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: Discovery News
March 15, 2011
A new internet platform has been launched today to rescue cultural heritage sites on the verge of being irremediably lost, said Global Heritage Fund, a California-based nonprofit organization that focuses on historical preservation.
Called Global Heritage Network (GHN), the platform is the first early warning and threat monitoring system for saving endangered sites in developing countries, where financial resources and expertise are limited.
Combining Google Earth, scie
Source: BBC
March 16, 2011
Archaeologists think they may have found evidence that Iron Age Britons were capable of building roads - before the Romans arrived.
Environmental consultants SLR examined a road, thought to be built in the 1st century BC, at Bayston Hill quarry, Shropshire.
Director Tim Malim said the age of the find suggested its construction was not a result of Roman influence....
Source: BBC
March 15, 2011
Three decades before the current nuclear crisis in Japan, the eyes of the world were on an unfolding disaster at America's Three Mile Island nuclear plant.
The event that became seared into America's collective memory began at 4am on Wednesday 28 March, 1979.
A relatively routine malfunction in a non-nuclear system at the Three Mile Island (TMI) plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in America's northeast, caused a relief valve to open, releasing coolant from the core.
Source: AP
March 16, 2011
Scientists say they have discovered the first fossil of a dinosaur in Angola, and that it's a new creature, heralding a research renaissance in a country slowly emerging from decades of war.
A paper published Wednesday in the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences describes a long-necked, plant-eating sauropod, among the largest creatures ever to have walked the earth. The international team that found and identified the fossilized forelimb bone say it is from a previously unkn
Source: CNN
March 16, 2011
Dutch researchers found the wreck of a World War I German submarine in 2009 but kept the discovery secret until this week, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported.
The crew of the research ship HNLMS Snellius hoped they'd found a Dutch submarine that disappeared in 1940, but the vessel turned out to be much older. A brass plate indicated the sub was the German U-106, which sank during World War I, the radio report said.
The announcement of the discovery was delayed while G
Source: BBC News
March 15, 2011
An effort is being made to reunite 19 people who watched The Beatles play in a town hall before the band had their first hit.
Billy Shanks is helping to lead the search for the audience members of the 1963 gig in Dingwall, Ross-shire.
He said others who went to see The Beatles thought their music was rubbish and left to join an audience of 1,200 watching a local band in Strathpeffer.
A reunion event has been planned for 8 April this year.
Membe
Source: BBC News
March 14, 2011
The US has urged Haiti's former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to delay his return from exile until after presidential elections on 20 March.
A State Department spokesman said it was up to Haiti to decide whether the former leader should be allowed home.
But he said a return before the election could be "destabilising".
A spokesman for Mr Aristide said last Friday that he would return from South Africa "in a few days" but insisted the
Source: BBC News
March 15, 2011
A film charting the rise of Bob Marley and The Wailers to international stardom - made from footage shot in the early 1970s and lost for 30 years - is set to get its first public viewing.
It was New York, late 1972, and Esther Anderson was attending an event hosted by Island Records, when Bob Marley walked in.
"He didn't smile but he was very handsome with strong features, he reminded me of Jimi Hendrix," she remembers.
Bob Marley was a guest of r
Source: BBC News
March 16, 2011
The disappearance of Rome's Ninth Legion has long baffled historians, but could a brutal ambush have been the event that forged the England-Scotland border, asks archaeologist Dr Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University.
One of the most enduring legends of Roman Britain concerns the disappearance of the Ninth Legion.
The theory that 5,000 of Rome's finest soldiers were lost in the swirling mists of Caledonia, as they marched north to put down a rebellion, forms the basi
Source: BBC News
March 16, 2011
Scientists have dusted off X-ray equipment dating from shortly after the discovery of the rays in 1895, in order to put it through its paces.
Researchers from the same Dutch town where the system was originally built used it to produce striking images that belie its simplicity and age.
The team said the images required a radiation dose to the subject some 1,500 times higher than a modern X-ray.
