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: CNN
Apr 28, 2011
How did Osama bin Laden escape the dragnet that closed in around his mountain hideout in Afghanistan in December 2001? It's
long been a topic of discussion in intelligence circles and among those
(myself included) who witnessed the intense U.S. aerial bombardment of
Tora Bora that went on for nearly two weeks. Many analysts have
suggested that bin Laden slipped through mountain passes into Pakistan,
just a few miles away.
Source: The Boston Globe
Apr 28, 2011
AS RHODE Island prepares to celebrate the 350th anniversary of an extraordinary American document, its author remains all but forgotten. In the summer of 1663, against seemingly insurmountable odds, an improbable patriot living in an unlikely place changed the course of world civilization.
Through Rhode Island’s King Charles II Charter, Dr. John Clarke convinced the king to grant religious toleration and separation of church and state to a political entity, the diminutive Colony of Rhode Island. For the first time in world history, religious freedom became fundamental to democracy.
Source: Conservation Magazine
Apr 27, 2011
In 1280, victorious Teutonic Crusaders began building the world’s largest castle on a hill overlooking the River Nogat in what is now northern Poland. Malbork Castle became the hub of a powerful Teutonic state that crushed its pagan enemies and helped remake Medieval Europe. Now, ancient pollen samples show that in addition to converting heathens to Christians, the Crusaders also converted vast swathes of Medieval forests to farmlands.
Source: WSJ
Apr 27, 2011
Galena, Ill.'Images of U.S. Grant" has arrived at the Galena-Jo Daviess County Historical Society & Museum in time to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War (and Grant's birthday on Wednesday). But this exhibition, in the picturesque historic village that the Union general and American president briefly called home, is designed to draw repeat visits from history buffs over the course of its four-year run.
Source: BBC
Apr 27, 2011
A Pablo Picasso painting worth millions of dollars has been given to the University of Sydney by a mystery US-based donor.The donor has said that proceeds from its sale must be used to fund scientific research.Entitled Jeune Fille Endormie (Young Girl Asleep), the 1935 painting depicts Picasso's lover, Marie-Therese Walter.It is expected to raise between $15m and $20m (£9m-12m) when it is auctioned in London in June.
Source: NYT
Apr 27, 2011
For centuries, cursive handwriting has been an art. To a growing number of young people, it is a mystery.
The sinuous letters of the cursive alphabet, swirled on countless love letters, credit card slips and banners above elementary school chalk boards are going the way of the quill and inkwell. With computer keyboards and smartphones increasingly occupying young fingers, the gradual death of the fancier ABC’s is revealing some unforeseen challenges.
Source: BBC
Apr 27, 2011
DNA extracted from 2,000-year-old plants recovered from an Italian shipwreck could offer scientists the key to new medicines.
Carrots, parsley and wild onions were among the samples preserved in clay pills on board the merchant trading vessel that sank around 120 BC. It's believed the plants were used by doctors to treat intestinal disorders among the ship's crew.
Source: CNN
Apr 27, 2011
A chunk of a Pentagon wall smashed by a plane hijacked by 9/11 terrorists was presented to the FBI's Washington field office Wednesday in recognition of its assistance.
Source: BBC News
Apr 27, 2011
Catholics may believe there is something supernatural about their
Church, but as the 13th Century theologian St Thomas Aquinas taught, it
is not exempt from the normal realities of human nature - including the
laws of psychology, sociology, and even politics.
Source: BBC News
Apr 27, 2011
A team of researchers in
Italy has begun a search for the tomb of a woman who may have been the
model for Leonardo Da Vinci's painting Mona Lisa.
The team is using a special radar device at the convent in
the city of Florence where it thinks the body of the woman, Lisa
Gherardini, is buried.
It hopes to find skull fragments and to try to create a facial reconstruction.
The identity of the enigmatic Mona Lisa remains one of the great mysteries of the art world.
Source: BBC News
Apr 27, 2011
DNA extracted from 2,000-year-old plants recovered from an Italian shipwreck could offer scientists the key to new medicines.
Carrots, parsley and wild onions were among the samples
preserved in clay pills on board the merchant trading vessel that sank
around 120 BC. It's believed the plants were used by doctors to treat
intestinal disorders among the ship's crew.
Such remedies are described in ancient Greek texts, but this is the first time the medicines themselves have been discovered.
Source: BBc News
Apr 27, 2011
Whatever Catherine Middleton will be wearing on her big day,
one thing is certain: her dress will take its place in history, joining
past royal wedding couture creations.
To celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Kate,
Kensington Palace has brought out six sumptuous gowns - seldom seen by
the public - all worn by royal brides over the past 200 years.
Take a look with Senior Curator Joanna Marschner, and see how fashions changed through the decades....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 27, 2011
The Italian princess ancestor of the women believed to have inspired the Mona Lisa has said her remains should be left in peace as archaeologists began the hunt for her body.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 27, 2011
After winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 1960 debut novel, 'To Kill A Mockingbird’, Harper Lee talked excitedly of her plans to carry on writing and become “the Jane Austen of south Alabama”. Yet she was never published again for reasons unknown.
Fifty-one years after the book’s publication, one of the literary world’s greatest mysteries is about to be solved.
Source: NYT
Apr 27, 2011
FLORENCE, Italy — It has seen the rise of the Grand Tour and the package tour, the romance of E. M. Forster’s
“Room With a View” and the tensions of two world wars. And now, after
five centuries, the British Consulate in Florence is closing its doors,
a victim of budget cuts and the currents of history.
Source: NYT
Apr 26, 2011
WICHITA, Kan. — A Kansas courtroom with an octogenarian in the
defendant’s chair will be the unlikely scene for a retelling of the
horrors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Source: BBC
Apr 26, 2011
The Foods Standards Agency is reviewing how it monitors 330 hill farms in Wales, 25 years after the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl.
Rain carried radioactive material to north Wales after the explosion at the Ukranian plant in 1986.
Sheep from affected areas are still scanned before entering the food chain.
Source: BBC
Apr 26, 2011
A US federal court has ordered a new sentencing hearing for an ex-Black Panther activist on death row for the 1981 killing of a white policeman.
A Philadelphia appeals court said Mumia Abu-Jamal, 57, must have a hearing within six months.
He has been on death row since 1983 after his conviction in the killing of Philadelphia Officer Daniel Faulkner.
He has maintained his innocence, and death penalty opponents across the world have rallied around his case.
On Tuesday, the Third District Court of Appeals upheld its 2008 r
Source: AP
Apr 26, 2011
After spotting the mummy at the University of Vermont's Robert Hull Fleming Museum in Burlington, Dr. Jason Johnson, a radiology resident, arranged to have it put through his hospital's state-of-the-art CT scanner.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 26, 2011
Dmitry Medvedev became the first Kremlin leader to visit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in more than two decades on Tuesday, issuing a call for new tougher global rules on nuclear safety.
