“You can have money piled to the ceiling but the size of your funeral is still going to depend on the weather.”

Karina Gerdau – Radonic gave a lecture as part of the Topics in Contemporary Science unit entitled “how the body was found” this was based on the recovery of some strange burials of human remains. It was based on her own work in Peru at a place called ‘Tablada De Lurin’ and how she had uncovered a crouching body. These are traditional burials in Peru but she wanted to understand why it was done and what condition the body was in after years of burial. This sparked my brain into thinking of how burials differ in different cultures. Obvious outside of Western Europe not much is known about how bodies are buried other than the ‘traditional’ methods of burial via coffin or cremation and burial via an urn or spreading of ashes.

Coffins

One of the earliest types of coffin was a tree that had been cut down and hollowed out to accommodate the body. [1+5] Depending upon the people and the environmental conditions under which they existed, tree coffins were sometimes set on course down a river, sometimes they were left on the ground, sometimes buried in the ground. The custom of placing the dead in a tree trunk was symbolical of being returned to the Great Mother, the tree of life. [5] The earliest coffin as we know it goes back to the Egyptians.

Paying your maker

The ancient Greeks believed the dead were ferried over the river Styx by Charon, who charged a fee for his services. If the dead did not have the fee, they would be detained for 100 years before being permitted to proceed. Therefore, when the Greeks buried their dead, they placed a coin in their hand so they could pay Charon. A similar idea of the dead needing some currency is the Chinese, who furnish the dead with paper money and passports. [1]

Hmmm, dry roasted and salted

The Egyptians went for mummification, this was done by extracting the brain and the intestines, cleaned out the body through an incision in the side, and filled the body cavities with spices. The body was then sewn up and set aside to lie in salt for a period of 70 days. Then it was placed in gummed mummy cloth and fastened into its ornamental case. The poorer classes were not mummified but merely salted. Or you could just DIY it. To mummify oneself, you have to undergone a special diet for three years. 24 Buddhist monks have undergone this process, when the monk is ready; he gets into his tomb and lives there until he dies. He is supposed to ring a bell once in a day and the day the other monks do not hear the bell they understand and seal the tomb. [3+4] In Africa, many native people smoke their corpses to preserve them. In the Congo, tribes build fires above the graves of the dead and keep the fires burning for a month. After, the bodies are unearthed, smoked, and wound in great swaths of cloth. The smoked corpse is placed upright in the hut where the person died and remains there for years. [1]

Any excuse for a lash

According to legend, when St. Patrick was dying he requested his friends to set aside their grief and to rejoice at his comfortable exit from the world. In order to shift the emotions from sorrow to joy, St. Patrick instructed each person gathered to take a drop of something to drink. This last request of the saint is observed in deep reverence at every Irish wake. Some believe that the Irish wake was intended originally to prevent the dead person’s restless soul from prowling around the homes of the surviving family members causing mischief. [1]

These brief things show that many of the traditions associated with burial have been passed down through the generations and shared between countries and cultures. In western Europe we bury our dead in wooden coffins (trees) trinkets are placed with the deceased as memories (money) and most people have a drink to celebrate the life and good times of the deceased (Irish alcoholics). Or if you live in Iran your body could possible just be left for the animals to eat and excrete you back into the ground to start the process off again (Mother Nature).

Bibliography

1. http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Superstitions-Strange-Customs-Taboos-and-Urban-Legends/Strange-Customs-and-Taboos-Burials-and-funerals.html

2. http://www.termlifeinsurance.org/strange-burial-customs/

3. http://www.horizontalimage.com/2010/08/09/12-weird-funeral-customs-of-the-world/

4. http://society.ezinemark.com/weird-burial-methods-worldwide-77366b5357b0.html

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treetrunk_coffin

Alcohol everybody’s doing it! Hitler never had a drink, look what happened him!

