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: Shetland Times (UK)
Oct 6, 2010
A previously unknown archaeological site has come to light during work on Total’s Laggan-Tormore gas plant. As a result, a team of archaeologists has been excavating a prehistoric house and other associated structures over the past six weeks.
The site was found by local archaeologist Rick Barton, one of a team of archaeologists working on the development for ORCA, the Orkney based archaeological contractor that has been employed by Total since the development started. The archaeolog
Source: Deutsche Press
Oct 6, 2010
An 81-year-old German woman is to serve a six-month suspended sentence after being convicted of denying the Holocaust, a district court in Munich said Wednesday.
The woman, a former chairwoman of the outlawed far-right group Collegium Humanum, admitted to distributing pamphlets containing Holocaust-denying material in schools.
A 91-year-old man was also convicted by the court of aiding and abetting Holocaust denial, as he had allowed the material to be distributed with his na
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 6, 2010
The Bonifatiuswerk of German Catholics – a church aid organisation – has begun calling for "Santa Claus-free zones."
The organisation sees Santa as "an invention of the advertising industry designed to boost sales" and as "a representative of consumer society who has little to do with the historical figure of St Nicolas."...
Santa Claus comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, which means St Nicolas, and was introduced to the American colonies in
Source: LA Times
Oct 6, 2010
A few months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved new regulations allowing state archives to extend classification of material from a period of 50 years to 70.
The decision was made following pressure from Israel's security services and likely connected to an ongoing petition by journalists over access to archives kept by individual government bodies (in violation of the law, evidently) such as the Mossad and the Atomic Energy Commission. Documents whose due date was coming up
Source: HNN Staff
Oct 6, 2010
A group of distinguished historians, educators, and filmmakers has published an open letter to the Department of the Interior to protest the National Park Service’s decision to remove the Blair Mountain battlefield in Logan County, West Virginia, from the National Register of Historic Places.The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed conflict on American soil since the Civil War. Fighting broke out between 10,000 unionized coal miners, enraged by years of brutal treatme
Source: Reuters
Oct 6, 2010
A copy of President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery that was owned by Robert F. Kennedy will be auctioned in December, Sotheby's said on Wednesday.
The document, signed by Lincoln and is one of only 19 copies known to still exist, is expected to sell for between $1 million and $1.5 million dollars, the auction house said in a statement.
Kennedy was U.S. attorney when he bought the copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1964. It has been
Source: Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Oct 6, 2010
Researchers say the well-preserved mosaics date back to the Byzantine period and were part of an ecclesiastic structure.
Intricate 6th-century floor mosaics have been uncovered at Tel Shikmona park in the North, the University of Haifa announced on Tuesday.
The mosaics were unearthed by researchers from the university’s Institute of Archeology, who were taking part in renewed digs at the site. Archeological digs were held at Tel Shikmona throughout the 1960s and 1970s,
Source: Live Science
Oct 6, 2010
The examination of a Mediterranean shipwreck from the 4th century B.C. could shed light on ancient sea routes and trade, researchers say.
The remains of a merchant vessel, full of amphoras that probably had been filled with wine, were discovered in 2006 on the seafloor south of the island of Cyprus. A team has been excavating the site, diving and dredging up important pieces, since then.
The wreck was first discovered in 2006 by fishermen. One of the ship's anchors was
Source: Reuters
Oct 6, 2010
Experts in Cyprus are trying to unravel the identity of one of the island's older inhabitants, after a skeleton was discovered protruding from a cliff in one of the island's richest archaeological sites.
The intact skeleton was found at Curium in the southwest of the Mediterranean island renowned for its links to the ancient world. The earliest settlements here can be dated as far back as the Neolithic age, about 4,500 BC.
Experts believe the skeleton came to the surfac
Source: Sofia News Agency (Bulgaria)
Oct 6, 2010
A German and a Bulgarian army officer have been sentenced to four years in jail for stealing a vintage World War II tank and attempting to thieve another.
Sliven Military Court decided on Wednesday to send for four years in jail Thomas Gmainer, 36, and the Bulgarian army officer Aleksey Petrov from the Yambol Military Unit.
The other defendant, 67-year old German national Matheus Mayer, was delivered a three-year suspended sentence with five years on probation.
