Eyes Like Open Sores

2009-12-14T11:45:00.001+08:00

Top 75 of the decade

2009-11-21T11:16:00.005+08:00

A friend suggested I draw up a list of my top 100 albums from the past decade. I don't have 100 albums that I actually like all that much, but I put together a list of 75 good ones. So here they are:

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
Spiritualized - Let It Come Down
Sigur Ros - ( )
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Streets - Original Pirate Material
The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Bark Psychosis - Codename: Dustsucker
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - BRMC
The Notwist - Neon Golden
Boris - Pink
The Fall - The Unutterable
Robyn Hitchcock - Spooked
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Acoustic Ladyland - Skinny Grin
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus
Black Pyramid - Black Pyramid
Polar Bear - Held on the Tips of Fingers
Pulp - We Love Life
High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Joe Strummer - Streetcore
Lifter Puller - Fiestas + Fiascos
The Futureheads - The Futureheads
Radiohead - Kid A
Sharon Jones - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Baroness - Blue Record
Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
White Stripes - De Stijl
Mastodon - Leviathan
The Libertines - The Libertines
Sigur Ros - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Reigning Sound - Love and Curses
Gogol Bordello - Multi Kontra Culti vs Irony
Reverend Bizarre - In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend
Pete Doherty - Grace/ Wastelands
Doves - Some Cities
Boris - Akuma No Uta
Dungen - 4
Reigning Sound - Too Much Guitar
The Strokes - Is This It
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Cave Singers - Invitation Songs
Oriole - Migration
Black Mountain - In The Future
Ufomammut - Lucifer Songs
Dinosaur Jr - Farm
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Dungen - Ta Det Lungt
Boris - Rainbow
Isis - Oceanic
Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue Vol 2
The Cuts - From Here On Out
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Velvet Underground - The Quine Tapes
The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
Broadcast - The Noise Made By People
Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis
Portishead - Third
High on Fire - Surrounded By Thieves
The Blessing - All Is Yes
Devotchka - How It Ends
Wilderness - Wilderness
Portico Quartet - Knee Deep in the North Sea
Tinariwen - Radio Tisdas Sessions
Isis - Wavering Radiant
Boban Markovic Orkestar - Live in Belgrade
Danava - Danava
Von Sudenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions
Beachwood Sparks - Beachwood Sparks

Mix number 4

2009-05-28T12:52:00.003+08:00

The best of the bunch so far?

The Fall - Before the Moon Falls - Dragnet
David Bowie - Life on Mars - Hunky Dory
Bark Psychosis - 400 Winters - Codename: Dustsucker
The Flaming Lips - Halloween on the Barbary Coast - Hit to Death in the Future Head
Can - Halleluwah - Tago Mago
Smoke - My Friend Jack - Nuggets
Big Star - Thirteen - #1 Record
The White Stripes - Death Letter - De Stijl
J.J. Cale - Don't Go to Strangers - Naturally
Syd Barrett - No Man's Land - The Madcap Laughs
John Lee Hooker - It Serves Me Right to Suffer - This Is Hip
The Only Ones - The Whole of the Law - Special View

Download Here

Mix number 3

2009-05-05T19:01:00.006+08:00

Here we are at the third go-round. This is actually a mix I've had for a while. It dates all the way back from my time in Korea. Thursday was crossword day. In every class, the kids would work on a puzzle, and I'd sit there bored to tears for the entire day. Better than teaching them at least. I must have sketched out some songs for a playlist. I found the list while going through some old papers, and it actually sounds pretty good. I updated it a bit with some songs I've found since then, and I erased some of the songs I don't like anymore. It's a bit longer and more out there than the others I guess.

C.A. Quintet - Underground Music - Trip Thru Hell
The Libertines - Time For Heroes - Up The Bracket
Pere Ubu - Final Solution - Terminal Tower
Sun Ra - Where Pathways Meet - Liquidity
Hüsker Dü - Eight Miles High - Eight Miles High
Boris - 1970 - Heavy Rocks
Exuma - Baal - Exuma II
Charles Mingus - Eat That Chicken - Oh Yeah
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Moonlight on Vermont - Trout Mask Replica
Grachan Moncur III - Air Raid - Evolution
Funkadelic - March to the Witch's Castle - Cosmic Slop
The Birthday Party - Mutiny in Heaven - Mutiny EP
The Third Bardo - I've Five Years Ahead of My Time - Nuggets
Reigning Sound - Drowning - Too Much Guitar
Caetano Veloso - Nostalgia (That's What Rock n' Roll's All About)

You can get the music here. And I promise at some point, I'll figure out an easier way to get it to you.