Dr Wei-Jun Liang gave a lecture as part of the Topics in Contemporary Science unit entitled “Alcohol? Can you handle it?” This detailed what alcohol was and how it worked in the body. It was very interesting and I really enjoyed it. It got me thinking about the subject and why people are so in love with the drug alcohol.

Part of Wei – Jun’s lecture was can you predict from your up bring and culture what your relationship to alcohol is going to be. This I found interesting and it brought back memories, rather painful ones but it kind of proves his point. Having grew up with an alcoholic older brother and 2 uncles. I seen the effects of alcohol and the dependence of alcohol on the individual, family and relatives of the suffer(s). As a result of growing up through it I found myself turning 18 and never really liking the idea of drinking or going out and getting drunk as a way of fun. But, my younger brother was sheltered from the effects of my brother and uncles as he was 2 years younger so he never really seen or understood what was going on. And . . . . He is out every weekend getting drunk and works all week to get the money to allow him to drink Friday to Sunday. This you may say is a conscience but I think it is a direct result of what I seen in my life compared to him. Don’t get me wrong I go out and have fun; I play football and go out for a pint with the lads after practise or a match but the idea of being drunk so you can’t remember what you’re doing. Em, no thanks.

A typical Friday night up and down the country: –

Going out, Getting wasted, Doing things you wouldn’t dream of doing sober, Playing the field and waking up with a strange woman (or man) Not remembering:- Who they are, Where you met them, What you did, How you have become naked in a strangers house, The mind boggles and then the hangover kicks in, you feel like you’re dying and you swear you’ll never drink again, and then the night arrives again and your back on the lash. And you’re back to the start again.

The fact that alcohol is by far the world’s most used drug means that it has become socially acceptable to behave like this. When did people lose the plot and begin to think this is a good night out.

I remember reading a story about a man that died of acute alcohol poisoning after downing a pint of vodka in four seconds. [2] Now when did this become a REALLY good idea? 568mls of 40% proof alcohol in 4seconds!!

A quote I found while doing a project for my course last year stated “100,000 deaths because of alcohol. That’s more than a statistic. That is 100,000 individuals with faces. 100,000 individuals with lives not fully lived. 100,000 individuals grieved by mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children. Every year.” [3]

I think this sums the whole waste of life up in a paragraph a lot better than I probably could.

Bibliography

1. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1091

2. Graeme Hetherington, Wed 29th September 2010, http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

3. http://www.come-over.to/FAS/alcdeath.htm

"One pill. Anything is possible”

Professor David Osselton gave a lecture entitled “come fly with me” this was a brief overview of how drugs are used and abused in today’s society and what work is being done to help establish and prevent the vast array of drugs hitting the streets. This was a brilliant lecture that opened my eyes a lot about the behind the scenes of the drugs trade.

I recently took my girlfriend to the cinema to see a film called “LIMITLESS” now before I start to make this blog look like a film review I just want to point out that the film is based on a drug that is taken by a writer that allows him to use 100% of his brain instead of the hypothesised 20% most people use in everyday life.

I started to think was there such a proven drug that can do exactly this. With the advances in medicine and narcotics I sought out to find this drug, even if it was just in test phase and to my surprise there is!

Modafinil has been branded a smart drug because of its growing use among UK students to cope with the fatigue of exams. [3] Although it was originally designed to treat narcolepsy, extreme drowsiness and sleep disorders it has the ability to increase wakefulness and alertness, [2] this has given it popularity among a number of groups. Even if they improve memory function by just 10%, which has been suggested, it could be the difference between passing and failing an exam, between a good grade and a better one. [5]

This certainly gives appeal to the student crash coursing for the end of year exams. Modafinil was reportedly used by US Allied combat soldiers in Gulf Wars. [1+3] Its pharmacological effects are compared to amphetamines or cocaine. But unlike these, Modafinil is less likely to cause jitteriness, anxiety, excess locomotor activity or lead to a ‘rebound effect’. [1] The normal lifespan of Modafinil in humans is between 12 – 15 hours. Current research suggests Modafinil, is a safe, effective and well-tolerated agent. It is long-acting and doesn’t tend to cause peripheral sympathetic stimulation. [1]

How does this work?

