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 8, 2010
Former President George H.W. Bush, who signed and won Senate approval of the original Start arms control treaty with the Soviet Union in 1991, endorsed the proposed follow-up treaty with Russia on Wednesday, lending another well-known Republican voice to the White House campaign for approval.
“I urge the United States Senate to ratify the Start treaty,” Mr. Bush said in a one-line statement that offered no elaboration. His spokesman, Jim Appleby, said by telephone that the former pr
Source: Physorg.com
Dec 8, 2010
Spencer Pope, an archeologist who specializes in ancient Greece and assistant professor of classics, has teamed up with researchers in medical physics and applied radiation sciences to study the metallurgical content of Greek and Roman coins. By finding out what the coins are made of, says Pope, the researchers are able to reconstruct ancient trade routes, understand the development of economies and even determine the extent of counterfeiting. The work will also shine light on modern societies.
Source: Fox News
Dec 8, 2010
A once fertile landmass now submerged beneath the Persian Gulf may have been home to some of the earliest human populations outside Africa, according to an article published Wednesday in Current Anthropology.
In recent years, archaeologists have turned up evidence of a wave of human settlements along the shores of the Gulf dating to about 7,500 years ago. But how could such highly developed settlements pop up so quickly, with no precursor populations to be found in the archaeologica
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 8, 2010
The descendants of a Nazi official have been awarded his Polish property on land once occupied by Hitler's Germany, reopening the nation's Second World War wounds.
A German family has laid claim to a tenement building in the western Polish town of Opole, which until 1945 was part of the German Reich.
The Poles who live in the building have contested the claim, in what has now become a bitter and protracted battle both in and out of the courts.
Property clai
Source: Time
Dec 8, 2010
Today they may have Tweeted: "Thousands dead in Hawaii after JP attack. Worst ever on homeland. FDR: US in it to win it."
But on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after the bloodiest attack on U.S. soil by a foreign country, news organizations attempted to make sense of it all. Far removed from the future 24/7 news cycle, the correspondents of the era had only bits and pieces of information from the Japanese assault on Hawaii and did their best to put it into a broader context. Lookin
Source: CNN
Dec 8, 2010
Few are in doubt that the legendary Monty Python troupe elevated comedy to an art form. But visual art was as much a part of their identity as silly walks and great songs.
Original Python and film director Terry Gilliam was responsible for the iconic animations that acted as buffers between sketches, as well as the opening credits of the TV series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" that ran from 1969 to 1974, as well as the Python films that would follow.
Instantly reco
Source: BBC
Dec 8, 2010
The Scottish government was neither threatened nor offered "treats" to free the Lockerbie bomber from jail, the country's first minister has said.
Alex Salmond was responding to claims in cables published by Wikileaks and reported in the Guardian.
The leaks claim to show the UK government feared harsh action by Libya against British interests if Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi died in prison.
Ministers insist the decision was based purely on the Scots j
Source: BBC
Dec 8, 2010
A fascinating and rare set of hospital records dating from Victorian times has been put online.
The records tell the stories of poor, sick children who were admitted to Glasgow Hospital for Sick Children from 1883 to 1903.
It is part of the Historic Hospital Admission Records Project being run by Kingston University in London.
The records give an insight into the common diseases and conditions of Victorian times....
Source: BBC
Dec 8, 2010
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to be recalled to give evidence a second time to the Iraq Inquiry.
He is one of a number of key figures, including former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, asked to appear in person before the Chilcot committee again.
In January, Mr Blair defended his decision to take the country to war, saying he had no regrets about it and that Saddam Hussein was a "monster".
The inquiry is looking into the 2003 war and its aft
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 8, 2010
Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi was released from jail on the grounds that he was dying from terminal cancer even though ministers expected him to live for years, according to confidential diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks
In the months before the Libyan was allowed to return home, Jack Straw, the then Justice Secretary, told US diplomats he could live up to five years .
But Mr Straw said Alex Salmond’s SNP administration in Scotland was minded to free Abdelbaset Al-Megra
Source: BBC News
Dec 8, 2010
Fourteen officials who served under the military rule of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile are being tried in absentia in a French court.
