JOURNAL: Strange Bedfellows: Cannibalism and the Olympics

According to Google Trends, the term "cannibal" has risen in popularity over the past few weeks, no doubt due to the May 27, 2012 incident involving Rudy Eugene, who has been nicknamed the South Beach Cannibal.

Since then there have been a few other unrelated instances of cannibalism:

• May 28, 2012: Woman suspected of biting partner's penis
• May 29, 2012: Police: Hackensack man stabbed himself and threw intestines at officers
• May 30, 2012: Man cut off wife's lips and ate them
• May 31, 2012: Maryland man charged with killing, eating man's brain, heart
• June 1, 2012: Staten Island man bites other man's ear in ugly fight sparked by dispute over television
• June 1, 2012: Cannibal on run after warning The Sun: I can’t stop killing
• June 6, 2012: Cops: Man Bit Off Large Chunk Of Victim's Face
• June 6, 2012: Wig Theft Suspect Bit Store Owner, Cops: Police
• June 15, 2012: Braidwood burglars bite off victim's ear
• June 21, 2012: Latest 'zombie' eating attack: Man under the influence gets naked, bites off chunk of man's arm
• June 25, 2012: Cops: Woman High On Bath Salts Wanted To ‘Kill Someone And Eat Them’
• June 26, 2012:  Another "zombie-like" attack? Man eats family dog after police say he ingested synthetic drug K-2
• June 30, 2012: Nude carjacker causes multiple crashes Scottsdale
• July 1, 2012:  Chinese 'cannibal' attack caught on camera as drunk bus driver leaps on woman and chews on her face
• July 3, 2012:  'I'm a eat you': Crazed naked man high on bath salts threatens to eat police officers as they try to arrest him on golf course
• July 3, 2012:  'Zombie' attack Indianapolis video: David Martin fights off cops, stun gun shocks in 'ninja' attack
• July 5, 2012: Man accused of biting Mesa officer on calf 
• July 5, 2012: Vampire Attack in Corpus Christi? teen bitten on neck as he walked down the street
• July 5, 2012: Pa. police: New mom smoked bath salts in hospital
• July 8, 2012: Witness: Woman Working At Inn Brutally Murdered By Naked Man
• July 10, 2012: Naked man arrested after rampage and attack in St. Augustine
• July 15, 2012: UPDATE: Elderly Woman Murdered In Her Fair Oaks Home Identified
• July 18, 2012: Police: Naked Teen Found Lying In Street Yelling ‘Bad Drugs’
• July 24, 2012: Man Accused of Biting Boy's Face
• August 8, 2012: Naked Randy Travis Threatened Trooper During DWI Arrest: Police
• August 13, 2012: Police: MMA fighter 'Mayhem' Miller found naked in church
• August 21, 2012: Only On CBS2: Police Report Claims Deutsche Bank Executive Was High On Bath Salts
• September 6, 2012: No, really: Govt warns of 'zombie apocalypse'
• September 13, 2012: Cops: Naked, Bloody Man Gnawed On Woman’s Head During Wild Neighborhood Rampage

Moreover, interestingly, the term cannibal has even become synonymous with the term Zombie.  In fact, the South Beach incident which has been the de facto event that has started this recent zombie craze occurred on the 1-year anniversary of the CDC's Zombie Apocalypse Campaign and approximately 1 month after a Castle episode with an eerily similar plot line.

In light of the foregoing, I was reading an article yesterday in the Guardian regarding the 2012 London Olympics and came across the following:

[The director Danny] Boyle had already revealed that the three-hour opening ceremony would be titled Isles of Wonder, a title based on a speech by Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest that will be referenced throughout the four ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

I wanted to find out why this speech by a character named Caliban was being used as the title of the Olympics opening ceremony, so I checked out the Wikipedia entry for Caliban and here is what I found:

Caliban is the son of Sycorax by (according to Prospero) a devil.

Further...

The name is an anagram of the Spanish word canibal (Carib people), the source of cannibal in English.

I'm not sure what it means, but I find it definitely strange that there is a seeming connection between the Olympics and all the cannibal/zombie stories that have been surfacing a month prior to the Olympics.