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"In 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi, John stepped between angry protesters and armed police to prevent a potential massacre after the murder of Medgar Evans,"

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English comedy show, Armstrong and Miller, the modern talking RAF pilots...anachronistic entitlement generation in WWII. Video Link

"With luck it will help to vindicate the fathers of liberal government and the free market in the 17th and 18th Centuries, falsely accused until now of abetting - or promoting - the great crime of race-based African slavery. For academic orthodoxy holds that John Locke and the great Whig thinkers of the Glorious Revolution (1688) helped to design and foster the economic system of hereditary slavery that shaped Atlantic capitalism for a century and a half. ...Except that this established version of events is not true. It is a near complete inversion of what happened, and this matters in...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKxnN9YBaw

For most of us, "pterodactyls" are imagined as large, vicious and ugly gargoyles with lanky limbs, leathery wings and jaws lined with savage teeth, the sort of disreputable brutes we find in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, the Jurassic Park franchise – even a recent episode of Doctor Who. Such works suggest we should think ourselves lucky that these flying reptiles – some of which measured 10 metres across the wings and stood as tall as giraffes – were confined to landscapes populated by equally terrible dinosaurs, marine reptiles and turbulent volcanoes during a time known as the Mesozoic...

Let's take a break from politics today and remember Eydie Gorme, who passed away at 84. "Ms. Gorme, who was born in New York City to Sephardic Jewish parents, grew up speaking English and Spanish. When she and her husband were at the height of their career as a team in 1964, the president of Columbia Records, Goddard Lieberson, suggested she put that Spanish to use in the recording studio. The result was "Amor," recorded with Mexican combo Trio Los Panchos." And this is where my parents and thousands of other Cuban parents came in! She recorded music that was...

I don’t know when it became OK for people to be so open about the weird stuff they are into. I have always lived by the code whatever you do is fine as long as I don’t have to see it. It’s been a mantra for decades. However, since the dawn of the internet people have been very happy to share things about themselves that not everyone wants to know and most of it is downright obscene.

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Good words from William Finlay a/k/a Wild Bill for America about liberals' hatred for another American institution, i.e., the cowboy hat.

This is making-of footage from a film that will never-be. The Day the Clown Cried was a 1972 Holocaust drama directed and starring Jerry Lewis that was famously decried for its bad taste before ever being released. Lewis then buried the film, denouncing it as “bad” and made him feel “embarrassed.” The script and a few stills are all that survive for public consumption — until now, when YouTube user unclesporkums found this 7-minute clip of behind-the-scenes footage and shared it online yesterday. As of this writing, only 751 people have laid eyes on the video below, but that number...

Myths about the role, and perceived anti-tank capability of the M4 Medium, continue to be pervasive. The idea that US tanks were not expected to be able to deal with any tanks that they may happen to come across just won’t die, and is probably a reflection of the name of the US Tank Destroyer branch which is confusing to those who don’t understand the doctrinal function of the TD. See the Can Openers article for a slightly more in-depth look. We know that the idea of adding the 76mm to the M4 pre-dates the introduction of the German cats....

New evidence was unveiled Thursday that Japan’s imperialist army directly managed Asian women for sexual slavery, dealing a fresh blow to Tokyo’s denials of responsibility. Korea University’s Centre for Korean History disclosed a diary that a Korean manager of Japanese brothels wrote while staying in Myanmar and Singapore between August 1942 and December 1944. The diary shows that the Japanese army received revenue-related reports from military brothels, examined the bodies of sex slaves and regulated the relocations of sexual entertainment facilities. “The diary shows the case in which the Japanese military with an absolute personnel management authority issued direct orders...

In Lebanon, at an altitude of approximately 1,170 meters in Beqaa valley stands the famous Baalbek or known in Roman times as Heliopolis. Baalbek is an ancient site that has been used since the Bronze Age with a history of at least 9,000 years, according to evidence found during the German archaeological expedition in 1898. Baalbek was an ancient Phoenician city that was named by the name of the sky God Baal. The name ‘Baal’ in the Phoenician language meant ‘lord’ or ‘god’. Legends abound around Baalbek with some of them mentioning that Baalbek was the place where Baal first...

