I collect images of  "Death" because I am a visual person who takes in information best visually. As I have gotten older the thought of my own demise has begun to enter my conscious thoughts. The universality of "Death," with the realization that we will all die, encouraged me to begin the conversation of my mortality visually rather than talking or reading about it. I believe that there is a larger audience who might also be more comfortable beginning that discussion in a visual way, which is why I always thought of my collection in terms of a public exhibition.

--Richard Harris, the collector whose works are featured in "Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection,"in an interview with Morbid Anatomy

Whilst in Chicago a few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to be able to spend a good two hours or so with the works in the profoundly wonderful new exhibition "Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection," on view through July 8 at the Chicago Cultural Center. This seriously (!!!) not-to-be-missed exhibition showcases nearly 1,000 works which range from 2000 B.C.E. to the present, from fine art to ephemera, and from Mexican to Japanese to Tibetan to European artist traditions, all drawn from the astounding death-related collection of Richard Harris.

Some of my favorite pieces--featured in the photos above--included Rudolfo Villena Hernandez "A Commemoration of the Bicentennial Proclamation of the Independence of Mexico" (third from bottom); Michel de Spiegelaere's "Macabre Scene," one of the better Frederik Ruysch tableaux recreations I have had the pleasure to see (8-10 from top); a collection of macabre book plates and postcards (4th and 5th from bottom); Roger Reutimann's "Death of Venus" (seventh down), a wonderful collection of 19th Century ceramic German Dance of Death Figures (second from bottom), a carved wooden memento mori figurine from the early 17th century (third from bottom), and Jodie Carie's "In the eyes of Others plaster-cast bone chandelier bringing to mind the wonders of the  Kutná Hora ossuary (fourth down). The installation itself--expertly staged by curator Lucas Cowan--is wonderful as well, evoking the beautiful clutter of the wunderkammer but utilizing clever groupings which draw the eye and invite close investigation rather than overwhelm.

You can see more photos from the exhibition--and find out more about the works seen above--by clicking here. You can find out more on this exhibition on this recent post, on the Chicago Cultural Center website, and on Richard Harris' website. You can watch a gallery walk through and interview with Richard Harris by clicking here.

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ABC/BOB D'AMICO

"Grey's Anatomy"

[WARNING: This post contains massive spoilers from Thursday's Season 8 finale of Grey's Anatomy.]

One of Seattle Grace's best and brightest succumbed to injuries sustained in last week's shocking plane crash during Thursday's emotional Season 8 finale of Grey's Anatomy.

After departing the hospital for Boise to help with complicated surgery involving conjoined twins, Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Arizona, Mark and Lexie each sustained injuries and were in various stages of distress.

STORY: 'Grey's Anatomy' Recap: Whose Lives are Hanging in the Balance?

LEXIE Left pinned down under part of the plane with her legs and pelvis crushed, ultimately it was Little Grey, Lexie (Chyler Leigh), whose injuries were the most severe. Despite Mark (Eric Dane) and Cristina's (Sandra Oh) best attempts, Lexie ultimately couldn't be saved. In one of the ABC medical drama's most emotional scenes in its eight seasons, Lexie tells Mark to relay a message to Meredith: She was a good sister and loved. With Cristina frantically looking for Meredith -- who is busy searching for Derek after he was sucked out of the plane -- Mark realizes that there's nothing he can do for Lexie and, in a bittersweet scene as she slips away, he sends her off by telling her that they'll get married and she'll have a bright future as a surgeon.

Meredith, meanwhile, is too late to say goodbye and arrives just after Lexie passes away. As the trio start to search for Derek again, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) she continues to battle her emotions at the thought that she could lose both her sister and husband as Cristina reveals that she's leaving Seattle if she survives the harrowing ordeal.

STORY: 'Grey's Anatomy's' Shonda Rhimes on the Deadline Finale: 'We're Literally Saying Goodbye to People'

MARK & ARIZONA In shock after Lexie's death, Mark -- who has a huge gash on his chest -- passes out and needs heart surgery as Meredith and Cristina saves his live by draining the blood pooling in his heart. With bone exposed in her leg, Arizona is left in shock from the crash and despite her massive injuries, does her best to help keep Mark alive despite coughing up blood. Realizing that he's slipping away, Mark tells Arizona to take care of "our girl" and realizes that Lexie is waiting for him, as he knows that he'll be OK. Unwilling to accept it, Arizona tells Mark that Callie and Sophia are waiting for him, too, and she needs him to hold on so they can go home -- together. As Mark continues to cling for life, he notes that he should have professed his love for Lexie well before the crash.

The rest is here:
'Grey's Anatomy' Recap: Who Met Their Maker in the Deadly Season Finale?

I am super excited about a number of great events and classes coming up at Observatory this week and beyond! Tonight we have a lecture on the history of blood transfusion with The London Consortium's force of nature Paul Craddock, while this Friday, Lord Whimsy will return to Observatory to regale us with film and tales relating to his recent "Hidden River Expedition." Newly announced classes--all part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy--include workshops with Sigrid Sarda (whom some of you might remember from this recent Midnight Archive episode) teaching students to create wax anatomical votives and life and death masks, and "Drawing from the Bestiary" with Morbid Anatomy favorite artist Saul Chernick; some exciting newly announced lectures include Mel Gordon of Grand Guiginol fame ith an illustrated lecture and screening of “lost footage” about Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant taking place Monday June 4th. We also have upcoming screenings of films on psychedelic mushroom tourism in Mexico and the unexpectedly dark history of Jell-O.

Full list of upcoming events follows; Hope to see you at one--if not more!--of these terrific events.

