Even minor cuts can become infected if they are left untreated.
Any break in the skin can let bacteria enter the body.
An increasing number of bacterial skin infections are resistant to antibiotic medicines.
These infections can spread throughout the body.
But taking good care of any injury that breaks the skin can help prevent an infection.
Medical experts say the first step in treating a wound is to use clean water.
Lake or ocean water should not be used.
To clean the area around the wound, experts suggest using a clean cloth and soap.
They say there is no need to use products like hydrogen peroxide or iodine.
It is important to remove all dirt and other material from the wound.
After the wound is clean, use a small amount of antibiotic ointment or cream.
Studies have shown that these medicated products can aid in healing.
They also help to keep the surface of the wound from becoming dry.
Finally, cover the cut with a clean bandage while it heals.
Change the bandage daily and keep the wound clean.
As the wound heals, inspect for signs of infection including increased pain, redness and fluid around the cut.
A high body temperature is also a sign of infection.
If a wound seems infected, let the victim rest.
Physical activity can spread the infection.
If there are signs of infection, seek help from a doctor or other skilled medical provider.
For larger wounds, or in case bleeding does not stop quickly, use direct pressure.
Place a clean piece of cloth on the area and hold it firmly in place until the bleeding stops or medical help arrives.
Direct pressure should be kept on a wound for about twenty minutes.
Do not remove the cloth if the blood drips through it.
Instead, put another cloth on top and continue pressure.
Use more pressure if the bleeding has not stopped after twenty minutes.
Deep cuts usually require immediate attention from trained medical providers.
Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.
A tetanus booster shot may be required if a wound is deep or dirty.
To learn more about first aid, contact a hospital or local organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent society.
There may be training programs offered in your area.
Today we present the first of three programs about some of the most interesting, beautiful and unusual places on Earth.
We begin with a list of what have been called the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
People have always felt the need to create lists.
Lists are records of important ideas, places, events or people.
About two thousand five hundred years ago a Greek historian named Herodotus is said to have made a list of what he thought were the greatest structures in the world.
His list of places became known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Herodotus only wrote about places he knew.
He did not know much about Asia.
North and South America were completely unknown.
Six of these ancient places no longer exist.
We can only guess what they really looked like.
But here is the list of those seven ancient Wonders of the World.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon We begin with one that existed in what is now Iraq.
It was called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
King Nebuchadnezzar the Second probably built the gardens about two thousand six hundred years ago.
Ancient historians say they were a huge system of gardens with trees and flowers.
Also on this list is the Colossus of Rhodes.
It was a huge bronze metal statue of the Greek sun god Helios.
The Colossus was about thirty-seven meters tall.
It was built near the harbor on the Greek island of Rhodes about two thousand three hundred years ago.
This ancient statue was destroyed in an earthquake.
Next on our list is the statue of the Greek God Zeus in a temple at Olympia, Greece.
It was the most famous statue in the ancient world.
Records say it was about twelve meters tall and made of ivory and gold.
An earthquake probably destroyed the temple.
The statue was removed and later destroyed in a fire.
The Pharos of Alexandria was an ancient lighthouse.
A fire burning on the top of the lighthouse made it easier for ships to find the great harbor of Alexandria, Egypt.
Records say the lighthouse was about one hundred thirty meters tall.
It stood for one thousand five hundred years before it was destroyed by an earthquake.
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is another ancient wonder of the world.
It was built to honor a Greek goddess.
It was one of the largest and most complex temples built in ancient times.
The temple was built in what is now Turkey about two thousand five hundred years ago.
Number six on our list was also built in what is now Turkey.
It was the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.
The huge marble burial place was built for King Mausolus of Caria.
It was so famous that all large burial places, or tombs, became known as mausoleums.
An earthquake destroyed the structure.
The last of the seven ancient wonders are the oldest.
Yet they are the only ones that The Pyramids of Egyptstill exist today.
They are the three Pyramids of Egypt, near the Nile River at Giza.
The pyramids were built about four thousand five hundred years ago as burial places for ancient kings.
The largest is called the Great Pyramid.
It is almost one hundred forty meters high.
It covers an area of more than four hectares.
The Greek historian Herodotus said more than one hundred thousand men worked for more than thirty years to build the Great Pyramid.
The great pyramids of Egypt will probably continue to exist for many years to come.
Now we will tell about several other ancient wonders that still exist today.
We cannot tell about all of the great structures built in ancient times.
There are too many.
However, if Herodotus had known about the Great Wall of China we feel sure he would have included it on his list of wonders of the world.
The Great Wall of China The Great Wall was begun more than two thousand years ago.
It was built to keep out invaders.
It extends about six thousand seven hundred kilometers across northern China.
Today, the Chinese government is working to repair parts of the wall and protect as much of it as possible.
The Great Wall of China is one of the largest building projects ever attempted.
It is also the only object built by people that can be seen from space.
One of the oldest structures ever built by people also belongs on a list of ancient wonders.
It is a circle of huge stones on the Salisbury Plain in southwestern England.
It is called Stonehenge.
Experts believe work began on Stonehenge about five thousand years ago.
It was added to and changed several times until it became the structure we see today.
We know very little about Stonehenge.
We do not even know how these huge stones were moved to the area.
Some experts believe the stones were cut from solid rock about three hundred eighty Stonehengekilometers away in Wales.
One of the huge stones weighs as much as forty-five tons.
Experts say Stonehenge may have been built as some kind of ceremonial or religious structure.
Much has been written about Stonehenge, but experts say they still are not sure what it was used for.
Another famous ancient structure is the Coliseum in Rome, Italy.
It was built almost two thousand years ago.
The ancient Roman sports center could hold fifty thousand people who gathered there to watch public events.
Experts say it is one of the finest examples of Roman design and engineering.
The city of Machu Picchu in Peru should be on most lists, too.
Experts say it includes some of the best stone work ever built.
The ancient Inca people built Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains, northwest of the city of Cuzco.
Machu Picchu is about thirteen square kilometers.
Historians say it might have been one of the last places of safety for the Incas who were fleeing invaders from Spain.
India is famous for its temples and buildings.
The most famous is the Taj Mahal, considered one of the most beautiful buildings every constructed.
The fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, ordered it built in Agra in sixteen thirty-one.
He built it as a burial place in memory of his wife.
The Taj Mahal has tiny colorful stones inlaid in white marble.
The structure seems to change color during different times of the day and night.
Experts say it is one of the most perfect buildings ever constructed.
They say nothing could be added or taken away to improve the beautiful Taj Mahal.
We will end our program today in Egypt.
Any list of ancient places must include the two temples at Abu Simbel.
They were built to honor an ancient king of Egypt, Ramses the Second, and his wife, Nefertari.
Abu Simbel was built more than three thousand years ago.
It is about two hundred eighty kilometers south of Aswan on the western bank of the Nile River.
It took an army of workmen and artists more than thirty years to cut the huge temple into the face of a rock mountain.
In front of the main temple are four huge statues of Ramses the Second.
Each statue is about twenty meters high.
Nearby is another temple that honors his wife, Nefertari.
It too is beautifully carved out of solid rock.
The Nile River has always made life possible in the desert areas of Egypt.
However the Nile also made life difficult when it flooded.
The modern Egyptian government decided a dam could control the Nile to prevent both floods and lack of water.
Work began on the Aswan Dam in nineteen sixty.
However, when plans were made for the dam experts quickly discovered that the great temples at Abu Simbel would be forever lost.
They would be under water in the new lake formed by the dam.
Egypt appealed to the United Nations agency UNESCO for help.
appealed to the world.
The governments of the world provided technical help and financial aid to save the great temples.
In nineteen sixty-four work began to cut the temples away from the rock mountain.
Each large piece was moved sixty meters up the mountain to a safe area.
Then the huge temples were carefully rebuilt.
The work was finished in nineteen sixty-eight.
Today Abu Simbel is safe.
It looks much the same as it has for the past three thousand years.
It will continue to honor the ancient king and his queen for many years to come.
And it will honor the modern world’s efforts to save a truly great work of art.
Next week we tell about some of the natural wonders of our world.
This program was written by Paul Thompson.
It was produced by Mario Ritter.
Today, we complete the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late seventeen seventies.
It is December, seventeen seventy-six.
British General William Howe has decided to stop fighting during the cold winter months.
The general is in New York.
He has already established control of a few areas near the city, including Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey.
General George Washington and the Continental Army are on the other side of the Delaware River.
The Americans are cold and hungry.
They have few weapons.
Washington knows that if Howe attacks, the British will be able to go all the way to Philadelphia.
They will then control two of America's most important cities.
He decides to attack.
His plan is for three groups of troops to cross the Delaware River separately.
All three will join together at Trenton.
Then they will attack Princeton and New Brunswick.
Washington wants to surprise the enemy early in the morning the day after the Christmas holiday, December twenty-sixth.
On Christmas night, two thousand four hundred soldiers of the Continental Army get into small boats.
They cross the partly-frozen Delaware River.
The crossing takes longer than Washington thought it would.
The troops are four hours late.
They will not be able to surprise the enemy at sunrise.
Yet, after marching to Trenton, Washington's troops do surprise the Hessian mercenaries who are in position there.
The enemy soldiers run into buildings to get away.
The Americans use cannons to blow up the buildings.
Soon, the enemy surrenders.
Washington's army has captured Trenton.
A few days later, he marches his captured prisoners through the streets of the city of Philadelphia.
Washington's victory at Trenton changed the way Americans felt about the war.
Before the battle, the rebels had been defeated in New York.
They were beginning to lose faith in their commander.
Now that faith returned.
Congress increased Washington's powers, making it possible for the fight for independence to continue.
Another result of the victory at Trenton was that more men decided to join the army.
It now had ten thousand soldiers.
This new Continental Army, however, lost battles during the summer to General Howe's forces near the Chesapeake Bay.
And in August, seventeen seventy-seven, General Howe captured Philadelphia.
Following these losses, Washington led the army to the nearby area called Valley Forge.
They would stay there for the winter.
His army was suffering.
Half the men had no shoes, clothes, or blankets.
They were almost starving.
They built houses out of logs, but the winter was very cold and they almost froze.
Many suffered from diseases such as smallpox and typhus.
Some died.
General Washington and other officers were able to get food from the surrounding area to help most of the men survive the winter.
By the spring of seventeen seventy-eight, they were ready to fight again.
General Howe was still in Philadelphia.
History experts say it is difficult to understand this British military leader.
At times, he was a good commander and a brave man.
At other times, he stayed in the safety of the cities, instead of leading his men to fight.
General Howe was not involved in the next series of important battles of the American Revolution, however.
The lead part now went to General John Burgoyne.
His plan was to capture the Hudson River Valley in New York State and separate New England from the other colonies.
This, the British believed, would make it easy to capture the other colonies.
The plan did not succeed.
American General Benedict Arnold defeated the British troops in New York.
General Burgoyne had expected help from General Howe, but did not get it.
Burgoyne was forced to surrender at the town of Saratoga.
British general John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga, New York, in October 1777, as painted by Percy MoranThe American victory at Saratoga was an extremely important one.
It ended the British plan to separate New England from the other colonies.
It also showed European nations that the new country might really be able to win its revolutionary war.
This was something that France, especially, had wanted ever since being defeated by the British earlier in the French and Indian War.
The French government had been supplying the Americans secretly through the work of America's minister to France, Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin was popular with the French people and with French government officials.
He helped gain French sympathy for the American cause.
After the American victory at Saratoga, the French decided to enter the war on the American side.
The government recognized American independence.
The two nations signed military and political treaties.
France and Britain were at war once again.
The British immediately sent a message to America's Continental Congress.
They offered to change everything so relations would be as they had been in seventeen sixty-three.
The Americans rejected the offer.
The war would be fought to the end.
In seventeen seventy-nine, Spain entered the war against the British.
And the next year, the British were also fighting the Dutch to stop their trade with America.
The French now sent gunpowder, soldiers, officers, and ships to the Americans.
However, neither side made much progress in the war for the next two years.
A French blockade of the Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary War prevented British forces from reaching YorktownBy seventeen eighty, the British had moved their military forces to the American South.
They quickly gained control of South Carolina and Georgia, but the Americans prevented them from taking control of North Carolina.
After that, the British commander moved his troops to Yorktown, Virginia.
The commander's name was Lord Charles Cornwallis.
Both he and George Washington had about eight thousand troops when they met near Yorktown.
Cornwallis was expecting more troops to arrive on British ships.
What he did not know was that French ships were on their way to Yorktown, too.
Their commander was Admiral Francois Comte de Grasse.
De Grasse met some of the British ships that Cornwallis was expecting, and he defeated them.
The French ships then moved into the Chesapeake Bay, near Yorktown.
On this page in his diary, George Washington recorded the British surrender at YorktownThe Americans and the French began attacking with cannons.
Then they fought the British soldiers hand-to-hand.
Cornwallis knew he had no chance to win without more troops.
He surrendered to George Washington on October seventeenth, seventeen eighty-one.
The war was over.
American and French forces had captured or killed one-half of the British troops in America.
Historians give several reasons: The Americans were fighting at home, while the British had to bring troops and supplies from across a wide ocean.
British officers made mistakes, especially General William Howe. His slowness to take action at the start of the war made it possible for the Americans to survive during two difficult winters.
Another reason was the help the Americans received from the French.
Also, the British public had stopped supporting the long and costly war.
Finally, history experts say America might not have won without the leadership of George Washington.
He was honest, brave, and sure that the Americans could win.
He never gave up hope that he would reach that goal.
The peace treaty ending the American Revolution was signed in Paris in seventeen eighty-three.
The independence of the United States was recognized.
Western and northern borders were set.
Thirteen colonies were free.
Knowledge is free on the Internet at a small but growing number of colleges and universities.
About one hundred sixty schools around the world now offer course materials free online to the public.
Recent additions in the United States include projects at Yale, Johns Hopkins and the University of California, Berkeley.
Berkeley said it will offer videos of lectures on YouTube.
Free videos from other schools are available at the Apple iTunes store.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology became an early leader with its OpenCourseWare project, first announced in two thousand one.
Free lecture notes, exams and other resources are published at ocw.mit.edu.
Many exams and homework assignments even include the answers.
The Web site also has videos of lectures and demonstrations.
Today, OpenCourseWare offers materials from one thousand eight hundred undergraduate and graduate courses.
These range from physics and linear algebra to anthropology, political science -- even scuba diving.
Visitors can learn the same things M.I.T. students learn.
But as the site points out, OpenCourseWare is not an M.I.T. education.
Visitors receive no credit toward a degree.
Some materials from a course may not be available, and the site does not provide contact with teachers.
Still, M.I.T. says the site has had forty million visits by thirty-one million visitors from almost every country.
Sixty percent of the visitors are from outside the United States and Canada.
There are links to materials translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Thai.
OpenCourseWare averages one million visits each month, and the translations receive half a million more.
Students and educators use the site, including students at M.I.T.
But the largest number of visitors, about half, are self-learners.
Some professors have become well known around the world as a result of appearing online.
Walter Lewin, a physics professor at M.I.T., is especially popular.
Fans enjoy his entertaining demonstrations.
M.I.T. OpenCourseWare now includes materials for high school.
The goal is to improve education in science, technology, math and engineering.
Let us know if you have taken any free online courses through an American college or university.
Tell us what you liked or disliked about your experience.
On our show this week: We listen to some jazz music by Oscar Peterson … Answer a question about the nicknames of American states … And tell about a campaign to save Ellis Island.
Ellis Island Ellis Island is in New York Harbor.
About forty percent of Americans have at least one family member who entered the country there.
Faith Lapidus tells us about efforts to restore this important place.
The immigration center at Ellis Island closed in nineteen fifty-four.
All of the buildings stood empty.
They started to fall apart because of the wet air of the harbor.
Then in nineteen seventy-six the nearby Statue of Liberty was restored.
This followed a money-raising effort linked to the two hundredth anniversary of the United States.
Ellis Island's main building was also repaired and opened to visitors.
It became America's immigration museum and memorial to honor all immigrants.
For the past several years, a nonprofit organization has been trying to raise money so that the other Ellis Island buildings can be repaired and restored.
Now, famous and not-so-famous Americans are appearing on a Web site and on television in special public service messages asking for help.
They are telling the stories of their ancestors' experiences at Ellis Island.
For example, when ships from Europe entered New York Harbor, inspectors would sail out to check the documents of the wealthier passengers.
But poor passengers got quite a different welcome.
They were taken to Ellis Island for intense examinations.
As many as five thousand immigrants a day were required to walk up a flight of stairs to a group of waiting doctors.
For immigrants who failed the test, this was a quick end to their hopes of a new life in America.
Some of these people were sent to the Ellis Island hospital before they were sent back to Europe.
The hospital is one of the damaged buildings that will be restored.
For those immigrants who were able to begin new lives in America, Ellis Island represents stories of hope, survival and success.
People who support the Save Ellis Island campaign say they hope all the buildings can be completely restored.
First, a word or two about nicknames.
A nickname is a word used in addition to the official name of a person or place.
People with long names are sometimes called by a nickname that is shorter.
For example, a woman named Elizabeth may be called Liz.
Every American state has an official nickname.
But people may know the state by other names as well.
For example, Pennsylvania’s official nickname is the Keystone State.
Its Web site says the keystone is the part of an arch structure that holds the other parts together.
One story says Pennsylvania was the keystone of the American colonies because it was in the middle and held them together.
Pennsylvania is also sometimes called the Quaker State.
That name comes from the Quakers, the religious group who first settled the area.
Pennsylvania is also sometimes called the Oil State, the Coal State or the Steel State because oil, coal and steel are three of its industries.
The nearby state of Ohio is known as the Buckeye State.
That is because many buckeye trees grow there.
The Buckeye is also the official tree of Ohio.
The state Web site says people in Ohio have called themselves Buckeyes since at least the election of eighteen forty.
That was when Ohio native William Henry Harrison was elected president.
His friends in Ohio carved campaign gifts from buckeye wood to show their support for him.
So we have explained some nicknames of two American states.
But what about the other forty-eight?
The first one airs on Sunday.
Some say Oscar Peterson was the most famous jazz musician in the world.
Katherine Cole has more.
Oscar Peterson was born in Montreal, Canada, and learned jazz from musicians in that city.
He later said his jazz education came from listening to the radio.
Oscar Peterson played piano and wrote music.
He recorded more than one hundred albums, won eight Grammy awards and performed all over the world.
Some of his most famous recordings were with his group, the Oscar Peterson Trio.
In nineteen ninety, the group played for three nights at the Blue Note nightclub in New York City.
Two of the albums recorded at those shows won Grammy Awards.
In two thousand, the government asked him to write music for the nation's Millennium celebration.
Peterson said he wrote it to give the listener the feeling of endless prairie land.
Oscar Peterson also wrote music resulting from racial discrimination he experienced.
One of those songs became a battle cry for the civil rights movement.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach.
Caty Weaver was our producer.
Please include your full name and mailing address.
World economic growth remained strong in two thousand seven.
The International Monetary Fund estimated growth at five and two-tenths percent.
But predictions for two thousand eight call for slower growth in the world economy.
In October the I.M.F. cut its estimate for global growth this year by almost half a percentage point, to four and eight-tenths percent.
There are worries of an economic slowdown or possibly a recession in the United States.
The most important issue for two thousand eight may be the American housing market.
The market has been hit by a combination of falling home prices and the subprime mortgage crisis involving high-interest loans.
Losses on investments tied to these risky home loans have affected not only American banks but banks around the world.
Worries over the credit situation have caused banks to limit their lending, even to each other.
Central banks have tried to ease credit fears by lowering interest rates or lending billions of dollars, or both.
Another major issue for two thousand eight is what effect energy prices will have on economic growth.
The price of a barrel of oil doubled in two thousand seven.
And on the second day of two thousand eight, the price hit one hundred dollars for the first time.
Rising oil prices in recent years have been good for oil producing countries, though, including those with sovereign wealth funds.
These are state-owned investment funds also held by China, Singapore and some other countries.
The growing activity of these government-controlled investment funds makes them something else to watch in two thousand eight.
Lately they have been used in some cases to invest in Western companies hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis.
Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, has what experts believe is the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund.
Some estimates put the value at nine hundred billion dollars.
But last month came news of plans by Saudi Arabia for what could be an even wealthier fund.
The dollar continued its drop against most major currencies in two thousand seven.
This has made American exports less costly.
Still, the United States is expected to report a trade deficit with China of almost three hundred billion dollars last year.
Some experts say the deficit will continue to be a problem so long as China does not let its currency rise more quickly against the dollar.
The violence this week in Kenya has thrown the usually peaceful country into crisis.
Its economic and democratic progress may be in danger.
The crisis began Sunday after election officials declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner of a second term.
On Friday Kenya's main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, called for a new election.
Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga riot in the Mathare slum in NairobiIts candidate in the December twenty-seventh election, Raila Odinga, held the lead in early vote totals.
He says the narrow victory for Mister Kibaki was the result of cheating.
A spokesman for the president said the government will accept another election if a court orders a new vote.
On Thursday, Kenya's attorney general, Amos Wako, called for independent confirmation of the election results.
But he said only a court had the power to cancel Mister Kibaki's victory.
Kenyans first elected him in two thousand two on a promise to fight corruption.
More than three hundred people have been killed in Nairobi, the Rift Valley and Mombasa.
The violence has involved fighting between police and protesters and between ethnic groups.
There are fears of wider conflict between Luos, who support Mister Odinga, and Kikuyus, who support the president.
Both sides have accused each other of acts of genocide.
On Tuesday, a mob set fire to a church in Eldoret, in the Rift Valley.
At least thirty Kikuyu children and adults burned to death.
They had gone to the church seeking safety.
The United Nations said the unrest has displaced two hundred fifty thousand people within Kenya.
Several thousand people are believed to have fled to Uganda in recent days.
Travelers prepare to fly home from Mombasa as unrest affects Kenya's tourism industryKenya became independent from Britain in nineteen sixty-three.
It has the largest economy in East Africa, and in recent years has been the area's most politically secure country.
Kenya has held multiparty elections since nineteen ninety-two.
But Kikuyus have long ruled the country, both politically and financially.
The Kikuyu tribe is the largest of more than forty ethnic groups in Kenya.
Twenty-two percent of Kenya's estimated thirty-seven million people are Kikuyu.
The United States at first had congratulated President Kibaki on his re-election.
Later it withdrew the statement as European Unions observers and others questioned the fairness of the election.
The United States announced it was sending its top diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, to Kenya to appeal for political discussions.
Mister Kibaki says he is open to talks with his opponents after the violence has ended.
In some of Kenya's poorest areas, people have begun to say it is time for peace.
Kenya has had riots and ethnic conflict in past years.
But there are concerns that foreign investors might now lose trust in the country.
The World Bank says it is concerned that the unrest threatens recent gains in economic growth and poverty reduction.
It is not about Kikuyus against Luos.
Kenyans on the streets feel discriminated against the equal share of the national cake and they are determined to equal the playing field in a democratic manner.
Today we tell about Shel Silverstein.
He was a poet, writer, composer, singer, musician and artist.
Shel Silverstein wrote hundreds of poems and published many books.
He is most famous as a writer of books for children.
He won several awards for his children’s books.
But he also wrote many stories and created many drawings for adults.
Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in nineteen thirty.
His birth name was Sheldon Allan Silverstein.
Sometimes he called himself Uncle Shelby.
He never planned to write children’s books.
Still, he is most famous for writing them.
Shel Silverstein once told a reporter that when he was growing up, he wanted to be a good baseball player.
He also said he wanted to be popular with girls.
But he could not play baseball, and girls did not like him.
So he started to draw and write.
Shel Silverstein said he developed his own way of writing.
By the time girls were interested in him, he found that work was more important.
Shel Silverstein served in the United States Army in the early nineteen fifties.
He worked as an artist for the American military newspaper, Pacific Stars and Stripes.
eHe He wrote his first book in nineteen fifty-five.
“Take Ten” was about life in the army, and included drawings.
After leaving the army, he worked for Playboy magazine for almost twenty years.
He wrote stories and drew funny pictures for the publication.
Shel Silverstein was also a musician.
He released his first album in nineteen fifty-nine.
It is called “Hairy Jazz.”?
He began writing folk music in the nineteen sixties.
Famous artists have recorded his songs.
The Irish Rovers, Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn have sung his songs.
Ten years later, he released “A Boy Named Sue and His Other Country Songs.”?
The most famous song from the album is called “A Boy Named Sue.”?
It is about a boy whose father gave him a name usually given to girls.
Johnny Cash made the song famous.
Shel Silverstein is best known for his books for children.
However, people of all ages like his poems and stories.
He published his first children’s book in nineteen sixty-three.
It is called “Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back.”?
It is about a lion that eats hunters and lives like a human.
The lion has to make some important decisions.
One year later, Shel Silverstein published what may be his most popular book.
It is called “The Giving Tree.”?
This story is about a boy and a tree that loved him.
The tree gives the boy everything until it can give no more.
Both adults and children have enjoyed reading this book.
This book is still very popular today.
It has sold more than five million copies.
Listen as Faith Lapidus reads from the beginning of “The Giving Tree.”
There was once a great apple tree and a little boy.
They would spend hours and hours together.
The boy would play in the tree’s branches, sleep at her roots and eat of her apples.
And the tree loved the boy.
One day, the boy came to the tree.
The tree was delighted and beckoned, ‘Come and play!’ But the boy was no longer a boy; he was now a young man, and he was interested in making a living, but he didn’t know how.
‘Here,’ the tree said, ‘take my apples and sell them.’?
The young man did just that, and the tree was happy.
In the nineteen seventies, Shel Silverstein produced music for several movies.
His first movie soundtrack was for the film “Ned Kelly.”
It is based on a true story about a famous Australian criminal.
Here is a song from the album.
