Human heads stolen from parked freight truck in DenverThe incident happened between 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. Thursday while the truck was parked in the 7700 block of E. 23rd Avenue, police said. The heads were supposed to be used for medical research purposes.
The blue and white box with a label reading "Exempt Human Specimen" was stolen from a freight company truck, police said, along with a dolly.
I'm pretty sure "medical research" means "target practice and cosmetics", but ok.
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Huh. I'd have thought the Disney estate would've kept Walt's head in better condition. I guess corporate homophobia does that to ya.
The book Stiff by Mary Roach is rather interesting on the subject of how these heads are used in dentistry and elsewhere.
It is a fantastic book.
If you ever played Blood, you are delighted with nostalgy!
I am disappointed the article does not reveal how many heads were in the box, just more than one (so that rules out Brad Pitt).
A quick internet search says adult human heads weigh between 5kg and 6.5kg on average, so probably not more than 6 heads in it if purloined by a single person, but maybe more if the box was loaded onto the dolly.
Perhaps they're not revealing how many heads were in the box, to stop swindlers bringing their own box of heads to the police in hopes of a payout.
If you find a bunch of heads, no big deal, but we really want that box back — provided it's discarded or abandoned. If it's being put to use, that's okay. We really just want to know that the box is living its best life.
Yeah, the original article said they "took a dolly and a box of human remains." That dolly has a substantial monetary value, you know! But, despite that weird framing, the article was also incredibly badly written. So at least there's that.
I would think of basic anatomy (cranial nerve memes w00!) and the Allen Brain Center (but that's ca. Vancouver,) who picked some real fresh brains to cryofreeze and slice 10nm thicc slices to see how the visual cortex (etc.) were wired. They did a whole chart of a fruit fly brain, but human head's a lotta 1 cm sq. slices to turn into data for a brain and however many kinds of synapse.
We're this much closer to Carolina Reapers v. Therapy preprints! Or you know, Meta :: Immersive Gear tests and the market brainlet or lobe.