Library of Human Imagination

Being a lover of books, I was oohing and aahing over the libraries in this list of the 20 most beautiful on Oddee.com. All of the libraries but one are institutional: the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; Trinity College Library, Dublin; Rijkmuseum Library, Amsterdam. But one pair of photos was captioned "Jay Walker's Private Library." Who was this Jay Walker?, I wondered. He is, as it turns out, a man who values ideas and has had many of his own. He holds more than 200 patents and founded and chairs Walker Digital, which dreams up new ways for businesses to operate and serve customers, including the innovations behind Priceline.com. This has made him a billionaire and given him the resources to build his Library of Human Imagination at his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut. It is not an accumulation of rare first editions, but instead his own 3-story, 3,600-square-foot cabinet of curiosities. His treasures - which he likes to juxtapose to make mind-expanding connections (like a 16th c. map with a modern map that was carried to the moon and back) - include:

• A trilobite, a clutch of dinosaur eggs, and a raptor skeleton
  
• A box of prosthetic eyeballs
• An original Sputnik 1 satellite
• The first English translation of the Bible and the first book to include illustrations of surgery on humans
• Part of a meteorite
• A globe of the moon signed by 9 of the 12 astronauts who walked on it
• A 1943 napkin on which Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) outlined his plan to win World War II

The library was built in 2002 and is open to groups and guests by special invitation. It features Escher-styled wood tiling, bridges panelled with glass etched by Clyde Lynds, and a custom soundtrack. "It's an engagement space," says Walker, who gets excited about things that changed the way people think. Here is a video of him illustrating the concept. Members of his own think tank often meet there. Lucky!

Forensic pathologists

Thanks to the 1976-1983 television drama "Quincy M.E." and because of his many high-profile cases, Dr. Thomas Noguchi (pictured, top) became the country's most well-known forensic pathologist. Dr. Noguchi, now retired, became coroner-chief medical examiner of the County of Los Angeles in the 1960s. As "coroner to the stars," he has autopsied a number of celebrities: John Belushi (1949-1982), William Holden (1918-1981), Janis Joplin (1943-1970), Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), Marilyn Monroe,(1926-1962), Sharon Tate (1943-1969), and Natalie Wood (1938-1981). When asked in a 1986 interview how forensic scientists differ from other scientists, Dr. Noguchi answered, "The public expects unusual personalities, but we are temperamentally similar to lab researchers. Yet medical detectives are congenial and able to work closely with police, juries, and lawyers. Also forensic leaders never give up -- we work at a case even though many years may go by. Gallows humor, or better, morgue humor, is a safety valve for us. Because of the pressure of being surrounded by dead bodies and death scenes, we tend to see matters in a different vein."

With the popularity of TV crime shows, there are now 2 series based on forensic pathologists - both of them women. Kathy Reichs works for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of North Carolina and wrote the books that inspired the drama "Bones." Jan Garavaglia is the Chief Medical Examiner for Orange County, Florida, and stars in the documentary "Dr. G: Medical Examiner."

Several other forensic pathologists may not have name recognition, but are frequently interviewed on TV. Michael Baden, once the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, has consulted on many high-profile cases, including John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) and Sid Vicious (1957-1979), and the murder trials of O.J. Simpson, Phil Spector, and Claus von Bulow. Cyril Wecht, an expert in forensic medicine who has conducted more than 14,000 autopsies, was consulted or interviewed regarding the deaths of Vincent Foster (1945-1993), John and Robert Kennedy, Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969), David Koresh (1959-1993), Elvis Presley (1935-1977), and JonBenet Ramsey (1990-1996). Henry Lee (pictured, bottom) is Chief Emeritus for Scientific Services for the State of Connecticut and has assisted in the investigation of more than 6,000 cases. Of his profession, Dr. Lee writes, 'The forensic field is not lucrative. You cannot become wealthy. If you want to be challenged, it’s the right field. But you have to have a good science background. You also have to learn to use deductive and inductive logic. You need to have curiosity. You can’t have an 8-to-4 attitude. I never have a day where I go home at 4:00. You have to have that persistence. Then you need an attitude, that you do your best. Win, lose, draw, you don’t care. Don’t let public opinion pressure you. Don’t let the police pressure you. Don’t let anything pressure you to do something unethical. Then you can survive and become one of the best forensic scientists.”

