"The Big Banana" - A movie (audio and trailer)

Please click HERE or on the Play Button to listen to an audio file on The Big Banana

Here are some scenes from the movie

Big Banana Trailer from Franck on Vimeo.

You can also watch the movie trailer by clicking HERE or on the Play Button

After Irene (Linkers)

Photo: AP

A New York City taxi is stranded in deep water on Manhattan’s West Side as Tropical Storm Irene passes through the city, in New York August 28, 2011

How about paraphrasing and linking the following sentences using the connectors above?

1. The storm came ashore in the biggest U.S. city as a tropical storm. It did not cause the widespread damage that was feared.

2. Anxious city residents didn't get a good night's sleep. Irene battered this city of more than eight-million people all through Saturday afternoon and continued through the night.

3. Judy Sayegh, of Brooklyn, said she was concerned that her basement would flood. “I woke up many times during the night to check that water was not coming into my cellar from my backyard because of the heavy rains and the wind. I was very relieved to see that my cellar was dry.”

4. Irene brought with her flood waters in some low-lying areas. Ultimately Irene did not live up to weather forecasters' worst fears.

5. When Irene hit Coney Island, the U.S. Weather reported her winds fell just short of the 119-kilometers per hour required for hurricane strength. Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm.

6. Most New Yorkers took the storm seriously. Some threw Irene parties on Saturday.

7. Brooklyn resident Jean McKenna said: “Well, I tried not to worry about it too much because we have had these situations before when they predict big storms or big events of some sort and then they come to nothing. I mean, you want to be prepared of course, but you do not want to overdo it.”

8. In New York, Con Edison, the power company, said 1,700 workers worked through the storm to try to maintain electricity. They wanted to help residents keep the lights and air conditioners on.

Will Apple revolution continue? (video)

You can also watch this video by clicking HERE or on the play button below

Timeline of Steve Jobs' life and career

Photo: AP

Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the new iPhone 4 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, June 7, 2010

Let's read the following timeline of his life and career and then reword it, but this time using Simple Past

February 24, 1955: Steven Paul Jobs is born in California. He grows up in the area that is to become known as Silicon Valley.

1974: Jobs works as a technician with the video game maker Atari. He saves money and then travels to India to find spiritual enlightenment.

April 1, 1976: Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer after working on the design of their first computer in the garage of Jobs' home. They introduce the Apple I.

January 24, 1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh, an all-in-one desktop machine that is widely credited with revolutionizing the personal computer industry.

September 1985: Jobs resigns from Apple following a long-running dispute with other top executives.

1986: Jobs forms a new software company called NeXT, Inc., and buys a computer animation studio from Stars Wars creator George Lucas. The studio, Pixar, makes some of the most popular computer-animated films, including Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo.

1997: NeXT struggles and is bought by Apple. Jobs returns to Apple and eventually to his role as chief executive.

1998: Under Jobs' leadership, Apple introduces its newest personal computer, the iMac, and returns to profitability.

October 2001: Apple introduces the iPod, promoting the personal digital music player as "1,000 songs in your pocket."

April 28, 2003: Apple launches the iTunes Music Store, an online store selling 200,000 songs for 99 cents apiece. The company also introduces an upgraded iPod that is thinner and lighter, and can hold up to 7,500 songs.

August 2004: Jobs is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and undergoes surgery.

December 2004: iPod sales hit the 10 million mark. The number of songs downloaded from the iTunes store tops 200 million.

October 2005: Apple introduces a new iPod that plays videos in addition to music. The iTunes stores sells one million videos in less than three weeks.

January 2007: Apple introduces the iPhone.

September 2007: Apple introduces the iPod Touch, which uses a touch-screen interface and has wireless networking capabilities.

June 2008: Apple introduces an updated iPhone, capable of running software applications - apps - that are designed by other companies, creating a new industry of phone apps.

July 2008: Apple creates the App Store as the new iPhone 3G goes on sale. More than 10 million apps are downloaded during the store's first few days.

February 2009: Jobs begins a six-month medical leave of absence during which he undergoes a liver transplant.

January 2010: Apple introduces its first touch screen tablet computer, the iPad.

January 2011: Jobs takes a second medical leave of absence but tells Apple employees he will remain involved in major strategic decisions.

March 2011: Jobs appears at an Apple event to introduce the iPad 2. The Financial Times says Apple's stock rises about 2 percent in the minutes after he begins speaking.

August 10, 2011: Apple briefly surpasses oil company ExxonMobil to become the world's most valuable company.

August 24, 2011: Jobs resigns as Apple chief executive. Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, takes over as CEO.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.