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: Sun-Sentinel (Florida)
Feb 15, 2010
First, farming and development robbed the Everglades of its life-giving water flows. Now, making up for those environmental mistakes risks robbing the Everglades of its history.
Multibillion-dollar plans to recreate once-natural water flows to the Everglades involve building massive reservoirs and filter marshes across hundreds of thousands of acres south of Lake Okeechobee.
But saving an environmental treasure threatens to trample sacred ground. Some of the land identi
Source: BBC
Feb 15, 2010
Fossilised coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef could help scientists understand how sea levels have changed over the past 20,000 years.
An international team of researchers will spend 45 days at sea, gathering core samples from about 40 sites.
Described as the "trees of the sea", coral have growth rings that show seasonal variations.
Researchers say the samples will also shed light on past sea temperatures, as well as other changes to the reef
Source: CNN
Feb 15, 2010
Retailers open their doors Monday and roll out big sales to entice customers. Government employees -- along with kids -- have the day off. But do you know why?
If you answered "Presidents Day," you're technically wrong.
The actual federal holiday is called "Washington's Birthday," after the nation's first president, George Washington.
According to the Gregorian calendar, adopted by England and its colonies after Washington was born, his
Source: CNN
Feb 15, 2010
Alleged victims of child abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland called on the Vatican Monday to hold its own investigation into the scandal and punish those responsible.
"We ask that you take action now according to the laws and traditions of our Holy Church and discover how and why the teachings of Jesus Christ were so flagrantly abrogated over many decades," John Kelly said in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI.
"We ask that you convene a special commission ..
Source: New York Times
Feb 15, 2010
Early humans, possibly even prehuman ancestors, appear to have been going to sea much longer than anyone had ever suspected.
That is the startling implication of discoveries made the last two summers on the Greek island of Crete. Stone tools found there, archaeologists say, are at least 130,000 years old, which is considered strong evidence for the earliest known seafaring in the Mediterranean and cause for rethinking the maritime capabilities of prehuman cultures.
Cret
Source: Fox News
Feb 15, 2010
The Obama administration has not ruled out a military trial for the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, especially since Congress may prohibit the funds for a civilian trial, Vice President Biden said Sunday.
Biden, in defending the Obama administration from critics of its approach to prosecuting accused terrorists, said it is not yet clear where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Sept. 11 suspects held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be tried.
Source: Fox News
Feb 15, 2010
Question: Who is honored on Presidents Day?
Answer: Not Ronald Reagan. Or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Or Grover Cleveland or Martin Van Buren.
FoxNews.com conducted an informal and very unscientific poll in midtown Manhattan on Monday and found there are a lot of people who think Presidents Day honors a lot of presidents — with responses ranging from George Washington (No. 1) to Barack Obama (No. 44), with many others in between.In 1971, Cong
Source: AFP
Feb 15, 2010
Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, at 62, still bubbles with excitement whenever he announces the latest discovery of a tomb or relic, his eyes lighting up under the brim of his trademark Indiana Jones-style hat.
Aside from his love of the media limelight, Hawass is locked in battle to assert Egypt's sovereignty over its heritage, even if that means crossing swords with the world's most prestigious museums.
His style and patriotism will be on show again on Wednesday
Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Feb 15, 2010
One of the largest wine presses ever revealed in an archaeological excavation in the country, which was used to produce wine in the Late Byzantine period (sixth-seventh centuries CE), was recently exposed in excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The excavation was carried out in a region that will be the farmland of Ganei Tal, a new community slated to be built for the evacuees from Gush Katif.
The impressive wine press is 1,400 years old and measures 6.5 x 16.5
Source: Yahoo Education
Feb 15, 2010
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, once suggested that we "remember that our nation's first great leaders were also our first great scholars."
Case in point: Five of our first six U.S. presidents received a college degree, and the sixth, George Washington, received a surveyor's certificate from The College of William and Mary.
Lyndon B. Johnson earned his teaching certificate from Southwest Texas State Teachers College in 1930 (now Texas
Source: CNN
Feb 15, 2010
Retailers open their doors Monday and roll out big sales to entice customers. Government employees -- along with kids -- have the day off. But do you know why?
