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: Foxnews
August 1, 2009
Days after publication, "Bobby and Jackie, A Love Story," climbed to number eight on the New York Times bestseller list. To research and write about the love affair between Bobby Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, author C. David Heymann, three-times-nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, spent more than twenty years in heavy-duty interviewing with friends, acquaintances and observers of the Kennedys.
Heymann believes it was the grief that Bobby and Jackie shared after the assassinati
Source: NYT
July 31, 2009
The government went back and checked its numbers — back, in some cases, 60 years — and on Friday it released the results, with changes big and small as the statisticians tried to calculate how well the economy had done and where Americans were spending their money.
The results? The American economy was a little stronger than we thought when times were good, but worse when times were bad.
The government decided that it should measure the impact of big disasters in a diff
Source: Boston Herald story summarized by The Daily Beast
August 1, 2009
The explosion of peace, love, and understanding brought on by President Obama's beer summit continues unabated. This time it's Henry Louis Gates Jr. moving things forward, sending a bouquet of flowers to Lucia Whalen, the woman who made the 911 call that eventually landed Gates in jail. "It was an expression of gratitude," her lawyer and Daily Beast contributor, Wendy Murphy, told the Boston Herald. She wouldn't disclose the contents of the note, but the recent release of tapes of the
Source: Boston Globe
July 31, 2009
Until this week, Officer Justin L. Barrett was a young Boston patrolman with no record of misconduct, who had served his country in Iraq and once tackled an armed man inside the Mattapan police station where he worked.
Now, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has called him a cancer and said the 36-year-old should be fired for writing an e-mail comparing a black professor to a “jungle monkey.’’
To many of the city’s black leaders, he is a painful reminder of racial tensions that sti
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
August 1, 2009
Genetic evidence is revealing that human populations began to expand in size in Africa during the Late Stone Age approximately 40,000 years ago. A research team led by Michael F. Hammer (Arizona Research Laboratory's Division of Biotechnology at the University of Arizona) found that sub-Saharan populations increased in size well before the development of agriculture. This research supports the hypothesis that population growth played a significant role in the evolution of human cultures in the L
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
August 1, 2009
Every object unearthed by an archaeological dig must have its exact position recorded. This is normally a painstaking process involving measuring rods and string, but a device that uses technology originally developed to guide robots could speed up the process. Gran Dolina in central Spain is a Palaeolithic site that contains important hominin remains which date from between 780,000 and 300,000 years ago. Thousands of fossils are discovered there every year, but registering them all by hand make
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
August 1, 2009
Andrew Hemmings walked on a Florida (USA) beach that man hasn't set foot on in more than 13,000 years. Not because it isn't a popular stretch of real estate - it's just that few people are able to don full scuba gear and dive 40 feet under water in the Gulf of Mexico for a stroll in the sand. The University of Texas archaeologist is part of an elite team of scientists led by James Adovasio of Mercyhurst College in Erie. Adovasio is looking for evidence of the earliest North American settlements
Source: Boston Globe
July 30, 2009
After sharing beers on the Rose Garden patio this evening , there was no final resolution to the confrontation between Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley that turned into a national racial issue.
But President Obama, Crowley, and Gates's lawyer, while declining to divulge details of the private talks, said there had been progress through a cordial, frank discussion.
“I am thankful to Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley fo
Source: Jerusalem Post
July 31, 2009
The Obama administration has failed to name an envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism around the world as mandated by US law since the previous ambassador was relieved of his duties at the start of the president's term more than six months ago, officials said Thursday.
The failure to name a new envoy for the post raises questions about the importance the new administration attaches to the fight against anti-Semitism, said Rafael Medoff, director of the Washington DC-based
Source: http://www.cathnews.com
July 29, 2009
A recent study by French scientist Thierry Castex has revealed that on the shroud are traces of words in Aramaic spelled with Hebrew letters.
A Vatican researcher, Barbara Frale, told Vatican Radio on July 26 that her own studies suggest the letters on the shroud were written more than 1,800 years ago.
She said that in 1978 a Latin professor in Milan noticed Aramaic writing on the shroud and in 1989 scholars discovered Hebrew characters that probably were portions of th
Source: http://www.gettysburgtimes.com
July 24, 2009
Gettysburg area philanthropist David LeVan is donating 61 acres of his family’s land to the National Park Service and Gettysburg Foundation.
