New Zealand UFO video Explained?

The New Zealand Defense Force has released thousands of files of UFO sightings. The files conclude that there are normal, explainable explanations for UFO's. For example, The New Zealand Defense Force's UFO; investigators took a look at the 1978 video of a UFO sighting and; concluded that it was either the image of Venus or of light waves. See the video and see for yourself how much sense that explanation makes.

New Zealand has also released reports of alien sightings by eye-witnesses, whom tell of aliens with big shoe sizes, and tell other bizarre stories. The emphasis put on these stories is to say, in so many words, these are unbelievable tales, like it's an joke, ya'll. You are meant to chuckle.

Governments around the world all do the "We don't believe in no stinking UFO" dance, and the "Only morons believe in UFO" shuffle. Well, why are government so quick to dismiss UFO's? Could it be that it is a coordinated effort? But directed by whom?

Also, some people who are quick to believe in the existence of God, are even quicker to dismiss UFO's, for the reason that they haven't seen any credible alien sightings, why? There haven't been any God sightings lately. While UFO's are popping up in the skies all over the place. Could there be a plot afoot to keep the people of the world in the dark?

Big Brother: Stating the Obvious

The "Big Brother" episode of "Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura" is the most dispiriting I've seen so far.  Because, well, it's all true.  Every claim the show makes is easily verified, by legitimate sources.  Most of it is stuff you have probably read about in the newspapers.  The rest is easy to look up with a quick bit of Googling.

Are grocery stores maintaining vast data mining troves of information based on your purchase, as recorded by your grocery store swipe card?  Yes.  Is there a new RFID-enhanced driver's license being offered for people traveling across the Canadian and Mexican borders, which can easily be scanned by anyone in range with the right equipment?  Yes.  Is the federal government providing funds for installing CCTV camera networks into cities and towns across America?  Yes.

The PATRIOT Act, which was enacted in the wake of 9/11, gave the government unprecedented access to our private lives.  (It also incidentally created a cash cow for any security-minded business that could finagle its way into a military clearance.)

The sad truth is that we live in a dystopian future.  The real question is, so what?  What's the action item? "Raising awareness" is all fine and good, I suppose, but at a certain point it becomes futile.  (I feel the same way about "breast cancer awareness.")  But short of a "Fight Club/blow up the credit network" scenario, I really don't know what we're supposed to do.

The only real debate here is what it means, and to what extent we're comfortable with this situation.  I personally tend to side with Ventura on this, who leans towards freedom on the "security versus freedom" equation.  (Admittedly Ventura may lean a little too far out there; he mentions in the episode that he refuses to carry a cell phone or buy a car with the OnStar system, so that "they" can't track his movements.)

The big question this meets with is, "So what?"  Safeway has a record of every single purchase I have ever made with a Safeway card… so what?  But if the information exists, it can be sold and abused.  One guest on the show spins a hypothetical scenario where Safeway decides to sell their information to the health insurance companies.  Next thing you know, your health insurance policy is being canceled because you buy too much junk food at the grocery store.  Frankly, this scenario sounds pretty plausible to me.
As with most "Conspiracy Theory" episodes, this one goes off the rails about halfway through and starts bulldogging a somewhat random tangent.  In this case it's InfraGard, which is a coalition of private businesses and corporations which have been essentially deputized by the FBI. 

InfraGard is an FBI program which began in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombings.  Officially described as "A collaboration for infrastructure protection," InfraGard is problematic enough that the ACLU has publicly announced its concerns with the program.  InfraGard essentially turns private corporations into, in the ACLU's words, " surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI."  In exchange, they are rewarded with earlier access to private information and security warnings, as well as with the power that comes from being part of an elect, yet officially-sanctioned, secret society. 

You can't even really call InfraGard a "conspiracy," because the word connotes secrecy.  InfaGard's mandate isn't a secret; it's right there on their website.

Photo credit: Flickr/Cail Young

The "Global Warming Conspiracy"?

So let me ask you something: do you believe that climate change is "The most serious threat to the planet, or a plot to cheat, extort, and control you and everyone else?"  That is the question posed by former governor Jesse Ventura in this episode of "Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura."

This episode is actually juggling two issues, and it juggles them poorly:
Issue #1: is climate change real?
Issue #2: Are unscrupulous people profiting off climate change, and climate change fears?

