He Got Amnesia From a Cold Virus

Imagine that you are an accomplished musicologist and conductor, confident in your outstanding abilities and successful in your career; an acknowledged expert.

Then one particular day, you contract a cold virus, nothing new in that, you think. But, the virus causes a brain infection and suddenly, your memory is deleted and your ability to make new memories is catastrophically impaired.

This scenario above happened to Clive Wearing in 1985. Every moment he is awake, it is like he just woke up. His memory span is only a few seconds.

In the beginning, Mr Wearing began keeping a journal. Every few minutes, he would write the time and then the words, "This time properly awake", crossing out the same words that he had written only minutes before. 

It was like he was trying to assert his existence and find himself. But his memory span was only a few seconds and Mr Wearing could never find any continuity of self. In those few seconds of consciousness, he thought that he had been dead and somehow woken up.

In a diary provided by his caretakers, Wearing was encouraged to record his thoughts. Page after page is filled with entries similar to the following:

8:31 AM: Now I am really, completely awake.
9:06 AM: Now I am perfectly, overwhelmingly awake.
9:34 AM: Now I am superlatively, actually awake.

Tragically. Mr Wearing remembered his wife and his love for her. Why tragic you ask? Well, because, every few minutes, it was like he saw her for the first time, after the horrifying experience of not knowing what had happened to him and being surrounded by strangers, in a place he did not know. Minute after minute, during a hospital visit, he would react with extreme passion, love and distress.

The scars on his brain and damage to his memory, however, enabled Mr Wearing to retain some memories, but they were out of wack in many ways. He knew he was married, but couldn't describe his wife; he knew he had children, but thought they were much younger.

Strangely Mr Wearing also began to speak and write backwards, very skilfully and fast and showing that despite the brain damage, there is some wonderful wit and intelligence still thriving.

Are Some Animals Immortal?

It seems that some animals possess biological immortality...at least in theory.

Lobsters

As they age, older lobsters become more fertile than younger lobsters. Lobsters, also, don't seem to die from old age, but due to being eaten by predators, or humans, or due to wasting by parasitic infestation.

Scientists who study lobsters, do not have a way of working out the age of lobsters accurately, but it is believed that a lobster in the wild can reach a lifespan of 100 years. Lobsters when studied, show high levels of telomerase, an enzyme which repairs DNA sequences, and this seems to be their fountain of youth.

Immortal Jelly Fish

The immortal jellyfish

The immortal jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, grows from a polyp into an adult and then it is able to reverse the cycle and become a polyp again. The jellyfish goes through the life cycle, growing into an adult, creating offspring, but instead of dying, it reverts back into a polyp.

Hydra

Hydra freshwater polyps don't appear to age and appear to be immortal. These tiny creatures do not mate but reproduce by budding; to do this they require a good supply of stem cells. The gene FoxO, which is also evident in humans, seems to be one of the important drivers of this continued renewal in the hydra and research on these creatures is providing important evidence about human ageing.

Planarian Flatworms

Scientists at the University of Nottingham have proved that these flatworms can regenerate indefinitely. Like the lobsters, the telomerase enzyme appears to be the important longevity factor. Of note, these creatures are hermaphrodites, possessing both testicles and ovaries. Also, if a worm is cut into pieces, they can regenerate into a complete organism. And if the head of a planariais is cut down the middle, the organism can grow two heads and continue living.

Tardigrade

Tardigrades which are known as waterbears, or moss piglets, can survive in very extreme conditions, withstanding water temperature from zero to well above the boiling point. They can be found in the deepest ocean and can survive the vacuum of outer space (taken on FOTON-M3 mission) and solar radiation, gamma radiation, ionic radiation, at levels hundreds of times that which would kill humans. They can also survive a decade without water, by entering a state called cryptobiosis. Their ability to withstand such extremes, which would kill other animals, is due to the use of trehalose, a nonreducing sugar.

Tardigrade

However. tardigrades are only 1.5 mm long and they mostly spend their time sucking the juice out of moss and algae. To survive extreme conditions, these animals can slow their metabolism down to extreme levels called "Tönnchenform" and stay like that for decades. This has helped tardigrades, as a species, survive for 500 million years. 

Pope Benedict: Was He a Demon from Hell?

