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: Telegraph (UK)
May 3, 2010
The Blackberry was first predicted more than a century ago, by Nikola Tesla, the electrical engineer, it has been claimed.
Tesla, a pioneering American physicist, made the prediction about the portable messaging service in the Popular Mechanics magazine in 1909.
Tesla, whose name lives on at Tesla Motors, the electric car manufacturer, saw wireless energy as the only way to make electricity thrive.
He wrote in the magazine that, one day it would be possi
Source: Spiegel Online
May 3, 2010
Germany's secret service has lost a court battle to keep secret thousands of potentially embarrassing files on Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann. Even though it remains unclear when and how many of the files will be opened, the ruling sets a precedent that could force Germany to reveal the full extent of collusion between West German authorities and fugitive Nazis half a century ago.
A German court has ruled against a decision by the country's foreign intelligence service, the BND, to ke
Source: Art Daily
May 3, 2010
More than 130 burials, most likely from the 16th century, were found at the Great Base of Tlatelolco Archaeological Zone, in Mexico City, during the recent exploration season. The remains are being analyzed to determine their age.
First traces of this unprecedented funerary complex were registered between 2008 and 2009. The group of skeletons was found placed parting from the center of the Prehispanic structure, from where 126 of 131 registered skeletons were recovered by archaeolo
Source: Wales Online
May 3, 2010
LIKE Indiana Jones, Dr David Gill delights in getting his hands on precious antiquities.
The Welsh academic works across the world in persuading museums to return ancient artefacts to Egypt, Italy, Greece and other countries suffering a plague of history looting.
The 48-year-old, a reader in Mediterranean archaeology at Swansea University, most recently worked with two other experts to persuade London-based fine art dealers Bonhams to withdraw four Roman sculptures from
Source: AOL News
May 3, 2010
When Robert Cargill got word last week that a group of Chinese evangelicals had uncovered Noah's Ark atop a Turkish mountain, the archaeologist's reaction was a familiar one.
His skepticism may prove well founded: A former member of the joint team from Noah's Ark Ministries International and Media Evangelism Ltd. that announced the find has circulated an e-mail suggesting that the discovery might have been staged. And if that's the case, it would be just the latest in a series of h
Source: Global Arab Network
May 3, 2010
The Syrian excavation mission has unearthed 18 archaeological cemeteries in Tal al-Ashari site in the governorate of Dara (southern Syria), southern Syria so far this year, Local Media reports.
Five of these cemeteries date back to the Roman era, and 13 cemeteries date back to the middle bronze era. Head of Dara Archaeology Department, Hussein Mashhadawi said archaeological findings discovered in those cemeteries are pottery, bronze tools, and various accessories. The number of find
Source: AP
May 3, 2010
A knee-high wall, a rusty gate, the brick foundations of razed buildings — such are crumbling remnants of the Nazi empire in the heart of Berlin known by historians as the "center of evil."
Sixty-five years after the end of World War II, a new exhibition center is opening this week on the site where the feared Gestapo, SS and other Nazi agencies ran Adolf Hitler's police state from 1933 to 1945.
The area — adjacent to the Martin-Gropius-Bau arts museum — once
Source: BBC
May 3, 2010
A publisher is to reprint the first in a series of books a Scotswoman wrote in secret and hid in a cupboard before tragedy led to their publication.
Renton-born Jane Duncan sent her work to a London agent to fund medical costs after her husband fell seriously ill while they were living in Jamaica.
The unknown writer made publishing history in 1959 when Macmillan accepted seven of her novels.
Source: CNN.com
May 3, 2010
For most of American history, a Supreme Court with no Protestant Christian judges would have been unthinkable. Nearly three quarters of all justices who've ever served on the nation's high court have been Protestant. And roughly half of all Americans identify themselves as Protestant today.
But since John Paul Stevens announced his retirement last month, legal and religious scholars have begun entertaining the unprecedented prospect of a Supreme Court without a single Protestant ju
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 3, 2010
An archive of secret papers which shed new light on Britain’s role in the formation of Iraq and Saudi Arabia has been unearthed after almost 90 years.
The documents, relating to talks between the diplomat Sir Gilbert Clayton and Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, show that many of the most delicate issues in the region, including munitions and oil, were just as pertinent in the 1920s as they would become in the 21st century.
