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: CNN
Dec 30, 2009
The attempted Christmas Day bombing of a commercial airliner has renewed questions of whether the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission have been taken seriously.
In its 2004 report on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the commission warned that the Transportation Security Administration and Congress "must give priority attention to improving the ability of screening checkpoints to detect explosives on passengers."
But at most airports,
Source: Medieval News
Dec 30, 2009
A new article explores how Byzantine doctors treated people those suffering from lycanthropy, a mental disorder where a patient believes he or she is, or has transformed into, a wolf and behaves like one. This disease is the basis for the legendary werewolves.
In "Lycanthropy in Byzantine times (AD 330–1453)," four scholars from the University of Athens examine the writings of six Byzantine physicians to see what they believed lycanthropy was and how it should be treated.
Source: Yorkshire Evening Post (UK)
Dec 30, 2009
A 700-year-old stone cross discovered at a medieval settlement may have been an early "advert" reminding Christians to attend church, experts said today.
Archaeologists found the artefact in a remote part of Dartmoor as part of a student field exercise.
The cross was first thought to be a gatepost, but after some research experts found it probably served as a Christian signpost or boundary stone.
The team, led by Win Scutt and Ross Dean of City College
Source: Sun Advocate
Dec 30, 2009
"In memory of our fellow brothers, sister, and coworkers who needlessly lost their lives in the Wilberg Coal Mine disaster."
Those words are the introductory phrase inscribed on the Wilberg Coal Mine disaster monument located at SR-10 and the Wilberg mine road. The monument was placed on a piece of ground near the mine to memorialize the 26 men and one woman who lost their lives 25 years ago in the mine.
The fire which began on Dec. 19, 1984 at the Wilberg min
Source: Lee P Ruddin
Dec 30, 2009
Over 100 people gathered to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Liverpool-born, four-time British Prime Minister William Gladstone on Tuesday.
A wreath was laid at the Gladstone memorial in St John’s Gardens before a specially commissioned exhibition dedicated to his life and work was opened in St George’s Hall, less then a mile from his birthplace.
Items on show in the Grade I-listed building include diaries and books from the Grand Old Man’s career, newspaper
Source: Guardian (UK)
Dec 30, 2009
It sounds like the plot of a Steig Larsson thriller: a band of eastern European criminals is contracted to steal an iconic piece of Nazi memorabilia, which is then sold to a mysterious collector to finance a neofascist bomb attack on the Swedish parliament.
But today it emerged that Swedish investigators are helping Polish detectives investigate the theft of the sign from Auschwitz, amid reports that the robbery was linked to a rightwing terror plot.
The wrought iron pl
Source: NPR
Dec 30, 2009
President Obama signed an executive order on Tuesday that sets new rules for when government agencies can keep documents classified. The order is full of provisions that should make government transparency activists swoon. For example, within the next four years, the government will strive to declassify 400 million pages of historical documents.
Source: CNN
Dec 30, 2009
For thousands of years men and women across the Middle East have retreated to their local hammams to sweat, get scrubbed and socialize with friends.
Public bathing dates back to the Greeks and the Romans. And though the tradition faded in much of the Western world, hammams remained popular in the Middle East, flourishing under the Ottomans --hence their English name "Turkish baths."
The first Islamic hammams were annexed to mosques to facilitate these ablution
Source: BBC
Dec 30, 2009
A senior Irish civil servant who was involved in the talks leading to the 1985 Anglo Irish Agreement has died.
Dermot Nally, 82, who served under five taoiseachs, died suddenly in St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.
As well as leading Irish officials in the Anglo Irish deal talks he was also involved in the negotiations preceding the 1993 Downing Street Declaration.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said his death will be "noted with regret" by all those he wo
Source: BBC
Dec 30, 2009
Italian police have found a toy guitar sculpture created by Pablo Picasso for his daughter Paloma, which had been kept in a shoe box by a businessman.
Rome police tracked the sculpture down to the businessman's apartment in Pomezia, a town south of the capital.
The businessman, who was not named, was charged with fraud and is now on bail.
