The James Logan Courier

By Robert S. Boyd
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Most people think of fruit flies as annoying little pests zipping around bananas or grapes on the kitchen counter. But to biologists, they're diamonds on the wing.

These miniature aerial acrobats have been a basic tool of biomedical research for nearly a century. They've unlocked many secrets of animal and human genetics, development and evolution, and they continue to provide valuable insights into cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and neurological disorders.

Fruit fly researchers have won two Nobel Prizes, in 1933 and 1995.

By Charles Yi, Courier Film Reviewer

"Drillbit Taylor", directed by Steven Brill and based on an original idea by John Hughes, is a comedy starring Owen Wilson.

The film revolves around three nerds, Ryan, Wade, and Emmit, during their first year of high school, a tortuous experience where a sadistic bully, Filkins, makes it his sole mission to humiliate the three every chance he gets. Tired of the constant hazing, Ryan, Wade, and Emmit pool their money together to hire a bodyguard. They select Drillbit Taylor, a supposed former soldier and martial arts master, out of several more qualified candidates. Unfortunately for the nerd herd, Taylor is just a homeless man whose real intent in becoming their bodyguard is to rob their houses. However, over time, Taylor's soft spot for the boys and a romance with an English teacher at their school MIGHT result in a change of heart.

From wikipedia:
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793–December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his "discovery" in 1832 of the source of the Mississippi River. He married Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, who was Ojibwe and Irish-American. Her knowledge of the Ojibwe language and of Ojibwe legends, which she shared with Schoolcraft, formed in part the source material for Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha.


Read Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers by Henry Schoolcraft, free from Project Gutenberg.