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His mother said Griffin was 'kidnapped' in front of her

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Under local anesthesia, a woman in England was able to play her clarinet for the first time in 5 years whilst receiving treatment for Parkinson’s disease. The deep-brain stimulation (DBS) procedure promised, if successful, to restore motor control in the patient’s hands such that she would be able to play her beloved instrument again, and […] The post Parkinson’s Patient Plays Clarinet During Brain Surgery–Is ‘Delighted’ with How it Went (WATCH) appeared first on Good News Network.

Featured Essays vampires Bite or Flight: Ranking Classic Vampire Strengths and Weaknesses Different vampires have different rules — how do your favorites measure up? By Rachel Ayers | Published on October 27, 2025 Credit: Universal Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Universal Pictures I enjoy studying folklore, looking into all the various versions of specific stories that get told and retold. This October, I’ve found myself drawn irresistibly to darker lore, poring over tales of the vampire, the nosferatu, the shadowy lords of the night. These fanged and ferocious creatures lure us in, lulling the senses until the fateful moment when they bite us and drain us of our blood. (Or maybe just snack on some of our blood. Depends on the story—and the vamp!) That’s the thing about vampires—there’s quite a bit of variety when it comes to their abilities, their behavior and motivations, and the rules by which they operate. You may argue that vampires and their many mysteries might be a bit overexposed these days, but I maintain that they remain endlessly fascinating in their various permutations—it’s part of what draws us to their stories, making vampire mythology so compelling that they never really fall out of fashion, even after spending more than a century in the pop culture spotlight. There are certain elements that connect most, if not all, vampire stories, from folklore and Carmilla and Count Dracula all the way through the current crop of bloodsuckers popping up all over page and screen. Below, I’ve created a survey of the various strengths and weakness attributed to vampirekind in different books, movies, and TV series—it’s not an exhaustive list by any means, but it serves to illuminate the points of connection between these stories while also exploring how different writers and creators find new twists or different ways of playing with the basic “rules” of vampirism. For my own amusement, I’ve assigned a score to each category, because why not? Obviously, your mileage may vary, so feel free to create your own scores, and I hope you’ll bring up your own favorite examples in the discussion that follows! Let’s begin with vampire strengths and special abilities… Blending In Can these undead creatures blend with normal modern society? You’ve got your True Bloods, your Buffyverse, your Dresden Files types—vampires who can all appear normal for the most part, but transform to some degree when they hunt or feed. Or to take it one degree further, consider the vampires of Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy: daywalkers who don’t even bother to have fangs, but just leave human-shaped bite marks. (Doesn’t it seem like that would hurt more?) On the other end of the scale, you’ve got those vampires who always appear monstrous, such as the titular Nosferatu (in any of the three movie versions) or Stephen King’s Kurt Barlow. It must be an advantage to blend in, especially in modern human society. There are simply so many humans, compared to the vampire population, and humans are reliably fickle—it doesn’t do to set off the villagers with their pitchforks and torches if not absolutely necessary. So it makes sense to give the vampires that can transform and blend in with their potential victims +1 on our scale. Transformation Similar to blending in, this is another skillset that varies greatly from one mythology to another, and even within the same stories. Most versions of Dracula and our friends from What We Do in the Shadows take advantage of this ability often. As the old village woman (played by the great Anne Bancroft) says in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, “They take the form of wolves or bats and puncture the throats of their victims with their teeth and drink their bloo-oo-oo-ood!” Other vampires have been known to change into mist, rats, or even swarms of insects or grotesque human/animal combinations, like Gary Oldman turning into a giant man-bat in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This seems like a crazy helpful advantage in almost any situation: +3 for the ability to change things up at will! Immortality / Healing Perhaps I should have listed this first, given that it is perhaps the main draw of vampirism, from a mortal’s point of view. Vampires can afford to be patient, both with society and compound interest. Slayers getting a little too close? Move across the country for a couple generations. Bored with living forever? Sleep for a few decades and when you’re ready, wake up to see all the new and exciting changes! I’m going to