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: Newsweek
October 17, 2005
Prophet and polygamist, mesmerizer and rabble-rouser, saint and sinner: Joseph Smith is arguably the most influential native-born figure in American religious history, and is almost certainly the most fascinating. This year marks the 200th anniversary of his birth, and the bicentennial is prompting fresh and searching looks at Smith, the faith he built and the legacy he left behind. The church is opening Smith's life and contributions to research--a new stance for an institution whose early expe
Source: AP
October 11, 2005
A fresco attributed to 18th-century Italian painter Giandomenico Tiepolo has been discovered during the restoration of a church in Venice. The work, measuring 11.8 feet by 5.25 feet, is painted on a moon-shaped lunette behind the main altar of the Santa Maria Maddalena church and was found about three months ago, said Ilaria Cavaggioni, an architect who made the discovery while supervising restoration works in the church.A research of archive documentation has led experts to
Source: Associated Press
October 9, 2005
A German bishop known as the "Lion of Muenster" for his courageous anti-Nazi sermons during World War II took a step on the road to sainthood when he was beatified Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica.
Pope Benedict XVI hailed the "heroic courage" of Clemens August von Galen and described the churchman, who condemned anti-Semitism, as a model for those in public roles today. Von Galen died in 1946, at age 68, a few weeks after Pope Pius XII raised him to the rank of c
Source: Times Online (UK)
October 10, 2005
A PLAN drawn up by the Bush Administration to combat a pandemic bird flu outbreak reveals that America is grossly unprepared to deal with what would likely be the worst disaster in US history.
The 381-page draft plan, leaked by health officials who claim that it contains fundamental failures, predicts that a full-scale outbreak could kill as many as 1.9 million Americans and put 8.5 million in hospital at a cost of more than $450 billion (£256 billion).`
Source: NYT
October 11, 2005
Justice Antonin Scalia, the first Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court, returned to his hometown yesterday to lead the march along Fifth Avenue as grand marshal of the 61st Columbus Day Parade.
The highest-ranking government official to serve as grand marshal, Justice Scalia shares an honor bestowed in the past on the actress Sophia Loren, the racing champion Mario Andretti and the fashion designer Roberto Cavalli.
Despite Justice Scalia's prominence, few para
Source: NYT
October 11, 2005
"New Orleans was our womb and for most of us, it was going to be our grave," said Timothy Bordenave, who is living in a cottage here, a five-hour drive away from the city, describing the deep sense of lifelong connection felt to New Orleans by many of the city's Creoles, the population of mixed-race families who trace their roots to the city's French and Spanish colonial era.
The Creoles have been more distinctly connected to a place - New Orleans - than perhaps any other
Source: AP
October 11, 2005
The Polish nobleman who fought in New Jersey and in southern Ocean County finally received a hero's funeral on the 226th anniversary of the Revolutionary War battle in which he was mortally wounded. However, the mystery continues over whether the remains buried Sunday are those of Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski, who is considered the father of the American cavalry. He is a hero in Poland and among Polish-Americans for his sacrifice.
Source: CBS San Diego
October 11, 2005
The Republican Party chairman on Tuesday defended the GOP's outreach to black voters days after his Democratic counterpart questioned how he could make such an appeal in view of the Bush administration's tepid response to Hurricane Katrina. Ken Mehlman told the Waterbury, Conn.-chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that the "party of Lincoln and the African-American people have an incredible history together."He dismissed critici
Source: AP
October 11, 2005
Scientists digging in a remote Indonesian cave have uncovered a jaw bone that they say adds more evidence that a tiny prehistoric Hobbit-like species once existed. The jaw is from the ninth individual believed to have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. The bones are in a wet cave on the island of Flores in the eastern limb of the Indonesian archipelago, near Australia.The research team which reported the original sensational finding nearly a year ago strongly believes th
Source: Chicago Tribune
October 10, 2005
Abraham Lincoln's story has been told in plays and movies, in poems and multi-volume biographies. Now it's being told in a guidebook for idiots."The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Legacy of Lincoln" promises readers a review of his life, presidency, oratory and impact on modern life — all in 332 pages chock full of bullet-points and info boxes.
