What Were the Edgewood Experiments?
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Jason Murphy is a novelist, screenwriter, and content creator. He buys all of his Halloween accessories from Silver Shamrock.
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Below is one of our most popular recent Strangerous shorts. Check out the article for more details and sources. If you’ve got a strange or dangerous subject for us to look into, hit me up!
What Were the Edgewood Experiments?
Dr. Delirium was the pseudonym given to Dr. James Ketchum, a prominent researcher involved in the Edgewood experiments. The experiments took place during the Cold War, specifically from the 1950s through the 1970s, under the purview of the United States Department of Defense.
The Edgewood Arsenal, located in Maryland, served as the epicenter of a series of experiments designed to explore the effects of various chemical substances on human subjects. These substances included psychoactive drugs, nerve agents, and incapacitating agents, all with the goal of discovering potential military applications. Basically, any nasty thing they could find. The experiments involved both volunteer and involuntary participants, often recruited from the military.
Testing Psychoactive Substances: Some experiments focused on the administration of psychoactive drugs, such as LSD and BZ (a hallucinogen and incapacitating agent), to understand their effects on cognition and behavior. These experiments were part of a broader effort to explore the potential use of mind-altering substances in warfare.
Nerve Agent Exposure: Another set of experiments exposed subjects to nerve agents like sarin and VX, which are highly toxic and can lead to severe health consequences or death. The aim was to study the effects of these agents and develop protective measures and treatments.
Testing Protective Gear: In addition to exposing subjects to chemical agents, experiments were conducted to test the effectiveness of various protective clothing and equipment, such as gas masks and chemical-resistant suits.
Inhalation Studies: Some experiments involved the inhalation of chemical agents to assess their effects on the respiratory and nervous systems. These studies were critical in developing antidotes and treatments for chemical warfare exposure.
Irritant Exposure: The effects of irritant agents like tear gas and vomiting agents were studied on human subjects. These experiments aimed to understand the physical and psychological reactions to these agents and how to counteract their effects.
Long-Term Effects: Several experiments focused on the long-term effects of exposure to chemical agents. These studies were instrumental in understanding the potential health risks and long-lasting consequences for those involved.
The methods employed in the Edgewood experiments have been widely criticized for their ethical and moral implications. Many participants were not fully informed of the risks they would face, and some were subjected to harsh conditions and prolonged exposure to these chemicals. These practices have been described as a breach of basic human rights and medical ethics.
The legacy of Dr. Delirium and the Edgewood experiments is fraught with controversy and secrecy. While some research conducted during this period did lead to valuable scientific insights, the cost in terms of human suffering and ethical violations cannot be ignored. In the decades since the experiments, there have been calls for transparency and accountability.
In recent years, there have been efforts to declassify documents related to the Edgewood experiments, allowing a more comprehensive examination of the past. Legal actions have been taken on behalf of participants who suffered long-term health consequences as a result of their participation. These developments are indicative of a broader societal reckoning with past abuses of power in the name of science and national security.
https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/edgewood-aberdeen/index.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgewood_Arsenal_human_experiments
With such a salacious title, it’s difficult to take the entire conceit seriously. It sounds like Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, but maybe a little more nasty. A top secret government experiment involving dosing soldiers with dangerous chemicals? I can’t even count the number of movies, books, and comics that have that plotline. It’s fair to say that Captain America didn’t emerge from Edgewood, just a lifetime of PTSD and the long-term effects of Sarin gas. Can you imagine being a soldier in 1970 and thinking they’re going to put you in the Weapon X program? Maybe they’ll give you metal bones! Or night vision! Or maybe you’ll be able to go for days without sleep!
Nope! They just gave you ridiculous amounts of LSD and then wrote on a clipboard while you screamed at Gandalf for three days straight.
The Lizard People Beneath Los Angeles
The origins of the lizard people legend can be traced back to January 29, 1934, when the Los Angeles Times published an unusual front-page article. The headline declared, "Lizard People's Catacomb City Hunted: Engineer Sinks Shaft Under Fort Moore Hill to Find Maze of Tunnels and Priceless Treasures of Legendary Inhabitants." The article recounted the daring quest of G. Warren Shufelt, a mining engineer who claimed to have discovered an underground city beneath the city's Fort Moore Hill.
