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Anatomy

March 10: The anatomy of a day – The Chronicle – Duke Chronicle

Di-Ding. Urgent Message from President Price Regarding COVID-19 Plans

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To the Duke Community Skimming. Duke University and Duke Health will remain open, and many of our operations and activities will continue Scrolling. Duke is committed to maintaining our daily operations, completing the semester Okay, okay.

First, all on-campus classes will be suspended until further notice, and we will transition to remote instruction What? Second, all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who are currently out of town for Spring Break should NOT return to the Duke campus if at all possible Huh???

March 10, when President Vincent Price sent out the above announcement, was a historic day for Blue Devils. Many students casually exchanged goodbyes before taking off for spring break, thinking they would see each other in just a weekonly to realize days later that their time on campus had come to an abrupt end. Some would never walk across the quad as a student again.

The moment also signified the start of Dukes uphill fight to adapt to life in the era of COVID-19, a battle that is far from over. From transitioning to online classes to socially distancing on campus in the fall, Duke has bid farewell to its familiar self for the foreseeable future.

To recount how this all began, we interviewed a number of Duke students. These are a selection of the stories they told: stories of ruptured plans, frantic texts, unexpected relief, a life-altering email. Stories that are each, in a way, our own.

March 10 came early for first-year Anya Gupta, who woke up at 6:45 a.m., Hawaii-Aleutian standard time. (The class years given in this story are students class years when the events took place.) But adrenaline soon jolted her body awake. Today was a big day: She and her classmates would be exploring the Kilauea volcano on the southeastern shore of the Big Island, the largest of the Hawaii archipelago. Five days ago, they had embarked on a spring break trip for their Volcanology of Hawaii class. Today, for the first time, theyd be guided by Don Swanson, a research geologist for the United States Geological Survey and a legendary volcano aficionado whose career stretched back to the Sputnik era.

In her tent, Gupta rummaged for her gear: a North Face rain jacket, her gray Osprey backpack and a yellow notebook and mechanical pencil to write down her observations. She surrounded her dark hair with a hat she had bought at Yosemite. Soon, she and her classmates and professor packed lunches and piled into a van to drive from their campsite to the parking lot of the Kilauea Visitor Center, where Swanson joined them.

Puffy white clouds floated above Gupta and the group as they arrived at the Kilauea park. The baby blue sky that held them began just above the horizon, melting into azure. The air was warm, drenched with moisture and the smell of sulfur.

Gupta and her classmates spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon at the park, toppling over gray and black volcanic surfaces, plunging past yellow ferns that clung to the sides of narrow fissures, snapping photos of brown rock formations that rippled like the underside of a cows udder. They observed green crystals, spatter ramparts, lava trees. As the day wore on, the clouds grew thick and gray; rain occasionally pelted the ground. The only other sounds came from the laughter of the group and Swansons lecturing about volcanoes.

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Around 4 p.m., the group finished their last field observations and headed to the nearby Volcano House hotel. Still dripping from the rain, they drew looks from the guests in the sparkling lobby. Gupta and her friends didnt care, though; they had come for two precious commoditiescheap coffee and free Wi-Fi.

The hotel coffee was black and bitter, so Gupta dumped some extra sugar in hers. Then, she and the other students hurried over to the charging station, where they huddled over their phones, hungry for notifications. Wi-Fi had been scarce to nonexistent throughout the trip, so this would be a bonanza moment.

Gupta connected to the hotels network. Immediately, an email from President Price chimed in her inbox.

After breakfast, senior Elena Puccio drove with her family from San Ignacio, a small town in western Belize, to Placencia, a fishing village at the southern tip of the country. Puccios 18-year-old sister, Mia, was home in Virginia because she was in school.

Puccios dad was on his phone, furrowing his eyebrows, for most of the car ride. He is the medical director and chairman of the emergency department in the Inova Loudoun Hospital in Virginia. Family vacations are usually his one respite from his all-consuming job, but one coronavirus-related crisis after another would soon demand him to leave Belize early.

The family made a pit stop at the Inland Blue Hole for a swim at 11:30 a.m. local time, arriving at the resort two and a half hours later.

Puccio spent the next few hours unpacking and walking on the beach. She then settled in a cabana with her laptop, answering emails and working on an assignment due shortly after spring break.

As a front-line worker who had been watching the health crisis escalate since the fall, Puccios dad told her that her college graduation would certainly be canceled, if not in-person classes as well. Puccio brushed off the warning, unable to let her mind consider such a tragic loss.

At 5:54 p.m., her friend Ethan texted her: Idk if you heard but rumor is Spring Break extended by two weeks

5:55 p.m., Puccio: WHAT

6:01 p.m., Elena: Helloooo what do u meannnnb

6:08 p.m., Ethan: Sorry was driving

Classes cancelled for two weeks after break

Online classes only I think

6:23 p.m., Ethan: Check your email

Chaos reigned in Carly McGregors living room even before she learned the second semester of her senior year would be cut short. Eleven members of her Christian a cappella group, Something Borrowed Something Blue (SBSB), were sprawled across her Columbia, S.C., home, where they planned to spend much of a weeklong spring break trip focused on group bonding, prayer and performances for the community.

That day, SBSB awoke on a jumbled assemblage of leather couches, air mattresses and beds, then trickled downstairs to make pancakes. After breakfast, they crammed into McGregors Scrabble room, affectionately named for the board-game design McGregor and her dad painted on the ceiling when she was 12four to a sofa, three to a chair, with the rest filling in on the floor. McGregor loaded a Google Slides presentation onto a TV screen.

This was McGregors life story, a hallmark of SBSBs annual trip. Each SBSB member prepares an elaborate, sometimes hours-long, summary of their life, displaying accompanying images (a baby photo, a weathered picture of an ancestor, a portrait with a prom date) as they speak. McGregors life story, the last of four shed give as a SBSB singer, was 233 slides long.

After another member led the group in prayer, asking for courage for McGregor to speak freely about her experiences, McGregor started talking. Clicking through the constellation-themed slide deck, she revealed her Myers-Briggs type (INFJ-T), her early artwork and pictures from her parents wedding. She described her home church, her first forays into music, some romantic escapades. About 90 minutes later, she wrapped up and fielded questionssome silly

(Whats your favorite color? What hue?), others serious (Where do you want to be in ten years?)from her arrayed friends. Then the group piled atop McGregor in a group hug, the air mattress they sat on groaning in protest.

SBSB was running late (as always, McGregor said) to their next engagement, a performance at McGregors elementary school. On the way out the door, they slapped lunch meat on sandwich bread and tossed each other clementines for the road. Crammed like sardines into three cars, they hummed and vocalized through the drive to warm up their voices.

