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.
Aug 5, 2005
Scientists love to dig up old bones and medical records to reassess the health of historical figures. At the University of Maryland School of Medicine's annual Clinicopathological Conference, docs have proposed diagnoses for everyone from Alexander the Great (typhoid fever complicated by Guillain-Barre syndrome) to Beethoven (syphilis), Christopher Columbus (severe arthritis caused by an infection) and Florence Nightingale (bipolar and posttraumatic stress disorders).
There isn't al
Aug 5, 2005
Bloody Sunday 1965 is Selma, Alabama's defining moment. It is the day America peered into the Old South's soul and saw a scene of such unimaginable ugliness that stunned disbelief was the natural response. Even those who were on the Edmund Pettus Bridge—who were scattered like so many bowling pins by badge-wearing goons on horseback—still have a hard time grasping how a pleasant, peaceful protest suddenly turned into a bloodbath.
The carnage on the Edmund Pettus Bridge (miraculously
Aug 5, 2005
Noah Feldman, a professor at New York University School of Law, who helped the Iraqis write their interim constitution, argues in an article in the NYT Magazine that the current drafting of a new constitution in Iraq is comparable to America's in the 18th century:
The less the constitution says about controversial issues, the greater the likelihood that it will be ratified. Even in peaceful Philadelphia, after all, the framers kept the word ''slavery'' out of the Constitution,
Source: NY Newsday
Aug 4, 2005
The White House on Tuesday moved toward declaring the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan a National Monument a step which could greatly boost federal care for the historic site. In a letter to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, President Bush asked the agency to determine whether the burial ground should be declared a national monument "and whether it may warrant permanent federal protection."The burial site was uncovered in 1991 during planned buil
Aug 4, 2005
China's Foreign Ministry said late Tuesday the Japanese government was trying to deny Japan's history of militarism as China and other countries mark the 60th anniversary of the World War II surrender this year.
Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in a statement the Japanese government had taken action to water down its history of militarism prior to 1945. Japanese forces occupied parts of China from 1931 through the end of World War II. (Kyodo News)
http://www.japantoday
Aug 4, 2005
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the horrendous ending to a horrific war. But is there a silver lining? SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with atomic weapons historian Richard Rhodes about how nuclear bombs limited 20th century violence, US guilt for the arms race, and just how simple it is for terrorists to set off an A-bomb.http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,367260,00.html
Aug 4, 2005
Suspicion that hidden groups sway the powerful and subvert democracy routinely surfaces in American life, especially at times when the country is deeply divided. In early decades of the Republic, the whispers were about Freemasons. Later, they ranged from bankers and communists to the Trilateral Commission.
Now, it's the Federalist Society. In the run-up to the first Supreme Court confirmation in more than a decade, the group is drawing fire, especially as Democrats sharpen their li
Aug 4, 2005
Members of the public are to be asked their views on whether a south Devon (UK) grave should be exhumed in a mystery connected with Sherlock Holmes.
Historians hope it may hold the answer to a mysterious death involving Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A Devon historian has claimed Victorian journalist Bertram Fletcher-Robinson wrote the story and was later poisoned before being buried in Ipplepen.htt
Aug 4, 2005
In The Chronicle of Higher Education this April, Robin Wilson portrayed African American studies programs as fighting against irrelevance—and for their very survival. The article depicted a field in the midst of an "identity crisis": departments struggling to attract students while budget cuts thin the faculty, courses cross-listing with other departments, programs "scrambling to reinvent themselves" and "broadening their courses" by changing their names or widening
Aug 4, 2005
Republican National Committee members from across the country are in Pittsburgh for their annual summer meeting, a gathering that takes place a few blocks, and a century and a half, from their party's first national gathering.
The party traces its roots to a meeting in Ripon, Wis., in 1854. In the following months, Republicans met and organized in various local and state gatherings across the Northeast and Midwest. According to the most exhaustive account of the 1856 Pittsburgh meet
Aug 4, 2005
Two historians yesterday acclaimed the discovery in Germany of a journal written by Adolf Hitler's sister, saying it offers remarkable insights into the dysfunctional nature of the Fuhrer's family.
