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: Christian Science Monitor
Feb 28, 2006
Truth or tall tale, the John Henry story has been told for more than a hundred years. Many historians believe it is based, in part, on a real person and event in the late 1800s. As a freed slave following the Civil War, Henry became an icon because of his strength and determination. His strong work ethic was not only an example to African-Americans, but also to every workingman.
Henry was among the thousands of "steel-drivin' men" who built the railroa
Source: Wa Po
Feb 28, 2006
BERLIN -- The road is now clear for a long-awaited restoration of the Pergamon Museum, after the government approved a budget for the project.
The neoclassical museum, home to such treasures as the Pergamon Altar and Babylon's Ishtar Gate, will gain a new wing during the overhaul, which will cost about $417 million and be financed by the federal government, Berlin officials said Monday.
Source: Wa Po
Feb 28, 2006
Effa Manley became the first woman elected to the baseball Hall of Fame when the former Newark Eagles executive was among 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues chosen yesterday by a special committee.This year's Hall class -- 18, including former reliever Bruce Sutter -- is the biggest in history. The previous record was 11 in 1946.
Manley co-owned the New Jersey-based Eagles with her husband, Abe , and ran the business end of the te
Source: BBC News
Feb 27, 2006
Graceland, Elvis Presley's former home in the US city of Memphis, is to be designated a national landmark. The "exceptional" house will receive the special status because it has "meaning to all Americans", according to the US Interior Department.
Source: CNN
Feb 27, 2006
Archaeologists have found a 3,000-year-old cliff painting made with human hand prints and believed to depict a dancing man and woman in southwestern China, a news report said Monday.The 1.4 meter-by-1.6 meter (50-by-60-inch) painting was found near the Jinsha River in Yunnan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Local people guided a three-member team of archaeologists to the painting, said Ji Xueping, associate professor with the Yunnan Institute of C
Source: National Geographic News
Feb 27, 2006
An ancient medical mystery—the cause of a plague that wracked Athens from 426 to 430 B.C. and eventually led to the city's fall—has been solved by DNA analysis, researchers say.
The ancient Athenians died from typhoid fever, according to a new study. Scientists from the University of Athens drew this conclusion after studying dental pulp extracted from the teeth of three people found in a mass grave in Athens' Kerameikos cemetery.
The
Source: breitbart.com
Feb 27, 2006
Scientists have found what they believe are traces of the lost Indonesian civilization of Tambora, which was wiped out in 1815 by the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history.
Mount Tambora's cataclysmic eruption on April 10, 1815, buried the inhabitants of Sumbawa Island under searing ash, gas and rock and is blamed for an estimated 88,000 deaths. The eruption was at least four times more powerful than Mount Krakatoa's in 1883. Guided by groun
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists
Feb 27, 2006
Anyone can purchase a copy of the 1958 Department of Defense "Emergency Plans Book," an early cold war description of response planning for a nuclear attack on the United States. It is available for sale through Amazon.com and elsewhere under the somewhat lurid title "The Doomsday Scenario" (Motorbooks International, 2002).
But don't look for it at the National Archives, where author L. Douglas Keeney originally obtained it in 1997, because it is no longer there
Source: Wa Po
Feb 27, 2006
For nearly three decades, hip-hop relics such as vinyl records, turntables, microphones and boom boxes have collected dust in boxes and attics.
On Tuesday, owners of such items _ including pioneering hip-hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Fab 5 Freddy _ will blow that dust off and carry them to a Manhattan hotel to turn them over to National Museum of American History officials.The museum, part of the Smithsonia
Source: WOAI San Antonio
Feb 27, 2006
Scientists have found what they believe are traces of the lost Indonesian civilization of Tambora, which was wiped out in 1815 by the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history. Mount Tambora's cataclysmic eruption on April 10, 1815, buried the inhabitants of Sumbawa Island under searing ash, gas and rock and is blamed for an estimated 88,000 deaths. The eruption was at least four times more powerful than Mount Krakatoa's in 1883.
