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: Mother Jones
August 5, 2008
In the summer of 2002, the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA) published an 85-page monograph called "Military Advantage in History". Unusual for an office that is headed by Andrew Marshall, the Pentagon's "futurist in chief," the study looks back to the past—way back. It examines four empires, or "pivotal hegemonic powers in history," to draw lessons about how the United States "should think about maintaining military advantage in the 21st century."
Source: Washington Post
August 5, 2008
The Bush administration informed all foreign intelligence and law enforcement teams visiting their citizens held at Guantanamo Bay that video and sound from their interrogation sessions would be recorded, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The policy suggests that the United States could possess hundreds or thousands of hours of secret taped conversations between detainees and representatives from nearly three dozen countries.
Numerous State Department cables t
Source: LiveScience
August 5, 2008
A mummy of a middle-aged woman dating to Ancient Greek times has been discovered in a lead coffin inside a marble sarcophagus, the first clear indication of embalming in Greece from the era when the Romans ruled there.
A research team co-led by Frank Rühli of the University of Zurich was able to show that various resins, oils and spices were used to embalm the body, dating to A.D. 300. Along with the skeleton, the methods partially preserved some soft tissues from the body, most of
Source: NPR
August 5, 2008
It was three years ago this month that Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and people are still trying to piece together their lives and homes.
One of those homes is the post-Civil War residence of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Biloxi, Miss.
Two artists are working to restore the Beauvoir mansion, which Davis bought in 1878 and where he lived until his death in 1889. Katrina wreaked major damage to the historic structure, ripping apart its stately w
Source: Mirror
August 5, 2008
Hundreds of World War One photos which lay undiscovered for 80 YEARS are being put on display in a remarkable attempt to solve the mystery behind them. The 500 pictures - of soldiers, nurses and their families - were found by builders working at a former photographic studio in Kent
Historians struggled to identify the soldiers but assumed they were local troops heading off to the frontlines. Further research then showed they featured soldiers from 58 regiments across Britain and All
Source: AFP
August 5, 2008
Few visitors to Hiroshima's memorial museum linger long to look at the photos of scorched victims, a child's burnt lunchbox or the shadow of someone who was incinerated.
Perhaps the images are too harrowing, or maybe they are just short of time.
More than 50 years after it opened, curators of the museum are reviewing the exhibition to try to convey a stronger message and stop memories of the devastation of the August 6, 1945 atomic attack fading from the public's mind.
Source: AP
June 5, 2008
An official says authorities in southern Vietnam have seized nearly 4 tons of Vietnam War-era bullets from fishermen.
Nguyen Van Thuong of the provincial coast guard command said Monday that coast guards intercepted a fishing boat off the coast of Binh Thuan province over the weekend.
Thuong says the six fishermen told authorities that they found the bullets off the coast and intended to sell them for scrap metal. He says the rusty bullets will be handed over to the mil
Source: History Today
August 6, 2008
Royal Navy logbooks from the 17th century are being used to plot climate change. 6,000 logbooks, including those of Nelson and Captain Cook, have already been studied by academics and Met Office scientists to highlight patterns of long-term global warming. Geographer Dr Dennis Wheeler, who has published a paper in The Holocene journal on increased British summer storms in the 1680s-90s, said: ‘Global warming is a reality, but what our data shows is that climate science is complex and that it is
Source: Tehran Times
August 6, 2008
Iran launched its first world manuscripts data bank during a ceremony held on Monday at the venue of Iran National Library and Archives (INLA).
Yerik Utembayev, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Iran, INLA director Ali-Akbar Ash’ari, director of Miras-e Maktub Research Center Akbar Irani and several numbers of Iranian experts on manuscripts attended the ceremony.
Ambassador Utembayev, who had attended the ceremony as one of the representatives of ECO member
Source: Tehran Times
August 6, 2008
The Parseh and Pasargadae Research Foundation director has called for constant vigilance against soil moisture, which is threatening the tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae.
The foundation has prepared a plan to constantly monitor the soil moisture at the site in the southern province of Fars, Mohammad-Hassan Talebian told the Persian service of CHN on Tuesday.
