Brigham and Women’s to offer hand transplants – At least six people already screened
By Elizabeth Cooney – Globe Correspondent / August 24, 2010

The Boston hospital that last year performed the country’s first face transplant now plans to offer hand transplants under an experimental program announced yesterday.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has screened at least half a dozen people who have lost one or both hands and may be eligible for the complex surgery, Dr. Matthew Carty, a reconstructive plastic surgeon, said in an interview.

“We’re extremely excited about being able to offer this to patients,’’ he said. “There’s a huge potential pool of candidates in our soldiers returning from the front lines who have had severe limb injuries.’’

Fewer than 50 hand transplants have been performed worldwide, and only three US hospitals, in Louisville, Ky., Pittsburgh, and at an Air Force base in Texas, have undertaken the procedure. UCLA Health System launched a program last month.

Face and hand transplants are considered more complex than transplants of organs such as livers or kidneys because surgeons must also fuse bones, tendons, muscles, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels, requiring delicate microsurgery.

High note for Framingham music student
By Cindy Cantrell, Globe Correspondent – August 23, 2010

Eighteen-year-old Lauren Fuller of Framingham said she was so excited that she cried when her name was called on Aug. 10 as one of 14 recipients of full scholarships to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The students were among 82 teens enrolled in Berklee’s five-week summer performance program with the help of the City Music Summer Scholarship program.

Greater Boston student musicians who received City Music scholarships are trumpeter Matthew Hull of Boston; vocalist Terrell James of Chelsea; vocalist Bianelys Javier of Lawrence; vocalist Juliana Davis of Lynn; guitarist Joseph Santiago of Revere; saxophonist and drummer Alexander Macrides of Roslindale; vocalist Franchesca Phillip of Roxbury; and guitarist Kadeem Roberts of Roxbury.

Scholarships also went to five student musicians who attended the Berklee program from across the country.

The Wild Reeds
Mennonno Sapiens – Posted by Mike Mennonno at 8/23/2010

The Boston Courant  reports that the famous Fenway reeds, hated and beloved, are “likely here to stay”.

An article in this week’s edition says: “The city’s Parks and Rec Department anticipates being denied a request to mow a larger area of the invasive phragmites, commonly known as reeds, which residents and city officials cite as a public safety issue.”

This is the latest in a long battle to Esplanadize that bend of the Muddy River, a move that some claim would eliminate unwanted elements from the area.

Hat tip to UniversalHub – ed.

Boston Latin Special Snowflakes melt in the rain
By Brett – 8/23/10 – 12:12 pm

Avenue Louis Pasteur is currently jammed up with cars idling with parents picking up their kids from…something. On both sides of the road, they’re double-parked, as well as filling bus stops, blocking crosswalks, and all manner of annoyingness. It’s got traffic backed up onto Longwood Avenue, which is one of the major routes ambulances take, and is also causing problems for the MBTA busses and shuttlebusses that use that road.

[Don't neglect to read the comments (110 as I post this) - not many commenters respond positively to Brett's condescension. - ed]

79 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.

410 – The Visigoths under Alaric begin to pillage Rome for three days.  More anniversaries.