Varanasi

This is as close as I could come to an answer for my aide Marva, who asked me where the bodies that float down the Ganges in India end up. Varanasi is a sacred site along the river where the dead are cremated on burning ghats, stepped platforms that lead to the water. Hundreds of bodies are burned each day, from the relatives of the wealthy who employ untouchables and use expensive sandalwood to those of the less fortunate who do it themselves. Photographs of the ritual are strictly prohibited, but a tourist describes, "Each body is shrouded decoratively and carried down to the Ganges River where it is doused in its holy waters before the decorative shroud is removed and the body left shrouded in linen is carried to the pyre by family members. Placed on the pyre, additional wood is added and the eldest son touches off the tinder around the pyre with the aid of holy ghee (clarified butter) to assist the burning. It was important to keep our Western eyes and minds open with our prejudices at bay, since it is easy to be disturbed at the sight of partially burned bodies being prodded in the flames, limbs being broken off for the fire to consume and finally, when the body was almost fully burned, a bamboo pole being used to pierce the skull to allow the deceased's spirit to go free." Some corpses – those of holy men, pregnant women, suicides, the diseased, the poor, and small children – are not cremated but simply floated free. Cremated or not, the bodies are feasted on by vultures, scavenged for the gold and silver in their teeth, and allowed to decompose in the waters. The short answer is that I think there is not much left to pile up downriver.

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Percy's pyre

English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) had a complicated life, but his death was even more so. He drowned off the coast of Italy while sailing with two others in his custom-designed boat, which was called either the "Don Juan" or the "Ariel." The boat capsized due to a sudden storm, a design flaw, poor seamanship, attack by pirates, suicidal tendencies, or being rammed by larger vessel. While said to have sunk, the boat was found 10 mi (16 km) out to sea. Shelley's body washed ashore and his intact limp figure was sculpted by British artist Edward Onslow Ford, although a witness later recorded that the poet's face, hands, and other parts not protected by clothing were fleshless. Because of quarantine regulations, Shelley's friends cremated his remains on the beach. The act was later commemorated by French artist Louis Édouard Fournier in the painting (IMAGE ABOVE) known variously as "The Funeral of Shelley" or "The Cremation of Shelley." Shelley's widow is shown kneeling at the left, although – as was the custom of the day – she declined to attend. At the center of the painting stand Shelley's friends Edward John Trelawny, Leigh Hunt, and Lord Byron. In fact, according to Trelawny, Hunt had remained in his carriage and Lord Byron had withdrawn, unable to face the gory scene. Shelly's ashes were interred (and then reinterred) at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, but he is also memorialized at Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey and the Shelley Memorial at University College, London, where the Ford sculpture lies. And in yet another strange twist, more of Shelley's ashes were found in the possession of his daughter-in-law when she died. Said to be the ashes of the poet's heart, the story conflicts with accounts that Trelawney had saved not just ashes but the entire heart from the fire. Whether the ashes were entombed with Shelley's daughter-in-law in 1899 or the entire organ had been buried with his son 10 years earlier, these remains lie in the family vault at St. Peter's Church, Bournemouth in Dorset, U.K. Got all that?

 

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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.

Acid alternative

Sinister associations with multiple murderers John George "Acid Bath" Haigh, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Santiago "Stew Maker" Meza López notwithstanding, dissolving bodies in acid has been put forward by the funeral industry as a green alternative to cremation. Alkaline hydrolysis achieves in a matter of hours the decomposition that occurs naturally over months or years. A 300°F water-based chemical solution of lye is sprayed on a body at 60lbs (or more) of pressure per square inch in what looks sort of like a body-shaped stainless steel pressure cooker. Chemically, this forces water molecules between the bonds that hold the molecules such as fats, DNA, and proteins together. Tissue is broken down to its original small molecular building blocks. The resulting liquid may be disposed of down the drain, and the bone residue (2nd image) may be collected, dried, and pulverized for disposition like cremated remains.

