This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 14, 2010
In a Channel 4 documentary exploring his faith, the Sinn Fein president praised the moral example shown by Christ and the families of IRA victims who have forgiven their killers.
But he said his own actions were sometimes not “in tune” with Jesus as he was “leader of a struggle that has caused both hurt and damage to other human beings.”
The 61-year-old Belfast-born Catholic has always denied having been a member of the Provisional IRA.
But the documentary
Source: NYT Magazine
February 11, 2010
[Russell Shorto is a contributing writer for the magazine. His most recent book is ‘‘Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason.’’]
...This year’s social-studies review has drawn the most attention for the battles over what names should be included in the roll call of history. But while ignoring Kennedy and upgrading Gingrich are significant moves, something more fundamental is on the agenda. The one thing that underlies the entire program of the n
Source: Science Daily
February 11, 2010
Researchers at Queen's University have helped produce a new archaeological tool which could answer key questions in human evolution.
The new calibration curve, which extends back 50,000 years, is a major landmark in radiocarbon dating -- the method used by archaeologists and geoscientists to establish the age of carbon-based materials.
It could help research issues including the effect of climate change on human adaption and migrations.
The curve called INT
Source: National Geographic News
February 11, 2010
Stonehenge may have been surrounded by a "Stonehedge" that blocked onlookers from seeing secret rituals, according to a new study.
Evidence for two encircling hedges—possibly thorn bushes—planted some 3,600 years ago was uncovered during a survey of the site by English Heritage, the government agency responsible for maintaining the monument in southern England.
The idea that Stonehedge was a shield against prying eyes isn’t yet firmly rooted, but it's archaeol
Source: NYT
February 12, 2010
Think “Lincoln” and “New York” and the juxtaposition would most likely conjure up the tunnel or the performing arts center. Until this year, it also would have evoked the majestic Lincoln Building at 60 East 42nd Street. No longer.
With barely a nod to the former president, the owners of the 53-story tower, which opened 80 years ago, changed the name to One Grand Central Place, removed the bronze plaques on which the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural were immortalized and
Source: NYT
February 12, 2010
With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities....
...[P]residents have logged significant accomplishments through the stroke of a pen. In 1996, on his own authority, Mr. Clinton turned a 2,600-square-mile section of southern Utah into the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, in what was called at the
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
February 11, 2010
A prominent 17th-century nobleman, Greville was a renowned scholar, soldier, statesman and spy.
Like his dearest friend Sir Philip Sidney, he was also an accomplished author.
So talented, indeed, that some believe he was the true author of several of Shakespeare's works. For years this has been little more than conjecture; fuel for the lively and often hostile debate between Anti-Stratfordians - those who deny that an ill- educat
Source: BBC
February 13, 2010
An archaeologist is being sought for a post on the remote archipelago of St Kilda.
The National Trust for Scotland, which owns the islands, said it was a rare opportunity to work at a Unesco World Heritage site.
The post-holder will be based in Inverness and on St Kilda.
St Kilda was dubbed Britain's Lost World by a BBC One TV special in 2008. The islands lie about 41 miles (66km) off the Western Isles.
Source: BBC
February 12, 2010
65 years after the end of the Second World Ward, RAF Bomber Command has yet to be given an official public memorial. A legacy, some say, of the controversial area bombing which left German cities in ruins and thousands of their citizens dead.
Sixty five years ago this weekend, RAF Bomber Command carried out one of the most devastating air raids of World War Two.
In two separate attacks, more than 800 bombers dropped more than a thousand tons of incendiary bombs and nea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 12, 2010
America's fabled Kennedy dynasty is set to come to an end after the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy said he would not run for re-election to Congress in November.
His decision means that Washington will soon to be left without a member of the Kennedy clan holding political office for the first time since 1947.
Representative Patrick Kennedy, 42, of Rhode Island, who has battled with drugs and alcohol abuse, is to announce on Sunday that his life is "taking
Source: NYT
February 12, 2010
When Eddie Robinson was growing up here in Louisiana’s capital city about 80 years ago, he discovered the only way a black person infatuated with football could attend a game at the state university: He showed up at 5 a.m. on Saturdays to clean the stadium.
