Monthly Archives: June 2010

Gibbering Madness: Snapshots of a Bizarre Life

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Gibbering Madness: Snapshots of a Bizarre Life is a very interesting site to be sure. There, Alex weaves his web of real life adventures. The entries are written in true “mystery novelist” style and Alex will have you wondering if he’s been “channeling” Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) or Herman Melville (Moby Dick). Something says the answer is “Yes” to both.

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This Sunday! "Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig" Lecture, Coney Island Museum, Sunday June 13th, 4:30 PM

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Just a brief reminder that I will be waxing [sic] poetic on the wonders of medical museum this Sunday at the Coney Island Museum as part of their "Ask the Experts" series.

Full details follow; hope to see you there!

Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig: A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum
Date: THIS SUNDAY, June 13th
Time: 4:30 PM
Admission: $5
Location: Coney Island Museum (208 Surf Ave. Brooklyn)

This afternoon's highly-illustrated lecture will introduce you to the the Medical Museum and its curious denizens, from the Anatomical Venus to the Slashed Beauty, the allegorical fetal skeleton tableau to the taxidermied bearded lady, the flayed horseman of the apocalypse to the three fetuses dancing a jig. The lecture will contextualize these artifacts by situating them within their historical context via a discussion of the history of medical modeling, a survey of the great artists of the genre, and an examination of the other death-related diversions which made up the cultural landscape at the time that these objects were originally created, collected, and exhibited.

You can find out more by clicking here and can get directions by clicking here.

Image: From the Anatomical Theatre exhibition: "Museum of Anatomical Waxes “Luigi Cattezneo” (Museo Delle Cere Anatomiche “Luigi Cattaneo”): Bologna, Italy "Iniope–conjoined twins" Wax anatomical model; Cesare Bettini, Early 19th Century

Two Upcoming Events at Observatory by Torino:Margolis

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Morbid Anatomy is very pleased to present an electricity-and-the-body-on-display themed lecture and performance pairing by Torino:Margolis. Event number one, a lecture entitled "Electricity and the Body in Public Performance," will investigate over 250 years of electricity and the body in spectacular scientific performance via an illustrated historical lecture. Event number two will explore the same rich territory via a historically informed interactive performance. Hope you can make it to one or both of these amazing sounding events!

Electricity and the Body in Public Performance
An illustrated lecture by Torino:Margolis
Date: June 15, 2010
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Beginning with the first known public performance by Stephen Gray in 1729 and continuing through the present, scientists and artists have been exploring electricity and the human body for hundreds of years. The innate electrical potential of the human body, electricity as a medium of destruction and using outside electricity to manipulate the body have been served as conceptual fodder throughout this rich history. Although the collaboration between the arts and sciences may seem recent, due to its popularization in the media and 20th century art movements such as Bioart, the connection between these two groups have existed for centuries. Benjamin Margolis, MD and Jenny Torino, MS, RD current tinkerers in both worlds, will take you through the history of public performances in this arena and discuss how it relates to their own work using invasive electronics and the body.

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Torino:Margolis Performance
A performative exploration of electricity, biomedicine, and spectacle
Date: June 29, 2010
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Tonight, join Observatory as it hosts Torino:Margolis in a three-part performance investigating the rich history of biomedicine, electricity, and spectacle. First, the audience will have the opportunity to control the movement of the performer using neuromuscular stimulation, which sends outside electricity into the performer’s muscle, forcing their muscle to contract and the performer to move involuntarily.

In the second part of the performance, they will use electromyography (EMG) in a sound-based performance. EMG is a way of sensing the electricity produced naturally during muscle contraction when an individual moves voluntarily. However, when the performer is physically manipulated by another person there is no action potential generated, no signal sensed by the EMG, and no change in the sound is produced. In this way you can hear someone’s free will.

In the third portion they will add a vocal component to the EMG “rig” by manipulating sound coming from the vocal cords using neuromuscular stimulation.

