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: USA Today
December 6, 2010
Emerging archeological evidence points to early human habitation 120,000 years ago in a Persian "Gulf Oasis" now underwater, suggests one archeologist.
In the upcoming Current Anthropology journal study, Jeffrey Rose of the United Kingdom's University of Birmingham, points to stone tools from 40 archeological sites throughout the Middle East to suggest that modern humans left Africa earlier than many model suggest (typically around 60,000 years ago), and populated Arabian
Source: Reuters
December 6, 2010
Maybe being a serf or a villein in the Middle Ages was not such a grim existence as it seems.
Medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today, according to new research.
Living standards in medieval England were far above the "bare bones subsistence" experience of people in many of today's poor
Source: LA Times
December 7, 2010
The museum welcomes the culture minister of Sicily, where the ancient sculpture will return, ending decades of contention over looted artworks.
To look at her — 71/2 feet tall atop her earthquake-resistant pedestal, her face serene, her limestone robes rippling in an unfelt wind — is not just to appreciate a pinnacle of ancient Greek statuary, but to experience a semblance of how divinity must have felt to awestruck pagans.
And now the great goddess, once described as &
Source: The Washington Post
December 5, 2010
Centreville resident Karen Schweikart digs history.
Bent over a shallow pit on a recent Saturday morning, Schweikart, with a garden trowel and metal dust pan, performed the slow and meticulous task of archeology. She was working to exhume what remains of a colonial era building that might help historians learn more about the port town of Colchester.
Colchester once was a bustling port to which tobacco planters from southern plantations would bring their crop for expor
Source: BBC
December 3, 2010
A military museum in Bury is hoping to solve the mystery of three Lancashire Fusiliers killed in Belgium in 1914.
The bodies were among six found by a French archeologist in Le Touquet, a village south of Ypres, in November.
Officials from the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum believe the three men are from Wigan and Manchester.
But before they can be given a full military funeral, experts need to trace the soldiers' relatives to confirm their identities through
Source: Science Daily
December 7, 2010
Naukrtis, a Greek trade emporium on Egyptian soil, has long captured the imagination of archaeologists and historians. Not only is the presence of a Greek trading settlement in Egypt during the 7th and 6th century B.C.E. surprising, but the Greeks that lived there in harmony hailed from several Greek states which traditionally warred amongst themselves.
Dr. Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology is delving deeper into this unique piece of ancient hist
Source: BBC
December 7, 2010
A giant marabou stork has been discovered on an island once home to human-like 'hobbits'.
Fossils of the bird were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores, a place previously famed for the discovery of Homo floresiensis, a small hominin species closely related to modern humans.
The stork may have been capable of hunting and eating juvenile members of this hominin species, say researchers who made the discovery, though there is no direct evidence the birds did so.
Source: BBC
December 7, 2010
Wrexham council is to negotiate with the owners of the former Brymbo Ironworks to help preserve key buildings.
The plant closed in 1990, leaving about 6,000 people out of work.
A number of historic buildings, including the Grade II-listed former agent's house, are in disrepair.
Wrexham planners agreed on Monday to strike a deal with Brymbo Developments Ltd to install a temporary roof on the Grade II-listed former agent's house.
The site include
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 7, 2010
Britain feared that Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi could “cut us off at the knees, just like the Swiss”, unless the Lockerbie bomber was released, leaked WikiLeaks cables show.
Sir Vincent Fean, the UK's ambassador to Tripoli at the time, also warned that continuing to hold Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi in a prison in Scotland could have “disastrous implications for British interests in Libya”.
The warnings were contained in secret communiqués sent from US embassy staf
Source: Fox News
December 7, 2010
Elizabeth Edwards, who played a pivotal role in her husband's political career and captured the public's sympathy with her lengthy battle with breast cancer and her estrangement from John Edwards over his highly publicized affair, died Tuesday of liver failure, Fox News has confirmed. She was 61.
She died at her North Carolina home surrounded by her three children, siblings, friends and John, the family said.
