To the Bishop and Beyond:::: Hawaiian style
Well I do have to leave the island Oahu tomorrow and head back to school ....but I have had a great time here as always and as this is my second home I will return.
Yesterday I went to the Bishop Museum and had the amazing opportunity to hang out with Dr. Yosihjko Sinoto: who is the senior anthropologist at the Bishop Museum.
Dr.Sinoto mentored under the renowned archaeologist/anthropologist Dr. K. Emory whom he spoke to me about with revere and sincerity. Dr. Sinoto was one of the most entertaining and informative personalities I ever have encountered.Dr.Sinoto is in his late 80's but as we chatted he was back slapin me and laughing as he spoke of his research in the early 60's in the South Pacific. Dr.Sinoto was very interested in my research and was very enthusiastic about answering my questions about my research proposal. Dr. Sinoto is just an amazing person.
Again was an amazing opportunity in my life to have met a living legend in the archaeology field.
Ma Halo for reading
Friday, 22 February 2013
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Aloha from the Island of Oahu.....
Well I have had an adventuresome time this afternoon...in the fact that I had the amazing opportunity to visit with the director of the Forensic Science Academy at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. Dr. Robert Mann is the overseer of the forensic identification part of the JPAC/CIL or the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and Central Identification Lab. Dr. Mann is also the director of the Forensic Science Academy and my mentor on my road to becoming a working physical anthropologist. Dr. Mann is also one of only seventy-three forensic scientists to be certified as a Diplomate by the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists. I have visited with him previously in Honolulu and each time it is amazing conversation and enlightenment.
JPAC/CIL is an organization that houses one of the largest forensic anthropology labs on the planet. Their mandate includes the repatriation of U.S. servicemen/women who have lost their lives in combat anywhere in the world where they may have been called to duty. Teams of archaeologist, anthropologists, pathologists and many others involved in the work it takes to bring these people home. The ultimate goal of this organization is to reunite the remains of servicemen/women lost in combat with their families that only wish to lay to rest their beloved.
Some cases that are in the process for human remain identification are WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam conflict and the Cold War that CIL are in the process of identifying. For more information see (http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/index.php?page=wars_and_conflicts&size=100&ind=2).
The work that is done here at JPAC/CIL relates to the class I am currently taking (Archaeology of Death) in the fact that the work these people do answers questions about the past with the thanatic factor determination which may be reviled from the remains of those individuals found.
Just to add the experience of visiting Dr.Mann today as I was getting ready to leave he presented me with a personally signed copy of his book " Forensic Detective: How I Cracked the World's Toughest Cases"
Sooo Awesome.
(image credit: http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/)
Aloha and Ma halo
Well I have had an adventuresome time this afternoon...in the fact that I had the amazing opportunity to visit with the director of the Forensic Science Academy at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. Dr. Robert Mann is the overseer of the forensic identification part of the JPAC/CIL or the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and Central Identification Lab. Dr. Mann is also the director of the Forensic Science Academy and my mentor on my road to becoming a working physical anthropologist. Dr. Mann is also one of only seventy-three forensic scientists to be certified as a Diplomate by the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists. I have visited with him previously in Honolulu and each time it is amazing conversation and enlightenment.
JPAC/CIL is an organization that houses one of the largest forensic anthropology labs on the planet. Their mandate includes the repatriation of U.S. servicemen/women who have lost their lives in combat anywhere in the world where they may have been called to duty. Teams of archaeologist, anthropologists, pathologists and many others involved in the work it takes to bring these people home. The ultimate goal of this organization is to reunite the remains of servicemen/women lost in combat with their families that only wish to lay to rest their beloved.
Some cases that are in the process for human remain identification are WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam conflict and the Cold War that CIL are in the process of identifying. For more information see (http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/index.php?page=wars_and_conflicts&size=100&ind=2).
The work that is done here at JPAC/CIL relates to the class I am currently taking (Archaeology of Death) in the fact that the work these people do answers questions about the past with the thanatic factor determination which may be reviled from the remains of those individuals found.
Just to add the experience of visiting Dr.Mann today as I was getting ready to leave he presented me with a personally signed copy of his book " Forensic Detective: How I Cracked the World's Toughest Cases"
Sooo Awesome.
Aloha and Ma halo
Friday, 8 February 2013
Elmer McCurdy??????? Who the Hell is that?
I recently found a story that kinda interested me in a few aspects. First it was a story of a mummy and second is was a mummy that no one knew was a mummy..Awesome.
(image credit: http://getglue.com/feed)
Elmer McCurdy was an outlaw and not a very good one at that.While enlisted in the military the only thing he gained from the experience was a penchant for nitroglycerine explosives. He was kicked out of a gang of thieves after a botched train robbery when he blew up a safe and melted all the loot inside to the floor of the box car it was in. So he joined another band of scurvy madmen and they successfully robbed a passenger train in October 1911 but after an hour long shoot out at the gangs hide out McCurdy was shot dead. Now this really should have been the end of the story for this crazy bastard but alas it is not for I am now writing about it over one hundred years later.
