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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Lore about vampires and other blood-drinking beings has existed for centuries.</li><li>For hundreds of years, people have been coming up with scientific explanations.</li></ul><p>In the early 1700s, a series of unusual events kicked off a "<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369848612000313" target="_blank" rel="noopener">media sensation</a>" about vampires. One physician <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cambridge_Companion_to_Dracula/-sg-DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=%22magical+plague+has+been+rampant%22&amp;pg=PA15&amp;printsec=frontcover" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> a "magical plague" in Serbia where "perfectly normal <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ways-villagers-buried-vampires-to-stop-rising-from-dead-2023-8">buried dead are arising</a> from their undisturbed graves to kill the living."</p><p>Articles and books on these vampire attacks soon appeared in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London. </p><p>There was skepticism, but some observers <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3814375" target="_blank" rel="noopener">treated the</a> phenomenon of vampires almost scientifically. They noted eye-witness accounts of how the bodies looked and the evidence that the deceased had been harassing or murdering others. </p><p>Was this a magical plague or a more typical one? Vampires were very real to people in the past, but there are many ways science can explain their characteristics, whether they come from folklore or fiction.</p><h2>What is a vampire? </h2><p>There are blood-drinking creatures hailing from many countries' folklore, dating back <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv6gqxp2?" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thousands of years</a>. But many modern notions of vampires started with the 1700s media frenzy and continued with "Dracula" and other tales.</p><p>According to many Slavic traditions, a vampire is an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1982.00108.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">undead being</a> that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/archaeologists-find-vampire-child-padlocked-in-polish-graveyard-2023-8">rises from the grave</a> to drink blood and take its life force from the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2709546" target="_blank" rel="noopener">living</a>. The vampire's victims might then become undead themselves.</p><p>There were also many other ways to make a vampire. </p><div type="image" title="An illustration of several people digging up a coffin" height="1500" width="2000" msid="104608080" hostid="261"></div><p>People who were murdered or died by suicide or of the plague might become vampires. Supernatural beings, like <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1nq6gm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">witches and werewolves</a>, were also candidates. Those who misused alcohol or were seen as disreputable could come back from the grave. </p><p>Someone could also be born a vampire. In Romania, the seventh child was susceptible to vampirism. Babies who were <a href="https://www.insider.com/baby-born-with-second-mouth-extra-teeth-tongue-surgically-removed-2020-6">born with teeth</a> or were <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baby-born-amniotic-sac-caul-birth-rare-spain-hospital-membrane-2016-11">covered in a caul</a> or amniotic membrane were suspicious, too. </p><p>In many countries, it was important to watch over the body of a loved one before burial. Anything from a cat to a human leaping over a body could cause it to turn into a revenant. </p><p>According to an early 19th-century Serbian <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1297274543?pq-origsite=gscholar&amp;fromopenview=true&amp;imgSeq=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anthropologist</a>, "An honest man cannot vampirize, unless some bird or other living creature flies or jumps across his dead body." </p><h2>Was vampirism based on a real disease? </h2><p>Pale skin, fear of sunlight, pointy fangs, and a taste for blood — all the tropes of fictional vampires have long caused people to connect the characteristics to symptoms of real diseases, from rabies to leukemia to tuberculosis.</p><p>Pediatrician Michael Hefferon favors porphyria, a group of rare disorders caused by a buildup of a chemical called porphyrin. They're needed to make hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to tissues. An excess causes a range of symptoms. </p><p>"People might present firstly with illness and fatigue," Hefferon told Insider. They may also have sensitivity to light that causes blistered skin, and their urine may appear red or brown. A 2016 article in <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/2547233" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JAMA Dermatology</a> called it a "dubious link" between the disorder and folkloric vampires. </p><p>A neurologist suggested <a href="https://n.neurology.org/content/51/3/856" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rabies</a>, which animals can transmit to humans through a bite, as another potential disease people may have mistaken for vampirism. The disease can cause light sensitivity and affect sleep-wake cycles, leading to insomnia — a potential reason for vampires' nocturnal activities. </p><p>Researchers who looked at early <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31713762/#full-view-affiliation-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vampire novels</a> thought <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-base-editing-gene-editing-leukemia-breakthrough-2022-12">leukemia</a> might have been an inspiration. </p><p>While people with leukemia can look pale, Hefferon said patients either recovered or died. "It's not like a vampire disease where people are wandering the earth for years and years getting to look more and more like vampires," he said. </p><p>Folklorist Michael Bell <a href="https://www.rimonthly.com/vampire-hunter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attributes</a> US cases of suspected vampirism in the 1700s and 1800s to tuberculosis. Those sick with TB grew fatigued, lost weight, and coughed up blood. </p><p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/107/11/945/2890493?login=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pellagra</a>, caused by vitamin deficiency and which causes light sensitivity, has also been cited as a vampire-like condition.   </p><h2>Did Bram Stoker base Dracula on a cholera outbreak? </h2><p>Bram Stoker published "Dracula" in 1897. Arguably the world's most famous fictional vampire, Dracula embodied many of the hallmarks of vampires that now seem cliché: He was pale, charming, and dressed in black, "with peculiarly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/canine-teeth-sharp-front-apes-evolution-ancestors-2019-5">sharp white teeth</a>." </p><p>While sunlight sapped the count's powers, it was <a href="https://www.dailynebraskan.com/culture/review-nosferatu-casts-haunting-shadow-over-cinema-100-years-later/article_02460eb6-4f46-11ed-84c0-2f4483902070.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not until</a> the 1922 film "Nosferatu" that the sun's rays killed vampires.  </p><p>To create his immortal being, Stoker drew on a number of influences, including tales of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dracula-vlad-the-impaler-sick-cried-blood-say-scientists-2023-8">Vlad the Impaler</a>. He may have <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24290266/#full-view-affiliation-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">partially based</a> Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, the vampire hunter, on his brother, a physician who performed some of the earliest modern brain surgeries. </p><div type="image" title="A portrait of Vlad the Impaler wearing a jeweled headpiece" height="1499" width="1999" msid="104608081" hostid="261"></div><p>Originally, Stoker <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-65745910" target="_blank" rel="noopener">set the story</a> in Austria. Later, he moved it further east and took names and bits of folklore from <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40131601?typeAccessWorkflow=login" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Transylvanian Superstitions,"</a> an article written by Emily Gerard. </p><p>"Every person killed by a nosferatu becomes likewise a vampire after death, and will continue to suck the blood of other innocent people until the spirit has been exorcised," she wrote. Cures included staking the corpse or firing a bullet into the coffin. </p><p>Historian Marion McGarry has suggested Stoker also took inspiration from his mother, Charlotte. She wrote about a cholera epidemic she lived through as a girl. The disease spreads through <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cholera-spreading-in-haiti-is-likely-descended-from-2010-strain-2022-12">contaminated water</a>, but when Stoker's mother was a child, its means of transmission were unknown. </p><p>In Charlotte Stoker's reminiscences, people with the disease were accidentally buried alive, a fear echoed in her son's novel. "Count Dracula treads a path very similar to cholera: a devastating contagion traveling from the East by ship that people initially do not know how to fight," according to McGarry. </p><p>In 2014, an anthropologist <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/690904" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posited that</a> 17th-century bodies <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-vampire-burials-and-what-they-mean-according-to-experts-2022-9">buried in Poland</a> with sickles and rocks — presumably to prevent them from rising as vampires — may have died during a cholera epidemic. </p><h2>Vampire fiction versus folklore </h2><p>As a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-human-bodies-decay-2016-11">body decomposes</a>, cells burst, leaking enzymes and chemicals. Blood pools in capillaries and veins, altering the skin's color. Bacteria digest tissue. The body bloats with methane, ammonia, and other gasses. The buildup of liquefied tissue and gas <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2015/may/05/life-after-death" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can either</a> leak out of orifices or cause the stomach to burst. </p><p>Much of this deterioration takes place within the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/how-long-bodies-take-to-decompose" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first year</a>, but it can take a decade or longer until only bones remain. Several conditions — like extreme temperature and soil acidity — can affect the rate of decomposition. </p><p>In 1892, residents of Exeter, Rhode Island, exhumed the bodies of three women, all members of the same family who had died of consumption. Two had died nearly a decade earlier. One woman, Mercy Bell, had recently died. When her brother became sick, too, the villagers decided to examine the bodies.</p><p>The older corpses had decomposed as expected. But Mercy Bell looked very fresh, seemingly still full of blood. The villagers burned her heart and mixed the ashes in with her brother's medicine in an attempt to cure him. He died several weeks later.</p><p>Throughout history, many people have found or exhumed extraordinarily <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bog-bodies-science-preservation-sphagnan-peat-moss-2015-10">well-preserved bodies</a>. Tightly sealed coffins or freezing temperatures can delay decomposition. In the case of Mercy Bell, she'd been buried for only a couple of months in the coldest months of winter.</p><p>For centuries, people employed protection against vampires. Many involved ways of treating a dead body. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vampire-burial-rock-mouth-meant-prevent-rising-dead-2022-9">Piercing various body parts</a> with sharp objects; including candles, coins, alcohol, and other objects in the coffin; rubbing garlic on the body; and consuming blood from <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1297353766?pq-origsite=gscholar&amp;fromopenview=true&amp;imgSeq=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the corpse</a> were all ways to prevent someone from rising from the grave. </p><p>One folklorist saw vampires <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6804739/Review_of_Jan_Louis_Perkowski_Vampire_Lore_From_the_Writings_of_Jan_Louis_Perkowski" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as scapegoats</a>, accused because of "a need to determine the cause of misfortunes." To make sense of what was happening — perhaps the deceased's friends and family becoming ill, too — villagers might blame the first person to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/black-death-changed-human-immune-system-still-affects-today-study-2022-10">die from the plague</a> or another epidemic. </p><p>If they exhumed a body, some signs of decomposition could be misattributed to markers of life: a reddened face from pooling blood, a shifted position caused by bloating and escaping gas, and liquified tissue that resembled fresh blood. </p><div type="image" title="Bela Lugosi as Dracula looms over a sleeping Helen Chandler in the movie Dracula" height="1498" width="1997" msid="104608082" hostid="261"></div><p>A corpse's beard and fingernails may appear longer, though it was an illusion created by shriveling skin. </p><p>Driving a stake into the body, decapitating it, and cremation were all methods of trying to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-vampire-skeleton-discovered-in-17th-century-graveyard-poland-2022-9">stop a vampire</a> from killing others. </p><p>As scientists began to learn and understand more about the body and death, stories about vampires started to evolve. In 1819, a physician named John Polidori revamped the supernatural beings' image, <a href="https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/conversation-perverse-passions-will-not-die" target="_blank" rel="noopener">basing his</a> wealthy, debonair Lord Ruthven in "The Vampyre" on the romantic poet Lord Byron.</p><p>A suave monster, Ruthven was by turns alluring and appalling. That vampiric ability to transform makes them enduring, with an appeal that seems unlikely to die anytime soon.    </p>

