The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

16:10 Dec 15 2008
Times Read: 665




This undated handout picture released on December 15 by WWF Greater Mekong Programme shows a Gumprechts green pitviper found in Thailand. Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region in the past decade, including a spider as big as a dinner plate, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday









BANGKOK (AFP) – Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region in the past decade, including a spider as big as a dinner plate, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday.



A rat thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago and a cyanide-laced, shocking pink millipede were among creatures found in what the group called a "biological treasure trove".



The species were all found in the rainforests and wetlands along the Mekong River, which flows through Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.



"It doesn't get any better than this," Stuart Chapman, director of WWF's Greater Mekong Programme, was quoted as saying in a statement by the group.



"We thought discoveries of this scale were confined to the history books."



The WWF report, "First Contact in the Greater Mekong", said that "between 1997 and 2007, at least 1,068 have been officially described by science as being newly discovered species."



These included the world's largest huntsman spider, with a leg span of 30 centimetres (11.8 inches), and the "startlingly" coloured "dragon millipede", which produces the deadly compound cyanide.



Not all species were found hiding in remote jungles -- the Laotian rock rat, which the study said was thought to be extinct about 11 million years ago, was first encountered by scientists in a local food market in 2005, it said.



One species of pitviper was first noted by scientists after it was found in the rafters of a restaurant at the headquarters of Thailand's Khao Yai national park in 2001.



"This region is like what I read about as a child in the stories of Charles Darwin," said Dr Thomas Ziegler, curator at the Cologne Zoo, who was involved in the research.



"It is a great feeling being in an unexplored area and to document its biodiversity for the first time both enigmatic and beautiful," he said.



The new species highlighted in the report include 519 plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, four birds, four turtles, two salamanders and a toad -- an average of two previously undiscovered species a week for the past 10 years.



The report warned, however, that many of the species could be at risk from development, and called for a cross-border agreement between the countries in the Greater Mekong area to protect it.







Laotian rock rat

01:39 Dec 12 2008
Times Read: 672

Needle Sized Art Very incredible story! Not only is this mans art cool but he got a ton of cash for it!

Wrapping Presents with a Cat
02:07 Dec 11 2008
Times Read: 677

Wrapping Presents with a Cat



1. Clear large space on table for wrapping present.



2. Go to closet and collect bag in which present is contained, and shut door.



3. Open door and remove cat from closet.



4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.



5. Go back and remove cat from cupboard.



6. Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors, labels, etc. . .



7. Lay out presents and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping strategy to be formed.



8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove cat that has been in the drawer since last visit and collect string.



9. Remove present from bag.



10. Remove cat from bag.



11. Open box to check present, remove cat from box, replace present.



12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.



13. Try and smooth out paper, realize cat is underneath and remove cat.



14. Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.



15. Throw away first sheet as cat chased the scissors, and tore the paper.



16. Cut second sheet of paper to size - by putting cat in the bag the present came in.



17. Place present on paper.



18. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don't reach. Realize cat is between present and paper. Remove cat.



19. Place object on paper, to hold in place while tearing transparent sticky tape.



20. Spend 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from cat with pair of nail scissors.



21. Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.



22. Look for roll of ribbon. Chase cat down hall in order to retrieve ribbon.



23. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.



24. Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to cat's enthusiastic ribbon chase.



25. Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.



26. Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right size for sheet of paper.



27. Put present in box, and tie down with string.



28. Remove string, open box and remove cat.



29. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for locked room.



30. Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to relay out paper and materials.



31. Remove cat from box, unlock door, put cat outside door, close and relock.



32. Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear cat from outside door)



33. Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small area of the toilet, but do your best)



34. Discover cat has already torn paper. Unlock door go out and hunt through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year's paper. Remember that you haven't got any left because cat helped with this last year as well.



35. Return to lockable room, lock door, and sit on toilet and try to make torn sheet of paper look presentable.



36. Seal box, wrap with paper and repair by very carefully sealing with sticky tape. Tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst areas.



