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: Science News
Mar 24, 2011
Finds unearthed in southeastern India offer a cutting-edge revision of hominid migrations out of Africa more than 1 million years ago that spread pivotal tool-making methods.
Makers of a specific style of teardrop-shaped stone hand ax, flat-edged cleavers and other implements that originated in Africa around 1.6 million years ago (SN: 1/31/09, p. 11) reached South Asia not long afterward, between 1.5 and 1 million years ago, say archaeologist Shanti Pappu of the Sharma Center for He
Source: Global Arab Network
Mar 24, 2011
Syria (Swaida) - The small village unearthed in the archaeological site of Tel Qarasa (hill) in the west of Swaida province, dating back to around 11000 years constitute a clear example of the first models of urban life in the prehistoric times.
The excavations of the Syrian-French archaeological mission conducted at the site over the last two years showed that Qarasa region knew human presence in the form of tiny villages of 8 round houses whose inhabitants depended on fishing and
Source: Jewish Telegraph Agency
Mar 24, 2011
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (JTA)—My childhood was full of magical, well-known tales about characters like Tevye the Milkman, as well as tales of love and joy and everyday life in the shtetls of Poland, told with warmth and wit by my grandparents.
There were Moyshe and Sorale and Feygele from the shtetl of Zamosc; people I never met but who were brought to life through my grandparents’ stories. Some of them became my childhood heroes.
As a little boy yet unaware of Auschwitz, I w
Source: Discovery News
Mar 24, 2011
For years now, paleontologists have been debating about how gigantic plant-eating dinosaurs, known as sauropods, held their long necks. Could they stretch their tall necks upright, as giraffes do today, or did they hold them horizontally, more parallel to the ground?
Other scientists have since run with that comparison to canister-style vacuum cleaners and have set out to prove or disprove it. Most recently, evolutionary ecologists Graeme Ruxton of the University of Glasgow and Davi
Source: BBC
Mar 24, 2011
Striking discoveries in archaeology are being made possible by strong beams of X-rays, say researchers.
A report at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, showed how X-ray sources known as synchrotrons can unravel an artefact's mysteries.
Light given off after an X-ray blast yields a neat list of the atoms within.
The technique can illuminate layers of pigment beneath the surfaces of artefacts, or even show the traces of tools used thousands o
Source: BBC
Mar 24, 2011
Six letters written by Frederic Chopin, thought to be lost in 1939, have been found and donated to a Warsaw museum dedicated to the Polish composer.
The letters, written by Chopin to his parents and sisters between 1845 and 1848, were believed lost after the outbreak of World War II.
After it emerged in 2003 that they still existed in a private collection, moves were made to secure them.
Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 but spent half of his life in France
Source: BBC
Mar 24, 2011
Dating from the 7th Century, long before the Domesday Book, the Senchus fer nAlban (History of the men of Scotland) is Britain's earliest native census. It is a list of the population of Dál Riata, the Kingdom of the Gaels on the west coast of Scotland. At around only 70 lines of text, the Senchus is considerably shorter than Domesday; much shorter even than a modern census form and certainly shorter on detail. But then, it was created for a much simpler purpose.
While the modern ce
Source: Cincinnati.com
Mar 24, 2011
Damage caused by vandals at the Harrison Tomb last week will be repaired quickly, according to officials from the Ohio Historical Society.
The Harrison Tomb is the final resting place of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States of America. His family is also buried in the mausoleum within the tomb. The memorial on Cliff Road is a 60-foot marble obelisk in a 14-acre park.
On March 17, Bev Meyers, a member of the Harrison-Symmes Memorial Foundation
Source: Daily Press News (Syria)
Mar 24, 2011
An archaeological burial from the Byzantine era was uncovered in al-Ruba village in Zighreen town, 30 km northeastern Hama, including a number of tombs inside which pottery, metal and glass findings and golden pieces were unearthed.
Abdul-Qader Farzat, Head of Hama Archaeology Department, told SANA that the burial comprises a 110 cm long and 60 cm wide entrance leading to a square surrounded by five chambers including three tombs each. The tombs are 175 cm long and 40 cm deep, separ
Source: Monsters and Critics
Mar 24, 2011
A 9-year-old Polish girl died Thursday after an explosion of what was likely a bomb left over from World War II in a field in southern Poland.
The girl was the second victim of the explosion, which occurred Tuesday in the village of Konskowola. The explosion also killed the girl's 10-year-old brother on the spot.