The charges, which include kidnapping and torture, relate to the disappearance of four French citizens soon after Gen Pinochet came to power.
The 14 accused were mostly senior military officers at the time and include Manuel Contreras, the former head of the Dina secret police.
A verdict is expected later this month.
Source: BBC News
Dec 8, 2010
A rare copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America, billed as the world's most expensive book, has sold for more than £7m at auction.
The copy, which comes from the collection of Lord Hesketh, had been expected to fetch up to £6m.
Only 119 complete copies of the 19th-century book are known to exist, and 108 are owned by museums and libraries.
A separate edition of the book on ornithology sold for a record-breaking price of $8.8m (£5.7m) a decade ago.
Source: WaPo
Dec 7, 2010
Before the steady stream of Emmy Awards and Grammy nominations and Oscar consideration came The Idea -- the one that producer-director Lee Mendelson, nearly a half-century later, calls with a certain zest "the best idea I've had in my entire life."
"I'd just made a documentary about the best baseball player in the world," Mendelson tells Comic Riffs, referring to his award-winning NBC work about Willie Mays. "So I decided to make a documentary about the wors
Source: Macon.com
Dec 7, 2010
An ancient civilization of mound builders who lived near the Ocmulgee River just northeast of what is now downtown Macon may have been home to more native people than originally thought.
Though the research, much of it done with a ground-scanning instrument to roughly map underground shapes and forms, is still under way, early analysis seems to indicate more unearthed dwellings at the site than were previously known to have existed.
Dan Bigman, an archaeologist and doct
Source: AFP
Dec 7, 2010
PARIS (AFP) – Mummies decaying in Siberia, pyramids vanishing under the sand in Sudan, Maya temples collapsing: climate change risks destroying countless treasures from our shared past, archaeologists warn.
Melting ice can unlock ancient secrets from the ground, as with the discovery in 1991 of "Oetzi", a 5,300-year-old warrior whose body had been preserved through the millennia inside an Alpine glacier.
But as ice caps melt, deserts spread, ocean levels rise
Source: NYT
Dec 7, 2010
BERLIN — Please do not call Mark Gould a Nazi hunter.
He finds the phrase demeaning.
Mr. Gould prefers this description: a 43-year-old college dropout from Los Angeles who says he made a lot of money in finance, became interested in Nazi memorabilia and ended up on an undercover odyssey where he posed as a neo-Nazi to befriend a former Waffen SS officer and recorded many of their conversations with the plan to someday expose the man’s role in the Third Reich.
Source: LA Times
Dec 7, 2010
The museum welcomes the culture minister of Sicily, where the ancient sculpture will return, ending decades of contention over looted artworks.
To look at her — 71/2 feet tall atop her earthquake-resistant pedestal, her face serene, her limestone robes rippling in an unfelt wind — is not just to appreciate a pinnacle of ancient Greek statuary, but to experience a semblance of how divinity must have felt to awestruck pagans.
And now the great goddess, once described as &
Source: Science Daily
Dec 7, 2010
Naukrtis, a Greek trade emporium on Egyptian soil, has long captured the imagination of archaeologists and historians. Not only is the presence of a Greek trading settlement in Egypt during the 7th and 6th century B.C.E. surprising, but the Greeks that lived there in harmony hailed from several Greek states which traditionally warred amongst themselves.
Dr. Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology is delving deeper into this unique piece of ancient hist
Source: BBC
Dec 7, 2010
Israel has reacted angrily to Argentina's recognition of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders.
Monday's move by Argentina comes days after a similar step by South American neighbour Brazil.
The Argentinian foreign ministry said recognition was in line with the Palestinians' right to build an independent state.
More than 100 states around the world recognise Palestine, their mission at the United Nations says....
Source: BBC
Dec 7, 2010
A giant marabou stork has been discovered on an island once home to human-like 'hobbits'.
Fossils of the bird were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores, a place previously famed for the discovery of Homo floresiensis, a small hominin species closely related to modern humans.
The stork may have been capable of hunting and eating juvenile members of this hominin species, say researchers who made the discovery, though there is no direct evidence the birds did so.
