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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: AP
SOURCE: AP (8-23-10)
Egypt's state news agency reports the country's top prosecutor has ordered a four-day detention of the deputy culture minister over the theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of "Poppy Flowers" and "Vase with Flowers," on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo. None of the museum's alarms and only seven of 43 surveillance cameras were working at the time of the robbery.
On Monday, General Prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered the four-day-detention of Deputy Culture Minister Mohsen Shalaan, along with four security guards. He accused them of neglect and professional delinquency, according to Egypt's Middle East News Agency....
Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of "Poppy Flowers" and "Vase with Flowers," on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo. None of the museum's alarms and only seven of 43 surveillance cameras were working at the time of the robbery.
On Monday, General Prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered the four-day-detention of Deputy Culture Minister Mohsen Shalaan, along with four security guards. He accused them of neglect and professional delinquency, according to Egypt's Middle East News Agency....
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 16:34
Comments
SOURCE: AP (8-23-10)
The wrecks of three British warships sunk after World War I off the coast of a Baltic Sea island have been found, Estonia's military announced Monday.
Using state-of-the-art sonar equipment, an Estonian naval vessel last week located the wrecks of HMS Cassandra, HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle near the Estonian island of Saaremaa, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Tallinn.
He said that the last coordinates of the vessels — reported by then British squadron commander Adm. Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair — were "surprisingly accurate" and helped the search substantially....
Using state-of-the-art sonar equipment, an Estonian naval vessel last week located the wrecks of HMS Cassandra, HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle near the Estonian island of Saaremaa, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Tallinn.
He said that the last coordinates of the vessels — reported by then British squadron commander Adm. Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair — were "surprisingly accurate" and helped the search substantially....
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 16:28
SOURCE: AP (8-23-10)
MADISON, Wis. – University of Wisconsin student Leo Burt approached his former journalism instructor at the student union one day in August 1970.
The intense 22-year-old thanked the man for encouraging him to write for a left-wing student newspaper, where he covered the Vietnam War protests raging on campus and where his politics had become radicalized. And he said goodbye because he was planning to live underground in Canada for reasons he wouldn't share.
"Only 10 days later, there he was on television," the instructor, Jack Holzhueter, recalled. "And I was shocked to know that Leo had participated in this event."
Forty years after a powerful bomb exploded on the Madison campus, Burt remains the last fugitive wanted by the FBI in connection with radical anti-Vietnam War activities. He vanished almost immediately after the bombing, and is now what one former prosecutor calls "Wisconsin's state ghost."...
The intense 22-year-old thanked the man for encouraging him to write for a left-wing student newspaper, where he covered the Vietnam War protests raging on campus and where his politics had become radicalized. And he said goodbye because he was planning to live underground in Canada for reasons he wouldn't share.
"Only 10 days later, there he was on television," the instructor, Jack Holzhueter, recalled. "And I was shocked to know that Leo had participated in this event."
Forty years after a powerful bomb exploded on the Madison campus, Burt remains the last fugitive wanted by the FBI in connection with radical anti-Vietnam War activities. He vanished almost immediately after the bombing, and is now what one former prosecutor calls "Wisconsin's state ghost."...
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 08:34
SOURCE: AP (8-21-10)
Thieves broke into a museum in central Cairo and made off with a painting by Vincent van Gogh valued at $50 million, officials said Saturday.
Egypt's minister of culture, Farouk Hosni, said police have launched an investigation into the theft from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum and authorities at all the country's airports and seaports have been notified and are on alert.
This is the second time the painting by the Dutch-born postimpressionist has been stolen from the Cairo museum. Thieves made off with the canvas in 1978, before authorities recovered it two years later at an undisclosed location in Kuwait....
Egypt's minister of culture, Farouk Hosni, said police have launched an investigation into the theft from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum and authorities at all the country's airports and seaports have been notified and are on alert.
This is the second time the painting by the Dutch-born postimpressionist has been stolen from the Cairo museum. Thieves made off with the canvas in 1978, before authorities recovered it two years later at an undisclosed location in Kuwait....
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 15:14
SOURCE: AP (8-19-10)
The Egyptian antiquities department says a stolen Greek-era statue that was confiscated in Canada is on its way home.
Thursday's statement said the marble bust was seized by Canadian customs after it was illegally brought into the country.
The 5 inch (13 centimeter) tall figure will be handed over to the Egyptian embassy in Canada. There were no further details on the age and nature of the statue....
Thursday's statement said the marble bust was seized by Canadian customs after it was illegally brought into the country.
The 5 inch (13 centimeter) tall figure will be handed over to the Egyptian embassy in Canada. There were no further details on the age and nature of the statue....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 22:56
SOURCE: AP (8-17-10)
For 193 years the Ohio Clock has stood watch over the U.S. Senate, a subject of rumor, curiosity and misinformation.
Was it made in Ohio? Did senators stash whiskey inside it?
Now the elegant clock is making its first journey beyond the Capitol. That may not answer the questions, but it will give the clock a long-needed renovation, inside and out, Senate officials say.
The 11-foot-tall piece is a Capitol landmark. Countless press conferences are held there — reporters know "OCC" means Ohio Clock corridor — as are informal meet-ups of staffers and friends....
Was it made in Ohio? Did senators stash whiskey inside it?
Now the elegant clock is making its first journey beyond the Capitol. That may not answer the questions, but it will give the clock a long-needed renovation, inside and out, Senate officials say.
The 11-foot-tall piece is a Capitol landmark. Countless press conferences are held there — reporters know "OCC" means Ohio Clock corridor — as are informal meet-ups of staffers and friends....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 13:05
SOURCE: AP (8-16-10)
A trial date has been set on a bid to block a Walmart Supercenter near an endangered Civil War battlefield in northern Virginia....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 13:04
Name of source: CNN
SOURCE: CNN (8-23-10)
First lady Michelle Obama will join former first lady Laura Bush on September 11 at the Flight 93 National Memorial outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, according to a statement from the National Park Foundation.
Obama and Bush will be joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
Fundraising is now under way for a memorial slated for dedication on September 11, 2011, the statement noted....
Obama and Bush will be joined by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
Fundraising is now under way for a memorial slated for dedication on September 11, 2011, the statement noted....
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 16:26
SOURCE: CNN (8-23-10)
A chestnut tree beloved by Holocaust victim Anne Frank as she wrote her diary in hiding in the Netherlands fell down Monday, the Anne Frank House museum told CNN. The tree, which was more than 150 years old, had been diseased since 2005 and had a support structure to help keep it upright.
Since the tree was found to be diseased, hundreds of saplings grown from its chestnuts have been donated to schools and parks around the world, the Anne Frank Museum said.
Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen just weeks before the Nazi concentration camp was liberated in 1945. But her name, story and message live on through her diary and, also, through her ailing tree. A fungus had left two-thirds of it hollow, said Anne Frank House spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker. A battle began in late 2007 between city officials who wanted to chop it down and activists who insisted it should stay....
Since the tree was found to be diseased, hundreds of saplings grown from its chestnuts have been donated to schools and parks around the world, the Anne Frank Museum said.
Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen just weeks before the Nazi concentration camp was liberated in 1945. But her name, story and message live on through her diary and, also, through her ailing tree. A fungus had left two-thirds of it hollow, said Anne Frank House spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker. A battle began in late 2007 between city officials who wanted to chop it down and activists who insisted it should stay....
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 16:22
SOURCE: CNN (8-20-10)
The Democratic National Committee is out Friday with a new television ad that looks forward to the November elections and closes with a cameo from former President George W. Bush.
Entitled "Big Choices," the ad frames the midterm elections as a choice between the policies of President Obama and national Democrats and the policies of Bush and the GOP. It captures a view of idealistic Americana –rolling fields of wheat, windmills, a teacher in a classroom, a welder in a factory–before Bush makes a surprise appearance with a verbal gaffe....
Entitled "Big Choices," the ad frames the midterm elections as a choice between the policies of President Obama and national Democrats and the policies of Bush and the GOP. It captures a view of idealistic Americana –rolling fields of wheat, windmills, a teacher in a classroom, a welder in a factory–before Bush makes a surprise appearance with a verbal gaffe....
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 15:11
SOURCE: CNN (8-17-10)
With his head bowed and a barely detectable quiver in his voice, the baseball player known as the "Iron Horse" devastated the crowd at Yankee Stadium, not by hitting a home run, but by announcing that he was dying.
