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: The Independent (London)
February 12, 2006
Paul McGann, who played Topliss in a1986 BBC drama, has continued to study his life along with a team of historians. And they now believe Topliss wasn't even present at the event that first thrust him into the public spotlight. Topliss specialised in impersonating military officers, to the consternation of the establishment. And he was believed to be the ringleader of a protest by British troops at a training camp at Etaples, France, just before the battle of Pass-chendaele in 1917.
Source: Rocky Mountain News
February 13, 2006
Historians have long assumed that the reviled Roman emperor Maxentius lived part-time at an 80-acre suburban villa complex until he was killed by his rival Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in A.D. 312. But a University of Colorado-led archaeology team has uncovered evidence that the villa's main hall was never occupied. Instead, it appears to have been abandoned before completion, said CU archaeologist Diane Conlin, co-director of the Maxentius project, a five
Source: Independent
February 13, 2006
Alarm bells rang last month when newspapers in Massachusetts discovered that the staff of Congressman Marty Meehan had polished his biography by, for instance, deleting his long-abandoned promise to serve only four terms and praising his "fiscally responsible" voting record.Detective work by Wikipedia found that other offices on Capitol Hill had engaged in skulduggery - not all of them with flattering results, such as the false reference to Oklahoma's Tom Coburn be
Source: Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
February 13, 2006
Here lies the forgotten history of New York. And here. And over there. All across the city's five boroughs, old cemeteries are tucked away, some visible but ignored by passers-by, some in the shadow of latter-day high-rises, some so remote as to be overlooked entirely.Several, like Sylvan Grove Cemetery in a distant corner of Staten Island, have fallen into disrepair from decades of neglect and vandals who spray-paint their own premature epitaphs on 200-year-old tombst
Source: Independent (South Africa)
February 13, 2006
Ancient paintings which allegedly prove that the Chinese invented the game of golf up to 1 000 years ago are to go on display in Hong Kong in February, a news report said on Monday.The pictures from the 13th and 14th centuries show Chinese noblemen hitting balls into holes with clubs that look remarkably similar to modern golf clubs.
The paintings will go on display in an exhibition titled Ancient Chinese Pastimes in Hong Kong's Heritage Museum from March
Source: Der Spiegel
February 13, 2006
War crime, payback or a legitimate attack aimed at shortening World War II? The destruction of Dresden on February 13, 1945 is one of the most controversial bombing raids of the conflict. It's now the subject of a new German film that aims to tell the story from several points of view.Germany is remembering the near total destruction of one of its most beautiful cities by Allied bombers in one night 61 years ago with the release of the first feature film about the Worl
Source: Reuters
February 13, 2006
German filmmakers have tackled the touchy subject of whether the Allied firebombing of Dresden at the end of World War Two was a "war crime" with a carefully balanced melodrama that got its worldwide premiere on Monday. Showing the German point of view of anything in World War Two is always likely to cause a stir -- and that's precisely what the makers of "Dresden" said they want to achieve.
"Dresden," which premiered at the
Source: The Nation
February 13, 2006
Galvanized by a sense that the Iraq War represents a catastrophic policy based on an illegal set of political and military ends, historians and activists will convene in Austin, Texas, this weekend to explore what historical analysis and understanding can contribute to efforts to bring the war to an immediate end. Advance registration indicates that activists so far outnumber academics at the conference, sponsored by Historians Against the War (HAW). The organization w
Source: Sofia News Agency (Bulgaria)
February 13, 2006
A Greek farmer has accidentally uncovered an historic find - the largest ancient tomb ever found in Greece.The eight-chamber tomb was found in a field just outside the historic northern city of Pella, birthplace of Alexander the Great. It is rich in painted sculpture dates to the Hellenistic period between the 3rd and 2nd century BC and offers scholars a rare glimpse into the life of nobles around the time of Alexander's death.
