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
January 19, 2011
How appropriate for the creator of the mystery novel.
The shadowy visitor who left roses and a half-full bottle of cognac at Edgar Allan Poe's Baltimore grave on the writer's birthday, every year for 60 years, has failed to appear for the second year in a row. And no one knows why.
The tradition began on January 19, 1949, according to the Edgar Allan Poe Society. The last visitation came two years ago, on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Poe, the author of such dar
Source: Life Site News
January 19, 2011
BBC Radio 4 has marked the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible by claiming that King David, the Jewish king of the Old Testament who slew the giant Philistine Goliath, was in the Bible’s “only gay relationship.”
On a literary program, one of a series on the historic Bible translation, aired on Sunday, January 9th, playwright Howard Brenton claimed that David had been in love with Jonathan, the son of King Saul.
Brenton said, “To a secular reader
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 19, 2011
Mr Sarkozy made the slip during a speech in the Alsatian town of Truchtersheim, less than 20 miles from the German border.
Speaking to representatives of the agricultural industry, Mr Sarkozy said he could accepted unfair competition between China and India, but not between Germany and France.
"I'm not saying that simply because I'm in Germany," he said, before correcting himself to say: "I'm in Alsace."
The crowd immediately began jeeri
Source: WaPo
January 18, 2011
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A St. Augustine archaeologist and a team of volunteers believe they've found a piece of colonial history.
A site dug up to make way for a new trolley station has uncovered some interesting finds.
St. Augustine's city archaeologist, Carl Halbirt, says post holes and soil stains at the site indicate it may be one of the area's earliest wooden forts.
Also discovered at the site are intact glass bottles, an ornate candlestick holder, sha
Source: Fox News
January 20, 2011
The 1,200-year-old tomb of a ruler of the pre-Incan Sican culture was found recently in Peru's Lambayaque region, the director of the Las Ventanas archaeological dig announced on Wednesday.
"It's an individual seated on a litter, a funerary bundle, in which has been found in situ a crown, a mask and a series of objects that accompany him," Carlos Elera told Efe from Lambayeque.
One of the most interesting objects found is a bottle representing the funerary bun
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 19, 2011
January 1941: the Battle of Britain, so long in the balance during the summer and autumn of the previous year, is lost. The Germans, despite heavy casualties sustained during four months of desperate fighting following their landings near Dover, Folkestone and Eastbourne, have broken through the British line at Ashford and are preparing a thrust towards London. It is time to institute Black Move.
In the dead of night, a company of the Coldstream Guards, known as the Co
Source: CS Monitor
January 19, 2011
Nearly 10,000 years ago, man's best friend provided protection and companionship — and an occasional meal.
That's what researchers are saying after finding a bone fragment from what they are calling the earliest confirmed domesticated dog in the Americas.
University of Maine graduate student Samuel Belknap III came across the fragment while analyzing a dried-out sample of human waste unearthed in southwest Texas in the 1970s. A carbon-dating test put the age of the bone
Source: Lee P Ruddin
January 20, 2011
In a lecture entitled Grand Strategy of Detente, Professor Ferguson warned that “you can’t make judgements, particularly moral judgements, about a foreign policy strategy if you do not take account of the circumstances of the context.”
Appearing before a packed auditorium in central London on Tuesday evening, the Harvard historian talked about Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s policy being crucial to America’s victory in the Cold War.
Niall Ferguson is Philippe Rom
Source: NYT
January 19, 2011
WASHINGTON — As the American-led ground offensive in the first war with Iraq got under way on Feb. 24, 1991, Saddam Hussein directed his frustration at an unlikely target: the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Mr. Hussein had dispatched his foreign minister to Moscow in an 11th-hour bid to head off a ground war....
“The situation is now is getting worse,” Mr. Hussein had written the previous night in an emotional letter to the Soviet leader. “Our nation and army are confused. We a
Source: Yahoo News
January 19, 2011
Telltale hearts beat with anticipation during a rainy, midnight dreary and beyond, hoping the mysterious visitor to Edgar Allan Poe's grave would return after a one-year absence.
But once again, the unknown person who for decades has left three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe's grave on the anniversary of the writer's birth failed to appear Wednesday, fueling speculation that he may have died.
