Their size makes carbon nanotubes difficult to detect, examine and manipulate. Michael Blades, a senior electrical engineering and physics double-major, worked on this problem last summer in a research internship with Lehigh's Environmental Initiative.
New version of the Archimedes package for semiconductor device simulations has been released
Archimedes is the GNU package for semiconductor device simulations that has been released for the first time in 2005 under GPL. A new version of Archimedes and its GUI has been released on nanoHUB! You can run it on the fly now!
Packard Fellowship to build spectrometer to analyze molecules in 3-D
Junrong Zheng's techniques to see the fine details of how molecules interact have earned the young Rice University scientist a highly prestigious Packard Fellowship.
U.S. government releases environmental, health, and safety research strategy for nanotechnology
The Federal Government today released a national strategy for ensuring that environmental, health, and safety research needs are fully identified and addressed in the fast-growing field of nanotechnology.
Responsible development of nanotechnology: Maximizing results while minimizing risk
The U.S. Federal Government is committed to the responsible development of nanotechnology so that the benefits to society are maximized while the potential for unintended consequences from nanomaterials' novel properties is minimized.
Global carbon nanotubes market – industry beckons
More than 100 companies around the world today are manufacturing carbon nanotubes and this number is expected to increase to more than 200 within the next five years, while there are more than 1,000 companies and institutions that are actively engaged in CNT research and development. This article looks at the market size, applications, processing technology and end-user products of carbon nanotubes. In addition, the study looks at industry leaders in the value chain, potential applications, products which are under development and are likely to enter the market in the next five to ten years. For this study, we have surveyed industry professionals/stakeholders in the CNTs value chain, extracted information from our proprietary in-house databases/ inter-linked databases as well as researched other primary and secondary sources and triangulated data and the findings are presented in this article.
More criticism of EU’s nanomaterial definition from ANEC
After almost 12 months of waiting, ANEC welcomes the adoption of a regulatory definition of nanomaterials by the European Commission, albeit with mixed feelings.
Popular Bone Drugs Linked to Reduced Colon Cancer Risk
(HealthDay News) -- People who take drugs called bisphosphonates to prevent bone loss may also reduce their risk of developing colorectal cancer by almost 60 percent compared to those not on the drugs, a new study suggests.
Bisphosphonates include such common drugs as Fosamax (alendronate), Boniva (ibandronate), Actonel (risedronate) and Reclast (zoledronic acid). These drugs work by increasing bone thickness, thereby reducing the risk of fractures, the researchers said.
In prior studies, bisphosphonates have already been shown to be associated with a reduced odds for breast cancer.
"These [new] findings are meaningful because they point to a possible protective effect of this class of drugs being relevant to prevention of many different cancers," said lead researcher Dr. Gad Rennert, from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Faculty of Medicine and chairman of the department of community medicine and epidemiology at the Carmel Medical Center of Clalit Health Services in Haifa, Israel. Read more...
Ayurtox for Body Detoxification
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Turmeric and Amla Health Remedies
There various vegetables , fruits and nuts readily available in our kitchens and our local markets. But we often forget the medicinal value and no soon we have a ailment we run to the doctors for help. It is very important to consult a doctor and take the medication, but the herbal medicenes that are available readily at our kitchen could help us if the ailment is very nominal. For eg. if someone has a gastric problem, or an acidity problem , then there are so many condiments, and other herbal cures which are at our reach, but that goes unnoticed or being ignored. I give you a few remedies on very normal and common ailments from the vegetables, condiments, fruits etc available at home.
1. Amla (indian gooseberry) Genera-Phylanthus Speices-emblica
This berry is available in India from the month of November to February usually. But now that there is so much of research done in agricultural fields the fresh berries are available through out the year. Read more...
Immunice for Immune Support
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Invitation for Upcoming LLTech Webinar — October 21
LLTech is creating innovative techniques for cellular imaging of fresh tissue. Recommend looking at this if you are involved with frozen sections, tissue banking, tissue mining, research and biobanking.
A reminder about our Light-CT webinar presentation - October 21st!
