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Posts published by “AlternativeApproaches”

Judaic Incunabula: An Evening’s Encounter With Survivors From My Distant Pastrare books

Judaic Incunabula: An Evening’s Encounter With Survivors From My Distant Past

By AlternativeApproaches on July 7, 2022

by Sally Wiener Grotta

rare books
SOURCE: Pixabay

I recently spent an evening of wonder and reflection in the company of several Judaic incunabula (printed books in Hebrew from the 15th century) at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum & Library. Each was a personality and story, bound by hand and laden with transmitted memory. My guide through their histories, typography and quirks was Judy Guston, the Rosenbach’s curator and senior director of collections, who also happens to be a fascinating storyteller. I was entranced, and the time went by far too quickly.

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Original Spider-Man Art From a 1984 Comic Book on the Auction Blockspider-man in black costume

Original Spider-Man Art From a 1984 Comic Book on the Auction Block

By AlternativeApproaches on December 21, 2021

Original artwork from 1984’s ‘Secret Wars’ No. 8 from Marvel Comics makes public debut at Heritage Auctions in January.

spider-man in black costume
SOURCE: Heritage Auctions, HA.com

DALLAS, Texas (Dec. 21, 2021) – In glorious black-and-white, here comes the Spider-Man.

Marvel Comics’ Secret Wars was a comic book created to sell toys. It also forever altered the fate of Marvel Comics, the future of the entire comics industry and most of all, the swing of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, who traded his beloved red-and-blues for an alien black costume later infused with a touch of venom.

The two pages that tell the backstory of this living outfit – this symbiote, in the parlance of True Believers – are among the centerpiece offerings in Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction to be held January 13-16. For the first time, the original art for Page 24 and Page 25 from Secret Wars No. 8 will be available to the public, each illustrated by Mike Zeck from writer Jim Shooter’s script.

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Public Dialog Needed on Releasing Gene-Edited Species into the Wildgene edited species cover

Public Dialog Needed on Releasing Gene-Edited Species into the Wild

By AlternativeApproaches on December 21, 2021

gene edited species cover

NEW YORK, December 21 — A new report released by The Hastings Center, a leading ethics research institute, finds that the complex issues raised by releasing gene-edited species into the wild demand deep and broad public engagement. The report, Gene Editing in the Wild: Shaping Decisions Through Broad Public Deliberation, provides a path forward to move decision-making from the realm of experts to a more inclusive, values-based approach using the technique of public deliberation – or deliberative democracy.

The goals of gene editing in the wild efforts are wide-ranging, and the benefits potentially transformative–such as preventing mosquitoes from spreading disease. But this work poses major trade-offs that require the public’s consideration.

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