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
Jan 21, 2006
The discussion was supposed to be about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 for espionage and have haunted the artistic imagination ever since. But their conversation, sponsored by Fordham Law School and presented Thursday night at the Park Cafe in the Time Warner Center before an audience of about 200 people, soon moved from the Rosenberg trial to more timely issues. "Do artists worry about getting it right at all?" asked Thane Rosenbaum, a novelist and law professor
Source: NYT
Jan 21, 2006
During Tuesday's episode of the ABC show, starring Geena Davis as the first female president, the White House tried to resolve an international crisis precipitated when an American military submarine was damaged and stranded off North Korea. President Allen (Ms. Davis) and her husband-adviser (Kyle Secor) consulted with a friend who is an expert on Korea. That character, played by Robert Harper, was named Owen Latimer. In 1950, Owen Lattimore, an Asia expert and professor at
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jan 21, 2006
Hugo Duarte's "Hollywood," a song inspired when he was locked in Hollywood Cemetery near the grave of Confederate Gen. George E. Pickett, was about to come full circle. Duarte will sing it today with Pickett, the great-great-great-nephew of the general.Moreover, they'll sing it at the place where it was inspired, Pickett's grave.
An 11:30 a.m. graveside ceremony, open to the public, will mark Pickett's 181st birthday. In addition to "H
Source: NYT
Jan 21, 2006
Come spring, the Winchester rifle, immortalized as the gun that won the West and rode into the sunset with John Wayne, will be made in Portugal and Japan.The U.S. Repeating Arms Company, which has manufactured rifles and shotguns in New Haven since 1866, is set to shut its doors on March 31. About 200 people will lose their jobs, many having worked for decades on the plant's assembly line.
Workers were told of the decision to close the plant this month aft
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan 21, 2006
GEORGIA Dennis Blanton, the recently appointed curator of of Fernbank Museum of Natural History, says he is eager to create a permanent exhibit that will give Georgians a better understanding of their regional history, a story that does not begin with the arrival of the English.One historian thinks the paradigm shift could not come at a better time.
"So far, the collective consciousness of Georgians has not extended to include the influen
Source: Monterey Herald
Jan 20, 2006
Heirs of Armenians killed 91 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire sued Deutsche Bank A.G. and Dresdner Bank A.G. on Friday, claiming the German banks owe them millions of dollars and other assets deposited by their ancestors.The class-action lawsuit was filed in Superior Court on behalf of seven Armenians living in Southern California. It is the latest bid by Armenians in the United States to recover assets they believe belonged to some 1.5 million Armenians who perished
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Jan 20, 2006
One year from now, the United States of America plans to throw itself a year-long party, dubbed Jamestown 2007: America's 400th Anniversary. But first, it must find a way to tell the story of three very different groups of people who converged on the shores of that small bay in 1607, and carved a nation out of the wilderness.For some, Jamestown symbolized the taming of a new world by brave men and women, but for Virginia Indians, it meant the destruction of 90 pe
Source: NYT
Jan 20, 2006
BERLIN Parliament rejected a last-minute attempt to save what is left of the Palace of the Republic in Berlin, the home of the East German Parliament, and demolition is now expected to begin next month. The fate of the building - a huge steel-and-concrete complex with bronze-colored windows that opened in 1976 and also housed a concert hall - has divided Berliners for more than a decade. After German reunification in 1990, the building was closed, and it was gutted after asb
Source: Independent (South Africa)
Jan 20, 2006
Archaeologists said Friday they have spied what appears to be the roof of another tomb in a 3000-year-old necropolis, the latest discovery about a little-known, hut-dwelling people who preceded the legendary founders of Rome by some three centuries.Archaeologist Alessandro Delfino said the roof is just meters away from a tomb he discovered and dug up on Thursday that appears to date to about 1 000 BC. The location was under Caesar's Forum, which is part of the sprawlin
Source: Chicago Tribune
Jan 20, 2006
No Child Left Behind was supposed to ensure that unqualified teachers either got the additional training they needed or got out of the classroom.
