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: Reuters
May 23, 2011
NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) – In the capital of one of the world's most religiously-diverse countries, a Rabbi who has never been ordained bends ancient customs, ensuring New Delhi's ten Jewish families a place to worship.Unlike most synagogues, there is no separation of men and women as Jewish-born worshippers, converts and followers of other faiths chant Psalms in perfect Hebrew, with doors thrown open to all. The service leader never asks attendees what religion they follow, and envisions his daughter becoming India's first female rabbi.
Source: Emory University
May 23, 2011
Analysis of ancient Nubian-era mummies finds new evidence that disease spread from altering environment.Mummies from along the Nile are revealing how age-old irrigation techniques may have boosted the plague of schistosomiasis, a water-borne parasitic disease that infects an estimated 200 million people today.
Source: Guardian (UK)
May 23, 2011
Letter signed by Adolf Hitler asks for time off from his job to fight for the presidency of the reich in 1932.A letter typed and signed by Adolf Hitler asking for time off from his job to fight for the presidency of the reich in 1932 has emerged for sale.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 24, 2011
A 15th-century manuscript is written in a language that has baffled every expert. Is it just a brilliant hoax, or will someone eventually decipher its meaning, asks Michael Day.Somewhere deep inside the bowels of Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library – the Ivy League institution's own cemetery of lost books – lies a tome that experts have studied for centuries, but which has yet to be understood by a single soul.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 24, 2011
The Nazis tried to train dogs to talk, read and spell to help them win World War II, it has been revealed.The Germans viewed canines as being almost as intelligent as humans and attempted to build an army of fearsome 'speaking' dogs, extraordinary new research shows.Hitler hoped the clever creatures would learn to communicate with their SS masters - and he even had a special dog school set up to teach them to talk.
Source: CNN
May 24, 2011
The tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, Sunday killed 118 people, authorities said Tuesday, making it the deadliest single U.S. tornado since modern record-keeping began more than 60 years ago.Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said Tuesday morning the death toll has risen to 118 and the number of deaths is expected to rise as rescuers find more bodies in the rubble.A twister in Flint, Michigan, in 1953 killed 116 people, according to the National Weather Service.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
May 23, 2011
There’s no shortage of fabulous archival material lurking in college and university collections. The trick is finding it.Without good metadata—labels that tell researchers and search engines what’s in a photograph, say—those archives are as good as closed to many students and scholars. But many institutions don’t have the resources or manpower to tag their archives thoroughly.
Source: The Root
May 20, 2011
For more than 10 years, Richmond, Va.'s oldest municipal burial ground for people of African descent has been covered over by an active parking lot owned by Virginia Commonwealth University. The dead cannot speak, so Richmond's African-American community has been fighting to remove the parking lot and protect its ancestral legacy.
Source: The Root
May 20, 2011
The Anacostia Community Museum is one of the Smithsonian Institution's grand, federally chartered Washington, D.C., museums, but it is located miles from the Mall's gleaming white marble monuments where millions of eighth-grade history students pilgrimage each year.
Source: WaPo
May 23, 2011
MOSCOW — For the first time ever, ordinary Russians can now see documents that appear to confirm long-standing rumors that Vladimir Lenin had Jewish heritage.In a country long plagued by anti-Semitism, such heritage can be a significant taint, especially for the founder of the Soviet Union who is still revered by many elderly Russians.
Source: The Atlantic
May 20, 2011
After three years, Google announced today that it would shutter its ongoing quest to scan and archive printed newspapers. Google's News Archive, which has scanned nearly a million pages from 2,000 newspapers into an easily browsable database since 2008, was among the most ambitious attempts to record and archive newspapers in their printed form.
Source: NYT
May 20, 2011
LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II wrapped up her groundbreaking four-day visit to the Irish Republic on Friday, a trip that ranked among the most politically freighted of her almost 60 years on the throne.
Source: NYT
May 20, 2011
TBILISI, Georgia — The Georgian Parliament voted Friday to recognize the 19th-century killings and deportations of ethnic Circassians by czarist Russia as genocide, a move that is likely to inflame tensions between the two countries.
Source: Vancouver Sun (Canada)
May 20, 2011
Mexican archaeologists discovered seven ancient Maya sites on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.The sites, named Oxmul, Polok Ceh, Nichak, Cuzam, Chan Much, Tzakan and Chankiuik, were found in the eastern edges of Merida, the capital city of the state of Yucatan, with just under one million residents.B a s e d o n t h e f i n d i n g , northern Yucatan was settled a lot earlier than was previously thought, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 20, 2011
As the Red Fort in Delhi is revealed to have once been white, here are five other colour-changing monuments: The Parthenon:The stark white stone of the Parthenon in Athens was once painted in garish red, blue and yellow, according to scientists who have found traces of pigments on the building's marble. St Basil's Cathedral:
Source: FoxNews
May 20, 2011
Pro
Source: BBC News
May 19, 2011
A US governor has signed a bill requiring a French railway company to disclose its role in the Holocaust if it is to win state contracts.Martin O'Malley of Maryland signed a bill aimed at Keolis, a Paris company owned by French national railways SNCF.The company had bid to operate commuter trains in the state of Maryland.Historians say SNCF moved 76,000 Jews to Nazi camps during the Holocaust. The laws' supporters say it will force disclosure of war records.Online availability
Source: Fox News
May 19, 2011
Maryland passed legislation Thursday that requires a French rail company, as a condition for receiving a rail contract from the state, to disclose its role in transporting 76,000 people loaded in 76 cattle cars to their death in Nazi camps.
Source: NYT
May 19, 2011
WASHINGTON — After six months of struggle inside the White House to reconcile American interests in the Arab uprisings with American values, President Obama on Thursday sought to portray the region’s revolt in the historical tradition of the American Revolution and the civil rights movement....
Source: NYT
May 19, 2011
Almost since the moment the ink dried on the Book of Revelation, seers and scriptural interpreters have been announcing the precise date and time at which the faithful would be whisked off to heaven and those left behind abandoned to immediate and unpleasant annihilation.
