Julia Ziegler-Haynes, an artist and former waitress, first took to cooking through a rather unusual art project: she researched the final meals of 24 death-row inmates, then prepared them and had them photographed. "That was the first time I ever really cooked for strangers," she says. "I was cooking for ghosts."
New York Times Sunday Style Magazine, Design Fall 2012, October 7, 2012
see more about what Julia is currently up to at the-dinner-bell.com
Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Before Their Time: The Forever Young (Dead) At Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia PA
We never know for sure when our time will come and death will come calling. When will be the last time we see or talk to a friend before death arrives. Often death comes early:
Upon entering Laurel Hill Cemetery, the average visitor is immediately struck by the curious statuary that sits at its entrance. It is based upon the early 19th century novel, Old Mortality, by Sir Walter Scott, wherein the title character cautions, “My hours are like the ears of the latter harvest, and your days are yet in the spring; and yet you may be gathered into the garner of mortality before me, for the sickle of death cuts down the green as oft as the ripe, and there is a colour in your cheek that, like the bud of the rose, serveth oft to hide the worm of corruption.” These poetic words would translate into reality for many whom rest at Laurel Hill. From the youngest infants to the young men and women not destined to reach the milestone of middle age, the Cemetery is ripe with the bones of many who departed this world before their time. Alfred Miller was just 7 months old when he found eternal rest at Laurel Hill, soon to be joined by three siblings who died before their 1stbirthdays. Civil War Union Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was just 21 when a bullet ended his promising military career. William Emlen Cresson’s bronze likeness depicts an artist just 24 years old when he painted his last. Across the Cemetery, Charles Vansant’s similarly short life ended on a lazy summer day at the Jersey shore with a shark attack that would decades later inspire the film Jaws.
Upon entering Laurel Hill Cemetery, the average visitor is immediately struck by the curious statuary that sits at its entrance. It is based upon the early 19th century novel, Old Mortality, by Sir Walter Scott, wherein the title character cautions, “My hours are like the ears of the latter harvest, and your days are yet in the spring; and yet you may be gathered into the garner of mortality before me, for the sickle of death cuts down the green as oft as the ripe, and there is a colour in your cheek that, like the bud of the rose, serveth oft to hide the worm of corruption.” These poetic words would translate into reality for many whom rest at Laurel Hill. From the youngest infants to the young men and women not destined to reach the milestone of middle age, the Cemetery is ripe with the bones of many who departed this world before their time. Alfred Miller was just 7 months old when he found eternal rest at Laurel Hill, soon to be joined by three siblings who died before their 1stbirthdays. Civil War Union Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was just 21 when a bullet ended his promising military career. William Emlen Cresson’s bronze likeness depicts an artist just 24 years old when he painted his last. Across the Cemetery, Charles Vansant’s similarly short life ended on a lazy summer day at the Jersey shore with a shark attack that would decades later inspire the film Jaws.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Vampire Plague Victim Found With Brick Stuck In Its Jaw, Teeth Intact=The Vampire Of Venice
'Vampire' Plague Victim Spurs Gruesome Debate
Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 30 May 2012 Time: 01:00 AM ET
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| The skull of the "vampire of Venice," found in a mass grave with a brick stuck in its jaw. CREDIT: Matteo Borrini |
What may have been an exorcism of a vampire in Venice is now drawing bad blood among scientists arguing over whether gravediggers were attempting to defeat an undead monster.
The controversy begins with a mass grave of 16th-century plague victims on the Venetian island of Nuovo Lazzaretto. The remains of a woman thereapparently had a brick shoved in her mouth, perhaps to exorcise the corpse in what may have been the first vampire burial known in archaeology, said forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence in Italy.
Vampire superstitions were common when plague devastated Europe, and much, if not all, of this folklore could be due to misconceptions about the natural stages of decomposition, Borrini said. The recently dead can often appear unnervingly alive. As the corpse's skin shrinks and pulls back, for example, hair and nails may appear to grow after death.
The remains of the woman were apparently wrapped in a shroud, based on the position of her collarbone, Borrini suggested. A corpse might appear to have chewed through its shroud because of corrosive fluids it spewed as it decayed, perhaps frightening gravediggers into thinking it was a vampire. [Our 10 Favorite Vampires]
Vampire myths link the monsters with contagions, and the plague ran rampant in Venice in 1576, killing as many as 50,000 people, nearly a third of the city, including famed Renaissance artist Titian. The gravediggers that ran across this corpse may have wanted to prevent avampire from ravaging the city further with pestilence, Borrini and his colleague Emilio Nuzzolese suggested in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in 2010. The "vampire" has since been discussed on Italian national TV and a National Geographic documentary.
A skeleton buried in the cemetery of Vecchiano in Pisa showing a similar condition to the purported "Venetian vampire."