Guided by ground-penetrating
Source: Times Union
Feb 27, 2006
FORT EDWARD -- Imagine finding an unexpected gift. But you can't open it or touch it. And in fact, not long after you discover it, it must be destroyed. Permanently. If you're lucky, you can take a picture of it. That's roughly the situation for upper Hudson River residents who embrace the area's rich history. An archaeological firm hired by the General Electric Co. to survey the river bottom and shoreline before the massive PCB dredging project begins next year has unearthed some unexpected tre
Source: DW-World.DE
Feb 27, 2006
A group of German scientists has deciphered the meaning of one of the most spectacular archeological discoveries in recent years: The mystery-shrouded sky disc of Nebra was used as an advanced astronomical clock. The purpose of the 3,600 year-old sky disc of Nebra, which caused a world-wide sensation when it was brought to the attention of the German public in 2002, is no longer a matter of speculation.
A group of German scholars who studied this archaeological
Source: Yahoo News
Feb 27, 2006
Arid conditions in China's northern desert regions are threatening the world heritage-listed Mogao Grottoes where painted Buddhist rock carvings are peeling and cracking. Paintings in the UN World Heritage-listed grottoes are "crisping and peeling" due to local water shortages made worse by increased tourism and agricultural use, the China Daily reported.
The grottoes, located near the oasis town of Dunhuang, were once a starting point for pilgri
Source: Yahoo News
Feb 27, 2006
Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday. The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis — the center of pharaonic sun worship — was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press.
Among the artifacts was a pink gran
Source: Washington Post
Feb 27, 2006
Recently, however, a team of archaeologists reported a breakthrough: the discovery of a skull deep below the flagstones of the 14th-century Frombork Cathedral. Aided by fresh historical research and a high-tech police crime lab, the archaeologists have tentatively concluded that the skull -- that of a man with a broken nose who was approximately 70 years old when he died -- is indeed that of the astronomer.The findings have aroused excitement in Poland, where Copernicu
Source: LAT
Feb 27, 2006
The Mexican government and military committed "crimes against humanity" through a "scorched-earth" campaign against rural guerrillas in the 1970s, according to a draft report released Sunday of the first official investigation into Mexico's "dirty war" against leftist rebels and activists.The investigation by the country's "Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements of the Past" was commissioned by President Vicente Fo
Source: The Irish Times
Feb 27, 2006
MILOSEVIC TRIAL: Criticising the judicial approach at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic currently taking place in The Hague, a Dutch historian told a conference at Trinity College Dublin there was "no concrete evidence" linking the former Yugoslav president with the July 1995 massacre at Srebrenica in which an estimated 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed.Prof Bob de Graaff, who co-authored a report on Srebrenica which brought down the Dutch government in 2002, was add
Source: Financial Times
Feb 27, 2006
One of the most high-profile and potentially far-reaching copyright cases seen in the English courts recently will start this morning, with two authors of a non-fiction book suing Random House, publisher of Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code, over alleged infringement.Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are claiming that the American author's novel appropriated themes and ideas that they explored in a 1980s work called The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
The
Source: eSchool News
Feb 27, 2006
Through an agreement with the National Archives, Google Inc. has added historic video footage of such events as the Apollo moon landing and Japan's surrender in World War II to its internet search engine. Students, teachers, researchers, and others now can access these digital video clips free of charge through the Google Video search portal.Students and teachers now have free online access to more than 100 historic films, including old World War II newsreels and NASA docume
Source: Inside Higher Education
Feb 27, 2006
A faculty panel investigating allegations of research misconduct by Ward Churchill said last week that it needed more time and would try to have a report done by May 9. The University of Colorado at Boulder panel was created following an uproar over statements about 9/11 by Churchill, who teaches ethnic studies. The investigation is not over those statements, but over allegations concerning Churchill’s scholarship that surfaced after the controversy broke. Churchill has denied any wrongdoing. Th
