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PROVING THAT ROBERT CAPA'S "FALLING SOLDIER" IS GENUINE: A DETECTIVE STORY
When I began the research for my biography of Robert Capa, in 1980, one problem I inherited was that of dealing with an allegation of fakery regarding Capa’s 1936 photograph of a Spanish Republican (Loyalist) militiaman collapsing into death, the so-called Falling Soldier. (Its proper title is "Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936." In this article the photograph will be referred to as The Falling Soldier; the man in the photograph, when not referred to by his name, will be called the Falling Soldier [intentionally not italicized].) The picture is one of Capa's two most famous (the other being of a GI landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day), and it has often been hailed as the greatest war photograph of all time.
The allegation had first surfaced in 1975, in a book by Phillip Knightley, a British journalist and historian, about how war correspondents -- ever since the beginning of the profession, during the Crimean War of the 1850s -- had often distorted the truth.
-Robert Whelan
This is an interesting story of righting the historical record through disproving allegations made against a photographer with forensics. When I began the research for my biography of Robert Capa, in 1980, one problem I inherited was that of dealing with an allegation of ... more -
German university to put world's oldest bible online
The world's oldest surviving semi-complete copy of the Bible, a 4th-century manuscript in ancient Greek that was discovered in a waste-paper bin by a German scholar, is set to be published online. The world's oldest surviving semi-complete copy of the Bible, a 4th-century manuscript in ancient Greek that was discovered in a wast... more
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First openly gay Roman emperor
Speak Latin? Roman? Queer? Meet Hadrian.
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Piece of Williamsville history has burned to the ground.
It once housed the biggest business in Amherst.
Dr. Joe Grande, Author, 'Glancing Back,' said, "It actually goes back to 1821 when they started building the mills here. They had hemp mills, they had saw mills, they had grain mills." It once housed the biggest business in Amherst. ... more -
Mad Ad Woman Interview
As the series begins again this season, an interview to start us off!
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Ancient Med Pot Prescription from 1,550 BC
As many of you know the Ebers Papyrus (named after George Ebers) is not just an ancient Egyptian medical text (era 1,550 BC). It’s the oldestknown (complete) surviving medical text book know in existence.
The Ebers Papyrus From Ancient Egypt Was Dated Around 1,550 Years "Before Christ Was Even Born"
Well anyway, thanks to the University of Leipzighburg in Germany, We have finally have been able to obtain a color digital copy of a couple of pages from it that mention Medical Marihuana (known then as Sum-Sum-et). To our knowledge these are the oldest (museum confirmed) written medical knowledge and information about medical marihuana - cannabis around.
Actually the Mesopotamians have older written MMJ Information, but none of their information is complete. And only broken bits and pieces have ever been found to date. As many of you know the Ebers Papyrus (named after George Ebers) is not just an ancient Egyptian medical text (era 1,550 BC). It’s th... more -
3,000-year-old Neolithic site found in China
Its always interesting to find out how advanced we were so, so long ago. Life for humans hasn't changed. Our weapons and toys have.....
BEIJING - Thousands of ancient artifacts and wooden poles more than 3,000 years old have been unearthed in China's southern Yunnan province, possibly the world's largest site of a Neolithic community, local media reported on Tuesday.
The poles, found standing 4.6 meters underground, were used as part of building structures for an ancient community that may have covered an area of 4 square km, the China Daily reported, citing Min Rui, a researcher at Yunnan Archaeological Institute, who is leading the excavation team.
The site could be older than the Hemudu community in Yuyao, in Zhejiang province, which is among the most famous in China and is believed to be the birthplace of society around the Yangtze River.
An area of 1,350 sq m has already been uncovered and excavation is ongoing.
"I was shocked when I first saw the site. I have never seen such a big and orderly one," Yan Wenming, history professor at Peking University, was quoted as saying.
Excavation began in January, but the site was actually discovered five decades ago during the construction of a canal along the banks of the Jianhu Lake, about 500 km northwest of the provincial capital Kunming.
Archaeologists have found more than 3,000 artifacts made of stone, wood, iron, pottery and bone, as well as more than 2,000 of the wooden posts. Its always interesting to find out how advanced we were so, so long ago. Life for humans hasn't changed. Our weapons and toys have....... more -
Power or Black Power?
In 1971 a London bank was robbed and the thieves got away with gold, jewels, money and the contents of many safety deposit boxes. It has been surmised that the main goal of the robbery was not money, but rather to regain the power that Michael X had over the British Royal Family.
Who is Michael X? What did he have stored in his safe deposit box?
Saffron Burrows, of "The Bank Job." explains. In 1971 a London bank was robbed and the thieves got away with gold, jewels, money and the contents of many safety deposit boxes. It ... more -
Global wildlife declines 30% in 30 years
decline of 30 percent in the space of a single generation is unprecedented in human history
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Generation Warfighters
When did American troops become "warfighters" -- members of "Generation Kill" -- instead of citizen-soldiers? And when did we become so proud of declaring our military to be "the world's best"? These are neither frivolous nor rhetorical questions. Open up any national defense publication today and you can't miss the ads from defense contractors, all eagerly touting the ways they "serve" America's "warfighters." Listen to the politicians, and you'll hear the obligatory incantation about our military being "the world's best."
