In many respects, the vampire of today is far removed from its roots in Eastern European folklore. As a professor of Slavic studies who has taught a course on vampires called “Dracula” for more than a decade, I’m always fascinated by the vampire’s popularity, considering its origins—as a demonic creature strongly associated with disease.
The first known reference to vampires appeared in written form in Old Russian in 1047, soon after Orthodox Christianity moved into Eastern Europe. The term for vampire was upir, which has uncertain origins, but its possible literal meaning was “the thing at the feast or sacrifice,” referring to a potentially dangerous spiritual entity that people believed could appear at rituals for the dead. It was a euphemism used to avoid speaking the creature’s name—and unfortunately, historians may never learn its real name, or even when beliefs about it surfaced.
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Scholars have put forth several theories about various diseases’ connections to vampires. It is likely that no one disease provides a simple, “pure” origin for vampire myths, since beliefs about vampires changed over time. But two in particular show solid links. One is rabies, whose name comes from a Latin term for “madness.” It’s one of the oldest recognized diseases on the planet, transmissible from animals to humans, and primarily spread through biting—an obvious reference to a classic vampire trait.
Departure Mono is a monospaced pixel font inspired by the constraints of early command-line and graphical user interfaces, the tiny pixel fonts of the late 90s/early 00s, and sci-fi concepts from film and television.
The New York Times interviewed Pepe Mujica [archived], Uruguay’s former president. The notable anti-capitalist spoke about his cancer and why he thinks humanity is doomed:
We waste a lot of time uselessly. We can live more peacefully. Take Uruguay. Uruguay has 3.5 million people. It imports 27 million pairs of shoes. We make garbage and work in pain. For what?
You’re free when you escape the law of necessity — when you spend the time of your life on what you desire. If your needs multiply, you spend your life covering those needs.
Humans can create infinite needs. The market dominates us, and it robs us of our lives.
Humanity needs to work less, have more free time and be more grounded. Why so much garbage? Why do you have to change your car? Change the refrigerator?
There is only one life and it ends. You have to give meaning to it. Fight for happiness, not just for wealth.
Making pixel art for a Nokia phone | Nokia Art Jam 2
Brandon James Greer is a pixel artist and the video above shows some of the pieces he did for a Nokia Art Jam a few months ago. The idea was to create art that would adhered to certain criteria:
96x65px
1:1 pixel ratio
True black and white (#000000 & #FFFFFF)
The optional theme is “lost games for the Nokia 3410”
PNG format
Please keep the artwork “family friendly”
Obviously, no AI images, thanks. NOKIA is an anagram of “NO AI, K?”
Needless to say, Brandon understood the assignment and made some really cool stuff which sent me back to the early 00s.
Kat Tsai is a Taiwanese-American artist who specialises in colourful, atmospheric illustrations. If the style looks familiar, you’ll be pleased to know that she worked as a Visual Development artist at Sony Pictures Animation on Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse. Her media work also includes K-Pop: Demon Hunters, Steven Universe Future, and the Cyberpunk 2077 Cover for Playstation Magazine in 2020.
I love the colours so much. Every piece has such a wide gamut of hues: reds and oranges pop, pinks and blues are soothing, the contrasts are strong but not too harsh on the eye.
The Kingston Negroni is a cocktail made with equal parts rum, sweet vermouth, and Campari, usually served over ice (or “on the rocks”), and garnished with a twisted orange peel. The difference between a standard Negroni and a Kingston Negroni is Jamaican-style rum in place of gin.
The drink originated in 2009 when Joaquín Simó made the concoction for Eric Seed, a spirits importer.1
Ingredients
1 oz (30 ml) Jamaican rum (Smith & Cross is recommended)
1 oz (30 ml) Campari
1 oz (30 ml) sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica is recommended)
Scientists at the University of California at Davis are attempting to reengineer the microbes in cows’ stomachs to produce less methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas released by the animals that contributes about 4% of global warming.
Using tools that snip and transfer DNA, researchers plan to genetically engineer microbes in the cow stomach to eliminate those emissions. If they succeed, they could wipe out the world’s largest human-made source of methane and help change the trajectory of planetary warming.
