Latest news with #SmithsonianMagazine
Time of India
5 days ago
- Time of India
Beyond visa regimes...
Beyond visa regimes... It's not just humans, animals and birds travel the world, navigating hard circumstances with breathtaking abilities. Africa's wildebeest move annually over 1,000 miles, wintering in Tanzania's Serengeti, leaving for Kenya's Masai Mara in spring, returning in November. Wildebeest travel in herds of over one million, deriving courage from numbers, facing terrifying crocodiles and lions along the way. Leatherback sea turtles are the ultimate 'foodies' — loving jellyfish, they travel between tropical beaches for prey, often swimming over 10,000 miles. Leatherbacks off North America's Pacific Coast swim up to Indonesia — one called ' Yoshi ' even travelled 22,000 miles. Guided by the sun, shoreline cues, tides and a special magnetic compass, many famously arrive to nest at the very same beach they were born on before taking off again. Delicate dragonflies are hardy travellers, flying twice as far as Monarch butterflies. Millions fly from south India to Africa, crossing 18,000 miles, while others travel from Canada to the West Indies. Night-time travellers, they follow songbird migration patterns, chasing the Indian monsoon to showers in Africa — remember them the next time you're enjoying some rain! Research: Smithsonian Magazine , BBC , National Geographic
Miami Herald
05-06-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
10 destinations across the US for car enthusiasts to add to their bucket list
They move us through the world, but automobiles play an even more significant role in our daily lives and culture. More than simply a mode of transportation, a car can be a form of self-expression, a marker of social and economic status, and a reflection of the times. Dating back to the 15th century when Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci was creating designs and models for the world's first self-propelled vehicle, the automobile has a rich history that can't be traced to a single inventor or point in time. From steam, electric, and gasoline vehicles, as well as countless styles, makes, and models-the world has seen many iterations of the car. They've played a pivotal role in shaping American culture and have particularly been used as forms of self-expression and a way to build camaraderie and belonging in communities of color. A quick drive through predominantly Latino, Black, or Japanese American communities in Los Angeles will open your eyes to a world of elaborate paint jobs and the over-the-top hydraulics of the lowrider car clubs that have served as a cultural touchstone. Smithsonian Magazine tracks lowriding in L.A. to the 1940s when car culture began developing in the U.S., particularly in Southern California where people were adapting to a "postwar urban landscape," in which cars were more necessary to get around broadening cities. But the Latino community and their lowriders-typically consisting of Chevrolet Impalas, old school Fords, and vintage Cadillacs, among other types of cars-isn't the only prominent car subculture around. Japanese American auto enthusiasts have also played pivotal roles within the car scene since the 20th century, especially in Southern California. In Los Angeles around the 1970s, Japanese American cruisers would roll out their freshly detailed vehicles and descend on the annual Nisei Week Festival, according to the Japanese American National Museum. Cars have not only helped us go from point A to point B, but they have been cultural touchstones in society, which is why car-centric destinations may also provide unique insight into the history and making of the United States of America. To help car enthusiasts, CoPilot scoured news articles, tourism sites, social media platforms, and the web to compile this list of travel destinations for people who love cars. Admission prices are subject to change, so please check their websites for the latest information. Head over to Reno to peruse through a collection of more than 200 cars at the National Automobile Museum, displayed amid lifelike facades and artifacts from their respective time periods. Recognized as one of the 10 best automobile museums in the U.S. by Galerie magazine, the Reno car museum opened up in 1989 from the seed of gaming mogul Bill Harrah's car collection. Split into four galleries, the museum features cars built in the 1890s and onward. Car lovers will get a glimpse of different exhibits, including celebrity automobiles owned by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and John F. Kennedy. Exhibits include the 1907 Thomas Flyer car, which won a race from New York to Paris in 1908, and a medley of speedy cars that have raced competitively on places like the roads of Mexico and the manicured tracks of Indianapolis. Admission costs $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, and $10 for youth. The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum is a hidden gem you won't want to miss. The museum, which boasts over 130 antique, vintage, and hot rods, is a one-of-a-kind experience as you can actually sit inside some of the classic beauties on display. If that's not enough, the museum hosts weekly Sunday Rides where they are able to ride alongside the museum's drivers around town. Car lovers can also rent a vintage automobile from the museum for film shoots, photo shoots, weddings, or private events. Admission or suggested donations to the museum are also fairly affordable at $5 for children over 10, seniors for $10, and adults for $15. Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, opened in December 2021 and has since drawn flocks of car lovers from around the world to ogle at the four-wheeled beauties housed in here. Located on a nearly 40-acre property, the Savoy Automobile Museum features four galleries for temporary exhibitions and a fifth gallery for its permanent holdings. Called the Savoy Collection, the permanent collection houses a 1932 Buick Model 67, a 1939 Lincoln Zephyr, a 1955 Willys Bermuda, and a 1967 AMC Marlin, among others. Other rotating exhibitions through 2024 include the evolution of Bigfoot, an automobile that started life as a 1974 Ford F-250 pickup and eventually morphed into other large-size creations; an exhibit on Tatra, a Czech vehicle manufacturer founded in 1850, produced in collaboration with the Lane Motor Museum in Tennessee; and a showcase of TV producer Bryan Fuller's unique custom car and motorcycle builds over 20 years. The one-story Savoy Automobile Museum, which easily accommodates wheelchairs, costs $17 for general admission and $7 for youth. Over the beautiful coast of Monterey County in California, automobile fans gather each year for the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Since 1950, the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance has been a highlight. It was first a social event associated with the Pebble Beach Road Races, which ended in 1956. Today, it is a flagship event of Pebble Beach Automotive Week. During the event, car collectors gather on the 18th hole of the Pebble Beach Golf Links and vie for the title of Best of Show. Judges critique their vehicles based on elegance, technical merit, and history. Other events and showcases on the grounds include the Pebble Beach Motoring Classic and the Pebble Beach Retroauto. The Pebble Beach Motoring Classic is an annual road trip of about 1,500 miles as proud car owners drive down the Pacific coast to finish at the Concours d'Elegance. Meanwhile, the Pebble Beach Retroauto is a show of collectibles and memorabilia for past auto eras, as well as art and luxury items. Tickets for the event are available months in advance but prices are typically close to $500 and increase closer to the event date. The Martin Auto Museum in Glendale, Arizona, was founded in 2005 by owner Mel Martin, an expert mechanic who can also fix the cars in the collection. The museum features over 160 vehicles and hosts a large collection of auto memorabilia, antique gas pumps, and signage. Its building also has three rooms for special events. Events booked will have access to the museum's carousel, game room, and outdoor patio. Considered a nonprofit organization, museum tickets are $15 for general admission, $5 for youth, and $12 for seniors. Located in Los Angeles along Miracle Mile, the Petersen Automotive Museum is just as stunning and grand outside as it is inside, where it displays over 400 vehicles. One of the world's largest automotive museums, it features over 100,000 square feet of space. It chronicles the evolution of automotive engineering achievements and its impact on American culture over the past 120 years. Whether you're into vintage and old school cars, are more of an Ecto-1 aficionado, or prefer the big bucks cars like Ferrari and Bugatti, there's something at this museum for everyone. Museumgoers can view different iterations of Teslas to date, famous cars from film and television like the 1989 Batmobile, and Porsche cars from the 1950s onwards. Admission costs $21 for adults, $19 for seniors, $13 for youth aged 12 to 17, and $12 for youth aged 4 to 11. More experience-oriented travelers who prefer being behind the wheel may consider the Bonneville Salt Flats International Raceway in Tooele County, Utah. The flats formed thousands of years ago when Lake Bonneville covered most of Utah. As the large lake drained, it left the Great Salt Lake by Salt Lake City and the Bonneville Salt Flats behind. The Salt Flats were a hard surface that went on for miles, perfect for racing, according to Autoweek. Vehicles on the flats could reach up to 600 miles per hour. In recent years, however, the salt on the flats has been reduced to a fraction of the thickness it was at its peak. Consequently, the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association has canceled its World of Speed event two consecutive years since 2022. However, if you're in the area, people can still scope out the area and imagine the cars racing on the Salt Flats. Ready for an adventure that'll last more than a few hours at a museum? Buckle up for Land Rover's Rock Crawl in Utah. Expert Land Rover instructors will guide you through an incredible Moab desert landscape as you partake in desert off-roading from behind the wheel of Land Rover vehicles. The four-day excursion begins with a stay at the Red Cliffs Lodge, where you'll meet others who have signed up for the same adventure. Over the next two days, explorers will see breathtaking rock formations and sloping rock layers that will test their driving skills. The final day is for rest. Explorers can trade wheels for horseback-or a bit of TLC. Over 300 award-winning and historic vehicles dating back from 1909 are on view at Klairmont Kollections Automotive Museum in Chicago. The museum was founded by World War II veteran and entrepreneur Larry Klairmont, whose passion for cars started as early as 5 years old. Some vehicles on view are a 1906 American Motors Tourist and a 1924 Pierce-Arrow Series 33. Nestled halfway between Chicago O'Hare Airport and downtown, the car museum is ideal for travelers visiting out of town and locals looking to explore their backyard. Adult entry costs $21.95 and youth tickets $15. Much like many car museums, LeMay - America's Car Museum began as Harold and Nancy LeMay's personal collection, which eventually grew to 2,400 vehicles. Harold LeMay, founder of Washington state's largest trash removal companies, generously opened his collection to the public once a year, drawing as many as 10,000 people even without advertising. After his passing in 2000, plans were made for the 165,000-square-foot museum, which opened in 2011. MSN named the attraction one of the world's 10 best automotive museums. The museum includes exhibitions on NASCAR history, custom coaches from the 1930s, and British cars that came to the United States from World War II through the 1960s. Adults pay $24.50 for admission, seniors $22.50, and youth $17.50. Story editing by Carren Jao. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. This story was produced by CoPilot and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker. © Stacker Media, LLC.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Scientists stunned after rare species makes historic return to former habitat: 'It's hard to describe the feeling'
After making a historic comeback to the wild last year, the Guam kingfisher seems to be adjusting well to its new habitat. According to Smithsonian Magazine, scientists discovered nests with eggs on Palmyra Atoll, the kingfishers' home for the time being. Martin Kastner, a biologist who worked on the reintroduction project, told Public Radio Guam why this was so monumental. "These birds were raised in captivity until last year," he said of the kingfishers, which had been extinct in the wild since 1988. "Now they're foraging, nesting and even laying eggs on their own. It's an incredible step forward." This is a step forward not only for the kingfishers but also for the entire planet — humans included. Every species plays a key role in maintaining biodiversity. Without a variety of life, ecosystems can get thrown out of balance, depleting natural resources such as fresh water, lumber, and medicines that humans rely on. The Guam kingfishers' return is a definite cause for celebration. Kastner shared in an ecstatic Instagram post that three mated pairs are currently incubating eggs, with a fourth showing signs that an egg might be on the way. In the fall, nine more kingfishers will be released onto Palmyra Atoll, with the long-term goal of reintroduction to their native habitat of Guam. Such a goal is not completely unprecedented. A South African family rewilded 67,000 acres of farmland, reintroducing big cats to the area for the first time in decades. In Saudi Arabia, the Persian onager was reintroduced to the wild after a century of absence from the country. With conservationists' continued dedication, there's hope for the Guam kingfisher yet. As Kastner wrote on Instagram about the newly discovered eggs, "It's hard to describe the feeling at that moment, when decades of expectation and effort by zookeepers, biologists, administrators, and most importantly the people of Guam, coalesce in an instant of joy and hope." Should the U.S. invest in building more wildlife overpasses? Absolutely Depends on how we do it Depends on where we do it Nope Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Business Mayor
13-05-2025
- General
- Business Mayor
The Adobe Revival Is Here
It looked like a bucket brigade in the desert: a line of adobe builders passing 35-pound sun-dried bricks from one person to the next, hoisting them onto a scaffolding deck and setting them into the western wall of a house made of mud. The labor continued for hours on a dusty lot of a small college campus in northern New Mexico. It was hard work: more grueling than a daylong boot camp at your local gym. But no one here was complaining. 'It's therapeutic,' says Stephanie Camfield, a clinical social worker whose unofficial job on the project is 'mix master,' creating a mortar of clay, sand, and water that spun like bread dough inside a giant KitchenAid. 'It's about community and rhythm, feeling the sun move across the sky.' In 2010, Smithsonian Magazine predicted the revival of adobe construction, when it listed mud building as Number One among the '40 things you need to know about the next 40 years.' Today, that prediction is coming true—largely because adobe construction isn't only energy efficient and locally sustainable; it's fireproof. 'It's a renewable resource, it's a gift from the mountains,' says Jake Barrow, a historic preservationist who oversees the adobe demonstration house now under construction. The work is being done under the auspices of Cornerstones, a Santa Fe nonprofit that helps communities preserve their historic structures and keep traditional building methods alive. Scaffolding is added to an adobe structure, the focus of a recent workshop by New Mexico nonprofit Cornerstones. The 850-square-foot house on the edge of a struggling town in rural New Mexico—the Las Vegas you've never heard of—is a showcase for adobe in a burning world. In recent years, architects, engineers, and policy wonks from the likes of New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Syria have descended on New Mexico to study the revival of traditional earthen architecture. In exchange, they share the innovations that are emerging in their corners of the globe. Read More Midjourney Prompts for Website Design Inspiration The use of earth as a building material is as old as civilization. Its construction was traditionally a communal experience, with family and friends engaged in the making of bricks, the raising of walls and rafters (called vigas in the Southwest), and the singular skill of