Modafinil is based on its ability to selectively stimulate adrenergic neuron receptors in the brain (hypothalamus and brain stem) [4] these sites are receptive to Norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter linked. The central function of Norepinephrine is a fairly recent discovery, it regulates alertness and the waking-sleep cycle and has a role in the maintenance of attention, memory, learning and even has neuro-protection qualities. [4] Modafinil works directly on those sites which control alertness and does not interfere with any other brain function, and it has been a very successful treatment. In addition using Modafinil does not require “catching up sleep” Theoretically it is possible to stay awake for well over a week without sleeping. This is backed up by students that reported not sleeping for days coming up to their exams. [3] This is in direct contrast to conventional stimulants, which stimulate a broader spectrum of brain receptors, including those involving dopamine [4]

To conclude on the matter of limitless drugs, are they really that good?

Professor John Harris raised a very valid point in my opinion when he said “Taking Modafinil may help people do tiring jobs but it will not turn anyone into Albert Einstein overnight. If you’re not a genius before, you won’t be afterwards. They don’t make you brainier,” [5]

And are they really legal?

Many people believe that taking these drugs is illegal and is a form of cheating; one such person is Professor Sahakian. “Universities need policies on the use of these drugs, guidance on what is acceptable and what is not. Until then, people will keep taking them to pass their exams and to stop getting tired, because they can” [6]

I’ll leave these questions with you – Are limitless drugs the future for under and postgrads? I know it’s probably a few years off becoming the thing to do but will it ever catch on? And is there any substitute for good old fashion hard graft?

Bibliography

1. http://www.modafinil.com/ (accessed 3/4/2011)

2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modafinil (accessed 2/4/11)

3. Philippa Roxby, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12922451, 3 April 2011

4. http://www.modafinil-adrafinil.com/ (accessed 3/4/2011)

5. Prof John Harris, University of Manchester, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12922451, 3 April 2011

6. Prof Sahakian, university of Cambridge, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12922451, 3 April 2011

Let’s all go and get Charlie Sheened

Kevin McGhee gave a lecture on “Schizophrenia” as part of the unit Topics in Contemporary Science. This was quite thought provoking as only last year my uncle, who suffered from Schizophrenia, died in a tragic accident. I knew about the disease but I never really understood what they were telling us. But, then I had to convert what I did know about it and my forensic knowledge to explain to my family what had happened and why the police took the stance they did during the investigation.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterised by disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction. The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood, with a global lifetime prevalence of about 0.3 – 0.7%. Diagnosis is based on observed behaviour and the patient’s reported experiences. [1]

Another mental illness that has hit the headlines in recent months is bipolar disorder, thanks to the one and only Charlie Sheen. Charlie has hit the headlines in every newspaper on the planet (not even an exaggeration to be fair) and bipolar and Charlie is all that anybody is talking about; unfortunately it’s more of the latter. This has however come at the same time as a story line in casualty in which 1 of the consultants has a break down at work and tries to operate on a patient’s brain to stop the voices. This has been a gripping storyline and portrays mental illness in a very surreal light.

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or more depressive episodes. The elevated moods are clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania. [2, 4 + 5] Individuals who experience manic episodes also commonly experience depressive episodes, or symptoms, or mixed episodes in which features of both mania and depression are present at the same time. These episodes are usually separated by periods of “normal” mood; but, in some individuals, depression and mania may rapidly alternate, which is known as rapid cycling. Extreme manic episodes can sometimes lead to such psychotic symptoms as delusions and hallucinations. [2+4]

Many have said that Charlie is not bipolar but is just heavily sedated by the drugs he’s been on for years. But, to quote Charlie “I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available because if you try it, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” [3] He also came out with the following “I’m bi-winning. I win here and I win there. Now what? If I’m bi-polar, aren’t there moments where a guy like crashes in the corner like, ‘Oh my God, it’s all my mom’s fault!’ Shut up! Shut up! Stop! Move forward.” [3] Now I’m not a physiological profiler but I do think I could honestly say, without any medical training, that Charlie Sheen has lost his marbles!