The actual federal holiday is called "Washington's Birthday," after the nation's first president, George Washington.
According to the Gregorian calendar, adopted by England and its colonies after Washington was born, his birth date was February 22, 1732. (The Julian calendar has him born on February 11
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 15, 2010
A cannon fired from the attic as a special effect on June 29 1613 was meant to hit the Thames, but struck the Globe's thatched roof and destroyed the whole playhouse.
The theatre was rebuilt just one year later, but the Globe's artistic director Dominic Dromgoole will be hoping for better luck when the new production opens in May.
Mr Dromgoole said: ''Normally I would think that Henry VIII would be box office poison but we seem to be living in a period of Tudor gold dus
Source: BBC Sports
Feb 15, 2010
Canada's long wait for a first Olympic gold medal on home soil is over after Alexandre Bilodeau won the men's moguls event in Vancouver.
Bilodeau, 22, finished ahead of Australia's reigning champion Dale Begg-Smith and American Bryon Wilson.
It ended a 34-year wait and sparked wild celebrations at Cypress Mountain.
Canada had never won an Olympic gold medal in their homeland, failing to capture any at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games or the 1988 Calgary Win
Source: NYT
Feb 15, 2010
A year ago, this blog pointed to an interview with a British historian who contended that the destruction of Dresden, 65 years ago this past weekend, had a clear military rationale, since it was a communications and transit hub. “I remain unconvinced that maximizing civilian casualties, rather than winning the war by whatever means necessary,” was the chief objective, said Frederick Taylor.
But recently in The New Statesman, Leo McKinstry sifted through archives that he says contrad
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 15, 2010
The Imperial Japanese Army's notorious medical research team carried out secret human experiments regarded as some of the worst war crimes in history.
Its scientists subjected more than 10,000 people per year to grotesque Josef Mengele-style torture in the name of science, including captured Russian soldiers and downed American aircrews.
The experiments included hanging people upside down until they choked, burying them alive, injecting air into their veins and placing
Source: Guardian (UK)
Feb 14, 2010
For more than three and a half centuries, the death of René Descartes one winter's day in Stockholm has been attributed to the ravages of pneumonia on a body unused to the Scandinavian chill. But in a book released after years spent combing the archives of Paris and the Swedish capital, one Cartesian expert has a more sinister theory about how the French philosopher came to his end.
According to Theodor Ebert, an academic at the University of Erlangen, Descartes died not through nat
Source: Slate
Feb 14, 2010
Adults, accustomed to the harsh truths about our presidents revealed in newspaper accounts and best-selling biographies, can no longer perceive the glory of George W. Bush's Vietnam military service or admire the "marriage" of Bill and Hillary Clinton. But children labor under no such disillusions. So long as they stick to the thin books with the fat type, students may safely study our illustrious leaders, protected from harmful references to Watergate, Iran-Contra, or a certain presid
Source: BBC News
Feb 14, 2010
Once threatened with extinction, Azerbaijan's most ancient form of music is enjoying a renaissance. Mugham - a unique genre blending throaty song with a special trio of instruments - is being revived by the government through a series of festivals and school activities, as the BBC's Tom Esslemont discovers.
Intoxicating. Passionate. Throaty.
Those are the first words which come to mind as I attempt to describe the sound of mugham.
Warbling, rousing and spir
Source: wtop.com
Feb 14, 2010
Opposition is mounting to plans for a casino near one of the country's best known historical sites, Gettysburg National Military Park.
The park preserves most of the Gettysburg battlefield where the Union and Confederacy clashed in the summer of 1863 in a pivotal civil war battle.
"It was a turning point in the nation to end slavery," says Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. "To put a gambling casino there would be wrong."
Adams County, Pa.
Source: BBC
Feb 14, 2010
Once threatened with extinction, Azerbaijan's most ancient form of music is enjoying a renaissance. Mugham - a unique genre blending throaty song with a special trio of instruments - is being revived by the government through a series of festivals and school activities, as the BBC's Tom Esslemont discovers.
Mugham is part of Azerbaijan's rich culture. The country sits on the crossroads between Iran and the Caucasus mountains at the confluence of the Islamic world and Christendom.
