Yesterday, a discolored molar that once belonged to John Lennon sold 19,500 pounds (U.S. $31,200), according to auction results posted online.

Michael Zuk, a Canadian dentist, is claiming responsibility for the winning bid. Omega Auction House, which sold the tooth, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.

Lennon gave the tooth to Dorothy “Dot” Jarlett when she worked as his housekeeper at his Kenwood home in Weybridge, Surrey, according to her son, Barry. Jarlett, who was employed between 1964 and 1968, developed a warm relationship with Lennon, her son said.

“She was very close with John, and one day whilst chatting in the kitchen, John gave my mother the tooth (he had been to the dentist to have it removed that day) and suggested giving it to my sister as a souvenir, as she was a huge Beatles fan,” he said. “It has been in the family ever since.”

With the exception of the past two years, the tooth has been in Canada for 40 years after Dot Jarlett’s daughter married a Canadian.

Barry Jarlett, who said his mother is now 90 years old, said it was the right time to pass it on rather than to risk the tooth getting lost.

Karen Fairweather, the owner of Omega Auction House, told CNN last month that the tooth is too fragile for DNA testing but she has no doubt about its authenticity.

“Because it’s coming directly from Dot, we don’t doubt the provenance of the item,” she said.

Some fans will sink their teeth into anything if they feel it’s worth plunking down thousands to get closer their idols. A clump of hair believed to have been trimmed from Elvis Presley’s head when he joined the Army in 1958 sold for $18,300 in 2009 at Chicago’s Leslie Hindman auctioneers.

Jarlett said Lennon gave his family many gifts over the years. He plans to keep a leather wallet, and his mother still has a pearl necklace Lennon gave her when he returned from Japan.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/05/world/europe/uk-lennon-tooth-auction/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

A medical examiner was expected to begin work on an autopsy Monday to determine the identity of a body found in a freezer last week that police believe could be the remains of a woman who has been missing for 28 years.

Kitty Wardwell has not been seen since June 6, 1983, according to Maine State Police. A friend reported the 29-year-old missing several days later and her “on-again off-again boyfriend,” Frank Julian, claimed he dropped her off at a motel in Salem after a fight. Police eventually determined that she was likely the victim of foul play.

The unidentified body was discovered Friday in an unplugged freezer inside a storage unit that belonged to Julian until his recent death. Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland confirmed Monday that Julian had rented that unit since 1992.

Julian, who was 52 at the time of Wardwell’s disappearance, died unexpectedly on October 1, according to an obituary in the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Family members found the body while cleaning out his storage unit, McCausland said. He would not discuss the condition of the body, but he confirmed a Sun Journal report that the freezer unit was removed with the body still inside to be transported for autopsy under the direction of the chief medical examiner.

“It’s likely DNA will be needed to make the positive identification,” McCausland said, adding that he does not expect immediate results.

Wardwell’s family has been notified of the discovery, and McCausland said authorities will continue to update them as the investigation proceeds.

Burger King in Japan will be rolling out a 22-cm wide pizza-sized burger in two flavors: “fresh avocado” and “nacho flavor”.

Osaka has a tradition of “eating till you drop”.

The giant burger is part of a Christmas promotion. Fast food has become a big deal around the holidays in Japan. Last year, buckets of KFC were so in demand, patrons had to place orders two weeks in advance. “Our holiday sales are five to ten times higher than other months,” a Japan-based KFC spokesman told ABC News in 2010. “In Japan, Christmas equals KFC.”

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/japans-burger-king-to-make-fast-foods-largest-burger-2608964/

Thanks to Mr. C for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Last week, Nokia demoed a mindblowing prototype handheld device that lets you bend and twist the screen to complete actions like scrolling and zooming.

Meanwhile, Samsung said on an earnings call last week that it expected to debut phones with flexible displays in 2012 and that flexible tablets would follow.

The advantages of flexible displays are obvious: They’re more durable, and they pave the way for new input methods, such as bending the display to zoom.

Yasuhiro Sonoda appeared nervous and his hands shook as he downed a glass during a televised news conference.

The water he drank was taken from puddles under two reactor buildings. It is decontaminated before being used for tasks such as watering plants.

Journalists have repeatedly queried the safety of the procedure.