I'm sure that you, being a perfectly sane and rational person, can see that these two issues are almost completely unrelated.  The same apparently cannot be said for Jesse Ventura and his team, because they switch back and forth between these two questions without any transition. 

Ventura's proposition is that climate change (he keeps calling it "global warming" but the appropriate term is "climate change" so that is what I will use) is an excuse to make money and control the world. 

A lot of this perception rests on the shoulders of Cap and Trade, and the way that companies can buy carbon credits as a "permission slip to pollute."  Frankly, I think Ventura has a point here.  A lot of progressives and lefties are against Cap and trade for that very reason: it lets companies continue to pollute. 

After going after a lot of random targets, Ventura narrows in on Maurice Strong, an oil billionaire in charge of trading carbon credits, linked to the UN "oil-for-food scandal."  Strong now lives in Beijing, where many "shadowy sources" claim he is working towards establishing a world government to override the industrialized nations

Ventura fails to explain how a climate change conspiracy is going to "control our lives."  Instead, he does an awful lot of yelling.  He is the bull in the climatology lab.  It's easy to understand Ventura, much easier than it is to understand words like "anthropogenic," much less the science behind climate change.  I get the feeling Ventura is the kind of guy who substitutes volume - which is to say, the force of his personality - for a persuasive argument.


If you ask me, is climate change real, I will say yes, beyond a doubt.  If you ask me, are people using climate change as a cash grab, I will also say yes, beyond a doubt.  But just because unscrupulous people are using climate change fears to manipulate the situation and make a ton of money, that doesn't invalidate climate change itself. 

People like Maurice Strong are doing the equivalent of standing on the slowly tilting decks of the Titanic, selling life preservers for $5,000 apiece.  It's unconscionable and greedy, but it doesn't mean the Titanic isn't sinking.  (In fact it's probably a good sign of the exact opposite, because they can leverage the truth.) 

At the end, the episode devolves into a One World Bank, All World Government, World Currency, Jewish banking conspiracy muddle that I frankly tuned out.  Spoiler alert: it ends with talk about the Euro as a conspiracy, and B roll of a dog herding sheep.  (Wha?)

It's funny how all these crazy conspiracies always end up back in the U.N.  The episode was on pretty solid footing at the beginning.  It's hard to argue with the proposition that some very rich people are getting even richer off fears of climate change.  But by the time we get to the Rothschilds, it all falls apart.

Jesse Ventura on 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

The thing about 9/11 conspiracy theories is that either nothing could possibly convince you that there was a conspiracy, or nothing could possibly convince you that there wasn't conspiracy.  And never the twain shall meet. 

In this episode of "Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura," the former governor is most decidedly one of the latter.  He sinks his bulldog teeth into the #1 conspiracy theory of the decade: that the World Trade Center buildings were dropped by explosives as an inside job, a "false flag" operation. 

(A false flag operation is if I punch myself in the face, then go to the police and claim that you hit me.)

At their core, conspiracy theories are reassuring in two ways.  First, even though they are usually sinister, they mean that someone is in control.  The other option being the terrifying truth: that reality is a haphazard, chaotic mess, and that no one is steering the ship.  And second, because if I know the "real truth" behind events, then I'm going to feel pretty darn smug about myself.

(Apropos of nothing, have you ever noticed that conspiracy theories are almost exclusively the realm of middle-aged white guys?)

A lot of Ventura's "evidence" rests on the shoulders of a contractor named Mike Bellone, a man who has a somewhat less-than-stellar reputation.  Bellone has spent the last nine years trotting out preposterous claims with no evidence to back them up.  (When he isn't profiting from items which he claims to have excavated from the ruins, like the shoes and glasses of victims.)

Bellone claims to have overheard someone talking about finding the black boxes.  But even if his claims are sincere, there was so much misinformation and confusion happening during the first few months of the clean-up, I don't find it suspicious in the least.  Who knows what the guy saw.  Maybe it was just a paint-striped chunk of metal. 

He also claims to have friends who worked at Logan Airport, and who told Bellone that they had heard calls from the airplane cockpits.  The claim here is that "they" knew that the planes had been hijacked before the planes even left the ground.  The inference being that the government allowed (nay, ordered) the planes to be "hijacked" and flown into the towers.

