This is the archive for August 2007
By Tom Avril
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
Zahi Hawass examines the hieroglyphics on
plaster fragments that he discovered in the
tomb of Tutankhamun.
(Photo courtesy Zahi Hawass Archive
/Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT)PHILADELPHIA — Egypt's top antiquities official was down in the fabled tomb of Tutankhamun a few weeks ago — doing a television interview, of all things — when he noticed something curious he had never seen before.
In a back room closed to public view, Zahi Hawass spotted a cluster of reed boxes crammed with plaster fragments and limestone seals used to stamp hieroglyphs. Intrigued, the scholar took a closer look and saw that both were marked with a trio of icons — sun, scarab and basket — whose meaning he recognized instantly:
Neb-kheperu-re, the throne name of the boy pharaoh.
Eighty-five years after his tomb was discovered, and after his treasures have been ogled by millions of museumgoers, King Tut is still revealing surprises.
Posted by courier at 09:02 PM. Filed under: Features
No comments • Permalink
By Rick LaPlante
New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
UNION CITY – Four New Haven Unified School District elementary schools continue to be members of the “800 Club” of schools where results from standardized tests exceed state expectations.
The Accountability Progress Reports (APR) released today by the California Department of Education include both Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data. The results come from Standardized Testing and Results (STAR) scores and from California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) scores taken during the 2006-07 school year.
Posted by courier at 01:21 PM. Filed under: News
4 comments • Permalink
ACTIVITIES:
Open Field for boys soccer players after school today on the grass fields. See Coach Sills in Room 73 for more information.
CLUBS:
Interested in learning Mexican Folk Dance? Come to the Ballet Folklorico’s orientation meeting Friday, 9/7, at 3:45 in the Pavilion Dance Studio - open to all!!! For more info, see Mr. Huertas in the Counseling Office.
The first Youth Alive Club meeting is today after school in Room 418. Youth Alive is a Christian club, but you don’t have to be a Christian to attend.
Posted by courier at 10:51 AM. Filed under: Daily Bulletin
No comments • Permalink
By Bill Hanna
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
Lake Tawokoni State Park ranger Mike McCord
continues to monitor a giant communal spider
web at the park Tuesday in Wills Point, Texas.
(Tom Pennington/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT)WILLS POINT, Texas — If you hate creepy-crawlies, you might want to avoid Lake Tawakoni State Park, where a 200-yard stretch along a nature trail has been blanketed by a sprawling spider web that has engulfed seven large trees, dozens of bushes and even the weedy ground.
But if you hate mosquitoes, you might just love this bizarre web.
Posted by courier at 09:07 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician, educator, philosopher, humanitarian and devout Catholic; she is best known for her philosophy and method of education of children from birth to adolescence. Her educational method is in use today in a number of public as well as private schools throughout the world.
Read The Montessori Method, by Maria Montessori, free from the University of Pennsylvania.
Posted by courier at 06:15 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
4 comments • Permalink
By Jim Farber
New York Daily News (MCT)
Will.i.am's solo album debuts next monthSustaining a pop career is like storming Normandy Beach on D-Day — all by yourself. Every time artists release some music, they're besieged by the industry's equivalent to heavily armed soldiers (i.e. unsympathetic radio programmers, fickle consumers and cutthroat competing artists), all firing bullets that could end their career at any moment.
Never is this peril greater than in the fall. That's when the heaviest guns come out (i.e., the most starry competition), making the potential for failure that much more common — and public.
Posted by courier at 10:09 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
1 comment • Permalink
Note: Each week during the school year, The Courier spotlights books newly arrived, or expected to arrive, in the James Logan Media Center.
