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: Toptenz.net
August 13, 2010
The world has never been more technologically advanced than it is now, but that doesn’t mean that some things haven’t been lost along the way. Many of the technologies, inventions, and manufacturing processes of antiquity have simply disappeared with the passage of time, while others are still not fully understood by modern day scientists. Some have since been rediscovered (indoor plumbing, road building), but many of the more mysterious lost technologies have gone on to become the stuff of lege
Source: Daily Express
August 11, 2010
Records showing how Karl Marx died a poor man and Charles Darwin a millionaire have been published online for the first time.
Official summaries of more than six million wills dating from between 1861 and 1941 were scanned and uploaded by family history website Ancestry.co.uk.
The "probate calendar books" for England and Wales are an index giving details of how much the estates were worth, and in some cases who inherited them.
As well as helping people
Source: Irish Central
September 2, 2010
The suspected murderer of Irish journalist, Veronica Guerin, has been arrested in Holland.
Dublin criminal John Traynor (62) fled from Ireland following the murder of Veronica Guerin in 1996.
Veronica Guerin was shot dead in her car by the passenger on a motorbike. The murder took place at traffic lights on the Naas Road in Dublin.
According to officials Traynor was Guerin's main contact in the underworld. He has been on the run from the law for 18 years af
Source: William and Mary News
September 3, 2010
Laboratory analysis by the College of William and Mary's Center for Archaeological Research (WMCAR) has revealed that the bone fragments found this summer in two unmarked graves on campus are the remains of dogs interred some two centuries ago.
The discovery represents a significant scholarly mystery, as researchers both at WMCAR and in the College's Department of Anthropology say that evidence of the formal interment of dogs dating from the Colonial period is unprecedented.
Source: Discovery News
September 3, 2010
A group of people who lived nearly 2,000 years ago in Sudanese Nubia took doses of tetracycline -- through their beer.
People have been using antibiotics for nearly 2,000 years, suggests a new study, which found large doses of tetracycline embedded in the bones of ancient African mummies.
What's more, they probably got it through beer, and just about everyone appears to have drank it consistently throughout their lifetimes, beginning early in childhood.
W
Source: CBC News
September 1, 2010
Canadian officials say they have entered talks with the British government on how best to preserve the wreck of HMS Investigator, a 19th-century British naval ship that was found in Arctic waters this summer.
Archeologists with Parks Canada discovered the shipwreck on July 25 in Banks Island's Mercy Bay in the Northwest Territories. The ship had been abandoned in 1854, during an attempt to search for Sir John Franklin's missing expedition.
The process of preserving HMS
Source: The Washington Post
September 3, 2010
To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial - from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines.
Archaeologists, many of them Americans, say the opposite is true: This patch of forest, and many others across the Amazon, was instead home to an advanced, even spectacular civilization that managed the forest and enriched
Source: The Washington Post
September 3, 2010
...The 23-year-old Maryland native and self-described "wet-nosed lieutenant" was the fire control officer for an Army artillery unit engaged in what historians considered some of the bloodiest fighting of the Korean War: the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
By the night of Dec. 1, 1950, only 385 of the original 3,000 soldiers remained in the 31st Regimental Combat Team, known as Task Force Faith. About 1,000 had been killed, taken prisoner or left to freeze to death. Another 1
Source: Irish Central
September 3, 2010
A retired federal agent's research has uncovered the records which show that the United States first female cop was an Irish woman.
While researching the history of Chicago law enforcement, Rick Barrett, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and amateur historian, discovered records of Sergeant Marie Owen, the first female cop in the United States and an Irish-born woman.
Barrett spent over three years researching Owens. He spend his time travelling all over t
Source: BBC
September 2, 2010
A metal detecting enthusiast has found what is believed to be the only intact Roman lantern made out of bronze ever discovered in Britain.
Danny Mills, 21, made the find in a field near Sudbury in Suffolk.
The area was dotted with plush Roman villas and country estates in the second century.
The object, described as a rare example of Roman craftsmanship, has been donated to Ipswich Museum where it is now on display.
