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: NYT
September 15, 2009
Roy Langbord had guessed that someone in his family might have hidden away a great treasure decades before, but not until his mother had him check a long-neglected safe-deposit box did he realize just how great it was.
Inside the box, opened in 2003, he found an incredibly rare coin, wrapped in a delicate paper sleeve. It was a gold $20 piece with Lady Liberty on one side, a bald eagle flying across the other and, at Liberty’s left, the four digits that made it so valuable: 1933.
Source: MSNBC
September 15, 2009
"Resolutions of disapproval" have been used several times in the U.S. House's history. But they're not always used to discipline a member, as Democrats are set to do shortly for Rep. Joe Wilson.
The last time one that was introduced as a disciplinary action, according to the House Historian's office, was in 2003 by Nancy Pelosi against California Republican Bill Thomas. Thomas, then the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, "called the U.S. Capitol
Source: tampabay.com
September 16, 2009
TAMPA — Burned and sunk, the steamship Scottish Chief lay at the bottom of the Hillsborough River for 146 years, a legend for its ability to keep Tampa afloat amidst the city's isolation during the Civil War.
Underwater archaeologist John William Morris, with the Florida Aquarium, said Tuesday a research team has found the ship, a vessel not seen since the night in 1863 when Union troops raided the shipyard.
Morris' team first spotted the suggestion of a ship Aug. 29 w
Source: Times Online
September 12, 2009
Harvest time is here again on Germany’s 1.2 million allotments: potatoes have to be hoisted out of the soil and the last of the peas must be plucked.
In the shed, next to the trowel and gloves, there will almost certainly be a well-thumbed copy of the gardeners’ bible written by Alwin Seifert, the country’s organic guru.
Now it emerges that at least some of Seifert’s useful tips in his bestselling book Gärtnern, Ackern-ohne Gift, (Gardening, Working the Soil without Poi
Source: Rasmussen Reports
September 14, 2009
One year after the collapse of global financial firm Lehman Brothers, most voters (56%) continue to blame the nation’s current economic problems on the recession that started under George W. Bush, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
That’s up one point over the past month, but down six points from mid-May.
Source: Echo
September 14, 2009
A 2,000-YEAR-OLD Roman salthouse has been discovered during archaeological excavations at the planned £1.5billion port at Coryton.
Archaeologists who made the find on the 34-acre site are set to unveil the full extent of the discovery on Tuesday, September 15.
The site where the mine was found is due to become a wildlife area, protecting a range of birds, animals and plants to offset any disruption caused during the construction of the port.
Source: ThaiIndia News
September 14, 2009
Edinburgh, September 14 (ANI): A 500 year old ancient drain in Scotland, which lay undisturbed until its discovery in 1990, is turning out to be a goldmine for archaeologists from the Glasgow University.
According to a report in Herald Scotland, the team of archaeologists, backed by volunteers from Renfrewshire Local History Forum, is carrying out a 12-day excavation of the drain.
An initial excavation revealed an arched corridor almost 6ft high, and uncovered pottery f
Source: Newswise
September 14, 2009
An ancient treasure comprising three figurines of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, which was buried underground for over 1,500 years, was uncovered during the tenth season of excavations that are carried out by researchers of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, headed by Prof. Arthur Segal and Dr. Michael Eisenberg. "It is possible that during the fourth century A.D., when Christianity was gradually becoming the governing religion in the Roman Empire, there were s
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
September 15, 2009
Public historically black colleges and universities have become increasingly diverse over a 20-year period, according to a new report by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
The proportion of Hispanic, Asian, and multi-ethnic students enrolled in the organization's member institutions jumped from 6 percent of the student population in 1986 to 8 percent in 2006. The total number of nonblack students of color increased by 64 percent. The organization represents 47 public historically b
Source: Inside Higher Ed
September 15, 2009
Responding to objections from American Indian students and staff members, the University of Michigan will remove a set of dioramas depicting scenes of Native American life from its natural history museum, Indian Country Today reported. Some American Indian professors at Michigan said they found it insulting for them and their culture to be represented as miniaturized dolls amid the museum's dinosaur bones and fossils. “We are living, breathing, contemporary human beings,” Margaret Noori, a profe
Source: Science Fair
September 14, 2009
Federal investigators Monday returned dinosaurs eggs, saber-toothed cat and other fossils stolen from China. Customs official had seized the fossils, taken without permission from China, and asked researchers at Chicago's Field Museum and the Virginia Museum of Natural History to evaluate them.
