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: NYT
September 16, 2007
Rarely does a politician, a party or a political system get a chance at a do-over.
Yet when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton rolls out her comprehensive health plan in Iowa on Monday, it will be just that: Mrs. Clinton, or whoever the next president might be, has a second chance to fix a system that has, in many ways, deteriorated in the 14 years since the Clintons’ last attempt at an overhaul....
It was almost inconceivable, in the spring of 1993, when nearly three-fourt
Source: AP
September 16, 2007
Douglas Eugene "Gene" Savoy, an explorer who discovered more than 40 lost cities in Peru and led long-distance sailing adventures to learn more about ancient cultures, has died. He was 80.
Savoy died of natural causes Tuesday at his Reno home, his family said Saturday.
Dubbed the "real Indiana Jones" by People magazine, Savoy was credited with finding four of Peru's most important archaeological sites, including Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the In
Source: AP
September 16, 2007
LIMA, Peru - Yale University has agreed to return thousands of Inca artifacts taken from Peru's famed Machu Picchu citadel almost a century ago, the government said Saturday.
"Finally it has been established that Peru is the owner of each one of the pieces," Housing Minister Hernan Garrido Lecca, who led negotiations with Yale, told Lima's Radioprogramas radio.
The New Haven, Connecticut-based university said in a statement on its Web site that some of the pie
Source: Armenia Now
September 13, 2007
Armenian archeologists have discovered the second pagan temple in Armenia after Garni.
The temple found 5.5 meters under ground not far from the modern town of Artashat about 30 kilometers to the south-east of Yerevan was devoted to Mihr – the God of the Sun in Armenian mythology. The temple – the symbol of sun-worship was built near Artashat which maintained its status the longest among the capitals of Armenia - from the 2nd century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.
“By dis
Source: http://www.thelocal.se
September 14, 2007
A bout of torrential rain left a surprising legacy in the garden of one Swede: a Viking treasure trove.
Two coins were uncovered by the rain on the lawn of farmer Tage Pettersson, on the island of Gotland, in early August. He called in Gotland's archaeologists, who last week found a further 52 coins on the site.
Most of the coins are German, English and Arabic currency from the late 900s and early 1000s. But archaeologists are most excited about the presence of six very
Source: AP
September 15, 2007
Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level on record, new satellite images show, raising the possibility that the Northwest Passage that eluded famous explorers will become an open shipping lane.
The European Space Agency said nearly 200 satellite photos this month taken together showed an ice-free passage along northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland, and ice retreating to its lowest level since such images were first taken in 1978.
The waters are exposing unexplored reso
Source: AP
September 15, 2007
EINSIEDELN, Switzerland - A librarian at this 10th century monastery leads a visitor beneath the vaulted ceilings of the archive past the skulls of two former abbots. He pushes aside medieval ledgers of indulgences and absolutions, pulls out one of 13 bound diaries inscribed from 1671 to 1704 and starts to read about the weather.
"Jan. 11 was so frightfully cold that all of the communion wine froze," says an entry from 1684 by Brother Josef Dietrich, governor and "wea
Source: BBC
September 15, 2007
A German archbishop has sparked controversy by calling some modern art "degenerate" - a term used by the Nazi regime in its persecution of artists.
Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, was speaking as the church inaugurated its Kolumba art museum.
Cardinal Meisner warned that when art became estranged from worship, culture became degenerate.
The cardinal had not intended to pay tribute to "old ideologies", a spokesman said.
Source: NYT
September 15, 2007
[Darryl Pitt] was talking about meteorites. Not just any old ones, but one that will be auctioned on Oct. 28, a 30 pound chunk sliced off one of the most famous meteorites in the world, the 15 and a half-ton one that Mr. Pitt was standing next to at the museum: the Willamette meteorite.
Once again, as it was at the opening of the museum’s Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000, the Willamette meteorite is at the center of a brouhaha. An American Indian group in Oregon heard about
Source: NYT
September 15, 2007
One of the most influential business books ever written is a 1,200-page novel published 50 years ago, on Oct. 12, 1957. It is still drawing readers; it ranks 388th on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. (“Winning,” by John F. Welch Jr., at a breezy 384 pages, is No. 1,431.)
