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: Jewish Chronicle
Mar 3, 2011
Each February, Gilbert Michlin invites fellow survivors and their spouses to his birthday party at his home in Paris. Before making a l'chaim, Mr Michlin remembers how, two days before his 18th birthday in 1944, he was deported from Paris and sent to a slave-labour sub-camp of Auschwitz.
This year, Mr Michlin turned 85. For decades, he has been asking: why did Siemens keep him and 87 other slave labourers alive? What happened to the other men who worked for Siemens, in the heart of
Source: Charlotte Observer
Mar 3, 2011
What do you get if you tell middle schoolers about the Holocaust, an event that happened long before their parents were born? Shock. Horror. Disbelief that any government democratically elected to power could exterminate 11 million people living under its control.
What do you get if you don't tell middle schoolers about the Holocaust? Maybe, someday, another one. As philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Source: BBC
Mar 3, 2011
The British man believed to be the last surviving combat veteran of World War I is celebrating his 110th birthday.
He emigrated to Australia before World War II, and now lives in a nursing home in Perth.
Raised by his father, young Claude wanted to be a bugler in the Army and tried to lie about his age so that he could be recruited.
When he failed, his father got him onto a Royal Navy training ship instead and he joined up in 1916 at the age of 14.
Source: MoreIntelligentLife.com
Mar 3, 2011
The little monkey had a happy life in Africa—eating bananas, swinging on vines. When he was captured, by a man in a yellow hat, his distress was written on his face. He gaped at his body, clearly shocked to find it trapped in a brown sack, winched at the neck. But the little monkey quickly recovered his equanimity. By the time he boarded the rowboat, he was sad to be leaving Africa, but a little curious, too.
Thus began the adventures of Curious George, one of the most popular and e
Source: WaPo
Mar 3, 2011
The National Gallery of Art has acquired a key landscape of the untamed American West, its third painting by the celebrated 19th century artist Thomas Moran.
"Green River Cliffs,Wyoming," painted in 1881 and one of the artist's most famous paintings, has been added to the collection, the gallery announced.
The painting, a dramatic sweeping view of the West's natural wonders, was installed late Thursday outside the American galleries on the main floor o
Source: National Journal
Mar 3, 2011
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, wants to honor Frank Buckles -- the last surviving World War I veteran until his death on Sunday at age 110 –- in a special ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, but not in the Capitol, as suggested by some other lawmakers.
Boehner's office said the speaker had no plans to allow Buckles’ body to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, as some lawmakers from Buckles’ home state of West Virginia have proposed.
“The speaker intends
Source: NYT
Mar 3, 2011
No institution is more scrupulously attentive to baseball’s history and traditions than the Hall of Fame. For baseball fans, a trip to the Cooperstown, N.Y., shrine is like a pilgrimage to a holy place — Lourdes, say, for Roman Catholics or Ditka’s downtown restaurant for aspiring Chicago tough guys.
No one doubts the Hall’s good intentions as a guardian of the game, and yet it rarely makes a move (or declines to make one) that doesn’t ignite controversy.
Somehow, Buck
Source: Salon
Mar 3, 2011
The University of Virginia has acquired a rare first edition of an 1829 anti-slavery manifesto that was considered a rallying cry for black Americans and a major threat to Southern leaders, who worked vigorously to ban it.
The copy of abolitionist David Walker's "Appeal in Four Articles; Together With a Preamble to the Coloured Citizens of the World, But in Particular, and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America" is one of seven known to still exist. The pa
Source: Guardian (UK)
Mar 3, 2011
Not "O Hamlet" but O'Hamlet: Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark, according to literary research, derives his peculiar name from ancient Irish origins.
The identity of the Prince of Denmark has fascinated scholars for centuries, with disputes about the name's Jutish, Icelandic or Latin etymology jostling for academic pre-eminence.
Now Dr Lisa Collinson, a medieval Scandinavian expert at Aberdeen University, has published research which traces the unusual word to a
Source: National Parks Traveler
Mar 3, 2011
If you have even a passing interest in archeology, the upcoming Archeology Day at Grand Canyon National Park on Saturday, March 19 will be a great chance for some hands-on activities and learning opportunities.
