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: LA Times
December 28, 2010
Raising their children and several dogs in a converted school bus, the couple toured the country for 15 years, teaching its history through its grass-roots music.
Folk singer Rusty McNeil was willing to take her husband-and-wife act on the road in the early 1970s, but the mother of five had one stipulation: "Family had to come first."
So the McNeils converted a retired 1949 school bus into a home on wheels that they called Amazing Grace because it was "am
Source: BBC
October 27, 2010
particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers have found.
While some rock art fades in hundreds of years, the "Bradshaw art" remains colourful after at least 40,000 years.
Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland in Australia has shown that the paintings have been colonised by colourful bacteria and fungi.
These "biofilms" may explain previous difficulties in
Source: BBC
December 28, 2010
It was December 1939, Britain had declared war on Germany weeks before, and a baby girl was found abandoned in the doorway of a city centre hotel.
Pat Fitzgerald was three months old when she was found wrapped in blankets on the steps of the Royal Hotel in Cardiff.
Now 71 and a grandmother, she is appealing for help to find the relatives she has never known.
She was adopted by loving parents, but would love to trace her "lost family".
Source: BBC
December 28, 2010
A chance find during the building of a by-pass in County Donegal led to the discovery of an ancient church and graveyard. As BBC NI's Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison now reports, an analysis of human remains has given us some extraordinary insights into the lives of our ancestors in early medieval times.
The remains of 1,300 men, women and children dating from the 8th to the 16th century were taken to the Institute of Technology in Sligo for initial examination.
Dr
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 27, 2010
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela and South Africa's 'mother of the nation' is to have her own opera.
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela separated from Mandela in 1992 after an infidelity scandal. She was convicted of over 40 charges of fraud in 2003, was allegedly involved in several human rights abuses and has always been a controversial figure. However, for many South Africans, she remains a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement.
Winnie – The Opera b
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 28, 2010
The Bomber Command Memorial to 55,573 airmen who died in the Second World War could be hit by a £250,000 VAT bill because of a change in the law.
A Government scheme which exempts memorials from VAT expires on Jan 4, and with work on the £4.9m monument now scheduled to begin in May, tax will be payable on labour costs and professional fees.
Unless the Treasury agrees to waive the fee, it means the Bomber Command Association, which had met its fundraising target thanks
Source: AP
December 27, 2010
Israeli archaeologists say they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man.
A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said Monday they found teeth about 400,000 years old. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half that old.
Archaeologist Avi Gopher said Monday further research is needed to solidify the claim. If it does, he says, "this changes the whole picture of evolution."
Acc
Source: BBC News
December 27, 2010
A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers have found.
While some rock art fades in hundreds of years, the "Bradshaw art" remains colourful after at least 40,000 years.
Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland in Australia has shown that the paintings have been colonised by colourful bacteria and fungi.
These "biofilms" may explain previous difficulties in
Source: BBC News
December 28, 2010
Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back is to be preserved by the US Library of Congress as part of its National Film Registry.
Also included is Star Wars director George Lucas's student film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, made in 1967.
Spike Lee's Malcolm X, about the black political revolutionary and Saturday Night Fever also make the list.
Each year, 25 "culturally" significant films are added to the registry, which was founded in 1989.
Source: Reuters
December 23, 2010
She may be the ancient Greek Goddess of Love, but a picture of a nude Aphrodite on the new passport of Cyprus has set more than hearts racing.
Cypriot diplomats are furious with the interior ministry for failing to consult with the foreign ministry before issuing passports with a depiction of a naked immortal that might offend conservative foreign cultures.
"They are worried that civilians and diplomats could get into trouble, particularly traveling to very conserv
Source: LA Times
December 26, 2010
With a 10,000-piece Holocaust-era collection and growing, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem leads the effort to conserve and display works by persecuted artists.
Reporting from Jerusalem —
Most people skip the little art gallery at Israel's Holocaust museum Yad Vashem because they think it will be too depressing.
After an emotionally draining tour through a maze of testimonies and artifacts, few have the stamina to look at so-called Holocaust Art, which seems to promise on
Source: JTA
December 26, 2010
A Manhattan judge has ruled that an original copy of Schindler's List can be sold.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis York ruled last week that dealer Gary Zimet may auction off what is believed to be the only privately held original copy of Oskar Schindler's list of Jews, which saved more than one thousand Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Zimet, a historic document sales specialist in upstate New York, announced in March that he would sell the document
Source: Focus Taiwan
December 27, 2010
Taiwanese former comfort women denounced Japan Sunday at the opening of an exhibition that unveils Taiwan's litigation against Japan over the issue of sex slaves used by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two.
Chen Tao, one of the 13 surviving comfort women in Taiwan, said she traveled all the way from Pingtung, the southernmost county in Taiwan, to the capital to attend the opening and ask for assistance from President Ma Ying-jeou, who attended the opening, in helping the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 27, 2010
LOST letters from German prisoners of war who were held captive in the North East have been discovered after over 60 years.
Over 4,000 German officers were held at Camp 18 at Featherstone, near Haltwhistle, Northumberland, after the Second World War.
Hundreds of the soldiers would regularly leave the camp to work on local farms, and it was here that friendships were formed.
Tynedale farmer Thomas Moore has unearthed letters and black and white photographs s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 26, 2010
Kathryn Hughes delights in a new book that tells the colourful stories of the lovers-cum-models of the great painters.
For as long as man has painted, he (and it usually is a he) has painted his lovers. Look at any of the great works of Western art and, chances are, you will find a mistress, girlfriend, wife or prostitute centre stage.
They may not announce themselves as such, going under the discreet title of Woman Sewing, Girls Bathing or simply Repose. But they’re t
Source: BBC News
December 26, 2010
The Grammy-nominated American soul singer Teena Marie has been found dead at her California home at the age of 54, her manager has said.
Teena Marie often worked with funk legend Rick James with hits such as Lovergirl and Fire and Desire.
Teena Marie, who was born Mary Christine Brockert and also used the moniker Lady T, was a rare white artist on the Motown label when she was signed in the late 1970s.
She won four Grammy nominations.
Huge resp
Source: AOL News
December 26, 2010
The Book of Revelation says the biblical fortress of Armageddon will be the site of an apocalyptic battle between good and evil at the end of time. Scientists believe it could also be the place where time begins -- at least for archaeology.
In a groundbreaking new project, scholars are using the rich archaeological remains that soar more than 50 feet above the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel to synchronize the clocks of the ancient world and create the first definitive calendar of
Source: Haaretz
December 26, 2010
Divers find underwater store containing British Mandate era hand-grenades and other weapons.
A cache of weapons from the time of the British Mandate was discovered during the weekend in Caesarea's underwater archaeological park, two weeks after a strong winter storm caused great damage to the site.
Two diving instructors discovered a cache containing about 20 hand-grenades and weapons which are apparently from the time of the British Mandate. The Israeli Navy was notif
Source: AP
December 25, 2010
A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago.
The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way.
The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksb
Source: AP
December 26, 2010
New York state contributed 448,000 troops and $150 million to the Union cause during the Civil War, not to mention untold tons of supplies, food, guns and munitions.
But with the 150th anniversary of the war's start just months away, New York state government has so far failed to scrounge up a single Yankee dollar to commemorate a conflict it played such a major role in winning.
New York isn't alone. Other states saddled with similar budget woes are unable or unwilling
