Monthly Archives: August 2012

Closing Party for the Great Coney Island Spectacularium and the Cosmorama of the Great Dreamland Fire, Saturday August 25th, 8:00 PM, The Coney Island Museum

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I would like to cordially invite all Morbid Anatomy readers to join us in bidding farewell to the sadly ephemeral Great Coney Island Spectacularium and Cosmorama of the great Dreamland Fire. The exhibition--more on which here--will end after Labor Day weekend, so this is one of your last chances to see it. So please, come raise a glass with us, surrounded by the unfortunate taxidermy once on view at one of the oldest dime museums in the Americas, the Niagara Falls Museum. Join us for a beer in the soon to be dismantled and utterly transporting Cosmorama of the great Dreamland Fire! Help us kiss the lovely toy theater proscenium farewell!

The party will take place next Saturday, August 25th at The Coney Island Museum; There will be free beer and wine, including a special Dreamland Fire Brew, hand-crafted by our friends at the Coney Island Brewery and wine by Red Hook Winery. Artists will be in attendance, as will special guest performers. AND rogue musician Nick Yulman will perform original scores using mechanical instruments for two 1926 films, Now You Tell One and A Wild Roomer by silent comedian and stop-motion animation innovator Charlie Bowers.

The event begins at 8:00 PM; the film will begin at 8:30pm. $20 in advance or at the door. Advance Tickets here. Hope very much to see you there!

You can find out more by clicking here.

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"A Healthy Mania for the Macabre," Stephen T. Asma, The Chronicle for Higher Education

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The new morbid curiosity... may be a pendulum swing back toward the sublime and the philosophical—a new secular foray into the morbid territory that religion previously charted. One way to avoid deeper engagement with death is to paint it entirely from the crude palette of emotions like disgust and fear. We've already got plenty of that kind of "morbid" in popular culture. But awe and wonder need to be restored to our experience of death, and we're not sure how to do it in a post-religious culture.

--"A Healthy Mania for the Macabre," Stephen T. Asma, The Chronicle for Higher Education

The above is excerpted from a characteristically thoughtful and erudite piece by Stephen Asma, one of my all-time favorite scholars and author of the fantastic Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads. The piece--entitled "A Healthy Mania for the Macabre"--explores the current uptick of interest in all things macabre, and situates it within the history ofspectacular morbid display from memento mori to Frederik Ruysch to Gunther von Hagens; It also features interesting quotations from interviews with morbid art collector Richard Harris, charnel house obsessive and Empire of Death author Paul Koudounaris, and yours truly.

You can read the entire article by clicking here. I very highly recommend it!

Image: Clemente Susini (probably): Slashed Beauty, wax, human hair, pearls, rosewood and Venetian glass case, ca 1790, La Specola, Museo di Storia Naturale, Florence, Italy; From the Anatomical Theatre exhibition

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Dried Cadavers on Display in a "Terrible Example of Tyranny," Ferdinand I, Fifteenth Century Naples

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In an interesting 15th century precursor to spectacular displays of human bodies such as Gunther von Hagen's Body Worlds:

Ferdinand I [of Naples (1423 – 1494)], Alfonso II's long-reigning father, had filled an exhibition hall of Castel Nuovo with the mummified remains of his enemies. Paolo Giovio, the sixteenth-century bishop, doctor, and biographer, writes in Historiarum sue temporis: "They say that these dried cadavers were displayed, pickled with herbs, a frightful sight, in the dress they wore when alive and with the same ornaments, so that by this terrible example of tyranny, those who did not wish to be similarly served might be properly afraid."

Just one of the fascinating revelations in the wonderful book Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay, by Benjamin Taylor. Another writer--Jacob Burckhardt, in his The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy of 1878 --described it thusly:

Besides hunting, which he practiced regardless of all rights of property, his pleasures were of two kinds: he liked to have his opponents near him, either alive in well-guarded prisons, or dead and embalmed, dressed in the costume which they wore in their lifetime. Fearing no one, he would take great pleasure in conducting his guests on a tour of his prized “museum of mummies.”

And wow; looks like this made an appearance on The Borgias as well; I guess I had better consider giving that show another chance.

Image source: Wikipedia

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Wax Model of a Decomposing Body in a Walnut Coffin, Italy, 1774-1800, The Science Museum, London

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Wax model of a decomposing body in a walnut coffin, Italy, 1774-1800

The body in this wooden coffin is in a severe state of decomposition. It may have had two purposes: as ‘memento mori’, a reminder of death, or as a teaching aid. The figure is surrounded by three frogs. Frogs are symbols of rebirth and regeneration because they change so much in their lifetimes. Wax modelling was used in Europe to create religious effigies. From the 1600s, they were also used to teach anatomy. The creation of wax anatomical models, centred in Italy, was based on observing real corpses. The museum known as La Specola, or ‘the observatory’, in Florence was famous for its wax collection.

