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: NYT
November 7, 2009
BERLIN — “The Quiz of the Germans,” a lighthearted entry amid a crush of serious examinations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, pitted three West German celebrities seated behind the sloping hood of an old Volkswagen Beetle against counterparts from the East perched above the front of a clunky Trabant.
On a television stage emblazoned with an oversize map of unified Germany, the questions about the divided old days were as symmetrical as the antique cars. The t
Source: WSJ
November 7, 2009
The American railroad produced the nation's original corporate capitalists—the ones we call tycoons, moguls, or robber barons. The first and greatest was "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who amassed the New York Central system between New York and Chicago in the 1860s and '70s. This week's purchase of Burlington Northern by Warren Buffett seems to make Mr. Buffett a worthy successor.
"It's an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States," Mr. Buffet
Source: Salon
November 6, 2009
Unfortunately, it seems that whether it's on the Internet or in real life, Godwin's Law always finds a way to prove itself again. People manage to use Nazi and Holocaust references in the most poorly considered of ways, as if they're unaware of the true horror that was the slaughter of millions of innocent people.
That sort of thing has been happening all too frequently during protests against Democratic healthcare reform plans, and one of the more shocking examples was on display a
Source: Yahoo News
November 7, 2009
BERLIN – Massive colorful dominoes painted by German students were placed Saturday along the former path of the Berlin Wall to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the barrier that divided the city for nearly three decades.
Many of the upright 7.5-foot-high (2.3-meter-high) plastic foam dominoes carried messages, including "We are one people." The approximately 1,000 dominoes stretching for 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) will be toppled Monday as part of wider celebrations
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 6, 2009
The green jade seal, belonging to the emperor Qian Long (1736-1795) fetched £3.6 million, six times its estimate, at the auction on Wednesday following frantic bidding by eight competing collectors.
News of the sale was greeted with anger on the Chinese internet, where the country's growing nationalism frequently finds its voice.
"Bandits have seized our treasures and are now selling them off at auction for ridiculous profits. How can we tolerate such behaviour?&qu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 7, 2009
The rival version of events on November 9 has cast doubt on the official history of one of the most celebrated decisions of the century, as Berliners prepare to mark the 20th anniversary of the breaching of the wall with a "Festival of Freedom" this weekend.
Until recent weeks, Harald Jaeger, a Stasi officer at Bornholmer Strasse in north Berlin, held the undisputed mantle of the man who peacefully breached the Berlin Wall. But now Heinz Schafer, who was a colonel in the
Source: Saffron Walden Reporter
October 30, 2009
A father and son team of treasure hunters, branded as the Essex 'Indiana Jones team' who were accused of illegally removing 3000 year old artefacts from an Uttlesford estate while acting as metal detecting "nighthawks", were today cleared.
They were found not guilty in a Crown Court test case prosecution which has been closely watched by treasure hunters throughout the country.
Today's verdict has implications for all who head out to the countryside with metal
Source: Dutch News
November 2, 2009
Archaeologists have found the Iron Age burial mound of a wealthy man in Noord Brabant, the second major find within a cluster of earthworks and other remains near the town of Oss.
The first mound was identified in 1933 and is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the country.
Source: Philly.com
November 6, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - As the city's transit strike drags into its fourth day, tempers are frayed, commuter trains are packed, streets are clogged and some residents remain virtually stranded at home.
It could be worse.
During World War II, federal troops armed with bayonets and rifles gave striking Philadelphia transit employees an ultimatum: Get back to work or be drafted.
And there wasn't much brotherly love in the city in 1910, when a transportation strike led
Source: NYT
November 5, 2009
BERLIN — A young East German physicist named Angela Merkel was on her way home from her weekly trip to the sauna and a beer with a friend when she was swept up in the ecstatic crowds crossing the border at Bornholmer Street on the night of Nov. 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell.