The man who was referred to as "a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest", was actually Pope Benedict IX (c. 1012 – c. 1056). He was named Theophylactus of Tusculum at birth and he had some powerful relations, as he was the son of Alberic III and nephews to Count of Tusculum, Pope Benedict VIII and Pope John XIX. Benedict was also the great-grandson of Marozia, a female Roman politician, who was said to be the mistress of Pope Sergius III.

Benedict IX did not come to the papal chair honestly, as his father secured the position for him.

Sources differ as to the age of Benedict IX when he became pope. Some say age 11 or 12 and others 18-20. However, what seems evident, is that this pope was as debauched and corrupt as they come.

For a start, Bishop Benno of Piacenza accused Benedict IX of "many vile adulteries and murders". Pope Victor III, in his third book of Dialogues referred to "his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it". And in his Liber Gomorrhianus, Saint Peter Damian accused Benedict IX of routine sodomy and bestiality and sponsoring orgies.

Benedict IX was, however, the pope three times; the first time lasting from his election to his expulsion in favour of Sylvester III (October 1032 – September 1044). The second time, from his return to his selling the papacy to Gregory VI (April – May 1045) . And the third, from his return after the death of Clement II to the advent of Damasus II (November 1047 – July 1048).

This king among men, not only sold the job of being pope (because he wanted to marry) to John Gratian, his godfather, who became Pope Gregory VI, but when Benedict's marriage fell through, he wanted his old job back. He kept the money from the sale, though.

Benedict may have wanted his old job back, but Gregory VI also wanted the job and there was another contender too, Sylvester III, who had become pope when Benedict was thrown out of the job (confused!).

With three contending for the job of pope, King Henry III of Germany invaded Rome and installed a German bishop, Pope Clement II. Benedict, however, was suspected of poisoning Clement when he died after serving 11 months in the job of pope. Benedict, then, became pope again for the third time.

Of course, this is a mere outline of a despicable, yet colourful character.


 Books To Read

Dark History: Catholic Church: Schisms, Wars, Inquisitions, Witch Hunts, Scandals, Corruption (A Dark History Series) by Michael Kerrigan

Half Male, Half Female

Just recently, a butterfly emerged from the chrysalis and astounded workers at the Natural History Museum of London, where a butterfly exhibition was being held.

The strange butterfly is male on one side and female on the other. On the male side, the wings are black and paler in colour, than on the female side. The sex organs, which are half male, half female, are fused together. The example in the photo shows a half female, half male Common Blue butterfly.

Organisms which are of this type, displaying half male, half female characteristics, are called gynandromorphs. Some have bilateral asymmetry: one side female and one side male. Others can be mosaic and are less defined.

Malaysian stick insect, gynandromorph

The half female, half male insect occurs when sex chromosomes don't properly separate when the fertilised egg divides.

Half female, half male specimens, have been found in other animals like spiders, lobsters, crabs and even birds.

The last member of a species of snail (Achatinella apexfulva) died in January 2019. The snail, named George, was of a variety endemic to the forests of the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian archipelago. George was the last member of a breeding program, after these snails had gone extinct in the wild. George, who was an hermaphrodite, hardly emerged from his shell in the last 14 years.


Books To Read


Everybody Lies, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.

A Totally Weird Religious Cult

Cargo cults mostly exist in pre-industrial tribal societies, like remote parts of New Guinea or islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean. These type of cults are fixated on the "cargo" or material possessions of more advanced, industrialised and wealthy nations or groups and as you can imagine, these type of cults really became popular after WW II, with the greater interaction between pre-industrial and industrial nations.


John Frum cargo cult 

Members of cargo cults believe that the cargo that was dropped from aeroplanes, using parachutes, during the war, was actually deliveries coming from the gods. As these people had no understanding of modern technology and such things as aeroplanes, they would engage in "magic" and rituals in an attempt to increase the cargo coming from the gods.


After the war, when the military bases closed, members of cargo cults would try to get the aeroplanes and the cargo to return, by building imitation airstrips, wearing the leftover clothes of military personnel and constructing models of such things as aeroplanes.

Other aspects of modern Western society and religions, would often be integrated into cargo cults, like crosses and other things regarded as magical artefacts.

Members of cargo cults would often dress like soldiers or worship some prominent American like John Frum, who was an American World War II serviceman, on the island of Vanuatu.

The members of cargo cults had no understanding of modern technology but desired the prosperity that seemed to come with it. So, they would create bamboo replicas of planes and control towers in the belief that it would attract planes and bring them material goods.

