| Is WikiLeaks An Editor-In-Chief Or Prolific Source? |
| WikiLeaks' latest disclosure relied on journalistic heavyweights to do the lifting of sorting through and presenting documents. WikiLeaks' executive editor sees the unveiling as collaboration between peers, but some journalists still consider WikiLeaks a source and not an objective partner. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:12:00 -0400) |
| War Games Lure Recruits For The Real Thing |
| A controversial Army Experience Center in a Philadelphia shopping mall will soon close its doors after a two-year pilot program. With regard to its military outreach efforts, the multimillion-dollar facility has declared "mission accomplished," but critics question the Army's version of reality. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400) |
| November Hearing For Arizona Immigration Law |
| A federal appeals court says it will hold a hearing in November on Arizona's challenge to a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state's immigration law on hold. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a two-page order Friday denying Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's request for an earlier hearing date. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:45:00 -0400) |
| California Fire Menaces Homes, Power Lines |
| A huge wildfire in the high desert wilderness north of Los Angeles jumped an aqueduct on Friday, rushing toward hundreds of houses as firefighters also tried to keep flames from damaging power lines that bring electricity to Southern California. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:16:00 -0400) |
| Mich. Oil Leak Halted; Cleanup To Take Months |
| The Canadian company in charge of a ruptured oil pipeline in southern Michigan says a spill into the Kalamazoo River has been contained -- and the Environmental Protection Agency agrees the spill presents no real threat to Lake Michigan. But cleaning up the site may take many more months. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:10:00 -0400) |
| FAA Downgrades Mexico's Air Safety Rating |
| Concerns about safety oversight prompted the move, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The action won't stop flights between the two countries, but it will prevent Mexican airlines like AeroMexico and Mexicana from expanding service to the United States. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:50:00 -0400) |
| Key Jewish Group Rejects Ground Zero Mosque |
| The Anti-Defamation League has come out against the planned mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero, saying more information is needed about funding for the project and the location is "counterproductive to the healing process." |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:08:00 -0400) |
| New BP CEO: Some Efforts To Be Scaled Back |
| The changes do not signify a lessening of the oil giant's commitment to clean up the oil spill, but do signify that some areas don't need a continuing effort, incoming executive Bob Dudley said Friday. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:42:00 -0400) |
| Chrysler To Add Jobs, Save Michigan Factory |
| Chrysler Group LLC said Friday that it will add nearly 900 jobs at a factory in suburban Detroit and spare it from a planned closure. The decision is a show of optimism that consumers will embrace the company's refurbished midsize sedans. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:54:00 -0400) |
| Your New Flu Vaccine Is On The Way, A Little Early |
| Flu season is in full swing in the Southern Hemisphere, with H1N1 the predominant strain in Australia and New Zealand. No one's predicting what our season will look like just yet. |
| Read More...(Source: NPR Topics: News - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:43:00 -0400) |
| Wordless Wednesday |
| Three children playing golf in a picture taken around 1905. Source: Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection (digital id: det 4a12570)Wordless Wednesday originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 07:33:58.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Wordless Wednesday |
| According to the Library of Congress, this is a picture of "a Southern baptism" taken between 1900 and 1906. Source: Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Co. Collection (digital id: det 4a31436)Wordless Wednesday originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 17:11:51.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Slavery and Science Fiction |
| I decided to revisit the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler this past week. It's an admirable book, one that I've considered assigning in my classes (the length always makes me hesitate). If you haven't read it, Kindred is the story of an African-American woman living in 1976 (three years prior to the publication of the book) who is transported to the early 19th century. Butler doesn't bore us with the mechanics of time travel, but we do know Dana, the main character, is in antebellum Maryland to save one of her ancestors--a white slave owner. The book explores the moral quandaries Dana finds herself in. On one of her trips to the past, her husband, who is white, manages to find a way to accompany her. She fears that being in the South, exposed to a system that gives whites so much power, will subtly change him. But her biggest problem concerns her own existence: she keeps saving the life of the white slave owner, Rufus, who is her ancestor even as he becomes more brutal and even cruel. I won't spoil the ending in case you haven't read it, but the book is well-researched and offers a sophisticated answer to a question we all ask ourselves from time to time: what would I have done if I had been living then? Slavery and Science Fiction originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 10:51:11.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Wordless Wednesday |
