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
December 14, 2007
Mike Huckabee insists he spoke out of ignorance, not malice against the faith of a Republican rival, Mitt Romney, when he asked, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”
Although there may have been a kernel of truth in his question, Mr. Huckabee’s confessed ignorance about Mormonism is widely shared.
Americans are notoriously uninformed about faiths other than their own, and they are particularly perplexed about Mormon beliefs. Mormons make up 2 p
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 13, 2007
They were the original neighbours from hell. England and Scotland, for centuries, were implacable foes, their mutual military incursions ranging from constant border raids to full-blooded invasion.
The Scottish kings pursued a policy of alliance with France, England's traditional enemy.
Then, by an accident of dynastic succession, James VI, King of Scots, inherited the English throne as James I, at the Union of the Crowns in 1603.
James inherited as the gr
Source: Reuters
December 13, 2007
Australia has finally forgiven Lawrence of Arabia for writing it out of the history of the Middle East campaign of World War I, honouring the enigmatic Englishman with an exhibition at its national war museum.
But Australia's War Memorial is using the exhibit to highlight the overlooked role of Australian troops and their commander Henry Chauvel, who played a crucial role in the defeat of Turkish Ottoman forces in Palestine and Syria.
In his famous war memoir Seven Pill
Source: Baltimore Sun
December 11, 2007
Opening the planned National Sailing Hall of Fame in a city nicknamed "America's Sailing Capital" should be smooth sailing.
But the state's recommendation yesterday to demolish or move a 19th-century home on the Annapolis waterfront to make way for the estimated $20 million facility sets up a potential battle between two groups closely identified with the Colonial capital: sailors and historic preservationists.
The recommendation, released yesterday in a repor
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed (video)
December 13, 2007
Students of Sorin A. Matei, an associate professor of communication at Purdue University, can don stereoscopic glasses and enter a virtual "cave" to study the buildings of ancient Rome.
Source: David Corn and Jonathan Stein at the website of Mother Jones magazine
December 10, 2007
Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher? Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches. Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.
Now that he has his moment in the political spotlight, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee does not want his days at the pulpit to be scrutinized.
As Huckabee has surged to the front of the Republican pack in Iowa, his rel
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
December 12, 2007
Harold Pinter’s literary archive has been “saved for the nation,” the British Library announced yesterday. In a statement, the library said it had paid slightly more than $2.25-million for the collection, which contains some 150 boxes of “manuscripts, scrapbooks, letters, photographs, programmes, and e-mails” from Mr. Pinter’s storied career as a playwright, screenwriter, and poet. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.
Highlights of the archive include “an exceedingly percep
Source: LiveScience
November 26, 2007
Some researchers are worried that digitally altered photos could alter our perceptions and memories of public events.
To test what effect doctored photos might have, researchers from the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Padua in Italy showed 299 people aged 19 to 84 either an actual photo or an altered photo of two historical events, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing and the 2003 anti-war protest in Rome.
The original Tiananmen Square i
Source: LiveScience
December 13, 2007
The wreckage of a pirate ship abandoned by Captain Kidd in the 17th century has been found by divers in shallow waters off the Dominican Republic, a research team claims.
The underwater archaeology team, from Indiana University, says they have found the remains of Quedagh Merchant, actively sought by treasure hunters for years.
Charles Beeker of IU said his team has been licensed to study the wreckage and convert the site into an underwater preserve for the public.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 13, 2007
A half-man, half-goat sculpture, which was attributed to Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin and took pride of place at the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade, has been revealed as a forgery created by a British family.
The museum has admitted that The Faun sculpture is not by the 19th century French artist but is the work of the Greenhalgh family, who swindled an estimated £1.5 million from museums, galleries and auction houses.
A private dealer bought the sculpt
Source: AP
December 11, 2007
George Washington's commissioned gold medal that was given to Marquis de Lafayette, the French revolutionary who supported the American Revolution, was sold Tuesday at auction for $5.3 million, Sotheby's announced.