CREDIT: Antonio Fornaciari
CREDIT: Antonio Fornaciari
However, now other researchers are openly deriding this claim. Where some might see an exorcism, these researchers see a brick accidentally falling into a skull's mouth.
"I find surprising that the reviewers of an important journal such as the Journal of Forensic Sciences had given permission to publish the article of Nuzzolese and Borrini with inadequate scientific evidence to support their hypothesis," physical anthropologist Simona Minozzi at the University of Pisa in Italy told LiveScience.
To start with, photos of the site where the purported vampire was found show her remains were surrounded by stones, bricks and tiles, Minozzi said. They also note the jaws of corpses often gape open, allowing any number of items to fall in — for instance, they note a skeleton with a thighbone in its mouth was found in the cemetery of Vecchio Lazzaretto in Venice.
They also note there is no clear evidence of a shroud, as coffin walls might also explain the position of the collarbone. They add that the legend of the so-called nachzehrer, or "shroud-eaters," were apparently tightly confined to the East German region and not Italy. Minozzi and her colleagues detailed their argument in the May issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
Minozzi called the vampire idea "nonsense." "Unfortunately, this is a common practice in the last few years in Italy," she said. "This is probably due to the strong cutting of funds for research in Italy, so researchers seek to attract attention and money through sensational discoveries that often have little to do with science."
Borrini and his colleagues strongly rebut the argument over their analysis. They discussed how the physical details of the site supported their interpretation in a response in the May issue of the Journal of Forensic Sciences, and that while the legend of the nachzehrer was found in Germanic areas, Venice was a crossroads during the epoch in which such legends from distant lands might have circulated.
"Regarding the criticism of my Italian colleagues, I have to admit that it's a quite unpleasant situation," Borrini said. "It seems that the main reasons of the interest in my research is its mass media success. Well, I want to be clear regarding this — I never looked for the media."
Monday, October 22, 2012
Why Does A Body Stiffen Up From Rigor Mortis After Death?
Ask Dr. H: From ancient parts to mystery of death
Q: With Halloween approaching, I'd like to ask a creepy question: Why does a body stiffen up from rigor mortis after death?
A: Halloween approaches, and little ghouls and goblins will soon be scurrying door to door. The mystery of death and what lies beyond has long fascinated man. From a biological viewpoint, death is a much simpler concept. It's not an event, but a process. This is because the various tissues and organs in the living body die at different rates.
Rigor mortis is due to a complex chemical reaction. During life, our muscles require energy (fuel). They need lots of oxygen. However, during strenuous work or exercise, this is in short supply. Heavy muscle use causes a buildup of lactic acid. It contributes to the feeling of muscle fatigue and "burn." Haven't we all felt that "burn" in our legs with climbing stairs?
During life, the lactic acid quickly dissipates once we rest our muscles. In death, this cannot happen. The breakdown of muscle fuel (glycogen) in death leads to irreversibly high levels of lactic acid. This leads to a complex reaction in which the components of muscle fibers fuse together to form a gel. This gel is what makes the body feel stiff in death. Once the muscle is moved, the stiffness is broken, and the gel will not re-form.
The stiffness begins at once and becomes complete in two to three hours, developing faster in the head, neck, and arms than in the legs. High metabolic activity in the time just before death, such as running or playing tennis, leads to higher levels of lactic acid and a shorter time for rigor mortis to develop. For those who are muscular, the rigor comes on more slowly and lasts longer. Rigor mortis lasts for 12 to 24 hours, after which decomposition begins.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
"No Insurance Against A Plot Twist" (In Your Life)
Thanks to writer Lisa Scottoline for the above title, and below:
"Life is like a novel. You never know when you're gonna get a plot twist. And you hope the ending is happy, and not a surprise." Her dog Little Tony almost died in surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. "And it got me thinking, because I didn't see it coming. It wasn't anybody's fault, and it wasn't in anybody's control. It just happened, because anything can happen, and at any time. Both good, and bad. And though i think of myself as someone who daily counts her blessings, I took for granted that Little Tony was lucky to have the surgery. It never occurred to me that it could kill him. But now I know better. And that's the kind of thing that makes life worth living."
There are no guarantees in life. Enjoy it while you can. It's too short. And pre-plan and pay for, for the sake of your loved ones, your final death arrangements!: Where would you like to be buried? Would you like to be cremated, or buried in a coffin? What kind of coffin, wood or metal? Etc. Etc.
"Life is like a novel. You never know when you're gonna get a plot twist. And you hope the ending is happy, and not a surprise." Her dog Little Tony almost died in surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. "And it got me thinking, because I didn't see it coming. It wasn't anybody's fault, and it wasn't in anybody's control. It just happened, because anything can happen, and at any time. Both good, and bad. And though i think of myself as someone who daily counts her blessings, I took for granted that Little Tony was lucky to have the surgery. It never occurred to me that it could kill him. But now I know better. And that's the kind of thing that makes life worth living."