It was July 4, 1939, and Lou Gehrig, a first baseman for the New York Yankees, had reached the end of a storied career.
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got," said Gehrig, who during his career played 2,130 consecutive games and still holds the record for the most grand slams. "Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."
Gehrig's words were chilling considering his diagnosis: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is a rare, incurable neurodegenerative disease (eventually named after him) that first manifests as muscle weakness and quickly descends to paralysis, an inability to breathe and death.
More than 70 years after his speech, a new, small study in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology may have unlocked a tantalizing clue about Gehrig's illness -- one that could be connected to his history of concussions.
"He did have three or four major concussions that landed him in the hospital," said Dr. Ann McKee, associate professor of Neurology and Pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine. "It is interesting to speculate that they may have contributed to his ALS."...
It was July 4, 1939, and Lou Gehrig, a first baseman for the New York Yankees, had reached the end of a storied career.
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got," said Gehrig, who during his career played 2,130 consecutive games and still holds the record for the most grand slams. "Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."
Gehrig's words were chilling considering his diagnosis: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS is a rare, incurable neurodegenerative disease (eventually named after him) that first manifests as muscle weakness and quickly descends to paralysis, an inability to breathe and death.
More than 70 years after his speech, a new, small study in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology may have unlocked a tantalizing clue about Gehrig's illness -- one that could be connected to his history of concussions.
"He did have three or four major concussions that landed him in the hospital," said Dr. Ann McKee, associate professor of Neurology and Pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine. "It is interesting to speculate that they may have contributed to his ALS."...
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 17:57
SOURCE: CNN (8-18-10)
Fossils from Australia show animal life on Earth began at least 650 million years ago, 70 million years earlier than previous estimates, Princeton University scientists report.
Princeton geosciences professor Adam Maloof and graduate student Catherine Rose came upon the fossils while researching a massive ice age, known as the “snowball effect,” that left much of the planet covered in ice 635 million years ago. Scientists had thought animal life could not have survived that ice age. But as they inspected a glacial deposit in south Australia, they found the fossils of the sponge-like ocean reef animals.
The researchers call the animals sponge-like because the fossil record shows them to have a network of internal canals, likely for filtering food from seawater as sponges do. The earliest fossilized record of sponges had been 520 million years ago. The earliest fossils of hard-bodies animals date to 550 million years ago....
Princeton geosciences professor Adam Maloof and graduate student Catherine Rose came upon the fossils while researching a massive ice age, known as the “snowball effect,” that left much of the planet covered in ice 635 million years ago. Scientists had thought animal life could not have survived that ice age. But as they inspected a glacial deposit in south Australia, they found the fossils of the sponge-like ocean reef animals.
The researchers call the animals sponge-like because the fossil record shows them to have a network of internal canals, likely for filtering food from seawater as sponges do. The earliest fossilized record of sponges had been 520 million years ago. The earliest fossils of hard-bodies animals date to 550 million years ago....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 17:56
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (8-23-10)
In February 2007, Alberto R. Gonzales, the attorney general under President George W. Bush, issued a stern warning to those who murdered blacks with impunity during the civil rights era: “You have not gotten away with anything. We are still on your trail.”
He noted that time was short. The window of opportunity to solve racially motivated crimes more than 40 years old was closing. Families of the victims had waited decades for resolution.
More than three years later, they are still waiting.
There have been no federal indictments since Mr. Gonzales’s announcement, which heralded the Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative. Very little of the millions of dollars approved by Congress to finance the initiative has materialized. Though 40-year-old murder cases are incredibly difficult to solve, no Federal Bureau of Investigation field agents have been assigned to pursue the cases full time.
Those who hoped for an intensive, all-out law enforcement effort to beat the clock, akin to the search for Eric Robert Rudolph or the Unabomber, have been sorely disappointed. Instead, witnesses say the F.B.I. has taken months or years to approach them, even as key suspects have died....
He noted that time was short. The window of opportunity to solve racially motivated crimes more than 40 years old was closing. Families of the victims had waited decades for resolution.
More than three years later, they are still waiting.
There have been no federal indictments since Mr. Gonzales’s announcement, which heralded the Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative. Very little of the millions of dollars approved by Congress to finance the initiative has materialized. Though 40-year-old murder cases are incredibly difficult to solve, no Federal Bureau of Investigation field agents have been assigned to pursue the cases full time.
Those who hoped for an intensive, all-out law enforcement effort to beat the clock, akin to the search for Eric Robert Rudolph or the Unabomber, have been sorely disappointed. Instead, witnesses say the F.B.I. has taken months or years to approach them, even as key suspects have died....
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 15:10
SOURCE: NYT (8-22-10)
Since 1869, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has made its name helping New Yorkers understand their roots. But the more the society pondered its future, the more the people at its helm became convinced that it needed to break with its past.
Making what they called a “forward-looking decision,” the trustees hung a for-sale sign on the society’s longtime home at 122 East 58th Street several years ago. Then — to the shock of the society’s own members, who were still reeling from the sale — the trustees gave the society’s vast collection of scholarly books and historic papers to the New York Public Library.
The radical downsizing may have been as pragmatic as it was bold, but the timing could have been better.
Passing the Baton
75 ThumbnailThe July 2007 deed that conveyed the building at 122 East 58th Street from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society to the Hampton Synagogue.
The building was sold in 2007, and one-fourth of the $24 million that the society raised from the sale washed away as the stock market eroded. That, together with high administrative costs, led the society to make large staff reductions in early 2009, just as the new owners of its old headquarters sold them again — this time for $28.5 million....
Making what they called a “forward-looking decision,” the trustees hung a for-sale sign on the society’s longtime home at 122 East 58th Street several years ago. Then — to the shock of the society’s own members, who were still reeling from the sale — the trustees gave the society’s vast collection of scholarly books and historic papers to the New York Public Library.
The radical downsizing may have been as pragmatic as it was bold, but the timing could have been better.
Passing the Baton
75 ThumbnailThe July 2007 deed that conveyed the building at 122 East 58th Street from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society to the Hampton Synagogue.
The building was sold in 2007, and one-fourth of the $24 million that the society raised from the sale washed away as the stock market eroded. That, together with high administrative costs, led the society to make large staff reductions in early 2009, just as the new owners of its old headquarters sold them again — this time for $28.5 million....
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 11:04
SOURCE: NYT (8-22-10)
Housing will eventually recover from its great swoon. But many real estate experts now believe that home ownership will never again yield rewards like those enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century, when houses not only provided shelter but also a plump nest egg....
For the first half of the 20th century, he said, expectations followed the opposite path. Houses were seen the way cars are now: as a consumer durable that the buyer eventually used up.
The notion of housing as an investment first began to blossom after World War II, when the nesting urges of returning soldiers created a construction boom. Demand was stoked as their bumper crop of children grew up and bought places of their own. The inflation of the 1970s, which increased the value of hard assets, and liberal tax policies both helped make housing a good bet. So did the long decline in mortgage rates from the early 1980s.
Despite all these tailwinds, prices rose modestly for much of the period. Real home prices increased 1.1 percent a year after inflation, according to Mr. Shiller’s research.
By the late 1990s, however, the rate was 4 percent a year. Happy homeowners were taking about $100 billion a year out of their houses, which paid for a lot of good times.
“The experience we had from the late 1970s to the late 1990s was an aberration,” said Barry Ritholtz of the equity research firm Fusion IQ. “People shouldn’t be holding their breath waiting for it to happen again.”...
For the first half of the 20th century, he said, expectations followed the opposite path. Houses were seen the way cars are now: as a consumer durable that the buyer eventually used up.
The notion of housing as an investment first began to blossom after World War II, when the nesting urges of returning soldiers created a construction boom. Demand was stoked as their bumper crop of children grew up and bought places of their own. The inflation of the 1970s, which increased the value of hard assets, and liberal tax policies both helped make housing a good bet. So did the long decline in mortgage rates from the early 1980s.
Despite all these tailwinds, prices rose modestly for much of the period. Real home prices increased 1.1 percent a year after inflation, according to Mr. Shiller’s research.
By the late 1990s, however, the rate was 4 percent a year. Happy homeowners were taking about $100 billion a year out of their houses, which paid for a lot of good times.
