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: Telegraph (UK)
March 13, 2009
Viking warriors who raided and colonised Britain in the 11th century went on to form harmonious relationships with our ancestors, scientists claim.
The Scandinavian invaders are remembered in history books as barbaric savages who pillaged towns and villages, and raped their women.
But new evidence shows that following their violent arrival, the Vikings lived in relative harmony with their Anglo-Saxon and Celtic counterparts.
Source: NYT
March 12, 2009
Gone from Tibet are the shackled slaves, the thumbscrews and the scorpion pits that awaited serfs who defied their masters. Gone, too, is the Dalai Lama, that “jackal clad in Buddhist monk’s robes,” who fled to India 50 years ago this week during an uprising that China claims was aimed at preserving his feudalistic rule.
With Tibet closed to foreign journalists and much of the region suddenly, and mysteriously, troubled by patchy phone and Internet service, the only way to get a gli
Source: NYT
March 12, 2009
With its pink-hued medieval churches, tree-lined city walls and a famously excellent regional cuisine, Lucca seems the perfect Tuscan city. But that charm is precisely what has made it the latest battleground in a tug of war between the romantic Italy of the popular imagination and the more complex reality.
Lucca’s center-right city council recently stirred much contention, and accusations of racism, by prohibiting new ethnic food restaurants from opening within its gorgeous histori
Source: National Security Archive
March 13, 2009
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today won the fifth annual Rosemary Award for the worst Freedom of Information Act performance by a federal agency. The FBI's reports to Congress show that the Bureau is unable to find any records in response to two-thirds of its incoming FOIA requests on average over the past four years, when the other major government agencies averaged only a 13% "no records" response to public requests.
Given annually during Sunshine Week by the
Source: Jeff Spurr in an email circulating on IraqiCrisis
March 13, 2009
Friends and colleagues,
There has been much comment of late concerning the controversy surrounding the hurried opening of the Iraq Museum. What has not been addressed is the hit that Iraqi cultural institutions' budgets have been taking of late due to government claims that falling oil revenues demand them. This is particularly clear in the case of the Iraq National Library and Archive, where the budget-exclusive of support for staff-was cut a horrifying 60%. To put this in persp
Source: NYT
March 12, 2009
Warning that Governors Island may be forced to shut down for lack of money, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has proposed that the city take control of the former military base so that the state can focus on other projects.
The city and the state have jointly run the 172-acre island in the middle of New York Harbor since 2003, seeking to develop it as a unique recreational, historic and artistic destination 800 yards south of Lower Manhattan. But Gov. David A. Paterson did not put any mon
Source: NYT
March 12, 2009
After the 9/11 terror attacks, thousands of people faced a weighty and uncomfortable decision. Congress had created a special fund to compensate survivors and victims’ families, but said that those who received compensation from it could not sue airlines or airport security firms, among other entities.
People with claims had to decide whether to accept an early, assured payment from the fund or take their chances in the courts, possibly facing legal hardball tactics, delays and the
Source: CBS News
March 13, 2009
A University of South Carolina archaeologist is scanning the bottom of Charleston Harbor for Civil War artifacts, using a twin-outboard motor boat and a clutch of scientific equipment.
James Spirek of the South Carolina Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology has been on the water this week putting together the first comprehensive historical scan of the harbor bottom.
Source: AP
March 12, 2009
SEATTLE — A Romanian national has admitted trying to sell a stolen bookmark that reportedly was given to Adolf Hitler by his mistress after the Nazis lost a key battle in World War II.
Christian Popescu, 37, of suburban Kenmore, who emigrated to the area about 12 years ago from Constanta, Romania, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to the sale or receipt of stolen goods.
The 18-carat gold bookmark, engraved with a portrait of Hitler, an imperial eagle and a
Source: WCBD-TV (Charleston, SC)
March 12, 2009
Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans want Berkeley County Schools to have the day off May 11 to observe Confederate Memorial Day.