Toenails (or lack thereof)

I am grinning with delight at being able to share with you a strange practice I learned about late last night. Take a look at the feet depicted above. You will notice, if you look closely, that they have no toenails! Long-distance runners - particularly ultramarathoners, who compete in 50- or 100-mile races - often lose toenails that turn black and blue from banging in their shoes, then they grow back misshapen or ingrown. Some just deal with them on a case-by-case basis, but an estimated 5-10% of the 17,000 hardcore runners go to the extreme of having all 10 of their toenails surgically removed! A sports podiatrist explains, “A lot of them look at their toenails as useless appendages, remnants of claws from evolutionary times long ago. I’ve heard them say, ‘Toenails are dead weight.’ ” But they make great souvenirs! I am also giggling at the idea that one of these ultrarunners collected and documented some offending toenails (not all his) and made a necklace that he wears (top photo)! Permanent toenail removal makes perfect sense, especially considering the fact that at 2mm per month, toenails are growing 25% faster than those of our grandparents - possibly due to more protein in our diet.

Manikins

The Oxford English Dictionary distinguishes between mannequin (a model of a human figure, used for the display of clothes, etc.) and manikin (a model of the human body designed for demonstrating anatomical structure, or for teaching any of various surgical or medical procedures), although the media seem to use the spellings interchangeably. So technically, this post is about the many uses and occasional abuses of manikins.

Manikins have come a long way since Resusci Anne, although she is still used for CPR training. Her manufacturer Laerdal now offers Sim Man 3G, a wireless manikin that breathes, blinks, cries, and has convulsions. A manikin unveiled last month in Tokyo mimics the symptoms of the H1N1 virus, including moaning, sweating, and convulsing. Emergency Care Simulators used by the U.S. Army at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin bleed, breathe, and scream - and can be programmed to have an arm or leg blown off, as if by an IED. Texas Children's Hospital in Houston uses infant manikins in its new Pediatric Simulation Center.

Law enforcement officers experience both the use and misuse of "dummies." Students interested in becoming crime scene investigators train using low-tech manikins at Worcester Technical High School in Maryland. Trainees at the Orange County [Calif.] Sheriff's Office coroner division uses an extremely realistic manikin (photo above) featuring real hair, porous skin, and varicose feet. On the other hand, simulated humans have been used by commuters in many cities to warrant driving in the carpool lane. One prompted a bomb scare in Boston. Another caused police to recover what they thought were human remains from a Connecticut cliff. And a third provoked a water rescue in Portsmouth, England, that distracted a Good Samaritan long enough for thieves to rob him. These are just a few of the devious uses to which simulators have been put.

And I haven't even mentioned crash test dummies...

Pythons in the Everglades

I am very intrigued by this graphic. It shows what the non-native species of snake, the Burmese python, would devour in 5 to 7 years - by which time it would reach 13 feet. As you probably know, pythons (probably abandoned pets) have proliferated in this wetlands habitat and may now number tens of thousands, though no one knows for sure. A state-sponsored python hunt just came to an end with a tally of 37 of the snakes killed. Only 15 permits had been issued, though, and wildlife officials plan to issue 50 next year. But now there are also even meaner snakes to contend with: African rock pythons, compared to which "Burmese pythons are like pussycats."

Conjoined twins

Sculpture by Deborah Costandine. Photo by Jim Ziv.

