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: CNN
Nov 9, 2010
Emilio Massera, a former admiral who was part of a military junta that ruled Argentina in the 1970s, died Monday in the hospital where he had been for some time, the state-run Telam news agency reported.
The ex-dictator carried a legacy of being one of the most brutal enforcers during the country's "Dirty War," in which the military government sought to purge leftist factions in the country.
At the time of his death he was not convicted of any charges, though
Source: CNN
Nov 9, 2010
The fields are being harvested and burned. A crumbled shack from the "quarters," once home to slaves, then sharecroppers, still stands amid overgrown trees and weeds.
This is home to some of the great characters of American literature, from books such as "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "A Gathering of Old Men." To author Ernest Gaines, it's his home and the home of "my early heroes" -- the aunt who raised him, his brothers, his ne
Source: CNN.com
Nov 9, 2010
(CNN) -- After staying largely mum on the political scene since leaving office almost two years ago, former President George W. Bush will reveal his thoughts on the most historic -- and controversial -- parts of his presidency with the release of his memoir Tuesday.
In the 481-page book, Bush shares his thoughts on the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina and what he calls the "worst moment" of his presidency.
The 43rd president also takes responsibility for giving
Source: National Geographic News
Nov 8, 2010
...As in cities today, the earliest towns helped expose their inhabitants to inordinate opportunities for infection—and today their descendants are stronger for it, a new study says.
It's basic evolutionary theory: People who survive infection stand a better chance of having children and passing along disease-resistant genes. So groups from regions where urbanization has existed for thousands of years should be more disease resistant.
The trick was finding proof.
Source: NYT
Nov 8, 2010
The images have been scattered about in dusty and moldy warehouses, relics of the pre-Internet age when photography was integral to selling music, and the photographers — names like Irving Penn, Annie Leibovitz, Lee Friedlander and Robert Mapplethorpe — went on to become nearly as famous as the subjects they captured and defined.
“Every day is like, what am I going to find today?” said Grayson Dantzic, the archivist for Atlantic Records in New York. With colleagues at Warner Music G
Source: NYT
Nov 8, 2010
BAIKALSK, Russia — When the aging paper mill in this Siberian town is transforming logs into rolls of cardboard that resemble giant thread spools, Eduard Merkulov not only has a paycheck but also faith in the future. Maybe there is a place in the new Russia for a middle-aged laborer like him, calloused hands and all.
His wife, brother-in-law and many of his neighbors also work there, and feel the same way. “There is nothing else here,” Mr. Merkulov said. “Without the factory, I don’
Source: The Atlantic
Nov 8, 2010
Fifty years ago today, John F. Kennedy won election to the White House, beating Richard Nixon by one-tenth of one percent. The youngest person and only Catholic ever elected president, Kennedy captured the imagination of Americans with this dashing good looks and beautiful wife, Jackie. While his 1,000 days in office are well-documented, Life magazine has just released never-before-published photos that cover the campaign of 1960....
Source: AP
Nov 8, 2010
Nearly a dozen sculptures considered by the Nazis to be "degenerate" artwork and believed to have been lost or destroyed after World War II have been unearthed during construction near Berlin's city hall and were shown to reporters Monday.
The terra-cotta and bronze statues were found during a dig to lay down a new subway line. They belonged to a collection of 15,000 works condemned by Hitler's regime for containing "deviant" sexual elements, anti-nationalistic t
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Nov 8, 2010
For 66 years, the brave young Spitfire pilot’s final resting place had been a mystery.
Flight Lieutenant Henry Lacy Smith was shot down by the Germans five days after D-Day on a mission supporting the Allied invasion in Normandy.
His last radio message to comrades was: ‘I’m going to put this thing down in a field.’
But the Australian’s plane then nose-dived into the sea and he was designated ‘missing believed killed’.
Now, however, the puzzle has be
Source: Bloomberg
Nov 8, 2010
Eleven sculptures by artists condemned as “degenerate” by the Nazis were unearthed from World War II rubble near Berlin’s city hall, where building is about to start on a new underground train line.