The crowd of 80 or so third-through-fifth-graders eagerly welcomed them. SBSB performed a five-song set, pivoting from a Whitney Houston cover to a moody contemporary Christian piece to gospel. Before the finalean uproarious call-and-response take on Bill Witherss Lean on Me for which members welcomed teachers to the stageaudience members posed earnest questions on everything from Dukes workload to beginner beatboxing. SBSB high-fived the kids on their way out, giving an extra moment to one little boy in a Blue Devils basketball jersey.

After lunch, the group scattered to the winds. Some stayed home to nap, play cards or catch up on schoolwork; others drove to the mall and tried on silly outfits. Two of the boys, dismayed by the dearth of salad materials, headed out for groceries. By evening though, SBSB found their way back to the house, many clustering, rapt, around a game of Monopoly Deal being fought out on the living-room floor. People were talking in vague tones about dinner: The plan was a pasta bake and green bean saute.

At 7:24 p.m., right as the card game was rising to its crescendo, SBSBs general manager looked up from her phone. Guys, she said, we just got an email.

When junior Laura Benzing joined her family for spring break, they soon thought of her as the resident coronavirus police. She had earned the title from the copious amounts of hand sanitizer she had applied to hands, door handles, refrigerator surfaces, bathroom faucets and the like.

For spring break, she had joined her boyfriend, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents at Jekyll Island, a relatively isolated island off the coast of Georgia with jungle sort of vibes, Benzing said. Benzings family wasnt taking the novel virus too seriously, even though they were the prototypical at-risk groupher mom is immunocompromised and her grandparents are in their 80s. That left Benzing as the familys sole protector against an invisible and potentially life-threatening enemy.

The morning of March 10, Benzing and her family took a Jekyll Island tour, which required them to enter buildings, touch stair banisters and gather in tight places. For Benzing, the tour was pure chaos, a minefield of potential coronavirus transmission in a time when six feet wasnt even in the vernacular yet, she said.

Benzing did her best to control the chaos. Before the tour guide handed out the earpieces to her family, she intercepted them and managed to lather them with Clorox and Purell. At every stop, she forced her family to wash their hands, drawing some looks from the other tourists. She also doused her family members with wintergreen isopropyl alcohol, and, from then on, wintergreen became the scent of the week for the Benzing clan.

Parts of the experience felt foreign. At one point, Benzing went up to a hot dog stand and realized that she had no idea how to navigate the situation. Was the hot dog clean? How to add condiments without contaminating everything? A bottle of ketchup might be swarming with spiky, microscopic spheres.

When Prices email arrived later in the afternoon, Benzing, who had been stressed for most of the day, immediately felt relieved and validated. Im going to continue doing what Im doing, she thought.

Her family also took notice: no more griping about the sanitizer.

That's what the email did, she said. It changed her from the coronavirus police to the familys corona queen.

Sophomore Nicole Moiseyev was in her local Whole Foods when the email arrived. Before the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Moiseyev had planned on spending spring break in Spain. Instead, she headed with her friends to her hometown of Closter, N.J.

This evening, she and her friends had come to the grocery store to try to buy ground beef to make meatballs. Moiseyev, a self-described Whole Foods fanatic, noticed that the store was packed, thronging with people who pulled item after item from the shelves. The ground beef had disappeared, so had baking flour (thankfully, the toilet paper frenzy had not yet set in). Disappointed, Moiseyev and her friends headed to the kombucha aisle. They were in that aisle when President Prices email arrived.

When she read the email, Moiseyev panicked. The world felt suddenly uncertain.

She proceeded to buy all the remaining teas of her favorite flavor. Who knew if shed ever have the chance to buy them again?

That night, Moiseyev returned home with a shopping bag bulging with a dozen lemonade kombuchas.

SBSB had planned to return to campus at the close of spring break, but now members were trying to book flights and debating whether to cut the trip short.

Everyone was breaking off into different rooms to call their parents in various languages, McGregor recalled.

McGregor, realizing her final semester on campus had just concluded, ducked into a bedroom to cry as goodbyes to friends, spring Gardens strolls and SBSBs annual WaDuke tea went up in smoke before her eyes.

The evening continued to unfold, a few members gathering in the kitchen to cook, others still on the phone with friends or significant others, and so did McGregors grief.

Different parts of what it meant would just hit us, she said. Shed been sad that she and a friend missed out on E-ball tickets, but it struck her now that she could never have gone anyway. Then, remembering SBSBs unfulfilled album contract, she panic-dialed the producer to explain why the group couldnt record in person.

Late that night, the singers packed into a single bedroom, talking quietly and picking out songs on the ukulele. The following days itinerary included a church gig in a Charleston suburbas it turned out, McGregors final performance with SBSB but this plan felt suddenly gauzy, unformed. Should we just go back to Duke to grab our stuff? One of the guys, an RA, said his sources didnt think the dorms were even open, nor had most of SBSB settled on a method of getting home. (In reality, students did not immediately lose access to dorms, as was made clear in later emails outlining campus access and then further curtailing access.)

Theyd do the concert in the end, reassured by the knowledge that theyd kept out of big cities and virus hotspots. But for now they filtered one by one from the warmly lit room back to their beds, the music and laughter fading slowly into the sweet Carolina breeze which kept whistling above and around them.

6:23 p.m., Ethan: Check your email

6:24 p.m., Elena: I sAw

At 6:18 p.m., Puccio received Prices email, confirming what her dad had gently warned months ago.

7:07 p.m., Elena: Dude

Spring show

Ill never sing my senior song

I might never rehearse with [Out of the Blue] again

7:22 p.m., Elena: I think my dad is flying back early

7:23 p.m., Ethan: Rop

7:23 p.m., Elena: Im so sad

I planned so many things

For the rest of Puccios time in Belize, she could only fall asleep with the help of Benadryl and consistently woke up at 4 a.m., thinking nonstop about the abrupt end to her time at Duke.

Im not an emotional person at all, but I was so sad. I hadnt been that sad in a very long time, she said.

Puccio is a firm believer in working hard in the beginning in order to enjoy the end. Having overloaded throughout college except for freshman year and while studying for the MCAT, the chemistry major had intended to make her senior spring her best semester.

There had been so much to look forward to. She was supposed to perform in her last spring show, which she painstakingly planned as a cappella council president. She would have sung her only senior songValerie by Amy Winehousea solo at the last Out of the Blue performance. She had yet to play for the last time with the Duke Symphony Orchestra in Beaufort, S.C. She was going to finally present her research for the first time at the American Chemical Society Conference. She was set to make her debut at Beach Week and finally visit Asheville with her best friends at Duke.

