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tisthenightofthewitch · 2 years

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Ghost Predicted the Pandemic. Now the Metal Band Is Foretelling the Fall of Empires

Tobias Forge, the man behind the ghoulish Papa Emeritus, rails against bloated nations, empty leaders, and the glorification of stupidity on the new album ‘Impera’

When your day job requires you to dress up as a satanic pope, you’re going to have a complicated view of Christianity. But that doesn’t mean Tobias Forge, the creative mastermind behind the occult-rock band Ghost, can’t appreciate the religion’s artistic and cultural beauty.

“In the same way that I would not hang out with an alien from the film Alien, but I love the look of it? That’s my relationship with Christianity,” Forge tells Rolling Stone. “I’m a big fan of the arts treasures that are in there and it’s always had a great impact on me, even if I use it as a repellent.”

Since forming Ghost in his native Sweden in 2006, Forge has concocted an entire upside-down catechism that pokes devilish fun at the teachings and rituals of the Holy See. As Papa Emeritus, the dark frontman who takes a new form with each album, he performs in a miter and papal robes. Lyrics are rich in Christian allusions to transubstantiation and the resurrection. The band, who conceal their faces behind elaborate masks, have even distributed unholy communion to fans at their concerts. Were Tipper Gore to lay eyes upon Ghost back in the Eighties heyday of the PMRC, she’d turn into a pillar of salt.

But after the release of their 2010 debut album Opus Eponymous — a theatrical metal masterpiece about the coming of the Antichrist — something peculiar began to happen with Ghost: Forge dipped a cloven hoof into social and political commentary. Their 2018 album Prequelle told the prescient story of a plague that spreads not only disease across the world but contagious schools of thought. “This wretched mischief is now coursing through your souls,” Forge sang in the single “Rats.” On Friday, Ghost go a step further with the release of their fifth album, Impera, a sobering look at the fall of empires. If Prequelle inadvertently yet accurately presaged the Covid-19 pandemic, then Impera foretells an even more dire future.

Calling from a hotel in Ohio where Ghost are on tour with the Danish metal band Volbeat, Forge snickers when it’s suggested that the “plague record,” as he calls it, predicted 2019’s sweeping global health crisis.

“In hindsight, yeah. But everything in nature and time and our behaviors is very cyclical. It’s almost eerie how we’re basically repeating the 1900s again,” he says. “We have just gone through what would be an equal to Spanish flu in the beginning of 1918 and, currently, we are on the brink of what could become World War III.”

According to Forge, Impera isn’t about any specific empire, but rather the “concept of empires and their self-destruction mechanisms.” Still, it’s easy to pluck out lyrical references to a post-Trump United States, a country where civility and even the peaceful transfer of power are in danger of becoming relics. “We’ll be grabbing them all by the hoo-hahs!” Forge shouts in “Twenties,” a chugging Broadway thrash number that fantasizes a boom time of lawlessness, lust, and greed. In “Grift Wood,” he skewers the false piety of a power-hungry leader like Mike Pence. Lyrics about a “Mother” who “shine[s] like the sun and the moon” read like a jab at the one-term vice president and his pet name for his wife.

“Let’s just say that it can be about someone like him who is ready to serve his entire life’s work in pursuit of power, and then justify it by claiming some sort of a religious connection,” Forge says when asked directly about Pence. “He’s a great example of someone like that. Every basement he has reached, he miraculously finds a new one. It’s one of the most evil things I’ve ever seen — tricking people into believing that they’re on their side.”

Born and raised in Linkoping, Sweden, in 1981, Forge consumed a steady diet of American entertainment as a child — very little of it, he stresses, overdubbed in Swedish. “As part of the Cold War in the Fifties, because of our proximity to the Soviet Union at the time, there seemed to be a large influx of American culture. If you went to Sweden in the Fifties, there were American cars everywhere, jukeboxes, Elvis Presley, American films,” he says. “We watched the same TV shows that you did when we were kids in the Eighties: Sesame Street, Kermit the Frog, The Cosby Show, Dallas, Twin Peaks. I don’t find superlatives strong enough, but I’m an absolute devotee of Americana. It’s part of my DNA.”

American culture may be part of Forge’s makeup, but organized religion is not. He wasn’t raised under a specific faith, nor does he subscribe to any now. “I’m not against religion or faith systems,” he clarifies, but he can’t abide what he calls “linear religions” built on the idea of a beginning (birth), an end (death), and an afterlife where good behavior on earth will be rewarded. “The idea of linear religions has infested our ways of thinking and that’s really detrimental. They are obviously created by man to control others.”

