Deluxe Edition by Bulbasaur
Space Rats by Dave Jackson (Originally published in The Courier in May, 1988.)
The World's Biggest Jerk by Dave Jackson (Originally published in The Courier in June 1987)
Archives
Sunday, August 31, 2008
School Daze by Jamie Maxfield
Deluxe Edition by Bulbasaur
Space Rats by Dave Jackson (Originally published in The Courier in May, 1988.)
The World's Biggest Jerk by Dave Jackson (Originally published in The Courier in June 1987)
Deluxe Edition by Bulbasaur
Space Rats by Dave Jackson (Originally published in The Courier in May, 1988.)
The World's Biggest Jerk by Dave Jackson (Originally published in The Courier in June 1987)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, Aug. 27:
A group of 120 college presidents is pushing to lower the drinking age to 18, in an effort to curb binge drinking on campus. They've got an impressive name, the Amethyst Initiative, named after the ancient Greek words that mean "not intoxicated."
These college leaders hope that a lower drinking age will encourage more responsible drinking. They also think it will cut the excessive, furtive, forbidden thrill of drinking — "pregaming," in kidspeak — before a frat party or other public appearance. But we think these top academics forgot their Econ 101. Legalizing something generally invites more indulgence, not less.
Yes, binge drinking is widespread, entrenched and pernicious. And that is surely frustrating for college officials. But their strategy reeks of surrender.
The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, Aug. 27:
A group of 120 college presidents is pushing to lower the drinking age to 18, in an effort to curb binge drinking on campus. They've got an impressive name, the Amethyst Initiative, named after the ancient Greek words that mean "not intoxicated."
These college leaders hope that a lower drinking age will encourage more responsible drinking. They also think it will cut the excessive, furtive, forbidden thrill of drinking — "pregaming," in kidspeak — before a frat party or other public appearance. But we think these top academics forgot their Econ 101. Legalizing something generally invites more indulgence, not less.
Yes, binge drinking is widespread, entrenched and pernicious. And that is surely frustrating for college officials. But their strategy reeks of surrender.
[ Read More... ]
Friday, August 29, 2008
Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama and vice presidential candidate Joe
Biden acknowledge the Democratic National
Convention crowd at Mile High in Denver Thursday.
(Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee/MCT)
By David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
DENVER — On a historic day echoing the dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, Democrat Barack Obama on Thursday became the first African-American to accept a major-party presidential nomination and immediately set a JFK-like goal: to end America's dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years.
"For the sake of our economy, our security and the future of our planet," he said, with a stern look on his face, "I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East."
Critics slam Obama for being all rhetoric and no substance, but in a summer when Americans are paying nearly $4 a gallon for gasoline and fretting about high heating costs to come this winter, he vowed to end what he called "this addiction" to oil.
[ Read More... ]
'THE HOUSE BUNNY'
Two of five stars
Cast: Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Kat Dennings,
Colin Hanks, Beverly D'Angelo
Director: Fred Wolf
Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Industry rating: PG-13 for sex-related humor,
partial nudity and brief strong language
By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
Harlowe to Monroe, Mansfield to Hawn to ... Anna Faris?
Every generation needs its dumb movie blondes. Might the star of those progressively worse "Scary Movies" and "The House Bunny" be ours?
"The House Bunny" is a real tour de Faris. She plays Shelley, who has just aged out of her right to residency at the Playboy Mansion. She's 27 ("59 in Bunny years!"). And she will never realize her lifelong dream — to be a centerfold.
"It says, 'I'm naked, in the middle of a magazine. Un-FOLD me!'"
So poor Shelley is homeless, or she is until she recognizes her tribe, wandering into another mansion. But she can't become a shallow, dizzy sorority girl without enrolling. She can, however, become house mother to the Zekes, the lowliest sorority on campus, where misfits, social lepers, nerds and losers reside.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 12:07 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
'THE DEATH RACE'
1.5 out of four stars
Rated R for strong violence and language
By Colin Covert
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)
"The Death Race" is not smart or graceful or inventive, but it delivers what it promises, a kinetic outpouring of energy, blood and destruction. Photographed almost exclusively in hues of battleship gray and fireball orange, the film is set in near-future postapocalyptic America. This time the catastrophe was economic, and the corporations that operate all the nation's penitentiaries have developed a lucrative sideline in gladiatorial auto races. Driving muscle cars pimped out with hood-mounted machine guns and napalm nozzles in place of turn signals, prisoners blast each other on pay-per-view, competing for the chance to win their release papers.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 12:00 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
'TRAITOR'
Four of five stars
Cast: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce,
Jeff Daniels, Aly Khan, Said Taghmaoui.
Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff.
Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes.
Industry rating: PG-13 for intense violent
sequences, thematic material and brief language.
By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
"Traitor" is a solid, gripping, only occasionally preachy thriller built around the War on Terror. Ripped-from-the-headlines realism, top-drawer performances by Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce, a dandy "ticking clock" story structure and a vast catalog of terrorist modus operandi make this as harrowing as it is timely.
Samir (Cheadle) was born in Sudan but grew up in America. He served his new country in the military, but when we meet him, he's selling plastic explosives to Islamic terrorists in Yemen. He's a devout Muslim. He's tough. The Arab terror cell al-Nathir wants him.
And after he's been slapped around by FBI agents in a Yemeni prison, he's open to the offer of cell leader Omar (Said Taghmaoui).
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 11:39 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
By Joanne Weintraub
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)
One is sun-sparkled Aegean blue, the other dark as ink. One teems with women scattering flowers, the other with men tossing grenades.
Both are highly entertaining, though each has moments of sheer over-the-top goofiness when viewers' eyebrows may arch toward their hairlines.
So why is "Mamma Mia!" considered a guilty pleasure, while "The Dark Knight" is widely respected as a grown-up drama?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)
One is sun-sparkled Aegean blue, the other dark as ink. One teems with women scattering flowers, the other with men tossing grenades.
Both are highly entertaining, though each has moments of sheer over-the-top goofiness when viewers' eyebrows may arch toward their hairlines.
So why is "Mamma Mia!" considered a guilty pleasure, while "The Dark Knight" is widely respected as a grown-up drama?
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 11:24 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Some classes started the year
overcrowded, with students sitting
on the floor. Courier Photo
Thousands of students returned to James Logan this week, some cheering their return to school, and some lamenting the end of their summer vacations.
As of Friday morning, 3,920 students were enrolled in the high school, one of the largest in the state.
Some were happy to get back to their school work.
Junior Raven Jones' first days back on campus were "awesome...it went well."
"It was cool to come back to school...having something to do," said Toni Polé, a junior.
[ Read More... ]
Dinah Washington (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was a blues, R&B and jazz singer. Because of her strong voice and emotional singing, she is known as the Queen of the Blues. Despite dying at the early age of 39, Washington became one of the most influential vocalists of the twentieth century, credited among others as a major influence on Aretha Franklin. She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her family moved to Chicago while she was still a child. As a child in Chicago she played piano and directed her church choir. She later studied in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable High School. At 16 as Ruth Jones, she toured the United States' black gospel circuit with Roberta Martin accompanying her at the piano. There was a period when she both performed in clubs as Dinah Washington while singing and playing piano in Sallie Martin's gospel choir as Ruth Jones.
Read more about Dinah Washington's life and career, free from vervemusicgroup.com.
[ Read More... ]
Thursday, August 28, 2008
LUNCH
Featured entrée selections include Pasta, Pizza & Spicy Chicken Patty. Lunches include a variety of fruits, veggies and milk.
