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: Foreign Policy
11-6-12
Later tonight -- or, if worst comes to worst, in the next few days -- either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama will be forced to take the stage and deliver a speech conceding the election to his rival. It's a painful task: After more than a year of making the case that he spoke for the people, one candidate must humbly admit that the people have spoken -- and chose the other guy. Here are six examples of candidates who utterly failed to step gracefully away from the limelight.Richard Nixon, 1962It's hard to imagine how Richard Nixon returned to political prominence from the nadir of what he wrongly declared his "last press conference," after losing the 1962 California governor's race. Nixon's remarks, a bravura display of self-pity, have widely been derided as the worst concession speech in U.S. history: "I leave you gentlemen now and you will write it," he told the assembled reporters. "Just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more."...
Source: Guardian (UK)
11-8-12
Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel has said he is writing a book with President Obama, fresh from election victory.Speaking to Israeli news site Haaretz, the author, 84, said he was working on a project which would pick up again after Tuesday's presidential elections were over."Obama and I decided to write a book together, a book of two friends," said Wiesel, author of the bestselling memoir Night, in which he recounts the story of his time at Auschwitz, where his mother and sister were murdered, and of the death march which ended at Buchenwald....
Related Links
Source: WSJ
11-7-12
A trove of sophisticated stone tools recently dug up from a South African cliff suggests early modern humans developed complex cognitive ability anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 years earlier than many scientists believe.In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers said they had unearthed a large number of small stone blades going back some 71,000 years. The heat-treated blades appear to have been designed for tipping spears or arrows that could be used for hunting game.Crucially, the discovery indicates that these ancestors had the cognitive ability to manipulate complex tools. In addition, they were able to pass on their inventions to future generations. That, in turn, suggests the use of sophisticated language....
Source: AP
11-7-12
WASHINGTON — A linguist for the Navy in Bahrain is charged under the Espionage Act with possessing classified documents — some of which ended up in public archives of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.James Hitselberger, who is fluent in Arabic, had the job as a federal contractor of translating documents for the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Cooperation Council. The council contains a unit conducting unconventional warfare, counterterrorism and special reconnaissance.An FBI affidavit unsealed Monday says Hitselberger copied documents last spring that discussed military troop activities in the region and gaps in U.S. intelligence in Bahrain. His superiors later found the material stashed in his backpack, and investigators said they subsequently discovered additional classified material at Stanford in the “James F. Hitselberger Collection.”...
Source: WaPo
11-8-12
ISTANBUL — Few archaeological sites seem as entwined with conflict, ancient and modern, as the city of Karkemish.The scene of a battle mentioned in the Bible, it lies smack on the border between Turkey and Syria, where civil war rages today. Twenty-first century Turkish sentries occupy an acropolis dating back more than 5,000 years, and the ruins were recently demined. Visible from crumbling, earthen ramparts, a Syrian rebel flag flies in a town that regime forces fled just months ago.A Turkish-Italian team is conducting the most extensive excavations there in nearly a century, building on the work of British Museum teams that included T.E. Lawrence, the adventurer known as Lawrence of Arabia. The plan is to open the site along the Euphrates river to tourists in late 2014....
Source: WaPo
11-7-12
BIRZEIT, West Bank — For most tourists, iconic religious landmarks like the Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall and the Church of the Nativity are an important part of any visit to the Holy Land. Now a new trail offers visitors a look at little-known spiritual sites associated with Sufism, or Islamic mysticism.The Sufi Trail is less than an hour from Jerusalem, in the central West Bank, amid vast expanses of olive tree terraces, forests and rocky hills. The trail showcases sanctuaries and shrines marking the burial sites of Sufi spiritual leaders. In an era of rising Islamic fundamentalism, the trail also provides a glimpse of a moderate strain of Islam while preserving the history of a millennium-old tradition that is rapidly fading from local memory....