George Washington retired as a lieutenant general and so was technically outranked by the four- and five-star generals of later wars. Thinking this unseemly, Congress passed a resolution in 1976 arranging that Washington be promoted posthumously to “General of the Armies of the United States” and that no officer in the U.S. Army ever be considered to outrank him: Whereas Lieutenant General George Washington of Virginia commanded our armies throughout and to the successful termination of our Revolutionary War; Whereas Lieutenant General George Washington presided over the convention that formulated our Constitution; Whereas Lieutenant General George Washington twice served as...

A Polish archaeologist at the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology has made a 3D reconstruction of a 5,500-year-old brewing installation which was found at Tell el-Farcha, an archaeological site in Egypt dating back to approximately 3700 BC when it functioned as a centre of local Lower Egyptian Culture. The virtual reconstruction has brought to life the ancient scene in which Egyptians practiced a traditional form of beer making. The reconstruction was created based on preserved structures of similar analogous buildings at both Tell el-Farcha and other brewing centres in Upper Egypt. The Tell el-Farcha brewery, the oldest ever brewery found...

Established in 1247, the notorious Bethlem (“Bedlam”) Royal Hospital was the first dedicated psychiatric institution in Europe and possibly the most famous specialist facility for care and control of the insane, so much so that the word ‘bedlam’ has long been synonymous with madness and chaos. Now, in a spectacular discovery, archaeologists have uncovered the asylum’s ancient graveyard right in the heart of London, revealing as many as 20,000 skeletons. The 500-year-old graveyard was found during excavations to create a 13-mile high speed tunnel under Central London. Modern-day residents and visitors going about their busy daily lives have been oblivious...

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WASHINGTON - A nearly 2,600-year-old clay cylinder described as the world's first human rights declaration is being shown for the first time in the United States. The Cyrus Cylinder from ancient Babylon ... The cylinder carries an account, written in cuneiform, of how Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. and would allow freedom of worship and abolish forced labour. The account also confirms a story from the Bible's Old Testament, describing how Cyrus released people held captive to go back to their homes, including the Jews' return to Jerusalem to build the Temple.

Michael A. Gonzales reflects on P-Funk, the Ohio Players, Earth Wind & Fire, etc. and wonders where the funk have all the funk groups gone?Reading Love, Peace, and Soul, author Erika Blount Danois’ excellent upcoming book on the groundbreaking Soul Train, I began thinking about 1970s music and the many yesteryear funk bands that once populated the Black pop charts. Built on the foundation of gospel, jazz, soul and rock, funk was the energetic little brother who was more ambitious and had no problem being the wild child in the canon of pop. While the often costumed electric bass strummers,...

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is growing and security experts believe it now poses the greatest danger to the West. Based in Yemen, the terrorist group is believed to number about 1,000 members, up from an estimated 200 a few years ago. It is led by Nasir al-Wuhayshi, a former aide to al-Qaeda’s late founder Osama bin Laden. AQAP has claimed responsibility for several attacks, including an attempt to blow up a U.S. commercial airliner on Christmas Day in 2009. The group is also at the heart of the latest security alert that saw the U.S. close embassies and...

ALEXANDER ROSE: Thankfully, this isn’t a chicken-and-egg question, so the answer is a simple one: Washington’s spies, otherwise known as the Culper Ring. There were five primary members. First in seniority was Benjamin Tallmadge, a dragoons officer who acted as the Ring’s manager in American-held Connecticut and made sure their intelligence was passed on to Washington back at headquarters. The agent who sailed back and forth across Long Island Sound (I prefer the more colorful contemporary description of it, “the Devil’s Belt”), tussling with freebooters and dodging patrol-boats, was Caleb Brewster, a former whaleboatman who really, really liked fighting. Brewster’s...

Welcome to the HMV store in mid 20th century London! Why not take a turn in one of the space age listening booths…Meet some other cool cats in this music library / lounge …And you might as well record your own debut album since you’re here…… Hand-packaged in beautiful vinyl sleeves; music we could actually touch, hold and hug....PHOTOS

Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.That was a conclusion of the 1946 U.S. Bombing Survey ordered by President Harry Truman in the wake of World War II.Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said in 1963, “the Japanese were...

