bits of stuff people want to keep

"Fragment of Fender Stratocaster electric guitar burned and smashed
by Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey International Pop Festival, June 18, 1967. Experience Music Project permanent collection. 1992.7.2."
— Seymour Duncan

"Helena knew how to get what she wanted. She convened a group of Rabbin from various places throughout Palestine and demanded they tell her where the cross was hidden, under threat of torture. These men either could not or would not tell and she ordered them burned alive. After that, they delivered up a man whom they promised could take her to where the 'True Cross' lay hidden. This man, named Judas, also refused to cooperate, so the lady who became known as 'Saint Helena' sentenced him to death by starvation. After only six days without food, Judas took her to the place where he said the cross which had borne the dying Jesus was hidden - on the site of a pagan temple dedicated to Venus."
— The True Cross by Ron Loeffler
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"According to the exhibit's description, scientific tests on the UFO materials revealed bizarre behavior: "Three Soviet academic centers and 11 research institutes analyzed the objects from this UFO crash. The distance between atoms is different from ordinary iron. Radar cannot be reflected from the material. Elements in the material may disappear and new ones appear after heating. One piece disappeared completely in front of four witnesses. The core of the material is composed of a substance with anti-gravitational properties."
— Lee Speigel, Huffington Post
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"What these views reveal, is a polished black stone of which less than two feet is visible… This stone is set in large solid silver mountings. The whole resembles, quite deliberately, for reasons which will emerge, ‘the vulva of the goddess!' There is severe damage to the stone, as it was taken away by the sacrilegious Qarmatians in 930 CE and broken into a number of pieces before returning the pieces for a great price. The Stone pieces are held together by a silver frame, which is fastened by silver nails to the Stone. The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 meters (5 ft.) above the ground. When pilgrims circle the Kaaba as part of the Tawaf ritual of the Hajj, many of them try, if possible, to stop and kiss the Black Stone, ‘emulating the kiss that it received from Prophet Muhammad.’ If they cannot reach it, then they are to point to it on each of their seven circuits around the Kaaba. [...]
     Secular historians point to the history of stone worship, and especially meteorite worship, in pre-Islamic Arabia, and say that ‘it is likely that the Stone is a meteorite.' There is no way to test this hypothesis without removing and examining the Stone, which would not be permitted by its guardians. There is no indication as to where this stone originated, but since it predates the revelation of the Holy Quran and Muhammad's prophethood, and even being kissed, it must stem from the time of Abraham since the Hajj traditions are traceable to the patriarch of monotheism by the pre-islamic pagans."
— Lennard James, Islam Watch
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mountains out of molehills

"DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum shrugged off reports late Thursday that the vote count from Iowa's caucuses might be wrong, saying the errors appear not to change the fact that he and Mitt Romney were nearly tied.
     Santorum told Fox News that Iowa's Republican Party chairman, Matt Strawn, informed him of two cases in which errors were reported in the count from Tuesday night. Taken together, Santorum said, the changes would almost cancel out each other and that Romney would win by nine votes instead of eight.“
— NPR (from: The Associated Press)
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"The 2012 Iowa Republican caucuses took place on January 3, 2012. It was the closest race in Iowa caucus history with only an eight-vote margin (less than 1⁄100th of a percent) separating former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who received 30,015 votes (24.55 percent), and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who received 30,007 votes (24.54 percent). Representative Ron Paul of Texas ran a close third, receiving 26,219 votes (21.4 percent). [...]"
     Total turnout was 122,255 votes, setting a record for Iowa Republican caucuses, but still far less than the all-time Iowa caucus record in the 2008 Democratic Iowa caucuses, in which 239,000 Democrats voted. The 122,255 votes represent 19 percent of active registered Republicans in the state, and just 5.4 percent of all voters in the state."— Wikipedia
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For Iowans, at least, that means Rick got about 1.6% of the vote—and so did Mitt.

For a related post, go here...