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: Roger Cohen in the NYT
August 27, 2007
[Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the United Nations, is anguished.] Khalilzad’s anguish centers on May 6, 2003. That’s the day he expected Bush to announce his return to Iraq to convene a grand assembly — something like an Afghan loya jirga — that would fast-forward a provisional Iraqi government.
Instead, the appointment of L. Paul Bremer III to head a Coalition Provisional Authority was announced. Khalilzad, incredulous, went elsewhere. In the place of an Afghan-Ameri
Source: Discovery
August 27, 2007
Either modern humans were in Israel over 200,000 years ago, or our now-extinct ancestors behaved a lot like us when they hunted and cooked, suggest artifacts and bones from a newly excavated cave.
Together, the remains paint a picture of relatively sophisticated hunting and food preparation at the site, called Misliya Cave, in Mount Carmel, Israel.
According to lead author Reuven Yeshurun, the cave exhibits "the full array of modern hunting behavior."
Source: chinaview.cn
August 24, 2007
Romanian archeologists have found the Capitol of Sarmizegetusa, a temple in the ancient Roman province of Dacia, Rompres news agency reported Thursday.
"We were glad to confirm the suppositions we have been nourishing for 25 years, about the place where the Capitol lies, one of the most important temples of Roman Dacia," said Ioan Piso, an official of Transylvania National History Museum in central Romania.
"This is the temple of Jupiter and the T
Source: http://www.novinite.com
August 26, 2007
Bulgarian archaeologists discovered a Christian necropolis outside the ruins of the medieval fortress near the rock sanctuary of Perperikon, located in southern Bulgaria near the town of Kardzhali.
The team lead by Nikolay Ovcharov found 15 tombs dating back to the 14th century, most likely the resting place of the fortress' defenders executed following its siege by Turkish emir Orhan in 1362.
Source: AP
August 24, 2007
Archaeologists excavating a sprawling prehistoric fortress in southern Greece have discovered a secret underground passage thought to have supplied the site with water in times of danger.
Dating to the mid-13th century B.C., the stone passage passed under the massive walls of the Mycenaean citadel of Midea and probably led to a nearby water source, authorities said Friday.
The passage would allow the people of Midea, about 93 miles south of Athens, safe access to drinka
Source: WaPo
August 27, 2007
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece, Aug. 27 -- Firefighters backed by aircraft dropped water and foam on the birthplace of the ancient Olympics on Sunday to stop wildfires from burning the 2,800-year-old ruins, one of the most revered sites of antiquity.
But the fires, which have been burning for three days, obliterated vast swaths of the country, and the death toll rose to 60. New fires broke out faster than others could be brought under control. Desperate residents appealed through televisio
Source: LiveScience
August 27, 2007
Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past. For example, he f
Source: AP
August 26, 2007
After six decades in which the venerable greenback never changed its look, the U.S.
currency has undergone a slew of makeovers. The most
amazing is yet to come.
A new security thread has been approved for the $100
bill, The Associated Press has learned, and the change
will cause double-takes.
The new look is part of an effort to thwart
counterfeiters who are armed with ever-more
sophisticated computers, scanners and color copiers.
The C-note, with features the likeness of Benja
Source: NYT
August 26, 2007
AS the nations of Europe leapt to arms in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson’s mind turned to President James Madison and the war with England in 1812.
“Madison and I are the only two Princeton men who have become president,” Wilson observed ominously in a letter, noting that tensions with Great Britain over its naval blockage of Germany recalled earlier disputes with England about freedom of the seas. “The circumstances of the War of 1812 and now run parallel. I sincerely hope they wil
Source: NYT
August 26, 2007
THEY were a handful of Russians in their 50s, these children of the old intelligentsia who gathered from around Europe this summer in a birch forest 100 miles south of Moscow for something somewhat surprising: a joyous journey back into their Soviet past.
