Mental 'Exercise' May Only Hide Signs of Alzheimer's

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(HealthDay News) -- Reading, crossword puzzles and other mentally stimulating activities have pros and cons when it comes to Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests.

In line with prior research, the study finds that such mental activity may slow declines in thinking and memory during normal old age.

But folks who loved these pursuits actually displayed a hastening of their mental decline once symptoms of dementia began to set in, the researchers say.

"We think there's a trade-off," said senior study author Robert Wilson of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Keeping mentally active means that there is "a little more time during which the person is cognitively competent and independent and a little less time in a disabled and dependent state" once dementia does set in, said Wilson, who is senior neuropsychologist at Rush's Alzheimer's Disease Center.

The findings were published online Sept. 1 in Neurology.

Previous work has suggested that engaging in cognitively challenging activities may help ward off the appearance of dementia in older people. To test this, Wilson and his co-workers tracked almost 1,200 older individuals over nearly 12 years. Read more...

ClariMind Memory & Concentration Supplement

2011 ASCP Annual Meeting/WASPaLM XXVI World Congress – Abstract Deadline Near

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  • Submissions cannot have been presented, published, or submitted for presentation or publication elsewhere.
  • All abstracts must be submitted electronically by April 29, 2011. Late abstracts, or those received by any means other than the ASCP abstract submission website will not be reviewed by ASCP.
  • Abstracts must be submitted in English. Submitting an abstract does NOT guarantee its acceptance at the 2011 ASCP Annual Meeting/WASPaLM XXVI World Congress. ASCP will provide notification of final status to all abstract submissions by July 1, 2011.
  • Particular attention should be given to products or equipment that bear registered trade names. Provide the company name and its city and state address parenthetically following the first mention of the product.
  • References should not be used. No charts, figures, or tables should be used.
  • Notice of acceptance will be sent via e-mail only. When setting up your user account, please use all fields for author and administrative support so that you will receive notices in a timely manner.
  • An initial confirmation e-mail will inform you of the receipt of your submission.
  • Authors will be notified in late summer of their status as a finalist in a poster competition, selection for an oral platform presentation, or poster session day and time assignment.
  • All submitted abstracts will be peer reviewed. Refer to the “Abstract Submission Guidelines” for grading criteria and other details of the abstract submission process.
  • For further information please e-mail us at abstracts@ascp.org or call 312-541-4943.

You may download a PDF copy of the abstract submission guidelines by clicking here.

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Uses Aperio’s Digital Pathology System to Provide Anatomic Pathology Consulting Services to China

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30 UCLA Sub-Specialty Pathologists Available to Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University

Vista, CA – April 26, 2011 - Aperio, the global leader in providing digital pathology solutions that improve patient care, today announced that its digital pathology system is being used to support subspecialty pathology consultations between Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (UCLA) in Los Angeles, Calif., and Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University, (ZHU) a 2,000-bed top-ranked hospital located in Hangzhou, China. 

UCLA has a pool of more than 30 sub-specialty experts in pathology that are available to provide remote medical consultation services to China for unusual and complex cases. Aperio’s patented scanning technology allows pathologists at ZHU to capture a digital slide image at very high resolution of the entire tissue sample on a glass slide and share it with pathology experts at UCLA in a secure web-based environment. More than 100 cases have been remotely reviewed to date. The Aperio digital pathology system facilitates the ability to bring high-quality, expert pathology services to China, significantly improving intra and inter observer agreement and ensuring effective treatment to improve patient care. 

“UCLA and ZHU selected the only true global leader in digital pathology that can deliver a complete remote consultation capability today,” said Dirk G. Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. “Aperio is helping healthcare organizations of all types deliver sub-specialty pathology services via online access to topnotch virtual pathologists. Pathology expertise is just a mouse click away anywhere in the world to help ensure the best pathology services possible in a fast and cost-effective way.” 

Use of Aperio’s patented ScanScope® scanners, Spectrum™ image management (PACS) software and remote viewing technology allows U.S. healthcare companies to compete at an international level, facilitating real-time, high performance access to high-resolution digital slide images. 

Jonathan Braun, M.D., Ph.D., chair of pathology and laboratory medicine, and professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, stated, “Digital pathology allows UCLA to offer the advanced skills of our sub-specialty pathologists to China in real time when a specific type of pathology expertise is needed quickly on a difficult or complex case. Our collaboration illustrates how integral pathology is to patient outcomes. Pathologists have become influential partners in treatment. Digital pathology dramatically enhances our ability to provide patient-centered care.” 

