Sarah Drew, Jesse Williams

"No it's not a dream. They do make out for real!"

There you have it, folks! The recent Grey's Anatomy promos don't lie: Sarah Drew confirms that April and Jackson (Jesse Williams) will be hooking up in this Thursday's episode, when the doctors travel to San Francisco to take their medical boards.

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

Does this mean April will finally be deflowered? Drew was mum on that front (which we'll take as a "yes.") "That is still up in air," she says. Their fling springs from the stresses of taking the medical boards, which will decide the doctors' fates and also help them land jobs that will take them away from Seattle Grace.

"April goes a little crazy," Drew says. "She is super anxious, super just full of panic and anxiety about doing well or failing and she doesn't really know what to do with all of this extra energy and is jumping out of her skin. She does a lot of things that are really surprising and out of character for her that leads to some pretty fantastic fallout afterwards." In case you missed the promo, she also punches a guy in the face.

The hookup, in particular, will lead to a very interesting turn of events heading into the final episodes of the season. "It's going to bite both of them in the ass because they both walk away from that being confused by the whole thing," Drew says. "The writers have really written a very interesting journey for April and Jackson over the next four episodes. We see a lot of conflict and confusion -- how do you continue to be friends after something like that happens?

Finale Preview: Get scoop on how your favorite shows are ending their seasons

"What we'll see that lasts is their deep abiding friendship and the fact that they really do care for one another on a very deep level that isn't just butterflies and romance at all. There's also something big that's revealed about April, something about her character that's revealed at the end of this week's episode that also plays into everything that happens between the two of them and rest of the episodes of the season."

Even though Lexie (Chyler Leigh) has turned her attention back towards Mark (Eric Dane), will the sudden hookup destroy the relationship she shares with April? That remains to be seen since no one will learn of their tryst. "April and Jackson are not sharing their confusion with anybody else," she says. "So nobody else in the hospital knows anything has happened between the two of them."

Here is the original post:
Grey's Anatomy Scoop: Jackson and April's Hookup Is Not a Dream!

Image credit: Richard Cartwright/ABC

THE MORNING AFTER Just before the biggest exam of their lives, Kepner (Sarah Drew) said she felt bad for hooking up with Avery (Jesse Williams) because of her love for Jesus.

In a departure from the norm, a tidbit from the teaser for next weeks episode of Greys Anatomy seems like the appropriate place to start when discussing this weeks episode, Moment of Truth. It was during a moment where Averys mother, Catherine Avery -- the ever-delightful treat, Debbie Allen -- dramatically turns to Richard Webber and reveals about the impending resident exams: One of your Seattle Grace doctors didnt pass.

Granted, the teaser is just that -- a teaser. So it could easily have cut out the part where Webber turns back to Catherine Avery the next minute and says, But youre wrong! So-and-so did, in fact, pass. Anyhow, were supposed to be left thinking that one of the Seattle Grace-Mercy West fifth-year residents who were taking their boards in this weeks episode wont pass muster.

Meredith Grey teased the tension washing over the residents in her show-opening voiceover. The only thing between you and the rest of your career is a test, she dutifully intoned. In a random hotel. In a random city. With a random examiner, asking you random questions. Nervous? You should be. Bailey, in her usual way, offered up disbelief that theyd actually arrived at this day at all. They started off with so little promise, she said, I feel like Im witnessing a miracle. Thanks for that, Bailey.

The most obvious candidate for the failed Seattle Grace doctor? Karev, of course. The episode ended with his examiner walking into the hallway where the residents were waiting, calling his name, and -- when he didnt come forward -- turning around and closing her exam-room door. Done! Or so it seems. Karev, as we all saw, went to San Francisco for the exam but then ran back to Seattle Grace to help out Arizona with intern Morgans premature infant Tommy. His reversal in this arena was totally Karev and also totally annoying -- just a couple weeks ago he didnt want to have anything to do with Morgan or the baby. And then we saw him leaving his exams -- after flying all the way to San Francisco for them -- to tend to her? Right. (Also, I love how in the alterna-world of Seattle Grace, booking flights around the country at the drop of a hat is as easy as driving down the block. Need to remember: This is television!)

NEXT: More on Karev's impending doom

See the rest here:
'Grey's Anatomy' recap: Exam Anxiety

This weekend at Coney Island! Hope very much to see you there.

SYMPOSIUM: THE 2012 CONGRESS FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Saturday and Sunday, April 21st and 22nd

SATURDAY APRIL 21st

11:00 – 12:00: Keynote Addresses

• Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library
• Aaron Beebe, Coney Island Museum

12:00 – 1:00: Lunch

1:00– 3:30: Immersive Amusements: Cosmoramas, Cycloramas and PanoramicIllusions: Panel discussion moderated and introduced by Aaron Beebe,The Coney Island Museum

• Suzanne Wray
• Sara Velas, The Velaslavasay Panorama
• Jessica Routhier, The Saco Museum
• Russell Potter, Rhode Island College
• Denise Blake Oleksijczuk, Simon Fraser University

4:00 – 5:00: The Business of the Dead: Frederik Ruysch as an Entrepreneurial Anatomist, Lecture by Daniel Margocsy, Hunter College

5:00: Christmas in America: Miss Velma and the Evangelist Spectacle: Screening of “Christmas in America,” an early 1970s television special by Miss Velma, early TV evangelist, introduced by Daniel Paul

SUNDAY APRIL 22

11:00 – 1:00: Religion and Spectacle: A panel with discussion moderated and introduced by Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library

• Paul Koudounaris, author of Empire of Death
• Shannon Taggart, Photographer
  
• The Venerable Tsering Phunstok
• Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints
• Salvador Olguin, Borderline Projects

1:00 – 2:30: Lunch and Sideshow Visit

2:30 – 3:30: Traveling Ethnographic Shows and Human Zoos, a lecture by Elizabeth Bradley

3:30– 5:30: Theater Rethunk: An Alternative History of the Theatrical: Apanel with discussion moderated and introduced by Chris Muller

• Amy Herzog, Queens College
• Colin Nightingale, Senior Producer of Punchdrunk, Sleep No More
• Alex Harvey, Freelance Director/Adapter
• Chris Muller, New York University
• Dick Zigun, Founder of Coney Island USA

Tickets for the symposium are available here; for tickets to individual events and lectures, click here; 10-day Congressional Passes--which provide access to all events!--are available here. All events take place at 1208 Surf Avenue in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York; you can map it here. See you there!!!

