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: Guardian (UK)
December 22, 2008
The streets of south London and a famous corner of Berkshire may hold little interest for treasure-hunters of the fedora-wearing, whip-cracking school, but they are starting to attract a new breed of archaeologists who enjoy plunging their trowels into the very recent past.
Homegrown excavators have started to chronicle modern protest structures while they are still warm, from eco-warriors' treehouses to crisp packets buried at the Greenham Common peace camp.
"The
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 21, 2008
A cookbook containing recipes created by Charles Darwin's wife has been published, offering a fascinating insight into the food that fuelled the mind of the great naturalist.
The book, which contains guides to making such Victorian favourites as broiled mushrooms and Penally Pudding, is being marketed as the perfect resource for those planning a "credit crunch Christmas".
Traditionally festive recipes include baked apple pudding, cranberry sauce and compote of
Source: BBC
December 22, 2008
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to lead tributes to the Amazon rubber-tapper Chico Mendes on the 20th anniversary of his murder.
Mr Mendes is seen as a pioneer of the environmental movement who mobilised local forest communities to stop the advance of loggers and ranchers.
He was shot dead outside his home in the state of Acre on 22 December 1988.
His legacy was the creation of a network of reserves where people can make a living fro
Source: BBC
December 22, 2008
In 1965 Japan asked the US to be ready to launch a nuclear attack on China if war broke out between the Asian rivals, documents from the time indicate.
The documents, declassified by Japan's foreign ministry, summarise talks held during a visit to Washington by Japan's then prime minister, Eisaku Sato.
Mr Sato won the Nobel peace prize in 1974 for his rejection of nuclear weapons.
Japan is committed to pacifism under the terms of its post-war constitutio
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 21, 2008
The Archbishop of Canterbury warns today that Britain must learn the
lessons of Nazi Germany in dealing with the effects of the recession.
Dr Rowan Williams risks causing a new controversy by inviting a comparison
between Gordon Brown's response to the economic downturn and the Third
Reich.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, he claims Germany in the 1930s
pursued a"principle" that worked consistently but only on the basis that"quite a lot of people that you might have thoug
Source: NYT
December 20, 2008
Mathematically speaking, Ponzi schemes are doomed. They work by bringing in new investors to pay off old ones. In pure form, there’s never any actual business activity; the money just rolls backward from ever-increasing numbers of investors to keep up the appearance of profits. This means the scheme requires an infinite supply of new suckers.
Anyone sophisticated enough to concoct a Ponzi scheme — and con experienced investors and government agents, as the New York financier Bernard
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 21, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a
telescope yesterday.
The Catholic Church condemned Galileo in the 17th century for supporting
Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun;
church teaching at the time placed Earth at the centre of the universe
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 21, 2008
About 1,000 Serbian veterans of the Kosovo war clashed Sunday with special
police who prevented them from marching to the boundary with the breakaway
region.
Source: BBC
December 21, 2008
Events get under way later in Lockerbie to mark the 20th anniversary of
the tragedy which killed 270 people.
Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the town on 21 December 1988, claiming
the lives of everyone on the plane and 11 local residents on the ground.
A number of"low key" ceremonies are taking place in the town in
accordance with the wishes of the community.
A tribute is also planned in the US at the Lockerbie memorial in the
Arlington National Cemetery in Washingto
Source: AP
December 19, 2008
LONDON –- London's mayor says he is making good on his promise to return London's iconic open-backed Routemaster bus to the British capital.
The traditional Routemaster had an open platform at the back, enabling passengers to get on and off quickly. It was phased out three years ago in favor of boxy-looking double-deckers deemed safer and more accessible.
But the Routemaster was widely loved and Mayor Boris Johnson said Friday that winning open-backed designs for its su
Source: AP
December 21, 2008
VATICAN CITY –- Pope Benedict XVI is marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope.
Benedict said Sunday he wanted to salute all who are marking the 2009 anniversary and UNESCO's World Year of Astronomy.
