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: Telegraph (UK)
August 11, 2010
In a surreal development that Dali would no doubt approve of, China Merchants Zhangzhou visited the town of Cadaques in Spain to photograph buildings and take measurements to ensure that his town is as authentic as possible.
The company has since found a spot in China that is geographically similar to the original location, which features gently sloping hills and a sheltered bay.
Building work is expected to start in September or October, a spokesman told the Guardian.
Source: The Atlantic
August 10, 2010
Yesterday, Google and Verizon jointly released a two-page document entitled "Verizon-Google Legislative Framework Proposal." The blandness of this name notwithstanding, the news has people talking about an online "fast lane" and "two internets." The Huffington Post calls it "the pact to end the Internet as we know it." Why has this announcement caused so much speculation and outrage?
The answer lies in the laws governing broadband internet and
Source: Tablet
August 10, 2010
Sometime in the 12th century CE, at the monastery of Cappenberg in western Germany, a fascinating and enigmatic document was produced. Its Latin title, Opusculum de conversione sua, means “A Short Work About his Conversion,” and it is attributed to Hermannus quondam Judaeus—“Herman the former Jew.” What makes this work especially significant, writes Jean-Claude Schmitt in his newly translated study The Conversion of Herman the Jew: Autobiography, History, and Fiction in the Twelfth Century (Univ
Source: BBC News
July 29, 2010
A ceremony has taken place in Orkney to commemorate what is regarded as one of the most remarkable feats of marine salvage ever achieved.
Ernest Cox masterminded the recovery of 34 ships of the German fleet sunk by their crews in the waters of Scapa Flow at the end of WWI.
Lauded by the media of the day, his work is now all but forgotten.
Relatives unveiled a special plaque at Lyness, where the salvage operations were based, as a reminder....
Source: Guardian (UK)
July 28, 2010
The last party-goers seem to have cleared up very carefully after the final celebration at Marden Henge (Wilthsire, England), approximately 4,500 years ago. All left-overs from the feast - the pig bones, the ashes and the burnt stones from the barbecue that cooked them, the broken pots and bowls - were tidied up into a dump to one side. A few precious offerings were carefully laid on the clean chalk, one of which included an exquisitely worked flint arrowhead. Then the revellers covered the whol
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 9, 2010
A treasure trove of rare and valuable Aboriginal art has been found languishing in the back of a school store cupboard in Canberra.
The bark paintings, which are estimated to be about 25 years old, were unearthed during a spring clean at Dickson College in the Australian capital.
The artworks were found by stunned staff members who had been emptying parts of the school in preparation for renovations.
The 12 paintings, which were well preserved in the dark
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 10, 2010
A lawsuit filed by descendants of the Native American chieftain Geronimo, who claimed some of his remains were stolen in 1918 by the secretive Skull and Bones society of Yale University, has been dismissed by a federal judge.
The lawsuit was filed last year in Washington by 20 descendants who want to rebury the Apache warrior near his New Mexico birthplace.
It claimed that during the First World War, Skull and Bones members, including Prescott Bush, the grandfather of
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 10, 2010
The home is so old that when it was built Britain was still part of Continental Europe.
The circular structure near Scarborough, North Yorkshire, which dates back to the Stone Age 8,500 years BC, was found next to a former lake.
The house predates the dwelling previously thought to be Britain's oldest, at Howick, Northumberland, by at least 500 years.
The team said they are also excavating a large wooden platform made of timbers which have been split and h
Source: BBC News
August 4, 2010
President Alvaro Uribe may go down as one of Colombia's greatest presidents, with his policies for tackling guerrillas and drug-traffickers now a permanent fixture in the country.
"We were on the point of being a failed state," said Maria Victoria Llorente of the think tank Fundacion Ideas para La Paz.
"There was only one item on the political agenda and that was the rebels and security. He was the man for the job."
But for some, the suc
Source: Cincinnati.com
August 7, 2010
Just after lunch on a sunny, September Sunday, two guys stood on a rooftop in Newport and took eight snapshots of Cincinnati's skyline.
For 162 years, no one knew exactly what time of day Charles Fontayne and William Porter took their photos.
Now, they do. Solving that mystery was an added bonus from a recent $40,000 examination, restoration and stabilization of one of the most famous set of photos from the 1840s.
