Breaking News
Highlights
- Tony Blair says did not foresee Iraq "nightmare"
- Seeking clues to Bolivar's death, Venezuela exhumes bones of independence hero's sisters
- White House keeps lid on Obama, Bush talk
- Obama hails New Orleans spirit on Katrina anniversary
- "Lost" Language Found on Back of 400-Year-Old Letter
- DR Congo killings 'may be genocide' - UN draft report
- Glenn Beck 'hijacking' MLK anniversary
- Katrina Five Years After
- Ballet dancing agent leaked battle plans to Nazis
- The U.S.S. Olympia may be headed to a watery grave
WEEK OF AUGUST 30, 2010
Archaeologists in Jordan say they have unearthed a 3,000-year-old temple
New York art courier loses $1.3 million painting on night out
Dig uncovers fort built by the British during the Revolution
Meat-eating 'dragon' terrorised Romania 80 million years ago
Israeli archaeologists say ancient shards of flint might be world's oldest disposable cutlery
Nearly 15,000 people still missing from 1990s Balkan wars, Red Cross says
Vietnam War-era artillery shell explodes in southern Vietnam, killing man and injuring wife
Seeking clues to Bolivar's death, Venezuela exhumes bones of independence hero's sisters
Former Argentine military officer fights extradition from US over 1972 massacre
Daniel Libeskind memorial to mark Canada's refusal of Jews in 1939
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to be reunited on 500-peso bill
RAF relied on German sea rescue service during Battle of Britain
What Should Gettysburg Do With Its Empty Cyclorama Building?
King's niece defends rally on anniversary of "I Have a Dream" speech
Mary Shelley’s 213th birthday celebrated by spooky Google Doodle
WEEK OF AUGUST 23, 2010
Australian school apologises for awarding child dressed as Hitler costume prize
Denbigh's Henry Morton Stanley statue 'celebrates racism', academics claim
Indicted Sudanese president visits Kenya, defies arrest warrant on genocide charges
Brutal slave history unearthed at Frederick County's L'Hermitage
Fire razes historic site of 19th Century warrior king's tribal capital in Zimbabwe
South African labor leader: Mandela's house was bugged during tumultuous period for ANC
Medical instruments likely used by the Nazis for experiments obtained by Auschwitz memorial
Despite diminishing numbers, a historical Jewish community thrives in Azerbaijan
Independent Analysis Reveals Deep Flaws in Proposed Gettysburg Casino Economic Projections
Gardens of entire Leicestershire village dug up for BBC Four archaeology series
National Archives Receives Original Nuremberg Laws from Huntington Library
History in shadows: Exhibition in Turkey tells of Muslim world's contributions to science
White Farmer Petitions U.N., Accusing South Africa Of Genocide
Home where Langston Hughes lived during high school in Cleveland condemned
In History-Rich Region, a Very New System Tracks Very Old Things
Greeks 'discover Odysseus' palace in Ithaca, proving Homer's hero was real'
'Ground Zero Mosque' Imam: America Killed More Innocents Than Al Qaeda
Library of Congress Launches National Digital Stewardship Alliance
History Organizations Fight to Save Teaching American History Grants
Navy's refusal to deliver Medal of Honor irks N.Y. officials
Civil War Battlefields To Share $1 Million For Land Acquisition
Legacy of Nazi era, Cold War make privacy-obsessed Germans wary of Google Street View
Veterans groups and lawmakers suggest that VA take over Arlington Cemetery
Kent battle between German bomber crew and British soldiers marked after 70 years
World's oldest mechanical clock 'to be wound by hand for last time'
New Management Plan in the Works For Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
Grandfather's ghost story leads to mysterious 1832 mass grave
Acropolis to open for August full moon, after Greek officials solve dispute with guards
Top culture ministry official detained and accused of neglect in Van Gogh painting theft
Estonian Navy finds wrecks of 3 British World War I-era ships off Baltic Sea island
Michelle Obama, Laura Bush to jointly mark terror attack anniversary
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Rare Roman lantern found in UK field
Source: BBC News (9-2-10)
A metal detecting enthusiast has found what is believed to be the only intact Roman lantern made out of bronze ever discovered in Britain.
Danny Mills, 21, made the find in a field near Sudbury in Suffolk.
The area was dotted with plush Roman villas and country estates in the second century.
The object, described as a rare example of Roman craftsmanship, has been donated to Ipswich Museum where it is now on display.
In the autumn of 2009, Mr Mills, a metal detector user, found a large bronze object whilst metal detecting in a field near Sudbury.
He immediately reported the discovery to Suffolk Archaeological Unit.
'Magnificent object'
A Colchester and Ipswich Museums (CIM) spokeswoman said: "It turned out to be the only complete example of a Roman lantern found in Britain.
"Only fragments of similar lanterns are held in the British Museum and the closest complete example is from the famous Roman site of Pompeii."...
Charles Darwin's ecological experiment on Ascension isle
Source: BBC News (9-1-10)
A lonely island in the middle of the South Atlantic conceals Charles Darwin's best-kept secret.
Two hundred years ago, Ascension Island was a barren volcanic edifice.
Today, its peaks are covered by lush tropical "cloud forest".
What happened in the interim is the amazing story of how the architect of evolution, Kew Gardens and the Royal Navy conspired to build a fully functioning, but totally artificial ecosystem.
By a bizarre twist, this great imperial experiment may hold the key to the future colonisation of Mars.
The tiny tropical island of Ascension is not easy to find. It is incredibly remote, located 1,600km (1,000 miles) from the coast of Africa and 2,250km (1,400 miles) from South America.
Its existence depends entirely on what geologists call the mid-Atlantic ridge. This is a chain of underwater volcanoes formed as the ocean is wrenched apart....
Stephen Hawking Picks Physics Over God for Big Bang
Source: Fox News (9-2-10)
Physics was the reason for the Big Bang, not God, according to scientist Stephen Hawking.
"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," the professor said in his new book, in a challenge to traditional religious beliefs.
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going," he wrote in his book "The Grand Design," extracts of which are printed in London newspaper The Times.
The book, co-written by American physicist Leonard Mlodinow and published next week, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have created out of chaos.
He cites the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.
"That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions -- the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass -- far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings."
Professor Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe, writing in A Brief History Of Time in 1988.
"If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God," he wrote.
Until last year, the professor held the same post as Sir Isaac Newton, that of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.
While other eminent scientists, such as leading atheist Richard Dawkins, will welcome Professor Hawking's views, others are still not convinced...
White House Forbids Sale of 850,000 Antique Rifles
Source: Fox News (9-1-10)
The South Korean government, in an effort to raise money for its military, wants to sell nearly a million antique M1 rifles that were used by U.S. soldiers in the Korean War to gun collectors in America.
The Obama administration approved the sale of the American-made rifles last year. But it reversed course and banned the sale in March – a decision that went largely unnoticed at the time but that is now sparking opposition from gun rights advocates.
A State Department spokesman said the administration's decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands.
"The transfer of such a large number of weapons -- 87,310 M1 Garands and 770,160 M1 Carbines -- could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes," the spokesman told FoxNews.com.
"We are working closely with our Korean allies and the U.S. Army in exploring alternative options to dispose of these firearms."...
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Divers steal from Holland 5 submarine off Sussex coast
Source: BBC (9-1-10)
Thieves have targeted a historically important submarine wreck lying in the English Channel, it has emerged.
English Heritage said divers stole the torpedo tube hatch of the Holland 5, which sank six miles off Eastbourne in East Sussex in 1912.
The theft was discovered during a licensed dive by the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) in June and confirmed during a dive last month.
Sussex Police and English Heritage have appealed for help to catch the perpetrators, who may have struck up to two years ago.....
Archaeologists in Jordan say they have unearthed a 3,000-year-old temple
Source: The Canadian Press (9-1-10)
Archaeologists in Jordan have unearthed a 3,000-year-old Iron Age temple with a trove of figurines of ancient deities and circular clay vessels used for religious rituals, officials said Wednesday.
The head of the Jordanian Antiquities Department, Ziad al-Saad, said the sanctuary dates to the eighth century B.C. and was discovered at Khirbat 'Ataroz near the town of Mabada, some 20 miles (32 kilometres) southwest of the capital Amman.
The sanctuary and its artifacts — hewn from limestone and basalt or moulded from clay and bronze — show the complex religious rituals of Jordan's ancient biblical Moabite kingdom, according to al-Saad....
Palaeolithic funeral feast unearthed in Northern Israel
Source: BBC (9-1-10)
The remains of a huge 12,000 year old feast have been found in a cave in Northern Israel.
Archaeologists working in Hilazon Tachtit found what they thought was a late Palaeolithic campsite, when they discovered tools and animal bones.
However they soon realised they were looking at a large burial site, with huge numbers of animal bones.
They found the remains of at least three aurochs - giant extinct cattle - and over 70 tortoise skeletons....
Rare paintings found in Surrey attic saved from dustbin
Source: BBC (9-1-10)
A 75-year-old Surrey woman cleared out her attic and found two paintings that could fetch up to £30,000 at auction.
The woman decided she wanted to throw the oil paintings away, but first went to her neighbour Spencer Wright to ask how to dispose of them.
Mr Wright said he realised they should not be consigned to the bin, and used an iPhone app to contact Christie's.
The artworks were painted in 1904 to celebrate the founding of the Australian army by Major General Edward Hutton, who once owned the paintings.
William Blamire Young is known for his watercolours, which is why the oil paintings are considered to be rare....
New York art courier loses $1.3 million painting on night out
Source: Telegraph (UK) (9-1-10)
A New York art courier entrusted with helping to sell a $1.3 million (£850,000) painting is being sued after it vanished while he was on a night out.
James Carl Haggerty is now being sued by one of the owners of “Portrait of a Girl” by the French artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.
Owner Kristyn Trudgeon is suing for the value of the painting, which was completed in about 1857 and spent years at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles....
Fidel Castro regrets discrimination against gays in Cuba
Source: Telegraph (UK) (9-1-10)
Fidel Castro has acknowledge discrimination against homosexuals during his rule in the 1960s and 70s, regretting that he did not pay enough attention to the “great injustice” suffered.
The former Cuban revolutionary leader said if someone was responsible, it was him, but he was primarily concerned with other matters.
Castro did not blame the ruling Communist Party for the discrimination, instead regretting that he himself did not pay enough attention to the plight of gays during an era of sabotage, armed attacks and assassination plots against him.
Like other Cubans, including some priests, considered “ideological deviants,” homosexuals in the 1960s were sent to labour camps for re-education and rehabilitation. Discrimination continued in the 1970s, with gays, in particular gay artists and writers, disgraced, marginalised, or in some cases driven into exile.....
Blair: Bush world view had 'immense simplicity'
Source: CNN (9-1-10)
Former U.S. President George W. Bush was a "true idealist" who displayed "genuine integrity and political courage," former British prime minister Tony Blair reveals in his memoirs.
Detailing the close professional and personal relationship which developed between the two leaders in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks in the U.S. and during the build-up to the Iraq war in 2003, Blair writes that Bush was "very smart" while having "immense simplicity in how he saw the world."
But Blair, whose premiership overlapped the presidencies of Bush and Bill Clinton, reserves his warmest words for Bush's Democratic predecessor, describing him as a "political soulmate" and "the most formidable politician I had ever encountered." He also defends Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair.
By contrast, Blair describes an initially awkward relationship with Bush when the pair first met at Camp David in February 2001, disagreeing on most social issues as well as being "poles apart" on climate change....
Divers lift 200-year-old champagne from Baltic shipwreck
Source: CNN (9-1-10)
Divers are recovering bottles of champagne that have been lying at the bottom of the Baltic Sea for about two centuries, an autonomous Finnish island official said Wednesday.
About 70 bottles lie mostly undamaged at 50 meters deep [roughly 164 feet] south of the Aland Islands.
Juslin said that the cargo was aboard a ship believed to be heading from Copenhagen, Denmark, to St Petersburg, Russia, between 1800 and 1830. It could have possibly been sent by France's King Louis XVI to the Russian Imperial Court....
History will be judge of war in Iraq, Gates says
Source: Washington Times (9-1-10)
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Wednesday that history will judge whether the war in Iraq was worth it.
In Iraq to mark the formal close of the U.S. combat mission and the departure of the top U.S. war commander, Mr. Gates visited troops at Camp Ramadi in western Iraq.
Asked whether the U.S. was still at war in Iraq, Mr. Gates answered succinctly, "I would say we are not."
Fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops are still in Iraq, down from more than 165,000 at the height of the fighting.
Mr. Gates was less definitive about whether the 7½-year war was worthwhile. That judgment "really requires a historian's perspective," and will depend in part on whether Iraq emerges as a democratic anchor in the Middle East, Mr. Gates told reporters after his Ramadi visit.
Giant Freeze Dryer To Preserve Ship Pieces At Texas A&M Lab
Source: Texas A&M News (8-31-10)
Texas A&M University researchers working to restore the hull of La Belle, a light frigate recovered from its underwater grave, are using an unconventional method to preserve the pieces: a state-of-the-art freeze dryer big enough to hold a few head of cattle.
La Belle was carrying 43 people when it sank in Matagorda Bay in January 1686. The ship’s remains now lie in a vat of oily preservative on Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus, the former Bryan Air Force Base that serves as headquarters for research and related activities, including a division of the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation.
Dig uncovers fort built by the British during the Revolution
Source: Savannah Morning News (8-27-10)
Covered over for a couple of hundred years, a British-built Revolutionary War fort at Ebenezer shows up perfectly on Dan Elliott's ground-penetrating radar as a set of squiggly lines.
Just a few feet away, radar shows more squiggly lines, this time indicating several graves outside the cemetery fence.
"The story of the dead here is really interesting, and complicated," said Elliott, who, since 1987, has been worked on several projects at Ebenezer.
Homeowner’s Fight Involves Flag Tied to Tea Party
Source: New York Times (8-30-10)
Don’t tread on Andy C. McDonel.
This year, Mr. McDonel began flying a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on his roof in this unincorporated area just outside Phoenix. The historic banner — which dates to 1775, when it was hoisted aboard ships during the initial days of the Revolutionary War — has been adopted by the Tea Party movement. But Mr. McDonel said that he had unfurled the flag for its historical significance and nothing else.
He notes that the banner, the Gadsden flag, has been widely used over the years and was even featured on the cover of a rock album. “Am I a Metallica fan because I’m using the flag?” he asked.
Live Civil War cannonballs removed from KSU building
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8-31-10)
Call it the second evacuation of Kennesaw, thanks to the Civil War.
Students waited outside the building for the all clear Monday. A Kennesaw State University classroom building was evacuated Monday because of Civil War relics that authorities feared were dangerous.
When General William T. Sherman rode through in 1864, folks got out of the way; and hundreds of Kennesaw State University students were evacuated from a classroom Monday because of two live cannonballs on campus.
They were not uncovered during construction or an archeological dig, but had been gathering dust in a display case for three years on the third floor of the Social Sciences building. The room had limited access.
Tony Blair says did not foresee Iraq "nightmare"
Source: Reuters (9-1-10)
Former British prime minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he could have not have imagined what he called the "nightmare" that unfolded in Iraq but still did not regret joining the U.S.-led invasion.
In a political memoir Blair echoed previous statements that the 2003 invasion was justified because Saddam Hussein posed a threat and could have developed weapons of mass destruction.
The self-penned volume "A Journey" was published on the day the United States formally ended combat operations in Iraq after a conflict that claimed more than 100,000 deaths, most of them civilians
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Magna Carta Getting a New Gas to Lie In
Source: Live Science (8-31-10)
The Magna Carta helped form the foundation for modern English and U.S. law. Now one of two copies known to exist outside England is headed for a special new case to preserve it.
The very first Magna Carta dates to 1215, when English barons forced King John to write down the traditional rights and liberties of the country's free persons. A copy of the Magna Carta signed by King Edward I in 1297 currently resides within a helium-filled casement at the National Archives Building in Washington. But the medieval document is scheduled for a temporary removal in 2011 so it can be re-measured for a new case filled with argon.
Researchers worried that helium atoms, which are relatively small, could escape from the case holding the Magna Carta, leaving the 713-year-old animal skin parchment susceptible to degradation. Those fears proved unfounded, but the National Archives has chosen to preserve the parchment in another inert gas, argon, whose larger atoms have proven easier to contain....
Cavemen Accused of Wiping Out Cave Bears
Source: Live Science (8-29-10)
Giant cave bears thought to have once dined on each other might have been driven to extinction by the advance of humanity, scientists now suggest.
Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) are named after the places where their bones are often found - caves across Europe. These giants were roughly a third larger than modern grizzly bears, and while scientists previously thought cave bears were vegetarians, recent findings hinted they might also have consumed meat, and possibly even cannibalized each other.
