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: BBC
Dec 21, 2008
Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over the town on 21 December 1988, claiming the lives of everyone on the plane and 11 local residents on the ground.
A number of "low key" ceremonies are taking place in the town in accordance with the wishes of the community.
A tribute is also planned in the US at the Lockerbie memorial in the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington DC.
Special "places to remember" are being opened in Lockerbie, with
Source: Vatican News
Dec 20, 2008
This morning in the Vatican the Holy Father received the members of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology along with their grand chancellor, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski.
In his address the Pope praised the "precious and fruitful cultural, literary, and academic work that the Institute carries out in the service of the Church and of culture in general", affirming that "in the traditional sphere of archaeology, the ordinary and specialized courses your Insti
Source: NYT
Dec 20, 2008
HYDE PARK, N.Y. — As winds howl through the empty rooms of failed financial institutions and foreclosed homes, as unemployment statistics spike and stocks plunge, as an era of high hopes stutters with fear, and seeming shelters shake on fraudulent foundations, who would not hope that new leadership might stave off further catastrophe?
And a new leader, coming to power with his “brain trust” of advisers and his “new deal” for the nation, has but a short time to make his case before i
Source: Canada.com
Dec 20, 2008
A Canadian-led research team probing the dirt floor of a hillside cavern
in South Africa has discovered proof that the site was occupied by a
hominid species two million years ago, making it the earliest known home
of our cave-dwelling human ancestors.
Small tools believed to have been used by homo habilis--one of several
species of advanced primates that lived in south-ern Africa at that
time--were unearthed by University of Toronto archeologist Michael Chazan
and colleagues from t
Source: NYT
Dec 20, 2008
Mathematically speaking, Ponzi schemes are doomed. They work by bringing in new investors to pay off old ones. In pure form, there’s never any actual business activity; the money just rolls backward from ever-increasing numbers of investors to keep up the appearance of profits. This means the scheme requires an infinite supply of new suckers.
Anyone sophisticated enough to concoct a Ponzi scheme — and con experienced investors and government agents, as the New York financier Bernard
Source: NYT
Dec 20, 2008
Despite the nation’s reputation as a rootless society, only about one in 10 Americans moved in the last year — roughly half the proportion that changed residences as recently as four decades ago, census data show
The monthly Current Population Survey found that fewer than 12 percent of Americans moved since 2007, a decline of nearly a full percentage point compared with the year before. In the 1950s and ’60s, the number of movers hovered near 20 percent.
The number has
Source: NYT
Dec 20, 2008
Ms. Kennedy, who declared last week that she would like to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the junior senator from New York, is in many ways embarking on a test of the enduring power of her politically royal name.
Interviews with about 50 New Yorkers — people from upstate and across town, people of all ages and races and political persuasions — suggest that the Kennedy brand is rich with resonance. But it also provokes resentment and puzzlement, especially among younger voters, wh
Source: NYT
Dec 20, 2008
Eight years after arriving in Washington vowing to spread the dream of homeownership, Mr. Bush is leaving office, as he himself said recently, “faced with the prospect of a global meltdown” with roots in the housing sector he so ardently championed.
There are plenty of culprits, like lenders who peddled easy credit, consumers who took on mortgages they could not afford and Wall Street chieftains who loaded up on mortgage-backed securities without regard to the risk.
But
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Dec 20, 2008
Her sinking with the loss of almost 1,200 lives caused such outrage that it propelled the U.S. into the First World War.
But now divers have revealed a dark secret about the cargo carried by the Lusitania on its final journey in May 1915.
Munitions they found in the hold suggest that the Germans had been right all along in claiming the ship was carrying war materials and was a legitimate military target.
The Cunard vessel, steaming from New York to Liverp
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 20, 2008
The monks who tend the grotto under the Byzantine basilica of the Church
of the Nativity in Bethlehem should enjoy lives of quiet, meditative
service to the lofty ideals of their faith.
When they wash the grotto's marbled altar and guard its silver lamps, they
are watching over the cradle of the Christian world: the exact spot where
Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
Yet despite this sacred trust, a ten-year row between the different sects
that manage the church has f
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 20, 2008
Neanderthals may have died out because their bodies overheated as the
Earth grew warmer, according to new research.
