Recently in General News Category

I recently wrote an article speculating on whether Zombies could be real now, or at some point in our future.  And while the evidence might be a little shaky it does show that, given the right circumstances it is possible.

So that got me thinking of what other "mythological" creatures could be real.

I figured, since vampires seem to be all the rage today, I thought I'd look into that.

If you do some digging, you find that Vampires go back hundreds of years.  Not only that, but there are legends speaking of blood sucking creatures spanning many continents and in many countries.

This makes me wonder, then, if there is or was some truth to the vampire legend.  Did vampires actually exist at some point? And if so, do they still exist?

Now for some of the theory behind vampirism:

According to a few sources, there are ways which a person could contract something similar to vampirism.  Whether it is from something as common as Rabies, or something more unique called Porphyria, a rare blood disorder.

According to a Spanish Neurologist, Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, there is a link (however tenuous) showing that some of the side effects of rabies are remarkably similar to what we'd consider to be a vampire.  From susceptibility to garlic and light, to a preference for a nocturnal lifestyle to hypersexuality.  These are all traits known to be associated with vampires.

The link to Porphyria was something which was apparently proposed in 1985 by biochemist David Dolphin, however it was debunked by most of the scientific community.

That's not to say he couldn't be on to something, just that others don't agree.  He surmised that vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem (a form of iron in the blood), and that's why they drank large amounts of blood.

That doesn't explain the other facts we know about vampires, however some of those are addressed by the Rabies hypothesis.

So, knowing that, if someone suffered from Porphyria AND rabies, wouldn't they then have most of the classic indicators of vampirism?

If these 2 conditions could co-exist wouldn't that then mean that someone could be considered a vampire?

Patrick Konopelski, President of the IAHA sent us this, so we thought we'd pass it on:

Greetings,
 
To all our new friends we made at HauntCon, I say welcome.  I'm sure everyone involved agrees it was a huge success.  Leonard and Jeanie Pickle once again did an outstanding job at bringing people in this amazing industry together.  I told Leonard personally he will go down in our industry's history as the person that made it possible for the haunt owner to see other haunts around the country. 
 
Speaking of haunt owners, a huge IAHA thanks to past president Tim Gavinski and his wife Ann Marie for putting together one of the best haunt tours and party this industry has ever seen.  It was a great tour, the food was excellent and the open bar...well what else do I have to say about an open bar!  A special thanks to Wristband Resources for underwriting the party! 
 
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many vendors that donated products and certificates to our very successful auction held at the party.  Please review the list of vendors and their contributions in this Screamzine.  Together we raised almost $7,000 that will go toward our national marketing campaign the will benefit everyone in our industry.  We also kicked off the IAHA Great Hearse Raffle.  Tickets are $10.00 and will be available on our website and at all the conventions for the next year.
 
We also unveiled our IAHA hospitality suite at the hotel.  It was enjoyed by attendees and vendors alike as a place to meet and greet or simply unwind.  The next and final convention for the season is the Midwest Haunters Convention in June.  Hope to see you there!
 

Hi everyone

I just wanted to let you know that if you are a person or business that is hosting an event or otherwise has news to share with everyone else, we will share that information here. You just gotta give us a few days heads up so we can post it.

In other words, don't send us a press release for your event that is happening today because it probably won't get posted.  While we do try to respond to everyone's request, we do get overwhelmed from time to time and it may be a few days before we can get back to you.

Rest assured that we do try to get as much posted as we can, but we just can't share everyone's news all the time.

That being said, if YOU can write what YOU want posted, and like I said it's a few days before the event, or even if it's just of a general nature, then we can probably get it posted for you the way you have it written.

Keep in mind though that it will be rejected if spelling and punctuation aren't correct.  We want to keep at least the semblance that we are intelligent after all ;)

Thanks for all your support, and be sure to check back often as we have tons of stuff in the pipeline for you!

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