lump super healing powers in with immortality, because they seem to be facets of the same factor. Vampires heal, therefore they remain unalive. Of course, various mythologies play around with this. Take the Baron in What We Do in the Shadows: Once his head and torso are dug up, we presume he continues to feed, but it’s not until a genie restores his form that he actually recovers fully. But plenty of vampires can regenerate as long as they are able to partake of their favorite drink—think of Lestat de Lioncourt, who survives all manner of horrific injuries in the books and the different adaptations of Anne Rice’s source material. And if you’re playing Vampire: The Masquerade, don’t worry about losing a limb in a fight, you can regrow it as long as you don’t get fully totally killed. +4 for immortality, since it’s pretty hard to beat. Mesmerism / Compulsion Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a huge advantage in being able to convince people to do anything you want. Think about it the next time you’re on hold with customer service: don’t you wish you could simply ensorcell the world into doing your bidding, fooling one customer service rep at a time? (Maybe that’s the real reason for the endless AI hold robots you’ve got to wade through to get to a human; I assume AI is immune to glamour, but who knows?) This is an ability that dates back to works like John Polidori’s The Vampyre and classic depictions of Count Dracula and carries all the way through from Dark Shadows to The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. There are always those outliers who are immune, your half-elf Sookies and your Van Helsing-bloodline Guillermos who cannot be hypnotized (but sometimes pretend to be under the right plot circumstances). +2 to vamps who can mesmerize their goons or prey. Superhuman Abilities I was tempted to break these out individually into categories like super strength, super senses, super speed, etc., but it’s rare to find a vampire without some or all of these, so I’m lumping them together. Some vampires are fully fledged and in possession of these abilities from the moment they’re turned, but often vampires develop these abilities more over time. Generally speaking, the older the vamp, the more dangerous and powerful. You can see this play out in the Mercy Thompson stories, for example: The older vampires collect seethes and are in charge of their younger counterparts because they’ve been around longer, and they get stronger with age. On the other hand, in the Twilight universe, new baby vamps are the strongest because they have so much residual human blood in their system, though that only lasts about a year, and they remain plenty powerful afterward—I mean, we’ve all seen them play baseball. It’s weird, but impressive: +2 per superhuman ability. Flight Perhaps because we associate them so closely with bats, many vampires are also known for their ability to fly. Well, some can, some can’t, but it’s hard to argue that it’s anything other than a strength. In the Buffyverse, vampires can’t fly—probably for budgetary reasons, more than anything else. In Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, only the most ancient vampires can fly (an ability known as “the cloud gift”). In True Blood, it varies from individual to individual—when Sookie asks Eric Northman if all vampires can fly, he responds, “Can all humans sing?” Flying is a talent limited to only those with the special skill, or who have worked to develop the ability. Flying (or at least levitation) remains a common skill among pop culture’s vamp pantheon, from the titular Lost Boys of the 1987 film to Eli in Let the Right One In to many (though not all) of the vampires of Castlevania. +1 to vampires who can, indeed, fly. Now, let us turn our attention to some of the less glamorous downsides of vampirism, and consider some major vampire weaknesses… Sunlight Sunshine, of course, is the slayer’s greatest ally. Most vampires live in fear of the sun—some to such an extreme that being caught out of their coffin during daylight hours is instantly debilitating or deadly (another shout out to Count Orlok of Nosferatu fame, as seen in the clip above). Others need merely apply sunscreen for at least a few hours of safety. Some are utterly destroyed, turned to dust and ash, by the application of direct sunlight; others are merely roasted to the bone, but may be rehabilitated over time (there are examples of both of these outcomes in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, of course). -2 for any vampires that can’t handle their daylight. But! Let’s consider another vampire phenomenon: that of the daywalker. Some vampire mythos do away with the ban on direct sunlight entirely, and make sunshine a misdirect. The vampires in the All Souls Trilogy are all daywalkers; sunlight isn’t a factor for them. And of course you’ve got your sparkly Twilight vamps, who are genetically bedazzled to shine in sunlight, but don’t suffer any ill effects. Then there are special cases, like the half-vampire Blade, a singular Daywalker who has all the strengths of his vampire foes without sharing their weaknesses (if other vamps head out during the day, they have to be absolutely