Ventura keeps asking, "Why didn't anyone find the black boxes from the planes?"  An airplane's black box is sturdy, but it's not magic.  The black boxes were at the heart of the destruction.  It was enough to level entire buildings; why would the black box survive?

Dale Leppard, a crash investigator, attests that he has never once seen an accident site where the boxes had not been recovered.  But just look at what happened.  The buildings melted and collapsed.  It was like an inferno inside the world's biggest garbage compactor.  I'd be shocked if the flight recorders HAD survived, frankly. 

If you listen closely to each person's testimony on the show, what they basically say is "How could this happen?"  Unfortunately, the answer to that is a lot less tidy, and a lot less reassuring, than the idea of a vast government conspiracy. 

Photo credit: Flickr/G A R N E T

Fact Or Faked: Syfy's Best New Show

The Syfy Channel has launched a new paranormal investigation show, and I'm alarmed that they have stuck it in what must be one of the worst possible time slots (10PM Thursday).  "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" deserve to be a headlining show.  Sadly, it has all the earmarks of a show which the Syfy Channel is planning to cancel at its earliest convenience.  (Presumably to make room for more WWE Wrestling.)

You might wonder whether the world needs another paranormal investigation show, in a world where every major Basic Cable channel has one.  (The nadir surely must be Animal Planet's "The Haunted," which focuses on stories where house pets tip off their owners to the presence of ghosts.)

I say: maybe not, but the world needs THIS show.

The idea behind "Fact or Faked" is that the investigators attempt to recreate supposedly paranormal or cryptozoological phenomena, using materials and skills that could reasonably have been used.  Then they evaluate the results.  And by extension - although not always - the claims themselves.

This supposedly simple idea turns out to be surprisingly powerful in action.  You always say "I bet it's just a guy in a suit," but then someone else says "Dude, no way a human could run that fast!" and then you just kind of stare at each other.  But the "Fact or Faked" team actually goes to the location where the (in this case Bigfoot) footage was filmed, sticks a guy in a gorilla suit, and asks him to run across the hillside.

Surprising facts pop out, when they actually try to recreate the footage.  In the case of the Memorial Day Eastern Washington Sasquatch, one anomaly had been explained as "maybe the Sasquatch picked up a baby Sasquatch and set it on his shoulders." 

But it turns out that you can reproduce the "head got bigger" effect precisely by simply pushing the gorilla mask up on your face.  And furthermore, if you have been running across that particular hillside in a gorilla suit, the effect happens right about when you start getting sweaty and out of breath - and needing to push up the mask.

Voila: what was once an uncanny bit of Sasquatch footage suddenly becomes a college student running through a popular state park on a big national holiday as a prank.

The investigators handle their tasks with an admirable combination of zest and fair play.  For the most part, they avoid confronting the filmmakers directly, which is the sensible choice.  It's difficult to discuss the filmmakers without devolving into a meaningless ad hominem attack, so I applaud the investigations where the team restrains themselves on this count.

Cable television - and America as a whole - needs a lot more of this kind of unbiased research.  The Ghost Hunters always say "We're skeptics," but come on.  They totally aren't.  The "Fact or Faked" team is both skeptical and open-minded, and I hope to see more from the show in the future.

(I have only one quibble, which is that every show starts out with a staff meeting where they decide what to investigate.  This offers no value to the viewer, and is tedious besides.  Just cut to the chase, srsly.)

The Woods Are Full Of Cameras

It sounds like the worst sort of paranoid fear-mongering, but it's completely true.  If you go out into the woods in America, the probability is very high that your picture will be taken at least once, by either a trap cam or a stealth video camera.

In 2008, Slate reported that "at any given time, there may be about 10,000 [camera traps] deployed in research projects."  And as Slate notes, "that's just the tip of the iceberg" because as many as 300,000 trap cameras are sold every year, "mostly to hunters."

Even assuming that not all cameras end up being deployed (I'm sure at least some end up still in the box, gathering dust at the bottom of a closet), and that some cameras are destroyed every year (mechanical malfunction, being dropped, being trampled by a rhino, etc) that's still an awful lot of cameras. 

Assuming that every year there is 100% turnover in trap cameras, that's 300,000 trap cameras set up across America.  If they are evenly distributed, that's 6,000 cameras per state.    To put it another way, it's one trap camera for every 12 square miles of American soil.  At a bare minimum!

