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
May 27, 2010
The fleet of "little ships" commemorating the 70th anniversary since the rescue mission that saved allied troops has arrived in Dunkirk.
Around 64 ships had headed to France from Ramsgate in Kent to mark Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of about 338,000 soldiers from Dunkirk's beaches.
The troops had been driven back to the coast by the German army.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 27, 2010
The lovers in one of the National Gallery's most famous paintings may be depicted experiencing the effects of a hallucinogenic drug, according to an art expert.
Venus and Mars has long been regarded as a tribute to the "conquering and civilising power of love" but new evidence suggests it could contain a subversive message about drug use.
A plant being held by a mischievous-looking satyr in the bottom right corner of the painting has been recognised as a speci
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 27, 2010
The oldest US Medal of Honour recipient from the Second World War, has died aged 100.
Retired Navy Lt John Finn enlisted in the Navy just before his 17th birthday and went on to become the first man to receive America's highest military award for heroism during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, according to a Navy statement.
Despite head wounds and other injuries, Finn, the chief of ordnance for an air squadron, continuously fired a .50-calibre machine
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 27, 2010
After centuries of being kept under lock and key, the Vatican has started opening its Secret Archives to outsiders in a bid to dispel the myths and mystique created by works of fiction such as Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.
The archives, until now jealously guarded from prying eyes, provide one of the key settings in Brown's thriller, in which Harvard "symbologist" Robert Langdon, played in the 2009 film by Tom Hanks, races against time to stop a secret religious order, t
Source: AP
May 27, 2010
The partyof detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi quietly commemorated the anniversary Thursday of its victory in elections 20 years ago and stood by its decision not to register for new polls to be held later this year.
A faction of the party, however, has split off to participate in the balloting.
About 70 party members gathered at the residence of party Vice Chairman Tin Oo to celebrate the party's 1990 victory.
Source: AP
May 27, 2010
Newly released FBI files show North Carolina's long-serving Sen. Jesse Helms curried favor with director J. Edgar Hoover before starting his 30-year political life.
The conservative Republican icon from Raleigh later called on the FBI occasionally for information and investigations.
Dozens of investigated death threats, forgotten episodes of foreign and domestic intrigues, and personal notes exchanged with one of Hoover's successors comprise the bulk of more than 1,500
Source: CNN
May 27, 2010
Swinging through Iowa Wednesday to promote his new book, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested he and his wife may be spending a lot of time in the key campaign state next year.
Though declining to discuss the specifics of his political future, Gingrich said his wife - who attended college in Iowa - may be preparing to make an extended return to the Hawkeye State.
Gingrich has repeatedly left to the door open to a presidential run, saying last January that he con
Source: Medieval News
May 27, 2010
An international research team has figured out northwest Africa's climate history by using the information recorded in tree rings. The trees sampled contain climate data from the medieval period, including one from Morocco that dates back to the year 883.
The climate of a region that includes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia has now been analyzed back to the year 1179 and shows that frequent and severe droughts occurred during the 13th and 16th centuries.
"Water issues
Source: Medieval News
May 27, 2010
A major new archaeology project, starting in early October 2010, will uncover the rich history of the eastern districts of Oxford City. The wide-ranging project has been made possible by a £330,700 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and a grant of £49,787 from the University of Oxford’s John Fell Fund.
The three-year project will involve volunteers and local communities in hands-on investigation of the local landscape, recording discoveries, and presenting interpretations of
Source: AP
May 27, 2010
In life, Ernesto "Che" Guevara fought to overthrow a corrupt, capitalist elite. In death, he is spawning his own tourism industry — soon to include a three-country "Che Trail."
Tourism officials in Argentina, Cuba and Bolivia are collaborating on a historic route that will allow Guevara buffs to retrace the footsteps of the Argentine medical student turned revolutionary in Cuba who was killed in a failed mission to foment an uprising in Bolivia.
Boli
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 26, 2010
The first tranche of the “Non Conformist Registers” has been put online detailing the hundreds of thousands of people who shook up the established order with alternative ideas over the past 225 years.