Source:
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I am very excited to announce the final lineup for this year's EAMHMS--aka European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences-- conference taking place September 13-15 in Berlin, Germany at the fantastic Museum of Medical History at the Charité, pictured above!

Full details below. Hope to see you there.

Hidden Stories: What do medical objects tell and how can we make them speak? 16th Biennial EAMHMS Conference
Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité, Charitéplatz 1, D-10117 Berlin,
13 – 15 September 2012
The XVI EAMHMS Conference
European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences
Berlin, September 13 - 15, 2012

PROGRAMME

Thursday, 13 September 2012: Beginning in the ‘Hörsaalruine’ of the Berlin Museum of Medical History

10.00 - 13.30 Arrival of Participants, Registration and Refreshments
11.00 + 12.30 Guided tours through the museum (a look behind the scenes)
14.00 - 14.30 Opening speeches

14.30 - 15.30 Session 1: Introduction, getting started …

• Robert Ju?tte, Stuttgart (Germany): Exhibiting Intentions. Some Reflections on the Visual Display of a Culturally Purposeful Object
• Thomas Söderqvist, Copenhagen (Denmark): Is the ‘things talk’ metaphor really useful? Or does it conceal a deeper understanding of our material interaction with things?

15.30 - 16.00 Coffee and Tea

16.00 - 16.15 Walk to the Institute of Anatomy (Oskar Hertwig-Lecture Hall)

16.15 - 18.15 Session 2: Object biographies (I)

• Sophie Seemann, Berlin (Germany) A friend’s skull – gazing in a patient’s room in 1757
• Christa Habrich, Ingolstadt (Germany): A Mystery of a Platinum-made Cystoscope
• Lisa Mouwitz, Gothenburg (Sweden): Looking through the nail
• Jim Edmonson, Cleveland (USA): The art of extrapolation: following the trail from patent number to a revolution in surgical instrument design and manufacture

18.15- 19.15 Guided tours through the Anatomical Teaching Collection or the nearby
Zootomical Theatre

19.30 - 23.00 Conference Dinner in the ‘Hörsaalruine’

9.00 - 10.30 Session 3: Object biographies (II ) – waxes

• Marion Maria Ruisinger, Ingolstadt (Germany) Christus anatomicus
• Sara Doll, Heidelberg (Germany) Models of Human Embryogenesis. The search for the meaning of wax reconstructions
• Michael Geiges, Zu?rich (Switzerland) Wax Moulage Nr. 189. From teaching aid to the patients‘ story by an unusual research document

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee and Tea

11.00 - 12.30 Session 4: Teaching

• Shelley McKellar, London (Canada) Challenging Students with Toothkeys and Scarificators: Experiences with Object-Based Teaching in History
• Alfons Zarzoso, Barcelona (Spain) Teaching medical history through the material culture of medicine
• Stefan Schulz, Bochum; Karin Bastian, Leipzig (Germany) Object-based, Research-oriented Teaching in Seminars and Exhibition Projects

12.30 - 14.00 Lunch, Coffee and Tea

14.00 Walk to the nearby ‘Museum fu?r Naturkunde’

14.30 - 15.30 Guided tours in smaller groups through the ‘Museum fu?r Naturkunde’

15.30 - 17.40 Session 5: Research

• Thomas Schnalke, Berlin (Germany) Divas on the Catwalk. Some thoughts on research with objects in medical history
• Claire Jones, Worcester (Great Britain) Identifying Medical Portraiture: The case of Andrew Know Blackall
• Julia Bellmann, Heiner Fangerau, Ulm (Germany) Evolution of Therapeutic Technology: Industrial archives and collections as sources for historians of medicine
• Benôit Majerus, Luxembourg (Luxembourg) The Material Culture of Asylums Supported by Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Berliner Charité e.V.
• Nurin Veis, Melbourne (Australia) Stories from Asylums – Discovering the Hidden Worlds of the Psychiatric Services Collection

17.40 - 18.30 Transfer to the boat pier ‘Märkisches Ufer’

19.00 - 22.15 Spree Cruise (Berlin from the waterside) and dinner on board

Saturday, 15 September 2012: Final meeting in the ‘Hörsaalruine’

9.00 - 11.00 Session 6: Presenting

• Hsiang Ching Chuang, Eindhoven (Netherlands) Contextualizing Museum Experiences Through Metaphors
• Mienekete Hennepe, Leiden (Netherlands) Scary Things: Horrifying objects between disgust and desire
• Bart Grob, Leiden (Netherlands) Medicine at the Movies
• Tim Huisman, Leiden (Netherlands) Anatomical Illustration and Beyond: Looking at Bidloo and De Lairesse’s Anatomia humani corporis

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee and Tea

11.30 - 12.30 Final session

You can find a registration form here; Image sourced here. Hope to see you there!

Source:
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Hi All! Just a reminder that the 2012 Congress of Curious Peoples--a 10-day series of lectures and performances devoted to curiosity and curiosities broadly considered, and featuring sideshow acts, lectures, performances, and a 2-day scholarly-yet-popular symposium called The Congress for Curious Peoples--launches in earnest tomorrow night, with a lecture by the always amazing Amy Herzog.

