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: CNN
Aug 16, 2010
Nearly 150 years after it was left behind at a Civil War prison camp, the 3-inch clay pipestem still shows a Union soldier's teeth marks.
The pipe, whose stem features the name of its manufacturer, proves the resourcefulness of a prisoner who really wanted his tobacco. He fashioned the bowl from lead, possibly by melting rifle bullets.
No one knows what became of the unknown soldier at Camp Lawton, which during its short existence in south Georgia was the Confederacy's
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 16, 2010
Clutching a wooden cross decorated with a poppy, two-year-old Alice Bruce yesterday joined thousands of mourners in remembering those killed fighting the Japanese during the Second World War.
The youngster laid her tribute at the Cenotaph in London where Prime Minister David Cameron and the Prince of Wales were among those commemorating the 65th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day.
Alice came with her family to honour her great grandfather Pte Frank Bruce, of 2nd Bat
Source: Huffington Post
Aug 16, 2010
A U.K. archivist has uncovered clues that may prove Quasimodo -- the disfigured bell-ringer hero of Victor Hugo's 1831 classic "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" -- really did exist.
According to reports, Adrian Glew, who works on the Tate collection's archives in London, was studying the seven-volume autobiography of 19th century British sculpter Henry Sibson. Sibson had been employed in the 1820s to help renovate Paris's Notre Dame cathedral, which had been heavily damaged in
Source: AP
Aug 16, 2010
Young and strapping, the 57 Irish immigrants began grueling work in the summer of 1832 on the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad. Within weeks, all were dead of cholera.
Or were they murdered?
Two skulls unearthed at a probable mass grave near Philadelphia this month showed signs of violence, including a possible bullet hole. Another pair of skulls found earlier at the woodsy site also displayed traumas, seeming to confirm the suspicions of two historians leading the a
Source: The Boston Globe
Aug 16, 2010
A team of top scientists, launching what is billed as the most ambitious and advanced survey of the Titanic, sets out next week to map in photographic detail the entire wreck site, and reconstruct in electronic form the ruins scattered on the seabed.
By melding photographs, high-definition video and computer imaging, scientists — including experts at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute — plan to create a three-dimensional computer model that will allow scientists and members of t
Source: AP
Aug 16, 2010
This month, a troupe of 100 musicians, dancers, acrobats and robed actors is performing an Ottoman-style spectacle near Topkapi Palace, once home to the sultans. An exhibition of Ottoman poetry is on display at Istanbul's international airport. Ottoman cuisine, a fusion of flavors from old imperial lands, is in vogue.
It's quite a turnaround. For most of the last century, Turks were told to look askance at the Ottoman Empire. Nostalgia for the 1453 conquest of Constantinople and oth
Source: Guardian (UK)
Aug 16, 2010
Unpublished letters and diaries from List regiment soldiers portray Hitler as a loner, an object of ridicule and 'a rear area pig'.
Adolf Hitler's rabid antisemitism and virulent nationalism were not directly prompted by his experiences on the western front in the first world war, historical research suggests.
Unpublished letters and a diary written by veterans of Hitler's wartime regiment are among newly unearthed documents that challenge previous notions about how the
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2010
A postcard sent from South Africa in 1957 has finally reached its destination in Dorset.
Staff at Monkton Wyld Court education centre, near Bridport, are now trying to trace its intended recipient.
The addressee, "J.C. Belsey", may have been a student, teacher or staff member when the building housed a boarding school.
Now a sustainable living education centre, Monkton Wyld Court was a mixed boarding school housing about 36 students at the time th
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2010
A US Senator investigating the 2009 release of the Lockerbie bomber has asked whistleblowers to step forward.
Sen Robert Menendez issued a public plea for people with inside knowledge of talks between BP and Libyan and British authorities to speak up.
Some US lawmakers suspect that BP had lobbied for the bomber's release, suggesting that it aided the energy giant's oil exploration in Libya.
The inquiry comes amid US anger over the BP oil spill in Louisiana
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 16, 2010
Elvis Presley fans from around the world have flocked to Graceland for the annual late night procession past the king of rock 'n' roll's grave.
Presley died at his Graceland mansion Aug 16, 1977. The procession is the highlight of a week-long series of fan club meetings, film screenings and Elvis impersonator contests. Elvis purchased the 13-acre Graceland property in 1957 for $100,000.
