This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: AP
December 29, 2009
U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johann Gokool lost his left foot when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of the USS Cole nearly a decade ago, but the injury was nothing compared with the mental torment that ravaged him almost daily.
He returned home to Florida suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder and frequent panic attacks so violent he would launch into seizures and even fractured his own wrist several times as he flailed, sister Natala Gokool said Tuesday.
Source: Time Magazine
December 28, 2009
Failed Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis once suggested that elections should be about competence, not ideology. A year after winning the White House with a combination of ideological jousting and forceful technique, Barack Obama has been tested on both fronts.
His approval ratings have fallen, and ideologically, liberals seem almost as unhappy with Barack Obama as do conservatives. Those on the right think Obama has revealed himself to be a flaming liberal (the word
Source: BBC News
December 29, 2009
A Turkish archaeologist has called on his government to demand that Italy return the bones of St Nicholas to their original resting place.
The 3rd Century saint - on whom Santa Claus was modelled - was buried in the modern-day town of Demre in Turkey.
But in the Middle Ages his bones were taken by Italian sailors and re-interred in the port of Bari.
The Turkish government said it was considering making a request to Rome for the return of the saint's remains
Source: BBC News
December 27, 2009
For two decades, the world has been living with the consequences of events in 1989. As well as the changes in Eastern Europe, the Cold War was winding down. BBC Diplomatic Editor Brian Hanrahan, who has spent the year assessing 1989's legacy, looks at what happened next.
The hard men of the KGB were glued to the TV screen. Upstairs, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev were dealing with great power confrontation.
But down in the basement, M
Source: Times (UK)
December 27, 2009
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was saved from Hitler’s persecution of the Jews by a long-standing Nazi who was fascinated with his work, a new book reveals.
The fate of Freud and his family in Vienna hung in the balance after Hitler’s forces took over Austria in 1938. The psychoanalyst was first protected, then helped to escape to Britain, by Anton Sauerwald, a Nazi who had been put in charge of his assets.
In twists of Freudian complexity, Sauerwald was p
Source: New York Times
December 25, 2009
The Polish Cultural Ministry, in an effort to save face after the embarrassing theft eight days ago of the infamous “Arbeit macht frei” metal banner that hung over the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp, has said it will help pay for more security at the site.
Bogdan Zdrojewski, the culture minister, said late Wednesday that the government would contribute about $138,000 after a furor over the lack of security at the camp, which covers over 500 acres.
The thi
Source: Smoking Gun
December 28, 2009
-In a colossal screw-up, the gossip web site TMZ today published a photo purporting to show John F. Kennedy frolicking on a yacht with a harem of naked women--except that the image actually appeared as part of a November 1967 Playboy photo spread, The Smoking Gun has learned. The TMZ hoax was billed as an"exclusive" featuring a photo that" could have altered world events" had it surfaced prior to JFK's presidential campaign."It could have torpedoed his run, and changed world history," the site a
Source: Live Science
December 23, 2009
The ancient Mayans may have had enough engineering know-how to master running water, creating fountains and even toilets by controlling water pressure, scientists now suggest.
Perhaps the earliest known example of the intentional creation of water pressure was found on the island of Crete in a Minoan palace dating back to roughly 1400 BC. In the New World, the ability to generate water pressure was previously thought to have begun only with the arrival of the Spanish.
Source: Tampa Bay Online
December 23, 2009
A higher federal court will now hear the legal dispute over just who owns the richest sunken treasure ever found, either Tampa's Odyssey Marine, which found the treasure, or Spain, which claims it as a historic artifact.
In summer 2007, Odyssey located more than half a billion dollars in gold and silver coins on the floor of the Atlantic in a wreck ultimately identified, most likely, as the Mercedes warship, carrying freight from South America to Spain in the 18th century.
Source: BBC
December 28, 2009
Work to preserve a 15th Century letter from the Pope founding the University of St Andrews has been completed.
The Bull of Foundation is one of a series of six letters from the Pope, sent in 1413, which brought the institution into existence.
It took experts three weeks to restore the Papal Bull, including surface cleaning, repairing edge tears and the realignment of the document's silk tag.
