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: AP
May 21, 2008
Federal authorities charged an Indiana man with stealing historical documents from the library at Transylvania University more than a decade ago.
An FBI affidavit unsealed Tuesday charged 70-year-old Eugene Zollman of LaPorte, Ind., with theft of major artwork.
Authorities said Zollman is accused of taking documents of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, during visits to the university in Lexington in 1994.
Source: BBC
May 21, 2008
German neo-Nazis have used a personalised stamp service to send letters bearing the image of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess.
Deutsche Post spokesman Dirk Klasen confirmed that an order of 20 55-cent stamps had been printed by the service.
Mr Klasen said Deutsche Post would review its procedures, but that it was impossible to guarantee that unsuitable images would not slip through the net.
Rudolf Hess died in 1987, aged 93, after more than four decades in prison.
Source: BBC
May 22, 2008
The view from the top of Preah Vihear temple is well worth the steamy, uphill trek to get there.
Stone steps and paths lead visitors through a series of ancient entranceways to the carved sanctuary high in the Dangrek mountain range.
Look one way and a Thai flag flies on a distant rocky outcrop. Turn the other way and the cliffs fall sharply down to the blue-green Cambodian jungle below....
Source: BBC
May 22, 2008
Suspected souvenir hunters broke into Stonehenge and vandalised the ancient monument, English Heritage has said.
A hammer and screwdriver were used to take a small chip the size of a 10p piece from the side of the Heel Stone.
English Heritage said further damage was prevented by security guards who spotted the two men at the 5,000-year-old site in Wiltshire.
Source: CNN
May 21, 2008
An elementary school at the center of a civil rights battle, a hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and a hangar that once housed U.S. Navy dirigibles are on this year's National Trust for Historic Preservation's endangered list.
The 11 sites represent the country's architectural, cultural and natural heritage, and "reflect extraordinary periods of American history," National Trust Director Richard Moe said.
The sites were chosen from about 70 nominees by th
Source: Richard Bernstein in the International Herald Tribune
May 21, 2008
World War II, we know on good authority, was unnecessary, the authority being none other than Winston Churchill. By unnecessary Churchill meant that if the Allies' appeasement of Hitler hadn't taken place earlier, the war wouldn't have to have been to fought later.
Now, in this country at least, a current of opinion is gaining strength that stands Churchill on his head. It wasn't appeasement that brought about the disaster of the conflict, but warmongering on the part of the Allied
Source: NYT
May 22, 2008
PUERTO RICO, an afterthought trophy for the United States 110 years ago at the end of the Spanish-American War and an island in limbo since, has become an improbable player in the contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Its primary on June 1 could bolster Mrs. Clinton’s claim to a majority of the popular vote — the combined tally for all the Democratic primaries and caucuses held across the country over the past six months.
Puerto Rico’s formal role in the process is indee
Source: Seattle Times
May 21, 2008
Part of the Great White Fleet arrives in Puget Sound in 1908. The fleet was the greatest concentration of warships seen before or since in the Sound.
In our history, the hearts of the American people have experienced certain moments of patriotic pride and joy. These include hearing the news that World War II had finally ended or watching television screens in wonder as an American made history by walking on the moon.
The awe-inspiring deployment of the Navy's "Great Whit
Source: AP
May 22, 2008
It was so singular a marvel, so ambitious a feat, that its opening drew the president and a crowd of thousands. A leading national magazine said it stood poised to become "our most durable monument."
Some 125 years later, the Brooklyn Bridge remains a powerful symbol of engineering might and imagination, and a revered fixture in the landscape of the nation's largest city.
And it can still draw a crowd. Thousands of people are expected at the bridge's 125th bi
Source: NYT
May 21, 2008
Getting stuck in the mud on its first attempt to leave Manhattan was not the last or the least of the troubles that the aircraft carrier Intrepid has encountered in the past 18 months.
