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This page features brief excerpts of news 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.
Highlights
Breaking News
This page features brief excerpts of news 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. Because most of our readers read the NYT we usually do not include the paper's stories in HIGHLIGHTS.
Name of source: Seattle Times
SOURCE: Seattle Times (10-22-09)
A glass beer bottle with a faded label that says "brewed in Walla Walla." Two children's marbles. A 1938 Buick Roadmaster hubcap. Heavy white ceramic shaving mugs.
And more beer bottles - lots and lots of beer bottles.
That's just a sampling of the items that have been unearthed from pits at Hanford where trash generated by the tens of thousands of workers who came to the nuclear reservation during World War II was buried.
Archaeologists are sorting through what those early Hanford workers and their families threw away at the atomic boom town, seeing if what they find can tell more of the story of the Manhattan Project.
And more beer bottles - lots and lots of beer bottles.
That's just a sampling of the items that have been unearthed from pits at Hanford where trash generated by the tens of thousands of workers who came to the nuclear reservation during World War II was buried.
Archaeologists are sorting through what those early Hanford workers and their families threw away at the atomic boom town, seeing if what they find can tell more of the story of the Manhattan Project.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 23:32
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Name of source: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-23-09)
It is the modern motorists’ dream and easily negotiated without the need of a satnav – Britain’s first ever road map shows there were just 73 main roads in the country.
The 17th Century work by John Ogilby - 'Britannia Volume the First, or an Illustration of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales', was hailed at the time as a "landmark" in road -mapping.
A first edition, dating from 1675, contains 100 double pages of black and white maps laid out in continuous strips depicting 73 major roads and cross-roads across England and Wales, although most of them are routes in and out of of London.
The work also represents the first time in England when an atlas was prepared on a uniform scale, at one inch to a mile, based on the statute of 1,760 yards to the mile.
It was the earliest national road atlas of any country in Western Europe and is expected to fetch £9,000 when it goes under the hammer.
Ogilby claimed 26,600 miles of road was surveyed in the course of preparing the atlas, although only 7,500 are actually depicted in print.
The 17th Century work by John Ogilby - 'Britannia Volume the First, or an Illustration of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales', was hailed at the time as a "landmark" in road -mapping.
A first edition, dating from 1675, contains 100 double pages of black and white maps laid out in continuous strips depicting 73 major roads and cross-roads across England and Wales, although most of them are routes in and out of of London.
The work also represents the first time in England when an atlas was prepared on a uniform scale, at one inch to a mile, based on the statute of 1,760 yards to the mile.
It was the earliest national road atlas of any country in Western Europe and is expected to fetch £9,000 when it goes under the hammer.
Ogilby claimed 26,600 miles of road was surveyed in the course of preparing the atlas, although only 7,500 are actually depicted in print.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 23:32
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-23-09)
A number of valuable ecclesiastical treasures given to the former head of the Church of England have been found dumped in a river.
A haul of 32 artefacts, including gifts from Pope Paul VI and crucifixes once owned by the Queen, have been recovered from the River Wear in Durham.
They had been in the possession of Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, who spent part of his retirement in the northern city where he served as bishop.
One theory is that he may have cast the items into the water himself at various times, having a reputation for eccentricity before his death 21 years ago at the age of 83.
Another suggestion is that they may have been stolen before being discarded by thieves for some reason as they crossed Prebends Bridge.
A haul of 32 artefacts, including gifts from Pope Paul VI and crucifixes once owned by the Queen, have been recovered from the River Wear in Durham.
They had been in the possession of Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, who spent part of his retirement in the northern city where he served as bishop.
One theory is that he may have cast the items into the water himself at various times, having a reputation for eccentricity before his death 21 years ago at the age of 83.
Another suggestion is that they may have been stolen before being discarded by thieves for some reason as they crossed Prebends Bridge.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 21:35
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-22-09)
He is one of the world’s most feted critics of communism, but the Czech-born novelist Milan Kundera is now facing a battle to save his reputation after he was accused of denouncing a Western spy to the secret police during his student days.
Documents unearthed by Czech academics purport to show that in 1950 Mr Kundera, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, told the Communist authorities where they could find Miroslav Dvoracek, a dissident who had fled Czechoslovakia but secretly returned to the country after being recruited by US intelligence agents.
Mr Dvoracek was arrested and narrowly escaped the death sentence, instead serving 14 years imprisonment for desertion, espionage and treason, mainly spent carrying out hard labour in uranium mines.
The reclusive Mr Kundera, who has lived in self-imposed exile in France since 1975 after his novels were banned in Czechoslovakia, has vehemently denied informing on Mr Dvoracek, and supporters of the novelist have pointed out that Communist security agencies often forged files to discredit opponents of the regime.
Documents unearthed by Czech academics purport to show that in 1950 Mr Kundera, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, told the Communist authorities where they could find Miroslav Dvoracek, a dissident who had fled Czechoslovakia but secretly returned to the country after being recruited by US intelligence agents.
Mr Dvoracek was arrested and narrowly escaped the death sentence, instead serving 14 years imprisonment for desertion, espionage and treason, mainly spent carrying out hard labour in uranium mines.
The reclusive Mr Kundera, who has lived in self-imposed exile in France since 1975 after his novels were banned in Czechoslovakia, has vehemently denied informing on Mr Dvoracek, and supporters of the novelist have pointed out that Communist security agencies often forged files to discredit opponents of the regime.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:08
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-22-09)
Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary and architect of the Soviet Union, died from syphilis caught from a Parisian prostitute and not from a stroke as has always been believed, new research has claimed.
Helen Rappaport, an acclaimed historian and author, said that books, papers and journals charting Lenin’s last years show that he contracted the sexually transmitted disease and that it ultimately claimed his life.
She said Lenin showed many symptoms of syphilis and that many among the Soviet hierarchy believed he had it. But they were banned from speaking in public and threatened with death because of the embarrassment it would cause.
Instead, official documents show that his death was attributed to declining health following three stokes and an assassination attempt in 1918.
Helen Rappaport, an acclaimed historian and author, said that books, papers and journals charting Lenin’s last years show that he contracted the sexually transmitted disease and that it ultimately claimed his life.
She said Lenin showed many symptoms of syphilis and that many among the Soviet hierarchy believed he had it. But they were banned from speaking in public and threatened with death because of the embarrassment it would cause.
Instead, official documents show that his death was attributed to declining health following three stokes and an assassination attempt in 1918.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:05
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-22-09)
The Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic will boycott the start of his genocide trial next week, his lawyer said.
The trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague starts on Monday. Karadzic faces 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in Bosnia's 1992-95 war that claimed an estimated 100,000 lives.
But Karadzic, 64, said he had not had time to complete his defence preparations and had been treated unfairly. He has denied all charges and insists he will conduct his own defence.
The trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague starts on Monday. Karadzic faces 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in Bosnia's 1992-95 war that claimed an estimated 100,000 lives.
But Karadzic, 64, said he had not had time to complete his defence preparations and had been treated unfairly. He has denied all charges and insists he will conduct his own defence.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 10:51
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-22-09)
A former New York police chief, Bernard Kerik who was hailed a hero after the September 11 2001 attacks, has been jailed after a federal judge revoked his bail ahead of a corruption trial.
He has become the first police chief in the city's history to be thrown into jail.
In a hearing in White Plains, New York, Judge Stephen Robinson said he was revoking the $500,000 bail granted to Kerik, 54, who led the police under the previous administration of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Kerik abused confidential evidence in the case, Robert Hadad, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said.
He has become the first police chief in the city's history to be thrown into jail.
In a hearing in White Plains, New York, Judge Stephen Robinson said he was revoking the $500,000 bail granted to Kerik, 54, who led the police under the previous administration of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Kerik abused confidential evidence in the case, Robert Hadad, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 10:49
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-21-09)
He says in the video that he fought for equality at Omaha Beach. At the time of writing, the YouTube clip has received over 66,000 views.
Mr Spooner, a chaplain of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organisation, addressed the Maine Judiciary Committee in April.
The video shows the veteran addressing the committee in a faltering voice, saying: “Good morning committee. My name is Philip Spooner. I am 86 years old and a lifetime Republican.” ...
... His voice cracking, he says that he saw too much suffering and sacrifice for equality during the Second World War.
Citing the ovens at Buchenwald and Dachau, he says: “I have seen with my own eyes the consequence of a caste system and of making some people less than others or second class. Never again. We must have equal rights for everyone.
“It’s what this country was started for.”
Mr Spooner, a chaplain of the Veterans of Foreign Wars organisation, addressed the Maine Judiciary Committee in April.
The video shows the veteran addressing the committee in a faltering voice, saying: “Good morning committee. My name is Philip Spooner. I am 86 years old and a lifetime Republican.” ...
... His voice cracking, he says that he saw too much suffering and sacrifice for equality during the Second World War.
Citing the ovens at Buchenwald and Dachau, he says: “I have seen with my own eyes the consequence of a caste system and of making some people less than others or second class. Never again. We must have equal rights for everyone.
“It’s what this country was started for.”
