Follow-ups

Nuremberg Chronicle 4/20/11
Rare original King James Bible found in an English village church. Lincoln's signature found on the wall of an Illinois university.

All about birds lately 4/12/10 Bike trail near Chicago will run through rattlesnake habitat. The Egyptian cobra missing from the Bronx Zoo was found.

Over the moon 4/5/11 Canadian prisoner "roughed up" by dangerous cow. Farm animals found inside an Iowa home. Montana cow gives birth to rare set of triplets. Dotty the donkey receives award for saving sheep.

April fools 4/1/11 A 35-year-old man drove his car through the front window of a Massachusetts driving school. Mark Wright commented on this post, "You're right: they're very common - but not only in Florida. After recovering from being hit by a car that crashed into the Maryland convenience store I was exiting, I started StorefrontCrashes.com to track and discuss these accidents. Thanks for helping shine some light on this surprisingly stealthy safety problem!"

All aboard! 3/29/10 The day after this post, it was reported that an 8' mako shark had jumped into a boat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Acid alternative 3/24/11
My friend Angie writes, "I think it's actually a strong alkaline rather than acid.......and the remaining liquid is neutral enough to be flushed safely. The boffins at the Mayo have been using the technique for quite some time..."

A flamingo fell down 3/20/10 The flamingos in a Swedish zoo were massacred by the anteaters.

Fossil sex 3/19/11 Largest fossilized spider found in Mongolia. Discovery of the oldest flying insect imprint in Massachusetts.

Electroplating the dead 3/17/11 Thanks to Chase for this explanatory note: "While the thought of ending up on a knick-knack shelf in some hoarder's livingroom appeals to me may I point out a fatal flaw in Dr. Varlot's (!) method? Using a thin, usually copper, coating that acts as a base for electroplating an object is standard procedure HOWEVER his next step will leave a bit to be desired if used on a corpse, especially a nice juicy one. Putting the dearly departed into a vacuum will result in an at best really distorted sack of bio matter and an awful lot of precious body fluids sloshing about. The end result might look like your uncle Joe if viewed in a dark room and you squint a lot but that kind of takes the shine off the whole electroplating business, so to speak. Considering the price of silver nowadays I would do my research carefully. For those of us with limited budgets there is the alternative of a good inexpensive nickle plating that any autobody shop worth their salt can do for a couple of hundred bucks. "

Metaphor 3/12/11 A baby porpoise stranded in a rice paddy by the Japanese tsunami has been returned to the sea. Before and after images of the devastation in Japan, and the sound of the earthquake.

St. Catherine of Siena 3/8/11 In response to this post, Sue writes, "I think she looks very sweet, even as a mummy. It always delights me when something I've led you to is used on your blog."

Birds and dogs 3/4/11 Jackdaw befriends British schoolboy. Dog saves owner from Japanese tsunami. Fashionable bird on the Paris runway. Guide dog gets a guide dog. Man in Afghanistan kills birds and small mammals to keep runways safe. Owl rescued from engine after being hit by car, but had to be euthanized. Pet dog found alive in the rubble a month after a fire in Boston. Old bird lays new egg. Cache of 8 million dog mummies found in Egypt. The Transylvanian naked neck chicken a.k.a. the "churkey." A family in Florida is besieged by red-shouldered hawks. A bird in the dishwasher in Cleveland. Stolen ostrich runs home in Romania. British man opens hotel for chickens. In case you missed it on the news, here's the live link to a bald eagle's nest in Iowa.

Mummies guarded 1/30/11 Jasmine Day, author of The Mummy's Curse, wanted me to spread the word about this petition to protect the ancient Egyptian monuments, one of which has already been destroyed.

Lethal cocktail 1/25/11 The DEA seized Georgia's supply of thiopental. Execution drug import papers questioned in Arizona.

Stuck 11/24/10 An Ohio man was found stuck to the chair he had sat in for 2 years. Philadelphia woman trapped on her toilet for days.

Specimen swallowed 10/29/10 Chimpanzee meat on the black market in the U.K. Squirrel meat served in Edinburgh. Iguana meat siezed at the Texas-Mexican border. Raccoon meat stocked at South Carolina grocery store.

Lost languages 10/6/10 The last 2 speakers of a native Mexican language are not speaking to one another.

Double take 10/3/10 Another animal walking on its forelegs in China.

My monkey 9/14/10 A Virginia woman arrived for a court hearing with her monkey tucked into her bra. British monkeys given a car to play with.

Mirages 9/6/10 Optical illusion caused 3 suns to appear in sky over China. Then there were 2 suns seen in China's sky.

"Wonderful tombs" 8/23/10 Thousands of tombs in the Saudi Arabian desert are spotted on Google Earth images from space.

Ancient spirits 8/19/10 Ancient Nubians used beer as antibiotic.

Steampunk design 7/21/09 Thanks to Chase for the link to this post and this blog.

Churchill's choppers 7/16/10 A thrifty 19th c. Wisconsin widow retrofits her dead husband's dentures for her own mouth.

Zahi Hawass 7/15/10 It was reported in early March that Hawass would not stay on as chief antiquities official in the new Egyptian government. He resigned, but was reappointed by the end of the month. He is appealing a court ruling that sentences him to prison for a year.

Antique chocolates 6/10/10 A wedding cake from the 1890s!

