CHICAGO - Beethoven composed many enduring symphonies, but now a Chicago company wants to make a Beethoven piece that lasts forever - a diamond made out of strands of the 18th-century composer's hair.
Reuters news service reported earlier this month that LifeGem Memorials, a company that first gained attention in 2002 by making diamonds out of the carbon from cremated human remains, now says it can make diamonds out of human hair.
John Reznikoff, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest and most valuable collection of celebrity hair, is giving six to 10 strands of Beethoven's hair to LifeGem, which will use it in a process to create three diamonds of between 0.5 and 1 carat in weight.
Eventually, the diamonds will be sold at auction, with the proceeds donated to raise money for military families.
Hose down that gator
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FORT MYERS, Fla. - An elderly woman, who was bitten by an alligator while working in her backyard, beat back the reptile with a garden hose last week.
Constance Gittles, 74, of south Punta Gorda was watering plants when a nearly 6-foot-long alligator bit her leg just above the ankle.
Gittles received three puncture wounds and some smaller scrapes and abrasions from her confrontation with the alligator.
A trapper working with wildlife officials later caught the animal in a nearby pond. It will be killed and the hide and meat sold.
Park's plumbing pilfered
HONOLULU - Thieves have stolen $10,000 worth of brass toilet flush valves from restrooms at more than two dozen parks in the past three weeks.
Police are asking for the public's help in finding more than 100 valves, which they say could end up on the black market for construction parts or melted and sold for metal.
In addition to the valves, which cost $100 each, thieves also stole toilets, sinks and other items from 28 city parks on the North Shore and in central Oahu.
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Les Chang, director of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, suspects they were committed by people familiar with installing and removing the fixtures. He said the repairs will be an inconvenience to park users.
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