After stints in death-metal, glam-rock, and power-pop bands, Forge fused elements of all three into Ghost. Along with the satanic trappings, however tongue-in-cheek they may be, the band was defined by its anonymity. The musicians — referred to as an indistinguishable Group of Nameless Ghouls — wore masks to hide their identity, and Forge fully transformed into the Papa Emeritus character, wearing his own series of highly detailed face coverings and makeup.

Since then Ghost have played festivals like Download and toured with Metallica (they covered ��Enter Sandman” on last year’s Blacklist tribute album). Their concerts are euphoric spectacles of fire, smoke, and confetti, with Forge changing costumes regularly — out of Papa’s pope get-up and into sequined sportcoats. Onstage he shimmies like an old-time vaudeville star. It can be mesmerizing.

Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, who once administered wine and bread to fans at a Ghost show as one of the band’s “Sisters of Sin,” says the group’s commitment to performance makes them an important figure in the heavy-metal landscape.

“Beyond their brilliant art they create, they are bringing theater back to heavy music. Part of the appeal of Tobias and his band is their unapologetic use of humor and storyline,” Hale tells Rolling Stone in an email. “It’s only rock music; we need not take ourselves too seriously. Tobias’s vision attracts a wide spectrum of fans, and I’m inspired every time I see Ghost live.”

When Hale made her onstage cameo with Ghost in 2015, few knew the real identity of Papa Emeritus. For years, that anonymity provided fans with one of the most satisfying rock mysteries since Kiss took off their makeup. But following a legal dispute with former band members over royalties in 2017, Forge outed himself as the man beneath the miter.

“When I made Prequelle, my life was kind of shaky, but the world was ironically in a more steady place. Whereas making the new record, I was in a very good place personally, but the world was the opposite,” he says. “We now have mechanisms within our own Western empire who are actively trying to, and to some degree have, created this time machine where we’re regressing. We’re flattening the earth. We’re submitting to stupidity, which is fucking unbelievable.”

On Impera, Forge calls out the ongoing war on facts by retelling an ancient story. Explosive opening track “Kaisarion” is a tribute to the philosopher Hypatia, who was murdered by Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, during the early fifth century.

“They killed her because she was a woman exercising her rights as a human being to spread some sort of wisdom that is not in accordance with a bunch of angry men, who wishes to control females in particular and are burning and destroying things that does not belong to them,” Forge says with a dramatic pause. “Sounds like ancient times, doesn’t it?”

Or, some might say, modern-day Texas.

While Impera marks Forge’s most overt stab yet at social commentary, he maintains he’s simply writing heavy-metal fiction. He likes the refuge of Ghost’s remaining anonymity and its creative freedom — any similarity to divided modern-day empires is purely coincidental.

“At the end of the day, it’s an escapist rock & roll album,” he demurs. But one that even Papa Emeritus hopes doesn’t come true.

Rolling Stone

#Tobias Forge #Tobias Interview #The Band Ghost #Ghost Band #Ghost #Papa IV

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kamiyu910 · 4 years

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All right, @the-defiant-pupil, I’ll see what sort of research paper I can throw together here concerning Corona-chan.

Right now, we’re going on fatality rate based on known/confirmed cases. This global fatality rate is currently at 7.1%, with 3,253,181 confirmed cases and 233,014 deaths. We’re still lacking a lot of data, such as China withholding so much, and with other countries only testing those with symptoms while ignoring the high percentage who are asymptomatic.

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Antibody tests are now being used to tell who has had the virus, and to see if they’re actually immune to it, which would allow them to go back to work. This also allows us to see exactly how far Corona-chan has spread, and this data is being used to show a slightly different picture for a mortality rate, since it helps identify those who were asymptomatic. Countries that don’t count asymptomatic people show a might higher fatality rate because they only count the people who seek medical help.

https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-antibody-tests.html

In the US, there are still places that are barely testing, and only testing those who show symptoms, such as the largest county in the country, the San Bernardino County. Currently, we’re listed at 2058 cases, with only 93 deaths, putting us at a 4.5% fatality rate. We cannot take that at face value, however, because even those with mild symptoms are being turned away, and those with no symptoms are being ignored. Out of a population of 2.18 million, only 20,000 have been tested. That’s 0.09% of our entire population. We’ve known about this virus since at least December last year, it has been in the US for months, yet we lack so much information.

https://sbcph.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/44bb35c804c44c8281da6d82ee602dff

https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en

Some sources say the true mortality rate is:

“In the new analysis, the death rate in confirmed COVID-19 cases is estimated to be 1.38%, while the overall rate, which includes estimated unconfirmed cases, is calculated at .66%.”

