Smithsonian articles from June 2008

Smithsonian archives from June 2008

Crowd pleasers: too good to be true?(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
June 1, 2008... Not EVEN LEIGH MONTVILLE, who was a sports columnist for the Boston Globe and a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, had ever heard of John Montague, the mystery man who sportswriter Grantland Rice believed, in 1935, just might be the best...

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... Although I was very young when these events unfolded, I appreciate the historical perspective your article about LBJ ["The Unmaking of the President"] gave me. More important, at a time when we are so divided over so many issues, the article...

LBJ's Agenda.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... CLAY RISEN's article is well researched, but I disagree with his thesis that President Johnson was ready to unleash a major new series of domestic initiatives and pulled back only because of the riots that followed the King assassination. The...

Prurient Journalism.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... I AM GLAD that Tom Fiedler is pleased with his expose of Gary Hart [Presence of Mind: "Those Aren't Rumors"]. In the "New Journalism" no person in the public eye has any privacy. Frankly, many of us citizens care little about our politicians'...

Amazing adaptations.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... WILD THINGS proved to me once again the value of this excellent magazine. The unfortunate ant that contributed, willy-nilly, to the propagation of a nematode via an almost incredible natural selection process, and the romantically driven...

Seeing in reverse.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... IF ELLIS WEINER ["Mind Games"] will allow it, I offer craind -- that drained feeling in the cranium that comes from trying to create an anagram for rancid. BUCK, PILKENTON SUMPTER, OREGON

Match up.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(yucca moths and joshua trees)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Joshua trees, the distinctive yuccas of the Mojave Desert, are evolving in step with moths, according to researchers at the University of Idaho. Plants in the eastern part of the Joshua trees' range have shorter stylar canals--the part of the...

Observed.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(Heliconius erato and Heliconius melpomene, two species of butterfly)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... NAME: Heliconius erato and Heliconius melpomene, two species of butterfly common in Central America. AT FIRST SIGHT: They look alike. The main upside to their resemblance is enhanced protection. Both species are noxious, and predators...

Feelers.(LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(auks)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Fancy feathers are usually thought to be for good looks. But head plumage helps the whiskered auklet of the Aleutian Islands avoid obstacles in the dark, say researchers at Memorial University in Newfoundland. They taped the head feathers down...

A soft body but a hard bite.(WILD THINGS)(squid's beak)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The tip of a Humboldt squid's beak (inset) is one of the hardest organic materials known. In fact, researchers have wondered why the beak doesn't shred the squid's own soft, gelatinous tissue when the animal bites its prey. (Imagine holding a...

Standing up straight and tall.(WILD THINGS)(Orrorin tugenensis)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The bone on the right is a modern human femur. The bone on the left is a slightly damaged six-million-year-old femur from the oldest known human ancestor, Orrorin tugenensis, discovered in 2000 in Kenya. How did our ancestor move? A new...

Tabled resolution: Betty Ford had a what-the-hell moment--and an accomplice in photographer David Hume Kennerly.(INDELIBLE IMAGES)
June 1, 2008... ON JANUARY 19, 1977, the White House was filled with cardboard boxes, moving men and staff gathering for bittersweet goodbyes. People remember the cold. The Washington Post would report that the capital was "glistening with ice" as President...

Space race II: scientists worry that a contest to send robotic rovers to the moon will threaten lunar landmarks.(DIGS)
June 1, 2008... THE SECOND RACE to the moon has begun--and this time there will be a big cash payout for the winner. Four decades after Neil Armstrong took his giant leap for mankind, the Google-sponsored Lunar X Prize is offering $20 million to any private...

Wallace Broecker Geochemist, palisades, New york: How to stop global warming? [CO.sub.2] "scrubbers," a new book says.(INTERVIEW)(Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat - and How to Counter It)(Interview)
June 1, 2008... WALLACE BROECKER, of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, first warned in the 1970s that the earth would warm because of a buildup of carbon dioxide and other gases released by burning fossil fuels. In his new book, Fixing...

Shell gains.(NOTABLE AMERICAN DESTINATIONS AND HAPPENINGS)(protecting endangered turtles)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... NORTH PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS Every few days in the summer, a dozen or so people gather here on the north beach just before dawn to watch newly hatched Kemp's ridley turtles, the size and color of overbaked gingersnaps, plunge into the surf. While...

Lowa's bottled sand.(NOTABLE AMERICAN DESTINATIONS AND HAPPENINGS)(sandart bottles created by Andrew Clemens)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... DES MOINES Powdery grains of colored sand in a foot-tall bottle form a picture so astonishingly detailed that you can see the fringe on George Washington's jacket and the flared nostrils of his white horse. The sandart bottle at the State...

Road work ahead.(NOTABLE AMERICAN DESTINATIONS AND HAPPENINGS)(Glacier National Park, Montana)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... WEST GLACIER, MONTANA A mere I8 feet wide in some stretches, the scenic 50-mile Going-to-the-Sun Road traversing Glacier National Park hugs cliffs and switchbacks, making a drive as white-knuckled as it is beautiful. During repairs to the road...

Storied house.(NOTABLE AMERICAN DESTINATIONS AND HAPPENINGS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... NEW YORK CITY It stands on what was once the most crowded block in the densely populated Lower East Side. Built in 1863, the five-story, 20-unit tenement at 97 Orchard Street had housed 7,000 immigrants by the time it closed in 1935. Twenty...