UCLA and ZHU pathologists also participate in frequent digital slide conferences using the Aperio system to review individual cases. Pathologists can view annotations on the digital slide image created by other reviewers, while simultaneously adding annotations for others to see. A common cursor superimposed on the digital slide is visible and can be manipulated by all conference participants. The hospitals are also conducting multi-disciplinary conferences, where experts across various disciplines (oncology, radiology, surgery) convene to discuss difficult cases. 

With more system installations than all other digital pathology vendors combined, Aperio is the true global leader and reliable choice for world class digital pathology solutions. The company boasts a global installed base of more than 800 systems in over 30 countries, including more than 500 systems in hospitals and reference laboratories, the 13 largest pharmaceutical companies and a multitude of biotechnology and government organizations.  

 

Exhibitors Sought for the Pathology Informatics 2011 Conference in Pittsburgh

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We are seeking exhibitors for the Pathology Informatics 2011 conference that will take place at the Wyndham Hotel in Pittsburgh on October 4-7, 2011. This conference resulted from a merger of two previous pathology informatics conferences, Lab Infotech Summit and APIII. The inaugural merged conference was held in Boston last September. A total of 41 exhibitors participated in that event with about 250 paid registrants in attendance.

via labsoftnews.typepad.com

Regional Healthcare Event Series by Aperio — Atlanta, Philadelphia & Baltimore this May

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Join us for the 2011
“Discover Your Path to Improved Patient Care”
Regional Healthcare Event Series

featuring Jared N. Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., 
Aperio technical experts, and leading innovators who will
discuss how they are using digital pathology.

May 17 ~ Atlanta, GAHealthcare Regional Events
Seminar Event
 
May 18 ~ Philadelphia, PA
User Group*
 
May 19 ~ Baltimore, MD
Seminar Event

All events are complimentary and include validated parking, breakfast, and lunch.

Topics vary by location and include:

• Digital Pathology Beyond the Scan: Improving Patient Care and Enabling Personalized Medicine 

• Tips and Tricks for Spectrum Plus and ScanScopes

• Phased Adoption: Helping Hospitals Implement Digital Pathology

• Global Research Collaboration in a Shrinking World - Unlocking the Possibilities

• Virtual Microscopy Meets Next Generation Sequencing: Strange Bedfellows in the Genomic Age

• From Teaching to Research - Practical Use of Aperio in an Academic Institution

• Selected Topics in Image Analysis for IHC

• Special Local Area Speaker Sessions

• Roundtable Discussions

RSVP TODAY TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT!
To RSVP for any of these events, contact Nicole Siska, Aperio Events Team, at 760.539.1193 or nsiska@aperio.com

*The May 18 Philadelphia event is intended for Aperio users who have a working knowledge of the Aperio system. 

Philips and NEC Team Up in Digital Pathology

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This sounds interesting -- combination of high-end imaging system from Philips with added quantitation tools provided by NEC.  According to the press release, look for results of this partnership by years' end.
 
Eindhoven, the Netherlands and Tokyo, Japan – Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) and NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced the signing of an agreement under which the two companies will jointly develop and market highly integrated digital pathology solutions. Based around Philips’ new high-throughput pathology slide scanner and NEC’s e-Pathologist Cancer Diagnosis Assistance System, these innovative digital pathology solutions will be designed to use advanced digital techniques to add quantitative analysis to the qualitative information derived from the visual inspection of pathology slides, which is currently the standard procedure. They will initially be targeted to assist in the grading of breast cancer and prostate cancer.
 
Whenever a lesion is suspected to be cancerous or pre-cancerous, the normal procedure is to remove a sample of tissue from it (a biopsy) and send it to a pathology lab for examination by a pathologist. To conduct this examination, a thin section of the tissue is mounted on a glass slide, stained with chemicals to highlight various structures and visually examined under a microscope. With the increasing incidence of cancer and the growing need for methods of sub-typing the disease in order to deliver optimized therapy, there is a real need for digital pathology systems that speed up the workflow, while also providing pathologists with additional checks to improve diagnostic quality and specificity.
 