Last week I heard from a woman who is in graduate school training to become an art therapist. She made the sculpture of cephalopagus conjoined twins above, which was purchased in 2007 by Northwestern University. For a look at the skeletal structure of a similar pair of twins, visit the Mütter Museum's virtual display of cephalothoracopagus twins. Human conjoined twins who share a head do not survive, as opposed to craniopagus twins - joined at the head - who can and do live well into adulthood, whether or not they are separated. Rarer are symmetrical dicephalus twins, who each have a head on a shared body. Separation for them would cause more disability than it would resolve and - if the twins have a single heart - is not even an option.

More follow-ups

Odd animals 11/4/09 An Australian girl is injured attempting to rescue an echidna from a storm drain.

Leonardo's lion 8/17/09 A portrait of Cosimo I de Medici (not by da Vinci) features the earliest depiction of a watch.

Adventurers Club 8/9/09 Neighbors of a man in Worcester, U.K., object to the multi-level treehouse he built.

Stain 8/6/09 Scientists prove that the ashes of the dead still emit radiation 60 years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Weird watercolors 8/1/09 A 10-year-old British piano prodigy has been compared to Mozart.

Cenotaph 7/31/09 A recent article about the measures undertaken to conserve the cenotaphs at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Creative cremains 7/24/09 A series by Irish photographer Maeve Berry takes as its subject the reduction of the human body in the crematory retort.

Bog bodies 6/19/09 The preserved remains of 17th c. Gunnister Man are returned from the National Museum of Scotland to Shetland, where he was discovered in 1951.

Birthing and hoarding bunnies 6/18/09 It's not hoarding yet, but a 20-year-old British woman has acquired 24 of these pygmy hedgehogs.

"Seven Pounds" 6/14/09 A blood-red jellyfish that has recently come to the attention of scientists.

Elusive animals 6/4/09 Three new species of caecilians - something between a snake and a worm - have been discovered in India. Some 850 new invertebrates have been found in the Australian outback. And 40 new species are discovered in a remote volcano in Papua New Guinea.

George Gaylord Simpson 5/25/09 An independent assessment has refuted the idea that the fossil known as "Ida" is the so-called missing link.

The house that May (re)built 5/23/09 A woman in Lawshall, Suffolk, England, has built an extension to her historic home using human hair.

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 Nine chihuahua puppies are led down a busy highway to a Texas animal shelter by their dad.

Robo-animals 4/9/09 Prosthetics for a calf that lost its hind legs to frostbite.

Fossil fuels 3/25/09 Swedish researchers find that it does not require fossilized animals and plants to generate crude oil and natural gas.

Poisonous fumes 3/17/09 An illustrated list of the 33 deadliest substances on earth.

Spider prey 3/7/09 Biologists have discovered the largest orb weaver spider yet. And British Airways cancelled a domestic flight in late October after a passenger had an unconfirmed sighting of a tarantula.

The Mole People 3/4/09 Like those living in the subway tunnels of New York, people are setting up house in the drains beneath Las Vegas.

Tool use and innovation in wild bottlenose dolphins 2/10/09 Dolphins play, using jellyfish as a ball! Unfortunately, a tourist died while swimming with dolphins in New Zealand in October.

Morbid motorcycles 1/28/09 Like the motorcycle hearses in this post, a psychelic hearse fills a certain niche market. Meanwhile, the family of an avid racing fan arranges for him to make a final lap around the local racetrack in his hearse.

Hedgehogs 1/8/09 In Edinburgh, a pregnant hedgehog wandered into the lobby of a luxury hotel and gave birth to triplets!

Cleaning skulls is a dirty job 12/7/08 Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs" has launched a website to help people find work.

Albinos 11/18/08 In September, 3 Tanzanian men were sentenced to death by hanging for killing a 14-year-old albino boy. And a story about a Brazilian woman who has given birth to 3 albino children.