MISCELLANEOUS
Yearbooks can be purchased after school in Room 44 for $70. Buy yours now before prices go up!
MISSED YOUR PICTURES? Buy your picture package on September 3, 2008.
P.E. clothes will be available for sale today at lunchtime and after school. Location: Colt Court at double doors to Student Services Center.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 04:16 PM. Filed under: Daily Bulletin
The Dave Matthews Band performs in
Melbourne, Australia. wikipedia photo
By Ben Wener
Orange County Register (MCT)
Even if it had been a merely half-hearted performance —which it wasn't, not even close, though who'd have blamed 'em if it were? — Tuesday's inspired show at Staples Center would still linger long in Dave Matthews Band lore.
For this, sadly, was the night the group played a nearly three-hour elegy for its fallen brother, LeRoi Moore.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 11:41 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
.jpg)
Left to right: Nick, Kevin,
and Joe Jonas.
wikipedia photo
By Greg Kot
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Your daughter would rather be grounded for a month than miss a Jonas Brothers concert.
Still pulling your hair out because you paid 10 times what any sane person would consider reasonable so that your kid could attend one of Miley Cyrus' sold-out "Hannah Montana" concerts last year?
Parents may not fully understand, but to a nation of adolescents, Cyrus and the Jonas boys aren't just pop acts. They're 24/7 obsessions. To a legion of businessmen presiding over a slumping industry, they are trend-defying sales juggernauts. And to culture-watchers, they are the latest in a series of teen-pop acts dating back to Ricky Nelson who serve as a generation's musical rite of passage.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 10:33 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden,left,
and presidential candidate Barack Obama
greet the Democratic National Convention.
DNC photo
By David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
DENVER — On a historic day when Democrats nominated Barack Obama, the first African-American ever chosen by a major party for the presidency, his ticket mate, Joe Biden, on Wednesday launched the new partnership's attack on John McCain by insisting that America needs more than a decorated military veteran as its leader.
"These times require more than a good soldier — they require a wise leader," Biden said.
[ Read More... ]
George Hoyt Whipple (August 28, 1878 – February 1, 1976) was an American physician, biomedical researcher, and medical school educator and administrator. Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 with George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia."
Whipple was born to Ashley Cooper Whipple and Frances Anna Hoyt in Ashland, New Hampshire. He was the son and grandson of physicians. Whipple attended Phillips Academy and then Yale University from which he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1900. He attended medical school at the Johns Hopkins University. from which he received the M.D. degree in 1905.
Read George Hoyt Whipple's Nobel Lecture of December 12, 1934, free from nobelprize.org.
[ Read More... ]
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
MISCELLANEOUS
MISSED YOUR PICTURES? Buy your picture package on September 3, 2008.
P.E. clothes will be available for sale today & Friday at lunchtime and after school. Location: Colt Court at double doors to Student Services Center.
Lockers: If you will not be using the locker assigned to you, fill out a locker problem form (available in the Student Services Center) indicating you will not be using the locker and it will be reassigned. If you do not do this, you will be responsible for the locker if you are using it or not.
CLUBS
Would you like to attend the inauguration of our next President this January? Join CLOSE UP and spend an exciting week in Washington, D.C. See Ms. Lombardi ASAP in Room 71 for information.
Posted by Courier at 02:49 PM. Filed under: Daily Bulletin
'Willis Conover: Broadcasting
Jazz to the World',
by Terence M. Ripmaster
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (March 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0595407412
ISBN-13: 978-0595407415
By Kim Andrew Elliott, International Broadcasting Bureau Research Analyst
If you go to my website about international broadcasting (kimandrewelliott.com) and search on “jazz,” you’ll see several entries about musicians who were inspired by Willis Conover’s jazz broadcasts on the Voice of America. They listened in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, as expected, but also in India, Cuba, Sweden – all over the world, actually.
My own first memories of Willis Conover were as a teenaged shortwave listener in Indiana. When I began working at VOA in 1985, I considered it a perk to encounter the famous international broadcaster in the corridors. Willis always had a smile and a hello for me. I don’t think he ever knew my name.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 09:54 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
From ncnewspapersineducation.org:
By Roy Parker Jr.
Robert Lee Vann (1879-1940) rose from the cotton field to become founder-editor-publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, which by the early 1930s counted 250,000 readers across the country, the largest circulation of any black-owned newspaper in history, and one of the few newspapers of any kind to have a national circulation.
Vann managed to acquire a first-rate education at Virginia Union University and Western University in Pennsylvania,and was licensed as a lawyer in that state in 1909.
Learn more about Robert Lee Vann, free from ExplorePAhistory.com
[ Read More... ]
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
MISSED YOUR PICTURES? Buy your picture package on September 3, 2008.
P.E. clothes will be available for sale this Thursday & Friday at lunchtime and after school. Location: Double doors facing Colt Court.
Posted by Courier at 11:22 PM. Filed under: Daily Bulletin
By Wailin Wong
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — The wall-outlet crawl is a familiar dance that takes place in cafes and airport terminals: laptop computer and cell-phone users desperately hunting for a place to plug in their gadgets, rearranging furniture or settling uncomfortably on the floor to access an outlet.
If only there were a way to pull electricity out of the air, letting consumer electronics operate and recharge while untethered.
Scientists are now hot on the trail, trying to do for electricity what Wi-Fi did for the Internet. The idea is to perfect a transmitter that sends electricity coursing through a room to gadgets, eliminating the need for messy and inconvenient cords.
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — The wall-outlet crawl is a familiar dance that takes place in cafes and airport terminals: laptop computer and cell-phone users desperately hunting for a place to plug in their gadgets, rearranging furniture or settling uncomfortably on the floor to access an outlet.
If only there were a way to pull electricity out of the air, letting consumer electronics operate and recharge while untethered.
Scientists are now hot on the trail, trying to do for electricity what Wi-Fi did for the Internet. The idea is to perfect a transmitter that sends electricity coursing through a room to gadgets, eliminating the need for messy and inconvenient cords.
[ Read More... ]
The Board of Education on Tuesday night received a report from the Division of Teaching and Learning on second-year implementation of the Strategic Plan, the New Haven community’s vision for the District. The Strategic Plan, crafted during the 2005-06 school year by more than 150 students, parents, teachers, classified employees, principals, administrators and community members, is designed to drive budgeting and decision-making through 2010-11. It was updated in November 2007.
[ Read More... ]
Monday, August 25, 2008
Language Arts Department Chair Sue Garcia,
upper right, leads a meeting with Language
Arts teachers. Courier Photo
Courier Staff Report
Hundreds of James Logan's veteran teachers, and several new ones hired this summer, returned to James Logan Monday to prepare for the return of students on Wednesday.
The returning teachers and new recruits started their day in the Pavilion at 8:30 a.m., where new Principal Judy Billingsley welcomed them back and introduced them to a largely new administrative team, which reviewed the policies and procedures guiding the opening of school.
[ Read More... ]
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Hillview Crest Elementary School students and Alvarado Middle School School students made dramatic improvement in both English/language arts and mathematics, and science scores across the District took an impressive jump, according to results from standardized tests taken in 2007-08 in the New Haven Unified School District.
[ Read More... ]
Wynona Merceris Carr (August 23, 1924 - May 12, 1976) was an African-American gospel, rhythm & blues and rock & roll singer/songwriter, who recorded as "Sister" Wynona Carr when doing gospel material.