“Reliable computer-aided identification of regions of interest, based on the morphology of potentially cancerous cells in stained tissue samples, clearly depends on having high quality images to work with,” says Tadashi Higashino, Senior Vice President at NEC. “We firmly believe that the continuous auto-focus technology developed by Philips for use in its slide scanners will provide exceptional image detail and quality, allowing our advanced image analysis and machine learning algorithms to achieve optimum results.”
 
“With its e-Pathology system, NEC already has an impressive position in the digital pathology market in Japan and is well positioned to duplicate that success in many other parts of the world,” says Perry van Rijsingen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Philips Healthcare Incubator. “I believe our joint development of highly integrated systems that combine superior slide scanning with state-of-the-art image analysis will be essential to unlocking the growth potential of digital pathology by helping to meet the ever-increasing demand for high-volume high-throughput pathology solutions.”
 
Philips’ ultra-fast slide scanner, which is already commercially available only in Europe for research purposes, employs a unique ‘continuous auto-focus’ technology that accurately follows height variations in the tissue surface over horizontal distances as short as 30 microns, allowing extremely high definition full-slide images to be captured in under one minute per slide.

NEC’s e-Pathologist system will use ‘machine intelligence’ to detect tissue and cell features within these images in order to identify regions of interest and make quantitative measurements of key structures in conventionally stained (Hematoxylin & Eosin) tissue samples, or samples stained with immunohistochemistry reagents. These quantitative measurements could assist pathologists in making decisions relating to the clinical treatment of cancer in individual patients. NEC has jointly evaluated this system with SRL, Inc., the largest laboratory test center in Japan, for biopsy of stomach cancer and has also started marketing a system focused on stomach and breast cancer. In addition, NEC has jointly evaluated its e-Pathologist system with the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the USA.

“As a leader in medical innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital Pathology has long been committed to utilizing imaging and data analysis for diagnosis and discovery. Digital pathology and diagnostic imaging analysis are obviously important areas of development driving such innovation,” said Dr. David Louis, Chief of Pathology at MGH. “

We are pleased to have been involved in the development of the Philips high throughput scanner and the NEC e-Pathologist system and look forward to the next phase of their development."

The digital pathology solution of Philips features an open architecture that allows partners/vendors to expand the system’s capability by integrating their own added-value hardware and/or software algorithms into it. This will allow the creation of total system solutions designed to empower pathologists by delivering increased workflow efficiency, improved diagnostic performance and better patient outcomes. Partnering with Philips, a world leading company in healthcare markets, will therefore help NEC to develop its technology to suit worldwide market requirements.
 

Philips and NEC aim to produce initial development results from their joint development in digital pathology within the current year.

Dr. David Eberhard joins Flagship Biosciences as Chief Medical Pathologist

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Pharmaceutical veteran anatomic pathologist strengthens Flagship's expertise in oncology and clinical trials

Flagstaff, AZ (04/26/2011) —Flagship Biosciences announced today that Dr. David Eberhard MD, PhD has been appointed Chief Medical Pathologist. Dr. Eberhard is an anatomic/molecular pathologist highly regarded for his leadership and expertise in oncology clinical trials and pharmaceutical drug development. He holds an academic appointment as Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously, he served as the Director of Clinical Trials Pathology Services at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology, after a distinguished career at Genentech and as an industry consultant. He earned his MD in Pathology and his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Michigan Medical School, followed by residency training in anatomic pathology and neuropathology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Dr. Eberhard has been active in developing standardized approaches for molecular pathologic analyses of solid tumors in clinical trials, such as the publication of industry working group recommendations for EGFR testing in pathology. “The addition of Dr. Eberhard to Flagship’s pathology and development team further strengthens our position as a leader in qualitative and quantitative digital pathology.” said Dr. David Young, President of Flagship Biosciences.“He has been a steady encouragement from the beginnings of Flagship and has a great vision for applications of image analysis in both research and clinical medicine”. 

David Eberhard has served on the Scientific Advisory Board for Flagship Biosciences, and in his new expanded role will strengthen the collaboration provided by Flagship’s network of anatomic pathologists of various specializations in the United States and Europe, and facilitate closer interactions and innovation between Flagship’s new quantitative pathology approaches, academic investigation and oncology drug development. 

“Flagship has a unique focus on cutting-edge digital pathology approaches to maximize efficiency of anatomic pathology analyses, to allow precise, accurate and reproducible quantitation of pathology readouts, and to support the clinical development of drugs and companion diagnostics” said Dr. Eberhard. "Flagship's perspective and expertise represent a valuable resource for basic, translational and clinical R&D that has huge potential to create real progress in science and industry."

