Postmortem Changes

Very interesting article on TOD and postmortem process. Lots of B&W photos, including cadaveric spasm, gloving, tache noire (no forensic significance but I like the name and it looks weird as hell) and nibbling (yes, nibbling was the word used in reference to dogs snacking on corpses). Photo below is one example.

From: Time of Death and Changes After Death, Part 1: Anatomical Considerations (From Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigation, Fourth Edition, P 87-127, 2006, Werner U. Spitz and Daniel J. Spitz, eds. Author - Joshua A. Perper

Link to PDF Article

I Need To Remember

My favorite scene from American Beauty. Thanks to Mr. O for unwittingly reminding me of this this morning (and another hearty congratulations! I knew you were a light-eater. "They eat the dark, who only stand and breathe."*)



* Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Forensic Pathology Books

When I originally wrote up these synopses I did not have access to a scanner. I'm logging this mainly to remind myself to scan some stuff. Lucky, lucky people.

----

Forensic Pathology of Trauma: Common Problems for the Pathologist by Michael J. Shkrum, MD. and David A. Ramsay, MB, ChB

This is a professional textbook. Each chapter is meticulously referenced (725 references for chapter 8). Herein you will find all the trauma you can shake a stick at including -- close-range firearm wounds, sharp force injuries, craniocerebral and vertebrospinal, and a chapter entitled "with reference to planes, trains and automobiles". There are a lot of photos and x-rays, lots of dead people including infants and children, extreme close-ups.

The appeal for me is the clinical language, very dry and unemotional. This is basically a collection of case reports, about 600 pages of them. Unless you're interested in the mechanics of death, the medical findings, I don't recommend this one.

Highlights: skin splits from burns and degloving from decomposition; traumatic amputation of hand with exposed radius-ulna from grenade and exteriorized bowel from explosion; scalp laceration from airplane propellor blade and suicide by table saw (severed carotid arteries); self-inflicted head wounds from insertion of fork, eyes gouged and vertex of cranium penetrated causing subdural hemorrhage, the latter act bent the fork; close-up photos of pedestrian fatalities including abrasions down to bone, decapitations, amputated feet, and one of pedestrian-train collision; "large irregular soft tissue defect of face, postmortem predation by a dog" (translation, photo of human face eaten by dog); the difference between contact, intermediate and distance gunshot entry and exit wounds; intraoral self-inflicted gunshot wound, soot deposition on lower incisors (blowing one's face off by sticking a gun in the mouth with gunshot residue on teeth); damage done to cranium by large caliber gunshot; lots of stab wounds, road rash, frostbite, human bite marks...

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Color Atlas of Forensic Pathology by Jay Dix

The best thing about this book is also what deserves its strongest warning -- exactly what the title describes, this is death in technicolor. Layers of soft tissue, exposed internal organs, eyeball injuries, brain matter, amputations, decomposition, bruises, blood, other bodily fluids, faces peeled back from the skull in autopsy. And that's just the first chapter. Like the previous book, this one includes photos of small children and infants. Also included are graphic, unrelentingly close-ups of sexual assault homicides and mutilation.

Aside from brief chapter introductions and captions there is really no discussion/explanation of anything. Less than 200 pages, this is mainly photographs.

Highlights: Man falls from 200 feet, impact is so great his long bones not only poke through his skin but penetrate his boot; bludgeoning of the face with a hammer -- it doesn't sound exciting but I've never seen wounds like this, the face was simultaneously swollen and ripped up from the trauma; 26 pound tumor discovered during autopsy; spectacle hemorrhage (black eyes) from gunshot wound, enough pressure built up in the cranial cavity to fracture the skull and lacerate the skin -- this looked photo-shopped, the entire face was split apart diagonally down the forehead and to the side of the nose; contact high velocity rifle shots to the head makes half of it disappear, looks like something has taken a giant bite out of the top of the face; if there is any face left, gunshot suicides die with their eyes open; death by asphyxia is not pretty -- lividity (dark purple stains, blood pooling) is pronounced in lower part of the face, tongue does protrude and turn black; the "pugilist" position of burn victims, fire will cause joints to contract; detached scalp with ear from car accident, surreally Blue Velvet; if you think you want to do this professionally, the chapters on pediatric forensic pathology may change your mind.

Dementia 13

I don't know what it is about this movie, never get tired of watching it.

Dulces de Calabasas

Candied Pumpkin Recipe!

Propnomicon

Thanks to my accomplice's Agaricus Bisporus addiction I have collected roughly 10,000 small jars. Haven't been sure what to do with them but I like having lots. This blog is giving me lots of ideas!