Bloodsuckers or bloated corpses? How science has tried to explain vampire myths.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Have you ever realized that <keyword id="24349" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hong-Kong">Hong Kong</keyword> skyscrapers have holes in them?</li><li>It's part of a belief system called <keyword id="51979" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="feng-shui">feng shui</keyword>.</li><li>Buildings with bad feng shui, such as the Bank of China Tower, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/fodors/top/features/travel/destinations/asia/china/hongkong/fdrs_feat_74_10.html?n=Top%2FFeatures%2FTravel%2FDestinations%2FAsia%2FChina%2FHong+Kong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have been blamed</a> for surrounding companies going out of business.</li></ul><p><em>Following is a transcript of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.</em></p><p>Why do Hong Kong skyscrapers have holes? These are <keyword id="363328" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dragon">dragon</keyword> gates. They allow dragons to fly from the mountains to the water. This is all according to feng shui. Feng Shui is a Chinese system for positioning buildings and objects in a way that agrees with spiritual forces. </p><p>Dragons are believed to be bearers of good fortune. Blocking the dragon's path could bring misfortune. The Bank of China Tower's poor feng shui is blamed for nearby companies going out of business. Today, corporations set aside money for feng shui consultation.  </p><p><em>This video was originally published on March 20, 2017.</em></p>

