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: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 14, 2007
The menus may lack a little refinement for today's discerning diners, but the signature dishes of our ancestors were nothing if not adventurous.
For it has emerged that even in prehistoric times, the British domestic goddess was adept at rustling up a traditional roast, albeit hedgehog, with a nettle pudding for afters and a little barley bread on the side.
Later on the more pretentious palates of the Romans could be satisfied with dishes which would not be so out of pl
Source: NYT
Sep 14, 2007
A central theme wove through the words of the political leaders who spoke at the Sept. 11 memorial service this week. It was an ancient concept: We are our brothers’ keepers.
“Can I see another’s woe, and not be in sorrow too?” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. He also said, “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads.”
Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said, “Just as despair can come to one another only from other human be
Source: Daily Yomiuri
Sep 14, 2007
Primary school students may have to rote-learn more key geographical facts and study more history in a proposal expected soon from a special committee of the Central Council for Education as part of revisions to the education ministry's official curriculum guidelines planned for the next school year, it has been learned.
The current primary school social studies curriculum does not clearly state what should be taught in geography lessons.
However, under the new proposal
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
Sep 14, 2007
Scholarly Paris will change in 2009 when a sizable portion of the French National Archives moves from the center of Paris to outlying Seine Saint-Denis. While documents from the ancien régime will remain downtown in the Marais, collections dating from the 1789 revolution through the Fourth Republic will be housed in this northeastern suburb, one of the many sites of youth rioting in 2005.
The suburbs (banlieues) of Paris can refer to anything from the luxury townships to the west of
Source: Armenia Now
Sep 13, 2007
Armenian archeologists have discovered the second pagan temple in Armenia after Garni.
The temple found 5.5 meters under ground not far from the modern town of Artashat about 30 kilometers to the south-east of Yerevan was devoted to Mihr – the God of the Sun in Armenian mythology. The temple – the symbol of sun-worship was built near Artashat which maintained its status the longest among the capitals of Armenia - from the 2nd century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.
“By dis
Source: History Today
Sep 13, 2007
A Viking longship is believed to be resting underneath a pub car-park in Mersyside. Professor Stephen Harding, of the University of Nottingham used ground penetrating radar (GPR) equipment to trace the vessels exact location. The ship had been unburied previously in 1938 during relocation work on the pub- the Railway Inn in Meols, Wirral. Workers were advised to cover the ship over again so as not to delay construction and a new car-park was laid on top of it. "Although we still don't know
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 13, 2007
A life-size statue of Owain Glyndwr who led an historic Welsh uprising against rule from England has been unveiled in the town where he was born.
The £15,000 bronze monument, which has taken four years to make, has been erected in Corwen in Denbighshire.
Its unveiling had been delayed after a lorry carrying its plinth plunged down a ravine in China earlier this year.
It marks the 16 September anniversary of the day that Glyndwr was proclaimed the first Prin
Source: IraqCrisis email
Sep 13, 2007
The Iraqi-Polish Co-operation in Central South Iraq 2003-2006” was organized by Larsa – Human Right Organization, an Iraqi NGO in cooperation with the Polish Embassy on the 10th September. The venue of the event was the Babylon Hotel, located in the so-called Red Zone of Baghdad. The basic aim of this public presentation intended for the inhabitants of the Iraqi capital was to increase awareness of importance of the Iraqi archaeological heritage, to show its present status in Central South part
Source: NYT
Sep 13, 2007
A farmer and the State of California reached a deal on Monday that will prevent two large industrial dairy operations from being built near Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, the site of the state’s only town founded and operated by African-Americans.
The California Department of Parks and Recreation has agreed to pay $3.5 million to the farmer, Samuel Etchegaray, for his guarantee not to establish two large dairies on land he owns near the park in Tulare County.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 12, 2007
Secrets contained in fragile documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls are to be revealed using one of the most powerful light sources in the Universe.
British scientists are using a giant instrument - in essence an extremely powerful torch and microscope combined - to read parchments that are too brittle to unroll or unfold.
The Diamond synchrotron creates X-ray beams 10 billion times brighter than the Sun, allowing researchers to study chemical and material samples in mo
Source: AP
Sep 12, 2007
Fidel Castro claims Cuba's government saved the life of President Reagan by giving American officials information about an assassination plot in 1984.
