Dan Harlow

Color me skeptical about the potential medical uses of biofeedback, but I have to admit that Bill Scott’s new technique called Brain Paint is pretty cool.

For those of you unfamiliar with what EEG (Electroencephalography) biofeedback is its supporters claim it can treat any number of mental disorders including Addiction, Anxiety, Attachment Disorder, ADHD/ADD, Migraine, Autism, Autoimmune Dysfunction, Chronic Pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Conduct Disorders, Depression, Eating Disorder, Epilepsy, Fetal Alchohol Syndrome, Learning Disabilities, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Pre-Menstrual Syndrome, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Sleep Disorders, Stroke, Tourette’s Syndrome and Traumatic Brain Injury.

The way it works is like this:

From the EEG Spectrum International FAQ:

The EEG biofeedback training is a painless, non-invasive procedure. One or more sensors are placed on the scalp, and one to each ear. The brain waves are monitored by means of an amplifier and a computer-based instrument that processes the signal and provides the proper feedback. This is displayed to the trainee by means of a video game or other video display, along with audio signals. The trainee is asked to make the video game go with his brain. As activity in a desirable frequency band increases, the video game moves faster, or some other reward is given. As activity in an adverse band increases, the video game is inhibited. Gradually, the brain responds to the cues that it is being given, and a “learning” of new brain wave patterns takes place. The new pattern is one which is closer to what is normally observed in individuals without such disabilities.

“Successful” treatment is seen over a gradual amount of time and patients are encouraged to attend multiple weekly sessions costing anywhere from $50 - $125 per individual session. After awhile sessions can be cut down but daily sessions are encouraged.

No kidding?

While it is true that many researchers and corporations have successfully demonstrated that a human subject can control certain electronic devices just by thinking about it, I am somewhat doubtful as to the realistic medical applications biofeedback can provide for people suffering from any form of brain disease.

For now it seems all Brain Paint can really do is at least allow you to make some cool artwork with your mind (and bank account) in the form of some amazing fractal imaging. Below are some of the best examples from his website.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Ron Buckley, a registered nurse and amateur fossil hunter in Florence, Kentucky discovered this 100 million year old fungal hyperparasites encased in amber he obtained from Canada back in March 2006. Working with George Poinar, a zoologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, they were able to determine the age and extreme rarity of the find.

For $100,000 US you can own this incredible find but you must promise to make it available to scientists for further study.

However the specimen is really of limited scientific value since there is currently no known method to extract the DNA and besides, the fungus can’t even be placed in any known modern phylogeny. Of course, the aesthetic value of the find can’t be overstated even though the amber measures only 3mm x 6 mm and the mushroom measures only 2mm.

Now, I wonder how this little bugger would taste after being lightly sauteed and served with some grilled baby woolly mammoth meat?

Popularity: 4% [?]

On October 5th, 2007 Christie’s will be holding a very interesting auction. The Dean Edell Medical Collection will consist of over 200 rare books and illustrations of historical anatomical literature. Each lot covers a wide variety of styles and disciplines (as well as anatomical accuracy) including original Japanese works.

From artdaily.org:

Dr. Dean Edell has become known as a physician, author, and media personality whose radio and television shows on health are seen and heard by an audience exceeding ten million across the United States. Lesser known however is Dr. Edell’s lifelong penchant for art collecting, and his pastime as an amateur artist. His collection deftly fuses these two passions and recounts the history of anatomy as seen from the perspective of the artist as well as the physician. Dr. Edell’s approach to collecting represents a transformation from the way these books and objects are traditionally viewed. Even though many illustrated treatises on anatomy were executed and sometimes written by artists of great ability and reputation, they tend to be appreciated more for their accuracy of representation than for their often spectacular artistic visions of the interior workings of the human body— the beauty beneath the skin.

This auction has become something of a minor sensation on the internet. Boing Boing featured the auction on their site and they even included a link to the blog titled Morbid Anatomy which posted a few of the auctions more bizarre lots. While it is understandable that many people find this type of art interesting, I think it is too bad that the majority of interest comes with a morbid fascination of death and the extreme. Like school kids who snicker when they hear the word penis, images such as these are typically appreciated in an immature manner and rarely for the true works of art that they are.

