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Diamonds and precious metals found in the eastern United States might have rained down during the last Ice Age after a comet shattered over Canada and set North America ablaze, all leading to a mass die-off of animals and humans. New chemical analyses of diamond, gold and silver found in Ohio and Indiana reveal the minerals were transported there from Canada several thousand years ago. The question is, how? "There are no gold mines or silver mines in Ohio that anyone knows of, but there are plenty of them in Canada," said retired geophysicist Allen West, who was involved in...

ARABS CLASH WITH BRITISH ON TRANS-JORDAN BORDER; PALESTINE VIOLENCE GROWS BRITAIN RUSHES AID Two Cruisers Sent to Haifa - Land Forces Are Augmented TWO-DAY TOLL PUT AT 33 111 Wounded in Widespread Rioting-Clashes Occur In Jerusalem and Nablus By The Associated Press. JERUSALEM, July 7.-Arab tribes from Trans-Jordan were reported massed on the Palestine frontier tonight as Great Britain sped warships and troops to smash the worst Jewish-Arab outbreak in the Holy Land’s recent history. In a fight lasting four hours British troops fought a band of 600 Arabs said to have just crossed the border from Trans-Jordan, east of...

Diamonds and precious metals found in the eastern United States might have rained down during the last Ice Age after a comet shattered over Canada and set North America ablaze, all leading to a mass die-off of animals and humans. New chemical analyses of diamond, gold and silver found in Ohio and Indiana reveal the minerals were transported there from Canada several thousand years ago. The question is, how?

Effective Pitching and American League Errors Carry Nationals to Victory NATIONALS CAPTURE ALL-STAR GAME, 4-1 Americans Blanked Till Ninth – Vander Meer Wins From Gomez at Cincinnati TWO RUNS SCORE ON BUNT Durocher Makes Full Circuit on Errors – Ott Drives Triple – 27,067 Fans Pay By JOHN DREBINGER Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. CINCINNATI, July 6.-Playing grim, tight-lipped baseball behind three of their master moundsmen, Colonel Bill Terry’s National League forces throttled the might and power of the American League today as they brought down Marse Joe McCarthy’s troops in the sixth annual All-Star game, 4 to 1....

WAR A YEAR OLD, GEN. CHIANG URGES JAPANESE TO RISE China’s Leader Asks People of Opposing Nation to ‘Stop Militarists’ Madness’ BOMBS GO OFF IN SHANGHAI Several Slain in Outbreaks – Tokyo Planes Report Sinking Troop Vessels in Yangtze A year ago today Japanese troops, engaged in night manoeuvres near Marco Polo Bridge, west of Peiping, alleged they had been fired on and launched an attack that has sent contending armies tramping over more than a third of China ever since. Premier Konoye of Japan charges the war was forced on his country by the anti-Japanism of younger Chinese officers....

23 DIE AS VIOLENCE GRIPS PALESTINE Bomb Starts a Riot in Haifa – Another Cast From Train – 100 Persons Wounded Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. JERUSALEM, July 6.-Bombs, riots and police action in various parts of Palestine today resulted in at least twenty-three deaths and nearly a hundred less serious casualties. Among the dead at Haifa is Tuvia Dounia, a brother-in-law of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization. He slumped at the wheel of his automobile, a bullet in his heart, while police were clearing the streets during one of the worst riots in the...

Celebration Music Water Music After a stay in England, George Frideric Handel returned to Germany in 1710 and became court composer for the Elector of Hanover, George Ludwig, who would later become King George I of Great Britain and Ireland. Late in 1712, Handel asked George for permission to return to England and overstayed his visit while receiving a severance from Queen Anne of England, the last of the House of Stuart. After the passing of Queen Anne, Handel composed "Water Music," in an effort to regain the favor of the Elector of Hanover (now King George I), his...

CIRCUS FIRE DEATH TOLL 139 80 Children Among Dead In “Big Tent” Holocaust 20 of 200 Injured at Hartford May Die; Five Circus Officials Held by Probers HARTFORD, Conn., July 7. (UP) – Five officials of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus were charged with manslaughter today while state, county, and municipal authorities pushed a searching investigation into the disaster of fire and panic under the big top in which 139 persons, 80 of them children, died. While authorities questioned through the night canvas-men, performers, roustabouts, and members of yesterday's matinee audience of 10,000 that saw an acre...

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

Last month, workmen jacked up a 206-year-old yellow clapboard house, levered it onto a set of remote-controlled dollies, and trundled it two blocks to a new site in St. Nicholas Park, overlooking East Harlem in New York City. The Grange, as it is called, was the home of Alexander Hamilton, best known as co-author of the Federalist papers and America's first secretary of the Treasury. But this founding father also had an extraordinary role in the infant nation's attempt to come to grips with the curse of slavery. Born in the West Indies, Hamilton was one of the most ardent...