It is called “Ned Kelly.”  Shel Silverstein is also famous for his poetry.
His first children’s poetry book was “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”
It was published in nineteen seventy-four.
It contains more than one hundred poems, and many drawings.
The poems and drawings are creative, funny and wise.
In the book, readers meet a boy who turns into a television set.
They meet a girl who eats a whale.
Imaginary creatures like the Unicorn and the Bloath live there.
So does a girl called Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out.
“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a place where you can wash your shadow.
You can plant a garden of diamonds.
It is a place where shoes can fly.
And a crocodile goes to the dentist because his tooth hurts.
Silverstein reads one of the poems in his book, called “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too.”  Shel Silverstein’s second children’s poetry book is called “A Light in the Attic.”
It also contains many funny poems and drawings.
This book was so popular that it was on the New York Times newspaper’s list of best-selling books for more than three years.
Listen as he reads his poem “Ations.”
In the nineteen eighties, Shel Silverstein began writing plays.
He wrote about twenty of them.
His first play is called “The Lady or the Tiger Show.”
It is a funny play about a game show.
The game show player has to choose between two doors.
Behind one door is a beautiful woman, and behind the other door is a tiger.
Shel Silverstein died of heart failure in nineteen ninety-nine.
He was sixty-eight years old.
Some of his works were released after his death.
Shel Silverstein once said: “I would hope that people, no matter what age, would find something to identify with in my books.”
He hoped people would “experience a personal sense of discovery.”
Shel Silverstein once said that he wanted to go everywhere, look at and listen to everything.
He said people could go crazy with the wonderful things in life.
And he communicated this in all of his writings, drawings and songs.
We leave you now with a song by Shel Silverstein that was a huge hit around the world.
The Irish Rovers sing “The “Unicorn.”
This program was written by Chi-Un Lee and produced by Lawan Davis.
Our studio engineer was Bill Barber.
A nickname is a shortened form of a person's name.
A nickname can also be a descriptive name for a person, place or thing.
America's fifty states have some of the most historically interesting nicknames.
Near the Arctic Circle, it was the final part of the nation to be explored and settled.
Arizona is the Grand Canyon State because of the famous winding canyon carved by the Colorado River.
The southern state of Arkansas is the Land of Opportunity.
The state legislature chose this nickname.
Arkansas is rich in natural resources and has become a favorite place for older people to retire.
Sure enough, plenty of it was discovered in the real California, in eighteen forty-eight.
This started a gold rush unlike any other in American history in the Golden State.
You would think Colorado would be known as the Rocky Mountain State.
But its nickname is the Centennial State.
That is because it became a state in eighteen seventy-six, exactly one hundred years after the nation declared its independence.
So smart that it was said they could sell wooden, meaning false, nutmegs to strangers.
Little Delaware is called the First State because it was the first state -- the first to approve the new United States Constitution.
The Southern state of Florida likes to tell about its sunny days and fine beaches.
So Florida is the Sunshine State.
Florida's neighbor to the north grows some of the sweetest fruit in America.
Hawaii, far out in the Pacific Ocean, is the Aloha State.
So, aloha for now.
Sometimes it takes an engineer to help a village.
In poor communities, that help may come from volunteers with a group called Engineers Without Borders.
A civil engineering professor in the United States, Bernard Amadei, launched the group in two thousand.
He did it with the help of his students and friends at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Professor Amadei took a group of students to Belize to help build a water project.
Since then, Engineers Without Borders has grown into an international nonprofit organization.
Its budget last year was four million dollars.
The group currently has about three hundred projects in forty-five countries.
Engineers Without Borders works on low-technology projects in mostly developing countries.
In the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, for example, the group set up a sun-powered computer to communicate with a school in Kathmandu.
In Guatemala, volunteers have built ten bridges for communities cut off from nearby populations by seasonal rains.
The group has built windmills in Kenya to improve crop production.
And in Rwanda, Engineers Without Borders is rebuilding areas destroyed during the nineteen ninety-four genocide.
Cathy Leslie is the executive director of Engineers Without Borders.
She tells us that many of the group’s eight thousand members are students who volunteer as part of their college or university studies.
Working professionals and retired engineers also have formed local chapters throughout the United States.
In the next five years, organizers hope more than ten percent of the members will be non-engineers.
Cathy Leslie says community development involves not only engineering but many professions.
She says it is equally important to help villages develop business plans and ways to finance and supervise projects.
Engineers Without Borders goes where it is invited.
Communities can propose a project or seek assistance through one of its partners, such as Rotary International.
Once a proposal is approved, student or professional chapters will compete for ownership of the project.
Local chapters are urged to work with a community for five to ten years.
Individual chapters raise their own money for their projects.
This week we tell about one of the best-known photographers in America today.
For more than thirty-five years, Annie Leibovitz has been taking pictures of famous people including politicians, actors and athletes.
A current exhibit of the past fifteen years of her work is based on a book she recently published.
The book and exhibit show photographs from her personal as well as professional life.
Annie Leibovitz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, in nineteen forty-nine.
Her family moved often because her father was an officer in the Air Force.
For college, Annie studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in California.
She discovered her interest in photography during a trip to Japan with her mother.
So she took night classes in photography at college.
Leibovitz began her career taking photographs for Rolling Stone magazine in nineteen seventy, shortly after the publication was first launched.
Her first project there was to photograph John Lennon, a member of the British band the Beatles.
Three years later, she became the chief photographer for the magazine.
Leibovitz took pictures of musicians like Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Bob Marley.
She also traveled with the Rolling Stones rock band in nineteen seventy-five to capture their life on the road while they performed concerts around the world.
In nineteen eighty-one, Rolling Stone magazine asked her to photograph John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono.
Leibovitz had imagined photographing the couple without clothes.
But Yoko Ono opposed the idea.
Leibovitz ended up taking a picture of Yoko Ono in dark clothes with John Lennon lying next to her without clothing.
John Lennon was murdered several hours after this picture was taken.
It was published on the cover of Rolling Stone.
It has since become one of the most famous magazine covers in the world.
In two thousand five, the American Society of Magazine Editors named it the best magazine cover published in the last forty years.
Annie Leibovitz later worked for the magazines Vanity Fair and Vogue.
She is known for her colorful photographs of people in wildly inventive or playful settings.
For example, Leibovitz photographed the African American actress Whoopi Goldberg in a bathtub filled with milk.
In her portrait of the actor Brad Pitt, he is lying on an orange bed in a bright orange and yellow room.
A photograph of former president Bill Clinton shows him happily sitting in the Oval Office of the White House during the first weeks of his presidency.
One of Annie Leibovitz’s most famous and most disputed photographs is of the actress Demi Moore.
She was photographed seven months pregnant, wearing nothing but jewelry.
At first, Leibovitz did not plan for this picture to be published.
But it was such a strikingly beautiful image, that it was put on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.
Neither Leibovitz nor Vanity Fair expected the amount of attention the photograph received.
The American Society of Magazine Editors listed this photograph of Demi Moore as the second best cover published in the last forty years.
Annie Leibovitz has also worked on several large advertisement campaigns for companies including American Express, Gap, and Disney.
For her Disney series, she photographed famous people dressed as characters from popular stories like “Cinderella” and “Alice in Wonderland.”
In one photograph, the actress Scarlett Johansson is dressed as Cinderella.
She wears diamond jewelry in her hair and a big blue dress.
In the background, you can see her glass shoe and a magical looking palace building in the fog.
This week, our subject is influenza, commonly called the flu.
Winter officially arrived in northern areas of the world last month.
Medical experts have another name for the start of winter -- the flu season.
Influenza is a common infection of the nose and throat, and sometimes the lungs.
The cause is a virus that passes from one person to another.
The virus spreads through the air when an infected person expels air suddenly.
Influenza develops after the virus enters a person's nose or mouth.
The flu causes muscle pain, sudden high body temperature, breathing problems and weakness.
Generally, most people feel better after a week or two.
But the flu can kill.
It is especially dangerous to the very young, the very old and those with weakened defenses against disease.
The World Health Organization says the influenza virus infects up to five million people around the world each year.
Between two hundred fifty thousand and five hundred thousand people die every year from influenza.
Medical experts have recognized for some time that people become infected with influenza during the winter months.
But they did not really know why until recently.
American researchers say they now know why the influenza virus spreads in the winter and not in the summer.
They say it is because the virus remains in the air longer when the air is cold and dry.
Researchers in New York carried out twenty experiments with guinea pigs to investigate how the virus spreads.
First, they confirmed that the guinea pigs could develop the flu and pass it on to others.
The researchers then placed the animals in areas where the virus was present in the air.
Then they changed the temperature and humidity levels of their environments.
Humidity is the amount of wetness in the air.
The researchers found the virus spread the most when the temperature was about five degrees Celsius and the humidity was twenty percent.
Few of the guinea pigs developed influenza as the temperature increased.
The virus stopped spreading completely at thirty degrees Celsius and eighty percent humidity.
The researchers also found that the animals spread the virus among themselves nearly two days longer when the temperature was low.
Results of the study were reported in PLoS Pathogens, a publication of the Public Library of Science.
One of the researchers said the study shows that influenza virus is more likely to infect people during an outdoor walk on a cold day than in a warm room.
He said cold air helps the virus survive in the air and low humidity helps it stay there longer.
That is because particles of the virus ride on the extremely small drops of water floating in the air.
When the air is very humid, water droplets fall to the ground more quickly.
The researchers say, however, that people should not stay in warm places all the time in cold weather to avoid the flu.
They say the best way to prevent the sickness is to get yearly injections of a vaccine that prevents influenza.
Medical experts have identified three major kinds of influenza.
They call them type A, B and C. Type C is the least serious.
People may not even know they have it.
But researchers study the other two kinds very closely.
Viruses change to survive.
This can make it difficult for the body to recognize and fight an infection.
A person who has suffered one kind of flu cannot develop that same kind again.
The body's defense system produces antibodies.
These substances stay in the blood and destroy the virus if it appears again.
But the body may not recognize a flu virus that has even a small change.
Each year, researchers develop vaccines to prevent the spread of the flu virus.
The World Health Organization holds meetings in which experts discuss what kinds of flu viruses to include in the next vaccine.
Historical records have described sicknesses believed to be influenza for more than two thousand years.
The Roman historian Livy described such a disease attacking the Roman army.
People in fifteenth century Italy thought sicknesses were caused by the influence of the stars.
The flu spread in Asia in eighteen twenty-nine, then again in eighteen thirty-six.
It also traveled to Southeast Asia, Russia and the United States.
In eighteen eighty-nine, the flu began in Central Asia, spread north into Russia, east to China and west to Europe.
Later, it affected people in North America and Africa.
Experts say two hundred fifty thousand people died in Europe in that flu pandemic.
Around the world, the number was at least one million.
The deadliest spread of influenza ever reported involved a flu that first appeared in Spain.
The Spanish flu killed between twenty million and fifty million people around the world in nineteen-eighteen and nineteen-nineteen.
Even young, healthy people became sick and died in just a few days.
Periods when diseases spread around the world are called pandemics.
The World Health Organization says the next flu pandemic is likely to kill as many as six hundred fifty thousand people in industrial countries.
But it says the greatest effect will likely be in developing countries.
The W.H.O. notes that health resources in those countries are limited, and people there are weakened by poor health and diet.
Researchers say the new kind of flu will appear unexpectedly.
They will not have enough time to identify it and produce a vaccine.
That is why they are developing faster ways to produce vaccines.
Eighty years ago, the flu virus took months to spread around the world.
Today, airplane travel means a virus can spread to far around the world in just days.
Last year, the World Health Organization said the world is closer to a pandemic of the influenza virus than at any time since nineteen sixty-eight.
The flu virus would spread quickly to large numbers of people in many countries.
The pandemic threat is the h-five n-one influenza virus, also known as the bird flu.
Wild and farm birds often have a flu virus.
Yet they usually are able to carry the virus without getting sick.
In nineteen ninety-seven, six people in Hong Kong died of the h-five n-one virus.
The Hong Kong government quickly ordered the killing of all farm birds there.
That stopped the spread of h-five n-one to people in Hong Kong.
Yet the virus had already spread to other parts of Asia.
It was found in sixteen countries between two thousand three and two thousand six.
The WHO says the bird flu virus had infected a total of three hundred thirty-eight people by December twelfth.
Two hundred eight of them died.
Yet fewer people were infected with bird flu or died of it last year than in two thousand six.
These numbers show that the deadly bird flu virus is not spreading among people very easily.
But that could change.
Researchers are worried about the virus changing so that it could spread from person to person.
People would become infected with a virus their bodies have never before experienced.
They would have no protection.
Researchers are attempting to develop a vaccine to protect against bird flu.
Still, they know that any vaccine would not be ready until a pandemic had already begun.
Some British researchers say people should be told to wear physical barriers against infectious diseases, like masks on the face or gloves to protect the hands.
The researchers examined fifty-one published studies on the effect of simple ways to prevent throat and lung infections.
They found that hand-washing, wearing masks and using gloves each stopped the spread of viruses.
The researchers also found that such physical barriers were even more effective when used together.
They said these simple, low-cost measures could prove to be an easy way to prevent the spread of deadly viruses.
Our producer was Brianna Blake.
A round barn in IllinoisAmerican farmers traditionally keep their animals and equipment in barns that are rectangular, longer than they are wide.
But as many as one thousand barns in the Midwest and other parts of the country are round.
Round barns have a long history in America.
George Washington, the nation's first president, had a round barn in the seventeen hundreds.
The Shaker religious community at Hancock, Massachusetts, built one in the eighteen twenties.
But the idea did not become popular until years later.
Then, in the early nineteen hundreds, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built three round barns that a lot of farmers copied.
A farmer could save on wood or stone with a round building that needed less material than traditional barns.
Experts also believed that farmers could save steps, and time, in feeding their animals in a round barn.
And round barns stood a better chance against strong winds.
Some round barns are not truly circular.
They just look that way but really are many flat sides put together.
Early versions were mainly designed with two levels.
Cows were kept on the first level and the one above was used to store hay to feed them.
Later designs brought a large area in the middle for the hay and places all around it for the cows.
By the nineteen thirties, however, fewer American farmers were building round barns.
Some people said it took more time and skill.
Others disagreed.
In any case, it was not a good time to argue -- it was the Great Depression, and times were difficult.
Also, as electric power came to rural America, there was a school of thought that rectangular barns were easier to wire for electricity.
Agricultural experts also reconsidered their ideas about a round barn saving time in feeding animals.
Kathy and Bob Frydenlund can tell you all about round barns.
The Frydenlunds have a library of architectural plans and drawings and have published books on the subject.
The Frydenlunds own the Round Barn Llama Farm in New Richmond, Wisconsin.
Bob Frydenlund says having a round barn means keeping alive part of the history of American farming.
Today we bring you the second of three programs about beautiful and unusual places in our world.
Last week, we told about structures built hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Today we tell about some of the great natural Wonders of the World.
We do not have time to visit all these places, but here are a few from several different countries.
We begin our program today high in the southeastern mountains of Venezuela.
Water falls from a mountain called Auyan-tepui or Devil Mountain.
The water falls from a height of nine hundred seventy-nine meters.
It ends in an area called Devil’s Canyon.
The water begins to fall in a tightly controlled stream.
However it ends in a beautiful white cloud of water spray.
This waterfall is the highest in the world.
The local native people called it the Churun Meru.
It is now called Angel Falls.
An American pilot named Jimmy Angel saw the beautiful waterfall for the first time in the nineteen thirties.
He was flying alone in a small airplane looking for gold when he saw water falling from a great height.
Some time later several friends said the waterfall should be named after Jimmy Angel.
A small airplane is still the best way to enjoy this beautiful sight.
You can also visit the area under the falls after a three-and-a-half-hour boat ride and a one-hour walk through the jungle.
And you can see Jimmy Angel’s little airplane if you visit Venezuela.
It is considered a national treasure.
From a waterfall in Venezuela, we travel to another mountain.
This one is in Japan.
It is one of the most photographed mountains in the world.
It is Mount Fuji on the island of Honshu.
The Japanese call it Fujisan and they say it with love and honor.
Mount Fuji is a sleeping volcano about three thousand seven hundred meters high.
It is the tallest mountain in Japan.
Since ancient times, the Japanese people have considered it a holy mountain.
It has also been the favorite subject of thousands of artists.
Its picture has even appeared on Japanese money.
Mount Fuji is an almost perfectly shaped volcano.
A crown of white snow covers the top of the mountain most of the year.
Mount Fuji seems to rise sharply out of the ground into the shape most recognized as a volcano.
A large area is missing from the side of the mountain.
This is a result of its most recent explosion in seventeen-oh-seven.
But the missing part of the mountain does nothing to decrease its beauty.
Mount Fuji is much easier to enjoy than Angel Falls in Venezuela.
On a clear day people can see it from both the major cities of Tokyo and Yokohama.
The easiest way to see the famous mountain is on a train from Tokyo to Osaka.
Or you could climb the mountain to get an even better look.
Thousands of people climb Fujisan each summer.
Next, we travel to the desert of the southwestern United States.
In fifteen forty, Spanish explorer Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was searching this desert area for gold.
The desert area is almost flat, like a table.
His exploration team had been traveling north from Mexico for several weeks.
Suddenly one morning he and his group came to an area that stopped their exploration.
They could not continue.
In front of them was a huge hole cut in the ground.
Most of this canyon was more than one thousand two hundred meters deep.
It was more than three hundred kilometers long.
This huge deep canyon extended as far as the explorers could see.
It was very beautiful.
The sunlight made deep shadows and seemed to change the shape of things every minute.
The colors also changed with the movement of the sun and clouds.
Often, some areas of the deep canyon appeared bright red.
Other times they were a deep brown or purple.
The exploration team tried for three days to reach the river far down in the canyon.
They failed.
They could also see no way to move around the huge canyon.
A lack of supplies forced Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to return to Mexico.
That beautiful deep canyon is the Grand Canyon.
It is a National Park that includes an area of almost five hundred thousand hectares.
It is one of the most studied natural areas in the world.
The high canyon walls are a record of the past written in rock.
Explorers have found fossils of ancient creatures near the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
People can see many kinds of animals in or near the great canyon.
These include large deer.
They do not fear the people who come to visit the Grand Canyon.
The canyon, its animals, plants and rocks are protected in this special place.
The Colorado River is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
The river took several million years to cut the deep canyon into the face of the Earth.
It is still doing this today.
Visitors today do not have a problem reaching the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the great Colorado River.
Many people take long exciting trips in rubber boats on the river.
Millions of people from around the world visit the Grand Canyon National Park each year.
Many stay for less than a day.
However, people leave with the memory of this beautiful natural wonder that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Next we travel across the Pacific Ocean.
Our next natural Wonder of the World is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
It extends more than two thousand kilometers along Australia’s northeast coast.
It is the largest group of coral reefs in the world.
A reef is a limestone formation that is usually under water or just above it.
The coral that forms the reef is made of the hardened remains of dead sea animals called polyps.
Thousands of millions of living coral polyps and plants are attached to the reef.
The coral is many different colors.
The water near the reef is usually clear and visitors can see far down into the ocean.
This natural formation supports many different kinds of fish, sea turtles, crabs, giant clams, birds and other wild life.
Millions of visitors from around the world come every year to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef.
Many people visit in boats that have glass bottoms so they can see the fish and the colorful coral.
Others swim among the fish using underwater breathing equipment.
Swimming along the reef is fun.
But it can also be dangerous.
The huge great white shark is one of the creatures that swims near the reef.
Scientists believe the Great Barrier Reef is about thirty million years old.
However, in recent years, people have caused problems for the reef.
Some took coral from the reef.
And boats dumped garbage or human waste.
Now the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an agency of the Australian government.
Visitors are told it is against the law to collect any of the limestone or coral or to damage the reef in any way.
Laws prevent oil companies from drilling for oil anywhere near the reef.
The Australian government has also worked to make sure nothing is placed in the ocean that would harm the great reef.
Scientists are working to make sure that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef remains healthy and a true Wonder of the World for years to come.
We would have liked to have enough time to tell about other great wonders of the world -- Victoria Falls, for example.
This huge waterfall in southern Africa is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Another great waterfall brings visitors to the border area between the United States and Canada.
They come to see the famous Niagara Falls.
We also wanted to tell about the huge volcano that exploded near the Island of Krakatoa in Indonesia.
And the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest in Nepal, should be on any list of natural Wonders of the World.
It is easy to visit most of these great natural wonders if you have a computer.
If your computer can link with the Internet system you too can enjoy these beautiful sights.
Have fun exploring.
This program was written by Paul Thompson.
It was produced by Jill Moss.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., affects more than two hundred million people around the world.
The World Health Organization says at least five million people died from it in two thousand five.
Ninety percent were in developing countries.
In the United States, C.O.P.D. is the fourth leading cause of death.
But even with these numbers, many people have never heard of it.
The Canadian Lung Association Web site explains that C.O.P.D. is the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
These are the two most common forms of it, and many people with C.O.P.D. have both of them.
The result is progressive and incurable lung damage.
The tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs become partly blocked.
This makes it difficult to breathe and often produces a cough that will not go away.
People with C.O.P.D. often have swelling that causes the airways to narrow.
And they often produce more mucus than normal.
This oily substance protects the airways, but too much of it blocks them.
Smoking is the most common cause of C.O.P.D. Nonsmokers can get the disease from breathing other people's tobacco smoke.
Air pollution can also cause the disease.
Miners and others who work around some kinds of dust and chemicals are at higher risk.
And children who repeatedly suffer lung infections have a greater chance of developing the disease as adults.
Genetics may also play a part.
Doctors can perform a quick breathing test with a machine called a spirometer that can help diagnose C.O.P.D.
But experts say people are often not tested or treated correctly for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Patients may not consider a continuous cough serious enough to seek medical attention.
Or doctors may misdiagnose it as asthma or another infection.
Some of the early warning signs are a cough that will not go away and an increase in mucus production.
Another sign is difficulty breathing after minor activity like walking up stairs.
There are ways to slow the progress of the disease.
Doctors say the most important thing is to stop smoking.
There are medicines that can reduce inflammation and open air passages.
Also, exercise is often advised.
If the disease is severe, a doctor may order oxygen treatment or even operations to remove damaged lung tissue.
We were talking with Susan Schwartz about teaching teachers.
She teaches English as a Second Language, but her work extends far beyond her own classroom.
She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, taught English in China and Indonesia, and went to India last summer for a Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad program.
Not only that, for ten years she published an annual, peer-reviewed online journal called Nexus: A Journal for Teachers in Development.
But now, Susan Schwartz is developing Nexus into what she hopes will be a continually updated Web site that will offer information about issues related to the training of teachers of English to speakers of other languages.
Again, her e-mail address is nexusjournal@earthlink.net.
And that's all for this week.
The United States became a nation in seventeen seventy-six.
Less than a century later, in the eighteen sixties, it was nearly torn apart.
A civil war took place, the only one in the nation's history.
States from the North and the South fought against each other.
The conflict involved the right of the South to leave the Union and deal with issues -- especially the issue of slavery -- its own way.
This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs describe how the Constitution survived this very troubled time in American history.
Detail of a Civil War drawing by Alfred R. Waud published in Harper's Weekly in October 1863America's Civil War lasted four years.
Six hundred thousand men were killed or wounded.
In the end, the slaves were freed, and the Union was saved.
Abraham Lincoln was president during the Civil War.
He said the southern states did not have the right to leave the Union.
Lincoln firmly believed that the Union of states was permanent under the Constitution.
In fact, he noted, one of the reasons for establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union.
His main goal was to save what the Constitution had created.
One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution.
That political document describes America's system of government and guarantees the rights of all citizens.
Its power is greater than any president, court or legislature.
In the coming weeks, we will tell the story of the United States Constitution.
We will describe the drama of its birth in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven.
And we will describe the national debate over its approval.
Before we do, however, we want to tell how that document provides for change without changing the basic system of government.
If you ask Americans about their Constitution, they probably will talk about the Bill of Rights.
These are the first ten changes, or amendments, to the Constitution.
They contain the rights of all people in the United States.
They have the most direct effect on people's lives.
Among other things, the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and the press.
It also establishes rules to guarantee that a person suspected of a crime is treated fairly.
The Bill of Rights was not part of the document signed at the convention in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven.
The delegates believed that political freedoms were basic human rights.
So, some said it was not necessary to express such rights in a Constitution.
Most Americans, however, wanted their rights guaranteed in writing.
That is why most states approved the new Constitution only on condition that a Bill of Rights would be added.
This was done, and the amendments became law in seventeen ninety-one.
One early amendment involved the method of choosing a president and vice president.
In America's first presidential elections, the man who received the most votes became president.
The man who received the second highest number of votes became vice president.
It became necessary to change the Constitution, however, after separate political parties developed.
Then ballots had to show the names of each candidate for president and vice president.
The 15th Amendment gave male citizens the right to vote regardless of race, color or previous condition of slaveryThere were no other amendments for sixty years.
The next one was born in the blood of civil war.
During the war, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation.
That document freed the slaves in the states that were rebelling against the Union.
It was not until after Lincoln was murdered, however, that the states approved the Thirteenth Amendment to ban slavery everywhere in the country.
The Fourteenth Amendment, approved in eighteen sixty-eight, said no state could limit the rights of any citizen.
And the Fifteenth, approved two years later, said a person's right to vote could not be denied because of his race, color, or former condition of slavery.
By the eighteen nineties, the federal government needed more money than it was receiving from taxes on imports.
It wanted to establish a tax on earnings.
It took twenty years to win approval for the Sixteenth Amendment.
The amendment permits the government to collect income taxes.
Another amendment proposed in the early nineteen hundreds was designed to change the method of electing United States Senators.
For more than one hundred years, senators were elected by the legislatures of their states.