A Most Unexpected History of Blood Transfusion (1660 - 1820s)
Illustrated lecture with Paul Craddock, The London Consortium
Date: TONIGHT Monday, May 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Those living in Britain (who owned a television set) about ten years ago might remember Sean Bean before he became a famous movie star. Apart from his appearance in Sharpe, he starred in a television advertisement for the National Blood Foundation, prompting people in his thick Yorkshire accent to 'do something amazing today'; 'save a life' by giving blood. The foundation's message is still the same, though Sean Bean has moved onto other projects such as Lord of the Rings. In any case, this illustrated lecture is about just that: the transfusion of blood and its many meanings. But it focuses on a much earlier (and stranger) period of transfusion history when saving a life was only one reason to transfuse blood - from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth.

The association between blood and life is a very easy one to make and seems to span all cultures and time periods, as does the very idea of swapping blood from one person to another. But what it meansto swap one being's blood with another's - and why this might be attempted - has radically changed. It is only very recently, (around the turn of the twentieth century), that blood was transfused in order to purposefully replace lost blood. For the majority of this history, this was most certainly not the case. In the seventeenth century, transfusions of lamb's blood were made to calm mad patients and, in the nineteenth century, blood was transfused in order to restore a portion of an invisible living principle living inside of it. This lecture explores from where these ideas came and the ways in which bits of them might linger in our own ideas of transfusion.

On one last note: Paul Craddock commissioned a medical instrument maker to produce some early nineteenth century transfusion equipment. He hopes to demonstrate them at work if he can get them past customs!

Paul Craddock is currently writing on pre-20th century transplant surgery and transfusion at the London Consortiumworking under Prof. Steven Connor (University of London) and Prof. Holly Tucker (Vanderbilt University, Nashville). After a brief time studying music and performing arts, living in rural China, and working for the National Health Service, Paul made the switch to cultural and medical history. He has never had a transplant and never received a transfusion - his interest in these procedures come from thinking about generally how we relate to the material world by making bodily transactions. He has lectured around the UK and Europe, and last year he spoke at the Observatory Gallery on skin grafting. Currently based in London, Paul is the Director of London Consortium Television, the audio-visual arm of the London Consortium (www.londonconsortium.tv). He is also the Guests' Secretary for the University of London's Extra Mural Literature Association. In another professional life, he produces films for medical establishments and museum exhibitions.

 
The Hidden River Expedition: A Re-Exploration of the Post-industrial Wilderness along Philadelphia’s Rivers: An Illustrated Lecture and Film Screening with Allen Crawford (aka Lord Whimsy)
Date: This Friday, May 18
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

In August of 2011, Allen Crawford (aka Lord Whimsy) left his house to embark on a three-day, forty-mile solo kayak trek from Mount Holly, NJ to Bartram's Garden, in West Philadelphia. This May 18th, Crawford will present a video using footage shot from his kayak during this trek. He will also give a slideshow presentation, highlighting the strange history along these rivers he traversed: fugitive slave enclaves, floating churches, Civil-War era submarines, and derelict aircraft carriers all await you. This expedition was a re-exploration of Philadelphia's landscape, and an investigation of how its built and grown environments have affected each other over time. This landscape is not pristine, but it is wild--and perhaps most important, it's new. The "local frontier" exists!

 Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy(a.k.a. Victor Allen Crawford III), After twenty long years, has at last achieved his dream: unemployability. He is an artist, designer, author, re-explorer, failed dandy, tin grandee, gentleman trespasser, bushwhacking aesthete, parenthetical naturalist, pseudo-intellectual, and a middle-aged dilettante. Having taken a solemn vow to do as little in life as possible, Whimsy was dismayed one morning to discover that he had accidentally wrote, designed, and illustrated The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One(Bloomsbury 2006), which has been optioned for film by Johnny Depp?
??s production company, Infinitum Nihil. His face and his words have graced the hallowed pages of The New York Times, Interview, Frieze, Vice, Tin House, and Art in America. He and his wife are proprietors of the design and illustration studio Plankton Art Co. Their most notable project to date is the collection of 400 species identification illustrations that are on permanent display at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life. A devoted enthusiast, lower-case adventurer, and explorer of what he calls “the local frontier,” Whimsy spends most of his time among the nooks and margins of the forgotten, the curious, and the speculative that is found beneath, around, and between the everyday. He smells like gusto.

And onward and upwards:

• May 21: “The Secret Life of Mushrooms” — Screening of film about mushroom tourism in Mexico with the film’s producer/director Kathleen Green and interviewer Dan Glass
• May 31: “Powder House” A Film about Jell-O: Screening of this film about this "symbol, multi-faceted and elusive; it’s silly, playful, funereal, American. It’s made from bones." Q and A with the filmmakers
• June 3: Life and Death Mask Making Workshop with Artist Sigrid Sarda *** Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com
• June 4: Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant: An illustrated lecture and screening of “lost footage” with Mel Gordon, author of Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant and Grand Guiginol: Theatre of Fear and Terror
• June 24: Anatomical Wax Votive Workshop with Artist Sigrid Sarda ***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com
• June 25: Class: Drawing from the Bestiary: Animal Anatomy of Real and Imagined Creatures: 4-Part Class with Artist Saul Chernick, M.F.A., Rutgers University ***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com
• June 30: Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop: With former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
• June 30: Morbid Anatomy Library Post-Disaster Benefit SAVE THE DATE
• July 13: Anatomical Venuses, The Slashed Beauty, and Fetuses Dancing a Jig: Illustrated lecture by Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna Ebenstein, followed by afterparty featuring thematic music and specialty cocktails by Friese Undine

You can find out more about all events by clicking here.

