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: Newsweek
Feb 11, 2008
In the renovated Assyrian gallery of Baghdad's Iraq Museum, archeologist Amira Edan al-Dahab was doing what she likes best: explaining the priceless treasures in her care. Stately 3,000-year-old statues of royalty—a couple lost their heads during the museum's looting in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion—have been restored and are presiding over the vast space. Ancient stone reliefs line the walls, with intricate carving depicting the rituals of early civilization. In one panel, an Assyrian and
Source: Newsweek
Feb 11, 2008
During the 2000 election, Republican smear artists trying to stop the presidential campaign of John McCain spread rumors that the former POW was "nuts" because he had been "in the cage too long"—in the Hanoi Hilton for five and a half years. The campaign decided to make public Captain (now Senator) McCain's medical records, which showed that he had an enlarged prostate and trouble lifting his arms (repeatedly broken in captivity), but had been judged perfectly sane by a serie
Source: http://www.nj.com
Feb 10, 2008
Inside box 218 were the blogs of the 18th Century - pamphlets about war, democracy, monarchy, slavery and social customs authored by radicals and revolutionaries such as Thomas Paine.
In another box, an original broadside of the Treaty of Paris dated 1784. And in another, a stamp from the Stamp Act of 1765.
They are part of the 329,069 items at the Morristown National Historical Park, where a lack of display space has kept almost all of that collection in storage.
Source: NYT
Feb 10, 2008
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — The pho bo, Vietnam’s traditional beef noodle soup, is tasty at the Pho Binh restaurant, but in truth no better than at other places here. The broth is hearty, the noodles are chewy, the small slices of beef tender even if the accompanying pieces of lime and chili pepper looked a bit tired. The price is right: 22,000 dong, or about $1.30.
But the pho bo, however filling, is not the reason to visit Pho Binh, or Peace Soup. Instead, the restaurant is an imp
Source: Joshua Altman for HNN. Mr. Altman is an HNN intern.
Feb 10, 2008
Should the United States designate the first week in May as “American Religious History Week?” It should, says Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) and he has introduced a resolution to give the idea an official stamp of approval. The measure has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Karen Lightsoot, Communication Director for the Committee, told HNN that at present there are no plans to move the resolution forward. Nonetheless, a small group of critics have mo
Source: NYT
Feb 10, 2008
Seeing a good possibility that the Democratic presidential nomination will not be settled in the primaries and caucuses, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are lavishing attention on a group that might hold the balance of power: elected officials and party leaders who could decide the outcome at the convention in August....
Should they ratify the decision by regular delegates and vote for the candidate who is ahead in June, no matter how small the lead? Are they obliga
Source: NYT
Feb 10, 2008
WITH his high-pitched giggle and his gentle ways, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is not someone you would expect to be used as a blunt-force weapon in a political campaign.
But, used he was, to great effectiveness, in Pennsylvania in 1986. The story is this.
The Maharishi, who died last Tuesday, was the man who introduced transcendental meditation to the West. The Beatles were his most famous disciples, but another was William W. Scranton 3d, who went to Europe in 1970 to study
Source: ANSA (Italy)
Feb 10, 2008
Christopher Columbus wasn't responsible for the spread of lice in the New World, according to US and French researchers.Teams in Marseilles and Florida have separately examined two lice-ridden Peruvian mummies dating back to the early 11th century - almost 500 years before the Italian explorer arrived in the Caribbean.
''The DNA from these parasites showed that the animals predated the arrival of Columbus by hundreds of years,'' said David L. Reed of the F
Source: Newsweek
Feb 9, 2008
At the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines last November, an annual ritual of backslapping and speechifying that takes on added significance in the months before the Iowa caucuses, the candidates were trying out their slogans. Hillary Clinton went with "Turn Up the Heat" (meaning, she explained, let's attack the Republicans and not each other, a vow she inevitably could not keep). Barack Obama was looking for some way to sharpen the distinction with Clinton and the other candida
Source: Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria
Feb 9, 2008
What Richard Johnson,"Mystery of a JFK ‘Son'," NY Post's Page Six, 7 February, reports as Gossip is reported as News in Denise Ryan,"B.C. man said to be JFK's illegitimate son," Vancouver Sun, 8 February. They say that Vanity Fair was about to break the story of a forty-
Source: Independent (UK)
Feb 9, 2008
A message in a bottle, which has floated on the waves of time for 90 years, has been found by French archaeologists.
