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: NYT
Mar 29, 2008
A Japanese court rejected a defamation lawsuit on Friday against Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel laureate in literature, agreeing with his depiction of involvement by the Japanese military in the mass suicides of civilians in Okinawa toward the end of World War II.
In a closely watched ruling, the Osaka District Court threw out a $200,000 damage suit that was filed by a 91-year-old war veteran and another veteran’s surviving relatives, who said there was no evidence of the military’s i
Source: Daily Mail
Mar 28, 2008
A decorated German Luftwaffe pilot is to return to the city he bombed during World War Two to make a public apology.
Bomber pilot Willi Schludecker demolished dozens of Georgian buildings in Bath, Somerset, in April 1942 in his Dornier 217E-4.
Now 87 years-old and in failing health, his dying wish is to make amends with the city which lost 400 residents in the raid.
Source: Reuters
Mar 28, 2008
New evidence of a sick, deprived population working under harsh conditions contradicts earlier images of wealth and abundance from the art records of the ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna, a study has found.
Tell el-Amarna was briefly the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favor of the Aten sun disk and brought in a new and more expressive style of art.
Akhenaten, who ruled Egypt between 13
Source: LiveScience
Mar 28, 2008
Yards and yards of clear plastic sheeting line the cellar floor, dwarfing the corpse: headless, frail, supine. The young bony arms — covered in fine black powder from centuries of immobility in the frozen tundra — are crossed at rest, reminiscent of a ceremonial burial. Camera flashes illuminate the scene. Several dozen scientists stand around the body, murmuring in Russian and English about the find of the day. "How long do you think it was buried?" "Do you think it's male or fem
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Mar 28, 2008
Did he or didn't he? The question is vexing Coleridge scholars. Did the author of "Christabel," "Kubla Khan," and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" compose a blank-verse translation of Goethe's Faust that was published anonymously in London in 1821?
Two prominent Romanticists, Frederick Burwick and James C. McKusick, both Americans, believe they have clinched the case for Coleridge, settling a debate that stretches back decades. Last November, Oxford Un
Source: Press Release--Library of Congress
Mar 27, 2008
The Library of Congress–the largest library in the world and the oldest U.S. federal cultural institution–on Saturday, April 12, debuts an immersive, new "Library of Congress Experience," offering visitors unique historical and cultural treasures brought to life through cutting-edge interactive technology and a companion Web site.
The experience comprises a series of new ongoing exhibitions, dozens of interactive kiosks, an inspiring multimedia "overture" on the collec
Source: ABC News
Mar 27, 2008
Two forensic scientists have added their names to the list of people who don't believe Sirhan Sirhan acted alone when he shot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
Kennedy was gunned down on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. A gunman identified as Sirhan Sirhan was wrestled to the ground and later convicted as the man solely responsible for Kennedy's murder.
But doubts lingered and conspiracy theories took root that perhaps oth
Source: http://www.azzaman.com
Mar 27, 2008
The government has reduced allocations earmarked for the Antiquities Department and currently hundreds of significant sites are
without proper protection, said Ali Kadhem.
Kadhem is a senior antiquities official in southern Iraq where most valuable Mesopotamian treasures are situated.
He is currently in charge of antiquities in the southern Province of Nasiriya, the birth place of the Sumerian civilization, which
flourished there some 5,000 years ago.
The government has ear
Source: Reuters
Mar 27, 2008
Archaeologists working at the construction site for London's 2012 Olympic Park have uncovered prehistoric skeletons on the site of the Aquatics Centre.
Four skeletons were found in graves around an area thought to be an Iron Age settlement, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said on Thursday.
Museum of London archaeologists have carried out extensive investigations at the site in Stratford, east London, which will house the main permanent venues for the Games.
Source: ABC News
Mar 27, 2008
Could Neanderthals speak? The answer may depend on whether they used make-up.
Francesco d'Errico, an archaeologist from the University of Bordeaux, France, has found crafted lumps of pigment – essentially crayons – left behind by Neanderthals across Europe.
