Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #197 Saturday, April 26, 2008
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Macedonia
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Alexander the Great's "Crown," Shield Discovered?
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04/25/2008 7:11:55 PM PDT · by blam · 16 replies · 605+ views
National Geographic News | 4-23-2008 | Sara Goudarzi An ancient Greek tomb thought to have held the body of Alexander the Great's father is actually that of Alexander's half brother, researchers say. This may mean that some of the artifacts found in the tomb -- including a helmet, shield, and silver "crown" -- originally belonged to Alexander the Great himself. Alexander's half brother is thought to have claimed these royal trappings after Alexander's death. The tomb was one of three royal Macedonian burials excavated in 1977 by archaeologists working in the northern Greek village of Vergina (see map of...
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Egypt
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Egypt: Tomb Of Cleopatra And Lover To Be Uncovered
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04/25/2008 7:44:34 PM PDT · by blam · 35 replies · 578+ views
Adnkronos | 4-24-2008 Archaeologists have revealed plans to uncover the 2000 year-old tomb of ancient Egypt's most famous lovers, Cleopatra and the Roman general Mark Antony later this year. Zahi Hawass, prominent archaeologist and director of Egypt's superior council for antiquities announced a proposal to test the theory that the couple were buried together. He discussed the project in Cairo at a media conference about the ancient pharaohs. Hawass said that the remains of the legendary Egyptian queen and her Roman lover, Mark Antony, were inside a temple called Tabusiris...
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Ancient Autopsies
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Berkshire Museum Puts A Face On Its Mummy
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04/20/2008 7:46:15 PM PDT · by blam · 19 replies · 605+ views
Berkshire Eagle The mummy has returned. And he has new tales to tell. One of the county's most beloved relics -- the nearly 2,300-year-old corpse of the ancient priest Pahat -- is back on view at the Berkshire Museum's recently reopened Ancient Civilizations gallery. But now, thanks to modern forensic science and technology, specialists have been able to put flesh to his bones, creating a three-dimensional reconstruction of Pahat's head. Further research has also revealed that Pahat...
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Rome and Italy
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Integration: a centuries-old issue (Where all roads lead)
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04/23/2008 9:48:34 AM PDT · by decimon · 6 replies · 205+ views
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research | April 3, 2008 | Unknown When can a person be regarded as a full and equal citizen of a country? Is a double nationality possible and what advantages does it offer a newcomer? These questions were already contemplated in ancient Rome. The Italian allies of Rome were keen on obtaining the Roman citizenship. Dutch researcher Roel van Dooren investigated why.At first sight, the Social War appears to be an old problem that is only interesting for historians. However, this war provides surprising insights into current societal issues. Even the ancient state of Rome struggled with integration and immigration problems and an understanding of this provides...
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Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
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Exhibit Shows Ancient Links Between Persia And Korea
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04/24/2008 7:53:38 AM PDT · by blam · 9 replies · 255+ views
Chosun.com | 4-24-2008 | Arirang News Cultural exchange between Korea and Persia goes back more than a thousand years. Some historians say through the Silk Road, Muslim traders put the name, Shilla, Korea's ancient dynasty, on the world map. To open a window into this intriguing past, the National Museum of Korea is hosting an exhibit of Persian artifacts. "Glory of Persia" showcases the history of Persia over a span of twelve centuries when it was one of the world's biggest empires. Shilla-period artifacts such as pottery and daggers show Persian influences in the form of artistic techniques...
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Anatolia
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Turkish Site A Neolithic 'Supernova'
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04/21/2008 3:24:52 PM PDT · by blam · 20 replies · 807+ views
Washington Times | 4-21-2008 | Nicholas Birch Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt was among the first to realize the significance of the Gobekli Tepe site, which is 7,000 years older than Stonehenge. URFA, Turkey - As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, as a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable. "This place is a supernova," said Mr. Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on...
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Neanderthal / Neandertal
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Neanderthals At Mealtime: Pass The Meat
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04/25/2008 6:58:54 PM PDT · by blam · 15 replies · 477+ views
Discovery News | 4-23-2008 | Jennifer Viegas Neanderthals living in southwestern France 55,000 to 40,000 years ago mostly ate red meat from extinct ancestors of modern bison, cattle and horses, according to a new study on a large, worn Neanderthal tooth. The extinct hominids were not above eating every edible bit of an animal, since they were dining for survival, explained Teresa Steele, one of the study's co-authors. While a steak dinner "is probably the closest modern comparison," Steele said, "remember too that they were consuming all parts of...
