New York Times Upfront articles from December 2006

New York Times Upfront archives from December 2006

Letter from the editor.(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Our cover story looks at China's new history textbooks, which de-emphasize Communism, and Mao himself, in flavor of capitalist icons like Bill Gates and J.P. Morgan. In Times Past, we revisit the chaos of Mao's Cultural Revolution (which the...

The U.S.-CHINA trade gap.
December 11, 2006... After China's Communist revolution in 1949, the U.S. and China became bitter enemies. They fought on opposite sides during the 1950-1953 Korean War, and for the next two decades relations between the two nations were nonexistent. Relations...

Young prisoners.(news & TRENDS)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... YOUNG PRISONERS sleep in a cramped cell at Malabon, a predominantly adult jail in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. During the course of a year, an estimated 68,000 children in the Philippines spend time in adult prisons; some are as...

Watch people watching.(TECHNOLOGY)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Shaw Kaake thinks that people entranced by hand-held games and video players tend to ignore the world around them. His response was to develop the Egokast, a palm-size video player that doubles as a belt buckle. Instead of watching the Egokast...

Don't call them 'Flipper'.(LANGUAGE)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Researchers have discovered that dolphins have "names"--not words, but distinctive whistles that contain identifying information. Scientists have known since the 1960s that dolphins make whistles or calls. "It's always been suggested that they...

The married minority.(SOCIETY)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... For the first time in history, married couples constitute a minority of U.S. households, according to an analysis of census figures by The New York Times. The American Community Survey, released in October by the Census Bureau, found that 49.7...

Numbers in the news.(news & TRENDS)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... 52% Percentage of Americans surveyed who said they had "re-gifted" presents or might do so in the future, SOURCE: REUTERS 70,000 Approximate number of videos that are uploaded to YouTube every day. SOURCE: TIME 11%...

Noted & quoted.(SOUNDBITES)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... 'We import the raw materials, send the products abroad, and keep the waste and pollution ourselves.' * A PROFESSOR at the Beijing Forestry University on China's environmental problems. (Agence France-Presse) 'The technology... takes...

Scouts honor--online.(MEDIA)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... In addition to chopping firewood and cooking over campfires, the 52,000 Boy Scouts in Los Angeles can now team to "be prepared" to protect intellectual property. A new activity patch called Respect Copyrights has been developed by the Scouts...

Pushing her way straight to the top.(Amanda McGrory)(Interview)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Last month, Amanda McGrory, 20, of Kennett Square, Pa., won the women's push-rim wheelchair race in the New York City Marathon by two seconds, with a time of 1:54:19. McGrory, who became disabled at the age of 5 after contracting a rare virus,...

Europe's culture complex.(INTERNATIONAL)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... Talk about bad reception: Even as Europeans avidly consume American music, movies, and TV, they say they don't like the idea of American culture spreading around the world. Percentage of Europeans who say... They like...

Treats for the troops.(GIVING)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... When it comes to sending gifts to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gail Van Vranken of Wheeling, W, Va., is an expert. This season, her charity--Boatsie's Boxes for Baghdad--will ship hundreds of boxes of Christmas stockings stuffed with items...

Mississippi gets the word out.(AMERICANA)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... For decades, one state has always seemed to get the worst score in every category: Mississippi. At various times, it has been cited as the nation's poorest, least educated, and most corrupt state. Mississippi has long chafed at these...

"Breaking the marble ceiling": Nancy Pelosi is about to become the first female Speaker of the House. The Californian is one of many women rising to new political heights.(NATIONAL)
December 11, 2006... Two days after the midterm election that put Democrats in control of Congress, President Bush invited the incoming Democratic congressional leaders to the White House for lunch. For the first time in history, the leadership includes a woman,...

Young lives on hold: nearly four years after the U.S.-led invasion, the relentless violence is freezing the lives of young Iraqis, and leaving their futures in doubt.(INTERNATIONAL)
December 11, 2006... In a dimly lighted living room in central Baghdad, Noor is a lonely teenage prisoner. At 19, he is neither working nor in college. He is not even allowed outdoors. Nearly four years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the relentless...

All over the map: test your geographic savvy.
December 11, 2006... There's been a lot of talk in the media lately about America's "geographic illiteracy." Indeed, a poll this year found that 33 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds couldn't find Louisiana on a map, even after Hurricane Katrina, and 63 percent...

Where's Mao? The Chinese leader is disappearing from the country's new history textbooks, which downplay socialism altogether.(Cover story)
December 11, 2006... This year, high school students Chicago will likely learn more about Communism than students in Shanghai: The new world-history textbooks just introduced in China's biggest city have dropped Communist revolutions and socialist theory in favor...

1966 China's cultural revolution: seventeen years after the Communist takeover, Mao Zedong launched another revolution that led to the deaths of thousands of people and the persecution of millions more.(TIMES PAST)
December 11, 2006... By the afternoon of May 25, 1966, a group of radical professors at Peking University had finally finished drafting a large political poster. They took it to a campus commons area, hung it outside, and waited for a reaction. It would not take...

Should cell phones be banned in schools? As schools across the country grapple with cell-phone policies, New York City's strict ban has everyone talking.(DEBATE)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... YES As a former New York City public-school teacher, I can tell you that cell phones don't belong in the classroom. A student with a cell phone is an uninterested student, one with a short attention span who cares more about socializing...

In a wireless world, personal contact takes a back seat.(Brief article)(Column)
December 11, 2006... Lately, I've been leering that technology is dividing us as much as uniting us. Yes, it can make the far feel. near. But it can also make the near feel far. I realized this after a cab ride from Charles de Gaulle Airport in to my hotel, in...

A Brooklyn School's wall of fame gets crowded with Senators.(OPINION)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... James Madison High School, in Brooklyn, N.Y., can now claim three sitting Senators as alumni. Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont became number three when he won a Senate seat last month, joining Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and...

Is baseball for sale?(OPINION)(Brief article)
December 11, 2006... A huge deal will name the new ballpark of the New York Mets for Citigroup. The new stadium, scheduled to open in spring 20119, will be called Citi Field. (Its entry rotunda will honor Jackie Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers legend who broke...

Cartoons.(Comic)(Cartoon)
December 11, 2006... ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, 100% SURE? YES. NO MORE SLIMY POLITICAL ADS. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BRUCE BEATTIE * The Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal * COPLEY NEWS SERVICE Dancing with the Stars WITH NANCY PELOSI and...