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"I just finished reading a new book on the history of Area 51 - the super secret American military base located in Nevada. The book is titled "Area 51 - An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base" by Annie Jacobsen. Ms. Jacobsen manages to uncover never before released facts about the little understood, secret goings on at Area 51. There are enough secret projects talked about in the book to do five or six lists. It's amazing what scientists, engineers, the military, and intelligence agencies will do when they have unlimited budgets, little to no accountability, and everything they do is kept top secret. And remember, these are the projects we know of (or think we know of). Imagine what goes on at Area 51 that we do not know, and probably never will know. "

"10 Fascinating Sealed and Secret Documents"

A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan's grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican's Secret Archives that has been published for the first time.

"O cineasta americano Oliver Stone disse, neste domingo, que o líder nazista Adolf Hitler foi um "bode expiatório fácil" ao longo da História. As declarações de Stone foram feitas durante uma entrevista coletiva da Associação de Críticos de Televisão, em Pasadena, na Califórnia, onde foi exibido o trailer de sua mais nova obra: a minissérie The Secret History of America ("A História Secreta da América", em tradução livre), que deve estrear nos Estados Unidos ainda neste ano. Segundo ele, a minissérie vai mostrar como as corporações americanas se envolveram no financiamento do partido nazista alemão. "Não podemos julgar as pessoas apenas como 'más' ou 'boas'. (Hitler) é o produto de uma série de ações. É uma relação de causa e efeito. Muitos americanos não entendem a conexão entre a Primeira e a Segunda Guerras Mundiais", disse Stone. Stalin O cineasta, autor de filmes polêmicos como Wall Street - Poder e Cobiça (sobre o mundo dos investidores financeiros), JFK (sobre o ex-presidente John Kennedy) e W (sobre o ex-líder americano George W. Bush), também fez comentários sobre outra figuras controversas da época da Segunda Guerra Mundial e que estão retratadas em sua minissérie, como o então presidente soviético Josef Stálin. "Não quero pintá-lo como herói, mas tento fazer uma representação mais factual dele. Ele lutou contra a máquina alemã mais do que qualquer outra pessoa", afirmou. Stone, que é ganhador de três Oscars (como diretor pelos filmes Nascido em 4 de Julho e Platoon, e como roteirista por O Expresso da Meia-Noite), disse esperar uma reação negativa a sua minissérie por parte dos políticos e das figuras mais conservadoras dos Estados Unidos. The Secret History of America deve estrear no canal a cabo americano Showtime ainda neste ano. "

"With the help of enhanced imagery and an expert in Elizabethan script, archaeologists are beginning to unravel the meaning of mysterious text and images etched into a rare 400-year-old slate tablet discovered this past summer at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. Digitally enhanced images of the slate are helping to isolate inscriptions and illuminate fine details on the slate-the first with extensive inscriptions discovered at any early American colonial site, said William Kelso, director of research and interpretation at the 17th-century Historic Jamestowne site (Jamestown map). (Explore an interactive guide to colonial Jamestown.) The enhancements have helped researchers identify a 16th-century writing style used on the slate and discern new symbols, researchers announced last week. The characters may be from an obscure Algonquian Indian alphabet created by an English scientist to help explorers pronounce the language spoken by the Virginia Indians. "Just like finding the Rosetta Stone led to a better understanding of the Egyptians, this tablet is beginning to add significantly to our understanding of the earliest years at Jamestown," Kelso said. It conveys messages about literacy, art, symbols and signs personally communicated by the colonists who used it, he explained. "What other single artifact has been found that has so much to tell?" Both sides of the scratched and worn 5-by-8 inch (13-by-20 centimeter) tablet are covered with words, symbols, numbers, and drawings of people, plants, and birds that its owner or other users likely encountered in the New World. There are differences in the style of handwriting, which may mean that more than one person used the tablet as a sketch pad and possibly for writing rough drafts of documents, Kelso noted. Enhanced Images To help researchers decipher the inscriptions, curators at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Conservation Institute recently produced enhanced images

"In a film-making career spanning almost 40 years, Oliver Stone has turned political controversy in America into an art form. He has upset financiers with his caustic portrayal of Wall Street; conservatives with his depiction of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and George Bush; and Democrats with his conspiracy theories about the assassination of John F Kennedy. All of which may come to look like a tea party - of the social as opposed to right-wing protest variety - when his next big venture hits the screens. Stone announced yesterday that a 10-hour crash course in the history of the 20th century he is putting together for American TV is designed as an antidote to the inaccuracies and biases he believes exist in the conventional historical narrative dished out in American schools and mainstream media. The title alone gives an inkling of what lies ahead: Oliver Stone's Secret History of America. The thrice-Oscar winning director gave a further glimpse into his thinking at a gathering of TV critics in Pasadena on Saturday, when he didn't so much open up a can of worms as unleash an entire supermarket shelf-load. He began by startling the panel by bringing up the H word. "Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply," he said. Then he mentioned the S word. "Stalin has a complete other story. Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any person." Then he went on to mention two M words - Chairman Mao and Joseph McCarthy, architect of the 1950s anti-communist purges in Washington, and the T word - Harry Truman's dropping of the atom bomb in 1945."

"Live pigs are being blown up as part of a series of government terrorism experiments at Porton Down, the government's secret military research laboratory. "

"In recent history there have been some amazing secret military and intelligence operations undertaken. This list looks at 10 of the most interesting or important. Be sure to use the comments to mention others that may not be included here."