slathered in sunblock. It looks ridiculous). Having sunshine as a key weapon on the side of our slayers is a major score for the humans, which makes for, let’s be honest, more interesting story options. Let’s add +1 to any mythology that includes daywalkers—except in stories where all of the vamps are immune to daylight, in which case they get a neutral score for being a little less exciting. Relocation Next, let’s consider mobility. Is the vampire able to simply flee and relocate when under threat? Evidence suggests yes in most cases, though with varying degrees of difficulty. In many cases, a coffin filled with the soil of the vampire’s native land is necessary to maintain vampire health and wellness, which does make for some rather large luggage. Additionally, careful planning must go into making arrangements for night travel only. This idea originated with OG Dracula, but the tradition has carried on with the vampires of Underworld, Let the Right One In, and What We Do in the Shadows. I’ll give -1 to vampires who need their native soil, because it can be a dire difficulty if they lose their dirt, which could also be tricky to replace. Silver This is sometimes a factor and sometimes not. It’s a major weakness for vamps in the True Blood mythology, which really helps to balance the scales when it comes to human/vampire interactions: Got a vampire problem? Not if you have a silver chain! Just whip that metal cord over your vamp, and suddenly they cannot move at all. This is a more modern twist, borrowed from other folkloric traditions; classically, it’s the werewolves that have a problem with silver, but some vampire stories have borrowed it in recent years. Dark Shadows, Blade, Underworld: all these (relatively) recent mythologies include silver, which has long been associated with purity (and also, perhaps not coincidentally, with mirror production). -3 for silver weakness. Mirrors Speaking of… I’ve got to say, it’s rare to see a vampire’s lack of reflection as a benefit, as it most often reveals the creature for what it is, usually in the middle of a big crowd of angry humans. Maybe the most fun you can have with this is the big dance scene in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, when we get to see Mina flying solo through the air during her Dracula duet. So that’s -1 for not being reflective (but at least +1 for amazing ballroom dancing skills). Garlic This particular vampire bane is one of the most controversial mythological elements. Folklore suggests that the strong smell of garlic is a deterrent to creatures with sensitive noses. Given that garlic has antibiotic properties, it’s not surprise that it became associated with health and wholesomeness. However, many modern mythologies often make fun of this particular weakness, either giving it a pass or a handwave explanation. In The Lost Boys, our young vampire hunters find that garlic doesn’t work (but happily, holy water does!) Maybe vampires don’t LOVE garlic, but it’s not always a weakness outside of classic Dracula stories—though maybe that’s changing, given that pickled garlic plays a key role in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. We’ll give a -1 to any vamps with this allergy. Religious Items / Symbols of Faith Speaking of holy water, classically, a cross or Bible or other holy relic associated with Christ or Christianity would do the trick when it comes to defeating a nosferatu. More recent stories often incorporate other faiths as well with some takes on vampire mythology demonstrating that a true symbol of any religious faith will protect the wearer, as long as it aligns with their personal beliefs. Other types of vampire stories have veered away from the religious aspects or put a new spin on the relationship between vampires and the sacred, especially in works which seek to humanize and complicate the idea of vamps as cursed monsters. In the All Souls Trilogy, Matthew Clairmont is a (sometimes secretly) practicing Catholic and fully capable of wearing/handling a cross or crucifix—the secrecy has to do with the fraught politics of Elizabethan England, not because he’s a vampire. On the other hand, if you’ve ever sat all the way through the ending of Dracula 2000, in which Gerard Butler stars as a hip young Dracula who also (spoilers!) turns out to be Judas Iscariot, you’ll know that some folks still can’t resists going all in on the religious aspects of vampire lore (for better or worse). -2 for any vampires that are weak to the power of faith. At the outset, I’ll admit I was tempted to go full UFV (Ultimate Fighting Vampionship) with this whole ranking system—and I still think it would be fun to throw all these vampires in the metaphorical ring together and seeing who comes out on top. In terms of storytelling, though? It doesn’t really matter which vampire is technically the strongest or most powerful—in the end, I personally get the greatest enjoyment from a well-balanced mythology, in which our supernatural characters (whether they be heroes, antiheroes, or villains) have a mix of key strengths and weaknesses, and their potential prey stand a chance of resisting or fighting back. You can have a great story or extremely entertaining