#What Is Postmortem Interval

[forensicfield]

What is Autopsy?

Autopsy, when broken into two different terms, Auto means Self and Opis means examination, giving to the meaning self-examination. It is defined broadly as the examination of both external and internal contents of the dead body including the histology...

Continue reading What is Autopsy?

[permafrown]

something to hide, like a body, maybe?

—  SUMMARY ; Scarecrow's been calling upon Gotham's resident Undertaker more and more recently. This spike in frequency suspiciously coincides with Irene's recent discovery of just who's underneath their favorite burlap mask. Nontheless, they have no choice but to act like it's business as usual, and tonight's no different.

...Or is it?

SHIP ; Scaretaker (Irene x Jonathan / Undertaker x Scarecrow)

WORD COUNT ; around 1.3k !

CW/TW(s) ; talking about corpses and states of decay, bugs (beetles specifically)

NOTE(s)? ; I had btaa scarecrow in mind when writing him .. he's silly I like how he talks

In the dead of night, on the outskirts of Gotham, a black-clad figure waits patiently to meet with an anticipated client, their shovel in-hand.

"Why, if it isn't Scarecrow." The Undertaker chirps, tipping their hat in greeting as they see a familiar figure cut through the fog. "I haven't seen you in almost.. twenty-four hours!"

Barely noticable through the mask of straw and stitched burlap, The Scarecrow grins. "People might start to talk."

With a slight giggle, Undertaker digs their shovel into the soil before them, making themselves a makeshift post to lean against as they tuck their hands under their chin. Their voice drops to a low purr, briefly. "And, would that truly be so terrible?"

Scarecrow opens his mouth to respond, but Undertaker clears their throat loudly, pulling the shovel back out of the dirt and placing it over their shoulder. "Anywho," They digress, "Let's talk business."

He watches as they move towards the nearby black tarp that was all neatly rolled up. He blinks once, and then twice. Nontheless, he joins his veiled associate at their side, his hands clasped behind his back almost expectantly.

"Is this one your usual cases?" Undertaker asks with morbid familiarity as they unroll the tarp to get a look at the corpse held within.

"Indeed. A rather.. unfortunate fellow," Scarecrow clicks his tongue. "Got a little too close to finding out who the Scarecrow really was, and all that."

There's a deliberate pause. "You know how it goes."

Undertaker could feel his gaze on them. It takes everything in their power to suppress the shiver threatening to crawl up their spine.

"Mm," They hum, tapping their shovel nervously. "Many such cases. You've become quite the man of interest lately."

Something's off, and Undertaker knows this. Their eyes flicker over the cadaver once more, squinting slightly as they take in the more subtle details presented before them, eyes darting around. "Wait a minute..."

This man was not one of his victims. They've seen enough of those poor souls to know that no Scarecrow victim ever died peacefully, if their face had anything to say about it. That was, of course, assuming the head was still intact to begin with. Not only that..

"This body isn't even fresh!"

They can't see it, but a smile starts to creep onto Scarecrow's face. "It isn't?" He tilts his head, feigning puzzlement. "And, pray tell, what gave you that idea?"

Undertaker freezes. They've begun to dig a grave they weren't going to be able to get themselves out of.

"Lucky guess?" They shrug with a wince.

Scarecrow tuts, and Undertaker throws their hands up defensively before he could further scrutinize their weak attempt at a lie. "Okay, okay!" They sigh, voice falling to a mumble, tilting their head back and forth. "I may or may not know a thing or two about the ol' Postmortem Interval or whatever,"

"Look." They start, pointing their boot towards the little brown carrion beetles crawling along the tarp. "He's already attracting Hide Beetles. They typically don't rear their silly, little heads around until around a week after someone dies."

They hear Scarecrow hum in what they could only hope was him being impressed. "Fascinating."

"But.." They continue. "It also looks like there's been something of an attempt at preservation. So, that would mean.."

"...And, excuse my unprofessionalism here.." Crouching down, Undertaker pries the cadaver's jaw open with considerable effort, hissing softly as they hear a crack. Looking closer, they spot the familiar bundle newspaper stuffed in the back of the throat.

"He's even already been embalmed."

They feel a cold sweat at the back of their neck as they hear grass crunch from Scarecrow moving in closer, looming behind them. "...You exhumed this man." They say slowly, not daring to turn their head. "Why?"

"Why, indeed?" He says, voice low and amused. "I figured you, of all people, would be very, very intimate with Thanatopraxis." He pauses.

"Irene."

Their pulse spikes upon hearing their given name. Remaining calm, Irene rises from their spot on the ground slowly, and without a word. They grip their shovel in both hands tightly and turn to swing at Scarecrow. Unfortunately for them, he's quick to catch it mid-swing.

"Wohoho! Careful there, Undertaker!" He laughs, grabbing ahold of the shovel's collar and utilizing it to yank them towards him.

Irene yelps, fully expecting to fall forward, but he catches them with a well-placed arm around their waist. "Is that any way to treat your favorite business partner? Your Jonathan?"

"You-" they start to stammer, heartbeat pounding in their chest. "H-How long have you known?"

"Does it matter?" He purrs, twirling a stray curl of their hair before tucking it behind their ear.

"Shouldn't you be more.. afraid of what I'm going to do with this information? How would the GCPD feel about their favorite little morgue attendant cozying up to Gotham's most.. nefarious? I can't imagine they'd be very happy."

There's a moment of silence as Irene looks up at him, struggling to respond.

Then, Scarecrow chuckles lowly. "..No, that's not you. You don't care about your civillian reputation.. You care about me - about us."

He tilts his head back, barking out a laugh before lolling his head back to look at them. "You want to know what my plans with you are. Don't you?" He coos, squeezing their chin in his hand almost playfully.

Irene shakes their head, breaking his grip on them with a dry chuckle. "I feel like it's a valid concern," They reply, "considering you haven't killed me just yet."

"I haven't." He nods. "Call me sentimental, but, I will admit.. I've grown attached to you, Irene."

His voice dropped to a low purr. "Very attached, and," He leans down, nuzzling under their chin as he exhales slowly. "I don't intend on letting go."

"...Huh?" Irene blurts, suddenly finding themselves dumbfounded.

Scarecrow pulls back, hands now gripping their shoulders as he looks them over. "Oh, Irene.. Don't tell me you're surprised!" He barks out a laugh. "Especially not after our little.. Halloween incident."

Irene shudders a little bit as they remember that night, but it's not out of fear. That night was the night they fell in-love for a second time. Being frozen in awe at all the visceral terror unfolding around them that horrible Autumn night, and in the middle of it all - Scarecrow. "How could I forget?" They murmur.

"See?" He sighs affectionately, as if he was reminiscing there with them. "You feel it, too - the romance of it all! You and I? We were meant to be."

"Say you'll work with me, my dear." He rasps, placing a mock trail of kisses through burlap up their throat before looking them in the eyes. "Say you'll be this Scarecrow's one and only."

"Our union, my Irene, will drag this city through it's worst nightmares, like cans tied to a newlyweds' speeding getaway vehicle."

He pulls off his mask, allowing Irene to see him, not just as Scarecrow, but Jonathan. "If only you'll have me."

The last part comes as a whisper. Looking into his eyes, pupils dilated and all in a mix of what they could only interpret as pure, unadulterated desire.

Irene takes a moment to remove their hat and veil, gazing back at him uncovered, a large smile growing across their face as their eyes scan his. "Till death." they jest as they lean into Jonathan. He squeezes them in his arms with a chuckle, repeating after them. "Till death."

He presses his lips to theirs with all the searing passion of a sealing vow, officially consolidating the relationship between two of Gotham's most ghastly Rogues.

[beyondcrimescenetapes]

Title: The First Forensic Case in China: The Farmer’s Sickle and the Flies

In the annals of forensic science, one of the earliest and most ingenious cases of using insects to solve a crime comes from medieval China. This story, recorded in a historical text from the Song Dynasty, showcases the remarkable use of forensic entomology to uncover the truth.