Odd animals

What we have here (TOP) is a bald bear named Dolores. She and all the female bespectacled bears at a zoo in Leipzig, Germany, are suffering from a mystery condition - possibly a genetic defect - that causes sudden hair loss. The bears, which would normally be growing a thicker coat for the winter, are instead suffering from rashes and inflammation on their skin.
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Next up is a crooked-necked giraffe named Gemina. She was born at the Santa Barbara Wild Animal Park in California in 1986 with a straight neck. She developed the bend, which did not cause her any social or physical discomfort, at the age of 3. She was euthanized in 2008 when her quality of life declined and her appetite disappeared due to old age.
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Lastly, we have one of two echidnas named Moa and Kain who were just born to different mothers at the zoo in Perth, Australia. Echidnas are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity. These "puggles," as they are called, make 13 short-beaked echidnas bred in Australia; long-beaked echidnas have never been bred in captivity and are endangered in the wild.

More follow-ups

Shackleton 10/28/09 Kind words from reader Priscilla: "Again Christine has landed on one of my favorite subjects. Shackleton. I studied his journey to learn more about what a good leader does, and it is full of many examples that are relevant today. Even years later, his crew would refer to him as "Boss." One of his great talents was the ability to recognize talent in others and rely on it. Thanks, Christine!"

Gingko 10/25/09 My readers have fond memories of gingko trees. Priscilla says, "The legend is that gingkos would be extinct except they were preserved in captivity by Chinese monks because they are thought to be fireproof, thus safe next to precious wooden temples and monasteries. I miss the gingko my mother had in her garden, slender and brilliant." And Lisa writes, "When I lived in Brooklyn we had gingko trees all along my block and when the pods fell I would see little old Chinese women collecting them....I miss those gingko trees."

Winks and blinks 10/21/09 Follower Kent Schnake had comments on this: "I really enjoyed your post. It happens that I have seen all three of the movies you mentioned. I was really intrigued by Metropolis. I find that sometimes I underestimate old films simply because the technology was so limited. However, I thought that Metropolis was able to transcend those limitations and really engage me. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was both heart breaking and inspirational. The scene where his eye is sewn shut has to rank right up there among the all time gut churners." New reader Jason told me that it reminded him of the interesting blinking in a video by the band Grizzly Bear.

Glasswing butterflies 10/13/09 Biologists at the University of Bristol in Ontario have discovered an ear structure in tropical butterflies that enhances their hearing while in flight.

Anne Frank 10/7/09 Seattle has received a sapling grown from the tree that Anne Frank could see from the window of her hiding place.

Where the Wild Things Are 9/30/09 Maurice Sendak dismisses parents who think that the movie will - like the book it is based on - be inappropriate for children.

Jaws in 1916 8/6/09 This 10' great white shark caught off Queensland, Australia, was bitten nearly in half by another great white estimated to be twice as long.

Pangolins 7/20/09 The BBC has been faulted by conservationists for the preparation of a critically endangered species of eel on its show "Master Chef: The Professionals."

Birds! 5/21/09 Compare this foiled snake and lizard smuggler to the one pictured at the bottom of this post trying to smuggle birds.

Green eggs and ham 5/11/09 The latest British fad in pets is to own 9-oz. teacup pigs, which sell for more than $1,000 each. And 2 ducklings hatched out of a single egg at a Cornish duck farm.

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 A Bulgarian man tried to smuggle a chihuahua into Dublin in his carry-on bag, but it was discovered when it was passed through the airport x-ray machine.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 A couple in Colorado responded to their car alarm to find that - instead of a thief breaking in - a bear was trapped inside (photo above) and trying frantically to get out!

Toads encased in stone 3/23/09 The burrowing frog can lay dormant without food or water for several years.

Footprints 2/28/09 Paleontologists have discovered the tiniest dinosaur footprints yet, in Seoul, South Korea. Archaeologists have uncovered footprints of the artisans who created a mosaic 1,700 years ago in Lod, Israel.

Preserved in amber 2/24/09 In October, scientists announced the discovery of a family, genus, and species of fly that had never been observed; the "unicorn fly" was preserved in amber.

Disturbing decapitations 1/23/09 A Canadian judge ruled this Spring that the man who decapitated a fellow Greyhound bus passenger in July 2008 is not criminally responsible for the crime due to mental illness.

