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: WaPo
November 17, 2007
Move over Martha Stewart. You're getting some new competition from an old source: furniture and home decor products inspired by the collections of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian Collection for the Home includes dining and bedroom sets, chandeliers, sinks and even fireplace accessories modeled after pieces and designs held by the world's largest museum and research complex.
"They all have a history," Peter Reid, of Smithsonian Business Ventures, s
Source: Reuters
November 15, 2007
If the figurines found in an ancient European settlement are any guide, women have been dressing to impress for at least 7,500 years.
Recent excavations at the site – part of the Vinca culture which was Europe’s biggest prehistoric civilization – point to a metropolis with a great degree of sophistication and a taste for art and fashion, archaeologists say.
Source: Daily Mail
November 14, 2007
High tides and winds that have battered our shores have unearthed a burial mystery for archaeologists.
Erosion by the sea and weather has revealed what seems to be the remains of a Bronze Age child.
But what puzzled archaeologists was a layer of hard white material which appears to have been moulded around the body, like a casing.
Source: http://mathaba.net
November 15, 2007
Archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of stone and earthenware artifacts believed to be nearly 3,000 years old on the Sa Huynh culture on the An Hai islet on the Con Dao island district of the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
Source: BBC
November 15, 2007
One of Western Europe's earliest known urban societies may have sown the seeds of its own downfall, a study suggests.
Mystery surrounded the fall of the Bronze Age Argaric people in south-east Spain - Europe's driest area.
Data suggests the early civilisation exhausted precious natural resources, helping bring about its own ruin.
The study provides early evidence for cultural collapse caused - at least in part - by humans meddling with the environment, say
Source: BBC
November 15, 2007
One of Western Europe's earliest known urban societies may have sown the seeds of its own downfall, a study suggests.
Mystery surrounded the fall of the Bronze Age Argaric people in south-east Spain - Europe's driest area.
Data suggests the early civilisation exhausted precious natural resources, helping bring about its own ruin.
The study provides early evidence for cultural collapse caused - at least in part - by humans meddling with the environment, say
Source: http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk
November 19, 2007
THE first evidence of a Bronze Age settlement in Dewsbury has been uncovered at a sewage works in Earlsheaton.
The dig, which is being carried out at the Mitchell Laithes water treatment works on Headland Lane, has uncovered a possible burial ground, called a barrow, and items thought to date back to Roman times.
One item archaeologists uncovered was a pot thought to contain human ashes, which is believed to be about 3,500 years old.
Source: BBC
November 15, 2007
A near-intact shipwreck apparently dating from the 17th century has been found in the Baltic Sea, Swedish television has said.
The discovery was made during filming for an under-water documentary series.
Public service SVT television said the wreck could be from the same era as the famous Vasa warship, which sank on its maiden voyage in August 1628.
Source: NYT
November 18, 2007
All big accomplishments in sports are seen through a contemporary prism, suggests John Thorn, a baseball historian and an editor of “Total Baseball.” “By definition, your view is distorted when you have your nose up against the glass,” he says.
In baseball, the plot has a cyclical familiarity. In almost every case, the new record holder is seen as a villain, an exemplar of new and dangerous times, while the previous record holder is an unburdened hero. “It’s such a simple story, you
Source: NYT
November 17, 2007
Step aside Moore and Taylor. Welcome Garcia and Rodriguez.
Smith remains the most common surname in the United States, according to a new analysis released yesterday by the Census Bureau. But for the first time, two Hispanic surnames — Garcia and Rodriguez — are among the top 10 most common in the nation, and Martinez nearly edged out Wilson for 10th place.
The number of Hispanics living in the United States grew by 58 percent in the 1990s to nearly 13 percent of the to
Source: Letter to the Editor of the NYT
November 17, 2007
To the Editor:
“A Spy’s Path: Iowa to A-Bomb to Kremlin Honor” (front page, Nov. 12), about a Soviet spy who helped steal atomic secrets during World War II, provides powerful evidence that our parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were wrongfully executed.