A quick survey of animals I have eaten

2009-04-23T13:14:00.015+08:00

I don't know why I felt possessed to draw this up, but here's the list as far as I can remember.

1. beef: tongue, liver, tartare
2. chicken: feet, testicles
3. pork - cheek, intestines
4. turkey
5. ox: tongue, tail
6. goat
7. eel
8. shark
9. other fish: angler fish, etc
10. dog
11. goose
12. yak
13. sea urchin
14. shrimp, prawns
15. various shellfish: oysters, mussels, clams, sea snails, etc
16. sheep, lamb
17. silkworm larva
18. rabbit
19. snail
20. buffalo

21. duck
22. quail
23. crocodile
24. ostrich
25. jellyfish
26. elk

And though they are not animals, I would also like to add durian and natto to my strange foods list.

Naturally, I'll provide important updates as they arise.

Mix, part 2

2009-04-22T00:17:00.008+08:00

I went out of town last week and didn't get a chance to post this before I left. Here's a second mix. Eventually I'll find a better way to post these, as it seems to be a pain in the ass to both upload and download such a large file. I imagine it's discouraging to everyone. So bear with me on that count. And in the meantime here's another hour of tunes to pass your time.

1. Bob Dylan - Visions of Johanna - Blonde on Blonde
2. Alvin Robinson - Down Home Girl
3. Joe Strummer - Ramshackle Day Parade - Streetcore
4. Oriole - Migration To The Orange Trees - Migration
5. The Chills - Frantic Drift - Kaleidoscope World
6. Leonard Cohen - Suzanne - The Best Of...
7. Butterfield Blues Band - Mellow Down Easy - Butterfield Blues Band
8. The Cuts - Next To Nothing - From Here On Out
9. Hawkwind - Down Through The Night - Doremi Fasol Latido
10. The Verve - Virtual World - A Storm in Heaven
11. Mulatu Astatke - Nètsanèt - Ethiopiques, Volume 4
12. The Stone Roses - She Bangs The Drum - The Stone Roses
13. Lindisfarne - January Song - Fog On The Tyne
14. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Humble Me - 100 Days, 100 Nights

You can find this week's mix here

A couple of videos I enjoy

2009-04-06T19:17:00.002+08:00

Mix, part 1

2009-03-31T23:58:00.005+08:00

I've always had the idea that I wanted to put together some mixes and post them. Hopefully they would be interest to someone other than just me. So I put a bunch together, and as long as someone else enjoys them, I plan to post about an hour of music each week. Here's my first attempt. I'd like to include some obscure songs from any number of genres with some classics thrown in to keep it all together. That means mixes diverse enough to be interesting without being too convulsive or schizophrenic. Today's playlist is:

1. Donovan - Sunshine Superman - Sunshine Superman
2. Sir Douglas Quintet - At The Crossroads - Mendocino
3. William Bell - Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday - Stax-Volt Complete Singles
4. Spacemen 3 - Things'll Never Be The Same - Perfect Prescription
5. The Flaming Lips - Feeling Yourself Disintegrate - The Soft Bulletin
6. Can - I'm So Green - Ege Bamyasi
7. Etta James - The Love Of My Man - Tell Mama
8. Van Morrison - The Way Young Lovers Do - Astral Weeks
9. The Blessing - Loubia - All Is Yes
10. Euphoria - Hungry Women - With Love, A Pot Of Flowers
11. The Saints - All Times Through Paradise - Prehistoric Sounds
12. Hüsker Dü - Chartered Trips - Zen Arcade
13. Hawkwind - Children Of The Sun - In Search Of Space
14. Jazz Butcher - Lost In France - The Gift Of Music
15. The Fall - A Day In The Life - Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father

You can download it here. Let me know what you think.

