Tea and Books, etc.

If you're interested in specifics, go here.


Second up, is something that disgusts a great many people, including my own mum, but which I, being the perverse creature I am, am very keen to go see. The site is quite sparse with details, unfortunately.

Bodies: The Exhibition

Celebrate the wonder of the human form at Tampa’s Museum Of Science & Industry in the World Premier of BODIES … THE EXHIBITION—a phenomenal look at the phenomena we call the human body.

With educational relevance for all ages, this exhibition of real human specimens immerses visitors in the complexities of the human body, telling us the amazing story of ourselves with reverence and understanding.

Here is a brief review from NYC.com:

Bodies: The Exhibition
Venue: South Street Seaport
(212) 630-8888
207 Front St.,
New York, NY 10038

EDITORIAL REVIEW

Warning: Not for the squeamish. 'Bodies...The Exhibition' will give the public the unique opportunity to see first-hand the inner workings of our bodies through authentic, preserved human body specimens. This 32,000 square foot exhibit that features 22 whole body specimens, as well as more than 260 additional organ and partial body specimens. Please note: this exhibit is made up of bodies that were taken from the Dalian Medical School in northern China. There has been some controversy over the source, because the Dalian Medical School gets unidentified or unclaimed bodies.


And a more detailed review from msnbc.com, which includes slides and a video as well:

Exhibition gives a look inside the human body
Skinless cadavers, variety of organs on display in New York show

By Bruno J. Navarro
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 2:20 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2005

NEW YORK - If an anatomy textbook came to life, it might look like “Bodies … The Exhibition,” a show that opened Saturday at South Street Seaport in Manhattan.

The exhibit features 22 human bodies and 260 specimens preserved for display in a 30,000-square-foot space. Highlights include skinless cadavers in a football player’s pose, another throwing a baseball and one body holding hands with its own removed skeleton — all to show how muscles, tendons and bones work together.

“This is just mind-blowing,” said Madeline Michaels of New York. “I feel absolutely grateful that this is here.”

Michaels, 44, a licensed therapist, said she had heard about the exhibit from an online group of colleagues and decided she would be among the first.

At the exhibit on Saturday, she sat beside one of the displays — a body in a basketball free-throw pose — and traced its contours with her eyes for several minutes.

“Every day, I massage people. Every day, I put my hands on people. When you see it three-dimensional, it gives you that much more appreciation,” she said afterward.

“Obviously, the bodies are posed to give them a more approachable appearance. So there’s a lot of life in the room,” said John Zeller, who co-curated the exhibit with Judy Geller. “You're seeing this mirror image of yourself.”

“We have this phrase we use here: To see is to know,” he said.

Divided into displays that focus on the body’s different systems — muscular, skeletal, circulatory, reproductive and respiratory — the exhibit features a variety of organs, as well as diseases that affect them.

A smoker’s carbon-colored lungs are placed side-by-side with a healthy pair; dark spots of a stroke victim’s brain are shown beside a normal one, extreme cases of cancer show up along with healthy specimens.

One part of the exhibit shows an entire circulatory system, minus any other body part, suspended in liquid and illuminated against a dark background, creating a sort of 3D silhouette created by blood vessels.

Another area of the exhibit simulates the view an MRI scan provides cross-sectional views of a body by physically slicing it and separating it in a display case.

'Seeing inside yourself'
Still another portion — complete with a warning to exhibit-goers and a disclaimer that the specimens were obtained through natural deaths — shows fetuses in various stages of development, as well as one in utero and another of conjoined twins.

Organizers say they wanted to highlight the body’s inner workings in a new way as an educational tool and not provide a “freak show.”

“We're hoping to create a whole new generation who can converse about their bodies,” said Roy Glover, the medical director for Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions and retired anatomy professor at the University of Michigan School of Medicine.

Glover said the specimens were obtained from a laboratory at Dalian Medical University in China that preserved them using a process where water is removed and replaced with a polymer that turns them rubber-like.

The show has come under fire from human rights advocates who charge that the bodies and organs may have been illegally obtained through the Chinese government. Objections over the New York show echo similar accusations of exploitation directed at other popular "corpse shows" which have attracted millions of visitors in Asia, Europe and Los Angeles over the last several years.

Not intended to be sensational, the "Bodies" exhibit nonetheless provided fantastical views of the body’s inner workings.

“It’s more calming than I thought I would be,” said Randy L. Kaplan, 39, of Merrick, N.Y. “It's like opening a window and seeing inside of yourself.”

© 2006 MSNBC Interactive

© 2006 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10137337/