This year's iteration of The Congress promises to be the best yet; it will include a 2-day symposium featuring panel discussions on topics such as pre-cinematic immersive amusements and religion as spectacle, with featured speakers that include Sara Velas of The Velaslavasay Panorama; Paul Koudounaris of Empire of Death; Colin Nightingale, Senior Producer of Punchdrunk, the company behind the mindbendingly amazing Sleep No More Sleep; and Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty. Also featured will be stand-alone lectures on the 17th century artist of fetal skeleton tableaux Frederik Ruysch and the phenomenon of ethnographic displays called "human zoos," a screening of an over-the-top early 1970s TV Evangelist Christmas spectacular, and introductory lectures by myself and Coney Island Museum director Aaron Beebe.

Full--and hopefully final!--lineup below; hope to see you at some--if not more--of the terrific events making up this year's Congress!

Monday April 16th
7:30 – (Lecture) Amy Herzog: Architectural Fictions: Economic Development, Immersive Renderings, and the Virtualization of Brooklyn (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) Shea Love and the Circus Emporium

Tuesday April 17th
7:30 – (Lecture) Philip Kadish: “Pinhead Races and the White Man’s Burden” (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) The Squidling Bros Sideshow

Wednesday April 18th
7:30 -(Lecture/Performance) ‘An Evening of Fate, Chance and Mystery’ with Lord Whimsy and Les the Mentalist (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) Jo Boobs

Thursday April 19th
7:30 – (Lecture/Demonstration) The Museum of Interesting Things, WHAT THE SAM HILL IS THAT! (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) The Curious Couple from Coney Island

Friday April 20th
7:30 – (Performance/Reading) A reading of VENUS by Suzan-Lori Parks. Directed by Donya K. Washington (more here)
9:00 – (Performance/Lecture) Sideshow Legend Jim Rose

Saturday April 21st
Super Freak Weekend at Sideshows by the Seashore (Continuous Admission, Tickets at the door); Colonnade of Curiosities in the Freak Bar
Congress For Curious People (Day 1 of a 2-day Symposium)

Sunday April 22nd
Super Freak Weekend at Sideshows by the Seashore (Continuous Admission, Tickets at the door); Colonnade of Curiosities in the Freak Bar
Congress For Curious People (Day 2 of a 2-day Symposium)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FULL SYMPOSIUM DETAILS:
THE 2012 CONGRESS FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Saturday and Sunday, April 21st and 22nd

SATURDAY APRIL 21st

11:00 – 12:00: Keynote Addresses

• Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library
• Aaron Beebe, Coney Island Museum

12:00 – 1:00: Lunch

1:00 – 3:30: Immersive Amusements: Cosmoramas, Cycloramas and Panoramic Illusions: Panel discussion moderated and introduced by Aaron Beebe, The Coney Island Museum

• Suzanne Wray
• Sara Velas, The Velaslavasay Panorama
• Jessica Routhier, The Saco Museum
• Russell Potter, Rhode Island College
• Denise Blake Oleksijczuk, Simon Fraser University

4:00 – 5:00: The Business of the Dead: Frederik Ruysch as an Entrepreneurial Anatomist, Lecture by Daniel Margocsy, Hunter College

5:00: Christmas in America: Miss Velma and the Evangelist Spectacle: Screening of “Christmas in America,” an early 1970s television special by Miss Velma, early TV evangelist, introduced by Daniel Paul

SUNDAY APRIL 22

11:00 – 1:00: Religion and Spectacle: A panel with discussion moderated and introduced by Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library

• Paul Koudounaris, author of Empire of Death
• Shannon Taggart, Photographer
  
• The Venerable Tsering Phunstok
• Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints
• Salvador Olguin, Borderline Projects

1:00 – 2:30: Lunch and Sideshow Visit

2:30 – 3:30: Traveling Ethnographic Shows and Human Zoos, a lecture by Elizabeth Bradley

3:30 – 5:30: Theater Rethunk: An Alternative History of the Theatrical: A panel with discussion moderated and introduced by Chris Muller

• Amy Herzog, Queens College
• Colin Nightingale, Senior Producer of Punchdrunk, Sleep No More
• Alex Harvey, Freelance Director/Adapter
• Chris Muller, New York University
• Dick Zigun, Founder of Coney Island USA

Tickets for the symposium are available here; for tickets to individual events and lectures, click here; 10-day Congressional Passes--which provide acce
ss to all events!--are available here. All events take place at 1208 Surf Avenue in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York; you can map it here. See you there!!!

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Grey's Anatomy helped ABC ascend to second position in primetime last night, Nielsen overnight data reveals.

Season eight of the medical drama continued with 9.7m and a rating of 3.2 18-49 adults at 9pm, a rise of 10% week-on-week.

On a roll, political thriller Scandal climbed to 7.4m (2.1) in the 10pm hour. Only 8pm's Missing (7.1m/1.3) lost viewers for the Alphabet Network.

American Idol's 14.6m (3.9) was easily enough for Fox to win another Thursday night.

CBS finished third despite airing only one new show, with Rules of Engagement amusing 7.7m (2.2) at 8.30pm.

NBC had a poor night, as 8pm's Community (2.9m/1.3) and 10pm's Awake (2.7m/0.8) underperformed.

Meanwhile, 30 Rock was the exception to the rule on the Peacock Network, creeping up to 3.2m (1.5) at 8.30pm.

Swiftly returning for new episodes, The Vampire Diaries (2.2m/1.0) and The Secret Circle (1.1m/0.5) dipped over on The CW.

Here is the original post:
'Grey's Anatomy', 'Scandal' boost ABC to second place on Thursday

For every blockbuster draft day trade like the 2011 deal between the Falcons and Browns that resulted in Atlantas acquisition of wide receiver Julio Jones in exchange for five draft picks, there are countless other transactions that fly below the radar.

