[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Modern-day grave robbers in Texas have seized unclaimed bodies belonging to veterans and sold their limbs for profit without the consent or knowledge from their grieving family members.
Victor Carl Honey, 58, a dedicated Army veteran, who struggled with mental illness, died in September 2022 of heart failure.
Honey was among the 2,350 people whose remains were sent to the body donation program at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort-Worth.
The majority of unclaimed bodies were black males, who were mentally ill and homeless and whose family members were difficult to reach or were unable or did not want to pay for cremation or burial, the report found.
However, a month after his death, the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Officer deemed Honey's body 'unclaimed' after they said phones for relatives were disconnected even though his ex-wife and two adult children were living in the state.
Honey's body was kept in a freezer before it was cut up and shipped piecemeal across the country.
His torso was sold to a medical education company for $900; his right leg shipped to a Swedish medical device manufacturer for $341; the bones from his skull were sent to the U.S. Army for $210 for military training purposes.
During NBC News' bombshell investigation, it was also revealed that Honey's corpse was not the only one sold to science in the Dallas-Fort-Worth region; hundreds of other corpses were collected from nursing homes, hospital beds and homeless encampments - and sold on the open market.
Honey's body parts were also sent to medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific and Medtronic - used for scientific research and the testing of new products.
According to the report, once the medical groups and others were finished using the unclaimed bodies' remains, they were cremated, buried or scattered at sea - despite some families still looking for their loved ones.
For the last five years, the body donation program at the Health Science Center was thriving under the agreement the school had with Dallas and Tarrant counties taking the unclaimed bodies for free.
Of the 2,350 bodies that were collected, 830 were selected by the center for dissection and to be studied. The center charged $1,400 for whole bodies. Heads went for $649, torsos for $900.
According to financial records obtained by NBC News, the agreement appeared to be a was a win-win for all parties involved.
Nationwide, tens of thousands of bodies go unclaimed and local medical examiners and coroners have to bear the costs of cremation or burial - under the agreement the Dallas and Tarrant counties were able to save a combined million a year, financial records revealed.
The Health Science Center also benefitted by making $2.5 million a year by leasing body parts to medical groups. At one point, the Health Science Center publicized the bodies 'as being the highest quality found anywhere in the U.S.'
The majority of unclaimed bodies were black males, who were mentally ill and homeless and whose family members were difficult to reach or were unable or did not want to pay for cremation or burial, the report found.
NBC News' report, compiled over 10 months, also cited repeated failures to reach family members before declaring their bodies unclaimed.
According to the news outlet, they identified 12 cases where family learned months or years later that their loved one's body was provided to the medical school - leaving many traumatized.
Five of those families found out what happened to their loved one by NBC including, Kimberly Patman, the ex-wife of Honey, who share two adult children, a son Victor Honey, Jr. and a daughter named Victoria.
Patman and Honey were married for ten years. They had met when both were in the military Texas Fort Hood. He was training as a medic and she was an Air Force enlistee.
The couple separated due to Honey's infidelity. He was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia but refused to take his medication and ended up spending time in federal prison for stealing a car and robbing three banks in three different states.
When he was released he had another run in with the law and later became homeless living on the streets of Dallas.
His family told NBC News that they had visited him in the hospital when they learned from his caseworker that his kidney's were failing. Once he improved, he refused to go to a nursing home and checked himself out of the hospital.
On September 19, 2022, he was found semi-conscious in a wheelchair at a downtown Dallas train station and taken to Baylor University Medical Center. He died the next day.
Once the hospital social worker was unable to find his family, his body was sent to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Officer, but they were unable to locate next of kin.
The case was turned over to the county investigator tried to get information from police and area hospitals but unable to locate relatives. After searching the internet, she found numbers for Patman, Honey's brother in Ohio, his stepmother and his late father, but she reported they were disconnected.
On October 17, 2022, the investigator wrote that her search was complete and no family was found. The medical examiner's office deemed Honey's body unclaimed.
That same day, Honey was delivered to the University of North Texas Health Science Center, where he was placed in a freezer, awaiting assignment.
'I don't believe they tried to find us,' said Patman distressed by the events that occurred. 'That is crazy. We are here. We have always been here. His son has his same name. How can he be unclaimed?'
