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Links:
United
Nations
hang-gliding in
Owens Valley
CA related stuff UI

click on picture for more info on LA
List of American celebrities:
Forbes
Listening comprehension:
LA Freeway
Game |
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UII 2003/4 [back] |
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Current Events:
Beslan Hostage Crisis /
BBC XXXXXXXXXX |
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Russians Held Chechen Families During School Siege
All
Things Considered audio Sept. 7, 2004
As the Beslan hostage crisis unfolded, Russian
soldiers began detaining relatives of Chechen rebel leaders. The Russian
government says the families were held in protective custody and denies
the detentions were meant to pressure the hostage takers. Hear
NPR's Robert
Siegel and Kim Murphy, Moscow bureau chief for
The Los Angeles Times. |
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XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX US Studies
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Old Man
River miniproject
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(press for info) |
US State Mint:
50 State Quarters
(click on coin to see
collectible quarters from 1999 -2002 and learn about the story behind
the different motifs) |
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Friday,
May 23, 2003: 19:30 to 20:00
Travel
Channel
Denver, Colorado - Rick Bronson visits the
US Mint, |
| published coins
(list
of abbreviations) |
coins known in class |
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Grammar File XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |
Connectives
(Source:
University of
Otago, NZ)
| Use |
Example |
Use |
Example |
| add idea |
and, also, as well as,
furthermore, in addition |
add opposite idea |
but, however, on the other hand,
in contrast, although |
| add similar idea |
similarly, also, as, once again |
give example |
for example, for instance, as
follows: |
| exception, reservation |
even though, still, yet,
nevertheless |
give alternative, or repeat |
in other words, or rather,
alternatively |
| give cause/reason |
for, because, since, as |
give effect/reason |
therefore, thus, hence,
consequently, as a result, so |
| show time relationship |
presently, soon, while, later,
shortly, before, afterwards |
show spatial relationship |
between, next, front, beyond,
across |
| give summary, conclusion |
therefore, in summary, to
conclude, in short |
generalising/give qualification |
in general, on the whole, in most
cases, usually, frequently, mainly |
| highlighting |
in particular, particularly |
transition |
now, as far as X is concerned,
with regars to, as for… |
| list ideas in time order or order of
importance |
first, second, etc. then, next,
finally |
referring |
who, which, when, where, whose,
that |
Example Texts/ Find connectives
and underline them.
Text A):
The Bush administration continues to
press for a war on Iraq, bullying members of the United Nations even as
it threatens to go forward alone. A significant percent of Americans and
all our allies agree: a unilateral strike against Baghdad is both
unwarranted and potentially disastrous.
This content file offers readers
breaking news, the best analysis, activism resources, and timely
information they need to resist this precipitous rush to war.
Source:
www.alternet.org/waroniraq/
Text B)
I can't believe we're watching the war
live
Bush Watches Some of Baghdad
Bombardment on TV
The White House came up with this
after the Press Corps went literally crazy asking Ari Fleischer this
question.
Apparently, those morons don't think the war is "real" for the Commander
in Chief unless he sees it on CNN!
However, the TV coverage also explains why I haven't been blogging
much...
watching this war happen "live" has had me mesmerized--I admit it.
It's "reality TV" to the max.
And with those reporters being imbedded with the troops, their reports
really are the news of the war.
If you can filter out the Liberal cr*p (which is definitely the case
with Fox News), it's almost "pure" news, for a change!
[I happened to flip over to MSNBC and caught Bush-hater Bryan Williams
comparing our "Shock and Awe" bombing of Baghdad to the fire-bombing of
Dresden during WWII.
Happily, somebody in the Pentagon caught this,too, because Rummy had
some choice words for Bryan (even though he didn't mention him by name,
"you know who you are") about such remarks at his daily press conference
this afternoon! Rummy is so great!]
Source:
www.greatestjeneration.com
Date: 22 March 2003 |
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Technolgical Challenges XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |
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►House
of Orange (Click Online/BBC)
►Home
automation (more images) |
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XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Iraq
Crisis XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |
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Peace Sonnet by Marylin Nelson |
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A Seuss-Like Look at the Iraq Issue
(NPR 7 Feb 2003)
George:
You do have anthrax and SAMs. Saddam:
I do not have them(, says Saddam).
more
.... |
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US
Political System XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |
|