Samurai Shortstop by Alan M. Gratz
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Dial (May 18, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0803730756
ISBN-13: 978-0803730755
From the publisher:
Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is caught up in the competitive world of boarding school, and must prove himself to make the team in a new sport called besuboru. But he grieves for his uncle, a samurai who sacrificed himself for his beliefs, at a time when most of Japan is eager to shed ancient traditions. It’s only when his father decides to teach him the way of the samurai that Toyo grows to better understand his uncle and father. And to his surprise, the warrior training guides him to excel at baseball, a sport his father despises as yet another modern Western menace.
Posted by courier at 03:03 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
No comments • Permalink
By Christine Spolar
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
BARCELONA, Spain — Books are big business in Barcelona, the publishing capital of Spain and an intellectual port for writers exploring the political shadows and sorrows of this country's last century.
So when the world-renowned Frankfurt Book Fair asked to highlight the cultural influences of Barcelona, and specifically the Catalan culture, it was widely expected that literary stars across the region would embrace the distinction.
Posted by courier at 01:55 PM. Filed under: Features
No comments • Permalink
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
Here are the best-sellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 18, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.
(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by Cahners Publishing Co., a division of Reed Elsevier, USA. (c) 2007 by Reed Elsevier, USA)
HARDCOVER FICTION
1. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead, $25.95
Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 13
2. Play Dirty. Sandra Brown. Simon & Schuster, $26.95
Last Week: –; Weeks on List: 1
3. Force of Nature. Suzanne Brockmann. Ballantine, $21.95
Last Week: –; Weeks on List: 1
4. The Quickie. James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. Little, Brown, $27.99
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 7
5. The Secret Servant. Daniel Silva. Putnam, $25.95
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 4
6. Loving Frank. Nancy Horan. Ballantine, $23.95
Last Week: –; Weeks on List: 1
7. The Tin Roof Blowdown. James Lee Burke. Simon & Schuster, $26
Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 5
8. Sandworms of Dune. Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson. Tor, $27.95
Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 2
9. Spook Country. William Gibson. Putnam, $25.95
Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2
10. Devil May Cry. Sherrilyn Kenyon. St. Martin's, $19.95
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2
Posted by courier at 01:48 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
No comments • Permalink
Courier Staff Report
Teacher Paul Bisbiglia's students settled
into their classroom in the new 300s
building. Courier PhotoStudents, as many as 3940 of them, flocked back to the James Logan campus Wednesday, for the start of the 2007-2008 school year, greeted by staff and scheduling difficulties.
Computer and printing problems led school administrators to abandon plans for teachers to hand out student schedules. Instead they set up distribution stations around campus. Principal Don Montoya announced the new process via email and the school's public address system minutes before the school day began.
All the school's buses were late due to traffic snarls resulting from a major accident, Montoya said.
"Today may be more challenging than we are used to...but working together we will accomplish all that needs to be accomplished and the quality education we provide at the Home of the Colts will begin."
Posted by courier at 01:29 PM. Filed under: News
8 comments • Permalink
From wikipedia:
Count Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (August 29, 1862 - May 6, 1949) was a Belgian poet, playwright, and essayist writing in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life.
Count Maurice Maeterlinck was born in Ghent, Belgium to a wealthy, French-speaking family. He wrote poems and short novels during his studies, which he destroyed later; only fragments are left.
Read Our Friend the Dog by Maurice Maeterlinck, one of
11 of his works available free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 05:55 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
No comments • Permalink
By William Mullen
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
HOUSTON — When Ethiopia six years ago decided it needed to find a goodwill ambassador to send on the road to spruce up its image as a nation and a tourist destination, the government turned to one of its oldest residents and perhaps the only one to be truly world-famous, a diminutive bag of bones named Lucy.
A special exhibition built around the 3.2 million-year-old pre-human fossil was unveiled to the press Tuesday at the Houston Museum of Natural History, the first stop of a six-year American tour much criticized by top international anthropologists and paleontologists. Ethiopian officials on hand defended the exhibit by saying that Lucy, considered by many to be the most important hominid fossil in the world, has to serve other interests in addition to science.
