Smithsonian articles from November 2011

Smithsonian archives from November 2011

Comings and goings: to every thing there is a season.(From the Editor)(Ralph Frammolino on the Aphrodite statue and and his book entitled 'Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the Worlds Richest Museum' )(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... RALPH FRAMMOLINO spent nearly 25 years at the Los Angeles Times, most of them as an investigative reporter. His series for the paper about how the J. Paul Getty Museum built its antiquities collection, written with Jason Felch, was a finalist...

9/11 Lessons.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2011... 9/11 LESSONS FOR SOME REASON JOSEPH Lelyveld cannot connect the dots linking Guantanamo, the Patriot Act, wiretapping and other practices that have helped keep us safe over the past decade. He has come to the conclusion that 9/11 was a...

Finland's teachers.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2011... FINLAND'S TEACHERS OF all the differences between schools in Finland and the United States {"A+ for Finland"}, what impressed this former teacher is that Finland guides its best college graduates to teaching, pays them well and allows them...

Islamic law.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2011... ISLAMIC LAW I THINK Robin Wright's article "The Struggle Within Islam" is correct about young Muslims' desire to modernize their lives. But the fact is many live in countries guided by Shariah law, based on the Koran or the Prophet Muhammad....

Feathered find.(Wild Things LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(fossils of feathered dinosaurs)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... Most of what we know about dinosaurs comes from their fossils. But a University of Alberta research team recently found a different kind of evidence: 11 feathers preserved in amber. The feathers were encased in tree resin about 80 million years...

Dangerous claws.(Wild Things LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(king crabs' claws)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... King crabs have come to the Antarctic shelf. Frigid water kept them away for millions of years, but now the region is warming up, says Craig Smith of the University of Hawaii, who observed the invaders via robotic submarine. The crabs crush sea...

Brainwashed rats.(Wild Things LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(Taxoplasma gondii reproduction)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... To reproduce, the parasite Toxoplasma gondii needs to get from a rat into a cat. It's known that infected rats don't fear the scent of cat urine. New research led by Stanford University adds to the bizarre tale: When infected male rats smell...

Snail express.(Wild Things LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(horn snails)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... When Central America rose from the ocean three million years ago, horn snails divided into two species, one in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute scientists and others collected snails from 29 locations...

Observed: spotted hyena crocuta crocuta.(Wild Things LIFE AS WE KNOW IT)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... HEEDS: The whoops of intruding hyenas when they are played through loudspeakers in the wild, at least in a study by Michigan State University researchers. COUNTS: The number of hyenas on the recording, according to the study, which is the...

The man behind the masks: Ralph Eugene Meatyard had a strange way of getting his subjects to reveal themselves.(Indelible Images)
November 1, 2011... ONE DAY IN 1958 OR '59 5 Ralph Eugene Meatyard walked into a Woolworths store in Lexington, Kentucky. An optician by trade, Meatyard was also a photographer--a "dedicated amateur," he called himself--and he kept an eye out for props. He might...

Plains speaking: a New Yorker gets a new perspective on the prairie.(My Kind of Town LINCOLN, NEBRASKA)(Essay)
November 1, 2011... THE THING YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT LINCOLN is that it falls under the radar. Unless you're from Nebraska--or possibly South Dakota or Iowa--it's probably not a place you'd think of visiting, much less moving to. No matter how unaffordable...

160 years ago hast seen the white whale?(This Month in History)(Herman Melville's novel entitled 'Moby Dick')(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... Herman Melville, 32, publishes Moby-Dick in the United States on November 14, 1851. He grounds his tale of Captain Ahab, whose obsessed pursuit of the "accursed" white whale dooms the Pequod, in his own experiences aboard a whaling vessel and...

40 years ago leader of the pack.(This Month in History)(Mariner 9 exploration)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... Six months after its launch, Mariner 9 reaches Mars on November 14, 1971, narrowly beating two Soviet missions to be the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. For 349 days the unmanned orbiter relays data about the composition and...

150 years ago glory, glory, hallelujah.(This Month in History)(song entitled 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic')(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... Inspired by a foray to review Union troops near Washington, D.C. in November 1861, author and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe writes the poem that becomes known as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" Awakened in the night by an "attack of...

200 years ago tall in the saddle.(This Month in History)(1811 Battle of Tippecanoe)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... In the early hours of November 7,1811, members of a Native American confederation in Indiana Territory, united by Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa to defend against increasing white settlement, attack an army led by territory governor...

40 years ago one jump ahead.(This Month in History)(Northwest Orient Flight 305 hijacking)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... A man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacks Northwest Orient Flight 305 on November 24,1971, demanding and receiving $200,000 and four parachutes. When he jumps out of the 727 over Washington State and disappears into a dark and stormy night, the...

Top ten books lost to time.(NOW ON OUR WEBSITE Smithsonian.com)(Brief article)(List)
November 1, 2011... 1. Margites HOMER 2. Lost Books of the Bible 3. Cardenio WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 4. Inventio Fortunata AUTHOR UNKNOWN 5. Sanditon JANE AUSTEN 6. The Isle of the Cross HERMAN MELVILLE 7. The Poor Man and the Lady THOMAS HARDY 8....