Speaking on the winter solstice, Benedict said understanding the laws of nature can stimulate understanding and appreciation of the Lord's works.
The Catholic Church condemned Galileo in the 17th century for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' d
Source: The New Yorker [issue of 1-5-09]
December 21, 2008
Memoirs by First Ladies are often more hotly anticipated than those by their husbands. Once the Presidential wife is liberated from the White House and has access to a skilled ghostwriter, it is hoped, she will finally have her say. The results can be broken down by genre. There is the campaign-platform memoir—Hillary Clinton’s “Living History”; the score-settling version—Nancy Reagan’s “My Turn”; and the memoir of ambitious co-Presidency—Rosalynn Carter’s “First Lady from Plains.” And then ther
Source: ABC News (Australia)
December 22, 2008
Relatives of the 270 people killed in the Lockerbie bombing have marked the 20th anniversary of the tragedy.
Pan Am Flight 103 was en route from London to New York when it was blown up by a bomb in the luggage hold over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.
Everyone on the plane, and 11 local residents on the ground, were killed...
Services and vigils are being held on both sides of the Atlantic to mark the anniversary and to remember the vic
Source: Washington Post
December 21, 2008
Vice President Cheney offered an unabashed defense of the Bush administration's claims of broad executive powers today, mocking criticism from Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and saying the president "doesn't have to check with anybody" before launching a nuclear attack.
In an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," Cheney fired back at Biden's contention that he was probably "the most dangerous vice president" in U.S. history. He al
Source: NYT
December 20, 2008
Despite the nation’s reputation as a rootless society, only about one in 10 Americans moved in the last year — roughly half the proportion that changed residences as recently as four decades ago, census data show
The monthly Current Population Survey found that fewer than 12 percent of Americans moved since 2007, a decline of nearly a full percentage point compared with the year before. In the 1950s and ’60s, the number of movers hovered near 20 percent.
The number has
Source: NYT
December 20, 2008
Ms. Kennedy, who declared last week that she would like to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the junior senator from New York, is in many ways embarking on a test of the enduring power of her politically royal name.
Interviews with about 50 New Yorkers — people from upstate and across town, people of all ages and races and political persuasions — suggest that the Kennedy brand is rich with resonance. But it also provokes resentment and puzzlement, especially among younger voters, wh
Source: NYT
December 20, 2008
Eight years after arriving in Washington vowing to spread the dream of homeownership, Mr. Bush is leaving office, as he himself said recently, “faced with the prospect of a global meltdown” with roots in the housing sector he so ardently championed.
There are plenty of culprits, like lenders who peddled easy credit, consumers who took on mortgages they could not afford and Wall Street chieftains who loaded up on mortgage-backed securities without regard to the risk.
But
Source: AP
December 21, 2008
The centuries-old right of way between Philadelphia and Washington is marked by shimmering waterways and industrial sprawl, well-kept suburbs and urban blight.
President-elect Barack Obama won't be sharing a ride with thousands of long-distance commuters when he travels on a private charter train from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station to Washington's Union Station on Jan. 17, three days before he takes the oath of office. But his route will be exactly the same.
In fact
Source: Independent
December 21, 2008
BERLIN -- At 105, Johannes Heesters would like to be known as the world's oldest performing singer. He is appearing in the operetta The White Horse Inn, and sang recently on Dutch TV. But an outing he made 67 years ago has come back to haunt him, ensuring that he will always be remembered mainly as a favourite of Adolf Hitler and a friend of Germany's Nazi regime.
Last week a German judge threw out a libel suit Heesters brought against Volker Kuehn, a German documentary maker and au
Source: Washington Post
December 21, 2008
The required transfer in four weeks of all of the Bush White House's electronic mail messages and documents to the National Archives has been imperiled by a combination of technical glitches, lawsuits and lagging computer forensic work, according to government officials, historians and lawyers.
Federal law requires outgoing White House officials to provide the Archives copies of their records, a cache estimated at more than 300 million messages and 25,000 boxes of documents depictin
