This is the archive for July 2008
By Michael Martinez
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
LOS ANGELES — I came in search of my inner geek.
But was it too late?
Gone were the booth babes, flame-eaters and pyrotechnics.
The $40 billion video game industry's annual convention used to be a house party gone wild — with mom and dad away.
Posted by courier at 02:31 PM. Filed under: Features
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A woman operates a pump to mist
tomato vines at a farm in Changping,
China, providing vegetables to the
Beijing Olympic Village.Tim Johnson/MCT
CHANGPING, China — Guards carefully monitor the perimeter of Lin Yuan's farm, where carrots, peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables will ripen just in time for the hungry athletes arriving for the Beijing Summer Olympics.
"What is special now is the security," Lin said as he strolled out of a greenhouse and pointed to sentries at the farm's entry gate.
Posted by courier at 07:00 PM. Filed under: Features
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Brandon Keeler, 18, on the first hole at the
Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan.
Andre J. Jackson/Detroit Free Press/MCT
Detroit Free Press (MCT)
DETROIT — You might think $800,000 in scholarships is a bit extreme. You might think the scholar is a nerd. Well, think again. Meet Brandon Keeler of Detroit.
Brandon, 18, graduated from Renaissance High School in Detroit last month with a 3.8 grade point average. He has been accepted to seven colleges — five of them offered him full tuition or more for four years — and has won more than 10 other scholarships. He plans to go to Yale University.
Posted by courier at 06:48 PM. Filed under: Features
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Hundreds of Heads (MCT)
Need help getting into college? Here's some advice about what to leave out of your admissions essays, from the book "How to Survive Getting into College" (Hundreds of Heads Books, www.hundredsofheads.com, $13.95), straight from people who've done it. Here are some things you shouldn't include:
"Anything about boyfriends or music camp."
—Christiana, New York, N.Y., Columbia University
Posted by courier at 04:20 PM. Filed under: Features
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Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?
(And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)
by Jared Bernstein
Berrett-Koehler, 225 pages ($26.95)
Economics may be the dismal science, but the extent of its politicization makes it even more dismal. Business is what moves the world, and the vitality of commercial enterprise ensures our well-being, but Americans like to think that we're different. We value the individual, extol hard work and believe that the middle class runs the show. But tax cuts are given to offset minimum-wage increases, and arms manufacturing programs are maintained for economic and political reasons contrary to actual defense exigencies or strategic requirements. And health care? Why is it the fastest growing portion of personal — and the federal government's — budgets?
Posted by courier at 04:03 PM. Filed under: Features
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By Mike Cassidy
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
Yelp? Bill Kellinger is ready to scream.
Kellinger and his wife, Selena, own Razzberry Lips, a shop in San Jose, Calif., that specializes in birthday parties featuring beauty makeovers for little girls.
Not long ago a party for an 8-year-old went badly. A few of the guests arrived late and had to settle for partial makeovers. One of the store's teenage employees was in a foul mood. Selena Kellinger, who usually oversees the parties, was out of the store that day.
Posted by courier at 07:16 AM. Filed under: Features
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A Florida Panther and her cubs on
the Picayune Strand.
Conservancy of Southwest Florida photo>By William E. Gibson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (MCT)
PICAYUNE STRAND, Fla. — When construction workers filled a canal, tore out roads and prepared the land in this corner of the Everglades for a major restoration project, something unexpected happened:
Nature rebounded, even before the real restoration begins.
Today, native plants sprout in what was once a canal. Black bears prowl the pathways. Wood storks and other wading birds swoop into fresh ponds.
Best of all, some highly endangered Florida panthers have turned up on the work site, among them four breeding females, one with kittens.
Posted by courier at 08:35 AM. Filed under: Features
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Vitamin D
If you're celebrating a birthday this month, you're more likely to be nearsighted than those born in the winter.
But if your birth date falls in February, March or April, the news is more distressing: Winter and early spring babies have a greater risk of developing schizophrenia than summer-born ones.
Strange coincidences? Esoteric astrological claims? Neither.
Posted by courier at 08:00 AM. Filed under: Features
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A moose in Denali National Park
Kennan Ward/National Park Service
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Investigators and prosecutors worked seven months building their case.
Once they found the victim's remains, they returned to the scene six times to collect evidence. They interviewed witnesses and scoured the crime scene by land and air. They measured tire tracks. They collected samples for DNA testing.
And, they say, they determined who killed a moose they believe was shot illegally inside a national park.
Posted by courier at 06:38 PM. Filed under: Features
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By Eric Benderoff
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — Terri Rossman considers herself a visual learner. So when the 52-year-old marketing professional wanted to learn a new knitting stitch, she turned to the Web.
"I searched for 'knit bobble stitch' on Google and I found a video of someone doing it," said Rossman, who lives in the Detroit area. "It was perfect for me."
Posted by courier at 06:27 PM. Filed under: Features
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Foot Petals Strappy Strips is a tool for
making your shoes more comfortable.
Ross Hailey/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT
Oh, wondrous summer sandals, how you love to teeter atop sky-high wedges and reach strappy stiletto heights.
But at what cost? Are you looking to take our soles — not to mention our heels, arches and every other foot facet?
Well, no more. We are armed (or footed, rather) with a team of tools that allow us to strut without pain.
Posted by courier at 05:56 AM. Filed under: Features
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