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: National Parks Traveler
August 17, 2008
What’s the single most significant date in the evolution of the National Park System? Was it 1872, the year that Yellowstone National Park was established as the first national park in America and the world? Was it 1906 when the Antiquties Act was signed into law? Was it 1916 when the Organic Act created the National Park Service? Was it 1917 when Stephen Mather became the first Director of the National Park Service? Was it December 2, 1980, when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation A
Source: BBC
August 17, 2008
Survivors of the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic are still protected from the virus, according to researchers in the US.
American scientists found that people who lived through the outbreak can still produce antibodies that kill the deadly strain of the H1N1 flu.
The study, published in the journal Nature, could help develop emergency treatments for future outbreaks.
The Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people.
Source: Daily Post
August 7, 2008
A STATUE commemorating Noel Chavasse, only British winner of the VC and bar, and all of Liverpool’s Victoria Cross recipients, is about to be unveiled.
After three years of fundraising, the statue, by city sculptor Tom Murphy, will be situated in Abercromby Square where the Chavasse family once lived.
The memorial, which depicts Captain Chavasse and a Liverpool Scottish stretcher bearer attending a wounded soldier, will be unveiled in the course of a drumhead service on
Source: Observer (UK)
August 17, 2008
The value of sterling may be plummeting as fears grow over the depth of a possible recession. But in the scenic East Sussex town of Lewes - famous for its bonfire night parties and bewildering number of pubs - a handy alternative is about to become available.
Next month, in the latest sign that localism is a coming force in British everyday life, Lewes will launch its own currency. In doing so, it joins a growing list of communities around the world attempting to protect regional ec
Source: Observer (UK)
August 17, 2008
He was known as the people's pathologist, and made his name as a pioneering expert in some of the most gruesome murder cases in British history. Now the secrets of Britain's first forensic scientist - who helped convict Dr Crippen of his wife's murder and solve the Brides in the Bath killings - have been saved for the nation by the Wellcome Library.
Its archivists have paid £14,000 for the records of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the charismatic and highly controversial founder of the crim
Source: Observer (UK)
August 17, 2008
Canada is mounting an expedition to find the remains of the 1845 British attempt to find the Northwest Passage. The ships Erebus and Terror were trapped in ice and Sir John Franklin and his crew of 128 died.
Global warming has opened up the region and Canada is sending a team to survey an area south of King William Island. Frozen corpses, believed to be those of members of the expedition, have been found in the area. 'Canada will embark on its own search, which has the allure of an
Source: Observer (UK)
August 17, 2008
Young people are far less knowledgeable about British history than their elders, a nationwide quiz has found.
Just 23 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 knew which English monarch signed the Magna Carta, compared with 83 per cent of those over 65 who correctly named King John. One in four of the younger group identified James Watt with the steam engine, whereas three in four pensioners got it right.
In the ICM survey of 1,041 people for the History Channel's 'Great British
Source: Sunday Mail
August 17, 2008
It's the sort of classic jewellery favoured by modern women except these earrings were worn 2,500 years ago.
An archeologist discovered gold earrings, a ring and other funeral gifts dating back to the 5th century B.C. while excavating a Thracian tomb near the village of Kushare, about 280km from Sofia, Bulgaria.
Some of the oldest examples of gold jewellery and artifacts have been discovered in Bulgaria and it's Black Sea coast is considered the birthplace of the wor
Source: New Zealand Herald
August 15, 2008
Skeletons of a tiny woman and two children laid to rest on a bed of flowers 5000 years ago have been found in what is now the barren Sahara Desert.
The slender arms of the youngsters were still extended to the woman in perpetual embrace when researchers discovered their skeletons in a remarkable cemetery that is providing clues to two civilisations who lived there, a thousand years apart, when the region was moist and green.
Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and
Source: BBC
August 16, 2008
To outsiders dancing with the corpse of a dead loved one, years after their demise, might seem ghoulish. But as Jonny Hogg reports, to the people of Madagascar, it is a ritual of respect for their departed ancestors.
The band, a cacophonous near harmony of tattered trumpets and elderly clarinets, has been has been playing for hours now.
