Water on the brain

On the cover of Rosamond Purcell's incredible book Special Cases: Natural Anomalies and Historical Monsters, is her photograph of the skeleton of a child with hydrocephalus whose skull has "opened like a flower." Without treatment, the condition – in which cerebrospinal fluid fills the cavities of the brain causing intracranial pressure – is fatal. The remedy is to drain the fluid with a shunt but that may not be affordable in developing countries. Such is the predicament of Abdul Rehman of Tripura, India, whose daughter Runa's hydrocephalus has gone untreated because he makes the equivalent of a mere $2.75 a day. "Day by day, I saw her head growing too big after she was born. It's very difficult to watch her in pain. I pray several times a day for a miracle -- for something to make my child better," he says. The head of the 16-month-old child now has a circumference of 36" (91cm) and she likely won't live very much longer (PHOTOS HERE – CAUTION). She certainly has brain damage, and likely suffers from seizures and blindness, among other symptoms. Her photos are now making the rounds in the weird news, but even if the publicity results in donations, it is too late for treatment. Draining off the fluid at this point will probably cause her brain to bleed or collapse.

Posted with Blogsy

Franklin fate refigured

I trust that my readers – like me – find the image above more fascinating than disgusting, knowing that you are staring into the intact face of a man who died in 1846 (MORE IMAGES HERE). This is 21-year-old Royal Navy petty officer John Shaw Torrington, who joined the ill-fated Franklin expedition which failed in its mission to find the Northwest Passage. In 1980, University of Alberta anthropologist Owen Beattie exhumed Torrington's body from his grave under almost 5' (1.5m) of permafrost on Beechey Island in Canada. He conducted an autopsy which showed that the young man had suffered from tuberculosis and had likely been killed by pneumonia. Lead poisoning, due to eating the food from poorly soldered tins, was also cited as a contributing factor and proposed as a chief cause of the expedition's failure. But now, researchers using new technology* to analyze bone fragments have struck down that theory. Western University chemist Ron Martin and colleagues have proven that the faulty solder seals in the meat cans were not the principal source of lead found in the remains of the Franklin crew members. The exposure would had to have begun long before, and was likely a problem for many 19th c. people. Martin explains, "We'll probably never know what happened to the crew of the Franklin so it will remain one of the great mysteries of Canadian history but our resources fail to support the hypothesis that the lead in the bones came from the tins and I certainly believe that it didn't. The time, from departure to death, just wasn't long enough for lead from the tins to become so dominant throughout all the bones." The Arctic retains one of its biggest secrets, in addition to the well-preserved remains of Torrington and the 2 others lucky enough to have been given a proper burial.
*Synchrotron X-ray fluorescence and laser ablation/mass spectroscopy

Posted with Blogsy

Feasible flames

A mystery that has persisted for more than 500 years has seemingly been solved by British professor and prolific author Brian J. Ford. Reports of spontaneous human combustion (SHC) span the centuries, from Polonius Vortius in 15th c. Italy to Michael Faherty (Micheál Ó Fátharta) in 21st c. Ireland (above is what was left of Pennsylvania resident Helen Conway in 1964). Ford describes what happens to the victims in these baffling cases: “One minute they may be relaxing in a chair, the next they erupt into a fireball. Jets of blue fire shoot from their bodies like flames from a blowtorch, and within half an hour they are reduced to a pile of ash. Typically, the legs remain unscathed sticking out grotesquely from the smoking cinders. Nearby objects – a pile of newspapers on the armrest, for example – are untouched.” SHC has long been associated with alcoholism and more recently been attributed to London coroner Gavin Thurston's theory of the "wick effect" (see article here). Ford has shown that pig [substituted for human] fat will not combust at room temperature, even when marinated in alcohol (though alcohol is not normally present in our tissues). It will, however, combust in the presence of acetone - a highly flammable chemical that is found in increased concentration in the bodies of alcoholics, diabetics, and those on a low-carb diet. Ford describes his experiment and the result: “So we marinated pork tissue in acetone, rather than ethanol. This was used to make scale models of humans, which we clothed and set alight. They burned to ash within half an hour. For the first time a feasible cause of human combustion has been experimentally demonstrated."

Giles Newsom

I "met" the boy in the photograph on-line yesterday. Here's how:

1

In the news there was a photo of workers at the top of 1 World Trade Center that was being compared to a photo from 1932 during construction of a skyscraper at Rockefeller Center. I had featured that earlier photo - known as "Lunch atop a skyscraper" - in a June 2009 post about Lewis Hine. Remembering that, I googled "Lewis Hine" and also had a look at that earlier blogpost.