“The experience we had from the late 1970s to the late 1990s was an aberration,” said Barry Ritholtz of the equity research firm Fusion IQ. “People shouldn’t be holding their breath waiting for it to happen again.”...
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 11:00
SOURCE: NYT (8-22-10)
CARACAS, Venezuela — Some here joke that they might be safer if they lived in Baghdad. The numbers bear them out.
In Iraq, a country with about the same population as Venezuela, there were 4,644 civilian deaths from violence in 2009, according to Iraq Body Count; in Venezuela that year, the number of murders climbed above 16,000....
Venezuela is struggling with a decade-long surge in homicides, with about 118,541 since President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a group that compiles figures based on police files. (The government has stopped publicly releasing its own detailed homicide statistics, but has not disputed the group’s numbers, and news reports citing unreleased government figures suggest human rights groups may actually be undercounting murders)....
That compares with recent measures of 22.7 per 100,000 people in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, and 14 per 100,000 in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. As Mr. Chávez’s government often points out, Venezuela’s crime problem did not emerge overnight, and the concern over murders preceded his rise to power.
But scholars here describe the climb in homicides in the past decade as unprecedented in Venezuelan history; the number of homicides last year was more than three times higher than when Mr. Chávez was elected in 1998.
Reasons for the surge are complex and varied, experts say. While many Latin American economies are growing fast, Venezuela’s has continued to shrink. The gap between rich and poor remains wide, despite spending on anti-poverty programs, fueling resentment. Adding to that, the nation is awash in millions of illegal firearms....
In Iraq, a country with about the same population as Venezuela, there were 4,644 civilian deaths from violence in 2009, according to Iraq Body Count; in Venezuela that year, the number of murders climbed above 16,000....
Venezuela is struggling with a decade-long surge in homicides, with about 118,541 since President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a group that compiles figures based on police files. (The government has stopped publicly releasing its own detailed homicide statistics, but has not disputed the group’s numbers, and news reports citing unreleased government figures suggest human rights groups may actually be undercounting murders)....
That compares with recent measures of 22.7 per 100,000 people in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, and 14 per 100,000 in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. As Mr. Chávez’s government often points out, Venezuela’s crime problem did not emerge overnight, and the concern over murders preceded his rise to power.
But scholars here describe the climb in homicides in the past decade as unprecedented in Venezuelan history; the number of homicides last year was more than three times higher than when Mr. Chávez was elected in 1998.
Reasons for the surge are complex and varied, experts say. While many Latin American economies are growing fast, Venezuela’s has continued to shrink. The gap between rich and poor remains wide, despite spending on anti-poverty programs, fueling resentment. Adding to that, the nation is awash in millions of illegal firearms....
Monday, August 23, 2010 - 09:31
SOURCE: NYT (8-19-10)
The Moon is shrinking.
In making the announcement, scientists were quick to add that the Moon has not shrunk by much, that the shrinking may have occurred over a billion years, and that the Moon will not shrink out of view in the future.
“The kind of radius change and shrinking we’re describing here is so small that you would never notice it,” said Thomas R. Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, during a NASA-sponsored telephone news conference on Thursday.
Dr. Watters and his colleagues deduced the Moon’s diminishing size from cracks on the surface seen in images taken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter....
In making the announcement, scientists were quick to add that the Moon has not shrunk by much, that the shrinking may have occurred over a billion years, and that the Moon will not shrink out of view in the future.
“The kind of radius change and shrinking we’re describing here is so small that you would never notice it,” said Thomas R. Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, during a NASA-sponsored telephone news conference on Thursday.
Dr. Watters and his colleagues deduced the Moon’s diminishing size from cracks on the surface seen in images taken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 10:29
SOURCE: NYT (8-14-10)
...If there were a formula for becoming a folk hero — a secret recipe handed down from Robin Hood’s cap designer, and adapted for the social networking era — then Steven Slater, formerly an active employee of JetBlue Airlines, may as well have discovered it....
Cultural historians generally divide folk heroes loosely into several categories. One is reserved for acts of spectacular courage and skill, and includes Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, who landed a US Airways jet on the Hudson River in 2009 and took charge of the safe evacuation of all 155 people aboard. Another is populated by political figures, like the abolitionist John Brown, or Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary.
The third is a rogue’s gallery of daring but flawed solo actors who become heroes precisely because of their sympathetic failings, and their willingness to risk their life or livelihood in the name of defying the Man (or the Woman, in Mr. Slater’s account). And, it must be said, to do so with some flair. Mr. Slater snagged two beers and popped the emergency exit chute, sliding out of the parked airliner like James Bond on a tight budget.
In all the above respects, the flight attendant has less in common with the ideologue or selfless hero than with D. B. Cooper, the skyjacker who in 1971 parachuted out of an airplane with a bag of ransom money, into a densely wooded patch of Washington State. Both men jumped from a plane to an uncertain fate; both made their statements in dramatic fashion, in front of an audience; both were, in some sense, instantly sympathetic outlaws....
Cultural historians generally divide folk heroes loosely into several categories. One is reserved for acts of spectacular courage and skill, and includes Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, who landed a US Airways jet on the Hudson River in 2009 and took charge of the safe evacuation of all 155 people aboard. Another is populated by political figures, like the abolitionist John Brown, or Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary.
The third is a rogue’s gallery of daring but flawed solo actors who become heroes precisely because of their sympathetic failings, and their willingness to risk their life or livelihood in the name of defying the Man (or the Woman, in Mr. Slater’s account). And, it must be said, to do so with some flair. Mr. Slater snagged two beers and popped the emergency exit chute, sliding out of the parked airliner like James Bond on a tight budget.
In all the above respects, the flight attendant has less in common with the ideologue or selfless hero than with D. B. Cooper, the skyjacker who in 1971 parachuted out of an airplane with a bag of ransom money, into a densely wooded patch of Washington State. Both men jumped from a plane to an uncertain fate; both made their statements in dramatic fashion, in front of an audience; both were, in some sense, instantly sympathetic outlaws....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 10:21
Name of source: The Boston Globe
SOURCE: The Boston Globe (8-21-10)
In the early 19th century, Bostonians largely had two options if they got sick: house calls from expensive private physicians or an overcrowded poorhouse.
So two centuries ago yesterday, in a 2,677-word petition, two of the city’s top doctors called on the city’s gentry to help establish the state’s first public general hospital.
Eleven years after Warren and Jackson spurred the city to action, Massachusetts General Hospital opened in 1821 in the Bulfinch Building. Yesterday, five of Warren and Jackson’s descendents, four of whom have worked at the hospital, stood on the building’s steps and with hundreds of others gathered on the lawn signed copies of the original petition.
So Warren and Jackson drafted their petition, which they called The Circular Letter, making its aim clear in the first line: “It has appeared very desirable to a number of respectable gentlemen, that a hospital for the reception of lunatics and other sick persons should be established in this town.’’
The letter details the lack of medicine available for the poor and the moral obligation to help them....
So two centuries ago yesterday, in a 2,677-word petition, two of the city’s top doctors called on the city’s gentry to help establish the state’s first public general hospital.
Eleven years after Warren and Jackson spurred the city to action, Massachusetts General Hospital opened in 1821 in the Bulfinch Building. Yesterday, five of Warren and Jackson’s descendents, four of whom have worked at the hospital, stood on the building’s steps and with hundreds of others gathered on the lawn signed copies of the original petition.
So Warren and Jackson drafted their petition, which they called The Circular Letter, making its aim clear in the first line: “It has appeared very desirable to a number of respectable gentlemen, that a hospital for the reception of lunatics and other sick persons should be established in this town.’’
The letter details the lack of medicine available for the poor and the moral obligation to help them....
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 15:45
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (8-20-10)
A toilet described as once having belonged to US author JD Salinger has been put on sale on the online auction site eBay for $1m (£644,000).
The vendor says he obtained the "used toilet commode" from a couple who now own the former home of the Catcher in the Rye author.
It comes "uncleaned and in its original condition", the ad for it states.
The toilet comes with a letter from Joan Littlefield, attesting that the toilet was removed during renovations to her and her husband's house in Cornish, New Hampshire, formerly owned by the reclusive author.
She writes that they knew all the workmen who installed the toilet decades ago when Salinger had work done on the house....
The vendor says he obtained the "used toilet commode" from a couple who now own the former home of the Catcher in the Rye author.
