From the 1700s through the mid-1800s, oil extracted from the blubber of whales and boiled in giant pots gave light to America and much of the Western world. The United States whaling fleet peaked in 1846 with 735 ships out of 900 in the world. Whaling was the fifth-largest industry in the United States; in 1853 alone, 8,000 whales were slaughtered for whale oil shipped to light lamps around the world, plus sundry other parts used in hoop skirts, perfume, lubricants and candles.

Like oil, particularly in its early days, whaling spawned dazzling fortunes, depending on the brute labor of tens of thousands of men doing dirty, sweaty, dangerous work. Like oil, it began with the prizes closest to home and then found itself exploring every corner of the globe. And like oil, whaling at its peak seemed impregnable, its product so far superior to its trifling rivals, like smelly lard oil or volatile camphene, that whaling interests mocked their competitors.

“Great noise is made by many of the newspapers and thousands of the traders in the country about lard oil, chemical oil, camphene oil, and a half-dozen other luminous humbugs,” The Nantucket Inquirer snorted derisively in 1843. It went on: “But let not our envious and — in view of the lard oil mania — we had well nigh said, hog-gish opponents, indulge themselves in any such dreams.”

It was there when Pickett's soldiers made their famous charge. It was there when Lincoln gave his address.

On Thursday afternoon, a honey locust tree that had stood as one of the last living testaments to the Battle of Gettysburg cracked in a storm and crashed to earth.

Standing on Cemetery Hill, 150 feet from the platform on which the Gettysburg Address was given, it was one of the last of what are termed "witness trees" to the one of the most devastating of all Civil War battles, fought from July 1 to 3, 1863...

...The battle at Gettysburg was the biggest, deadliest and perhaps most decisive of the Civil War. More than 50,000 soldiers from the North and South became casualties. Afterward, Confederate armies never again invaded the North.

Heiser said only three other witness trees that he knows of still stand in the heart of the battlefield.

One is an oak in Devil's Den. Another is on the McPherson Farm. And a third, a black walnut, is on Hancock Avenue.

The National Park Service for the last five years has been deliberately clearing more than 500 acres of trees that had grown since 1863 and begun to obscure the sprawling battlefield as the Civil War soldiers would have seen it.

Thursday's storm, which rolled in from the west about 5:30 p.m., produced rain, hail and wind gusts. The National Weather Service said it had no reports of other damage in Adams County, in which Gettysburg is located.

Jo Sanders, a park spokeswoman, said the locust was split.

"The top of it is totally broken off, and [the storm] severely damaged 70 to 80 percent of the tree," she said. "That means there's not a whole lot left of it. But it didn't kill the tree."

Heiser said that park maintenance officials will have to assess what to do with the remains.

"When it's something this bad," he said, "it's highly doubtful that a tree like that can survive."

Tehran Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (TCHTHO) lacks adequate funding to finance any new excavations on the 9000-year-old Ozbaki Tepe in Nazarabad, near Savojbolagh in Tehran Province.


The first season of excavations was carried out on the site in 1997, during which several architectural ruins and artifacts dating back to ancient times and the early Islamic era were discovered.

A team of archaeologists led by Yusef Majidzadeh excavated the site in October 2005 for the second time.

During the excavations, a Median fortress and a series of mud bricks, which are believed to be the first instance of these kinds of artifacts, were unearthed at the site that includes Gomush Tepe, Jeyran Tepe, Yan Tepe, Maral Tepe, and Doshan Tepe.

Excavation projects have been halted at many ancient sites in Tehran Province, Archaeology Research Center of Iran (ARCI) Director Mohammad-Hassan Fazeli Nashli told the Persian service of CHN on Friday.

According to Fazeli Nashli, TCHTHO is also unable to safeguard the sites due to the shortage of funds.