Propnomicon

"Propnomicon focuses on horror and fantasy props of interest to fans of H. P. Lovecraft and players of the "Call of Cthulhu" role playing game. That includes items directly inspired by Lovecraft's writing, DIY information for creating your own works, printable paper props, and source materials related to the 1920's and 30's, the "classic era" of the Cthulhu Mythos."

Pumpkins & Autumn

Some yummy stuff from a longtime favorite, the happiest Halloweeny site EVER -- Pumpkinrot!

Recipe for Pumpkin Cider

"Avenue of Poplars In Autumn" by Vincent Van Gogh

Le Carre

I don't think I read poetry correctly and one poet in particular always makes me feel smudged in some conspicuous place. So I've stopped commenting on it. But a recent piece made me remember this and I am logging it:

"Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: Whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen. - John le Carre

Mmmm, Books

Thank you Mr. State Tax Man, my refund finally cometh. I shall promptly spend it all on books. I've been trying to sort/prioritize my interminable wishlist. My immediate focus is, unfortunately, subject to frequent change. Following are only some of my picks for the pending shopping spree:

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness and Obsession by David Grann



American Lightning: Terror, Mystery and the Birth of Hollywood by Howard Blum



Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America's Youngest Serial Killer by Harold Schechter



Panzram: A Journal of Murder by Thomas Gaddis



I'm No Monster: the Horrifying True Story of Josef Fritzl by Marsh, Stefanie; Pancevski, Bojan



The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasure of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson



Final Truth: The Autobiography of a Serial Killer by Pee Wee Gaskins



Forensic Art Essentials: A Manual for Law Enforcement Artists by Lois Gibson



Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation and Typhus by Naomi Baumslag



Doctors From Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans by Vivien Spitz

More Bizzarro Bazar

Since I use this blawg as a personal reference/log, I am posting links to some of my favorite Bizzarro entries (aside from the museums). No quotes or pictures because everyone should really just visit the page itself -- the entire website is exquisite, tons of fantastic stuff to razzle dazzle!

Loto d'oro

Miru Kim

Lingua parassita

Strano, Macabro, Meraviglioso!

A recent happy discovery is the Italian blog, Bizzarro Bazar. No, I don't speak Italian, but it's an image-heavy page so I just like to ogle the photos. There is a fantastic entry on medical museums. I'm having a hard time figuring out which museums are covered thanks to the language barrier but the pictures are gorgeous.

Wanna See Something?

Picture time! These aren't from movies. No special f/x. Real people, real bodies. I have no info for the first but it looks like a severe case of kyphosis (hunchbackism) or something similar. The second is from this Flickr album and is tagged "Cebu. Venous Hypertension in Goiter." With additional comment -- "too risky to try to resect this goiter". Everyone know what a goiter is? Swelling of the thyroid gland.

CotN - Notes and Quotes 2

Much of this book is devoted to the relief effort, dealing with the overwhelming, tremendous devastation. It wasn't just the infrastructure of the city, the buildings, docks and railways. The people were destroyed too. Lots of haunting visuals are now etched onto the back of my eyelids. Which seems appropriate...

-----

He checked out one eye and then the other by gently lifting their swollen lids, if there were any lids. "Eyelids were cut into literal fringes and in addition to removal of the ball, one often had to hunt among the swollen scalp to find material to reconstruct a set of lids. In many cases there were no more eyeballs. It was as if the ball had been laid opened and then stuffed with pieces of glass or sometimes crockery, brick splinters, and on palpitation, they would clink. Pieces of glass were driven clean through the eyeball and one found it necessary to feel about in the orbital tissue before dressing the case. Pieces of glass as large as an inch square or larger were found." (155)

He was rationing the chloroform for use on the worst cases. On Saturday afternoon alone he removed twenty-fives eyes and threw them into a metal surgical bucket on the floor. By midafternoon it was full. The medical student in charge of gathering information, who had served beside Cox since his arrival, gently put down his tags, smiled at Cox, and fainted. (188)

Yates, Carstens, Pear and Murphy gathered around a heavy oil delivery wagon. The oil tank had been thrown twenty yards up the hill. The two horses lay together, one cut in half, stretched across the other with its hind legs extending straight out from its back. They had obviously been thrown in the air, still tethered together, while the cart remained where it had landed, upside down. The whole depressing scene was covered in ice, literally freezing their last agonizing minute. The stillness and permanence of the horses struck Murphy, reminding him of equestrian statues gone wrong. (185)

Shell Shock

Still reading Curse of the Narrows. I keep getting side-tracked by things in the text that catch my eye. One (of many) is the term "shell shock." Despite having heard it a hundred times, I really didn't know what it was. Considering the Halifax explosion was so intense it blew peoples' teeth clear out of their skulls, it is really not surprising that many suffered from this.

