This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: AP
December 21, 2007
The last World War I veteran in Ohio, and one of only three known remaining U.S. veterans of the conflict, has died.
J. Russell Coffey was the last WWI vet in the state, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. He died Thursday at the age of 109, said the Smith-Crates Funeral Home in North Baltimore, about 35 miles south of Toledo.
Source: AP
December 20, 2007
The restored ruins of two opulent Roman villas and private thermal baths will open to the public Saturday, along with a 3-D reconstruction that offers a virtual tour of the luxurious residences discovered in downtown Rome.
The 19,375-square-foot complex, dating from the second to fourth centuries, features well-preserved mosaic and marble floors, bathtubs and collapsed walls that archaeologists believe belonged to a domus — the richly decorated residences of Rome's wealthy and noble
Source: http://www.dailypress.com
December 20, 2007
Jamestown archaeologists stepped back from months of careful digging Wednesday to show off what project director William Kelso described as one of the pioneering English fort's most complex and significant architectural features.
First uncovered in mid-2006, the puzzling dark-stained patch of ground initially resembled a nearby well so richly packed with early artifacts, it required a summer of digging to explore. But as archaeologists probed farther into the slumping soil, the feat
Source: AP
December 19, 2007
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has sold Carter's Grove Plantation - an 18th century mansion built by 1 of Virginia's founding families - for $15.3 million.
Halsey Minor purchased the property, which includes a Georgian style mansion and 400 acres that are subject to a conservation easement, as well as 76 acres adjoining the property.
Minor says he'll use the site as a residence and center for a thoroughbred horse breeding program.
Source: Haaretz
December 18, 2007
The Jews remaining in Russia and Ukraine are proud of their Jewish identity, but nearly half feel there is no need to identify with Zionism. They fear assimilation, but see nothing wrong with intermarriage. Most believe that what determines their Jewishness is their subjective feeling, not the fact that one of their parents was Jewish. These
are among the findings of a first-of-its-kind study conducted among the Jews of Russia and Ukraine over the last year by the Institute for Jewish St
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 20, 2007
As of midnight Thursday the once contentious border between Poland and Germany will be thrown open. For the most part, it has been more whimper than bang for the fall of one of the most historically fraught and violently fought over frontiers on earth.
Traveling along the 450-odd kilometers, or about 280 miles, of the border - from the German town of Zittau in the south, where the German and Polish dividing line ends at the border of the Czech Republic, to the Polish port city of Sz
Source: AP
December 20, 2007
Vandals in southern Austria trashed a memorial erected in honor of victims of the Nazi regime, authorities said Thursday.
Officials said an estimated €3,000 (US$4,300) worth of damage was done to the glass memorial in the city center of Villach, which lists the names of local residents who perished in World War II.
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 19, 2007
Daria Schulha Kira recalls huddling, 75 years ago in a small village in eastern Ukraine, with her three siblings as Communist Party officials ransacked their home looking for grain.
"Your government needs your food," she remembers the armed men shouting. "Then they took iron bars and poked in the walls and the floors, looking for anything they could find."
But they didn't have any food. Kira, now 85 and living in an apartment in Manhattan, was living
Source: Times (London)
December 20, 2007
A handwritten letter in which Diana, Princess of Wales, claimed that her husband was planning to kill her was revealed in full for the first time yesterday at the inquest into her death.
Written by the Princess in October 1996, she told of her belief that the Prince of Wales wanted her dead so he could marry Tiggy Legge-Bourke, a nanny to Princes William and Harry.
The Princess, who mistakenly believed that Legge-Bourke was having an affair with Prince Charles and had b
Source: Fox News
December 20, 2007
The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.
"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said.
A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdr
Source: National Geographic News
December 17, 2007
A series of surprising discoveries has been made at the foot of Egypt's famous Temple of Amun at Karnak, archaeologists say.