I have worked with children whose parents have mental conditions and some of the background we are supplied with for the families is horrendous and how no one picked up on these conditions for years is simply shocking. For example, 1 mother has a condition called Munchausen by proxy, which means that she exaggerated and caused harm to her children because she thought they were constantly sick. [6] This resulted in her children attending hospital over 90 times in 1 year. Just fewer than 2 visits a week on average. This took over a year before someone felt it was out of control, and they wonder how social services get a bad name.

All in all mental illness is rifer than ever before and the amount of different diagnoses that can be dealt out is ever growing. Certain people in the field have built careers on theories that have never been proved but are starting to be thought to be a bit far-fetched now that science is starting to get into the DNA of patients, resulting in a mix of biology and environmental factors that result in such illnesses coming out in a patient. Unfortunately no one knows who, where and when this is going to hit a person.

Bibliography

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia, (accessed 27/3/2011)

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder (accessed 28/3/2011)

3. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8359242/Top-10-Charlie-Sheen-quotes.html (3/3/2011, accessed 28/3/2011)

4.http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/disorders_bipolar.shtml, (accessed 4/4/2011)

5. http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/…/bipolardisorder/bipolardisorder.aspx, (accessed 3/4/2011)

6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/…/disorders_munchausenssyndrome1.shtml, (accessed 2/4/2011)

The perfect murder, then he opened his mouth.

David Osselton gave a lecture entitled “Poison, it’s my business” this was a brief overview of the role of a forensic toxicologist and how they identify certain poisons in the body, he also gave a brief history of poisonings. Towards the end of his lecture he spent some time talking about cases involving poisoning and how different cases have been solved simply by using toxicology, and how you can’t get away with murder. I have dug up a perfect case of poisoning and how the murder was committed and how the perpetrator had actually got away with it for nearly 20 years.

The Killer Dentist

Colin Howell, 51, from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, hid the truth from his family, friends and neighbours for 19 years. He poisoned his wife Lesley, 31, and Trevor Buchanan, 32, by pumping car fumes containing carbon monoxide into each of their homes through a hosepipe in 1991. Howell was a successful cosmetic dentist. He boasted Jordanian royals among his patients. [1] His fall from grace has gripped Northern Ireland. Howell had been having an affair with the wife of Trevor Buchanan so the murders had been carried out so he and Mrs Buchannan could start a life together.

On Saturday night of May 18 and the early hours of May 19. Howell first murdered his wife in his own house, she was sleeping in her nightdress on a sofa. Howell attached the garden hose to the exhaust of his car by using a baby’s feeding bottle which he cut in half. He ran it through the house where his wife was lying. He then switched on the engine and waited at the lounge door as the fumes began to seep out just inches from Mrs Howell’s face. But she woke up and cried out for her son Matthew. Howell then pulled a duvet over her head, squeezed hard, and pushed the hose into her face and held it there until she died. He then dressed her body and placed her in the boot of the car and covered her with a blanket and a bicycle. He then drove to the house where Mr and Mrs Buchanan lived. Trevor was asleep in the double bed. Howell then performed the same operation to Trevor, who also fought for his life. They struggled and fell to the floor and Howell bumped his head, but managed to trap Trevor’s arms inside a quilt and pulled it over his head. He shoved the hose towards his face, and listened as the policeman took his final breaths.

