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
September 19, 2008
FORT MORGAN, Ala. — When the waves from Hurricane Ike receded, they left behind a mystery -- a ragged shipwreck that archeologists say could be a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from some 70 years later. The wreck, about six miles from Fort Morgan, had already been partially uncovered when Hurricane Camille cleared away sand in 1969.
Researchers at the time identified it as the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed tryi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 18, 2008
A replica of the cross was worn around the neck by the then Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey as a symbol of his office.
But the cross, which was found in a grave within the area of the small Roman city at Shepton Mallet in Somerset, is almost certainly a fake.
Scientists at Liverpool University, who conducted tests using new technology, have concluded that they are "99 per cent" certain the cross or amulet does not date from Roman times.
The re
Source: International Herald Tribune
September 18, 2008
If the experience of Japan is any guide, the U.S. Federal Reserve's
plans to accept equity as collateral for loans will have little impact on
the credit crisis and may even erode the central bank's influence over
markets.
While the Bank of Japan tinkered with its collateral policy, the
government spent public funds to replenish the capital of debt-laden
banks, and that is what ultimately helped pull Japan out of its crisis,
analysts said.
The United States, by contrast, has
Source: BBC
September 18, 2008
The federal archive in Berlin has for the first time compiled a list of some 600,000 Jews who lived in Germany up to 1945 and were persecuted by the Nazis.
The names and addresses, which took four years to compile, will be made available to Holocaust groups to help people uncover the fate of relatives.
By the time of the Nazis' defeat, only some 20,000 Jews remained in Germany, most in displaced persons camps.
Six million Jews across Europe were murdered
Source: AP
September 18, 2008
A French museum has found a previously unknown piece of music handwritten by Mozart, a researcher said Thursday. The 18th century melody sketch is missing the harmony and instrumentation but was described as an important find.
Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said there is no doubt that the single sheet was written by the composer.
"This is absolutely new," Leisinger said in a telephone intervie
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 18, 2008
A total of 548 British and Dutch PoWs were machine-gunned when the Suez Maru, the Japanese "Hell Ship" transporting them, was sunk by an American torpedo attack in the Flores Sea off Indonesia in November 1943.
According to a statement made by the Japanese ship's commander, attempts were made by a minesweeper to rescue the PoWs, but they could not be reached in time.
However, six years later a crew member admitted the truth, and was backed up by the ship's p
Source: Reuters
September 18, 2008
Four giant, graffiti-covered slabs of the Berlin Wall could fetch as much as 3,000 euros ($4,350) each at an auction Friday, a Berlin auction house said Thursday.
The four 2.8-tonne [6,200-pound] chunks of the wall that once divided Communist East Berlin and capitalist West Berlin are pieces of German history, said Hans Peter Plettner, spokesman for Deutsche Grundstuecksauktionen AG.
Even though much of the Berlin Wall was quickly broken up ground down for road construc
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 18, 2008
Horrible Science writer Nick Arnold has spent years tracing the location of the Battle of Cynuit in 878.
A Saxon army routed an invading force of Vikings which besieged them in a fortress in North Devon or Somerset, the site of which has been the subject of speculation.
England's ruler, Alfred the Great was not present in person at the battle in which the Saxons were led by an Alderman named Odda.
King Alfred later routed a second, larger Viking Army at
Source: International Herald Tribune
September 18, 2008
Will future historians write about the Great Depression of the 2000s as they did about the one in the 1930s? The world's central bankers sought to answer "no" Thursday - resoundingly, though not definitively.
With a huge infusion of cash, the U.S. Federal Reserve, joined by its fellow central banks around the globe, unleashed their most forceful volley of financial firepower yet. The goal was to persuade a convulsing banking system that there will be no shortage of money
Source: BBC
September 16, 2008
New evidence suggests the telescope may have been invented in Spain, not
the Netherlands or Italy as has previously been assumed.
The findings, outlined in the magazine History Today, suggest the
telescope's creator could have been a spectacle-maker based in Gerona,
Spain.