Wynona Carr was born in Cleveland, OH, where she started out as a gospel singer, forming her own five-piece group The Carr Singers around 1945 and touring the Cleveland/Detroit area. Being tipped by The Pilgrim Travelers, who shared a bill with Carr in the late 1940's, Art Rupe signed her to his Specialty label, giving Carr her new stage name "Sister" Wynona Carr (modelled after pioneering gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and cutting some twenty sides with her from 1949 to 1954, including a couple of duets with Specialty's biggest gospel star at the time, Brother Joe May.
Listen to Wynona Carr sing "Life is a Ball Game," free from youtube.com.
[ Read More... ]
Friday, August 22, 2008
"Treated with radiation" or "Treated
by irradiation" should appear on the
labeling of irradiated food products
along with the Radura logo.
FDA image
By Mike Hughlett
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — Food safety experts generally say that zapping spinach and iceberg lettuce with a tiny shot of radiation is the best way to vanquish deadly outbreaks of E. coli. It's safe, too, they say and the federal government officially agreed Thursday, allowing so-called irradiation of our leading leafy greens.
But whether irradiation ever takes hold is in the hands of consumers, and they've shown resistance to a process whose very name has a glow-in-the-dark ring to it. Federal regulators years ago declared irradiation of red meat as safe, but beef producers have hardly flocked to the technology.
[ Read More... ]
'HAMLET 2'
Three of five stars
Cast: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener,
Elisabeth Shue, Amy Poehler, David Arquette.
Director: Andrew Fleming.
Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.
Industry rating: R for language including
sexual references, brief nudity and some
drug content.
By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel
(MCT)
"Dead Poets Society," "Dangerous Minds," "Mr. Holland's Opus," all "great" movies about "great" teachers inspiring their students to achieve great things — all movies referenced lovingly by Steve Coogan's "inspiring" teacher in "Hamlet 2." All are slandered mercilessly in this demented profanity of a comedy from South Park writer Pam Brady.
"Hamlet 2" doesn't fall "trippingly" off the tongue. A leaden third act almost kills it. But "the play's the thing" in this spoof of "inspiring" teacher films, this satire of Red State attitudes toward the arts.
The brilliant Brit-comic Coogan pulls out all the stops and drops all the trousers as Dana Marschz, a frustrated never-was whom we meet in a montage of TV herpes commercials and Xena bit parts in the film's introduction. Dana has moved to Tucson, "where dreams go to die," intones the master thespian narrator (Jeremy Irons).
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 05:53 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
'THE LONGSHOTS'
Two of five stars
Cast: Ice Cube, Keke Palmer.
Director: Fred Durst.
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Industry rating: PG for some
thematic elements, mild language
and brief rude humor.
By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
"The Longshots" is a certifiable crowd pleaser, an agreeable variation on the kid sports movie formula whose family-friendly messages outweigh its corny over familiarity.
It's set in the world of Pop Warner (pre-high school) football and the first girl to play in the Pop Warner version of the Super Bowl. Of course it's fictionalized. Of course, it hits the usual sports formula — adversities to overcome, tragedy to forget, accepting "the new kid," and life lessons learned.
But this kid-friendly dramedy from the musician-turned-filmmaker Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) hits its marks and tugs its strings. It works. Especially if you've never seen a formula sports dramedy before, something most of its audience will be able to say.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 05:34 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
'THE ROCKER'
1.5 out of 4 stars
Rated: PG-13 for drug and sexual
references, nudity and language.
By Colin Covert
Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)
Forty-something wannabe rock star worms his way into his teenage nephew's band. How many times do you think Will Ferrell and Jack Black have turned down that pitch? I'm guessing approximately eleventy billion.
Rainn Wilson (of TV's "The Office") can't afford to be so choosy. Playing a paunchy workaday drone chasing one last shot at rock 'n' roll glory is the kind of dues you gotta pay when you're working your way up from cameo player to feature film star.
Not that "The Rocker" is a major feature. Lightweight as cotton candy and nearly as beneficial for your brain, it is a banal concoction of hair-band gags and unconvincing romantic comedy. Wilson plays Fish Fishman, a has-been drummer from Vesuvius, an '80s rock band that dumped him the very day it hit the big time. (Metallica's lawyers, take note.)
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 04:23 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
Thursday, August 21, 2008
'THE CHEETAH GIRLS ONE WORLD'
When: 8 p.m. Aug. 22
Where: The Disney Channel
By Gail Pennington
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)
Sabrina Bryan was heading for the stage to answer questions about the latest "Cheetah Girls" movie when she was momentarily distracted by a flat-screen TV showing the latest "Cheetah Girls" movie.
Bryan froze in her tracks, apparently mesmerized by the sight of herself and co-stars Adrienne Bailon and Kiely Williams singing and dancing in lush Bollywood costumes in "The Cheetah Girls One World," set in India and filmed amid the historic palaces and colorful bazaars of Udiapur.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 10:15 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
.jpg)
Shwayze members Cisco Adler
and Shwayze
wikipedia photo
Apple Computer Inc. (MCT)
Top 10 albums on iTunes Music Store for Aug. 20:
1. "Schwayze," Schwayze
2. "The Illusion of Progress (Deluxe Version)," Staind
3. "A Little Bit Longer," Jonas Brothers
4. "Raw Footage," Ice Cube
5. "Viva la Vida," Coldplay
6. "Mamma Mia! (The Movie Soundtrack)," Various Artists
7. "Fast Times at Barrington High (Bonus Track Version)," The Academy Is...
8. "Tha Carter III," Lil Wayne
9. "Kala (Bonus Track Version)," M.I.A.
10. "First Love (Bonus Track Version)," Karina
For more information, please visit the iTunes Web site at www.apple.com/itunes/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Posted by Courier at 07:43 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Thomas Garrett (August 21, 1789 – January 25, 1871) was an abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War.
Garrett was born into a prosperous landowning Quaker family on their homestead called "Thornfield" in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The house in which he lived until 1822, which was built around 1800, still stands today in what is now Drexel Hill in Upper Darby Township.
Read Station Master On The Underground Railroad, by James A. McGowan, William C. Kashatus, free from googlebooks.com.
[ Read More... ]
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
By Kim Ossi
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)
Here's a solution for the harried who still like to get a good book in from time-to-time: Daily Lit (dailylit.com). The site breaks a book up into installments sent via e-mail or RSS feed, making a lengthy book easier to fit into your schedule.
The site is easy to use: Just sign up and choose a book. Many are free — most of these are in public domain but some newer titles are freebies, too. Others cost a few bucks, but even most of these offer a couple sample installments before you have to pay. Once you pick a book, you can customize your delivery.
[ Read More... ]
Posted by Courier at 11:59 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
By Megha Satyanarayana
Detroit Free Press (MCT)
DETROIT — Sylvia Johnson, 70, is an active, retired Detroit school teacher who rides her exercise bike and uses an abdominal machine to strengthen her bones and muscles. She eats well, too, having cereal and fruit for breakfast and sometimes fish in the afternoon. But Johnson has one bad habit that researchers at Boston University now have linked to diabetes in black women.
"I'm a Pepsi addict. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't curse," she said.
Detroit Free Press (MCT)
DETROIT — Sylvia Johnson, 70, is an active, retired Detroit school teacher who rides her exercise bike and uses an abdominal machine to strengthen her bones and muscles. She eats well, too, having cereal and fruit for breakfast and sometimes fish in the afternoon. But Johnson has one bad habit that researchers at Boston University now have linked to diabetes in black women.
"I'm a Pepsi addict. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't curse," she said.
