Clickers in the Classroom

A new gimmick has entered the classroom: clickers. Students use handheld remote devices and respond to questions that flash on a screen. The technology automatically records their responses.

A physics teacher from Great Neck, New York, praised the device in a story that ran in The New York Times this past Monday. The article notes that the Great Neck school district invested in the clickers to enliven the traditional classroom setting and to make learning more interactive for students. Students clicking away at a screen when practice quiz questions pop up or to input data on Excel spreadsheets. The device accommodates the student with excellent hand-eye coordination, but what about the one who needs extra time to process information and respond? A poll of students in the physics class revealed all but one favored the technology. The Great Neck schools expanded the use of the clickers to several other schools in the district after piloting the devices in high school classes.

The clickers are part of new wave of technology tools known as audience response systems, which are making inroads in school settings. The Times reports that Los Angeles schools have spent more than half a million dollars to bring clickers to school classrooms. Dallas, Atlanta, and New York City schools have followed suit. In St. Paul, participants at administrative, teacher, an parent meetings use the device to give their responses.

One of the companies manufacturing the device, Qwizdom, claims it has sold more than 750,000 clickers to schools. Users hold the wireless device and input a response, which is sent to a computer program. The program displays the results and keeps records of what is inputted. Teachers like the device because they can check on the progress of every student, “not just those who raise their hands,” according to one teacher interviewed for the Times.

What is your response to introducing this kind of technology in the classroom? How do you feel about placing remote control technology into the hands of students in the school setting? Here is the URL for the Qwizdom website to learn more one company's version of the product.

http://www.camcor.com/qwizdom/index.html

Picture from the New York Times article, photographer Joyce Dopkeen, and information taken from the article written by Winnie Hu, “Students Click, and Quiz Becomes a Game,” January 28, 2008, accessible:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/education/28neck.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=January%2028,%202008&st=nyt&scp=1

Internet and Literacy

Much has been written of late about the Internet’s effect on literacy. Dennis Baron, a world renowned linguist and a professor of English at University of Illinois, maintains a blog Web of Language. On this blog, he recently posted the following, which I quote nearly verbatim, and then invite you to read the full blog at this URL:

http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=1362&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286 L

Baron begins with the provocative titles, “Is the internet killing literacy, or pumping new life into it?”

He continues, “Every year there’s a sky-is-falling warning about the death of literacy in America. A 2007 poll found that 27% of American adults hadn’t read a book in a year. More recently, Caleb Crain, writing in the New Yorker, cites a worldwide drop-off in reading on the order of the shrinking of the polar ice caps. Crain documents a 50% decline in American newspaper readership since 1970 and flat book sales, all of which foreshadow a world where fewer readers means fewer thinkers, fewer voters, and far less objectivity."

Baron further notes that Steve Job, the guru of Apple computers is not all that disappointed by this decline, writing: “Steve Jobs rejected a suggestion that Amazon’s hot new e-book reader, the oddly-named Kindle, which sold out the day it went on sale, might eat into the iPod’s market, because – according to Jobs – 40% of Americans don’t read books, and for him fewer readers apparently equals more listeners and viewers.”

On the other hand, Baron is quick to let us know, Crain of the New York “even cites a Michigan State University study showing that children can improve their reading by going online for as little as half an hour a day, whether they surf to gather information or they’re just chatting with friends....But Crain also warns that the ‘synergies’ between surfing and reading will disappear as the popularity of YouTube moves the web away from text toward television.”

Summarizing Crain further, Baron comments: “...computer activities involve text, but...that computer literacy isn’t really literacy....Email or IM are simply ways to make text approximate speech, producing a kind of ‘secondary orality’ – a term made popular by Walter Ong that indicates a kind of modern move to recapture ancient oral culture – something almost tribal, rather than truly literate behavior (if taken to its extreme, such a view applied to drama, a literary art devoted to the approximation of speech, could push Shakespeare and Eugene O’Neill into the world of soap opera)....”

Feel free to read the full post using the URL provided or simply to comment on what is excerpted here to provide your own response about how Internet use if affecting literacy as well at the implication for those of us who are teaching and aspire to teach literacy everyday.