Now, as chancellor of a reunited Germany, Mrs. Merkel is presiding over a series of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of that day. In a talk with reporters here on Thursday she shared her recollecti
Source: Truthout
November 5, 2009
Washington - After an emotional debate over how to keep Americans safe, the Senate Thursday narrowly defeated an effort to prevent civilian trials in U.S. courts for the accused planners of the 9/11 attacks.
The Senate's 54-45 vote to reject the measure by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., opens the door for President Barack Obama to bring Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to trial in federal court, rather than the military commissions G
Source: wsoctv9 North Carolina
November 5, 2009
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A controversial history lesson left parents and teachers upset in Union County.
The teachers plan to write letters to leaders at the historic Latta Plantation about their disapproval of a hands-on history lesson during a Rea View Elementary class trip Wednesday.
During a lesson on the Civil War, tour guide Ian Campbell, who is himself black, made black students pretend to be slaves in front of their white classmates.
Campbell said he's be
Source: Boston.com
November 6, 2009
Massachusetts’ top historic preservation officer has dealt a setback to the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, ruling yesterday that the body of water is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places because of its cultural significance for two Native American tribes.
In a letter released late in the afternoon, Brona Simon, state historic preservation officer, said she believes that Nantucket Sound is so culturally important to two Wampanoag tribes that it should
Source: CNSNews.com
November 6, 2009
As Germany prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, activists in South Korea will hold a series of events this weekend to highlight calls for similarly momentous developments leading to the liberation of North Korea.
Planned events include a mass human rights and democracy demonstration led by North Korean refugee leaders in Seoul on Saturday; an all-day national day of prayer, fasting and repentance on Sunday; and another demonstration on Monday at the
Source: Rasmussen Reports
November 5, 2009
Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters feel that America’s best days are in the past, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. This marks the highest level of voter pessimism in two years and is up 13 points from a year ago when Barack Obama was elected president.
Thirty-five percent (35%) feel the nation's best days are still to come, down 13 points since President Obama’s inauguration in January.
Source: International Business Times (UK)
November 5, 2009
A survey conducted by a veterans charity has found startling evidence that school children are increasingly ignorant of the history of the Second World War, with one in twenty believing Adolf Hitler to be a former national football team coach of Germany and one in six thinking that Auschwitz is a theme park.
The survey, conducted by Erskine, which takes care of around 1,350 war veterans, asked 2,000 children aged nine to 15 a number of questions about the Second World War and got so
Source: Nature News
November 5, 2009
Archaeologists claim to have found the oldest known artefact in the Americas, a scraper-like tool in an Oregon cave that dates back 14,230 years.
The tool shows that people were living in North America well before the widespread Clovis culture of 12,900 to 12,400 years ago, says archaeologist Dennis Jenkins of the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Studies of sediment and radiocarbon dating showed the bone's age. Jenkins presented the finding late last month in a lecture a
Source: BBC
November 5, 2009
The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 thrilled most East Germans - though not manufacturers, whose goods became suddenly uncompetitive. But 20 years on, reports Lucy Hooker, some former East German brands are going strong.
Madeline Achterberg still harbours a fondness for many aspects of life in the old East Germany, especially the food, even though she wasn't even born in 1989.
"These things have a special spirit to them. They have a feeling of telling sto
Source: Inside Higher Ed
November 6, 2009
What started as a debate over whether brick-and-mortar libraries would survive much further into the 21st century turned into an existential discussion on the definition of libraries, as a gathering of technologists here at the 2009 Educause Conference pondered the evolution of one of higher education’s oldest institutions.
“Let’s face it: the library, as a place, is dead,” said Suzanne E. Thorin, dean of libraries at Syracuse University. “Kaput. Finito. And we need to move on to a
Source: NYT
November 5, 2009
PARIS — Judges ordered Thursday that a lawyer be imposed on Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader on trial in The Hague for war crimes and genocide, but halted the trial until March 1, to give a lawyer time to get ready.
Their decision effectively gave Mr. Karadzic, who has insisted on representing himself, almost four additional months to prepare his defense, which is more than an appeals court gave him when it ordered the case to begin.
“We need time to dig
