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: Gaston Gazette
Feb 16, 2012
In Cleveland County, livermush is a staple, barbecue is nearly sacred and the region has a distinctive history marked by several key Revolutionary War battles fought in the area.Advocates in North and South Carolina are fighting to have a region made up of 58 counties recognized as a national heritage area, specifically focusing on the contributions made by the Carolinas during the American Revolution.The national heritage designation is a way to celebrate, protect and preserve what makes a region unique and can be used as a tool for tourism.Examples of places with a national heritage designation include the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area and Iowa’s Silo and Smokestacks National Heritage Area....
Source: LiveScience
Feb 16, 2012
The largest volcanic event of the last 300 million years may not have been triggered by a meteor, researchers now say.About 120 million years ago, as much as 1 percent of the Earth's surface may have been covered with volcanic eruptions. The origin of these massive 7-million-year-long eruptions in the Pacific Ocean, known as the Greater Ontong Java Event, has long been unclear, but some have suggested a cosmic impact as the trigger, smashing into the crust and causing lava to burst forth.To see whether or not a meteor might have caused the Greater Ontong Java Event, scientists analyzed rocks from Gorgo a Cerbara in central Italy. This area was connected to the Pacific Ocean during the eruptions....
Source: Nature
Feb 15, 2012
Metal scrapes on hard sand as archaeologist Chris Henshilwood shaves away the top layer of sediment in Blombos Cave. After just a few moments, the tip of his trowel unearths the humerus of a pint-sized tortoise that walked the Southern Cape of South Africa many millennia ago. Next come shells from local mussels and snails amid blackened soil and bits of charred wood, all remnants of an ancient feast. It was one of many enjoyed by a distinct group of early humans who visited Blombos Cave over the course of thousands of years.The Still Bay culture was one of the most advanced Middle Stone Age groups in Africa when it emerged some 78,000 years ago in a startlingly early flourishing of the human mind. Henshilwood's excavations at Blombos Cave have revealed distinctive tools, including carefully worked stone points that probably served as knives and spear tips, and bits of rock inscribed with apparently symbolic designs. But evidence of the technology disappears abruptly in sediment about 71,000 years old, along with all proof of human habitation in southern Africa. It would be 7,000 years before a new culture appeared, with a markedly different toolkit, including crescent-shaped blades probably used as arrowheads.
Source: KVAL
Feb 15, 2012
EUGENE, Ore. - Efforts to document the first Native American Medicine Wheels ever reported in Oregon - led by Patrick O'Grady of the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History - will be featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting's "Oregon Field Guide" television program at 8:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 23.O'Grady, an archaeologist with the UO archaeology field school, has been using aerial photography to document the medicine wheels, which are large circular stone formations, sometimes with spokes radiating from the center.Researchers believe Native peoples may have used them for ceremonial or religious purposes.The story starts in 2007, when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) discovered two large stone circles in the Stinkingwater Mountains of southeastern Oregon. Their importance was immediately recognized and brought to the attention of the University of Oregon....
Source: BBC News
Feb 15, 2012
History and broadcasting will come under the spotlight in a series of illustrated talks, conversations and preview screenings in Northern Ireland next week.The Festival of History and Broadcasting will be hosted by William Crawley and will take place from Tuesday, 21 February to Thursday, 23 February at BBC's Broadcasting House, Belfast.Tickets for festival events and more information can be obtained on www.bbc.co.uk/ticketsAlready confirmed to take part in the three-day festival are writer, historian and presenter, Dan Cruickshank (BBC's Britain's Best Buildings) and Mary Beard, historian, broadcaster and author.As an accompaniment to The Festival of History and Broadcasting, BBC Northern Ireland asked a cross-section of people from different academic disciplines and backgrounds to consider - Why History Matters.What follows is intended as a starting point for further discussion, and as a stimulus for the sharing of other views and opinions....
Source: NBC-- Rock
Feb 15, 2012
The Martin family knows something about themselves that few if any families will ever learn about their past. They're able to trace their ancestry back hundreds of years to a little girl. Her name was Priscilla. She was 10 years old. Priscilla was kidnapped in Sierra Leone west Africa in 1756, and shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, where she lived her entire life as a slave.Priscilla's spirit is alive and well in her modern day relatives, the Martins, who live not far from where Priscilla toiled on a plantation. They are believed to be the only African Americans with such a detailed link to the past. And what's even more remarkable is that this centuries old family tree, spreading over at least 7 generations, is documented on paper. For most African American families there is no record of where their ancestors came from, and almost no chance of finding one.
Source: CBS News
Feb 15, 2012
This week marks the 50th anniversary of Jackie Kennedy's famous televised tour of the White House. The vintage video shows Mrs. Kennedy with CBS News correspondent Charles Collingwood. But we wanted to know the inside story of that historic broadcast. "Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley caught up with the CBS newsman who produced it.