Why some Hong Kong skyscrapers have gaping holes

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The viral "shoe theory" posits that  gifting your partner shoes means they will "walk out on you."</li><li>Two TikTokers said the trend was rooted in Chinese superstition.</li></ul><p>A viral "shoe theory" is making the rounds on TikTok this holiday season — a superstition that posits gifting shoes to a significant other could mean a breakup is imminent.</p><p>In a video with 2.1 million views, Angela Chan said she first heard the lore from her mom as a young kid. "If you gift someone a pair of shoes, they will eventually walk out on you," she said — adding that the Chinese word for "shoes" sounds similar to the word for "evil" or "bad luck."</p> <p>The TikToker Hillary Wichlin <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hillaryhelennn/video/7186746736944172331"><u>concurred</u></a>. Growing up, her Chinese mother blamed all of Wichlin's breakups on the fact that she'd  apparently given all her boyfriends shoes. She even did it on purpose a few times to test the theory out.</p><p>The "shoe theory" appears to have first surfaced <a target="_blank" href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/01/shoe-theory-relationship-tiktok.html"><u>last holiday season</u></a>, and the hashtag is currently associated with 32.2 million TikTok views. Much of the content is set to Lana Del Rey's mournful breakup tune "Mariners Apartment Complex."</p> <p>Some TikTokers are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahgtown/video/7314330375508086048">regretfully showing off</a> the shoes they've already purchased, while others are swearing by the veracity of the trend, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@noclasscasssss/video/7314036560515616043"><u>speaking from personal experience</u></a>. Some who've attempted the trend were <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@aymiealexandra/video/7180038283760536837">disappointed</a> that it didn't work out.</p><p>The shoe theory isn't the only relationship test that's taken TikTok by storm. A separate "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/orange-peel-theory-tiktok-relationship-test-dating-experts-2023-12">orange peel theory</a>" posits that if you ask your partner to peel an orange for you, their answer determines the strength of your relationship — symbolizing the importance of day-to-day acts of kindness.</p>

