Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'history' clips

Babe Ruth was cancer research guinea pig

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:39:36 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

The story of Babe Ruth's bittersweet farewell at Yankee Stadium has been part of sports lore for generations. Shockingly stooped and frail, the slugger came to the Bronx ballpark on June 13, 1948, to put on the pinstriped uniform a last time and hear the roar of the faithful once more.

He died only two months later, on August 16, at age 53, by most accounts of throat cancer, brought on at least in part by a well-chronicled fondness for tobacco and liquor. But that's all wrong, says a Westchester County, N.Y., dentist with a passion for baseball history. And he's trying to set the record straight.

Maloney uncovered little-known information about the experimental treatment that the doomed baseball titan agreed to take part in, the kindness Ruth showed toward medical staff during his difficult final days and the rare form of cancer he actually died from, nasopharyngeal carcinoma (it causes less than 1 percent of the cancer deaths in the U.S. today).

Tags: sports, cancer, celebrity, baseball, babe ruth, history, medical

When 'The Blob' came to town

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:54:50 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

There is a man. He carries a can, and inside it is a weird, blood-red hunk of goo the size and consistency of a generous bowl of lumpy raspberry Jell-O.

The town, Phoenixville, is a place of history, too. Fifty years ago, this place was touched by the spotlight. A small production company two towns over made a film that no one expected to go anywhere. Instead, it became one of the iconic sci-fi horror flicks of the 1950s and introduced the world to an actor named Steve McQueen.

In real life, this happens: Each summer, hundreds of locals and folks from as far away as Oregon and Jamaica come to the center of Phoenixville. They visit the house where the doctor "died," stop by the strip mall where the market once stood, eat at the diner on the site where the alien met its frozen end. And, on Phoenixville's main drag, on a warm summer evening, more than 400 of them run screaming from the same theater, the Colonial, in a joyous re-enactment of the movie's big scene.

Tags: horror, movie, film, classic, history

Witchcraft on syllabus at Massey University

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:04:25 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.nzherald.co.nz

Spells, magical curses and voodoo dolls are all part of a new paper being offered at Massey University.

Magic and Witchcraft, is a 100-level extramural paper offered this semester at the university's school of history, philosophy and classics.

Senior classics lecturer Gina Salapata said the 120 students enrolled in the paper studied the use of sorcery in the classical world, medieval and early modern times and in colonial Maori culture.

The idea for the programme grew out of her background in classics, she said.

For the first assignment students had to create a magical curse tablet or erotic charm.

However, the fanciful assignments had to be backed up with research, she said.

Paper co-ordinator Chris van der Krogt said the lecturers were not advocating witchcraft but were using the theme to open windows to past societies.

"We are putting it in a historical context. I also teach about Christianity, but I'm not advocating it," he said.

Tags: witchcraft, history, witch, magic, culture, school, university

Pagan tomb under St. Peter's Basilica reopened

Thu, 29 May 2008 04:01:16 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

The Vatican unveiled the largest and most luxurious of the pagan tombs in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday after nearly a year of restoration work.

A family of former slaves built the Valeri Mausoleum during the second half of the second century, when Emperor Marcus Aurelius ruled. It is one of 22 pagan tombs in the grottoes under the basilica.

Emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, had the pagan burial grounds covered up in the fourth century so the basilica could be built over the site holding St. Peter's tomb.

The tomb tells the history of the family, particularly in bas reliefs, of a girl and a boy from the Caius Valerius Herma family. The children died young, possibly from plague. Such stuccoed objects as a quill pen and a skein of yarn tell the tale of daily life in the Valeri family. Reliefs of major gods and other pagan figures attest to their strong religious belief.

Tags: pagan, christian, vatican, tomb, history, ancient, god, religion, belief

Stonehenge Part of Vast Religious Complex?

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:48:52 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

Even after 4,500 years, Stonehenge is bathed in mystery. Was it a temple? An observatory? Something else?

Mike Parker Pearson, an archeologist at the University of Sheffield, thinks he has a new answer. After eight years of excavation, he argues that Stonehenge was just one part of a great religious complex, built by Neolithic people in Britain who did not yet have writing or the wheel.

Two miles away from the famous circle of Stonehenge, Parker Pearson says there is evidence of a primitive town — primitive but remarkably large for 2,500 B.C. It would have had room for more than a thousand people.