The process, carried out in large steel cylinders, is already used in the U.S. at dozens of veterinary schools, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and the U.S. government to dispose of medical waste and animal carcasses, and is how cadavers at the University of Florida and the Mayo Clinic have been disposed of for years. Its use in funeral service is currently legal in Florida, Maine, and Oregon, and under review in New Hampshire. The legality of resomation is being evaluated in Ohio, where funeral director Jeff Edwards (1st image) has already performed the service for clients 20 times. "Getting the public to accept a process that strikes some as ghastly may be the biggest challenge," writes Norma Love for the Associated Press. Calling the method "resomation" rather than "tissue digestion" is a start. While the headline refers to it as "liquid cremation," Edwards prefers his own euphemism: "aquamation."

Follow-ups

2/1/11 Alpine ibex Follower Priscilla notes, "We never talk about the ones that end up crashing. That would be natural selection improving the herd. It does happen occasionally." Both my Dad and follower Kent report seeing dead mountain goats at the bottom of cliffs.

1/27/11 Cave pearls Chinese cavern classroom closed down.

1/22/11 The moral of the story is obvious What the train conductor sees (not bloody, but caution). Man filmed himself being run over by a train.

12/27/10 Tortoise cold, tortoise hot "Lonesome George" still looking for love. It was so cold in Minnesota that a squirrel froze in place.

12/23/10 Snowplow flambe This story reminded a reader of this. Woman in Ekaterinburg sets fire to her dead sister trying to reanimate her with electricity. Caskets, corpse, and cremated remains rescued from burning Michigan funeral home.

12/18/10 600 years apart Ohio murderer who stuffed his victims' bodies in a hollow tree was obsessed with leaves and has been sentenced to life in prison.

11/15/10 Scratchings Ancient rock carvings in East Timor. Microbes responsible for colors in Australian rock art.

11/13/10 The naked ape A gorilla in the U.K. that walks upright.

11/10/10 In Pompeii... Skeletons reveal new insights about Roman family life.

10/29/10 Specimen swallowed Indonesian man caught smuggling dozens of rare animals out of Thailand. Ghanaian man tries to enter U.S. with suitcase filled with "spiritual items." Illegal moose meat siezed in Canada. Arizona restaurant adds lion tacos to the menu, then reconsiders.

10/4/10 Drunk animals Spike gets scrubbed. Alaskan reindeer eat magic mushrooms. German police arrest drunk owl. Romanian bird deaths were caused by alcohol poisoning. Meanwhile, Alabama birds were "whacked by something big" and South Dakota birds were killed in USDA avicide program. (More bird deaths here.)

7/19/10 Ancient spirits Vandals chop 500-year-old grapevine in Austria. Archaeologists find 2,400-year-old soup in China. Oldest known winery found in Armenia.

6/16/10 The most interesting person in the world He really has led an interesting life...

6/12/10 Discovered documents Wisconsin school discovers 340-year-old Bible in their possession.

6/5/10 Body burden Effects of BP oil spill showing up in human blood.

5/24/10 Glass harmonica Musical score hidden in the facade of a Renaissance church.

5/15/10 Great molasses flood The 92nd anniversary.

4/9/10 Of 2 minds about wolves Russian town terrorized by "super-pack" of 400 wolves. Norwegian boy fends off wolves with music by Creed.

4/6/10 Corpses in strange places Body found in freezer of New Mexico home. Bodies double-stacked in the Cook County morgue. Father's mummified body found in wardrobe in son's apartment in Japan. (Make your own mummy here and your own shrunken head here.)

4/3/10 18th c. French hairstyles for women Creator of the beehive hairstyle is honored.

3/26/10 Tarim mummies travel China has pulled the Beauty of Xiaohe from the exhibit.

3/13/10 Census 2010 Remarkable interactive census map of the U.S.

3/5/10 Napoleon's hair Another lock sells at auction.

3/2/10 Evelyn McHale Argentine woman jumps from hotel, but is saved when she lands on a car. Strange story of a hotel suicide caught on film.