Details of the research were published reported in the journal
Source: BBC News
March 15, 2011
Disney Studios has scrapped plans for a 3D remake of The Beatles' 1968 film Yellow Submarine, according to industry paper Hollywood Reporter.
The new film was being developed by director Robert Zemekis incorporating the 16 Beatles songs and recordings from the original animated film.
Budget issues and a cancelled meeting with surviving Beatles' members were cited as reasons for the film's demise.
However, Zemekis is still free to try and sell the project to
Source: AOL News
March 13, 2011
Crime solvers follow the money, but experts searching for the lost city of Atlantis? In archaeology, "you should follow the stones," Richard Freund said.
Freund, a University of Hartford professor, believes he and his research team have found the legendary island-city described by Plato in about 360 B.C. as having "in a single day and night ... disappeared into the depths of the sea."
Using satellite photography, ground-penetrating radar, underwater
Source: Worcester News
March 14, 2011
COUNTY archaeologists have provided conclusive proof that the plague which wiped out about 60 per cent of the European population in the 14th century was caused by fleas.
Human skeletons excavated from pits near Hereford Cathedral helped scholars at Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service definitively confirm the plague’s origins.
The team were working as part of an international science project in partnership with the University of Mainz in Germany.
Source: Chicago Tribune
March 13, 2011
Descend beyond the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe's concrete slabs and you'll find informative, harrowing exhibits.
We were on our way to see the Brandenburg Gate when they came unexpectedly into view across the street — rows of muted gray concrete slabs of varying heights, their rise and fall taking up an entire city block.
The sight stopped us in our tracks.
"That must be the Holocaust Memorial," I said.
"It can't poss
Source: BBC News
March 15, 2011
Guatemalans who were deliberately infected with syphilis or gonorrhoea in medical tests in the 1940s are suing the US government for compensation.
Hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners, psychiatric patients and orphans were infected without their consent in a programme to study penicillin.
A class action lawsuit was filed by lawyers for the Guatemalans and their relatives.
The US apologised last year for the "reprehensible" experiments.
Bu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 12, 2011
One of Britain’s most traditionalist churches is threatening to tear itself apart over the introduction of hymns during services for the first time in a century.
Unhappy worshippers at the Free Church of Scotland have started a campaign to overturn the decision, arguing that it amounts to “new gimmicks to fill church pews”.
The staunchly Presbyterian church, nicknamed the Wee Frees, has traditionally sung unaccompanied psalms as many members believe they are singing sc
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 13, 2011
Children’s understanding of the past is being undermined by poor history teaching and crowded timetables, Government inspectors warned today.
Ofsted said history suffered in many primary schools because of weak subject knowledge among staff and the use of “disconnected topics” in lessons.
At secondary level, growing numbers of pupils are now exposed to just two years of compulsory history classes instead of the recommended three.
In a damning c
Source: National Parks Traveler
March 12, 2011
Ribbon cutting ceremonies for new buildings are commonplace, but the dedication of a new visitor center for Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore on March 3, 2011, included plenty of unique touches. Among them was a customized bakery creation that proved you can have your cake and shoot it too.
Given the history of the fort, it's appropriate that the event included deep drum rolls and cannon fire that could be heard a mile away, and when organizers decided
Source: News.az
March 15, 2011
Archaeologists found a medieval settlement in 2 km north of Uzuntepe village of Jalilabad.
According to the news service for the National Academy of Science of Azerbaijan, archaeologists called the settlement Goshatepe, since it is divided in two parts by hills....
Source: Irish Times
March 15, 2011
REMNANTS of what appears to have been a medieval mill, including “very well-preserved” timber beams, pottery and leather shoes, have been found underneath Meeting House Square in Temple Bar, Dublin.
The discovery by archaeologists came as part of the mandatory archaeological survey, as work got under way on the construction of a retractable rain-cover over the square. The building works have now been halted.
Temple Bar Cultural Trust is describing the discovery as “very
