New York Times Upfront articles from November 2006

New York Times Upfront archives from November 2006

A worker.(Eid al-Fitr being celebrated in India)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: A WORKER in Hyderabad, India, rotted vermicelli--long, thin strands of pasta--in preparation for the feasts that accompanied the October 25 celebrations of Eid al-Fitr. This Islamic festival marks the end of...

WOW goes Global.(World of Warcraft from Blizzard Entertainment)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... While video games stamped "Made in the USA" often struggle abroad, especially in Asia, World of Warcraft has become a global entertainment phenomenon. Also known as WOW, the game has nearly 7 million subscribers and is expected to generate more...

The touch factor.(buying things in a store )(Survey)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Consumers love to touch products in stores, especially clothing: They like to feel the fabric and try things on. The problem for retailers is that people don't like buying things that other people have touched, as a recent study demonstrates....

When finding a dentist is like pulling teeth.(Britain faces deficiency of dentists)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... William Kelly, 43, of Rochdale, England, couldn't get professional, treatment for his aching tooth. Finally, he says, "I snapped it out myself." Kelly's predicament is due in large part to deficiencies in Britain's state-financed dental...

Numbers in the news.(number of iPods sold, internet users in China, price of a gallon of gas)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... 100,000+ Number of censors monitoring the online activity of China's 111 million Internet users. SOURCE: HARPER'S $2.31 Average cost of a gallon of gas in the U.S. at the end of September, compared with $3.07 per gallon a...

Noted & quoted.(role of Iraq war)(Excerpt)
November 13, 2006... 'This would be a perfect solution for me. I'm determined to have a kitty.' * A CAT LOVER with allergies on a California biotech firm's recent development of what it says are hypoallergenic cats. (The New York Times) 'Israel and...

Monkey see, monkey say?(human language originates from monkey )(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Researchers taping carts of the putty-nosed monkey in the forests of Nigeria may have come a smart step closer to understanding the origin of human language. The researchers, who are from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, heard the...

How to stave off the 'freshman 15'.(Dorm Room Diet from Daphne Oz )(Interview)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Daphne Oz, 20, of Cliffside Park, N.J., struggled with being overweight as a kid. But with the help of her father, a cardiac surgeon, she came up with a plan to lose weight and avoid the "freshman 15 "--the pounds many students gain their first...

A message from 3,000 years ago.(discovered from a stone in Veracruz, Mexico)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... The earliest known example of writing in the Western Hemisphere was recently found on an Olmec stone in Veracruz, Mexico. Earlier writing samples have been found elsewhere. 3000 B.C. EGYPT, 3200-3000 B.C. Early Egyptians used...

Anyone here speak Urdu?(translators or interpreters in demand after World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, 2001 )(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Fluency in foreign languages can lead to well-paying jobs as translators or interpreters--professions that have grown rapidly in the post-9/11 world. (Translators convert written material; interpreters convert spoken language.) To get an idea...

Cell phones take center stage.(orchestra by David N. Baker)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Scores of cell phones twittered, beeped, and burbled all at once inside a concert hall in River Forest, Ill., on October 1. But the composer was delighted, and the orchestra--the Chicago Sinfonietta--continued playing the world premiere of the...

Back in session: it's the first full year for the Supreme Court's new team, and there are some tough issues on the docket.(John G. Roberts Jr. appointed)
November 13, 2006... The Supreme Court is made up of just nine people with lifetime appointments, so changing even one can make a big difference, and for a long time. Last term, two new Justices joined the Court, including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. The new...

The U.S. at 300 (million, that is): the 300 millionth American arrived in October. How does America today compare with 1915 and 1967, when the population passed the 100 million and 200 million marks?
November 13, 2006... On October 17, around 7:46 a.m. Eastern time, according to the Census Bureau, the American population hit 300 million. The 300 millionth American was probably born in a hospital, but theoretically, he or she may have arrived from overseas, or...

North Korea goes nuclear: an authoritarian, unpredictable regime now has the bomb. What are the implications for the U.S. and the world?(Cover story)
November 13, 2006... North Korea may be a starving, friendless, authoritarian nation of 23 million people, but it certainly got the world's attention last month when it exploded its first nuclear weapon. What concerned the United States and the rest of the...