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:46
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-21-09)
The last surviving Union Jack flown by the Royal Navy at Trafalgar will remain in Britain after ministers promised to block any foreign attempts to buy it.
The flag will be auctioned in London today, the anniversary of Admiral Lord Nelson’s victory over a joint French and Spanish fleet off the Spanish coast in 1805.
It is expected to fetch at least 15,000 pounds. Charles Miller, the auctioneer, has said he believes it is the last surviving flag flown during the battle.
The flag will be auctioned in London today, the anniversary of Admiral Lord Nelson’s victory over a joint French and Spanish fleet off the Spanish coast in 1805.
It is expected to fetch at least 15,000 pounds. Charles Miller, the auctioneer, has said he believes it is the last surviving flag flown during the battle.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 22:08
Name of source: Times Online (UK)
SOURCE: Times Online (UK) (10-23-09)
A passenger station said to be the oldest in the world reopened yesterday as a venue for the creative arts after a five-year renovation project.
Edge Hill railway station in Liverpool was the site in 1830 of the inaugural passenger railway journey with the Prime Minister among VIP guests hauled behind Stephenson’s Rocket.
Its 173-year-old Grade II-listed sandstone and brick engine room and boiler house remained disused for years before the refurbishment inspired by Metal, the arts organisation founded by Jude Kelly, the Liverpool-born artistic director.
Buildings on platforms one and two have been transformed into spaces for artistic development, discussion and debate. It will includes an exhibition area and studio space for promising artists.
Edge Hill railway station in Liverpool was the site in 1830 of the inaugural passenger railway journey with the Prime Minister among VIP guests hauled behind Stephenson’s Rocket.
Its 173-year-old Grade II-listed sandstone and brick engine room and boiler house remained disused for years before the refurbishment inspired by Metal, the arts organisation founded by Jude Kelly, the Liverpool-born artistic director.
Buildings on platforms one and two have been transformed into spaces for artistic development, discussion and debate. It will includes an exhibition area and studio space for promising artists.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 23:31
Name of source: WSJ
SOURCE: WSJ (10-23-09)
Nejma Beard sleeps on the second floor of a small brown-shingled cottage where she can hear the ocean and watch deer feeding in the wild brush. Half of the grass on the rambling property grows wild, as it does in her native Kenya; a long rickety staircase descends to the sea.
Sitting here it is easy to forget that this six-acre property, the easternmost oceanfront plot on Long Island, sits alongside multi-million dollar Hamptons estates with their manicured lawns, tennis courts and infinity pools. There are few signs of the property's wild past as an epicenter of the 1970s Studio 54 scene, when the likes of Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jacqueline Onassis and Andy Warhol converged here and helped transform the Hamptons into a glittery second stage for bold-faced Manhattanites.
Ms. Beard is the wife of photographer Peter Beard, famed for his portraits of endangered African wildlife and for his associations with A-list society. After a couple of attempts to sell the property for $32 million and then for $26 million, the Beards are now trying to sell it through personal contacts. "I see myself as a guardian of the land," says Ms. Beard, who says she's looking for the right buyer and recently turned down an offer for $21 million. In this shaky market, brokers say the unusual property is difficult to appraise, though likely worth south of $25 million...
... Mr. Beard, now 71, has never been shy about his penchant for mind-altering substances and late-night revelry. The property became a magnet for rock stars, artists, models and their hangers-on and served as the backdrop for many of the photos that appear in Mr. Beard's books and collages. Mr. Jagger, who once rented Mr. Beard's millhouse for a summer, was photographed by Mr. Beard licking a lollipop on a boat in Montauk Lake. And a poster depicting a photo of Ms. Onassis skinny-dipping nearby was recently discovered in one of Mr. Warhol's time capsules at the Andy Warhol Museum, says the museum's spokesman—she signed it "Jackie Montauk."...
Sitting here it is easy to forget that this six-acre property, the easternmost oceanfront plot on Long Island, sits alongside multi-million dollar Hamptons estates with their manicured lawns, tennis courts and infinity pools. There are few signs of the property's wild past as an epicenter of the 1970s Studio 54 scene, when the likes of Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jacqueline Onassis and Andy Warhol converged here and helped transform the Hamptons into a glittery second stage for bold-faced Manhattanites.
Ms. Beard is the wife of photographer Peter Beard, famed for his portraits of endangered African wildlife and for his associations with A-list society. After a couple of attempts to sell the property for $32 million and then for $26 million, the Beards are now trying to sell it through personal contacts. "I see myself as a guardian of the land," says Ms. Beard, who says she's looking for the right buyer and recently turned down an offer for $21 million. In this shaky market, brokers say the unusual property is difficult to appraise, though likely worth south of $25 million...
... Mr. Beard, now 71, has never been shy about his penchant for mind-altering substances and late-night revelry. The property became a magnet for rock stars, artists, models and their hangers-on and served as the backdrop for many of the photos that appear in Mr. Beard's books and collages. Mr. Jagger, who once rented Mr. Beard's millhouse for a summer, was photographed by Mr. Beard licking a lollipop on a boat in Montauk Lake. And a poster depicting a photo of Ms. Onassis skinny-dipping nearby was recently discovered in one of Mr. Warhol's time capsules at the Andy Warhol Museum, says the museum's spokesman—she signed it "Jackie Montauk."...
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 22:03
SOURCE: WSJ (10-23-09)
TOKYO -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned Japan this week against letting a fact-finding mission into decades-old secret nuclear-weapons agreements affect relations between the two countries, according to an official familiar with the matter.
In a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Wednesday, Mr. Gates said Japan also should avoid letting the probe hurt the U.S.'s antinuclear-proliferation efforts, the official said. Mr. Kitazawa said the government would handle confidential information sensitively, said the official.
Japan, the only nation that has endured nuclear attacks, forbids making, possessing and storing nuclear weapons on its soil. But under an understanding reached in the early 1960s, Japan agreed to look the other way when nuclear-armed U.S. ships used Japanese ports. A 1969 agreement allowed nuclear weapons to be stationed in emergency cases on U.S. bases on the island of Okinawa, after it was returned to Japanese control in 1972.
Many elements of the agreements have been disclosed previously. Both governments say the agreements no longer have teeth because nuclear-armed U.S. vessels no longer stop in Japan.
But Japan's new government, now controlled by the Democratic Party of Japan after August elections, has launched a fact-finding investigation to make the agreements public and show how they were kept secret.
In a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Wednesday, Mr. Gates said Japan also should avoid letting the probe hurt the U.S.'s antinuclear-proliferation efforts, the official said. Mr. Kitazawa said the government would handle confidential information sensitively, said the official.
Japan, the only nation that has endured nuclear attacks, forbids making, possessing and storing nuclear weapons on its soil. But under an understanding reached in the early 1960s, Japan agreed to look the other way when nuclear-armed U.S. ships used Japanese ports. A 1969 agreement allowed nuclear weapons to be stationed in emergency cases on U.S. bases on the island of Okinawa, after it was returned to Japanese control in 1972.
Many elements of the agreements have been disclosed previously. Both governments say the agreements no longer have teeth because nuclear-armed U.S. vessels no longer stop in Japan.
But Japan's new government, now controlled by the Democratic Party of Japan after August elections, has launched a fact-finding investigation to make the agreements public and show how they were kept secret.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 03:11
SOURCE: WSJ (10-23-09)
The feathered creature called archaeopteryx, easily the world's most famous fossil remains, had been considered the first bird since Charles Darwin's day. When researchers put its celebrity bones under the microscope recently, though, they discovered that this icon of evolution might not have been a bird at all.
An examination of its bone cells revealed for the first time that the 150-million-year-old creature had the slow growth rate of a dinosaur, not a bird, an international research team reported this month. Comparing it with other early fossils, the researchers concluded that the telltale physiology of modern birds likely didn't emerge until 20 million years or so after archaeopteryx flapped its broad wings across primordial lagoons.
An examination of its bone cells revealed for the first time that the 150-million-year-old creature had the slow growth rate of a dinosaur, not a bird, an international research team reported this month. Comparing it with other early fossils, the researchers concluded that the telltale physiology of modern birds likely didn't emerge until 20 million years or so after archaeopteryx flapped its broad wings across primordial lagoons.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 03:10
SOURCE: WSJ (10-21-09)
BERLIN -- The world believes Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev or peaceful protests brought down the Berlin Wall 20 years ago next month. But for those who had front-row seats, the argument boils down to Ehrman vs. Brinkmann.
Riccardo Ehrman, a veteran Italian foreign correspondent, and Peter Brinkmann, a combative German tabloid reporter, both claim they asked the crucial questions at a news conference on Nov. 9, 1989, that led East German Politburo member Günter Schabowski to make one of the biggest fumbles in modern history.
Mr. Schabowski was supposed to announce a temporary bureaucratic procedure that would make it easier for East Germans to travel abroad, a tactic aimed at shoring up the Communist regime in the face of mass demonstrations.
Instead, he inadvertently opened the Berlin Wall.
Riccardo Ehrman, a veteran Italian foreign correspondent, and Peter Brinkmann, a combative German tabloid reporter, both claim they asked the crucial questions at a news conference on Nov. 9, 1989, that led East German Politburo member Günter Schabowski to make one of the biggest fumbles in modern history.