'They did it for money,' she sad. 'They did it to him a decorated military veteran - they'll do it to anybody.'
Brenda Cloud, one of Honey's sisters said 'we feel violated.' 'It's like a hole in your soul that can never be filled,' she said.
Daily Mail made several attempts to contact Kimberly Patman, their son Victor Honey, Jr., and Brenda Cloud.
The University of North Texas Health Science Center defended their practices until last Friday when they issued a statement that they were suspending its body donation program and and firing the officials who led it.
The HSC center did not respond to the DailyMail.com's request for comment, however on September 13, they issued an apology to the families affected.
'We have become aware of issues within our Willed Body Program, and that failures existed in its management and oversight. The program has fallen short of the standards of respect, care, and professionalism that we demand,' they wrote in part.
'The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth extends its deepest apologies to the families who have been impacted.
[Wikipedia] Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps officer (later a U.S. Air Force major general).[1] Kristofferson's paternal grandfather was an officer in the Swedish Army.[2] While Kristofferson was a child, his father pushed him toward a military career.
In 1958, Kristofferson was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford,[9] studying at Merton College.[10] While at Oxford, he was awarded a Blue for boxing,[10] played rugby for his college, and began writing songs.
MILITARY SERVICE
Kristofferson, under pressure from his family, joined the U.S. Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, attaining the rank of captain. He became a helicopter pilot after receiving flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. He also completed Ranger School.[15] During the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany as a member of the 8th Infantry Division.[16] During this time, he resumed his music career and formed a band. In 1965, after his tour in Germany ended, Kristofferson was given an assignment to teach English literature at West Point.[17] Instead, he decided to leave the Army and pursue songwriting. His family disowned him because of his career decision; sources are unclear on whether they reconciled.[18][19][20] They saw it as a rejection of everything they stood for, although Kristofferson says he is proud of his time in the military and received the Veteran of the Year Award at the 2003 American Veterans Awards ceremony.
#6
So I have to ask. Kris was a paratrooper and ranger, no easy feat. Then he went to flight school. All of this took quiet a bit of time, let alone his combat experience. Why did he get out? Was it the music? I have a lot of respect for him, just wondering.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/30/2024 13:51 Comments ||
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#7
49 Pan, IIRC he did it as sort of an FU to his father.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/30/2024 14:15 Comments ||
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#8
Pan, I read something this am that said he quit because they assigned him to teach literature at the Point. Family seriously miffed but according to the article he didn't resign to annoy them, He resigned because the Army annoyed him.
#9
Funny. Whenever they talk about his film credits, they never mention "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea"... a vehicle to allow Sarah Miles to take her clothes off,... again.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Hibernation requires calories. Five Guys ain't just a restaurant name
Grizzly bears run large. Monstrous is an exaggeration. Just keep an eye out for cranky bears at this time of year if you’re wandering anywhere near near country, and make sure your gun works.
They are smaller than Grizzly bears but they're more common here in the east. We're in NH and have one in the neighborhood, my wife chases him away with an air horn when he's on the deck. She don't take no $hit from no one.
"the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell is on the ground in North Carolina and will remain in the Asheville area"
[FoxNews] Uniformed officers filled the streets of New York City on Sunday, kicking off the 23rd annual Tunnel to Towers 5K Run and Walk to honor, remember and celebrate the lives of fallen American military service members and first-responders.
The event, symbolizing fallen FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller's final footsteps from the Battery Tunnel to the Twin Towers on 9/11, drew more than 40,000 people this year, a testament to the level of support for the cause.
"A friend of [Stephen's], Billy Codd, said to me one day, ‘Hey Frank, why don’t we have a run… Why don't we just do what Stephen did and run through the tunnel to the towers?'" Frank Siller, CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and brother to Stephen Siller, told Fox News' Abby Hornacek.
The inaugural event drew about 1,000 people and has increased massively in the two decades that followed.
Stephen Siller, Jr. — whose late father rushed the path that so many now commemorate — also spoke to Hornacek about the emotional impact of seeing so many people come out to support the cause.
"It's a beautiful thing," he said. "I feel his presence in my life every day. Because of him, we're able to help so many people, and I'm so grateful for what we were able to make out of his loss."
"I think every single one of us is truly blessed."
