Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Vampire Threat Terrorizes Village -Yahoo News
For the people in a
tiny Serbian village there is nothing sexy or romantic about a vampire.
In fact, they are terrified that one of the most feared vampires of the
area has been roused back to life.
Rather than 'Twilight's' Edward, the people of Zorazje fear that Sava Savanovic is lurking in their forested mountains of western Serbia.
They believe that he is on the move because the home he occupied for so long, a former water mill, recently collapsed. Savanovic is believed to be looking for a new home.
"People are very 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," Miodrag Vujetic, local municipal assembly member, told ABC News. "We are all frightened."
Vujetic said villagers "are all taking precautions by having holy crosses and icons placed above the entrance to the house, rubbing our hands with garlic, and having a hawthorn stake or thorn."
"I understand that people who live elsewhere in Serbia are laughing at our fears, but here most people have no doubt that vampires exist," he says.
According to legend, Savanovic would kill and drink the blood of the peasants who came to grind their grain at his watermill on the Rogacica River. Tour groups from around the Balkans would come to see the mill. But even tourism had its limits.
"We were welcoming tourists, but only during the day. Nobody ever overnighted there," said Slobodan Jagodic, whose family owned the mill for over 60 years.
"We were too scared to repair it, not to disturb Sava Savanovic," says Jagodic. "It's even worse now that it collapsed due to lack of repair."
Traditions die slowly in this part of the world. "In the dark forested mountains of Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia, many people still believe in vampires and take them quite seriously," says Dr. James Lyon, Ph.D, a noted Balkan historian who has done extensive research on the folklore behind vampires.
"In local folklore, vampires are not potential boyfriends. Rather, they are hideous, blood thirsty creatures with red eyes and iron teeth that bloat when they feed, and are able to shift their shape," says Lyon, author of "Kiss of the Butterfly," a historical thriller about vampires in the Serbia.
Savanovic has maintained his notoriety in modern Serbia. He was featured in a 19th century book "Ninety Years Later" written by Milovan Glisic, whose book inspired a 1972 horror film "Leptirica" (Butterfly), widely watched throughout all of former Yugoslavia. More recently, Savanovic appeared in an award winning book "Fear and Its Servant" written by Mirjana Novakovic.
The Balkans have long established itself as Ground Zero for vampires when it comes to fanged folklore, and Serbia is a leader in this, according to Lyon.
"Vampires originated in Serbia, not Romania," says Lyon. "The word vampire entered western languages from Serbia in the late 1720s."
Austrian forces returning from conquests in Ottoman Serbia in the early 1700s brought back vampire stories, which circulated throughout Europe, later inspiring Byron, Keats and Coleridge, he claims.
"In 1730-31 the Austrian Army sent a military surgeon into Serbia to conduct autopsies on suspected vampires. He and other Austrian Army officers wrote of their experiences, and these records still exist today," Lyons said.
Documented reports of vampire-related activity continue to this day throughout the Balkans, the most recent having occurred in 2011 in Serbia.
Back in Zarozje, villagers will have to be on their guard for at least seven more months, because local legend holds that vampires are most active between Christmas and the Feast of the Ascension on June 7.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Bigfoot declared to exist in 1974? Yes.
From: http://www.examiner.com/article/bigfoot-declared-to-exist-1974
"The public knows very little about Bigfoot. In fact, most claim that Bigfoot is a mythical creature and does not exist. Almost everyone knows Bigfoot is approximately eight feet tall, is very hairy, has big feet, and may or may not exist. The majority of the academic and scientific world scoffs at the idea such a creature could exist, and the news media can always find a good Halloween story if the hunt up the local Bigfoot hunter.
Skeptics almost always blow off the evidence that has been laid before them. This evidence includes foot castings, hand castings, vocal recordings, photos, videos, hair, scat, fingerprints, and thousands and thousands of eye witness reports. But, if this evidence was presented in a court of law, Bigfoot would be convicted as existing.
What if a government agency came out as admitted Bigfoot exists. Not just any little rink-dink branch or shop, but a major branch of the Federal Government—The US Army? Recognition from such an authority would surely shake up the skeptics and Nay-Sayers and deserve a closer look?
