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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: BBC News
SOURCE: BBC News (10-25-10)
Germany's diplomats were more deeply involved in the Holocaust than previously known, according to an official German government report.
The government is considering making the 900-page text mandatory reading for all its diplomats.
The report was commissioned in 2005 after it emerged that flattering obituaries of war-time diplomats were being published internally....
The government is considering making the 900-page text mandatory reading for all its diplomats.
The report was commissioned in 2005 after it emerged that flattering obituaries of war-time diplomats were being published internally....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 18:11
Comments
Name of source: Salon
SOURCE: Salon (10-24-10)
[Steve Kornacki is the news editor for Salon.]
You know the basic midterm narrative: The GOP, written off by pundits as a dying party after Barack Obama's sweeping 2008 victory, has staged a remarkable revival and is now poised to deliver a brutal blow to the first-term president on Nov. 2. Republicans are already celebrating their comeback — and promising an even bigger year in 2012.
Oddly enough, Walter Mondale knows exactly how they feel.
His party's obituary was written by the press after the 1980 election, when Ronald Reagan capitalized on stagflation to score a 44-state landslide over Jimmy Carter. Just like Obama, Reagan came to power with enormous expectations and soaring popularity — only to watch it all melt away in his first two years on the job, thanks to a brutal recession and double-digit unemployment. In the 1982 midterms, Democrats picked up more than two dozen House seats — a more impressive feat than it sounds, given that the GOP had only 191 seats to start with. Reagan's approval rating fell below 40 percent, and pundits began dismissing him as a one-termer.
It was in this environment that Mondale, who had served as Carter's vice president, decided to run for president in 1984, and polls at the end of '82 showed him leading Reagan by nearly 10 points. Of course, that's not how the race ended up two years later, when Mondale lost 49 states to Reagan. But his experience is worth keeping in mind now, with Republicans confidently predicting an end to the Obama presidency in 2012.
I spoke recently with Mondale, whose memoir, "The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics," was released earlier this month, about the political parallels between '82 and '10, the ways in which the '82 recession was different, and what it was like to run against Reagan at the peak of his popularity....
You know the basic midterm narrative: The GOP, written off by pundits as a dying party after Barack Obama's sweeping 2008 victory, has staged a remarkable revival and is now poised to deliver a brutal blow to the first-term president on Nov. 2. Republicans are already celebrating their comeback — and promising an even bigger year in 2012.
Oddly enough, Walter Mondale knows exactly how they feel.
His party's obituary was written by the press after the 1980 election, when Ronald Reagan capitalized on stagflation to score a 44-state landslide over Jimmy Carter. Just like Obama, Reagan came to power with enormous expectations and soaring popularity — only to watch it all melt away in his first two years on the job, thanks to a brutal recession and double-digit unemployment. In the 1982 midterms, Democrats picked up more than two dozen House seats — a more impressive feat than it sounds, given that the GOP had only 191 seats to start with. Reagan's approval rating fell below 40 percent, and pundits began dismissing him as a one-termer.
It was in this environment that Mondale, who had served as Carter's vice president, decided to run for president in 1984, and polls at the end of '82 showed him leading Reagan by nearly 10 points. Of course, that's not how the race ended up two years later, when Mondale lost 49 states to Reagan. But his experience is worth keeping in mind now, with Republicans confidently predicting an end to the Obama presidency in 2012.
I spoke recently with Mondale, whose memoir, "The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics," was released earlier this month, about the political parallels between '82 and '10, the ways in which the '82 recession was different, and what it was like to run against Reagan at the peak of his popularity....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 17:04
SOURCE: Salon (10-20-10)
The influential conservative publishing house Regnery has just released a book that argues, contrary to popular belief, that aviator and political leader Charles Lindbergh was neither anti-semitic nor pro-German, but rather was the victim of an unfounded smear campaign by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
According to promotional material, the book,"Lindbergh vs. Roosevelt: The Rivalry That Divided America" by James Duffy, argues that Lindbergh was the target of a"vicious personal vendetta by President Roosevelt" that"blighted his reputation forever." FDR's campaign, the book argues, also amounted to a"modern-day playbook for the Left and their attack on those who speak out against them."
We can't fully judge the book until we've read it. But the book jacket explicitly says:
This groundbreaking book reveals: ... Why the popular belief that Lindbergh was an anti–Semite is absolutely wrong
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 11:47
Name of source: Channel Canada
SOURCE: Channel Canada (10-25-10)
The new documentary, Canada Remembers: Women Who Have Served and Sacrificed will air on VisionTV November 11 at 10pm ET. It will be followed at 11pm ET by Canada Remembers: Their Achievements and Sacrifices.
During the Second World War, women served in non-combat support roles in the Royal Navy as WRENS, the air force women’s division and in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. Many women also took over important jobs and others supported the military to help keep supplies moving. War Brides, who married during World War II, were deeply affected by the conflict and had their lives completely changed. Many women have also served near the frontlines as medical support. The modern Canadian military has seen a relatively new development: women serving in combat as frontline soldiers. For the first time in Canadian history women have died in combat for their countries. And what of the women who have watched and waited as their loved ones go off to serve in combat conditions? The very real truth is that they may be sacrificing a husband, son or brother to a conflict half a world away. These women will share their stories, their memories and sacrifices while touching on the role their faith played to carry them through difficult times....
During the Second World War, women served in non-combat support roles in the Royal Navy as WRENS, the air force women’s division and in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. Many women also took over important jobs and others supported the military to help keep supplies moving. War Brides, who married during World War II, were deeply affected by the conflict and had their lives completely changed. Many women have also served near the frontlines as medical support. The modern Canadian military has seen a relatively new development: women serving in combat as frontline soldiers. For the first time in Canadian history women have died in combat for their countries. And what of the women who have watched and waited as their loved ones go off to serve in combat conditions? The very real truth is that they may be sacrificing a husband, son or brother to a conflict half a world away. These women will share their stories, their memories and sacrifices while touching on the role their faith played to carry them through difficult times....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 14:28
Name of source: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-25-10)
Still feuding with McCartney? Still happily married to Yoko Ono? Leading a reformed Beatles?
John Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday this month had he not been shot by a nutter outside the Dakota building in New York. What would he be doing now if Mark Chapman hadn’t been on his doorstep? Still feuding with McCartney? Still happily married to Yoko Ono? Leading a reformed Beatles with Paul, Ringo and that unlovable Beatles wannabe, Noel Gallagher, taking George’s place on lead guitar?
Re-masters of Lennon’s solo albums have been released to mark the birthday that never was, as have the Beatles’ Red and Blue best-of sets, while a hideous John Lennon peace monument was unveiled in Liverpool.
It’s always seemed to me that Lennon was at his least persuasive when celebrating peace, and his song Imagine, with its fatuous hippy-dippy lyrics, strikes me as the nadir of his career. What I love about Lennon was his ability to convey bile, anger, regret and a moving sense of loss and hurt, much of it stemming from the death of his mother, Julia, when he was a teenager.
Finding myself in Liverpool the other day, I made a solitary Beatles pilgrimage. My first stop was the Cavern club, which has been rebuilt since the Beatles played there but is scrupulously based on the original – though, mercifully, it no longer stinks of sweat and Jeyes fluid as it did in the early Sixties.
A John Lennon lookalike was on stage, singing Beatles songs at five in the afternoon, and I particularly liked his take on Paul McCartney’s Yesterday, a number lambasted by Lennon in his bitter song, How Do You Sleep?
In Marcus Cahill ’s version, the mocking lyric goes: “Leprosy,/Suddenly I’m not half the man I used to be/ There are pieces falling out of me/Oh, leprosy came suddenly.”...
John Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday this month had he not been shot by a nutter outside the Dakota building in New York. What would he be doing now if Mark Chapman hadn’t been on his doorstep? Still feuding with McCartney? Still happily married to Yoko Ono? Leading a reformed Beatles with Paul, Ringo and that unlovable Beatles wannabe, Noel Gallagher, taking George’s place on lead guitar?
Re-masters of Lennon’s solo albums have been released to mark the birthday that never was, as have the Beatles’ Red and Blue best-of sets, while a hideous John Lennon peace monument was unveiled in Liverpool.
It’s always seemed to me that Lennon was at his least persuasive when celebrating peace, and his song Imagine, with its fatuous hippy-dippy lyrics, strikes me as the nadir of his career. What I love about Lennon was his ability to convey bile, anger, regret and a moving sense of loss and hurt, much of it stemming from the death of his mother, Julia, when he was a teenager.