Some women say they're terrified that the viral 'shoe theory' could spell doom for their relationships this Christmas

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mark Gober studied at Princeton before working as an investment banker.</li><li>He became interested in phenomena that science can't explain, like near-death experiences.</li></ul><p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with</em><a href="https://markgober.com/bio/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em> Mark Gober</em></a><em>, author of "The End to Upside Down Thinking: Dispelling the Myth That the Brain Produces Consciousness, and the Implications for Everyday Life." It has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p><p>My life, at least at the beginning, followed a very traditional path. I studied at Princeton, and when I graduated I went on to work as an investment banker. Later, I became a consultant in Silicon Valley. </p><p>As I moved through this very academic, analytical world, I always had a fascination with the big questions in life. I used to ponder the universe and our existence. I would spend time really considering, does all of this really matter? Is there meaning to life? </p><p>I always came back to the same conclusion. Humans could rationalize that life is meaningful to us, but in the grand scheme of things, there was no meaning. The people who told themselves there were just comforting themselves, I thought. I believed science was moving us beyond religion and superstitions about life after death. </p><h2>Scientific proof convinced me that psychic phenomena is real</h2><p>We've all heard stories of<a href="https://www.insider.com/why-does-life-flash-before-your-eyes-when-dying-2023-9"> a person who saw their life flash before their eyes</a> or knew a loved one had been in a terrible accident before the call came. Those anecdotes are easy to dismiss because they're just one person's experience. </p><p>But as my interest in the unexplainable grew, I started to see trends. Experts who weren't working together were finding the same results: that things science couldn't possibly explain like near-death experiences or psychic phenomena, were happening.</p><p>I looked at<a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R000200180005-5.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> documents</a> from a CIA program where people were asked to send their thoughts — using just their minds — to others. The program concluded that there was a "statistically significant" success in doing this.  </p><p>I read multiple accounts of<a href="https://www.insider.com/near-death-experiences-research-doctor-life-after-death-afterlife-2023-8"> near-death experiences</a> where a blind person was able to see, or a deaf person was able to hear. I reviewed stories of children who recalled past lives, and could even speak languages that they'd never been taught, at least in this lifetime. </p><p>As I went to the primary sources and interviewed scientists, I felt like I had opened Pandora's box. I had always felt, and been taught, that science led us away from the paranormal. Now, that belief was turned on its head: I became convinced that science was showing us there is something bigger that can't be explained by our current scientific understanding of the universe. </p><h2>I believe the missing piece is our understanding of consciousness</h2><p>Mainstream science right now teaches us that consciousness stems from the brain — that there's a biological, physical basis for who we are and what we experience. But that can't explain psychic phenomena and other mysteries. </p><p>Researchers call this<a href="http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Hard_problem_of_consciousness#:~:text=The%20hard%20problem%20of%20consciousness,with%20phenomenal%20qualities%20or%20qualia)." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> the hard problem of consciousness</a>: how can the neurons in our brain explain how we experience the world? </p><p>I was shocked to learn there are real academic institutions looking at this problem. The University of Virginia's<a href="https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Division of Perceptual Studies</a>, for example, is "devoted to the investigation of phenomena that challenge mainstream scientific paradigms regarding the nature of human consciousness."</p><p>I've come to believe in non-local consciousness, or consciousness that originates outside our physical bodies and outside our brains. To me, this is the most scientifically sound explanation. </p><p>I often think about what skeptics would say. I used to be one of them. There's a tendency to try to push aside anomalies that don't fit into our understanding of the world, just the way I did with anecdotes about the unexplainable. </p><h2>I think we're approaching a paradigm shift</h2><p>It's really difficult for the mainstream scientific paradigm to shift. We've seen this in history, whether it was debunking the idea that the earth was flat or embracing the theory of relativity. Every time there's been something that science can't explain, it's because we need to expand or adjust our scientific understanding. </p><p>I believe there is something spiritual in the universe, beyond our typical senses. I don't choose to believe that because it's comforting, but because that's where the scientific evidence has pointed me. </p><p>My old assumption was that anything spiritual or religious was primitive superstitions. Now, I think there is meaning built into the fabric of reality and there's purpose to our lives. I don't claim to know the answers, but I now feel that spiritual and religious traditions are onto something fundamental. </p><p>The more I learn, the less I feel that I know. But one thing I feel certain about is that there's more for science to discover. </p>

I changed my views studying near-death experiences; consciousness isn't as we think.

