While most of us think of vampires as creatures that lurk only in books, movies, and teenagers' bedroom walls, for some parts of the world, vampire folklore is still very serious business. One of those places is Bajina Bašta, Serbia, where officials have warned the populace that a very old and notorious vampire might be on the loose, having been displaced from his home.

According to folklore, the vampire Sava Savanović lived in an old watermill on the Rogačica river, in Zarožje village, where he would suck the blood of millers who came to grind their grain. Since the mill closed in the 1950s, it has served as a tourist attraction for those curious about its vampiric associations. But since the owners left the property untouched—for fear of disturbing the vampire—the mill fell into disrepair and recently collapse altogether. The problem? Now many locals believe the vampire is homeless and roams the town now that he has been disturbed from his slumber.

Village mayor Miodrag Vujetic has confirmed that the local council issued a public health warning, reminding residents to place garlic on their doors and put in a cross in every room of their houses, saying:

"People are worried, everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people. We are all frightened."

While not as famous as some folkloric vampires, Sava Savanović has achieved his share of notoriety, not just in myth but in fiction as well. He appears in the story Posle devedeset godina (After Ninety Years) by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in Leptirica, a horror film inspired by the story.

Update: Commenter melymnosine says that the warning is real, but that it's being done as a publicity stunt to attract tourists to the region by capitalizing on the local folklore—which sounds entirely likely, if less exciting than the locals believing the vampire might be roaming the land.

Second Update: Another article in the AP contains more details and suggests that at least some of the locals are taking the warning semi-seriously. As for others, they say they're following the edicts more to keep the traditions and stories alive.

Vampire fears boost garlic sales [Orange via Nerdcore]

Has being cooped up by the cold, snow, and rain left you feeling like a dull boy or girl? Have you started chatting with phantom bartenders? Are you harboring homicidal feelings toward your loved ones? If so, next time you venture outside, don this cap, inspired by the garish carpet at the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. It's non-confrontational way to signal to everyone else that axes should be kept out of your reach.

The Weir Overlook Special Edition [Connoisseur via Fashionably Geek]

Before the 1966 Batman TV series first aired, auto customizer George Barris purchased a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car from the Ford Motor Company for $1, a car he would transform into the iconic Batmobile. Since then, the car has never been sold, remaining an unobtainable piece of pop culture memorabilia. This January, however, the Batmobile will go on the auction block, meaning one lucky soul will own this bit of Bat-history.

The TV Batmobile will be auctioned off during the Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., on January 19th. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like the car comes with any of the wonderful toys Adam West and Burt Ward deployed during their Gotham City adventures—at least not in working order. No Bat Ray, Batputer, or Bat-tering Ram? Still, it's cool enough to warrant building a Batcave just to house the thing. In fact, Batcaves should be a prerequisite for Batmobile ownership.

While this is the original, drove-Adam-West's-butt-around TV Batmobile, it's not the only version of the car Barris built. He built three additional Batmobiles: two for the exhibition circuit and one for exhibition drag racing, which are owned by private individuals. If you must have the original, though, you'll have to hightail it to Arizona after the New Year.

Barrett-Jackson Lot: 5037 - 0 #1 BATMOBILE [Barrett-Jackson via Nerdcore]

We've already established that cheese-making is a pretty disgusting process, what with the traditional process of deriving enzymes from calf bile. But one group of researchers has tried getting the bacteria necessary for the cheese-making process from an even more unusual source: the human body. They've explored the microbial diversity of the human ecosystem—and the relationship between the human body and our food—by seeing what flavors of cheese our bacteria produce.

Biologist Christina Agapakis and scent expert Sissel Tolaas worked on this unusual culinary sciences project as part of Synthetic Aesthetics, a synthetic biology project run by the University of Edinburgh and Stanford University. Agapakis was curious as to whether there might be human origins to some of our modern cheese flavors. So she got to swabbing armpits, hands, feet, and noses, inoculated milk with the swabs, and incubated now bacteria-filled milk. She used identical methods to strain and press the cheeses, getting a variety of flavors as a result.

