Harry Houdini

• CHICAGO, Nov. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Greyscalegorilla , makers of premium assets and tools for 3D artists, is pleased to announce the availability of their photoreal 3D asset library, Greyscalegorilla Plus, for all major 3D applications.
• The launch of "Plus for Everyone" marks a significant milestone in the industry, solidifying Greyscalegorilla's position as a leading creator of premium artist-driven 3D assets.
• Previously exclusive to Cinema 4D users, Greyscalegorilla Plus is now accessible across all major 3D applications, including Cinema 4D, Blender, Houdini, and Unreal Engine.
• This announcement marks the first step in Greyscalegorilla's journey to universal accessibility for Greyscalegorilla Plus , showcasing their dedication to delivering the highest quality, photorealistic 3D assets while supporting 3D artists' creative endeavors.

• Based on data from millions of endpoints running HP Wolf Security, key findings include:
  Houdini’s Last Act: A new campaign targeted businesses with fake shipping documents concealing Vjw0rm JavaScript malware.
• Cybercriminals Deploy “Jekyll and Hyde” Attacks: HP discovered a Parallax RAT campaign launching two threads when a user opens a malicious scanned invoice designed to trick users.
• Alex Holland, Senior Malware Analyst in the HP Wolf Security threat research team, comments:
  "Threat actors today can easily purchase pre-packaged, user-friendly malware ‘meal kits’, that infect systems with a single click.
• Other findings include:
  Archives were the most popular malware delivery type for the sixth quarter running, used in 36% of cases analyzed by HP.

• In Dr. Hamilton’s darkened seance chamber, as Doyle would later write, he experienced a luminous table fly into the air.
• Today, Hamilton’s legacy includes an uncanny trove of photographs related to his investigations of paranormal materializations.
• A new scholarly collection of essays and an art exhibit, The Undead Archive: 100 Years of Photographing Ghosts, at the University of Winnipeg use an art historical lens to contextualize these uncanny photographs.

The ‘psychic force’

• Doyle recounted how the table clattered again and again entirely on its own, with no sitter touching it.
• One moment, it was quiet.
• Psychic force, as some scientists believed, would extrude from the body of the medium and manifest as a organic plasm known as ectoplasm, through which spirits could communicate.

Expression of bereavement

• It was not uncommon after the losses of the First World War and the 1919 influenza pandemic for North Americans to participate in seances and dabble in spiritualism as an expression of bereavement, as historians Felicity Hamer and Esyllt Jones have outlined.
• Read more:
  Spirit photography captured love, loss and longing

  Interestingly, Hamilton rejected the popular religion of spiritualism, critiquing it as a cult.

Inspired ‘Ghostbusters’

• They were also praised by researchers, including two who got into a famous public argument with the magician Houdini after claiming to debunk his magic, and Samuel Aykroyd, actor Dan Aykroyd’s great-grandfather.
• The younger Aykroyd’s 1984 blockbuster Ghostbusters brought ectoplasm into popular culture.

‘Undead Archive’ exhibit

• The exhibit, The Undead Archive: 100 Years of Photographing Ghosts, at the University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03, and the University of Manitoba’s School of Art and Archives and Special Collections, similarly focuses on artistic interpretations of this mysterious substance.
• Works include stop-motion videos of ectoplasm morphing into recognizable shapes: one by Shannon Taggart and one by Grace Williams.

Unseen, suppressed spiritual work

• Erika DeFreitas uses crocheted doilies instead of ectoplasm, calling attention to unseen labour mediums carried out to support psychical researchers.
• KC Adams, an Anishinaabe, Ininew and British artist living in Manitoba researched and created a virtual reality artwork for the exhibition that examines Ininew burial rituals suppressed under the Indian Act.

Pandemics and forgetting

• In Burrows’s image, Tam looks upwards, as if in a trance, and is surrounded by green beads imitating the COVID-19 virus.
• In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Tam was constantly on national TV and social media, like a diviner laying out warnings.

Winnipeg as ‘psychic centre’

• After sitting with the Hamiltons in their seance laboratory, in a July 5, 1923 letter to Lillian Hamilton, Doyle described Winnipeg as a “psychic centre,” in many ways divining Winnipeg’s loss of status as “Chicago of the North,” offering an alternative moniker.
• The idea of Winnipeg as a supernatural place has been taken up by artists and authors, exemplified by filmmaker Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, as well as the exhibition art, much of it created during COVID-19 lockdowns.

Serena Keshavjee receives funding from SSHRC.

• Within just six months, the custom app was downloaded by 65% of its guests staying on the property!
• After the initial hotel app was downloaded by only 15% of guests, Sunlife Resorts partnered with Hudini to create a more comprehensive and intuitive platform.
• Using the app, guests can book rooms, check-in online, use their phones as digital room keys, and access dine-in, entertainment and housekeeping facilities.
• The success of the Hudini app has provided momentum to drive further innovation and enhance our guest offerings in the future."