As no one claimed his body the funeral director in Pawhuska, Oklahoma embalmed him and in doing so did it so successfully that McCurdy actually became mummified. The director then decided to use McCurdy as a window display as this practice was not unheard of at the time.
(image credit: http://terrysplace2000.tripod.com/mccurdy.html)
Over the next five years McCurdy was the window display of this funeral home until a dodgy fellow claiming to be his kin came in to claim his corpse and take him away. This is where things get a bit weird. The dodgy guy was a associate from the Great Patterson Show and wanted to have the body of McCurdy for the "freak" show part of the carnival and called him "The Oklahoma Outlaw". This was the beginning of a sixty year long odyssey. From 1916 onward McCurdy was passed from show to and at one time he was displayed in the lobby of a theater during the 1933 film Narcotic. As his adventures continued McCurdy was even used as collateral for a $500 loan. During the 1930's and much of the 1940's the "Museum of Crime" had the privilege of his presence. As the 1960's came and went the real identity and origin of McCurdy was pretty much lost. He was eventually sold to a wax museum in 1971 as a mannequin.
Poor old McCurdy ended up in a scary funny house painted with orange spray paint used to scare children and teens. During the filming of "The Six Million Dollar Man" in 1976 the director did not like the look of the orange painted "mannequin" in the fun house scene. So as one of the crew members grabbed hold of old McCurdy's arm to move him his arm fell off in the horrified crew members hand.
An investigation was done to find out who and how this mummy ended up in a fun house by a forensic team. Contained in his mouth was a 1924 penny and a ticket for the Sonney Amusement’s Museum of Crime in Los Angeles.
(image credit: http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Death/Elmer.html)
Through a thorough investigation and following the trail that McCurdy took to get to be in fun house McCurdy's identity was reviled and there was a lot of press surrounding his identification. It was also decided that he should now be inhumed under a lot of cement so that he could finally get some well needed rest. In 1977 Elmer McCurdy was laid to rest at the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma where he still rests today.
Awesome story...... Ma halo for reading this and I'm outta here.
I recently found a story that kinda interested me in a few aspects. First it was a story of a mummy and second is was a mummy that no one knew was a mummy..Awesome.
(image credit: http://getglue.com/feed)
Elmer McCurdy was an outlaw and not a very good one at that.While enlisted in the military the only thing he gained from the experience was a penchant for nitroglycerine explosives. He was kicked out of a gang of thieves after a botched train robbery when he blew up a safe and melted all the loot inside to the floor of the box car it was in. So he joined another band of scurvy madmen and they successfully robbed a passenger train in October 1911 but after an hour long shoot out at the gangs hide out McCurdy was shot dead. Now this really should have been the end of the story for this crazy bastard but alas it is not for I am now writing about it over one hundred years later.
As no one claimed his body the funeral director in Pawhuska, Oklahoma embalmed him and in doing so did it so successfully that McCurdy actually became mummified. The director then decided to use McCurdy as a window display as this practice was not unheard of at the time.
(image credit: http://terrysplace2000.tripod.com/mccurdy.html)Over the next five years McCurdy was the window display of this funeral home until a dodgy fellow claiming to be his kin came in to claim his corpse and take him away. This is where things get a bit weird. The dodgy guy was a associate from the Great Patterson Show and wanted to have the body of McCurdy for the "freak" show part of the carnival and called him "The Oklahoma Outlaw". This was the beginning of a sixty year long odyssey. From 1916 onward McCurdy was passed from show to and at one time he was displayed in the lobby of a theater during the 1933 film Narcotic. As his adventures continued McCurdy was even used as collateral for a $500 loan. During the 1930's and much of the 1940's the "Museum of Crime" had the privilege of his presence. As the 1960's came and went the real identity and origin of McCurdy was pretty much lost. He was eventually sold to a wax museum in 1971 as a mannequin.
Poor old McCurdy ended up in a scary funny house painted with orange spray paint used to scare children and teens. During the filming of "The Six Million Dollar Man" in 1976 the director did not like the look of the orange painted "mannequin" in the fun house scene. So as one of the crew members grabbed hold of old McCurdy's arm to move him his arm fell off in the horrified crew members hand.
An investigation was done to find out who and how this mummy ended up in a fun house by a forensic team. Contained in his mouth was a 1924 penny and a ticket for the Sonney Amusement’s Museum of Crime in Los Angeles.
(image credit: http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Death/Elmer.html)
Through a thorough investigation and following the trail that McCurdy took to get to be in fun house McCurdy's identity was reviled and there was a lot of press surrounding his identification. It was also decided that he should now be inhumed under a lot of cement so that he could finally get some well needed rest. In 1977 Elmer McCurdy was laid to rest at the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, Oklahoma where he still rests today.
Awesome story...... Ma halo for reading this and I'm outta here.
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