Torino:Margolis will then explain the workings of the biomedical tools used in the performance and the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Torino:Margolis is a performance art team that smashes through physical and psychological barriers separating one body from another using invasive electronics and biomedical tools. They explore the idea that the self is transient, elusive and modular by playing with the notion of control and free will. Their extraction of physiological processes concretizes these concepts and presents them as questions to the viewer — not to illustrate the mechanism, but to explore the experience. The team has performed nationally and internationally at New York venues such as Issue Project Room, POSTMASTERS Gallery and Exit Art, the HIVE Gallery in California, and the Bergen Kunsthall Museum in Norway. They have lectured for institutions such as SUNY Stony Brook and the School of Visual Arts. For more information please see http://www.torinomargolis.com.

You can find out more about these presentation here and here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

BP Expands Midwest Refinery for its Canadian Tar Sands Oil

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These bastards have no shame.  There is no end to their greed, all at the expense of our environment.

BP Gulf Oil Spill No Barrier to $3.8 Billion Refinery Expansion

By Joe Carroll

June 2 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc’s $3.8 billion expansion of the largest refinery in the U.S. Midwest won’t be delayed by criminal and regulatory probes into the company’s role in the largest oil spill in the country’s history.

BP is upgrading a 119-year-old refinery in Whiting, Indiana, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan to process more heavy crude from Canada’s oil sands, [tar sands]  according to the London- based company’s website. The expansion will enable the plant to boost daily gasoline production by 1.7 million gallons, which at current retail prices would be worth $1.69 billion a year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in November ordered the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to review construction and operating permits issued for the expansion in 2008.

The review, which hasn’t interrupted work on the project, isn’t taking into consideration the April 20 explosion at a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of crude into the sea, said Rob Elstro, a spokesman for the state environmental agency.

“The Whiting permits are being evaluated independently of the spill,” Elstro said today in a telephone interview from Indianapolis. “This preceded the spill.”

Read more.

From BP’s website, a peek into the minds of some of the most greedy, destructive  people on earth:

“Why is BP developing the Canadian oil sands?

BP has a clear strategy to invest to grow exploration and production profitably through a portfolio of leadership positions in the world’s most prolific hydrocarbon basins. Canada’s oil sands more than qualify, being second only to Saudi Arabia in terms of proven reserves. BP creates value through the application of technology and capability to drive performance and operating efficiency. Also, through BP’s Midwest US refineries there is a distinctive opportunity to create a balanced portfolio of upstream production and downstream conversion, which will allow BP to participate in the margin across the whole value chain.”

In other words, they want their dirty, greedy fingers into every possible money-making aspect of the Canadian tar sands.

BP to Burn the Oil it Collects

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I’m getting so angry about this oil leak I have to take some time off reading and writing about it. I can’t look at any more oil-covered wildlife. I can barely look at reporters talking about it.   I am ready to start throwing things.  No, it’s not happening where I live, but it feels very personal, like 9/11 initially felt very personal  (until we learned more about it).   This oil leak is something that is being done to all Americans.  It feels like a war.

I’m extremely pissed off at BP,  Transocean, Congress, at the lack of adequate government response,  (No, I don’t believe that they’re doing everything they can. If they were doing everything they can the leak would be over by now. Send in the Marines) and the insane, continued calls for more offshore drilling.   The officials in Louisiana would rather get their oil jobs back as soon as possible than protect the environment. They have gone stark, raving mad.  Their response to the biggest environmental disaster in our history is to drill in the ocean even more.  Gov. Bobby Jindal and Mary Landreau and a few others need lobotomies.**

So now, not only is British Petroleum polluting the Gulf of Mexico, the waters off of the southern United States, for probably about 60-70 years, but it plans on burning the oil it is collecting. BP is going to pollute the atmosphere enormously, while oil gushes into the ocean.  If they gathered the oil, refined it and sold it to be burned later by cars or factories, would the pollution be more or less than if they just burn it up at sea?