New Delhi, July 7 (IANSlife) Kerala-based artist Rejeesh Sarovar will present a solo art exhibition- "In between soil, Mans and Myth" that portrays the artists observations of the the quest of his life with its surroundings and his experiences.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br />His search for human lives and their aptitudes had taken him to the very roots of man's biological relationship with earth and soil. Such entanglements are intertwined in such a way that it could be traced back to the backyards of his own culture. His works are influenced by his roots in northern Kerala surviving on agriculture and fishing. Like any culture of the world, a society of superstitions do exist here. <br /><br />"When we refer to 'humans' we just have to claim or differentiate them in terms of skin tone or their costumes. I firmly do believe only in the oneness of this human existence and above all this sense, the terms 'human being' is unique. The pictures visualize the tradition and culture of the present society. But the language it speaks is the one of internationality," says Sarovar, a Lalitha Kala academy state awards recipient in 2014.<br /><br />While observing society from a contemporary viewpoint, he could seek out the remnants of the forgotten past in a lot of ways. Hence, at times, the paintings had turned out to be his visions on past memories. Another thing is that these paintings do become a connecting bridge among three different era - Past, Present, and Future. <br /><br />They might remind the future generations about a way of life that was once possible and happening, among their ancestors, for what matters the most is that 'desires' surrounding our lives undergo various transformations with the passage of time and generations.<br /><br />Paintings have become a weapon against social differences. The human who scatters the law in the air and the effect of such deeds bringing anarchy and confusion in the lawful system is too portrayed through the wonderful colors. The emotional expression has been beautifully linked with his internal and external. The pictures speak about hunger. Any life is transformed into a martyr of struggle or 2 pieces of consumption just because of the basic truth- 'Hunger'. In short, these colours breathe in the language of a typical village hood, their messages, their pains, their attitude, and the spiritual journey of these paintings giving vivid explanations. The blending and the synchronization of nature and mankind and its swimming into its memories are prominent. At the same time, these pictures combine the past and the future.<br /><br />Beliefs and worship rituals have always evolved with age, adapting to the changes in man's way of living. Beyond that, the point of the painting at some of the idols of life rooted in their agriculture systems. And to paint them, what helped him were the most of the folk stories and songs that prevailed there, spread through both written and verbal methods. All his recent paintings are based on his studies upon how much influence these idols had on human life. The emotional expressions have been beautifully linked with his internal and external. <br /><br />The pictures speak about hunger, synchronization of nature, and mankind and its swimming into its memories are prominent and at the same time, they combine the past and the future.<br /><br />The ongoing exhibition will be live till 20, August 2020.<br /><br />(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife.r@ians.in)<br /><br />--IANS<br /><br />adr/tb/sdr/

