To get the new year off on the right foot, here is an interesting article on the fungal disease cocciodioidomycosis.
It includes a link to a photo of the pickled head of the first known human victim of this disease, preserved for posterity in a South American medical school. He looks quite peaceful, actually.
*It’s a bit disturbing that when I searched to see if this topic had been broached on the board before, food links including “What are you hungry for right now?” came up. :dubious:
Cool blog. I’ve bookmarked it for future reading.
Couldn’t figure out the head though. I mean, it looks like what you would expect the severed, pickled head of a 19th century vacquero to look like. Were there supposed to be obvious signs of disease? If so, I missed it.
If that head were wearing lipstick, it’d look like one of Jamie Gumb’s trophies.
I was idly scrolling through MPSIMS and had to go back when this thread title caught my eye. It’s kind of awesome.
Preserved head of Saint Catherine of Siena, complete with a fresh wimple
Whereabouts of the preserved head of Jeremy Bentham, 19th century philosopher (no pictures)
Speculation on the cryogenically preserved head of Ted Williams, with whimsical artist’s conception
Preserved Head, a metal band from Kentucky
You know scientists, always exited to get a little head.
Cocciodiodes immitis. It’s so much fun to say.
In Kentucky of course the first fungus that comes to mind is Histoplasma capsulatum, not cocciodiodes since that’s found in the western U.S. So this particular medical technologist (not me, thank goodness) didn’t think that opening fungal culture plates while not under the hood was any big deal. Turned out that the patient had been visiting her daughter in California earlier. And cocci spores go airborne very easily. Aside from a major freakout by the entire microbiology department and a refresher course in how to handle fungal plates it all turned out well however.
Lab work can be fun.
That comment seemed kind of jarring.
Meet Jeremy…
…because I know you all wanted to.
(I’ve got a great pic in my old Man, Myth & Magic collection.)
You know, now I’ve got “Jeremy Bentham’s Head” going through my mind to the tune of “Timothy Leary’s Dead”.
You know, in the future, they’ll have the heads of all sorts of historical figures, still alive in jars. Even ones who are dead today! I saw a documentary series about it.
Next you’re going to be telling me they have space-ships and kleptomaniac, cigar-smoking, alcoholic robots in this “Future” of yours. And Lunar Theme Parks! And Blackjack, And Hookers! 
In fact, forget the blackjack and the theme parks!
[tangent] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_mask
Link to death masks of Shakespeare, Swift, Franklin, etc.
http://library.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/C0770/index.html
[/tangent]
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program…
Cross these two concepts and you get the Philly alternative band Nixon’s Head. Curiously, though, they came up with the name in 1986, so it wasn’t a Futurama reference.
Put a lid on it KGS.
Will you two quit screwing around? Put a cork in it, this is not bottle royale for the worst pun.
Someone has their pickles in a twist. We can all make puns without losing our heads, okay?
OK, dude. Cadaver.
I wish I was punny like you guys. 