So what does armpit cheese smell like? It depends on whose armpit it is. Here were the results of Agapakis' taste test:

You can read more about the project on Agapakis' website, including her thesis chapter about the project.

Cheese [Christina Agapakis via Neatorama]

Photo credit: DWaschnig/Shutterstock.

This parody video by The Hillywood Show opens with Bilbo Baggins opening his door to Gandalf and a group of rowdy Dwarves. But instead of showing off their plate-throwing skills and singing haunting music, the Dwarves start pounding drinks to LMFAO's party rock anthem "Shots." It's a weird combination, but surprisingly well executed. Who would have thought J.R.R. Tolkien and Lil Jon would go so well together?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Parody [The Hillywood Show via The Mary Sue]

Have you ever wondered just how far and how frequently your ball travels during a game of pinball? Have you ever wanted a record of a particularly high-scoring game? Graphic designer Sam Van Doorn modified a pinball machine that does more than just record the highest scores: it records every path the ball travels over the course of your game.

For his STYN installation, Van Doorn built a simple pinball machine with a small twist. Posters can be fitted over the table so that, at the end of your game, you have a unique representation of your game. (It's not clear from his write up whether the ball itself contains a pigment or if there's pigment underneath the poster.) Van Doorn's goal was to create a pinball machine that functions as more than just a game; he wanted to transform the machine into an art-making device, one in which the final design is based on the interaction between human and machine. Of course, he notes, the better your pinball game, the better the poster you create in the end.

STYN [Sam Van Doorn via fubiz]

Every now and then, we stumble across a robotics project that just makes our hearts melt. Shanshan Zhou, Adam Ben-Dror, and Joss Doggett used Processing, Arduino, and OpenCV to create Pinokio, a robotic lamp that calls to mind Pixar's bouncing mascot, Luxo Jr. And Pinokio is most certainly worthy of the comparison, just watch this video in which he interacts with his environment and tries to get the attention of the nearest human being. By the time Pinokio's human friend reaches for the off switch, we're already in love.

[via The Daily What]

When it comes to wild things in the woods, Max has nothing on Princess Mononoke. In this sweet mashup by Justin Hillgrove, the various spirits and creatures from Studio Ghibli's films pay tribute to San, the wildest of them all.

Hillgrove painted this tribute for the upcoming show, "Icons & Influences," coming to the Ltd. Gallery in Seattle this April. Also on his list of unexpected combinations, Charlie Brown as Ash in The Peanuts Evil Dead. It's the Necronomicon, Charlie Brown.

New Pieces for Ltd. Gallery show happening April 2013 [Imps and Monsters via The Mary Sue]

We've seen a lot of clever responses to the spine-twisting, butt-baring poses so many female comic book characters are subjected to, but the Hawkeye Initiative is particularly fun. Their mission: to take those particularly awful poses and replace the female characters with Hawkeye.

Why Hawkeye? It seems it all began when artist Blue decided to switch the poses and positions of Hawkeye and the Black Widow on one of their comic book covers:

Then Blue and Noelle Stevenson (also known as Gingerhaze and creator of the fabulous webcomic Nimona threw a challenge out to Tumblr: fix those "Strong Female Character" poses by replacing them with Hawkeye doing the same thing. And the Hawkeye Initiative Tumblr was born. Granted, the poses aren't always exact copies; the contributors are having a bit of silly fun and tend to give Hawkeye but sparkles or make him mug for the camera. But it's always interesting to see artists recontextualize a female pose with a male character.

I posted a few of the entries below. You can see more at the Hawkeye Initiative.

The Hawkeye Initiative [via Metafilter]

by viperf0x

by curseofthefanartlords

by Gingerhaze

If you grew up watching Bill Nye, or just love anything that combines education with entertainment, you can fund Nye's latest project, a video game that teaches players about the physics of flight. Also on the crowdfunding table this week is the long-anticipated Showrunners documentary and a poster featuring all the ACME products Wile E. Coyote ever ordered.

