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: http://www.ohio.com
Jun 15, 2009
Akron is planning a series of events to commemorate the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859.
The abolitionist had ties to Summit and Portage counties.
Born in Connecticut in 1800, he was 5 when his family moved to Hudson. As a young man, he worked at his father's tannery. He also operated a tannery in Kent in the 1830s.
Source: Zenit
Jun 15, 2009
A foundation that promotes interreligious dialogue announced that it has more than 2,300 pages of original documents illustrating Pope Pius XII's efforts to help Jews in the face of Nazism.
Gary Krupp, president of the New York-based Pave the Way Foundation, affirmed this today in a statement to ZENIT, and stated that the documents from the years 1940-1945 will be made available to the public for research.
The president, himself a Jew, reported that these papers, found
Source: National Geographic
Jun 15, 2009
Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.
A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.
For such a site to
Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Jun 15, 2009
Govt hails pivotal moment for Cambodian culture as National Museum celebrates an upgrade to its ageing lighting system
FIVE foreign donors handed over five Khmer artefacts at a ceremony Friday to celebrate a new electrical and lighting system at the National Museum.
"Cambodia has lost a lot in the last 20 to 30 years. Anything that is given back to them of any value is of great importance," Douglas Latchford, a collector of Khmer antiquities, told the Post sho
Source: LAT
Jun 15, 2009
After federal raids last week on the somewhat casual, small-town traffic in illicit Southwest artifacts, one prominent pot hunter is dead and nearly a dozen more are under indictment.
The criminal actions grew out of a two-year undercover investigation in the Four Corners region, in which a wired informant purchased more than $300,000 in illicit antiquities. Most were bought in the high desert town of Blanding, Utah.
You might have an imaginary picture of the pot hunter
Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com
Jun 15, 2009
Food poisoning, not wanderlust, may have inspired early Polynesian wayfarers to undertake risky voyages across the Pacific to Hawai'i, New Zealand and Rapa Nui, according to new research.
Using archaeological evidence, prehistoric climate data and recent reports of ciguatera poisoning from the consumption of contaminated reef fish, researchers at the Florida Institute of Technology theorize that climate conditions conducive to ciguatera outbreaks may have occurred in French Polynesi
Source: BBC
Jun 15, 2009
Part of a Neanderthal man's skull has been dredged up from the North Sea, in the first confirmed find of its kind.
Scientists in Leiden, in the Netherlands, have unveiled the specimen - a fragment from the front of a skull belonging to a young adult male.
Analysis of chemical "isotopes" in the 60,000-year-old fossil suggest a carnivorous diet, matching results from other Neanderthal specimens.
Source: CNN
Jun 15, 2009
Searching through the rubble of demolition sites across the 800-year-old capital of China, Li Songtang has unearthed a treasure trove of ancient relics. They include gate piers depicting Mongolians and the Han Chinese during the Yuan dynasty, a Buddhist carving that is more than 1,000 years old, and a Ming dynasty marble fish water tank.
Li Songtang is neither museum curator nor antiques expert, but an ordinary man who did not want to see China's rich history lost to modernization d
Source: Miami Herald
Jun 15, 2009
The construction crews were digging up a patch of land near Northwest 71st Street when they unearthed the unexpected: wrist bones, a human skull, skeletons of two small children. Then came crumbled headstones, nails, buttons and metal coffin handles.
The crew, working on an affordable housing project in the shadow of Interstate 95, had stumbled upon an apparently long-forgotten burial ground -- and a tantalizing puzzle that has stumped Miami's most knowledgeable archaeologists and h
Source: Truthout.org
Jun 15, 2009
From 1961 to 1971, the US military sprayed Vietnam with Agent Orange, which contained large quantities of Dioxin, in order to defoliate the trees for military objectives. Dioxin is one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man. It has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen (causes cancer) and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects).