Ancient animals 1/19/09 The eggs of 82 endangered green sea turtles have hatched at Sea World in San Diego, California, and are expected to have a lifespan of 100+ years.

Hedgehogs 1/8/09 Security guards kept 24-hour watch to be sure no hedgehogs wandered into the bonfire at a fireworks display in Malvern, Worcestershire in the U.K. A hedgehog drunk on fermented apples was taken to the Prickly Ball Hedgehog Hospital in Newton Abbot, Devon.

Nutshell studies of unexplained death 12/21/08 Reader Whitney suggested I might be interested in the art installation Knitted Homes of Crime by Freddie Robins.

Space chimp 12/5/09 More than a dozen chimps gathered to watch the burial of one of their fellow chimps at a rescue center in West Africa.

Oldest zoo in the world 11/12/08 Israel's top zoo has become the number one exporter of hippopotami in the world.

Elephants 10/30/08 PETA has launched a protest of the "elephant car wash" attraction at an Oregon wildlife park.

Follow-ups

Gossamer 9/27/09 The oldest spider web on record has been found encased in amber found on an East Sussex beach in the U.K. Scientists at the University of Wyoming have determined exactly what makes cobwebs so sticky. And about my Gossamer post, my sister's delightful comment: "The idea of forcing spiders to work in sweat shops is sort of deliciously sinister. Yes, many frights have occurred thanks to the rc tarantula. I had to draw the line at bringing it in the car."

Pig butchering 9/1/09 Reuters reported that one of the fastest growing do-it-yourself trends is butchering.

More mystery 8/23/09 Follower Kent Schnake was prompted by this Agatha Christie post to look up the most prolific authors, and was surprised by the answer.

Surviving rabies 8/18/09 Follower Megan McCabe sent me the link to this incredible story that aired on "This American Life" (Act I) last Halloween.

Ripley's Seeing is Believing 8/14/09 A story about Lee Redmond, who no longer holds the world's record for the longest fingernails, due to an auto accident.

Hummingbirds 7/28/09 An American designer has developed the eye2eye mask, a helmet with a built-in hummingbird feeder.

Dali and Disney 7/11/09 A photograph has just surfaced (above) showing Salvador Dali exiting the Paris Metro with his pets - a dog and an anteater! And this summer, a Houston, Texas, Salvation Army thrift store was auctioning off several Dali originals that had been donated anonymously to benefit the adult rehabilitation center.

Up in the air 7/5/09 More about fireworks and the Founding Fathers.

Spontaneous human combustion 6/9/09 Over the weekend, a very mysterious death that has the classic signs of SHC occurred here in Brevard County, Florida.

The art of David Teniers the Younger 5/22/09 I mention stolen works of art in this post, and read about the recovery of Picasso's "The Naked Woman" from a house in Iraq.

Iron lung 5/12/09 June Middleton of Australia, who spent 6 decades in an iron lung (and is pictured wearing a portable version) has died at the age of 83.

Marlin Perkins 4/21/09 My Dad had a major sighting to report from his home in Arizona late this summer: "There have been reports of a bobcat in our little community and today I SAW IT! I've never seen one in the wild, only in zoos. He was larger than I expected. He walked along rather casually, then jumped up on a 6 foot high wrought iron fence and leaped toward a couple of rabbits near a big bush. The rabbits and the bobcat went into the bush. I don't know if he made a kill. We were playing golf and had to keep going. Had we not been on the course I would have stayed and waited for him to come out..."

Robo-animals 4/8/09 Video of elephants being outfitted with prosthetic legs.

Albinos 11/18/08 An albino otter was spotted on the Moray coast in the U.K.

Lying in state 11/7/08 In August, longtime reader Angie McLachlan awoke to find that someone had blocked her door, preventing her from answering any calls for embalming until the vehicle had been moved.

Petrified wood 9/30/08 The prize artifact displayed as a moon rock in a Dutch museum has proven to be just a piece of petrified wood.