2

When I reread the comments, I was reminded that the lead photo was not in fact taken by Hines, but by his contemporary, Charles C. Ebbets. The attribution was confirmed in 2003 by a private investigator working for the Bettman Archive. The anonymous comment had been written by the niece or nephew of the 8th man on the beam. Each of the other comments in the Cabinet named a worker as her father, so I decided to see if all the members of the crew were identified, and they have been (and their countries of origin indicated):

1. Martin "Matty" O’Shaughnessy, Irish immigrant (Co. Galway)
2. James Joy, Irish
3. Austin Lawton, Canadian (Newfoundland)
4. John Charles Cook / Akwesasne, Native American (Mowhawk)
5. Claude Stagg, Canadian (Newfoundland)
6. John Patrick Madden, Irish descent (b. 1905 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania)
7. "Stretch" Donahue, Irish
8. Francis Michael Rafferty
9. Thomas Enright, Irish
10. Thomas "Norton" Naughton, Irish
11. Patrick "Sonny" Glynn, Irish immigrant (Co. Galway)

During my research of this question, I discovered that Ireland just celebrated the photo earlier this month.

3

When I returned to my search results for Lewis Hine, who was known for documenting child labor, I learned that the fate of one of the subjects of his photos, said Master Newsom (above, additional photos here), - was uncovered by Massachusetts historian Joe Manning - also earlier this month:

On August 21st, 1912, 11-year-old Giles Edmund Newsom had been working for several months at Sanders Spinning Co. in Bessemer City, North Carolina,with his younger brother. That particular morning, a piece of machinery dropped onto his foot and caused him to fall into a spinning machine. The unprotected gears mangled his hand, crushing and tearing out 2 of his fingers. The hand was bandaged in the photos taken by Hines when he photographed mill workers in the state in October. A settlement with the mill of approximately $360.00 was apparently never disbursed. At the age of 18, Newsom indicated on his draft registration card that he was doing the same work at another textile mill, but he no longer appeared in the census and was not mentioned as a survivor in the obituaries of his mother (d. 1927), father (d. 1949), brother (d. 1965), or sister (d. 1981). Death records and a newspaper obituary indicate that Newsom, whose name had been misspelled, died in the "Spanish Flu" pandemic of 1918. 

The boy who was photographed by Hine and became the image of child labor was buried in an unmarked grave.

Documenting the fight

When the woman he had married just 5 months earlier was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, Cleveland-born photographer Angelo Merendino used his skills and their intimacy to document the struggle. He was with her during every doctor's appointment, chemotherapy infusion, and hospital stay. His photos (above, watch slideshow on his website) capture moments of hope, exhaustion, empathy, and lack thereof - a starkly honest walk through the next few years, at the end of which Jennifer Merendino died. Recently, 50 of the black and white images were shown at The Gathering Place, a cancer support center in Westlake, Ohio. Beauty and truth were found in the photos by both critics and cancer patients. But a mere 6 days later, rather than the planned 10 weeks, the images have been taken down and handed back - with apologies - to the photographer and widower. Executive Director Eileen Saffran said that people were upset by them. Kristina Austin, director of community relations and marketing, called the exhibit "amazing and exceptionally powerful," but said, "We removed it because of the reaction of our participants." The reaction of the patients who use the center and the volunteers who work there - many of whom are cancer survivors - was "very emotional." Merendino understands that, but wonders why no one expressed concern upon reviewing the images last year when the exhibit was being planned. The photographer has stated, "Sadly, many people do not want to hear these realities; around the time of Jen’s re-diagnosis we felt that our support group was fading away. Other cancer survivors share this loss. People assume that treatment makes you better, that things become OK, that life goes back to 'normal.' However, there is no normal in cancer-land. Cancer survivors have to define a new sense of normal, often daily. And how can others understand what we have to live with everyday? We tried talking and when words came up short I turned to the only other way that I know to communicate - my camera. My photographs show this daily life. They show the fear, concern and sadness we face. They show the joy from the endearment of a friend. They show the deep love and trust between Jennifer and me. They humanize the face of cancer, on the face of my wife." Let's look.

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Select previous posts about cameras and photographers:

Starlight camera

Capturing cave art

Nadar and the Paris catacombs

Photography by the blind

Überkamera 

Minus two photojournalists

The living photos of Arthur Mole  

Calvarium camera

Gliding, good and bad

Peggy McAlpine, 104
Kyrenia Mountains, Cyprus, April 14, 2012
To reclaim her title as the oldest person to paraglide, McAlpine ascended for the 2nd time with Highline Air Tours (1st image).The record the Scotswoman set 5 years ago had been broken by American centenarian Mary Allen Hardison, shortly after McAlpine tried bungee jumping. For this flight, she and pilot Ozgur Gokasan alit from a 2,400' peak and landed to a crowd of family, friends, and the 3 witnesses required by the Guinness World Records. Said McAlpine after it was over, "I enjoyed every minute of it. It was better than the last time. I would certainly like to do it again - especially if anyone takes my record."

Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27
Chilliwack, B.C., Canada, April 28, 2012
To celebrate her anniversary with her boyfriend, Godinez-Avila decided to hang glide with Vancouver Hang Gliding (2nd image, from their photo gallery). She and 50-year-old pilot William Orders launched from Mount Woodside with Godinez-Avila's boyfriend recording video from the ground. Seconds later, the woman began slipping out of the harness and tried to cling to the pilot. Orders tried desperately to hang on to her, but she slipped down his legs - taking one of his shoes with her - and fell 300m to her death. The RCMP recovered Godinez-Avila's body 8 hours later, and siezed both the hang glider and the video taken from the ground as evidence in the investigation. Orders was arrested and charged with obstructing justice and withholding key evidence after swallowing the memory card from the glider-mounted video camera. He was released on bail after the police were able to recover it. They are examining it and will announce the charge on Monday.

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Related posts:

Weightless Hawking

Valley from above

Cluster ballooning

Up in the air

Hot air balloon fatalities

Wire-walking Wallendas

Aerial archaeology

Floating

Zeppelin

The elder's end

A later portrayal of Pliny the Elder.. Note that no contemporary depictions of Pliny have survived.

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, "Eruption of Vesuvius" (1813).

When follower Cherei linked me to this list of resources about Ancient Medicine on the fantastic site The History of the Ancient World, my eyes lit on the paper about Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.). If you are familiar with the biography of the Roman author and naturalist, have read much about volcanoes, or simply recognize the year of his death, you know that he was killed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii. Do you also know that we have a firsthand account of that event from the point of view of Pliny's teenage nephew, who was living living at his Uncle's villa in the town of Misenum at the time? Pliny the Younger, as he is known, writes to his friend, the historian Tacitus, "My uncle decided to go down to the shore and investigate on the spot the possibility of any escape by sea, but he found the waves still wild and dangerous. A sheet was spread on the ground for him to lie down, and he repeatedly asked for cold water to drink.Then the flames and smell of sulphur which gave warning of the approaching fire drove the others to take flight and roused him to stand up. He stood leaning on two slaves and then suddenly collapsed, I imagine because the dense, fumes choked his breathing by blocking his windpipe which was constitutionally weak and narrow and often inflamed. When daylight returned on the 26th - two days after the last day he had been seen - his body was found intact and uninjured, still fully clothed and looking more like sleep than death." (Read translations at The Volcanism Blog, Smatch-International.org, and - as quoted above - Eyewitness to History)  Based on this 1st c. description and previous diagnoses, authors F.P. Retief and L. Cilliers come to the following conclusion put forth in "The Eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79 and the Death of Gaius Plinius Secundus": "Various reasons have been advanced to account for his death (asphyxiation caused by respiratory problems, carbon dioxide poisoning, heart failure, advanced coronary sclerosis). Basing our findings on the description of the catastrophe in the letters of his nephew, the younger Pliny, we believe that the most probable diagnosis which also fits his description of his uncle’s behaviour and symptoms during his last hours, is that of acute and fatal bronchoconstriction in a chronic asthmatic."

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Previous related posts:

What the ancient Romans ate

Pompeii mosaic

Cave canem

In Pompeii...

The devastation of St. Pierre

Lusi mud volcano

"Pompeii of the Permian"

Volcanic ash

Artificial death

The woman above, 95-year-old Li Xiufeng of Liulou, China, has been characterized as a "zombie" from here to Fiji. A couple of weeks after suffering a bad fall last month, she appeared to her visiting neighbor to have died. Chen Qingwang, who brought her breakfast everyday, recounts, “She didn't get up, so I came up to wake her up. No matter how hard I pushed her and called her name, she had no reactions. I felt something was wrong, so I tried her breath, and she has gone, but her body is still not cold." He and Xiufeng's son planned her funeral rites, which began with lying in state for several days to allow her friends and relatives to pay their last respects. Coming to close the casket in advance of the scheduled Feb. 24th burial, Qingwang was startled to find that the deceased had disappeared 6 days after she had been laid out. "We were so terrified, and immediately asked the neighbours to come for help," he said. They found her in the kitchen. As Xiufeng describes, “I slept for a long time. After waking up, I felt so hungry, and wanted to cook something to eat. I pushed the lid for a long time to climb out." The local hospital attributes her seemingly lifeless state, during which she remained warm but her breath could not be detected, to "artificial death."* Xiufeng has cheated death, but the experience has cheated her: the villagers have - according to custom - burned all her belongings!**

*I compiled the Death Dictionary of 5,500 words, which is newly back in print, and I had never heard of this. I looked it up and it was there, but I define "artificial death" as "death by other than natural causes." This seems unprovoked by anything unnatural, even if you consider the fall. Maybe it's a poor translation, since I found a single reference to it as a form of brain death.