The reasons behind the infamous 1908 riots that rocked Illinois’ state capital, the history that followed, and how race relations remain an issue a century later are at the heart of a current exhibit in Springfield and talks planned this fall in the capital and Bloomington.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum offers in-depth analysis of the three-day riot with its exhibit, “Something so Horrible: The Springfield, Illinois, Race Riot of 1908.” It runs through October.

Using artifacts, photos, news reports and oral histories, the exhibit walks visitors through the tragic weekend in Illinois history, and how it led to the birth of the nation’s pre-eminent civil rights organization — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“It presents a chapter in our history that most people would like to forget, but that we must remember so that we can avoid repeating those mistakes,” said museum spokesman David Blanchette...

London, Aug 9: Late Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's malevolent side has been exposed in a letter criticizing Russian historian Zhores Medvedev.



In the letter he sent to The Times, the year of his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1974, Solzhenitsyn panned the 83-year-old historian branding him an apologist for the regime and making public statements that served the Soviet empire better than the "whole Soviet propaganda apparatus".

However, Medvedev dismissed the accusations, insisting that the claims were "absolute rubbish"

He said that the letter was designed to spawn a public row so that the world would know they were no longer friends.

"It is not anger. It is cold calculation - a normal episode in which I was insulted a little. I did write a book about him," Times Online quoted him, as saying

"Everybody knew that we were friends, so it would be unnatural for us to stop talking. So if he wanted to cut [communication], he would have to do something cruel," he added.

In his letter, Solzhenitsyn claimed that Medvedev had made a "mockery of the truth" stating that using the term "Soviet regime" was an unfair slur on the Soviet Union's elected government, during an interview on radio in 1973...

... However, refuting the allegations, Medvedev said that he had been warned by the institute that it was customary not to discuss prize candidates and so gave a cautious reply when asked about Sakharov at a public event.

"I was in a difficult situation. I said, 'He is a good candidate, but I am not in a position to judge the others'," he said.

"I knew sooner or later it would happen. was cut from his circle like others before. It is sad. He died, unfortunately, without a single friend. He was absolutely isolated. He didn't have anyone who came to discuss politics with him," he added.

The Times had refused to print the letter unless the he could provide evidence that he had quoted Dr Medvedev accurately.

Solzhenitsyn, who was then at the height of his fame, angrily declined then sent the letter to Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, and a Russian-language newspaper based in Paris. The letter appeared in both publications, but it was never published in English.

Eleven-year-old Jacob Walen from the Netherlands looks at a reconstructed skull of Torvosaurus at Lourinha museum in Lourinha, near Lisbon August 2, 2008. Walen found an original jaw bone of a dinosaur in Lourinha on July 27, 2003. Portuguese paleontologists presented a reconstructed skull of Torvosaurus, a giant prehistoric dinosaur they say is the largest known terrestrial predator of the Jurassic Period. Reconstructed from parts of a cranium, including a jaw bone with a 5.1 inch (13 cm) long blade-like tooth, found in 2003 near Lourinha in central-western Portugal, the skull measures 4.6 feet (1.4 metres) in length -- bigger than an earlier Torvosaurus find made in the United States in the 1970s. The species roamed the earth about 150 million year ago, according to the New University of Lisbon.

Strands of DNA recovered from the fossilised leg bone of a Neanderthal have shed light on the fragility of the ancient population and pinpointed when they first split from what were to become modern humans. The 38,000-year-old bone was unearthed in a cave in Vindija in Croatia, and has since become part of a landmark project to read the entire genetic sequence of an ancient human ancestor, a feat scientists believe will help reveal how modern humans evolved into the world's dominant species.

Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, read the complete sequence of DNA held in tiny biological powerhouses called mitochondria, which provide energy for cells. The mitochondria are only passed down the female line, so can be used to trace the species back to an ancestral "Eve", the mother of all Neanderthals. The team analysed the DNA of 13 genes from the Neanderthal mitochondria and found they were distinctly different to modern humans, suggesting Neanderthals never, or rarely, interbred with early humans. The genetic material shows that a Neanderthal "Eve" lived around 660,000 years ago, when the species last shared a common ancestor with humans.

