Spontaneous combustion death cases: What IS the truth? By Peter Hough Updated: 14:44 GMT, 30 September 2011 When firemen were called to 76-year-old Irishman Michael Flaherty’s home in the middle of the night last December, the sight that greeted them could have leapt from the pages of a Victorian murder mystery. Mr Flaherty’s body had been burned away to little more than a pile of ashes. Apart from the floor below him and ceiling above, the room was not damaged. There were no signs of foul play or anything that could have caused the ignition. Mr Flaherty was lying on his back in the living room with his head near an empty fireplace, but firemen found no sign of accelerants such as petrol and there was no evidence of anyone having entered or left the scene. Fact or myth? He was alone in the house and his neighbours were only alerted when the smoke alarm sounded. So what is the explanation? So what is spontaneous human combustion, and how long has it been happening? But Dickens was not the first to touch on this phenomenon in print.
IdeaPaint: Turn Your Entire Office Into a Whiteboard Why didn't you think of this? John Goscha, at the ripe old age of 25 ditched a job offer at Goldman Sachs, and instead began marketing IdeaPaint, which is simply a paint that turns any paintable surface into a dry-erase board. The benefit--besides being able to brainstorm on almost every inch of your office--is that the paint is half the cost of whiteboard and better-performing--you can leave marks up indefinitely, and they won't stain the wall. Of course, it takes a bit of time--you may have to sand the wall and prime it--but one other benefit is that you're not incurring all the carbon involved in manufacturing and shipping a whiteboard. [Inc. via Dieline] Elegant Universe | A Sense of Scale Cornering the Higgs A professor from one of the CERN teams explains what this experimental result means for the future of physics. Elements in the Ocean Marine geochemist Catherine Jeandel has bottled the world’s oceans to decipher their past—and future. Name That Element!
Skeleton Squadron « Ancient Shore La Galerie de paléontologie et d’anatomie comparée, Part 1 The Gallery of Comparative Anatomy, as seen from near the entrance ... After quite a long hiatus from posts about museum exhibits, this seemed like a good time to get back into the subject. We have visited some strange and wondrous museums in the past few months, but the strangest and most wondrous of all has to be this old museum close to the Gare d’Austerlitz in Paris. ... and from above. The Galerie de paléontologie et d’anatomie comparée opened for the 1900 Paris world’s fair, as did many other exhibit venues. The Jardin des Plantes is overseen by a statue of the famous biologist J. This place is an absolute wonder. Entrance side of the Galerie de paléontologie et d'anatomie comparée. We visited during the peak of this summer’s July heatwave. If you want to see more of this Paris museum, please see Ghost Giants, about the fossil vertebrates, and Life’s Dusty Attic, about fossil invertebrates. ... such as these bear brains ...
Spontaneous Human Combustion People can catch on fire... but can it really happen when there is no external source of ignition? By Brian Dunning, Skeptoid Podcast Episode 258, May 17, 2011 Today we're going to point our skeptical eye at one of the mainstays of the paranormal: spontaneous human combustion (SHC). The idea is that people can, while simply minding their own business, burst into flames, with no external source of ignition. Spontaneous human combustion is a little different from most paranormal phenomena, in that it's a claim of no external source for the fire. Stories of SHC generally fall into one of two categories. Since this is my show, I'm going to invoke Host's Privilege and formally declare the two kinds. The most famous such case is that of 67-year-old Mary Reeser, whose remains were found by a friend in her St. Most sources cite something like 300 such cases of the First Kind, and they all follow this same basic pattern. Follow me on Twitter @BrianDunning.
