Bits of News site syndication http://www.bitsofnews.com Thu, 23 May 2013 21:42:00 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.bitsofnews.com/img/logo.png http://www.bitsofnews.com Bits of News site syndication http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/8711/ The Soviet dissident writer and Nobel literature prize winner has died following a long illness Culture - Culture Literature Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:43:43 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/8108/ We aren't fighting rebels, nationalists, or patriots in Iraq. We are fighting criminals and bandits in Iraq. "Bandit" is a very interesting term. It implies that we aren't actually fighting a war against a legitimate military foe, but are instead just hunting a group of outlaws. Culture - Culture History Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:55:07 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/8039/ It is the morning of April 16, 2007, and I am in my final year of college. I live in Blacksburg, Va., but I attend Radford University. Today a lone student gunman will shoot and kill 27 students and five teachers before he takes his life. Culture - Culture History Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:48:12 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7969/ The U.S. media, military, and politicians refer to the people we are fighting as "Criminal gangs", "Thugs", "Bandits", and "Outlaws". But never "rebels", "nationalists", or "patriots". This is an old story that played out in much the same way 80 years ago, when America invaded Nicaragua because its government owed American bankers money. Culture - Culture History Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:18:05 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7954/ The fifth chapter of the History of Persia - Persia and the Great Game – where the lesson is learned, not for the last time, that failing to accurately assess an enemy's capabilities frequently plays a major role in victories and defeats in Southwest Asia. Marcus Licinius Crassus didn't appreciate that fact, nor did Hulagu Khan centuries later. Culture - Culture History Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:43:04 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7910/ 360 years ago today a fleet of Spanish warships sailed into the harbor in Naples, Italy, and ended the first real experiment in popular democracy in the western world since dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla marched his armies into Rome seventeen centuries earlier. Culture - Culture History Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:15:14 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7903/ Martin Luther King Jr.: January 19, 1929 – April 4, 1968 When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted the Declaration of Independence 45 ˝ years ago, he did so in a way few people understand. Culture - Culture History Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:39:42 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7813/ A new paper from the journal Time and Mind suggests that Moses and various other Jewish prophets were taking a mixture of plants which produced a halucogenic effect. Is Benny Shanon right or do you have to be on drugs to beleive that Moses was a junkie? Culture - Culture History Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:54:27 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7786/ The idea of celibacy is an old one. But for many centuries, bishops and priests were married, with families. Bishops had worldly power...and a lot of money too. Often, they left their posts to their sons. Culture - Culture Ideas Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:08:23 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7785/ The person winning the White House this year will be the one sitting there, either as a lame duck or a president-re-elect, on December 21st, 2012. This has special significance, since a great many prophecies seem to converge on that particular day – it's been slated to be the End of the World by seers from Ancient Mexico to Renaissance France. Culture - Culture History Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:19:32 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7722/ English naval legend Francis Drake's greatest adventure was his circumnavigation of the globe in his ship the Golden Hind. Drake claimed to have set foot on North America in 1579 during his voyage. He supposedly established an English foothold (Nova Albion) on the Pacific Coast. There was never any publicly verifiable proof that he had done so. Culture - Culture History Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:16:22 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7717/ Science Fiction Legend Arthur C. Clarke has died at a hospital near his home in Sri Lanka early Wednesday. Culture - Culture Literature Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:14:16 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7712/ The fourth chapter of the History of Persia - Medieval Persia – a whirlwind tour of nearly 1000 years of Iranian history, from the Abbasids to the Safavids, by way of the Ziyarids. Culture - Culture History Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:08:12 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7673/ The third chapter of R. Scott Peoples' history of Persia - Islam Comes to Persia – where the religion of ancient Persia is displaced by the rising force of Islam. Culture - Culture History Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:18:04 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7653/ In the second century Regilla a Roman woman was murdered- what happened and what does it tell us about the ancient world? Culture - Culture History Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:28:35 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7615/ An investigation of the historiography of ancient slavery provokes new questions- like whether we can ever discover historical truth and whether history is always bound to be a propagandistic lie. Culture - Culture History Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:01:53 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7610/ The second chapter of R. Scott Peoples' history of Persia - Persia in the Classical Age – and find out that Iran's willingness (and ability) to go toe-to-toe with the West's greatest superpowers is not something that first emerged in the Era of Petroleum. Culture - Culture History Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:31:48 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7604/ In the light of recent research work by Chris Wickham of Oxford University, we examine how taxation worked in early medieval Europe Culture - Culture History Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:14:16 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7388/ The first part of R. Scott Peoples' history of Persia, land of the Aryans, whose ancient past included every major historical figure in the Middle Eastern world, from Alexander to Zoroaster. Culture - Culture History Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:30:20 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7336/ The first reported food riot of the Great Depression happened January 3, 1931, in England, Arkansas. There was no violence that day, so calling it a riot may not have been the best description. However, it remains significant for one reason - it was the first, and last, food riot that the national media reported. Culture - Culture History Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:06:46 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7266/ It's a very old tradition that repeats over and over again throughout history, where the bravest and most patriotic of the working class get screwed first. It is particularly likely to occur when a republic begins to drift towards empire. Culture - Culture History Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:15:05 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7260/ Medieval Europe was a rough place. The ruling aristocracy didn’t get its position at the top of the heap by virtue of its social graces. It got there by fighting… killing… and conquering. Culture - Culture Ideas Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:42:24 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/7172/ In a national radio interview yesterday, Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, said that Britain must face the inevitability of having to adopt certain aspects of Sharia law into its legal code. In the following hours, Britain begged to differ. Culture - Culture Ideas Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:19:54 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6796/ The story of how the mafia and infamous capo Lucky Luciano aided the World War II Allied invasion of Sicily, and how the Allies in turn revived the criminal organisation. Culture - Culture History Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:46:09 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6764/ It's a fact that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were on the CIA payroll. Yet it's still strongly denied in some circles - not because there is any contrary evidence, but because the idea that we supported such horrible people is too repulsive to acknowledge. The real problem is that they aren't even the worst dirt-bags that we've created. Culture - Culture History Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:51:40 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6640/ Every successful popular movement has its legendary, or near legendary, characters. People, or groups, who seemed bigger than life, and in the end must be sacrificed to the cause. The civil rights movement had Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The American Revolution had Nathan Hale. Culture - Culture History Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:10:05 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6638/ When most people think of labor unrest in America they think of the 1930's, or the various major strikes of the 19th Century. The fact is that no year, before or since, saw so many strikes, and such a large percentage of people on strike, or so many industries effected by strikes, as 1946. Culture - Culture History Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:44:26 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6632/ We reexamine the Children's Crusade in the light of recent research from the University of Edinburgh's Gary Dickson. Culture - Culture History Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:56:23 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6616/ The "heretic pharaoh" Amenhotep IV, who called himself "Akhenaton" and whom history sometimes terms the world's "first individual", thought he knew better than his people; thought he could, through sheer force of will, change a public mindset centuries in the making. His people did their best to erase him from history. Culture - Culture History Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:37:46 +0100 http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6542/ Candidates for public office offer solutions and ameliorations for just about everything else, from the price of gasoline to the weather. But no candidate offers to put even a dollar into a program to make women more like men…which, in the male mind, is to make them better. Culture - Culture Ideas Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:39:51 +0100