Before we begin, a couple of Memorial Day images from this week’s observance:
Thanks to Robert from Denver, Colorado, for the boots. Thanks to Don from Benton, Kansas, for TAPS at sundown.
Now, with those solemn rays of light reminding us of our journey, we move on to the news of a fallen world.
Number 4. AP News. Harvard morgue manager harvested body parts for sale.
In our, “Well, HE’s not using it anymore!” department, comes the grisly story of body parts illegally harvested and sold from a Harvard University morgue.
A 55-year-old suspect, along with his wife and other accomplices, found a lucrative way to breathe new life into their business of death. (Pun intended.) Cedric Lodge, New Hampshire, was indicted this week for stealing and selling human body parts. Mr. Lodge is accused of conducting his business in person, by mail, by telephone and online between 2018 and 2023.
During that time, Lodge was employed by Harvard Medical School as manager of the prestigious institution’s morgue. In that role, he had ready access to bodies donated for purposes of scientific research. Body parts sold included heads, brains, skin tissue and bones.
Ever the clever entrepreneur, the morgue-ist invited prospective customers to visit in person and browse the collection of available parts. One wonders if he had a background in auto salvage.
Interestingly, Mr. Lodge had moved some of the harvested goods to his home address, no doubt for security, and shipped them from there through the U.S. Mail. Just speculating, this could potentially lead to new federal investigations into purchases of unusually large residential refrigeration systems.
Some of the record-keeping emerging at trial seems pretty straightforward for such a morally twisted scheme. A memo on a $1,000 electronic transfer reads “Head Number 7.” Another $200 PayPal transaction is labeled “braiiiiiins.”
Two New Hampshire women, sisters, had donated the bodies of both of their parents to Harvard Medical School. During the investigation, they learned that body parts from their father, a police officer, and been illegally distributed to buyers. Furious, they have demanded recovery of the parts for proper interment.
To quote Robert Duvall’s character in Open Range, “Family is funny that way.”
Number 3. BBC. Solving the mystery of a dinosaur mass grave at the 'River of Death'.
This is not exactly new news, but it highlights a dig in Alberta discovered years ago that still draws paleontologists from around the world because of the massive find of dinosaur bones.
Pipestone Creek, in extreme western Alberta, is home to what was once a herd of many thousands of Pachyrhinosaurus, a 5-foot-long 4-legged vegetarian about the size of a bison. Three horns were apparently prominent on the front of the skull, including a heavy “boss” protrusion on the nose. Ergo, the “rhino” part of the name.
Said to have inhabited North America in the Creataceous period some 72 million years ago, the presumption on the part of the research team is that the critters were migrating north toward a warmer climate when they were ambushed by a river bottom flood.
“North” and “warmer.” Don’t ask ME. I went to public school.
In huge numbers, each animal with a high center of gravity, and unable to swim, they were crushed by the sudden rush of water. Sediment from the site indicates a huge churning up of the soil consistent with an overwhelming flash flood.
For years now, teams of scientists have found a treasure trove of pachyrhinosaurus bones, mixed in with the unusual duck-billed Edmontosaurus. Which proves that nature loved diversity even before we decided it was a thing.
Not far away from the principal dig site is a field of bones strewn alongside Pipestone Creek itself; thousands of ancient skeletal parts lying in the sun, exposed by the creek water and washed clean.
Paleontologists are working hard to reconstruct the Pachy fellow, and noodling various theories on how such a cataclysmic event could produce what is probably the largest concentration of dinosaur bones in North America. A world-wide flood comes to mind, but only to someone who has a basic familiarity with Genesis chapter 7.
At the end of the article is this special bold-face, italicized announcement:
The new series of Walking With Dinosaurs starts on Sunday 25 May at 18:25 BST on BBC One, with all episodes available on BBC iPlayer.
So… the article of admittedly very old news is really just an advertisement for the new TV documentary. But maybe it’s worth watching. The story got MY attention.
And also, thanks to an astute reader of the ANR, I saw a Substack this week (The Rod Martin Report) on why Alberta should abandon Canada and join the United States. The writer makes a cogent argument that Alberta is much like Montana and Wyoming in topography, culture and politics. Albertans, say the author, would find themselves much more at home as Americans than as Canadians, and the U.S. would benefit from a geopolitical strategic position on the map, that much closer to the arctic.
The dinosaur field would be a nice addition to scholarly study and tourism.
Hat tip to Mike O. for your contribution.
Number 2. Georgia Secretary of State News Release: State of Georgia officially confirms election accuracy, and The Gateway Pundit: Georgia election votes wrong by 74%.
The State of Georgia has the most secure voting system in the United States, says the State of Georgia.