Found in the always delightful Macabre and Beautifully Grotesque Facebook Group.

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On the Lighter Side: Comcast worth its weight in Golden Poo

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One of the great things about living in America is having the opportunity to interact with great societal institutions that are dedicated to the educational advancement, cultural enrichment and spiritual enlightenment of the human race.

Such as the cable company.

The specific cable company to which I refer is Comcast, but I hold a similar level of admiration for all cable companies. Frankly, they are marvels of organization, competence and genuine concern for the welfare of the various population bases that they serve.

It was thus with great reluctance that we recently parted company with Comcast, at least in regard to its provision of cable television service to our domicile. We still get their Internet service. At least as of this morning.

For those of you not familiar with Comcast, it is a 47-year-old company headquartered in Philadelphia. It is the largest provider of cable television and home Internet service, and the third-largest provider of home telephone service, in the known galaxy.

In 2010, Comcast was honored by The Consumerist a sub-subsidiary of Consumer Reports as the worst company in America. In 2011, it lost the Golden Poo Award to oil giant BP, and this year to EA, the video game maker. I for one believe it is quite possible the 2011 and 2012 results were rigged.

The reason my wife and I decided to cancel our cable TV service from Comcast, and replace its entertainment amenities with a used Scrabble game and some postcards of the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis., was what in divorce cases they delicately call "irreconcilable differences."

These differences centered on Comcast insisting that in return for more money every month, it would provide us with less product. For approximately $100 a month, we had a choice of entertainment venues that included a "travel" channel in which various people travel around for no apparent reason other than to eat fried insects; a food channel in which people who look suspiciously like the people on the travel channel share recipes for fried insects; and 135 channels imploring us to buy sequined luggage sets or faux topaz bowling balls.

I actually don't know what we paid for cable, because it was "bundled" with our Internet service. "Bundling" is a cable company term meaning "mind your own business." There were also charges for "modem rental," "digital box interface" and "oxygen molecule tax."

Now, you would think that a company with billions of customers wouldn't care if a lowly Sacramento couple wanted to drop its service. You would be wrong. Comcast clearly did not want us to leave. I think it was a pride thing. I think that Consumerist Golden Poo Award really stung. I practically had to beg.

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On the Lighter Side: Comcast worth its weight in Golden Poo

Space bugs for blood testing and more

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Thanks to ideas of putting swarms of tiny robot bugs to work on a future space station, patients being medicated for blood clots may soon get a simple, home-use testing kit, here on Earth. Fifteen years ago as a graduate student, Vladislav Djakov started building these micro-electromechanical creatures that mimic the swarms of bugs found in nature.

Equipped with a power supply, limited intelligence and monitoring systems, the bugs would be small enough to send en masse to hard-to-reach places, like pipes carrying liquids on space stations.

There, monitoring changes in temperature or flow could warn of impending malfunctions.

To move the bugs, the scientist hit on using cilia-like motion, much like some deep-sea creatures use to propel themselves. They covered one face of the microchip with tiny cantilever arms.

"They would then move along on these like millipedes," said Dr Djakov, now Director of Sensor Development at Microvisk Technologies.

In the end, the space bugs were ahead of their time: they haven't yet progressed past the testing phase.

But the cilia approach - the cantilever arms to propel the bugs - has gone further.

Space cantilevers spin off STFC Innovation, ESA's Technology Transfer Programme partner that operates the agency's Business Incubation Centre Harwell in the UK, saw the business potential in the medical market and supported start-up company Microvisk to spin off the technology.

At Microvisk, Dr Djakov's team stripped down the microchips and put the intelligent sensing mechanisms right into the cantilever arms, almost like a cat's whiskers.

These whiskers turned out to be very good at monitoring liquids. Sweeping through, they note changes in viscosity and register if anything is suspended in the liquid.

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Space bugs for blood testing and more

Dino footprint found at NASA center

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Published: Aug. 18, 2012 at 12:28 PM

GREENBELT, Md., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A dinosaur footprint tracker says he found a print from a nodosaur at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland that had gone unnoticed for decades.

Ray Stanford, 74, was having lunch at the Goddard cafeteria with his wife, Sheila, June 25 when he made the discovery, The Washington Post reported.

