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☆ Family of late U.S. billionaire agrees to return looted Cambodian artefacts
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Clare Baldwin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Sept 13 (Reuters) - The family of late American pipeline billionaire George Lindemann has agreed to return 33 looted artefacts to Cambodia, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, a decision described as "momentous" by the Southeast Asian country. In a statement it said the family's decision to return the artefacts was voluntary. Lawyers for the Lindemann family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He said he understood the Lindemann family had paid more than $20 million for the artefacts. U.S. authorities have been spent more than a decade working on locating artefacts from Cambodia and have so far repatriated 65.

Persons: George Lindemann, Koh Ker, Lindemann, Bradley Gordon, Hun Manet, Douglas Latchford, Clare Baldwin, Chantha Lach, Martin Petty Organizations: Attorney's, Southern, of, Lawyers, United, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, American Chamber of Commerce, Thomson Locations: Cambodia, Angkor, U.S, of New York, United States, Hong Kong, Phnom Penh

☆ Cousins (and Co-Authors) Write a Love Letter to New York
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Robert Ito | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the new graphic novel “Roaming,” Dani and Zoe, best friends from a suburb of Toronto, meet up in Manhattan over spring break. Before long, they’re savoring their first slice of New York pizza (“huge, like a place mat!”) and getting hassled for cash by a creepy Times Square busker dressed as Elmo. Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, the cousins who wrote and illustrated the book, drew from their own memories of traveling for the first time to New York City. Mariko, 47, who grew up in Toronto, recalled being spooked by the subways, among other things. Jillian, who was raised in Calgary, remembered how electric the air felt in Times Square, and how the light was like nothing she’d ever seen.

Persons: ” Dani, Zoe, Elmo, Jillian, Mariko Tamaki, Mariko, “, ”, Dani Organizations: American Museum of, Metropolitan Museum Locations: Toronto, Manhattan, York, New York City, Hollywood, Calgary

☆ For Some Culture Executives, a Housing Perk Is Rolled Back
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Robin Pogrebin | More About Robin Pogrebin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For years the Metropolitan Museum of Art housed its directors in a $5 million apartment on Fifth Avenue, where they lived for free and paid no taxes on that benefit. The American Museum of Natural History’s president also lived for decades in a rent-free, tax-free luxury East Side apartment owned by the museum that is just down the block from Central Park. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art long provided its director with a Tudor home valued at more than $6.5 million, and later a more modest mansion valued at $2.4 million. But in recent years, as art organizations contend with financial struggles at a time of heightened sensitivity around issues of income inequality, cultural institutions have begun to revisit — and in some cases roll back — the perks they give top executives.

Organizations: Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum, Natural, Los Angeles County Museum of Locations: Central Park, Los

☆ Gilder Center Flies, Wriggles and Surprises
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Laurel Graeber | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The American Museum of Natural History has always been known for creatures — just not more than a million live ones. That may change, however, as a result of its Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation. Since this new wing opened in May, almost 1.5 million people have visited the museum, and most are thought to have explored the four floors of the Gilder Center that are open to the public. But even repeat visitors like me are still discovering its many attractions, including crawling and flying animals, mostly of the small but mighty variety. But the center, which was designed by the architect Jeanne Gang and her firm, Studio Gang, has more than wiggly wildlife.

Persons: Richard Gilder, Jeanne Gang, Michael Kimmelman Organizations: American Museum of, Richard Gilder Center for Science, Innovation, Gilder Center, Studio, The New York Times Locations: Manhattan

☆ In the Art of Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Vietnam’s Nightmares Live On
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Roberta Smith | More About Roberta Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

One of the wisest, most beautiful and unsettling exhibitions in New York this summer is “Tuan Andrew Nguyen: Radiant Remembrance” at the New Museum, a show about coming to terms with the intergenerational trauma of war. Nguyen works in video and also makes art objects pertaining to them. Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1976, and came to the United States with his family three years later. The artist’s first major exhibition in an American museum, “Radiant Remembrance,” has been organized by Vivian Crockett, a curator at the museum, and Ian Wallace, a curatorial assistant. Its video installations focus on people who live in the shadow of the two long wars for Vietnamese independence.