(click for
full view) |
US
Political System of
Checks and Balances
| Legislative Branch |
Makes the laws |
| Executive Branch |
Enforces and carries out the laws. |
| Judicial Branch |
Interprets the laws |
(read more) |
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XXXXXXX And a
Happ New Year ..... Jan 2003 - Geocashing XXXXXXX |
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NPR's Living on
Earth: High Tech Booty Hunt / Ken Shulman
(Jan 6, 2003)
When former President Clinton declassified the global positioning
system, also known as GPS, it opened the door for citizen use of the
satellite navigation network. As Ken Shulman reports, a new sport called
geocaching has sent both outdoor enthusiasts and techno-geeks on
treasure hunting adventures using handheld GPS devices. (7:00) |
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Geocaching -The sport where YOU
are the search engine.
A GPS device and a hunger
for adventure are all you need for high tech treasure hunting. Here you
can find the latest caches in your area, how to hide your own cache, and
information on how to get started in this fun and exciting sport. |
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Project by Miriam
and Ina |
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Alexander Rae Baldwin III, was the second of six
children in his family. Born in Massapequa, New York on April 3, 1958 he
was the first of his family to start a career in acting. Following in
his footsteps his brothers Daniel, Stephen and William have all founded
there own careers in acting. As a boy, he was an avid film-goer, always
with a dream of becoming an actor. Although achieving a political
science major at George Washington University, he never gave up his
childhood dream. Three years later he moved to Manhattan to pursue his
acting career at New York University's esteemed drama department. He has
worked chiefly as a professional actor ever since his role in the
daytime TV series "The Doctors" on NBC. That performance led to a lead
role on the primetime series "Cutter to Houston."
He soon moved back to New york to work in theatre. His
first Broadway role was in Joe Orton's comedy "Loot." This claimed the
prestigious Theatre World prize in a 1986. Since then some of his
theatrical acomplishments include a starring performance in "A Streetcar
Named Desire" and "Prelude to a Kiss." Some of Alec's many movie credits
are as follows; Malice, Beetlejuice, She's Having a Baby, The Hunt For
Red October, Married to the Mob, The Getaway, Talk Radio, Great Balls of
Fire, Working Girl, Alice, Miami Blues, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Shadow
and the upcoming Heaven's Prisoners.
Read more
.... |
Extract
from an interview with Wilis:
Interviewer: You play a man who is very
strong. Do you feel invincible?
Willis:
Hell, no! No, I'm really vulnerable! No, no,
no! I'm vulnerable emotionally, vulnerable as a human being. I'm not
invincible. I'm just like you! You cut me -- I bleed. I've never felt
that. It's just a part of the movie.
Interviewer: Could you explain what you
learned about yourself while making "Unbreakable"?
Willis:
Something really interesting happened to me on this film because of
having worked with Night on "The Sixth Sense." The relationship we
developed on that film as actor and director, and also becoming friends
-- there was an extraordinary level of trust that I generally don't get.
It's because when you go from movie to movie, you seldom get to work
with the same director twice. I think Night and I started at a much
higher level of communication than [what] normally happens in films. For
myself, that allowed me to really put a lot of my performance in Night's
hands. We spent a lot of time talking about what David Dunn would or
would not do, how he would talk, the fact that he's not as smart as
everyone else in the room, etc. Once we laid down these rules, we stuck
to them. Once I saw a rough cut to the film, I realized that all the
things we really worked on so hard, really worked. It doesn't always
happen.
Read
more .... |
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The Fifth Element (1997)
Links:
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Plot Summary
Two hundred and fifty years in the future, life as we
know it is threatened by the arrival of Evil. Only the fifth element
(played by Milla Jovovich) can stop the Evil from extinguishing life, as
it tries to do every five thousand years. She is helped by ex-soldier,
current-cab-driver, Corben Dallas (played by Bruce Willis), who is, in
turn, helped by Prince/Arsenio clone, Ruby Rhod. Unfortunately, Evil is
being assisted by Mr. Zorg (Gary Oldman), who seeks to profit from the
chaos that Evil will bring, and his alien mercenaries |
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XXXXX Frau Schober's Surprise Guest from
Johannesburg (SA) XXXX |
A Distant Dream

