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: Politico Playbook
Nov 11, 2009
TOMORROW IN DALLAS, 2 p.m. CT: “Former President George W. Bush will give a keynote address at Southern Methodist University on Thursday, November 12, 2009, outlining his vision for a unique public policy Institute that will link scholarly research with practical results. Former First Lady Laura Bush will also speak about her involvement with the Institute and its upcoming programs. The George W. Bush Institute will be part of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which will also include the P
Source: BBC
Nov 11, 2009
Services of commemoration are being held around the world to mark Armistice Day, the end of World War I in 1918.
At a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, US President Barack Obama said no tribute could match the service and sacrifice of the armed forces.
Earlier, Angela Merkel became the first German chancellor to mark the day by attending French events in Paris.
In London, the Queen, politicians and British Armed Forces chiefs recalled the passing of th
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Nov 11, 2009
One of the most important troves of African-American historical materials became the subject of national ire and hand wringing this week, when the student newspaper at Howard University reported that the university library’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center -- considered one of the foremost repositories of artifacts and manuscripts related to black history -- could close due to an inadequate budget and a shortage of staff.
The article prompted a stream of upset phone calls, e-mails
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Nov 11, 2009
Hiram College this week held a "recapitation" ceremony to celebrate the return of the head on a statue of President James A. Garfield. Garfield was a student, instructor and administrator at the college before his ill-fated presidency. A statue honoring him was unveiled on campus in May and was mysteriously decapitated days later. The head was found and returned anonymously to local police officers.
Source: Guardian (UK)
Nov 11, 2009
The simulated screeching of the Stukas over Warsaw almost has you ducking for cover. The thump of marching jackboots portends terror. The melancholy piano of Chopin tugs at Polish heartstrings.
In the Museum of the Warsaw Rising, the sound effects are powerful, the visuals compelling, the tragedy forcefully conveyed. The story of the Polish capital's suicidal rebellion in 1944 against the Nazi occupation is vividly told through interactive, multi-media installations that play on the
Source: BBC
Nov 11, 2009
The death of the "last Tommy", Harry Patch, in July put an end to first-hand memories of the World War I trenches. But if Armistice Day pricks your curiosity about what your ancestors did in the world wars, there are many avenues of archives to explore.
And according to Anthony Richards, archivist at the Imperial War Museum, interest in researching family military history is now more popular than ever. A major aspect of genealogy is often the involvement of family members
Source: BBC
Nov 11, 2009
After more than six years of conflict Iraq seems an unlikely place for a holiday. But could its status as the birthplace of civilisation see tourists flocking?
For most travellers it will, undoubtedly, be years before Iraq becomes a destination of choice. But as the country stabilises its advocates believe its potential is beginning to emerge.
At one time Iraq was a regular stop for British travellers. Early flights to imperial India refuelled in the port city of Basra
Source: BBC
Nov 11, 2009
Researchers have discovered a fossil skeleton that appears to link the earliest dinosaurs with the large plant-eating sauropods.
This could help to bridge an evolutionary gap between the two-legged common ancestors of dinosaurs and the four-legged giants, such as diplodocus.
The remarkably complete skeleton shows that the creature was bipedal but occasionally walked on all four legs.
The team reports its discovery in the Royal Society journal Proceedings
Source: BBC
Nov 11, 2009
Later this month Egyptian archaeologists will travel to the Louvre Museum in Paris to collect five ancient fresco fragments stolen from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in the 1980s, but there are many other "stolen" antiquities which they also want back, reports the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo.
Thousands of artefacts were spirited out of Egypt during the period of colonial rule and afterwards by archaeologists, adventurers and thieves.
According to a 1972
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 11, 2009
Hanukkah dinner in Odessa, bathers in the Baltic Sea, a tailor in front of his shop in Serbia - just some of the 25,000 images of pre-war Jewish life garnered from the private collections of survivors for a new exhibition.
With the number of those who lived through the Holocaust fast dwindling, researchers scoured cities across Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Baltic states, to glean as much as they could about the lives of Jewish families in the years before World
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 11, 2009
The United Nations has declared July 18 "Nelson Mandela International Day" to mark the South African anti-apartheid leader's contribution to peace.