Medical art exists to aid students in the art of practicing medicine and familiarizing them with the workings of the human body. However, unlike the service manuals which an auto mechanic relies on to determine the workings of a particular automobile, the illustrated medical encyclopedias contain illustrations and examples unique to the artist who creates them. A Chilton’s manual for a 2006 GMC Sonoma will contain the exact same style of simplified line drawings found in any other service manual. Yet when it comes to the human body, which by the way is infinitely more complex that any GMC, the representation of the heart, liver or muscle structure will vary from one artist to another.

The most obvious explanation for why mechanical art is so standardized and medical art is more interpretative is because whereas all 2006 GMC Sonoma 4.3L engines are exactly the same, no two human beings are exactly the same. There will always be room open for interpretation in the field of medical illustration because while there are accepted and “normal” forms a human heart, for example, should take, variations within these norms can be very important for a doctor to understand.

The two images above both represent the Medial canthus which is “the angle formed by the union of the upper and lower eyelids medially” [Biology-Online.org]. The illustration on the left is from the 1918 edition of the famous Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body. Gray’s Anatomy, as it is commonly known was the first true encyclopedia of anatomy available to students and doctors when it was first published in 1858. The success of the encyclopedia hinged largely of the incredibly detailed illustrations which were done not by Gray, but rather by his colleague and friend Dr. H V Vandyke Carter. Even today, 150 years later, Gray’s Anatomy (currently in its 39th edition) is still considered the most authoritative work on the subject of the human body.

The image above on the right is from the online resource Anatomy Atlases and covers first aid anatomy. Here the art is much more simplified because the intended audience is not a medical professional but rather a general laborer. The illustrations here contain the precise medical terminology of Gray’s Anatomy but only in an effort to aid the worker if he must call 911. Unlike Dr. Carter’s illustrations for Gray, these illustrations are colorful and less intimidating to the lay person. Most of us have little use for exacting medical illustrations especially if we are trying to remove a burr of hot metal from under our eyelid.

Of course medical art has a history going back quite a bit further than Gray’s seminal work. Some of the earliest surviving examples date back from the time of the ancient Egyptians. Though probably not intended to be used as technical information for aspiring Egyptian doctors (most of the practice was probably taught in the oral tradition) it still gives a remarkable insight into the techniques and the higher knowledge the Egyptians possessed. Based on what archaeologists have discovered using x-ray technology and other scanning devices, we know that the Egyptians had a very good understanding of what was inside the body and how to do some fairly advanced medical procedures.

Given the power, influence and most importantly the location of the Egyptian empire it is little wonder then that their medical knowledge spread all through the middle east. And it is in the middle east that modern medicine truly was born.

Know as the Islamic Golden Age, a period of roughly 500 years from around 700 CE - 1200 CE, knowledge in all fields of the sciences and arts exploded. Much of the reason for this vast increase in knowledge was due to the Islamic religion which stated in Quranic injunctions and hadith statements such as “the ink of scientists is equal to the blood of martyrs”. Another reason for the increase in scientific knowledge was war. Ever a divided region of tribes and feudal leaders, war in the middle east was (and still is) common. Since victory on the battlefield is often achieved by having a technological advantage over your enemy, advances such as battlefield medicine can be invaluable. A warlord who understands that taking doctors and surgeons along on conquest campaigns can increase the life and effectiveness (not to mention morale) of the troops stands a much better chance of achieving victory and personal glory than a warlord or does not.

A common misconception about art is that it is not considered a true science since it deals often with interpretation of truths but not mechanics of truth. Yet science without art is practically useless because a simple image can explain a complex problem far more effectively than thousands and thousands of words (ie, the adage of a picture being worth a thousand words). Scholars during Islams Golden Age understood this and produced vast quantities of beautiful art including serious medical art. Unlike their European counterparts who were still living in the dark ages and who were still taking to astrology for their medical “knowledge, Islam had gained a keen insight into the true workings of the human body.

Because of the remarkable work done by the Islamic scholars, even the invading Crusaders understood that they were technically very far behind the people they were trying to kill. Much of the knowledge gained from the Crusades was brought back to Europe where it began a painfully slow integration into Western culture. Much of Islams scientific work on astronomy and the other “hard sciences” were prohibited and banned from the general God fearing populace but interestingly the church hung onto these works and did not burn them either. Many medical documents however were made available and were even included right alongside the Bible as was the case with the Codex Gigas which reprinted the works of Zad al-musafir, Ibn al-Ğazzar and Hunayn ibn Isha´q.

