miscellany

rick neuheisel back at ucla? i'm not sure how i feel about that. he left the college game amid a betting scandal, although it appears that he came out on top of that. it looks like ucla is going with a theme here-- bringing back former players to coach the ranks. karl dorrell did a good job of cleaning up the program, and now neuheisel will be in charge of bringing the program back to a national standard. first order of business: recruit a quarterback. oh, and learn how not to flop in the closing seconds of a bowl game. (*sigh*)

in non-sports commentary, h and i finally got over to see the body worlds exhibit at the tech museum. it's pretty interesting-- i wasn't sure what to expect, although i've read quite a bit about plastination, the preservation process, and the exhibit itself. i didn't think i'd be grossed out or anything, because my scientific curiosity would transcend any of that... and i was right. you sort of look past the fact that these are preserved human bodies, and become entranced by being able to look at real-life human parts in all of their splendor. we've all seen the 8th-grade science classroom skeletons-- this is a step beyond that, where you can view and explore musculature, nervous systems, ligaments, and so forth. many of the exhibits are free-standing and unenclosed, so you can stick your nose right in there and inspect the details up close. (no touching, though, of course.)

some of the exhibits were amazing-- i especially liked the x lady and the drawer man, and i also found the exploded body and the lateral slices fascinating. h really liked the ring man, too. the drawer man is an older gentleman in a walking position, with rectangular sections of his body pushed forward and backward (resembling drawers) to see inside. the x lady is a woman positioned in the shape of an x, with her hip and shoulder joints dislocated and the muscles of her arms and legs flared out into wing-like appendages. the middle of her body is flayed open to show her abdominal organs, and her face is rotated open to expose the nasal cavity, tongue, and throat. the exploded body is just that-- a body with all pieces separated and hung loosely together by wire. the body parts are all in the general correct place in the body, but each piece has been pulled apart so you can look at parts individually. the ring man is a male form suspended in a t-formation on gymnastics rings, and his body has cross-sections showing alternate rings of muscle, bone, ligaments, etc. (each ring had different depth, so you can see different layers within the same area of the body.)

i wish i could do justice to a description of these things, but it's really something that you need to check out for yourself. the exhibit is there until january 26, 2008.