Apple Inc.’s new iPhone went on sale Friday to eager buyers who had waited in lines around a city block and happily counted down the final 30 seconds before launch.

The celebration at Japanese carrier Softbank Corp.’s store in Tokyo had swirls of smoke and a digital clock ticking away over the entrance, part of a rollout in 22 nations, including Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

In the United States, where the gadgets debuted last year, iPhones were becoming available at 8 a.m. in each time zone, giving Apple aficionados time before the weekend to see just how the company upgraded the second version of the device with faster Internet navigation and dozens of new software programs.

In Tokyo, Taichiro Nakamura, a 28-year-old filmmaker, was all smiles as he showed off his brand new iPhone.

The first thing he did was call his girlfriend.

"I’m so happy," he said, adding the iPhone to his personal gadget lineup that also includes the iPod Touch portable music player. "I’ve been interested for some time."

By Friday morning, the line at the Softbank store had grown to more than 1,000 people. Softbank quickly said it had sold out, though exactly how many iPhones were available in Tokyo is unclear, fueling the fervor about the gadget.
From: rss.cnn.com

Content or Function?

First, you need to be able to immediately distinguish between content and function words. Write down ‘C’ for content and ‘F’ for function. When you have finished click on the arrow to see if you have answered correctly.

Example:

for
— F information
— C in order to
— F difficult
— C much
— F exacting
— C in front of
— F Jack
— C he
— F however
— C Which Words?

Next, take a look at the sentences and mark the words that should be stressed. Once you have decided, click on the arrow to see if you have chosen the correct words.

Example:

Unfortunately, Jack wasn’t able to finish on time.
— Unfortunately, Jack, finish, time As soon as he has collected the results he will post them to his website.
— soon, collected, results, post, website Peter bought shoes today.
— Peter, bought, shoes, today There should have been some replies by now.
— been, replies, now Knowledge creates opportunities where none have existed before.
— Knowledge, creates, opportunities, none, existed, before.

Notice how some of the shorter sentences actually have more stressed words than the longer ones (2 compared to 3). These shorter sentences can often take longer to speak than longer sentences with many function words!!!

The Music of English

English is a very rhythmic language because of this tendency to accent only certain words. For this reason, you should practice using your ear as much as possible. Often repeating spoken English without looking at the written sentence can also help you learn this ‘music’ of the language. Click on the audio symbol below to listen to five sentences. Each sentence will be repeated three times with gaps in-between so that you can try repeating the sentences yourself. If you need some help, here are the sentences which you can listen to and read while working on this exercise.

Helping Yourself at Home

Finally, practice speaking through the sentences below. First speak the sentence trying to carefully pronounce EVERY word. Notice how unnatural this sounds (as in the listening exercise above showing the contrast between this unnatural pronunciation and the natural way of speaking). Next, focus on speaking the sentences only working on stressing the content words. Tape yourself doing this and you will be surprised at how quickly your pronunciation improves!

By the time he receives this letter, I will have caught the train to Paris. Following closely behind the herd was a group of filthy, disgusting vultures. I’ll make sure to give him a ring the next time I’m in town. Not only are the exams required, but they are also absolutely imperative for your further education. Hey, have you seen the new film with Bruce Willis? You know, the one where he’s supposed to be a sensitive doctor.

Pronunciation Exercises 1

For more information on the basics of the stress-timed nature of English, please refer to:

Intonation and Stress: Key to Understanding
This feature takes a look at how intonation and stress influence the way English is spoken.

How to Improve Your Pronunciation
This “how to” focuses on improving your pronunciation through the recognition of the “time-stressed” character of English.

Previous Features

From: esl.about.com

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, struck down the ban, holding that a) the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to keep and bear arms, and b) while the government may regulate the boundaries of the Second Amendment, the DC ban goes too far.

The New York Times, in an editorial condemning the Supreme Court case, says: "Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year — on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly."

Really?

The 30,000 number includes 17,000 suicides. But a person intent on suicide finds a way — gun or no gun. In Japan, for example, more than twice as many people, per capita, kill themselves, yet that country bans handguns.

The hand-wringing New York Times editorial fails to ask the following questions: How many Americans use guns to defend themselves? Of that number, how many believe that but for their ability to use their guns in self-defense, they would be dead?

