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: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Dec 23, 2005
WILLIAMSBURG Surrounded by a dozen TV screens and five assistants in a darkened control room, producer Linda Randulfe keeps up a steady patter of commands.
"This goes to Jay. Coming up on four minutes," she says. And later, "Prompter's going to be next. Standby to roll tape."
In a neighboring studio, three actors in 18th-century garb field a stream of questions from students who have tuned in. They're helped by a Colonial Williamsburg historian, Jay
Source: NYT
Dec 23, 2005
A week after Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's top novelist, went on trial, charged with insults to the Turkish identity, an Istanbul court convicted two other intellectuals on the same charges. Zulkuf Kisanak, who compiled stories of forced evacuations of Kurdish villages by the Turkish military in his book "Lost Villages," received a $2,200 fine. Aziz Ozer, a publisher whose magazine carried articles titled "80 Years of the Turkish Republic, 80 Years of Fascism" and "No to a Partn
Source: NYT
Dec 23, 2005
WITH his latest film, "Munich," Steven Spielberg forgoes the emotional bullying and pop thrills that come so easily to him to tell the story of a campaign of vengeance that Israel purportedly brought against Palestinian terrorists in the wake of the 1972 Olympics. An unsparingly brutal look at two peoples all but drowning in a sea of their own blood, "Munich" is by far the toughest film of the director's career and the most anguished. Mr. Spielberg has been pummeling audience
Source: Sun-Sentinel
Dec 23, 2005
When Christmas Eve comes, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), will track Santa Claus during his annual flight.
NORAD is responsible for handling the air defense of the North America continent. But it has also been tracking Santa's movements on Christmas Eve for the past 50 years.NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa -- radar, satellites, Santa Cams and jet fighter aircraft.
The satellites have infrared sensor
Source: CNN
Dec 23, 2005
A rare German gun that may have belonged to Adolph Hitler -- allegedly taken as a souvenir 60 years ago when U.S. forces captured one of his secret hideaways -- could fetch thousands of dollars in an online auction next month, organizers said.
No one knows for sure whether Hitler owned the Krieghoff Drilling combination shotgun and rifle engraved with the initials "A.H." It is to be sold by Midwest Exchange, a Bloomington pawn shop, at auction at
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Dec 23, 2005
On a rocky hillside in Nazareth, the town where Jesus grew up and spent much of his life, a familiar scene is taking shape. In the courtyard of a stone stable, surrounded by rough-hewn wooden farming implements, a young man and his wife are comforting their newborn son. They are dressed in simple, handwoven tunics, and the baby is lying on a bed of fresh straw in an animal's trough.
It is as if they had been transported back in time 2,000 years to the birth of Christ and the simple
Source: Haaretz
Dec 23, 2005
If the central sewage line for Jerusalem's Old City, which runs down the slope of the village of Silwan, had not gotten blocked a year ago, it would probably have been many years before we would have discovered the real dimensions of the historic Pool of Siloam from the Second Temple Period.
The pool, whose present small dimensions date from Byzantine times, is the outlet for the spring water coursing through the ancient Hezekiah's tunnel. It was once huge - three to four dunams.
Source: Japan Times
Dec 23, 2005
The Japanese government is considering convening a second meeting of a joint Japanese-South Korean history study group in January, government sources said Friday.
The panel will set up a smaller group to examine the issue of history textbooks, in addition to its three current subgroups: one dealing with ancient history, another on medieval history and a third on contemporary history.The government hopes the new round of talks will improve ties between the two co
Source: Gazette (Montreal)
Dec 23, 2005
British Columbia's Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo has quietly launched a mission to heal an old cross-border scar between the U.S. and Canada: The 1884 lynching by an American mob of a young Sto:lo boy named Louie Sam.
"This is not the best time in relations between Canada and the United States," said Campagnolo in an interview. "This is a positive thing.
"We can't change the past, but we can do something about it."
Source: NYT
Dec 23, 2005
Irving Berlin's New York was a world of Broadway babies, teeming matinees, entrances at the Imperial, exits at the St. James, joyful noise at the New Amsterdam and civic veneration for his great mentor, the showman George M. Cohan.
