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
Feb 20, 2009
Mr Smith, resources director at Wessex Archaeology in Salisbury, Wiltshire, said his firm has laid off 60 archaeologists since orders "fell off a cliff" last November.
But he feels the business and the industry should have seen it coming.
Under new legislation any developer planning to build anything in a potentially sensitive area where there might be recorded remains, is required to have the land checked out by an archaeologist.
The law is un
Source: Time Magazine
Feb 19, 2009
Nobody at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad knows exactly how the three stolen Sumerian tablets
got all the way to Lima, Peru. All authorities in Lima told Iraqi museum officials was that the
three tablets, more than 2,000 years old and each small enough to hold in the palm of one's hand,
were found roughly a year ago in the luggage of an American traveling in the country and seized at
the airport."I'm not involved in the other details," says Dr. Amira Edan, who heads of the museum's
eff
Source: Argus Observer (Oregon)
Feb 19, 2009
Under cover of the night, thieves scramble away with Payette’s Civil War-era monument.
The Civil War cannon replica has been snatched from Payette’s Central Park in downtown, and city officials want it back.
The cannon is a replica of a real Civil War cannon that was moved from the park to the Payette County Historical Society museum nearby about four years ago to protect it from being stolen, Platt said. The original is between 5 and 6 feet in length, and the replica a
Source: Orange County News
Feb 19, 2009
[Re: The building of a store adjacent to a major Civil War battlefield in Virginia.]
Walmart representatives announced Monday that based on results of a recent survey, a new Walmart Supercenter will be welcomed by a majority of Orange County residents. Last month’s survey, conducted by an independent market research firm, questioned 300 registered voters in Orange County about shopping preferences and related issues.
Plans to build the 143,000-square-foot supercenter on a 19
Source: Oregonian
Feb 19, 2009
Bre Hoggans and T'aira Turner could win 200 points. With it, they'll move one step closer to freedom as they travel the Underground Railroad.
But this challenge isn't easy. They must research Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and write two paragraphs on how he used literacy to fight for freedom.
The two start reading a two-page biography aloud.
"He taught other people to read the Bible," says Turner, 13. "He fo
Source: China Central Television
Feb 19, 2009
The excavation of some Eastern Zhou period tombs that had ancient chariots and horses buried underground has been completed, an official from Luoyang's cultural relics office told Dahe Daily on Tuesday.
This is another latest uncover of ancient tombs following similar discoveries in surrounding areas in 2002.
The excavation site contains 29 tombs, including two imperial wooden chariots and two dead horses.
Field work for this excavation began in August 200
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Feb 19, 2009
If they would just fly in David Horowitz and Dinesh D’Souza, they could stage an awesome tag-team wrestling match …
The two academics that American conservatives most love to hate are scheduled to appear together next month at the University of Colorado at Boulder. According to an article in today’s Colorado Daily, William Ayers will appear on the campus with — and voice support for — Ward Churchill on the night of March 5, just days before Mr. Churchill’s lawsuit challenging his di
Source: New Statesman
Feb 19, 2009
Three years ago, archaeologists at Bristol University embarked on a unique research project: the excavation of a 1991 Ford Transit van. After some background research, they carefully collected up all the dog hairs and sweet wrappers before stripping back the layers of carpet, plywood lining, metal and rust. Some of their discoveries were fairly trivial, such as the revelation that the van's roof was badly dented after serving as an impromptu diving board at a riotous Christmas party. But there w
Source: Independent (UK)
Feb 19, 2009
At the time it was hushed up. But now survivors of Britain’s worst civilian tragedy, the Bethnal Green Tube shelter disaster, want a dignified memorial for its 173 victims ...
###
Even after 65 years, remembering how Vera Trotter was killed on a winter’s evening in 1943 as the Luftwaffe made one of its regular post-Blitz raids on London’s East End is still enough to bring Alf Morris to tears. Standing on the eastern steps of Bethnal Green Tube station, the 78-year-old d
Source: AFP
Feb 19, 2009
The world has lost Manx in the Isle of Man, Ubykh in Turkey and last year Alaska's last native speaker of Eyak, Marie Smith Jones, died, taking the aboriginal language with her.
