A little bit about Ambigrams with a few tips

We can define an ambigram as a figure which has an axis of symmetry. Due to such symmetry the figure remains same when it is seen in another direction as well. Ambigrams have been in existence for quite some time. They could be just text, pictures or even a combination of both.

There is a common misunderstanding that ambigrams are generally just text. I can give you few examples of pictorial ambigrams.

Ambigrams are of many types classified on the basis of their axis of symmetry:

Rotational:
Figures are called rotational ambigrams when they have a diagonal axis of symmetry. Thus when rotated by an angle (most rotational ambigrams are generally rotated by 180 degrees) they remain the same. Most of the ambigrams are generally rotational in nature. Or atleast the most famous of ambigrams

Mirror:
A design that can be read when reflected in a mirror, usually as the same word or phrase both ways. Ambigrams that form different words when viewed in the mirror are also known as glass door ambigrams, because they can be printed on a glass door to be read differently when entering or exiting.

Figure-ground :
A design in which the spaces between the letters of one word form another word. The introductory figure of 'ambigram' is a good example. Here the space between 'm' and 'b' forms the letter 'r'.

Chain:
A design where a word (or sometimes words) are interlinked, forming a repeating chain. Letters are usually overlapped meaning that a word will start partway through another word. Sometimes chain ambigrams are presented in the form of a circle.

Space-filling:
Similar to chain ambigrams, but tile to fill the 2-dimensional plane.

Fractal:
A version of space-filling ambigrams where the tiled word branches from itself and then shrinks in a self-similar manner, forming a fractal. See Scott Kim's fractal of the word TREE for an animated example.

3-dimensional:
A design where an object is presented that will appear to read several letters or words when viewed from different angles. Such designs can be generated using constructive solid geometry.

Perceptual shift:
A design with no symmetry but can be read as two different words depending on how the curves of the letters are interpreted.

Natural:
A natural ambigram is a word that possesses one or more of the above symmetries when written in its natural state, requiring no typographic styling. For example, the words "dollop" and "suns" are natural rotational ambigrams. The word "bud" forms a natural mirror ambigram when reflected over a vertical axis. The words "CHOICE" and "OXIDE", in all capitals, form a natural mirror ambigram when reflected over a horizontal axis. The word "TOOTH", in all capitals, forms a natural mirror ambigram when its letters are stacked vertically and reflected over a vertical axis.

Symbiotogram:
An Ambigram that, when rotated 180 degrees, can be read as a different word to the original.

Studying ambigrams can be quite an enjoyable experience. I believe that improving the skill in making ambigrams can be done by trial and error. Basically following the steps below can get u thru some easy ambigrams:

• Choosing the kind of ambigram. Not every figure can be made into a single type of ambigram. Hence choosing the type of ambigram can be time saving. But this requires a lot of practice.
• Practising symmetry of every alphabet with every other alphabet. One should be able to make any letter look like any other letter when rotated.
• Since the above is not possible for every word, we can try clusters. Taking up a couple of letters and make them look like a couple of different letters. This way we can rule make sure that those which cannot be achieved through step 1.

I am not a professional ambigram maker. I am just a guy with ideas, slowly in the process of implementing them. It takes quite a lot of practice to make ambigrams and it requires a lot of imagination. Design mode allows us a lot more freedom. Design mode in the sense, working with curves and not just straight lines. For instance, when observing the ambigram below:

We can see that the curve above the letter A makes it look like Y when rotated. Its important to note the usage of light strokes and dark strokes. This is what prevents n from looking like P. This is the thing with Ambigrams. Even a small stroke can change the look of any character. The important thing is the formation of the idea and that comes only from constant practice and experience.

All I can conclude is that the art of ambigrams is a fascinating one, and requires a lot of practice. The very fact that working hard on an ambigram can be tedious but when it produces a result, its too damn heartening.

Vampires : The Legends of the Undead Rulers

A Brief History of Vampirism:

Snap 1: Dracula's Castle in Transylvania

The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia; cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th century Southeastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published.

In most cases, "vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire".

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How the hell do they look?

Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open.

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A Few notable Vampire characteristics

Some vampires, such as those found in Transylvanian tales, were gaunt, pale, and had long fingernails, while those from Bulgaria only had one nostril, and Bavarian vampires slept with thumbs crossed and one eye open. Moravian vampires only attacked while naked, and those of Albanian folklore wore high-heeled shoes. As stories of vampires spread throughout the globe to the Americas and elsewhere, so did the varied and sometimes bizarre descriptions of them: Mexican vampires had a bare skull instead of a head. Brazilian vampires had furry feet and vampires from the Rocky Mountains only sucked blood with their noses and from the victim's ears.
Common attributes were sometimes described, such as red hair. Some were reported to be able to transform into bats, rats, dogs, wolves, spiders and even moths. From these various legends, works of literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the influences of historical bloodthirsty figures such as Gilles de Rais, Elizabeth Bathory, and Vlad Ţepeş, the vampire developed into the modern stereotype.