What's more, there are signs nearby of a second circle — a virtual twin, except that it was made of wood.

Parker Pearson theorizes that the wooden circle was a celebration of life and perhaps fertility, while Stonehenge — the only remaining part of the complex — would have been a monument to death or the afterlife.

Tags: ancient history, history, stonehenge, religion, death, life, britain

Poland honors woman who saved 2,500 Jews

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:32:21 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

WARSAW, Poland - A 97-year-old woman credited with saving 2,500 Jews during the Holocaust was honored by parliament Wednesday at a ceremony during which Poland's president said she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Irena Sendler, who lives in a nursing home in Warsaw, was too frail to attend the special session in which members of the Senate unanimously approved a resolution honoring her and the Polish underground Council for Assisting Jews.

The group's members, mostly Roman Catholics, risked their own lives to save Jews from the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Sendler was cited for organizing the "rescue of the most defenseless victims of the Nazi ideology — the Jewish children."

Tortured by Nazis
She wrote the children's names on slips of paper and buried them in jars in a neighbor's yard as a record that could help locate their parents after the war. The Nazis arrested her in 1943, but she refused — despite repeated torture — to reveal their names.

Tags: jews, holocaust, history

'Breakthrough' At Stonehenge Dig

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:33:51 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Archaeologists carrying out an excavation at Stonehenge say they have broken through to a layer that may finally explain why the site was built.

The team has reached sockets that once held bluestones - smaller stones, most now missing or uprooted, which formed the site's original structure.

The researchers believe that the bluestones could reveal that Stonehenge was once a place of healing.

The team now needs to extract organic material from these holes to date when the stones first arrived.

Professors Darvill and Wainwright say that finding out more about the history of the bluestones could be key to solving the mystery of why the 4,500-year-old landmark was erected.

Professor Geoffrey Wainwright said the site could have been a "Neolithic Lourdes".

Tags: england, history, pagan, stonehenge, healing, landmark

Early "Leaf" Photo Could Fetch Fortune

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:09:10 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

A New York auction house is selling a primitive photograph that could be a much earlier work than originally believed. If so, it says, it would be one of the most important discoveries in the history of photography.

The work, "Leaf," to be sold at Sotheby's on April 7, is a photogenic drawing — a cameraless process in which an object is placed on silver nitrate-coated paper or leather to form a negative image.

It had previously been attributed to William Henry Fox Talbot, considered the father of photography along with Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre. It was thought to have been made in 1839 at what is widely accepted as the dawn of photography.

But Sotheby's says research by a leading photo expert suggests otherwise — that several early photo experimenters could be the authors, including Thomas Wedgwood, James Watt and Humphry Davy, who worked in the medium decades earlier. If that theory is true, it means the photo could have been made as early as 1790.

Tags: photo, photography, history, art

Myth of Matriarchy

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:14:24 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: wicca.timerift.net

But later, cultures developed that devoted themselves to the arts of war. Wave after wave of Indo-European invasions swept over Europe from the Bronze Age on. Warrior Gods drove the Goddess peoples out from the fertile lowlands and fine temples...The mythological cycle of Goddess and Consort, Mother and Divine child, which had held sway for 30 thousand years, was changed to conform to the values of the conquering patriarchies.³

Besides the implied sexism, the theory is just bad history. There is no conclusive historical evidence of a matriarchal civilization having ever existed anywhere. There have been, and still are, matrilineal societies, in which inheritance and/or genealogy is traced through the female line. But this in no way implies a superiority or even an equality of the feminine gender in these societies.

Something else to consider: if these matriarchies were so great, stable and powerful, how did the marauding men manage to so easily take over?

Tags: history, women, goddess, matriarchal, society, culture, myth

Selkies And Kelpies: The Fairytale Degree

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:43:28 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: thescotsman.scotsman.com

Postgraduate course in Scottish folklore to investigate country's ancient myths

Legends and folk tales from years gone by have always proved popular in history lessons, so now Glasgow University is launching the first degree in Scottish folklore at its campus in Dumfries.

The postgraduate masters course contains modules on animal myths, witch beliefs and hunts, storytelling and ballads.

Topics on the curriculum include the mythical selkies – creatures that could transform themselves from seal to human form and back again by putting on or removing their skin.

