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: BBC
Oct 24, 2010
Edinburgh's oldest statue has been removed from its plinth in Parliament Square for conservation work.
Cracks have appeared on the 325-year-old Charles II, thought to be the work of the Dutch sculptor Grinling Gibbons.
The monument, which is made of lead, depicts the King of England, Scotland and Ireland as a Roman general.
The lead will be cleaned and missing parts like the sword and scabbard will be replaced, modelled on a similar statue at Windsor Castle
Source: Salon
Oct 24, 2010
[Steve Kornacki is the news editor for Salon.]
You know the basic midterm narrative: The GOP, written off by pundits as a dying party after Barack Obama's sweeping 2008 victory, has staged a remarkable revival and is now poised to deliver a brutal blow to the first-term president on Nov. 2. Republicans are already celebrating their comeback — and promising an even bigger year in 2012.
Oddly enough, Walter Mondale knows exactly how they feel.
His party's obi
Source: Guardian (UK)
Oct 24, 2010
Manchester's Tutankhamun exhibition is full of fakes, but no less inspiring for that.
The exhibition Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures, which opened at the Trafford Centre on Friday, boasts the very room that amazed Carter 88 years ago. Golden beds, chairs, chariots, chests and portraits are heaped as they were when he peeked through that tiny aperture: the death mask of Tutankhamun, one of the most astonishing works of art on earth, is here. The only trouble is, none of it i
Source: BBC
Oct 24, 2010
Two funeral directors are behind a new heritage trail, highlighting historic figures buried at a cemetery.
Ian and James Reynolds were told about some of the 70,000 graves, ranging from an MP, war hero to a footballer, by their father who worked at Treorchy Cemetery, Rhondda for 65 years.
The trail includes graves or memorials for:
Rhondda's first MP and president of the South Wales Miners Federation, William "Mabon" Abraham, who died in 1922
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 24, 2010
Human skulls or ancients mummies are being removed from British museums for fear of insulting minority religious groups, academics have warned.
Already museums around the country have been forced to close coffin lids, remove skeletons and respectfully replace the shroud on mummies in order to placate protesters. There are fears such artefacts could be banned altogether.
Small groups such as the Pagan Organisation Honouring the Ancient Dead claim that it is against the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 24, 2010
Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes following the discovery of a series of bombs from the Second World War in the French city centre of Rennes.
Sixty five years after the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, the city in Brittany was closed as engineers worked to defuse a 550lb RAF device.
It was one of thousands dropped on northern France in 1944 as Allied troops prepared to invade.
All of the work was being coordinated by France's Dé
Source: CNN
Oct 24, 2010
In a few weeks a noteworthy anniversary will arrive: fifty years since the election of John F. Kennedy as president of the United States.
Much will be made of the fact that half a century has passed. Photographs of the young president and his family will be republished, retrospective essays will be written. Inevitably, as the Kennedy years are freshly examined, the name of the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald will be mentioned in the context of what might have been, if only Kennedy's pat
Source: Digital Journal
Oct 24, 2010
A new scientific study seems to confirm that there is little new under the sun. It appears the modern recycling mantra of 'reduce, re-use, recycle' was already practised by the ancient Romans.
These are the findings of an analysis of ancient Roman glass tableware that was used in Britain during the last century of Roman rule by UK researchers Caroline Jackson of the archaeology department of the University of Sheffield and Harriet Foster of the Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Ser
Source: Guardian (UK)
Oct 24, 2010
The Ognissanti Crucifix was a neglected Italian treasure which a team of experts have now repaired and identified.
For a young art conservator with a love of Italian painting there could be no bigger thrill than the chance to work on a genuine Florentine masterpiece. But to be allowed to spend every day for more than five years repairing one of Italy's greatest neglected cultural treasures is the opportunity of a lifetime.
Anna-Marie Hilling, 33, from Cumbria, has not o
Source: Irish Central
Oct 23, 2010
Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume was voted the greatest person in Irish history by a massive public vote on the top rated ‘Late Late Show’ program.