Flagship Biosciences is a pathologist-owned pharmaceutical services organization that specializes in the delivery of quantitative pathology to pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device clients. Flagship leverages digital pathology to combine novel quantitative scoring algorithms with anatomic pathology expertise and experience. They are the largest provider of pathologist-supervised brightfield and fluorescence scanning and custom image analysis capabilities.

 

Proposed Accountable Care Organization Regulations

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On April 7, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") issued its proposed regulations covering Accountable Care Organizations ("ACOs"). When adopted in final form, this rule will implement Section 3022 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires CMS to establish a Shared Savings Program by January 1, 2012. These proposed regulations are the first in a series, and set forth the basic eligibility requirements for ACOs to participate in the Shared Savings Program; quality of care and other reporting measures; the methodology for assigning Medicare beneficiaries to ACOs; the payment methodologies under the Shared Savings Program; monitoring of ACOs for compliance with applicable criteria; and the sanctions for non-compliance. Comments regarding the proposed regulations are due by June 6, 2011. This alert is intended to provide only a high level summary of the proposed regulations.

The proposed regulations define an ACO as a legal entity recognized to conduct business under state law, with a governance structure that will enable it to receive and distribute shared savings, establish and report compliance with the ACO quality and reporting requirements, and perform other tasks set forth in the regulations. An ACO may be established by: (a) professionals in group practices, (b) networks of individual practices, (c) ventures between hospitals and professionals, (d) hospitals who employ professionals, and (d) critical access hospitals. Other health care providers and suppliers may participate in an ACO, but they cannot establish an ACO. It is important to note that primary care professionals (which include professionals in the specialties of general practice, family practice, internal medicine or geriatric medicine) can only be ACO participants in a single ACO, whereas other types of providers, such as specialist physicians, may participate in multiple ACOs.    

Click here for full text of the alert.

Courtesy of McDonald Hopkins

The NEW ClockWorks Theater, Grand Opening Party, Saturday April 30th, 7:30 PM

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Exciting news! Good friend and brilliant puppeteer/manifester of alternate worlds Jonny Clockworks is opening a new incarnation of his infamous ClockWorks Theatre! Judging from Clockworks' fantastic former productions, this new venture is sure to become the center for innovative and beautiful puppet works in the New York area.

The theater celebrate its opening this Saturday, April 30th, with an exciting evening's programming; full details follow. Very much hope to see you there!

The Cosmic Bicycle Theatre reopens
The ClockWorks Theatre in it’s new incarnation
The Universal ClockWorks, Inc.
in Carroll Gardens ~ West
the Columbia Street Waterfront
Brooklyn , USA

April 30th Walpurgisnacht!
7:30 PM ~ The Blessing of the Wheel ~ Sidewalk Spectacle ~ Free
8:30 PM ~ Theatre Opens
9:00 PM ~ Der WunderKammer Puppet Kabaret ~ Admission $20

The new ClockWorks Theatre is located on Columbia Street in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. More on the theatre here; more on the opening event here.

The History of Skin Grafts with Paul Craddock, Observatory, Monday May 9

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Come learn about skin grafts, from ancient history to modern controversy, with London-based Paul Craddock, Monday May 9th! Hope to see you there.

Knowing Your Ass from Your Elbow; or, Thinking About Skin Grafts
An Illustrated Lecture with Paul Craddock, Ph.D. candidate with the London Consortium
Date: Monday, May 9
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and The Hollow Earth Society

Late in 2010, The Economist ran a series of advertisements about transplant surgery on the London Underground, putting pressing questions to subterranean commuters like Paul Craddock. Ethics, black markets, identity, and the gap between organ supply and demand were all covered, and both sides of the arguments given, urging us to take a view on weighty questions while waiting for a train. The adverts presented The Economist as being at the cutting edge of debate in light of recent advances in transplant technologies, face transplants, and so forth but these questions are nothing new.

No. Transplants did not even appear in the 1960s with the first heart transplant, or at any point in the twentieth century – or even the nineteenth. They were first widely addressed in the media and Literature of the eighteenth century but medical transplantation is actually an ancient skill. Skin grafts go back around 5,000 years, and were simple but bloody affairs.

