text: The rare first volume of Feral Kid zine, created by Carolyn Snow, was inspired by the concept of a feral child. Artists were asked to contribute an image or text based on their interpretation of this concept. Contributors include Damien Echols, Mike Bones, Vincent Castiglia, Amen Dunes, Georgia Ford, Terence Koh, Harmony Korine, Christopher Snow, Tuomas Korpijaako, Grear Patterson, Dash Snow, Peter Sutherland plus many more.
  
  The D.T. Suzuki Museum (鈴木大拙館, Suzuki Daisetsu Kan) is a small museum commemorating the life and works of Suzuki Daisetz Teitaro (1870-1966), a prominent Buddhist philosopher. The museum was opened in 2011 in the district of Kanazawa where Suzuki was born, a ten minute walk from Kenrokuen. On display are exhibitions showcasing the writings of D.T. Suzuki which allow the visitor to learn more about his life and philosophy. In addition, the architecture of the museum serves as an interpretation of D.T. Suzuki's life and religious scholarship; its use of clean, simple lines and open spaces causes visitors to pause and reflect.
  D.T. Suzuki was a prolific writer who was instrumental in introducing Japanese Zen philosophy to the west. Having spent much of his early life living and studying at Engakuji Temple in Kamakura, he wrote mainly about Zen Buddhism and its relation to and influence on everyday life. Suzuki was also proficient in English, Chinese and Sanskrit in addition to Japanese, and translated various religious texts and scholarly articles.
  Designed by architect Taniguchi Yoshio who also designed the Heisei Chishinkan in Kyoto and the Horyuji Homotsukan in Tokyo amongst others, the architecture of the D.T. Suzuki Museum lends a hand in conveying the serenity that comes with Zen philosophy. From the unassuming entrance to the overall architecture and interior, there is a sense of tranquility that can be felt throughout the museum. Despite its small area, the museum has three buildings connected by corridors built around a large flat pond at their center called the Water Mirror Garden. There is also a garden around the grounds which visitors can enter.
  Another feature of the museum is the Contemplative Space, consisting of a large room with openings on all four sides, which extends out into the Water Mirror Garden. There are seats in this space where visitors can take time to meditate and think over their thoughts whilst looking out over the water. In addition, a learning space at one end of the museum has English and Japanese books written by Suzuki for visitors to read; iPads for multimedia learning; as well as a large window that looks out into a garden.
  The D.T. Suzuki Museum is a stop along the tourist oriented Kanazawa Loop Buses (stop numbers LL7 and RL9). Frequently departing Hokutetsu buses also provide access between Kanazawa Station (east exit bus stop number 5 or 10) and the D.T. Suzuki Museum. Get off at the Hondamachi bus stop (本多町, around 15 minutes, 200 yen one way) from where the museum is about a five minute walk away.
  The museum can also be reached in about a ten minute walk from the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. Furthermore, a walking trail in the garden of the D.T. Suzuki Museum provides a shortcut to the nearby Kanazawa Nakamura Museum and the Prefectural Museum of Art.
  
  This 3D printout of a human heart was created at the Heidelberg University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. | REUTERS
  HEIDELBERG, GERMANY – Armed with a computer screen and mouse instead of a scalpel in an operating theater, cardiologist Benjamin Meder carefully places the electrodes of a pacemaker in a beating digital heart.
  Using this “digital twin,” which mimics the electrical and physical properties of the cells in the heart of patient No. 7497, Meder runs simulations before operating to see if the pacemaker can keep the sufferer of congestive heart failure alive.
  The twin digital heart, which was developed by Siemens Healthineers, is one example of how medical device makers are using artificial intelligence to help doctors make more precise diagnoses as medicine enters an increasingly personalized age.
  The challenge for Siemens Healthineers and rivals such as Philips and GE Healthcare is to keep an edge over tech giants from Alphabet’s Google to Alibaba that hope to use big data to grab a slice of health care spending.
  With health care budgets under increasing pressure, AI tools such as the digital heart twin could save tens of thousands of dollars by predicting outcomes and avoiding unnecessary surgery.
  A shortage of doctors in countries such as China is also spurring demand for new AI tools to analyze medical images, and the race is on to commercialize products that could shake up health care systems around the world.
  While AI has been used in medical technology for decades, the availability of vast amounts of data, lower computing costs and more sophisticated algorithms mean revenues from AI tools are expected to soar to $6.7 billion by 2021 from $811 million in 2015, according to a study by the research firm Frost & Sullivan.
  The size of the global medical imaging analytics software market is also expected to jump to $4.3 billion by 2025 from $2.4 billion in 2016, said the data portal Statista.
  “What started as an evolution is accelerating towards more of a revolution,” said Thomas Rudolph who leads McKinsey & Co.’s pharmaceutical and medical technology practice in Germany. For Siemens Healthineers and its traditional rivals, making the transition from being mainly hardware companies to medical software pioneers is seen as crucial in a field becoming increasingly crowded with new entrants.
  Google has developed a raft of AI tools, including algorithms that can analyze medical images to diagnose eye disease or sift through digital records to predict the likelihood of death.
  Alibaba hopes to use its cloud and data systems to tackle a shortage of medical specialists in China. It is working on AI-assisted diagnosis tools to help analyze images such as CT scans and MRIs.
  Siemens Healthineers, which was spun off from German parent Siemens in March, has outpaced the market in recent quarters with sales of medical imaging equipment thanks to a slew of new products.
  But analysts say the German firm, the Dutch company Philips and GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric, will all come under pressure to prove they can save health care systems money as spending becomes more linked to patient outcomes and as hospitals rely on bulk purchasing to push for discounts.
  Now Chief Executive Bernd Montag’s ambition is to transform it into the “GPS of health care” — a company that harnesses its data to sell intelligent services as well as letting smaller tech firms develop apps feeding off its database.
  It is not alone. Philips says about 60 percent of its research and development staff and spending is focused on software and data science. The company said it employs thousands of software engineers, without being specific.
  “Imagine that in the future, we have a patient with all their organ functions, all their cellular functions, and we are able to simulate this complexity,” said Meder, a cardiologist at Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany who is testing Siemens Healthineers’ digital heart software.
  To test the technology, Meder’s team created 100 digital heart twins of patients being treated for heart failure in a six-year trial. The computer makes predictions based on the digital twin, and they are then compared with actual outcomes.
  His team hopes to finish evaluating the predictions by the end of 2018. If the results are promising, the system will be tested in a larger, multicenter trial as the next step to getting the software approved by regulators for commercial use.
  Both GE and Philips are also working on versions of digital heart twins. Nontraditional players have been active too.
  Drawing on its experience of making digital twins to test bridges and machinery, the French software firm Dassault Systemes launched the first commercial “Living Heart” model in May 2015, though it is only currently available for research.
  Philips sells AI-enabled heart models that can, for example, turn 2D ultrasound images into data that help doctors diagnose problems, or automatically analyze scans to help surgeons plan operations.