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: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 8, 2011
A prominent Italian historian has claimed that the Roman Empire collapsed because a "contagion of homosexuality and effeminacy" made it easy pickings for barbarian hordes, sparking a furious row.
Roberto De Mattei, 63, the deputy head of the country's National Research Council, claimed that the empire was fatally weakened after conquering Carthage, which he described as "a paradise for homosexuals".
The remarks prompted angry calls for his resignati
Source: New Scientist
Apr 7, 2011
AS OUR ancestors moved north out of Africa and onto the doorstep to the rest of the world, they came across their long-lost cousins: the Neanderthals. As the popular story goes, the brutish hominins were simply no match for cultured, intelligent Homo sapiens and quickly went extinct. Maybe, but it's also possible that Neanderthals were simply unlucky and disappeared by chance, mathematicians propose.
Source: Yahoo News
Apr 7, 2011
TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (AFP) – Archeologists are unearthing a 2,000-year-old tunnel outside bustling modern day Mexico City searching for clues to one of the region's most influential former civilizations.
Heavy rains at the site of Teotihuacan, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the capital, accidentally provided the first sign of the tunnel's existence in 2003, when the water made a tiny hole in the ground.
Six years later, a team financed by Mexico's National Institute
Source: Live Science
Apr 7, 2011
The bones of a soldier with leprosy who may have died in battle have been found in a medieval Italian cemetery, along with skeletons of men who survived blows to the head with battle-axes and maces.
Studying ancient leprosy, which is caused by a bacterial infection, may help scientists figure out how the infectious disease evolved.
The find also reveals the warlike ways of the semi-nomadic people who lived in the area between the sixth and eighth centuries, said study r
Source: BBC
Apr 7, 2011
An archaeological discovery by the University of Reading is set to shed new light on the history of farming.
Dr Gabor Thomas and his team have found a 7th Century iron plough coulter during excavations at Lyminge, Kent.
Unlike the small fields associated with earlier light ploughs they cultivated the land in long narrow strips making the large open fields which would become a standard feature of the medieval countryside.
Previously it was believed heavy p
Source: BBC
Apr 7, 2011
A large gap in pre-history could signal that Britain underwent an economic downturn over 2,500 years ago.
In history lessons, the three ages of pre-history - Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age - seem to flow together without a gap.
But there is a 300-year period in British history between around 800 BC and 500 BC where experts still struggle to explain what happened, where bronze is in decline and iron was not widely used.
The difficult thing for historian
Source: BBC
Apr 7, 2011
Archaeologists are excavating early medieval remains from a cemetery before they are washed away by the sea.
It is known the site at St Bride's Bay in Pembrokeshire contains graves that date back to the 9th and 10th Centuries.
The graves are close to the edge of low cliffs, and Dyfed Archaeological Trust is keen to analyse their contents before they disappear.
Thursday is the last day of excavation work before the site is refilled....
Source: BBC
Apr 7, 2011
A state apology is being sought for the actions of Hanoverian forces following the Battle of Culloden in April 1746.
Members of A Circle of Gentlemen plan to march from Derby to London to deliver a petition to 10 Downing Street backing their call.
The group has its roots in a secret society which remained loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie after Culloden.
Following the battle, Jacobite supporters were executed and imprisoned and homes in the Highlands were burn
Source: BBC
Apr 7, 2011
A burka worn by BBC world affairs editor John Simpson and a bullet that grazed Kate Adie's leg in Beirut are to go on display for the first time.
Simpson wore the burka as a disguise to enter Taliban-controlled Afghanistan before the US-led attack in 2001.
His fellow BBC correspondent Kate Adie was scratched by a stray bullet in Lebanon and kept it as a lucky charm.
The items will be part of an exhibition on war reporting at the Imperial War Museum North in
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 7, 2011
Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, has been known for her controversial remarks in the past.
Miss Mussolini, a right-wing politician and former actress and model, resigned from the Italian political party National Alliance in 2003 following a visit of the party leader to Israel where he denounced fascism as "the absolute evil" and apologised for Italy's role during the Second World War.
She did, however, defend
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 7, 2011
Grigory Rasputin, whose life and times is to be the subject of a new Franco-Russian film, led a life less ordinary.