Author Pamela Oldham admits the idea of an "idiot's guide" to such a complex, important figure sound
Source: Chicago Tribune/AP
October 10, 2005
The National Museum of American History recently acquired the 34-year-old modified soft-serve ice cream machine that was first used to mass-produce frozen margaritas."I have a pretty fertile imagination. I have big dreams," said Mariano Martinez, owner of the Dallas restaurant Mariano Hacienda where the margaritas were made. "But this is beyond what I ever imagined."
In 1971, Martinez hoped margaritas would set his eatery apart. But his barte
Source: Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
October 10, 2005
It's Columbus Day. Good luck finding a party.
Columbus, Ohio, which once celebrated Christopher Columbus with a parade and fireworks, has more modest plans today.
Columbus, Ind., has none.
Columbus, N.D. -- population 100 -- says it's too small to throw a shindig.Columbus, Pa., says the weather is usually too cold.
Does no Columbus celebrate the federal holiday anymore?
Actually, some do -- though not necessari
Source: Herald (Glasgow)
October 10, 2005
John Knox, whose name became a byword for strict and joyless Scots Protestantism, almost left Scotland after labelling the nation as "unthankful and miserable".
Five letters written by Knox which give details of the final years of Scotland's most famous Protestant reveal he came close to leaving Scotland to help spread Protestantism in Ireland, and was passing intelligence to the English government about Irish political intrigue.
The letters focus on
Source: Ottawa Citizen
October 10, 2005
Even though the National Capital Commission says it won't be using taxpayers' money to build a monument at LeBreton Flats, many Ottawa residents think the suggested $5-million price tag is too high.
The monument is being envisioned as about four storeys high and with a location at the intersection of Booth and Wellington streets. However, it is still unclear what kind of monument is being considered for the site.Yesterday, the Citizen polled about 20 Ottawa resi
Source: Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
October 9, 2005
He might be the bravest man to go to war. But he has always been denied the greatest prize owed to the brave, a national disgrace no government since World War I has had the guts to fix.On the edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens, in the shadow of the Shrine of Remembrance, John Simpson and his donkey run the gauntlet of machineguns and bombs in perpetuity.
They are frozen in bronze and time on a plinth reading: "In commemoration of the valour and compassion o
Source: Wa Po
October 9, 2005
Andrew Jackson may be the most important American not yet exhumed in the rush to learn from the leading lights of our early history. If so, it makes sense that H.W. Brands is leading the charge toward his rediscovery. For one thing, Brands teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, in a state that might well be an independent republic if not for Jackson. For another, over the past decade Brands has proven himself a bloodhound with a nose for tracking down subjects ahead of the pack. There hav
Source: NYT
October 10, 2005
The new statue was bound to make a vivid impression in Trafalgar Square, a place as redolent of past military glory as any in London. For one thing, it depicts someone who is not male, not wearing a uniform and not dead.
But there's more. The statue, 11 feet 7 inches of snow-white Carrara marble, shows the naked, eight-and-a-half-month-pregnant figure of 40-year-old Alison Lapper, a single mother who was born with shortened legs and no arms. Ms. Lapper is a frie
Source: Wired Magazine
September 1, 2005
The Cherokee kept black slaves until 1866, when an emancipation treaty freed them from bondage and granted them full tribal citizenship. Known as the Freedmen, these men and women were embraced by the Cherokee as equals, and often married the offspring of their former masters.
There are at least 25,000 direct descendants of Freedmen who cannot join Oklahoma's largest tribes. Once paragons of racial inclusion and assimilation, the Native American sovereign nations have done an about
Source: Al-Jazeera
October 10, 2005
Turkey's foreign minister says he is confident a court will dismiss charges against a best-selling Turkish writer who faces prison for his views on the massacres of Armenians 90 years ago.Orhan Pamuk has been charged with insulting Turkish identity for supporting Armenian claims that they suffered a genocide under Ottoman Turks in 1915. He faces three years in jail if convicted.Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Sunday sought to play down the controversy, telling Canal television that he expected
Source: Chosunilbo
October 10, 2005
Ever-vigilant over what it sees as Japan’s distortions of history, China is pushing ahead with some rewriting of its own to suppress mention of a separate Korean identity in its textbooks. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in August last year erased reference to some pre-1948 Korean history on its website, and now all accounts of pre-modern Korean history, including the Koguryo kingdom, are gone from a world history textbook for ethnic Korean- students in Yanbian, Jilin Province.