Mr. Schabowski was supposed to announce a temporary bureaucratic procedure that would make it easier for East Germans to travel abroad, a tactic aimed at shoring up the Communist regime in the face of mass demonstrations.
Instead, he inadvertently opened the Berlin Wall.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:54
Name of source: Guardian (UK)
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (10-23-09)
The first email
In late 1971 Ray Tomlinson, an engineer working on a time-sharing system called Tenex, combined two programs named Cpynet and SNDMSG in order to send the first ever network email. It had been possible to send email from one user to another on a single computer for nearly 10 years but Tomlinson was the first to use the primitive Arpanet to send text from one computer to another.
While the same principles are used to send emails across the world today, the very first email (the contents of which Tomlinson says he has long forgotten) was sent between two computers sitting right next to each other. At the same time, Tomlinson also devised the format of modern emails, with the @ symbol dividing the user name from the name of the host computer (although he did not invent the symbol itsel). And why did he do it?"Mostly because it seemed like a neat idea."
The first virus
Computer viruses and worms, essentially just self-replicating programs, were predicted as early as 1949 by the mathematician John von Neumann. It is generally accepted that the first was a virus called the Creeper, which infected Arpanet in 1971.
It was created by an engineer called Bob Thomas working for BBN, the same company that employed email creator Ray Tomlinson. The Creeper was not, however, malicious. Infected machines would simply display the message,"I'm the creeper: catch me if you can," but did not suffer any lasting damage. The first piece of anti-virus software was created as a direct response to the Creeper's challenge.
The Reaper was also a self-replicating program, which spread through the system in much the same way that the Creeper had, and removed the offending virus from infected computers. Just as quickly as it had spread, the Creeper was caught...
In late 1971 Ray Tomlinson, an engineer working on a time-sharing system called Tenex, combined two programs named Cpynet and SNDMSG in order to send the first ever network email. It had been possible to send email from one user to another on a single computer for nearly 10 years but Tomlinson was the first to use the primitive Arpanet to send text from one computer to another.
While the same principles are used to send emails across the world today, the very first email (the contents of which Tomlinson says he has long forgotten) was sent between two computers sitting right next to each other. At the same time, Tomlinson also devised the format of modern emails, with the @ symbol dividing the user name from the name of the host computer (although he did not invent the symbol itsel). And why did he do it?"Mostly because it seemed like a neat idea."
The first virus
Computer viruses and worms, essentially just self-replicating programs, were predicted as early as 1949 by the mathematician John von Neumann. It is generally accepted that the first was a virus called the Creeper, which infected Arpanet in 1971.
It was created by an engineer called Bob Thomas working for BBN, the same company that employed email creator Ray Tomlinson. The Creeper was not, however, malicious. Infected machines would simply display the message,"I'm the creeper: catch me if you can," but did not suffer any lasting damage. The first piece of anti-virus software was created as a direct response to the Creeper's challenge.
The Reaper was also a self-replicating program, which spread through the system in much the same way that the Creeper had, and removed the offending virus from infected computers. Just as quickly as it had spread, the Creeper was caught...
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 21:48
Name of source: LA Times
SOURCE: LA Times (10-23-09)
Reporting from London - The parishioners at St. Savior's come from various backgrounds: Afro-Caribbean countries, Eastern European nations, Britain itself. But it may be that all roads are leading them to Rome.
The East London church is Anglican in name but Roman Catholic in spirit and worship, with the "smells and bells" of traditional Roman Catholic liturgy. Father David Waller sticks to the Vatican's line on doctrines such as transubstantiation -- the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus -- and teachings such as the ban on contraception. Neither he nor his congregation believes in allowing women into the priesthood.
So Pope Benedict XVI's stunning announcement this week of a new dispensation that would, in effect, give traditionally minded Anglicans their own niche within the Catholic Church seems almost too good an offer to pass up.
After years of feeling alienated and unwanted within the increasingly liberal Church of England, conservatives such as Waller hail the chance to return to the fold that many Christians in Britain left 500 years ago, when Henry VIII officially broke with Rome -- and, as every schoolchild here knows, with the wife who failed to bear him a son...
... What elements of Anglicanism would converts get to keep if they defected to Rome -- the Book of Common Prayer, their own much-loved hymns? What would happen to the property, including some beautiful stone churches dating to the Middle Ages, that many congregations use?
Questions arise on the other side too, such as whether allowing married Anglican priests to become Catholics would increase the pressure on the Vatican to ease its requirement of celibacy for the priesthood. Some Roman Catholic groups argue that the vow of lifelong chastity has made it much harder to combat the shortage of priests.
But both the Vatican and so-called Anglo-Catholics, Anglicans drawn to Roman rites and practices, hold firm on one principle: Women cannot be priests. Period.
Parkinson's group was founded specifically in opposition to the ordination of women, which began in the Church of England in 1994. (The Episcopal Church started ordaining women much earlier, in 1976.)
Not that Parkinson and other members of Forward in Faith don't also have strong views on hot-button topics such as homosexuality, one of the most divisive -- perhaps the most divisive -- issues in the Anglican communion. But they are adamant about not wanting a woman presiding at the altar or sitting on the bishop's throne.
Yet what happened after the initial controversy over female priests could be instructive. Opponents at the time warned that thousands of clergy would desert, but in the end, only about 440 did, and a few dozen later returned to the Anglican fold...
The East London church is Anglican in name but Roman Catholic in spirit and worship, with the "smells and bells" of traditional Roman Catholic liturgy. Father David Waller sticks to the Vatican's line on doctrines such as transubstantiation -- the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus -- and teachings such as the ban on contraception. Neither he nor his congregation believes in allowing women into the priesthood.
So Pope Benedict XVI's stunning announcement this week of a new dispensation that would, in effect, give traditionally minded Anglicans their own niche within the Catholic Church seems almost too good an offer to pass up.
After years of feeling alienated and unwanted within the increasingly liberal Church of England, conservatives such as Waller hail the chance to return to the fold that many Christians in Britain left 500 years ago, when Henry VIII officially broke with Rome -- and, as every schoolchild here knows, with the wife who failed to bear him a son...
... What elements of Anglicanism would converts get to keep if they defected to Rome -- the Book of Common Prayer, their own much-loved hymns? What would happen to the property, including some beautiful stone churches dating to the Middle Ages, that many congregations use?
Questions arise on the other side too, such as whether allowing married Anglican priests to become Catholics would increase the pressure on the Vatican to ease its requirement of celibacy for the priesthood. Some Roman Catholic groups argue that the vow of lifelong chastity has made it much harder to combat the shortage of priests.
But both the Vatican and so-called Anglo-Catholics, Anglicans drawn to Roman rites and practices, hold firm on one principle: Women cannot be priests. Period.
Parkinson's group was founded specifically in opposition to the ordination of women, which began in the Church of England in 1994. (The Episcopal Church started ordaining women much earlier, in 1976.)
Not that Parkinson and other members of Forward in Faith don't also have strong views on hot-button topics such as homosexuality, one of the most divisive -- perhaps the most divisive -- issues in the Anglican communion. But they are adamant about not wanting a woman presiding at the altar or sitting on the bishop's throne.
Yet what happened after the initial controversy over female priests could be instructive. Opponents at the time warned that thousands of clergy would desert, but in the end, only about 440 did, and a few dozen later returned to the Anglican fold...
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 21:32
SOURCE: LA Times (10-21-09)
It weighed less than 2 pounds and was just 28 inches in length. But the Fruitadens haagarorum, as it is now known, represents a significant piece of the puzzle in mankind's knowledge of the dinosaur era.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County said Tuesday that an international team of scientists had recently identified and named the species, which lived during the late Jurassic period in the western region of North America. It is the smallest dinosaur discovered on the continent.
Bones of the Fruitadens haagarorum were unearthed in the late 1970s in Colorado, but it has taken until now for scientists to get around to classifying them.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County said Tuesday that an international team of scientists had recently identified and named the species, which lived during the late Jurassic period in the western region of North America. It is the smallest dinosaur discovered on the continent.
Bones of the Fruitadens haagarorum were unearthed in the late 1970s in Colorado, but it has taken until now for scientists to get around to classifying them.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 20:56
Name of source: Dominican Today
SOURCE: Dominican Today (10-21-09)
SANTO DOMINGO.- Thousands of artifacts from colonial era shipwrecks now lying on the ocean floor have been stolen from the Dominican coasts for the lack investments to recover them, said a marine archaeologist yesterday.
Pedro Borrel said the country’s submerged cultural patrimony is being sacked and thousands of pieces have been taken from ships which have sank in Dominican territorial waters.
The Archaeology advisor to the Cultural Patrimony Office said the underwater patrimony is being lost “from being stolen” while the country loses an opportunity for not contracting companies specialized in recovering the historically important pieces. “I feel that this subaqueous patrimony is being lost, it’s being diluted, they are stealing it.”
Borrel, speaking in the seminar “Convention on the Protection of the Subaqueous Cultural Patrimony” held in the Museum of Modern Art, said he can cite 20 sackings of ships whose pieces were removed to later sell and were even offered on the Web.
