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: Haaretz
December 17, 2007
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has been instructed by the cabinet to continue its work at the Mugrabi walkway near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The cabinet recently instructed the IAA to complete the work "as soon as possible, with full transparency and with the cooperation of the relevant bodies."
Excavations at the site, a walkway leading to the Mugrabi Gate at the Temple Mount, were halted in June after they raised an international protest. At the end of Sept
Source: AP
December 18, 2007
A 710-year-old copy of the declaration of human rights known as the Magna Carta — the version that became part of English law — was auctioned Tuesday for $21.3 million, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said.
The document, which had been expected to draw bids of $30 million or higher, was bought by David Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, the spokeswoman said.
Sotheby's vice chairman David Redden called the old but durable parchment "the most important
Source: AP
December 17, 2007
aqi archaeologists working in a city south of Baghdad unearthed more than 1,000
antiquities and delivered them Monday to the National Museum, which has struggled to rebuild its
collection since it was looted in the U.S.-led invasion.
The museum has been closed to the public since 2003, but curators have been trying to recover some
of the 15,000 stolen relics and piece together a collection.
Qais Hussein, who directs Iraqi archaeological digs, sai
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
December 18, 2007
On Monday, the House approved an omnibus funding package that incorporates the eleven fiscal year 2008 appropriations bills that have yet to be passed by Congress. The Democratic majority has released the breakdowns for the appropriations bills. What follows are the numbers as released by the Appropriations Committees for programs of interest to the historical and archival communities.
It is important to note that these are NOT the final appropriations numbers for these programs sin
Source: LAT
October 1, 2007
Every once in a while you come upon a special website that you can't leave (unless you decide to blog about it). Obviously, Top of the Ticket is one of these special sites. But besides that, we've found one for anyone who's ever been exposed to a political advertisement, even if you're not a political junkie. It's a living video history of television commercials for presidential campaigns from the start of television to 2004.
You can watch the actual commercials roll by in black and
Source: The Star
December 17, 2007
They have learned how long it would take a runaway slave to walk to freedom from deep in the south.
A year.
"Now think how much longer it would take if you had children with you," prods the teacher. "Or if you lost your shoes wading through the river to throw bloodhounds off your scent."
Not a paper rustles; even the girl eating lunch at the back is fixed on the front.
In this unusual new "sold-out" class at a Scar
Source: NYT
December 18, 2007
In the disease-scarred bones of a Homo erectus from Turkey, scientists have found evidence of a peril that human ancestors encountered in their migrations out of Africa: tuberculosis.
Paleontologists examining small lesions etched inside the 500,000-year-old skull said this was the earliest known sign of a form of tuberculosis that attacks the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain. Previously, the earliest physical traces of TB were only a few thousand years old, in mummies
Source: NYT
December 18, 2007
It is difficult to say which is more surprising: that the Newark Public Library owns prints by Picasso and Rauschenberg, a page of the Gutenberg Bible and a 1493 handwritten tome known as the Nuremberg Chronicles, or that William J. Dane, a dapper, refreshingly irreverent art scholar from New Hampshire, has been tending to this astounding collection for six decades.
Mr. Dane does not like to talk about his age, but it is worth noting that he was old enough to join the Army during Wo
Source: http://www.praguemonitor.com
December 11, 2007
Archaeologists have uncovered parts of Prague's oldest ramparts, dating back to the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries, thus verifying the then Jewish globetrotter Ibrahim ibn Jaqub's description of Prague as "a town made of stone and lime," the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote Monday.
The fortification, the remnants of which have been uncovered at Malostranske namesti square in what is now the historical centre of Prague, were made of wood and clay and might have been up to
Source: Press Release
December 14, 2007
QUEBEC | On behalf of Canada's Environment Minister John Baird, Mr. Luc Harvey, Member of Parliament for Louis-Hebert, today announced the discovery of Fort Sainte-Therese, one of five forts erected by the Carignan-Salieres regiment between 1665 and 1666.