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http://www.amazon.com/The-Lives-Others-Martina-Gedeck/dp/B000OVLBGC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376090994&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lives+of+others

Excerpt (source - email) OBITUARY? In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy...

Researchers may have found the "Mona Lisa" model's skeleton. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons) Scientists are on a mission to find the model for the "Mona Lisa," they plan to dig up centuries-old graves and digitally reconstruct the face of a choice skeleton. Experts believe the model for the famous "Mona Lisa" painting was Leonardo da Vinci's neighbor, Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo, ANSA reported. Several skeletons found in a Florence convent last year could be the remains of the model. Experts plan to identify the most likely candidate and compare the DNA with a body believed to be her son. "Right...

The Bally Bomber has been one man's undertaking for over a decade now. You may have seen or heard about this project. This is the only 1/3 scale B-17. Please enjoy this site and share it with your friends. Special note on a question that comes up. THIS IS NOT A R/C AIRCRAFT

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Heartbreakingly, the headlines and hashtags of the world over the past few days have been devoted to the royal family’s newest branch on the sordid family tree. This instead of the sickening fact that monarchy still exists in the twenty-first century. It is a tragedy that the idea of monarchy was not banished to out of print dictionaries centuries ago, to serve only as a musty reminder of a barbaric and puerile step in the history of humankind. While I harbor no resentment for the young George Alexander Louis, I find it impossible to muster up even a scrap of...

Needless to say, it was in America, with its love of labour-saving devices, that tea bags were first developed. In around 1908, Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags. Some assumed that these were supposed to be used in the same way as the metal infusers, by putting the entire bag into the pot, rather than emptying out the contents. It was thus by accident that the tea bag was born! Responding to the comments from his customers that the mesh on the silk was too fine,...

The following photos were taken from 1914-1918 by my great-grandfather Lt. Walter Koessler during his time as a German officer in the first World War. They're part of a collection of over a thousand photos, stereographs and their negatives that my family has been saving for a century. This is an unusually large and complete collection, and I've taken on the task of preserving it and printing it so other people can experience this history too. These photos have never been published before.

The two most ardent boosters of the Normandy invasion were Stalin and Harry Hopkins ... Churchill famously urged that the advance on Germany continue from already-won bases in Italy and elsewhere in south-central Europe. Stalin’s demand for the big U.S.-British push in northern France, however, prevailed. According to the tally of one peeved letter to the editor in the New York Times, this would put the Allies on track to open their ninth front. Of course, in order to gather sufficient forces for the June 1944 D-Day invasion, men and equipment, particularly landing craft, had to be withdrawn from the...

Two fossils have got palaeontologists scratching their heads about where to place an enigmatic group of animals in the mammalian family tree. A team analysing one fossil suggests that the group belongs in mammals, but researchers looking at the other propose that its evolutionary clan actually predates true mammals. The situation begs for more analysis, more fossils, or both, experts say. The fossils represent previously unknown species, described today in Nature1, 2. Both are members of the haramiyids, a group of animals that first appeared around 212 million years ago and that researchers first recognized in the late 1840s. Until...

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Bass Reeves's talent for rounding up outlaws in America's Old West made him the stuff of legend. But did this former slave-turned-lawman also inspire Johnny Depp's new film? Alex Hannaford goes on the trail of the real Lone Ranger.Art Burton listened intently as the old man on the other end of the phone cleared his throat and began telling him a story. Burton had only been researching the life of Bass Reeves for a short while but that afternoon what Reverend Haskell James Shoeboot, the 98-year-old part-Cherokee Indian, was about to tell him would persuade Burton he’d stumbled upon one...

A reporter asked me, "Would you prefer that students know information, or how to find information?" Clearly she thought that knowing where to find information was best. Actually knowing facts was, in her mind, not important. That was the old way, the medieval approach, when children were whipped to make them memorize the state capitals and other such irrelevant stuff. Thank goodness, she clearly believed, we have moved on to more civilized ways. Children no longer know anything. All they know is that they must go somewhere to find what they want to know. But why would the reporter believe...