The Crime Scene

The case unfolded in a rural village where a farmer was found murdered, his body slashed repeatedly with what appeared to be a sickle, a common tool used for harvesting rice. The local magistrate, faced with the challenge of identifying the murderer, devised a clever plan to use the natural behavior of insects to solve the crime.

The Investigation

The magistrate gathered all the villagers who owned sickles and instructed them to place their tools on the ground in a designated area. He then stepped back and waited. Within minutes, blowflies, attracted by the scent of blood, began to swarm around one particular sickle. The flies, with their keen sense of smell, were drawn to invisible traces of blood and tissue that remained on the blade, even after the murderer had attempted to clean it.

The Confession

The owner of the sickle, realizing that the flies had exposed his crime, broke down and confessed. The magistrate, using the natural behavior of the blowflies, had successfully identified the murderer without relying on human testimony or physical evidence alone. This case marked the first documented use of forensic entomology in history.

The Legacy of Song Ci

A scholar named Song Ci documented this groundbreaking case in a book that laid the foundation for modern forensic science. His meticulous observations and detailed instructions on how to conduct autopsies and investigate crimes have been revered for centuries. Song Ci emphasized the importance of personal examination, accurate documentation, and the use of natural evidence to avoid miscarriages of justice.

The Importance of Forensic Entomology

This case highlights the significance of forensic entomology, the study of insects and their role in criminal investigations. Blowflies, in particular, are known for their ability to detect the scent of decomposing bodies within minutes of death. By studying the life cycle and behavior of these insects, forensic entomologists can estimate the postmortem interval (PMI), or the time since death, which is crucial in solving crimes.

Conclusion

The story of the farmer’s sickle and the flies is a testament to the ingenuity of early Chinese investigators and the enduring principles of forensic science. It serves as a reminder that even in the absence of modern technology, careful observation and the use of natural evidence can lead to justice. This historical case remains a cornerstone of forensic science, inspiring generations of investigators to seek truth through meticulous examination and scientific rigor.

[tatsumidok]

W13-Assignment 3 Postmortem

This week we just playtesting party, That was fun.

From a development perspective, I made several improvements

Adjustment of spawn intervals in line with enemy health adjustments

Additional level cap

Increased difficulty due to reduced number of bullets

What went well

Perfectly Balanced Adjustments

Adjusted the number of bullets so that it is more disadvantageous for our side because we can shoot bullets while not moving.

Challenges I faced

The game is designed so that it does not become difficult from the beginning, and the player is initially faster, but gradually catches up.

Resolving the issue of enemies appearing in front of players when they are in a corner and causing damage

Discussions and disagreements when adjusting difficulty levels

While it was a lot of fun to divide up roles and create games through this project, we also experienced difficulties due to differences in skill levels and disagreements over difficulty adjustments.

[xtruss]

New Study On Decomposing Microbes Could Help Transform Forensic Science

— By Colorado State University | February 12, 2024

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

For the first time, researchers have identified what appears to be a network of approximately 20 microbes that universally drive the decomposition of animal flesh. The findings have significant implications for the future of forensic science, including the potential to provide crime scene investigators with a more precise way to determine a body's time of death.

"It's really cool that there are these microbes that always show up to decompose animal remains," said Colorado State University Associate Professor Jessica Metcalf, the senior author on the new work published in Nature Microbiology. "Hopefully, we're busting open this whole new area of ecological research."

Decomposition of dead biological material is one of Earth's most fundamental processes. Organic plant waste accounts for the vast majority of matter that is decomposed, a process that is relatively well understood. Comparatively little, however, is known about the ecology of vertebrate decomposition, including humans, and better understanding how humans decompose has the potential to advance forensic science.

This new study, a multi-year undertaking, involved decomposing 36 cadavers at three different forensic anthropological facilities—the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Sam Houston State University; and Colorado Mesa University. The bodies were decomposed in different climates and during all four seasons. The research team then collected skin and soil samples during the first 21 days for each decomposing body.

Metcalf and her colleagues generated a significant amount of molecular and genomic information from the samples. They then used that information to construct an overall picture of the "microbial community," or microbiome, present at each site. "Essentially," Metcalf said, "what microbes are there, how did they get there, how does that change over time and what are they doing."

Surprisingly, she said, regardless of climate or soil type, researchers found the same set of approximately 20 specialist decomposing microbes on all 36 bodies. What's more, those microbes arrived like clockwork at certain points throughout the 21-day observation period, and insects played a key role in their arrival.

"We see similar microbes arrive at similar times during decomposition, regardless of any number of outdoor variables you can think of," Metcalf said.

A Future In Forensics

Identifying the decomposing microbiome's consistent makeup and timing has important implications for forensic science.

Using machine learning techniques and data from the new study, as well as previous work, Metcalf and her collaborators—David Carter, professor of forensic sciences at Chaminade University of Honolulu, and Rob Knight, director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation at the University of California San Diego—built a tool that can accurately predict a body's time since death, also known as the postmortem interval.

"When you're talking about investigating death scenes, there are very few types of physical evidence you can guarantee will be present at every scene," Carter said. "You never know if there will be fingerprints, or bloodstains or camera footage. But the microbes will always be there."

What's more, these microbes can be particularly useful, Carter said, under the types of conditions examined in the new study. "We're talking about outdoor death scenes," he said. "It can be difficult to gather information in those types of investigations."

The director of the National Institute of Justice, Nancy La Vigne, views the research as particularly promising. "One of the principal questions of any death investigation is 'when did this person die?'" La Vigne said. "This continuing line of ... research is showing promising results for predicting time of death of human remains, aiding in identification of the decedent, determining potential suspects and confirmation or refutation of alibis."

In addition to identifying the universal decomposers, the research team also attempted to determine where this microbial community came from. Notably, Metcalf said, they couldn't find the microbes in soil microbiome databases or catalogs of human skin and gut microbiomes. They did, however, find the universal decomposers on insects. "It seems like the insects are bringing the microbes in," Metcalf said.

Other Research Applications

These latest findings build on more than a decade of work by Metcalf, Carter and Knight, including an early study that involved decomposing mice on different soils in a controlled lab setting as well as a follow-up that involved decomposing four cadavers at the Sam Houston State facility. Zach Burcham, a former CSU postdoctoral student in Metcalf's lab, helped lead the latest work.

"This research was a huge collaborative effort from a diverse team of highly knowledgeable scientists—a shining example of what can be accomplished when interdisciplinary teams join forces towards a common goal," Burcham said. "This dataset is truly one of a kind, with broad-ranging impacts from microbial ecology to forensic science."

In addition to the forensic applications, Metcalf sees other opportunities to put this new information to use. "I see a lot of potential applications across agriculture and food industries," said Metcalf, who is in CSU's Department of Animal Sciences.

Metcalf also intends to expand her research in this field, including potentially looking at the differences in the microbial ecology of small and large vertebrates. "I feel like we're opening a whole lot of avenues in basic ecology and nutrient cycling," Metcalf said.

[antoine-roquentin]

While the Border Patrol’s expulsion protocol remains unclear, what is evident is that 2020 has been a particularly deadly year for migrants attempting to cross the Sonoran Desert. For years, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner has shared its data on suspected migrant death cases with Humane Borders, a humanitarian group that charts the data on an interactive online map.

As of this week, the medical examiner’s office has logged 181 cases of suspected migrant deaths recovered in its area of operations this year. The last time the office saw a higher total was in 2013, when 186 sets of human remains were recovered. The record for most human remains recovered in a single year was set in 2010, when 224 were found. With two and a half months yet to go in the year, advocates worry that 2020 could exceed that grim milestone.