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All I have to say is WOW: pictured above are scenes from a coin-operated automaton (which I am guessing is from the 1920s or 30s, rather than 1900 as the auctioneers claim) in which, after a coin is inserted, "doors open and the room is lighted revealing four morticians and four poor souls on embalming tables, the morticians move as if busily at work on their grisly task and mourners standing outside bob their heads as if sobbing in grief."

This object is for sale (!!!) and is estimated to go for between $4,000-$6,000 as part of an upcoming Science, Technology & Clocks auction taking place on June 2, 2012 10:00AM. Full lot description from the Skinner Auctioneers website follows:

Lot 207
"St. Dennistoun Mortuary" Coin-Operated Automaton, attributed to Leonard Lee, c. 1900, the mahogany cabinet and glazed viewing area displays a Greek Revival mortuary building with double doors and grieving mourners out front, when a coin is inserted, doors open and the room is lighted revealing four morticians and four poor souls on embalming tables, the morticians move as if busily at work on their grisly task and mourners standing outside bob their heads as if sobbing in grief, ht. 30 1/2, wd. 24, dp. 17 1/4 in.

Estimate $4,000-6,000

Brass coin plate stamped J. Dennison Leeds NO. 80

You can find out more and see the other lots--which include other automatons including an amazing automaton last supper!--by clicking here. My only plea, if any of you Morbid Anatomy readers purchase this, please (please!) invite me over to see it in action! I would certainly buy it myself if I could afford it. If the Musée Mécanique is still actively collecting, this would make a wonderful addition to their rich collection of coin-op toys depicting deaths by such means as guillotine, French execution, and English execution; yes, really. More on that here.

Thanks so much to Morbid Anatomy readers Nanette Rod and Jane Fuller for bringing this amazing object to my attention! All images sourced from the auctioneer website; click on images to see larger versions.

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Image Credit: ABC

Greys Anatomy didnt waste much time making good on that promise to kill a well-loved member of the gang. In fact, it came about 20 minutes into the hour. And the 40 minutes that followed? Possibly the most anxiety-ridden moments of my television life.

Read on for more if youve seen the episode: [Spoilers below!]

Heres the rundown: Lexie died in the plane crash but not before sharing an emotional goodbye with Mark, who by the end of the episode was near death himself. Derek possibly ruined his hand forever after he had to mangle himself to get free after being trapped under debris. Arizona injured her leg badly and was coughing up blood status: TBD. Meredith got stabbed in the leg and had a head injury but was stable enough to help others. And Cristina hurt her arm. Oh, she also lost her shoe but she found it. Truly, that was one of the brightest spots of the episode.

Well, that and Bailey getting engaged to her boyfriend Ben. Yup, while part of the gang was at the crash site, everyone at the hospital had no idea what was going on. I both hated and was thankful for every cut-away back to the hospital. Hated it because it took us away from the crash site; thankful for the same reason.

But now we step away from the crash site for three months. Yup, nothing was really resolved with the crash docs and, as of the end of the episode, help is NOT on the way.

All I can say is this: Hopefully I will have resumed breathing by the time September rolls around.

REMINDER: Come back later for Tanner Stranskys full recap of the ep!

Originally posted here:
'Grey's Anatomy': Your take?

Image Credit: Vivian Zink/ABC

Shonda Rhimes is fierce. But not in the Tyra Oh, you look so fierce Banks way. I mean fierce as in Im not afraid to kill off one of my beloved characters all in the name of good television kind of way.

In the weeks before tonights season finale, the executive producer and creator behind the show has made no secret of the fact that we should brace ourselves to say goodbye to a cast member before the season ends. Note how I said cast member and not doctor.

Last weeks episode ran relatively calm as the residents made their decisions to leave Seattle Grace or stay put until the last two minutes, when a plane carrying a handful of doctors crashed somewhere in the Northwestern wilderness. So who is leaving us tonight? We know Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Ellen Pompeo, and Justin Chambers are signed on for two moreseasons, so Im counting them out. But here are my thoughts on which character might be signing off:

Adele: Played by the outstanding Loretta Devine, Adele has been suffering from a severe case of Alzheimers this season, which is why its important to note that a cast member is leaving. Adeles condition has been consistently deteriorating, so much so that shes fallen in love with another Alzheimers patient and has started sleeping with him. My heart broke when Richard walked in on them, and I wouldnt be shattered if she was the one to leave. Outside the comfort of Dr. Catherine Avery, Richard needs some peace of mind.

Callie/Arizona: The loving couple had a minimal amount of hardship this year until Arizona had to deal with a failed surgery for a terminally ill friend. In her despair from the news, Arizona asked Callie to promise to never leave her. This reeks of foreshadowing.

April: She not only failed to pass her boards, but she also couldnt secure a position at any hospital, including Seattle Grace. Given her ultra-neurotic disposition, April has been quickly unraveling, culminating with a rapid exit from Joes bar last week as Avery tried to comfort her. To picture it is giving me chills, but I think we could see April commit suicide.

Take your guess below.

Read more: Greys Anatomy: Watch the first six minutes of the season finale VIDEO Greys Anatomy boss on the finale: I did what was necessary Greys Anatomy actors near deal to return

Read the original:
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season finale: Who will die?

Ever since Grey's Anatomy premiered on March 27, 2005, I've been hooked. Whether I was educating myself with medical jargon (did I mention I have a Ph.D. in surgical lingo?) or swooning over the McDreamy-Meredith romance, I was officially diagnosed with Grey's Obsession. It was a beautiful (albeit semi-unhealthy) relationship that I was happy to be a part of. But somewhere along the way, Grey's has lost a bit of its edge. It's developed a pattern of repetition, downgrading the caliber of its episodes. However, I continue to get roped back in year after year after year for one major reason: The epic Grey's Anatomy finales.

