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: CNN.com
March 15, 2011
(CNN) -- The explosion Tuesday at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has elevated the situation there to a "serious accident" on a level just below Chernobyl, a French nuclear official said, referring to an international scale that rates the severity of such incidents.
The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale -- or INES -- goes from Level 1, which indicates very little danger to the general population, to Level 7, a "major accident" in which th
Source: The Atlantic
March 15, 2011
With the massive quake and tsunami that struck Japan last week, the specter of another devastating event has returned: The 1923 Kanto earthquake, which shook the region around Tokyo, was the country's last"big one." The 7.9-magnitude quake reduced much of Tokyo to rubble, and as refugees tried to leave, firestorms swept through the city. More than 100,000 people died during the Kanto quake and its aftermath. These archival images, drawn from the U.S. Geological Survey, AP, and Brown University'
Source: CNN
March 12, 2011
She is one of the best-known crime writers of all time but few know the extent of Agatha Christie's archaeological pedigree.
Married in 1930 to eminent archaeologist Max Mallowan, Christie spent two decades living on excavation sites in the Middle East, writing her crime novels and helping out with her husband's work.
Travel by boat and on the Orient Express to far-flung places such as Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad inspired some of Christie's best-known works of detective
Source: Püblic Opinion Online (PA)
March 14, 2011
A Fayetteville re-enactor who dresses as a German soldier in World War II has found a friend who actually served in the German military during the war.
Jason Mixell met 87-year-old Gustau Rewwer in December 2010. At the time, Mixell was putting on a display of his German military artifacts.
The two got acquainted and have kept in touch. Mixell even took the veteran to a re-enactment of the Battle of the Bulge at Fort Indiantown Gap.
Rewwer (pronounced like
Source: Montreal Gazette
March 14, 2011
Most young Canadians know little or nothing about most of the wars and peacekeeping missions their countrymen have served in, according to a survey done one year ago for Veterans Affairs Canada.
While a bare majority of the 13-to-17-year-olds surveyed claimed to know at least a moderate amount about the Second World War, their knowledge fell off rapidly beyond that.
More than two-thirds said they knew very little or nothing at all about the First World War, and nearly a
Source: BBC News
March 15, 2011
Neil Diamond, Tom Waits and Alice Cooper have become the latest music stars to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
They were joined by New Orleans pianist Dr John and R&B singer Darlene Love at the annual ceremony in New York.
Waits said: "They say I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with... like it's a bad thing."
The ceremony will be aired on US cable TV on 20 March.
One of the most successful artists of a
Source: The Huffington Post
March 14, 2011
Leo Steinberg, the Russian-born art historian and Renaissance scholar whose work had a heroic impact on the understanding and reception of American postwar art, particularly Pop and postmodern art, passed away at the age of 90 on Sunday in New York. His death was reported in an email circulated by Utrecht-based art historian Gary Schwartz, and confirmed by University of Pennsylvania art history department chair Professor Holly Pittman.
A writer and thinker of immense erudition, Stei
Source: NYT
March 15, 2011
TRIPOLI, Libya — Akram al-Warfalli, a leader of this country’s giant Warfalla tribe, said only a few words in his interview with Al Jazeera: “We tell the brother Qaddafi, well, he is no longer a brother,” Mr. Warfalli said. “We tell him to leave the country.”
It appeared to be the defection of a powerful tribe that has supported Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi — a powerful inspiration for the revolts that were then taking shape in the east. Some Libyans and scholars outside the country say
Source: NYT
March 15, 2011
Fire, scientists agree, helped give rise to a successful, thriving human population by providing heat for cooking and protection from the cold.
But they don’t agree exactly when humans began using fire. Some researchers argue that it occurred more than a million years ago when early humans made their way to Europe from Africa, and others say it happened much later. Now, a new study argues that humans did not master fire until about 400,000 years ago.
Two archaeologists,
Source: NYT
March 15, 2011
NATORI, Japan — Hirosato Wako stared at the ruins of his small fishing hamlet: skeletons of shattered buildings, twisted lengths of corrugated steel, corpses with their hands twisted into claws. Only once before had he seen anything like it: World War II.
“I lived through the Sendai air raids,” said Mr. Wako, 75, referring to the Allied bombings of the northeast’s largest city. “But this is much worse.”
