A few weeks ago I was given a vintage camera that turned out to have a film hidden inside. On developing, I found the entire roll was dedicated to pictures of an old gravesite.

Who was Edward Langan? Why had he been added to a grave with a man called James Ryan? And why (as the film dates from 1973) is the grave covered in flowers when the pictures were taken several years afer their deaths?

All these questions, and more, answered after the fold.

After a brief insurrection by their blue collar offspring, zombies, vampires have once more regained their prominence as the monster supreme, leaping out at us from every bookshelf, cinema screen and TV set. What better time then for Mark Jenkins to unleash his accomplished study of the bloodsucker legend, Vampire Forensics.

Published through National Geographic Books and accompanied by a television documentary, Vampire Forensics delves into the long history of the vampire, one which began millennia before a certain Bram Stoker set pen to parchment. Drawing upon the latest research in anthropology, archaeology, folklore and history, Jenkins dusts away centuries of revisionism and misconception to reveal the true origins of the myth.

Thanks to Emilia for showing me this awesome post on the Synthgear website which shows what record grooves look like under an electron microscope. Here’s a line of disco magnified 500 times:

Researcher Chris Supranowitz at the University of Rochester’s The Insitute of Optics took the images, one assumes for his own nerdy amusement.
Be sure to check out the full set, which includes an image in eye-popping 3D!