"To suggest that research trumps everything else" that has to do with Lucy is wrong, said Samuel Assefa, Ethiopia's ambassador to the U.S., suggesting the fossil should be used to educate as well. "Lucy belongs to the world. She is the origin of humanity. We all see ourselves in Lucy."
Posted by courier at 07:24 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
"BIOSHOCK"
For: Xbox 360 and PC
From: Irrational Games/2K Games
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood and gore, drug reference, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language)
"Bioshock's" supreme greatness comes down to three factors, each of which could fill this review's space and then some in its own right.
Factor No. 1: variety. In terms of weapon selection alone, "Bioshock" is a terrific first-person shooter, boasting a healthy roster of guns and drastically different ammo types for each. All weapons are upgradeable, and you can craft special ammo from junk littered throughout the game world.
Posted by courier at 04:09 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
No comments • Permalink
By Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — With the resignation Monday of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Bush administration faces its most daunting task: repairing the reputation of a Justice Department reeling from the controversy over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
After months of damaging disclosures about his competency and congressional scrutiny of his leadership, Gonzales announced that he'd be leaving Sept. 17 but offered little explanation for the timing.
With no immediate replacement named by the White House, legal experts said the administration needed to select a new attorney general with significant legal experience and an unassailable reputation to end the criticism that had undermined the department since January.
Posted by courier at 06:47 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
From wikipedia:
Man Ray, photographed at Gaite-Montparnasse
exhibition in Paris by Carl Van Vechten
on June 16, 1934
(August 27, 1890–November 18, 1976) was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer.
While appreciation for Man Ray’s work beyond his fashion and portrait photography was slow in coming during his lifetime, especially in his native United States, his reputation has grown steadily in the decades since.
See 103 of Man Ray's works of art, free from the Getty Museum.
Posted by courier at 06:35 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
No comments • Permalink
From wikipedia:
Zona Gale (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938) was an American writer. Born in Portage, Wisconsin, which she often used as a setting in her writing, she attended Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Later she entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from which she received a Bachelor of Literature degree in 1895, and four years later a Master's degree.
Life and work
After graduation, Gale wrote for newspapers in Milwaukee and New York City. However, before long she gave up journalism to focus on fiction writing. She then published her first novel,
Romance Island (1906), and began the very popular series of "Friendship Village" stories.
Read Miss Lulu Bett, by Zona Gale, one of
three of her works available free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:16 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
No comments • Permalink
By Fred Tasker
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
MIAMI — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed new labels for sunscreens that would eliminate misleading claims such as "sunblock" and "waterproof" and create a new system for rating products' effectiveness against damaging ultraviolet rays.
The new rules, which must go through a 90-day public comment period, are meant to get sunscreen makers to replace what the FDA has called "unsupported, absolute" claims with less definitive language such as "water resistant" or "very water resistant."
Posted by courier at 06:00 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
New Haven Schools
Back-to-school shopping -- with a twist -- will be going on Saturday in the parking lot at James Logan High School when the New Haven Schools Foundation hosts its monthly Union City Flea Market.
Posted by courier at 02:02 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Rick LaPlante
New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
The Board of Education on Tuesday night received the first annual report on the District’s Strategic Plan, the five-year blueprint for budgeting and decision-making crafted by New Haven students, parents, teachers, classified employees, administrators and other community members and adopted by the Board of Education in 2005-06.
Posted by courier at 11:14 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By John Mark Eberhart
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
No entertainment is so cheap as reading," British writer Lady Mary Wortley Montague wrote two centuries ago, "nor any pleasure so lasting."
Book lovers would argue nothing has changed. Reading requires no Internet connection, no cell phone, hardly a chair.
And now autumn looms, and with it the annual harvest of new books. Here are a few.
QUOTABLE FALL TITLES
"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. Dementia, as it descends, has a way of revealing the core of the person affected by it. My mother's core was rotten like the brackish water at the bottom of a weeks-old vase of flowers." —
"The Almost Moon" by Alice Sebold, author of "The Lovely Bones." "Moon" will be published Oct. 16.