The new finds include ancient ceremonial baths, a pharaoh's private entry ramp, and the remains of a massive wall built some 3,000 years ago to reinforce what was then the bank of the Nile River.
A host of other artifacts, including hundreds of bronze coins, has also been found. Together the discoveries are causing experts to reconsider the histor
Source: http://www.physorg.com
December 18, 2007
Time Magazine has named a study by Oxford researchers, using new dating techniques on a human skull to help find out where our most recent common ancestor came from, as one of the Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of the Year.
The skull was discovered more than 50 years ago near the town of Hofmeyr in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is thought to be 36,000 years old, according to a study published in the journal Science in January 2007. The finding by Oxford researchers in
Source: http://www.dailypress.com
December 18, 2007
Archaeologists at Historic Jamestowne have ended their 2007 excavation season after months of exploring one of the pioneering English fort's most complex and significant architectural features.
First uncovered in mid-2006, the sinking, dark-stained patch of soil originally looked like a nearby well so richly packed with artifacts that it had required a summer of digging. But as archaeologists probed deeper, the feature expanded dramatically in size, revealing at least three successi
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com
December 19, 2007
Drought provides advantages to scavengers and collectors who explore the expanded shorelines of the Triangle's shrinking reservoirs and lakes. The mud-encrusted fishing lures, waterlogged watches and other contemporary artifacts are theirs to keep.
But pocketing the shards of Native American pottery, spearheads and other remains from past cultures can get people in trouble.
Federal and state laws prohibit the removal of archaeological materials from public lands and car
Source: Edwin Black at The Cutting Edge
December 14, 2007
A leading Holocaust survivors group has publicly called for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to radically alter its plans to sequester the long-secret Holocaust records of the International Tracing Service now held at Bad Arolsen, saying the Museum’s controversial plans will “create intolerable bottlenecks and sufferings” for survivors desperate to discover the fate of loved ones and the facts of their own enslavement. The Museum’s plan is to block off-site physical or electronic diss
Source: The Age
December 18, 2007
IT HAD TO HAPPEN. UNDER the tinsel, wrapping paper and cards, Christmas has become a subject of scholarly interest. This is not from a theological angle where Christians have written extensively since Victorian times on the importance of Christmas. Just why we celebrate the way we do is increasingly a matter of debate.
Determining the meaning of Christmas is not a new idea. After all, Stephen Law in his 2003 book, The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas, presented a feisty and e
Source: BBC
December 18, 2007
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said the coffin of 19th Century revolutionary Simon Bolivar should be opened to find out how he died.
Speaking on the anniversary of his hero's death, Mr Chavez said an investigation was needed because some writings suggest he was murdered.
Most accounts maintain Bolivar died from tuberculosis in 1830.
One historian challenged Mr Chavez to produce a single piece of evidence to suggest foul play.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 20, 2007
An American businessman has drawn the fury of residents of the Isle of Man by declaring himself king of the island with honours being offered to anyone willing to shell out thousands of pounds.
Businessman David Drew Howe, 38, claims to be a cousin to the Queen and a direct descendant of the Stanley family.
He crowned himself "undisputed" His Majesty King David of the Isle of Man, after placing a notice in the London Gazette.
When the notice went
Source: Time
December 18, 2007
No one is born with a stare like Vladimir Putin's. The Russian President's pale blue eyes are so cool, so devoid of emotion that the stare must have begun as an affect, the gesture of someone who understood that power might be achieved by the suppression of ordinary needs, like blinking. The affect is now seamless, which makes talking to the Russian President not just exhausting but often chilling. It's a gaze that says, I'm in charge.
Source: Inside Higher Ed
December 19, 2007
In the 1970s and early 1980s, supporters rallied to create a federal holiday memorializing Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in the civil rights movement and his union activism. For many students today, those efforts have translated to King-themed activities and a respite from coursework one day a year.
As usual, Ohio State University has no intention of holding classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day next year, when it will fall on Monday, January 21. But unique scheduling difficul
