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: History Today
Jun 29, 2011
Bleak House, the former home of Charles Dickens in Broadstairs, Kent, is for sale through Chesterton Humberts. The six-bedroom house arranged over four floors is on the market for £2,000,000.Bleak House was the holiday home of Charles Dickens and his family between 1837 and 1859. It is where he completed David Copperfield, in 1851, and the house still features Dickens’ original desk and study on the extreme right on the house overlooking the sea. The mahogany staircase in the house and some fireplaces are also believed to be original.
Source: Live Science
Jun 29, 2011
Human remains discovered beneath the floors of mud-brick houses at one of the world's first permanent settlements, were not biologically related to one another, a finding that paints a new picture of life 9,000 years ago on a marshy plain in central Turkey.Even children as young as 8 were not buried alongside their parents or other relatives at the site called Çatalhöyük, the researchers found. Çatalhöyük covered 26 acres (10.5 hectares), and its people — estimated to be as many as 10,000 — would have made a living by growing crops and herding domesticated animals. It was built on a marshy plain in central Turkey.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 29, 2011
A 1,400-year-old fresco of St Paul has been discovered in an ancient Roman catacomb.
The fresco was found during restoration work at the Catacombs of San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) in the southern port city of Naples by experts from the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Art.
The announcement was made on the feast day of St Peter and Paul which is traditionally a bank holiday in Rome and details of the discovery were disclosed in the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
A photograph released by the Vatican shows the apostle, famous for his conversion to Christianity from Judaism, with a long neck, a slightly pink complexion, thinning hair, a beard and big eyes that give his face a "spiritual air."....
Source: Huffington Post
Jun 29, 2011
JERUSALEM -- Software developed by an Israeli team is giving intriguing new hints about what researchers believe to be the multiple hands that wrote the Bible.The new software analyzes style and word choices to distinguish parts of a single text written by different authors, and when applied to the Bible its algorithm teased out distinct writerly voices in the holy book.The program, part of a sub-field of artificial intelligence studies known as authorship attribution, has a range of potential applications – from helping law enforcement to developing new computer programs for writers. But the Bible provided a tempting test case for the algorithm's creators....
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Jun 29, 2011
Vatican officials today described the discovery of a 1,400 year old fresco of St Paul in an ancient Roman catacomb as ‘sensational.’The painting was found during restoration work at the Catacombs of San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) in the port city of Naples.A photograph released by the Vatican shows the apostle, famous for his conversion to Christianity from Judaism, with a long neck, a slightly pink complexion, thinning hair, a beard and big eyes that give his face a ‘spiritual air.’News of the discovery was announced on the feast day of St Peter and Paul which is traditionally a bank holiday in Rome....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 29, 2011
Israeli scholars say they have confirmed the authenticity of a 2,000-year-old burial box bearing the name of a relative of the high priest Caiaphas of the New Testament. The ossuary bears an inscription with the name "Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphas, priest of Maaziah from Beth Imri."An ossuary is a stone chest used to store bones. Caiaphas was a temple priest and an adversary of Jesus who played a key role in his crucifixion.The Israel Antiquities Authority says the ossuary was seized from tomb robbers three years ago and has since been undergoing analysis. Forgery is common in the world of biblical artefacts.The IAA says in Wednesday's statement that microscopic tests have confirmed the inscription is "genuine and ancient."....
Source: AP
Jun 29, 2011
A statue of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was unveiled Wednesday in Hungary's capital, where he was honored for his leadership in helping to end communism.The bronze 2-meter (7-foot) likeness of the 40th president was erected in Budapest at Freedom Square, near both the U.S.Embassy and a World War II memorial to Soviet soldiers killed during the ouster of the Nazis from Hungary....
Source: History Today
Jun 28, 2011
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War following the military uprising led by Franco on July 17th, 1936. Over 500,000 people lost their lives in the Spanish Civil War including 525 volunteers from Britain and Ireland. Despite the official British policy of non-intervention, many volunteers from Britain and Ireland travelled to Spain to join the International Brigades. According to newly digitised files, released today, June 28th, by The National Archives, many more volunteers left Britain than was previously thought....
Source: Discovery News
Jun 28, 2011
Hundreds of bodies stacked one of top of the other emerged during restoration work in the church of Roccapelago, a remote mountain village in north-central Italy.About one-third of the mass grave, consisting of 281 bodies of adults, infants and children, turned out to be mummies....
Source: BBC
Jun 28, 2011
A survey for a Jamaican newspaper suggests most islanders believe the country would have been better off if it had remained a British colony.The poll, commissioned by The Gleaner, found that 60% of respondents backed this view. But 17% disagreed.A thousand people took part in the survey, out of a population of 2.7m. The poll has a reported margin of error of plus or minus 4%.Jamaica is due to celebrate 50 years of independence next year.It is not clear what main reasons the respondents had for their choices.
Source: Delaware Online
Jun 28, 2011
George Washington wasn't only the country's first president; he was also a distiller.A rare, 18th century letter penned by Washington goes on display at the George Washington Distillery at Mount Vernon during Fourth of July weekend.A limited George Washington Rye Whiskey, based on Washington's recipe, also is being produced at the distillery, considered the Gateway to the American Whiskey Trail.Before his death in 1799, Washington wrote the letter to his nephew, Col. William A. Washington, a cavalry commander during the Revolution. In the letter, Washington wrote "the demand ... is brisk" for his Rye Whiskey and requested his nephew's assistance in procuring additional grain for the distillery....