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200331/covid-19-death-rate-drops-still-deadly-to-seniors

https://time.com/5798168/coronavirus-mortality-rate/

In this post by Berkeley, they say:

“A comparison of daily deaths in Italy since January 2020 with those over the previous five years there indicates that the fatality rate in that country for those infected with the new coronavirus is at least 0.8%, far higher than that of the seasonal flu and higher than some recent estimates.Extrapolating from the Italian data, University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data scientists estimate that the fatality rate in New York City and Santa Clara County in California can be no less than 0.5%, or one of every 200 people infected.”

“The difference, the researchers say, is likely due to many deaths among older people that have not been counted in the official Italian statistics. The team found a much higher fatality rate for those over 70 years of age: In Lombardy, a region hit hard by the pandemic, those between 70 and 79 had a 2.3% infection fatality rate, while those 80 to 89 had an almost 6% fatality rate. Nearly 13% of those over 90 died.In comparison, those 40 to 49 had a 0.04% fatality rate.

In comparison, those 40 to 49 had a 0.04% fatality rate.These differing fatality rates can explain the observed higher number of deaths among younger people in New York City. Because the population there is younger than in Italy, more deaths among young people are expected, despite their lower fatality rate. The researchers predict that about 26% of all deaths from COVID-19 in New York City will be among those younger than 65.

The population of Italy, on the other hand, is older, yielding a higher overall fatality rate for the country’s population: 0.8%, versus 0.5% for New York. Only 10% of Italian deaths will be younger than 65.The team also estimated, based on the predicted fatality rate for those infected with the new coronavirus and the positivity rate for those tested for COVID-19 in New York City, that about one-quarter of that city’s population has been infected with the virus. This agrees with the recent announcement by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of 21% infection.The team’s predicted infection rate for Santa Clara is around 1%, while that for Los Angeles is around 2%, based on current mortality rates.”

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/04/24/study-challenges-reports-of-low-fatality-rate-for-covid-19/

So if an area has a higher rate of elderly, they will have a higher fatality rate than an area where the population is young. If a rest home gets hit, it will be devastating, whereas if a nursery gets hit, it’ll probably not even be noticeable, though that doesn’t mean they’re immune, there will be a couple of kids who may need hospital care, and the potential for other side effects that’ll become more apparent later on (still waiting for more studies to be done to confirm this).

There is a lot of fear mongering being pushed on people with all the misinformation out there, and people are actively allowing their governments to become controlling dictatorships out of fear. It is possible to maintain safety measures while opening up businesses so that the economies don’t collapse. We don’t have to go so extreme as to destroy ourselves out of fear. People are going to die one way or another, whether it be from Corona-chan or from a man made famine.

Take the US for instance. Farmers are being made to dump tons of food, perfectly good food, because they’re being told there isn’t a market for it just because certain businesses are closed, like schools. There are plenty of other places that need the food.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-dairy-farmers-feel-the-squeeze-from-coronavirus-as-milk-sales-dry-up-11588183989

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241627101.html

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Farmers-seek-help-selling-crops-while-volunteers-15238489.php

My milk.... all of that precious milk...

We do not have to go this far, people. We do not have to go to the extreme! This is fucking ridiculous.

I’ve seen this screenshot going around as well, not sure how accurate it is but if they cut off the supply chain, which is possible, it can be a reality. I’ve talked to more than a few people who have no idea how to keep a store of food to last a few months, and apparently it’s common for people to just have food for a week in the fridge/freezer/pantry. I don’t understand how that’s possible...

On top of all that, the government is overreaching on their control issues, going so far as to turn off electric and water to businesses that refuse to close

https://calepa.ca.gov/2020/04/02/news-release-governor-issues-water-shutoff-order-and-takes-steps-to-maintain-delivery-of-critical-water-services-during-covid-19-crisis/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/small-business-owners-file-suit-gov-newsom-ca/story?id=70365949

Not to mention all of these headlines, like what timeline are we living in that they feel these levels of invasion are necessary? You can fight a virus without going to this length of control!

Not to mention New York itself, like really?

And while I can kinda understand wanting to prevent large parties from happening, they’re going after single people having a walk in the wilderness and arresting them for it, or going after a couple of dudes on a rooftop having a cold one, even boaters are getting arrested, despite practicing social distancing, yet we’re allowed to still go to the store? However, in some places like Michigan, they even have police checking bags for essential items...

Which, btw, is also a point of interest, as being allowed to buy seeds has been banned in many areas, but lotto tickets are still available for purchase. There aren’t near enough articles detailing all the things that people are slowly finding out are being restricted/outlawed, and honestly, the more I see people calling on some random person taking a lone walk around a neighborhood, the more I think of this meme:

In many ways, I’m more concerned with the government destroying us than the virus. Many governments around the world are taking advantage of this to tighten the leash. This is completely unnecessary. The main reason for the lockdown isn’t to prevent people from getting the disease - it’s pretty much just accepted that we will eventually get it - but to lighten the load on hospitals so we don’t end up overloaded like Italy, where they have to decide who to let die. The Netherlands is reportedly doing similar.

