Doug Horne has some new articles up

This past JFK Lancer conference was one of the best ever.  Unfortunately, I was initially restrained from going due to a job requirement to attend a training session on Nov. 22nd.  But, at the last minute, on Thursday, the trainer got sick and cancelled so I could go.  This meant that I missed about half of it, arriving into town as the event in Dealey Plaza was in progress.  I heard it in the shuttle van on its radio as I was driven in to Dallas.  So, I got Friday afternoon, and Saturday, and then on Sunday leave and get back to the airport

There appears to be a new era of detente between COPA and Lancer, which is good news.  Dr. Wecht, to my surprise showed up and gave a short presentation for educators in one of these small break out areas I discuss below.  I did not know he was going to be there and talk.  Also, I did briefly see Dr. Gary Aguilar at one of the times James Jenkins spoke.  Mr. Jenkins did speak in the main presentation area but he is a slow kind of talker, a little bit like Garrison Keillor, by the time he got really interesting they had to call time and he had to finish because they have to change the room for the banquet.  He needed someone to hurry him along a bit.  He was given some extra time and they let him talk at a break out area.

Go to insidethearrb.livejournal.com

In one Doug talks about a "break out" session where James Jenkins spoke.  These were very small areas.  To set the stage for you, if you're familiar with the Adolphus hotel, if you take the small escalators up about half a floor up and then turn around and take one of two small stairways up you're about one floor directly up from where you check in.  On the left is a conference meeting room, this was the main presentation room used for A.S.K. '94.  This held the dealers room where books and stuff were sold.  Now this room can be as large as was used for A.S.K.'94 or made smaller or larger by moving panelling doors, etc.  So, basically behind the dealers room were two areas in one room separated only by a thin black curtain.  People sat in rows and the discussions bled back and forth.

I could not believe that these sessions were going to go on, and no one was properly mic-ed, nor was any proper recording of any kind going on.  I hope someone in the audience was recording some of it, if not this was a huge loss to our cause and to history.

I wanted to comment on one thing Doug mentions:

"Jenkins recalled that at the time Dr. Humes removed the brain, it was not necessary for Humes to resect the spinal cord in order to remove the brain. Jenkins stated that the spinal cord had already been completely severed [not torn] by incisions on each side, in different planes. Jenkins recalled that the total brain volume seemed too small, i.e., smaller than the skull cavity. He recalled that the right anterior brain was damaged, and some brain tissue was missing there, but recalled no damage to the left brain. He said about two thirds of the brain was present (which of course means that about one third of its mass was missing). He recalled that a large amount of posterior tissue---cerebral tissue---was also missing."

Jenkins was incredible.  In this part he spoke about how your brain basically floats in fluid inside your skull and how its kind of tethered by your spinal cord.  He specifically mentioned that the spinal cord was already cut.  He spoke about how when this procedure is done one comes in on one side, the left or right, and then comes in on the other side, but, when you do this it is impossible to come in on the exact same level, the exact horizontal plane as where you had cut half way on the first side.  

Jenkins also spoke about how arteries retract and shrink a bit after death:

"Jenkins stated that after Dr. Boswell put the brain upside down in a sling in a formalin bucket, he noticed both carotid arteries (at the Circle of Willis) leading into the brain were retracted, which made it very difficult to insert needles for infusion. Jenkins interpreted this retraction as meaning that the carotids had been cut some time before the autopsy. "