Source: Stone Pages
Jun 28, 2011
Archaeologists at Lund University (Sweden) believe that the advanced crafting of stone spearheads contributed to the development of new ways of human thinking and behaving, leading to the human brain developing new abilities.200,000 years ago, small groups of people wandered across Africa - looking like modern humans, but not thinking the way we do. For about 100,000 years, there were people who looked like us, but who acted on the basis of cognitive structures in which we would only partially recognise and which we do not define as modern behaviour. It is precisely that period of transformation that the researchers have studied.New findings on the early modern humans from approximately 80,000 years ago in Hollow Rock Shelter - 250km north of Cape Town, South Africa - show that people used advanced technology for the production of spearheads, and suggest that the complicated process developed the working memory and social life of humans.The crafting of stone spearheads took a long time to learn, requiring a lot of knowledge, and the ability to plan in several stages, contributing to the subsequent development of early modern humans' cognitive ability to express symbolism and abstract thoughts through their material culture - for example in the form of decorated objects.
Source: AP
Jun 28, 2011
VATICAN CITY (AP) — International Jewish groups have called on the Vatican to sanction a prominent Polish priest who they say uses his media empire to foment anti-Semitism.They acted after the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk caused uproar in Poland by calling his country a totalitarian state that "hasn't been ruled by Poles since 1939."...The number of Jews in Poland today is tiny. There were 3.5 million Jews in Poland before World War II, but most were murdered by Germany during the Holocaust and many of those who survived fled anti-Semitic violence and prejudice when they returned to their homes after the war.Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, called the views vile....
Source: The Root
Jun 28, 2011
Yahoo News is reporting that an eight-foot statue of rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry was approved on Monday over the opposition of some local residents, including one who said the Hall of Fame singer/songwriter should not be honored because he is a "felon and not a friend of women."The University City council, which has jurisdiction over the spot where the statue is to be installed, rejected a last-minute petition drive by opponents, who gathered 100 signatures in a bid to block or delay the statue....
Source: WaPo
Jun 28, 2011
To her, it looked like a harmless piece of coal, about the size of her fist. She remembers passing it to a Chinese secret agent. She remembers later learning about the train, the bridge, the explosion. Sometimes she thinks she has suppressed many wartime memories, but even after almost 70 years, they can creep back.Betty McIntosh, 96, says that is part of being a spy: the doubts about whether you did the right thing, and hearing about those who died because of what you did, and whether you had alternatives. But it was a war.
Source: Discovery News
Jun 27, 2011
Stone Age barbecue consumers first went for the bone marrow and then for the ribs, suggest the leftovers of an outdoor 7,700-year-old meaty feast described in the July issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.The remains, found in the valley of the River Tjonger, Netherlands, provide direct evidence for a prehistoric hunting, butchering, cooking and feasting event. The meal occurred more than 1,000 years before the first farmers with domestic cattle arrived in the region.Although basic BBQ technology hasn't changed much over the millennia, this prehistoric meal centered around the flesh of an aurochs, a wild Eurasian ox that was larger than today's cows. It sported distinctive curved horns....
Source: Irish Times
Jun 27, 2011
ASIDE FROM lung-cleansing gusts of wind, Helgoland doesn’t give much away to day-trippers. Relief at being back on firm ground soon turns to disappointment at what Germany’s only high-sea island appears to offer.A row of shacks selling duty-free alcohol and cigarettes leads into a small town of 1960s buildings that are functional, shabby or both....It was here in 1925 that German physicist Werner Heisenberg, relieved from the plague of hay fever, developed quantum theory.But those opposed to the plan were victorious, arguing it would bring mass tourism and destroy the islands’ unique character.Passing back and forth between London and Berlin over the centuries, Helgoland has been in German hands since a final swap in 1890 saw the British gain Zanzibar in exchange.What Helgoland lacks in size it makes up for in strategic importance. In the second World War, the Nazis built a vast underground base here, including a hospital....
Source: NYT
Jun 27, 2011
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — From behind the lawyers, a hand went up, calling for attention as the trial of the four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge got under way Monday on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed more than three decades ago.
Source: BBC News
Jun 26, 2011
Family historians with an interest in World War I are being asked to help with an exhibition in Nottingham.The Nottinghamshire Great War centenary exhibition will mark the contribution ordinary people made to the war.It will open at Castle Museum in August 2014, the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI.Organisers have appealed for volunteer guides to help visitors with their own research as well as personal mementos, letters and war diaries for the show.Exhibition curator and military historian Major John Cotterill said: "We want our exhibition to be a living exhibition"....
Source: AP
Jun 26, 2011
VATICAN CITY – Israel's ambassador to the Vatican on Sunday backed off his praise of Pope Pius XII, the World War II-era pope blamed by some Jews and historians for having failed to speak out enough against the Holocaust.Ambassador Mordechai Lewy said in a statement that his personal judgment about the role of Pius, the Vatican and Catholic Church during the war had been "premature" since the issue is still being researched.Lewy made headlines last week when he praised Pius and the Catholic Church in general for having given refuge to Roman Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital. The Vatican newspaper ran his speech on the front page, giving the brief but significant remarks high visibility.But some Jewish groups balked, saying Lewy's comments were morally wrong, historically inaccurate and hurtful to Holocaust survivors.Pope Benedict XVI is keen to see Pius beatified, the first step to sainthood, and a concerted campaign is under way among Pius' supporters to correct what they say has been an unfair and incorrect judgment passed on Pius....