Source: GrindTV
11-2-12
From 1835 to 1853 San Nicolas island had a population of one. Now archaeologists believe they have discovered the residence of the island's last known resident, a woman whose involuntary, solitary, 18-year occupation inspired a kid lit classic and who became known as the "Lone Woman of San Nicolas."The residence is a 75-foot-long cave and its discovery concludes a 20-year quest by archeologist Steven Schwartz to find the woman's island abode."The cave had been completely buried under several meters of sand. It is quite large and would have made a very comfortable home, especially in inclement weather," Schwartz said at the California Islands Symposium as reported in the Los Angeles Times.Christened Juana Maria at her death bed baptism, she was a member of the Nicoleno, a Native American tribe that had lived on San Nicolas for centuries. Pushed out by hunters and their numbers dwindling, a crew was sent to bring the last of the tribe to the mainland, but Juana Maria was left behind....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
11-4-12
Every schoolboy used to know that at the height of the empire, almost a quarter of the atlas was coloured pink, showing the extent of British rule.But that oft recited fact dramatically understates the remarkable global reach achieved by this country.A new study has found that at various times the British have invaded almost 90 per cent of the countries around the globe.The analysis of the histories of the almost 200 countries in the world found only 22 which have never experienced an invasion by the British.Among this select group of nations are far-off destinations such as Guatemala, Tajikistan and the Marshall Islands, as well some slightly closer to home, such as Luxembourg....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
11-4-12
More than half of young Britons are unable to name the years the First World War started and ended, according to a survey which highlights a “shaky” grasp of even basic details about the conflict.Only 46 per cent of respondents aged 16 to 24 were able to identify 1914 as the year war broke out, while just 40 per cent correctly stated that peace was reached in 1918.The poll was conducted for British Future, a non-partisan body dedicated to exploring issues of national identity.It says that the findings showed a lack of knowledge about the Great War and demonstrated the need for schools to improve their teaching of the subject....
Source: NYT
10-31-12
A small piece of Truman Capote’s famously unfinished novel “Answered Prayers” has come to light. The six-page story, “Yachts and Things,” found among Capote’s papers in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library, is published in the December issue of Vanity Fair, out now in New York and nationally next week. The story will be available online in mid-November.Issued three years after Capote’s death, “Answered Prayers” was composed of three excerpts that had been separately published in Esquire in 1975 and 1976. Full of the thinly veiled (and unveiled) rich and famous, including Peggy Guggenheim, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Gloria Vanderbilt, the book lost Capote many friends. Before his death at 59 in 1984, he spoke of several other fragments that have never been found or published....
Source: WaPo
10-23-12
...Each has its loyalists — and no wonder. The stores market vastly different versions of American exceptionalism: Wal-Mart champions efficiency, thrift. Target offers style, aspiration. Wal-Mart gives us low prices on everything we need; Target tells us what we want....In 1962, the Dayton Co. opened its first Target store at 1515 W. County Rd. B in Roseville, Minn. The five grandsons of company founder George Dayton hatched the idea for an upscale discount chain based on their existing low-priced Downstairs Store.“What made them so successful is that they’ve been very clever at executing on their core mandate: They are the upscale discounter,” said Laura Rowley, author of “On Target: How the World’s Hottest Retailer Hit a Bull’s-Eye.” “Bruce Dayton used that language in 1962. The family understood the department store model and made investments in customer service.”...
Source: NYT
11-1-12
It kept its secret for decades. It perished in the process. It died, experts say, a valiant death, most likely on a hush-hush mission over wartime France, and was then, like so many others, forgotten.But now, decades after the final flight of military carrier pigeon 40TW194, the bird’s secret message has become a matter of state and the grist of headlines. After a concerted campaign by pigeon fanciers, the encrypted message, which had been folded into a scarlet capsule on the pigeon’s leg, has now been sent to Britain’s top-secret GCHQ listening post and decoding department outside Gloucester to the west of London.There, 40TW194’s World War II secret might finally be revealed. Or maybe not. “We cannot comment until the code is broken,” said a spokesman for GCHQ, which stands for Government Communications Headquarters. “And then we can determine whether it’s secret or not.”...
Source: CNN.com
11-1-12
(CNN) -- George Smith, one of the Navajo code talkers who helped the U.S. military outfox the Japanese during World War II by sending messages in their obscure language, has died, the president of the Navajo Nation said."This news has saddened me," Ben Shelly, the Navajo president, said in a post Wednesday on his Facebook page. "Our Navajo code talkers have been real life heroes to generations of Navajo people."Smith died Tuesday, Shelly said, and the Navajo Nation's flag is flying at half-staff until Sunday night to commemorate his life....