Im really big on last times, for the sake of closure, and I feel really uncomfortable when I didnt know something was the last time and didnt appreciate it for what it was, Puccio said. It was very topsy turvy, trying to remember my college experiences and relive them with the realization now that they were my last time. My last lecture, my last time hanging out with my friends at Duke.

Huddled together in the lobby of Volcano Hotel, Gupta and her classmates scoured the email from President Price. Many in the group began frantically calling their family and friends. Others hugged each other and cried. Gupta called her dad. Were not going back, she told him.

Gupta felt particularly sad for the seniors in the group, one of whom was from Pakistan. She, along with the other seniors, had lost the opportunity to say goodbye to her Duke friends.

I remember feeling like crying, but nothing came out, Gupta would later write in a journal entry about the day. I was in a state of shockeveryone was.

The hotel lobby had a wide window that gave guests a view of a massive, gray crater. Gupta watched wisps of sulfurous gas rise from the crater and dance between sheets of rain. At least, she thought to herself, she had heard the news here.

Eventually, Gupta and the group left the hotel and took the drive back to their campsite, their spirits as soggy as the wet sky. It was lots of questions, lots of interactions with our professor, asking, Whats gonna happen?! Gupta wrote in her journal.

But their spirits rose as they got back to camp and prepared a dinner of pasta with chicken and vegetables, along with Oreos for dessert. Gupta helped cut the zucchini. Occasionally someone would mention the emailaccompanied by a chorus of What are we going to do?but mostly they avoided the topic. There were still five more days left in Hawaii, and they would make the most of it, email be damned.

During the rest of the evening, they played Avalon, a card game, laughing loud in the darkloud enough that their professor, who had turned in early, kept hollering for them to keep their voices down.

March 10 was THE most incredible day of field geology of our entire trip, and one of my favorite days of being in Hawaii, reads one of the closing lines of Guptas journal entry. It was also the most emotional day, knowing that life would arguably never be the same.

Once the laughter had died down, Gupta climbed into her tent, which she shared with a couple other classmates. It was warm inside. She found her purple sleeping pad and slid inside her black sleeping bag. But then she remembered that she had borrowed both of them from her friends at Dukefriends she wouldnt be seeing again for a long time. That night, she fell asleep thinking of them.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the reason Puccio's sister was not with the family on vacation. It has been updated to reflect that she was home because she was in school. The Chronicle regrets the error.

Editor's note: Margot Armbruster, one of the authors of this article, is also an opinion managing editor for The Chronicle.

Mona Tong and Charlie Zong contributed reporting.

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March 10: The anatomy of a day - The Chronicle - Duke Chronicle

Anatomy

The anatomy of anti-black racism – The Hindu

Racism has raised its ugly head in full public view once again. It was revolting to see an adult gasping for breath, writhing in pain as the knee of the white policeman crushed his neck, and, within minutes, dying the umpteenth time that a black life has been barbarically taken away by police brutality in America. Despite the civil war over slavery, and the civil rights movement for dignity and equality, systemic discrimination and violence against blacks persists. Racism continues unabated.

My sole focus here is coming to grips with what racism is. In a nutshell, and with slight, only slight oversimplification, it is this: one can tell everything important about a person, his group, its past and future, by noting the colour of his skin.

Also read | Endemic, structural racism that blights U.S. society need to be heard: UN rights chief

Of course, noticing the physical characteristics of a person, say the colour of her skin, is not itself racist. Good writers are expected to provide a vivid description of a characters physical features, including skin-colour. This need not imply the idea of race, leave alone racism. For instance, Indian epics describe Krishna as having shyam varna, being the dark-skinned one. This description has no evaluative connotation. Being conscious of the colour of a person, your own or that of the other may be pretty innocent.

However, when specific bodily features (colour, shape of nose, eye, lips) are permanently clumped together and human beings are classified in terms of these distinct biological clusters, and if, further, it is believed that these shared features are inter-generationally transmitted, then we possess the idea of race, i.e. a group with a common biological descent. Every single human being is not only seen then to be assigned to separate biologically-determined groups but also as born with traits directly inherited from biological ancestors. Each race is then believed to be fundamentally, permanently different from others differences that are innate and indelible, for one can neither cease to have what one has inherited nor acquire characteristics which one does not already have.

The idea of race is deeply problematic. Despite many attempts, particularly in the 1930s to demonstrate its scientific basis, race or racial classifications have virtually no scientific foundation. If anything, the only conclusion from available evidence is that the whole of humanity has the same lineage, that there are no races within humans but only one single human race. Yet, while scientifically speaking, race is a fiction, a large number of people believe in the existence of races. Race is very much a cultural and social reality.

The classification of humans into different races is a necessary but far from sufficient ingredient of racism which depends on two additional, deeply troublesome features. First, a given set of biological characteristics is believed to be necessarily related to certain dispositions, traits of character and behaviour. Biological descent fixes a persons culture and ethics. Our capacity for reasoning, for civilization, our propensities towards sexual lasciviousness or ability to make money, can all be read off by examining our face and body. Second, these racial cultures and ethical systems are hierarchically arranged. Those on top are intrinsically superior to those at the bottom.

Also read | Books about racial discrimination become best-sellers as U.S. protests grow

Racism, then, is a systematic ideology, a complex set of beliefs and practices that, on the presumed basis of biology, divides humanity into the higher us and a lower them. It not only sustains a permanent group hierarchy but deeply stigmatises those designated as inferior. This sense of hierarchy provides a motive for say, whites to treat blacks in ways that would be viewed as cruel or unjust if applied to members of their own group. For instance, contact with them is often regarded as contaminating, polluting. It should therefore be avoided or kept to a minimum. To prevent sexual contamination through inter-marriage, the southern States of America had the severest laws sanctioning public lynching. How else could the colour line be scrupulously maintained? This explains something important. Though colour-consciousness should not be problematic in theory, in reality, an acute awareness of colour is almost always a symptom of racism lurking somewhere unnoticed.

Racism distinguishes even inferior races into two kinds. One inferior race is considered so much beyond the pale that it cannot be lived with, and must be exterminated. This is infamously illustrated by the virulent anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany that led to the final solution, the Holocaust. The second type of race is fit only to be controlled, subordinated, enslaved. Anti-black racism, our main concern here, is an obvious example. Closer home, some Varna-related ideologies (in the Dharmashastras from 1st ACE onwards) that stigmatised the pratiloma castes, particularly the Chandalas, function as virtual equivalents of racism as do the now somewhat scarce Christian anti-Judaism or contemporary Islamophobia.