Who is setting out these cameras?  Who's watching you when you're in the woods, if only accidentally?

Scientific Researchers
Trap cameras began as tools of the scientific trade.  They have been invaluable tools for studying the behavior and distribution of animals in the wild.  A trap camera can run for months undisturbed, providing solid data on animals which can be difficult, if not impossible to study. 

Trap cameras have also greatly reduced the overhead for scientific studies.  Instead of putting someone in the field, sitting in a blind day after day, you can simply set up a string of trap cameras.

Hunters
Hunters use trap cameras in exactly the same way, albeit for entirely different reasons.  If you want to bag a trophy buck, you have to find it first.  What better way to locate the best game than to set out trap cameras at hunting areas across the state?  When hunting season approaches, simply gather all your cameras and pick the area with the best buck pictured.

Trap cameras also help hunters determine which game trails are popular, and with what kind of animal.  If you're hunting black bear, you don't want to waste time staking out a trail that's only ever used by deer and squirrels.  And vice versa.

DEA
It's an open secret that as part of the drug war, the DEA monitors who spends time where in our nation's wilderness areas.  A huge amount of pot is being secretly grown in public forests.  If you snap pictures of the same dude walking the same trail every day for a month, chances are he's someone you want to watch a little more closely.  

Border Patrol
Similar to the DEA, the Border Patrol has trap cameras placed throughout the woods along our border with Canada, and across the deserts bordering Mexico.  These trap cameras don't necessarily help them catch the bad guys (who are long gone by the time the Border Patrol retrieves the cameras).  But they do help determine which routes are popular, and thus where the Border Patrol should be concentrating their resources.

Photo credit: Flickr/J.N.Stuart

Flesh-Eating Plants of Texas!

Remember those giant plants in Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs? You know, the one that almost ate Manny and Diego, and Buck, the annoying yet hilarious ferrety-weasel thing had to get them out? It turns out that they’re not the stuff of fairy tales. In fact, there are a few carnivorous plants that sometimes—though rarely, if ever—eat small mammals today, such as the species known as Nepenthes rajah.

Though man-eating plants are said to be cryptozoology legends and nothing more, they technically could exist. Most of the carnivorous plants we know of, however, just eat bugs, such as the Venus Flytrap. So when my little girl asks me if we could ever be eaten by plants, I always say, “Probably not.” Who am I to deny the presence of a real man-eating plant, after all?

That said, flesh-eating plants are fully abundant. Several different species of pitcher plants, which live off the protein of insects, exist in the world. One type of pitcher plant, known as the S. alata, can be found from Texas to the Mississippi. These Southeast pitcher plants are also known as yellow trumpets since they are shaped like trumpets. They are long and tubular, with a hollowed-out center. They thrive in nitrogen-depleted soil by accommodating their diets with—what else?—bugs.

Unlike Venus Flytraps, which capture insects, drain them, and release their empty carcasses when they are finished absorbing their nutrients, pitcher plants actually dissolve their prey. They feature a liquid that contains chemical enzymes that dissolve insects. Their deep tube, which the prey falls into, is therefore known as a pitfall trap. For a pretty amazing peek into this process, click here.

As cool as they are, Southwestern pitcher plants are not the most exotic-looking of all the carnivorous plants. Other pitcher plants, including the Nepenthes and the Cobra lily, are quite gorgeous, and feature red coloring, speckled patterns, and vibrant designs.  Heliamphora chimantensis also feature striking red patterns, though there shapes are similar to the Southwestern pitcher plant. The spiky Drosera capensis, though not a pitcher plant, is a truly remarkable carnivorous organism that catches prey in its moving leaves.

Some carnivorous plants are even normal-looking. The Brocchinia reducta, for example, might sound like an intricate Harry Potter spell, but it’s actually a pretty lackluster carnivorous plant that you wouldn’t suspect. Even the plainest-looking creatures can present a danger in the wild.

HAARP: Not Scary, Just Science

A friend recently recommended a great show to me, "Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory."  It features all the bombast of MonsterQuest, combined with the crazy-ass topics of Coast to Coast.  Add in Jesse Ventura's emphatic personal style, and you have yourself a winner.

The first episode of "Conspiracy Theory" focuses on HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project.  HAARP has been a particular darling of the conspiracy theory set ever since 1995's (self-)publication of "Angels Don't Play This HAARP" by Dr. Nick Begich. 