Take for example the 2010 trade in which the Patriots sent the 44th and 190th selections to the Raiders for Oaklands pick at No. 42. This move drew very little interest because at its core, it really only involved a sixth-round pick in exchange for the right to move up two spots. Small potatoes, right?

If not for some quick thinking on the part of New England, Gronkowski could be a member of the Ravens right now.

Wrong.

That trade allowed the Patriots to leapfrog the Baltimore Ravenswho were sitting at No. 43 and in the market for a tight endand draft a guy from the University of Arizona named Rob Gronkowski.

With an allotment of only ten minutes to make their selections during the first round, seven minutes for the second round and five minutes for rounds three through seven, NFL front offices need to be overly prepared and ready to act fast. Thats because those with the ability to operate well under pressure can end up turning a relatively insignificant transaction into an investment that pays off big dividends.

To gain a better understanding of the draft day trade process, I spoke with NFL front office veteran Tim Ruskellwho has been involved in 25 NFL draftson Tuesday for a crash course in the art of the draft day trade. Ruskell spent five years as the general manager of the Seattle Seahawks (2005-2009) before serving as the director of player personnel for the Chicago Bears from 2010-2012.

THE DRAFT ROOM

Each team has its own specific game plan for how to approach the three-day draft, but for the most part, the key players seated at the head table who are involved in the decision making process remain the same.

In most instances its your general manager, head coach, salary cap guy and whoever is running your personnel department, said Ruskell. But its different on every team. Sometimes the owner is in the room if hes the one driving the train. But theres one decision maker on every team who is in charge of running the draft and making the final decision. That guy is going to have the final say. But he may want to hear what the others think and typically, he would.

See the original post here:
Anatomy of a draft day trade

By Andy Home

LONDON (Reuters) - Supply, or rather the lack of it, has once again dominated the agenda of the annual CESCO Week gathering of the copper industry in Chile.

As the industry faces an uncertain short-term demand outlook, the CESCO narrative has reverted to the certainty of copper's problematic supply-side dynamic.

And the lack of supply has been the main theme in London copper trading this week as well.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) contract has witnessed the most acute squeeze on availability in over three years.

The benchmark cash-to-three-months period was valued Tuesday at $114 per tonne backwardation. The last time it was anything like that on a closing basis was October 2008.

As ever it has been those shorts caught drinking in the last-chance saloon - that is the LME's "tom-next" spread - who have paid the highest price. It traded as wide as $40 per tonne backwardation at one stage on Tuesday morning.

BIOMECHANICS

The mechanics of what happened this week, which included the prime "third Wednesday" April prompt date, are easily enough explained thanks to the exchange's daily positioning reports.

They showed that as of the Monday close, one player held cash and "tom-next" positions representing somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of available stocks.

Read the original here:
LME copper, the anatomy of a squeeze: Andy Home

This week's Grey's Anatomy was a gut-wrenching hour. While the residents were worrying about the upcoming medical boards get the scoop here and Mark was acting as Chief, Cristina was forcing Owen to recall every torturous detail of the night he cheated on her.

Let's check out the heartbreaking and sometimes heartwarming top moments from the hour:

Flashbacks! The episode began with flashbacks to the small, but equally momentous moments in Cristina and Owen's past, from the icicle in her gut to the bowl of cereal she threw in his face. The one flashback we didn't want to see? The night Owen cheated on Cristina at the bar which Owen recalls in detail to Cris throughout the episode. (The couple lies to the hospital and says they've come down with the flu.) It turns out, Owen cheated on her the day after they quit therapy. The woman in question was a friend of his patient. After drinking far too much, the lady convinces him to hook up with her much to Cristina's disappointment as she bawls her eyes out. The silver lining? After Owen leaves, Meredith is there to be her person, sharing a sweet moment on the phone where the twisted sisters sit in near silence, with only the sound of Cristina's muffled sobs in the background.

Outside the hospital! It's not often that we see outside of Seattle Grace, besides the docs' apartments, so it was fun when Callie and Meredith ventured to a park so Callie could quiz her mentee for the upcoming medical boards. Meredith is officially ready, but are the other doctors?

No! The rest of the new Fab Five (Alex, Jackson and April) stress over their upcoming tests and even enlist Lexipedia to use her photographic memory to memorize old cases they can use to study. Meredith decides to take the Torres method and turn it into the Grey method by helping the group study, including, eventually, the distraught Cristina, who worries that her preoccupation with a "boy" will make her fail her boards.

Chief Mark Sloan! Since Owen is dealing with his personal problems, Mark acts as chief in his absence. Everyone is unhappy about it, but can we just say that Sloan looks good in a suit? Mark does butt heads with Derek and also goes toe-to-toe with Richard after the former Chief tries to go over his head. Sloan turns out to be pretty adept in the position could this be a hint? Still, Owen reveals that he never contracted Sloan to help, but rather wanted Webber or Derek to fill in.

Ladies night! Since Teddy has been mourning Henry, she decides to get the girls (Callie, Arizona and Bailey) together for a ladies night. But when each of the ladies realizes they'd rather be having sex with their significant others, they all decide to bail. Realizing they're leaving Teddy out in the cold, they do the ladies night anyways. Who's up for some Beaches?

Sexual telepathy! Wasn't sure it was possible, but apparently Ben has special powers. With Tuck staying over at his dad's, Ben wants to treat Bailey to a special night, but doesn't want to say the torrid details at the hospital. Instead, with one look, he sends Bailey running off to get out of ladies night. Seriously, that man has powers.

What did you think of this week's episode of Grey's Anatomy? Should Cristina forgive Owen? Sound off in the comments.

Wondering what could happen in the Grey's Anatomy finale should some of the docs say farewell? Check out our theories

Read more from the original source:
Grey's Anatomy Recap: "Support System"

Aww, the residents are all grown up!