America has become an empire. Everyone says so. This is a surprise to most Americans, since few imagined that they were building such a thing. But, as historians such as Walter Nugent and Robert Kagan have recently taught us, Americans have been at this imperialist expansionism for quite some time — really since the beginning of the republic. How else to explain that the United States has gone from a handful of agrarian colonies to a world-spanning colossus in the space of only a few centuries? As you read this, American military might is deployed across the planet. The U.S....

A Wax Figure of Thomas Jefferson at Tussad's Wax Museum. Very lifelike.

July Fourth is a celebration of outdoor cooking, as well as our nation's birthday. It's time to brush off the barbecue and throw masses of processed meat on the grill. As we all stand around waiting for the fire to die down so that we can make s'mores, it's also a time to ponder the notion that the barbecue is a ritual 700,000 years old or more, and it might have something to do with our big brains.

Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. "Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest...

In Defense of the Republic Many citizens of this fine land describe it as a "democracy" in their conversation about our government and elections. There is an element of democracy in every representative form of government, but that does make a given country a democracy. The United States of America - notice the plural on what makes up America, several sovereign states - was founded with clear understanding that each of the original states - and those to be added over the years - were "Free and Independent States" (last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence). The federal government is...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities. The soaring Teotihuacan stone pyramids, now a major tourist site about an hour outside Mexico City, were discovered by the ancient Aztecs around 1500 AD, not long before the arrival of Spanish explorers to Mexico. But little is known about the civilization that built the immense city, with its ceremonial architecture and geometric temples, and then torched and abandoned it around 700 AD. Archeologists are...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2dfD0ryMco

This morning was downright cool in the Charlotte region -- cool enough to break a record that had stood for more than a century. The temperature at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport was 56 at about 5:30 a.m., breaking the July 2 record of 58, set in 1885. The normal low for this time of year is 70. It'll warm up quickly today, though. Temperatures today are expected to peak at 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. But it'll still feel pleasant because of humidity levels between 20 and 25 percent, said NWS meteorologist Doug Outlaw. Conditions will be cool...

The white-colored outlines of rectangular shapes could very well be the markings of a construction site, albeit one that was undertaken more than 700 years ago... Those outlines mark the walls of a Hohokam pit house, part of an ancient city that was uncovered by archaeologists in mid-April at the site of a major road and park project in Marana... A large, 18-inch thick adobe wall was discovered in the area, along with a host of pit houses and ancient Hohokam artifacts. Several pit houses were also uncovered at the southeast corner of Ina and Silverbell roads... "One of the...

3rd Day- Pickett's Charge On the outskirts of Gettysburg, at 1 p.m., 170 Confederate cannons open fired. The Union was positioned in Cemetery Ridge with only a stonewall for protection. The Union returned fire. About 2:30 p.m. the Federally slowed there rate of fire and fooled the rebels, to believing they were out of ammunition. Gen. Picket went to see Gen. Longstreet and asked, " General shall I advance"? Longstreet responded with his head bowed and raised his hand. The command was given. " Charge the enemy and remember Old Virginia" Picket said as he lead 12,000 rebels toward the...

Here is a great Independence Day Quiz. Click here.Be sure to think about your answers but most of all enjoy.

PALESTINE EVENTS INCREASE DESPAIR Hope of Ever Bringing About a Settlement Between Arabs and Jews at Low Ebb By JOSEPH M. LEVY Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. JERUSALEM, July 2.-When, if ever, PalestineÂ’s fate will be settled is again the question of the day here. New sporadic outbreaks and violence during the last week took toll of more than a dozen lives and, coupled with the hanging of a Jewish youth by sentence of a military court, disheartened all the more the already discourage peace-loving elements of the populace. The situation is almost hopeless, they seem to feel. In...

ANNIVERSARY One important anniversary in Europe’s political history passed unnoticed last week It was twenty-four years ago, on June 28, 1914, that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated by a Serbian agitator at Sarajevo, Bosnia. We know now that this was the spark from which the European powder-barrel was exploded. In itself an isolated catastrophe, it led directly to the Great War. In one respect, the state of the public mind abroad and in this country, during the weeks when the European tragedy was developing to its climax in the Summer of 1914, was such...

Researchers announced Wednesday that remains excavated in the last three years were those of the long-sought dwelling, on the old family farm in Virginia 50 miles south of Washington. The house stood on a terrace overlooking the Rappahannock River, where legend has it the boy threw a stone or a coin across to Fredericksburg.