As the centuries wore on famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci were known to cut open dead bodies and see what was going on inside. Though considered grisly work (even demonic), the contributions of da Vinci and others paved the way to the exacting medical illustrations we have today.

On a final note, it should be stated that the practice of medicine is often considered an art in itself, especially surgery. The skill of a dentist or surgeon to reconstruct a tooth, toe or entire limb involves as much scientific knowledge as it does artistic ability. Being able to understand and appreciate the beauty of the human body and it’s inner workings is a key part to being successful in the field of medicine and is why even when the medical images are created via computer, it still takes an artists eye to put them into a useful context.

Below is a collection of some of the more intriguing images from the lots up for auction this October 5th at Christies. Hopefully instead of seeing these images as bizarre or morbid, you can look at them for the true works of art which they are. Each plate represents a specific artists interpretation of the human body and offers a glimpse not only into the mechanical workings of a human being but also into the mystery that still surrounds what is truly one of the most incredible machines in nature.

UPDATE: The National Library of Medicine has an online collection of old medical atlases with scans from all the plates and images in each book. All the images are public domain.

Popularity: 7% [?]

On September 28, 2007 the GAO (Government Accountability Office) released a grim report detailing the state of the Smithsonian Institute which is the world’s largest museum complex.

From the GAO Report:

[The Smithsonian’s] annual operating and capital program revenues come from its own private trust fund assets and federal appropriations, with the majority of funds for facilities coming from federal appropriations. In 2005, GAO reported that the Smithsonian’s current funding would not be sufficient to cover its estimated $2.3 billion in facilities projects through 2013 and recommended that the Smithsonian Board of Regents, its governing body, develop and implement a funding plan. As requested, GAO described changes in the condition of the Smithsonian’s facilities and estimate for project costs since 2005, analyzed the Smithsonian’s steps taken and challenges regarding protecting and managing its real property portfolio, and assessed the Smithsonian’s efforts to develop and implement strategies to fund its facilities’ projects. GAO reviewed relevant documents and interviewed officials from the Smithsonian and other organizations.

Recommendations for improvement were “increasing awareness of security issues; include privately funded projects in its capital plan, and comprehensively analyze funding options and report to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget on a funding strategy. The Smithsonian concurred with the report’s recommendations. “

While the Smithsonian does agree with the GAO report, officials for the museum take issue with how the GAO believes those improvements should be made. A key sticking point is that it has been recommended to charge admission to the museum because:

From the AP:

… upkeep has always been paid for by the federal government. The Smithsonian Board of Regents has considered charging admission three times in about a dozen years and always rejected the idea, she said.

“It has always been Congress’ responsibility to care for the national collections and the buildings,” Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said.

Charging admission is believed to not only be of limited income potential but it also flies in the face of tradition where everyone has been able to view the collections at all Smithsonian museums free of charge. The GAO counters by stating that board of regents only has only ever looked at each possibility independently and not as a collective whole which overall could generate much more income than just one single idea.

So how bad are things at the Smithsonian? First you have to appreciate the scale of the operation.

As stated earlier, the Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex. The institute employees thousands of people from maintenance workers to Ph D’s , restoration artists, software engineers, cafeteria workers and tour guides. With salaries and expenses totaling roughly 516 million dollars (in 2006) all paid via a millions salaries and expenses appropriation, these employees provide the means to which anyone can come see masterpieces such as the collected works of James McNeill Whistler, the Apollo 11 Command Module, the painted wood face masks of the Guro peoples in Africa and even the Hope Diamond.

With such a diverse and ever changing collection the scope of the Smithsonian is enormous and involves not only an incredibly dedicated team of professionals to keep it all running but also a fair amount of tax payer dollars to keep the doors open. And keeping the doors open for nearly 10 million square feet of space has been getting harder and harder each year.

Problems with the Smithsonian’s facilities since 2005 have continued to cause access restrictions and damage, and continue to threaten collections. Moreover, many long-term facilities problems remain. According to Smithsonian officials, repairs to some of these problems are scheduled over the next several years. At the same time, the Smithsonian’s cost estimate for facilities projects through fiscal year 2013 has increased since April 2005, from $2.3 billion to $2.5 billion for the same time period.

