. But you don't want any West Texas breaking out in other locales, so, again, don't twist, or otherwise tear, mar or fold your sisters. It only makes em mean.

Happy Festivus- Feat of Strength-- Getting Tasered

I'm posting this video as a feat of strength, but there could also be an airing of grievances. Oww, Oww.

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963

Dateline, Texas: Old Man the Naked Mole Rat Dies

Naked Mole Rats Frolicing in a Tube

Sad news in West Texas today. We've learned that the 32 year-old naked mole rat named Old Man has died. The naked mole rat is a creature of astonishing longevity, with Old Man being the oldest known of the species. The University of Texas Health Science Center's Barshop Institute for Longevity is home to the largest captive colony of ugly naked mole rats. Old Man was born in Kenya, and had a full and satisfying life in Texas. May he rest in peace. From the San Antonio Express News:

The Barshop Institute, part of The University of Texas Health Science Center, maintains the world's largest mole rat colony. About 2,000 of the tiny, burrowing rodents whose most distinctive feature is their sharp, protruding teeth, live and breed in four basement labs. With their long, hairless bodies and translucent pink skin, they look a bit like Vietnamese spring rolls with legs.

Because these natives of East Africa live an average 26 years (compared to the 2- to 4-year lifespan of other rodents), they're well suited for studies of age-related disease. For example, older mole rats develop the same type of brain plaque as that found in Alzheimer's patients. But for reasons unknown, they don't experience similar cognitive decline.

Their bones also stay strong and healthy well into their later years.

Fans of Awsomeness Behold the Cirrate Ocopus

From deepseanews.com
"This ghostly-looking orange cirrate octopus was observed with the MBARI’s ROV Doc Ricketts on my recent research cruise to the Taney Seamounts. These finned octopuses belong to an order of animals called Cirrata named for the presence of hair-like structures called ‘cirri’ which may aid these animals in the capture of food."

Bow Wow Wow Shows What Not to Do at the Beach

Not everyone is aware of how dangerous sand digging can be. People die from sand hole collapses at the beach every year. Don't believe it? Check this out.

Krampuslauf-- Video

Creepy Christmas Tradition: Krampus

There is a dark side to the whole Santa business in the first place. The whole "he who knows if you've been sleeping, knows if you're awake, knows if you've been bad or good," is already pretty big brotheresque. But the Germans and Austrians weren't content with denial of presents for naughty children. Instead they invented an evil twin for Santa who would accompany the jolly old elf around and punish bad children as Santa rewarded the good ones. What could be better than adding a scare factor to Christmas?

If a Fly Can't Fly Can We Still Call it a Fly?

Here you see the world's only known fly that can't actually fly. It's called a hairy fly, and it lives only on one rock in Kenya and there are rumors that the colony was started by a guy from West Texas named Jim who managed to get on  a certain Wickidity practitioner's bad side. But that's not the real point. The main thing we're interested in is whether or not it can properly be called a fly, since the fly is a creature whose name implies an activity that this critter isn't actually capable of. More at Livescience.

I Measure Every Grief I Meet-- Emily Dickinson for Her Birthday, 12-10

I measure every Grief I meet
With narrow, probing, eyes –
I wonder if It weighs like Mine –
Or has an Easier size.

I wonder if They bore it long –
Or did it just begin –
I could not tell the Date of Mine –
It feels so old a pain –

I wonder if it hurts to live –
And if They have to try –
And whether – could They choose between –
It would not be – to die –

I note that Some – gone patient long –
At length, renew their smile –
An imitation of a Light
That has so little Oil –

I wonder if when Years have piled –
Some Thousands – on the Harm –
That hurt them early – such a lapse
Could give them any Balm –

Or would they go on aching still
Through Centuries of Nerve –
Enlightened to a larger Pain –
In Contrast with the Love –

The Grieved – are many – I am told –
There is the various Cause –
Death – is but one – and comes but once –
And only nails the eyes –

There's Grief of Want – and grief of Cold –
A sort they call "Despair" –
There's Banishment from native Eyes –
In sight of Native Air –

And though I may not guess the kind –
Correctly – yet to me
A piercing Comfort it affords
In passing Calvary –

To note the fashions – of the Cross –
And how they're mostly worn –
Still fascinated to presume
That Some – are like my own

City of Christmas Ghosts- Goldblade and Poly Styrene

The Snowman

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Wallace Stevens

Happy Birthday Tom Waits

Belated, as his birthday was yesterday. We ran into Tom Waits twice in one day in Ashland a couple of years back. Now, if only we could get him over to West Texas.

Maybe Texas Should Try Getting David Lynch to do Anti-Littering Spots

Texas has a litter problem. One of the biggest parts of it is that a majority of Texans are  unaware that the "Don't Mess With Texas" thing is actually an anti-littering campaign. It's just too ambiguous for Texans. Now, if Texas were to take the New York approach... Just a suggestion.

NASA Announces Extra-Terrestrial Life?

At 2pm Eastern time NASA is holding a press conference on astrobiology. Will we see our alien brothers finally revealed. Tune in at NASA.gov.