Pedro Borrel said the country’s submerged cultural patrimony is being sacked and thousands of pieces have been taken from ships which have sank in Dominican territorial waters.
The Archaeology advisor to the Cultural Patrimony Office said the underwater patrimony is being lost “from being stolen” while the country loses an opportunity for not contracting companies specialized in recovering the historically important pieces. “I feel that this subaqueous patrimony is being lost, it’s being diluted, they are stealing it.”
Borrel, speaking in the seminar “Convention on the Protection of the Subaqueous Cultural Patrimony” held in the Museum of Modern Art, said he can cite 20 sackings of ships whose pieces were removed to later sell and were even offered on the Web.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 21:29
Name of source: Bloomberg.com
SOURCE: Bloomberg.com (10-22-09)
The British Museum, which is facing demands from Iran to lend an ancient artifact, will send a member of staff to the country to discuss details of a loan.
In an Oct. 12 letter, the museum’s director Neil MacGregor wrote to Hamid Baqaei -- vice president in charge of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization -- that the museum hoped to lend Iran the Cyrus Cylinder once details had been worked out, British Museum Head of Press Hannah Boulton said today.
“Please let me reassure you that the British Museum is very much hoping to send the Cyrus Cylinder on loan to the National Museum of Iran,” MacGregor was quoted as writing in the letter, “but as with all our international loans, details and practicalities will have to be discussed.”
In an Oct. 12 letter, the museum’s director Neil MacGregor wrote to Hamid Baqaei -- vice president in charge of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization -- that the museum hoped to lend Iran the Cyrus Cylinder once details had been worked out, British Museum Head of Press Hannah Boulton said today.
“Please let me reassure you that the British Museum is very much hoping to send the Cyrus Cylinder on loan to the National Museum of Iran,” MacGregor was quoted as writing in the letter, “but as with all our international loans, details and practicalities will have to be discussed.”
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 21:28
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (10-23-09)
The wreck of a British naval submarine lost for more than 90 years has been found in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Estonia.
HMS E18 - with its complement of three officers and 28 ratings - went out on patrol in May 1916 and was never seen again.
The submarine was one of a handful sent to the Baltic during World War I by Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to disrupt German shipments of iron ore from Sweden and support the Russian navy.
E18 left its base in the Russian port of Reval - now Tallinn, the capital of Estonia - on the evening of 25 May 1916 and headed west.
The following day she was reported to have engaged and torpedoed a German ship.
A few days later, possibly 2 June, she is believed to have struck a German mine and sunk with all hands.
HMS E18 - with its complement of three officers and 28 ratings - went out on patrol in May 1916 and was never seen again.
The submarine was one of a handful sent to the Baltic during World War I by Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to disrupt German shipments of iron ore from Sweden and support the Russian navy.
E18 left its base in the Russian port of Reval - now Tallinn, the capital of Estonia - on the evening of 25 May 1916 and headed west.
The following day she was reported to have engaged and torpedoed a German ship.
A few days later, possibly 2 June, she is believed to have struck a German mine and sunk with all hands.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 21:25
SOURCE: BBC (10-20-09)
A five-year project to make 190,000 wills available online has been completed.
About 800,000 pages of documents, some going as far back as the 14th Century, have been placed on the National Library of Wales' website.
Among the wills available at the click of a button are Twm Sion Cati's, known as the Welsh Robin Hood, and hymn writer William Williams, Pantycelyn.
Officials said it had taken more than five years to digitise the documents.
About 800,000 pages of documents, some going as far back as the 14th Century, have been placed on the National Library of Wales' website.
Among the wills available at the click of a button are Twm Sion Cati's, known as the Welsh Robin Hood, and hymn writer William Williams, Pantycelyn.
Officials said it had taken more than five years to digitise the documents.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 22:06
Name of source: Politico
SOURCE: Politico (10-23-09)
It was a place where nervous freshmen learned about the past half-century in the Senate, where historic legislative deals were cut, where personal friendships were made and where his dogs roamed freely.
Outside the office now, a handful of staffers come and go. The placard out front that once bore his name is gone; the only sign that he was there is the seal of the commonwealth of Massachusetts that still hangs on the tall wooden door.
Room 317 in the Russell Senate Office Building — the office Ted Kennedy occupied longer than any other in his 47-year Senate career — will close this weekend, two months after the Massachusetts Democrat died at the age of 77.
In the coming days, Room 317 will belong to the man who took Kennedy’s seat: Democrat Paul Kirk, who is well-aware of the historic space he will soon be assuming...
... Most of Kennedy’s memos, documents, pictures, records and other keepsakes are moving to Boston, where they will be housed at the library and museum honoring his late brother, President John F. Kennedy — to be loaned periodically to the nearby Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Outside the office now, a handful of staffers come and go. The placard out front that once bore his name is gone; the only sign that he was there is the seal of the commonwealth of Massachusetts that still hangs on the tall wooden door.
Room 317 in the Russell Senate Office Building — the office Ted Kennedy occupied longer than any other in his 47-year Senate career — will close this weekend, two months after the Massachusetts Democrat died at the age of 77.
In the coming days, Room 317 will belong to the man who took Kennedy’s seat: Democrat Paul Kirk, who is well-aware of the historic space he will soon be assuming...
... Most of Kennedy’s memos, documents, pictures, records and other keepsakes are moving to Boston, where they will be housed at the library and museum honoring his late brother, President John F. Kennedy — to be loaned periodically to the nearby Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 21:10
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (10-22-09)
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. brought his 11-year-old granddaughter, Finnegan, with him for his three-day trip through Eastern Europe and gave her some first-hand lessons in modern diplomacy and Cold War history.
Finnegan and her mother, Kathleen Biden, the wife of the vice president’s son, Hunter, have spent much of the last couple days touring museums, memorials and historic sites in Warsaw, Bucharest and now Prague. They have also been at some of the vice president’s official events as he tried to reassure the region of American support.
Mr. Biden took them on Wednesday to a memorial commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto uprising when Polish Jews tried to fight back against Nazi occupiers in 1943. And the vice president took them Thursday night to the Old New Synagogue and later the Charles Bridge here in Prague, where he regaled them with a story of his own Cold War encounter 30 years ago...
... The vice president said he brought his granddaughter, just as he did his own son when he was younger, to give her a sense of the bold achievement of a region that threw off Communism 20 years ago...
Finnegan and her mother, Kathleen Biden, the wife of the vice president’s son, Hunter, have spent much of the last couple days touring museums, memorials and historic sites in Warsaw, Bucharest and now Prague. They have also been at some of the vice president’s official events as he tried to reassure the region of American support.
Mr. Biden took them on Wednesday to a memorial commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto uprising when Polish Jews tried to fight back against Nazi occupiers in 1943. And the vice president took them Thursday night to the Old New Synagogue and later the Charles Bridge here in Prague, where he regaled them with a story of his own Cold War encounter 30 years ago...
... The vice president said he brought his granddaughter, just as he did his own son when he was younger, to give her a sense of the bold achievement of a region that threw off Communism 20 years ago...
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 20:28
SOURCE: NYT (10-22-09)
BUCHAREST, Romania — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. used a visit to Romania on Thursday to hail Eastern Europe on all that has been accomplished in the 20 years since the Iron Curtain fell and to challenge the countries of the region to serve as models for other emerging democracies.
In a speech at the restored Central University Library, where a raging fire set during Romania’s 1989 revolution destroyed 500,000 books, Mr. Biden paid tribute to “freedom’s young defenders” who were killed and called the liberation of the old Eastern bloc “one of the greatest achievements in modern history.”
“Twenty years ago, the world watched in awe and admiration as the men and women throughout this region broke the shackles of repression and emerged a free people,” Mr. Biden said in the auditorium of the rebuilt library. Now, he said, Romania and its neighbors must help countries like Armenia and Azerbaijan develop their own democracies. “You’ve delivered on the promise of your revolution,” he said. “You are now in a position to help others do the same.”
In a speech at the restored Central University Library, where a raging fire set during Romania’s 1989 revolution destroyed 500,000 books, Mr. Biden paid tribute to “freedom’s young defenders” who were killed and called the liberation of the old Eastern bloc “one of the greatest achievements in modern history.”
“Twenty years ago, the world watched in awe and admiration as the men and women throughout this region broke the shackles of repression and emerged a free people,” Mr. Biden said in the auditorium of the rebuilt library. Now, he said, Romania and its neighbors must help countries like Armenia and Azerbaijan develop their own democracies. “You’ve delivered on the promise of your revolution,” he said. “You are now in a position to help others do the same.”
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 20:16
SOURCE: NYT (10-21-09)
He grew up playing in the narrow, crowded streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown. He has lived and worked there for all his 61 years. But as Wee Wong walks the neighborhood these days, he cannot understand half the Chinese conversations he hears.
Cantonese, a dialect from southern China that has dominated the Chinatowns of North America for decades, is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.
The change can be heard in the neighborhood’s lively restaurants and solemn church services, in parks, street markets and language schools. It has been accelerated by Chinese-American parents, including many who speak Cantonese at home, as they press their children to learn Mandarin for the advantages it could bring as China’s influence grows in the world...
