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: BBC
July 10, 2009
Five hundred years after the birth of French Protestant theologian John Calvin, his teachings seem more topical than ever.
Hard work and frugality, the values espoused by Calvinism, are back in fashion as people reassess their lives because of the economic crisis.
Nowhere is this more so than in the Netherlands, which is often described as the most Calvinist nation in the world. Calvin never set foot there, but his influence is hard to miss.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 10, 2009
Kim Jong-il is seriously ill and is likely to be dead before the end of the year, according to a source within the North Korean leader's own family.
The latest speculation over the health of the reclusive Kim has been triggered by his appearance on state television on Wednesday to mark the 15th anniversary of the death of Kim Il Sung, his father and the man revered as the founder of North Korea.
He looked gaunt, his hair has thinned dramatically and he walked with a li
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 10, 2009
The son of Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, the commander of British forces on the Western Front in the First World War, died on Friday.
George Haig, the 2nd Earl Haig, passed away at Borders General Hospital in Melrose, the Royal British Legion Scotland announced.
His father was commander of the British forces at the Somme and Ypres and his role has made him one of the most controversial military figures of the last century. Earl Haig, who
Source: Times Online (UK)
July 10, 2009
Tomorrow marks 150 years since Big Ben first rang out across London.
The bell, which hangs in St Stephen’s Tower in the palace of Westminster, first struck the hour on July 11, 1859. It has continued to chime every 15 minutes since, with only occasional stoppages for repairs and bad weather.
To celebrate the anniversary the message “Happy Birthday Big Ben, 150 years, 1859 – 2009” will be projected onto the 96-metre tower, which is an icon on the London skyline.
Source: CNN
July 10, 2009
Authorities revealed more disturbing discoveries Friday at an Illinois cemetery where hundreds of burial plots were allegedly dug up and resold, including more emptied graves and the discarded casket of a civil rights icon.
Till, 14, was brutally killed in August 1955 in Mississippi after he reportedly whistled at a white woman. Despite the gruesome condition of his corpse, his mother insisted on a public funeral and open casket in an effort to draw attention to the ferocity of her
Source: CNN
July 10, 2009
Anita Davenport's curiosity about her family's past began with the
photographs that surrounded her. She said she wanted to know the
stories behind the images of her parents and uncles.
The stories she found -- and shared during several phone conversations
from her home in Culver City, California -- parallel the
African-American journey during the past century.
The search took her to 1894, when her grandfather, Walter, was born in
Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Source: AP
July 10, 2009
Iraq's U.S.-led invaders inflicted serious damage on Babylon, driving heavy machinery over sacred paths, bulldozing hilltops and digging trenches through one of the world's greatest archaeological sites, said experts for UNESCO.
"The use of Babylon as a military base was a grave encroachment on this internationally known archaeological site," said a report which the U.N. cultural agency presented Thursday in Paris.
UNESCO officials stressed that the damage did
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
July 8, 2009
A day after a state judge vacated a jury verdict holding that University of Colorado officials had violated Ward Churchill’s First Amendment rights by firing him, the university announced that it would bill the former ethnic-studies professor more than $10,000 in out-of-pocket costs it incurred while defending against his wrongful-termination suit, The Denver Post reported.
The university cannot seek reimbursement for all of its legal costs, but as a successful defendant in a civil
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 8, 2009
A 350ft crop circle of an ancient Mayan symbol, said to be a sign of an impending apocalypse, has appeared next to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire.
The giant pattern - thought to represent a traditional Mayan head-dress - appeared next to the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe last week.
Members of the crop circle community believe the mystic symbol is a signal of the end of the 5,126-year Mayan 'Long Count' calendar on December 21, 2012.
Source: Spiegel Online
July 9, 2009
Tens of thousands of former Stasi employees are still working for the German civil service, a respected newspaper has revealed. Experts say that background checks on civil servants were often cursory, while civil rights activists are calling for the ex-secret police to be dismissed.