A team from the University of Birmingham recently announced an astronomical discovery in Scotland marking the beginnings of recorded time. Announced last month in the Journal of Internet Archaeology, the Mesolithic monument consists of a series of pits near Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Estimated to date from 8,000 B.C., this 10,000 year old structure would pre-date calendars discovered in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East by over 5,000 years.

Tests performed on three mummies found in the Argentinian mountains have shed new light on the Inca practice of child sacrifice. An analysis of the mummies, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that alcohol and drugs played a large role in the weeks and months leading up to the sacrifice of these children. Before Incan high priests embarked on the pilgrimage to take the victims to the top of mountains, the children were given diets high in animal protein and maize–a diet made for the elite. Along the demanding journey, coca leaves, the plant from...

The issue of Obama leaving office, according to the laws of the land, the US Constitution on Inaugural Day 2017, is one that reverberates throughout every aspect, dimension of my existence, one that is constantly on my mind, in the manner in which the loathsomeness I have towards him, what he has done, is doing to America, knows no bounds. How someone of his unbridled hatred for America, his incredibly questionable, dubious background, the sinister, malevolent character as depraved sociopath has managed to ascend to the pedestal of absolute power, to be at he very helm of America's manifest destiny...

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Sliven. Archaeologists discovered a rich Thracian grave from the 1st century AD in a mound in the municipality Sliven in south-eastern Bulgaria. The findings provide evidence for the preservation of burial rites and a strong Thracian aristocracy in the Roman era. The main finding is a 15 cm long bronze amphora, with two uniquely decorated handles. Another valuable discovery is a bronze skillet-shaped patera. One of its side handles ends with a lion's head, while the other ends with an animal combining features of the lion and the goat. Both items served ritual purposes. The archeologists also unearthed a bronze...

During excavations carried out by the Bodrum Underwater Archaeology Museum in the Aegean town of Bodrum’s Ortakent district, graves from the Mycenaean era have been unearthed. According to a written statement issued by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, pieces unearthed in the graves are very important for the scientific world. Among the pieces are baked earth, water bottles, cups with three handles, a carafe, a razor, animal bones and lots of glass and beads of various sizes. Examinations on nearly 3,500-year-old artifacts show that the graves date back to the Mycenaean III era around 600 B.C. to 1,000 B.C years...

We were invited to Israel to visit the IWI factory just outside of Tel Aviv. Obviously this was a one of a kind opportunity for both MAC and for the YouTube firearms community. We not only toured the home of the Tavor but also the Negev 5.56 and 7.62x51, the Jericho 941, Uzi, Galil ACE and the X95. After the factory tour we headed to the range and fired all of the weapons mentioned, which really was the highlight of the whole trip. It's one thing to see these amazing firearms, but getting to fire them? Out of this world!...

Rush is off. Medved stinks. Check out freeper LoudMime now at http://latalkradio.com/

WeChooseTheMoon.org was designed to celebrate the Fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing by developing an interactive recreation of the event. The site uses Flash to mesh archival video, audio, & photos into an experience that will make you feel as if you too had walked on the moon that day.

Last week, a study appeared in PLoS ONE, the peer-reviewed journal published by the Public Library of Science, that drew attention in Israel but made barely a ripple here: That men who’d survived the Holocaust lived longer — significantly longer — than their peers who'd never been under Nazi oppression. What made the study especially intriguing was its large scale and conscientious design: The authors looked at over 55,000 Polish immigrants, roughly three quarters of whom came to Israel between 1945 and 1950 (directly after the Holocaust, in other words), and about one quarter of whom had come to Israel...

August 6, 2013 marks the 68th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb, and August 9th the last. Japan did not surrender for five days after Nagasaki was bombed, during which time the Soviet Union declared war and the Americans conducted additional, conventional firebombing raids on a Japanese city. Emperor Hirohito was asked to break a deadlock in the imperial cabinet that had blocked an unconditional surrender up to that point. To this day, Harry Truman is viewed by ardent critics as a war criminal and the United States is deemed as being stained by a sin as...