Yes, creator Shonda Rimes definitely knows how to leave an audience hanging with her numerous finale cliffhangers. And as the years have progressed, the finales have become bigger and bigger even reaching new heights (literally) with last week's devastating plane crash. (Did we mention this looks a little familiar?)It really is great television at its finest. Rimes knows it, we know it. But therein lies the problem. Rimes has become so comfortable with piquing our interests come finale time, that she's neglecting to give viewers exciting content throughout the rest of the season. It's like she's saving up all of her good material for the final episode, but we need more than that.

Now, please remember that I've already demonstrated my profound allegiance to the show, so my disappointment does not come lightly. But I'm growing tired of the repetitive storylines that seem to go absolutely nowhere from week to week. For weeks I've wanted something monumental to happen and now that it has, I'm annoyed at how long I had to wait to get there.

This isn't just a one-time thing, though. It's something the show has been getting away with for years. Whether it be a tragic death from a beloved character (R.I.P., George) or a devastating hospital shooting, the series has solely banked on these finales to get fans to come back for the following season even when the rest of the episodes make us want to throw in the towel. It's the perfect trap. And it may have worked again this time, my patience is wearing thin.

These finales prove Grey's still has the potential to be the show we once knew, but it needs to start showing more of that throughout the entire season, not just at the end. A plane crash is suspenseful, but I'd much rather settle for a less shocking finale (like when Meredith discovered McDreamy was married in Season 1) if it meant raising the bar on the caliber of content as a whole. Fans don't want all the intrigue to be crammed into one episode and then be done with it we want a little foreplay along the way.

So please, Grey's Anatomy, you know I love you, but stop relying solely on your finales to be the main course of the show. Because one of these days, I may not stick around for seconds. Now, scrub up and get to work!

Grey's Anatomy kicks off their finale tonight, May 17 at 9 PM (ET/PT) on ABC. Will you be watching?

More: Grey's Anatomy Characters Get LOST VIDEO Which Greys Anatomy Doctors Will Return Next Fall? Greys Anatomy Finale Details Emerge, Get Em While Theyre McSteamy

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'Grey’s Anatomy': Please Stop Banking On Your Finales

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There's a good chance you've seen the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, but now a new app lets people fully appreciate what makes them so amazing. The "Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy" app lets users pour over every single one of his 268 detailed drawings of the human body.

They can zoom in to see just how detailed Leonardo got, and some of the drawings have even been turned into 3-D models, for users to better understand just how well he understood anatomy more than 500 years ago.

If that doesn't help, there are also expert interviews to lay out why they are so impressed with how accurate his sketches are.

Users can also get close on his well-documented "mirror image" notes, view them with a virtual mirror and translate them.

"Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy," which was created to coincide with an exhibit of his drawings at the Queens Gallery in Buckingham Palace, is an iPad app for $13.99.

From blueprints of the human body to actual blueprints, there is now a game called "Blueprints 3D." Users choose a category from architecture to electronics to space to animals.

What they then see as they begin a level is a bunch of scattered lines, and the goal is to twist and rotate the lines so that they are in the perfect place to recreate a blueprint of something, from the Statue of Liberty to a hamster. Users do not know what it is they are done.

There are three levels that make the app increasingly harder.

"Blueprints 3D" is an iOS app that, for a limited time, is just 99 cents.

The rest is here:
App Wrap: 'Leonardo Da Vinci: Anatomy,' 'Blueprints 3D'

Grey's Anatomy

Who's going to die on the Grey's Anatomy eighth season finale?

Six doctors Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Mark, Lexie and Arizona crash-landed somewhere in the woods on their way to Boise. Though we'd like to think that April (Sarah Drew), who failed her boards, would kill herself and save us the torment of a more shocking loss the promos seem to indicate that it's one of the Stranded Six who won't make it out alive.

Grey's Anatomy Exclusive Finale Scoop: A Seattle Grace exodus and a "dark and twisty" event

So which character bites the dust? We weigh the pros and cons for each potential Seattle Grace casualty in order from most to least likely to die:

1.Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) Why She Will Die: We have come to love Little Grey, so when Shonda Rhimes told us the prospect of a reunion with Mark might be "bittersweet or painful," we were worried. Our guess? They finally reconcile just in time for one of them to die, which is why they're both at the top of this list. Why She Won't: Meredith has already stated that Lexie is one of the reasons she'd stay, so if the writers are planning to keep Mer at Seattle Grace, then why would baby sis have to die?

2. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) Why He Will Die: Let's face it, Mark is only interesting when he's in a relationship with Lexie, and it's been an entire season since they were dating. And anyway, we're sick of the will-they-won't-they dynamic for a couple that was already together! Also: Rhimes' bittersweet comment above could also apply to Mark. Why He Won't: Slexie fans would be furious if the duo never did get back together. Plus: Do we really want to see Lexie have another mental breakdown like she did after the shooting?

Exclusive Grey's Anatomy Video: Which doctors will be leaving Seattle Grace?

3. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) Why She Will Die: When Arizona cried to Callie (Sara Ramirez) about the impending loss of her friend Nick, she begged Callie to never leave, but moments later, Arizona was the one who took Alex's spot on the plane and flew off to Boise. When writers use the old foreshadowing technique like that, we get anxious. Also, how poetic would it be if the one person who wasn't supposed to be on the plane ended up dying? Writers love that! Why She Won't: Rhimes might fear the wrath of the LGBT community with whom she works closely with and is receiving a GLAAD award from should she kill off one of the few lesbian characters on network television.

4. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) Why He Will Die: His death would singlehandedly reinvigorate the series because it would be a rebirth for Meredith. Sure, she would be sad and go through yet another long "dark and twisty" phase, but to see her come out the other side "bright and shiny" and single again would be a fun journey. (We'll be expecting your hate mail soon!) Why He Won't: He just finished the McMansion! In all seriousness, the likelihood of Derek being killed off is slim considering Dempsey, Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh, Justin Chambers, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr. all reportedly signed two-year contracts last week, which Dempsey later confirmed at least for himself.

More:
Who's Going to Die on the Grey's Anatomy Season Finale?

FORTUNE -- Everyone from Greece's squabbling political parties to Europe's central bankers are expressing faith that Greece will remain in the Euro. That's not surprising, since simply talking about how to manage an exit would spread panic, making the exit inevitable. But the panic is already here. Greece's departure from the Euro could happen within a couple of weeks, if not a few days.

The pressing problem isn't a splintered legislature that may balk at delivering the reforms that the IMF and European Community are demanding in exchange for the next tranche of bailout money. It's a disastrous, old-fashioned run-on-the bank. "For a year, Greeks have been sending their savings from Greek banks to foreign banks," says Robert Aliber, retired professor of international economics from the University of Chicago. "Now, the flood has reached a crescendo." Indeed on Monday alone, outflows from the Greek banks reached almost $900 million.

The flight of capital is sapping the deposits needed to refinance mortgages and small business loans, causing a full-blown credit crisis. Greeks are also extremely reluctant to spend their Euros on cars, dining or anything else, since they reckon those Euros will buy more at the supermarkets and auto lots in the weeks or months ahead. The disappearing consumer is further crippling the economy.

MORE: 'Austerity' isn't an evil word

Greece's exit is absolutely necessary. "Its prices and costs are far too high under the Euro, so it just cannot compete on international markets," says Aliber. "The Greeks have suffered far more through all these misguided bailouts than they've gained by lowering prices or costs." The political gridlock, argues Aliber, is actually a good thing because it will hasten abandoning a disastrously overvalued currency, just what's needed to get Greece growing again.

The mechanics of shelving the Euro for its own currency are pretty predictable. One day soon, imagine it's late on a Friday afternoon, the Greek government will declare all banks closed for the following week. By Monday, the legislature will vote an emergency law that designates a fixed exchange rate of, say, 1 drachma the Greek pre-Euro currency for each Euro. By Monday, all corporate and personal savings in Greek banks will be denominated in drachma.

The drachma will tumble in value, so that almost immediately, Greek consumers will need at least 1.5 Drachma to buy one Euro. A savings account that held 15,000 euros is now 15,000 Drachma. But those drachmas will soon fetch just 10,000 Euros. That's a "devaluation" of 33%. "That number is the low-end of the range for countries that exit a common currency," says Uri Dadush, an economist at the Carnegie Endowment.

What happens next is the pivotal issue, and top economists disagree strongly on Greece's post-Euro future. To be sure, this isn't a play by Aeschylus or Aristophanes where the audience knows the finale. Yanis Varoufakis of the University of Athens foresees a Greek tragedy in which a run on the banks is followed by a run on the drachma. "Greeks paid in drachma will go to the ATM then immediately exchange their drachma for Euros people have stashed in their freezers," says Varoufakis. He thinks that the drachma will keep plunging against foreign currencies, and Greeks will keep bailing, causing a new crisis of hyperinflation.

MORE: The 3 biggest benefits of producing more oil

But the disaster scenario isn't inevitable. "Other countries have left what's effectively a common currency zone without suffering hyperinflation," says Hans Humes, president of investment firm Greylock Capital, which holds Greek government bonds. Aliber thinks that Greece's exit will create the same growth dynamic that's recharged Iceland and Argentina, both of whom effectively shed overvalued currencies.

See the article here:
Greece: The anatomy of a default

ABC

By Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter

"Grey's Anatomy" viewers, buckle up: you're in for screams, blood, exposed bones and a completely stressful episode if the first six minutes of Thursday's Season 8 finale are any indication of what's coming.

STORY: "Grey's Anatomy's" Shonda Rhimes on the deadly finale: "We're literally saying goodbye to people"

After a plane carrying some of Seattle Grace's best and brightest crashed into a forest, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Derek (Patrick Dempsey), Cristina (Sandra Oh), Lexie (Chyler Leigh), Mark (Eric Dane) and Arizona's (Jessica Capshaw) lives were left hanging in the balance.

STORY: "Grey's Anatomy": Sarah Drew on the boards, April and Jackson's steamy hook-up and the finale "event"

Showrunner Shonda Rhimes has warned that the episode, fittingly titled "Flight," will include what she calls a "pretty big death."

STORY: "Grey's Anatomy" Recap: Whose lives are hanging in the balance?

"We're not talking [about] some guest star [who] is going to come in and die kind of thing; it's a big death and it's fairly shocking," she told The Hollywood Reporter during a recent interview. "It was hard, it was hard to write, it was hard to listen to at the table read. It is a difficult thing to do and not done lightly. When one of your main characters dies, it always affects the heart and soul of the hospital."

So who will survive the first six minutes? Watch the clip to find out, but be warned: it's graphic and severely cringe-inducing.

Excerpt from:
Who survives 'Grey's' finale plane crash?

Yesterday was a tumultuous day for Brisbane's indigenous community, from a pre-dawn eviction of a makeshift tent embassy at Musgrave Park in South Brisbane and impromptu protest marches through the city centre. Amy Remeikis was there to document the entire day, from beginning to end.

The police moved in just before dawn.

Musgrave Park at West End was surrounded by officers.

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The media were directed to a staging point on the corner on Cordelia and Glenelg Streets, but getting there from the Cordelia Street side was difficult.

