A beating heart

March 5, 2003 4:14 PM

A beating heart
Via b3ta.
posted by Mwongozi (29 comments total)

You beat me by a heartbeat to that one. But then, I'd already posted today.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:18 PM on March 5, 2003

What happened to MetaFilter's spiffy anchor title pop-up thing? It seems to have gone.
posted by Mwongozi at 4:19 PM on March 5, 2003

whoa, scary real and neat. i'm hungry.
posted by poopy at 4:23 PM on March 5, 2003

Took me a while to realise how to change the speed of the beating heart. Pretty neat.
posted by murmur at 4:24 PM on March 5, 2003

would have been great for valentines day, huh?
posted by th3ph17 at 4:26 PM on March 5, 2003

No, it's there Mwongozi. Thanks for the sweet post. I can't watch it for long without being grateful and/or terrified. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:28 PM on March 5, 2003

ditto, miggy!
posted by quonsar at 4:30 PM on March 5, 2003

Warning: Not for the faint of....Well, you know.
posted by dhoyt at 4:32 PM on March 5, 2003

Life IS a miracle. That was a good reminder.
posted by konolia at 4:39 PM on March 5, 2003

Hey, wait a minute, that heart looks familiar!

[checks chest cavity]
posted by Hildago at 4:50 PM on March 5, 2003

Doesn't MeFi have enough bleeding hearts already?
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 4:52 PM on March 5, 2003

The beats aren't right. It's doubling the number of beats.
posted by yellowcandy at 5:24 PM on March 5, 2003

That scared the absolute hell out of one of my cats, thank you.
posted by Shane at 5:52 PM on March 5, 2003

It's amazing to think that it never, ever stops for about 75 years, barring gross misfortune.

I have a friend at school who works on robotic manipulators for heart surgery (here's his lab's webpage). One of the hard parts is keeping everything steady with all of that vigorous throbbing. Specially designed suction cups can be used to hold smaller regions of the heart immoble while the surgery is taking place.
posted by tss at 6:28 PM on March 5, 2003

I left my heart...you know the rest.
posted by davidmsc at 6:51 PM on March 5, 2003

Holy, Jesus god, jesus! that's a real-life heart!
posted by Kodel at 7:08 PM on March 5, 2003

That thing is...whoa. Creepy/interesting. I hope the original owner doesn't need it back or anything.
posted by Monster_Zero at 7:12 PM on March 5, 2003

Creepy/interesting
The sound alone is creepy. I have not seen one of my cats that spooked since it heard an Australian Aboriginal bullroarer on TV.
posted by Shane at 7:16 PM on March 5, 2003

Awesome. It reminds me of the fabulous Beating Heart Exhibit that's been at the Franklin Institute since 1954. The heart is made from papier mache and plaster, and you can walk through all of the chambers while the very loud sound of the heart beating scares the bejezuz out of you. It's a Philadelphia tradition to get your picture taken while waving from the top of the heart.
posted by iconomy at 7:25 PM on March 5, 2003

Where's the blood?
posted by alms at 8:12 PM on March 5, 2003

And why does it go up over 2000 bpm? That's the scariest part.
posted by krakedhalo at 8:19 PM on March 5, 2003

My cat has no problem with that. Actually, I think she's drooling.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:22 PM on March 5, 2003

Mwongozi, to see those blue dhtml titles, you have to click on the customize link at the top of the page and pick it - Matt made it an option after some people said that they didn't like it.
posted by iconomy at 8:39 PM on March 5, 2003

Scary to think that that is all that is between us and, well, having our body parts on someone's web site.
posted by dg at 8:42 PM on March 5, 2003

Well, my cat Palia was terrified and horrified by that, but I thought it was beautiful. My mom does open-heart surgery and I've looked on a few times--it's inspiring.
posted by palegirl at 9:15 PM on March 5, 2003

goth as f*ck, wierd, and slightly disturbing but not in a political or sexist way.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:56 PM on March 5, 2003

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!--tear up the planks!--here, here!--it is the beating of his hideous heart!"
posted by kirkaracha at 10:46 PM on March 5, 2003

...the fabulous Beating Heart Exhibit that's been at the Franklin Institute since 1954...

That exhibit is cool, but it always smelled really weird to me.
posted by jennyb at 7:21 AM on March 6, 2003

I could get it up to 2143, no more and no less.


. . .OK, so maybe a little bit less.
posted by dgaicun at 9:49 AM on March 6, 2003