GetBodySmart.com
September 17, 2008 3:56 PM   Subscribe

GetBodySmart.com is a wonderful and remarkably complete resource to learn about the systems that keep our body running, including the skeletal , nervous and even urinary systems. What's more amazing is that it's all created by one man in his spare time and for no gain of his own. Read his mission statement here.
posted by ignorantguru (19 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's a cool site, but I don't get why it is peculiarly amazing that a man, WORKING ON HIS OWN OMG, created a website. Aren't there thousands, if not millions, of single owner-operator, fundless sites out there?
posted by DU at 4:48 PM on September 17, 2008


I just kind of thought it was a lot more professional looking than a lot of textbooks official websites and learning resources. Anyway, I'm just always impressed by quality, good-looking websites that aren't the product of corporate machinations.
posted by ignorantguru at 5:17 PM on September 17, 2008 [1 favorite]


Neat. I was able to see the exact point where a doctor pushed a needle 3.5 inches into my upper thigh today to treat some tendinitis. Learning!
posted by MsElaineous at 5:20 PM on September 17, 2008


to paraphrase the Pistols: never mind the snark!

because, y'know, it is amazing - and saying so doesn't detract from the fact that all the many (the thousands, the millions) putting in such selfless labor on similar projects are also amazing

thanks for for the post, ignorantguru!
posted by jammy at 5:22 PM on September 17, 2008


I, and I am certain the rest of my anatomy class when I tell them about it, thank you for this post.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 5:33 PM on September 17, 2008


It's a cool site, but I don't get why it is peculiarly amazing that a man, WORKING ON HIS OWN OMG, created a website. Aren't there thousands, if not millions, of single owner-operator, fundless sites out there?

Yeah, 'tis a shame this FPP isn't up to snuff with the Sarah Palin e-mail hack thread. MeFi definitely needs more of that.
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 5:36 PM on September 17, 2008


needs more homunculus
posted by docpops at 6:12 PM on September 17, 2008


What.
posted by The Whelk at 6:51 PM on September 17, 2008


Excellent! Just as I'm starting A&P, too.
posted by Xere at 7:36 PM on September 17, 2008


Awesome site. His links are cool too.

The site needs a search function and I wish it had an endocrine system diagrams/explanation.
posted by nickyskye at 7:49 PM on September 17, 2008


I used this for Anatomy class last semester, it was a great help!
posted by mabelcolby at 7:59 PM on September 17, 2008


Why is there no Google Earth for the body? A Google Body (if you will).
posted by blue_beetle at 8:50 PM on September 17, 2008


It looks like a good project. Not to be snarky about this, but I have to wonder how one would know that he is doing this "for no gain of his own". There is no sentence of that kind in his mission statement.

I can't find anything about a Scott Sheffield in Portland, Oregon who has university anatomy & physiology credentials, and the only mention of a "Concept Creators, Inc." I can find is one link (on this page) which currently redirects to a domain squat. Am I missing something? It's not completely unreasonable to ask for explicit credentials when someone is supplying information of a medical kind. There are many sites that supply this sort of information as a way of boosting (or eventually boosting) their own products. (Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, as long as there is some sort of full disclosure.)

Having said that, I truly hope this is indeed one lone soul working from his own experience to provide value for all, motivated purely by altruism. The internet was always supposed to make such things possible.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:54 AM on September 18, 2008


I actually e-mailed the guy; really nice, in his late 50's and recently retired from a teaching career. He says he just has no idea how to make a successful business venture out of a website so all he's been doing is making the best site he can.
posted by ignorantguru at 6:35 AM on September 18, 2008


Thanks for clearing that up! I'd guess that he knows the A & P and Concept Creators does the actual Flash work. I was having some trouble reconciling those (the guy teaches A & P for 20+ years and then quickly learns Flash? Not impossible... but still.)

People have done this type of stuff to aid a commercial venture (random example). But I like his attitude.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:00 AM on September 18, 2008


There's no digestive system. Where does my poop go?

Compare the BodySmart info on the urinary system with WikiBooks. Honestly, which one would you use to learn about it?

Ignore the snark, but this site isn't so good. I didn't read all the tutorials (though anyone could in about an hour), but it seems like you can get much more information on anatomy/human biological systems from a book. That's not how the Internet is supposed to work. :(
posted by mrgrimm at 12:38 PM on September 18, 2008


You want poops? Here you go! SFW (you wussies)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:56 PM on September 18, 2008


I actually e-mailed the guy; really nice, in his late 50's and recently retired from a teaching career. He says he just has no idea how to make a successful business venture out of a website so all he's been doing is making the best site he can.


And now I feel bad for being snarky. Can I take it back?
posted by The Whelk at 8:24 PM on September 18, 2008


I really dislike Flash-based websites for teaching, mostly due to accessibility issues (most of the text on this site is part of the Flash - it needn't be, really).

I really dislike fixed-width sites that don't allow me to take advantage of the size of my monitor (this site takes up about 1/4 of the available screen real estate).

I get annoyed when people try to combine XHTML with FONT tags (really? CSS stylesheet, then inline redefinition of the styles with FONT tags?).

Even given all that, I'm having a hard time disliking this site. Sure, I'm all on top of the tech now, but twenty-odd years down the road, any site I'm coding will probably be picked on by students as "dated technology". I've seen plenty of sites put together for textbook companies, and really, this seems to be as good or better than most of those (with the added bonus of being free, and not tied to any specific textbook, and not requiring any draconian registration codes or log-in or etc.).

What the site really makes me want is a cross-discipline online study reference for science students. Sort of like this, but with multiple contributors. It would be really cool to see something along this line grow detailed and in-depth enough to be used as a textbook for a course. I think at that point some sort of small access fee might need to be levied just to cover bandwidth, unless sponsorship could be found; even in such a case I'd still like to see a general study aid offered free of charge.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:27 AM on September 19, 2008


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