This illustrated lecture is about the ‘re-discovery’ of skin grafting from India in the early nineteenth century and the questions that seemed to raise. In what ways is it important that we can move skin? How did we find out that it was possible? What does it tell us about ourselves? If it is possible to have skin that’s not our own, what does this do to our sense of self? And what about identity? Why is this important to you, now? By thinking about how these questions were presented in the past, we may view and wear our own skins differently.

Paul Craddock is a second-year Ph.D. candidate with the London Consortium holding the Science Museum's Science and Humanities Scholarship. He is working on The Poetics of Bodily Transplantation, 1702 - 1902, a cultural history of the transplant procedure in medicine covering the two hundred years prior to the recognized 'beginning' of organ transplant history. In a past life, he was a performance and sonic arts scholar, researching and teaching a phenomenology of sound and the experience of it as part of an environment. Currently based in London, Paul is also the Director of London Consortium TV, the London Consortium's televisual arm, and the Publicity and Guests' Secretary for the University of London's Extra Mural Literary Association. He recently found joy in producing and presenting films, of which he has made two and a third to date.

For more, click here. You can sign up for the Observatory mailing list by clicking here, or join us our Facebook group by clicking here. For more about Observatory, click here. To contact organizers with questions or suggestions, click here.

Image: Cowasjee from the Gentleman's Magazine of 1794

Announcing New Observatory Series: "Out of the Cabinet: Tales of Strange Objects and the People Who Love Them," Co-Curated by Evan Michelson

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What, exactly, is it that motivates the collector? Is it primarily an obsession, an addiction or a compulsion? Is the urge to collect benign or malignantly invasive? No one has yet provided a compelling answer, and any collector would be hard-pressed to articulate what exactly is driving the need to hunt down and acquire that next essential piece. The symptoms of the collecting impulse are as varied as the collectors themselves: some collect categorically, some collect socially, and some are driven by aesthetic considerations above all, but most collectors agree that the thrill of that next find is one of life's greatest pleasures, and the love of certain objects can last a lifetime. --Evan Michelson, Collector, Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence, Star of TV's "Oddities"

I am very pleased to announce "Out of the Cabinet: Tales of Strange Objects and the People Who Love Them," a new collector "show and tell" and lecture series taking place at Observatory and organized as a collaboration between Morbid Anatomy and Evan Michelson, our Library Scholar in Residence and, more recently, star of TV's "Oddities."

"Out of the Cabinet" will take artifacts as a launching off point for exploring the non-rational power of objects and the alluring mysteries of collecting. For the duration of the series, a variety of collectors will be invited to bring in an object or objects from their own collections and use these artifacts as a departure point for a response of some sort, from an illustrated historical lecture to a loose meditation to a debate with another collector.

A few events have already been scheduled (see below), but we continue to seek private or institutional collectors living in--or with plans to visit--the New York City area. If interested, please email me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com; And please, feel free to send this post along to any other interesting collector types you may know.

Full details follow. Looking forward to hearing from all you collectors out there!

Out of the Cabinet: Tales of Strange Objects and the People Who Love Them: A Collector "Show and Tell" and Lecture Series
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence/Star of TV's "Oddities" Evan Michelson

What, exactly, is it that motivates the collector? Is it primarily an obsession, an addiction or a compulsion? Is the urge to collect benign or malignantly invasive? No one has yet provided a compelling answer, and any collector would be hard-pressed to articulate what exactly is driving the need to hunt down and acquire that next essential piece. The symptoms of the collecting impulse are as varied as the collectors themselves: some collect categorically, some collect socially, and some are driven by aesthetic considerations above all, but most collectors agree that the thrill of that next find is one of life's greatest pleasures, and the love of certain objects can last a lifetime.

Above all, it is our own personal history that imbues an object with meaning, and gives it resonance beyond its intended life. Collectors tell their inner stories through their acquisitions, and we can suss a collector's personality through his or her items without a word being spoken; a collection is a physical manifestation of the perpetually unseen, inner life.

Whether it's the pursuit of beauty, a sense of stewardship, the creation of a personal narrative, a love of science and history or acquisitiveness run amok, the objects a collector lives with speak to an undeniable drive to possess something rare, beautiful or personally significant. In this series, collectors will present some choice objects from their collections and discuss what it means to be possessed by a possession, what layers of meaning an object can hold beyond price or rarity, and what shadowed corners of the psyche are illuminated by the things that hold us in their spell.