Source: AP
Oct 6, 2010
The war in Afghanistan enters its 10th year Thursday with key players hedging their bets, uncertain whether the Obama administration is prepared to stay for the long haul, move quickly to exit an increasingly unpopular conflict, or something in between.
Fearing that his Western allies may in the end abandon him, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has started to prepare his nation for a withdrawal of international forces by shoring up relations with neighboring Pakistan and reaching out t
Source: LA Times
Oct 6, 2010
Reporting from Washington —
Nearly 69 years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered Japanese Americans to internment camps, President Obama signed legislation Tuesday awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Japanese American World War II veterans.
A handful of Japanese American veterans and lawmakers joined Obama in the Oval Office, where he signed the legislation awarding the medal to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, both known for th
Source: AP
Oct 5, 2010
JERICHO, West Bank (AP) — With a giant trunk and boughs towering 60 feet high, a gnarled sycamore near Jericho's main square has long been touted as the very tree that the hated tax collector climbed to get a glimpse of Jesus.
Now it's taking center stage in a plan to transform this ancient desert backwater into a tourism hub.
The tree, once tucked obscurely away on a side street, is a featured attraction of a Russian-funded museum complex to be unveiled this month as p
Source: AFP
Oct 5, 2010
Culture lovers in Italy have a chance to help save some of the country's cherished sites from ruin by donating two euros in a text message with a new campaign by the Italian Environment Foundation.
From a picturesque bay on the Amalfi coast to a crumbling medieval tower in the Tuscan town of San Gimignano, the money collected will go towards protecting vulnerable nature spots and restoring beloved heritage sites.
A similar campaign last year raised 300,000 euros (415,00
Source: Discovery News
Oct 5, 2010
A dinosaur recently unearthed in Arizona possessed incredibly strong hands, according to a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The new dinosaur, named Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis (after the philanthropist Sarah Butler), was a sauropodomorph, a small but closely related ancestor to sauropods, the largest land animals in history. Its hands were probably more powerful and dexterous than those for any other known sauropodorph, paleontologists believe.
Source: Discovery News
Oct 5, 2010
Footprints found in 250-million-year-old rocks suggest dinosaurs evolved a few million years after Earth's most severe extinction event to date.
The earliest known fossils associated with dinosaurs have been identified in 250-million-year-old rocks from Poland.
The fossils -- footprints made by dinosaur relatives known as dinosauromorphs -- suggest that dinosaurs evolved from small, four-legged animals that lived during the Early Triassic just a few million years after
Source: Discovery News
Oct 5, 2010
Neanderthals are often depicted as brutish club wielders, but a new book suggests Neanderthals had a sensitive side, displaying "a deep seated sense of compassion."
The findings, also published in the journal Time & Mind, are part of a larger study charting how empathy and other related feelings evolved in early humans.
Researchers Penny Spikins, Andy Needham and Holly Rutherford from the University of York Archaeology Department examined archaeological ev
Source: Media Centre at Queen Mary, University of London
Oct 5, 2010
Fresh research revealing the critical role Britain played in the American Civil War has spawned a series of walking tours, taking in historic sites around the UK capital connected to the famous nineteenth-century conflict.
The tours, which start on Friday 8 October 2010, are based on the PhD findings of Tom Sebrell, a part-time history lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London.
He spent four years researching American Civil War propaganda movements that thrived in B
Source: BBC News
Oct 5, 2010
Researchers have identified a language new to science in a remote region of India.
Known as Koro, it appears to be distinct from other languages in the family to which it belongs; but it is also under threat.
The tragedy of dying languages
Koro was discovered by a team of linguists on an expedition to Arunachal Pradesh, in north-eastern India.
The team was part of National Geographic's "Enduring Voices" project on threatened indigenou
Source: BBC News
Oct 5, 2010
The first dinosaur-like creatures emerged up to nine million years earlier than previously thought.
That is the conclusion of a study on footprints found in 250 million-year-old rocks from Poland.
Writing in a Royal Society journal, a team has named the creature that made them Prorotodactylus.
The prints are small - measuring a few centimetres in length - which suggests the earliest dinosaur-like animals were about the size of domestic cats.
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