Breaking News

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: China Daily
3-5-12

History Recorded in the Buildings in Fuzhou

For tourists to Fuzhou, capital city of southeast China's Fujian province, there is the oft dismissed area of the Three Workshops and Seven Lanes, an area that has been invaded by commercial development but one still rich in ancient beauty.Located in the heart of Fuzhou's commercial center, the site consists of historical buildings dating back to the Ming dynasty, and it is said to be one of the best preserved architectural wonders in China. The ancient housing in this area was entirely authentic until the restoration project that began six years ago.Now with a mix of original and imitation, the site has become a haven for tourists. On both sides of the overlapping pedestrian lanes, there are shops selling traditional Fujian lacquer handicrafts and Chinese paintings....

Source: Chicago Sun-Times
3-4-12

Protesters crash Chicago’s 175th birthday party

Protesters interrupted a celebration of Chicago’s 175th birthday Sunday at which Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke by blasting his budget plan to close six mental health clinics, contending the plan will make it harder for people to get help and cost lives.“History will judge,” the small group shouted as Emanuel stood by a birthday cake with children and others gathered at the end of the Chicago History Museum celebration program Sunday.The museum hosted a day-long program on the city’s founding, a children’s choir, a panel discussion on the city’s identity and with actors dressed as historical figures, including founder Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable.Emanuel spoke on the city’s history and future. “We have come to forks in the road . . . and yet we have never shrunk from our challenges,” Emanuel said. “And this is a story of the city and it’s a story still being written.”...

Source: Baltimore Sun
3-3-12

Drink a glass of hard cider to William Henry Harrison

If you want to break the boredom of a late winter Sunday, you could raise a cup of cheer to the memory of President William Henry Harrison, the nation's ninth president, who was sworn into office 171 years ago today.I'm also certain the details of Harrison's brief tenure as the nation's chief executive — he is better known as an Indian fighter (the Battle of Tippecanoe) and a general in the War of 1812 — are not on the tip of everyone's tongue.The one thing everyone knows about Harrison is the catchy presidential campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," when Harrison was the Whig Party candidate in the 1840 presidential election with his running mate, John Tyler.But who cares if Harrison shares presidential obscurity with the likes of Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes, and his grandson, Benjamin Harrison? It's still an excuse for a party today.Get out the cider. (More about that later.)...

Source: NYT
3-5-12

Sharing a Part of Activist History in the East Village

From the street, the brick tenement on Avenue C looked like any other building. But inside on Saturday afternoon, about 30 people gathered to look at a storefront space covered with graffiti and murals. “This is C-Squat,” Laurie Mittelmann explained to one of the spectators, “soon to be home to the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space.”That museum, Ms. Mittelmann said, was being established to, among other things, tell the story of how activists in the East Village took over abandoned properties and over the years transformed them into permanent housing or community gardens.She said that she came up with the idea for the museum with Bill DiPaola, the executive director of an environmental group, Time’s Up, whose members participated in demonstrations to preserve community gardens and squats....

Source: CNNGo
3-5-12

10 hotel rooms where history was made

(CNN) -- Keith Richards ejects his TV, Ian Fleming creates James Bond, Castro takes on Cuba -- sometimes a hotel room is more than a place to sleepThe best hotel rooms don't just have history, they have stories.You get a soft bed, an oversized tub and a chance to see through the eyes of some of history's cultural protagonists....Oscar Wilde arrested: The Cadogan, London, EnglandIt looks genteel enough for your maiden aunt, but The Cadogan, in the heart of London's Knightsbridge shopping district, was struck by scandal within a few years of opening in 1887.Oscar Wilde was arrested in room 118 on April 6, 1895 for a homosexual act, and subsequently sent to jail. And Edward VII's mistress, the actress Lillie Langtry, continued to sleep in her old bedroom long after her former home had become part of the hotel.These days, despite being surrounded by foreign brand names like Gucci, Tiffany, Armani and Valentino, The Cadogan feels like a little piece of England forever suspended in the 19th century.The Cadogan, 75 Sloane St., London, England; room 118 from US$425...British rule ends in Palestine: King David Hotel, Jerusalem

Source: AP
3-5-12

Official war history says alcohol abuse posed problems for Australians fighting in Vietnam

CANBERRA, Australia — Alcohol abuse during the Vietnam War was a significant problem for Australian troops who were supplied with the equivalent of more than five cans of beer per soldier per day during the latter years of the conflict, an official record says.But some Australian commanders regarded beer as a lesser evil than the heroin and marijuana that gained popularity with allied U.S. troops fighting in the conflict, according to the third and final volume of the official history of the Australian Army in Vietnam, “Fighting to the Finish,” which is being published Tuesday.“A few Australian commanders said the Aussies had a drinking culture and they were safer keeping that under control then allowing them access to what could have been far more damaging,” co-author Ashley Ekins told The Associated Press on Monday.“It was a big problem that every Australian task force commander had to confront,” said Ekins, an Australian War Memorial historian....