Some repairs have been made such as copper flashing being installed at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Freer and Sackler Galleries) to prevent water leaks and also the construction of a unit called Pod 5 which is fire code compliant and now houses all the alcohol-preserved specimens of the Museum of Natural History. Other repairs have been mere band aids such as when at the National Zoo’s sea lion and seal exhibit those two tanks were discovered to have leaks totaling 140,000 gallons per day which flowed directly into the Washington D.C. sewer system. The Zoo discovered that though the “structures themselves appeared sound, the source of most of the water loss was a result of the old underground supply and return piping” and temporary supply lines were installed in the seal pool at a cost of $297,000. The sea lion pool has yet to be fixed and daily water loss is at 110,000 gallons per day for both pools.

The list of problems yet to be addressed at all is extensive, to say the least.

• Power capacity issues caused by inadequate electrical systems have forced the Air and Space Museum to occasionally close galleries to visitors, according to the museum’s director. The electrical systems at the Air and Space museum were installed in 1975 and are obsolete and at the end of their useful life. Complete replacement is needed to avoid outages from equipment failure.

• Recurring leaks in a Museum of African Art gallery that held an exhibit called Art of the Personal Object forced the museum to temporarily close the gallery several times from 2004 through 2006 and take down part of the exhibits collections until the leaks were repaired, according to the museum’s director. Smithsonian officials noted that addressing such leaks is a regular maintenance issue.

• Chronic leaks in the roof of the Cultural Resources Center at Suitland, Maryland, which was completed in 1998 and opened in 1999 to hold collections of the Museum of the American Indian, have forced staff to place plastic over several shelving units used to store collections, such as a set of wooden boats that includes an Eskimo kayak from Greenland and a rare Yahgan dugout canoe from Tierra del Fuego, according to officials at this facility. The plastic sheeting limits visitors’ visual access to the boats during open houses, which provide Native Americans and other groups with access to the collections. One museum official stated that it was also an embarrassment during open houses to have to explain that a roof leak threatens collections. According to Smithsonian officials, the building’s roof is a spiral shape constructed with copper plate and compositional panels soldered together. However, the soldered joints on this complex roof design were not constructed well by the subcontractor responsible for building the roof. According to a Smithsonian official, the Smithsonian has worked with the company identified by the roofing manufacturer to assume the warranty for the roof to make repairs. While some of the costs to repair the roof were covered by warranty, others were not and were paid for by the Smithsonian.

• A lack of temperature and humidity control at the Museum of Air and Space’s collection storage facilities in Suitland, Maryland, which have large doors that do not seal and let in rain, has caused corrosion to historic airplanes and other collections and increased the cost of restoring these items for exhibit, according to museum officials.

• The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s building is not well insulated and is the Smithsonian’s largest (on a per-square-foot basis) consumer of energy; in addition, its façade is leaking in places.

• The National Zoo is currently unable to provide many of its animals with the state-of-the-art habitats required to meet the zoo’s goal of providing the highest quality animal care. Many of the zoo’s animal areas and facilities are in relatively poor condition. For example, some of the zoo’s facilities, including the bird house, small mammals house, and the reptile house, were built in the 1920s, while others, including the lion and tiger area and the ape house, were built in the 1960s. Many of these facilities do not meet current code requirements (buildings are brought up to code at the time they are renovated) and have many failing systems.

• The Director of the Museum of African Art stated that leaks in a skylight since 2005 have at times forced the museum to cover the skylight with plastic to protect the building and its collections (see fig. 11). The Director stated that the skylights have leaked for many years, were repaired in 2004, and started leaking again in 2005. In addition, according to the Director, in 2006, leaks in the roof membrane of the pavilion by the main visitor entrance forced the museum to put up plastic around the entrance and remove art objects from the area, reducing the visual appeal of the museum’s entrance.

And the list continues. In addition, two museum and facility directors spoke of alarming “near misses” — events related to inadequate facilities that could have been catastrophic to collections had they occurred at different times.

According to Sackler Gallery officials, in October 2006, a major leak unexpectedly occurred in a holding area used by the museum to store exhibits on loan three weeks before $500 million worth of art arrived to be held there. If the leak had occurred while the art was being stored in this space, the art could have been destroyed. The leak was caused by ongoing problems with the steam system used to provide humidification to the Quadrangle complex, known as the condensate system. Problems with this system—which the gallery shares with the other facilities that make up the Quadrangle, including the Museum of African Art—have caused unpredictable leaks throughout the complex since 1993, continually threatening collections. Museum officials stated that staff must routinely spend time each morning searching for new leaks in order to move or cover collections to keep them safe—time that could be used for programmatic efforts—and several officials emphasized they have been lucky to avoid major damage to the collections thus far.