“...in the Netherlands as in Belgium, euthanasia has been applied for years, according to the authorities, “voluntary”. However, in Germany, and in France, Spain and Italy, they have received elderly patients from these countries to be cured, not of coronaviruses, but of anything, because they do not trust the hospitals of their country: euthanasia is not Voluntary, they say, nor is it respected - not infrequently - the will of the person to whom euthanasia is applied.”

https://es.aleteia.org/2020/03/28/coronavirus-dejar-a-los-viejos-que-mueran/

I can understand wanting to ease the load on hospitals, but again, house arrest is not necessary. These measures being taken are too extreme. Some governors in the US have eased up on their restrictions, and the number of cases has not risen dramatically like some people spreading fear claimed. Our hospitals are not being overrun with cases.

In fact, the number is going down. Plus, look at the number of beds. It doesn’t mean I want more people to get sick, but we have to be logical about this and think about more than just the illness. We cannot keep letting the government say “money printer go brrrr” (not to mention the insider trading they were doing, like this shit is blatant, the corruption can be cut with a knife)

If we head into another depression, there will be many more millions of people who will die. People in poverty are at most risk for illness in general, and greater health problems, and malnutrition, and they will be the most hit in a depression, obviously. The elderly who get made homeless will basically be guaranteed to suffer badly. We can balance this out so that we can save the economy (as long as it’s not too late) and protect people from the illness as well as keep hospitals from being overloaded. Balance is the best way to protect everyone. I know people seem to have an aversion to moderation for some reason these days, but it really is a good thing here. Balance the needs of everyone.

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theparanormalperiodical · 4 years

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The Real Story Behind The Babadook (2014), And 17 Weirdest Bogeymen From Around The World That Might Be Hiding Under Your Bed Right Now

Strange times we live in.

It’s a Saturday night, and I’m hauled up at home eating a vegetarian lasagne whilst my mother asks me for the 37th time why I’ve decided to give up meat, when really, if there was no global pandemic, I’d be hauled up at home eating a vegetarian lasagne whilst my mother asks me for the 37th time why I’ve decided to give up meat.

It really is a strange time we live in.

But, in my attempt to protect the vulnerable groups in society and halt the spread of the latest Twitter hashtag in its tracks, I decided to catch up on the horror films hadn’t found the time to press play on just yet.

So, a bucket of popcorn and some mild trauma later, I could finally join in the conversation about The Babadook.

6 years too late.

Nevertheless! Once I’d emotionally recovered, I finally had my Sex And The City moment. No, not the ones with feminism that would make Emilline Pankhurst perform the equivalent of a Viennese Waltz in her grave - the one where Carrie sits in her NYC apartment and thinks about men at her computer.

“I couldn’t help but wonder: could the Babadook be based on a true story? ”

Unfortunately, I discovered that the Babadook is based on the concept of the boogeyman, an urban legend that has a greater global reach than Covid-19.

So, to distract you from the global pandemic with the threat of a creature lurking under your bed and waiting to snatch an ankle, I thought I’d let you in on the reality behind this queer icon.

First, let’s talk ‘bout The Babadook.

It was one of the biggest hits of the 2010s, combining the classic trope of creepy children with the classic colour palette of depression. Our story follows a single mother and her son who begins to be visited by an imaginary creature fresh from the pages of a children’s book.

With spiky talon-like hands, a cloaked figure, a jaw crammed full of teeth, a face paler than that time you bought that foundation on a whim in TK Maxx - all crowned with a dusty hat - the Babadook the child was seeing certainly had a sense of style.

The child, Sam, begins to create intricate traps and weapons designed to stop the Babadook, all the while the book predicts the mother’s rather dark future. It becomes clear that the Bababook is preying on the mother and essentially possessing her, a diagnosis that is confirmed when the mother attempts to kill Sam.

She then regurgitates a black inky substance evocative of ectoplasm, and is released from its grip.

The film ends on the happy family feeding the Babadook as it lives in their basement.

This indie horror - once it had finished polishing the 5 awards on it’s mantelpiece - might have woven a intricate plot deviating from the simple basis of international man of mystery James Bond The Boogeyman, but the basis still sticks out more than that wardrobe in the corner of your bedroom you’re now highly conscious of.

Simply put, the Babadook matches the basic concept of the boogeyman:

There’s some weird, dark creature that knicks kids and eats ‘em if they wander alone or don’t go to bed or misbehave. Just like Krampus, the bogeyman is a legend propagated by parents to convince kids to stay in line.

That being said, the mythical creature isn’t the only inspo behind this cinema-hit.

Specifically, the brains behind the film, Jennifer Kent, claimed it was about a deep-rooted fear we all have: that of going mad. On top of this, it seeks to show parenting from a real perspective.

