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 4, 2008
In 1572, a"new star" appeared in the sky which stunned astronomers and
exploded ancient theories of the universe.
Now the supernova recorded by Tycho Brahe has been glimpsed again, by Max
Planck Institute scientists.
They used telescopes in Hawaii and Spain to capture faint light echoes of
the original explosion, reflected by interstellar dust.
This"fossil imprint" of Tycho's famous supernova is reported in Nature.
The study will help solve a 400-year-old mystery o
Source: BBC
Dec 4, 2008
The discovery was made by members of a government-appointed commission during excavation at a military base outside the capital, Kabul.
Daud Khan overthrew the last king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, in 1973.
His death five years later ushered in a decade of Soviet occupation followed by the rise of the Taleban.
The former president is to be given a special funeral ceremony by the government.
Teeth moulds
A spokesman for the Min
Source: Deutsche Welle
Dec 4, 2008
A prosecutors responsible for war crimes has been sent to the home of an 89-year-old man alleged to have massacred an estimated 60 Jewish prisoners in Austria near the end of the Second World War, they said Thursday, Nov. 4.
An Austrian university student interested in the March 29, 1945 atrocity knew the names of a trio of Waffen SS members said to have gunned down the group of Hungarian Jewish slave laborers.
Professor conducted interviews
The student loc
Source: NPR
Dec 4, 2008
When a group of pundits gathered for a recent Oxford-style debate, the proposition alone was provocative: "Bush 43 Is the Worst President of the Past 50 Years." But when you consider that one of the panelists defending President Bush's legacy was his longtime adviser Karl Rove, the night became even more interesting.
For instance, Rove said that President Bush probably would not have gone to war in Iraq if he had known the truth about Saddam Hussein's military capacity. &q
Source: AP
Dec 4, 2008
AUSTIN — The LBJ Library in Austin has released the final batch of recordings of private telephone conversations by former President Lyndon Johnson.
The recordings cover the last months of Johnson's presidency in late 1968 and early 1969. Johnson can be heard expressing his condolences to Sen. Edward Kennedy after the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy. He also voiced worry over problems with the Vietnam War peace talks and said associates of Richard Nixon were acting treasonous i
Source: National Geographic News
Dec 3, 2008
Modern humans may have evolved more than 80,000 years earlier than
previously thought, according to a new study of sophisticated stone tools
found in Ethiopia.
The tools were uncovered in the 1970s at the archaeological site of
Gademotta, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. But it was not until this year
that new dating techniques revealed the tools to be far older than the
oldest known Homo sapien bones, which are around 195,000 years old.
Using argon-argon dating—a technique that
Source: NYT
Dec 3, 2008
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Wednesday that he saw no need for President Bush to issue blanket pardons of officials involved in some of the administration’s most controversial counterterrorism policies.
Mr. Mukasey told reporters that there was “absolutely no evidence” that anyone involved in developing the policies “did so for any reason other than to protect the security in the country and in the belief that he or she was doing something lawful.”
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 3, 2008
As a photograph it looks fairly unremarkable - a tortoise nibbles at the grass in front of a Boer War prisoner and guard.
But the pictures helps to mark the reptile as the oldest animal on the planet.
Jonathan, the tortoise, is believed to be 176-years-old and was about 70 at the time the black and white picture was taken.
He was photographed during the Boer War around 1900, and his life has spanned eight British monarchs from George IV to Elizabeth II, and 50 pr
Source: Politico.com
Dec 3, 2008
Former President Bill Clinton says he is open to the possibility of a role in the Obama administration but said he otherwise plans to be deferential to both the president and Clinton's wife, the soon-to-be secretary of state.
Clinton could be named as a sort of super-ambassador on a specific issue like India, or on a broad topic like restoring goodwill for the United States abroad. He was deferential to President George W. Bush, accepting assignments on hurricane and tsunami relief
Source: CNN
Dec 3, 2008
The man's remains lie on a table. Next to him are the bones of his
22-year-old son and the remains of another son. But no one yet knows which
of the man's two missing boys the third set of remains could be.
Cheryl Katzmarzyk wants to be able to put a name to the remains, and to
those of hundreds of other bodies stacked around her in a building in
Lukavac, near Tuzla in the northeast of Bosnia.