In order to make all the needed repairs, the latest estimate puts the total at 2.5 billion dollars. “The Smithsonian’s estimated revitalization and new construction costs are driven in part by the need to modernize or add systems, such as fire detection and alarm and security systems, and to comply with newer life safety code requirements, such as those for handicapped accessibility to buildings and restrooms. Maintenance costs include staff costs, minor repair and maintenance projects, and other contracts, supplies, materials, and equipment for Smithsonian’s maintenance program.”

Another alarming issue is that of internal security with reports of vandalism and even theft having been reported. A key component for regulating the safety of the collections is staffing; something the Smithsonian has had a difficult time fulfilling. The graph on the left shows that of the 10 facilities listed, 5 showed a decrease of at least 25% in security personal. “The Smithsonian has begun employing gallery attendants in an effort to help fill security gaps and is constantly advertising vacancies for security guards to help deal with high turnover, St. Thomas said.

So what can be done? Though it is unlikely the museum will be closing it’s doors anytime soon, long term problems exist for the Institute. One interesting piece of information which has yet to be reported on is that the Independent Review Committee (created at the request of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents in June 2007) set up examining the former Smithsonian secretary Lawrence M. Small’s compensation and expenses and related board governance. In 2007 Small received $915,698 in compensation. The report found that private funds raised annually from donors declined over the former secretary’s tenure, from January 2000 through March 2007. In addition, the IRC found that business revenue also dropped during the former secretary’s tenure, while funds from federal appropriations and governmental grants increased more than 60 percent.

While Congress has authorized major new museums and facilities, Congress has moved away from fully funding the construction of these facilities beginning in 1982. At that time, Congress authorized $36.5 million for the construction of the Museum of African Art and a Center for Eastern Art and required that the Smithsonian pay for the balance of the project with other funds. In 1989, Congress required that not more than two-thirds of the total cost of the Museum of the American Indian come from federal appropriations. More recently, in 2003, Congress also required that 50 percent of the cost to construct the Museum of African American History and Culture come from nonfederal sources and the other 50 percent from federal appropriations.

Basically what is at hand here is really an issue of fair oversight and reasonable budget limitations. The spirit of the Smithsonian is the “establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men” and though the Smithsonian is partially private, it is also a public institute. Should the museum be unable to provide sufficient funding for operations it is up to congress to either appropriate the funds or employ governance to allow the museum to seek and obtain funding from the private sector.

Another key issue concerning congress is that bills such as requiring an African American wing are introduced only to appease certain voters (in this African Americans) yet little thought is put into how the Smithsonian will be able to fund the exhibits. Politically speaking funds for the Smithsonian have been siphoned off for political advantages - even if the politics in question are noble in spirit. In other words, the Smithsonian has become a sort of backwater wasteland where “feel good” politics can be dumped and forgotten while well educated and hard working individuals are left to pick up the pieces. And while it seems to be true that Lawrence M. Small ran a poor (even corrupted) ship during his tenure, the fact remains that the museum needs help.

To put this lengthy article into context, try to recall the story of how injured veterans returning from Iraq have been treated by the VA. In that example good men and women who have served with honor and distinction for a war they may or may not agree with have been left to fend for themselves now that they are home. To be blunt, the government used them and then have tossed them away. Though the Smithsonian is not worth even the value of one human life, it is part of the heritage and culture of the United States that is worth fighting for. For too long now we have allowed the government to run fast and loose with little to no accountability to the consequences of morality or consequence and as the years and decades pass we begin to see the cracks in the armor.

The Smithsonian is an integral part of our nations heritage and one of the most important museums and research institutes in the world. There is no excuse for either the government to tie off needed funding or those who work for the board to fill their on coffers at the expense of tax payers. The Smithsonian is our institute - it is free to visit for everyone either black, white or yellow. Should the Smithsonian be allowed to deteriorate any further would just be a glaring example of how far we have let this country go. With our troops returning home to no health care, our roads and bridges falling apart, our schools failing to meet the expectations of even some third world nations and now even our own history and art growing dusty and cracked, when will there be enough evidence for the average American to become outraged and demand some sort of change?