"Thanks to the exceptional collaboration of the Municipality of Carignan, the region's historical societies, heritage organizations and local researchers, Fort Sainte-Therese has finally been located on the grounds of the Cana
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 17, 2007
Maps more than 200 years old are being used to help find and protect Britain's natural treasure house of ancient trees.
Historical maps help reveal how landscapes once looked when vast swathes of the country were covered in forest.
As well as showing how much woodland we have lost they can also help pinpoint the ancient survivors.
Source: Daily Mail
December 13, 2007
To many First World War soldiers, the Christmas Truce of 1914 was a morale-boosting break from the horrors of trench warfare.
But the famous day when the British exchanged gifts and played a game of football with their German enemy was not remembered fondly by everyone on the Western Front.
A letter written at the time by a young soldier to his father tells of experiences which were a far cry from the impromptu sporting events and carol singing experienced by other troo
Source: Daily Mail
December 13, 2007
To many First World War soldiers, the Christmas Truce of 1914 was a morale-boosting break from the horrors of trench warfare.
But the famous day when the British exchanged gifts and played a game of football with their German enemy was not remembered fondly by everyone on the Western Front.
A letter written at the time by a young soldier to his father tells of experiences which were a far cry from the impromptu sporting events and carol singing experienced by other troo
Source: Business Week
December 17, 2007
Want a present that will raise some eyebrows -- or maybe hackles -- this Christmas? A Finnish charity is selling rings engraved with a swastika to raise money for the country's 80,000 World War II veterans.
A silver ring [costing $86] featuring a swastika is being sold to raise money for Finnish World War II veterans....
The rings are replicas of the 1940 "Air Defence" ring, which was part of a wartime effort to raise money for the Finnish air force. The campa
Source: Business Week
December 17, 2007
Want a present that will raise some eyebrows -- or maybe hackles -- this Christmas? A Finnish charity is selling rings engraved with a swastika to raise money for the country's 80,000 World War II veterans.
A silver ring [costing $86] featuring a swastika is being sold to raise money for Finnish World War II veterans....
The rings are replicas of the 1940 "Air Defence" ring, which was part of a wartime effort to raise money for the Finnish air force. The campa
Source: Business Week
December 17, 2007
Want a present that will raise some eyebrows -- or maybe hackles -- this Christmas? A Finnish charity is selling rings engraved with a swastika to raise money for the country's 80,000 World War II veterans.
A silver ring [costing $86] featuring a swastika is being sold to raise money for Finnish World War II veterans....
The rings are replicas of the 1940 "Air Defence" ring, which was part of a wartime effort to raise money for the Finnish air force. The campa
Source: USA Today
December 17, 2007
Bob Fuchigami was 12 years old when he and his family were told to leave their 20-acre farm in northern California. The peach trees that his immigrant parents had planted were about to yield their first big crop.
It was May 1942, five months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Fuchigami and his parents and siblings were among more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans ordered to report to internment camps. The Fuchigamis ended up at one in dusty southeastern Colorado.
He and
Source: BBC
December 16, 2007
Part of the aircraft wreckage from the plane which carried Rudolph Hess to Britain is to be sold at auction.
The fighter bomber crashed in Scotland in May 1941 and Hess, Hitler's deputy, was captured and jailed.
Source: BBC
December 18, 2007
If they managed to survive plague and pestilence, medieval humans may have enjoyed healthier lifestyles than their descendants today, it has been claimed.
Their low-fat, vegetable-rich diet - washed down by weak ale - was far better for the heart than today's starchy, processed foods, one GP says.
And while they consumed more they burnt off calories in a workout of 12 hours' labour, Dr Roger Henderson concludes.
But the Shropshire GP accepts that life for even pr
Source: NYT
December 18, 2007
George Romney had big ideas for his youngest child.
In 1957, Mitt Romney, 10, with his father, George W. Romney, at their home in Detroit. More Photos >
Mitt Romney had already made millions as the founder of a giant buyout firm. But his father wanted Mitt to follow him into politics, convinced he could unseat Senator Edward M. Kennedy in Massachusetts.
“It was Mitt’s dad that kicked us over that one,” Ann Romney, Mitt Romney’s wife, recalled of the losing 19
