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: WaPo
Jul 10, 2007
The Washington area suburbs of Virginia, befitting a state that supplied four of the first five U.S. presidents, has public high schools named after all of them, plus a nice sprinkling of famous Virginia generals.
Washington-Lee High School is in Arlington County. Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Marshall and J.E.B. Stuart high schools are in Fairfax County. Fredericksburg's only high school is named after James Monroe, and Prince William County has Stonewall Jackson High.
But
Source: BBC
Jul 10, 2007
New software which works out much more realistically how ancient buildings would have looked in their glory by generating accurate plays of light sources has been developed by scientists in England.
The project, developed at Warwick University in the West Midlands, brings ancient architectural features to life through a revolutionary sophisticated modelling of light.
This allows archaeologists to study how buildings and artwork would have really looked at the time, righ
Source: NYT
Jul 10, 2007
Vice President Dick Cheney’s popularity has hit an all-time low, with recent polling by The New York Times and CBS News suggesting that he has replaced Dan Quayle as the most unpopular vice president in recent history.
Two polls taken in May and June reveal an erosion of Mr. Cheney’s base of support — seen in both his job approval rating and his favorability. Just 28 percent of those polled in June approve of the job Mr. Cheney is doing, while 59 percent disapprove, a reading simila
Source: NYT
Jul 10, 2007
Under attack for supporting America’s hard-line stance against Saddam Hussein, among other things, former Prime Minister Tony Blair considered announcing in the fall of 2002 that he would not seek a third term, his former spokesman said Monday. But Mr. Blair changed his mind and convinced his wavering cabinet the following spring that the impending invasion of Iraq was justified.
The revelation comes in “The Blair Years: Extracts from the Alastair Campbell Diaries,” a 757-page colle
Source: Inside Higher Ed (Click on SOURCE for embedded links.)
Jul 10, 2007
As technology makes it easier for students to cheat on exams or plagiarize papers, there has been no shortage of technology meant to deter and catch students who use cell phones, iPods and Google for a little extra help.
Turnitin and SafeAssignment are the two dominant technologies for comparing students’ submissions to databases of millions of student papers, articles and Web sites. But the educational software company Blackboard is today creating a new service, sort of — releasing
Source: AP
Jul 9, 2007
Congress and the White House appear headed for a showdown over President Bush's decision to invoke executive privilege to deny documents to House and Senate committees and prevent former aides from testifying about the firing of U.S. attorneys.
Lawmakers, in turn, have threatened to hold subpoenaed officials in contempt of Congress....
Q: Where in the Constitution does it say Congress can hold someone in contempt for not testifying?
A: It's not in the Const
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jul 9, 2007
Archaeologists sifting the ruins of a small cluster of slave cabins in central Alabama have unearthed an oft-forgotten facet of Southern slavery.
In the South, slavery has been most closely associated with antebellum plantation life. But here, on a hillside just a stone's throw from the massive blast furnaces of the Tannehill Ironworks, the remains of a cluster of simple cabins attest that slaves were also pressed into service in the South's first industrial labor force.
Source: CNN
Jul 9, 2007
There was no mourning at this funeral.
Hundreds of onlookers cheered Monday as the NAACP put to rest a long-standing expression of racism by holding a public burial for the N-word during its annual convention.
The ceremony included a march by delegates from across the country from downtown Detroit's Cobo Center to Hart Plaza. Along the way, two Percheron horses pulled a pine box adorned with a bouquet of fake black roses and a black ribbon printed with a derivation of t
Source: AP
Jul 9, 2007
President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about the firings of federal prosecutors.
The White House, however, did offer again to make former counsel Harriet Miers and one-time political director Sara Taylor available for private, off-the-record interviews.
In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in go
Source: Australian
Jul 9, 2007
FORMER US secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2 1/2 hours vainly trying to persuade President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today's conflict cannot be resolved by US forces. "I tried to avoid this war," Mr Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. "I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers."
Mr Powell has become increasingly outspoken about the level of violence
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 9, 2007
Thousands of Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings and scientific theories will soon be viewable for free on the internet.