I suppose this is good in an ironic way because it means we will reach the end of oil even sooner than before,  and then we can get off of this dirty greasy crud for good.  I’m curious if anyone thinks this is really a good idea or an absolutely crazy idea: Burning the oil at sea.  Pollute the air now or later?

This is a recent announcement that I read this morning in passing on CSPAN. They announced it like it was no big deal. Gather up hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil from the ocean and just burn it.  Hey, why not.   (Personally, my reaction when I first read this was more or less incoherent and unprintable.)  I’m so upset with these  Billionaire Pollutors at the moment I can’t even think rationally about them, or our energy policy, or  our disappointing government response to this, and the fact that BP has its own “reporters” that it quotes on its web site of propaganda.

Oh yeah, BP is deep into the Canadian tar sands too, of course. But their approach to the dirtiest, most unconscionable source of “oil” on earth is that they are doing it “responsibly”. Which by now means nothing at all. From USAToday:

“. . . . The government has estimated 600,000 to 1.2 million gallons [...]

Iron Man 2 and the cyborg technology offshoots

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Iron Man 2 raises important questions for the transhumanist or rather, the posthumanist. In the movie, we see the US Senate committee demanding that Tony Stark, the man behind the iron man to surrender his creation for purposes of national security. Tony Stark interestingly defends his position by stating that the fundamental definition prescribed to him is wrong since he considers the CYBORG SUIT as an advanced prosthesis ! I personally think that would probably be the first direct reference in popular multimedia culture to interconnect the "prosthesis" and the "Cyborg".
I especially enjoyed the gadgetry on display in the movie and it is completely incredible that much of it is already here and is happening as the movie was being watched ! One such incredible example is the coffee table where Tony dissects the voluptuous biography of Scarlett Johannsen is already in place in the form of Microsoft's "Microsoft surface" !

Then what I also enjoyed watching was the incredible Minority report style hand gestured displays becoming three dimensional with those nifty sound effects, when Tony throws out old ideas into a basket of all things !!! It's really incredible considering that Microsoft's surface technology is now almost two years since it's preliminary launch in 2008 !Now even Tony's antics in Iron Man 2 can best be described as nearly futuristic because just around the corner, you have several examples such as Intel's 3d screen where 3d images are rendered thanks to hyperthreading in real time !

In the movie "GAMER".. users control real human beings as computer game characters. This concept is already here in the form of the latest revolution or rather a revelation in the form of Project Natal, the super awesome human interface powered video games which has been around for some time and keeps getting better.

One of the most sincere efforts to human interfaces which will blow the perceptive views on the cyborg world is the SIXTH SENSE TECHNOLOGY being developed by Pranav Mistry.

I find it increasingly irking that the "Cyborg" concept as a lifestyle has really kicked off nicely in recent times in direct proportion to the predictions or rather parallel universes in movies and other forms of mass culture. The reason is because of the lower importance being placed on finding cheaper technologically based prosthesis for land mine victims and improving research on
cheaper pacemakers ! Now that would be in keeping up with "humanism" after the "trans" part. Until that day or night whichever comes first, we will continue to have Iron men flying around.

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Chili Peppers May Combat Extra Flab

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Chili peppers, one of the world's most beloved spices, is showing much promise in terms of reducing fat percentage when introduced to one's daily diet.

In a recent report from Science Daily, a new study suggests that chili peppers may just be the missing key to increased weight loss.  The new study shows that  a compound in chilies called capsaicin, which also makes a chili hot to the taste, is responsible for initiating specific changes in protein.

According to lead researcher Jong Won Yun, this could very well be the good news the world has been waiting for.  If chili peppers can be used on a particular scale for lowering body weight, then chilies can be utilized to combat obesity.

Chili vs. obesity

Obesity is one of the world’s leading causes of chronic, degenerative diseases like adult-onset diabetes, hypertension and other cardiovascular maladies.  Being overweight has also been linked to cancer in the prostate and even the development of asthma.