Crafty bees 5/14/10 Founder of Burt's Bees cosmetics wants to donate land in Maine for a national park. Attacking bees close Phoenix intersection. Beekeeper describes attack.

"Comfort station" makeovers 5/4/10 Public restroom in Boston will reopen as a sandwich shop.

Corpses in strange places 4/6/10 In a grocery store (for a matter of minutes). A soccer game in Colombia (for hours). In her cubicle at work (for nearly a day). Riding around in the passenger seat of his friend's car (for 3 days). In an Orlando Walmart parking lot (for days). In the home of her son, a horror filmmaker (for a year). In his apartment in Sweden (for 3 years). In a hoarder's home. In the foyer of the home she shared with her adult twin sons. In the closet of the room her grandson was having sex in. In a pest control truck. On top of a 1,000' radio tower. In a New Mexico emergency room (after decomposition had already set in).

Auto-appendectomy 3/29/10 Leonid Rogozov had to remove his own appendix in 1961 while in Antarctica. The 1st U.S. research station at the South Pole was blown up.

He Pingping 3/16/10 Nepalese teenager Junrey Balawing (1st image) set to become world's shortest man in June.

Evelyn McHale 3/2/10 I got a welcome comment from Gary Wright: "Evelyn was my Aunt. That note sounds right to me because my Grandma was a bit of a fruitcake (God bless her soul). I was born in '49 but remember my mother (Helen) speaking of this tragic event."

Ironic deaths 2/4/10 Wrongly convicted man killed in workplace accident. Funeral home owner dies while transporting body.

Sinkholes 1/12/10 Florida woman's yard swallows her up.

Happy New Year! 1/1/10 Audio slideshow of world's only ice musician.

Gibson guitar 12/31/09 Swedish police seize a shotgun disguised as a guitar.

Smilodon 12/21/09 The mechanics of the saber-toothed tiger's bite.

Flying fish 11/29/09 It rained earthworms on a school in Scotland.

Cloaca 11/17/09 An art project involving the preserved poop of William S. Burroughs (1914-1997).

Stone/House 11/19/09 New Zealand earthquake dislodges 30-ton boulder. A 1,000-ton sandstone boulder crashed into a house in Montana.

Circus animals on the lam 11/13/09 A herd of goats wanders onto the I-5 in Sacramento. A deer crashes through a Minnesota couple's window and ends up in the closet. Loose llama on the attack in Cleveland. Raccoons chasing people from the Washington, D.C., metro. A fox was living on top of a skyscraper in London. Spider monkey killed in traffic in North Carolina. Komodo dragons escaped from an Indonesian zoo. Goat wanders into Idaho music store. Two cars stopped in England had 16 lambs inside. Tortoise stolen from zoo in Colorado. Five goats found wandering the streets of New Jersey.

White Bengal tiger 9/29/09 Woman drives off a tiger attacking her husband in Malaysia.

Creative cremains 7/24/09 The idea of mixing human ashes with paper pulp to make a book - a "bibliocadaver" - was just a joke. But Raven Collins will incorporate human ashes into a painted portrait. Man's ashes are stolen from church before funeral in California.

Spontaneous human combustion 6/9/09 A mysterious recent occurrence in which a man was "engulfed in flames" for no known reason.

Elusive animals 6/4/09 Images of rare Javan rhinoceros caught by motion-sensor camera. Frog in India reemerges after a century. New rodent discovered in Brazil.

Rossetti's menagerie 5/1/09 A depressed wombat.

Prosimians 4/25/09 Tarsier's resemblance to Yoda (2nd image). Richard Branson plans to create lemur colony on undeveloped Caribbean island he owns.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 Australian customs surprised by bear's head. Swedish boy accidentally disturbs, and is attacked by, hibernating bear. Berlin's Knut died and people are protesting plans to preserve and exhibit his remains in a museum.

Robo-animals 4/9/09 Miniature horse in Texas given artificial leg. Florida orthodontist repairs turtles' shells. A turtle rescued in Florida had eaten so much debris in the ocean that it "pooped plastic for a month." A pet turtle causes a house fire in Brooklyn.

Cyclops 4/3/09 One-eyed baby dies shortly after birth.

Centenarians - and then some 3/26/09 Frank Buckles, the last living U.S. World War II veteran, died at 110. North Carolina native Hollace Wells died at 102. Twins reach 100 in Oregon. Frank Neuhauser, winner of 1st national spelling bee, died at 97. Houdini's last surviving stage assistant, Dorothy Young, died at 103. Buster Martin, marathon runner at 101, died. Sally Gordon retires at 102 "while she's still young." U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown is still hearing federal cases at the age of 103. World's oldest man Walter Breuning died aged 114, so title passed to Jirouemon Kimura at 114.

Disturbingly young parents 2/14/09 A grandmother at age 23.

First U.S. face transplant! 12/17/08 First full face transplant in U.S. performed in Boston.

Traumatic skull injuries 11/25/08 Chinese man had a knife in his skull for 4 years. Scientists believe they may be able to predict future antisocial behavior in scans of children's brains.

Amputation 10/19/08 Sleeping man run over by mulching machine. Man dies after falling into pasta machine. Canadian man's prosthetic leg is stolen from his house and California man's prosthetic leg is stolen from his backyard. Patient with only one limb injures nurse. America's most injured soldier D.J. Skelton redeploys to Afghanistan. One-legged college wrestler has perfect season and wins national title. Outstanding penmanship awarded to student born with no hands.