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Source:Aperio to Market Visiopharm’s New Computer Assisted Stereological Toolbox for Whole Slide Stereology
Nice combination of leading companies combining whole slide and stereology. These are the type of applications that are not possible with analog slides alone and provide high throughput increased quantitation beyond light microscopy. The potential to analyze cellular biology through digital techniques over tumor biology alone with conventional microscopy will be one of the most significant value adds for digital pathology.
Partnership Expands High-Performance Digital Pathology Platform
Vista, CA and Hørsholm, Denmark -- October 20, 2011 -- Aperio, the global leader in digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, and Visiopharm, a leading provider of advanced software for quantitative microscopy for life sciences, today announced a partnership in which Aperio will market Visiopharm’s computer assisted stereological toolbox (newCAST™) in Europe.
Leveraging Aperio’s open architecture, newCAST Whole Slide Stereology package will be integrated into the company’s applications framework and accessible through its Spectrum™ information management system. The partnership expands Aperio’s existing suite of analysis tools that include area quantification, cell quantification, microvessel analysis, rare event detection and Genie histology pattern recognition.
“Our partnership with Visiopharm enhances our ability to provide stereological data to researchers," said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “We are excited that Visiopharm recognizes the value of marketing their leading Whole Slide Stereology tools on Aperio’s platform.”
Stereology allows researchers to answer fundamentally different research questions than image analysis or manual assessment of histological sections. With stereology, researchers can answer questions relating to total micro-structural content in 3-D, such as total number (of cells), length of structures, surface area of structures, and volume of structures. These properties are provided as statistically unbiased estimates with a known precision, and are based upon 2-D histological sections.
In particular, Aperio users who publish neurological, pulmonary and toxicologic data will benefit from the additional capabilities provided by this comprehensive set of stereology tools.
Dr. Michael Grunkin, CEO of Visiopharm, stated, “An increasing number of scientific societies and journals are realizing that accuracy of quantitative data requires stereological methods for estimation. Therefore guidelines recommending, and in some cases mandating, stereology for quantitative studies are being adopted. With increasing regulatory attention to stereology, biopharma executives and researchers are also realizing that stereology is a method they can no longer afford to ignore. With its patented Whole Slide Stereology software, Visiopharm is providing an efficient research tool that makes it realistic to include stereology even in research environments with high throughput requirements”
Aperio’s digital pathology platform provides a unique combination of instruments, image management software and a patent-protected architecture that allows image analysis partners such as Visiopharm to offer their applications to the largest and fastest growing installed base (850 systems, including 550 in hospitals and reference labs) of digital pathology customers.
About Visiopharm
Visiopharm is an international technology leader in histoinformatics, covering image analysis, stereology, and data management. Our solutions reduce labor costs, improve productivity, standardize quantitative processes, and produce accurate, traceable, quantitative results for histopathology. Throughout the world pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, universities, hospitals and contract research organizations successfully use Visiopharm software to obtain scientifically trustworthy data.
About Aperio
Aperio is the leading provider of digital pathology solutions in hospitals, reference labs, and pharmaceutical and research institutions across the world. Today, our affordable and complete product portfolio improves patient care by enhancing quality assurance, delivering more efficient workflows, facilitating access to new and more targeted therapies, and improving pathologists’ skills via lifelong education. Our comprehensive product line features our ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software, SecondSlide® slide sharing service for pathology, and image analysis tools and services. Aperio’s products are FDA cleared for specific clinical applications, and are intended for research and education use for other applications. For clearance updates and more information please visit http://www.aperio.com.
Contacts:
Tasha Hicks, Aperio, Director of Marketing (760.539.1118; tasha@aperio.com)
Lene Gerlach, Visiopharm, Vice President Business Development (+45 2031 7460; lge@visiopharm.com)
Source:Responses to Digital Pathology Market Share Shows Sluggish Growth
I received a number of responses to my recent re-posting of Digital Pathology Market Shows Sluggish Growth reproduced from Laboratory Economics.
The comments I received ranged from "I told you so" to "Dr. Gown is completely wrong" to "the numbers do not reflect other benefits of digital pathology outside billable revenues" to "this is only for the U.S. market and not reflective of the world's market".
I would agree with all these statements except the first one.
