Alas, the world doesn't stop
Vol. 3, Issue 28
“No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.” --Faraaz Kazi
NEWS & NOTES
Deep-sea necropolis found
Chinese scientists have discovered a massive whale graveyard at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. It is believed to be the world’s deepest, largest and oldest known whale fall on Earth.
According to research published in the journal Nature, the deep-sea necropolis is located about 994 miles off the coast of western Australia and lies up to 23,000 feet below the surface. It contains nearly 500 skeletons, and some are more than 5 million years old.
“...Discovering a necropolis of this scale was completely unexpected: the size of distribution, the depth and the age range were far beyond anything we had imagined,” lead study author Xiaotong Peng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told AFP.
In 2023, the researchers made 32 dives inside a small submersible. They were able to map the area and collect fossil samples using robotic arms. The scientists also observed that the whale fall site provided shelter and sustenance for deep-sea life, including bivalves, brittle stars, crustaceans, jellyfish, sea cucumbers, snails and worms.
FMI: Click here.
Colorado morticians arrested
Last September, I wrote about a funeral home in Pueblo, Colo., where state inspectors found 24 decomposing bodies.
Although the state had not received any complaints about the Davis Mortuary, inspectors from the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies conducted a surprise inspection in August 2025 and noticed the “strong odor of decomposition.” When they followed the distinctive smell to a concealed door, Brian Cotter, co-owner of the funeral home – and the Pueblo County coroner – reportedly asked them not to enter the room. The inspectors ignored that request and discovered the remains in various stages of decay.
The state then launched a criminal investigation, and the funeral home was shut down. Cotter also resigned from his position as the county coroner.
Colorado has spent nearly a year trying to learn more about the victims; so far, officials have managed to identify 19 of them. According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, 82 cremains, 16 sets of bones and two containers of human tissue were also found in the mortuary. The CBI has managed to identify the two people whose remains were kept in containers.
Now, Brian Cotter and his brother, Christopher Cotter, who co-owned the mortuary, have been arrested and are facing more than 160 criminal counts, including abuse of a corpse, forgery and theft. Bail was set at $1 million each.
“The evidence uncovered during this investigation reveals a complete disregard for the dignity of the deceased and a profound betrayal of the trust placed in Davis Mortuary by families in our community,” CBI director Armando Saldate said during a news conference.
FMI: Click here.
The comfort of near-death experiences
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NOTABLE OBITS
* David J.C. Austin, a British rose breeder and the former chairman of David Austin Roses, died at 67. Austin’s father, David C.H. Austin, began breeding roses when he was still a teenager. He spent decades crossing old-fashioned rose varieties with modern cultivars to create roses that would repeatedly flower, have a strong scent and maintain their lush beauty. His first rose, the pink climber known as “Constance Spry,” went on the market in the early 1960s, and more than 230 additional varieties would follow. In 1990, David J.C. Austin joined the family’s rose-breeding business in Shropshire. He would lead the global horticulture brand for three decades, selling about 2 million roses a year. Austin handed the reins of the business to the third generation – his children, Richard, James and Olivia – earlier this year. “First and foremost, Dad was a gardener. That was at the heart of who he was. He carried our grandfather’s vision with humility and an unwavering sense of responsibility, always putting the roses, the family business and its people before himself,” his children said in a statement. (The Telegraph and Rebecca Davison, Daily Mail)
* Kim Gamel, 57, a foreign correspondent who covered conflicts in the Middle East, died. Born in Boise, Idaho, Gamel graduated from Bates College with a degree in Russian. She then launched her journalism career at the Moscow Tribune, an English-language newspaper in Russia, where she covered the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Gamel would spend the next 20 years working as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press in Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Syria, among other postings. She covered the Arab Spring uprisings, the early years of Syria’s civil war and the war in Iraq. Gamel also brought attention to the plight of a 3-year-old Iraqi girl who was blinded in a Baghdad car bombing; those stories prompted readers to donate more than $200,000 so that the child could travel to London for surgery and receive prosthetic eyes. In the past decade, Gamel worked at Stars and Stripes and Honolulu Civil Beat. (Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press, Linda F. Hersey, Stars and Stripes and Patti Epler, Honolulu Civil Beat)