The Seventeenth Amendment, approved in nineteen thirteen, gave the people the right to elect senators directly.
In nineteen nineteen, the states approved an amendment to ban the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol.
Alcohol was prohibited.
It could not be produced or sold legally anywhere in the United States.
The amendment, however, did not stop the flow of alcohol.
Criminal organizations found many ways to produce and sell it illegally.
Finally, after thirteen years, Americans decided that Prohibition had failed.
It had caused more problems than it had solved.
So, in nineteen thirty-three, the states approved another constitutional amendment to end the ban on alcohol.
Other amendments in the twentieth century include one that gives women the right to vote.
It became part of the Constitution in nineteen twenty.
Another amendment limits a president to two four-year terms in office.
And the Twenty-sixth Amendment gives the right to vote to all persons who are at least eighteen years old.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment has one of the strangest stories of any amendment to the United States Constitution.
This amendment establishes a rule for increasing the pay of senators and representatives.
It says there must be an election between the time Congress votes to increase its pay and the time the pay raise goes into effect.
The amendment was first proposed in seventeen eighty-nine.
Like all amendments, it needed to be approved by three-fourths of the states.
This did not happen until nineteen ninety-two.
So, one of the first amendments to be proposed was the last amendment to become law.
The twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution have not changed the basic system of government in the United States.
The government still has three separate and equal parts: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch.
The three parts balance each other.
No part is greater than another.
The first American states had no strong central government when they fought their war of independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six.
They cooperated under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation.
The agreement provided for a Congress.
But the Congress had few powers.
Each state governed itself.
When the war ended, the states owed millions of dollars to their soldiers.
They also owed money to European nations that had supported the Americans against Britain.
The new United States had no national money to pay the debts.
There was an American dollar.
But not everyone used it.
And it did not have the same value everywhere.
The situation led to economic ruin for many people.
They could not pay the money they owed.
They lost their property.
They were put in prison.
Militant groups took action to help them.
They interfered with tax collectors.
They terrorized judges and burned court buildings.
The situation was especially bad in the northeast part of the country.
In Massachusetts, a group led by a former soldier tried to seize guns and ammunition from the state military force.
Shays' Rebellion, as it was called, was stopped.
But from north to south, Americans were increasingly worried and frightened.
Would the violence continue?
Would the situation get worse?
Many Americans distrusted the idea of a strong central government.
After all, they had just fought a war to end British rule.
Yet Americans of different ages, education, and social groups felt that something had to be done.
If not, the new nation would fail before it had a chance to succeed.
These were the opinions and feelings that led, in time, to the writing of the United States Constitution.
Our program was written by Christine Johnson and read by Tony Riggs and Frank Oliver.
A recent decision by Harvard University to expand financial aid is putting pressure on other schools to do the same.
Graduation ceremonies at Harvard in JuneThe full price for one year at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is more than forty-five thousand dollars.
Many other private colleges cost just as much.
But Harvard is much wealthier than any other American university, so it has more to give.
Harvard already offers a free education to students from families that earn up to sixty thousand dollars a year.
This has helped increase the numbers of lower income and minority students.
Now, the aim is to help all but the wealthiest American families pay for a Harvard education.
The new policies announced last month will assist families that earn as much as one hundred eighty thousand dollars.
These families will be asked to pay no more than ten percent of their income for college.
For example, a family earning one hundred twenty thousand dollars would pay about twelve thousand a year.
Under existing student aid policies the amount is more than nineteen thousand.
What Harvard has done is change the way it offers financial aid.
Undergraduates will not be expected to take out loans.
Increases in grant aid will replace loans.
Also, Harvard officials will no longer consider the value of a family's home when deciding how much aid to give.
Harvard says it expects to spend up to twenty-two million dollars more a year in financial aid.
This will come from its endowment.
A college endowment is money given by former students and others as gifts.
Schools invest the money to earn more.
Harvard’s endowment is valued at thirty-five billion dollars.
Other universities with large endowments are also changing their financial aid policies.
Examples include Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.
Yale’s endowment is the second largest after Harvard, at twenty-two and a half billion dollars.
This week, Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, announced it will use more of that money for financial aid as well as scientific research.
Yale may also admit more students.
But some colleges say they simply do not have enough money to compete with the new policies that are being announced.
Critics of the rising costs of a college education say schools are making these changes in an attempt to avoid action by Congress.
Some lawmakers have criticized universities for raising their prices even as their endowments grow larger and larger.
We will talk more about endowments next week.
Twenty-seven years ago, he started an organization to help provide arts education free of charge to the public.
As part of this goal, he placed his collection of sculpture, photographs, and paintings in a local museum.
Mister Margulies says that art has been good to him and that it is important to share it with others.
Shirley Griffith has more.
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse opened eight years ago in the Wynwood area of Miami.
This neighborhood is filled with industrial buildings and stores.
You might be surprised to discover that the Warehouse building houses an art collection.
Since it opened, the Margulies Collection has expanded to over four thousand square meters of exhibition space.
The museum is open free of charge four days a week from September until April.
The current show includes sixty-five sculptural objects from Mister Margulies’ collection.
The show includes the work of both famous sculptors and up-and coming artists.
In the main room of the museum, there are so many interesting sculptures that it is hard to know where to look first.
One work by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto is made of stretchy cloth that hangs from the ceiling and covers a large area of space.
Several heavy tear-shaped forms drop from this ceiling cloth at different levels.
If you look -- and smell -- carefully, you will realize that the wrapped forms contain several kilograms of spices such as cinnamon and turmeric.
Mister Neto often creates works like this one that visitors can step into and explore using different senses.
A sculpture by the American artist Barry McGee is made from a large truck lying on its side.
Visitors can look in the truck to see television screens showing different colorful images.
You might also see works by several video artists.
For example, you can watch a video by the Indian artist Amar Kanwar that explores oppression and violence in India and Pakistan.
His full name is Alfredo James Pacino.
He was born in New York City in nineteen forty and attended the Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts.
At first, he acted in plays on Broadway in New York.
He was nominated for Academy Awards for those films and for five others.
Pacino has appeared in almost forty movies.
In two thousand six, the American Film Institute honored him with a Life Achievement Award.
His next movie will be released later this year.
He was born in Havana, Cuba in nineteen fifty-six.
Andres Arturo Garcia-Menendez came to the United States with his parents at the age of five.
They settled in Miami, Florida.
After high school, he decided to become an actor and moved to Hollywood, California.
In two thousand, he played the Cuban musician Arturo Sandoval in a television movie.
He shared an Emmy Award for outstanding movie made for television.
Her strong and emotional voice is able to sing a striking series of low and high notes.
In her first album, “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me,” Alice Smith mixes the sounds of rock, jazz and soul music.
Faith Lapidus plays some of her music.
That was the love song “Dream” which was recently nominated for a Grammy award.
After hearing this song, you might be surprised to learn that Alice Smith did not always plan to make a career out of singing.
But she did like music.
She says that when she was growing up, each of her mother’s eight brothers and sisters liked to listen to a different kind of music.
So, she was able to experience many kinds of musical styles in addition to her own favorites.
Alice Smith did not start singing professionally until she was in college in New York City.
While she was studying history at Fordham University, she started to work as a back-up singer for a local band.
The president of a record company heard her sing and later offered her a record deal.
Here is the playful song “Woodstock.”
It tells about wanting to take a break from the tensions of city living.
A small record company first released “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me” a year ago.
The album quickly gained attention from critics and fans.
The New York Times newspaper and Rolling Stone magazine listed Alice Smith as a top artist to know about.
The company Epic Records re-released the album in October.
Alice Smith says the album is about pure emotion and being honest in whatever situation you are in.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach.
Caty Weaver was our producer.
McDonald's, the fast-food company, is heating up competition with the Starbucks Coffee Company.
McDonald's plans to put coffee bars in its fourteen thousand restaurants in the United States.
Fewer than a thousand now offer specialty coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos.
Just like Starbucks, each coffee bar would have its own barista, the person who makes and serves the drinks.
Company documents reported by the Wall Street Journal said the plan would add one billion dollars a year in sales.
McDonald's has enjoyed several years of strong growth.
The company had almost twenty-two billion dollars in sales in two thousand six.
Still, the move to compete against Starbucks carries some risk.
Some experts say it could slow down service at McDonald's restaurants.
And some people who are happy with McDonald's the way it is now may not like the changes.
A McCafe in Mountain View, California, on opening day in 2003As early as two thousand one the company tested McCafes in the United States to sell specialty coffee at McDonald's restaurants.
But the drinks were not available at the drive-through windows that provide two-thirds of its business.
McDonald's thinks its new plan has a greater chance of success.
Starbucks, on the other hand, has faced slower growth and increasing competition.
Its stock has lost about half its value since last January.
Starbucks has about ten thousand stores in the United States.
Its high-priced coffee drinks have names like Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha and Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino.
Lately Starbucks has added more foods, including breakfast foods, and put drive-through windows in some stores.
This week, the company replaced its chief executive officer, bringing back former C.E.O.
Howard Schultz.
He remains chairman of the board.
He joined Starbucks in nineteen eighty-two, when it had just four stores.
He is credited with building the Seattle company into an international success story.
But a year ago he warned that its fast growth had led to what he called the watering down of the Starbucks experience.
Some neighborhoods have a Starbucks on every block or two.
Now, Starbucks will speed up its international growth while slowing its expansion in the United States.
Millions of people have a taste for Starbucks.
But last year, McDonald's Premium coffee got some good press.
Testers from Consumer Reports thought it tasted better than Starbucks, and it cost less.
The American presidential campaign took a surprising turn this week.
Senator Hillary Clinton won the Democratic vote in the first primary state, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.
That was after she finished third last week in the Iowa caucuses.
And Senator John McCain won the Republican primary in New Hampshire after he finished fourth in Iowa.
Political experts say the battle for the nomination in both parties is wide open.
The big winners in Iowa were Senator Barack Obama for the Democrats and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for the Republicans.
Public opinion researchers predicted that Barack Obama would win New Hampshire by as much as twelve points.
But Hillary Clinton won a narrow victory, at thirty-nine percent to Senator Obama’s thirty-six percent.
Hillary Clinton had some of her strongest support among older women.
The New York senator and former first lady hopes to become the country’s first female president.
Senator Obama would be the first African-American president.
The Illinois senator has enjoyed wide support among people under the age of thirty.
The Clinton campaign was not sure how voters would react after people saw an emotional side of her that they are not used to seeing.
It happened Monday at a question-and-answer event in New Hampshire.
Tears came to her eyes as she talked about not wanting to see the country fall backwards.
In the Republican race, John McCain found support among voters concerned about national security and terrorism.
The Arizona senator also appears to have been helped by independent voters.
He defeated former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Mike Huckabee came in third.
Voters in New Hampshire said the most important issues were the economy and the war in Iraq.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson dropped out of the Democratic race this week.
He finished fourth in New Hampshire.
Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd left the Democratic race after receiving low numbers in Iowa.
Primary season began last week with Iowa’s caucus meetings.
Primaries and caucuses are the American process used to choose delegates to the national nominating conventions.
The Democrats will meet in late August and the Republicans in early September.
The conventions are where candidates are officially chosen to represent their party in the general election in November.
Later this month, primaries will be held in other states including Nevada and South Carolina.
But the big event will be Super Tuesday on February fifth.
More states will be voting on Super Tuesday than in past years.
More than twenty states including California, New York and Illinois will hold their primaries that day.
Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States.
Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe.
No end to the lines of soldiers marching across the land.
They came from the northern states fighting to keep the Union together.
And they came from the southern states fighting for a separate Confederate government that would protect their right to have slaves.
In summer and winter, the fighting continued.
The sun burned like fire.
The soldiers marched on.
The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces.
The soldiers marched on.
The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery and a state's right to leave the Union.
America's Civil War lasted four years.
It destroyed the land.
And it destroyed the young men of the nation.
Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War.
They have told of the soldiers’ fear and terror.
Their great and heroic acts.
How they suffered and died.
And how they sang before and after battle.
One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North.
Here is the first part of the song, sung by Odetta:  The words are religious.
They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God.
It was a wet winter night.
There were thousands of soldiers in the city.
The hospitals were full.
The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the southern state of Virginia.
A woman lay asleep in her hotel room.
She had had a long, hard day.
She had come to Washington to visit the Union troops.
The sight and sounds of the soldiers gave her no rest.
Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them.
She heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires.
She heard them singing.
They sang a marching song she knew.
It was a song about John Brown, an activist against slavery.
The song told about how his body turned to earth in the grave.
It told about how his spirit lived on.
The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe.
She was a writer and social reformer.
She was born in New York City in eighteen nineteen.
Her father was a wealthy banker.
Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe.
He was a reformer and teacher of the blind.
Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston.
Missus Howe raised five children.
And she published several books of poetry.
Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe were leaders in the movement in America to end slavery.
Like him, she was an anti-slavery activist.
She opposed those Americans who used black people as slaves.
Unlike him, she did not approve of using violence to end slavery.
In eighteen fifty-nine, John Brown tried to start a revolt of slaves.
He led an attack on Harper's Ferry, a town in what was then the state of Virginia.
The town had a factory that made guns for the army.
It also had a storage center for military equipment.
The attack on Harper's Ferry failed.
John Brown was put on trial for treason.
He was found guilty and was executed.
In the northern states, John Brown became a hero.
His story was told through song.
The song was most popular with soldiers.
It became the unofficial marching song of the Union Army.
Julia Ward Howe also liked to sing the song.
She felt that the music was beautiful, but the words about John Brown were not.
So she decided to write different words to the music.
Those words came to her that night as she lay in her hotel room in Washington.
She was paid four dollars.
The magazine published the poem in eighteen sixty-two.
The poem became very popular.
It had just the right words for the great marching music.
The soldiers of the Union Army began to sing the words Julia Ward Howe had written.
She was invited to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln.
After dinner at the White House, the guests talked about the Civil War.
They were sad.
The Union army had suffered many defeats.
As we told you last week, every American state has a nickname.
Here are some more of them.
Idaho is known as The Gem State.
This is not because it has diamonds but because it believes it is the jewel of the western Rocky Mountains.
Illinois is The Land of Lincoln.
It is named for Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president who led the nation through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties.
The midwestern state of Indiana is called the Hoosier State, but nobody is quite sure why.
One story is that the word was used to mean poor farmers or uneducated people.
No wonder the state legislature instead calls Indiana The Crossroads of America.
Iowa's nickname, the Hawkeye State, is in honor of Black Hawk, an Indian chief who spent most of his life in neighboring Illinois!
Jayhawkers were free-state guerrilla fighters opposed to the pro-slavery fighters in the years before the Civil War.
Kentucky is The Bluegrass State.
Bluegrass is really bright green but looks bluish from a distance.
Louisiana is The Bayou State.
A bayou is a slow-moving stream.
Hundreds of them flow through this southern state, and many are full of alligators!
Maine, in the nation's northeast, is The Pine Tree State because it is covered in evergreen woods.
And directly across the country, on the Pacific Coast, is the state of Washington.
It also has lots of evergreen trees so, not surprisingly, it is The Evergreen State.
The eastern state of Massachusetts is the Bay State.
This body of water separates most of the state from famous Cape Cod.
Six state nicknames are taken from native animals.
Michigan is the Wolverine State.
A wolverine is a small, fierce mammal.
The badger is a similar and equally fierce creature and Wisconsin is The Badger State.
Neighboring Minnesota, The Gopher State, is named for a much nicer animal that builds hills and tunnels.
However, The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes is written on Minnesota's vehicle license plates.
North Dakota gets its nickname, The Flickertail State not from some bird, but from a little squirrel.
South Dakota takes its nickname, The Coyote State, from an animal that thinks flickertails are good to eat!
And Oregon, The Beaver State, borrows its nickname from the large, flat-tailed rodent that uses trees to build dams.
Next week, we will tell you about more state nicknames, including one that is about people's feet!
Governments are always judged by how they use power.
But they differ by how they divide power.
Some have strong presidents or prime ministers.
Others have military control.
But political scientist Matthew Kroenig believes that in developing nations, the best solution may be a powerful legislature.
Professor Kroenig is a researcher at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.
It rates legislative strengths in one hundred fifty-eight countries.
At least five experts provided information about each.
They were given a list of thirty-two yes-or-no questions grouped into four areas.
One of these categories measured a legislature’s influence over the president or prime minister.
For example, can the legislature remove the leader from office?
Other questions rated the legislature’s independence, any special powers it may hold and the resources available to do its work.
There was a three-way tie for what Professor Kroenig calls the strongest legislature in the world: Germany, Italy and Mongolia.
At the same time, two countries, Burma and Somalia, have none of the thirty-two legislative powers.
The study found that Kenya's parliament has only about one-third of these powers.
In the recent elections there, the opposition won ninety-five of the one hundred twenty-six seats in parliament.
Kenyans caught up in the election-related conflict reach out for food aid in the Kibera slum in NairobiProfessor Kroenig says that because Kenya’s parliament is so weak, the opposition did not believe a majority would be enough to secure its interests.
Yet it did not win the presidency.
Deadly violence broke out as the opposition protested what it said was a stolen election.
Professor Kroenig says strong legislatures can help prevent civil wars.
The idea is that when many groups compete for power, no single individual or group can take control.
Also, the public in general can create change through the legislative process.
The study leads Matt Kroenig to think that countries with strong legislatures will have higher levels of economic growth.
He also thinks they will be less likely to get involved in international wars.
But more research is needed to confirm these theories.
This report says the Kenyan parliament has 126 seats and that the opposition won 95 of them in recent elections.
In fact, the leading opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, had won 95 out of 126 seats reported at the time.
Final election results showed the ODM with 105 out of 222 seats in parliament (including 210 elected seats).
This week on our program, we bring you some laughs from old-time American radio shows.
Abbott and Costello appeared in theater, movies and television.
As early as nineteen thirty-six, he had a weekly radio audience of about twenty million people.
So says the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.
Like many performers of his time, he started in vaudeville in the early nineteen hundreds.
Vaudeville shows presented all kinds of entertainment.
He began as a juggler, someone who can keep several objects in the air at the same time.
Vaudeville comedy acts usually contained a series of disconnected jokes.
But during the Great Depression, Fred Allen had the idea of creating a series of complete stories and situations.
But some of Fred Allen's funniest programs were about his supposed longtime dispute with another radio star, Jack Benny.
As a young man, Jack Benny played violin in a vaudeville theater in his home state of Illinois.
When the United States entered World War One, he joined the Navy.
He played his violin for other sailors.
But the sailors liked his jokes better than his music.
So Jack Benny decided to become a comedian.
In the early nineteen thirties Jack Benny got his own radio show.
It lasted for twenty-three years.
Listeners loved it when Jack Benny and Fred Allen would say bad things about each other on their shows.
But two comedians could still be friends -- or at least friendly enough to perform together.
In nineteen fifty, on Jack Benny's radio program, they did a skit about an early visit to their talent agent.
They are partners in a vaudeville act that they think is wonderful.
They hope the agent will get them an appearance in a good theater.
A week in Loose Tooth, Arizona.
Three days in Stagnant Water, New Mexico.
Hope entertained people all over the world for seventy years.
His Tuesday night radio show soon became popular.
Bob Hope continued doing radio shows for almost twenty years.
His success in radio led to a long-term relationship with Paramount Pictures, a major film company.
The actors in his movies were also the characters on his radio shows.
For fifty years, Bob Hope entertained members of America's armed forces.
He took his radio show to military bases from the South Pacific to Greenland.
I said, 'Look fellows, here's the kind of clothes you'd be wearing when you get out,' and fifty guys re-enlisted.
I saw some of these fellows shopping for clothes in Hollywood.
As a young performer, he had a song and dance act with partners for a while.
But then he began to perform by himself.
He sang and danced well.
He also kept people laughing with his jokes which he told very fast.
In the nineteen thirties, in New York, he appeared in Broadway shows.
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver.
This week, we tell about vitamins.
Many jobs must be done with two people.
One person takes the lead.
The other helps.
It is this cooperation that brings success.
So it is with the human body.
Much of our good health depends on the cooperation between substances.
When they work together, chemical reactions take place smoothly.
Body systems are kept in balance.
Some of the most important helpers in the job of good health are the substances we call vitamins.
The word “vitamin” dates back to Polish scientist Casimir Funk in nineteen twelve.
He was studying a substance in the hull that covers rice.
This substance was believed to cure a disorder called beriberi.
Funk believed the substance belonged to a group of chemicals known as amines.
So he called the substance a “vitamine” -- an amine necessary for life.
Funk was not able to separate the anti-berberi substance from the rice hulls; it was later shown to be thiamine.
Other studies found that not all vitamines were amines after all.
So the name was shortened to vitamin.
But Funk was correct in recognizing their importance.
Scientists have discovered fourteen kinds of vitamins.
They are known as vitamins A, the B group, C, D, E and K. Scientists say vitamins help to carry out chemical changes within cells.
If we do not get enough of the vitamins we need in our food, we are at risk of developing a number of diseases.
This brings us back to Casimir Funk.
His studies of rice were part of a long search for foods that could cure disease.
One of the first people involved in that search was James Lind of Scotland.
In the seventeen forties, Lind was a doctor for the British navy.
He was investigating a problem that had existed in the navy for many years.
The problem was the disease scurvy.
So many sailors had scurvy that the navy’s fighting strength was very low.
The sailors were weak from bleeding inside their bodies.
Even the smallest wound would not heal.
Doctor Lind thought the sailors were getting sick because they failed to eat some kinds of foods when they were at sea for many months.
Doctor Lind separated twelve sailors who had scurvy into two groups.
He gave each group different foods to eat.
One group got oranges and lemons.
The other did not.
The men who ate the fruit began to improve within seven days.
The other men got weaker.
Doctor Lind was correct.
Eating citrus fruits prevents scurvy.
Other doctors looked for foods to cure the diseases rickets and pellagra.
They did not yet understand that they were seeing the problem from the opposite direction.
That is, it is better to eat vitamin-rich foods to prevent disease instead of eating them to cure a disease after it has developed.
Which foods should be eaten to keep us healthy?
Let us look at some important vitamins for these answers.
Vitamin A helps prevent skin and other tissues from becoming dry.
It is also needed to make a light-sensitive substance in the eyes.
People who do not get enough vitamin A cannot see well in darkness.
They may develop a condition that dries the eyes.
This can result in infections and lead to blindness.
Vitamin A is found in fish liver oil.
It also is in the yellow part of eggs.
Sweet potatoes, carrots and other darkly colored fruits and vegetables contain substances that the body can change into vitamin A. Vitamin B-one is also called thiamine.
Thiamine changes starchy foods into energy.
It also helps the heart and nervous system work smoothly.
Without it, we would be weak and would not grow.
We also might develop beriberi.
Thiamine is found not just in whole grains like brown rice, but also in other foods.
These include beans and peas, nuts, and meat and fish.
Another B-vitamin is niacin.
It helps cells use food energy.
It also prevents pellagra -- a disease that causes weakness, reddish skin and stomach problems.
Niacin is found in meat, fish and green vegetables.
Vitamin B-twelve is needed so folic acid can do its work.
Together, they help produce red blood cells.
Vitamin B-twelve is found naturally in foods such as eggs, meat, fish and milk products.
Folic acid has been shown to prevent physical problems in babies when taken by their mothers during pregnancy.
Vitamin B-twelve is found in green leafy vegetables and other foods, like legumes and citrus fruits.
In some countries, it is added to products like bread.
In two thousand three, Japanese researchers identified a new member of the B-vitamin group.
It is a substance known as pyrroloquinoline quinone, or PQQ.
The researchers found that PQQ is important in the reproductive and defense systems of mice.
They said the substance is similarly important for people.
is found in fermented soybeans and also in parsley, green tea, green peppers and kiwi fruit.
Vitamin C is needed for strong bones and teeth, and for healthy blood passages.
It also helps wounds heal quickly.
The body stores little vitamin C. So we must get it every day in foods such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and uncooked cabbage.
Vitamin D increases levels of the element calcium in the blood.
Calcium is needed for nerve and muscle cells to work normally.
It also is needed to build strong bones.
Vitamin D prevents the children’s bone disease rickets.
Ultraviolet light from the sun changes a substance in the skin into vitamin D. Fish liver oil also contains vitamin D. In some countries, milk producers add vitamin D to milk so children will get enough.
Vitamin K is needed for healthy blood.
It thickens the blood around a cut to stop bleeding.
Bacteria in the intestines normally produce vitamin K. It can also be found in pork products, liver and in vegetables like cabbage, kale and spinach.
Some people fear they do not get enough vitamins from the foods they eat.
So they take products with large amounts of vitamins.
They think these products, or vitamin supplements, will improve their health and protect against disease.
In two thousand six, medical experts gathered near Washington, D.C., to discuss the latest research on vitamin supplements.
The experts found little evidence that most supplements do anything to protect or improve health.
But they noted that some do help to prevent disease.
The experts said women who wish to become mothers should take folic acid to prevent problems in their babies.
And, they said vitamin D supplements and calcium can protect the bones of older women.
The medical experts agreed with doctors who say that people who know they lack a vitamin should take vitamin supplements.
Some older adults, for example, may not have enough vitamin B-twelve.
That is because, as people get older, the body loses its ability to take it from foods.
The experts also noted that taking too much of some vitamins can be harmful.
They said people should be sure to discuss what vitamins they take with their doctors.
This is because some vitamins can cause harmful effects when mixed with medicines.
Researchers in Denmark reported last year that people who take antioxidant vitamin supplements may be harming themselves.
Antioxidants balance the effects of free radicals by preventing them from forming.
Free radicals are cell-damaging molecules.
They are produced in the body when too much oxygen is present.
The researchers examined the results of sixty-eight studies.
They found that those taking vitamin A, vitamin E or beta carotene supplements had an increased risk of dying an at early age.