Racism naturalises a persons belief, character and culture. For example, being uneducated is seen not as socio-economic deprivation but a sign of inherited low IQ; blacks are predatory and are also seen to have an innate streak of savagery, which unless kept down by brute force from time to time, might explode and destroy civilisation. It is this ideology of anti-black racism that was brazenly on show in the 9- minute video clip of the merciless, life-extinguishing force used by the police on George Floyd.

Also read | Searching 'racist' on Twitter brings up Trump as top result

Some Americans notice and seem shell-shocked by racism only when such violence occurs. Hasnt the civil rights movement been successful in damaging racism, they ask? Is it not difficult now to justify any act by explicit reference to race? Is this not good reason to believe that racism will disappear from America by good laws, education and rational argument? Alas, the very success of the movement that helped develop a motivated blindness to how open discrimination of blacks has been displaced by another system of hidden discrimination. A systematic constraint on avenues for improving the quality of life forces their descent into pretty crime, incarceration, stigma attached to imprisonment and the severe discrimination and exclusion that follows the charge of felony. All these, as scholars such as Jane Hill have shown, have made the criminal system produce results as vicious as generated by colour-based slavery and racial segregation.

For example, in a number of southern States in America, once declared a felon, a person is disqualified from voting. So, once the criminal justice system labels people of colour as criminals, whites have the sanction to engage in all the practices of subordination that they had apparently abandoned. The United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, surpassing those in highly repressive regimes such as China and Iran. The figures related to African-Americans are shocking. In several States, they are 10 times more likely to go to prison than whites. According to the Death Penalty information Center of the U.S., between 1976-2019, black defendants sentenced to death for killing whites numbered 291, while white defendants killing blacks were only 21, a staggering figure close to 14 times more! (For a quick overview, also see the Netflix film, 13th).

Editorial | Land of the unfree

It is amply clear that the feel-good anti-racism of some Americans that views racism as an aggregate of mistaken beliefs held by individuals that can be dissipated by education and rational argument simply does not work. True, good education helps in dismantling racism but the fact remains that much of it lies hidden within the social structure, in habits, practices and institutions. Vulnerabilities amassed over centuries of anti-black racism leave African-Americans facing multiple, intersecting hurdles to a good life. As mentioned, the current criminal system that awards unfair advantage and privilege to whites, while inflicting unmerited and unjust disadvantages on blacks exemplifies this invisible monster. Only a peaceful movement to end institutionalised racism, with both blacks and white participants, quite like the recent protests after Floyds murder, can break the back of this evil. But can such a movement be sustained? Will it be allowed to?

Rajeev Bhargava is Professor, CSDS, Delhi

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The anatomy of anti-black racism - The Hindu

Anatomy

Some Chimpanzees Have Tiny Bone in Their Heart | Anatomy, Biology – Sci-News.com

A team of researchers in the UK has discovered that some individuals of the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), particularly those affected by myocardial fibrosis, have a rare small bone called os cordis in their heart.

High-resolution microCT image of the chimpanzees os cordis. Image credit: Moitti et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-66345-7.

The presence of an os cordis is a regular finding in large ruminants such as cattle, ox, water buffalos and sheep. Otters and camels sometimes have this bone too. But this is the first time that the os cordis has been discovered in a great ape.

Cartilage (cartilago cordis) can also be present within the cardiac skeleton of individuals of other animal species such as horses, pigs, dogs, cats, mice, rats, snakes, white rhinoceros and Syrian hamsters.

Although the exact localization, size and number of the os cordis varies, in all species it lies within a band of fibrous tissue called trigonum fibrosum.

Its function is unclear but it is believed to serve as a pivot and anchoring support for the heart valves.

The discovery of a new bone in a new species is a rare event, especially in chimps which have such similar anatomy to people, said studys senior author Dr. Catrin Rutland, a researcher in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham.

It raises the question as to whether some people could have an os cordis too.

Dr. Rutland and colleagues compared the structure and morphology of 16 hearts from chimpanzees which were either healthy or affected by myocardial fibrosis, a type of heart disease found in chimps and people.

To study the organs, the researchers used X-ray microtomography (microCT), a non-destructive X-ray imaging technique that produces 3D images from 2D trans-axial projections.

They found the os cordis bones, measuring a few millimeters in size, and cartilago cordis in four hearts. Their presence was not associated with age nor with sex.

Looking for ways to help chimps with heart disease is essential, said first author Dr. Sophie Moitti, from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham and Twycross Zoo.

Understanding what is happening to their hearts helps us manage their health.

This research has brought together researchers and veterinary professionals, working on a common aim to advance chimpanzee health and conservation, Dr. Rutland said.

The discovery is described in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

_____

S. Moitti et al. 2020. Discovery of os cordis in the cardiac skeleton of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Sci Rep 10, 9417; doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-66345-7

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Some Chimpanzees Have Tiny Bone in Their Heart | Anatomy, Biology - Sci-News.com

Anatomy

The anatomy of a media manhunt – Spiked

Having worked in journalism and been a member of parliament and a minister in a European country for many years, I find many aspects of the Dominic Cummings affair eerily familiar.

During my time as a journalist, I was often surprised by how openly some of the editors and reporters discussed how to get someone. In daily meetings they would debate which pundits might be most critical of the person in question. This was before social media provided an endless source of condemnations to choose from and members of the public started competing to denounce heretics.

Working in journalism, it soon became clear to me that coverage of events was greatly influenced by preconceptions about the people involved. This was decades ago. But now, more than ever, the things that people do and say are judged not by the content or nature of what is said and done, but by who says or does them.

One of the greatest achievements of Western civilisation was reaching the conclusion that all individuals should have the same rights. The modern zeitgeist seeks to turn this principle on its head.

In effect, we now have a hierarchy of personal rights based on which group individuals are assigned to by the high priests of identitarianism. Very near the bottom of that hierarchy sits Dominic Cummings highest among his sins in the eyes of intersectionalists is that he is blamed for the UKs departure from the EU.

This cultural establishment is hostile towards challenges to its authority. People who are seen as a threat to the ruling order must be quelled, and the opportunity to do so is eagerly awaited.

What turned out to be the long-awaited excuse for doing away with Dominic Cummings? He drove with his family from London to Durham to self-isolate and protect his child. How has British society come to this?

I now know that Durham is 260 miles from London, and feel confident that I could drive there without the aid of a map or GPS, having heard the route described ad nauseam. The path that Cummings critics have taken is, however, even more familiar to me than the route from London to Durham.

