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From wikipedia:
Prudence Crandall (September 3, 1803 - January 28, 1890), a schoolteacher raised as a Quaker, stirred controversy with her education of African-American girls in Canterbury, Connecticut. Her private school, opened in the fall of 1831, was boycotted when she admitted a 17-year-old African-American female student in the autumn of 1833; resulting in what is widely regarded as the first integrated classroom in the United States.

Prudence Crandall was born on September 3, 1803 to Pardon and Esther Carpenter Crandall, a Quaker couple in the Hope Valley area in the town of Hopkinton, Rhode Island. At the age of 17, her father decided to move the family to the small town of Canterbury, Connecticut. She attended the Friends' Boarding School in Providence, Rhode Island and later taught in a school for girls in Canterbury. In 1831, she returned to run the newly established Canterbury Female Boarding School, which she purchased with her sister, Almira.


Read more about Prudence Crandall at ConnectKids, the official State of Connecticut website for children.Integration of the boarding school
In the fall of 1832, a young woman by the name of Sarah Harris, the daughter of a free African American farmer in the local community, asked to be accepted to the school in order to prepare for teaching other African Americans. Her father owned a small farm near Canterbury, and Harris even attended the same district school as the white girls who were attending Crandall's school as teenagers. Clearly, the only difference between Harris and the other white pupils was their skin color.

Although she was uncertain of the repercussions that this would cause,[ Crandall eventually allowed Harris to join her school. Following her admission, many prominent townspeople objected and pressured to have Harris dismissed from the school, but Crandall refused. Families of the current students removed their daughters.

Consequently, Crandall ceased teaching white girls altogether and open up her school strictly to African American girls. Crandall temporarily closed the school and began openly recruiting students on March 2, 1833, when William Lloyd Garrison, a supporter of the school, placed advertisements for new pupils in his newspaper The Liberator.[5] Her advertisement announced that on the first Monday of April 1833 she would open a school “for the reception of young ladies and little misses of color, ... Terms, $25 per quarter, one half paid in advance.” In the list of references were the names of Arthur Tappan, Samuel J. May, William Lloyd Garrison, and Arnold Buffum.

As word of the school passed down the Atlantic Seaboard, African American families began sending their daughters from out of state to the school. On April 1, 1833, twenty African-American girls from Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, and surrounding areas in Connecticut arrived at Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Misses of Color.

The new school
With the school now open, Crandall was teaching a variety of subjects including reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, history, natural and moral philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, drawing and painting, music and the piano, and even the French language. The students were required to pay $25 per quarter, paying half of that sum in advance. This money covered tuition, board, and washing, while books and stationery were purchased and provided to the girls at a discounted price. Crandall's excitement and sense of accomplishment at running a school to help young black women was short-lived because of the immediate ostracism and criticism she faced from her community, and even the state.

Public backlash
Citizens of Canterbury at first protested the school and then held town meetings "to devise and adopt such measures as would effectually avert the nuisance, or speedily abate it..." Unable to shake Ms. Crandall's spirit, the town response escalated into warnings, threats,and acts of violence against the school. Crandall was faced with great local opposition and they had no plans to back down.

On May 24, 1833 the Connecticut Legislature passed "The Black Law" prohibiting such a school with African American students from outside the state without the town's permission. In July, Crandall was arrested and placed in the county jail for one night and then released under bond to await her trials.

Under Black Law, the townspeople refused any amenities to the students or Crandall, closing their shops and meeting houses to them. Stage drivers also refused to provide them with transportation and even the town doctors would not attend to their needs. To make matters worse, the townspeople also poisoned the school's well—its only water source—with animal feces and then prevented Crandall from obtaining any water from other sources. It was difficult for Crandall to run her school when she had no resources to keep it standing. But she continued to teach the young women angering the community even further.

Crandall's students also suffered from the injustices of their environment. One 17-year-old student, Anna Eliza Hammond, was even arrested at one point; however, with the help of New York abolitionist Samuel May, she was able to post bail bonds with through collections and donations of $10,000.

In response to a local reverend's support of Crandall, lauded Connecticut politician Andrew T. Judson, stated that,"...we are not merely opposed to the establishment of that school in Canterbury; we mean there shall not be such a school set up anywhere in our state. The colored people can never rise from their menial condition in our country."