Kutna Hora ossuary 9/29/08 A descriptive quote from Body of Work by Christine Montross, one of the first books I read on my Kindle: "Without question it is not the bodies that unnerve the most, or even the piles of bones that, if one begins to count how many lives are represented by each sacrum or jawbone, cause the mind to spin and reel. The most disconcerting element of the crypt is that the bones are used not just as memorials or relics but omni-presently as decor, which is injected with a creepy kind of whimsy. From the ceilings hang illuminated chandeliers of cantilevered arm bones and clavicles. The doorways between the chapels are outlined by a filigree of looping ribs. Half pelvises on the walls and ceilings overlap at a central point, flowering out in petaled whorls, and vertebrae are gathered in clusters, forming oddly beautiful wreaths. In some spots the collages of bone convey portentous, tempus fugit-style messages of mortality: The pointed base of one sacrum abuts the base of another so that they, outlined by matching clavicles, form the shape of an hourglass. Two scapulae branch out from the sides of a skull, like wings. On one ceiling the skeleton of a child is mounted - one of three nephews of Pope Urban VIII on display in the crypts. In one small hand, he holds a grim reaper's scythe. In the other the scales of justice, whose chains are made of finger bones, interlaced and dangling."

Fatal coyote attack

An unlikely tragedy took place on Wednesday. Toronto-based folksinger Taylor Mitchell, 19, was on tour to promote her debut album, which was released this Spring. She went for a hike by herself in Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada in Nova Scotia and was killed by two coyotes. The animals, which can weigh up to 80 pounds, left her covered with bite wounds and she died of massive blood loss shortly after being airlifted to the hospital. Hers was only the 2nd fatal coyote attack in North America. (The 1981 victim was a toddler in Glendale, California, where coyote attacks have increased, but rarely cause serious injuries.) Experts say that Mitchell's attack was also unusual because coyotes rarely attack 2 at a time and suggest that they may be wolf-coyote hybrids, which hunt in packs. Officers shot and wounded one of the coyotes, and don't believe they are rabid, but both escaped. Mitchell lives on in her music, some of which you can sample here.

Engineering feats

I was thinking about these things independently, but it turns out that they have something in common. What we think of as modern engineering feats were often conceived - and sometimes carried out - a century or more ago. Consider the following examples:
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The submarine. Designs for "underwater boats" date back to the 1500s. The 1st serviceable model was built in the 1800s. An illustration of a "rebel infernal machine" (1st image) appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1861. The most famous of these is the Hunley, posthumously named after its inventor, Horace Lawson Hunley (1823-1863). The converted steam boiler sank twice during its trials, taking him with it, but during the American Civil War, Confederates raised it and in 1864 used it to sink Federal steam-powered sloop-of-war the U.S.S. Housatonic in the Charleston, South Carolina, harbor. The Hunley's own fate was unknown until it was rediscovered in the harbor, donated to the State of South Carolina in 1995, and raised in 2000.
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Ship-lengthening. In 2005, the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Enchantment of the Seas underwent an immense transformation in which she was cut in half and a 73' section was added to the middle, which increased the number of cabins by 151 and her length to 990'. The largest cruise ship to be lengthened to date, she was not the first. The stretching of ships became popular in 1871 to accommodate new compound steam engines without losing capacity, and the Allen Line (2nd image) altered many of its ships.
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The Chunnel. The Channel Tunnel linking England and France underwater by high-speed trains opened in 1994, an engineering feat that had broken ground in 1988. But the idea was envisioned as early as 1802, when a French mining engineer proposed to dig a tunnel under the English Channel through which people could be transported by horse-drawn carriage. His plan had a mid-channel island, and an 1856 plan (3rd image) by another Frenchman for a railway tunnel had a mid-channel airshaft.
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To conclude, a bit of trivia about the Chunnel. Did you know that when the French and English tunnel-boring machines met in the middle, some were dismantled, but 3 were driven downward and buried in place?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all my readers! It is, of course, my favorite holiday and I have been in costume consistently as an adult every year since 1987 (see slideshow below). You can compare my Eddie Munster with the character above, because today I am offering a "Where are they now?" edition of Quigley's Cabinet, featuring the Munsters and the Addams Family.
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The Munsters (top photo)

