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
Sep 6, 2005
Only the wind inhabits the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde in Colorado, birds and vines the pyramids of the Maya. Sand and silence have swallowed the clamors of frankincense traders and camels in the old desert center of Ubar. Troy was buried for centuries before it was uncovered. Parts of the Great Library of Alexandria, center of learning in the ancient world, might be sleeping with the fishes, off Egypt's coast. Nothing lasts forever.
"Cities rise and fall depending on what ma
Source: Boston Globe
Sep 6, 2005
When ordering people to leave New Orleans while Hurricane Katrina lurked in the Gulf of Mexico, state and federal authorities apparently failed to consider that 27.9 percent of the city was below the poverty line and therefore unlikely to have transportation.
The oversight was perhaps more understandable given that society as a whole seemed to have tabled its debate over poor, largely black, inner-city neighborhoods somewhere around two decades ago.
The notion that a disaster
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Sep 6, 2005
The saga of William H. Rehnquist at the US Supreme Court is very much the story of a long-term Republican campaign to conquer an institution that had become a citadel of liberal power in the 1960s.
Now, with the passing of the chief justice on Saturday evening, legal historians and constitutional scholars are assessing the Rehnquist legacy. It is an assessment that began months ago amid speculation of Rehnquist's possible retirement.He is being call
Source: Scotsman
Sep 6, 2005
The beginning of the 19th century was a good time if you were ambitious, male and British. There was money to be made in the Empire for those willing to travel in search of opportunity. Two young Scots, William Jardine and James Matheson set up a company that became hugely successful then and is still flourishing today. They also stand accused of starting the Opium Wars.Born in Dumfriesshire in 1784, Jardine left Scotland after completing his medical degree at th
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Sep 6, 2005
Colleges and universities across the United States are offering admission for the fall semester to undergraduates and graduate students whose hurricane-battered campuses will remain closed for months. And a handful of institutions -- including Cornell University, Vermont's Green Mountain College, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History -- say they will offer temporary positions to faculty members from the affected colleges. At the ve
Source: NYT
Sep 5, 2005
Americans are accustomed to looking at the Depression in black and white. But a more vibrant nation appears in an exhibition of 70 color photographs that opens Thursday at the Library of Congress. Culled from a collection of little-known color images made by photographers from the federal Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information, the prints bring alive everyday rural life between 1939 and 1943.A few photographs from the full cache of 1,602 images
Source: NYT
Sep 5, 2005
After a series of damaging newspaper scandals involving plagiarism in recent years, a new piece of software looks to help editors stop wrongdoers before their articles go to print. The LexisNexis data collection service has introduced CopyGuard, a program aimed at exposing plagiarists or spotting copyright infringement. According to John Barrie, chief executive of iParadigms, the company that developed the program with LexisNexis, CopyGuard can generate a report that calculates the percentage of
Source: NYT
Sep 5, 2005
The trial of Saddam Hussein will begin in six weeks, the government said Sunday, when he and seven aides face a special tribunal on charges of massacring almost 150 residents from the town of Dujail, the scene of a failed assassination attempt against Mr. Hussein 23 years ago.Laith Kubba, a spokesman for the prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said the trial would begin Oct. 19, four days after a national vote on a proposed new constitution. The trial raises the possib
Source: Wall Street Journal
Sep 5, 2005
While storms such as Hurricane Katrina are sometimes called an act of God or a natural disaster, the devastation they leave behind is not. Some scientists believe even the storms themselves could be at least partly man-made.
In New Orleans, the worst-hit parishes were the lower-income ones. But the city also ignored the power of nature. More than 1 million acres of Louisiana's coastal wetlands, or 1,900 square miles, have been lost since 1930, due to development and the construction
Source: AP
Sep 5, 2005
Once, long ago, Revolution Swimming Pool was the place for young residents of Charlotte, North Carolina to see each other and be seen. Later, it became a place of history and controversy as the first municipal pool in the state to admit black customers. Now the revolution has given way to the evolution of a city. The landmark pool will close Monday to make way for a $10 million dollar recreation center.
Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Sep 5, 2005
As the flood waters recede from New Orleans and the city takes up the sad task of counting the dead, historians are trying to account for musical treasures and contemplating whether New Orleans will regain its place as America's pre-eminent city for jazz.
Museum directors are still struggling to calculate the extent of losses. One of the biggest concerns is the state of the collection that was housed at the Old U.S. Mint in the French Quarter. The building's roof was torn off when H
Source: AP
Sep 5, 2005
German saboteurs designed an exploding chocolate bar for a campaign of sabotage against Britain in World War II, according to documents released Monday by the British National Archives. There was no evidence, however, that such lethal treats were ever deployed.The chocolate bomb was illustrated in documents which also explained that it was intended to blow up seven seconds after someone tried to break off a piece. The sketch of the device, labeled in English, was appar
Source: Boston Globe
Sep 5, 2005
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court raised the public consciousness on eminent domain when it permitted New London, Conn., officials to take a group of older homes along the city's waterfront for a private developer who plans to build offices, a hotel and convention center. But there is a long history of state governments assuming control of land for economic benefits. In 1867, New Hampshire's Supreme Court upheld the state's right to take private land for dams to power the mills that were the econo
Source: AP
Sep 5, 2005
Attention John Roberts: William H. Rehnquist's 19-year tenure as chief justice offers some useful lessons on how to be a successful leader of the Supreme Court.
When elevated to that job in 1986, some clerks wondered whether the 62-year-old conservative could lead the court effectively after dissenting in so many of its decisions since he became an associate justice in 1972. But Rehnquist showed little doubt that he could stage a conservative revival on an aging court known for libe
Source: NYT
Sep 5, 2005
President Bush nominated Judge John G. Roberts Jr. today to replace Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, whose death late Saturday opened a second vacancy on the Supreme Court and a new front in the ideological battle over the judiciary.Senate leaders agreed this morning to delay by at least two days the start of Mr. Roberts's confirmation hearing, which had been set to begin on Tuesday, when he was being considered to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Now that Mr. B
Source: NYT
Sep 4, 2005
The hurricane and the flood that followed took their toll on the cultural riches of New Orleans and the cities in its orbit. Museum directors were still struggling to gain a clear picture of the extent of losses, but some collections seem to have been spared, including the core holdings of the New Orleans Museum of Art, one of the most important in the Deep South.
Source: The State (SC)
Sep 4, 2005
His high court rulings affected The Citadel, state death penalty.U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist grew up in Wisconsin, was educated in Massachusetts and California, and raised a family in Arizona.
But his life’s work has had a particular impact on South Carolina people and institutions.
In 1983 Rehnquist cast the single dissenting vote in a case that determined whether Bob Jones University in Greenville, because it segregated stud
Source: Washington Times
Sep 4, 2005
The United Nations this week characterized the cataclysmic storm as one of the world's worst natural disasters in terms of property damage, even outstripping the December tsunami in Asia that killed 180,000 people and caused $10 billion in destruction. "This is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever measured in the amount of homes destroyed, people affected, people displaced," said Jan Egeland, the United Nations' undersecretary-general for humani
Source: China View
Sep 4, 2005
Lien Chan says that only by looking at history correctly can one correctly look into the future. "We can tolerate our past enemies but can never forget them, therefore we must have a correct understanding of history," Lien said in a recent interview with the "Oriental Horizon" of China Central Television. The interview was carried out when China marked the 60th anniversary of the Chinese people's war of resistance against Japanese aggressi
Source: NYT
Sep 4, 2005
"THE first thing I say to them is, your role in this process is that of a bridegroom at a wedding: stay out of the way, be on time and keep your mouth shut."
So said Tom C. Korologos, a former Republican lobbyist and now ambassador to Belgium who has counseled hundreds of presidential nominees, including potential Supreme Court justices. Since July, when he was nominated for the court, Judge John G. Roberts Jr. has adhered literally to Mr. Korologos's prescription. Day after day, he h