Of the 6,900 languages spoken in the world, some 2,500 are endangered, the UN's cultural agency UNESCO said Thursday as it released its latest atlas of world languages.
That represents a multi-fold increase from the last atlas compiled in 2001 which listed 900 languages threatened with extinctio
Source: The New Nixon (blog)
Feb 19, 2009
[The book focuses on the family that produced Richa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 19, 2009
Germany is to offer citizenship to tens of thousands of 'war children' fathered by Nazi soldiers in France during the Second World War.
The move is being offered in recognition of the suffering of those who became known as the "bastards of the Boche" and often suffered discrimination
The German interior ministry said the move was a "symbolic gesture to make up for past wrongs" suffered by the children who are now in their 60s.
Accordi
Source: BBC
Feb 19, 2009
On the 65th anniversary of an audacious World War II bombing raid on a Gestapo prison, one of the few survivors has spoken of his part in the dangerous mission.
Operation Jericho was devised to give 100 French patriots the chance to escape the firing squad, scheduled for 19 February 1944, at Amiens Prison in occupied Northern France.
Pilot Officer Cecil Dunlop, 92, from Bath, was on one of the first bombers to fly over the prison and drop his payload.
Th
Source: BBC
Feb 19, 2009
Argentina has ordered an ultra-traditionalist British bishop who denies the Holocaust to leave the country or face expulsion.
The Interior Ministry said Richard Williamson had been told he had 10 days to leave Argentina.
Earlier this month the bishop was removed from his post as the head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Argentina.
A row erupted in January after the Pope decided to lift Bishop Williamson's excommunication on an unrelated matter.
Source: BBC
Feb 19, 2009
A French battleship sunk in 1917 by a German submarine has been discovered in remarkable condition on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Danton, with many of its gun turrets still intact, is sitting upright in over 1,000m of water.
It was found by the Fugro geosciences company during a survey for a gas pipeline between Algeria and Italy.
The Danton, which sank with 296 sailors still onboard, lies 35km southwest of the island of Sardinia.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 18, 2009
The series of letters from the late Diana, Princess of Wales to John Major, the former Prime Minister, and Tony Blair, his successor, were deemed too private to be published under the Freedom of Information Act.
Members of the Royal Family are exempt from the Freedom of Information legislation but individual cases can be challenged on public interest grounds. The Office of the Information Commissioner said the letters were of a "personal nature" and not related to governm
Source: National Geographic News
Feb 18, 2009
Divers exploring a southern Florida sinkhole have uncovered clues to what life was like for some of America's first residents.
Led by University of Miami professor John Gifford, underwater archaeologists are exploring Little Salt Spring, 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Sarasota.
Earlier this year, students working about 30 feet (9 meters) below the surface found the remains of a gourd that probably was used as a canteen by an ancient hunter about 8,000 or 9,000 year
Source: Science Daily
Feb 18, 2009
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) has gained recognition in recent years due in part to a book that used it as a model for societal collapse from bad environmental practices—ringing alarm bells for those concerned about the health of the planet today. But that’s not the whole story, says Dr. Chris Stevenson, an archaeologist who has studied the island—famous for its massive stone statues—with a Rapa Nui scientist, Sonia Haoa, and Earthwatch volunteers for nearly 20 years.
The ancient Rapanui
Source: BBC
Feb 18, 2009
An exhibition which has opened in New York takes the unlikely step of placing fake works of art on display.
The Brooklyn Museum, like many others, began buying ancient Coptic and Pagan sculptures after World War II.
However, the museum's curators recently discovered that roughly a third of their collection is fake.
The resulting exhibition places genuine sculptures from the 4th Century AD alongside a small group of forgeries, probably from the mid-20th C
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Feb 18, 2009
The remains of about 400 British and Australian First World War soldiers will be dug up from a battlefield in northern France and given individual burials.
The excavation of six mass graves on the Somme will begin in May after archaeologists found human remains and fragments of kit and equipment. The work is expected to take up to six months.
The bodies will each be buried with full military honours in a new cemetery near the town of Fromelles.
