The Changes That Have Taken Place Are Of Extreme Significance

Well, I've given up entirely on trying to figure out this issue with Blogger and Beta and Google and whatever the hell else the internet has decided to rape, so the URL for the original "Igloos For Animals" is now http://igloosforanimals2006.blogspot.com

Of course, you know that because you're here, but now you've been vindicated in some way.

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I saw Body Worlds at The Museum of Science today, and it was cool, but I don't have much to say about it. It's pretty much exactly what I expected.

There's a section that includes a pregnant woman and various fetuses- the walls are covered in red velvet curtains and they play soothing music. It's kind of tucked out of the way, and there's this note in the makeshift corridor leading into the room that ambiguously seeks to pacify those who may take offense to unborn babies being "plastinated." I was walking past a row of embryos and a black guy came up with a stroller and said "Do you know how I get out of here? They told me to come this way, and there's no exit." He was on the verge of panic, gesturing wildly at a locked emergency door and his son had wandered off a ways and was gaping in horror at a fetus that looked like a prop from Alien.

Some of the bodies kind of twitched as people walked by. That was pretty unnerving. Almost as unnerving as the large, creepy, german portrait of the guy who invented the process which creates these things.

If you do decide to see the exhibit, I strongly suggest walking through the exhibit halls afterwards and calming yourself down a bit with frightening mathematics, not-so-frightening dinosaurs, taxidermied animals that look like they belong in an indie film, and the ever confusing "Science In The Park."

I didn't understand any of "Science In The Park," but the fake thunderstorm room was cool.

The highlight of the museum has to be the guy who dissects pigs all day in the animal section.

He was in his seventies, and twitched like so many old people do. I listened to his whole story about the pig, but was amazed most by this:

In pigs as well as in humans, blood isn't necessary in the lungs until after birth because the organism isn't breathing, so the blood that normally goes there is sent (mostly) through these two special glands that bypass the lungs and go straight to the heart and some other very important organ I can't remember. Maybe the liver. Anyway, when you're born, there's this chain reaction set off partially by your lungs filling with air and partially by something in your brain. The opening in your heart shuts, and the other one goes into a spasm and closes as well.

So, if you've heard of babies being born with holes in their heart, that's what they're talking about. We all have this hole, but sometimes it doesn't close, and that's where the problem lies. I guess the one in the heart is kind of a flap, so when the blood flow slows down and more blood goes to the lungs, the flap shuts and seals itself. The other valve goes into a spasm, the guy said, and ties itself into some kind of fucked up knot.

I think that's amazing.

So I learned more about the body from this guy than I did from old Gunther, though Gunther's exhibit was pretty amazing.

You know what else the human body can do? It can eat like four pounds of Taco Bell. I learned that all on my own at the food court of the Cambridgeside Galleria.

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One last note: Congrats to my pal Steph for scoring some gig with Newcastle and SPIN. She's the official music blogger for Newcastle Brown Ale now, and she's given me hope.

You can read her posts at www.newcastlebrown.com and www.spin.com

Cheers.