The purpose of art is to challenge the intellect and I believe it’s time we let that happen again.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The School Of Visual Arts in New York City, along with their Japanese alumni will be ending their multimedia exhibition today. Called ‘Super Phat‘, all 41 artists are Japanese and have created various works which refer to the slang word in the exhibitions title. The idea is to show American audiences how other cultures view us as well how our culture has been adopted and rewritten in the Japanese culture.

Below are some highlights.

What I find most striking about this exhibition is that many of the works juxtapose innocence with subtle violence and sarcasm. The photograph titled ‘Nu on the Street’ featuring a blue horse-type creature is funny in that you pretty much know anyone wearing a costume like that would really get the crap beaten out of them here in the US. That’s probably why you don’t see too many cosplayers running around in downtown urban America. Also the baby stroller with M-16 hardware built into it is a nice statement about Americans and our love affair with violence and war.

The best (in my opinion) is the painting titled ‘Butterfly’ because it seems to be making a subtle mockery of female American youth. The girl in the painting is a little overweight and her conformist butterfly tattoo and ‘whale tail’ is visible for anyone to look at. The fact that she is eating fruit is a really nice biblical reference in that she is like a modern Eve ready to “seduce” yet has become somewhat too disgusting and plain to pull it off. With her back to the viewer she appears to not even care about her appearance yet at the same time you can just feel how desperate she is for attention. The artist Ai Tatebayashi is a real talent here.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The Papua province of Indonesia’s Central Highlands is one of the least visited places on earth. Located 8 hours over difficult terrain from from Jakarta and requiring a journalists permit to travel into the region, getting into and out of the small villages is a difficult task since there are no permanent roads, electricity or telephones.

While many people in the west (and even in modern Indonesia itself) view the native cultures of the Central Highlands as primitive and underdeveloped, even the people who have lived in these jungles for hundreds of years yearn for contact with the outside world. In fact modern life has made its mark here - a fact easily seen by the clothing and dress of many of the villagers. Though some still choose the traditional penis gourds, headdresses and beads, even these traditionalists will choose to modernize once the government decides to build roads, houses and bring electricity.

Promises to this region about modernization have been made and broken before so whenever there is a new idea brought to these people it is usually met with heavy skepticism. The villagers believe they are neglected by the central government in Jakarta and many are angry with the government especially since the region has vast natural resources and does generate a considerable amount of revenue. In fact one pig can be worth up to $2000 but since the area is so remote and cut off nobody there really sees any value in money or having it. Pigs are considered the main form of currency here and most everyone is a subsistence farmer.

But not everyone.

Recently a local radio station was built in the region and it will be linked to the larger, independent radio station KBR68H whose editor headed up the project and convinced the villagers that they could trust the project to happen for them. The station will be staffed, maintained and operated by local villagers who were all trained from scratch.

Of course with no electricity in the region (most people live in huts and heat their homes and cook their meals with wood), a power source needed to be devised. The solution was to build a mini hydro-electric dam which when completed actually provided enough electricity not only for the radio station, but also for the school, the church and some of the more modern homes which the village leaders live.

When the project was completed a celebration of about 2,000 people showed up. Pigs which were hunted with arrows by the men were prepared by the women who had wrapped them in leaves and vegetables and cooked with hot stones buried underground in a pit were the main course. The celebration however was not just for the opening of the radio station, but also because it means the beginning of development in the region. The Indonesian military has been accused many times of human right abuses but each claim has been denied by military officials. Villagers now hope that the radio station will provide them a chance to connect with the outside world and tell their story.

Though some in the world may see this western modernization as yet more chipping away of another beautiful traditional culture, the people who actually live this way are more concerned with just living than with living any one particular way. Survival is the most important thing for any culture and since these people feel threatened by their more modern neighbors, then they will adapt to survive. Hopefully instead of their culture being lost to time, it will be transformed and the stories and traditions of these people will be broadcast and recorded for all to hear and for all time.

Read the original photo essay by Lucy Williamson on the BBC.

Popularity: 2% [?]

“The little faith I used to have has been completely shattered. If God existed, He would have certainly not permitted that human beings be thrown alive into furnaces, and the heads of little toddlers be smashed with gun butts or shoved into sacks and gassed to death.”

