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: AlterNet blog
December 8, 2008
Until 2000, the neighborhood association's covenant said only white people were allowed to live there, though an exception was made for servants.
As was reported this week, George Bush has bought a new house in a wealthy part of Dallas, called Preston Hollow, to live in after he leaves office. Preston Hollow homeowners are used to having well-known neighbors; the area is already home to Dallas Mavericks' owner Marc Cuban and former presidential candidate Ross Perot. And while many o
Source: AP
December 8, 2008
The first child born at the White House was the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson. The second child born there was his property — the African-American baby of Jefferson's two slaves.
Slaves not only helped build the White House, but also for decades men and women in bondage served America's presidents and first families as butlers, cooks and maids.
Two hundred years later, Barack Obama's election as the 44th president — the first black chief executive — is casting
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 8, 2008
Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.
The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.
Bu
Source: http://www.winchesterstar.com
December 8, 2008
The Confederate flags disappeared from Main Street this fall, along with
the retreating Confederate troops.
Thirteen flags, all yanked from their poles in the town center during the
Battle of Cedar Creek re-enactment weekend Oct. 18 and 19.
Missing flags in the wake of the annual re-enactment aren’t that uncommon,
said Middletown Mayor Ray Steele. In fact, several of the town’s 50
Confederate flags go missing each fall.
“But this is the first time we’ve ever had them sto
Source: http://www.archaeology.org/news/
December 8, 2008
More than 60 years after the end of World War II, disputes over war booty
rage on as Germany seeks, with mixed success, the return of treasures
looted by the victorious Red Army.
Late last month, Russia handed over six medieval stained glass church
windows -- the last of a set of 117 panes from the Marienkirche (St Mary's
Church) in Frankfurt an der Oder, on today's Polish border, carted off to
Moscow in 1945.
At a ceremony to mark the occasion, German Culture Minister Bernd N
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 6, 2008
He was history's most feared pirate, striking terror into seafarers as he
cut a bloodthirsty swathe through the Caribbean and North Atlantic.
But new research has found that Blackbeard may be innocent of one of the
most notorious charges against him.
For almost 300 years, the British pirate captain has stood accused of
deliberately sinking his flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, so he could
swindle his crew out of their share of loot they had plundered.
But marine archaeolog
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 8, 2008
From the postcards bearing his swashbuckling, fedora-topped image to the
luxury train emblazoned with his name that runs to the foot of the
mountain redoubt of Machu Picchu, reminders are ubiquitous here of Hiram
Bingham, the Yale explorer long credited with revealing the so-called Lost
City of the Incas to the outside world almost a century ago.
But in recent months, a confluence of contrary events has threatened to
upend the legacy of Bingham, the ostensible model for the fictional
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 8, 2008
Declaring the prevention of genocide"an achievable goal," a task force
that includes several prominent figures close to President-elect Barack
Obama recommended Monday that an interagency group be created to analyze
threats, work with other countries and coordinate action in places like
Darfur.
"Preventing genocide and mass atrocities is a truly difficult issue, and
there has to be a different approach," Madeleine Albright, the former
secretary of state and a co-chairwoman of the task
Source: BBC
December 8, 2008
The graves of as many as 500 Muslim war veterans have been vandalised in
northern France, in an attack President Nicolas Sarkozy said was"repugnant".
Gravestones were daubed with swastikas and letters spelling out
anti-Islamic slogans at France's biggest military graveyard near Arras in
the north-east.
The attack took place on the eve of Islam's Eid al-Adha festival, when
Muslims visit the graves of loved ones.
Source: CNN
December 8, 2008
Enemies of President Bush take heed: Karl Rove is set to name names.
The man widely credited with Bush's two presidential victories says his
new book will include an accounting of those in Washington who never
accepted the president as a legitimate commander-in-chief.
"I've got behind-the-scenes episodes that are going to show how
unreceiving they were of this man as president of the United States," Rove
told Cox News in an interview published Sunday."I'm going to name names
and
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 8, 2008
An RSVP to a Boxing Day party has been delivered by Royal Mail 89 years
after it was posted.
Janet Barrett was confused when the item, dated Nov 29 1919, dropped
through the letterbox at her guesthouse in Weymouth, Dorset.