The book is “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand’s glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest.
For years, Rand’s message was attacked by intellectuals whom her circle labeled
Source: NYT
September 15, 2007
Alan Greenspan, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades, in a long-awaited memoir, is harshly critical of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the Republican-controlled Congress, as abandoning their party’s principles on spending and deficits.
In the 500-page book, “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World,” Mr. Greenspan describes the Bush administration as so captive to its own political operation that it paid little attention to fiscal dis
Source: History Today
September 13, 2007
A Viking longship is believed to be resting underneath a pub car-park in Mersyside. Professor Stephen Harding, of the University of Nottingham used ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment to trace the vessels exact location. The ship had been unburied previously in 1938 during relocation work on the pub- the Railway Inn in Meols, Wirral. Workers were advised to cover the ship over again so as not to delay construction and a new car-park was laid on top of it. "Although we still don't know
Source: Bloomberg News
September 14, 2007
One man may delay preparations for the 2012 London Olympics: Adolf Hitler.
Construction crews are scouring the 500-acre Olympics site for bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe during World War II that failed to explode, adding time and expense to a project whose costs have already more than tripled to 9.3 billion pounds ($19 billion).
Of the 19,000 tons of bombs that pounded London during the Blitz in 1940-41, about 10 percent didn't explode and remain buried around the city,
Source: AP
September 14, 2007
Carrol "Red" Walsh didn't know what to expect when his patrol came across a train stopped along a hillside during the U.S. Army's dash across northern Germany in the final, chaotic days of World War II.
In and around the abandoned line of freight cars milled some 2,500 emaciated and ragged Jewish prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. There were scores of children.
"They were just jammed, crammed in there," said Walsh, a 24-year-old tan
Source: BBC
September 14, 2007
One of the oldest courts in Wales or England, where Charles Dickens is reputed to have sat at the press bench, is reopening - but only for a day.
At the request of Wales's senior judge, Mr Justice Roderick Evans, two appeals will be heard at Beaumaris court in Anglesey, which is now a museum.
Built in 1614, it reopens as a court occasionally to preserve its status.
"The court has played an important part in the history of Anglesey and Wales," Mr J
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 14, 2007
The menus may lack a little refinement for today's discerning diners, but the signature dishes of our ancestors were nothing if not adventurous.
For it has emerged that even in prehistoric times, the British domestic goddess was adept at rustling up a traditional roast, albeit hedgehog, with a nettle pudding for afters and a little barley bread on the side.
Later on the more pretentious palates of the Romans could be satisfied with dishes which would not be so out of pl
Source: NYT
September 14, 2007
A central theme wove through the words of the political leaders who spoke at the Sept. 11 memorial service this week. It was an ancient concept: We are our brothers’ keepers.
“Can I see another’s woe, and not be in sorrow too?” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. He also said, “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads.”
Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said, “Just as despair can come to one another only from other human be
Source: http://www.swissinfo.org
September 10, 2007
Archaeologists have discovered traces of Switzerland’s oldest known building, but it will never draw tourists: it lies underwater in the middle of a lake.
Since it was made of wood scientists used dendrochronology – the technique of dating by tree rings – to give a precise figure of 3863 BC.
The find in Lake Biel, northwest of the Swiss capital, Bern, was described as “sensational” by Albert Hafner, who is in charge of underwater archaeology in the region.
Divers
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 13, 2007
A life-size statue of Owain Glyndwr who led an historic Welsh uprising against rule from England has been unveiled in the town where he was born.
The £15,000 bronze monument, which has taken four years to make, has been erected in Corwen in Denbighshire.
Its unveiling had been delayed after a lorry carrying its plinth plunged down a ravine in China earlier this year.
It marks the 16 September anniversary of the day that Glyndwr was proclaimed the first Prin
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 12, 2007
Secrets contained in fragile documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls are to be revealed using one of the most powerful light sources in the Universe.
British scientists are using a giant instrument - in essence an extremely powerful torch and microscope combined - to read parchments that are too brittle to unroll or unfold.
The Diamond synchrotron creates X-ray beams 10 billion times brighter than the Sun, allowing researchers to study chemical and material samples in mo