Twenty years after it violently suppressed a bid by more than a million peaceful protesters to restore democracy, Myanmar's military junta was on high alert Friday with riot police guarding the country's main city and detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's home.

While no protests were reported in Myanmar itself, activists around Asia planned to mark the 20th anniversary with demonstrations at the embassies of both Myanmar and China, a key ally of the junta that critics say could pressure the leadership to bring about change. The protests also coincide with the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

"We are here because China is the main supporter of the military regime," said Kyaw Lin Oo, a Myanmar activist living in Thailand and who was among 30 protesters at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok.

"We want the Chinese government to understand the actual cost of their support to the people inside of Burma," he said, using the country's former name. "China can help our democratization process by putting pressure on the military regime."

He later joined about 100 others outside the Myanmar Embassy. They chanted "Free Burma, Free Aung San Suu Kyi" and threw red paper airplanes with the message "We will never forget. We will never give up. 1988." over the embassy wall.

No one was arrested.

A similar protest was held in the Philippine capital, Manila, where some 50 people demonstrated outside the Chinese Consulate...

A bone believed to be from one of the 12 apostles was stolen from a Greek Orthodox church in Lowell earlier this week.

Police are hoping some public attention will help track down a 2,000-year-old relic.

"It's a relic of St. Andrew --- a very small, small bone of the saint," said the Rev. Demetrios T. Costarakis, of the Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church.

He said that the relic was passed down through many generations and that the church acquired the bone about six years ago. Sometime between Sunday's service and Monday afternoon, someone went into the chapel and stole the bone, Costarakis said.

"(We are) worried that the individual or individuals who might have taken this do not know how holy and how serious this is," Costarakis said.

Mosaics in the sanctuary attest to the importance of the saint in the Greek Orthodox faith.

"There is a sense of awe. There is a sense of veneration that we prostrate ourselves for and we venerate these beautiful relics of the saints, and we ask them for their intercessions to God," Costarakis said.

A new lock was put on the chapel door on Friday, Costarakis said.

"Whoever took it -- I hope he has second thoughts and returns it," church member John Gkolias said.

"I would just ask that person or those people to bring them back -- no questions asked," Costarakis said.

Before leaving for its summer recess, Congress passed and sent to the president a bill (H.R. 4137, H. Rept. 110-803) reauthorizing federal higher education programs. It marks the first time in over a decade that Congress had reauthorized the Higher Education Act. The bill includes a new “American History for Freedom” initiative to establish or strengthen postsecondary academic programs or centers that promote the teaching of “traditional American history, free institutions and the history and achievements of Western Civilization.”

The three-year grants will be awarded on a competitive basis and the legislation authorizes the program beginning in fiscal year 2009 and for five successive fiscal years.

Funding can be used to:

design and implementation of programs of study, courses, lecture series, seminars, and symposia;
development, publication, and dissemination of instructional materials;
research;
support for faculty teaching in undergraduate and, if applicable, graduate programs;
support for graduate and postgraduate fellowships, if applicable; or
teacher preparation initiatives that stress content mastery regarding traditional American history, free institutions, or Western civilization,
The funds may also be used to conduct outreach activities designed to ensure information developed under the program are widely disseminated.

In addition, funds may be used to support collaboration with entities such as–

local educational agencies, for the purpose of providing elementary and secondary school teachers an opportunity to enhance their knowledge of traditional American history, free institutions, or Western civilization; and
nonprofit organizations whose mission is consistent with the purpose of this section, such as academic organizations, museums, and libraries, for assistance in carrying out activities described under subsection (a);
Traditional American History is defined in the bill as “the significant constitutional, political, intellectual, economic, and foreign policy trends and issues that have shaped the course of American history; and the key episodes, turning points, and leading figures involved in the constitutional, political, intellectual, diplomatic, and economic history of the United States.”