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What the hell's a Vampire number?

What is special about the number 1395 ?
Well 1395 = 15 x 93
It is called a VAMPIRE number with fangs 15 and 93.
Another example is 1435 = 35 x 41 with the two fangs 35 and 41.
If you know the fangs, for example 30 and 51, its easy to find the vampire...
And how easy is it to spot a vampire hiding among innocent numbers?

For instance which among 2155, 2170 and 2187 is the vampire? Not that easy right? Ever try doing that with a vampire and you will be sucked dry before you are done with your calculations.

Vampire numbers have an even number of digits with their two fangs sharing half that number between them.
Some large vampire numbers have a spare pair of fangs...
125460 = 204 x 615 = 246 x 510
or even two spare pairs ...
13078260 = 1620 x 8073 = 1863 x 7020 = 2070 x 6318

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How are vampires made?

The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse which was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. A body with a wound which had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Church while they were alive.

Mostly vampire character spreads by biting. A bitten person was said to become a vampire within 24 to 48 hours from the time of bite. Also one other method is to make the person drink the blood of a vampire.

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Identification of Vampires:

• One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion — the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.
• Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.
• Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-like activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects, and pressing on people in their sleep.
• Most vampires are highly seductive in nature
• Vampires do not have any reflection. A simple test infront of a mirror can prove whether it is a vampire or not
  

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How do you get rid of them?

• Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles, near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld; it has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore
• It was believed that wearing a crucifix or bringing the crucifix in contact with the vampire would leave burning marks on the vampire
• Exposing a vampire to sunlight would prove catastrophic for the vampire
• Running water can immobilize and weaken the vampire and constant contact with running water can destroy it
• Vampires are allergic to garlic and cannot stand the presence of garlic near them
• The ultimate way to destroy a vampire is to nail a blessed stick into the middle of its chest so as to pierce the heart (if it has one!)

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Other locations of vampire activity:

Asian:
Rooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of ghoulish entities from the mainland, to vampiric beings from the islands of Southeast Asia.

• India also developed other vampiric legends. The Bhūta or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night, attacking the living much like a ghoul. In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood.
  
• Although vampires have appeared in Japanese Cinema since the late 1950s, the folklore behind it was western in origin. However, the Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.

Legends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. There are two main vampire-like creatures in the Philippines:

• Tagalog mandurugo ("blood-sucker") . The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.
  
• Visayan manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses off these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people.
• The Malaysian Penanggalan may be either a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklores to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women.
• The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore
• A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia, or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia, is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, which she sucked the blood of children with. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off.
  
• Jiang Shi, sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul fails to leave the deceased's body. One unusual feature of this vampire is its greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses.

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What about plant vampires?

Yeah, sure. Ever heard of Dracula Vampira? Named for the resemblance of the flowers to a bat; from the old middle European vampir for vampire and Vampirus, a genus of bats.

Habit: Small to large; epiphytic and terrestrial; caespitose to shortly repent or ascending.

Culture: Cultivate in moist, intermediate to cool growing conditions with high humidity. Protect from direct, or bright indirect, sunlight. Species with a descending inflorescence require suspension in open baskets.

Distribution: Over 80 species are known from Central America and the northwestern Andes. A few are listed below. Limited in distribution to the forested, western slopes of Mt. Pichincha where it is locally abundant from 5,900 feet (1,800 m) to 7,200 feet (2,200 m)

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The Amityville Horror

The Amityville Haunted House ->

The book was written after Tam Mossman, an editor at the publishing house Prentice Hall, introduced George and Kathy Lutz to Jay Anson. The Lutzes did not work directly with Anson, but submitted around 45 hours of tape recorded recollections to him which were used as the basis of the book. Estimates of the sales of the book are around ten million copies from its numerous editions. Anson is said to have based the title of The Amityville Horror on The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft, which was published in 1929.
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Incident 1:
Father Manusco flicked the first holy water and began to pray. Something didn't seem right. Something was stopping him. He couldn't get the words out of his mouth. He strained himself, to the fullest extent and started saying the praying, when

"GET OUT!"

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112 Ocean Avenue remained empty for thirteen months after the DeFeo murders. In December 1975, George and Kathleen Lutz bought the house for what was considered to be a bargain price of $80,000. The six-bedroom house was built in Dutch Colonial style, and had a distinctive gambrel roof. It also had a swimming pool and a boathouse, as it overlooked a river. George and Kathy married in July 1975 and each had their own homes, but they wanted to start afresh with a new property. Kathy had three children from a previous marriage, Daniel, 9, Christopher, 7, and Melissa (Missy), 5. They also owned a crossbreed malamute/labrador dog named Harry. The Lutz family moved in on December 23, 1975. Much of the DeFeo family furniture was still in the house, since it had been included as part of the deal. A friend of George Lutz learned about the past history of the house, and insisted on having it blessed.

