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☆ They Came From Outer Space. Now, They’re Going Into Hiding.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Katherine Kornei | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you’re looking for meteorites, here’s a tip: Go south. Roughly 60 percent of all known meteorites have been collected there. That’s because, as temperatures rise, thousands of meteorites will sink into the continent’s ice and disappear from sight every year, according to a new study published on Monday. Rather, meteorites simply tend to be more visible on the Antarctic ice sheet than they would be, say, in your backyard. “Your eye can pick out a dark rock on a white surface super easily,” said Dr. Corrigan, who was not involved in the new research.

Persons: Cari Corrigan, ”, Corrigan Organizations: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum Locations: Antarctica

☆ Part scary, part exciting: How artists are using AI in their work
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Lucy Handley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

But they also said they were excited about what generative AI might bring. Installation artist Rubem Robierb was "shocked" when he first saw what generative AI could do, he told CNBC by phone. "In its infancy, [generative] AI can create more images in a second [than] the human brain can even process. As it exists right now, [generative] AI sources from known images, known artwork, and known artists to complete a task. Generative artUsing generative AI in an ethical manner is a key consideration for London gallery the Serpentine, which has developed AI projects with artists since 2014, according to its CEO Bettina Korek.

Persons: Refik, Hugo Glendinning, OpenAI's DALL, Rubem Robierb, Robierb, Dandara dos Santos, Rubem, Bettina Korek, Refik Anadol, Korek, Anadol, Julian Espagnon, Danilo S, Shane Guffogg, Carlucci, Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst, Jordan Meyer, Guffogg, I'm Organizations: CNBC, Celebrity Cruises for Edge, Smithsonian Institution, Economic, United Arab, & Systems, gallery's Arts Technologies Locations: London, New York City, Fortaleza, Brazil, New York, Miami, Europe, Serpentine, Davos, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Herndon, Venice, Italy, California

☆ FBI returns looted artifacts found in Massachusetts attic to Japan
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Amy Woodyatt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The FBI has returned a trove of looted Japanese art to its country of origin after a family found a stash of artifacts in their late father’s Massachusetts attic. They looked old and valuable,” Special Agent Geoffrey J. Kelly, art crime coordinator for FBI Boston and a member of the FBI Art Crime Team, said in a statement. A typewritten letter found alongside the artifacts in Massachusetts helped confirm they were looted during the last days of World War II, the FBI added. “When taken together, they really represent a substantial piece of Okinawan history,” Kelly said of the artifacts. The artifacts were returned to Okinawa last week, the FBI said, but noted that several Okinawan objects are still missing and are listed in the National Stolen Art File.

Persons: Geoffrey J, Kelly, ” Kelly, ”, you’re Organizations: CNN, FBI, FBI Boston, Okinawa FBI, Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian, Washington , D.C Locations: Massachusetts, Japan, Okinawa, Washington ,

☆ Abortion opponents settle lawsuit against D.C. museum over 'pro-life' hat ban
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Patrons enter the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum for the public reopening of the museum’s west end galleries on the National Mall in Washington, U.S. October 14, 2022. The federally funded museum agreed to pay the more than a dozen plaintiffs a total of $50,000 to settle the suit, according to the filing in U.S. District Court in Washington. And the Smithsonian agreed to notify security personnel at all of its museums and the National Zoo about its policy allowing hats and other articles of clothing bearing messages, "including religious and political speech." The settlement comes four months after the National Archives Museum in Washington agreed to pay $10,000 to a smaller group of plaintiffs and to abide by similar conditions to settle a similar lawsuit. The plaintiffs in that case were told by National Archives guards to either cover clothing bearing "pro-life" messages or leave that federally operated institution on Jan. 20, 2023.