**I had heard of the tradition of burning a person's belongings at death and confirmed it: "Among non-Christians the belongings of the deceased are usually destroyed, with the exception of objects of great value or objects that the people have asked to have buried with them....Burning [is] the traditional means of sending the possessions of the dead with them to the afterworld," writes Nicole Constable in Christian Souls and Chinese Spirits: a Hakka Community in Hong Kong.

More than a mark on the floor

Good: As a young man, Douglas Bruce Kirkton studied chemistry and biology at UNC. Following graduate training in Air Pollution and Industrial Hygiene, he designed an innovative hazmat laboratory, developed mobile air quality field labs, and consulted on inspecting, handling, and removing hazardous materials throughout the country. Technical prowess led to a career with IBM developing and teaching training courses. Kirkton had met his future wife back in 1979, settling with her in Raleigh, North Carolina, and raising a daughter together. He loved to travel, hike, and camp, and had pride in his Scottish heritage and a passion for old-time music and fiddling.

Bad: Kirkton was enjoying retirement when he died in February 2010 at the age of 64. The "go-to guy" was gone. He wasn't around to help his neighbors with their computers, assist friends with their home renovations, or dispense advice about publishing books and designing websites. He was no longer available to share his time with his wife and mother, help out at his sister's floral business, and enjoy his pastimes with his daughter, son-in-law, and nieces and nephews. Kirkton's bereaved friends and relatives celebrated his life during an informal memorial service at Bryan-Lee Funeral Home and honored his love of traditional music by asking for contributions to PineCone in lieu of flowers.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/02/17/343364/douglas-bruce-kirkton.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

Ugly: After Kirkton's death, his family put his house at 3603 Blueberry Drive on the market. The property, where he lived most of his adult life, was listed as a single-family home needing work, with 1 ½ baths and 1,492 sq. ft. of living space, built in 1963 in a neighborhood where similar homes are selling for an average of more than $243,000. Unfortunately, much was made over the insensitive decision to include an uncropped photo (1st image, complete slideshow here) that shows a stain where Mr. Kirkton's body presumably lay until discovery. The listing photo is still circulating as an example of what not to do when advertising real estate - a horrible legacy for someone who seems like a caring, generous, and interesting guy.

Crushed

It takes a minute for the mind to make sense of this photograph, which 1st appeared to me to be an abstract image, but the accompanying news report reveals that the 40' orange shipping container fell 200' to the ship's deck and killed longshoreman Steven Nicholas Saggiani, 47, at the Port of Long Beach, California, on Thursday. Crushing accidents are all too common, even excluding traffic accidents, as this list of recent fatalities indicates:

• 5/22/08 A 49-year-old man died after he was pinned beneath a metal bin filled with rocks in Anaheim, California.
• 3/9/09 Larry Cantrell, 61, was crushed by the compactor of his side-loading recycling truck in Eugene, Oregon.
• 8/20/11 Tuan Phan, 49, was crushed by a circular knitting machine in Garden Grove, California.
• 1/28/11 Delmas Ramsey, 20, was killed inside a cement crusher he was attempting to unclog in Clermont, Florida.
• 5/23/11 Pat Marino, 73, was crushed to death by a 3,500lb winch in Winthrop, Massachusetts.
• 6/27/11 Kyle Helton, 22, was crushed by part of a petroleum pipeline in Lufkin, Texas.
• 6/23/11 Allen Rommell, 48, was killed while welding an industrial tank in White Lake, Michigan.
• 8/30/11 Henry LaFlore, 58, had his head crushed by a press in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• 12/6/11 An unidentified man was killed when a 3,000lb tortilla maker fell from a forklift as it was being moved in Palm Springs, Florida.
• 12/7/11 Annette Lujan, 48, was crushed to death by an elevator* at Cal State in Long Beach, California, where she was a student.
• 12/14/11 Suzanne Hart, 41, was crushed by the elevator in the 28-story office building where she worked in New York.
• 12/20/11 Annette Goode, 53, was killed by falling bales of paper while sweeping at a recycling plant in Dayton, Ohio.
• 1/10/12 Brady Perkins, 47, was crushed by a press machine as he worked at a sign-making company in St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1/16/12 Lucio Valderrabano, 40, was killed by a 700lb bale of hay at a mushroom processing plant in Avondale, Pennsylvania.

