If a vampire must feed on human blood, how long would it take a certain number of vampires to wipe out the human population? And if those human victims then turned to vampires, how soon would vampires outnumber humans? Mathematical modeling turned to the world of the supernatural as a surprising number of researchers have tackled the complexities of human and vampire coexistence. A 1982 paper by Richard Hartl and Alexander Mehlmann titled "The Transylvanian Problem of Renewable Resources" took a look at how vampires would affect the human population.  

In doing so, they divided vampires into three categories: the "asymptotically satiated vampire," the "blood maximizing vampire," and the "unsatiable vampire." Regardless of the type of vampire, though, they found that bloodsuckers can't help but face diminishing resources:

    "[W]e are facing a typical consumption-resource trade off. The vampire society derives utility from consumption of blood but in sucking the blood of a human being and in turning him to a vampire the resource of human beings is reduced whereas the number of vampires is increased. Both of these effects diminish the resource of humans per vampire curtailing future possibilities of consumption."

However, a 2007 article modeled a vampire apocalypse and concluded that “vampires would eliminate humans within three years.” Which provoked a refutation in 2008. More research has been done, but the results vary according to which vampire mythology one ascribes to. Are the vampires in Bram Stoker’s universe more dangerous than those in Anne Rice’s universe? What about the vampires in the worlds of Twilight or The Historian? Read an overview of the available research at Atlas Obscura.

The Captain really likes his tea. Sometimes that causes problems on the Enterprise. This video is actually called "Tea with Jean-Luc, episode 1: Ménage à Tea," which tells us there will be more to come concerning Picard’s relationship with tea.

(YouTube link)

Andrew Hussie and Jan Van dem Hemel made about three dozen amusing vignettes out of old Star Trek: TNG footage in 2009. Six years later, they are reviving the series. You can see the entire collection at YouTube. -via Gamma Squad 

(Image credit: Ukraine Police at Instagram)

The elections in Ukraine are contentious enough between the pro-Russian and anti-Russian factions, but now they’ve gone and arrested Chewbacca! The Wookiee was accompanying mayoral candidate Darth Vader to a polling place. 

The Star Wars character Chewbacca has been dragged before a court in Odessa, in perhaps the most surreal episode in local elections across Ukraine that have been both hotly contested and rife with dirty tricks. The man inside the costume was fined 170 hryvnia (£5) for the “administrative offence” of not being able to produce identification documents.

A statement posted on the official Instagram account of the Ukrainian police read: “Nothing unusual here, just Chewbacca detained for being without documents while driving Darth Vader to the elections in Odessa. The Sith Lord has already claimed this was illegal as Chewbacca is his pet and general servant and thus does not require documents.”

Police had earlier dragged “Chewbacca” from a polling station and put him in a van after accusing him of disrupting proceedings. The person in the costume said he had been there to support Darth Vader, who was attempting to vote.

Chewbacca appeared in court in Odessa today and will be fined $7.50 for being a hilarious person via @HromadskeTV pic.twitter.com/oqaFIbPZFA

— Christian Borys (@ItsBorys) October 26, 2015

Other sources report that the offense was campaigning on election day. This Darth Vader is one of several people who have campaigned under the name while running for office under Ukraine’s Internet Party in the past few years. Some races have included Padme Amidala, Yoda, and Chewbacca. The party is also responsible for the new Darth Vader statue in Odessa.  

These killer snails are no masks, but they are certainly more than makeup. The Swedish duo called ellimacs sfx, which is makeup artist Ellinor Rosander and photographer Macs Moser, go through all the steps of making a pretty model look disgusting for Halloween.

(YouTube link)

The results are truly disturbing. But the process of making it can be disturbing, too, because this is not something you’d just throw together at the last minute. These guys have some skills! -via The Daily Dot, where you’ll also find some simpler Halloween makeup tutorials.

The Pixarist and friends are working on a live-action remake of Toy Story 3. As a part of the project, they recreated Andy’s bedroom from the movie down to the tiniest detail.

When my friends and I began recreating Toy Story 3 in late 2011, we knew that we would have to create a full scale Andy’s room. I mean, let’s face it. You can’t successfully recreate Toy Story 3 without a realistic looking Andy’s room. It took about 2 years of work, but it was totally worth it. It’s the room that most of us grew up wishing we had. From the hardwood floor to the bright white woodwork, it’s all there.

It may sound a bit obsessive, but we tried incredibly hard to make sure that every little detail was captured.

Two years? That’s attention to detail! See more pictures of this project at The Pixarist. -via The A.V. Club

Walt Disney himself supervised the design of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland, and deliberately set out to make it the most spectacular ride ever. It was a major accomplishment that set the standard for experience-based theme park rides ever since. When it opened in 1967, the final cost was $15 million, as much as the rest of the park combined. But no other park ever recreated one of Disneyland’s details: the real skeletons.  

