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: Guardian (UK)
Dec 17, 2009
Skeletons from Wharram Percy have much larger bones than those of city contemporaries.
The fearsome northern woman of legend and cliche, broadchested and with a frying pan poised to whack sense into her man, has proved to have genuine historic origins.
Analysis of bones from Britain's biggest medieval excavation has unearthed a race of real-life Nora Battys, ruling a Yorkshire roost nearly 1,000 years ago.
Skeletons from Wharram Percy, a village on the York
Source: BBC
Dec 17, 2009
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill still owes the exclusive Bangalore Club in southern India 13 rupees in unpaid bills.
An entry in the ledger book of the club from June 1899 has "Lt WLS Churchill" named as one of 17 defaulters.
Churchill arrived in Bangalore in 1896 as a young army officer and left three years later to fight in the North-West Frontier - now in Pakistan.
The Bangalore club was formed in 1868 by a group of British of
Source: AP
Dec 17, 2009
Archaeologists on Thursday hoisted a 9-ton temple pylon from the waters of the Mediterranean that was part of the palace complex of the fabled Cleopatra before it became submerged for centuries in the harbor of Alexandria.
The pylon, which once stood at the entrance to a temple of Isis, is to be the centerpiece of an ambitious underwater museum planned by Egypt to showcase the sunken city, believed to have been toppled into the sea by earthquakes in the 4th century.
Div
Source: Pew Research Center
Dec 17, 2009
As with most presidents at the end of their first year in office, Barack Obama's approval ratings have slipped in 2009, though not as much as the clamor of his critics would suggest. He is almost exactly where Ronald Reagan was at the end of 1981, when he too was struggling with the bad economy he had inherited.
What's really exceptional at this stage of Obama's presidency is the extent to which the public has moved in a conservative direction on a range of issues. These trends have
Source: AFP
Dec 16, 2009
Two blocks of butter have been found intact after nearly a century in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition, a report said.
Television New Zealand reported that conservators found the two blocks of New Zealand butter in bags in stables attached to the expedition Hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica.
The extreme cold of the polar region has preserved the hut and expedition equipment inside, but recent signs of deteriora
Source: Harvard
Dec 16, 2009
Harvard archaeologists have found the first architectural signs that may pinpoint the location of the 1655 Indian College, one of Harvard University’s earliest buildings.
In the final days of the 2009 dig, Peabody Museum archaeologists and Archaeology of Harvard Yard students uncovered a 17th-century trench situated on the parcel of land where the Indian College stood. The trench was filled with stone, clay roof tile, and vast quantities of brick, including a special brick used as
Source: BBC
Dec 16, 2009
A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has for the first time charged two former Khmer Rouge leaders with genocide.
A court official said the charges against Ieng Sary and Nuon Chea relate to their treatment of Cambodia's Vietnamese and Muslim minorities.
The two men are already in pre-trial detention charged with crimes against humanity, but it is thought their trial will not start until 2011. The two men were both high-ranking members of Po
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 16, 2009
Dr Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Egyptian Council of Antiquities, has demanded that Britain return the Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian artefact, to Egypt.
The stone, which was discovered by Napoleon and given to Britain as part of a peace settlement more than 200 years ago, contains translations which first enabled archaeologists to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.
As one of the British Museum's most valuable and extraordinary items, trustees are unwillin
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 16, 2009
One of Spain's most enduring mysteries has remained unsolved after archaeologists exhumed a mass grave without finding the remains of Federico Garcia Lorca.
The project on a remote hillside outside the southern city of Granada was intended to trace of the nation's most celebrated modern poet and playwright.
But the two-month excavation of an area of parkland about the size of half a football pitch will come to an end this week and as yet no human remains have been une
Source: CNN
Dec 16, 2009
Researchers said Wednesday for the first time they have found what they believe to be pieces of a burial shroud from the time of Jesus.
The find is of importance because tests on the shroud and the body it wrapped revealed the earliest proven case of leprosy in the Old City of Jerusalem.
And in addition, the weave of the shroud raises fresh doubts about the Shroud of Turin, which many people believe was used to wrap the body of Jesus.