[ Read More... ]
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American soul and funk singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, composer, and actor. Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served as both an in-house songwriter and producer with partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s, Hayes became a recording artist, and recorded successful soul albums such as Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971) as the Stax label's premier artist.
Alongside his work in popular music, Hayes was a film score composer for motion pictures. His best known work, for the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft, earned Hayes an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammy Awards. He received a third Grammy for the album Black Moses.
Learn more about Isaac Hayes at IsaacHayes.com.
[ Read More... ]
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
FRESNO, Calif. — The biggest change in television since the invention of color is coming Feb. 17, 2009. That's when local television stations make the change from broadcasting analog signals to digital.
The mandated change has caused some confusion.
Some viewers fear they will not be able to watch television after the switch.
Others are confused by government coupons, converter boxes and all of the other aspects of the arrival of the digital era.
Stop beating yourself over the head with your TV remote. If you are still boggled by the impending change, the following provides answers to some of the most often asked questions. They should help make the transition a little less confusing.
Q. What is going to happen Feb. 17, 2009?
A. All full-power television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in their current analog format and switch to digital.
Q. Will everyone be affected?
A. Yes, everyone with a TV.
[ Read More... ]
By Mike Swift
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
In 2000, there were about 50,000 Americans who had celebrated their 100th birthday. By 2050, there will be 601,000.
In releasing a comprehensive new forecast today for the nation's demographic future, the U.S. Census Bureau said that Baby Boomers, who redefined youth culture, are going to redefine old culture — really old culture.
The number of centenarians will grow by 660 percent between 2010 and 2050, the Census Bureau predicts.
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
In 2000, there were about 50,000 Americans who had celebrated their 100th birthday. By 2050, there will be 601,000.
In releasing a comprehensive new forecast today for the nation's demographic future, the U.S. Census Bureau said that Baby Boomers, who redefined youth culture, are going to redefine old culture — really old culture.
The number of centenarians will grow by 660 percent between 2010 and 2050, the Census Bureau predicts.
[ Read More... ]
Monday, August 18, 2008
By Tom Lasseter and Steven Thomma
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
TBILISI, Georgia — Russia declared a cease-fire in Georgia on Tuesday after a five-day war that left Georgia's military in tatters and Russia seemingly on the verge of reasserting old Soviet-style authority over its neighbors.
But Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and the heads of state of five other nations that had once been dominated by the Soviet Union vowed never to concede the independence they've enjoyed since 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved.
"The entire world is with us," Saakashvili told a crowd of thousands that thronged downtown Tbilisi in a late night rally.
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
TBILISI, Georgia — Russia declared a cease-fire in Georgia on Tuesday after a five-day war that left Georgia's military in tatters and Russia seemingly on the verge of reasserting old Soviet-style authority over its neighbors.
But Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and the heads of state of five other nations that had once been dominated by the Soviet Union vowed never to concede the independence they've enjoyed since 1991, when the Soviet Union was dissolved.
"The entire world is with us," Saakashvili told a crowd of thousands that thronged downtown Tbilisi in a late night rally.
[ Read More... ]
Sunday, August 17, 2008
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an influential American post-war blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter born in Coahoma County near Clarksdale, Mississippi. From a musical family, he was a cousin of Earl Hooker. John was also influenced by his stepfather, a local blues guitarist, who learned in Shreveport, Louisiana to play a droning, one-chord blues that was strikingly different from the Delta blues of the time. John developed a half-spoken style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was rhythmically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen" (1948) and "Boom Boom" (1962).
Learn more about John Lee Hooker at johnleehooker.com.
[ Read More... ]
Saturday, August 16, 2008
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By Jamie Maxfield, Courier Editor-in-Chief
Hundreds of incoming seniors gathered at the Logan Pavilion Wednesday hoping to get their schedules for their last year in high school; instead, no schedules were handed out to the students, but everyone had to take pictures and receive new ID cards to prepare for the start of the new school year.
Many students, like senior Kristen Kidd, were expecting to have their schedules in hand as they left campus that day because “that is what the school had initially informed everyone about.” She said that the day “was sloppy and Logan wasn’t prepared.” Kidd felt upset and because this is not how she wants to start her final year at Logan, and she does not like the new I.D. cards.
New Principal Judy Billingsley said that the hastily changed plan was not an echo of last year's problem-plagued school opening, but rather an attempt to avoid a repeat of last year's mistakes.
Hundreds of incoming seniors gathered at the Logan Pavilion Wednesday hoping to get their schedules for their last year in high school; instead, no schedules were handed out to the students, but everyone had to take pictures and receive new ID cards to prepare for the start of the new school year.
Many students, like senior Kristen Kidd, were expecting to have their schedules in hand as they left campus that day because “that is what the school had initially informed everyone about.” She said that the day “was sloppy and Logan wasn’t prepared.” Kidd felt upset and because this is not how she wants to start her final year at Logan, and she does not like the new I.D. cards.
New Principal Judy Billingsley said that the hastily changed plan was not an echo of last year's problem-plagued school opening, but rather an attempt to avoid a repeat of last year's mistakes.
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Friday, August 15, 2008
"Smart People" (R, 2008, Miramax)
By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)
"Smart People" is, put succinctly, a coming-of-age film about a handful of people who, one exception (Ellen Page as Vanessa Wetherhold) aside, probably should have come of age quite a while ago. The plot isn't so much a plot as it is a chunk of days in lives (Dennis Quaid as college professor Lawrence Wetherhold, Thomas Haden Church as his brother, Sarah Jessica Parker as one of his many, mostly unsatisfied former students) already in progress. Translation: It isn't a story for everyone, and perhaps not worthy to some as being called a story at all. Similar words could be said about "People's" sense of humor, which takes the word "dry" to new frontiers. That, of course, is only when the film actually has a sense of humor, which isn't always and becomes increasingly occasional as the characters push ahead. So here's the bad news: If you came here looking for another "Sideways" from the people who brought you "Sideways," you might be disappointed by what you get instead. The good news is that when "People" wants to be funny, it often genuinely is, and when it tries to be sincere, it succeeds similarly and never at cost to a script that is, unlike the characters acting it out, very smart indeed. Ashton Holmes, Christine Lahti and Camille Mana also star.
Extras: Writer/director commentary, deleted scenes, interviews, bloopers.
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Posted by Courier at 09:10 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
By Rex W. Huppke
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — The way some people are griping about the jokes in that hilarious new Ben Stiller movie "Tropic Thunder" is totally retarded.
What? That sentence offended you? C'mon, it's a joke. It's satire, thus the flippant use of the word "retarded" is perfectly fine.
At least that's the logic Hollywood executives are relying on to explain the "retard" gags scattered throughout Stiller's new flick — it's a satire about Hollywood actors and the absurd lengths they'll go to for fame and awards.
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
CHICAGO — The way some people are griping about the jokes in that hilarious new Ben Stiller movie "Tropic Thunder" is totally retarded.
What? That sentence offended you? C'mon, it's a joke. It's satire, thus the flippant use of the word "retarded" is perfectly fine.
At least that's the logic Hollywood executives are relying on to explain the "retard" gags scattered throughout Stiller's new flick — it's a satire about Hollywood actors and the absurd lengths they'll go to for fame and awards.