* Owl scientist David “DJ” Johnson died at 69. The owlish-looking man was perhaps destined to study these birds. He was, after all, only 11 when an Eastern screech owl landed on the corner of his pup tent during a camping trip and remained there for a good 20 minutes, an experience that gave him an up-close look at the bird. Johnson would dedicate the rest of his life to studying owls and working to safeguard their habitats. His accomplishments were many: he helped to save a threatened population of burrowing owls at a once-active Army depot, worked to protect spotted owls from loggers in the Pacific Northwest, served as the founder and director of the Global Owl Project and mentored scientists around the world. He also helped to launch the World Owl Hall of Fame awards, even making the wooden prizes himself. In 2010, he received the organization’s Champion of Owls honor. (Harrison Smith, The Washington Post and Zoey Greenberg, Hawk Mountain Global Raptor Conservation)
* Hair-care magnate George E. Johnson, who founded the first Black-owned company listed on a major U.S. stock exchange, died. He was 99. Born in a sharecropper’s shack in Mississippi and raised in Chicago, Johnson dropped out of high school and began working at Fuller Products as a salesman. He didn’t care for the job, particularly since it involved trying to sell products to people who were already struggling. So, he created Ultra Wave, a Black hair relaxer for men, and he and his wife joined forces with a barber to form Johnson Products Co. (JPC) in 1954. When the partnership with the barber soured, Johnson headed back on the road to sell his product to other barbers. It was only after he created a similar product for black women (Ultra Sheen) and began marketing it to beauty shops that the company found its footing. Other products manufactured by JPC included: Classy Curl, Curly Perm and Black Tie men’s cologne. JPC was listed on the American Stock Exchange in January 1971 and was the first Black-controlled company to sponsor the TV dance show “Soul Train.” Johnson also became one of the wealthiest African Americans in the U.S. (Mitch Dudek, Chicago Sun-Times and Robert D. Hershey Jr., The New York Times)
* Norwegian Olympic rowing legend Olaf Tufte died at 50. Tufte competed in single sculls at seven straight Summer Games and won two gold medals. He also won a silver medal in double sculls at the 2000 Games in Sydney and a bronze at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Tufte was twice named the world champion in single sculls (2001 and 2003) and was the first Norwegian to ever hold that title. As a coach, he trained rower Birgit Skarstein, who won a silver medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. In 2021, Tufte received the Thomas Keller Medal, the sport’s highest individual distinction, from World Rowing for an exceptional international career and sportsmanship on and off the water. “He was one of Norway’s greatest sporting heroes, a decorated Summer Olympian, one of the finest rowers we have ever had, and a great role model to many,” Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a statement. Outside of sports, Tufte ran his family farm and worked as a volunteer firefighter. (The Associated Press and World Rowing)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On July 27, comedian/actor Bob Hope (100), author/poet Gertrude Stein (72) and actor Sam Shepard (73)
On July 28, Italian violinist/composer Antonio Vivaldi (63), German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (65) and English biologist/Nobel Prize laureate Francis Crick (88)
On July 29, The Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot (32), urban planner/politician Robert Moses (92) and journalist/talk show host Tom Snyder (71)
On July 30, English philosopher/founder of Pennsylvania William Penn (73), author/journalist Louis Lomax (47) and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Aleksandrovich Letunov (56)
On July 31, science fiction writer Poul Anderson (74), Canadian wrestler Roddy Piper (61) and basketball player/coach Bill Russell (88)
On August 1, Roman politician/general Mark Antony (53), frontierswoman Calamity Jane (51) and German-American composer/playwright Oscar Hammerstein (73)
On August 2, Scottish-American engineer/inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell (75), former President Warren G. Harding (57) and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ahmed H. Zewail (70)
On August 3, painter George Inness (69), Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad (66) and French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (95)
RECOMMENDED SUBSTACK
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“This is where the real fun starts.” --Ben Travers
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to Davide Ragusa, Unsplash, Faraaz Kazi, Nature, France 24, Apple News, ABC News (Australia), YouTube, Independent, Smithsonian Magazine, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, 9News, The New York Times, Torbjørn Dyrud, TEDx Talks, The Death Deck, The Moonlight Reader Society, Bunny Guinness, David Austin Roses, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, The Associated Press, Stars and Stripes, Honolulu Civil Beat, Chris Morgan Wildlife, CBS News, The Washington Post, Hawk Mountain Global Raptor Conservation, the Chicago Sun-Times, World Rowing, The Written Word, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, The Grieving Place, Canva and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions. Note: Generative AI was not used during the ideation, creation or publication of this newsletter.
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Oops, missed the William Penn death day! Well, I look at his statue just about every day, so I do remember him! Also - TODAY I choose aquamation but honestly I keep going around in circles and it depends on my mood...