movie in which the vampire mythos is pretty basic or vague and muddy, and you can also have a very cool take on vampire mythology with only middling stories and characters bringing it to life. My personal favorite mythos is True Blood, because the creatures’ strengths and weaknesses are so well balanced, and the vampires are still so deeply human in spite of all their biological differences. The average human stands a chance against the average vampire and vice versa, which means the stakes (not the wooden kind—those are still bad for vamps) are always high, and you never really know which way things are going to go. Of course, vampire stories aren’t all trying to do the same thing. A successful mythology works best to support the story that the author is trying to tell, whether it’s to make us shudder in fear, shiver with desire, point out that we’re all just people trying to make it in this crazy world, or simply to make us laugh out loud. All these strengths and weaknesses can be applied on a sliding scale that goes from campy and soapy to light and comedic all the way through to weighty, thought-provoking, and serious, and ideally, these elements will be used to enhance the kind of story being told according to those particular circumstances. There’s a vast difference between a terrifying human-sized monster suddenly vanishing into mist and wings, able to reappear unexpectedly at any moment—versus a guy in a goofy outfit screaming “BAT!” and flapping away into the night, and the fact that vampire stories allow us to enjoy all these wildly different moods and flavors might be their greatest strength of all. Now, I know what kind of mythology and rules work best for me, but what about you? How do you rank your favorite vampire mythologies? What are your favorite kinds of vampire, and favorite aspects of vampire lore and legend? Who are you usually rooting for—the vampires themselves, or the Van Helsings and other hunters hellbent on ending their reign of terror (or at least on making sure they behave themselves, more or less)? So much depends on your personal preferences and point of view, so sound off and let’s discuss![end-mark] The post Bite or Flight: Ranking Classic Vampire Strengths and Weaknesses appeared first on Reactor.

If you want to understand why there’s hope for a rebirth in America—restoring it to once again cherish faith, family, and country—remember Bill Middendorf, who recently passed away at the age of 101. At every turning point in modern history, Bill helped turn the USA the right way. Bill was part of the “greatest generation.” In 1944, he served as engineer officer and then navigator aboard a warship. He kept a model of the ship in his study. Bill’s wartime experience started him on a lifetime of selfless service and, in particular, an enduring relationship with his Navy. Until his death, he remained an active supporter of the Naval War College Foundation. In 1964, when Barry Goldwater ran for president, Bill was by his side as campaign finance chairman. Goldwater lost, but his campaign marked the beginning of the emergence of the modern conservative movement. In the 1970s, Bill served as secretary of the Navy, steering the service past the low point of the post-Vietnam War era. Then, Bill became a lifelong trustee of a fledgling think tank called The Heritage Foundation, an organization that has nurtured American conservative thought and policies from the dark days of Jimmy Carter’s presidency to the triumphs of President Donald Trump. He was one the influential soldiers in the Reagan Revolution, serving as a key supporter in both the campaign and the administration. Bill was a determined advocate for missile defense and especially the Aegis System. He was a life-long advocate of “peace through strength.” So intensely proud of Reagan’s efforts to end the long and dangerous Cold War and liberate captured nations from the communist yoke, Bill was one of the first Americans to race to Berlin to chip off a piece of the wall. Then, when Trump stood on balcony of his building in New York City and declared his candidacy for president, Bill became one of his first and most enthusiastic supporters. While Trump may not sound or act like Reagan, Bill saw in him all of Reagan’s strength and character and knew Trump was going to be the next leader of the American conservative movement. Even at 100, still writing op-eds and yet another book, there were few things that made Bill more excited than talking about Trump’s second presidency and the future opportunities for the American nation.  There are plenty of obituaries and remembrances of Bill’s life that give far more details of his accomplishments, skills, and talents, as well as of his personal life of success and character as the father of a loving and gifted family. What should not be lost, however, is recalling that at the great world-changing moments of choosing in modern history—from serving in World War II to ushering the resurgence of the modern American conservative movement—Bill didn’t just choose well, he led well, like a captain steering the great ship of state to the natural shore where family, and faith, and patriotism, and caring for this great country will flourish.  