Edwards stopped receiving treatment this month when doctors t
Source: National Parks Traveler
December 5, 2010
For 25 cents you'll soon be able to put Glacier National Park in your pocket. Or Olympic National Park, Gettysburg National Military Park, Vicksburg National Military Park, or Chickasaw National Recreation Area, for that matter.
Those five units of the National Park System will be honored by the U.S. Mint next year with commemorative quarters of their very own. They represent the second set of coins in its America the Beautiful Quarters Program.
The Gettysburg quarter r
Source: The Atlantic
December 6, 2010
The Library of Congress has released 700 portraits of Americans taken during the Civil War. They were a gift of the Liljenquist Family Collection and most of the people who appear in them are unidentified. In fact, through Flickr commons, the Library is hoping to tap the collective knowledge of the crowd to find out more about t
Source: PR Newswire
December 6, 2010
GETTYSBURG, Pa., Dec. 6, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough, President Eisenhower's granddaughter Susan Eisenhower and Medal of Honor recipient Paul W. Bucha discuss their heartfelt objections to the proposed Gettysburg casino (1/2 mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park) in four emotional videos just released from No Casino Gettysburg and the Civil War Preservation Trust.The musical acco
Source: Fox News
December 6, 2010
As a gentle breeze binds the scent of oil and tropical air, Paul Rom rises from his wheelchair and grabs hold of the rail. The sky and water nearly match in brilliant blue and just feet a way an American flag whips atop the mast of ship still watching over the harbor. With a little help Paul gazes just to his left, the front gun turret rusted, but visible above the water and the smells from 'the tears of the Arizona' drift up from below. For Paul, a native of the Bronx, this is his first and lik
Source: Yahoo News
December 7, 2010
BERLIN – Germany has agreed to double its contribution toward in-home care for Holocaust survivors in order to meet the increasing need of the rapidly aging group.
Germany's Finance Ministry confirmed Tuesday it would increase its contribution for 2011 to euro110 million ($147 million), pending approval from parliament, which is widely expected....
Source: New Scientist
December 6, 2010
Sacrifice is an age-old ritual, but the inhabitants of 10th-century Peru brought sinister novelty to their rites by slaughtering children.
In the Lambayeque valley on the north coast of the country, the earliest definitive evidence of ritual child sacrifice has been uncovered. The bloodletting took place at a site called Cerro Cerrillos.
"The scale and sheer complexity of the blood sacrifice of children at Cerro Cerrillos appears to be something completely new,&quo
Source: USA Today
December 5, 2010
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — The motto "Remember Pearl Harbor" is taking on a more poignant, urgent tone.
The national Pearl Harbor Survivors Association's numbers have dropped so low, the possibility of shuttering it will be discussed at its national convention in Honolulu, which begins Saturday and runs through Friday.
Out of 60,000 military personnel on the island during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, there are only an estimated 3,000 survivors still participating in
Source: Newsweek
December 6, 2010
The entire 42-member Senate Republican caucus' decision to filibuster all legislation until an extension of the Bush tax cuts is passed is unusual, but it is not entirely unprecedented. Typically the filibuster, wherein a block of 41 or more senators vote against ending debate and moving to a vote on legislation, is used to stop bills that the minority finds especially dangerous. Historically it was employed infrequently, but its use has proliferated in the last few years. With Republicans now r
Source: NYT
December 6, 2010
“As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives. ...”
You may know this singsong quiz,
But what you might not know is this:
That it began with ancient Egypt’s
Early math-filled manuscripts.
It’s true. That very British-sounding St. Ives conundrum (the one where the seven wives each have seven sacks containing seven cats who each have seven kits, and you have to figure out how many are going to St. Ives) has a
Source: AFP
December 6, 2010
Archaeologists have discovered an iron oxide mine from 12,000 years ago in northern Chile, making it the oldest mine yet discovered in all the Americas, the El Mercurio daily says.
The iron oxide mined by the Huentelauquen Indians was used as a pigment in dying cloth and in religious rituals, revealing an unexpected sophistication in what was previously considered a primitive group of people, University of Chile researcher Diego Salazar said on Sunday.
"The fact th