The essay published Wednesday in the Communist Party newspaper Granma appeared to be the first time Cuba has made the claim. It seemed aimed at showing Cuba has cooperated with the United States in the past.
Castro, who has not appeared in public for more than a year, wrote that a Cuban security official stationed at the
Source: Scotsman.com/Reuters
Sep 12, 2007
Concealed in a thicket of brambles in hills southwest of Cologne, out of sight of the nearby motorway, an eerie relic of Germany's Nazi past has been neglected for over 60 years.
Under layers of dead wood and leaves lies part of Hitler's "Westwall" -- the "Siegfried Line" as it is known in English -- a 630 kilometre defensive line of bunkers and anti-aircraft defences that once ran the length of Germany's western border.
The concrete fortifications h
Source: AP
Sep 12, 2007
Encrusted with tiny shells and smelling strongly of the sea, a 2,400-year-old Greek jar lies in a saltwater bath in Durres Museum, on Albania's Adriatic coast.
Part of a sunken shipment of up to 60 ceramic vessels, the 67-centimeter (26-inch) storage jar, or amphora, was the top find from what organizers say is the first archaeological survey of this small Balkan nation's seabed, conducted by U.S. and Albanian experts.
"Touch it, touch it. It's luck," said mis
Source: Scott McLemee at the website of Inside Higher Education
Sep 12, 2007
Rarely does a political scandal inspire anyone to discuss sociological research done 40 years earlier. But whatever else Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) may have contributed to public life, he certainly deserves credit for renewing interest in Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places, by Laud Humphreys, first published in 1970.
Humphreys, who was for many years a professor of sociology at Pitzer College, in Claremont, California, died in 1988. But his analysis of the protocols of a
Source: BBC
Sep 12, 2007
Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in north-west Pakistan.
The statue, thought to date from the second century BC, sustained only minimal damage in the attack near Manglore in remote Swat district.
The area has seen a rise in attacks on "un-Islamic" targets in recent months.
This is the first such attack in Pakistan and is reminiscent of the Taleban's 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan in Afg
Source: Bloomberg News
Sep 11, 2007
In 1912, Ludwig Borchardt discovered a 3,400-year-old statue of Nefertiti, a queen of ancient Egypt, among ruins on the eastern bank of the Nile.
The German archaeologist shipped it home to Berlin, where it became the centerpiece of the antiquities collection at the Altes Museum. Now the blue, gold and terracotta bust is the focus of an international tug of war. After Germany refused to lend the statue to Egypt for a three-month exhibition, Egyptian officials said they may demand t
Source: ynetnews.com
Sep 11, 2007
An indictment was filed at the Tel Aviv District Court Tuesday against the eight youths arrested Sunday on suspicion of being members of a neo-Nazi cell in Petah Tivka. Three of the defendants are minors.
The eight are charged on counts of racially-motivated aggravated assault, conspiring to commit a crime, distributing inciting materials, possessing racist materials and weapons and issuing threats. State prosecutors have asked the court to extend the defendants' arrests until court
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 11, 2007
The only surviving witness to a decades-long conspiracy theory has firmly denied the Catholic Church is hiding details about a predicted apocalypse.
Archbishop Loris Capovilla, 91, said there was no truth in the rumour that the Vatican was suppressing a vision of the end of the world.
The vision said to have been revealed 90 years ago by the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children on a hillside at Fatima in Portugal.
The three "Secrets of Fatima"
Source: History Today
Sep 11, 2007
Prisoners of War in Stalag Luft III, made famous in the film The Great Escape, dug over 100 tunnels in a bid for freedom, archaeologists have discovered. The film portrays three tunnels at the camp in Zagan, in modern-day Poland, being used for a mass break-out. In March 1944, 76 prisoners escaped but only three made it to Allied and neutral countries and 50 were executed. Radar was used by Keele University and UCL archaeologists to identify the escape routes.
Source: History Today
Sep 11, 2007
New research by medieval historians has revealed women enjoyed greater freedom and independence in the Middle Ages than previously thought. Dr Sue Niebrzydowski stated: "We found women running priories, commissioning books, taking early package tours to visit the Holy Land.” She added: “Women were often widowed by the age of 30 and it gave them greater freedom. They could be more sexually liberated as there would be no child as evidence of their fornication or adultery.” The evidence from l