To end on a happier note, 40-year-old David Beers, owner of Eaton Mountain Ski Area in Skowhegan, Maine, was run over by his 18.000lb snow-grooming machine (photo here) last month and survived with only a dislocated ankle and a broken jaw.

*I've done a 2-part post about elevators here and here.

2 deaths, 2 dogs

Barney
Kayaker Rory O'Conner was fishing off Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday when a dog swam up to him (video here) at least 1/2 mile away from beach access. "He was really really scared and he was shivering at first I thought he was cold but then I could tell he was really scared. He had to swim pretty far and he was pretty beat up. His paw was bleeding and he had a bunch of scrapes." O'Conner quickly brought the dog to shore and his sister rushed him to the vet. A microchip held contact information for his owners, the Chens (photo here), so the vet called their house to let them know the dog had been found. Unfortunately, just moments earlier, Wellington Chen had just been told by police that his wife of 26 years had been struck and killed by a 22-year-old drunk driver. Donna Chen (1st image), 53-year-old mother of 2, was walking Barney on the sidewalk of a busy state road. When she was hit from behind, the dog fled the scene, running away from traffic and ending up in the Gulf of Mexico. "I think Barney coming back to us was a total miracle," said the bereft Dr. Chen.

Oly
On Wednesday of last week, a hungry and exhausted Welsh corgi showed up at the Alpine Motel in Cooke City, Montana, though his family was no longer there. "When I first saw the dog, it was sitting in front of their room staring at the door," said proprietor Robert Weinstein. Oly's owners Dave and Kerry Corcoran Gaillard had taken him along when they went backcountry skiing 4 days earlier, but only Kerry had returned. After shouting to his wife to head for the trees, 44-year-old Dave Gaillard (2nd image) and the dog had been swept up and buried by an avalanche. The search and rescue team recovered Dave's body, but team member Bill Whittle was able to drive the surviving pet (video here) back to Bozeman - where Dave's daughter Marguerite, 11, was putting photos of Oly on poster board as a memorial. His stepdaughter 15-year-old Silver Brelsford (3rd image, with Oly, video here) said, "She found out when she was halfway done with that that Ole was still alive." Dave's Dad called Oly's survival "beyond belief. It truly is a miracle.” Dave's widow told reporters, “I was excited, but it amplified the loss of Dave a little bit. You automatically wish it could be Dave.” And Silver said, "It didn’t completely ease the pain, but it helped a tiny bit.”

Not-Santas

Around this time of year, there is the perennial story of someone, neither a Santa Claus nor a chimney sweep, who gets stuck in a chimney and requires rescue. It wasn't hard to find some representative members - both adults and children - of this exclusive club:

Houston, Texas | Jan. 2004
Would-be burglar of a restaurant
"A police dog immediately spotted the legs dangling from the fireplace..."

Evansville, Indiana | Sept. 2007
Man trying to play a practical joke
"I was drunk, everybody do a stupid thing sometimes when they are drunk, ok?"

Jackson, Mississippi | Dec. 2009
Young boy attempting to retrieve backpack thrown by his brother (video here)
"I've seen a lot of things but this is not one of them."

Seattle, Washington | Feb. 2010
23-year-old trying to break into a house
"...he will be booked into jail upon his release from the hospital."

Sao Paulo, Brazil | Feb. 2010
Man breaking into local bar
"..tried to make a discreet entrance...but had to shout for help..."

New Canaan, Connecticut | June 2010
Adventurous 9-year-old girl
“This is very unusual. Particularly since she made it all the way from the top to the bottom without getting stuck. Thank God she went down feet-first so she wasn’t hanging upside down.”

Woodlake, California | Aug. 2010
11-year-old (1st image, video here) going headfirst into their new home when his family locked themselves out
"He was hollering. Mama please help me. I'm scared and crying."

Knoxville, Tennessee | Aug. 2010
22-year-old man entering occupied home with gasoline
"I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I believe I'm crazy."

Port Vila, Vanuatu | Oct. 2011
8-year-old going after something to drink from a neighbor's house
"Rescuers said the boy remained amazingly calm, but was still very thirsty. "

Lubbock, Texas | Nov. 2011
22-year-old man locked out of his own house and unwilling to pay for a locksmith
“Even if you would fit down the chimney flue, getting pass the damper assembly is — I can’t see anybody getting past that.”

Norcross, Georgia | Nov. 2011
16-year-old (3rd image) trying to break in
"Ah, I’m stupid.”

Labrador, Gold Coast, Australia | Dec. 2011
Autistic boy who fell in while on the roof of the family home
"Fire officers spent the next two hours trying to free the boy, eventually dismantling part of the chimney from inside the house to rescue him just moments before a heavy thunderstorm hit the area."

