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: BBC
July 4, 2010
After 37 years sitting on the seabed in the Falklands, the SS Great Britain was brought back home to Bristol in 1970. Exactly 40 years since its return, it has been restored to its former glory with a little help from the Duke of Edinburgh.
For the 100,000 people who lined the banks of the River Avon in Bristol on 5 July 1970, it must have been a strange sight.
The ship has now become a museum, with over 150,000 people visiting it each year.
The SS Great B
Source: BBC
July 5, 2010
The full state honours on the airport tarmac in San Antonio de Tachira, on the border with Colombia, suggested that one of the Venezuelan government's closest allies was about to touch down.
But, as the plane landed and the door opened, it was not a head of state or a neighbouring president who emerged but a delegation carrying a small wooden box.
Inside are what the government of Hugo Chavez calls the "symbolic remains" of one of the country's 19th Century
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 6, 2010
A bayonet bearing the family name of former French president Charles de Gaulle has been handed in at an Australian police station.
The sword, which is stamped with the date 1878 and the words "De Gaulle", was given to police at South Melbourne station along with a musket, a set of manacles and a curved dagger in a leather sheath.
While the date on the bayonet predates Charles de Gaulle's birth in 1890, Melbourne police believe it may have belonged to a membe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 6, 2010
A 90-year-old former SS sergeant who was No 4 on the most wanted list of Nazi war criminals has died in Germany before his case came to trial.
Adolf Storms died at his home in the western city of Duisburg on June 28, according to German authorities.
Storms, who worked unnoticed for decades as a train-station manager, was charged by Brendel's office last November with 58 counts of murder for alleged involvement in a wartime massacre of Jewish forced labourers in Austri
Source: AP
July 6, 2010
As Sen. Robert C. Byrd was being laid to rest after a week of memorials, a niece eulogized him Tuesday as a person who suffered from dyslexia. The revelation surprised others in Byrd's family, who later said they had no knowledge that the West Virginia senator suffered from the learning disability.
The 92-year-old senator, who served in Congress longer than anyone else, received a 21-gun salute as he was buried in a suburban Washington cemetery near his wife of nearly 69 years, Erm
Source: AP
July 6, 2010
Built on the edge of Soweto, Soccer City stadium will be the grand stage for Sunday's World Cup final. For many South Africans, though, the site has been hallowed ground for two decades — not because of sports, but as a historic venue in the anti-apartheid struggle.
In October 1989, with apartheid still in force, Soccer City's precursor stadium hosted an electrifying rally at which more than 70,000 blacks greeted newly freed leaders of the still-outlawed African National Congress. T
Source: AP
July 6, 2010
A German museum has discovered what it believes to be a previously unknown work by German Expressionist artist Ludwig Kirchner that languished in its cellar for decades.
The Staedel Museum announced the find on Tuesday, saying that it had discovered it as part of renovation. The canvas is painted on both sides, with a rare nude, believed to have been painted in 1910, on the back.
The Frankfurt museum plans to restore the work and put it on display for the first time whe
Source: AP
July 4, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that "for all our weaknesses" priests have an important role in the world.
Benedict did not directly mention the clergy abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church for months. But during a daylong visit to a central Italian town, he received a round of applause and words of support by local youths greeting him "in this time of harsh attacks and media provocation."
Minutes later, Benedict told the youths that "
Source: BBC News
July 1, 2010
A team of archaeologists have announced they are to investigate Ice Age Jersey.
An initial 18-day dig is to take place at seven sites including La Cotte, where Ice Age remains have been found.
The 21-strong crew includes researchers from Southampton University, University College London, and the British Museum....
Source: Wales Online
June 30, 2010
ARCHAEOLOGICAL finds from across Wales can now be explored at the touch of a button, thanks to a new online database being launched tomorrow.
The website, Archwilio – which means “to explore” – catalogues the historic environment records of Wales, allowing users to freely explore details of thousands of different archaeological sites dating back more than 100,000 years.
Created using information from the four archaeological trusts of Wales, the new service is being laun
Source: Independent (IE)
June 25, 2010
HISTORIANS are probing links between an ancient dugout canoe discovered on the banks of the Boyne and the landmark Newgrange site.