Begich, who has a Doctorate in Alternative Medicine from a university in Sri Lanka, is one of the headliners in the protest against HAARP.  Governor Ventura also interviews a number of Alaskan citizens, as well as a few "researchers."  They all agree: HAARP is, in one man's words, "some kind of futuristic weapon."

The HAARP antenna array has the bad luck to exist at the point where several somewhat complicated areas overlap.  HAARP is hard science, and a form of hard science that doesn't lend itself well to layman's terms.  As such, it's almost inevitable that people will be fearful and suspicious of the project. 

In the words of a barista in the small Southeast Alaska town where HAARP is based, "You don't study the northern lights for 25 years!  Come on!"

(The fact that, in Ventura's words, "even its neighbors don't know what's going on with HAARP" says more to people's lack of scientific background than anything else.  There's a refinery two miles from my house, but I have only the vaguest idea what happens there.)

The stated purpose of the HAARP array is to investigate the ionosphere, with a particular eye towards manipulating the ionosphere for use as a global communications system and missile detection system.  HAARP is one of the few real-world results from Reagan's crazy-ass Star Wars missile defense proposal, the mostly-fake project which essentially managed to bankrupt the Soviet Union.

The scientific and military applications are both boring and arcane.  Which means that naturally, no one believes them.  After all, which is easier to grasp: "the effect of ionospheric disturbances on GPS satellite signal quality," or "death ray"?

Although Ventura claims that the HAARP array promises "the ability to shoot down aircraft, manipulate nature, and control your mind," the truth (as so often is the case) is much less interesting.  Which isn't to say that the show doesn't make a good go of it. 

One researcher puts some electrical wires into a big glass tube, then fills the tube with a mist or smoke vapor.  When electricity is passed through the wires, the mist moves away from it.  This is an excellent example of the principle of ionization.  In fact, it is exactly how ionizing air filters work - the ionization makes the particles "sticky," and they find themselves drawn to the walls of your home.

However, despite what the researcher asserts, it's a long way from this experiment to creating hurricanes or tsunamis. I can move mist by blowing on it, but if I point a fan up in the air, it ain't gonna make a cyclone.

The Skogsra: Evil Swedish Woodland Spirits

I have been reading "Let Me In" by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, and one of the chapter intros caught my eye.  A brief poem by Viktor Rydberg titled "Skogsgraet."  The word "skogsgra" was left untranslated, with a footnote from the translator defining it as "a beautiful but sinister forest spirit."

Rydberg, a Swedish poet of the mid to late 1800s, wrote of the Skogsra in the same light as Keats wrote of La Belle Dame Sans Merci.  Rydberg's poem "Skogsgraet" tells of a "strong and handsome bachelor" named Bear, who goes hunting in the woods one autumn night.  Bear falls in love with a skogsra which he glimpses on the shore of a moonlit lake, and he is forever ruined. Doomed to a life alone, because he can love only the Skogsra, who he of course can never have.

Sweden has a vast and intricate history of folklore around spirits and the "wee folk."  The skogsra is a forest spirit known for leading men to their death.  (Her male counterpart, the huldra, are responsible for luring women to their death.  No word on whether either spirit is willing to lure same-sex humans to their doom.  Damn those heteronormative forest spirits!)

Although she looks like a beautiful naked woman from the front, from the back she looks like a hollow tree trunk.  In other words, the skogsra is literally a hollow delight ("like so many beautiful women," a more cynical person might say).  She is deceptive as well, with beauty on one side and a terrible emotionless inanimate horror on the other.

This also explains why she is impossible to spot if you are looking for her.  The skogsra need only turn around to essentially become invisible.  She has the perfect camouflage!

The skogsra belongs to a category of beings known as the Hulder.  This is a catch-all term for Swedish woodland spirits.  The etymology of the name links it to the Germanic language, and the German tradition of forest spirits is similarly strong.  Presumably the Hulder emigrated to Sweden from Germany ages ago, presaging the spread of humanity.

The Hulder are protective spirits, described by Wikipedia as "wardens."  They could be fickle, although a small sacrifice or kindness in their name could be enough to win their favor.  Leaving a bit of food or drink out for the Hulder is an excellent way to get on their good side. 