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Posted by Courier at 09:02 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
Thursday, August 14, 2008
PopMatters.com (MCT)
The Bug: "London Zoo" (Ninja Tune) (rating: 9)
A long time partner of Godflesh and Jesu's Justin Broadrick (in God, Ice, the Sidewinder, Curse of the Golden Vampire and Techno Animal), Kevin Martin cradled obsessive talents for years under collaborative projects, all secretly his babies, but found in his Bug project a rare calling within dancehall and the raw blueprint for what would one day be called dubstep. The Bug is terminal. It lays off the dub-poetry-laden side of Pressure on London Zoo, but it heightens the zero hour terror of what exactly it means to be (barely) alive in Summer of 2008, the shuffling and volatile heartbeat of history ready to rain down distress from every corner. Martin shines floodlights in those corners, revealing a barefaced volatility as palpable as that found on Dre's "The Chronic" (recorded mere weeks after the LA riots). His Jamaican-by-way-of-England guest MCs splatter "London Zoo's" canvas with blood, vitriol, and plangent dystopianist alarmism. Martin himself scores the mayhem with machine gun jolts, ominous tolling bells, murky sub-bass, and reverberating dystopianist alarm clocks, from the 8-bit bleeper to the seizure-stuttering variety. The Bug is viral. Even though the MCs inked their own diatribes independent of one another for separate sessions, occasionally even in direct discord with one another thematically, the individual tracks still piece together like snap-puzzle components, as if they were each tapping into the same conversation, the same synaptic nerve of the collective unconscious. The Bug is infectious. It's a vision of a world gripped by prepossessed fear and hatred, as if by a "rage" outbreak. It's also packed with full-on soundboy contagions of propulsive beats and lyrical hooks, enjoyable as much as a ghettoblaster that scares the neighborhood children, a paranoid headphone chin-scratcher guaranteed to bring about a case of stoned inertia creeps. _ Timothy Gabriele
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Posted by Courier at 11:31 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
Apple Computer Inc. (MCT)
Top 10 songs on iTunes Music Store for Aug. 13:
1. "Crush," David Archuleta
2. "Change," Taylor Swift
3. "Disturbia," Rihanna
4. "Paper Planes," M.I.A.
5. "Dreamer," Chris Brown
6. "Get Back," Demi Lovato
7. "American Boy," Estelle (featuring Kanye West)
8. "Burnin' Up," Jonas Brothers
9. "My Life," The Game & Lil Wayne
10. "Viva la Vida," Coldplay
For more information, please visit the iTunes Web site at www.apple.com/itunes/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Posted by Courier at 06:46 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Source:http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/AllSport.htm
By Kat Glass
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — Cheerleading accounted for two-thirds of sports-related deaths or serious injuries to high school girls over the past 25 years, according to a new nationwide study.
It's because cheerleading increasingly requires complex — and dangerous — gymnastics stunts, said report author Frederick Mueller, who directs the University of North Carolina's National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research in Chapel Hill, N.C.
[ Read More... ]
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Without even realizing it, you've probably done one or more of the following: Engaged in fabric-ation while jeans shopping.
Entered the buyosphere at your local Whole Foods.
Fallen for an outlet maul purchase.
Gone yellular.
Bemoaned all the tourons clogging Michigan Avenue this time of year.
The English language morphs at the speed of light, as anyone caught still using the word "gellin' " will attest. And words don't have to appear in the Oxford English Dictionary to pop up in daily communication. So if you find yourself longing for a handbook, grab a copy of the new "Daily Candy Lexicon: Words That Don't Exist but Should" (Virgin Books, $14.95).
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Posted by Courier at 07:18 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Ethel L. Payne (August 14, 1911 - May 28, 1991) was an award-winning African American journalist. Known as the "First Lady of the Black Press", she was a columnist, lecturer, and free-lance writer. She combined advocacy with journalism as she reported on the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. She became the first female African American commentator employed by a national network when CBS hired her in 1972.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Payne began her journalism career rather unexpectedly while working as a hostess at an Army Special Services club in Japan, a position she had taken in 1948. She allowed a visiting reporter from the Chicago Defender to read her journal, which detailed her own experiences as well as those of African-American soldiers. Impressed, the reporter took the journal back to Chicago and soon Payne's observations were being used by the Defender, an African American newspaper with a national readership, as the basis for front-page stories.
Read a series of interviews with Ethel Payne, free from the Washington Press Club Foundation.
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
By Noah Matthews
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
Getting a leg up on high school has many advantages, and "High School Advantage 2008," which covers 10 courses, with thousands of lessons, exercises, tutorials and quizzes, is a good way to get ready for fall semester and the SATs. The tutors on this DVD for Windows PCs patiently guide students through courses that have practical applications. In other words, High School Advantage will prepare students for the classroom, SATs and the real world.
Subjects include Algebra II, geometry and trigonometry, English composition, economics, U.S. government (political science), world history, typing, biology, chemistry and physics along with rudimentary courses in Spanish, French, German and Italian. It also has games and cell phone ringtones.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
When Sony introduced the PlayStation 3 back in November 2006 (yes, it has been that long already) many, including myself, were skeptical of the Japanese electronic giant's business decision.
The highest price ($599) for any console since the early '90s Neo Geo, an underwhelming list of initial games, and unproven hi-def movie capabilities was a long way from the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Those systems were almost always in the middle of price wars and the catalog of games had dominated the industry since the late '90s.
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Posted by Courier at 07:21 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
The MacBook Air is a top pic
By Eric Gwinn
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Things have changed a lot in the past 12 months since our 2007 back-to-school guide to laptops costing $1,000 or less. A new class of mini-laptops _ less-than-$500 machines small enough to fit on a sheet of paper — has taken off. Microsoft recently ended sales and support for Windows XP, while Apple last fall updated the Mac operating system. And the solid-state hard drive is gaining steam as an alternative to the heavier, hotter and power-gulping hard drive we know and love.
But one thing hasn't changed in the past year: It's a pain to sift through all the specs and models to find a computer for you or your student.
Ta-da! Behold our 2008 back-to-school guide to laptops.
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"Space Chimps"
Reviewed for: Xbox 360
Also available for: Nintendo Wii and Playstation 2
From: Redtribe/Brash Entertainment
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+ (animated blood,
crude humor, language, mild fantasy violence)
By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
It's been both interesting and disappointing to follow the emergence of Brash Entertainment, which promised to elevate the image of movie-based games but thus far has simply advanced perceptions that movie-licensed titles are the black sheep of the gaming family.
For whatever it's worth, "Space Chimps" is the publisher's best work to date, showing flashes of ingenuity that occasionally put it in the same ballpark (though never the same aisle) as the Mario- and Crash Bandicoot-fronted games it tries to emulate. "Chimps" isn't afraid to switch gears between puzzle solving, combat, platforming and a few faster-paced challenges that send you grinding down rails or careening down a river, and the best of these challenges are legitimately fun and executed well.
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Posted by Courier at 06:25 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
DeVore was born on August 12, 1922 in Edgefield, South Carolina. She was one of ten children born to John Walter DeVore, who was of German American and African American descent, and Mary Emma Strother, who was a Black Indian.
Read The Secret of Inner Beauty, a story about Ophelia DeVore by Melissa Sones, free from the University of Central Oklahoma's College of Liberal Arts.
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Monday, August 11, 2008
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
TBILISI, Georgia — Russian forces broadened their crushing offensive against Georgia on Monday, and Georgian officials feared the worst — that the Russian invasion would mean the end of their country's independence.
Russian troops were reported in control of Georgia's main east-west highway outside the central Georgian town of Gori, had taken control of Georgia's main port at Poti, seized a Georgian military base in the west and had complete dominion of the skies, from which they bombed and strafed retreating Georgian troops at will.