The film focuses on a single mother as she faces one of the most difficult challenges in life: she loses her husband whilst going to give birth to her son, and then has to raise him alone. But that is not all.

Kent also spoke of a real encounter with the bogeyman.

Basics, her bestie’s son was being plagued by an imaginary monster, so she pretended to talk to it to calm his concerns. Sure, this tale might not have kickstarted the real terror engaged with in this movie, but it invited us into the reality behind the bogeyman.

But beyond this, the movie also detracts from the Babadook, and instead looks for the primal instincts in the mother - it looks for the bogeyman within us all.

That’s right - the real horror that was inside us all along.

Yawn.

But the thing is, it also brings up hell of a lot of paranormal activity that is remarkably accurate to theories of the supernatural.

Let’s start with the introduction of the Babadook.

He arrives in the form of a creepy children’s book no one’s seen or heard of. Armed with a chilling nursery rhyme and an aesthetic last seen in 2007, the Babadook follows the basic principles of a basic haunting: ghost does spooky stuff, ghost spooks humans, humans invite it in following the consent laws of the universe by interacting with it, ghost spooky powers intensify.

This begins with the book itself. Although the film doesn’t consider if he is a paranormal being aligning with the concept of demons and spirits (etc.), this book follows the concept of haunted objects.

By opening the book and reading it - or, interacting with it - they invite in the Babadook. And when she tries to destroy it, it crops up again, fully intact and conveniently lying on her doorstep.

No ‘sorry we missed you card’ needed.

This closely follows the theory of the haunted object, something more on-trend than tutting at empty shelves in the grocery store. Haunted objects have a habit of failing to be destroyed, and by engaging with them, such as not asking permission for taking a picture of a haunted doll, you enter communication with them.

From there, you’ve basically consented to a full possession. The object is a vessel for a spirit or a demon until a new, better, breathing vessel can be found.

You can find out more about this here.

I can’t find anything about haunted books specifically online, but as a variety of haunted objects exist, from bunk beds to boxes, I’m sure there’s potential for it.

Next is the eventual possession of the mother.

One of the most dramatic moments we witness is when the mother coughs up this black bile which represents the removal of the Babadook. This bears a striking resemblance to ectoplasm, a white liquid often released by those experiencing intense paranormal activity.

When mediums experience a trance-like state, they supposedly release a fabric-like or thick substance that darkens as physic energy is intensified. It allows those in the supernatural realm to interact with the physical realm, and for spirits to represent themselves to the audience of a seance.

This film was one of the first to explore the potential paranormal explanations behind the bogeyman, and give some basis to a beast that has haunted communities since the beginning of time.

Speaking of the beast…

Who is the bogeyman?

It’s sometime in the 1500s.

We are in the middle of a small country called England, struggling to make ends meet between the near constant famine, the anxiety of being cursed by a witch, or some war with [insert european nation that may or may not exist anymore].

Either way, when we aren’t trying to spell everything with an ‘e’ at the end, we are being taunted by hobgoblins.

These pesky beasts made their name in tormenting Englishmen, playing pranks on them or simply just being foul.

Hobgoblins are the OG bogeymen, or are the first we can trace back to recorded sources. But they were no means the last. And they were by no means the only ones in the world.

As a simple definition, the bogeyman is a mythical creature that makes sure kids are staying in line, and was made up by parents. The thing is, the bogeyman features in every culture that has ever been created.

And given the realm of the paranormal explored so far on this blog, perhaps your local Babadook isn’t so out of the question.

The bogeyman has always claimed a rather vague existence, representing a non-specific terror that has even extended to just ‘being the devil’ in some cases. The origins of the name are no different: ‘bogge’ comes from middle english, meaning ‘something frightening’ or ‘scarecrow’.

It has even been interpreted to mean ‘goat’ which can be traced to relations to the devil.

Appearance wise, the bogeyman has several broad features that stretch across cultures. Standard features include sharp teeth, talon or claw-like hands, hooves for feet, and even bug-like features. The Babadook might have shared in a few of these #basic-bogeyman traits, but it’s not all about looks.

How does his personality fair?

The bogeyman can pick between three personality types: something that punishes misbehaving children; one that is just violent for the hell of it which includes stealing kids, and eating them and/or taking them back to hell; or one that protects the innocent.

“So what you’re saying is, this is a vague looking creature with a vague personality with vague ambitions that is made up by parents who are tired of their kids interrupting their vague post-marital sex?”

Okay, fine, the bogeyman bears little resemblance to the basic concept of the bogeyman. But this is what makes him the international man of mystery. It’s the regional divergences between each nation’s own Babadook that makes this creature quite so peculiar.

