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: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Apr 12, 2010
Preservation issues -- such as the one going on with Wal-Mart and the Wilderness battlefield -- are going to become only more contentious in coming years as suburban sprawl and economic development collide with once-rural Civil War battlefields.
It often comes down to a matter of money vs. history.
"Most of the time what drives counties is economic development," said Art Taylor, president of the Hanover County Historical Society and an active member of Friends
Source: Science Daily
Apr 12, 2010
A team of researchers from the University of Arizona has revisited evidence pointing to a cataclysmic event thought by many scientists to have wiped out the North American megafauna -- such as mammoths, saber tooth cats, giant ground sloths and Dire wolves -- along with the Clovis hunter-gatherer culture some 13,000 years ago.
The team obtained their findings following an unusual, multidisciplinary approach and published them in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (P
Source: Discovery News
Apr 12, 2010
Part of an ankylosaurid skull has likely just been found by a persistent high school science teacher whose hobby is dinosaurs, according to a report in Grand Junction, Colorado's The Daily Sentinel.
If verified, the fossil would be among the first of its kind for this armadillo-like dinosaur that lived from around 125 to 65 million years ago in North America, Europe and East Asia.
Kent Hups, a high school teacher in Westminster, Colorado, made the find
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 12, 2010
Legal advice that enabled the Prince of Wales to marry the Duchess of Cornwall must remain secret until after the heir to the throne’s death under a ruling by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary.
Mr Straw has refused a Freedom of Information request to reveal the advice given to the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, who gave the 2005 royal wedding the go-ahead.
Doubts about the legality of the marriage persist because of the Marriage Act of 1836, which prohibited Roy
Source: CNN
Apr 12, 2010
The Vatican may have forgiven the Beatles over the weekend for their "satanic" messages -- but Ringo Starr, the legendary band's drummer, says he couldn't care less.
In a tribute published to mark the 40th anniversary of the breakup of the band, who singer John Lennon once claimed were "more popular than Jesus," the Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" said it had forgiven them and called them a "precious jewel."
But Starr tol
Source: Thomas Bartlett at the Percolator (Blog)
Apr 12, 2010
Last week Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he would be retiring from the Supreme Court after nearly 35 years of service. While most of the talk was about how Stevens has led the liberal bloc on the court, whom Obama would choose to replace him, and so on, what got less attention was perhaps Stevens's most radical stance:
He doesn't think Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare.
He believes it was Edward de Vere, the 17th earl of Oxford. That puts him in league with the Ox
Source: CNN.com
Apr 12, 2010
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao are meeting Monday about nuclear security and other issues. The meeting comes as part of a two-day summit on how to better safeguard nuclear weapons materials and keep them out of the hands of terrorists.
Here's a look at some highs and lows in the sometimes rocky relationship between the U.S. and China.
Highs
• President Richard Nixon sought to improve relations with China in the late 1960s.
Source: NYT
Apr 12, 2010
Out of a Polish catastrophe on Russian soil, an opportunity has emerged for stronger ties between the two countries, whose relationship for centuries has been defined by enmity and strife.
Far from aggravating frictions in Russian-Polish relations, as initially feared, the plane crash that killed Poland’s president and a swath of the upper echelon of politicians and military leaders on Saturday appears to have achieved the opposite effect, encouraging kindness and understanding on b
Source: Live Science
Apr 12, 2010
A shrunken brain may potentially lie inside the fossil skull of a newfound candidate for the immediate ancestor to the human lineage, researchers now reveal.
This new species, dubbed Australopithecus sediba, was accidentally discovered in South Africa by the 9-year-old son of a scientist. Two members of this hominid were introduced to the world last week - a juvenile male and an adult female, who might have known each other in life and who could have met their demise by falling int
Source: NBC
Apr 12, 2010
When Thomas Jefferson died many of his possessions were sold to pay his debts. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has located thousands of his belonging over the years but they believe there are even more still out there.
Susan Stein is the Senior Curator at Monticello and said the foundation only examines items that have a historical connection to Monticello.