Casual Friday

2009-03-29T13:25:00.003+08:00

Free Refills

2009-03-25T18:52:00.014+08:00

So I haven't posted in a very long time, but this one sprang to mind this afternoon. I'm not sure why, but this particular story tends to be the most overlooked of my myriad Korea tales. Strange really because to my mind it's one of the most bizarre things I saw while I was in the country.

One point of culture one quickly becomes accustomed to in Korea (and China as well) are the differing approaches to children's toilet etiquette. In the West, we generally regard a child's habits the same we do an adults. That is to say, the child is afforded at least a modicum of privacy and the business is done behind closed doors. You've seen it in a shopping mall bathroom; the child walks into a stall, the parent follows, and the door is locked.
Not so in Asia. The outdoor world is a children's toilet. Trow are dropped regardless of location, and the streets are awash with kiddy piddle. I've narrowly avoided running down a miterating toddler as a rushing crowd parts to reveal him hovering over a sewer grate; I've witnessed fathers holding up their sons by the shoulders as the kid drizzles down a stream as if from a lime-clogged shower head; I've heard tell that in mainland China, diapers are not even purchased...
I'm sure you get the idea. So this particular incident transpires on an uneventful Saturday afternoon. Jessica had gone into Seoul for the afternoon while I stayed at home. We decided to meet on her way back and get some food. We ended up at a restaurant that served what is very probably the worst sushi I've ever been subjected to. Rotten to its very core. Two plates of soggy shrimp were left untouched on their beds of crunchy rice. We hop the bus back to our town. Midway through the journey and the bus is coming upon a McDonald's. While ordinarily this would not be the first choice for either of us, recent horrors had cast the Arches in a new light. We stopped in.
Perhaps I should set the scene a bit further. The highway from the metro station to our town was a two lane country affair. There were occasional strip malls, but there was otherwise not much in the way of civilization. Except for the great hulking McDonald's restaurant. Like most Korean buildings, it was thrown up over the course of two or three weeks and rose to dominate the landscape around it. Its grand opening warranted an appearance from the president of McDonald's (South Korea) who pronounced it the largest and greatest in all the land. At any given time, the behemoth stood at no more than 2% capacity. The evening Jessica and I wandered in was no exception. The eighteen staff members on duty quickly clicked their heels and stood at attention, as we were the only customers beside a table of high schoolers huddled in a corner.
We order our food and sit down. One other interesting point about this particular outlet is that the food is brought to you at your table and the soda comes in hard, recyclable plastic cups. The two of of us begin with our meal and, as it draws to its completion, a family enters and sits down next to us. Perhaps two hundred unoccupied chairs and dozens of empty tables, and Mom, Dad, Grandma and Junior decide to hover over us. Sure, no problem. Dad goes to order food and Junior, as Korean children in public do, runs up and down the aisles in a hyperactive fit. I decide to get some ice cream and so we remain neighbors a bit longer.
As the family dig into their meals, Junior comes up dancing and holding his crotch. He's quickly shooed away. A few minutes later he wanders back. Again, Mom and Dad are having none of it. They point him toward the restrooms, though at three years old he can't possibly be expected to take care of it himself.
He comes to the table a third time. Exasperated, Mom puts down her Big Mac and picks up an empty soda cup. In a single movement, Mom lets out a sigh, jerks down Junior's shorts, and sticks the soda cup at penis-level. Jessica and I abruptly end our conversation absolutely dumbfounded as Junior relieves himself right before our eyes. Mom sits there, disinterested, as Junior slowly but surely fills the cup with urine right there in the middle of the McDonald's dining room. He finishes, shorts are pulled back up, and Mom puts the soda cup right back on the table, picks up her Big Mac and resumes eating.
And there is sits in the middle of the table. The clear plastic cup, ice nearly melted and the yellow urine tinged a brown with the remnants of Coke. It sits there as the centerpiece for the remainder of the meal. Eventually Dad gets up and pours it out in the garbage and goes up to the counter for a refill. This latter event confounds me to this very day. He certainly must have thrown away the cup his son pissed in and carried a second one with him; it was this second one that was refilled. However, in my memory, I never remember seeing the second cup. At any rate, I never finished my ice cream.

The tale of Silibil'n'Brain

2008-10-24T23:07:00.001+08:00

The Guardian is running a story today that Irvine Welsh is writing a screenplay based on the story of rappers Silibil'n'Brains. Snatched by Sony music, the duo was hailed as "the real deal" by competing A&R execs. Never heard of them? They never actually released an album.

