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: Washington Post
May 14, 2009
The flashlight beam lit up the dark interior of Abraham Lincoln's left boot, as if the inside of a tomb, and at the bottom was the smooth and shiny indentation made by the martyred president's heel.
The odor of fine leather still clung to the top of the boot, where white cloth pull straps were sewed. When the light hit a maroon section of the hide, bootmaker Michael Anthony Carnacchi whispered: "Aha. There's your original color."
A group of National Park Servi
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
May 14, 2009
A £25million plan to revitalise Stonehenge -including diverting a nearby main road - was unveiled by the Government yesterday.
Proposals for a visitor centre were given the ‘go-ahead in principle’ by the Stonehenge Programme Board.
Culture Minister Barbara Follett and Transport Minister Lord Adonis, who chair the board, said the prehistoric site was currently ‘short of ideal’ for visitors.
The new centre, to cater for 800,000 tourists a year, would be locat
Source: Time
May 14, 2009
When the tanks and troops blasted their way into Beijing's Tiananmen Square 20 years ago, crushing the student-led protest movement that had captivated the world, the biggest political casualty was Chinese Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang, the man who had tried hardest to avoid the bloodshed.
Outmaneuvered by his hard-line rivals, Zhao was stripped of power and placed under house arrest. The daring innovator who had introduced capitalist policies to post–Mao Zedong China spent his
Source: Wall Street Journal
May 13, 2009
Deep-fried Twinkies, jars of moonshine and kegerators set up in the backs of recreational vehicles at Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway. To one scholar, these aren't just the trappings of a modern-day Nascar race weekend -- they're evidence of a hidden past.
"It's almost a direct carryover from the Middle Ages," says Karyn Rybacki, a professor of communication studies and public relations at Northern Michigan University. Ms. Rybacki, who studies stock-car racing, says the
Source: AFP
May 13, 2009
The US military on Wednesday handed control of ancient Ur, the biblical birthplace
of Abraham, back to Iraqi authorities, who hope now to relaunch it as a major tourism site."We officially announce the taking over of Ziggurat of Ur from our friends the Americans," Talib
Kamil al-Hassan, governor of Dhi Qar province, said at a ceremony to mark the return of the site six
years after the American invasion.
Source: The Washington Times
May 13, 2009
Merchant mariners who survived German U-boats and lived for six more decades may finally get a financial reward from legislation approved by the House on Tuesday.
The measure passed by voice vote would provide a monthly benefit of $1,000 to those who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine between Dec. 7, 1941, and Dec. 31, 1946. Of the 250,000 merchant mariners during World War II, fewer than 10,000 are believed to still be alive.
The merchant mariners carried some 95 per
Source: National Geographic News
May 13, 2009
An island for ancient elites has been found in central Mexico, archaeologists say. Among the ruins are a treasury and a small pyramid that may have been used for rituals.
The island, called Apupato, belonged to the powerful Tarascan Empire, which dominated much of western Mexico from A.D. 1400 to 1520, before the European conquest of the region.
Source: AP
May 13, 2009
A white fraternity that traces its roots to the Civil War and
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is again facing complaints over its
antebellum-themed events.
This time, University of Alabama alumnae are upset after Kappa Alpha
Order members wearing Confederate uniforms and carrying battle flags
paraded past a historically black sorority as the women celebrated the
group's 35th anniversary.
Source: http://www.pnj.com
May 13, 2009
Gov. Charlie Crist was among those Tuesday at Tallahassee's Mission San Luis to launch a campaign to emphasize the history and culture Florida shares with Spain.
For the next six years, Visit Florida officials said, the program will allow the state and visitors to embrace the 1513 discovery of Florida, the 1559 founding of Pensacola and the 1565 founding of St. Augustine, all of which are an opportunity to bolster the state's cultural and nature-based tourism efforts.
L
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
May 13, 2009
Everyone knows that young people came out to vote and overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama in last year’s presidential election. Now the Millennials, as the younger generation is known, will usher in a liberal era and end the culture wars, according to the Center for American Progress.
