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: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net
December 11, 2008
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a federal
law that requires museums and federal agencies to return human remains and
other cultural items to their linear descendants. That means it's up to
people like U.S. Fish & Wildlife archaeologist Debbie Corbett to locate
all of the remains that were taken off of federal lands in Alaska,
identify who they belong to, and try to get them home. But Corbett says
the process isn't always straight forward for the dozens of rema
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 11, 2008
The hand written missive to first wife Mileva Maric accuses her of not passing on his letters to his children and deals with her complaints that he was not paying enough towards his family's upkeep.
The letter, in German, is dated 12th December 1914, but the couple were not divorced until Valentine's Day 1919.
The theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner famed for his theory of relativity married Mileva Maric on 6th January 1903.
They had three child
Source: History Today
December 12, 2008
Antiquity, an Archaeology quarterly, reports in its December issue on the often under-reported historical incidences of contact between Britain & Ireland and Islamic cultures. In a fascinating article, Andrew Petersen documents the different types of archaeological finds which suggest interaction through the centuries.
Pottery, glass and ceramics originating in the Middle East, Moorish Spain, or merely bearing the influence of Islamic art have been found in sites throughout both
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 12, 2008
A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services
committee said that top Bush administration officials, including Donald
Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bear major responsibility for the
abuses committed by American troops in interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison
in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other military detention centers.
The report was issued jointly by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the
Democratic chairman of the panel, and Senator John McCain of A
Source: Independent (UK)
December 12, 2008
One of the most dramatic episodes in the life of Basil Kelly, a High Court and then appeal judge in NorthernIreland, and indeed in the eventful history of the province's legal system during the recent Troubles, came in August 1983. Presiding over one ofthe biggest IRA cases ever to come before the courts, Kelly was equipped with certain extras, which included a bullet-proof vest and SAS bodyguards. In court he was flanked bytwo vigilant police officers armed with M1 carbines.
It wa
Source: BBC
December 11, 2008
Masood Sobhan told the BBC the former Beatle and serving US senator played "key roles" during the country's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Mr Sobhan said it was a "disgrace" that the pair had not been recognised.
His case for them to be honoured is expected to be heard by the Bangladeshi High Court at the end of December.
Source: BBC
December 12, 2008
The team, excavating a York University site, discovered a skull containing a yellow substance which scans showed to be shrunken, but brain-shaped.
Brains consist of fatty tissue which microbes in the soil would absorb, so neurologists believe the find could be some kind of fossilised brain.
The skull was found in an area first farmed more than 2,000 years ago.
More tests will now be done to establish what it is actually made of.
The team fr
Source: History Today
December 11, 2008
On Tuesday December 9th, a group of forensic anthropologists confirmed that almost 10,000 bone fragments found in the ‘Arana pit’ in La Plata were those of victims of the Argentine military dictatorship under General Videla, from 1976 to 1983. The pit is situated on the site of a once-secret detention centre where dissidents were imprisoned, tortured and executed in what has become known as the Dirty War. A wall with over 200 bullet marks was also found bordering the grave.
It is th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 12, 2008
The documents, which included a three-page handwritten draft of King's first anti-Vietnam war speech in 1967 and notes found in his suit pocket after his 1968 assassination, had been put up for sale by Belafonte, a former close friend of King.
The 81-year-old said earlier that the papers had been given to him by King and his late wife, Coretta Scott King, and that he intended to donate the proceeds of the sale – estimated at up to 1.3 million dollars – to charities that help "
Source: Center for Public Integrity
December 10, 2008
As the Bush administration comes to an end, the federal government is not functioning as it should. Just how bad is this government dysfunction? In an effort to answer that question, the Center for Public Integrity embarked on Broken Government, an examination of the worst systematic failures of the executive branch over the past eight years.
Broken Government documents more than 125 examples of government breakdown in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice
Source: AP
December 10, 2008
President George W. Bush bestowed Presidential Citizen Medals on a figure from the Watergate scandal, the librarian of Congress and the actor known as Lieutenant Dan in the 1994 Academy Award-winning movie "Forrest Gump."