The pair were playing in a field when they found the device. Police are waiting for test results to determine what caused the explosion.
Unexplode
Source: Ria Novosti (Russia)
Mar 24, 2011
The grandson of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin has taken liberal Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy to court for alleging that his grandfather "strangled small children," a spokesman for the station said on Thursday.
Stalin descendent, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, is demanding 11 million rubles ($388,000) in compensation for the comment made by journalist Nikolay Svanidze on a show aired on May 21, 2010.
Svanidze was referring to an order signed by Stalin in which he al
Source: BBC News
Mar 24, 2011
Six letters written by Frederic Chopin, thought to be lost in 1939, have been found and donated to a Warsaw museum dedicated to the Polish composer.
The letters, written by Chopin to his parents and sisters between 1845 and 1848, were believed lost after the outbreak of World War II.
After it emerged in 2003 that they still existed in a private collection, moves were made to secure them.
Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 but spent half of his life in France
Source: BBC News
Mar 24, 2011
Ukrainian ex-President Leonid Kuchma has told reporters he has been charged after being questioned by prosecutors over the 2000 murder of a journalist.
He said he had not read the charges himself. Prosecutors opened a case against him this week on suspicion of a role in Georgy Gongadze's death.
Gongadze was found beheaded months after being abducted in September 2000, when Mr Kuchma was in power.
The ex-president earlier denied any part in his death.
Source: Yahoo News
Mar 24, 2011
TINTON FALLS, N.J – Dorothy Young, the last surviving stage assistant of illusionist Harry Houdini and an accomplished dancer, has died. She was 103.
Young's death was announced Wednesday by Drew University, where she was a prominent donor and patron of the arts. Drew spokesman Dave Muha said Young died Sunday at her home in a Tinton Falls, N.J., retirement community....
Source: Cincinnati
Mar 24, 2011
Damage caused by vandals at the Harrison Tomb last week will be repaired quickly, according to officials from the Ohio Historical Society.
The Harrison Tomb is the final resting place of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States of America. His family is also buried in the mausoleum within the tomb. The memorial on Cliff Road is a 60-foot marble obelisk in a 14-acre park.
On March 17, Bev Meyers, a member of the Harrison-Symmes Memorial Foundation
Source: BBC
Mar 24, 2011
A controversial mini-series about the Kennedy family that its US broadcaster refused to show is to be screened later this year on BBC Two.
The Kennedys was to air on the History Channel in the US before its parent company, A&E Television Networks, pulled the plug following complaints over its historical accuracy.
Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes play John and Jackie Kennedy in the series.
The Kennedys will air in the US next month on ReelzChannel, a digita
Source: BBC
Mar 24, 2011
British observational documentary maker Richard Leacock, who filmed John F Kennedy on his 1960 presidential campaign, has died at the age of 89.
Leacock, a pioneer of unobtrusive camera technique Cinema Verite, died at his home in Paris on Wednesday.
He solved the puzzle of how to sync speech and video by inventing a system using US-made Bulova watches.
His work on films like the 1960 Kennedy film Primary paved the way for new wave directors such as Jean-Lu
Source: AP
Mar 24, 2011
The spokesman for the Norwegian Nobel Committee says the panel is very concerned over the lack of information about Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Chinese dissident awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
Permanent Secretary Geir Lundestad says the committee hasn't received any updates about Liu's whereabouts or wellbeing since October, when the prize was announced and Liu's wife went to visit him in prison.
Liu won the prize for his nonviolent struggle for human rights in
Source: CNN
Mar 24, 2011
An Argentine Dirty War-era general has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing of five people during the dictatorship.
Luciano Benjamin Menendez, former head of the Third Army Corps, was already serving a life sentence for violating the human rights of four others.
A panel of judges on the Argentine court handed down the sentence Wednesday.
Sentenced along with Menendez was former policeman Roberto Heriberto Albornoz, who was also sent to prison fo
Source: Fox News
Mar 23, 2011
World War II veteran Leeland Davidson has been living in America for nearly 100 years, but he only just learned he is not in fact a U.S. citizen.
The 95-year-old's parents were born in the U.S., but they had him while in Canada. And the proper paperwork apparently was never filed to report Davidson as being born to Americans living abroad.
The place of his birth was never an issue throughout his life in the United States until he recently tried to get a driver’s license