Shell shock (now referred to as "combat stress reaction") is generally short-term. Many of the survivors also experienced long-term symptoms associated with PTSD. Some for the rest of their lives.

From Wiki: The most common symptoms are fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's surroundings, and inability to prioritize.

There is also a term described in the wiki article which was mentioned in Curse -- the Thousand-yard stare ("a phrase originally coined to describe the limp, unfocused gaze of a battle-weary soldier.") It is a sign of dissociation, a defense mechanism in response to severe trauma. Imagining this weighs so heavy. So many stories lost in those eyes.

These sons, husbands, brothers. These men. These soldiers.

The Donner Party

Recently in the news again because of alleged evidence of no cannibalism taking place. I've only read a short article so won't comment on that. But here's a great PBS movie about the Donner Party.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1401950336

Go Go Godzilla!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Japanese Urban Legends

Pink Tentacle has been running a series on Japanese urban legends. Wonderfully weird stories, fantastic imagery and great fuel for nightmares and paintings. Some examples...

Human-Faced Dog

Animals with human-like faces have long been rumored to exist in Japan. In recent decades, countless people have reportedly encountered human-faced dogs (jinmenken) around town and on the highway.

The modern-day explosion of alleged human-faced dog encounters began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to numerous stories, human-faced dogs are most frequently seen at night, usually by people taking out the trash. At first glance, the creature may look like an ordinary stray dog rummaging through the garbage, but closer inspection reveals a face that looks human.

Many stories claim the human-faced dog speaks when confronted. In a weary voice, it most often says, “Leave me alone.”

Cursed Kleenex Commercial

An eerie Kleenex commercial featuring a baby red demon sparked a host of rumors and fears after airing on Japanese TV in the mid-1980s. (Watch at your own risk.)

More fun includes beautiful images from a monster scroll, a list of rumors about the Tokyo Underground, "human pillars", fast food mystery meat and the most recent Hanako-san (Terror of the Toilet), what seems to be a more terrifying version of Moaning Myrtle.

It is not uncommon for schools to have a toilet permanently occupied by the mysterious girl, who is known in Japanese as Toire no Hanako-san (lit. “Hanako of the toilet”). She is often found in the third stall in the restroom on the third floor — usually the girls’ room — but this can vary from school to school. Details about her physical appearance also vary, but she is usually described as having bobbed hair and wearing a red skirt.

Hanako-san’s behavior also varies according to location, but in most cases, she remains holed up in the bathroom until an adventurous student dares to provoke her. Hanako-san can be conjured up by knocking on the door to her stall (usually three times), calling her name, and asking a particular question. The most common question is simply “Are you there, Hanako-san?” If Hanako-san is indeed present, she says in a faint voice, “Yes, I’m here.” Some stories claim that anyone courageous enough to open the door at this point is greeted by a little girl in a red skirt and then pulled into the toilet.

For some reason, all of this makes me want to watch the original Ju-on...beautiful, eerie, haunting Japan.

Stationery of Horror

Do I even need to say how cool I think this is?

13th Street "Stationery of Horror"(Design) on the Behance Network

Somos Lo Que Hay

(We Are What We Are)

This looks promising!

We begin with tragedy, with a man comfortably past middle age spitting up blood and collapsing dead in the middle of a busy public walkway. Though he is a nondescript man - such a nobody that he is simply dragged away by local cleaners and the police never bother any serious attempt at identifying him - he is quite important in the lives of the three teenaged children he leaves behind and the spouse he leaves a widow.

That the family is left bereaved is nothing surprising, this is a normal consequence of a death but it cuts a little deeper here. You see, this family has a difference, they follow strict, cannibalistic religious rites and with Father gone they are thrown into complete disarray. Who will perform the rites? What - i.e. who - will they eat? And who is going to do the hunting?

And so, much like Let The Right One In, what we have here is a film built on a horror premise - and this does, indeed, become quite horrific - but which is as much, if not more, a family drama and teen coming of age story. For the mantle of leadership, it seems, must fall on Alfredo, an introverted teen who wants nothing to do with the responsibility but must take on the mantle if his family is to survive despite the objections of his mother and moderately sociopathic brother.