Cave bear populations started to plummet in Europe 24,000 years ago, dying out roughly 20,000 years ago, back when ice dominated the Earth. The cause was unknown.
The scientists compared 59 DNA sequences from cave bear mitochondria - the powerhouses within their cells - with 40 modern and fossil DNA samples from brown bears (Ursus arctos) to find out why the former went extinct while the latter did not.
Their findings suggest that cave bear genetic diversity - a clue to how many there were - began declining 50,000 years ago. Other fossil evidence reveals they ceased to be abundant in Central Europe roughly 35,000 years ago. (Diversity of genes can provide indirect evidence for the number of breeding individuals, because with more bears mating more genes are thrown into the mix, and vice versa.)....
Prehistoric villages ruins discovered in North China
Source: Sify News (8-31-10)
Chinese archaeologists have found the ruins of two prehistoric villages in Tongliao City of eastern Inner Mongolia.
The archaeologistsin north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region found the ruins in Hamin'aile Village, of Horqin Left-wing Middle Banner (County).
The remains were identified in the spring as possibly originating from Hongshan Culture, dating back 5,000 years, said Ji Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Cultural and Historical Relics and Archaeology of Inner Mongolia.
Another group of prehistoric village ruins were located in Nanbaoligaotu Village, of Jarud Banner, with a total area of 10,000 square meters, and more than 200 articles of earthenware, stoneware and jadeware had been discovered.nlike the Hamin'aile Village finds, the jade articles in Nanbaoligaotu Village were made with white jade, which was mainly found around Lake Baikal in Russia....
Failed Search Deepens Mystery of Vanished Explorers
Source: The Wall Street Journal (8-31-10)
Canadian scientists' announcement Monday that they failed to find the final resting place of British naval hero Sir John Franklin deepened one of the most enduring mysteries of the Arctic.
In May 1845, Franklin set sail from England with 134 men aboard two ships, the Terror and Erebus, to search for the fabled Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic to the Pacific Ocean. Five sailors left the ship in Greenland. The rest were never heard from again.
Last week, a six-man government survey team, supported by the Canadian Coast Guard vessel the Sir Wilfrid Laurier and its near 50-man crew, surveyed hundreds of square miles of frigid sea floor hoping to succeed where some 100 other expeditions failed—discovering the fate of the ships and a crew whose demise has been attributed to factors from lead poisoning to cannibalism....
South Sudan to end use of child soldiers
Source: BBC (3-31-10)
The army in Southern Sudan has pledged to demobilise all child soldiers by the end of the year.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has established a child protection unit to fulfil the pledge.
The UN children's agency estimates that the SPLA, thought to have already discharged more than 20,000 children, still includes about 900 in its ranks.
Sudan's civil war ended with a peace agreement in 2005, which committed both sides to an extensive process of demobilisation. But tensions have remained high in the run up to the referendum....
Meat-eating 'dragon' terrorised Romania 80 million years ago
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-30-10)
A dragon-like dinosaur with vast claws terrorised Europe 80 million years ago, a study has found.
The creature was a powerfully-built meat-eating dinosaur with scythe-like claws for ripping its prey apart. It used its lower limbs to disembowel its victims.
Experts have named the seven-foot long dinosaur, which was discovered in Romania, Balaur bondoc, which means ''stocky dragon''.
Other fossils found in the same region include cow-sized relatives of giant sauropod dinosaurs, and tiny duck-billed dinosaurs....
Titanic wreckage to be raised digitally by new 3D map
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-31-10)
...But now researchers believe they will be able to raise the Titanic - digitally - after amazing High Definition images were beamed back from its final resting place.
Images originally designed to give scientists an insight into how long it takes for wrecks to disintegrate are to be turned into a 3D map of the wreckage.
It will mean people could one day be able to take a 3D tour of the shipwreck.
Using state-of-the art HD robotic cameras and sonar, scientists have been able to take the clearest pictures yet of the ship.
And they were amazed to find it is far better preserved than was previously thought, despite nearly a century underwater....
Israeli archaeologists say ancient shards of flint might be world's oldest disposable cutlery
Source: AP (8-30-10)
Israeli archaeologists believe thousands of ancient shards of flint found scattered around a fire pit in a cave near Tel Aviv might be the world's oldest known disposable knives.
Dating to the Stone Age, the tiny knives are believed to be at least 200,000 years old. A Tel Aviv University excavation team found the tools around a fireplace littered with charred animal bones.
Archaeologist Ran Barkai said he believes Stone Age hunter-gatherers used the rough, round-shaped cutlery — ranging from the size of human teeth to guitar picks — for slicing through cooked meat because they were found next to the animal bones. The bones were used to determine the age of the knives....
Nearly 15,000 people still missing from 1990s Balkan wars, Red Cross says
Source: AP (8-30-10)
he Red Cross says nearly 15,000 people are still missing from the wars fought in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The figures were released Monday to commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared.
About 10,500 of those missing are from the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, while 2,392 are from the 1991-95 conflict in Croatia. Another 1,839 are from the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo....
Vietnam War-era artillery shell explodes in southern Vietnam, killing man and injuring wife
Source: AP (8-30-10)
A Vietnam War-era artillery shell exploded and killed a villager in southern Vietnam as he was cutting it up for scrap metal.
Long Duc village chief Truong Hoang Hai in the southern province of Soc Trang said the man was killed in the explosion Monday that also seriously wounded his wife. The man was in his early 40s.
Vietnamese government figures show unexploded ordnance has killed more than 42,000 people and wounded some 62,000 since the conflict ended in 1975....
Seeking clues to Bolivar's death, Venezuela exhumes bones of independence hero's sisters
Source: AP (8-30-10)
Venezuelan authorities exhumed the remains of Simon Bolivar's sisters Monday, seeking genetic clues to help them investigate President Hugo Chavez's theory that the South American independence hero may have been murdered.
Scientists and forensic experts extracted DNA samples from the bones of Juana and Maria Antonia Bolivar — the only siblings of the man known in Venezuela as "El Libertador" — after authorities opened their tombs inside a cathedral in downtown Caracas, Vice President Elias Jaua said.
Chavez ordered the exhumation of Bolivar's bones last month in hopes of using modern forensics to confirm his identity and investigate a theory that his idol was felled by a murder conspiracy. The president has gone so far as to raise concerns that the skeleton inside the National Pantheon may not be the remains of the 19th century independence icon.....
Former Argentine military officer fights extradition from US over 1972 massacre
Source: AP (8-31-10)
A former Argentine military officer is going to have to wait a little longer to find out if he will be sent to Argentina to stand trial on charges that he was involved in a 1972 massacre of leftist guerrillas.
A federal judge in Miami said at a hearing Tuesday he would issue a written decision in a few weeks in the case of 68-year-old Roberto Guillermo Bravo.
Argentina wants Bravo to face 16 counts of murder and other charges in the 1972 killings. Bravo's attorney says he is innocent and has been cleared by an Argentine military investigation....
White House keeps lid on Obama, Bush talk
Source: CNN (8-31-10)
President Obama telephoned former President George W. Bush from Air Force One in advance of Tuesday night's prime time speech regarding the end of the combat mission in Iraq - but the White House isn't saying what the two men discussed.
Obama called his predecessor while flying to Fort Bliss to meet with military personnel Tuesday morning ahead of his Oval Office address. The two spoke for several minutes according to Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton. There were no details about the subject of their conversation and Burton said no read out of the phone call would be provided....
U.S. combat mission in Iraq nears end
Source: CNN (8-31-10)
Almost 7½ years ago, President George W. Bush launched a blistering "shock and awe" invasion of Iraq.
The goal: eliminate a perceived threat of weapons of mass destruction while replacing a hostile, tyrannical regime with a friendly democracy in the heart of the Middle East.
At 5 p.m. ET Tuesday -- at a cost of more than 4,400 U.S. military personnel killed and 30,000 wounded -- America's combat mission in Iraq will officially draw to a close.
The quick removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ushered in years of grinding sectarian violence, war, terrorist attacks and, according to some observers, increased Iranian influence in the region. But it also paved the way for nationwide elections and increasing economic development.
Whether the war was worth the price remains a subject of fierce debate both at home and abroad....
The man who first saw Belsen
Source: The Telegraph (8-31-10)
As Captain John Webster’s Jeep approached a small German town in 1945, he ordered his driver to turn down an unmade track. The officer had glimpsed some white buildings which, he recalls, “just didn’t look right”.
Capt Webster, senior liaison officer with Lowland Brigade HQ of the 15th Scottish Division, had been sent to find an armoured column that had failed to make contact with his unit in the British advance into north Germany in April 1945.
He told his driver to proceed cautiously – he didn’t want to blunder into an enemy position. However, what they found was not German soldiers but a sight so extraordinary and so disturbing it has stayed with Capt Webster ever since: hundreds of people, dressed in blue striped uniforms, emaciated and looking “as if they were no longer of this world”.
Recalling that scene, Capt Webster says: “They took no notice of us at all. I thought, 'What is this place?’ ”
Daniel Libeskind memorial to mark Canada's refusal of Jews in 1939
Source: The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (8-30-10)
Crafted from steel and carved in a never-ending circle, a monument to be built by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind will be the first Canadian tribute to the MS St. Louis, a ship carrying Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany that the Canadian government turned away in 1939.
The ship’s journey is a black mark for Canada, because a third of its 900 occupants later died in Nazi concentration camps. A lack of public awareness about the incident led the Canadian Jewish Congress to hold a contest to design a monument that would convey the pain of the experience and the lessons to be learned, said the CJC’s chief executive officer, Bernie Farber.
Most Russians unaware of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
Source: Kiev Post (8-31-10)
The percentage of Russians approving of the signing in August 1939 of the treaty of non-aggression between the USSR and the Nazi Germany (the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact) has noticeably dropped from 40% to 33% in the past five years, sociologists from the Levada-Center told Interfax on Monday.
Forty-six percent respondents are unaware about the pact's existence at all (37% in 2005), according to the findings of a nationwide poll conducted on August 20-23. The document is condemned by 5% Russians.
German war-dead find final resting place in Czech soil
Source: Earth Times (8-25-10)
The remains of 5,600 Wehrmacht soldiers and ethnic Germans who died on Czech territory during and shortly after World War II now have a final resting place there.
The place is the town of Cheb, known in German as Eger, in the Sudetenland region near the Bavarian border. The new war cemetery, the largest and last burial site for German war dead on Czech territory, will be officially opened on September 11, some 65 years after the war.
Oil aboard sunken WWII tanker may pose threat
Source: S.F. Chronicle (8-27-10)
Scientists are studying sonar images of a shipwreck loaded with 3.5 million gallons of crude oil in the holds of a tanker that lies 4 miles off the scenic Central California coast like a rusting time bomb.
The American tanker Montebello was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine Dec. 23, 1941, only 16 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and sank in 900 feet of water. The Montebello has lain on the bottom ever since.
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to be reunited on 500-peso bill
Source: L.A. Times (8-30-10)
The Bank of Mexico said Monday it would place in circulation a new 500-peso bill featuring the well-known faces of two of the country's best-known artists, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In the bank's official video to promote the bill's anti-counterfeiting features, two figures resembling the celebrity couple stroll in costume around traditional and modern sites in Mexico.
The previous face on the 500-peso bill was Ignacio Zaragoza, hero of the Battle of Puebla. Milenio reports that in 2006, efforts to replace his face on the note were resisted in Congress. This time, the Bank of Mexico said it had the autonomy to change the look of Mexico's currency as it bolsters efforts to combat money laundering and counterfeiting.
Rewriting History on Chappaquiddick
Source: U.S. News (8-30-10)
For many, the name Chappaquiddick conjures images of a drunken Sen. Edward Kennedy hitting on Mary Jo Kopechne in his Oldsmobile, losing control, and plunging into the water of Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island, adjacent to Martha's Vineyard where President Obama was vacationing. Kopechne, a family friend, drowned; and Teddy fumbled for excuses about what happened.
Now, a year after Kennedy died, his lifelong biographer Burton Hersh, armed with fresh interviews with Kennedy's mistress at the time, tells Whispers that the whole July 1969 episode should have been handled as a simple crash, leaving the senator's legacy untainted. "It was a car accident," he says. "Ted was a terrible driver. He never paid much attention to where he was going."
Britain to Scrap Outmoded Bylaws
Source: AFP (8-31-10)
Fish frying will become legal in Gloucester and people will be allowed to beat carpets in Blackpool under government plans announced Tuesday to let local councils scrap outdated byelaws.
Local Government Minister Grant Shapps outlined the proposals as part of a strategy to hand power back to councils and communities.
The reforms will mean that councils can create new byelaws or get rid of old ones without seeking permission from Whitehall.
French railways to open Nazi deportation files to US
Source: AsiaOne News (8-29-10)
France's state rail company will give US authorities details of its role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps in support of its bid to build a high-speed railway in California, its chairman said Sunday.
"Twenty years ago we opened all our archives... we are going to open all that to the Americans," said the chairman of the SNCF national railway company, Guillaume Pepy, on Europe 1 radio.
German Plans to Invade Ireland Revealed
Source: Irish Central (8-28-10)
If the Nazi invasion of Britain had been successful, Ireland would have been invaded, it has been revealed.
Details of the Irish invasion were recently released by the National Archives in Britain.
The just-published MI5 file shows that Ireland was definitely targeted for a Nazi landing if the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, had won the Battle of Britain.
RAF relied on German sea rescue service during Battle of Britain
Source: The Telegraph (8-31-10)
The problem became so severe that British aircraft were ordered to try to avoid travelling over the sea because too many being drowned, it has emerged.
Amid the 70th anniversary commemorations this summer it can be disclosed that at least 200 pilots died “needlessly” in 1940 after bailing out over water.
Once they hit the water there was very little chance of survival with only the occasional flier being picked up by a passing destroyer or fishing boat.
The German service, that had been set up in 1935, became so effective that RAF chiefs ordered fighters to shoot down the Luftwaffe Dornier 24 seaplane that were unarmed and painted in white with a large red cross. However, it is thought that the Germans might have been using the aircraft for illicit reconnaissance missions.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Civil War relics shut down university building
Source: CNN (8-30-10)
A building at a Georgia university was evacuated Monday morning after some Civil War relics stored there were found to be possibly dangerous, officials said.
Officials at Kennesaw State University in suburban Atlanta called an all-clear around 1 p.m., about an hour and a half after they evacuated the school's Social Sciences Building and its surrounding area.
The relics included two cannonballs that were located in a display case within a room that was accessible only with a card-key, the university said.
The cannonballs had been on display in the building for about three years as part of a collection within the university's Center for the Study of the Civil War Era, the school said. They were donated by a private individual.
A new administrative faculty member at the university was the person who raised concerns about the cannonballs, Kennesaw State said....
Fidel Castro says he was 'at death's door'
Source: CNN (8-30-10)
In a rare interview, Fidel Castro gives new details about his health four years ago when emergency surgery forced him out of power, saying he didn't think he would make it and still has difficulty walking.
The 84-year-old did not, however, provide any details about what illnesses he suffered from.
Cuban state TV read aloud a letter from Castro on July 31, 2006, announcing he was handing power to his younger brother Raul Castro. He disappeared from public view amid repeated rumors he had died.
He later started writing essays for state media and appeared in occasional photos....
U.S. Birthrate Declines to Lowest in Its History
Source: International Business Times (8-30-10)
The birth rate in US fell 2.6 percent in 2009 for the second year in a row to its lowest level in the country’s history, according to a latest study by the National Center for Health Statistics.
The number of babies born in the US dropped to 13.5 births for every 1,000 people in 2009 from 13.9 births in 2008 and 14.3 births in 2007, the report showed.
Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at John Hopkins University was quoted as saying that the decline in birth rate was not surprising given the sorry state of the US economy.
Plans Made for 1968 Olympics in East and West Berlin
Source: Deutsche Welle (8-28-10)
A plan existed to bring the 1968 Olympic Games to Berlin, which was divided by then East and West Germany, a sports historian said Saturday. But the Allies, along with the West German government, would not allow it.
Christopher Young, who also heads German studies at the University of Cambridge, told the online edition of daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel that the idea was the brainchild of eventual Chancellor Willy Brandt.
"It was somewhat of a crazy idea of (the then-West German Olympic Committee head Willi) Daume and Willy Brandt, the governing mayor of West Berlin at the time," he said. "They wanted the Olympics in both halves of the city, but failed in their dream because of the allies, (the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union).
What Should Gettysburg Do With Its Empty Cyclorama Building?
Source: National Parks Traveler (8-28-10)
To demolish, or not demolish. That is the question being pondered by officials at Gettysburg National Military Park over their empty Cyclorama building.
