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 1, 2006
Anthropologists said they have pieced together Leonardo da Vinci's left index fingerprint — a discovery that could help provide information on such matters as the food the artist ate and whether his mother was of Arabic origin.
The reconstruction of the fingerprint was the result of three years of research and could help attribute disputed paintings or manuscripts, said Luigi Capasso, an anthropologist and director of the Anthropology Research Institute at Chieti University in centr
Source: Dissident Voice
November 24, 2006
"The history of the criminal case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, which is by now almost 25 years old, has been characterized by bias right from the start: against a black man whom the court denied a jury of his peers, against a member of the economic underclass who did not have a real claim to a qualified defense, and against a radical, whose allegedly dangerous militancy obliged the state to eliminate him from the ranks of society."
So writes German author Michael Schiffmann in his
Source: Reuters
December 1, 2006
The discovery of an ancient Roman coffin in a part of London previously thought to have had no Roman settlements has forced a re-evaluation of the history of the city, experts said on Friday.
The headless skeleton in a limestone sarcophagus was found during excavations under St. Martin-in-the-Fields church on the eastern side of Trafalgar Square in central London.
Experts said the skeleton, whose head is believed to have been removed as a trophy by workmen building a se
Source: CNN
November 24, 2006
Hardly an hour goes by without Thomas Serafin or one of his cyber-sleuths checking what eBay has to offer.
They're not hunting for bargains and never place a bid. Their interest is bone shards, bits of wizened flesh and a contemporary twist on the sacred and the profane: How the ancient trade in the most coveted religious relics has moved into the global flea market of online bidding.
"You can find bone fragments supposedly from St. Augustine being hawked on the In
Source: ABC.net.au
November 30, 2006
New genetic evidence suggests Australia may have been populated by two separate groups of humans - one arriving via Papua New Guinea, the other via Indonesia, a researcher says.
But more work is needed to confirm the idea. And not all scientists agree that these latest results shed new light on the long-standing debate on how humans colonised Australia.
Dr Sheila van Holst Pellekaan, a molecular anthropologist from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, will prese
Source: 24dash.com
November 30, 2006
An ancient curse aimed at a thief is one of a number of treasures to be unveiled to the public for the first time, following the largest archaeological excavation the city of Leicester has ever seen.
Over the past three years, a team of up to 60 archaeologists from University of Leicester Archaeological Services has been working on a number of sites in the city.
Almost 9% of Leicester's historic core has been subject to investigation in some form, giving new insights in
Source: http://www.apollon.uio.no
November 30, 2006
A new archaeological find in Botswana shows that our ancestors in Africa engaged in ritual practice 70,000 years ago — 30,000 years earlier than the oldest finds in Europe. This sensational discovery strengthens Africa’s position as the cradle of modern man.
Source: Washington Informer
November 30, 2006
Father of Black History Month Carter G. Woodson would probably be jumping for joy in his grave if he knew what Pamela Roberts was doing in a small buzzing metropolis north of London in England.
On the campus of Oxford University, a premier institution in the English-speaking world, Roberts leads a tour group regularly of people interested in uncovering Black scholarship.
Launched at the beginning of October in commemoration of Black History Month (BHM) in the United K
Source: AP
November 29, 2006
Flags waved, a bagpipe wailed "Amazing Grace" and eulogies of courage and comradeship flowed Wednesday for Army Sgt. 1st Class Schuyler B. Haynes, a descendant of a famous Revolutionary War general, who was killed in Iraq two weeks ago.
"He was a loyal friend and courageous leader, equally at home with any soldier, NCO or officer," said Jimmy Campbell, who served with Haynes in Iraq, and was among 300 at the funeral Wednesday at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Churc
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 30, 2006
A senior American official has spoken of "the myth of the special relationship" between the United States and Britain, arguing that Tony Blair got "nothing, no payback" for supporting President George W Bush in Iraq.
Kendall Myers, a leading State Department adviser, suggested that Mr Blair should have been ditched by Labour but the party had lacked the "courage or audacity" to remove him.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, was "s
Source: Asia News International
November 29, 2006
Fine art auctioneers and valuers Bonham's, which has been in the business of auctioneering since 1793, will today auction off the world's oldest known bottle of whisky.
