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: CNN Money
August 7, 2009
...In this recession-racked town, the lack of food is a serious problem. It's a theme that comes up again and again in conversations in Detroit. There isn't a single major chain supermarket in the city, forcing residents to buy food from corner stores. Often less healthy and more expensive food.
As the area's economy worsens --unemployment was over 16% in July -- food stamp applications and pantry visits have surged.
Detroiters have responded to this crisis. Huge amount
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
August 8, 2009
Beatles fans will cross Abbey Road this morning 40 years to the minute
after the band created one of the most iconic album covers of all
time.
The Beatles walked across a zebra crossing on the road in St John's
Wood, north London, at 11.35am on August 8 1969, for an image caught
on the cover of their classic album Abbey Road.
Source: New York Times
August 7, 2009
Every morning Peggy Cooper Cafritz steps outside and confronts the wreckage: the acrid smell of her incinerated walls and furnishings, the police tape clinging to a chain-link fence surrounding her property, the rumbling backhoe hauling away the charred remains of her longtime home.
So, when asked about her loss, Ms. Cafritz hesitates. Her $5.2 million mansion here in the Kent neighborhood of northwest Washington held one of the largest private collections of African-American and Af
Source: Taranga.com
August 2, 2009
An 8,000-year-old human skeleton was found during excavations in one of the oldest residential areas in southern Turkey, a media report said.
The skeleton was discovered inside a Neolithic-age tomb unearthed in Yumuktepe Hoyuk of the southern Mersin province by archeologists from the Italian Lecce University and Turkish Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
Source: MTI Daily Bulletin
August 4, 2009
Archaeologists of Debrecen's Deri Museum have discovered 4,000-year-old remains of a settlement during earth works connected to a local sewage treatment project, leader of the excavations Krisztian Szilagyi told MTI on Tuesday.
A team of 35-40 archaeologists are working in an area of two hectares, and have now identified the traces of three phases of the settlement: one in the early Bronze Age between 2700-2500 BC, the Sarmatian period around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD as well as
Source: University of Toronto
August 7, 2009
Excavations led by a University of Toronto archaeologist at the site of a recently discovered temple in southeastern Turkey have uncovered a cache of cuneiform tablets dating back to the Iron Age period between 1200 and 600 BCE. Found in the temple's cella, or 'holy of holies', the tablets are part of a possible archive. The cella also contained gold, bronze and iron implements, libation vessels and ornately decorated ritual objects.
"The assemblage appears to represent a Neo-A
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 8, 2009
After the release of Ronnie Biggs on compassionate grounds, the notorious female followers of Charles Manson could take a similar path out of prison.
Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten were all sentenced to death for their roles in the carnage that claimed the lives of actress Sharon Tate, the heavily pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, and six others in Los Angeles on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969. The penalties were commuted to life and they are
Source: New York Times
August 8, 2009
But has the pendulum swung too far? New technologies are obviously important, but even in today’s fast-paced environment, they can take a long time to substitute for the old. In the meantime, incremental innovation based on old technologies can help a company survive.
When Sony announced its Mavica electronic camera in 1981, headlines trumpeted that “Film Is Dead.” But it took 28 more years for Kodachrome, the film immortalized by Paul Simon, to finally die this past June.
Source: BBC
August 7, 2009
Archaeologists in Italy say they have unearthed the remains of a sumptuous villa thought to be the birthplace of the Emperor Vespasian.
The ruins were found in the Roman city of Falacrine, about 80 miles (130km) north-east of Rome.
The villa's location and luxury suggest it was probably Vespasian's birthplace, an archaeologist said.
Vespasian lived from AD9-79. He was emperor from AD69-79, restoring peace after a period of civil war.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 8, 2009
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is to visit his ancestral Irish home in September.
The former world heavyweight champion has accepted an invitation to see the birthplace of his great-grandfather in Ennis, Co Clare, on September 1.
He is due to visit Dublin for a charity event the previous day.
Ali's great-grandfather Abe Grady emigrated from his home on the Turnpike Road in Ennis to the United States in the 1860s.