Finding myself in Liverpool the other day, I made a solitary Beatles pilgrimage. My first stop was the Cavern club, which has been rebuilt since the Beatles played there but is scrupulously based on the original – though, mercifully, it no longer stinks of sweat and Jeyes fluid as it did in the early Sixties.
A John Lennon lookalike was on stage, singing Beatles songs at five in the afternoon, and I particularly liked his take on Paul McCartney’s Yesterday, a number lambasted by Lennon in his bitter song, How Do You Sleep?
In Marcus Cahill ’s version, the mocking lyric goes: “Leprosy,/Suddenly I’m not half the man I used to be/ There are pieces falling out of me/Oh, leprosy came suddenly.”...
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 14:25
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-25-10)
n focusing on a short series, the Courtauld Institute provides more insight into the way he worked than even a huge exhibition might have, says Richard Dorment .
Cézanne’s series of paintings The Card Players is the cornerstone of his work between 1890 and 1895, and the prelude to the explosive creative achievement of his last years. It was a simple but inspired idea for the Courtauld Gallery to bring together three of the five versions of the picture and to display them alongside the preparatory studies in pencil, watercolour and oil. In addition, three of Cézanne’s most powerful portraits, all showing one of the models Cézanne used for The Card Players, complete our understanding of how he worked during this crucial period.
Although it isn’t a big show, we emerge more aware than ever of the complexity of Cézanne’s art, but no nearer to penetrating the enigma of Cézanne himself. All we can do is to stand back and watch the artist’s thought processes over a span of five years, as he casts a critical eye over a finished canvas, decides that he can do something to improve it, starts another canvas, fails again, but fails better. Moving from picture to picture, we can see how he corrects and strengthens perceived weaknesses, as in each attempt he tries to find monumentality, simplicity and pictorial unity....
Cézanne’s series of paintings The Card Players is the cornerstone of his work between 1890 and 1895, and the prelude to the explosive creative achievement of his last years. It was a simple but inspired idea for the Courtauld Gallery to bring together three of the five versions of the picture and to display them alongside the preparatory studies in pencil, watercolour and oil. In addition, three of Cézanne’s most powerful portraits, all showing one of the models Cézanne used for The Card Players, complete our understanding of how he worked during this crucial period.
Although it isn’t a big show, we emerge more aware than ever of the complexity of Cézanne’s art, but no nearer to penetrating the enigma of Cézanne himself. All we can do is to stand back and watch the artist’s thought processes over a span of five years, as he casts a critical eye over a finished canvas, decides that he can do something to improve it, starts another canvas, fails again, but fails better. Moving from picture to picture, we can see how he corrects and strengthens perceived weaknesses, as in each attempt he tries to find monumentality, simplicity and pictorial unity....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 14:24
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-25-10)
Nicolas Sarkozy has become the most unpopular French president in more than 50 years, according to a new poll.
As his country teetered on the brink of economic chaos because of strikes, blockades and riots, new polls put his approval rating at less than 30 per cent.
The figures made Mr Sarkozy even less popular than President Charles de Gaulle was in 1968 - the year millions took to the streets to demand a complete overhaul of French society.
The then ageing wartime leader fled France and prepared to call in the army to deal with rioters.
But while De Gaulle resigned in 1969, Mr Sarkozy shows no sign of quitting despite his new pension bill raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 being met with nationwide protests.
It came as thousands of British half term holidaymakers faced fuel shortages, 9,000 tons of rubbish lay uncollected in Marseilles, and the government estimated the cost of strikes at more than £350 million a day.
A new BVA Orange L'Express poll showed 71 per cent of the population were unhappy with Mr Sarkozy's policies.
This followed a Journal du Dimanche newspaper poll at the weekend putting Mr Sarkozy's approval rating at just 29 percent - the lowest since his May 2007 election.
Nobody else has achieved such a low rating since De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic in 1958. He was succeeded as President by Georges Pompidou, Valery Giscard-d'Estaing, Francois Mitterrand, and Jacques Chirac, all of whom were extremely controversial figures....
As his country teetered on the brink of economic chaos because of strikes, blockades and riots, new polls put his approval rating at less than 30 per cent.
The figures made Mr Sarkozy even less popular than President Charles de Gaulle was in 1968 - the year millions took to the streets to demand a complete overhaul of French society.
The then ageing wartime leader fled France and prepared to call in the army to deal with rioters.
But while De Gaulle resigned in 1969, Mr Sarkozy shows no sign of quitting despite his new pension bill raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 being met with nationwide protests.
It came as thousands of British half term holidaymakers faced fuel shortages, 9,000 tons of rubbish lay uncollected in Marseilles, and the government estimated the cost of strikes at more than £350 million a day.
A new BVA Orange L'Express poll showed 71 per cent of the population were unhappy with Mr Sarkozy's policies.
This followed a Journal du Dimanche newspaper poll at the weekend putting Mr Sarkozy's approval rating at just 29 percent - the lowest since his May 2007 election.
Nobody else has achieved such a low rating since De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic in 1958. He was succeeded as President by Georges Pompidou, Valery Giscard-d'Estaing, Francois Mitterrand, and Jacques Chirac, all of whom were extremely controversial figures....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 14:22
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (8-24-10)
The inhabitants of Pompeii, who died when Mt Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago, were killed by intense heat rather than suffocation as previously thought, a new study of the disaster has claimed.
Thousands of people in the Roman city were caught up in a firestorm in which they were exposed to temperatures of up to 1112F (600C), a team of Italian scientists believe.
The extraordinarily high temperatures would have killed fleeing inhabitants in just 10 seconds, according to the volcanologists and anthropologists from Naples, the city which is overshadowed by the volcano.
Red-hot clouds of gas and fine ash known as pyroclastic density currents flowed down the slopes of Vesuvius, engulfing Pompeii's frescoed villas, as well as its shops, public baths and brothels, where explicit erotic paintings and the customers' graffiti can still be seen....
Thousands of people in the Roman city were caught up in a firestorm in which they were exposed to temperatures of up to 1112F (600C), a team of Italian scientists believe.
The extraordinarily high temperatures would have killed fleeing inhabitants in just 10 seconds, according to the volcanologists and anthropologists from Naples, the city which is overshadowed by the volcano.
Red-hot clouds of gas and fine ash known as pyroclastic density currents flowed down the slopes of Vesuvius, engulfing Pompeii's frescoed villas, as well as its shops, public baths and brothels, where explicit erotic paintings and the customers' graffiti can still be seen....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 18:07
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-24-10)
Human skulls or ancients mummies are being removed from British museums for fear of insulting minority religious groups, academics have warned.
Already museums around the country have been forced to close coffin lids, remove skeletons and respectfully replace the shroud on mummies in order to placate protesters. There are fears such artefacts could be banned altogether.
Small groups such as the Pagan Organisation Honouring the Ancient Dead claim that it is against the religious beliefs of our ancestors to put bodies on show....
Already museums around the country have been forced to close coffin lids, remove skeletons and respectfully replace the shroud on mummies in order to placate protesters. There are fears such artefacts could be banned altogether.
Small groups such as the Pagan Organisation Honouring the Ancient Dead claim that it is against the religious beliefs of our ancestors to put bodies on show....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 18:03
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-22-10)
A Chinese actor who is playing Chairman Mao in a forthcoming Chinese television drama has been accused of "blaspheming" the memory of the late dictator because he had taken British citizenship.
Zhang Tielin, 53, who studied for a master's degree at the National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire in the late 1980s, was attacked on several Chinese internet forums as an inappropriate choice to play a revolutionary 'hero' like Mao Tse-tung.
The attacks on Mr Zhang are the latest example of rising nationalism in China where the public are increasingly aware of their status as a rising superpower but still keenly remembers its history of oppression at the hands of the Japanese and the European colonial powers.
National sentiments have been running high in recent weeks following a diplomatic spat between China and its old enemy Japan that sparked anti-Japanese demonstrations in several cities across China with minor damage to Japanese shops and cars....
Zhang Tielin, 53, who studied for a master's degree at the National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire in the late 1980s, was attacked on several Chinese internet forums as an inappropriate choice to play a revolutionary 'hero' like Mao Tse-tung.
The attacks on Mr Zhang are the latest example of rising nationalism in China where the public are increasingly aware of their status as a rising superpower but still keenly remembers its history of oppression at the hands of the Japanese and the European colonial powers.
National sentiments have been running high in recent weeks following a diplomatic spat between China and its old enemy Japan that sparked anti-Japanese demonstrations in several cities across China with minor damage to Japanese shops and cars....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 00:56
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-20-10)
A senior member of the Australian trade union movement has come under fire after he claimed that the terrorist attacks on Sept 11, 2001 were part of an American conspiracy.