They also found that vitamin C supplements did little to harm or improve a person’s health.
Vitamins are important to our health.
Different vitamins are found in different foods -- grains, vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, eggs and milk products.
And even foods that contain the same vitamins may have them in different amounts.
Experts say this is why it is important to eat a mixture of foods every day, to get enough of the vitamins our bodies need.
Grasslands need time to rest when cattle and other animals feed on them.
Moving animals from one area of pasture to another can provide the time needed for new growth.
This is called rotational grazing, and we have a question from listener Zhang Guohui in China about how it works.
Experts say rotational grazing is good for the land and the animals, and it can save money.
This form of grazing can reduce the need for pesticide chemicals by reducing the growth of weeds.
And it can limit the need for chemical fertilizers by letting natural fertilizer, animal droppings, do the job.
Rotational grazing can even help prevent wildfires by keeping grasslands in good condition.
Letting animals feed continually and intensively in the same grazing areas can require costly replanting.
Animals eat the most desirable growth first.
When that keeps happening, the roots do not have enough time to recover.
As a result, less desirable plants may replace them.
Intensively used grasslands are also harmed as the soil is continually crushed under the weight of heavy animals.
And the animals usually avoid their own waste, so that reduces the amount of good grazing space even more.
Experts say that while rotational grazing can save money over time, it also requires planning.
And that starts with a good map to mark fences, water supplies and grazing areas.
Changing methods of grazing also requires time.
Farmers may want to put up electric fences to enclose grazing areas, called paddocks.
The paddocks will need water.
Some farmers design a path for animals from different paddocks to drink from a common watering place.
Farmers can start rotational grazing by removing animals from a pasture when the grass is eaten to less than five centimeters.
The pasture is then kept empty until the grass grows to more than fifteen centimeters high.
Experts say sheep and goats may require special preparations.
They may need stronger fences than other animals.
And while they eat the grass, they may need guard animals like llamas to protect them from animals that would like to eat them.
And if you have a question, we might be able to answer it on our program.
Today, we finish our series of programs about the Wonders of the World.
In earlier programs, we told about ancient structures and beautiful natural places.
Today we tell about modern structures that are Wonders of the World.
Any list of modern wonders should include some of the buildings in the great cities of the world.
An example in New York City is the Empire State Building.
For many years, it was the tallest building in the world.
Today, the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are taller.
These buildings are important to any list.
However, the modern wonders we have selected have changed history.
They are important because they made life safer or easier or were useful to a great number of people.
We begin with two similar structures in two very different parts of the world.
More than three thousand years ago, an ancient king of Egypt ordered that a river be built to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
This kind of man-made river is called a canal.
Ancient evidence shows the work was done and a canal was built.
Experts believe it was possible for small boats of that time to travel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
Some evidence shows the Nile River may have been used for part of the canal.
However, the ancient people of Egypt did not keep this canal in use.
As years passed, the sands of the great deserts of Egypt closed the small canal.
As the centuries passed, many people thought it would be a good idea to rebuild the canal.
The problem was the huge cost.
But the cost could not be compared to the cost of a ship that had to sail from ports on the Atlantic Ocean to ports in Asia.
Ships had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, the most southern part of the continent of Africa.
A French engineer planned and directed the modern canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
His name was Ferdinand de Lesseps.
Egyptian workers began building the canal in eighteen fifty-nine.
It was opened and named the Suez Canal during a ceremony on November seventeenth, eighteen sixty-nine.
The Suez Canal is about one hundred sixty-three kilometers long and about sixty meters wide.
The Suez Canal has been closed several times because of war or political problems.
Today, the Suez Canal is still important.
Ships pay money to use the canal.
That money is important to the economy of Egypt.
The canal saves shipping companies a great deal of time and money because it is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
Our next Modern Wonder of the World is also a canal -- the Panama Canal.
It connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.
Before it was built, ships often had to spend several weeks traveling around Cape Horn at the end of South America.
Many ships were lost in great storms in that dangerous area.
Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa and his men were the first Europeans to travel through the thick jungles in Panama from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast.
That was in fifteen thirteen.
Panama quickly became a major shipping area for the Spanish.
Their ships from the colonies in the Western Hemisphere and from Asia brought treasure to the Pacific Coast.
The treasure was taken overland to the city of Portobelo on the Atlantic Side.
The idea of building a way to connect the two great oceans began with the Spanish explorers.
They saw the need for a canal to speed up delivery of their cargo.
However, it was impossible to build.
The machines needed to build something as big as a canal did not exist.
In eighteen seventy-nine, a French Company tried to build a canal across Panama.
It failed.
The company did not have enough money to complete the project.
Also, thousands of men working on the project died of the disease Yellow Fever.
In nineteen hundred, an American army doctor, Walter Reed, and his research team discovered that mosquito insects carried the virus that caused Yellow Fever.
They worked on methods to destroy the mosquito population.
This development helped make possible an American effort to build the Panama Canal.
Panama and the United States signed treaties in nineteen-oh-three and work began on the canal.
More than eighty thousand men worked on the huge effort.
They made a canal about eighty kilometers long from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
On August fifteenth, nineteen fourteen, the ship S.S. Ancon became the first ship to sail through the new canal.
Today, about thirteen thousand ships pass through the canal each year.
That number represents about five percent of the world’s trade.
Both the Suez and the Panama Canals are truly modern Wonders of the World.
Both make it possible to safely move from one great ocean to another.
And, both save huge amounts of time and money.
The two great canals we have discussed connect oceans.
Our next great Wonder of the World connects land.
This connecting device is called the Channel Tunnel, or “Chunnel.”
It connects the island that is Britain with France.
It was one of the largest and most difficult construction projects ever attempted.
It is a three-tunnel railroad from Calais, France to Folkestone, England.
The tunnels are fifty kilometers long.
They were built about forty-five meters below the earth under the English Channel.
Two of the tunnels carry trains and one is used for repair work and emergencies.
The idea of a tunnel connecting Britain with other nations of Europe was first proposed to the French Emperor Napoleon in the early eighteen hundreds.
However it was never a serious idea.
The technology to make such a tunnel did not exist.
But people dreamed of such a tunnel.
Crossing the English Channel by ship was often a terrible trip because of storms.
Three serious attempts were made to build the tunnel.
The first two failed.
Political differences between France and Britain stopped the first attempt.
Financial problems stopped the second.
The third and successful attempt to build the Chunnel began in nineteen eighty-seven after France and Britain signed an agreement.
It took seven years to finish the work.
To complete the tunnels, construction workers had to move more than seventeen million tons of earth.
The cost was more than thirteen thousand million dollars.
The Chunnel opened in nineteen ninety-four.
Today, the Chunnel is very busy.
High-speed trains carry cars, trucks and passengers from Britain to France and back again.
The trains are famous for their smooth, quiet ride.
The money paid for the trip is slowly paying for the huge cost.
Our last modern Wonder of the World has not yet been completed.
It is perhaps the largest construction project ever attempted.
It is the Three Gorges Dam Project in China’s Hubei Province.
Some experts say it is the largest attempted construction project since the ancient Chinese built the Great Wall of China.
The Three Gorges Dam is being built to produce power and control China’s Yangtze River.
The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world.
It is famous for the terrible floods it has caused.
Some reports say more than one million people have been killed in Yangtze floods in the past one hundred years.
The Three Gorges Dam will not be finished until two thousand nine.
Work began in nineteen ninety-three.
About two hundred fifty thousand workers are involved in the project.
Experts say the huge dam will cost about twenty-five thousand million dollars.
When finished it will be about one hundred eighty-one meters high.
The dam will create a huge lake about six hundred thirty-two square kilometers.
Some critics say the dam will harm the environment and damage historical areas.
More than one million people will have to be resettled before the dam is finished.
The completed dam will produce large amounts of electric power.
Chinese government officials say it will lead to increased economic development in cities near the dam.
And China says the terrible floods caused by the Yangtze will be memories of the past.
This program was written by Paul Thompson.
It was produced by Mario Ritter.
The single largest killer of children under age five is pneumonia.
This lung infection kills about two million children each year, mostly in developing countries.
A boy with pneumonia at a camp for earthquake survivors in Pakistani Kashmir in December 2005In developed countries, most pneumonia cases are caused by viruses.
But in the developing world, about sixty percent are caused by bacteria.
These cases can be treated with antibiotic drugs.
The World Health Organization currently says children with severe pneumonia should be admitted to a hospital and given injectable antibiotics.
But many poor families do not have the money for a hospital or live too far away.
Now, new research could lead to a change in that advice.
A study in Pakistan found that children with severe pneumonia can recover fully at home taking antibiotics by mouth.
The study is in the Lancet medical journal.
The W.H.O. and the United States Agency for International Development paid for the study.
It was done in five Pakistani cities by the School of Public Health at Boston University.
The research involved more than two thousand children between three and five years old.
Half received intravenous antibiotics during a forty-eight-hour hospital stay.
The others were sent home to take antibiotics for five days.
The treatment failed in eighty-seven children in the hospitalized group and seventy-seven in the home group.
These children were then given another therapy.
During the study, five children died, four of them in the hospital group.
W.H.O. medical officer Shamim Qazi says the new findings will help children, families and hospitals.
Children may get other infections in a hospital.
Many hospitals are already overcrowded.
And treatment at home would be less costly.
The study confirmed the findings of three other studies in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
These showed that in hospitals, oral antibiotics were just as effective as injectable antibiotics in treating severe pneumonia in children.
A few cases are so severe they will still need hospital care.
But Doctor Qazi says the W.H.O will be updating its guidelines this year with the new evidence.
Boston University professor Donald Thea led the research in Pakistan.
Doctor Thea says a change could lead to new training for community health workers.
If they learn how to treat severe pneumonia in young children locally, then more children are likely to survive.
This week in our series, we begin the story of a document that defined a nation: the United States Constitution.
The thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six.
But they had to win their independence in a long war that followed.
During that war, the colonies were united by an agreement called the Articles of Confederation.
The Union was a loose one.
The Articles of Confederation did not organize a central government.
They did not create courts or decide laws.
They did not provide an executive to carry out the laws.
All the Articles of Confederation did was to create a Congress.
But it was a Congress with little power.
It could only advise the separate thirteen states and ask them to do some things.
It could not pass laws for the Union of states.
The weakness of this system became clear soon after the war for independence ended.
British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in seventeen eighty-one.
A messenger brought the Congress news of the victory.
The Congress had no money.
It could not even pay the messenger.
So money had to be collected from each member of the Congress.
Even before the war ended, three men called for a change in the loose confederation of states.
They urged formation of a strong central government.
Those three men were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.
George Washington commanded America's troops during the revolution.
He opposed the Articles of Confederation because they provided little support for his army.
His soldiers often had no clothes or shoes or food.
They had no medicines or blankets or bullets.
During the war, Washington wrote many angry letters about the military situation.
The thirteen separate states refused to listen when he told them the war was a war of all the states.
He learned they were more interested in themselves than in what his soldiers needed.
After the war, there was much social, political, and economic disorder.
General Washington saw once again that there was no hope for the United States under the Articles of Confederation.
He was a young lawyer and an assistant to General Washington during the revolution.
Even before the war ended, Hamilton called for a convention of the thirteen states to create a central government.
He expressed his opinion in letters, speeches, and newspaper stories.
Finally, there was James Madison.
He saw the picture clearly.
It was an unhappy picture.
There were thirteen governments.
And each tried to help itself at the cost of the others.
Nine states had their own navy.
Each had its own army.
The states used these forces to protect themselves from each other.
For example, the state of Virginia passed a law which said it could seize ships that did not pay taxes to the state.
Virginia did not mean ships from England and Spain.
It meant ships from Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
James Madison often said most of the new nation's political problems grew out of such commercial problems.
In the seventeen eighties, many people in America and Europe believed the United States was on the road to anarchy.
One sign was the money system.
There was no national money.
Many Americans thought of money as the pounds and shillings of the British system.
There was an American dollar.
But it did not have the same value everywhere.
In New York, the dollar was worth eight shillings.
In South Carolina, it was worth more than thirty-two shillings.
This situation was bad enough.
Yet there also were all kinds of other coins used as money: French crowns, Spanish doubloons, European ducats.
In seventeen eighty-six, representatives from Maryland and Virginia met to discuss opening land for new settlements along the Potomac River.
The Potomac formed the border between those two states.
Someone else said all the states should be invited.
Then they could discuss all the problems that were giving the new nation so much trouble.
The idea was accepted.
And a convention was set for Annapolis, Maryland.
The convention opened as planned.
It was not much of a meeting.
Representatives came from only five states.
Four other states had chosen representatives, but they did not come.
The remaining four states did not even choose representatives.
The men who did meet at Annapolis, however, agreed it was a beginning.
They agreed, too, that a larger convention should be called.
They appointed the representative from New York, Alexander Hamilton, to put the agreement in writing.
So Hamilton sent a message to the legislature of each state.
He called for a convention in Philadelphia in May of the next year, seventeen eighty-seven.
The purpose of the convention, he said, would be to write a constitution for the United States.
Detail of a painting by Junius Brutus Stearns of George Washington in Virginia where he livedMany people believed the convention would not succeed without George Washington.
But General Washington did not want to go.
He suffered from rheumatism.
His mother and sister were sick.
He needed to take care of business at his farm, Mount Vernon.
And he already said he was not interested in public office.
How would it look if -- as expected -- he was elected president of the convention George Washington was the most famous man in America.
Suppose only a few states sent representatives to the convention?
Suppose it failed?
Would he look foolish?
Two close friends -- James Madison and Edmund Randolph -- urged General Washington to go to Philadelphia.
He trusted them.
So he said he would go as one of the representatives of Virginia.
From that moment, it was clear the convention would be an important event.
If George Washington would be there, it had to be important.
The first man to arrive in Philadelphia for the convention was James Madison.
Madison was thirty-five years old.
He was short and was losing his hair.
He was not a good speaker.
But he always knew what he wanted to say.
He had read everything that had been published in English about governments, from the governments of ancient Greece to those of his own time.
James Madison wrote this letter to George Washington on the night before the Philadelphia Convention.
It describes measures that should be taken to rescue the nation from its difficulties.
Madison believed the United States needed a strong central government.
He believed the governments of the thirteen states should be second to the central government.
Madison knew he should not push his ideas too quickly, however.
Many representatives at the convention were afraid of a strong central government.
They did not trust central governments with too much power.
So Madison planned his work quietly.
He came to the convention with hundreds of books and papers.
He was prepared to answer any question about government that any other representative might ask him.
That will be our story next week.
Our program was narrated by Richard Rael and Doug Johnson.
An endowment is money from donations and investments.
Colleges use endowment money for student aid and campus improvements, and for financial security.
But college costs in the United States have been rising faster than inflation.
Graduates often face years of debt from student loans.
Yet more than sixty colleges and universities, half of them public, have endowments worth at least one billion dollars.
Critics say schools with a lot of money should be sharing more of their wealth to ease the struggle for families.
As we reported last week, some now plan to do just that.
These include Harvard and Yale.
They will also give money to families that earn much more than those that now receive aid.
Harvard has by far the largest endowment of any American university, thirty-five billion, followed by Yale at twenty-two and a half billion.
Yet some educational activists worry what might happen as less-endowed colleges try to compete with these changes.
They say the pressure to help upper middle-class families might mean less aid for poor students.
Colleges and their endowments are excused from taxes.
Other tax-exempt groups are required to spend at least five percent of their endowments each year.
Some people, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, think it is reasonable to consider such a requirement for colleges.
The senator praised Harvard and Yale for their plans and said he hopes others will follow.
Senator Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which deals with tax policy.
Last September, at his urging, the committee questioned experts about this issue.
One was Lynn Munson of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.
She says universities pay out only about four percent of their endowments, yet their investments earn much more than that.
A study found that endowments of more than one billion dollars earned an average return of fifteen percent in two thousand six.
The average for all endowments was just under eleven percent.
But some experts say most endowment money has to remain invested so schools are not hurt when markets fall.
Also, universities point out that donors often restrict the uses for their donations.
Still, Lynn Munson said forty-five percent of endowment money at private schools is unrestricted, and twenty percent at public colleges.
It's called 'University Challenge,' and there was a question along the lines of 'What tropical fish was named after a West Indian clergyman?' And nobody on the show knew -- and nor did I, come to that.
He was a Belgian musical instrument maker in the nineteenth century.
Cut to nineteen fifty-seven, when the Wham-O toy company of California, working with a couple of inventors, were just about to market this new plastic flying disc -- which at the time was called the Pluto Platter.
And they did a market research trip up in New England and they heard this word being used.
People would say, 'Oh, I remember, that's like the Frisbie.' And they thought that's a great name for the product.
In fact, Joseph P. Frisbie's name ended i-e and they changed it to double-e, which kind of suits the product better.
His son now lives just outside London.
And Roy is from a great Italian family who came over from just north of Venice, through Ellis Island, in the nineteen hundreds.
Each year, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King's life and work on the Monday closest to his birthday.
That is January twenty-first this year.
Schools and government offices are closed.
Cities and towns hold special ceremonies to honor him.
Martin Luther King Junior was born on January fifteenth, nineteen twenty-nine in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia.
His father was a minister of a Christian Baptist Church.
At that time, laws in the American South separated black people and white people.
African-Americans attended separate schools and lived in separate areas.
They did not have the same civil rights as white people.
Martin attended Morehouse College in Atlanta.
He studied the ideas of India’s spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi.
He also studied the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau.
Both Gandhi and Thoreau urged people to disobey unjust laws without using violence.
Martin Luther King wanted to spread these ideas about peaceful protest.
He became a Baptist minister like his father.
He married Coretta Scott in nineteen fifty-three.
They had four children -- Yolanda, Martin Luther the third, Dexter and Bernice.
The Kings were living in Montgomery, Alabama, in nineteen fifty-five.
A black woman refused to leave a seat on a bus that was saved for white people.
Rosa Parks was arrested.
Reverend King organized a peaceful protest against the bus system.
The United States Supreme Court later ruled it was illegal to separate the races on buses.
Groups formed to protest racial separation.
Martin Luther King became the leader of the struggle.
He led many peaceful demonstrations across the country.
Reverend King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four.
He was shot and killed four years later while visiting Memphis, Tennessee.
Coretta Scott King started the King Center in Atlanta in nineteen sixty-eight to continue his work.
She died in two thousand six.
You can learn more about the life and work of Martin Luther King Junior.
Critics say Bob Dylan's songs are so rich and complex that they welcome new versions by other artists.
One of the actors is Cate Blanchett, an Australian woman.
She portrays a rebellious musician during the nineteen sixties.
The real Woody Guthrie was a strong influence on Dylan when he began performing folk songs in the early nineteen sixties.
However, some of the versions of Dylan in the movie are not musicians.
One character is a poet.
One is a movie star.
One is a religious preacher.
And one is a citizen of a town in America's Old West long ago.
The movie is sometimes confusing.
But the music on the CD is always entertaining.
He recorded it with The Band in nineteen sixty-seven, but it had never before been released.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach.
Caty Weaver was our producer.
Please include your full name and mailing address.
Competition often means waiting for people to make a choice.
That was the case with VCRs, video cassette recorders.
During the nineteen eighties, people had two choices: VHS and Betamax.
The VHS format won the competition.
Betamax disappeared from all but professional use.
More recently, the VHS, or video home system, format has been disappearing as people choose DVD players.
High definition redefines the VHS-Betamax fightBut now the two newest kinds of DVD players are in competition.
These produce bigger, sharper pictures.
They work best when showing movies or TV programs made in true high definition.
But high def takes up more memory, so a new kind of DVD, digital video or versatile disc, was needed.
Both use a blue laser to read the information on the disc.
But HD DVDs cost less to produce.
They can be made with existing equipment, while Blu-ray DVDs cannot.
But a Blu-ray disc holds more memory: about fifty gigabytes compared to thirty gigabytes for an HD DVD.
Two major Hollywood studios, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, have agreed to release movie only in HD DVD.
The Toshiba company is the main supplier of the players.
Sony, on the other hand, supports the Blu-ray format, as do the movie makers at Walt Disney, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM.
Then earlier this month, Hollywood's biggest seller of DVDs announced its choice in the fight between Blu-ray and HD DVD.
Warner Brothers will support only Blu-ray starting in June.
The company says having two kinds of high definition DVDs on the market has led to confusion with the buying public.
So far, sales of the new high-definition disc players have been slow.
An estimated one million players of both kinds have been sold.
Some of its players are now under two hundred dollars.
But many people think Blu-ray has won the competition with HD DVD.
Time will tell.
For those who cannot make up their minds, there are some players that can play both.
It was his most extensive travel there in his seven years as president, with one year left in office.
President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah during an arrival ceremony at the international airport near RiyadhThe trip included stops in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
It began with the first visit of his presidency to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Mister Bush urged greater progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Throughout the trip, he expressed concern about Iran's nuclear plans.
He also called for more democratic reforms in the Middle East.
After meeting with King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, the president voiced concerns about the effects of high oil prices on the American economy.
He called on OPEC to put more oil on the world market.
But the Saudi oil minister said his country would increase production only if market conditions provide a reason.
As the president visited Saudi Arabia, his administration officially informed Congress of a planned weapons sale to that country.
The offer involves one hundred twenty million dollars worth of technology for nine hundred satellite-guided bombs.
Some American lawmakers have questioned the sale but Congress appears unlikely to block it.
The offer is part of a plan announced last year that could lead to twenty billion dollars in sales of weapons to Persian Gulf countries.
The president did not visit Iraq, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit on Tuesday.
She praised the Iraqi government for agreeing to permit members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to reclaim government jobs.
This is one of several steps that the Bush administration has been urging the Iraqi government to take.
The aim is to ease tensions between minority Sunnis and majority Shiite Muslims in Iraq.
The top American military commander in Iraq recently reported a sixty percent drop in attacks in that country since June.
General David Petraeus warned that economic improvement must follow, or the violence could get worse again.
President Bush says the drop in violence should make it possible to withdraw twenty thousand troops by the middle of this year.
But as some American troops return from Iraq, others are getting ready for Afghanistan.
Mister Bush this week approved the deployment of more than three thousand Marines to Afghanistan.
They will bring the number of American troops there to about thirty thousand.
The added forces will join the NATO-led security operation in southern Afghanistan.
They will also help train the Afghan army and police.
Opposition to the war in Iraq influenced congressional elections in two thousand six.
But in this presidential election year, studies show Americans growing more concerned about the economy than the war.
On Friday, President Bush called on Congress to approve a one hundred forty-five billion dollar economic growth plan as soon as possible.
Today, Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal begin the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior.
It all started on a bus.
A black woman was returning home from work after a long hard day.
She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt.
But the bus belonged to the city of Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama.
And the year was nineteen fifty-five.
In those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus.
So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat.
But the woman refused, and she was arrested.
Incidents like this had happened before.
But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks.
This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest.
He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed.
The name of the young preacher was Martin Luther King.
He led the protest movement to end injustice in the Montgomery city bus system.
The protest became known as the Montgomery bus boycott.
The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States.
This is the story of Martin Luther King, and his part in the early days of the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine.
He was born into a religious family.
Martin's father was a preacher at a Baptist church.
And his mother came from a family with strong ties to the Baptist religion.
In nineteen twenty-nine, Atlanta was one of the wealthiest cities in the southern part of the United States.
Many black families came to the city in search of a better life.
There was less racial tension between blacks and whites in Atlanta than in other southern cities.
But Atlanta still had laws designed to keep black people separate from whites.
The laws of racial separation existed all over the southern part of the United States.
They forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of a city.
Blacks did not have the same rights as white people, and were often poorer and less educated.
Martin Luther King did not know about racial separation when he was young.
But as he grew older, he soon saw that blacks were not treated equally.
One day Martin and his father went out to buy shoes.
They entered a shoe store owned by a white businessman.
The businessman sold shoes to all people.
But he had a rule that blacks could not buy shoes in the front part of the store.
He ordered Martin's father to obey the rule.
Instead, he led the life of a normal boy.
Martin liked to learn, and he passed through school very quickly.
He was only fifteen when he was ready to enter the university.
The university, called Morehouse College, was in Atlanta.
Morehouse College was one of the few universities in the South where black students could study.
It was at the university that Martin decided to become a preacher.
At the same time, he also discovered he had a gift for public speaking.
He soon was able to test his gifts.
One Sunday, Martin's father asked him to preach at his church.
When Martin arrived, the church members were surprised to see such a young man getting ready to speak to them.
But they were more surprised to find themselves deeply moved by the words of young Martin Luther King.
Martin also studied the books of the American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau.
Both men wrote about ways to fight injustice.
Gandhi had led his people to freedom by peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws.
He taught his followers never to use violence.
Thoreau also urged people to disobey laws that were not just, and to be willing to go to prison for their beliefs.
As he studied, Martin thought he had found the answer for his people.
The ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau -- non-violence and civil disobedience -- could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans.
Martin knew, then, that his decision to become a preacher was right.
He believed that as a preacher he could spread the ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau.
When he was twenty-two, he moved north to study in Boston.
It was in Boston that Martin met Coretta Scott, the woman who later became his wife.
Martin always had been very popular with the girls in his hometown.
But Martin felt Coretta Scott was different.
But she felt that Martin was serious and honest.
A short time later, they were married.
Martin soon finished his studies in Boston, and received a doctorate degree in religion.
The young preacher then was offered a job at a church in Montgomery, Alabama.
Martin Luther King and his wife were happy in Montgomery.
Their first child was born.
Martin's work at the church was going well.
He became involved in a number of activities to help the poor.
And the members of his church spoke highly of their new preacher.
Coretta remembered their life as simple and without worries.
Then, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a Montgomery city bus.
And Martin Luther King organized a protest against the Montgomery bus system.