Originally, park officials were planning to tear down the structure, which became somewhat obsolete after the Cyclorama painting -- an elaborate depiction of Pickett's Charge up Cemetery Ridge -- was moved to the park's new visitor center. But then a federal court ordered the park to consider other alternatives for the building, which was built on North Cemetery Ridge in 1962 and is eligible for listing on the National Register.
Stocky Predatory Dinosaur Prowled Transylvania
Source: Discovery News (8-30-10)
Island species from the past were usually stranger and smaller than close relatives on continental landmasses.
Transylvania was Count Dracula's mythical home, but in reality, this historical region of Romania during the Late Cretaceous was home to a strange predatory dinosaur, according to paleontologists who studied its fossilized bones.
Named Balour bondoc, meaning "stocky dragon," the meat-eating dinosaur lived from around 72 to 65 million years ago. Its skeleton represents the most complete predatory dinosaur from this time in Europe, which was mostly underwater. Romania was an island then.
Island species from the past were usually stranger and smaller than close relatives on continental landmasses, exemplifying what scientists call the "island effect."....
Oxford English Dictionary "Will Not Be Printed Again"
Source: The Telegraph (8-29-10)
Sales of the third edition of the vast tome have fallen due to the increasing popularity of online alternatives, according to its publisher.
A team of 80 lexicographers has been working on the third edition of the OED – known as OED3 – for the past 21 years.
The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), said the impact of the internet means OED3 will probably appear only in electronic form.
Skis from Scott's Fateful Antarctic Trek on Sale
Source: Discovery News (8-26-10)
The skis and instruments of a physicist who accompanied Captain Scott to Antarctica are being sold by the scientist's Canadian grandson.
The skis and scientific instruments of a physicist who accompanied Captain Scott on his ill-fated trip to the Antarctic will be sold in London next month, Christie's auctioneers said Wednesday.
Canadian scientist Charles Seymour Wright was part of the support team that set off with Captain Robert Falcon Scott in 1910, although he turned back after a year, leaving Scott and four others to continue to the South Pole.
Ten months later, when Scott failed to return, Wright joined the search party and it was he who spotted the tip of a green tent poking out of the ice. Inside, he found the frozen bodies of the adventurer and two of his colleagues....
Rwanda threatens UN over DR Congo 'genocide' report
Source: BBC (8-28-10)
Rwanda has threatened to withdraw co-operation with the UN if a draft report criticising its army is published.
Kigali said it would reconsider its contributions to UN peacekeeping missions, dismissing claims in the UN report as "insane".
The document accuses Rwanda's Tutsi-led army of killing Hutus in Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s - acts it says may amount to genocide.
Extremist Hutus killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda during 1994....
Dry weather reveals archaeological 'cropmarks' in fields
Source: BBC (8-30-10)
Hundreds of ancient sites have been discovered by aerial surveys, thanks to a dry start to the summer, English Heritage has said.
The surveys show marks made when crops growing over buried features develop at a different rate from those nearby.
The newly-discovered Roman and prehistoric settlements include a site near Bradford Abbas, Dorset.
The Roman camp was revealed in June after three sides became visible in sun-parched fields of barley....
Battlelines drawn over Gettysburg casino
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-29-10)
Battlelines are being drawn over plans to build a casino close to Gettysburg, the site of the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, in what opponents say would be a desecration of sacred ground.
The American Legion veterans organisation called the plan a "national disgrace" but supporters said it would boost the local economy and help to halt a decline in visitors to the battlefield.
More than 160,000 men fought at Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863. Around 8,000 Union and Confederacy soldiers lost their lives over the three days as they fought in and around the Pennsylvania town, with tens of thousands wounded.
The casino, which would have 600 slot machines and 50 gambling tables, would be half a mile from what is now preserved as the 6,000-acre Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania....
Titian masterpiece damaged after sprinklers go off
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-30-10)
A priceless painting by the 16th century Italian artist Titian was damaged after sprinklers were used to put out a fire that broke out adjacent to a church in Venice.
The work, David and Goliath, was soaked with water after fire fighters extinguished a blaze in a building next to the Santa Maria della Salute church.
The head of Venice’s museums, art critic and television celebrity Vittorio Sgarbi, ordered the 1544 masterpiece to be taken down so that the extent of the water damage could be checked....
SNCF to open war archives to California
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-30-10)
France’s state rail operator, SNCF, has pledged to open its wartime archives to the state of California to prove it has “nothing to hide” over transporting French Jews to Nazi death camps.
The pledge came a week after California passed legislation making full disclosure on involvement in taking people to work, concentration, prisoner of war, or extermination camps between January 1942 and December 1944 a requirement for bidding to build a high-speed railway in the state.
Under the Holocaust Survivor Responsibility Act details of any reparations paid must also be disclosed....
Historic City in South Pakistan Saved from Floods
Source: AP (8-30-10)
Thousands of people streamed back to this historic southern city Monday where new levees hastily built from clay and stone held back floodwaters that have inundated much of Pakistan.
Thousands who fled the waters that inundated neighboring towns complained about the shortage of food and water as they camped in a vast Muslim graveyard on a hill near Thatta city.
Thatta, which is about 75 miles (125 kilometers) southeast of the major coastal city of Karachi, contains several well-known mosques, including one built by Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire in India in the 1600s....
King's niece defends rally on anniversary of "I Have a Dream" speech
Source: CNN (8-28-10)
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece is slated to speak Saturday at a controversial rally by radio talk show host Glenn Beck scheduled to take place in the same location as her uncle's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Saturday is also the 47th anniversary of the speech the civil rights leader delivered in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Beck, a hero to many conservative voters across the country, says that the mission of the rally is to honor American troops and that the event is nonpolitical. The rally is hosted by Beck and the Fox News Channel....
Britain carried out Cold War assassinations: Le Carre
Source: AFP (8-29-10)
LONDON (AFP) – Britain carried out assassinations during the Cold War, novelist and former secret agent John le Carre told The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
The espionage writer worked for Britain's domestic and external intelligence agencies during the 1950s and 1960s.
Bankers Told Recovery May Be Slow
Source: New York Times (8-28-10)
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The American economy could experience painfully slow growth and stubbornly high unemployment for a decade or longer as a result of the 2007 collapse of the housing market and the economic turmoil that followed, according to an authority on the history of financial crises.
Mary Shelley’s 213th birthday celebrated by spooky Google Doodle
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-30-10)
Mary Shelley, the British author of Frankenstein, has had the 213th anniversary of her birth celebrated by a spooky Google Doodle.
The search engine’s multi-coloured logo has been replaced with an image of a darkened room, with a series of four ghostly portraits on the wall and a shadowy figure looming through an open door in place of the letters in Google’s name.
Hovering the mouse over the image brings up the words “Mary Shelley’s 213th birthday”, and clicking on the Doodle brings up the search page for “Mary Shelley”.
Google Doodles - the images on the search engine's home page - change regularly in recognition of major events. But the Shelley tribute has been dubbed "the creepiest Doodle ever" by some bloggers.
Shelley, who was born in 1797, was among the pre-eminent British Gothic novelists. She began writing Frankenstein at the age of 18 and the novel was published in 1818.
The title refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who creates a horrifying monster in the likeness of man who rampages out of control and murders his five-year-old brother.
In popular culture, the scienstist's creation has come to be known incorrectly as Frankenstein, rather than as Frankenstein's monster.
As well as being a classic Gothic novel, Frankenstein is indebted to the Romantic movement and is considered one of the earliest examples of science fiction.
Shelley was the daughter of the political philosopher William Godwin and the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft....
Obama hails New Orleans spirit on Katrina anniversary
Source: BBC News (8-29-10)
US President Barack Obama has paid tribute to the people of New Orleans, five years to the day after Hurricane Katrina destroyed large parts of the city.
His administration would stand by them and continue rebuilding "until the job is done", Mr Obama said.
Katrina was a natural disaster but also a man-made one, he said, which saw a "shameful breakdown" of government.
More than 1,800 people died when Katrina hit the Gulf coast in 2005.
The storm displaced hundreds of thousands of people, some of whom have still not returned.
Ceremonies in New Orleans to mark the anniversary include the tolling of the bells at St Louis Cathedral.
Mr Obama made his speech at Xavier University - which, like much of New Orleans, was flooded when the levees protecting the city were breached by flood tides.
He described the city as a symbol of resilience and community.
"It is inspiring to spend time with people who've demonstrated what it means to persevere in the face of tragedy," he said.
A fortified levee system would be finished next year, Mr Obama pledged.
"We should not be playing Russian roulette every hurricane season," he said.
But he acknowledged that much remained to be done.
"I don't have to tell you that there are still too many vacant and overgrown lots. There are still too many students attending classes in trailers. There are still too many people unable to find work. And there are still too many New Orleanians who have not been able to come home."...
Double meteorite strike 'caused dinosaur extinction'
Source: BBC News (8-27-10)
The dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago by at least two meteorite impacts, rather than a single strike, a new study suggests.
Previously, scientists had identified a huge impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico as the event that spelled doom for the dinosaurs.
Now evidence for a second impact in Ukraine has been uncovered.
This raises the possibility that the Earth may have been bombarded by a whole shower of meteorites.
The new findings are published in the journal Geology by a team lead by Professor David Jolley of Aberdeen University.
When first proposed in 1980, the idea that a meteorite impact had killed the dinosaurs proved hugely controversial. Later, the discovery of the Chicxulub Crater in the Gulf of Mexico, US, was hailed as "the smoking gun" that confirmed the theory....
Dry weather reveals archaeological 'cropmarks' in fields
Source: BBC News (8-30-10)
Hundreds of ancient sites have been discovered by aerial surveys, thanks to a dry start to the summer, English Heritage has said.
The surveys show marks made when crops growing over buried features develop at a different rate from those nearby.
The newly-discovered Roman and prehistoric settlements include a site near Bradford Abbas, Dorset.
The Roman camp was revealed in June after three sides became visible in rain-parched fields of barley.
The lightly-built defensive enclosure would have provided basic protection for Roman soldiers while on manoeuvres in the first century AD and is one of only four discovered in the south west of England, English Heritage said.
The dry conditions also allowed well-known sites to be photographed in greater detail....
Friday, August 27, 2010
Iraq 'bleeding antiquities' as instability continues
Source: BBC (8-26-10)
As the US prepares to withdraw its last combat troops from Iraq, international cultural experts are warning that the country is "bleeding antiquities" and that artefacts representing the world's cradle of civilisation are still in peril.
Precise figures are hard to establish because much of Iraq's art and antiques remains undocumented. In 2003 an estimated 15,000 artefacts were stolen from the Iraqi National Museum and only about a third have been returned.
But experts believe hundreds of thousands more have been looted from the country's archaeological sites that rank among the most important in the world.
One such haul uncovered by customs officers in New York contained dozens of cuneiform tablets, the oldest known system of writing. Until they were found, nobody knew they existed.
They are among 1,054 items discovered in the US alone. Earlier this year, a pair of 2,800-year-old Neo-Assyrian gold earrings from a mass of gold jewellery known as the "Treasures of Nimrud" were among items returned in a special ceremony to the Iraqi Embassy in Washington DC....
"Lost" Language Found on Back of 400-Year-Old Letter
Source: National Geographic News (8-27-10)
Notes on the back of a 400-year-old letter have revealed a previously unknown language once spoken by indigenous peoples of northern Peru, an archaeologist says.
Penned by an unknown Spanish author and lost for four centuries, the battered piece of paper was pulled from the ruins of an ancient Spanish colonial church in 2008.
But a team of scientists and linguists has only recently revealed the importance of the words written on the flip side of the letter.
The early 17th-century author had translated Spanish numbers—uno, dos, tres—and Arabic numerals into a mysterious language never seen by modern scholars....
BU archaeologists excavating Thomas Cemetery graves
Source: Press Connects (8-26-10)
The 18 gravesites in the Thomas Cemetery are now being excavated by archaeologists from Binghamton University.
The oldest grave in the cemetery along Route 12A, according to tombstone dates, is 1842; the most recent is dated 1917, Versaggi said.
The developer of a Price Chopper grocery next door to the cemetery engaged the services of BU's Public Archaeology and the Thomas J. Shea Funeral Home Inc. to oversee exhumation of the bodies and eventual reburial.
The funeral home will oversee reburial in approximately the same location where the cemetery is now, but at a lower elevation. The cemetery is located on a hill, which will be taken down to ground level.
Both professional and forensic archaeologists from BU are involved in the project. Besides removing the bodies, archaeologists are conducting historical research on the cemetery and accurate mapping of grave location and confirming headstone information....
Japan police arrest relatives of dead 'centenarian'
Source: BBC (8-27-10)
Police in Japan have arrested the daughter and granddaughter of a centenarian believed to be Tokyo's oldest man whose mummified remains were found last month.
The pair are suspected of fraudulently receiving the dead man's pension.
Records said he was 111 years old, it is thought he had probably been dead for 30 years....
Oldest evidence of arrows found
Source: BBC (8-26-10)
Researchers in South Africa have revealed the earliest direct evidence of human-made arrows.
The scientists unearthed 64,000 year-old "stone points", which they say were probably arrow heads.
Closer inspection of the ancient weapons revealed remnants of blood and bone that provided clues about how they were used.
The team reports its findings in the journal Antiquity.
The arrow heads were excavated from layers of ancient sediment in Sibudu Cave in South Africa. During the excavation, led by Professor Lyn Wadley from the University of the Witwatersrand, the team dug through layers deposited up to 100,000 years ago....
DR Congo killings 'may be genocide' - UN draft report
Source: BBC (8-27-10)
A draft UN report says crimes by the Rwandan army and allied rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo could be classified as genocide.
The report, seen by the BBC, details the investigation into the conflict in DR Congo from 1993 to 2003.
It says tens of thousands of ethnic Hutus, including women, children and the elderly, were killed by the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan army.
Rwanda's justice minister has dismissed the claims as "rubbish".
The report also lists human rights violations committed by security forces from all the countries involved in what has been called "Africa's world war"....
Australian school apologises for awarding child dressed as Hitler costume prize
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-27-10)
An Australian school has apologised after a child dressed as Adolf Hitler won a costume parade.
The boy was judged best dressed among his class of nine and 10-years-olds by the principal and other teachers in a book week contest, with the costume which featured the swastika.
The unnamed Perth Catholic school sent a letter of apology to parents after a number of complaints that commending an outfit of the Nazi dictator was inappropriate.
Meanwhile a US High School principal has apologised after a quote from Hitler ended up in the school yearbook....
Denbigh's Henry Morton Stanley statue 'celebrates racism', academics claim
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-26-10)
A planned statue of the colonial explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley in his home town should be scrapped because it wrongly romanticises his “racist” African adventures, a group of opponents have claimed in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.
Residents of Denbigh, North Wales have commissioned a bronze statue to celebrate the Victorian explorer’s legacy – but 60 academics, authors and campaigners have called for the plan to be abandoned.
But the campaigners claim his expeditions contributed to the “racist” ideas of the day which “led to hundreds of thousands of Africans being killed or mistreated”.
The letter, whose signatories include the Welsh transsexual author Jan Morris and Dr Bambi Ceuppens of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium, says: “It is impossible to disconnect Stanley, or any other imperialist of the period, from that suffering.”....
Glenn Beck 'hijacking' MLK anniversary
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-27-10)
Glenn Beck, the Right-wing broadcaster, has been accused of "hijacking" the legacy of Martin Luther King by staging a rally at the location of his "I have a dream speech".
Critics said Beck and his followers in the Tea Party were trying to "dishonour" King, the figurehead of America's civil rights and a hero to millions.
They ridiculed claims by the Fox News presenter that his purpose was to "reclaim the civil rights movement", which he said was an "abomination" that had been "distorted and so turned upside down".
The rally, which is broadly seen as a test of the Tea Party's strength, will take place on Saturday in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where King made the historic speech in 1963 that proved to be a turning point in black Americans' struggle for civil rights and legal equality.
Beck has said that the "Restoring Honour" event was also intended to pay tribute to America's military personnel and others "who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honour"....
Kenya enacts new US-style constitution after 20-year wait
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-27-10)
Tens of thousands of Kenyans gathered to celebrate the country’s president Mwai Kibaki signing into law a new constitution promised more than two decades ago.
The new US-style laws include a Bill of Rights and reforms to policies designed to address long-held grievances over land stolen by corrupt politicians.
Demands for the constitution stretch back to the end of one-party rule by former president Daniel Arap Moi at the beginning of the 1990s.
Two-thirds of Kenyans voted to approve the new document in a referendum held earlier this month....
Kim Jong Il's trip spurs succession speculation
Source: AP (8-27-10)
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il reportedly met top Chinese leaders on Friday in an apparent bid for Beijing's diplomatic and financial support for a succession plan involving his third and youngest son, who is said to be traveling with him.
