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: NPR
March 6, 2011
South Carolina claims Andrew Jackson as its only president. But wait — on the grounds of the North Carolina capitol, a bronze statue of Jackson sits with two others as "Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation."
For a century, the two Carolinas have quarreled over which can claim to be the birthplace of the seventh American president.
Dueling monuments sit within miles of each other south of Charlotte, N.C. For decades, one high school in Lancaster County, S.
Source: Medievalists.net
March 8, 2011
Researchers in Wales have digitally reconstructed the face of Owain Glyndŵr, the Welsh ruler who waged a revolt against English rule in the fifteenth-century. First revealed on the Welsh TV documentary The Face of Glyndŵr, it depicts a powerful-looking man with penetrating brown eyes, dark brown hair, a dark beard with hints of grey in it, a sharply-defined nose and battle scars along with a wart under one eye.
Produced by Wild Dream Films and the Welsh channel S4C
Source: WSJ
March 9, 2011
RICHMOND – When you think of wars fought in Virginia, what comes to mind?
Probably the Civil War: During the war that began 150 years ago, most of the battles were waged and more than 100,000 soldiers were killed in Virginia.
Or maybe the American Revolution: Virginians led the drive for independence in 1776, and Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in the war’s last major battle.
But Virginia state officials want you to think of a different conflict – t
Source: BBC
March 10, 2011
Archaeologists are to dig up the garden of a Ceredigion pub in the search for a legendary Victorian circus elephant.
The Tregaron Elephant has long had its place in local folklore - a beast that died while on tour rumoured to be buried behind the town's Talbot Hotel.
A small-scale excavation in April will search for clues in the hope of revealing its final resting place.
The elephant was said to have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water in the town
Source: BBC
March 10, 2011
A statue by French sculptor Auguste Rodin was stolen during the Israel Museum's recently completed renovation, the museum has said.
The nude bronze of French novelist Honore de Balzac was one of a series of four for a Balzac monument in Paris.
It was donated to the museum by the Jewish American songwriter Billy Rose in 1966. Independent estimates put its value at about $350,000 (£220,000).
Rodin is renowned for masterpieces such as The Thinker and The Kiss.
Source: BBC
March 10, 2011
Archaeologists working on a housing development in Oxfordshire claim to have found one of the oldest complete pots in the country.
The neolithic find was discovered on a housing development in Didcot and is thought to be about 5,500 years old.
Archaeologist Rob Masefield said they could determine its age by the nature of the pot.
The change from a hunter-gatherer to farming way of life is what defines the start of the neolithic age.
The conce
Source: BBC
March 8, 2011
Modern humans may have originated from southern Africa, an extensive genetic study has suggested.
Data showed that hunter-gatherer populations in the region had the greatest degree of genetic diversity, which is an indicator of longevity.
It says that the region was probably the best location for the origin of modern humans, challenging the view that we came from eastern Africa.
The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....
Source: Discovery News
March 4, 2011
Was Hamlet, Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark, actually Irish? That is the question, according to a paper published in the latest edition of the journal Review of English Studies.
Scholars have long agreed that William Shakespeare based his Hamlet on Amlethus, a legendary figure found in the "History of the Danes," a saga written around 1200.
The name Amlethus was then traced back to the word Amlothi, which appears in a 10th or 11th century poem by the Icelandic
Source: Discovery News
March 9, 2011
Concerned archaeologists called today on Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to return police to archaeological sites. The move is required to put an end to illegal excavations and wild looting of storehouses and tombs.
Following the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak last month, a new unprecedented wave of looting and vandalism took place at various sites in Egypt.
In the past few weeks, looters have removed inscribed blocks from tombs at Saqqara, Giza and
Source: BBC
March 9, 2011
People in Tredegar are being urged to attend a "heritage summit" to discuss how to save the town's crumbling listed and historically significant buildings.
The National Coal Board Club and the old general hospital building are among those seen at risk.
Organisers of Wednesday's meeting say the hope it will galvanise the town into drawing up an action plan.
The town was the home of Aneurin Bevan, who created the National Health Service in 1948.
