Linux-fueled Thoughts Unhinged

Usually I reserve “Weird Encounters on the Internet” for people or entities that I don't like, but I guess I never defined this small thematic series like that. Also, I guess I could use a little more positivity.

Sometimes I watch videos Nick Crowley; though I think he does slowly released compilation videos the best. I think he's not too interesting doing topics for extended periods of time. For that, I'd recommend ReignBot, Nexpo, or Barely Sociable. (Night Docs is a hit or a miss, and it takes the creator Jym way too long to release subsequent parts if a video turns out to be a part of an albeit short series.)

Anyways, here are some random thoughts I had when watching some videos Nick Crowley. (It's been too long since I watched his exact video, but I do remember the general context of how these selected stories came about.)

Failed Rocket in China

Intelstat 708 is a reminder that China is basically the perfect embodiment of The Network from Utopia and the Dark Army from Mr. Robot.

So this failed rocket failed to launch and there was non-state sponsored video footage recovered of the failed rocket launch.

What Nick Crowley fails to mention is that this was of some importance to the U.S. IC agencies, because it had some sort of encryption, since a U.S. company involved with rockets had some sort of agreement with China to launch a rocket and set up a satellite. However, the rocket failed.

Crowley focused more on the probable and very likely cover up of the death toll. Apparently the rocket had fallen into and exploded in a village. The Chinese government claimed only 6 people died and the village was already moving out.

However, as in the usual China totalitarian denial MO and with the help of hindsight, we obviously know that the Chinese government is lying again.

China couldn't “delete” the remnants of the village fast enough, but there was considerable damage. It looked like a war zone. However, today those buildings and everything from that village were eventually “deleted” and allegedly the village no longer exists today.

Sounds like a version of The Network and the Dark Army that operates “above the table”, so to speak.

Additionally, the NSA and the DoD were peripherally involved (back when the NSA was still a chad boomer — compared to today — and hadn't turned into a bunch of super powered cyber warfare hacker-based IC, probably boasted legitimate soldiers among its ranks doing black ops missions or whatever) because the satellite contained boards with encryption. However, the official U.S. account chalked up the loss of the boards to being very likely to be completely lost in the explosion's fireblast, when those people came together to do the “degree of belief” forensic analysis long story short.

Man, this is even worse than Russia's gated closed cities (vaguely referenced in Tenet but not given proper justice), which were forcibly created to keep the Soviet Union's nuclear research a secret (which had completely trash safety standards — consider how well a cheater understands the material of an A+ student, assuming the looking over the shoulder aspect is never detected in a classroom; make the stakes as dangerous as nuclear radiation and you will be surprised only Chernobyl and the Kyshtym disaster are part of Russia's publicly known history nuclear disasters).

The NSA and the DoD probably know a thing or two about whether or not China really did cover up the extent of Intelstat 708 satellite rocket disaster...

The Real Life Outlast Mental Hospital

Obviously, Mount Massive Asylum from the Outlast video game is not real (well, I hope not literally, because [spoiler alert] the world definitely doesn't need a technologically based version of the walrider/alp running around as another bad thing).

However, the mental hospital (which turned out to end up operating like any other stereotypical mental asylum from the early 1900s) that Mount Massive is based on is the Richardson Olmsted Complex. However, you may know this place by another name: the Hotel Henry. (And yes, the Wikipedia article does mention that Mount Massive is based on the Richardson Olmsted Complex.)

Yes, yes — this smells reeks of gentrification, but at least this building isn't becoming an abandoned building. You definitely don't want fans of Outlast wandering around an entirely abandoned building that is this large. Nothing smells worse than impending (and unnecessary) danger than abandoned buildings that are clearly not secured in any meaningful way.

Nick Crowley stayed in the Hotel Henry in late summer 2020 and showed that the hotel itself only occupies one third of the property; the rest is still technically empty and waiting plans for renovations and revitalizations or whatever. (I highly doubt the pandemic is helping with that.)

There is another video that goes more in depth with the actual background of the first Outlast... most of Nick Crowley's video on the Hotel Henry is basically trying to use a spirit box to communicate with ghosts — something I kind of don't want to see after watching a few episodes of ghost hunting with Shane and Ryan in Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural.

Random Tack-on: Duplessis Orphans

I'm not sure why I looked up “Duplessis Orphans”, but I think it may be related to the idea of mass graves. I don't think this was really related to the background of the first Outlast. This aspect is tangentially related to Outlast 2, in which very early on in the playable section there is a mass grave pile of recently deceased babies.

However, the Duplessis orphans are more related to Canada, though the CIA did conduct MKULTRA experiments within the jurisdiction of Canada, making it legally more difficult to retaliate against the CIA. (Now, let's back off from the CIA before I turn into Terry A. Davis...)

This is somewhat related to graves of Indigenous people that keep being discovered in Canada, but definitely not for the same reasons. I don't know much about Treaty 6 (because that's Canada-related), though there is one undeniable fact: mass graves are never a good sign.

Very Random Third Section: Linda S. Stein

I really don't want to make a stand-alone post on Linda S. Stein, and I wanted to add this in this post — for some reason.

I'm not familiar with any context with Linda Stein, though I may have seen a true crime video pop up on YouTube regarding Linda Stein.

I'm not sure what Linda Stein's deal is, but as Da Shi says in The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest: I don't know what's happening, but something about all of this is fishy.

Being a manager for prominent music bands and being a real estate agent for celebrities, as well as being a overall generally vulgar person who will be a gossip source for celebrity tabloids, doesn't sound like Linda Stein is generally a good person. (Don't let Elton John donating money in her name for cancer research or whatever.)

I'm pretty sure some Agent 47 was sent out to kill Stein (or some MKULTRA agent was activated to do the same thing, just like The Network) and Stein's personal assistant was assigned to be the fall person.

Mandy Stein and the rest of their “family” looks sus, not to mention that according to alleged details the police involved with this case look incompetent.

Conclusion

When is Red Barrels going to release the next Outlast game (preferably Outlast 3)? I know The Outlast Trials is the next game, but that's not really what I'm trying to get at...

I desperately need the comic book miniseries The Murkoff Account to finish its story!

(I love how it has just the right amount of gritty conspiracy depiction without being too self-gratuitous. Of course, nothing will match Utopia, but still... it's all I have for now.)