It comes "uncleaned and in its original condition", the ad for it states.
The toilet comes with a letter from Joan Littlefield, attesting that the toilet was removed during renovations to her and her husband's house in Cornish, New Hampshire, formerly owned by the reclusive author.
She writes that they knew all the workmen who installed the toilet decades ago when Salinger had work done on the house....
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 15:27
SOURCE: BBC (8-18-10)
A funeral has been held for a Palestinian said to have been involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre in which 11 Israeli athletes died.
The ceremony for Amin al-Hindi was held in Ramallah, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and senior Palestinian leaders present. He was buried in Gaza.
Mr Hindi, who died aged 70 in Jordan on Tuesday, led the General Intelligence Service under the late Yasser Arafat.
In the 1970s, he was a security officer in the PLO's ruling Fatah movement.
He is alleged to have then also been a member of Black September, a militant offshoot of Fatah behind the Munich attacks....
The ceremony for Amin al-Hindi was held in Ramallah, with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and senior Palestinian leaders present. He was buried in Gaza.
Mr Hindi, who died aged 70 in Jordan on Tuesday, led the General Intelligence Service under the late Yasser Arafat.
In the 1970s, he was a security officer in the PLO's ruling Fatah movement.
He is alleged to have then also been a member of Black September, a militant offshoot of Fatah behind the Munich attacks....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:15
SOURCE: BBC (8-19-10)
Previously unseen records shedding new light on life in Victorian workhouses have gone online for the first time.
They include thousands of untouched 19th Century letters, memos and reports between the Cardiff and Llanfyllin Poor Law Unions and the boards regulating workhouses in London.
The documents have been pieced together by volunteer groups, including several in Wales.
The 'Living the Poor Life' project was led by the National Archives.
Experts at the London institution say the new digitally scanned catalogue of records will prove a vital research tool in helping understand what life was like for those forced to live in the workhouses as well as those who ran them....
They include thousands of untouched 19th Century letters, memos and reports between the Cardiff and Llanfyllin Poor Law Unions and the boards regulating workhouses in London.
The documents have been pieced together by volunteer groups, including several in Wales.
The 'Living the Poor Life' project was led by the National Archives.
Experts at the London institution say the new digitally scanned catalogue of records will prove a vital research tool in helping understand what life was like for those forced to live in the workhouses as well as those who ran them....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:13
SOURCE: BBC (8-17-10)
The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin is showing paintings by the Ulster artist, Sir John Lavery, which include portraits of nearly all the senior British and Irish politicians from the period of Irish independence. BBC NI's Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison has been to have a look.
The Hugh Lane gallery, a centre for modern art in Dublin, is not far from the city's main tree-lined thoroughfare, O'Connell Street.
The gallery is now showing an exhibition that can only be described as history in pictures.
The artist, Sir John Lavery, had extraordinary access to the great and the good on all sides of the argument about Irish independence.
For the first time, his portraits in the Ulster Museum can now be seen with those from the Dublin gallery....
The Hugh Lane gallery, a centre for modern art in Dublin, is not far from the city's main tree-lined thoroughfare, O'Connell Street.
The gallery is now showing an exhibition that can only be described as history in pictures.
The artist, Sir John Lavery, had extraordinary access to the great and the good on all sides of the argument about Irish independence.
For the first time, his portraits in the Ulster Museum can now be seen with those from the Dublin gallery....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:11
SOURCE: BBC (8-19-10)
The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain is being commemorated by a reading of one of Churchill's most famous speeches and a fly-past.
Winston Churchill's "so much owed by so many to so few" speech will be read at 1552 BST, precisely 70 years after he gave the address in Parliament.
The reading outside the Churchill War Rooms will be followed by a Spitfire and Hurricane fly-past over Whitehall.
The RAF defeat of the Luftwaffe is seen as a turning point in World War II....
Winston Churchill's "so much owed by so many to so few" speech will be read at 1552 BST, precisely 70 years after he gave the address in Parliament.
The reading outside the Churchill War Rooms will be followed by a Spitfire and Hurricane fly-past over Whitehall.
The RAF defeat of the Luftwaffe is seen as a turning point in World War II....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:09
Name of source: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (8-20-10)
Two infant skeletons wrapped in 1930s newspapers and placed in doctor's bags have been found inside an unclaimed suitcase in a Los Angeles apartment building.
The skeletons, believed to be decades-old remains of fetuses or infants, were discovered in the trunk inscribed with the initials JMB.
Other things found in the trunk included cigarettes, a green bowl, black and white photos, letters, a book club membership certificate inscribed Jean M. Barrie and ticket stubs from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The larger skeleton, the size of a newborn, was wrapped in a Los Angeles Times newspaper dated 1934.
A smaller skeleton was wrapped in newspaper dated 1932, said Gloria Gomez, property manager of the co-op for the last 10 years....
The skeletons, believed to be decades-old remains of fetuses or infants, were discovered in the trunk inscribed with the initials JMB.
Other things found in the trunk included cigarettes, a green bowl, black and white photos, letters, a book club membership certificate inscribed Jean M. Barrie and ticket stubs from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The larger skeleton, the size of a newborn, was wrapped in a Los Angeles Times newspaper dated 1934.
A smaller skeleton was wrapped in newspaper dated 1932, said Gloria Gomez, property manager of the co-op for the last 10 years....
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 15:22
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (8-20-10)
The Russian state has been given a month by a court to prove it owns the Kremlin after descendants of Ivan the Terrible filed a lawsuit to stake their claim to the Moscow landmark.
The Princes Foundation, an organisation representing the descendants of Rurik, a ninth century prince whose eponymous dynasty ruled until 1598, has argued that its ancestors built and lived in the 69-acre Kremlin complex and that it should now be returned to their ownership.
The prince said he wanted “indefinite and 24-hour use” of at least one of the Kremlin’s four palaces or of several of its 19 towers for the Princes Foundation, which he heads. The fortress has changed hands often in Russia’s tumultuous history and past owners include two royal dynasties – one of which was the Ruriks – the Bolsheviks and the modern Russian state.
The problem for the state is that no official ownership of the Kremlin has ever been registered. The prince wants his foundation to be awarded management rights over the sprawling complex, for the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to be housed there, and for his foundation to be allowed to hold cultural, political and religious events inside its famous walls....
The Princes Foundation, an organisation representing the descendants of Rurik, a ninth century prince whose eponymous dynasty ruled until 1598, has argued that its ancestors built and lived in the 69-acre Kremlin complex and that it should now be returned to their ownership.
The prince said he wanted “indefinite and 24-hour use” of at least one of the Kremlin’s four palaces or of several of its 19 towers for the Princes Foundation, which he heads. The fortress has changed hands often in Russia’s tumultuous history and past owners include two royal dynasties – one of which was the Ruriks – the Bolsheviks and the modern Russian state.
The problem for the state is that no official ownership of the Kremlin has ever been registered. The prince wants his foundation to be awarded management rights over the sprawling complex, for the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to be housed there, and for his foundation to be allowed to hold cultural, political and religious events inside its famous walls....
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 15:19
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (8-20-10)
US senators last night renewed their call for full independent probe into the decision to free the Lockerbie bomber.
Democratic Senators Robert Menendez, Frank Lautenberg, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand made their appeal in letters to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Americans have alleged that Scottish authorities may have let Megrahi return to his native Libya because of pressure from energy giant BP, eager to safeguard a lucrative exploration deal with Tripoli....
Democratic Senators Robert Menendez, Frank Lautenberg, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand made their appeal in letters to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Americans have alleged that Scottish authorities may have let Megrahi return to his native Libya because of pressure from energy giant BP, eager to safeguard a lucrative exploration deal with Tripoli....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:02
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (8-19-10)
Libyan officials have said that the Lockerbie bomber is now expected to live for another two years with the help of treatment from regime's best doctors.
Col Mummar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has decreed that Abedelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, a former intelligence agent, must receive the same level of medical care as afforded to state leaders.
High level Libyan officials told The Daily Telegraph that Megrahi is expected to live for at least two years, despite his release a year ago by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds that he had only three months to live.
On Friday, Megrahi's family are expected to mark the first anniversary of his return, from a prison sentence in Scotland for the mass murder of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103, quietly at the home.