Judicial proceedings
At word of Crandall's trials, a prominent abolitionist, Arthur Tappan of New York, donated $10,000 to hire the ablest lawyers to defend Crandall throughout her trials, the first of which opened at the Windham County Court on August 23, 1833. Constitutionality of the Connecticut law regarding the education of African Americans was the driving force of the cases.

The defense argued that African Americans were citizens in other states, so therefore there was no reason why they should not be considered as such in Connecticut. Thus, they focused on the deprivation of their rights under the United States Constitution. In contrast, the prosecution denied the fact that freed African-Americans were citizens in any state, and the county court jury ultimately failed to reach a decision for the cases.

Although a second trial in Superior Court decided against the school, the case was taken to the Supreme Court of Errors on appeal in July of 1834. At the conclusion of this appeal, the Supreme Court of Connecticut reversed the decision of the lower court, dismissing the case on July 22 on the grounds of a lack of evidence.

The judicial process had not stopped the operation of the Canterbury school, but the townspeople's violence against it increased. The windows were smashed with heavy iron bars as the vandalism continued. The public was so angry at the dismissal of the case that on September 9, the school was set on fire. For the safety of her students, her family and her self, Prudence Crandall decided to close her school on September 10, 1834.

Later years
In August of the same year the school closed, Prudence Crandall married the Rev. Calvin Phileo. Mr. and Mrs. Philleo moved out of state to Massachusetts, then lived in New York, Rhode Island, and finally Illinois, where Calvin Phileo died. Following the death of her husband, Prudence Crandall Philleo relocated to Kansas.

Connecticut repealed the Black Law in 1838, and later recognized Prudence Crandall with an act of the state legislature, prominently supported by Mark Twain, providing her with a $400 yearly pension in 1886 (about $9,500 in 2009 dollars)
Legacy

Crandall's school still stands in Canterbury, Connecticut, and currently serves as the Prudence Crandall museum, run by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. The Prudence Crandall House in Canterbury, Connecticut, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

In Enfield, Connecticut, an elementary school of Enfield Public Schools carries the namesake Prudence Crandall Elementary School.

In 1995, the Connecticut General Assembly designated Prudence Crandall as the state's official heroine.]]> In Quotes http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6437 Fri, 3 Sep 2010 00:15:00 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6435

By Farah Habad, Courier Music Editor

Wale Folarin, a prominent rapper under Jay-Z's label Roc Nation, released yet another mixtape with a Jerry Seinfeld theme. Entitled “More About Nothing” he brings about a new, distinct style to his work.

Twenty one original songs, many of which have sampled beats, defy the new wave of music played on hip hop radio stations. With no autotune and no cliché rhymes, he reinstills realness into his music.

There is also a buffet of collaborations on the mixtape. From Wiz Khalifa and Wacka Flocka Flame to Melanie Fiona and NBA star Kevin Durant, Wale shows his versatility by teaming up with a variety of artists. In the song “The Black and Gold” he takes a techno beat - something that you would never ever see a rap song based off of - and flips it into a club banger.

On another token, the song “The Eye of the Tiger” begins with the voicemails Tiger Woods allegedly left on a woman’s phone, making a song about infidelity. Wale shows that hip hop doesn’t always need a beat. And in the track “The Ambitious Girl” he puts a piece of slam poetry on his mixtape.

It’s an instant classic that shouldn’t be looked over. “More About Nothing” gets 10 stars in my book.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6435 Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:33:50 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6433
MISCELLANEOUS
Parking: Student parking is in the swim center lot, in the spaces marked by white lines only. Parking permits are available at the Main Office window, during posted hours. There is limited staff parking in the new lot next to the Performing Arts Center. Please park in your designated spots. Example: Clerical is reserved for clerical employees only. There are a number of generic staff spots.

All students: If you were issued a locker and you don’t want it or won’t use it, please turn it in to Mrs. Whitaker in the Main Office.

P.E. Clothes are available at the windows in the Main Office before school, after school and lunchtime.
Yearbooks are on sale for $80. Buy yours in Room 44 after school.

If you have an OFF CAMPUS ROP class, you MUST get your orange ROP sticker and bus information from Mrs. Hart in the Career Center before leaving the Logan campus.

ACTIVITIES
If you are interested in learning Mexican/Latino Folklorico Dance and would like to join the Ballet Folklorico, orientation meeting is Wednesday, September 8th at 3:45 in the Pavilion Dance Studio. For more info, see Mr. Huertas in House 1.