As Racism Conference Starts, South Africa Grapples With Its Past
J O H A N N E S B U R G,
South Africa, Aug. 30 — As South Africa prepares to open a
global racism conference in Durban, the country that witnessed the
birth and death of apartheid is still struggling to move beyond its
disturbing past. (Read
more ...)
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Population of South Africa (Including "Homelands") by Official
"Races" |
| Group |
Population (1,000s)
|
Percent of Total |
| Whites |
4,961 |
14.8% |
| Blacks |
24,901 |
74.1% |
| Coloureds |
2,881 |
8.6% |
| Asians |
878 |
2.6% |
| Total |
33,621 |
100.0% |
|
SOURCE:
Survey of Race Relations—1986,
Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race Relations, 1986.
(Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding.) |
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Intrawhite Distinctions Among the Population of
South Africa |
| Native Language |
Population (1,000s) |
Percent of Total Whites |
| Afrikaans |
2,581 |
57.0 |
| English |
1,763 |
38.9 |
| Portuguese |
70 |
1.5 |
| others |
114 |
2.5 |
| Total |
4,528 |
100.0 |
|
SOURCE: 1980 South African census data. (Percentages
may not add up to 100 because of rounding.) |
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Further Reading:
1) SOUTH AFRICA-POPULATION:
Coloureds Complain of Marginalisation (Oneworld.net)
2) Johannesburg, South Africa
(United
Nations Cyberschoolbus) |
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The Finger
Print World Take one
large sheet of paper. Ask each student to make only one thumb
print on that single sheet, with a range of colors picked by or
distributed randomly among students. Ask students to describe the
overall result in one sentence. Point to a few individual prints and
ask a each student to describe an individual print. In the
description, several qualities, such as the color, the lines of the
thumb print, the location on the paper, etc., will come out. Then
discuss the following issues: are these the same or different?
what makes each of them unique? what makes them similar? shall we
look at them as a group of things or as individual things? Relate
this to human beings. |
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Complete List of Human Rights:
United Nations Cyberschoolbus |
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Sherman J. Alexie, Jr., was born in
October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane
Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, about 50 miles northwest of
Spokane. Approximately 1,100 Spokane Tribal members live there. Alexie's
father is a Coeur d'Alene Indian, and his mother is a Spokane Indian.
Born hydrocephalic, with water on the brain,
Alexie underwent a brain operation at the age of 6 months and was not
expected to survive. When he did beat the odds, doctors predicted he
would live with severe mental retardation. Though he showed no signs of
this, he suffered severe side effects, such as seizures and
uncontrollable bed-wetting, throughout his childhood. In spite of all
this, Alexie learned to read by age three, and devoured novels, such as
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, by age five. All these
things ostracized him from his peers and he was often the brunt of other
kids' jokes on the reservation.
Read more .... |
Amazon.com
Native American Sherman Alexie's new novel is a departure
in tone from his lyrical and funny earlier work, which include The
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Reservation
Blues. The main character is an Indian serial killer who incites
racial tension by murdering whites in retribution for his people's
history. The killer leaves clear signs of his motives by scalping his
victims, and leaving feathers as gestures of Indian defiance. The killer
is a conflicted creation--raised by loving white parents, but twisted by
loss of his identity as an Indian. Alexie layers the story with
complications and ancillary characters, from a rabid talk show host, to
vengeance seeking whites, to liberals who find their patronizing
espousal of Indian causes no longer so easy.
Read more .... |
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HOW TO RAISE A JUVENILE DELINQUENT
(Found by Tobias Rixen)
Rules 1-12
Prepared by the Houston
Police Department |
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Context: Equal Opportunity
(Wong-Chu)
It is estimated that 600 Chinese
workers died while constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The conditions in which the Chinese had to live and work were so bad
that many died of scurvy and other diseases.
The Chinese and white camps were separated and most of the time the two
sides hardly spoke to one another. The Chinese workers were very quick
and efficient, "they could quickly break camp, trek as far as 25 miles
and set up new camp within 24 hours.
Chinese
Canadian Historical Photo Exhibit |
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Preparation for test
on October 29 (Traffic in LA & California)
LA TRAFFIC (from All Things Considered, Wednesday, November 26, 1997
)
NPR's Mandalit delBarco reports on how Los
Angeles...the city with some of the country's worst traffic...deals
with the busiest travel day of the year. Despite the outward chaos,
there's a whole crew of folks trying to smooth out the snarls and
free the gridlock. The city even has its own traffic "war room"
where the strategic battles against those jammed freeways are waged.
(4:00) |
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Above:
Imagine avoiding congested freeways, crowded airports and overbooked
planes.
left:
Unbearable Traffic Congestion |
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DR. ROADMAP -- the first name in alternate routes
DR. ROADMAP burst upon the traffic scene in late 1987 as the first
person in Los Angeles to offer alternate routes to motorists who were
sick and tired of being stuck in traffic. In 1990 he released to the
world the most comprehensive guide ever written of off-freeway commuting
in Southern California. (read
more)
Listen
to NPR reporting |
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NPR/All Thing
Considered Feature:
LIsten
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Los Angeles traffic routes are notoriously difficult to navigate and are
often blamed as the source of headaches for many. Tuesday on All Things
Considered, hear about a fun game that requires players to learn
alternate routes to the L.A. freeway maze. |
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HANG-GLIDING IN CA
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Some of the
best hang gliding in the world is found right here in the
Owens Valley, on the eastern flank of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains. Mark Gibson, one of the nations top
pilots, demonstrates his aerobatic skills near Black Mountain, while
World Champion Kari Castle takes a flight around the Valley. This is
part one in a two part series on soaring in the Range of Light. Get
ready to fly... |
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William Hauptman
was born in Texas. His plays include Big River, a musical Hauptman wrote
with the late Roger Miller that won seven Tony awards. His fiction,
which has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Southwest Review, and The Best
American Short Stories, includes Good Rockin' Tonight, a collection of
short stories; and The Storm Season, a novel. He is currently a guest
lecturer at the Texas Center for Writers in Austin.
Collection of Short Fiction
Bantam, New York, 1988. ISBN: 0-553-34557-5
--Good Rockin' Tonight, 1988.
--Boom Town, 1988.
--Pure Sex, 1988.
--Hands Across America, 1988.
--Kozmic Blues, 1988.
--Stormchaser, 1988.
--Moon Walking, 1988.
--The Desert, 1988.
--Sierra Wave, 1988. |
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meeting Toledoan students (June 03)

Beslan

Bishop CA

Hang-glider Pilot

William Hauptman

Gettysburg's 'Hallowed Ground'
(NPR)

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