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)
Nov 24, 2009
Otto von Bismarck, the 'Iron Chancellor' who forged modern Germany, was the subject of thousands of letters of fan mail including marriage proposals from women devoted to the dashing leader.
More than 6,000 personal letters, which have been made available to scholars for the first time by the Bismarck Foundation in Friedrichsruh, were sent to the 19th century leader while in office and retirement.
Professing love and devotion to the Prussian leader, who died in 1898, th
Source: LA Times
Nov 24, 2009
Underwater archaeologists said Monday that they have found a virtual time capsule of life during Canada's Klondike Gold Rush: a sunken Yukon River stern-wheeler so well-preserved that researchers can document the last minutes of the five-man crew as well as their life aboard the primitive cargo-hauler.
The door of the steam boiler on the A.J. Goddard was open, and slightly charred wood found inside suggested the crew was trying to build up a head of steam, perhaps to break loose fro
Source: The New York Times
Nov 24, 2009
Amira Edan, the director of Iraq’s National Museum, says that soon she will no longer have to worry so much that the famous institution remains closed to the public for fear of violence.
People will just be able to Google it. “It’s really wonderful,” she said Tuesday.
Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, had just made a presentation inside the museum, announcing that his company would create a virtual copy of the museum’s collections at its own expense, and make
Source: BBC
Nov 24, 2009
An appeal has been launched to trace Charles Darwin's missing Galapagos notebook which provided crucial evidence for his theory of evolution.
English Heritage says the notebook, which helped him write On The Origin of Species, may have been stolen from his former Kent home in the 1970s or 80s.
In it he described encountering a giant tortoise and made notes on local birds.
English Heritage is putting Darwin's 15 notebooks online 150 years after On The Orig
Source: BBC
Nov 24, 2009
A libel trial has started in Poland over charges former President Lech Walesa once worked as a communist spy.
The court case pits the anti-communist leader against his one-time ally and successor as president, Lech Kaczynski.
The court case was adjourned until 18 December to allow more time for preparation.
Mr Walesa, now 66, is seeking a retraction of a claim made by Mr Kaczynski that he spied for the communist secret service in the 1970s.
Source: BBC
Nov 24, 2009
Two alleged Congolese militia leaders have denied war crimes at the start of their trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are accused of directing an attack on the village of Bogoro in 2003 in which more than 200 people were killed.
They face charges of ordering attacks on civilians, sexual slavery, rape, and enlisting child soldiers.
Both deny the allegations and have expressed sympathy for the v
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 24, 2009
A 95-year-old former British athletics champion banned by the Nazis from competing in the Olympics because she was Jewish has finally been recognised for her sporting achievements.
The German track and field association has honoured Gretel Bergmann for a 5ft 3in high jump she made in Stuttgart in June, 1936 - a record that was erased from the history books by the Nazis.
It said its recognition of her achievement after her snub by the Nazis was an "act of justice a
Source: Fox News
Nov 24, 2009
President Obama plans to have his cake and eat pumpkin pie too when he hosts his first White House state dinner Tuesday, providing the 320 guests expected to attend the lavish ceremony with fine dining from a top chef and entertainment by Oscar-winning musicians.
First lady Michelle Obama's staff, which has planned what could be Washington's hottest social event since the inauguration, has kept a tight lid on the details for the event in honor Indian Prime Minister Monmahon Singh an
Source: Fox News
Nov 24, 2009
President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history.
In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion -- $2.8 trillion in 2000 dollars, which sets a benchmark for comparison. That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush's term and the first eight-and-a-half months of O
Source: AP
Nov 24, 2009
In the most sweeping inquiry on the Iraq war, a panel investigating Britain's role in the conflict began questioning witnesses Tuesday in hearings that critics hope will humble ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair and expose alleged deception in the buildup to fighting.
The panel, which opened with a moment of silence for those who died, will question dozens of officials over several months — including military officials and spy agency chiefs. It will also seek evidence from ex-White House
Source: AP
Nov 24, 2009
A New York gallery will auction off what is believed to be one of three known surviving historic envelopes postmarked on the first day of the Pony Express.