Howell then bundled his body into the boot with his wife and then drove off to his recently deceased father in laws house just outside Coleraine, he stopped to place his bicycle on a side road before continuing to the house where he parked the car in the garage and reconnecting the hose to the exhaust and placing both bodies into the seats of the car in natural positions and turned the car on and left the scene to his bicycle and heading home to check on his children then going to sleep. The next morning he concocted a suicide note and a story that both ran off during the night, he also managed to convince himself that him and Trevor had a fight before they went, causing the bruising to his face and Trevor’s DNA. He then contacted police and told then both parties had run off together. This led the police to check the house where the bodies were. But police found nothing, it was only later that day that someone looked in the garage and found the running car with the bodies.

19 years passed and the police had closed the case a suicide and that was that. Then Colin’s son died in a car accident and he lost £350,000 in a property scam. He had turned to Christianity and could not live with God punishing him, so he walked into his local police station and confessed to it all in vigorous detail. Putting further egg over the police faces after an apparent bodged investigation. This was how Colin Howell committed double murder, fooled the police and forensics then his guilt caught him 20 years later. He was jailed for 27years for the murders and his lover, [2] she left him and denies she ever had anything to do with it. She is currently standing trail. So this was the perfect murder, then he opened his mouth.

Bibliography

1. news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201009115846413

2.www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/local/revealed_how_evil_dentist_colin_howell_killed_his_wife_and_husband_of_former_lover_1_2359709

3. cmm.lefora.com/2010/11/15/trevor-buchanan-leslie-clark-howell-colin-howell-h/

Where are the disappeared?

Paul Cheetham gave a lecture as part of the Topics in Contemporary Science programme on “finding the bodies” during this he made reference to a case in Northern Ireland where his colleague was involved in the search for a body of 1 of the disappeared. As I grew up round these happenings I thought I would write about it from my eyes and understandings.

During the troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s the IRA are believed to have kidnapped and murdered up to 19 people. The bodies of eight people who were kidnapped and murdered during the Troubles have never been found. But advances in technology, along with traditional methods means fresh hope for their families. They are known as “The Disappeared”. Some of the victims have been missing for more than 30 years but their families are still searching for their remains and now their plight has been raised in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Peter Wilson was 21 years old when he was last seen in Falls Park in August 1973. Peter did not return to his home at St James’s Road, Belfast. His disappearance was confirmed in October 2009 and is being investigated by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR). His body was found in November 2010. [1]

John McIlwaine who originally came from Northern Ireland and now works for Bradford University, leads the forensic archaeological team.

“Once it has been ground proofed through the investigators, we are then in a position to have a search area which we are deployed into, which we search for the remains. We have worked on four cases so far and have recovered two bodies. Once a potential site has been identified, the archaeological team can begin work.” [2]

The team use LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) on planes, geographical information, classic archaeology and cadaver dogs at various stages of the investigation to find a body. One serious disadvantage is, many of the bodies have been buried in former cut-away peat bogs, so sites often need to be drained before an excavation can begin.

LIDAR is high accuracy, high resolution elevation data obtained from the air. A laser is used to measure the distance between the aircraft and ground and between the aircraft and the vegetation canopy or building tops. [3]

It becomes very difficult to find bodies as they were buried over 30 years ago and the locations were selected specifically for body disposal. They are remote locations, designed to make it as difficult as possible for anybody to find the body again. Then you have the problem that the information received from the terrorists is sketchy, there is also the fact that there are no obvious grave sites. A lot of them are peat bogs that went out of use years ago. The vegetation looks similar, it’s covered in heather so there’s nothing very obvious sticking out. So in all intents and purposes it was trust the terrorists and go with trial and error. They got “lucky” and found peter but other teams have dug for weeks and never found anything.

In June 2010, Mr McIlwaine led the team also discovered the remains of Charlie Armstrong from south Armagh. He went missing on his way to Mass in 1981, he was believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by the IRA. His body was buried in an area of peat bog land at Colgagh, County Monaghan, several miles from the border.

Slowly but surely they are starting to gather information and the IRA are now in a political stance through Sinn Fein so they are releasing some facts to the relevant bodies in return for ‘favours’. No-one seems to know what these are for sure but with terrorists in government it can only end in tears. Better than 30 years of bomb, bullets and coffins? It remains to be seen.