Six years earlier, Stanford found a small triangular chunk of stone stamped with a three-toed footprint, and in June he thought there might be more there.

"I drove by and said, 'There's something sticking out of the ground there,'" he said. "It's a matter of knowing what to look for."

Stanford, who has collected about 1,400 dinosaur footprints and other fossils in his career, then found an impression nearly 14 inches wide that he believes to be from a nodosaur, which were common in Maryland about 112 million years ago.

"These guys were like four-footed tanks," Stanford said of the dinosaur that grew thick, spiky armor adorned with big "nodes."

Stanford showed the print to Johns Hopkins University expert David Weishampel, author of the book "Dinosaurs of the East Coast" and a consultant on the 1993 film "Jurassic Park," who said he thinks it's the real deal.

"Ray showed it to me, and I was overwhelmed," Weishampel said. "As a scientist, I'm skeptical of things like this. But it has all the detail you want. It's got toe prints and sort of a heel print that's starting to erode away."

Goddard's architect and facility manager, Alan Binstock, said he's never heard of dinosaur footprints or fossils being found at any of NASA's 13 nationwide campuses in his 20 years working for the space agency.

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Dino footprint found at NASA center

The Right Medicine?

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The Right Medicine can do wonders for individuals with specific issues. Think about the question, Which Medicine Actually Works? well, thats a good question, and theres a good answer. If you have the right medicine that works specifically for you, it can solve various issues, and the same medicine will work with other people if they have the same problem. There are skilled people who can help evaluate your situation, and give a review on what they think is an issue. Special People with Special Skills can do Special Things.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2012 at 6:21 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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The Right Medicine?

For a million lifetimes

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Young Blood By: Chelsea Angeli R. del Castillo Philippine Daily Inquirer

Medical school is not the place for smart people.

If I am really smart, then Ill get out of the university and start living my life. Like what most of my college friends are doing, Ill probably start making a career and providing for myself. If I am really smart, I wont spend another four years in a university, be in so intimate a relationship with my books, and endure sleepless nights. Stress involving reports, group discussions, and case studies should be out of my vocabulary. My definition of fun and happy should be being with my family, pampering myself, or traveling the world, NOT being dismissed from classes early, acing the examinations, or completing reports with flying colors.

My first weeks in medical school straightened my crooked conviction that intelligence and perseverance combined with enough funds would be sufficient for me to realize my dream of wearing a white coat. Like a hammer blow on the head, getting a chance to experience what medical school is like awakened me to the more grueling realities that take place between admission and board examination. My determination was challenged more than ever, and my lifestyle was changed dramatically right before my eyes: waking up early to beat the clock, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror and thinking that stress has made me look 10 years older, skipping meals either because I wanted to or I had to, waiting for the redemption bell, going home while thinking of the piles of things that I had to study, wishing that tomorrow would be a holiday, setting my alarm clock, dream, dream, dream, being jolted awake by the much-dreaded alarm, and letting it snooze until I get the courage to face reality

Sometimes, a voice within asks if this is really the life that I intend to live for another four years. Lots of times, thoughts of quitting lure me. My family will certainly understand if I will no longer pursue my studies, I often tell myself. But whenever ideas like these pop up in my boggled mind, what feeds my desire to try harder is the litany of interrogations coming from within. Questions of whether I can understand and forgive myself for giving up just like that awaken my slumbering determination. The things that I have seen, the people that I have been with, and the experiences that I have lived through during my premed years as a nursing student have inspired me to be this tenacious.

Those times, I witnessed how a patient stared at the door while silently waiting for someone whod visit him during the most painful hours of his life. How a sweet smile, how a simple act of concern, and how a genuine caring touch could lighten the face of an old woman on her deathbed. Those times, I listened to the hopes of people living in far-flung communities to see a doctor even just once in their lives. I shared their smiles and tears. I felt their struggles and pains. I heard their silent prayers. People like them have inspired me to study harder, so that someday, while Im on my mission to relieve often and to comfort always, I can also be capable of healing sometimes. It is for them that I dream of being a doctor and they are what make it so difficult to let go.

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For a million lifetimes

Liberty no match for Sun

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UNCASVILLE, Conn. Tina Charles was determined to make up for a poor offensive performance against the Liberty in the last matchup. She only had to wait two days to get another chance at them.

Charles had 23 points and nine rebounds while playing nearly 38 minutes, and the Connecticut Sun beat the Liberty 85-74 on Saturday night.

The third-year center, who scored a season-low four points in the Suns 79-66 loss at New York on Thursday night in the teams first game after the monthlong Olympic break, played the entire first half.

