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: Daily Mail
November 20, 2009
A family of five terrifying prehistoric crocodiles - including one with teeth like the tusks of a wild boar - have been discovered by fossil hunters.
The predators roamed the swamps, lakes and rivers of Africa 100million years ago hunting small dinosaurs and seeking out fish and grubs.
Unlike their modern cousins, the ancient crocodilians were as agile on land as they were in the water.
Source: Fox
November 18, 2009
Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) representative Sebastian Heath indicated during a State Department (DOS) hearing in Washington last Friday, (November 13, 2009) stated that the AIA supports expanding the current import restrictions on cultural property from Italy to include coins. With Roman and Greek coins struck in Italy being the most popular of all ancient coins in the U.S., Heath's statement is a wakeup call for thousands of private collectors, museums and independent scholars. The
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
November 18, 2009
Under a tent on the grounds of the future SugarHouse Casino, archaeologists sift through buckets of debris, picking out and bagging the choicest broken bits.
Half a teacup. The neck of a blue bottle. A shard of thick brown pottery.
The artifacts come mostly from 18th-century brick privies, the colonial equivalent of Dumpsters.
But the items are practically newfangled compared with what the archaeologists have uncovered in a nearby plot about the size of a t
Source: The Daily News (Galveston County)
November 19, 2009
TEXAS CITY — For years, the scoured remains of a Civil War naval tragedy slowly rusted beneath the spinning propellers of gargantuan tankers and sky-scraping container ships.
The scuttled USS Westfield, a Union gunship, and the last vestiges of its 14 doomed crew lay obscured in seafloor sediment near the confluence of the Texas City and Houston ship channels.
On Wednesday, however, divers and salvage crews visited the all-but-forgotten site to begin recovering what is
Source: The New Republic
November 20, 2009
Labor economists generally agree that each extra year of school raises someone's earning by 10-15%. But it turns out that math classes could account for half of those gains.
And we can thank Ronald Reagan for this piece of knowledge. Following a critical report of the American education system by the Reagan administration in 1983, many states around the country raised the number of math and science courses that were required for graduation. In a new paper, Harvard's Joshua Goodman
Source: TIme
November 20, 2009
Late-night digging along the back roads of Bastar, a dense jungle region in India's northern state of Chhattisgarh, can only mean one thing if there's nothing to show for it the next day: Maoist rebel activity. So when a group of villagers in the state's Kanker district, the gateway to Bastar, were kept awake for nights on end last month by repeated chinking from metal striking rock on a nearby road, they knew something was up.
They were right. The Maoists, commonly known in India a
Source: The Dallas Morning News
November 20, 2009
AUSTIN – Hispanics are getting the shaft in proposed history and social studies standards for Texas public schools, Hispanic legislative leaders complained Wednesday to the State Board of Education.
Rep. Norma Chavez, representing the House and Senate Hispanic caucuses, told board members that proposed standards for U.S. history, government and other social studies courses are a slap at the state's growing Hispanic population.
"It is as though Hispanics don't exist
Source: BBC
November 19, 2009
Primary school children in England will have to learn about evolution and British history under a shake-up of the national curriculum.
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker says the subjects will be compulsory elements of a new primary school curriculum being introduced in 2011.
Scientists and humanists had lobbied ministers for the inclusion of evolution in the theme-based timetable.
History is already compulsory, but there were fears it would be sidelined.
Source: The Art Newspaper
November 18, 2009
A German court has upheld Iraqi claims over a miniature gold vessel that for the past three years has been at the centre of a tangled dispute involving a Munich auction house, German customs, the Iraqi embassy in Berlin, an archaeologist, and a museum of classical antiquities.
The case, which has focused attention on the sale of smuggled Iraqi artifacts in Germany, began late in 2004 when the slightly dented six-centimetre-high gold vessel was included in a sale at Munich auction ho
Source: NYT
November 15, 2009
For all the trillions of dollars lavished on it, for all the talk about confronting new security threats, for all the exhortations to reinvent government, America’s defense establishment, as John Farmer reminds us in “The Ground Truth,” continued to fight the cold war more than a decade after it had ended. Preoccupied with building a costly missile defense system to counter a spurious menace from Russia and with maintaining “full spectrum dominance” over the rest of the globe, most Bush administ
Source: BBC
November 20, 2009
A Victoria Cross awarded to a 21-year-old World War II bomber pilot has sold at auction for £335,000.