In this week's episode of Grey's Anatomy, the docs are heading all over the country to interview for positions at different hospitals. For some, like Cristina, it's easy. For others, like Alex, it's a nightmare. Meanwhile, Seattle Grace becomes ground zero for all media when the victim of a highly publicized kidnapping case ends up there. Let's take a look at the top moments:

New jobs: Cristina is the Queen of the Residents, being wooed by the best hospitals across the country. Meredith is disappointed because she would like the new Fab Five to stick around Seattle Grace and even goes so far as to try to weasel out of one of her interviews in Boston. While April is an overachiever during her interviews, Alex is having trouble getting any hospital to see him in the first place. Turns out, Arizona has been tainting his recommendations in hopes he'll stay at Seattle Grace. As for Avery, he turns down a shot at UCLA because they only love him for his lineage. When Mer does finally make it to Boston, however, she reveals to the interviewer that she is very serious about moving there since their program is her top choice. Twist!

Jane Doe: When an unidentified young girl is rushed to the hospital, the doctors rally to treat her, discovering that she has been abused and tortured for a while. Once they realize she is Holly, a girl at the center of a kidnapping case that hit national headlines similar to the cases of Jaycee Dugard or Elizabeth Smart the hospital becomes the focus of her recovery. Meredith is enlisted to watch after Holly, helping her to cope with the transition back into the real world, which is made especially difficult since she also suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological phenomenon in which a hostage has positive feelings towards his/her captor. (Switched at Birth's Vanessa Marano was amazing as Holly in this episode.)

Bailey's freak-out: As a parent, Bailey struggles with the Holly case, which is showcased when Tuck goes missing from the daycare center. In a moment of panic, she screams for everyone to find her son. Turns out, Tuck had a nosebleed and was taken to the nurse. When Holly is going to get discharged, Bailey is overwhelmed once again with (Emmy-worthy) emotion.

Poor Webber: While Adele has been living at Rose Ridge, she has fallen in love all over again... but not with her husband. She met another man who also has Alzheimer's. Richard has Adele moved to another wing, much to her disappointment. In the end, Richard concedes and lets Adele be with who makes her happy. (Also, the Academy should just hand the Emmy to Loretta Devine again.)

CO on the mend: While the beginning of the hour continues to be rocky for the pair, with Cristina avoiding Owen at the hospital, the two begin to slowly talk again. Cristina offers for Owen to stay at the firehouse, while she camps out at Meredith's house to study. They also briefly discuss job opportunities, including the possibility of moving to Maryland (which is across the country. Eh? Eh?). She even claps for him with the rest of the docs when the hospital is able to close the book on Holly's case.

Should Owen and Cristina get back together? Anyone else cheer when Owen finally put a distraught Teddy in her place? Which docs do you think will leave Seattle Grace? Hit the comments with your thoughts.

Aww, the residents are all grown up!

In this week's episode of Grey's Anatomy, the docs are heading all over the country to interview for positions at different hospitals. For some, like Cristina, it's easy. For others, like Alex, it's a nightmare. Meanwhile, Seattle Grace becomes ground zero for all media when the victim of a highly publicized kidnapping case ends up there. Let's take a look at the top moments: read more

The rest is here:
Grey's Anatomy Recap: "The Girl With No Name"

Like all those kids over on Fox's increasingly sagging dramedy Glee, the future of the residents at Seattle Grace-Mercy West is currently in limbo. Why? Lets let voice-over master Meredith Grey explain -- simply because she does it so well -- as she did in last nights new episode, The Girl With No Name.

When youre a kid you always want things to stay the samethe same teacher, the same house, the same friends, the ever-wise narrator told us at the outset of the hour. Being a surgeon is no different. You get used to the same attendings, the same scrub nurses, the same hospital. Of course, that all changes the minute fifth year comes around. And you have to find a new job.

Thats right! The Seattle Grace kids are looking for new jobs. We knew this was coming. Of course, we dont know the future of any of the characters on the show just yet, but all of residents -- Grey, Yang, Karev, Kepner, and Avery -- spent last night going through the motions of trying to figure out where they might land next season, by prepping resumes, asking their attendings to score them interviews, and flying around the country to complete said interviews.

Cristina, as you might just imagine, was the most in-demand, with a running gag during the episode being that every cardio-minded hospital in the country sending over-sized fruit baskets to her at Seattle Grace. And also, as you might imagine, Cristina wasnt showing her cards at all, displaying a certain ambivalence to all the overtures coming at her, including a representative from Columbia who flew to Seattle (apparently, thats sort of unheard of in this kind of situation) to convince her to come to come to New York City.

Cristinas attending, Altman, however, wasnt going to let her go that easily. As far as teachers, Im a catch, she told Yang. And Im groveling. Teddy -- who hasnt been on speaking terms with Yangs estranged husband since her husband Henry died -- even appealed to Chief Hunt, to help her try and keep Cristina in Seattle. But he balked. If she wants to go, he told her, its her decision. (Not shocking, considering the situation between he and his wife.) Her response: Just fix it, and make her stay. To which he heatedly replied: Im Chief, not your friend -- youve made that very clear. Despite her not saying where she wanted to go, Cristina did make it clear -- to her person, Meredith, at least -- that she intends to leave Seattle Grace. (Although, we'll just see about that.) Weve been preparing for this for the past five years, she told Meredith, as she waltzed off to catch a flight to New York City and Columbia for another round of interviews with them, of course I want to leave. You should, too.

Yang added that last comment, of course, because Meredith seemed to be having second thoughts about stepping out of the Seattle Grace womb. And, honestly, rightly so -- she's got both a baby and a husband to consider in her equation. (Yang just has a husband, but even that doesnt seem to be factoring in, although its unclear whether it would, even if they were getting along.) Derek, however, scolded Meredith for canceling her interview with Brigham Young in Boston, and Meredith -- at the very end of the episode -- was shown interviewing there. And, surprisingly, telling the lady from the hospital that she was very serious about the program and that it was her top choice. Interesting? Interesting. I certainly didn't see that one coming. I thought she might botch the interview just so she could stick around Seattle.