Stockton, California | Dec. 2011
18-year-old sneaking into his own house because he missed curfew (2nd and 4th images)
“He’s dirty and embarrassed and it remains to be seen what his parents will do with him.”

All of these soot-covered individuals were rescued. Not so for a 57-year-old man in Helsinki, Finland, in June 2010, as construction workers discovered...

Shoe leather

When I was studying anthropodermic books in graduate school, I came across related examples of items other than book-bindings made from human skin. Among them was this pair of shoes (2nd image, color photo here) fashioned from the hide of "Big Nose" George Parrott. Thanks go to Sue for bringing the story back to mind so that I can relay it to you. It will not be my 1st post about shoes (see Burial shoes, Klompen, and Gumshoe), but it may be the strangest...

George Parrott a.k.a. George Manuse and George Warden was an American cattle rustler. In 1878, after he and his gang bungled a train robbery in Wyoming, they murdered 2 lawmen, resulting in a $20,000 bounty offered for their apprehension. The following year, still at large, they pulled off the daring daytime robbery of as much as $14,000 from wealthy Montana merchant Morris Cahn - despite the fact that Cahn was traveling with more than 2 dozen army troops. Still in Montana, Big Nose George was arrested in 1880 and returned to Wyoming to face charges of murder. He almost managed to escape from jail days before he was to hang, and an outraged lynch mob some 200-strong strung Parrott up from a telegraph pole. The doctors who took possession of the body after death used its components for a number of purposes:

• They studied the outlaw's brain for clues to his criminality.
• They sawed off his cranium and presented it to Lillian Heath, who later became Wyoming's 1st female doctor, and is said to have used it as an ashtray, a pen holder, and doorstop.
• A death mask was made of Parrott's face.
• The skin of his thighs and chest was removed and sent to a tannery in Denver, where it was made into a medical bag and a pair of shoes that one of the doctors wore to his inaugural ball when he was elected governor of Wyoming in 1892.

Big Nose George's dismembered body was finally buried behind the doctor's office after it had been preserved for about a year in a whiskey barrel filled with brine. It wasn't until 1950 that the remains resurfaced - still in the barrel stumbled upon by construction workers. Inside were the skull (minus the cranium) and the shoes (photo here). An elderly Dr. Heath sent the skull cap to the scene and it matched up perfectly. Much later, DNA testing confirmed the identity and journalist Chuck Woodbury touched Big Nose George's preserved skin:

"I was incredibly lucky to visit the day that photographer Craig Pindell and historian/writer Larry K. Brown were photographing George for the archives of the Wyoming State Museum. After they were done, they put the shoes and skull back in the normally closed-up glass case. When they weren't looking, I managed to cop a feel of the shoes, which are 2-toned. They're skin color on the front and brown in back - kinda like saddle shoes. Only the soles are made of cow leather. And they are very worn, proving that the doctor wore his George shoes a lot. I rubbed the shoes. I figured they'd be flimsy. I was shocked that they were very sturdy."

The shoes, partial skull, and death mask are on permanent display at the Carbon County Museum (photos here and here). The skull cap may be seen at the Union Pacific Museum. The medicine bag has never been found...

NOTE: If you are hungry for another instance of shoes made from human hide, have a look at this 1883 report about the alleged gruesome activities that took place at the Tewksbury State Almshouse in Massachusetts. Among other abuses, the lengthy report details the tanning of human hides and includes patterns for cutting the leather and a photograph of a sample that was entered into evidence.

Contemporary cannibalism?

You hear stories that cannibalism is still practiced among the natives of some remote South Pacific islands, but headlines trumpet that as the fate of a present-day adventurer. Just 10 days ago, German yachtsman Stefan Ramin, 40, was killed - and presumed eaten - in French Polynesia. He and his wife Heike Dorsch, 37, had anchored off the coast of the Marquesan island of Nuku Hiva on Sept. 16th. In one of the last entries on his blog, Ramin wrote, "I seek freedom and adventures." He had gone goat-hunting, but never returned. Police are looking for his local guide, who tried to lure Dorsch into the jungle, telling her that Ramin had been in an accident and sexually assaulting her when she refused to accompany him. It was only recently that the authorities found Ramin's remains, consisting of ash, clothes, teeth, and bone fragments. The man's body had been burnt in a pyre so fierce that it left scorch marks 25' high in the trees and scattered debris over a 35' radius. The charred bones were sent to the island of Papeete for analysis. "It is almost certain the remains we found in the fire are those of Stefan Ramin," said prosecutor Jose Thorel. The teeth have been matched to dental records sent from Germany, but they are awaiting the definitive results of DNA testing. Modern forensics confirms that Ramin has been murdered and investigators are convinced that the guide is both killer and cannibal: "It is the suspicion of the authorities that the hunter carved his victim up, ate parts of the body and burned the remainder along with animal cadavers."

