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: NYT
Aug 30, 2008
Each day, weather permitting, hundreds of South Koreans sail to this cluster of nearly uninhabitable islets and outcroppings, seven seasick hours from the Korean mainland.
The waves are so unpredictable that only a little more than half of the visitors can land. When they do, it is for a 20-minute stay to snap photos from a wharf, the largest flat surface on this 46-acre collection of two main islets and dozens of other specks of land.
The rest of the visitors must con
Source: http://nationalparkstraveler.com
Aug 30, 2008
Remember the good old days, when you could enter a national park and there
was no cost to hike a trail, tour a museum, or enjoy nature? Well, those
days seemingly are fleeting. In a move likely to disappoint many, the
folks at Gettysburg National Military Park are thinking of charging a fee
to access their museum.
Growth of fees in national parks is not new, only disappointing. Do you
remember this Traveler post from June 2007?
How much would you pay to hike a trail in Shen
Source: Michael Levy at the Britannica Blog
Aug 30, 2008
In a lively debate at the American Political Science Association convention in Boston today, an esteemed group of political scientists gathered to forecast the 2008 presidential election. The consensus: advantage Barack Obama.Using various forecasting models with variables that included GDP growth, presidential approval, fiscal policy, the leading economic indicators (LEI), and primary results in New Hampshire as
Source: WaPo
Aug 30, 2008
It's different now, isn't it?
John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, and the election that had been presented as old vs. new suddenly feels like new vs. new:
Whichever ticket wins, America is now guaranteed "a historic first" in the White House.
On Inauguration Day 2009, the symbol finally will catch up to the statistical reality of this democracy.
White men historically have been the power demographic. Th
Source: LAT
Aug 30, 2008
The country, most of it anyway, got its first glimpse Friday of Sarah Heath Palin, John McCain's selection as his running mate, and the reaction was nearly universal:
Who?
Palin is breathtakingly unlike any other vice presidential pick in American history -- a gun-toting, mooseburger-eating former Miss Wasilla, an Alaska governor whose parents nearly missed her national unveiling because they were out hunting caribou.
The first woman to grace a Republican t
Source: Science News Daily
Aug 29, 2008
The Bible refers to ancient Israel as the “land flowing with milk and
honey,” so it’s fitting that one of its towns milked honey for all it was
worth. Scientists have unearthed the remains of a large-scale beekeeping
operation at a nearly 3,000-year-old Israeli site, which dates to the time
of biblical accounts of King David and King Solomon.
Excavations in northern Israel at a huge earthen mound called Tel Rehov
revealed the Iron Age settlement. From 2005 to 2007, workers at Tel Reh
Source: Independent
Aug 29, 2008
The 2,000-year-old fishing boat of Galilee in which, the story goes, Jesus may have sailed, is one of the most precious ancient treasures in Israel.
The vessel, which draws thousands of tourists to a kibbutz in Ginosar, was discovered by chance in 1986 when the sea level dropped dramatically because of a severe drought.
"This year it is actually worse. I have been here 54 years and I have never seen the water so low, the situation so bad," said Haim Binstock,
Source: AP
Aug 29, 2008
A priceless gold wreath has been unearthed in an ancient city in northern Greece, buried with human bones in a large copper vase that workers initially took for a land mine.
The University of Thessaloniki said in a statement Friday that the "astonishing" discovery was made during its excavations this week in the ruins of ancient Aigai. The city was the first capital of ancient Macedonia, where King Philip II — father of Alexander the Great — was assassinated.
Source: BBC
Aug 29, 2008
The settlements show an advanced level of planning.
A remote area of the Amazon river basin was once home to densely populated
towns, Science journal reports.
The Upper Xingu, in west Brazil, was once thought to be virgin forest, but
in fact shows traces of extensive human activity.
Researchers found evidence of a grid-like pattern of settlements connected
by road networks and arranged around large central plazas.
Source: AP
Aug 29, 2008
The largest collection of antique shipwrecks ever found in
Norway has been discovered under mud at the building site for a new
highway tunnel in Oslo, the project's lead archaeologist said Friday.
Jostein Gundersen said at least nine wooden boats, the largest being 17
meters (56 feet) long, were found well preserved nearly 400 years after
they sank at Bjoervika, an Oslo inlet near the new national opera house.