Persons: “ Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Nguyen, ”, Vivian Crockett, Ian Wallace Organizations: New Museum Locations: New York, Saigon, Vietnam, United States, Oklahoma , Texas, Southern California, Ho Chi Minh City

☆ Invasive hammerhead worms are longtime New Yorkers, and they may be here to stay
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Mindy Weisberger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Invasive hammerhead flatworms have distinctive curved heads, striped bodies ranging in color from light yellow to dark brown, and they can secrete tetrodotoxin — a neurotoxin found in puffer fish and blue-ringed octopuses. Five species of invasive hammerhead worms — four in the genus Bipalium and one in Diversibipalium — are established in North America, said Bruce Snyder, an associate professor of biology at Georgia College and State University. Today, most hammerhead worms (also known as broadhead planarians) are concentrated in the Southeast, where they favor warm, damp habitats. Bazzano Photography/Alamy Stock PhotoTo date, more than 3,000 sightings in southeastern states of just one invasive hammerhead species — Bipalium kewense — have been shared to the citizen scientist database iNaturalist. Hammerhead tetrodotoxin, which disrupts neurons’ signaling to muscles, can sicken pets if they eat the worms, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Persons: CNN —, they’ve, Peter Ducey, ” Ducey, “, Bruce Snyder, they’re, ” Snyder, ”, Hammerhead tetrodotoxin, Ducey, adventitium, Libbie Hyman, Hyman, Snyder, it’s, ” Mindy Weisberger Organizations: CNN, State University of New, Georgia College, State University, US Department of, Species Information, “, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Forestry, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, ”, hammerheads, Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Scientific Locations: Washington , DC, Yorkers, New York, State University of New York, Cortland, “, North America, Southeast Asia, California, Oregon, Maine, New Jersey, Long, Westchester County, New York City, Europe, Asia, Pennsylvania

☆ Why Einstein wasn't part of the Manhattan Project even though he convinced President Roosevelt to build an atomic bomb
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Albert Einstein sent a letter in 1939 that helped convinced FDR to launch the Manhattan Project. But Einstein was not part of the secretive program run by J. Robert Oppenheimer to develop a nuclear weapon. The letter cited the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard's work, and Szilard helped draft the letter, which Einstein signed. The Manhattan Project was officially created in August 1942, months after the US entered the war. The Manhattan Project is the center of a new biopic from director Christopher Nolan.

Persons: Albert Einstein, FDR, Einstein, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Einstein's, Franklin D, Roosevelt, Leo Szilard's, Szilard, Oppenheimer, Eugene Wigner, Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy Organizations: Manhattan, Service, US Army Intelligence, American Museum of, . Intelligence, US, Newsweek, The New York Times Locations: Wall, Silicon, Hungarian, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Manhattan

☆ Is this what Banksy sounds like? Old interview may hold the key
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Caolán Magee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The identity of the elusive street artist Banksy has always been shrouded in secrecy, but a new BBC podcast may have unveiled a new detail about the art world’s mystery man. The 10-episode series, “The Banksy Story,” includes a recording of what may be the graffiti artist’s voice from a recovered 2005 interview with US National Public Radio (NPR). “You can’t make an omelet (without breaking eggs),” he replies, before adding: “That’s the thing: Mindless vandalism takes a lot more thought than most people would imagine.”Since the 2005 interview, Banksy has become a household name. Bansky’s street art is currently featuring in his first official exhibition in 14 years. “Banksy: Cut & Run” at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, Scotland, features stencils used in work throughout his career, from the late 1980s to recent pieces made this year.

Persons: Banksy, , “, ”, “ Banksy Organizations: CNN, BBC, US National Public Radio, York’s Museum of Modern Art, American Museum of, Brooklyn Museum, NPR, Modern Art Locations: Christie’s, London, Ukrainian, Borodianka, Glasgow, Scotland

☆ Fossils Where They Don’t Belong? Maybe We Just Didn’t Look Hard Enough.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Anthony Ham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Among dinosaur bones and sandy sediment there emerged a 167-million-year-old tiny jaw fragment with three teeth. It belonged to Ambondro mahabo, a species that was 25 million years older than any mammal of its kind ever found. At the time, what was known of the fossil record pointed overwhelmingly to the conclusion that modern mammals’ forerunners arose in the Northern Hemisphere. But a review of existing fossil holdings published last year in the journal Alcheringa sought to turn decades of paleontological wisdom on its head. After an exhaustive study of skulls, jaws and teeth, a team of Australian paleontologists presented their conclusion that modern mammals originated in the Southern Hemisphere.