After creating such realistic mayhem, the design team was disappointed by "the faux skeletons of the period," which they found "just too unconvincing," reports former Disney producer Jason Surrell in his book Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies. So they hit up their friends at UCLA Medical Center and got some grisly props from the anatomy department. Eventually, as fake skeleton technology improved, "a new generation of Imagineers" replaced the real ones, which "were later returned to their countries of origin and given a proper burial," assures Surrell.

Or did they? The replacements were done gradually, and rumors still exist about the few skeletons or skulls that remain of the human type. Some people have even identified which ones they are. Read about them at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Flickr user Anna Fox)

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

An inventive, yet under-publicized device
by Marina Tsipis, Improbable Research staff

Zoltan Egeresi of Santa Cruz, California, has invented a kind of anti-hijack contraption that is novel in the commercial airline world. It is less novel in the worlds of novels and movie comedies.

Based on an Uplifting Principle

U.S. patent #7,014,147, granted to Mr. Egeresi on March 21, 2006, gives details in clear, evocative language:

This low cost non lethal Anti Hijacking System is... a last line of defense against a single or team of would be hijackers...

When one or more person is trying to over power the pilots, this anti hijacking system can provide a non-lethal last line of defense. Doors on the cockpit may not be penetration proof. When pilot or flight attendant is confronted with a situation where the pilot’s door is about to be penetrated, a concealed stainless steel net from below the carpet will hoist up all people to the ceiling or simulations side by side winch activation will hold the trapped people by the wall immobilizing them.

See Mr. Egeresi’s Figures 1–5, reproduced here, for a rough idea of how and where the apparatus is meant to be installed in a commercial airliner. The details are instructive. The system includes:

plural winches concealed within the walls of a passenger area of said aircraft, a flexible high strength net located within said passenger area under a floor covering thereof, said net is connected at plural locations by cables concealed in the walls of said passenger area, said cables are connected to said winches and when said winches are activated, the cables pop out of the walls and pull the net from beneath the floor covering to capture and control designated passengers, and these cables have an extreme stop activator to stop winches at least one foot from ceiling when the cables are winched up by the winches.

That’s not all. There are also:

switches for said winches are located in plural locations in a cockpit and in said passenger area of said aircraft, said switches have three positions, up, down and stop, manually controllable by the crew or pilot as they can see when and how to activate said winches.

There are additional features:

said switches individually control respective winches behind the cockpit and when all are activated said net will lift up all people in the net, with selective actuation of fewer winches said net will be lifted up on only one side to trap the people by a wall or keep them further away from the cockpit, or a single winch can lift up said net to separate an area in case several people try to lunge forward at the same time.
 

Hsieh’s Pioneering Trap

Mr. Egeresi was partly inspired by the work of Kuo Cheng Hsieh, of Taichung, Taiwan. Mr. Hsieh was granted U.S. patent #6,219,959, on April 24, 2001, for what he calls a “net trapping system for capturing a robber immediately.”

Humans are evolving, as they always have, it’s just too slow for one, two, or several generations to notice. But the things we do now affect how humans will change in the future. What will humans be like a thousand years from now?

(YouTube link)

We might not follow the natural selection path by reproduction and survival the way it’s been done for millions of years, but there will be changes nevertheless. The environment will have something to do with how we change. And what we do with technology will also affects what we become. Here’s an overview from AsapSCIENCE.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

Hey look! It's time to play a game, from Neatorama and the wonderful What Is It? Blog! Do you know what the object in this picture is? It doesn't really matter if you do, because we are looking for the funniest guesses. You can win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But first, read the rules:

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. You can only win if you haven't already won in the month of October. Two winners who submit funny and/or clever (albeit ultimately wrong) answers will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

If you guess the correct answer, you'll get a big pat on the back. There are more clues about the object at the What Is It? blog. 

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts? Pick your favorite T-shirt and leave it with your comment -and it would help us if you also include the URL or the name of hte artist. Have fun with it, and good luck!

Update: The tool in the picture is still a mystery, as we don’t have a definitive origin or use for it. But that didn’t stop y’all from rampant speculation! We got a funny and timely story from theoneandonly, which is well worth a t-shirt:

This is a classical "semi-automatic Halloween-Pumpkin-hollow-outer".
Cut the upper part of the pumpkin, place the device on the top and turn the handle...
Flip the pumpkin upside down, and all the intestines and seeds will happily splotch your feet.

In a next step you can easiyl place a light in side the now hollow pumpkin and start carving yor favorite monster face or landscape with mountains, lakes and trees wherein every tree needs a frind and no mistakes occur just happly little accidents...

And in case an happly little accident was bad enough so you need another hollowed out pumpkin, with the above "semi-automatic Halloween-Pumpkin-hollow-outer" this is achieved just in notime...