The beer bottle contained a letter sent to an American soldier fighting in the First World War from his "Aunt Pete" in Oklahoma City. It was discovered by accident by archaeologists exploring a 6th and 7th century Merovingian settlement, at Messein in Lorraine.
The letter gives a jaunty, unthinkingly racist account of life in the US Midwest in J
Source: AP
Feb 9, 2008
PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) — A former U.S. Navy pinup girl whose curvy image graced the sides of American bombers during World War II has been honored for her role boosting soldiers' morale.
At the height of the war, Aline Osborn's seductive photos were on the walls of thousands of GIs' bunks and her image was painted on the sides of bombers by love-struck soldiers.
Osborn, now 81, said she sometimes received 120 or so letters a day from soldiers who had her sexy pinups and wr
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 9, 2008
The disgraced French far-Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was given a three-month suspended sentence yesterday for calling the Nazi occupation "not particularly inhuman".
The founder of the National Front was found guilty of denying a crime against humanity and complicity in condoning war crimes.
Le Pen was also fined around £7,400. His lawyer said that the 79-year-old would appeal against the sentence.
Source: Bloomberg News
Feb 8, 2008
Australia wants an accord with Papua New Guinea to safeguard the Kokoda Trail, the World War II battle site, after local villagers blocked part of the track to support the building of a gold and copper mine.
``Australia has the very strong view that the Kokoda Trail needs to be protected,'' Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday, adding he will make this point to his Papua New Guinean counterpart, Sam Abal, when they meet in Canberra next week. ``The Kokoda Trail for Australi
Source: Reuters
Feb 8, 2008
Italian police are investigating an anti-Semitic blog listing the names of more than 150 "Jewish university professors," which was removed from the Internet after protests from politicians and Jewish leaders.
The blog, by an anonymous author, listed the names and workplaces of university professors which it accused of "publicly and politically" supporting Israel.
It was taken down in the early afternoon on Friday, said Emanuele Fini, one of the head
Source: National Coalition for History blog
Feb 8, 2008
On February 7, 2008, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing to discuss the length of time it was taking for the completion of the compilation and annotation of the papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams and two projects encompassing the period prior to and during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, as well as his post-presidency. Also at issue was the limited public accessibility to the finished products, especially via the internet.
In late-De
Source: Space.com
Feb 8, 2008
On the night of Feb. 20, the full moon will pass into Earth's shadow in an event that will be visible across all of the United States and Canada.
The total lunar eclipse will be made even more striking by the presence of the nearby planet Saturn and the bright bluish star, Regulus.
Eclipses in the distant past often terrified viewers who took them as evil omens. Certain lunar eclipses had an overwhelming effect on historic events. One of the most famous examples is the
Source: http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com
Feb 8, 2008
It seemed unbelievable that the two men hadn't yet met.
Their careers had collided in the most public way, shaping the way Americans understood the Vietnam War and the freedom of the press. But when Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and Nixon-era whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg first shook hands, it was in the green room at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center last night.
Their lives intersected in 1971 when Ellsberg leaked thousands of pages of documents to The New Yor
Source: CSM
Feb 8, 2008
Katrina Browne was studying at seminary when her grandmother sent her a booklet she'd written on their family history. As she read it, one sentence stunned her: It mentioned the DeWolfs' slave-trading business out of Bristol, R.I."The first shock was as if finding out for the first time the horror of being descended from slave traders," she says. "But within moments, I realized I already knew, and yet had completely buried it."
It was that se
Source: AP
Feb 7, 2008
An April trial date has been set for three teenagers charged in juvenile court with vandalizing a 109-year-old Confederate monument at the state Capitol....
They're accused of jumping over a waist-high fence during the November 11 weekend and painting the hands and faces of four granite soldiers black.
The vandals also wrote "N.T. 11 11 31" in black paint on the monument's base. That's thought to be a reference to the date rebellious slave Nat Turner was hange