Out of the Cabinet Events scheduled thus far:

  • April 11, 2011: A Gathering of Bones: An Illustrated lecture by Collector Evan Michelson
  • May 20, 2011: The Witch’s Dungeon: An illustrated lecture and show and tell with proprietor of “The Witch’s Dungeon” Cortlandt Hull
  • June 2, 2011: The Bell Jar: An Artifact-Based Lecture with Collector John Whiteknight
  • June 23, 2011: Home-Made Visual Albums: An Artifact-Based Lecture with Collector David Freund

For more on this series, click here. To keep abreast of newly announced events as part of this series, sign up for the Observatory mailing list by clicking here, or join us our Facebook group by clicking here. For more about Observatory, click here. To contact organizers with questions or suggestions, click here.

Images: Top to bottom:

  1. The Artist in His Museum, Charles Willson Peale, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; found here.
  2. Early 20th Century Department Store Mannequin, From the Home Collection of Evan Michelson, Antiques Dealer, New Jersey, as seen in the Private Cabinets Series, Joanna Ebenstein, 2009
  3. From the Home Collection of Evan Michelson, Antiques Dealer, New Jersey, as seen in the Private Cabinets Series, Joanna Ebenstein, 2009
  4. Kitten Princess of Winter by Fine Art Taxidermist Tia Resleure of A Case of Curiosities, From the Collection of Ronni Ascagni, Art Director, New York City as seen in the Private Cabinets Series, Joanna Ebenstein, 2009
  5. Tim Knox and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan Collection, Private Collection, London, England, as seen in the Private Cabinets Series, Joanna Ebenstein, 2009
  6. Tim Knox and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan Collection, Private Collection, London, England, as seen in the Private Cabinets Series, Joanna Ebenstein, 2009

The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, Obscura Day Oddities Party, 2011

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Fancy a peek at drunk people cavorting within our recently launched Great Coney Island Spectacularium? The video above was shot at our Obscura Day "Oddities" party a few weeks ago. The sharp-eyed among you might spot yourself, the cast of TV's "Oddities" and their spouses, friends, and my mother.

You can find out more about the Spectacularium in these recent articles from Time Out New York, New York Press, Boing Boing and Brooklyn Based. Or, of course, on the Spectacularium website, which can be accessed here.

Thanks, G. F. Newland, for alerting me to the existence of this troubling video.

2011 Annual American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) Meeting, Phildadelphia, April 28-May 1, 2011

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If anyone has plans to be in the Philadelphia area this week, you might consider popping over to the 2011 Annual American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) Meeting, taking place this week at the Philadelphia Society Hill Sheraton Hotel from April 28-May 1, 2011.

There are about a dozen interesting looking panels, but the two panels that look the most unmissable to me are the following, both taking place on Friday April 29th: "Museum Practice and the Making of Medical Science: Specimen Collections, Networks, and Institutions in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries," which will include two of my favorite scholars, Eva Ahren and Lisa O'Sullivan; and "Digital Media and New Audiences for the History of Medicine," where I will be delivering a short paper, along with such esteemed luminaries as Michael Sappol and Lisa Rosner.

Details for these two panels follow; to view the full schedule, click here.

Very much hope to see you there!

FRIDAY, APRIL 29
10:15 - 11:45 AM
Museum Practice and the Making of Medical Science: Specimen Collections, Networks, and Institutions in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries
Ballroom E
MODERATOR: Susan Lawrence (UniversityofNebraska,Lincoln)

  • Eva Ahren (University of Uppsala) ?Making Space for Specimens?: Medical Museums and Institution-Building at the Karolinska Institute, 1860-1910
  • Ross Jones (University of Sydney) ?No interest in human anatomy as such?: Frederic Wood Jones Dissects Anatomical Investigation in the United States in the 1920s
  • Lisa O‘Sullivan (University of Sydney) Creating Medical Specimens and Meanings: Frederic Wood Jones and the Work of a ?Good? Anatomical Specimen

12:00 - 1:15 PM
Digital Media and New Audiences for the History of Medicine
Ballroom B

  • Joanna Ebenstein (Morbid Anatomy Library, New York City)
  • Susan Reverby (Wellesley College)
  • Lisa Rosner (Stockton College)
  • Michael Sappol (National Library of Medicine)
  • Karie Youngdahl (College of Physicians of Philadelphia)
  • Laura Zucconi (Stockton College)

Click here to download a PDF program containing the complete and very extensive schedule. More information about the conference can be found here.