Get in Shape! Join Cross Country. See Coach Webb on the track after school.

SENIORS
Seniors, do you want your portrait in the yearbook? If so, the deadline to have your photo taken at Prestige is Friday, October 1st.
]]> Daily Bulletin http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6433 Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:33:00 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6434
By Kevin C. Johnson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)
There was a time early in the career of folky-pop group She & Him when all anyone wanted to talk about was the involvement of front woman Zooey Deschanel.

Initially, she was yet another movie star who dared to step out and be in a band.
"When we were doing press a few years ago," says guitarist-producer M. Ward, "about half the questions were about how bad Bruce Willis' records were and stuff like that."

Ward says Deschanel's transition to music is not the focus anymore.

"I think people are forgetting about that, and that's good," he says. "There's good and bad examples of all kinds of music. And I think Zooey is definitely an inspiration for a lot of people who may be trapped into doing one thing in the creative arts."

She & Him have no credibility issues these days after delivering its sophomore effort, "Volume Two," which picks up where 2008's "Volume One" left off.

Together, Ward and Deschanel have created a sun-splashed brand of '60s-flavored pop that's as fresh as it is familiar in its coffeehouse appeal. "Volume Two" includes 11 originals and two covers — NRBQ's "Ridin' in My Car" and Skeeter Davis' "Gonna Get Along Without You Now."

Of their feel-good music, Ward says "some people have called it 'arena folk,' which we like. It's a little tongue-in-cheek, but it's OK."

Some have compared it with the legendary the Mamas & the Papas. The comparison seems fair, though Ward isn't so quick to embrace it.

"I'm not their No. 1 fan, but they have good songs," he says. "But I don't know a lot of their stuff, to be honest."

Ward does concede their influences run old. His favorite producers are heavy-hitting legends such as George Martin, Quincy Jones and Phil Spector.

And when it comes to guitarists, the first name he mentions is Chuck Berry.
"I can't say enough about Chuck Berry — the voice, the lyrics, the guitar playing, the looseness," Ward says. "He's genius. When I first started playing guitar, I was learning Beatles songs like 'Roll Over Beethoven' and 'Rock and Roll Music,' Chuck Berry songs the Beatles covered. I've been digging deeper in his catalog ever since."

Ward says he and Deschanel share that affinity for older sounds and styles. But beyond that, they come from different worlds. His background is all music, which he's been doing for the past decade.

Deschanel, meanwhile, was making a name for herself in Hollywood in the movies "Elf," "Yes Man," "Failure to Launch," "The Happening" and "(500) Days of Summer."
"Somehow, it seems to work — it clicks," he says of the pairing. "It's hard to put my finger on exactly why.

"My job is to produce, to follow the song or the demo where it wants to go. Zooey writes the songs for the project, and I treat her demos the same way I treat mine. I listen to them over and over and try to discover their character and use my imagination to fill in the blanks, think about what might have inspired the songs."

(c) 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide Web at http://www.stltoday.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6434 Thu, 2 Sep 2010 07:40:57 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6431
From wikipedia:
Horace Silver (born September 2, 1928), born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer.

Silver is known for his distinctive humorous and funky playing style and for his pioneering compositional contributions to hard bop. He was influenced by a wide range of musical styles, notably gospel music, African music, and Latin American music and sometimes ventured into the soul jazz genre.

Visit HoraceSilver.comHis father, who was known as John Tavares Silva, was from the island of Maio in Cape Verde. His mother was born in New Canaan, Connecticut and was of Irish-African descent.

Silver began his career as a tenor saxophonist but later switched to piano. His tenor saxophone playing was highly influenced by Lester Young, and his piano style by Bud Powell. Silver was discovered in the Sundown Club in Hartford, Connecticut in 1950 by saxophonist Stan Getz. Getz was playing at the club with Silver’s trio backing him up. Getz liked Silver’s band and brought them on the road, eventually recording three of Silver’s compositions. It was with Getz that Silver made his recording debut.

He moved to New York City in 1951, where he worked at the jazz club Birdland on Monday nights, when different musicians would come together and informally jam. During that year he met the executives of the label Blue Note while working as a sideman. He eventually signed with them where he remained until 1980. It was in New York that he formed The Jazz Messengers, a co-operatively run group with Art Blakey.

