New York Times Upfront articles from January 2005

New York Times Upfront archives from January 2005

In an authoritarian country like North Korea.(Then Now)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... In an authoritarian country like North Korea, a picture--or the absence of one--really does speak a thousand words. Portraits of leader Kim Jong Il (above left, to the right of his father, the previous leader) have vanished from places like the...

Loopy about cereal.(Food)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... It's quick. It's easy. It's comforting. Whatever the reason, teens and young adults are eating cereal for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Some campus dwellers find cereal a sweet relief from the cafeteria's mystery meat. The Cereality...

Crab coalitions.(Science)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Sometimes a crabby neighbor is a good neighbor. Scientists in Australia have observed that a male fiddler crab will come to the aid of a neighbor under attack--but only if there's something in it for him. While common in human warfare, this...

A TV cries 'wolf'.(Technology)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Last October, Chris van Rossman's TV set sent out a cry for help that bounced off two satellites and reached Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. A team of sheriff's deputies and Civil Air Patrol volunteers soon appeared at Van Rossman's...

Numbers in the news.(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... 12 million Number of families in the United States that are struggling to feed themselves. SOURCE: UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE $800 Price of a haircut by New York hair stylist Orlando Pita--twice the average...

Noted & quoted.(Soundbites)
January 10, 2005... 'I'll vote even if it's dangerous, because we need to make sacrifices to get Iraq out of this mess.' --Ahmed al-Sinjari, 19, a resident of Baghdad, on the potential risks of participating in Iraq's January 30 elections. (Reuters, Nov. 23)...

Built for the long run.(Science)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... If walking upright first set our human ancestors apart from their ape cousins, it may have been their ability to run long distances with a springing step over the African savanna that marked the transition to today's human body form. By...

Chess queen gets girls into the game.(O&A)(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 10, 2005... At the chessboard, Jennifer Shahade, 23, the 2004 U.S. Women's Chess Champion, is a fierce competitor. In front of a class, she helps girls master the game. Upfront talked to Shahade, a 2003 New York University graduate, about what draws her to...

Bolly beats holly.(Media)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
January 10, 2005... India's motion-picture industry, often referred to as "Bollywood," is the world's largest in terms of the number of films it produces each year. Top 10 Film-Producing Nations (2002) 1 > India 1,200 2 > U.S. ...

Games & Gizmos for the SAT.(Education)(Scholastic Assessment Test)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Students in pursuit of that perfect SAT score now have test-prep options available via cell phone and other handheld gadgets. Princeton Review offers cell-phone users a service that allows them to send questions to themselves at intervals...

Designer speed traps.(Italy)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Highway police in Italy have a new tool for foiling those famously fast Italian drivers: a Lamborghini Gallardo with a maximum speed of 190 mites per hour. In a nation crazed with car racing, the pricey patrol car--with its aerodynamic design...

The Chinese century: Will China surpass the United States as the world's economic reader?(International)
January 10, 2005... China used to be far away, the country at the bottom of the world. Certainly that is how it must have seemed until recently in Pekin, Ill., a city of 34,000 residents that in 1830 took its name from China's capital, Peking (now called Beijing)....

Bush's second act: news analysis: can the president avoid the 'second-term jinx' as he pursues an ambitious, complicated, and risky agenda?(Cover Story)
January 10, 2005... When George W. Bush raises his right hand at noon on January 20 and is sworn into office for a second term, he will begin to pursue a historic--and risky-agenda. It's an agenda far more ambitious and complicated than the one he arrived with in...

Old ways, new world: for Afghan and Indian immigrants in the U.S., dating and marriage present special challenges.(National)
January 10, 2005... Ashrat Khwajazadah and Naheed Mawjzada are in many ways modern American women, spurning the headscarves and modest outfits customarily worn by Afghan women. Both in their early 20s, they have taken a route still controversial for Afghan...

Media monoliths: are today's entertainment conglomerates controlling too much of what Americans read, listen to, and watch?(National)
January 10, 2005... Lackluster reviews of the movie King Arthur didn't stop the ABC show 20/20 from devoting an entire segment to the Arthurian legend last July, featuring multiple clips of the movie and interviews with the cast, director, and producer. ABC...

The liberation of Auschwitz: sixty years ago this month, advancing Allied troops came face to face with the horrors of the Nazi death camps.(Times Past)
January 10, 2005... Sixty years ago, on Jan. 27, 1945, Russian soldiers pursuing the fleeing German armies near one of the anonymous towns of Poland came upon a gruesome scene. Thousands of people--mostly European Jews but also Gypsies and other non-Jews the...