But new state regulations adopted Thursday allow veteran teachers previously considered unqualified under the law to suddenly become qualified--simply by digging up proof of past seminars attended, trips taken abroad or educational articles published decades ago.The story is much the same across the country, wher
Source: WHAS11 Kentucky
Jan 20, 2006
Letters written by early presidents, a famous explorer, and the Confederacy’s leader will be returned soon to the Filson Historical Society, and the 70-year-old history buff who admitted pilfering them is facing possible prison time. Donald Eckard Sr. of Louisville pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to eight felony counts of art theft. He admitted that on four visits to the Filson Society, he stole the eight letters—the oldest of which were penned by Thomas Je
Source: Wa Po
Jan 20, 2006
More than a decade and $21 million after it began, the final and longest-running independent counsel investigation in U.S. history ended yesterday with allegations from the prosecutor that "a coverup at high levels of our government" prevented him from bringing further charges in the case of Henry G. Cisneros, former secretary of housing and urban development.In a 474-page report, independent counsel David M. Barrett conceded that he was "not able to say with
Source: dcmilitary.com
Jan 19, 2006
Scientists working with the Naval Historical Center (NHC) to try to solve the mystery of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley's disappearance in 1864, stumbled onto yet another mystery in December. A view port on the left front side of the submarine is completely missing, possibly a catastrophic result of the Hunley's historic battle with the Housatonic.
Some have speculated Sailors aboard Housatonic may have shot out the view port, causing the submarine
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Jan 19, 2006
An independent alumni group formed by 24 year old Andrew Jones to attack "radicalism" at the University of California at Los Angeles has offered $100 prizes to any student who turns over extensive documentation of cases in which professors show political bias in the classroom.
David Horowitz said that while he objects to professors' injecting their politics into their teaching, Mr. Jones's approach of "baiting people" is wrong. Furthermore, he said, Mr. Jones us
Source: Manan Ahmed at HNN's Cliopatria Blog
Jan 19, 2006
The enterprising scholars at American University Cairo thought it worthwhile to poll M.E. professors [and sundries] on the "most interesting, informative and readable" books in the field of Modern Middle East Studies. 52 scholars of the M.E. responded and below is the top 21. Orientalism by Edward Said 1978
Source: BBC News
Jan 19, 2006
Scientists at Dundee University have helped to recreate the face of a man dubbed the Iron Age David Beckham because of evidence he gelled his hair. Clonycavan Man, named after the area he was found, was one of two bodies discovered in a peat bog in the Republic of Ireland in 2003. The chemical composition of the peat mummified the body, enabling scientists to recreate his face.
Source: BBC News
Jan 19, 2006
Archaeologist Dorothy King, who breaks the mould of the dusty academic, is an outspoken critic of Greek demands to take back the Elgin Marbles from the UK.
Her stance - that a loan might be possible one day - is not what those who want the Marbles to stay in London want to hear. "I think a lot of the people who want them to stay are not happy because they thought I'd be firmer," she says.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Jan 19, 2006
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS, amid changes meant to make it financially self-sustaining, put nearly 900 titles on a list of discontinued books last summer. Authors of some of those books say that they were not contacted and that contractual obligations leave their works in limbo.
Two historians whose books are in limbo are frustrated. In October 2002 the Smithsonian Institution Press released Picturing the Past: Illustrated Histories and the American Imagi
Source: Yahoo News
Jan 19, 2006
Sleek skyscrapers dominate this city's skyline, but the squat old water tanks nestled between them are the latest rescue mission for preservation groups.
After the Great Fire of 1871, hundreds of the wooden tanks were installed atop commercial and apartment buildings to guarantee a supply of water for firefighting. Mechanized pumps made them obsolete, and only about 130 are in use.Jonathan Fine, president of Preservation Chicago, a non-profit group, says that when he
Source: NYT
Jan 19, 2006
The publisher and the translator of a new English-language edition of "Night," Elie Wiesel's harrowing account of life in the Nazi death camps, said yesterday that the new edition corrects several small factual errors in the previous translation, including a reference to the author's age when he entered the camps.
Oprah Winfrey's choice of "Night" as the next selection for her television book club on Monday immediately sent the book to the top of national best-se