A resolution adopted by consensus by the 192-member world body calls for commemorations every year starting in 2010 on July 18 - Mandela's birthday - to recognise the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's contribution to resolving conflicts and promoting race relations, human rights and reconciliation.
Mandela, 91, led the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 11, 2009
Britain’s last surviving First World War veteran has shunned Remembrance Day commemorations in Australia because he does not agree with the glorification of war, his family has said.
In July Claude Choules, 108, became Britain’s sole survivor from the 1914-1918 war, following the death of Harry Patch, aged 111.
Mr Choules, who lives in a nursing home in Perth, served on HMS Revenge during a 41-year naval career that spanned both world wars, witnessing the surrender of
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 11, 2009
The nation fell silent at 11am today as the passing of the First World War generation was marked at a moving Westminster Abbey memorial service for Armistice Day.
The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, senior politicians and the heads of the Armed Forces gathered for the ceremony in central London.
The Very Rev Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, opened the service by recalling the moment exactly 91 years ago when the guns fell silent in Europe.
Source: AP
Nov 11, 2009
For the first time since World War I, the leaders of Germany and France appeared together at a ceremony Wednesday to commemorate the end of the conflict, saying it is now time to celebrate their countries' reconciliation and friendship.
Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel together laid a wreath of flowers at the tomb and symbolically relit the perpetual flame above it to mark the 91st anniversary of the end of World War I.
The last of 8.4 million French who foug
Source: AP
Nov 11, 2009
The famed Navajo Code Talkers, the elite Marine unit whose unbreakable code stymied the Japanese in World War II, fear their legacy will die with them.
Only about 50 of the 400 Code Talkers are believed to be still alive, most living in the Navajo Nation reservation that spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many are frail or ill, with little time left to tell the world about their wartime contribution.
But on Wednesday, 13 of the Code Talkers are coming to New York City
Source: CNN
Nov 11, 2009
Red Army tank commander Sgt. Mikhail Kalashnikov invented his first machine gun in 1942, during the Second World War, as he sat in a hospital bed recovering from a wound that he got in western Russia.
But as Russians say, the first blintz always comes out wrong. His first model had inborn flaws and defects, and is now on display in an arms museum bearing his name.
It took him several more years to develop and fine-tune what later became an internationally recognized per
Source: WSJ
Nov 11, 2009
In 1997, Congress passed a budget law that mandated tough curbs on Medicare spending, setting up formulas to reduce doctor payments if broad spending targets were exceeded. But when the formula began taking a serious bite out of doctor reimbursements in 2002, Congress acted to reverse the cuts -- a step it has repeated five times since then.
That history shows why some critics believe billions of dollars in budget savings Congress is promising through its health-care overhaul might
Source: WSJ
Nov 11, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Former President Bill Clinton came to Capitol Hill Tuesday to underline for Democrats the political consequences of failing to pass a health overhaul, saying doing nothing was the worst outcome.
Mr. Clinton spoke as both sides in the Senate braced for a battle on the floor. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Tuesday that once Senate debate begins, Republicans would offer "a lot of amendments" on subjects from abortion to immigration to a go
Source: Media General News Service (NAT)
Nov 10, 2009
More than 2,000 DVDs explaining the causes, conflicts and consequences of the Civil War have been mailed to all public schools in Virginia.
The three-hour history lesson was produced by a member of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission who led the nation’s centennial commemoration.
“In the centennial, if we made a big mistake it was that we overlooked the young. We can’t do that again,“ said James I. Robertson, a history professor at Virgini
Source: The American Task Force on Palestine
Nov 10, 2009
“I can offer you a discount on the headbands,” said Tareq Abu Dayyeh, souvenir-store owner. “They’re just like the kind used by suicide bombers.”
He was making a sales pitch at his Chairman Arafat Shop, one of Gaza’s oddest commercial outlets. A battery-powered, dancing Osama bin Laden doll occupies a shelf above Barack Obama coffee mugs emblazoned with a misspelling of the U.S. president’s middle name: “Abu Hussain Palestine Loves You.” A plastic Virgin Mary and Jordan River holy w