The local chapter of SCV known as General Ellison Capers Camp 1212 says for the past 2 years the schools should have been given a day off but were not. Confederate Memorial Day falls on May 10 and according to South Carolina guidelines should be observed like other legal holidays. That means if it’s on a Saturday like 2007 it should be observed on
Source: TheDailyBeast.com
March 12, 2009
President Obama may be popular with the public, but economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal give him and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy. A majority of the 49 economists polled told surveyors they were dissatisfied with the Obama team’s economic policies; on average, they gave him a grade of 59 out of 100, while Geithner got just 51. (Fed chief Ben Bernanke, meanwhile, scored a respectable 71.) The Journal does cast a somewhat suspici
Source: Fox News
March 11, 2009
A San Francisco police union has accused former domestic terrorist William Ayers, co-founder of the Weather Underground, and his wife in a 1970 bombing that killed one sergeant, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The union, in a letter to a conservative organization lobbying for arrests in the case, accused Ayers and wife Bernardine Dohrn of bombing a city police station.
On Feb. 16, 1970, a bomb placed on a window ledge of Park Station killed Sgt. Brian McDonnell and
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
March 11, 2009
Jack Ross, who lives at the Golden Oaks nursing home in Bendigo in central Victoria, turned 110 on Wednesday.
Mr Ross joins a select group of the world's super centenarians as Australia's oldest man and the nation's sole surviving World War I veteran.
He enlisted to help the war effort in February 1918 but the war ended nine months later, before he saw active service.
Mr Ross' daughter Peggy Ashburn said her father was frail but otherwise in good health, ea
Source: The Hill
March 11, 2009
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is poised to reintroduce a highly controversial resolution that seeks to condemn the Armenian "genocide" of 1915-1917.
The introduction of the measure, expected to happen within a month, will reignite a fierce debate in Congress.
Schiff's renewed push comes in the wake of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's recent visit to Turkey and President Obama's planned trip there next month.
Source: HNN Staff summary of Lee White's reports at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
March 12, 2009
It's known for its billions in earmarks. But the appropriations bill just signed by President Obama will be remembered by people in the humanities for its generous expenditures.
These headlines from the National Coalition for History tell the story:
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will receive its highest level of funding in recent years under
Source: WaPo
March 12, 2009
For a curator, Clark Evans proved himself to be a shrewd political analyst as he dissected the election results yesterday in a lecture at the Library of Congress.
"That was an historic election," he said. "The country had had its fill," he continued, of a "failed president, and here's this man of the people, a much more democratic image being projected for a presidential candidate." The candidate was "very pragmatic" and, when necessary, "
Source: Forbes
March 11, 2009
The richest people in the world have gotten poorer, just like the rest of us. This year the world's billionaires have an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months. The world now has 793 billionaires, down from 1,125 a year ago.
After slipping in recent years, the U.S. is regaining its dominance as a repository of wealth. Americans account for 44% of the money and 45% of the list's slots, up seven and three percentage points from last year, respectively. Bill Gates lost
Source: Times (UK)
March 12, 2009
It was perhaps the bravest act of espionage of the Second World War. After voluntarily being imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp for 2 and one half years, and smuggling out its darkest secrets to the Allies, Witold Pilecki overcame a guard and, with two comrades, escaped almost certain death.
Now new details have emerged of the extraordinary tale of the Polish officer who hatched a plot with the country's resistance to be rounded up by the occupying Germans in September
Source: Reuters
March 12, 2009
Archeologists have uncovered carved stucco panels depicting cosmic monsters, gods and serpents in Guatemala's northern jungle that are the oldest known depictions of a famous Mayan creation myth.
The newly discovered panels, both 26 feet long and stacked on top of each other, were created around 300 BC and show scenes from the core Mayan mythology, the Popol Vuh.
It took investigators three months to uncover the carvings while excavating El Mirador, the biggest ancient
Source: China Daily
March 11, 2009
Chinese archaeologists will start later this year to salvage a ship thought to be a Ming Dynasty merchant vessel that sank off the Guangdong coast 400 years ago, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said Wednesday.
The SACH approved the excavation plan early this year, it said in a statement to Xinhua. The administration hasn't yet announced all details of the salvage plan, but the Guangdong provincial cultural heritage department will organize an excavation team, th