If they're known at all, it's as the Scottish rappers who conned their way into a record contract by pretending to be American. After failing to gain any notoriety as rappers, they effected American accents and rerecorded their music. They submitted the new recording to Radio 1, where it proved a minor hit. They took the new act on the road and played some shows in London.

Within weeks, the pair had signed a deal with a premier management company. Within months, they had signed a record deal with Sony. They headlined small festivals, played Brixton Academy, toured with Eminem, appeared on MTV, partied with Madonna, and got paid more than £150,000.

Then the whole thing became a too bit much

Every day for the next four and a half years, Bain [Brain] pretended to be an American. He had sex in an American accent, swore like an American, got drunk in American. Eventually he had a Texan girlfriend, and even she never suspected a thing. By the time Bain stopped talking like an American, he and Boyd [Silibil] were no longer talking to each other. He had a major tax bill, a drink problem and a stomach ulcer.

The group split in 2005. Bain wrote a book. Here's a promotional video or something:

Sunday Mystery: The night Max stole the airwaves

2008-08-17T11:39:00.007+08:00

Tapping into a television transmission and pirating its signal hardly seems worth the effort. Though the process is straightforward, the amount of power needed to commandeer the signal of a commercial broadcaster is hardly insignificant; one must overpower the original transmission to jam its signal. And then punishment for getting caught hardly seems worth the bother. You’re looking at some steep fines and possibly some time in the clink. Don’t bother with any illusions about your stealthiness: tracking the origin of the signal is easy enough, as the pirate is forced to set up shop within the vicinity of a trasmitter site.

In the past, such acts of broadcast piracy have shown a decidedly political bent. One broadcast in 1980s Poland issued messages of solidarity with the Solidarty Movement. Similar transmissions are known to have been broadcast in the Soviet Union. Falun Gong has cut into Chinese television programs. When the Playboy Channel was hacked in the late 80s, it was the work of a Christian Fundamentalist. In the U.S., most perpetrators are found.

Which is probably why the story of the Max Headroom affair lingers in our collective near-consciousness. On November 22, 1987, two Chicago stations’ signals were comandeered by a man in a Max Headroom mask. The first incident, lasting only several seconds, cut into the sports report on WGN news. No audio was broadcast, and the station switched their link to cut off the hijacker. A couple hours later he struck again over at the local PBS affliate WTTW, interrupting their showing of Dr. Who.

This time the entire message was broadcast, with audio, as there were no engineers on duty to cut it off. What followed was a bizarre 90 second message filled with rambling nonsequiturs, pop culture references, and rude allusions to WGN. The video culminated with Max having his ass smacked with a flyswatter by a female accomplice. And before anyone could process what they were seeing, it was all over. The screen faded to black before Dr. Who resumed. Viewers were obviously left a bit baffled and more than a little creeped out.

The hijacker left no clear motive for the attack, and it remains the last recorded intrusion on American television. The person behind the stunt has never been identified by authorities and has been understandably reluctant to step forward on his own. In all, the events that evening in Chicago amount to nothing more than a victimless crime, a bizarre stunt carried out by a bored geek or a disgruntled ex-employee. It remains known today as much for its sinister appearance as for its seemingly randomness.

Naturally, footage has found its way to Youtube.

Here's a good article about it

"The Conspiracy may be blood-curdlingly evil, but at least they have a sense of humour." : Fun at the Flat Earth Society

2008-08-11T09:33:00.005+08:00

The Flat Earth FAQ

Q: "Why do the all the world Governments say the Earth is round?"
A: It's a conspiracy

Q: "What is the motive behind this conspiracy?"
A: The motive is unknown although it is probably money

Q: "If you're not sure about the motive, why do you say there is a conspiracy?"
A: Well it's quite simple really; if the earth is in fact flat, then the governments must be lying when they say it isn't.