In 1952 and 1953 he recorded three sessions with his own trio, featuring Blakey on drums and Gene Ramey, Curly Russell and Percy Heath on bass. The drummer-pianist team lasted for four years; during this time, Silver and Blakey recorded at Birdland (A Night at Birdland Vol. 1) with Russell, Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson, at the Bohemia with Kenny Dorham and Hank Mobley, and also in the studios. He was also a member of the Miles Davis All Stars, recording the crucial Walkin' in 1954.

Blue Note years
From 1956 onwards, Silver recorded exclusively for the Blue Note label, eventually becoming close to label boss Alfred Lion who allowed him greater input on aspects of album production than was usual at the time. During his years with Blue Note, Silver helped to create the rhythmically forceful branch of jazz known as "hard bop", which combined elements of rhythm-and-blues and gospel music with jazz. Gospel elements are particularly prominent on one of his biggest hits, "The Preacher", which Lion thought corny, but Silver persuaded him to record it.

While Silver's compositions at this time featured surprising tempo shifts and a range of melodic ideas, they caught the attention of a wide audience. Silver's own piano playing easily shifted from aggressively percussive to lushly romantic within just a few bars. At the same time, his sharp use of repetition was funky even before that word could be used in polite company. Along with Silver's own work, his bands often featured such rising jazz stars as saxophonists Junior Cook and Hank Mobley, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and drummer Louis Hayes. Some of his key albums from this period included Horace Silver Trio (1953), Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers (1955), 6 Pieces of Silver (1956) and Blowin' the Blues Away (1959), which includes his famous, "Sister Sadie." He also combined jazz with a sassy take on pop through the 1961 hit, "Filthy McNasty".

Influences
Silver tended not to play up that he was proficient in Portuguese, nor draw directly on his rich Lusophone musical upbringing. His 1965 hit, "Cape Verdean Blues," is the only clear rhythmic reference to his childhood home where his father and friends jammed, with traditional Capeverdean morna and coladeira as the main fare. In the interview for the liner notes to 1964's Song for My Father (Cantiga Para Meu Pai), however, Silver remarked of the title track, "This tune is an original of mine, but it has a flavor of it that makes me think of my childhood days. Some of the family, including my father and my uncle, used to have musical parties with three or four stringed instruments; my father played violin and guitar. Those were happy, informal sessions." Silver melded additional Lusophone influences into his music directly after his February 1964 tour of Brazil. Referring to "Song for My Father," Silver said, "I was very much impressed by the authentic bossa nova beat. Not just the monotonous tick-tick-tick, tick-tick, the way it's usually done, but the real bossa nova feeling, which I've tried to incorporate into this number."

His early influences included the styles of boogie-woogie and the blues. It includes but is not limited to Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Nat “King” Cole, and Thelonious Monk. He liked to quote other musicians within his own work and would often recreate famous solos in his original pieces as something of a tribute to the greats who influenced him.

During Silver's time with Blakey he rarely recorded as a leader, but after splitting with him in 1956, formed his own hard bop quintet at first featuring the same line-up as Blakey's Jazz Messengers with 18-year-old Louis Hayes substituting for Blakey. The quintet's more enduring line-up featured Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook.

In 1963 Silver created a new group featuring Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Carmell Jones on trumpet; this quintet recorded most of Silver's best-known album Song for My Father. When Jones left to settle in Europe, the trumpet chair was filled by a young Woody Shaw and Tyrone Washington replaced Henderson.

Silver's compositions, catchy and very strong harmonically, gained popularity while his band gradually switched to funk and soul. This change of style was not readily accepted by many long-time fans. The quality of several albums of this era, such as The United States of Mind (on which Silver himself provided vocals on several tracks), is to this day contested by fans of the genre. Silver's spirituality displayed on these albums also has a mixed reputation. However, many of these later albums featured many interesting musicians (such as Randy Brecker). Silver was the last musician to be signed to Blue Note in the 1970s before it went into temporary abeyance. In 1981 he formed his own short-lived label, Silveto.

Later years
After Silver's long tenure with Blue Note ended, he continued to create vital music. The 1985 album, Continuity of Spirit (Silveto), features his unique orchestral collaborations. In the 1990s, Silver directly answered the urban popular music that had been largely built from his influence on It's Got To Be Funky (Columbia, 1993). Now living surrounded by a devoted family in California, Silver has received much of the recognition due a venerable jazz icon. In 2005, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) gave him its President's Merit Award. The SFJazz Collective will focus on Horace Silver's music for their 2010 season.

