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: Baltimore Sun
December 15, 2005
A Carroll County man's collection of President John F. Kennedy memorabilia, including a gold watch, one of his rocking chairs and flags from his presidential limousine, is among thousands of personal items from a number of collectors that are scheduled to be sold in a three-day auction that begins today in New York City.Robert L. White, a retired cleaning-supply salesman whose collection of 350,000 items relates to the life of the 35th president, spent more than 40 yea
Source: NYT
December 15, 2005
There is renewed interest in redesigning Weimar, Germany, creating a 21st-century concept for an 18th-century city.
When a fire swept through the rococo library in this fabled city of Goethe and Schiller last year, the loss of some 30,000 books, manuscripts and irreplaceable, handwritten musical scores from the 16th to the 18th centuries was clearly incalculable.
But it turns out, a commission appointed by the German government reports, that faulty wiring in the library, the assu
Source: BBC News
December 15, 2005
A computer has been used to decipher the enigmatic smile of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, concluding that she was mainly happy.
The painting was analysed by a University of Amsterdam computer using "emotion recognition" software.
It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, journal New Scientist was told. The computer rated features such as the curvature of the lips and crinkles around the eyes.
Source: Toronto Star
December 15, 2005
Ancient tools found in Britain show humans lived in northern Europe 200,000 years earlier than was previously known, scientists announced yesterday.
The 32 black flint artifacts, found in river sediments in Pakefield, England, date back 700,000 years and represent the earliest unequivocal evidence for human presence north of the Alps, said the scientists, whose discovery is detailed in the science journal Nature.The finding dashes the long-held theory that human
Source: NYT
December 14, 2005
Archaeologist William Saturno said Tuesday he was awe-struck when he uncovered a Maya mural not seen for nearly two millennia. Discovered at the San Bartolo site in Guatemala, the mural covers the west wall of a room attached to a pyramid, Saturno said at a briefing.
In brilliant color, the mural tells the Maya story of creation, he said. It was painted about 100 B.C., but later covered when the room was filled in.
Source: CBS News
December 14, 2005
Bob Schieffer hosted the CBS Eveneing News tonight from Philadelphia. He was there to honor Ben Franklin whose 300th birthday comes next month.
In the lead-in to the story CBS declared: "Of all the founders, it was Ben Franklin – his wit, charm, and that practical side which produced so many of his inventions – who would have been most at home in modern America."
CBS built its story around an extended intervioew with Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson.
Source: National Security Archive
December 14, 2005
The Bush administration's new Executive Order on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) acknowledges that federal FOIA systems are currently in need of great improvement and heightened responsiveness to members of the public seeking information through the FOIA. Thomas S. Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive responded to the new Executive Order by stating, "After five years of throwing sand into the gears of the FOIA, the Bush administration is fi
Source: BBC News
December 14, 2005
The team studying one of Wales' most important archaeological finds will receive an extra £799,500 in funding. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant will help pay for the project to examine the medieval ship buried in the banks of the River Usk, Newport. The money will also fund public exhibitions, talks and workshops about the 15th century ship.
Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency
December 14, 2005
A documentary exploring the Iraq-Nazi connection will air on a U.S. cable station. “Saddam and the Third Reich,” which will first be broadcast Sunday on the History Channel, will be repeated throughout the Saddam Hussein trial. The documentary includes rare footage of the mufti of Jerusalem as the nexus between the Nazis and Iraqi fascists and the Ba’ath Party. One of several featured speakers is investigative author Edwin Black, whose book “Banking on Baghdad” revealed the role of the mufti of
Source: Cliopatria, HNN Blog
December 14, 2005
Reacting to the the French National Assembly's dabbling in history and colonial memory, prominent French historians released this statement:
"... The historian is not a slave to current events. The historian does not dump contemporary ideological schemes on the past and does not introduce to past events today's sensibilities. ..."