Independence Day Thought Encourages Us to Go On TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: Independence Day is probably the most cherished of our traditions. Governments elsewhere may come and go, their power and prestige my rise and dwindle, but the United States goes on with ceaseless vigor. Let us not heed the words of those who say times have changed to such an extent as to have antiquated our Constitution and traditions. Let us ponder the thought on this coming Independence day, that we have progressed remarkably well in our national existence with them: that because dictatorship seems...

Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his students on the creation of Kankakee Sand Islands of Northwest Indiana is lending support to evidence that the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, a discovery that overturns decades of classroom lessons that nomadic tribes from Asia crossed a Bering Strait land-ice bridge. Valparaiso is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research.....

Consider the following quotation: "In Mecklenburg at this time a very primitive type of Feudalism existed, known as "Inherited Serfdom". The land owners controlled the economy and ruled their estates with absolute authority. The peasants were dependant entirely on the nobles who could even buy and sell them with or without their property, and the tax rate had to be reviewed every two to three years, and was usually increased at that time. They could not acquire any more land than they already had. Their Landlords produced crops for export from their vast estates by using the labour of these...

This is a powerful piece on what politicians have been saying about energy for 30 years! This is a fantastic video of a montage of politicians and their promises about energy and energy independence. Wow... nothing has change except the price of oil. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWZ_4EXeyaA

LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers using a medical scanner have worked out why a Stradivarius violin sounds so good -- it is because of the remarkably even density of the wood. For the past 300 years, musicians and scientists have puzzled over the unparalleled quality of classical Cremonese violins made by Italian masters like Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu.

July 2, 1863 The morning of July 2 found the two armies facing each other from two nearly parallel ridges separated by a plain of open farmland. Overnight, Longstreet had arrived with the divisions of McLaws and Hood, bringing the strength of the Confederate Army to 50,000. As of this morning, Pickett's division had not arrived. The Union Army had also received reinforcements during the night, bringing their numbers to over 60,000. While Meade's attention was directed towards Ewell's corps on Culp's Hill to the north, Lee decided to attack from the south. In the afternoon, Hood's division encountered Federal...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/01/lynching.investigation/index.html

I saw the movie 300 again recently and it crossed my mind. I know the libs hate the movie and so do the Islamo-nuts all over. So go see it again or for the first time, and think about then and today. (Better yet...buy the CD.) We too stand at the gates...the hordes are comming. 300 On DVDhttp://www.300ondvd.com/index2.html

FreeRepublic members say goodbye to the Clinton's at the White House on the evening of January 19, 2001. Bill Clinton. We have you surrounded. Drop the cigar. Step away from the intern. And come out with your pants up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Z2igtHf6A

A University of Chicago expedition at Tell Edfu in southern Egypt has unearthed a large administration building and silos that provide fresh clues about the emergence of urban life. The discovery provides new information about a little understood aspect of ancient Egypt—the development of cities in a culture that is largely famous for its monumental architecture. The archaeological work at Tell Edfu was initiated with the permission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, headed by Zahi Hawass, under the direction of Nadine Moeller, Assistant Professor at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Work late last year revealed details of seven...

What does the 4th of July mean to you? Over the time I have been aware of who we are as a nation I have been asked from time to time just what it means to celebrate the 4th of July. It’s not just the mantra of the birth of a new nation. It’s not the just another weekend to get drunk, party, BBQ, and take advantage of the time off. It has to have a deeper meaning, one that resonates from the past and looks to the future.For me, there was an awareness at the age of 8 about...

A complete mandible of Homo erectus was discovered at the Thomas I quarry in Casablanca by a French-Moroccan team co-led by Jean-Paul Raynal... This mandible is the oldest human fossil uncovered from scientific excavations in Morocco. The discovery will help better define northern Africa's possible role in first populating southern Europe. A Homo erectus half-jaw had already been found at the Thomas I quarry in 1969, but it was a chance discovery and therefore with no archeological context... The morphology of these remains is different from the three mandibles found at the Tighenif site in Algeria that were used, in...

"These coffins were found in the tombs of senior officials of the 18th and 19th dynasties," near Saqqara, Zahi Hawass, the director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Thursday. "Some coloured unopened coffins dating back to the sixth century BC were found as well as some coffins dating back to the time of Ramses II," who ruled from 1279 to 1213 BC, he said... The Saqqara burial grounds which date back to 2,700 BC and are dominated by the massive bulk of King Zoser's step pyramid -- the first ever built -- were in continuous use until the...

