The 'law for the prevention of genetic ill procreation' and compulsory sterilisation in Nazi Germany: the law still exists

The forgotten victims of the Nazi programme of sterilisation of ‘genetically ill’ people
The ‘law for the prevention of genetic ill procreation’ was introduced by the Nazi regime in 1934. It is estimated about 400,000 people suffered compulsory sterilisation. But the exact figures are difficult to ascertain because many did not survive the ordeal. Although the German Parliament suspended the law in 2007, it did not eliminate it.
Anna Catherin Loll provides a vivid and harrowing account in The Times.

Darwinism doubted and British creationists
Darwinism is often associated with atheism in the US and Britain. But a conference last week in Alexandria, Egypt, revealed that anti-evolution views are also widespread in the Muslim world. Reuters reports.
For the first time, the think tank Thesos has carried out a scientific study on British creationist reasoning. Andrew Brown comments on the results of the survey in The Guardian.

Captain Scott tweets
As of today, 99 years on from the date of the original entry on November 26th 1910, the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute will blog and tweet the daily journal entries made by Captain Scott during his final expedition. The diary charts his Terra Nova expedition from November 1910 when the expedition left New Zealand, through the scientific missions of 1911 and the journey to the South Pole, until the very final entry probably written on March 29th, 1912.

19th-century vows of love
Following the introduction of Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753, which required that anyone under the age of 21 had to have the consent of guardians or parents to get married, many young couples fled to Scotland where the minimum age had remained 16. Gretna Green was the first stopping point across the border on the London to Edinburgh stagecoach route.
The website ancestry.co.uk has recently made the Gretna Green marriage registers from 1795-1895 available online, as part of its Ancestry World Archives Project.

Restoration of a 2,500-year-old Greek theatre under the Acropolis
The Theatre of Dionysus is due to undergo a six-year restoration program. The Guardian reports on the plans recently announced by Greek officials.

The magician who worked for the CIA during the Cold War
John Mulholland was employed by the CIA to write a report on the arts of concealment and secret communication during the Cold War. The only known surviving copy of his work has recently been turned into a book entitled The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception and published earlier this month by William Morrow & Company.
Alex Spillius reports in The Telegraph.