Odditities and Insight

hoppington:

In 1893, Leonarda Cianciulli was born in Montella, Italy. As a child, she attempted suicide on two separate occasions and was greatly disturbed. Cianciulli had seventeen pregnancies during her marriage, but lost three of the children to miscarriage, and ten more died in their youth. In 1939, Cianciulli heard that her eldest son, Giuseppe, was to join the Italian army in preparation for World War II. She came to the conclusion that his safety required human sacrifices. Cianciulli then planned the murder of three middle-aged women. After the victims were comfortable, she killed them with an axe and cut their bodies into nine parts. She also gathered the blood into a basin.
In her memorial (titled “An embittered soul’s confessions”) Cianciulli describes what happened next: “I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.”In regard to her third murder, Cianciulli said: “She ended up in the pot, like the other two…her flesh was fat and white, when it had melted I added a bottle of cologne, and after a long time on the boil I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbors and acquaintances. The cakes, too, were better, that woman was really sweet.” Leonarda Cianciulli has become known as the “Soap-Maker of Correggio,” because she turned the remains of her victims into soap and food.
After a neighbor became suspicious of Cianciulli, the police were called, and she immediately confessed to the murders, providing detailed accounts of what she had done. Cianciulli was found guilty of her crimes and sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum. Leonarda Cianciulli died of cerebral apoplexy in the women’s criminal asylum in Pozzuoli on October 15, 1970. A number of artifacts from the case, including the pot in which the victims were boiled, are on display at the Criminological Museum in Rome.

The fact is, it is not possible to identify any characteristic features of either the symptomatology or the aetiology of so-called mental illnesses that consistently distinguish them from physical illnesses. Nor do so-called physical illnesses have any characteristics that distinguish them reliably from mental illnesses. If pathological changes and dysfunctions are restricted to organs other than the brain, as is often the case, effects on mentation and behaviour are relatively restricted, but this is an inconstant and purely quantitative difference, and in any case does not apply to diseases of the brain or situations in which there is a secondary disturbance of cerebral function.”

Not only is the distinction between mental and physical illness ill-founded and incompatible with contemporary understanding of disease, it is also damaging to the long-term interests of patients themselves. It invites both them and their doctors to ignore what may be important causal factors and potentially effective therapies; and by implying that illnesses so described are fundamentally different from all other types of ill-health, it helps to perpetuate the stigma associated with ‘mental’ illness.

― R. E. Kendell - “The Distinction between mental and physical illness” (via girlwiththegreyhound)

5:39 pm • 28 April 2013 • 11 notes

joellesoswell:

so stoked to finally print some patches on this beautiful chartreuse canvas I picked up a while ago, new design too! they’re up on etsy if you wanna pick one up (click the photo for listing)

conceptlandscape:

delphi theater, nature as backdrop

malformalady:

Actaea pachypoda also known as doll’s-eyes or white baneberry, is a species of flowering plant native to eastern North America. Its most striking feature is its fruit, a 1 cm diameter white berry, whose size, shape, and black stigma scar give the species its other common name, “doll’s eyes”. The berries ripen over the summer, turning into a fruit that persists on the plant until frost. Both the berries and the entire plant are considered poisonous to humans.

pinec0nez:

april snakes-23 by FionaBrimsPhotography on Flickr.

David Bowie / Young American

2:58 pm • 8 March 2013 • 23 notes

whiteboxfauna:

Long-Horned Bee on Flickr.
Svastra obliqua Arlington, TX, USA

blogsareforchumpsandnimrods:

Kitty Genovese was 28-years old when she was brutally stabbed to death and raped on a spring night in March of 1964.
Mere feet from her apartment in Kew Garden, Queens, New York , she exited her car and became aware of a strange man following her. Picking up her pace, she tried to quickly place distance between herself and her would-be attacker, Winston Moseley, but it was too late — he would not be deterred. He stabbed her again and again as she screamed for help. One neighbor — never leaving his apartment, nor calling 911 — opened his window and screamed for the man to leave her alone. He did, temporarily, and all was quiet again.
But he came back and stabbed her again as she begged for her life. Her blood curdling cries could be heard by surrounding neighbors as they peered out from the safety of their apartments. No one attempted to help. For some reason the man left — but quickly returned again to finish what he started. As Kitty lay semi-unconscious, he raped her and stole $49 from her wallet; then he ended her agony, leaving her in a spreading pool of blood.
Allegedly, an estimated 12 – 38 people either saw or heard fragments of this brutal attack, and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Disregarding the rampant bathos of this description, it is very interesting and presents a curious presentation of the crime as it occurred. I haven’t encountered much focus upon this case, so it’s fascinating to see that there are people posting about it.

scientificillustration:

Hymenoptera by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.
Australian insects..Sydney,W. Brooks[1907].biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25450259

→ Notable Women in Natural History

smithsonianlibraries:

Our good friends at the Biodiversity Heritage Library have assembled a great collection of works published, written, illustrated, or including the research of women, just for Women’s History Month.

2:47 pm • 8 March 2013 • 92 notes

thebonegirl:

Bird sketches

♏