There are no guarantees in life. Enjoy it while you can. It's too short. And pre-plan and pay for, for the sake of your loved ones, your final death arrangements!: Where would you like to be buried? Would you like to be cremated, or buried in a coffin? What kind of coffin, wood or metal? Etc. Etc.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Do Vampires Exist? Mathematically They Cannot! Right.?!
Thanks Live Science:
Vampires a Mathematical Impossibility, Scientist Says
Sara Goudarzi
Date: 11 January 2008 Time: 09:45 AM ET
A researcher has come up with some simple math that sucks the life out of the vampire myth, proving that these highly popular creatures can't exist.
University of Central Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou's work debunks pseudoscientific ideas, such as vampires and zombies, in an attempt to enhance public literacy. Not only does the public believe in such topics, but the percentages are at dangerously high level, Efthimiou told LiveScience.
Legend has it that vampires feed on human blood and once bitten a person turns into a vampire and starts feasting on the blood of others.
Efthimiou's debunking logic: On Jan 1, 1600, the human population was 536,870,911. If the first vampire came into existence that day and bit one person a month, there would have been two vampires by Feb. 1, 1600. A month later there would have been four, and so on. In just two-and-a-half years the original human population would all have become vampires with nobody left to feed on.
If mortality rates were taken into consideration, the population would disappear much faster. Even an unrealistically high reproduction rate couldn't counteract this effect.
"In the long run, humans cannot survive under these conditions, even if our population were doubling each month," Efthimiou said. "And doubling is clearly way beyond the human capacityof reproduction."
So whatever you think you see prowling around on Oct. 31, it most certainly won't turn you into a vampire.
- Keith Ball · Falls Church, VirginiaThere's also the point that vampires *can* be killed, in any version of vampire lore I've heard of. That's a major oversight in his argument.
- Nick Anthony · Top Commenter · Suny ulsterI'm not arguing that vampires exist, because they don't, but I feel compelled to point out that in most traditional vampire fiction, you don't turn from being bitten, you have to drink the vampire's blood. The stories that have you turn from a simple bite completely miss the point. The power is in the blood. It's a running motif, the blood is the life, the blood is everything. The vampire takes his victim's blood, and replaces it with his own. I'm not saying these guys are wrong, but they're operating under faulty reasoning.
- Chris Furney · 53 years oldVampires are real. In the clinical sense, anyway. I am one- I test borderline. (One weekend a month and two weeks in the springtime haha). Cure all recipe I dug up seems to work, and DOES give one a bout of AIP. Math is cute but it ain't real. Oh the virus only works on people who have been exposed to hepatitis.
http://www.porphyriafoundation.com / - Kuldeep Jangra · Subscribe · Works at Real Madrid C.F.what then if vampires controlled on their hunger of blood.....a question arises.....how the 'vampire thought' come into human mind? I will keep the eye on this topic and I'm serious about this matter.
- Laura EllsworthCurrent thought is that it was a way to explain serial killers. Since people rarely travelled away from their own homes, a wandering serial killer (such as a peddler or travelling jester) would be able to kill with impunity. The bodies would be found long after he had travelled on, so stories were invented to explain them. Hence werewolves, vampires, hags, and so on.
- Natasha Wilson · Top Commenter · John Leggott CollegeExact figure on the human population? Acounting for unknown territories and their populations at the time? I highly doubt it.
Try less theory and more common sense.- Natasha Wilson · Top Commenter · John Leggott Collegethey're assuming basic mathematics without factoring in variables based on geography, reproductive rates vs mortality rates etc.
also assuming that just biting transforms a victim into a vampire - in 1600 most if not all bites would be fatal purely because of rampant non-hygene ranging throughout all the class systems. even the "noble" classes bathed on ageverage 5 times a year, and they had no toothpaste back then.
- Michael Occhipinti · Subscribe · SUNY at BuffaloPlease, everybody knows that vampires don't turn everybody they feed on, or even kill them. some vampires feed on animal blood, some only take a small amount from a victim. If you assume that a vampire turns a human only under special conditions and only need to feed occasionally, then this math means absolutely nothing. All I said of course, only applies if shows like True Blood have the real details on how vampires operate.
- Fernando Marques · Oeiras, PortugalFirst: A vampire can kill it's victims, it doesn't necessary transform them.
Second: I don't believe that in his calculations he counted the number of births and deaths on the population. And since the population growth has been increasing then the number of births are superior than deaths.
Third: I'm not saying vampires exist but I'm just saying that the calculus are wrong due to sum of the variables not being counted. - Ocie Belle Peace · Top CommenterSomeone tell me what started all this vampire rave. I left in '07 and when I came back in '10 everything was vampires all over the place, books, movies, tv, wannabees on the news. Tell me what gives.
- Keith Ball · Falls Church, VirginiaDunno. True Blood and ... whatever those stupid teenage-girl heartthrob vampire movies are called. Must have defensively blocked it out of my mind!
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