Persons: Ambondro, ”, John Flynn, Frick Organizations: Northern, Southern Hemisphere, American Museum of Locations: Madagascar, New York

☆ Ancient shrimplike predator was misunderstood, according to new research
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN —With appendages growing out of its head and an armored mouth, an ancient shrimplike creature was thought to be the quintessential apex predator of its time. The 2-foot-long (0.6-meter-long) Anomalocaris canadensis was one of the largest marine animals to live 508 million years ago. The model was based on a well-preserved but flattened fossil found in the Burgess Shale formation in the Canadian Rockies. The marine animal was one of the largest of its time.

Persons: ”, Russell Bicknell, Anomalocaris canadensis Bicknell, Bicknell, ” Bicknell Organizations: CNN, American Museum, Natural, University of New, Canadian Rockies, Royal Society Locations: University of New England, Australia, Germany, China, Switzerland, United Kingdom

☆ In Charleston, a Museum Honors a Journey of Grief and Grace
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Holland Cotter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In Charleston Harbor, where the initiating shots of the Civil War were fired — Fort Sumter is distantly visible — I’m on the site of a former shipping pier known as Gadsden’s Wharf. On this spot now, looking a bit like a ship itself, stands the eagerly awaited and long-delayed new International African American Museum. After an almost quarter-century journey hampered by political squalls, economic doldrums, sometimes mutinous crews, and last-minute fogs, this cultural vessel has securely, and handsomely, come to berth here, opening to the public on Tuesday. The new museum is very much what this place is about: the original forced infusion of Black cultural energy into America, and the consequences of that for the present. It’s the first major new museum of African American history in the country to bring the whole Afro-Atlantic world, including Africa itself, fully into the picture.

Organizations: International African American Museum Locations: Charleston Harbor, Fort Sumter, America, Africa

☆ For Black Debutantes in Detroit, Cotillion Is More Than a Ball
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Miranda Barnes | Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a heady swirl of bright white silk and lace, the young ladies of the Cotillion Society of Detroit Educational Foundation are presented as debutantes. The Society’s annual ball is the culmination of eight months of etiquette lessons, leadership workshops, community service projects and cultural events. As the girls take to the dance floor, they become part of a legacy of Black debutantes in the city and beyond. Debutante balls, which traditionally helped girls from high society find suitable husbands, emerged from Europe in the 18th century. “Signing up for debutantes, I thought it was just one big ball.

Persons: Jim Crow, Taylor Bythewood, Porter, ”, Sage Johnson Organizations: Cotillion Society of Detroit Educational, California African American Museum, Organizers Locations: Europe, Detroit

☆ Inside CNN's epic PR fail that made a mockery of CEO Chris Licht
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Nicholas Carlson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The Atlantic published a really tough article about CNN CEO Chris Licht. The disaster I'm referring to is Tim Alberta's devastating profile of CNN chair and CEO Chris Licht published Friday. And maybe, the story suggests, that's because that big idea is not really Licht's plan at all but one foisted on him by his boss, Warner Bros. Through the summer, Alberta and Licht and CNN comms people talked about what the story might look like. A handful of sources tell me Kelly was skeptical of whether this was a good idea, Dornic was happy to do whatever, and Licht really, really wanted to do it.