Organizations: Air and Space Museum, National Air and Space Museum, Washington , D.C, Smithsonian, National Zoo, National Archives Museum, National Archives Locations: Washington , U.S, Washington ,, South Carolina, Washington

☆ Titanosaur skeleton discovered in France is 70 million years old
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Taylor Nicioli | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —A chance discovery made in southern France has revealed a rare specimen — an almost complete dinosaur skeleton found connected from its hind skull to its tail. The Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association at the Cruzy Museum, in collaboration with the French National Center for Scientific Research, identified the nearly 10-meter-long (32.8-foot-long) fossil as a Titanosaur skeleton upon excavation. The recently revealed 70% complete Titanosaur skeleton was retrieved during the excavation along with several fossils of various dinosaurs and other vertebrates, including some in anatomical connection and near complete. The Titanosaur skeleton currently resides in the Cruzy Museum’s laboratory, where it will be further studied, Veyssières said. Remains of Titanosaur fossils are widely unearthed in Europe, but few are discovered in anatomical connection, Boschetto said.

Persons: CNN —, Damien Boschetto, Boschetto, ” Boschetto, Jean, Marc Veyssières, ”, Veyssières, Damien Boschetto Titanosaur, Matthew Carrano, ” Carrano Organizations: CNN, Cruzy, French National Center for Scientific Research, Cruzy Museum, Smithsonian Institution National, of Locations: France, Montouliers, Cruzy, Europe

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ancient stone tools found in western Ukraine may be the oldest known evidence of early human presence in Europe, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Archaeologists used new methods to date the layers of sedimentary rock surrounding the tools to more than 1 million years old. The chipped stone tools were likely used for cutting meat and perhaps scraping animal hides, he said. The very earliest stone tools of this type were found in eastern Africa and date back to 2.8 million years ago, said Rick Potts, who directs the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. “The oldest humans with this old stone tool technology were able to colonize everywhere from warm Iberia (Spain) to Ukraine, where it's at least seasonally very cold – that’s an amazing level of adaptability,” said Potts.

Persons: ”, Mads Faurschou Knudsen, it's, Roman Garba, Rick Potts, “, Potts Organizations: WASHINGTON, Aarhus University, Czech Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: Ukraine, Europe, Korolevo, Denmark, Spain, Africa, Iberia

☆ Opinion: Why we can’t let go of the mystery of Amelia Earhart
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Opinion Dorothy Cochrane | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

A marine robotics company recently captured an object on the ocean floor, about 15,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Earhart’s flight plan was well known. According to Earhart biographer Doris Rich, the US government had obtained permits for the countries she would stop in along the way. And it fit her need of a refueling stop in the western Pacific Ocean. In 1997, pilot Elgen Long and his wife Marie Long published the book, “Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved.” The Longs laid out facts and solid suppositions for others to follow.

Persons: Dorothy Cochrane, Read, Dorothy Cochrane Carolyn Russo, Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, Howland, Earhart, —, “, Tony Romeo, Romeo, Noonan, Doris Rich, Roosevelt, Earhart’s, George Putnam, Rich, Itasca, Elgen Long, Marie Long, “ Amelia Earhart, reengineered, Lockheed Electra NR16020, Electra Organizations: General Aviation, Aeronautics Department, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, CNN, Lockheed, US Coast Guard, DSV, Coast Guard personnel, Nauticos Inc Locations: Howland Island, Lae , New Guinea, United States, Howland, Itasca, Honolulu , Hawaii

☆ Amelia Earhart's plane could be 'well preserved' but there's no guarantee it's been found, expert says
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewExperts have rushed to weigh in following news of tantalizing sonar imagery in the hunt for Amelia Earhart's lost plane — which, even if it has not been found, could still be well-preserved in its final resting place. They were taken at a depth of 16,400 feet, about 100 miles from Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which Romeo's team considered one of the likeliest areas for Earhart's plane to have come down. AdvertisementThe plane is made primarily from aluminum, Jourdan told The Washington Post back in 2001, discussing a search at a similar depth and location. At those temperatures, even Earhart's charts and other papers may have been preserved, The Post and Courier reported.