Born in a small village in Siberia in 1869, he first came to the attention of the Russian aristocracy in 1903 when he arrived in the imperial capital St. Petersburg and set himself up as a holy man who claimed to be blessed with supernatural healing powers.
When the Tsarina, Alexandra, became desperate to find a cure for her haemophiliac son Alexei she t
Source: National Security Archive at GWU
Apr 7, 2011
Confidential internal memos from Chiquita Brands International reveal that the banana giant benefited from its payments to Colombian paramilitary and guerrilla groups, contradicting the company's 2007 plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors, which claimed that the company had never received "any actual security services or actual security equipment in exchange for the payments." Chiquita had characterized the payments as "extortion."
These documents are among thousa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 6, 2011
Many of the sacred objects in the Treasures of Heaven exhibition have been lent by the Vatican and will be on display in Britain for the first time. Among them is the Mandylion of Edessa, one of the earliest images of Christ, which is housed in the Pope's private chapel. At its centre is a cloth said to bear the imprint of Jesus's face....
The exhibition, which runs from June 23 - October 9, also traces the history of religious pilgrimage in Britain. A 15th century lead badge depict
Source: WaPo
Apr 6, 2011
Sixty-nine years ago on Saturday, American and Filipino prisoners of war on the Bataan Peninsula started marching at gunpoint. By the time the survivors arrived at a prison camp in the Philippines in spring of 1942, they had watched thousands of their comrades die along the 60 or more miles. What they suffered endures as a symbol of wartime cruelty. A few months ago, the grandson of one of the survivors traveled from Northern Virginia to Japan with an old photograph in his hand. It was a grainy
Source: ABC News (Australia)
Apr 6, 2011
The tiny village of Lake Bathurst, an hour north-east of Canberra, seems a very long way from the battlegrounds of World War Two.
But while war was raging in the Pacific, huge concrete structures were being built under the hills of Lake Bathurst, ready to store thousands of litres of fuel in the case that Australia's supplies were cut off by the Japanese.
The fuel stores were just one of 32 facilities which were set up all around Australia.
Today in Lake Ba
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 6, 2011
Archaeologists have unearthed the 5,000-year-old remains of what they believe may have been the world's oldest known gay caveman.
The male body – said to date back to between 2900-2500BC – was discovered buried in a way normally reserved only for women of the Corded Ware culture in the Copper Age.
The skeleton was found in a Prague suburb in the Czech Republic with its head pointing eastwards and surrounded by domestic jugs, rituals only previously seen in female grave
Source: Baltic Times
Apr 6, 2011
VILNIUS - On March 30, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite signed a new law on education which includes teaching history and geography, as well as the subject called civic education (about the rights and duties of citizens in a democratic country), in the Lithuanian language in the Lithuanian state-financed Slavic minority schools. It provoked a hysterical reaction from Poland, which was supported by a mild echo from the Russian Foreign Ministry as well.
On March 30, Grybauskai
Source: BBC
Apr 6, 2011
A fake ancient Egyptian statue has returned to the museum in Greater Manchester which was tricked into paying £440,000 for it.
Bolton Council bought the Amarna Princess in 2003 after Christie's and the British Museum authenticated the figurine as 3,300 years old.
But the statue of the granddaughter of King Tutankhamun was created by Shaun Greenhalgh in his shed in Bolton.
It, and other fakes, will go on display at Bolton Museum from 16 April.
G
Source: BBC
Apr 6, 2011
Researchers will attempt to identify the woman who sat for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, by digging up the remains of an Italian noblewoman.
Art historian Silvano Vinceti believes that by locating the remains of Lisa Gherardini, he can prove whether she was the artist's model.
A recently discovered death certificate suggests she died in 1542 and is interred in a convent in Florence.
The excavation will begin at Saint Orsola later this month.
U
Source: NYT
Apr 6, 2011
On Sunday morning, before the ancient doors of McSorley’s Old Ale House opened once again to spill that beer-and-sawdust aroma upon an East Village sidewalk, the owner took on a sorrowful job that in good conscience he could not leave to any of his employees. Too close to tempting the fates.
But it had to be done. The New York City health department was dropping hints as loud as the clatter of mugs on a Saturday night.
So, with heavy heart, the proprietor, Matthew Mahe