Persons: Chris Licht, CNN's goof, Tim Alberta's, Licht, Licht hasn't, Warner, David Zaslav, Zucker, Jeff Zucker, I've, I'm, Kris Coratti Kelly, Kelly, Matt Dornic, Dornic, Hugo, Evan Agostini, isn't, Michael Eisner, James B, Stewart, Eisner, Stewart's, Tim Alberta, Nikki Haley, Don Lemon, he'd, it's, that's, It's, wasn't, Zaslav Organizations: CNN, Trump Town Hall, Warner Bros, Discovery, Journalism, Licht, Global Communications, American Museum of, Disney, Alberta, Trump, Atlantic Locations: Alberta, Manhattan

☆ Manhattanhenge is coming to New York City tonight. Here's where to see it best.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Manhattanhenge is happening in New York City on Monday. It's the phenomenon where the setting sun perfectly aligns with the city's street grid. The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson coined the term. The term Manhattanhenge was coined by the popular astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, a native New Yorker. The Tudor City Overpass in Manhattan and Hunter's Point South Park in Queens are two more scenic spots, he says.

☆ Dragonflies, Beetles, Cicadas — What’s Not to Love?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Alina Tugend | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jessica Ware, an associate curator for the American Museum of Natural History, waxes rhapsodic about beetles. Cicadas, well, they’re just beautiful and she’s proud the ones that come every 17 years are unique to North America. But — even though maybe an entomologist shouldn’t play favorites — it is the dragonfly that really makes her heart sing. They’re remarkable predators.”Dr. Ware, 45, who works in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, is the perfect ambassador for insects. She makes people who have never thought about them — except as an annoyance — understand why they’re both fascinating and important.

One of the really interesting questions here – this will be fascinating – the core of linear TV is sports rights. When you look at the size and scope of the linear TV business, it's huge. Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty ImagesByron Allen, Entertainment Studios founder and CEO: I think linear TV will exist for a very, very long time. Simmons: I believe Apple, out of nowhere, will start making their own awesome televisions that have Apple TV embedded in them. We are witnessing early stages of this dynamic with deals like "NFL Sunday Ticket" on YouTube and the MLS deal with Apple TV.

☆ ‘Murf the Surf: Jewels, Jesus and Mayhem in the USA’ Review: A Dashing Thief’s Darker Side
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Up until his death in 2020, Jack “Murf the Surf” Murphy remained most famous for the 1964 burglary of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which netted its perpetrators a bagful of precious gems, including the 563-carat Star of India sapphire. It was the kind of story people like to tell. And retell. “I’d kept reading story after story about Murf where there’d be 15 paragraphs about this heist,” says journalist Nate Scott . “And in the 16th paragraph it would be like ‘Oh, and then he was convicted for murder.’”The prominence of the burglary on Murphy’s résumé wasn’t entirely an accident, not according to “Murf the Surf,” the four-part documentary series directed by R.J. Cutler (“A Perfect Candidate”) and available on MGM+ (formerly EPIX).

☆ Glass act: Scientists reveal secrets of frog transparency
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering them almost invisible to birds and other predators passing overhead or underneath. But when northern glass frogs wake up and hop around in search of insects and mates, they take on an opaque reddish-brown color. “When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,” said Junjie Yao, a Duke University biomedical engineer and study co-author. A male glass frog photographed from below using a flash, showing its transparency. “Transparency is super rare in nature, and in land animals, it’s essentially unheard of outside of the glass frog,” White said.

☆ California invested an enormous amount of money into getting EVs on the road, but practically nothing when it comes to dealing with the waste: 'It's totally like the Wild West.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

"It's totally like the Wild West," said Zora Chung, co-founder of ReJoule, Inc., a startup project based in Signal Hill that is exploring repurposing used batteries from EVs. However, there are no EV battery recycling plants that exist in California, nor tried-and-true recycling programs in place to deal with the fallout. Currently, the company has used batteries deployed at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, where solar panels feed electricity into the used battery storage units. Charging station for electric and hybrid cars using solar panels to generate electricity to charge car batteries. "Imagine if it just took you one full work week to qualify one used battery," Chung said.

☆ A 1930s eugenics experiment is the reason women's clothing sizes are so damn frustrating
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Isabella Zavarise | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A 1930s eugenics experiment is the reason women's clothing sizes are inconsistent, as per Radke. In an email to Insider, Radke said the discovery about women's clothing sizes was one of the biggest surprises to her when researching "Butts, a Backstory." Andrew SemansThe life-sized plaster casts made by Dickinson and Belskie were dubbed Normman and Norma and helped create standardized clothing sizes. During the 1950s, standardized clothing sizes were adopted by clothing brands. "It's just too expensive for garment manufacturers to make enough clothing sizes to accommodate the wide variation of human bodies.

