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: WaPo
June 30, 2011
YAN’AN, China – The Chinese Communist Party has been pulling out all the stops to celebrate the 90th anniversary of its founding. There have been concerts, commemorative coins, exhibitions of revolutionary paintings, saturation coverage in the state-controlled media, and even a “red games” sporting competition.But though the party has used Friday’s anniversary to try renew interest in its past glories, the hoopla might be having an unintended consequence, causing some to question whether the current leaders have lived up to the original ideals of its founders.Nearly each day brings new revelations of corruption and excesses by senior and provincial-level party officials. And China’s security apparatus, shaken by the fall of authoritarian regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, is engaged in a broad crackdown on dissent, jailing bloggers, lawyers or anyone who questions the party’s right to rule.Many Chinese are asking whether the party has lost its way.
Source: Delaware Online
June 28, 2011
George Washington wasn't only the country's first president; he was also a distiller.A rare, 18th century letter penned by Washington goes on display at the George Washington Distillery at Mount Vernon during Fourth of July weekend.A limited George Washington Rye Whiskey, based on Washington's recipe, also is being produced at the distillery, considered the Gateway to the American Whiskey Trail.Before his death in 1799, Washington wrote the letter to his nephew, Col. William A. Washington, a cavalry commander during the Revolution. In the letter, Washington wrote "the demand ... is brisk" for his Rye Whiskey and requested his nephew's assistance in procuring additional grain for the distillery....
Source: Houston Chronicle
June 24, 2011
A local division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is just one vote away from gaining approval of a Texas specialty license plate bearing its logo, which prominently features the Confederate flag.The Texas Department of Motor Vehicle license board voted on the group's request in April, but it was a tie vote. One of the nine members was absent, so the board decided to reconsider the request at its next meeting June 9.The meeting, however, didn't take place because a board member from Houston died June 3.Now, the Sons of Confederate Veterans must wait until Gov. Rick Perry appoints a new board member, and that might not happen until fall, said DMV spokeswoman Kim Sue Lia Perkes....A mock plate was posted on the DMV's website in March. Comments were overwhelmingly positive: 186 in favor, 3 against....
Source: Stone Pages
June 28, 2011
Archaeologists at Lund University (Sweden) believe that the advanced crafting of stone spearheads contributed to the development of new ways of human thinking and behaving, leading to the human brain developing new abilities.200,000 years ago, small groups of people wandered across Africa - looking like modern humans, but not thinking the way we do. For about 100,000 years, there were people who looked like us, but who acted on the basis of cognitive structures in which we would only partially recognise and which we do not define as modern behaviour. It is precisely that period of transformation that the researchers have studied.New findings on the early modern humans from approximately 80,000 years ago in Hollow Rock Shelter - 250km north of Cape Town, South Africa - show that people used advanced technology for the production of spearheads, and suggest that the complicated process developed the working memory and social life of humans.The crafting of stone spearheads took a long time to learn, requiring a lot of knowledge, and the ability to plan in several stages, contributing to the subsequent development of early modern humans' cognitive ability to express symbolism and abstract thoughts through their material culture - for example in the form of decorated objects.
Source: Irish Times
June 27, 2011
ASIDE FROM lung-cleansing gusts of wind, Helgoland doesn’t give much away to day-trippers. Relief at being back on firm ground soon turns to disappointment at what Germany’s only high-sea island appears to offer.A row of shacks selling duty-free alcohol and cigarettes leads into a small town of 1960s buildings that are functional, shabby or both....It was here in 1925 that German physicist Werner Heisenberg, relieved from the plague of hay fever, developed quantum theory.But those opposed to the plan were victorious, arguing it would bring mass tourism and destroy the islands’ unique character.Passing back and forth between London and Berlin over the centuries, Helgoland has been in German hands since a final swap in 1890 saw the British gain Zanzibar in exchange.What Helgoland lacks in size it makes up for in strategic importance. In the second World War, the Nazis built a vast underground base here, including a hospital....
Source: Houston Chronicle
June 25, 2011
SAN ANTONIO — Alamo officials have discovered a clue to the building's mysterious past, right over the doorway some 3 million visitors pass through each year.Experts believe "1802" might have been scratched into the wall when the Alamo was a mission under Spanish rule, or perhaps decades later, after the U.S. Army added a second floor and roof in the mid-1800s.Or, as Alamo historian and curator Bruce Winders suggests, it could have been left by an Alamo defender who kept watch from a ledge by a window during the 1836 siege and decided to mark the year of his birth.More than likely, it's evidence of a little-known period between 1793, when Mission San Antonio de Valero was secularized, and 1803, when Spanish troops began to occupy the former mission that later would be known as the Alamo, Winders said."If you look at historic graffiti at face value, people usually put the date when they did it," he said. "Americans at that time were kind of notorious for leaving behind something that says, 'I was here.' "...
Source: BBC News
June 26, 2011
Family historians with an interest in World War I are being asked to help with an exhibition in Nottingham.The Nottinghamshire Great War centenary exhibition will mark the contribution ordinary people made to the war.It will open at Castle Museum in August 2014, the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI.Organisers have appealed for volunteer guides to help visitors with their own research as well as personal mementos, letters and war diaries for the show.Exhibition curator and military historian Major John Cotterill said: "We want our exhibition to be a living exhibition"....
