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: BBC
Nov 20, 2009
Easyjet has apologised after fashion photographs shot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin were published in its in-flight magazine.
In the pictures, models pose in designer clothes among the concrete blocks of the "Field of Stelae".
The budget airline says it was unaware of the images until they appeared in the magazine, which is published by a company called INK.
Source: BBC
Nov 20, 2009
The granddaughter of Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini has said that blood and parts of his brain have been stolen to sell on the internet.
Alessandra Mussolini, a former showgirl turned MP, said she immediately informed the police when she found out.
The listing, on auction site Ebay, reportedly showed images of a wooden container and ampoules of blood.
Ebay, which does not allow the sale of human matter on its site, said that the listing was rem
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 20, 2009
The ancient hymns brought tears to the eyes of Solomon Ayeli, as well as memories of his native Ethiopia which he left two decades ago for Israel - a country he loves but where he often feels rejected.
Separated during centuries from other Jewish communities, the Beta Israel were only recognised as Jews by Israel's two chief rabbis in 1975.
The recognition was crucial, as Aliyah - the Israeli law of return - allows any Jew to settle in Israel and get citizenship.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 20, 2009
Adolf Hitler was "the German Mussolini" who was "a very cunning demagogue", according to a hand-written report from a French spy in 1924.
The document is among thousands of paper on 1920s Germany that are about to emerge from obscurity as part of a major overhaul of the French National Archives.
The yellowed note from 1924 features a photograph of Hitler in a suit and tie, sporting his trademark side-parting and moustache, and lists his occupation a
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 20, 2009
Barbara Frale, a Vatican researcher, claims to have discovered Christ's 'death certificate' on the Turin Shroud.
The historian and researcher at the secret Vatican archive said she has found the words "Jesus Nazarene" on the shroud, proving it was the linen cloth which was wrapped around Christ's body.
She said computer analysis of photographs of the shroud revealed extremely faint words written in Greek, Aramaic and Latin which attested to its authenticity.
Source: AP
Nov 20, 2009
A Florence museum says two fingers and a tooth believed to belong to Galileo Galilei have been found and will go on display next spring.
Three fingers and a tooth were taken from the astronomer's body in 1737 and placed in a container.
Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museum of the History of Science, said a private collector had bought a container at auction containing two fingers and a tooth. The collector contacted Florence cultural officials and the parts and the con
Source: AP
Nov 20, 2009
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev criticized Kremlin policies Friday and toyed with the ambitious idea of attempting a political comeback.
Gorbachev said that corruption and overdependence on oil exports have aggravated the impact of the global economic crisis on Russia. He urged President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to restructure the economy, cut down government spending and ensure political freedoms.
But he also suggested everyday Russians
Source: CNN
Nov 20, 2009
Less than a month before the Civil War's start, a newly inaugurated President Lincoln took time from his frantic schedule to write to an Illinois boy whose classmates didn't believe he'd met the president.
A company that buys and sells historic documents sold the letter for $60,000 to a private collector and Civil War buff. The Raab Collection in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally purchased the note from another collector, said Nathan Raab, the company's vice president.
Source: Press Release
Nov 20, 2009
A new study by The Socionomics Institute shows a link between bear markets and the rising popularity of eugenics movements over a span of 225 years.
"Although most people think that society has dumped eugenics on the trash heap of bad ideas," says analyst Alan Hall, "its core ideology of top-down reproductive control is likely to regain popularity in the upcoming bear market. There are already signs of resurgence."
For example, during the long bear
Source: Guardian.CO.UK
Nov 19, 2009
Woolly mammoths and other giant ice-age mammals faced extinction 2,000 years before deadly speartips were invented.
Woolly mammoths and other large, lumbering beasts faced extinction long before early humans perfected their skills as spearmakers, scientists say.
The prehistoric giants began their precipitous decline nearly 2,000 years before our ancestors turned stone fragments into sophisticated spearpoints at the end of the last ice age.
The animals, whic
Source: Hamilton Advertiser
Nov 19, 2009
SCOTLAND’S foremost amateur archaeologist, Tam Ward of Biggar Archaeology Group, was guest speaker at the November meeting of Lanark and District Archaeological Society.
The subject of Tam's talk was about the excavation work at Howburn Farm, near Elsrickle, which turned out to be the most important dig in Scotland this year.
Tam related how the site had been discovered through diligent field walking. Initially, Tam thought the site was early Neolithic but a talk with a
Source: Guardian (UK)
Nov 19, 2009
Woolly mammoths and other large, lumbering beasts faced extinction long before early humans perfected their skills as spearmakers, scientists say.
The prehistoric giants began their precipitous decline nearly 2,000 years before our ancestors turned stone fragments into sophisticated spearpoints at the end of the last ice age.
The animals, which included mammoths, elephant-sized mastodons and beavers the size of black bears, were probably picked off by more inept hunters
Source: Spiegel Online
Nov 19, 2009
Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.
At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the lon
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 19, 2009
The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said "Obama" came third in the list with the surname of U S President Barack Obama used as the stem for other words.
"Bail-out" was listed fourth after the bank bail-out was one of the first acts of the financial crisis, "evacuee" came fifth in the wake of Hurricane Katrina devastating New Orleans, and "derivative"
Source: The Daily News (Galveston County)
Nov 19, 2009
TEXAS CITY — For years, the scoured remains of a Civil War naval tragedy slowly rusted beneath the spinning propellers of gargantuan tankers and sky-scraping container ships.
The scuttled USS Westfield, a Union gunship, and the last vestiges of its 14 doomed crew lay obscured in seafloor sediment near the confluence of the Texas City and Houston ship channels.
On Wednesday, however, divers and salvage crews visited the all-but-forgotten site to begin recovering what is
Source: BBC
Nov 19, 2009
Primary school children in England will have to learn about evolution and British history under a shake-up of the national curriculum.
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker says the subjects will be compulsory elements of a new primary school curriculum being introduced in 2011.
Scientists and humanists had lobbied ministers for the inclusion of evolution in the theme-based timetable.
History is already compulsory, but there were fears it would be sidelined.
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Nov 19, 2009
The University of Chicago Law School is displaying a collection of letters recovered from a time capsule that was sealed in a cornerstone in 1958, reports the Chicago Tribune.
The capsule was supposed to have been unsealed on May 28, 2008 — the 50th anniversary of the school's opening — and would have been forgotten altogether but for a discovery by an alumni-magazine reporter. The loss would have been a tremendous one; the capsule contained letters from Supreme Court justices and t
Source: Time
Nov 19, 2009
Uncertainty is one of the most corrosive elements in politics, and as days melt into weeks with no firm decision from President Barack Obama on whether the U.S. will increase troop levels in Afghanistan, the remaining British consensus on the issue is threatening to dissolve. Public support for Britain's contribution to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan has curdled as the body count of British troops has spiraled, reaching 98 this year alone. An opinion poll taken earlier this month after an A
Source: Times Online
Nov 19, 2009
The Ancient Greeks deliberately built their temples to face the rising Sun, according to research that promises to shed light on their religious practices and to resolve a longstanding archaeological controversy.
An investigation into temples built by Greek colonists in Sicily has found strong evidence that they were aligned to the East.
The findings, by Alun Salt, of the University of Leicester, suggest that Ancient Greek religion may have included ritual elements insp
Source: BBC
Nov 19, 2009
A US judge has ruled that negligence by the US Army Corps of Engineers led to massive floods in parts of New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
The court upheld complaints by six residents and a business against the Corps over its maintenance of a navigational channel.
They were awarded damages totalling $720,000 (£431,000), and the ruling could lead to thousands more claims.
About 80% of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