The plan would be approved and then financed by the Research Center of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and
Source: Telegraph
August 5, 2008
Scientists are baffled after carbon dating showed the skull, a woman's which was found near the country's capital, Wellington, dates back from 1742 – decades before Cook's Pacific expedition arrived in 1769.
The discovery was made by a boy walking his dog on the bank of a river in the Wairarapa region of the North Island, an area settled by Europeans only after the establishment of a colony by the New Zealand Company in 1840.
Dr Robin Watt, a forensic anthropologist c
Source: Chicago Tribune
August 5, 2008
When a group of House Republicans decided to continue discussing offshore drilling on the floor of a darkened Congress after the August recess started, they said they were making history.
They're right, according to researcher Anthony Wallis, who works in the House Historian's office.
Wallis, who has been looking into the issue, said that he has not found any examples of members forgoing their summer break to continue debating. The closest anecdote he could find was a n
Source: BBC
August 5, 2008
Rwanda has accused France of playing an active role in the genocide of 1994, in which about 800,000 people were killed.
A justice ministry report said France was aware of preparations for the genocide and helped train the ethnic Hutu militia perpetrators.
The report also accused French troops of direct involvement in the killings.
It named 33 senior French military and political figures that it said should be prosecuted. France has previously denied any
Source: CanWest
August 5, 2008
When several Knights Templar were burned at the stake for heresy in 1314, legend has it they screamed out a curse against the villainous lawyer who convicted them. Eight days later, he died.
They begged God to prove their innocence by taking the pope within 40 days. Thirty-three days later, Pope Clement V died too. Eight months after that, the French king who had coveted their money also passed away, and all his sons succumbed within 14 years, ending the royal family's 300-year reig
Source: Telegraph
August 4, 2008
Scientists have uncovered a treasure trove of meteorological information contained in the detailed logs kept by those on board the vessels that established Britain's great seafaring traditition including those on Nelsons' Victory and Cook's Endeavour.
Every Royal Naval ship kept a detailed record of climate including air pressure, wind strength, air and sea temperature and major meteorological disturbances.
A group of academics and Met Office scientists has unearthed
Source: Chicago Tribune
August 4, 2008
Illinois may be the Land of Lincoln, but when it comes to making ends meet during a budget crunch, not even the 16th president is spared.
The state is slashing hours at several Abraham Lincoln historic sites because of a massive deficit, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency officials said Thursday.
Starting Monday, visitors will see "closed" signs two days a week at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, the Old State Capitol and Lincoln's Tomb. The offic
Source: Sampan
August 4, 2008
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a resolution honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander soldiers who fought in the U.S. Civil War, culminating a five-year battle by Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) to help correct the historical record.
Historians have recently uncovered evidence that hundreds of soldiers of AAPI heritage fought on both the Union and Confederate sides, continuing a long tradition of significant AAPI contributions to the history of the United States since the
Source: New Zealand Herald
August 5, 2008
For 25 years, Robben Island, a former leper colony off the coast near Cape Town, was notorious as the prison which held Nelson Mandela.
After the release of the ANC leader and the collapse of apartheid, it was reborn as one of South Africa's most popular tourist attractions.
Now the island, described by one ANC activist as encapsulating the meaning of apartheid, has become symbolic not of the triumph of the human spirit but of the deep problems afflicting the Rainbow Na
Source: Times of India
August 5, 2008
The heirs of Knights Templar have initiated a legal battle in an attempt to force the Vatican to restore the reputation of the disgraced order that was accused of heresy and dissolved seven centuries ago.
In a lawsuit, the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descendants of Knights Templar, has called on Pope Benedict to recognise the seizure of assets worth £79 billion. According to the association based in Spain, when the order was
Source: Tehran Times
August 5, 2008
A team of Iranian archaeologists have recently returned to the Kelar Tepe conducting an in-depth study of prehistoric black and gray pottery from the region, located in Iran’s northern province of Mazandaran.
They also plan to excavate in the region for Neolithic residential areas, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.
The study project entitled “From Cave to Plain” aims to expand upon the archaeological studies previously carried out on the region, team dire
