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: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Sep 22, 2008
If you like presidential debates, thank Ronald Reagan.
Until Reagan ran for reelection in 1984, debates were a hit-and-miss thing. Only when both candidates thought it was in their interest to debate would debates take place. In 1960, the younger and less experienced candidate, John F. Kennedy, wanted to debate in order to close the stature gap with Vice President Richard Nixon. Nixon wanted to debate because he was trailing in the polls and thought he was a really great debater.
Source: McClatchy
Sep 22, 2008
In this telegenic, mass-media age, the health and fitness of presidential candidates often is equated with their fitness to lead.
But should someone's health, vigor and resting pulse rate make a whit of difference as a barometer of performance as president? And is it fair to compare the health and wellness of candidates who have a 25-year age gap, as is the case with Barack Obama and John McCain?
Yes, says presidential historian Allan Lichtman, author of "The Keys
Source: http://www.thecentralvirginian.com
Sep 22, 2008
More than 144 years after General George A. Custer positioned his headquarters on its front porch, the Charles Goodall Trevilian
House will cement its permanent place in the battle's history for future generations.
After some negotiations, the sprawling antebellum homeplace on Danne Road was recently purchased by the Civil War Preservation
Trust with the assistance of the Trevilians Station Battlefield Foundation."People see different things when they look at a house," said Gerald W. Harlow
Source: LiveScience
Sep 22, 2008
When early humans mastered the use of fire, their immediate rewards were warmth, light, and protection from nocturnal predators.
Investigators have assumed that our ancestors also quickly realized the advantages of flame-cooked food — easy chewing and digestion — though clear evidence has been hard to find. A new study bolsters that idea, showing that we share our fondness for cooked grub with our wild cousins, the great apes.
Source: Newsletter of the American Revolution Round Table of New York
Sep 22, 2008
It seems fitting that this fall we are celebrating perhaps the most important anniversary on the Revolutionary calendar. Two hundred and twenty five years ago, on September 3, 1783, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams went to the Hotel D’Yorke in Paris and signed the Treaty of Paris with the British diplomat, David Hartley. The document formally and finally ended eight years of warfare with Great Britain and established the United States of America as a nation.
The treaty als
Source: NYT
Sep 22, 2008
The proportion of New York City residents who are white and non-Hispanic rose slightly last year, reversing more than a half-century of so-called white flight from the city, according to census figures released on Tuesday.
The share of non-Hispanic whites in the city had been shrinking since at least 1940. As the overall population grew, their ranks declined by 361,000 in the 1990s alone. Since 2000, though, their number has increased by more than 100,000. Half of that increase was
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Sep 22, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO -- The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum's matchless collection of art from Papua New Guinea appears to be safe from the auction block for at least three months, regardless of a family's inheritance fight that threatens to have artwork seized and sold.
John Friede, the de Young Museum trustee who pledged his 4,000-piece collection to the museum in a series of deals from 2003 to 2007, said today that he has no intention of turning the artwork over to his brothers, despite a
Source: AP
Sep 22, 2008
Next year, the penny will be getting not just one new look but four of them, the first changes to the 1-cent coin in 50 years.
The U.S. Mint unveiled the new designs during a ceremony Monday at the Lincoln Memorial. The coin changes are part of the government's commemoration next year of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.
Lincoln's profile will reman on one side of the coin but the Lincoln Memorial will be replaced on the other side by the new images, with a diff
Source: BBC
Sep 22, 2008
An extinct Galapagos tortoise species could walk again, scientists believe.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report finding relatives of Geochelone elephantopus alive and well.
Cross-breeding these living tortoises might re-create the extinct species - though it could take a century.
The distribution of related tortoises between the islands was one of the pieces of evidence Charles Darwin used in formulating his the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 22, 2008
Andrzej Telka, a specialist in flood protection, said that the camp, which is now a museum and memorial to the millions who perished there during the Holocaust, faces the growing risk of flooding from the nearby River Vistula.
"If the unusual weather patterns we have seen continue a tragedy is going to happen," he said.
