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: Science Daily
April 22, 2010
Researchers at McGill University are unlocking the mysteries of the little-known habits of dinosaurs in discovering that the entire western interior of North America was likely once populated by a single community of dinosaurs. According to a statistical analysis of the fossil record, dinosaurs were adept at coping with all sorts of environments, and not as restricted in their geographic ranges as previously thought.
The discovery was made by McGill Professor Hans Larsson and Matthe
Source: Science Daily
April 23, 2010
Catalan researchers have discovered in the rubbish dump of Can Mata in the Vallès-Penedès basin (Catalonia) a new species of Pliopithecus primate, considered an extinct family of primitive Catarrhini primates (or "Old World monkeys"). The fragments of jaw and molars found in this large site demonstrate that Pliopithecus canmatensis belongs to this group, which includes the first Catarrhini that dispersed from Africa to Eurasia.
Named Pliopithecus canmatensis, in honour of
Source: AP
April 24, 2010
Bugler, sound the charge! Folks in southern Ohio are mounting a counterattack against a congressional proposal to replace native son Ulysses S. Grant with Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill.
Politicians have passed resolutions, businesses have put up signs, letter-writing campaigns have begun, and, of course, a Facebook page has been created for the cause of leaving Grant's image just as it is on the currency. A bill pending in the U.S. House seeks to replace Grant with Reagan, the late
Source: BBC
April 24, 2010
Air, Army and Sea Cadets from London have marked the 150th anniversary of the cadet movement with a St George's Day parade in Whitehall.
More than 200 cadets took part in the parade, which was followed by a ceremony at The Cenotaph.
The Cadet Corps was formed in 1860 to increase the UK's fighting force after heavy losses in the Crimean War.
They have since evolved into voluntary organisations, offering young people opportunities to develop themselves.
Source: BBC
April 22, 2010
Islamists have warned the creators of TV show South Park they could face violent retribution for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.
A posting on the website of the US-based group, Revolution Muslim, told Matt Stone and Trey Parker they would "probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh".
The Dutch film-maker was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 by an Islamist angered by his film about Muslim women.
A subsequent episode of the cartoon bleepe
Source: BBC
April 23, 2010
Lovers of literature have been meeting in the cafe at the Hotel Castelar in the centre of the Argentine capital for decades.
It was, from the 1930s to the 1960s, at the heart of the city's literary life. Great writers of the Spanish-speaking world, among them Federico Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda and Julio Cortazar, visited here.
The cafe has now been chosen with 14 others, all connected with what is considered the richest period in Argentine literature, for a new city
Source: BBC
April 23, 2010
A US watchmaker said he hid funds in a Swiss bank account because of "survival behaviour" learned from the Holocaust.
The 65 year-old watchmaker, Jack Barouh, argued his secretive behaviour was motivated by his fear as a Jew of persecution and sudden loss.
He is just one of many US citizens being tried for tax evasion who held secret accounts at the Swiss bank, UBS.
The bank last year admitted to the US government it had hundreds of such account
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 24, 2010
A major Paris exhibition featuring forgeries and copies of works by Picasso, Matisse and other 20th century masters has been condemned by the artists' heirs as "vampire" plagiarism that will encourage counterfeiting.
"Second Hand" aims to "explore an issue inherent to the history of art: the copy as the basis of artistic apprenticeship and as a constant of artistic creation", according to the museum of modern art in Paris.
The show offers
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 24, 2010
Dinosaurs were wiped out by sudden drop in temperatures, not by comet striking the planet, scientists claimed.
British researchers claim that a sudden plummeting in the sea temperature of 16F (9C) more than 137 million years ago was the first step towards their eventual road to extinction.
While studying fossils and minerals from the Arctic Svalbard, Norway, they concluded the sudden change in the Atlantic Gulf Stream during the Cretaceous period would almost certainl
Source: BBC News
April 23, 2010
The far-right contender in Austria's presidential election on Sunday has stirred up debate about the country's anti-Nazi legislation, the BBC's Bethany Bell reports.
A brass band in traditional Austrian costume played oompah music in a baroque cobbled square in the town of St Poelten.
