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: Inside Higher Ed
January 8, 2010
At a discussion of "Is Google Good for History?" here Thursday, there weren't really any firm "No" answers. Even the harshest critic here of Google's historic book digitization project confessed to using it for his research and making valuable finds with the tool.
But that doesn't mean Google Books wasn't criticized. In a discussion at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, scholars questioned the way Google has organized the books project and
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 6, 2010
Czech Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the Archbishop of Prague, said Muslims were well placed to fill the spiritual void "created as Europeans systematically empty the Christian content of their lives".
"Europe will pay dear for having left its spiritual foundations and that this is the last period that will not continue for decades when it may still have a chance to do something about it," he said.
"The Muslims definitely have many reasons to be heading
Source: Times (UK)
January 7, 2010
From the earliest days of the new Labour Government, commentators have called its principals “Machiavellian” to suggest a manipulative administration hooked on power rather than one driven by idealism.
Now that charge is to be tested by one of the men who was closest to the heart of power during the Tony Blair years — his former chief of staff Jonathan Powell. Mr Powell has signed up to write The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in Modern Britain for The Bodley Head, an imprint
Source: Artdaily.org
January 7, 2010
A suburban Chicago man pleaded guilty Tuesday to swindling at least 250 people out of more than $1 million through the sale of counterfeit prints advertised as the work of Pablo Picasso and other major contemporary artists.
Michael Zabrin of Northbrook admitted sometimes paying between $1,000 and $1,500 for counterfeit limited edition fine art prints produced in Spain and Italy and reselling them on eBay for many times that amount.
In his signed plea agreement with pr
Source: Deutsche Welle
January 6, 2010
Major-General Andrew Mackay, who led British troops in southern Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008 and who resigned his post in September, said earlier this week that the armed forces engaged in the fight for Afghanistan had failed to understand the culture and motivations of the Afghan people and had failed to adapt to modern conflict.
Mackay, writing in an article coauthored by Royal Navy Commander Steve Tatham and published by the British Ministry of Defense’s (MoD) Defense Academy, c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 7, 2010
Frederick Ward, a man known as Australia's own Robin Hood, may have evaded police and emigrated to Canada, rather than being shot dead by law enforcers in 1870, as the history books say.
A new book written by one of Ward's descendants claims that the man buried in his grave is not Ward, but his uncle Harry, the Indpendent reports. Ward himself escaped to the Californian goldfields and then settled in Canada, where he lived a quiet life before dying in 1903, his family ebelieve.
Source: CNN
January 7, 2010
As President Obama begins to send more of the 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in the new year, some critics are invoking those snapshots from history to argue that the United States can’t afford to get bogged down in another Vietnam.
But those snapshots actually come from another war: The Philippine-American War, which lasted from 1899 to 1902. The war is largely forgotten today, but it was a bloody preview of the type of warfare that the U.S. military faced in Asia and now
Source: BBC
January 6, 2010
For centuries, art historians have been troubled by Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile - but, according to one doctor, her cholesterol levels were more worrying.
For Dr Vito Franco, from Palermo University, she shows clear signs of a build-up of fatty acids under the skin, caused by too much cholesterol.
He also suggests there seems to be a lipoma, or benign fatty-tissue tumour, in her right eye.
Dr Franco says his medical examinations reveal more than artistic
Source: CNN
January 6, 2010
James von Brunn, who was accused of killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in June, died Wednesday morning at a hospital in North Carolina, his attorney said.
Von Brunn, 89, a self-avowed white supremacist, was a known Holocaust denier who created an anti-Semitic Web site called "The Holy Western Empire."
Kramer said officials from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons transferred von Brunn to an undisclosed hospital, apparently realizing his cond
Source: NY Daily News
January 5, 2010
The bad guys seem only stronger than ever, no doubt ready to plan around any new counterterrorism measures, surely with New York still the bull's-eye.
Monday was the eighth anniversary of the first American combat death in Afghanistan - and there's no end in sight.
Eight long years since Army Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Chapman became the first solider to die going after those responsible for 9/11.
"How important is it? Do you want to go?"
Source: NPR
January 7, 2010
The Census Bureau says it has included "Negro" as a way for individuals to classify their race in the 2010 Census because some older African-Americans wrote it on their forms in 2000.
