Free Republic

One of the persistent myths about shooting bears in self-defense is a bear’s skull is nearly bulletproof. Bears skulls are not bulletproof. However, bear heads are big. It is easy to miss the brain or spine if you aim at the wrong spot or aim away from the brain because you are afraid the bullet will “bounce off.” This is exacerbated by trophy hunters’ hesitancy to shoot a bear in the head. A powerful shot to the brain cavity will fracture the skull, making measurement for the record books impossible.It is difficult to hit the brain of a bear if...

A Florida judge on Monday agreed to an order that permanently blocks the release of photos, video and other records connected to the investigation of Bob Saget’s death. The permanent injunction, granted by Circuit Judge Vincent Chiu, had been requested by the comedian’s family.

A sunglasses-wearing human skull that had been used for years to decorate a Tennessee fireplace mantel actually belonged to a man who had been missing since 2012, local authorities said. An unidentified person found the skull near the town of Gobey and put it on the mantel — where it sat for more than a year with sunglasses on, according to local District Attorney Russell Johnson. Someone eventually told the local sheriff’s office about the skull, and investigators pulled a DNA sample from it, Johnson said in a statement. The office matched DNA from the skull to family members of...

Humans have been living in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula since at least the Late Pleistocene (126,000-11,700 years ago). Much of what we know about these earliest settlers of Mexico comes from nine well-preserved human skeletons found in the submerged caves and sinkholes near Tulum in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The analysis showed Chan Hol 3 was likely a woman, approximately 30 years old at her time of death, and lived at least 9,900 years ago. Her skull falls into a mesocephalic pattern (neither especially broad or narrow, with broad cheekbones and a flat forehead), like the three other skulls from the Tulum...

After a human skull found in “an active mining pit" was determined to be part of a Pennsylvania man, state police are seeking information that could lead to an explanation about why the skull was there. Jason Gold, 34, of Lost Creek, Schuylkill County, had not been reported missing, but DNA testing showed that the skull was his, according to officials with the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers. There were several active warrants open for Gold’s arrest, authorities said. The skull was found at the bottom of an embankment in the mining pit in August 2019. The mining pit is located just...

A woman's daily habit of cleaning her ears with cotton swabs led to a life-threatening infection in her skull, according to news reports. The 37-year-old woman, who is identified only as Jasmine, said she cleaned her ears every night with cotton swabs... But over time, she noticed she had trouble hearing out of her left ear, and finally went to the doctor. She was initially told she had an ear infection, and was given antibiotics. But her hearing problems remained, and she soon noticed blood appearing on the cotton swabs after she cleaned her ears. After a hearing test showed...

Mobile technology has transformed the way we live — how we read, work, communicate, shop and date. But we already know this. What we have not yet grasped is the way the tiny machines in front of us are remolding our skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviors we exhibit but the bodies we inhabit. New research in biomechanics suggests that young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing...

Defects of the skull and facial bones can pose difficult challenges for plastic and reconstructive surgeons. A synthetic material called hyperelastic bone - readily produced by 3D-printing - could offer a powerful new tool for use in reconstructing skull defects, reports a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The experimental material accelerates bone regeneration across skull defects in rats, according to initial results by Ramille N. Shah, PhD, and colleagues of Northwestern University and University of Illinois Health, Chicago. The researchers write, "Hyperelastic bone...

Earth is set for another spooky encounter with a 700 metre asteroid that looks uncannily like a skull. The space rock first passed ‘close’ to our planet at 78,000mph (125,500km/h) at a distance of 310,000 miles (499,000km) on October 31, 2015, just in time for Halloween. Now, it’s set to make a return in November 2018. This fall, the space rock, known as 2015 TB145, will flyby at a less dramatic distance than the last one. The asteroid will zoom past the planet at about 105 Earth-moon distances, compared to just under 1.3 lunar distances last time around. Astronomers analysing...

Spain laid claim to the Island of Jamaica from the time Columbus landed there in 1494. In 1503, Columbus was shipwrecked there for a year. In 1655, Jamaica was captured by British Admiral William Penn, the father of Pennsylvania’s founder. Jamaica was too far from England to defend, so the inhabitants turned to privateers, freebooters, buccaneers and pirates for protection. The likes of Blackbeard, Calico Jack and Captain Henry Morgan, namesake of the rum, attacked Spanish ships and settlements, then returned to Jamaica with their booty. The skull pirate flag, called the “Jolly Roger,” was adapted from the flag of...

