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
Dec 27, 2010
When they excavated a Scythian burial mound in the Russian region of Tuva about 10 years ago, archaeologists literally struck gold. Crouched on the floor of a dark inner chamber were two skeletons, a man and a woman, surrounded by royal garb from 27 centuries ago: headdresses and capes adorned with gold horses, panthers and other sacred beasts.
But for paleopathologists — scholars of ancient disease — the richest treasure was the abundance of tumors that had riddled almost every bo
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 27, 2010
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela and South Africa's 'mother of the nation' is to have her own opera.
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela separated from Mandela in 1992 after an infidelity scandal. She was convicted of over 40 charges of fraud in 2003, was allegedly involved in several human rights abuses and has always been a controversial figure. However, for many South Africans, she remains a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement.
Winnie – The Opera b
Source: AP
Dec 27, 2010
Israeli archaeologists say they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man.
A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said Monday they found teeth about 400,000 years old. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half that old.
Archaeologist Avi Gopher said Monday further research is needed to solidify the claim. If it does, he says, "this changes the whole picture of evolution."
Acc
Source: BBC News
Dec 27, 2010
A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers have found.
While some rock art fades in hundreds of years, the "Bradshaw art" remains colourful after at least 40,000 years.
Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland in Australia has shown that the paintings have been colonised by colourful bacteria and fungi.
These "biofilms" may explain previous difficulties in
Source: Focus Taiwan
Dec 27, 2010
Taiwanese former comfort women denounced Japan Sunday at the opening of an exhibition that unveils Taiwan's litigation against Japan over the issue of sex slaves used by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two.
Chen Tao, one of the 13 surviving comfort women in Taiwan, said she traveled all the way from Pingtung, the southernmost county in Taiwan, to the capital to attend the opening and ask for assistance from President Ma Ying-jeou, who attended the opening, in helping the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 27, 2010
LOST letters from German prisoners of war who were held captive in the North East have been discovered after over 60 years.
Over 4,000 German officers were held at Camp 18 at Featherstone, near Haltwhistle, Northumberland, after the Second World War.
Hundreds of the soldiers would regularly leave the camp to work on local farms, and it was here that friendships were formed.
Tynedale farmer Thomas Moore has unearthed letters and black and white photographs s
Source: Guardian (UK)
Dec 26, 2010
The British government opted for the Trident nuclear weapons system because it estimated it could kill up to 10 million Russians and inflict "unacceptable damage" on the former Soviet Union, according to secret Whitehall documents written in the 1970s.
The macabre calculations that underpinned the decision in 1980 to replace Polaris nuclear missiles with Trident have been revealed by a Ministry of Defence memo, marked "personal and top secret". In a nuclear war,
Source: AP
Dec 26, 2010
BOSTON – Growing up in segregated Memphis, Tenn., during the Jim Crow era, Augustus White III knew about those certain places off-limits to him as a black man — restrooms, diners and schools.
He just didn't pay racial barriers much mind.
The son of a doctor and teacher became the first African-American to graduate from Stanford Medical School, the first African-American resident and surgery professor at Yale and later the first black department head at Harvard's teachin
Source: LA Times
Dec 26, 2010
With a 10,000-piece Holocaust-era collection and growing, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem leads the effort to conserve and display works by persecuted artists.
Reporting from Jerusalem —
Most people skip the little art gallery at Israel's Holocaust museum Yad Vashem because they think it will be too depressing.
After an emotionally draining tour through a maze of testimonies and artifacts, few have the stamina to look at so-called Holocaust Art, which seems to promise on
Source: JTA
Dec 26, 2010
A Manhattan judge has ruled that an original copy of Schindler's List can be sold.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis York ruled last week that dealer Gary Zimet may auction off what is believed to be the only privately held original copy of Oskar Schindler's list of Jews, which saved more than one thousand Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Zimet, a historic document sales specialist in upstate New York, announced in March that he would sell the document
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 26, 2010
Kathryn Hughes delights in a new book that tells the colourful stories of the lovers-cum-models of the great painters.