Martin believed it was very important for the bus boycott to succeed -- more important even than his own life.
But he worried about his ability to lead such an important campaign.
He was only twenty-six years old.
He prayed to God for help and believed that God answered his prayers.
Martin knew that his actions and his speeches would be important for the civil rights movement.
But he was faced with a serious problem.
Today, we tell about more interesting nicknames of American states.
The mid-Atlantic state of Maryland is called the Free State.
A Baltimore newspaper first called it that during the nineteen twenties when the manufacture and sale of alcohol were banned for a time.
Maryland said it wanted to be free from this prohibition.
Mississippi is The Magnolia State.
The midwestern state of Missouri is called The Show Me State.
The people of that frontier state were once famous for not believing everything people told them.
If you visit the western mountain and plains state of Montana you will know why it is known as Big Sky Country.
Nebraska is the only state to have a nickname that honors sports teams!
The state university's athletic teams are nicknamed Cornhuskers in recognition of one of the area's chief crops.
The state borrowed the Cornhusker nickname from the university.
The western desert state of Nevada is called The Silver State.
It was once home to many silver mines and towns that grew up around them.
Today, most of them are empty “ghost towns.”
New Hampshire, in the northeast area called New England, is The Granite State because of that colorful rock.
New Jersey is between the big cities of New York, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It got its nickname, The Garden State, because New Jersey truck farms once provided vegetables to those big cities.
New York, which always thinks big, was called The Empire State because of its natural wealth.
The most famous Manhattan skyscraper got its name from the state.
It is, of course, the Empire State Building.
If you get a chance to see a red sunset over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico, you will know why that southwestern state is called The Land of Enchantment.
North and South Carolina were one colony until seventeen twenty-nine.
South Carolina's nickname is the easier of the two: It is The Palmetto State because of a fan-leafed palm tree that grows there.
North Carolina is the Tar Heel State.
That is because many of the men who worked to gather substances from trees wore no shoes.
They would make turpentine from tar and get the black, sticky tar on the heels of their feet.
Next week, we will finish telling about the colorful nicknames of American states.
Farmers use different kinds of soil conservation methods to protect their land against damage from farming and the forces of nature.
One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks.
Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves.
Farmers plant them in lines around their fields.
Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away.
They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops.
They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat.
There have been studies done on windbreaks.
Studies in parts of West Africa, for example, found that grain harvests can be twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks.
This was compared to fields without such protection.
Windbreaks can help protect a farmer's land.
However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through.
If the wall of trees and plants blocks the wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground.
These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away.
For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty percent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line.
An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak.
There should be at least two lines in each windbreak.
One line should be large trees.
The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves.
Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks.
Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind.
They can also provide wood products.
These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences.
You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group EnterpriseWorks/VITA. Its address on the Web is enterpriseworks.org.
We cannot answer questions personally but we might be able to answer your question on the air.
This week on our program, we tell about a list of American movies that recently received special recognition.
For the past fifteen years, the Library of Congress has chosen twenty-five movies to be part of its collection called the National Film Registry.
The aim of this project is to makes sure these movies are stored in a way that protects them.
This way, future generations will be able to see these important examples of American popular culture.
Dr. Otternschlag: “What do you do in the Grand Hotel? Eat, sleep, loaf around.
Flirt a little, dance a little.
A hundred doors leading to one hall.
No one knows anything about the person next to them.
When you leave, someone occupies your room, lies in your bed.
That’s the end.”
That was a scene from the nineteen thirty-two movie “Grand Hotel” starring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore.
This famous movie tells about the interactions between a group of people staying at a costly hotel in Berlin, Germany.
It is a story about love, murder and money.
“Grand Hotel” is one of the movies that the Library of Congress picked this year for its registry.
You might be wondering why movies need to be protected.
It is because the film on which these movies are recorded becomes damaged over time.
Older movies that were shown in theaters before nineteen fifty-one were recorded on nitrate-based film stock.
This kind of film becomes sticky, then falls apart over time even in the best storage conditions.
As the nitrate-based film falls apart, it also releases a gas that can lead to fires.
The American Film Institute estimates that there are currently about thirty two million meters of nitrate film stored in the United States.
The AFI says it would take about fifteen years to copy these movies onto safer acetate film stock.
Modern acetate film stock will not catch on fire.
And, experts say this kind of film can last for up to three hundred years if it is stored in good conditions.
But even acetate stock has its problems.
Some acetate film can develop what is known as the “vinegar syndrome.”
As the film starts to fall apart, it releases a sharp smell like vinegar.
The fact that film is not a permanent storage device for movies helps show why efforts to protect movies are so important.
The issue has also received attention from American lawmakers.
Congress passed the National Film Preservation Act in nineteen eighty-eight.
The law called for the creation of a group called the National Film Preservation Board.
Since nineteen ninety-nine, this group, along with the public and the Library of Congress’ Motion Picture Division, nominates hundreds of movies every year for the National Film Registry.
The Board and the Librarian of Congress make the final decisions on choosing twenty-five movies each year.
They choose movies that they consider either culturally or historically important.
They also choose movies that are artistically interesting.
The movies must be at least ten years old.
But, they do not have to have been released in movie theaters to be considered for the registry.
The selection made last month brings the total number of movies in the collection to four hundred seventy-five.
Once a movie is chosen for the registry, the Library of Congress works to make sure the film is safely stored.
The Library has its own preservation program.
It also works with other organizations as well as movie production studios to protect these movies.
In July of last year, the Library of Congress opened the Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.
The Packard Humanities Institute paid for the Center with money from its chairman, David Woodley Packard.
The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center is in Culpeper, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.
The building was made in nineteen sixty-nine by the United States Federal Reserve to be an emergency shelter for supplies.
In nineteen ninety-nine, Mister Packard bought the property.
He spent one hundred fifty million dollars to turn this large building into a film preservation center.
Then he gave the Center to the United States.
It represents the largest gift the legislative branch of the American government has ever received.
The Center’s aim is to house and protect American recording and movie history.
So far, the collection includes over six million sound and movie recordings.
The Center has some of the most advanced technology in the world for storing these recordings.
For example, there is a robot that can work twenty-four hours a day to turn videocassette recordings into digital form.
With all old recordings turned into digital form, researchers at the Library of Congress will be able to see these valuable pieces of history.
The Center also has over one hundred cold storage areas in which to keep its collection of nitrate films as safe as possible.
And, the Center plans to offer educational programs to the public.
These will include a series of free movie showings in the Center’s theater.
This year’s National Film Registry includes movies from different periods about very different subjects.
One movie, “The Strong Man,” was made as early as nineteen twenty-six.
The most recent movie is “Dances With Wolves”, made in nineteen ninety.
Some movies are about animals, like Walt Disney’s nineteen thirty-three cartoon, “Three Little Pigs.”
While the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” explores the existence of creatures from space arriving on Earth.
Some movies are funny, while others, like “The Naked City” are very serious.
“Well, let’s begin our story this way.
It’s one o’clock in the morning on a hot summer night.
And, this is the face of New York when it’s asleep.
Or, as nearly asleep as any city ever is.” “The Naked City” is a crime movie made in nineteen forty-eight.
It tells about a group of policemen investigating a murder in New York City.
The movie was based on the real stories told by New York policemen and was filmed in that city.
When the movie first was released, the very realistic method of film-making was new and interesting.
The movie called “The Women” came out in nineteen thirty-nine.
This sharply funny movie is based on a Broadway play written by Clare Booth Luce.
Some of the most important actresses in Hollywood came together to make this movie.
The main character, Mary, is played by Norma Shearer.
Mary must face some serious questions when she discovers her husband is having a love affair with another woman, Crystal, played by Joan Crawford.
Here is a scene where the two women meet accidentally:  Crystal?
I’m taking my marching orders from Stephen.
He seems to be satisfied with this arrangement, so don’t force any issues unless you want to cause plenty of trouble.
Mary: You’ve made it impossible for me to do anything else.
Crystal: You’re very confident, aren’t you.
Mary: Yes, because I know Stephen couldn’t love a girl like you.
Crystal: Well, if he couldn’t, he is an awfully good actor.
Look, what have you got to kick about?
You’ve got everything that matters.
You’ve got the name, the position, the money.
One well-known movie on the list is “Back to the Future”, which came out in nineteen eighty-five.
Michael J. Fox plays the role of Marty McFly, who accidentally travels back to the year nineteen fifty-five in a time machine.
He meets his mother and father when they were still high school students.
Marty must learn how to get back to his own time period.
And, he has to make sure his parents meet and fall in love so that he can still exist in the future.
Another favorite on the list is the nineteen fifty-five movie version of the Broadway musical play “Oklahoma!”
It is a love story about a cowboy named Curly and the girl he loves, Laurey.
On our program this week, we will tell about a study of medications that do not contain any real drugs.
We will tell about a reported link between the September eleventh terrorist attacks and heart problems in some Americans.
And, we explain how happiness may be good for your health.
Can thinking that you are receiving medication improve your health??
A new study shows doctors in the United States ordered placebo treatments more commonly than patients were told.
Placebos look like medicines, but contain no real drugs.
They also have no proven effect on health.
The study found that many of the doctors believed in what is called the mind-body connection.
In other words, your body will react to the way you act, think and feel.
Results of the study were published this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Sometimes just the expectation of getting better can help in reducing pain or improving health.
This widely known theory is called the placebo effect.
It suggests a healing power in medicines that are not real.
Commonly used placebos include vitamins or small amounts of medicine.
Placebos are often used in medical research to compare the effects of real drugs on patients with those taking placebos.
Often, the patients taking placebos show some improvement.
But how often do patients not involved in medical studies receive placebos from their doctor?
Researchers at the University of Chicago asked more than four hundred doctors if they have ever given a placebo to a patient.
All those asked work in the Chicago, Illinois area.
Almost half of the two hundred thirty-one doctors who answered said they had used placebos with patients at some time.
Of those who had ordered placebos for patients, more than half had done so within the past year.
The doctors gave several reasons for their use of placebos.
Some said they used them to help calm a patient, or in answer to demands for medicine that the doctor felt was not needed.
Others said they had ordered placebos for their patients after all other treatments had failed.
Ninety-six percent of the doctors who answered said they believed that placebos could have helpful effects.
But twelve percent said they believe the use of placebos should be banned in traditional medical care.
Many feel giving a patient a placebo is like lying to them.
It is a commonly accepted ethical belief that patients have a right to know and understand the medical treatment they are receiving.
Among the doctors who used placebos, one in five said they lied to patients and told them a placebo was medication.
More often, doctors used creative ways to explain the treatment being used.
About one third of doctors who used placebos described them to patients as something that may help, but would not harm them.
Four percent of the doctors said they inform their patients when they are receiving placebos.
The American Medical Association says a doctor should only use a placebo if the patient is told, and agrees to it.
Medical student Rachel Sherman helped to organize the study.
She says a simple method is to ask all new patients for their permission to use placebos.
Then they do not know which medications are placebos and which are not.
Researchers say the study shows the physical effects of mental and emotional tension -- a condition known as stress.
Americans who said they became worried and experienced stress after the attacks had higher rates of heart disease.
Results of the study were published this month in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
On September eleventh, two thousand one, Islamic terrorists hijacked four American passenger airplanes.
The hijackers flew two of the planes into New York City's World Trade Center.
A third hit the headquarters of the American Defense Department, near Washington, D.C.
The fourth plane crashed in a field in the state of Pennsylvania.
In all, about three thousand people from ninety countries were killed in the September eleventh attacks.
The new study involved almost two thousand adult Americans from across the country.
Most of them had answered questions about their health on the Internet before the attacks.
They answered more questions online from nine to fourteen days after the attacks.
They answered additional questions for the study every year until late two thousand four.
Many of those questioned had seen television reports about the terrorist attacks.
But they had no direct connection to what happened.
The study found that about twenty-two percent of the people said they had a heart problem before September eleventh.
Three years after the attacks, about thirty-one percent reported having heart problems.
Researchers said those who suffered stress because of the attacks had a fifty-three percent increased risk of heart disease.
The lead researcher was Alison Holman of the University of California at Irvine.
She says people who reported high levels of stress were more than two times as likely to have high blood pressure one year after the attacks.
Miz Holman said they also were more than three times as likely to have heart problems two years after the attacks.
The results did not change, even when her team considered other things that can cause heart problems, like cigarette smoking and being overweight.
Other researchers questioned the findings.
Some noted that people are more likely to develop heart problems as they grow older.
A British study has confirmed that happiness can be good for your health.
The study found that women who reported feeling happy were also in better health than men and other women.
The happy women had lower levels of two proteins linked to health problems like heart disease and cancer.
The results were published this month in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
The study involved almost three thousand British adults.
Research scientists from University College London collected saliva from the mouths of the men and women six times on a single day.
The people recorded how they felt at the time the saliva was removed.
They noted if they felt happy, excited or peaceful.
On another day, the researchers tested the adult volunteers for proteins called C-reactive protein and interleukin six.
Other studies have linked the two proteins to heart disease and cancer.
The researchers tested all the fluids for levels of the hormone cortisol.
It is produced when we are worried, tense or afraid.
Cortisol provides energy during periods of physical, mental or emotional pressure.
However, scientists have become concerned about the hormone's long-term effects on our health.
Evidence shows that when cortisol is in the body for extended periods it weakens bones and damages nerve cells in the brain.
It also can weaken the body's natural defenses against disease.
High cortisol levels have also been linked to high blood pressure and weight gain in the stomach or abdomen.
The British study found that men and women who reported feeling happy had lower than average cortisol levels.
The study also found a link among women between happiness and low levels of the proteins.
But the study failed to find such a link in men.
The reason for the difference is not clear.
Andrew Steptoe of University College London led the researchers.
He said the study is the first to demonstrate the importance of C-reactive protein and interleukin six.
Our producer was Brianna Blake.
A study from Canada says fish farms are a threat to some populations of wild salmon.
It says the danger is from sea lice, which are small organisms that feed on fish.
The researchers say these parasites commonly infect salmon raised in farms, but also attack young wild pink salmon that swim nearby.
Their research suggests that if these outbreaks continue, then local populations of wild pink salmon will all but disappear.
Experts are debating the study, published in Science magazine.
The Canadian government and some American experts say no direct link has been found between sea lice and salmon deaths.
Martin Krkosek of the University of Alberta in Edmonton led the study team.
The researchers relate the growth of fish farming off British Columbia to losses in young wild salmon.
The number of fish farms in the area has increased sharply.
The researchers say lice commonly kill more than eighty percent of pink salmon in the areas they studied.
The fish in these coastal areas swim past many fish farms before entering the open ocean.
The researchers say they used information from the Canadian government from nineteen seventy to the present.
They studied fourteen populations of young wild pink salmon that came in contact with salmon farms.
They compared these populations with one hundred twenty-eight populations that did not have such contact.
The scientists say the populations were dying out in the areas near salmon farms, but other populations stayed healthy.
They note that earlier research on this issue had similar results.
Sea lice travel from inland rivers to the ocean.
The lice eat the muscle and skin of young fish.
Adult fish do not seem affected.
Older, bigger fish have thicker skins.
An official of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, said facts do not support the new study.
He said many conditions affect salmon.
One is the salt content of the water.
Another is the presence of predators that attack the fish.
Still another is the amount of fishing that takes place in the area.
Demand for fresh salmon is growing.
Now, almost seventy-five percent of the salmon that Americans eat comes from fish farms.
And Congress is considering legislation that could permit many more fish farms.
This week, we hear some unusual sounds from space.
Scientists created them by taking radio wave observations and turning them into sound waves that we can hear.
But first we tell about the Venus Express spacecraft of the European Space Agency.
The spacecraft has made the most detailed maps yet of the atmosphere of the second planet from the sun.
Venus is a rocky world that is about the same size as Earth.
But its climate is anything but Earth-like.
It is a cloud-covered world where temperatures reach over four hundred degrees Celsius.
The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that the pressure at the surface is about one hundred times that of Earth.
The European Space Agency's Venus Express space vehicle is exploring the planet's atmosphere in more detail than ever before.
The vehicle itself is small.
Venus Express is less than two meters wide and less than two meters long.
However, it carries seven scientific devices including ones that measure radio waves, magnetism and infrared radiation.
The goal is to better understand the complex atmosphere of Venus.
Space scientists say this is important for understanding more about the planet.
Venus Express will help scientists find out why a planet so much like Earth in size and material could have such a different atmosphere.
Some of the differences cannot be seen but are very important.
For example, unlike Earth, Venus does not have a strong magnetic field.
?
On Earth, the magnetic field protects the atmosphere from the powerful force of the solar wind, a flow of particles that moves out from the sun.
Instead, a magnetic charge builds up around Venus.
But this magnetic field does not protect Venus completely from the force of the solar wind.
In fact, it causes the planet to slowly lose some of its atmosphere.
Venus Express has also suggested to scientists why Venus is so dry.
The planet loses mainly hydrogen and oxygen ions.
An ion is an atom that has lost or gained an electron.
That means Venus is slowly losing the elements that make up water by the action of the solar wind.
Venus may have had more water and been more like Earth long ago.
There are other important differences between Earth and Venus.
The Earth has seasons but Venus does not.
Also, one day on Venus is two hundred forty-three Earth days.
Venus's atmosphere is massive and made up mostly of carbon dioxide.
It also has clouds of sulfuric acid.
The winds in the atmosphere of Venus are severe.
They can move at one hundred meters a second.
Yet even these powerful winds high above Venus probably do not extend all the way down to the surface.
Powerful winds, especially at the south pole of Venus, cannot move the heavy atmosphere near the surface.
David Grinspoon is a Venus Express scientist from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado.
He says Venus suffered a climate disaster.
But we do not know how, why or when.
However, Mister Grinspoon says we do know what happened.
Venus lost much of its water.
Today, Venus is a very dry planet, unlike Earth, which has a large amount of water in its polar areas.
For example, if you took all the water in the atmosphere of Venus and placed it on the surface of the planet it would cover the planet with only three centimeters of water.
Venus Express has added a lot to what scientists know about our sister planet.
It has created a map of temperatures on Venus.
It has also discovered that there are electrical storms on the planet.
And it has suggested to scientists the process that robs Venus of some of its atmosphere.
Venus Express has enough fuel to last until two thousand thirteen.
In two thousand ten, it will be joined by a Japanese spacecraft, the Venus Climate Orbiter.
Information from the new spacecraft will permit scientists to confirm the findings of Venus Express.
There is nothing wrong with your listening device.
These sounds were created from information gathered by Voyager One.
The spacecraft passed Jupiter in nineteen seventy-nine.
Its plasma wave instrument recorded the information used to create the sounds.
The information, or data, was collected as the spacecraft came close to an area near Jupiter called the bow shock.
That is where particles flowing away from the sun move past Jupiter at extremely high speeds.
The sharp sounds you heard at the beginning are waves created by electrons coming from the bow shock and moving into the solar wind.
These sounds die out except for a slight low sound from one of the science instruments on the spacecraft.
There is also the sound of one of Voyager's engines.
Then things become quiet.
Another spacecraft, Cassini, entered orbit around Saturn in two thousand four.
Before that the spacecraft traveled through Saturn's rings.
The spacecraft was struck by about one hundred thousand particles of dust in less than five minutes.
Its large round antenna protected the spacecraft.
The event was measured by Cassini's radio and plasma wave instrument.
Here is what it sounds like:  The next sound you will hear is the sound of Saturn turning.
These were the first sounds of Saturn recorded by Cassini.
Scientists wanted to know: How long is a day on Saturn?
Cassini gathered information showing that Saturn's day is ten hours, forty-five minutes and forty-five seconds long.
But that is about six minutes longer than information recorded by the spacecrafts Voyager One and Voyager two in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty-one.
The difference remains a mystery.
Scientists continue to study Saturn to find out how the planet's turning motion creates radio emissions.
Saturn is one of the few places in the solar system that is known to have lightning.
The Cassini spacecraft captured radio emissions they believed came from a large electrical storm on Saturn.
It took place on January twenty-third and twenty-fourth, two thousand six.
The radio emissions were turned into this sound recording.
This next recording was put together in a laboratory.
It was taken from sounds collected by a recording device on the European Space Agency's Huygens probe.
The probe came down to the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in January, two thousand five.
Several sounds recorded at different times are combined.
They give a realistic recording of what a traveler on the Huygens probe would have heard during the ride down through Titan's atmosphere.
We leave you with some unusual and mysterious sounds captured by the Cassini spacecraft.
They were made by Saturn's intense radio emissions.
The radio waves recorded by the spacecraft's radio and plasma instrument were turned into a sound recording.
These sounds are closely related to auroras near Saturn's north and south poles.
Auroras are areas of charged particles that give off light near the poles of some planets.
On Earth they are known as the northern and southern lights.
This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter.
New research says thirty-five percent of all child deaths worldwide are caused by undernutrition -- hunger.
The Lancet, the British medical magazine, just published a series of five studies.
The answer, they suggest, is greater investment in nutritional services and improvements to health systems.
A 2-year-old severely undernourished boy in Maharashtra state, India, during a drought in 2001The research involved poor to middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Robert Black from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland was the lead author of the series.
He says more than three and one-half million mothers and children under five die in poor countries each year because of undernutrition.
He says more than two million children die from underdevelopment, either before or after birth, or from severe wasting.
Millions of others who survive face a lifetime of disabilities or early death.
And the effects are not just physical.
Poor brain development from poor nutrition can limit economic success as children become adults.
Then the cycle of poverty and undernutrition often repeats for their children.
Doctor Black says undernourished children are also more likely to have conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease as adults.
He says the studies show that nutrition programs need to place greater importance on the first two years of life.
Undernourished children can suffer permanent damage by age two.
The researchers say mothers should be urged to breastfeed and taught how to breastfeed correctly.
Also, diets should include foods rich in vitamin A and the mineral zinc.
The researchers say early interventions like these could reduce child deaths by twenty-five percent.
Undernutrition is one form of malnutrition, but malnutrition can also mean eating too much.
The Lancet series on maternal and child nutrition has faced some criticism.
The international group Doctors Without Borders praised the series for calling for greater attention to the issue.
But the medical aid group says the researchers underestimate the number of child deaths from malnutrition.
And it criticized them for not strongly supporting new efforts to replace hospital care with community- and home-based care.
This involves giving children nutritionally dense products called ready-to-use food.
The researchers say there are findings that support this treatment but more studies are needed to compare it to hospital care.
Today, Tony Riggs and I continue the story of the United States Constitution.
In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia.
They planned to amend the Articles of Confederation which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states.
Instead, they wrote a completely new Constitution.
That political document created America's system of government and recognized the rights of its citizens.
It is still the law of the land.
James Madison of Virginia was the first delegate to arrive for the convention in Philadelphia.
Madison asked the other delegates from Virginia also to arrive early.
He wanted to enter the convention with a plan for a strong central government.
He was sure no other state would do this.
Two Virginia delegates -- George Wythe and John Blair -- came early, as requested.
Together, the three men worked on Madison's plan.
The convention was to start on May fourteenth.
George Washington arrived the day before.
He was welcomed outside Philadelphia by a military guard and the firing of cannons.
Washington was the most famous man in America.
He led the forces that won the war for independence from Britain.
The first thing Washington did in Philadelphia was to visit Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin was an important political leader in America.
He also was chief of Pennsylvania's delegation to the convention.
Franklin was then eighty-one years old.
Age had weakened him.
But his mind remained strong.
Every important person who came to Philadelphia -- even the great General Washington – visited Benjamin Franklin.
A 1777 map of Philadelphia; at the bottom is Independence HallOn the first day of the convention, the delegates from Virginia went to the State House where the meeting would be held.
They gathered in the room where America's Declaration of Independence was signed in seventeen seventy-six.
The only other delegates there were from Pennsylvania.
One was Robert Morris.
He raised much of the money to fight the American Revolution.
Another was Gouverneur Morris.
The two men were not related.
Another Pennsylvania delegate was James Wilson.
He signed the Declaration of Independence and was a member of America's early Continental Congress.
Like James Madison, James Wilson wanted a strong central government for the United States.
The men from Pennsylvania and Virginia spent that first day talking.
They agreed to meet again the next morning.
Nobody seemed worried that there were no delegates from the other eleven states.
After all, it took two weeks to ride a horse to Philadelphia from New Hampshire in the northeast.
And it took as many as three weeks to get to Philadelphia from Georgia in the south.
For a while, it seemed the other delegates would never arrive.
But then they started coming one or two at a time.
The delegates agreed to start the convention as soon as seven states were represented.
New York sent three men.
That was a surprise.
Many people believed New York would refuse to send anyone at all.
The governor of New York did not support the idea of a strong central government.
But one of the New York delegates did.
He was Alexander Hamilton.
Hamilton served as an assistant to General George Washington during the revolution.
He firmly believed the United States needed a strong central government.
In fact, some people said he wanted the country ruled by a king.
Day by day, more delegates arrived in Philadelphia for the convention.
They included Rufus King and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts.
John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina.
John Lansing and Robert Yates of New York.
Luther Martin and James McHenry of Maryland.
Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut.
William Few and William Pierce of Georgia.
David Brearly and Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey.
John Langdon and Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire.
Gunning Bedford and George Read of Delaware.
Alexander Martin and William Blount of North Carolina.
Fifty-five men in all from twelve states.
Pennsylvania sent the most delegates -- eight.
Rhode Island sent none.
A few of the delegates were very old.
But many were in their twenties or thirties.
The average age of the delegates was just forty-three years.
This respected group was missing two important persons – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
At the time, Adams was serving as America's representative to Britain.
Jefferson was serving as the representative to France.
Both men expected to continue their service to the new nation.
So both were extremely interested in the convention in Philadelphia.
They exchanged letters with friends to learn what was happening.
