SCOUTS AT THE COURTHOUSE!

No they’re not in trouble, but in our Summer Scout classes you can find Scouts at the courthouse! For many of the scouts, HMNS Summer Scout classes might be their first trip to see a court proceeding. Both the Citizenship in the Community and Law merit badges attend criminal arraignment cases, which can be for theft, use of illegal substances, but most are for DUI’s.

 5 OF THE MOST MAGICAL OBJECTS IN OUR COLLECTION

Most of the cultures represented in our special exhibit Out of the Amazon have traditionally depended on shamans for their spiritual and physical well being. It is believed by members of these societies that illness is caused by malicious spirits, and it is the Shaman’s job to ward off these negative entities. He does this by communing with other, helpful spirits through the use of a hallucinogen called yopo. Pictured above is a shamans’s basketry bag containing the accouterments for the use of yopo during healing rituals.

FABERGÉ’S ALL PURPOSE ELEPHANT

Readers of the Beyond Bones Bl cases where regular people picked up a cheesy old nick-knack from a yard sale or antique store and later discovered it was a priceless Fabergé pieceog may recognize this little guy from some of our other Fabergé blogs. This week I’ve decided that he (or she?) has been in the background too long. You wouldn’t think much of it if you saw it sitting on a corner table at your grandma’s house or in an antique shop, but Fabergé is deceptive like that. The House of Fabergé didn’t just produce Easter eggs and jewelry, they produced a wide array of accessories for their wealthy, often aristocratic clientele. There have been several  cases where regular people picked up a cheesy old nick-knack from a yard sale or antique store and later discovered it was a priceless Fabergé piece.

SKY HAPPENINGS IN JUNE 2017

See what’s happening in the night sky this month. From comets to constellations, Scorpius to summer solstice June is going to be an exciting month for stargazers. You don’t even need to own a telescope!

Here’s a sample what you can read about:

A bright comet, Comet Johnson, is in June evening skies!  ‘Bright’ doesn’t quite mean naked-eye; its magnitude of 6.9 makes just too dim to just look up and see.  (The Moon, approaching full on June 9, won’t be helping. )  Binoculars, though, will easily reveal the comet near the bright star Arcturus in Bootes.  A chart showing its position during early June is here