Officials said his wife, mother, five sons and brothers, plan to gather for an Iftar meal to break the fast marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The state media has been told to show pictures of Megrahi's return to mark the occasion....
Col Mummar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has decreed that Abedelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, a former intelligence agent, must receive the same level of medical care as afforded to state leaders.
High level Libyan officials told The Daily Telegraph that Megrahi is expected to live for at least two years, despite his release a year ago by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds that he had only three months to live.
On Friday, Megrahi's family are expected to mark the first anniversary of his return, from a prison sentence in Scotland for the mass murder of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103, quietly at the home.
Officials said his wife, mother, five sons and brothers, plan to gather for an Iftar meal to break the fast marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The state media has been told to show pictures of Megrahi's return to mark the occasion....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:00
Name of source: AOL News
SOURCE: AOL News (8-21-10)
The U.S. Treasury has released a $1 coin commemorating former President James Buchanan. And people aren't happy about it.
To understand why, some background is helpful. In 2007, thanks to a bill promoted by then-Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, the Treasury began minting $1 coins with the likenesses of former Presidents, starting with George Washington.
The coins -- which have been appearing ever since, featuring a new President every three months -- are meant to improve use and circulation of America's dollar coins, which are often seen as an awkward misfit among currency, neither fish nor fowl.
The U.S. Treasury has released a $1 coin commemorating former President James Buchanan. And people aren't happy about it.
To understand why, some background is helpful. In 2007, thanks to a bill promoted by then-Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, the Treasury began minting $1 coins with the likenesses of former Presidents, starting with George Washington.
The coins -- which have been appearing ever since, featuring a new President every three months -- are meant to improve use and circulation of America's dollar coins, which are often seen as an awkward misfit among currency, neither fish nor fowl.
In February 2008, a year after the first presidential coins were minted, The New York Times reported that a survey had found large numbers of American teens to be woefully ignorant of their country's history. It was far from the first time Americans had gotten a dismal grade in history, suggesting that Sununu's commemorative-coin campaign isn't having much of an effect in that arena, either....
To understand why, some background is helpful. In 2007, thanks to a bill promoted by then-Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, the Treasury began minting $1 coins with the likenesses of former Presidents, starting with George Washington.
The coins -- which have been appearing ever since, featuring a new President every three months -- are meant to improve use and circulation of America's dollar coins, which are often seen as an awkward misfit among currency, neither fish nor fowl.
The U.S. Treasury has released a $1 coin commemorating former President James Buchanan. And people aren't happy about it.
To understand why, some background is helpful. In 2007, thanks to a bill promoted by then-Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, the Treasury began minting $1 coins with the likenesses of former Presidents, starting with George Washington.
The coins -- which have been appearing ever since, featuring a new President every three months -- are meant to improve use and circulation of America's dollar coins, which are often seen as an awkward misfit among currency, neither fish nor fowl.
In February 2008, a year after the first presidential coins were minted, The New York Times reported that a survey had found large numbers of American teens to be woefully ignorant of their country's history. It was far from the first time Americans had gotten a dismal grade in history, suggesting that Sununu's commemorative-coin campaign isn't having much of an effect in that arena, either....
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - 15:08
Name of source: WaPo
SOURCE: WaPo (8-17-10)
Social activists and civil rights leaders, among them the Rev. Al Sharpton, are planning marches and demonstrations -- including the unveiling of a nearly four-story-tall original sculpture on the Mall -- on Aug. 28 to coincide with a rally organized by Fox News personality Glenn Beck.
Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin among the scheduled speakers, will take place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech there.
The conservative talk show host announced in November that he wanted to reveal a "100 year plan for America" at the Lincoln Memorial. More recently, he said that the purpose of his Aug. 28 event is to restore the country's "values" and to pay tribute to military families.
"There will be absolutely no politics involved," he said. "This rally will honor the troops, unite the American people under the principles of integrity and truth, and make a pledge to restore honor within ourselves and our country."...
Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin among the scheduled speakers, will take place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech there.
The conservative talk show host announced in November that he wanted to reveal a "100 year plan for America" at the Lincoln Memorial. More recently, he said that the purpose of his Aug. 28 event is to restore the country's "values" and to pay tribute to military families.
"There will be absolutely no politics involved," he said. "This rally will honor the troops, unite the American people under the principles of integrity and truth, and make a pledge to restore honor within ourselves and our country."...
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 15:37
SOURCE: WaPo (8-19-10)
Okay, liberty lovers -- time for your summer-slowdown pop quiz:
True or false? The following sentence appears in the U.S. Constitution:
"No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned . . . or in any other way destroyed . . . except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice."
...False.
In 1215, scribes for King John of England wrote that declaration, in Latin, into the Magna Carta...It is the oldest document seen as establishing the rule of common law that became codified 575 years later with this variation: "No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
That's the sentence in the Constitution....
True or false? The following sentence appears in the U.S. Constitution:
"No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned . . . or in any other way destroyed . . . except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice."
...False.
In 1215, scribes for King John of England wrote that declaration, in Latin, into the Magna Carta...It is the oldest document seen as establishing the rule of common law that became codified 575 years later with this variation: "No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
That's the sentence in the Constitution....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 10:50
Name of source: Religion News Service
SOURCE: Religion News Service (8-17-10)
The scenario might have seemed unlikely: prominent Muslims and Jews from the United States, trekking across the Atlantic in mournful, spiritual solidarity to visit two Nazi concentration camps. Together.
The trip to Dachau and Auschwitz was meant to combat the rise in Holocaust denial that has popped up in various Muslim and non-Muslim circles around the world--and online--in recent years.
"The best way to convince someone about the truth of something is to let them see it for themselves and experience it for themselves," said Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding in Carlstadt, who organized the trip.
"I feel that it was important to take Muslim leaders who have a really significant following in the American-Muslim community."...
The trip to Dachau and Auschwitz was meant to combat the rise in Holocaust denial that has popped up in various Muslim and non-Muslim circles around the world--and online--in recent years.
"The best way to convince someone about the truth of something is to let them see it for themselves and experience it for themselves," said Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Interreligious Understanding in Carlstadt, who organized the trip.
"I feel that it was important to take Muslim leaders who have a really significant following in the American-Muslim community."...
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 15:27
Name of source: LA Times
SOURCE: LA Times (8-20-10)
Who was Jean M. Barrie, the woman whose steamer trunk stored for decades in the basement of a Los Angeles apartment building contained the mummified remains of two babies?
That's the question investigators were mulling Thursday, two days after the babies — wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s — were discovered when the basement was being cleared out. As the county coroner began an autopsy on the bodies Thursday, Los Angeles Police Department detectives were left to sift through a crime scene that also is a time capsule.
Inside the trunk, police found a fur wrap, a flapper dress, a beaded purse and a bundle of blank medical test forms....
This Jean Barrie apparently lived in the Midwest and on the East Coast and was a relative of James M. Barrie, the author of the children's book "Peter Pan."...
That's the question investigators were mulling Thursday, two days after the babies — wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s — were discovered when the basement was being cleared out. As the county coroner began an autopsy on the bodies Thursday, Los Angeles Police Department detectives were left to sift through a crime scene that also is a time capsule.
Inside the trunk, police found a fur wrap, a flapper dress, a beaded purse and a bundle of blank medical test forms....
This Jean Barrie apparently lived in the Midwest and on the East Coast and was a relative of James M. Barrie, the author of the children's book "Peter Pan."...
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 12:46
SOURCE: LA Times (8-19-10)
Central Park is almost synonymous with New York. But historians have long wondered whether the city's signature park was originally conceived the way it looks today. Were the ornate colorful tiles underneath the Bethesda Terrace a vision of the original designers? What about elegant black lamps that dot the park?
Now historians might finally have some clues about the park's design.
Illustrations for features of Central Park and other public places in New York have resurfaced, and the city has gone to court to get them back. Real estate broker Sam Buckley said his father found the drawings, by Jacob Wrey Mould, in a Manhattan trash bin sometime before 1960, according to court documents.
Though Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park, Mould assisted with several noteworthy landmarks of the public space, such as Bethesda Terrace and Belvedere Castle.
The 127 drawings, which date from 1860 to 1885, are stamped "Department of Public Parks." The city claims it never authorized the destruction or abandonment of the drawings and believes they were "lost or erroneously discarded."