His call was prompted by an ongoing debate in the Australian parliament over the war in Afghanistan.
Mr Bracken told ABC Radio 774 that Australia should instead hold an inquiry into the events of 9/11, claiming that elements of the former Bush administration, US military and security services were involved in the attacks and that the motive was related to a large insurance policy that had been taken out on the Twin Towers....
His call was prompted by an ongoing debate in the Australian parliament over the war in Afghanistan.
Mr Bracken told ABC Radio 774 that Australia should instead hold an inquiry into the events of 9/11, claiming that elements of the former Bush administration, US military and security services were involved in the attacks and that the motive was related to a large insurance policy that had been taken out on the Twin Towers....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 13:59
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-22-10)
Mike Gardner, a council leader from Harrogate, has been photographed at a party dressed up as Adolf Hitler and performing the Nazi salute.
Tory councillor Mr Gardner has now been deselected after pictures of him at the fancy dress birthday bash were leaked onto the Internet via the social networking site, Facebook.
His colleagues in the Conservative party said his behaviour was "unacceptable" while Cllr Gardner claims he was the victim of a smear campaign....
Tory councillor Mr Gardner has now been deselected after pictures of him at the fancy dress birthday bash were leaked onto the Internet via the social networking site, Facebook.
His colleagues in the Conservative party said his behaviour was "unacceptable" while Cllr Gardner claims he was the victim of a smear campaign....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 13:55
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (10-21-10)
The landscape picture was given to Roland Davis, an airman who guarded Hess after the Second World War, as a keepsake.
Mr Davis joined the RAF as a rear gunner on Lancaster bomber and at the end of his career he guarded Hess in Berlin where the pair became friends.
The signed painting is thought to be of a Bavarian scene from Hess's childhood. The rest of the collection includes a helmet, gas mask, flight records and medals.
It is part of a collection of memorabilia from Mr Davis' time in the war which is being sold by his son Peter Davis, from Lincolnshire....
Mr Davis joined the RAF as a rear gunner on Lancaster bomber and at the end of his career he guarded Hess in Berlin where the pair became friends.
The signed painting is thought to be of a Bavarian scene from Hess's childhood. The rest of the collection includes a helmet, gas mask, flight records and medals.
It is part of a collection of memorabilia from Mr Davis' time in the war which is being sold by his son Peter Davis, from Lincolnshire....
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 20:08
Name of source: CNN
SOURCE: CNN (10-25-10)
After retiring the floppy disk in March, Sony has halted the manufacture and distribution of another now-obsolete technology: the cassette Walkman, the first low-cost, portable music player.
The final batch was shipped to Japanese retailers in April, according to IT Media. Once these units are sold, new cassette Walkmans will no longer be available through the manufacturer.
The first generation Walkman (which was called the Soundabout in the U.S., and the Stowaway in the UK) was released on July 1, 1979 in Japan.
Although it later became a huge success, it only sold 3,000 units in its first month. Sony managed to sell some 200 million iterations of the cassette Walkman over the product line's 30-year career....
The final batch was shipped to Japanese retailers in April, according to IT Media. Once these units are sold, new cassette Walkmans will no longer be available through the manufacturer.
The first generation Walkman (which was called the Soundabout in the U.S., and the Stowaway in the UK) was released on July 1, 1979 in Japan.
Although it later became a huge success, it only sold 3,000 units in its first month. Sony managed to sell some 200 million iterations of the cassette Walkman over the product line's 30-year career....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 13:47
SOURCE: CNN (10-25-10)
Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to charges against him Monday, the Pentagon said, in the first military commission trial there since Barack Obama became president.
Khadr, 24, was accused of throwing a grenade during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a Special Forces medic.
He also admitted that he "converted landmines to Improvised Explosive Devices and assisted in the planting of ten IEDs with the intent of killing American forces" in the months before killing Speer, the Pentagon said.
Khadr, the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay, was 15 at the time. He faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He pleaded guilty to murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, two counts of providing material support for terrorism and spying in the United States, a Canadian diplomat said.
Canada -- where Khadr was born -- has been closely involved in negotiations with the United States over his plea....
Khadr, 24, was accused of throwing a grenade during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, a Special Forces medic.
He also admitted that he "converted landmines to Improvised Explosive Devices and assisted in the planting of ten IEDs with the intent of killing American forces" in the months before killing Speer, the Pentagon said.
Khadr, the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay, was 15 at the time. He faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He pleaded guilty to murder in violation of the laws of war, attempted murder in violation of the laws of war, conspiracy, two counts of providing material support for terrorism and spying in the United States, a Canadian diplomat said.
Canada -- where Khadr was born -- has been closely involved in negotiations with the United States over his plea....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 13:46
SOURCE: CNN (10-24-10)
In a few weeks a noteworthy anniversary will arrive: fifty years since the election of John F. Kennedy as president of the United States.
Much will be made of the fact that half a century has passed. Photographs of the young president and his family will be republished, retrospective essays will be written. Inevitably, as the Kennedy years are freshly examined, the name of the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald will be mentioned in the context of what might have been, if only Kennedy's path and Oswald's never had intersected.
But there is another name that you have likely never heard: a man who might have changed history as drastically and irrevocably as Oswald did. Kennedy was elected in November 1960; a month later, this man came very close to making sure that Kennedy never served a single day in office.
His name was Richard Pavlick.
Pavlick came much closer to killing Kennedy than most news reporters realized at the time. He was arrested in Palm Beach on December 15, 1960, in a car loaded with sticks of dynamite. Kennedy; his wife, Jacqueline; his daughter, Caroline; and his son, John Jr., were staying in the Kennedy family mansion in Palm Beach, preparing for the inauguration the next month.
Because Pavlick didn't get near Kennedy on the day he was arrested, the story was not huge national news. The announcement of his arrest coincided with a terrible airline disaster in which two commercial planes collided over New York City, killing 134 people, and that was the story that received the banner headlines and led the television and radio newscasts.....
Much will be made of the fact that half a century has passed. Photographs of the young president and his family will be republished, retrospective essays will be written. Inevitably, as the Kennedy years are freshly examined, the name of the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald will be mentioned in the context of what might have been, if only Kennedy's path and Oswald's never had intersected.
But there is another name that you have likely never heard: a man who might have changed history as drastically and irrevocably as Oswald did. Kennedy was elected in November 1960; a month later, this man came very close to making sure that Kennedy never served a single day in office.
His name was Richard Pavlick.
Pavlick came much closer to killing Kennedy than most news reporters realized at the time. He was arrested in Palm Beach on December 15, 1960, in a car loaded with sticks of dynamite. Kennedy; his wife, Jacqueline; his daughter, Caroline; and his son, John Jr., were staying in the Kennedy family mansion in Palm Beach, preparing for the inauguration the next month.
Because Pavlick didn't get near Kennedy on the day he was arrested, the story was not huge national news. The announcement of his arrest coincided with a terrible airline disaster in which two commercial planes collided over New York City, killing 134 people, and that was the story that received the banner headlines and led the television and radio newscasts.....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 17:55
SOURCE: CNN (10-22-10)
Dick Cheney is certainly not one to hold back on how he really feels. George W. Bush, on the other hand, has been mum.
Despite their differing approaches to handling the post-White House years, their absence on the campaign trail has been obvious.
Cheney also has been dealing with health troubles -- undergoing heart surgery in July and spending the bulk of his time since then recovering.
But that is not stopping him. The 69-year-old soon will embark on a 10-stop speaking tour this year, with additional plans next year when his memoirs are slated to come out.
While conservatives adore the former vice president, they understand that he is a polarizing figure, especially to independents, a vital voting bloc in any election....
Despite their differing approaches to handling the post-White House years, their absence on the campaign trail has been obvious.
Cheney also has been dealing with health troubles -- undergoing heart surgery in July and spending the bulk of his time since then recovering.
But that is not stopping him. The 69-year-old soon will embark on a 10-stop speaking tour this year, with additional plans next year when his memoirs are slated to come out.
While conservatives adore the former vice president, they understand that he is a polarizing figure, especially to independents, a vital voting bloc in any election....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:09
Name of source: WaPo
SOURCE: WaPo (10-25-10)
The question around Washington today is not whether Nov. 2 will be a difficult day for the Democrats who control Congress, but rather how bad it will be....
If these trends hold - if the Republicans do gain the House without also taking control of the Senate - that would represent a historic anomaly: Not since the election of 1930 has the House changed hands without the Senate following suit....
If these trends hold - if the Republicans do gain the House without also taking control of the Senate - that would represent a historic anomaly: Not since the election of 1930 has the House changed hands without the Senate following suit....
