Researchers at medical device companies have been poring over old scientific journals, looking for grisly-but-effective early surgical treatments which can be updated with the less toxic materials and less brutal techniques available today.
Tag: 03.31.09
What’s Wrong With The AAMD’s Deaccessioning Policy
“The AAMD code of ethics provides that sales proceeds may not be used ‘for purposes other than acquisitions of works of art for the collection.’ As seen in the National Academy case, the consequences of violating the guidelines can be grave. … The rule is usually justified on the ground that works in museum collections are held ‘in trust’ for the public and therefore cannot be sold. The problem with this argument is that museums sell work all the time.“
A Kindle-ish Device Made Just For Magazines
Silicon Valley company Plastic Logic “is building what they hope will be a Kindle killer – the first mobile digital reader made specifically for newspapers and magazines.” The plastic device, with a flexible screen roughly 8½x11 inches, is designed to fit “those full-page, color pictures, ‘charticles’ and information graphics, not to mention leggy models splayed across two-page spreads.”
Daring Southern France Art Heist Resolves In Florida
“The series of events set off by this robbery will seem more like classic American cinema than true crime: a journey into the world of underground art dealing that will lead the main characters from the South of France to the coast of Spain to the suburbs of South Florida.”
The Concept Of ‘Passive Drinking’
Today we accept the idea of damage from “passive smoking” – breathing the smoke of other peoples’ cigarettes. Now some public health advocates are applying that idea to the harm that problem drinking causes for bystanders – “vandalising property, urinating and vomiting in the street, attacking people including members of our own family, and causing death and injury by driving under the influence.”
France’s Equivalent Of The Scarlet Letter Becomes A Political Football
La Princesse de Clèves is a 17th-century novel “that most French people are force-fed at school and are happy never to read again.” President Nicolas Sarkozy has made a habit of mocking the book, and now his “personal vendetta – cloaked in anti-elitist demagoguery – has managed to turn The Princess of Cleves into an unlikely symbol of political resistance.”
Architectural Grumpus Prince Charles Completes His First Building
“Prince Charles, that purveyor of fine Duchy sausages and scourge of modern architecture, has just completed his first building: a fire station in the twee village of Poundbury, Dorset. And I must say it’s a superb creation: a dumpy neoclassical Georgian palace with three garage doors attached to it.”
Another Gramophone List: The World’s Most Inspiring Orchestras
Following up on last fall’s much-argued-over roster of the planet’s 20 best symphonic ensembles, the magazine’s editors have made a list which “specifically focus[es] on the inspiring social role that orchestras can play.” The ten bands honored include, of course, Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Dudamel’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, but also the Berlin and New York Philharmonics, the Buskaid Ensemble and the YouTube Symphony.
What To Read On The Subway When Service Is Cut
“Thankfully, the inability of state and city to set aside their differences and craft sustainable legislation on the transportation issue has been amply addressed in print. […] Or perhaps you’re in the mood for something that will make you feel a little more grateful to be standing on the platform.”
Russia, Show Us Your Classics!
“If Russia is worried about its identity abroad, it could spend less time on the defensive and more time promoting its rich cultural heritage. There is a vast multitude of ‘lost’ Russian classics. Not lost to Russians, but lost to the west – or, to put it another way, ripe for rediscovery.”