applying the plaster — a task typically left to women known as enjaradoras. Though Americans recognize the style as quintessential to the desert Southwest and the missions of California, there is not an inhabited part of the world without a history of earthen construction. Germany's stringent building codes now allow for up to six-story adobe buildings; schools, office buildings, and apartment buildings are rising from bricks made solely of mud and sand. The country's standards—all 250 pages—have been translated into English, due to overwhelming international interest, and will be available this summer. Until recently, California effectively banned adobe construction due to the risk of earthquakes. That longstanding policy now faces growing scrutiny: After 16,000 homes, buildings, and schools in Los Angeles burned to the ground in January, some property owners are looking to rebuild with fire-resistant materials. In response, officials have signaled a cautious openness to adobe, which, when exposed to intense heat, vitrifies and becomes firebrick. A formwork of adobe bricks lays in the sun to dry. A student working on the house pours water into cracks to seal the bricks. Another student trowels mud across a brick before placing another one, which will be leveled to the height of the pink string. Ben Loescher, a Los Angeles architect, has been working to change the nation's building codes since 2008. Two years ago, he obtained a permit for a legal adobe house in Pioneertown, a high desert community in San Bernardino County that was originally developed as an 1880s movie set for Hollywood Westerns. 'Now I'm concentrating on changing the codes and building up the ecosystem,' says Loescher. 'My end goal is not to build adobe homes per se, but to make it so everyone can do it.' Read More How Design works at Supabase Demand is such that he now fields a weekly call with 20 architects, engineers, and contractors across California and the Southwest, all of whom are poised to take advantage of Los Angeles's quest to rebuild. Jim Hallock, a Texas contractor, is one of them. 'I would be dumbfounded if they ever let anyone build out of wood in Los Angeles anymore,' says Hallock, who has already begun moving two hydraulic presses, a mixer, rollers, and block machines to Southern California. 'We're not fire resistant, we're fire proof. You can't burn an earth block.' There are other benefits. To hear evangelists tell it, there's a sense of being embraced by the elements in an adobe house. The air is sweet; the thick walls breathe, keeping the house cool in summer and warm in winter. Lisa Morey of Nova Terra, an earthen masonry manufacturer in Colorado, recalls the first time she ever slept inside an adobe house in New Zealand. 'I still love the simplicity of it,' she says. 'I liken it to wines that are made in certain vineyards. The bricks will have slightly different colors. My bricks are more peachy tan, because of the red clay soil here.' 'My end goal is not to build adobe homes per se, but to make it so everyone can do it.' —Ben Loescher, architect Morey's business today is as much about education as production. She owns a lot filled with enough mixers and compressors to produce half a million mud blocks a year. Her company, a start-up, is already shipping blocks to Utah, Missouri, California and beyond. She says she recently fielded inquiries from a national insurance company, curious to hear about adobe's fire-resistant quality. Read More This European Tiny Home Builder Has Its Sights Set on America In times of disaster and uncertainty, there's always been a renewal of interest in earthen construction, according to Ronald Rael, a visual artist and architect at the University of California Berkeley. Rael is the author of several books on adobe houses; his website, is regarded as a clearing house for information about earth building. 'We as human beings invented this construction 10,000 years ago and it's still responsive today,' says Rael, who produces adobe extrusions from a 3D printer. He likens the process to squeezing mud out of a tube of toothpaste: 'I'm skipping the entire mud brick making process, which can take up to weeks or months. I'm going straight to wall construction.' In March, he created Adobe Oasis, an art installation of ribbed earthen passageways—adobe walls that are 10-inches thick—at Desert X, an outdoor exhibition of contemporary art in California's Coachella Valley. A traditional technique, stacking bricks this way allows them to dry properly, and if it rains, lets water naturally run off. Forty miles away, one of Ben Loescher's clients is singlehandedly building the first permitted adobe house to rise in California since 2008. To make his dream happen, Rex Edhlund, 60, a former publisher and graphic designer from San Diego, is erecting a 900-square-foot house out of 7,500 bricks—with his own hands. Even so, he says, the most challenging part of the project was getting the approval from San Bernardino County. It took him and Loescher 17 months to get the permit approval. When it came, the onetime publisher still wasn't able to obtain a mortgage. 'This ancient construction is considered cutting edge so I couldn't get a construction loan,' he laughs. 'I ended up being the test-pilot on what is the first fully-permitted, legal adobe in San Bernardino County in years,' Edhlund says. 'It changed my life in many, many ways. Now, I'm hand-building the house. And the building is going to be the easy part.' Related Reading: READ SOURCE businessmayor May 12, 2025
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio economists: Cutting library funding will reduce ‘human capital,' hurt the economy