The hilltop is crowded. The entire community has come to this spot, some distance from the village of Vatolaivy.
People
Source: BBC
August 16, 2008
One of France's most iconic cars, the Citroen 2CV, is celebrating its 60th birthday this October. The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Paris has been looking at how this vehicle revolutionised the French motor industry.
Some may dismiss it as nothing more than an old tin can. The BBC Top Gear programme's Jeremy Clarkson wrote it off as a "weedy, useless little engine".
But enthusiasts like Xavier Audran who owns a dozen of them, worships the 2CV "not just as a
Source: BBC
August 16, 2008
Relations between Argentina and its much smaller neighbour, Uruguay, have been strained for some time in a dispute over a pulp paper mill built on the river that separates the two countries.
But as Daniel Schweimler recently discovered, a much more serious dispute has emerged that strikes at the very heart and soul of both nations' national identity.
One of the great Argentine icons, alongside footballer Diego Maradona and the former first lady, Eva Peron, is the tang
Source: Telegraph
August 15, 2008
Debate is raging on movie message boards over whether a plump, jowly woman who briefly features as a train passenger in North by Northwest was actually the acclaimed film director in drag.
Hitchcock was known for making quirky cameo appearances in his movies, but was never previously thought to have played a woman.
The key scene comes around 44 minutes into North by Northwest, which was released in 1959. The woman, who is wearing a turquoise dress and blue and white h
Source: Telegraph
August 15, 2008
The video posted on the US site and its French rival Dailymotion shows a slideshow of more than 150 French politicians, TV stars, journalists, writers, philosophers, actors, singers and comedians.
It is set to the sound of a song recorded before World War II, called "Rebecca's wedding," which describes the guests at a Jewish wedding as dirty, rude and dishonest.
"We consider this video, though it names no-one, to be a photographic list of an anti-Semiti
Source: BBC
August 16, 2008
The French authorities are formally investigating an Algerian official in connection with the killing of a leading Algerian opposition figure.
Ali Mecili was assassinated at his home in Paris in 1987.
He had been working as a senior aide to Hocine Ait Ahmed, leader of the Algeria's Socialist Forces Front.
The man being investigated is Mohammed Ziane Hassani, now in charge of protocol at Algeria's foreign ministry. He was arrested on Friday.
Source: BBC
August 16, 2008
Argentina's former president, Carlos Menem, has been placed under investigation over his alleged role in a deadly explosion in 1995.
Prosecutors say Mr Menem was responsible for the blast that killed seven people at an arsenal.
They allege Mr Menem was trying to cover up proof of illegal arms trafficking to Ecuador and Croatia in the 1990s.
Mr Menem, president from 1989 to 1999, denies the charges.
The blast took place in the city of Rio Te
Source: BBC
August 16, 2008
The former Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Kozulin has left prison and is on his way home to Minsk, his daughter says.
It is not clear whether he has been freed permanently or only so he can attend his father-in-law's funeral.
Mr Kozulin was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2006 for staging protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr Lukashenko had defeated Mr Kozulin in an election that international observers said was severely flawed
Source: LAT
August 16, 2008
...They were the descendants of Koreans lured in 1905 by ship to plantations on the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico. Instead of finding a better life, they were sold to plantation owners and forced to cultivate henequen, a plant whose tough fiber was used to make things like rope.
The Koreans and their descendants would come to be known as the Henequen, in part because they were so hardy and hard-working. They had fled a Korea that was under Japanese rule, and despite their str
Source: NYT
August 16, 2008
Federal officials granted temporary legal status on Friday to 15 illegal immigrants whose spouses or parents died on 9/11 but who have remained largely invisible, living in the shadows of society for fear of deportation.
Those officials and the families’ supporters said the decision would clear the way for Congress to move forward on bills that would grant the immigrants permanent legal status.
“When I told my clients about it, there were tears of joy,” said Debra Bro
Source: LAT
August 16, 2008
Libya and the United States on Thursday settled all outstanding lawsuits by American victims of terrorism, clearing the way for the full restoration of diplomatic relations.
There were 26 pending lawsuits filed by American citizens against Libya over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and other attacks, said a senior Libyan government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the deal had not been publicly announced.