1st image) A view of Nuku Hiva from on board the restored tallship Soren Larsen, which can be booked for adventure sailing cruises; 2nd image) Ramin and Dorsch at another stop on their around-the-world voyage, which had begun in 2008; 3rd image) An 1892 painting by French artist Paul Guaguin (1848-1903) entitled "Arii Matamoe [The Royal End]," which depicts Polynesian funeral rites after the death of a monarch, including lying-in-state and collective mourning. "Arii Matamoe" was painted during Gauguin's 1st Tahitian period on another island in the Marquesas.

Virulent...

...cat

Eric York is remembered as "a biologist's biologist," according to the National Park Service. His Mom said he loved the woods and his friends claim he could make a mountain lion trap with toothpicks. Eric had been working for Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona when he tracked, trapped, and collared a female mountain lion. When she gave birth, he ear-tagged her 3 kittens so he could identify them when they were old enough for their own telemetry collars. On Oct. 25, 2007, the lion's collar sent out a mortality signal, indicating that she hadn't moved in 24 hours. York located her carcass near the South Rim and believed she may have been killed in a fight with a male. Blood had pooled around her nose. but she had no other signs of trauma. He wanted more answers, so he decided to do a necropsy. Because the park has no forensics lab, he took the dead mountain lion home. He lifted it out of the back of his truck and laid it on a tarp on the floor of his garage to carry out the postmortem examination - little realizing that he would soon be the subject of one himself. Eric began feeling sick, so he paid a Nov. 2 visit to the park's medical clinic and was diagnosed with a flu-like illness. On Nov. 2, 2007, Eric York, 37, was found by his roommate lying motionless on the couch. Epidemiologists surmise that when he cut into the lion, he released and inhaled a cloud of deadly bacteria. Eric became a 21st c. victim of a medieval scourge: pneumonic plague.

...dog

Damian Holden was a family man with a pregnant wife, a young son, and a pet Weimaraner when the dog nipped him on the hand during a June 2009 camping trip in Wales. He disinfected the small wound, but thought nothing more of it. Becoming feverish over the next few days, he sought treatment back home in Crewe, Cheshire. He was experiencing a number of complications due to sepsis. In July 2009, both of Damian's feet had to be amputated due to blood clots. In August, he suffered a swollen neck and heart complications caused by a fluid build-up in his chest. In September, all antibiotics were no longer effective and the sepsis was severe. "I realized at this point it was an incurable condition," said his doctor. "There were no surgical options. We had explored every possible medical treatment to exhaustion.'' Multiple organ failure followed, and Damian died in the intensive care unit at Leighton Hospital in September 2009. Coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded a verdict of accidental death. Damian Holden, 35, had suffered a rare inflammatory reaction to a virus in the dog's saliva.

Catching a bear

There are individuals who don bear costumes for their art, like prize-winning British conceptual artist Mark Wallinger (video here) and American performance artist Nate Hill (video here, slow to load). There are people who become bears to be on television, whether appearing in a program, featured in an ad, or crashing a live news broadcast. And then there's this guy (pictured). Clyde Gardner of Malone, New York, is a 57-year-old junkyard owner and demolition derby driver. Clyde planned to kill a bear, skin it, and then dress up in the carcass to attack and kill his ex-girlfriend. Wearing the bear hide and using the claws as weapons, he assumed he would leave neither footprints nor fingerprints at the scene of the crime. He went so far as to hide in the woods with binoculars to familiarize himself with her routines and decide he would ambush her as she took out her garbage.

It would be funny if it weren't so disturbing. The man had a violent history with the mother of his child, and had recently been thrown out of the house again. He decided instead to hire a hitman to kill his girlfriend in a car wreck, cutting her throat with a shard of glass if she survived the impact of the collision. After he made a down-payment on the $15,000 murder-for-hire, he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison. His girlfriend has been given an order of protection that prevents Clyde from contacting her until 2031.

PSA

If the video doesn't play, click here.

The state of Florida ranks 18th within the U.S. for the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults. We have over 2,509,000 current cigarette smokers aged 18 and above. The statistics in this country range from 9.3% in Utah to 26.5% in West Virginia (you can check out your state here, or compare statistics for your country if you are outside the U.S.). In an effort to reduce the number of smokers by 100%, and to prevent nonusers from starting to use tobacco, Tobacco Free Florida has been running some very impactful public service announcements. One very moving spot, which doesn't appear on their YouTube channel, features a man explaining that his wife died of lung cancer at 40 and closes with his words, "I never thought of 20 as middle-aged." Two more recent spots (here and here) focus on the physical effects of the inhaled smoke and a third (above) - which has got to be one of the most outrageous PSAs of all time! - concentrates on just one harmful ingredient...