You see, I assumed the bogeyman would be a universal concept draped in more black clothes than a kid that was in the throes of that scene where Edward leaves Bella.

Turns out that there’s actually a band of bogeymen which can be specified by their not-so-casual racism and genitalia.

But as the 195 countries dotted across the globe have fostered their own child-eating monster, I thought I’d cut to the chase and fill you in on the world’s weirdest bogeymen.

*Rolls up sleeves of Team Edward hoodie*

The Sack Man

Making his cinematic debut in The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Sack Man is the international symbol for the bogeyman. Whether he himself is draped in sack-like materials, or is lugging one around with him, Hombre Del Saco uses his luggage to capture and carry naughty children away to, uh, somewhere.

Most popular in Latin countries and Eastern Europe, the Sack Man is the most well travelled bogeyman on this list.

Babaroga

The original inspiration behind the Babadook - note the similar name - Babaroga is a resident of Serbia and its neighbouring countries. However, the mood board for the Babadook’s inspiration stopped there.

Babaroga literally translates to “old woman with horns”.

And this pensioner spends her time finding children, putting them in a sack (how original), bringing them to her cave, and eating them. Or, to shake things up, she pulls childrens through small holes in the ceiling.

El Coco

When he’s not featuring in lovable Disney hits, El Coco is snatching kids that don’t get to sleep when they should. With nursery rhymes detailing the legend - a chilling similarity to the Babadook - spanish-language countries across the globe are versed in reportedly seeing a coconut-like face hiding under their beds.

With a brown hairy face and body, and glowing red eyes to match, this famous humanoid might be closer than you think.

“Que viene el Coco y te comerá”

- A line from the traditional Spanish nursery rhyme.

The Mamma

Pakistan gets its fair share of attention on the news cycle, but aside from the war going on, no one has ever noted the rather peculiar beast haunting the nation’s young women.

The Mamma isn’t the mothering being the name suggests, but is a large ape that lives in the mountains and only comes to the civilised world when in need of a young girl. Once he’s kidnapped ‘em and taken ‘em back to his cave, he licks their hands and feet so they can’t escape.

I have a strong feeling that what happens next to these innocent women isn’t as silly as someone licking your feet.

La Tulievieja

Bringing together the award-winning aesthetic of The Ring and the naseau-inducing aesthetic of Cats, La Tulievieja is Panama’s warning for naughty children. Legend has it she is a spirit cursed by God for drowning her child.

The thing is, God’s curse was, uh, confused. Her monstrous form consists of acne scarring, long hair, claws for hands, a cat’s body and a farmyard animal’s hooved feet. On top of that, she also looks like the child she drowned.

Yep, confused.

The Jersey Devil

Most countries suffer from multiple bogeymen - here in the UK, for example, we have 12 varieties - and America is no different. The Jersey Devil is actually one of 4 variants, and, like La Tulievieja, is also confused.

Fresh from the jaws of New Jersey, this beast has a horse’s head, bat wings, hooves, and a snake’s tail. First spotted in the 18th century and then again in 1909, it is believed that this legend was actually manufactured as a real estate hoax to coax residents into lowering their selling prices.

You might be able to deny the existence of this beast, but the Cipelahq (a large owl), the Long Black Being that makes a habit of slithering round like a snake, and Bloody Bones (a dancing skeleton and a separate skull) have yet to be disproven.

The Copperpenis Owl

Hungary has 3 different bogeyman, and most fit the description of the international beast: there’s one with a sack, there’s one which is just a-bit-beasty, and then there’s the giant owl with a penis made of copper.

I personally feel a Babadook with rose gold genitalia circa 2013 might have detracted from the overall feel of the film.

Ijiraq and the Qalupalik

Iniut communities also follow beliefs in the bogeyman, and probably focus on them more than others because if you wander off in the Arctic you will either get mauled by a bear and die, or freeze.

And then you’ll die.

They actually have 2 resident bogeymen. There’s the Ijiraq, a shapeshifter that kidnaps kids. You know, pretty basic bitch stuff. And then there’s the Qalupalik who is slightly more spooky.

This is a mermaid laden with green skin, long fingernails, and ratty hair that carry babies away in amauti (pouches or sacks for carrying kids) and bring them to live in their underwater world.

Butzemann

Remember when I mentioned that thing about casual racism? It’s a bit of grey area, ironically.

Germany’s very own bogeyman is known as The Black Man.

(You can see my point.)

That being said, this probably doesn’t actually refer to the colour of his skin as most Germans during the Middle Ages hadn’t actually seen anyone from the African continent. Instead, his outdated nickname was actually down to his preference for dark corners.

The closet, under the bed, in forests during the early hours... If it’s spooky, you’ll find him here.