The convention did not have seven states represented until May twenty-fifth.
On that day, it finally began its work.
The delegates' first task was to name a clerk to write the reports of the meetings.
They chose Major William Jackson. Major Jackson had asked George Washington to support him for the job.
General Washington did so.
But Major Jackson was not a good clerk.
He wrote down few details of the convention.
Luckily, however, James Madison did.
From the moment the convention began, Madison kept careful records of everything everyone said.
He never stopped writing.
Other delegates took notes, including Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King.
But their reports were short and not complete.
Madison's notes from the constitutional convention.
Here he describes the first day's events on May 25, 1787, when George Washington was elected chairman of the convention.
If it were not for James Madison, we would know little of what happened at that historic meeting in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven.
Several urged the others to name George Washington.
The delegates agreed.
Washington was their choice.
George Washington then officially opened the convention with a short speech.
He thanked the delegates for naming him president.
But he said the honor was too great.
He asked the delegates to forgive him if he made mistakes.
After all, he said, he had never been chairman of a meeting before.
With those words, George Washington sat down.
And for the next four months, he spoke only when necessary.
The first day of the convention ended well.
The delegates agreed to name a small committee to write rules for the meetings.
They quickly appointed three men: George Wythe of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina.
So far, the business of the convention was easy.
The work was done in a friendly way.
It was not long, however, before a serious dispute developed.
The dispute was between the large states and the small states.
How would they share power in a government of United States?
Should states with bigger populations have more power than states with smaller populations?
The dispute would sharply divide the delegates for the next four months.
That will be our story next week.
Today we begin a series of reports about learning disabilities.
Experts say the problem is not with intelligence or the willingness to work hard.
The problem, they say, is that some people's brains process information differently.
By definition, people with learning disabilities are average or above average in their intelligence.
But their disorders may affect their ability to gain knowledge and, as a result, limit their success in school or jobs.
Different people can have different kinds of learning disabilities.
One person may have difficulty with language development.
Another may have problems with reading or writing.
Still another may have trouble working with numbers.
People can have more than one disorder, but reading is the most common area of difficulty.
Learning disabilities are neurological disorders that affect the brain's ability to store, process and communicate information.
The National Center for Learning Disabilities estimates that fifteen million Americans, or five percent, are affected.
The group says three million students in the United States receive some kind of special help in school because of learning disabilities.
There are different names for different disorders.
For example, a person who has difficulty reading may have dyslexia.
Someone who has trouble with mathematics may have dyscalculia.
Learning disabilities may help explain why some students do not perform as well in school as intelligence tests suggest they should.
People with a learning disability may have trouble following directions.
Or they may not know how to start a task.
Children who have problems connecting letters with sounds or understanding what they read may be showing signs of learning disabilities.
But since these are a group of disorders, there is no one single sign to look for.
Experts say learning disabilities cannot be cured.
But people can learn ways to deal with their disorders.
Teachers and parents can provide support that will help students learn successfully.
In the next few weeks, we will discuss different learning disabilities as well as other disorders that interfere with learning.
We will provide advice from experts about ways to deal with them.
And we will examine some of the political issues raised by special education programs.
College students made a game out of sailing the pie tins through the air.
In the 1950's, the California toy company Wham-O renamed a plastic flying saucer the Frisbee.
Wham-O employee Ed Headrick later improved the design, and the Frisbee became a big hit.
Well, after our segment aired, we learned of the death of Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr.
It seems he gave two conflicting explanations for the name Frisbee.
One was the pie tin game, called Frisbie-ing.
But more recently he said it was named after a comic strip character named Mr. And that's WORDMASTER for this week.
And now, any computer sound system can be used to hear its correct pronunciations.
Mario Ritter tells us more.
The guide lists more than six thousand names, including political leaders, scientists and other people in the news.
There are also names of places and organizations.
The Web site shows the correct way to say the name and plays a recording.
Let us say you need to know how to pronounce the name of Iran's President.
Yes, the same Jim Tedder who reads Special English news.
Jim says he updates the list several times a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year.
When a new name appears in the news, Jim works quickly to find the correct pronunciation so he can add the name to the list.
He gets a lot of help from people who work in this building.
So he could call someone in the Chinese branch to ask how to pronounce a Chinese name.
So Jim calls the person directly, if possible.
Or he calls an embassy here in Washington, or a delegation at the United Nations in New York City.
But it has also become extremely popular with other radio and television stations around the world.
Students and teachers also use the guide.
So do business people and anyone who wants to make sure they can pronounce a person's name correctly.
Sean wants to know about gun control laws in the United States.
Many Americans feel very strongly about the subject of gun control.
Some people believe that a person has the right to own a gun.
Others believe the government must control the sale and use of guns to reduce gun violence and protect public safety.
The fact that gun laws are different in every state makes the issue even more complex.
Some estimates say about thirty percent of the American population own guns.
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is often at the center of gun control debates.
However, people who support gun control laws say this amendment has been misunderstood.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is named for former White House press secretary Jim Brady.
He was disabled by the same gunman who wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981.The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence works to improve laws controlling guns in an effort to protect public safety.
It says eighty people die each day in this country because of guns.
And it says the United States leads the world in the number of deaths each year due to gun violence.
It often takes a tragedy to increase efforts to reform gun laws in the United States.
For example, in the nineteen sixties President John F. Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior were killed by gunfire.
The Gun Control Act of nineteen sixty-eight made it illegal for criminals to buy guns.
But it was not until the Brady Act of nineteen ninety-three that a person’s criminal record had to be examined before the person could buy a gun.
Last year, a troubled college student at Virginia Tech bought two guns and shot and killed thirty-two teachers and students.
The twenty-three year old killer had a history of mental illness that should have prevented him from buying a gun.
Earlier this month, President Bush signed a law to improve?
background checks so that they include more criminal and mental health records.
It is meant to prevent people with a history of dangerous mental illness from buying guns.
The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case on guns and the meaning of the Second Amendment.
It is expected to announce its decision in June.
Chrisette Michele Singer-songwriter Chrisette Michele's voice has set her apart from other singers her age.
Some music critics say the twenty-three year old sounds like the great jazz singer Billie Holiday.
Chrisette combines that sound with her love for hip-hop music.
Barbara Klein plays some of her music.
Chrisette Michele first became popular in two thousand six for the songs she wrote and performed with major hip-hop artists, including Jay-Z and Nas.
Although Chrisette has always valued the religious music she sings in church, she also describes herself as a child of the hip-hop culture.
Now, the administration has an agreement with Democratic and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives.
President Bush called the one hundred fifty billion dollar deal, reached Thursday, the right set of policies and the right size.
He urged Congress to pass it as soon as possible, saying the economy urgently needs action.
He said the plan would lead to higher consumer spending and increased business investment this year.
The measures must be approved by the House and the Senate and signed into law by the president.
There are three parts to the plan: First, it would give money in the form of tax rebates to middle-class Americans in hopes they will spend it.
Individuals could receive up to six hundred dollars.
Married couples could get up to twice that.
Families with children would get extra money.
Money would also go to millions who do not earn enough to pay taxes.
Secondly, the plan aims to create jobs through tax breaks for business investment.
And thirdly, it seeks to strengthen the housing market.
The plan would raise limits on the size of home loans that can be purchased by mortgage financers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
She was not totally pleased with the compromise deal but says it will help the economy.
If it does not, she added, there will be more to come.
Speaker Pelosi said House leaders will bring the bill for a vote at the earliest date.
The Senate, though, may try to expand the package.
Many economists worry that the world's largest economy will enter or has already entered a recession.
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve moved to help calm financial markets in the United States, and around the world.
The Federal Open Market Committee cut the federal funds rate by seventy-five basis points -- a week before it planned to meet.
The move brought the rate that banks charge each other to borrow money overnight to three and one-half percent.
This was the first time the committee has cut rates between meetings since after the September eleventh terrorist attacks in two thousand one.
And it may cut rates further when it meets next week.
News of the American central bank’s interest rate cut this week was the top story in financial markets around the world.
In a surprise announcement Tuesday, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate to three and one-half percent.
This is the rate that banks charge each other to borrow money overnight.
The announcement came one day after foreign stock markets suffered heavy losses.
Losses between three and seven percent were reported in Japan, China, India, South Korea and across Europe.
Financial markets dropped as concern grew that an American recession could hurt the economies in countries that trade with the United States.
Many markets suffered losses again Tuesday before the Fed lowered the interest rate.
Several foreign markets regained some of their losses in the days following the American interest rate cut.
Stock prices rose almost eleven percent in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The main index in Mumbai, India increased more than seven percent.
European and Asian markets also closed higher on Friday.
Tokyo's Nikkei Index gained more than four percent.
Share prices were also higher in Shanghai, Manila, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Lower interest rates make it easier for businesses and people to borrow money for purchases and other activities that help the economy.
Financial experts expect the Federal Reserve will cut the interest rate another quarter of a percentage point at its official meeting next week.
That would bring the federal funds rate to three and one-quarter percent.
As concerns of a possible recession in the United States grow, the Bush administration and congressional leaders agreed on an economic growth plan.
In Davos, Switzerland, political, economic and government leaders are attending the yearly meeting of the World Economic Forum.
More than two thousand economic policy-makers are discussing the world's economic and social problems.
Opinion has been mixed on the future of the financial situation in the United States and how it will affect the rest of the world.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Forum the American economy has a strong structure and would remain an engine of growth.
But others are not so sure.
Joseph Stiglitz is an economics professor at Columbia University in New York City and a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics.
He said the current market trouble is far from over.
Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, also spoke at the World Economic Forum.
He said capitalism as an economic system may need some changes.
Mister Gates proposed an idea he calls creative capitalism.
He called on companies to think more about how their products can help society.
Mister Gates said he believes capitalism should help the poor as well as the rich.
Today, Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer finish the story of civil right's leader Martin Luther King, Junior.
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine.
He began his university studies when he was fifteen years old, and received a doctorate degree in religion.
He became a preacher at a church in Montgomery, Alabama.
In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman in Montgomery was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus.
Doctor King became the leader of a protest against the city bus system.
It was the first time that black southerners had united against the laws of racial separation.
At first, the white citizens of Montgomery did not believe that the protest would work.
They thought most blacks would be afraid to fight against racial separation.
But the buses remained empty.
Some whites used tricks to try to end the protest.
They spread false stories about Martin Luther King and other protest leaders.
One story accused Martin of stealing money from the civil rights movement.
Another story charged that protest leaders rode in cars while other protesters had to walk.
But the tricks did not work, and the protest continued.
Doctor King's wife Coretta described how she and her husband felt during the protest.
The white citizens blamed Doctor King for starting the protest.
They thought it would end if he was in prison or dead.
Doctor King was arrested twice on false charges.
His arrests made national news and he was released.
But the threats against his life continued.
The Montgomery bus boycott lasted three hundred eighty-two days.
Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system.
Martin Luther King and his followers had won their struggle.
The many months of meetings and protest marches had made victory possible.
They also gave blacks a new feeling of pride and unity.
They saw that peaceful protest, Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violence, could be used as a tool to win their legal rights.
Life did not return to normal for Doctor King after the protest was over.
He had become well known all over the country and throughout the world.
He often was asked to speak about his ideas on non-violence.
Both black and white Americans soon began to follow his teachings.
Groups were formed throughout the south to protest peacefully against racial separation.
The civil rights movement spread so fast that a group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it.
The organization was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Martin Luther King became its president.
In his job, Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States.
Blacks demanded to be served in areas where only whites were permitted to eat.
And they rode in trains and buses formerly for whites only.
Black activists were beaten and arrested.
Some were even killed.
In nineteen sixty-three, the black citizens of Birmingham refused to buy goods from the stores in the city.
They demanded more jobs for blacks.
And they demanded to send their children to white schools.
The white citizens were angry and afraid, but they refused to meet the blacks' demands.
The situation became tense.
Many protestors were beaten and arrested.
Even Doctor King was arrested.
But he was not in prison for long.
The Birmingham demonstrations made international news.
Whites soon saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protestors than to fight them.
Martin Luther King and his followers had won an important victory in Birmingham.
It marked a turning point for the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King recognized the importance of Birmingham.
It did not mean that racial separation had ended.
Some still remains today.
But he felt that the battle was almost won.
And he wanted to call on the nation for its support.
So doctor king organized a March on Washington, D. C. The March on Washington took place in August, nineteen sixty-three.
About two hundred fifty thousand persons gathered there.
They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans.
There were to be many other marches in Washington during the nineteen sixties and early seventies.
But this was the biggest up to that time.
It was in Washington that Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches.
Doctor king said:  Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four.
But he did not live to see the final results of his life's work.
He was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty-eight.
Doctor King always felt he would die a violent death.
His life had been threatened wherever he went.
And he often spoke to his wife about his fears.
But he never believed that his life was more important than the civil rights movement.
The night before he died he spoke to his supporters.
This Special English program was written by William Rodgers.
Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer.
Today, we finish telling about the interesting nicknames that have been given to the fifty American states.
The state of Ohio is in the midwest.
It is named The Buckeye State after a tree that produces nuts similar to chestnuts.
The Great Plains state of Oklahoma is called the Sooner State.
That is because of a sale of land in eighteen eighty-nine.
Some people arrived in the territory to claim their land earlier than they were supposed to.
Just as a keystone holds together a stone arch, Pennsylvania was seen as holding together the young American republic.
Pennsylvania is also sometimes called The Quaker State.
Its founder, William Penn, and most of his followers, were members of the Protestant Quaker religion.
Rhode Island's nickname is Little Rhody because of its size.
The state is smaller than the area around Los Angeles, California.
Tennessee got its nickname -- The Volunteer State -- because of the bravery of its citizens.
They volunteered to join Tennessean Andrew Jackson to defend the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, against the British army in the War of Eighteen Twelve.
Texas is called The Lone Star State.
It gets its nickname from the single star on its flag.
This represents the short time Texas was an independent nation battling Mexico for self-rule.
The Beehive State of Utah has no more beehives than any other state.
The nickname is from the Mormon Church's symbol for hard work.
The eastern state of Vermont is proud of its beautiful Green Mountains so it calls itself The Green Mountain State.
The southern state of Virginia is called The Old Dominion.
Long ago, King Charles the Second of England added the colony's coat of arms to his shield.
It joined his other dominions of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
West Virginia broke away from Virginia in the eighteen sixties.
It is called simply The Mountain State for the ancient Appalachian mountains.
And we have saved perhaps the most American nickname for last.
The western state of Wyoming was once an area where cattle were transported east.
And where there are cattle, there are men -- and now women -- to move them.
So Wyoming is The Cowboy State.
We hope you enjoyed these programs about states and their nicknames.
The Internet search engine company called Google has announced it will give more than twenty-five million dollars in money and investments to help the poor.
The money will be spent over the next five to ten years in several areas, including poverty reduction and private business development.
The company says the effort is to use the power of information and technology to help people improve their lives.
Aleem Walji works for Google.org -- the part of the company that gives money to good causes.
He spoke to us from San Francisco, California.
He said the first project to receive money will help identify where infectious diseases are developing.
In Southeast Asia and Africa, for example, Google.org will work with partners to strengthen early warning systems and take action against growing health threats.
Google.org will also invest in ways to help small and medium size businesses grow.
Mister Walji says microfinance is generally small, short-term loans that create few jobs.
Instead, he says Google.org wants to develop ways to bring investors and business owners together to create jobs and improve economic growth.
Google.org also will work with local partners to improve public services and reduce poverty.
In India, for example, the Pratham non-profit group has developed a way to identify if students are learning in school.
Mister Walji says Google.org hopes to expand it and similar tools to other public services.
Google.org will also give money to help two climate change programs announced earlier this year.
One of these programs studies ways to make renewable energy less costly than coal-based fuels.
The other program is examining efforts to speed up common public use of electric cars.
Mister Walji says Google.org can give money called grants much like other corporate foundations.
It can also invest in ideas and technologies that may or may not be profitable over time.
To date, Google.org has spent seventy-five million dollars.
The creators of Google have promised to give Google.org about one percent of company profits and one percent of its total stock value every year.
Aleem Walji says this amount may increase in the future.
This week on our program, we play some favorite songs about winter.
It is winter in many parts of the world.
For some areas, that means snow.
Maybe even lots of snow.
If you do not have to drive in it or remove it, snow can be very beautiful.
There are hundreds of recordings of this happy song.
Here is a lovely version by James Taylor.
But winter is not always such a beautiful and happy time.
It is cold outside.
The wind blows to make it even colder.
You try hard to keep warm.
The days are shorter and darker.
The sun rarely shines.
The leaves on the trees are brown or have fallen to the ground.
The flowers are mostly gone.
It is not surprising that some people are sad in winter.
And some people dream about being somewhere else where it is warm and pretty -- like the state of California.
During the nineteen sixties, many other famous rock groups released songs about winter.
In nineteen sixty-eight, the group Blood, Sweat and Tears recorded this gentle, sad song about winter.
She sings about reading a love letter and wishing the writer were with her now.
Finally, on a happier note comes this song written and recorded by Fountains of Wayne in two thousand three.
They sing about a snowstorm in a New England town.
Nothing unusual there.
But instead of being sad or tense about the snow, they write a song about it.
On our program this week, we look at how people become medical doctors in the United States.
A medical student in the state of WyomingIt is not easy to become a doctor in the United States.
The first step is getting into a medical college.
More than one hundred twenty American schools offer study programs for people seeking to become a doctor.
People can get advice about medical schools from many resources.
One of these is the Princeton Review.
The publication provides information about colleges, study programs and jobs.
The Princeton Review says competition to enter medical schools is strong.
It says about thirty-five thousand people compete for sixteen thousand openings in American medical schools each year.
Many of those seeking to be admitted are women.
Most people seeking admission contact more than one medical school.
Some applicants contact many.
An important part of the application usually is the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT.
The Association of American Medical Colleges provides the test by computer.
It is offered in the United States and in other countries around the world.
The applicant is rated on reasoning, physical and biological sciences and an example of writing.
Applicants for medical school need to do well on the MCAT.
They also need a good record in their college studies.
People who want to become doctors often study large amounts of biology, chemistry or other science.
Some students work for a year or two in a medical or research job before they attempt to enter medical school.
A direct meeting, or interview, also is usually required for entrance to medical schools.
This means talking with a school representative.
The interviewer wants to know what the applicant is like.
Does the person understand the demands of life as a medical student and doctor in training??
What are the person’s goals for a life in medicine??
A medical education can be very costly.
One year at a private medical college can cost forty thousand dollars or more.
The average at a public medical school is more than fifteen thousand dollars.
Most students need loans to pay for medical school.
Some Americans become doctors by joining the United States Army, Navy, Air Force or Public Health Service.
They attend the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
These students attend without having to pay.
They also receive training beyond the usual education in areas needed by military and public health doctors.
In return, they spend seven years in government service.
Doctors are among the highest paid people in the United States.
Big-city doctors who work in specialties like eye care or surgical operations usually earn the most money.
But some other doctors earn far less.
That is especially true in poor communities.
Medical students spend their first two years mainly in classroom study.
They learn about the body and all its systems.
They also begin studying how to recognize and treat disease.
Medical students perform a dissection of a body at the University of MassachusettsBy the third year, students begin working with patients in hospitals.
Experienced doctors who have treated many patients guide them as they work.
As the students learn, they think about the kind of medical skills they will need to work as doctors.
During the fourth year, students begin contacting hospital programs for the additional training they will need after medical school.
Competition to work at a top hospital can be fierce.
Doctors-in-training in hospitals are called interns or residents.
They are usually called interns during their first year.
After that, the name of the job is resident.
The trainees treat patients guided by medical professors and other experts.
All fifty states require at least one year of hospital work for doctors-in-training educated at medical schools in the United States.
Graduates of study programs at most foreign medical schools may have to complete two or three years of residency, although there are exceptions.
To be accepted for a residency, a person must meet the requirements of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.
This process involves several tests before a person can receive a visa to stay in the United States for the training period.
Those completing study programs at foreign medical schools may be required to return to their own country for at least two years after their training ends.
But because of doctor shortages or other needs, some have been able to get visas without the required two-year stay in their home country.
Doctors-in-training receive experience in different kinds of care.
Interns, for example, may work with children for one month.
Then the next month they may be in the operating room.
How long a residency lasts depends on the chosen area of medicine.
There are many medical specialties.
Some people become cardiologists and care for the heart.
Others become oncologists and treat cancer patients.
Still others become pediatricians and take care of children.
And some doctors go into medical research, either at a university or with a private company.
But whatever they choose, they first need experience.
Some doctors work a long time in hospitals before they are fully trained in a specialty.
Neurosurgeons are a good example.
They operate on the brain, neck and back.
Some spend six years or more as residents before beginning private practice.
A doctor in Chicago, Illinois, remembers that before his internship, he wanted to work in crisis medicine.
But he lost that interest after he interned in a hospital emergency room.
He saw many patients who needed help immediately, like accident victims and victims of gunshot wounds.
The specialty he chose, surgery, lets him have more time to decide how to help his patients.
In nineteen ninety-nine, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies released a report on medical mistakes in American hospitals.
The report said preventable mistakes resulted in at least forty-four thousand deaths each year.
Five years later, the New England Journal of Medicine published two government-financed studies of serious mistakes made by interns.
The studies found that the mistake rate in two intensive-care areas decreased when interns worked fewer hours.
The interns made fewer mistakes when they had to order medicines and identify conditions.
Teaching hospitals say they must pay more for work from other employees because resident hours are shortened.
Some residents say they need extended time with patients to observe changes in their condition.
And some experienced doctors say residents need to work as much as they can to become good doctors.
But in two thousand three, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education reduced the hours that residents may work.
The council supervises the training of residents.
Some residents were spending one hundred or more hours a week at their hospitals.
They were often on duty more than thirty-six hours at a time, with limited sleep.
The changed rules limit residents to thirty hours of duty at a time.
A hospital is not supposed to require more than eighty hours of duty in a week.
In addition, interns and residents must have one day off in every seven.
But some residents say all hospitals are not following the new rules.
Paul Rockey is a medical education expert in Illinois.
He has worked for years with residents.
He says residencies today are more difficult than before.
Patients do not stay as long in the hospital as they once did.
So Doctor Rockey says there is a lot of pressure on young doctors to learn quickly.
He says the difficulties of a medical education may be great.
But, he adds that people also get great satisfaction seeing themselves gain the knowledge and skills to become good doctors.
The United States government has decided that food from cloned cattle, pigs and goats is safe to eat.
The Food and Drug Administration also says it found no risks in meat and milk from offspring born to them.
A clone is a genetic copy of an animal prized for its quality.
A laboratory process develops a cell from the animal into an embryo.
The embryo is put into a female animal which, if all goes well, gives birth to the clone.
The F.D.A. looked at studies for several years before it announced its decision in a final report this month.
The United States Department of Agriculture supported the findings.
But it says time is needed to smooth the way for marketing meat and milk from clones.
So, for now, the industry is being asked to continue a voluntary ban on such products.
The idea of eating cloned animals rates low with the American public.
Several major food companies say they have no immediate plans to get involved.
The Food and Drug Administration will not require any product to be identified as coming from clones or their offspring.
But activists argue that the F.D.A. based its decision on incomplete research into possible risks.
The Center for Food Safety criticized the use of studies supplied by cloning companies.
Animal rights activists point out that cloning attempts often fail.
They say cloning is cruel and can lead to suffering in clones born with abnormalities.
Congress has been trying to get the F.D.A. to do more studies.
But the agency noted that experts in New Zealand and the European Union have come to the same findings about the safety of food from clones.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan say they want to study the issue further before taking action.
Products from cloning may not be widely available for several years.
Currently the United States has about six hundred animal clones.
Clones are costly, which is why most are used for breeding.
The Agriculture Department says few clones will ever become food.
Their traditionally bred offspring would enter the food supply instead.
The first mammal cloned from an adult cell was Dolly the sheep, born in Scotland in nineteen ninety-six.
But the F.D.A. says it could not decide about the safety of food from clones of sheep or other animals besides cattle, pigs and goats.
At the British Museum in London, millions of people every year visit a famous collection of marble statues from the ancient Greek building called the Parthenon.
These finely carved works and the building they came from are widely considered the most important examples of western art and building design.
Why these Greek statues are in a British museum is an important part of our story today.
We explore the complex issues of cultural property, ownership, and the returning -- or keeping -- of cultural treasures.
Many people know these famous and disputed statues at the British Museum as the Elgin Marbles.
They were named for Lord Thomas Elgin, who served as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The Ottoman Empire at this time included what is current day Greece as well as Turkey.
Lord Elgin decided he was in a good position to improve the national art collection of Britain.
So he gathered a team of experts to help him make drawings and plaster copies of the buildings of ancient Greece within the city of Athens.
In eighteen-oh-one, Lord Elgin received legal permission to also take away any pieces of stone with images or words carved on them.
Later, another legal document permitted the stone pieces, or marbles, to be sent by boat to Britain.
Lord Elgin eventually sold the marbles to the British government to be housed in the British Museum.
His actions have been disputed ever since.
The British Museum believes it has the right to protect these works for the world to enjoy.
But the Greek government has a very different opinion.
In the nineteen eighties, the Greek government began a modern campaign for the return of these statues, which Greeks call the Parthenon Marbles.
During this time, the Greek cultural minister, Melina Mercouri, made the campaign an international issue by calling for their return during a United Nations meeting.
The Greek government recently built a museum near the ruins of the Parthenon to house the ancient building’s sculptures.
The strikingly modern Acropolis Museum is interesting for the art it contains as well as for the art that is clearly missing.
The marbles are shown in the order that they were first placed in the Parthenon.
There are the ancient statues that belong to Greece and there are plaster copies of the statues that are currently in Britain.
Now that the works are placed together, it is clear that they are not just individual sculptures.
