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: The Daily Mail (UK)
4-14-13
Archaeologists have uncovered the body of a woman who may be at the centre of a 600-year-old murder mystery. The find, as well as 4,000 other artefacts hidden within a medieval and long-forgotten settlement, only came to light during the development of a section of road in Northern Ireland.For the last ten months excavators have been amassing numerous items taken from the site, which will now be preserved and hopefully one day displayed to the public....
Source: NYT
4-17-13
LONDON — A horse-drawn gun carriage bore the coffin of Margaret Thatcher to St. Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday for a ceremonial funeral that divided British opinion, much as the former prime minister known as the Iron Lady stirred deep and conflicting emotions during her lifetime and, in death, triggered an equally passionate debate over her legacy.With hymns and prayers and biblical readings, dignitaries from around the world and from Britain’s political elite gathered in the cathedral for a service regarded as austere and devout reflecting her Methodist upbringing as bells pealed over the city and a gun salute boomed from the Tower of London.Some 700 military personnel from three services — the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force — lined the streets, including guards in scarlet tunics and distinctive black bearskin hats on the 24 cathedral steps as the gun carriage processed along Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill from the church of St. Clement Danes in a closely scripted display of ceremonial precision honed over centuries....
Source: NYT
4-15-13
BUENOS AIRES — As Concepción Martínez, her husband and two daughters pulled into the last subway station here, cheers and clapping erupted from the throngs of people, some wearing turn-of-the-20th-century dress, waiting on the platform.Camera flashes lighted the tunnels as passengers took their final rides in the saloonlike wagons — with their wooden benches, frosted glass lamps and manually operated brass doors — of South America’s first subway line.“Every day, I ride this train into work, so this is a kind of goodbye,” Ms. Martínez said.The antique Belgian-built cars, a symbol of Buenos Aires’s early-20th-century wealth, were taken out of service this year, and their retirement is a poignant example of the city’s struggle to preserve its physical history as some of its icons and infrastructure crumble....
Source: Fredericksburg.com
4-11-13
Usually, people try to restore castles.But in Spotsylvania County, the “castle”—as some call a local fixture on State Route 3—is being demolished.The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust is razing the old “Stars and Bars” military surplus store on the Chancellorsville battlefield.The massively built structure—with twin turrets, battlements and a façade of brick and block—stands in the way of restoring the land to its May 1863 appearance....
Source: Discovery News
4-16-13
Carbon-dating of a structural beam from a Guatemalan temple confirms that the Mayan Long Count calendar did end on December 2012, leaving no room for further doomsday prophecies and miscalculations claims.The Long Count is a complex system of bars and dots that consists of five time units: Bak’tun (144,000 days); K’atun (7,200 days), Tun (360 days), Winal (20 days) and K’in (one day).The days are counted from a mythological starting point....
Source: Discovery News
4-12-13
An ancient Egyptian harbor has emerged on the Red Sea coast, dating back about 4,500 years. "Evidence unearthed at the site shows that it predates by more than 1,000 years any other port structure known in the world," Pierre Tallet, Egyptologist at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and director of the archaeological mission, told Discovery News....
Source: AP
4-15-13
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The foundation that owns Thomas Jefferson’s estate hopes to take efforts to preserve Monticello’s spectacular mountain views a step further, an idea that worries some developers.A request the group filed with the Albemarle County Planning Commission calls for nearly quadrupling the size of what’s known as the Monticello viewshed and expanding voluntary guidelines for developers in the region.“There’s a reason we’re up there with the pyramids and the Great Wall,” said Leslie Greene Bowman , president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. “It has a lot do with Jefferson’s vision, not only figuratively but literally.”...
Source: CBS News
4-17-13
LONDON Thousands of Britons lined the streets of central London on a grey Wednesday morning to see the hearse pass by carrying former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's body to her funeral ceremony.Britain's Iron Lady is being laid to rest with a level of pomp and protest reflecting her status as a commanding, but polarizing political figure -- an elaborate affair with full military honors culminating in a service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London attended by world leaders and dignitaries from 170 countries.The first part of Wednesday's elaborate proceedings saw Thatchter's casket removed from a chapel inside the Houses of Parliament, where it spent Tuesday evening -- per her request -- and loaded onto the hearse for the ride to the St. Clement Danes chapel. It was just the first stop on Baroness Thatcher's final journey....
Source: LiveScience
4-17-13
On May 9, 1926, famed American explorer Richard Byrd took off from the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen along with his pilot, Floyd Bennett, in an attempt to be the first to fly to the North Pole. About 16 hours later, the pair returned to the island in their Fokker tri-motor airplane, the Josephine Ford, saying they had indeed accomplished the feat.Byrd submitted his navigational records to the U.S. Navy and a committee of the National Geographic Society, one of his sponsors, who confirmed the accomplishment, according to the Ohio State University Libraries. Byrd was hailed as a hero, given the Medal of Honor, and went on to fly over the South Pole, as well as achieving many other polar exploration milestones.