All side streets linking to the park were cordoned off, even for those on foot. While members of the media tweeted they were being escorted out of the tent embassy site, police were denying others entry.

Reaching the staging area required the showing of ID, both photo and a business card and following police directions to the letter; no, step back three steps please but once in the required area, the media were largely ignored.

For a while, nothing happened. Protesters came in support of the tent embassy members, establishing an area across the road from the park. A microphone and mobile speaker were quickly found. Speeches were made. Songs were sung. Across the road, those inside the fence erected around the embassy alternatively danced, cheered and yelled.

The sticking point in the negotiations was the sacred fire, started from embers from a similar fire at the Canberra tent embassy, where the idea for corresponding tent embassies across the nation was hatched.

Brisbane City Council wanted everything cleared before the Paniyiri Greek Festival this weekend, including the fire.

Go here to see the original:
Anatomy of a protest

MONDAY, MAY 14: "Bones"

"Bones" (8 p.m. ET on Fox) season finale
Evil tech genius Christopher Pelant (guest star Andrew Leeds), a suspect in a previous case Brennan and Booth handled, is back in court on appeal. Knowing what he is capable of, Brennan and Booth inform the judge that he is a suspect in two murder cases. Then, Brennan and Booth are called to the scene of a new murder. After determining the victim is Brennan's friend, who also is linked to Pelant, the Jeffersonian team works to prove he is guilty once and for all. But when law enforcement examines the team's findings, key pieces of evidence are tied to Brennan and suspicion falls on her.

"Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. ET on The CW) season finale
When Gossip Girl goes after Blair as she's never done before, Serena admits she may have unintentionally played an important role in Blair's latest nightmare. Meanwhile, Nate invites Lola to move in with him, and Lily must make a big decision about the future of her marriage. Finally, by episode's end, Blair will make a choice between the two men in her life ... will it be Chuck or will it be Dan? Followed by the finale of the also-renewed "Hart of Dixie."

"How I Met Your Mother" (8 p.m. ET on CBS) one-hour season finale
On Barney's future wedding day, when his wife is finally revealed, the gang reminisces about the time they encouraged Ted to follow his heart and go after the one that got away. Followed by the season finales of "Two and a Half Men" and "Hawaii Five-0."

"Make It or Break It" (9 p.m. ET on ABC Family) series finale
Eight weeks at the USA Training Center have led to this moment: who will make it onto the 2012 Olympic Gymnastics team and who will be left behind in the show's final episode. Payson decides to rework her floor routine at the risk of losing a spot on the team. Kaylie is at a loss when Jordan refuses her help. Still recovering from surgery, Lauren balances her health with her need to make it to the Olympics. Meanwhile, Kaylie is thrown for a loop when she is told that her drug test came back positive for a banned substance.

"The Bachelorette" (9.30 p.m. ET on ABC) season premiere
Fan-favorite Emily Maynard -- the first single mother in "Bachelorette" history -- begins her own search for love in Charlotte, NC in the eighth edition of the romance reality series. Season highlights include trips to Bermuda, London, Dubrovnik and Prague, and appearances from Dolly Parton, Gloriana, Luke Bryant and The Muppets.

"Kurt Sutter's Outlaw Empires" (10 p.m. ET on Discovery) series premiere
"Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter enters the realm of the gangs and families who have dominated our streets and helped shape our nation's history. Steered by Sutter's compelling insight, each episode tells the complete story of an iconic American outlaw dynasty -- directly from the mouths of people from the inside. Through their no-holds-barred accounts, the series takes an unvarnished look at moment-by-moment experiences that were not only pivotal for the organizations themselves, but life-changing for the individuals telling the stories.

"Smash" (10 p.m. ET on NBC) season finale
The big night is finally here. Tom and Julia race against time to save the show, while Derek makes a decision that will change the lives of Karen and Ivy forever. Ellis reveals his true colors (hmm) -- but when he finally makes his move to save "Bombshell," will it be for or against Eileen? In the midst of it all, another bombshell goes off -- this time in Karen and Dev's relationship.

"Glee" (8 p.m. ET on Fox) double-bill
As the countdown to graduation continues, the kids of New Directions prepare a high-concept routine for Nationals. When Tina bumps her head, the world of New Directions is turned upside down in her eyes. Then, the New Directions perform at Nationals for celebrity judge Lindsay Lohan (guest-starring as herself). Worth watching for the Lohan trainwreck factor alone, no?

"Cougar Town" (8 p.m. ET on ABC) double-bill
Now that the underappreciated (and still genius) comedy has officially made the move to TBS, ABC seems to be in burn-off mode with two weeks of hour-long blocks -- but we're just happy that it'll be around for another year. In the first episode, Grayson moves in with Jules after the hurricane damages his house, but the sudden togetherness makes them wonder if they're going to make the same mistakes in their upcoming marriage that they made in their past relationships. In the second, when Jules realizes that the cul-de-sac crew didn't celebrate Thanksgiving together, she decides to celebrate the holiday, even though it's spring. The "Private Practice" season finale airs at 10 p.m. ET.

Read more from the original source:
'Grey's Anatomy' Finale: Bloody Season 8 Sneak Peek (VIDEO)

London-based photographer, Cristiana Montis created this series of photographs based off of the manikins used in the Canterbury Christ Church University skills labs.  Cristiana’s compositions create a sense of sadness and isolation around the manikins in each photograph.

She says of her experience,

The adult and young person manikins are life-size and are unsettlingly similar to the real thing in both appearance and touch.

All in all the skills labs provide an insightful and odd environment where real and pretend merge into a life-size ‘doll-house’ where the cycle of life and death is played out day after day by life-less objects.