... With Mandarin’s ascent has come a realignment of power in Chinese-American communities, where the recent immigrants are gaining economic and political clout, said Peter Kwong, a professor of Asian-American studies at Hunter College.
“The fact of the matter is that you have a whole generation switch, with very few people speaking only Cantonese,” he said. The Cantonese-speaking populace, he added, “is not the player anymore.”
The switch mirrors a sea change under way in China, where Mandarin, as the official language, is becoming the default tongue everywhere.
In North America, its rise also reflects a major shift in immigration. For much of the last century, most Chinese living in the United States and Canada traced their ancestry to a region in the Pearl River Delta that included the district of Taishan. They spoke the Taishanese dialect, which is derived from and somewhat similar to Cantonese...
Cantonese, a dialect from southern China that has dominated the Chinatowns of North America for decades, is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.
The change can be heard in the neighborhood’s lively restaurants and solemn church services, in parks, street markets and language schools. It has been accelerated by Chinese-American parents, including many who speak Cantonese at home, as they press their children to learn Mandarin for the advantages it could bring as China’s influence grows in the world...
... With Mandarin’s ascent has come a realignment of power in Chinese-American communities, where the recent immigrants are gaining economic and political clout, said Peter Kwong, a professor of Asian-American studies at Hunter College.
“The fact of the matter is that you have a whole generation switch, with very few people speaking only Cantonese,” he said. The Cantonese-speaking populace, he added, “is not the player anymore.”
The switch mirrors a sea change under way in China, where Mandarin, as the official language, is becoming the default tongue everywhere.
In North America, its rise also reflects a major shift in immigration. For much of the last century, most Chinese living in the United States and Canada traced their ancestry to a region in the Pearl River Delta that included the district of Taishan. They spoke the Taishanese dialect, which is derived from and somewhat similar to Cantonese...
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:50
SOURCE: NYT (10-20-09)
Of all the consequences of shrinking newsrooms, one of the oddest is this: Fewer journalists are available to watch people die. But Michael Graczyk has witnessed more than 300 deaths, and many of those were people he had come to know.
An Associated Press reporter based in Houston, Mr. Graczyk covers death penalty cases in Texas, the state that uses capital punishment far more than any other, and since the 1980s, he has attended nearly every execution the state has carried out — he has lost track of the precise count. Whenever possible, he has also interviewed the condemned killers and their victims’ families.
What makes his record all the more extraordinary is that often, Mr. Graczyk’s has been the only account of the execution given to the world at large. Covering executions was once considered an obligatory — if often ghoulish — part of what a newspaper did, like writing up school board meetings and printing box scores, but one by one, such dutiful traditions have fallen away.
A generation ago, he had plenty of company from other journalists at the prison at Huntsville, about an hour’s drive north of Houston, where executions in Texas are carried out. But then Texas executions went from rare to routine, and shrinking news organizations found it harder to justify the expense of what was, from most parts of the state, a long trip.
“There are times when I’m the only person present who doesn’t have a stake in the outcome,” he said...
... Mr. Graczyk, who also writes on a wide range of other topics, developed his unusual specialty in the mid-1980s, a few years after Texas resumed executions after a long hiatus. He often covers the crimes, the trials and the appeals, immersed in details so gruesome it is hard to imagine they are real.
At first there were just a handful of executions each year, but the pace of capital punishment in Texas stepped up sharply through the next decade. The state has put 441 inmates to death since 1982, more than the next six states combined. That includes 334 since the start of 1997, a period in which Texas accounted for 41 percent of the national total.
An Associated Press reporter based in Houston, Mr. Graczyk covers death penalty cases in Texas, the state that uses capital punishment far more than any other, and since the 1980s, he has attended nearly every execution the state has carried out — he has lost track of the precise count. Whenever possible, he has also interviewed the condemned killers and their victims’ families.
What makes his record all the more extraordinary is that often, Mr. Graczyk’s has been the only account of the execution given to the world at large. Covering executions was once considered an obligatory — if often ghoulish — part of what a newspaper did, like writing up school board meetings and printing box scores, but one by one, such dutiful traditions have fallen away.
A generation ago, he had plenty of company from other journalists at the prison at Huntsville, about an hour’s drive north of Houston, where executions in Texas are carried out. But then Texas executions went from rare to routine, and shrinking news organizations found it harder to justify the expense of what was, from most parts of the state, a long trip.
“There are times when I’m the only person present who doesn’t have a stake in the outcome,” he said...
... Mr. Graczyk, who also writes on a wide range of other topics, developed his unusual specialty in the mid-1980s, a few years after Texas resumed executions after a long hiatus. He often covers the crimes, the trials and the appeals, immersed in details so gruesome it is hard to imagine they are real.
At first there were just a handful of executions each year, but the pace of capital punishment in Texas stepped up sharply through the next decade. The state has put 441 inmates to death since 1982, more than the next six states combined. That includes 334 since the start of 1997, a period in which Texas accounted for 41 percent of the national total.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 23:50
SOURCE: NYT (10-20-09)
MOSCOW — Until recently, Aleksandr Y. Khochinsky occupied a special niche in this capital, known as much for its corruption as for its wealth. He was an antiquarian who specialized in providing high-class grease for the best-connected palms in the government and other high-level circles.
Harried businessmen would rush in off the streets to his gallery here, Bogema, and think nothing of spending tens of thousands of dollars for the right item to delight the powerful, whether a set of dueling pistols, a suit of armor, antique Rolex watches or a $2 million seascape by the Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky...
... There is little chance that the dispute that has embroiled him and forced him to leave the country will be resolved; in Russia, high-level spats like this seldom are. But the deal, as described by Mr. Khochinsky, illuminates an aspect of life here for people at the intersection of business and politics at the highest levels, including the most powerful politician of them all: Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.
The current entanglement began with the purchase, in 2006 at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris, of 26 letters written by Voltaire to Catherine the Great, dating from 1768 to 1777. Mr. Khochinsky said he bought them for $869,000 — a world record for 18th-century handwritten texts, according to Sotheby’s — for a Russian billionaire who had made his money in banking and real estate...
... Mr. Khochinsky’s client wanted to give the letters to Mr. Putin, who was then president, with the idea that he could then donate them to a Russian library. In this, the billionaire was following a more recent tradition of currying favor with the Kremlin by returning cultural and historic artifacts to Russia. In the most prominent instance, Viktor F. Vekselberg, an oil and aluminum magnate, returned the Forbes family collection of Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs to Russia in 2004, at a cost of $100 million.
Mr. Khochinsky said he saw special value in the letters as a gift to Mr. Putin. Voltaire, though critical of the 18th-century French monarchy, had famously praised Catherine the Great as an enlightened despot.
In the letters Mr. Khochinsky purchased, Voltaire also wrote in support of Russian military campaigns in what is now Ukraine and Poland. In essence, here was a pre-eminent European philosopher supporting a leadership role for Russia in eastern Europe, an idea back in vogue in Moscow these days.
But now, Mr. Khochinsky says, the letters have vanished and he is out the $869,000 purchase price because the gift was not delivered. He says the letters disappeared sometime after he gave them to Russia’s Channel One, a state television outlet, to arrange a televised transfer of the documents to Mr. Putin...
Harried businessmen would rush in off the streets to his gallery here, Bogema, and think nothing of spending tens of thousands of dollars for the right item to delight the powerful, whether a set of dueling pistols, a suit of armor, antique Rolex watches or a $2 million seascape by the Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky...
... There is little chance that the dispute that has embroiled him and forced him to leave the country will be resolved; in Russia, high-level spats like this seldom are. But the deal, as described by Mr. Khochinsky, illuminates an aspect of life here for people at the intersection of business and politics at the highest levels, including the most powerful politician of them all: Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.
The current entanglement began with the purchase, in 2006 at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris, of 26 letters written by Voltaire to Catherine the Great, dating from 1768 to 1777. Mr. Khochinsky said he bought them for $869,000 — a world record for 18th-century handwritten texts, according to Sotheby’s — for a Russian billionaire who had made his money in banking and real estate...
... Mr. Khochinsky’s client wanted to give the letters to Mr. Putin, who was then president, with the idea that he could then donate them to a Russian library. In this, the billionaire was following a more recent tradition of currying favor with the Kremlin by returning cultural and historic artifacts to Russia. In the most prominent instance, Viktor F. Vekselberg, an oil and aluminum magnate, returned the Forbes family collection of Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs to Russia in 2004, at a cost of $100 million.
Mr. Khochinsky said he saw special value in the letters as a gift to Mr. Putin. Voltaire, though critical of the 18th-century French monarchy, had famously praised Catherine the Great as an enlightened despot.
In the letters Mr. Khochinsky purchased, Voltaire also wrote in support of Russian military campaigns in what is now Ukraine and Poland. In essence, here was a pre-eminent European philosopher supporting a leadership role for Russia in eastern Europe, an idea back in vogue in Moscow these days.
