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: Glenn Greenwald for the Guardian (UK)
12-10-12
Glenn Greenwald is a Guardian columnist.Earlier this year, the film "Zero Dark Thirty", which purports to dramatize the hunt for and killing of Osama bin Laden, generated substantial political controversy. It was discovered that CIA and White House officials had met with its filmmakers and passed non-public information to them - at exactly the same time that DOJ officials were in federal court resisting transparency requests from media outlets and activist groups on the ground that it was all classified.With its release imminent, the film is now garnering a pile of top awards and virtually uniform rave reviews. What makes this so remarkable is that, by most accounts, the film glorifies torture by claiming - falsely - that waterboarding and other forms of coercive interrogation tactics were crucial, even indispensable in finding bin Laden.
Source: AP
12-6-12
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – A former Nazi concentration camp guard who has lived quietly in western Pennsylvania for more than 50 years took his fight against deportation to the nation's highest immigration court Thursday, arguing that he shouldn't be punished because he served in Hitler's army against his will.The Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church heard the appeal from 88-year-old Anton Geiser of Sharon, Pa., who acknowledges serving in the Nazi SS as a guard in the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps. A federal judge ordered him deported in 2010.But his lawyer argued that the court should have considered that Geiser was forced to join the SS against his will as a 17-year-old.Government lawyers argued to uphold the deportation. They said federal law places former Nazis in a harsher immigration category, and no exceptions should be made because of compulsory service....
Source: AP
12-7-12
HONOLULU – Ray Emory could not accept that more than one quarter of the 2,400 Americans who died at Pearl Harbor were buried, unidentified, in a volcanic crater.And so he set out to restore names to the dead.Emory, a survivor of the attack, doggedly scoured decades-old documents to piece together who was who. He pushed, and sometimes badgered, the government into relabeling more than 300 gravestones with the ship names of the deceased. And he lobbied for forensic scientists to exhume the skeletons of those who might be identified.On Friday, the 71-year anniversary of the Japanese attack, the Navy and National Park Service will honor the 91-year-old former sailor for his determination to have Pearl Harbor remembered, and remembered accurately....
Source: MSNBC
12-6-12
Europe's largest minority group, the Romani, migrated from northwest India 1,500 years ago, new genetic study finds.The Romani, also known as the Roma, were originally dubbed " gypsies " in the 16th century, because this widely dispersed group of people were first thought to have come from Egypt. Today, many consider "gypsy" to be a derogatory term.Since the advent of better and better genetic technology, researchers have analyzed the genetic history of much of Europe, finding, for example, the history of the Jewish Diaspora written in DNA. But though there are 11 million Romani in Europe, their history has been neglected, said study researcher David Comas of the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain....
Source: Archaeo News
11-29-12
In recent years, engraved ochre, bones and ostrich eggs unearthed from various Palaeolithic sites in Africa, the Near East and Europe have attracted the attention of many scholars. However, such items are rarely encountered at Palaeolithic sites in East Asia.Professor Gao Xing and Dr Peng Fei from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found an engraved stone artefact in a stone tool assemblage unearthed at the famous Shuidonggou Palaeolithic site, in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of northwest China.Dr Peng Fei describes it as, "the first engraved non-organic artefact from the entire Palaeolithic of China"....
Source: Archaeo News
11-27-12
It has long been believed that the analysis of charcoal from fires and pollen from cultivated plants was the most accurate way of tracking ancient human life and development. But scientists from the University of Massachusetts (USA) are using a much more unusual method, the analysis of ancient human faeces, more specifically, the levels of coprostanol found in the faeces. Coprostanol is formed when cholesterol is digested and can be found not only in 'solid' deposits but also washed through sediment....
Source: Archaeo News
11-29-12
Beer drinkers have long held the belief that drinking it is safer and better than drinking water. Well Neolithic Man new for a fact that it was better than water, and now a team from the University of Manchester (UK) have found the remains of a 3,500 year old microbrewery near Paphos, Cyprus. It was found in the midst of a Bronze age settlement known as Kissonerga-Skalia. All the makings of a modern day brewery have been found, including wild yeast additives, a malting or drying kiln and grinding tools....
Source: Archaeo News
11-21-12
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: Archaeo News
12-7-12
An entire hill, famed for its archeological heritage and geological significance, is to be removed from the Scottish skyline to make way for a quarry under plans being considered by West Dunbartonshire Council.Sheep Hill, in the Kilpatrick Hills on the Clyde, is the site of ancient Bronze and Iron Age forts which local residents and experts say will be destroyed by the expansion of a stone quarry. Allowing the hill to be wiped off the map would be "an act of wanton destruction of our environment and inheritance", according to Clydebelt, a local environmental group, which is calling for Scottish ministers to intervene to save the hill.A proposal to revise mineral permission for an existing quarry run by a local firm near Sheep Hill is due to be discussed by West Dunbartonshire Council and has provoked fierce opposition from local groups. Silverton and Overtoun community council says digging away the hill would be irrevocable. "When Sheep Hill is gone, it is gone," said the council's Rose Harvie. "Future generations will look back and wonder how such destruction could have been permitted."...
Source: eLocal
12-6-12
Source: eLocal.com
Source: AP
12-6-12
SEATTLE — The grass is no greener. But, finally, it’s legal — at least somewhere in America. It’s been a long, strange trip for marijuana.Washington state and Colorado voted to legalize and regulate its recreational use last month. But before that, the plant, renowned since ancient times for its strong fibers, medical use and mind-altering properties, was a staple crop of the colonies, an “assassin of youth,” a counterculture emblem and a widely accepted — if often abused — medicine.On the occasion of Thursday’s “Legalization Day,” when Washington’s new law takes effect, here’s a look back at the cultural and legal status of the “evil weed” in American history....