Free Institutions is defined as “an institution that emerged out of Western civilization, such as democracy, constitutional government, individual rights, market economics, religious freedom and religious tolerance, and freedom of thought and inquiry.”

In a newly published book, American scholar Joseph Pearce concludes that William Shakespeare was a Catholic.

Projo.com reports that academics have increasingly noted links between Shakespeare and the persecuted Catholics of his times.

A new book by Joseph Pearce, The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome lays out the case that Shakespeare was indeed a believing Catholic who, for the sake of his career and his neck, kept that a secret.

Shakespeare came from Stratford in Warwickshire, a hotbed of Catholic non-conformity. His father John Shakespeare was identified in 1592 as a recusant, meaning a Catholic who refused to attend Protestant church services.

William himself appears on no records attending Protestant services or registering with the Church of England — something he was required by law to do. His mother Mary Arden came from a family of fiercely loyal Catholics. His school teachers included at least two Catholics.

William and Anne Hathaway’s wedding took place not in Stratford but four miles away, at a church presided over by a man identified in 1586 as a Catholic priest.

A bricklayer working on the Shakespeare home in 1757 found a document hidden in the rafters, its wording copied from a pamphlet distributed by Edward Campion, a Catholic priest who was tortured and executed under Queen Elizabeth in 1581. The document seemed to be a promise by John Shakespeare to die in the faith, even if he was unable to obtain last rites from a priest...

Officials at Plimoth Plantation today offered a reward of $1,000 and a lifetime membership to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of vandals who struck the replica 17th-century Colonial village Friday.

“The total damage and losses will exceed $10,000,” said Paula Peters, a spokeswoman for the living museum. The invaders, described as a group of kids, allegedly stole a range of items, most notably beaver and muskrat pelts, as well as two steel pieces of chest armor valued at $700 each.

“It is incredibly disheartening when an institution dedicated to learning and cultural understanding falls victim to such an ignorant and destructive act,” John McDonagh, executive director, said in a prepared statement.

The group of vandals slipped unnoticed last week into the village, where the clock has been set back to 1627, and broke locks on eight houses, said Captain Michael E. Botieri of the Plymouth Police Department.

They proceeded to smash pottery, break fences, and steal antique hammers and replica tools, Botieri said. Many of the items were recreated by artisans working at the museum, Peters said.

An employee noticed the damage Saturday morning and reported it to police, Botieri said. An on-duty security guard did not notice any disturbances the night of the raid, and there was no taped surveillance of the area.

Officials are reviewing security measures to prevent future break-ins, Peters said. The village, used to re-create Pilgrim life, is popular among school groups and tourists.

BENTONVILLE - Although the statue of the Confederate soldier on the Bentonville Square will be honored with a centennial celebration Friday, no Confederate flags will fly at the event.

A 100-year celebration is planned for 11 a.m. Friday at the Bentonville Public Library to honor the monument. The event will feature speakers who will discuss the history behind the statue.

Johnny Haney, a downtown businessman and Bentonville resident, explained why the Confederate flag won't be flown.

"Many may view the flags in a different light," Haney said. "You know, this event isn't about the Confederacy. We felt it would be enjoyed by more people without the Confederate flags about as part of the recognition."

Haney explained that the celebration is more about the statue's dedication to Sen. James H. Barry than about the Confederacy.

"The statue is a wonderful memorial, but the war was 143 years ago," Haney said.

John Scott, superintendent of the Pea Ridge National Military Park, explained some of the history behind the Confederate flag. The famous "rebel flag"with the red background and blue "X"was not a Confederate flag during the Battle of Pea Ridge, Scott said.

"At the battle here at Pea Ridge, the flag that the Confederate Army would have been carrying was the first National Flag. It was basically similar to the U. S. flag, which had 13 stars and a circle, whereas we had 34 stars."