The city learned about the drawings after Buckley placed 86 of them for sale with Christie's auction house. He kept the remaining 41. The city asked the court to award $1 million in damages or compel Buckley to hand over the illustrations....
Now historians might finally have some clues about the park's design.
Illustrations for features of Central Park and other public places in New York have resurfaced, and the city has gone to court to get them back. Real estate broker Sam Buckley said his father found the drawings, by Jacob Wrey Mould, in a Manhattan trash bin sometime before 1960, according to court documents.
Though Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park, Mould assisted with several noteworthy landmarks of the public space, such as Bethesda Terrace and Belvedere Castle.
The 127 drawings, which date from 1860 to 1885, are stamped "Department of Public Parks." The city claims it never authorized the destruction or abandonment of the drawings and believes they were "lost or erroneously discarded."
The city learned about the drawings after Buckley placed 86 of them for sale with Christie's auction house. He kept the remaining 41. The city asked the court to award $1 million in damages or compel Buckley to hand over the illustrations....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:17
Name of source: Ria Novosti (RU)
SOURCE: Ria Novosti (RU) (8-18-10)
Georges Freche, a historian who was mayor of the provincial French city for 27 years until 2004, has commissioned French sculptor Francois Cacheux to produce the works, which weigh from 850 to 1,000 kilograms and cost around 200,000 euros ($260,000).
The first five are well on the way to being installed on a square in the west of Montpellier. French socialist Jean Jaures, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, French leader Charles de Gaulle and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt caused no trouble.
But then came the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, Vladimir Lenin.
French officials are not pleased. President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP was reportedly outraged to find General de Gaulle standing in apparent solidarity with Lenin....
The first five are well on the way to being installed on a square in the west of Montpellier. French socialist Jean Jaures, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, French leader Charles de Gaulle and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt caused no trouble.
But then came the leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, Vladimir Lenin.
French officials are not pleased. President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP was reportedly outraged to find General de Gaulle standing in apparent solidarity with Lenin....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 11:59
Name of source: Montreal Gazette
SOURCE: Montreal Gazette (8-19-10)
A debate still smoulders over one of the most ambitious, and disastrous, military endeavours in Canadian history that took place here 68 years ago today.
The Dieppe raid, to be marked here by Canadian and local French officials and some veterans with a series of wreath-laying events and an outdoor mass, is still viewed by some as a useless waste of lives.
But Antony Beevor, considered by some the most prominent military historian in the world, supports the argument that the Canadians mowed down or blown apart by overwhelming German firepower didn't die in vain.
"The Dieppe disaster had a fundamental influence on the planning for D-Day, albeit in mainly negative terms," saidBeevor, authorof D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, a 2009 international best-seller on the 1944 allied offensive that broke the Nazi grip on western Europe.
The failure proved that the Germans had so heavily fortified key ports in northern France that a direct raid from the sea "should be avoided at all costs," according to Beevor.
"Dieppe was a terrible sacrifice, but at least the Allies learned from that mistake and saved perhaps thousands of lives later."
Roughly 5,000 Canadians took part in the 1942 invasion, along with 1,000 British commandos and 50 U.S. Rangers.
The British and American leadership were under pressure from Soviet leader Josef Stalin to open a western front on mainland Europe, and Canadian politicians and military leaders were pushing for their soldiers stationed in Britain to be involved in battle....
The Dieppe raid, to be marked here by Canadian and local French officials and some veterans with a series of wreath-laying events and an outdoor mass, is still viewed by some as a useless waste of lives.
But Antony Beevor, considered by some the most prominent military historian in the world, supports the argument that the Canadians mowed down or blown apart by overwhelming German firepower didn't die in vain.
"The Dieppe disaster had a fundamental influence on the planning for D-Day, albeit in mainly negative terms," saidBeevor, authorof D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, a 2009 international best-seller on the 1944 allied offensive that broke the Nazi grip on western Europe.
The failure proved that the Germans had so heavily fortified key ports in northern France that a direct raid from the sea "should be avoided at all costs," according to Beevor.
"Dieppe was a terrible sacrifice, but at least the Allies learned from that mistake and saved perhaps thousands of lives later."
Roughly 5,000 Canadians took part in the 1942 invasion, along with 1,000 British commandos and 50 U.S. Rangers.
The British and American leadership were under pressure from Soviet leader Josef Stalin to open a western front on mainland Europe, and Canadian politicians and military leaders were pushing for their soldiers stationed in Britain to be involved in battle....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 11:40
Name of source: Daily Mail (UK)
SOURCE: Daily Mail (UK) (8-20-10)
Under the fire of Nazi guns and wading through a sea turning crimson with the blood of fallen colleagues, Bill Millin struggled towards the Normandy sands.
Waist deep in water, he led the commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade on to the beach as they fought to their deaths on the most famous day of World War II.
Amid the clatter of battle and dreadful cries of the injured, Millin only just caught the five words that turned him into a hero. 'Give us "Highland Laddie" man!' shouted Lord Lovat, the charismatic Chief of Clan Fraser and Brigadier of the 2,500 commandos, who was determined to put some backbone into his invading forces.
Obediently, 21-year-old Millin, Lovatt's personal piper, put the mouthpiece of his bagpipes to his lips, ignored the carnage and thundering crash of gunfire - and played as he had never played before.
It was 8.40 on June 6 1944, the morning of D-day. In the largest amphibious assault ever mounted, 150,000 troops from Britain, America and Canada were landing along a 60-mile stretch of the Normandy coastline.
D-day was the turning point in the Allies' battle against Hitler. And the name of Bill Millin, who died this week aged 88, is intrinsically linked with the events of that early summer's day. He is a reminder of the bravery and sacrifice of ordinary soldiers as they fought to protect this nation from the Nazis. He will live for ever in the annals of history....
Waist deep in water, he led the commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade on to the beach as they fought to their deaths on the most famous day of World War II.
Amid the clatter of battle and dreadful cries of the injured, Millin only just caught the five words that turned him into a hero. 'Give us "Highland Laddie" man!' shouted Lord Lovat, the charismatic Chief of Clan Fraser and Brigadier of the 2,500 commandos, who was determined to put some backbone into his invading forces.
Obediently, 21-year-old Millin, Lovatt's personal piper, put the mouthpiece of his bagpipes to his lips, ignored the carnage and thundering crash of gunfire - and played as he had never played before.
It was 8.40 on June 6 1944, the morning of D-day. In the largest amphibious assault ever mounted, 150,000 troops from Britain, America and Canada were landing along a 60-mile stretch of the Normandy coastline.
D-day was the turning point in the Allies' battle against Hitler. And the name of Bill Millin, who died this week aged 88, is intrinsically linked with the events of that early summer's day. He is a reminder of the bravery and sacrifice of ordinary soldiers as they fought to protect this nation from the Nazis. He will live for ever in the annals of history....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 11:21
Name of source: BBC News
SOURCE: BBC News (8-18-10)
The American Ballet Theatre company is to perform in Cuba later this year for the first time in 50 years.
Barack Obama's administration has given the troupe permission to dance at the Havana International Ballet Festival at the Karl Marx Theatre.
Its last Cuban performance was at the inaugural event in 1960.
While the general travel ban on US tourists remains, it is the latest sign of an easing of relations between the two former Cold War adversaries.
On 3 and 4 November, the company will perform scenes from ballets including Alexei Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas and Fancy Free by Jerome Robbins.
American Ballet executive director Rachel Moore, speaking at a Havana press conference to announce the tour, said: "I can't speak for the politics but I do believe that the arts are a tremendous bridge between communities....
Barack Obama's administration has given the troupe permission to dance at the Havana International Ballet Festival at the Karl Marx Theatre.
Its last Cuban performance was at the inaugural event in 1960.
While the general travel ban on US tourists remains, it is the latest sign of an easing of relations between the two former Cold War adversaries.
On 3 and 4 November, the company will perform scenes from ballets including Alexei Ratmansky's Seven Sonatas and Fancy Free by Jerome Robbins.
American Ballet executive director Rachel Moore, speaking at a Havana press conference to announce the tour, said: "I can't speak for the politics but I do believe that the arts are a tremendous bridge between communities....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 10:18
SOURCE: BBC News (8-20-10)
Scientists working in Chernobyl have found a way to predict which species there are likely to be most severely damaged by radioactive contamination.
The secret to a species' vulnerability, they say, lies in its DNA.