“I think by the end of year, it’ll be the highest since 2010,” Mike Kreyche, the mapping coordinator with Humane Borders, told The Intercept. “I hope we don’t get up that high, but I think we’re going to approach it.”

What’s particularly alarming about this year’s data, Kreyche explained, is the column of information labeled “postmortem interval,” the estimated amount of time between an individual’s death and the discovery of their remains. In recent years, that number has generally been more than six to eight months — in some cases, remains discovered in the field could be years old. This year, however, there has been a marked increase in the recovery of remains indicating a recently deceased individual, particularly in the brutally hot summer months. In September, roughly two thirds of the recoveries recorded by the medical examiner’s office suggested a death in the prior three months. Overall, the 2020 data show that more than half of the recoveries of suspected migrant remains — 107 of 181 cases — indicate a death that occurred at some point less than six to eight months prior.

“There have been a lot more deaths,” Kreyche said, “particularly recent deaths.”

Montana Thames, a volunteer with the humanitarian organization No More Deaths, said the past several months have been “very active” for volunteers providing aid on the ground. With temperatures continuously breaking 100 degrees, “people need help, people need aid,” Thames told The Intercept. “There have been a lot of people who haven’t made it.”

Last week, the Border Patrol raided No More Deaths’ humanitarian aid station outside of Arivaca, Arizona, approximately 25 miles northeast of Sasabe, for the second time in three months. The first raid was launched in the middle of a heat wave and featured members of the Border Patrol’s tactical team, known as BORTAC, pointing rifles while agents slashed through the organization’s tents with knives, confiscated sensitive medical records and dumped out gallon jugs of water.

Efforts to engage in a dialogue with the Border Patrol since then went nowhere, Thames said, and last Monday night BORTAC was again deployed in a heavily militarized operation that involved agents in night-vision goggles trashing the organization’s belongings. Twelve migrants were arrested, including some who were chased through Arivaca before being taken into custody. While the raid was “shocking” and unacceptable, Thames noted, “This is literally the everyday reality of migrants and undocumented communities in general.”

[bookclub4m]

Episode 129 - Non-Fiction Film & TV Books

This episode we’re talking about Non-Fiction Film & TV books! We discuss media about media, self-pity book purchasing, spoilers, and more! Plus: Kakapos!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards | Appleberry

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West

Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade

Movies (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano and Arturo Torres 

Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation by Questlove

Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons by Mike Reiss, Mathew Klickstein

Hollywood vs. the Author edited by Stephen Jay Schwartz

Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies by Ann Hornaday

The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero, Tom Bissell

Richard Ayoade Presents the Grip of Film by Gordy LaSure

Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies by Dave Addey

Typeset in the Future website

101 Movies to Watch Before You Die by Ricardo Cavolo

How to Watch Television, Second Edition edited by Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell

Other Media We Mentioned

A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer

Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (Wikipedia)

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Wikipedia)

Samurai Pizza Cats (Wikipedia)

My Pet Monster (Wikipedia)

The A-Team (Wikipedia)

Murder, She Wrote (Wikipedia)

Are You Afraid of the Dark? (Wikipedia)

Goosebumps (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Live from New York: An Oral History of Saturday Night Live by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

Saturday Night Live (Wikipedia)

The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy by Paul Myers

The Kids in the Hall (TV series) (Wikipedia)

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes

Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman

Which Lie Did I Tell? More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman

The Fugitive (Wikipedia)

View from the Top (Wikipedia)

The Room (Wikipedia)

2001: A Space Odyssey (Wikipedia)

Alien (Wikipedia)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Wikipedia)

Blade Runner (Wikipedia)

Total Recall (Wikipedia)

WALL-E (Wikipedia)

Moon (Wikipedia)

House (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Battlestar Galactica (Wikipedia)

The Video Game History Hour podcast

Decoder Ring - The Soap Opera Machine

Shrill (TV series) (Wikipedia)

Love, Actually (Wikipedia)

List of Hallmark Channel Original Movies (Wikipedia)

33⅓ (Wikipedia)

Criminal Minds (Wikipedia)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Wikipedia)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Wikipedia)

Dredd (Wikipedia)

The Muppets (Wikipedia)

Top Gun (Wikipedia)

Kate Beaton’s Top Gun comics

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Wikipedia)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (Wikipedia)

Armageddon Films FAQ: All That's Left to Know about Zombies, Contagions, Aliens, and the End of the World as We Know It! by Dale Sherman

Links, Articles, and Things

Library Punk episode 014 - Manga

Episode 128 - Plucky Kid Detective

Fanart!

Episode 104 - Entertainment Non-Fiction

Toy Galaxy (YouTube channel)

Lindsay Ellis (YouTube channel)

Amanda the Jedi (YouTube channel)

Jenny Nicholson (YouTube channel)

Every Frame a Painting (YouTube channel)

Postmortem: Every Frame a Painting by co-creator Tony Zhou

Welcome to the Basement

Pushing Up Roses (YouTube channel)

Jacob Geller (YouTube channel)

Letterboxd (Wikipedia)

Demi Adejuyigbe on Letterboxd

Sidewalk Slam - Episode 57 - AEW Revolution 2021 (YouTube)

Kakapo (Wikipedia)

Lego set

Diegesis (Wikipedia)

The Stranger (newspaper) (Wikipedia)

Chuck Klosterman (Wikipedia)

Hanif Abdurraqib (Wikipedia)

24 Film/TV/Video Non-Fiction books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire by Jonathan Abrams

“Indian” Stereotypes in TV Science Fiction: First Nations' Voices Speak Out by Sierra S. Adare

Ayoade on Top by Richard Ayoade

Contemporary Black Women Filmmakers and the Art of Resistance by Christina N. Baker

Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present by Robin R. Means Coleman  

The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry by Maryann Erigha

Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film by Ed Guerrero

Why Wakanda Matters: What Black Panther Reveals About Psychology, Identity, and Communication by Sheena C. Howard

Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa

Our Gang: A Racial History of The Little Rascals by Julia Lee

The Films of Bong Joon Ho by Nam Lee

Moving the Image: Independent Asian Pacific American Media Arts edited by Russell Leong

Farewell My Concubine: A Queer Film Classic by Helen Hok-Sze Leung

Cinema-Interval by Trinh T. Minh-ha

Get Out: The Complete Annotated Screenplay by Jordan Peele

Where Do You Think We Are?: Ten Illustrated Essays About Scrubs by Shea Serrano, illustrated by Arturo Torres

Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity by Viola Shafik

Maori Television: The First Ten Years by Jo Smith

Shaded Lives: African American Women and Television by Beretta E. Smith-Shomade

Tribal Television: Viewing Native People in Sitcoms by Dustin Tahmahkera

Soul Train: The Music, Dance, and Style of a Generation by Ahmir Questlove Thompson

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: A Guerilla Filmmaking Manifesto by Melvin Van Peebles

Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism by Nancy Wang Yuen

I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African American-Owned Television and Radio by Kristal Brent Zook

Also check out the booklist from our episode on Entertainment Non-Fiction.

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Which zine do you most want to read? (Twitter poll)

RJ's zine about Love Actually

Anna's zine about Criminal Minds

Matthew's zine about Dredd

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

It’s almost time for our annual “We all read the same book” episode. So on Tuesday, July 20th we’ll each suggest and talk about one title and you’ll get to vote for which one we’ll read. (And yes, it will definitely happen this time.)

Then on Tuesday, August 3rd it’s time to jack in and download because we’ll be reading the genre of Cyberpunk!

