10 great East German films – Between the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the weird and wonderful film production line in communist East Germany included sci-fi, westerns, film noir and some uniquely disturbing fairytales. –> https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-east-german-films

The unsettling world of the 'TikTok Farlands' – There's a hidden corner of TikTok the algorithm won't show you, full of weird, creepy and downright disturbing videos. It could all be a myth – or it may be a preview of the internet's future. –> https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20260618-the-terrifying-worl...

Wally Funk, the Oldest Woman in Space, Almost Became the First Woman in Space in 1961 – Funk began her preparations for space flight in 1961 as part of group of 13 women pilots called FLATS (First Lady Astronaut Trainees). – Ask someone to name of a female astronaut. They might say Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. Maybe you’ll get a brief rendition of Wilson Pickett’s ‘Mustang Sally’. What you won’t hear is the name Wally Funk, even if it’s just as musical, and even if Funk herself was as qualified to go to space as anyone who trained at NASA. However, she was passed over three times since starting astronaut training in 1961, and she only made it to outer space in a sub-orbital flight aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin NS-16 in 2021, at a spry-but-advanced age of 82. –> https://flashbak.com/wally-funk-the-oldest-woman-in-space-almost-...

Wild Footage Shows Man Blocking Flock Camera With Comically Gigantic Protest Sign – "We didn't give them permission to do it on us." –> https://futurism.com/future-society/florida-man-blocking-flock-pr...

Reflections Dazzle in Hyperrealistic Chrome Faces in Kip Omolade’s Vivid Portraits –> https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/kip-omolade-chrome-portrai...

Η Microsoft κόβει τα πειρατικά Windows 11; Τι ισχύει πραγματικά – Η πραγματικότητα, όμως, είναι αρκετά διαφορετική. Η νέα αλλαγή δεν αφορά άμεσα τον απλό χρήστη ούτε σημαίνει ότι εκατομμύρια υπολογιστές θα σταματήσουν ξαφνικά να λειτουργούν. –> https://www.dwrean.net/2026/07/microsoft-kovei-peiratika-windows-...

Sibylle Ruppert – The Inward Gaze of the Flesh – The art world preferred to forget Sibylle Ruppert for most of her life (1942-2011); the rediscovery came after her death. – drawings she’s now known for: bodies that grapple and bleed into one another until the line between human, animal and machine gives way. – She is usually summed up as biomechanical surrealism, dark eroticism, a friend of H.R. Giger. –> https://doorofperception.com/2026/06/sibylle-ruppert/

Los Angeles Public Library Unveils the World’s Largest Pop-Up Book –> https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/daniel-gonzalez-matthew-re...

Your phone is about to stop being yours. – Starting in 2027*, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID. –> https://keepandroidopen.org/

Artificial Intelligence – Ars Notoria and the Promise of Instant Knowledge – Centuries before Neo instantly mastered Kung Fu in The Matrix, medieval scholars found a shortcut to years of difficult study: a magical manuscript that promised to fast-track advanced learning. Anne Lawrence-Mathers investigates the Ars notoria, its supposed powers, and the demonic influence it had upon some users. – Unlike diagrams in other magical texts, those in Ars notoria do not illustrate what the text is seeking to communicate. Nor do they act as models to be replicated in three-dimensional form as pieces of magical equipment.2 Instead, they supposedly work almost in the same way as religious icons. That is, faithful possession and use of them can offer direct contact with powerful and benign supernatural forces — and ultimately even with God. The diagrams themselves are the route to magic and consist of arrangements of symbolic and geometric forms, patterns, and symbols, interspersed with “words”, which are frequently unintelligible combinations of letters.3 Practitioners who opened their minds to receive and imprint these labyrinthine images, while reciting complex verbal formulae and strings of mysterious, almost unpronounceable words and names, are engaging in a significant act of trust. –> https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/ars-notoria/

Uncanny Landscapes in Pen and Ink Span Wooden Panels by John Buck – The Bozeman-based artist is known for his eccentric, often life-size wooden sculptures that draw on folklore, personal memory, and daily observations. –> https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/john-buck-wooden-panel-pin...