Yun’s study made laboratory rats confirm their initial hypothesis that capsaicin can help burn off the calories.  Two groups of test animals were both given diets in high in fat. The control group was given a capsaicin supplementation, while the other group of rat were not given the chili compound.

After the study, the control group had lost an average of 8 percent of body weight compared to the group that did not receive capsaicin.  It was also discovered that capsaicin can produce changes in up twenty types of protein found in fat.

While the study did not provide a conclusive explanation that capsaicin actually reduces body weight, it can be viewed as a pioneering study that explores the anti-obesity effects of the chili compound on the molecular level. The study was published in the Journal of Preteome Research.

Fight visceral fat!

There are two main types of fat that people have to deal with: regular fat, which is found above the muscle tissues and visceral fat, which lies underneath the muscles of the abdominal region.  So what is the big difference?  Visceral fat actually surrounds many vital organs, including the liver and intestines.  According to recent studies, visceral fat may also contribute to the development of adult-onset diabetes and other diseases.

In a study published in the medical journal Obesity, lead researcher  Dr. Gary Hunter states that just eighty minutes of exercise every week can help fight off the formation of deadly visceral fat.  Initially, the 97 respondents (composed of European-American & African-American individuals) were given a calorie-restricted diet plus a regular exercise regimen.

After the study, the respondents were asked to continue exercising at least eighty minutes a week.  A year later, the researchers measured the amount of visceral fat the respondents had and found out that the ones who continued exercising regardless of the exercise model did not regain harmful visceral fat. The study concluded that this type of exercise was effective in reducing visceral in both the European-American respondents and African-American respondents.

Vinegar vs. fat

Vinegar, a natural byproduct of bacterial action, fruit/vegetable and water, is now being studied for its potential benefit as a fat fighter.  According to Japanese researcher Tomoo Kondo, vinegar showed great promise as a fat fighter when an animal test showed that acetic acid can reduce up to ten percent body fat in test animals.

How does it work?  Well, the established belief was that acetic acid activates a particular gene in the body responsible for breaking down fat.  When the gene is activated, the body starts producing proteins that help break down the stubborn stores of fat.  When this happens, accumulation of fat is greatly reduced.

Low carbs diet for lower blood pressure

For many years now, proponents of weight loss diets and regular practitioners of medicine have associated too much carbohydrates in one’s diet with higher risk of developing high blood pressure and uncontrollable weight gain.  According to Dr. William Yancy, the lead author of the study, a low-carbohydrate diet might be a better choice than investing in weight loss medication like orlistat.

The study indicated that while weight loss medication like orlistat can reduce weight, it did not produce identical beneficial effects on the respondents’ blood pressure.  This was not the same for the low-carbohydrate group.  Nearly fifty percent of the respondents in the low carbohydrate group were able to reduce their blood pressure.  Some of them had such an improvement that they were able to discontinue medication.  Only twenty-one percent in the weight loss medication group experienced a reduction of their blood pressure.

Sources:
aolhealth.com
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com

Discuss this article in Frank Mangano’s forum!

Study Identifies Link Between Smoking and Urinary Health

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Smoking cessation plus exercise can improve the male sexual function and also improve the urinary health of both males and females.

In a recently concluded study presented in the annual conference of the American Urological Association, researchers pointed to a vital link between smoking, exercise and urinary health.

The study involved two thousand individuals (males and females). The respondents were interviewed about their smoking habits and were also given questions regarding their urinary health.  It was found that individuals who smoked were three times more likely to urinate frequently.

Also, these individuals are also 2.7 times more prone to experience sudden urges to go to the bathroom to urinate.

In a related study performed by US researchers from South Carolina, it was found that men who exercised more had experienced improved sexual function.  The two studies, if taken together, point to an age-old medical adage: folks have to stop the smoking habit and begin a healthier habit – exercise!

