[UA] Internet Ghost Story

[David M Jacobs]

Greetings,

The list seems a bit quiet today, so I thought that I'd post the following 
news item.  Not incredibly UAish, admittedly, but someone could find a use 
for it.  Perhaps a cabal of cliomancers is trying to sow seeds in the 
picnic spot for future harvest.

Or perhaps the ghost really does exist, but only on the Net -- sort of a 
Web version of "Ring".  She reaches into the minds of Web surfers to 
perpetuate her image through the use of email and PhotoShop.  She appears 
in all sorts of pictures, drawing on the life forces of the photographers 
and other subjects in the photos.  She hops from computer to computer, 
hungrily scouring hard drives for images, in the hope that one day, she'll 
get emailed to an archive of images of famous public places -- with their 
attendant crowds.

Once she's slain enough people, then she'll be juiced up enough to pursue 
her real agenda.  Until then, her image spreads across the Net like a 
plague; 101001101 have noticed the image, but haven't put 10 and 10 
together yet.  Amateur photographers are dropping like flies.  In six 
months time, the government will issue a health warning on cameras, but by 
then, it will be far, far too late.


 From http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/18/1063625149078.html :

'Ghost' from internet terrorises southern Indian city
September 19, 2003

Cyber-savvy pranksters in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have 
unleashed a ghost phobia in Tiruchirappalli city leading to a steep drop in 
school attendance and spreading terror in many households, a news report 
said yesterday.

The Asian Age newspaper reported the situation was gradually returning to 
normal after two weeks of panic and rumour mongering after police stepped 
in with an awareness campaign to expose the internet spook.

It all began when a Tamil-language newspaper carried a story with a 
photograph showing a young boy posing under a tree with a "ghost" with long 
loose hair, empty eye sockets and no legs hovering behind.

The story said the boy was part of a picnic group visiting the nearby 
Pulanjolai Hills area. The story also said he had the picture taken by a 
classmate who collapsed upon seeing the ghost through the camera viewfinder 
and later died vomiting blood after seeing the developed film.

The boy whose photograph was taken reportedly went into a coma.

The report in the mass circulation paper led to fast-spreading rumours. The 
picnic spot where the ghost was allegedly spotted was deserted and many 
parents decided to keep children at home because of rumours about the ghost 
stalking young children.

People in the town remained under a thrall of terror until police 
investigations revealed the "ghost" was simply a photograph of a Malaysian 
girl on the internet that had been added to the photograph using computer 
graphics.

It had been published in the youth section of the mass circulation Tamil 
newspaper Thanthi last October. "Some prankster has downloaded the stuff 
from the internet and created a new scare out of an old photo," a senior 
local police official said.

Investigations also revealed that the stories about the boys falling into 
coma and dying and girls fainting were nothing but rumours.

However, the Asian Age quoted a local psychiatrist as saying he was still 
getting patients obsessed with the ghost from Pulanjolai Hills.

DPA



David M Jacobs
dmjacobs at zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~dmjacobs/
ICQ UIN: 17027598

Last night, I dreamt that I'd pinned Bruce Willis beneath an unpainted 
section of picket fence in his front yard, and that I beat him to death 
with a copy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  I awoke with blood on my 
face.  Note to self: never eat penne before bedtime again.



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