"When a robbery victim does not defend himself," former assistant district attorney and firearms expert David Kopel writes, "the robber succeeds 88 percent of the time, and the victim is injured 25 percent of the time. When a victim resists with a gun, the robbery success rate falls to 30 percent, and the victim injury rate falls to 17 percent. No other response to a robbery — from drawing a knife to shouting for help to fleeing — produces such low rates of victim injury and robbery success."

Criminologist and researcher Gary Kleck, using his own commissioned phone surveys and number extrapolation, estimates that 2.5 million Americans use guns for defensive purposes each year. One in six of that number, or 400,000, believe someone would have been dead but for their ability to resort to their defensive use of firearms. Kleck points out that if only one-tenth of the people are right about saving a life, the number of people saved annually by guns would still be 40,000.

The Department of Justice's own National Institute of Justice study entitled "Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms" estimates that 1.5 million Americans use guns for defensive purposes every year. Although the government's figure estimates a million fewer people defensively using guns, the NIJ calls their figure "directly comparable" to Kleck's, noting, "It is statistically plausible that the difference is due to sampling error." Furthermore, the NIJ reports that half of their respondents who said they used guns defensively also admitted having done so multiple times a year — making the number of estimated uses of self-defense with a gun 4.7 million times annually.

UCLA Professor Emeritus James Q. Wilson, a respected expert on crime, police practices and guns, says: "We know from Census Bureau surveys that something beyond 100,000 uses of guns for self-defense occur every year. We know from smaller surveys of a commercial nature that the number may be as high as 2 1/2 or 3 million. We don't know what the right number is, but whatever the right number is, it's not a trivial number."

But what of the Washington, DC, gun ban?

In the five years preceding the 1976 ban, the per capita murder rate in Washington, DC, fell. At the time the law passed, the murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate was 26.8 per 100,000 people. By 1991, the rate rose to 80.6. In 2006, the number stood at 29.1, almost 9 percent higher than the 1976 rate. DC's per capita murder rate remains higher than surrounding states.

A "hot burglary" occurs when the bad guy enters a home knowing it is occupied. The hot burglary rate in the United States is about 10 percent, while the hot burglary rate in the U.K. — which banned handguns in 1997 — is around 50 percent.

Why not ask the real experts — criminals?

The U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice surveyed 2,000 felons in state prisons. It asked whether "one reason burglars avoid houses when people are at home is that they fear being shot during the crime." Seventy-four percent of the felons said yes. The survey also asked these felons whether they had abandoned at least one crime because they feared the intended suspect might be armed. Thirty-nine percent said they abandoned at least one crime; 8 percent had abandoned such a crime "many" times; 34 percent admitted being "scared off, shot at, wounded, or captured by an armed victim"; and nearly 70 percent knew a "colleague" who had abandoned a crime, been scared off, been shot at, wounded or captured by a victim packing heat.

So, did the Washington, DC, gun ban "work"?

As the city's former Mayor Marion Barry once put it, "Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."

So there.

Larry Elder is a syndicated radio talk show host and best-selling author. His latest book, "Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card — and Lose," is available now. To find out more about Larry Elder, visit his Web page at www.LarryElder.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

CREATORS SYNDICATE COPYRIGHT 2008 LAURENCE A. ELDER

Previous: Why Do We 'Keep and Bear Arms'? Part 2
From: us.rd.yahoo.com

Friday Harbor author Thor Hanson comes to Seattle next week to give slide-show presentations based on his memoir, “The Impenetrable Forest: My Gorilla Years in Uganda.” In the book, Hanson recounts his unusual assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer, when he was sent to develop Uganda’s new tourist program built around its mountain gorilla population in the Impenetrable Forest in Bwindi National Park.

Hanson will appear at these locations:

• 7 p.m. Wednesday, Barnes & Noble (Northgate), 301 N.E. Northgate Way, Seattle; free (206-417-2967 or www.barnesandnoble.com).

• 7 p.m. Thursday, University Book Store (University District), 4326 University Way N.E., Seattle; free (206-634-3400 or www.ubookstore.com).

• 6:30 p.m. next Friday, Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E., Lake Forest Park; free (206-366-3333 or www.thirdplacebooks.com).

