Red rocks and snow at Bryce Canyon

As December storms paint Bryce Canyon National Park with fresh snow, you won’t find a more beautiful winter landscape anywhere in the world. The university’s Center for Vaccine Development has received more than 500 responses from potential volunteers since Wednesday, when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced human trials for a swine flu vaccine would begin in early August.

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Dragon*Con brings out enthusiasts’ inner geek

It’s Geek Pride Week in Atlanta as thousands of fans take over four downtown hotels for Dragon*Con, an annual celebration of science fiction, fantasy, comics and gaming. Where else — OK, other than San Francisco or New Orleans — are city streets shut down for a ragtag parade of zombies, superheroes, robots, Klingons and Middle Earth dwellers Where else can comic book collectors rub shoulders with movie stars, vampires, alternate-history speculators and Harry Potter look-alikes, all while taking part in a lively game of Godzilla Bingo The whole thing is a bit of a shock to college football fans in town for the season-opening game between Alabama and Virginia Tech, one of whom called it a “freak show.” But those aliens grow on you after a while.

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Jury: Death for man who murdered cop’s daughter

A Florida jury has recommended that a plumber who kidnapped, raped and murdered a police detective’s daughter be executed for his crimes. Michael King, 38, showed no reaction Friday afternoon as the jury’s 12-0 recommendation of death was announced in Sarasota

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‘Office Space’ creator returns to the workplace

Let those other filmmakers focus on world destruction or masked superheroes or beautiful people doing beautiful things. Mike Judge prefers to deal with real life. Judge, writer and director of “Office Space” and co-creator of the TV series “King of the Hill,” has long liked to set his work in the world of malfunctioning copiers and beer-drinking propane salesmen.

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The Cost of Raising Kids

This is the time of year — second only to December, maybe — when we’re reminded how much kids cost. It’s nice when states suspend their sales tax for a week of back-to-school shopping, but it doesn’t change the fact that somehow we have to start over in September: new sneakers, new notebooks, maybe a new lunch box, because SpongeBob is so last season.

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