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: BBC
October 28, 2010
A Belfast film-maker has posted a video on the internet showing what he says could be evidence of time travelling.
George Clarke from east Belfast has been puzzled for more than a year by a scene in a film which appears to show a woman talking on a mobile phone.
The unusual thing is that the movie was made by Charlie Chaplin in 1928 - long before mobile phones were invented.
In the eight days since George posted the clip on Youtube - more than 1.5m people
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 26, 2010
The leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland has backed calls for an independent inquiry into the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien said he would add his name to an online petition calling for a review of the 2001 jailing of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103.
The appeal is being led by pressure group Justice For Megrahi (JFM), whose members include Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the terror
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 28, 2010
The original rules of basketball will be up for sale in New York in December.
It's been nearly 119 years since James Naismith wrote down 13 rules for a new game he devised as a way to give youths at a Massachusetts YMCA an athletic activity to keep them busy in the winter.
On Dec 10, those rules – considered "the birth certificate of one of the world's most popular sports" – will be put up for auction in New York and are expected to bring in at least $2 milli
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 29, 2010
Former US President George W. Bush has disclosed in a memoir how he gave the order to shoot down planes on September 11, 2001.
He said he initially thought that one of the hijacked flights, United Airlines Flight 93 that came down in Pennsylvania, had been shot down on his orders.
Parts of Mr Bush's highly anticipated memoir, Decision Points, were leaked to website the Drudge Report, and he intends to be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on Nov 9 to promote the "very
Source: Yahoo
October 27, 2010
...Lookups on "what is the history of Halloween" rose 220% on Yahoo!. Spooky searches for "the haunted history of Halloween" and "the true history of Halloween" were also scary-high.
Turns out, the modern-day tradition of outfitting yourself in a costume and going door to door for candy has some really ancient roots.
Originally, the festival came from the Celtic holiday Samhain, which means summer's end, and celebrated the end of fall and t
Source: Yahoo
October 27, 2010
Other than the rare heartless scoundrel out there, everyone loves stories about regular folks who stumble upon rare baseball cards and stand to make huge profits from their sale.
Take, for instance, the Fresno, Calif., granny who found a card of the 1869 Cincinnati Reds, the first professional baseball team, in a box of antiques. She cashed in for nearly $65,000 and got to tell her story on Jay Leno.
This might be better: An order of nuns in Baltimore stands to make $1
Source: CNN
October 28, 2010
A man depicted as a hero in the movie "Hotel Rwanda" on Thursday slammed accusations by Rwandan authorities that he helped fund a rebel group.
Paul Rusesabagina's efforts to save hundreds during the 1994 genocide are depicted in the Oscar-nominated movie starring Don Cheadle.
Rwanda's general prosecutor, Martin Ngoga, said he has evidence showing that Rusesabagina funded terror activities in Rwanda.
He wired large sums of money from San Antonio
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 26, 2010
A court on Tuesday ordered a French mayor to take down a portrait of Philippe Petain, leader of France's wartime Vichy regime, from the wall of a town hall.
The portrait of Petain, branded an anti-semitic Nazi collaborator, hung in a municipal marriage chamber in Gonneville-sur-Mer, near the Normandy landing beaches used in World War II by Allied forces.
The court overruled a decision by Bernard Hoye, the town's independent mayor, to keep the portrait which he said had
Source: Guardian (UK)
October 27, 2010
Give or take a millennium, brewing has been with us for the last 10,000 years. Grain, water, and yeast have been ever-present (although before Pasteur the yeast was a bit of a mystery), while the practice of adding hops for bitterness in beer has only been in general worldwide use for about 600 years. I've often wondered what the beers of 500 and 5,000 years ago tasted like, and now, with brewers looking to historic recipes and unfashionable ingredients for inspiration, it's becoming possible to
Source: NYT
October 27, 2010
WASHINGTON — The most noted trend leading up to next week’s elections, of course, has been the emergence of a new generation of conservative leaders — so-called Tea Party candidates who have overturned the old political order in states like Kentucky and Nevada and who vow to confront the aging establishments of both parties in Washington.