"For us, this is a sensation," he told The Associated Press."There has
Source: Leonard Steinhorn at the HNN Blog, POTUS
Aug 29, 2008
Today, in introducing herself to American voters as Senator John McCain's vice presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin portrays herself as a reformer who pushed back against pork-barrel spending and the now notorious Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska. "I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress -- I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves."
Source: Independent
Aug 29, 2008
Internet mapping is wiping the rich geography and history of Britain off the map, Britain's most senior cartographer warned yesterday.
Churches, cathedrals, stately homes, battlefields, ancient woodlands, rivers, eccentric landmarks and many more features which make up the tapestry of the British landscape are not being represented in online maps, which focus on merely providing driving directions, said Mary Spence, President of the British Cartographical Society.
Source: Telegraph
Aug 29, 2008
Gladys Powers, who was 109, died in British Columbia in Canada earlier this month.
At 15, Mrs Powers lied about her age and joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, before moving to the RAF as a barracks waitress.
It is thought she was the last female veteran from any country to have served in the war, following the death last year of American Charlotte Winters. The Ministry of Defence has been unable to produce records of her service as British First World War files w
Source: HNN Staff
Aug 29, 2008
During his 42 minute long acceptance address Barack Obama never explicitly addressed questions some voters might have about his race. As the NYT has pointed out, no one at the convention did all week long.
His approach was sharply different than John Kennedy's in 1960. Kennedy, the first Catholic nominee of a major party, directly tried to reassure voters that his minority status would not affect how he governed and shouldn't affect whether people voted for or against him:
Source: NYT
Aug 29, 2008
Recollections from past Democratic conventions, from former presidential nominees, running mates, candidates and strategists. Help Wanted
By George McGovern
Close Calls
By Gary Hart
Maid Men
By Frank Mankiewicz
A Safe Harbor
By John Kerry
Prompter Wars
By Geraldine Ferraro
Cold Comfort
By Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
Speechless
By Ted Sorensen
Source: CNN
Aug 28, 2008
Hosting a Republican National Convention is old hat to Minnesota.
Now 103 years old, Minnesota's Capitol is the third in Minnesota's 150 years of statehood.
Really, really old.
Across the Mississippi River from present-day Minneapolis skyscrapers once stood an exhibition hall where Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison for a second term as president in 1892. Harrison met defeat to Democrat Grover Cleveland, and the Industrial Exposition Building met the w
Source: http://www.theartnewspaper.com
Aug 28, 2008
The leading archaeologist in Iraq says that sites are no longer being targeted by professional looters. The Art Newspaper spoke by telephone with Dr Abbas al-Husseini, who took over from Dr Donny George as chairman of the state board of antiquities in 2006. A year ago he was removed, because of internal politics, and he is currently working as a professor at Al Qadisiyah University and supervising excavations.
Speaking from Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, Dr al-Husseini told us that alt
Source: AP
Aug 28, 2008
A small group of pagans pledged Thursday to hold a protest prayer among the ruined Acropolis temples, more than 1,500 years after Christians stamped out worship of the ancient Greek gods.
Group spokeswoman Doretta Peppa said the worshippers would pray Sunday to Athena _ goddess of wisdom and patron of ancient Athens _ to protect the 2,500-year-old site. Peppa said followers of the old religion object to the removal last year of hundreds of sculptural masterpieces from a tiny museum
Source: CNN
Aug 28, 2008
wo former generals accused of murdering a senator during Argentina's military dictatorship were sentenced to life in prison Thursday.
Antonio Bussi and Luciano Menendez were found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Sen. Guillermo Vargas Aignasse, who was last seen in public March 24, 1976, the day of a military coup.
The men, both in their 80s, showed no remorse during the trial, which took place in the interior city of San Miguel de Tucuman. They argued that they were
Source: Fox News
Aug 28, 2008
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An amateur historian and a newspaper publisher have filed a lawsuit against Lincoln County authorities they say are withholding public records about DNA evidence collected during an investigation into Billy the Kid's death in 1881.
As legend has it, the Kid, aka William Bonney, was shot by then-Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, but questions about his death persist with some claiming he lived to a ripe old age. They say Garrett shot the wrong ma
