An Interesting Bit of Information

Working in a Biology department you often see strange packages in the office. Pails of eyeballs, buckets of ibuprofen, ribbiting boxes, baby goats, the occasional preserved cat, but today takes the cake.

Do you know how much it costs to purchase a human skull?

Yes, an actual human skull. One that inhabited a body previous to it's current position of being in a case, in a box. A skull that once housed someone's brains and eyeballs. Do you know how they clean said skull? They put it in a box with some insects and the insects chew it clean.

But back to the original point, it costs around about $1600 to purchase a human skull. If that's a little steep for your price range, the price drops considerably if you're willing to settle for fewer teeth. For 3-7 teeth you're looking at about $700.

Is it just me or does that not seem astronomically cheap? I don't know about you but I'm rather partial to my skull. I think it plays a vital role in my general health and well being. And if I had to put a price tag on it, it would be quite a sight more than $1600.

Before you crack jokes about having a big head, take that into your calculations and you'll see I'm correct.

If you live to be 32 years old then that is an average price of $50 a year. 64 years and thats only $25 a year. I would think that an aged skull appreciates in value rather than depreciates, kind of like a good wine. They both gain 'body' with age. (Oh come on. You know that's funny.) Plus $50 a year for a skull is damn good price! Considering that you NEED your skull. Shit, Steve Jobs probably paid 10 or 20 times that price for a kidney and you only need one of those. Just think about it. If your best friend died and someone tried to offer you $70K for your friend and you looked on the invoice and saw that they only paid you $1600 for the skull; you'd be livid. Think about it terms of demand. Granted skulls are probably not a high demand item but still, I revert to my point that you need your skull. That to me is pretty demanding.

I understand that when you're dead you don't really need anything but still, it's creepy to think that your skull, the one that sits on top of your neck and surrounds your brains, houses your eyeballs and chews your food is less than $2K once you're done with it.

It kind of makes wearing a helmet seem less important. Why protect something that cheap? The next time I get on my bike I'm totally wearing kidney guards. At least you can make a profit off of those.