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Origins
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Humans re-united to fight extinction
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04/25/2008 11:04:35 AM PDT · by CarrotAndStick · 52 replies · 778+ views
AFP via. The Times of India | 25 Apr 2008, 1932 hrs IST | AFP Human beings for 100,000 years lived in tiny, separate groups, facing harsh conditions that brought them to the brink of extinction, before they reunited and populated the world, genetic researchers in a study said on Thursday. "Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction," said paleontologist Meave Leakey, of Stony Brook University, New York. The genetic study examined for the first time the evolution of our species from its origins with "mitochondrial Eve," a female hominid...
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Helix, Make Mine a Double
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Study: Humans Almost Went Extinct 70,000 Years Ago
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04/24/2008 12:07:36 PM PDT · by Sopater · 66 replies · 1,364+ views
Fox News | Thursday, April 24, 2008 | AP Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
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Study Says Near Extinction Threatened People
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04/24/2008 2:05:33 PM PDT · by blam · 52 replies · 751+ views
Physorg | 4-24-2008 | RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age. "This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics...
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Prehistory and Origins
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Did The Flores Hobbit Have A Root Canal?
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04/20/2008 7:35:51 PM PDT · by blam · 25 replies · 830+ views
Scientific American | 4-18-2008 | Kate Wong The lower left first molar of the hobbit is claimed to have a filling -- an observation that other hobbit researchers say is refuted by this photograph. PETER BROWN University of New England And you thought Frodo had it hard. In what is shaping up to be a battle of Tolkienian proportions, the tiny remains from Flores, Indonesia -- paleoanthropology's hobbit -- have once again come under attack. Most paleoanthropologists believe that the hobbit belongs to a new species of human, Homo floresiensis. But now comes...
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Baby I Hate Your Weight
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Early Parents Didn't Stand For Weighty Kids
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04/23/2008 1:30:31 PM PDT · by blam · 19 replies · 462+ views
Physorg | University of Manchester A volunteer carrying baby mannequin on the hip has her energy consumption measured. Credit: University of Manchester Scientists investigating the reasons why early humans -- the so-called hominins -- began walking upright say it's unlikely that the need to carry children was a factor, as has previously been suggested. Carrying babies that could no longer use their feet to cling to their parents in the way that young apes can has long been thought to be at least one explanation as to why humans became bipedal. But University of Manchester researchers investigating...
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British Isles
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Germanic Invaders May Not Have Ruled By Apartheid
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04/23/2008 2:49:29 PM PDT · by blam · 15 replies · 544+ views
New Scientist | 4-23-2008 | Emma Young When a strong Germanic signal was discovered in the Y-chromosome of British men, geneticists at University College London suggested that enslavement and apartheid imposed by Saxon invaders was responsible. It was an idea that, given 20th-century European history, had a particular resonance. The argument is, that from AD 430 to 730, the Germanic conquerors of Britain formed an elite, with a servant underclass of native Britons. Inter-marriage was restricted, and the invaders and their genes flourished. "But it is just not necessary to...
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Welcome to Sherwood!
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Anglo-Saxon Mound Found In Sherwood Forest
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04/25/2008 6:26:52 PM PDT · by blam · 7 replies · 424+ views
thisisnottingham.co.uk A Mysterious mound in Notts that was once thought to mark the boundary of two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is to be investigated by historians, the Forestry Commission has said. Known as Thynghowe, the hillock was only discovered three years ago in the Birklands area of Sherwood Forest by former teacher Lynda Mallet and her husband Stuart Reddish. With their friend John Wood, the couple used an original 19th Century perambulation document to find Thynghowe, which is believed to be an ancient meeting place dating back to Viking times. Experts think...
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Middle Ages and Renaissance
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Viking Acquitted In 100-Year-Old Murder Mystery
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04/25/2008 4:08:07 PM PDT · by blam · 17 replies · 446+ views
Yahoo News | 4-25-2008 | Alister Doyle Photo: Archaeological conservationist Brynjar Sandvoll and his co-worker Ragnar Lochen (R) study the bones of a... OSLO (Reuters) - Tests of the bones of two Viking women found in a buried longboat have dispelled 100-year-old suspicions that one was a maid sacrificed to accompany her queen into the afterlife, experts said on Friday. The bones indicated that a broken collarbone on the younger woman had been healing for several weeks -- meaning the break was not part of a ritual execution as suspected since the...
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PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
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How Deep Should We look For evidence Of First Americans
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04/20/2008 7:20:42 PM PDT · by blam · 21 replies · 908+ views
Corsicana Daily Sun | 4-20-2008 | Bill Young Three sites in Texas have been discovered and at least partially excavated in the past 15 years yielding evidence of at least one culture older than Clovis. Most of the Clovis sites have been firmly dated to around 12,500 to 13,000 years ago. Not only did these Clovis sites yield projectile points of the very distinct Clovis type, the sites also yielded true blades and very large well- made thin preforms diagnostic of only the Clovis people. The archeologists who have worked at some of these Clovis...