Photo is of Dennis Baron and is from his Web of Language site.

Growing Up Online

On Tuesday night, January 22, 2008, “Frontline” featured a provocative documentary on our youth’s addiction to cyberspace. Most upsetting were features of one young boy who committed suicide after experiencing cyberbullying and gaining access to sites on ways to commit suicide, a young female teen with an eating disorder who fixated on feeding her disorder by reading online blogs and starvation sites, and teens who openly exposed their reckless behavior through YouTube videos and Facebook and MySpace profiles. If you missed this special, here is a link to the PBS website with more information: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_frontlinebrgrowinguponline_2008-01-23

If your time is limited, at least click on the link found at the PBS site to read the “Introduction” about the show and to get a glimpse of what the program covered. The photo included with this blog is from the PBS.org website featuring information on the program.

Please post your comment on teens’ addictions to the world of cyberspace and online communications as well as any responses to the PBS web recaps or the program itself if you caught it.

Useful Website for Teachers

Kathy Schrock has long maintained a website chock full of resources for teachers interested in integrating computer technology into their teaching. Her site covers a range of disciplines and grade levels as well as issues related to the use of computers in general. Check the link below to access her site, and explore freely. Please return, however, to this blog to comment on what you found useful about her site.

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/index.html

SJC Opens New Technology Classroom

If you have not heard, we have opened a new demonstration classroom which includes a Smartboard in Lynch Hall, the building that houses the education program. Your thoughts on using Smartboards are appreciated. Please post comments. If you have not used a Smartboard, spend some time investigating its uses online and post a comment about your reponse. Image from: www.allinco-systems.nl/.../smartboard4.jpg

Television and Movie Productions Threatened by Screenwriters Strike

November 5, 2007 began the strike of the 12,000 members of Writers Guild of America East and Writers Guild of American West. Screenwriters for movies and television programs went on strike demanding a greater cut of the profits for downloadables and DVD sales.

It is expected the strike will last as long as nine months. If so, popular television shows will run out of scripts. With movie productions running two years out, a stockpile of scripts exist for the time being. But for shows that depend on writers to crank out material daily or weekly, or even sets, without the writers at work, the stakes are high.

Among shows shut down are CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory,” “Rules of the Engagement,” “The Adventures of the Old Christine," “Two and a Half Men,” and Fox’s “Til’ Death.” Fox’s “Lost,” “24,” and Prison Break” continue production, but a prolonged strike means a shorter spring season. Standing in picket lines this past Monday were Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, creators of “Lost,” and Greg Berlanti of “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Brothers and Sisters.” In Hollywood, actors refused to cross picket lines, delaying productions. Most prime-time shows have at least six shows filmed, but the number of scripts ready to go into production varies, and a long strike means a shortened spring season for favorite prime-time shows.

For late-night viewers, the pickings will be slim, if at all. Hosts like David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Kimmel need their scriptwriters. Jay Leno, in a show of support said of the writers “…without them I am not funny. I am dead man.” Day-time soaps like “The Young and Restless” face a real crisis; without a continuous script, viewers have no reason to tune in.

In today’s climate of changing media, the negotiations are not easy. The movie and television industry faces a new era of technologies that threatens the livelihood of screenwriters who don’t see the profits of their labors.

Although celebrities like Tina Fey, the creator of “30 Rock,” are on strike, not all strikers, enjoy celebrity status, and many live in obscurity as working-class folks supporting a family. As the working class, they suffer at the hands of corporate greed.

What are your thoughts on screenwriters’ strike? How should profits from downloadable and DVD sales affect screenwriters? What have you heard about the strike?

Computer Glitch Leads to Capital Execution

Recently, a hold on executions by lethal injection was put in place until the US Supreme Court rules on whether this form of capital punishment is illegal based on the federal law against “cruel and unusual punishment.”

That did not stop an execution on Sept. 25, 2007, in Texas, of Michael Richard, held since 1986 on murder and sexual assault charges. If a computer problem had not delayed an electronic communication, Richard might be alive today.

Richard's lawyers sent a message that was delayed 20 minutes, thus arriving at the state court in Austin after its official closing at 5 pm. The message was a request for an appeal for the case to go the US Supreme Court.