[levyfiles]

Can we all appreciate the bugsy post mortem where Shane wasn’t there so Ryan proceeded to happily talk about him the whole time

How on earth did I miss this ask? You know what, I decided to go rewatch that episode to see how quickly into the video he brings up Shane. Now of course, I wanted to play fair and discount his mentioning that his guest host isn’t Shane so I skipped that which occurred 

roughly 26-28 seconds in. Then of course he needed to talk about why Shane wasn’t in and that’s normal so

Ok, roughly a minute in. So he’s spent 1 min of a 16 min video explaining that his regular cohost isn’t here and of course like any regular host, he goes

Despite the glimmer of delight in his eyes, let’s take him at his word. He’s explained the situation, so we move on. 

BUT THEN (we get a read more because if you think this situation is an anti-climax, boy are you in for a surprise under the cut...)

At rougjy the 4 minute mark while Andrew is patiently trying to explain that in his opinion, the mafia is an environment of violence so sometimes threats can be taken too seriously when they’re just an expression and Ryan cuts him off, talking about blowing off steam in a situation where your feelings need to be contained to which were, he says, for no gd reason

Andrew didn’t ask, my guy, but OK. And honestly, I imagine that’s it. They move on and start to talk more about the case. Andrew’s warmed to the subject and they start answering questions again. One question demands to know whether Ryan wants his death to be a mystery and Andrew launches into this imaginative scenario where everyone he loves knows he’s somehow faked his death; he’s all right but to everyone else, he’s a missing person kidnapped under unsolved circumstances and Ryan--

COUNT THE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM WHO ASKED, MY GUY!  What the fuck?!. 

Anyway, yeah that’s it though. I mean that’s pretty well into the video; we get it, cohost isn’t here. Andrew is making you nervous and Adam sitting behind you for strange intervals is weird. You get through it and--Oh wait, he’s not done talking about Shane.

ARE YOU EVEN TALKING TO ANYONE ELSE RIGHT NOW??

I’m just. I was really trying to play this off as normal. I even included the timestamps to show this isn’t that weird but, this should have been called the The Mysterious Reason Shane Madej is The Most Interesting Person Ryan Knows Q+A where none of your questions matter because only Ryan knows the questions and the answers. But seriously though, Ok, it’s obvious. He knows Shane’s gonna watch this back and maybe he’s just giving Shane a little audience nod--

NOT EVEN TEN SECONDS, DUDE????? YO OK OK mob nicknames. It’s bound to happen. We’re like 9 minutes in, move it along. Ask Andrew what his mob nickname would be. Silent J?  Because of his last name Ilnychyj? Oh yeah that’s--

LMAO look at the damn shock on his face as if the Sallie House just reopened as a popcorn dispensary. But listen, this is fine. Andrew made the connection too. No beef here--

RYAN?! WHAT THE SHIT. ANDREW IS A GUEST IN THIS HOUSE

LET ME JUST GET THIS SHIT STRAIGHT IN CASE I MISSED SOMETHING HERE. YOU INVITE ANDREW TO STAND IN AS YOUR GUEST COHOST AND HE AGREES TO SIT THERE WITH YOU WHILE YOU DERAIL EVERY CONVERSATION STARTED BY QUESTIONS ASKED JUST TO TALK ABOUT HOW SHANE’S ANSWER WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER AND YOU FINALLY ASK ANDREW A QUESTION TO WHICH HE ANSWERS IN HIS USUAL CREATIVE MANNER AND YOU TAKE HIS ANSWER AND GIVE IT TO YOUR COHOST WHO NEED I REMIND YOU ALL ISN’T EVEN THERE?!!

Our mans really clowned Andrew like that for 10 min out of a 16 min video. I mean surely that’s it? That little climax of a tense moment alleviated by plans to make a Motown band together must have put it all to rest, right?

Oh. Let me just state for the record that I am making the same face as Andrew here. 

Uh huh. 

Yeah OK, but you ever just...?

...you ever just talk to that one coworker you never work with one on one and you realise very slowly 

That something about him is just

Not quite right?

Sometimes you just gotta laugh and smile politely and get through your shift because the only thing scarier than knowing someone has an obsession with something is them knowing that you know. 

At least they ended on a good note, but DAAAAAAAMN was that a journey to watch. Shane all the way up until the very end of the postmortem I mean except for this and can we just actually examine this for a sec in an unrelated to our present concern sort of way

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED THEN?? BUT SERIOUSLY THO, YOU EVER TALK YOUR COWORKER’S EAR OFF ABOUT THE DUDE YOU HANG OUT WITH UNTIL THEY AVOID YOU AT WORK?

[yourdeepestfathoms]

SIX Fanfic Masterlist

because my other one dipped

you can really see the huge characterization change from the oldest to newest fics lol

Multi-chapters

if not by blood, then siblings by bloodshed

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Monsters Don’t Soften When They Die

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Olly Olly Oxenfree

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

West End

Cynophobia

Coming out

Emetophobia Pt 1 Pt 2

let us break your fall

Rabies

Home Alone

Early Mornings

Never Mix Stimulants and Depressants

Meltdowns in Silent Hill

Bleary-Eyed Ferret

As Tough As Diamonds, As Fragile As Glass

Beautiful

to mend old wounds

“Tell me something: Why were you crying?”

“You’ll kick this thing’s ass. You’re tough!”

“I love you.”

“Hey, hey, look at me, okay? Just breathe. You’re safe now.”

“Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“Here, you can snuggle under my blanket. I’ll protect you.”

Like Mother, Like (not) Daughter

I’ll Be Met By Moonlight

Silence of The Lamb (because i’ve dried her tears)

“what are you so afraid of? it’s only me! the monster you created.”

Bear Claws

Where The Lamb Sleep Under The White Tiger’s Tail

skintight

“cause i really always knew that my little crime would be cold, that’s why i got a heater for your thighs”

Goodbye To A World

“i do love you”

Hush, Little Lamb

Morphine

“There Are Worse Things I Could Do”

Forever a Family

Tudor Women In A Groupchat Pt 1 Pt 2 Pt 3

Cara Mia

hate me, mate me, still tryna replace me

The Blood Inside of Ewe

Ram Horns

No Use Crying Over Spilled- MOO!

Bite The Bullet (and mop the blood spatter up with fur)

After The MegaSix Ends

Cherry Wine

Tour

Survivor Mentality

If I Didn’t Look Anything Like Me

Lick Your Wounds

Mama, We All Go To Hell Pt 1 Pt 2

The Antidote For Hate

Solitary Hide-And-Seek

A Little Piece Of Heaven

The Chambered Nautilus

Brain on Fire

AUs

Baby Bird (Wings Au)

Roses in The Dark (Mute!Maggie AU)

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (Werewolf AU)

Baby Mine (Sitcom AU)

uroboros, the eternal return (Foster AU) Pt 1 Pt 2

LIMBO (Time travel AU)

A Bat Loosed From Hell (Wings AU)

Leather-Blood (Wings AU)

Of Patience and Partners (Pokemon AU)

The Girl Who Cried Witchcraft (The Six Crucibles)

The Postmortem Interval (Dark Souls AU)

Balance Requires Motion (Cowgirl AU)

shout out loud (the moment of the peak) (Cowgirl AU)

A Lullaby For A Stallion (Cowgirl AU)

Candy Crush (Sweet shop AU)

Flavors of Poison (Sweet shop AU) Pt 1 Pt 2

Children of The Gods (Demigod AU)

[mojsvijet]

FiK 59 Postmortem: We Really Said We Don’t Want to Qualify

If you don’t know the FiK results, you might want to scroll past this one.

Anyways.

Last night, the FiK final happened and for the second year in a row, I was disappointed with Albania. Can someone please tell me why no televote? Why the jury consisted entirely of old men (mostly professors)? WHY ZJARRI IM GOT 10TH PLACE???? Yes, I have the Era Bias, but let’s be real. It had the potential to come top 10 at Eurovision and we threw it away for yet another ballad. At least this one is going to remain in Albanian, but unless there’s a revamp that blows everyone out of the water, ‘Karma’ will most likely not be qualifying.