Should you encounter a Hulder, either male or female, be unfailingly polite.  The Hulder appreciate good manners, and have been known to bestow favors upon those who treat them with the appropriate respect. 

While the Hulder may occasionally take a human lover, the children of such unions (who are truly "mixed-race") are said to be unfailingly hideous.  A skogsra will often perform a changeling move, swapping her own ugly baby for the prettier baby of an unsuspecting human couple.

Both the huldra and the skogsra, Lord and Lady of the woods, are still respected in many parts of Scandinavia today.  Local legends which identify certain boulders as being the home of the Hulder have caused Icelandic road crews to divert their road projects, so as not to disturb the Hulder.

Photo credit: Flickr/Marieke Neumann

Vampires Among Us

  Their legends have intrigued us, even terrified us for years. Stories of blood sucking creatures that haunt our villages, stalk our city streets, and steal away the unsuspecting in the middle of the night to satisfy their blood lust. But, how much of these stories are true? How much is simply demonizing what we do not understand and is it possible that there are actually vampires among us?

 

 

The Living Human Vampire:

One thing is certain, there are those among us who identify themselves as vampires who are known as Living Human Vampires but unlike the ravenous, blood thirsty monsters that the media depicts them as, Vampires are very much like most of the people you know. They could be your neighbors, teachers, doctors, professors, or co-workers who are just living out their lives in peace, and often unknown to the rest of the world.


So what is a “Living Human Vampire”?

Real vampires, which sometimes use the spelling vampyre to distinguish themselves from their more legendary counter parts, are simply people who draw energy from others in one form or another. Without acquiring this energy, Vampires can feel run down, have poor appetites, and have reported to suffer from other physical and spiritual problems.

 

Blood Drinkers:

For Sanguine vampires, this energy is taken in the form of blood which they obtain from carefully tested and willing donors. The bloodletting is a safe, almost sacred, practice between consenting adults quite unlike the image of monsters stalking the night or depressed emo kids sitting around cutting themselves. Such stereotypes are merely the product of biased and uneducated writers who do not understand or take the time to research the Vampire Community. Donors are willing, consenting adults who are treated with respect for the vital life that they are sharing with a Vampire.

 

Why Do They Drink Blood?

Vampires require larger amounts of vital energy than other humans, they supplement this lack of energy by drawing it out of the blood that they consume. While we often see some writers who attack the Vampire Community with claims that this is just a fetish, a fantasy, or even a mental disorder, the fact is that Vampires are simply refueling their life's vital energy from other sources much in the same way others will crave red meat when their iron is low. While this may seem like a bizarre, even taboo practice to some, the American practice (almost obsession) of the consumption of beef and pork is also a very bizarre and taboo issue to many other cultures including Hindus and vegetarians. And whether most people realize it or not, they to are consuming blood every time they order a rare steak.

 

Not All Vampires Drink Blood:

There are also Vampires who do not consume blood. Psychic or Elemental Vampires feed upon energy directly by pulling it from humans or other living beings and sources in nature. Much like the succubus of legend, it is this vital energy, referred to as Ch'i (Qui), Ki, or Prana in various Asian cultures, that a Vampire is feeding on; therefore, their donors are not in an danger of being killed in order to feed a Vampire like many movies may portray.

 

The Vampire Community:

Vampires come from various religions, backgrounds, etc. Some are Sanguine Vampires, some are Psychic Vampires, and of course you also have those who are supporters of Vampires or those referred to as Lifestylers who identify with the figure of the noble Vampire as their central archetype but regardless of their specific path or origin they all come together to form a larger, multi-faceted community. The Vampire Community has been growing, evolving over the past few decades and today can offer a wealth of information from community web sites, Houses, books, and events that help both those within the community and those from without to better understand what exactly real Vampires are.

 

Some, like those in the Gothic and Vampire Alliance, are forming small, grassroots organizations to reach out to the mainstream in an attempts to educate the public on the facts and dispel the myths about the Community and to fight for the rights of Vampires and their Gothic cousins. While many members of the Vampire Community still prefer to live in the shadows, with good reason, many others are emerging to speak up for the community that they hold so dear. Vampires can be artists, scholars, bus drivers, even writers, so the next time you are taking the bus, watching a movie, taking a walk on campus, or reading an article....ask yourself if there is a vampire near by? The answer may surprise you.

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