Source: BBC News
Feb 15, 2012
Fifty years ago this week the idea of mutually assured nuclear destruction was outlined in a major speech. But how did this frightening concept of the Cold War fade from people's psyches?Today the notion of all-out nuclear war is rarely discussed. There are concerns about Iran and North Korea's nuclear programmes and fears that terrorists might get hold of the technology and detonate a "dirty" nuclear bomb.But the fear of a war in which the aim is to wipe out the entire population of an enemy has startlingly diminished.In 1962, the concept of mutually assured destruction started to play a major part in the defence policy of the US. President Kennedy's Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, set out in a speech to the American Bar Foundation a theory of flexible nuclear response.In essence it meant stockpiling a huge nuclear arsenal. In the event of a Soviet attack the US would have enough nuclear firepower to survive a first wave of nuclear strikes and strike back. The response would be so massive that the enemy would suffer "assured destruction".
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 15, 2012
The Mormon Church has apologised after members of the religion performed posthumous baptisms into Mormonism of the dead Jewish parents of famed Nazi hunter and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal.The baptisms “by proxy” were performed last month in Mormon temples in Utah, Arizona and Idaho, according to the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organisation named after the man who hunted down more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals in the years following the Holocaust.Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told Reuters the baptisms were “unacceptable,” adding that people who lost everyone and everything and were murdered for being Jewish during the Holocaust should not have their souls hijacked by another religion.The Mormon Church, formally called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, permits dead people to be baptised into the religion, with the belief that the dead person “in the next life” can then choose to accept or decline the baptism. In these baptisms, a current Church member is baptised on behalf of a dead person....
Source: AP
Feb 14, 2012
Blue Ridge Summit, Pa. —Less than a year after officially organizing, the Friends of Monterey Pass Battlefield Inc. have seen significant progress toward the preservation of the only Civil War battle site on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.In December, the Cantwell site near the intersection of Buchanan Trail East and Charmian Road in Blue Ridge Summit was purchased by Washington Township and will be overseen by the Friends as they preserve the land and history. The propertyThe nearly 1-acre property was purchased from Mary Rae Cantwell. “Mary Rae was the first driving force behind Monterey,” said Alicia Miller, chairman of FMPB. “Her dream was always to see the preservation of the battlefield and she was very pleased and happy when we had the opportunity to purchase the land.”Since the official purchase on Dec. 8, a mobile home was torn down, leaving behind a landscape that will eventually include a parking lot and an interpretive center....
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
Feb 14, 2012
In a course reversal, state senators apparently are ready to act a bit as if they have moved the clock back 99 years to the era before the 17th Amendment was ratified — and legislatures, not the voters, chose U.S. senators.The Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee voted 3-0 to endorse SR1 by Sen. Casey Anderson, R-Cedar City, and sent it to the full Senate. It would order a secret-ballot poll among state senators each election year to show the public which U.S. Senate candidate they prefer.The same committee two weeks ago failed to pass — on a tied 3-3 vote — a similar resolution, SJR11, which would have ordered a similar poll among all legislators, and not just senators.Anderson said that, after the earlier failed vote, other senators suggested he try the new bill for a state Senate-only poll. He added that legislative researchers are unsure whether the entire Legislature or just the state Senate elected U.S. senators in various elections before the 17th Amendment....
Source: Offlay Independent (IE)
Feb 14, 2012
EVERY February 14, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate St. Valentines Day?The first legend, and perhaps the best known, began in Rome, when the Emperor, Claudius II, was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. 'Claudius the Cruel', as he was called, was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues.He believed the reason was that Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. So, he cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.The good St. Valentine, who was a priest in Rome in the year 269 A.D., together with his friend St. Marius, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret....
Source: NYT
Feb 14, 2012
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as the Senate Budget Committee, has requested to see complete travel documents for the Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough, after a report revealed that $112,000 of Mr. Clough’s travel costs have been financed by outside donors.According to the report by Junketsleuth.com, Mr. Clough spent 191 days traveling over a span of three years – from July 2008 to July 2011 – to destinations like France, Antarctica and New Zealand. His expenses included the use of charter flights, private car services, and upgrading to first-class or business-class airline tickets.In a letter released on Monday, Mr. Grassley expressed concerns that Mr. Clough was incurring many of the same type of travel expenses as his predecessor, Lawrence M. Small , who resigned in 2007 after it was discovered he was using federal funds to finance his travels....
Source: LiveScience
Feb 14, 2012
A wealth of new discoveries, from animal mummies linked to the jackal god and human remains to an enigmatic statue, are revealing the secrets of an ancient holy place in Egypt once known as the "Terrace of the Great God."The mysterious wooden statue may be a representation of Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh who ruled the land 3,500 years ago, the researchers say. She was typically portrayed as a man in statues, but this one, giving a nod to femininity, had a petite waist.The discoveries were made during one field season this past summer by a team led by Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, director of the excavation and a professor at the University of Toronto. The findings offer insight into Abydos, a site that was considered a holy place, Pouls Wegner said at a recent meeting of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities in Toronto, Canada. [Photos of the Egypt mummy]...