And another great suggestion from Parrot Head:

Donald Trump's hair-teasing comb. 'Nuff said!

Congratulations to both! Thanks to everyone who played along, and thanks to the What Is It? blog. Rob is going traveling again, and we don’t know when he’ll be back. But when that time comes, we’ll have another edition of the What is It? game!  

Marky Mark was a shark in the last ADHD cartoon featuring the movie star. Now he’s a werewolf for Halloween!

(YouTube link)

Mark Werewahlfberg introduces us to all the iconic characters of the season, with plenty of almost-puns that you’ll have to supply the punchline for yourself.  -via Tastefully Offensive

Josh Sundquist is not only a Paralympic athlete, author, dancer, rapper, math nerd, and motivational speaker, he’s also quite well known for his distinctive Halloween costumes, which (almost) always incorporate the fact that he only has one leg. Now Sundquist, who recently got married, has unveiled his 2015 Halloween costume. He is IHOP. -via reddit

See more from Josh Sundquist.

There were around 275 dogs entered into the 2015 Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade on Saturday. Many of them were accompanied by owners who dressed up to match their dog’s Halloween costumes. And there were winners.

The prize was won by some Dallas contestants who tapped into the Halloween spirit with a Day of the Dead-themed presentation that included two Chihuahuas and a Yorkshire terrier. Last year, a doggy version of Rose and Jack from the movie "Titanic" captured the title.

This year, there were all types of dinosaurs, perhaps capitalizing on the excitement generated by the recent release of the "Jurassic World" film, and dogs posing as an alligator, a dragon, a fisherman and characters from "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Flintstones." One dog, accompanied by a woman wearing a nun's habit, was dressed as Pope Francis.

See a gallery of 90 photos from the event at Gothamist. -via Fark

(Images credit: Scott Heins/Gothamist)

This video of a short footrace looks a little strange. They take strangely small steps, and they keep looking over their shoulders. It’s just weird.

(YouTube link)

See, this is a backwards foot race. Everyone is running backwards! But the video has been reversed, so that they start at the finish line and run to the starting line. Meanwhile, the audio is still run in the right direction. Got all that? -via Digg

Harper Lee’s bestselling novel To Kill a Mockingbird was made into a movie released 55 years ago. It still holds up, and made us all wish Gregory Peck was our father (or husband, as the case may be). Maybe it’s time we learned some of the negotiations and personalities bend the film.   

1. ROCK HUDSON ALMOST PLAYED ATTICUS FINCH.

Universal Pictures offered the role to Rock Hudson when the project was first being developed, and the actor was prepared to take it. Things stalled, however, when the film's producer, Alan J. Pakula, wanted an even bigger star: Gregory Peck. Universal basically said, "Well, sure! If you can get Gregory Peck, we'll not only agree to it, we'll finance the movie!" And that's what happened. Sorry, Rock.

4. THEY COULDN'T SHOOT ON LOCATION BECAUSE THE REAL TOWN HAD BECOME MODERNIZED.

Lee based the novel's fiction town of Maycomb, Alabama on her own experiences growing up in Monroeville, Alabama during the Depression, with a lawyer father who had (unsuccessfully) defended two black men against rape charges. Peck, Pakula, and a small crew visited Monroeville to do some research, and to see if they could make the movie there. They found the town as charming and welcoming as they'd hoped, but it no longer bore much physical resemblance to the way it had looked 30 years earlier. That was disappointing for the filmmakers, but probably a good sign for the locals. (Imagine how sad it would be for a town in 1961 to look like it was still in the midst of the Depression.)

There’s lots more to learn about the making of To Kill a Mockingbird in a trivia list at mental_floss.

The following is an article from Uncle John’s All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.

With the single possible exception of Sherlock Holmes, film historian David Skal writes, “Dracula has been depicted in film more times than almost any fictional being.” Here’s a look at some of the more unusual vampire movies that have been made.

Haunted Cop Shop (1984)
“When vampires invade a meat-packing plant, the elite Monster Police Squad is brought in to stop them. When the squad botches the job, the Police Commissioner bumps them down to foot patrol until the vampires attack the county hospital. Impressive special effects.” (The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide)

The full movie is available at YouTube, in Chinese with no subtitles.

Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Thumb vs. the Monsters (1960)
“Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Thumb fight a vampire and a witch in a haunted forest! One of three Hood movies made the same year in Mexico and shipped up here like clockwork in the mid-60s to warp the minds of little kids whose parents wanted to go Christmas shopping.” (The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film)

The full movie is available at YouTube.

Planet of the Vampires (1965)
“Some astronauts crash land on a strange planet where the undead kill the living, only to discover that the alien-possessed vampiric survivors are preparing to land on another alien world- Earth!” (The Essential Monster Movie Guide)

The full movie is available at YouTube.

The Devil Bat (1940)