Pick your pose: Plastination donors can choose how to be displayed (abcnews.go.com)

"Geraldine Pavlick is excited to have her naked body skinned, filleted and posed diving for a volleyball before millions of viewers at Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds exhibit of real human bodies after she dies.... She is one of the roughly 8,000 living people on von Hagens' donor list to have her body preserved through a process called "plastination," in which the tissue and bone from her corpse will be infused with silicone and essentially turned into plastic. Von Hagens invented the process of plastination in the 1970s and has since processed hundreds of donated bodies and positioned them in a variety of poses playing sports, musical instruments, chess and poker for the exhibits that have visited dozens of cities around the world. Pavlick, 52, has worked in the medical field for most of her professional life and said if she is put on display, she "will finally get to travel." Her 27-year-old daughter, Ellen Pavlick, a nurse, said her mother's desire to be displayed in the exhibit is very much in character...."

Discovery of two partially mummified children in Bari well may affect outcome of murder trial (canada.com)

"The partially mummified bodies of two boys discovered in a well in southern Italy were formally identified by their mother today. A medical examiner in the southern city of Bari told ANSA news agency that Rosa Carlucci had identified the corpses of her sons Salvatore and Francesco Pappalardi, age 11 and 13 years when they disappeared in June 2006. The bodies were discovered accidentally by firefighters summoned to rescue an 11-year-old infant who had fallen accidentally into the well near the missing brothers' home in Gravina. According to preliminary forensic reports, the boys did not die immediately after falling into the well but perished from starvation. Their father Filippo Pappalardi is in prison awaiting trial on charges of having abducted and killed his children. Pappalardi, who was separated from his wife and caring for two brothers at the time of their disappearance, claims he is innocent. The brothers' disappearance riveted the nation, sending hundreds of police, firefighters and volunteers out searching for them and drawing concern from Pope Benedict XVI. Their father Filippo Pappalardi is in prison awaiting trial on charges of having abducted and killed his children. Pappalardi, who was separated from his wife and caring for two brothers at the time of their disappearance, claims he is innocent. The brothers' disappearance riveted the nation, sending hundreds of police, firefighters and volunteers out searching for them and drawing concern from Pope Benedict XVI...."

Termite inspectors discover mummified nuns in walls of a Sao Paulo convent (bbc.co.uk)

"Workers looking for termites in a Brazilian monastery have uncovered two "mummies" thought to be 200 years old. The bodies, believed to be two nuns of a Spanish order, were found at the Roman Catholic Mosteiro da Luz - or Monastery of Light - in Sao Paulo. Excavations have revealed that the skin of one of the bodies is well preserved, while the other is mainly skeleton, riddled with termites, reports say. The monastery was founded in 1774 by Brazil's first saint, Antonio Galvao. The head of the monastery, Father Armenio Rodrigues Nogueira, said the discovery was a huge surprise...."

"The mummified remains of a man in his 30’s have been found in the city walls of Palma de Mallorca. Only the skeleton remains of the man seen to have been wearing only a pair of red Bermuda shorts at the time of death. It appears that the man had been sleeping on a blue t shirt. It was found in the tunnels which go underneath the promenade at Porta d’Es Camp in Palma. A full investigation has been opened by the homicide division of the National Police on the Baleares. A bracelet and a black digital watch are hoped to be useful in the task of identification...."

"Phoenix police are investigating a mummified body found in a bathtub, buried under layers of sand, dirt and plywood in a deserted home. Owners of rental cottages in the 1600 block of West Rose Lane became suspicious when the occupant stopped paying rent and apparently abandoned the building. On Friday about 6 p.m., they began to clean up the residence, which is in "deplorable" condition. The home, about 700 square feet in size, was filled with trash, human waste and personal belongings, Sgt. Joel Tranter of Phoenix police said. When the owners entered the bathroom, they saw the tub was filled with dirt and sand and covered by plastic and a sheet of plywood, Phoenix police said. As they dug the sand from the tub, they found a human leg and called police...."

"A common type of head lice picked from thousand-year-old Peruvian mummies suggests the pesky parasitic insects accompanied modern humans on their first migration out of Africa, according to a new study. Researchers had thought Europeans brought the widespread louse species to the Americas about 500 years ago, said David Reed, who studies the parasites at the University of Florida's Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. Hundreds of lice were found on two mummy heads dating from the ancient Chiribaya culture that were excavated from the southern Peruvian coastal desert between 1999 and 2002. Reed and his colleagues expected the lice collected from the mummies' braided hair to be of a kind called type B, which is abundant in North and Central America.... The team was surprised to find the more widespread louse, type A.... "

"Forget the flat-screen plasma television — why not hang a cross-section of your late husband's stomach on the living room wall? Or prop a slice of your dead terrier on the mantelpiece? These and other macabre interior decoration ideas have been thrown into play by Gunther von Hagens, sometimes dubbed Dr Death, the German anatomist who plans to put some of his chemically treated body parts on sale to the public. His touring Body Worlds exhibitions of preserved corpses manipulated into everyday poses — running, playing chess, cradling a glass of whisky, riding a bicycle — have been seen by more than 20 million visitors. Some of the bodies, protected from decay by a process known as plastination, are depicted climbing out of their own skin. The doctor now plans to sell 150,000 body parts privately, not just to universities or clinics. “A collection of 16 transparent horizontal slices of a human (head, neck, torso, extremities) Standard quality (fragile): €1,400,” says the price list. “Robust quality (unbreakable): €2,800.” Dr von Hagens says that he will not sell the body parts if it damages the dignity of the corpse...."