I never saw the CMS data for CPT code 88361. While this is only one measure of adoption, vis-a-vis number of billable tests using this code, it is only reflective of US data. It is a little discouraging at what is "allowed" versus what is "submitted". Not sure how Laboratory Economics extrapolates this data into market value exactly.
This data of course does not take into account other intangible deliverables beyond billable revenues (image analysis), i.e. education, conferences, risk management, "same slide, same time" consultation, and remote pathology services (which actually could have a PC billing component as well).
Those of us with an interest in the technology for use in clinical diagnostics often struggle making the business case for digital pathology, particularly when competing with other needs/interests/resources/ opinions such as cost of scanners versus cost of immunostainers or laboratory information systems which are mission critical elements. Add to that the other needs of a laboratory -- clinical laboratory equipment, reagants, human resources, etc... I could agree with the comment in the story about cost:benefit ratios. The replacement chemistry analyzer, flow cytometer or Coulter counter that help to generate tens of millions annually will win that battle.
Nonetheless, the risk management point I have used to help groups and hospitals make the decision to invest in digital pathology. Whether it is for consults, cases that travel or are sent in or cases with limited material or no tissue block (i.e. frozen sections, cytology, isolated tumor cells on a single slide, etc...), a digital reproduction as an added measure for patient safety remains a useful advocate for the technology and immeasurable value.
People may look at the risk of using of the technology but there are also these use cases where there may be risk without using technology available today.
I do not agree with Dr. Gown's remarks about looking at 100 year old slides. I had the honor and pleasure of looking at slides in the AFIP archive dating back to the 1940s and 1950s for several studies and looking at slides 50 or 60 years old is not easy. I don't think coverslip medium, tissue fixation methods and stains come with a 50-year warranty like home roofs. A number of other pathologist's at other national laboratories would have put a different spin on this. My quote would have been something to the effect that "Digital pathology images are consistent, persistent and efficient". There is nothing that would change this value proposition 100 years from now. This assumes the images are not stored on 5 1/4" "floppies" which you both can't do due to file size or read nowadays due to lack of 5 1/4" drives.
All my college term papers, first resume and med school application essay are on 5 1/4" disk. I really miss my Radio Shack TRS-80...
Anyways, 10 years ago several people told me "If it is not glass, you can kiss my a**". Those people now use digital pathology in some way, shape or form or they left medicine to raise their family, sell furniture or cashed in several years ago on some old stock they had in a computer company named after a fruit but the name escapes me.
Lastly, there seems to be significant interest in the technology outside of the US for a myriad of reasons. While the US has about 80% of the world's pathologists and pathology sub-specialists, we only represent about 5% of the world's population. There are many other markets but the story does not cover government or payor data for the EU, Asia, Middle East or other world regions. For pathology services providers I think this represents potential markets for customers likely in some sort of TC/PC arrangement but would add other billable deliverables (i.e. CPT 88305) to the equation of digital pathology market value. And folks will not wait for formal FDA clearance for primary H&E diagnoses to tap into these markets.
Source:New article on Digital Pathology: A Regulatory Overview
Very nice read by Dr. Holger Lange of Flagship Biosciences in this month's ASCP LabMedicine (subscription required) on regulatory issues in digital pathology. Holger provides a clear overview of the issues pertinent to digital pathology today.
Abstract
Digital pathology is a new technology and industry. Official agencies, including the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), provide little guidance, and manufacturers still have to learn what it means to provide instruments to a clinical laboratory.
With digital pathology now entering clinical laboratories, it is crucial for physicians and laboratory professionals to understand the regulatory requirements and how to best implement them in their clinical laboratories. The goal of this article is to provide those professionals with a comprehensive regulatory overview and a reference framework for their future work in digital pathology.
Read full text or download PDF as LabMedicine (subscription required).
Source:New survey released on how hospitals use smartphones and tablets
First Smartphones. Now Tablets.
New Survey Results Uncover How Hospitals Like Yours Are Keeping Up
After surveying more than 600 healthcare organizations, we now have a better understanding of how smartphones and tablets are changing the way hospital staff communicate today. In fact, 90% of respondents stated a portion of their staff use smartphones for work-related communications, while 50% use tablets.
