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: BBC
March 22, 2011
A unique image, for the first time, has mapped organic compounds that are still surviving in a 50-million-year-old sample of reptile skin.
The infra-red picture reveals the chemical profile of the skin, offering an insight into how it was preserved.
A team of UK scientists say the sample was so well preserved that it was hard to tell the difference between the fossil and the fresh samples.
The details appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 18, 2011
Mexico's pyramids are at risk of being damaged by thousands of people who will gather at them for the Spring Equinox, the country's heritage protection body has warned.
Large numbers of tourists and Mexicans are expected to descend on historic sites such as Chichen-Itza and the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan this Sunday.
But the National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH), the government agency entrusted with protecting Mexico's rich cultural heritage, takes
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 22, 2011
A Kremlin holiday retreat that was a favourite of Boris Yeltsin, the late Russian president, complete with tennis court, sauna and crystal chandeliers is to be auctioned off for more than £6 million after falling into a state of disrepair.
In what is being billed as a unique opportunity to snap up a piece of modern Russian history, Yeltsin's dacha or country estate in northwest Russia is to go on the block next month with a recommended starting price of £6.25 million.
Source: AP
March 22, 2011
A fire has ripped through a two-century-old theater in northern Paris said to be a birthplace of French cabaret-style cancan dancing.
The blaze gutted the building whose internal structural supports were designed by Gustave Eiffel, famed for the Eiffel Tower.
The fire at the the Elysee Montmartre theater spewed plumes of smoke over the Montmartre neighborhood that is also home to the Moulin Rouge cabaret....
Source: AP
March 22, 2011
President Barack Obama stood, eyes closed, in a personal moment of silence before the tomb of slain Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, whose fight for the poor during El Salvador's bloody civil war made him a national hero — and an international figure in human rights.
The visit Tuesday in the final hours of Obama's five-day swing through Latin America was a symbolic gesture that some called U.S. recognition of Romero's cause.
Obama toured the national cath
Source: AP
March 22, 2011
Frank Neuhauser, who in 1925 won the first national spelling bee with the word "gladiolus," and went on to become a patent lawyer, has died. He was 97.
Neuhauser died March 11 in his home Silver Spring, Md., home, Francis J. Collins Funeral Home verified on Tuesday.
He was 11 years old when he won the championship. His prizes included $500 in gold and a trip to the White House to meet President Calvin Coolidge....
Source: CNN
March 22, 2011
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro said Tuesday he resigned as the head of the Communist Party five years ago and has never tried to resume the post -- one that he was thought to still hold.
It was the first time that the 84-year-old leader of Cuba's revolution stated so directly that he no longer heads up the party he founded.
Cubans and foreign observers had believed that the head of the Communist Party was the one title that Castro still held after he was forced to
Source: Fox News
March 21, 2011
One issue and two words comprised the debate at Philadelphia's Constitutional Convention on August 17, 1787.
The Founders struggled with whether they should grant war authority to the legislature or the executive. And the Founders also wrestled with what verb they should use when entering into war: "make" or "declare."
Charles Pinckney of South Carolina worried about vesting war power with the legislature. Pinckney argued that legislative proceedings
Source: The Independent
March 20, 2011
It was one of the biggest and probably the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil. Such was its ferocity almost 1 per cent of the English population was wiped out in a single day. Yet mention the Battle of Towton to most people and you would probably get a blank stare.
Next week marks the 550th anniversary of the engagement that changed the course of the Wars of the Roses. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 soldiers took part in the battle in 1461 between the House
Source: NYT
March 21, 2011
Some history is in order.
In the late 1850s, an architect whose name is lost in the mists of time designed a five-story building at 45-47 Park Place, in the neighborhood now called TriBeCa.
Leap forward to 1989. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission considered designating the building a landmark, but saw no reason to take action. If any New Yorkers felt that an injustice had been done, they kept it to themselves for many years....
In 2009, the build
Source: Kent Online (UK)
March 21, 2011
Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient burial ground in Kent where around a hundred people were laid to rest.
The site - dating back to the late Roman era - is on the former Hallets garage site in Canterbury's St Dunstan's.