NEXT: More fifth-year decisions!

Read the rest here:
'Grey's Anatomy' recap: Days of Change

The three primary factors that determine the interest rate level a nation must pay to service its debt in the long term are; the currency, inflation and credit risks of holding the sovereign debt. All three of those factors are very closely interrelated. Even though the central bank can exercise tremendous influence in the short run, the free market ultimately decides whether or not the nation has the ability to adequately finance its obligations and how high interest rates will go. An extremely high debt to GDP level, which elevates the country's credit risk, inevitably leads to massive money printing by the central bank. That directly causes the nation's currency to fall while it also increases the rate of inflation.

It is true that a country never has to pay back all of its outstanding debt. However, it is imperative that investors in the nation's sovereign debt always maintain the confidence that it has the ability to do so. History has proven that once the debt to GDP ratio reaches circa 100%, economic growth seizes to a halt. The problem being that the debt continues to accumulate without a commensurate increase in the tax base. Once the tax base can no longer adequately support the debt, interest rates rise sharply.

Europe's southern periphery, along with Ireland, has hit the interest rate wall. International investors have abandoned their faith in the bond market and these countries have now been placed on the life support of the European Central Bank. Without continuous intervention of the ECB into the bond market yields will inexorably rise.

The U.S. faces a similar fate in the very near future. Our debt is a staggering 700% of income. And our annual deficit is over 50% of Federal revenue. Just imagine if your annual salary was 100k and you owed the bank a whopping 700k. Then go tell your banker that you are adding 50k each year-half of your entire salary--to your accumulated level of debt. After your bankers picked themselves off the floor, they would summarily cut up your credit cards and remove any and all existing lines of future credit. Our gross debt is $15.6 trillion and that is supported by just $2.3 trillion of revenue. And we are adding well over a trillion dollars each year to the gross debt. Our international creditors will soon have no choice but to cut up our credit cards and send interest rates skyrocketing higher.

When bond yields began to soar towards dangerous levels in Europe back in late 2011 and early 2012, the ECB made available over a trillion Euros in low-interest loans to bailout insolvent banks and countries. Banks used the money to plug capital holes in their balance sheets and to buy newly issued debt of the EU nations. That caused Ten-year yields in Spain and Italy to quickly retreat back under 5% from their previous level of around 7% just a few months prior. But now that there isn't any new money being printed on the part of the ECB and yields are quickly headed back towards 6% in both countries. There just isn't enough private sector interest in buying insolvent European debt at the current low level of interest offered.

The sad truth is that Europe, Japan and the U.S. have such an onerous amount of debt outstanding that the hope of continued solvency rests completely on the perpetual condition of interest rates that are kept ridiculously low. It isn't so much a mystery as to why the Fed, ECB and BOJ are working overtime to keep interest rates from rising. If rates were allowed to rise to a level that could bring in the support of the free market, the vastly increased borrowing costs would cause the economy to falter and deficits to skyrocket. This would eventually lead to an explicit default on the debt.

But the key point here is that continuous and massive money printing by any central bank eventually causes hyperinflation, which mandates yields to rise much higher anyway. It is at that point where the country enters into an inflationary death spiral. The more money they print, the higher rates go to compensate for the runaway inflation. The higher rates go the worse economic growth and the debt to GDP ratio becomes. That puts further pressure on rates to rise and the central bank to then increase the amount of debt monetization...and so the deadly cycle repeats and intensifies.

The bottom line is that Europe, Japan and the U.S. will eventually undergo a massive debt restructuring the likes of which history has never before witnessed. Such a default will either take the form of outright principal reduction or intractable inflation. History illustrates that ownership of gold will provide a safe harbor for your wealth when paper currencies are being inflated into oblivion.

Continued here:
The Anatomy of Sovereign Default

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 at 12:45 pm | 3 responses

A scattering of thoughts on Princeton, Pete Carril and basketballs most deliberate system.

by Nick Rotunno

As basketball fans across America recovered from a wild, bracket-busting weekend of March Madness, the Princeton University mens team quietly wrapped up the 11-12 season on March 19, falling to the Pitt Panthers in the quarterfinals of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). Almost no one noticed, because the CBI is an unceremonious little tournament for mostly average teams, and the national media had bigger things to write about.

The game was played in Pittsburgh on the Panthers home floor, and Princeton was wholly outmatched. By halftime Pitt had built a 24-point lead, and the Panthersout-shooting and out-rebounding the smaller Princeton squadcruised to an 82-61 victory. The Tigers hung around in the early going, but Pitts Big East bruisers were too much to handle.

According to the Princeton athletics website, the only good news for the Tigers concerned senior guard Douglas Davis, whose game-high 20 points moved him into second place on Princetons all-time scoring list (1,550 career points). An impressive achievement, to be sure, but Davis is still a long way from the incomparable Bill Bradley, the Tigers all-time scoring champion, who tallied a staggering 2,504 points in just three seasons of college ball, before the era of the three-point line. Bradleys total is all but unreachable, though Davis gave it a solid try.

Princeton finished a respectable 20-12 this season (11-4 in the Ivy League). It was an up-and-down year for head coach Mitch Henderson and the Tigers: Princeton kicked off the schedule with a head-scratching home loss to Wagner, nearly beat North Carolina State in Raleigh four days later, won a few, lost a few, then defeated Rutgers 59-57 on December 7. In the conference season, Princeton split with archrival Harvard, but the Crimson played well all winter, won the Ivy League and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament (they didnt make it very far). The boys from New Jersey had to settle for the CBIPrinceton beat Evansville in the first round before getting hammered by Pitt.

All told, the Tigers 11-12 campaign was a moderate success.