1956: the roads that changed America: suburbia, shopping malls, fast food, and drive-in everything--the Interstate Highway System gave birth to much of American life as we know it.
November 13, 2006... In 1919, a young army officer named Dwight D. Eisenhower led a cross-country military convoy on the narrow, barely paved buggy paths that passed in those days for America's highways. It took him 44 days, at an average speed of 6 mph, to get...

Moving the Mississippi: would changing the river's course help save the vanishing coastline of Louisiana?(Mississippi River)
November 13, 2006... For thousands of years, the Mississippi River has acted like a conveyor belt, carrying millions of tons of sediment downstream each year. And before its flow was controlled, the river meandered across the region, spreading its nutrient-rich...

Should high school students be required to declare majors? Last spring, Florida became the first state to mandate high school majors.
November 13, 2006... YES With even one high school dropout being too many, we need to do all we can to make high school more interesting and engaging. Requiring students to choose a major is a meaningful way to do that. Just like in college, declaring a...

Monopoly makeover.(new edition of Monopoly Here and Now introduced from Hasbro Inc.)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... The familiar tokens from the Monopoly board game have gotten a modern--and some might say, mercenary--makeover. Five of the eight tokens in the new Monopoly Here & Now edition have been styled after name-brand products, [It's being sold...

Why the good news about oil prices is really the bad news.(Brief article)(Column)
November 13, 2006... Oil prices have fallen sharply this year. This may sound like good news, but don't kid yourself. Anything that reinforces the role of fossil fuels as the world's primary energy source is bad, not good. Anything that makes it cheaper to pump...

Preserving Africa's jungles: an economic opportunity.(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Few places in the world are as good for ogling wildlife as the remote jungle where the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and the Republic of Congo meet. Now the three countries have established adjoining national parks the size of Rhode...

Cartoons.(Cartoon)
November 13, 2006... THAT'S IT! BOW BEFORE YOURGREAT LEADER! THEY'RE EATING THE GRASS, SIR. NORTH KOREA [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] STEVE BREEN * The San Diego Union-Tribune * COPLEY NEWS SERVICE REMAINING SAFE PLACES IN THE WORLD AMISH...

Letter from the editor.
November 13, 2006... IN OUR COVER STORY, we examine the implications of a nuclear North Korea for the U.S. and the world. A nuclear timeline will help you place recent events in historical context. AS AMERICA REACHES the milestone of 300 million people, we look...

Where Americans are living.(population is rising in United States)
November 13, 2006... The 300-millionth American arrived on October 17, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It took only 39 years (1967 to 2006) for the nation's population to rise from 200 million to 300 million. And it is estimated that it will be sometime around...

Political cartoon.
November 13, 2006... Study the political cartoon below, which deals with recent events in North Korea and Iran, and answer the questions to the right. ANALYZE THE CARTOON 1. What is Uncle Sam trying to do in the cartoon and why? 2. Why do you think the...

Game show.
November 13, 2006... Use with articles identified. The statements are answers to questions (modeled after the TV show Jeopardy!). Students must answer in the form of questions. Divide the class into teams. Read the statements. Call on the first...

Correction.(Correction notice)
November 13, 2006... CORRECTION: In the October 23 issue, the labels were transposed on a graph of the pre-election makeup of the Senate (p. 6). The correct graph is below. WHOS'S IN THE SENATE NOW? INDEPENDENT 1 REPUBLICANS 55...

The Lesotho promise.(news & TRENDS)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... THE LESOTHO PROMISE, a 603-carat diamond unearthed in Lesotho in August, was purchased in October for $12.4 million by Graft Diamonds of London. The giant rough diamond, bought at auction in Antwerp, Belgium, will, probably be cut into several....

One small step toward invisibility.(TECHNOLOGY)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... The ability to vanish has long been the stuff of fantasy, from disappearing Romulan warbirds on Star Trek to Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. Now, scientists have demonstrated a technology that could be a small step toward a "cloaking...