More reasons to love exercise

Here are even more reasons to love exercise:

1. Exercise reduces the risk of mortality from chornic, degenerative health conditions.

2. Exercise reduces the chance of developing of type 2 or insulin-dependent diabetes.

3. Exercise can help control the blood pressure, even the blood pressure of people already have cardiovascular problems.

4. Exercise can help reduce the probability of developing one of the top killers worldwide: colon cancer.

5. Exercise helps improve your mood and also helps people ease out of anxiety and depression.

6. Exercise improves balance, coordination and also strengthens the bones and muscles, therey reducing the risk of fractures from falls.

7. Exercise is also an excellent means of losing weight.

8. Exercise make the body and mind more fit. If you are physically and mentally fit, you would be able to perform better at work or in school.

9. Exercise reduces the risk of stroke.

Exercise may also reduce the risk of breast cancer and loss of bone mass (osteoporosis) – two common problems of women over the age of 45.

Sources:
aolhealth.com
nutristrategy.com
www2.gsu.edu
medicinenet.com

Discuss this article in Frank Mangano’s forum!

Cranberry Helps Cure Urinary Tract Infection, US Study Says

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Higher doses of cranberry can help treat UTI or urinary tract infections by helping remove the bacteria from the surface of the urinary tract tissue.

According to a study performed by researchers from Rutgers University,  72 mg of cranberry (Vaccinum macrocarpon) can help ward off and even treat urinary tract infections or UTIs.

The study directly supports an early health claim from France that states that at least 36 grams of fresh cranberries is effective against UTI because it prevented some of the Escherichia coli (E. Coli) bacteria from sticking to the urinary tract (in males and females).

According to lead researcher Amy Howell, there is still much more to explore in terms of determining the most effective dose to fight off urinary tract infections.  The study was performed in different countries, including Japan, Hungary and even in Spain. Howell reports that they are also trying to determine the link between the adhesion of the bacteria responsible for UTI and the origins of the respondents.

What the study does show presently is that as the cranberry dose increases, the more effective it becomes in fighting off the adhesion of the bacteria.  The study noted 50% less adhesion at eighteen milligrams and 100% less adhesion at seventy-two grams of cranberries.

Cranberry health benefits

In addition to its ability to fight off infections of the urinary tract, cranberry can also boost your health in other ways:

1. Drinking fresh cranberry juice or drinking cranberry supplements can help reduce the occurrence of cystitis in women.  Drink lots of water, too, because water has the ability of flushing out bacteria naturally.

2. Cranberries are packed with vital nutrients, including protein, carbohydrates, fiber, fruit sugars, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folate, vitamin A, E, K and lutein. It’s nature’s power-packed fruit with all the nutrients you would need to stay healthy.

3. According to a study performed in Cornell University, cranberries have the ability to arrest the growth and maturation of breast cancer cells.

4. Cranberries can help reduce LDL or bad cholesterol.

5. Due to the fruit’s anti-bacterial activity, cranberry may also help prevent tooth decay.

6. Cranberry also strengthens the respiratory system.

7. The fruit may also help ward off stomach ulcers caused by Helicobacter pylorii.

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
nutrition.about.com
nutrition.about.com
breastcancer.about.com
nutrasanus.com

Discuss this article in Frank Mangano’s forum!

18% tax on pizza and soda can decrease U.S. adults’ weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year

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From Reuters:

With two-thirds of Americans either overweight or obese, policymakers are increasingly looking at taxing as a way to address obesity on a population level.

"Sadly, we are currently subsidizing the wrong things including the product of corn, which makes the corn syrup in sweetened beverages so inexpensive."

Instead, the agricultural subsidies should be used to make healthful foods such as locally grown vegetables, fruits and whole grains less expensive.

References:
Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say | Reuters.

Image source: Soft drinks, Wikipedia, public domain.

Posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Stay updated and subscribe, follow us on Twitter and connect on Facebook.