Celestial Mechanics.(NOTABLE AMERICAN DESTINATIONS AND HAPPENINGS)(Stellafane festival)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... SPRINGFIELD, VERMONT A grassy hilltop is home to Stellafane, the nation's oldest convention of amateur telescope makers. Stargazers have gathered here since 1923, bringing their homemade inventions to view the dark sky--and show off. The motley...

June anniversaries momentous or merely memorable.(THIS MONTH IN HISTORY)
June 1, 2008... 70 YEARS AGO HERO'S WELCOME Superman debuts in the June 1938 Action Comics No. I. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joseph Shuster, the caped superhero can "hurdle a twenty-story building" and "run faster than an express train," but can't fly...

What a year!(FROM THE CASTLE)
June 1, 2008... A LIST OF THE NEW SEVEN WONDERS of the world, published this past April by Conde Nast Traveler, included the Smithsonian's magnificent new Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, with its free-standing glass roof designed by British architect Norman...

Squeeze play: a new Smithsonian networks film brings alive the upbeat music of Colombia's cowboy country.(Around the Mall)(vallenato)
June 1, 2008... IT MIGHT NOT BE OBVIOUS why filmmakers traveled to a remote valley near Colombia's Caribbean coast, a region best known for its drug war, to document a six-day festival of accordion music. But the fast, upbeat melodies of vallenato, as the...

Jukebox.(Around the Mall)(Ivo Diaz performs his father's composition, 'Matilde Lina')(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... LOVE SONG Last year, Smithsonian Folkways invited local musicians to a studio in Valledupar, Colombia, to record traditional vallenato music at its best. Seated in the studio and surrounded by fellow musicians, Leandro Diaz, 80, who claims to...

Golden grail: few U.S. coins are rarer than the never circulated 1933 double eagle, melted down after the nation dropped the gold standard.(THE OBJECT AT HAND)(United States)
June 1, 2008... THESE DAYS, with the mighty greenback looking green at the gills and the euro laughing all the way to the bank, even our once-durable coinage is under assault. Critics are calling for the extinction of the penny; although Thomas Jefferson still...

Q & A.(Around the Mall)(Robert Bullard interview)(Interview)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... ROBERT BULLARD of Clark Atlanta University is often called the father of the environmental justice movement for his efforts to fight toxic dumping in minority communities. He recently delivered a lecture sponsored by the Smithsonian's Anacostia...

Making History.(Around the Mall)(bird migration)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... EARLY BIRDS Researchers have long wondered whether migratory birds return to their birthplace to breed. But a new study, co-authored by Colin Studds, Kurt Kyser and Peter Marra at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, says choice of breeding...

What's Up.(Around the Mall)(exhibitions)(Brief article)(Calendar)
June 1, 2008... PURE SCULPTURES Elephant ivory has long been a status symbol, representing purity. See 74 ivory pieces, including this mid-18oos figure carved by the Yoruba people of Nigeria, at African Art through August 17. SECOND IMPRESSION ...

Forget jaws, now it's ... brains! Great white sharks are typecast, say experts. The creatures are socially sophisticated and, yes, smart.
June 1, 2008... IN THE MURKY PREDAWN LIGHT, our speedboat hurdles across Cape Town, South Africa's False Bay. A fierce wind whips the seas, pitching our 26-foot craft and sending an eerie scream across the white-tipped waves. We are hoping to come face to face...

The brink of war: one hundred fifty years ago, the U.S. Army marched into Utah prepared to battle Brigham Young and his Mormon militia.(United States)
June 1, 2008... ON JULY 24, 1847, a wagon rolled out of a canyon and gave Bringbam Young, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his first glimpse of the Great Salt Lake Valley. That swath of wilderness would become the new Zion for the...

Diamonds on demand: lab-grown gemstones are now practically indistinguishable from mined diamonds. scientists and engineers see a world of possibilities; jewelers are less enthusiastic.
June 1, 2008... I'M SITTING IN A FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT OUTSIDE BOSTON that, because of a nondisclosure agreement I had to sign, I am not allowed to name. I'm waiting to visit Apollo Diamond, a company about as secretive as a Soviet-era spy agency. Its address...

Small wonders: Europe's idiosyncratic house museums yield pleasures beyond their size.(Travel narrative)
June 1, 2008... WHAT IS IT ABOUT SMALL, QUIRKY MUSEUMS that makes them so compelling? Perhaps it's because they can be traced to antiquity, when Greco-Roman temples would display both wondrous artworks and pagan relics--the spear of Achilles, Helen of Troy's...

Gregory Crewdson's epic effects: the photographer uses movie production techniques to create "in-between moments." But you'll have to supply the story line.
June 1, 2008... THE PHOTOGRAPH seems utterly serendipitous: a boy stands under a bridge, framed by lush trees, and directs his (and the viewer's) gaze heavenward through backlit fog toward some unseen attraction. But nothing has been left to chance. The...

Conquer the world through a unique global perspective: understand the big picture of world history From a multi-award winning historian.(Peter N. Stearns)
June 1, 2008... Think of the construction of the great pyramids of Egypt, or the development of democratic rule in ancient Greece. Recall the innovations of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment--the remarkable flowering of drama and the arts, and...

Moses at the bat: in the big inning ...(THE LAST PAGE)(baseball)
June 1, 2008... WHILE BASEBALL is generally considered a "modern" sport, there are references in the Bible that could lead one to deduce that, in fact, there were Giants in those days as well: And Abner said to joab, "Let the young men... arise and play...