This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 12, 2008
Jack Straw's review of the law banning Roman Catholics from succeeding to the throne may have some intriguing ramifications. It had been envisaged that any change to the law would apply only to future members of the Royal family, but the present Duke Francis of Bavaria, who claims to be the rightful king of Scotland, England, Ireland and France, is likely to be consulting learned friends about how it will apply to him.
The duke, whom Jacobites refer to as King Francis II, is descend
Source: Times (UK)
December 12, 2008
After 65 years a frescoed "lost chapel" created by British troops to honour the war dead after the landings at Salerno in southern Italy during the Second World War has been found - but has been turned into an ironmonger's basement storeroom.
The hunt for the chapel began after former British soldiers who took part in the landings in September 1943 told Harry Shindler, spokesman in Italy of the "Star Association", which represents Italian campaign veterans, that
Source: NYT
December 14, 2008
As Georgia faces a potential $2 billion budget deficit, a state senator has created a stir with a plan for reducing education spending: merge two historically black universities in Albany and Savannah with nearby mostly white institutions.
The proposal was made this month by Seth Harp, a Republican who is the chairman of the State Senate Higher Education Committee, and quickly drew condemnation from many black educators, politicians and alumni.
But supporters say the pl
Source: Politico.com
December 15, 2008
Simply put, some scholars think the comparisons have gone a bit over the top hat.
Sean Wilentz, a scholar in American history at Princeton, said many presidents have sought to frame themselves in the historical legacies of illustrious predecessors, but he couldn't find any examples quite so brazen.
"Sure, they've looked back to Washington and even, at times, Jackson. Reagan echoed and at times swiped FDR's rhetoric," said Wilentz. "But there's never been
Source: JTA
December 15, 2008
When the threat of a new boycott against Israeli academics emerged from the annual conference of the British University and College Union of lecturers’ conference in May, Israel supporters turned to London attorney Anthony Julius.
Well known for his hard line against anti-Semitism disguised as criticism of Israel, Julius went on the attack.
He promised free legal assistance to any academic affected by the threatened boycott, and wrote the union’s general secretary that
Source: Deutsche Welle
December 16, 2008
Roman soldiers were famously defeated by Germanic tribesmen at the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in 9 A.D. However, a newly discovered battlefield near Kalefeld-Oldenrode is even farther north than the Teutoberg Forest and appears to date from between 180 and 260 A.D., according to a report by the Associated Press news agency.
Archaeologists held a press conference on Monday, Dec. 15, to announce that they had used coins and weapons excavated from the area to date the battlefield.
Source: BBC
December 16, 2008
A 105-year-old Dutch entertainer has lost his libel lawsuit over claims that he sang for Nazi guards at the Dachau concentration camp during World War II.
Johannes Heesters had been seeking a retraction from German author Volker Kuehn who made the claims.
But a German judge said that although this could no longer be proven, there was enough evidence to suggest that Mr Heesters appeared on stage at the camp.
Mr Heesters does admit visiting Dachau, and tha
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
December 15, 2008
From Elizabeth Taylor to Sophia Loren, there have been many faces of Cleopatra. But this might be the most realistic of them all.
Egyptologist Sally Ann Ashton believes the computer-generated 3D image is the best likeness of the legendary beauty famed for her ability to beguile.
Pieced together from images on ancient artefacts, including a ring dating from Cleopatra's reign 2,000 years ago, it is the culmination of more than a year of painstaking research.
Source: Larry Rothfield blog
December 13, 2008
[Mr. Rothfield teaches at the University of Chicago.]
As readers of this blog already know, in October the State Department issued a fact sheet laying out its support of what was described as “numerous activities relating to the protection and preservation of Iraq’s cultural heritage”:These include emergency response to the looting of the Iraq National Museum, training of Iraqi mus
Source: FoxNews.com
December 12, 2008
Admirers of former dictator Augusto Pinochet inaugurated a museum in his
honor on Friday, a move they hope will burnish the image of a man reviled
by much of the world.
Visitors to the four-room museum can see the general's uniform, sabers,
books and knives — even his collection of toy soldiers.
Guided visits for groups of 12 will start on Monday and more than 150
people have registered to visit.
Pinochet's widow, Lucia Hiriart, said the inauguration shows that"little
b
Source: AP
December 12, 2008
Polish archaeologists believe silk-draped skeletons found in a cathedral
crypt are those of three grand masters who more than 600 years ago ruled
the Teutonic Knights — an order that spread religion through force.