The database, which goes live on Wednesday, discloses those who refused to conform to the doctrine of the established Anglican Church including Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists and Quakers.
The Quakers were the first religious group to denounce slavery whi
Source: Science Daily
May 26, 2010
Researchers from the Cartif Foundation and the University of Valladolid have created full color plans in 3-D of places of cultural interest, using laser scanners and photographic cameras. The technique has been used to virtually recreate five churches in the Merindad de Aguilar de Campoo, a region between Cantabria, Palencia and Burgos which boasts the highest number of Romanesque monuments in the world.
The project, which has been published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage, make
Source: Science Daily
May 26, 2010
Genetic researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have combined data from existing archaeological and linguistic studies of Africa with human genetic data to shed light on the demographic history of the continent from which all human activity emerged.
The study reveals not just a clearer picture of the continent's history but also the importance of having independent lines of evidence in the interpretation of genetic and genomic data in the reconstruction of population histori
Source: BBC
May 26, 2010
Hungary's decision to allow ethnic Hungarians living abroad to apply for dual citizenship has sparked an angry response from neighbouring Slovakia.
Slovakia has voted to amend its own citizenship law, stripping anyone of their Slovak citizenship if they apply for a second nationality.
Southern Slovakia is home to roughly 500,000 ethnic Hungarians, about a tenth of the country's population.
Hungary ceded two-thirds of its territory under the 1920 Treaty o
Source: BBC
May 26, 2010
The International Criminal Court has reported Sudan to the UN Security Council for refusing to arrest two suspected Darfur war criminals.
Former Minister Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Rahman are both alleged to have been involved in attacks on civilians.
The ICC took the unprecedented move after the government refused to accept arrest warrants for the two men.
It comes one day before President Omar al-Bashir starts a new term in
Source: BBC
May 26, 2010
Horned dinosaurs previously considered native only to Asia and North America might also have roamed the lands of prehistoric Europe, say scientists.
Palaeontologists have announced the discovery of fossils belonging to a horned creature in the Bakony Mountains of western Hungary.
The find may give them a better understanding of the environment during the late period of dinosaur evolution.
They described their findings in the journal Nature.
Source: China Daily
May 26, 2010
Archeologists in northwest China's Shaanxi province said Wednesday they had found a primitive "icebox" dating back at least 2,000 years in the ruins of an emperor's residence.
The "icebox," unearthed in Qianyang county, contained several clay rings 1.1 meters in diameter and 0.33 meters tall, said Tian Yaqi, a researcher with the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology.
"The loops were put together to form a shaft about 1.6 meters tall,"
Source: WTOC (GA)
May 26, 2010
Hundreds of slaves, trying to outrun confederate soldiers, on their way to freedom, died at Ebenezer Creek in Effingham County.
That was nearly 150 years ago and Tuesday people gathered near that spot to unveil a new historical marker. The marker is located along Georgia Highway 275 North.
"This is a great day, a historic day in many, many ways," said Georgia labor commissioner Michael Thurmond.
Thurmond, along with the Georgia Historical Society
Source: Hampton Roads Pilot
May 26, 2010
Fort Monroe's grocery store would be converted to a visitor center where tourists will be encouraged to park their cars, then take a walk - or ride a bike - to explore the bayfront property. Shuttle buses will circulate, too, dropping visitors inside the nation's largest moated stone fort, at the beach or next to a marsh overlook.
Those are some of the plans presented Tuesday at this historic Army post, which becomes state property in September 2011.
The fate of the 570
Source: CBS News
May 26, 2010
There's an old saying that goes "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," and one Georgia history teacher is probably wishing she had stuck to the remembering part and not the whole bring-it-back-to-life with full Ku Klux Klan costume garb part.
Catherine Ariemma teaches honors history at Lumpkin County High School in Dahlonega, Ga., about 65 miles north of Atlanta, and by all accounts is a good teacher with a spotless record over the past five years