Bibliography

1. http://www.thedisappearedni.co.uk/profiles/peterwilson.html

2. John McIlwaine, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11426538, 2010

3. http://www.stanfords.co.uk/business-mapping/lidar/

Happy St Patricks Day

As i walked into Uni this morning i was greeted by a massive Tricolour and St Paddy’s pants give away.  although this was extremely amusing and that everyone insists on calling me Irish. but here’s 2 facts that would maybe make you think and will probably destroy st Paddy’s but hey . . .

why do people celebrate this great Irish man?

well that great Irish man, was Welsh. kidnapped by pirates and brought to Ireland as a slave.  So i don’t actually know why they are so patriotic to him. summit to do with snakes and music. Irelands rip-off Pied Piper (Scottish)  After all Ireland don’t like the union but they love their Paddy enough to have a global festival day after him.  OR when they have bankrupt their wee island they come to britian lookin to be gave money n bailed out.

why is the tricolour used?

this is a political football. after all the tricolour was adopted in 1919-22 by Ireland. 1500 years after St Paddy Died!  the shamrock is perfectly fine, we all recognise that but just don’t shove a tricolour down my throat!

so now that this has been made it is time to go grab your elegit tricolour and pint of Guinness and get paralytic all in the name of a welsh slave that drove all the snakes out of Ireland. 

Happy St Paddy’s Day

A Bird Sings, Not Because It Has The Answer, But Because It Has A Song

Ant Diaz gave a lecture on the ecological view of culling entitled “to cull or not to cull: that is the question” this was in my opinion simply brilliant. As part of the lecture she talked about how crows (corvids) are being culled in the UK because they are causing a stark decline in the song bird population of the UK. It is thought that the crows chase the songbirds off their nests and then feed on the eggs or young of the disgruntled song bird. “Noisy birds like magpies and crows will be trapped and killed in Britain so that songbirds could survive” [1]

However the common crow is in my opinion is becoming a scape goat for another all together more sinister force, the peregrine falcon and the sparrow hawk. These 2 birds have for some reason got immunity from being killed or restrained because they are an “endangered” species. This is because back in the 1970’s they were virtually killed off by farmer’s pesticide that caused their eggs to go soft and the young to die as a result. “Populations of main predators of songbirds have doubled in the past 30 years.” [1] In particular, Sparrow hawks, which kill an estimated 50 million songbirds a year, have increased by 152% to 40,100 breeding pairs from they were protected in the mid-1979. [1]

Now that the pesticides have long gone and the birds are thriving beyond the levels before the protection was introduced, surely it is time to scrap the ban and get these birds under control?

The reason I have chosen this particular topic is because these 2 birds are the most feared among all birds of prey for the pigeon fancier. I have raced pigeons all my life and many of my top birds have failed to return home and the reason rests primarily at the door of these birds. Now before I get inundated by comments that I’m biased, I’ll come out and say yes, I probably am. That aside I can see how lovely they are and how they need to feed and need to train their young to hunt but the shear levels of them is getting beyond defensible.

The birds are also colonising in urban areas with the blessing of some council’s to help control vermin. Bolton council is one such that has been criticised for such behaviour. This is a sore point in the pigeon racing fraternity because it is hard enough to fight them in the countryside on race day but now they are coming into urban areas where they aren’t meant to naturally be. Some would say that they are driving down the amount of pigeons in towns and cities but these are common pigeons that are full of disease and are vermin to everybody. But, fanciers birds like my own are worth a lot of money (up to 1 million dollars) and a lot of time and money is invested to keep our birds healthy and sickness free. A recent article in the London Evening Standard reported that council workers found more than 500 pigeon rings in and around a pair of hawks nest close to Trafalgar Square. Going on the monetary value of some racing pigeons how much were those 500 rings really worth.