Each year, the curators investigate about 50 artifacts. Stein said roughly 1 in every 20 items they examine was on
Source: BBC
Apr 12, 2010
The exact history of Turin shroud, which has gone on display for the first time in 10 years, is hotly disputed. So what do we know about its authenticity?
Numerous historical references to Christ's shroud exist but the only reliable records for the one today housed in Turin Cathedral begin in the 16th Century. The herringbone woven cloth measuring 1.21m by 4.42m (4ftx14ft), is stained with human blood and appears to show the imprint of a crucified man. The most iconic aspect - the a
Source: BBC
Apr 12, 2010
A solicitor accused of helping to hold a stolen Da Vinci artwork has denied there was a conspiracy involved.
David Boyce, 63, told the High Court in Edinburgh he thought the transaction to return the painting was "unusual", but it was not suspicious.
He is one of five men who deny conspiring to extort £4.25m for the return of the painting in October 2007.
The Madonna of the Yarnwinder was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire in 2003.
Source: AP
Apr 12, 2010
Only a few popes have resigned in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Don't expect Pope Benedict XVI to join their ranks.
The uproar caused by reports that, as an archbishop years ago in Germany and later as a Vatican cardinal, Benedict and his aides were slow to defrock abusive priests, cannot be explained as the church equivalent of Watergate with the pope in the role of U.S. president.
Past popes who quit served mostly in the church's first millennium, accordin
Source: The Washington Post
Apr 12, 2010
Nonfiction books about 19th- and 20th-century history -- from a biography of voracious industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt to World War I-era bankers to the Cold War arms race -- won Pulitzer Prizes in the arts and letters categories on Monday.
Pulitzers also went to the writers of the Broadway hit "Next to Normal" for drama; first-time novelist Paul Harding for "Tinkers" for fiction; poet Rae Armantrout for a collection called "Versed"; and classical c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 12, 2010
One of the original members of the 'Filthy Thirteen', a crack US Army unit that inspired the Hollywood film The Dirty Dozen has died at the age of 88.
Jack Agnew belonged to the unofficial unit which operated behind enemy lines and was known for the less than respectful behaviour of its members.
Its soldiers refused to salute officers, or mop barracks, and were famed for brawling, drinking and spending time in the stockade. Some even wore Mohawk haircuts and donned war
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 12, 2010
The black dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, for her first official appearance with the Prince of Wales shortly before their engagement in 1981 surfaces at auction this summer.
It was rumoured that the Princess had destroyed the black taffeta gown - but it turned up recently in a wardrobe at the studio of dress makers David and Elizabeth Emanuel.
Now the iconic dress is set to fetch up to £50,000 when it appears at Kerry Taylor Auctions in London on June 8.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 12, 2010
La Bella Principessa has been touted as Leonardo’s missing masterpiece, but the experts beg to differ.
'Picture kept in a drawer 'is £100m da Vinci’.” That’s how the article in The Sunday Times on July 27, 2008 breathlessly reported the incredible story of how the Paris-based American dealer Peter Silverman discovered a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci.
Silverman’s discovery made a thrilling story, but it was a complete fabrication, and the first of several versi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 12, 2010
Romeo and Juliet has been given a 21st-century makeover on Twitter - with Shakespeare's classic lines replaced with the likes of: ''Jules is over and out!! Xxx''.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production - Such Tweet Sorrow - began this morning and continues over the next five weeks.
A cast of six RSC actors are improvising a story, loosely based on Shakespeare's classic romance, over real-time on micro-blogging site Twitter.
The actors have been as
Source: AP
Apr 12, 2010
Israel used the solemn occasion of Monday's annual Holocaust memorial day to call on the world to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to draw new attention to the plight of the dwindling number of survivors.
The wail of air raid sirens pierced the air for two minutes as the country came to a standstill in a yearly ritual remembering the 6 million Jews who perished in World War II. People stood at attention and traffic halted during the moment of silence, as radio statio
Source: AP
Apr 12, 2010
Thousand of young Jews and Holocaust survivors are marching at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz to remember those who perished in the Holocaust and honor Poland's late president.
Many marchers are wearing black armbands, and black ribbons top their white-and-blue Israeli flags, in memory of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria who were killed Saturday with other top officials en route to WWII-era observances in western Russia.