According to his account, he had used a peculiar device he referred to as a "radio X-ray" to map out the tunnels and chambers of the subterranean realm. In his descriptions, Shufelt depicted the inhabitants of this underground city as a race of lizard-like beings, the "Lizard People," who he claimed had once ruled over the surface world thousands of years ago. They were said to possess advanced technology and vast treasures, including tablets of gold inscribed with mysterious symbols.
Inspired by his findings, Shufelt embarked on a mission to excavate the underground city and recover the fabled treasures of the Lizard People. He attracted financial backing and enlisted a team of workers to dig a tunnel, dubbed the "spiritual shaft," in the heart of Los Angeles. The project was met with significant media attention and public curiosity.
Despite the fervor surrounding the endeavor, Shufelt's quest proved to be futile. Shufelt dug to 250 feet, well below the water table line, causing the shaft to flood. He scaled back his efforts, but skeptics accused him of perpetrating a hoax. Others suggested that he had misinterpreted geological formations as evidence of an underground civilization. Needless to say, no forgotten reptilian civilizations have been found.
http://reptoids.com/Vault/Schufeltsearch.htm
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4046
Years ago, I was working on a project in downtown Los Angeles. One of my friends and collaborators pointed to some of the drainage tunnels down beneath where the 6th street bridge used to be. He said that a homeless man once told him, “There’s an entire city down here! We’ve got everything we need!”
I don’t think that guy was talking about lizard people, but I can’t shake the story. There is a city of the disaffected beneath the City of Angels. An entire city. What does that mean? A few winding warrens of service tunnels filled with cast aside mattresses and furniture salvaged from the curbside? Or did he mean the Lizard City.
The idea of a population of lizard people has been around as long as recorded history. Unfortunately, here’s where it gets gross and racist. In 1998, British conspiracy theorist David Icke published his book "The Biggest Secret". He made some … how should we say? … really bold claims.
Icke claimed that that blood-drinking reptilians from outer space have been controlling the world for centuries. I wish it stopped at science fiction. Unfortunately, Icke’s claims are reflective of (and perhaps inspired by) one of the most harmful pieces of anti-Semitic literature, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This bit of swill reptilian conspiracy theory are clearly evocative of the centuries-old blood-libel conspiracy theory, which alleged that a cabal of Jews were controlling the world and drinking the blood of Christian children.
So I kind of regret even talking about this nonsense.
Can You Beat Facial Recognition?
Adversarial clothing patterns are a new and emerging technology that can be used to confuse and disrupt AI facial recognition systems. These patterns are typically made up of complex geometric shapes and colors that are designed to trick AI systems into thinking that the wearer is not a person.
AI facial recognition systems work by identifying key features on a person's face, such as their eyes, nose, and mouth. Adversarial clothing patterns can make it difficult for AI systems to identify these features by creating visual noise and confusion. These systems are typically trained on large datasets of images of human faces. However, these datasets may not contain all of the possible variations of human faces, such as different skin colors, facial hair, and facial expressions.
Adversarial clothing patterns can take advantage of these weaknesses by creating images that are not present in the training dataset. When an AI facial recognition system sees one of these images, it may be confused and unable to identify the wearer as a person.
The effectiveness of adversarial clothing patterns depends on a number of factors, such as the quality of the pattern and the sophistication of the AI facial recognition system.
For example, a study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that adversarial clothing patterns could reduce the accuracy of AI facial recognition systems by up to 90%.
What are the potential benefits of adversarial clothing patterns?
Adversarial clothing patterns have the potential to provide a number of benefits, including:
Protecting privacy: Adversarial clothing patterns can be used to protect people's privacy from surveillance systems. For example, people who are concerned about being tracked by government or corporate surveillance systems could wear adversarial clothing to avoid being identified.
Improving security: Adversarial clothing patterns could also be used to improve security. For example, people who work in high-security environments could wear adversarial clothing to prevent themselves from being impersonated by unauthorized individuals.
Enabling new forms of expression: Adversarial clothing patterns could also be used to enable new forms of expression. For example, people could wear adversarial clothing to express their disapproval of surveillance systems or to create unique and eye-catching fashion statements.
What are the potential drawbacks of adversarial clothing patterns?
There are a few potential drawbacks to adversarial clothing patterns, including:
Cost: Adversarial clothing patterns can be expensive to produce. This is because they require specialized printing techniques and materials.