Legacy
Silver's music has been a major force in modern jazz on at least four counts. He was one of the first pioneers of the style known as Hard Bop, influencing such pianists as Bobby Timmons, Les McCann, and Ramsey Lewis. Second, the instrumentation of his quintet (trumpet, tenor sax, piano, double bass, and drums) served as a model for small jazz groups from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s. Further, Silver's ensembles provided an important training ground for young players, many of whom (such as Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, Junior Cook, and Joe Henderson) later led similar groups of their own. Finally, Silver refined the art of composing and arranging for his chosen instrumentation to a level of craftsmanship as yet unsurpassed in jazz.

Silver's talent did not go unnoticed among rock musicians who bore jazz influences, either; Steely Dan sent Silver into the Top 40 in the early 1970s when they crafted their biggest hit single, "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number," off the bass riff that opens "Song for My Father."

As social and cultural upheavals shook the nation during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Silver responded to these changes through music. He commented directly on the new scene through a trio of records called United States of Mind (1970-1972) that featured the spirited vocals of Andy Bey. The composer got deeper into cosmic philosophy as his group, Silver 'N Strings, recorded Silver 'N Strings Play The Music of the Spheres (1979).
]]> In Quotes http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6431 Thu, 2 Sep 2010 00:25:00 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6432
AFP Photo


By Nancy A. Youssef and Sahar Issa
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military Wednesday marked the end of its combat mission in Iraq amid a series of conflicting messages that underscored the mixed feelings many here, both American and Iraqi, have toward a seven-and-a-half-year effort that cost tens of thousands of lives but left the political outcome undecided.

"The problem with this war for, I think, many Americans is that the premise on which we justified going to war proved not to be valid, that is Saddam (Hussein) having weapons of mass destruction," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters as he hopped from one stripped-down U.S. military base to another greeting American troops.

"So when you start from that standpoint, then figuring out in retrospect how you deal with the war - even if the outcome is a good one from the standpoint of the United States - it will always be clouded by how it began."Iraqis, too, expressed ambivalence about the U.S. declaration that combat operations now would be giving way to "partnering efforts" led by Iraqis and would lead to the complete withdrawal of the remaining 50,000 American troops by the end of 2011.

"I am torn," said Widad Hameed, a retired high school teacher. "I am strongly opposed to the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi sovereign soil - and therefore hope to see them leave as quickly as possible. This is on principle.

"But on the other hand, I am afraid of what might happen after they leave. I have no great faith in the abilities of the (Iraqi Security Forces) and feel that the chaos in our political situation will be reflected upon the security scene as the politicians slug it out and violence will rise and the people will pay."

On Wednesday, Gates, Vice President Joe Biden and other top military leaders, including Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presided over a ceremony that passed command of U.S. forces from Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno to Gen. Lloyd Austin. Operation Iraqi Freedom became Operation New Dawn, and the American military mission here became one of training their Iraqi counterparts as U.S. forces draw down to zero.

Hundreds of troops gathered for the hourlong ceremony inside a palace at Camp Victory. As Iraq's ministers of defense and interior looked on, Biden declared an end to the U.S. combat mission and said that the U.S. sought an "economically prosperous and stable" Iraq.
In his speech, Odierno, who Gates said had spent nearly five of the past seven years in Iraq, said he's confident that Iraqi security forces, now numbering 660,000, can protect the country. Austin, in his speech, said the next phase is the start of an "enduring relationship" between Iraq and the U.S.

Everyone, however, remained cautious about the road ahead.

A senior commander told reporters traveling with Gates that while combat operations are officially over, U.S. forces partnered with Iraqis could still face fire - and would return it.
"Partnered operation is the lexicon we are trying to introduce," another commander said.

Both spoke to on the condition of anonymity as a matter of policy.

When Gates traveled to Ramadi by helicopter, his staff wore helmets and flak vests. During a question-and-answer period with troops, Gates told soldiers they still deserved combat pay, even as he told them they were now trainers, not fighters.

Asked if it had all been worth it, Gates suggested it was too early to judge.

"It really requires a historian's perspective in terms of what happens here in the long run," he said. "I think that where we are today that our men and women in uniform believe we have accomplished something that makes the sacrifice and the bloodshed not to have been in vain. How it all weighs in the balance over time remains to be seen."