3/1/10 Treasure trove Jewelry stash discovered in a used book. Discovery of ornamental sword in wreck of Blackbeard's ship.

2/9/10 Green burial Willow coffins available from English company.

1/19/10 Kite-fighting Kite photography by a Dutch artist. Texas man builds and flies world's largest kites.

1/7/10 Thwarted Two-thirds of the Jews killed in the Holocaust have now been identified by name.

12/23/09 Child heroes Toddler calls for help to save her Mom.

12/19/09 Nero's dining room Ancient Roman "super-highway" discovered in England. Caligula's tomb found south of Rome.

12/7/09 Rose round-up Celery genes help roses last longer.

11/22/09 Oasis and airbus The over-the-top amenities of forthcoming cruise ships. Planned $1.1 billion private yacht.

11/13/09 Circus animals on the lam Car strikes pet pig in Connecticut. German man allowed to take his pet tiger on walks. California sea lion found miles from water. Colorado couple finds a scorpion in the house. Idaho house infested with snakes. Dangerous monkey has escaped in Japan for the 2nd time. Loose emu shot and killed in Maryland. South African man pulled over for drunk driving had 6 passengers and 15 sheep in the car. Zebras shot after escaping from California ranch. A Siberian tiger escaped from a Chinese breeding center and killed a bus driver in full view of his passengers.

11/12/09 Placentas and more Doctors in Berlin capture 1st live MRI images of childbirth. Girl of 3 is youngest survivor of breast cancer. Artist Damien Hirst offends bereaved parents by using a fetal skull in his latest work.

11/5/09 Conjoined twins Two-headed turtle in Turkey. Conjoined lambs in Colorado. Conjoined camels (pictured) in Saudi Arabia. Two-headed cow born in country of Georgia.

10/30/09 Tree mummies Fossilized forests found in the Arctic and the Antarctic. Ice Age fossil cache found in Colorado.

10/27/09 Docking cow tails Cow gives birth to triplets! Cow attack in Florida. Cow that escaped slaughterhouse moves to new sanctuary. Woman hit by flying cow while pregnant gives birth.

10/22/09 Birds in fable and fact Crows use tools to explore dangerous objects.

10/17/09 Lizard lore Satanic leaf-tailed gecko born in San Diego Zoo. Orange alligator spotted in Florida. Cell phone rings inside Ukrainian crocodile. Taxidermied crocodile from 19th c. sold at auction.

9/23/09 Optical illusions What are possibly the world's oldest optical illusions found in France.

8/12/09 Mona Lisa(s) Numbers discovered in the eyes of the Mona Lisa. Hidden literary references in the painting's composition. Landscape depicted has been identified.

8/9/09 Adventurers Club Chinese farmer builds fully-equipped treehouse.

8/6/09 Castaways, real and imagined Daniel Defoe stranded on an island off the coast of Scotland.

7/24/09 Creative cremains Open-air cremations offered in Colorado. U.K. plan to heat swimming pool by way of crematorium next door. Woman in Ireland swept out to sea and drowned while scattering her sister's ashes. Urn containing wife's ashes stolen from Colorado man's house. Thieves of the ashes of a Florida woman's father mistook them for cocaine and snorted some of them!

6/20/09 Placing of stones Standing stone in Scotland falls over. My yoga instructor Cathy has identified a stone she thought may have been carved by human hands as a ventifact.

6/18/09 Birthing and hoarding bunnies Hundreds of animals - including 2 tigers - seized in Texas. Hay airlifted to starving horses in Montana. Seventy-eight bunnies taken from home in Maryland.

6/9/09 Spontaneous human combustion Possible case in Ireland.

6/4/09 Elusive animals Harpy eagles return to Belize after 60-year absence. Bornean bay cat seen for the 1st time since 2003.

5/30/09 Clown's funeral Two clowns were killed in Mexico in an alleged drug gang hit.