I have never not taken her out in the first half, Sun coach Mike Thibault said. I talked to her and said, You let me know when you need a sub tonight. She said, Coach, Im staying out there. So, Yes, maam. I might not say that to some other people, but I know when she is feeling that way. She had that look in her eye. I know she didnt like the other night in New Jersey and she wanted to make up for it.

Kara Lawson had 21 points and Allison Hightower added a career-high 20 for the Eastern Conference-leading Sun (16-5). Mistie Mims, playing in place of the injured Asjha Jones (strained left Achilles tendon), added 11 points, four rebounds and four assists.

We had some people step up pretty big-time tonight and make shots between Tina in the first half and Kara and Allie throughout the game, and Mistie was everywhere on the boards, Thibault said.

Charles also became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 1,000 rebounds, accomplishing it in her 89th game three fewer than Yolanda Griffiths previous mark.

Cappie Pondexter had 17 points and five assists for the Liberty (7-13). Essence Carson also scored 17 and Plenette Pierson added 14 points and eight rebounds.

Connecticut capitalized on 26 Liberty turnovers, scoring 28 points off the miscues.

We went from six turnovers the other night to 26 tonight, Liberty coach John Whisenant said. We have to keep our turnovers under 15 to compete with a team like that. ... We got them the other night and they made a lot of turnovers. We made eight turnovers in the first quarter (tonight) and that just digs you a big hole.

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Liberty no match for Sun

Charles scores 23 to lead Sun past Liberty

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UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) -- Tina Charles was determined to make up for a poor offensive performance against the New York Liberty in the last matchup. She only had to wait two days to get another chance at them.

Charles had 23 points and nine rebounds while playing nearly 38 minutes, and the Connecticut Sun beat the Liberty 85-74 on Saturday night.

The third-year center, who scored a season-low four points in the Sun's 79-66 loss at New York on Thursday night in the teams' first game after the monthlong Olympic break, played the entire first half.

''I have never not taken her out in the first half,'' Sun coach Mike Thibault said. ''I talked to her and said, 'You let me know when you need a sub tonight.' She said, 'Coach, I'm staying out there.' So, 'Yes, ma'am.' I might not say that to some other people, but I know when she is feeling that way. She had that look in her eye. I know she didn't like the other night in New Jersey and she wanted to make up for it.''

Kara Lawson had 21 points and Allison Hightower added a career-high 20 for the Eastern Conference-leading Sun (16-5). Mistie Mims, playing in place of the injured Asjha Jones (strained left Achilles tendon), added 11 points, four rebounds and four assists.

''We had some people step up pretty big-time tonight and make shots - between Tina in the first half and Kara and Allie throughout the game, and Mistie was everywhere on the boards,'' Thibault said.

Charles also became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 1,000 rebounds, accomplishing it in her 89th game - three fewer than Yolanda Griffith's previous mark.

Cappie Pondexter had 17 points and five assists for the Liberty (7-13). Essence Carson also scored 17 and Plenette Pierson added 14 points and eight rebounds.

Connecticut capitalized on 26 New York turnovers, scoring 28 points off the miscues.

''We went from six turnovers the other night to 26 tonight,'' Liberty coach John Whisenant said. ''We have to keep our turnovers under 15 to compete with a team like that. ... We got them the other night and they made a lot of turnovers. We made eight turnovers in the first quarter (tonight) and that just digs you a big hole.''

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Charles scores 23 to lead Sun past Liberty

Pa. GOP targets 2 parties' petitions

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HARRISBURG - The state Republican Party is challenging candidate petitions by members of the Constitution and Libertarian Parties, seeking to bounce from the state ballot candidates for president, vice president, and several other offices.

Line-by-line reviews of the candidates' petition signatures ordered by a state Commonwealth Court judge will begin Monday at the Philadelphia Board of Elections.

Analysts say Republicans are probably worried that conservatives dissatisfied with their presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, will defect to Constitution or Libertarian candidates.

The issues that tend to attract those two party's activists, such as limited government, tend to also be key for many Republicans, said Terry Madonna, a professor of public affairs and director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin and Marshall College.

In the most recent public poll, released Thursday by Franklin and Marshall, President Obama is ahead of Romney, 44 percent to 38 percent, with 15 percent undecided. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

A Republican Party spokeswoman said the GOP was challenging the nominating papers because they are riddled with errors, and the party is concerned that Democrats are behind the petitions.

The petitions, spokeswoman Valerie Caras said, were circulated by and signed largely by Democrats.

