by Justin Nobel Pastor Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church have protested the Academy Awards, gay pride parades, museum exhibitions, synagogues, the 2008 Sichuan China earthquake and more than 200 funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. They gather outside memorial services waving provocative colored signs that read “God Hates Fags”, “America Is [...]

by Justin Nobel Jack Babcock joined the Canadian Army at age 15 and in 1916 shipped to England to fight in the Great War. Because he was underage Babcock was forced to train with a group of teens that had also lied about their age called the Boys Battalion. The war ended before he saw action [...]

by Justin Nobel Next month, millions of Chinese will head to cemeteries to burn Viagra, brandy bottles, toiletries, tweed shoes, stiletto heels, credit cards, cosmetics, exotic potions, common pain relievers, camcorders, rice cookers, flat screen TVs, cell phones and Mercedes coupes. These tiny paper offerings are meticulously crafted to resemble real world items. In setting them [...]

by Justin Nobel “Dear God, make me a bird. So I could fly far. Far far away from here.” It’s a memorable scene from “Forrest Gump”, young Jenny skips school and Forrest stops by her home to see why. She is standing in the backyard, wearing a sundress and looking morose. The two tear through a cornfield [...]

by Justin Nobel Upon finding his lover lifeless in a crypt, a young man guzzles a vile of poison. The maiden awakens, spots her man dead and buries a dagger in her heart. Ah, Romeo and Juliet, a love so strong it vanquished life. Their youthful tale is fictional, but elderly lovers’ dying one after the [...]

by Justin Nobel A British TV show is currently searching for a terminally ill patient to embalm. “It may sound rather macabre but we have mummified a large number of pigs to check that the process worked and it does,” a producer told a volunteer interviewing for the show, who was actually a reporter in disguise. “Afterward [...]

by Justin Nobel One day, a car raced through a yellow light and slammed into Nikki Sian-Leigh Aksamit’s vehicle. She was a mother of two and six weeks pregnant. The trauma of the accident eventually killed her unborn child. Her two boys wanted to know what had happened to the baby and Nikki struggled for a [...]

by Justin Nobel Mighty Joe Rollino was struck by a minvan while crossing the street in Brooklyn, earlier this month. At a nearby hospital, the man considered by some as “for his size, the strongest man that ever lived”—he lifted 475 pounds with his teeth and once pressed 600 plus pounds with a single [...]

by Justin Nobel Dead bodies from Haiti’s earthquake are being piled into dump trucks and unloaded in mass graves outside Port-au-Prince. This burial method dates back to the Middle Ages but according to the field manual, Management of dead bodies after disasters, produced by the International Committee of the Red Cross, burying bodies in mass graves [...]

by Justin Nobel With a heavy police presence and a bevy of gawking onlookers, a golden coffin was carried through the streets of Montreal’s Little Italy neighborhood earlier this week. Inside was the body of 42 year-old Nick Rizzuto, gunned down in broad daylight while standing beside a black Mercedes. His father Vito, considered Canada’s most [...]

by Justin Nobel “Wear Black in sunlight and you will roast as the Heat VIBRATIONS absorb easily. Hence Black is the most absurd colour for funerals & Hospitals: It attracts all sorts of Dark moods and energies and influences just when you need extra protection…In certain contrasts Black garments act as a Vacuum cleaner for Bad [...]

by Justin Nobel A mentally unstable woman in a bright red coat jumped a barrier and tackled Pope Benedict XVI during Christmas Eve mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. Benedict survived the attack but an examination of papal history reveals that strange and horrible deaths are actually quite common. A book has even been written on the [...]

by Justin Nobel From the outside it looks like a downed spacecraft and on the inside, a Las Vegas casino. There are red carpeted VIP rooms, curved hallways lined with lavender and neon-yellow psychedelic swirls and several statues of Buddha. There are skylights, a café and 40,000 niches. What is it? Nirvana, a “six-star” columbarium currently [...]

by Justin Nobel On a stormy December night in the middle of the Mojave Desert, SpaceShipTwo was unveiled. The sleek Virgin Galactic craft, which has been in secret development for two years, can hold six passengers and has windows on the sides and ceiling. By 2012, Virgin hopes it will put the first passenger astronauts into [...]

by Justin Nobel Virginia McGhee stepped out to make a phone call while at the funeral of her boyfriend in Baltimore and was shot in the chest. The high murder rate means good business for funeral homes. Joseph Brown, the owner of the funeral home where McGhee was shot, said he cares for at least two [...]

by Justin Nobel [caption id="attachment_509" align="aligncenter" width="406" caption="Atoll inhabitants come to main Yap for temporary work or treatment at the hospital but often end up staying. When they die their bodies are held in the morgue until the next ship out. (Photo by Justin Nobel)"][/caption] The rumble of a ship’s engine is ...

by Justin Nobel [caption id="attachment_504" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Wadi al-Salam, in Najaf, Iraq is one of the largest cemeteries on earth. Its bloody history has spawned a slew of interesting news reports and also a video game, produced by a company that specializes in turning “real war news” into “real war games”. ...

by Justin Nobel [caption id="attachment_499" align="aligncenter" width="346" caption="By hook or by crook, Shi'a Muslims have for centuries smuggled their corpses in the dark, across treachorous passes and over scalding wastelands, to the holy city of Najaf, Iraq, wherein lies Wadi al-Salam, one of the largest cemeteries on earth. (Photo by Justin ...

by Justin Nobel [caption id="attachment_494" align="aligncenter" width="197" caption="Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based superstore chain, recently began selling caskets on their website. Prices range from under $1,000 to almost $3,000. Their site joins an eccentric group of online casket vendors. "][/caption] What do Lady de Guadalupe, American Patriot and Executive Privilege have in ...

by Justin Nobel [caption id="attachment_490" align="aligncenter" width="254" caption="Both magicians and the non-magical have patiently awaited Harry Houdini to return from the grave every Halloween since his death on October 31, 1926. This year, a seance will be held online."][/caption] Every Halloween, a group that has included celebrities, master magicians and ghost writers ...