the order looks upon humanity with disdain.

I stumbled onto this extremely creepy trailer for Philosophy of the Knife (intensely NSFW and gory, think Guinea Pig in black and white) thanks to the silenthill community, and in so doing heard about Unit 731 for the first time.  Well, I probably had heard of it before, but not really looked into it.  That is some really sick shit.  And as I was reading about it, I was thinking, is this really scientific research?  Is chopping off limbs and reattaching them on the opposite side of the body really necessary for bioweapons research?  Directly exposing people to various diseases, I buy that as scientific research (still morally repugnant, of course) - but injecting horse urine?  Why?  And didn't they already know by then the effects of gangrene on human flesh?  Isn't all this just torture? But, who knows.  Who knows how much this "research" helped in the development of biological and chemical warfare.  Maybe quite a lot: 

After Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, rebuilding Japan during the Allied occupation. MacArthur secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731 in exchange for providing America with their research on biological warfare. The United States believed that the research data was valuable because the Allies had never conducted or condoned such experiments on humans due to moral and political revulsion.

Nice.  Definitely taking the high road to hell there.  The Soviet Union was the only country that aggressively pursued prosecution of Unit 731 personnel, because Russian civilians and soldiers were also experimented on, and Philosophy of the Knife is made by a Russian.  And yet:

After World War II, the Soviet Union built a biological weapons facility in Sverdlovsk using documentation captured from Unit 731 in Manchuria.

Oh yeah, good ol' Sverdlovsk!  Meanwhile, in Japan:

Some former members of Unit 731 became part of the Japanese medical establishment. Dr. Masaji Kitano led Japan's largest pharmaceutical company, the Green Cross. Others headed U.S.-backed medical schools or worked for the Japanese health ministry. Shiro Ishii in particular moved to Maryland to work on bio-weapons research.

Hooray!

panophobia. fear of everything.

I was watching Ghost Hunters International on Hulu, and I like it, with all its Nazi-chapel-castle-built-on-the-gates-of-HELL!-stories, but my favorite "paranormal investigation" show ever remains MTV's Fear.

Six young amateurs are dropped off at a huge haunted locale and told to do various occult stunts in exchange for money (all via computer).  Very rarely did all five make it to the end - in one episode, every single contestant dropped out.  MTV never gave the actual names of the places they visited and they made up all sorts of stories to tell the contestants before sending them out to do a voodoo ritual or seance, and there was never any "evidence" or "analysis" here.  All you get is the expression on the poor suckers' faces.  Total fucking fear.  This show is all about the mental mindfuck that is our concept of and interaction with the paranormal.  And I think this made Fear much more interesting than the professional ghosthunting shows being made now. 

This is the middle clip of the episode where they all quit, Mina Dos Estrellas in Mexico - supposedly the only place where MTV didn't make up a backstory (it was a mine, there was a flood, many many people died).  Two people have already quit.  There's a lot packed into this snippet.  Especially love Zach's meta-poetry there at 6:30. 

more cookies!

Sugar, this time.  I called the red ones Go Big Red cookies, but then the green ones came and invaded in the name of Santa Claus.  So  now it's Go Big Red and Go Big Green, and I am apparently a Marshall supporter too.  But hey - who doesn't root for Marshall? Another observation: driving in the semi-frozen remnants of slushy snow (I ran out of granulated sugar midway through) is like trying to beat flour into sugar/butter.  Your wheels are the beaters, slip-sliding over the mush and barely holding traction while you pretend you're plowing tracks.