Cummings was known for his criticism of the elites. So he was presented as an elitist who thought there was one set of rules for him and another for everyone else. This was to have the added effect of getting everyone else to unite against the offender. Hence the elites attacking Cummings because of who he is did so by claiming he was behaving as an elitist. The irony was apparently lost on the intersectionalists.

The pursuit of Cummings followed a familiar script.

With the perpetrators offence established, the hunters start reporting every criticism of their prey. Modern social media provides an inexhaustible well of such criticism, ranging from accounts of people who believe they may have witnessed the perpetrator committing other offences to gifs and other jokes from the internet (allowing for headlines such as This video mocking Cummings trip has gone viral). The objective here is to give the impression that more or less everyone is of the same opinion. Differing views get almost no attention, except when someone comes to the defence of the accused in a manner that is easily ridiculed.

Next, the public gets to hear the opinions of experts. Anyone willing to use their particular field of work or study to aid in the persecution are lifted to the level of being an authority on the subject, regardless of whether the person in question is an activist with an axe to grind. One expert after another explains how much harm has been caused by the perpetrator.

This is made particularly effortless by use of the accusation angle, whereby accusations are made that allow for headlines like X has been accused of Y or It has been claimed that. Never mind innocent until proven guilty. The accusation is handled almost as a statement of fact.

Before long, people seeking attention, or seeking to contrast their own perceived virtue with the shortcomings of the delinquent, come running after the bandwagon, trying to climb on to it. Nowadays, this unfortunately usually includes clergymen with no recollection of the ideas of forgiveness or avoiding judgement.

All this provides for a continuous loop of media coverage. One outlet tells the public that the bishop of Whereverburry is critical of the accused. Another outlet picks this up, thus lending the story increased significance before adding that now the bishop of Somewhereinlsington is even more outraged. In essence, character assassinations are a serial, where every step is based on the previous groundwork.

If the prey is able to walk on and prove that the initial accusations were unfounded, the hunters simply change the accusations. The aim is not to get to the truth, but to catch the prey (win the game by forcing a resignation or exclusion). Initially, Cummings was accused of breaking the law. When that didnt seem to be the case he was accused of having broken the rules, and then finally the spirit of the rules.

A classic ploy, much used by totalitarian regimes, is to constantly ask the subject to apologise. Asking for an apology has the appearance of being a reasonable request. Do you feel no regret, are you really not willing to apologise to the people who have been making sacrifices? Refusing to apologise makes the accused seem condescending. But, as soon as the person apologises, it is interpreted as an admission of guilt.

Attempts to procure an apology are usually followed by accusations of a lack of humility. If only he had shown more humility, people might have been able to show more understanding. Balderdash! The accusers are not seeking humility, they are seeking degradation.

Once it has been established that the nation is outraged and wants the accused to take responsibility, an easy next step is to claim that the person in question is harming the national interest. But if the media really thought that Dominic Cummings harmed the national interest by going for a drive, and thus setting a dangerous example, why were they constantly telling people that his behaviour would be seen as an invitation to break the rules? Who was really encouraging rule-breaking here the man who went for a drive weeks ago or those who were constantly telling people it provides them with an alibi to do as they please?

According to Sky News Beth Rigby, Ministers worry that [the impact of Cummings drive to Durham] could mean the R number begins to rise, bringing in turn more cases, more deaths and even a second wave; the economic, social and public health consequences of which are unconscionable. There we have it: Cummings previously unknown drive to Durham might cause untold death and destruction.

Why do the media behave in this way? There are several reasons. These stories create excitement and competition, where contenders see the situation as a chance to prove themselves. Meanwhile, criticising other journalists or offering another perspective risks undermining the work of colleagues, or even being branded an apologist. It is easier to convince yourself that you are on a worthy crusade on behalf of the people.

Whats more, many journalists now feel that their role is more important than just revealing the facts. They feel they must influence what happens, not just report it. Thus gaining a position of influence means you must use that influence to affect the agenda. That makes the competition even more important. It isnt just a sport, it is a fight for social justice. And when the target is already seen as an enemy of those values, it provides a very strong extra incentive.

The media crusaders also tend to become completely blind to how it all looks to people outside the bubble. This is equally true of politics. Those within the political bubble have great difficulty comprehending how what they do looks to outsiders. A good politician will try to step outside the bubble to get a better view, but that can be very difficult.

If the accused is involved in politics, an essential part of the process is to cause anxiety within his or her party, in order to create pressure from party members to sacrifice the targeted individual. Internal friction is a natural feature of most political parties, so this usually yields quick results.

If those with an axe to grind, or hoping for promotion, do not jump at the opportunity, the hunters will try to get the partys rank and file to influence them. Party members are often sensitive to criticism, so the constant reports about opinion polls and the national will are often enough to do the trick in many cases. Once again, todays journalists dont even need to call anyone up. Ploughing through social media will provide all the criticism they need.

In a parliamentary group of 365 people (as in the case of the British Conservatives), you will always find someone willing to criticise the accused in order to signal their own virtue. Then the counting begins, in order to increase the pressure on the party leader: This evening we have learned that three more MPs have joined in criticising their own party leader.

To help with the tallying, stories are told about how MPs have been inundated with angry letters from constituents. This is despite the fact that these constituents may be people who would never vote for said MP, and may well loathe his party but that is not part of the narrative.

After all this, why did Boris Johnson not give up and get rid of the problem by getting rid of Dominic Cummings? The hunters will tell you that he is so reliant on Cummings that he feels helpless without him. A likelier explanation is that the prime minister realised what was going on, and knew that by giving in he would be confirming that he can be broken through such methods, making it all but certain that he would face many more such scenarios, all with the end goal of making him the eventual target.

Still, there will be many more fights like this one, and in most cases the hunters and prey will come from the groups dictated by modern identity politics.

People will also continue to complain that modern politics lacks leadership. This is true, but we should ask why this is the case. I fear it has a lot to do with stories such as the Dominic Cummings affair, and so many others before it. For most modern politicians, their main objective is to get through each day without doing something that might be considered controversial. But a decision that requires leadership will almost by definition be controversial.

All this results in weaker politics, more focused on personal attacks than a rigorous debate about the fundamental issues facing our societies. While politicians and much of the media are preoccupied with defaming the character of their competitors, the unelected establishment runs the country. The end result is a weaker democracy where the voters are increasingly disenfranchised. They no longer have the opportunity to influence how the country is run and are reduced to choosing a symbolic representative, determined only to get through a term without doing anything even mildly controversial, interesting or useful.

