Okay, SFist was already a little grossed out by the very idea of "The Universe Within" show at the Masonic auditorium. Leave it to some German dude to come up with a way to 'plastinate' the tissue of corpses so that they can be preserved in all their detail. Look, we didn't go to medical school for two reasons: one, we're not that smart, and two, we really don't want to know what's going on in there. Corpses? Let the doctors have their fun and then burn 'em or bury 'em, we say.

Well, things have taken a double-grody turn at the show here in San Francisco. Instead of using high-quality plastinated corpses from volunteer donors, the organizer of the show got his hands on what seem to be the low-rent versions for medical purposes from a factory in Nanjing, and now they're leaking silicon and liquid human fat. To top it off, apparently the "Universities in Berlin and Beijing" that he said were partners have never heard of the guy. Last show that he organized? A junket of Shao-Lin monks to the MGM Grand in Vegas (who we presumed kicked ass instead of leaking fluids).

The show now has until Monday to come up with paperwork to satisfy the concerns of the city's Health Department. Fiona Ma frets about the cultural implications: "The Chinese are typically very religious, they're spiritual, they're very private, and if they knew that their bodies were being used like this for commercial exploitation purposes, they wouldn't be happy."

Invistigative report by ABC 7's I Team, via BoingBoing.