If you took a jazz-history course before 2000 or so, you almost certainly listened to The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. Long out of print, the Collection has finally been supplanted
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Extinction ‘Gene’: Why Some Species Are More at Risk
In the tree of life, we often envision evolution working like a patient gardener, pruning species that don’t quite fit, bit by bit. But that’s not how extinction works in practice. Throughout our planet’s history, mass extinction has occurred five times — most recently 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs finally died out — taking out vast amounts of life all at once, usually due to a catastrophic and sudden climatic change
After walking on moon, astronauts trod various paths
It turns out going to the moon is a tough act to follow. For all their Buck Rogers, “Right Stuff,” history-making achievements, the question for many of the 12 astronauts who walked on the lunar surface starting four decades ago ultimately became “one giant leap to where, exactly” “You have your peak experience at 38 or 39,” says space historian Andrew Chaiken, summing up their collective experience, “and [they] have a hard time coming up with something to do for an encore.” Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 16, 1969. Four days later, the first two humans walked on the lunar surface; 10 more Americans followed by the end of 1972
Box Office Weekend: Bully for Bullock
On Father’s Day weekend, while dads were playing catch with their sons and preparing the backyard barbecue, women rushed to theaters to see a romantic comedy with a female star. The Proposal, with Sandra Bullock as a Canadian publishing exec who must marry her harried male assistant in order to stay in the U.S, whacked the opposition and topped the North American box office.
Box Office Weekend: Pixar’s Formula Delivers Again As Up Flies High
To win a summer weekend, a movie usually needs a star name or an action-film punch, or to be a sequel to or the remake of a blockbuster. Except, that is, for any new Pixar release. Rising on the propulsion of a brand name known for quality entertainment, the studio’s tenth animated feature, Up, surpassed most predictions by earning $68.2 million this weekend, according to official projections.
No need to Google ‘Engelberth’ — she’ll be on the home page
One of the perks of using search engine Google’s home page is checking out the frequently changing seasonal, current-event, and holiday-inspired "doodles" used for the logo. Soon the work of 12-year-old Christin Engelberth will occupy the Google spotlight to be viewed by millions of online searchers worldwide
‘Angels & Demons’ summons a $48 million bow
Ron Howard’s "Angels & Demons" soared to a $48 million opening this weekend, narrowly edging out a stellar $43 million second-week performance by "Star Trek," according to estimates by Hollywood.com Box Office. While hardly miraculous, Angels’ solid bow is the second-best opening of Tom Hanks’ career, behind “The Da Vinci Code’s” $77.1 million debut in 2006. Despite receiving better reviews than its predecessor, ‘Angels’ was widely expected to fly lower than ‘Da Vinci’ on account of the cooled-off controversy over the religious subject matter in Dan Brown’s novels
Sale fails to bail out last Titanic survivor
The last living survivor of the Titanic earned only a small fraction of what auctioneers hoped to raise when she sold her final remaining mementos of the doomed ship to pay nursing home bills. The 17 items belonging to 97-year-old Millvina Dean sold for about $8,000 on Saturday, according to auctioneer Alan Aldridge — not enough to pay for two months at her nursing home.
Orion space capsule previewed on National Mall
It looked as if a spaceship had landed on the National Mall on Monday as NASA showed off a mockup of its new Orion crew module. Before the next U.S. astronauts go to the moon — and maybe eventually to Mars — NASA scientists want to make sure they can return safely
War message found inside Lincoln’s watch
A long-hidden message has been discovered inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch, the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History announced Tuesday. Watchmaker Jonathan Dillon was repairing Lincoln’s watch in April 1861 when he heard about the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and wrote a short message on the metal inside the watch, the Smithsonian said. There it remained, unseen for almost 150 years, it said