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: Telegraph (UK)
December 11, 2007
France will today request the return to French soil of the remains of its last emperor and first president, Napoleon III.
After lying ignored in a crypt in an English abbey for 120 years, the exiled emperor's ashes are suddenly the subject of a French ministerial delegation intent on repatriating them to the republic he helped bring about....
After a number of foreign adventures, his forces were roundly defeated in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, prompting him to flee
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 9, 2007
When Kosovo recently held a contest to design a flag, the organizers insisted that it reflect the multi-ethnic population, shunning the nationalist symbols of the past.
But dozens of artists chose to ignore that edict. They submitted variations of the red and black Albanian flag, whose two-headed eagle has for decades been proudly displayed at weddings and on the battlefield, while being equally reviled by many Serbs, who make up a minority in this breakaway province of Serbia.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 11, 2007
Leonardo Da Vinci may have been an Arab, according to scientists who have studied a single, complete fingerprint found on one of his paintings.
The print, taken from the artist's left index finger, was discovered after an exhaustive three-year trawl through his works by researchers at the University of Chieti.
Professor Luigi Capasso, an anthropologist who led the team, said the central whorl of the fingerprint was a common pattern in the Middle East.
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Source: AP
December 8, 2007
Printed part way down page 3 of the Troy Sentinel on Dec. 23, 1823, it was easy to miss.
Between beekeeping tips and a wedding announcement was a seasonal poem. Submitted anonymously, the poem charmed editors who published it anyway. It started like this:
"'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house ..."
The rest is Christmas history.
"Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" spread beyond this bustling, bloomin
Source: Independent (UK)
December 10, 2007
A Nobel Prize-winning scientist who provoked a public outcry by claiming black Africans were less intelligent than whites has a DNA profile with up to 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European.
An analysis of the genome of James Watson showed that 16 per cent of his genes were likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1 per cent.
"This level is what yo
Source: AP
December 7, 2007
A rare daguerreotype of abolitionist John Brown was bought Friday by an unidentified bidder for $97,750, an auctioneer said.
The buyer, who bid by telephone, declined to be identified or to talk about the purchase, auctioneer Wes Cowan said.
Cowan, an occasional appraiser on the PBS show "Antiques Roadshow" and host of the public television series "History Detectives," had estimated a sale price of $60,000 to $80,000.
Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au
December 6, 2007
Wheat grains nearly 5,000 years old found at a Chinese archaeological site two years ago, have revealed that western man travelled to China much earlier than previously thought.
The research, published by Professor John Dodson and Professor Xiaoqiang Li, shows there are no modern wild varieties of the wheat and barley, which were found in the region in a domesticated form, and carbon dated to 2,650BC.
It is now thought they originated in the Middle East, which showed ex
Source: http://www.topnews.in
December 9, 2007
Archaeologists in Romania have discovered 3,000-years-old well-preserved wood and ropes at Beclean in the country’s northern Bistrita-Nasaud County.
Valeriu Kavruk, curator of the Museum of the Eastern Carpathians based in Sfantu Gheorghe, central Romania, said that the objects, found in the bed of a vastly salted river near Baile Figa, have been well conserved due to the salted mud.
Lab tests with Carbon 14 revealed that the articles dated from 1000 B. C, Kavruk said.
Source: http://www.manilatimes.net
December 8, 2007
An archeological site full of metallurgy tools and pottery dating back nearly 3,000 years ago has been discovered in Vietnam’s central Khanh Hoa province, local newspaper Pioneer reported Friday.
The Vietnam Archeology Institute found a number of bronze molds and bronze-refining tools, eight tombs and over 126,000 pieces of pottery in the Vinh Yen 50-square meter site in Van Ninh district.
Source: Times (London)
December 7, 2007
Stonehenge may be placed on the list of endangered World Heritage sites after the Government abandoned all the options it was considering for relieving congestion on the road that runs past it.
It means the site will be blighted indefinitely by heavy traffic on the A303, which passes close to the stones.
Despite spending more than £23 million over ten years on developing proposals, the Government decided that the various alternatives, including turning the road into a d
Source: Times (London)
December 7, 2007
Stonehenge may be placed on the list of endangered World Heritage sites after the Government abandoned all the options it was considering for relieving congestion on the road that runs past it.