AERO 3D Bird Flight Game with Bill Nye and GameDesk: The Science Guy is partnering with the nonprofit game developer GameDesk to create a game that teaches players about the dynamics of bird flight. AERO will help break down concepts like lift, drag, thrust, constant and terminal velocity, gravity, banking, turning, and more by having players fly a bird through a 3D environment filled with islands they can land on, take off from, and explore. For a $10 pledge, you'll receive a copy of the game for iPad.

Showrunners: A Documentary Film: We've been eagerly awaiting the Showrunners documentary since last spring, when we first learned this film would give us an inside look into Fringe, Lost, BSG, Torchwood, and many of our other favorite television shows. Showrunners takes us behind the TV scenes with the folks who keep these shows running day in and day out. For a $25 pledge, you'll receive an HD download of the film, a copy of the original score, and more.

A giant poster of every ACME product, ever: Remember all those questionable gadgets and gizmos Wile E. Coyote used to hunt the Road Runner? Rob Loukotka carefully studied every single Coyote and Road Runner cartoon and collected every ACME product that appears in the series in one enormous poster. There's just one pledge level here: for $30, you get the poster shipped to your door.

The first night of Hanukkah is less than a week away, and the engineers of Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, are getting ready with their unnecessarily complicated menorah lighting system, in which a Rube Goldberg device triggers a robotic arm, and nitroglycerin provides the fire.

[via Neatorama]

In a future where time machines come with a fare meter, anyone with cash and strong cab-hailing skills can travel back in time to that meeting they've already missed. Just pray you flag down one of the flying DeLorean cabs, because there's no way you're getting up to 88 miles per hour on city streets.

To advertise Nooka, a New York-based fashion company, Mike Lubrano has imagined transforming DeLoreans into fully operational New York City cabs (these are just concept images). I just hope they rotate the drivers out before they go bonkers from hearing Back to the Future quoted at them all day.

DeLorean Taxi [Mike Lubrano via Laughing Squid]

This was one of those episodes of Clone Wars that made me wish I had a child on hand to watch the show with me, because this was one of the most child-geared episodes of the season. (Even more than the "Young Jedi" arc.) The Republic droids were sent on a covert mission, one that brought us a thimble-sized military officer, the Republic's own horror movie mad scientist, and a bumbling droid who threatened to become the second coming of Jar Jar Binks (albeit without the racist undertones). But in the end it proved a pretty simple, if forgettable, side adventure, one whose protagonist is ultimately more competent than I feared.

This episode promised to star R2-D2 and his fellow Republic droids as they embarked on a mission to retrieve a Separatist decoding module from one of the battleships. But the astromechs don't speak English and aren't really equipped for heartfelt discussions, so we also get a speaking droid: WAC-47, who enters the scene late for Mace Windu's briefing and chatters all the way through it. Then Windu bows out and introduces the droids to their field commander, Colonel Meebur Gascon, the teeny little military guy. Gascon is the stereotypical straight-laced commander, the sort of guy who tolerates no guff. The sort of guy who would use the word "guff" in a sentence. He also happens to be one apple high.

Naturally, Gascon despises WAC at first squawk. WAC constantly interrupts him (taking issue with Gascon calling all the droids "mechs" when he clearly is not) and calls him "captain," "commander," "corporal," pretty much any officer title that starts with "c" and isn't "colonel." But Gascon, for his part, is an experienced field commander, one who thinks that the best way to earn his team's respect is by constantly insulting them. He refuses to call WAC by his name, instead terming him "cyclops."

A few of the droids get modifications at the hands of the uber-creepy Dr. Gubacher, who fondles his subjects lovingly with his spindly fingers as he talks about all the weird upgrades (and downgrades) he's going to give them. Wouldn't mind seeing this guy pop up now and again. R2 gets those rocket boosters, while the other droids get a super-magnet and a laser cutter. One poor droid gets his memory taken out, and we find out why Gascon has been selected for this particular mission: he fits inside a droid's memory banks. When WAC complains that he hasn't gotten any upgrades, Gascon snaps that it's because he's "just a pilot."

