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
Nov 25, 2012
Obelisks that stood upright for generations at Green-Wood Cemetery, perpetuating the memories of the Strong and Hallett and Wallace families, hit the ground at crazy angles. The angel guarding the Lloyd family plot lost its head, an arm and the tip of its wing. The headstone of an 18-year-old boy, overturned by a falling pin oak, rests upside down beside its pedestal. “Thy will be done,” it says.Hurricane Sandy ran roughly through cemeteries around New York City, but it devastated Green-Wood in Brooklyn, a designated National Historic Landmark. High winds destroyed or badly damaged at least 292 of the mature trees that lend so much beauty to the picturesque grounds — oak, maple, beech, linden, pine, tulip, cherry and Bradford pear.Because many trees and branches remain where they fell on Oct. 29, cemetery officials have not had the chance to assess how many monuments, headstones and ornamental fences were crushed, shattered or overturned. Certainly, dozens were damaged...
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 25, 2012
If you’re feeling washed out, fed up or downright lousy, World War One is to blame.New research has shown how the conflict meant that hundreds of words and phrases came into common parlance thanks to the trenches.Among the list of everyday terms found to have originated or spread from the conflict are cushy, snapshot, bloke, wash out, conk out, blind spot, binge drink and pushing up daisies.The research has been conducted by Peter Doyle, a military historian, and Julian Walker, an etymologist, who have analysed thousands of documents from the period — including letters from the front, trench newspapers, diaries, books and official military records - to trace how language changed during the four years of the war....
Source: NYT
Nov 24, 2012
Before 1917, senators could delay final votes on legislation by holding the floor and talking. There was no mechanism to stop them, but such filibusters were rare until the debates surrounding entry into World War I. In 1917, the Senate adopted its first “cloture” rule: two-thirds of the Senate could cut off debate on a bill and force a final vote. Between 1917 and 1971, no session of Congress had more than 10 such votes in its two years. Still, filibusters were common enough that in 1971, Mr. Byrd, a master of Senate procedure, shifted the rules to allow the Senate to take up other legislation during a filibuster. That change began an escalation of tactics, in which both delays and attempts at circumventing delays have become more common, with one often leading to more of another. Moves by the minority to obstruct bills elicited responses from the majority worsening the environment. In the 93rd Senate, which met in 1973 and 1974, the number of cloture motions filed — a rough measure of filibuster threats — jumped to 31, from an average of fewer than two per Congressional term between 1917 and 1970. Throughout much of the next two decades, cloture votes continued to rise, regardless of which party was in the minority, with many such motions filed in anticipation of filibusters.
Source: WaPo
Nov 24, 2012
LONDON — Tyrant or hero? Rightful monarch or child-killer? Despotic hunchback or brave scoliosis sufferer? Now is the winter of our debate over one of England’s most notorious villains: Richard III.Underneath a drab parking lot 90 miles northwest of London, archaeologists have unearthed what may become one of this nation’s finds of the century — half-a-millennium-old bones thought to be the remains of the long-lost monarch. But if the discovery has touched off a feverish round of DNA tests against his closest living descendants, it has also lurched to the surface a series of burning questions in a country where even arcane points of history are disputed with the gusto of modern-day politics.What was the true nature of a king famously depicted by William Shakespeare as a twisted soul who locked his young nephews — and rivals to the throne — in the Tower of London, never to be heard from again? Did Shakespeare offer a fair accounting of historical record, or was the Bard the Karl Rove of his day, a spin doctor for the House of Tudor that assumed power after the monarch fell with fateful cries of “Treason!” at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485?...
Source: WaPo
Nov 24, 2012
BELLO, Colombia — They were committed evangelicals, devoted to Jesus Christ.But what some here called a spark, an inescapable pull of their ancestors, led them in a different direction, to Judaism. There were the grandparents who wouldn’t eat pork, the fragments of a Jewish tongue from medieval Spain that spiced up the language, and puzzling family rituals such as the lighting of candles on Friday nights.So, after a spiritual journey that began a decade ago, dozens of families that had once belonged to a fire-and-brimstone church became Jews, converting with the help of rabbis from Miami and Jerusalem. Though unusual in one of the most Catholic of nations, the small community in Bello joined a worldwide movement in which the descendants of Jews forced from Spain more than 500 years ago are discovering and embracing their Jewish heritage....