It is filled with jewels, co
Source: CNN
February 12, 2006
Presidents and their wives have been an amorous lot, their White House years coming at the pinnacle of lives entwined. The men pursued and loved these women as intensely as they clawed to power and unleashed armies."Touch you I must or I'll burst," Ronald Reagan wrote to Nancy three years before he became California governor. Lyndon Johnson, then a young congressman from Texas, declared to his valentine, Lady Bird, mere weeks after they had met, "This mo
Source: NYT
December 31, 2069
AT day's end, it was perhaps one of the few things over which he held no sway, the relentless logic of aging, that made Tsuneo Watanabe, Japan's most powerful media baron, decide to step out of the shadows.
He has recently granted long, soul-baring interviews in which he has questioned the rising nationalism he has cultivated so assiduously in the pages of his newspaper, the conservative Yomiuri — the world's largest, with a circulation of 14 million. Now, he talks about the need to
Source: NYT
December 31, 2069
The first intact tomb discovered in 84 years at the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt, was formally opened Friday. The tomb, discovered by a team of American archaeologists a few days ago, is just a few feet from King Tutankhamen's tomb.The discovery of the tomb, a rectangular chamber cut from the rock, was announced this week by Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The tomb contains five mummies from the 18th dynasty era (abo
Source: BBC
December 31, 2069
The chairman of Iran's Jewish Council has strongly criticised the country's hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying the Holocaust was a myth. In a letter to the president, Haroun Yashayaei said the leader's remarks had shocked the international community and caused fear in Iran's Jewish community.
Mr Yashayaei described the Holocaust as one of the most obvious and sad events in the 20th Century.
Six million Jews were killed in Nazi perse
Source: Washington Times
February 11, 2006
The Governor's Palace at Colonial Williamsburg is set to reopen Friday, after having been closed for about a month for its first significant reinterpretation in a quarter-century. The makeover is tied to the upcoming "Revolutionary City" program.
Beginning March 20, the palace and other historic area sites, as well as Colonial Williamsburg's costumed interpreters, will bring to life the period from 1774 to 1781.
At the palace, rooms ar
Source: BBC News
February 10, 2006
Divers have salvaged a 2m (6ft) bronze imperial eagle from the German World War II battleship Graf Spee that was scuttled in the River Plate. Three divers had to loosen 145 bolts securing the 300kg (661lb) eagle to the stern of the craft in the muddy waters off Uruguay's capital, Montevideo.
"The eagle is really impressive... it's all virtually intact," said team leader Hector Bado.
The ship was scuttled in December 1939 to stop it falli
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
February 9, 2006
It was the lost treasure in the philatelic world -- the only known envelope bearing a 90-cent Abraham Lincoln stamp from 1869. For years, collectors assumed the envelope, or cover, as it's known in the stamp world, had been destroyed sometime after it was stolen from a home in Indianapolis in 1967. Then, a month ago, a couple casually walked it into a Chicago stamp shop, and ever since, collectors have been salivating at the prospect of getting their hands on the
Source: BBC News
February 9, 2006
A bit of old Belfast has come to light with archaeologists excavating in the Cathedral quarter before development begins on a former industrial site. Part of the old 17th and 18th century town was exposed.
Although it is little more than the outline of brick walls, it has given an insight into the city's past.
It is thought about 1,000 people lived in what was a squalid area, most of them with just a room and a small yard to their name.
Source: In These Times
February 9, 2006
Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers, and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials
Source: CNN
February 10, 2006
An Italian judge has dismissed an atheist's petition that a small-town priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed, both sides said on Friday.Luigi Cascioli, a 72-year-old retired agronomist, had accused the Rev. Enrico Righi of violating two laws with the assertion, which he called a deceptive fable propagated by the Roman Catholic Church.
"The Rev. Righi is very satisfied and moved," Righi's attorney, Severo Bruno, said. &
Source: NY Post
February 2, 2006
So says Page Six in the NY Post. Quoting Page Six:
WASHINGTON Post "culture critic" Philip Kennicott should think twice before visiting New York.
The smug book reviewer did an unprovoked hatchet job the other day on Manhattan Assistant DA-turned-war-hero Matthew Bogdanos' otherwise well-received (and decidedly apolitical) new memoir, "Thieves of Baghdad." Needless to say, the highly decorated two-tour Special Forces vet isn't