But many African-Americans find it insulting.
-- "It's almost like a slap in the face," Nikyle Fitzgerald tells WTOL in Toledo.
-- "I am a little offended," Dawud Ingram says to WCBS-TV.
-- "It's a bad vibe word," Kevin Bish
Source: Discovery News
January 4, 2010
If a dinosaur is small, how can you tell whether it died young or was just tiny?
This question has puzzled dinosaur experts studying the 3.3-foot-long dino Lesothosaurus diagnosticus, but the mystery may have just been solved.
Fabien Knoll, Kevin Padian and Armand de Ricqles studied the remains of Lesothosaurus and other fabrosaurid dinosaurs. (Maybe it's just me, but I like the fact that a scientist named Fabien studies fabrosaurids.) These were beaked, plant-eating
Source: Discovery News
January 7, 2010
So called "non-avian theropod" dinosaurs from the Cretaceous had feathers, nests, laid eggs and roosted like birds. If they were so much like birds, why don't we just say they were birds?
A paper in the February issue of Medical Hypotheses argues that these "dinosaurs" could very well, in fact, have been birds. The group includes what are now called troodontids and oviraptorids.
All birds are technically avian dinosaurs, but there's still controver
Source: AFP
January 6, 2010
Humans carry in their genome the relics of an animal virus that infected their forerunners at least 40 million years ago, according to research published Wednesday by the British science journal Nature.
The invader is called bornavirus, a brain-infecting pathogen that was first identified in 1970s.
The disease owes its name to the German town of Borna, where a regiment of cavalry horses was wiped out in 1885 by a mysterious "heated head" disease.
Source: China View
January 7, 2010
The legendary politician and general from the Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280), Cao Cao can rest in peace now that his descendants proudly acknowledge him.
For centuries, despite Cao's record as a fair ruler and military genius who treated his subordinates like family and was also skilled in poetry and martial arts, he suffered from a bad reputation.
Few people have openly acknowledged they were Cao's descendants over the past centuries, making Cao's family tree an
Source: San Diego Union Tribune
January 7, 2010
Professional historians usually concern themselves with the past, but this week in San Diego they’ll be immersed in one of the most contentious issues of the present — same-sex marriage.
The annual convention of the 125-year-old American Historical Association, held here for the first time, will feature a 15-session “mini-convention” on various aspects of matrimony, including how its definition has evolved through time.
These free meetings, which start today and are ope
Source: BBC
January 7, 2010
A historian famed for marking the 700th anniversary of the death of William Wallace by marching the route of his journey to execution has died.
David Ross, 51, a writer and convenor of the Society of William Wallace suffered a heart attack at his home in East Kilbride on Saturday.
He was known as the "biker historian" as he visited historic sites across Scotland on his motorcycle.
First Minister Alex Salmond is among those who have paid tribute
Source: artdaily.org
January 7, 2010
Through careful analysis and the use of state-of-the-art technology, specialists from Mexico, Italy and the United States have determined how Mexica sculptures like "Coyolxauhqui", "Sun Stone", and "Tlaltecuhtli" were painted originally, defining the chromatic palette used by Mexica artists in the late 15th century and early 16th.
Studies of paint found in the pores of the stones confirmed that Mexica sculpture, as Greek and Roman, was polychrome. An in
Source: LA Daily News
January 7, 2010
Chris Nichols knows a good beer-barrel building when he sees one. And a group of Kennedy High School students has an eye for San Fernando Valley architectural gems.
Both are seeking to save four historic buildings, from a Lankershim Ranch reading room to a North Hills church.
And both are working to name each a city Historic-Cultural Monument, which would protect such landmarks as the onion-domed Sepulveda Unitarian church and the barrel-shaped bar once known as the Idl
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
January 6, 2010
A little faded with time, but still clearly legible; this is a tiny snapshot of British history.
The clues to which particular piece it belongs are all there – the date, destination and passenger name.
They were September 29, 1938, Munich and the Rt Hon Neville Chamberlain – and this is a plane ticket that has been tucked away for safe-keeping for nearly three-quarters of a century.
The memorabilia, which was used by the then prime minister on his notorious