Zoe Beloff London Engagements, Tonight and Tomorrow Night, June 10th and 11

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For those of you in or near London, friend, artist, and favorite Observatory presenter Zoe Beloff has a few upcoming engagements in your fair city. I have seen both of these presentations here in New York City and could not recommend them more enthusiastically!

Full details follow; hope you can make it out to see her! You won't be sorry.

The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society Dream Films 1926-1972: an illustrated lecture and screening
Date: June 10, 2010 Time: 7pm
Place: Viktor Wynd Fine Art, 11 Mare Street , London E8 4RP

The members of the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society were filled with the desire to participate in one of the great intellectual movements of the 20th century: psycho-analysis. Additionally, like the Amateur Cine League (founded the same year), many members wished to tap into the power for self expression afforded by technologies like home movie cameras that were newly accessible to ordinary people. This screening presents a range of their amateur films, which reveal an incredibly brave, unapologetic exploration of their inner lives.

Find out more and book tickets here:
http://www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org/coneyisland.html

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Discipline & the Moving Image - lecture/screening
Date: Friday, June 11, 2010
Time:6:30pm - 9:00pm
Admission Free
Location: Birkbeck Cinema (http://www.birkbeckcinema.com)
43 Gordon Square, London
Obedience, Stanley Milgram, 16mm, 1962, 45 mins
Folie à Deux, National Film Board of Canada, 16mm, 1952, 15 mins
Motion Studies Application, 16mm, ca. 1950, 15 mins

Obedience documents the infamous “Milgram experiment” conducted at Yale University in 1962, created to evaluate an everyday person’s deference to authority within institutional structures. Psychologist Stanley Milgram designed a scenario in which individuals were made to think they were administering electric shocks to an unseen subject, with a researcher asking them to increase the voltage levels despite the loud cries of pain that seemed to come from the other room. Milgram saw his test, conducted mere months after Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem, as a way to understand the environments that made genocide possible.

Tonight, artist Zoe Beloff pairs Obedience with two earlier works dealing with psychosocial control: Folie à Deux and Motion Studies Application. The former, one of a series of films on various psychological maladies produced by the National Film Board of Canada in the 1950s, presents an interview with a young woman and her immigrant mother afflicted by shared delusions that manifest when the two are together. The latter is an industrial film purporting to present ways to increase efficiency in the workplace: explaining, for instance, a means to fold cardboard boxes more quickly. In stark contrast to the nostalgic whimsy typically associated with old educational films, Folie à Deux and Motion Studies Application play as infernal dreams of systemic power and sources of surprising, unintended pathos.

The concept of ‘motion studies’ is central to cinema itself. Without the desire to analyze human motion, there would be no cinematic apparatus. But the history of motion studies is freighted with ideology. Its inventor Étienne-Jules Marey was paid by the French Government to figure out the most efficient method for soldiers to march, while his protégé Albert Londe analyzed the gait of hysterical patients. From the beginning, the productive body promoted by Taylorism was always shadowed by its double, the body riven by psychic breakdown. We see this in Motion Studies Application and especially Folie à Deux, where unproductive patients, confined to the asylum, understand with paranoid lucidity that the institution is everywhere, monitoring them always. Obedience stands as a conscious critique of these earlier industrial films, co-opting their form only to subvert them and reveal their fascist underpinnings.

You can find out more about Zoe and her work by clicking here. You can find out more about event number one by clicking here and event number two by clicking here.

"Borrowed from the Charnel House," Saul Chernick, Opening Tonight, NYC!

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Tonight! Hope to see you there.

Saul Chernick
Borrowed from the Charnel House
June 10–July 30, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, June 10, 6:00–8:00pm

Max Protetch Gallery is pleased to announce Borrowed From the Charnel House, an exhibition of new work by Saul Chernick. The exhibition runs from June 10 through July 30, 2010. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, June 10 from 6:00 to 8:00pm.