Monday, October 25, 2010 - 09:26
SOURCE: WaPo (10-21-10)
Voltaire said history is a pack of tricks we play upon the dead. He should have added that the living are victims, too.
Virginia fourth-graders are the latest targets of historical misinformation. A textbook distributed to students last month included the gross falsehood that two battalions of African American soldiers fought for the Confederacy under famed Gen. Stonewall Jackson.
This wasn't just a minor factual error, like saying that Jackson lost his right arm at the Battle of Chancellorsville when any self-respecting Civil War buff knows it was his left.
The passage represents a deliberate distortion of history driven by a political agenda. It was foisted on kids by a sloppy author using Internet research who mistakenly drew from works done by Confederate heritage enthusiasts.
The latter like to promote the canard that large numbers of African Americans carried arms willingly for the South. The rebel revisionists do so because it helps cover up two historical truths that put their Lost Cause in a bad light....
Virginia fourth-graders are the latest targets of historical misinformation. A textbook distributed to students last month included the gross falsehood that two battalions of African American soldiers fought for the Confederacy under famed Gen. Stonewall Jackson.
This wasn't just a minor factual error, like saying that Jackson lost his right arm at the Battle of Chancellorsville when any self-respecting Civil War buff knows it was his left.
The passage represents a deliberate distortion of history driven by a political agenda. It was foisted on kids by a sloppy author using Internet research who mistakenly drew from works done by Confederate heritage enthusiasts.
The latter like to promote the canard that large numbers of African Americans carried arms willingly for the South. The rebel revisionists do so because it helps cover up two historical truths that put their Lost Cause in a bad light....
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 09:59
Name of source: Guardian (UK)
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (10-24-10)
Manchester's Tutankhamun exhibition is full of fakes, but no less inspiring for that.
The exhibition Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures, which opened at the Trafford Centre on Friday, boasts the very room that amazed Carter 88 years ago. Golden beds, chairs, chariots, chests and portraits are heaped as they were when he peeked through that tiny aperture: the death mask of Tutankhamun, one of the most astonishing works of art on earth, is here. The only trouble is, none of it is real. All the marvels are reproductions, modelled with digital technology and expertly crafted to mimic the originals, at a cost of £4.4m.
Does it matter? Is this exhibition a con, a delusion, a postmodern joke? Is it not a bit rich to sell tickets to a display that is really no more authentic than a horror film with mummies chasing screaming actors through digitally created pyramids? But to get lofty and highfalutin about it is to forget the history of "Egyptomania", the fascination with ancient Egypt that has long gripped western culture. People have been faking Egyptian artefacts for centuries, and mixing those fakes with real relics, in a way that was not stupid, but rather inspired curiosity, discoveries, learning. In the 17th century, sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini stuck an ancient obelisk on the back of a stone elephant, mixing real archaeology with his own art. In the age of Napoleon, every fashionable house had a faked-up, Egyptian-style chaise longue. In Regency London you could visit the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, a simulated Egyptian temple complete with colossal columns and statues, run as a profitable enterprise (today Harrods has its own Egyptian Hall)....
The exhibition Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures, which opened at the Trafford Centre on Friday, boasts the very room that amazed Carter 88 years ago. Golden beds, chairs, chariots, chests and portraits are heaped as they were when he peeked through that tiny aperture: the death mask of Tutankhamun, one of the most astonishing works of art on earth, is here. The only trouble is, none of it is real. All the marvels are reproductions, modelled with digital technology and expertly crafted to mimic the originals, at a cost of £4.4m.
Does it matter? Is this exhibition a con, a delusion, a postmodern joke? Is it not a bit rich to sell tickets to a display that is really no more authentic than a horror film with mummies chasing screaming actors through digitally created pyramids? But to get lofty and highfalutin about it is to forget the history of "Egyptomania", the fascination with ancient Egypt that has long gripped western culture. People have been faking Egyptian artefacts for centuries, and mixing those fakes with real relics, in a way that was not stupid, but rather inspired curiosity, discoveries, learning. In the 17th century, sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini stuck an ancient obelisk on the back of a stone elephant, mixing real archaeology with his own art. In the age of Napoleon, every fashionable house had a faked-up, Egyptian-style chaise longue. In Regency London you could visit the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, a simulated Egyptian temple complete with colossal columns and statues, run as a profitable enterprise (today Harrods has its own Egyptian Hall)....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 18:21
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (10-24-10)
The Ognissanti Crucifix was a neglected Italian treasure which a team of experts have now repaired and identified.
For a young art conservator with a love of Italian painting there could be no bigger thrill than the chance to work on a genuine Florentine masterpiece. But to be allowed to spend every day for more than five years repairing one of Italy's greatest neglected cultural treasures is the opportunity of a lifetime.
Anna-Marie Hilling, 33, from Cumbria, has not only fulfilled this dream by becoming one of the handful of restorers trusted to handle the repair of a wooden cross painted in the 1300s; she has now also helped to prove to the world that the cross, the Ognissanti Crucifix, is the work of the early Italian master Giotto.
Early next month the fully restored, five-metre-high cross will leave the laboratory in Florence, where Hilling and her team have laboured for so long, to take up its rightful position in the city's Ognissanti church. And the day before it goes on public display an international press conference will reintroduce a work of art that, until last year, was assumed to be the work of one of Giotto di Bondone's relatives or pupils....
For a young art conservator with a love of Italian painting there could be no bigger thrill than the chance to work on a genuine Florentine masterpiece. But to be allowed to spend every day for more than five years repairing one of Italy's greatest neglected cultural treasures is the opportunity of a lifetime.
Anna-Marie Hilling, 33, from Cumbria, has not only fulfilled this dream by becoming one of the handful of restorers trusted to handle the repair of a wooden cross painted in the 1300s; she has now also helped to prove to the world that the cross, the Ognissanti Crucifix, is the work of the early Italian master Giotto.
Early next month the fully restored, five-metre-high cross will leave the laboratory in Florence, where Hilling and her team have laboured for so long, to take up its rightful position in the city's Ognissanti church. And the day before it goes on public display an international press conference will reintroduce a work of art that, until last year, was assumed to be the work of one of Giotto di Bondone's relatives or pupils....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 01:04
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (10-23-10)
Sri Lanka's war, which ended last year, set the mainly Sinhalese government and military against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE - Tamil Tigers), a militant group drawn from the Tamil minority.
Caught in between were the Muslims, about 9% of the population and regarded as a separate ethnic group, although Tamil is their mother tongue.
Exactly 20 years ago, the Tigers violently expelled almost all of northern Sri Lanka's Muslims. They fled into internal exile in the south. But with the war now over, a few are trying to return home. The BBC's Charles Haviland reports from north-west Sri Lanka.
Mr Shajahan says the flight of Muslims in 1990 was like the flight from the tsunami in 2004....
About 100,000 Muslims were ordered out of northern Sri Lanka by the LTTE in 1990. They accused the Muslims as a group of collaborating with the Sri Lankan army.
Caught in between were the Muslims, about 9% of the population and regarded as a separate ethnic group, although Tamil is their mother tongue.
Exactly 20 years ago, the Tigers violently expelled almost all of northern Sri Lanka's Muslims. They fled into internal exile in the south. But with the war now over, a few are trying to return home. The BBC's Charles Haviland reports from north-west Sri Lanka.
Mr Shajahan says the flight of Muslims in 1990 was like the flight from the tsunami in 2004....
About 100,000 Muslims were ordered out of northern Sri Lanka by the LTTE in 1990. They accused the Muslims as a group of collaborating with the Sri Lankan army.
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 18:17
SOURCE: BBC (10-24-10)
Two funeral directors are behind a new heritage trail, highlighting historic figures buried at a cemetery.
Ian and James Reynolds were told about some of the 70,000 graves, ranging from an MP, war hero to a footballer, by their father who worked at Treorchy Cemetery, Rhondda for 65 years.
The trail includes graves or memorials for:
Rhondda's first MP and president of the South Wales Miners Federation, William "Mabon" Abraham, who died in 1922
Henry Lewis, who at the age of 18 fought with the South Wales Borderers against the Zulus in Rorke's Drift.
A family memorial to Blaenrhondda boxer David "Dai" John Bowen, 28, who lost his life on the maiden voyage of Titanic in 1912, while travelling to the USA for matches....
Ian and James Reynolds were told about some of the 70,000 graves, ranging from an MP, war hero to a footballer, by their father who worked at Treorchy Cemetery, Rhondda for 65 years.
