The Nameless Thing of Berkley Square is a creature that reportedly lives in the haunted townhouse on 50 Berkley Square in Mayfair, Central London. Some say that the building is the most haunted in London. The Nameless Thing has been described as a “mutant cephalopod” and as semi-aquatic. The first known account of the creature was from the 1840s in a report involving Sir Robert Warboys. The 20 year old had first believed the creature’s legend to be “unadulterated poppycock”. However, his friends, during a night of drinking, challenged him to spend a night in the haunted 2nd floor room of the building. The landlord of the building reluctantly allowed him to stay in the room. Warboys was armed with a pistol and had a cord nearby that triggered a bell in the landlord’s room. 45 minutes after the clock struck midnight, a shot rang out in the room as Warboys fired his pistol. The landlord heard the shot and ran into the room only to find Warboys, dead and holding the pistol that had fired. The landlord “noted that Warboys’ lips were peeled back from his clenched teeth in a grimace of horror and eyes seemed to be literally bulging from his skull”. He could only assume that the man had a run-in with the Nameless Thing of Berkley Square.

A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults. THE GODFATHER (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo

Ancient Holy Saturday homily

Antwerp Diamond Heist of 2003

Dubbed “the heist of the century,” the Antwerp Diamon Heist remains unsolved to this day. The heist involved the taking of loose diamonds, gold, and other jewelry valued at more than $100 million. It is considered the largest diamond heist in history.

It was housed in a vault considered to be one of the safest vaults in the world which had numerous secturity mechanisms.

Lock with over 100 million combinations

Infared heat detectors

A seismic sensor

Doppler radar

The diamond center itself had a security force

A man named Leonardo Notarbartolo (man suspected of doing this) had rented a sparsely furnished office for approximately $700 per month in the diamond centre three years prior to the robbery which gave him 24hr access to the vault. He posed as an Italian diamond merchant in order to gain creditbility.

After the robbery Leonardo and his crew stole the security footage so no one really knows how they pulled this off or who the rest of Leonardo’s team was. 123/160 safety deposit boxes (which were made of steel and copper and had both a key and combination lock) were forced open. This is what the diamon center’s vault looked like after the robbery.

James Caan taking a break after his death scene in The Godfather

Jellyfish Sprite

Red sprites or the tentacle-like spurts of red lightning in the sky during a storm are sometimes referred to as Jellyfish Sprite (because of their shape). There are also some that are vertical columns of red light and those are called carrot sprites.

They are ultra fast electricity traveling through the atmosphere towards space and are extremely rare (they last a tenth of a second). They can also be seen from space.

The picture above was captured on Mt. Locke in Texas (July 2nd, 2020) by Stephen Hummel.

Twin Peaks: Pilot (1990) dir. David Lynch

The Gibson family has taken thousands of striking shipwreck photos, from the late 1870’s through the 1970s. See more of these amazing photos here.

(via daily timewaster: The airship Le Jaune by the LeBaudy brothers glides by the Eiffel Tower in 1903)

1978 cover art by Bruce Pennington for ‘The Heaven Makers,’ by Frank Herbert

“You’re a slut and a whore for the algorithm. I couldn’t do it anymore. You can never feed it enough. You start out making art, and hoping that the door will open. You’re looking for that viral moment so it opens up the door and you can do the thing full time. But you start to compromise just to get the door to open: guessing what it wants, debasing yourself, alienating yourself. Until you’re not even in service to your art anymore. You’re in service to the algorithm. Deep down every artist just wants to be seen. Everyone does. And that’s how it controls you. The algorithm makes you behave in a certain way, create in a certain way, in exchange for being seen. And if something can change what you do, it can change who you are. And I didn’t sign up for that. I didn’t sign up to become a content creator. Art was supposed to be a way for me to be in search of, in service to, in community with. It was my ministry. Art was supposed to be my ministry.”

Large Magellanic Cloud

Sh2-136, Ghosts of the Cosmos

By magicinsalem