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: Telegraph (UK)
October 14, 2010
A steam-powered computer designed by the 19th century mathematician Charles Babbage could finally be built after a campaign was launched to bring his dream to life.
The Analytical Engine – conceived in 1837 – remains one of the greatest inventions that never was as Babbage died before he could see out its construction.
However, John Graham-Cumming, a programmer and science blogger, now hopes to realise Babbage’s vision by raising £400,000 to build the giant brass and i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 15, 2010
A giant collaborative version of Botticelli's Birth of Venus has been created to raise awareness of breast cancer.
Everyone Is Art features the faces of 1,096 men and women from all over Europe. The number 1,096 was chosen because this is the average number of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Europe each day.
The images were all uploaded to www.morethantalk.eu, a website created as a centre of support for people affected
Source: AP
September 14, 2010
Rwandan police arrested the country's most prominent opposition leader Thursday and accused her of forming a terrorist organization, months after she was barred from challenging the president in an election.
Authorities said Victoire Ingabire was implicated during investigations into the activities of a man who was a former commander of a Hutu militia group operating in neighboring Congo.
Ingabire already faced charges of genocide ideology after she stated publicly that
Source: Discovery News
October 12, 2010
Early humans must have taken care of this elderly member of their group, providing some of the first evidence of compassion.
A prehistoric pelvis, nicknamed "Elvis," and other fossilized bones are what's left of the world's first known elderly human with clear signs of aging and impairment, according to a paper in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The remains, which date back to 500,000 years ago, also represent the earliest post-cran
Source: Discovery News
October 8, 2010
The bacteria wiped out a third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages.
Anthropologists said on Friday they had confirmed long-running suspicions that a germ called Yersinia pestis caused the plague that wiped out an estimated third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages.
Teeth and bones sampled from 76 skeletons found in "plague pits" in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and sequenced for DNA intrusion are conclusive evidence that Y. pestis was
Source: Yahoo News
October 12, 2010
MOSCOW – A Russian archaeologist claimed Tuesday to have found the well-preserved ruins of a "Caucasian Stonehenge" built by a previously unknown Bronze Age civilization in southern Russia.
Andrey Belinskiy said that unusual circular settings made of stones were found at one of some 200 settlements that date back to 1600 B.C. and are located in the North Caucasus mountains. The settlements have been uncovered in the past five years by a Russian-German expedition he heads,
Source: Medievalists.net
October 12, 2010
If one is interested in experiencing how people lived in Anglo-Saxon England, a trip to Lincolnshire might offer some unique insights. In the village of East Firsby a reconstruction of the 7th-century home has been built by Steven and Jude Jones. Based on archaeological evidence and built with traditional tools, Saxonhouse is an attempt to show how ordinary people lived and worked during the Early Middle Ages.
Saxonhouse is open to visitors, where Steven and Jude, both teachers, tal
Source: Yahoo News
October 14, 2010
OXFORD, Miss. – After all that, it's a bear.
It has been more than a decade since the University of Mississippi began stripping away its images of the Old South. Confederate battle flags were first to go. Next was mascot "Colonel Reb," the goateed Southern planter who cheered on the Rebels from the sidelines since 1979.
After seven years and plenty of bickering, his successor was named Thursday: "Rebel Black Bear" won 62 percent of the vote in a fina
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 14, 2010
Researchers looking at almost a thousand mummies from ancient Egypt and South America found only a handful suffered from cancer when now it accounts for nearly one in three deaths.
The findings suggest that it is modern lifestyles and pollution levels caused by industry that are the main cause of the disease and that it is not a naturally occurring condition.
The study showed the disease rate has risen dramatically since the Industrial Revolution, in particular childho
Source: Sify.com
October 13, 2010
Adolf Hitler seems to be back in town, with an extremely nervous Germany now preparing to stage the first exhibition dedicated to the Nazi leader this week at Berlin's German Historical Museum with the intention to break taboos that have been in practice since the Fuhrer killed himself in his Berlin bunker in 1945.
According to News.com.au, since WWII, a number of museums have displayed works on Nazi crimes, the Holocaust, slave labour, the murdering doctors, cruel judges and massa
Source: Fox News
October 13, 2010
Pornography is often portrayed as one of the ills of today's society, evidence of modern moral decay brought to you by video cameras and broadband access.