The issue of former members of the East German secret police, the Stasi, occupying positions in German public life has long been a hot topic in post-Cold War Germany. Now it turns out that the civil serv
Source: Politico.com
July 9, 2009
Presiding over a store opening as the youthful Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton sees a greeting card he likes, slips it in his pocket and saunters out.
It’s one of the glimpses of Arkansas history overflowing from a trove of 26,000 videocassettes that the Allbritton family — owner of KATV Channel 7, the ABC station in Little Rock — donated Wednesday to the University of Arkansas.
About 200 people, including the entire Arkansas congressional delegation, turned out Wednesd
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 9, 2009
Working-class men are no more likely to get into well-paid careers
than they were a generation ago, according to academics.
A study claims that there has been"little obvious sign of any
decline" in the influence of family background on life chances.
It says that although many more people now go to university, this does
not necessarily mean they will earn more as employers struggle to make
sense of the"ever-expanding plethora" of qualifications.
Source: Spiegel Online
July 8, 2009
The German government, along with the Austrians and Swiss, pulled their support for a huge hydro-energy project in Turkey this week. The required dam would have flooded an ancient city and displaced more than 10,000 people. German papers praised the decision, asking why it took so long to make.
It was meant to be one of the most ambitious energy policy programs ever undertaken by the Turkish government, but on Tuesday, Germany, Austria and Switzerland withdrew their backing for the
Source: http://www.thaindian.com
July 8, 2009
Xanadu, the city built by Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and mentioned by Italian traveller Marco Polo, has been unearthed by Chinese archaeologists who have sketched its layout.
“The most exciting findings are the layout of the moat in front of the Mingde Gate to the royal capital in the three-month excavation,” said Yang Xingyu, a senior archaeologist.
Xanadu, also spelled Shangdu, was built in 1256 under the command of Kublai Khan, the first emperor of Yuan or Mongol Dy
Source: BBC
July 8, 2009
When did a lavatory become a loo? And why were Victorian trousers "unmentionables"? The world's first historical thesaurus, which is to be published after more than 40 years of research, claims to have the answers.
Loved by writers, not to mention crossword cheats, Roget's Thesaurus has never been out of print since it was published in 1852 to "assist in literary composition".
The best known dictionary of its kind, which groups synonyms - words with
Source: Chicago Tribune
July 8, 2009
More than 100 graves have been dug up in historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip over the last several years and the bodies dumped "in a massive pile on cemetery grounds" so the plots could be resold, authorities say.
Sheriff Tom Dart says the scheme had been going on for the last 4 years in the cemetery, where many famous African-Americans are buried, including Emmett Till, Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington.
That could make identifying the bodies and matching the
Source: NYT
July 8, 2009
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said.
In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had “misled members” of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. “This is sim
Source: Washington Independent
July 9, 2009
Last night, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) gave a short talk and Q&A at at the National Press Club about his book “Saving Freedom.” DeMint told a room of around 100 people about a conversation he’d had with an Iranian immigrant who was panicking about the surge of government spending and control under President Obama and the Democrats. Americans should listen to immigrants like her, said DeMint.
"They understand socialism. They understand tyrants. But none of us have ever had it
Source: Think Progress (liberal website)
July 9, 2009
Yesterday, a number of blogs reported that right-wing Rep. Steve King (R-IA) was the lone dissenter on a House vote to acknowledge the role that slave labor had in constructing the U.S. Capitol. The resolution would merely authorize the placement of a marker inside the new Capitol Visitor Center to acknowledge the work of slaves.
In an attempt to quell the criticism, King spun his vote as an effort to defend religion. He said in a statement that he opposed the slave labor resolution becau
Source: AP
July 8, 2009
The House on Tuesday acknowledged the use of African-American slaves in the construction of the U.S. Capitol, ordering officials to place a marker inside the new Capitol Visitor Center using some of the original stone quarried by those slaves for the historic building.
"This physical and permanent marker will pay tribute to the blood, sweat and tears of the African-American slaves who helped build this magnificent building and ensure that their story is told and never, never,
