Smithsonian articles from November 2005

Smithsonian archives from November 2005

Noxious bogs & amorous elephants: Smithsonian's birth, 35 years ago, only hinted at the splendors to follow.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
November 1, 2005... LOOKING BACK at this magazine's beginnings 35 years ago, I'm struck by just how much of the founding editor's aspirations still apply. Edward K. Thompson, who had retired as editor of the weekly Life, was recruited by the then Secretary of the...

One of a kind: from the beginning, Smithsonian has looked beyond the Institution.(From the SECRETARY)
November 1, 2005... IN SMITHSONIAN'S 35 years the magazine has played a unique role not only in the lives of its readers but also in the affairs of the Smithsonian Institution--and in American journalism. SMITHSONIAN has endeavored to offer perspective on the...

Exercised.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Readers respond to the September issue: JANE ELLIOTT is an American hero ("Lesson of a Lifetime"). It's easy for people to forget the context of the times. African-Americans, who had only recently won the right to eat in any public...

Slavery in Niger.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... MORE THAN 30 years ago, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the northern portion of Chad, I discovered the very things discussed in your article about slavery in Niger, "Born Into Bondage." Slavery has been present in Saharan Africa for centuries....

Biodiesel bargain.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... WHEN "FUEL FOR THOUGHT" went to press, pure biodiesel seemed expensive at $2.50 to $3 a gallon. By September, however, amidst the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, that cost looked like a bargain, compared with petrodiesel prices that climbed...

Get the lead out.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... IT WAS ENCOURAGING to read in Daniel Glick's article, "Back From the Brink," that some species listed as either threatened or endangered are making remarkable recoveries. However, one correction is in order. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...

William Ruckelshaus: first EPA administrator.(WHERE ARE THEY NOW?)(Environmental Protection Agency)(Brief Article)(Biography)
November 1, 2005... WHEN WILLIAM RUCKELSHAUS saw his name listed in Newsweek in the summer of 1970 as a candidate to head the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency, he had never even heard of the EPA. (Officially nominated November 6, Ruckelshaus was...

Cincinnati Reds.(A LOOK BACK AT THE WORLD IN SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE'S FIRST YEAR)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Twenty-two-year-old Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench becomes the youngest man voted Most Valuable Player in the National League November 18. "This is the ultimate honor for me," he tells the Los Angeles Times. Bench was elected league MVP...

An enormous cyclone-driven tidal wave hits the coast of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) November 12, killing at least 150,000.(IN THE NEWS)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... An enormous cyclone-driven tidal wave hits the coast of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) November 12, killing at least 150,000. Help is slow to reach survivors, prompting one of them, 36-year-old Kamaluddin Chodhury, to plead: "I do beg you to...

Forty-year-old Syrian Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Hafez al-Assad leads a military takeover of the government November 13.(IN THE NEWS)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Forty-year-old Syrian Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Hafez al-Assad leads a military takeover of the government November 13. The "modest and soft-spoken" al-Assad, as the New York Times calls him, quickly moves to create a federation with Egypt,...

1970 Grammy Awards.(THE LIST)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Record: "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Simon and Garfunkel Album: Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel Song: "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Simon and Garfunkel New Artist: Carpenters Male Vocalist: "Everything is...

Comings & goings.(A LOOK BACK AT THE WORLD IN SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE'S FIRST YEAR)
November 1, 2005... BORN: Tonya Harding Figure skater November 12 DIED: Charles de Gaulle, 79 Former president of France November 9

New York Times.(A LOOK BACK AT THE WORLD IN SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE'S FIRST YEAR)
November 1, 2005... "Every Jew wishing to be reunited with his family and people in Israel should have the right to leave Russia." --ISRAELI PREMIER GOLDA MEIR ON THE ALLEGED SUPPRESSION OF JEWISH EMIGRATION FROM THE SOVIET UNION TO ISRAEL, IN THE NOVEMBER 17...

A night at the opera: Weegee's wartime snapshot was widely seen as social criticism, but it was, in fact, a farce.(INDELIBLE IMAGES; photojournalist Arthur Fellig)
November 1, 2005... THE CAMERA DOESN'T LIE, people used to say, before they knew better. Arthur Fellig, the Austrian-born photojournalist who clawed his way to New York notoriety in the 1930s and '40s under the name Weegee, liked to dispense that bunkum too. "A...

"Ocian in View! O! The joy": after 4,000 miles and 19 months spent negotiating prairies, mountains and white-water rapids, the corps of discovery finally reaches the Pacific.(200 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH; Lewis and Clark Expedition)
November 1, 2005... ONE AND A HALF YEARS into the expedition, the corps neared the West Coast, reaching the Columbia River estuary on November 7, 1805. November 3, 1805 [Sgt. Patrick Gass] The morning was foggy.... At 9 we proceeded on, but could not see...