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The anatomy of a media manhunt - Spiked

Anatomy

Moving Forward: The Anatomy of Racism in Our Everyday Lives – Blue Virginia

by Fairfax County School Board member Karen Keys-Gamarra

In the past few weeks, many people, especially African Americans, have had to reconcile what they have seen in witnessing the murder of George Floyd and that of their own experience. I am no exception.

I have lived long enough to wipe away many tears of frustration in moments that simply did not recognize or appreciate our humanity. Whether it was in my new elementary school, where I became the first black girl in the class, and the teachers stood behind me in amazement because they did not expect me to exhibit logical thought. Or, as a mother who fiercely protected her kids. Or in every workplace I have encountered. The root was always the same: racism.

Racism, or the R word, can become a hideous tool that acknowledges a structure kept in place to maintain control and dominance of another. I have seen both the masterful and the novice attempt to use R as a weapon to steer the actions of others and/or to demean me, or sometimes both. Whether I was walking my sons bike home in my neighborhood so that he could stay to have a sleep over; or, conducting a campaign during an election; or, working to protect children; or in the Board rooms the truly crafty find this tool handy.

I dont always speak about it, but I do see it and I respond when I believe the action I am experiencing is so cruel that it resembles that of an overseer who demands compliance. I say what I have to and I work in difficult situations because I must. This is not an accusation of every person I have met, but the widespread presence of racism is a stain to this democracy and to the life experience of many in my community. I have been patient and collaborative. I have had hard discussions with folks, some fruitful and some not. Now it is time to simply diagram what a life in a society where racism has not been eradicated really looks like. It is not all inclusive, but a conversation starter. We need to face R and we need to take affirmative steps to do something about it.

I, like many others, have grown intolerant of the structures founded on racismthat belief that allows us to treat others differently, to feel superior or to dominate and oppress another with a self-righteous justification. The R can be comprised of aggressive or passive aggressive acts, even micro-aggressive acts, as R comes in many forms. For some, it is revealed in overt murderous acts or for the more subtle, manipulative acts that use code words that allude to race without ever having to mention the word. For the truly sophisticated, it shows up in delay tactics, calls for comfort to naysayers, or an attempt to find the right person for the job. Oh, and my favorite, lets pit blacks in this workspace against one another because after all, we only need one.

My intolerance is a response to a system of actions with a 400-plus year history in this nation. The systems of Racism where installed when a few crafty businessman acted on the belief that human trafficking, and receiving work without compensation to the slave, could be a profitable business. Slavery doesnt belong to Blacks, as it has been a worldwide practice. While slavery has been abolished in the U.S., its hideous remnants remain. So here you will find a few more characteristics and scenarios that help identify the trappings of this diabolical weapon.

More Details on What R Looks like

Racism is always something that is expected to create a structure of power. It is often practiced in secret and sometimes those who witness it become complicit. For some, there is an inherent need to be a part of the powerful and not the powerless. For other witnesses, they can become complicit by being unaware of past practices or a culture. Racism is always a form of bullying, because it is a way to whip another person(s) into submission. Racism can also occur amongst those who genuinely want to do the right thing, but are less familiar with this tactic. It is often masked as a pending question, where theres an effort to achieve the right fit or find the best person for the job. The word racism itself is rarely used in these situations.

When It Appears

I was in first grade when I realized that racism would be a part of the tapestry of my life. I was playing in front of my new house with my brother. A little girl stood at the end of her driveway and just looked at me and my brother. I invited her to join us. Her response was, my daddy doesnt allow me to play with people like you. I kept playing; after all, I was with my brother, she was alone. Later, I learned that she was the daughter of a police officer. My mother, who was masterful in being a strong woman who determined her own path, told me that some people have a problem, but to never let their problem become your problem. I still live by those words today. She also raised me with what some might call good home training. I learned that I would be judged, but not to internalize, that I must keep my composure, to speak enough words to get my point across and to never waste energy on those who create distractions and eat up my time. All actions do not require a reaction but I would learn the difference. But back to that intolerance

Racism Always Expects a Culture of Tolerance

In my mothers generation, society expected a well-behaved Negro. This term referred to the dignified person who did not crack under pressure. The well-behaved Negro protested with MLK and didnt fight back; sat at the counter while being spat upon; went to the work place worked hard and was passed over for promotions; and endured code language that demeaned the quality of their work and/or pitted blacks against one another for the same job. After all, we only need one black person to look like its not R, right? It is the culture of the well-behaved Negro that taught black parents to teach their kids to obey the police, to keep their hands on the wheel, to speak politelythese are all the lessons of the well-behaved Negro. Emmett Till was killed because he was accused of violating the silent code of the well-behaved Negro.

After the Civil War, the KKK worked across this nation sowing the seeds of fear through threat, lynchings and other forms of violence to enforce the code of the well-behaved Negro. This code also tells Black folk to stay in their place or face penalty that most times was not addressed by law enforcement. In 1921, we saw the burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma part of a trend in several cities where countless murders occurred because those folks violated the code. Implicitly, the code require submission of Black folk to the dominant race and in police encounters today, it says that your life can end in a millisecond. Amy Cooper of Central Park relied upon the code when she called the police and falsely accused a black man of threatening her. What made her disregard the fact that she was being filmed? Yes, R causes blindness, too because Amy relied upon and expected the police to enforce the code of the well-behaved Negro. While poor Amy read law enforcement right, as she has faced no legal ramifications for her act, she underestimated the social tolerance for her demand and so her name will forever be used as an example of a woman who expected privilege and used racism to achieve her goal.

What this Intolerance means.

With the demonstrations of protest all around us, the message is clear: We will not be your well-behaved Negro. Whether its law enforcement or the Board room, the time for sucking it up and watching the effects of R, even if it is quietly implemented to achieve a desired goal those times are over. I have felt this indignation in me. I have seen it in my friends, whether black, white, Hispanic or other races or creeds. The folks we see in the streets are not just the recipients of these heinous acts but those who have grown intolerant of them as well.

This intolerance also means that we must take affirmative steps to eradicate the effects of R in every level of our lives.

What we must Understand

What we must Do

Conclusion

I want my friends to know that I appreciate all the cards, notes and words of assurance. I know that we have many allies and people who want to do the right thing. But the desire to do the right thing isnt enough. We must collectively meet wherever we are and ask, what can I do? How can I learn and how can I assist in implementation of better procedures and policies? How can I listen better today? How can we weed out code words in conversation and make sure that we are never complicit in the divisions that racism creates. This is our burden, this is our work. Lets tear these barriers down, together!