In 1974, the US Army officially recognized the ape like creature inhabiting the Northwest and Siberia known as Bigfoot. The Army Corps of Engineers devoted a complete page to Bigfoot in their 1974 Washington Environmental Atlas.
In the Atlas, it is revealed the FBI had done major testing on hair samples, and concluded the hair did not come from any human or known animal source. The article did state the FBI could not provide any information on the lab tests. This starts to bring up questions. Was the FBI commanded to delete the reports? Was this the start of the “Bigfoot Cover Up?”
It would be interesting to go back and look at historical files to determine when reporting a Bigfoot sighting became associated with being insane. It seems that in 1974 there was a great deal of interest in Sasquatch at very high levels. Then suddenly it became a sign of “being a few cards short in your deck of cards”.
In the Washington Atlas, it describes Bigfoot as being a very large animal of 8 to 10 feet tall, weighing up to 1000 pounds with feet measuring up to 24 inches long. The width of the footprint is up to 10 inches wide.
Does Bigfoot exist? The Army seems to think so."
Note: Move over BFRO.
It appears that the U.S. Army discovered Bigfoot first :)
- Rob
King Richard III Found in Parking Lot?
The following story comes from MSNBC and Live Science:
"Battle-scarred skeleton may belong to King Richard III
"Battle-scarred skeleton may belong to King Richard III
Cleaved-in skull and other bones found at English dig; DNA tests to be conducted"
A human skeleton with a cleaved skull discovered beneath a
parking lot in England may belong to King Richard III, researchers
announced Wednesday, though they have a long way to go in analyzing the
bones to determine the identity.
The researchers note they are not saying they have found King Richard III's remains, but that they are moving into the next phase of their search, from the field to the laboratory.
"We are clearly very excited, but the university now must subject the findings to rigorous analysis. DNA analysis will take up to 12 weeks," Richard Taylor, the director of corporate affairs at the University of Leicester, told reporters this morning, as recorded in a Twitter tweet.
The remains were hidden within the choir of a medieval church known as Greyfriars, where the English monarch was thought to be buried. Though the location of this church had been lost, historical records suggested that Richard III was buried there upon his death in battle in 1485.
Two skeletons were discovered: A female skeleton that was broken apart at the joints was found in what is believed to be the presbytery of the lost church. The other skeleton, which appears to be an adult male, was found in the church choir and shows signs of trauma to the skull and back before death, which would be consistent with a battle injury, the researchers said.
"A bladed implement appears to have cleaved part of the rear of the skull," according to a University of Leicester statement.
In addition, a barbed metal arrowhead was lodged between the vertebrae of the male skeleton's upper back, Taylor said, adding that the spinal abnormalities suggest the individual had severe scoliosis, though was not a hunchback, as he was portrayed by Shakespeare in the play of the king's name.
Even so, the scoliosis seen in the skeleton would've made the man's right shoulder appear visibly higher than the left one. "This is consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance," according to the university statement.
University of Leicester archaeologists began excavating the parking lot of the Leicester City Council building on Aug. 25, in search of the church and the king's remains. Since then, they have turned up the Franciscan friary, a 17th-century garden thought to hold a memorial to the king and various other artifacts.
On Aug. 31, the dig team applied to the Ministry of Justice for permission to begin exhuming the two skeletons, a process that began on Sept. 4.
"We are hopeful that we will recover DNA from the skeleton," University of Leicester geneticist Turi King said at the briefing, as recorded in a tweet by the university.
The king's tales
King Richard III ruled England two years, from 1483 to 1485, before dying in the Battle of Bosworth Field, part of the War of the Roses, an English civil war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
 | |
| "Men dressed as medieval knights pose for pictures in Leicester on Wednesday, at a site where a skeleton that researchers believe could be King Richard III was found. Researchers from the University of Leicester said they had found a male skeleton with similarities to historical descriptions of Richard, who ruled England between 1483 and his death in battle in 1485. The remains, which are well preserved, are undergoing DNA analysis." |
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