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By Dick Polman
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
Whenever I hear the '08 presidential candidates voicing despair about the U.S. economy and talking about how they're going to cure its ills, I remember the gut wisdom of Dave Vasvari.
During a stump speech by John Kerry in Youngstown, Ohio, in 2004, I fell into conversation with Vasvari, a hard-hat electrician. At that moment, Kerry was vowing to cure our economic ills, and Vasvari snorted an inch from my ear. He said, "This is all just showboatin'. See this guy right here? You think he can do anything about (the economy)? The economy runs on its own cycles, no matter who's in there."
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By Bob Stephens
The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. (MCT)
When Margaux Isaksen moved to Colorado Springs as a 15-year-old, she was considered a prime candidate for the 2012 Olympic team.
Not long after that, Isaksen had a different schedule in mind.
Now 16, she stunned most of the world's modern pentathlon community by qualifying for the Beijing Olympics, where she will be the youngest U.S. competitor in the sport and among the youngest overall.
The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. (MCT)
When Margaux Isaksen moved to Colorado Springs as a 15-year-old, she was considered a prime candidate for the 2012 Olympic team.
Not long after that, Isaksen had a different schedule in mind.
Now 16, she stunned most of the world's modern pentathlon community by qualifying for the Beijing Olympics, where she will be the youngest U.S. competitor in the sport and among the youngest overall.
[ Read More... ]
Carl Rowan with U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson.
U.S. Department of State photo
Carl Thomas Rowan (August 11, 1925 - September 23, 2000), was an African American public servant, journalist and author. Rowan was a nationally-syndicated op-ed columnist for the Washington Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. He was one of the most prominent black journalists of the 20th century.
Carl Rowan was born in Tennessee and was raised in McMinnville, in that state. He studied at Tennessee State University (1942-43) and Washburn University (1943-44). He was one of the first African-Americans to serve as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy. He graduated from Oberlin College (1947) and earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota (1948). He began his career in journalism as copywriter for The Minneapolis Tribune (1948-50),
Listen to Carl Rowan: The Life Story of an Influential Newsman, free from the Voice of America.
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Contra Costa Times (MCT)
The cineplex has been filled with superheroes all summer — and last week's Comic-Con convention fairly brimmed with Caped Crusader wannabes. But how do Hancock and other newfangled heroes compare with the heroes of yesteryear? And what makes a superhero truly super? So, we asked readers to weigh in on the greatest superheroes of all time.
For the last week we've reveled in your descriptions of derring-do, awesome superpowers and really great gadgets. We discovered unusual titans — Captain Canuck, anyone? — and waxed nostalgic over Mighty Mouse and Super Chicken. And now we've winnowed down the list to the top eight:
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Posted by Courier at 10:09 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (ca. August 10, 1858---February 27, 1964) was an author, educator and one of the most important African American scholars in United States history. Upon receiving a Ph. D in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924, Cooper became the fourth African American woman to earn a doctoral degree. She was also a prominent member of Washington, DC's African American community.
Read Anna Julia Cooper's A Voice from the South, free from the University of North Carolina library.
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Saturday, August 09, 2008
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, Aug. 1:
The Olympics in Beijing promise to be a stirring spectacle, assuming the air pollution clears. This will be China's moment to shine, and we're girding for hour upon hour of televised coverage of some of our favorite Olympic sports. The competition, as always, will be intense. And we don't just mean in front of the camera.
The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, Aug. 1:
The Olympics in Beijing promise to be a stirring spectacle, assuming the air pollution clears. This will be China's moment to shine, and we're girding for hour upon hour of televised coverage of some of our favorite Olympic sports. The competition, as always, will be intense. And we don't just mean in front of the camera.
[ Read More... ]
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Sunday, Aug. 3:
Put together a lame-duck president, a lame-duck Congress, an election year, two wars and an incipient recession and what you get is the current mess in Washington. And what a mess it is. While more Americans lose their jobs and the economy stalls, Democrats and Republicans — and the president, too — join hands in an apparent effort to see who can pull off the silliest political antics.
The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Sunday, Aug. 3:
Put together a lame-duck president, a lame-duck Congress, an election year, two wars and an incipient recession and what you get is the current mess in Washington. And what a mess it is. While more Americans lose their jobs and the economy stalls, Democrats and Republicans — and the president, too — join hands in an apparent effort to see who can pull off the silliest political antics.
[ Read More... ]
Friday, August 08, 2008
By Sharon Noguchi
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Home-schoolers across California won't need to rush back to class themselves to continue educating their children.
In a highly unusual move, a state appeals court on Friday reversed its earlier decision and declared that home-school parents don't need teaching credentials.
The decision by the Los Angeles-based second district court of appeals had home-schooling advocates rejoicing in California — home of more than 160,000 home-schooled students — and across the nation.
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Home-schoolers across California won't need to rush back to class themselves to continue educating their children.
In a highly unusual move, a state appeals court on Friday reversed its earlier decision and declared that home-school parents don't need teaching credentials.
The decision by the Los Angeles-based second district court of appeals had home-schooling advocates rejoicing in California — home of more than 160,000 home-schooled students — and across the nation.
[ Read More... ]
'THE SISTERHOOD OF THE
TRAVELING PANTS 2'
2 stars
PLOT Four high-school friends share
a pair of magical jeans as they
navigate the new waters of college.
CAST Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera,
Blake Lively, Amber Tamblyn
LENGTH 1:56
By Rafer Guzman
Newsday (MCT)
If you've shopped at corporate retail lately, you may have noticed that little of the clothing actually looks new. Faded T-shirts, frayed trousers, "destroyed" jeans — everything appears weathered and well-worn. That's appealing to those younger than, say, 20: They haven't lived long enough to make anything look lived-in.
So it is with the ripped and patched blue jeans at the center of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2." And the movie itself has an aspirational quality: Its vision of college life will look much more grown-up to those who haven't yet enrolled.
As with the first "Traveling Pants," in 2005, this sequel follows four young high-school friends based on characters in Ann Brashares' best-selling novels. Now everyone's a little older: Sensitive Lena (Alexis Bledel) studies art; down-to-earth Carmen (America Ferrera) works backstage at a Vermont theater; alt-rocker Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) attends NYU's film school; tomboyish Bridget (Blake Lively) joins an archaeological dig in Turkey.
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Posted by Courier at 09:08 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
"PINEAPPLE EXPRESS"
3 stars
PLOT: A stoner who witnesses a murder
goes on the lam and takes his pot dealer
with him (of course).
CAST: Seth Rogen, James Franco,
Danny McBride, Rosie Perez.
LENGTH 1:52
By Rafer Guzmán
Newsday (MCT)
Veering wildly between red-eyed stoner humor and blood-red violence, "Pineapple Express" is an uneven but entertaining action-comedy that answers a question you've probably never asked: What if someone gave Cheech and Chong a shot of testosterone and a couple of Uzis?
They might look something like Seth Rogen ("Knocked Up") and James Franco ("Spider-Man"), who make an unlikely but appealing comic team. Rogen stars as Dale Denton, a cuddly knucklehead who livens up his job as a process server by adopting various disguises. Franco, hiding his good looks under a Tiny Tim wig of long, scraggly hair, plays Dale's pot dealer, Saul Silver, an amiable wastrel with a sweet, almost beatific soul.