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Fossil Feces Push Back Earliest Date of Humans in Americas
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04/04/2008 7:47:46 AM PDT · by Malone LaVeigh · 21 replies · 660+ views
Foxnews.com | April 04, 2008 New evidence shows humans lived in North America more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than had previously been known. Discovered in a cave in Oregon, fossil feces yielded DNA indicating these early residents were related to people living in Siberia and East Asia, according to a report in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science. "This is the first time we have been able to get dates that are undeniably human, and they are 1,000 years before Clovis," said Dennis L. Jenkins, a University of Oregon archaeologist, referring to the Clovis culture, well known for its unique spear-points...
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Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
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Buried Dogs Were Divine "Escorts" for Ancient Americans
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04/25/2008 7:30:07 PM PDT · by blam · 8 replies · 192+ views
National Geographic News | 4-23-2008 | Anne Casselman Hundreds of prehistoric dogs found buried throughout the southwestern United States show that canines played a key role in the spiritual beliefs of ancient Americans, new research suggests. Throughout the region, dogs have been found buried with jewelry, alongside adults and children, carefully stacked in groups, or in positions that relate to important structures, said Dody Fugate, an assistant curator at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fugate has conducted an ongoing survey of known dog burials in the...
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Peru
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Bandurria Is Oldest Peruvian Archaeological Site, Say Expert
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04/20/2008 7:28:12 PM PDT · by blam · 8 replies · 362+ views
Andina | 4-16-2008 | Alejandro Chu The archaelogical site of Bandurria dating back 3200 BC (located in the province of Huaura, Lima) is considered the origin of ancient American civilization, said archaeologist Alejandro Chu Barrera, director of the Archaeological Project of Bandurria. "Several radiocarbon datings done in the United states confirmed that Bandurria dates back from 3200 B.C., while Caral dates from 2900", said the archaeologist. The expert mentioned that the main reason for the development of highly organized cultures along the Peruvian coast is...
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Central Asia
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Synchrotron Light Unveils Oil In Ancient Buddhist Paintings From Bamiyan
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04/22/2008 1:37:21 PM PDT · by blam · 5 replies · 557+ views
Physorg | 4-2-2008 | European Synchrotron Radiation Facility A cross-section of the sample, where the different layers are visible. Credit: National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (Japan) The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient colossal Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan. Behind those statues, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from Taliban destruction, as well as from a severe natural environment, but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments...
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China
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Terracotta Army Has Egg On Its Face
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04/21/2008 10:04:15 PM PDT · by blam · 33 replies · 874+ views
ABC News - Discovery News | 4-21-1008 | Jennifer Viegas Soldiers of China's terracotta army were once brightly painted, then preserved with an egg coating (Source: Reuters/Philippe Wojazer) China's terracotta army, a collection of 7000 soldier and horse figures in the mausoleum of the country's first emperor, was covered with beaten egg when it was made, scientists say. According to German and Italian chemists who have analysed samples from several figurines, the egg was as a binder for colourful paints, which went over a layer of lacquer. "Egg paint is normally very stable, and not...
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Australia and the Pacific
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Fiji Jewellery Box Find Stuns Archaeologists (Lapita People)
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04/22/2008 2:59:43 PM PDT · by blam · 14 replies · 899+ views
Fiji Live | 4-22-2008 Archeologists have discovered a 3000-year-old pot in Fiji containing jewellery believed to have been made by the South Pacific's original settlers -- the Lapita people. The discovery was made by an excavation party from the Fiji-based University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Museum at Bourewa in Natadola on the Coral Coast. The dig at Bourewa, which is the earliest human settlement in Fiji, unearthed the pot and a thick piece of "exquisitely decorated pottery". The Lapita people were the first colonists of Pacific Island groups, including the eastern Solomon...
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Paleontology
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Tests Confirm T. Rex Kinship With Birds
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04/24/2008 11:04:30 PM PDT · by Soliton · 37 replies · 339+ views
NYT | April 25, 2008 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD In the first analysis of proteins extracted from dinosaur bones, scientists say they have established more firmly than ever that the closest living relatives of the mighty predator Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds.
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Faith and Philosophy
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Film Director: Jesus Was Son of a Roman Rapist
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04/23/2008 10:36:19 PM PDT · by Aussie Dasher · 25 replies · 564+ views
Newsbusters.org | 24 April 2008 | Warner Todd Huston According to The Hollywood Reporter, film director Paul Verhoeven is soon to release a book that is claimed to be a new "biography" of Jesus Christ. In this new publication, Verhoeven feels that he successfully proves that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was raped by a Roman soldier during the Jewish uprising in Galilee and the boy Jesus was the result of that attack. No virgin birth for Christ, but instead a rape. Verhoeven is best known as the director of the films "Basic Instinct," the Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Total Recall," as well as the spectacular flop "Showgirls." The...