All this is, by now, so often repeated -- so eagerly accepted -- that few of us seem to recall how against the American grain it really is. If anything -- and I saw this in studying German military history -- it's far more in keeping with the bellicose traditions and bumptious rhetoric of Imperial Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II than of an American republic that began its march to independence with patriotic Minutemen in revolt against King George.
So consider this a modest proposal from a retired citizen-airman: A small but meaningful act against the creeping militarism of the Bush years would be to collectively repudiate our "world's best warfighter" rhetoric and re-embrace instead a tradition of reluctant but resolute citizen-soldiers.
*****
Being "the best soldiers" meant that senior German leaders -- whether the Kaiser, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, that Teutonic titan of World War I, or Hitler -- always expected them to prevail. The mentality was: "We're number one. How can we possibly lose unless we quit -- or those [fill in your civilian quislings of choice] stab us in the back?"
If this mentality sounds increasingly familiar, it's because it's the one we ourselves have internalized in these last years. German warfighters and their leaders knew no limitations until it was too late for them to recover from ceaseless combat, imperial overstretch, and economic collapse.
Today, the U.S. military, and by extension American culture, is caught in a similar bind. After all, if we truly believe ours to be "the world's best military" (and, judging by how often the claim is repeated in the echo chamber of our media, we evidently do), how can we possibly be losing in Iraq or Afghanistan? And, if the "impossible" somehow happens, how can our military be to blame? If our "warfighters" are indeed "the best," someone else must have betrayed them -- appeasing politicians, lily-livered liberals, duplicitous and weak-willed allies like the increasingly recalcitrant Iraqis, you name it.
Today, our military is arguably the world's best. Certainly, it's the world's most powerful in its advanced armaments and its ability to destroy. But what does it say about our leaders that they are so taken with this form of power? And why exactly is it so good to be the "best" at this? Just ask a German military veteran -- among the few who survived, that is -- in a warrior-state that went berserk in a febrile quest for "full spectrum dominance."
more@url When did American troops become "warfighters" -- members of "Generation Kill" -- instead of citizen-soldiers? And when did we become s... more -
Michelangelo -- ugly and unclean
Michelangelo was an ugly and rather unclean man.
According to a series of rare, contemporary portraits and writings on show in Florence, Michelangelo had small eyes, large ears, thin lips and a forked, thin beard.
Disfigured at age 17 when a fellow student smashed his nose, he likely smelled terribly bad.
More at: http://blogs.discovery.com/news_archaeorama/2008/07/mic... Michelangelo was an ugly and rather unclean man. ... more -
Michelangelo's Face Revealed
Discovery-News.com: Portraits of Michelangelo suggest he was nowhere near as beautiful as the works of art he produced. Discovery News' Rossella Lorenzi, in Florence, Italy, unmasks his new face.
Discovery-News.com: Portraits of Michelangelo suggest he was nowhere near as beautiful as the works of art he produced. Discovery News... more -
Athapaskan Migration To Southwest 500 years ago
A large-scale genetic study of native North Americans offers new insights into the migration of a small group of Athapaskan natives from their subarctic home in northwest North America to the southwestern United States. The migration, which left no known archaeological trace, is believed to have occurred about 500 years ago.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Illinois, is detailed this month in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. It relied on a genetic analysis of the Y chromosome and so offers a window on the unique ancestral history of the male Athapaskan migrants. Previous genetic studies of this group focused on mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down exclusively from mothers to their offspring.
The new findings reinforce the hypothesis that the Athapaskan migration involved a relatively small group that nonetheless was very successful at assimilating and intermixing with native groups already living in the southwest. The newcomers were so influential that the Athapaskan language family now dominates many parts of the Southwest. Now called Apacheans, the Navajo and Apache descendants of the early migrants are dispersed throughout the central Southwest and speak languages closely related to the Chipewyan, an Athapaskan language found in the subarctic. A large-scale genetic study of native North Americans offers new insights into the migration of a small group of Athapaskan natives fr... more -
US abandons nuclear human 'guinea pigs'
Thousands of nuclear arms workers became sick or died building atomic weapons to defend America. They did top-secret work that exposed them to radiation, chemicals, heavy metals and other poisons. For half a century, the federal government's official policy was to fight any workers who claimed job-related illness, often spending tens of millions in tax dollars annually to do so. The government at times absolutely denied that the workers faced undue danger. It was a flat-out lie.
Only one in four sick workers or their survivors has been compensated, according to the labor department's own statistics. Some 165,000 claims have been filed, but fewer than 43,000 have been paid — and even then, it has taken an average three years to qualify.
While the law says that the government is supposed to help sick workers with their claims, the people running the compensation program instead have at times ignored the law and thwarted the will of Congress.
