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: Shropshire Star
Mar 1, 2011
Three hoards of medieval coins found in Shropshire have been declared as treasure by a coroner.
The coins – dating from the 13th to 17th centuries – were discovered in Baschurch and near Oswestry.
Mr John Ellery, coroner for north and mid Shropshire, declared all three finds as treasure trove at inquests in Wem yesterday.
The finds could now go on display at Rowley’s House Museum in Shrewsbury and Powysland Museum.
Mr Ellery heard the Baschurch
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 1, 2011
Archaeologists say six cannons recovered from a river in Panama that could have belonged to legendary pirate Henry Morgan are being studied and could eventually be displayed.
The group of Panamanian and foreign archaeologists say the cannons were found at the mouth of Panama's Chagres River, the site where Morgan's flagship, the Satisfaction, wrecked in 1671 while carrying him and his pirates to raid Panama City.
The team said on Monday that the size and shape of the p
Source: WaPo
Mar 1, 2011
CHARLOTTESVILLE - Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda, the historic heart of the University of Virginia, is among the most iconic structures in higher education. Yet a close inspection reveals that the proud Corinthian capitals above its entrance are crumbling. The elevator jams at inopportune moments. The roof leaks.
Coming up with the money to fix a building of such gravitas might seem a simple affair. Jefferson's university is a storied "public Ivy," with a $5 billion endowment
Source: Daily Comet (LA)
Mar 1, 2011
A full-sized model of a historic World War II aircraft has a new home today.
The TBM Avenger reproduction, whose real-life counterparts fired torpedoes and dropped bombs during the war and saw service until the 1960s, was a gift from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. That museum was given the aluminum model by the late Cmdr. Thomas Lupo, a retired naval officer and New Orleans businessman, had a California foundry build it.
It was delivered Monday via two 18-whee
Source: Fox News Latino
Mar 1, 2011
It's a treasure hunt even Indiana Jones would be proud of.
Buried beneath a lake in Guatamala sits a fortune in lost treasure -- Mayan gold to be precise -- and a group of German archaeologists has just set off to find it. Their only guidance, a freshly decoded ancient book containing a map to the treasure.
It sounds like a movie, but it's very much real, reported FoxNewsLatino. Joachim Rittsteig, an expert in Mayan writing who is heading up the mission to Guatemala's
Source: CS Monitor
Mar 1, 2011
Young women in America are more likely than men to have a college degree, and women’s earnings constitute a growing share of household income, but their wages still lag significantly behind those of men with comparable education, according to a report on the status of women released Tuesday by the White House.
The White House released the report, which it called the “first comprehensive federal report on the status of women in almost 50 years,” on the first day of Women’s History Mo
Source: NPR
Mar 1, 2011
The Obama administration says it will continue to deny health care benefits to the same-sex legal spouse of a federal court employee despite the fact that it has abandoned its court arguments in support of the Defense of Marriage Act....
While the administration's DOMA shift is unusual, it is not rare. It has happened more than a dozen times since 2004 and many more in the past 60 years, including in some very important cases.
During the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Truman a
Source: Guardian (UK)
Mar 1, 2011
Archaeologists say six cannons recovered from a river in Panama that could have belonged to legendary pirate Henry Morgan are being studied and could eventually be displayed.
The group of Panamanian and foreign archaeologists say the cannons were found at the mouth of Panama's Chagres river, the site where Morgan's flagship, the Satisfaction, was wrecked in 1671 while carrying him and his pirates to raid Panama City....
Source: Reuters
Mar 1, 2011
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Workers at a Google data centre combined 12 century know how and space age technology to trigger a medieval weapon that was used to hurl rocks, balls of fire and dead animals over castle walls.
They used an Android cellphone, a computer the size of a credit card and a Blue Tooth receiver to trigger the wooden weapon, known as a trebuchet, during the first "Storm the Citadel Trebuchet Competition" in Charleston over the weekend.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 1, 2011
Rescuers searching the ruins of Christchurch cathedral have made found a century-old time capsule under a status of the city's founder.
Two items – a glass bottle containing rolled-up parchment and a metal cylinder – were found in the plinth of a statue felled in last Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude earthquake in New Zealand, which is believed to have killed up to 240 people.