73 million.(NOW ON OUR WEBSITE Smithsonian.com)(California's shark fin soup bill)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... That's the upper estimate of sharks that fishermen worldwide kill annually to provide fins for shark fin soup. The lower estimate is 26 million. California lawmakers passed a bill banning the Chinese delicacy--the fourth state in the Union to do...

Change in the wind.(NOW ON OUR WEBSITE Smithsonian.com)(a new kind of turbine from Japan)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... Recently there was news from Japan about a new kind of turbine. Called a wind lens, it has a brim that encircles the turbine. Its inventor says it can generate two to three times more energy than the conventional model. Read more:...

T.R.'s gridiron campaign.(NOW ON OUR WEBSITE Smithsonian.com)(Theodore Roosevelt on college football)(Brief article)
November 1, 2011... "Football is on trial," Roosevelt declared. "Because I believe in the game, I want to do all I can to save it. And so I have called you all down here to see whether you won't all agree to abide by both the letter and spirit of the rules, for...

Flare-ups November 1861: as generals come and go, tempers and fields burn.(The Civil War 150 YEARS AGO)
November 1, 2011... ON NOVEMBER 1, GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN assumed the role of general in chief of the Union armies, a post voluntarily vacated by the ailing 75-year-old Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, who had been a target of McClellan's barbs in the press. The promotion...

Simple pleasures.(FROM THE CASTLE)(art exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden)
November 1, 2011... IN SCIENCE AND IN LIFE, Albert Einstein recommended simplicity. His wisdom can be seen at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. A series of contemporary art exhibitions there illustrates how artists have counteracted...

Matchmakers: at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, conservationists explore ways to encourage endangered whooping cranes to make whoopee.(BEHIND THE SCENES)
November 1, 2011... "You see how his nose is up in the air and he is walking a little more stiff-legged," Megan Brown is saying while watching a video on her laptop. "That's called marching." On her screen, the larger of two whooping cranes flaunts his outstretched...

Swan song: the final flight of a World War II biplane evokes the exploits of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen.(THE OBJECT AT HAND)
November 1, 2011... PARKED ON THE TARMAC at Lincoln, California's municipal airport, the open-cockpit biplane looked as if it had just rolled off the assembly line, circa 1944. This past July, the World War II-era two-seater's pilot and owner, Air Force Capt. Matt...

Q&A.(CONVERSATION)(Diosa Costello)(Interview)
November 1, 2011... DIOSA COSTELLO was a pioneering performer of music, film and theater who, in 1939, became the first Latina on Broadway. She recently donated 11 costumes from her personal wardrobe to the National Museum of American History. She spoke with the...

What's up.(EDITOR'S PICKS)(art exhibits)(Brief article)(Calendar)
November 1, 2011... AN AFRICAN MELTING POT The Benue River Valley in Nigeria has long been a conduit of cultural exchange between ethnic groups. See the diverse range of carvings, statues and masks (below: Crest Mask, Ochai, early 20th century) created in this...

A goddess goes home: a statue's journey from Sicily to the United States and back again illuminates the ethical pitfalls of acquiring antiquities.(Aphrodite of Knidos)(Sicily, Italy)
November 1, 2011... FROM THE LOOK ON RENZO CANAVESI'S face, our first encounter was not going to end well. The strapping, barrel-chested octogenarian stared down at me from the second-floor landing of his home in the foothills of the Swiss Alps while a dog barked...

Go with the flow: a new exhibition of 19th-century wonders underscores the debt America owes to a single resource: water.(the Great American Hall of Wonders exhibition)
November 1, 2011... At the start of the 19th century, the United States was still a place where many people ate what they grew and many women made the family clothes. But with technological innovations such as the railroad, telegraph and steamboat, the United...

Aftershocks: the toppling of Egypt's government has led to a renewal of violence against the nation's Christian minority.
November 1, 2011... Fakhri Saad Eskander leads me through the marble-tiled courtyard of the Church of St. Mina and St. George in Sol, Egypt. We pass a mural depicting St. George and the Dragon, climb a freshly painted staircase to the roof and gaze across a sea of...

Defending the rhino: as demand for rhino horn soars, police and conservationists in South Africa pit high technology against increasingly sophisticated poachers.
November 1, 2011... Content not available to copyright restrictions.

Shanghai gets super sized: China's leaders once vowed to make the city the "head of the dragon" of new wealth. That projection now seems like an understatement.
November 1, 2011... Content not available to copyright restrictions.

The eyes have it: the lowly potato fed Europe's exploding population and gave rise to modern industrial agriculture. A new best seller dishes the dirt on the tuber that changed the world.
November 1, 2011... Content not available to copyright restrictions.

Guess who came to dinners: a table for one can be the best seat in the house.(The Last Page)
November 1, 2011... I DON'T MIND EATING ALONE WHEN I TRAVEL. I NEVER give a second thought to how it looks or what people might think. Recently, after buying a theater ticket in Times Square, I wandered over to a little restaurant that doesn't cater to the tourist...