Persons: —, Amelia Earhart's, Tony Romeo, we've, Romeo, Katherine Tangalakis, Rebecca Rommen, Romeo doesn't, it's, Earhart, David Jourdan, Jourdan, Megan Lickliter, Mundon Organizations: Service, Street, Business, Smithsonian Institution's, Air and Space Museum, CNN, Washington Post, Courier, New York Times Locations: Howland

NEW YORK (AP) — N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize-winning storyteller, poet, educator and folklorist whose debut novel "House Made of Dawn" is widely credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature, has died. “His Kiowa heritage was deeply meaningful to him and he devoted much of his life to celebrating and preserving Native American culture, especially the oral tradition." Like Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” Momaday’s novel was a World War II story that resonated with a generation protesting the Vietnam War. Addressing a gathering of American Indian scholars in 1970, Momaday said, “Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves.” He championed Natives' reverence for nature, writing that "the American Indian has a unique investment in the American landscape." Audio guides to tours of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian featured Momaday's avuncular baritone.

Persons: Scott Momaday, Momaday, “ Scott, ”, Jennifer Civiletto, “, Kiowa, John Joseph Mathews, Marshall Sprague, Scott Momaday's, Joseph Heller’s “, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Robert Redford, Jeff Bridges, George W, Bush, Regina Heitzer, Cael, Navarre Scott Mammedaty, Momaday's, Fran McCullough, Billy the Kid, ” Redford, Scott, “ I’m, ” Momaday, Russell Contreras Organizations: HarperCollins, PBS, American Indians, New York Times, Stanford, Princeton, NPR, of, Academy of American Poets, Kiowa Nation, Smithsonian Institution's Museum, Indian, University of Mexico, Associated Press Locations: Santa Fe , New Mexico, New Mexico, Jemez Pueblo, Vietnam, American, Columbia, Dayton, Lawton , Oklahoma, Arizona , New Mexico, North Dakota, Wyoming

☆ A former US Air Force officer spent $11 million searching for Amelia Earhart's long-lost plane — and may have found it
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | Rebecca Rommen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Amelia Earhart, 40, stands next to a Lockheed Electra 10E, before her last flight in 1937 from Oakland, California. Amelia Earhart took off from the airport in her £10,000 Flying Laboratory for Honolulu on the first leg of her round-the-world flight. A map of where Earhart's plane is believed to have gone missing along her presumed flight path. Romeo and his company, Deep Sea Vision, discovered an object of similar size and shape to Amelia Earhart's iconic plane, deep in the Pacific Ocean. Advertisement"It's very deep water, and the area that she could've possibly been in is huge," Tom Dettweiler, a sonar expert, told The Journal.

Persons: —, Amelia Earhart, Tony Romeo, Fred Noonan, Romeo, I've, Dorothy Cochrane, Andrew Pietruszka, he's, Amelia Earhart's, we've, there'll, it'll, Earhart's, Tom Dettweiler, Earhart, Cochrane, I'm Organizations: Service, US Air Force, Business, Lockheed, AP, Kongsberg, Street Journal, Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution's, Air and Space Museum, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Smithsonian, dateline Locations: Oakland , California, Norwegian, Tarawa, Kiribati, Honolulu, Howland, Honolulu , Hawaii

☆ In 1916, the US began forcing Mexicans crossing the southern border to take kerosene baths. That tactic was later studied by the Nazis.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Dearbea Walker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

In 1916, the US began forcing Mexicans that crossed the border to bathe in a mix of kerosene and vinegar. A US immigration officer talks to Mexicans in El Paso, Texas, 1916. El Paso was considered to have the ideal dry, warm climate to combat tuberculosis, and so, multiple sanatoriums were built in the city. AdvertisementAdvertisementAs a result, Mexicans and Mexican Americans who lived along the border developed a deep fear of the baths, Levya said. In total, the government is thought to have bathed 127,123 Mexicans at the bridge between Juárez and El Paso.

