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: Discovery Channel News
Sep 17, 2008
During the Viking Age from the late eighth to the
mid-eleventh centuries, Scandinavians tore across Europe attacking,
robbing and terrorizing locals. According to a new study, the young
warriors were driven to seek their fortunes to better their chances of
finding wives.
The odd twist to the story, said researcher James Barrett, is that it was
the selective killing of female newborns that led to a shortage of
Scandinavian women in the first place, resulting later in intense
competi
Source: Telegraph
Sep 17, 2008
A headcrusher, an Iron Maiden and a highwayman's coffin are among a series of torture implements recovered from the cellar of a German museum which are to be auctioned later this month.
The grim items - some of which are thought to date from medieval times - were discovered by auctioneer John Nicholson in the Kriminal Museum of Rudesheim/Rhein near Berlin, which was selling the collection after the owner died.
"There were these big wooden doors with great big metal
Source: Fox News
Sep 17, 2008
A 13-foot German torpedo from World War II has washed up on a beach along the Baltic coast, police said.
The torpedo was found early Wednesday by a cleaning crew at Timmendorf Beach, Luebeck police spokesman Detleff Riedel said. Police secured the area and explosives experts were called.
Experts said it was a German torpedo made during World War II. Only the midsection fuel tank washed ashore. The explosive warhead was not attached.
Source: Telegraph
Sep 17, 2008
Ruins of an ancient lagoon city that was the ancestor city of Venice have been found by scientists
Using satellite imaging, the outlines of the ruins can be clearly seen about three feet below the earth in what is now open countryside.
The discovery of the extensive town was found at Altino, known in Roman times as Altinum, more than seven miles north of Venice, and close to Marco Polo airport.
The ruins include streets, palaces, temples, squares and theatr
Source: FoxNews.com
Sep 17, 2008
NEW YORK — After years of professing their parents' innocence, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are acknowledging that their father was a spy.
The about-face came after their father's co-defendant, Morton Sobell, admitted for the first time that he and Julius Rosenberg stole nonatomic military and industrial secrets for the Soviet Union.
The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Since then, decoded Soviet
Source: Great Beyond (blog at Nature magazine)
Sep 17, 2008
The Vatican has denied it ever condemned "biological change over time," but insists it will not be apologizing to Darwin.
Catholic Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi said, “Evolutionary theory is not incompatible a priori with the teaching of the Catholic Church, with the message of the Bible and theology, and in actual fact it was never condemned.” (Catholic News Agency.)
Last week it was reported that the Anglican church would apologize to Darwin “for misunderstan
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 17, 2008
Using satellite imaging, the outlines of the ruins can be clearly seen about three feet below the earth in what is now open countryside.
The discovery of the extensive town was found at Altino, known in Roman times as Altinum, more than seven miles north of Venice, and close to Marco Polo airport.
The ruins include streets, palaces, temples, squares and theatres, as well as a large amphitheatre and canals, showing Altinum was once a wealthy and thriving city.
Source: Washington Post
Sep 17, 2008
Montpelier, the former Virginia estate of founding father James Madison, celebrated the completion of a $24 million restoration today aimed at returning the home to how it looked during the former president's lifetime.Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine spoke at the event, which capped a five-year effort by historians and archeologists with the Montpelier Foundation, who aimed to piece together not only the home's former structure, but the daily lives of p
Source: Tehran Times
Sep 17, 2008
Once again the restoration of southern Iran’s Portuguese castles was discussed during a meeting in Tehran on Sunday.
Based on the discussions between the Portuguese Ambassador to Tehran Jose Fernando Moreira da Cunha and Iran’s Fund for the Restoration and Utilization of Historical Sites Managing Director Ali-Asghar Parhizkar, the castles will be restored in a collaborative effort by Iran and Portugal.