History students are taught that our father headed a conspiracy that stole “the secret” of the atom bomb (historians are uncertain about the role of our mother). Meanwhile, government officials sat on the story of the
Source: Baltimore Sun
November 17, 2007
In a small cemetery at Fort Meade, the base's installation commander and others will gather tomorrow in a section of 33 graves for a tradition of commemoration that dates back at least three decades.
But the fallen soldiers they will honor fought not for America, but against it. They were Germans fighting for the Nazis - and they were among thousands of Axis prisoners of war held in Maryland during World War II.
Source: http://www.wgal.com (CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PICTURE.)
November 16, 2007
Abraham Lincoln photos are rare -- especially those from the day of the Gettysburg Address. For years, only one such photo was thought to exist, but now that may not be the case.
"I think it's absolutely staggering to see something like this that was in a sense hidden in plain sight," said Lincoln author Harold Holzer.
Holzer thinks the image of a person in one of only two known photographs taken at Gettysburg on the day of Lincoln's address looks like Lincoln
Source: AP
November 14, 2007
A new office within Germany's Institute for Museum Research is opening in January to help identify and research art stolen by the Nazis, Germany's culture minister said Wednesday.
The office, which comes under the State Museums of Berlin, will help museums, libraries and archives identify items that were taken from their rightful owners during the Nazi period, Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said.
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
November 16, 2007
This week, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee marked up a bill (H.R. 390) directing the National Archives to create an electronically searchable database of historic records of servitude, emancipation, and post-Civil War reconstruction contained within federal agencies for genealogical and historical research and to assist in the preservation of these records.
The legislation requires the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to provide
Source: Washington Times
November 14, 2007
Republicans across the country are encouraging voters to sign up for a "Clinton library card," a publicity stunt to highlight the dispute over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's White House records.
The Democrats have been arguing over the issue since it surfaced during an Oct. 30 debate, and former President Bill Clinton has since said the debate question about the records kept by the National Archives was "breathtakingly misleading."
But Republicans hav
Source: Boston Globe
November 13, 2007
A dispute over limits that Bill and Hillary Clinton have placed on the National Archives' ability to release their White House records is highlighting a consequence of family dynasties in contemporary American politics: A president has sweeping power to keep potentially embarrassing documents from past administrations a secret.
When George W. Bush became president in 2001, one of his first acts was to slow the scheduled release of his father's papers from the Reagan-Bush and Bush-Qu
Source: http://www.canada.com/
November 15, 2007
Provincial Tories are divided over a private member's bill -- one already vetted by the government caucus -- that would ramp up the amount of Canadian history taught in Alberta high schools.
The proposed legislation, which would require at least 75 per cent of social studies class time be dedicated to Canadian history, is also drawing fire from a Calgary teacher who's been working with the province on implementing new high school curriculum.
Calgary MLA Wayne Cao introd
Source: The Age
November 15, 2007
History may be rewritten on Friday when a coroner hands down a finding over the deaths of five Australian-based newsmen gunned down in East Timor.
Deputy NSW coroner Dorelle Pinch will hand down her finding on the death of Channel Nine cameraman Brian Peters, who was slain with four of his colleagues at Balibo on October 16, 1975.
Official reports have long maintained the five men were killed in crossfire during Indonesia's controversial invasion of East Timor.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 16, 2007
On Oct. 22, 1816, a 14-year-old girl named Lucy took her first steps to freedom in Pittsburgh.
Born on the freedom side of the Gradual Abolition Act of 1780, Lucy was entitled to the expectation of manumission that eluded all other blacks born before March 1, 1780.
All Lucy or a sponsor had to do was scrounge up the necessary cash and goodwill to make it happen. Freedom was a pen stroke away.
We don't know whether Lucy personally made the trip to the Allegh