Breeding success: novel reproductive strategies developed at the National Zoo may herald a new era in panda conservation.(SCENES AND SIGHTINGS FROM THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUMS AND BEYOND)
November 1, 2005... SURE, the giant panda born this summer at the National Zoo is a celebrity, the roly-poly star of an Internet Panda Cam and the object of a frenzied naming contest. But the little guy is also a symbol of hope, because he was conceived with new...

This month in history: November anniversaries--momentous or merely memorable.
November 1, 2005... 240 YEARS AGO: RIOT ACT The Stamp Act goes into effect in the American Colonies November 1, 1765. Passed in March by Britain to tax documents, almanacs, newspapers, cards and dice in order to pay debts from the French and Indian War, the...

Innovators of our time: we mark Smithsonian's 35th anniversary by revisiting scientists, artists and scholars who've enriched the magazine--and our lives.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... EVERY GENIUS, said the Danish writer Isak Dinesen, is doomed. She meant that geniuses, or those touched with a spark of it, had very little choice in life. Each one, she said, was powerless "in the face of his own powers," compelled to follow a...

Wynton Marsalis: in Katrina's aftermath, the trumpeter has rallied support for his native New Orleans.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... "WE'RE BLUES people. And blues never lets tragedy have the last word." This is an utterly characteristic statement by Wynton Marsalis, the trumpeter, composer and jazz impresario. He spoke those words in a television interview shortly after...

Margaret Burbidge: stars, quasars, supernovae, galaxies--if it's out of this world, she has seen it.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Biography)
November 1, 2005... ONE OF THE MOST important discoveries in modern astronomy was published in the Reviews of Modern Physics in 1957. Astronomers refer to the paper as simply [B.sup.2]FH, from the initials of the authors' surnames. The first B refers to E....

Bill Gates: the king of software takes on his biggest challenge yet.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Biography)
November 1, 2005... AS A FORMER ENGINEER and businessman, I've long admired Bill Gates' innovative entrepreneurship: while we share a high regard for the vision it takes to achieve far-reaching goals, he far surpassed anything I accomplished in engineering and...

Mark Plotkin: an ethnobotanist takes up the cause of rain forest conservation.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... MARK PLOTKIN first stepped into the Amazon jungle in 1978. A college dropout working at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, he had been invited to join an expedition to search for a rare crocodilian. By the time SMITHSONIAN reporter Donald...

Richard Leakey: the leader of the Hominid Gang asks what he can do for his continent.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Biography)
November 1, 2005... AS A CHILD, Richard Leakey spent many hours--too many, in his opinion--broiling in the sunbaked hills of western Kenya while his famous parents, Louis and Mary, picked away at fossils. "I'm afraid I was a whiny child," he says. After one "I'm...

Annie Leibovitz: her elegant portraits take celebrity photojournalism to quirky new heights.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Biography)
November 1, 2005... SOME PEOPLE know how to look good in a photograph. Some do not. Annie Leibovitz makes them all look good: Whoopi Goldberg grinning in a warm milk bath, Demi Moore nude and pregnant, Susan Sontag with skunk-striped hair, shirtless Jerzy...

Clyde Roper: he's spent his life chasing a sea monster that's never been taken alive.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Biography)
November 1, 2005... CALL HIM AHAB. Or call him lucky. While the whale-obsessed captain of the Pequod was done in by the great white sea monster, Clyde F.E. Roper has remained remarkably intact, even as his pursuit of another legendary leviathan has taken him...

Jane Mt. Pleasant: Iroquois tradition plus Western science equals a more sustainable future.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Biography)
November 1, 2005... AMONG THE SIX NATIONS of the Iroquois, corn, beans and squash have been known as the Three Sisters--gifts from the Creator that grew well together and provided nutritional sustenance. Jane Mt. Pleasant might be considered the Fourth Sister. ...

Andy Goldsworthy: using nature as his canvas, the artist creates works of transcendent beauty.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... ON A TYPICAL autumn day, Andy Goldsworthy can be found in the woods near his home in Penpont, Scotland, maybe cloaking a fallen tree branch with a tapestry of yellow and brown elm leaves, or, in a rainstorm, lying on a rock until the dry...

Robert Langridge: his quest to peer into the essence of life no longer seems so strange.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... LAST TIME WE CHECKED in with Robert Langridge, 20 years ago, he was enjoying a measure of fame for pioneering a way to visualize the invisible--the structure and behavior of key biological molecules, such as DNA. The work dazzled scientists,...

Daphne Sheldrick: when feelings of kinship transcend the species boundary.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... MANY OF THE PEOPLE Americans most admire are those who care selflessly for others. We sometimes wonder where their reserves of compassion come from. But truly devoted caregivers have learned a great secret, which is that kindness is replenished...