Source: Clark Hoyt, public editor of the NYT, in the NYT
August 26, 2007
A BUSINESS strategy of The New York Times to get its articles to pop up first in Internet searches is creating a perplexing problem: long-buried information about people that is wrong, outdated or incomplete is getting unwelcome new life.
People are coming forward at the rate of roughly one a day to complain that they are being embarrassed, are worried about losing or not getting jobs, or may be losing customers because of the sudden prominence of old news articles that contain erro
Source: NYT
August 26, 2007
RICHARD NIXON had definite views about how the wife of a presidential candidate should campaign. In 1992, he was watching a lawyer named Hillary Clinton aggressively defend her husband in New Hampshire.
“If the wife comes through as being too strong and too intelligent,” Mr. Nixon observed, “it makes the husband look like a wimp.”
Now, 15 years later, strong and intelligent women are out in force on the campaign trail, and the focus is not just on how they reflect on th
Source: http://www.boingboing.net
August 24, 2007
The University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has scanned and published a full set of playing cards created in 1945 by an inmate at the Dachau concentration camp. They are the size of normal playing cards.
Source: LiveScience
August 23, 2007
Archaeologists have uncovered a footprint made by a
sandal-clad Roman soldier in a wall surrounding an
ancient city in Israel that Jesus might have visited.
The print was made by a strappy, leather sandal of a
type worn by the Roman military. Called caliga, the
sandals of this time had iron hobnails hammered into
their soles, which provided durability and traction as
well as a weapon when kicking.
Source: Yahoo
August 24, 2007
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (Reuters) - Time flies in
Samarkand. This weekend the ancient Silk Road city
marks its 2,750th anniversary in grand style, a mere
11 years after celebrating its official 2,500th
anniversary.
That quirk is due to recent archaeological finds that
caused a revision of its age, but the city of mosques,
madrasahs and tombs listed as a U.N. World Heritage
Site is also ageing faster than it should do in the
pres
Source: http://greatreporter.com
August 25, 2007
The grandiose mansions Adolf Hitler erected in Germany may have vanished, but their vast bunkers remain largely intact..
More than 60 years have passed, but the quaint Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden, nestled amidst a stunning Alpine panorama, still struggles with its heritage of having been Adolf Hitler's favourite hideaway.
The Berchtesgaden Tourism Office is reluctant to actively promote the former Obersalzberg site just above the town and is not particularly eager to answe
Source: WaPo
August 26, 2007
You've heard of the Staten Island ferry, and perhaps even ridden it, but the adventure is hardly over once you've docked.
The 59-square-mile Staten Island sits at the entrance to New York harbor between New Jersey and Brooklyn. Named after the Dutch parliament by explorer Henry Hudson, in 1898 it became one of the five boroughs that make up New York City. Since its settlement in the 17th century, its bucolic hills and shoreline have given it an almost rural ambiance. It is the least
Source: International Herald Tribune
August 24, 2007
The most surprising thing about the possible closure of the shipyard here may be how little popular outcry there has been thus far.
Poland is instead transfixed by the sudden collapse of its government and preoccupied with the departure of a million workers, most of them young, for jobs in Western Europe.
The Gdansk shipyard could go out of business if it is forced to pay back disputed state subsidies deemed illegal by European Union officials. But while the EU may be
Source: http://allafrica.com
August 24, 2007
The history of Nigeria's involvement in the slave trade could be used to boost tourism and culture, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the University of Abuja, said yesterday.
They have also asked that August 23, be designated as a special day of remembrance. It is 200 years since the transatlantic slave trade ended.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 25, 2007
A British re-enactment society that has portrayed the SS in films and on television has been infiltrated by neo-Nazis, according to a BBC investigation.
People associated with the Second Battle Group, which featured in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, claimed they were members of the far-Right Blood and Honour organisation and complained of German blood being tainted by "jigaboos".
The claims were made in footage filmed by the BBC Panorama unit, which f