Dozens of multi-colored but empty chairs lined the walls of Graceland on Sunday aft
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 16, 2010
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it would be 'a sad day for America' if opponents successfully thwart plans for a mosque at Ground Zero.
Mr Bloomberg has been a constant supporter of the plan to built an Islamic centre and mosque two blocks from where the World Trade Center stood.
On Friday, President Barack Obama also backed the right for the developers to build a mosque there....
Source: CNN
Aug 16, 2010
The city of Florence and the Italian government are embroiled in a dispute -- again -- over who owns one of the world's most famous statues, Michelangelo's David.
The issue has been simmering for years. The Florence mayor's office said the debate began in the early 1990, and the city's various mayors have brought it up from time to time.
While tourism brings money to Florence, it also brings a lot of costs, such as cleaning and security, said the press officer. The mayo
Source: The Truth About Cars
Aug 16, 2010
Archives are the foundation of historical research. Without access to primary material—be it documents, photographs, financial statements, engineering or test reports—historians lack the building blocks necessary to write the chronicles that inform our understanding of the past and illuminate the future. To their credit, America’s automakers have gone to great lengths and expense to preserve and protect the historical documents which chronicle and define their existence. Until recently. As Chrys
Source: NYT
Aug 16, 2010
For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory, it was known to include extended live performances by some of the most honored names in jazz — but only a handful of people had ever heard even the smallest fraction of that music, adding to its mystique.
After 70 years that wait has now ended. This year the National Jazz Museum in Harlem acquired the entire set o
Source: Salon
Aug 16, 2010
Steven Schwarzman is one of the richest men in America. The chairman and cofounder of the Blackstone Group, one of the largest private equity funds in the world, enjoys a net worth estimated at around $8 billion. It's fair to say that if key elements of the Obama tax agenda become reality, Schwarzman will be forking over a lot more money to the federal government.
Which naturally puts Schwarzman in the same position as a European country in the 1930s about to be overrun by panzer ta
Source: Fox News
Aug 16, 2010
The grave site for an 1860s Army hero awarded the Medal of Honor is now a popular Ventura dog park with poop soiling what veterans say should be sacred ground.
"Talk to any veteran, he will tell you it is a terrible thing. It's disrespectful," said retired Marine Sgt. Craig "Gunny" Donor, who served two tours in Vietnam and is bent on getting the soldier's remains moved.
Pvt. James Sumner, who was awarded the nation's highest military honor for galla
Source: Art Daily
Aug 15, 2010
Archaeologists have discovered, 16 meters from the tomb of the Great Lord of Sipan, the remains of a teenager belonging to the Moche society who was buried over 1600 years ago in Peru.
The discoverer of the Lord of Sipan, Peru's Walter Alva, explained that eight days ago he proceeded to clean the grave in a hitherto unexplored area in northern Peru.
The tomb is located on the same funeral platform where the Lord of Sipan was found in 1987, one of the most important ar
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 15, 2010
They are Britain's "Forgotten army" from the Second World War, former prisoners-of-war who spent three years in brutal Japanese camps after the fall of Malaya and Singapore.
brutal.
With no official memorial service to remember their fallen comrades, the survivors have for years held their own commemorations on V-J Day, which marks the end of the war in the Far East in 1945.
Today, the 65th anniversary of V-J Day, the ex-POWs will hold their final remem
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 15, 2010
Rail companies will be forced to come clean on their role in transporting Nazi victims during the Holocaust when they bid for a multi-billion-pound contract to operate a new bullet train in California.
A Democratic politician in the US state is pushing to make it a requirement that any involvement in taking people to work, concentration, prisoner of war, or extermination camps between January 1942 and December 1944 must be disclosed.
The proposal is specifically aimed at SNCF
Source: WaPo
Aug 15, 2010
Shadows danced on the faces of Elvis Presley fans as they carried candles and walked silently by his grave during a Sunday night vigil at Graceland, marking the 33rd anniversary of the American icon's death.
Thousands of Elvis admirers from around the world flocked to Graceland to attend the annual candlelight vigil and procession, which runs into the morning hours. Presley died at age 42 at his Graceland mansion on Aug. 16, 1977. Memorials started the following year.
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