Julie Taymor: transcending genres, the designer and director creates shamanistic theater.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... WATCH THE OPENING of Disney's Broadway musical The Lion King, and you feel something like a sense of the ecstatic--the ecstatic not just as a state of pleasure or excitement, but the ecstatic in its old, almost archaic sense of being lifted out...

Wendell Berry: a Kentucky poet draws inspiration from the land that sustains him.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... WENDELL BERRY, FARMER AND POET, has lived in sight of the Kentucky River for 40 years, in a landscape where generations of his family have farmed since the early 1800s. The river is probably the only mainstream close to his heart. As a farmer,...

Edward O. Wilson: vindicated for his controversial sociobiology? Yes. Satisfied? Not yet.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... THREE DECADES AGO, Edward O. Wilson underwent a bittersweet transformation: from accomplished-but-not-famous Harvard biologist to famous-but-vilified prophet. The man who had spent much of his career holed up in an office writing monographs and...

John Dobson: come one, come all. Share the sky with the father of sidewalk astronomy.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... AN ELDERLY MAN with a white ponytail lies in wait on a city sidewalk with a small solar telescope specially designed so that a person can view sunspots without damaging the eye. As a group of tourists approaches, he begins to twirl a lariat and...

Mark Lehner: he took the blue-collar approach to the great monuments of Egypt.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... MARK LEHNER has probably done more than anybody to advance our understanding of the ordinary Egyptians who built the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza. That he has never been a conventional Egyptologist may be the reason why. When I...

Sally Ride: a generation later, the first female astronaut is still on a mission.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... SALLY RIDE, the nation's first woman astronaut, no longer flies for NASA, but she has embarked on a mission into territory that is just as mysterious and controversial, and is much closer to home: making sure that girls get to share in the...

Gordon Parks: each day is still too short in the wide-ranging life of the master multitasker.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... AT AN AGE when most men are resting on their laurels, if not simply resting, Gordon Parks has just written yet another memoir (A Hungry Heart) and another illustrated book of poetry (Eyes With Winged Thoughts), both scheduled for publication by...

D.A. Henderson: eradicating one of history's deadliest diseases was just the beginning.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... DONALD AINSLIE HENDERSON, known to his friends as D.A., could never be accused of being wishy-washy. As President Bush's lead expert on bioterrorism--a post to which he was appointed one month after the September 11 terrorist attacks--he used...

Renee Fleming: the soprano is renowned for her beguiling voice and presence.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... FOR WELL OVER a decade now, the American soprano Renee Fleming has enjoyed acclaim for a voice unsurpassed in loveliness. It's produced with a degree of technical assurance rare in any singer, combining a densely luxuriant texture with an...

David Attenborough: the natural history filmmaker has brought serious science to a global audience.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... I WAS DRIVING DOWN a dirt road looking for a sheep ranch on the coast of western Australia, trying to find a place to photograph stromatolites, living reefs of ancient blue-green algae that occur in only a few places on earth. A friend of a...

Tim Berners-Lee: first he wrote the code for the World Wide Web. Then he gave it away.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... THE ORIGINS of great inventions are generally more complicated than they appear. Thomas Edison did not make the first light bulb, nor did Samuel Morse build the first electric telegraph. Yet in the case of the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee,...

James Watson: after DNA, what could he possibly do for an encore?(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... FRANCIS CRICK died in July 2004, age 88. Maurice Wilkins died two months later, age 87. In Stockholm in December 1962, Crick, Wilkins and James Watson had shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery nine years earlier--as...

Wes Jackson: in Kansas, a plant geneticist sows the seeds of sustainable agriculture.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... WES JACKSON is a large man with the metabolism of a hummingbird. This is a good thing, because a commanding physical presence and oodles of restless, probing energy are likely prerequisites for the job Jackson has carved out for himself:...

A one-time only dealer cost vault invitation ... Year 2005 silver eagles: order brand-new 2005 silver eagles today ... at our actual dealer cost $8.65!
November 1, 2005... THESE COINS WILL NOT BE SOLD BY THE U.S. MINT DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLIC. ORDER THEM FROM 1ST AMERICAN RESERVE The Historic High-Flying Silver American Eagles Since 1986, the first year of their issue, the Silver American Eagle series has...

Maya Angelou: by singing of her own hardships, she has given strength to others.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... MAYA ANGELOU'S signature book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, burst upon the American literary landscape in 1969, becoming an immediate bestseller. It has retained its position as a treasured work in the past 36 years, capturing the loyalty...

Yo-Yo Ma: humanitarian, globe-trotting teacher, good sport, ice-dancing fan and heckuva nice guy. Oh, and he plays the cello.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... IF YO-YO MA DIDN'T EXIST, no novelist in the world would have dared invent him. The combination of virtues--musical, intellectual, personal--is simply too implausible. I suppose readers would believe a fictional character who was one of...