Source: AP
June 26, 2011
VATICAN CITY – Israel's ambassador to the Vatican on Sunday backed off his praise of Pope Pius XII, the World War II-era pope blamed by some Jews and historians for having failed to speak out enough against the Holocaust.Ambassador Mordechai Lewy said in a statement that his personal judgment about the role of Pius, the Vatican and Catholic Church during the war had been "premature" since the issue is still being researched.Lewy made headlines last week when he praised Pius and the Catholic Church in general for having given refuge to Roman Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital. The Vatican newspaper ran his speech on the front page, giving the brief but significant remarks high visibility.But some Jewish groups balked, saying Lewy's comments were morally wrong, historically inaccurate and hurtful to Holocaust survivors.Pope Benedict XVI is keen to see Pius beatified, the first step to sainthood, and a concerted campaign is under way among Pius' supporters to correct what they say has been an unfair and incorrect judgment passed on Pius....
Source: AP
June 28, 2011
VATICAN CITY (AP) — International Jewish groups have called on the Vatican to sanction a prominent Polish priest who they say uses his media empire to foment anti-Semitism.They acted after the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk caused uproar in Poland by calling his country a totalitarian state that "hasn't been ruled by Poles since 1939."...The number of Jews in Poland today is tiny. There were 3.5 million Jews in Poland before World War II, but most were murdered by Germany during the Holocaust and many of those who survived fled anti-Semitic violence and prejudice when they returned to their homes after the war.Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, called the views vile....
Source: The Root
June 28, 2011
Yahoo News is reporting that an eight-foot statue of rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry was approved on Monday over the opposition of some local residents, including one who said the Hall of Fame singer/songwriter should not be honored because he is a "felon and not a friend of women."The University City council, which has jurisdiction over the spot where the statue is to be installed, rejected a last-minute petition drive by opponents, who gathered 100 signatures in a bid to block or delay the statue....
Source: NYT
June 27, 2011
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — From behind the lawyers, a hand went up, calling for attention as the trial of the four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge got under way Monday on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed more than three decades ago.
Source: NYT
June 26, 2011
Brent Glass, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, who oversaw a two-year renovation that answered some of the criticisms of the museum, will retire effective July 10. An acting director is to be appointed in July, and Mr. Glass will continue as an adviser to the Smithsonian through the end of the year....
Source: WaPo
June 28, 2011
To her, it looked like a harmless piece of coal, about the size of her fist. She remembers passing it to a Chinese secret agent. She remembers later learning about the train, the bridge, the explosion. Sometimes she thinks she has suppressed many wartime memories, but even after almost 70 years, they can creep back.Betty McIntosh, 96, says that is part of being a spy: the doubts about whether you did the right thing, and hearing about those who died because of what you did, and whether you had alternatives. But it was a war.
Source: The Hindu
June 26, 2011
CHENNAI: An Iron Age megalithic burial site, dotted with cairn-circles, has been discovered near Veeranam village, at the foot of a chain of hills, in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvannamalai district.
Source: Montreal Gazette
June 25, 2011
The nice girl in Premier Jean Charest's office was confused.- "You're the one who called about World War I," she told the reporter.- "Not World War I," the reporter said patiently. "The War of 1812. I'm trying to find out if Quebec has any plans for the 200th anniversary."It's a simple enough question. But when it comes to the war best known for the Star Spangled Banner, Laura Secord and Isaac Brock, it seems most people in Quebec - even in the premier's office - draw a blank.
Source: Oregon Live
June 24, 2011
For Oregonians, the words Civil War more often conjure up colors of yellow and green or orange and black than blue and gray.But as the U.S. observes the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War (1861-1865), hundreds of hardy Northwest souls pull on wool uniforms and fill paper cartridges with gunpowder to re-enact the battles and daily life of the War Between the States.
Source: NYT
June 26, 2011
His parents were among the last generation born into Southern slavery, and his own birth in 1883 was notable for another benchmark: At 16 pounds, he was the biggest baby ever recorded in North Carolina.“I guess I’ve always wanted to be large, and I have been large,” Samuel Jesse Battle recalled decades later.But his personal growth was threatened when, as a teenager, he was caught pilfering cash from a safe belonging to his boss, R. H. Smith, a landlord who predicted that within a year, the young man would be in prison.
Source: NYT
June 26, 2011
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge went on trial Monday, more than three decades after the collapse of a government that caused the death of as much as one-fourth of the population and left Cambodia
Source: BBC
June 26, 2011
A memorial is being unveiled to three children who died near Gretna Green in Britain's worst ever rail disaster.
The "lost children of Maryhill" were among 227 people killed in a multi-train crash at Quintinshill in 1915.
Most of the victims were soldiers with the Royal Scots who were on their way to fight in World War I.
A headstone has been laid at the Western Necropolis in Glasgow, where the children were buried in an unmarked grave.
They were interred in 1915 along with a fourth unidentified person, whose age is not
Source: BBC
June 24, 2011
The inside of a Mayan tomb thought to be 1,500 years old has been filmed by archaeologists for the first time.Using a tiny video camera, the researchers were able to capture images of the burial chamber in Palenque in south-eastern Mexico.As the device was lowered 16ft (5m) down into the tomb, they saw red paint and black figures emblazoned on its walls.The scientists say the images will shed new light on the Mayan civilisation ..........