Hume , 73, from Derry, is the former leader of the SDLP party in Northern Ireland. He is Ireland’s Martin Luther King figure who was inspired by his non-violence message and went on to play a huge role in the Irish peace process that brought a stable peace to Northern Ireland. He won a Nobel Prize for his work
The final fi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 23, 2010
A new trove of secret documents released by the Wikileaks website has revealed that the US military routinely turned a blind eye to torture and abuse committed by its Iraqi allies against suspected insurgents.
The documents also suggested about 600 civilians were killed at US military checkpoints after the invasion in 2003, and raised questions about the death toll.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, criticised the leak, which was the largest ever of US docume
Source: BBC
Oct 23, 2010
Sri Lanka's war, which ended last year, set the mainly Sinhalese government and military against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE - Tamil Tigers), a militant group drawn from the Tamil minority.
Caught in between were the Muslims, about 9% of the population and regarded as a separate ethnic group, although Tamil is their mother tongue.
Exactly 20 years ago, the Tigers violently expelled almost all of northern Sri Lanka's Muslims. They fled into internal exil
Source: The Seattle Times
Oct 23, 2010
Bob Neyland, chief archaeologist for the Navy's Underwater Archaeology Branch, is searching for the wreckage of the USS Bonhomme Richard, a Continental Navy ship captained by John Paul Jones during the Revolutionary War that sank on Sept. 25, 1779, off the coast of Yorkshire, England. He has lots of competition.
For decades, thrill-seekers, archaeologists and professional treasure hunters have searched for the wreckage of the USS Bonhomme Richard, a Continental Navy ship captained b
Source: BBC
Oct 23, 2010
The bloody history of the Catholic uprising of 1641 has been brought back to life on the internet.
Testimonies from thousands of eye-witnesses to one of the most significant events in Irish history have been transcribed and made available for free online.
The three-year project, led by researchers at the Universities of University of Cambridge and The University of Aberdeen and Trinity College Dublin, involved transcribing all 19,000 pages of the original depositions, m
Source: BBC
Oct 23, 2010
Yoko Ono, the widow of the Beatles star John Lennon, has unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque at the first home the couple shared in London.
The pair occupied the basement and ground floor of the property at 34 Montagu Square in Marylebone in 1968.
During their stay a nude photograph of the couple was taken which formed the cover of the Two Virgins album.
The property was first bought by Ringo Starr in 1965, before being rented out to Paul McCartney and
Source: AP
Oct 23, 2010
She's renowned for her precise, exquisite prose, but new research shows Jane Austen was a poor speller and erratic grammarian who got a big helping hand from her editor.
Oxford University English professor Kathryn Sutherland studied 1,100 handwritten pages of unpublished work from the author of incisive social comedies such as "Pride and Prejudice." She said Saturday that they contradicted the claim by Austen's brother Henry that "everything came finished from her pen
Source: National Park Service Press Release
Oct 22, 2010
Washington, DC --- River Raisin National Battlefield Park in Monroe, Michigan, was officially announced as the 393rd park in the National Park System. The War of 1812 battlefield was set aside by Congress with legislation (P.L. 111-11) signed by President Obama on March 30, 2009.
NPS Director Jon Jarvis called the new park “an important addition to the National Park System. The War of 1812 is often forgotten, remembered only for the birth of our national anthem, but it was as signif
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Oct 22, 2010
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the grant-making arm of the National Archives, has announced a cooperative agreement with The University of Virginia (UVA) Press to make freely available online the historical documents of the Founders of the United States of America.
The NHPRC and UVA Press will create a new web site which provides access to the fully annotated published papers of key figures in the nation’s Founding era. The project is designed t
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Oct 22, 2010
As Veterans Day approaches, programs are underway to promote the preservation of the history of the nation’s veterans and to honor their service to our country. These include the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress and “Take a Veteran to School Day” sponsored by the History Channel.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington recently launched a new campaign asking America to “collect and preserve the story of at least one veteran” and to “pledge to preserve this impor
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Oct 22, 2010
The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the agency created by Congress to oversee compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and serve as an ombudsman for FOIA requesters, recently marked its first year of existence. OGIS has issued a report on its website documenting the agency’s performance over the past year.
OGIS is part of the National Archives and Records Administration.
OGIS is responsible for reviewing policies and procedures of administ