Another cult on Vanuatu reveres Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, believing that he is the pale-skinned son of a mountain spirit and brother of John Frum (a person who is often depicted as an American World War II serviceman who will bring wealth and prosperity to the people).

The Prince Philip Movement is a religious sect followed by the Kastom people, who live around Yaohnanen village on the southern island of Tanna in Vanuatu. The belief of this group is that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort to Queen Elizabeth II, is a divine being.


Books To Read


How to Keep Your Head on Straight in a World Gone Crazy, by Rick Renner

Can Humans be Raised by Animals?

The foundation myth of Rome is based on the story of brothers, Romulus and Remus, who were abandoned and saved by a she-wolf, who suckled and saved the pair. This story is myth but the following stories are true.

The Dog Girl

Oxana Malaya was unfortunate enough to have neglectful, alcoholic parents. When she was three years of age, her parents left her outside one night and she crawled into the kennel where the dogs were kept, seeking comfort. As nobody looked for her or even noticed her absence, this is where she stayed until she was eight years old, eating scraps of meat and mimicking her dog family.

By the time a neighbour reported that a human was living like a dog, Oxana Malaya was eight years old and walking on all fours and eating in the manner of a dog.

Now years later, the tomboyish young woman can talk, albeit in a strangely flat and odd way. She has a pet dog now but is mostly uninterested in it.

The Monkey Boy

John Ssabunnya ran into the jungle when he was about three years of age after his father murdered his mother and then hung himself. African green monkeys soon adopted the abandoned orphan.

The boy was only discovered when a girl was attacked by the green monkeys while collecting firewood in 1998. The girl then noticed another strange creature with the monkey group, with hair all over its body and long mattered hair hanging from its head.

As it turned out, this was John Ssabunnya, who had been living with the monkeys all this time.

These days, he is able to speak and sings in a choir.

The Mowgli Girl

Natasha Mikhailova, a stunted and neglected girl, was rescued from a squalid flat, where she she lived in with her dad and grandparents, in Chita, Siberia. Protected and basically raised by the family dogs, Natasha would, according to the care centre boss, bark and lap up her food from a plate. She is undergoing rehabilitation.

A Zonkey: A cross Between a Donkey and a Zebra

A zonkey is a hybrid animal which is a cross between a donkey and a zebra. Though, technically, a zonkey is the result of a female donkey and a male zebra. If the offspring is the result of a female zebra and male donkey, it is called a zedonk. The generic name for donkey/zebra hybrids is Zebroid.

In 2010, a zedonk was born at Chestatee Wildlife Preserve at Dahlonega in Georgia USA. It was reported that this particular zedonk has the inclinations of the zebra, rather than the donkey, as she sits upright, alert for predators, rather than lying on her side.

A zebroid, a mix between a Grevy Zebra and a Horse

As can be imagined, the owners of the wildlife park got a big surprise when they saw a donkey give birth to a stripy legged foal. The park was in the habit of keeping the donkeys and zebras together because donkeys keep the zebras calm.

  

Books To Read

Europe: The First 100 Million Years, by Tim Flannery.

Exploding King Henry

The English king Henry VIII, supposedly, was an intelligent and handsome man who stood over 6 feet tall. However, by the time he died prematurely in 1547, at the age of 56, he was obese, bloated and smelly; dying due to breathing problems, an infected leg and perhaps, syphilis. Even worse, Henry’s body was so putrefied that his corpse exploded in his coffin and dogs were found licking up his remains.

Henry loved to eat, which may explain his obesity. And he loved to acquire (and discard) women, which helps to explain the syphilis. But what is strange, is the stuff that these Tudor types, like Henry, fancied to eat.

Wild Boar’s Head

Henry liked dessert and his tables would be groaning with every manner of custard, pudding and sweet meat. Often, after a dinner of honeyed eels, roasted whale, or perhaps, a wild boar’s head and charred porpoise steak, he would choose a substantial helping of black pudding. Black pudding, was, of course, made of pigs intestines filled with something like oatmeal, cooked in animal's blood.

Another popular dish was called cockatrice. This was composed of half a chicken sewed together with half a pig (how delectable!). Then there was cooked peacock reassembled into its plumage, complete with a gold-dipped beak. But if you preferred beaver’s tail, then that may have been available, or maybe, swan pie, perhaps? Vegetables, however, were regarded with distrust and as food for the poor.

