Some Photos (20230323): Non-Normal Human Research Center

  • March 23, 2023
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Spitting Images The Diary of Lupin Pooter
'Fireman's Switch' metal toggle behind glass.
Fireman’s Switch metal toggle behind glass next to elevators in a building lobby.
Ceramic statues of deities perched atop wall around a refuse collection point at an school campus.
Ceramic statues of deities perched atop wall around a refuse collection point at an school campus.
Spray paint dripping down some vinyl sheeting.
Spray paint dripping down some vinyl sheeting.
Black spray paint on clear plastic sheeting.
Black spray paint onclear plastic sheeting.
Spray paint on dot-grid paper.
Spray paint on dot-grid paper.
7-11 sign: 'Please wait for a while. We will resume business at'.
7-11 sign posted when one employee was holding down the fort and needed to use the restroom: Please wait for a while. We will resume business at: 10 min.
The light caught a distant apartment block just right.
The late-afternoon light caught a distant apartment block just right while S. and I were running errands in Tsuen Wan.
A complicated bit of sidewalk at the edge of a construction site in Causeway Bay.
A complicated bit of sidewalk at the edge of a construction site in Causeway Bay.
'Caution uneven floor' sticker inside Harbour City (a large shopping mall) in Tsim Sha Tsui.
‘Caution uneven floor’ sticker inside Harbour City (a large shopping mall) in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Does 304 stainless steel work-harden from attempts to punch or drill through it?
Does 304 stainless steel work-harden from attempts to punch or drill through it? My gut says it does.
Pedestrian exiting a pedestrian tunnel, viewed from a distance.
Pedestrian exiting a pedestrian tunnel, viewed from a distance.

I cribbed this entry’s title from the English text of a peculiar sticker that I saw on the rear hatch window of a minivan and used a cropped version of the least-blurry image I took through our taxi’s front windshield for the post thumbnail:

Non Normal Human Research Center.
Non Normal Human Research Center spotted on the back of a Honda hybrid minivan recently.

I assumed that it was an anime or manga reference and that was right, sort of. A December 2021 post on another blog [Chinese Van Works For The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D) at CoolCarsInChina.com] explicates the origin of this and other similar stickers as domestic P.R.C. homages to the fictional Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (B.P.R.D.) from Mike Mignola’s Hellboy universe.