Persons: —, Thomas Calloway Lea Jr, B.J, Lloyd, Bettmann, Carmelita Torres, Torres, PhotoQuest, Lea, David Romo, Tom Lea, Dr, Yolanda Chavez Levya, Levya, Leonard Nadel, Levya's, Torres –, Gerhard Peters, Peters Organizations: Service, Public Health, Riots, Mexican, Labor, Ku Klux Klan, Tom Lea Institute, The University of Texas, US, El, Public Service Health, Hidalgo Processing Center, Archives Center, National Museum of, Smithsonian, US Public Health Service Locations: Mexico, United States, El Paso , Texas, El Paso, Mexican, Hidalgo, Texas, East, Southeast Asia, Juárez, El Paso ., German, Nuremberg

In the past few months alone, researchers have linked Neanderthal DNA to a serious hand disease, the shape of people's noses and various other human traits. Research shows some African populations have almost no Neanderthal DNA, while those from European or Asian backgrounds have 1% to 2%. For example, Neanderthal DNA has been linked to auto-immune diseases like Graves’ disease and rheumatoid arthritis. The list goes on: Research has linked Neanderthal genetic variants to skin and hair color, behavioral traits, skull shape and Type 2 diabetes. Researchers found the skulls of domesticated dogs in Homo sapiens sites much further back in time than anyone had found before.

Persons: We’re, ”, Mary Prendergast, Hugo Zeberg, Svante Paabo, Zeberg, It's, Graves, Homo sapiens, Chris Stringer, “, Rick Potts, Paabo, ” Zeberg, Raghavan, Potts, Denisovans, sapiens, Eleanor Scerri, Prendergast, Janet Young, Pat Shipman, John Hawks Organizations: Rice University, Karolinska, Research, Smithsonian Institution, University of Chicago, Germany’s Max Planck Institute, Geoanthropology, Canadian Museum, University of Wisconsin -, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: Sweden, Melanesia, New Guinea, Fiji, Africa, Europe, Asia, London, Eurasia, Germany’s, University of Wisconsin - Madison

☆ Homo floresiensis: The curious case of the hobbit and what its remarkable discovery taught us
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

The Liang Bua cave excavation site, where the fossils of Homo floresiensis were discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesia. A 3D cast of the skeleton of Homo Floresiensis on display at Stony Brook University, part of the State University of New York system. The Liang Bua team named the species Homo floresiensis after the island where the fossils were discovered. Sutikna said that a thick layer of volcanic ash was found just on top of the layer where Homo floresiensis was first found. And above the volcanic ash layer, we did not find any fossils of Homo floresiensis or other ancient animals,” he said.

Persons: Thomas Sutikna, trowel, Liang Bua, Sutikna, ”, floresiensis, Achmad Ibrahim, Saptomo, Tim Wiencis, Mike Morwood, Liang, hobbitus —, floresianus —, Paige Madison, Bert Roberts, Robert Pearce, Bua, Homo erectus, erectus, chimplike wristbones, Lucy, australopithecines, Chris Stringer, “ I’m, ” Stringer, “, luzonensis, Matt Tocheri, Flores, Mata Menge, Flores hobbits, Tocheri, ’ There’s, Stringer, it’s, ” Tocheri, ” Madison, we’re Organizations: CNN, Indonesia’s, Archaeometric Research, Research and Innovation Agency, Stony Brook University, State University of New, University of Wollongong, Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Media, AP, Lakehead University, Smithsonian Institution Locations: Indonesian, Liang, Flores, Indonesia, Jakarta, Stony, State University of New York, Australian, Australia, Africa, Java, Asia, London, South Africa, Philippines, Yogyakarta, Canada, Thunder Bay , Ontario, It’s, Madison, Sulawesi

A new accounting shows that at least 523 institutions were part of the sprawling network of boarding schools for Native American children. ‘War Against the Children’ The Native American boarding school system — a decades-long effort to assimilate Indigenous people before they ever reached adulthood — robbed children of their culture, family bonds and sometimes their lives. “The government was not done with war, so the next phase involved war against the children,” said Mr. Sherman, 83, a former aerospace engineer. Now 76, his voice grows shaky when he recounts the punishments children received — and how children were turned into punishers. Library of Congress, Chronicling AmericaA precise accounting of how many children died at Native American boarding schools remains elusive.