But now, Mr. Khochinsky says, the letters have vanished and he is out the $869,000 purchase price because the gift was not delivered. He says the letters disappeared sometime after he gave them to Russia’s Channel One, a state television outlet, to arrange a televised transfer of the documents to Mr. Putin...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 23:14
SOURCE: NYT (10-20-09)
DETROIT — To sell a car in the 1980s, dealers had to do little more than open their doors, and loyal buyers would show up to trade in their Chevrolet for a new Chevrolet, or their Toyota for another Toyota.
Nearly four in five Americans were repeat buyers back then, staunchly faithful to brands that they knew, trusted and were part of their self-image. The allegiance often continued through generations of families, like party affiliations in politics.
Now, partly as a result of increasingly fickle consumer tastes and the industry turmoil in Detroit, that hard-won loyalty is largely gone.
So far this year, only about 20 percent of car shoppers stayed with the same brand when they purchased a new vehicle, according to a study by the Oregon-based firm CNW Marketing Research.
Nearly four in five Americans were repeat buyers back then, staunchly faithful to brands that they knew, trusted and were part of their self-image. The allegiance often continued through generations of families, like party affiliations in politics.
Now, partly as a result of increasingly fickle consumer tastes and the industry turmoil in Detroit, that hard-won loyalty is largely gone.
So far this year, only about 20 percent of car shoppers stayed with the same brand when they purchased a new vehicle, according to a study by the Oregon-based firm CNW Marketing Research.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 23:13
SOURCE: NYT (10-19-09)
He dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin in 1935 as a junior, because of what he called “awful grades,” to pursue a career in the news business, and what a career Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. had. But though he became a broadcasting legend, he never abandoned his Longhorn roots, as evident in his last will and testament now on file at Manhattan Surrogate’s Court.
The will bequeaths Mr. Cronkite’s personal papers to the university, a process that started before his death on July 17 but will now end with the release of materials he had held onto at his office and homes in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard.
After becoming a news anchor, Mr. Cronkite returned often to campus as a lecturer and lent his rich and trusted baritone to the university as the narrator of ads that are still used at athletic events and to promote Longhorn accomplishments.
In college, Mr. Cronkite cut his journalistic teeth at The Daily Texan, the student paper, chasing interviews with the likes of Gertrude Stein while developing a fondness for pipe-smoking.
With Mr. Cronkite’s blessing, archivists at the university’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History had already collected nearly 300 linear feet of material consisting of papers and records that were owned by CBS, in its role as Mr. Cronkite’s employer, as well as some of his personal papers that he had forwarded to them for safekeeping. Among the treasures: a reporter’s notebook from his tour of Vietnam in 1968, when he soured on the war.
With the 24-page will filed late this summer after Mr. Cronkite’s death at age 92, the transfer of the rights to the personal papers and memorabilia became official. In May, the university hopes to an unveil an exhibit about Mr. Cronkite, according to Don Carleton, the executive director of the Briscoe Center.
The will bequeaths Mr. Cronkite’s personal papers to the university, a process that started before his death on July 17 but will now end with the release of materials he had held onto at his office and homes in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard.
After becoming a news anchor, Mr. Cronkite returned often to campus as a lecturer and lent his rich and trusted baritone to the university as the narrator of ads that are still used at athletic events and to promote Longhorn accomplishments.
In college, Mr. Cronkite cut his journalistic teeth at The Daily Texan, the student paper, chasing interviews with the likes of Gertrude Stein while developing a fondness for pipe-smoking.
With Mr. Cronkite’s blessing, archivists at the university’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History had already collected nearly 300 linear feet of material consisting of papers and records that were owned by CBS, in its role as Mr. Cronkite’s employer, as well as some of his personal papers that he had forwarded to them for safekeeping. Among the treasures: a reporter’s notebook from his tour of Vietnam in 1968, when he soured on the war.
With the 24-page will filed late this summer after Mr. Cronkite’s death at age 92, the transfer of the rights to the personal papers and memorabilia became official. In May, the university hopes to an unveil an exhibit about Mr. Cronkite, according to Don Carleton, the executive director of the Briscoe Center.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 22:13
Name of source: Pew Research Center
SOURCE: Pew Research Center (10-22-09)
The belief that the press should keep political leaders from doing things that should not be done often depends on who those political leaders are, or more specifically, which party controls the White House. Currently, in the midst of the Obama administration, two-thirds of Republicans (65%) support the so-called "watchdog role" for the press, compared with 55% of Democrats. But last year, while Bush was still in office, only 44% of Republicans felt it was good that press criticism keeps political leaders honest, and Democrats were much more pro watchdog (71% supported press criticism). This partisan pattern has existed since the question was first asked by Pew Research in 1985. Throughout the Bush administration, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to support the press's watchdog role. During the Clinton years, Republicans were the strongest proponents of press criticism, and during Reagan and Bush Sr., it was again the Democrats. Political independents express far less change in opinion. Two-thirds of independents currently favor the watchdog role for the press, little changed from 1985 or any time in between.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 02:21
Name of source: Fox News
SOURCE: Fox News (10-21-09)
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the Bush administration had developed a new strategy on the war in Afghanistan before leaving office -- a strategy that he said "bears a striking resemblance" to the one announced by President Obama in March.
In a speech to the Center for Security Policy, Cheney said the Bush administration handed Obama's transition team a policy review of the Afghan war conducted last fall to meet the new challenges posed by the Taliban...
... Cheney's comments countered a recent claim by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the Obama administration had to form an Afghan war strategy from scratch because the Bush administration hadn't asked any key questions about the war and left it "adrift."
The comments add more fuel to the ongoing war of words between the former vice president and Obama administration officials over the current administration's national security policies, including the Justice Department's probe into alleged abuse of terror suspects by the Bush CIA and the president's plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
In a speech to the Center for Security Policy, Cheney said the Bush administration handed Obama's transition team a policy review of the Afghan war conducted last fall to meet the new challenges posed by the Taliban...
... Cheney's comments countered a recent claim by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the Obama administration had to form an Afghan war strategy from scratch because the Bush administration hadn't asked any key questions about the war and left it "adrift."
The comments add more fuel to the ongoing war of words between the former vice president and Obama administration officials over the current administration's national security policies, including the Justice Department's probe into alleged abuse of terror suspects by the Bush CIA and the president's plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 02:09
SOURCE: Fox News (10-20-09)
For Army Capt. John Poindexter, being awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for heroism Tuesday marked an "opportunity to close a chapter" in his life.
"The general feeling is a pretty intense level of excitement," Poindexter told Foxnews.com just before he and 85 other Vietnam veterans were honored at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.
"It will mean to me that I've filled an important duty to the men who I literally owe my life to, men who supported me in a desperate battle 40 years ago in the jungles along the Cambodian border."
Poindexter, 65, was one of 86 veterans of Troop A, 1st Squadron of the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment who were honored for defining the meaning of "bravery and heroism," President Obama said.
"The general feeling is a pretty intense level of excitement," Poindexter told Foxnews.com just before he and 85 other Vietnam veterans were honored at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.
"It will mean to me that I've filled an important duty to the men who I literally owe my life to, men who supported me in a desperate battle 40 years ago in the jungles along the Cambodian border."
Poindexter, 65, was one of 86 veterans of Troop A, 1st Squadron of the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment who were honored for defining the meaning of "bravery and heroism," President Obama said.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:53
Name of source: The WashingtonPost
SOURCE: The WashingtonPost (10-21-09)
His first article in the Washington Blade was a front-page scoop, but Lou Chibbaro Jr. didn't claim credit. He wrote under a pseudonym, Lou Romano, because those were the days when being associated with a gay newspaper could ruin a reputation.
More than 30 years later, as Chibbaro chronicles momentous changes in the gay community, the press credentials hanging around his neck bear his name and a photo of his smiling face. The notes and files he has accumulated have become part of the "Lou Chibbaro Jr. Reporter Files," a 26-box repository of gay life and the gay rights movement now stored at George Washington University's library.
More than 30 years later, as Chibbaro chronicles momentous changes in the gay community, the press credentials hanging around his neck bear his name and a photo of his smiling face. The notes and files he has accumulated have become part of the "Lou Chibbaro Jr. Reporter Files," a 26-box repository of gay life and the gay rights movement now stored at George Washington University's library.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 02:03
Name of source: The Hill/OpEdNews.com
SOURCE: The Hill/OpEdNews.com (10-20-09)
An irritated House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday fired back at Republicans who have charged President Barack Obama with jeopardizing U.S. troops by deliberating over whether to send additional forces to Afghanistan.
Hoyer tore into Republicans — including House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) — for criticizing Obama’s approach to a war Hoyer said Republicans “abandoned.”
“My Republican colleagues, of course, abandoned their focus on Afghanistan for seven years — seven years — and let it drift, and did not resource it properly, and did not succeed,” a terse Hoyer said at his weekly news conference.
“For the Republicans who essentially diverted the attention of defeating terrorism in [Afghanistan] on the incorrect assertion that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, frankly, [Republicans' charges] don’t move me mightily as you can tell,” Hoyer said in response to a question about how quickly he would like to see Obama decide whether or not to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Hoyer tore into Republicans — including House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) — for criticizing Obama’s approach to a war Hoyer said Republicans “abandoned.”