"There is no question that when it comes to this program, this administration has been more than willing to ignore the law when it disagrees with Congress' intent," said Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who repeatedly has tried to intervene on behalf of sick workers in his home state of Illinois. "It must be remembered that these laws were passed by a Republican majority in Congress.
"While many workers or their families have been compensated, there is no doubt that what Congress intended when it created this program simply has not materialized and as a result, many deserving workers have been left out by the current legislation."
more@url
Thousands of nuclear arms workers became sick or died building atomic weapons to defend America. They did top-secret work that exposed... more -
Rare mummy found with strange artifacts and tattoos
A thousand-year old mummy has been discovered in Peru decorated with scarlet paint, metal eye-plates that denote high status, and tatoos.
"As anthropologists gingerly removed the layers of ancient textiles swaddling the thirtysomething elite male last month at a Lima lab, offerings both strange and familiar came to light—slingshots, corn, a figurine in identical dress."
The mummy gives astoishing insights into the little-studied Chancay civilisation between A.D. 1000 and 1500, before finally falling to the unstoppable Inca Empire. A thousand-year old mummy has been discovered in Peru decorated with scarlet paint, metal eye-plates that denote high status, and tato... more -
Cow Charm: Highlanders used magic on cattle
Kirk session records have revealed examples of Highlanders using so-called good and bad magic on cattle.
Dr Karen Cullen, of higher education institute UHI, trawled the papers in her research for a lecture - Charmed Cows and Contentious Neighbours. The practice of charming to either protect or harm livestock was used during the 17th and 18th centuries.
She said: "The lecture is an off-shoot of my research of a famine of the 1690s and my interest in how weather impacts on crops. I found in Kirk session records that in upland areas, where people were more dependent on cattle than crops, there were tensions in local communities and of people suspecting neighbours of harming their cattle."
With little understanding of the scientific reasons behind poor productivity, people believed witchcraft was used to stop dairy cattle expressing good quality milk. Dr Cullen said: "There is mention of cows having less profit, or goodness of milk, and people suspected a witch had taken that away. People then used counter charms such as putting rowan branches above the milking shed to ward off evil magic, or paying charmers to protect their cows."
The practice continued in some places into the 20th Century, but the beginning to its end was the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in the mid 1700s and greater understanding of scientific explanations to natural events.
(Excerpts / BBC News) Kirk session records have revealed examples of Highlanders using so-called good and bad magic on cattle. ... more -
American Jews honour Polish Holocaust rescuers
Poles who risked their lives a half century ago by taking in fugitive Jews during the Nazi Holocaust were honored in Warsaw on Sunday, in what may be one of their final gatherings.
They recalled how they tucked Jews into odd hiding places when German soldiers were on the prowl, risking the death penalty for themselves and their family. "At various times we had up to nine people living in our flat. They had free run of the house, but when they heard a knock at the door, they would all run down to a special hiding place next to the coal bin," said Waclaw Nowinski, 83.
He was one of about 60 ageing Poles invited to the event by the U.S.-based Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR), all of them medal-holders of the Yad Vashem Institute's Righteous among the Nations decoration. Since its inception in 1986, the JFR has spent millions of dollars supporting needy Gentile rescuers like Nowinska and Irena Senderska-Rzonca, who was only 13 in 1943 when her family provided a safe haven for a Jewish doctor's family in the eastern Polish town of Boryslaw, now in Ukraine.
Like many Yad Vashem medal-holders, Senderska-Rzonca has stayed in touch with her beneficiaries. "Miron Bander was just a little boy back then. He is now a successful physics professor in California," she said.
During World War Two, Poland was the only country in German-occupied Europe where anyone aiding Jews risked death. In was also the only occupied country whose government-in-exile set up an underground organization for the express purpose of aiding and saving Jews. According to estimates, up to 120,000 Jews who could not have survived the Holocaust without help were rescued, and over 6,000 Poles were subsequently awarded the Righteous Among Nations medal, more than any other country.
There was a bittersweet note to the Warsaw ceremony. "Due to the rising age of the rescuers, it will likely be the last," said one of the organizers.
(Excerpts / Rob Strybel, Reuters)
Poles who risked their lives a half century ago by taking in fugitive Jews during the Nazi Holocaust were honored in Warsaw on Sunday,... more -
Fort Walsh: Horses, Whiskey, and Murder
South West of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan Canada is a national historic site that not many know exists. However, the events that occurred in this area changed life on the Canadian Prairies forever. South West of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan Canada is a national historic site that not many know exists. However, the events that occurre... more
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Nazi Jews: A Historical Paradox
Would it surprise anyone to learn that there were upwards of 150, 000 soldiers of partial Jewish descent serving in the Nazi army during World War II? Would it surprise anyone to learn that there were upwards of 150, 000 soldiers of partial Jewish descent serving in the Nazi army duri... more
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Ten communication inventions that changed the world forever
Once these mass communication tools were invented this planet was never the same again.
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