David Bills of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association claims “they slaughter up to 500,000 pigeons and song birds a week and now is the time to rightfully think about a cull on them.” Salford MP Hazel Blears raised the matter in parliament but refused to back a cull, but, said humane ways need to be found to stop them nesting. [2] Many fanciers recognise that there is a certain risk factor with racing but the increase of predators has made the risk unacceptable.

So I leave it to you to decide whether it’s time for these very beautiful but deadly birds to have their ban lifted and their numbers “clipped” back for the greater good of the songbird population of the UK. Also it would do a great deal of good to the pigeon racing community. If only for a few years to control their rapid numbers, people will have their own opinion on this situation but from a songbird/racing pigeons perspective it’s a win-win situation.

Bibliography

1. Britain to kill magpies, crows to protect songbirds, Daily Telegraph, 28 January 2011

2. “Pigeon fanciers say birds of prey are killing prized flyers “, James Lyons, http://www.dailymirror.co.uk, 31/08/2009

So who’s lost their head?

Not in the literal sense of a Friday night and someone chats up your girlfriend, but when a skull is found to have preserved soft tissue and eye balls. This all sounds a little grime but it is quite true! I have seen the pictures to prove it. Martin Smith gave a lecture entitled “Getting ahead in medieval Britain”.

A skull is nothing out of the ordinary to a forensic scientist or archaeologist but we do get a little excited when tissue or other matter is found and this was the case with the “witches” head that was presented to Martin Smith at Cecil Williamson’s Witchcraft Museum in Boscastle, Cornwall, England. The skull was very much intact and in very good condition with a missing bottom jar, it appeared to be wrapped in some kind of fabric and covered in a black substance. So too all intents and purposes it was a tarred skull. This was the story that had been told by the creator of the Boscastle museums founder, Mr Cecil Williamson. He claimed that the skull was from a medieval witch who had been executed and had her head tarred and spiked for the world to see. This was something that immediately sprang Martin’s sense of adventure and he decided he wanted a closer look. With the permission of the museum, he acquired the skull for further analysis.

Soft tissue is only preserved in extreme conditions and is very rare with skulls of any great age. The extreme conditions required for preserving such tissue is either extremely cold or hot weather or wet or dry conditions or an ideal combination of both. The Cecil Williamson skull had preserved eyes, muscles, scalp, fabric and ‘tar’ this is very rare to have so many elements preserved.

Can we see inside the skull?

Yes, different methods can be used to see inside, methods like CT & MRI Scanning. Bournemouth General Hospital kindly scanned the skull and the CT scanning gives you 3D photo of the skull and can be viewed in a video stream that goes through the object millimetre by millimetre in 3D. Though the MRI scan failed because the skull was badly dehydrated. The bottom jaw had been broken off (with some force) as there is still the ball joint embedded in the socket joint of the jaw. In the CT scan showed there was still a substance in the cavity where the brain should be.

Was there partial brain left??

Not exactly, after researching martin discovered that there were similar skulls about that had similar patterns at the back of the skull like the Williamson skull. But these are skulls of Egyptian mummies.

Was this the skull of a mummy?

The process of removing the brain by the Egyptians was to extract it through the nose. This skull had extreme damage to the nasal area and that the internal tissue of the nose was torn and badly damaged, meaning that something had been “shoved” up the nasal passage and “jigged” about destroying the tissue. [1+2] On closer inspection it is was seen that the comparisons were very similar to a very famous Egyptian “Tutankhamun” both skulls seemed to have a liquid poured into the skull after the brain was removed, [1] this was common practice but not universal for the Egyptians but no written evidence has ever been discovered for embalming, this is thought to be because they didn’t want to reveal any trade secrets or thought it was something so trivial that they thought it not important enough to have scribed. Both skulls had a similar pattern of liquid formation at the back of the skull which showed that they had poured it in when the body was lying on its back [1+2] but strangely it appeared to have more liquid poured a second time and this appeared to show that the body was standing up when it was poured. This you may find a little strange but “Tutankhamun” has also a secondary pour pattern but it shows something a lot weirder! It shows that he was standing on his head for a period of time while the second pour was applied and set. This does lead to questions of what embalmers get up to. During this process they often used to stuff the broken nasal passage with rolls of fabric to stop any excess liquid from escaping from the brain cavity. [2] This is commonly referred to as a nasal tampon. Never will you hear that phrase ever again.