And it still is. It's not just that the 1954 movie "White Christmas," highlighting Berlin's definitive musical statement on the splendor of the holidays, is playing - as it must, on Christmas Day - on television. And
Source: History Today
Dec 22, 2005
The schools exam watchdog has reported secondary schools in the UK are continuing to concentrate on Nazism and the Tudors, to the detriment of other topics. The annual report of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Government’s curriculum authority, stated: ‘There has been a gradual narrowing and ‘Hitlerisation’ of post-14 history. The option choices made by schools and colleges in GCSE and AS/A level mean that the content of post-14 history continues to be
Source: Expatica.com
Dec 22, 2005
The Vatican has opened up to German historians the secret records associated with the Catholic Church's former Index of Forbidden Books, revealing that well-loved books of the 19th century nearly came under bans.
The Index, which was abolished in 1967, was a directory listing thousands of books that the church considered as theologically wrong or immoral.
The historians discovered that both a guide to good manners and the classic 19th century novel "Uncle Tom's C
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Dec 22, 2005
While some see him as an enchanting symbol of Dutch culture, Sinterklaas - from whom Americans derived Santa Claus - is not welcomed by everyone. His black-faced assistant, known as Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, has in recent years come under fire for having racial undertones.
"I understand it's in their tradition to celebrate the event but I have to admit I am deeply offended," says Patrick Chapell, an African-American musician living here in Utrecht.
Source: The Age (AU)
Dec 22, 2005
HUNDREDS of human footprints — the oldest in Australia and the largest collection of its kind in the world — have been found in the Mungo National Park in south-western NSW.
They were left by children, adolescents and adults between 19,000 and 23,000 years ago, at the height of the last ice age, as they ran and walked across a moist clay area near the Willandra Lakes.The prints were laid down in wet clay containing calcium carbonate, which hardened l
Source: Washington Times
Dec 22, 2005
Previous administrations, as well as the court that oversees national security cases, agreed with President Bush's position that a president legally may authorize searches without warrants in pursuit of foreign intelligence. "The Department of Justice believes -- and the case law supports -- that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the president may, as he has done, delegate this authority to the attorney g
Source: AP
Dec 22, 2005
There's already a debate over whether to say "Happy holidays" or "Merry Christmas." The next step of the controversy could be whether textbooks designate ancient years as B-C or B-C-E.
State senator Tom Reynolds has introduced a bill that would prevent the state's school boards from adopting textbooks unless the books use the B-C designation.B-C stands for "before Christ." Increasingly authors and historians are using the religiousl
Source: Reuters
Dec 22, 2005
The head of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in parliament, echoed Iran's president on Thursday in describing the World War Two Holocaust of European Jews as a myth.
"Western democracy has attacked everyone who does not share the vision of the sons of Zion as far as the myth of the Holocaust is concerned," Mohamed Mahdi Akef said in a statement.Last week the deputy leader of the Brotherhood, Mohamed Habib, asked about Ahmadinejad's
Source: Reuters
Dec 21, 2005
Emperor Akihito has called on Japan to "accurately understand" its history at the end of a year marked by criticism abroad that the country fails to atone for its militarist past.
In an interview marking his 72nd birthday on Friday, the emperor said "there were rarely peaceful times" in the 20 years to 1945 when Japan surrendered to the allies to end World War II."I believe it is extremely important for the Japanese people to strive to a
Source: Reuters
Dec 21, 2005
English children are taught too much about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in school history lessons, the country's education watchdog said on Thursday.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority said the teaching of the subject for teenage pupils was dominated by 20th Century dictatorships and other topics such as England's Tudor monarchs like Henry VIII who ruled during the 16th century."There has been a gradual narrowing and 'Hitlerisation' of post-14 his
Source: LAT
Dec 21, 2005
Steven Spielberg calls his latest movie, "Munich," a prayer for peace.
But the filmmaker's tale of the Israeli hit team avenging the 1972 massacre of 11 of its Olympic athletes is already dividing viewers. One of the year's most anticipated movies and a potential Oscar contender, "Munich" has triggered debate among audiences -- including Oscar voters -- who have been the first to see it.Some are finding fault with how the film tries to