Picasso gave the piece to an Italian artist, Giuseppe Vittorio Parisi. He then lent it to the businessman, who was to
Source: BBC
Dec 30, 2009
Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has died aged 69, according to party officials.
Wahid, who was often referred to by his nickname Gus Dur, ruled the country between 1999 and 2001.
He was the first elected president after the fall of the 32-year Suharto regime in 1998.
Wahid had been suffering from a number of medical problems in recent years. He was a diabetic and was known to have had a series of strokes.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 30, 2009
After being neglected and forgotten for decades, the birthplace of George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm and 1984, is finally set for a makeover.
Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25 1903 in Motihari, a tiny town in the impoverished eastern Indian state of Bihar, near the border with Nepal.
For years, the family's simple white colonial bungalow has been left to decay; damaged in an earthquake it was an occasional home to stray animals and, more recently, a s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 30, 2009
Poland will formally seek Sweden's help in investigating the theft of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Sets You Free") sign from the Auschwitz memorial, confirming that Polish authorities suspect a Swedish link in the crime.
Polish media have been reporting that the theft was commissioned by a collector living in Sweden, but investigators have not confirmed that.
Earlier this week allegations concerning who ordered the theft, and why, surfaced in Swed
Source: CNN
Dec 30, 2009
In blistering comments Wednesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney said President Obama's reaction to the botched terrorist attack on Christmas Day is proof that the president "is trying to pretend we are not at war."
In his first statement since the December 25 terror attempt on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, Cheney hit Obama for what he described as the president's "low-key" response to the events last week and c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 30, 2009
Plans to officially admit to the existence of MI6 were opposed by Lady Thatcher before she came to power.
In a July 1978 letter to Jim Callaghan, then prime minister, she said one should “never admit to anything unless you have to”.
Lady Thatcher was responding to plans to allow post-war documents mentioning the secret intelligence service to be published.
Before then, papers referring to the continued existence of MI6 or the Joint Intelligence Committee we
Source: BBC News
Dec 30, 2009
Newly-released documents have revealed the UK's "special relationship" with the US was under strain at the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles.
The National Archives files show the murder of Lord Mountbatten by the IRA in 1979 did not prompt the response from the US that the UK had hoped for.
While president Jimmy Carter expressed his "profound sadness" at the death, he made no reference to terrorism.
Downing St privately said his
Source: BBC News
Dec 30, 2009
A former British prisoner of war who helped a Jewish inmate survive Auschwitz is being considered for a major honour, the BBC has learned.
Denis Avey, 91, who lives in Derbyshire, helped save Ernst Lobethall, a German Jew from Breslau.
He is being considered for the title of "Righteous Among the Nations" by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
The story emerged following a recent BBC investigation.
Mr Avey said it would b
Source: BBC News
Dec 30, 2009
Japan was asked not to greet Britain's first female prime minister with a security escort of 20 "karate ladies", newly-released government papers show.
Margaret Thatcher visited Tokyo for an economic summit in June 1979 - a month after winning the general election.
After Japanese officials confirmed the "karate ladies" story, the Lord Privy Seal wrote to the Foreign office.
He said Mrs Thatcher wanted "to be treated in exactly the
Source: Guardain (UK)
Dec 29, 2009
Molar that was discovered in attic of Blickling Hall is thought to date from second world war.
The National Trust is appealing for information about a human tooth that has turned up alongside Jacobean furniture and old masters during the annual winter cleaning of a stately pile.
The badly decayed molar, still with small scraps of flesh attached, was found in an attic cabinet at Blickling Hall, former home of the Boleyn family whose most famous member, Anne, lost her hea
Source: Atlantic
Dec 29, 2009
At The Atlantic, we pride ourselves on the foresight of our authors. We like to point out that “As We May Think,” Vannevar Bush’s 1945 meditation on information networks, foresaw the creation of the World Wide Web. We less often highlight “The Coming Air Age,” another Atlantic article of the same period, which predicted that the average businessman would soon be commuting to work in a helicopter.
The last decade has been no exception: we’ve published some 2,000 articles, and many tu
