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: Gettysburg Times
Apr 16, 2010
In his first public meeting as superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park, Bob Kirby announced Thursday night that the Ziegler’s Grove restoration project is scheduled to commence this month.
He also noted that attorneys for the National Park Service and the Dept. of Justice are “reviewing options” in the legal battle over the old Cyclorama Center.
A federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the park must reconsider its Cyclorama building demolition plans and incl
Source: USA Today
Apr 16, 2010
For many tourism marketers below the Mason-Dixon Line, old times are not forgotten — they're promoted.
But as Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell discovered when he proclaimed April as Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery (an omission he corrected after a volley of protests), pitching Dixie's past during the run-up to next year's 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War could be challenging.
"The Civil War sesquicentennial is going to be a minefield
Source: FOX News
Apr 16, 2010
A German court convicted ultraconservative British Bishop Richard Williamson on Friday of denying the Holocaust in a television interview.
A court in the Bavarian city of Regensburg found Williamson guilty of incitement for saying in a 2008 interview with Swedish television that he did not believe Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II.
The court ordered Williamson to pay a fine of €10,000 ($13,544).
The Roman Catholic bishop was barred by his
Source: FOX News
Apr 16, 2010
Russia's lower house of parliament has passed a bill giving amnesty for most crimes committed by World War II veterans, Nazi concentration camp prisoners and people who lived through the siege of Leningrad.
The bill was proposed as part of Russia's observance in May of the 65th anniversary of the end of European fighting in the war....
Source: AP
Apr 16, 2010
A year ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers thought chances of finding any more chemical weapons in the front yard of a home in the nation's capital were slim. So they removed an airtight protective structure from the World War I munitions cleanup site. Then, they uncovered a small arsenal.
The Corps discovered an open flask containing traces of the chemical agent mustard, another blistering agent called lewisite and munition shells with more digging near a one-time Army chemical w
Source: BBC
Apr 16, 2010
A court has been told a solicitor would not have put his unblemished record at risk by getting involved in a plot to ransom a stolen Leonardo da Vinci.
In his closing speech, defence QC David Burns said David Boyce, 63, should be cleared of a conspiracy charge.
He said claiming his client could have got involved amounted to a "startling proposition".
Mr Boyce is one of five men who deny conspiring to extort £4.25m to bring back the Madonna of th
Source: BBC
Apr 16, 2010
A renegade British bishop has been fined 10,000 euros (£8,750) for denying the Holocaust in a case that has acutely embarrassed the Vatican.
The case went ahead in a German court without Richard Williamson, whose breakaway Catholic fraternity told him not to testify, his lawyer said.
Denying that the Holocaust took place, or questioning key elements, is illegal in Germany.
The bishop acknowledged the offending comments in a statement read in court.
Source: CNN
Apr 16, 2010
Former President Clinton said he sees parallels in the mood of the country now and on April 19, 1995, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people while he was in the White House.
Clinton said the Oklahoma City bombing -- then the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history -- was the "last in a series of very high-profile violent encounters" during the 1990s between anti-government activists and authorities.
He said the country is bett
Source: Science Daily
Apr 16, 2010
They were illiterate farmers, builders and servants, but Maya commoners found a way to record their own history -- by burying it within their homes. A new study of the objects embedded in the floors of homes occupied more than 1,000 years ago in central Belize begins to decode their story.
The study, from University of Illinois anthropology professor Lisa J. Lucero, appears in the Journal of Social Archaeology.
Maya in the Classic period (A.D. 250-900) regularly "t
Source: BBC
Apr 16, 2010
A volcanic eruption in Iceland is continuing to ground flights in the UK and Europe, but 227 years ago a far more devastating eruption occurred wiping out a fifth of the island's population - as well as tens of thousands across Europe.
On 8 June, 1783, the young country of Iceland - inhabited for less than 1,000 years - had a population of 50,000. In the coming years, as a result of what began that Sunday morning at 9am, 10,000 of those people would die.
