Eideard

Two new bee species shed light on Panama’s history as a land bridge between South and Central America…

The two sister species, one from Coiba Island in Panama and one from northern Colombia, descend from a group of stingless bees that originated in the Amazon and moved north over millions of years, eventually to Mexico.

The bees have a limited migration range, since worker bees must build a new nest before a virgin queen will move in to form a new colony.

“It’s really impossible for them to get across a water barrier,” said David Roubik, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and one of the researchers who discovered the bees. So it must have been a land connection — presumably the Panama isthmus — that allowed for this migration, he said…

Most researchers believe that the Panama land bridge arose about three million years ago from tectonic and volcanic activity, connecting Central America to South America. But Dr. Roubik and his colleagues believe the ancestors of the new bees originated in the Amazon about 22 million years ago and moved north into Central America about 17 million years ago.

The bees, as well as other fossil findings, indicate that there must have been an earlier land connection, Dr. Roubik said. And that connection is millions of years older than previously thought.

“There was an earlier chunk of land that linked Colombia to Costa Rica,” he said. “These are signs of a very old connection.”

I love this stuff. Someday – only in my dreams – there should be a system invented which allows cosmic viewing back in time of a planet’s evolution. Including the flora and fauna. Better than television any day.

High on a rocky ridge in the desert, nestled among the brush, is the topmost part of a clock that has been ticking for thousands of years.

‘In the year 4000, you’ll go see this clock and you’ll wonder, “Why on Earth did they build this?”‘ — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos No one knows who built it, or why. They built it well, and even now it keeps perfect time. All we know of these strange people is that they were obsessed with the future.
Why else would they build something that had no purpose except to mark time for thousands of years?

The rich man is Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, and he has indeed started construction on a clock that he hopes will run for 10,000 years.

For Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, the clock is not just the ultimate prestige timepiece. It’s a symbol of the power of long-term thinking. His hope is that building it will change the way humanity thinks about time, encouraging our distant descendants to take a longer view than we have…

It’s a monumental undertaking that Bezos and the crew of people designing and building the clock repeatedly compare to the Egyptian pyramids. And as with the pharaohs, it takes a certain amount of ego — even hubris — to consider building such a monument. But it’s also an unparalleled engineering problem, challenging its makers to think about how to keep a machine intact, operational and accurate over a time span longer than most human-made objects have even existed.

I’ve been following discussions about building this clock for over a decade. Starting with articles by Danny Hillis and Stewart Brand at the Edge and Wired.

Check out the website. Reflect upon the task. It ain’t Ozymandias – I hope.

The display case at the National Museum of American History holds a section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a tactile reminder of the individual lives lost to the virus.

It also serves as entry into two exhibits that mark the 30th anniversary of the first report on AIDS by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The first exhibit is part of the museum’s “Science in American Life” section and focuses on the early phases of AIDS, from 1981 to 1987, as well as its impact on public health policy and politics. In the second exhibit, display cases in the museum’s Archives Center showcase oral histories and artifacts that attempt to bring attention to AIDS and its human toll.

The images in both exhibits immediately bring to mind the passions and anxieties of the 1980s, as the gay and medical communities grappled with the unknown illness. The government acknowledged the beginnings of the epidemic in June and July 1981, when the CDC reported five cases of pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in Los Angeles and 26 cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma in Los Angeles and New York…

The museum’s Archives Center has collected such totems of the crisis as the Hub Cutter, the mailboxlike receptacle for needles that is now commonplace, education panels that Planned Parenthood used for lectures in schools and anti-gay articles that called AIDS a “gay plague…”

The display includes posters from the movies “Long Time Companion” (1990) and “Philadelphia” (1993), and a videotaped discussion with basketball star Magic Johnson and television host Arsenio Hall.

“We wanted to answer the question: How does popular culture reflect the moment?” said Franklin A. Robinson Jr., a curator with the Archives Center.