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Moving Forward: The Anatomy of Racism in Our Everyday Lives - Blue Virginia

Anatomy

10 Movies To Watch If You Love Grey’s Anatomy | ScreenRant – Screen Rant

Grey's Anatomy premiered on the ABC network as a mid-season replacement in March of 2005. It has gone on to become the longest-running medical drama in television history. This show has stood the test of time and delivered compelling and important storylines to its ever-growing fan base for the last 16 seasons and it doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: Meredith's 5 Best Outfits (& 5 Worst)

All of the last 15 years of episodes are available to stream on Netflix, which should hold viewers over until the 17th season premiere, but if it doesn't, here are some films that may help get you to get your fix!

One of the reasons fans fell in love with this series from the very beginning was Dr. Derek Shepherd, or "McDreamy," played by Patrick Dempsey.

Dempsey had worked in Hollywood for decades before starring on this series, but it was this series that elevated him into heartthrob, household name status. For fans who miss the McDreamy charm,Enchanted is a great film to watch because Dempsey plays an actual Prince Charming.

Grey's Anatomy is known for its tear-jerking storylines and heartfelt dialogue. It's a show also known for its suspense and drama.

RELATED: The 10 Best Denzel Washington Movies, According To IMDb

If you're looking for something that will leave you on the edge of your seat just as much as it will have you reaching for the tissues, thenJohn Q, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Nick Cassavetes, is a great option for movie night.

Everyone knows that Derek and Meredith were meant to be, just like Mark and Lexie were meant to be, and Izzie and Denny were meant to be, which is why the episode where Derek dies, and the one where Lexie dies, and the one where Denny dies, are so devastating for fans to watch.

If you're looking for a story that is equal parts love and tragedy, this film, about a husband who loses his wife and then falls for the woman who receives his late wife's heart after her death, is a must-see.

Some of the best episodes of the hit medical drama are the ones where doctors manage to pull off a medical miracle and save a patient's life, and even they're amazed that the person lived, like when Meredith drowns and all of the doctors work to bring her back to life or when Derek and Meredith have their first success during their clinical trial.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: 10 Things You Never Noticed About The First Episode

If you need an uplifting story full of miracles,Breakthrough, starring Chrissy Metz should be on your list.

The way the characters onGrey's fall in love and support one another through good times and bad is so encouraging and inspiring for viewers to watch week after week. Watching Cristina and Owen navigate their relationship through their individual traumas or seeing Meredith love again after Derek leaves us all with a lot of hope.

The filmLove and Other Drugs,starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal, has a lot of these themes in it and shares the "love conquers all" message.

Arizona Robbins is one of the hottest doctors on television, not only in appearance, but also because of the fact she's a pediatrician and nothing is more attractive than a hot doctor who loves children. If you share this sentiment,The Wedding Planner is probably already one of your favorite movies.

RELATED: Matthew McConaughey Rom-Com Roles, Ranked (According To Rotten Tomatoes)

In this film, Matthew McConaughey plays a pediatrician who falls for Jennifer Lopez's character, Mary. This film also features a young Justin Chambers as another love interest for Mary.

Katherine Heigl was a staple in the first six seasons ofGrey's Anatomy and for fans who miss Izzie Stevens, there are luckily a lot of movies starring Heigl in which she brings some of the same quirks, charm, and sweetness of her Grey's character.

One of Heigl's best rom-com roles is as Holly inLife As We Know It, also starring Josh Duhamel as Eric. Holly and Eric are put in charge of caring for their best friends' baby after the couple dies in a car accident. There are some great laughs and cries in this one.

This late 90s, semi-autobiographical feature starring Robin Williams is a tear-jerker. It tells the story of Patch Adams, a doctor struggling with mental illness who decides to open a clinic to help uninsured and less fortunate patients.

RELATED: 10 Things We Learned From Robin Williams' Movies

Patch Adams believes that laughter is the best medicine, so for fans who tune in to watchGrey's week after week to feel good and inspired, this movie should have the same effect.

Ellen Pompeo has been pretty open with her struggles trying to "make it" in Hollywood. Pompeo was 35 when she booked the role of Meredith Grey, which for an actress in Hollywood, means her success came much later than most of her colleagues.

If you'd like to see Ellen Pompeo on her road to success, watchOld School. In this comedy, Pompeo plays Nicole, a love interest for Luke Wilson's character, Mitch.

If you're a fan of Cristina Yang and Addison Shepherd, you need to watchUnder the Tuscan Sun, starring Diane Lane. Sandra Oh and Kate Walsh play a couple expecting their first baby in the film. These two actresses have a lot of chemistry, which makes viewers wonder why they didn't share the screen more during their time onGrey's Anatomy.

In this film, Walsh plays a doctor, as well, making us all wonder if this movie is actually set in some alternateGrey'sreality.

NEXT: Grey's Anatomy: 5 Of McDreamy's Most Romantic Quotes (& 5 From McSteamy)

Next The 10 Best MCU Movies (According To Metacritic)

Amelia Brantley is a writer and actor based in Los Angeles, California. Her love for film, television, and theater drove her to pursue her dreams at a young age. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Acting from The American Music and Dramatic Academy and constantly auditions/works in the industry. In addition to writing for ScreenRant, Amelia also blogs, on her own blog, as well as for other entertainment industry online resources. If she isn't writing or self-taping, she's most likely cuddling with her dog, Warner George.

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10 Movies To Watch If You Love Grey's Anatomy | ScreenRant - Screen Rant

Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy: 5 Of George’s Sweetest Moments (& 5 Most Heartbreaking) – Screen Rant

George O'Malley quickly became a fan-favorite character on the hit primetime medical drama,Grey's Anatomy. George arrived at Seattle Grace Hospital as an intern with Meredith, Cristina, Izzie, and Alex. One of the original five series regulars, George's storylines were full of laughs, heartaches, and discoveries.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: 10 George O'Malley Quotes That Will Make You Miss Him Even More

Over the course of George's five seasons on the show, fans saw the character learn and grown and everyone fell in love with him, making his untimely death at the end of season five completely devastating. Looking back on George's time onGrey's Anatomy, there are a lot of wonderful moments and a lot that have viewers reaching for the tissues.

Miranda Bailey, the resident in charge of George and his other intern friends, is pregnant in the second season of the show. Halfway through the season, Miranda goes into labor and it's George who is by her side during her delivery because Miranda's husband is in another OR having emergency surgery.

George stays with Miranda the entire time, supporting her physically and emotionally. It means so much to Miranda, that she gives her son the middle name, "George".

George has always harbored unrequited feelings for Meredith, so when Meredith and Derek end their relationship once Derek's wife, Addison comes to Seattle, George is there for his friend/love interest.