In the autumn of 2009, Mr M
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 3, 2010
Sweat, dust and the breath of the 4.5 million tourists who tramp through the Sistine Chapel each year are damaging its priceless Renaissance frescoes, the head of the Vatican Museums has warned.
Art custodians expressed alarm over the state of the exquisite paintings which adorn the chapel, in the heart of the Vatican city state, following the first cleaning operation for four years.
The Sistine Chapel is subjected to an influx of between 15,000 and 20,000 visitors a d
Source: Fox News
September 3, 2010
A key financial backer of the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero once contributed to a U.S.-designated terror group, MyFoxNY.com reports.
Egyptian-born businessman Hisham Elzanaty, who made what is described as a "significant investment" in the Ground Zero mosque project,contributed more than $6,000 in 1999 to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, also known as HLF, tax records show.
The donations came two years before the federal gover
Source: AP
September 3, 2010
Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.
The revolutionary leader wore the olive-green cap and uniform — minus the star and laurels he held as commander in chief — at a speech early Friday to students at the University of Havana. The clothing choice was sure to revive speculation the 84-year-old is seeking a large
Source: Washington Post
September 3, 2010
The mummies at the National Museum of Natural History are going into storage. Their antiquated hall, the Origins of Western Culture, will close Sept. 26 for an extensive three-year renovation, although a few specimens will be viewable next spring.
The one human mummy and handful of animal mummies are among the museum's most popular attractions, right behind the Hope Diamond and the giant whale and squid. Featured are an Egyptian male, 2,200 years old, and an Apis bull, from 332-30 B
Source: New York Times
August 31, 2010
In sharp contrast to the rest of the Detroit metropolitan area, an area known as Midtown just north of the central business district has been holding its own in the recession.
Much of the success of Midtown — as it was branded a decade ago — is a result of the strength of institutions like Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center, the Henry Ford Hospital and the Detroit Institute of Arts, all of which contribute students and employees as well as residents.
Source: New York Times
August 25, 2010
Marcel Albert, who became one of the leading French fighter pilots of World War II, flying Soviet-built planes in duels with German aircraft on the Eastern front, died Monday in Harlingen, Tex. He was 92.
His death, at a nursing home, was announced by France’s Order of the Liberation, founded by Gen. Charles de Gaulle during the war. The cause was complications of cancer, his nephew Jean Mavinger told The Associated Press in Paris.
Mr. Albert was among four pilots of th
Source: Kansas City Star
September 2, 2010
The soldier’s eyes are almost spooky as they gaze determinedly into the future.
They stare out from a patriotic poster exhorting the public to buy war bonds and help the nation prevail in the struggle against the enemy.
But this infantryman is German and the enemy is us.
The huge image dominates a new and limited exhibit at the Liberty Memorial that presents the First World War from the perspective of the other guys.
Exhibit organizers say they
Source: Chicago Tribune
September 1, 2010
There are famous last words and last rites. There's even a new book out on last meals.
But for a rapidly dwindling group of World War II veterans, what matters most right now is the last reunion.
The final curtain call for roughly 40 surviving members of the 320th Bomb Group will start Thursday at the Westin O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont. The storied unit caught flak repeatedly during some of the toughest missions of the war.
But there are fewer veterans left to
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 2, 2010
Winston Churchill ordered the assassination of Benito Mussolini as part of a plot to destroy potentially compromising secret letters he had sent the Italian dictator, a leading French historian has suggested.
Pierre Milza, an expert on fascist Italy, theorizes that the wartime prime minister may have wanted Mussolini dead to prevent the letters, in which Churchill expressed his admiration for his Italian counterpart before the outbreak of the Second World War, coming to light.
Source: New York Times
August 30, 2010
For the first time in more than half a century, Germany’s political leadership appears ready to end the draft, a post World War II mandate embedded in the Constitution to prevent this nation’s military from ever again developing into a state-within-a-state that could impede democracy and start war.
The idea of the draft has become an anachronism in the post-cold-war world, where security concerns have shifted, demanding smaller, professional militaries to deal with hot spots around