Discover other key findings on topics such as:
- The range of personnel using smartphones and tablets and what they're used for today
- The great diversity in devices being used today—including pagers
- Who pays for the devices and data plans
- What hospitals are doing to improve wireless coverage and ensure secure communications
- How alerts are sent to smartphones and tablets (SMS, email, pager application)
Learn more about the state of smartphones and tablets in hospitals, as well as the steps your organization can take to keep up with the changes.
Courtesy of Amcom Software
Source:Digital Pathology Market Shows Sluggish Growth
I learn something new from Laboratory Economics every month. According to the most recent October issue, there has only been a 4% increase in billables for CPT Code 88361, the code used for quantitative IHC analysis. Their estimate puts the total US clinical market for digital pathology at about $80 million as below. Perhaps additional FDA cleared algorithms and primary H&E reads will increase use and market value. Still, this number is far short of the billion dollar market that has been touted. To achieve this will we need a CPT code for technical services for slide scanning, hosting, archiving and viewing and is this realistic/achievable? According to Mr. Farmer below costs will likely remain an issue without FDA clearance for primary diagnosis when labs also need to spend resources on essential items such as immunostainers.
Arguably, one of the most significant value adds for digital pathology remains telepathology but I also think more quantitative, reproducible and consistent image analysis compared with manual image analysis will be the other use and financial driver in this market.
Reproduced with permission from Laboratory Economics.
After several years of 10% to 15% annual growth, the U.S. clinical market for digital pathology has lost speed. Medicare Part B carrier spending on CPT 88361 (digital pathology for quantitative IHC) increased by only 4% to $18.9 million in 2010. CPT 88361 is used to bill Medicare for the reading of digital HER2, ER and PR slides from a computer monitor.
Laboratory Economics estimates the total U.S. clinical market for digital pathology is currently about $80 million (or about 4x the size of Part B carrier expenditures on 88361).
Approximately 500 academic medical centers, hospitals and independent labs have a digital pathology system in place. The market leaders are Aperio Technologies and BioImagene (owned by Roche-Ventana). At this point only the Aperio and BioImagene systems have FDA clearance for HER2 scoring. No vendor has received the Holy Grail: FDA clearance to use digital pathology as a primary diagnostic tool.
The lack of FDA clearance for primary diagnosis means no vendor can scale up so that prices can come down, according to Michael Farmer, principal at the IVD consulting firm McEvoy & Farmer (Seattle, WA). “At this point, a digital pathology system costs as much or more than an Xpress or Peloris or a Benchmark Ultra—and yet they are not viewed as being as essential as a high-throughput tissue processor or top-of-the-line IHC system at most of the labs,” says Farmer.
Meanwhile, Allen Gown, MD, chief pathologist at PhenoPath Laboratories (Seattle, WA), believes glass slides will remain the principal media for pathologists for the next 10 years. “No digital image will ever be as efficient for ease of use as a glass slide,” he told pathologists in a presentation at the Med3000-PSA conference in Palm Springs, California, September 21-23. Gown said the biggest problem is the storage of digitized images. “The technology gets obsolete very quickly, but I can still look at glass slides from 100 years ago.” Over time, Gown thinks digital pathology’s principal use will be for telepathology at remote locations and possibly quantification.
Reproduced with permission from Laboratory Economics.
Source:Non-invasive gastric cancer test invented
Early detection of certain types of cancer may eventually become as easy as taking a home pregnancy test. That’s the prediction of researchers who are developing a non-invasive early diagnostic test for gastric cancer that would not require a pathologist to assess a tissue specimen. Instead, this test detects biomarkers in the patient’s urine.
Read more at Dark Daily.
Source:Voodoo Medicinal Panels, Wellcome Collection
6 paintings : acrylic on wood ; wood of each painting ca. 122 x 66 cm.
Contents 1. "Gono"
2. "Male genital organ", "Female genital organ"
3. "Breast cancer"
4. "Syphilis"
5. "Eye", "Fistula", "Sore"
6. "Pregnant woman"Credits On verso of no. 5, painted name: "Anan Antoine"
Summary Salvaged in August 2010, the six panels formed the walls of the shack of a vodoo (voodoo, vodou, vodun) practitioner in the town of Adjarra. The town is about one hour's drive from Porto Novo, the capital city of Benin, on a mud road towards the Nigerian border. The population attends a flourishing vodoo market where medical practitioners have dried animal parts, carved statuettes and other fetishistic items available for medicinal purposes. The paintings advertise the diseases and parts of the body which the practitioner offers to cure through sorcery and animal sacrifices that call upon the spirit world
Read more about these remarkable panels voodoo panels in the amazing Wellcome Collection by clicking here.