Mr Sonoda, who serves as the cabinet office’s parliamentary spokesman, told the news conference: “Just drinking [decontaminated water] doesn’t mean safety has been confirmed. Presenting data to the public is the best way.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15533018

At CIA headquarters in Langley, one of the newest artifacts in the agency’s private museum is a message from a father to his 3-year-old son. The gold-embossed letterhead features a swastika and the name Adolf Hitler.

“Dear Dennis,” the seven-sentence letter begins. “The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe — three short years ago when you were born. Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins.”

Dennis is Dennis Helms, now a 69-year-old intellectual-property lawyer in New Jersey. The letter writer was his father, Richard Helms, the CIA director during the Vietnam War and Watergate eras, who died in 2002. Right after Germany’s surrender, Lt. Helms, an intelligence operative, sneaked into Hitler’s chancellery in Berlin and pilfered the Fuehrer’s stationery. He dated the letter “V-E day” for May 8, 1945.

The letter astounded the CIA museum’s curatorial staff when it was acquired in May — and not only because Helms wrote with such paternal tenderness. It also conveyed a certain historical intuition about the evil that one man could do. The letter happened to arrive at Langley the day after Osama bin Laden was killed in May.

http://news.yahoo.com/desk-fuehrer-004700702.html

A radio ad for a handgun training class that bars Muslims and Obama voters has sparked an investigation in Texas.

“We will attempt to teach you all the necessary information you need to obtain your [Concealed Handgun License],” the ad says. Then towards the end, it adds: “If you are a socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner in chief, please do not take this class. You have already proven that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision under the law.”

And then: “If you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you the class with no shame; I am Crockett Keller, thank you, and God bless America.”

The ad ran for six days on KHLB, Mason’s local station. It’s also been heard tens of thousands of times on Youtube.

Keller, 65, has said in media interviews that he just regards the message is just common sense. “The fact is, if you are a devout Muslim, then you cannot be a true American,” he told local news station KVUE, while fielding calls congratulating him for his stance. “Why should I arm these people to kill me? That’s suicide.”

“I call it exercising my right to choose who I instruct in how to use a dangerous weapon,” he added.

But the state of Texas may disagree. The Department of Public Safety said in a statement that certified instructors of handgun training are required to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, and added: “Conduct by an instructor that denied service to individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion would place that instructor’s certification by the Department at risk of suspension or revocation.” The department has said it has begun an investigation.

It seems unlikely that Keller will back down, though. “I’m not going to do it,” he told the local news. “I will give up my license to teach before I will teach them,” he said, referring to Obama voters and Muslims.

Thanks to Mr. C for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, was wrongly declared dead by doctors, but she actually died after hearing people pray for her soul in Kazan, Russia, according to the Daily Mail.

She was taken back to a hospital where she was declared dead, this time for good.

“Her eyes fluttered and we immediately rushed her back to the hospital but she only lived for another 12 minutes,” her husband, Fagili Mukhametzyanov, said, according to the Daily News.

Mukhametzyanov said he plans to sue the hospital, which says it is conducting an investigation of the incident.

Her final cause of death was heart failure, according to reports. Her “first death” was also heart-related, a suspected heart attack.

This isn’t the first time a funeral has taken an unexpected twist. In recent years, a man showed up alive for his own funeral in Brazil and a premature baby declared dead woke up before his own funeral before dying shortly after in Paraguay.

On October 3rd, the beagle was  placed into a gas chamber for euthanization, along with 18 other dogs at an animal shelter in Florence, Alabama.

When the animal control officer in charge of the operation returned to the locked chamber he found the dog waiting at the door, wagging its tail. The other dogs were dead.

His amazing survival has attracted several charitable groups to come to his aid to make sure he isn’t sent back into the gas chamber. He found a temporary home in Tennessee with Karen Rudolph, who runs Schnauzer Savers Rescue of West Tennessee with her husband Michael.

Rudolph dubbed him Daniel, inspired by the biblical story of Daniel, who walked out of a lion’s den unscathed. Eleventh Hour Rescue, which brought Daniel to New Jersey with the help of Pilots and Paws, gave the dog the last name “Milagro,” meaning miracle in Spanish.

When Rudolph took Daniel Milagro to see her veterinarian, he received a clean bill of health.

“Amazingly, not only did he survive the gas chamber which is very rare … he was not sick,” Rudolph said. “It was almost as though angels pulled him out of there and he didn’t even breathe the gas.”

At 20 pounds, Daniel is underweight and his immune system is slightly compromised, but otherwise he is in good health.