Numbers in the news.(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... 24 Time, in seconds, that it takes radio shock jock Howard Stern to make $1,000; it takes the average police officer 43 hours to make the same amount. SOURCE: TIME 29% Percentage increase of in-car cell-phone talking from...

Paying tribute or trivializing?(AMERICANA)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Rosa Parks, a civil rights symbol in life, has become a marketing phenomenon since her death in 2005, with Parks memorabilia showing up everywhere. Books, posters, and replica buses are for sale at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.,...

Missing those pies and fries.(FOOD)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... When the British government banned junk food from school cafeterias in September, an outcry was heard from students and parents alike. Gone are fatty meat pies and French fries. In their place are two portions of fresh fruits and vegetables per...

Noted & quoted.(SOUNDBITES)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... 'There is tough fighting ahead. The fact that the fighting is tough does not mean our efforts in Iraq are not worth it.' * PRESIDENT BUSH in a recent White House news conference. He urged patience on Iraq while acknowledging the scope of...

Why put up with a lazy rat?(SCIENCE)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Lounge around. Gorge on munchies. Occasional road trips. Yes, it sounds just like some people you know. But this way of life is also common among other mammals, like the Damerland mote rats that live in southern Africa. Lazy rats can make up as...

Marc Davis: fast times at Lake Norman High.(Interview)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... At the age of 6, Marc Davis, from Mitchellville, Md., raced BMX bikes. Now 16, he's racing stock cars--and has won 6 of 12 races this year in the Limited Late Model division. He's part of NASCAR's "Drive for Diversity" program, which supports...

Sidestepping the gas guzzlers.(CARS)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Having lived through several months of gas prices at $3 a gallon and higher, more Americans are choosing fuel-efficient cars over SUV's and other big vehicles. Detroit's carmakers stilt produce more tight trucks than cars; Ford and Chrysler...

Married life, after death.(CHINA)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... In some rural, areas of China, when a young, unmarried son dies, his parents may try to find him a bride. This fork custom, known as an "afterlife marriage," is rooted in ancestor worship, which holds that people continue to exist after death,...

Team Congress takes the field.(THE WEB)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... If you have no idea how many yards Peyton Manning threw for on Sunday but can cite every Legislative amendment proposed by Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, then Fantasy Congress could be your game. The Fantasy Congress Web...

A loud message for the president: the Democrats' success in this month's midterm elections has created a new political landscape in Washington. The results were widely seen as a call for change.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
November 27, 2006... Everything is different now for President Bush. The era of one-party Republican rule in Washington ended with a crash this month when Democrats decisively won control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections. The results sent a...

Travis's dilemma: his father wants him to take over the family farm in Kansas. But 18-year-old Travis Warner, who has just started college, isn't so sure. Will he join the exodus of young people leaving the rural Great Plains for opportunities elsewhere?(Cover story)
November 27, 2006... BACKGROUND College freshman Travis Warner has to decide whether or not to take over his father's farm. As the number of family farms in the U.S. has fallen, the population of the rural Great Plains has gone into a steep decline. In 1940,...

When speaking out was a crime: freedom of speech during wartime has long been the subject of debate. During World War I, 79 people were convicted under Montana's sedition laws. It's taken 88 years to clear their names.(NATIONAL)
November 27, 2006... BACKGROUND Americans vaLue their right to criticize the government, but freedom of speech during wartime has long been the subject of debate. In Montana during World War I, dozens of people were jailed for criticizing the government and...

Teens and tobacco.(HEADS UP: REAL NEWS ABOUT DRUGS AND YOUR BODY)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... The Facts According to the Monitoring the Future Survey for 2005, cigarette smoking among students is at the lowest levels in the history of the survey. Since 1975 the survey has measured drug, alcohol, cigarette use, and related attitudes...

The deadly effects of tobacco addiction.(HEADS UP: REAL NEWS ABOUT DRUGS AND YOUR BODY)
November 27, 2006... Addiction: A chronic disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking and abuse and by long-lasting chemical and molecular changes in the brain. Tobacco is one of the most heavily used addictive products in the United States, according...