This past Wednesday, Oct. 25th, the 13,000-member National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed a complaint against the presiding judge in the case, Sharon Keller, and 150 Texan lawyers filed additional complaints.

Ironically, Richard's execution transpired on the same day the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a Kentucky case requesting suspension of lethal injection based on the “cruel and unusual punishment" clause. Richard’s life hung on 20-minute computer delay compounded by the fact electronic communications were yet to be considered a legitimate means to file an appeal. Since his execution, electronic communications have been ruled permissible.

What is your response to this case?

The source for information in this post is a New York Times article, on 10/25/07. Photos of Judge Keller and Michael Richard are credited to Bena Grothe/American Statesman, and appeared in the Times accompanying its story.

Young Lifers

Did you know the United States stood alone recently in a United Nations vote to abolish life in prison without parole for children and young teens? We were the only nation out of 185 to vote against the resolution.

Two of our Supreme Court Justices, John Roberts, Jr. and Samuel Alito, Jr., contend that laws in other countries should not affect our constitutional law. Yet, in 2005, we were influenced by other countries when we banned the death penalty for those under the age of 18.

The human rights organization Equal Justice Initiative, situated in Montgomery, Alabama, wants the United States to review its policy on not paroling young lifers. Yet, victims’ rights advocates argue that the offenders' crimes were so horrific that we are all at risk if they are set free.

In most cases in the US today where the young are serving life sentences the crime was murder and the offender was tried as an adult.

Do you believe life in prison without parole is justifiable for those who commit violent murders as children or young adults?

Information from this post was obtained from Adam Liptak’s column that appears in The New York Times. See the 10/16/07 edition of the paper for the story. The photo, by Richard Patterson, appeared in The New York Times October 3, 2005, and is of Rebecca Falcon, a lifer, convicted of murder, when she was 15.

Thou Shall Kill in Church

Maybe not literally, but gun-shooting videos like "Hallo 3" are packing in the congregation at churches across the country. Ministers show children as young as 12 video games heaped with violence. If you have seen the Hallo series, you know killing with guns is glorified.

"Hallo 3" with an M-rating, for mature audiences only, is now shown at churches behind parents' backs. Pastors and minister alike rationalize that once the youth show up for the violent games, they’ll stick around for the sermon.

If the young people cannot legally buy the videos on their own, what are church leaders doing making them available? "Hallo 3" is already on track to become the Number 1 selling video game of all times, according to Microsoft, its producers. Already hundreds of churches across the country have joined the bandwagon, luring youth.

The popularity of Hallo nights has led ministers and pastor to rent extra video players. Will R-rated movies at the Sunday service be the next bait? Given the mounting pressure to attract the young to the congregation, are violent videos like "Hallo 3" the answer?

Hollywood Up in Smoke

First it was media ads, and then it was restaurants. Now, it is movies. A campaign is afoot to ban smoking in films. Apparently, just as violence in films turns young adults into gangsters, smoking in movies condemns them to a life of health woes.

Advocates for a ban on showing scenes of smoking in movies believe the action will abate teen smoking. Universal Studios is ready to go ahead, Time Warner is interested, and Disney Production already has a policy. Yet, other studios, like Dreamworks, claim the ban distorts reality.

Basically, the antismoking lobbies want cigarettes out of films rated G, PG, or PG-13. The Simpson Movie released this summer showed enough cigarette smoking to garner a “Black Lung” rating from scenesmoking.org.

One study found a connection between cigarette smoking in movies and adolescent addiction to tobacco. Another study claimed this link was strongest when a predisposition to smoking already existed.

Is Hollywood going too far in banning cigarette smoking scenes? What about a ban on junk food? Where do we draw the line? What's your view?

Photo of Andy Garcia puffing away in "Ocean's Twelve." The Smoke Free Movies project (www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu) says the film deserves an R-rating for glamorizing smoking.

Brockovich Still Fighting for Justice

Erin Brockovich is now taking on one of the largest corporations in the world, ExxonMobil. She is now fighting for residents in Brooklyn, New York, who are suffering from kidney and other health problems, attributed to an oil plume in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn that developed over 50 years ago.