Beautifully shot and constructed, Grau builds a truly unique animal here, a film that is entirely its own. Though I've heard comments from some Spanish-speakers here that the performances are uneven I personally found the four principal actors - the three teenaged children and their mother - excellent, in particular the young man who played Alfredo. There's a natural stillness to him that serves him - and the film - well throughout the entire picture, a natural demeanor that hints at all sorts of depths to be plumbed.

Read the entire review HERE.

Vintage Insanity

Must file this in the cabinet. I've posted about historical depictions, photos of insane people before but this may be the first "action" video. Not only am I taken with the subject, I am becoming more and more partial to silent movies. Anything else is getting increasingly difficult to hear unless I'm jacked directly in (via headphones).

Tip o' the hat (and muchas muchas gracias!) to D. who originally posted this Elsewhere.

CotN - Notes & Quotes

Curse of the Narrows by Laura M. Mac Donald.

I am tearing through this book. It is so well written, Mac Donald makes this day in history sparkle to life for the reader with easy-to-understand technical explanations (of explosions, ships, geography, etc) and vivid, haunting first-person accounts. Still, I'm having a terrificly hard time comprehending the sheer magnitude of the devastation. It's more than a little mind-boggling.

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The air blast blew through the narrow streets, toppling buildings and crashing through windows, doors, walls, and chimneys until it slowed to 756 miles an hour, 5 miles below the speed of sound. The blast crushed internal organs, exploding lungs and eardrums of those standing closest to the ship, most of whom died instantly. It picked up others, only to thrash them against trees, walls, and lampposts with enough force to kill them. Roofs and ceilings collapsed on top of their owners. Floors dropped into the basement and trapped families under timber, beams, and furniture. This was particularly dangerous for those close to the harbor because a fireball, which was invisible in daylight, shot out over a one-half to three-quarter-mile area surrounding the Mont Blanc. Richmond houses caught fire like so much kindling. In houses able to withstand the blast, windows stretched inward until the glass shattered its the weakest point, sending out a shower of arrow-shaped slivers that cut their way through curtains, wallpaper, and walls. The glass spared no one. Some people were beheaded where they stood; others were saved by a falling bed or bookshelf. It pierced the faces and upper chests of anyone unlucky enough to still be standing in front of a window. Many people reported passing out. Many others who had watched the fire seconds before awoke to find themselves unable to see. (64)

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[Elizabeth] turned to her mother but stopped in horror. "I saw my aunt, who was expecting a baby, dragging her little six-year-old boy by the hand. Her eyes were both blown out of her head and she was telling him to hurry; he was dead but she did not know." (74)

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Dorothy Lloyd and her sister Dolly arrived at the school grounds panting and out of breath, asking about their sisters Margaret and Hilda. The four sisters had been caught up in the blast, which them dropped them briefly to the ground. This did not strike Dorothy as nearly as unusual as the long pieces of tubing tumbling above them.

"Dolly, look at the stove pipes flying in the air."
"Those aren't stove pipes," Dolly corrected her, "They're sailors." (77)

All Smiles

To answer a question: I am a happy person. A very happy person. I laugh easily and am quick to smile.

In fact, just now I had yet another reason to smile. Part of my (way) early morning ritual is taking my mug of coffee outside to sit my bony ass on the front step while watching (way) early morning traffic. It's peaceful, trust me.

Yesterday there was some road construction taking place down the street, just out of eye-shot from my front door. I have no idea what was being done but there was a very unforgivingly steep BUMP hastily built to cover a drainage tube of some kind that was laying across the road. Bump built of that road goo gravel that is black as pitch when it's first put down.

The speed limit on my street is something like 30 mph. And for good reason, high kid/pet/general population, yadda yadda, kind of like driving in a parking lot. But people, being the assholes they are, always race through.

So, this morning I get to sit in the dark, sipping coffee, listening to the loverly sounds of car bottoms getting scraped while hitting the black-as-pitch-invisible BUMP at twice the posted speed limit.

And that makes me smile.

The End

Misotheism

A sort-of follow-up to the Cioran post. At the bottom of the wiki article, in the "see also" section, is a link to Misotheism.

The hatred of God or gods. A word I'd never heard before but am kind of familiar with. Seems there are a lot of folks out there with a big ax to grind. I mean to the point that they make a religion out of it. Personally I regard him in a similar fashion as the Easter rabbit -- as long as he doesn't poop all over my house and chew up my wires... actually I take that back. No matter how well house-trained he may be, Jesus is so not as cute as a bunny.