The trail includes graves or memorials for:
Rhondda's first MP and president of the South Wales Miners Federation, William "Mabon" Abraham, who died in 1922
Henry Lewis, who at the age of 18 fought with the South Wales Borderers against the Zulus in Rorke's Drift.
A family memorial to Blaenrhondda boxer David "Dai" John Bowen, 28, who lost his life on the maiden voyage of Titanic in 1912, while travelling to the USA for matches....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 18:14
SOURCE: BBC (10-23-10)
The bloody history of the Catholic uprising of 1641 has been brought back to life on the internet.
Testimonies from thousands of eye-witnesses to one of the most significant events in Irish history have been transcribed and made available for free online.
The three-year project, led by researchers at the Universities of University of Cambridge and The University of Aberdeen and Trinity College Dublin, involved transcribing all 19,000 pages of the original depositions, many of which are almost illegible.
The uprising of Irish Catholics in October 1641 followed decades of tension with English Protestant settlers and many thousands of men, women and children lost their lives.
The Protestant death toll was most recently put at between 4,000 and 12,000, mainly in Ulster.
However, there have been allegations that accounts of the killings were exaggerated for propaganda purposes....
Testimonies from thousands of eye-witnesses to one of the most significant events in Irish history have been transcribed and made available for free online.
The three-year project, led by researchers at the Universities of University of Cambridge and The University of Aberdeen and Trinity College Dublin, involved transcribing all 19,000 pages of the original depositions, many of which are almost illegible.
The uprising of Irish Catholics in October 1641 followed decades of tension with English Protestant settlers and many thousands of men, women and children lost their lives.
The Protestant death toll was most recently put at between 4,000 and 12,000, mainly in Ulster.
However, there have been allegations that accounts of the killings were exaggerated for propaganda purposes....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 01:00
SOURCE: BBC (10-23-10)
Yoko Ono, the widow of the Beatles star John Lennon, has unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque at the first home the couple shared in London.
The pair occupied the basement and ground floor of the property at 34 Montagu Square in Marylebone in 1968.
During their stay a nude photograph of the couple was taken which formed the cover of the Two Virgins album.
The property was first bought by Ringo Starr in 1965, before being rented out to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix....
The pair occupied the basement and ground floor of the property at 34 Montagu Square in Marylebone in 1968.
During their stay a nude photograph of the couple was taken which formed the cover of the Two Virgins album.
The property was first bought by Ringo Starr in 1965, before being rented out to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 00:59
Name of source: Digital Journal
SOURCE: Digital Journal (10-24-10)
A new scientific study seems to confirm that there is little new under the sun. It appears the modern recycling mantra of 'reduce, re-use, recycle' was already practised by the ancient Romans.
These are the findings of an analysis of ancient Roman glass tableware that was used in Britain during the last century of Roman rule by UK researchers Caroline Jackson of the archaeology department of the University of Sheffield and Harriet Foster of the Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service.
According to their study published in the upcoming December issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, large quantities of glass were recycled in Britain during the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.
However, the reason why this happened was not due to environmental concerns, but rather the a shortage of raw glass in the northern regions of the Roman Empire during the last centuries of Roman rule....
These are the findings of an analysis of ancient Roman glass tableware that was used in Britain during the last century of Roman rule by UK researchers Caroline Jackson of the archaeology department of the University of Sheffield and Harriet Foster of the Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service.
According to their study published in the upcoming December issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, large quantities of glass were recycled in Britain during the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.
However, the reason why this happened was not due to environmental concerns, but rather the a shortage of raw glass in the northern regions of the Roman Empire during the last centuries of Roman rule....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 01:08
Name of source: The Seattle Times
SOURCE: The Seattle Times (10-23-10)
Bob Neyland, chief archaeologist for the Navy's Underwater Archaeology Branch, is searching for the wreckage of the USS Bonhomme Richard, a Continental Navy ship captained by John Paul Jones during the Revolutionary War that sank on Sept. 25, 1779, off the coast of Yorkshire, England. He has lots of competition.
For decades, thrill-seekers, archaeologists and professional treasure hunters have searched for the wreckage of the USS Bonhomme Richard, a Continental Navy ship captained by John Paul Jones during the Revolutionary War that sank on Sept. 25, 1779 off the coast of Yorkshire, England, following a fierce sea battle where Jones answered a British captain's call for surrender by uttering the now-immortal words, "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!"
But the ship is legally the property of the U.S. Navy, which is responsible for preserving whatever may be left of it. A big part of that job falls to Neyland, chief archaeologist for the Navy's Underwater Archaeology Branch, based at the Washington Navy Yard. The tiny unit is responsible for identifying and preserving sunken and historically important Navy vessels from colonial-era warships to World War II fighter planes.
Created in 1996, the branch has had as many as eight employees, but budget cuts have sliced that to four, including Neyland. After salaries, the branch operates on a budget of about $37,000. Neyland augments that by teaming up with other Navy offices, nonprofit groups, federal agencies and state governments....
For decades, thrill-seekers, archaeologists and professional treasure hunters have searched for the wreckage of the USS Bonhomme Richard, a Continental Navy ship captained by John Paul Jones during the Revolutionary War that sank on Sept. 25, 1779 off the coast of Yorkshire, England, following a fierce sea battle where Jones answered a British captain's call for surrender by uttering the now-immortal words, "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight!"
But the ship is legally the property of the U.S. Navy, which is responsible for preserving whatever may be left of it. A big part of that job falls to Neyland, chief archaeologist for the Navy's Underwater Archaeology Branch, based at the Washington Navy Yard. The tiny unit is responsible for identifying and preserving sunken and historically important Navy vessels from colonial-era warships to World War II fighter planes.
Created in 1996, the branch has had as many as eight employees, but budget cuts have sliced that to four, including Neyland. After salaries, the branch operates on a budget of about $37,000. Neyland augments that by teaming up with other Navy offices, nonprofit groups, federal agencies and state governments....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 01:06
Name of source: KSDK
SOURCE: KSDK (10-19-10)
With rising anti-Muslim sentiment across the country, an untold story is raising greater awareness about the Muslim faith and the teachings of the Quran. That awareness comes from an unlikely source: a small Jewish congregation in Creve Coeur.
Temple Emanuel is premiering a groundbreaking exhibit of photos that reveals Albanian Muslims who saved 2,000 Jews during World War II.
It's a story you've likely never heard. It is a story told through the faces of Albanian Muslims who risked their own lives to live by a code of faith and honor called Besa.
Dr. Ghazala Hayat is a neurologist at St. Louis University and serves as spokesperson for the Islamic Foundation of Greater Saint Louis.
Hayat said while Besa is an Albanian word, it is part of Islamic culture and teachings. According to Dr. Hayat, Besa is an ancient code which requires people to endanger their own lives if necessary to save the life of anyone seeking asylum. To this day, Besa is the highest moral law of the region, superseding religious differences, blood feuds, and even tribal traditions.
The exhibit is opening eyes throughout the world....
Temple Emanuel is premiering a groundbreaking exhibit of photos that reveals Albanian Muslims who saved 2,000 Jews during World War II.
It's a story you've likely never heard. It is a story told through the faces of Albanian Muslims who risked their own lives to live by a code of faith and honor called Besa.
Dr. Ghazala Hayat is a neurologist at St. Louis University and serves as spokesperson for the Islamic Foundation of Greater Saint Louis.
Hayat said while Besa is an Albanian word, it is part of Islamic culture and teachings. According to Dr. Hayat, Besa is an ancient code which requires people to endanger their own lives if necessary to save the life of anyone seeking asylum. To this day, Besa is the highest moral law of the region, superseding religious differences, blood feuds, and even tribal traditions.
The exhibit is opening eyes throughout the world....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 00:49
Name of source: AP
SOURCE: AP (10-23-10)
She's renowned for her precise, exquisite prose, but new research shows Jane Austen was a poor speller and erratic grammarian who got a big helping hand from her editor.
Oxford University English professor Kathryn Sutherland studied 1,100 handwritten pages of unpublished work from the author of incisive social comedies such as "Pride and Prejudice." She said Saturday that they contradicted the claim by Austen's brother Henry that "everything came finished from her pen."
Sutherland said letters from Austen's publisher reveal that editor William Gifford was heavily involved in making sense of Austen's sensibility, honing the style of her late novels "Emma" and "Persuasion."...
Oxford University English professor Kathryn Sutherland studied 1,100 handwritten pages of unpublished work from the author of incisive social comedies such as "Pride and Prejudice." She said Saturday that they contradicted the claim by Austen's brother Henry that "everything came finished from her pen."
Sutherland said letters from Austen's publisher reveal that editor William Gifford was heavily involved in making sense of Austen's sensibility, honing the style of her late novels "Emma" and "Persuasion."...