Posted by courier at 08:44 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
1 comment • Permalink
By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
MADDEN NFL 08
Reviewed for: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
Also available for: Every system imaginable
From: Tiburon/EA Sports
ESRB Rating: Everyone
The annual arrival of "Madden" is video gaming's answer to New Year's Day — the opening float in a parade of blockbuster games that runs, non-stop, until after the holidays.
For the first time in three years, it's also a day worth celebrating. After a pair of glitchy and/or feature-starved false starts, "Madden NFL 08" finally (mostly) delivers the kind of next-generation football that owners of next-generation hardware have wanted all along.
Posted by courier at 07:39 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
No comments • Permalink
By David Ovalle, Jacqueline Charles and Martin Merzer
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
Hurricane Dean, a Category Five storm, steams
on its way to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. In this
August 20 image from NASA's QuikScat satellite,
white arrows show wind direction superimposed
on color images of wind speed.
Image credit: NASA/JPLTULUM, Mexico — Tourists fled the Mayan ruins, shack dwellers in remote areas sought sturdier refuge and oil field workers turned off the spigots Monday night as a savage Hurricane Dean launched its attack on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
On the brink of becoming a top-rank Category 5 terror, poised to escalate its assault early Tuesday under cover of darkness, Dean menaced a tourist region called the Maya Riviera, the city of Chetumal and one of the world's most crucial oil operations.
Its work was done in Jamaica, where at least two people died, many houses were shattered or flooded or both, and the cleanup was under way.
Now, it was Mexico's turn. Rain arrived around 5 p.m. EDT, the leading edge of genuine trouble.
Posted by courier at 08:45 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Jacqueline Charles, Jim Wyss, Trenton Daniel and Martin Merzer
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
A group of people fill sand bags as the rain begins
to pour down and Hurricane Dean approaches the
island of Jamaica, Sunday.
Carl Juste/Miami Herald/MCTKINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Dean blasted into Jamaica on Sunday, its initial bursts of rain and wind flooding streets, dimming lights and heralding the arrival of a fierce storm capable of inflicting casualties and extensive damage.
Torrential rain fell in Kingston, flooding the capital's streets. The wind began to pick up, cutting power to street lights and many homes. Forecasters warned of sustained 145 mph blasts of wind.
"Remain calm. Do not panic," the government urged residents early Sunday. "Your ability to act logically is important during stressful events like a hurricane."
Posted by courier at 06:17 PM. Filed under: News
2 comments • Permalink
From The Courier archives:
From MCT Campus:
Posted by courier at 08:00 AM. Filed under: Comics
No comments • Permalink
By Tyler Bridges
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
PISCO, Peru — Peru's prime minister pleaded for emergency aid — "even coffins" — as the toll from the strongest earthquake to hit this country in 35 years climbed Thursday to 510 dead, at least 1,550 injured and tens of thousands homeless.
With both the hospitals and a crowded 18th century church in this city of 130,000 destroyed, two dozen people were being treated on a concrete soccer field across the street from one of the hospitals.
Virtually every block of Pisco appeared to have sustained damage, especially houses and walls made of sun-dried mud bricks. Many residents wandered without purpose, some sobbing, some carrying their belongings, all apparently dazed by the level of destruction.
Posted by courier at 09:32 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Mary Anne Ostrom
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Japanese pioneer in stem cell research is opening a lab in San Francisco, a significant milestone in the state's bid to become an international draw for the world's leading regenerative medicine experts.
Last year, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University was the first to identify genes in mouse skin cells that allow scientists to "reprogram" the cells to an embryonic state from which they could create some tissue types.
Posted by courier at 09:25 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
MIDLAND, Va. — The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.1 percent for the 12 months ending in June, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits.
Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining why, despite healthy job statistics, Americans remain glum about the economy.