A new U.S. Senator wins Kenyan hearts in a landslide: a Kenyan village follows the rise of Barack Obama to the Senate--and maybe beyond.(Africa Journal)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... When the people of Nyang'oma, Kenya, speak of good fortune coming their way now that Barack Obama has won a seat in the U.S. Senate, it is a feeling of extended family: Those who make it help those left behind. Born to a Kenyan father and...

Censoring private Ryan.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Sixty-six ABC affiliates refused to broadcast Saving Private Ryan on Veterans Day after the American Family Association found that the movie's soldiers invoked expletives and indecently re-enacted "graphic violence" in battle scenes. The real...

The 28th amendment: equal opportunity for immigrants.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... The U.S. Constitution directs that only "natural born" citizens are eligible for the nation's highest office. It's time to end this discrimination. There may have been reason for suspicion of the foreign-born as the nation was in formation, but...

For China to advance, the gag must be lifted.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... For the last century, the title of "most important place in the world" has belonged to the U.S., but that role seems likely to shift in this century to China. So what are China's new leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, really like? When they...

Should legal immigrants be allowed to vote? New York and other cities are thinking about letting legal immigrants vote in local elections, a right only citizens currently have.(Debate)
January 10, 2005... YES In my hometown, Takoma Park, Md., all adults can vote in local elections, whether or not they're U.S. citizens. Everyone wants good schools and clean parks, and the city wants everyone to participate in local government. So why would we...

Educating the street children of Vietnam.(Voices)
January 10, 2005... My parents, who had been studying in Japan when Saigon fell to the Communists in 1975, moved to the U.S. in 1983, and I was born in California five years later. All I knew about Vietnam, my parents' homeland, was that the people there were...

Cartoons.(Comic)
January 10, 2005... I COULDN'T AGREE MORE... DITTO... I CONCUR... I'M WITH YOU ALL THE WAY... ANYTHING YOU SAY... I LOVE MY NEW CABINET... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gary Markstein * Milwaukee Journal Sentinel * Copley News...

Letter from the editor.(Editorial)
January 10, 2005... By the time you're reading this note, I'm sure the holidays will seem like a distant memory and you'll be focused on the challenges of the new year. In this issue of Upfront, we take a look at some of the challenges that lie ahead for...

Made in China.
January 10, 2005... Six centuries ago, an armada of Chinese ships sailed west as far as East Africa. The fleet included huge cargo ships, supply ships, and even transports for cavalry horses. The crew totaled more than 27,000. In the 21st century, China has...

Game show.(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Use with articles identified. Divide the class into 2-4 teams. Read the statements below, which are answers to questions. In this game, modeled after the TV show Jeopardy!, students must give their answers in the form of questions....

Pictures of the missing.(news & trends)
January 24, 2005... Pictures of the missing covered a bulletin board in Phuket, Thailand, as Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged U.S. support a week after the tsunami that struck Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Maldives on December 26. By early...

Welcome to Africa dot com.(Africa)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Computer experts are working with language specialists to make computers more accessible to Africans who do not know English, French, or the other major languages of cyberspace. Google now offers a search engine in Swahili, and Microsoft is...

Chimps with tool kits.(Science)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Chimpanzees living in the wild have been videotaped using "tool kits" consisting of sticks tailored to specific tasks. While other species, like crows and the great apes, have been observed using simple tools, chimps are apparently the first...

Big, bad 'soovs' invade Europe.(Europe)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... SUVs, or "soovs" as they are called in Italy, are becoming increasingly popular on Europe's narrow, traffic-clogged streets. But a countermovement is developing among those who believe SUVs are not only pollution-spewing monstrosities, but also...

Numbers in the news.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... $43 billion Estimated cost of food that U.S. households waste each year. The average family of four tosses food worth $590. SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 16% Percentage of people 18 to 34 years old who use their cell phones...

Noted & quoted.(Sound Bites)
January 24, 2005... 'Businessmen will now compete with toddlers for the title of 'most annoying in the airplane.' --Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst, on a proposed regulation that would allow airline passengers to make cell-phone calls during...

Spinach juices up batteries.(Technology)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Parents, doctors, and even Popeye have long talked up the powerful properties of spinach. Now, an unlikely group has joined in: researchers seeking to give batteries extra punch. Scientists have found a way to harness the energy that plants use...