In two reports released today — one based on a new survey and the other drawing on much recent data — the center, a liberal research organization, augurs a progressive future.
“The story
Source: WaPo
May 13, 2009
The financial health of the Social Security system has eroded more sharply in the past year than at any time since the mid-1990s, according to a government forecast that ratchets up pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to stabilize the retirement system that keeps many older Americans out of poverty.
The report, issued yesterday by the trustees who monitor the government's two main forms of help for the elderly, shows that Medicare has become more fragile as well and is
Source: WaPo
May 13, 2009
The Obama administration signaled yesterday that it may be rethinking its promise to release several dozen photos depicting abuse or alleged abuse of detainees held in U.S. custody abroad.
Justice Department officials told a federal judge late last month that the U.S. government did not intend to fight a court order to turn over a total of 44 photos, which were sought by the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
A U.S. attorney was u
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 13, 2009
A former Ku Klux Klan boss who twice ran for US president has secretly set up home in Austria where he is running a birdwatching business.
David E Duke, who was once a KKK Grand Wizard, runs a business selling photographs of rare birds and other wildlife in a village near Salzburg.
The discovery has outraged his neighbours in Austria which has struggled to shake off the scourge of a new wave of far right politicians.
Mr Duke, who has previously denied Adolf
Source: Spiegel Online
May 13, 2009
They committed their alleged crimes more than six decades ago but have escaped justice. Dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals are enjoying the twilight of their lives. For investigators into World War II atrocities, it is a race against time.
For Charles Zentai, Tuesday was a good day: His extradition from Australia to Hungary was halted at the last minute after the government in Budapest withdrew its opposition to the 87-year-old's application for bail. Zentai, who now lives in Pe
Source: AP
May 13, 2009
The gunman who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II would like to convert to Christianity at a baptism ceremony at the Vatican after his release from prison in January, according to his lawyer.
Over the years, Mehmet Ali Agca has made frequent claims that he is the Messiah or Jesus Christ, raising questions about his mental health and leading to speculation that he had converted to Christianity.
Agca is currently serving a prison term for killing Turkish journalist Ab
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 13, 2009
Frederick Toben, an Australian 'revisionist historian', has been sentenced to three months in jail after publishing offensive material about Jews and the Holocaust on his website.
Toben, 65, had been banned in 2002 from circulating anti-Semitic material on the website of the Adelaide Institute and had promised to abide by the order.
But a civil case brought by Jeremy Jones, former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, found Toben had breached the orde
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 13, 2009
A macabre catch by Thai fishermen could finally solve the mystery over missing victims of a notorious act of repression by the army.
A haul of skulls and other body parts has been linked to five shipping containers on the sea bed off the southern Chon Buri province.
Some believe they hold the bodies of pro-democracy protesters killed by the army in 1992. Police have said that their divers will examine the containers within the week.
Over the years rumour
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 13, 2009
A collection of personal letters and photographs from Queen Mary to a friend spanning half a century has been revealed for the first time before being sold at auction.
The birth and christening of Queen Elizabeth II are detailed in the collection, which also includes cheques made out to Queen Mary from her friend, Kate Rube.
Mrs Rube, and later her daughter Elizabeth Gillman, corresponded with the wife of George V from the turn of the 20th century and into the 1950s.
Source: Reuters
May 13, 2009
A campaign by heirs of Polish aristocrats to recover a palace seized by the communists has exposed Poland's continued failure to resolve the restitution of property to former owners after two decades of democracy.
The Branicki family says it has now decided to demand the return of the entire estate at Wilanow Palace, not just family heirlooms and archives as previously planned, due to frustration over lack of progress in a legal battle dating back to 1990.
The baroque p
Source: CNN
May 13, 2009
His was the first photo of a missing child to appear on a milk carton. Almost 30 years later, Etan Patz is still missing.
Etan was 6 when he disappeared on May 25, 1979, the Friday before Memorial Day. He was on his way to school in what is now the upscale Soho neighborhood of New York.
The boy's disappearance was one of the key events that inspired the missing children's movement, which raised awareness of child abductions and led to new ways to search for missing ch