Believing in the oneness of human existence

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In many parts of <keyword id="12925" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Africa">Africa</keyword>, people with albinism are misunderstood, mistreated, and even attacked or killed. Now they are also being blamed for the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> pandemic.</li><li>Traditional African belief systems have cast people with albinism as having magical properties and there is a lucrative trade in their body parts.</li><li>The coronavirus has also become a significant health issue because of lockdowns. People with albinism cannot access vital medical support and supplies of suncream.</li><li>International Albinism Awareness Day on June 13 aims to create a world where people with albinism can live a life free of stigma, discrimination, fear, and violence. The 2020 theme is "Made to Shine."</li></ul><p>People with albinism living in Africa are being blamed and persecuted for the coronavirus pandemic now hitting the continent, adding to the discrimination and stigma that already can blight their lives.</p><p>So far, Africa has been the continent least affected by COVID-19. But the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week that the pandemic is accelerating. </p><p>It is more bad <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> for people with albinism, according to the United Nations that is hosting <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/albinism-day">International Albinism Awareness Day on June 13.</a></p><p>"There are reports of persons with albinism being branded "corona" and "COVID-19" in some countries, effectively labeling them scapegoats of the pandemic and further ostracising them in their communities," said Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement.</p><p>Kenyan TV has reported people with albinism having to go into hiding, and social media comments have confirmed that across Africa people with albinism are being targeted even more than in the past.</p><p>Dr. Charlotte Baker, Director of the UK-based <a href="http://albinism-in-africa.com/">Albinism in Africa Network</a>, told Business Insider, that African belief systems explain people with albinism as carrying a contagious curse. COVID-19 is just another way of perpetuating this myth, she said.</p><p>"It is the perceived whiteness of people with albinism. It is being interpreted that they are carriers of what is seen as a white man's disease. It comes from China where people have fair skin in the African mindset and so they are seen as carriers of this disease. It's another dimension of the stigma attached to albinism," she said.</p><p> These beliefs can incite brutal attacks against people with albinism. A baby born with albinism may be considered a curse and be killed, according to Dr. Baker.</p><p>"In African black society to have a white child born into a community is so very visibly different and people are forced to try and explain that," she said.</p><p>"They may accept the genetic explanation but at the same time, it is a society that has many layers of other beliefs," Dr. Baker added.</p><p>Witchdoctors take advantage of the ignorance and superstitions, fuelling beliefs that people with albinism possess magical qualities or that the body parts of people with albinism used in charms and potions bring wealth, power, and good luck.</p><p>These beliefs fuels a grim trade in the hair, limbs, and entire bodies of people with albinism. The oft-quoted figure for the body of a person with albinism is $75,000.Customers for these body parts are often the leading figures in African societies, said Dr. Baker.</p><p>Election years are particularly unsafe for people with albinism, according to <a href="https://www.underthesamesun.com/content/issue#where-have-the-attacks-happened">Under the Same Sun,</a> an albinism advocacy group. There is an increased demand for body parts in the lead-up to elections when office-seekers are willing to pay thousands for the supposed supernatural boost to their political ambitions.</p><p>"They consult the witch doctor. The witch doctor says we need to you know the arm or the hair of a person with albinism," said Dr. Baker.</p><p>"Then there's another set of people involved in gathering those body parts and trading them. Often a person with albinism is identified, in the first instance, by a family member or a community member," she said.</p><p><div type="image" title="Albinism in Africa. Malawi. February 2020." height="1333" width="1777" msid="76360752" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The data on the number of people attacked for their body parts is unclear, said Dr. Baker. According to <a href="https://www.underthesamesun.com/content/issue#where-have-the-attacks-happened">Under the Same Sun </a>there have been more than 520 attacks on people with albinism in 28 African countries reported since 2006. But Dr. Baker said many more attacks are suspected that go unrecorded.</p><p>For example, the number of children reported to born with albinism is often less than the statistical average. This indicates that babies with albinism may have been killed at birth, said Dr. Baker.</p><p>Albinism is a hereditary condition that results in a lack of pigmentation in skin, hair, and eyes. While in Europe and North America approximately 1 in 20,000 people have albinism, the rates are much higher in Africa, with about 1 in 1,400 occurrences in Tanzania and as high as 1 in 1,000 reported for select populations in Zimbabwe.</p><p>In neighboring Malawi, for example, there are more than 134,000 people with albinism, representing 0.8% of the total population, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/people-with-albinism-issued-with-protective-alarms-in-malawi-2020-3">according to the national statistics office</a> in 2018.</p><p>For some people with albinism, life is a relentless struggle of the pariah, continuously bullied, persecuted, and marginalized.</p><p>And the coronavirus epidemic has only worsened their vulnerability.</p><h2>Without sunscreen people with albinism face early death</h2><p><div type="image" title="United Nations' first independent expert on albinism, Ikponwosa Ero, addresses the media in Kenya's capital Nairobi, November 16, 2016." height="1500" width="2000" msid="76360758" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Ikponwosa Ero, a UN independent expert on albinism, has warned of the COVID-19 threat. She said in a statement: "Other hardships for persons with albinism, many of whom are already amongst the poorest of the poor, include a severe lack of access to basic necessities such as food, sunscreen, and other life-saving devices. Persons with albinism and their family members, also lack access to accurate information about their condition vis-à-vis COVID-19."</p><p>Access to sunscreen is a life and death issue for people with albinism. It is skin cancer, not the body parts robbers that most threaten them, said Dr. Baker.</p><p>"Often it's overlooked but that's the biggest threat," said Ero, also not it is not uncommon for Africans with albinism to die early, many in their forties, because they've got skin cancer after years of skin damage that's been untreated.</p><h2>'Made to Shine'</h2><p>The UN International Albinism Awareness Day is on June 13,  2020, and its theme is "Made to Shine." Whilst recognizing the human rights struggles of people with albinism worldwide, the theme was chosen to celebrate the achievements and successes of the albinism community worldwide.</p><p>"It emphasizes that persons with albinism were made to stand out because they are outstanding in many ways as proven by the quality and quantity of their success stories in recent years," said Ero.</p><p>Dr. Baker is also hopeful that the stigma of albinism is gradually being challenged. Media coverage of the issue, NGOs and energized local groups campaigning for the rights of people with albinism and African governments more willing to grapple with albinism issues, are all causes for cautious optimism.</p><p>"These kinds of positive messages are really getting through now," she said.</p>