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 00:46
SOURCE: AP (10-22-10)
Peruvian archaeologists have unearthed four perfectly preserved mummies at an ancient burial site in the capital city, Lima.
The mummies are more than 1000 years old and were found at the Huaca Pucllana - a pre Inca temple.
Due to its central location, tomb looters have been stealing all sorts of archaeological treasures from the temple for centuries....
The mummies are more than 1000 years old and were found at the Huaca Pucllana - a pre Inca temple.
Due to its central location, tomb looters have been stealing all sorts of archaeological treasures from the temple for centuries....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 14:00
SOURCE: AP (10-21-10)
A fossil collector may have found a prehistoric bone with art work on it in Florida.
Last year, James Kennedy cleaned off a 15-inch bone he had found two years earlier. The lines on it looked like a four-inch etching of a walking mammoth with tusks.
University of Florida researchers examined the etching with an electron microscope. Their tests showed it was genuine....
Last year, James Kennedy cleaned off a 15-inch bone he had found two years earlier. The lines on it looked like a four-inch etching of a walking mammoth with tusks.
University of Florida researchers examined the etching with an electron microscope. Their tests showed it was genuine....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:42
SOURCE: AP (12-22-10)
American writer and historian Robert Katz, best known for his reconstruction of an infamous Nazi massacre in Rome, has died in Italy. He was 77.
Katz's wife Beverly Gerstel told the AP on Thursday that the author had died in the hospital in Tuscany from complications from cancer surgery the day before. Katz had been a longtime resident of Tuscany.
His works looked at some crucial events in modern Italian history, including the Nazi massacre of 335 Italians at the Ardeatine Caves in 1944....
Katz's wife Beverly Gerstel told the AP on Thursday that the author had died in the hospital in Tuscany from complications from cancer surgery the day before. Katz had been a longtime resident of Tuscany.
His works looked at some crucial events in modern Italian history, including the Nazi massacre of 335 Italians at the Ardeatine Caves in 1944....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:34
SOURCE: AP (10-22-10)
Two mass graves that may hold the remains of up to 2,000 Japanese soldiers have been discovered on the island of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest and most iconic battlesites of World War II, a report and officials said Friday.
A team of Japanese searchers has discovered 51 remains in two areas listed by the U.S. military after the war as enemy cemeteries, one of which could contain as many as 2,000 bodies, Japan's Kyodo news agency said Friday.
Officials at Japan's health ministry, which supervises search efforts on the remote island, confirmed that 51 bodies had been recovered and two sites believed to be burial grounds had been found. But they could not immediately confirm the potential size of the mass graves or other details of the Kyodo report....
A team of Japanese searchers has discovered 51 remains in two areas listed by the U.S. military after the war as enemy cemeteries, one of which could contain as many as 2,000 bodies, Japan's Kyodo news agency said Friday.
Officials at Japan's health ministry, which supervises search efforts on the remote island, confirmed that 51 bodies had been recovered and two sites believed to be burial grounds had been found. But they could not immediately confirm the potential size of the mass graves or other details of the Kyodo report....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:18
SOURCE: AP (10-22-10)
The British government Friday released a formerly secret autopsy report in an attempt to end speculation that the 2003 death of a government weapons scientist at the center of a controversy over the Iraq War was not a suicide.
The lengthy report reaffirms that David Kelly slit his wrist after he was exposed as the source of a British Broadcasting Corp. report that accused then Prime Minister Tony Blair's office of "sexing up" prewar intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said on Friday he was releasing the documents to end speculation over Kelly's death. Some government critics have suggested that Kelly was silenced to prevent him from speaking out....
The lengthy report reaffirms that David Kelly slit his wrist after he was exposed as the source of a British Broadcasting Corp. report that accused then Prime Minister Tony Blair's office of "sexing up" prewar intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said on Friday he was releasing the documents to end speculation over Kelly's death. Some government critics have suggested that Kelly was silenced to prevent him from speaking out....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:16
SOURCE: AP (10-22-10)
An anonymous benefactor in New York City stuffed $10,000 in cash into a 9/11 donation box at the World Trade Center.
Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, tells the New York Post that officials found 99 $100 bills and five 20s in the box on Tuesday night.
The box hangs on a wall at the 9/11 memorial preview site....
Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, tells the New York Post that officials found 99 $100 bills and five 20s in the box on Tuesday night.
The box hangs on a wall at the 9/11 memorial preview site....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:13
Name of source: Yahoo News
SOURCE: Yahoo News (10-22-10)
Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was even more prolific than we thought. The beloved author of "Cat in the Hat," "Green Eggs and Ham," and "Oh, the Places You'll Go" (a required gift for every college graduate) also penned the beginning of another book that never saw the light of day. The unfinished manuscript for "All Sorts of Sports" recently went up for auction and fetched an impressive sum.
The 19-page manuscript, in which a wishy-washy athlete named Pete tries a hundred different sports, dates back to the '60s and sold for $34,004 to an undisclosed buyer. According to the auction house, the first seven pages of the manuscript were handwritten by Seuss, while the remaining pages were penned by an assistant. Doodles by Seuss were also included. According to NPR, the good doctor's writing assistant had possession of it before deciding to put it up for auction.
The L.A. Times points out that it may have been this bit of self-editing on the part of Seuss that set him apart. Clearly, he was good enough to know that not everything he wrote was worthy of his name....
The 19-page manuscript, in which a wishy-washy athlete named Pete tries a hundred different sports, dates back to the '60s and sold for $34,004 to an undisclosed buyer. According to the auction house, the first seven pages of the manuscript were handwritten by Seuss, while the remaining pages were penned by an assistant. Doodles by Seuss were also included. According to NPR, the good doctor's writing assistant had possession of it before deciding to put it up for auction.
The L.A. Times points out that it may have been this bit of self-editing on the part of Seuss that set him apart. Clearly, he was good enough to know that not everything he wrote was worthy of his name....
Sunday, October 24, 2010 - 00:44
Name of source: The Huffington Post
SOURCE: The Huffington Post (10-21-10)
A Secret Service agent came close to shooting President Lyndon Johnson just hours after Kennedy's assassination, according to "The Kennedy Detail", a new book that claims to be the first account of the tragedy by members of Kennedy's security detail.
Though Kennedy assassination buffs already have their bookcases full with countless accounts of the assassination, the book by retired agent Gerald Blaine does contain some new revelations.
The book also includes the first-ever account of the fateful day by Clint Hill, the agent who jumped on the back of the car in the midst of the shooting and pushed Jackie down into the back seat.
And Blaine dismisses speculation about Kennedy's relationship with Marilyn Monroe. He says that he was on duty the night of May 19, 1962, the famous birthday fundraiser at which Monroe sang for the president. Blaine says that Monroe was present later in Kennedy's suite at the Carlyle Hotel, but that she "left before the other guests."....
Though Kennedy assassination buffs already have their bookcases full with countless accounts of the assassination, the book by retired agent Gerald Blaine does contain some new revelations.
The book also includes the first-ever account of the fateful day by Clint Hill, the agent who jumped on the back of the car in the midst of the shooting and pushed Jackie down into the back seat.
And Blaine dismisses speculation about Kennedy's relationship with Marilyn Monroe. He says that he was on duty the night of May 19, 1962, the famous birthday fundraiser at which Monroe sang for the president. Blaine says that Monroe was present later in Kennedy's suite at the Carlyle Hotel, but that she "left before the other guests."....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 14:05
Name of source: AOL News
SOURCE: AOL News (1-22-10)
The bullhorn President George W. Bush used to speak to rescue workers three days after the Sept. 11 attacks and the pistol taken from Saddam Hussein when he was captured in Iraq two years later are among the artifacts featured in a new exhibit opening Saturday at a museum in Dallas.
The collection at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University amounts to a preview of what will become the Bush presidential library center on the campus. Groundbreaking for the center is scheduled for next month, and the facility is set to open in 2013, The Dallas Morning News reports. Bush's memoir, "Decision Points," is scheduled to be published in November.
Other items in the exhibit, "Breaking New Ground: Presenting the George W. Bush Presidential Center," include handwritten notes Bush made as he prepared to issue a statement in response to the Sept. 11 attacks and the sweatshirt he wore a few weeks later at Yankee Stadium for his ceremonial first pitch in the 2001 World Series.
Among the lighter artifacts are sapphire and diamond jewelry given to Laura Bush as a gift from Saudi Arabia, painted-wood White House Easter eggs, a bronze football given to Bush from the University of Texas 2005 championship team and Air Force One dog bowls bedecked with the presidential seal.....