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"From the Magnificent to the Macabre: Send-Offs for the Dead," Tonight at Observatory!
Tonight at Observatory! Hope very much to see you there.
From the Magnificent to the Macabre: Send-Offs for the Dead
Illustrated talk and book signing with Sarah Murray, author of Making an Exit
Date: Tonight, Thursday, October 20th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5 Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** Thematic DJed after-party will follow the lecture; Books will be also available for sale and signingSending off the dead is something mankind does spectacularly well. There’s perhaps no human condition to which more attention has been devoted—faced with death, we create elaborate ceremonies and build great architectural edifices. We bury our loved ones in the ground or burn them in fire. We leave corpses as carrion for the birds, hang them in trees, or stow them in caves. We arrange for riderless horses to accompany the cortege to the cemetery or toss the remains of our fellows into sacred rivers amid the sound of bells and the swirl of incense.
In researching her latest book, Making an Exit (St Martin’s Press), Sarah Murray traveled the world in search of the best send offs. She will describe her encounters with everything from a spectacular Balinese royal cremation and a chandelier in the Czech Republic made entirely from human bones to the American death care industry’s biggest road show and a ghoulish Sicilian crypt where mummified corpses line the walls. Join Sarah for an engaging and highly personal discussion in which she will also present some of the unusual objects and artifacts she collected on her travels (she might even tell you about the plans for her own eventual send off).
Sarah Murray’s new book is Making an Exit: From the Magnificent to the Macabre—How We Dignify the Dead (St Martin’s Press, October 2011). She is also author of Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat (St Martin’s Press 2007, Picador 2008). A longtime Financial Times contributor and freelance writer, she lives in New York City.
To be alerted to future events, "like" Morbid Anatomy on Facebook by clicking here or sign up for the Observatory mailer by clicking here. You can find directions to Observatory here and more on all events here. You can find out more about these events by clicking here.
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19th Century Horror Theatre! An Ode to Absinthe and her Kin! COMPLEMENTARY ABSINTHE!!! Decadent Paris Weekend at Observatory, November 11-12
I am super excited to announce the newly announced Decadent Paris Weekend at Observatory. Night one will feature author and scholar Mel Gordon, one of the best speakers we have ever had at Observatory, presenting a heavily-illustrated and highly-engaging lecture on the largely forgotten history of The Parisian Grand Guignol Theatre (1897-1962). Night two will feature Observatory favorite--and Midnight Archive director--Ronni Thomas for an alcohol-drenched and image-heavy ode to absinthe and her kin. Both events will be supplied with free absinthe (!!!) compliments of La Fée Absinthe, the first traditional absinthe distilled in France since the 1915 ban and is the only absinthe endorsed by the Musée de l'Absinthe, Auvers-sur-Oise.
These are both going to be events not to miss. Hope very much to see you there!
The Grand Guignol: Parisian Theatre of Fear and Terror 1897-1962
Illustrated lecture/booksigning with author and scholar Mel Gordon
Date: Friday, November 11th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Complimentary absinthe provided by our sponsor La Fée Absinthe, the first traditional absinthe distilled in France since the 1915 ban and is the only absinthe endorsed by the Musée de l'Absinthe, Auvers-sur-Oise
***Signed copies of Gordon's long out-of-print Grand Guiginol will be available for sale at $30 (copies generally go for $60-150)Hidden among the decadence and sleaze of Pigalle with its roughnecks and whores, in the shadows of a quiet, cobbled alleyway, stands a little theatre... --"Grand Guignol: The French Theatre or Horror," Hand and Wilson
From its beginnings in turn-of-the-century Paris and through its decline in the 1960s, the Theatre of the Grand Guignol--literally "grand puppet show"--gleefully celebrated horror, sex, and fear. Its infamous productions featured innocent victims, mangled beauty, insanity, mutilation, humour, sex, and monstrous depravity in a heady mix that attracted throngs of thrill-seekers from all echelons of society. By dissecting primal taboos in an unprecedentedly graphic manner, the Grand Guignol became the progenitor of all the blood-spilling, eye-gouging, and limb-hacking "splatter" movies of today.