So why spill so much ink on a mediocre team, after an unspectacular season? A fair question. To be honest, Ive never been to Princeton, NJ, and Ive never watched the Tigers play live. Princetons favorite son, the aforementioned Bill Bradleyone of the greatest college ballplayers of all time and a former US Senatorplayed his last game for the Black-and-Orange two decades before I was born. Aside from my natural love of the underdog, that very American tendency to root for the gutsy overachiever (and my idolization of John McPhee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and teacher of nonfiction writing at Princeton), I have no real connection to the program.

View original post here:
Anatomy of An Offense

Global killer ... scientists have pinpointed the origin of the AIDS virus from chimp to human in Cameroon. Photo: Reuters

Following a trail of death, Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin tell the grim story of the birth and spread of AIDS.

WE are unlikely to ever know all the details of the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But a series of recent genetic discoveries have shed new light on it, starting with the moment when a connection from chimp to human changed the course of history.

We now know where the epidemic began: A small patch of dense forest in south-eastern Cameroon. We know when: Within a couple of decades on either side of 1900. We have a good idea of how: A hunter caught an infected chimpanzee for food, allowing the virus to pass from the chimp's blood into the hunter's body, probably through a cut during butchering.

As to the why, here is where the story gets even more fascinating. We typically think of diseases in terms of how they threaten us personally. But they have their own stories. Diseases are born. They grow. They falter and sometimes they die. In every case, these changes happen for reasons.

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For decades, nobody knew the reasons behind the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But it is now clear that the epidemic's birth and crucial early growth happened during Africa's colonial era, amid massive intrusion of new people and technology into a land where ancient ways still prevailed. European powers, engaged in a feverish race for wealth and glory, blazed routes up muddy rivers and into dense forests that had been travelled only sporadically by humans before.

The most disruptive of these intruders were thousands of African porters. Forced into service by European colonial powers, they cut paths through the exact area that researchers have now identified as the birthplace of the AIDS epidemic. It was here, in a single moment of transmission from chimp to human, that a strain of virus called HIV-1 group M first appeared.

In the century since, it has been responsible for 99 per cent of all of the world's deaths from AIDS not just in Africa but in Moscow, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, New York and Washington. All that began when the West forced its will on an unfamiliar land, causing the essential ingredients of the AIDS epidemic to combine.

It was here, by accident but with motives by no means pure, that the world built a tinderbox and tossed in a spark.

Read the original here:
Anatomy of a plague

Students in the anatomy lab at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine school of medicine. Chuck Frost, Bralin Bean, Jenna Bates, Nate Benitez, Adam Boiter, Chris Bazemore, and Nate Moore.

The anatomy lab at Spartanburg's new medical school can accommodate 193 bodies, 165 of them alive.

The 28 remaining are human cadavers, subjects of intense scrutiny for the first-year students at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine.

"Probably the most difficult thing an American medical student has to do is understand human anatomy," said Dr. Lance Paulman, a professor of anatomy at VCOM. "They take the body apart so they can learn to put it back together."

The students have worked with the same bodies since September, when the school opened, and now they're planning a memorial service on Friday in Columbia to honor the deceased.

The University of South Carolina runs the Gift of Bodies program, which allows people to donate their bodies to science after they die. Their gift provides bodies for the USC's medical school and VCOM. The service is a chance for students to honor that gift.

"They get to explain to the families (of the deceased) how beneficial their loved one's gift has been," Paulman said.

The students only learn the age, cause of death and primary occupation of the dead person they are assigned. But they learn much more about the body.

They make incisions and remove the skin. They look at the musculoskeletal system, the placement of the body's organs, and the interconnectedness of all of its systems.

"Until you go in and you see it and you look at those relationships, that's when it really hits home," said Randy Baxley, 36, a VCOM student. "You don't realize who's whose neighbor."

The rest is here:
Anatomy students at Edward Via honor those who donated bodies to science

Thanks so very much to all of you for your outpouring of support, donations, and offers to help in the aftermath of The Great Morbid Anatomy Flood of 2012 (more details on that here). Many of you have asked to see a list of those books lost, in the interest of ordering or sending particular books for the library; I have created a special Amazon wish list that contains all books lost, and will ship directly to the library; you can check it out by clicking here.

For those of you who would like to mail books directly, our mailing list is:

Joanna Ebenstein
c/o The Morbid Anatomy Library
543 Union Street #1E
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Thanks so much, again, for all your support, and please save the date for an upcoming benefit party to take place Saturday May 12. Please contact me if you'd like to donate objects or artworks for a silent auction, or talent for performances, or labor!

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Tis' a sad day indeed.

Some of you might already have already heard, but last Friday night, the building in which The Morbid Anatomy Library is located suffered a small artwork-related fire. The fire was quickly extinguished, but not before The Library and its collection of books, artworks, and artifacts suffered severe water damage from the building's fire sprinklers. Stay tuned for news about a benefit party to raise money for rebuilding the library, but, in the meantime, here are some photos of the water-logged chaos we are digging ourselves out of. I should mention, the damage could have been much, much worse, and I am very grateful we got off as easy as we did. Still, if any of you are interested in making a monetary donation to help the collection, simply click on the "donate here" button on the right side of this blog. If you are interested in donating books or artifacts--or time and/or talent for the benefit!--please email me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com.

I would also like to send out a very special heartfelt thank you to G. F. Newland, Wythe Marschall, Ethan Gould, Grace Baxter, Emi Brady, Sasha Chavchavadze, PK Ramani, Tammy Pittman, Benjamin Warnke, Aaron Beebe, Lado Pochkhua, Ted Enik, the fellows from Curious Matter, and everyone else who for pitched in to make this disaster so much less of a one than it could have been, while I was far from home and unable to help at all.

Ok, off to assess the damage in greater detail. Thanks to everyone, and more to come!

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Easter week celebrates the moment when, in Christian metaphysics, mortality is overcome by everlasting life. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ redeems mankind from the sinful state into which mankind fell through Adam's disobedience to the will of God in the garden of Eden. His resurrection liberates us from eternal perdition: in Saint Paul's famous words (I Corinthians, XV.54-55) "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory'. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?".