Mr Telka, who is also a former mayor of Oswiecim, the Polish town closest to camp, added that at particular risk is the section of Auschwitz-B
Source: Guardian (UK)
Sep 22, 2008
The last of the Neanderthals feasted on warmed mussels, baby seals and washed-up dolphins, according to fossil hunters working in ancient seaside caves in Gibraltar.
Excavations in the giant Gorham's and Vanguard caves on the Rock's eastern flank unearthed flint stone tools and remnants of seafood meals alongside the long-dead embers of hearths, which have been carbon-dated to around 28,000 years ago.
The findings suggest that Neanderthals who lived in the caves exploit
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 22, 2008
A Spanish judge probing atrocities carried out by fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War has been handed a list of 130,000 people who disappeared during the conflict and ensuing dictatorship.
The names, contained in a dozen files each the thickness of a telephone directory, were presented to Judge Balthasar Garzon on Monday afternoon in the first step towards determining whether a full blown criminal investigation can be launched.
Last month he ordered state bureau
Source: CNN
Sep 22, 2008
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- To pick up the morning paper and see the word "recount" in a headline stirs an ominous case of déjà vu.
At issue in recent days in Palm Beach County is a local judicial race that is hardly of national note. But problems with administering the local election, and statements from county officials that some critics call confusing, if not contradictory, have some worried about the coming presidential election.
Polls showing a dead
Source: CNN
Sep 22, 2008
Sudan officials plan a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort at the United Nations this week to avert the prosecution of the country's longtime president on charges of genocide in Darfur.
But prospects seemed dim at a time when Sudan has shown little willingness to compromise and launched an expansive military offensive against rebels in the western Darfur region. Efforts by African countries, the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, and France to solve the crisis also have not yielded tangi
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Sep 22, 2008
In 1997, acting on intelligence that a Hizballah cell was preparing to
blow up the American embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay, a U.S. special forces
team reportedly flew to the scene in several giant transport planes where
it arrested the conspirators and prevented the attack.
If that episode happened as described (and it cannot readily be
confirmed), it left no traces on the public record. It"is only one of
many hidden battles" between Iran and the West, writes Israeli journalist
Rone
Source: International Herald Tribune
Sep 22, 2008
In a state known for bustling, exciting tourist destinations such as Waikiki and the Kilauea volcano, Kalaupapa is sacred ground, with a history of disease, suffering and isolation.
Some 8,000 people have died on this remote peninsula since the Hawaiian Kingdom started exiling leprosy patients here in 1866. Many were torn from their families and left to scrounge for shelter, clothes and food. The vast majority were buried in unmarked graves.
Today, visitor interest in
Source: Boston Globe
Sep 22, 2008
There comes a point with historic figures where everything important has been published. But the rising wave of new books about Abraham Lincoln makes clear that that point hasn't arrived yet with the 16th president.
At least 50 titles about Lincoln are due out between next month and early 2010, not counting those recently published. The number is probably unprecedented for so short a period, and the range of angles is wide. There are three complete biographies; books of essays and p
Source: Times (UK)
Sep 22, 2008
A 650-million-year-old underwater reef, 10 times higher than the Great Barrier Reef, has been discovered in the middle of Australia's outback.
The ancient reef, formed nearly 100 million years before the first known animal life evolved, is the only one of its age in the world. Scientists believe it may hold evidence of the earliest examples of primitive animal life.
The reef was discovered by three Melbourne scientists in the Northern Flinders Ranges in South Australi
Source: Guardian (UK)
Sep 22, 2008
A rare medieval cookbook is to be digitally photographed page by page and the results uploaded to the internet for gourmands around the globe to study.
Forme of Cury, a recipe book compiled by King Richard II's master cooks in 1390, details around 205 dishes cooked in the royal household and sheds light on a little-studied element of life in the Dark Ages.
Written in Middle English, it contains the instructions for creating long-forgotten dishes such as blank mang (a sw
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 22, 2008
The British researchers claim that the findings help explain why the massive "bluestone" rocks, said to have healing powers, were transported 150 miles from Wales to Salisbury Plain to construct the monument.
The first dig around the circle in nearly half a century also suggests that the monument is 300 years younger than previously thought dating it to about 2300 BC.
The finding came in a project by Professors Timothy Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright who cut a