During the early battles of the war, Smith said, the flags looked so similar that Confederate and Union soldiers would often attack their own troops by mistake. So in 1863, the Confederate battle flag was adopted.

The Battle of Pea Ridge, fought in 1862, took place during the original flag's incarnation.

Scott said he understands the conflicting opinions regarding the flag. "For one group of people, it's seen as something … to be proud of, and for another, it's seen as a symbol of … terrorism," Scott said. Current connotations of the rebel flag "certainly came out of the post-Civil War era, when the Ku Klux Klan and various white-supremacy groups adopted that flag as a symbol. "

Scott noted that the current stigma of the rebel flag is reminiscent of another symbol that was once a religious symbol, representing good and peace, and later taken on as a symbol of hate...

Ten years on, the American-brokered Good Friday agreement, which laid the framework for ending 30 years of violence between Northern Ireland's Roman Catholics and Protestants, is rightfully considered proof positive that negotiations can bring entrenched sectarian wars to peaceful ends. Nevertheless, a recent and worrisome spate of violence by a small cadre of hard-core Catholic dissidents—splinter groups of the Irish Republican Army, which has abandoned armed revolt against British rule—is a reminder that the bad, old days of "the Troubles," which left 3,600 dead, are not completely consigned to history.
The province's chief constable says rebel activity is as high as it's been in six years. A main goal of the dissidents is to kill a Catholic police officer or prison guard to destabilize an increasingly successful effort to recruit more Catholics to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. In June, two Catholic members of the PSNI were injured in a landmine attack that may have proved lethal had the device properly triggered. Last November, two other Catholic officers were badly wounded in gun attacks. And one dissident group recently warned that it may soon target Customs workers and other civil servants as well.

Britain's domestic security agency, MI5, is taking the threat seriously. It's reported that 60 percent of its recent electronic intercepts have come from Irish dissidents—who number fewer than 100. That's a startling admission given MI5's current focus on the suspected 2,000 Islamic terrorists believed operating in Britain. Accordingly, MI5 has stepped up its security operations in the province.

To be sure, the peace process in Ulster continues to progress, albeit slowly. In May 2007, the Northern Ireland Assembly finally began operating after a power-sharing agreement was reached between the two largest parties: the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing. That deal was reached after the DUP finally accepted that the IRA—which first announced a cease-fire 14 years ago—had indeed decommissioned its weapons, and Sinn Fein agreed to support the PSNI.

Historically, Catholics have distrusted and disliked the police. The PSNI's forerunner, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was overwhelmingly Protestant and considered antirepublican.

Following Sinn Fein's lead, Catholic acceptance of—and membership in—the police force is growing. Twenty-five percent of its officers are now Catholic. "The Catholic community is still suspicious of the police to some degree," says Adrian Guelke, a political scientist at Queen's University, Belfast. "But there is a greater willingness [among Catholics] to join the police."

Moreover, despite some DUP foot dragging on the issue, the unionists and Sinn Fein are near an agreement to allow oversight of the police and judiciary to be handed over from London's Westminster to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. That could ultimately—though not initially—lead to the policing portfolio going to a Sinn Fein minister. "That will happen, eventually," Guelke says. A police force overseen by a Catholic party would be a big blow to the terrorists, which is why they're trying to scuttle that eventuality.

Security forces believe there are around 80 hard-core members belonging to three breakaway groups: the Real IRA, which set off the bomb in the market town of Omagh in 1998, killing 29 people; Continuity IRA; and a newer faction, Oglaigh na hEireann. They're largely based in rural areas near the border with the Irish Republic to the south, where republicanism has deep, historic roots. The groups consider Sinn Fein a sellout for seeking a political rather than an armed solution to a divided Ireland.

Ironically, another reason the dissidents may be more active now is that the success of the peace process has given them a freer hand. Since setting aside its weapons and forsaking violence, the main IRA may be finding it harder to "police" the breakaway groups itself, Guelke says. "It's created something of a vacuum for the dissidents to exploit." Although the rebel factions are for now targeting other Catholics, there is some risk their actions could provoke a violent response from Protestant paramilitary groups, which remain on cease-fire but are still armed.