An archaeologist in the city of Kwidzyn — the Teutonic fortress of
Marienwerder in the Middle Ages — said Friday that DNA tests indicate the
remains are those of Werner von Orseln, the knights' leader from
1324-1330; Ludolf Koenig, who ruled from 1342-1345; and Heinrich von
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 15, 2008
Half a century ago, six men with no sailing experience climbed aboard an
aging Chinese junk in Taiwan and survived a typhoon that nearly wrecked
the little ship. But after sailing nearly 7,000 miles, or about 11,000
kilometers, across the Pacific, they were greeted by cheering crowds as
they sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Now that turn-of-the-century junk, which experts say may be the last
salvageable vessel of its type, could be destroyed if it does not find a
permanent home
Source: MSNBC
December 12, 2008
Archaeology magazine's top 10 finds of 2008 include Maya paint and ancient poop. And there are bonus finds as well, including a monumental discovery that the discoverers have been trying to keep under wraps.
Most of these revelations haven't gotten the kind of hype that we saw this year for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
"But as much as crystal skulls were the year's most prominent 'artifacts,' we're more likely to remember 2008 as
Source: AP
December 14, 2008
Sarah Palin lost the election, but she's a winner to a connoisseur of quotations.
The Republican vice presidential candidate and her comedic doppelganger, Tina Fey, took the top two spots in this year's list of most memorable quotes compiled by Fred R. Shapiro.
First place was "I can see Russia from my house!" spoken in satire of Palin's foreign policy credentials by Fey on "Saturday Night Live."
Palin actual quote was: "They're ou
Source: Austin-Statesman
December 11, 2008
Many, many years ago, the area now known as Zilker Park (Austin, Texas -
USA) was a settlement for some of North America's early hunter-gatherers.
As many as 10,000 years ago, those people used stone tools to cut meat,
chop wood, scrape hides, and fashion spear points. Artifacts of their
lives have long been entombed under layers of mud and sediment washed
ashore by the flooding Colorado River.
The Austin City Council could decide to pay as much as $700,000 for a
three-month dig i
Source: AP
December 14, 2008
Enthusiasm among blacks and Democrats for Barack Obama's candidacy pushed voter turnout in this year's elections to the highest level in 40 years
Final figures from nearly every state and the District of Columbia showed that more than 131 million people voted, the most ever for a presidential election. A little more than 122 million voted in 2004.
This year's total is 61.6 percent of the nation's eligible voters, the highest turnout rate since 1968, when Republican Rich
Source: Tehran Times
December 14, 2008
An archaeological team working on the Kelar Tepe believes that they have
found a Neolithic settlement on the prehistoric mound located in the
Kelaradsht region in Iran's northern province of Mazandaran. However they
have said that more tests are needed to determine an accurate date for the
site."Excavations at the Rashak 3 Cave have uncovered an oven at a depth
of 5 meters," team director Hamed Vahdatinasab said."We have also
discovered shards in the oven, which are very similar to Neol
Source: BBC
December 15, 2008
An internet petition has been launched in Turkey, apologising for the"great catastrophe of 1915" when hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians died. Armenians and many international historians describe as "genocide" the massacres and deaths during a forced deportation from eastern Turkey.
Turkey firmly denies that, saying those killed were just victims of war.
The petition - the first of its kind - was initiated by prominent Turkish academics and newspa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 15, 2008
Their orders in the spring of 1942 were to transport tons of weapons, ammunition and fuel across some of the wildest and highest terrain on the planet, quickly christened "the hump" by the pilots, to supply nationalist forces in China after invading Japanese had cut the Burma Road that had been their logistics lifeline.
Hundreds of aircrew perished when their planes crashed into mountains in bad weather or were shot down over thick jungles where their remains have lain fo
Source: Los Angeles Times
December 6, 2008
DANDONG, China -- Here at the Museum of the War to Resist American Aggression and Aid Korea, it's as if the clock stopped 55 years ago.
"I feel like I am right there on the front lines," said Wang Binyan, a 23-year-old teacher. "I can feel what the Chinese soldiers felt. In this place, Americans are the enemy."
The museum in this provincial city on the North Korean border tells a personal version of the Korean War, one that casts U.S. foreign policy