Dan Janzen: a butterfly expert wants more people to read the book of life.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... HOW MANY of the trees on your block can you name? How many different kinds are there, in fact? In Daniel H. Janzen's backyard, the 378,000-acre Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica, there are around 3,000 species of...

Ed Bearss: on any battlefield, he strikes the mystic chords of memory.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... ED BEARSS has what might best be called a battlefield voice, a kind of booming growl, like an ancient wax-cylinder record amplified to full volume--about the way you'd imagine William Tecumseh Sherman sounding the day he burned Atlanta, with a...

Brains conquer beauty: scientists break code to create perfect gemstones with even more fire and brilliance than mined diamonds.
November 1, 2005... There is little doubt that a natural mined diamond of top quality is one of the world's most magnificent gems. It is much coveted for its exquisite beauty, but the simple truth is that diamonds are just compressed crystallized carbon. The...

Advertiser directory.(ADVERTISEMENT)(Directory)
November 1, 2005... Travel 1. American Canadian Caribbean Line. Yacht-style exploration of historic waterways. Cruise America by smallship. Memorable camaraderie. Casual. Unique itineraries. www.accl-smallships.com 2. American Cruise Lines. A unique and...

Frank Gehry: the architect's daring, outside-the-box buildings have revitalized urban spaces.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... WHEN THE EXUBERANT, sensuous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, was finished in 1997, its architect ascended like a rocket into international celebrity. Not that Frank Gehry had been unknown. In 1989, he'd won the Pritzker Architecture Prize,...

Janis Carter: the primate who taught other primates how to survive in the wild.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... EVERY GREAT CAUSE has its galvanic moment, when the world finally takes notice. Then comes the hard part--sustaining the commitment long enough to make a real difference. The campaign on behalf of the great apes enjoyed this kind of collective...

Robert Moses: a former civil rights activist revolutionizes the teaching of mathematics.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... ROBERT MOSES finally finds a moment to return a reporter's phone call on a hectic afternoon. He's standing outside a rural grocery store near Beaufort, South Carolina, getting ready to deliver a speech about equal opportunities for...

Maya Lin: the architect melds surface simplicity and underlying intellectual complexity into works of enduring power.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... NEAR THE WIND- and water-swept expanse of a park on the coast of Washington State, energy born in distant storms rises out of the seas to break against the bar of one of the great rivers of North America, the Columbia. In the park there's a...

Love to travel? Love to learn? Take the Smithsonian on your next trip.(ADVERTISEMENT)(Calendar)
November 1, 2005... NORTH AMERICAN JOURNEYS MILITARY HISTORY WITH ED BEARSS FIVE FASCINATING TOURS FOR 2006! Shiloh and Brice's Cross Roads, March 22-26 Legendary Lincoln, March 30-April 5 Vicksburg, April 26-30 Battle of Little Bighorn,...

Douglas Owsley: dead people tell no tales--but their bones do, when he examines them.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... FOR A MAN who has toiled amid some of the most horrific circumstances imaginable, Douglas Owsley remains remarkably enthusiastic about his work. "I love the moments when you come up with something that you're just totally in awe of," he says....

Chuck Close: the artist's oversize canvases reshaped the idea of the portrait.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... WHEN CHUCK CLOSE first moved to New York City in the mid-1960s, he found himself part of an artistic community made up largely of his fellow graduate students from Yale, then, like himself, bent on making careers as artists. At Yale, they had...

Steven Spielberg: a renowned director contemplates the lessons of history.(Smithsonian magazine's 35 who made a difference)
November 1, 2005... BEFORE Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List, before the trio of Oscars, director Steven Spielberg's most impressive work was not an entire film--not Jaws or even E.T.--but the opening 40 minutes of a little-remembered 1987 effort, Empire of...

Holiday gift guide.
November 1, 2005... We stock the latest Birkenstock products and offer expert service by phone or online. Authorized repair shop. Bargains online. Gift certificates for the holidays. Free catalog. 800-451-1459 * www.birkenstockexpress.com Our New Slimline...

After the deluge: as Hurricane Katrina made clear, the lessons of the Mississippi flood of 1927 (which made Herbert Hoover president) have yet to be learned.(PRESENCE OF MIND)
November 1, 2005... IN THE LATTER PART of August 1926, the sky darkened over much of the central United States and a heavy rain began to fall. Rain pelted first Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma, then edged eastward into Iowa and Missouri, then Illinois,...

When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt after the White House.(Book Review)
November 1, 2005... WHEN TRUMPETS CALL: THEODORE ROOSEVELT AFTER THE WHITE HOUSE PATRICIA O'TOOLE SIMON & SCHUSTER, $30 MY MOTHER taught me never to judge a book by its cover. But in the case of Patricia O'Toole's new biography of Theodore Roosevelt...