I’m going to be frank: the beginning of ‘Karma’ had potential, and then it crashed. At least ‘Pendesë’ didn’t win and cause a whole scandal with the plagiarism accusations that were being lobbed against it...speaking of which, also glad that ‘Valixhja e kujtimeve’ didn’t win because the chorus sounds EXACTLY like that of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ by YOHIO.

Someone on Reddit said that FiK was basically just a televised internal selection this year, and I agree. What’s the point of having an NF if the country can’t choose the song that’s representing them on a global stage?

Guess 2021 is just going to be disappointment from all three of my countries:

-Albania picked the wrong song

-Greece has yet another ‘Dream Team’ song...

-Montenegro yeeted out entirely

So how could FiK have been fixed? A more diverse jury, a televote, and intervals that weren’t a century long would be a good start.

[forensicfield]

What is Autopsy?

Autopsy, when broken into two different terms, Auto means Self and Opis means examination, giving to the meaning self-examination. It is defined broadly as the examination of both external and internal contents of the dead body including the histology...

(more…)

[your-stitcher-thursday]

Fifth Times the Charm - Secret Santa Fic

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year KJ  @lizziesaltyzman  ! I’m so sorry this is getting to you so late. Here is your fluffy Camsten fic. It’s a College AU.  Please forgive my complete lack of knowledge about how labs/science theses work. Hopefully you still enjoy it! @stitcherssecretsanta2018

“I’m worried about you, Mr. Goodkin..”

After countless hours in the lab together, Dr. Clark has only ever looked this serious one other time. Given that that time involved one of his grad students getting nearly electrocuted along with half the lab, Cameron was sure this wasn’t shaping up to be a good talk.

“You’re on your third -“

Fourth, Cameron silently corrected in his head.

“- coder for your thesis project. At this rate you’ll have burned through all of the computer science department by your defense, if you get there at all.”

None of this was new information to Cameron, but it stung to hear everything laid out so matter of factly. You could make the argument that Marta leaving was his fault. They had been awake over two days when she’d had her accident.

The other two failures were clearly not Cameron’s. How was he to know Alex would end up creating and launching an app to help people manage their high blood pressure? There was no way to predict that. Camille had been working out great for several weeks. She was insightful and creative. They worked well together. That is until she saw Amanda Weston’s project on postmortem modeling. Camille jumped ship almost immediately.

The only hope Cameron had at this point was that he would get along swimmingly with his new partner Tim. There was no plan b.

—————————————————————-

When Kirsten Clark first met her half sister she knew that there were ways her life would change. There was another person she had to program into her calendar so she would remember to check in with them. There was someone else to inexplicably ask how she was doing at random intervals. There was one more member that understood just how tangled up one could be in the legacy of Daniel Stinger.

What she hadn’t anticipated was her newfound inability to say no. Whenever Ivy asked for a favor, Kirsten felt herself crumble inside. It was maddening, annoying, and meant that Kirsten was sitting front row, center in the coldest classroom ever at seven o’clock at night. She was meant to be studying or preparing to teach. If Ivy needed moral support for a one-off workshop though, here she was.

The room filled up the way these things always did. Most students sat in the back. A few brave souls ventured toward the front to better see the board. That was how Kirsten ended up with the only open seat right next to her.

Ten minutes into the lecture, an absolute whirlwind of a person burst into the room. As if the door cracking hard against the wall wasn’t enough of an announcement of his arrival, the guy tripped over someone’s messenger bag nearly toppling over. He just kept mouthing ‘sorry’ as his eyes swept the room. When his eyes finally met Kirsten’s, she pointed at the seat next to her.

Later that evening when Ivy teased her about it, Kirsten told her that she most certainly did not blush when Cameron smiled at her. It was the cold. There was no spark there. He just looked so lost throughout the whole workshop. And he called her Ada Lovelace when she helped him work through a line of code at the end.

How could she not want to see him again?

———————————————-

Cameron still wasn’t sure what was going on with the blonde from the coding workshop he attended. Yes, she gave him her number - without any prompting. Yes, she had been texting him.

But how could you have a maybe sort of thing going on with a woman whose name you didn’t know?

There were bigger issues Cameron was facing - Tim’s lack of respect for him, his utter inability to get along with Tim, how hard his thesis was going to fail without Tim’s help, avoiding his thesis advisor etc. Add in attending and teaching classes and he was flush with problems.

None of them occupied his mind like her though.

Before Cameron realized what he was doing he texted Ada about his immediate frustration.

how do people get tables in the library during midterms? who do i need to sell my soul to?

An answer came back almost immediately with a coffee order. Cameron sent back a line of question marks in reply.

I have a study room for the next three hours - that’s my price to share it.

Cameron nearly sank down in relief. He waited in an obnoxiously long line behind all the other caffeine deprived college students. It took him almost an hour to acquire coffee and muffins for his new friend. When he arrived at the study room, it was completely worth it for how she looked at him.

Her hands wrapped around the warmth of her coffee cup. “You’re welcome back anytime now that you know the price of admission. I’m here on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11. Plus, technically these are supposed to be group study rooms so you’d legitimize my usage.”

“How did you swing that schedule? They only let you book rooms a week in advance,” Cameron asked.

The blonde stared at her cup, a soft smile twitched at the edge of her mouth. “It’s not technically against the rules, but it’s probably not fair. I wrote a program that automatically goes in to reserve the room as soon as they open up online.”

Cameron laughed. “Your secret’s safe with me, ZeroCool.”

—————————————————

“Here’s your muffin, Muffin,” Cameron said as he presented Kirsten with her customary baked good and coffee.

Sometimes Kirsten marveled at the seemingly fathomless list of nicknames Cameron had for her. She’d been Stretch when she recovered his pen from a particularly hard to reach spot. She’d been Brainiac when she helped him fix his computer. She’d been Angel when she returned a laptop bag she found to the library staff. And now she was Muffin.

“Some days I wonder if you even know my name, Cameron. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you use it,” Kirsten told him as she popped a piece of muffin in her mouth.

The tips of Cameron’s ears turned bright pink. “Well…”

Kirsten ran back over their first meeting in her head. She had asked for his phone and put the number in. Cameron had sent her a text with his name in it. That had probably been a cue that Kirsten had completely missing. Her hands went to her eyes, covering them in embarrassment.

“It’s Kirsten and if you haven’t noticed I don’t people well,” she told him.

Cameron shrugged. “You do well enough with me.”

----------------------------------------------------------------

“What’s another word for passionate?” Kirsten murmured, not taking her eyes off of her computer screen.

Cameron looked up from his own work. He had been absorbed in Tim’s latest notes - which were marginally better than last week’s, but not by much. “Context? I’m not sure if you’re writing an online review of a restaurant or a love letter there.”

Kirsten snorted as she deleted several keystrokes. “I’m writing a personal statement for a project I want to work on. There have been a couple of openings this semester, but I always seem to miss them. I figure if I leave a packet with my CV and a proposal that maybe they’ll take me before they realize how difficult I am to work with.”

It seemed unlikely to Cameron that any team wouldn’t want Kirsten working with them. She was extremely good at what she did, detail-oriented, and incredibly focused. Any time she talked about her current projects, they seemed nearly impossible to Cameron. That was when he even understood what she was talking about. When Kirsten get excited about something it was so hard to interrupt her for clarification. Her enthusiasm was no less enjoyable when it completely went over Cameron’s head.

“They’d be idiots not to take you.” Cameron smirked. “Just don’t tell them you’re feeling amorous about the project.”

Kirsten’s blue eyes finally strayed from her typing. They assessed Cameron for a long moment, sweeping over his face. “You’re funny.” She retreated to her work again.

They worked in relative silence for the next few moments. The study room was filled with the comforting sort of calm that Cameron had come to associate with Kirsten. Instead of working on his project, Cameron started pulling up articles on personal statements.

“Have you written about why you’re so interested in the project?” He asked.