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways PARMA HEIGHTS, OH — JANUARY 26: Ukrainians Marta and Taras Chaban who fled the violence of the war pose for a portrait at the library where they take English classes twice a week, January 26, 2023, at the Cuyahoga County Public Library - Parma Heights Branch, in Parma Heights, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal) A panel of economists overwhelmingly said that if federal and state cuts to public library funding become reality, it will harm 'human capital' — knowledge and skill that can be used as an economic resource. A smaller majority said it would also reduce the state's economic output. The budget proposed by the Republican-controlled Ohio House would spend almost $91 million less on public libraries than the draft proposed by Gov. Mike DeWine, reports the Ohio Library Council. 'Additionally, the Ohio House changed how library funding is allocated,' the library council said last month. 'Instead of receiving 1.7% of the state's General Revenue Fund (GRF)—as established in permanent law—the Public Library Fund (PLF) would become a line-item appropriation. This change could put future library funding at greater risk, as line-item appropriations are more vulnerable to elimination.' In addition, a group led by Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has moved to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal grant-making agency with a budget of $290 million a year. Benjamin Franklin in 1731 'invented the library as we know it,' Smithsonian Magazine reported last year. That's when he founded the Library Company of Philadelphia, which was cheap enough for average people to join and improve themselves. Franklin himself was self-taught and would go on to be the most famous American in the world. He knew that access to books and other materials had vast potential as an improving, democratizing force. 'These libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans,' Smithsonian Magazine quoted Franklin as saying. And they 'made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In 1833, the first completely tax-supported library opened in New Hampshire. Between 1886 and 1919, industrialist Andrew Carnegie put up money to open more than 1,600 public libraries, then nearly half of the free public libraries in the United States. More than 100 of the Carnegie libraries opened in Ohio. 'A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people,' the Ohio History Connection quotes Carnegie as saying. 'It is a never failing spring in the desert.' As did Franklin, Carnegie believed that public libraries were fundamental to a functioning democracy. 'There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the free public library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration,' he said. Not able to afford college, future President Harry Truman was a voracious reader of American history. He later claimed that by the time he was 14, he had read every book in the Independence, Mo., Public Library. 'Not all readers become leaders,' Truman said. 'But all leaders must be readers.' In 2025, public libraries offer more than books. They're an important economic resource, especially for underserved Americans, the American Library Association said last month. 'Public libraries are essential infrastructure in every American community, and that especially is so during times of economic uncertainty,' the group said. 'The elimination of federal funding for public libraries will be felt in every community across the country, and particularly in rural areas. Public libraries provide people with job skills training, entrepreneurship support, homeschooling and education materials, and access to food services that are at risk without federal funding. As many people face job reductions and layoffs, there is an increased need for the services libraries provide to help people improve workforce skills.' In Ohio, Scioto Analysis put several questions about library funding to a panel of 14 economists. Asked if 'cutting funding from Ohio's public libraries will reduce human capital development of Ohio residents,' 11 said it would, one said it wouldn't and two were uncertain. In the comments section of the survey, Kevin Egan of the University of Toledo spoke of weekly library visits with his kids. 'Every time we went to the public library it was full of citizens utilizing its resources: many different types of human capital development beyond just reading, including public access to computers for online job applications and resume preparation; study rooms for students to prepare for their classes and do homework, helpful staff to locate whatever you are interested in learning,' Egan wrote. The only economist who said cutting library funding would not sap human capital was David Brasington of the University of Cincinnati. 'Other sources of information have made libraries redundant or replaced them,' he wrote. A strong majority of the economists also agreed that 'cutting funding from Ohio's public libraries will reduce statewide economic output in the long run.' Nine agreed, two disagreed and three were uncertain. 'I'm not clear how much libraries will increase economic output, and it is probably hard to measure, but I'm sure they help at least a little bit,' said Jonathan Andreas of Bluffton University. 'This was one reason Andrew Carnegie spent a large portion of his fortune on libraries.' Brasington strongly disagreed. 'Libraries are increasingly irrelevant in the information age,' he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