Frank Siller said the event goes beyond honoring those who made sacrifices on 9/11 and also pays respect to the thousands of military personnel who lost their lives in the war on terror as well as the police officers, firefighters and other first-responders who die daily across the nation.
"We made a promise that we're going to take care of every single one of them and their families that are left behind, forever," he said.
Tunnel to Towers is a charitable organization that assists Gold Star families and families of fallen first-responders by providing them with mortgage-free homes.
[ZeroHedge] China didn't just fire the proverbial stimulus bazooka targeting its markets and economy last week: it also fired a literal bazooka in preparation for the inevitable showdown with the US, which is not a matter of if just when.
On Saturday, China's military said that the country's air and naval forces are conducting manoeuvres in a disputed area of the South China Sea, just hours after the country's top diplomat discussed ways of reducing regional tension with his U.S. counterpart, confirming yet again that the world literally can not wait to make fun of Anthony Blinken.
The news, first reported by Reuters, comes after Australia and the Philippines said their militaries would hold a joint maritime activity with Japan, New Zealand and the United States in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.
The announcement of the manoeuvres came shortly after China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York for talks that covered ways to avoid conflict in the South China Sea.
In March, Blinken had assured the Philippines its defence partnership with the United States was "ironclad," after Manila accused Beijing of aggressive deployments in the South China Sea of its coast guard and fishing vessels suspected of being a maritime militia.
On Friday Wang "emphasized that China insists on resolving differences with countries directly concerned through dialogue and consultation," during the meeting, his ministry said in a statement.
While Blinken said he raised China's "dangerous and destabilizing actions" in the South China Sea and discussed improving communication between the two nations' militaries, Wang responded that "the U.S. should not always stir up trouble in the South China Sea and should not undermine the efforts of regional countries to maintain peace and stability," and launched the drill just to confirm how little it thinks of US attempts at deterrence.
The Chinese drills will include "routine" early warning and reconnaissance exercises as well as patrols around Scarborough Shoal, the Southern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army said in a statement, but gave no details.
"The theatre troops maintain a high degree of vigilance, resolutely defending national sovereignty, security and maritime rights and interests, (and) are firm in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea," it said.
One of Asia's most contested features, the Scarborough Shoal is 200 km (124 miles) off the Philippines, within its exclusive economic zone. At the same time, China also claims almost the entire South China Sea, including the atoll, coveted for its bountiful fish stocks and stunning turquoise lagoon, despite overlapping claims in the busy waterway by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. While in 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that China's sweeping claims were not supported by international law, Beijing refuses to recognise the decision. The tribunal did not determine sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal, which it said was a traditional fishing ground for several countries.
In a report on Friday, a thinktank based in Beijing estimated that warships of various nations spent more than 20,000 days annually in the South China Sea, while more than 30,000 military aircraft traverse it. U.S. navy ships spent about 1,600 days at sea in the region, said the thinktank, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, as well as an undisclosed number of submarines.
Imagine the hassle: "Moonlight Sonatas" or "Fly me to the Moons on Gossamer Wings", etc
[Regnum] Asteroid 2024 RT5 will change its orbit under the influence of Earth's gravity, but will not become a "second Moon," that is, a new satellite. This is the response given by scientists to media reports about an asteroid allegedly approaching the planet, which will temporarily become a new satellite of the planet, revolving around it in orbit.
“It will not be able to become any kind of ‘second Moon’,” RIA Novosti experts said unequivocally.
Asteroid 2024 PT5 was discovered in August by astronomers from the University of Madrid. According to their calculations, the asteroid is about 10-11 meters in diameter. Under the influence of Earth's gravity, it will change its orbit, but will never become a satellite of the Earth, explained Faina Rubleva, scientific director of the Moscow Planetarium.
It is noted that people will not be able to observe the approach of the asteroid, since it is too small to be seen with the naked eye.
Astronomers believe that the Earth managed to slow down the asteroid, but this happened outside the sphere of its gravitational influence, and the asteroid was eventually “pulled” by the Sun.
As reported by IA Regnum, the potentially dangerous asteroid 2024 MK passed Earth at a distance of about 300 thousand km on June 30. The asteroid is a relatively large celestial rock of the Apollo group.