Brockovich claims ExxonMobil carried out a coverup of the spill and could have cleaned it up years ago. Last week, a federal report uncovered the spill, one of the largest in the country. The report found that as much as 30 million gallons might have spilled. The famous Exxon Valdez oil spill back in 189 was 11 million gallons. The report further noted that the leaking toxic vapors might well be leaking into homes, harming people further.

Since 2005, Brockovich has traveled to Brooklyn twice to meet with affected residents. So far, 415 plaintiffs have signed on with one law firm and another 300 have signed with another firm to fight ExxonMobil. Sufferers are facing respiratory problems, asthma, and chronic headaches, in addition to the kidney issues. A cancer cluster also has residents worried, and Brockovich plans to be back this month to continue conversations with residents.

ExxonMobil has admitted just recently that the spill exists but claims several companies are responsible and the problem dates back more than 140 years. Putting blame on others, the company, though, has started some clean up efforts. Like Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), ExxonMobil also claims the spill does not pose risks. The company retorts the plume is 30 feet below ground and "does not represent health concerns and hazards." Brockovich says time will tell if this the truth, but in the meantime, the company faces four major lawsuits. "They are going to have to do the right thing. This is a big spill," Brockovich claims.

So, we see that Brockovich's efforts as a crusader continue. Learning more about the multitude of cases Brockovich has fought on, what is your evolving impressions of this woman?

Information for this blog comes from the New York Daily News, Sept. 19, 2007. The photo is also from the Daily News and shows Erin meeting with local Greenpoint residents.

Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?

How to become a billionaire? Become a millionaire first. That is Chuck Feeney’s motto. Feeney, the second largest giver to charity, followed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is virtually unknown, but he has given more than $4 billion to charities and plans to give away another $4 billion. As for himself, he lives modestly on less than $5 million, buying his clothes off the rack, taking buses and subways, and living in apartments rather than homes.

Among the charities that Fenney has given to are ones that are fighting for human rights, environmental clean up, peace, and educating the poor. In 2003, he participated in a protest march against the invasion of Iraq in defense of world peace. He has given generously to end the strife in Northern Ireland.

Feeney’s charitable foundation has made contributions to AIDS clinics in South Africa, to educating children in Vietnam, for wastewater treatment in Vietnam, for plastic surgery for children with facial deformities in the Philippines, and to cancer research foundations and groups that get home health care workers into the homes of the needy and poor. He has given more than $1 billion to improve schools in Ireland.

One of his daughters, Leslie Feeney Baily, recalls when a teenager, she ran up an astronomical long-distance phone bill calling friends in Europe. To teach her a lesson about wasting money, her father disconnected the phone and posted a map of local phone booths (back in the days when those were still around). Feeney always understood the value of money and never squandered it, a principle he instilled in his five children at a young age. Today, his children have followed in his footsteps, living modestly and giving graciously.

What would you do with a billion dollars? Would you contribute to charities and live humbly? Would you advocate for causes you believe in? If so, what would they be?

Photo and information from this blog was taken from a New York Times article, Sept. 26, 2007

New Movies Fall Upon Us

As the leaves tumble to the ground and Labor Day passes, Hollywood begins its dawn of big hits. Due out are Jodie Foster in The Brave One, Emile Hirsh in Into the Wild (directed by Sean Penn), In the Valley of Elah, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon, directed by Paul Haggis (winner of the Academy Award for Crash), Lions of Lamb (directed by Robert Redford and starring Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep).

Across the Universe, inspired by Beatles' songs, King of California (a quasi One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, starring Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood), The Jane Austen Book Club, and Mr. Woodcock (with Billy Bob Thornton, Sean William Scott, and Susan Sarandon) promise lighter fare. The Darjeerling Limited, in the spirit of Little Miss Sunshine and Sideways, is the black sheep contender in the Academy Award's Best Movie category.

For the western fans, there is 3:10 to Yuma (featuring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale), a remake of the original film with the same title. For Brad Pitt fans, look for The Assassination of Jesse James.

The full line-up films include the Academy Awards nominees in top categories: directing, acting, and screenplay. As Hollywood gears up for the awards seasons, the run of films is worth the trip to the movie theater.