A flash of something unidentifiable crossed Kirsten’s face. “I really don’t think they want to hear about my dead mom. ”It took Cameron a moment to fully absorb what she was telling him. Her tone was so matter of fact. “It happened a long time ago. I barely remember her. It seems cheap to tell them that their research could’ve helped her.”

A tiny ache clawed at Cameron’s chest. “I think that’s exactly what you should tell them.”

There was more he wanted to ask her, to tell her about his life. As if Fate or Destiny hated him though, an undergrad decided that was the exact moment to start banging on the study room window. Nevermind that they still had another half an hour until it was his.

And just like that the moment was gone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn’t like Cameron to be late or miss one of their work sessions. Kirsten found herself working much slower without him in her space. That might have had something to do with the fact that she checked her phone every fifteen seconds for a text that had yet to arrive.

Five hundred and forty-one disappointing notification checks later, a text finally came through.

i’m so sorry i didn’t text you sooner. this thing came up with my dad and i’ve been sorting it out.

This was not something Kirsten was prepared for. She was not good with empathy or sympathy. There were few people in the world less helpful when people were upset than she was. This was Cameron though so she had to at least try to comfort him.

Is he okay? Is there anything I can do to help?

Kirsten stared at her reply, thinking of all the ways she could’ve made it sound better.

he’s just a terminally shitty person.

It was awful, and she recognized it, but Kirsten was kind of relieved. Dealing with trash dads was a specialty of hers.

He should meet my father. They could start a club.

It took a long time for Cameron to respond. Kirsten started to rethink her text. Had it been the wrong move to say that? Did it sound like she was trying to one up him?

he’s in jail for embezzlement, maybe paroled soon. it was awful when he went in. my mom and i changed our last name and everything just to get away. 

Kirsten was still puzzling over what to say when there was a knock at the window. Cameron was on the other side looking slightly rumpled.

“Lunch? My treat,” he mouthed on the other side of the glass.

He apparently didn’t notice that she had already started packing up the second she saw him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was no getting around how awful working with Tim was. Cameron couldn’t take it anymore. They had terrible communication. Half the time a week’s worth of research went to waste. Tim thought Cameron didn’t know anything about what he did - which was true- but he also didn’t respect that Cameron knew his own field well.

Dr. Clark had been hounding Cameron constantly for updates. It was like he could sense how terribly things were going for them. Cameron knew that it was because he wanted him to succeed. There was something worse about disappointing someone you respected than being yelled at.

Facing the music now meant that he might have a new partner picked and up to speed before the semester ended. He stared up at the medical arts building as though the glass and steel could give him what he needed. His hand went to his pocket for his phone without thinking.

send help, rocky. I’m about to tell my thesis advisor that i can’t work with my partner anymore. this goodkin is about to get a good kick in the face.

Kirsten didn’t respond, but reaching out to her, as always, made Cameron feel a little better. He adjusted the messenger bag on his shoulder and headed toward his doom.

-------------------------------------------

There were often times when Kirsten felt a little behind what was going on. She wasn’t the best at reading people or their sarcasm. Her pop cultural knowledge was severely lacking. These things made it hard for her to socialize in groups or with new people.

Kirsten had never felt this blindsided though.

Cameron - her Cameron - was C. Goodkin. This was the guy she convinced Ed to hire based solely on his previous papers. This was the guy who she had been trying to work with all semester - despite Uncle Ed’s protestations of nepotism if he helped her. This was the guy who wanted to communicate with coma patients. He knew her reasons for wanting to work on this project. They got along well too, which wasn’t always the case with her and colleagues.

As though Kirsten’s entire world hadn’t been knocked off balance, Ed continued going on about the holiday party his department was throwing. Apparently Mr. Ahluwalia made world famous cookies that Kirsten just had to try.

There was no good way to break any of what she had to say to Cameron in a text. Only a phone call would work, even though she really hated those.

“Uncle Ed, I have to make a call,” Kirsten said as she stood up.

Her fingers were gripping the handle when the door swung out, pulling Kirsten with it. She nearly toppled into Cameron, who looked as though he were marching to his death. Kirsten inwardly shrugged. She’d have to wing this.

“Let me handle the talking,” she whispered at Cameron, gesturing for him to come in the door. There was nothing for him to do but follow her lead.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Cameron wasn’t sure why or how Kirsten was in Dr. Clark’s office, but he didn’t much care at that point. If she saved him, he would owe her for the rest of his life.

“Mr. Goodkin, did we have an appointment?” Dr. Clark asked. “We could meet in a few minutes if you’d like.”

The lump in Cameron’s throat grew. He made some sort of movement that was half between shrug and nervous arm flinging. As Cameron sat next to Kirsten he noticed how remarkably calm she was. Her hand stilled his forearm, resting just long enough for Cameron’s brain to register the feel of her.

“Cameron knew I was meeting you for lunch so he figured now would be a good time to tell you we’re working together.” Kirsten slid him a questioning look. “We can start immediately. I’m familiar with most of his work so it shouldn’t take too long for me to get caught up.”

The realization finally hit Cameron. Kirsten was offering to do the coding for his thesis. She was literally saving his academic career and still somehow looked nervous about her. Did she think he wasn’t serious about how much he admired her work?

“Yeah. I think we should be in good shape if we start now.” Cameron echoed her sentiment.

Dr. Clark looked between the both of them. “Okay. I’d like an update this time next week.” He gestured toward the door. “I’ll see you then.”

Cameron followed Kirsten out of the office, still in kind of a daze over how quickly things turned around. He nearly fell down the stairs trying to keep up with his new partner. When they finally got outside Cameron pulled her toward a bench.

“What just happened?”

Kirsten smiled. “Do you know how much trouble we could’ve saved each other if we knew each other’s last names?”

Her arms swooped around Cameron, pulling him in for a hug. He wanted answers, but for now he would settle for the softness of Kirsten’s hair against his cheek.

---------------------------------------------------------------

There was nothing worse than socializing with large groups of people. Kirsten had to track how all of them were feeling at every moment. She had to make sure she wasn’t showing off or playing dumb. There was also the small matter of pretending that any of these people were interesting and worth talking to.

Take Liam for instance, he had decided that it was important to discuss in great detail what his workout regimen was for each day. He was on leg day when Cameron finally rejoined the group.

“Hey, we hate to run, but Kirsten and I have another party to hit,” Cameron said as he twined their fingers together, pulling her toward him. “Catch you all later.”

There were two warring emotions in Kirsten. The one was absolute elation that she got to leave. The other was annoyance that she had to put in another appearance somewhere.

“Another party?” Kirsten asked. “How many people will I have to talk to?”

Cameron smiled at her. “One.”

There was no way that was true unless...

“Are we just going back to your place to watch Netflix and order takeout?” Kirsten sagged in relief against Cameron. “That sounds perfect.”

Cameron disentangled their fingers. He wrapped his arm around Kirsten and pulled her in closer. His head dropped down to place a kiss on her head.

“That was my thought too.”

[4n6-anthro]

Forensic Friday: Taphonomic Research Facilities: The Body Farm.

"The Body Farm," located at the University of Tennessee (Anthropological Research Facility) is one of the most popular research facilities in the U.S.A.

In the late 1970's, Dr. William M. Bass examined the postmortem remains of a man found in a property that formerly belonged to the Confederate Colonel William Shy. 

Image: Colonel William Shy, killed December 16, 1864, in the battle of Nashville.

During this era little was known about death estimation. Dr. Bass received soft-tissue and estimated the postmortem interval to be about one year. Dr. Bass noted the flesh was still pink and remnants of the brain and other organs were present. The remains belonged to a man buried in 1864, that man turned out to be Colonel William Shy. The uncommon burial practice to embalm with arsenic and bury inside an iron coffin led to the preservation of Shy's remains. The unexpected soft tissue preservation made Dr. Bass to conclude the remains as recent. With this case, Dr. Bass understood the importance in studying postmortem changes and decomposition. And so, that is how later Dr. William M. Bass decided to create "The Body Farm" to continue taphonomic research. 