Sir Gilbert’s delicate negotiations incl
Source: AP
May 3, 2010
A pony-tailed Greek on a motorcycle pulled up onto the sidewalk, hunting for a better parking spot, and an elderly tourist with a crutch shuffled out of the way. The good-natured driver explained his illegal maneuver with a smile.
One word was enough. "Greece," he told her in English.
So it goes in Greece, a historical patchwork of Balkan, Mediterranean, and even Middle Eastern influences that failed to follow the European rule book. Scratch the veneer of slic
Source: GAzette Xtra (WI)
May 2, 2010
Traffic will one day race over an archeological treasure trove off Highway 26 near Lake Koshkonong, where a group of Milwaukee anthropologists believe they’ve found remnants left by some of Wisconsin’s earliest residents.
For weeks, crews from the Great Lakes Archeological Research Center, Milwaukee, have been recovering prehistoric American Indian artifacts on a saddle-shaped, 2-acre strip of wooded land at the corner of Pond Road and Highway 26 just south of Fort Atkinson.
Source: China Daily
May 2, 2010
Archaeologists working on the wreck of a 400-year-old merchant vessel off south China have found evidence that Chinese merchants probably flouted bans on foreign trade at the time.
The salvage team has recovered more than 800 pieces of antique porcelain and copper coins from the ancient ship off the coast of Guangdong province, said the provincial cultural relics bureau Sunday.
Archaeologists believe the ship, which sank in the Sandianjin waters off Nan'ao county, Shant
Source: Time
May 2, 2010
In the late 1960s, American Sean Flynn abandoned a lukewarm film career to join a band of intrepid journalists documenting the civil wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. At first, Flynn drew international attention merely by virtue of being the even-more-handsome son of his movie-star father entering a combat zone. He and his colleagues' brazen lifestyle and daring work in the field became the stuff of legend and inspired a cast of colorful characters in war films and literature. More significantly, th
Source: LA Times
May 2, 2010
A lot of headline writers had a field day in the middle of April, putting toppers on stories suggesting that members of the Donner Party might not have engaged in cannibalism: "Oops," they wrote, and "Sorry, folks."
The claim, based on a university news release, was obviously a historical shocker sure to get people's attention — and yet it was grossly misleading, if not flat wrong.
Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., put out a release descri
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 2, 2010
Although the Koran does not specifically forbid physical depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, many Muslims follow a tradition which regards such images as blasphemous
The Koran contains a general reference to the worshipping of idols being a “manifest error”, without referring to pictures of Mohammed, but ancient oral traditions, called Hadith, quote Allah as saying it is “unjust” to “try to create the likeness of My creation”.
Islamic scholars are divided over whether
Source: AP
May 2, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI all but gave an outright endorsement of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin on Sunday, calling the cloth that some believe is Christ's burial shroud an icon "written with the blood" of a crucified man.
During a visit to the Shroud in the northern Italian city of Turin, Benedict didn't raise the scientific questions that surround the linen and whether it might be a medieval forgery. Instead, he delivered a powerful meditation on the faith that holds t
Source: AP
May 2, 2010
A 13th century skeleton unearthed on the grounds of a friary may be the earliest physical evidence that Africans lived in England in medieval times, a team of researchers said Sunday.
Forensics experts at the University of Dundee Scotland say that the bones most likely belonged to a man from modern-day Tunisia who spent about a decade living in England before he died.
The man — who appears to have died of a spinal abscess — was identified as African by studying his ske
Source: BBC
May 2, 2010
An appeal against the banning of a book promoted as a sequel to JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye has been given the go-ahead.
In July, a judge in Manhattan's federal court blocked the US publication of 60 Years Later: Coming Through The Rye by Swedish novelist Fredrik Colting.
On Friday, an appeals court sent the case back to the federal court.
But in its ruling, the appeals court made it clear it expected Salinger's trust to prevail.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 2, 2010
The Pope has paid homage to the Turin Shroud after launching a crackdown on a powerful Catholic order which has been tainted by sex abuse allegations.
The Vatican has never said whether it believes the 14ft-long, sepia-coloured burial shroud to be authentic or not, but more than two million people are expected to travel to Turin to see the linen cloth while it is on public display - the first showing for a decade.
The Pope said the enigmatic image imprinted in the clot