In total, the president recognized 23 individuals and one posthumously on Wednesday with the second highest honor for a civilian, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The awards were conferred in the Oval Office in a private ceremony.
Source: AP
December 11, 2008
Authorities say a hoard of 4,500-year-old copper weapons recovered off a northern beach is the largest of its kind ever found in Greece.
A Culture Ministry statement says the discovery includes at least 110 ax and hammer heads, but several more should be extracted from compacted masses of corroded metal.
Source: Jerusalem Post
December 10, 2008
A deluge that swept the Land of Israel more than 7,000 years ago, submerging six Neolithic villages opposite the Carmel Mountains, is the origin of the biblical flood of Noah, a British marine archeologist said Tuesday.
The new theory about the source of the great flood detailed in the Book of Genesis comes amid continuing controversy among scholars over whether the inundation of the Black Sea more than seven millennia ago was the biblical flood.
In the theory posited b
Source: Nate Silver at http://www.fivethirtyeight.com
December 10, 2008
Contrary to much reporting -- including some of our own - the U.S. Senate probably lacks the Constitutional authority to refuse to seat an appointment made by indicated Governor Rod Blagojevich. As a law school friend writes:
FYI. If the Supreme Court took the case, It isn't clear that the Senate has the Constitutional authority to refuse to seat a senator who has been validly appointed under the Constitution.
Art I Section 5 says that"Each House shall be the Judge of the
Source: http://www.terradaily.com
December 11, 2008
The decline of the Roman and Byzantine Empires in the Eastern Mediterranean more than 1,400 years ago may have been driven by unfavorable climate changes.
Based on chemical signatures in a piece of calcite from a cave near Jerusalem, a team of American and Israeli geologists pieced together a detailed record of the area's climate from roughly 200 B.C. to 1100 A.D.
Their analysis, to be reported in an upcoming issue of the journal Quaternary Research, reveals increasingl
Source: MSNBC
December 10, 2008
George Washington showed a keen awareness of political symbolism back in 1789 when he was preparing for his first inauguration.
"The cloth and buttons which accompanied your favor of the 30th ... really do credit to the manufacturers of this country," Washington said in a letter to Acting Secretary of War Henry Knox. The letter was displayed at a news conference today at the National Archives.
Archives historian Marvin Pinkert said Washington had made a conscious de
Source: AP
December 11, 2008
Germany's highest criminal court turned over to Munich prosecutors on Thursday the case against a retired Ohio auto worker accused of serving as a Nazi death camp guard, paving the way for his possible extradition from the United States for trial.
Munich prosecutors will now decide whether there is enough evidence of John Demjanjuk's alleged involvement in the deaths of 29,000 Jews at Sobibor camp to charge him and request that he be returned to Germany for trial, spokesman Anton Wi
Source: USA Today
December 10, 2008
The government's spending surge to ease the financial crisis and a worsening recession is increasing the federal share of the nation's economic activity close to $1 out of every $4, the highest level since World War II, an analysis of current and projected payments shows.
Emergency rescue plans for financial institutions and increased benefits for needy individuals are mounting, as Congress considers President-elect Barack Obama's call for a massive public works program that could e
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 10, 2008
China marked international Human Rights Day on Wednesday with newspaper
editorials and television commentaries hailing the country's"unremitting
efforts" and"nonstop progress" in promoting free speech and individual
rights.
It was also a busy day for public security officials, who were dispatched
to quell a protest of about 40 people who rallied outside the gated
headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Beijing. After calling for free
elections and demanding a crackdown on corruption
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
December 11, 2008
On December 11, in a letter to Walmart President and CEO Lee Scott, 253 historians from throughout the country urged the retail giant to reconsider plans to build a 138,000 square-foot supercenter immediately adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange County, VA. A formal application for the project was filed on December 5, 2008.