The first refracting telescopes were thought to have appeared in the
Netherlands in 1608.
But the first examples may actually have been made for Spanish merchants.
The inventor, according to his
Source: http://www.alligator.org
September 18, 2008
The future seemed sturdy for 34 historic sites in St. Augustine that
needed renovation after UF announced plans to take the buildings under its
wing July 2007.
However, with the state’s shrinking budget, UF hasn’t been able to fulfill
that offer and probably won’t be able to anytime soon.
“The price tag to take care of these buildings is sort of daunting,” said
Catherine Culver, marketing and events coordinator for St. Augustine’s
Department of Heritage Tourism.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
September 18, 2008
A $2-million donation to the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education will assist the organization in beginning work to store video testimonies of Holocaust survivors in a searchable Internet archive that will be available to the public, the foundation announced today.
Source: AP
September 18, 2008
Federico Garcia Lorca's family won't oppose the opening of a mass grave where his body is believed to have been dumped after Franco supporters allegedly executed the poet and playwright at the outbreak of Spain's Civil War, a leading daily said Thursday.Last week, relatives of two other men believed to be buried in the same grave asked National Court judge Baltasar Garzon to order the grave opened. The request is part of a surging nationwide movement to give proper burial to
Source: Telegraph
September 17, 2008
A headcrusher, an Iron Maiden and a highwayman's coffin are among a series of torture implements recovered from the cellar of a German museum which are to be auctioned later this month.
The grim items - some of which are thought to date from medieval times - were discovered by auctioneer John Nicholson in the Kriminal Museum of Rudesheim/Rhein near Berlin, which was selling the collection after the owner died.
"There were these big wooden doors with great big metal
Source: Washington Post
September 17, 2008
Montpelier, the former Virginia estate of founding father James Madison, celebrated the completion of a $24 million restoration today aimed at returning the home to how it looked during the former president's lifetime.Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine spoke at the event, which capped a five-year effort by historians and archeologists with the Montpelier Foundation, who aimed to piece together not only the home's former structure, but the daily lives of p
Source: FoxNews.com
September 17, 2008
NEW YORK — After years of professing their parents' innocence, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are acknowledging that their father was a spy.
The about-face came after their father's co-defendant, Morton Sobell, admitted for the first time that he and Julius Rosenberg stole nonatomic military and industrial secrets for the Soviet Union.
The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Since then, decoded Soviet
Source: Fox News
September 17, 2008
A 13-foot German torpedo from World War II has washed up on a beach along the Baltic coast, police said.
The torpedo was found early Wednesday by a cleaning crew at Timmendorf Beach, Luebeck police spokesman Detleff Riedel said. Police secured the area and explosives experts were called.
Experts said it was a German torpedo made during World War II. Only the midsection fuel tank washed ashore. The explosive warhead was not attached.
Source: Telegraph
September 17, 2008
Ruins of an ancient lagoon city that was the ancestor city of Venice have been found by scientists
Using satellite imaging, the outlines of the ruins can be clearly seen about three feet below the earth in what is now open countryside.
The discovery of the extensive town was found at Altino, known in Roman times as Altinum, more than seven miles north of Venice, and close to Marco Polo airport.
The ruins include streets, palaces, temples, squares and theatr
Source: Politico
September 16, 2008
David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief strategist, said Sunday that John McCain is running the “sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history.” It was a line trotted out all weekend by various Obama staffers as part of an effort to portray the Republican nominee as a purveyor of the slimiest tactics in recent memory.
Yet presidential historians and political scientists interviewed by Politico scoffed at the notion, suggesting McCain’s approach is no har
Source: Great Beyond (blog at Nature magazine)
September 17, 2008
The Vatican has denied it ever condemned "biological change over time," but insists it will not be apologizing to Darwin.
Catholic Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi said, “Evolutionary theory is not incompatible a priori with the teaching of the Catholic Church, with the message of the Bible and theology, and in actual fact it was never condemned.” (Catholic News Agency.)
Last week it was reported that the Anglican church would apologize to Darwin “for misunderstan