This discovery could reveal which species are most likely to decline or even become extinct in response to other types of environmental stress.
The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Professor Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, US, and Dr Anders Moller from the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, France, led the study.
The two scientists have been working in Chernobyl for more than a decade, gathering data about the populations of insects, birds and mammals in "zone of alienation" surrounding the desolate nuclear power station.
For this study, they used existing databases to examine in detail the DNA patterns of each of the species they had studied in Chernobyl.
DNA secret
With every generation of a species' lineage, the pattern of its DNA changes ever so slightly, as a result of the natural balance between mutations and the individual's ability to repair damaged DNA. This is how species evolve.
The rate of this change - as each piece of the DNA code is replaced by another - is called the substituion rate....
The secret to a species' vulnerability, they say, lies in its DNA.
This discovery could reveal which species are most likely to decline or even become extinct in response to other types of environmental stress.
The researchers published their findings in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Professor Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, US, and Dr Anders Moller from the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, France, led the study.
The two scientists have been working in Chernobyl for more than a decade, gathering data about the populations of insects, birds and mammals in "zone of alienation" surrounding the desolate nuclear power station.
For this study, they used existing databases to examine in detail the DNA patterns of each of the species they had studied in Chernobyl.
DNA secret
With every generation of a species' lineage, the pattern of its DNA changes ever so slightly, as a result of the natural balance between mutations and the individual's ability to repair damaged DNA. This is how species evolve.
The rate of this change - as each piece of the DNA code is replaced by another - is called the substituion rate....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 10:11
SOURCE: BBC News (8-20-10)
The UK government has urged Libya not to celebrate the first anniversary of the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Scottish ministers released Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, who has cancer, citing medical advice that three months was a "reasonable" life expectancy estimate.
He got a hero's welcome in Tripoli and the Foreign Office said similar scenes would be deeply insensitive to families of the 270 people killed in 1988.
The Scottish government said the decision was taken in good faith.
Meanwhile, two US senators are preparing to release what they say is evidence of commercial pressure behind the release of Megrahi.
Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said they would publish the details at a news conference which will also be attended by relatives of those who died in the 1988 bombing....
Scottish ministers released Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, who has cancer, citing medical advice that three months was a "reasonable" life expectancy estimate.
He got a hero's welcome in Tripoli and the Foreign Office said similar scenes would be deeply insensitive to families of the 270 people killed in 1988.
The Scottish government said the decision was taken in good faith.
Meanwhile, two US senators are preparing to release what they say is evidence of commercial pressure behind the release of Megrahi.
Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said they would publish the details at a news conference which will also be attended by relatives of those who died in the 1988 bombing....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 10:09
Name of source: Politico
SOURCE: Politico (8-19-10)
The recent call by Senate Republicans to hold hearings on revising the 14th Amendment seemed to introduce a new wrinkle in the polarizing debate over illegal immigration.
Or did it?
In the mid-1990s, House Judiciary Committee panels held two separate hearings on birthright citizenship, the policy protected under the 14th Amendment that automatically grants citizenship to people born in the United States.
What's striking is that the hearings on GOP-sponsored bills and resolutions then featured many of the same arguments as now, when some Republicans are calling for denying citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
Not only that, but some of the very same lawmakers now engaged in the heart of the debate were active back then as well, whether Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) arguing in favor of a change or Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) arguing against. In the end, the effort went nowhere — and the hearings give a clue as to why, because of the knotty constitutional and legal questions posed by overhauling the Reconstruction-era amendment....
Or did it?
In the mid-1990s, House Judiciary Committee panels held two separate hearings on birthright citizenship, the policy protected under the 14th Amendment that automatically grants citizenship to people born in the United States.
What's striking is that the hearings on GOP-sponsored bills and resolutions then featured many of the same arguments as now, when some Republicans are calling for denying citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
Not only that, but some of the very same lawmakers now engaged in the heart of the debate were active back then as well, whether Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) arguing in favor of a change or Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) arguing against. In the end, the effort went nowhere — and the hearings give a clue as to why, because of the knotty constitutional and legal questions posed by overhauling the Reconstruction-era amendment....
Friday, August 20, 2010 - 09:02
Name of source: Reuters
SOURCE: Reuters (8-19-10)
Archeologists have uncovered more than 500-year-old remains of about 50 Aztec children, some of them stuffed into ceramic jars for burial, during excavations for a new subway line in Mexico City.
The team from Mexico's National Institute for Anthropology and History also found the foundations of Aztec homes, hundreds of small figurines, and pots and plates dating from 1100 to 1500 AD, on the eve of the Spanish conquest, along the 15-mile (24-km) subway line, due to open in 2012 in southern Mexico City, home to about 20 million people.
Deceased children were often placed in earthen vessels before burial in the belief that the jars would resemble the mother's womb and keep them warm.
Among the objects found was a 20-inch (50-cm) stone figure of a woman discovered under the graves of two children, close to the site of a new subway stations....
The team from Mexico's National Institute for Anthropology and History also found the foundations of Aztec homes, hundreds of small figurines, and pots and plates dating from 1100 to 1500 AD, on the eve of the Spanish conquest, along the 15-mile (24-km) subway line, due to open in 2012 in southern Mexico City, home to about 20 million people.
Deceased children were often placed in earthen vessels before burial in the belief that the jars would resemble the mother's womb and keep them warm.
Among the objects found was a 20-inch (50-cm) stone figure of a woman discovered under the graves of two children, close to the site of a new subway stations....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:31
Name of source: The Northern Echo
SOURCE: The Northern Echo (8-19-10)
UNITED in death, they have lain together under the earth undisturbed for more than 350 years, victims of the Civil War that tore England apart.
Now, centuries after they were buried and forgotten, their story has finally come to light – and given a new insight into the months-long siege of York in 1644.
For, although they were once part of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary army, they did not die in battle, but instead succumbed to disease that was rife among the besieging force.
Archaeologists uncovered the remains on the site of what, even during the Civil War, was a “lost” church – All Saints – just outside the city walls, where until recently the modern Barbican leisure centre stood.
There were ten mass graves, all varying in size....
Now, centuries after they were buried and forgotten, their story has finally come to light – and given a new insight into the months-long siege of York in 1644.
For, although they were once part of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary army, they did not die in battle, but instead succumbed to disease that was rife among the besieging force.
Archaeologists uncovered the remains on the site of what, even during the Civil War, was a “lost” church – All Saints – just outside the city walls, where until recently the modern Barbican leisure centre stood.
There were ten mass graves, all varying in size....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:29
Name of source: Daily News & Analysis
SOURCE: Daily News & Analysis (8-19-10)
Archaeologists have discovered a large group of ancient stone statues at the worship site of Guizai Mountain near Hunan province.
According to People's Daily Online, these statues are a lot more in number and a lot older than the Qin Terracotta Warriors found in the depths of the Nanling Mountains located in Dao County of Yongzhou City.
Tang Zhongyong, director of the Dao County Administrative Office, said that the Guizai Mountain site is a large ancient worship site. There are over 5,000 vivid stone statues at the site, covering an area of 15,000 square metres.
They are statues of civil officials, military officers, pregnant women and all kinds of common soldiers and their height varies from 30 to 100 centimetres.
Archaeology experts in Hunan said that there are over 5,000 stone statues on the ground and a large number of stone statues buried about two meters below the ground....
According to People's Daily Online, these statues are a lot more in number and a lot older than the Qin Terracotta Warriors found in the depths of the Nanling Mountains located in Dao County of Yongzhou City.
Tang Zhongyong, director of the Dao County Administrative Office, said that the Guizai Mountain site is a large ancient worship site. There are over 5,000 vivid stone statues at the site, covering an area of 15,000 square metres.
They are statues of civil officials, military officers, pregnant women and all kinds of common soldiers and their height varies from 30 to 100 centimetres.
Archaeology experts in Hunan said that there are over 5,000 stone statues on the ground and a large number of stone statues buried about two meters below the ground....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:27
Name of source: Daily Press
SOURCE: Daily Press (8-19-10)
Two of the nation's foremost underwater archaeologists began work in the river off Yorktown Beach Wednesday morning, surveying the previously undetected wreck of a ship that may have been scuttled by the British during the Revolution.
