Field Trips

She's an assistant professor at UCLA who specializes in ancient Egyptian art and architecture. But Kara Cooney doesn't teach only in the lecture hall. She teaches on the small screen too. Cooney, who has been in the university's department of Near Eastern languages and cultures since January, traveled the world -- visiting sacred sites, looking at mummified baboons and disembodied heads, even getting spit on by a Mexican shaman in a cleansing ritual -- for "Out of Egypt," a six-part series premiering tonight on the Discovery Channel.

In a dimly lit corner of the Creation Museum stands a life-size replica of a wrecking ball labeled "Millions of Years" demolishing the facade of a brick church. For the more than six dozen paleontologists who visited the museum last week, the ball might as well have read "Science." In one of the largest gatherings of critics since the northern Kentucky museum opened two years ago, the scientists in the area for a conference took a field trip to get a glimpse of the marketing tactics used by the other side of the evolution debate.

"Venus" Melanie Chrismer I like this book because it is about my favorite planet. Venus is the second planet from the sun and has no moons. Venus is named after the Roman god of love and beauty. Reviewed by Eli, 6, John Muir Elementary Santa Monica -- "The Hunt for Pirate Gold" Irene Schultz The Woodlanders are hunting for gold using a treasure map. Meanwhile, some crooks are trying to find diamonds. The Woodlanders go to Florida. When they catch the crooks, one of them has the diamonds.

In his quest to have students experience firsthand how people around the world worship, Varun Soni, the dean of religious life at USC, did not start up some expensive study-abroad program. He just ventured a few blocks from campus. Within a square mile, he and his staff discovered 67 places of worship. And that was without crossing the Harbor Freeway just to the east.

A charter boat crew member choked to death after swallowing a bait fish as a joke in front of elementary schoolchildren during a field trip to the Port of Long Beach, authorities said Wednesday. Jeff Twaddle, 54, of Huntington Beach, "was trying to be lighthearted when he put this thing in his mouth" on Friday, said Long Beach Fire Department Chief Frank Hayes. "But it became an airway obstruction, and he lost consciousness and went into full cardiac arrest."

This misty stretch of wide sand dunes, like much of the Oregon coast, has always had an intimate connection to the forest. The old lumber mill for years was the biggest employer in town, after the fishing fleets. So it was with "horrible" regret that Siuslaw School District Supt. George Winterscheid announced recently that to plug an unexpected budget shortfall, wood shop was being canceled.

Re "L.A. schools chief will leave job to head off fight," Dec. 9 Once again, the students of the Los Angeles Unified School District lose out. Just how many field trips, textbooks, computers and other much-needed educational supplies could more than $517,000 have provided for the underserved students of the district? How many teachers or classroom aids could be provided for the most at-risk students? In this time of extreme financial crisis for the school system, throwing away half a million dollars to force out Los Angeles Schools Supt.

CHICAGO -- We interrupt the whiny bleatings of sorrowful soused bleacher bums today to inject a bit of sober truth. The bumbling Chicago Cubs didn't hand over Thursday's division series game. The Dodgers took it. The pinball-fielding, pinata-swinging Cubs didn't give away this 10-3 score. The Dodgers grabbed it.