Posted by courier at 08:42 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
UNION CITY – Seventh-graders in English/language arts made the biggest improvement among New Haven Unified School District during the 2006-07 school year, according to preliminary STAR (Standardized Testing and Results) scores made public today.
Fifth-grade scores improved across the board – in English/language arts, math and science – and eighth-grade science scores and 11th-grade English/language arts and history/social science scores were also among those that improved.
Overall, results were “mixed,” said Craig Boyan, Director of Assessment and Evaluation, noting that scores declined in some areas, including eighth-grade English/language arts, Algebra II and world history.
View the STAR test results for the New Haven School District.
Posted by courier at 07:29 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Jodi S. Cohen
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — The University of Chicago Press has a hot book on its hands, with some solid advice for U.S. military in Iraq:
Make friends with the Iraqis. Stay out of political and religious arguments. Try speaking in Arabic — even if you're not good at it.
"American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the Iraqis ... like American soldiers or not," the book admonishes.
The advice, which sounds like it could be lifted from a lesson book from the war on terror, was actually written 65 years ago during World War II and recently discovered by the University of Chicago Press. It's called "Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq During World War II."
Posted by courier at 03:03 AM. Filed under: Features
2 comments • Permalink
By Tania Ganguli
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
ORLANDO, Fla. — "I think he's scared to play me," Buccaneers tight end Alex Smith said toward receiver Ike Hilliard's general direction.
Smith sat inside a trailer just outside the Bucs' training-camp practice field at Disney's Wide World of Sports. In front of him were two HDTVs loaded with an advance copy of EA Sports' Madden NFL 08. Hilliard was busy playing someone else when he heard Smith's taunt.
As he stood up, Smith grinned. Hilliard had taken the bait. Deadpan, Hilliard traded controllers with Smith's opponent, ready to make the third-year tight end shut up. He was, however, facing the two-time Madden Bowl champion.
Shutting him up wasn't going to be easy.
Posted by courier at 01:17 PM. Filed under: Features
No comments • Permalink
By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
"NCAA FOOTBALL 08"
Reviewed for: Xbox 360
Also available for: Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Xbox
From: Tiburon/EA Sports
ESRB Rating: Everyone
When it premiered on the Xbox 360 last year, "NCAA Football 07" made waves, but for all the wrong reasons. Grievances ranged from the omission of features from last-generation versions to a framerate that was slow and occasionally prone to choppiness.
What a difference a year makes. Not only has Tiburon righted the framerate on the 360, it's perfected it — to the tune of a gorgeous (and very fast) 60 frames per second that even untrained eyes will recognize at first sight. (The Playstation 3 version runs at only 30 frames per second, but it's entirely playable, if not nearly as drool-worthy, if the 360 version isn't an option.)
Posted by courier at 08:32 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
No comments • Permalink
By Dave Montgomery and Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — Karl Rove's imminent departure as President Bush's closest White House adviser is the latest and most dramatic signal that Bush himself is heading toward the exit as Americans prepare to choose his replacement next year.
Rove's departure — effective at the end of the month — leaves Bush facing the loss of his most trusted political adviser as he heads into the final year and a half of his presidency. The two men have been friends for three decades and have been politically inseparable for the past 14 years.
But Rove, in a telephone interview with McClatchy Newspapers, said he expects to continue to have an advisory role with Bush, who told him, "I know your phone number and you'd better know mine."
Posted by courier at 07:45 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Chris Collins and Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb Saturday killed the governor and police chief of an oil-rich southern Iraqi province that's been a bloody and complex battleground for U.S.-Iraqi security forces and powerful Shiite factions.
Elsewhere, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, added his voice to U.S. claims linking Iran to the deaths of increasing numbers of American troops.