A rally for Barbara Rosenkranz, the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) candidate for president, was under way.
There was a visible police presence. In the n
Source: PR-Inside.com
April 23, 2010
A 106-year-old Dutch singer
has settled a lawsuit against a German filmma ker who accused him of performing for Nazi guards at a concentration camp during World War II.
Johannes Heesters filed suit against German author and documentarian Vo lker Kuehn in a Berlin state court in 2008 after the filmmaker went publi c with claims the singer performed for SS troops at Dachau concentration camp in 1941....
Source: KFVS 12 (KY)
April 21, 2010
What started as a call about a possible live ordnance ended with a piece of history from the Civil War.
The Paducah Police Department Bomb Squad responded to a call from Daniel McKendree about a cannon ball that he moved from his parents' yard on Kentucky Avenue. McKendree moved the ball to his home on Clay Street and thought it might be a live ordnance....
Source: Muskogee Phoenix (OK)
April 21, 2010
Work on a $1 million renovation of the Fort Gibson Historic Site should be complete by the spring of 2012, said Dr. Bob Blackburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Blackburn made the announcement standing beneath the deteriorating canopy in the center of the re-created historic fort of the 1800s.
OHS has been able to parlay a $200,000 appropriation into $1 million with the help of a number of state officials, Blackburn said. The state money was mat
Source: NYT
April 15, 2010
Long after the United States, and even after Iran, Afghanistan and Mongolia, politics in Britain is moving into the television age — the era of televised electoral debates, that is.
On Thursday evening, the heads of the three main political parties in Britain will gather for the first of three live TV clashes set to take place before voters go to the polls May 6.
The debate is being billed as a seminal event for British society and television. Optimists see it as a chan
Source: Discovery News
April 23, 2010
A sudden change in the Atlantic Gulf Stream, which new research has linked to the mass extinction of dinosaurs, may happen again, many scientists fear.
The shift could be abrupt, and climate experts advise that we must continue to monitor the present warning signs, such as influxes of fresh water into the North Atlantic, and slowdowns of the Atlantic Gulf Stream.
A popular theory concerning the extinction of dinosaurs is that a sudden, external event, such as an aster
Source: Discovery News
April 20, 2010
Mysterious lines on the deserts of the Near East are massive ancient hunting tools, made up of low stone walls.
British RAF pilots in the early 20th century were the first to spot the strange kite-like lines on the deserts of Israel, Jordan and Egypt from the air and wonder about their origins. The lines are low, stone walls, usually found as angled pairs, that begin far apart and converge at circular pits. In some places in Jordan the lines formed chains up to 40 miles long.
Source: Discovery News
April 23, 2010
Before the invention of the wheel and writing, a prehistoric civilization in northern Mesopotamia engaged in trade, processed copper and developed the first social classes based on power and wealth.
Evidence of the civilization that formed the basis of urban life in the entire Middle East lies beneath three large mounds about three miles from the modern town of Raqqa in Syria, according to U.S. and Syrian archaeologists.
The mounds, the tallest standing some 50 feet hi
Source: Discovery News
April 19, 2010
Hominids may have evolved opposable thumbs long before they figured out how to make tools.
A tiny fossil thumb bone provides a gripping look at the early evolution of human hands, according to a study presented April 16 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
An upright gait and a relatively sophisticated ability to manipulate objects apparently evolved in tandem among the earliest hominids at least 6 million years ago, said Sergio
Source: Reuters
April 23, 2010
While much of New York has tried to return to normal since September 11, 2001, the search for victims of the World Trade Center attacks goes on every day.
In what some see as necessary and others see as excessive, anthropologists and forensics experts are sifting yet again through rubble for remnants of the nearly 3,000 people killed when two hijacked jetliners crashed into the twin towers.
With buildings slowly being erected where the towers stood, the latest effort to
Source: ABC
April 23, 2010
A New South Wales archaeological team is heading to Turkey next month to carry out the first large-scale mapping of the underwater area off Gallipoli.
The team is also hoping to find military relics like the remains of small boats, ammunition and what is left of battlefield jetties.
NSW state maritime archaeologist and team leader Tim Smith says it is important the items are comprehensively documented.