From: seattletimes.nwsource.com

Breakfast burritos make for a fun breakfast if you’re bored of the usual cereal or pancakes, and kids love them too. This vegetarian breakfast burrito recipe with eggs, salsa and cheese is very basic, so you can always add extra spices or vegetables or whatever you want. This recipe is just for one breakfast burrito, so double the amounts if you need to make more.Ingredients:2 eggs2 tbsp milksalt and pepper to taste1 tbsp vegetable oil or butter or margarine1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese2 tbsp salsa1 flour tortillaPreparation: In a small bowl, whisk the eggs togetherwith the milk until well beaten and season with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil or butter in a skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Carefully add the eggs. Cook, mixing frequently, until you have scrambled eggs of the desired consistency.

Warm the flour tortilla in the microwave for a few seconds just until warm and soft. Place the scambled eggs in the center of the flour tortilla, and top with cheese and salsa.

Wrap and enjoy your vegetarian breakfast burrito!

From: vegetarian.about.com

The number one mistake people make when trying to grill ribs is too much heat. Barbecue Ribs should not be cooked quickly over a high direct heat source but low and slow. Now there are several ways that you can make great barbecue ribs on a grill and avoid making charred meat sticks. Your basic strategy needs to watchful patience. After that there are a few different paths you can take to make it easier for you.

First there is straight grilling. Like I said you will want to grill indirectly, meaning that you have a fire on one side and the food on the other. Actually you want a four part cooking area. Imagine four boxes stacked with two on the bottom and two on the top. In the top left box are the ribs. Below the ribs is a large pan to catch the drippings. In the top right box is another large pan filled with water. This added the moisture to the environment that will keep the ribs from drying out. Below the water pan is your fire.

Of course there are variations to this basic layout and you probably need to do a little experimenting to determine what is going to work best for you and your grill. A couple of variations include using wood chips, soaked in water and added to the charcoal fire, if you are using a charcoal grill, or in a smoker box if you are using a gas grill. This will add a good smoky flavor to your barbecue ribs, giving them an authentic flavor.

You will need to cook your ribs like this for several hours. You want the inside of your grill to hold a temperature around 200 to 225 degrees F. The ribs should not over lap the fire or they will burn and dry out. If you want the smoke flavor you will probably have to add more wood every hour. This is particularly important in the first two hours. Your ribs will be done when they become tender and the meat is loose around the bones.

You can also precook your ribs to speed up the process or to increase the tenderness of the ribs. Ribs cooked on a barbecue smoker at a low temperature for several hours will be very tender. Ribs cooked on a grill, especially a gas grill, will not be as tender even cooked indirectly. To make your ribs tenderer you can precook by either boiling the ribs for about 30 minutes or by placing them in a slow cooker. This will get the ribs going and not dried out. Once you are ready to grill then you can season the ribs and cook them indirectly until done. The disadvantage of this is that the ribs will not absorb the flavor of the smoke very well and you can literally boil out the flavor of the meat. Remember, if you boil, slow cook, or oven roast ribs it must be at a low temperature, around 200 to 225 degrees F.

Now when it comes to seasoning ribs you want to be very conservative. Good ribs have a great flavor all to themselves. It is also important to avoid adding barbecue sauce to ribs early in the process. Most barbecue sauces, whether store bought or homemade, contain some kind of sugar (tomatoes contain sugar). This can cause your barbecue ribs to burn, even cooked indirectly. I suggest using a good rub before you grill and maybe a barbecue sauce after the grilling is done. However if you want to use a sauce, try using a mop. A mop is a thin barbecue sauce (mainly vinegar or water) that you brush on during grilling to help maintain moisture and to add flavor. Sometimes you will hear it referred to as a baste.

So remember, keep the temperature low. A good grilling temperature for barbecue ribs is about 225 degrees F. Also keep a close eye on your ribs. Once the surface of the meat starts to burn there’s no going back. Another good tip is to fill a spray bottle with a thin barbecue sauce. By thin I mean practically water. I use a mixture of paprika, water and a few other seasonings. By spraying the ribs with this mixture during grilling you will add moisture, reduce burning and add flavor to your barbecue ribs.

From: bbq.about.com