M.J. Rose

Meet Count Vlad of the Order of The Dragon: The man on whom the legend of Dracula is based.

‘Dracula’s tomb’ discovered in Italy

Esma ÇAKIR – ROME / Do?an News Agency

Estonian researchers believe they may have finally discovered the whereabouts of “Dracula’s” grave, which is in Italy and not the Romanian Transylvanian Alps as first thought.

The inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel “Dracula” is thought to be Vlad III, the 15th century Prince of Wallachia in Eastern Europe. Known posthumously as Vlad the Impaler, the ruler was known for his brand of cruelty across Europe, which included impaling his enemies.

Vlad’s ultimate enemy were the Ottomans. Depictions of his endless cruelty made history books, securing his reputation as one of the biggest villains in Turkey’s collective consciousness, as written by Emrah Güler of the Hürriyet Daily News in 2012. Vlad’s story was also converted into a ballet last year in Turkey.

Born in 1431, Count Vlad Tepes was part of a noble family who belonged to the Order of the Dragon, a group that was founded as a means of protecting Christianity in Eastern Europe from Ottoman expansion. His father was nicknamed Dracul, meaning “Dragon,” so the young Vlad became known as Dracula, or “son of Dragon.”…

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Our imaginations soared when we read this line: “What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a ‘Lord of the Rings’-type world”…

Ancient Humans Bred with Completely Unknown Species (Ancient Origins)

“A new study presented to the Royal Society meeting on ancient DNA in London last week has revealed a dramatic finding – the genome of one of our ancient ancestors, the Denisovans, contains a segment of DNA that seems to have come from another species that is currently unknown to science. The discovery suggests that there was rampant interbreeding between ancient human species in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago. But, far more significant was the finding that they also mated with a mystery species from Asia – one that is neither human nor Neanderthal.

Scientists launched into a flurry of discussion and debate upon hearing the study results and immediately began speculating about what this unknown species could be. Some have suggested that a group may have branched off to Asia from the Homo heidelbernensis, who resided in Africa about half a million years ago. They are believed to be the ancestors of Europe’s Neanderthals.

However others, such as Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the London Natural History Museum, admitted that they “don’t have the faintest idea” what the mystery species could be…”

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An eerie and wonderful animation from 1917 – feast your eyes!

A fairy brings two dolls to life, part of a short lived stop-motion puppet series by animator Howard S. Moss, adapted from a series of books entitled Motoys in Life published by Toyland Publishing Company. Origin of American animation 1900-1921 describes the film as “Alice in Wonderland meets the Garden of Eden… [a] surreal fable of a drunk rabbit, bowling dwarfs, and the two bewildered girls of the title.” (The Public Domain Review)