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Catastrophism and Astronomy
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1600 Eruption Caused Global Disruption (Peruvian eruption)
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04/23/2008 11:46:31 AM PDT · by decimon · 20 replies · 655+ views
UC Davis | April 23, 2008 | Unknown The 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru had a global impact on human society, according to a new study of contemporary records by geologists at UC Davis. The eruption is known to have put a large amount of sulfur into the atmosphere, and tree ring studies show that 1601 was a cold year, but no one had looked at the agricultural and social impacts, said Ken Verosub, professor of geology at UC Davis. "We knew it was a big eruption, we knew it was a cold year, and that's all we knew," Verosub said. Sulfur reacts with water in the...
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Africa
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Slowly-Developing Primates Definitely Not Dim-Witted
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04/21/2008 8:49:33 AM PDT · by RightWhale · 5 replies · 217+ views
SPX | 21 Apr 08 | staff Some primates have evolved big brains because their extra brainpower helps them live and reproduce longer, an advantage that outweighs the demands of extra years of growth and development they spend reaching adulthood, anthropologists from Duke University and the University of Zurich have concluded in a new study. The four investigators compared key benchmarks in the development of 28 different primate species, ranging from humans living free of modern trappings in South American jungles to lemurs living in wild settings in Madagascar. "This research focused specifically on the balance between the costs and benefits...
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Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
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New TB threat: Global ties bring an ancient disease to Silicon Valley
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04/20/2008 9:20:48 AM PDT · by Technoman · 33 replies · 759+ views
San Jose Mercury News | 4-18-08 | Mike Swift Call it one price of globalism. Last year, tuberculosis increased in four of the Bay Area's five largest counties, and the San Jose area in 2006 had the highest TB rate of any large American metro area, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health. San Francisco, after an outbreak of TB among Latino day workers in the Mission district, has the highest TB rate of any...
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Civil War
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On this Day April 20: Republicans outlawed the Ku Klux Klan
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04/20/2008 5:42:38 AM PDT · by paltz · 6 replies · 312+ views
GRAND OLD PARTISAN | 4/20/08 | Michael Zak For decades after the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party. Klansmen murdered hundreds of Republican activists and office-holders, including U.S. Representative James Hinds (R-Arkansas). On this day in 1871, the Republican-controlled 42nd Congress passed and the Republican President, Ulysses Grant, signed into law the Ku Klux Klan Act. The law banned the KKK and other Democrat terrorist organizations. President Grant then deployed federal troops to crush a Klan uprising in South Carolina. Eleven years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned most provisions of the Act. Though legalized, this original version of the...
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World War Eleven
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Gay Paris? Photos of Paris under Nazi occupation draw fire
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04/23/2008 7:52:53 AM PDT · by Tolkien · 42 replies · 1,699+ views
Breitbart.com | 4/23/08 | Breitbart.com Photos of carefree Parisians lazing in cafes, flocking to cinemas or enjoying a day at the races during the Nazi occupation have sparked outrage in Paris and calls for the exhibit to be shut down.
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Oh So Mysterioso
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New footage of JFK in Dallas released
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02/19/2007 5:52:35 PM PST · by Mr. Brightside · 65 replies · 3,012+ views
Yahoo | 2/19/07 Previously unreleased footage of John F. Kennedy's fateful motorcade in Dallas moments before he was gunned down was released on Monday, a surprising new detail in a saga that has gripped the United States for four decades. The silent 8mm film shows a beaming Jacqueline Kennedy close up in vivid color waving to the crowd. A group of excited bystanders -- women sporting big 1960s hairstyles -- waves to the cameraman shortly before the motorcade sweeps past. The president's coat is...
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Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
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5th-grader finds mistake at Smithsonian
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04/02/2008 6:12:07 PM PDT · by Hildy · 91 replies · 2,874+ views
Yahoo News Is fifth-grader Kenton Stufflebeam smarter than the Smithsonian? The 11-year-old boy, who lives in Allegan but attends Alamo Elementary School near Kalamazoo, went with his family during winter break to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington.Since it opened in 1981, millions of people have paraded past the museum's Tower of Time, a display involving prehistoric time. Not one visitor had reported anything amiss with the exhibit until Kenton noticed that a notation, in bold lettering, identified the Precambrian as an era.Kenton knew that was wrong. His fifth-grade teacher, John Chapman, had nearly made the same mistake...
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end of digest #197 20080426
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