8-21-08 Cornstarch, Oobleck and the Japanese

Well, we’ve done Lovecraftian horrors and non-Euclidean geometry. The only logical place to go from there is non-Newtonian fluids.

And if you really do think that’s logical, then I recommend professional help.

What’s a non-Newtonian fluid? Why, it’s a fluid that’s not Newtonian. Silly boy. But if you need a technical explanation from someone who actually knows what he’s talking about (picky picky), you can get it here. Sheesh.

This is the video that got me going on non-Newtonian fluids. It’s nothing more than cornstarch and water in a vibrating container. The vibrations increase the mixture’s viscosity and inject a little kinetic energy, allowing it to act like a soft solid or, near the end, move like it’s alive. I saw this video on MySpace a few days ago and, luckily, found it on YouTube, too.

Courtesy of HoustonEuph, who is quick to point out that he/she/it/they had nothing to do with the creation of this film.

What can you do with a non-Newtonian fluid? Well, for one, you can call it oobleck, put a pan of it on a subwoofer and proceed to creep the hell out of people, as the aptly-named sssssssshurikkkkkkkk did. Talk about Lovecraftian… eeeeewwwwww. Watch how the fragments pop and hop on the pan like water droplets in a hot frying pan.

Or, if you’re a ninja, you can dump a couple hundred tons of cornstarch into a river and use your mad ninja skeelz to run across the surface! And create an environmental catastrophe on the scale of California’s New River! Adam from Mythbusters demonstrates.

Courtesy of Frogfucius.

However, since there aren’t any ninjas around nowadays, the duty falls to Japanese TV, with predictable results.

Courtesy of gizmobozz.

Lovecraftian Horrors

You know, Sean, I’m not really sure it’s possible for me to go the way of the narrator of a Lovecraftian story. For one thing, they are all severely lacking in imagination, and end up going crazy when they make a connection I made several pages back.

The sad truth is that Lovecraftian-style stories are often better then actual stories by Lovecraft. I’ve thought about writing one myself before. Not sure I could pull it off, though.

Of course, Sean was raised in New Jersey. With my knowledge of California and his of New Jersey, we might be able to pull off writing about eldritch horrors.

I do recall one day, taking the song “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, and warping it into “Bearer of A Thousand Young”, a song about Shub-Niggurath, the black goat with a thousand young.

And when I find videos like this, it’s a nice reminder that there are other warped and twisted people out there like me:

Oh Cthulhu!!

Christmas and Cthulhu seems to be a common theme, actually, but I’ll save some of the other examples of this for the holidays.

There seems to be a lot of Lovecraftian themed youtube videos, though. This, for example:

Absolutely Cthulhu’s Mood

This is a rather cool mix of Absolutely Bills Mood, by They Might Be Giants, and footage from various horror movies.

Then there’s the just silly:

Shoggoth Shoggoth Shoggoth

I’ll love him and cuddle him and call him Shoggoth..

Then there’s this original piece:

NYARLATHOTEP

From the description:

This collection of chaos began as an experiment between two artists; one visual, and one audio. In this collaboration, the traditional process of filmmaking has been reversed; as the original score was composed first, and the images have been matched to suit the atmosphere of the music.

www.deadhousemusic.com
www.darksidefilms.com

Nice juxtaposition of Hitler, Egyptian imagery, and elder gods. Makes me think of Witchgun a bit, actually…