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: Telegraph (UK)
June 9, 2011
Les Paul, the electric guitar pioneer, has been celebrated on his 96th birthday by one of Google's most complex doodles – a playable and recordable 'guitar'.Paul, who died in 2009, was an American guitarist and inventor who is best remembered for his work in the development of the electric guitar, which made new styles of music such as rock and roll pos
Source: CNN
June 9, 2011
"Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, / On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five, / Hardly a man is now alive / Who remembers that famous day and year."If nothing else is right about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, first published more than 85 years after that legendary ride, the part about not remembering the day and year rings true.
Source: Irish Central
June 9, 2011
One of the two original tricolor flags which was flown from the GPO during the 1916 rising, has been unveiled at the American Irish Historical Society. The highly symbolic relic of Irish independence has been given on long-term loan to the organization. The hand stitched green, white and gold flag is made of Irish linen and measures 74 x 159cm.
Source: BBC News
June 8, 2011
A new television series is the latest dramatisation of the Camelot myth. But why is the legend of King Arthur such a compelling one in culture?For a man who may or may not have wandered Britain some 1,500 years ago, King Arthur retains the enviable knack of making his regal presence felt.Merlin, Excalibur, Guinevere, Lancelot, the Lady in the Lake - all the components of his story are instantly familiar both in his erstwhile homeland and in much of the world.
Source: BBC News
June 9, 2011
The world is full of hackers, or so it seems. In the past few months barely a day has gone by without news of a fresh security breach.Multi-national companies have been left counting the cost of assaults on their e-mail systems and websites.Members of the public have had their personal information stolen and pasted all over the internet.In the early decades of the 21st century the word "hacker" has become synonymous with people who lurk in darkened rooms, anonymously terrorising the internet.
Source: WaPo
June 8, 2011
Enough about the Navy SEALs. This weekend, the Smithsonian will commemorate America’s first attempt at an air force.In June 150 years ago, Thaddeus Lowe flew 500 feet into the air in front of President Abraham Lincoln. Lowe was an American “aeronaut,” and he took flight in a 19,000-cubic-foot balloon.
Source: NYT
June 8, 2011
Sharyl Davis thought she was in luck 25 years ago when she bought a charming market scene by the Impressionist Camille Pissarro from a San Antonio art gallery for $8,500. But since 2003, when she took the print to Sotheby’s to sell, her luck has been running the other way.As it turns out, 30 years ago the French police reported the work stolen from a museum in Aix-les-Bains. After Ms. Davis tried to sell the print, the United States government seized it as contraband.
Source: NYT
June 8, 2011
AMSTERDAM — From the window in the attic of her family’s hiding place in Amsterdam, Anne Frank could see the crown of an old chestnut tree growing in a neighbor’s garden. For two years, it was her only contact with nature.
Source: BBC
June 8, 2011
A famous Lenin impersonator who poses for photos with tourists on Moscow's Red Square has fallen ill after being arrested, Russian media report.
Sergei Solovyov, 53, was detained after complaints from vendors reportedly "aggrieved" by his appearance and foul language - a charge he denied.
When Mr Solovyov was taken before a judge, he fell ill with high blood pressure and was rushed to hospital.
A tsar impersonator working with him accused police of harassment.
Viktor Chepkasov, 55, told media he had been working alongside "Lenin" for years
Source: BBC
June 8, 2011
Learning all lessons from the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station could take a decade, according to France's top nuclear safety officer.
But all nuclear countries should carry out safety tests within a year, said Andre-Claude Lacoste.
The chairman of the French nuclear safety agency (ASN) was speaking at a forum in Paris organised by the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA).
Regulators said international control of nuclear safety would be "difficult".
The forum follows a day of political discussions on nuc
Source: BBC
June 8, 2011
When an Oxfam volunteer at the charity's Reading shop opened up a box of donated sheet music, she knew almost immediately there was something special about the tatty score on top.
Elestr Lee, a musician, quickly spotted the printed composer's name at the bottom - Wolfgang Mozart.
She researched the inscription on the front, which was in French and dedicated to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III who reigned from 1760 to 1820.
It read in French that the booklet contained 'six sonatas for the harpsichord'.
To her del
Source: BBC
June 8, 2011
A letter by Adolf Hitler - said to be the earliest expression of his ideas on anti-Semitism - has been shown publicly for the first time in New York.
The four-page typed letter, written in 1919, calls for the "uncompromising removal" of Jews from society.
It was acquired by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, where it is due to go on display.
The statement by the then 30-year-old soldier is regarded as a key historical document from the period.
Correspondents say it is seen as significant because it demonstrates
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 8, 2011
Almost 100 portraits of the Queen by the photographer Cecil Beaton will go on show at the Victoria & Albert Museum next year as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations.
Source: Boston Globe
June 8, 2011
In a case that is being watched closely in academia, and on both sides of the Atlantic, Boston College has filed a motion in US District Court to quash subpoenas from British authorities seeking access to a confidential oral history project involving paramilitary fighters in Northern Ireland.
Source: CNN
June 8, 2011
The remains of a U.S. Air Force pilot listed as missing in action since his plane crashed in Laos in 1967 have been identified, and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors, the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office said Tuesday.
Source: LA Times
June 3, 2011
Reporting from Chongqing, China—Although her musical tastes run to Mariah Carey and Norah Jones, Vicy Zhang didn't hesitate when she received an instant message inviting her to sing paeans to Mao Tse-tung at a celebration of the 90th anniversar
Source: LA Times
June 8, 2011
Every morning, she climbed the wide marble steps of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga was not trained for this work. She was a homemaker, not a historian. But she had a lifetime of simmering anger and unanswered questions.
Source: NYT
June 7, 2011
MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — Like many people approaching their 50th birthday, the Randhurst Mall is having a little work done.Randhurst, which opened in this inner-ring Chicago suburb in 1962, was the first enclosed mall in the Chicago area and, for a brief period, the largest enclosed mall in the world. The original architect was Victor Gruen, a Viennese immigrant with a socialist bent who, improbably, became the father of the modern enclosed mall.
Source: NYT
June 7, 2011
It may be a first in the annals of government secrecy: Declassifying documents to mark the anniversary of their leak to the press. But that is what will happen Monday, when the federal government plans to finally release the secret government study of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers 40 years after it was first published by The New York Times.
Source: NYT
June 7, 2011
WASHINGTON — When Walter Isaacson championed Voice of America’s decision to shut down its shortwave radio broadcasts to China — and shift those funds to the Internet, cellphones and other forms of digital media — he viewed it as th