There's nothing like a challenge to get a screw-up to screw up faster. WAC sets a collision course for the Separatist battleship, which lands their ship in a tractor beam. All the droids, including the one Gascon is hiding in, are taken into custody. Gascon tells everyone to stay calm, but R2 disobeys orders, attacking one of the guard droids. WAC actually helps take down the other, providing a distraction so one of the astromechs can zap him.

They continue with Gascon's plan, triggering a temporary power loss to put the security system on manual override, which naturally alerts the battle droids to the fact that something fishy might be going on. WAC volunteers to distract the security guards away from the vault, and Gascon agrees against his better judgment. WAC actually has little trouble with the task, simply telling the guards that General Grievous has ordered him to test the vault's security. The Clone Wars hinge not on the prowess of the Republic, but the stupidity of low-level Separatist droids.

It's Gascon who ultimately falters, sticking his host droid's toolkit into a boobytrapped lock, shorting him out. Unnerved, Gascon tells the droids that one of them is going to have to open the vault door and grab the encryption module. When one of the astromechs beeps that he should grab the module himself, Gascon hedges, saying he's not prepared for this sort of crisis. WAC presses him further, Gascon admits that he's a military strategist, not a field officer. "You're a map reader?" WAC asks, and the astromechs giggle in response. (Incidentally, when Gascon says that his size might have played a "small role" in his being chosen for this particular mission, I can practically hear R2-D2 beep either, "No pun intended" or "That's what she said.") Then, while Gascon is busy monologuing about how he's waited a lifetime for a field assignment like this, R2 just goes ahead and unlocks the door.

Riding high again, Gascon outlines the next phases of their plan, explaining just how they'll manage to grab the encryption module. But now WAC has his doubts about following an officer who's never been into a battle—a notion that gives Gascon the huffs. WAC, speaking on behalf of the droids, agrees to follow Gascon's plan on the condition that he starts being nicer to them, "You have to stop calling us stupid names, shorty." That line pretty much sums up the episode. Sure, Gascon isn't the nicest military officer we've seen (though he's by no means the worst) and the droids aren't exactly soldiers, but they've been disobeying orders left and right while WAC can't even be arsed to remember Gascon's title. But Gascon agrees to play nice until one of them screws up again.

The rest of the mission goes off more or less as planned, although the battle droids appear just as R2 is about to seize the module. The Republic droids' quick thinking and Gascon's willingness to engage the tactical droid mano-a-roboto gives them a chance to grab the chip and flee. On the way, though, they come across the fallen body of Gascon's host droid, and R2 refuses to leave without his comrade. Gascon, having just learned a valuable lesson about droids and their feelings, agrees, and on their way out, they are once again aided by the utter guilelessness of the Separatist droids. Gascon offers back pats all around and WAC finally calls him "colonel." End scene.

I'm kind of on the fence about this episode, which I felt was a bit gimmick-laden between WAC and the pint-sized colonel. I was prepared to thoroughly hate WAC when he showed up—the last thing the Star Wars universe needs is another character whose key traits are incompetence and a tendency to talk too much. But by the end of the episode, after WAC showed he could execute a plan with a little restraint and that he clearly understood the capabilities of the astromechs better than Gascon did, I didn't hate him, but I didn't particularly like him either. Watching and rewatching the episode, I got the sense that this was one of those episodes that likely appeals more to the younger Clone Wars audience, and I'm just being grumpy about a character aimed at kids. So I throw it out to you all (especially those of you who watch with younger viewers): what did you think of this episode and of WAC?

Apparently, we missed the episode of Doctor Who in which the TARDIS' personality matrix enters the body of an alpaca. Maybe that will be part of Neil Gaiman's next Who script?

[ThinkGeek via Fashionably Geek]

While we're waiting for Peter Jackson's big-budget return to Middle Earth, stop-motion filmmakers Brotherhood Workshop are giving us a Tolkien adaptation that may lack big stars but more than makes up for it in plastic minifigs. In this installment, Orcs lay siege to Helm's Deep, where Legolas has a little bit of trouble staying on task.

