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: Sacramento Bee
May 16, 2011
What is Memorial Day? A new poll commissioned by The National WWII Museum reveals the nation is in danger of forgetting. Eighty percent of all Americans confess to having "little" or "some" knowledge of the holiday.
Source: CNN
May 16, 2011
The Sahara Hotel and Casino, a fixture on the Las Vegas Strip since 1952, closes Monday for good.The Sahara was the sixth casino built on the Strip, the Las Vegas Sun reported, and cashed in as Las Vegas grew as a gambling mecca.
Source: BBC News
May 16, 2011
Defeating smallpox has been labelled as one of science's greatest success stories.The disease once killed 30% of those infected, but after a global vaccination campaign it was declared eradicated in 1980.However the variola virus, which causes the infection, is not gone. It exists in two laboratories, one in the US and the other in Russia. The question is about to be asked, once again: should they kill their stocks?
Source: BBC News
May 16, 2011
The Queen is the first British monarch to visit what is today known as the Republic of Ireland in 100 years, but is this a sign of the end of centuries of resentment, asks historian Diarmaid Ferriter.When the Queen's grandfather, King George V, arrived in Dublin in July 1911 he subsequently recorded his "feelings of joy and affection" inspired by the "wonderful reception" he was given by people lining the streets.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
May 15, 2011
A dozen years ago, Alf Seegert was into playing solo video games, and his wife-to-be was feeling left out. "Can't we play something together?" she asked Mr. Seegert, who works today as an assistant professor/lecturer in the University of Utah's English department.
Source: NYT
May 15, 2011
The president needed an increase in the federal debt limit. His partisan adversary, a powerful Ohio congressman, wanted something in return: deep spending cuts.The president was Richard M. Nixon, the congressman was Charles A. Vanik and the year was 1970. Mr. Vanik, a Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, did not win his $6 billion in spending cuts (equivalent to $34 billion today).But Congress raised the debt limit anyway — as it has 78 times since 1960 in what has become a familiar Washington ritual. This spring, the debt limit has become a burden that
Source: BBC News
May 15, 2011
As the Queen prepares for her four-day state visit to Ireland on Tuesday, BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell explores the chequered history between the British monarchy and its neighbour.The relationship between the Crown and Ireland has been one of the longest and most difficult in the history of Britain's monarchy.Indeed attitudes to the Crown have been a defining, sometimes contradictory, and at times almost obsessive feature in the development of the Irish state.
Source: Newsweek
May 15, 2011
Ulan Bator wakes to the racket of construction of new Hiltons and Shangri-Las: girders tearing through the shingly ground, cranes swaying over archipelagoes of nomads’ flat felt yurts. Old men in traditional cerulean kaftans with golden tassels, squinting through the smog, are helped over SUV-crammed roads by their children who sport black designer suits. I meet Ankaa, a sarcastic television stand-up comedian (typical joke: at 60 a Mongolian becomes wise; at 61 he dies).
Source: CBS
May 15, 2011
Robert Gates is the ultimate Washington insider. He joined the CIA in 1966 and, except for a hiatus during the Clinton administration, Gates has held one high-level Washington post after another for decades: CIA director, member of the National Security Council, Deputy National Security Adviser, Secretary of Defense (under both George W. Bush AND Barack Obama!)One fact is obvious: eight U.S. presidents have placed the utmost trust in him.
Source: TV.NZ
May 14, 2011
Some of New Zealand's very last surviving World War Two veterans flew to Greece today to mark the 70th anniversary of the battle for Crete.Nearly 8000 New Zealanders were on the island of Crete when the battle broke out in 1941, after Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion.More than 2000 Kiwi soldiers were taken prisoner and 671 died during the 12-day battle.Bill Bristow, 92, was one of the Kiwi soldiers who were captured. But after one month of imprisonment he managed to escape.
Source: CNN
May 14, 2011
The mob was already waiting for James Zwerg by the time the Greyhound bus eased into the station in Montgomery, Alabama. Zwerg accepted his worst fear: He was going to die today.
Source: NYT
May 14, 2011
In the debate over how to close the budget deficit, President Obama talks often about raising taxes on“millionaires and billionaires,” but his policy prescription is a bit different. He says that federal income taxes should be increased on families making more than $250,000. That seems to be the threshold. Under $250,000, you’re middle class; over it and you’re wealthy.
Source: http://learnourhistory.com
May 14, 2011
Source: CNN.com
May 13, 2011
A frail man sits in chains inside a dank, cold prison cell. He has escaped death before but now realizes that his execution is drawing near.“I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come,” the man –the Apostle Paul - says in the Bible's 2 Timothy. “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
Source: Christian Science Monitor
May 13, 2011
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 13, 2011
The final resting place of the woman said to have posed for the Mona Lisa may have been found. The crypt was discovered after a two week search of an abandoned convent by experts using ground penetrating radar and ancient maps and documents.Professor Silvano Vinceti is leading the hunt for Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo who is widely believed to be the mystery woman behind the 500 year old painting of Mona Lisa.
Source: AP
May 13, 2011
A retired U.S. autoworker who was ruled to have been a guard at a Nazi death camp and convicted in Germany of thousands of counts of being an accessory to murder will be free pending an appeal, and his health may keep him from serving time at all.
Source: CNN
May 13, 2011
From "aha!" moments to "teachable" moments, in 25 years "The Oprah Winfrey Show" has not just become a part of our popular vernacular, it's shaped our culture. Whether you've tuned in each weekday afternoon or preferred to tune her out, "Lady O" has left her mark.Here's our list of the top five ways "Oprah" has changed the way we live.Weighty issuesOver the years, Oprah has chronicled every step of her personal weight struggles. Remember the red wagon full of fat she wheeled onstage?
Source: BBC News
May 13, 2011
Newly released photographs show how a team of World War II experts disrupted Nazi plans to bombard Britain - with the help of 3D glasses like those in modern cinemas.Hitler's deadly V-1 and V-2 missiles were early but effective weapons of mass destruction - unmanned flying bombs which brought terror to southern England.
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
May 13, 2011
On May 13, legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives that would eliminate the Teaching American History (TAH) grants program at the U.S. Department of Education. The bill (H.R. 1891), the “Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act,” would terminate 43 K-12 federal education programs the House Republican leadership contends are wasteful, ineffective and duplicative.
