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
Jun 3, 2006
Mary Todd Lincoln seems an unlikely muse for a writer whose first book, "Dancer From the Dance," published in 1978, remains one of the most famous novels in modern gay literature. But the widowed Mrs. Lincoln is the presiding spirit in Andrew Holleran's novel "Grief."
Mrs. Lincoln's husband, of course, is a perennial subject for historians, novelists and biographers. "We are so drawn to Lincoln, justifiably so," Mr. Holleran said, "but Mary Todd L
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 3, 2006
Gerry Adams has been a guest at No 10 and the White House but the Sinn Fein president is definitely not welcome at the V&A museum, it seems.
Staff have removed his name from the guest list for the opening of its "Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon" exhibition next week.
Mr Adams's name was deleted for being neither -"relevant or appropriate", said the exhibition's curator, Trisha Ziff, who had invited him as a personal friend.
She w
Source: Hamilton Spectator
Jun 3, 2006
A 27,000-year-old human skeleton laid out in a room decorated with ancient art and a crude representation of a face are among the rare finds in a cave in western France, officials said yesterday.
The state took over ownership of the cave in the Vilhonneur forest on May 12, the French Culture Ministry said in a statement.
It was only the second time that a human body is known to have been placed in a decorated cave from the Upper Paleolithic Period,
Source: The Times-Picayune
Jun 3, 2006
When fund-raisers for the National D-Day Museum try to squeeze donations out of World War II veterans, they sometimes get a polite brushoff from those who weren't part of the celebrated invasion of France: "When you get to my war, let me know."
Though the 6-year-old museum in the Warehouse District offers glimpses into a sweeping war experience, that fact wasn't readily understood. But that should no longer be a problem, officials said Friday as they officially changed the
Source: Newsday
Jun 3, 2006
It's been 16 years since the pistol Theodore Roosevelt used during the Spanish-American War was stolen from Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. And now, because of a tipster with a sense of history, the revolver is coming home.
After the caller told the site's chief curator that the gun belonged at TR's Cove Neck estate, the FBI was able to recover it in the South last fall. And while continuing to investigate the April 1990 theft from a display case at the Old Orchard Museum, the
Source: The Irish Times
Jun 3, 2006
Chancellor Angela Merkel has opened a landmark exhibition exploring 2,000 years of German history, calling it a chance to create "from a divided memory of the Germans a common one".
After 20 years of discussion and controversy, the new permanent exhibit at the German Historical Museum in Berlin goes on show today with 8,000 exhibits including the hat Napoleon lost at Waterloo and the huge globe Adolf Hitler used to plot world domination, memorably parodied by Charlie Chapl
Source: The Advertiser
Jun 3, 2006
A makeshift camp burrowed by shipwrecked whalers into cliffs on a remote West Coast island is hoped to provide new insight into the life of some of the first white settlers of South Australia.
The camp, made in caves atop cliffs on Flinders Island, was fashioned more than 160 years ago and accessed this week for the first time by archeologists.
The whaling vessel Vulcan was shipwrecked near Bryant Bay on the island's south coast in April, 1845. All 18 aboard swam to saf
Source: Discovery News
Jun 2, 2006
Archaeologists have discovered an enormous prehistoric calendar, formed by sculptures arranged in a circle, at the Temple of the Fox in Buena Vista, Peru.
The calendar, which dates to 2200 B.C., is the oldest known structure of its kind found in the Americas.
Similar monuments erected by the Mayans of Mexico have also been found, but those have dated to approximately 2,000 years ago.
Source: Christian Post
Jun 2, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The Episcopal Church is poised to apologize for failing to oppose slavery, but making up for its 19th century inaction won't come without 21st century controversy.