☆ A First Look From NASA’s New Air Pollution Satellite
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Delger Erdenesanaa | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When scientists switched on the instrument aboard a new satellite this summer, they got a preview of what will soon be the nation’s first continuous record of air pollution. The satellite will stay parked above North America and provide scientists with hourly daytime updates on air pollution nationwide. The satellite instrument, called TEMPO, will be able to measure several other pollutants as well. The images come during a summer of exceptionally bad air quality for the United States, with smoke from wildfires blanketing multiple cities and regions. But even before this summer, over the past decade or so, the gains in air quality Americans have enjoyed since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 had started to plateau.

Persons: “, ”, Xiong Liu Organizations: Center, Astrophysics, Harvard University, Smithsonian Institution Locations: America, United States

☆ How Cooking Videos Took Over the World
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Priya Krishna | Umi Syam | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

Cooking videos have never been more persuasive, more inescapable, more addictive, more entertaining. How Cooking Videos Took Over The WorldVideos on TikTok with the #foodtok hashtag have been viewed more than 64 billion times. But cooking videos are not only an unavoidable part of being online — they’ve also infiltrated physical spaces. That is what makes these videos so engaging.”Today, there isn’t just one way to make a successful cooking video. But the evolution of cooking videos represents a broader shift: Algorithms and artificial intelligence increasingly drive everyday behaviors and can stifle creativity.

Persons: they’ve, Julia Child, Joyce Chen, ”, Ashley Rose Young, —, John Gara, … TikTok, Covid, Sunny Xun Liu, “, Bennett, Hetal Vasavada, soothingly, Althea Brown, Frankenfood, Gara, Bacon, Ahmad Alzahabi, Liu, Vasavada, that’s, they’re Organizations: Department of Motor Vehicles, Smithsonian Institution, Food Network, “ East, YouTube, Facebook, Stanford Social Media, “ Locations: New York City, United States, TikTok, Denver

☆ DNA of enslaved iron workers illuminates African American history
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A view of the site of the Catoctin Furnace, an iron forge where enslaved people of African descent once worked, in Cunningham Falls State Park in Maryland, U.S., in this undated photograph. The site now also is providing unique insight into African American history thanks to research involving DNA obtained from the remains of 27 individuals buried in a cemetery for enslaved people at Catoctin Furnace. For African American and United States history, revealing these stories and family legacies is important to understanding and acknowledging who we are, where we came from and how we are connected to each other today," Bruwelheide added. Enslaved people of African descent were forced to work in agricultural, industrial and domestic settings in parts of the United States. In a first-of-its-kind analysis, the researchers examined historical DNA alongside genetic testing company 23andMe's personal ancestry database to identify 41,799 Americans related to the 27 individuals, including 2,975 close relatives.

Persons: Aneta, Camp David, Kari Bruwelheide, Bruwelheide, Éadaoin Harney, Andy Kill, enslavers, Kathryn Barca, Barca, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: REUTERS, U.S, Smithsonian Institution, Democratic, Smithsonian's National, of, United, Workers, Catoctin, Smithsonian, Thomson Locations: Cunningham Falls, Park, Maryland, U.S, Handout, REUTERS WASHINGTON, Camp, Catoctin, West, Central Africa's, Senegal, Gambia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa, Americas, Washington, United States, Civil

☆ Remarkable fossils reveal jellyfish that lived 505 million years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The oldest examples of swimming jellyfish, which lived in Earth’s oceans 505 million years ago, have been discovered high within the Canadian Rockies. The multitude of Burgessomedusa phasmiformis fossils at the site showed that large, swimming bell-shaped jellyfish evolved more than 500 million years ago. The Burgess Shale was first discovered in 1909 by Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The more that researchers study fossils from the Burgess Shale, the more complex the ancient food chain becomes. “This adds yet another remarkable lineage of animals that the Burgess Shale has preserved chronicling the evolution of life on Earth.”