Bob Witeck, an activist and co-founder of a communications firm specializing in gay issues, said the Smithsonian observation is timely. “Right now 9/11 has to be explained to younger people — HIV and AIDS far more so.”

My cousin died in 1984. Before the US military “realized” they shouldn’t be so helpful to those dying of this disease. The Navy provided superb care – as well as they were able. They transferred him so he might die with his parents in their home.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

Children of the 1970s will remember this poster. A carefree Farrah Fawcett — all limbs and tan and bouncy bountiful hair — flashing her million dollar smile at the camera. The poster was a staple on walls everywhere…

As of Wednesday, on what would have been her 64th birthday, the poster — along with the original red one-piece Fawcett wore — are part of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s collection…

“They asked her years ago for the bathing suit,” said longtime companion Ryan O’Neal… “So it was always in her plan.”

OK, it’s not Aretha’s hat, but it’s still important news.

Arethra’s hat goes to the Smithsonian

A controversial video artwork that was withdrawn from an exhibition following complaints by a Catholic group and Republican members of Congress will now go on display at the Museum of Modern Art.

Announcing the acquisition, the museum said American artist David Wojnarowicz, who died in 1992, was “one of the most influential artists to have emerged from New York in the 1980s.”

An excerpt from the 13-minute video entitled “A Fire in My Belly” by Wojnarowicz was withdrawn from an exhibition in November at the National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian museum in Washington, after Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, described it as anti-Christian “hate speech…”

House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Eric Cantor also urged the Smithsonian to pull the exhibit.

The Smithsonian’s decision angered many in the art world, who accused it of stifling artistic freedom.

“We endorse the position of the Association of Art Museum Directors, which states that freedom of expression is essential to the health and welfare of our communities and our nation,” the Museum of Modern Art said in an email to Reuters…

“While we expect a range of reactions to the piece, they will not affect the Museum’s decision to display it in what is an appropriate context,” the museum said.

The short answer is – if something manages to offend both the Catholic Church and the Republican Party it can’t be all bad.

I didn’t care much for the longer uncut and silent version work by Wojnarowicz. That’s personal opinion from someone who’s not interested in being an art critic. But, if there ever were two bodies in modern America that make a fetish of censorship they are the Catholic Church and the Republican Party. Good enough reason for a museum chartered to offer the viewing public distinctive examples of contemporary American art to present this artist’s work.

There’s just something about that hat.

The famous hat that Aretha Franklin wore to Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration is now of interest to The Smithsonian Institution.

The Smithsonian Institution has asked Franklin if she would donate the now iconic inaugural hat to the museum to become apart of an exhibit dedicated to Obama’s inauguration.

“I am considering it. It would be hard to part with my chapeau since it was such a crowning moment in history,” said Franklin. “I would like to smile every time I look back at it and remember what a great moment it was in American and African-American history.

I like the hat. I like Aretha Franklin. An AJC reader remarked, “”I bought a hat like Aretha had on Tuesday, and wear it around the house. I swear my TV reception is better!”

NASA scientists developing the next generation of exploration vehicles and heat shields for NASA’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle experienced “Christmas in July” when they uncrated the heat shields used on the Apollo missions some 35 years ago. These shields now are being analyzed to help with the development and engineering process.

NASA scientists and engineers working on the Orion Crew Vehicle System went to the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum. The Garber Facility curators and conservators collect, preserve and restore all things air and space. This includes airplanes, spacecraft, and spacesuits.

“We started working together at the end of June to track down any Apollo-era heat shields that they had in storage,” said Elizabeth (Betsy) Pugel of the Detector Systems Branch at NASA Goddard. “We located one and opened it. It was like a nerd Christmas for us!”

“We are examining the design of the carrier structure (the metal structure that connects the heat shield to the vessel that contains the astronauts) and the heat shield material’s thermal response,” Pugel said.

See. It helps to be a world-class pack rat.