Many North Korea watchers predict the son -- Kim Jong Un, believed to be in his 20s -- will be appointed to a key party position at a ruling Workers' Party meeting early next month -- the first such gathering in decades.
China, as North Korea's biggest diplomatic ally and a major source of food aid and oil, would expect to be kept in the loop about major political transitions in Pyongyang, but the Beijing leadership is not likely to be enthusiastic about the prospect of another dynastic succession next door, said Zhu Feng, director of Peking University's Center for International and Strategic Studies....
Indicted Sudanese president visits Kenya, defies arrest warrant on genocide charges
Source: AP (8-27-10)
Sudan's president defied an international arrest warrant by visiting Kenya on Friday, causing an outcry from the International Criminal Court which fruitlessly pressured authorities here into arresting the man accused of masterminding the genocide in Darfur.
Rather than arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was invited along with other regional leaders for the signing of Kenya's new constitution, officials here treated him with the dignity accorded a head of state. Wearing a dark suit and tie, al-Bashir had a front-row position for the historic ceremony.
The ICC has no police force and depends on member states to enforce its orders. Al-Bashir's presence in Kenya underscored that the system to bring the world's worst human rights violators to justice depends on member states and raised doubts about Kenya's willingness to hand over suspects expected to soon be charged by the ICC for postelection violence that left more than 1,000 Kenyans dead in 2007-08....
Archaeologists unearth Roman industrial estate in UK
Source: Top News (UK) (8-26-10)
Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman industrial estate in North Yorkshire which might once was used by the Roman Ninth Hispanic legion.
The site, which includes remains of a water-powered flour mill, clothes, food remains, pottery and graves, has been linked to a known imperial fort at Healam Bridge built by the Romans around 2,000 years ago.
The industrial area was comprised of a series of huge timber buildings, typically on the north side of a beck, which powered the mill. The mill would have supplied the fort with goods and provisions such as processing meat and flour.
The excavation work was carried out along the route of the A1 upgrade between Dishforth and Leeming. The site is believed to be the military outpost used by the lost Roman Ninth Hispanic legion.
Archeologists said that they found evidences that the Romans might have worn socks. One of the archeologists cited rust on the nail from a Roman sandal that appeared to have impressions from fibres.
Speaking on the topic, archaeologist Blaise Vyner said, “You don't imagine Romans in socks but I am sure they would have been pretty keen to get hold of some as soon as autumn came along.”...
Nazi plan to wear British uniforms to invade
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-25-10)
The Germans planned to invade Britain in 1940 by dressing up in British uniforms and making use of two stairways cut in the cliffs at Dover to creep along the beach, MI5 files disclose.
The invasion plans are revealed in a report by a member of a German intelligence unit called Sonderstab (Special Force) Hollmann.
It was led by Wilhelm Hollmann, described as 45 years old “but looks at least 50…a trifle stooped” with a “gold right incisor” tooth and “very little hair.”
“What hair he has is clear blond,” a US intelligence report added. “Has long arms, very thin legs, blue eyes.”
Hollmann had begun as a former secretary to the Jahnke Buro, a freelance intelligence unit run during the 1930s by Kurt Jahnke for Rudolph Hess.
According to the report, members of the Hollmann group spent March 1940 training on embarking and disembarking from barges that had been constructed on the rivers and canals of Germany and the Low Countries and then towed down the Channel coast and concentrated on the beaches opposite Dover.
The informant says that landings were planned along the English coast and in Scotland and Southern Ireland but the attack would be centred around Dover.
The invasion would begin with a “heavy aerial attack” followed by “specially trained shock troops” who were to “attempt to make landings with a view to seizing and holding strategic positions until the main body of German troops could be brought across the channel in barges.”
The informant, Werner Janowski, said his unit was to arrive under cover of darkness, wearing Allied uniforms, as others had during the invasions of France and the Low Countries....
Katrina Five Years After
Source: Fox News (8-27-10)
Hurricane Devastated Political Futures as Well as New Orleans.
Five years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf region, killing nearly 2,000 and displacing more than 250,000 others from Louisiana to Florida. This week, in a series titled "Hurricane Katrina: Five Years After," FoxNews.com looks back on the costliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States.
Hurricane Katrina flooded a city five years ago and took with it lives, property and dignity. It also threatened to sweep away the political reputations of nearly everyone it touched.
The roles of the key political figures associated with one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history are rarely discussed in a context of praise. In Katrina lore, the heroes were the citizens, the aid workers and those who opened their homes and cities to the de facto refugees in Texas, Georgia and elsewhere -- not the public officials.
A small handful escaped the storm with their reputations unscathed, but those closest to the action mostly could only apologize for a catastrophe that proved the limits of government.
"Is there anybody who people look at and say, 'You know what? That person really came through'? In terms of political figures, no," said Peter F. Burns, political science professor at Loyola University New Orleans....
Japan reveals long-secretive execution process
Source: CNN (8-27-10)
Japan, one of the few industrialized countries with the death penalty, showed one of its execution chambers to the media for the first time Friday.
Reporters were shown the death chamber at the Tokyo Detention Facility, one of seven used across the country, according to a report in the Mainichi Daily News.
The unprecedented media access was ordered by Justice Minister Keiko Chiba, who after witnessing the deaths of two condemned prisoners last month, said she wanted to have a national debate on capital punishment in Japan, Mainchi reported. Chiba has previously spoken against the death penalty.
Execution in Japan is carried out by hanging.
The chamber showed to the media on Friday had no noose suspended from the ceiling but showed a trap door outlined in red. The condemned fall to a room below the execution chamber where their deaths are confirmed.
Reporters were not shown that room out of "consideration for the inmates' family and wardens," according to the Mainichi report....
Australian school apologises for Hitler costume prize
Source: BBC News (8-27-10)
A Catholic school in Australia has apologised to parents after teachers awarded a costume prize to a child dressed as Adolf Hitler.
The class of nine- and 10-year-olds had been asked to dress up as famous people at the school in Western Australia.
Teachers declared the winner to be a boy who dressed as the Nazi leader, who was wearing an outfit featuring the swastika.
The principal said in hindsight the school would have done it differently.
The school in Perth, which has not been identified, was forced to apologise after complaints from the public that the costume was distasteful.
'Sensitivities'
In an interview with the West Australian newspaper, the headteacher said he believed people had made a "mountain out of a molehill" out of the issue.
He said that "some people got upset because kids called out Hitler", but said that they had just been voicing their opinions on who should win.
He defended the school's actions, describing it as a "one-off thing", and adding that Hitler "was a fairly famous person".
In his letter to parents, he said similar activities would be restricted to characters "appropriate for primary school-aged students".
Parents were also told children would be taught to understand the "sensitivities" that surround certain figures....
Attacks raise concerns in Northern Ireland
Source: AP (8-26-10)
LURGAN, Northern Ireland – Bursts of laughter. Young men playing ping pong. Battles of the bands.
In a Northern Ireland determined to put conflict behind it, the Links teen center bridges the divide between Catholic and Protestant teens in this struggling town, giving them something to do, an alternative to streets that offer a toxic mix of drugs and violence. It's working, but like the peace process itself, it is under strain amid looming budget cuts.
"We're just keeping our heads above water," said Martin Larkham, 52, a youth work manager. "Everybody is."
Tough times are hitting promising initiatives like Links — and causing unease about the very fate of Northern Ireland's peace deal. As the troubled territory slogs through the worst economic downturn in decades, dissident Irish nationalist militias are getting increasingly restless — carrying out a string of violent acts including a recent bombing that injured three children....
Long-lost piano 'played by Mozart' found in Germany
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-5-10)
An early piano believed to have been played by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has surfaced in Germany and could be worth millions of pounds.
Public broadcaster SWR said the instrument was built in 1775 and acquired in the 1980s by piano manufacturer Martin Becker in the southern German city of Baden-Baden from an antiques dealer in Strasbourg, eastern France....
Ice age flint tools found during road repairs
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-26-10)
Archaeological remains dating back to the last Ice Age have been found during work to upgrade a major road, the Highways Agency said.
The remains, along with Iron Age and Roman settlements, were uncovered during work to upgrade the A46 between Newark and Widmerpool in Nottinghamshire.
The Highways Agency said the finds included ancient flint tools and flint knapping debris dating back to about 11,000 BC - around the end of the last Ice Age when Stone Age hunter-gathers returned as the climate began to warm up.
A46 Highways Agency project manager Geoff Bethel said: ''As the A46 follows the route of the old Roman road, we expected to uncover a number of artefacts from Roman Britain and we were not disappointed....
Ballet dancing agent leaked battle plans to Nazis
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-25-10)
A beautiful and refined Russian ballerina working as a Nazi spy helped to turn the course of the first major conflict of the Second World War, newly released files from MI5 disclose.
Marina Lie – who also used the names Marina Goubonina, Marie Alexevna, and Luise Lohmann – stole plans that helped turn the campaign in Norway against the Allies just as they were about to claim victory.
The defeat led to the resignation of Neville Chamberlain and his replacement as prime minister with Winston Churchill....
Telegraph crossword: Cracking hobby won the day
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-26-10)
The boffins of Bletchley cut their teeth on the Telegraph crossword, says Sinclair McKay.
"We were very good at crosswords," says one of the veteran codebreakers of Bletchley Park, ''and also anything to do with anagrams. And of course Scrabble.”
When I wrote my book The Secret Life of Bletchley Park I interviewed brilliant men and women – mathematicians, linguists, debutantes – who had smashed the German Enigma codes in the Second World War. I found that they were not your average eggheads or scientists. Cryptography was a fine art that required an aptitude for lateral thinking, even a certain amount of psychological acuity....
The U.S.S. Olympia may be headed to a watery grave
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (8-22-10)
A few months ago, one of our nation's most famous landmarks was deteriorating badly. Independence Hall had a roof leak and needed numerous expensive repairs. The city's historical commission met in April with the National Park Service to determine a course of action and on June 9, the park service announced that $4.4 million would be provided for a restoration of Independence Hall. The funding came from the stimulus bill.
A few short blocks from Independence Hall there is another icon of American history in desperate need of restoration.
The USS Olympia is moored at Penn's Landing on the Delaware River and is one of several historic vessels at the Independence Seaport Museum. The ship gained its place in history serving as Commodore George Dewey's flagship in the Battle of Manila Bay in the opening days of the Spanish-American War. It was from the deck of the Olympia that Dewey uttered those famous words "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." With these words, the attack on the Spanish fleet was launched and, within six hours, Dewey's Asiatic Squadron had sunk or captured the entire Spanish Pacific fleet and silenced the guns on shore in Manila.
America's victory in the Spanish-American War was an important event in U.S. history, marking the beginning of the nation's emergence as a world power....
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The evolution of home economics programs
Source: LA Times (8-26-10)
Go back, through a universe of chalk dust and repeating bells, to a classroom outfitted with a line of squat stoves, a long table stacked with dry goods, a row of teenage girls mixing dough in dented bowls, writing down the equation of a good pie in notebooks tracked by ink and flour. It was 1980, and my freshman high school class was taking home economics, learning how to make a pot of stew, set a proper dinner table, bake and frost a cake, as the last months of the Carter administration clicked down.
But not long after that, my school and so many others discontinued the classes. And when I talked to my former home ec teacher recently, her raspy 75-year-old voice conflating the three decades since she taught me how to make soup, she wondered aloud where home economics had gone. It's a common question.
But home ec has not disappeared, it's changed, evolving into classes focusing on child development, nutrition, family health, food service and hospitality. It hasn't been lost as much as translated. In 1994, the name of the course in most of the country was officially changed from Home Economics to Family and Consumer Sciences, or FCS, in an effort to dispel the impression that home ec was about teaching girls how to be housewives....
Brutal slave history unearthed at Frederick County's L'Hermitage
Source: Washington Post (8-26-10)
...Last week, in the midst of a summer-long archaeological dig, experts using surface-penetrating radar found what are believed to be remnants of two cabins that once made up the small slave village that served L'Hermitage.
And the National Park Service says the find adds another page to the story of the mysterious plantation, whose tropical-influenced main house still stands, an unlikely witness near the banks of the Monocacy, more than 200 years after it was built.
L'Hermitage, 748 acres at its height, was established about 1793 by the far-flung Vincendiere family. They were planters who probably fled from the revolution in France, whence they had gone before the slave revolts in what is today Haiti, where they had large plantations.
They were an unusual family: foreign aristocrats with many children, an absentee father, and a need for an inordinate number of bondservants whom they treated with singular brutality.
And they stood out amid the slave-holding farmers of German descent in central Maryland, where the land and climate called for smaller tracts and populations of 10 to 20 slaves....
Archaeologists find new clues why the Maya left
Source: USA Today (8-26-10)
Bird calls ring from the forest, echoing amid the crumbling ruins whose darkened doorways have long beckoned explorers and scholars.
The Maya ancients who built the ruins of Kiuic (kee-week) here fled those doorways in a hurry, an international archaeology team now realizes. Left behind may be frozen-in-time clues to the fabled collapse of their civilization.
Archaeologists have explored Kiuic's ruins for more than a century, but working since 2000, Bey and colleagues are now reporting the first evidence of this rapid abandonment. USA TODAY was invited to the site to see what has been uncovered in the latest excavations.
The "classic" Maya peopled the lowland forests of Central America during Europe's Dark Ages, building a civilization of pyramids, palaces and slash-and-burn "milpa" farms made by burning trees and planting seeds in the ash. Maya rulers oversaw city-states that warred with one another, created elaborate calendars and lasted centuries. The abandonment of those monument-strewn centers stands as one of archaeology's most-debated mysteries. The "collapse" was underway in modern-day Guatemala by 800, but didn't take place at Kiuic until almost a century later....
Blonde Nazi ballerina 'caused war setback'
Source: BBC (8-26-10)
A glamorous Nazi spy may have been behind one of the biggest setbacks suffered by Allied forces during World War II, newly released files suggest.
The secret government papers suggest that Marina Lee, a blonde ballerina, stole battle plans which led to the fall of Norway to Germany in 1940.
According to the files, Germany was close to pulling out of Norway before Lee passed on details of the plan.
The documents were part of an archive released by British spy agency MI5....
Oetzi the Iceman may have been ceremonially buried
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-26-10)
The prehistoric hunter known as Oetzi the Iceman may have been ceremonially buried on a high Alpine pass rather than killed there in a deadly ambush, experts say.
Researchers believe they have found evidence which shows that Oetzi, named after the Oetz Valley in which he was found, died lower down the valley, probably violently, but was then carried up to the 10,500ft high pass for a ceremonial burial.
The new theory suggests that he may have been an important figure in his tribe or village, possibly a chieftain.
After being frozen in ice for 5,300 years, Oetzi’s remains, along with a treasure trove of prehistoric artefacts, were found in a remarkable state of preservation by two German hikers in 1991, close to the modern day border between Italy and Austria....
Nuremberg Laws handed over to US National Archives
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-25-10)
The Nuremberg Laws, which laid the legal groundwork for the execution of six million Jews during the Holocaust, have been handed over to the US National Archives.
Consisting of four pages, and signed by Adolf Hitler, the anti-Semitic documents were appropriated by US General George Patton at the end of the Second World War after being discovered in Bavaria.
Gen Patton disobeyed orders that Nazi documents were to be handed over to the government and spirited them out of Germany, later depositing them at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, close to where he grew up.
The library placed them in a bomb proof vault and they were a missing piece of evidence at the Nuremberg trials that followed the war.
Prosecutors had to use photocopies and the existence of the originals was only disclosed in 1999....
Fire razes historic site of 19th Century warrior king's tribal capital in Zimbabwe
Source: AP (8-26-10)
A museum official says a bush fire has destroyed the historic site of the encampment of 19th Century warrior King Lobengula in western Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's National Museums and Monuments director Godfrey Mahachi says strong winds swept the fire through the five acre (two hectare) national heritage site, destroying all eight beehive hut structures, including the king's palace, and a palisade of wooden fortifications.
Lobengula's tribal capital was rebuilt as a symbolic national monument near the second city of Bulawayo in 1993 and became a center of academic and historical studies....
South African labor leader: Mandela's house was bugged during tumultuous period for ANC
Source: AP (8-26-10)
Former South African President Nelson Mandela's home was bugged during a tumultuous period for his African National Congress party, a prominent labor leader said Thursday.
Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, said Mandela told him that listening devices were placed in his Johannesburg home, where ANC leaders would come seeking his advice.
Mandela's house was bugged in 2007 during the buildup to an ANC conference at which President Jacob Zuma ousted his predecessor as ANC head, Vavi said. Factions within the ANC were believed to have spied on each other during those tense times....
Medical instruments likely used by the Nazis for experiments obtained by Auschwitz memorial
Source: AP (8-26-10)
The Auschwitz memorial in Poland says it has obtained around 150 medical instruments believed to have been used by the Nazis in experiments on the death camp inmates.
