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: Coloradoan
May 15, 2010
Win Schendel remembers what it was like growing
up in Germany during World War II, having little
personal freedom, using a ration card to get food
and being distrustful of anyone.
"I turned in my own father without even knowing it,"
Schendel said.
His father, a doctor, disagreed with the Nazi
ideology and spoke about it at home. Schendel
repeated what he'd heard to Nazi officers while
training with Adolf
Source: Time.com
May 15, 2010
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's undergraduate thesis submitted at Princeton University in 1981, was a detailed history of the rise and fall of New York's Socialist Party in the early 20th Century. It's an impressive work for a young person — and it is sparking questions about the extent to which the young Kagan had embraced left-wing views....
Most of the document is a remarkably clear and cogent account of the deeply tangled and confusing politics that divided the left from the
Source: LA Times
May 14, 2010
A leading Jewish human rights organization says that comparing Arizona's tough new immigration law with Nazi Germany is "inappropriate and irresponsible."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles issued a statement this week expressing its opposition to the Arizona law but denouncing the use of language about the Holocaust, saying there was no need to "demonize opponents, even when they are mistaken, to those whose actions led to history's most notorious crime."
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 14, 2010
Men evolved manly jawlines and thick brows because they used to fight for women in the past, claim anthropologists
anthropologists.
Winning a mate used to depend only on physical prowess and men with the strongest jawline and thickest skulls were better able to survive onslaughts from love rivals.
That meant that over time all men developed thicker bones in the jaws, around the eyes and on the forehead than women.
They also developed a greater propor
Source: The Jakart Globe
May 14, 2010
Given the country’s thousands of sprawling islands, key shipping lanes and bounty of shipwrecks, the government should immediately draft legislation on the recovery and management of sunken treasures, stakeholders said.
Last week’s lack of bidders at an auction of 10th-century ceramics and jewelry recovered from the depths was clear proof that the government had a long way to go toward managing such items, said speakers at a discussion organized by the Indonesian Heritage Trust (BP
Source: BBC
May 14, 2010
South Africa's governing African National Congress has paid tribute to the apartheid-era politician Frederik van Zyl Slabbert who has died aged 70.
Mr Slabbert was best known for his efforts in the late 1980s to open up dialogue between Afrikaners and the then-exiled ANC.
He was one of the few members of South Africa's white-dominated parliament to oppose apartheid.
The ANC said he had made an "indelible mark" in fighting white minority rule.
Source: AP
May 14, 2010
Legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite allegedly collaborated with anti-Vietnam War activists in the 1960s, going so far as to offer advice on how to raise the public profile of protests and even pledging CBS News resources to help pull off events, according to FBI documents obtained by Yahoo! News.
The documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, say that in November 1969, Cronkite encouraged students at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., to invite Maine
Source: Science Daily
May 14, 2010
Paleontologists have discovered a rich array of exceptionally preserved fossils of marine animals that lived between 480 million and 472 million years ago, during the early part of a period known as the Ordovician. The specimens are the oldest yet discovered soft-bodied fossils from the Ordovician, a period marked by intense biodiversification.
The findings, which appear in the May 13 issue of the journal Nature, greatly expand our understanding of the sea creatures and ecosystems
Source: AP
May 14, 2010
China has sentenced to death four robbers who used explosives and heavy machinery to plunder tombs almost 2,500 years old.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency says the four sentenced Friday were part of a 27-member gang who robbed a dozen tombs near the capital of the central province of Hunan in 2008 and 2009.
The report says some of the more than 200 stolen artifacts were under China's highest level of protection. One of the tombs dates from the Warring States period tha
Source: Latin America Herald Tribune
May 14, 2010
The U.S. government returned to El Salvador 18 Maya polychrome ceramic pieces and statuettes that were smuggled out of the Central American country.
The pieces include containers with geometric and animal decorations in black, pink and red, as well as small figurines made of dark or white ceramic.
The items were stolen from a Salvadoran archaeological site and sold on the Internet by a Salvadoran couple now under arrest in their homeland, authorities said.