Four impostors came and went overnight. The real o
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 19, 2011
The entrance to George has been discovered in the old theatre of the Nazi prison camp, Stalag Luft III in Zagan, which was in German-occupied Poland.
George was built by men bitter that they did not escape through Harry on the night of March 24, 1944. Only later did they learn that the Gestapo murdered 50 of the 76 escapees, made famous by the film starring Steve McQueen, Sir Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson.
Sqn Ldr Ivor Harris, now 90, who operated the air pum
Source: BBC News
January 18, 2011
President John F Kennedy would have been delighted to know that his inaugural address is still remembered and admired 50 years later. Like other great communicators - including Winston Churchill before him and Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama since then - he was someone who took word-craft very seriously indeed. Recipe for Success 1. Contrasts 2. Three-part lists 3. Contrasts combined with lists 4. Alliteration 5. Bold imagery
Source: BBC News
January 17, 2011
Medieval weather records, including details from monks' diaries are helping experts work out how and why climates have changed over the past 500 years.
Edinburgh University scientists found the historic data, such as harvest records, matched modern computer simulations of climate patterns.
Researchers have assembled climate models to account for past events.
They expect the models to work well for forecasting future climate conditions, especially predicting
Source: Medievalists.net
January 17, 2011
A community archaeology project entirely run by volunteers has made a remarkable discovery in a remote Norfolk priory that could help to shed light upon one of British architectures greatest mysteries. The Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey (NMGS) was established in 2010 to search for medieval graffiti inscriptions in Norfolk churches. To date they have surveyed over fifty of the county’s 650 medieval churches and already made a number of groundbreaking discoveries. However, the most recent find,
Source: Medievalists.net
January 13, 2011
A medieval wall painting at the Tower of London has received some special attention from scientists at Nottingham Trent University. Dr Haida Liang and her team of researchers were invited by Historic Royal Palaces to use hi-tech equipment developed at the University to examine the 14th century Byward Tower wall painting – without the need to touch or damage it in any way.
For the past six years, Dr Liang and her team have been refining the development and use of non-invasive techniq
Source: Spiegel Online
January 18, 2011
A stained glass window in a small church has caused a sensation in France. Unveiled in 1941, it depicts Adolf Hitler executing a saint who symbolizes the Jewish people. Local priests have praised the work as a brave act of resistance against the Nazi occupiers.
In the popular imagination, the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation of France is associated with heroic acts of guerrilla warfare, such as blowing up bridges or derailing trains. But in one small town near Paris, tw
Source: Fox2Now (St. Louis)
January 16, 2011
DOWNTOWN ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) —
It was a Civil War era reenactment like St. Louis had never seen: a slave sale on the steps of the Old Courthouse. It was part of a Lindenwood University history professor's mission to remember the overlooked figures in St. Louis history. The ugly chapter of that history came alive Saturday.
Hundreds showed up, snapping photos, rolling video of an event that seemed very real. About 50 reenactors wore the dress of the day: slaves, sl
Source: NYT
January 18, 2011
SEATTLE — A suspicious backpack found Monday along the route of a march honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Spokane, Wash., contained a live bomb that was “likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties,” federal investigators said Tuesday.
The package, found before the morning march, prompted law enforcement to ask march officials to change their route and several businesses to evacuate as investigators sent in bomb-smelling dogs, a robot and specially trained office
Source: Guardian (UK)
January 17, 2011
Police arrest tomb raider loading part of 2.5 metre statue into lorry near Lake Nemi, south of Rome, where Caligula had a villa.
The lost tomb of Caligula has been found, according to Italian police, after the arrest of a man trying to smuggle abroad a statue of the notorious Roman emperor recovered from the site.
After reportedly sleeping with his sisters, killing for pleasure and seeking to appoint his horse a consul during his rule from AD37 to 41, Caligula was descr
Source: The News (Pakistan)
January 17, 2011
As many as 30 ‘rock shelters,’ some dating back to the Stone Age, in the capital and its surroundings are on the verge of destruction due to the negligence of the relevant authorities.
According to information, there were around 30 ‘rock shelters’ in the city, which have either been partially destroyed due to construction work or facing danger of being destroyed.
A ‘rock shelter’ (also known as rock house, crepuscular cave or ‘abri’) is a shallow cave-like opening at th