The document will now be able to be displayed to the public.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 28, 2009
A pocket watch given to Edward VIII by Wallis Simpson is expected to fetch £60,000 at auction.
The onyx Cartier pocket watch is inscribed "Easter 12/4/36" and is one of four items being auctioned off in the sale.
Other items belonging to the Duchess of Windsor include a silver-gilt seal box, which has a guide price of £50,000 pounds, an 18ct pencil holder which is expected to fetch £12,000 pounds and a 14ct pocket magnifying glass with a guide of £8,000 pound
Source: CNN
December 27, 2009
Civil rights attorney Percy Sutton, who represented Malcolm X and became an influential New York politician and broadcaster, has died at age 89, associates said Sunday.
As a businessman, Sutton was credited with leading the revitalization of Harlem, including the restoration of the famous Apollo Theater. In a statement issued after Sutton's death Saturday night, New York Gov. David Paterson called the former Manhattan borough president "a friend and mentor."
Source: CBS
December 27, 2009
They are photos of iconic moments but whether certain pictures are true snapshots or false images has overshadowed many of them for decades, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.
That's the mystery surrounding Robert Capa's "Falling Soldier." An analysis of the photo conducted earlier this year has reignited a decades-long debate about whether the image - supposedly of a man being shot during the Spanish Civil War - was staged. Director of the International Cent
Source: BBC
December 27, 2009
The bicentenary of the birth of the 19th Century prime minister William Gladstone is to be celebrated with an exhibition about his life in Liverpool.
The four-times Liberal prime minister was born at 62 Rodney Street in the city on 29 December 1809.
An exhibition at St George's Hall, which is less than a mile from his birthplace, will begin on Tuesday.
Records, books and diaries from his career and other memorabilia will be on show until the end of March.
Source: BBC
December 27, 2009
Thirty years ago, on 24 December 1979, the Soviet Union started deploying troops in Afghanistan. But some of those who were sent had no military training at all, as Katia Moskvitch from the BBC's Russian Service found out.
Just days before the invasion, eight mountaineers from what was then the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan were getting ready to fly to neighbouring Tajikistan for a routine rescue operation in the Pamir Mountains.
They were further surprised when the pi
Source: BBC
December 26, 2009
Knut Haugland - the last of the six Norwegian crewmen who crossed the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki balsa wood raft in 1947 - has died aged 92.
The explorer died of natural causes in Oslo's hospital, the Kon-Tiki museum director said.
The expedition was launched from Peru by anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl to demonstrate that South Americans could have settled Polynesia. During World War II, Mr Haugland was member of the Norwegian resista
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 27, 2009
Chinese archaeologists have unearthed a large third-century tomb which they say could be that of Cao Cao, the politician and general infamous in East Asia for his Machiavellian tactics.
The tomb, discovered in Xigaoxue village near the ancient city of Anyang in Henan Province, has an epitaph and inscription that appear to refer to Cao Cao, Central China Television said on Sunday.
The tomb contains the remains of a man in his 60s, corresponding to Cao Cao's age at his d
Source: The Times (UK)
December 27, 2009
The mystery behind the most famous mutilation in art history may finally have been solved, the Times of London reported.
A scholar has found evidence that a distraught Vincent van Gogh slashed his ear after learning that his brother, Theo, on whom he depended financially and emotionally, was about to get married.
Martin Bailey, who has written a book on van Gogh and curated two exhibitions of his work, devised his theory after meticulous detective work on a letter in a
Source: NYT
December 26, 2009
With Democrats having worked feverishly to pass sweeping Senate and House health care bills before year’s end, it is worth remembering that legislative success can be short-lived.
Few people outside health policy circles may recall it, but two decades ago, after Congress congratulated itself on the passage of another health care bill, a public uproar forced its repeal a mere 16 months later.
That legislation was the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, which President Ro
Source: NYT
December 21, 2009
Add this to Richard M. Nixon’s résumé: Godfather of the Democrats’ big health care legislation in 2009.
Nixon, the 37th president, was known for working with Democrats on health care policy, including legislation in 1971 that opened a major government effort to fight cancer.
But his contribution to the current bill was to serve as more of a political counterforce: five of the six Democratic committee chairmen primarily responsible for writing the current health legislat
