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: Times (UK)
November 28, 2008
A fold-out album of 144 Second World War postcards collected by a German naval officer is to be auctioned tomorrow in Chudleigh, Devon. It includes pictures of Adolf Hitler and of the Graf Spee and other German vessels. The officer gave the album to a British soldier at the end of the war and it has been in his family ever since. There are also wryly humorous postcards. One shows three sailors leaning over the side of a ship above the caption: “Seasick – oh what a joy!” Michael Bowman, the aucti
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 27, 2008
Seven London bridges were granted graded listings yesterday to protect them against unsympathetic development.
On the advice of English Heritage, Grade II listings were given to Chelsea, Lambeth and Richmond Railway bridges. Cremorne (or Battersea Railway bridge), Hammersmith, Twickenham and Vauxhall bridges were listed at, or upgraded to, the higher Grade II*.
The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, said: "These seven examples represent the very best of Britain's bri
Source: Harper's
November 26, 2008
Some astonishing figures in an item by Barry Ritholz (via Andrew Sullivan):
The cost to the United States of helping defeat Adolf Hitler, liberate Europe from fascist rule and halt the holocaust came to roughly $3.6 trillion, adjusted for inflation. The cost of the bailout, to date, comes to about $4.6 trillion. World War II was a steal — and with the $1 trillion difference there’s still enough left over to cover the past costs of the Marshall Plan and the The New Deal.
Source: Time Magazine
November 27, 2008
In 1953, someone at Swanson severely overestimated the amount of turkey Americans would consume that Thanksgiving. With 260 tons of frozen birds to get rid of, a company salesman named Gerry Thomas ordered 5,000 aluminum trays, recruited an assembly line of women armed with spatulas and ice-cream scoops and began creating mini-feasts of turkey, corn-bread dressing, peas and sweet potatoes — creating the first-ever TV dinner. Thomas later said he got the idea from neatly packaged airplane food...
Source: WaPo
November 27, 2008
President-elect Obama named the 81-year-old Volcker yesterday to head a new economic advisory panel, citing "his sound and independent judgment." But nearly three decades ago -- when Obama was still a college student -- the towering 6-foot-7-inch Volcker was one of the most disliked public figures in the United States.
As Federal Reserve chairman, he took an uncompromising stance against inflation, jacking up interest rates as high as 20.5 percent. Unemployment soared to 1
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 27, 2008
Sir Roderick Murchison was presented with the dagger when he visited Russia in 1840 to carry out the first geological survey of the western half of the country.
In so doing he coined the geological term the Permian Period - which relates to rocks laid down 299 to 251 million years ago - after the region of Permia in the Ural mountains.
On the expedition he was presented with the dagger by a Russian commander.
Besides the Murchison crater, Sir Roderick has
Source: http://www.military-world.net
November 24, 2008
With Iraqi Christians a threatened and dwindling minority, U.S. forces are safeguarding a 1,400-year-old monastery — Iraq's most ancient — for a time when peace, reconciliation and archaeological detective work can occur.
St. Elijah's Monastery, with its main fortress-like structure looming atop a barren hillside, sits inside a sprawling U.S. military base.
Its bloody history makes clear why the monastery needs protection. In 2003, it was damaged during the U.S.-led inv
Source: http://www.informationweek.com
November 26, 2008
Once upon a time, it may have been that history was written by the winners. But in the information age, history is written by the persistent. Digital information is subject to constant revision, unless care is taken to document its state over time.
Nowhere is this more apparent than at Wikipedia, where government agencies, public companies, private organizations, and concerned individuals continually revise the online encyclopedia's entries to suit their respective agendas.
Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com
November 27, 2008
Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, which erupted in flames early Thursday after heavily armed men stormed the building, taking guests hostage, is a symbol of national pride for Indians.
The impressive red-domed structure sits opposite the landmark Gateway of India monument on the edge of the Arabian Sea through which the last colonial British troops departed after independence in 1947.
But while the 105-year-old Taj saw off the last of the foreign occupiers, i
Source: Times (UK)
November 27, 2008
Fossilised remains of the most ancient turtle yet discovered are helping scientists to unravel the Kiplingesque puzzle of how the animal grew its shell.
Only the underside of the turtle is covered by a fully formed protective shell, giving researchers an invaluable glimpse into how it evolved.