Source: The Guardian
May 14, 2010
France marks 400 years since the death of a monarch who enforced religious tolerance and raised standard of living.
Two hundred years before the storming of the Bastille and the stirrings of a revolution that would take down the monarchy, a handsome 35-year-old from the south-western city of Pau began a reign that would make France fall in love with him. Today, as the country remembers his death at the hands of a fanatical Catholic assassin, there is no sign that this love is fading
Source: BBC
May 14, 2010
Work has started on a £5.5m project to transform a Grade II-listed castle at a Dorset nature reserve.
Durlston Castle, near Swanage, is being renovated and turned into a visitor centre for the Jurassic coast world heritage site.
It will form the centrepiece of the 280-acre Durlston Country Park and will house a shop and catering facilities.
A turf cutting ceremony took place earlier. The work is expected to be fully completed by July 2011.
Source: BBC
May 14, 2010
A photograph has emerged of a BNP councillor pictured with three men giving a Nazi salute standing next to a war memorial.
Steve Batkin is a councillor at Stoke-on-Trent City Council and is also a governor at two secondary schools.
The image, taken in 2002 in Stone, shows Mr Batkin and saluting far-right activists with a Union Jack flag.
Mr Batkin said the men were expressing their "rebelliousness" but admitted the image was "regrettable&qu
Source: BBC
May 14, 2010
The grandchildren of one of the last queens of India have pledged to fight attempts by her stepson to dispute the terms of her will.
Gayatri Devi, once described as one of the most beautiful women in the world, died in July 2009 at the age of 90.
But on Thursday her stepson challenged her will in court, arguing that she had been "misguided" by her grandchildren in the latter stages of her life.
She was the third wife of the Maharajah of Jaipur.
Source: Virginia Gazette
May 14, 2010
In the bowels of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., are boxes containing the skeletal remains of more than 130 Native Americans who died in Virginia centuries ago.
They were members of the Patawomeck and Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) tribes; their remains date to 1580. The bones were excavated by the Smithsonian Institution during an archeological dig in Southampton County in the 1960s.
Both tribes want the museum to return the remains so their ancesto
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 14, 2010
A twisted beacon taller than the Houses of Parliament could be created to remember the sacrifices made during the Battle of Britain.
The 116 metre (380ft) tall landmark building is planned for The Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, north west London, and would be almost 10 metres (33ft) taller than the famous clock tower at the Palace of Westminster.
The building, provisionally called the Battle of Britain Beacon, would be visible from the centre of London and will house
Source: BBC News
May 14, 2010
The US space shuttle Atlantis is about to undertake what is expected to be its final mission before retirement.
The vehicle is on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center ready to lift off at 1420 local time (1820 GMT).
Big crowds are anticipated on the roads leading to the Nasa facility and on the beaches of Florida's Space Coast, all eager to catch a piece of history.
Atlantis will be delivering a Russian module to the space station, as well as batterie
Source: CNN
May 14, 2010
It was dismissed by some scientists as "a solution looking for a problem."
But when the first working laser was rolled out 50 years ago this week -- developed at California's Hughes Research Laboratory -- it didn't take long for the hyperfocused beams of light to find work.
Having fascinated science-fiction fans since the origins of ray guns in the late 1800s, lasers (literally "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation") have become co
Source: Science Daily
May 13, 2010
The very latest laser technology combined with old fashioned pedal power is being used to provide a unique insight into the layout of Nottingham's sandstone caves -- where the city's renowned medieval ale was brewed and, where legend has it, the country's most famous outlaw Robin Hood was imprisoned.
The Nottingham Caves Survey, being carried out by archaeologists from Trent & Peak Archaeology at The University of Nottingham, has already produced extraordinary, three dimensional
Source: BBC
May 13, 2010
A memorial is to be unveiled to a Scottish fighter pilot who shot down the first enemy bomber to be destroyed in British airspace in WWII.
Patrick Gifford, from Castle Douglas, was killed in action in Belgium on 16 May 1940.
A plaque will be unveiled in his memory in his home town on Sunday to mark the 70th anniversary of his death.
A new biography of Mr Gifford is also being launched this week in recognition of his unique role in the conflict.