Together, the extraordinary sculptures tell a story about an ancient culture.
The current Greek minister of culture is Michalis Liapis.
He says the new Acropolis Museum makes it possible for the sculptures now in Britain to have a large exhibit space where they can be protected.
He says Britain no longer has any excuse to keep these works of art.
A spokeswoman for the British Museum in London says the Acropolis Museum represents an important effort.
But she points out that the goal of the British Museum is to present all world cultures to visitors so that they can compare civilizations.
This cultural dispute is not just a concern for museums and governments.
Michael Reppas helped create a group called The American Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.
Mister Reppas, a Greek American, says part of his history has been stolen and placed in a museum in Britain.
He says the situation would be like cutting off a piece of the Statue of Liberty in New York City and placing it in a museum in another country.
Today, unlike during Lord Elgin’s time, international laws protect a country’s cultural treasures.
Museums and governments use these laws to help negotiate the return of such property.
Museums also follow a set of rules to help make sure that they received the cultural treasures fairly and legally.
Often, museums do not know that objects they received in the past were gotten illegally.
Other times it is less clear whether or not a museum acted legally in buying art.
For example, Marion True is an art expert who used to work for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California.
Since two thousand five, Miz True has been on trial in Italy.
She is accused of illegal actions in obtaining ancient Italian cultural objects.
She is on trial in Greece for similar charges.
The Italian Cultural Ministry takes very seriously the stealing of cultural objects from Italy.
A special group of Italian military police works to reclaim stolen art and archeological objects.
Italy recently ended negotiations with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts over thirteen cultural treasures that are now being returned to Italy.
Italy won its claim on the objects because documents showed that they were taken illegally from the country.
Italy has also agreed to loan some of the objects to the museum, so both sides ended up with a fair resolution.
Katie Getchell is deputy director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
She says the museum did not want to have objects that it did not rightfully own.
And she says that there is a legal, moral and responsible way for governments and museums to resolve such disputes.
Italy is demonstrating its progress in this area with a new exhibit at the Quirinale, or presidential palace, in Rome.
The exhibit shows sixty-eight cultural objects that Italy has reclaimed from American museums.
These museums include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The name of the museum that formerly owned the object is on the signs explaining the history of each object.
Italian officials say the exhibit shows how much the museum world is changing its position on cultural disputes.
This change is also clear in another case between Peru and an American university in Machu Picchuthe state of Connecticut.
Last year, Yale University agreed to return a large number of treasures taken from the ancient Peruvian city of Machu Picchu.
In nineteen twelve, the Yale researcher and explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovered the hidden city.
He brought many objects from Machu Picchu to the United States.
Peru says that the objects were on loan and should have been returned long ago.
After years of negotiations, Yale announced in September of last year that the two sides had reached an early agreement.
Yale has officially agreed that Peru owns the cultural objects.
The university will return most of them and will be able to keep others for an extended period of time.
Under the expected agreement, Yale will advise Peru on the building of a museum for the objects.
The President of Yale University, Richard Levin, said the two sides have created a new way of resolving competing interests in cultural property disputes.
However, it is not clear when a final agreement will be reached.
Efforts to protect cultural property increased after World War Two.
During the war, Nazi Germany stole large amounts of art from the countries they invaded.
In reaction, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property was signed in nineteen fifty-four.
The United Nations cultural organization has also recognized the issue.
In nineteen seventy, UNESCO created a convention to prevent the illegal exportation of cultural property.
Individual countries have their own laws about cultural property as well.
One example of art stolen by the Nazis during World War Two has been successfully resolved.
At the Neue Gallery in New York City, visitors can see a beautiful painting of a woman named Adele Bloch-Bauer made by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.
Adele’s husband, Ferdinand, asked the artist to make the painting around nineteen-oh-seven.
'Adele Bloch-Bauer 1'In the late nineteen thirties, when Austria was under Nazi rule, Mister Bloch-Bauer was forced to flee his country because he was Jewish.
His family’s collection of art was seized by Nazi leaders and later became state property.
For years Austria refused to return the art to the Bloch-Bauer family.
Then, in two thousand six, the family finally won its court case and ownership of the art.
They later sold the work to the owner of Neue Gallery.
This painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer is not only a beautiful example of Austrian art.
It also represents a powerful story about one family’s successful battle over injustice.
We talked last week about a series of new studies of hunger in mothers and children in developing countries.
The Lancet medical journal published the series.
In it, researchers said poor nutrition in the first two years can permanently damage a child, physically and mentally.
One of the interventions they placed great importance on was breastfeeding.
On its Web site, the W.H.O. says breast milk is the ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants.
And it notes that as part of the reproductive process, breastfeeding also has important health considerations for mothers.
Studies have shown that women who receive counseling about breastfeeding are more likely to feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months.
The La Leche League is an international organization that promotes breastfeeding.
Jack Newman is a Canadian doctor who serves as a health adviser to the group.
He has written and spoken widely on what he says are several mistaken beliefs that stop women from breastfeeding.
Many women think they will not produce enough milk to feed their baby.
Doctor Newman says the large majority of women in fact produce more than enough milk to feed their babies.
Some women worry that breastfeeding will hurt.
Again, Doctor Newman says this is not true.
He says breasts can hurt a little in the first few days of nursing.
But he says any pain beyond that would most likely be the result of incorrect breastfeeding or an infection.
Jack Newman says it is not uncommon for people to believe that baby formula is just as good as breast milk.
But he says only a mother's body can produce the right levels of all the nutrition that a baby needs as these needs change.
He also points out that unlike formula, breast milk contains infection-fighting antibodies -- and it's free.
Medical experts agree that, in general, breast milk is the best possible food for a new baby.
But one problem with breastfeeding is that many new mothers are not sure how to do it correctly.
We will talk about that next week.
Today we have the second in a series of reports about the group of disorders known as learning disabilities.
Different ones affect reading, writing, listening, speaking or working with numbers.
The most common learning disability is dyslexia.
A person with dyslexia has difficulty with language skills, especially reading.
The International Dyslexia Association says studies in different countries generally show that four to seven percent of people are dyslexic.
Dyslexia most commonly affects reading, spelling and writing.
Some people have problems with only one of these.
Others have trouble with spoken language.
They find it difficult to express themselves clearly or understand what other people say.
Dyslexia can also affect a person emotionally.
Dyslexic children often think they are unable to learn.
They think they are stupid, or that is what they are told.
Specialists say children who feel this way are in danger of failure and depression.
What causes dyslexia is not clear.
But studies have found differences in brain activity and development in dyslexic people compared to the general population.
Early signs include a delay in learning to speak, and difficulty pronouncing words.
While learning to read, children with dyslexia may not recognize letters or connect them with their sounds.
They may also have difficulty learning or remembering numbers, colors, shapes or days of the week.
Older children may have difficulty learning a foreign language.
They may read slowly or have trouble remembering what they read.
And they may fail to see or hear similarities and differences in letters and words.
There is no cure, but people with dyslexia can still be successful learners.
Experts say the most important thing is to find the condition at an early age.
And they say only a trained professional can tell if a person is dyslexic.
Specially trained educators can teach people with dyslexia different ways to learn.
Computer-assisted learning might help, or using recorded books instead of printed ones.
Schools can provide more time to finish tasks, and resources like help in taking notes.
More information can be found through organizations like the International Dyslexia Association in Maryland.
Our series on learning disabilities continues next week.
In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia.
They planned to make changes in the Articles of Confederation.
Those articles provided for a loose union of the thirteen states.
Instead of changes, however, the leaders wrote a new document.
It established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens.
It is still the law of the land.
Today, Blake Lanum and I continue the story of the United States Constitution.
The story does not flow easily.
The reason is a rule made by the delegates.
From the beginning, they agreed that the convention had the right to change its decisions.
The convention did not just discuss a proposal, vote on it and move on to other issues.
Any delegate could ask to re-discuss any proposal or any decision.
And they often did.
Every man who saw one of his ideas defeated brought it up again later.
The same speeches that were made the first time were made again.
So days, even weeks, passed between discussions of the same proposal.
The story of the Philadelphia convention would be difficult to understand if we told about events day-by-day.
So, we will put the calendar and the clock away, and tell how each major question was debated and settled.
After the delegates agreed that the convention could change its decisions, they agreed on a rule of secrecy.
Guards were placed at the doors of the State House.
Newspaper reporters were not permitted inside.
And delegates could not discuss convention business in public.
The secrecy rule led people to get many strange ideas about the convention, especially in Europe.
There, most people believed the convention was discussing how America could be ruled by a king.
Europeans said a republican government worked in a small country, such as Switzerland, but not, they said, in a land as large as America.
So some of them began talking about which European prince might be asked to become king of America.
Some were sure it would be Prince Henry of Prussia.
Others said it would be Prince Frederick Augustus, the second son of King George the Third of Britain.
Without news reports from Philadelphia, even some Americans believed these stories.
At the time of the convention, Thomas Jefferson was serving as America's representative to France.
When he learned of the secrecy rule, he was angry.
He believed strongly in freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
More than forty years later, James Madison explained the decision behind the rule.
Madison said that if the convention had been open to the public, no delegate would ever change his mind after speaking on an issue.
To do so would mean he was wrong the first time he spoke.
And no delegate would be willing to admit to the public that he had made a mistake.
Madison said if the meetings had been open, the convention would have failed.
Another rule helped the delegates speak freely.
It was a method of debate called the committee of the whole.
It may seem a foolish method.
But it was useful then and still is today in legislatures.
It is a way for people to discuss ideas, vote, and then change their minds.
Their votes -- while in committee -- are not recorded permanently.
To have the Philadelphia convention become a committee of the whole, the delegates needed to elect a chairman of the committee.
They chose Nathaniel Gorham, a judge from Massachusetts.
Each morning at ten o'clock, the convention met and declared it was sitting as a committee of the whole.
George Washington then left the president's chair.
Nathaniel Gorham took his place.
Just before four o'clock in the afternoon, the committee of the whole declared it was sitting again as a convention.
Judge Gorham stepped down, and General Washington took the chair.
He declared that the convention would meet again the next morning.
This process was repeated every day.
On May twenty-ninth, the delegates heard the Virginia Plan.
This was the plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia.
The thirty-three-year-old governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, presented the plan.
First, he spoke about America's existing plan of government, the Articles of Confederation.
Governor Randolph praised the Articles and the men who wrote them.
Something more was needed now for the new nation.
Something permanent.
George Washington's copy of the Virginia PlanGovernor Randolph spoke of conditions in all the states.
He told the delegates what they already knew was true.
Government was breaking down in many parts of the country.
As he presented the Virginia Plan, Edmund Randolph noted that its fifteen parts were just ideas.
The state of Virginia, he said, did not want to force them on the convention.
Yet the ideas should be discussed.
Change them as you wish, he told the convention.
But talk about them fully.
Other delegates presented their own plans for discussion.
We will talk about some of them in later programs.
But from the beginning, the Virginia Plan had the most influence.
For more than three months, delegates would debate each part, vote on it, then debate it again.
The Virginia Plan formed the basis of discussion at the convention in Philadelphia.
In the end, it formed the basis of the United States Constitution.
The announced purpose of the convention was to change the Articles of Confederation to make them more effective.
The Virginia Plan was not a plan of proposed changes.
It was much more extreme.
It was, in fact, a plan for a completely new central government.
Debate on the Virginia Plan began May thirtieth.
Immediately, Edmund Randolph proposed an amendment.
The plan, he noted, spoke of a federal union of states.
But such a federation would not work.
Instead, he said, America's central government should be a national government.
It should contain a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary.
For a few moments, there was complete silence.
Many of the delegates seemed frozen in their chairs.
Did they hear correctly?
Most of them did not question the idea of a government with three separate parts.
Several states already had such a system.
What was the difference?
The delegates debated the meaning of these words -- federal, national, supreme -- for many days.
Both James Madison and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania tried to explain.
Madison said a federal government acts on states.
A national government acts directly on the people.
Morris gave this explanation.
A federal government is simply an agreement based on the good faith of those involved.
A national government has a complete system of operation and its own powers.
Pierce Butler of South Carolina wanted to know why a national government was necessary.
He spoke of the future when the delegates meeting in Philadelphia would be dead.
Their children and grandchildren, he said, would stop thinking of themselves as citizens of Pennsylvania or New York or North Carolina.
Next week, we will tell about the debate over a national executive, the part of the government that would enforce the laws.
Last week, France's second largest bank, Societe Generale, announced that a single, middle-level trader had caused the bank to lose over seven billion dollars.
It was the largest trading loss by an individual in banking history.
Jerome Kerviel reportedly made trades in European stock index derivatives.
These complex investments are bets that stock indexes will rise or fall.
Mister Kerviel's job was to place bets that indexes would both rise and fall.
Doing this limits the risk of losing a lot.
But it also limits gains.
Mister Kerviel worked in a part of the bank that was supposed to take on little risk.
The bank said Mister Kerviel took measures to avoid its risk controls.
Reports say Mister Kerviel found a way to hide the fact that he bet only on stock prices rising.
He also hid the huge amounts of his bets from bank supervisors.
When stock prices dropped, his financial positions, worth an estimated seventy-three billion dollars, had to be closed at a huge loss.
French government lawyers brought charges against the thirty-one-year-old trader on Monday.
Mister Kerviel was charged with breach of trust and illegal computer activity.
However, he was not charged with financial wrongdoing or false signing of documents.
Mister Kerviel has denied that he tried to profit from his activities.
His lawyer says he is being unfairly charged.
The bank said it only discovered Mister Kerviel's activities on January twentieth.
But a government lawyer said exchange officials had warned the bank about the trader's deals late last year.
The lawyer said Mister Kerviel told him he had started his activities at the end of two thousand five.
Many in the French government are pressuring the bank's chairman and chief executive Daniel Bouton to resign.
Mister Bouton has offered to resign twice but both times the bank's board did not accept his resignation.
Some experts believe efforts by Societe Generale to close out Mister Kerviel's financial positions played a part in driving down European stock prices early last week.
In the United States, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate for the second time in eight days.
On Wednesday, the central bank cut the important interest rate by half a percentage point to three percent.
The Fed said it is now more concerned about the slowing economy than about inflation.
On our show this week: We tell about the state-of-the-art sports center that will hold this year’s Super Bowl … Answer a listener's question about the band Aerosmith … And report on the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah … Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival takes place each January in and around Park City, Utah.
The Sundance Film Festival is a big event for independent filmmakers, film companies and people who love movies.
Tens of thousands of people attend the film festival each year.
They gather in the cold, snowy mountain town of Park City, along with famous movie stars and many reporters.
More than one hundred twenty new films were chosen to be shown during the ten-day event.
It examines the effect of China's Three Gorges Dam on the place where the director's grandfather grew up.
Thirty-two American films competed for prizes at Sundance.
A five-member group of actors and directors chose the winners.
Two films about people dealing with personal tragedy won the top prizes.
A woman and her husband show how they survived Hurricane Katrina and the deadly floodwaters in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Tia Lessin and Carl Deal directed the movie.
People who attend Sundance can vote for their favorite films.
The winners receive the Audience Awards.
Sundance is also an important event for international filmmakers.
Thirty-two films from twenty-five countries competed at the festival.
A man whose real job is to clean the airport tells children magical stories about his make-believe life as a pilot.
Her film explores the chances for democracy in Pakistan.
Aerosmith Our question this week comes from a Chinese listener.
Zheyan Jin wants to know about the rock band Aerosmith.
This group is one of the best selling hard rock bands of all time.
The five musicians have been performing and making records for over thirty-five years.
Their intense and energetic music helped define rock and roll.
The members of Aerosmith are singer Steven Tyler, guitar players Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bass player Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer on drums.
The group formed in nineteen seventy in Boston, Massachusetts.
In the notes of their first album “Aerosmith”, the group described themselves as “third-generation rockers with a desire to create something new.”
Here is their hit song “Dream On” from that album.
During the nineteen seventies, the band made many popular albums, including “Your Wings” and “Toys in the Attic.”
But their success came at a price.
Some members of the band became dependent on illegal drugs.
Two members of the band left and were replaced by other musicians.
The original members of Aerosmith came together again in the nineteen eighties.
Here is the song “Janie’s Got a Gun” from the album “Pump.”
More recently, Aerosmith released “Honkin’ on Bobo” and “Devil’s Got a New Disguise.”
They began recording a new album in November.
Here is the song “Angel’s Eye”.
Aerosmith recorded the song for the movie “Charlie’s Angels.”  2008 Super Bowl The New England Patriots and the New York Giants face each other Sunday in the forty-second yearly American football championship called the Super Bowl.
The Patriots are expected to win.
If they do, they will set a new record.
They will have won more games during the season than any other team in history.
The Patriots will not be the first undefeated team, but they will have won the most games.
The Super Bowl will be an exciting game.
And the stadium where it will be played has the most modern technology in the world.
Barbara Klein has more.
A look from inside the stadium in Glendale, ArizonaThe University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is home to the Arizona Cardinals football team.
It also holds a yearly college level championship game.
But, this will be the first Super Bowl held there.
Workers began building the stadium in two thousand three.
It was completed about three years and four hundred fifty-five million dollars later.
Unlike most stadiums, it has a roof that fully opens.
It is made of two parts that slide in and out.
This is important because Glendale is near the city of Phoenix, Arizona.
This area is called the Valley of the Sun.
It sometimes is a very hot place.
The average high temperature in the summer is above thirty-seven degrees Celsius.
So the roof of the stadium can be closed to permit air conditioning machines to be used.
But the roof can be opened during the cooler months for sporting and other events, like big rock concerts and trade shows.
The stadium has an unusual feature that no other stadium has.
The natural grass playing field rolls in and out of the structure as needed.
The grass grows on an object like a giant tray.
Most of the time the grass is moved outside to get sunshine and rain.
Workers roll it back inside for football games.
Officials say this makes the center more usable for non-sporting events.
Architect Peter Eisenman designed the huge stadium.
Its shape represents the barrel cactus, a common plant in the area.
The huge metal pieces that form its walls shine brightly in the desert sun.
On Sunday, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will play at the Super Bowl half-time event.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
Our writers were Shelley Gollust, Dana Demange and Caty Weaver who was also our producer.
The president spoke at length about some of the issues that his presidency is likely to be remembered for.
He talked about his hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
On Friday the Labor Department reported that the economy lost seventeen thousand jobs in January.
Reacting to the report, Mister Bush said the economy is still basically strong but going through a rough time right now.
He called on the Senate to quickly pass a growth plan approved earlier this week by the House.
Senate Democrats, though, want to add other measures to the plan.
In his final State of the Union address, President Bush offered few new proposals for his eleven months left in office.
The Constitution limits presidents to two terms.
And for the past year, the Republican president has faced a Congress led by Democrats.
Both have low public approval ratings.
One new proposal in his speech was to spend three hundred million dollars providing education money to families of poor children.
He also urged lawmakers to renew his education law, known as No Child Left Behind.
Today, we tell about the much-loved performer Lucille Ball.
Her famous television series, “I Love Lucy,” was first broadcast in nineteen fifty-one.
The “I Love Lucy” show was a huge success.
It was the most popular television show of the nineteen fifties.
The kind of television program Miz Ball helped develop is called a situation comedy.
Some television experts give her credit for inventing this kind of series.
Today, some of the most popular television programs in America are situation comedies.
One reason for the great popularity of “I Love Lucy” may have been its real-life connection with Miz Ball’s family.
On the show, she was Lucy, the wife of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban musician.
Ricky was played by band leader Desi Arnaz, who was Lucille Ball’s husband in real life.
The show combined issues common to the life of married people living in the city with musical performances and comic theater.
Often, a show would include a part with Mister Arnaz acting seriously while Miz Ball added a funny element.
On the show, the Mertzes were friends of the Ricardos and owned the building in which they all lived.
Fred Mertz loved baseball, which was America’s most popular sport at the time.
“I Love Lucy” often showed Fred Mertz intensely watching baseball or some other sport like boxing while Ethel added her own funny comments.
(? “Seeing a baseball game is fun”) A well-known story about the “I Love Lucy Show” concerns the birth of the Arnaz’s son, Desi Junior.
In fact, critics say the show in which Lucy Ricardo tells Ricky that she is pregnant is one of the best.
In it, Lucy goes to the entertainment place where Ricky’s band is playing to tell him that they are going to have a baby.
Ricky suddenly understands that he is going to be a father after Lucy secretly requests the song, “We’re Having a Baby:” ( “We’re Having a Baby”) Miz Ball gave birth to her second child on the same day that Lucy Ricardo gave birth.
In fact, Desi Junior’s birth date was planned to happen on the same day as the broadcast.
The show in which Lucy gave birth was one of the most popular television programs ever broadcast in America.
In fact, the story is that Desi Junior’s birth replaced reports about Dwight Eisenhower’s first presidential ceremony on the front pages of America’s newspapers.
The success of the “I Love Lucy” show did not come early in Lucille Ball’s life, or easily.
Instead, it was the result of years of hard work.
Miz Ball was born near Jamestown, New York, in nineteen eleven.
She tried to get into show business at an early age.
Early on, she went to the same acting school as the famous actress Bette Davis.
However, she left when she was told that she did not have enough acting ability.
In the early nineteen thirties, she moved to Hollywood.
She appeared in a number of movies, but was not well known.
In nineteen forty, she met the leader of a musical group who had been born in Cuba.
His full name was Desiderio Alberto Arnaz de Acha the Third.
They worked together in a movie and married soon after they met.
For the next ten years, she appeared in movies and on radio.
He traveled a lot with his band.
In nineteen fifty, the broadcasting company, CBS, decided to make a television program based on the radio show, “My Favorite Husband.”? Lucille Ball was the star of the radio show.
She wanted Mister Arnaz to play the part of her husband on the television show.
rejected the idea.
But she refused to give up.
She and Desi traveled around the country performing in a show together to prove that they would do well on television.
Their show was a success.
offered them both jobs.
Miz Ball had another demand.
She wanted her show to be a production of the best quality.
Early television pictures were not of good quality.
Miz Ball wanted her program to be filmed, which would improve the picture, and then broadcast later.
?
Yet she wanted people to watch the program as it was being filmed so the sound of their reactions could be captured.
Miz Ball also wanted to film the shows in Hollywood.
did not want the extra costs.
So, Miz Ball and Mister Arnaz agreed to work for less pay.
In exchange, CBS let them own the program.
That agreement made them owners of what would become one of the most successful programs on television.
During the fifties, Miz Ball won almost every honor there was for television actors including several Emmy Awards.
Yet, even the most popular performers could not escape the political realities of the time.
Conservative lawmakers accused Lucille Ball of being a communist.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a secret record of information about her, just as it did about many Hollywood actors at that time.
Mister Arnaz supervised their company, Desilu Productions.
The company produced sixteen different television programs and ran three production centers, called studios.
In nineteen sixty, Lucille Ball and Mister Arnaz legally ended their marriage.
Mister Arnaz sold his part of the company to his ex-wife.
Miz Ball became the first woman to head a major production company.
It was one of the biggest in Hollywood.
Miz Ball also was the star of several other shows of her own.
“The Lucy Show” was broadcast from nineteen sixty-two to nineteen sixty-eight.
“Here’s Lucy” followed until nineteen seventy-four.
Miz Ball later sold her production company to Paramount Studios.
“I Love Lucy” showed Miz Ball at her best.
Mister Arnaz added something that was unusual for American television at the time.
Many of the songs on the show were in Spanish.
One song, “Babalu,” is popularly connected with “I Love Lucy”.
Its words are Spanish and its sound is Latin American.
It is this mixture along with the excellent performances that made the show special: (?“Babalu”) Miz Ball died in nineteen eighty-nine after a heart operation.
Yet, she still makes people laugh.
Her programs are rebroadcast on television and there are hundreds of Internet sites about her.
Hit is a small word but it has a lot of power.
Baseball players hit the ball.
Missiles hit an airplane.
A car hits a tree.
Hit also joins with other words to create many colorful expressions.
One is hit the road.
At first it meant hitting a spot at the center of a target with an arrow.
Someone who did so was satisfied with his shooting.
Now, hitting the spot usually means that a food or drink is especially satisfying.
Something that has hit bottom can go no lower.
If the price of shares of a stock hits bottom that might be the time to buy it.
Its value can only go up.
A student who tells you his grades have hit bottom is saying he has not done well in school.
When a student's grades hit bottom it is time to hit the books.
Hit the books is another way to saying it is time to study.
A student might have to tell her friends she can not go with them to the movies because she has to hit the books.
Not hitting the books could lead to an unpleasant situation for a student.
The father or mother may hit the ceiling when they see the low grades.
Someone who hits the ceiling, the top of the room, is violently angry.
A wife may hit the ceiling because her husband forgot their wedding anniversary.
To build something of wood, you usually need a hammer.
That is what you use to hit nails into the pieces of wood to hold them together.
When you hit the nail on the head, exactly on its top, it goes into the wood perfectly.
And when someone says your words or actions hit the nail on the head, he means what you said or did was exactly right.
If you are tired after hitting all those nails on the head, then it is time to hit the hay.
That expression comes from the days when people slept on beds filled with dried grass or hay.
Some people slept on hay in barns where they kept their farm animals.
Hitting the hay simply means going to bed.
That is a good idea.
I think I will hit the hay now.
The earliest process of making paper was done almost five thousand years ago in Egypt and the Nile Valley.
In those days, paper was made from strips of the papyrus plant.
Modern paper-making began in China about two thousand years ago.
This process produced paper from cloth, straw, wood or the bark of trees.
The raw materials are struck over and over until they become loose.
Then they are mixed with water.
After the water has been removed, the flat, thin form remaining is permitted to dry.
This becomes a sheet of paper.
Large machines started to be used for making paper near the end of the sixteenth century.