He says that Neanderthals, who most likely had pale skin, used these dark pigments to mark their own as well as animal skins. And, since body art is a form of communication, this implies that the Neanderthals could s
Source: NYT
Mar 27, 2008
At first listen, the grainy high-pitched warble doesn't sound like much, but scientists say the French recording from 1860 is the oldest known recorded human voice.
The 10-second clip of a woman singing ''Au Clair de la Lune,'' taken from a so-called phonautogram, was recently discovered by audio historian David Giovannoni. The recording predates Thomas Edison's ''Mary had a little lamb'' -- previously credited as the oldest recorded voice -- by 17 years.
The tune was c
Source: BBC
Mar 27, 2008
The 40th anniversary of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association's decision to take protests onto the streets is being marked.
A number of those involved at the time have set up the NI Civil Rights Commemoration Committee.
They are organising a series of seminars, exhibitions and conferences to take place over the next few months.
Source: BBC
Mar 27, 2008
Race equality campaigners are angry after a Devon city centre pub changed its name to honour the 16th Century slave trader John Hawkins.
The Breton Arms has been renamed Hawkins Meeting House, angering the Racial Equality Council based nearby.
Hawkins was a 16th Century shipbuilder, merchant, pirate and slave trader.
The pub's owner says she is celebrating the life of the man who helped his fellow Plymothian Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada.
Source: AP
Mar 27, 2008
A small piece of jawbone unearthed in a cave in Spain is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe and suggests that people lived on the continent much earlier than previously believed, scientists say.
The researchers said the fossil found last year at Atapuerca in northern Spain, along with stone tools and animal bones, is up to 1.3 million years old.
That would be 500,000 years older than remains from a 1997 find that prompted the naming of a new species
Source: NYT
Mar 27, 2008
The Florida Legislature formally apologized Wednesday for the state’s “shameful” history of slavery, joining five other states that have expressed public regret for what Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, recently called America’s “original sin.”
The two-page resolution passed overwhelmingly in the Senate and then the House, bringing at least one lawmaker to tears. Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican, called it a “significant step” toward reconciliation.
Source: Deborah Lipstadt at her blog
Mar 27, 2008
According to theJTA, Jean Ziegler, a man who praised a Holocaust denier as one of the"leading thinkers of our times" has been appointed by the Swiss government as an"expert" to, get this, the U.N. Human Rights Council.Not only has Ziegler praised the denier, Roger
Source: Deborah Lipstadt at her blog
Mar 27, 2008
As someone who teaches about the Holocaust and, of course, Holocaust denial, any form of genocide denial infuriates me. The meeting of Rwanda genocide deniers which is scheduled for Montreal is an outrage. Read about it hereThis is something that causes great pain to Rwandese survivors and damage to historical accuracy.I would be upset about it in any case. But, as I noted in a previous
Source: http://www.bitsofnews.com
Mar 26, 2008
Professor Benny Shanon of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has written a paper arguing that Moses, the Jewish prophet, was on drugs. Shanon argues that Moses was on Ayahuasca, a mixture of the Acacia tree and harmal plant in conjunction. He argues this based on some very easily obtainable facts. In South America, shamans take a mixture of chemicals as Ayahuasca, a different mix than available in the Middle East, to generate mystical experience. The writer, Professor Shanon, a professor of psyc
Source: http://fredericksburg.com
Mar 26, 2008
Central Stafford County needs a public park, historians and preservationists say, but not of the usual kind.
This one, set atop ridges overlooking Accokeek Creek, would feature the most significant remaining set of unprotected Civil War forts and camps in the northern part of Virginia.
That's what they recommended yesterday to area officials meeting at the University of Mary Washington's graduate-studies center in Hartwood.
County Administrator Anthony Roma
Source: AP
Mar 26, 2008
The National Archives is joining with a Web site to make historical records of tens of thousands of deceased Vietnam War veterans available electronically for the first time.
The interactive site — http://www.footnote.com — is a Web re-creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. The site allows access to thousands of pages of casualty records and agency photos. People can search by name, hometown, birthdate, tour date, or doz