Until now the majority of the manuscripts have been seen only by scholars but the National Museum of Leonardo in his hometown of Vinci has promised to scan about 12,000 pages and create an archive.
The European Union is funding the website www.leonardodigitale.com, and 3,000 pages have been scanned so far.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 9, 2007
The Great Wall of China was named as one of the new seven wonders of the world over the weekend at a televised ceremony in Lisbon, but no one in China was watching.
The state broadcaster CTV chose not to screen the event, leaving the thousands of tourists who visited the wall yesterday unaware of the monument's new status.
The refusal to celebrate reflects the Chinese public's apathy towards the competition to determine the new seven wonders.
Although almos
Source: Newsweek
Jul 9, 2007
We are hoping to start a conversation about what we are calling Global Literacy—facts and insights about the world (some objective, some subjective) that we think are worth knowing. We are not saying this is all you need to know; just that what you are about to read amounts to a good start. Our perspective is that of an American publication, but our interests are global, and we invite you to write us with your own thoughts and suggestions; we will be returning to the subject in the coming months
Source: Newark Star-Ledger
Jul 8, 2007
Heading into the summer of 1967, Newark seemed primed for civil unrest.
In previous summers, what journalists started calling "riots" had been increasing in frequency and severity. In 1964, they touched 11 cities, from New York (in Harlem and in Brooklyn) to Cleveland. In 1965, the riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles resulted in the death of 34 people. In 1966, there were 43 civil disturbances of varying intensity across the nation.
Source: Interfax
Jul 8, 2007
The Federal Security Service has been assisting the United States in investigating crimes against humanity.
"Since 1994, 60,000 pages of documents dealing with Nazi crimes during World War II, kept at the FSB's Central Archives, have been handed over to the United States," Vasily Khristoforov, the head of the FSB's Register and Archives Department, said in an interview with Interfax.
Cooperation between American and Russian law enforcement and judiciary agenci
Source: Breitbart
Jul 8, 2007
The UN body for culture on Sunday blasted a private initiative that drew nearly 100 million Internet and telephone voters to choose seven "new" wonders of the world.
"This campaign responds to other criteria and objectives than that of UNESCO in the field of heritage," said Sue Williams, the spokeswoman for UNESCO, the UN cultural body that designates world heritage sites.
"We have a much broader vision," she told AFP.
Voters chose t
Source: Times (UK)
Jul 8, 2007
Katrin Himmler knew about great-uncle Heinrich, the Nazi chief, but then she unearthed dark truths about 'innocent' relatives.
For teenage girls to be embarrassed by older members of their family is nothing new. For 15-year-old Katrin, however, it was an experience in another league when her surname suddenly struck one of her classmates during a history lesson.
“Are you related to the Himmler?” she asked.
When Katrin managed to stammer out “Yes”, the rest o
Source: NYT
Jul 8, 2007
Four decades later, many people here still cannot agree on what to call the five nights of gunfire, looting and flames that disemboweled the geographic midsection of this city, leaving 23 people dead, injuring 700, scorching acres of property and causing deep psychic wounds that have yet to fully heal.
To the frightened white residents who later abandoned Newark by the tens of thousands, it was a riot; for the black activists who gained a toehold in City Hall in the years that follo
Source: NYT
Jul 8, 2007
As the Statue of Liberty lurched into sight, Malvina Parnes felt a knot rise in her throat.
It was Aug. 19, 1940, and she was 11, her skinny legs rooted to the heaving deck of the Quanza, a Portuguese cargo ship that 317 passengers had chartered to flee war-torn Europe....
Once in the United States, the Quanza’s refugees scattered wide, though many ended up in New York. But even though they made the life-saving voyage together, few kept in contact.
“We were
Source: NYT
Jul 8, 2007
Until he commuted the 30-month prison sentence of I. Lewis Libby Jr. on Monday, President Bush had said almost nothing about his philosophy in granting clemency while at the White House.
As governor of Texas, though, Mr. Bush discussed and applied a consistent and narrow standard when deciding whether to issue pardons and commutations. And that standard appears to be at odds with his decision in the Libby case.
Mr. Bush explained his clemency philosophy in Texas in his