The president of the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania, Tom Stevens, said the petition drive was financed strictly by Libertarian Party members and the campaign of former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the party's candidate for president.

"It's part of no plot, and no money is coming from Democrats to finance our petition drive," Stevens said.

He said it may be true that the signers and circulators were Democrats. But they were hired exclusively by a contractor for the national Libertarian Party, and they must accurately represent the Libertarian Party and its philosophies, he said.

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Pa. GOP targets 2 parties' petitions

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson may sway voters

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1:00 AM

By Steve Mistler smistler@pressherald.com Staff Writer

Gary Johnson isn't a household name in Maine or most other places, yet the Libertarian presidential candidate could become an attractive option at the ballot box for some of the same voters who helped sweep Republicans into power here just two years ago.

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Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson

AP photo

The former New Mexico governor will be on the Nov. 6 ballot in 34 states, including Maine. National pundits say Johnson has no chance of winning the presidency, but some believe he could be a spoiler candidate in several swing states, such as Nevada, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and Colorado. Although Maine isn't among those states, Johnson's level of appeal may signal the future of the Maine Republican Party.

The reason isn't just Johnson's platform of limited government and fiscal conservatism, key tenets of the tea party and the current energy core of the Republican Party.

It's also because an increasingly bitter standoff between establishment Republicans and the so-called liberty movement could spur some tea party voters to abandon the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Johnson backers certainly hope so.

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Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson may sway voters

Uphsur Libertarian’s Not Happy With Choice of Paul Ryan

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GILMER--Members of the Upshur County Libertarian Party at their monthly meeting last week criticized the selection of Paul Ryan as presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney's choice for his running mate.

"This guy'll (Ryan) really sink him (Romney) because he's chairman of the (House) Budget Committee, and look where the (federal) budget is," said Criss Bartley during the Aug. 14 meeting at the Buckeye Cafe.

Allen Weatherford and Upshur County Libertarian Chairman Vance Lowry ridiculed Ryan's budget plan, saying it would take 40 years to balance the budget. However, Lowry said he saw a "silver lining" in Ryan's selection in that the vice-presidential candidate had read "Ayn Rand, which is the patron saint" of the Libertarian Party.

"He's a decent guy, plus a good Catholic boy," said Lowry, himself a Catholic.

But former county Libertarian Chairman Mark Grimes said Ryan "voted for all of this TARP (the Troubled Assets Relief Program) and everything else," and said the candidate "voted for some of this stuff he's railing against" now.

Grimes, a Union Pacific Railroad worker, also said "Paul Ryan made all the railroaders mad because he went after railroad retirement." Ryan "thought it was costing the government money," but railroad workers (including company officers) totally fund the retirement, Grimes said.

Meantime, Weatherford praised the Libertarians' vice-presidential nominee, James Ray, who is running with the party's Presidential candidate, Gary Johnson. Weatherford said Ray quit the Republican Party over the Patriot Act.

Lowry said Ray is a judge who wants to "decriminalize the drug war" or devise a different approach to the drug issue, if possible.

As for the top of the presumed Republican Presidential ticket, Weatherford charged "Romney's like the husband your wife decides on, they settle for."

Also at last week's meeting, the Upshur Libertarians discussed their U.S. Senate candidate, John Jay Myers, who was scheduled to make appearances in Tyler and Mt. Pleasant Tuesday, Aug. 21. Weatherford organized the Mt. Pleasant gathering.

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Uphsur Libertarian’s Not Happy With Choice of Paul Ryan

Flags, tensions rise over disputed islands

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Japan's territorial disputes with its neighbours flared anew on Sunday as a group of nationalist activists swam ashore and raised flags on an island also claimed by China.

Chinese took to the streets in protest, as Beijing lodged a formal complaint, urging Tokyo to prevent frictions from escalating further.

Ten Japanese made an unauthorised landing on Uotsuri, the largest in a small archipelago known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands and in China as the Diaoyu Islands.

The uninhabited islands surrounded by rich fishing grounds are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.

Of the 10 who visited the island, five were conservative local assembly members.

"The Senkakus are undoubtedly Japanese territory," said Eiji Kosaka, an assembly man from Tokyo's Arakawa district.

"It is to be expected that Japanese would take that to heart."

China's Foreign Ministry protested, summoning Japan's ambassador to voice its complaints.

"The Japanese side should properly handle the current issue and avoid seriously damaging the overall situation of China-Japan relations," ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

Tokyo rejected a complaint by China's ambassador to Japan, Cheng Yonghua, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.

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Flags, tensions rise over disputed islands