The envelope postmarked April 3, 1860, is valued at $300,000. It is among 63 items owned by 88-year-old Thurston Twigg-Smith that will be sold Dec. 5 by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York. Twigg-Smith is the former publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser in Hawaii.
It estimates the collection's value is $2.5
Source: Times (UK)
Nov 24, 2009
The destruction of a mosque by Hindu radicals that led to some of the bloodiest religious riots in India since Partition was “meticulously planned” by politicians including a former Prime Minister, according to a leaked report of the official investigation.
The razing of the 16th-century Babri mosque — in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1992, by an estimated 150,000 Hindus — led to national violence in which about 2,000 people died, mostly Muslims.
The demo
Source: Times (UK)
Nov 24, 2009
A nationwide search has begun to find the jottings and sketches by Charles Darwin in his Galapagos notebook.
The book, which proved so important for his treatise On the Origin of Species, has been missing since the early Eighties from Down House, Kent, Darwin’s former home and now a museum dedicated to his life and work.
English Heritage, which bought the property on behalf of the nation in 1996, is anxious to locate the original observations to complete a historical
Source: The News (UK)
Nov 23, 2009
Imprisoned in a foreign country, hundreds of miles away from home, German soldiers would whittle away at wood making unique toys to pass the time.
Now these toys, which were made at East Cams prison camp in Portchester Road, Portchester, during the Second World War, have gone on display at a museum in Fareham.
The toys were made at the prison by prisoners of war, and they are now part of the Hampshire Hidden Treasures display at Westbury Manor Museum.
Some of the
Source: Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (press release)
Nov 23, 2009
Barack Obama's family roots reach deep into central Indiana and soon an old farm house near Kempton in Tipton County may serve as a living tribute to the President's ancestors. The President's mother, Ann Dunham, was born and raised in Kansas, but her grandfather moved there from Indiana and a historic preservationist is now at work reconstructing some of the Obama family history.
A land grant shows the property was settled by Jacob Dunham in 1840. Jacob Dunham was Barack Oba
Source: Examiner
Nov 23, 2009
The belief that Thomas Jefferson had an affair and fathered a child (or children) with slave Sally Hemings -- and that such an allegation was proven by DNA testing -- has become so pervasive in American popular culture that it is not only widely accepted but taught to students as historical fact. "In Defense Of Thomas Jefferson,” by William G. Hyland Jr., has just been published by St. Martins Press. In this startling and revelatory new book, William G. Hyland Jr. shows not only that the ev
Source: Huffington Post
Nov 23, 2009
As desperate Democratic lawmakers cast about for ways to create jobs from Capitol Hill, a 1970s-era jobs program is getting a fresh look.
Known as CETA -- the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act -- the program provided direct government funding to hire temporary workers. At its peak in 1978, it had created 725,000 public service jobs and shaved roughly one point off the unemployment figure.
A one-point drop in the unemployment rate -- not to mention the ancillary
Source: Time
Nov 23, 2009
Whether or not you agree with Barack Obama's politics may influence how dark- or light-skinned you think he is, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, which set out to determine whether political views can skew skin color perception, included three experiments...In all three cases, people who agreed with the politician's views were more likely to pick lighter-skinned images of him; people who disagreed were more likely to pick darker-sk
Source: Houston Chronicle
Nov 23, 2009
DALLAS — Gladys Johnson didn't allow drinking.
If a liquor bottle or beer can was found inside a room, the landlady wouldn't issue a warning.
Patricia Puckett Hall's grandmother simply piled a tenant's belongings on the front porch, her method of informing the rule-breaker that he was no longer welcome at her Oak Cliff rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley Ave.
Hall, 57, loves the old place.
It's hers now — her inheritance, her responsibility.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 23, 2009
Officers in London are targeting youth violence with the so-called Joint Enterprise law which allows them to charge any suspects present at an incident with the same offence as those directly involved.
It means a youth who encourages or watches another gang member kill someone could also be charged with murder.
Detective Superintendent Simon Morgan, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "Standing by is not a defence.
"Anybody and everybody that is inv