Out of Africa: more Africans are now coming to the United States as immigrants than in the days of slavery.(NATIONAL)
November 27, 2006... BACKGROUND For the first time, the number of African immigrants to the U.S. has surpassed the number of Africans who came to America during the slave trade. The influx is changing what it means to be African-American and affecting the...

Slavery's diaspora pays a visit: Ghana wants the descendants of American slaves to visit, invest, and even settle in the land of their ancestors.(INTERNATIONAL)
November 27, 2006... Millions of Africans passed through the ports of Ghana on their way to plantations in the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean. Now, Ghana wants its descendants to come back, and is trying to persuade them to think of Africa as their...

Behind the veil debate: the British debate over full-face veils worn by some Muslim women raises a bigger issue: how well are Muslims assimilating in Great Britain and the rest of Europe?(INTERNATIONAL)
November 27, 2006... Last month, Aishah Azmi, a 24-year-old teaching assistant at a school in northern England, was suspended from work for refusing to remove the full-face veil that she wears. The school said that Azmi's students, most of whom are not native...

1607: the legacy of Jamestown: four hundred years ago, the first permanent English settlement in North America planted the seed that became the United States. How would things be different if the colonists had given up and gone home?(TIMES PAST)
November 27, 2006... BACKGROUND Jamestown was not the first European settlement in North America, but it was England's foothold in the NewWorld and the seed from which the United States sprang. The world might be a much different place had the Spanish, French,...

Does the 'Real ID' law make sense? The controversy involves not only whether it will make Americans safer, but also whether it's a step toward national ID cards.(DEBATE)
November 27, 2006... YES The Real ID law requires state driver's licenses to meet security requirements--including the use of technologies that make forging it virtually impossible, and ensuring that documents people use to get a license are valid--for...

Tomorrow will be a better day.(VOICES)
November 27, 2006... On a recent night, while I was busy thinking about important social issues--like what to do over the weekend and who to do it with--I overheard my parents talking about my future. My dad was upset, but not about the usual stuff that he and...

Lessons in the real world.(OPINION)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Everyone ought to cry after they see Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, the powerful HBO documentary about the federally bungled disaster in the Gulf states in August and September 2005. It is the film he was born to...

Are paper books doomed?(OPINION)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Some companies are hoping to resurrect the dream of electronic books, an idea which has been left for dead by most people since 2003, when Barnes & Noble shut its e-book store and Palm sold its e-book business to a Web site. Some diehards at...

Take it from the Iraqis ...(OPINION)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... With our Iraqi policy floundering, it's time to take advice from the experts--the Iraqis themselves. Ordinary Iraqis are crystal, clear about what the U.S. should do: announce a timetable for withdrawal, of our troops within one year. A recent...

Cartoons.(Comic)(Cartoon)
November 27, 2006... HE'S CO CHARISMATIC AND, LOOK, HIS RECORD IS PRACTICALLY SPOTLESS! MIKE KEEFE * The Denver Post * WWW.CAGLECARTOONS.COM [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT IS CORRUPT AND DYSFUNCTIONAL WITH INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS MORE LOYAL TO...

Letter from the editor.
November 27, 2006... OUR COVER STORY LOOKS at the declining farm economy of the Great Plains through the eyes of Travis Warner, 18, who must decide whether to take over his father's Kansas farm. ELSEWHERE, WE EXAMINE TWO kinds of interaction between Africa and...

Political cartoon.(CARTOON ANALYSIS)(Brief article)(Cartoon)
November 27, 2006... Study the political cartoon, which deals with the controversy over immigration to the U.S., and answer the questions to the right. ANALYZE THE CARTOON 1. Who are the people standing in front of the wall? 2. Where do you think the...

Muslim immigrants in Europe.(GRAPH > INTERNATIONAL)
November 27, 2006... Muslims have been emigrating to Europe in large numbers for decades, coming mostly from former French and British colonies in Africa and Asia, countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Pakistan. Like immigrants everywhere, they generally left...

Tobacco addiction and secondhand smoke: a message from Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of NIDA.(National Institute on Drug Abuse)
November 27, 2006... Dear Teacher: This month's Heads Up article from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Scholastic provides your students with science-based facts about tobacco addiction and secondhand smoke. The article summarizes scientific...