Babau

Germany isn’t the only country with politically incorrect bogeyman. Italy has its very own Black Man, a mysterious figure which often features as a black man (gasp) or a black ghost. Only this entity has no legs.

The Marabbecca on the other hand is specific to Sicily, and mirrors the mythology of the Inuits.

Don’t play too close to the water, kids, or a Marabbecca will swim up and drag you to your watery grave!

The Kropeman

Our final iconic bogeyman isn’t like the other girls, even if his fellow Luxembourgian monsters are. There’s yet another Black Man, and there’s something about an uncle, but it's the Kropeman which has me sleeping with the lights on.

Under the streets of this small country roams a man with a long hook.

When he’s not busy dodging rats in the sewers, he’s grabbing kids by their nose via the hook, and dragging ‘em down into the storm drains.

So - which one is hiding in your closet?

(Aside from the queerness your inner 14 year old hasn’t fully unleashed yet like a big bisexual dragon spewing flames of gender-neutralness.)

(Don’t worry, I’m fine.)

Are you a whore for horror? Passionate about the paranormal? Do you want to see a new real ghost story every day? Then you have to follow this blog.

Read this post next!

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megacircuit9universe · 4 years

Text

Covid19

FRI FEB 28 2020

I was really surprised to see that the stock market took a huge shit this week. Just after hitting another all time high, last Wednesday, the 19th, it began to drop last Thursday, and then all five days this week, Nasdaq, S&P, all of them across the board just kept dropping lower and lower every day, with the only thing stopping it being the closing bell of trading today.

It’s been the worst week of decline since October of 2008, with the banking collapse, after the housing bust was already in full swing... but this time, it was due to a sudden panic about Covid19, the coronavirus that emerged in China back in December.

There had been some global concern about Covid19 through January, when it was still contained mostly to China, but through February, cases have been showing up in other concentrated spots all around the globe, leading to a low level panic that finally affected the stock market.

Trump, of course, didn’t bother to address it at all until he saw his precious stock market was falling, and... it was actually his announcement about putting his VP Pence in charge of the virus that really caused the markets to break loose and go into free fall... because in the press conference, it was so painfully obvious to everybody, that Trump has no clue how to deal with a pandemic, and neither does Pence.

And it’s not just stocks, but other market warning signs are flashing, and... as mentioned above, people are talking about 2008, and everybody’s getting into their crash positions for another big recession suddenly.

Well... many are getting into crash positions. Other pundits are assuring us that everything will rally back to normal next week, like the market’s been doing over and over again for the entire Trump administration.

Of course, my model here, holds that the economy since the early twenty-teens has been a self-driving one, kept on the road by AI bots who have gone to great lengths to fend off the panics that should otherwise have tanked it by now, being caused by a rogue US President and his incendiary tweets... not to mention insane policies like jacking up tariffs on China last year.

And they’re so good at what they do, that I’ve maintained for this entire blog so far, even through Trump’s Impeachment hearings... that a market crash, and/or recession was off the table... no matter how fortuitous one might be in getting Trump removed from office.

So I’ve been truly surprised this week to see this happening.

And now I have to speculate as to why it’s happening.

Are the bots behind this?

The short answer is no. Their prime directive is, to the best of their ability, to keep the economy on track no matter what. Same as a self driving car, which only wants to keep driving, avoid accidents, obey the rules of the road, and get from point A to point B as quickly, but safely as possible.

But just like with a self driving car, there are some factors outside their control. One of these factors is Presidential tariffs... an arbitrary tax thrown in by one man on the outside, at his whim.

I’ve spent many an entry speculating about how the bots must have not only identified Trump as, essentially a virus attacking the system... but went so far as to form a coalition with smarter, more robust AI bots out there on the deep web, to hold Trump to account... by finding and leaking damning evidence to the House, who has the power to impeach him.

And that kind of worked... because Trump forgot about his tariffs. He wasn’t removed, but the economically destructive behavior he’d been engaging in, was put on indefinite pause... which was good enough to keep things rolling and buy time to find a more effective solution.

As for elections... two entries ago, I talked about how this bot coalition is not interested in tampering with elections. They’ll step in to prevent tampering if they can, like by crippling the Shadow app in Iowa, which was designed to subvert democracy... but this is a coalition of humanitarian bots, and economy bots, so... they all want to play by the rules, while also avoiding big upsets to society... like an assassination or something.

But when something like Covid19 appears on the landscape... well, it’s even further outside their control than rogue tariffs.

Real viruses... the biological kind, are an extremely ancient form of life, operating under the complex rules of natural selection, on a very root level. They’re unpredictable, and can be quite ruthless to higher life forms when they hit on a novel strategy for which existing biological immune systems are not prepared.

