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: NYT
6-22-12
DUBLIN — In one of the most anticipated gestures in recent Irish history, a former commander of the Irish Republican Army will shake hands next week in Belfast with Queen Elizabeth II, once a prime target of I.R.A. attacks, the group’s onetime political wing announced Friday.
Source: NYT
6-19-12
SHANGHAI — While much of the city’s Jewish Quarter has disappeared in the years since the end of World War II, the Ohel Moshe Synagogue is a constant reminder of how this Chinese city saved tens of thousands of Jews fleeing the Holocaust.Built by Russian Jews in 1927 in the Hongkou district in northern Shanghai, the synagogue was the primary religious destination for the Jewish refugees who flooded into the city.And while its facade has not changed, the building now is the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. It is the first stop for many visitors seeking information about what the Holocaust scholar David Kranzler called the “Miracle of Shanghai.”...
Source: WaPo
6-21-12
Most great book lists concentrate on works of the highest literary or scholarly merit. Think of the Harvard Classics, Harold Bloom’s “Western Canon,” the Modern Library’s selection of “the 100 best novels of the 20th century.” Here, the compilers imply, are our cultural masterpieces, the Mount Everests and K2s all literate people should scale in their lifetime. You haven’t read already Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” or James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”? Get cracking and break out the ropes, climbing shoes and pitons.
Source: Yahoo News
6-20-12
Were the giant statues on Easter Island actually "walked" to their final resting spots?Researchers have unveiled a new theory that may redefine the historical understanding of how natives on Easter Island transported the iconic moai statues.Writing in July's issue of National Geographic magazine, California State University at Long Beach archeologist Carl Lipo and Hawaii anthropologist Terry Hunt postulate that Polynesian natives used a system of ropes and manpower to walk the statues across the island."A lot of what people think they know about the island turns out to be not true," Lipo says....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
6-17-12
She is a vessel unique in the history of the Royal Navy – the only one in which two captains won the Victoria Cross for their exploits aboard.Now the submarine HMS E14 has been photographed in her final resting place, 94 years after she went down under heavy shellfire during the First World War.The first pictures of the vessel on the ocean bed show her looking largely intact, suggesting the remains of the crew and their personal effects are still inside. The precise location of the wreck in the eastern Mediterranean was a mystery until it was discovered by Turkish divers this month....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
6-17-12
They were held up as paragons of virtue, but one congregation of Essex nuns appear to have needed some pointers on how to conduct themselves.In a book of advice for the cloistered women written more than 1,300 years ago, they were reminded of the benefits of virginity, warned of the sin of pride, and cautioned against wearing garments which “set off” the body.The guidance came from the Anglo-Saxon cleric Aldhelm in a text dedicated to the abbess nuns of Barking Abbey, the oldest surviving version of which is now up for sale....
Source: WaPo
6-21-12
The July 8 event, which park ranger and event organizer Angela Roberts-Burton said is part of the historical site’s monthly black history educational series, caused a stir on the Internet for what some believe was insensitive wording.
“By no means am I trying to, or are we the Park Service, trying to assimilate the atrocities that slave African-Americans endured,” Roberts-Burton said Wednesday.
“This is just a glimpse of the hard work, being out in the heat and sun,” she said....
Source: Politicker
6-19-12
Samuel “Joe The Plumber” Wurzelbacher, the 2008 campaign microcelebrity and Ohio congressional candidate, has an interesting theory about the Holocaust. Yesterday, Mr. Wurzelbacher released a campaign web video in which he blamed the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide on gun control laws.“In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917 one-point-five million Armenians, unable to defend themselves were exterminated,” Mr. Wurzelbacher says in the clip. “In 1939, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, six million Jews and seven million others unable to defend themselves were exterminated.”Mr. Wurzelbacher’s video features footage of him on a shooting rage blasting fruits and vegetables with a shotgun. As the clip draws to a close, Mr. Wurzelbacher, gun in hand, proclaims, “I love America.”...
Source: Belfast Telegraph
6-21-12
The concept of waterboarding came to the fore several years ago with its use against terror suspects by America at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.But while the term may have only come to public prominence in recent years, it is a dark practice that has been in use for hundreds of years.In Northern Ireland the last man sentenced to death — Liam Holden (58) — alleged his confession of the 1972 IRA murder of a paratrooper was forced from him using the waterboarding technique. It’s the only alleged case of the method being used during the Troubles.But it’s thought its use dates back as far as the 15th century and the Spanish Inquisition as a form of torture - similar to today’s definition - called toca...
