Bruno Borges

A 24 year old Brazilian man named Bruno Borges disappeared on March 27th, leaving behind a room covered in elaborate art and containing a life-sized statue of Giordano Bruno and fourteen numbered notebooks. The name Bruno Borges is a little on the nose, as my friend Ted Hand puts it, since it's a combination of Giordano Bruno, whose statue appears in the room, and Jorge Luis Borges, author of numerous labyrinths and literary games. The whole thing feels like a Borges story, anyway.

Bruno Borges story on reddit.
Daily Mail article on Borges.
El Globo's story on Borges.

An update on the Bruno Borges disappearance, connecting it to Cicada #3301, can be found here.



I have no idea what to make of it all. It's awfully neat handwriting for someone who's experiencing mental problems, which suggests that it's an art project or part of the Cicada scavenger hunt.

Update: It may all have been part of a book marketing scheme.
http://www.surrealista.com.br/2017/05/amigo-de-bruno-o-desaparecido-do-acre-e-preso-e-caso-ja-e-tratado-como-jogada-de-marketing

It seems that the season of the "Boy from Acre" case, Bruno Borges, mysteriously disappeared on March 27, is coming to an end. The Civil Police made two operations at the home of two friends of Bruno and found, among other things, two contracts signed giving friends part of the income from the sale of the 14 books he left in his room, along with scrawled walls and the statue of 2 meters. Bruno's cousin, Eduardo Borges, could also be involved in the case.

One of Bruno's friends, Marcelo Ferreira, was arrested, reports the G1 , for omitting information about the case, which would constitute false testimony. In the house of another friend, Mario Gaiote, the bed and the rack of Bruno's room were found, set aside for the setting of the scene found after his disappearance. Both Marcelo and Mario had signed contracts at home to distribute the proceeds of the sale of the books, drawn up in a notary's office on the very day Bruno disappeared.

"On the day Bruno left, he went to the notary's office and recorded the contract. So, for us, it is very conclusive that it was not a disappearance whatsoever, it was in fact a conscious plan of remoteness, and the contract shows that there is a deadline for disclosure of these books, deadline for publication, percentage allocation for those who helped him, in the case , These three people who helped him right away. For us, this is very clear, "said Alcino Júnior, the delegate of the case, to the G1 .

Update 6/11/17: More from the police investigation here.

EP 026: Gordon White

This week I talk to Gordon White, former "weird kid", proprietor of the popular Rune Soup podcast and blog. Gordon is also a documentarian, world traveler, digital strategist and practicing magician. He's the author of three books that came out in the last year or so: Star.Ships, which we discuss in this podcast; The Chaos Protocols, which takes a heterodox view of how to handle the post-financial crash economy; and Pieces of Eight, a personal history of the Chaos Magic movement.

This interview has a twin over on Gordon's podcast, where he interviews me about the Bruno books.You can listen to that over on Rune Soup or on iTunes.

Due to technical difficulties (or spiritual interference) the original media file for this episode dropped out after the intro. Please download again now that the media file has been replaced. If there are still difficulties, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter. -Scott

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Episode Outline, Notes and Links

Craig Chester and the Ghost of Montgomery Clift

Links for Later 11-19-12

1. Harper Reed and Obama2012's tech team
2. Decoding the secrets of the Oculists

Umberto Eco on Conspiracies

Umberto Eco's latest novel, the Prague Cemetary, deals with the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion and related conspiracy theories. The phantom, or non-conspiracy is an ongoing theme in his work. Here, he's interviewed by Tablet magazine:

Karl Popper, the philosopher, has written a beautiful essay on the plot-paranoia syndrome. He said it starts with Homer. Everything that happens at Troy is decided the day before on Olympus with the gods. So, he says, every society in a way elaborates the paranoia of somebody on their shoulders, deciding their fates. First, it’s a way to escape responsibility. It’s not me, it’s not my fault. Second, it’s very useful, especially for dictatorships. All my youth, until the age of 10, I was educated under the fascist dictatorship. And they said there was the demo-pluto-judo-cratic plot—democracies, plutocracies, and the Jews. It was a general plot in the world to humiliate Italy. And until yesterday Berlusconi continued his campaign about the communist plot against Italy. We have no more communists! Not even with a candle can you find them.

Links for Later

1. Brad DeLong on Suskind & good economic policy


2. The search for the orang pendek


3. Topological Isomorphisms of the Human Brain and Financial Markets (via marginal revolution)


4. Firefly's Sean Maher comes out

True Blood

This week, 500 year old vampire 19 year old miscreant Lyle Bensley crept into a woman's home and bit her on the neck in an attempt to "feed" and is currently sitting somewhere quiet. I love this country.