That said, biological immune systems are also insanely advanced, and do a very good job of neutralizing viruses... especially when they are helped along by human doctors who can study the DNA of the viruses and produce vaccines to teach immune systems how to fight them before they attack.

This is how we’ve managed to nearly wipe out polio, small pox, and dozens of other deadly viruses... and how we defend the world’s population every year against the latest strains of influenza*.

That said, I’m not convinced that Covid19 is the deadly pandemic threat that everybody’s terrified it could be at the moment.

Because it began in China... an authoritarian nation, we don’t have any reliable information about this virus at all. We can’t trust their numbers, either of infected or of deaths... we can’t trust their information about it’s transmission methods, contagiousness, incubation period, symptoms, or it’s origin... not just because we can’t trust them to tell the world the truth... but because we can’t even trust them to properly assess this kind of data.

Autocracies are notorious for brain drain, and clueless bureaucrats running big agencies they don’t understand, so... their data is useless.

Meanwhile, as far as news on the ground in China, all we have is a random sampling of smart phone footage, mixed with state reports, and first hand accounts from people supposedly spying from within China on behalf of the free world... but we have no idea what the true context is for any of this material... or what the agenda is of people who’ve fed this back to us over social media.

Long story short here, I do believe at the moment, that the panic is overblown, and that it’s being overblown by several layers of trolls around the world, who just want to create global panic for the lols.

People in the free world have been studying Covid19 in their own countries, as it’s spread to them, and are sharing that information but... we’re talking about three weeks worth of study on small sample sizes. There just hasn’t been enough time to fully understand how dangerous this virus really is.

Earlier this week, the big panic was essentially triggered by comparing global death toll numbers, to global estimates for how many have been infected... and that’s resulted in the estimated fatality for Covid19 at 2%... compared to 0.1% for Influenza.

If accurate, that would be a Spanish Flu magnitude pandemic... highly contagious, and extremely deadly.

But... if the infection numbers turn out to be far higher than we realize... it brings both the contagiousness factor, and the fatality percentage waaay down.

And just here at the end of the week, this is what it’s starting to look like.

We’re starting to understand that Covid19 is probably a lot more like the common cold, than the common flu... and that the vast number of victims simply mistake it for a mild cold, and get over it quickly.

This, based on the way it’s beginning to pop up with people who are very far removed from any possible contact with known vectors.

Does it still get serious and cause pneumonia in some victims, taking some of their lives, yes... but this may turn out to be a very small percentage of all infected... more like the 0.1% who die from the common flu.

If so, standard precautions are enough to keep the threat at bay, globally until a vaccine can be produced next year.

Maybe I’m wrong here, but, this is my best guess based on the knowledge we have at the moment... minus the disinformation and trolling.

Based on that... I’d predict that the markets go back to normal in the coming two weeks, as the deadly pandemic fails to materialize. We shall see.

In other news, the South Carolina Primary is tomorrow.

Most polling suggests that Joe Biden will take first place, by a comfortable margin over Bernie Sanders, who will follow a distant second. Some outlier polls had Sanders within only one or two points of Biden, earlier in the week, but the conventional wisdom tonight, is that Biden will enjoy a big win in SC.

I still think Bernie can pull off an upset and win SC.

This is based on the fact that Bernie has so far, consistently over performed his polling... while Biden has consistently under performed his own polling.

You can poll well, but will those supporters actually go out and vote on election day? That’s the name of the game.

Biden’s supporters tend to be over represented in the polls, because they are the kind of people the pollsters know how to query... but they aren’t necessarily motivated enough to actually follow through.

With Bernie, it’s the opposite... his followers are under represented by contemporary polling techniques, but are also highly motivated to get out and vote for their candidate... thanks to his extraordinary ground game.

We’ll see tomorrow.

One thing is for certain... after doing so poorly in the first three states, and losing so much ground to Bloomberg in the polling for Super Tuesday states... Biden needs an unmitigated blow out in SC to stay relevant.

And even an unmitigated blow out might not be enough to save his campaign, as there are only two full days between the SC and Super Tuesday, for him to try and leverage the big win enough to influence voters.

On the other hand, all Bernie needs to do is come in a close second... close that gap to single digits... and he’s looking formidable.

Like I said, I think Bernie can overtake Biden tomorrow, at least by a few points... and if he does... he will crush Super Tuesday.

Exciting times.

But I’m going to bed.

*It should be noted here that unlike bacteria... which can be treated with antibiotics, viruses can only be neutralized by the immune system itself... once it knows how to identify the threat.

That’s why some viruses, like HPV, which causes common warts, can be so stubborn and near impossible to eradicate... because they’re good at avoiding immune system detection... but also don’t kill, or even seriously harm their hosts. To kill a wart virus... the only real treatment is salicylic acid applied directly to the spot, nearly constantly, for extremely long periods... months if not years.

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