So, get out there, see the flicks, and post your comments. (No spoilers, please!)

Box Office Hits

If you have seen any of these top-money-making, box-office hits, let us know what you think, and what you recommend and why:

Halloween

The Bourne Ultimatum

Rush Hour 3

The Nanny Diaries

The Simpsons Movie

Hairspray

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Resurrecting the Champ

Pirates of the Caribbean, World's End

More About Erin Brockovich

After seeing the film Erin Brockovich and discussing it in class, I thought you might enjoy some moments online to learn more about the real Erin Brockovich. Last May, Brockovich gave the commencement speech at Marymount Loyola College. The event was recorded on five short YouTubes videos. If you want to see Brockovich giving the speech, start with Reel 4 to hear her discuss the movie. Reel 5 continues the speech, and she pleads with the graduates to go out into the world and make a difference. Reel 2 show Brockovich receiving an honorary degree.

Brockovich also spoke at Penn State University's Distinguished Speakers series in Sept. 2000. The school's newspaper The Collegian covered the event. A popular speaker, she made another speech in 2001 at Penn State for Academic Integrity Week; the event recevied coverage in Daily Pennsylvannian, the local newspaper.

Brockovich has a blog, where you can learn about her current interests. Check her bio to learn about her life.

The Saint Joseph College Library has Brokvich's book Take it From Me, Life's a Struggle But You Can Win on reserve for our class. We will read a chapter in class, but get the book to explore this amazing person. Learn about her triumph over dyslexia and other life hardships, and her path as a true David (underdog) fighting Goliath, the corporate establishment.

A People magazine article that appeared shortly after the release of the movie provides additional insights into the life of Erin Brockovich.

So, after learning about the real Erin Brockovich, what is your opinion of her? Is she a rebel? Does she fight for social justice? Does she inspire you to make a difference in this world? Do you think we should invite her to speak at a SJC commencement?

WordGirl Conquers Literacy

About a week ago, I posted a blog about television dummying down America. That blog claimed that viewing television at an early age had a detrimental effect on children's vocabulary. Can the new PBS television series WordGirl help reverse that slide?

Imagine the heroine, a fifth-grader Becky Botsford from Planet Literacy, metamorphosing into her alter-ego, WordGirl, and flying to the rescue donning her red-cape and flinging words at her enemies. Her monkey friend, Captain HuggyFace, sure to appeal to the young set, accompanies her on escapades challenging evil counterparts, tongue-tied Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy and word-mangling Butcher. Words like "preposterous" and "cumbersome" flummox them, baffling and distracting them, while she wins another conquest.

The show is aimed at children 4 to 9 years in age. The actors voicing the characters come from improv comedy and shows like Saturday Night Live. Chris Parnell of SNL does the voice of the narrator, Jeffrey Tambor of Arrested Development does Mr. Big, and Fred Stoller of Everybody Loves Raymond voices for the Sandwich-Making Guy. The program's goal is to be upbeat while reinforcing vocabulary in comic scenarios in the standard cartoon-format that appeals to both tikes and children midway through the elementary grades.

The program's creator, Dorothea Gillim, envisions parents sitting to watch the show with their children and reinforcing the vocabulary lessons. The show originates from a curriculum explained in Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, a book authored by two University of Pittsburgh researchers. Its premise is that vocabulary is the linchpin to literacy.

Scholastic, the media mega-star in children's literacy, has plans underway for a book series complementing the show. WordGirl's producers have also explored options like sending a new word a day to children via the Internet or cell phones.

For a preview of the show's companion websites, check out: http://pbskids.org/wordgirl/ , http://www.scholastic.com/wordgirl/, http://www.pbs.org/parents/tvprograms/program-wordgirl.html

View this YouTube Jim Lehrer interview with WordGirl, , or this YouTube preview for the show to be broadcast in mid-September: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLw3ExL18r8

What creative ideas do you have for promoting literacy among young children? Do you agree vocabulary is the linchpin to literacy? Do you think we are facing a literacy crisis in the US? Do you believe a program like WordGirl will bolster children's verbal skills?

Hollywood Hits the Local Scene

Looking to find Connecticut in a movie, the newly released A New Wave will pique your interest. Shot in New Britain, Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury, you will find local scenes.