Experts have found hardly any grave goods and since most of the bodies are lying east/west they are believed to be mainly Christian.
The excavation is being carried by Canterbury Archaeological Trust.
Director Paul Bennett
Source: Polskie Radio (Poland)
March 20, 2011
A major stronghold and a Medieval settlement have been discovered by Polish archeologists in Sudan at the start of a three year research project realized by the Prehistory Institute of Poznan University and the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan.
The Hosh esh-Sheitan stronghold, or Satan’s Court, is situated in the Nile valley.
“There is no written mention of it and yet it is one of the biggest strongholds in this part of the Nile Valley”, says Po
Source: Jerusalem Post
March 21, 2011
Labor Party lawmaker Anders Mathisen tells newspaper the Holocaust never happened and challenges readers to prove him wrong.
“There is no evidence the gas chambers or mass graves existed," he told the newspaper, according to reports. "Even reputable Holocaust historians have admitted it cannot be established.”
Mathisen reportedly has spent months researching World War II concentration camps and is advocating changing history books, according to the Coordinatio
Source: BBC News
March 21, 2011
It was one of Northern Ireland's darkest days - the Belfast Blitz.
15 April 1941 was a night when nearly 1,000 people were killed during a sustained bombing campaign by the Germans.
The city was regarded as a legitimate target during World War II because of its shipyard and aircraft factory.
The night chosen by the bombers to carry out their deadly attack was Easter Tuesday 1941.
An air warden in Belfast that night said "The sirens started
Source: CNN
March 22, 2011
Grammy-winning blues pianist Willie "Pinetop" Perkins died at his home in Austin, Texas, Monday, his official website said.
He was 97.
"It is with deep sadness that we announce Pinetop Perkins passed away," the web page said.
The Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award winner scored solo success late in his seven-decade-long career, releasing 14 albums between 1988 and 2010. He was the oldest person ever awarded a Grammy.
Source: BBC News
March 22, 2011
Israel's former President Moshe Katsav has been jailed for seven years for rape and other sex offences.
He was convicted at an earlier hearing of raping an employee in the 1990s when he was tourism minister, and of later sexual offences while he was president.
The rape victim, known as Woman A, told the court he had first attacked her at the tourism ministry office, and later at a hotel in Jerusalem.
Katsav resigned from the largely ceremonial post of presi
Source: BBC News
March 21, 2011
Twitter launched five years ago with the simple message "just setting up my twttr". In the same way, many technological breakthroughs that ultimately shaped the world began life, not with a fanfare of trumpets, but with a few humble words.
"Alright, so here we are in front of the elephants."
And so with great understatement, the first words were uttered on YouTube, in its first video posted in April 2005.
Me at the Zoo depicts co-founder
Source: NYT
March 21, 2011
Supreme Court arguments often concern not just the narrow issue in the case but also the implications of a ruling. You sometimes catch the justices squinting, trying to see over the legal horizon.
Nine years ago, for instance, the court heard arguments in a case about whether Congress was free to add 20 years of copyright protection for works that had not yet entered the public domain.
Several justices asked about a different and even tougher question: Was Congress also
Source: The Guardian (UK)
March 21, 2011
A century after Machu Picchu's rediscovery, ancient Mayan and Moche sites are being ransacked for tourist baubles.
Etched into the surviving art of the Moche, one of South America's most ancient and mysterious civilisations, is a fearsome creature dubbed the Decapitator. Also known as Ai Apaec, the octopus-type figure holds a knife in one hand and a severed head in the other in a graphic rendition of the human sacrifices the Moche practiced in northern Peru 1,500 years ago.
Source: CNN
March 21, 2011
Though they sit quietly beneath the waves, shipwrecks are a cause of much wrangling above the surface. The issue of underwater archaeology is clouded by concerns about treasure hunting, the safety of wrecks, and the sale of finds.
A planned 2012 exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, featuring 9th century Chinese artifacts salvaged from a wreck in Indonesian waters in 1998 is at the center of the latest row.
Archaeologists within the institution -- and f