“My Republican colleagues, of course, abandoned their focus on Afghanistan for seven years — seven years — and let it drift, and did not resource it properly, and did not succeed,” a terse Hoyer said at his weekly news conference.
“For the Republicans who essentially diverted the attention of defeating terrorism in [Afghanistan] on the incorrect assertion that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, frankly, [Republicans' charges] don’t move me mightily as you can tell,” Hoyer said in response to a question about how quickly he would like to see Obama decide whether or not to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 01:43
Name of source: The Daily Tell
SOURCE: The Daily Tell (10-21-09)
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $10 million to the Smithsonian Institution, which will go towards the construction of the new African-American History and Culture Museum, set to open on the National Mall in Washington D.C. by late 2015...
... The founding director of the museum, Lonnie G. Bunch III, said "[w]e are so pleased that the Gates Foundation has joined donors from across the country who have built a groundswell of support for this museum. We recognize this as a vote of confidence and a genuine honor." The museum was established by congressional act in 2003 and will be the 19th in the Smithsonian system. Curators and historians are already building a large collection of objects and artifacts for the museum’s exhibits.
... The founding director of the museum, Lonnie G. Bunch III, said "[w]e are so pleased that the Gates Foundation has joined donors from across the country who have built a groundswell of support for this museum. We recognize this as a vote of confidence and a genuine honor." The museum was established by congressional act in 2003 and will be the 19th in the Smithsonian system. Curators and historians are already building a large collection of objects and artifacts for the museum’s exhibits.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:13
Name of source: The Providence Journal
SOURCE: The Providence Journal (10-20-09)
PROVIDENCE — Since he first trudged through the woods to found Providence, Roger Williams has been variously called an American statesman, a canny trader and a champion of religious freedom.
Julianne Jennings, a Native American, would like to add a few more labels to the list.
Indian fighter.
Slave trader.
“We have to stop the lying,” says Jennings, 48, an author and adjunct professor of anthropology at Rhode Island College.
Julianne Jennings, a Native American, would like to add a few more labels to the list.
Indian fighter.
Slave trader.
“We have to stop the lying,” says Jennings, 48, an author and adjunct professor of anthropology at Rhode Island College.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:10
Name of source: Secrecy News
SOURCE: Secrecy News (10-22-09)
“Over time, the Supreme Court has become more diverse in some ways and more homogeneous in others,” a recent Congressional Research Service report (pdf) observed.
“When first constituted, and throughout most of its history, no women or minorities served on the Court… The religious affiliations of the Court’s members also have changed over time. For almost the first 50 years of the Court, all Justices were affiliated with protestant Christian churches. [Today], six of the nine current Justices identify as Roman Catholic…. Over time, Justices’ legal educations have become more homogeneous…. In the last 20 years, especially, three Ivy League law schools–Harvard, Yale, and Columbia–have been disproportionately represented on the Court.”
“To date, every Supreme Court Justice has been a lawyer. There is, however, no constitutional requirement regarding the educational background of a Justice or the necessity of a law degree.” See “Supreme Court Justices: Demographic Characteristics, Professional Experience, and Legal Education, 1789-2009,” September 9, 2009.
Other noteworthy new CRS reports that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).
“Presidential Terms and Tenure: Perspectives and Proposals for Change,” October 19, 2009.
“The Debate Over Selected Presidential Assistants and Advisors: Appointment, Accountability, and Congressional Oversight,” October 9, 2009.
“Poverty in the United States: 2008,” October 6, 2009.
“Public Safety Communications and Spectrum Resources: Policy Issues for Congress,” October 14, 2009.
“Managing Electronic Waste: Issues with Exporting E-Waste,” October 7, 2009.
“Iraq: Regional Perspectives and U.S. Policy,” October 6, 2009.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:08
Name of source: AP
SOURCE: AP (10-22-09)
Local officials say eight graves of Muslim soldiers who died for France in World War II have been desecrated in a village cemetery.
Maurice Duhamel, mayor of Montjoie-Saint-Martin, says he is filing suit after Nazi symbols were discovered Wednesday on the eight graves of Muslim soldiers in France's 2nd Armored Division.
Last week, the French Council for the Muslim Faith complained that those responsible for the desecration in December of some 500 Muslim soldiers' graves in Arras, in the north, have yet to be identified. It was the third time Muslim graves there had been desecrated.
Maurice Duhamel, mayor of Montjoie-Saint-Martin, says he is filing suit after Nazi symbols were discovered Wednesday on the eight graves of Muslim soldiers in France's 2nd Armored Division.
Last week, the French Council for the Muslim Faith complained that those responsible for the desecration in December of some 500 Muslim soldiers' graves in Arras, in the north, have yet to be identified. It was the third time Muslim graves there had been desecrated.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:05
SOURCE: AP (10-22-09)
Archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled the remains of an ancient auditorium where scholars, politicians and poets held debates and lectures, a site discovered during excavations of a bustling downtown piazza in preparation for a new subway line.
The partially dug complex, dating back to the 2nd century A.D., is believed to have been funded by Emperor Hadrian as a school to promote liberal arts and culture.
Known as the "Athenaeum" and named after the city of Athens, which was considered the center of culture at the time, the auditorium could accommodate up to 200 people, experts said.
The partially dug complex, dating back to the 2nd century A.D., is believed to have been funded by Emperor Hadrian as a school to promote liberal arts and culture.
Known as the "Athenaeum" and named after the city of Athens, which was considered the center of culture at the time, the auditorium could accommodate up to 200 people, experts said.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 11:06
Name of source: The Daily Beast
SOURCE: The Daily Beast (12-31-69)
The victim of a high-profile, racially charged assault case in West Virginia in 2007 is now coming clean and admitting that her story was fabricated. Megan Williams, who has since moved to Columbus, Ohio, told police that she had been stabbed, beaten, and sexually assaulted in a trailer. She claimed her six white assailants had forced her to eat feces while hailing racial slurs at her. At the time, Rev. Al Sharpton called for the case to be investigated as a hate crime. After guilty pleas from all six defenders, they were sentenced to 40 years in prison. Williams' attorney said that his client was coming forward out of remorse, and that she was not being pressured to recant her story.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 21:01
SOURCE: The Daily Beast (10-21-09)
Next Tuesday George W. Bush will join Terry Brandshaw, Zig Ziglar, and Rudy Giuliani as a featured speaker at a "Get Motivated!" business seminar in Fort Worth, Texas. Tickets to event are running at $19 per office. Bush will reprise his role as motivational speaker on December 2nd too. The organizers promise, "This motivational mega-show packs more inspirational firepower than a stick of dynamite!"
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 23:24
Name of source: Google News
SOURCE: Google News (10-21-09)
WARSAW, Poland — The U.S. violin virtuoso Joshua Bell helped raise funds Wednesday for a Jewish History museum in Poland with a charity concert at Warsaw's Opera House.
After years of seeking sponsors, construction of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews is starting in a vast square next to the monument honoring the fighters and victims of the 1943 ill-fated Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Partly funded by the city of Warsaw, the museum will show in an interactive way some 1,000 years of Jewish life and culture in Poland. It will also discuss the Nazi-organized Holocaust that wiped that rich life away...
... Before World War II, some 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland, accounting for 10 percent of the country's population. Most were killed in the Holocaust under the German occupation. The remaining small community is taking efforts to rekindle Jewish life and tradition in Poland.
After years of seeking sponsors, construction of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews is starting in a vast square next to the monument honoring the fighters and victims of the 1943 ill-fated Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Partly funded by the city of Warsaw, the museum will show in an interactive way some 1,000 years of Jewish life and culture in Poland. It will also discuss the Nazi-organized Holocaust that wiped that rich life away...
... Before World War II, some 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland, accounting for 10 percent of the country's population. Most were killed in the Holocaust under the German occupation. The remaining small community is taking efforts to rekindle Jewish life and tradition in Poland.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 20:57
Name of source: Talking Biz News
SOURCE: Talking Biz News (10-13-09)
BusinessWeek magazine, which was founded in 1929, just weeks before the October stock market crash that led to the Great Depression, has been sold to Bloomberg LP. Bloomberg staff members were told of the deal this afternoon. When founded, the magazine had 14 staffers. That number grew to more than 600, but in recent weeks had been down around 400.
Unlike Forbes, which at the time was the only major competitor in the business magazine field, BusinessWeek paid more attention to the economy of the country. One of the biggest indicators of its interest in the economy was a thermometer that appeared on the cover of the magazine for decades, from the 1930s to 1961, that gauged the temperature of the American economy.
The magazine was formed to provide interpretation to what was happening in the changing business world, said Malcolm Muir, president of McGraw-Hill at the time. He stated: “The Business Week always has a point of view, and usually a strong opinion, both of which it does not hesitate to express. And all the way through, we hope you will discover it is possible to write sanely and intelligently of business without being pompous or ponderous.”...
Unlike Forbes, which at the time was the only major competitor in the business magazine field, BusinessWeek paid more attention to the economy of the country. One of the biggest indicators of its interest in the economy was a thermometer that appeared on the cover of the magazine for decades, from the 1930s to 1961, that gauged the temperature of the American economy.