A note from the Royal Mail, apologising for any delay, accompanied the
delivery.
Mrs Barrett, 56, said she hoped somebody would recognise the name of the
addressee, Percy Bateman, and shed some light on the mystery.
She said:"When I first looked
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 7, 2008
Urgent reforms are needed to protect primary schools struggling to cope
with an overloaded curriculum, a Goverment report has concluded.
Under proposals outlined by Sir Jim Rose, the Government's top adviser on
primary schools, traditional lessons such as history and geography would
be axed to allow teachers greater flexibility to teach fewer subjects in
greater depth.
Instead of teaching subjects individually, the report said the curriculum
should focus on cross-curricular studie
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 8, 2008
Officials say that several hundred tombs of Muslim soldiers have been desecrated in northern France in an act the French president is denouncing as "repugnant racism."
The early Monday desecration near the town of Arras comes at the start of Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday in the Muslim calendar.
The regional administration for the Pas-de-Calais region says "several hundred" tombs were damaged in the Muslim section of the national Notre-Dame-
Source: http://www.delcotimes.com
December 7, 2008
Two years ago at a Pearl Harbor memorial event in Media, Ed Kane overheard
a conversation between two teenage boys.
“One kid saw my hat and said, ‘Look, a Pearl Harbor survivor.’ The other
kid said, ‘I know where Pearl Harbor is. It’s a fishing village in
Florida.’”
The 87-year-old Middletown resident generally shies away from the
spotlight, but if he can help educate younger generations about World War
II, he is willing to do so.
Source: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com
December 7, 2008
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument offers a prime example of
re-imaging in NPS context. Custer’s Last Stand occurred at this place, but
so did the last stand of the Plains Indians. In 1991, a landmark
redesignation acknowledged that the battlefield has a duel identity. More
recently, an Indian Memorial has helped to re-image the place as hallowed
ground for Indians as well as whites.
Re-imaging, a concept very familiar to celebrities, politicians, and
tourism promoters, is
Source: Irish Times
December 6, 2008
The Irish economic boom may be over, but its flurry of road building has
uncovered a wealth of archaeological finds with lasting value. In
particular, digs along proposed routes have shed light on 'unknown'
archaeology that may not have otherwise been examined, according to Rónán
Swan, acting head of archaeology at the National Roads Authority. The
scale of road-related archaeological digs has increased massively in
recent years - in 1993 there was one road excavation, in 2007 there were
Source: Guardian (UK)
December 8, 2008
It is to Berlin what the Arc de Triomphe is to Paris or Trafalgar Square is to London. So news that growing cracks have been observed in the pillars of the Brandenburg Gate has caused alarm in the German capital.
The classical columns, which are synonymous with the ecstatic scenes of reunion after the Berlin wall was dismantled in 1989, are thought to have cracked under the strain of nearby construction work and because of shoddy restoration work carried out on it six years ago.
Source: Guardian (UK)
December 8, 2008
Academics and writers in Turkey have risked a fierce official backlash by issuing a public apology for the alleged genocide suffered by Armenians at the hands of Ottoman forces during the first world war.
Breaking one of Turkish society's biggest taboos, the apology comes in an open letter that invites Turks to sign an online petition supporting its sentiments.
It reads: "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastro
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 8, 2008
The fibres were discovered in a flooded Stone Age settlement just off the coast of the Isle of Wight.
The four-and-a-half inch long string was made from tough stems of honeysuckle, nettles or wild clematis that were twisted together.
Marine archaeologists discovered it when they found a pre-historic camp 30 feet below the surface, 200 yards off the Isle of Wight.
The team, led by Gary Momber of the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology, cut sma
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 8, 2008
From the postcards bearing his swashbuckling, fedora-topped image to the luxury train emblazoned with his name that runs to the foot of the mountain redoubt of Machu Picchu, reminders are ubiquitous here of Hiram Bingham, the Yale explorer long credited with revealing the so-called Lost City of the Incas to the outside world almost a century ago.
But in recent months, a confluence of contrary events has threatened to upend the legacy of Bingham, the ostensible model for the fictiona