The foundation — the park’s management and fundraising partner — officially accepted the conservation easement during a ceremony Thursday morning.
“I make this gift in honor of my father’s vision and commitment to the preservation and conservation of this property,” said LeVan.
“I’m happy that I am now the one who is a
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 31, 2009
Henry II spent vast sums on Dover Castle as an international public relations exercise to counter the growing "anti-monarchial cult" of Thomas Becket's shrine in nearby Canterbury, according to a new analysis.
The fiery monarch spent at least £6,440 throughout the 1180s – more than a quarter of his average annual income – building and furnishing the impressive keep at the castle, according to a study of his finances by John Gillingham, Professor Emeritus in medieval histor
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 31, 2009
OSHKOSH, Wis. -- Art Jibilian hoped his presence here at the largest private air show in the world would, in a small way, help right a terrible wrong that had been done so long ago.
Mr. Jibilian, of Fremont Ohio, and surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, the pioneering squadron of black fighter pilots, were honored here yesterday at AirVenture 2009 for their roles in Operation Halyard, the greatest rescue of downed American airmen in World War II.
Two former Western
Source: Times (UK)
July 31, 2009
The bustling harbour of Altinum near Venice was one of the richest cities of the Roman empire. But terrified by the impending invasion of the fearsome Germanic Emperor Attila the Hun, its inhabitants cut their losses and fled in AD452, leaving behind a ghost town of theatres, temples and basilicas.
Altinum was never reoccupied and gradually sunk into the ground. The city lived on in Venetian folk tales and historical artefacts but its exact position, size and wealth gradually faded
Source: NYT
July 30, 2009
Istanbul may be filled with bookshops, but public libraries are
another matter. Most of the city’s libraries belong either to academic
or private institutions and are, for the most part, off limits to the
public.
This being the case, the opening of any new public library is a cause
for celebration. But the new home of library of the Istanbul-based
Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, or IRCICA
(Yildiz Sarayi, Seyir Kosku, Barbaros Bulvari, Besiktas;
90-212-259-1742
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
July 28, 2009
These amazing pictures show a group of university students going boldly where no man has ever gone before as they explore a new cave which lies staggering half-kilometre below ground.
They are the first humans ever to plunge into the depths of the awe-inspiring network in the Mavri Laki region of the White Mountains on the Greek island of Crete.
Source: AP
July 26, 2009
A scene from an animated film shown to visitors at the new Acropolis Museum that depicts Christian priests destroying parts of the Parthenon has been deleted following protests by the Greek Orthodox Church.
The creator of the segment, Greek-born French filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavras, has demanded that his name be taken off the film credits in protest.
The animated segment showed figures clad in black climbing up ladders and destroying part of the Parthenon frieze; th
Source: Swissinfo
July 31, 2009
As they do every August 1, the Swiss commemorate on Saturday the pact signed by their forefathers in 1291.
But historian Georges Andrey draws swissinfo.ch's attention to a few inconsistencies in the roots of Switzerland's national day, which was created just over 100 years ago.
Legend has it that on August 1, 1291, amid continuing Habsburg repression, representatives from three forest cantons around Lake Lucerne – Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden – met on the Rütli meadow to s
Source: NYT
July 31, 2009
Corazon C. Aquino of the Philippines, who was swept into office on a wave of “people power” in 1986 and then faced down half a dozen coup attempts in six years as president, died Saturday in Manila. She was 76.
Her son, Senator Benigno S. Aquino III, known as Noynoy, said she died at 3:18 a.m., The Associated Press reported. She learned she had advanced colon cancer last year and had been hospitalized in Manila for more than a month, he said. The cancer had spread to other organs, h
Source: The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)
July 31, 2009
An archeological dig conducted on the southern side of the Singhasari Temple in Bungkuk village, Malang, East Java, has uncovered an ancient residential complex.
The confirmation was announced to the public on Thursday by a team of researchers from the National Archeology Research and Development Center (Arkenas), in Jakarta, after excavating the site from July 22.
"We believe it was a residential complex from the Singosari Kingdom during the rule of King Kertane