Brotherhood Workshop has been releasing a series of these LEGO Lord of the Rings parody videos, often with key characters doing silly things. In this one, Legolas offers to get Gimli a box so he can see over the keep walls, then spends the rest of the video looking for such a box, and losing track of the fact that he's supposed to be killing Orcs.

Oh, and in case you were wondering who Jerry is:

[via GeekTyrant]

If Jhonen Vasquez (of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim fame) wrote about the horrors of working a cubicle job, he might have come up with something along the lines of Corporate Skull. Jamie Smart's webcomic stars an unassuming office drone whose face is ripped off in a freak photocopier accident. He becomes the hard-drinking, misanthropic Skull, who, despite his tendency to destroy everything he touches, happens to be his pharmaceutical company's best employee. He also may be the only one who can stop the coming apocalypse—if his bosses can keep him from quitting his job.

Alan Buttons was a sad-sack salesman at the possibly nefarious Curb Pharmaceuticals. He had a job he didn't particularly like. He's got a dog that leaks from every orifice. And he doesn't like people. At all. The one exception is Veronica, a sweet but dim girl who proves his undoing. After failing to overdose on Curb vitamins, Alan goes into work sick and bleeding from his nose, only to come to Veronica's rescue when she has a problem with the copier. But then Alan's tie—and eventually his face—gets caught in the paper feed and Veronica is too flaky to turn off the machine.

That's when Alan Buttons dies and Corporate Skull is born. Skull may have Buttons' memories and his misanthropy, but where Alan was quiet and depressed, Skull is boisterous, violent, and wildly inappropriate. He's perpetually drunk, constantly insults his coworkers (though, to be honest, they give as good as they get), and when he's not riding go-karts through the office, he's building himself a throne or redecorating a coworker's desk with cow's blood. However, he still manages to outperform every other salesperson in the office.

But that's not the only reason Skull is important. Strange things are going on at Curb—strange things involving the pantless IT guy, the giant monster that roams the halls at night, especially violent corporate headhunters, and a plot to destroy all of humanity. For Skull, the question is: Which side is Curb Pharmaceuticals on? And does he really care enough about the world to save it?

Smart gives us a high-energy black comedy, one filled with despicable characters who are nevertheless endless fun to watch. Skull is a winning protagonist not because he shows any sort of compassion (he doesn't) or has any redeeming moral qualities (he has none), but because he's endlessly inventive with his capacity for destruction (both deliberate and accidental) and he shows plenty of genuine curiosity about his current situation. In fact, Skull may ultimately do the right thing and save the world, but he will probably do it less from any heroic impulse than out of spite.

[Corporate Skull]

It's hard to mention Star Wars and the holidays in the same breath without reliving the horrors of Life Day, but PJ McQuade's witty cards are almost enough to cleanse Wookiee winter rituals from our brains. Now we just imagine Bossk's sleigh pulled by eight tiny tauntauns.

You can purchase these cards (as well as an "I Brake for Tauntauns" bumper sticker) from McQuade's Etsy Store.

[Castle McQuade via XombieDIRGE]

Just because Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard knows that the world isn't going to end this month doesn't mean she can't have a little fun with the doomsday predictions. She recorded this video for Australia's Triple J radio and, in grand deadpan, warns us of the world's greatest apocalyptic threat: K-pop.

Game on, Mr. Obama. Where's the Unites States' joking apocalyptic warning?

[via The Mary Sue]

Along with his new companion, the Doctor is getting a new TARDIS interior. BBC America released this small hint to the new design—cold metallics with Circular Gallifreyan inscriptions. Anyone want to take a crack at translating it? (Or, rather, hazard a guess as to what it's about?)

[BBC America via Nerd Approved]

Carl Sagan's lyrical and resonant ode to the planet Earth as seen from a great distance receives a lovely companion animation thanks to the animation studio ORDER. Much like Sagan's original musings, ORDER's animation is understated, while contemplating our place in a vast universe.

[via Kuriositas]