Source: NYT
3-3-12

Saving the world's books in a giant ark

 In a wooden warehouse in this industrial suburb, the 20th century is being stored in case of digital disaster.Forty-foot shipping containers stacked two by two are stuffed with the most enduring, as well as some of the most forgettable, books of the era. Every week, 20,000 new volumes arrive, many of them donations from libraries and universities thrilled to unload material that has no place in the Internet Age.Destined for immortality one day last week were “American Indian Policy in the 20th Century,” “All New Crafts forHalloween,” “The Portable Faulkner,” “What to Do When Your Son or Daughter Divorces” and “Temptation’s Kiss,” a romance.

Source: NYT
3-1-12

The Monkey House Ends a 111-Year Run in the Bronx, a Victim of Zoo Evolution

Jose Ortiz, a 50-year-old taxi driver who grew up a few blocks from the Bronx Zoo, remembers how young he was when the creatures in the Monkey House captured his imagination.“When you see them as a kid, and you see they have five fingers and an opposable thumb just like you do, your mind starts to wander,” he said. “Your imagination starts going, and suddenly you’re in the jungle with them swinging on vines — you’re in ‘The Jungle Book.’ ”“Those are the best memories that anyone can have,” he said.Now memories are all that anyone can have. The zoo closed the 111-year-old Monkey House on Monday for good....

Source: NYT
3-1-12

British Museums Buy Second Titian for More Than $70 Million

The National Gallery in London announced on Thursday that it had secured funding to purchase Titian’s “Diana and Callisto” together with the National Galleries of Scotland for $71.7 million, thereby ensuring that the work, along with another great painting by the 16th-century master, would stay on public view.“Diana and Callisto’’ belonged to the Duke of Sutherland, who sold another Titian, “Diana and Actaeon” to the two museums for $71 million in 2009. At the time, the Duke gave the institutions the option of purchasing the second painting for about the same price. They were also given 2012 as a deadline....

Source: Fox News
3-2-12

Catholic Diocese apologizes for Wisconsin student punished over speaking in family's Native American language at school

While the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has apologized to the Menominee Tribe and the family of a seventh-grader who was punished for using her native language at school, the girl's mother said Tuesday that she still wants her daughter's teacher fired.Tanaes Washinawatok said Julie Gurta, who teaches at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Shawano, did not accept blame for her actions in a letter that was supposed to be an apology.Washinawatok said her 12-year-old daughter, Miranda, interpreted the words "Hello" and "I love you" and then added how to say "thank you" when talking to two girls in class Jan. 19. She said Gurta overheard and "slammed her hands down on the desk and stated, 'You are not to speak like that. How do I know you're not saying something bad? How would you like if I spoke in Polish and you didn't understand?'"...In the mid-1880s, the federal government established boarding schools that prohibited Native American students from acknowledging their culture, including language. Students were punished for using their native languages until the 1960s, and many elders still alive are afraid to teach the languages to children....

Source: The Atlantic
2-29-12

Gonzo Death Traps From the Early Days of Aviation: Man-Lifting Kites

It's 1918, and wartime aviation is still in its infancy. The airplane is not even two decades old, and dirigibles and hot air balloons are all too easy targets for advancing artillery units. For a brief time on the battlefields of WWI, kites -- the oldest method of aviation -- fill a technological hole in battlefield reconnaissance.  Compared to the other available modes of aviation, man-lifting kites were lightweight, portable, and quick to the air. Once aloft, the "pilot" could survey the battlefield and signal enemy positions down to the ground. They could be assembled and dissembled quickly, and could be flown at various altitudes.     

Source: Discovery News
2-22-12

Pre-Columbian Star War Stories Emerge From Stones

Pre-Columbian star war stories have emerged from 23 stone carvings unearthed near the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec center that became Mexico City after the Spanish invasion in 1521.Providing unique iconographic evidence for Aztec myths, the bas-relief sculptures lay embedded in a strip of floor in front of the Templo Mayor complex, Tenochtitlan's holiest shrine.Far from being purely decorative, the artistic carvings show symbols of death and crude representations in line with the Aztecs' bloody rituals....

Source: NYT
2-28-12

Ancient Statue Sits in Limbo as Rights Question Looms

Cambodia has asked the United States government for help in recovering a thousand-year-old statue of a mythic warrior that sits in limbo at Sotheby’s in New York and that some experts believe was looted amid the convulsions of the Vietnam War and the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge.The statue, a sandstone masterwork with a catalog estimate of $2 million to $3 million, was pulled from auction at the last minute last March after the Cambodian government complained it had been “illegally removed” from the country.The Department of Homeland Security has opened an investigation, but Cambodian officials say they have held off asking for the piece to be seized while they negotiate with Sotheby’s for a private purchase. The auction house says that the seller is a “noble European lady” who acquired it in 1975. Although it was severed from its feet and pedestal, which were left behind at a remote Cambodian archaeological site, Sotheby’s says there is no proof that it was taken illegally....