5/8/09 Species named after Stephen Colbert Name a giant Madagascar hissing cockroach after your sweetheart.

5/4/09 Vultures Saudis arrest vulture for spying. High-tech attempt to vanquish vultures in Florida. Vultures wintering in Virginia.

5/2/09 Chihuahuas in the weird news Iowa dog survives being shot with an arrow. Iron Age dog guarded ancient treasure. Rescuers adopt dog found stranded on an iceberg in the Baltic Sea. Hermaphrodite dog has surgery. Dogs fed on owner's decomposing body in Kentucky. A blind man lost his seeing eye dog in Florida.

5/1/09 Rossetti's menagerie Wombat nuisance in Australian national park.

4/27/09 Mastectomy tattoos A reader shares her tattoo and says, "I cannot say how choosing art versus traditional reconstruction can empower you."

4/24/09 Ocean garbage dump Oregon professor claims reports of Pacific garbage patch are exaggerated.

4/24/09 Bears in the news Prehistoric bones of largest-ever bear found in Argentina. Escaped Arizona prisoner decides against suicide-by-bear.

4/21/09 Marlin Perkins A reader kindly posted the link to the Wild Kingdom episode I couldn't find in which Marlin and Stan struggle mightily with an anaconda!

4/12/09 Flightless birds Australians warned to stay away from dangerous cassowaries. Woman in Hawaii found not guilty of cruelty in killing peacock. Cockfighting rooster kills its owner in India.

3/26/09 Centenarians - and then some Wal-Mart greeter, 100, thwarts theft in Wisconsin. Illinois' oldest resident dies at 111 and Florida's oldest dies at 112. Missouri centenarian delivers Meals-on-Wheels. World's oldest dies at 115.

3/12/09 Shark attack capital Shark survival story in Australia. Bull sharks seen in flooded Australian streets. Man escapes leopard attack in South Africa.

2/12/09 Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday The body of Italy's best-loved TV quiz show host has been stolen from the tomb.

2/3/09 Polydactyly Chinese boy with 31 fingers and toes. California newborn has 24 digits.

12/14/08 Dendrochronology Roman rise and fall recorded in tree rings.

11/22/08 Facial reconstruction Another ancient bog body has been given a face.

10/19/08 Amputation Swedish man's penis mistakenly amputated. Tree surgeon slices neck with chain saw. Tortilla factory worker killed by mixing machine. Really cool custom prosthetic legs. More images of gruesome bread art.

10/15/08 Hot air balloon fatalities Man dies of fall in Alps after surviving balloon crash. Meanwhile, the owner of the Segway company fell off a cliff and died while riding one.

9/29/08 Kutna Hora ossuary My friend George's latest artistic creation.

9/28/08 Nadar and the Paris catacombs The adventures of cataphiles, brought to you on NPR.

9/25/08 Traumatic skull injuries Knife penetrates cheek of Chinese boy.

9/21/08 Yellowstone National park is bulging with magma. Witness a volcanic island being born in the Solomon Islands.

9/20/08 While They Slept My friend Franck has started a blog called Boisterous Mirth and mentioned me in the 1st post.

Not Santa

"The silvery locks...were twisted and tied in long attenuated wisps, which hung over his shoulders and mingled with his snowy and patriarchal beard."

Nope, it's not St. Nick. It's Dr. Price. St. Nick didn't wear a fox on his head! I have Sue to thank for pointing out that Dr. William Price (1800-1895) was not only Britain's 1st proponent of cremation, but quite a character. Here he is (1st image) in his Druid garb with said fox headdress (2nd image), now preserved in the Welsh National History Museum. Check out a biography of Dr. Price for further information on his accomplishments and peculiarities, which I list:

• When his father lowered the family's social standing by marrying a servant girl, he began acting erratically, walking about naked, standing in ponds with the water up to his neck, and carrying snakes in his pockets as charms
• As a member of the revolutionary Chartist movement, he supported equal democratic rights for all men and at one point fled to France in women's dress to avoid persecution
• He tried to revive the religion of the ancient Druids and to promote the use of the Welsh language, which he felt was dying out
• He opened a medical practice, but refused to treat smokers
• He advocated vegetarianism and vigorous walking
• He opposed marriage as enslavement and the wearing of socks as unhygienic

