This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: WaPo
February 22, 2010
"I am fool."
That self-assessment comes from Oh Kil-nam, a South Korean economist who moved to North Korea a quarter-century ago, dragging along his unhappy wife and two teenage daughters. He then defected to the West, leaving his family stranded in a country his wife had called "a living hell."...
His wife and daughters -- if alive -- are believed to be prisoners in Camp No. 15, one of several sprawling political prisons in the mountains of North Ko
Source: Catholic.org
February 22, 2010
In the area known as Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount of Israel, archaeologists have uncovered parts of an ancient complex believed to correspond and date to the time of King Solomon´s Temple.
Located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem's Old City, next to the holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, a 231-foot long, 20 foot-high section of ancient stone wall, believed to be the city wall
Source: Discovery News
February 22, 2010
U.S. authorities will return a beautifully painted 3,000-year-old coffin to Egypt, Egyptian Culture Minister Faruq Hosni said on Monday.
Decorated with colorful religious scenes, the ornamented coffin contains the remains of a man called Imesy.
Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) had said last year that the coffin likely belongs to pharaoh Ames of the 21st Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt from 1070-945 B.C.
The
Source: Discovery News
February 22, 2010
New research shows that Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun had a rough life: he suffered from malaria and deformed feet, two of his children were stillborn, and he died at the age of 19. Scientific analysis suggests that despite his status as royalty, his life seemed cursed.
But was his death cursed as well, as many believe?
Stories circulated that anyone who dared disturb Tut’s resting place would face the terrible wrath of the mummy—and some believe that nearly two dozen p
Source: Fox News
February 22, 2010
Editor's note: Today marks the birthday of George Washington, our first nation's president. Every year on February 22, the vice president selects one senator to read Washington's farewell address aloud on the floor of the Senate. Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris was chosen to read the address today.
President George Washington’s Farewell Address was not really an address. Nor was it really a true farewell. The message was printed in a Philadelphia newspaper on September 19, 1796
Source: Stanford Report
February 1, 2010
French Professor Jean-Marie Apostolidès finds link between blood and ink in Ted Kaczynski's "Manifesto" – but should we listen to a killer?
Jack Hubbard
For French Professor Jean-Marie Apostolidès, briefly a penpal of the notorious Unabomber and a translator of his writings, these very questions are a scholar's terroir.
He was intrigued by the killer's anti-technology stance, and says that on that score, Theodore Kaczynski may have been right. "Tec
Source: Times Online (UK)
February 22, 2010
When the fearsome Baltic pirate Klaus Störtebeker was executed 600 years ago his headless body is said to have walked 12m (40ft) along the length of Hamburg quayside.
He had struck a deal with the elders of the port: any of his 70 men that he managed to pass in his post-decapitation walk should be spared. The quivering corpse passed 11 fellow pirates before the executioner put out a foot and tripped him up.
Little wonder, then, that the skull of Störtebeker has fascinat
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 22, 2010
Caravaggio's bar brawling and hell-raising exploits were the result of lead poisoning from the paints he used, Italian researchers have claimed.
A team of anthropologists hope to prove their theory by carrying out DNA tests on bones which they believe are the remains of the Renaissance artist.
Caravaggio was renowned for his hot temper, heavy drinking and violent temperament and was forced to go on the run in 1606 after killing a man in a tavern brawl, a crime for which
Source: Independent (UK)
February 18, 2010
A 3,000 year old Bronze Age trading vessel – the oldest shipwreck ever found in British waters – has been located off the coast of Devon in South West England.
It went down around 900 BC carrying a precious cargo of tin and copper ingots from the continent, and has lain undetected on the seabed in just eight to ten metres of water in a bay near Salcombe ever since. Experts have hailed the discovery – one of only four Bronze Age vessels found in British waters – as “extremely import
Source: AFP
February 19, 2010
The buried antiquities of Ur, Biblical birthplace of Abraham and one of the cradles of civilisation, could one day outshine those of ancient Egypt, archaeologists and workers on the site believe.
With Iraq ravaged by war and strife since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Baghdad's struggling government has had greater priorities than funding large-scale digs at Ur, where only small teams have been working since 2005.