Memorial spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel said Thursday the gynecological and surgical instruments were recently offered to the museum by a historian who acquired them from a family that found them shortly after World War II at their house, which was located on the former camp grounds.
Bartyzel says given where they were found and that their shape matches that of wartime instruments, it is "almost certain" that they were used by Auschwitz doctor Carl Clauberg, an obstetrician who experimented with the mass sterilization of women....
Nuns mark Mother Teresa's 100th birthday
Source: CNN (8-26-10)
A solemn Mass at the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India, marked the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa's birth on Thursday.
People from all walks of life gathered at the global headquarters of the order of nuns, which Mother Teresa founded 60 years ago.
Mother Teresa was born as Agnes Gonxha Boiaxhiu to ethnic Albanian parents in Skopje, Macedonia, on August 26, 1910.
She arrived in India in 1929 and dedicated her life to help those in need. She received a Nobel Peace Prize for her work in 1979....
Despite diminishing numbers, a historical Jewish community thrives in Azerbaijan
Source: Tablet (8-26-10)
Russia’s great expanse stretches south from the Arctic for many thousands of miles until it comes to a halt at the long spine of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. The republics on the northern side of the Caucasus, including turbulent Dagestan and Chechnya, still belong to Russia. Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia, on the southern side of the mountains, gained their independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. The high slopes are home to shepherds and the descendants of clans who have long lived there. Lower down, where sleepy towns look up from valleys to the snowy peaks, bigger communities try to scratch out a living.
In one of these towns—Oguz, Azerbaijan, a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Baku, the country’s oil-booming capital on the western shore of the Caspian Sea—live up to 80 Mountain Jews among a population of more than 6,000. The history of the Mountain Jews, who live mainly in Azerbaijan and the Russian republic of Dagestan is, according to members of the community, rooted about 2,500 years ago in their exodus from Israel, their gradual passage through Persia (where they picked up the Farsi-based language they still speak), and their eventual settlement in the Caucasus mountains.
Sitting in the dark-stone building that houses Baku’s Mountain Jewish synagogue, Semyon Ikhilov, the Mountain Jews’ national leader, shakes off the idea that his people might be descended from indigenous Caucasian mountain dwellers who converted to Judaism. “We’re real Jews who came out of Israel,” Ikhilov said, explaining that they acquired the moniker “Mountain Jews” because they settled in the peaks. “We were not mountain people.” And according to a recent genetic study led by researchers in Israel and Estonia, Mountain Jews share a common origin in the Levantine region of the Near East with other Diaspora Jewish communities....
Independent Analysis Reveals Deep Flaws in Proposed Gettysburg Casino Economic Projections
Source: Civil War Preservation Trust (8-26-10)
Today a coalition of preservation groups working with local business owners involved in Businesses Against the Casino released an independent assessment of the potential impacts of gaming on Gettysburg and Adams County. The report, Impacts of the Proposed Mason-Dixon Casino on the Gettysburg Area – A Realistic Assessment, found that the application for a resort casino license near Gettysburg greatly exaggerates the economic impact of the proposal and ignores the “serious, substantial and sustained adverse impacts” it poses for existing businesses and the battlefield.
The report was commissioned by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Pennsylvania on behalf of the Adams County organization Businesses Against the Casino. Author Michael Siegel of Public and Environmental Finance Associates of Washington, D.C., has more than 30 years experience in public and environmental finance and impact analysis....
Japanese politician launches attack on 'River Kwai' Britons
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-26-10)
A politician tipped as a future Japanese prime minister has said the British are not very likeable, but admitted the way British prisoners marched in The Bridge on the River Kwai demonstrated their best qualities.
Ichiro Ozawa, the former secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party, also said he values US democracy but dismissed the American people as “simple-minded”.
The 68-year-old veteran politician, who resigned as the second most important official in the ruling party in June after coming under fire for campaign finance scandals, reportedly said: “I don’t like British people,” before praising British democracy and their discipline, citing the 1957 Second World War II film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, in which British prisoners of war march in orderly ranks....
Veterans of the Second World War who fought against Japan said Mr Ozawa’s comments about Britain were insensitive but they would “not get into a sweat about it”....
Indians remember Mother Teresa on birth centennial
Source: AP (8-26-10)
CALCUTTA, India – Hundreds of nuns, bishops and volunteers attended a Mass on Thursday marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa, the selfless nun who dedicated her life to serving the sick and poor in India.
School children, tourists and volunteers, some carrying bunches of flowers or candles, also crowded Mother Teresa's grave in the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, the order of nuns she founded in 1950 in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta....
Rare collection of Nation of Islam papers discovered
Source: Detroit News (8-26-10)
Detroit -- Once headed to the trash heap, a cache of rare papers have been found that trace the history of the Nation of Islam.
The collection of papers, documents and photos, many dating to the 1930s, detail the innerworkings of the religious group of black Muslims, including the surprisingly prominent role of women in its founding.
They were uncovered earlier this month at a home on Detroit's west side.
The find includes handwritten and typed letters related to the beginning of the Nation of Islam, which was started by W.D. Fard in Detroit in 1930 on Hastings Street in the city's legendary Black Bottom neighborhood....
Walker finds skeleton of World War I soldier preserved in astonishing condition buried in glacier on Italian ski resort
Source: Daily Mail (UK) (8-26-10)
An amateur historian has discovered the mummified body of a World War I solider frozen into an Italian glacier.
Dino De Bernardin made the grim find as he walked in mountains close to his home, which had been the scene of bitter fighting between Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops between 1915 and 1917.
At an altitude of 2,800metres, his attention was drawn to a 'bundle of rags’ that he saw emerging from the melting ice....
New Life in America No Longer Means a New Name
Source: NYT (8-25-10)
For many 19th- and 20th-century immigrants or their children, it was a rite of passage: Arriving in America, they adopted a new identity.
Charles Steinweg, the German-born piano maker, changed his name to Steinway (in part because English instruments were deemed to be superior). Tom Lee, a Tong leader who would become the unofficial mayor of Chinatown in Manhattan, was originally Wong Ah Ling. Anne Bancroft, who was born in the Bronx, was Anna Maria Louisa Italiano.
The rationale was straightforward: adopting names that sounded more American might help immigrants speed assimilation, avoid detection, deter discrimination or just be better for the businesses they hoped to start in their new homeland.
Today, most experts agree, that traditional immigrant gambit has all but disappeared.
“For the most part, nobody changes to American names any more at all,” said Cheryl R. David, former chairwoman of the New York chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association....
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Ancient Human Skeleton Removed From Mexican Cave
Source: ABC News (8-24-10)
The remains of a prehistoric child were removed from an underwater cave in Mexico four years after divers stumbled upon the well-preserved corpse that offers clues to ancient human migration.
The skeletal remains of the boy, dubbed the Young Hol Chan, are more than 10,000 years old and are among the oldest human bones found in the Americas.
The corpse was discovered in 2006 by a pair of German cave divers who were exploring unique flooded sandstone sinkholes, known as cenotes, common to the eastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
Scientists spent three years studying the remains where they lay before deciding it was safe to bring the skeleton to the surface for further study, according to the Mexican National Institute for Anthropology and History....
Gardens of entire Leicestershire village dug up for BBC Four archaeology series
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-25-10)
The residents of an entire Leicestershire village have joined a dig to find archaeological remains, with over 200 people involved in the excavation which found relics stretching back as far as the Roman Empire.
The dig took place in Kibworth, just off the A6. It even involved taking up the tarmac of the car park at the local pub, the Coach and Horses, so that the earth below could be excavated.
The results will be seen in a new series on BBC Four this autumn, Story of England, presented by the historian Michael Wood.
Finds from the dig included Samian pottery from Roman times, prehistoric flint blades and part of an Anglo-Saxon bone comb, as well as 1,200-year-old Middle Saxon pottery....
Cao Cao’s Tomb is a Fake
Source: China Digital Times (8-24-10)
Cao Cao was one of the three warlords competing for control of China after the downfall of the mighty Han empire (BC206 – AD 220 CE). Cao’s life was popularized in The Legend of Three Kingdoms, a novelized history which has been revered as one of the four Chinese literature classics.
According to the Modern Express, 23 experts at an academic forum in Suzhou have declared that the tomb is a fake, citing anachronistic styles of engraving Chinese characters as one of the sources of their suspicion. The reports says that Chinese historians are now divided into “pro-Cao” and “anti-Cao” factions....
Ancient Bakery Found in Egyptian Desert
Source: Discovery News (8-25-10)
The smell of freshly baked bread wafted through Egypt’s western desert more than 3,500 years ago, according to new findings at the El-Kharga Oasis announced on Wednesday.
During excavation work for the Theban Desert Road Survey, a project to map the ancient desert routes in the Western desert, a team of Egyptian and US archaeologists from Yale University stumbled upon the remains of what appears to be an ancient bakery town.
About 1 km (0.6 miles) long from north to south and 250 meters (820 feet) wide from east to west, the settlement dates to the Second Intermediate Period (about 1650-1550 B.C.).
According to John Coleman Darnell, who led the Yale mission, archaeological evidence indicates that the site was an administrative center along the bustling caravan routes which connected the Nile Valley and the western oasis with points as far as Darfur in western Sudan....
Croatia extradites Djindjic plotter to Serbia
Source: BBC (8-25-10)
A man convicted of the 2003 assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic has been extradited from Croatia to Serbia.
Sretko Kalinic was arrested in June after being shot by an accomplice in Djindjic's murder, Milos Simovic, who was later arrested himself.
Both men had been at large since the reformist Mr Djindjic was killed by a sniper linked to former paramilitaries.
In 2007, they were sentenced in absentia in Serbia to 30 years in jail.
Kalinic had been found guilty of plotting the assassination. The leader of the plot and the sniper were in court for the trial in 2007, and were jailed....
National Archives Receives Original Nuremberg Laws from Huntington Library
Source: Press Release from the National Archives (8-25-10)
In a transfer ceremony at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens today, Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero accepted on behalf of the U.S. Government the original Nuremberg Laws presented by Steven S. Koblik, Huntington president. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. deposited the documents at the Library for safekeeping at the end of World War II. He died in December of 1945 in an automobile crash before he could discuss their final disposition.
In presenting the Laws to Mr. Ferriero, Dr. Koblik said, “These documents should have been part of the National Archives, had Gen. Patton followed instructions from his commander-in-chief in Europe, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower directed that all documents related to the persecution of the Jews should be sent to a common collection point in Germany that was preparing for the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. These materials eventually were deposited at the National Archives. The Huntington felt strongly that it wanted the Nuremberg Laws to be placed with the other original documentation of war crimes against Jews during World War II. We are pleased that we are able to present these documents to the Archivist of the United States today so that the collection is now complete.”
“I am pleased and honored to accept these originals of the Nuremberg Laws on behalf of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Government of the United States,” said Mr. Ferriero.
“September 15, just a few weeks away, will mark the 75th anniversary of the signing of these laws by Adolf Hitler, which he used as the legal underpinning for the persecution of Jews in Germany, culminating in the Holocaust. We are very grateful that the Huntington Library is now providing these historically important documents to the National Archives, where they will join other original documents relating to horrors of the Third Reich,” he continued.
The National Archives also released today a 3:49 minute video short from its series “Inside the Vaults,” highlighting the background of the Nuremberg Laws. The video, which includes historic footage and interviews with National Archives expert Greg Bradsher and Huntington president Steven Koblik, is hosted online on the National Archives YouTube Channel, http://www.youtube.com/USNationalArchives, and the National Archives website, www.archives.gov/. This video is in the public domain and not subject to any copyright restrictions. The National Archives encourages its free distribution.
Roman 'industrial estate' unearthed in North Yorkshire
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-25-10)
Archaeologists discovered a Roman "industrial estate" near a ruined fort that may once have been home to a legendary missing legion.
The unearthed site includes the remains of a water-powered flour mill used to grind grain and produce food for the soldiers, clothes, food remains, graves and pottery.
It also contains evidence the Roman occupants might have worn socks, experts who analysed ancient sandals said.
The site was excavated as part of a £318 million Highways Agency scheme to upgrade the A1 between Dishforth and Leeming in North Yorkshire.
It is close to a ruined fort at Healam Bridge, which formed part of the Roman frontier 2,000 years ago....
Nixon Administration Attorney General William Saxbe Dies
Source: AP (8-24-10)
William Saxbe, a Republican maverick who became the fourth attorney general to serve under President Richard M. Nixon and presided during the Watergate investigation, died Tuesday. He was 94.
Saxbe, who served in the Ohio Legislature and as state attorney general, died at his home in Mechanicsburg, northwest of Columbus, said his son, Charles "Rocky" Saxbe.
Nixon's first two attorneys general were accused of Watergate-related crimes and the third, Elliot Richardson, resigned to protest Nixon's efforts to limit the investigation into the break-in and cover-up attempts....
History in shadows: Exhibition in Turkey tells of Muslim world's contributions to science
Source: AP (8-25-10)
For generations, the lore of "One Thousand and One Nights" helped shape Western notions about Muslim culture. The collection of tales described an exotic world of harems and flying carpets, Sinbad and monsters, Aladdin and the jinn, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.
Now an exhibition about innovation in Muslim civilization seeks to highlight what organizers say is an overshadowed period of history, a "Golden Age" in which advances in engineering, medicine and architecture laid groundwork for Western progress from the Renaissance until modern times.
Now an exhibition about innovation in Muslim civilization seeks to highlight what organizers say is an overshadowed period of history, a "Golden Age" in which advances in engineering, medicine and architecture laid groundwork for Western progress from the Renaissance until modern times....
White Farmer Petitions U.N., Accusing South Africa Of Genocide
Source: Sky News (8-25-10)
white farmer has accused the South African government of genocide in a petition submitted to the United Nations.
The man, who has remained anonymous for fear of reprisals, blamed the African National Congress' (ANC) policies for a wave of murders and criminal attacks against the white community, what he called the "Afrikaner Boer."
At least 3,000 white farmers have been killed in South Africa since the end of apartheid.
The petition was sent to the U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Francis Deng, in a move that the South African government has dismissed as "ludicrous."....
Egypt discovers 3,500-year-old oasis trading post
Source: AP (8-25-10)
Egypt's antiquities department announced Wednesday the discovery of a 3,500-year-old settlement in a desert oasis, showing the existence of vibrant desert trade routes that stretched from the Mediterranean down into Sudan from the early days of the Egyptian civilization.
The settlement at Umm el-Mawagir in Egypt's Kharga Oasis, more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of Cairo, has been excavated for the past year by a Yale University expedition, whose initial findings suggest it was an administrative post with massive baking facilities, possibly to feed local troops.
"The amount of bread production was pretty amazing," said John Darnell, head of the expedition, citing discoveries of ovens, bread molds and storerooms at the site, far out of proportion to its size.
"It's probably a good bet they were basically baking enough bread to feed an army, literally," he said....
Finding stolen piece of history may not be easy task
Source: CNN.com (8-25-10)
Key West, Florida (CNN) -- For more than 20 years, the bulletproof museum case housed a small piece of yesteryear: a gold bar recovered from a sunken Spanish galleon. Today, its case is broken, littered with black fingerprint dust. The treasure is gone. Stolen. Two thieves were caught in the act by the museum's security cameras.
"This is a special piece," said Melissa Kendrick, executive director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West, Florida.
"All the pieces have an incredible historic value, but this is the piece that was shared with the public in a whole totally different way."
It was different because visitors could touch it. By reaching into the specially designed display case, more than 6 million people have touched the 74.85-ounce bar, valued at more than $550,000....
Flogging Genghis Khan for Tourists in Mongolia
Source: Bill Donahue in the Atlantic (9-1-10)
[Bill Donahue is a writer living in Portland, Oregon.]
When he went marauding about the known world some 800 years ago, Genghis Khan almost certainly never slept on a bed scattered with rose petals. He was a hard guy. So it seems fitting that the journey east from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital, toward a 131-foot stainless-steel statue of the infamous Mongol warlord is a stark experience. The roadside is barren of trees and unpeopled, and brown rubbly mountains stretch into the distance. When you travel the 35-mile route on a bicycle, as I did recently, the headwinds can be cruel.
Still, I pedaled on, for Genghis Khan is Mongolia’s future. After his conquests were downplayed in the history books during seven decades of de facto Soviet rule, the nomad who ruled an empire stretching from the Caspian Sea to Siberia reemerged in 1990, as democracy was being established. Today, he is a poor nation’s avatar of hope—and he’s becoming a major industry.