Source: NYT
6-21-12
North Carolina’s novel effort to compensate people who were sterilized under a widespread and decades-long eugenics program that stretched into the 1970s all but died in the State Senate on Wednesday.Despite backing from Gov. Bev Perdue and the State House of Representatives, a compensation package that would have given victims up to $50,000 each was not included in the Senate’s budget.“I think there’s a very strong message from the Senate they’re not prepared to take it up this year,” said Thom Tillis, a Republican and speaker of the House, who supported paying victims.Lawmakers will vote on the final $20.2 billion budget later this week and then send it to the governor, but it is unlikely that any last-minute changes will include the eugenics bill.
Source: CBS News
6-20-12
This week marks the 40th anniversary of a federal law that requires equal opportunities for both boys and girls in school programs.Title IX makes no mention of sports, but the law has opened a door for many women athletes. Kathrine Switzer's story is an example of how far women athletes have come these past 40 years.
Source: LiveScience
3-19-12
A small handful of bones found in an ancient church in Bulgaria may belong to John the Baptist, the biblical figure said to have baptized Jesus.There's no way to be sure, of course, as there are no confirmed pieces of John the Baptist to compare to the fragments of bone. But the sarcophagus holding the bones was found near a second box bearing the name of St. John and his feast date (also called a holy day) of June 24. Now, new radiocarbon dating of the collagen in one of the bones pegs its age to the early first century, consistent with the New Testament and Jewish histories of John the Baptist's life.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
6-19-12
A racism row has forced Adidas to scrap its plans for a pair of trainers with ‘shackles’.Critics had compared the 'JS Roundhouse Mids', to be released in August, to the chains worn by black slaves in the 19th century.Now the sportswear giant has cancelled the launch of the Jeremy Scott-designed footwear and apologised for causing any offence....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
6-19-12
The poet was hailed as on the '50 notable people connected with Croydon' in the borough's bid to win city status earlier this year.According to council literature, called 'Croydon: The Facts', it stated that Lord Byron, born George Byron in 1788, was one of 'many talents nurtured by Croydon', which it said was a 'centre for innovation'.But this week the council admitted it had made a bungle after it was pointed out that Lord Byron - who wrote She Walks in Beauty and When We Two Parted - was born in Marylebone in north London and had probably never even visited Croydon....
Source: Belfast Telegraph
June 18, 2012
Simon Cowell and Adolf Hitler might not seem to have much in common but the unlikely duo have topped a poll to find the most recognisable faces in history....
Source: LA Times
6-17-12
Rodney King, whose beating by Los Angeles police helped spark the 1992 L.A. riots, died Sunday at his home in Rialto. He was 47.King became a symbol for police brutality and the troubled relations between the LAPD and minority residents. He was eventually awarded a $3.8-million settlement, but the money and fame brought him little solace. He had repeated run-ins with the law and as of April said he was broke."I sometimes feel like I'm caught in a vise. Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero," he told The Times earlier this year. "Others hate me. They say I deserved it. Other people, I can hear them mocking me for when I called for an end to the destruction, like I'm a fool for believing in peace."...
Source: USA Today
June 16, 2012
When the first big battle of the War of 1812 is re-enacted this fall, the U.S. 1st Artillery regiment will mount an ear-splitting barrage. The Yanks will point their cannons at British redcoats across the Niagara River in Canada. They will wear blue. They will curse King George.....
Source: Annenberg Public Policy Center
6-15-12
FlackCheck asks: “Could Abraham Lincoln win re-election in 1864 if today’s technology and methods were available to his opponent?”
Source: Taegan Goddard's Political Wire
6-15-12
The FBI posted the entire 1,892 page file on Mark Felt, the anonymous source for the Washington Post's investigation into the Watergate break in during the Nixon administration.
Source: NYT
6-15-12
SYDNEY, Australia — Newly released documents detail numerous cases of physical and sexual abuse of minors in Australia’s armed forces dating back to the 1950s, prompting Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday to raise the possibility of a high-level public inquiry.The cases are described in a confidential report commissioned by the Australian military last year and made public late Thursday by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Highly redacted extracts from the report had been released three months ago by Defense Minister Stephen Smith. What the ABC obtained, through a Freedom of Information request, was the full executive summary of the report.