☆ Extraordinary close-up images show insects as you’ve never seen them before
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Nell Lewis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Released on 22 November, “Extinct & Endangered: Insects in Peril” is a collaboration between Biss and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Biss spent two years photographing the insects, capturing every extraordinary detail from strands of hair to the reflection in a wing. "Extinct & Endangered: Insects in Peril" is out now in hardcover. The insect specimens were couriered to the UK, where Levon Biss photographed them in his studio. He has photographed seeds and fruits in extraordinary detail, insect eggs, the human eye and even mold growing on tea bags.

Persons: Levon Biss, Biss, –, Abrams, ”, “, Elli Biss “, Lauri Halderman Organizations: CNN, American Museum of, of Locations: British, Biss, New York City

☆ The Architect Behind New York’s Most Exciting New Building
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Sarah Medford | Photography Martien Mulder For Wsj. Magazine | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York are some of its most popular attractions, a marriage of art and science transmuted into lifelike encounters with snarling jaguars, rapt penguins and blasé zebras standing rump-first to the glass. Even in the CGI age, their realism is startling. The earliest dioramas owe a debt to Carl Akeley, a sculptor, taxidermist, inventor and big-game hunter who worked at the museum from about 1909 to 1926. Akeley pioneered a method of scooping plaster and papier-mâché over wire armatures to create lifelike creatures and their habitats. Playing around with a hose, a hill of dry concrete and some forced air, he also invented sprayable concrete, a material that could bond to metal-mesh walls and ceilings, enacting a supersized version of sculpting that would later revolutionize the swimming pool industry, among others.

☆ ‘Van Gogh in America’ Review: Tracking an Acquired Taste
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Judith H. Dobrzynski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

DetroitVincent van Gogh (1853-1890) had been dead for 32 years before any American museum bought a painting by him. While he was famously (if exaggeratedly) unsuccessful in life, by then Europe had long since embraced him. Yet at the landmark 1913 Armory Show in New York— Van Gogh ’s public debut here, with at least 21 paintings on view—nothing of his sold, and one critic wrote that Van Gogh had “little if any sense of beauty and spoiled a lot of canvas with crude, quite unimportant pictures.” In 1920, when New York’s Montross Gallery gave him a retrospective, only three of 67 pictures sold, all to one collector. And when in 1921 the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented “A Loan Exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings,” including seven Van Gogh loans, it was condemned by many as degenerate art.

☆ Biden aims to rally world leaders behind Ukraine in U.N. remarks
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Shannon Pettypiece | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will use his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday to rally the world in support of Ukraine as part of a broader call for countries to protect the established international order. Russia’s war in Ukraine has upended global food supplies and threatens to tip Europe into a recession this winter as the continent braces for a surge in energy costs. Biden is also facing heightened tensions with China, which has shown signs of increasing aggression towards Taiwan. Biden will reaffirm the U.S. commitment to help Ukraine defend itself for as long as necessary and call on others to do the same, Sullivan said. While in New York, Biden will meet Wednesday with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss.

☆ Scientists shot tardigrades out of a gun at more than 2,000 mph to see if the critters could survive
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-22 | by ( Aylin Woodward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tardigrades can survive in extreme environments, but a new study shows they're not indestructible. Scientists found these creatures couldn't survive speeds above 2,000 mph when shot out of a gun. The researchers shot canisters full of tardigrades out of a high-speed gun at various speeds to see whether the creatures could survive the pressure of each resulting impact. After being shot out at speeds under 900 meters per second (about 2,000 mph) — that's faster than your average bullet — the tardigrades could be revived. But if tardigrades can't survive the pressures of a collision with our moon, it's unlikely they could survive a meteorite impact with another planet, the study authors wrote.

Persons: Alejandra Traspas, Traspas, Megumu Tsujimoto, tardigrades Organizations: Service, Queen Mary University, of, NASA Locations: Wall, Silicon, London, Israeli

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