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: NYT
Feb 2, 2011
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Ronald Reagan would have turned 100 this Sunday, and nearly seven years after his death, one might think he were still alive and leading the Republican Party.
Along with the requisite speeches and academic panels, the festivities include: a Rose Parade float, a six-foot-high cake, commemorative stamps and jelly beans, a Beach Boys concert, a tribute from the Jonas Brothers and a video homage at the Super Bowl, which is also on Sunday. The memorials, including a
Source: Reuters
Feb 2, 2011
International museums are on high alert for looted Egyptian artifacts and some archaeologists have even offered to fly to the country to help safeguard its ancient treasures, museums said Wednesday.
Egypt has been rocked by an unprecedented nine days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule, and fears are high for the country's priceless heritage after looters broke into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo last week.
The specter of the fall of Baghdad i
Source: AP
Feb 2, 2011
A museum just days away from opening a long-awaited exhibit of mummies and other historical artifacts from China is gutting the display at the request of Chinese officials, the museum announced Wednesday.
The artifacts were part of "Secrets of the Silk Road," which is scheduled to open Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. The exhibit has already traveled to museums in California and Texas without issue.
Source: BBC
Feb 2, 2011
Jack Straw has insisted that regime change in Iraq was "never" UK policy even though some within government may have wanted Saddam Hussein removed.
The former foreign secretary told the Iraq inquiry such a goal, in itself, would have been "palpably illegal".
In the last public hearing, he said the invasion was justified but he expressed "deep sorrow" for those who had died.
Inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot said it would take &
Source: BBC
Feb 2, 2011
A time capsule has been buried beneath concrete at the site of a new £15m Titanic museum in Southampton.
The Sea City Museum will open in 2012 - 100 years after the liner embarked on its ill-fated maiden voyage from the city to New York.
The development, at the former magistrates' court, is due to be the focal point of a new cultural quarter.
Among items in the capsule is a ticket from Southampton Football Club's FA Cup tie with Manchester United on Saturda
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 2, 2011
A group of Qataris suspected of conducting surveillance on the targets of 9/11, and providing "support" to the plotters of the atrocities, were due to fly to Washington on the eve of the attacks, the Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The disclosure, in US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks, has raised suspicions that the three men were preparing to be a fifth suicide team, but aborted their attack at the last minute. Instead of boarding a domestic flight to the US capital
Source: AP
Feb 2, 2011
A male apprentice, longtime companion and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci was the main influence and a model for the "Mona Lisa" painting, an Italian researcher said Wednesday.
But the researcher, Silvano Vinceti, said the portrait also represents a synthesis of Leonardo's scientific, artistic and philosophical beliefs. Because the artist worked on it at various intervals for many years, he was subjected to different influences and sources of inspiration, and the canva
Source: AP
Feb 2, 2011
Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered a 1,500-year-old church, including an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor with images of lions, foxes, fish and peacocks.
Amir Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority says the church in the hills southwest of Jerusalem was active between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D.
Archaeologists began digging after discovering that thieves were plundering the site. Ganor said archaeologists uncovered a mosaic "unique in i
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Feb 1, 2011
To help mark the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and Caroline Kennedy, President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, recently unveiled the nation’s largest online digitized presidential archive, providing access to the most important papers, records, photographs and recordings of President Kennedy’s thousand days in office. The archive is accessible via the Library’s website
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Feb 1, 2011
On February 1, the National Park Service (NPS) and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) jointly announced the awarding of $14.3 million in federal competitive Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grants. A list of the recipients and their projects can be found at http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/treasures.The grants are made in collaboration with
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Feb 1, 2011
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Preservation Programs will be hosting the 25th Annual Preservation Conference on Wednesday, March 16 and Thursday, March 17, 2011. The conference website is http://www.archives.gov/preservation/conferences/2011/The title of the conference, is “Conservation 2 (squared) = Preserving Our Collections x (times) Our Envir
Source: Smithsonian.com
Feb 1, 2011
The famous historian's eyewitness accounts of the Navy during World War II—now being reissued—won't be surpassed.
On March 23, 1942, the historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote to his friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt to offer himself as a “sea-going historiographer” to chronicle the activities of the U.S. Navy in World War II. “In order to do it the right way,” he told Roosevelt, “I must have a living, intimate connection with the Navy flagrante bello. An armchair history job aft
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 1, 2011
Secret documents reveal that the three Qatari men conducted surveillance on the targets, provided “support” to the plotters and had tickets for a flight to Washington on the eve of the atrocities.
The suspected terrorists flew from London to New York on a British Airways flight three weeks before the attacks.
They allegedly carried out surveillance at the World Trade Centre, the White House and in Virginia, the US state where the Pentagon and CIA headquarters are locate
Source: LA Times
Feb 1, 2011
Nineteen University of California study-abroad students, along with a UCLA team of archaeology students and researchers, have been evacuated from Egypt, university officials said Tuesday.
The group, which was en route back to California, includes students from various UC campuses who were due to have started a semester-abroad program Jan. 31 at the American University in Cairo. Those plans were scuttled after days of massive anti-government protests in Cairo and across Egypt led to
Source: BBC
Feb 1, 2011
The story of a teenager who burgled Buckingham Palace and stole Queen Victoria's underwear sounds like it should be a work of fiction.
But Edward Jones's life was no fairytale and he was caught with the monarch's clothing down his trousers.
The story of possibly the original celebrity stalker has been fully chronicled for the first time.
Dr Jan Bondeson, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University, spent five years researching his subject.
He used
Source: BBC
Feb 1, 2011
A former Serbian paramilitary suspected of taking part in the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995 has been arrested in south-eastern France.
Milorad Momic, 47, was detained close to Grenoble under an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia for crimes against humanity.
He was arrested on his way to work while using the false name, Guy Monier.
Mr Momic was allegedly part of the Scorpions unit, involved in the murder of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 1, 2011
Brazil has allowed the release of rare photographs of Amazonian natives to bring attention to the plight of indigenous people who rights groups say are faced with possible extinction.
The astonishing images, showing curious adults and children peering skyward with their faces dyed reddish-orange and toting bows, arrows and spears, were taken by Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI).
Rights group Survival International, which accompanied the government agency on
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 1, 2011
Even before three men of Middle Eastern appearance had told cleaners to stay out of their room, staff at a Los Angeles airport hotel had become increasingly suspicious of what they were up to.
Pilots’ uniforms, laptops, a smashed mobile phone and lists of air crew names were hardly typical holiday luggage, but nor did the hotel workers feel it was enough to merit calling the police.
But the day after the guests checked out of the hotel, their odd behaviour suddenly se
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 1, 2011
A decades old feud over the true residence of composer Frederic Chopin and his French novelist lover when they spent a winter sojourn on the island of Majorca has finally been solved: thanks to a piano.
It has emerged that the piano claimed by a museum to be used by the composer while he stayed in an old monastic cell on the island could never have been played by the maestro as it was in fact manufactured after his death.
The Polish composer fled Paris to spend the wi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 1, 2011
The official 9/11 Commission report into the attacks made no mention of another team of potential hijackers - but did hint at a “support network of accomplices” who had eluded investigators.
Stretching to 600 pages and based on the evidence of more than 1,200 witnesses, the commission’s report was meant to be the final word on the atrocity when it was published in July 2004.
The commission spent nearly two years compiling evidence, including previously classified docum
