So we have a new theory on how there could have been more than one gunman.

In a collision of 21st-century science and decades-old conspiracy theories, a research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot the two bullets that struck and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The "evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed," concludes a new article in the Annals of Applied Statistics written by former FBI lab metallurgist William A. Tobin and Texas A&M University researchers Cliff Spiegelman and William D. James.

The researchers' re-analysis involved new statistical calculations and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch Oswald is purported to have used. They reached no conclusion about whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the five bullet fragments left from the assassination in Dallas.

The only problem is that the accoustic evidence does rule out more than one shooter -- and computer modeling shows that the Warren Report got its conclusions fundamentally right. I'm waiting to see how this particular piece of research is shown to be flawed, as all the other scientific evidence is against it.

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The actual site of the first successful English colony in North America was lost for centuries -- but 13 years ago was rediscovered.

Much that is new and exciting in the story of Jamestown is the result of discoveries made in the past 13 years by a white-haired 66-year-old archeologist named William M. Kelso, who found something here no other archaeologist had been able to find in a century of looking:

The long-lost site of Jamestown's fort.

Kelso's findings, unfolding quietly over more than a decade, take Jamestown's story back to its beginning, experts say, and rank among the greatest in North American archeology in the past 50 years.

"It's a big deal," said Carter L. Hudgins, chairman of the department of history and American studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. "It's something you thought you'd never be able to look at. . . . We can now begin with the letter A. We don't have to begin with the letter D."

Kelso himself seems astonished. Last week he hosted the queen of England and Vice President Cheney. This week, the president. He chuckles: "This is the whole ball of wax, man."

The rest of the story is fascinating -- as are the discoveries that have been made in the last 13 years, bringing to light the lost history of the founding colonists.

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More neat stuff from the world of archaeology.

An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Hebrew University said late Monday.

The tomb is at a site called Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert, clearly visible from southern Jerusalem. Herod built a palace on the hill, and researchers discovered his burial site there, the university said.

The university had hoped to keep the find a secret until Tuesday, when it planned a news conference to disclose the find in detail, but the Haaretz newspaper found out about the discovery and published an article on its Web site.

Now this is an important discovery in terms of further confirming the historical claim of the Jews to Israel, as well as documenting the well-attested history of the Roman era.

I would, however, like to note the glaring historical error in the article.

Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 74 B.C.

Looks to me like someone just went to Wikipedia and read the first, awkwardly phrased sentence, presuming that the year of his birth was the year he became king. Herod becomes governor of Judea in 47 BC, and king in 37 BC.

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Let's not forget the true face of the Democratic Party throughout its existence -- as demonstrated by this upstanding state and national leader of the Democratic Party.

On this day in 1963, police in Birmingham, Alabama -- under the command of the Democrat sheriff, Eugene "Bull" Connor -- attacked several thousand African-American schoolchildren who were demonstrating peacefully for their civil rights. Connor's men used high-pressure hoses, clubs and police dogs in their assault, and then jailed nearly a thousand children.

At the time, it should be noted, Connor was the Democratic National Committeeman for Alabama. A member of the Ku Klux Klan, Connor had been a Democrat state legislator and a delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention. A year after attacking the African-American children, Connor was elected, as a Democrat, president of the state Public Service Commission.

I wonder -- did Robert Byrd wear his dress sheets to the Senate today to celebrate the heritage of his party?

Thanks to Michael Zak for highlighting this important day in American history, and giving Democratic Party barbarism the attention it deserves.

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Now this is an interesting discovery.

Scientists believe they have for the first time identified an ancient graveyard for gladiators.

Analysis of their bones and injuries has given new insight into how they lived, fought and died.

The remains were found at Ephesus in Turkey, a major city of the Roman world, BBC Timewatch reports.

Gladiators were the sporting heroes of the ancient world. Archaeological records show them celebrated in everything from mosaics to graffiti.

Motifs of gladiators are found on nearly a third of all oil lamps from Roman archaeological digs throughout the Empire.

But how much did they risk every time they stepped into the arena? Did they have much chance of getting out alive?

The discovery of what is claimed to be the first scientifically authenticated gladiator graveyard has given researchers the opportunity to find out.

The information gleaned so far shows that most gladiators died of injuries sustained in the arena, usually by the time they were in their thirties. Wounds were consistent with those that would be expected from the weapons depicted in Roman artwork, but there was also evidence of gladiators receiving medical care, as indicated by healed injuries.

There is a BBC documentary on this, and I can’t wait for it to be shown in the US. Anyone now when it will be picked up by one of the cable channels.

Posted by: Greg at 11:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now this is an interesting discovery.

Scientists believe they have for the first time identified an ancient graveyard for gladiators.

Analysis of their bones and injuries has given new insight into how they lived, fought and died.

The remains were found at Ephesus in Turkey, a major city of the Roman world, BBC Timewatch reports.

Gladiators were the sporting heroes of the ancient world. Archaeological records show them celebrated in everything from mosaics to graffiti.

Motifs of gladiators are found on nearly a third of all oil lamps from Roman archaeological digs throughout the Empire.

But how much did they risk every time they stepped into the arena? Did they have much chance of getting out alive?

The discovery of what is claimed to be the first scientifically authenticated gladiator graveyard has given researchers the opportunity to find out.

The information gleaned so far shows that most gladiators died of injuries sustained in the arena, usually by the time they were in their thirties. Wounds were consistent with those that would be expected from the weapons depicted in Roman artwork, but there was also evidence of gladiators receiving medical care, as indicated by healed injuries.

There is a BBC documentary on this, and I canÂ’t wait for it to be shown in the US. Anyone now when it will be picked up by one of the cable channels.

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Here's a new source of insight into the greatest president of the twentieth century -- Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Ronald Reagan thought Alexander Haig was "utterly paranoid," considered former senator Lowell Weicker "a pompous, no good fathead" and was "surprised at how shy" Michael Jackson was.

Reagan also refused to talk to his son after Ron Reagan hung up on him, felt that daughter Patti had "a kind of yo yo family relationship" and was invariably "lonesome" when his wife, Nancy, was out of town.

A self-portrait of the 40th president -- determined, funny, wistful, at times clinging to his beliefs despite countervailing facts -- emerges from diaries that he faithfully kept from 1981 to 1989, his eight years in the White House. Historian Douglas Brinkley had exclusive access to the five hardback books bound in maroon leather, each page filled to the bottom with Reagan's neat handwriting. Vanity Fair magazine, in its June issue, is publishing excerpts of the book "The Reagan Diaries," edited by Brinkley and due out this month from publisher HarperCollins.

A fantastic resource for historians -- and anyone who loves America.

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