| Four African-American children stand in front of a wall, erected to separate the African-American section of town from a new white neighborhood being constructed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1941. Source: Library of Congress (digital id: fsa 8c20121)Wordless Wednesday originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 00:01:19.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Wordless Wednesday |
| An African-American family, possibly after having escaped slavery, arrives at the Union army lines in 1863. Source: Library of Congress (LC-DIG-cwpb-01161)Wordless Wednesday originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 00:01:36.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Today in African-American History |
| July 2, 2010 marks the 46th anniversary of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This monumental legislation outlawed discrimination on the basis of race and color as well as gender, religious affiliation and national origin. President John F. Kennedy, in the popular imagination, was the "civil rights" president, but it was President Lyndon B. Johnson who was able to push through this act. He used Kennedy's memory, yes, but he was a master at getting the Democrats in Congress to follow his lead in voting for legislation. But the moment would not have been right for Johnson to push this legislation if not for the sacrifices that civil rights activists had made. Footage on television in 1963 from Birmingham, Alabama, showed policemen spraying water hoses at well-dressed, peaceful African-American demonstrators--some children--which horrified both white and black Americans as they watched the evening news. Take a moment today to think about the men and women who fought the great civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s. Photo of participants in the 1963 March on Washington courtesy of the Library of CongressToday in African-American History originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 09:10:16.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Today in African-American History |
| On June 25, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, which ended discriminatory hiring practices within federal agencies and within any businesses contracted for defense work. The order also created a Committee on Fair Employment Practices to investigate claims of discrimination. While this was a bold act--the federal government had not intervened to ensure African-American rights since the Reconstruction period--it was not the result of an epiphany on Roosevelt's part. Rather, A. Philip Randolph, leader of the union Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, promised Roosevelt that over 100,000 African-American workers would march on Washington, D.C., if he did not address the problem of discrimination in defense-related industries. At a time when the Nazis were marching across Europe and attacking their former allies, the Soviet Union, Roosevelt could not afford to compromise national unity.Today in African-American History originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 00:01:37.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Wordless Wednesday |
| Two African-American sailors stand in front of the USS Mason, the Navy's first predominantly African-American ship, which was commissioned in 1943. Source: The National ArchivesWordless Wednesday originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 00:01:30.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Wordless Wednesday |
| Civil rights activists on the march for voting rights from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965. Source: Library of Congress (cph 3d02329) Visit the home of Wordless Wednesday.Wordless Wednesday originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 08:43:05.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |
| Remixing History |
| Can you go too far in trying to make the past alive for students? That was the question that emerged recently from a controversy in Georgia over allowing students to dress up as Klansmen. I asked this question again after seeing a video on YouTube that auto-tuned Martin Luther King, Jr's "I have a dream" speech. The effect of the video, titled "Martin Luther King, Jr. Sings," is melodic and even fascinating. A musical group known as The Gregory Brothers is responsible for auto-tuning the MLK video. They also have a series of videos called "Autotuning the News," which are a delightful remix of politicians' speeches and news anchors' commentaries. But do they go too far by remixing a personage and an event as sacred to American history as MLK and his speech during the 1963 March on Washington? I think it might be a good way to get students to sit down and truly listen to MLK's words. What do you think? Does it cheapen the significance of the moment, or is it a good way to get people's attention?Remixing History originally appeared on About.com African-American History on Saturday, June 12th, 2010 at 13:58:01.Permalink | Comment | Email this |
| Read More...(Source: About African-American History) |