Tonight, join Professor Mel Gordon--author of Grand Guiginol: Theatre of Fear and Terror--to learn about the largely forgotten history of the Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in this heavily-illustrated and highly engaging lecture.
Mel Gordon is the author of Grand Guiginol: Theatre of Fear and Terror, Voluptious Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin, and many other books. Voluptuous Panic was the first in-depth and illustrated book on the topic of erotic Weimar; The lavish tome was praised by academics and inspired the establishment of eight neo-Weimar nightclubs as well as the Dresden Dolls and a Marilyn Manson album. Now, Mel Gordon is completing a companion volume for Feral House Press, entitled Horizontal Collaboration: The Erotic World of Paris, 1920-1946. He also teaches directing, acting, and history of theater at University of California at Berkeley.
Absinthe and Other Liquors of Fin de Siècle Paris: Lecture and Tasting
Illustrated lecture and liquor tasting with film maker Ronni Thomas
Date: Saturday, November 12th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Complimentary absinthe provided by our sponsor La Fée Absinthe, the first traditional absinthe distilled in France since the 1915 ban and is the only absinthe endorsed by the Musée de l'Absinthe, Auvers-sur-OiseOn Saturday November 12th, join Ronni Thomas and Observatory for an exploration of the exotic and often diabolic liquids of France's antiquity featuring absinthe, a liquor known in fin de siècle Paris as "the green fairy" for its bewitching allure and poetically transporting nature. Among history's most infamous and romanticized liquors, absinthe became a symbol of decadence and was drink of choice of such bohemian luminaries as Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, Vincent van Gogh, Alfred Jarry, Édouard Manet, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso. By 1915, it was widely banned after having been publicly tied to sensational stories of madness, murder and degeneracy; recently re-legalized, it has developed a passionate contemporary fan base.
Tonight, absinthe devotee Ronni Thomas will deliver an illustrated lecture on the history of absinthe and other great elixirs of fin de siècle Paris--such as green chartreuse, armagnac, and ricard--complete with artwork and video excerpts; he will also screen his own contribution to the absinthe mythos: a promotional video he produced for contemporary absinthe maker Le Tourment Vert. Liquor samples for tasting will also be available throughout the evening, including complimentary absinthe from our sponsor La Fée. There will also a Francophile music-filled after party. It will be a night straight out of Brassaï's Paris right in the heart of Brooklyn.
Ronni Thomas filmmaker and creator of The Midnight Archive web series is an avid drinker who appreciates both the history of antique spirits and the effects they have on his self esteem. Incidentally, his favorite absinthe is tonight's sponsor La Fée.
Image: "La Muse Verte" (The Green Muse), Albert Maignan, 1895
To be alerted to future events, "like" Morbid Anatomy on Facebook by clicking here or sign up for the Observatory mailer by clicking here. More on all events here. You can find out more about these events by clicking here.
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Comparative Death Rituals; Halloween and Day of the Dead Costume Party; A "Dead Animal Man: This week at Observatory!
This week and beyond at Observatory; hope very much to see you there!
"A Dead Animal Man": Screening and Q & A with Film Maker Lily Henderson
Date: Monday, October 17th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy"A Dead Animal Man" is a new documentary film which profiles Nate Hill, public attention seeker and self-proclaimed rogue taxidermist, as he sets out to make A.D.A.M--A Dead Animal Man--from various animal parts gathered from NYC's Chinatown dumpsters. This film details Hill's quest from conception to completion, and contains vignettes ranging from the humourous to the bizarre to the extremely grotesque. At the end, Hill's desire for stardom is realized, but for what? The film saves us from extreme nausea but still pushes us far enough to the point where we ask ourselves--how far is too far?
Tonight, join us for a 25 minute sneak peak version of the film. Filmmakers will be in attendance to answer questions. Barf bags not included.