Driving at 130 mph: all in a day's work.(O&A)(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 24, 2005... Joe Henderson III of Franklin, Tenn., started driving go-carts when he was 7. Now 19, he's a stock-car racer who dreams of winning the Nextel Cup and is starting his second season with Drive for Diversity, the NASCAR-backed program that...

Can you do the Math?(Education)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
January 24, 2005... U.S. teenagers trail students in other countries when it comes to math, according to international testing on the math skills of 15-year-olds. COUNTRIES BY RANK % in top % in bottom scoring...

Rare breed: republican professors.(Education)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... A national survey of more than 1,000 academics shows that Democratic professors outnumber Republicans by at least seven to one in the humanities and social sciences. According to Daniel Klein, a co-author of the study, this gap is likely to...

Do ATMs belong with ABCs?(Money)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... A growing number of schools are offering students the convenience of an ATM. At Oregon City High School in northwest Oregon, an ATM stands near the school, store and snack bar. It is a potential, moneymaker for the school, which charges $1.25...

Going nuclear? Iran and North Korea are the two most visible--but not the only--threats in an age when it has become easier to build and hide nuclear weapons. How will President Bush respond?(Cover Story)
January 24, 2005... During the Cold War, teachers used to drill their classes on how to survive a nuclear attack, getting them to "duck and cover" under their desks. It was a ridiculous exercise: A school desk does not provide much protection against the fearsome...

Continental divide: casinos have helped make some Indian tribes rich. But what about the many Native Americans who don't benefit from gambling?(National)
January 24, 2005... A century and a half after a treaty between expansion-hungry white settlers and overpowered tribe members brought it into existence, the Omaha Indian Reservation is a depressing example of what life is like for many Native Americans today. ...

1838: The Trail of Tears: forced to resettle in what became Oklahoma, many Cherokee died on the brutal journey west.(Times Past)
January 24, 2005... With bayonets fixed to their guns, small squads of U.S. soldiers stealthily set out on May 26, 1838, to surround the little cabins in Georgia where the Cherokee lived. The soldiers then rushed inside, seizing entire families and herding them...

Watching over you: to keep better tabs on students, one Texas district is testing ID badges that track school comings and goings.(Technology)
January 24, 2005... Outside her home in Spring, Tex., Courtney Payne, 9, exits a yellow school bus. Moments later, her movement is observed by Man Bragg, the local police chief, in a windowless control room more than a mile away. Chief Bragg is not using video...

Bush should get ahead of the stem-cell gold rush.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Californians voted in November to pour $300 million a year for a decade into embryonic stem-cell research, in hopes of finding treatments or cures for a variety of diseases. The state will become the global center for such advanced research....

A strategy for turning down the heat in Iraq.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... In Iraq, when Saddam Hussein toppled over like a watt, his disappearance did not leave behind a civil, society yearning to be free, united, and democratic. He left behind a pot that is boiling over--a highly tribalized society, full of pent-up...

'The dog ate my homework'.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... According to his grand-jury testimony, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, the slugger with 703 home runs and a brazenly bulky body, did not know that the substances he acknowledged using were illegal, steroids obtained by his personal...

Should we raise fuel-efficiency standards? Everyone's in favor of better mileage for cars. The issue is whether the government or the market should set the standards.(Debate)
January 24, 2005... YES America's family cars and trucks use a lot of oil--more than 8 million barrels every day. That makes us too dependent on suppliers in unstable, unfriendly parts of the world. Rising oil prices are also a drag on the economy, and a...

Cartoons.(Comic)
January 24, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: WE WILL WEATHER THE LATEST SCANDAL BECAUSE WE ARE AN ESSENTIAL ORGANIZATION TO THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD! THE U.N. IS IMPORTANT! THOSE TWO GO TOGETHER... U.N. AND IMPORTANT! THAT'S OUR NEW MOTTO! PERHAPS...

Letter from the editor.(Editorial)
January 24, 2005... Our cover story focuses on one of the biggest challenges facing the U.S. and the world today: the possibility that rogue nations--with Iran and North Korea only the most prominent--or terrorists could get their hands on nuclear weapons. In...

Opinion & debate.(Quiz 4)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... 1. At least three states are bypassing federal restrictions and launching research on a global warming. b highway accidents. c alternative energy sources. d embryonic stem cells. 2. The most important short-term challenge...

Game show.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Use with articles identified. Divide the class into two to four teams. Read the statements below, which are answers to questions. In this game, modeled after the TV show Jeopardy!, students must give their answers in the form of...