In Ulaanbaatar, you can drink Chinggis beer at the Grand Khaan Irish Pub. (For obscure reasons, the local spelling differs from the Western.) The Genco Tour Bureau, an Ulaanbaatar-based company, has spent about $7 million on the Chinggis Khaan Statue Complex, a commercially minded homage where the giant steel Chinggis will soon be flanked by an artificial pond, a skating rink, and 200 small gers, or round tents, for paying campers. Nearby, Genco has also built a 13th-century living history museum, sort of a Colonial Williamsburg on the steppes, where artisans make felt by beating wool with wood sticks. And at the Chinggis Khaan Golf Country Club, the greens are tiny, bright patches of artificial turf on the infinite brown....
Home where Langston Hughes lived during high school in Cleveland condemned
Source: Cleveland Plains-Dealer (8-25-10)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city has condemned the Cleveland house where celebrated 20th century writer Langston Hughes lived during high school.
It's the latest twist for the 120-year-old house on East 86th Street that has been vacant, slated for renovation and nominated for landmark designation.
But city officials don't expect the three-bedroom house to be torn down.
The city's building and housing department condemned the house June 4 -- unaware of its historic significance -- after inspectors discovered major problems. The plumbing and furnace were ripped out and electrical wires were hanging from the ceiling....
Is it simply British to 'get smashed'?
Source: WaPo (8-25-10)
...It is no secret the residents of these isles like a drink, or three. An inebriated King James I once fell to the royal floor while greeting the King of Denmark, and a room at the Priory - the London rehabilitation clinic - is something of a rite of passage for British celebrities. But even here, the national outcry is reaching a fevered pitch over lager lad hooligans and increasingly, their female counterparts, ladettes, turning British cities and towns into what the new Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron denounced this month as "the wild west."...
Some compare the current push to the restrictive Gin Acts of the 1700s, which aimed to limit a cheap spirits craze that saw Londoners guzzling an average of two pints of dry comfort per week. Peter Brown, the British author and a self-described "drinker," recently labeled the hysteria over binge drinking a movement whipped up by "neo prohibitionists." Fintan O'Toole, the Irish-born author, penned a commentary in the Guardian newspaper suggesting some nations are simply predisposed to heavy drinking, and that the British (and the Irish) should not only accept but embrace it.
Mark Hastings, who represents the British Beer and Pub Association, served the $44 billion-a-year industry's opinion straight up. "Binge drinking is British," he said. "Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens are littered with references to heavy drinking. Harold lost the battle of Hastings because of a big night on the mead. You're not going to change this by fiddling about with a few laws."...
After Mozart’s Death, an Endless Coda
Source: NYT (8-24-10)
Direct medical evidence? None. Autopsy? Not performed. Medical records? Nowhere to be found. Corpse? Disappeared.
Yet according to a recent article in an academic journal, researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
A modest industry of medical speculation has grown up around the subject, evidence of our fascination with what cut down great creative artists in history. In Mozart’s case published speculation began within a month of his death in 1791, and musicologists, physicians and medical scholars have regularly joined the fray ever since.
Dr. William J. Dawson, a retired orthopedic surgeon who is the bibliographer for the Performing Arts Medical Association, decided to organize the theories. He examined most of the 136 entries in the association’s database dedicated to Mozart’s death, a list by no means comprehensive....
In History-Rich Region, a Very New System Tracks Very Old Things
Source: NYT (8-24-10)
The field of archaeology and the timeworn Middle East would not seem the obvious places to look for a wiki revolution. But next month in Jordan, officials who oversee that country’s vast store of antiquities will begin an experiment aimed at bringing 21st-century tools to the task of protecting ancient sites, which is an especially pressing need in neighboring Iraq, where looting is once again on the rise.
Over the last four years the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, with financing from the World Monuments Fund and help from the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, has built an ambitious Web-based system that will allow archaeologists and conservators there, for the first time, to gain access to decades’ worth of records about Jordan’s sites and to monitor the condition of those sites much more easily.
Known by the slightly science-fiction-ish name MEGA — for Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities — the system functions in both English and Arabic, and the information in it is obtained via Google Earth satellite images. These let users find any of Jordan’s more than 10,000 sites, from the ancient city of Petra to tiny unearthed remnants from antiquity, like wine presses, threshing floors and burial grounds dating to the Neolithic period....
When an Arab Enclave Thrived in Downtown Manhattan
Source: NYT (8-24-10)
Conjure, for a moment, a place just steps from City Hall but a world apart. Salaam.
Yes, that is the fragrance of strong coffee in the air, of sweet figs and tart lemons, of pastries that remind buyers of childhoods in Damascus and Beirut. Bazaars abound with handmade rugs and brass lamps and water pipes. Men wear fezzes. A few women retire behind veils. Al-Hoda is the leading newspaper. Business signs — at least those legible to a non-Arabic speaker — proclaim “Rahaim & Malhami,” “Noor & Maloof” and “Sahadi Bros.”
This is not what the lower west side of Manhattan would look like if the much-debated Islamic community center were built two blocks from the World Trade Center site. This is what it looked like decades before the World Trade Center was even envisioned. This is its heritage.
All but lost to living memory and forgotten in the current controversy, Washington Street was the “heart of New York’s Arab world,” as The New York Times described it in 1946, shortly before that Arab-American community was almost entirely displaced by construction of entrance ramps to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel....
Some Doubt if Any King Is Still Fit for Sweden
Source: NYT (8-25-10)
Two dozen members of an association to abolish the monarchy were settled around a table in a spacious apartment in the north end of the capital when someone in the back of the room muttered, “Two hundred years since the French Revolution, and still we have a king.”
In other times and in other places, these would-be regicides might have been hounded by the king’s agents. But here in liberal Sweden, they are thriving.
Indeed, so fast has membership in the Swedish Republican Association grown in recent months, rising to more than 7,300 from 2,500 one year ago, that the meeting was called to discuss a number of ambitious proposals, including the opening of a permanent office, the founding of an antimonarchist newspaper and the formation of a pan-European antimonarchist movement....
“Support for monarchy is falling across Europe,” said Mona Abou-Jeib Broshammar, the association’s secretary general.
To be sure, 7,300 members is not much in a country of nine million, yet the association’s growth is notable, given that Sweden is riding a monarchist high in the wake of the fairy-tale wedding in June of Crown Princess Victoria, 33, to her former fitness trainer....
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Hitler DNA Tests Reveal Possible Jewish and African Roots
Source: The Epoch Times (8-24-10)
Adolf Hitler was found to be descended from the Jews and Africans he despised, after numerous DNA tests, according to reports on Tuesday.
Journalist Jean-Paul Mulders and historian Marc Vermeeren took saliva samples from 39 of the former German dictator's relatives, including a cousin who was an Austrian farmer named "Norbert H," and a grand nephew named Alexander Stuart-Houston, who is an American, according to the UK Newspaper the Daily Mail..
Mulders and Vermeeren got a sample of Hitler's DNA by following Stuart-Houston for a week. He dropped a used napkin on the ground and they took samples from that. The DNA on the napkin led them to the rest of Hitler’s relatives.
The duo found a chromosome called "Haplopgroup E1b1b" (also Y-DNA), which during Hitler's time, was a rare occurance among people living in Germany and in Western Europe....
Bath historian finds diaries of woman who nursed Nelson
Source: BBC (8-24-10)
A Bath historian is hoping to give an admiral's wife - who tended to a wounded Lord Nelson - "her rightful place in history".
Dr Elaine Chalus has won a major research grant of more than £100,000 to investigate diaries kept by Elizabeth Wynne.
Elizabeth married one of Nelson's famous 'band of brothers', Captain Thomas Francis Fremantle, during the Napoleonic Wars.
Dr Chalus will use her funding from the British Academy to bring to light more than 40 volumes of Elizabeth's diaries, most of which have never been published....
Spy Museum adds another former spy to staff in DC
Source: AP (8-23-10)
The International Spy Museum in Washington has recruited an ex-spy as its new historian.
The museum said Monday that Mark Stout would become historian after spending 13 years in intelligence. He is the museum's first research chief with an intelligence background.
Stout worked at the CIA and the State Department in intelligence and at the Defense Department. He is earning a doctorate in history and holds degrees in political science, mathematics and public policy....
South Sudan plans mass return ahead of referendum
Source: BBC (8-24-10)
South Sudan is preparing to repatriate some 1.5 million southerners from the north and Egypt, ahead of a referendum due next January on whether the south should secede.
The proposals suggest returnees will travel on trains and buses, as well as boats down the River Nile.
Some two million people have already returned to the south since the end of a two-decade conflict in 2005.
However, some aid workers have questioned the plan's feasibility....
Egyptian minister held over Van Gogh theft
Source: BBC (8-23-10)
The Egyptian government's head of fine arts has been remanded in custody pending an investigation into the theft of a Van Gogh painting at the weekend.
Muhsin Sha'lan, first under-secretary at the culture ministry, was accused of "negligence", according to the state news agency Mena.
Several other officials were believed to have been detained at the same time.
The theft of the $50m (£32m) painting from a Cairo museum on Saturday has been blamed on poor security.
The work - known as both Poppy Flowers and Vase And Flowers - was cut from its frame at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum during the day on Saturday....
Isle of Wight home to thousands of dinosaur remains
Source: BBC (8-24-10)
The Isle of Wight is home to the richest source of "pick 'n' mix" dinosaur remains anywhere in the world, a study has suggested.
Weather conditions 130 million years ago have been suggested as one reason why thousands of small teeth and bones lie buried alongside bigger fossils.
Portsmouth University palaeontologist Dr Steve Sweetman and Dr Allan Insole from Bristol University led the study....
Rare 1950s Jaguar for sale - having done just 500 miles
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-24-10)
A rare 1950s Jaguar sports car with just 500 miles on the clock is to be sold after being painstakingly reconstructed from parts packed away in boxes.
The Jaguar XK150 Sports is expected to raise more than £250,000 after a rebuild in Harworth, near Doncaster
The car was bought brand new in the USA by American John Dolce in 1959, and it was one of only 724 of the cars sold in the country....
Greeks 'discover Odysseus' palace in Ithaca, proving Homer's hero was real'
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-24-10)
An 8th BC century palace which Greek archaeologists claim was the home of Odysseus has been discovered in Ithaca, fuelling theories that the hero of Homer's epic poem was real.
Odysseus – known to the ancient Romans as Ulysses – famously took 10 years to return home to Ithaca after the fall of Troy.
But despite the fantastical details in the Greek epic, a team of archaeologists has claimed the tale is anchored in truth - and that they have discovered his home on the island of Ithaca, in the Ionian sea off the north-west coast of Greece.
Nearly 3,000 years after Odysseus returned from his journey, the team from the University of Ioannina said they found the remains of an extensive three-storey building, with steps carved out of rock and fragments of pottery. The complex also features and a well from the 8th century BC, roughly the period in which Odysseus is believed to have been king of Ithaca....
'Ground Zero Mosque' Imam: America Killed More Innocents Than Al Qaeda
Source: Fox News (8-24-10)
The controversial imam at the center of the debate over the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero says his goal is to create coalitions across the religious divide, but during a 2005 conference in Australia, he said America may be worse than Al Qaeda.
During his Australian visit, the imam also said the Arab and Muslim world senses that the West does not care about Muslim lives and their pain and anguish is not heard.
He explained that frustration and emotions can lead to terrorism, actions he condemned....
40 years later, FBI still hunts alleged bomber
Source: CNN (8-24-10)
Do you know where Leo Burt is? If you do, you could earn $150,000, the FBI says.
Burt, a 22-year-old aspiring journalist at the time, was part of a group that bombed the University of Wisconsin to protest the Vietnam War, the FBI says.
The attack happened 40 years ago Tuesday and was classified as the largest act of domestic terror until the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995.
Agents have been all over the world following tips about Burt's whereabouts.
The elusive suspect was reportedly homeless in Denver, according to one tipster.
Another tipster told the FBI that Burt was working at a resort in Costa Rica....
Grandfather's ghost story leads to mysterious mass grave
Source: CNN (8-24-10)
The brothers first heard about Duffy's Cut from their grandfather, a railroad worker, who told the ghost story to his family every Thanksgiving. According to local legend, memorialized in a file kept by the Pennsylvania Railroad, a man walking home from a tavern reported seeing blue and green ghosts dancing in the mist on a warm September night in 1909.
When Frank inherited the file of his grandfather's old railroad papers, the brothers began to believe the ghost stories were real. They suspected that the files contained clues to the location of a mass grave.
In 2002, the brothers began digging and searching. They found forks and remnants of a shanty and, in 2005, what Bill Watson calls the "Holy Grail" -- a pipe with an Irish flag on it.
Monge, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, joined the forensics team when Bechtel looked her up in the campus directory and asked for help separating the human bones from any animal bones.
Since then, Monge has collected bones from seven skeletons unearthed at Duffy's Cut, including four skulls. The trays and containers of bones occupy a long, wide table in the back of a lecture room at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia.
Poring over the bones with her green spectacles sitting low on her nose, Monge said she has focused her attention on the skulls, adding that they have provided crucial clues to what might have killed the Irishmen at Duffy's Cut....
At Reagan's Presidential Library, the Kids Are in Control
Source: WSJ (8-21-10)
SIMI VALLEY, Calif.—Locked in a war room with military officials shouting at each other about the impending invasion of Grenada, Gen. John Vessey, President Ronald Reagan's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rose from his chair.
"People! People!" he shouted. "Gen. Vessey has a request: I am super thirsty."
His military commanders rolled their eyes and resumed the debate. Gen. Vessey—who outside this room was 13-year-old Christian Graves—slumped in his swivel chair, sighing deeply. He then ordered Army Rangers into Grenada.
In a corner of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, beyond stately White House portraits and a sizable chunk of the Berlin Wall, Ronald Reagan's legacy is playing out in an unexpected way.
On multimillion dollar sets replicating the Reagan White House, children play the parts of key officials and reporters to reenact the invasion of Grenada. The U.S. invaded the Caribbean island nation in 1983, fearing a communist takeover after a coup....
NEH Announces $31.5 Million in Grants and Awards
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History (8-20-10)
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced $31.5 million in grants for 201 humanities projects.
This funding will support a wide variety of projects, including the production and development of radio and television programs, digital scholarly resources, professional development for teachers and college faculty, and the development and staging of museum and library exhibitions. NEH grants will also help institutions improve and secure long-term support for their humanities programs and resources, and support state humanities council programs exploring significant events and themes in American history.
This funding cycle also marks the first grant awards as part of the NEH’s new Bridging Cultures initiative (see related story).
This award cycle, institutions and independent scholars in 41 states and the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands will receive NEH support. Complete state-by-state listings of grants are available here (42-page PDF).
Selected projects have received a We the People designation for their efforts to strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. In this cycle, grants were awarded in the following categories:
Library of Congress Launches National Digital Stewardship Alliance
Source: National Coalition for History (8-20-10)
The Library of Congress recently announced the formation of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA), a partnership of institutions and organizations dedicated to preserving and providing access to selected databases, web pages, video, audio and other digital content with enduring value.
The alliance is an outgrowth of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), which the Library has administered since 2000. In establishing the program, Congress directed the Library to work with other federal agencies and a variety of additional communities to develop a national approach to digital preservation. NDIIPP has achieved substantial success though partnering with more than 170 institutions to provide access to a diverse national collection of digital content. This work demonstrates that a collective effort can achieve far more than individual institutions working alone.
The NDSA will focus on several goals. It will develop improved preservation standards and practices; work with experts to identify categories of digital information that are most worthy of preservation; and take steps to incorporate content into a national collection. It will provide national leadership for digital-preservation education and training. The new organization will also provide communication and outreach for all aspects of digital preservation.
The NDSA will launch with a core set of founding members drawn from current NDIIPP project partners. Those members will develop a roadmap for immediate action, including a process for expanding membership. For more information, visit www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/.
NEH Awards Initial Grants in its Bridging Cultures Program
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History (8-20-10)
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced the first in a series of Bridging Cultures grants, awarding a total of $1.7 million that will enable humanities experts to launch public discussions addressing two pressing concerns: the role of civility in democracy and the understanding of Muslim contributions to world cultures.
Eight cultural and educational institutions around the country will host public forums designed to share the best of recent humanities research with members of the general public. New ideas coming out of these forums – ranging from “cyber-civility” to the cultural legacy of Timbuktu – will also form the basis for future educational and cultural programs that NEH intends to make available nationwide as part of its larger Bridging Cultures initiative. After each forum, participants will work with educators and members of state humanities councils to produce materials such as books, videos, exhibits, and other public programming to disseminate its content to regional and national audiences.
NEH Chairman Leach’s signature initiative, Bridging Cultures, highlights the role of the humanities in enhancing understanding and respect for diverse cultures and subcultures within America’s borders and around the globe. Building on a long tradition of support for excellent scholarship, NEH is renewing its focus on the need to bridge gaps in Americans’ understanding of world history, literature, philosophy, religion, archeology, language, and law.