The canoe, which has an unusual design and is believed to be unique in Ireland, was yesterday removed from the river by experts from the National Museum.
It was discovered two weeks ago by two local fishermen, Ivan Murphy and Kevin Tuite, who immediately contacted the authorities....
Source: BBC News
July 5, 2010
A UK historian is trying to find more about a woman and her children who could have been killed during the German air raid on Jersey.
Alan Blackmore is looking into the life of a soldier called Ivor Powell.
Jersey has been marking the 70th anniversary of the bombing of St Helier by the Luftwaffe, when dozens of civilians were killed.
Soon after a story in a newspaper in Clevedon wrote of a lady called Mrs Powell being one of those victims.
The
Source: SPACE.com
July 4, 2010
Fifty years ago today, on Independence Day 1960, the United States officially adopted use of the 50-star American flag, increasing the star-count by one to recognize Hawaii's statehood. This, the 27th update to the star-spangled banner, became the U.S. flag to be longest used and the only one to represent the nation in space.
Despite having launched satellites for two-and-a-half years prior to the 50-star flag being unfurled, the country's first flag did not enter space until nearly
Source: BioScholar
July 2, 2010
Tibetans split off from the Han Chinese some 3,000 years ago and since then rapidly developed a unique ability to thrive at high altitudes and low oxygen levels, researchers have ascertained after comparing the genomes of 50 Tibetans and 40 Han Chinese.
The genome-wide comparison, carried out by evolutionary biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, uncovered more than 30 genes with DNA mutations that have become more prevalent in Tibetans than Han Chinese, nearly half o
Source: Irish Times
June 29, 2010
THE RECENT prolonged dry weather spell which put pressure on water supplies in the west has proven to be good news for archaeologists.
The low water table on the western lakes and rivers has yielded a number of significant finds in Connemara, according to archaeologist Michael Gibbons.
Among them has been a new crannóg site which is part of a complex in the south Connemara area. It was located by Co Galway silversmith and archaeological student Ruairí O’Neill and a frie
Source: Salon.com
July 5, 2010
In the last half century, air conditioning has joined fireworks, swimming pools and charred hamburgers as a ubiquitous ingredient of an American summer. It’s no exaggeration to say it has changed the way this country functions, shaping everything from where we’re willing to live (Las Vegas, anyone?) to the amount of sex we have (more: It’s never too hot to get it on when the A.C. is blasting). Nine out of 10 new homes in this country are built with central air conditioning, and Americans now use
Source: CNN.com
July 1, 2010
There have been plenty of attacks on Christianity over the years, but few claims have been more surprising than one advanced by an obscure Swedish scholar this spring.
The Gospels do not say Jesus was crucified, Gunnar Samuelsson says.
In fact, he argues, in the original Greek, the ancient texts reveal only that Jesus carried "some kind of torture or execution device" to a hill where "he was suspended" and died, says Samuelsson, who is an evangelical
Source: TIME.com
July 3, 2010
On July 4th, America's 300 million citizens will mark the 234th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The holiday weekend that's famous for fireworks, barbecues and apple pie is increasingly being used as an occasion for tens of thousands of Americans that identify as "hard-core" war reenactors to wear outfits made from 19th century fabric adorned with arcane military pins. For the July 4th holiday also marks another major American historical milestone — the anniversary of th
Source: Science Daily
July 2, 2010
Once thought to be "evolutionary leftovers," new research has shown that ostriches in fact use their feathered forelimbs as sophisticated air-rudders and braking aids.
According to the researchers, wing-use and hindlimb function in ostriches may help palaeontologists in their quest to reconstruct locomotor techniques in bipedal (two-legged) dinosaurs.
The scientists present their research at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Prague on T
Source: AP
June 30, 2010
Archeologists have uncovered a mass grave with the complete skeletons of 51 horses buried side-by-side, probably the long-forgotten equine victims of a 17th century battle over a strategic Dutch river.
It was the largest known equine burial ground in Europe, although chief archaeologist Angela Simons said Wednesday that many such sites have probably existed and have been plowed up over the centuries by unwitting farmers.
The archaeological team had been looking for evid