A New Wave is crime film about a Hartford insurance worker turned bank robber by night. The director-writer of the film, Jason Carvey, and the producer, Bruce Seymour, are Connecticut natives. The film stars Andrew Keegan and John Krasinski (of The Office). Lacey Chabert of Mean Girls plays the lead female role. William Sadler (who you will see in Shawshank Redemption playing the role of the mean-spirited prison guard) is one of the bigger names in the film.

Carvey wrote the script in 2004 while working in the insurance industry. The movie is a mix of drama and comedy. Post-production took three years, with the director and editor working weekends to complete the project. Not a big budget film, it has its flaws, which the critics have already identified. Still, watch the film to catch the shots of familiar Connecticut locales.

The film is out in DVD this week and will be on video on demand soon, with a television release planned. Although you won't pay big bucks to watch the movie, its producers went into debt making it and hope to make a profit. They remain frustrated by bootleg copies downloadable off the Internet but intrigued the film has even generated that kind of response. Will the Internet, though, threaten the careers of filmmakers just starting out?

Indiana Jones flick shot in New Haven this summer.

With Connecticut granting a 30 percent tax credit to film companies, Hollywood producers are finding the state an attractive place to work. Just this summer, Steven Spielberg shot the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series in New Haven. Starring Harrison Ford, Uma Thurman, and Leonardo DiCaprio, gawkers filled the streets. Familiar New Haven storefronts were torn down and turned into film sets. Locals and tourists from afar flocked to downtown New Haven to see the Indiana Jones movie in the making and catch a glimpse of Ford decked out for his classic role. This is not to say DiCarpio and Thurman did not draw crowds. Thanks to police security, onlookers did not see much, but area restaurants reported brisk business. The film is due out May 2008.

Have you seen a film shot on location? Do you know anyone who played a part in a movie or television production? If so, what did the person say of the experience? Do you plan to see the next Indiana Jones movie when it is released? How do you feel about the practice of bootlegging movies off the Internet?

Photos obtained from Internet Movie Database

Death Penalty Reprieve Granted Last Minute

Today, it was announced that Kenneth Foster, due for execution within a few hours, had his sentence reprieved. Foster was scheduled to face the death penalty for his role as an accomplice in a murder case. Foster was the driver in a getaway car in a string of robberies that hit the San Antonio area in 1996. If Foster were executed today, his execution would have been the third capital punishment execution this week in Texas.

Texas law allows the execution of accomplices in capital felony cases. The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, granted the reprieve and accepted a parole board's recommendation for Foster to face life in prison. Perry recommended the Texas law for accomplices be re-examined. Mauriceo Brown, the gunman in the case, was executed last year.

The mother of the victim, who was a 25-year old law student at the time, viewed Foster’s reprieve as a relief. Norma Hood, the student's mother, commented: “I’m filled with peace. I will mourn my son till I die, but I’m not forced any more to relive his death.” For more information on the story, see the front page story in The New York Times, August 30, 2007.

The photo shows Foster with his girlfriend, Nicole Johnson, and their daughter, Nydesha, during a 2001 visit to Texas death row. The photo was provided courtesy of Foster's family and appeared in The Austin Chronicle, Feb. 11, 2005.

Despite Governor Perry's willingness to dismiss the death penalty in the Foster case, in May of this year, he approved a law for the use of the death penalty for second-time offenders who rape children under the age of 14 years.

What is your position on the Foster reprieve? What about the death sentence for second time offenders in rape cases involving young children? Do you think this law is fair? Should Foster's death sentence have been overturned?

The Champ Hits Movie Theaters

Samuel L. Jackson, one of the leading actors in Time to Kill, stars in Resurrecting the Champ, opening in theaters nation-wide this week. The film tells the story of a down-and-out ex-boxer, now a homeless man roaming the streets of downtown Denver, Colorado.

Boasting of his past feats as a boxer, Jackson’s character, known in the film as The Champ, is beat to a pulp by a bunch of street thuds. A journalist (played by Josh Harnett), also down on his luck, covets a front-page story, and befriends The Champ, taking him to a match. The Champ gives the journalist, Erik, an insider’s run-down on the match, leading to the front-page story that jumpstarts his career.