View her entire series at cristianamontis.com

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Munich based tattoo shop Chaos Crew created a poster identifying newsworthy events from 2011. What makes this poster so special? It’s calfskin, and the art wasn’t screen printed or painted, but tattooed on!

It’s a great concept—though it does make me cringe a little.  I have a decent number of tattoos and yet, there’s still something kinda eerie about this.

[source: BuzzFeed]

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YNN highlights the coolest and newest apps for your cell phone or mobile device in the twice-weekly segment App Wrap. YNNs Adam Balkin filed the following report.

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Leonardo Da Vinci: Anatomy There's a good chance you've seen the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, but now a new app lets people fully appreciate what makes them so amazing. The "Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy" app lets users pour over every single one of his 268 detailed drawings of the human body.

They can zoom in to see just how detailed Leonardo got, and some of the drawings have even been turned into 3-D models, for users to better understand just how well he understood anatomy more than 500 years ago.

If that doesn't help, there are also expert interviews to lay out why they are so impressed with how accurate his sketches are.

Users can also get close on his well-documented "mirror image" notes, view them with a virtual mirror and translate them.

"Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy," which was created to coincide with an exhibit of his drawings at the Queens Gallery in Buckingham Palace, is an iPad app for $13.99.

Blueprints 3D From blueprints of the human body to actual blueprints, there is now a game called "Blueprints 3D." Users choose a category from architecture to electronics to space to animals.

What they then see as they begin a level is a bunch of scattered lines, and the goal is to twist and rotate the lines so that they are in the perfect place to recreate a blueprint of something, from the Statue of Liberty to a hamster. Users do not know what it is they are done.

There are three levels that make the app increasingly harder.

The rest is here:
App Wrap: "Leonardo Da Vinci: Anatomy" and "Blueprints 3D"

I love these delectable creatures of the nautical sublime, especially their seaweed bracelets and headdresses. As described on the Beauty, Virtue and Vice online exhibit of the American Antiquarian Society website (from which the images is also sourced):

Mermaid Polka. Lith. of Napoleon Sarony, 1850. [H. D. Hewitt]

In the nineteenth century, informal musical entertainments were a very common American pastime, and the piano was a common presence in American parlors. The piano’s rise in popularity coincided with advances in printing technology, and a booming sheet music industry was one result of these simultaneous developments.

American consumers purchased particular pieces of music for various reasons. Certainly, popular songs of the American musical stage became bestselling sheet music, but it is clear that sheet music publishers recognized that American consumers would buy even unfamiliar music if the cover art was appealing enough. Pictorial sheet music covers did double duty within the household: displayed above a keyboard even when a piano wasn’t in use, they functioned as decorative art.

Nineteenth-century pictorial sheet music covers capitalized on an endless array of already popular subjects, ideas, and themes in order to capture buyers’ attention. Over the course of the nineteenth century, sheet music images of beautiful women remained the most consistently popular type of illustration. In Mermaid Polka, these nude and loosely robed young women are graceful, demure, and carefree. They embody various ideas about women’s nature, with a titillating erotic accent. This lavish visual fantasy of beautiful young sea nymphs frolicking in the moonlight was meant to appeal to a wide variety of potential buyers. While women and men alike might have enjoyed this image for its pictorial beauty and expression of innocent romantic pleasure, men might also have associated it with antebellum dancing-girl performances (which were enjoyed by overwhelmingly male audiences) and European paintings like Botticelli’s celebrated fifteenth-century work, The Birth of Venus.

More here. Click on image to see much finer, larger version.

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Illustration via Dream Anatomy

This is one historical anatomical illustration that I have yet to see inked on someone’s body until now!  Rodrigo down in Mexico City sent me his Riemsdyk tattoo saying, “People think I’m crazy but I really like Riemsdyk`s drawings and the history behind them.”  The illustration was originally drawn by Jan van Riemsdyk, in Anatomia uteri human gravidi (The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus), by anatomist William Hunter (1774).

Tattoo by Pablo Xno, Mexico City.

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This week and next at Observatory! Hope to see you there.

Blaschka: Glass creatures of the Ocean – An Illustrated History of The Natural History Museum (NHM), London Collection
 Illustrated lecture with Miranda Lowe, The Natural History Museum (NHM), London Curator
Date: Thursday, May 10
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Although more famously know for the making the glass flowers exhibited at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the father and son partnership of Leopold (1822-1895) and Rudolf (1857-1939) Blaschka also made numerous marine invertebrate glass models. Some of the first models they made were sea anemones in the early 1860’s. The Natural History Museum (NHM), London purchased their first set around 1865 and holds over 185 Blaschka glass models consisting of anemones, sea slugs, jellyfish, octopus, squid, protozoans and corals representing their entire model making career. The models were made in a variety ways with many formed over wire skeletons (known as armatures) with the glass fused together or glued. Profiled in various scientific sales catalogues such as Henry A. Ward’s they were to sold museums, universities and private collectors by the Blaschkas themselves and various agents who worked on their behalf worldwide. In the past these models were of scientific importance in teaching but as trends change their significance as works of art are also being highlighted. Each glass model is a unique blend of art, science and craftsmanship looking more life-like than real specimens whose natural colours may fade when stored in jars of preservation fluid over time. This highly illustrated lecture will give a fascinating insight to this collection housed at one of the major natural history museums in the world.

Miranda Loweis the Collections Manager of the Marine Invertebrates Division, Zoology Department, The Natural History Museum (NHM), London. Within Zoology Miranda specifically manages the Crustacea collections as well as the team of curators responsible for the Invertebrate collections. Darwin barnacles and the Blaschka marine invertebrate glass models are amongst some of the historical collections that are her interests and under her care. In 2006, she was part of the organising committee and invited speaker at the 1st international Blaschka congress held in Dublin. Miranda collaborated with the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK in 2008 to exhibit some of the Museum’s Blaschka collection alongside contemporary Blaschka inspired art. She also has an interest in photography, natural history - past and present serving on a number of committees including the Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) and the Natural Sciences Association (NatSCA).