The Laki erupt
Source: BBC
Apr 16, 2010
Part of a lost petition relating to Scotland's ill-fated attempt to establish a colony in Central America has been uncovered by a historian.
Nothing was believed to exist of the National Address, which appealed to King William to lift a ban on English colonies trading with the Scots.
Blair Kerr found the Angus and Dundee section while researching for a degree.
The collapse of the Darien Venture in April 1700 played a part in the signing of the Act of Unio
Source: BBC
Apr 16, 2010
A book given to a Devon branch of Oxfam has netted the charity's largest windfall at an auction.
The rare photo book, one of several given to the shop in Teignmouth by an anonymous donor, fetched £37,200.
The 1882 book tells of Royal Society of London scientist Gerard Ansdell and his brother's search for a long-lost brother in Fiji.
He was eventually tracked down in the island of Viti Levu and the brothers documented their trip in the book.
Source: BBC
Apr 16, 2010
A ceremony is to be held to commemorate the bravery of a Spitfire pilot from Denbighshire who was shot down in World War II.
Flight Lieutenant Norman Carter Macqueen was 22 when he was killed in Malta in 1942.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) days before his death.
A replica of the medal will be presented to Glyn Pickering, mayor of his home town, Rhyl, at Rhyl Library, at 1100 BST.
Source: BBC
Apr 16, 2010
The National Gallery is dusting off some of its most embarrassing acquisitions for a new exhibition looking at fake artworks.
Close Examination will display works of art that have been quietly removed from view after research showed they were not what they were thought to be.
They include works supposedly by Sandro Botticelli and Hans Holbein which were mistakenly thought to be genuine.
More than 40 works of art will go on display at the gallery in June.
Source: Nature
Apr 15, 2010
Around four tonnes of ancient Roman lead was yesterday transferred from a museum on the Italian island of Sardinia to the country's national particle physics laboratory at Gran Sasso on the mainland. Once destined to become water pipes, coins or ammunition for Roman soldiers' slingshots, the metal will instead form part of a cutting-edge experiment to nail down the mass of neutrinos.
The 120 lead ingots, each weighing about 33 kilograms, come from a larger load recovered 20 years ag
Source: Steve Aftergood at Secrecy News
Apr 15, 2010
The national security classification system hit some new highs as well as some new lows over the last year, the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) disclosed in its latest annual report to the President (pdf).The total number of reported national security classification actions skyrocketed to a record 54.8 million classifications last year, a startling 135 percent increase over
Source: The Examiner
Apr 15, 2010
Although Virginians might not consider an attack by the Dutch Navy to be a serious threat these days, such was not always the case. Little remembered today is the fact that England (and the colony of Virginia) went to war three times with Holland in the mid-17th century. The wars were mostly over trade rivalries between the two nations and since Virginia tobacco was a significant trade item with England, that made the Chesapeake Bay a big inviting target of the Dutch.
During the “Se
Source: WaPo
Apr 15, 2010
The 120 veterans wore red, white and blue tags emblazoned with the word "Liberator" and crept along on walkers. Others could hardly hear as they toured the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday. But the memories of the atrocities they witnessed in the waning months of World War II -- when soldiers from several armored and infantry divisions liberated concentration camps throughout Germany and Austria -- remained achingly clear.
Some attending what museum officials s
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Apr 15, 2010
Missouri officials cannot bar a Ku Klux Klan splinter group from holding an event Saturday at the site of one of the state's biggest Civil War battles, a federal judge in St. Louis ruled Wednesday.
Frank Ancona, who identified himself as imperial wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, filed suit Wednesday morning for an emergency order to overrule rejection of its application to rent a large pavilion at the Fort Davidson State Historic Site.
Source: Science Daily
Apr 15, 2010
A new study led by Ohio University scientists suggests that early Native Americans left a bigger carbon footprint than previously thought, providing more evidence that humans impacted global climate long before the modern industrial era.
Chemical analysis of a stalagmite found in the mountainous Buckeye Creek basin of West Virginia suggests that native people contributed a significant level of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through land use practices. The early Native Americans