Grady sailed from Cappa Harbour
Source: Independent (UK)
August 8, 2009
Unhappy lovers in Cyprus have been taking so much stone from the tomb of Saint Agapitikos to use in love potions that soon there won't be any left.
Dust from the grave in the courtyard of the church in the village of Arodes in Paphos district has been used for centuries by the lovelorn, who are supposed to slip it into the drink of their objet d'amour.
But, in recent years, so many have been filching shards of stone that a quarter of the tomb has disappeared.
Source: Live Science
August 8, 2009
Although past research has suggested Tyrannosaurus rex was related to chickens, now findings hint this giant predator might have acted chicken too.
Instead of picking on dinosaurs its own size, researchers now suggest T. rex was a baby killer that liked to swallow defenseless prey whole.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 8, 2009
According to a new study, Hollywood films that take liberties with the past damage people's knowledge of history – even when they once knew the correct facts. But while this is likely true, it's nothing new. Writers from Shakespeare to Walter Scott have fired our imaginations with gross but entertaining fallacies: Cleopatra, Richard the Lionheart and Richard III have never recovered from the extreme makeovers they received according to Elizabethan or Victorian tastes.
Alexandre Dum
Source: Wall Street Journal
August 7, 2009
Seven years ago, more than 50% of the power distributed by North Delhi Power Ltd. wasn't paid for by customers. Today, the company has cut that to 15%, signaling that one of India's biggest infrastructure problems can be solved, if tackled aggressively.
Power theft by rich and poor customers as well as businesses has plagued India for decades, hindering foreign and domestic investment that could spark the increase in generating capacity the nation desperately needs.
The
Source: The American Task Force on Palestine
August 7, 2009
King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia summed up the sentiments of the entire Arab and Muslim worlds well when he said that Palestinian divisions constitute a greater danger to the Palestinians and their cause than all the threats and acts of aggression committed by Israel.
In a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas marking Fateh’s first congress in 20 years, the Saudi king stressed that all Palestinian factions need to come together to make an independent Palestinian
Source: The American Task Force on Palestine
August 6, 2009
President Obama’s decision to bestow one of the nation’s highest honors on Mary Robinson, the first woman to serve as Ireland’s president, has touched off protests by Jewish groups and lawmakers, who claim she has shown a persistent anti-Israel bias in her work as a human rights advocate.
Mr. Obama plans to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to Mrs. Robinson and 15 others at a ceremony next week at the White House.
In recent da
Source: Time
August 7, 2009
American and Pakistani officials say it looks more and more likely that Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief who had a $5 million bounty on his head, is dead. Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told reporters in Islamabad on Friday Aug. 7 that, "According to my intelligence information, the news is correct. We are trying to get on-the-ground verification to be 100% sure. But according to my information, he has been taken out." Local Pakistani media, citing &quo
Source: New York Times
August 6, 2009
Late one November afternoon in 1942, a seaplane belonging to the United States Army Air Corps made two attempts to take off in rough waters near the village of Longue Pointe de Mingan, Quebec. After a large wave opened a leak, the seaplane foundered and sank on the second try. Fishermen who rowed out to the scene rescued only four of the nine crew members.
On Thursday, Parks Canada, a government agency, said an underwater archaeology team had discovered the apparently intact wreck o
Source: Newsay
August 7, 2009
Two significant colonial American sites along the upper Hudson River are expected to change hands in an effort to preserve the historic properties, while the state still plans to buy a third 18th-century site that's considered the birthplace of the U.S. Army Rangers.
All three properties are in or adjacent to Fort Edward, a history-rich Washington County village 40 miles north of Albany. The fort the English built here was Britain's largest military outpost in North America during
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
August 7, 2009
The search for a new Ohio statue for the U.S. Capitol is taking a panel of state lawmakers to the birthplace of inventor Thomas Edison.
The committee is looking for a historic figure to replace William Allen, one of two Ohioans representing the state in the National Statuary Hall at the Capitol building in Washington. Allen was a 19th century congressman and Ohio governor who portrayed blacks as savages and supported the rights of Southern slave owners.
