Smithsonian

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Jurassic Park-esque Find: Blood-Filled Mosquito Fossil

But don't expect dinosaurs anytime soon

(Newser) - OK, so the mosquito is only 46 million years old—too recent to have sucked dinosaur blood. But for the first time in history, scientists have found a fossilized skeeter that's still got a belly full of blood, harkening back to the plot of Jurassic Park, the Smithsonian points...

Oprah Donates $12M to Black History Museum

Smithsonian site opens in 2015

(Newser) - Visitors to a coming museum on black history will be able to sit in a theater named after Oprah Winfrey when the site opens in 2015. Reason? Winfrey has donated $12 million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC, reports the Washington Post...

Richard III Had Unpleasant Burial

 Richard III Had 
 Unpleasant 
 Burial 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
May 26, 2013 6:34 AM CDT

Richard III Had Unpleasant Burial

King was given no death shroud, may have been bound

(Newser) - If you thought being found buried under a parking lot was about as unroyal as it could get for King Richard III, think again. In a paper published this week in Antiquity , researchers describe his body as being buried in haste, crammed into a too-small grave that was roughly dug...

Syria's War Triggered by ... Water?

The Tigris-Euphrates Basin is losing a lot of water, and fast

(Newser) - Tucked into a piece on the drastically dropping water levels in the Middle East's Tigris-Euphrates Basin comes this theory: The drop helped spur the Syrian civil war. As Joshua Hammer explains for Smithsonian , a pair of satellites tasked with measuring groundwater found that the basin lost the equivalent of...

Ben Franklin Tried to Change Our Alphabet

His phonetic approach never took off

(Newser) - If Benjamin Franklin were alive today, he'd probably be a dynamite texter. As Smithsonian explains, Franklin once designed a phonetic alphabet for the nation because he thought the one in place was too unwieldy. Alas, it never caught on. Some highlights of his "A Reformed Mode of Spelling,...

Budget Cuts Will Close Some Smithsonian Exhibits

Institution will start rolling gallery closures

(Newser) - Bad news for museum lovers: Budget cuts from Congress will soon reduce the number of free exhibitions on view each day at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough is telling Congress today that the museum complex must reduce its security contract for gallery attendants because of the...

Apollo 11 Engines Pulled From Ocean Floor

Jeff Bezos-funded operation recovers 2 of 5 engines

(Newser) - A year after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos discovered the debris of five Apollo 11 engines , he's recovered two of the massive F-1 engines from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, reports USA Today . The twisted, rusted remains were brought up from 14,000 feet below the surface, but they'...

NYU Loses Years of Cancer Research in Storm

Mice drowned, reagents lost when hospital flooded

(Newser) - New York University researchers lost thousands of lab mice and years of scientific research when Hurricane Sandy hit New York University Hospital. The mice—which had been genetically modified for cancer research and took years to produce—drowned when the hospital flooded, the New York Daily News reports. Many special...

Bird Expert Convicted in Cat Poison Bid

Researcher wrote on the feline menace to birds

(Newser) - A Smithsonian bird researcher has been convicted of animal cruelty after she tried to poison the local cat population. Nico Dauphine, 38, was caught on a security tape standing in front of a bowl of cat food outside a DC apartment building, the Los Angeles Times reports. She said she...

Righty Blogger Infiltrates DC Protest, Ignites Uproar

Spectator pulls writer's claim that he was most effective protester

(Newser) - A right-wing journalist infiltrated the DC protest that ultimately closed the Air and Space Museum this weekend and emerged with the latest scandal to grip the blogosphere: American Spectator writer Patrick Howley wrote that he played the role of agent provocateur, leading the charge against guards at the museum in...

P-Funk Spaceship Lands at Smithsonian

Classic funk stage prop to anchor new museum

(Newser) - The Smithsonian is about to get a whole lot funkier. The Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership is going to anchor the music collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture when it opens in 2015, reports the Washington Post . While not the original, 1,200-pound aluminum spaceship—that...

Farrah's Swimsuit Donated to Smithsonian

Iconic swimwear takes its place in American culture archive

(Newser) - The red swimsuit—you know, that one—worn by Farrah Fawcett on a pinup poster that sold more than 12 million copies in the '70s has been donated to the Smithsonian Institution, the LA Times reports. Ryan O'Neal and Nels Van Patten—a friend who was present when the photo...

Smithsonian Boss: I Regret Yanking Video So Quickly

G. Wayne Clough now says he was too hasty on crucifix film

(Newser) - The head of the Smithsonian said he's now sorry he so quickly yanked a video from a museum exhibit featuring gay artists because of warnings by Republican Party leaders that it could trigger "budgetary consequences." It's "the most painful thing I've ever done," G. Wayne Clough...

Smithsonian Could Lose Funding Over Jesus Video

Warhol Foundation wants video restored

(Newser) - The Smithsonian Institution could lose some of its funding over the uproar that ensued after the National Portrait Gallery removed a controversial video. The video by David Wojnarowicz, featuring ants crawling on a crucifix, was pulled after complaints by the Catholic League and some House Republicans. The Andy Warhol Foundation,...

Smithsonian Exhibit Uproar Shows Homophobia's OK
Smithsonian Exhibit Uproar Shows Homophobia's OK
frank rich
Dec 12, 2010 9:41 AM CST

Smithsonian Exhibit Uproar Shows Homophobia's OK

National Portrait Gallery in throes of old 'culture wars'

(Newser) - The Smithsonian’s removal of a video that showed ants crawling on a crucifix amounts to Washington “gay bashing,” writes Frank Rich in the New York Times . Gay artist David Wojnarowicz's artwork wasn’t taken down because it offended Christians—that was just a “perfunctory cover for...

Ant-Covered Crucifix Video Moves to NYC, Critics Follow

Battle moves from DC

(Newser) - A battle over an ant-covered crucifix has moved to New York City. The Smithsonian bowed to pressure by top Republicans John Boehner and Eric Cantor, and dumped an art exhibit video showing ants crawling over a crucifix. The "Fire in My Belly" exhibit, by artist David Wojnarowicz, who died...

Were 'Hobbit Humans' Eaten by Giant Storks?

Bones of tiny people found in gathering spot of 6-foot birds

(Newser) - The remains of hobbit-sized humans in a gathering area of extinct giant storks is leading scientists to conclude that man may have once been bird food. The carnivorous 6-foot-tall Leptoptilos robustus stork, among the largest bird to ever walk the earth, was likely a "ground-bound hunter, as its bones...

Gallery Pulls Jesus Video After Cantor, Boehner Object

Smithsonian-run museum pressured over 'sacrilegious' image

(Newser) - Bowing to pressure from top Republicans John Boehner and Eric Cantor, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has removed artwork containing a 4-minute video showing ants crawling on a crucifix, CNS News reports. Cantor had demanded the artwork be "pulled," calling it "an outrageous use of taxpayer money...

Up for Grabs: Free* Space Shuttle *$29M Postage & Handling Required

Museums vie for soon-to-be-retired spacecraft

(Newser) - NASA is preparing to give away its space shuttle fleet to institutions willing to cough up $28.8 million per spacecraft for cleaning and transportation. Atlantis will be retired after returning from its final mission today and some two dozen museums and other institutions around the country are vying to...

Gates Donates 'Beer Summit' Handcuffs to Smithsonian

Museum on black history now has them

(Newser) - The "beer summit" is now a little piece of American history. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has donated the handcuffs used to arrest him to the new museum on black history at the Smithsonian. Last summer's arrest set off a racial brouhaha that led to the so-called summit...

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