Source: NYT
4-16-13
WASHINGTON — A nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that the nation’s highest officials bore ultimate responsibility for it.
Source: Guardian
4-9-13
Scores of archaeologists working in a waterlogged trench through the wettest summer and coldest winter in living memory have recovered more than 10,000 objects from Roman London, including writing tablets, amber, a well with ritual deposits of pewter, coins and cow skulls, thousands of pieces of pottery, a unique piece of padded and stitched leather – and the largest collection of lucky charms in the shape of phalluses ever found on a single site.Sophie Jackson, of Museum of London Archaeology, said: "The waterlogged conditions left by the Walbrook stream have given us layer upon layer of Roman timber buildings, fences and yards, all beautifully preserved and containing amazing personal items, clothes and even documents – all of which will transform our understanding of the people of Roman London."...
Source: YahooNews
04-10-13
A giant "monumental" stone structure discovered beneath the waters of the Sea of Galilee in Israel has archaeologists puzzled as to its purpose and even how long ago it was built.
The mysterious structure is cone shaped, made of "unhewn basalt cobbles and boulders," and weighs an estimated 60,000 tons the researchers said. That makes it heavier than most modern-day warships.
Rising nearly 32 feet (10 meters) high, it has a diameter of about 230 feet (70 meters). To put that in perspective, the outer stone circle of Stonehenge has a diameter just half that with its tallest stones not reaching that height....
Source: Eurekalert
04-11-13
The Maya are famous for their complex, intertwined calendric systems, and now one calendar, the Maya Long Count, is empirically calibrated to the modern European calendar, according to an international team of researchers.
"The Long Count calendar fell into disuse before European contact in the Maya area," said Douglas J. Kennett, professor of environmental archaeology, Penn State.
"Methods of tying the Long Count to the modern European calendar used known historical and astronomical events, but when looking at how climate affects the rise and fall of the Maya, I began to question how accurately the two calendars correlated using those methods."...
Source: Hollywood Reporter
4-14-13
The Anne Frank House, an Amsterdam museum dedicated to preserving the memory of the girl and family who hid from Nazi persecution during World War II, posted news on its official Facebook page that the pop star had recently visited the location. Along with news of the Believe artist's visit, the museum relayed what Bieber wrote in the guestbook: "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."
Source: Times Union
4-12-13
A high school English teacher faces disciplinary action for giving a writing assignment that asked students to make a persuasive argument blaming Jews for the problems of Nazi Germany, Albany school district officials said Friday.
Source: Epoch Times
4-11-13
Some objects and images that have never been seen before from the minutes and hours following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination are going on display in Washington.Two exhibits open at the Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism, on April 12. They include “Creating Camelot,” which shows behind-the-scenes images of Kennedy, his wife, Jacqueline, and their two children; and “Three shots were fired,” which shows the moments leading up to and after Kennedy’s death.
Source: CBS
4-10-13
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard marked the 50th anniversary of the deadliest submarine disaster in history. The nuclear-powered USS Thresher lost power and sank on April 10, 1963, killing all 129 on board.
Source: CBS
4-11-13
In the East Room of the White House Thursday, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Korean War veteran Father Emil Kapaun, a priest, a chaplain and a hero.Father Emil Kapaun sacrificed to save his fellow soldiers over and over again. To Mike Dowe, Kapaun's courage was almost other-worldly. "I'm telling you -- the whole atmosphere would change, just when he would walk in," Dowe says. "I've known a lot of priests, but I've never known one like that."
Source: HeraldScotland
04-09-13
A crown shaped livery badge, thought to have been worn by a soldier in the personal retinue of King James IV, was discovered by archaeologists during a survey of the site of the Battle of Flodden.
The badge, which is believed to have been buried for five centuries, is made of copper alloy and appears to have been snapped off a hat band. Its design includes the Fleur de Lys with jewels and diamonds, elements which were part of the Scottish crown in 1513.
The Battle of Flodden was a turning point in UK history and set the stage for the subsequent Union of the Crowns between Scotland and England....
Source: Fox News
04-10-13
Picture a 30-year-old male, wandering the wilderness alone, far from his friends, seeking love. Let's call him Manny.Picture him trudging from lake to lake in the Mexican mountains, having climbed nearly half a mile from his pals into the hills to the picturesque watering holes, in search of a mate.Now flash forward some 12,000 years to modern day Mexico City, where residents of the suburb of Milpa Alto recently stumbled across the most complete mammoth skeleton ever found in the country, the National Institute of Anthropology and History announced Monday....