WHAT TO DO IF A NUCLEAR DISASTER IS IMMINENT! This guide was purposely designed with the sober realization that the overwhelming majority of our fellow Americans would not be compelled to read such a guide until a nuclear crisis was imminent and, unfortunately, their preparation options and time to do so then would be very limited. www.ki4u.com and other survival suppliers will again be quickly sold-out, as all were after 9/11 and Fukushima. This guide then will be the best/only help that we can offer. If you are fortunate enough to be exploring your family preparation needs and options before such a future national crisis, there is much more that you can and should do now to insure that they are even better prepared. If stores are still at all stocked, and safe to go to, try to buy as many of the following items as possible... IMMEDIATELY! The half-dozen top listed and UNDERLINED food items below are primarily for use while in the shelter. Go Acquire It All Now QUICKLY! Some Final Thoughts... How People Act in Times of Trouble
xkcd • View topic - What is the hottest possible temperature? Charlie! wrote:But that's a bit of a mathematical construct, I admit. In every day situations just goes from 0 upwards and there is no highest possible temperature. Erm, there's definitely a disagreement with the equation E = 3/2 kT. Also, I'm not sure that any system with a population inversion will have heat flow to a system with positive temperature. imagine a box of 3 ping pong balls with one ball moving at 1 unit and 2 balls moving at 2 units (a simple negative temperature system). E = 3/2 kT is only true for ideal gases. For a simple example, take N particles with a ground state and an excited state.
Mistaken Identity In 1903, a prisoner named Will West arrived at Leavenworth. The record clerk took the photographs above and, thinking he remembered West, asked whether he had been there before. West said no. The clerk took some measurements, went to the file, and produced this record, bearing the name William West: Amazed, the prisoner said, “That’s my picture, but I don’t know where you got it, for I know I have never been here before.” Incredibly, this was true. The case became a strong argument in favor of the new science of fingerprinting.
'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion 23 September 2011Last updated at 22:12 Dr McLoughlin said he had attempted to find an explanation A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled. West Galway coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin said it was the first time in 25 years of investigating deaths that he had recorded such a verdict. Michael Faherty, 76, died at his home in Galway on 22 December 2010. Deaths attributed by some to "spontaneous combustion" occur when a living human body is burned without an apparent external source of ignition. Typically police or fire investigators find burned corpses but no burned furniture. An inquest in Galway on Thursday heard how investigators had been baffled as to the cause of Mr Faherty's death at his home at Clareview Park, Ballybane. Forensic experts found that a fire in the fireplace of the sitting room where the badly burnt body was found, had not been the cause of the blaze that killed Mr Faherty. 'Sharp intake of breath'
Absolute Zero | Absolute Hot Inquiry: AN OCCASIONAL COLUMN By Peter Tyson Posted 01.08.08 NOVA The question Is there an opposite to absolute zero? seems innocent enough, right? Absolute zero is 0 on the Kelvin scale, or about minus 460°F. Well, the answer, depending on which theoretical physicist you ask, is yes, no, or maybe. For many of us, the hottest thing we could think of might be the core of the sun. Huh? I had touched a nerve, because, unbeknownst to me, the highest-temperature question gets to the heart of current inquiries and proposed theories in cosmology and theoretical physics. Contender #1—1032 K Certain cosmological models, including the one that has held sway for decades, the Standard Model, posit a theoretical highest temperature. Truthfully, when contemplating the Planck temperature, you can forget perspective. Whatever the highest temperature is, it might be essentially equivalent to the coldest temperature. A brick wall Contender #2—1030 K Contender #3—1017 K Why could the LHC help determine this?
Romanian Witches Protest New Taxes - Politics There is a lot to ponder in this story about the attempts to generate more revenue in Romania by taxing witches. The government has decided that being a witch is a real job, and therefore must be taxed like any self employed person (which is only 16 percent. Tell the witches about being self-employed in America). The witches are not happy. And when witches aren't happy, they cast spells: Angry witches are using cat excrement and dead dogs to cast spells on the president and government who are forcing them to pay taxes. The witches are protesting today, gathering en masse in protest. In 2009, the loser in Romania's presidential race, Mircea Geoana, and his wife claimed he was subjected to attacks of negative energy by Basescu's aides during a crucial debate in which he performed poorly. It really makes you think our last election was pretty boring.