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: NYT
Nov 20, 2009
CAIRO — History has proved that there are two subjects that will move Egyptians to pour into the streets in riotous numbers, crashing windows, burning cars, battling one another and defying an army of club-wielding riot police officers.
One is the price of bread. Another is soccer, as was proved again this week after Egypt’s national team was defeated by its bitter rival Algeria, losing a berth in the World Cup tournament next year and sparking a riot outside the Algerian Embassy i
Source: New York Daily News
Nov 20, 2009
Disagreement over the fate of two colonial-era millstones that had long been buried in a Long Island City sidewalk is causing some friction among local groups.
The Greater Astoria Historical Society and several other groups would like to see the stones, once part of a gristmill that dates back to the 1650s, removed and safely stored away.
But the Dutch Kills Civic Association thinks they should stay where they are until the city hires experts to determine if they are s
Source: BBC
Nov 20, 2009
A US senator has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for the Lockerbie bomber to be returned to prison.
Democrat senator Charles Schumer said Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was released early on the assumption he only had three months to live.
Mr Schumer questioned the severity of Megrahi's prostate cancer given that the three months had now passed.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 20, 2009
Five exotic crocodiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs 100 million years ago, including one sporting boar-like tusks and another with a duckbill snout, have been discovered in the Sahara.
Unlike their modern cousins, the ancient crocodilians were as agile on land as they were in the water.
They were reptiles like the dinosaurs, but belonged to a completely separate lineage that continues to this day.
The crocodiles once ran and swam across present-day
Source: Talking Point Memo
Nov 20, 2009
President Obama's approval rating has fallen below 50% in the Gallup poll for the first time, the organization has announced.
The full number will be released at 1 p.m. ET. (Late Update: The number has been posted, with 49% approval to 44% disapproval.)
As Gallup has previously noted, every president since World War II, except for John F. Kennedy, eventually went below 50%. The shortest time for such a fall belongs to Gerald Ford at three months, while the longest (exce
Source: Rasmussen Reports
Nov 20, 2009
Just 35% of New York State voters agree with Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try the confessed mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks and five other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York City rather than before a military tribunal.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds that 55% are opposed to that decision, which is part of the Obama administration’s effort to close the terrorist prison camp at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba.
Source: NYT
Nov 20, 2009
Britain may finally be emerging from recession, but many analysts warn that it is a false dawn. In fact, they argue, the economy here is so ravaged by growing debts and ruined banks that it could well be following in the steps of Japan’s lost decade of the 1990s.
The parallels are eerie: Like Japan, Britain enjoyed more than a decade of booming growth, fueled by aggressive bank lending and real estate investments. Haunted by the comparison, policy makers here have been extra aggress
Source: NYT
Nov 20, 2009
Hundreds of private e-mail messages and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change.
The e-mail messages, attributed to prominent American and British climate researchers, include discussions of scientific data and whether it should be released, exchanges about how best to combat the arguments of skept
Source: BBC
Nov 20, 2009
Ceremonies are taking place around the world to mark the 20th anniversary of a landmark agreement protecting children.
The UN says the Convention on the Rights of the Child has transformed the way children are treated.
But it says a billion children in the world still go without food, shelter or healthcare and that millions are facing lives of poverty and abuse.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), signed in 1989, guarantees children the right
Source: Truthout
Nov 20, 2009
Since Veterans Day, Thomas E. Mahany, a 62-year-old Vietnam War veteran, has been on a hunger strike in front of the White House to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder and protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mahany recently wrote a letter to President Obama calling on him to "withdraw our military men and women from the Middle East now." He said he plans to only drink water "until specific action is taken by your administration and our military
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Nov 20, 2009
A new contemplation garden at the University of California at Davis honors the Patwin people, who once inhabited the land that became the campus. The garden, part of the university's 100-acre arboretum, is located on the bank of Putah Creek and includes 34 kinds of trees and plants that the Patwin used. The garden identifies many by their Patwin names.
