Vampires

Sales of garlic have skyrocketed after an alert was issued to warn people about a vampire on the loose.The bizarre warning was prompted by the collapse of an old ruined mill which is believed to be the final resting place of famous vampire Sava Savanovic. The family who owned the mill had been too frightened to carry out repairs because they believed the disturbance would wake up the vampire sleeping within. Now that thebuilding has fallen down completely locals have become convinced that Savanovic is free once again."People are worried, everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people," said the local mayor.

Residents have been reminded to place garlic around their doors and place a Holy cross in every room to help ward off a visit. Sales of garlic are booming inwestern Serbia after the local council issued a public health warning that a vampire was on the loose.  

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Where did our fascination with fictional monsters such as vampires and werewolves actually originate ?It"s a question that science journalist Matt Kaplan has set out to investigate. Kaplan maintains that our tendency to crave stories about horror and monsters is not dissimilar to the way in which lion cubs behave when they engage in play fighting - they allow us to face our worst fears without putting ourselves in any genuine danger. Different fictional and mythical monsters havesprung up around this tendency for telling terrifying tales.Some specific denizens may have had some basis in reality, for instance the concept of vampires may have sprung from symptoms of decay in the newly deceased.

Bram Stoker"s classic novel "Dracula" is most commonly associated with bringing the vampire concept in to popular culture, but how did we get from the blood curdling terror of Count Dracula to the modern day vampires of Stephenie Meyer"s "Twilight" saga ? The suave and sensitive Edward Cullen of "Twilight" maybe the norm for vampires these days, but fictional monsters such as Dracula originally sprang from the fear of inexplicable diseases and the mysteries of death in the natural world.  

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The skeleton was discovered with a number of metal spikes through its shoulders, heart and ankles.Burials of this kind are rare, this latest find dates back to around 500-700 AD and was located in the town of Southwell, Notts. Typically such burials were carried out on criminals or social outcasts who were feared when they were alive, the use of metal spikes was intended to prevent the deceased from rising from the grave to plaguethe living."Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period the punishment of being buried in water-logged ground, face down, decapitated, staked or otherwise was reserved for thieves, murderers or traitors or later for those deviants who did not conform to societies rules," said archaeologist Matthew Beresford.

"Which of these the Southwell deviant was we will never know." The discovery of a skeleton found with metal spikes through its shoulders, heart and ankles, dating from 550-700ADand buried in the ancient minster town of Southwell, Notts, is detailed in a new report.  

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Pegomastax would have lived 200 million years ago and could shed light on the evolution of other species.One of the most unusual dinosaurs, Pegomastax sported a set of vampire-like fangs along with a coat of porcupine-like bristles and a beak like a parrot. A relatively small creature at 2 feet in length it would have resembled something like a two-legged porcupine. "The bristles were not quite as strong as a porcupine"s, and they don"t look as if they were especiallyeffective for insulation," said paleontologist Paul Sereno.

"Perhaps they had colors and helped differentiate species, or made Pegomastaxlook bigger than it actually was to potential predators."It is believed that its set of vampire-like fangs would have been used in conjunction with its beak to help it break open seeds, nuts and fruits. "It would have looked like Dracula," said Sereno. "Probably appropriate, since we"re now moving toward Halloween." The ancient creature, which was found 50 years ago in southern Africabut drew relatively little attention until now, may shed light on the evolution of the major group of dinosaurs that included famous giants such as Stegosaurus and Triceratops.  

View: Full article |  Source: Fox News