On June 27, asteroid 2011 UL21 approached Earth at a distance of approximately 6.4 million km, which was the closest distance for this celestial body in more than 100 years. The asteroid was nicknamed the "planet killer" for its ability to cause large-scale damage and throw a significant amount of "debris" into the atmosphere upon impact, which could trigger global climate change. The size of the celestial body is larger than the dimensions of 99% of objects that pass close to Earth.
Scientists from the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences have reported on invisible asteroids capable of causing an earthquake. Thus, particles of light dark matter, invisible to any telescope, are capable of forming asteroid-like objects that will cause an earthquake when passing through the Earth.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]… footage from burning biolab in Conyers, Georgia shows huge plume of smoke as inferno sparks massive evacuations.
Thousands of people are under a shelter-in-place order after a major fire broke out at a chemical lab in Georgia.
Massive clouds of smoke are saturating the sky in Conyers, Georgia, after a fire ignited at BioLab on Old Covington Highway on Sunday, the Rockdale County Sheriff's Office said.
Around 5am EST, a sprinkler at the facility malfunctioned and sprayed water on a chemical that sparked an explosion, Atlanta News First reported. As of 4:15pm, the fire was still ongoing.
BioLab manufactures pool and spa treatment products - including chlorine, according to CNN.
The reaction led to a large, hazardous smoke cloud that began drifting to the northeast and prompted an evacuation.
The unfolding chaos has put added pressure on Georgia's emergency services as Hurricane Helene swept through the state.
The malfunction caused a small fire that was contained to the roof of the building before reigniting a few hours later, WSBTV reported.
Authorities are in the process of removing pallets that contained the water-reactive chemical from the building - but it's still unclear what the chemical was that led to the massive blaze.
There is an evacuation order in effect for anyone between Sigman Road and I-20, county officials said.
Officials stated that anyone in this radius needs to leave the area immediately.
'I want to strongly ask all of you to please spread the word to stay away from this area at this point,' Rockdale County Sheriff, Eric Levett, said.
Roads are closed in the area of the blaze with officials blocking off Interstate 20 in both directions between Salem Road and Turner Hill.
A shelter-in-place order has been put in effect for residents in the north half of the county by the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.
Residents in the area are encouraged to 'remain indoors and keep windows closed to minimize exposure to any potential hazards,' the sheriff's office said.
Rockdale County Fire Chief, Marian McDaniel, said: 'Any event, the wind shift, this thing can change really quickly. But once again, shelter in place, windows and doors closed.'
The sheriff's office also set up several evacuation sites, including: JP Carr Gym at 90 Hardin St SW, Scout Camp at 218 Scout Road in Covington and Wolverine Gym at 8134 Geiger Street in Covington.
Once the chemical is successfully contained and removed from the building, the situation will be further evaluated and residents will be able to get a clearer answer of when it'll be safe to return to their homes.
Brad Nitz, a meteorologist for WSBTV, took to X to report that the fire in Rockdale County is being detected on Smoketracker and the southwest wind is blowing the smoke across to Walton County.
Walton County Emergency Management director, Carl Morrow, shared an alert for the county residents, Monroe Local reported.
The alert stated: 'Walton County EMA is aware of what is happening in our neighboring county of Rockdale. We are monitoring the situation and advise that if you smell a chlorine odor you should turn off your air conditioners, turn on your ceiling fans and if possible bring your outside animals indoors.'
The situation appeared to only worsen after initially being contained this morning and Walton County Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Craig League said they have now been asked to assist in the matter, Monroe Local reported.
But thankfully, no employees have been reported as injured.
A representative from BioLab released a statement which said: 'Our employees are accounted for with no injuries reported. Our team is on the scene, working with first responders and local authorities to assess and contain the situation.'
'As always, the safety of our community remains our top priority.'
Due to the strong chlorine odor that is being reported, Director Carl Morrow of the Walton County Emergency Management Agency updated residents in close proximity to the chemical fire to call 911 if they have any difficulty breathing.
This is the second fire within the past decade at the facility. The lab experienced a 'thermal decomposition event' that led to a fire in September of 2020.
The building's warehouse was damaged after strong winds from Hurricane Laura allowed rainwater into the building, which is what started the previous fire, the US Chemical Safety Board found.