Source: BBC
March 9, 2011
Two Bronze Age burial pots containing human remains have been found at the base of a standing stone in Angus.
Archaeologists excavated the ground around the Carlinwell Stone at Airlie, near Kirriemuir, after it fell over earlier in the winter.
Both pots - known as collared urns - could be up to 4,000 years old and were typically used in early Bronze age cremation burials.
The 7ft (2.1m) high monolith will be re-erected on Friday....
Source: BBC
March 9, 2011
London's Natural History Museum (NHM) will return the skeletal remains of 138 indigenous people taken from the Torres Strait Islands in the 19th Century.
Early explorers, missionaries, and others had collected the body parts for all manner of reasons, including as curios.
Repatriation follows a long campaign by indigenous leaders who regarded the removal as an affront to local customs.
The souls of the dead had not been able to rest, the islanders said....
Source: BBC
March 9, 2011
Google is to donate $1.25m (£770,000) to a project that aims to create an archive of Nelson Mandela's life.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation Centre of Memory is digitising photographs, letters and other documents relating to the former South African president.
A similar project, chronicling the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, will also receive $1.25m.
The money will be used to help collect documents and to ensure that poor, rural communities can access them.
Source: AP
March 9, 2011
A federal grand jury has indicted a 20-year-old Texas college student from Saudi Arabia on a single count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
The grand jury in Lubbock handed up its indictment Wednesday against Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari.
Prosecutors say Aldawsari was attempting to build a bomb with components bought online and that he was mulling plans to attack various sites, including dams, nuclear plants and the Dallas home of former President George W. B
Source: CNN
March 9, 2011
The Dalai Lama announced Thursday his plan to retire as political head of the exiled movement, according to his website.
He said he will formally propose amendments to the Charter for Tibetans in Exile to make the change at the upcoming session of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile that begins Monday. If the changes are made, leadership of the group would be passed to an elected leader.
The Dalai Lama told CNN in October that he would like to retire at some point....
Source: LA Times
March 8, 2011
The house that some say inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to write "The Great Gatsby" is doomed. It's slated to be razed and its property parceled up into new developments.
The once-grand home called Lands End has fallen into disrepair. But back in the day, the 25-room, 20,000-square-foot Colonial Revival mansion was home to parties attended by Winston Churchill, the Marx brothers, Dorothy Parker and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. According to local lore, Fitzgerald drank the
Source: LA Times
March 8, 2011
Reporting from Berkeley -- Harriet Elinor Smith was accustomed to anonymity. As lead editor for the "Autobiography of Mark Twain" and other Twain books, she has spent decades holed up with rare documents in a UC Berkeley office, fretting over commas and obscure references to 19th century personalities.
So Smith was stunned recently to be recognized by a fellow BART train passenger who had seen her on television, speaking about the astonishingly successful first volume of T
Source: AP
March 9, 2011
David Broder, the Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post political columnist whose even-handed treatment of Democrats and Republicans set him apart from the ideological warriors on the nation's op-ed pages, died Wednesday. He was 81.
Post officials said Broder died of complications from diabetes.
Broder, an Illinois native, was familiar to television viewers as a frequent panelist on NBC's "Meet the Press" Program. He appeared on the program more than 400 time
Source: WaPo
March 8, 2011
PHILADELPHIA -- A comic collector has been caught in Spider-Man's web, paying $1.1 million for a near-mint copy of "Amazing Fantasy" No. 15 that features the wall-crawler's debut.
The issue, first published in 1962, was sold Monday by a private seller to a private buyer, ComicConnect.com chief executive Stephen Fishler told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
It's not the highest price ever paid for a comic book, an honor that goes to "Action Comics" No
Source: WaPo
March 8, 2011
During the chaotic days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Basim Elkarra was passing by an Islamic school in Sacramento when he did a double-take: The windows were covered with thousands of origami cranes - peace symbols that had been created and donated by Japanese Americans.
Amid the anger and suspicions being aimed at Muslims at that time, the show of support "was a powerful symbol that no one will ever forget," said Elkarra, a Muslim American community leader