Source: AP
12-5-12
President John F. Kennedy spelled out the mission clearly in his 1961 speech committing the United States to send humans to the moon and back by the end of the decade. He left no doubt about the definition of success and laid out a clear vision.Now, five decades after his challenge, a panel of space, science and engineering experts said in a stinging report that NASA does not have a goal....
Source: AP
12-6-12
NEW YORK — The uniform Don Larsen was wearing when he pitched the only perfect game in World Series history has sold for $756,000.The former New York Yankees’ right-hander achieved perfection in Game 5 of the 1956 Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.The pinstriped uniform with No. 18 on the back received 22 bids in an online auction on Steinersports.com. The winning bidder was Pete Siegel, CEO of GottaHaveIt.com. His company has been building a collection of Yankees memorabilia that it plans to put on display.The price includes a 20 percent buyer’s fee above the final bid of $630,000....
Source: AP
12-6-12
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Their dinner had just arrived as the two college professors watched their guests, a group of singers from the Georgia coast, unexpectedly turn saying grace into an outburst of song, rhythm and shouted praises that soon had other diners in the restaurant joining in with the impromptu performance.“Before you know it, they’re out of their chairs and the beat is getting played on a table and you had all the children in the restaurant shouting praises with them,” said Mary Ellen Junda, a music professor at the University of Connecticut.The dinner at a restaurant in Richmond, Va., last year with the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters of Darien, Ga., turned into another lesson for Junda and fellow music professor Robert Stephens, who have spent years studying the art and traditions of the Gullah, descendants of slaves who live in coastal communities from North Carolina to northern Florida. Scholars say their culture, long isolated from the mainland, has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any in America....
Source: AP
12-6-12
WASHINGTON — Protection of sites held sacred by American Indians and Alaska Natives will be bolstered under a memorandum of understanding signed Thursday by four federal agencies and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.The memo signed by the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy and Interior also calls for improving tribal access to sites that are on federal land.“We have a special, shared responsibility to respect and foster American Indian and Alaska Native cultural and religious heritage, and today’s agreement recognizes that important role,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.The agencies plan to work during the next five years to raise awareness about sacred sites. That includes developing a website, a training program for federal employees and guidance for managing sacred sites....
Source: Elizabeth P. McIntosh for WaPo
12-6-12
After her journalism career, Elizabeth P. McIntosh served in the Office of Strategic Services and the Central Intelligence Agency before retiring to Prince William County. She is the author of four books.On Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, I was working as a reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. After a week of war, I wrote a story directed at Hawaii’s women; I thought it would be useful for them to know what I had seen. It might help prepare them for what lay ahead. But my editors thought the graphic content would be too upsetting for readers and decided not to run my article. It appears here for the first time.For seven ghastly, confused days, we have been at war. To the women of Hawaii, it has meant a total disruption of home life, a sudden acclimation to blackout nights, terrifying rumors, fear of the unknown as planes drone overhead and lorries shriek through the streets.
Source: WaPo
12-6-12
WASHINGTON — Final campaign finance tallies trickled out Thursday for a presidential race expected to be the most expensive in U.S. political history, showing a last-minute $10 million contribution to a political action committee backing Republican candidate Mitt Romney from a billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate who has been the election’s biggest moneyman.The $10 million donation by Sheldon Adelson to the Restore Our Future “super” PAC raised the casino owner’s total contributions for the 2012 campaign to at least $72 million, all for Republicans....
Source: The Daily Beast
12-2-12
In the eight hundred years since his death, people have sought in vain for the grave of Genhis Khan, the 13th-century conqueror and imperial ruler who, at the time of his death, occupied the largest contiguous empire, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific. In capturing most of central Asia and China, his armies killed and pillaged but also forged new links between East and West. One of history’s most brilliant and ruthless leaders, Khan remade the world.But while the life of the conqueror is the stuff of legend, his death is shrouded in the mist of myths. Some historians believe he died from wounds sustained in battle; others that he fell off his horse or died from illness. And his final burial place has never been found. At the time great steps were taken to hide the grave to protect it from potential grave robbers. Tomb hunters have little to go on, given the dearth of primary historical sources. Legend has it that Khan’s funeral escort killed anyone who crossed their path to conceal where the conqueror was buried. Those who constructed the funeral tomb were also killed—as were the soldiers who killed them. One historical source holds that 10,000 horsemen “trampled the ground so as to make it even”; another that a forest was planted over the site, a river diverted.
Source: LiveScience
12-4-12
SAN FRANCISCO — A 200-year-long drought 4,200 years ago may have killed off the ancient Sumerian language, one geologist says.Because no written accounts explicitly mention drought as the reason for the Sumerian demise, the conclusions rely on indirect clues. But several pieces of archaeological and geological evidence tie the gradual decline of the Sumerian civilization to a drought.The findings, which were presented Monday (Dec. 3) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, show how vulnerable human society may be to climate change, including human-caused change....
Source: Washington Times
12-4-12
A long-delayed proposal to establish a national memorial in Washington to honor the 5,000 free blacks and slaves who fought as soldiers and sailors during the Revolutionary War got a congressional boost Tuesday when it was passed as part of a massive Senate defense spending bill.The legislation authorizes the nonprofit National Mall Liberty Fund DC to establish a memorial on federal land in the District to honor the black soldiers, sailors and civilians who provided assistance during the Revolution. It was attached as an amendment Monday to the defense bill, which authorizes $631 billion in Pentagon spending for the next year."This is a critical step," said Maurice Barboza, who has been trying for 30 years to get a memorial built for the blacks who fought in the Revolution. "Without this amendment, the project would be dead. We are now in the ballgame."...