The VC, which was presented to Flight Lieutenant Bill Reid in 1944 by King George VI, was bought by an anonymous bidder, setting a new record price.
Flt Lt Reid, from Crieff in Perthshire, was given the VC for his part in a bombing raid on Germany in 1943.
A total of five of his medals were auctioned at Spink in London, raising £348,000.
Source: BBC
November 20, 2009
A house where newlywed Henry VIII stayed with his second wife Anne Boleyn has gone on the market after being rebuilt from a state of near collapse.
Shurland Hall, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, is thought to be the gatehouse of a Tudor palace owned by a courtier of the King, Thomas Cheyney.
It was probably built especially for Henry and Anne's visit in 1532, when the King spent three days hunting.
The Spitalfields Trust has restored it and put it up for
Source: BBC
November 20, 2009
Easyjet has apologised after fashion photographs shot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin were published in its in-flight magazine.
In the pictures, models pose in designer clothes among the concrete blocks of the "Field of Stelae".
The budget airline says it was unaware of the images until they appeared in the magazine, which is published by a company called INK.
Source: BBC
November 20, 2009
The granddaughter of Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini has said that blood and parts of his brain have been stolen to sell on the internet.
Alessandra Mussolini, a former showgirl turned MP, said she immediately informed the police when she found out.
The listing, on auction site Ebay, reportedly showed images of a wooden container and ampoules of blood.
Ebay, which does not allow the sale of human matter on its site, said that the listing was rem
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 20, 2009
The ancient hymns brought tears to the eyes of Solomon Ayeli, as well as memories of his native Ethiopia which he left two decades ago for Israel - a country he loves but where he often feels rejected.
Separated during centuries from other Jewish communities, the Beta Israel were only recognised as Jews by Israel's two chief rabbis in 1975.
The recognition was crucial, as Aliyah - the Israeli law of return - allows any Jew to settle in Israel and get citizenship.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 20, 2009
Barbara Frale, a Vatican researcher, claims to have discovered Christ's 'death certificate' on the Turin Shroud.
The historian and researcher at the secret Vatican archive said she has found the words "Jesus Nazarene" on the shroud, proving it was the linen cloth which was wrapped around Christ's body.
She said computer analysis of photographs of the shroud revealed extremely faint words written in Greek, Aramaic and Latin which attested to its authenticity.
Source: AP
November 20, 2009
A Florence museum says two fingers and a tooth believed to belong to Galileo Galilei have been found and will go on display next spring.
Three fingers and a tooth were taken from the astronomer's body in 1737 and placed in a container.
Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museum of the History of Science, said a private collector had bought a container at auction containing two fingers and a tooth. The collector contacted Florence cultural officials and the parts and the con
Source: AP
November 20, 2009
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev criticized Kremlin policies Friday and toyed with the ambitious idea of attempting a political comeback.
Gorbachev said that corruption and overdependence on oil exports have aggravated the impact of the global economic crisis on Russia. He urged President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to restructure the economy, cut down government spending and ensure political freedoms.
But he also suggested everyday Russians
Source: CNN
November 20, 2009
Less than a month before the Civil War's start, a newly inaugurated President Lincoln took time from his frantic schedule to write to an Illinois boy whose classmates didn't believe he'd met the president.
A company that buys and sells historic documents sold the letter for $60,000 to a private collector and Civil War buff. The Raab Collection in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally purchased the note from another collector, said Nathan Raab, the company's vice president.
Source: Lee Ruddin
November 19, 2009
These were the words of Steven Hurst, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University, at the launch of his book in London on Thursday evening.
Placing recent events in a broader historical context, The United States and Iraq since 1979: Hegemony, Oil and War (Edinburgh University Press) provides a theoretical framework that places the actions of the various US administrations in a wider process.
Using World Systems Theory, Hurst is the first to analyz