Brought in by the Department of Historic Resources' Threatened Sites Program, the team includes Williamsburg-based John D. Broadwater — who recovered the historic turret of the USS Monitor in 2002 — and North Carolina-based Gordon Watts — who discovered the famous ironclad off Cape Hatteras in 1973.
But despite having spent thousands of hours exploring this historic stretch of the York River over the past 35 years, the pair will be getting their first direct look at a wreck that — until the bottom currents shifted a few years ago — has been buried under a deep layer of silt and oyster shells.
The unidentified ship is believed to be part of a fleet of nearly 60 British vessels that were anchored off Yorktown during the October 1781 battle that ended the Revolution....
Brought in by the Department of Historic Resources' Threatened Sites Program, the team includes Williamsburg-based John D. Broadwater — who recovered the historic turret of the USS Monitor in 2002 — and North Carolina-based Gordon Watts — who discovered the famous ironclad off Cape Hatteras in 1973.
But despite having spent thousands of hours exploring this historic stretch of the York River over the past 35 years, the pair will be getting their first direct look at a wreck that — until the bottom currents shifted a few years ago — has been buried under a deep layer of silt and oyster shells.
The unidentified ship is believed to be part of a fleet of nearly 60 British vessels that were anchored off Yorktown during the October 1781 battle that ended the Revolution....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:23
Name of source: USA Today
SOURCE: USA Today (8-19-10)
When the 9/11 museum opens in two years, its most poignant items will include two $2 bills, some cellphone bills, a 1993 "Welcome Back to the World Trade Center" mug and the contents of a woman's pocketbook.
All have been donated to the museum, which is asking families of those killed in the 2001 attacks for photos, personal items or mementos — things to show posterity that at the start of the 21st century there were people with achievements, passions and dreams that terrorism could not erase.
Although most 9/11 families seem inclined to give the museum photos or artifacts or recorded memories of their loved ones, some are boycotting the appeal because of misgivings about the museum now being built in the Trade Center's foundation pit.
They complain that the underground museum will be unsafe in case of attack; that it will devote too much attention to the al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked two airliners and crashed them into the Trade Center's towers; and that victims' unidentified remains, which are to be kept behind a "memorial wall," will become a macabre, if invisible, tourist attraction.
Museum officials such as President Joe Daniels respond that the underground site helps tell the story of 9/11 by showing visitors the Trade Center's footings and the 70-foot-high foundation wall that remained standing after the towers collapsed; that the terrorists' role must be explained, in part to debunk bogus conspiracy theories; and that Ground Zero is a more fitting repository for the victims' remains than the medical examiner's office....
All have been donated to the museum, which is asking families of those killed in the 2001 attacks for photos, personal items or mementos — things to show posterity that at the start of the 21st century there were people with achievements, passions and dreams that terrorism could not erase.
Although most 9/11 families seem inclined to give the museum photos or artifacts or recorded memories of their loved ones, some are boycotting the appeal because of misgivings about the museum now being built in the Trade Center's foundation pit.
They complain that the underground museum will be unsafe in case of attack; that it will devote too much attention to the al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked two airliners and crashed them into the Trade Center's towers; and that victims' unidentified remains, which are to be kept behind a "memorial wall," will become a macabre, if invisible, tourist attraction.
Museum officials such as President Joe Daniels respond that the underground site helps tell the story of 9/11 by showing visitors the Trade Center's footings and the 70-foot-high foundation wall that remained standing after the towers collapsed; that the terrorists' role must be explained, in part to debunk bogus conspiracy theories; and that Ground Zero is a more fitting repository for the victims' remains than the medical examiner's office....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:19
Name of source: Pew Research Center
SOURCE: Pew Research Center (8-19-10)
A substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined. More than a year and a half into his presidency, a plurality of the public says they do not know what religion Obama follows.
A new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009. Fully 43% say they do not know what Obama's religion is. The survey was completed in early August, before Obama's recent comments about the proposed construction of a mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center.
The view that Obama is a Muslim is more widespread among his political opponents than among his backers. Roughly a third of conservative Republicans (34%) say Obama is a Muslim, as do 30% of those who disapprove of Obama's job performance. But even among many of his supporters and allies, less than half now say Obama is a Christian. Among Democrats, for instance, 46% say Obama is a Christian, down from 55% in March 2009.
The belief that Obama is a Muslim has increased most sharply among Republicans (up 14 points since 2009), especially conservative Republicans (up 16 points). But the number of independents who say Obama is a Muslim has also increased significantly (up eight points). There has been little change in the number of Democrats who say Obama is a Muslim, but fewer Democrats today say he is a Christian (down nine points since 2009).
When asked how they learned about Obama's religion in an open-ended question, 60% of those who say Obama is a Muslim cite the media. Among specific media sources, television (at 16%) is mentioned most frequently. About one-in-ten (11%) of those who say Obama is a Muslim say they learned of this through Obama's own words and behavior....
A new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009. Fully 43% say they do not know what Obama's religion is. The survey was completed in early August, before Obama's recent comments about the proposed construction of a mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center.
The view that Obama is a Muslim is more widespread among his political opponents than among his backers. Roughly a third of conservative Republicans (34%) say Obama is a Muslim, as do 30% of those who disapprove of Obama's job performance. But even among many of his supporters and allies, less than half now say Obama is a Christian. Among Democrats, for instance, 46% say Obama is a Christian, down from 55% in March 2009.
The belief that Obama is a Muslim has increased most sharply among Republicans (up 14 points since 2009), especially conservative Republicans (up 16 points). But the number of independents who say Obama is a Muslim has also increased significantly (up eight points). There has been little change in the number of Democrats who say Obama is a Muslim, but fewer Democrats today say he is a Christian (down nine points since 2009).
When asked how they learned about Obama's religion in an open-ended question, 60% of those who say Obama is a Muslim cite the media. Among specific media sources, television (at 16%) is mentioned most frequently. About one-in-ten (11%) of those who say Obama is a Muslim say they learned of this through Obama's own words and behavior....
Related Links
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 23:00
Name of source: Irish Examiner
SOURCE: Irish Examiner (8-19-10)
THE Department of the Environment has launched an investigation into the complete destruction of two ancient ring-forts.
Senior archaeologists from its National Monuments section are liaising with gardaí in Co Cork as part of the probe.
It was launched following works on farmland in the village of Kilmurry near Macroom, Co Cork, on which the two recorded monuments were located.
Ring-forts are oval or circular fortified settlements or farmsteads that were built mostly during the Early Christian and Iron Age periods....
Senior archaeologists from its National Monuments section are liaising with gardaí in Co Cork as part of the probe.
It was launched following works on farmland in the village of Kilmurry near Macroom, Co Cork, on which the two recorded monuments were located.
Ring-forts are oval or circular fortified settlements or farmsteads that were built mostly during the Early Christian and Iron Age periods....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 13:20
Name of source: TampaBay.com
SOURCE: TampaBay.com (8-17-10)
Wake up and good morning. You don't usually see a reference to Adolf Hitler in a blog about Florida business, so this is an unusual posting. It seems a Tampa company called World Holdings LLC that says it owns a "significant number" of $208 million in bonds sold to U.S. purchasers following World War I. The company was rebuffed when it sought repayment by the German government, so in a lawsuit originally filed in Miami, World Holdings seeks "hundreds of millions of dollars."
According to this Bloomberg story, Germany sold the bonds to finance rebuilding following the conclusion of the war. By the mid- 1930s, after Hitler became chancellor, Germany had stopped making payments on the bonds in the run up to World War II....
According to this Bloomberg story, Germany sold the bonds to finance rebuilding following the conclusion of the war. By the mid- 1930s, after Hitler became chancellor, Germany had stopped making payments on the bonds in the run up to World War II....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 13:07
Name of source: Public Opinion Online
SOURCE: Public Opinion Online (8-12-10)
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved a resolution that would revise the boundaries of the Gettysburg National Military Park.
New boundaries would include the Gettysburg Train Station and land along Plum Run in Cumberland Township.
The Department of Interior is to acquire publicly owned property within the area by buying from willing sellers only, if efforts to acquire that property without cost have been exhausted. The government cannot exercise eminent domain....
New boundaries would include the Gettysburg Train Station and land along Plum Run in Cumberland Township.
The Department of Interior is to acquire publicly owned property within the area by buying from willing sellers only, if efforts to acquire that property without cost have been exhausted. The government cannot exercise eminent domain....
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 13:02