Leopard lynching

In this series of frightening photographs (more here), you see a full-grown male leopard attacking a forest official in Prakash Nagar, India, about 373mi from Kolkata. The leopard mauled 6 villagers, 1 policeman, and 4 forest guards on Tuesday as they tried to drive it into a wildlife sanctuary in West Bengal state. The officials managed to tranquilize the animal, but locals used stones, batons, and knives to try to beat it back, and it died of its wounds several hours later. American and British newspapers characterize this attack as vicious, while an Australian paper has a different slant. In an account in the Times of India (which has curiously disappeared since last night, though you can read the headline here), the crush of onlookers are blamed for the outcome of this incursion by not allowing the leopard an escape route back into the wild. The article quotes a forest guard: "We found that its 4 paws were injured as it had climbed on to a wall with glass shards. Afraid and desperate to return to the forest, it was attacking the bystanders....If we had insisted on providing a safe passage to animals, public wrath would have fallen upon us. In such circumstances, people are in no mood to listen to us." The scenario - known as leopard lynching - happens all too often, resulting in the brutal killing of these near-threatened big cats (videos here and here, caution). Here are 2 examples:

• Bhubaneswar, Orissa, on January 13, 2011. A leopard strayed into the village and was surrounded and clubbed to deathby some 400 local residents goaded on by as many as 4 journalists. "The brutal manner in which the villagers, armed with wooden sticks, iron rods, cricket bats and stumps, attacked the helpless leopard could be well assessed from the postmortem that suggested that the animal was killed due to severe head injury and complete destruction of its liver, reads the Deccan Herald. The mob then carried its carcass in a victory lap. "The animal was hiding behind the tree plantation and reportedly looked for a way to get out," said an official. The Chief Wildlife Warden describes,“It was a very unfortunate incident. Had the people waited for 10 minutes, we could have saved its life. People appeared to have killed the leopard for fun. Before the villagers killed the animal, Forest Department staff members had surveyed the area and found the leopard hiding comfortably behind a bush. We could have easily captured it.”
• Uttarakhand, reported on March 24, 2011. A leopard that is said to have injured 2 youths was captured, beaten, and caged. "With the mob zeroing in and daylight fading, the scared animal stepped down from the tree and tried to escape into the nearby forests but was surrounded by the mob and lynched...without provocation, while officials kept mum," writes the Times of India. Later, while still captive, the animal was doused with kerosene and burned alive with villagers and several forest rangers present.
  

A petition is circulating to bring attention to the needless violence resulting from human-leopard interaction in India, and guidelines were written (Athreya, V.R. & Belsare, A.V. 2007. Human – Leopard Conflict Management Guidelines. Pune, India: Kaati Trust). that point out, "It is important to control curious onlookers from crowding around the leopard to prevent agitating the animal further. Besides, the Emergency Response Team requires sufficient space to operate effectively. Most importantly if the leopard makes an attempt to escape the chances of people getting hurt are reduced." This is a vicious cycle if it doesn't stop.

Acquitted

This morning at 12:10am, the Orange County (Florida) Jail released a woman who prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and much of the public believe to be guilty of the death of her 2-year-old child. She walked past the protestors to her freedom 12 days after being acquitted of capital murder (punishable by the death penalty), aggravated manslaughter of a child, and aggravated child abuse (each punishable by up to 30 years in prison). She is appealing her convictions of lying to the police to postpone having to testify in the civil suits against her for the monetary and other damages caused during the 3-year investigation, which included a massive search for the toddler whose mother knew she was already dead. Despite the convincing circumstantial evidence presented by the state and the poor strategy of the defense team, a 12-member jury concluded unanimously that - even though it did not mean that the 25-year-old was innocent - the prosecutors had not presented evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

Even if you have been following this story, you may be unaware of a weather event that occurred on the day of the sentencing hearing. Just hours after the "not guilty" verdict was read - and just feet from the impromptu shrine that has grown in the woods where the victim's skeletonized remains were found - lightning struck a tall tree. Many take it as a sign. "It could be a sign from the angels that they aren't happy with what's happened....The rain, the lightning, the storm — it's the heavens indicating they aren't happy," said an Orlando resident. "It's eerie...there was no justice here on Earth," observed a visitor from Rhode Island. An out-of-towner from Tennessee commented, "Maybe justice wasn't served right now, but maybe it will be." And another local convinced of divine justice assured, "It'll catch up to her."