Jesus. I think my favourite quotes from the Onion’s piece were from “Michelle Brogan”:
“Well, it’s easier than getting cows to reduce how often they fly.”
And “Suraj Faruq”:
“Sure, what’s one more indignity?”
Rich people can rest easy—the cows will give up their lives and genomes to save the planet!
For the last 13 years, Stirling has been posting videos ripped from a mountain of old VHS and Betamax tapes he’s acquired and uploading them to YouTube under his moniker, Betamax King.
“This is a treasure hunt first and foremost,” he said on a recent afternoon in the basement where he does this work. “Every time you put in a tape you don’t know what it is.”
He sources the tapes in a few different ways: by cutting deals with some thrift stores, posting ads online, and visiting yard sales. Because of copyright concerns, Stirling doesn’t monetize his channel like many other YouTubers.
I follow a few of these kinds of accounts—mostly UK-focused—and they’re like a salve for the soul. You get to relive some memories and “create” new ones in a different time and space.
Fancy a trip back to the 90s? Interested in tarot cards? Then you might like Jude’s World, a tarot-based journaling game by Button Kin Games:
You’ll take on the role of Jude – a 12-year-old who’s desperate to grow up and certain that they’ll do a better job of it than their parents. Jude just found out their parents, Mika and Jamie, are getting a dreaded divorce and they are NOT inclined to take it lightly. Steer your version of our protagonist through a complicated time in their and unleash your inner grumpy almost-teenager, if only for a little while!
The Kickstarter is live until 12th September and it’s very close to meeting its goal (at the time of writing) so consider pledging if this sounds like your kinda carry on.
Paul Lewin is a Jamaican-born artist who currently lives in Miami, Florida. The above piece, called “Nanny and the Pumpkin Seeds”, was inspired by the Jamaican folktale of Queen Nanny and the pumpkin seeds:
[…] She is one of my favorite characters from Caribbean folklore and is Jamaica’s only female national hero. She was leader of the winward maroon tribe, a group africans who escaped slavery into the mountains of Jamaica and practiced guerrilla warfare on British plantations.
There’s a meme going around of surprisingly recently invented foods but rather than posting it and having to rewrite what’s on it for accessibility, here’s a list of 10 foods [archived] (the writer also “stole” the idea from a tweet). Here are the ones that surprised me the most:
4. Kiwi fruit. The fruit formerly known as Chinese gooseberries. Thanks to Ron White. Renamed by Turners & Growers in 1974, said Shiwon, whose father was involved. “It was renamed because of racism – we couldn’t sell it to the Americans with Chinese in the name. T&G forgot to trademark it though.”
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6. Salmon sushi. Norwegians persuaded the Japanese to solve their salmon glut in the 1980s by eating raw salmon, which was previously unheard of. Nominated by Aaron Barnes and Matt Webster.
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At a tangent: Fanta is Nazi Coke, or anti-Nazi Coke. It is what Coca-Cola plants in Nazi Germany made, keeping the profits away from the party, according to Laura McInerney and Mr Chipping.
Yep, that bit about Fanta is true. And it wasn’t originally orange-flavoured—just fruit-flavoured:
[…] The current formulation of Fanta, with orange flavor, was developed in Italy in 1955.
And it’s had 11 logos?! Sorry, that’s a tangent of a tangent. We’re all learning something new today!
‘Den de payment comes, an we have some fun, Me, Zekiel, Breda and Duppy Son. Down at de bar near United Wharf We knock back a white rum, bus a laugh, Fill de empty bag for further toil Wid saltfish, breadfruit, coconut oil. Den head back home to m’yard to sleep, A proper sleep dat is long an deep. Yes, by God, an m’big right han I will live an die a banana man.
Excerpt from “The Song of the Banana Man” by Evan Jones
The Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 is a treaty that aims to unified how the Portuguese language is written in countries where Portuguese is the official language. It was signed in Lisbon in 1990 and the signatories included representatives from all Portuguese-speaking countries. Unfortunately, only three of the nine countries (all part of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, or CPLP) have followed the agreement as of 2024 (Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde).
