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: Fox News
Nov 30, 2010
Fans of the Gadsden Flag may soon be able to display its familiar rattlesnake and "Don't Tread on Me" message every time they pull out of the driveway.
At least three states -- Virginia, Nevada and Texas -- are weighing or have already approved proposals to add "Don't Tread on Me" specialty license plates to their state rosters.
The Gadsden Flag, originally used by the U.S. Marine Corps during the American Revolution, was meant to represent the 13 or
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Nov 30, 2010
The handwritten first draft of Mary Shelley's masterpiece, Frankenstein, has gone on display in Britain for the first time.
The exhibition also includes a never before seen portrait of the author alongside belongings and literary work from her family - one of Britain's most renowned literary dynasties.
The showcase, brought together for the first time from the Bodleian Libraries and the New York Public Library, includes work by Mary Shelley, her husband Percy Bysshe S
Source: National Parks Traveler
Nov 30, 2010
The rolling thunder of artillery will reverberate through the hilly countryside of south-central Pennsylvania next April as the Gettysburg area launches its five-year long commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial.
The sesquicentennial of the 1861-1865 Civil War will be commemorated with hundreds of special events and ceremonies, major and minor, throughout America. Few places will be taking the sesquicentennial more seriously than the historic town of Gettysburg, site of the
Source: Bloomberg News
Nov 30, 2010
The Munich court trying 90-year-old John Demjanjuk on charges that he aided the Nazis in the murder of Jews during World War II, scheduled another four months of hearings just before the trial reached its one-year anniversary.
The trial, which started Nov. 30, 2009, under maximum security in courtroom A 101, has stopped drawing overflow crowds and continues with three hearings a week, limited to three hours a day because of Demjanjuk’s health. After hearing from most witnesses in th
Source: Tennessean
Nov 30, 2010
FRANKLIN — State officials are crediting an outpouring of community support for helping to influence the decision to award a $960,000 state grant to Franklin's Charge for the recovery of a key site in the 1864 Battle of Franklin.
This was the second time Franklin's Charge in conjunction with the Tennessee Historical Commission had applied for the grant.
"We had 407 letters of support from citizens," said Julie Oaks, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department o
Source: The Atlantic
Nov 29, 2010
It's a bad day to be Abdullah Atalar, an engineering professor at Turkey's Bilkent University. That's because Atalar was born on April 11, 1954, which a Cambridge computer scientist has determined to be"the most boring day in history."...The most boring day in history, apparently, or at least of the past 110 years, was April 11, 1954. The Telegraph
Source: UPI
Nov 29, 2010
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A U.S. government committee says a Pennsylvania museum must return artifacts in a collection to Alaska's Tlingit tribe from which they were purchased in 1924.
A review committee established by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act made the decision on the 20th anniversary of the passage of the act, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The act created a federal law under which Native peoples can claim human remains and cult
Source: Yahoo News
Nov 29, 2010
Angelina Jolie is the target of more criticism over her feature directorial debut, a love story set during the Bosnian War.
The actress -- who recently cut short the film's shoot after rumors that it portrayed a relationship between a rapist and his victim sparked protests -- was called "ignorant" on Monday by a group of women who were victims of sexual violence during the 1990s war, the AFP reported.
In a letter to the United Nations refugee agency, for whic
Source: AFP
Nov 29, 2010
HELSINKI (AFP) – Riikka Alvik rests her chin in her palm as she imagines the last terrifying moments of the life of a 13-year-old girl trapped in a cabin on the St. Mikael as it mysteriously sank in the icy Baltic.
"We found her skeleton," says Alvik, a marine archaeologist and curator with Finland's National Board of Antiquities.
"She never got out. Think of the panic she felt as the cabin filled with icy water -- it was November, after all."
Source: Yahoo News
Nov 29, 2010
LAS VEGAS – Authorities are offering a $2,500 reward for information about vandals who spray-painted graffiti over prehistoric rock art at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Nevada.
The federal Bureau of Land Management and supporters of Red Rock Canyon say spray paint covers pictographs drawn by ancient inhabitants and petroglyphs scraped long ago into rocks at the scenic preserve about 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip....