The collection at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University amounts to a preview of what will become the Bush presidential library center on the campus. Groundbreaking for the center is scheduled for next month, and the facility is set to open in 2013, The Dallas Morning News reports. Bush's memoir, "Decision Points," is scheduled to be published in November.
Other items in the exhibit, "Breaking New Ground: Presenting the George W. Bush Presidential Center," include handwritten notes Bush made as he prepared to issue a statement in response to the Sept. 11 attacks and the sweatshirt he wore a few weeks later at Yankee Stadium for his ceremonial first pitch in the 2001 World Series.
Among the lighter artifacts are sapphire and diamond jewelry given to Laura Bush as a gift from Saudi Arabia, painted-wood White House Easter eggs, a bronze football given to Bush from the University of Texas 2005 championship team and Air Force One dog bowls bedecked with the presidential seal.....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 13:53
Name of source: Irish Times
SOURCE: Irish Times (10-22-10)
VOTING LINES will close at 10.30 tonight in RTÉ’s search to find the greatest person in the history of Ireland. The winner will be announced on the Late Late Show . The five figures in the running are Michael Collins, James Connolly, Bono, Mary Robinson and John Hume. They were selected in a public vote from a shortlist of 40 people whose names topped a survey by Ipsos/MRBI.
Over the past five weeks the figures have been profiled in TV documentaries. Former PD leader Michael McDowell championed the case of Michael Collins; RTÉ’s Joe Duffy presented the programme on James Connolly; Bono was championed by RTÉ’s Dave Fanning; economist David McWilliams made the case for Mary Robinson, and Prime Time ’s Miriam O’Callaghan presented the documentary on John Hume....
Over the past five weeks the figures have been profiled in TV documentaries. Former PD leader Michael McDowell championed the case of Michael Collins; RTÉ’s Joe Duffy presented the programme on James Connolly; Bono was championed by RTÉ’s Dave Fanning; economist David McWilliams made the case for Mary Robinson, and Prime Time ’s Miriam O’Callaghan presented the documentary on John Hume....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 11:29
SOURCE: Irish Times (10-22-10)
VOTING LINES will close at 10.30 tonight in RTÉ’s search to find the greatest person in the history of Ireland. The winner will be announced on the Late Late Show . The five figures in the running are Michael Collins, James Connolly, Bono, Mary Robinson and John Hume. They were selected in a public vote from a shortlist of 40 people whose names topped a survey by Ipsos/MRBI.
Over the past five weeks the figures have been profiled in TV documentaries. Former PD leader Michael McDowell championed the case of Michael Collins; RTÉ’s Joe Duffy presented the programme on James Connolly; Bono was championed by RTÉ’s Dave Fanning; economist David McWilliams made the case for Mary Robinson, and Prime Time ’s Miriam O’Callaghan presented the documentary on John Hume.
An RTÉ spokeswoman said the average viewing figure for the series was 318,400.
The shortlist has been controversial, with claims it was skewed towards modern figures. Historian Tim Pat Coogan said there were names missing that defied belief, such as Michael Davitt, Charles Stewart Parnell, Daniel O’Connell and James Joyce....
Over the past five weeks the figures have been profiled in TV documentaries. Former PD leader Michael McDowell championed the case of Michael Collins; RTÉ’s Joe Duffy presented the programme on James Connolly; Bono was championed by RTÉ’s Dave Fanning; economist David McWilliams made the case for Mary Robinson, and Prime Time ’s Miriam O’Callaghan presented the documentary on John Hume.
An RTÉ spokeswoman said the average viewing figure for the series was 318,400.
The shortlist has been controversial, with claims it was skewed towards modern figures. Historian Tim Pat Coogan said there were names missing that defied belief, such as Michael Davitt, Charles Stewart Parnell, Daniel O’Connell and James Joyce....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:38
Name of source: Tenessean
SOURCE: Tenessean (10-19-10)
State prehistoric archaeologist hopes location will be a resource site on National Register of Historic Places
Since last week, a team of archaeologists and Middle Tennessee State University students has hewn a trench about 10 feet deep into the cool clay of a suburban Williamson County backyard, bringing out bags of bone fragments and stones once used perhaps as axes or other implements.
Those bits and pieces — some no bigger than a coffee cup, others smaller than coins — are a once-in-a-lifetime discovery, revealing the historical importance of the Middle Tennessee region to understanding prehistoric man and his world.....
Since last week, a team of archaeologists and Middle Tennessee State University students has hewn a trench about 10 feet deep into the cool clay of a suburban Williamson County backyard, bringing out bags of bone fragments and stones once used perhaps as axes or other implements.
Those bits and pieces — some no bigger than a coffee cup, others smaller than coins — are a once-in-a-lifetime discovery, revealing the historical importance of the Middle Tennessee region to understanding prehistoric man and his world.....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:44
Name of source: NPR
SOURCE: NPR (10-21-10)
Descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers who fought in one of history's most important battles can now find their American ancestors in a computer database, and some day they might be guided by GPS to the exact spots where their relatives faced musket fire, cannon barrages and bayonet charges.
History buffs spent 12 years gleaning information from 200-year-old military documents to assemble the list of thousands who participated in the Battles of Saratoga. The database, recently unveiled at Saratoga National Historical Park, contains the names of about 15,000 of the more than 17,000 soldiers of the Continental Army and various state militias who defeated the British here in 1777.
About 2,500 more American names are being added, while the names of most of the 9,000 enemy combatants — British soldiers, German mercenaries, Canadians and loyalists — are expected to join the database in several years, according to Eric Schnitzer, a National Parks Service ranger and park historian. The names of some of the Native Americans who fought here — Oneidas for the Americans, Mohawks for the British — also will be added, he said.
Tourists can search the database for names using a touch-screen computer in the park's visitor center. The list is also available on the website of Heritage Hunters, the Saratoga County-based group of volunteers who scoured 18th century regimental muster rolls and other records to compile the list....
History buffs spent 12 years gleaning information from 200-year-old military documents to assemble the list of thousands who participated in the Battles of Saratoga. The database, recently unveiled at Saratoga National Historical Park, contains the names of about 15,000 of the more than 17,000 soldiers of the Continental Army and various state militias who defeated the British here in 1777.
About 2,500 more American names are being added, while the names of most of the 9,000 enemy combatants — British soldiers, German mercenaries, Canadians and loyalists — are expected to join the database in several years, according to Eric Schnitzer, a National Parks Service ranger and park historian. The names of some of the Native Americans who fought here — Oneidas for the Americans, Mohawks for the British — also will be added, he said.
Tourists can search the database for names using a touch-screen computer in the park's visitor center. The list is also available on the website of Heritage Hunters, the Saratoga County-based group of volunteers who scoured 18th century regimental muster rolls and other records to compile the list....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:40
Name of source: The Canadian Press
SOURCE: The Canadian Press (10-22-10)
Ancient stone projectiles created miles from where the original rock was quarried highlight the intent of a monumental new exhibition on Native American Indians: to offer a hemispheric survey of tribes as dynamic interconnected societies.
"Infinity of Nations," opening Saturday, features 700 objects from South, Central and North America from ancient to modern times at the National Museum of the American Indian, New York.
The museum worked with 60 native historians and leaders to interpret many of the objects, which were selected for their esthetic, cultural and historic importance....
"Infinity of Nations," opening Saturday, features 700 objects from South, Central and North America from ancient to modern times at the National Museum of the American Indian, New York.
The museum worked with 60 native historians and leaders to interpret many of the objects, which were selected for their esthetic, cultural and historic importance....
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:37
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (10-21-10)
BELGRADE — After 15 years on the run — sometimes in plain sight at soccer matches and weddings and sometimes deep in the fabric of this secretive city — Europe’s most wanted war-crimes suspect, Ratko Mladic, is being hidden by no more than a handful of loyalists, most probably in a neighborhood of Communist-era housing towers, according to investigators and some of his past associates.
The diminished circumstances of the former Bosnian Serb general, who once was protected by scores of allies and Serbian government officials, make him ripe for capture, according to these people. But a softening by several European countries on whether his arrest should be a prerequisite for Serbia’s admission to the European Union is raising questions about whether he will ever face justice.
These developments make this a seminal moment not only in the search for Mr. Mladic but also in Europe’s often agonized deliberations over how much to encourage the manhunt in the face of deeply conflicting priorities. In the name of unity and stability, should Europe put a premium on rehabilitating a battered country that became a pariah state in the Balkan wars of the 1990’s?...