The magazine was formed to provide interpretation to what was happening in the changing business world, said Malcolm Muir, president of McGraw-Hill at the time. He stated: “The Business Week always has a point of view, and usually a strong opinion, both of which it does not hesitate to express. And all the way through, we hope you will discover it is possible to write sanely and intelligently of business without being pompous or ponderous.”...
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 20:41
Name of source: AFP
SOURCE: AFP (10-22-09)
An aviation museum inthe US state of Ohio that believed it was displaying a hair sample from famed flyer Amelia Earhart made an unfortunate discovery, after DNA analysis revealed it to be a piece of thread.
Museum officials said they had confidence in the artifact, having been recovered by a maid at the White House after Earhart -- a friend of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt -- stayed there shortly before her final flight.
The museum had lent a small sample of the "hair" to a historian's organization hoping to uncover the truth of Earhart's demise and seeking to match DNA to other artifacts found on the central Pacific island of Nikumororo.
The thread remains on display at the museum as part of an Earhart exhibition that is on show until November 15.
Museum officials said they had confidence in the artifact, having been recovered by a maid at the White House after Earhart -- a friend of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt -- stayed there shortly before her final flight.
The museum had lent a small sample of the "hair" to a historian's organization hoping to uncover the truth of Earhart's demise and seeking to match DNA to other artifacts found on the central Pacific island of Nikumororo.
The thread remains on display at the museum as part of an Earhart exhibition that is on show until November 15.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 11:03
Name of source: Stuff.co.nz
SOURCE: Stuff.co.nz (10-21-09)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sought to sustain Serbian loyalty on Tuesday, declaring the two countries, both seeking to reassert themselves in Europe, should unite in pride at their roles in World War 2.
Moscow views Serbia as a future hub for its planned South Stream pipeline which would deliver Russian gas to southern Europe; a plan viewed as a rival to Europe's Nabucco project...
... "Russia and Serbia are united today by common spiritual values. . . including by our desire to defend an honest assessment of history," Medvedev said at Soviet-style gala night marking 65 years since Red Army and Yugoslav forces freed Belgrade from Nazi occupation.
The anniversary is seen as a source of pride by Russia, and by Serbia which was humiliated by Nato bombings 10 years ago and Western recognition of independence last year of its breakaway region of Kosovo...
Moscow views Serbia as a future hub for its planned South Stream pipeline which would deliver Russian gas to southern Europe; a plan viewed as a rival to Europe's Nabucco project...
... "Russia and Serbia are united today by common spiritual values. . . including by our desire to defend an honest assessment of history," Medvedev said at Soviet-style gala night marking 65 years since Red Army and Yugoslav forces freed Belgrade from Nazi occupation.
The anniversary is seen as a source of pride by Russia, and by Serbia which was humiliated by Nato bombings 10 years ago and Western recognition of independence last year of its breakaway region of Kosovo...
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:52
Name of source: NBC News
SOURCE: NBC News (10-21-09)
MEDINA -- A World War II veteran is making another contribution to U.S. history, more than 60 years after the Bronze Star recipient served his country.
Herman Graebner, 89, remembers virtually every detail of his four years in the U.S. Army. What he didn't reveal until recently though, was that he had shot two reels of color movie film of the action he saw in the war.
Graebner, spry, alert, and bright eyed, says he put the two canisters of film into a box sometime after the war ended in 1945. "I had come back home," he said, "and my wife Marilynn and I were starting a family."
Three daughters and more than 60 years later, Captain Graebner's re-discovered treasures will become part of a History Channel documentary series...
... The 38 minutes of film document Graebner's experiences as he trekked across Europe in 1944 and 1945 as a member of the Army's 5th Armored Division...
Herman Graebner, 89, remembers virtually every detail of his four years in the U.S. Army. What he didn't reveal until recently though, was that he had shot two reels of color movie film of the action he saw in the war.
Graebner, spry, alert, and bright eyed, says he put the two canisters of film into a box sometime after the war ended in 1945. "I had come back home," he said, "and my wife Marilynn and I were starting a family."
Three daughters and more than 60 years later, Captain Graebner's re-discovered treasures will become part of a History Channel documentary series...
... The 38 minutes of film document Graebner's experiences as he trekked across Europe in 1944 and 1945 as a member of the Army's 5th Armored Division...
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:52
Name of source: USA Today
SOURCE: USA Today (10-21-09)
The Gallup organization first started asking Americans how they approved of the job the president was doing in the 1940s. See how each president since then has fared in the approval poll, look at some news events that influenced public opinion and compare how approval ratings evolved for each president.
Although the Gallup organization started asking Americans their opinions on presidential job performance during Franklin Roosevelt's term, Harry Truman's presidency was the first that the question was asked from the start of the term. Even then, Gallup asked the question infrequently. Now, Gallup's public opinion polls come out frequently. Although each poll is only a snapshot in time, over the course of history, the polls tell an interesting story about each presidency and American attitudes.
Click here to be directed to interactive graphic
Although the Gallup organization started asking Americans their opinions on presidential job performance during Franklin Roosevelt's term, Harry Truman's presidency was the first that the question was asked from the start of the term. Even then, Gallup asked the question infrequently. Now, Gallup's public opinion polls come out frequently. Although each poll is only a snapshot in time, over the course of history, the polls tell an interesting story about each presidency and American attitudes.
Click here to be directed to interactive graphic
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:51
Name of source: Yahoo News
SOURCE: Yahoo News (10-21-09)
BEAUFORT, N.C. – An anchor from a shipwreck thought to be Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, was so unstable that divers in North Carolina retrieved it Wednesday rather than waiting until next year.
Divers raised the 4.5-foot, 160-pound grapnel, or anchor, from the wreck in the Atlantic Ocean near Beaufort on Wednesday and will display it Thursday at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. The anchor originally had four prongs, but now has 1 1/2...
... Queen Anne's Revenge was a French slave ship that measured about 100 feet long with three masts and a crew of 150 to 200. Blackbeard captured the ship, then known as La Concorde, in 1717 and renamed it before it ran aground off Atlantic Beach a year later. The shipwreck, discovered in late 1996, is within sight of Fort Macon State Park.
Divers raised the 4.5-foot, 160-pound grapnel, or anchor, from the wreck in the Atlantic Ocean near Beaufort on Wednesday and will display it Thursday at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. The anchor originally had four prongs, but now has 1 1/2...
... Queen Anne's Revenge was a French slave ship that measured about 100 feet long with three masts and a crew of 150 to 200. Blackbeard captured the ship, then known as La Concorde, in 1717 and renamed it before it ran aground off Atlantic Beach a year later. The shipwreck, discovered in late 1996, is within sight of Fort Macon State Park.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:40
Name of source: Truthout
SOURCE: Truthout (10-21-09)
Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah is expected to finally gain access to diaries he wrote during the years while he was being tortured by CIA interrogators. A federal court judge has ordered the government to turn over unredacted volumes of the diaries and other "specified" writings to defense attorneys representing Zubaydah.
Zubaydah was the first high-value detainee captured after 9/11. He was repeatedly waterboarded and subjected to brutal torture techniques by CIA interrogators at secret black-site prisons.
Zubaydah was the first high-value detainee captured after 9/11. He was repeatedly waterboarded and subjected to brutal torture techniques by CIA interrogators at secret black-site prisons.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - 00:23
Name of source: Spiegel Online (Germany)
SOURCE: Spiegel Online (Germany) (10-20-09)
Archaeologists in Germany have made a number of sensational finds along a railway line under construction in eastern Germany -- Bronze Age treasures, burial sites and evidence of settlements dating back more than 7,000 years.
Archaeologists in the state of Saxony-Anhalt have uncovered 4,000-year-old skeletons and Bronze Age treasures in excavations along a railway line being built in eastern Germany.
Copper and amber jewellery and hundreds of dogs' teeth with holes bored in them as well as small shell discs worn as decoration for clothing have been found in the remains of settlements and graves from various epochs along the planned high-speed railway line from the cities of Erfurt to Leipzig, the Saxony Anhalt Office for Monument Protection and Archaeology said in a statement.
"The broad range of traces from ancient cultures and the number and quality of the individual finds show how important this region has been for thousands of years not just as a settlement area, but as a transport route," the statement said. Over the last year, archaeologists have retrieved more than 55,000 items on an area of around 100 hectares (247 acres).
Archaeologists in the state of Saxony-Anhalt have uncovered 4,000-year-old skeletons and Bronze Age treasures in excavations along a railway line being built in eastern Germany.
Copper and amber jewellery and hundreds of dogs' teeth with holes bored in them as well as small shell discs worn as decoration for clothing have been found in the remains of settlements and graves from various epochs along the planned high-speed railway line from the cities of Erfurt to Leipzig, the Saxony Anhalt Office for Monument Protection and Archaeology said in a statement.
"The broad range of traces from ancient cultures and the number and quality of the individual finds show how important this region has been for thousands of years not just as a settlement area, but as a transport route," the statement said. Over the last year, archaeologists have retrieved more than 55,000 items on an area of around 100 hectares (247 acres).
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 23:37