Persons: Burgess, Jean, Bernard Caron, Medusozoans, ”, Joe Moysiuk, Desmond Collins, Raymond Quarry, Charles D, Walcott, Royal Ontario Museum’s Richard Ivey Organizations: CNN, Canadian Rockies, Royal Ontario Museum, Royal Society, University of Toronto, Royal Ontario, Smithsonian Institution Locations: Burgess, Canada's, British Columbia, Washington ,

☆ Chien-Shiung Wu, a nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, spent her career fighting for gender equality in science
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Yoonji Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese physicist who was instrumental to the Manhattan Project. Chien-Shiung Wu is a physicist who broke through both gender and racial barriers in 1940s America, wowing the science community with her significant contributions to the Manhattan Project. Like many other scientists involved in the project, Wu later distanced herself from the Manhattan Project due to its destructive outcome. Robert W. Kelley/Contributor/Getty ImagesWu's legacyAfter the Manhattan Project, Wu continued to advance the science community's understanding of nuclear physics. Wu was later awarded the first Wolf Prize, considered the second most prestigious award after the Nobel Prize, in 1978.

Persons: Wu, Wolf, Christopher Nolan's, Oppenheimer, Wu's, Madame Curie, Ernest Lawrence, J, Robert Oppenheimer, weren't, Lawrence, Wu —, Emilio Segrè, Marie Curie, Luke Yuan, East Coast . Wu, Brode, Wallace Brode, Enrico Fermi, Robert W, Kelley, —, Y.K, Lee, Bettmann Organizations: Manhattan, Physics, Service, University of Michigan, University of California, Princeton University, Science, Smithsonian Institution, Manhattan Project, Columbia University, Los Alamos, Columbia Locations: Chinese, Wall, Silicon, America, Jiangsu, China, Republic of China, United States, Michigan, Berkeley, Italian, East Coast ., Los, Manhattan

☆ 27,000-year-old pendants crafted from the skin of extinct giant sloths could help rewrite the human history of the Americas
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Researchers found what appeared to be pendants made from the now-extinct giant sloth. It suggests humans lived in South America thousands of years earlier than previously thought. "It's very likely that multiple waves of people came to Americas," she said, according to The AP. Giant ground sloths could reach 13 feet long, weighed more than a thousand pounds and were equivalent in size to an Indian elephant. It walked on all fours and was one of the largest creatures in South America, per the report.

Persons: Mirian Liza Alves Forancelli Pacheco, Jeffrey Greenberg, Briana, paleoanthropologist Organizations: Service, Royal Society B, Royal, North America, Federal University of Sao, Associated Press, Universal, AP, Smithsonian Institution's National, of Locations: South America, Wall, Silicon, Siberia, Alaska, South, North, Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil, Florida, Americas, Washington

☆ Mummified heads of Māori ancestors returned to New Zealand from Germany
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Lianne Kolirin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Germany has returned six mummified Māori heads to New Zealand, together with the remains of almost 100 Māori and Moriori ancestors. German institute/Museum of New Zealand Te Papa TongarewaIn Māori culture, the head was considered the most important part of the body. Back in 2016, the Smithsonian Institution returned the remains of 54 indigenous people, including four mummified Māori heads, to Te Papa. The latest repatriation involved the skeletal remains of 95 ancestors of both peoples, together with six mummified tattooed Māori heads. A team carry 20 mummified Māori heads, repatriated from France, during a ceremony at Te Papa on January 27, 2012.

