Like the Stanely What

Centuries-old arm of St. Francis Xavier is in Ottawa
Feb 2018, CBC

directly from CBC-
The month-long cross-Canada tour of a Catholic relic — the severed arm of St. Francis Xavier — is ending in Ottawa this week.

St. Francis Xavier was a Catholic missionary and his arm is considered sacred because he baptized more than 100,000 people with it.

Xavier died in 1552 and his body remains in India, but the Catholic Church removed his arm.

This is the first time the relic has ever been in Canada and one of only a handful of times it has left the Vatican.

Only a handful.

And then, somebody says, "It's kind of like the Stanley Cup".

The Stanley What?


And on a partially unrelated note:

In case you're thinking what I'm thinking:
People ate mummies in the 1800's

But wait, there's more:
This is an update, because I only just now discovered that, yes, the circumcised foreskin of Jesus is one of the holiest of relics, and it's called the Holy Prepuce, or the Holy Foreskin.

All Ears

Children receive new ears grown from their own cells in world first
Feb 2018, The Independent

The new technique involves taking a scan of the child’s unaffected ear, reversing the dimensions and 3D-printing a biodegradable mould punctuated with tiny holes.

Cartilage cells taken from the recipient’s other, unaffected ear are then used to fill the holes while the new ear is still in the lab.

Over three months the cartilage cells begin to grow in the shape of the mould, and the mould itself begins to break down.

While this process is underway, the ear is grafted onto the recipient.
-BBC


Hearing this news, I can't help but to remember the documentary of kidnapping in Brazil, Manda Bala (Send A Bullet).

Specialty doctors, or plastic surgeons, were making a living solely by reattaching ears that had been forcibly removed from kidnapped victims with the intent to extort for ransom. The family who received the ear would send it to the doctor, who would hold on to it in his refrigerator until the ransom was paid, and the ear could then be safely reattached.

If you haven't seen the film, please do, and if you take NJ Transit, definitely watch the film, so you can feel better that you don't have to take a helicopter or a bulletproof car to work.

As The Meatbody Fails

Wikipedia accuses PR firm of posting biased entries for cash
Steve Dent, engadget, 11-2013

Wikipedia has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Texas publicity firm Wiki-PR over its alleged practices:

Sockpuppeting - posting articles for pay that make its clients look good. ... 300 phoney accounts to create articles that appear to be from unbiased sources.

Meatpuppetry - using false identities to advocate certain positions in its user discussion forums.

China's internet vigilantes and the 'human flesh search engine'
BBC News, Jan 2014

[the human flesh search engine is basically a kind of blackmarket google that uses large amounts of real people instead of an algorithm in order to find things, like other people, for example]