DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

My band performed at a Kerry fundraiser last Friday. I like this picture for the warm wood tone of the back wall, and because I am completely obscured by the bassist.

No matter what your perspective is, I’ll be behind someone. That’s the reality of having six guys in a band. The other reality of having six guys in a band is that the per-person fee split is usually about $10. Oh, and one more: in rehearsal, someone always has gas, although I guess that’s usually also true even in smaller bands.

Eyeing the width of our setup on this shallow stage, the bassist and I joked that rather than playing in a six-man band, we’d rather play in two power trios.

Rummaging through an old box of cassettes for a little aural gold… the heaviest tune in the JAR canon (or even cannon). I so dig odd time signatures.

Bleed (Copyright © 1995 JAR)

This is pretty amazing: Jon Stewart of Comedy Central appeared on CNN’s show Crossfire and told the hosts they’re hurting America. “You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.”

See the video clip at iFilm: Stewart on Crossfire video or check for additional sources at boingboing.

CNN provides a transcript.

Home electricity bills from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. could rise 4.1 percent in January under a proposal the company sent state regulators Friday.

And that might not be the only rate increase PG&E’s residential customers face next year.

The company also wants to shift more of its costs from business customers to residential customers and could receive permission to do so next fall.

Anyone who is surprised, stand up and repeat after me: since 1970, electricity rates have climbed an average of 6% per year.

It sounds grisly, but it looks really cool: Body Worlds, the Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies

Gunther von Hagens’ “plastination” technique turns organic tissue into plastic. The result is life-sized, anatomically-correct cutaway 3D sculptures of skeletons, nerves, muscles, vessels, organs, etc.

The whole-body models are the most stunning. Dozens of them are on display in a 20,000 square foot Body Worlds installation in Los Angeles, at the California Science Center through January 2005.

The plastination technique replaces bodily fluids and fat with reactive polymers, such as silicone rubber, epoxy resins, or polyester: in a first phase solvent gradually replaces bodily fluids in a cold solvent bath (freeze substitution). After dehydration the specimen is put in a solvent bath at room temperature for defatting. The dehydrated and defatted specimen is then placed into a polymer solution. The solvent is then brought to a boil in a vacuum and continuously extracted from the specimen; the evaporating solvent creates a volume deficit within the specimen drawing the polymer gradually into the tissue. After the process of forced impregnation the specimen is cured with gas, light, or heat, depending on the type of polymer used.

The photos here have been provided by the California Science Center and are © 2004 Body Worlds. They have been reproduced by permission. Additional pictures — more clinical and less fascinating for it, in my opinion — can be found at the site of the Plastination Gallery of Vienna University.