Erik soon discovers that The Champ is a once-famous boxer, believed to be long deceased. In resurrecting The Champ, Erik also aims to resurrect his own life of a broken marriage (his wife, played by Kathryn Morris, of Cold Case fame)

and a difficult relationship with his young son (played by Dakota Goya). Erik is further spurred on by competition from a newsroom reporter (played by Teri Hatcher of Desperate Housewife).

Directed by Rod Lurie, who hails from Greenwich, Connecticut, the film continues to move his career beyond television as the director of the series Commander in Chief and Line of Fire. He directed the 2000 film The Contender, starring Gary Oldman (of Harry Potter fame), Joan Allan, Jeff Bridges and Christian Slater.

With an all-star cast, including Academy Award winner Samuel L. Jackson, who won the award for his role in Pulp Fiction, Lurie’s newest release Resurrecting the Champ is worth a trip to the local theater to check out the acting and the plot of this contemporary morality tale.

If you see the film, or want to comment on any of the actors, please post a comment.

Vioxx: Drug Maker's Win is Plaintiffs’ Loss

The once-popular painkiller, Vioxx, now off the market, has been implicated in deaths of millions. As court cases mount against Merck, the manufacturer, verdicts have NOT favored the sufferers. A recent $253.5 million reward on behalf of a plaintiff whose husband died after taking Vioxx has been appealed to a higher court.

To date, of the 45,000 people attempting to sue Merck, none has received compensation. In the meantime, the lawyers defending the company have profited. Merck has spent over one billion dollars in legal fees.The company has refused reaching settlements, believing doing so will acknowledge culprability in victims' suffering. The stock of the company has soared, and Merck remains one the most lucrative pharmeutical company in the US.

Kenneth Frazier, chief executive and legal counsel for Merck, has prospered. He was promoted to president of the global human health division and oversess marketing and 60,000 employees.

Merck claims it is not legally responsible and says patients and their doctors were forewarned of heart risks associated with the drug.

Aware of the escalating pattern of unsuccessful cases and drawn out appeals, lawyers for plaintiffs have withdrawn cases right before scheduled trial dates. Peter Schuck, a law professor at Yale, claims that Merck deliberately complicates cases, discouraging plaintiffs through long-drawn out litigating.

Attempts to file class action cases have failed. Judges have argued that class action are not appropriate because each case is unique and the cause for illness must be examined separately. (The class action tactic used by Erin Brockovich's law firm was what made her fight against the mega utility PG & E successful. A individual plaintiff could not have fought and won!) At present, the backlog of cases against Merck grows. Fewer than 20 cases have reached court in the last two years, when filings began. In the interim, sufferers have died. Should a client win, Merck has until 2010 to begin payments.

Merck knew two years before Vioxx went on the market in 1999 that the drug posed serious side effects. By 2000, Merck’s top scientists confirmed based on clinical trial that Vioxx caused heart complications. Regardless, the company tried to halt the efforts of the Food and Drug Administration to put warning labels on the medication.

In court, Merck blamed victims, claiming their obesity, risk-taking behavior, and genetic predisposition led to heart failures. The company claimed cause and effect was not apparent, and a heart attack was imminent despite drug use.

Mr. Lanier, the lawyer who pleaded the case on behalf of the Texas woman awarded $253.5 million in the death of her husband, says, “Merck’s goal is to manipulate the legal system to deprive justice to tens of thousands of people whose cases can never be heard….Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Despite Merck’s victories, lawyers remain interested in pursuing class action suits. In New Jersey, with a stockpile of 16,000 cases pending, the State Supreme Court is considering a class action case to reduce the caseload. The state attorney general office has already sued Merck, and federal prosecutors are initiating further investigations.

Carol Ernst, the woman in the $253.5 million award case, states of Merck: “they can have all of their money and everything I own if they would just give [my husband] back to me. But they can’t do that.”

Where is the justice? Are class action cases against Merck warranted? Are drug companies responsible for complications associated with their medications? Weigh in on the issue. Post your comments.

For more information on the Vioox case, see the front page story in The New York Times, August 21, 2007.