Bridesmaids hit theaters six weeks ago, igniting a flurry of recognition, however late and daft, that women are indeed funny. It also offered box-office proof that moviegoers are willing to endure and even enjoy female leads who don't look quite as good as, say, Cameron Diaz. It was the Comediennes' Spring. Alas, the underlying sexism of Bad Teacher, which stars Diaz in all her full-throttle leggy glory, pushes the trend into its autumn. It's not that ...

TIME Correspondent Don Sider spent several days at Khe Sanh last week ducking incoming shells and observing the unique quality of life in the besieged Marine base. His report: A chill, grey mist hangs over the jungled hills around Khe Sanh and drifts down onto the base's metal run way. The morning mist often lasts into the afternoon, the bright sun of recent weeks is lost in monsoonal overcast, and the air is raw and wet with winter. The camp ...

American soldiers often have a tough time with Arabic names, so to guards, he was just "Gus.'' To the world outside Abu Ghraib prison, he became an iconic figure, a naked, prostrate Iraqi prisoner crawling on the end of a leash held by Private Lynndie England, the pixyish Army Reserve clerk who posed in several of the infamous photographs that made the name Abu Ghraib synonymous with torture. Now, it emerges, there may be another dimension to Gus' story and ...

Teacher effectiveness matters more to student learning than anything else schools do, and there are substantial differences between teachers. Those two points often get lost in the din about teachers unions or tenure. Underneath all that noise, however, researchers are quietly looking at teacher quality. Two new studies that didn't get a lot of attention challenge beliefs of reformers, teachers unions, and reform critics. In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists ...

Correction Appended: February 24, 2010 What's wrong with Toyota? Not much. At least not from an engineering, mechanical or even a quality point of view. You don't reach the top gear in the global auto industry unless you make outstanding cars, which Toyota does — most of the time. Though cars are familiar machines, they are also highly complex ones. To create a modern car, a company has to design, engineer, build, buy and then assemble some 10,000 parts. ...

Jenson Button is celebrating his first world championship and already looking forward to repeating his triumph with the Brawn GP team next season. "I want to be here next year and I want to be with a team that can challenge for victories like this season," Button told Press Association. Button had to take a big pay cut from a reported $13 million to $8 million when his former Honda team pulled out of Formula One last year and were ...

President Obama will visit New Orleans on Thursday for the first time since taking office, to address rebuilding efforts in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina four years ago. During his trip, Obama will visit a charter school and host a town hall meeting to hear residents' concerns, the White House said. The president's visit will focus on efforts to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, including cutting red tape and easing funding so residents can become self-sufficient. "The president made ...

A leading UK hospital has defended its practice of using organs donated by smokers after the death of a soldier who received the cancerous lungs of a heavy smoker. Corporal Matthew Millington, 31, died at his home in 2008, less than a year after receiving a transplant that was supposed to save his life at Papworth Hospital -- the UK's largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital, in Cambridgeshire, east England. Papworth Hospital released a statement saying using donor lungs from smokers ...

Senior Catholic bishops are threatening to oppose the health care bill under consideration in Congress if lawmakers don't make significant reforms regarding federally funded abortions and other issues. "No one should be required to pay for or participate in abortion," the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a letter Thursday to members of Congress. The letter follows a recent Senate Finance Committee vote that defeated Republican amendments that Democrats said would broaden current restrictions of federal funding for ...

Sneezing and wheezing may stamp out those flames of desire. A new study reveals that allergies could be getting in the way of amorous activities. "If you can't breathe, and your nose is running, and your eyes are itchy, and you're sneezing, and you feel awful and you feel tired, you don't feel very sexy," said Dr. Michael S. Benninger, chairman of the Head and Neck Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and a lead author of a recent ...