All this substantial evidence, when analyzed together showed that there was too much similar evidence to conclude anything other than it being an Egyptian mummy’s skull! But how it came to Cecil Williamson is a question no-one can answer or where the whole story about medieval beheading and tarring came from.

Was it sold to Cecil as this or did he concoct the whole thing?

Many questions remain to be answered but the skull has now been proved to be a mummy and returned to the witch craft museum where it is surely out of place.

1. The scientific study of mummies, Arthur C. Aufderheide, 2003

2. Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, Jonathan Elias, 2008

David & Nick, YOU LAIRS

Ralph Clarke gave a lecture on “lying with stats” this was given from an ecology point of view but the concept is transferrable over many disciplines. I have decided to write about how police forces and politicians use crime stats in particular ways to show their point of view or to show strength in a certain political stance, usually their own!

You often hear that politicians are lairs, this is a very common public perception. But, do they lie about their figures on crime? Do they simply make up the figures? Why do 1 party have 1 set of figures and their rivals have a completely different set of figures that make the other party out to be lying? Is there such a thing as a lying politician? Or are they just very good at twisting the truth?

The extent of crime is a big debating point. Some people say that crime is as bad as ever whilst others say that it’s drastically reduced. . . . Firstly we have the people that say that crimes as bad as ever, their view is quite well supported!  Crime can be viewed as being as bad as ever because there is so much victimless crime which can’t be measured like crime that has victims. This is quite a valid point as if you can’t record or detect it then how do you know how bad it really is? You can’t! These people tend to use the British Crime Survey to back up their conclusions.

Whilst the people that say it has fallen tend to use the facts and figures used by the police and government (Official Crime Statistics).  Many can say that the rate of crime has fallen for the more recognised crimes like rape, murder etc. but for the hidden crime like fraud, blackmail and extortion no one really can say. With the wealth divide being so great and the whole credit crunch, money is tight and the appeal of petty crimes is greater, the thought of a quick buck is too good an offer to turn down and the punishment if caught is minimal.

These variances in crime have influenced the nature and measurement of crime because they produce a grey area in which some crimes go unrecorded so therefore never make the figures.  It has also altered the public’s persona of crime because they hear about falling crime figures yet see an increase on the streets. Crimes that go on and are never detected are never brought to light.

The figures show that for the period 2007-08 and 2008-09 the 2 sets of figures are very much different. Overall the British Crime Survey shows a 5% increase in reported crime, while the Official Crime Statistics show a 5% decrease. How can 2 sets of data for the same topic produce a 10% difference in results?

In conclusion the BCS seem to record a lot more crime than the police figures suggest, this is because a lot of the crime reported to the BCS is petty and would not warrant calling or involving the police in. Given that over 1 million more people have reported being subjected to violence in the 3 year period meaning that most of these extra crimes have been for example at weekends in the pub. Every time someone gets punched at the weekend this would register on the BCS but would very rarely be included in the police figures. Another major flaw is that the Police “interfere” with the figures to meet targets! People are sometimes afraid to be singled out for going to police or having to be put in front of a court so drop charges or don’t bother reporting it in first place. The extent of crime is contested simply because one lot believes the BCS and the other believe the police figures.  Politicians naturally enough go for the lowest figures to make them look good and to make their work look like it’s working.  Also they employ spin doctors to manipulate the figures so they look a lot better than they are.  This is to meet their set targets and boost the look of their manifesto. On the evidence produced I shall let you decide whether there is such a thing as a “lying” politician.

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia.co.uk/crime

2. British crime survey figures, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk, 2010

3. Police crime figures, http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org, 2010