Category: Mayhem

Part of what makes Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War so scary is that his “evil” plan makes a certain amount of rational sense: The greatest enemy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t Thanos; it’s overpopulation that will eventually lead to famine and ruin. By writing his own narrative, Thanos becomes the hero if he succeeds in wiping out half of the universe’s population from existence. Thanos isn’t a generic villain like Ultron or Steppenwolf who simply wants to destroy everything. He’s much more calculated, even logical in his approach, and more than 20,000 people in the real world agree with him enough to subscribe to a subreddit called /r/thanosdidnothingwrong. Even in moral philosophy, they’re probably not alone.

LINK: https://www.inverse.com/article/44383-avengers-infinity-war-thanos-ethics-philosophy

What living director has drawn the descriptor “surreal” more often than David Lynch? If you’ve seen, or rather experienced, a few of his films — particularly Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., or Inland Empire, or even the first half of his television series Twin Peaks — you know he’s earned it. Like any surrealist worth his salt, Lynch creates his own version of reality, with its own set of often unfathomable and inexplicably but emotionally and psychologically resonant qualities. In 1987, the year after his breakthrough Blue Velvet opened in theaters, the BBC apparently thought him enough of an authority on the matter of cinematic surrealism to enlist him to present an episode of Arena on the subject.

LINK: http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/david-lynch-presents-the-history-of-surrealist-film-1987.html

China officials have launched its latest crackdown on funeral strippers. Yes, funeral strippers.

The country’s Ministry of Culture announced late last month that it will be targeting a slew of rural provinces “for their obscene and vulgar performances at weddings, funerals and temple fairs,” China’s state-run Global Times newspaper reported.

LINK: https://nypost.com/2018/02/21/china-cracks-down-on-funeral-strippers/

A Reseda man planned to detonate improvised explosive devices at several Southern California locations to cause “mass casualties” in a terror plot thwarted by law enforcement officials, authorities said Monday.

LINK: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/la-me-ln-los-angeles-terror-plot-20190429-story.html

It’s been nearly 50 years since notorious cult leader Charles Manson and some of his devout followers shocked the world with a series of brutal murders, including that of “Valley of the Dolls” actress Sharon Tate, who was more than eight months pregnant at the time.

And yet, despite knowing what he’d done, one of his followers, Lynette Fromme, said she’s still in love with Manson.

“I don’t think you fall out of love,” she told ABC News. “I feel very honored to have met him, and I know how that sounds to people who think he’s the epitome of evil.”

Fromme and Dianne Lake, two members who lived with the so-called “Manson Family” for years, spoke to ABC News about how they came to know Charles Manson and how the group’s 1969 murders shaped their lives and impacted American culture.

Watch the full story of “Manson Girls” tonight, April 30 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

With CIA help, writers were enlisted to battle both Communism and eggheaded abstraction. The damage to writing lingers.

LINK: https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Iowa-Flattened-Literature/144531

US authorities have arrested three men after taking down a dark web drug ring which laundered $2.3 million in cryptocurrency.

LINK: https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/04/17/dark-web-druglords-charged-with-laundering-2-3m-in-bitcoin/

Scandals. Backstabbing. Resignations. Record profits. Time Bombs. In early 2018, Mark Zuckerberg set out to fix Facebook. Here’s how that turned out.

LINK: https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-15-months-of-fresh-hell/