Source: News24
Feb 14, 2012
Rome - Heavy snow has caused extensive damage to the mediaeval walled town of Urbino and further deteriorated the Colosseum in Rome, already badly in need of repair, Italian newspapers reported on Tuesday.Partial collapses have been reported at the convents of San Francesco and San Bernardino in Urbino and the roof of the Church of the Capuchins outside the town centre has completely caved in, La Repubblica reported.There is also water damage in the town's 12th-century Duomo cathedral....
Source: NYT
Feb 14, 2012
JERUSALEM — The students were spared nothing. There were sessions on Nazi disputes over how to murder the Jews; propaganda art in the Third Reich; encounters with survivors; a history of anti-Semitism; the dilemmas faced by leaders of the Jewish ghetto councils.It was just what one might expect from a 10-day seminar at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum. The surprise was the students: 35 teachers and professors from Taiwan, none of them specialists in the area, most of whom had never before met a Jew. More surprising still were the lessons some were taking away.“Before I came, I felt worse about the Holocaust,” said Jen Hsiu-mei, a psychologist and an early childhood educator. “This week, I learned that inside the death camps people helped each other. It gives new meaning to human values. This is not something I expected to learn here — hope.”
Source: CNN.com
Feb 14, 2012
(CNN) -- Stalin was to the point. Napoleon went on and on. Hitler did it as if he were writing an employee's job review."Evil may walk among us, but that doesn't mean evil never wrote a love letter," said John Kirkland, an author who has plundered the depths of cheesy writing throughout history by revered, infamous and just plain awful people. His book "Love Letters of Great Men" is mostly filled with leaders acting honorably. But it also features several who had an affection for tyranny."I found that almost all powerful people are very passionate, and that naturally can make them over the top in their personal lives," Kirkland said."Another truth I learned," the author said, "is that it's never a good idea to hook up with a dictator."
Source: BBC News
Feb 13, 2012
It's 70 years this week since the first US air force officer was killed in Europe, following America's entry into World War II. By heading the list of 30,000 USAAF men to lose their lives in the European theatre, Lt Col Townsend Griffiss became a footnote in the history of the war. But who was he and how did he die?There is no memorial to Townsend Griffiss in the UK, but a corner of Bushy Park in west London offers the faintest of reminders.Here, half covered by grass, are a handful of tablets in the earth, marking the various blocks of Camp Griffiss, the British headquarters of the US Army Air Force, set up in the summer of 1942. It's a royal park, and the royal deer help prevent the plaques disappearing into the grass entirely....At the time of his death on 15 February 1942, he was 41 years old, a high-flying officer, returning from the Soviet Union, where he had been sent on a diplomatic mission by US Army Chief of Staff Gen George Marshall....
Source: BBC News
Feb 13, 2012
On his first visit to America in 1842, English novelist Charles Dickens was greeted like a modern rock star. But the trip soon turned sour, as Simon Watts reports.On Valentine's Day, 1842, New York hosted one of the grandest events the city had ever seen - a ball in honour of the English novelist Charles Dickens.Dickens was only 30, but works such as Oliver Twist and the Pickwick Papers had already made him the most famous writer in the world.The cream of New York society hired the grandest venue in the city - the Park Theatre - and decorated it with wreaths and paintings in honour of the illustrious visitor....But a visit which had started so well quickly turned into a bitter dispute, known as the "Quarrel with America"....
Source: NYT
Feb 13, 2012
MALE, Maldives — The broken glass from an attack by vandals on the National Museum here has been swept away, and the remnants of the Buddhist statues they destroyed — nearly 30 of them, some dating to the sixth century — have been locked away. But officials say the loss to this island nation’s archaeological legacy can never be recouped.In the midst of the political turmoil racking this tiny Indian Ocean nation of 1,200 islands, a half-dozen men stormed into the museum last Tuesday and ransacked a collection of coral and lime figures, including a six-faced coral statue and a 1 1/2-foot-wide representation of the Buddha’s head. Officials said the men attacked the figures because they believed they were idols and therefore illegal under Islamic and national laws.The vandalism was reminiscent of the Taliban’s demolition of the great carved Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in early 2001, and it has raised fears here that extremists are gaining ground in the Maldives, a Sunni Muslim country that historians say converted from Buddhism to Islam in the 12th century. The country has incorporated elements of Islamic law into its jurisprudence for years. Idols cannot be brought into the country, for example, and alcohol and pork products are allowed only at resorts that cater to foreigners....