Source: NYT
Nov 29, 2010
ATLANTA — The Civil War, the most wrenching and bloody episode in American history, may not seem like much of a cause for celebration, especially in the South.
And yet, as the 150th anniversary of the four-year conflict gets under way, some groups in the old Confederacy are planning at least a certain amount of hoopla, chiefly around the glory days of secession, when 11 states declared their sovereignty under a banner of states’ rights and broke from the union....
Source: Science Daily
Nov 29, 2010
A unique queen's crown with ancient symbols combined with a new method of studying status in Egyptian reliefs forms the basis for a re-interpretation of historical developments in Egypt in the period following the death of Alexander the Great. A thesis from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) argues that Queen Arsinoë II ruled ancient Egypt as a female pharaoh, predating Cleopatra by 200 years.
Researchers are largely agreed on Queen Arsinoë II's importance from the day that she
Source: National Geographic News
Nov 29, 2010
Bearing perhaps the earliest printing in English America, fragments of 400-year-old personalized pipes have been found at Virginia's Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, archaeologists say.
Stamped with the names of Sir Walter Raleigh and other eminent men back in England, the pipes may have been intended to impress investors—underscoring Jamestown's fundamentally commercial nature.
The personalized clay pipes, which archaeologists say wer
Source: Daily Mail
Nov 29, 2010
He is celebrated as the humble Italian weaver who ended up discovering the Americas.
But the conventional wisdom relating to Christopher Columbus is under threat after academics concluded the explorer was actually a Polish immigrant.
An international team of distinguished professors have completed 20 years of painstaking research into his beginnings.
The fresh evidence about Columbus’ background is revealed in a new book by Manuel Rosa, an academic at Duke
Source: BBC
Nov 29, 2010
The cousin of a World War II RAF pilot has been traced to south London after an appeal to find his relatives.
German authorities had hoped the family of Sgt Frederick Wall would attend a memorial at the site in Germany where the 29-year-old was shot down in 1945.
His cousin, Alice Perkins, who is 96 and lives in Sutton, was found after the service but said she was "touched" to hear he had been honoured.
Seven members of Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Source: AP
Nov 29, 2010
The skeletons of 18 of Napoleon's soldiers were laid to rest Monday in Lithuania — 200 years after the French emperor tried in vain to invade Russia.
Lithuanian deputy Defense Minister Vytautas Umbrasas said Napoleon's troops were finally "buried properly" at a solemn ceremony in Vilnius also attended by French Ambassador Francois Laumonier.
The remains of the soldiers were discovered last year by road builders outside the Lithuanian capital. Experts said the
Source: CNN
Nov 29, 2010
Former President George W. Bush joined a chorus of U.S. officials calling leaks of sensitive government information "very damaging," telling a forum at Facebook headquarters that WikiLeaks' recent release of 250,000 documents may significantly hurt Washington's image abroad.
A relaxed Bush was joined by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on stage in Palo Alto, California, with hundreds watching from the audience and up to 6,500 following the interview live online.
T
Source: CNN
Nov 29, 2010
More than 270 previously unknown works by Pablo Picasso recently came to light when a retired electrician sought to have them authenticated by the late artist's estate, the Picasso Administration said Monday.
But in a strange twist, 71-year-old Pierre Le Guennec finds himself slapped with a lawsuit filed by the artist's son, Claude Picasso, and five other heirs who say the works are stolen.
The lawsuit was first reported Monday by the French newspaper Liberation.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Nov 29, 2010
The family of a real life Harry Potter who was killed in the army claim that his grave has been turned into a tourist attraction by fans of the hit book and movie series seeking their fictional hero.
Private Harry Potter was serving overseas when he died in Israel in 1939 during an uprising.
His grave had gone unnoticed in the British Military Cemetery in the town of Ramla for more than half a century.
But now the headstone has become an unlikely tourist at
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 29, 2010
Italian archeologists are to embark on a quest for a long-lost, 2,500-year-old Greek theatre, nearly a century after the hunt cost a British adventurer his fortune and his sanity.
Alexander Hardcastle spent a decade searching for the fabled theatre, which is said to be buried beneath the remains of Akragas, a city established by Greek colonists six centuries before Christ on the southern coast of Sicily.
The World Heritage site is best known for the Valley of the Templ