Paula Hitler's journal, unearthed at an undisclosed location in Germany, reveals that her brother was a bully in his teens, and would beat her.
Recounting the earliest memories of her childhood, when she was around eight and Adolf was 15, Paula wrote: "Once again I feel
Aug 4, 2005
An oak door thought to be covered in human skin has been declared the oldest in Britain.
The historic door in Westminster Abbey was long rumoured to be the site where a man was stripped of his skin in punishment for a religious crime.
The door dates back to the 11th century to the reign of Edward the Confessor and is the only Anglo Saxon door in Britain.
Three months of research on the door, costing £3,800 and funded by English Heritage, has just fini
Aug 4, 2005
Some of Islam's historic sites in Mecca, possibly including a home of the Prophet Mohammad, are under threat from Saudi real estate developers and Wahhabi Muslims who view them as promoting idolatry.
Sami Angawi, an expert on the region's Islamic architecture, said 1,400-year-old buildings from the early Islamic period risk being demolished to make way for high rise towers for Muslims flocking to perform the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city.
"We are witnessing now the last few
Aug 3, 2005
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution (8-3-05):
Good ol' boys Bo and Luke Duke never had these problems back in the good ol' days on TV.
In the new "The Dukes of Hazzard" feature film that opens Friday, the cousins find themselves temporarily outside of rural Hazzard County and stuck in Atlanta traffic. And before you can shout "Yee haw," the movie suddenly turns into a referendum on one of the Dukes' symbols --- the huge Confederate battle flag pain
Aug 3, 2005
From: Azzaman (Iraq), August 2, 2005
"The apology was delivered during a meeting which brought together Iraqi Culture Minister Noori al-Rawi and his Polish counterpart in Baghdad. The sides signed a cultural agreement under which Poland will help the country with archaeological excavation and preservation of ancient items. 'The apology was made during the talks,' Rawi said. He did not say whether Iraq has accepted the apology and whether the Polish authorities had agreed to pay
Aug 3, 2005
Ian Holm is going from "The Lord" to the lord.
Holm, who played Bilbo Baggins in the big-screen "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, will portray Pope John Paul II in CBS' forthcoming four-hour miniseries about the late pontiff.
"Pope John Paul II" (tentative title) will follow Karol Wojtyla from his high school days in Poland through his death in April. The '81 assassination attempt will be included.
Holm will play Wojtyla beginn
Aug 2, 2005
A long time ago in an ocean not so far away, the USS Constitution blasted the British vessel HMS Guerriere into submission in a fierce firefight. For more than two centuries, the oldest commissioned warship in the world has stood as a symbol of patriotism for the American public, and particularly for those who have served aboard her.
That makes any change of command aboard Old Ironsides, an occasion to remember and reflect.
The ship set sail again yesterday morning from
Aug 2, 2005
Ninety years ago, hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in mass killings that still resonate through Turkey's social and political life. But it is believed that thousands of orphaned Armenian children were saved secretly by Turkish families. Until now, the very existence of the children has remained largely an untold story, buried along with those who died between 1915 and 1916. But the stories of those Armenian orphans are slowly being uncovered by their descendants. Turkish documentary maker
Aug 2, 2005
Chinese historians Monday unveiled the name list and detailed document of foreign victims who suffered the human experiments for germ warfare convicted by Japanese troops during the World War II (WWII). It's the first time for Chinese scholars to make public name list of foreign victims.Twenty one people were "specially transferred" by the invading Japanese Kwantung Army to Unit 731, which is notorious for making experiments on living humans to develop germ weapons.
Aug 2, 2005
In an hourlong ramble through the White House last Friday, William G. Allman, the White House curator, offered up the story of the American presidency through portraits - good, not so good and, as he said of one posthumous painting of James Buchanan, currently in storage,"really gruesome." Mr. Allman's first stop was Stuart's full-length portrait of Washington that hangs in the East Room, the one saved by Dolley Madison when the British torched the White House in 1814. Some scholars say it is n
