Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Cat Bids Farewell to Her Companion

This set of photos shows an animal's capacity for grief. I have never seen something so heartbreakingly touching.













Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Kunstkamera Curiosities

The Kunstkamera was the first museum in Russia. Established by Peter the Great and completed in 1727, the Kunstkammer Building hosts the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, with a collection of almost 2,000,000 items. It is located on the Universitetskaya Embankment in Saint Petersburg. Peter's museum was a cabinet of curiosities dedicated to preserving "natural and human curiosities and rarities", a very typical type of collection in the period. The tsar's personal collection, features a large assortment of human and animal fetuses with anatomical deficiencies, which Peter had seen in 1697 visiting Frederick Ruysch and Levinus Vincent. The underlying idea of their kunstkammers was to acquire full knowledge of the world.

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 Info from here

Hearses Across Time

1924 REO Funeral Hearse

Graham, 1927





Studebaker hearse chassis. 1930 - a year. Was used for the burial of the deceased mayor of Madrid in 1986.

 

 



Early 20th century, by special orders from Madrid.

"La Llorona" - Weeping, Latil, 1928

Cadillac 1929


1917 REO Hearse

1941 Cadillac Eureka Hearse

1938 Packard Model 886

1929 Rolls Royce Hearse

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Ligature Furrows Part I

Hanging is asphyxia due to constriction of neck as a result of suspension in such a manner that the weight of the body or a part of the victim's body pulls upon the ligature. The factor of suspension differentiates hanging from strangulation by ligature, the later being caused by the application of a ligature to the neck in such a way that the force acting upon it is other than the weight of the body. Both, in hanging and ligature strangulation, a ligature mark may be produced by local damage to the skin of the neck due to pressure that may be associated with lateral rubbing action resulting in associated abrasion. This ligature mark on the neck is of crucial diagnostic importance and requires detailed inspection with regard to its course, depth and width. Sometimes the groove retains the pattern of the ligature material(as for example, a spiral weave of rope).  

The ligature mark appears as a furrow on the skin whose direction is determined by the point of suspension(knot). Depending upon the duration of suspension, the furrow is initially pale or yellow parchment, like area with a rim that is congested or with slight punctiform haematomas. With time, the furrow dries & becomes brownish. The narrower the ligature and the harder its material, the more detectable is the ligature mark on the skin. 




















Info from here