The discovery of Odontochelys semi-testacea – “half-shelled turtle with teeth” – is being hailed as the long-sought missing link between turtles that have full shells and their
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 27, 2008
The medals of a wartime flying ace who was given the delicate job of leading an attack on enemy ships in Venice docks without destroying the city's historic buildings and priceless works of art are being sold at auction next week.
In 1945, Group Captain George Westlake headed Operation Bowler, so called because he and others feared they would be "bowler hatted" - thrown out of the military back into civilian life - if their attack was not precise enough.
On
Source: NYT
November 27, 2008
TOMSK, Russia — For years, the earth in this Siberian city had been giving up clues: a scrap of clothing, a fragment of bone, a skull with a bullet hole.
And so a historian named Boris P. Trenin made a plea to officials. Would they let him examine secret archives to confirm that there was a mass grave here from Stalin’s purges? Would they help him tell the story of the thousands of innocent people who were said to have been carted from a prison to a ravine, shot in the head and toss
Source: AP
November 26, 2008
A Florida man's quest to find hundreds of U.S. Marines buried anonymously after one of World War II's bloodiest battles could lead to the largest identification of American war dead in history.
Researchers used ground-penetrating radar, tediously reviewed thousands of military documents and interviewed hundreds of others to find 139 graves. There, they say, lie the remains of men who died 65 years ago out in the Pacific Ocean on Tarawa Atoll.
Mark Noah of Marathon, Fla.
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 25, 2008
Oh, the swing of the kilt and the skirl of the bagpipes! The tens of thousands who gather annually to try their strength at tossing Scottish cabers around ... in Leipzig.
A mania for "the heedrum-hodrum Celtic twilight", which is afflicting parts of northern Europe, is one of the topics to be researched at a new centre for the study of the Scottish diaspora at Edinburgh University.
But since its launch at the end of last month, the new centre, funded by a £1m
Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com
November 26, 2008
In American History, November 19, 1863, might be considered a day of wind and fire.
The place was the Gettysburg battlefield, four and a half months after the bloody and pivotal victory of the Union's Army of the Potomac over Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The event was the dedication of a cemetery for those who had died on those rolling fields. The wind was a two-hour speech by Edward Everett, a renowned orator and former senator from Massachusetts. And the fire wa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 26, 2008
Women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the Second War have joined forces to urge politicians to pass a resolution demanding a formal apology.
Backed by politicians and activists, a group of surviving former sex slaves from across Asia demanded that the Japanese government enact legislation to compensate victims.
The government was also urged to issue a formal apology and provide a balanced account of the issue in school textbooks as the group ga
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 26, 2008
A lost jungle thought to have been planted by a Victorian explorer nearly 170 years ago has been discovered at a country estate by gardeners clearing shrubs and trees.
The half-acre forest of tropical plants, palms and foliage was found "massively overgrown" on a hillside at Trebah Gardens in Falmouth, Cornwall.
Workers found the secret jungle - including a 25ft tree - as they cut back bushes, shrubs and trees on the side of a steep valley.
They d
Source: AP
November 26, 2008
SEATTLE – Authorities have recovered a stolen 18-carat gold bookmark that reportedly was given to Adolf Hitler by his longtime mistress, Eva Braun. Christian Popescu, a Romanian national, was arrested Tuesday outside a Bellevue Starbucks after trying to sell the bookmark to an undercover agent for $100,000, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court.
Federal prosecutors said the bookmark was among several items taken in an auction-house heist in Madrid, Spain, six years ago. A
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 26, 2008
Almost 200 Africans survived the sinking of the Spanish ship Trouvadore off the British-ruled islands, where the slave trade was banned.
Once ashore, the former slaves were apprenticed to trades for a year and then allowed them to settle on the islands, many on Grand Turk.
The Spanish crew was arrested and turned over to authorities in Cuba, then a Spanish colony.
But over the years the ship's story had been forgotten, said researcher Don Keith.
Source: CNN
November 25, 2008
WILLIAMSTON, S.C. -- A World War II veteran who survived the Bataan death march died of exposure Tuesday morning after he fell in his front yard.
Friends said that 86-year-old Ralph M. Knox was a living legend from WWII. His war experience was so amazing, a few years ago, he wrote a book about it.
He was a war hero, decorated with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. At the age of 20, he survived the death march, dropping from 175 pounds to 89. Until Tuesday, he was the youngest U.S. so