Between 2.5 and 4.8 million people were exposed to Agent Orange. The spraying cover
Source: Time
Jun 15, 2009
The notion goes back to 1922, when a bond brokerage in New York City hired Edgar Lawrence Smith to put together a pamphlet explaining why bonds--and certainly not stocks--were the best long-term investment. At the time, this was conventional wisdom on Wall Street. Bonds were for investment, stocks for speculation--and, in those pre-SEC days, for manipulation. But when he investigated the historical record, Smith recounted later, "supporting evidence for this thesis could not be found."
Source: AP
Jun 15, 2009
Thomas Richardson II was a wealthy, 18th-century Newport merchant and captain, a slave trader and member of the city’s privileged elite who, researchers say, manufactured rum on his waterfront property and ventured to the Caribbean and Africa.
That much is already known. But his backyard may hold many more clues to his life and that of other merchants of the time.
A team of excavators who have already spent two summers at the Richardson property, digging up everything f
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Jun 15, 2009
Tony Blair is set to be quizzed as part of an inquiry into the Iraq War announced by his successor Gordon Brown.
The former Prime Minister, who led Britain to war, said that if asked he would 'of course' appear before the panel.
But Mr Brown has been accused of an 'Establishment stitch-up' after announcing the inquiry will meet in secret and blame no one.
It will also have no legal powers to demand documents, compel anyone to attend or require witnesses to
Source: Deutsche Welle
Jun 15, 2009
Florence Hartmann, who was spokeswoman for the former chief war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, between 2000 and 2006, is accused of having disclosed confidential information about the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in a book and an article published after she left her post.
The publications allegedly cite confidential documents and court decisions made during the trial of former Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, which implicate the Serbian st
Source: AP
Jun 15, 2009
A century and a half later, we still don't know quite what to think of John Brown.
Brown, historians agree, aimed to be a hero. He believed his plan was the necessary means to a righteous end: Storm a federal arsenal, seize thousands of weapons, arm a guerrilla force and start the revolution that would end slavery.
Yet the first casualty of his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry was a free black man, a baggage handler who bled to death on the street while Brown's raiders grabbe
Source: Archeology Magazine
Jun 15, 2009
An ancient Chinese city wall with a history of more than 14 centuries is being eaten away by a kind of mite in Xi'an, capital of northwestern Shaanxi Province, archaeologists have said.
Experts were surprised to find it had been the mites undermining the wall at the Hanguang Entrance Remains Museum during their one-year research for further protection.
"The discovery is the world's first of this kind. The mites had damaged the wall seriously," said Li
Source: Chicago Trib (Click here to see graphic)
Jun 15, 2009
As President Barack Obama flies Monday to Chicago for a midday speech on health-care reform, the round trip on Air Force One will run about $236,000, according to government estimates of the operating costs for one of the top symbols, and perks, of the presidency.
But that does not include such expenses as Secret Service protection, motorcades and helicopter transports.
Source: HNN Staff
Jun 15, 2009
A few months ago we reported that the NYT had adopted a new practice of dating articles. Although you might find an article published in the June 15, 2009 paper version of the Times, the newspaper might consider the official date the day before when the article was posted online.
That change made sense given the realities of online publishing, but it made historians' lives more difficult: Readers following historians' footnotes would have to guess whether it was the paper edit
Source: BBC
Jun 15, 2009
Part of a Neanderthal man's skull has been dredged up from the North Sea, in the first confirmed find of its kind.
Scientists in Leiden, in the Netherlands, have unveiled the specimen - a fragment from the front of a skull belonging to a young adult male.
Analysis of chemical "isotopes" in the 60,000-year-old fossil suggest a carnivorous diet, matching results from other Neanderthal specimens. The North Sea is one of the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 15, 2009
A naked portrayal of the Mona Lisa, which was once attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, forms one of the highlights of the biggest exhibition ever held on the Renaissance genius.
The mysterious portrait of a semi-nude woman, looking straight at the viewer with an enigmatic smile and with her hands crossed, bears a remarkable resemblance to Leonardo's world famous painting.
Hidden for almost a century within the panelled walls of a library, the portrait appears to have been