"...coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick, it's global warming, it's ruining our country, it's ruining our world, we've got to stop using fossil fuel, we've for generations taken it out of the earth, carbon out of the earth and put it in the atmosphere, it's making us all sick, it's changing our world...."

I beg commentary on this article as I am wholly unable to bring myself to do so. Seeking guidance and common sense.

When people hear the name Salome, they immediately think of the infamous dancing girl of the Gospels... At her mother's urging, Salome asked for the head of Herod's most famous prisoner on a platter. Fearful of breaking his word before his guests, Herod granted Salome's request and ordered John the Baptist beheaded. In antiquity there was a considerably more famous Salome, however, who was revered for centuries. She was so admired that generations of mothers, Herodias apparently among them, named their daughters Salome in her honor. This Salome was the only woman ever to govern Judea as its sole ruler....

...Amid unprecedented protests from tour guides, travel companies and tourists irritated by conditions at prime archaeological sites, the ruling conservatives last week rushed hundreds of additional personnel to staff museums and open-air antiquities... The move follows embarrassing revelations over the upkeep of Greece's ancient wonders and mounting public disquiet, voiced mostly by foreigners in the local press, over visitor access to them. Yesterday, the authoritative newspaper Sunday Vima disclosed that the Cycladic isle of Delos - the site of Apollo's mythological sanctuary and one of Greece's most important ancient venues - resembled an "archaeological rubbish dump". Recently, it emerged that...

BRITAIN ASKS ITALY TO HALT BOMBINGS Reply Urges Neutral Ports in Spain, Where Ships Will Be Safe From Raids By ARNOLDO CORTESI Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. ROME, June 28. – Acting on instructions from London, the Earl of Perth, the British Ambassador, called on Count Galeazzo Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, late this evening, and drew the Italian Government’s attention to the very difficult situation created in Anglo-Italian relations by the continued bombing of British ships in Spanish waters. If such bombings continue, he is believed to have said, the coming into force of the Anglo-Italian agreement of...

What follows is Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence from his Autobiography. A good portion of the text was deleted or changed by the Congressional delegates; these deletions are indicated by brackets (the last two paragraphs, Jefferson's original and Congress's version are presented side by side in Jefferson's text and here); changes made by Congress are also in brackets but are clearly marked. It was very important to Jefferson that he preserve his original document alongside the version eventually signed. Why? What are the significant differences? What do you make of these deletions? In the second paragraph,...

Professor of History, Dr. Richard Spence will discuss his new book, Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult.

THE SOVIET AMBASSADOR The Making of the Radical Behind Perestroika By Christopher Shulgan McClelland & Stewart, 359 pages, $34.99 Christopher Shulgan has done an excellent job in documenting Yakovlev's career in the Soviet government and describing his exceptional role in the events that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. But he skirts over one of the most significant episodes of Yakovlev's life - his chairmanship, beginning in 1988, of the Commission to Rehabilitate Victims of Political Repression. While he went to great efforts in disclosing the crimes of Lenin and Stalin, Yakovlev stopped short of looking into the repressions...

A few years ago, when the tyrant of Zimbabwe was moving from being wicked to being downright evil, I wrote that we should invade Harare, depose him, and supervise free elections. Invited to appear on a BBC programme to defend this stance, I was assailed by an "Africa expert" who told me that diplomatic pressure on Mugabe was bound to work, that the idea of sending the Parachute Regiment in to sort the monster out was offensively colonialist, and that I was wrong. Miliband: getting the message at last White liberals like him are as much to blame for the...

Professor John P. Maher reviews "July 1914: Soldiers, Statesmen, and the Coming of the Great War: A Brief Documentary History." Edited by Samuel R. Williamson and Russel Van Wyk. 2003. Bedford / St Martin's Press. A commonplace in recent books on the Balkans is to draw parallels between 1990s Serbia and the Third Reich. Williamson and Van Wyk confirm the consensus view that that Germany and Austria-Hungary started the Great War, but fail to pursue another parallel. They say nothing about activities of Germany and Austria in the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. But policy and press in those...

EDWARDS AFB - Encompassing 301,000 acres of desert land, the vast reaches of Edwards Air Force Base are a treasure trove for much more than its well-known cutting-edge aviation history. Although many are fluent in the historic milestones achieved in the skies over the storied base, fewer are familiar with the history on its grounds. "People have been occupying this area for 10,000 years," said Kathleen Loetzerich , an environmental resource specialist with the base's Environmental Management office. Loetzerich presented some of the base's little-known history Monday as part of a tour for 20 members of the Edwards Civilian-Military Support...

A compendium of news stories, features, and human rights reports pertaining to genocide and crimes against humanity. Compiled by Adam Jones.