Effectiveness: The effectiveness of adversarial clothing patterns depends on a number of factors, such as the quality of the pattern and the sophistication of the AI facial recognition system. It is possible that AI facial recognition systems will be developed that are able to defeat adversarial clothing patterns in the future.
Misuse: Adversarial clothing patterns could be misused by criminals or terrorists to avoid being identified by surveillance systems.
Overall, adversarial clothing patterns are a promising new technology with the potential to provide a number of benefits. However, it is important to be aware of the potential drawbacks of this technology before using it.
https://petapixel.com/2023/01/20/this-clothing-line-tricks-ai-cameras-without-covering-your-face/
https://www.cs.umd.edu/~tomg/projects/invisible/
I never thought the technological arms race would reach our clothing. Adversarial patterns are like ad-blockers or malware protection. You don’t want this inconvenient thing to get access to your details? Make sure your virus protection is up to date. The viruses get smarter, then the virus protection gets smarter, then the virus gets smarter… And so on. This will give way to an escalating amount of pageantry - truly Phillip K. Dickian efforts to thwart facial recognition with increasingly elaborate makeup and clothing. In a few years, in order to defeat facial scanning, we’ll all have to dress like parade floats.
Where Did The Jack-o-Lantern Get Its Name
The term "jack-o'-lantern" has its origins in Irish and Scottish folklore. The name is derived from the old Celtic and British term "will-o'-the-wisp," which referred to mysterious, flickering lights that could be seen hovering over marshes and swamps at night. These natural phenomena were often attributed to mischievous spirits or lost souls.
The evolution of the name "jack-o'-lantern" can be traced back to an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack. According to the legend, Stingy Jack was a cunning and shrewd character known for his deceitful ways. He tricked the devil on more than one occasion, making deals with him and then outwitting him. When Jack died, he was not allowed into Heaven due to his dishonesty, and the devil, still holding a grudge, wouldn't allow him into Hell either.
Stingy Jack was left to wander the Earth with only a burning coal inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way. To ward off other wandering spirits and to remember this tale, people began carving frightening faces into turnips and other vegetables. They placed these lanterns outside their homes to keep Jack and other malevolent entities at bay.
This tradition was brought to America by Irish and Scottish immigrants, who discovered that pumpkins, native to North America, were perfect for creating these lanterns. The larger size and availability of pumpkins made them an ideal canvas for carving, and over time, the term "jack-o'-lantern" became synonymous with the carved pumpkin lanterns that we know today.
https://www.history.com/news/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
When I started researching the history of jack-o-lanterns, I didn’t expect to uncover the story of some legendary jerk who ran afoul of the devil. I thought it was something more spiritual and meaningful, torches to guide lost spirits to friendly places, or something like that. Nope. It’s a myth of bitter comeuppance that would be at home in an issue of the Sandman.
The real history and stories behind Halloween are every bit as rich and nuanced as Christmas. As the tradition got passed around Europe, it collected many flourishes and traditions, like a folkloric Katamari Damacy. But now that it’s come to America? It’s about booze and sexy Mario costumes. USA! USA!
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I love Halloween. I can’t even express how much I love this holiday. This year, I’m a bit too busy to partake, but that won’t stop me from gorging on horror movies, books, and games.
Our friend, Richard Kadrey, has a couple of new books out. I’m really excited to dive into this one he co-wrote with Cassandra Khaw, the Dead Take the A Train.
I often try to watch 31 horror movies every October. I think I’m on-track this year with some new flicks, some re-watches. There’s no particular theme or mission. Just one per day.
A classic I re-watched is the kind of ghost story you don’t often see anymore. It’s an adaptation of a Peter Straub novel called Ghost Story. As most of those stories are, it’s a slow burn about the sordid past catching up to a bunch of old white men. It’s the perfect film if you want to feel like you’re sitting in front of the fireplace, trading spooky stories with friends on a cold night.
Have you ever met a Bigfoot enthusiast? They’re a different breed. As I’ve mentioned here before, I’ve watched the Patterson-Gimlin footage a lot. Lately it seems like every few months, another “enhanced” version is released. “In this one, you can SEE HER NIPPLES!”
Here’s someone going really in depth on Patty’s face.
Have you ever seen a ‘Squatch? A ghost? A UFO? Have you ever found yourself wandering through the back rooms? Send an email with your story to me: jason@jasonsmurphy.com. It might be featured on a future episode!
Can't wait to see what you have planned for the channel!