• Herman: Fred Gwynne (1926-1993) is buried in an unmarked grave at the Sandymount United Methodist Church in Finksburg, Maryland.
• Lily: Yvonne De Carlo (1922-2007) was cremated, so her ashes may be with family.
• Grandpa: Al Lewis (1923-2006) was cremated and his ashes are buried in his favorite cigar box at Riverside Church in New York City.
• Eddie: Butch Patrick, 56, recently wrote his autobiography, co-hosts a TV series showcasing classic horror films, and owns the Grateful Dead tour bus.
• Marilyn: Beverley Owen, 72, is retired, but still acts on-stage in upstate New York. Pat Priest, 73, is retired and living in Idaho, where she has been treated for lymphoma.

The Addams Family (bottom photo)

• Gomez: John Astin, 79, teaches acting at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
• Morticia: Carolyn Jones (1930-1983) is entombed next to her mother at Melrose Abbey Memorial Park in Anaheim, California.
• Uncle Fester: Jackie Coogan (1914-1984) is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
  
• Lurch: Ted Cassidy (1932-1979) was cremated and his ashes are buried in the backyard of his former home in Woodland Hills, California.
• Grandmama: Blossom Rock (1895-1978) is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.
• Pugsley: Ken Weatherwax, 54, works as a movie studio grip.
• Wednesday: Lisa Loring, 51, does public relations for a hotel chain and makes appearances at fan conventions.
  

The composer of The Munsters theme song, Jack Marshall, died in 1973, and the composer of The Addams Family theme song, Vic Mizzy, just died last Saturday at the age of 93.

Tree mummies

How could I resist a headline like this: Tree "Mummies" Found! On Wednesday, National Geographic revealed that Norwegian researchers have discovered 40 dead Scotch pines that date back to Viking times. This wouldn't be so surprising if they had petrified, but they simply didn't rot and the scientists don't know why. The trees lived for several hundred years, died natural deaths, and laid on the forest floor near a fjord on the rainy west coast of Norway.
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In yesterday's science news, plant biologists at the University of Vermont found that trees actually facilitate wildfires to prevent other trees from displacing them. "We used a mathematical model to show that positive feedback loops between fire frequency and savannah trees, alone or together with grasses, can stabilize ecological communities in a savannah state, blocking conversion of savannahs to forest." The longleaf pine and the Florida slash pine both engineer their own future by dropping needles that become fodder for fires that limit the spread of more trees.
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Speaking of engineering, scientists at the University of Washington have found that trees will power a small circuit. They plugged electrodes into a tree that generated the 10 nanowatts the device consumed. "Normal electronics are not going to run on the types of voltages and currents that we get out of a tree...[But] as new generations of technology come on-line, I think it's warranted to look back at what's doable or what's not doable in terms of a power source," says one of the researchers, although he admits that they haven't exactly established where these voltages come from.
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Glad to know that trees still hold some secrets...

Scrimshaw

I had a major setback today. I'd been trying to get rid of a computer virus for 2 days, and called in a tech. The only solution it seems was to re-image my computer, so I may have lost some data and I am using different software programs because we couldn't restore everything exactly as it was. Grrrrr...
Meanwhile, I am onto the topic of scrimshaw, the carving of whalebone or ivory that was a pastime of 19th c. sailors, who would have been called scrimshanders. PETA doesn't have an entry on scrimshaw, but the rules for ownership are listed on Wikipedia. There are plenty of dealers offering scrimshaw on-line, and I learned a lot of new words during my search: bodkins (awls), swifts (reels for winding yarn), and busks (the rigid pieces that fronted corsets). The utilitarian object above tops a cane and is believed to be authentic. It turns out that there are many forgeries out there - referred to as fakeshaw, since the real thing commands a pretty price.