Posted by courier at 07:34 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Jeff Kunerth
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
ORLANDO, Fla. — The head of the nation's oldest and largest black fraternity Saturday called on the black community to ban the N-word from its vocabulary. The offensive racial epithet should be purged from music lyrics, movie dialogue, talk radio and playgrounds, said Darryl R. Matthews Sr., general president of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
"I don't know many ethnic groups other than the black community that use such harsh language with each other and empower other people to think it's OK to use it," Matthews said in an interview following his address to 3,000 fraternity members attending their annual convention in Orlando.
"The word has evil intent. It's not a term of endearment. It is not just symbolic."
Posted by courier at 07:22 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Martin Merzer and Phil Long
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
Astronaut Barbara R. Morgan, STS-118 mission specialist,
smiles for the camera while working on the middeck of
Space Shuttle Endeavour during flight day two activities.
NASA photoCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It took 21 years, but NASA finally redeemed the promise of shuttle Challenger and its lost crew Wednesday evening:
Teacher Barbara Morgan accompanied six astronauts on a field trip that took them 140 miles from home — straight up. They soared into orbit aboard shuttle Endeavour, relaunching the nation's educator-in-space program.
Posted by courier at 11:48 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
Reviewed by Hassina Obaidy, Courier Staff Writer
The spy thriller trilogy which began with
The Bourne Identity ends as Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) continues his journey in finding his true identity while suffering from amnesia, in
The Bourne Ultimatum.
Bourne is an assassin trained by Treadstone, a codename for a government organization. While searching for answers to who he is, Bourne tracks down a journalist named Simon Ross (Padey Considine) who knows everything about Jason Bourne and Treadstone. This is rather inconvenient for U.S. govenrment official Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) who hopes to start a new organization under the codename Blackbriar, following in Treadstone's mold. Then, Vosen sends agent Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) to search for Bourne and Ross before they can learn the program's disturbing secrets.
Posted by courier at 06:36 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
No comments • Permalink
By Andrew Baggarly
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
Barry Bonds follows through on his swing for his
record-setting 756th home run in the fifth inning
against the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park.
(Paul Kitagaki Jr/Sacramento Bee/MCT)SAN FRANCISCO — When Barry Bonds connected on the home run that made him king Tuesday night, thousands of camera flashes sparkled from the stands, each twinkle of light capturing a moment in history.
The historical merits of Bonds' achievement might be viewed in a different light a year, a decade or a generation from now. But for an instant, and the 10-minute celebration that followed, there was no division or indifference — not from the crowd of 43,154 or from those in uniform. There was only an outpouring of adoration, applause and respect for a hometown hero, who followed his father into a San Francisco Giants uniform and literally led a franchise out of the cold.
Posted by courier at 10:48 AM. Filed under: Sports
16 comments • Permalink
By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
"ALL-PRO FOOTBALL 2K8"
For: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
From: Visual Concepts/2K Sports
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ (mild language)
It's been a dark three years for "NFL 2K" fans, who watched their beloved game franchise die a premature death after the NFL granted exclusive licensing access to EA Sports. "NFL 2K5" remains in heavy rotation online, and many gamers cling to the hope that the NFL will change course once the exclusivity deal expires.
In the meantime, 2K has shaken off the rust and produced "All-Pro Football 2K8," which replaces the NFL license with a semi-fictional football universe that includes nearly 250 faces from the league's past.
Posted by courier at 08:12 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
No comments • Permalink
By John Schumacher
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
The 2008 Olympic SealChina has waited years for this chance to welcome the world, showcase its country and deliver a powerhouse athletic team onto the Olympic stage.
The 2008 Summer Olympics begin one year from Wednesday. What should you expect when the world turns its attention to Beijing?
First, some basics. The slogan for the Beijing Games is "One World One Dream." The mascots are the Five Friendlies: Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhuan the Olympic Flame, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope and Nini the Swallow.
The Opening Ceremonies are set for Aug. 8, 2008, at 8:08 p.m. and 8 seconds because, in Chinese culture, the number 8 is connected with prosperity and good fortune. The Games are scheduled to end Aug. 24.
