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: AP
May 27, 2007
The Riviera Courts motel [on Route 66] is crumbling away, and nobody seems to care....
Owners who inherited these historical footnotes have no use for them and would rather sell the properties to a developer if the price was right.
Today, many structures that made the road what it was -- the diners, family owned service stations, barbecue joints -- have fallen apart. With efforts to fix up these architectural landmarks scarce, time has become the road's worst enemy.
Source: http://www.forthoodsentinel.com
May 27, 2007
The Families of more than 88,000 fallen troops continue to suppress the “what if” thoughts in the backs of their minds as they await news of what happened to their loved ones who were taken prisoner of war or were listed as missing in action since World War I. The vast majority are World War II veterans, but about 1,200 still are unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. ...The people who work to find fallen warriors and return them to their families are part of the
Source: LiveScience
May 26, 2007
A moat and fortified walls have protected the Tower of London from vandals for almost 800 years, but against the ravages of pollution, the iconic royal palace doesn’t stand a chance. The entire complex is turning yellow from the exhaust of cars and trucks, according to a new study.
The discoloration is most noticeable at the complex’s White Tower, the original square fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1078. “When we question visitors, they say the color is cream,” said study
Source: http://www.azzaman.com
May 26, 2007
A political faction has occupied the premises of Basra Museum which used to house thousands of archaeological relics.
The Basra Museum was looted shortly after U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003. The British troops who occupied Basra did nothing to protect the museum.
The museum’s collection of magnificent and priceless artifacts was stolen or broken and homeless families moved into its premises.
A statement by The Antiquities Department faxed to the
Source: WSJ
May 26, 2007
1. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner, 1940).
2. "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon (1776-88).
3. "This Kind of War" by T.R. Fehrenbach (Macmillan, 1963).
4. "Hell in a Very Small Place" by Bernard B. Fall (Lippincott, 1966).
5. "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque (Little, Brown, 1929).
Source: NYT
May 26, 2007
After months of intense discussions, negotiations between a New York antiquities collector and the Italian government have bogged down over a demand that she never be pursued by Italy again, several people close to the talks say.
Italy is seeking the return of nine artifacts from the collector, Shelby White, contending that they were looted from its soil.
Lawyers for both sides had been optimistic earlier this year that a deal could be struck. But an impasse developed o
Source: NYT
May 26, 2007
Democrats on a deeply divided Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday accused the Bush administration of ignoring preinvasion warnings from the nation’s spy agencies that a war in Iraq could be followed by violence and division and that it could strengthen the hands of Al Qaeda and of Iran.
“Sadly, the administration’s refusal to heed these dire warnings, and worse, to plan for them, has led to tragic consequences for which our nation is paying a terrible price,” said Senator John D
Source: NYT
May 26, 2007
wept into office in 2000 in Mexico’s first real democratic election, former President Vicente Fox is breaking ground again, this time on a library devoted to his often stormy tenure.
Mr. Fox, who left office last year, envisions the library and museum, rising from the dust on his family’s ranch here, as a scholarly refuge devoted to the study of his place in history. There will be an academic center dedicated to democratization across the world, a collection of Mr. Fox’s presidentia
Source: AP
May 25, 2007
Army Pvt. Clinton Tyler McCormick is buried in Florida, but his photo and his words are still online. They haven't changed since he logged in to his MySpace.com profile on Dec. 27, 2006 — the day before he was killed by a makeshift bomb in Baghdad.
In earlier wars, families had only the letters that soldiers sent home; often, bits and pieces were removed by cautious censors. Iraq is the first war of the Internet age, and McCormick is one of many fallen soldiers who have left ghosts
Source: Advertiser (Australia)
May 25, 2007
HUDDLED around a campfire in a community deemed unworthy of inclusion on Australia's official maps, Aboriginal elder Dick Brown reflects on a vote that ended the practice of counting his people among Australia's flora and fauna.
"We thought that it would change for the better,'' Brown says without rancour when asked about the 40th anniversary of a landmark vote that recognised Aborigines as full Australian citizens for the first time.