Experts from Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Org
Source: Bloomberg News
Sep 16, 2008
The 7000-year-old mound of Pardis in the Qarchak region (Iran) is
currently being bulldozed by a factory for brick production. The
mound is located in an area owned by individuals using the earth from
the mound for producing bricks in their nearby factory. The upper
strata of the ancient site have been devastatingly damaged and ruins
of artefacts are visible nearby, said an anonymous source, who has
recently visited the site located near the city of Varamin in southern
Tehr
Source: Politico
Sep 16, 2008
It’s the climax of practically every election movie: the big debate scene, in which an underdog trailing in the polls scores major points against his stuffy opponent through oratory. Who can forget Robert Redford as liberal neophyte Bill McKay going off script about poverty and race while battling rival Crocker Jarmon in “The Candidate”? Or Warren Beatty in “Bulworth,” playing a rap-happy senator bringing class warfare to the debate process by summing it up as “pretty rich guys here, getting pai
Source: BBC
Sep 16, 2008
New evidence suggests the telescope may have been invented in Spain, not
the Netherlands or Italy as has previously been assumed.
The findings, outlined in the magazine History Today, suggest the
telescope's creator could have been a spectacle-maker based in Gerona,
Spain.
The first refracting telescopes were thought to have appeared in the
Netherlands in 1608.
But the first examples may actually have been made for Spanish merchants.
The inventor, according to his
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Sep 16, 2008
An important federal agency that oversees historic preservation in the United States will hold a rare public meeting in Mountain View [Calif.] today, to hear from local residents about a battle to preserve Hangar One, the mammoth Moffett Field building that used to house Navy dirigibles...
The public meeting by the influential federal body is the latest development in the long-running battle to decide what to do with the hangar, which was closed in 2003 after tests revealed that the
Source: http://wvgazette.com
Sep 16, 2008
The remains of more than 600 American Indians
unearthed in Putnam County nearly five decades ago have been returned to
West Virginia.
The remains, stored in about 150 boxes, were shipped from Ohio State
University to the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex Research
Facility in Moundsville last week.
Now, the goal is to rebury the remains in Putnam County - out of what
advocates say is respect for the dead and Indian spirituality.
The skeletal remains were unearthed
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 16, 2008
Aldworth House was designed as an escape for Tennyson during the summer months, away from the "trippers" which surrounded his home on the Isle of Wight.
He loved the view from his 60 acre estate on Black Down, near Haslemere in Surrey, which looks out at the Sussex Weald and Downs and stretches to the English Channel, 40 miles away.
In his poem Prologue, To General Hamley, Tennyson wrote: "You came, and looked and loved the view, Long-known and loved by m
Source: BBC
Sep 16, 2008
It is obvious he is a symbol of fertility. The Cerne Abbas Giant usually stands proud on a Dorset hillside overlooking the village from which he takes his name. But over the past 12 months he's been fading. So has it affected his legendary powers?
It's all down to the wet weather encouraging algae, lichen and grass to grow in the chalk trenches of his outline.
But couples wanting to test the fertility legends need not worry - a team of National Trust volunteers is at
Source: Politico
Sep 16, 2008
David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief strategist, said Sunday that John McCain is running the “sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history.” It was a line trotted out all weekend by various Obama staffers as part of an effort to portray the Republican nominee as a purveyor of the slimiest tactics in recent memory.
Yet presidential historians and political scientists interviewed by Politico scoffed at the notion, suggesting McCain’s approach is no har
Source: BBC
Sep 16, 2008
The body of an aristocrat who died nearly 90 years ago has been exhumed in
the hope that it will help scientists combat a future flu pandemic.
Yorkshire landowner Sir Mark Sykes died in France in 1919 from Spanish flu.
Sir Mark was buried in a lead coffin which scientists hope may have helped
preserve the virus.
They believe his remains will help piece together the DNA of Spanish flu,
which could have a similar genetic structure to modern bird flu.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 16, 2008
Sgt Eddie Egan died aged 19 on Sept 17, 1940, when his Hurricane was sent nose-diving into a wood on the Kentish Weald, exploding in flames.
Such was the speed of the crash that it buried both plane and pilot 20 feet beneath the leafy carpet covering the floor of Daniel's Wood, near Maidstone.
The wreckage and remains would have lain where they fell, hidden in dense forest for ever, before a desperate plea from his mother Grace led a team to find the missing hero's bo
Source: Voice of America
Sep 15, 2008
Home to what was once ancient Mesopotamia, Iraq has long been a target of looters and thieves intent
on stealing the country's treasure trove of antiquities. But a large cache of priceless artifacts
has been returned to Iraq's government, thanks to a multi-year initiative by U.S. customs
authorities to intercept items being smuggled into the United States. From Washington, VOA's Michael
Bowman reports.
Just how much of Iraq's wealth of antiquities has been stolen from archeological si