Image: © The Natural History Museum, London 2012. All Rights Reserved.

A Most Unexpected History of Blood Transfusion (1660 - 1820s)
Illustrated lecture with Paul Craddock
Date: Monday, May 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Those living in Britain (who owned a television set) about ten years ago might remember Sean Bean before he became a famous movie star. Apart from his appearance in Sharpe, he starred in a television advertisement for the National Blood Foundation, prompting people in his thick Yorkshire accent to 'do something amazing today'; 'save a life' by giving blood. The foundation's message is still the same, though Sean Bean has moved onto other projects such as Lord of the Rings. In any case, this illustrated lecture is about just that: the transfusion of blood and its many meanings. But it focuses on a much earlier (and stranger) period of transfusion history when saving a life was only one reason to transfuse blood - from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth.

The association between blood and life is a very easy one to make and seems to span all cultures and time periods, as does the very idea of swapping blood from one person to another. But what it meansto swap one being's blood with another's - and why this might be attempted - has radically changed. It is only very recently, (around the turn of the twentieth century), that blood was transfused in order to purposefully replace lost blood. For the majority of this history, this was most certainly not the case. In the seventeenth century, transfusions of lamb's blood were made to calm mad patients and, in the nineteenth century, blood was transfused in order to restore a portion of an invisible living principle living inside of it. This lecture explores from where these ideas came and the ways in which bits of them might linger in our own ideas of transfusion.
On one last note: Paul Craddock commissioned a medical instrument maker to produce some early nineteenth century transfusion equipment. He hopes to demonstrate them at work if he can get them past customs!

Paul Craddock is currently writing on pre-20th century transplant surgery and transfusion at the London Consortiumworking under Prof. Steven Connor (University of London) and Prof. Holly Tucker (Vanderbilt University, Nashville). After a brief time studying music and performing arts, living in rural China, and working for the National Health Service, Paul made the switch to cultural and medical history. He has never had a transplant and never received a transfusion - his interest in these procedures come from thinking about generally how we relate to the material world by making bodily transactions. He has lectured around the UK and Europe, and last year he spoke at the Observatory Gallery on skin grafting. Currently based in London, Paul is the Director of London Consortium Television, the audio-visual arm of the London Consortium (www.londonconsortium.tv).  He is also the Guests' Secretary for the University of London's Extra Mural Literature Association.  In another professional life, he produces films for medical establishments and museum exhibitions.

Image: An early blood transfusion from lamb to man, ca 1705. From "Tryals Proposed by Mr. Boyle to Dr. Lower, to be Made by Him, for the Improvement of Transfusing Blood out of One Live Animal into Another," Mr. Boyle

 
The Hidden River Expedition: A Re-Exploration of the Post-industrial Wilderness along Philadelphia's Rivers
An Illustrated Lecture and Film Screening with Allen Crawford (aka Lord Whimsy)
Date: Friday, May 18
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

In August of 2011, Allen Crawford (aka Lord Whimsy) left his house to embark on a three-day, forty-mile s
olo kayak trek from Mount Holly, NJ to Bartram's Garden, in West Philadelphia. This May 18th, Crawford will present a video using footage shot from his kayak during this trek. He will also give a slideshow presentation, highlighting the strange history along these rivers he traversed: fugitive slave enclaves, floating churches, Civil-War era submarines, and derelict aircraft carriers all await you. This expedition was a re-exploration of Philadelphia's landscape, and an investigation of how its built and grown environments have affected each other over time. This landscape is not pristine, but it is wild--and perhaps most important, it's new. The "local frontier" exists!

Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy(a.k.a. Victor Allen Crawford III), After twenty long years, has at last achieved his dream: unemployability. He is an artist, designer, author, re-explorer, failed dandy, tin grandee, gentleman trespasser, bushwhacking aesthete, parenthetical naturalist, pseudo-intellectual, and a middle-aged dilettante. Having taken a solemn vow to do as little in life as possible, Whimsy was dismayed one morning to discover that he had accidentally wrote, designed, and illustrated The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One(Bloomsbury 2006), which has been optioned for film by Johnny Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil. His face and his words have graced the hallowed pages of The New York Times, Interview, Frieze, Vice, Tin House, and Art in America. He and his wife are proprietors of the design and illustration studio Plankton Art Co. Their most notable project to date is the collection of 400 species identification illustrations that are on permanent display at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life. A devoted enthusiast, lower-case adventurer, and explorer of what he calls “the local frontier,” Whimsy spends most of his time among the nooks and margins of the forgotten, the curious, and the speculative that is found beneath, around, and between the everyday. He smells like gusto.

More on all events can be found here.

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I am very excited to announce a few open slots in this Saturday's long sold-out Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton, part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy at Observatory. Full details for the class follow; send an email to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list. First come, first served!

Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: This Saturday, May 12
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Rhinoceros beetles: nature's tiny giants. Adorable, with their giant heads and tiny legs, and wonderful antler-like protrusions. If you think they would be even more adorable drinking tiny beers and holding tiny fishing poles, we have the perfect class for you! In today's workshop, students will learn to make--and leave with their own!--shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. An assortment of miniature furniture and foods will be made available to decorate your habitat, but students are strongly encouraged to bring any dollhouse props they would like to use. 1:12 scale is generally best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and  love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

You can find out more about this class here, and more about The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy by clicking here.

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