People with albinism are being blamed for the spread of the coronavirus in Africa because of their 'whiteness'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Discovery Channel</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Discovery's has canceled its longet-running show. "MythBusters" is set to end after its upcoming 15th season.</p><p>While this may be a surprise for fans, stars <span>Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman had known about the impending goodbye for about a year already. They have been secretly plotting how to make the final season amazing.</span></p><p><span><span>"It was my greatest fear that '</span>MythBusters'<span> would just stop and we wouldn't be able to do proper final episodes," Savage told <a href="http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/21/mythbusters-ending-interview" target="_blank">Entertainment Weekly</a>. "So whether it's myths about human behavior or car stories or explosion stories, we tried to find the most awesome example of each category and build on our past history."</span></span></p><p><span><span><span>Savage and Hyneman are expected to do one last </span><a href="http://www.mythbusterstour.com/" target="_blank">Mythbusters Live</a> <span>tour, which starts next month.</span></span></span></p><p>"Mythbusters" put urban myths, old wives' tales, common beliefs, and superstitions to the test using scientific methods.</p><p>Previously, Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara served as hosts, as well.</p><p>Business Insider reached out to Discovery for comment.</p><p>More to come...</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-extravagant-vacations-in-world-2015-9">The most expensive and extravagant vacations in the world</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tvMzRndzpNrgBqxHb0FavvEnwVT1v50q" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Discovery's 'MythBusters' to end after upcoming 15th season