Image source: Rhizome.org; no citation found. Click on image to see larger, more detailed version.

"Hunting Trophies," Unknown Artist, British, Albumen silver print, ca. 1870

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"Hunting Trophies," Unknown Artist, British, Albumen silver print, ca. 1870. Full description from The Metropolitan Museum of Art website:

Shikar, or big game hunting, was an immensely popular pastime for the ruling class in India prior to British rule. When the British came into power, elaborate hunting ceremonies were used by Indians and British alike to display their prowess and status to each other. The British influence also brought improvements in hunting technology, which spurred an increase in the capture of game. Dozens of animals were killed in a single day's hunt and the trophies decorated the halls of the princes' extravagant hunting lodges. By the late 1870s, the population of many of these rare species had been severely depleted and a government-implemented system for conservation had begun to take hold.

From The Metropolitan Museum of Art website. Found via Wunderkammer blog.

Click in image to see much larger, more detailed version.

Serious dissension in Florida Democrat ranks over Abortion Bill: Grayson protege Representative Randolph throws papers on House floor at fellow Rep.

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Stole her pen and threw it in the trash

From Eric Dondero:

A Republican sponsored bill to restrict late-term abortions, and require parental notification for minors, caused hysteria on the Democrat side of the aisle at the Capitol in Tallahassee. One Democrat from Orlando got into a scuffle with another Democrat, a Hatian-American, from South Florida.

The Bradenton Herald reports, "Fight breaks out as abortion measures pass" April 27:

The fireworks broke out when Rep. Daphne Campbell, D-Miami, quoted the Bible and said she planned to break ranks.

“Thou shall not kill,” Campbell, who was born in Haiti, told her colleagues before a vote on HB 1247, the parental notification bill. It passed 82 to 35.

“This is not a bill for Republicans or Democrats because it’s a Republican bill,” Campbell said during discussion of HJR 1179, which proposes a constitutional amendment to prohibit public funding of abortions.

“This is Bible principles.”

The resolution passed by an 82 to 35 vote. But not before State Rep. Scott Randolph, a staunch progressive, and supporter of disgraced former Congressman Alan Grayson, threw a tizzy fit. Randolph yelled at Campbell, and then:

Randolph flung some of her papers at her and threw her pen in the trash, according to Campbell and other lawmakers who witnessed the outburst. They said Campbell threw some items back at him.

Important Note - Libertarians are divided on the issue of abortion itself, many pro-choice, others pro-life, with mostly all libertarians favoring reasonable restrictions such as parental notification. All libertarians are united in opposition to government funding of abortions.

Photo of the real live incident from the early 1800s caning by SC Sen. Sumner of Mass. Sen. Brooks on the House floor. Brooks had made critical remarks directed towards Sumner over his support for slavery.

Yoga and Pilates may help ease some symptoms of multiple sclerosis – Los Angeles Times

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Los Angeles Times
Yoga and Pilates may help ease some symptoms of multiple sclerosis
Los Angeles Times
Our chat guest, Dr. Barbara Giesser, clinical professor of neurology at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine and medical director of the Marilyn Hilton MS Achievement Center at UCLA, will be on hand to take questions on fitness and MS. ...

and more »

Endeavour Will not Launch Monday

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STS-134

Marc's Update: NASA will not launch Monday and will in fact need to remove the Load Control Assembly (LCA) box to continue to troubleshoot the problem.

NASA will also not announce until tomorrow when the next earliest launch attempt will be. However by removing the LCA, engineers will need time to test everything after it's put back. This most likely means at least a weeks delay in the launch. With an Atlas 5 scheduled for launch on May 6th the next earliest launch window would be May 8th. However NASA officials have said that they prefer the May 9th or 10th window. If a launch was to happen on May 9th it would be at 11:46:43 am EDT.

Update 9:55 am EDT: NASA will brief the media at 3:00 or 4:00 pm EDT this afternoon.

Update 10:15 am EDT: Endeavour's crew has already left the Kennedy Space Center for Houston where they will wait out the delay and continue preparations for the next launch attempt.

Update 10:45 am EDT: Media briefing now set for 2:00 pm EDT.

Location of affected APU 1 in Endeavour

Endeavour_APU_450.jpg