"enough to supply a major city like Miami"
That's a fair trade
[Breitbart] OpenAI’s ambitious plans to build AI data centers with unprecedented power requirements have sparked discussions about the feasibility and environmental impact of such projects.
Forbes reports that OpenAI, the leading generative AI company, has recently made a bold proposal to the U.S. government, seeking support for the construction of massive data centers that would each require a staggering five gigawatts of power. This request, made by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during a meeting at the White House, has raised eyebrows among industry experts and government officials alike.
To put the scale of these proposed data centers into perspective, five gigawatts is equivalent to the power output of five nuclear reactors, enough to supply a major city like Miami. This power requirement is up to 100 times greater than that of a standard large data center. If OpenAI were to build seven such data centers, as reportedly suggested by Altman, their combined power consumption would be twice that of the entire state of New York, or equal to about one percent of the current entire global electricity consumption.
#2
Some slight of hand reporting here. First, the three mile island reactor is getting its upgrades so it can go back on line. I believe its microsoft that is paying for the upgrades with a deal to get all the power from the facility to run the AI servers, power akin to 800,000 homes. My question is how will they cool the servers. Nuclear power is a fairly closed system. There is a cooling pond and the water is cycled through the pond. Servers use massive amounts of water for the cooling towers. A server system large enough to use that much power will drain rivers and change the weather around the facility. This is crazy.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/30/2024 0:21 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I remember when biotechnology was going to change the world. Then it were nanomachines. Now it's AI.
#4
Now with SpaceX in place, and AI in rapid development.
Soon Skynet's needs for space and energy will grow. When it becomes self-aware and humanity refuses, or can't meet its growing demands. The next natural step is to control, then eliminate Mankind. ;-)
China & the USA are already working of Cyber-warriors.
An to think we were warned 40 years ago by a movie.
[Breitbart] Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston has reported preliminary results from a trial involving islets derived from donated embryonic stem cells
In a groundbreaking study, a 25-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes has started producing her own insulin less than three months after receiving a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells derived from her own body.
Nature reports that in a world first, a 25-year-old woman from Tianjing, China, has achieved insulin independence after undergoing a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells, according to a study published in Cell Today. The woman, who has type 1 diabetes, started producing her own insulin less than three months after the transplant, making her the first person with the disease to be treated using cells extracted from her own body.
The study, led by cell biologist Deng Hongkui and his colleagues at Peking University in Beijing,
…done in China by Chinese scientists? Is that kind of thing contagious?
involved extracting cells from three people with type 1 diabetes and reverting them into a pluripotent state, allowing them to be molded into any cell type in the body. The researchers modified the reprogramming technique originally developed by scientist Shinya Yamanaka, using small molecules instead of proteins to trigger gene expression, offering more control over the process.
Using these chemically induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, the researchers generated 3D clusters of islets, which they tested for safety and efficacy in mice and non-human primates. In June 2023, they injected roughly 1.5 million islets into the woman’s abdominal muscles during a half-hour operation. This new transplant site allowed the researchers to monitor the cells using MRI scans and to potentially remove them if needed.
About three months after the transplant, the woman was producing enough insulin to live without needing additional injections. She has sustained this level of production for more than a year, and her blood glucose levels have remained within the target range for over 98 percent of the day. “I can eat sugar now,” the woman told Nature, adding that she enjoys eating everything.
Transplant surgeon and researcher James Shapiro from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, described the results as “stunning,” noting that the researchers have “completely reversed diabetes in the patient, who was requiring substantial amounts of insulin beforehand.”
The study follows results from a separate group in Shanghai, who reported in April that they had successfully transplanted insulin-producing islets derived from reprogrammed stem cells into the liver of a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes. The man has since stopped taking insulin.
While the results are promising, experts caution that they need to be replicated in more people and observed over a longer period before considering the treatment a cure. Additionally, because the woman was already receiving immunosuppressants for a previous liver transplant, the researchers could not assess whether the iPS cells reduced the risk of graft rejection.
Several groups have started trials using islet cells created from donor stem cells, which may be easier to scale up and commercialize compared to using a recipient’s own cells. Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston has reported preliminary results from a trial involving islets derived from donated embryonic stem cells, with participants producing insulin and some becoming insulin independent three months after transplantation.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