These words were written by 14 year old Rutka Laskier in 1943 not long before she was forced from the Polish ghetto to Auschwitz where she was killed. The Feb. 5th entry continues:

“I have a feeling that I’m writing for the last time. There is an aktion in my town. I’m not allowed to go out, and I’m going crazy, imprisoned in my house … I wish it would end already, this torment, this hell. I try to escape from these thoughts of the next day, but they keep haunting me like nagging flies. If only I could say, it’s over, you only need to die once … but I can’t because despite all these atrocities, I want to live and wait for the following day.”

Her friend Stanislawa Sapinska, now in her 80’s, came into possession of the diary after the war when she had hidden it in the floorboards of the basement. Sapinska stashed the diary in her home library for more than 60 years. She said it was a precious memento and thought it to be too private to share with others. Only at the behest of her young nephew did she agree to hand it over last year. “He convinced me that it was an important historical artifact,” she said.

And who was committing these atrocities? Men and women like you and me. Though it would be easier to imagine that what smashed in the heads of a toddlers with a rifle was a monster, the inescapable fact is that human beings did this to one another.

A photo album has recently been made public by the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum. The album was donated to the museum by a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps, a group of soldiers who were responsible for looking for war criminals after World War 2 ended. What is most striking about the album is it’s banality. Everyday life at Auschwitz from the tedium of official routines to picnics, dinners and even sing-alongs are depicted and all the while only a few miles away thousands of Jews, Poles, Serbs, Homosexuals, Gypsies and others were being systematically murdered every month.

The Polish ghettos created by the Nazis during World War II were ‘urban prisons set up to deliver their residents, ultimately, to extermination.’ Those residents, Polish Jews, were walled or fenced in to restricted areas, as they were in the Glubokoye ghetto, pictured above. Here, residents are working in a plant nursery in what might have been a moment of respite, at least distraction. From this community of 6,000, about 60 are thought to have survived.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Text by David Chandler. Additional text and images from zonaeuropa.com.

The mayhem that Democratic Kampuchea inflicted on its people led the French author Jean Lacouture to coin the word autogenocide — to differentiate events in Cambodia from previous pogroms, holocausts, purges and vendettas. Lacouture’s horror, if not the word he coined, was justified by the facts. In less than four years, more than one million Cambodians, or one in seven, probably died from malnutrition, overwork, and misdiagnosed or mistreated illness. At least one hundred thousand, and probably more, were executed for crimes against the state.

S.21 (Security Office 21) was one of the most notorious prisons during the reign of Pol Pot in Cambodia. Also known as Tuol Sleng (which translates to mean “a poisonous hill or a place on a mound to keep those who bear or supply guilt”) alone, the number of prisoners by year was as follows:

• 1975: 154 prisoners
• 1976: 2,250 prisoners
• 1977: 2,330 prisoners
• 1978: 5,765 prisoners

These figures, totaling 10,499 do not include an estimated 2,000 children. There are only seven known survivors. Of these survivors, a few of them created works of art now on display at the museum on the site of the old prison depicting the atrocities that took place at S.21. When one sees the implements of torture that were used it can be difficult for the mind to recreate the horrors they produced so the paintings help drive home the terror that these prisoners endured.

Here one must say that imagination fails miserably. The first photo shows a vat sitting in the courtyard. What is it? Above the vat is a wooden bar with hooks. What are they used for? The tour guide explains, but these are only words which cannot take your heart away. It took a painting by a survivor to explain the purposes. Human urine and feces were collected in the ammunition boxes and then emptied into the vat. When prisoners refused to confess their crimes, they were hung up with their hands behind their backs by ropes tied to the hooks, and then their heads were dipped into the vat.

Spatters of human blood still stain the ceiling of the prison.

In 1997, when questioned by the journalist Nate Thayer, Pol Pot denied any knowledge of “Tuol Sleng,” hinting that the museum and its archive were Vietnamese concoctions.

“I was at the top, I made only big decisions on big issues. I want to tell you — Tuol Sleng was a Vietnamese exhibition. A journalist wrote that. People talk about Tuol Sleng, Tuol Sleng, Tuol Sleng … When I first heard about Tuol Sleng, it was on the Voice of America. I listened twice.”

“As you know,” he [Thayer] said, “most of the world thinks that you’re responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Cambodians who didn’t deserve to suffer.” Pol Pot replied:

“I’m going to reply. I’m going to tell you clearly. I would like to tell you that I came to carry out the struggle, not to kill people. Even now, and you can look at me, am I a savage person? My conscience is clear.”