When his infant son died in 1884, octogenarian Dr. Price attempted to cremate his body rather than pollute the earth with it, but was set upon by a mob and arrested. The baby's body was removed from the pyre and autopsied, which confirmed his natural death, but Dr. Price was put on trial for the illegal disposal of the corpse. "It is not right that a carcass should be allowed to rot and decompose in this way. It results in a wastage of good land, pollution of the earth, water and air, and is a constant danger to all living creatures," he testified. Successfully arguing that there were no laws against it, he paved the way for cremation in England and Wales, and was allowed to complete the cremation of his son. Ten years later, a moribund Dr. Price demanded, "Bring me a glass of champagne." He drank it and died, after which he was - as directed in his will - cremated. The event was observed by 20,000 people, and members of his family wore the articles of his Druidic dress.

Follow-ups

Vivisection 1/22/10 British scientists are blowing up live pigs to study the effects of bombs. A man in Oaklan Park, Florida, performs a "coffee-table operation" on a dog he was watching and kills it. Here is a video (caution) of a seriously twisted experiment by Russian scientists.

Gatorland! 1/21/10 Scientists have determined that a shared breathing mechanism indicates that alligators and birds shared a common ancestor.

Kite-fighting 1/19/10 Friend Franck Cordes notes that there is a chapter on kite-fighting in The American Boys Handybook of Camp-lore and Woodcraft by Daniel Carter Beard (orig. 1882).

Gulp! 1/16/10 Moments after I published this post about the swallowing disorder pica, I was contacted by follower Lisa Wood, a gifted artist who collaged a series of plates based on the case histories of the swallowed objects in the very collection I mentioned. And her friend is writing a book on the same subject, due out later this year!

Disaster intensity scales 1/13/10 Here are some aerial photos of the earthquake damage in Haiti from National Geographic. As horrible as the tragedy and its aftermath is, unburied corpses do not pose much of a health risk. Scientists have identified a number of seismic zones throughout the world that are past due for an earthquake.

Mirror miscellany 1/17/10 Reader Kent Schnake points out the often overlooked observation that as long as a mirror is well-polished, we don't see it - we see what is reflected!

Sinkholes 1/12/10 Rubislaw Quarry in Aberdeen, Scotland - the largest man-made hole in Europe - has been sold.

Views from space 1/11/10 There are disputes over the ownership of a large meteorite that fell in Australia. Another meteorite fell through the roof of a doctor's office in Lorton, Virginia. Meanwhile, the Great Wall of China has been recreated in chocolate (although I don't usually link to weird chocolate).

Good cove, bad cove 1/6/10 Dolphins have taken up hydroplaning to catch the fish closest to shore. A French researchers suggests that heroic acts by animals like dolphins are more common than thought. Here is a story from this summer of a beluga whale carrying a struggling diver to the surface in China.

Snakes to the rescue 1/4/10 Federal officials have banned 9 species of constrictors from being imported into the U.S.

Parade floats 1/2/10 The plane that Capt. Sullenberger safely crash-landed in the Hudson River is for sale.

Bushmeat 12/27/09 A curious young chimp in the Congo investigates the remote video camera. The heart-wrenching tale of a humanized chimp named Jerry. A chimp is at the center of a custody battle in Sarasota, Florida.

Nipple shields 12/20/09 There is a strange time capsule in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - a 1950s-era drugstore - and look what's on the shelf toward the end of the video!

Circus animals on the lam 11/13/09 Spanish photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez has been stripped of his title of photographer of the year because it was discovered that the wolf in his award-winning photo had been rented from a wildlife park. The hippo who escaped from the zoo in Montenegro has returned to her enclosure.