Persons: Hinemoana Baker, Te, Arikirangi Mamaku, Ironside, Reiss Engelhorn, Georg August, Roemer, Te Papa Tongarewa, Marty Melville, —, Arapata, Papa’s Māori, Te Herekiekie, “, Reiss, James Cook, moko, Craig Hawke, ‘, hora, marino, kia whakapapa, tere, ” Organizations: CNN, New Zealand, Smithsonian, New, Smithsonian Institution, Grassi Museum, Linden Museum, Stuttgart State Museum of, Georg August University, Pelizaeus, Museum, Getty, Aotearoa New Locations: Germany, New Zealand, Papa, New, Aotearoa, Chatham, Te Papa, Vienna, Leipzig, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Göttingen, Hildesheim, Museum Wiesbaden, Te, France, AFP, When, Te Papa’s, Aotearoa New Zealand, Engelhorn, Europe, Wellington, Te_Papa

☆ A ‘Crown Jewel of Comedy’: The Joan Rivers Card Catalog of Jokes Finds a Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Jason Zinoman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Joan Rivers died in 2014, ending one of the greatest careers in modern comedy, several groups were interested in acquiring her archives, which included a meticulously organized collection of 65,000 typewritten jokes. Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, recalled a conversation with a representative from the Smithsonian Institution who wanted the catalog of jokes but said it would not be on permanent display. Her mind instantly went to the final tracking shot of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” in which the golden Ark of the Covenant is locked inside a crate and placed in a vast warehouse with hundreds of other crates. “I couldn’t do that because so much of who she was is in those files,” Melissa Rivers told me on a video call from Los Angeles. The fact that the jokes will be accessible is only one of the reasons for Melissa Rivers’s decision.

Persons: Joan Rivers, Melissa Rivers, Rivers, George Carlin, Carl Reiner, Melissa Rivers’s Organizations: Smithsonian Institution, “ Raiders, National Comedy Center Locations: Los Angeles, Jamestown, N.Y

☆ Who Owns the Benin Bronzes? The Answer Just Got More Complicated.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Alex Marshall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After years of ignored pleas and stonewalled requests, deals were finally coming together to return some of Africa’s most prized treasures to the continent. The Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the German government announced they were returning scores of sculptures, plaques and ornaments, known as the Benin Bronzes, that British soldiers had plundered in 1897 from Benin City, in what is now Nigeria but was once the center of a kingdom. Plans were underway for a glittering new museum designed by the British Ghanaian architect David Adjaye to showcase and protect the returned treasures. At a moment when museums worldwide are trying to come to grips with contested artifacts in their collections, this development underscores how complex restitution efforts can be. It decreed that any returned artifacts “may be kept within the palace of the oba,” or in any location that he considers secure.

Persons: David Adjaye, Muhammadu Buhari, oba Organizations: Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of Art Locations: Benin, Benin City, Nigeria, British Ghanaian

☆ What If Instead of Trying to Manage Your Time, You Set It Free?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk What If Instead of Trying to Manage Your Time, You Set It Free? I’m curious to know what you think we do actually owe our jobs, as far as time goes. There’s a distinction between signing up to do a job and signing up to have every second micromanaged. I remember there was a Reddit post of someone who was talking about trying to outsource everything in their life and making it superefficient. He recently interviewed Emma Chamberlain about leaving YouTube, Walter Mosley about a dumber America and Cal Newport about a new way to work.

☆ The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now so huge and permanent that a coastal ecosystem is thriving on it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Haram and her colleagues examined 105 items of plastic fished out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between November 2018 and January 2019. Courtesy Linsey Haram/Smithsonian InstitutionCoastal aggregating anemones found on a black floating plastic fragment collected in the garbage patch. Oceans of plasticThe Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is twice the size of Texas, is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. If you look up at night, you see all those white dots, that’s essentially what you see in the garbage patch. A bag of plastics and debris collected in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is unloaded in Sausalito, California in July 2022.

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