Still, there are doubts that the breakaway groups have the material capacity to wreak too much havoc. An Irish man and woman were arrested last January in Lithuania attempting to buy guns and weaponry—a sting operation that's hampered the dissidents' supply lines. For instance, the landmine used in the June attack might have triggered properly if the perpetrators had access to semtex, a plastic explosive...

A BURGEONING international market for second world war memorabilia is putting strain on the numerous small museums that commemorate the 1944 D-Day landings, which are increasingly under the eye of unscrupulous collectors, French police say.

Two recent thefts have highlighted poor security at the more than 25 collections - mainly in private hands - which draw thousands of summer visitors along the Normandy coast. In one incident, the booty included a rare German "Enigma" encoding machine which investigators suspect was stolen to order.

In the other, scores of items - including several weapons - were replaced by fakes and then resold to dealers.

In recent years there has been a huge increase in demand for anything from the second world war - guns, uniforms, buckles, helmets," said Michel Brissart, who runs the Omaha D-Day museum at Vierville-sur Mer.

"It all ends up going abroad: the US, the Emirates, Russia, Australia. Here in France we are too poor to keep it."

It was Brissart's museum - overlooking the scene of the US landings on Omaha beach - that two assailants targeted in March this year, overpowering the receptionist when she opened for business. The thieves took some 30 articles, including daggers, uniform caps and firearms - as well as the Enigma machine valued at £120,000.

"Practically everything they took was German, because sadly German memorabilia commands a much higher price than Allied stuff," said Brissart. After reporting the incident to police, Brissart alerted contacts in the world of collectors and two weeks later he was telephoned by a dealer in Paris.

"He said he'd been approached by two men with a list of items for sale, including photographs. It was ours, all right." Police staked out the dealer's premises and two men - aged 19 and 20 - were arrested. The Enigma has been returned to Vierville with most of the other goods. Six items are still missing...

In the summer of 2002, the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA) published an 85-page monograph called "Military Advantage in History". Unusual for an office that is headed by Andrew Marshall, the Pentagon's "futurist in chief," the study looks back to the past—way back. It examines four empires, or "pivotal hegemonic powers in history," to draw lessons about how the United States "should think about maintaining military advantage in the 21st century." Though unclassified, the study was held close to the vest; a stamp on the cover limits its dissemination without permission. Mother Jones obtained it only through a Freedom of Information Act request. Though the report is far from revelatory, it provides a window into a mindset that unselfconsciously envisions the United States as the successor to some of history's most powerful empires.

The study looks a little like a high school text book, devoting chapters to Alexander the Great, Imperial Rome, Genghis Khan, and Napoleonic France and citing texts by Sun Tzu, Livy, and Jared Diamond. It attempts to break down exactly how historic empires sustained their military might across continents and even centuries. The study posits that the historical examples offer "insights into what drives U.S. military advantage," as well as "where U.S. vulnerabilities may lie, and how the United States should think about maintaining its military advantage in the future." There is no one secret to world domination, however. The Mongols' military advantage was rooted in their "tactical and operational superiority"; the Macedonians' in the "exceptional leadership" of and "cult of personality" surrounding Alexander the Great; Napoleon's in "innovative operational concepts" and "information superiority"; and the Romans' in "robust tactical doctrine" and "strong domestic institutions" which were "designed to incorporate conquered peoples as the empire grew." In an extraordinary passage, the study cites the Roman experience—from over a millennium ago—as a precedent for America's long-term dominance: "The Roman model suggests that it is possible for the United States to maintain its military advantage for centuries if it remains capable of transforming its forces before an opponent can develop counter-capabilities. Transformation coupled with strong strategic institutions is a powerful combination for an adversary to overcome..."