The garden also includes a series of engraved basalt columns, one of which records the names of 51 Patwin men, women, and children w
Source: CNSNews
Nov 20, 2009
About 1,200 Christian activists mobilized on college campuses nationwide on Wednesday to give away 170,000 copies of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, the classic text on evolution. The book, however, contains a ‘Special Introduction’ by evangelist Ray Comfort that argues against Darwin’s theory and presents a creationist alternative to man’s origins and nature’s growth...
...November 24 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. Because the bo
Source: Secrecy News
Nov 20, 2009
“In recent years, China has become the world’s fastest growing automotive producer,” according to a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service.“[China's] annual vehicle output has increased from less than 2 million vehicles in the late 1990s to 9.5 million in 2008. In terms of production volume in 2008, China has surpassed Korea, France, Germany, and the United States, trailing only Japan.”“China’s automobile ind
Source: Daily Mail
Nov 20, 2009
A family of five terrifying prehistoric crocodiles - including one with teeth like the tusks of a wild boar - have been discovered by fossil hunters.
The predators roamed the swamps, lakes and rivers of Africa 100million years ago hunting small dinosaurs and seeking out fish and grubs.
Unlike their modern cousins, the ancient crocodilians were as agile on land as they were in the water.
Source: The New Republic
Nov 20, 2009
Labor economists generally agree that each extra year of school raises someone's earning by 10-15%. But it turns out that math classes could account for half of those gains.
And we can thank Ronald Reagan for this piece of knowledge. Following a critical report of the American education system by the Reagan administration in 1983, many states around the country raised the number of math and science courses that were required for graduation. In a new paper, Harvard's Joshua Goodman
Source: TIme
Nov 20, 2009
Late-night digging along the back roads of Bastar, a dense jungle region in India's northern state of Chhattisgarh, can only mean one thing if there's nothing to show for it the next day: Maoist rebel activity. So when a group of villagers in the state's Kanker district, the gateway to Bastar, were kept awake for nights on end last month by repeated chinking from metal striking rock on a nearby road, they knew something was up.
They were right. The Maoists, commonly known in India a
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Nov 20, 2009
The Ku Klux Klan is planning a rally at the University of Mississippi Saturday to protest the university's ban on shouting the final line of a fight song: "The South shall rise again," The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported. The university has been discouraging the last line -- going so far as to change a song commonly performed at football games -- because the line is offensive to many who see it as a link to the university's racist past. The Klan sees the issue in a different way. &q
Source: The Dallas Morning News
Nov 20, 2009
AUSTIN – Hispanics are getting the shaft in proposed history and social studies standards for Texas public schools, Hispanic legislative leaders complained Wednesday to the State Board of Education.
Rep. Norma Chavez, representing the House and Senate Hispanic caucuses, told board members that proposed standards for U.S. history, government and other social studies courses are a slap at the state's growing Hispanic population.
"It is as though Hispanics don't exist
Source: BBC
Nov 20, 2009
A Victoria Cross awarded to a 21-year-old World War II bomber pilot has sold at auction for £335,000.
The VC, which was presented to Flight Lieutenant Bill Reid in 1944 by King George VI, was bought by an anonymous bidder, setting a new record price.
Flt Lt Reid, from Crieff in Perthshire, was given the VC for his part in a bombing raid on Germany in 1943.
A total of five of his medals were auctioned at Spink in London, raising £348,000.
Source: BBC
Nov 20, 2009
A house where newlywed Henry VIII stayed with his second wife Anne Boleyn has gone on the market after being rebuilt from a state of near collapse.
Shurland Hall, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, is thought to be the gatehouse of a Tudor palace owned by a courtier of the King, Thomas Cheyney.
It was probably built especially for Henry and Anne's visit in 1532, when the King spent three days hunting.
The Spitalfields Trust has restored it and put it up for