Who were the people who lived in and around the Grand Canyon centuries ago, and how did they live? What do archeologists really do to solve those mysteries, and what have they learned? Archeology Day is intended to help park visitors answer those questions—and have fun in the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 3, 2011
Irish traveller John Maughan snatched the 313-year-old instrument from South Korean-born violinist Min-Jin Kym as she stopped to buy a sandwich at London’s Euston railway station.
Despite researching the violin online, Maughan, 40, and his two teenage accomplices were so ignorant of its value that they offered it to a stranger in an internet café for just £100.
But the man turned down the offer claiming that his daughter already owned a recorder, Blackfriars Crown Court
Source: CNN
Mar 3, 2011
The fate of famed aviator Amelia Earhart remains a mystery after DNA tests on one of three bone fragments discovered on a Pacific island proved inconclusive.
Cecil M. Lewis Jr. of the University of Oklahoma's Molecular Anthropology Laboratories reported "the question of whether the bone is human must remain unanswered" until new technologies may make a determination possible.
The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) asked Lewis to test t
Source: CNN
Mar 3, 2011
A California state panel on Wednesday denied parole for Sirhan B. Sirhan, saying the convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy hasn't demonstrated an understanding of the "magnitude" of his crimes.
Commissioner Mike Prizmich of the California Board of Parole Hearings told Sirhan that he failed to meet the state's criteria for suitability for parole and added that he failed to seek self-help program and his behavoir was immature.
In response, Sirhan sought to int
Source: CNN.com
Mar 2, 2011
Feared lost forever, 20 ancient ivory artifacts looted from Afghanistan's national museum were presented to the country's president, Hamid Karzai, in London Tuesday.
The 2,000-year-old artifacts are the latest additions to the internationally acclaimed exhibition "Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World," which starts its UK run at the British Museum this week.
Stolen during Afghanistan's civil war between 1992 and 1994, the ivory inlays were once part of
Source: Yahoo News
Mar 2, 2011
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A new edition of one the most popular English-language Bibles will offer substitutes for words such as "booty" and "holocaust" to better reflect modern understanding, a Catholic group said on Wednesday.
Nearly 50 scholars from all faiths and a committee of Roman Catholic bishops have labored since 1994 over the first fresh edition of the New American Bible since 1970, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.
The annual best-s
Source: NYT
Mar 2, 2011
The regime of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has been badly undermined, but he retains enough support among critical tribes and institutions, including parts of the army and the air force, that he might be able to retain power in the capital, Tripoli, for some time to come, say experts on Libya and its military.
They caution that the situation on the ground is both fluid and confusing. But they emphasize that tribal loyalties remain an important indicator, and that the
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Mar 2, 2011
Many people will have had bad experiences with postal delivery in the past, but it's unlikely any of us will ever have to wait as long for a letter as one American lady has.
A World War II-era letter addressed to a woman at a Red Cross hospital in California has been delivered 66 years after was sent in Alabama.
The letter, postmarked August 9, 1944, only arrived last month, on February 16.
It is addressed to Miss R.T. Fletcher, American Red Cross Station H
Source: Fox News
Mar 2, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ, tackling one of the most controversial issues in Christianity in a new book.
In "Jesus of Nazareth-Part II" excerpts released Wednesday, Benedict explains biblically and theologically why there is no basis in Scripture for the argument that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus' death.
Interpretations to the contrary have been used for centur
Source: WaPo
Mar 2, 2011
MOSCOW -- Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded Russia's highest medal on his 80th birthday Wednesday, a belated tribute from the homeland where many blame him for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Gorbachev during a meeting that he would be awarded the Order of St. Andrew for his service as the last Soviet leader. Medvedev said leading the Soviet Union during a "very complex, dramatic period" was a tough job.
"It can b
Source: NYT
Mar 2, 2011
PARIS — The regime of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has been badly undermined, but he retains enough support among critical tribes and institutions, including parts of the army and the air force, that he might be able to retain power in the capital, Tripoli, for some time to come, say experts on Libya and its military.
They caution that the situation on the ground is both fluid and confusing. But they emphasize that tribal loyalties remain an important indicator, and