"The green triangle is where we live. The small white circle in the green triangle is the Arctic circle (north pole). The blue around the green triangle is our oceans. The white circle around our oceans is the antartic. The green circle around the antartic is the dry earth mentioned at the beginning of the Bible (Genesis). Then there is the waters which were gathered unto one place. And then the dark red-black decending wall (cradle) to keep the waters there. And then the rest of the earth going flat and horizontally to the sky-line. The yellow flames are the source of all heat in the universe. The sun and moon rotate horizontally. The meteor cloud between the sun and moon helps in causing day and night. It causes a slight filter of the sun otherwise it would be too bright. The stars are sunlight peering through the meteor cloud. In the day the suns' focal light pressure overwelms the meteor cloud and bright blue is seen. The blue ball, or sky, surrounds the earth, and the white outside the blue ball is the inside of the sky/ball. All measurements of size and distance are infinite except what is inside the antartic circle/where we live."

It's hard to argue with logic like that. The site is treasure trove of zaniness

Sunday Mystery: The amazing journey of Gil Pérez

2008-08-10T00:41:00.005+08:00

This fantastic story seems to have been thoroughly discredited. First, no account of the supposed teleportation appeared until a century after the event supposedly took place. Secondly, the premise of the story is, well, human teleportation. It is known, however, that Gil Pérez was a real person. Records exist of his time in the service of the Spanish Authority.

For me, the charm of the story comes from its setting: far enough into the Age of Exploration where much of the world was known, yet still a part of the time where Manila and Mexico City were dark corners of the world. Colonial outposts where the work of supernatural phenomenon remained possible. While the reader can mostly likely judge the story as the work of an active imagination, the enjoyment arises from the idea that contemporaries of Pérez would have deemed the events plausible. Or at least that’s my take on it.

On the evening of October 24, 1593, a Guardia Civil, Gil Pérez, is said to have appeared suddenly in a confused state in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City, wearing the uniform of a Philippine regiment. He claimed that moments before finding himself in Mexico he had been on sentry duty in Manila at the governor’s palace. He admitted that while he was aware that he was no longer in the Philippines, he had no idea where he was or how he came to be there. He said the governor, Don Gomez Pérez Dasmariñas, had been assassinated in his wine cellar with an axe.

When it was explained to him that he was now in Mexico City, Pérez refused to believe it saying that he had received his orders on the morning of October 23 in Manila Philippines and that it was therefore impossible for him to be in Mexico City on the evening of the 24th. The authorities placed Pérez in jail, as a deserter and for the possibility that he may have been in the service of Satan. The Most Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition questioned the soldier, but all he could say in his defense was that he had traveled from Manila to Mexico "in less time than it takes a cock to crow".

Two months later, news from the Philippines arrived by Manila Galleon, confirming the fact of the literal axing on October 23 of Dasmariñas in a mutiny of Chinese rowers, as well as other points of the mysterious soldier’s fantastic story. Witnesses confirmed that Gil Pérez had indeed been on duty in Manila just before arriving in Mexico. Furthermore, one of the passengers on the ship recognized Pérez and swore that he had seen him in the Philippines on October 23. Gil Pérez eventually returned to the Philippines and took up his former position as a palace guard, living thenceforth an apparently uneventful life.

Sexy Nazism sells Korean face cream

2008-08-05T11:42:00.011+08:00

One more link for today. Apparently it's old news, but it's new to me.

The South Korean firm Coreana have employed the tried and true "make like the Master Race" marketing technique in a bid to ship more skin cream. You can watch the ad here. See those first words that are shown on the screen? The first word is "Hitler." I'm not sure what the rest says. A subtle statement at any rate.

Also note the smaller advertisement that creeps across the bottom of the video as you watch the main advertisement.

I remember when smoking Parliaments meant something

2008-08-05T11:24:00.016+08:00

Another condemnation of hipster fashion is neither necessary nor gratifying, but this one from Adbusters is worth a mention if only for its hilarious self-righteousness. This comment especially stands out as pure genius:

"The American Apparel V-neck shirt, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and Parliament cigarettes are symbols and icons of working or revolutionary classes that have been appropriated by hipsterdom and drained of meaning."

This sprightly burst of malevolence reads like the tortured scribblings of the angry high school misfit. The one who's just realized the football team's quarterback also likes-- I don't know, My Chemical Romance or something. It would work well enough as a joke until you realize someone put their time and energy into creating it.

I suppose all the perennial adolescents over at Adbusters could be similarly described. These are the same self-satisfied idiots whose ideas of stinging critique include selling "no logo" sneakers (whose logo is a black circle) and manipulating advertisements to say bad things about a company. See how that works?