It means the site will be blighted indefinitely by heavy traffic on the A303, which passes close to the stones.
Despite spending more than £23 million over ten years on developing proposals, the Government decided that the various alternatives, including turning the road into a d
Source: Mara Farrell, co-founder of Fishkill Historical Focus, a historic preservation group, in the NYT
December 9, 2007
IT’S a beautiful thing to have a Revolutionary War site like the Fishkill Encampment and Supply Depot, a nationally registered landmark, in your town. But when the military camp — where thousands of George Washington’s troops were stationed to keep the British from moving past New York City and capturing the Hudson River — is also home to the heavily trafficked Route 9 corridor, pleading for its survival can sometimes feel like a never-ending battle.
You see, the problem is that in
Source: Israel News
December 6, 2007
"His golden year was 1940, when his armies invaded Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Holland, and Belgium and defeated France ... By mid 1942, his country controlled the largest land area in Europe… He refused to surrender and continued to fight for two more years, but, his bitter end came in the spring of 1945 when he took his own life…. Who is he?"
According to Palestinian Media Watch, a Palestinian media and education watchdog, this was the question put to listeners of the &
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 10, 2007
Dressed in black and wrapped in silent contemplation, Baroness Thatcher wiped away a tear at the Cenotaph as she remembered the dead of the Falklands War at the Battle Day ceremony.
Some in the 70-strong crowd of old soldiers and expatriate islanders had wondered whether, at the age of 82, the former prime minister would be strong enough to attend the ceremony organised by the Falkland Islands Association.
As always, the Iron Lady would not be deterred. Flanked by Admir
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 10, 2007
An ancient doctor's surgery unearthed by Italian archaeologists has cast new light on what a trip to the doctor would have been like in Roman times. Far from crude, the medical implements discovered show that doctors, their surgeries and the ailments they treated have changed surprisingly little in 1,800 years.
Sore joints were common, patients were often told to change their diets, and the good doctor of the seaside town of Rimini even performed house calls.
Archaeolog
Source: NYT
December 9, 2007
For the second time in a decade, fungus is threatening France’s most celebrated prehistoric paintings, the mysterious animal images that line the Lascaux cave in the Dordogne region of southwest France, scientists say.
No consensus has emerged among experts over whether the invading patches of gray and black mold are the result of climate change, a defective temperature control system, the light used by researchers or the carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors.
But after i
Source: WaPo
December 9, 2007
Back then, chicken a la cheese won recipe contests, and an Amana Free-o-Frost was the answer to every woman's problems. Hugh Rodham woke up each morning in his thick-walled suburban dream home in Park Ridge, Ill., bellowing the songs of Mitch Miller and the Gang (Singalong favorites! "Ain't We Got Fun"!), and sat down each night to dinner served exactly at 6 p.m., over which he issued loud pronouncements about American self-reliance, as opposed to communists and deadbeats seeking hando
Source: WaPo
December 8, 2007
They came. They saw. They gifted.
That's about all we know of the foreign visitors who traveled to Bethlehem to see the infant Jesus.
The scene ingrained in the public imagination -- a stately procession of three kings in turbans, crowns, elaborate capes and fancy slippers, with an entourage of servants and camels trailing behind -- is a common image in books and films, but it isn't from Scripture.
In fact, there's no evidence in the Gospels that the Magi w
Source: Independent Catholic News
December 7, 2007
German archaeologists claim to have found traces of a glue they say was made by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago and used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires' battle helmets.
Researchers at the Rhineland historical museum in Bonn said they had found remnants of the glue on a legionnaire's iron helmet unearthed near the town of Xanten. It had lain on what was once the bed of the Rhine for at least 1,500 years.
Frank Willer, the museum's chief restorer, said
Source: Science Daily
December 7, 2007
Although most scientists believe tuberculosis emerged only several thousand years ago, new research from The University of Texas at Austin reveals the most ancient evidence of the disease has been found in a 500,000-year-old human fossil from Turkey.
The discovery of the new specimen of the human species, Homo erectus, suggests support for the theory that dark-skinned people who migrate northward from low, tropical latitudes produce less vitamin D, which can adversely affect the imm