A combined $1.7 million was awarded to the following recipients of the NEH’s 2010 Bridging Cultures: Planning and Implementation Grants for Academic Forums and Programs Development Workshops Grants:
History Organizations Fight to Save Teaching American History Grants
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History (8-20-10)
In July, the National Coalition for History (NCH), and ten other NCH members joined forces with over 20 educational organizations representing other K-12 academic disciplines in issuing a statement to Congress and the Administration calling for the continued robust funding of core academic subjects including history. This includes maintenance of discrete budget lines—such as the Teaching American History grants—for each discipline.
One of the major issues facing the new 112th Congress when it convenes in January will be consideration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The law was last reauthorized in 2001 during the Bush administration under the rubric of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Since the law’s enactment a major flaw has been the over-emphasis placed on reading and math at the expense of other subjects, such as history.
In fiscal year 2002, due to the leadership of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), Congress authorized the “Teaching American History” (TAH) grants program in the Department of Education. Thanks to Senator Byrd, nearly $1 billion of federal dollars have been allocated over the past decade to improve K-12 history education. A child who was in the first grade when the program started in 2001 would now be a junior in high school. So it is no exaggeration to say Senator Byrd’s love of American history has been passed on to an entire generation of America’s school children. Among his many accomplishments, that is one of his greatest legacies. But with his recent passing the program that he nurtured for so long is now in danger.
TAH improves the quality of instruction in American history. Grant awards assist elementary and secondary schools in implementing research-based methods for improving the quality of instruction, professional development, and teacher education in American history. Funds are used for competitive grants that are allocated to local education agencies (LEAs) though funding proposals must include a partnership component with an educational non-profit and/or history-based organization. Advocacy by my predecessor Bruce Craig was instrumental in getting the partnership requirement included into law.
While Congress will not tackle the ESEA reauthorization until 2011, activity has already begun in earnest as numerous hearings have been held throughout 2010 in both houses. Draft bills are currently being developed in the House and Senate in anticipation of early action on the issue next year.
In the case of the Teaching American History grants program, the Obama administration’s fiscal 2011 budget message to Congress called into question the degree to which the program has reached districts and teachers most in need of federally funded professional development and also stressed the need for better evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. One of the issues that has plagued the TAH program since its inception has been the inability to rigorously assess and evaluate whether teachers, and ultimately students, are benefitting from the program.
On March 15, the White House released “A Blueprint for Reform,” which details the administration’s plans for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Like NCLB, the reform proposal continues to prioritize reading and math over other subjects.
President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget request to Congress for the Department of Education proposed consolidating 38 existing K–12 education programs into 11 new programs. Under the administration’s budget request, grants for history education would now be part of a new program called “Effective Teaching and Learning for a Well-Rounded Education.” Teaching American History Grants would be consolidated into this new program and would no longer exist as a free-standing budget line item.
The administration proposed $265 million in funding in fiscal 2011 for the new initiative. Although the fiscal 2011 budget request includes a $38.9 million increase in funding to support teaching and learning in arts, history, civics, foreign languages, geography, and economics, the administration proposes to combine eight subject-specific grant programs into a single competitive grant program.
Unfortunately, under the proposed competitive grant program the various subjects would be pitted against each other for scarce resources. Such an approach could threaten the ability of schools and districts to provide each student with a well-rounded education, a result that seems to be the exact opposite of the administration’s intent.
Speak Out in Opposition To Gettysburg Casino Proposal!
Source: Lee White at the National Coaliton for History (8-20-10)
On August 31, the Pennsylvania Gaming Board will hold a public hearing on a proposal to license a casino located one-half mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park. The Civil War Preservation Trust is asking historians and other concerned citizens to contact the Gaming Board (click here) in advance of the hearing to express their opposition to this misguided use of land so close to the hallowed ground of Gettysburg.
On July 1, 276 American historians sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in opposition to a proposal to license a casino located one-half mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park. Beyond the individual signatories, the American Historical Association, National Coalition for History, National Council on Public History, Organization of American Historians, Society for Military History and Southern Historical Association sent a separate letter of opposition to the Gaming Board.
Although the proposed casino site along the Emmitsburg Road lies outside the current administrative boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park, it would be on land identified as historically sensitive by the American Battlefield Protection Program, an arm of the National Park Service. The application before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board would retrofit an existing family-friendly hotel complex into a gambling resort with an initial 600 slot machines in addition to table games.
Lawrence of Arabia's secret 'X-flights' revealed in diary
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-24-10)
Details of secret missions flown by Lawrence of Arabia almost 100 years ago have been uncovered by a retired lecturer.
The diary of one of the British officers's colleages records the existence of the so-called ''X Flights'' led by Lt Col TE Lawrence across the former Ottoman empire.
James Hynes, 80, discovered the documents after his cousin told him that her father served alongside Lt Col Lawrence during World War One.
She revealed that she had kept typed up copies of his journal.
The diaries describe everyday life in the Turkish desert during World War One, including how one of Lawrence's aristocratic men managed to burn breakfast for the squadron after being ordered to cook an English fry up....
Navy's refusal to deliver Medal of Honor irks N.Y. officials
Source: AP (8-24-10)
LOCKPORT — Officials trying to obtain an unclaimed Medal of Honor for a Civil War hero from western New York said they've instead been given a letter with a drawing of the medal, a move that one local historian called "an embarrassment."
Niagara County officials have been trying since last year to get the medal awarded to Michael Huskey, who died in 1864 without receiving it. Last week, the Navy sent county officials a letter that includes an embossed drawing of the medal.
The letter also contains the citation for Huskey, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions aboard a Union gunboat during a firefight in a Mississippi bayou in 1863....
'American Schindler’ helped 4,000 Jews escape the Nazis
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-17-10)
An American journalist saved up to 4,000 Jews from the Nazis and helped ship some of the brightest Jewish minds from art and literature to New York, newly released passenger figures show.
Those saved by Varian Fry, known as the American Oskar Schindler, include Marc Chagall, the Jewish French-Russian artist, Claude Levi-Strauss, the French anthropologist, and surrealist artist, Marcel Duchamp.
But while Schindler, a German Industrialist, has been internationally recognised for saving an estimated 1,200 Jews - his story was made into the 1993 film Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg - the full extent of Fry’s heroic efforts is only now coming to light....
Civil War Battlefields To Share $1 Million For Land Acquisition
Source: National Parks Traveler (8-23-10)
A trio of Civil War battlefield parks will divvy up nearly $1 million to spend on land acquisition to protect their landscapes, according to National Park Service officials.
Richmond Battlefield in Kentucky, Franklin Battlefield in Tennessee, and Bentonville Battlefield in North Carolina will benefit from the appropriation from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
“Americans have a duty to protect these scenes of combat. We must honor the memories of those who fought and teach people about the Civil War and its pivotal role in our nation’s history,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, whose agency administers the funds. “These grants ... will help state and local governments commemorate fallen soldiers and offer place-based education on par with that provided by the National Park Service.”...
'Grand Prince of All Russia' Sues to Get Kremlin Back
Source: AOL News (8-19-10)
(Aug. 18) -- Descendants of Russia's first ruling dynasty have gone to court to reclaim their ancestral lands – specifically, the Kremlin.
On Monday, the Moscow Arbitration Court decided the case will be heard Oct. 18. The plaintiff is the Princes' Foundation for the Advancement of Religious and National Consensus, founded in May 2009 by Valery Kubarev, who traces his lineage to the Rurik dynasty. It was under the reign of Rurik grand princes, Kubarev claims, that the Kremlin was constructed.
According to its website, the foundation seeks "usage rights" to the Kremlin "in perpetuity."...
60-acre property near battlefield approved for easement
Source: The Herald-Mail (MD) (7-28-10)
ANNAPOLIS — A 60-acre property near Antietam National Battlefield has been approved for a conservation easement by Maryland’s Board of Public Works, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources said in a press release Wednesday.
The easement, part of the state’s Rural Legacy Program, will preserve the historically significant land, known as the Meyers Property, for future generations, the release said.
“By protecting this land, we are not only supporting an ecologically important area, but preserving an important piece of our State’s history,” Gov. Martin O’Malley was quoted as saying in the release. “This acquisition ensures that our rich heritage and our great outdoors will be protected for future generations of Marylanders.”...
Legacy of Nazi era, Cold War make privacy-obsessed Germans wary of Google Street View
Source: AP (8-20-10)
BERLIN (AP) — Germans have long harbored an obsession about protecting privacy, with memories of Nazi-era denouncements of neighbors and East German secret police snooping still alive. Now they have found a new target for their fears: Google "Street View."
Under strong government pressure, the Internet giant made Germany the only country where people can request to have images of their homes deleted from the project before it goes online in November, along with other concessions.
It has all stirred debate about how to define and defend privacy in the digital age and revealed a yawning generational divide between those old enough to recall invasive past regimes and those who have grown up with the Internet.
"There is a fear of becoming a 'See-through Citizen' in a totalitarian surveillance state," said Jesko Kaltenbaek, a professor of psychology at Berlin's Freie University....
Veterans groups and lawmakers suggest that VA take over Arlington Cemetery
Source: WaPo (8-23-10)
Veterans groups and members of Congress are questioning whether management of Arlington National Cemetery should be transferred from the Army to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The discussions come after investigators found dozens of unmarked or mislabeled graves, millions of dollars wasted on technology contracts and mismanagement that stretched from the cemetery's leadership to the upper echelons of Army leadership in the Pentagon.
"Let's let the experts take over," said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the country's oldest major veterans organization. Running cemeteries "is a primary task of the VA, whereas the Army's primary task is to fight and win our wars."
The American Legion has also called for the VA to be more involved at Arlington, the nation's busiest military cemetery, which has an average of 27 funerals a day and 4 million visitors annually. And several members of Congress, including Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, have asked whether the VA, which manages 131 cemeteries nationwide with 3 million graves, would be better suited to operate Arlington....
The secret behind Mona Lisa's smile Mona
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-22-10)
The secret of how Leonardo da Vinci produced the optical effects that created the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile can be revealed for the first time.
Scientists have discovered how the artist managed to achieve his trademark smoky effect, known as sfumato, on the painting; by applying up to 40 layers of extremely thin glaze thought to have been smeared on with his fingers.
The glaze, mixed with subtly different pigments, creates the slight blurring and shadows around the mouth that give the Mona Lisa her barely noticeable smile that seems to disappear when looked at directly.
Using X-rays to study the painting, the researchers were able to see how the layers of glaze and paint had been built up to varying levels on different areas of the face....
Kent battle between German bomber crew and British soldiers marked after 70 years
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-20-10)
A little-known skirmish between a downed German bomber crew and a group of British soldiers, the last ever military conflict to take place on British soil, is finally being marked 70 years after the event.
Most history books have Bonny Prince Charlie's 1746 defeat at Culloden as the final battle to occur in this country.
But the virtually unheard of Battle of Graveney Marsh in the Kent countryside 194 years later was actually the last action involving a foreign enemy.
The battle took place on September 27 1940 between the crew of a downed German bomber and a company of British soldiers who had been holed up in a pub.
Members of the London Irish Rifles were billeted at the Sportsman Inn in the coastal hamlet of Seasalter when the stricken Junkers 88 plane came down on Graveney Marsh.
Although the soldiers armed themselves, they fully expected the four-strong Luftwaffe crew to give themselves up without a fight. They were wrong....
World's oldest mechanical clock 'to be wound by hand for last time'
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-20-10)
The world's oldest working mechanical clock is to be fitted with an electric motor for the first time after being wound by hand every week for more than 600 years.
The mechanism on the Clock, at Wells Cathedral in Somerset, will be set manually for the last time next week, following the retirement of the last member of a family who has maintained it for almost a century.
Experts say the clock, which tracks the sun across the sky and records the stages of the moon, is a marvel of medieval craftsmanship.
Over the past 90 years the clock, the world's oldest continually-working mechanical timepiece, has been wound by five different generations of the Fisher family....
Fidel Castro fascinated by book on Bilderberg Club
Source: AP (8-18-10)
HAVANA – Fidel Castro is showcasing a theory long popular both among the far left and far right: that the shadowy Bilderberg Group has become a kind of global government, controlling not only international politics and economics, but even culture.
The 84-year-old former Cuban president published an article Wednesday that used three of the only eight pages in the Communist Party newspaper Granma to quote — largely verbatim — from a 2006 book by Lithuanian-born writer Daniel Estulin.
Estulin's work, "The Secrets of the Bilderberg Club," argues that the international group largely runs the world. It has held a secretive annual forum of prominent politicians, thinkers and businessmen since it was founded in 1954 at the Bilderberg Hotel in Holland.
Castro offered no comment on the excerpts other than to describe Estulin as honest and well-informed and to call his book a "fantastic story."...
Students Silenced for Singing Anthem at Lincoln Memorial
Source: NBC Washington (8-12-10)
In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Marian Anderson perform before an integrated audience at Constitution Hall. The Board of Education of the then-segregated District also refused to let her perform in the auditorium of a white public high school. So Anderson turned to a symbol of freedom: the Lincoln Memorial....
Two months ago, at the same memorial, a group of students were confronted by a security guard for singing the national anthem. The students, members of the conservative Young America’s Foundation, were told by U.S. Park Police that they were "were in violation of federal law and their impromptu performance constituted a demonstration in an area that must remain 'completely content neutral,'" reports FoxNews.com.
"The area they were standing in and singing is an area that is restricted for this type of activity," said Sgt. David Schlosser. "The United States Park Police is absolutely content-neutral when it comes to any sort of demonstrations in these areas."...
Divers work to lift WWII plane from Calif. lake
Source: AP (8-19-10)
SAN DIEGO – Salvage divers gently cleared away silt and mud covering a WWII dive bomber buried in the bottom of the San Diego reservoir, carefully working Thursday to lift the rare plane from the water 65 years after it was ditched during a training run.
Bob Metz, 84, who watched the painstaking work, said he recalls his oldest brother, Sgt. Joseph Metz, telling about how he and the pilot — who have both since died — managed to swim ashore to safety, then hitchhiked back to the nearby military base.
"It's going to be interesting to see it," said Metz of Montebello, Calif. "I remember when he got a jeep and brought me up here and told me, 'You want to see where we ditched the plane?"
The aircraft was forgotten until Duane Johnson and his friend, who were searching for bass, spotted the outline of the plane on an electronic fish finder last year....
Inside Neurosurgery’s Rise
Source: NYT (8-23-10)
Two floors below the main level of Yale’s medical school library is a room full of brains. No, not the students. These brains, more than 500 of them, are in glass jars. They are part of an extraordinary collection that might never have come to light if not for a curious medical student and an encouraging and persistent doctor.
The cancerous brains were collected by Dr. Harvey Cushing, who was one of America’s first neurosurgeons. They were donated to Yale on his death in 1939 — along with meticulous medical records, before-and-after photographs of patients, and anatomical illustrations. (Dr. Cushing was also an accomplished artist.) His belongings, a treasure trove of medical history, became a jumble of cracked jars and dusty records shoved in various crannies at the hospital and medical school.
Until now. In June 2010, after a colossal effort to clean and organize the material — 500 of 650 jars have been restored — the brains found their final resting place behind glass cases around the perimeter of the Cushing Center, a room designed solely for them.
These chunks of brains floating in formaldehyde bring to life a dramatic chapter in American medical history. They exemplify the rise of neurosurgery and the evolution of 20th-century American medicine — from a slipshod trial-and-error trade to a prominent, highly organized profession....
Storm Topples Anne Frank Tree
Source: AP (12-31-69)
The immense chestnut tree that cheered Anne Frank as she and her family hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam was toppled Monday by wind and heavy rain. The once-mighty tree, now diseased and rotted through the trunk, snapped about three feet above ground, crashed across several gardens and damaged a brick wall and several sheds....
The Open Road Wasn’t Quite Open to All
Source: NYT (8-22-10)
For almost three decades beginning in 1936, many African-American travelers relied on a booklet to help them decide where they could comfortably eat, sleep, buy gas, find a tailor or beauty parlor, shop on a honeymoon to Niagara Falls, or go out at night. In 1949, when the guide was 80 pages, there were five recommended hotels in Atlanta. In Cheyenne, Wyo., the Barbeque Inn was the place to stay.
leader named Victor H. Green conceived the guide in response to one too many accounts of humiliation or violence where discrimination continued to hold strong. These were facts of life not only in the Jim Crow South, but in all parts of the country, where black travelers never knew where they would be welcome. Over time its full title — “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” — became abbreviated, simply, as the “Green Book.” Those who needed to know about it knew about it. To much of the rest of America it was invisible, and by 1964, when the last edition was published, it slipped through the cracks into history.
