Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 283 posts

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#81

Post by ck2 »

triceratops wrote: post #7

> Hobby Lobby bought the tablet in a private sale, after a Hobby Lobby representative viewed the tablet in London. The auction house shipped the tablet to its New York office and, from there, hand-carried it to Hobby Lobby's headquarters in Oklahoma City, "so that Hobby Lobby could avoid incurring a New York sales tax," according to prosecutors. Oy vey. I don't know how serious this is but it's not a great look. Is t…

Forget the artwork ethics, Hobby Lobby owners are notorious.

Forced people to come to work at their stores despite orders to close during pandemic as definitely not "essential". Their reason? "god" spoke to owner's wife and said to stay open.

You also may remember them from suing against ACA for religion exemptions against allowing their employees to have access to the pill under insurance (they oddly won).

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#82

Post by renewiltord »

tedivm wrote: post #29
renewiltord wrote: post #11

I wonder how many soldier millionaires have been made by the War in Iraq. A small shot at wealth, a low risk of death, maybe going to war there as an individual isn't too bad.

According to the most recent study data (2017), an average of 16 veterans commits suicide every day here in the US. Claiming that it "isn't so bad" is remarkably callous.

Sure, in general, but not in the Iraq War which is what I'm talking about.

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#83

Post by renewiltord »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #66
renewiltord wrote: post #11

I wonder how many soldier millionaires have been made by the War in Iraq. A small shot at wealth, a low risk of death, maybe going to war there as an individual isn't too bad.

My son was scarred for life by what he saw, and what he had to do. No, not a walk in the park.

Sorry to hear about that. Naturally I didn't mean to imply that everyone had it easy. Some even died, tragically.

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#84

Post by renewiltord »

geggam wrote: post #53
renewiltord wrote: post #11

I wonder how many soldier millionaires have been made by the War in Iraq. A small shot at wealth, a low risk of death, maybe going to war there as an individual isn't too bad.

I wonder how many wars we would have if soldiers were allowed to pillage like they did back in the day ? Civilized war is silly

Do you think we'd have more or fewer? It isn't clear to me. After all, back in the day was a bloody period.

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#85

Post by bfors »

deathgrips wrote: post #33
legerdemain wrote: post #8

One of the outcomes of the US-Iraq war was Iraq's national heritage of antiquities getting plundered and sold illegally.[1] The burning of the Library of Alexandria is a potent symbol in Western culture, but the world has repeatedly suffered massive losses of cultural and historical artifacts in the last few decades. The public quickly develops historical amnesia for recent events. Compare, for example, the loss of B…

Another example is shutting down What.cd, which was a digital library that had an unbelievably large collection of music. Many titles couldn't be found anywhere except on What.cd.

Granted, a lot of that music probably wasn't amazing. But as an archive and community what.cd was unmatched, and I'm still upset that it's gone. RIP

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#86

Post by ReverseCold »

laingc wrote: post #41
deathgrips wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a tragedy. Most westerners don't realize that when Europeans were living in mud huts and emptying their chamber pots into the streets, the Muslim world had plumbing, water filtration, surgery, advanced mathematics, and many more amazing scientific advances which quickly spread throughout Muslim countries due to the cultural exchange at Mecca. I wonder what the world could have been like if the Mongols had never…

Wait until you read about the Roman Republic thousands of years before this time - you’re gonna love it.

And the indus river valley civilization! They had a pretty advanced irrigation system.

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#87

Post by vondur »

deathgrips wrote: post #35
keiferski wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The destruction of Baghdad itself, including the House of Wisdom (large library), by the Mongols in 1258 is probably a more apt comparison. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258)

What a tragedy. Most westerners don't realize that when Europeans were living in mud huts and emptying their chamber pots into the streets, the Muslim world had plumbing, water filtration, surgery, advanced mathematics, and many more amazing scientific advances which quickly spread throughout Muslim countries due to the cultural exchange at Mecca. I wonder what the world could have been like if the Mongols had never…

The Eastern Romans had it too, as it never ceased to exist in the East. However, I don't think the original Muslim Arabs had any of those technologies, the states they conquered did. (Roman and Persian)

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#88

Post by ComputerGuru »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #50
deathgrips wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a tragedy. Most westerners don't realize that when Europeans were living in mud huts and emptying their chamber pots into the streets, the Muslim world had plumbing, water filtration, surgery, advanced mathematics, and many more amazing scientific advances which quickly spread throughout Muslim countries due to the cultural exchange at Mecca. I wonder what the world could have been like if the Mongols had never…

One could say the same thing about a lot of conquerors including the Arab armies. For example, when the Arab armies conquered North Africa, it was one of the richest and most developed areas in the Mediterranean. After the Arab conquest, it became a backwater and never achieved the prominence it had before. Also, in Egypt, the Great Pyramid was once covered with gleaming white limestone, but this was removed and used…

It’s extremely unlikely the limestone casing for the pyramids was still around at the time of the Caliphate. Do you have any sources for that? It wasn’t all that long ago, relatively speaking.

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#89

Post by desireco42 »

This NPR, source we should trust. It carefully avoids to say that tablet was stollen from Iraq during US invasion. Whole museums and collections were stollen during that time by advancing US soldiers and "contractors".

I highly doubt HobbyLobby owners didn't know origin of this tablet.

Re: Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

#90

Post by bryanrasmussen »

chadlavi wrote: post #45
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that weird. The founder of Hobby Lobby is an evangelical Christian, among other things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Green_(entrepreneur)

tbh that guy's whole deal only makes it weirder

I have to think it's because the Epic of Gilgamesh has a flood in it.
Post reply on HN