And yet, a less noticed undercurrent is pulling politics in the opposite direction, too. The latest polling suggests we may see the election of se
Source: Yale Alumni Mag
October 25, 2010
Peru is considering “criminally denouncing” Yale officials in a long-running dispute over Machu Picchu artifacts, a government minister said this weekend.
Peru has sued Yale over the artifacts, which Yale archeologist Hiram Bingham ’98 took – with government permission — from the ancient Incan ruins in 1911. The South American country plans a centennial celebration of Machu Picchu’s rediscovery for next July, and has demanded the items’ return before then.
Now Peruvian
Source: AP
October 26, 2010
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – This state's official name — The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations — is more than just a mouthful. To many, it evokes stinging reminders of Rhode Island's prime role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Voters next Tuesday will decide whether to change the name by dropping the words "and Providence Plantations." The issue has been debated for years, but lawmakers last year authorized a ballot question for the first time following an impassio
Source: AP
October 28, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) — Turner Classic Movies, that bastion of old films, is making its most dramatic foray yet into original programming.
TCM will broadcast a seven-part documentary series, "Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood," beginning Monday. The series, narrated by Christopher Plummer, will run for seven weeks and cover Hollywood's history from 1890-1970.
For the charmingly sleepy and movie-obsessed TCM, the series is an ambitious anomaly. The cable
Source: Hokumburg Goombah (Blog)
October 28, 2010
"The first known photograph of a human being—taken by Louis Daguerre in 1838—has been brought to light this week by Robert Krulwich, at his NPR blog, thanks to the keen observation of a blogger named Hokumburg. Check out the whole story at NPR. What an incredible find!"
—Digital Photographer Magazine, [Emphasis added. The link to this we have somehow misplaced. We will find it and update this piece later.]
If you googled "first photograph of a human" any t
Source: Reuters
October 21, 2010
EGELSBACH, Germany (Reuters) - The metal plaques, called Stolpersteine, or "stumble stones," are set into the ground at my father's ancestral home in this picturesque village south of Frankfurt.
The squares, 10 cm by 10 cm (4 inches by 4 inches), are barely conspicuous, but the words etched in brass seem to cry out for memory of the home's last five Jewish inhabitants....
The creation of Cologne artist Gunter Demnig, the Stolpersteine are set at homes of victi
Source: CNN.com
October 28, 2010
Washington (CNN) -- The tattered journal, its pages yellow with age, contains the painful memories of a U.S. medic, a man who recorded the deaths of soldiers who survived one of World War II's bloodiest battles yet met their end as slaves in Nazi Germany.
32. Hamilton 4-5-45
33. Young 4-5-45
34. Smith 4-9-45
35. Vogel 4-9-45
36. Wagner 4-9-45
"Some were dying," said its author, Tony Acevedo, now 86. "Some died, and I made a not
Source: Reuters
October 18, 2010
LONDON (Reuters) - A new online database recording more than 20,000 works of art looted by the Nazis from Jews in France and Belgium during World War Two shows that at least half have yet to be returned to their original owners.
The database, a joint project between the U.S.-based Claims Conference and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is based on records the Nazis produced in Paris, and is designed to help families search for art they believe may have been seized.
Source: CatholicCulture.org
October 27, 2010
A group of Holocaust survivors from Yugoslavia and Ukraine have asked European Union authorities to investigate whether the Vatican bank played a role in transferring assets stolen from concentration-camp inmates by Nazi captors....
Source: Canadian Press
October 27, 2010
MUNICH — German judges heard a deceased Sobibor guard's statements made to Soviet authorities that he remembers John Demjanjuk from the Nazi death camp Wednesday despite defence objections.
The Demjanjuk, 90, a retired Ohio autoworker, is standing trial on 28,060 counts of accessory to murder, for allegedly having been a guard at the camp in occupied Poland. He denies ever having been a guard anywhere.
In the summarized statements from a 1949 KGB interrogation, Ignat Da
Source: Fox News
October 27, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina legislator is apologizing after a campaign flier meant to tout his support for U.S. troops featured a photo of World War II re-enactors dressed as German soldiers.
The political consulting firm that produced the campaign piece for Democratic state Rep. Tim Spear said Wednesday it is solely responsible for the mistake....