Saul Chernick makes highly detailed ink drawings that combine masterful control of the individual mark with an incisive grasp of the history of image-making and various visual media. The exhibition brings together works that display Chernick's penchant for borrowing from the relics of art history to transform them into the constituent elements of his own visual language.

On view are some of Chernick's largest drawings to date, including a piece in extreme horizontal format, almost thirty-five feet long and comprised of roughly thirty drawings done en plein air at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. A meditation on mortality created from a position in the living world, it also proves to be a forum in which Chernick displays his mastery of the use of line and shifts in perspective. The cemetery is seen not only as a landscape but as a museum of funerary sculpture.

In fact, the exhibition's title, Borrowed from the Charnel House, refers to the vaults where skeletons are stored, often after they have been dug up from crowded burial grounds; one of the most famous of these, and noted because it is still in use, can be found at St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, where the monks gather relics from the difficult, rocky soil for both practical and spiritual reasons.

Reflections on contemporary sexuality and technology are embedded into Chernick's intensely detailed riffs on anatomical drawings, heralds, and etchings. The most evident reference is perhaps to the prints, manuscripts, and illuminations of the Northern Renaissance. But like the monks of St. Catherine's relying upon their brothers' relics as reminders of their own mortality, Chernick tweaks specific images and compositional methods from the past to shed light upon current cultural conditions. In this sense, he works like a musician improvising on an existing theme or a writer adapting an older idea for a new context.

Another of the large-scale drawings on view, 'Ars Gratia Artis,' depicts a lion's head floating in a vast alpine landscape. Uncannily reminiscent of the roaring lion that serves as the logo for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, the piece seems to hint at both the history and future of cinema, drawing a connection to the logo's roots in centuries-old coats of arms. Almost eight feet wide, the piece seems to exist at a hybrid scale, between the intimacy of the drawing and the expansive presence of the movie screen. The emotional power of the drawing, however, lies not only in the scope of its cultural references, but in the mysterious way that the lion himself is rendered.

This sensitivity to individual moments, and the subtleties of human and animal forms, lends Chernick's work an immediacy that places it squarely in the present, and that engages the viewer outside of any specific art historical context. It is a question of both craft and poetry. On the surface it is clear that the artist's technique is indebted to the achievements of the Old Masters, but the critical and psychological revelations on view in his drawings are wholly his own, and shed light on the future of our physical condition––in the short term with respect to technology, and in the long with respect to death.

Saul Chernick was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions across the United States, and reproduced in a variety of print and online publications.

For more information, click here. Click to see larger images.

On Comparative Studies of Aging

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Maria Konovalenko on the study of the often large life span differences between similar species – or rather the lack of such research work in comparison to other fields of life science: “Here’s this quite simple idea: to take two species similar in size and basic biology, but having a substantial difference in longevity, and figure out what’s the reason for this difference. What are the distinctions in the mechanisms of aging and stress resistance? It’s desirable to carry out this work in various species. However, not a lot of people are excited about this simple idea. Even the genome of the famous naked mole rat has not been sequenced yet, although many people believe it’s got ‘negligible’ senescence. For now all that we have is negligible funding of evolutionary-comparative biology of aging. Moreover, previously obtained results are put into cold storage. … And here comes the main question in biogerontology. Why is the research into the fundamental mechanisms of aging so scarcely funded?” Aging and longevity research in general receives very little funding and attention in comparison to its importance to the future of human health. This state of affairs is slowly changing, but not fast enough for my liking.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://maria-konovalenko.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/the-main-question-in-biogerontology.html