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>DreamWorks SKG / The Montecito Picture Company</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Despite the rise of the internet, smart phones and Pokemon Go, most fixed income markets have done an excellent job of shunning technology and remaining true to their unstructured, OTC origins.</p><p>Like the last uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, some fixed income market participants have avoided the trappings of modern tools in order to preserve a naturalistic market environment where trading and valuations are based on superstition, intuition and guess work instead of high quality data.</p><h2>I'm just a bond trader, your world confuses and frightens me</h2><p>The preservationists maintain their stance based on a myth about market structure: Transparency around pricing and execution impairs markets by collapsing bid/offer which eliminates the commercial incentive to trade. Don't believe in this ghost story? Look no further than the floor of the NYSE or the futures pits in Chicago.</p><p>What were once thriving markets dependent on human interactions are now sterilized environments where computers talk to computers and markets move in micro-seconds. This fundamental fear is hiding something that most fixed income market participants do not dare speak. Lack of market transparency has historically been very good business, for some.</p><h2>All you need in markets is ignorance and confidence</h2><p>A dearth of pricing and execution information in any financial market creates a very interesting environment. Calculations for value, risk and transaction costs are derived subjectively. Therefore, nobody knows the true value of what they are trading, the risk that they hold or what it costs to trade. Some business models thrive in the cover of darkness provided in this environment.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">A trader signals an offer in the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 stock index options pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) on November 2, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois.</p></div><p></p></div></div>For example, most veteran sell side traders will tell you, their biggest year for compensation was due to "mark to market" gains in their positions. Mark to market is perceived value, not actualized value, but in the absence of adequate market transparency, perception is enough if you have the right amount of confidence. The environmental benefits are not exclusive to the sell side. Funds that trade certain fixed income products have no way of measuring the quality of their execution because trading costs are implied and not formally articulated. Proving best execution is done through qualitative means and is far less quantitative than you would expect.</p><h2>Losing my religion</h2><p>Due to central bank monetary policy, some unstructured fixed income markets like corporate bonds, have experienced rapid and prolonged growth over the past 8 years. Increase in market size has been accompanied with an expansion in market breadth (number of different bonds).</p><p>Ultimately, this combination has brought an unprecedented amount of ambiguity when valuing and trading bonds. Those that remain devoted to transparency prevention in the corporate bond market are now faced with a serious dilemma. Can the traditional, unstructured OTC model support a market that is now almost $9Trillion in size (up from $2Trillion in 2002)?</p><p>Preservationists seem to think so: <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c4176a68-ea8f-11e4-a701-00144feab7de">US Banks Push for a Delay in Reporting Corporate Bond Trades - Financial Times April 26th, 2015</a></p><h2>In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.</h2><p>The goal of transparency is to provide equal access to information for all market participants. In theory, transparency should improve market performance by creating greater efficiency, but in practice, unfettered access to certain information creates an environment that allows opportunists to profiteer off of the actions of others.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/denverjeffrey/12457273443/in/set-72157640829011505">Jeffrey Beall/Flickr</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Complaints and fears about mandated transparency are warranted, but eliminating or preventing transparency also requires examination. In theory, limited transparency should encourage robust market making activity due to the commercial opportunity available in an inefficient environment. In practice, lack of transparency is the root cause of some of the largest systemic issues in unstructured OTC markets. These problems are often articulated quite clearly when there is a closer examination of market practices by outsiders:</p><p><strong>1) Inability to properly calculate risk</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-23/big-banks-risk-does-not-compute">Big Banks' Risk Does Not Compute - Bloomberg May 23rd, 2016</a></p><p>"Mathematicians Jon Danielsson and Chen Zhou have examined how much data would be required to get reliable estimates of either value-at-risk or expected shortfall, even in a world where the future is like the past. Suppose you wanted a reasonably accurate reading of expected shortfall -- say, an estimate likely to fall within 5 percent of actual losses. For the complex portfolios of large financial institutions, this would require decades of price history on hundreds or thousands of different assets -- something that simply doesn't exist for many of those assets (many firms don't even stay in business that long, for example). With less data the result would be illusory, offering no meaningful sense of the risk present at all."</p><p><strong>2) Inability to examine market phenomenon, like liquidity shortages </strong></p><p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-02/now-we-have-two-answers-to-the-ecb-corporate-liquidity-question">Now We Have Two Answers to the ECB Corporate Liquidity Question - Bloomberg August 2nd, 2016</a></p><p>"Now the ECB is in full throes of the CSPP, which began June 8, and disclosed information about its holdings on July 18, we have data to test out these liquidity fears. Firstly, a big caveat is in order. There's no standard and objective measure of bond-market liquidity since bonds are predominately traded over the counter (OTC), unlike stocks. As a result, market benchmarks to gauge a snapshot of liquidity conditions - roughly defined as market participants' ability to buy and sell bonds, on a given stable trading day, without triggering a material shift in their price - are imperfect and subject to debate."</p><p><a href="http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2016/02/corporate-bond-market-liquidity-redux-more-price-based-evidence.html#.V-UnuJMrJTa">Corporate Bond Liquidity Redux - Liberty Street Economics February 6th, 2016</a></p><p>"As discussed in our earlier post, we don't have access to quote data for corporate bonds, which trade over the counter. We therefore estimate "realized" bid-ask spreads by comparing-for a given bond-prices when a customer buys from a dealer (at the dealer's offer price) to prices when a customer sells to a dealer (at the dealer's bid price)"</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr/taxcredits</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>3) Inability to trade against the best prevailing price </strong></p><p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-21/how-to-lose-667-million-a-year-in-credit-trading-without-trying">How to Lose $667 Million in Bond Trades Without Trying - Bloomberg September 21st, 2015</a></p><p>"In most of the deals the investors simply did not know that the lower prices existed because they rely on human traders to tell them the value of bonds at any given moment before they make a trade."</p><h2>Jobu. Look, I go to you. I stick up for you. You no help me now.</h2><p>What makes unstructured fixed income markets "unstructured" is not a lack of transparency. The missing ingredient to improving these markets is price integrity, which is different from transparency. While transparency is focused on the level of information visibility, price integrity is entirely focused on the quality of pricing data. For any financial product, price integrity is generated when there is a standardized price formation process, however, just having a process is not adequate. The soundness and objectivity of the price formation process has an impact on the overall level of market integrity. A clear illustration of this point is visible when we compare the difference between the method the US government uses to auction their securities (demand curve) and the method for fixing LIBOR (no comment).</p><p>Once price integrity begins to take form in fixed income markets, participants can start using high quality pricing data to calculate value, risk and transaction costs. Eventually, we may even laugh about the good old days when "real" traders used their gut and intuition instead of real-time and historical data. Until then, remember it is very bad to steal Jobu's rum and keep your fingers crossed before each trade.</p><p><em>Chris White is the founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.viablemkts.com/index.html">ViableMkts</a>, which </em><span> </span><em><span>helps banks, buy side institutions and vendors innovate by providing best in class strategic guidance, business management and product development services. <span>In addition to leading the ViableMkts team, Chris publishes a weekly newsletter covering bond market development, </span><a href="http://www.fridaynewsletter.com/">Friday Newsletter</a><span>, and teaches a course on electronic trading for the </span><a href="https://www.nyif.com/faculty/white-christopher">New York Institute of Finance.</a></span></em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-brings-back-dangerous-x-plane-program-2016-9">NASA is bringing back one of its most experimental and dangerous programs</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1lMHMzMzE6Kwf8Y_jhuPqCDkg5dhWnbN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "myths and superstitions" and got 8 results

Bloodsuckers or bloated corpses? How science has tried to explain vampire myths.

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Why some Hong Kong skyscrapers have gaping holes

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Some women say they're terrified that the viral 'shoe theory' could spell doom for their relationships this Christmas

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I changed my views studying near-death experiences; consciousness isn't as we think.

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Believing in the oneness of human existence

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People with albinism are being blamed for the spread of the coronavirus in Africa because of their 'whiteness'

Julian Kossoff

Discovery's 'MythBusters' to end after upcoming 15th season

Jethro Nededog

When keeping it old school in the bond market goes wrong

Chris White, ViableMkts

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