With computer data moving and changing ever more quickly, the phrase "digital preservation" is almost an oxymoron. Modern historians are figuring out how to cope in the digital "Dark Ages." It might not seem obvious, but the concept of "historical records" is a transmutable one. Take the Domesday Book, written on sheepskin back in 1086. That historical record has out-lasted government records today by a very long way; more than a 1,000 years after it was written, we can still go and see it in its original form. Yet modern digital government records from only 10 years ago can be all but unreadable, because in terms of the computing world, a decade is a very long time. Outlasting sheepskin? Decision-makers and average folks alike used to communicate by letter, leaving a paper trail for historians to follow far, far down the road. Now, with e-mails and text messages moving around the globe at lightning speed - and often being archived badly, if at all - some historians are worried that the present will be hard to read for historians of the future.
It might not seem obvious, but the concept of "historical records" is a transmutable one.
Take the Domesday Book, written on sheepskin back in 1086. That historical record has out-lasted government records today by a very long way; more than a 1,000 years after it was written, we can still go and see it in its original form.
Yet modern digital government records from only 10 years ago can be all but unreadable, because in terms of the computing world, a decade is a very long time.
Outlasting sheepskin?
Decision-makers and average folks alike used to communicate by letter, leaving a paper trail for historians to follow far, far down the road. Now, with e-mails and text messages moving around the globe at lightning speed - and often being archived badly, if at all - some historians are worried that the present will be hard to read for historians of the future.
Several German states are trying to prevent the Jehovah's Witnesses from gaining the same offical status as the main church faiths. But they're unlikely to succeed after the group, controversial because of what former members call "totalitarian methods," won a landmark court case in Berlin. Marina J. could still be alive today. Her small daughter would have had a mother and her widower wouldn't be a single father. A blood transfusion could have saved her. On July 3, 2008, Marina J.'s husband took her to the hospital in the town of Lich in the western German state of Hesse. She was 29 years old, the mother of a seven-year-old daughter and a deeply devout member of the Jehovah's Witness church. The doctors diagnosed her with a miscarriage and strong bleeding. A blood transfusion could have been saved her life, but the woman insisted she didn't want one. She was accompanied by several members of her church and she showed the doctor a living will. Two days later, Marina J. was dead.
Several German states are trying to prevent the Jehovah's Witnesses from gaining the same offical status as the main church faiths. But they're unlikely to succeed after the group, controversial because of what former members call "totalitarian methods," won a landmark court case in Berlin.
Marina J. could still be alive today. Her small daughter would have had a mother and her widower wouldn't be a single father. A blood transfusion could have saved her.
On July 3, 2008, Marina J.'s husband took her to the hospital in the town of Lich in the western German state of Hesse. She was 29 years old, the mother of a seven-year-old daughter and a deeply devout member of the Jehovah's Witness church. The doctors diagnosed her with a miscarriage and strong bleeding. A blood transfusion could have been saved her life, but the woman insisted she didn't want one. She was accompanied by several members of her church and she showed the doctor a living will. Two days later, Marina J. was dead.
Time to change the entire system. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
Thousands of stolen Italian artefacts, including ancient Etruscan treasures, medieval papal letters and even a book preface handwritten by Mussolini, have been discovered piled up in the Illinois home of an antique dealer, according to the FBI. The secret collection of John Sisto ran to some 3,500 items and was discovered by relatives after his death in 2007, squirrelled away in hundreds of boxes stacked five feet high at his home in Berwyn.Upstairs and in the attic, the walls were covered in delicate, old paintings, protected by cardboard sheets from refrigerator boxes.
The secret collection of John Sisto ran to some 3,500 items and was discovered by relatives after his death in 2007, squirrelled away in hundreds of boxes stacked five feet high at his home in Berwyn.
Upstairs and in the attic, the walls were covered in delicate, old paintings, protected by cardboard sheets from refrigerator boxes.
Christian schools are justified in continuing to exclude gay teachers under certain circumstances, this according to the highest advisory body in the Netherlands, the Council of State. In an advisory paper prepared for the cabinet and leaked to the newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, the Council argues that although schools are not allowed to discriminate, they do have a right to make specific demands of their staff under certain conditions. The case arose last month when a Christian primary school in the Dutch town of Emst suspended a teacher after he came out as being homosexual. The school board said the teacher's sexual orientation conflicts with the foundation and the mission of the school. Although private schools do exist in the Netherlands, the overwhelming majority of religious schools are state funded in the same way as non-denominational schools.
Christian schools are justified in continuing to exclude gay teachers under certain circumstances, this according to the highest advisory body in the Netherlands, the Council of State. In an advisory paper prepared for the cabinet and leaked to the newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, the Council argues that although schools are not allowed to discriminate, they do have a right to make specific demands of their staff under certain conditions. The case arose last month when a Christian primary school in the Dutch town of Emst suspended a teacher after he came out as being homosexual. The school board said the teacher's sexual orientation conflicts with the foundation and the mission of the school.
Although private schools do exist in the Netherlands, the overwhelming majority of religious schools are state funded in the same way as non-denominational schools.
The same issue came up when a Muslim school fired a teacher who decided to no longer wear a headscarf.
To be clear, there is also public, state-sponsored secular schooling in the Netherlands.
Snaking on trestles through the now fashionable lower Manhattan neighbourhood, the High Line Park combines views of the Hudson River, wild vegetation, and echoes of New York's industrial history.
The park follows a rail line dating to the 1930s and seemed fated for the wrecking ball, like other relics of the city's grittier past, after the final freight train rumbled over in 1980.
