Archaeologists find vampire grave site in Poland
Archaeologists in Poland say they have discovered a grave filled with the skeletons of apparent accused vampires. Jacek Pierzak, one of the archaeologists, said the skeletons found at a construction site near the town of Gliwice had their heads removed and placed atop their legs, a practice common in Slavic regions when the deceased were accused of vampirism.
The accused vampires would sometimes be decapitated and would other times be hanged until decomposition separated the head from the body, historians say. The heads would be placed atop the legs to make it more difficult for the alleged undead to locate if they rose from the grave, they say. (UPI)
Man ends running streak after 45 years
A California man said he has decided to end his 45-year streak of running at least a mile each day after reaching a total 16,437 days.
Mark Covert, 62, said last Tuesday, the 45th anniversary of when his streak began, is the day he chose to round the track at Marauders Stadium in lancaster for the last mile — plus a little extra — of his long streak of runs on consecutive days.
“Nobody thinks they’re going to run a year (consecutively), let alone 40 or 45,” Covert said. “I never thought anything like this was going to happen, but I’m so thankful for all the support I’ve received.”
Covert’s friend Jon Sutherland, 62, said the occasion is bittersweet, as his own streak is only 307 days behind Covert’s. Sutherland also said that he would chase Covert’s record. (UPI)
Geese Police Fighting Crime In China
Birds of a feather fight crime together. Officials in rural parts of the China’s Xinjiang province are using domesticated geese to aid in law enforcement.
Apparently, the geese are more effective than dogs for a variety of reasons: They’re aggressive, have exceptional eyesight, and, as anyone who has had to deal with them knows, they’re loud and nothing can shut them up, SmartPlanet.com reported. “Among all poultry, geese (are known) for being extremely vigilant and having excellent hearing,” said Zhang Quansheng, a police chief in Xinjiang’s Shawan county. “Geese are very brave. They spread their wings and will attack any strangers entering (someone’s) home.”
In one case, some of the crime-fighting geese helped nab a suspect who broke into a police headquarters, drugged the police dogs and stole a motorbike.This isn’t the first time a country has employed geese to do its dirty work.Geese were credited with helping Rome fight the Gaul invasion in 390 BC and, in 1986, the US military employed 900 geese to guard military installations in West Germany. (Huffington Post)
Mini-cow born at a farm looks like a panda bear
John Bartheld has been breeding miniature cows on his farm for seven years, hoping to recreate black and white markings in the pattern of a panda to make a “panda cow.” He succeeded on June 28 when Peanut was born. From most angles, Peanut looks like the endangered Chinese bear with a big belt of white fur, a white face and black hair around the eyes.
Peanut never strays far from his mom, Midget, who was artificially inseminated. Another panda cow born July 3, a half-sister named Star, has similar markings, but not as well-defined. Peanut is different and he knows it, Bartheld said. “Peanut knew he was a superstar. It’s just the weirdest thing. I’ve never raised anything with this attitude — like he was born Tom Selleck,” Bartheld said. (AP)
Sandra Bullock’s bizarre ‘Gravity’ shoot
When Alfonso Cuarón set out to make his film, Gravity, he knew capturing the scenes of astronauts floating through space would need the use of new technology.
And for Sandra Bullock, that meant spending 10 hours a day locked in a 9x9-ft cube that kept her isolated from her fellow cast members, and the world. Furthermore, inside the cube, she was strapped in a harness that kept her largely immobile. For comparison, the average prison cell measures 8x6 ft. “There was no improvising. The physical part was so scary,” Bullock said of her experience during an appearance in support of the upcoming film at Comic-Con. Not only was Bullock locked inside the cube during filming, but Cuarón used a special camera that would rush toward Bullock’s face at 25 mph, stopping only about an inch from her face, according to producer David Heyman. And because she was strapped in place inside the cube, there was no way for her to move out of the camera’s way should something go wrong. The film crew created the cube to capture footage that would accurately simulate the look of an astronaut floating through the darkness of space. Bullock spent so much time hidden away inside the cube that she and the crew had to come up with creative ways to help keep her from going stir-crazy. (Yahoo News)