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: AP
October 27, 2008
Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.
In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of th
Source: FoxNews.com
October 27, 2008
Barack Obama may be on the receiving end of some vicious attacks, according to his running mate — but he's in select company.
Speaking to 1,500 at Eastern Carolina University, Biden compared the negative campaign against Obama to those waged against great presidents from Jefferson to JFK.
"Let me share a little bit of history with you," said the Delaware senator. "The defenders of the status quo, have always tried to tear down those who would change our n
Source: Discovery Channel News
October 24, 2008
European diners around 8,000 years ago could enjoy a bowl of instant wheat cereal that, aside from uneven cooking and maybe a few extra lumps, wasn't very different from hot wheat cereals served today, suggests a new study that describes the world's oldest known cooked cereal.
Dating from between 5920 to 5730 B.C., the ancient cereal consisted of parboiled bulgur wheat that Early Neolithic Bulgarians could refresh in minutes with hot water.
"People boiled the grain
Source: International Herald Tribune
October 26, 2008
"I haven't forgotten history," says Gert Heinz, a tax adviser in Munich. "If you depend on paper money you can lose everything. We've learned that the hard way after two world wars."
So when Chancellor Angela Merkel went on television recently to tell Germans that their bank accounts were safe, Heinz, who at 68 still remembers the rows of canned food that his mother hoarded in the attic, decided he would rather be safe than sorry.
He converted anothe
Source: L.A. Times
October 27, 2008
A massive copper smelting plant in the biblical land of Edom is at least three centuries older than researchers previously believed, placing it firmly in the biblical timeline of King Solomon, the first ruler of a united Israel 3,000 years ago, researchers reported Monday.
The existence of Solomon has been questioned by some scholars over the last two decades because of the paucity of archaeological evidence supporting the biblical record and the belief that there were no complex so
Source: Yahoo
October 26, 2008
A new study shows that humans had the ability to make fire nearly 790,000 years ago, a skill that helped them migrate from Africa to Europe.
By analyzing flints at an archaeological site on the bank of the river Jordan, researchers at Israel's Hebrew University discovered that early civilizations had learned to light fires, a turning point that allowed them to venture into unknown lands.
A previous study of the site published in 2004 showed that man had been able to con
Source: Bernard Cornwell in the Daily Mail (UK)
October 27, 2008
Legend says the Battle of Agincourt was won by stalwart English archers. It was not. In the end it was won by men using lead-weighted hammers, poleaxes, mauls and falcon-beaks, the ghastly paraphernalia of medieval hand-to-hand fighting. It was fought on a field knee-deep in mud and it was more of a massacre than a battle.
Laurence Olivier's film of Shakespeare's Henry V shows French knights charging on horseback, but very few men were mounted at Agincourt.
The French
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 27, 2008
The horn-handled knife with a 4in blade has one side of the blade engraved with the signature of Himmler, and an engraved 'SS' device on the other.
It belonged to Himmler, who one of the most feared men in Nazi Germany, but was given away to his friend Herman Barth - who was responsible for the SS Education School in Berlin during the Second World War.
Barth once left the knife behind at the SS Headquarters after a hunting trip and Himmler returned it with a letter whic
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 27, 2008
The correspondence to the young prince reflects the full gamut of parental emotions - including as certain amount anticipation and pride in his son but also considerable disappointment and anger at his profligacy, poor manners and ill-chosen company.
On joining the Prince George as a 13 year old midshipman in 1779, William is advised: "You are now launching into a scene of life where you either prove an Honour, or a Disgrace to your Family; it would be very unwelcoming of the
Source: Sky News
October 27, 2008
How could you resist voting for a Presidential candidate who has the slogan 'It's Time To Party Like It's 1773', and who in 2004 chose a 1970's porn star as his Vice Presidential pick?
Charles Jay of the Boston Tea Party (BTP) is a former boxing manager now punching way below his weight with another shot at the White House.
In 2004 he and Marilyn Chambers, star of epics such as 'Still Insatiable', were on the ballot in the state of Utah. This year he aims to triple his
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
October 25, 2008
A TV show re-creating Adolf Hitler's favourite meal has come under fire from Jewish and political prisoner organisations.