To take his first job as a football coach, in 1941, Mr. Robinson had to travel several hundred miles north, to a segregated teachers’ college in an unincorporated hamlet called Grambling. Mail arrived by train, and students helpe
Source: CNN
February 12, 2010
More than a year after President George W. Bush left office, more Americans continue to blame his administration over any other entity for the nation's economic woes, according to a new poll.
In a New York Times/CBS News survey out Friday, 31 percent of Americans said the Bush administration is at fault for the current state of the economy while only 7 percent pointed their finger at President Obama and his team.
An additional 23 percent said the fault lies with Wall St
Source: FOX News
February 13, 2010
Thousands of protesters formed a human chain in Dresden on Saturday, determined to stop neo-Nazis from exploiting the German city's painful history on the 65th anniversary of its deadly Allied bombing in World War II.
Heavy security including riot police was in place to prevent clashes between the two groups, and five police helicopters flew overhead to monitor the crowds.
Neo-Nazis have caused outrage in the past by comparing the 1945 bombing of Dresden to the Holocaus
Source: CNN
February 13, 2010
One of America's top World War II fighter pilots, an African-American who took on Nazis abroad and racism at home, was laid to rest Friday at Arlington National Cemetery.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Lee A. Archer, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, died last month in New York at the age of 90. Archer, who once shot down three German fighters in the span of only a few minutes, went on to become a corporate executive and venture capitalist.
Archer remained in the military t
Source: CNN
February 13, 2010
More than 30 letters and cards written by the late Princess Diana were up for auction Saturday in London, revealing personal details such as how she liked to open presents early and that she had trouble coping with media attention.
Most of the correspondence was to Diana's personal beautician, Janet Filderman, but the auction also includes notes to her chauffeur, Steve Davies, and Christmas cards with family portraits sent while she was still married to Prince Charles.
Source: Times (UK)
February 13, 2010
MI6 obtained vital secrets from a spy operating at the very heart of Hitler’s high command during the most crucial years of the war, newly discovered intelligence documents have revealed.
The secret agent, code-named “Knopf”, furnished the intelligence service with information on Hitler’s plans in the Mediterranean and on the Eastern Front, the health of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and even the location of the “Wolf’s Lair” — the Führer’s headquarters in Eastern Prussia.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 12, 2010
For centuries it had been thought that Baroness Laura Lanza was murdered by her father, Cesare, in an "honour killing" for which he was later pardoned.
But the hilltop town of Carini in Sicily believes that Cesare Lanza may have acted in league with the baroness's husband, Don Vincenzo La Grua, who wanted to remarry.
Her husband also feared that her lover might have tried to claim a part of his estate had she had children from her illicit affair.
Source: ETN
February 10, 2010
Saudi Arabia has announced the discovery of a 7th century village, which has been unearthed in the Raaka district, Dammam, near the shores of the Arabian Gulf. The site contains a compound village, which contains more than 20 houses, containing rooms and accommodation units, in which coins, fractures of pottery, limestone (steatite), and glass pieces dating back to the 1st and 2nd centuries AH (7th & 8th century AD) were found.
This valuable finding was a residential settlement
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 12, 2010
The Jewish psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud might have had a painting by Hitler hanging on the wall of his office, it's been revealed.
A watercolour by the German dictator has come to light that has an inscription on the back that bears the name of Freud's medical practice in Vienna.
While Freud was based in the Austrian city in 1910 it is possible he or one of his staff bought the picture from the struggling artist.
Hitler was a jobbing painter at the time, knocking
Source: Culture 24
February 11, 2010
Exhibition: Ministry of Food, Imperial War Museum, London until January 2011
As cash-strapped Britons look to the past for cheaper options in these financially troubled times, the Imperial War Museum in London is rolling back the years to remind us how we did it during World War Two.
But despite its contemporary resonance, Ministry of Food explores what now seems like another world. In 1940 the government ministry, under the auspices of Lord Woolton, set about the mammo