Source: Discovery News
Nov 22, 2012
Italian researchers have exhumed the tomb of Giovanni de' Medici, one of the most celebrated condottieri (mercenary soldiers) of the Renaissance, in a bid to understand the life and death of the charismatic 16th century army commander.Also known as "Giovanni dalle Bande Nere" for the black bands of mourning he wore after the death of Pope Leo X, this member of one of the lesser branches of the wealthy Florentine Medici family is buried in the Medici Chapels in Flo rence with his wife, Maria Salviati.The couple married in 1516, when she was 17 and he was 18. The marriage produced only one child: Cosimo I, who reigned as the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, creating the Uffizi and the magnificent Boboli Gardens as well as finishing the Pitti Palace....
Source: Kansas City Star
Nov 22, 2012
Last month, a visitor delivered a small plastic bag containing several tree seeds to the Truman Library in Independence.The seeds had fallen from trees, still standing, that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Clifton Truman Daniel, eldest grandson of former president Harry Truman, had been presented them this summer in Japan.Library officials hope to plant the seeds in Powell Gardens and -- when saplings are sufficiently mature -- transplant them to the library grounds....Read morhere: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/22/3930473/truman-grandson-plants-seeds-of.html#storylink=cpy..
Source: NYT
Nov 22, 2012
LECOMPTON, Kan.
Source: Archaeo News
Nov 21, 2012
A Bronze Age monument has been commemorated in Britain after a long-running campaign. The 4,000-year-old Quernhow burial mound, which was obliterated by the upgrading of the A1(M) motorway, has been marked with a plaque and stone by the Quernhow Café, near Ainderby Quernhow, by the British Highways Agency. Archaeologists say the site was "of primary importance in prehistoric times" as it stood on the plain between the three great henges of Thornborough to the north and those on Hutton Moor to the south, accompanied by a number of other tumuli nearby.When it was unearthed in the 1950s, archaeologists found an imposing flat-topped stone cairn with four small pits in its centre, a number of small cremations and broken remains of pottery, human bones and foods vessels. Near the centre of the cairn, which was initially damaged by roadworks in the 1950s, was a 'curious four poster' of upright stones placed near to its north, south, east and west points....
Source: NYT
Nov 21, 2012
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Four decades after American warplanes carpet-bombed this impoverished country, an American president came to visit for the first time. He came not to defend the past, nor to apologize for it. In fact, he made no public mention of it whatsoever.President Obama’s visit to a country deeply scarred by its involvement with the United States did nothing to purge the ghosts or even address them. Mr. Obama made clear he came only because Cambodia happened to be the site for a summit meeting of Asian leaders, but given the current government’s human rights record, he was intent on avoiding much interaction with the host.“How are you?” Mr. Obama asked Prime Minister Hun Sen when he showed up, unsmiling, for a meeting made necessary by protocol. “Good to see you.”
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 20, 2012
The men on board the 1901-04 Discovery expedition were forced to endure freezing temperatures, 24-hour stretches of darkness and risked cabin fever after becoming stuck in the ice.They were hailed for their “heroic” dedication to exploration, with the scientific research into the harsh and largely untouched continent launching Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton to prominence.It now appears the inhospitable conditions were made a little easier by the ship’s library, which included two books by children’s author Lewis Carroll.The 1889 story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and 1901’s Through the Looking Glass are now known to have nestled among the more serious scientific and navigational tomes on the mess deck....
Source: WaPo
Nov 20, 2012
“The first real Thanksgiving was near here,” said Ailsa Firstenberg, a 16-year-old junior interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, not far from the James River and the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.Since she was 11 years old, Ailsa has put on a colonial costume to volunteer helping kids and their families get a better picture of America’s earliest days. It’s part of visiting historic Williamsburg and Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in what would become the United States, established on May 14, 1607....Many people think the first Thanksgiving happened in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1621 to celebrate a successful harvest. But Williamsburg historian Taylor Stoermer says settler communities in what was then called the New World often had celebrations to give thanks. Records show that Spanish conquistadors had religious Thanksgiving services at San Elizario, Texas, in 1598.And on Dec. 4, 1619, 38 settlers from England survived a storm to find land on the James River. The settlers were so glad to have survived the storm and at last be in Virginia, that ship’s captain, John Woodleaf, decreed Dec. 4 a day for giving thanks in the New World, Stoermer says....
Source: WaPo
Nov 20, 2012
NAIROBI, Kenya — History is repeating itself yet again in eastern Congo. Rebels supported by Rwanda are on the march. Civilians are fleeing. And higher powers appear to be taking sides.Congo and Rwanda have been at this stage before. First in 1996, then in 1998. Also in 2004 and 2008. The first two conflicts had their roots in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, but now the fighting is mostly over mineral wealth — including minerals used in the world’s smart phones and laptops....Rwanda’s 1996 and 1998 incursions into Congo were driven by Rwanda’s troubled ethnic past. Rwanda justified the invasions on the basis that its security was being threatened by a rebel group called the FDLR, a group of ethnic Hutus. Extremist Hutus killed more than 500,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the country’s 1994 genocide. But the FDLR today is nowhere near as powerful as it once was, and the Hutu threat is not such a concern to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a Tutsi....