Sunday Mystery: The Incident at Dyatlov Pass

2008-08-03T14:47:00.004+08:00

In the typically harsh Soviet winter of 1959, Igor Dyatlov led nine students and graduates of the Ural Polytechnical Institute on a ski trek in the Ural Mountains. The journey was to be arduous. Despite their experience, the travelers would have to contend with rugged terrain, snow storms, and temperatures far below freezing. The group departed on January 25th with the understanding that Dyatlov would send a telegram confirming their return to base camp by the 12th of February. There was no concern when word of the group failed to materialize by that set date, as weather conditions often caused a few days' delay. However, by the 20th a rescue mission was dispatched.

The first of the bodies was discovered a month after the party was last seen, on February 26th (one, Yuri Yudin, became sick before leaving base camp and stayed behind). The obvious conclusion was that they were victims of the elements, and the initial evidence seemed to support this notion. Mikhail Sharavin found the first tent: “We discovered that the tent was half torn down and covered with snow. It was empty, and all the group’s belongings and shoes had been left behind.” The first five members of the group were found sprawled in the snow, far from their tents, dressed only in their night clothes. It was determined a few of the victims had been trying to make their way back to the camp.

The bodies were sent away for autopsies. It was confirmed the five died of hypothermia, despite one member of the group having a fractured skull. The other four victims were not found until considerably later. From the St. Petersburg Times:

"Their bodies were found buried under four meters of snow in a forest ravine, 75 meters away from the pine tree. The four — Nicolas Thibeaux-Brignollel, 24, Ludmila Dubinina, 21, Alexander Zolotaryov, 37, and Alexander Kolevatov, 25 — appeared to have suffered traumatic deaths. Thibeaux-Brignollel’s skull had been crushed, and Dubunina and Zolotarev had numerous broken ribs. Dubinina also had no tongue.

The bodies, however, showed no external wounds."

A doctor judged that no human could have inflicted the injuries and that it appeared as though the casualties were the result of force similar to a car crash. The mystery deepened when it was discovered that the latter group's clothing showed high levels of radiation. No source for the contamination could be found. Family and friends who later saw the victims' bodies claimed that their skin had taken on a strange orange color. There is evidence they may have been blinded. These oddities were followed by reports of strange colored lights in the night sky.

An investigation into the affair was opened and closed within the space of a few months. The findings were classified (which, in Soviet Russia, was not particularly notable), and any further inquiry was dropped. The area was closed off to expeditions for three years.

So what really happened? The circumstances truly possess all the key components of a great horror tale: isolation, an extreme environment, and deaths that defy simple, logical explanations. And yes, there's a hint at UFOs as is present in so many of these scenarios. Yet, the story can't be dismissed as more tomfoolery from the foil-hat demographic. Even the medical investigations were unable to draw definitive conclusions. The official cause was listed as an "unknown compelling force."

It is certain something did take place that forced the group to leave their shelter in the middle of the night, ripping open their tents from the inside, emerging only partially clothed and without outdoor equipment, in a temperature of -30°C. According to Wikipedia, "Some were found wrapped in snips of ripped clothes which seemed to be cut from those who were already dead." The official inquest cited two more facts, again taken from Wikipedia:

Six of the group members died of hypothermia and three of fatal injuries.
There were no indications of other people nearby apart from the nine travellers on Kholat Syakhl, nor anyone in the surrounding areas.

Perhaps hypothermia is a reasonable explanation. In severe cases, victims become confused. They may actually begin to remove their clothing. Sufferers may become combative and behave irrationally. Perhaps there was an avalanche. Perhaps a conclusive answer will never be found.

In all likelihood, the truth of the accident is mundane. Something attributable to the conditions the party found themselves in. Yet, the thrill of a great mystery like this is in avoiding the plausible. Conveniently overlooking the ordinary and letting our imaginations get the best of us. And it's this reason that the Dyatlov Pass Accident remains a captivating tale.

You can find more information from the places I stole mine :
Wikipedia
St Petersburg Times
SF Gate
Photos taken from here
You can find pictures from the trekkers' own cameras here

Everyone's waiting for you...

2008-08-02T11:55:00.002+08:00