Lily Henderson is a filmmaker living in Brooklyn. She is an active member of the the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective and recently released Lessons for the Living - a film about why certain people choose to spend their free time with dying strangers. More information can be found here. Henderson and her co-producer, Lila Dobbs, found Nate Hill's story intriguing but not because of the spectacle he was creating. Their goal was to find the deeper meaning in his public persona and the decaying Frankenstein body next to him.
From the Magnificent to the Macabre: Send-Offs for the Dead
Illustrated talk and book signing with Sarah Murray, author of Making an Exit
Date: Thursday, October 20th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5 Presented by Morbid Anatomy
*** Thematic DJed after-party will follow the lecture; Books will be also available for sale and signingSending off the dead is something mankind does spectacularly well. There’s perhaps no human condition to which more attention has been devoted—faced with death, we create elaborate ceremonies and build great architectural edifices. We bury our loved ones in the ground or burn them in fire. We leave corpses as carrion for the birds, hang them in trees, or stow them in caves. We arrange for riderless horses to accompany the cortege to the cemetery or toss the remains of our fellows into sacred rivers amid the sound of bells and the swirl of incense.
In researching her latest book, Making an Exit (St Martin’s Press), Sarah Murray traveled the world in search of the best send offs. She will describe her encounters with everything from a spectacular Balinese royal cremation and a chandelier in the Czech Republic made entirely from human bones to the American death care industry’s biggest road show and a ghoulish Sicilian crypt where mummified corpses line the walls. Join Sarah for an engaging and highly personal discussion in which she will also present some of the unusual objects and artifacts she collected on her travels (she might even tell you about the plans for her own eventual send off).
Sarah Murray’s new book is Making an Exit: From the Magnificent to the Macabre—How We Dignify the Dead (St Martin’s Press, October 2011). She is also author of Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat (St Martin’s Press 2007, Picador 2008). A longtime Financial Times contributor and freelance writer, she lives in New York City.
Image: Capuchin Catacombs in Sicily, photo by the author
Halloween and Day of the Dead Party with New Episodes of Ghoul A Go-Go and The Midnight Archive, Costume Contest, Music, and More!
Date: Saturday, October 22
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $12
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Borderline ProjectsPlease join us on Saturday, October 22 for a Halloween/Day of the Dead costume party featuring brand new episodes of Ghoul A Go-Go and The Midnight Archive, as well as burlesque, music, piñata, food, beverages, sugar skulls, a costume contest, and more! Please, please (!!!) come in costume! All costumes welcomed!
The night's amusements will include:
ENTERTAINMENT!
- Ghoul a Go Go: Premiere of a brand new episode
- The Midnight Archive: Two new episodes of The Midnight Archive, Ronni Thomas' new web series based on Observatory
- Music: Wavy gravy Halloween music for the all night dance party
- Burlesque: A creepy Burlesque performance by Lil' Miss Lixx
FOOD AND DRINK!
- Traditional Food and Drink Specials throughout the evening
COSTUME CONTEST!
- Prizes for costumes inspired by either Vlad, Creighton, The Invisible Man, or any of the clips featured on Ghoul a Go Go
TRADITIONAL DAY OF THE DEAD ATTRACTIONS!
- Day of the Dead Altar: Altar de Muertos, an installation by Rebeca and Salvador Olguin celebrating Mexico and its past, history and culture
- Face painting: Have the Kiss of Death painted on your face by La Catrina
- Pan de Muerto: Indulge in this traditional dessert called Bread of Death
- Piñata: Dash death to smithereens with our annual death piñata!
- Sugar skulls: Decorate and eat or bring home your own Day of the Dead sugar skull
- Offerings to the Departed: In some places in Mexico, people leave small, coffin-like figures out for the souls of the departed. Guests are invited to leave their own offering; they will be available at the installation
Image: El Jarabe en Ultratumba (The Folk Dance Beyond the Grave), Jose Guadalupe Posada
November 6: Class: Mummification: Learn the art and ritual of animal mummification w
ith instructor Sorceress Cagliastro *** Limited Class Size; Please RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com
To be alerted to future events, "like" Morbid Anatomy on Facebook by clicking here or sign up for the Observatory mailer by clicking here. More on all events here. You can find out more about these events by clicking here.
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