Posted by courier at 07:55 AM. Filed under: Sports
5 comments • Permalink
By Paul Salopek
Chicago Tribune(MCT)
Mosaic of Landsat-5 Images of Ethiopia
USDA imageADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Petroleum nearly killed Eskedar Demissew. Or at least the illusion of it did.
In the pre-dawn gloom of a morning in April, insurgents rousted the stocky truck driver from his tent at a remote oil prospecting camp in Ethiopia's Ogaden desert. They lined him up in the sand with other workers. And without further ceremony, they sprayed them with machine-gun fire.
Demissew survived, just barely, by playing dead. But 74 other people, including nine Chinese contractors, died in one of the worst attacks on an African oil facility in recent memory.
"I will never work in oil again," Demissew said quietly at his tiny house in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where he was popping painkillers and hoping to regain full use of his nerve-damaged arms. "It isn't worth it."
Posted by courier at 03:00 PM. Filed under: News
3 comments • Permalink
From The Courier archives:
Posted by courier at 02:31 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
From wikipedia:
Edward John Eyre (5 August 1815 - 30 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent and a controversial Governor of Jamaica. South Australia's Lake Eyre, Eyre Peninsula, Eyre Creek, and Eyre Highway (the main highway from South Australia to Western Australia) are named in his honour, as are the villages of Eyreton and West Eyreton in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Early life
Eyre was born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, shortly before his family moved to Hornsea, Yorkshire, where he was christened. His parents were Rev. Anthony William Eyre and Sarah (nee Mapleton). After completing grammar school at Louth and Sedbergh, he moved to Sydney rather than join the army or go to university. He gained experience in the new land by boarding with and forming friendships with prominent gentlemen and became a flock owner when he bought 400 lambs a month before his 18th birthday. When South Australia was founded, Eyre brought 1000 sheep and 600 cattle overland from Monaro, New South Wales to Adelaide and sold them for a large profit. He also discovered Lake Eyre.
Read Edward John Eyre's Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans, free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:04 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
1 comment • Permalink
By Ray McDonald, VOA News
McDonalds dropped Twista, right, from its concert
series. Wikipedia imagesMcDonalds has dropped a million-selling rapper from its nationwide concert series.
Citing controversial lyrics, the fast-food giant has released Twista from an appearance in its 10-city series of free concerts across the United States.
The rapper - who reportedly once worked at McDonalds - is known for his lightning-fast delivery in such hit songs as "Overnight Celebrity" and "Slow Jamz," his collaboration with Jamie Foxx and Kanye West. He has used profanity and referenced drugs in some of his lyrics.
Posted by courier at 08:40 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Shelley Schlender, VOA News
Anne Cure raises organic, free range ducks and chickens
on her Colorado farm.Boulder, Colorado —In the United States, food that's grown locally and organically -- without the use of man-made fertilizers and pesticides -- is becoming increasingly popular with consumers. But the supply of organic foods is not keeping up with demand. This is an important issue among farmers and organic industry leaders.
Colorado farmer Anne Cure employs methods that are not in wide use in the U.S. Take her contented flock of quacking ducks and clucking hens. Instead of being caged indoors, night and day, they are kept in a large fenced yard with plenty of places to explore.
Posted by courier at 06:17 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Polya Lesova
MarketWatch (MCT)
NEW YORK — In a landmark victory, Pratibha Patil will become India's first female president after she won almost two-thirds of the votes cast by state assemblies and the country's parliament on Saturday, according to media reports.
Patil, 72, the candidate of the governing Congress Party, defeated incumbent Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, reports said. Patil's candidacy was supported by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
Posted by courier at 05:46 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
From wikipedia:
Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro da Silva di Garibaldi (1821- August 4 1849) was the Brazilian-born wife and comrade-in-arms of Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. Their partnership epitomized the spirit of the 19th century's age of romanticism and revolutionary liberalism.