Iraqis, too, offered a mixed interpretation of Wednesday's turnover. Many said they worried that insurgent forces still seem to be able to attack at will, as they did last week when they launched simultaneous attacks on 14 cities, leaving more than 200 people killed or injured. They expressed concern that six months after holding an election, Iraq's politicians have yet to form a new government.

Others, however, said they're thrilled that the end of the U.S. occupation appears closer.
"The departure of the occupation forces will mark the beginning of our path toward stability, and not the other way around," said Falah Hasen Shenshel, a follower of the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia often clashed with American troops in the early years of the war. "All the confusion and disorder that we are witnessing is a result of the occupation and the wrongful presence of foreign forces on our land, and not the other way around."

He added, "I cannot say that the (security forces) are 100 percent ready - they are not. But this should not be an excuse to extend the indignity of being an occupied country."
Some members of the Iraqi Army said they're less certain and worried that Iraq's political instability is bleeding into their forces.

"The Army is riddled with officers who have no loyalty to Iraq or Iraqis but to their own political parties and affiliations," said Qaswar Abu Tariq, 31, an officer in the Iraqi Army. "It cannot function as one unified command because it isn't - It was built wrong."
Tariq said officers were selected not for their ability but because of their political affiliation - "as if in a quota, a number to appease each party."

"People have a right to be afraid," he said.

Answering questions from reporters, Gates acknowledged that the Iraq war is a long way from over.

"This is going to be a work in progress for a long time," he said.]]> News http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6432 Wed, 1 Sep 2010 12:15:17 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6430
MRI of same brain slice at monthly
intervals. Bright spots within the
brain tissue indicate active lesions.
U.S. Brookhaven National Laboratory image

By Amina Khan
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES — Multiple sclerosis, a disease in which a person's own immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord, is a lifelong problem — but its effects can be highly seasonal, researchers say.

Between March and August, patients suffering from multiple sclerosis were two to three times more likely to develop brain lesions than during the rest of the year, according to the paper published in the Aug. 31 issue of the journal Neurology.

The scientists looked for new T2 lesions in 939 MRI exams of 44 patients, taken between 1991 and 1993. The study found that the disease's intensity also rose in the summer months, and appeared to be linked to solar radiation (which includes sunlight), as well as temperature.

The research was unique and unlikely to be repeated, Anne Cross, a neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, wrote in an editorial on the study. Because certain drugs currently taken by multiple sclerosis patients weren't readily available in the early 1990s, this data would not be complicated by the presence of those now-common medications.

Scientists trying to set up studies examining multiple sclerosis will now have to consider seasonal variability, Cross wrote.

Case in point: Say researchers conduct a study on a drug that could potentially help multiple sclerosis patients. If that study lasts just six months, from summer into winter, any positive effects may simply be due to cooling weather and less sunlight, not to the drug's effectiveness.

Cross added that the research could ultimately lead to "important clues regarding the mechanisms of disease progression in MS."

(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.]]> News http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6430 Wed, 1 Sep 2010 10:08:05 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6428
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic
(400 pages, $17.99)
By Susan Carpenter
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

Almost two years after Suzanne Collins first burst onto bestseller lists with her dystopian young-adult thriller in which 24 children are dressed up in costumes and forced to compete to the death before a television audience, "Mockingjay," the final act of the "Hunger Games" trilogy, has arrived, bringing a wrenching conclusion to the tale of a country in chaos and the 17-year-old protagonist who caused it.

Fans aren't likely to be disappointed.


Difficult as it would seem to top the ingenuity and action-packed, edge-of-your-seat storyline of "The Hunger Games," or the continued, in-the-ring thrill ride of its follow-up, "Catching Fire," "Mockingjay" leaves the government's kid-on-kid hunting grounds and heads into the destitute reality of the districts, which have come under heavy fire from the Capitol for rising up against its superficial and oppressive leadership.

Opening with the dreary aftermath of "Catching Fire's" concluding line, "Mockingjay" begins with Katniss Everdeen wandering through the wreckage of her district 12 hometown, tripping over skulls and breathing in the ashes of the incinerated bodies that used to be her neighbors. More than 90 percent of those neighbors are dead; the rest have been relocated to district 13, an area that was thought to be abandoned but is very much alive. Forced underground 75 years earlier in an era known as the Dark Days — an era that led to the annual children's bloodletting known as the Hunger Games — district 13's residents have spurred the present uprising, and they're looking to Katniss to rile up the rest of the districts and overthrow the pale-skinned President Snow, who's made no secret of his dislike for Katniss and her rebellious unpredictability.