The Peach’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced last November that an extensive review by his office, of statewide voting systems managed by his office, passed rigorous testing standards, established by his office, with flying colors.
“Georgia’s election systems are our nation’s best,” proclaimed SoS Raffensperger. He went on to point out that he is pushing to extend Georgia’s “election reforms” nationwide, to once and for all put the lie to any suggestion of election irregularities in 2020 or 2022.
I believe that he said every word that he uttered in the November report.
Now, it emerges in a hearing before the Georgia State Election Board that inexplicable results were found in DeKalb County, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. A candidate for County Commission received zero votes in her district race in May 2024.
Speaking as one who spent $25 each on half a dozen political signs in a local citywide election, that sort of result would be disappointing to say the least.
But it was compounded by the fact that the candidate herself, and her husband, both cast votes for her. Neither showed up in the results. Out of 4,078 votes cast, she got precisely none. Not even her own.
This prompted the candidate to persuade the DeKalb County Election Board to conduct a machine recount. Same results, from the Dominion system lauded by Mr. Raffensperger.
The subsequent hand count of actual, physical ballots (which for some reason were retained by the Board in accordance with state law — obviously an oversight for which someone should be held accountable, or perhaps merely disappeared) showed that the complaining candidate was shorted by 3,049 votes. That is out of, I remind you, a total of 4,078 votes.
That is an error rate of 74%. If find it uncommonly gracious of The Gateway Pundit writer to refer to this as an “error.”
Of the votes cast for the County Commission candidate, but not credited to her, 1,458 of them were awarded to an opponent. Another 1,805 votes for her were simply ignored by the machine system… not counted at all.
We might advise the scammers to please pick up the pace. Sloppy work. There is no excuse for leaving stolen votes on the table when our very democracy is at stake.
This all probably has nothing to do with the 2019 decision from SoS Raffensperger to replace the old statewide voting system with a new solution from Dominion.
I seem to recall another article just after the 2020 election (where a billion lawsuits by Trump were each dismissed on technicalities, preventing any possible evidence of voting fraud to be reviewed) where Raffensperger had appointed a close associate to deploy the state-funded Dominion machines across the state. Reports from other-than-mainstream sources cast aspersions on the deployment at the time, alleging lack of accountability, but lots of payouts.
Most of my memory of that issue is now lost in pre-leukemia fog. You’ll have to search for it with a browser. I would recommend incognito mode.
At any rate, I look forward to seeing approximately ZERO news coverage of the May 2025 DeKalb County recount, which reflected so poorly on the November 2024 proclamation of “the best voting system in the country.”
Number 1. CNN. North Korea failed warship launch; covered with a tarp; arrests carried out.
Well, this was probably embarrassing.
North Korea attempted to launch the second of two modern, sleek, state-of-the-art Navy destroyers at Chongjin last week, only to watch it roll over and sink as it left the ramp.
The hulk, seen by satellite lying on its starboard side, was hurriedly covered with blue tarp to keep prying eyes away.
That is sort of like trying to hide Sasquatch in your living room by draping a large sheet over him. Nothing to see here.
To add a bit more international humiliation, Kim Jung Un himself was present for the launch ceremony. This probably explains why four senior officials for the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee were summarily arrested for an unnamed “criminal act,” and detained.
It seems that the stern portion of the launcher gizmo malfunctioned, allowing the 5,000 ton ship to slide halfway into the water. The bow remained dry, although the whole affair toppled sideways.
But not to worry; NK news outlets reported that there was minor scratching along the starboard side — the underwater side, quite difficult to examine — and a few gallons of seawater may have gotten into the stern, but the whole unfortunate affair would be cleaned up and the ship operational in 10 days.
More like 6 months, if ever, according to Western analysts.
Too bad they did not have a dark green tarp to match the surface of the harbor. The bright blue stands out really well in the sat photo. It looks for all the world like, well, like a Navy destroyer lying on its side.
It’s just a good thing investigators found the perpetrators of this very public crime so quickly, surely a testament to the effectiveness of the unique system of justice operating in the Hermit Kingdom.
At least that part works.
And thanks for joining The Alligator News Roundup for Friday, May 30, 2025. Get outside this week; enjoy the springtime temps. And spend a little time contemplating the differences between a very flawed representational republic, allowing hugely embarrassing voting errors where no one dies, and a very flawlessly run centrally controlled state where embarrassing ship-building errors lead to immediate arrests and — likely — sudden, inexplicable disappearances.
There are many reasons why we enjoy this sort of freedom. Most of those reasons have names, and those names are found in places like Arlington National Cemetery, just as a “for instance.”
May God bless America, despite our best efforts.
Have a good weekend!
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