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

TOR and Calorie Restriction

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Via Newswise: “Why all the attention on TOR? TOR (target of rapamycin) is a key nutrient-sensing catalytic enzyme that evolution has conserved among every plant and animal species that has cells containing a nucleus. TOR mediates the connection between nutrients in the environment to the growth and metabolism of the organism. Studies in flies, worms, yeast and mice support the notion that the TOR signaling network also plays a pivotal role in regulating the aging process. When TOR signaling is reduced, either through genetic manipulation or via the use of drugs, the organism presumes there are reduced nutrients in its environment and goes into a ’survival’ mode similar to that seen in dietary restriction, which has been shown to extend lifespan and slow the onset of certain age-related diseases. … it remains to be seen which downstream effectors of TOR are key drivers of longevity and which ones elicit only minor effects. In addition to simply extending lifespan, research on the protective effects of TOR is likely to identify which age-related diseases can be slowed by inhibition of the TOR pathway.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.newswise.com/articles/tor-a-key-mediator-of-the-effects-of-dietary-restriction-and-its-impact-on-aging

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

A Report on the Fourth Asset Preservation Group Meeting

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From Depressed Metabolism, a look at the folk who are trying to ensure that cryonics patients can preserve their resources as well as the fine structure of their brains: “On the weekend of April 23-25 I attended a meeting of the cryonics Asset Preservation Group held [near] Gloucester, Massachusetts. I will try to give a few brief summaries without going into detail about every presentation. … A central problem for cryonicists wanting revival trusts is that Cryopreserved Persons (CPs) are legally dead and are not ascertainable beneficiaries under trust law. My solution to this problem has been to have cryonics organizations (rather than the legal system) recognize the reanimated CP as the beneficiary. But finding the right cryonics organization to do this is not always easy. … the best presentation at this meeting of the Asset Preservation Group was the one on ‘Personal Revival Trusts’ by Igor Levenberg. I have been working with the thorny problems associated with cryonics reanimation trusts for years and I have never seen such careful and persuasive legal analyses.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/2010/06/02/fourth-asset-preservation-group-meeting/

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Artificial Corneas

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From Singularity Hub: “In order to work in the human body, an artificial cornea has to meet some rather stringent requirements. First, it has to bond to the human eye around its edge, but stay unclouded by cells in its center. To that end, [researchers] took a widely used opthalmological polymer (found often in intraocular lenses) and adapted it with other special polymers around the edges. Combined with the application of a growth factor protein, the modified edge promoted cell growth around the periphery of the implant and secured it in place using the body’s own cells. The center of the artificial cornea, however, does not promote cell growth and remains clear so that it can be seen through. The artificial cornea also has to move freely with the eyelid and balance moisture on its faces. The polymer [researchers] chose is hydrophobic, allowing tears to lubricate the surface and provide the correct moisture on both of its sides. … The artificial cornea has passed clinical trials and is ready to see expanded use in patients this year.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/02/germanys-artificial-cornea-getting-ready-to-restore-sight-to-thousands/

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

The Longevity Gene ‘Takeout’ in Flies

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Researchers are turning up new longevity genes at a fair rate these days, and this latest discovery is illustrative of the methods used – start with what you know, and compare and contrast: “A major challenge in translating the positive effects of dietary restriction (DR) for the improvement of human health is the development of therapeutic mimics. One approach to finding DR mimics is based upon identification of the proximal effectors of DR life span extension. Whole genome profiling of DR in Drosophila shows a large number of changes in gene expression, making it difficult to establish which changes are involved in life span determination as opposed to other unrelated physiological changes. We used comparative whole genome expression profiling to discover genes whose change in expression is shared between DR and two molecular genetic life span extending interventions related to DR, increased dSir2 and decreased Dmp53 activity. We find twenty-one genes shared among the three related life span extending interventions. One of these genes, takeout, thought to be involved in circadian rhythms, feeding behavior and juvenile hormone binding is also increased in four other life span extending conditions: Rpd3, Indy, chico and methuselah. We demonstrate takeout is involved in longevity determination by specifically increasing adult takeout expression and extending life span. These studies demonstrate the power of comparative whole genome transcriptional profiling for identifying specific downstream elements of the DR life span extending pathway.”

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20519778

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