Thayer pressed on, asking Pol Pot to acknowledge that he had “made very serious mistakes” during his time in power. Pol Pot replied deftly, in a schoolmasterish fashion:

“There are two sides to it, as I told you. There’s what we did wrong, and what we did right. The mistake is that we did some things against the people … but the other side, as I told you, is that without our struggle there would be no Cambodia right now.”

“I want you to know,” he said, “that everything that I did, I did for my country.”

Speaking to a Khmer reporter from Radio Free Asia on April 17 [1998], Ta Mok (a senior figure in the leadership of the Khmer Rouge also known as Brother Number 5) delivered this epitaph:

“Pol Pol has died,” he said, “like a ripe papaya. No one killed him, no one poisoned him. Now he’s finished, he has no power, he has no rights, he is now no more than cow shit. Cow shit is more important than him. We can use it for fertilizer.”

Until recently, there was an exhibit of a map of Cambodia built from skulls and bones found at the killing fields. Based upon a request from the Cambodian human rights commission, this exhibit has been dissembled and the skulls are kept in a shelf out of respect to these identified dead persons. Today, only this large photograph is shown at this museum. Why a skull-based map of Cambodia? Because the killings were not restricted solely to Phnom Penh, but occurred all over the country and just about every family lost someone somewhere sometime.

When we deal with the culture of S-21, it is tempting to rush to judgment, but it is also easy to judge the interrogators, guards, or executioners too severely. They could disobey orders only on pain of death. Without similar experiences, temptations, and pressures it is impossible for any of us to say how we might have behaved had we been interrogators ourselves, locked in a cell facing a helpless and devalued “enemy” alongside a pair of colleagues, either of whom might report us to the authorities for failing to inflict torture or for “counterrevolutionary” hesitation. Similarly, we cannot say what we would have done if a superior gave us an iron bar with which to smash the skull of a kneeling victim.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Starting this year Britain will be issuing a new series of stamps which details the history of the solders uniform. The first set will consist of six stamps covering 350 years of the Royal Army. The RAF will follow in 2008 and the series will be completed in 2009 with the inclusion of the Royal Navy. Brigadier Hickson, director of the British Forces Post Office, said the stamps “perfectly illustrate the huge variety in uniforms worn by both servicemen and women in the Army”.

This is not England’s first go-around with glorifying the troops. Back in 1982 a series of Maritime Heritage stamps were released followed in 1983 with a series of British Army uniforms. No coincidence then that England was engaged in an unpopular war in the Falklands during that time as they are today in Iraq. Possibly this is Britain’s sly way of getting the folks back home to support their foreign policy.

I wonder how long it will be until we here in America get in on our own stamp act?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Until recently, talking to most women about outer space was a sure fire method to spending an evening by yourself. Being that astronomers already have to spend most of their nights alone, it was only a matter of time before some of them found a way to finally get women interested in “celestial bodies”.

Located at the core of the white dwarf BPM 37093 is a mass of crystallized carbon 2,500 miles across left over from when the star used up all its nuclear fuel and died. For those of us who paid attention in high school, crystallized carbon is a fancy way to describe a diamond. Weighing in at 10 billion-trillion-trillion-carats – a one, followed by 34 zeros - “You would need a jeweler’s loupe the size of the sun to grade this diamond. Bill Gates and Donald Trump together couldn’t begin to afford it.” says Travis Metcalfe, an astronomer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the team who discovered the stellar gem.

Seven billion years from now our own sun will have used up all it’s fuel and its core too will crystallize but those interested in getting their hands on the largest known diamond will not want to wait that long. “Every girl wants to be the first one in her galaxy with an engagement ring the size of a burnt out star”. Located about 50 light years away, many women believe they can easily “go without” for roughly 50 years at the speed of light until their prize is claimed for them. Suitors who fail to get the diamond will then be forced to become evil space pirates who destroy other suns just to get their girlfriend an even bigger engagement ring.

Putting aside the possibility of interstellar war with a hostile alien race upset at humanity for trying to turn their own sun into an engagement present, what astronomers really fear is that all this new attention they have brought upon themselves may now force them to actually have to talk to the opposite sex. The implications go even deeper as the Astrophysical Journal who published the teams findings about BPM 37093 considered the unthinkable by including advertising for the first time ever. Potential sponsors included Ralph Lauren, Prada and Tampax.

Popularity: 3% [?]