For the elderly who live in the villages lining Japan’s northeaster
Source: NYT
March 14, 2011
BERLIN — While Americans have been obsessing lately about Charlie Sheen and his live-in porn film stars, Germany has been consumed by improprieties over a doctoral thesis.
All the German talk shows, the front pages of the country’s newspapers and magazines, its political pundits and comedians (yes, there are German comedians), not to mention the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have taken to the streets or to the pages of Facebook, have had a field day indulging in very Germ
Source: Discovery News
March 11, 2011
Could a genetic disorder and a rare blood type explain Henry VIII's health problems, his wives' miscarriages, and even his madness?
Among a long list of personality quirks and historical drama, Henry VIII is known for the development of health problems in mid-life and a series of miscarriages for two of his wives. In a new study, researchers propose that Henry had an X-linked genetic disorder and a rare blood type that could explain many of his problems.
By suggesting b
Source: BBC
March 9, 2011
Nelson Mandela's Aids charity 46664 is to launch an international fashion label, the former South African president's foundation has announced.
It will be called 46664 Apparel after the number Mr Mandela wore in jail.
Profits will go to the charity and the label is also intended to boost South Africa's clothing industry, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said.
The anti-apartheid icon spent 27 years in prison before becoming South Africa's first black president
Source: BBC
March 14, 2011
A police force found an unfortunate twist after tracing relatives of a police officer who died in the line of duty a century ago.
Pc William Davies, 43, died from injuries suffered whilst trying to make an arrest in Montgomery in 1903.
Dyfed Powys Police traced Pc Davies' descendants because it wants to restore his grave's headstone.
But descendants revealed police evicted Pc Davies' family from their home two weeks after the officer died.
The
Source: BBC
March 14, 2011
Researchers believe that Robert Burns' relationship with Highland Mary, the woman described as his muse, was dramatically exaggerated.
Academics at Glasgow University said the myth was largely constructed to lend cultural significance to the poet himself.
Highland Mary, whose real name was Mary Campbell, died in 1786 only a few weeks after meeting Burns.
The Bard went on to publish works dedicated to her.
The Highland Lassie, O, Highland Mary a
Source: BBC
March 14, 2011
A 200-year-old love letter has been found hidden in the arm of a chair at a furniture upholsterers in Tewkesbury.
The note, written in French, was bought in a house clearance in France.
The chair's owner, Georgina Mucklow-Davis, explained that it came from a house in the village of St Marcel sur Aude she bought "from a lovely French family who've been living there for over 150 years".
She has written to the family asking if they have any idea who
Source: BBC
March 14, 2011
Lincolnshire County Council has announced new plans to put the Magna Carta back on public display in Lincoln Castle.
The council originally wanted to house the exhibit in the building currently used by the crown court, which is situated inside the castle grounds.
But plans to move the court away from the castle were abandoned by HM Courts Service.
The new plans are for the Magna Carta to be housed in a purpose-built vault....
Source: Guardian (UK)
March 10, 2011
A leather football that British soldiers dribbled through no man's land while coming under machine-gun fire during a first world war battle has been saved for posterity after being discovered in an old box.
Members of the London Irish Rifles soccer team smuggled the ball out of their own trenches – against orders – during the battle of Loos in 1915 and passed it among themselves, determined to boot it into the German lines.
They didn't make it and the ball ended up pier
Source: Discovery News
March 7, 2011
A married couple from Pompeii have been reunited with the recovery of a missing piece of a 2000-year-old marble puzzle made of several inscribed fragments.
Broken apart and buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., the pieces belonged to a tomb inscription.
They were unearthed in 1813 along the Via dei Sepolcri in Pompeii near a burial tomb known as "Tomb of the Marble Door."
Still under construction at the time of the eruption, the
Source: NYT
March 11, 2011
After five years and more than 700 hours of delicate restoration work, a green gown shimmering with the iridescent wings of 1,000 beetles, which caused a sensation when Ellen Terry wore it as Lady Macbeth in 1888, is going on display again.
The dress, transforming the beautiful red-haired actor into a cross between a jewelled serpent and a medieval knight, was the talk of the town after the first night. John Singer Sargent painted Terry wearing it, and the artist's neighbour, Oscar