"Pineapple Express," named after one of Saul's more potent strains, initially features little more than slack-jawed dope jokes: One montage of Rogen sucking down smoke in different ways nearly provides a contact high. But just when your eyes start narrowing, "Pineapple Express" snaps awake. After witnessing a drug dealer (Gary Cole) and a corrupt cop (Rosie Perez) execute a man, Dale hastily flees, leaving behind a smoldering roach that points straight to him and Saul.
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Posted by Courier at 08:54 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
By Carrie Rickey
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
Funniest pot joke in a movie?
The moment in "Up in Smoke (1978) when the blissed-out Cheech, having sampled a doobie the size of Baja California, asks, "How'm I driving?" and the blitzed-out Chong answers, "Um, I think we're parked"?
Or when The Dude (Jeff Bridges), the bowler/stoner of "The Big Lebowski (1998), hallucinates tumescent pins and balls that resemble private parts dancing?
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Posted by Courier at 08:48 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
'AMERICAN TEEN'
Four of five stars
Cast: Warsaw Community High School, Class of 2006.
Director: Nanette Burstein.
Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.
Industry rating: PG-13 for some strong
language, sexual material, some drinking
and brief smoking —
all involving teens
By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)
The whirl of hormones, high hopes and hysterical drama that is high school earns its close-up in "American Teen," a smart and revealing look at the Class of 2006 in Warsaw, Ind.
It's all here — well, most of it. The high school cliques (jocks, nerds, "in betweens"), the "mean girls," the social and parental pressures. Kids look for purpose, fumble for love, grapple with their future, break the rules (and a few laws) and text like mad in Nanette Burstein's documentary, 95 minutes of "real" culled from 1,200 hours of footage.
There's Colin, the Leno-jawed basketball jock whose Elvis-impersonating dad keeps pressuring him to shoot more because it's either a college scholarship "or the Army."
The wealthy and pretty Megan is the classic "mean girl." But even pretty, popular rich girls have pressures — getting into Daddy's alma mater, for instance.
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Posted by Courier at 08:39 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
Sara Teasdale (August 8, 1884 – January 29, 1933), was an American lyrical poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri.
Throughout her life, Teasdale suffered poor health and it was at age 9 that she was well enough to begin school. In 1898 she went to Mary Institute and to Hosmer Hall in 1899 where she finished in 1903.
Read Helen of Troy and Other Poems by Sara Teasdale, one of four of her books available free from Project Gutenberg.
[ Read More... ]
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Top 10 albums on iTunes Music Store for Aug. 6:
1. "Mamma Mia! (The Movie Soundtrack)," Various Artists
2. "Conor Oberst," Conor Oberst
3. "Viva la Vida," Coldplay
4. "The Ghost Overground – EP," Jack's Mannequin
5. "Only Through the Pain," Trapt
6. "Songs for Tibet – The Art of Peace," Various Artists
7. "Breakout," Miley Cyrus
8. "Kala (Bonus Track Version)," M.I.A.
9. "Fasciinatiion," The Faint
10. "Tha Carter III," Lil Wayne
For more information, please visit the iTunes Web site at www.apple.com/itunes/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Posted by Courier at 07:11 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Salim Hamdan
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — In a historic split verdict that sets the stage for dozens more war crimes trials, a U.S. military jury on Wednesday convicted Osama bin Laden's driver of aiding terror but acquitted him of conspiring with al-Qaida to commit worldwide terror.
Salim Hamdan, 37, bowed his head and wiped his eyes with his head scarf upon becoming the first man convicted at trial in the first U.S. war crimes tribunals since World War II.
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Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle) (August 7, 1911–June 16, 1979) was an American film director.
Coming from a radio background, Ray directed his first and only Broadway production, the Duke Ellington musical Beggar's Holiday, in 1946.
One year later, he directed his first film, They Live By Night. It was released two years later due to the chaotic conditions surrounding Howard Hughes' takeover of RKO Pictures. An almost impressionistic take on film noir, it was notable for its extreme empathy for society’s young outsiders (a recurring motif in Ray’s films). It was influential on the sporadically popular sub-genre often called “love on the run” movies, concerning as it does two young fugitive lovers on the run from the law. (Other examples are Gun Crazy, Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands, and Robert Altman’s 1974 remake of They Live By Night, Thieves Like Us.)
Watch an interview with Nicholas Ray, free from youtube.com.
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Well, "Breaking Dawn," the finale of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, is pretty darned good, but I wish she hadn't felt compelled to pack so much into one volume.
It should have been two books. There was more than enough material, what with resolving 18-year-old Bella Swan's romantic dilemma (boyfriend Edward Cullen is a vampire, best friend Jacob Black is a werewolf, and she loves them both); resolving the conflict between the resident vampires and werewolves in rainy Forks, Wash.; and bringing in the Italian vampire heavies, the Volturi, for a huge showdown. There's also the matter of choices (humanity versus immortality, for example) and their consequences, a major theme of the four-novel series that includes "Twilight," "New Moon" and "Eclipse."
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Posted by Courier at 11:12 PM. Filed under: Entertainment
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
The SAT. The bane of every high school junior or senior's existence.
If you're dreading the test, don't fear; you're not alone. But Eliot Shrefer, a Harvard alum and private SAT tutor, is offering his top-secret tips for conquering the exam in his book "Hack the SAT" ($15, Gotham Books). There are hundreds of SAT books out there offering to help you crack the code, so to speak, but Shrefer presents his information with doses of humor.
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Posted by Courier at 07:43 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Miriam Matthews was the first African American librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library system. Hired in 1927, she served in the library until her retirement in 1960 where she was instrumental in preserving the history and cultural heritage of black Angelenos.
Miriam Matthews was born on August 6, 1905 in Pensacola Florida to Reuben and Fannie Matthews. Two years later the Matthews family moved to Los Angeles. Miriam Matthews earning her B.A. degree and librarianship certificate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1926 and 1927, respectively, and her Master’s degree in library science from the University of Chicago in 1945.
Read about the Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Public Library in southern California, free from ArchNewsNow.com.
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)
MILWAUKEE — Around-the-clock Internet access, and a wealth of information online, quickens the pace at which consumers decide to buy — whether it's a handbag, vacation or a house.
Househunters and their realty agents who use online tools strategically are a step ahead of the game. Listings can now sparkle, dazzle and convince. A deal can swim through faster than the old days of faxed listings, with the potential buyer having little more than a piece of paper in hand before the first showing.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
Now that you've owned a digital camera for a while, chances are your collection of digital photographs is growing to the point where they're becoming completely unmanageable. If you find yourself drowning in a sea of digital images and you just can't remember where you stored that picture of cousin Betty at the beach that you took on your vacation two years ago, you might want to consider the benefits of tagging.
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Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5, 1889 – August 17, 1973) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and poet, born in Savannah, Georgia, whose work includes poetry, short stories, novels, and an autobiography.
When Conrad Aiken was 11 years of age, his physician father killed his mother, then himself. According to his own writings, Aiken found the bodies of his parents. was raised by his great-great-aunt in Massachusetts. Aiken was educated at private schools and at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, then at Harvard University where he edited the Advocate with T. S. Eliot. Aiken graduated in 1912.
Read The House of Dust; a symphony by Conrad Aiken, free from Project Gutenberg.
[ Read More... ]
Monday, August 04, 2008
By Renee Schoof
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it couldn't propose any regulation of greenhouse gases because the issue was too complex and there were too many objections from other federal agencies.
The Bush administration consistently has objected to mandatory limits on the heat-trapping gases that cause global warming. The EPA's decision to issue a 588-page report that calls for 120 days of public comment means that any regulatory action will be up to the next administration.