Source: LiveScience
2-28-12

Possible Earliest Evidence of Christianity Resurrected from Ancient Tomb

In an ancient tomb located below a modern condominium building in Jerusalem, archaeologists have found ossuaries — bone boxes for the dead — bearing engravings that could represent the earliest archaeological evidence of Christians ever found. The tomb has been dated to before A.D. 70, so if its engravings are indeed early Christian, they were most likely made by some of Jesus' earliest followers, according to the excavators.One of the limestone ossuaries bears an inscription in Greek that includes a reference to "Divine Jehovah" raising someone up. A second ossuary has an image that appears to be a large fish with a stick figure in its mouth. The excavators believe the image represents the story of Jonah, the biblical prophet who was swallowed by a fish or whale and then released....

Source: Discovery News
2-23-12

Stone Age Pebble Holds Mysterious Meaning

A colorful pebble bearing a sequence of linear incisions may be the world's oldest engraving.The object, which will be described in the April issue of the Journal of Archaeology, dates back approximately 100,000 years ago and could also be the world’s oldest known abstract art. It was recovered from Klasies River Cave in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.“Associated human remains indicate that the engraved piece was certainly made by Homo sapiens,” co-author Riaan Rifkin of the University of Witwatersrand’s Institute for Human Evolution told Discovery News.

Source: USA Today
2-25-12

Ancient cave speaks of Hades myth

Hades wasn't the happiest place, the Department of Motor Vehicles of the ancient Greek afterlife.There, in a gloomy underworld, departed heroes such as Achilles gathered mostly to grouse about their boredom, and await the verdict of the judges of the dead."I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead," said Achilles, the greatest of Greek heroes, commenting on the scenery, according to the ancient poem, The Odyssey. (Tough break for Achilles, but perhaps he was later cheered to learn that Brad Pitt would play him in the 2004 film Troy.)

Source: LiveScience
2-24-12

Secret Renaissance Letter Reveals Plan to Save England

A newly discovered document, written by one of Europe's most famous philosophers, Thomas Hobbes, reveals a plan that, if successful, could have turned the tide of one of England's bloodiest wars.In the words of Hobbes, the plan would prevent the "ruine of the English nation." The document was written during the height of the English civil war, a series of conflicts between 1642 and 1651 that saw King Charles I (and later his son Charles II), pitted against his country's parliament.Hobbes, whose work encompassed politics, history, law, physics and mathematics, was a strong supporter of the king. And in the newfound document, discovered among papers of English writer John Evelyn in the British Library, Hobbes proposes a plan to win the war by getting the head of the parliamentary navy, Earl of Warwick Robert Rich, to defect....

Source: Daily Mail (UK)
2-28-12

New discovery of European-style tools being heralded as among the most important archaeological breakthroughs for decades

America was first discovered by Stone Age hunters from Europe, according to new archaeological evidence.Across six locations on the U.S. east coast, several dozen stone tools have been found.After close analysis it was discovered that they were between 19,000 and 26,000 years old and were a European-style of tool.The discovery suggests that the owners of the tools arrived 10,000 years before the ancestors of the American Indians set foot in the New World, reported The Independent. Finding the tools is being heralded as one of the most important archaeological breakthroughs for several decades.Archaeologists are hopeful that they will add another dimension to understanding the spread of humans across the world. Three of the sites were discovered by archaeologist Dr Darrin Lowery of the University of Delaware, while another one is in Pennsylvania and a fifth site is in Virginia.Fishermen discovered a sixth on a seabed 60 miles from the Virginian coast, which in prehistoric times would have been dry land....

Source: Daily Mail (UK)
2-28-12

Seven paintings which once belonged to Adolf Hitler found hidden in a Czech convent

They once belonged to one of the world's most despised figures.So it is perhaps no surprise that this collection of paintings was hidden away from public view.However this extraordinary group of seven paintings that once belonged to Adolf Hitler was recently discovered in a convent in the Czech Republic.Czech historian Jiri Kuchar found them in the convent in the town of Doskany, north of Prague, according to the Daily Telegraph.The historical value of the collection could see them fetch £1.7million at auction.One of the paintings is called Memories of Stalingrad and shows wounded German soldiers sheltering in a trench during a battle....

Source: Daily Mail (UK)
2-28-12

The first ever altered images (including two pictures stitched together to make iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln)

Here's the proof that photo fakery is nothing new.These days magazine 'artists' can indulge every whim of the vainest covergirls, but pictures involving celebrities have been modified for many a long year.Take this 150-year-old portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, in which he looks every bit the all-American hero. All is not as it appears - as although it is undoubtedly the 16th Commander in Chief's face staring at the camera, the body in fact belongs to a prominent southern politician.It has led to claims the 1860 portrait, stitched together from two pictures as 'no sufficiently heroic portrait of Lincoln had yet been taken', could be the first ever Photoshopped image....