It was during that very blessing that incident 1 took place.

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Incident 2:
He felt confused, but he had to perform the blessing more so because of this. He wanted to leave the place as soon as possible. Should he tell the couple about that incident? No, maybe they'll think that he was daft - maybe not even consider it to be anything serious. With thoughts surrounding him, he left the house.
Later that month, he called up George.
"Mr Lutz, I suggest you stay away from the room where I did the blessing."
"But, Father..."
"Mr Lutz, I believe that room was formerly Mr. Defoe?"
"Yes"
"I am saying this because I..." there was a long pause.
"Yes, Father... Father?" the line was dead.

Following his visit to the house on Ocean Avenue Father Mancuso allegedly developed a high fever and blisters on his hands similar to stigmata.

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Series of Incidents at 112 Ocean Avenue:

At first, George and Kathy Lutz experienced nothing unusual in the house. Talking about their experiences subsequently, they reported that it was as if they "were each living in a different house." Some of the experiences of the Lutz family at the house have been described as follows:

• George would wake up around 3:15 every morning and would go out to check the boathouse. Later he would learn that this was the estimated time of the DeFeo killings.
• The house was plagued by swarms of flies despite the winter weather.
• Kathy had vivid nightmares about the murders and discovered the order in which they occurred, and the rooms where they took place. The Lutzes' children also began sleeping on their stomachs, in the same way that the dead bodies in the DeFeo murders had been found.
• Kathy would feel a sensation as if "being embraced" in a loving manner, by an unseen force.
• Kathy discovered a small hidden room (around four feet by five feet) behind shelving in the basement. The walls were painted red and the room did not appear in the blueprints of the house. The room came to be known as "The Red Room." This room had a profound effect on their dog Harry, who refused to go near it and cowered as if sensing something negative.
• There were cold spots and odors of perfume and excrement in areas of the house where no wind drafts or piping would explain the source.
• The Lutzes' five year old daughter, Missy, developed an imaginary friend named "Jodie," a demonic pig-like creature with glowing red eyes.
• George would be woken up by the sound of the front door slamming. He would race downstairs to find the dog sleeping soundly at the front door. Nobody else heard the sound although it was loud enough to wake the house.
• George would hear what was described as a "German marching band tuning up" or what sounded like a clock radio playing not quite on frequency. When he went downstairs the noise would cease.
• George realized that he bore a strong resemblance to Ronald DeFeo, Jr., and began drinking at The Witches' Brew, the bar where DeFeo was once a regular customer.
• While checking the boathouse one night, George saw a pair of red eyesMissy's bedroom window. When he went upstairs to her room, there was nothing to be found. Later it was suggested that it could have been "Jodie". looking at him from
• While in bed, Kathy received red welts on her chest caused by an unseen force and was levitated two feet off the bed.
• Locks, doors and windows in the house were damaged by an unseen force.
• Cloven hoofprints attributed to an enormous pig appeared in the snow outside the house on January 1, 1976.
• Green slime oozed from walls in the hall, and also from the keyhole of the playroom door in the attic.
• A 12-inch crucifix, hung in a closet by Kathy, revolved until it was upside down and gave off a sour smell.
• George tripped over a four foot high china lion which was an ornament in the living room, and was left with bite marks on one of his ankles.
• George saw Kathy transform into an old woman of ninety, "the hair wild, a shocking white, the face a mass of wrinkles and ugly lines, and saliva dripping from the toothless mouth."

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Incident 17:
After deciding that something was wrong with their house that they could not explain rationally, George and Kathy Lutz carried out a blessing of their own on January 8, 1976. George held a silver crucifix while they both recited the Lord's Prayer. They went room by room, chanting the prayers. When they reached the living room,

“WILL YOU STOP?!”

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A probable photo of Jodie

By mid-January of 1976, and after another attempt at a house blessing by George and Kathy, they experienced what would turn out to be their final night in the house. The Lutzes declined to give a full account of the events that took place on this occasion, describing them as "too frightening."

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After getting in touch with Father Mancuso, the Lutzes decided to take some belongings and stay at Kathy’s mother’s house in nearby Deer Park, New York until they had sorted out the problems with the house. They claimed that the phenomena followed them there, with the final scene of Anson's book describing "greenish-black slime" coming up the staircase towards them. On January 14, 1976 George and Kathy Lutz, with their three children and their dog Harry, left 112 Ocean Avenue leaving most of their possessions behind. The next day, a mover came in to remove all of the possessions to send to the Lutzes. He reported no paranormal phenomena while inside the house.

<- Another probable photo of Jodie - the imaginary friend of Missy

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