6/25/08

Picturing The Museum


A beautiful online exhibit of vintage photographs has appeared on the site for The American Museum of Natural History in New York, where I worked as a sculptor and painter for three years. This is the greatest museum of its kind in the world, and has an amazing, often shameful history (for more on this, read Dinosaurs in The Attic). Also check out this book on the museum's dioramas, written by my old boss.

Brought to Futurechimp's attention by the always-entertaining Morbid Anatomy blog.

Enter the Exhibit Here.

6/9/08

Futurechimp Theater: The Winged Scourge



I'm back from the Amazon, but still applying hydrocortizone to mosquito bites, and have to take these malaria pills every day for the next four weeks. So it's a good time to review this hyperbolic little treasure. The narration is priceless in its drama: "Little does he suspect he's to be the victim of this bloodthirsty vampire!" and, "He may not die, but he will never truly be alive."

But actually, malaria is pretty nasty. A person dies from it every 30 seconds. Once contracted, there's no getting rid of it: there is no vaccine. And like the flu, the disease is constantly building resistance to antimalarial drugs. So what can you do about it? Stay away from endemic areas and wear lots of carcinogenic deet. Please do NOT follow the example set by this film: pouring loads of motor oil into a pond to destroy every living thing in it does not bring us towards a more sustainable planet. "Give them the oil treatment! That'll kill 'em!"