Watch this short documentary on youtube by Vice detailing more of what happens at “The Body Farm.” CLICK HERE.

[thewahookid]

How can a loving and merciful God send a person into endless torture in hell? Actually, He does not. They send themselves there. The only unpleasantness to which He channels them is purgatory, where they have the hope of rising to heaven.

Protestants and Eastern Orthodox deny the concept of purgatory because limited, temporary detention for sin with a hope of release is not mentioned in Scripture or earliest church fathers. In real fact, purgatory is indicated by many of them, including those of the first three centuries of Christian literature. Consulting such early sources helps give us the most accurate meaning of New Testament doctrine and praxis. It does so through revealing the presuppositions shared by the New Testament personages and their original hearers and thus disclose the interpretation and lesson that recipients were intended to draw from them. In this way, the ancient sources help inform us of Biblical concepts (which are sometimes quite different from ours) and help supply its conceptual framework so that we can better relate to biblical paradigms. In addition, the literature cited in this article recorded contemporary beliefs and practices during a period as to which most present-day Christians agree the Holy Spirit was still actively guiding the church.

In evaluating modern interpretations and methods of interpreting the Bible, Christians today can derive much assistance from what ancient Christians wrote on various issues before they became subjects of dispute.1 It is more probable that the teaching of Jesus and His apostles was preserved among the first few generations of Christians, instead of the true faith and practice disappearing as soon as the last word of the Bible was written, then long afterwards being perfectly restored at the Reformation or by Mohammed in the seventh century or by Joseph Smith of the Latter-Day Saints in the nineteenth. Similarly, it is infinitely more credible that the correct interpretation of the Bible was preserved by these early generations than first come to light centuries later.

The probability is vanishingly remote that even the most dedicated and protracted study of the Scriptures in the sixteenth century or later would uncover a spiritual truth unknown to early Christians. Christianity has never been a mere collection of writings that can be interpreted by one person as accurately as by another regardless of time or place. The Christian faith has always been a living community or group of communities in which the gospel is shared and transmitted. One Christian interacts with others; older members tell younger members; unwritten memories are recorded in writing by a later generation; and each person directly or indirectly interacts with other Christians, ultimately preserved in the sources below.

Where the early Christian authors agree among themselves, it must be that their presentations of the Christian faith were received from the apostles not many years earlier. Theirs may be only an interpretation, but it is a more authoritative interpretation than those formulated since the sixteenth century because it was made closer to the milieu of the New Testament authors.

A major premise of belief in purgatory is that God is not vindictive or vengeful or inclined to bear grudges forever. The flames in the afterlife, as mentioned at various points in the Scriptures, are a purifying fire, like that for metals, not a destroying fire or one burning for the sole sake of punishment. The distinctive principle of a temporary, graded punishment after death is that the purpose of such chastisement is to purge sin from a soul and thus purify it for eventual entry into heaven. This principle of divine operation is hinted at in Ezekiel 22:18 and stated more clearly in Malachi 3:3: “He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the Levites.” In addition to this principle is the concept that evildoers must make reparation or pay for their earthly sins.

In early Christian times a commonly-used proof-text for this was Matthew 5:25-26: “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” Instead of “penny,” some translations say “farthing,” which was a quarter of a penny.

It may seem strange to twenty-first-century readers to link this passage with the afterlife, but purgatory — often called Hades — is the theme of all earliest known exegeses of it.

Origen was the foremost Christian theologian, Bible scholar and teacher of the first half of the third century AD, and the most prolific Christian writer prior to Martin Luther. From AD 202 to 230 or 233 he was the dean/principal of Christendom’s leading institution of higher learning. In AD 231 or 233 he established his own in Palestine. He traveled much in the eastern Roman Empire as a theological consultant to local bishops, and thus could witness ethics and doctrine in many places.

Origen taught in Against Celsus that somewhere in the universe God maintains a “training school of virtue” for Christians who died in sin, to perfect them for heaven. God purifies them “like gold in the fire” after their deaths so that they can recover their pristine spiritual status and eventually enter paradise.2 According to his Homilies on Samuel, purgatory is not hell or heaven but a waiting room where God intervenes in the lives of its inhabitants and metes out greater or lesser punishments, or no punishment at all, depending on the person’s life and faith on earth.3 His Homilies on Leviticus explain that purification for sins comes by death and eternal fires.4

About Origen’s time lived a bishop in central Italy whose Against Plato, on the Cause of the Universe indicated that Hades is the region in which the souls both of the righteous and the unrighteous are detained. He elaborated that “this locality has been destined to be as it were a guard-house for souls, at which the angels are stationed as guards, distributing according to each one’s deeds the temporary punishments for [different] characters.”5

Earlier in the third century, Tertullian, the Father of Latin Christian Literature, wrote that all souls go to purgatory, where they undergo punishment and consolation while awaiting judgment, in a certain anticipation either of gloom or of glory:6

In short, inasmuch as we understand “the prison” pointed out in the Gospel to be Hades, and as we also interpret “the uttermost farthing” to mean the very smallest offence which has to be recompensed there before the resurrection, no one will hesitate to believe that the soul undergoes in Hades some compensatory discipline, without prejudice to the full process of the resurrection, when the recompense will be administered through the flesh besides.7

This region, therefore, I call Abraham’s bosom. Although it is not in heaven, it is yet higher than hell, and is appointed to afford an interval of rest to the souls of the righteous, until the consummation of all things shall complete the resurrection of all men with the “full recompense of their reward.”8

Tertullian noted that “by Abraham’s bosom is meant some temporary receptacle of faithful souls.”9

These pronouncements are not alternate descriptions of a permanent, endless hell as commonly conceived. Its purpose is completely different from purgatory/Hades. In Protestant thought, hell is endless, only for persons who died in sin, has no bearing on the righteous (who go directly to heaven), where all inmates are treated the same way regardless of frequency or degree of turpitude, and the living cannot do anything to shorten the denizens’ stay or otherwise help them.

As for length of time in purgatory, Origen’s Homilies on Judges leave little doubt that the durations of punishment are determined according to the severity of the sin, and the prolongation of our conversion to God’s ways also prolonging the time of chastisement.10 His Homilies on Luke express the same thought: “Each one of us incurs a penalty for each single sin, and the size of the penalty is reckoned according to the quality and nature of the offense.”11 “Each one receives a sentence with a different fine, according to the quality and quantity of his sin.”12 “There is no other time to give an account except the time of judgment. Then, what has been entrusted to us, and what gains and losses we have made, will be clearly known.”13 “You will be sent to prison, and there you will have payment exacted by labor and work, or by punishments and torture; and you will not get out, unless you have paid the penny and the ‘last farthing.’14 One’s stay in purgatory will depend on how he or she behaved on earth, according to Homilies on Psalm 36.15

There is a widespread understanding that most of us, even virtuous souls, spend some amount of time in purgatory. The Homilies on Psalm 36 record that even Peter and Paul had to go there.16 This is because heaven is only for the absolutely perfect, and the purpose of purgatory is to purify the less-than-perfect for heaven, with saints and apostles spending only a short time.

Such postmortem chastisement is essentially medicinal and curative, designed to rehabilitate offenders so that everyone may eventually, although belatedly, enter heaven.17 Another explanation was given by Origen’s teacher in the AD 190s, and predecessor at the prominent Christian school:

For there are partial corrections, which are called chastisements, which many of us who have been in transgression incur, by falling away from the Lord’s people. But as children are chastised by their teacher, or their father, so are we by Providence. But God does not punish, for punishment is retaliation for evil. He chastises, however, for good to those who are chastised, collectively and individually.18

and:

God’s punishments are saving and disciplinary, leading to conversion, and choosing rather the repentance than the death of the sinner; and especially since souls, although darkened by passions, when released from their bodies, are able to perceive more clearly, because of their being no longer obstructed by the paltry flesh.19

As a loving father, God inflicts punishment only in order to correct and redirect his children; therefore, chastisement after death is no more severe and no longer in duration than is necessary to reform the individual sinner.

