Death Class 101

If you live in Korea, you probably know about Korea's high suicide rate. Almost 25 of every 100,000 Koreans kill themselves per year, and this is one of the highest rates in the world. Fortunately, this information is not lost on Korea's largest corporations. As of this year, Samsung and Hyundai are instituting "well-dying" courses to help their employees understand what happens when you commit suicide. They do everything from write wills, take funeral pictures and get "buried" in real coffins. What an excellent idea!

Henry VIII

I was watching The Tudors and thinking about King Henry. Did you know that he had some of the most well-kept medical records to date, but there still is mystery surrounding his death? He had numerous leg problems--mostly from showing-off for ladies at the joust--and by the end of his life he was almost completely senile. He also suffered from burst ulcers and was bedridden and unconscious for the last week of his life. Despite all this, historians now believe that he died of syphillis. The proof? Most of his children were stillborn, and those that survived showed signs that they had syphillitic parents. Specifically, Elizabeth I was probably barren; "Edward VI died after his nails fell off and his body was smothered in an awful rash; and Mary I's husband complained of the horrid stench that emanated from her nose".