37. Label. Sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulate yourself on completing a difficult job.



38. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to make drink and feed cat.



39. Spend 15 minutes looking for cat until coming to obvious conclusion.



40. Unwrap present, untie box and remove cat.



41. Go to store and buy a gift bag

The Exorcism of Emily Rose
13:12 Dec 08 2008
Times Read: 683

I watched this movie again for the 3 or 4th time yesterday and there are many with different opinions on the subject but its awesome intertainment to me..... and this move still creeps me out.....i have read the story of the real gril in Germany... and listened to the recordings.....

Jack the Ripper
04:47 Dec 02 2008
Times Read: 724








Jack the Ripper is an alias given to an unidentified serial killer[1] active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. The name originated in a letter sent to the London Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer.



The victims were women allegedly earning income as prostitutes, who were killed in public or semi-public places at night or in the early morning. Each victim's throat was cut, after which her body was mutilated. Theories suggest that the victims first were strangled, in order to silence them, which may explain the reported lack of blood at the crime scenes. The removal of internal organs from three of the victims led some officials at the time of the murders to propose that the killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.[2]



Newspapers, whose circulation had been growing during this era,[3] bestowed widespread and enduring notoriety on the killer because of the attacks' savagery and the police's failure to capture the murderer (they sometimes missed him at the crime scenes by mere minutes).[4][5]



Because the killer's identity has never been confirmed, the legends surrounding the murders have become a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. Many authors, historians, and amateur detectives have proposed theories about the identity of the killer and his victims.



*HIS VICTIMS*



*Mary Ann Nichols (nickname, "Polly"), born 26 August 1845, killed Friday 31 August 1888. Her body was discovered by a man called Charles Cross at about 3:40 A.M. on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row (now Durward Street), a back street in Whitechapel 200 yards from the London Hospital. Her throat was severed deeply by two cuts; the lower part of the abdomen was partly ripped open by a deep, jagged wound. There also were several incisions running across the abdomen, and three or four similar cuts on the right side caused by the same knife used violently and downwards. Nichols was described as looking some years younger than her 43 years.





*Annie Chapman* (maiden name, Eliza Ann Smith; nickname, "Dark Annie"), born c. September 1841, killed Saturday 8 September 1888. Her body was discovered about 6 A.M., lying on the ground near a doorway in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Like Mary Ann Nichols's, her throat was severed by two cuts, one deeper than the other. The abdomen was ripped entirely open and the uterus was removed. She was 47, in poor health, and destitute.





*Elizabeth Stride *(nickname, "Long Liz"), born 27 November 1843 in Sweden, killed Sunday 30 September 1888. Her body was discovered about 1 A.M., lying on the ground in Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street (now Henriques Street) in Whitechapel. There was one clear-cut incision on the neck; the cause of death was massive blood loss from the nearly severed main artery on the left side. The cut through the tissues on the right side was more superficial, and tapered off below the right jaw. That there also were no mutilations to the abdomen has left some uncertainty about the identity of Elizabeth's murderer.





*Catherine Eddowes* (used the aliases "Kate Conway" and "Mary Ann Kelly," from the surnames of her two common-law husbands, Thomas Conway and John Kelly), born 14 April 1842, killed Sunday 30 September 1888 (the same day as the previous victim, Elizabeth Stride). Her body was found in Mitre Square, in the City of London. The throat was, as in the former two cases, severed by two cuts; the abdomen was ripped open by a long, deep, jagged wound. The left kidney and the major part of the uterus had been removed. She was 46.





*Mary Jane Kelly* (called herself "Marie Jeanette Kelly" after a trip to Paris; nickname, "Ginger"); reportedly born c. 1863 in the city of Limerick or in County Limerick, Munster, Ireland; killed Friday 9 November 1888. Her gruesomely mutilated body was discovered shortly after 10:45 A.M., lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields. Her throat had been severed down to the spine, and her abdomen virtually emptied of its organs. Her heart was missing. The crime location is now a service road for offices and an NCP car park.[9] She was about 25.