Lastly, much of the theology of the afterlife, “the four last things,” of standard Protestantism is without hope, and Christians on earth can do nothing to alleviate the fate of its inhabitants. However, in the second century, Christians taught that the living can indeed assist their brothers and sisters there. One book in early Christian use, the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, states there is prayer for the people in Hades.20 Even in the first or second century, the Testament of Abraham recognizes heaven, hell, and Hades, and that the prayer of a righteous man can transport a soul from purgatory to Paradise.21 A little later than our time period, the Acts of Andrew record that an apostle prayed that a dead repentant Christian “might rest in peace.”22 Tertullian’s On Monogamy described the activities of a Christian’s widow: “she prays for his soul, and requests refreshment for him meanwhile, and fellowship with him in the resurrection; and she offers a Eucharist on the anniversaries of his falling asleep.”23 In mentioning Christian traditions so old and so universal that they were embraced by the faithful often with the same level of authority as as Sacred Scripture, Tertullian spoke of offering a Eucharist for the dead “as birthday honors.”24

Despite standing alone among Christian churches in teaching about a transitory place of rectification and disciplining immediately after death, the Roman Catholic Church has preserved the concept that the earliest church possessed, unlike the Eastern Orthodox and most Protestants, including denominations with fulsome and intricate pronouncements on what happens in the afterlife.

[uicscience]

‘Zombie’ cells come to life after death of the human brain. (Image: Dr. Jeffrey Loeb/UIC).  

‘Zombie’ genes? Research shows some genes come to life in the brain after death

In the hours after we die, certain cells in the human brain are still active. Some cells even increase their activity and grow to gargantuan proportions, according to new research from the University of Illinois Chicago.

In a newly published study in the journal Scientific Reports, the UIC researchers analyzed gene expression in fresh brain tissue — which was collected during routine brain surgery — at multiple times after removal to simulate the post-mortem interval and death. They found that gene expression in some cells actually increased after death.

These ‘zombie genes’ — those that increased expression after the post-mortem interval — were specific to one type of cell: inflammatory cells called glial cells. The researchers observed that glial cells grow and sprout long arm-like appendages for many hours after death.  

“That glial cells enlarge after death isn’t too surprising given that they are inflammatory and their job is to clean things up after brain injuries like oxygen deprivation or stroke,” said Dr. Jeffrey Loeb, the John S. Garvin Professor and head of neurology and rehabilitation at the UIC College of Medicine and corresponding author on the paper.

What's significant, Loeb said, is the implications of this discovery — most research studies that use postmortem human brain tissues to find treatments and potential cures for disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, do not account for the post-mortem gene expression or cell activity. 

“Most studies assume that everything in the brain stops when the heart stops beating, but this is not so,” Loeb said. “Our findings will be needed to interpret research on human brain tissues. We just haven’t quantified these changes until now.”

Loeb and his team noticed that the global pattern of gene expression in fresh human brain tissue didn’t match any of the published reports of postmortem brain gene expression from people without neurological disorders or from people with a wide variety of neurological disorders, ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s.

“We decided to run a simulated death experiment by looking at the expression of all human genes, at time points from 0 to 24 hours, from a large block of recently collected brain tissues, which were allowed to sit at room temperature to replicate the postmortem interval,” Loeb said. 

Loeb and colleagues are at a particular advantage when it comes to studying brain tissue. Loeb is director of the UI NeuroRepository, a bank of human brain tissues from patients with neurological disorders who have consented to having tissue collected and stored for research either after they die, or during standard of care surgery to treat disorders such as epilepsy. For example, during certain surgeries to treat epilepsy, epileptic brain tissue is removed to help eliminate seizures. Not all of the tissue is needed for pathological diagnosis, so some can be used for research. This is the tissue that Loeb and colleagues analyzed in their research.

They found that about 80% of the genes analyzed remained relatively stable for 24 hours — their expression didn’t change much. These included genes often referred to as housekeeping genes that provide basic cellular functions and are commonly used in research studies to show the quality of the tissue. Another group of genes, known to be present in neurons and shown to be intricately involved in human brain activity such as memory, thinking and seizure activity, rapidly degraded in the hours after death. These genes are important to researchers studying disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, Loeb said.

A third group of genes — the ‘zombie genes’ — increased their activity at the same time the neuronal genes were ramping down. The pattern of post-mortem changes peaked at about 12 hours. 

“Our findings don’t mean that we should throw away human tissue research programs, it just means that researchers need to take into account these genetic and cellular changes, and reduce the post-mortem interval as much as possible to reduce the magnitude of these changes,” Loeb said. “The good news from our findings is that we now know which genes and cell types are stable, which degrade, and which increase over time so that results from postmortem brain studies can be better understood.”

Fabien Dachet, Tibor Valyi-Nagy, Kunwar Narayan, Anna Serafini and Gayatry Mohapatra of UIC; James Brown and Susan Celniker of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Nathan Boley of the University of California, Berkeley; and Thomas Gingeras of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory are co-authors on the paper.

This research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01NS109515, R56NS083527, and UL1TR002003).

[felixrore]

Assignment 2: Finalising the One-Page

One-Sheet

Between my last post and this one, I’ve continued working on my one-page and one-sheet. While my one-sheet was in a good state and would serve nicely as a visually interesting pitch document, I made a couple changes.

One of my main concerns was trimming down the information. I came to realise that this sheet is important for selling my idea. I shouldn’t overload potential viewers with information, when this sheet merely serves as a quick, surface-level glimpse of the game, and some of the information would better fit in a detailed document like the one-page. In terms of visuals, I also incorporated a small explosion effect in the empty space that was left from trimming down the information.

One-Page

To finish up my one-page, I needed to incorporate a general overview of the game and how it functions, as well as the diagrams for some proposed upgrades.

My overview was as follows:

What is Overhaul?

In Overhaul, an inventor installs all kinds of “features” on their space craft. At intervals during your voyage, the mechanics of your spacecraft will change. One minute you may have only a simple blaster, the next you may have a hyperspeed dash, guided missiles, or even a laser sword.

Overhaul is a 2D Space Shooter where in order to avoid slow, stale gameplay, the player’s ship will change in how it functions, controls, and what it is capable of.

Changing the ship:

Every 45 – 60 seconds the player ship will “overhaul” and will switch to one of the specified upgrades. This has immediate effects on the playstyle, rewarding adaptability and introducing new level of excitement.

Moment of rest:

Each upgrade will briefly cease spawning of enemies, and give quick instructions on controls for the new upgrade. Player life will also increase by 2 points (1 heart), or remain the same if it is already at the max.

Overall I think this conveys pretty well to viewers what Overhaul is. Since a big part of the game is obviously diversifying gameplay, I made sure to make my aims for this clear. 

It’s also worth noting I upgraded some of the rules of the game. In my postmortem for Overhaul I discussed how I disliked how I divided each mechanic into it’s own level, and felt as though the game would flow much nicer if it was tied to a random interval. Should I continue with development of this game, these are the rules I think should be the main focus for development.

I also finalised my upgrade diagrams, adapting my initial brainstormed at the start of Overhaul’s development.

The final one-page I feel details the most important aspects of my game, and while I currently have only three diagrams there is plenty of white space to add additional ideas should development continue.

As such, my final one-page is as follows:

Overall, I think these documents are pretty much ready for submission. Hopefully they convey the premise and concepts of my game effectively, and we’ll see if I end up using these for Assignment 3!