The following is an article from Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader.

Have you ever participated in a séance or tried to contact the "spirits" using a Ouija board? You probably don't realize it, but the modern conception of communicating with the dead only dates back to the late 1840s. Here's the story of the hoax that started spirit-mania.

BUMP IN THE NIGHT

In 1848 a devout Methodist farmer named John Fox and his family began to hear strange noises in their Hydesville, New York, farmhouse. The noises continued for weeks on end, until finally on one particularly noisy evening, Mrs. Fox ordered the two children, 13-year-old Margaret and 12-year-old Kate, to stay perfectly quiet in bed while Mr. Fox searched the house from top to bottom. His search shed no light on the mystery, but afterward, Margaret sat up in bed and snapped her fingers, exclaiming, "Here, Mr. Split-foot, do as I do!"

"The reply was immediate," Earl Fornell writes in The Unhappy Medium: Spiritualism and the Life of Margaret Fox. "The invisible rapper responded by imitating the number of the girl's staccato responses."

Mrs. Fox began to make sense of what she was hearing. "Count ten," she told the spirit. It responded with ten raps. So she asked several questions; each time the spirit answered correctly. Next, Mrs. Fox asked the spirit if it would rap if a neighbor was present; the spirit said yes. So Mr. Fox ran and got a neighbor, the first of more than 500 neighbors and townspeople who visited over the next few weeks to watch Margaret and Kate interact with the spirit. As long as either Margaret or Kate was present, the spirit was willing to communicate.



MURDER MYSTERY

Using an alphabetic code that Margaret and Kate devised, "Mr. Split-foot" explained that in his Earthly life he'd been a peddler, murdered by the person who lived in the farmhouse. The spirit identified the killer as "C. R." Some citizens tracked down a man named Charles Rosana, who'd lived in the house years earlier, but with no body and no evidence other than the testimony of a ghost, he was never charged.

Set phasers to stunning! Tumblr blogger glayish (Kirk), hentaigirl82 (Uhura), izunadrop247 (Sulu) and Technoranma (Bones) make one heckuva stylish Star Trek Away Team for the Katsucon 2013 in Maryland!

An unnamed man in Turkey was diagnosed two years ago with vampirism, dissociative identity disorder, major depressive disorder, alcohol abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The PTSD, and possibly the alcohol abuse, were attributed to the crimes he committed due to the vampirism.

A 23-year-old married male (3rd of 6 siblings) presented with a 2-year history of ‘addiction’ to drinking blood. He used to cut his arms, chest, and abdomen with razor blades to collect the blood in a cup and to drink it. The initial interest in drinking his own blood had subsequently turned to that of others’. These ‘crises’ were characterized by a strong urge to drink blood immediately, ‘as urgent as breathing’. He enjoyed the smell and taste of blood despite finding this ‘foolish’. He also enjoyed biting wounds of others to taste flesh. He was arrested several times after attacking people by stabbing and biting them with the intention of collecting and drinking their blood. He forced his father to obtain blood from blood banks.

The man had suffered from several traumatic incidents before turning to blood. Doctors believe he has now been cured of his "blood addiction." Read the rest of the story at Smithsonian. Link

(Unrelated image credit: Flickr user creepyhalloweenimages)

Got a brown comforter? A bikini? You can dress up as Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia without spending another penny. These unknown but frugal cosplayers are totally convincing. Especially Jabba's face. That's just perfect.

-via Fashionably Geek | Photo: unknown

Kipling West has a fine collection of vintage valentines that use monsters, skeletons, and other Halloween themes to profess love. Perfect for expressing your romantic side while still getting your goth on! Link -via Seven Deadly Sinners

See her other vintage valentines, arranged into themed sets of clowns, medical subjects, cats, meat, and more! Link

(Image credit: Flickr user pageofbats)

According to the miasma theory of disease, many illnesses are caused by foul odors. These can be avoided by sniffing medicinal vapors, such as vinegar:

Vapours from a vinegar-soaked sponge in the bottom were inhaled through the small holes in the top of the ‘acorn’. If a person felt faint they could also sniff their vinaigrette and the sharp vinegar smell might shock their body into action. The other side of the vinaigrette shows a face and could act as a memento mori – a reminder of death. The skull was probably hung from a piece of cord or necklace and carried at all times.

Link -via TYWKIWDBI

Dogzillalives, maker of horrifying light switch plates, made this beautiful cuff out of polymer clay over aluminum. You know what would make this awsomer? If it could be machined to occasionally blink and twitch. I would definitely wear that to work.

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There's a "lawn dinosaur" in Redwood City, California named Dug. His family dresses him up for special occasions. Dug has his own Facebook fan page where you can see more pictures, and his own subreddit, too!

To answer your questions, Dug is made of tin, and was bought at a lawn and garden supply store in California. Link  -via reddit

Neatorama featured this picture entitled Sweet Halloween Dreams a little over a year ago. The inspiring artwork by Alex Panagopoulos (DeviantART member begemott) is now getting its due, by being made into a Dwayne Johnson feature film!

New Line Cinema has bought the movie rights of an illustration that became a meme. The future film, tentatively titled Teddy Bear, will star the wrestler-cum-actor known to most as the Rock. But there is no writer attached to the project yet, and the plot is a furry, fluffy question mark.

The picture, drawn by fantasy artist Alex Panagopoulos, features a little girl asleep in bed while a small bear holding a small wooden sword and shield protects her from a monster. It has since evolved into a meme, the caption reading, "Teddy Bears: Protecting innocent children from monsters under the bed since 1902."

There's no word yet on whether the film will be live action or animated. Link

(Image credit: Alex Panagopoulos)

Ha! Well, she was warned. Lindsay of the Diary of a Crafty Lady made this Halloween craft that provides a neat place to store her broom. She stenciled the letters, screwed in the hooks and glued a plastic spider to the surface.

Link

Cosplayer Florencia Muir clearly thinks clowns should be creepy rather than cheerful, and she saw a terrifying darkness in Harley Quinn's soul which she evoked in session with photographer Jonathan Duran.

It's Harley in her Suicide Squad years, and she's tired of hiding behind the clown prince's fat head...

Link  --via GeekTyrant

It's hard to tell if these guys are one of the lesser known gangs from The Warriors or part of a prison clowning class, but they'd better be really tough if they're gonna prowl the streets looking like that!

Introspective colorful clown boys...they're more of a downer than their makeup would lead you to believe, and they're always worried about their makeup...

Link

Ever wonder what one of those paintings from The Haunted Mansion would look like in real life? Well, here's the girl who walks on the tightrope over the pool of aligators cosplaying for Bat's Day at Disneyland.

Link Via BoingBoing

After a long day of conflict in the wastelands of Pandora it's nice to take it easy for a bit and pose for some pics with your frenemies.

From left to right we have Scarlett, Moxxi, a Psycho, Lilith and an extremely diminutive version of the Gunzerker Salvador.

Hey, they're a pretty good looking bunch when they're not trying to blow your face off!

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(YouTube Link)

Zombie love is cute, and kinda gross, in an animated short entitled Love In Decay, which was directed by Ryan Cooper of Mukpuddy.

It's good to know that even when your limbs keep falling off and you smell unbearably bad you can find someone just as repulsive as you are to fall in love with.

--via Geek Tyrant