La Fondation de Chambrun, in Chateau La Grange, Lafayette's home 30 miles east of Paris, beat out two other bidders.
"The medal is a symbol of the bond and friendship between America and France," said Christophe Van de Weghe, a Manhattan art dealer
Source: BBC
December 12, 2007
A coal mine which closed 26 years ago has beaten some of Scotland's most famous landmarks to be named the country's most treasured place.
Lady Victoria Colliery in Newtongrange, Midlothian, beat off competition from nine other sites, including Rosslyn Chapel, featured in the Da Vinci Code.
More than 20,000 votes were cast after a shortlist of 10 places was selected.
Source: Washington Times
December 13, 2007
A sculpture of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, who wrote the Dred Scott decision affirming slavery, would remain in front of Frederick City Hall under a compromise backed by the local NAACP and the mayor.
A new plaque would describe the Maryland native's career and the landmark 1857 ruling that some historians consider a catalyst for the Civil War.
The wording of the plaque hasn't been decided, but Guy Djoken, president of the Frederick County chapter o
Source: HNN Staff
December 12, 2007
Three novels make the list, two biographies, and one history book.
NOVELS
"Tree of Smoke" by Denis Johnson
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon
"The Father of All Things" by Tom Bissell
BIOGRAPHIES
"Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations" by Georgina Howell
HISTORY
"Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA" by Tim Wei
Source: McClatchy Newspapers
December 12, 2007
Seven decades after Japanese
soldiers poured through the old city walls of Nanjing
, launching a six-week killing spree known as the
Nanjing Massacre, the memories are still raw for
"I really hate the Japanese," Zhang said, dissolving
into tears."I have repeated this thousands of times.
I really, really hate them."
Now 81, Zhang was only 11 during the infamous Japanese
rampage, a seizure so violent that it's also known as
the Rape of Nanking, the city's former name.
For Z
Source: Daily Mail
December 11, 2007
An unrepentant old Nazi officer who served in some of the worst concentration camps gives the Hitler salute in Spain where he has hidden from justice for over 60 years.
Now Paul Maria Hafner is the subject of a TV documentary called "Hafner's Paradise" which chronicles his life in exile – and how he manages to draw pensions from three countries.
Operation Last Chance, the campaign to round up the last Nazis in Europe organised by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
December 12, 2007
A federal appeals court last week overturned a lower court ruling that
the CIA had won in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit involving JFK
assassination records, and ordered CIA to continue processing the
request.
The case involves records sought by journalist Jefferson Morley that he
believes will provide new insight into the assassination.
"This decision, if the CIA respects it, will shed new light on one of
the murkiest areas of the Kennedy assassination story: the CIA
intel
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
December 12, 2007
A bipartisan resolution to provide online public access to
Congressional Research Service reports was introduced in the Senate
yesterday.
"The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, in consultation with the Director
of the Congressional Research Service, shall make available through a
centralized electronic system, for purposes of access and retrieval by
the public ... all information described in paragraph (2) that is
available through the Congressional Research Service website," the
Resolu
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
December 12, 2007
Even if the videotapes of interrogation sessions that were destroyed by
the Central Intelligence Agency showed nothing illegal or untoward,
their destruction could still be a violation of the federal law which
requires the preservation of official records, suggested Rep. Henry
Waxman (D-CA) yesterday.
Rep. Waxman asked Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein to
render a judgment as to whether the destruction of the videotapes was
consistent with the law."I would like your o
Source: NYT
December 12, 2007
BAGHDAD — For a few brief hours Tuesday, three dozen spectators — journalists, local politicians and their guards — gathered at the National Museum of Iraq here, their voices echoing through its vast, darkened halls. It was one of the few times outsiders had been allowed inside since Baghdad fell, looters stripped the galleries of some 15,000 Mesopotamian artifacts, and the museum became a wrenching symbol of the losses of the war.
Aside from a brief opening in late 2003, when offic