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it couldn't propose any regulation of greenhouse gases because the issue was too complex and there were too many objections from other federal agencies.
The Bush administration consistently has objected to mandatory limits on the heat-trapping gases that cause global warming. The EPA's decision to issue a 588-page report that calls for 120 days of public comment means that any regulatory action will be up to the next administration.
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Sunday, August 03, 2008
Lt. General Lloyd Austin looks at
confiscated weapons caches in
Diwaniyah, Iraq. Leila Fadel/MCT
By Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
BAGHDAD — It seemed like another routine trip as the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq boarded his helicopter in Amara, where a battalion of U.S. troops is based. Only two months ago, however, the smuggling hub on the Iranian border was a stronghold of Shiite Muslim militants, a place that no American general without a death wish would visit.
The climate has changed, said Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III.
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From The Courier's Archives:
School Days by Jamie Maxfield
Team Strikedown by Pepper Moto
©2007 Courier Comics-All rights reserved
The Adventures of Fred by Krystal Henderson
School Days by Jamie Maxfield
Team Strikedown by Pepper Moto©2007 Courier Comics-All rights reserved
The Adventures of Fred by Krystal Henderson
John Thomas Scopes (August 3, 1900 – October 21, 1970), a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was charged on May 25, 1925 with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools. He was in court in a case known as the Scopes Monkey Trial.
Scopes was born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky, but as a teenager attended Danville High School in Danville, Illinois (Danville High was also the first school at which he taught, shortly before he moved to Dayton). Scopes was a member of the class of 1919 in Salem, Illinois, which is also William Jennings Bryan's home town. After he had gained a law degree at the University of Kentucky in 1924, Scopes moved to Dayton where he took a job as the Rhea County High School's football coach, and occasionally filled in as substitute teacher when regular members of staff were off work.
Learn more about the Scopes Monkey Trial, free from essortment.com.
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Saturday, August 02, 2008
Band members (and Courier staffers)
Emily and Kimberly Low play cards
with aura Leland and Jesse Katsumata
in Beijing.
Olympic Orchestra photo
Four jet airliners carried members of James Logan High School’s band and color guard to China last week, where they will be part of the festivities leading up to the 2008 Olympics.
Two flights left Monday, and two more flights took off Tuesday morning for Beijing, where the Logan contingent will be part of the Beijing Olympic Orchestra that is being described as the first foreign group ever to perform in Tiananmen Square.
Logan also is scheduled to be part of pre-Games performances at the Olympic Square in Tianjin, at Tianjin Olympic Stadium (following a preliminary soccer match) and at the Olympic Cultural Square in Beijing. The band and color guard also will perform at one of the Olympic Live Stages in Beijing before televised coverage of the opening ceremonies.
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By Rick LaPlante, New Haven School's Public Information Officer
Friends and community members have set up a memorial fund for the family of Catlynne Shaw, an Alvarado Middle School student who died July 22 , six days after her heart stopped while she was riding a roller coaster in Las Vegas.
Friends and community members have set up a memorial fund for the family of Catlynne Shaw, an Alvarado Middle School student who died July 22 , six days after her heart stopped while she was riding a roller coaster in Las Vegas.
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Sen. John McCain
By Les Payne
Newsday (MCT)
If elected president, Sen. John McCain promises to stage a news conference every week, a singular horror that, of itself, should be enough to doom his chances.
This McCain threat shows no mercy for his staff, which trails this creaky circus doing what the man with the shovel does for the elephant. "Being human and tripping over your tongue occasionally doesn't mean a thing," said one top official for the GOP nominee. By contrast, McCain dismissed his opponent's verbal appeal last week as Sen. Barack Obama blitzed the Middle East and Europe, smooth-talking 200,000 in Berlin.
Time and again, McCain staffers must return to his messes and explain what their boss meant to say. In addition to the verbal slips, even in his so-called areas of expertise, McCain rolls out his thoughts with a disquieting inexactitude.
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Philippa Duke Schuyler (August 2, 1931-May 9, 1967) was a noted American child prodigy and pianist who became famous in the 1930s and 1940s as a result of her talent, mixed race parentage, and the eccentric methods employed by her mother to bring her up. Schuyler was the daughter of George S. Schuyler, a prominent black essayist and journalist of pronounced conservative views, and Josephine Cogdell, a white Texan and one-time Mack Sennett bathing beauty from a former slave-owning family. Her parents believed that intermarriage could "invigorate" both races and produce extraordinary offspring. They also advocated that mixed race marriage could help to solve many of the United States's social problems.
Read more about Philippa Schuyler's troubled life, free from jrank.com.
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Friday, August 01, 2008
Stem cell researcher Kevin Eggan,
(third from left,bottom row)
with members of his lab at Harvard,
from his website.
By Elie Dolgin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)
MILWAUKEE — Researchers are one step closer to reprogramming skin cells into tailor-made, healthy replacements for diseased cells.
Applying the technique first developed by James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, scientists at Harvard and Columbia universities reported online Thursday in the journal Science that they had turned skin cells from two elderly patients with the neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis into motor neurons, the nerve cells that become damaged in ALS.
This is the first time that scientists have coaxed embryonic-like cells from adult patients suffering from a genetic-based disease, then induced the cells to form the specific cell types that would be needed to study and treat the disease.
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Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)
The rites of teen passage have inspired feature films as diverse as "American Beauty" and "American Pie." Nanette Burstein's documentary "American Teen" demonstrates that a nonfiction account of adolescence is as engrossing as any scripted drama.
"High school was a really tough time for me," said Burstein, Academy Award-nominated for her documentary about movie-studio politics, "The Kid Stays in the Picture." Her new film tracks five middle-American kids from Warsaw, Ind., through their senior year. "But it was a really formative time for me, too. I changed dramatically and developed independent spirit by the end, despite all the pressure not to. I've watched a lot of movies about young people and been entertained by some and largely dissatisfied by others. So I thought there's a need to tell these great stories that I saw, but do them with real kids and show them as complicated as they really are and break down those stereotypes."
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Posted by Courier at 06:28 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
Heath Ledger as the Joker.
By Robert W. Butler
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
Oh, Hannibal, you big, lovable teddy bear, you. Come give us a hug!
Yes, we Americans do love our movie villains. And the nastier the better.
You wouldn't think that in a time of terrorism and uncertainty we'd cozy up to characters that represent the worst in human nature. But just look at all the bad guys who in recent years have gone home with an Oscar:
Forest Whitaker as dictator/cannibal Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." Sean Penn as a Boston mobster in "Mystic River." Denzel Washington as a corrupt cop in "Training Day."
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Posted by Courier at 06:24 AM. Filed under: Entertainment
From wikipedia:
Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays (ca. August 1, 1895 (?) – March 28, 1984) was an African-American minister, educator, scholar, social activist and the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a significant mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and was among the most articulate and outspoken critics of segregation before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the United States.
Benjamin Elijah Mays was born in 1895 in Ninety Six, South Carolina, the youngest of eight children; his parents were tenant farmers and former slaves. After spending a year at Virginia Union University, he moved north to attend Bates College in Maine, where he obtained his B.A. in 1920, then entered the University of Chicago as a graduate student, earning an M.A. in 1925 and a Ph.D. in the School of Religion in 1935. His education at Chicago was interrupted several times: he was ordained a Baptist minister in 1922 and accepted a pastorate at the Shiloh Baptist Church of Atlanta, then later taught at Morehouse and at South Carolina State College.
Visit the website of Morehouse College.
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