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: Star Bulletin (Hawaii)
November 12, 2009
Silverware from the sunken ship apparently was kept by a Navy diver after salvaging
Lime-encrusted silverware taken from the officers' mess aboard the USS Arizona during World War II have been pulled from an auction.
Cowan's Auctions, a Cincinnati resale house specializing in American historical and military items, had planned to sell the 24 pieces on Dec. 9, with initial estimates of $15,000 to $20,000. But when Navy attorneys got wind of the planned sale, they put pre
Source: The Daily Beast
November 13, 2009
Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue isn't out until Tuesday but leaked excerpts reported by the Associated Press are already setting off denials from John McCain's old campaign staff. In response to the Palin's reported claim that she received a bill from the McCain campaign to pay for expenses related to her own vetting process, a McCain official told CNN that the story is "one hundred percent untrue." The official added: "All those bills are from her personal attorney Thomas Van Flei
Source: Chicago Tribune
November 13, 2009
U.S. researchers said Thursday they have located the remains of two high-tech Japanese submarines that were scuttled by the U.S. Navy off Hawaii in 1946 to prevent the technology from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War.
One of the vessels was the largest non-nuclear sub ever built and had the ability to sail 1 1/2 times around the globe without refueling. Called the I-14, the behemoth was 400 feet long, 40 feet high, and carried a crew of 144
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
November 12, 2009
Former President George W. Bush, speaking today in Dallas, listed education, economic growth, freedom, and global health as the policy areas that will be the focus of a future institute bearing his name at Southern Methodist University, The Dallas Morning News reported. The institute will be part of the $300-million presidential center, which will include a library and museum. In his comments today, Mr. Bush attempted to ease faculty concerns that the institute would be too partisan, saying it w
Source: Talking Points Memo
November 12, 2009
Former President George W. Bush has chosen the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia to conduct a "comprehensive oral history of his presidency."
The Miller Center and Bush's foundation announced the George W. Bush Oral History Project this morning, saying the university's scholars will do 100 interviews with the Bush Cabinet and outside advisers during the 5-year project.
Source: NYT
November 12, 2009
Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber became infamous for killing a German actor in 1990. Now they are suing to force Wikipedia to forget them.
The legal fight pits German privacy law against the American First Amendment. German courts allow the suppression of a criminal’s name in news accounts once he has paid his debt to society, noted Alexander H. Stopp, the lawyer for the two men, who are now out of prison.
“They should be able to go on and be resocialized, and lead a
Source: CBS
November 13, 2009
Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, a law enforcement official told CBS News Friday.
Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning, a White House official told the Associated Press. The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Without
Source: NJ
November 12, 2009
NEWARK -- One of the artifacts brought out from behind the heavy, six-inch doors of a basement vault in Newark is an oil portrait of Arthur T. Vanderbilt, New Jersey’s chief justice from 1948-1957.
Still stored there are original letters from the Olmsted Brothers, famed park designers, and even original art-deco door knockers, shaped as human figures and once gripped by Newark visitors to an "Egyptian-style" courthouse razed in 1907.
The black-doored vaults al
Source: SF Gate (via OpEdNews)
November 11, 2009
Today's typical union member is a woman working in the public sector, whereas 25 years ago it might have been a man with a factory job, according to a report that looks at the changing face of organized labor.
The report, published by the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, starts its analysis in 1983, when federal surveys first started collecting details about union members.
By analyzing those records, author John Schmitt found that more than
Source: CNN
November 12, 2009
At 75, Charles Manson has spent more than half his life in prison for masterminding the notorious Helter Skelter killing spree that left actress Sharon Tate and six others dead in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969.
Manson spent his 75th birthday this week at the state prison in Corcoran, California, where he is isolated from the rest of the prison population. Some records indicate that Manson was born on November 12, but Manson's current associates and California corrections rec
Source: BBC
November 10, 2009
Even though it was not a school day, dozens of them made their way in to Sisowath High School in the centre of Phnom Penh for a presentation ceremony.