These concepts were articulated with fresh force in the later sixteenth century through the Counter-Reformation, in media such as altarpieces, sermons, the educational work of the Jesuit Order, and through devotional prints which were widely disseminated. Here we present four such prints from the holdings of the Wellcome Library...

Read the entire article from which this excerpt is drawn--and see more images!--on the excellent Wellcome Library blog by clicking here; click on image to see a much larger, more detailed view.

Image: Engraving after Maerten de Vos, late 16th century. Wellcome Library no. 23283i.

As described on the blog:

Finally in this sequence, we have the powerful figure of Christ triumphing over death. The upper part combines two scenes: Christ is simultaneously resurrected from the tomb and ascends into heaven. In the lower left corner, Death itself is about to be swallowed up by a monster, while in the centre the snake that led Adam and Eve astray, and who is entwined around the secular world, is about to be trampled down by the wounded foot of Christ. On the right a tablet engraved with the Ten Commandments faces upwards, indicating that Christ is triumphing over righteousness of the law, replacing it with righteousness of faith...

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This exciting conference--free and open to all!--just announced! Looks like a good one; so wish I could go!

Cultures of Preservation
Prepared specimens appear in many guises: as monstrous or typical organs preserved in formaldehyde and kept in glass jars not unlike pickled food, as stained and fixed tissue slices, or as skilfully arranged mounted animals. They may be found in cabinets of curiosities, in the laboratories of histologists, in anatomy theatres or in natural history collections, but nowadays equally in art galleries, the shop windows of fashionable boutiques, or horror films. This research network is concerned with such kinds of preserved natural objects, in particular with anatomical wet or dry preparations and taxidermy. It explorses the hybrid status of these objects between nature and representation, art and science and studies their fabrication, history and display.

The network is a collaboration between the UCL Department of History of Art, UCL collections, in particular the Grant Museum of Zoology, the Hunterian Museum, London and the Natural History Museum, London.

Activating Stilled Lives: The Aesthetics and Politics of Specimens on Display
International conference at the Department of History of Art, UCL
Thursday 17 May - Friday 18 May 2012

The past twenty years saw an explosion of exhibitions fathoming the relations between art and science as well as numerous refurbishments of natural history or former colonial museums. Many of these displays and gallery transformations mobilised specimens, be it taxidermied animals or preserved human body parts. Objects were put into new contexts opening up their meanings, others disappeared in storage or travelled back to the countries where they were once collected. The conference will address the challenges institutions face when dealing with formerly living entities and consider the aesthetics and politics of their display. The idea is to discuss the use of specimens in temporary exhibitions, museums or university collections and the role curators, art and artists have been playing in the transformation of these spaces. We also would like to consider how preserved specimens have changed through the altering contexts in which they have been displayed. One could name the initial transformation of organisms into objects, the more recent re-definition of pathological specimens as human remains, or the dramatic rearrangements that took place when natural history, anthropology or anatomy collections (many dating from the nineteenth century) were updated – coinciding with a shift in audiences, from specialists to a broader public. Often the historical displays were significantly altered, or even destroyed and replaced by „techy“ but at times also sentimentalised, „post-modern“ installations that still await a critical assessment.

Beyond that, the question of preservation shall be considered in a more expanded sense, as this subject area offers a unique opportunity to reflect more broadly on issues of conservation and their ethics and to raise a variety of questions such as: How and why do various cultures preserve elements of what is considered as nature? How does this relate to environmental notions of conservation and extinction? Should flawed specimens be disposed of? Can museums as a whole be considered cultural preserves? Should we preserve the preserves? And last but not least: Do we really need to embalm everything?

Confirmed speakers: Claude d'Anthenaise (Director, Musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris), Steve Baker (Artist and Art Historian, Norfolk), Christine Borland (Artist, Glasgow), Mark Carnall (Curator, Grant Museum of Zoology, London), Nélia Dias (Anthropologist, Lisbon), Anke te Heesen (Museology / European Ethnology, Berlin), Petra Lange-Berndt (Art Historian, London), John MacKenzie (Professor Emeritus of Imperial History, Lancaster), Robert Marbury (Artist / Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermy, Baltimore), Angela Matyssek (Art Historian, Marburg / Maastricht), Lisa O'Sullivan (Curator, Science Museum/art-history/events/culture_of_preservation London), Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (Historian of Science, Berlin), Rose Marie San Juan (Art Historian, London), Johannes Vogel (Director, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin)

Detailed programme: For further information please contact
Mechthild Fend m.fend(@)ucl.ac.uk or Petra Lange-Berndt p.lange-berndt(@)ucl.ac.uk

More information available here.

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A new episode of The Midnight Archive--the web-based documentary series centered around Observatory--has just been uploaded and can be viewed above. Here is what the series creator--film-maker and many-time Observatory lecturer Ronni Thomas--has to say about this episode:

Episode 11 : Ouija: The Talking Board -- And we’re back - with the fascinating Mitch Horowitz (see Occult NY parts 1 and 2) and the incredible history of the Ouija Board. Learn about its early roots as a sort of ‘telegraph’ to the other side - to its evolution into the board game to outsell Monopoly. Get a haunting glimpse into some of the celebrities who used the board and learn about its ominous warning to poet Sylvia Plath. Its more than just a toy and a Morrissey song. So enjoy this latest installment and make sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook. Also for a more detailed history make sure to check out Mitch’s book Occult America (which can and should be purchased here).

For more on the series, to see former episodes, or to sign up for the mailing list and thus be alerted to future uploads, visit The Midnight Archive website by clicking here. You can also "like" it on Facebook--and be alerted in this way--by clicking here. You can find out more about the amazing work of Sigrid Sarda by clicking here.

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