LINKS - January 5th, 2022
1After a week off, welcome back to LINKS — my attempt to provide Rhapsody readers with five interesting stories that tell us something about what it means to be human. LINKS is published every Wednesday. Have a link you want to share? Drop it in the comments.
How four women revolutionized ethics
By Benjamin J.B. Lipscomb, iai News
“The men who dominated British philosophy from the 1920s to the 1950s all agreed: there is a strict dichotomy between facts and values. The world itself contains only facts, values arise only from our own subjective judgements. But four brilliant women philosophers disagreed. Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch thought the image of the world devoid of value was wrong. They would go on to change the field of moral philosophy forever, writes Benjamin J.B. Lipscomb.”
Italy welcomes home trafficked antiquities from US museums
By Colleen Barry, Associated Press
“Italy’s culture minister on Thursday welcomed the return of 201 prized antiquities valued at over 10 million euros ($11 million) that had been located in prestigious U.S. museums and galleries after being illegally trafficked in recent decades.”
Webb telescope blasts off successfully — launching a new era in astronomy
“The James Webb Space Telescope — humanity’s biggest gamble yet in its quest to probe the Universe — soared into space on 25 December, marking the culmination of decades of work by astronomers around the world. But for Webb to begin a new era in astronomy, as many scientists hope it will, hundreds of complex engineering steps will have to go off without a hitch in the coming days and weeks.”
Remembering the Racist History of ‘Human Zoos’
By Farah Nayeri, The New York Times
“To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the tragedy that was the Tervuren exhibition, the museum that King Leopold built in that same park — which recently rebranded as the Africa Museum — has put on a show titled “Human Zoo: The Age of Colonial Exhibitions,” running through March 6. It is a meticulously documented survey of the many exhibitions of human beings that took place worldwide from the early 1800s to the mid-1900s.”
Arctic hunter-gatherers were advanced ironworkers more than 2,000 years ago
"Hunter-gatherers who lived more than 2,000 years ago near the top of the world appear to have run ironworking operations as advanced as those of farming societies far to the south.”
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I originally had January 5th, 2021. In the future, I will remember what year it is.