As it turns out, modern times have got nothing on the past. Pornography existed long before video or even photography, and many researchers think evolution predisposed humans for visual arousal (It's a lot easier to pass on your genes if the sight of other naked humans turns you on, after all)....
By that standard, th
Source: AOL News
October 13, 2010
The accomplishments of the ursine allies of World War II are often overlooked, but not by the city of Edinburgh. They're building a $318,000 monument to honor "Private Wojtek," a 500-pound brown bear that served in the Polish Army in the fight against the Axis before retiring to the Edinburgh zoo.
"Wojtek" translates to "the happy warrior," and the bear's contribution to the Polish military effort was largely noncombative. He was an unofficial mascot fo
Source: AFP
October 14, 2010
VISCRI, Romania (AFP) – It could have been the end of the centuries-old village of Viscri in the hills of Transylvania when almost all its inhabitants, Saxons of German origin, left in 1989 at the collapse of communism.
After all, how could such a small village survive in the poor and remote Romanian countryside?
But Romanians -- Roma Gypsies as well as non Roma -- have breathed new life into the picturesque village.
They moved into the abandoned houses and
Source: Yahoo News
October 14, 2010
ATHENS, Greece – Riot police clashed with protesting Culture Ministry workers barricading the ancient Acropolis on Thursday, using tear gas to clear the entrance to Greece's most famous landmark.
But the monument remained closed for the rest of the day as guards there launched a strike in solidarity with the evicted protesters. Protest organizers said they would gather again at the Acropolis early Friday, but it was unclear whether they would attempt to block the entrance.
Source: Salon
October 14, 2010
Now that the dramatic, round-the-clock rescue of 33 Chilean miners has finally come to a close, it's worth asking: "Why do we love a story about people in holes?" Call it the "Timmy in a Well trope" -- in news, as in entertainment, we are riveted by people stuck underground.
"I suppose there are mythic elements at work here," says author Melissa Faye Green, who wrote "Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster." "These are me
Source: BBC News
October 7, 2010
A bid by a Cumbrian museum to buy a rare Roman helmet and keep it in the county has failed after an anonymous phone bidder bought it for £2m.
The helmet was unearthed by a metal detector enthusiast in Crosby Garrett, near Kirkby Stephen, in May.
The piece, thought to have been worn by soldiers at sports events, was expected to fetch £300,000 when it went under the hammer at Christie's in London.
Carlisle's Tullie House was one of the bidders but was not suc
Source: Discovery News
October 14, 2010
An Italian researcher may have discovered a huge network of earthworks representing birds, snakes and other animals in Peru, according to a study published on the Cornell University physics website arXiv.
Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, assistant professor at the department of physics of Turin's Polytechnic University, used Google satellite maps and AstroFracTool, an astronomical image-processing program which she developed, to investigate over 463 square miles of land around Peru's Tit
Source: National Parks Traveler
October 14, 2010
Long after his death we continue to celebrate the brilliance of Ansel Adams, who arguably defined landscape photography, often while working in national parks to capture the magnificence of nature.
Even today, more than a quarter-century after his death, there's a steady clamor for the photographer's images. When word broke earlier this year that an overlooked cache of his negatives had been found at a garage sale, it became national news...and sparked more than a little controversy
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 14, 2010
Baroness Thatcher has been forced to pull out of a Downing Street party to mark her 85th birthday after being taken ill with flu, Downing Street said today.
The former prime minister had been due to attend a gathering of around 150 friends and former colleagues hosted by David Cameron to mark the milestone.
It will still go ahead at her insistence, No 10 said, with a fresh event to be put on when she has recovered.
A spokesman said: ''Lady Thatcher is unable to a
Source: BBC News
October 10, 2010
The Dutch Caribbean dependency the Netherlands Antilles has ceased to exist with a change of the five islands' constitutional status.
Curacao and St Maarten have become autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, joining Aruba, which gained the status in 1986.
Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba are now autonomous special municipalities of the kingdom.
The Netherlands retains responsibility for defence and foreign policy.
The Dutch g