The bones are from more than 8,000 men and boys slaughtered in 1995 during
the Bosni
Source: Deutsche Welle
Dec 3, 2008
It was probably the most defining moment in their recent history, but a new survey by the Stern news magazine suggests only a third of Germans know when the Berlin Wall came down. And only the same number knew it was built in 1961.
The timing could hardly have been worse: on November 9th next year, the country will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.
However, this wasn't the only gap in the nation's knowledge of history. Only 35 percent of the
Source: FoxNews.com
Dec 3, 2008
A new study of the well-known"Iceman" mummy finds that he ate moss,
though perhaps not on purpose.
In fact, his gut remains contained six different mosses, a new analysis
shows. The unappetizing plants shed light on the Neolithic man's lifestyle
and travels during the last few days of his life.
The remains of the Iceman (also called Ötzi, Frozen Fritz and Similaun
Man) were discovered accidentally in 1991 by German tourists in the
Eastern Alps. Since then, a suite of tests has
Source: CNN
Dec 3, 2008
The photograph became an icon of the Great Depression: a migrant mother
with her children burying their faces in her shoulder. Katherine McIntosh
was 4 years old when the photo was snapped. She said it brought shame --
and determination -- to her family."I wanted to make sure I never lived like that again," says McIntosh, who
turns 77 on Saturday."We all worked hard and we all had good jobs and we
all stayed with it. When we got a home, we stayed with it."
McIntosh is the girl to
Source: FoxNews.com
Dec 3, 2008
A group of atheists filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to remove part of a
state anti-terrorism law that requires Kentucky's Office of Homeland
Security to acknowledge it can't keep the state safe without God's help.
American Atheists Inc. sued in state court over a 2002 law that stresses
God's role in Kentucky's homeland security alongside the military, police
agencies and health departments.
Of particular concern is a 2006 clause requiring the Office of Homeland
Security to pos
Source: BBC
Dec 3, 2008
A treaty banning the stockpiling and use of cluster bombs is to open for
signature in Norway's capital, Oslo.
Campaigners are hailing the treaty as a major breakthrough.
More than 100 countries are expected to sign, but some of the biggest
stockpilers, including the US, Russia and China will not be among them.
First developed during World War II, cluster bombs contain a number of
smaller bomblets designed to cover a large area and deter an advancing
army.
But camp
Source: FoxNews.com
Dec 3, 2008
The biggest obstacle facing Hillary Clinton's Senate confirmation as President-elect Barack Obama's top diplomat may not be her husband's wheeling and dealing abroad for his foundation, as many suspected.
Instead, it could be the U.S. Constitution.
According to an emolument clause in the Constitution, no lawmaker can be appointed to any civil position that was created or received a wage increase during the lawmaker's time in office.
President Bush ordered
Source: Times (of London)
Dec 3, 2008
A bottle of whisky recovered from the wreck of a ship that inspired the film Whisky Galore! was sold at auction for £2,200 to a teenager fascinated by its story.
The bottle of Ballantine Scotch was one of about 240,000 that sank with the SS Politician in the Outer Hebrides in 1941. For weeks the islanders celebrated on the spirits they had looted from the wreck, hiding the bottles from government officials.
The incident inspired a novel by Compton Mackenzie and
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Dec 3, 2008
A fortified citadel that appears to belong to the pre-Inca era has been discovered by a team of archaeologists in remote Amazonian rainforest in Peru.
The citadel comprises fortifications, parts of which are covered in rock paintings, stone houses and large platforms believed to be used to grind seeds and plants for food and medicine.
It sits atop a chasm that may have been used as a lookout, said archaeologist Benedict Goicochea Perez.
The encampment is th
Source: Times (of London)
Dec 3, 2008
Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence, according to the Kenyan family of the US President-elect.
Hussein Onyango Obama, Mr Obama’s paternal grandfather, became involved in the Kenyan independence movement while working as a cook for a British army officer after the war. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison where, according to his family, he was subjected
Source: AP
Dec 2, 2008
Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth was swept up by the Gestapo the day after a failed 1944 bombing attempt on Hitler and thrown into the secret police's notorious Prinz Albrecht Strasse prison in downtown Berlin.
Unlike scores of others connected with the Kreisau Circle of plotters who were executed, the German aristocrat was eventually released — but not before he had signed away ownership of his family's estates on the order of Gestapo and SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
Now, some 60 yea