Source: Huffington Post
Nov 19, 2012
MADISON, Wis. — Newly declassified documents show the FBI kept close tabs on Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's only daughter after her high profile defection to the United States in 1967, gathering details from informants about how her arrival was affecting international relations.The documents were released Monday to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act following Lana Peters' death last year at age 85 in a Wisconsin nursing home. Her defection to the West during the Cold War embarrassed the ruling communists and made her a best-selling author. And her move was a public relations coup for the U.S.One April 28, 1967, memo details a conversation with a confidential source who said the defection would have a "profound effect" for anyone else thinking of trying to leave the Soviet Union. The source claimed to have discussed the defection with a Czechoslovak journalist covering the United Nations and a member of the Czechoslovakia "Mission staff."...
Source: Huffington Post
Nov 19, 2012
BISHOP, Calif. — Rock carvings that graced a sacred American Indian site in California's Sierra Nevada for thousands of years have fallen prey to modern thieves armed with power saws.At least four petroglyphs – some 2 feet wide and located 15 feet above the ground – were hacked from lava cliffs in the Eastern Sierra, the Los Angeles Times ( ) reported Sunday. http://lat.ms/Q3YdXQVisitors to the area, known as Volcanic Tableland, discovered the theft and reported it to the federal Bureau of Land Management on Oct. 31."This was the worst act of vandalism ever seen" on the 750,000 acres of public land administered by the BLM field office in Bishop, BLM archaeologist Greg Haverstock told the newspaper....
Source: WaPo
Nov 19, 2012
RICHMOND, Va. — The Civil War Trust has teamed up with the state to complete a $3.2 million campaign protecting 285 acres at Gaines’ Mill, where Gen. Robert E. Lee had his first major victory as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.The preservation greatly expands the number of protected acres at Gaines’ Mill, the bloodiest chapter in the Seven Days’ Battles, making it a “monumental achievement” in the trust’s history, president James Lighthizer said....
Source: AP
Nov 19, 2012
GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Two-time Academy Award winning director Steven Spielberg expressed a sense of humility Monday as he delivered the keynote address during ceremonies to mark the 149th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”“I’ve never stood anyplace on earth where it’s easier to be humbled than here,” said Spielberg, whose biopic about the 16th president is currently in theaters.His remarks were made at the annual event at the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg, near the site where Lincoln gave the famous oration amid the American Civil War in 1863, four months after the battle in which the Union turned back an invasion of the North by Confederate troops under Gen. Robert E. Lee....Related LinksHNN Hot Topics: "Lincoln": The Movie
Source: WaPo
Nov 19, 2012
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in an interview that he isn’t certain what the age of the earth is, and that parents should be able to teach their kids both scientific and religious attempts to answer the question.“I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States,” Rubio told GQ. “I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that.”...
Source: MinnPost
Nov 19, 2012
The meeting was billed as a “visioning workshop” for Minneapolis residents interested in finding out what a Historic Conservation District might do for their neighborhoods. But before they got down to the business of “visioning,” they got a crash course in the difference between “Historic Conservation” and “Historic Preservation” districts from city planner John Smoley, who has a Ph.D. after his name.In Historic Preservation, Smoley explained, the building materials are as important at the total structure. This means that if the house you own in a Historic Preservation District needs new windows, you can’t just go to Home Depot and buy some that resemble the originals. The rules would require that materials, design and craftsmanship match the originals.He likened this process to restoring an autographed Babe Ruth baseball by replacing the old leather and stitching with new stuff and then duplicating the signature. The restored baseball might look great, but it is no longer historic or valuable — it’s just a baseball....
Source: NYT
Nov 18, 2012
John and Yoko are there, talking for hours and hours — during a bed-in, at a “happening,” listening to the Beatles at home....Eric Clapton, between shows at the Fillmore East in 1970, struggles with a sense of responsibility for his new band, Derek and the Dominos.Those are among more than 100 interviews with rock stars, artists and assorted radicals recorded from 1969 to 1972 by Howard Smith, a longtime writer for The Village Voice. They have now been cataloged and packaged for the digital era as “The Smith Tapes” and will be released in monthly batches over the next year. The first, with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, Frank Zappa, Mr. Clapton and others, comes out Tuesday through Amazon’s MP3 store and next week on iTunes....