In a programme for the Belgian series 'Plat Prefere', or 'Favourite Dish', cook Jeroen Meus goes to Hitler's haunts in southern Germany to prepare trout with butter sauce, 'a succulent festive meal'. It is due to be shown next week.
Criticism was led yesterday by Michael Freilich, the editor of Joods Actueel magazine, who said it was worrying that
Source: Bloomberg News
October 27, 2008
On the night of Nov. 4, either Barack Obama or John McCain will be celebrating his election as president. It may be a short party.
Whoever wins will come under intense, immediate pressure -- unmatched since Franklin D. Roosevelt's election in 1932 -- to begin participating in policy making over which he'll have no formal control for 2 1/2 months. Within days, the winner's economic advisers may be heading to the U.S. Treasury to help tackle the nation's worst financial crisis in more
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 25, 2008
'Don't even dare think about it – and don't dare say it out loud. But if it happens, pinch yourself." Those were the words of an African-American friend last week about the prospect of an Obama victory.
Still, Barack Obama has defied all efforts to slow the momentum of his campaign. When a family illness removed him to Hawaii, Michelle, his smart and sassy wife, effortlessly took over.
But this past week a new kind of headline has followed her: the question of her
Source: BBC
October 25, 2008
A three-year project to discover and showcase rural history in Wrexham is being launched.
An archaeology dig and medieval re-enactments are being put on in Brymbo to encourage people to think about their local heritage.
Ideas for history projects for the next three years are being sought.
Neil Oliver, the Scottish historian and archaeologist who also presents the BBC TV series Coast, is launching the event.
Karen Harris from organiser Northern Marches Cymru said:"We want people's i
Source: National Security Archive
October 24, 2008
Washington, DC, October 24, 2008 - Today, in response to a petition filed by the National Security Archive and several historical associations, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) released the previously secret grand jury transcripts of eight witnesses related to Cold War espionage prosecutions. The nearly 300 pages of transcripts from the Brothman/Moskowitz grand jury reveal important new details about the testimony of Elizabeth Bentley, the so-called "Red Spy Queen,&qu
Source: Bruce Reed in Slate
October 20, 2008
In the unlikely event that Democrats reached 60, what would it mean? To be sure, a cloture-sized majority would make a difference on some party-line questions that tend to get bogged down for partisan rather than ideological reasons—for example, voting rights for D.C. Prolonged confirmation battles, already infrequent, would become even more so.
But reaching 60 seats won't suspend the laws of political gravity for Senate Democrats, nor will keeping Democrats in the 50s do much to ease Sen
Source: AP
October 24, 2008
New guidelines for history education have been endorsed by a Nevada panel despite criticism from a conservative education activist that the standards are too vague.
The guidelines adopted Thursday by the state Council to Establish Academic Standards now go to the state Board of Education, which has final say.
Joe Enge, a former history teacher and Carson City school board member, argued that the new standards favor a thematic, big-ideas approach to history rather than teachin
Source: Economist
October 23, 2008
EVERY German schoolchild learns to revile Hitler, but what about Erich Honecker, boss of communist East Germany? He was not a dictator, or so most teenagers from eastern Germany seem to think. And the dreaded Stasi, which jailed and tortured citizens who stepped out of line? Just an intelligence service, say young easterners. These findings, from a survey of 5,200 schoolchildren by Berlin’s Free University, dismayed those who think national identity and democratic values rest on shared judgments
Source: AP
October 25, 2008
RICHMOND, Va. – In the passionate world of Civil War re-enactors, authenticity is everything — from uniforms with historically correct stitching to hardtack made from scratch.
A battle re-enactment last month pushed realism to the limits: a retired New York City police officer portraying a Union soldier for a documentary film was shot in the shoulder, possibly by a Confederate re-enactor.
The shooting sent the 73-year-old to the hospital and left the Isle of Wight Sheri
Source: Yahoo
October 23, 2008
A 6,000 year-old set of household gear, including crockery and two wood-fired ovens, has been found in the buried ruins of a prehistoric farmhouse in northern Greece, officials said Thursday.
A Culture Ministry statement said the discovery"provides invaluable, unique information" on late Neolithic domestic architecture and household organization."This is a very rare case where the remains have stayed undisturbed by farming or other external intervention for about 6,000 years," the ministry