He is speaking from one of the
Source: Arizona Republic
May 25, 2007
A new U.S. history curriculum for Mesa Public Schools' fifth-graders has led to criticism from one teacher concerned about what the textbook is leaving out while perhaps shedding light on the growing pains of incorporating technology into classroom instruction.
When fifth-graders open their history book, History Alive! America's Past, this fall they may not find some notable events, or noteworthy people, you'd expect to be there.
"Give me liberty or give me death&
Source: NPR
May 25, 2007
Public.resource.org has taken more than 6,200 low-resolution photographs posted on the Smithsonian site and posted them on flickr.com, as an act of protest over what public.resource head Carl Malamud calls the Smithsonian's unnecessary restrictions on use of the images and dubious claims of its ownership of them.
The protest raises interesting questions over who owns the images in "America's museum" — and whether the public should have unfettered access to them.
Source: AP
May 25, 2007
Archaeologists diving into a lake in the crater of a snowcapped volcano found wooden scepters shaped like lightning bolts that match 500-year-old descriptions by Spanish priests and conquerors writing about offerings to the Aztec rain god.
The lightning bolts — along with cones of copal incense and obsidian knives — were found during scuba-diving expeditions in one of the twin lakes of the extinct Nevado de Toluca volcano, at more than 13,800 feet above sea level.
Scien
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 25, 2007
One of the so-called Princes in the Tower allegedly murdered by Richard III actually survived and ended life as a bricklayer, according to an historian.
David Baldwin, who lectures at the University of Leicester, believes that Edward, the elder prince, died of natural causes and that Richard, the younger Prince, was secretly sent to live with his mother.After their father, King Edward IV, died, the princes - aged 12 and nine - were placed in the Towe
Source: Slate summary
May 25, 2007
The cover article commemorates the 40th anniversary of Israel's Six-Day War. In light of continuing violence in the Middle East, it "has come to look like one of history's pyrrhic victories." The Jewish state's triumph over neighboring Arab forces left Israelis "intoxicated by victory and the Arabs paralysed by humiliation." The subsequent land grab gave rise to today's conflict, "feeding poison into the wounded relations between Islam and the West as a whole." The
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
May 25, 2007
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) would benefit under the House Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies fiscal year (FY) 2008 “Chairman’s Mark” that was approved this week.
NEH would receive an increase of $19 million over both its FY 2007 appropriation and the administration’s FY ‘08 request. NEH’s budget would go from the current $141 million to $160 million, and would also be in parity with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
May 25, 2007
The Smithsonian Institution came under fire during this week’s markup of its fiscal year 2008 budget by the House Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.
The Smithsonian Institution’s budget would be frozen at the FY ‘07 level. The Smithsonian would receive $536 million for operating costs, some $35 million less than the administration’s request for fiscal year 2008.The Smithsonian was the subject of severe criticism during the mark
Source: Agence France Presse
May 25, 2007
The sacrifice of thousands of US soldiers who died in the D-Day landings are honoured in a new [$30 million] visitors' centre opening Saturday at the Colleville sur Mer cemetery in northern France.
Situated on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach, one of the landing points of the June 6, 1944 allied invasion, the centre traces the story of US soldiers who stormed the Normandy beaches to end the Nazi occupation of Europe.
"We simply wanted to tell future generations what
Source: WaPo
May 25, 2007
Two new books on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York offer fresh and often critical portraits of the Democratic presidential candidate that depict a tortured relationship with her husband and her past and challenge the image she has presented on the campaign trail.
The Hillary Clinton who emerges from the pages of the books comes across as a complicated, sometimes compromised figure who tolerated Bill Clinton's brazen infidelity, pursued her policy and political goals with metho
Source: AP
May 25, 2007
New testing on the type of ammunition used in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy raises questions about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, according to a study by researchers at Texas A&M University.
Lead researcher Cliff Spiegelman stressed, however, that the research doesn't necessarily support conspiracy theorists who for decades have doubted Oswald was the lone gunman.
"We're not saying there was a conspiracy. All we're saying is the ev