The diminished circumstances of the former Bosnian Serb general, who once was protected by scores of allies and Serbian government officials, make him ripe for capture, according to these people. But a softening by several European countries on whether his arrest should be a prerequisite for Serbia’s admission to the European Union is raising questions about whether he will ever face justice.
These developments make this a seminal moment not only in the search for Mr. Mladic but also in Europe’s often agonized deliberations over how much to encourage the manhunt in the face of deeply conflicting priorities. In the name of unity and stability, should Europe put a premium on rehabilitating a battered country that became a pariah state in the Balkan wars of the 1990’s?...
Friday, October 22, 2010 - 08:53
SOURCE: NYT (10-20-10)
When people compare New York to Rome, the reference is not usually meant to be flattering. But our town shares at least one inspiring quality with the Eternal City. Just about anytime you knock an old wall down, there is an even older wall behind it.
Columbus Circle mosaic The old mosaic’s guilloche pattern can be discerned under the decorative plaque by Grueby Faience.
Another keyhole to the past opened recently on the uptown platform of the No. 1 train at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle station. Through a gap in the current wall, under one of the ceramic plaques of Columbus’s flagship, an unusual pattern can be discerned dimly: an interwoven guilloche pattern — sort of like a two-dimensional challah crust — in red and yellow mosaic tiles....
Columbus Circle mosaic The old mosaic’s guilloche pattern can be discerned under the decorative plaque by Grueby Faience.
Another keyhole to the past opened recently on the uptown platform of the No. 1 train at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle station. Through a gap in the current wall, under one of the ceramic plaques of Columbus’s flagship, an unusual pattern can be discerned dimly: an interwoven guilloche pattern — sort of like a two-dimensional challah crust — in red and yellow mosaic tiles....
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:45
SOURCE: NYT (10-20-10)
NAJRAN, Saudi Arabia — Among the ruins on the edge of this ancient oasis city are deep trenches littered with bones. That, local people say, is all that remains of one of the great atrocities of antiquity, when thousands of Christians were herded into pits here and burned to death by a Jewish tyrant after they refused to renounce their faith.
The massacre, which took place in about A.D. 523, is partly shadowed by myth and largely unknown to the outside world. But it has become central to the identity of the people now living here, who mostly belong to the minority Ismaili sect of Islam. The Ismailis, widely reviled as heretics by Sunni Muslims both here and abroad, see the oppressed Christians of ancient Najran as their literal and figurative ancestors in a continuing struggle for recognition by the Saudi state....
Historians offer a somewhat different account of what happened here, though the facts remain sketchy. A Jewish king named Dhu Nuwas did kill a large number of Christians in Najran in 523, a century before the birth of Islam. But the notion that they died because they refused to renounce Christianity appears to be mythical, said Christian Robin, a French archaeologist. And the claim that they were burned to death en masse — with its eerie Holocaust overtones — also appears to be untrue, Mr. Robin added; most were killed by sword. Nor is it clear that the Koranic passage refers to what happened here....
The massacre, which took place in about A.D. 523, is partly shadowed by myth and largely unknown to the outside world. But it has become central to the identity of the people now living here, who mostly belong to the minority Ismaili sect of Islam. The Ismailis, widely reviled as heretics by Sunni Muslims both here and abroad, see the oppressed Christians of ancient Najran as their literal and figurative ancestors in a continuing struggle for recognition by the Saudi state....
Historians offer a somewhat different account of what happened here, though the facts remain sketchy. A Jewish king named Dhu Nuwas did kill a large number of Christians in Najran in 523, a century before the birth of Islam. But the notion that they died because they refused to renounce Christianity appears to be mythical, said Christian Robin, a French archaeologist. And the claim that they were burned to death en masse — with its eerie Holocaust overtones — also appears to be untrue, Mr. Robin added; most were killed by sword. Nor is it clear that the Koranic passage refers to what happened here....
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:34
SOURCE: NYT (10-20-10)
His ancestors were slaves. They worked this flat plantation land just west of the snaking Mississippi, chopping sugar cane with their machetes. They and some of their descendants lived in the plantation’s “quarters.” And when they died, most were buried here in a small patch of earth, for blacks only.
Ernest J. Gaines, 77, the acclaimed author of “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “A Lesson Before Dying,” is part of the fifth generation of this family to be born on the River Lake plantation. But unlike his ancestors, many of whom had nothing during their lives and were buried in unmarked wooden boxes that have since decayed, Mr. Gaines has built and owns his own house on the old plantation. He and his wife, Dianne Saulney Gaines, 70, a retired lawyer, have rescued the cemetery from near oblivion and they intend to be buried here themselves.
Mr. Gaines has put down his pen — he wrote the first draft of all his novels in longhand — in the belief that he has “nothing original left to say.” He chronicled life in rural southern Louisiana, in a fictional version of this plantation, and his people, he said, showed him the meaning of dignity. As his friend Wendell Berry, the writer, once observed, he and Mr. Gaines “knew the talk of old people, old country people, in summer evenings.” Mr. Gaines’s goal now is to honor them by keeping up the cemetery....
Ernest J. Gaines, 77, the acclaimed author of “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “A Lesson Before Dying,” is part of the fifth generation of this family to be born on the River Lake plantation. But unlike his ancestors, many of whom had nothing during their lives and were buried in unmarked wooden boxes that have since decayed, Mr. Gaines has built and owns his own house on the old plantation. He and his wife, Dianne Saulney Gaines, 70, a retired lawyer, have rescued the cemetery from near oblivion and they intend to be buried here themselves.
Mr. Gaines has put down his pen — he wrote the first draft of all his novels in longhand — in the belief that he has “nothing original left to say.” He chronicled life in rural southern Louisiana, in a fictional version of this plantation, and his people, he said, showed him the meaning of dignity. As his friend Wendell Berry, the writer, once observed, he and Mr. Gaines “knew the talk of old people, old country people, in summer evenings.” Mr. Gaines’s goal now is to honor them by keeping up the cemetery....
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:31
Name of source: Minnesota Public Radio
SOURCE: Minnesota Public Radio (10-21-10)
Rwanda's top prosecutor wants an American professor to appear in a Rwandan court on charges of genocide denial.
Martin Ngoga says Peter Erlinder will be charged with denying Rwanda's genocide. Erlinder, a law professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, was arrested in May and was granted bail in June....
Martin Ngoga says Peter Erlinder will be charged with denying Rwanda's genocide. Erlinder, a law professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, was arrested in May and was granted bail in June....
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 11:01
Name of source: ABC News
SOURCE: ABC News (10-20-10)
When you're President of the United States, you can lose a vote, you can lose popular support, and you can lose a round of golf. But you're never, ever supposed to lose the biscuit.
That's what they call the card the president is meant to keep close at hand, bearing the codes that he has to have in order to launch a nuclear attack. And for several months during the Clinton administration, a former top military officer says they lost the biscuit.
Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served under Clinton as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells the story in his just-published memoir, "Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior."...
That's what they call the card the president is meant to keep close at hand, bearing the codes that he has to have in order to launch a nuclear attack. And for several months during the Clinton administration, a former top military officer says they lost the biscuit.
Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served under Clinton as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells the story in his just-published memoir, "Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior."...
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 00:22
Name of source: CNN.com
SOURCE: CNN.com (10-19-10)
Washington (CNN) -- The government will provide $680 million in compensation to settle a class-action lawsuit by Native American farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a proposed agreement announced Tuesday.
Under the agreement, which requires federal court approval, Native Americans can file claims for discrimination involving farm loans that occurred in the period from 1981-1999, said statements by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Eric Holder.
"Today's settlement can never undo wrongs that Native Americans may have experienced in past decades, but combined with the actions we at USDA are taking to address such wrongs, the settlement will provide some measure of relief to those alleging discrimination," Vilsack said in his statement.
The $680 million will compensate eligible members of the class-action suits with valid claims, the statements said. The agreement has two payment tracks -- one provides $50,000 to those who provide substantial evidence of discrimination to an impartial adjudicator, and the other pays up to $250,000 to those who can show economic losses caused by discrimination....
Under the agreement, which requires federal court approval, Native Americans can file claims for discrimination involving farm loans that occurred in the period from 1981-1999, said statements by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Eric Holder.
"Today's settlement can never undo wrongs that Native Americans may have experienced in past decades, but combined with the actions we at USDA are taking to address such wrongs, the settlement will provide some measure of relief to those alleging discrimination," Vilsack said in his statement.
The $680 million will compensate eligible members of the class-action suits with valid claims, the statements said. The agreement has two payment tracks -- one provides $50,000 to those who provide substantial evidence of discrimination to an impartial adjudicator, and the other pays up to $250,000 to those who can show economic losses caused by discrimination....
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - 22:01