Another traditional Scottish myth is that of the kelpie – a breed of water horse that enticed people to ride on its back, then took them down to a watery grave.

Dr Lizanne Henderson, the course leader, said these myths reflected a cultural fear of water in an age when many lived by the coast but were unable to swim.

Tags: myth, scotland, university, folklore, history, legends

Religious diversity reshapes America, safeguards freedom

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:52:08 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.firstamendmentcenter.org

A report released this week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that almost half of us “have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.”

The religious marketplace of America is not only dynamic — it’s also crowded. The United States is now home to all major world religions, many minor ones, and some entirely homegrown.

This dramatic demographic shift may help explain the growing anxiety expressed by many traditionalist Protestants as our society moves beyond the Protestant ethos that dominated America for much of our early history. Culture-war conflicts over state-sponsored religion are less about 60-second prayers in schools or Ten Commandments monuments in courthouses and more about struggles to define who we are as a nation — and who we will be.

Tags: religion, belief, america, faith, demographics, history, culture

Vatican revisits the Inquisition

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:12:03 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

Back in the Middle Ages, the Inquisition was a byword for fear and terror in . Its tribunals, set up by the to ensure that "heretics" did not undermine the authority of the increasingly powerful Roman Catholic Church, burned and tortured witches, blasphemers and members of other faiths. Its judges condemned Galileo for saying that the Earth revolved around the Sun and executed thousands over the course of several centuries.

Now, after centuries of secrecy on the subject, the Vatican has launched a new phase in its campaign to show that the Inquisition wasn't so bad after all. Church authorities have unveiled a temporary "Rare and Precious" exhibition at Rome's Vittoriano Museum to "expose some myths" about this dark chapter of its past.

Not only does the church have an obligation to expose its own mistakes, he says, but the exhibit is also meant to help foster understanding of the complex nature of the church's .

Tags: vatican, catholic, church, history, inquisition

MLK tributes ignore his complexity

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:07:24 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: "No one can go further than one sentence," he said. "All we know is that this guy had a dream, we don't know what that dream was."

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Historians say King was far from revered as he pushed activism beyond race

Martin Luther King Jr. has certainly received his share of attention this year, the subject of a presidential campaign controversy over his legacy that blew up just around the time of the holiday created to honor the slain civil rights leader.

But nearly 40 years after his assassination in April 1968, after the deaths of his wife and of others who knew both the man and what he stood for, some say King is facing the same fate that has befallen many a historical figure — being frozen in a moment in time that ignores the full complexity of the man and his message.

While there has been scholarly study of King and everything he did, that knowledge has not translated into the popular culture perception of him and the civil rights movement, said Richard Greenwald, professor of history at Drew University.

Tags: mlk, history, black, civil rights

Blonde Ambition: Iconic Blondes Shape History

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:25:44 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

New Art Exhibit Looks At Evolution and Influence of Blondes in Pop Culture

Blondeness was created 11,000 years ago, toward the end of the last ice age, by a genetic mutation that has resulted in a look that some might regard as an iconic ideal.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis is presenting "Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture." The show looks at the way culture and art have interpreted the image of blondness in history.

According to a study conducted by Peter Frost, an anthropologist from Laval University in Quebec, blond hair originated in northern Europe in an area that had scarce food. Women with blond hair and blue eyes stood out from their rivals during a time of competition for the lack of males. At the time, you might say, "The cavemen preferred blondes," and so goes the evolution of the blond gene.

Click here to visit the exhibit's Web site: Beauty and the Blonde

Tags: woman, women, blonde, genetics, culture, art

Critics Slam 'History Week’ Resolution By Rep. Forbes

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:15:26 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: hamptonroads.com

A congressional resolution by U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes to designate an American Religious History Week has critics saying the measure ignores the nation’s spiritual pluralism and distorts history.

If approved by the House, Resolution 888 would support a designated week each May “for the appreciation of and education on America’s history of religious faith.” The measure has 31 sponsors and is before a House committee.

The measure was criticized as “meddling in religious issues” by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonprofit advocacy group that says the government is supposed to be religiously neutral.

An Americans United news release said the resolution distorts American history to “portray a recurring intersection of religion and government.”

The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United said the measure included “some flatly incorrect statements, including the idea that the Supreme Court has declared this a Christian nation, which it has not.”

Tags: christian, government, religion, america, church, state, history