At its national convention beginning June 13, the church is expected to approve a resolution expressing regret for supporting slavery and segregation. But the debate will likely get more heated when a second resolution comes up, calling for a study of possible reparations for black Episcopalians.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Jun 2, 2006
In its final hearing on whether Pennsylvania's public colleges indoctrinate students in left-wing ideology and discriminate against conservatives, a committee of state lawmakers went somewhat off-topic on Thursday to discuss whether more emphasis on the traditions of Western civilization would serve as an antidote to any liberal bias in academe. David W. Saxe, an associate professor of education at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, testified that
Source: NYT
Jun 2, 2006
The Justice Department is probably correct in saying that it was legally entitled to search a congressman's office last month. But in ignoring history and established conventions in that case, some legal scholars say, the Bush administration has again unsettled widely shared understandings of constitutional relationships and freedoms that have existed for generations.As with the administration's assertions that it may ignore a law on domestic eavesdropping, reinterpret other
Source: Rolling Stone
Jun 2, 2006
In a long article in Rolling Stone Kennedy, son of 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, says that the evidence is overwhelming that the 2004 election in Ohio which gave Bush the White House was rigged.
Source: NYT
Jun 2, 2006
They have been warned, as always, not to rampage through the streets, destroying things and attacking people. But as England's soccer fans prepare to visit Germany for the World Cup this month, another item has been added to their long "verboten" list: Don't mention the war.
"It's not a joke," Charles Clarke, then the home secretary, warned at a pre-World Cup briefing earlier this spring. "It is not a comic thing to do. It is totally insulting and wrong.&qu
Source: BBC
Jun 2, 2006
Ancient figs found in an archaeological site in the Jordan Valley may represent one of the earliest forms of agriculture, scientists report.
The carbonised fruits date between 11,200 and 11,400 years old.
The US and Israeli researchers say the figs are a variety that could have only been grown with human intervention.
The team, writing in the journal Science, says the find marks the point when humans turned from hunting and gathering to food cultivation.
Source: AP
Jun 2, 2006
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A Timucuan village, dating back at least 700 years, was discovered equipped with cooking vessels and pits that still contained animal bones, in a lot being cleared for home development, the city's archaeologist said Thursday.
The remnants were found earlier this year and date from 1100 to 1300 A.D. They were unearthed in a lot that had been vacant for the past 440 years, said Carl Halbirt, the city's archaeologist.
"This is the most significa
Source: King5.com
Jun 2, 2006
It has been a dream for 25 years. But Thursday the creation of a Northwest African-American museum came one big step closer to reality with a ceremonial groundbreaking for the museum that will be housed in the old Colman School in south Seattle.
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Jun 2, 2006
What more could you possibly want to see, or learn, about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, you may be thinking to yourself?
Well, possibly this: Little less than a year ago, Deep Sea Detectives hosts John Chatterton and Richie Kohler dove four kilometres beneath the North Atlantic's surface in Russian submersibles. Their mission, captured on film in tonight's two-hour A&E special, Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces, was to search outside the known debris field and possibly d
Source: New Yorker (click on the NEXT link at the bottom of each page)
Jun 1, 2006
The New Yorker has published various writers' memories of wartime including: Neil Sheehan, Roger Angell, Tony D'Souza.
Source: ABC
Jun 1, 2006
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters) - An underwater explorer who found the Titanic and a team of international scientists will soon survey waters off the Greek island of Crete for clues to a once-powerful Bronze Age-era civilization.
The expedition about 75 miles northwest of Crete aims to learn more about the Minoans, who flourished during the Bronze Age, and seeks to better understand seafaring four millennia ago, the scientists said.
U.S. researchers say the Minoans
Source: BBC News
Jun 1, 2006
A memorial to 10 American airmen who died in a crash on Belfast's Cavehill during World War II has been unveiled. The B-17 bomber went down in heavy fog 62 years ago after losing its bearings on the way to Nutt's Corner airport.
A plinth was unveiled in Belfast Zoo, near the crash site, on Thursday as a decommissioned B-17 flew over.
A film of how one crewman's wedding ring was found at the site decades later and returned to his widow, Closing the Ring, is being made.