Related term, and one I like even more, is dystheism. The "belief that god is not wholly good and possibly evil". Sort of fell down the rabbit hole of reading about trickster gods after that, chuckling about obvious (to me) parallels with politics and whatnot.

I Will Write On My Doors

"Emil Cioran April 8, 1911 – June 20, 1995) was a Romanian philosopher and essayist." (the usual source)

Pessimism characterizes all of his works, which many critics trace back to events of his childhood (in 1935 his mother is reputed to have told him that if she had known he was going to be so unhappy she would have aborted him). However, Cioran's pessimism (in fact, his skepticism, even nihilism) remains both inexhaustible and, in its own particular manner, joyful; it is not the sort of pessimism which can be traced back to simple origins, single origins themselves being questionable. When Cioran's mother spoke to him of abortion, he confessed that it did not disturb him, but made an extraordinary impression which led to an insight about the nature of existence ("I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously?" is what he later said in reference to the incident.

Regarding God, Cioran has noted that "without Bach, God would be a complete second rate figure" and that "Bach's music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe can not be regarded a complete failure".[15]

William H. Gass called Cioran's work "a philosophical romance on the modern themes of alienation, absurdity, boredom, futility, decay, the tyranny of history, the vulgarities of change, awareness as agony, reason as disease".

I Will Write On My Doors


Every Visit Is Aggression

Or

Don’t Come In, Have Mercy

Or

Everyone Bothers Me

Or

Damn All of You Who Ever Ringed My Bell

Or

I Know Nobody

Or

Dangerous Madman

...from the back cover of Emil Cioran ‘s Manual of passion

short essays compiled and translated by Petru Krdu,2009.

Fallen Art

Fallen Art by (really cute) Tomek Baginski of Poland. "In an old forgotten military base far from civilization, a group of deranged military officers nurture their insanity."

Early Halloween

Still got Halloween pumping through my veins and have already started plotting decorations (papier mache DotD hinged skeletons) and have decided to decoupage the inside of my bathroom cabinets with horror movie ads. Because that would make me happy. Like my favorite book makes me happy despite having read it 101 times...

First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren't rare. But there be bad and good, as the pirates say. If it's around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bed sheets around corners. But one strange wild dark long year, Halloween came early.

No Trespassing

I want this sign! I used to have the one that said, "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again." But this one is great too.

Currently Reading...

Curse of the Narrows by Laura M. Mac Donald

From the front cover, "December 6, 1917. Halifax, Nova Scotia. A munitions ship collided with a vessel in the Narrows of the harbor, triggering a catastrophic explosion that destroyed much of the city. Within minutes a tsunami engulfed parts of the waterfront. That evening a blizzard buried Halifax, isolating it from the world."

Wiki says this is still the largest man-made accidental explosion. I first read about it when researching the Boston Molasses Disaster (which took place two years later). I love these historical non-fiction epic horror stories, as well as having a particular interest in WW1-era stuff. Featured on the Homeland Security journal because of its lessons concerning emergency response, I'm sure I will be posting much more about this as I get more into the meat of the story. Only just begun and am already utterly captivated!

Leporiphobia

Happy Zombie Day Kids, today is just another day for me. I work in a few hours. A few fun Easter factoids about Shade:

1.) Jelly beans are my second favourite sweet (second only to candy corn). Although my stomach would protest, I could easily eat 5 lbs of them in one sitting. Every time I do eat them, I carefully segregate all of the bean races and gobble them in batches with ghoulish glee.



2.) Vintage bunny masks disturb me at some core level. I realized this long before ever seeing Donnie Darko. I don't dislike rabbits, in fact I think they're adorable (as long as they are not in my home pooping all over the place and chewing up wires). But those masks freak me the fuck out.



3.) James Howe's series about Bunnicula (the vampire bunny) was a childhood staple and fills me with fond, warm Ray Bradbury-esque memories.



4.) Bugs Bunny, Energizer Bunny, Playboy Bunny, Happy Bunny, Trix Bunny, White Rabbit, Roger Rabbit... of all of the famous flippity floppers out there my all-time favourite will always be Harvey.

"Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they turn toward mine and they smile. And they're saying, "We don't know your name, mister, but you're a very nice fella." Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments. We've entered as strangers - soon we have friends. And they come over... and they sit with us... and they drink with us... and they talk to us. They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar. And then I introduce them to Harvey... and he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me. And when they leave, they leave impressed. The same people seldom come back; but that's envy, my dear. There's a little bit of envy in the best of us. "

No Reason Whatsoever

I just like this photo. A lot.