For as long as man has painted, he (and it usually is a he) has painted his lovers. Look at any of the great works of Western art and, chances are, you will find a mistress, girlfriend, wife or prostitute centre stage.
They may not announce themselves as such, going under the discreet title of Woman Sewing, Girls Bathing or simply Repose. But they’re t
Source: BBC News
Dec 26, 2010
The Grammy-nominated American soul singer Teena Marie has been found dead at her California home at the age of 54, her manager has said.
Teena Marie often worked with funk legend Rick James with hits such as Lovergirl and Fire and Desire.
Teena Marie, who was born Mary Christine Brockert and also used the moniker Lady T, was a rare white artist on the Motown label when she was signed in the late 1970s.
She won four Grammy nominations.
Huge resp
Source: AOL News
Dec 26, 2010
The Book of Revelation says the biblical fortress of Armageddon will be the site of an apocalyptic battle between good and evil at the end of time. Scientists believe it could also be the place where time begins -- at least for archaeology.
In a groundbreaking new project, scholars are using the rich archaeological remains that soar more than 50 feet above the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel to synchronize the clocks of the ancient world and create the first definitive calendar of
Source: Haaretz
Dec 26, 2010
Divers find underwater store containing British Mandate era hand-grenades and other weapons.
A cache of weapons from the time of the British Mandate was discovered during the weekend in Caesarea's underwater archaeological park, two weeks after a strong winter storm caused great damage to the site.
Two diving instructors discovered a cache containing about 20 hand-grenades and weapons which are apparently from the time of the British Mandate. The Israeli Navy was notif
Source: AP
Dec 26, 2010
New York state contributed 448,000 troops and $150 million to the Union cause during the Civil War, not to mention untold tons of supplies, food, guns and munitions.
But with the 150th anniversary of the war's start just months away, New York state government has so far failed to scrounge up a single Yankee dollar to commemorate a conflict it played such a major role in winning.
New York isn't alone. Other states saddled with similar budget woes are unable or unwilling
Source: American Journal of Archaeology
Dec 26, 2010
The July 2005 issue of the American Journal of Archaeology presents an engaging report on the looting and recovery of artifacts from the Iraq Museum during Gulf War II. Written by Matthew Bogdanos, a colonel in the U.S. Marines, who has served in Iraq three times and who received a Bronze Star for counterterrorism in Afghanistan, it is the official published account of the antiquities rescue operation and corrects many inaccuracies that have been reported in the media.As Bag
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 25, 2010
The photographs were unearthed when after locals in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, started searching for the family of Private Edward Wolstencroft, who was treated at the hospital in 1915.
Roy Chamberlain, from Foxton, Cambridgeshire, whose grandmother Mary was a nurse at the hospital, came forward with the photographs in the hope they might help identify the soldier and his family.
The search for Private Wolstencroft began shortly before Christmas after workmen fixing floor
Source: AP
Dec 25, 2010
A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago.
The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way.
The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksb
Source: CNN.com
Dec 24, 2010
Inside a grave in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is DNA that could finally put to rest debate about whether Abraham Lincoln's killer escaped capture and lived for years before committing suicide.
What's that you say? Wasn't this all solved 145 years ago? That depends on who you ask.
The way it's written in history books, John Wilkes Booth was cornered 12 days after shooting President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre and killed in a tobacco barn before being
Source: AP
Dec 24, 2010
The Muslim cleric who hopes to build an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site said Friday that he'll tour the country in an effort "to inspire interfaith understanding" for a project that has ignited explosive faceoffs between supporters and opponents.
Rauf's first appearance is scheduled for Detroit on Jan. 15. The city has North America's largest Muslim population.
The imam said he'll continue on to Chicago, Washington, San Antonio and college camp