Source: LA Times
11-1-12
JERUSALEM -- More than 24 years after Palestinian military leader Khalil Ibrahim Wazir was assassinated in Tunisia, Israel acknowledged for the first time that its spy agency Mossad carried out the killing.Wazir, one of the founders of the Fatah Party and a top aide to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was viewed by Israel as a terrorist and by Palestinians as a freedom fighter.After refusing for years to publicly confirm Israel's role in the April 16, 1988, assassination, the nation's military censors on Thursday permitted the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot to publish an interview with the commander who led the secret mission. The article had reportedly been suppressed by censors for more than a decade....
Source: WaPo
10-31-12
JUNEAU, Alaska — A smog-like haze that hung over part of Alaska’s Kodiak Island this week was courtesy of a volcanic eruption — 100 years ago.The National Weather Service said strong winds and a lack of snow Tuesday helped stir up ash from the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, the largest volcanic blast of the 20th century.The ash drifted up to about 4,000 feet and traveled over the Shelikof Strait and across Kodiak Island, prompting an aviation alert. The news was first reported by KMXT radio....
Source: AP
10-31-12
NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cypriots who fought against British colonial rule in the 1950s plan to sue the U.K. government for torture they allegedly suffered at the hands of British authorities while in custody, an official said Wednesday.Thassos Sophocleous, president of an organization representing former Cypriot fighters, said the British law firm K.J. Conroy & Co. is now gathering information from them to build a case following this month’s landmark ruling from Britain’s High Court, which found that three Kenyans tortured during a rebellion against British colonial rule can seek compensation....
Source: WaPo
10-29-12
The New York Stock Exchange planned a rare shutdown Monday because of Hurricane Sandy. The last time the NYSE closed down for a weather-related event was on Sept. 27, 1985, for Hurricane Gloria. Here’s a look at other unusual NYSE closings throughout history.Aug. 8 1885: Funeral of former President Ulysses S. GrantMar. 12-13, 1888: Blizzard of 1888Nov. 25, 1899: Funeral of Vice-President Garret A. Hobart....
Source: AP
10-28-12
IRVINE, Calif. — The knock came at night more than 30 years ago. Hugo Van, then a young man, had a chance to flee newly communist Vietnam and walk to freedom.There were no guarantees, but Van didn’t hesitate to take the risk. With a few hundred dollars, he and his younger sister got a car ride to a Vietnamese village, then a boat to Cambodia and began the trek across barren land until they were caught by Cambodian soldiers. For nearly two weeks, they were held in a camp where they were given wormy rice to eat and Van found himself staring down the barrels of six guns as guards attempted to attack his younger sister.“Everybody knew: boat or walk,” Van, now 57, told his American-born daughter in words she was hearing for the first time. “When you escape ... you use your life to bet.”...
Source: AP
10-31-12
SKOPJE, Macedonia — Winston Churchill is flashing his trademark victory sign from the rooftop of Macedonia’s shining white new foreign ministry building.Alexander the Great is pointing his mighty sword from the top of a mega water fountain that airs classical music on the hour, as sprinkling water dances to the sound of its tunes....All those grandiose buildings, monuments, fountains and bridges — some completed, others under construction — are dotting the city center as part of a government project called Skopje 2014, officially intended to rebuild a city that lost many of its landmarks in a 1963 earthquake.One of Europe’s biggest urban endeavors has been criticized by many Macedonians who describe it as kitsch....
Source: Reuters
11-1-12
BERLIN (Reuters) - Erwin Rommel, the World War Two German field marshal celebrated as the brilliant and humane "Desert Fox", is portrayed in a new film as a weak man torn by his loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the dawning realization that he was serving a devil.The drama, due to be broadcast on the public ARD television on Thursday, has angered Rommel's son and granddaughter who believe it underplays his role in the resistance against Hitler.Rommel was forced to commit suicide in 1944 after Hitler suspected the general of being linked to the July 1944 plot to kill him, though historians disagree about how close he was to the failed assassination attempt.