The Glenavon, produced by a Speyside distillery, which closed down in the 1850s, could fetch as much as 10,000 pounds [almost $20,000] or 300 pounds a peg [= 60 ml], reports The Scotsman.
Collectors, it seems, have expressed a willingness to pay thousands for the olive-green bottle that sports a yellow
Source: Times Online (UK)
November 29, 2006
A tiny 18th-century ceramic bowl decorated with apricot blossom and swallows that was made for an emperor smashed the world record for a piece of Chinese porcelain yesterday by selling for more than $19 million (£9.8million).
The exquisite masterpiece of famille rose ware, which once belonged to Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress, fetched double its expected sale price to become the most expensive artwork sold in Asia. Famille rose refers to the type of glaze used to coat the bo
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 29, 2006
Gordon Brown, Robert Burns, Lorraine Kelly, Robert the Bruce - which one is the most famous Scottish person past or present? The answer, none of them.
The Loch Ness monster, whose existence is still seriously in doubt, beat them all in a poll to discover the top Scot down through the ages.
More than 2,000 adults across the UK were asked who they thought was the country’s best-known son or daughter. Almost a third of them named the mythical creature.
Source: AP
November 28, 2006
Florida State University student Daniel Lee learned in fourth grade most of what he knew about the Seminole Indians, namesakes of his school's athletic teams. It wasn't much.
"You get the puddle deep in-depth analysis," joked Lee, 22, of Gainesville. "I want to know why we chose the Seminoles and how our university's policies embody the spirit and strength of the Seminole culture."
Lee, a music education major, had to wait until his senior year to
Source: AP
November 28, 2006
The lists run into the tens of thousands -- men, women and children tossed into the Nazi machinery of death from just one small country, Holland. Most are unknown, lost in the ashes of the Holocaust.
But buried in List No. 40 in a frayed ledger in the world's largest storehouse of documents on Holocaust victims, the name Anne Frank is quickly recognizable.
Today, her diary has made her world famous, but on a day in September 1944 she was just another name -- a terrifi
Source: AP
November 28, 2006
To evade authorities chasing him, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski kept shoes with smaller soles attached to the bottom in his reclusive Montana cabin, according to evidence released 10 years after his capture.
The shoes were intended to make it appear as if a person with smaller footprints were walking in them, investigators believe.
Kaczynski, 64, is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for a bombing spree that lasted from 1978 to 1995. The blasts from ho
Source: AFP
November 29, 2006
A plague of woodworm and a handy local
drugstore were the secrets behind the extraordinary
success of the Stradivarius violin, a scientist
believes.
For centuries, historians of music, instrument makers
and chemists have been trying to decipher how Antonio
Stradivari, working in the small Italian town of
Cremona three centuries ago, was able to make violins
whose acoustic qualities have never been surpassed.
Theories abo
Source: Reuters
December 1, 2006
A single, gigantic asteroid slammed into Earth 65
million years ago, dooming the dinosaurs and many other species,
scientists said on Thursday in a new study rebutting theories that
multiple impacts did the deed.
An examination of rock sediments drilled from five sites at the bottom of
the Atlantic Ocean strongly supports the notion that one massive hunk of
space rock caused the mass extinction, a research team led by University
of Missouri-Columbia geology professor Ken MacLeod foun
Source: Reuters
December 1, 2006
A German chain of shops has removed miniature wooden
Santa Claus figures from its shelves and destroyed them after customers
complained it looked like they were giving the stiff-armed Hitler salute
that is outlawed.
Josef Lange, a spokesman for the Rossmann chain that has 1,200 outlets,
told Reuters Friday the figures depicting Father Christmas with his right
arm stiffly upright toward the sky and holding a sack in his left hand
upset some customers."We were astonished by the reacti
Source: Reuters
December 1, 2006
NOUAKCHOTT - Born a slave, like his entire family, Matalla
Mbreik toiled from dawn to dusk selling water and tending his master's
flocks on the lonely fringes of the Saharan desert, until he could take no
more.
"I still have the scars from my beatings, like my mother and sisters,"
said the 32-year-old Mauritanian, staring at the floor, dressed in flowing
pale-blue embroidered robes."All they gave us to eat were leftovers."
After years spent dreaming of escape, Mbreik seized his c