The sculptures, including bronzes by Edwin Scharff, Marg Moll and Karl Knappe, survived both the vilification of the Nazis and Allied fire-bombing in the war. The last objects in the trove were unearthed at the end of last month in excavations aimed at finding remnants of medieval histor
Source: BBC
Nov 8, 2010
The discovery of artefacts during gas mains excavations in Monmouth has helped illustrate how the River Wye supported a Stone Age camp.
Archaeologists found flint tools and bone fragments at St James's Square and Wyebridge Street.
They indicate hunter-gatherers used the River Wye for food and transport some 6,500 to 7,500 years ago.
The late Mesolithic items show there were settlers in the area thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Source: BBC
Nov 8, 2010
She was an aristocrat and an eccentric who greeted guests with a cockatoo on her shoulder.
Lady Mairi Bury of Mount Stewart, County Down, who died last year, was a colourful character who piloted her first plane aged 11 and her last at 85.
She was a close friend of politicians like Harold Macmillan. She was also one of the UK's greatest stamp collectors.
Her collection is expected to raise £2.6m at auction in Sotheby's, London, on 24 - 26 November.
Source: BBC
Nov 8, 2010
The family of a man who was hanged for murder in Bristol are planning to give him a proper burial, more than 180 years after he died.
Mary Halliwell, from Leigh in Greater Manchester, was researching her family tree on the internet when she discovered she was related to John Horwood - the first man to be publicly hanged at Bristol's New Gaol in 1821.
He was the brother of Mrs Halliwell's great-great-great grandfather and lived in the village of Hanham near Bristol.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 8, 2010
George W Bush's opposition to abortion was cemented after his mother Barbara showed him a dead foetus in a jar after she had suffered a miscarriage, the former president has disclosed in an interview.
Mr Bush said that his mother, the one-time US First Lady, showed her the jar when he was a teenager.
Mr Bush is beginning a media blitz in an attempt to rehabilitate his image – his approval rating when leaving office was 25 per cent. As well as the Lauer interview, he i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 8, 2010
The Natural History Museum has been warned that a forthcoming trip to find hundreds of new species in the remote forests of Paraguay could risk the lives of indigenous people and the scientists.
The 100-strong expedition, one of the largest undertaken by the museum in the last 50 years, is due to set off in the next few days to explore one of the most unknown regions of the world for one month.
However the museum has been warned by campaigners that the trip could cause
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 8, 2010
Nazis dropped propaganda leaflets on British soldiers telling them their wives were sleeping with Americans - complete with cartoons depicting their inidelity - it has emerged.
The German propaganda material was dropped above the British lines in Europe during the Second World War in a last ditch attempt to get the Allies to surrender.
They documents stated: "You are fighting and dying far away from your country while the Yanks ... have got loads of money and loads
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 8, 2010
A new show at the British Museum brings us face to face with our darkest imaginings, says Richard Dorment.
Most of us learnt about Egyptian burial practices at school – how the mummified corpse was entombed along with food, wine, furniture, bowls and eating utensils to stave off hunger, thirst, and boredom in the afterlife. I have to admit that even as a 12-year-old I found the Egyptian practice of taking everyday objects with them into the hereafter lacking imagination. If you need
Source: Live Science
Nov 8, 2010
Could beer have helped lead to the rise of civilization? It's a possibility, some archaeologists say.
Their argument is that Stone Age farmers were domesticating cereals not so much to fill their stomachs but to lighten their heads, by turning the grains into beer. That has been their take for more than 50 years, and now one archaeologist says the evidence is getting stronger.
Signs that people went to great lengths to obtain grains despite the hard work needed to make
Source: CNN
Nov 8, 2010
November 8, 2010, marks the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's election as the 35th president of the United States. During his campaign for the Oval Office, LIFE magazine dispatched some of its best photographers to follow the candidate, taking thousands of photos in the months leading up to his election. Below are some of these previously unpublished photos of Kennedy from the larger photo gallery at LIFE.com...
Source: BBC News
Nov 8, 2010
George W Bush had a falling-out with Dick Cheney over Mr Bush's refusal to pardon the vice-president's top aide in a spy-outing scandal, Mr Bush has said.
Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction in a probe into the leaking of CIA spy Valerie Plame's identity.
Mr Bush told NBC News his decision at the end of his presidency merely to spare Libby a prison sentence rather than pardon him angered Mr Cheney.
But, in a interview to promote a book, he said t