According to researche
Source: Times (UK)
Dec 16, 2009
On one page Napoleon peeks through a set of curtains to spy on cavorting nudes. On another the Duke of York is in carnal embrace with his diminutive wife. A third depicts George III defecating into a hat.
The bound volume of cartoons by James Gillray, the 18th and 19th century artist whose satirical etchings were the forerunner of modern political cartoons, was once considered so obscene that it was seized by police.
Yesterday the pornography and obscenity team at the
Source: Science Daily
Dec 15, 2009
A biblical expert at the University of Chicago, Margaret M. Mitchell, together with experts in micro-chemical analysis and medieval bookmaking, has concluded that one of the University Library's most enigmatic possessions is a forgery. The book, a copy of the Gospel of Mark, will remain in the collection as a study document for scholars studying the authenticity of ancient books.
Scholars have argued for nearly 70 years over the provenance of what's called the Archaic Mark, a 44-pag
Source: Live Science
Dec 15, 2009
Genetic changes that apparently allow humans to live longer than any other primate may be rooted in a more carnivorous diet.
These changes may also promote brain development and make us less vulnerable to diseases of aging, such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.
Chimpanzees and great apes are genetically similar to humans, yet they rarely live for more than 50 years. Although the average human lifespan has doubled in the last 200 years - due largely to decreased
Source: LA Times
Dec 15, 2009
The series is the first of its kind hosted by a Western-heritage museum, say people associated with the Autry. It consists of a gallery tour, panel discussions, lectures and performances to be rolled out in four installments over the course of 12 months. Dates for future events are being finalized.
Gregory Hinton, an independent historian who conceived and organized "Out West" for the museum, said the Autry was getting into potentially risky territory with the program.
Source: BBC
Dec 15, 2009
Proof that pre-historic people placed bunches of flowers in the grave when they buried their dead has been found for the first time, experts have said.
Archaeologists have discovered a bunch of meadowsweet blossoms in a Bronze Age grave at Forteviot, south of Perth.
The dark brown heads were found, along with a clump of organic material which archaeologists now say is the stems of the flowers.The bunch had been placed by the head of the high-status
Source: BBC
Dec 15, 2009
Letters written by the Yorkshire Ripper to a woman in Birmingham are to be sold at auction.
The 44 letters were sent by Peter Sutcliffe from Broadmoor high-security hospital in Berkshire to a woman in Birmingham between 1985 and 1990.
Sutcliffe, 63, murdered 13 women across northern England in the 1970s and 80s.
The son of one of his victims has criticised the auction by Manchester-based Trafford Books. The auctioneers declined to comment.
Source: BBC
Dec 15, 2009
A trial in Turkey, which has lasted nearly 28 years, has finally concluded.
A panel of judges found 39 of the 1,223 defendants guilty of trying to topple the government and constitution, and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The charges against other defendants were dropped because of the time that had elapsed.
They were all alleged members of an extreme left-wing organisation, Dev-Sol, who were arrested in the wake of the country's 1980 military coup.
Source: BBC
Dec 15, 2009
An ivory and gold toothpick once owned by Charles Dickens has sold at auction in New York City for $9,150 (£5,625).
The item is engraved with the English author's initials. It was sold by heirs to the Barnes and Noble family.
The pre-sale estimate was $3,000 to $5,000. The auctioneer, Bonhams, said the buyer did not want to be named.
An authentication letter from Dickens's sister-in-law says the author of Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol used the
Source: Fox News
Dec 15, 2009
The "tea party" movement that gained steam shortly after President Obama took office is seeing a surge in popularity, with a string of candidates and officials willing to take up its cause and a political infrastructure that's starting to mirror that of an actual political party.
What started as a conservative protest klatch has evolved into a political force with enough muscle to potentially alter the course of the 2010 mid-term elections.
The tea party act
Source: Guardian (UK)
Dec 15, 2009
Millions of White House emails that went missing during the Bush administration have been recovered following an extended court battle.
Around 22m messages spanning more than 90 days were declared missing in 2007, shortly after a scandal arose over the decision to fire nine federal prosecutors who had not toed the White House line.
The Obama administration said that its computer technicians had successfully recovered the lost data, in what campaigners called a victory