Rescuers combing the site made the discovery Tuesday morning and immediately called in local museum s
Source: Inside Nova (VA)
Mar 1, 2011
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. --
The average American might not know that a teenaged James Monroe participated in the Battle of Trenton in the Revolutionary War – more than 40 years before he became president.
Probably even fewer know that a biracial man from Prince William County named John Sidebottom helped carry the injured Monroe from the battlefield, likely saving his life.
Bravery like this from the black populace in the Revolutionary War has large
Source: BBC
Mar 1, 2011
A miraculous tale of human ingenuity and bravery lies behind an exhibition of treasures from Afghanistan that opens at the British Museum this week.
In 17 years of war after the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, and five years of Taliban rule, most of the Afghan national museum's riches were looted and some were deliberately destroyed.
But the most valuable items survived, in a vault deep beneath the presidential palace, thanks to five men - among them museum director Omar Khan M
Source: BBC
Mar 1, 2011
A letter revealing the story behind who put the Royal Palace in touch with speech therapist, Lionel Logue, has been uncovered in Edinburgh.
Mr Logue treated the stammer of the Duke of York, who went on to become King George VI.
The story inspired the Oscar-winning film, The King's Speech.
The letter, dated 18 May 1925, is from Baron Stamfordham, King George VI's father's private secretary, to John Murray V, who recommended Mr Logue.
The letter
Source: BBC
Mar 1, 2011
The bones of people who died up to 100 years ago are being used to develop new treatments for chronic back pain.
The research uses computer modelling techniques devised at Leeds University and archaeology and anthropology expertise at Bristol University.
Spines from 40 skeletons in museums and anatomy collections are being analysed....
Source: CNN
Mar 1, 2011
Christian Dior has started proceedings to fire designer John Galliano after he was filmed making anti-Semitic comments in a Paris restaurant, the fashion giant said Tuesday.
The statement came hours after Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman condemned Galliano's praise of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
The statement came hours after Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman condemned Galliano's praise of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler....
Source: Telegraph
Mar 1, 2011
Last week, a rare, mint condition dagger was sold to the visiting American Rare Collectibles Association.
All over the world, collectors support the association and decide what to buy. Their representatives make the purchase.
The representatives didn't have the first name of the man who brought in the dagger. However, they were able to explain how it came to be in his father's - and then his - possession.
During World War II, Robert Vieregge was a soldier f
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 1, 2011
Rescuers searching the ruins of Christchurch cathedral have made found a century-old time capsule under a status of the city's founder.
Two items – a glass bottle containing rolled-up parchment and a metal cylinder – were found in the plinth of a statue felled in last Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude earthquake in New Zealand, which is believed to have killed up to 240 people.
Rescuers combing the site made the discovery Tuesday morning and immediately called in local museum sta
Source: AP
Mar 1, 2011
German scientists said Monday it may be possible to reconstruct one of two giant 1,500 year-old Buddha statues dynamited by the Taliban in central Afghanistan 10 years ago, which prompted a worldwide outcry and left behind only towering cliff caverns.
Researchers have studied several hundred fragments of the sandstone statues that once towered up to 180 feet (55 meters) high in Bamiyan province, and found that they were once brightly colored in red, white and blue, said Erwin Emmerl
Source: BBC News
Mar 1, 2011
A new film about King John further underlines history's judgement of the medieval English monarch as a cruel tyrant. But among the dozens of bad kings and despots, why is John always the pantomime villain?
Surrendering lands in France, forced into a humiliating climbdown with the nobility and ex-communicated by the Church. Not to mention being blamed for the murder of his nephew.
The medieval reign of King John has been characterised by disaster and his reputation langu
Source: BBC News
Mar 1, 2011
Former Hollywood actress and sex symbol Jane Russell has died at the age of 89.
The brunette was discovered by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who cast her in his 1943 Western The Outlaw.
Some of her most memorable films include the The Paleface (1948) with Bob Hope, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) with Marilyn Monroe.
She died on Monday at her home in California of a respiratory-related illness, her daughter-in-law confirmed.
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