The images Fontayne and Porter captured fro
Source: Hurriyet (Turkey)
August 10, 2010
The Tourism and Culture Ministry started a research investigation into an illegal excavation which took place in the Zeus Karios area in Milas, Bodrum. The illegal excavation revealed the large tomb stone of King Hekataios.
The tomb stone was made in 390 B.C. and it is said that the discovery is one of the most important archeological discovery in modern times.
Speaking after the research, Undersecretariat of Culture and Tourism Ministry Özgür Özarslan said: “The discov
Source: hurriyet (Turkey)
August 9, 2010
A piece of obsidian (volcanic glass) dating back 4,000 years and believed to have been used as a scalpel for surgery has been unearthed during excavations carried out in the Black Sea province of Samsun.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Professor Önder Bilgi, the chairman of the excavations, said that the work in the ruins of the İkiztepe village in Samsun’s Bafra district had begun in 1974.
“During this year’s excavations, which started July 15, we discov
Source: Monsters and Critics
August 8, 2010
Wearing nothing but a loincloth, history student David Vogelbacher stood in an ancient amphitheatre near Vienna on a recent morning, sparred with a sword and went about learning a new occupation - gladiator.
He and 19 other students have embarked on an experimental archaeology project in the former Roman city of Carnuntum near the Austrian capital, in an effort to find out how these fighters trained and battled in their bloody spectacles.
The group of young men from Reg
Source: Guardian (UK)
August 10, 2010
Spain's Costa Blanca provided a safe haven for many Nazis, allowing them to enjoy a retirement without regret or atonement.
Mention the Costa Blanca and most people will have heard of it. The community of Valencia, to which the Costa Blanca belongs, has three of Spain's first-division football teams, is renowned for its popular fiestas, the home of the traditional paella and, of course, the Valencia orange. However, mention the fact that the region was also a retirement home for Naz
Source: The Local (Germany)
August 9, 2010
The German government said Monday it believed there may be a way to bring to justice an SS hitman who has lived as a free man in Germany since escaping from a Dutch prison in 1952.
ustice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger asked her employees upon taking office last year to examine the case of Klaas Carel Faber, 88, convicted after World War II in the Netherlands of murdering 22 Jews.
"The result of the enquiry is that there will perhaps be a possibility t
Source: CS Monitor
August 10, 2010
Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan surprised Koreans with a contrite apology Tuesday for an entire era of Japanese colonial rule that began a century ago this month and did not end until the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, ending World War II.
The “deep remorse” and “heartfelt apology” offered by Mr. Kan, however, is not likely to have a significant effect on a society accustomed to Japanese apologies in recent years and doubtful about Japan's intention to ever compensate for f
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 10, 2010
Cloning still triggers fear in the public, as the recent food furore shows. But the genetic process has powerful uses for good, writes Roger Highfield.
The cloned food furore has been a timely reminder of how, even when we recognise a big idea, no one can quite predict its consequences. It is 13 years since the breakthrough that made it possible to clone adult animals was announced by a team at the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh. Called nuclear transfer, it offered a way to wind b
Source: CNN
August 10, 2010
Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's killer, is up for parole for the sixth time and may be questioned as early as Tuesday, authorities said.
Chapman's latest quest for freedom comes just months short of the 30th anniversary of the death of the former member of the Beatles.
Chapman is scheduled to be interviewed by two members of the parole board during this week, and that interview could happen Tuesday.
The last time Chapman was up for parole, in 2008, the Ne
Source: CNN
August 10, 2010
The former head of NASA was a passenger on the private aircraft that crashed in Alaska on Monday night, his company said.
He is Sean O'Keefe, EADS North America's chief executive officer.
"Local authorities are reporting that there are survivors and a rescue operation is under way," said Guy Hicks, EADS North America spokesman "No other details are available at this time."
EADS North America is a subsidiary of EADS, the European aerospac
Source: BBC News
August 10, 2010
The former agent of supermodel Naomi Campbell has denied lying in her testimony at the war crimes trial of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Under cross examination, Carole White repeated allegations that Ms Campbell received diamonds from Mr Taylor after a dinner in South Africa in 1997.
Defence counsel Courtenay Griffiths called her account "a complete pack of lies" made up to assist a lawsuit over breach of contract with Ms Campbell.
"