Inside he found some of the great
Source: Artdaily.org
February 21, 2010
A replica of the sacred center of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, will begin construction this year outside Mexico City, the directors of the project said.
Notable among the 21 buildings that will make up the replica of Tenochtitlan, a city founded in the 14th century and one of the biggest of its day, will be the pyramids of Coacalco, Cihuacoatl, Chicomecoatl and Xochiquetzal, the Temple of the Sun and courts for the pre-Columbian ball game that played a central rol
Source: NYT
February 21, 2010
The French National Library has bought itself a belated valentine in the form of manuscript pages by the hand of the world’s most famous lover, Giacomo Casanova, Reuters reported. The 3,700-page purchase includes Casanova’s memoir, “L’Histoire de Ma Vie” (“The Story of My Life”), below, which was thought to have been destroyed at the end of World War II; it was discovered in boxes that had been transferred to a bank safe in Leipzig, Germany, in 1945 a few days before Allied bombing raids...
Source: NYT
February 19, 2010
Even in the midwinter mess of 2010, it’s not hard to imagine a Washington that works. It wouldn’t even seem to require that much change.
Politicians in both parties would display a little more regard for one another, and the institutions they serve. The institutions themselves would impose a little more discipline and efficiency. Voters would give leaders a little more trust.
In fact, that’s a pretty good description of how Washington functioned for two decades after Wo
Source: Guardian (UK)
February 22, 2010
The Polish authorities have for the first time admitted their involvement in the CIA's secret programme for the rendition of high-level terrorist suspects from Iraq and Afghanistan, it emerged today.
After years of stonewalling, Warsaw's air control service confirmed that at least six CIA flights had landed at a disused military air base in northern Poland in 2003.
"It is time for the authorities to provide a full accounting of Poland's role in rendition," Ada
Source: WRAL (SC)
February 21, 2010
South Carolina archaeologists believe they might have unearthed the first octagonal house in the United States. The ruins were found last fall on the banks of the May River in the southern coastal town of Bluffton. A letter written in 1796 by a visitor mentions the octagonal house and helps date the structure.
Archaeologists Heather Cline and Mary Socci say the 900-square-foot house was owned by Scottish immigrant William McKimmy and was built about 1790.
Source: Bennington Banner
February 19, 2010
It’s official: The Bennington Battlefield is on a list of proposed parks and historic sites that could be cut from the state budget.
The announcement, made by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, includes a list of 41 parks and 14 historic sites to be closed outright, with service reductions to be made at 23 parks and one historic site.
Eileen Larrabee, a spokeswoman for the parks office, said that if the cuts are approved, it would save $6 million
Source: News10Now (Newton, NY)
February 22, 2010
Newtown Battlefield State Park in Chemung County is on the list of parks and historic sites across the state facing possible closure because of budget crisis.
The park is part of the site of the battle of Newtown from the American Revolution. It hosts re-enactment events and offers visitors an opportunity to learn about local history, an opportunity that would be missed by the community....
Source: The Leaf Chronicle (TN)
February 21, 2010
They fought in the largest war in history at the same time they were fighting a "war" just as large — the fight against a racial divide between whites and blacks.
For some African-American veterans of World War II, the segregation and animosity between the two races was something of a mystery.
Lloyd Morrison, 92, grew up near Boston, and he didn't know much about segregation until he tried to enter the military.
Morrison scored a 98 percent on his
Source: Stafford County Sun (VA)
February 19, 2010
An Orange County Circuit Court judge heard preliminary arguments earlier this month from national groups and local residents who oppose the planned 240,000-square-foot commercial development featuring a new Walmart on the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange.
The public meeting was held on Feb. 3.
Representatives from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield and Orange residents are challenging the Orange County Board of Supervisors’
Source: Morristown Daily Record (NJ)
February 16, 2010
It was the humble request of a weary soldier who had served in the Continental Army for five years and had just survived the most severe winter of the Revolutionary War, weathering 23 snowstorms in wooden huts at Jockey Hollow in Morristown.
Dated: "Camp near Morristown April 16th 1780,'' Cpl. John Allison, a 25-year-old soldier in the 5th New York Regiment, sought the highest commander's relief to his plight, asking to be discharged as his three-year enlistment had expired.
