Connect with us

News

Top Museum In New York Takes Bold Step By Removing Human Remains From Collections

museum

(CTN NEWS) – The American Museum of Natural History in New York has decided to remove all human remains from its display collections.

This decision is based on a reform of the museum’s collection practices, acknowledging that these practices were “deeply flawed.”

The move reflects a growing recognition within the museum community of the need to reassess the ethical implications of displaying human remains, particularly those of Indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups.

The American Museum of Natural History, one of the leading natural history museums in the United States, is planning a comprehensive overhaul of its collection of around 12,000 human remains.

This collection includes the skeletons of indigenous people and enslaved individuals, some of whom were obtained through grave robbing, as well as the remains of New Yorkers collected as recently as the 1940s.

Museum president Sean Decatur emphasized the role of extreme imbalances of power in the creation of human remains collections.

This acknowledgment highlights the historical exploitation and disregard for the rights, cultures, and dignity of the individuals whose remains were collected.

By confronting this history and taking steps to rectify past wrongs, the American Museum of Natural History aims to work toward a more equitable and responsible approach to its collections, one that respects the rights and beliefs of the communities affected by these practices.

Sean Decatur’s statement further acknowledges that many researchers in the 19th and 20th centuries used these human remains collections for the advancement of scientific agendas based on white supremacy.

This involved attempts to identify physical differences among populations that were often misused to justify and reinforce racially discriminatory and harmful beliefs, such as models of racial hierarchy.

By recognizing these deeply flawed practices of the past, the museum is taking a significant step toward addressing historical injustices and rectifying the misuse of human remains for such purposes.

The American Museum of Natural History’s decision to reform its collection of human remains is part of a broader trend in many U.S. medical and anthropological institutions.

Other institutions, like the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, and the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, have also been grappling with similar issues related to their collections of human remains.

Some of these institutions have had to address the problematic nature of their collections, especially those that include skulls and remains of Black and indigenous individuals, and have issued apologies for their past practices.

This reflects a broader reevaluation and reckoning with the ethical and historical implications of collecting and displaying human remains.

The American Museum of Natural History has outlined new policy guidelines, including the removal of human remains from its display collections, improvements in how these remains are stored, and an increased commitment to resources and efforts dedicated to determining the origins and identities of these remains.

These policy changes are part of the museum’s efforts to rectify past collection practices that were deeply flawed and rooted in power imbalances, as well as to acknowledge and address the harmful historical use of human remains in advancing flawed scientific agendas linked to white supremacy and racial hierarchy models.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which has been in place for three decades, mandates that institutions return Indigenous human remains.

However, many institutions have faced challenges in correctly identifying these remains, which has hindered the repatriation process or, in some cases, made it nearly impossible to identify the origins and rightful owners of these remains.

The American Museum of Natural History has successfully repatriated about 1,000 Native American remains, but they still hold 2,200 more.

Efforts to conduct further study to accurately determine the origins and rightful owners of these remains have drawn criticism from various quarters.

Sean Decatur, who became the president of the American Museum of Natural History in April, emphasized the importance of identifying restorative and respectful actions in consultation with local communities as part of the museum’s commitment to address the issues related to human remains in its collection.

Indeed, many of the human remains in museum collections were gathered without the consent of the individuals involved, and they were often used to support discredited scientific theories, including eugenics.

These actions were unethical and have caused significant harm to the communities from which the remains were taken.

The museum’s decision to reassess and reform its collection practices is a step toward acknowledging this historical wrongdoing and taking measures to address it.

The presence of these human remains in the museum’s collection vaults, including the bodies of poor New Yorkers from the 1940s and the bones of Black adults dug up from an enslaved people’s cemetery in 1903, highlights the troubling history of collecting and displaying human remains without consent.

The decision to remove such remains and to improve the practices related to their storage and identification is an important step toward rectifying these past injustices and respecting the dignity of the individuals involved.

President Sean Decatur’s statement about the legacy of dehumanizing Black bodies through enslavement and the continuation of that dehumanization through the scientific use of their remains highlights the deeply troubling and racially biased history of such practices.

Acknowledging this history and taking steps to rectify it are crucial for moving towards a more just and equitable future.

It’s important for institutions like the American Museum of Natural History to engage in a process of reflection, evaluation, and reform when it comes to their collections, especially those that involve human remains.

This shift in their approach to human remains, as well as their commitment to working with communities and addressing past injustices, is a positive step towards a more ethical and responsible management of their collections.

It’s a significant acknowledgment by the museum’s director that the ethical concerns related to the display of human remains outweigh any potential benefits to the goals and narrative of their exhibitions.

This recognition is aligned with a growing understanding of the need to treat human remains with respect, particularly when they are linked to past injustices and flawed scientific practices.

MORE RELATED NEWS:

EU Regulators Delay Approval For Novavax’s Variant-Tailored Covid-19 Vaccine

Ex-F1 Boss Bernie Ecclestone Given Suspended Sentence After Pleading Guilty to Fraud

Another 6.3 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Western Afghanistan, Adding To Recent Tragedies

News

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

Continue Reading

News

2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

trump

Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

Continue Reading

News

The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

SEE ALSO:

Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

Continue Reading

Trending