South American adventures
Anita Ribeiro was born into a poor family of Azorean Portuguese descent, of herdsmen and fishermen in Laguna in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, a year prior to that country's independence from Portugal. She was raised by her mother Aninha do Bentão, who apparently had been abandoned by her husband, Bento "Bentão" Ribeiro da Silva. Anita married Manuel Duarte Aguiar in 1835.
Read more about the lives of Anita and Guiseppe Garibaldi, free from Google Books.
Posted by courier at 12:22 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
No comments • Permalink
By Howard Witt
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Rosario Marroquin with her son, Valentin, 10. Valentin
is in remission from leukemia, which a study has found
to be extremely prevalent in the area around the heavily
industrialized Houston Ship Channel.
Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/MCTHOUSTON — Like so many of their poor and working-class Hispanic neighbors, Rosario Marroquin's family settled in the southeast Houston neighborhood of Manchester a generation ago because the clapboard houses were cheap, the streets were safe, transportation was convenient and downtown was only 20 minutes away.
It was an ideal neighborhood, except for the coughing spells, the nosebleeds, the burning odors and the acrid smoke.
Marroquin's family, like most everyone else in the neighborhood, did their best to ignore all that, because few could afford to move anywhere else. And they tried not to notice the dozens of oil refineries, petrochemical plants and waste disposal sites expanding all around them, their towering smokestacks and huge storage tanks lining the Houston Ship Channel, the city's principal outlet to the sea.
But then the cancers started to appear. First the neighbor in back, then another across the street, then a boy down the block. And finally, in 2003, Marroquin's son, Valentin, came down with leukemia at the age of 6.
Posted by courier at 05:48 AM. Filed under: News
6 comments • Permalink
Reviewed by Jamie Maxfield, Courier Staff Writer
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Reading level: Young Adult
Hardcover
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books; 1st edition (July 21, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0545010225
ISBN-13: 978-0545010221
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a dazzling story full of twists and turns that never end. It will have you hooked from the first page to the last word. Being the final book in the series of seven, it reveals many secrets and answers to some of the most anticipated questions throughout this epic tale.
Harry and his two companions, Ron and Hermione, make the decision not to return to Hogwarts for their final year of school. Instead they decide to embark on a dangerous mission to kill the Dark Lord, Voldemort. The fearsome Death Eaters plan to capture Harry on the night of his seventeenth birthday, the same night that Harry is supposed to leave his family, the Dursleys, and his house on Privet Drive for the last time.
Posted by courier at 05:34 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
8 comments • Permalink
By Jane Henderson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)
ST. LOUIS — There should be a secret handshake.
Something to let other readers know whether it's safe to discuss the finer plot points of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
It's too late for publishers to try to copyright a handshake. The book went on sale at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, and the book phenomenon of a lifetime has been reported and rehashed worldwide.
But when can readers safely talk about the story itself? For true fans, the exciting buildup to "Deathly Hallows" was a mere appetizer. They have the real meal now. So how long should the public — readers, 24-hour media and critics — keep Potter secrets?
Posted by courier at 02:44 AM. Filed under: Features
No comments • Permalink
From wikipedia:
Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 - January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician, and author of the book Two Years Before the Mast.
He was born into one of the first families of Cambridge, Massachusetts, grandson of Francis Dana, and attended Harvard College. Having trouble with his vision after a bout of the measles, he thought a voyage might help his failing sight. Rather than going on a Grand Tour of Europe, in 1834 he left Harvard to enlist as a common sailor on a voyage around Cape Horn to the then-remote California, at that time still a part of Mexico. He set sail on the brig
Pilgrim (180 tons, 86.5 feet long), visited a number of settlements in California (including Monterey, San Pedro, San Juan Capistrano, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara), and returned to Massachusetts two years later as a deckhand on the
Indiaman Alert, after making a winter passage around Cape Horn. He set foot back in Boston in September 1836.
Read Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, free from Project Gutenberg.
Posted by courier at 12:59 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
No comments • Permalink