It is only a wonder that Henry could find any women to fancy him after eating such a diet, but then again, women didn’t have too much choice in those days. Off with your head!

Wheelthrone

The noted academic, David Starkey also discovered that Henry VIII used a "stairthrone", which hauled his huge body up a 20ft staircase, probably by a block and tackle system, like that which was used on his warship, the Mary Rose. Henry was also wheeled around in wheelchairs, which could be more aptly described as "wheelthrones".

Later in his life, Henry's waist expanded to a massive 52 inches, which isn't surprising considering that each day Henry ate a meal of 30 courses.


Books To Read


Forever Amber, an historical romance novel by Kathleen Winsor set in 17th-century England.

From Trephination to The Lobotomobile and Beyond

Prehistoric humans practised trephination: drilling a hole into the human skull. This practice may have been practised as a way to release the "evil spirits" believed to be causing epilepsy and mental disorders.

1525 engraving of trepanation by Peter Treveris

The ancient Greeks believed that mental illness was caused by an imbalance of the four humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and water (phlegm).

From 1450 to 1750, witchcraft was thought to be the root of all evil. Mental disorders were treated with prayers and exorcisms. Many a lonely, odd, old woman who just happened have a wart on her nose, was accused of copulating with demons and sentenced to be burnt at the stake. The last known witch to be executed was a Swiss woman, Anna Göldi, who in June 1782, was tortured and then, admitted entering into a pact with the Devil.

Dorothea Lynde Dix(Wikipedia)

Hippocrates of Cos, known as the father of Medicine, believed that mental disorders like most other health problems, had a natural cause. In the fifth century B.C., Hippocrates reported how a man with epilepsy cured his seizures by not eating; probably due to the increase in ketones.

In the 1840s, an American Dorothea Dix, noticed how people with mental illness were chained and beaten and left alone in the darkness, without any clothing or any form of heating in the winter. She was instrumental in establishing 32 state hospitals for the mentally ill.

By the 1920s, however, there were still no real treatments for mental disorders and many quack cures, like, cooling the body, injecting malaria and removing teeth, were tried.

In 1935, Antonio Egas Moniz, was at a conference when he heard how a crazy monkey had been cured by cutting the fibres connecting the frontal lobe of the brain, to the limbic system, under anaesthetic. Soon Moniz began his revolutionary treatment: the frontal lobotomy.

Around 40,000 people were lobotomized in the United States and though the process did not always go to plan, in many cases, suffers of paranoia and anxiety found relief. However, surgical cowboys like Walter Freeman, gave the treatment a bad name.

Brain animation: left frontal lobe highlighted in red. Moniz targeted the frontal lobes in the leucotomy procedure which he first conceived in 1933.

Freeman would travel about in his van called the "lobotomobile" and line up his patients like a production line, insert his instrument in above the eyeball, give a tap of a hammer and in about 3 minutes, he was done. And sometimes, he would actually use a carpenter's hammer. No permission was sought from patients or relatives.

Luckily, by 1954, anti-psychotic drugs like Thorazine hit the scene. While not a cure, drugs have greatly improved mental health treatment.

The Philosopher Mummy

Philosopher Jeremy Bentham in his will made the request that his corpse to be publicly dissected during am anatomy lecture, after his death. This was duly done when he died in 1832 and afterwards, his skeleton and head were preserved and stored in a maple glass-fronted, wooden cabinet called the "Auto-icon", which Bentham had helped to make before his death.

Bentham's skeleton was padded with straw and he was decked out in a rather dapper outfit. Bentham’s head, however, was mummified and looked very macabre. With hard, stretched, leathery skin and vacant looking glass eyes, it is a horrifying sight; not one that you would expect to see when you enter the corridor, of University College London.

Bentham wanted to demystify the human body and make autopsy and dissection common medical practices. They were not at the time, as the church deemed such things unholy.

Bentham was actually way ahead of his time, in so many ways. For example, he argued for things that we now take for granted, like women's rights, the separation between church and state, the abolition of slavery and the decriminalising of homosexuality. He also believed in animal rights and argued that the ability to suffer rather than the ability to reason (Rousseau), should be the benchmark, for determining who or what deserved rights.

Bentham’s underpants are over 250 years old and they are believed to be one of the oldest undies in all of England. If you wish to take a peek, you can visit him in the Wilkins Building at University College London.

Books To Read

How Philosophy Can Save Your Life: 10 Ideas That Matter Most, by Marietta McCarty.