America can only be as great as it is because the Bill Middendorfs of America gave us their best. The post Bill Middendorf: The Man at the Turning Point appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Australia’s top online regulator, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, is intensifying her push to reshape speech in the digital world. Her office has formally warned major social platforms and several AI chatbot companies that they could soon be forced to comply with far-reaching new age verification and “online safety” requirements that many see as expanding government control over online communication. The warnings are part of the government’s effort to enforce the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024, which would bar Australians under 16 from creating social media accounts. Letters sent to Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, X, and YouTube make it clear that each company is expected to fall under the scope of the new law. The Commissioner’s preliminary assessment is that these services exist mainly for “online social interaction,” which brings them within the definition of social media platforms and subjects them to strict age verification and child protection obligations. Not all of the companies accept that classification. Snapchat claims to be primarily a messaging platform similar to WhatsApp, while YouTube has opposed losing its original exemption. At this stage, only services with a clear focus on messaging or education, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, YouTube Kids, and Google Classroom, remain excluded from the Commissioner’s oversight. More: Australia Wants To See Your Papers Before You Press Play Inman Grant has promised to maintain a “dynamic list” of which platforms are covered, explaining that it will be updated as services change or as young users move to other online spaces. “Over the coming weeks, eSafety will have more to say about the platforms it considers must comply with the minimum age obligations,” the agency said in a statement, hinting that additional services, including OpenAI’s Sora, could be added. At the same time, the Commissioner has turned her attention to AI chatbot developers. Her office has issued legal notices to Character Technologies, Inc. (character.ai), Glimpse.AI (Nomi), Chai Research Corp (Chai), and Chub AI Inc. (Chub.ai), ordering them to explain how they are protecting minors from “a range of harms, including sexually explicit conversations and images and suicidal ideation and self-harm.” The companies are being asked to demonstrate how they meet the Basic Online Safety Expectations (BOSE), a framework established under the Online Safety Act that goes far beyond ordinary child-safety standards. BOSE authorizes the government to demand detailed reports from digital service providers and to penalize those that fail to comply. Among its requirements are broad directives that “encrypted services, anonymous accounts, generative artificial intelligence (AI) and recommender systems can be used safely,” and that “harmful material and activity is minimized.” While framed as promoting safety, these rules give the Commissioner wide discretion to define what counts as acceptable online behavior. BOSE lists various “reasonable steps” that companies may take, such as user verification, partnerships with other platforms to curb what regulators describe as “pile-on attacks,” and the adoption of “age assurance mechanisms.” Companies that fail to cooperate risk serious financial penalties. Ignoring a reporting notice could result in court proceedings and daily fines of up to 825,000 Australian dollars (about 537,000 USD). Violating a compliance direction could bring civil penalties of up to 49.5 million AUD. “We are asking them about what measures they have in place to protect children from these very serious harms,” Inman Grant said. “I do not want Australian children and young people serving as casualties of powerful technologies thrust onto the market without guardrails and without regard for their safety and wellbeing.” Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, has become one of the most controversial figures in the country’s online landscape. Once presented as a digital safety advocate, she now oversees an agency with sweeping authority to police online speech, demand content removal, and enforce mandatory age verification under the guise of “protecting children.” It was amid this pressure that Inman Grant sought to shape the political narrative. In late August, she sent a five-page letter to shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh, attempting to head off an inquiry and defend her record. The letter, released through freedom of information laws, shows a Commissioner determined to protect her authority as questions about her expanding control over online speech intensify. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Australia’s eSafety Chief Pressures Big Tech and AI Firms on Verification, Age Checks appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

The Two Towers: Germany Making Sure They Can't Restart Any Nuclear Plants

Are our humble eyes a match for this futuristic technology?