Links for Later

1. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola bibliography
2. Alice Flaherty interviewed on The Midnight Disease and the neurology and psychology of writing
3. Allan Bloom interviewed on The Anatomy of Influence
4. Clever shelves
5. Gluten-free brownie recipe
6. Sonar image: UFO or the lost kingdom of Kvenland?
7. Hart Crane "To Brooklyn Bridge"
8. Moogfest 2011
9. Alternately concentrating and releasing concentration results in bursts of creative insight

Hello, There

From Aldrovandi's History of Monsters.

(Bibliodyssey)

Links for Later

1. Urban legends of the 17th century
2. Vintage lesbians
3. Teach the Controversy T-shirts
4. Dealing with large data sets
5. Acid house comes to London
6. Umberto Eco on mad scientists and hollow Earths

Arkansas Bird Rain

It's being reported that over 5000 birds (primarily blackbirds, grackles and starlings) rained down on part of Arkansas on New Year's Eve. Explanations include fireworks, disease, stress and "repeated blunt trauma". Meanwhile, in another part of the state, 1000s of fish died off in the streams. Apolcalypse now, or just another day in the Midwest?

More: A day later, 500+ birds die in Louisiana.

Cell Phone in a 1928 Movie

Someone (man or woman) appears to be speaking into a small, handheld device while attending the 1928 premiere of Charley Chaplin's move The Circus. One of Roger Ebert's commenters thinks that this person resembles Nicola Tesla, who described the cell phone in the 1920's.

Time traveler, Tesla, or figment of your imagination?

The Toronto Unicorn

The Toronto Science Center made this. Click for more information.

Illuminatiing

And now, Mike Jay on the birth of the Illuminati. As in the Bavarian ones who are behind all the other conspiracies and whatnot. Makes you wonder, why aren't there any electric cars?

(via boingboing)

Here Be Dragons?

Cryptomundo takes a look at dragon sitings over the past few hundred years, and wonders if there could be large cryptid reptiles in the British Isles, or if it's all just made up.

Some dragon sightings are much closer to home. In the early 19th century folklorist Mary Trevelyan interviewed many elderly people living in the Glamorgan area of Wales. They recounted memories from their youth (early 19th century) of a race of winged serpents said to inhabit the forest around Penllyne Castle. They had crested heads and feathery wings. The serpents were brightly coloured and sparkled as if covered with jewels. They rested coiled on the ground but if threatened would attack by swooping down at their aggressors.The snakes killed poultry and were described as “the terrors of farmyards and coverts” many were shot for their depreditations of livestock. One woman recalled that her grandfather shot one after it attacked him. Its skin had hung for years on the wall at his farm. Tragically it was discarded after his death. This would make any modern day cryptozoologist wince.

Mr. Pointy

Ripley's museums have a total of 26 vampire hunting kits, but does anyone really know how to kill the sparkly ones?

(via io9)

Effluvia of the Super Sargasso Sea

A 12 mile long, black slick of something has been detected off the coast of Alaska.

Say, does anyone know what happened to the Intrepid?

Boy Survives Meteor Strike

OK, OK, so it was only pea sized, and no one has ever actually died from being hit by a meteor (although I hear there was a pretty spectacular cow explosion once...).

A 14-year old German boy was hit in the hand by a pea-sized meteorite that scared the bejeezus out of him and left a scar.

"When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road," Gerrit Blank said in a newspaper account. Astronomers have analyzed the object and conclude it was indeed a natural object from space, The Telegraph reports.

The Georgia Guidestones

Someone represented by a man who called himself "R.C. Christian" caused a set of large granite monuments to be made and installed on a hill in Elbert County, Georgia.

Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground—which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars—and the "guides" themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and reflect a peculiar New Age ideology. Some are vaguely eugenic (guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity); others prescribe standard-issue hippie mysticism (prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite).

What's most widely agreed upon—based on the evidence available—is that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the dazed survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization.

Whoever planned this had pots of money, a knowledge of several languages, a fair understanding of engineering,a fondness for Stonehenge & Rosicrucianism, and an active sense of mystery. They may have intended it as a time capsule, religious item or massive practical joke. Those who don't know, as usual, are speaking, while those who do know say nothing.

Red Mercury

This "substance of debatable existence" is believed to have a number of properties, ranging from expelling demons and finding treasure to priming nuclear bombs. The search to find it has resulted in a mad dash to buy up antique sewing machines in Saudi Arabia.

I wonder if they're really thinking of cinnabar, a reddish mercury ore used in alchemical recipes for the philosopher's stone.

(via Mr. Gibson)