Snow has captured Peeta — the boy Katniss didn't kill in the first Hunger Games, and with whom Katniss is in love. Or is she? Like the first two books in the series, "Mockingjay" continues the love triangle between Katniss, a headstrong nihilist forced to save her country from self-inflicted annihilation; Peeta, the fresh-faced and sweet-hearted boy whom she kissed in front of the omnipresent cameras; and Gale, the hunting partner with whom she grew up who could easily become something more. It takes a while, but "Mockingjay" finally settles the question of Katniss' true affections.

And it takes some truly surprising twists and turns to get there. Unfolding in Collins' engaging, intelligent prose and assembled into chapters that end with didn't-see-that-coming cliffhangers, this finale is every bit the pressure cooker of its forebears. Where "The Hunger Games" set the stage for the unusual post-apocalyptic world in which Katniss first rose up from her inconsequential and impoverished life as an ace archer to win fame as a killer with a heart (and to become an unpredictable antihero for the masses), and "Catching Fire" uses that same stage to prime the pump for a brewing rebellion, "Mockingjay" takes readers into new territories and an even more brutal and confusing world: one where it's unclear what sides the characters are on, where presumed loyalties are repeatedly stood on their head.

While there's no doubt "Mockingjay" is fictional, with its surgically altered cast of characters and a host of Armageddon-esque settings and clever gadgets that would be equally appropriate in a James Bond film, the series' conclusion is the clearest interpretation of Collins' inspiration for the series, which was born from channel surfing between reality TV and news coverage of the Iraq war, where the lines between young people competing for money and young people fighting in an actual war blurred in the author's mind.

Much of the action takes place on a battlefield akin to Iraq — where innocent civilians are murdered to further a cause and each side resorts to unsavory tactics that could lead to a terrorist label. More maudlin than the first two books in the series, "Mockingjay" is also the most violent and bloody and, based on the actions and statements of its characters, its most overtly antiwar — though not so much that it distracts from a series conclusion that is nearly as shocking, and certainly every bit as original and thought provoking, as "The Hunger Games."

Wow.

(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.]]> Entertainment http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6428 Wed, 1 Sep 2010 07:49:05 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6429
From wikipedia: Ron O'Neal (September 1, 1937 in Utica, New York – January 14, 2004 in Los Angeles, California) was an American actor, director and screenwriter. O'Neal is most remembered for his starring role as Youngblood Priest in the blaxploitation film Super Fly, although he also had recurring roles on the television show Living Single as Synclaire's father and as Whitley Gilbert's father on A Different World.



Watch an interview with Ron O'Neal, free from WGBH.He died in 2004 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 66 on the same day Super Fly was released on DVD in the US.]]> In Quotes http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6429 Wed, 1 Sep 2010 00:57:00 -1000 http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6427
MICELLANEOUS

WELCOME BACK STUDENTS AND STAFF!
Parking: Student parking is in the swim center lot only. Parking permits are available at the Main Office window, during posted hours. There is limited staff parking in the new lot next to the Performing Arts Center. Please park in your designated spots. Example: Clerical are reserved for clerical employees only. There are a number of generic staff spots.

All students: If you were issued a locker and you don’t want it or won’t use it, please turn it in to Mrs. Whitaker in the Main Office.

P.E. Clothes are available at the windows in the Main Office before school, after school and lunchtime.


Yearbooks are on sale for $80. Buy yours in Room 44 after school.

If you have an OFF CAMPUS ROP class, you MUST get your orange ROP sticker and bus information from Mrs. Hart in the Career Center before leaving the Logan campus.

ACTIVITIES
If you are interested in learning Mexican/Latino Folklorico Dance and would like to join the Ballet Folklorico, orientation meeting is Wednesday, September 8th at 3:45 in the Pavilion Dance Studio. For more info, see Mr. Huertas in House 1.

Get in Shape! Join Cross Country. See Coach Webb on the track after school.

SENIORS
Seniors, do you want your portrait in the yearbook? If so, the deadline to have your photo taken at Prestige is Friday, October 1st.]]> Daily Bulletin http://jameslogancourier.org/index.php?itemid=6427 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:35:54 -1000