A Book That Was Not To Be: The Art Of The Weird –> https://unquietthings.com/a-book-that-was-not-to-be-the-art-of-th...

Into the Weird: Weird Tales, March 1923 (Volume 1, Number 1) Part 2 –> https://www.blackgate.com/2026/07/26/into-the-weird-weird-tales-m...

Solarpunk Music: Notes on Anti-Hauntology and Eco-Futurism – Despite the fact that there seems to be a very distinct crossover in the underlying logic of anti-hauntology and solarpunk, imagining what might constitute a ‘solarpunk music’ is a question that has not really been addressed in any substantial way. –> https://bluelabyrinths.com/2026/07/20/solarpunk-music-notes-on-an...

1400s Fight Club: Women Dueling Men in Medieval Germany – Check out these awesome images of German men and women dueling in the 1400s. The men are in pits to “level the playing field,” so to speak. They’re pretty entertaining, and not exactly what comes to mind when you think about relations between the sexes in the Middle Ages. –> https://cvltnation.com/1400s-fight-club-women-duelling-men-in-med...

Drawings by a Survivor of Alien Abduction, 1970s – A 'lifelong abductee' recalls her repeated abductions by grey and reptilian beings – “I have been an alien abductee all my life. I didn’t choose this life. I didn’t ask for any of this, but it has been happening for as long as I can remember.” – Lifeline alien abductee Hilary Porter –> https://flashbak.com/drawings-by-a-survivor-of-alien-abduction-19...

Πώς να αποκτήσεις δωρεάν το δικό σου ChatGPT στον υπολογιστή σου – Ένας από τους ευκολότερους τρόπους είναι το LM Studio, ένα δωρεάν πρόγραμμα για Windows, macOS και Linux, το οποίο διαθέτει έτοιμο περιβάλλον συνομιλίας και σου επιτρέπει να κατεβάζεις μοντέλα τεχνητής νοημοσύνης στον υπολογιστή σου. –> https://www.dwrean.net/2026/07/ftiakse-to-diko-sou-chagpt-sta-win...

CVLT Nation Required Reading: Tales From the Leather Nun (1973) – A one-off comic published in January, 1973 by Last Gasp, Tales From the Leather Nun is a cult classic sought after by collectors of works by the six sick minds behind it: Dave Sheridan, Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Jack Jackson, Pat Ryan, and Roger Brand. –> https://cvltnation.com/nsfw-cvlt-nation-required-reading-tales-le...

Nature or Culture? Europeans Can Vote on the New Banknote Design – A panel of jurors selected the designs, which follow one of two themes: European places and ideas or birds and rivers, the latter of which is meant to symbolize freedom and unity. While the basic elements are the same—all collections devoted to culture feature the same six figures, including Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, composer Ludwig van Beethoven, scientist Marie Curie, opera singer Maria Callas, and authors Bertha von Suttner and Miguel de Cervantes, for example—individual approaches appear in the layout, aesthetic, and composition. –> https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/07/euro-banknote-design-centr...

How US Neo-Nazism Actually Works –> https://cvltnation.com/how-us-neo-nazism-actually-works/

David C. Smith & Robert E. Howard, Part Two: Red Sonja –> https://www.blackgate.com/2026/07/22/david-c-smith-robert-e-howar...

Nameneko Cats From the 1980s – The 1980s fad for dressing cats up as tough guys and girls –> https://flashbak.com/nameneko-juvenille-delinquent-cats-and-kitte...

Howard's "Marchers of Valhalla": Battles, Cults, Love and Honor – James Allison, a character through whom Howard explored the concepts of racial memory and reincarnation, is a man who has lived many lives and is able to recall his past identities, always as a hero facing great dangers. –> https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2026/6/14/howards-marchers-of-valh...

Into the Weird: An Introduction –> https://www.blackgate.com/2026/07/11/into-the-weird-an-introduction/

More on Josef Madlener – it was chronologically impossible for a postcard first printed in 1935 to have influenced The Hobbit, and specifically the character Gandalf, whose origin was in the late 1920s, while the manuscript of the bulk of the tale was in existence by early 1933 for C.S. Lewis to be reading it –> https://tolkienandfantasy.blogspot.com/2026/07/more-on-josef-madl...