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: Eureka Alert (Harvard University)
Sep 10, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans. The fibers, discovered during systematic excavations in a cave in the Republic of Georgia, are described in this week's issue of Science.
The flax, which would have been collected from the wild and not farmed, could have been used to make linen and thread, the researchers say. The cloth and th
Source: NYT
Sep 10, 2009
The nation’s top copyright official made a blistering attack Thursday on a controversial legal settlement that would let Google create a huge online library and bookstore.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Marybeth Peters, the United States register of copyrights, said the settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers amounted to an end-run around copyright law that would wrest control of books from authors and other right holders.
Source: USA Today
Sep 10, 2009
NEW YORK — E-book fans will have to wait for a download of Sen. Ted Kennedy's memoir.
True Compass, one of the year's most anticipated books, is scheduled to come out next week. But publisher Twelve has decided to hold off "indefinitely" on a digital edition. The head of Twelve, Jonathan Karp, said Thursday that the delay was a "business decision."
Publishers have been debating whether to release e-books at the same time as hardcovers because of conc
Source: The Guardian
Sep 10, 2009
A reclining man with a bushy beard and big nose is the latest to join a haul of stone figurines unearthed at the ancient site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. The sculpture, which measures around six inches high, was uncovered at the neolithic site last week.
Çatalhöyük was the final resting place of some of the world's first farmers. Other figurines representing farmyard animals and people in sitting and standing positions have already been excavated at the site, which dates back to the da
Source: MSNBC
Sep 10, 2009
A U.S. Navy patrol boat sunk during WWII has been found and photographed 20 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C.
The wreck of the YP-389, a converted fishing trawler, rests in about 300 feet of water in a region known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," where several U.S. and British naval vessels, merchant ships, and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Six sailors died when the YP-389 was attacked by a German submarine June 19, 1942. There were 18
Source: Sacramento Business Journal
Sep 10, 2009
The California State Legislature on Thursday unanimously approved legislation to officially recognize the accomplishments of Filipino Americans. Senate Concurrent Resolution 48, authored by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), declares October as Filipino American History Month.
The earliest documented proof of Filipino presence in the continental United States was the date of Oct. 18, 1587, when the first “Luzones Indios” set foot in Morro Bay...
Source: Trail Blazers
Sep 10, 2009
The so-called curriculum experts appointed by the State Board of Education have submitted their latest suggestions to proposed social studies standards that will be used in Texas schools. In preparation for what is expected to be a heated public hearing before the state board next week, the six experts offered their opinions on standards that were drafted by writing teams of teachers and academics for history, government and other subjects.
Most of the debate will be over U.S. histo
Source: Yahoo News
Sep 10, 2009
It's a photo that many credit with helping to end the Vietnam War: A 9-year-old girl, naked and in obvious pain, runs through a street after suffering napalm burns over much of her body.
What the iconic photo -- snapped in 1972 by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut -- doesn't show is the girl's struggle to survive and thrive in the aftermath of that day.
Now 46 years old, Kim Phuc Phan Thai (Kim Phuc to most) spoke recently at a conference of burn survivors and burn
Source: BBC
Sep 10, 2009
US President Barack Obama has voiced his disappointment directly to UK PM Gordon Brown over the release of the Lockerbie bomber, the White House says.
It says Mr Obama made his remarks in a telephone call to Mr Brown.
Mr Brown had made it clear the decision had been a matter for the Scottish government, the spokesman added.
Source: National Post
Sep 10, 2009
BAGHDAD -- Iraq appealed to other nations on Thursday to help save its archaeological treasures from ruin, saying ancient Babylonian and Assyrian artifacts and priceless medieval Islamic monuments were at risk without more funds.
Iraq, which the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia or ‘land between two rivers' because of its Tigris and Euphrates, is regarded by archaeologists as the cradle of civilisation....
... High on the list is the national museum in Baghdad, once a t
Source: The American Task Force on Palestine
Sep 10, 2009
RAMALLAH, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Minister of Spain Miguel Angel Moratinos said Wednesday that his country supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian statehood on the borders of 1967.
Moratinos made the statement in a joint news conference held in Ramallah with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, adding that Spain and the European Union "will keep exerting every possible effort to achieve the Palestinian goals."
"We can not wait fo
Source: ABC News
Sep 10, 2009
On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.
In an exclusive interview ... on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of A
Source: Yahoo News
Sep 10, 2009
MILAN – The entirety of Leonardo da Vinci's 1,119-page Atlantic Codex is going on public display for the first time, in a series of 24 exhibits spanning six years.
The first exhibit of 45 drawings, "Fortresses, Bastions and Cannons," opened Thursday at the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, which also holds Leonardo's "The Last Supper," and at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which has preserved the Codex since 1637.
The Atlantic Codex is "an extraordin
Source: BBC
Sep 10, 2009
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he is gathering information about possible war crimes in Afghanistan.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo says that he will be examining claims relating to both Nato soldiers and Taliban insurgents.
He said the court had received allegations from many sources, relating to attacks and collateral damage.
But the court will only become involved if Kabul or the UN Security Council ask it to look into allegation
Source: The Times Online (UK)
Sep 10, 2009
President Mitterrand of France warned Margaret Thatcher privately that a reunited Germany might “make even more ground than Hitler had” only a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, newly declassified documents reveal.
In papers due to be published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office tomorrow, after a year of deliberation by Whitehall officials, the scale of Anglo-French fears on German reunification is laid bare.
At a lunch at the Élysée Palace on January 20,
Source: Politico
Sep 10, 2009
The similarities are striking: Sixteen years ago, another Democratic president stood in the same spot in the same month and addressed the nation on the same topic. Behind Bill Clinton sat a Democratic Speaker of the House and his vice president. It was the same Wednesday night with Barack Obama.
And a POLITICO analysis of the transcript of both speeches shows a striking similarity in the words used by both presidents.
Both presidents argued that the cost of doing nothin
Source: CNN
Sep 10, 2009
Forty years ago, a group of young people led by a charismatic, 5-foot-2-inch ex-con named Charles Manson set out on a murderous spree in Los Angeles, California. They planned to spark an apocalyptic race war that Manson called "Helter Skelter," after a song by the Beatles.
Crimes linger in our memories when they are especially horrific or when they represent the era in which they occur. The Manson murders did both. And they grew to symbolize the dark side of the California
Source: The Art Newspaper
Sep 9, 2009
Irreversible damage to a number of important archaeological sites in Chile and Argentina has been caused by the Dakar Rally, an annual off-road automobile race held in South America for the first time in January, in spite of persistent warnings from archaeologists and environmentalists both before and during the event. The extent of the damage emerged from a report submitted to the Chilean government by the National Monuments Council in early July. Expanding on preliminary findings published af
Source: Press and Information Office (Republic of Cyrprus)
Sep 9, 2009
The Department of Antiquities announces the completion of the 2009 Prastion-Mesorotsos project that took place from 22 June to 30 July, and involved investigation of the stratified remains of Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Late Antique and Medieval archaeology. Excavations were carried out in eight areas across the circa 10 hectare site in the Pafos district. In total, over 100m2 were exposed and architecture and features from multiple periods were revealed.
Source: NYT
Sep 9, 2009
President Obama’s health care speech tonight is officially an address to a joint session of Congress. Such addresses are somewhat out of the ordinary but not all that rare.
Certain events take place routinely during a joint session — counting electoral votes, for example, or delivering a State of the Union message. (When a president is first inaugurated, he usually gives just an address at a joint session.)...
... Most people today have been reminded that President Bill