Until he met a friend’s elderly father-in-law at a funeral a few years ago, the Atlanta writer Calvin Alexander Ramsey had never heard of the guide. But he knew firsthand the reason it existed. During his family trips between Roxboro, N.C., and Baltimore, “we packed a big lunch so my parents didn’t have to worry about having to stop somewhere that might not serve us,” recalled Mr. Ramsey, who is now 60....
Japan team excavates ancient statues in Cambodia
Source: Yomiyuri (Japan) (8-22-10)
A team of specialists led by the president of Tokyo's Sophia University has excavated the severed upper halves of six Buddhist statues from the Angkor ruins in northwestern Cambodia.
The Sophia University Angkor International Mission, headed by university President Yoshiaki Ishizawa, excavated the statues from a circular moat at the ruins of Banteay Kdei temple on Friday.
About 60 centimeters tall, the statues are believed to have been produced in the late 12th or early 13th century.
Ishizawa and his team have worked to repair and preserve the Angkor ruins, a World Heritage Site. They also excavated Buddhist statues there in 2001, a discovery that brought certain historical events to light, including the fact that Buddhism was suppressed across Cambodia after the death in 1219 of Jayavarman VII, the king who constructed the temple....
New Management Plan in the Works For Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
Source: National Parks Traveler (8-24-10)
Capturing and preserving a 200-year-old slice of history is no easy task, and yet that's part of the task for the folks managing the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, which ranges nearly 4,000 meandering miles from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean.
With an eye on finalizing a Comprehensive Management Plan for the trail by the Fall of 2014, National Park Service managers are laying the foundation for developing a sound plan that will guide the trail's management for 15-20 years. Understandably, how visitors view and appreciate the trail are key to that final plan, and so the public's ongoing involvement is critical.
With that in mind, trail managers are asking for answers to the following questions:
1. What do you value most about Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and is the trail important to you?
2. How do you experience the trail and what experiences would you like to have along the Trail?
3. Imagine you are visiting Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail 20 years from now. What do you think the trail should look like in the future? How can we today relate to this historic event, cultures, the past landscape setting and related stories from over two hundred years ago?
4. Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail is over 3,700 miles long and there may be some segments, or locations that are special to you or that you have concerns about. Please describe those places and your concerns for those places. If you have photographs of these same places please include in your comments, the name, location, and GPS coordinates, if known, of each photo along with a brief description of why this location is special.
5. What do you think are the most important issues affecting the trail and the long term preservation, use and enjoyment of this resource and associated resources?
6. How would you define “where” the trail is located and “what” makes the trail a National Historic Trail?
7. How should the National Park Service administer the trail?
8. Are there any other issues or concerns the National Park Service should address in this plan?...
Hitler 'had Jewish and African roots', DNA tests show
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-24-10)
Adolf Hitler is likely to have had Jewish and African roots, DNA tests have shown.
Saliva samples taken from 39 relatives of the Nazi leader show he may have had biological links to the “subhuman” races that he tried to exterminate during the Holocaust.
Jean-Paul Mulders, a Belgian journalist, and Marc Vermeeren, a historian, tracked down the Fuhrer’s relatives, including an Austrian farmer who was his cousin, earlier this year.
A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
"One can from this postulate that Hitler was related to people whom he despised," Mr Mulders wrote in the Belgian magazine, Knack.
Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18 to 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and 8.6 per cent to 30 per cent of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.
Knack, which published the findings, says the DNA was tested under stringent laboratory conditions.
"This is a surprising result," said Ronny Decorte, a genetic specialist at the Catholic University of Leuven.
"The affair is fascinating if one compares it with the conception of the world of the Nazis, in which race and blood was central....
Did Bozo the Clown Tell Lies and Sleep Around?
Source: Fox News (8-24-10)
Just prior to his death in 2008, Larry "Bozo" Harmon penned the recently released memoir "The Man Behind the Nose,” about his adventures who was a professional clown, ran for President, bonded with dangerous cannibal tribes in New Guinea, and was saved from being swallowed whole by a murderous python in Thailand by his 83 AAA shoes.
But now Harmon’s second of four ex-wives, Sandra Harmon, the author of two relationship books and “Elvis & Me” with Priscilla Presley, is biting back with claims that the crazy tales are a result of him being a “pathological liar.”
Sandra Harmon is writing her own book entitled “Sleeping With Bozo and Other Clowns” to expose dirty details of her marriage to Larry, who she alleges was unfaithful.
“Bozo is only one of the clowns I have slept with, although none of the other clowns wore makeup with a red nose,” Sandra told Pop Tarts. “‘Sleeping With Bozo and Other Clowns’ is part memoir and part celebrity tell all, since I have lived a long and exciting life in show business and have met many celebrities and certainly slept with a good number, and have lots of stories to tell, some funny, some not so funny, but all true.”
Scott McKenzie, the co-author of Larry’s new memoir, said he wasn’t in a position to comment on Sandra’s claims....
Grandfather's ghost story leads to mysterious 1832 mass grave
Source: CNN (8-24-10)
"This is a mass grave," Bill Watson said as he led the way through the thick Pennsylvania woods in a suburb about 30 miles from Philadelphia.
"Duffy's Cut," as it's now called, is a short walk from a suburban cul-de-sac in Malvern, an affluent town off the fabled Main Line. Twin brothers Bill and Frank Watson believe 57 Irish immigrants met violent deaths there after a cholera epidemic struck in 1832.
They suspect foul play.
"This is a murder mystery from 178 years ago, and it's finally coming to the light of day," Frank Watson said.
The brothers first heard about Duffy's Cut from their grandfather, a railroad worker, who told the ghost story to his family every Thanksgiving. When Frank inherited a file of his grandfather's old railroad papers, the brothers began to believe the ghost stories were real. They suspected that the files contained clues to the location of a mass grave.
"One of the pieces of correspondence in this file told us 'X marks the spot,'" said Frank. He added that the document suggested that the men "were buried where they were making the fill, which is the original railroad bridge."
In 2002, the brothers began digging and searching. They found forks and remnants of a shanty and, in 2005, what Bill Watson calls the "Holy Grail" -- a pipe with an Irish flag on it....
'Author JD Salinger's toilet' put on sale for $1m
Source: BBC News (8-20-10)
A toilet described as once having belonged to US author JD Salinger has been put on sale on the online auction site eBay for $1m (£644,000).
The vendor says he obtained the "used toilet commode" from a couple who now own the former home of the Catcher in the Rye author.
It comes "uncleaned and in its original condition", the ad for it states.
"Who knows how many of [his] stories were thought up and written while Salinger sat on this throne!", it adds.
The toilet comes with a letter from Joan Littlefield, attesting that the toilet was removed during renovations to her and her husband's house in Cornish, New Hampshire, formerly owned by the reclusive author.
She writes that they knew all the workmen who installed the toilet decades ago when Salinger had work done on the house.
There have been a number of bids on the item.
Salinger died in January, aged 91....
Claudy bomb: conspiracy allowed IRA priest to go free
Source: BBC News (8-24-10)
The police, the Catholic Church and the state conspired to cover up a priest's suspected role in one of the worst atrocities of the Northern Ireland Troubles, an investigation has found.
Nine people died in bombings in Claudy, County Londonderry on 31 July 1972.
The NI Police Ombudsman's probe found that high-level talks led to Fr James Chesney, a suspect in the attack, being moved to the Irish Republic.
No action was ever taken against Fr Chesney, who died in 1980.
Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson said that the government was "profoundly sorry" that Fr Chesney had not been properly investigated.
Mark Eakin, whose younger sister Kathryn was killed in the blast, said he would like to see someone brought before the courts.
Mr Eakin said: "I would like to ask the British government if they would now step in and investigate this thing further, give the PSNI of today, who are still trying to investigate, more resources."...
Ansel Adams trust sues over photographic print sales
Source: BBC News (8-24-10)
The estate of the acclaimed late photographer Ansel Adams is suing a man who has apparently been selling prints he claims are Adams's work.
The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, which filed the legal case in the US, wants to stop Rick Norsigian selling images it does not endorse.
In July, Mr Norsigian's lawyer said experts concluded "beyond reasonable doubt" the prints were Adams's work.
The case has "no merit", Mr Norsigian's lawyer Arnold Peter added.
It alleges trademark infringement, false advertising, trademark dilution, unfair competition and other claims.
Although the case does not specify damages, the trust has asked the court to order the defendants to hand over any profits made from any sales.
It also claims there is "substantial evidence" suggesting the negatives were created by another photographer, Earl Brooks.
Adams's representatives insist the negatives are fraudulent....
Egyptian minister held over Van Gogh theft
Source: BBC News (8-23-10)
The Egyptian government's head of fine arts has been remanded in custody pending an investigation into the theft of a Van Gogh painting at the weekend.
Muhsin Sha'lan, first under-secretary at the culture ministry, was accused of "negligence", according to the state news agency Mena.
Several other officials were believed to have been detained at the same time.
The theft of the $50m (£32m) painting from a Cairo museum on Saturday has been blamed on poor security.
The work - known as both Poppy Flowers and Vase And Flowers - was cut from its frame at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum during the day on Saturday.
Egypt's top prosecutor, Abdel Meguid Mahmud, said none of the alarms at the museum and only seven out of 43 security cameras were working.
He added that the broken alarms and cameras had not worked for some time.
Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram said nine culture ministry employees had also been barred from travelling as part of the investigation into the disappearance.
Government officials were not available for comment.
Police are reported to be focusing their hunt for the missing Van Gogh on Egypt's air and sea ports....
Pont-Saint-Esprit poisoning: Did the CIA spread LSD?
Source: BBC News (8-23-10)
Nearly 60 years ago, a French town was hit by a sudden outbreak of hallucinations, which left five people dead and many seriously ill. For years it was blamed on bread contaminated with a psychedelic fungus - but that theory is now being challenged.
On 16 August 1951, postman Leon Armunier was doing his rounds in the southern French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit when he was suddenly overwhelmed by nausea and wild hallucinations.
"It was terrible. I had the sensation of shrinking and shrinking, and the fire and the serpents coiling around my arms," he remembers.
Leon, now 87, fell off his bike and was taken to the hospital in Avignon.
He was put in a straitjacket but he shared a room with three teenagers who had been chained to their beds to keep them under control.
"Some of my friends tried to get out of the window. They were thrashing wildly... screaming, and the sound of the metal beds and the jumping up and down... the noise was terrible.
"I'd prefer to die rather than go through that again."
Over the coming days, dozens of other people in the town fell prey to similar symptoms.
Doctors at the time concluded that bread at one of the town's bakeries had become contaminated by ergot, a poisonous fungus that occurs naturally on rye....
24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome?
Source: BBC News (8-24-10)
Tuesday marks the 1,600th anniversary of one of the turning points of European history - the first sack of Imperial Rome by an army of Visigoths, northern European barbarian tribesmen, led by a general called Alaric.
It was the first time in 800 years that Rome had been successfully invaded. The event had reverberations around the Mediterranean.
Jerome, an early Christian Church Father, in a letter to a friend from Bethlehem - where he happened to be living - wrote that he burst into tears upon hearing the news.
"My voice sticks in my throat, and, as I dictate, sobs choke me. The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken," he said.
Although Alaric was a Christian ransacking a Christian city, there was an ominous feeling that the world structure built by pagan Rome was disintegrating.
The Roman Empire survived for a few more decades, and later other armies sacked the city again, but this was the date which marked the beginning of the end of Rome's grandeur.
Centuries later, the city which had at the height of its power boasted a population of more than a million people, was reduced to a lawless, ruined village of no more than 30,000 residents.
Marching in unopposed
Pagans claimed that Christians had destroyed the greatest human achievement ever contrived....
Monday, August 23, 2010
Dinosaur bones found in Canadian sewer tunnel
Source: BBC (8-23-10)
Canadian workers have unearthed large dinosaur bones while digging a sewer tunnel in the city of Edmonton.
A tooth and limb bone, which experts believe belong to the Albertosaurus and the Edmontosaurus species, were found by drainage crews in the Quesnell Heights neighbourhood.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum is helping city officials to identify the fossils.
Museum officials said workers will continue to dig out bones still stuck inside the walls of the tunnel.
Andy Neuman, the executive director of the museum, said that although dinosaur bones had been discovered in Edmonton in the past, this was the first time the city of Edmonton has made the discovery....
Lockerbie bomber was visited by Gaddafi son on anniversary
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-23-10)
The Lockerbie bomber is "in good condition" given his fatal cancer but depressed at critical coverage of his release from prison, according to senior officials.
Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi spent the anniversary of his return to Libya from a Scottish jail at home, where he was visited by friends and regime figures to mark the occasion.
He reached the milestone despite being given three months to live when released on compassionate grounds eight years into his sentence by the Scottish authorities.
Last Thursday, on the eve of the anniversary, Britain urged Libya not to treat the event as a celebration. There were no signs of official commemorations, though reports spoke of a stream of visitors including Saif al-Islam....
Crowds rally for and against Ground Zero mosque
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-22-10)
Supporters and opponents of a proposed Muslim cultural centre and mosque near the World Trade Center site rallied in downtown Manhattan on Sunday, kept blocks apart by a heavy police presence.
The dispute has taken on national political significance, with Republicans using the issue to attack President Barack Obama ahead of midterm elections where his Democrats are fighting to retain control of Congress.
The rallies were held near the location of the proposed Muslim centre, just two blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda, which destroyed the World Trade Center towers and killed close to 3,000 people.
The centre, which would include a prayer room, has ignited fierce debate between those who say its proposed location is insensitive and fear it will harbour religious extremism and those who back it based on the principle of religious tolerance and understanding....
Egon Schiele artwork stolen by Nazis returned to Austria
Source: Telegraph (UK) (8-23-10)
A 12-year battle over the possession of a painting that was stolen from a Jewish Austrian by the Nazis came to a close today when the work by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele was displayed at a Vienna museum.
The oil painting was returned over the weekend after the Leopold Museum agreed to pay $19 million (15 million euros) as part of the settlement to the estate of art dealer Lea Bondi Jaray, the original owner.
US authorities had refused to return the painting to the Leopold Museum after it was exhibited in 1998 at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) because of a claim by her descendants....
Acropolis to open for August full moon, after Greek officials solve dispute with guards
Source: AP (8-23-10)
Greek officials say the Acropolis in Athens will open on the night of the August full moon Tuesday after a pay dispute with security guards has been resolved.
The culture and tourism ministry says the citadel will be among more than 90 sites and museums to open by moonlight on the one night a year the public can enter monuments after sundown.
Initially, the ministry had left the Acropolis off the list, for the first time in years, citing the dispute over guards' pay for the nighttime work....
Top culture ministry official detained and accused of neglect in Van Gogh painting theft
Source: AP (8-23-10)
Egypt's state news agency reports the country's top prosecutor has ordered a four-day detention of the deputy culture minister over the theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of "Poppy Flowers" and "Vase with Flowers," on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo. None of the museum's alarms and only seven of 43 surveillance cameras were working at the time of the robbery.
On Monday, General Prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered the four-day-detention of Deputy Culture Minister Mohsen Shalaan, along with four security guards. He accused them of neglect and professional delinquency, according to Egypt's Middle East News Agency....
Estonian Navy finds wrecks of 3 British World War I-era ships off Baltic Sea island
Source: AP (8-23-10)
The wrecks of three British warships sunk after World War I off the coast of a Baltic Sea island have been found, Estonia's military announced Monday.
Using state-of-the-art sonar equipment, an Estonian naval vessel last week located the wrecks of HMS Cassandra, HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle near the Estonian island of Saaremaa, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Tallinn.
He said that the last coordinates of the vessels — reported by then British squadron commander Adm. Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair — were "surprisingly accurate" and helped the search substantially....
Michelle Obama, Laura Bush to jointly mark terror attack anniversary
Source: CNN (8-23-10)
First lady Michelle Obama will join former first lady Laura Bush on September 11 at the Flight 93 National Memorial outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, according to a statement from the National Park Foundation.
Obama and Bush will be joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
Fundraising is now under way for a memorial slated for dedication on September 11, 2011, the statement noted....
Tree beloved by Anne Frank falls down
Source: CNN (8-23-10)
A chestnut tree beloved by Holocaust victim Anne Frank as she wrote her diary in hiding in the Netherlands fell down Monday, the Anne Frank House museum told CNN. The tree, which was more than 150 years old, had been diseased since 2005 and had a support structure to help keep it upright.
Since the tree was found to be diseased, hundreds of saplings grown from its chestnuts have been donated to schools and parks around the world, the Anne Frank Museum said.
Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen just weeks before the Nazi concentration camp was liberated in 1945. But her name, story and message live on through her diary and, also, through her ailing tree. A fungus had left two-thirds of it hollow, said Anne Frank House spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker. A battle began in late 2007 between city officials who wanted to chop it down and activists who insisted it should stay....
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