School and government officials were formally handing out the new Khmer Rouge history book, a scene that will be repeated across the country in the closing months of this year.
Three decades have passed since the fall of the Khmer Rouge government. Yet only now are Cambodian schoolchildren finally starting to learn abou
Source: Inside Higher Ed
November 11, 2009
Hiram College this week held a "recapitation" ceremony to celebrate the return of the head on a statue of President James A. Garfield. Garfield was a student, instructor and administrator at the college before his ill-fated presidency. A statue honoring him was unveiled on campus in May and was mysteriously decapitated days later. The head was found and returned anonymously to local police officers.
Source: NYT
November 9, 2009
If there is a topic Justice Antonin Scalia does not relish discussing, it is how he would have voted in Brown v. Board of Education had he been on the Supreme Court when it was decided in 1954.
The question came up last month at the University of Arizona in what was billed as a conversation between Justice Scalia and Justice Stephen G. Breyer. The discussion, between the court’s two primary intellectual antagonists, bore the relationship to a conversation that a fistfight does to a
Source: NYT
November 11, 2009
After a year of ultimatums, threats and stop-and-go talks, the Bloomberg administration has agreed to pay $95.6 million to a developer for seven acres in the heart of Coney Island, according to executives on both sides of the negotiations. It is a crucial step forward for the city’s vision of turning the faded and mostly dormant seaside amusement district into an exciting destination reminiscent of its heyday.
The city’s deal with the developer, Joseph J. Sitt, capped a long standof
Source: Salon
November 11, 2009
LGBT activists -- and progressives generally, regardless of sexuality -- have been waiting for months now to hear about a timetable for repealing the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which forbids gays from openly serving. And with good reason; ending the ban was, after all, a campaign promise of President Obama's.
If Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is to be believed -- and given his own sexuality and his stature among Congressional Democrats, on issues like this one
Source: BBC
November 12, 2009
The key to preserving the old, degrading paper of treasured, ageing books is contained in the smell of their pages, say scientists.
Researchers report in the journal Analytical Chemistry that a new "sniff test" can measure degradation of old books and historical documents.
Source: Yahoo News
November 12, 2009
TOKYO – Tens of thousands of well-wishers gathered outside Japan's moat-ringed Imperial Palace — many shouting "Banzai," a traditional wish for long life — to mark Thursday's 20th anniversary of Emperor Akihito's coronation to the world's oldest throne.
Parades, concerts and speeches by leading athletes, actors, businesspeople and politicians marked the festivities that lasted most of the day.
But in unusually somber comments of his own, Akihito appealed for f
Source: UPI
November 11, 2009
Canada is unveiling a new study guide for would-be citizens that requires much more knowledge of the country's military history, a federal minister said.
At an Ottawa news conference Tuesday timed for the observance of Remembrance Day Wednesday, Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney said the new immigration test will require knowledge of Canada's military achievements in both World Wars, Korea and a myriad of peacekeeping missions, Sun Media reported.
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Source: WSJ
November 13, 2009
LIUYI VILLAGE, YUNNAN PROVINCE -- In a courtyard of her crumbling house, Wu Liuying lifts her favorite pair of shoes from a dusty cardboard box. Hand-sewn from navy-blue cloth, embroidered with pink flowers, they are no bigger than a small child's slippers.
But they slip easily over the gnarled shrunken feet of the 90-year-old Ms. Wu. From the age of 5, her feet were bound tightly with cotton strips, warping them. The four smallest toes folded under the sole, which was squeezed into
Source: NYT
November 9, 2009
On Nov. 9, 1938, a two-volume black-leather-clad Hebrew Bible vanished from a library in Vienna after that city’s Jewish community came under assault from soldiers during Kristallnacht, the start of the Nazi pogrom against Jews.
As is the case with much art looted during World War II, the Bible’s location during the following few decades was mostly unknown.
But last winter, the two volumes, printed 493 years ago, were smuggled into New York City, according to federal au
