Jockstrip: The World As We Know It

A SPORTING INVESTMENT

A series of baseball cards offered online only last year has become a rather solid investment, according to USA Today.

Card maker Topps used its new etopps.com site to sell "initial public offerings" of special cards in small batches each week, the only time they were retailed anywhere. Each card, sold for $6.50 apiece, was produced in quantities of 1,000 to 1,500. The cards are now fetching at least three times that amount on auction sites.

Steven Katz, managing director/Internet for Topps, told USA Today that speculators should be warned that past results, of course, are no guarantee of future performance. "I don't want people coming in here expecting these results in perpetuity and then get mad at me," he said.

(Thanks to UPI's Joe Warminsky in Washington)

THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

A judge in Cincinnati Tuesday sentenced a commercial photographer and former deputy coroner to prison for taking pictures of corpses at the county morgue.

Photographer Thomas Condon was sentenced to two and a half years in prison while former Deputy Coroner Jonathan Tobias was sentenced to five months and ordered to perform community service on charges of gross abuse of a corpse.

The offenses occurred between August 2000 and January 2001. The bodies were posed with such items as keys, sea shells, sheet music and fruit. A photo processing lab alerted police to the pictures.

Tobias was a pathology resident at the time and gave Condon access to the morgue.

Before sentencing was imposed, Condon defended his actions. "All of the intended meanings were life-affirming and positive," he said, admitting his "honest artistic endeavor" also was a bit "shortsighted." He said he had no intention of intentionally inflicting pain.

But Judge Norbert Nadel called the morgue photographs an "idiotic art project."

NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS

Holy cow! If devout Jews and Christian fundamentalists are right, the world has 35 months left to go after the birth last month of a red heifer in Israel.

The young cow was certified to be kosher on April 5 by Rabbi Menachem Makover and Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Jerusalem-based Temple Institute. At the age of 3, if she stays red (one previous candidate in Texas developed white eyelashes), the heifer can be sacrificed in the ritual process of purification required by the Parasha Hukkat (chapters 19-22 in the Book of Numbers) for the building of the third Temple, the Holy of Holies.

According to the Old Testament, this will bring the coming of the Messiah and the Day of Judgment -- but even this may not mean a resolution of the Middle Eastern crisis. Previous attempts by the Temple Institute group to place a symbolic cornerstone on the Mount have been blocked by Israeli authorities and provoked Arab riots.

The red heifer, whose location is being kept secret for security reasons, may be admired on the Web site templeinstitute.org.

(From UPI Hears)

TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING

Police in Lewisville, Texas, say the sister and brother of a 6-year-old boy have admitted killing their brother and burying his body in a wooded area near their home.

Jackson Carr's body was found early Tuesday after his 15-year-old sister and 10-year-old brother told investigators they killed the boy, Lewisville Police Sgt. Richard Douglass told the Dallas Morning News. The child had been reported missing Monday afternoon following a game of hide and seek.

The girl told investigators she killed her brother and the 10-year-old said he held his brother down, according to Douglass, who added that officers have not determined the motive for the slaying.

Both the siblings are considered juveniles under Texas law. The 15-year-old girl could stand trial as an adult, although she would not be eligible for the death penalty.

AND FINALLY, TODAY'S UPLIFTING STORY

The longest-living recipient of a self-contained artificial heart headed home Tuesday -- saying it's time for him to "begin celebrating" his "second chance at life."

Tom Christerson, 71, received the AbioCor replacement heart at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., seven months ago on Sept. 13. He is among seven patients to receive the device.

"I'm so grateful to Jewish Hospital and Dr. (Laman) Gray and Dr. (Rob) Dowling. Everyone here has been wonderful to me," Christerson said. "But I've been given a second chance at life and I can't wait to get home and begin celebrating it."

Christerson's friends in his hometown of Central City, Ky, had planned a big reception that included the town's fire truck and a parade down Broad Street.

Christerson actually was discharged from the hospital itself several weeks ago and had been living in the Jefferson Room at the Inn at Jewish Hospital. He'll return to Jewish Hospital periodically for checkups.

Gray called Christerson's departure "a wonder day for all of us."

Only one other recipient of the artificial heart is still alive. James Quinn, 51, received his artificial heart in November at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia and remains hospitalized because of breathing difficulties.