The military museum the ship houses was at risk of going out of business last year, as the costs of overhauling the carrier and rebuilding its home pier spiraled past $100 million, almost double the original estimate, said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. To keep the
Source: US News & World Report
May 20, 2008
They keep waiting, but longtime aides to former President Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ historians, and even his daughter Lynda Bird Robb say it doesn’t look like today’s politicians are ready to give the Texan credit for laying the groundwork on the programs and civil rights advances they are building on today. At a huge LBJ homecoming this week to celebrate the former president’s 100th birthday, his former domestic policy aide, Joseph Califano Jr., named names--John Edwards, Sen. Barack Obama--in a k
Source: Email from Andrew J. Weaver
May 21, 2008
I am Andrew J. Weaver, organizer of the petition at www.protectSMU.org and an ordained United Methodist clergyman and research psychologist. I am a graduate of Southern Methodist University (SMU) and live in New York City. There are over 11,900 petition signers from every state and ten nations.
Thank you for your support
Contributors to our legal fund have all given permission to use their donations to design and implement a pro
Source: Jonathan Alter in Newsweek
May 26, 2008
After pledging to abandon Bush's pernicious habit of attaching signing statements to bills and once again promising weekly press conferences, McCain came out for a truly big idea that almost no one noticed: "I will ask Congress to grant me the privilege of coming before both houses to take questions, and address criticism, much the same as the prime minister of Great Britain appears regularly before the House of Commons."
As C-Span viewers of the weekly British Question T
Source: http://www.prweb.com
May 20, 2008
Great guns on Alderney! It has taken over 400 years but soon the Tower of London is going to get some of its guns back. On May 25, archaeologists will begin work on the recovery of cannon from a sunken Elizabethan ship that went down off the coast of Alderney in the Channel Islands in 1592. The Duke of York is behind the work that aims to conserve, replicate and test-fire the weapons found on this important wreck.
Excavation director Mensun Bound of St Peter's College, Oxford, says
Source: http://obsentinel.womacknewspapers.com
May 21, 2008
Archaeological teams are geared up to answer the on-going mystery of Fort Raleigh's early settlers.
Last week, First Colony Foundation (FCF) teamed up with scholars and the premier production of Time Team America to excavate grounds in hopes of finding artifacts that would answer any of the numerous questions surrounding the mystery.
Fort Raleigh is the first of five sites for Time Team America's series and the team only had three days to complete the excavation. Thus,
Source: http://discovermagazine.com
May 20, 2008
Jon Erlandson shakes out what appears to be a miniature evergreen from a clear ziplock bag and holds it out for me to examine. As one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient seafaring, he has devoted much of his career to hunting down hard evidence of ancient human migrations, searching for something most archaeologists long thought a figment: Ice Age mariners. On this drizzly late-fall afternoon in a lab at the University of Oregon in Eugene, the 53-year-old Erlandson looks as pleased as
Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate
May 20, 2008
The nonprofit Gettysburg Foundation recently purchased the 80-acre Spangler Farm within the Gettysburg battlefield boundary and donated it to the National Park Service.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that more than 1,000 acres of the 6,000-acre Gettysburg National Military Park remain in private hands and unprotected from development. Congress has not appropriated any money for land acquisition or easement purchases since 2001.
If not for organizatio
Source: http://www.galesburg.com
May 20, 2008
The Illinois House voted 93-3 on Monday to authorize the creation of new license plates to observe the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth next year.
Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, sponsored House Bill 4665, which advances to the Senate. No one spoke against the legislation, which still needs to pass in the Senate and be signed by the governor before becoming law.
The secretary of state’s office would decide on the design and color of the license plates, whic
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 21, 2008
For hundreds of years a band of scholars have fought to get the Cornish language recognised and revived in Britain, but they hit upon a major stumbling block when no-one could agree on how it should be written.
Now, after more than two years of passionate negotiations, the different factions have finally streamlined the many versions of their language to create a new Standard Written Form.
The resolution means the path has been cleared for Cornish to get official accept
Source: NYT
May 21, 2008
An anonymous donor has come to the rescue of St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church in the East Village, saving the building — which has presided over Tompkins Square Park since 1848 — from demolition and making it possible for the structure to be reopened as a parish church.
The Archdiocese of New York announced this morning that a donor had come forward with an “unexpected but very welcome gift” after a private meeting with Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York.