Analysis of DNA obtained from Neanderthal remains has revealed key
differences from modern humans that suggest their bodies produced excess
heat.
While in the cold climate of an ice age this would have provided the
species with an advantage, as the earth warmed they would have been less
able to cope. Ultimately this would have caused their extinction around
24,0
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 20, 2008
Most Britons do not believe the Biblical story of the birth of Jesus, a
study has found.
Young people were particularly doubtful about the nativity, with 78 per
cent of 16-24-year-olds saying they were not convinced of its historical
reliability.
Overall, 70 per cent were sceptical of the baby's birth in a manger to a
virgin mother, according to the poll of 1,000 people by the British
Marketing Research Bureau.
Almost a quarter of those questioned who described themselv
Source: NYT
Dec 20, 2008
When Alaska’s two senators take their seats in the new Congress next month, there may be something familiar about the pair to longtime followers of politics in that state.
Senator Lisa Murkowski and her soon-to-be colleague, Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, are the daughter and son of two Alaskans who squared off in the 1970 race for the state’s sole House seat. Nick Begich ended up beating Frank H. Murkowski 38 years ago.
“It just kind of speaks to the small-town politi
Source: Wall Street Journal
Dec 20, 2008
MAKASSAR, Indonesia -- In January, Stanford University is conducting a $60,000-a-head journey around the world by private jet to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." Taking in the Galapagos Islands and other sites of Mr. Darwin's research, the trip is one of several big events planned world-wide to honor him as the father of evolutionary theory.
But a vocal group of revisionists -- including a British cockroac
Source: New Scientist
Dec 19, 2008
Replication of a notorious"torture" experiment – in which people obediently delivered painful shocks to others if encouraged to do so by authority figures – has come to the same disturbing conclusion.
Seventy per cent of volunteers continued to administer electrical shocks – or at least they believed they were doing so – even after an actor claimed they were painful, Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University, California, found.
"What we found is validation of the same argument – if you p
Source: McClatchy
Dec 19, 2008
There are Democrats and Republicans, liberals and moderates, Hispanics and Asians, whites and blacks, Northerners and Westerners.
But one group arguably was missing when President-elect Barack Obama rounded out his 15-member Cabinet Friday — Southerners.
The only Southern appointment came when he named former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk U.S. trade representative, a lower-level post. Nobody else from below the Mason-Dixon Line made the cut, not even from the newly blue states
Source: Boston Globe
Dec 19, 2008
Protestants still constitute a majority of the Congress of the United States, but in terms of religious beliefs, the House and Senate, just like the constituencies they represent, are more diverse than they were nearly a half-century ago, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Today's Pew study, called "Faith on the Hill" among members of the incoming 111th Congress, found that Catholics, Jews, and Mormons are among religious groups better represented in C
Source: AP
Dec 19, 2008
_ William "520 Percent" Miller of Brooklyn, N.Y., claimed in 1899 he had inside information on stocks and promised interest of 10 percent a week. He defrauded investors out of $1 million.
_ Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant in Boston, ran a bogus investment scheme in 1919-20 involving postal currency. As many as 20,000 people invested $8 million to $10 million. He spent time in prison before being deported in 1934.
_ Lou Pearlman, the mastermind behind the B
Source: AP
Dec 19, 2008
LONDON –- London's mayor says he is making good on his promise to return London's iconic open-backed Routemaster bus to the British capital.
The traditional Routemaster had an open platform at the back, enabling passengers to get on and off quickly. It was phased out three years ago in favor of boxy-looking double-deckers deemed safer and more accessible.
But the Routemaster was widely loved and Mayor Boris Johnson said Friday that winning open-backed designs for its su
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 19, 2008
Amanda Roberts Jones, a slave's daughter who lived to be 110 and voted for
the first African-American US president, Barack Obama, has died, her
family said.
Jones, who died on Thursday, earned attention across the United States
after she mailed in her ballot for President-Elect Barack Obama in late
October. When word of her vote spread, Jones was profiled on National
Public Radio and ABC News.
Her granddaughter, Brenda Baker, said Jones had recently been admitted to
hospital,