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 14, 2005
President Jacques Chirac has stepped into the row over French colonialism, promising an inquiry into how it is taught in schools and championing the creation of a day commemorating slavery.In a bid to appeal to people of African origins in the country's troubled housing estates, he also backed fighting discrimination by pressing employers to accept anonymous job applications.
Answering questions from readers of the daily tabloid newspaper Le Parisien, he again d
Source: Detroit News
December 13, 2005
Acting quickly on a re-election mandate to fix the city's finances, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Tuesday announced the layoffs of 400 city workers, the closing of the Detroit Historical Museum and transfer of management of the Detroit Zoo.Combined with other budget cutbacks, the plan is expected save $40 million. But major parts of the mayor's overall plan to avoid a budget deficit -- including pay and benefit cuts for union-represented workers -- remain unresolved.
Source: Reuters
December 14, 2005
Relatives of four deceased South Koreans who were forced laborers at a steel mill in northern Japan during World War Two failed on Wednesday to overturn a Japanese court decision refusing compensation for unpaid wages.
The result, in line with most Japanese rulings on war-related compensation claims, comes at a time when Japan's ties with South Korea and China have been chilled by disputes stemming from Japan's past aggression in Asia.In Wednesday's case, Tokyo
Source: Guardian
December 14, 2005
Iran's president said today that the Holocaust was a "myth", prompting strong condemnation from Israel, Germany and the European Commission.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comments to thousands of people during a speech in Iran's south-eastern city of Zahedan.They follow the international outcry his remarks caused in October when he said that Israel should be "wiped off the map".
Germany's foreign minister warned that the "sho
Source: Chicago Tribune
December 14, 2005
Archeologists said Tuesday that they had uncovered the final portion of the earliest known Mayan mural ever found, declaring that the find--which dates to 100 B.C.--overturns what was previously known about the origins of Mayan art, writing and royalty.
"It's really breathtaking how beautiful this is," said William Saturno, an archeologist with the University of New Hampshire and the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology who discovered the mural in Guatemala.
Source: EurActiv
December 14, 2005
Turkey's internationally acclaimed novelist Orhan Pamuk will be on trial in Istanbul on 16 December for insulting the Turkish state. He is charged under Article 301 of the country's recently revised penal code, with his other alleged crimes include insulting the government, the army and the memory of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. According to Article 301, "a person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the republic or Turkish National Assembly" shall be imprisoned
Source: Xinhuanet
December 14, 2005
Mongolian long-tune folk songs have been approved of as representative of human oral and non-material heritage by both China and Mongolia.
Alxa Mongolian folk songs are more than 300 years old, according to Gerel, secretary of the Alxa Association of Folk Songs in the Alxa League, based in north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. "Since September 2003 when the association was reconvened, we have covered almost every corner of Alxa and visited hundred
Source: Science Daily
December 14, 2005
Thick-skinned bottle gourds widely used as containers by prehistoric peoples were likely brought to the Americas some 10,000 years ago by individuals who arrived from Asia, according to a new genetic comparison of modern bottle gourds with gourds found at archaeological sites in the Western Hemisphere. The finding solves a longstanding archaeological enigma by explaining how a domesticated variant of a species native to Africa ended up millennia ago in places as far removed as modern-day Florida
Source: AP
December 13, 2005
Benjamin Franklin was a passionate writer, especially in the cause of the democracy he helped found, but even such a prolific man of letters may have had second thoughts about posting too-hasty words, according to an exhibit for the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth.Perhaps Franklin thought better of that letter because he never sent it. But it was preserved and is one of 75 items in the Library of Congress' exhibit, "Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words." The d
Source: Financial Times
December 14, 2005
Dick Cheney used to be portrayed in cartoons as the ventriloquist of the administration, his hand inserted into a George W. Bush puppet. Now the cartoons of the vice-president have a darker tone, with his hands controlling various instruments of torture.
Mr Cheney's advocacy, however, is best understood not as a defence of torture but as a key battle in the war over presidential power. His views of executive power were forged during the US retreat from Vietnam at a time of congressi