"These pre-historic fossils are an invaluable part of the history of the People’s Republic of China and they will undoubtedly contribute to the scientific exploration of that nation’s p
September 11, 2009
JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday. The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee.
Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah wa
Source: Time
September 15, 2009
The first town of freed African slaves in the Americas is not exactly where you would expect to find it — and it isn't exactly what you'd expect to find either. First, it's not in the United States. Yanga, on Mexico's Gulf Coast, is a sleepy pueblito founded by its namesake, Gaspar Yanga, an African slave who led a rebellion against his Spanish colonial masters in the late 16th century and fought off attempts to retake the settlement. The second thing that is immediately evident to vistors who r
Source: Independent (UK)
September 16, 2009
A war hero decorated for his bravery in the fight against Hitler is finally being honoured by his home town 55 years after his death.
Paddy the pigeon was the first bird make it back to England with vital news from the D-Day Normandy landings in June 1944.
His exploits of daring-do, avoiding deadly German falcons released to catch the airborne messengers, and making it back across the Channel, earned Paddy the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.
Source: Sky News
September 15, 2009
A government-backed drive is promoting textbooks which say his reign of terror was entirely rational and necessary to make Russia great.
We visited a school in Volgograd - formerly Stalingrad - and found patriotism and pride for Russia and its pivotal role in the Second World War are still strong.
During a history lesson pupils learned about Joseph Stalin the hero - not the villain.
The students are bright and engaged - the Kremlin's initiative to reinterpr
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 15, 2009
The Colosseum in Rome is in desperate need of almost £5 million of restoration work, the Italian government has announced.
Rome is calling for international sponsors to help fund the restoration of the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre's crumbling facade, with the project expected to cost at least £4.5 million.
The restoration of the Colosseum is part of a broader plan to spruce up the nearby Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, the jumbled collection of ruined temples and palaces
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 16, 2009
Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg are pushing ahead with separate films about Abraham Lincoln, despite the prospect of the biopics reaching cinemas at similar times.
Spielberg has said he would continue with his long-planned film about the US president who abolished slavery, after it emerged that Redford was planning a rival project that could be finished first.
The director told Variety magazine that he would not pull the plug on the film, which is set to star Liam
Source: BBC
September 16, 2009
A Finnish court has moved to Rwanda to hear evidence in the genocide trial of a former Rwandan preacher who moved to the Scandinavian country in 2003.
Finland has charged Francois Bazaramba with genocide and 15 counts of murder in Rwanda in 1994.
Finnish law allows prosecutions for crimes against humanity wherever they are committed.
If found guilty, Mr Bazaramba, 58, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. He denies all the charges.
Source: Guardian (UK)
September 16, 2009
To Tasmania's Aboriginal community it is "racist art", an enduring symbol of the persecution, murder and dispossession their ancestors suffered under white colonial rule.
More than 130 years after her death, a bust of Tasmania's most famous Aboriginal woman, Truganini, is at the centre of controversy, with demands it be returned to her homeland by the British Museum which owns it.
Now representatives of the community have flown to Britain in the hope of reclai
Source: Independent (UK)
September 16, 2009
The shadow puppeteer flicks his wrist as he beats a stumpy stick against a wooden box and begins a dramatic introduction to a story about Kunti, a mother who fights for social justice. This is Pucung, a remote Indonesian village where skeletal leather puppets, some of Indonesia's best-known handicrafts, are made. The character has a mass of black hair. Ann Dunham, too, was famous for her shock of black hair, which she claimed came from a trace of Cherokee blood in her veins. Barack Obama's mothe