Humpback whales 11/10/09 Close encounters with beluga whales in the Arctic circle.

Odd animals 11/4/09 This strange creature that turned up in Texas has been identified as a hairless raccoon.

Engineering feats 11/1/09 A schematic drawing of the British warship H.M.S. Temeraire, built in 1793.

One man band 10/24/09 Here is a deft performance by a member of the Brooklyn-based chamber music ensemble Project Trio.

Lizard lore 10/17/09 Villagers in Indonesia are supplying Asian demand for geckos to be used in traditional medicines.

Dinosaur eggs 10/3/09 American paleontologists have announced that prehistoric velociraptors also spit venom at their prey. Australian scientists blame humans for the demise of the megafauna that lived 400,000 years ago.

Animal clarity 8/16/09 The unusual shell of the scaly-foot snail, discovered in 2003, may assist in the design of armor for soldiers and vehicles, say American researchers. Similarly, the silence of owls in flight (pictured) have inspired aircraft technology.

Jaws in 1916 8/8/09 A harrowing account of an Englishman being eaten by a shark while on holiday in Cape Town, South Africa.

Creative cremains 7/24/09 The far-flung posthumous travels of American adventurer Ralph White. Ongoing repairs at a crematorium in Coventry, U.K., are marring Sikh death rituals.

Bride and groom 6/1/09 A British teacher sacrificed himself and drowned to save his bride on their honeymoom in Egypt.

Cave paintings at Lascaux 5/27/09 Plans are afoot in Italy to breed the aurochs depicted in cave paintings back from extinction.

The art of David Teniers the Younger 5/22/09 Japanese macaques huddling together for warmth.

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 What's a follow-up without a chihuahua story? This one was found by security staff at the Dublin airport being smuggled in a Bulgarian man's suitcase.

Emmett Kelly 4/25/09 An example and explanation of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, a form of synchronicity.

Bears in the news 4/24/09 The den of a black bear hibernating in Minnesota is being monitored by a remote camera that just captured the birth of her 3 cubs!

Giants 4/17/09 A German model stands 6' 9" tall.

Centenarians 3/26/09 Here is a fantastic video of people aged 1 through 100.

Spider prey 3/7/09 Video of a giant centipede eating a bat. And watch this toad's defense when it is about to be eaten by a tarantula!

Megafishes 2/15/09 A blind British woman landed a 214lb catfish in Spain, after which she released it back into the river.

Disturbing decapitations 1/23/09 A human head and a red flower were found at the tomb of a Mexican drug lord.

Caves 1/15/09 A BBC video of the Crystal Cave of Giants in Chihuahua, Mexico.

More mammoths 1/6/09 DNA analysis of frozen soil by an international team of scientists shows that woolly mammoths existed for thousands of years longer than previously thought.

Dr. Seuss 12/25/08 A disagreement in Minnesota parallels the plot of Dr. Seuss's story The Zax.

Blizzard of 1888 12/14/08 Many wondrous photographs of ice caves around the world. A long-predicted form of stable ice has been confirmed in the lab by British scientists. Scientists have assessed that the ice in the artic Beaufort Sea is "rotten." Pioneering 19th c. images of snowflakes by American photographer Wilson A. Bentley have gone on sale. Photos and an explanation of hair ice. And a live audio feed from under the ice in Antarctica.

Conjoined twins 11/29/08 The world's oldest conjoined twins, Ronnie and Donnie Galyon of Ohio, are moving in with their brother rather than into an assisted-living facility.

Albinos 11/18/08 "White Bambi" spotted in the Italian Alps.

Oldest zoo in the world 11/10/08 A neighborhood association has stopped the Oakland Zoo from its practice of cutting down non-native trees and feeding the crunchy snacks to elephants and other animals. An Asian elephant has been born for the 1st time at the Melbourne Zoo. A Norwegian man who is trying to collect 1 million giraffes to win a bet is nearly halfway there.

Animal extinction 11/9/08 The eel population in London's River Thames have dropped precipitously (98%).