RELATED: Derek & Meredith: 10 Most Heartbreaking Times Characters Cheated On TV

Unfortunately, a line gets crossed and George and Meredith end up sleeping together, which Meredith instantly regrets and bursts into tears in bed with George. George is understandably hurt by the events and feels terrible about the effects this one action had on his and Meredith's friendship.

When Meredith puts out an ad wanting roommates for the big house she's inherited from her mother, George and Izzie move in. Quickly, these three become more like family, and George supports, loves, and protects his friends to the fullest.

In one episode, Izzie comes home after a terrible first date with Alex, and Meredith is upset over another thing Derek did, and they both turn to George for help at the same time. George makes room on his bed for his two best friends and lets them vent.

In season three, George, Meredith, Izzie, and Alex have to take their intern exams. If they pass, they can move on to becoming residents. If they don't pass, they have to re-do their intern year.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: The 5 Tallest (& 5 Shortest) Actors In The Cast

Everyone passes except for George, who gets left behind to repeat his internship while his friends move on to being residents with their own interns. George starts to feel left out of his original friend group because he is no longer working with them, but for them.

Izzie falls in love with a patient, Denny Duquette, who needs a heart transplant or he will die. In a desperate attempt to get Denny a new heart, Izzie cuts hisLVAD wire to try to move him up on the donor list.

The plan doesn't work and Denny dies, leaving Izzie devastated. George is Izzie's best friend and everyone looks to him after Denny dies to better understand how they can help Izzie. In a sweet moment, George tells Izzie that he would have given Denny his heart if he could.

When a new batch of interns come to Seattle Grace, George and his friends have a new cast of characters to figure out, including Lexie Grey, Meredith's half-sister. George has to stay back a year after failing his intern exams and he quickly makes friends with Lexie.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: 5 Of The Most Annoying Things Lexie Ever Did (& 5 Sweetest)

Unbeknownst to George, Lexie develops feelings for him and grows increasingly more frustrated as time passes and George still seems to be completely clueless to Lexie's emotions.

After George marries Callie on a whim, the two newlyweds struggle with merging their lives and their friend groups. Callie seems increasingly jealous and uncomfortable with the amount of time George spends with Izzie and Meredith and tends to belittle the residents, including Cristina.

During an increasingly heated debate, George finally stands up to Callie and explains that Meredith, Izzie, and Cristina are his family and that she must love them if she loves him.

George and Callie rushed into their marriage and clearly weren't ready for it. That fact becomes even more clear when George cheats on Callie with his best friend, Izzie. George finally gets up the nerve to tell Callie about the affair, expecting Callie to want to end the marriage, but she doesn't.

RELATED: Grey's Anatomy: Why Meredith And Izzie Aren't Real Friends

Instead, Callie tells George they can work through it, which makes the situation even more heartbreaking because it's clear that's not what George wants.

Izzie gets diagnosed with a brain tumor in season five and her prognosis is not good. Alex and Izzie decide to get married on the day that should have been Derek and Meredith's wedding. Meredith realizes that Izzie has been helping her plan Izzie's dream wedding, so she gives the wedding and the day to Izzie so she can marry Alex.

George is the person who walks Izzie down the aisle, which is perfect considering their history and the unconditional, platonic love they have for one another.

At the end of season five, George has enlisted in the army. On the day he enlists, he dives in front of a bus to save a stranger's life. This accident causes George to lose his own life, despite the doctors at Seattle Grace's best efforts.

They don't even realize the patient their treating is George initially because his face has been disfigured by the accident. Meredith realizes John Doe is George after he spells out the number "0-0-7" on Meredith's hand.

NEXT: Grey's Anatomy: 10 Of Meredith's Scariest Surgeries

Next Gilmore Girls: 5 Times Rory Was Our Hero (& 5 She Let Us Down)

Amelia Brantley is a writer and actor based in Los Angeles, California. Her love for film, television, and theater drove her to pursue her dreams at a young age. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Acting from The American Music and Dramatic Academy and constantly auditions/works in the industry. In addition to writing for ScreenRant, Amelia also blogs, on her own blog, as well as for other entertainment industry online resources. If she isn't writing or self-taping, she's most likely cuddling with her dog, Warner George.

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Grey's Anatomy: 5 Of George's Sweetest Moments (& 5 Most Heartbreaking) - Screen Rant

Anatomy

Lenox Hill Review: This Is the Reality TV Version of Greys AnatomyAnd It Will Move You – Glamour

If you've exhausted every available episode of Grey's Anatomy, I have your next marathon right here: Lenox Hill, Netflix's new reality series about real doctors, real hospitals, and some very real drama. It takes place in one hospital, specificallythe Lenox Hill Hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side (with a branch in Greenwich Village)and spotlights four doctors: two brain surgeons (John Boockvar and David Langer), an ob-gyn resident (Amanda Little-Richardson), and an emergency room physician (Mirtha Macri). The conceit of the show is simple but effective: Watch a day in the life of each of these doctors. We learn the specifics of their cases, see their breakthroughs, and witness private phone calls with their partners and children. Mirtha and Amanda were both pregnant at the time of shooting, so we see those storylines, as well.

That boiler plate is pretty similar to Grey's Anatomy, when you think about it. Both shows spotlight doctors doing incredible work, but there's nothing clinical about either of them. The emotional notes on Grey's Anatomy are just as potent as the medical ones, if not more so, and that's the case for Lenox Hill too. Seeing Amanda having a difficult conversation with her ob-gyn about her own pregnancy is just as moving as watching her help deliver a baby. Likewise, catching a glimpse of John planning a family party on the phone with his wife is equally as thrilling as seeing him make breakthroughs in cancer research. I may be alone on that onebut doctors, in my opinion, are the closest things to superheroes that we have. And seeing a superhero talk about a Sunday barbecue feels bizarre.

"This series humanizes physicians and allows people to see the hard work, dedication, passion, and sacrifice we give to our jobsnot for money, but because we genuinely want to help people," Dr. Little-Richardson said in a statement.

Lenox Hill does an excellent job at capturing just how superhero-y these doctors really are. Whether it's Dr. Langer performing a complicated tumor removal on a 28-year-old patient or Dr. Macri seeing dozens of E.R. patients in one night on very little sleep, the weight of their work is not lost on viewers. For medical-philes alone, this show is going to tick a lot of boxes. You get up close and personal with a lot of medical jargon and graphic imagery. (That being said: Squeamish people, beware.)

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Lenox Hill Review: This Is the Reality TV Version of Greys AnatomyAnd It Will Move You - Glamour