A “CATCH for the ladies” man, described as having the “perfect smile”, has been found by scientists examining a the remains of a young Bronze Age male with better teeth than many modern-day Britons, it has been revealed. Academics in forensic science from the University of Derby have been studying the ancient skeleton and uncovered some remarkable findings. Despite the age of the remains scientists were fascinated to discover that the man had “beautiful” teeth and did not have the same poor oral hygiene of most men from the Bronze era. Sanita Nezirovic, who has been studying the skeleton, said:...

ON the morning of Saturday, Feb. 26, a day before the Academy Awards, the actress Carrie Fisher woke up in her Beverly Hills home next to the lifeless body of a gay Republican political operative named R. Gregory Stevens. Thus ended one of the more improbable friendships that Hollywood and Washington have known - and a globe-trotting, adventurous, but ultimately debilitating existence that might be fodder for a Tinseltown thriller, if it only had a satisfying resolution. Before its abrupt end, Mr. Stevens's journey had taken him from the beaches of San Clemente, Calif., and the slopes of Sun Valley,...

* This may be the most intact primate fossil skull ever discovered. * The fossil comes from a little-known period of primate evolutionary history. Source: Fred Spoor This is Alesi, the skull of the new extinct ape species Nyanzapithecus alesi (KNM-NP 59050). ================================================================================================================================ A group of scientists have found what may be the most intact fossilized primate skull ever discovered, and the find could shed light on the common evolutionary heritage shared by apes and humans. The lemon-sized skull was discovered in Kenya by an international team of researchers, and was dated to the middle of the Miocene era, a...

In the wake of Fox Searchlight’s highly anticipated release of The Birth of Nation, the incredible story of Nat Turner’s slave revolt — and the mystery surrounding his remains after death — stays in the minds of viewers long after they’ve seen the film. The new movie, overshadowed by controversy surrounding previous rape allegations against the film’s lead actor, chronicles the life of Rev. Nathaniel Turner, an enslaved Black man who led one of the bloodiest slave insurrections in American history. In 1831, Turner and a small army of his fellow Black brethren fought their way through Virginia’s Southampton County,...

Scientists have studied a rare skeleton from the Silla culture, which ruled over part of the Korean Peninsula from 57 B.C. to A.D. 935. “The skeletons are not preserved well in the soil of Korea,” bioanthropologist Dong Hoon Shin of Seoul National University College of Medicine told Live Science. The skeleton, of a woman in her late 30s, was found in a traditional coffin that had been buried near the historic capital of the Silla Kingdom, Gyeongju. Analysis of her mitochondrial DNA suggests that she belonged to a genetic lineage that is present in East Asia today. Carbon isotopes in...

Human Skull Found at Former Drambuie Mansion A human skull has been discovered in the grounds of a mansion previously occupied by the chairman of Scotch whisky liqueur brand Drambuie. As reported by the Scottish Daily Record, police have found what is believed to be a woman’s skull at Gogar Mount House, where Drambuie chairman Mary Mackinnon lived until 10 years ago. The property and its 23-acre grounds was also previously owned by whisky distiller Sir Robert Usher in the 1800s. Police expanded their search for any further remains to a nearby golf course and other areas. In particular, a...

Astronomers initially thought the object was an asteroid when they spotted it in early October, and named it Asteroid 2015 TB145. But using the US space agency's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, experts "have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement late Friday. ... The space rock has already grabbed attention with its unusually high speed and big size, about as large as a football stadium at 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter....

Texas doctors say they have done the world's first partial skull and scalp transplant to help a man with a large head wound from cancer treatment. MD Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital doctors announced Thursday that they did the operation on May 22 at Houston Methodist. The recipient - Jim Boysen, a 55-year-old software developer from Austin, Texas - expects to leave the hospital Thursday with a new kidney and pancreas along with the scalp and skull grafts. He said he was stunned at how well doctors matched him to a donor with similar skin and coloring. "It's...

New 'Human' Fossil Borders on Fraud by Brian Thomas, M.S. * An international team of paleoanthropologists reported discovering the earliest human fossils found outside Africa at a dig in the country of Georgia.1 The team told Science that one specimen, "skull 5," is so different from other humans that it significantly widens the range of variation within ancient mankind. The Guardian wrote that among the human remains in Dmanisi researchers found a "spectacular fossilised skull of an ancient human ancestor," but there is actually more proof against this claim.2 The team found clearly human skeleton parts, along with five skulls...

A stunningly well-preserved skull from 1.8 million years ago offers new evidence that early man was a single species with a vast array of different looks, researchers said Thursday. With a tiny brain about a third the size of a modern human's, protruding brows and jutting jaws like an ape, the skull was found in the remains of a medieval hilltop city in Scranton, Georgia, said the study in the journal Science.