Today, paper-making is a big business.
But it is still possible to make paper by hand, since the steps are the same as using big machines.
You should choose paper with small amounts of printing.
Old envelopes are good for this reason.
Colored paper also can be used, as well as small amounts of newspaper.
Small pieces of rags or cloth can be added.
These should be cut into pieces about five centimeters by five centimeters.
Everything is placed in a container, covered with water, and brought to a boil.
It is mixed for about two hours with some common chemicals and then allowed to cool.
Then it is left until most of the water dries up.
The substance left, called pulp, can be stored until you are ready to make paper.
When you are ready, the pulp is mixed with water again.
Then the pulp is poured into a special box or mold.
The mold is made of small squares of wire that hold the shape and thickness of the paper.
To help dry the paper, the mold lets the water flow through the small wire squares.
After several more drying steps, the paper is carefully lifted back from the mold.
It is now strong enough to be touched.
The paper is smoothed and pressed to remove trapped air.
You can use a common electric iron used for pressing clothes.
There are many other technologies for people making paper using small machines.
You can order more information about making paper from EnterpriseWorks/VITA. The address of the group’s Web site is enterpriseworks.org.
This week our subject is the presidential campaign, heading into the biggest day of the nominating season: Super Tuesday.
This presidential election is creating unusual interest and excitement across America, especially with young people and Democrats.
The Democrats hope to reclaim the White House after eight years of Republican presidency.
Yet candidates from both parties are promising change.
There are major issues facing Americans.
The weakening economy.
The Iraq war.
Other concerns include the troubled housing market, high costs of health care and energy, and the debate over illegal immigration.
But interest in the election is also being driven by the candidates themselves.
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would become America's first female or first black president.
Republican John McCain would become, at age seventy-two, the oldest president elected to a first term.
Or if the Republicans nominate Mitt Romney and he wins, he would become the nation's first Mormon president.
Americans will choose their next president in general elections on November fourth.
The names on the ballot will be the result of a nominating process that began just after New Year's Day.
Each state has its own process for choosing presidential candidates.
But for candidates the goal is the same: to secure enough delegates to win their party's nomination.
State nominating elections will be held through June.
Most of these votes take place in the form of primary elections.
Other take place at meetings known as caucuses, or at state conventions.
The Democratic Party will hold its national nominating convention in August in Denver, Colorado.
The Republican National Convention will take place in September in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota.
To win nomination, candidates will need a simple majority of their party's delegates.
The rules for awarding delegates, though, are anything but simple.
Democrats and Republicans are the two major political parties in the United States.
The nominating season began January third with the caucuses in Iowa.
At caucuses, voters gather in local places like schools, libraries or even people's homes.
Some caucuses use secret ballots like traditional elections.
But others require voters to gather in different areas of a room to show their support for their favorite candidate.
The main difference between a primary and a caucus is the process involved.
A primary is more like a traditional election.
The majority of states hold primary elections.
More than forty states will be holding primaries this year.
Some are open primaries.
That means independent voters can take part.
Others are closed primaries: only members of a party can vote.
The ability to win a closed primary can be an important test of party support for a candidate.
For example, the first two primaries that John McCain won, in New Hampshire and South Carolina, were open.
The Arizona senator won them on the strength of independent voters.
His victory last week in Florida was his first win with only Republicans voting.
He defeated Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, thirty-six percent to thirty-one percent.
Winning Florida put John McCain into the lead in Republican delegates.
Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Florida.
But none of the Democratic candidates campaigned there.
National party officials are refusing to seat Florida's delegates at the convention this summer.
The dispute is over the decision to hold Florida's Democratic primary before February fifth -- Super Tuesday.
This is the week for Super Tuesday.
Primaries did not become an important part of the nominating process until the nineteen sixties.
Before then, only some states held them.
Nominees were mainly decided at the conventions by party leaders.
Many Americans disliked that system.
Pressure to end the political deal making led to more primaries.
But that led to a new criticism: that states with early primaries have too much influence on presidential races.
Candidates give more attention to small states with early contests than big states with later ones.
This time, many states moved their nominating elections earlier in the year.
Super Tuesday will include big states like California and New York, which have hundreds of delegates.
In all, twenty-four of the fifty states will hold primaries or caucuses, with one exception.
Republicans in West Virginia will hold a convention.
Alex Keyssar is a political historian and professor at Harvard University.
He says having almost half the states vote on a single day puts greater importance on raising money for television advertising and travel.
It also put more pressure on candidates to do well early in the primary season or drop out, as several already have.
Last Wednesday, former North Carolina senator John Edwards left the race for the Democratic nomination.
And former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani left the Republican race.
Neither had won any states.
The Democratic race has narrowed to two candidates: Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
Former president Bill Clinton has campaigned for his wife.
But his recent attacks on Barack Obama brought strong criticism within the party.
Going into Super Tuesday, Hillary Clinton has more delegates than Barack Obama.
But even winning all twenty-two states holding Democratic votes would not give either of them enough delegates to secure the nomination.
About one thousand seven hundred Democratic delegates will be awarded.
Two thousand twenty-five are needed for nomination.
Going into the primary season, many experts predicted that clear front-runners would be known by the close of Super Tuesday.
Now they are not so sure.
Tom Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says delegates could end up split among candidates.
But he thinks it is likely that the parties will want to gather their support around one candidate.
At the national nominating conventions, delegates are generally expected to support the candidate who sent them.
But some delegates have a right to vote for another candidate.
In a tight race, the nominee could be decided by hundreds of delegates known as superdelegates.
These are party leaders and elected officials.
Superdelegates are free to choose any candidate, but they often vote for the candidate who wins their home state.
The Democrats award delegates proportionally.
For example, if candidates win forty percent of the popular vote in a state, they win forty percent of that state's delegates.
The Republicans generally use the winner-takes-all system.
The candidate with the highest percentage of votes in a state wins all of that state’s delegates.
As a result, Super Tuesday is more likely to produce a commanding front-runner for the Republicans than for the Democrats.
One thousand one hundred ninety-one delegates are needed to win the Republican nomination.
More than one thousand will be awarded on Tuesday.
Republican candidate Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses.
That gave him a strong start.
But now the former Arkansas governor is low on campaign money.
And he says his experience in business prepares him to deal with the economy.
Hillary Clinton says she has the experience to deal with America's problems from her first day as president.
Barack Obama, forty-six years old and a first-term senator, says experience is important.
This week, we will tell how a deadly bird flu virus is able to infect people.
We will also tell about two studies of broken hipbones.
And, we report on the discovery of ancient ape remains in Africa.
Researchers in the United States have found an important reason why a virus known to kill birds has not infected many people.
They found that the bird flu virus only infects people when it connects with one kind of cell receptor.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported their discovery in the publication Nature Biotechnology.
Not all influenza viruses affect people.
Some flu viruses only attack birds or pigs.
The World Health Organization says the disease killed more than two hundred of them.
The victims seem to have become infected as a result of being with or near birds.
Experts fear the h-five-h-one virus could change and develop the ability to pass from one person to another.
Scientists know that a protein on the flu virus must join with sugar receptors in a human respiratory cell before the virus can infect a person.
The virus uses the sugar receptor to enter the cell and infect it.
The new study has shown that this explanation was too simple.
For a person to get infected, the virus must connect with a special shape of receptor in human lung cells.
The receptor has two different shapes.
One is similar to a three-sided object.
The other looks like an open umbrella or sunshade.
The Massachusetts researchers found the bird flu virus must connect to the umbrella shaped receptor before it can spread from person to person.
Currently, it has only a way to connect with the three-sided receptors.
Scientists say this discovery should help them develop a more effective way to observe changes in the bird flu virus.
They now know to look for viruses that can connect to the umbrella shaped receptors.
The knowledge could also lead to a vaccine against the bird flu virus.
Millions of people break a hip at some time in their lives.
In the United States alone, more than three hundred twenty thousand people suffer broken hips each year.
A broken hip, also called a hip fracture, is very painful.
The hip is a boney area in the upper leg.
For some older adults, a hip fracture can mean loss of ability to walk.
The injury can end their chances for a normal life.
The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published two studies about hip fractures.
The studies may help doctors identify people’s risks of broken bones during their later years.
Doctors usually order a bone mineral density test when an older adult breaks a hip by falling from a standing position.
Such a break is called a low-trauma fracture.
The doctors order the test because they suspect the bone-weakening disorder osteoporosis.
The disorder thins the thickness, or density, of bones without causing pain.
People usually do not know they have osteoporosis until a test confirms it.
But doctors may not order a test if the patient has suffered a high-trauma fracture.
This fracture results from a car crash injury.
Or, a fall from a chair may cause it.
One study included adults sixty-six years of age or older.
Researchers collected nine years of information about eight thousand women.
The researchers also studied five years of information about almost six thousand men.
All those studied were tested for bone density.
People who showed lower bone density suffered more high-trauma fractures.
Dawn Mackey led the study.
She works at the Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco, California.
Some women in the study had a high-trauma hip fracture during the period they were observed.
These women had about eight percent less bone density than women who did not suffer such breaks.
Men with high-trauma fractures had about six percent less bone density than the other men.
Miz Mackey’s team found that women with osteoporosis were two times as likely to get each kind of fracture than other women.
Men who had osteoporosis were three times as likely as other men.
The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a separate study of hip fractures.
Jane Cauley of the University of Pittsburgh led a team that studied thousands of older women.
Her team formed a step-by-step process.
The process measured a woman’s threat for hip fractures over five years.
The women studied reported eleven facts about themselves.
The researchers then considered the women’s ages, general health, height and weight.
They also noted the women’s ethnicity, physical activity, and broken bones after age fifty-four.
They noted whether or not the women smoked or had been treated with steroid drugs.
They examined for history of diabetes and broken hips in the women’s parents.
The team then kept records of the conditions.
They developed a measurement system for the possibility of hip fractures.
The system may add to a doctor’s ability to know which of their patients might break a hip.
The doctors then could advise protective measures.
Scientists have reported finding remains of an ancient ape in eastern Africa.
The scientists believe the remains came from an animal that lived almost ten million years ago.
They say it may be close to the last common ancestor of modern African apes and human beings.
Yutaka Kunimatsu from Kyoto University led an international team of scientists.
Japanese and Kenyan researchers discovered bones from the chin and mouth of the ancient ape in two thousand five.
The jawbone fossils were found in northern Kenya.
The team tested the fossils for almost two years.
The findings were reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The jawbone fossils came from volcanic soil in Nakali, an area forty kilometers from the Rift Valley.
In the past, other fossils were found there.
Mister Kunimatsu’s team named the ape Nakalipthecus nakayamai – or just Nakali.
The jawbone held three teeth.
The researchers also found eleven other ape teeth.
Mister Kunimatsu said the animal was about the size of a female gorilla or orangutan.
He said the teeth showed the ape could have crushed hard food.
The teeth are similar to those of another ancient ape that lived in what is now Greece.
The researchers used several methods to find Nakali’s age.
They compared the fossils with remains of ancient horse-like creatures called hipparions.
The hipparions had already been found to be ten million to eleven million years old.
Geologists on the team collected rocks from the Nakali area.
The geologists used radiation to learn the ages of the rocks.
The team then combined all the methods to estimate the ape’s age.
Mister Kunimatsu reported that Nakali lived about nine point eight to nine point nine million years ago.
The test results dispute a widely accepted theory.
Some scientists believe the ape from Greece was the last common ancestor to both modern African apes and humans.
They say the last common ancestor began life in Africa and then moved to Asia and Europe.
Under this theory, the ancient ape returned to Africa where it developed into humans.
The theory resulted because scientists working in Africa have found few ape fossils from seven million to thirteen million years ago.
But now there are the jawbone and teeth from Nakali.
Recently, other ape fossils from that period reportedly were found in eastern Africa.
An aide to fossil researchers found an ape’s canine tooth about two years ago in Ethiopia.
Last year, this research group found eight more teeth from the same kind of animal in the same place.
Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo led the researchers.
He says the creature may have been a direct ancestor of a gorilla.
Or, he says it may have been an animal that developed teeth like a gorilla but died out over time.
Our producer was Brianna Blake.
A woman in Zambia with a bag of corn from the international aid group CAREThe United States provides more than half the world's food assistance.
American programs totaled close to two billion dollars last year.
But critics say the current system wastes money and delays the arrival of needed food.
Under current law, United States government agencies have to buy American-produced food.
And seventy-five percent of the aid must be carried on American ships.
President Bush wants to change the system.
His proposal would provide food assistance by purchasing crops directly from farmers in the developing world.
Money in the form of cash grants would supply about twenty-five percent of food aid.
President Bush, in his State of the Union speech last month, called on Congress to support the proposal.
It said rising business and transportation costs had cut the average amount of food shipped over the last five years by fifty-two percent.
Yet demand has grown.
Critics among charity groups have called for changes in the system.
CARE USA, a major aid group, said last year that it would not take part in the current system after two thousand nine.
But the system also has supporters among agricultural, shipping and charity groups, and lawmakers in Congress.
Supporters say the current system works well and that changing it could harm food aid programs.
The continuing debate over the most effective ways to provide food aid is not the only agriculture-related issue in Washington.
Congress has been working for months on a major farm bill.
The House of Representatives and the Senate passed similar versions of legislation last year.
President Bush says he may veto the final bill that reaches him.
He says it would cost too much in its present form.
He wants to end subsidy payments to farmers who earn a lot for their crops.
The president has a new agriculture secretary to deal with these issues.
Former North Dakota governor Ed Schafer was sworn into office in late January.
He replaced Mike Johanns, who resigned to run for the United States Senate from Nebraska.
Again, a lot of people skip the table of contents unless they're just looking for a certain page.
But the table of contents, an overview of that, can tell you how the book is set up, and following the same pattern within each chapter.
And the student has to get familiar with the terminology that the book uses: does it use units, chapters, sections, parts?
Textbooks are not written as if we're speaking to one another.
The very first thing a student has to do is to decide that they are going to be interactive with their textbook.
They are going to build this friendship by listening to the textbook and communicating back to the textbook.
And this means reading interactively.
One method of doing this is the SQ3R method which is Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review.
One person you don't want to leave hanging on the phone is Nancy Friedman.
She's been traveling the country, and now abroad, on a mission.
Today, we tell about one of the most popular walking paths in the United States, the Appalachian Trail.
One of the most popular activities enjoyed by Americans is spending time in forests and walking along paths through the country.
This activity, called hiking, has led to the creation of paths throughout the United States.
Some of these paths, or trails, are short.
Some are only a few kilometers.
Others are many hundreds of kilometers.
One of the longest is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
The trail is the first completed part of the National Trails System.
The trails system was established by Congress and the President in nineteen sixty-eight.
The Appalachian Trail is more than three thousand four hundred kilometers long.
It starts in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southeastern state of Georgia.
The trail goes through fourteen states.
They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia.
The path takes walkers through the Appalachian Mountains.
They extend from the Canadian Province of Quebec to the southern American state of Alabama.
The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest on Earth.
They first began forming about one thousand million years ago.
During the millions of years since then, the mountains were changed and reformed by the forces of water and wind.
Ice also changed the mountains, making many of them smaller and digging valleys and lakes among them.
Many different kinds of trees grow along the trail.
And many different kinds of animals live in the forests along the trail.
Land along the trail is protected by the federal government and by state governments.
Some parts are not protected by the government directly.
Instead, they are protected by legal agreements with private owners willing to permit people to walk across their property.
Walkers on the Appalachian Trail pass through some of the great valley systems of the mountains.
They can look down into these beautiful valleys and see farms and forests stretching across the land for many kilometers.
Farmland in the valleys is rich and productive.
And some of the great events in American history took place in the valleys.
For example, one of the great battles of the American Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.
The Appalachian Trail was the idea of Benton MacKaye.
Mister MacKaye first proposed creating the trail in nineteen twenty-one.
Although there were many separate trails in different parts of the eastern United States, most of them were not connected.
In nineteen twenty-five, representatives of several private organizations met in Washington, D.C. and formed the Appalachian Trail Conference.
Their idea was to create a trail connecting the two highest mountains in the eastern United States -- Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Mount Mitchell in Georgia.
It was another five years before development of the trail began, under the direction of Myron Avery.
Seven years after Mister Avery took control of the project, the Appalachian Trail was completed.
This happened on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty-seven.
Creating the trail was a difficult job that involved the work of many thousands of people.
But there were no public celebrations or events to observe its opening.
Public knowledge of the trail grew slowly.
Today, it is one of the most famous trails in the world.
However, it is not the longest hiking trail.
Two others in the western United States are longer.
They are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail.
Still, the Appalachian Trail is the most famous.
People from around the world come to see the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys near the Appalachian Trail.
The trail makes it possible to see much of this beauty without having to see cities, towns, and other parts of the modern world.
Instead, people can see many places along the trail that look very much the way they did before humans arrived many thousands of years ago.
This is one of the main reasons why the Appalachian Trail is so popular among Americans, especially those living in the eastern United States.
The trail is not far from most of the major cities along the eastern coast, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
It provides a place where people from these cities can leave behind the worries of modern life to enjoy the peace and beauty of nature.
Most people who use the Appalachian Trail go mainly for short walks that last for less than a day.
Many of them want to look at the different kinds of plants and animals that live along the trail.
For many other people, the Appalachian Trail provides a chance to spend several days camping and hiking.
They walk along the trail carrying all the things they will need to survive for several days.
These hikers carry food, cooking equipment, water, sleeping bags and temporary shelters called tents.
In New Hampshire's White Mountains, there are special camps along the Appalachian Trail where people can stay.
The Appalachian Mountain Club operates these camps.
The club is one of the thirty-two groups that belong to the Appalachian Trail Conference.
Volunteers in these groups supervise and operate the Appalachian Trail through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.
The Appalachian Mountain Club has about ninety thousand members.
It is the oldest conservation organization in the United States.
The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several camps along ninety kilometers of the trail.
Each camp provides hikers with shelter, beds and food.
Each camp is located about a day's walk from the next one.
These camps are so popular that it is necessary to request to stay at one a year ahead.
It is especially difficult to find a place in such camps during summer weekends.
Many people hike along the trail to such camps with their families.
Writer Eileen Ogintz is one of those people who stayed at an Appalachian Mountain Club camp with her family.
She found it very different from what her family does every day at home.
She and her family had to hike up a mountain path in the rain to get to their camp.
There are no radios or televisions.
So families spend time talking with each other.
After two days in the wilderness, her family enjoyed the experience.
The Ogintz family’s two days on the Appalachian Trail is similar to the experience of many people.
The first part is difficult.
But the rewards of experiencing nature are very satisfying.
This may be enough for most people.
But there are some people who want more than just a day or weekend on the trail.
These people try to walk from the beginning of the trail to the end.
They usually start at Springer Mountain in Georgia in the early spring.
Generally, they hike the more than three thousand four hundred kilometers to Mount Katahdin in Maine in five to six months.
One person who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail is writer Bill Bryson.
Mister Bryson tells the story of his long walking trip in his humorous book “A Walk in the Woods.”?
However, he and his friend did not complete the trip as planned.
At the end of their long trip, Mister Bryson and his friend asked each other how they felt about the experience and if they were sad to leave the trail.
After thinking about it for a while, the two agreed that they were both happy and sad about ending their trip.
Mister Bryson said he was tired of the trail, but still very interested in it.
He became tired of the endless forests, but felt great wonder at their endlessness.
He enjoyed the escape from civilization, but wanted its comforts.
At the end of “A Walk in the Woods,” Bill Bryson suggests that his experiences on the Appalachian Trail changed the way he looks at life and the world.
This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler.
We talked last week about the value of breastfeeding for a baby’s development.
But getting the milk into the baby can seem difficult, at least at first.
So here is some advice.
Breastfeeding should begin right after a baby is born.
There may be experts at a hospital or other health center who can show a new mother several different positions for breastfeeding.
A mother can get a painful back or neck if she leans over to feed her baby.
Better to bring the baby to the breast instead.
The baby's mouth should be open as wide as possible so that all of the nipple and area around it fit inside.
A baby should be fed often at the beginning, usually about every two hours.
The Mayo Clinic in the United States also notes it is best to feed before a baby gets too hungry.
Experts say that when a mother breastfeeds often, it helps increase her milk production.
Women can learn more about breastfeeding from books or support groups or the Internet.
But some mothers face difficult decisions.
In developing countries, breastfeeding remains a leading way for babies to become infected with the AIDS virus.
Yet formula mixed with dirty water can make a baby sick.
Earlier this week, at a conference in Boston, AIDS experts reported good news.
They said a study of about two thousand babies showed that the drug nevirapine can cut the risk of HIV infection through breastfeeding.
Nevirapine is widely used in developing countries to prevent infected mothers from passing the virus to their babies during childbirth.
The babies are currently given nevirapine just once, at birth.
But this is what the study found: Babies given nevirapine daily for six weeks had about half the rate of HIV infections as those given only a single dose.
By six months of age, they still had almost one-third less risk of infection or death.
Scientists reported that six weeks of nevirapine appeared to be as safe as the single dose given under current guidelines.
Teams from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland led the study with investigators from Ethiopia, India and Uganda.
In two thousand six the United Nations changed its policies on breastfeeding by HIV-infected mothers.
The new advice supports breastfeeding for six months if mothers do not have money for basic foods or baby formula.
The idea is that the benefits of breastfeeding are greater than the risks.
Experts say newborns who are not breastfed have five to seven times the risk of dying from pneumonia or diarrhea compared to breastfed babies.
Today, Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael continue the story of the United States Constitution.
Edmund Randolph's speech introducing the Virginia Plan at the conventionLast week, we told how the convention heard details of the Virginia Plan.
That was a fifteen-part plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia.
The plan described a national government with a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary.
But in the end, they approved the proposal.
On June first, they began debate on the issue of a national executive.
The Virginia Plan offered several points for discussion.
It said the national executive should be chosen by the national legislature.
The executive's job would be to carry out the laws made by the legislature.
He would serve a number of years.
He would be paid a small amount of money.
These points served as a basis for debate.
Over a period of several weeks, the delegates worked out details of the executive's position and powers.
It seemed every delegate at the Philadelphia convention had something to say about the issue of a national executive.
They had been thinking about it for some time.
Almost every delegate was afraid to give the position extended powers.
Almost no one wanted America's chief executive to become as powerful as a king.
Still, many of the delegates had faith in the idea of a one-man executive.
Others demanded an executive of three men.
James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued for the one-man executive.
He said the position required energy and the ability to make decisions quickly.
He said these would best be found in one man.
Edmund Randolph of Virginia disagreed strongly.
He said it was one of the best governments in the world.
Finally, the delegates voted.
Seven state delegations voted for a one-man executive.
Three voted against the idea.
During the debate on size, other questions arose about the national executive.
One question was the executive's term.
Should he serve just once or could he be re-elected?
Alexander Hamilton argued for a long term of office.
He said if a president served only a year or two, America soon would have many former presidents.
These men, he said, would fight for power.
And that would be bad for the peace of the nation.
Benjamin Franklin argued for re-election.
The people, he said, were the rulers of a republic.
And presidents were the servants of the people.
If the people wanted to elect the same president again and again, they had the right to do this.
Delegates debated two main proposals on the question.
One was for a three-year term with re-election permitted.
The other was for one seven-year term.
The vote on the question was close.
Five state delegations approved a term of seven years.
Four voted no.
The question came up again during the convention and was debated again.
In the final document, the president's term was set at four years with re-election permitted.
Next came the question of how to choose the national executive.
It was a most difficult problem.
The delegates debated, voted, re-debated, and re-voted a number of proposals.
James Wilson proposed that the executive be elected by special representatives of the people, called electors.
The electors would be chosen from districts set up for this purpose.
Several delegates disagreed.
They said the people did not know enough to choose good electors.
They said the plan would be too difficult to carry out and would cost too much money.
One delegate proposed that the national executive be elected by the state governors.
He said the governors of large states would have more votes than the governors of small states.
Nobody liked this proposal, especially delegates from the small states.
It was defeated.
Then they voted against this method.
Instead, they said, let state legislatures name electors who would choose the executive.
But the delegates changed their mind on this vote, too.
They re-debated the idea of direct popular elections.
The convention voted on the issue sixty times.
In the end, it agreed that the national executive should be chosen by electors named by state legislatures.
Now, someone said, we have decided how to choose the executive.
But what are we to do if the executive does bad things after being appointed?
We should have some way of dismissing him.
Yes, the delegates agreed.
It should be possible to impeach the executive, to try him, and if guilty, remove him from office.
Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania spoke in support of impeachment.
A national executive, he said, may be influenced by a greater power to betray his trust.
The delegates approved a proposal for removing a chief executive found guilty of bribery, treason, or other high crimes.
The last major question about the national executive was the question of veto power over the national legislature.
Not one delegate was willing to give the executive complete power to reject new laws.
And yet they felt the executive should have some voice in the law-making process.
If this were not done, they said, the position of executive would have little meaning.
And the national legislature would have the power of a dictator.
James Madison offered a solution: The executive should have the power to veto a law, Madison said.
But his veto could be over-turned if most members of the legislature voted to pass the law again.
The final convention document listed more details about the national executive, or president.
For example, it said the president had to be born in the United States or a citizen at the time the Constitution was accepted.
He must have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years.
He must be at least thirty-five years old.
The executive would be paid.
But his pay could not be increased or reduced during his term in office.
He would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
And, from time to time, he would have to report to the national legislature on the state of the Union.
The final document also gave the words by which a president would be sworn-in.
Our program was written by Christine Johnson.
The narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael.
People who have unusual difficulty with reading, writing, listening or working with numbers might have a learning disability.
We talked last week about a reading disorder, dyslexia.
Today we discuss a writing disorder, dysgraphia.
Writing is not an easy skill.
Not only does it require the ability to organize and express ideas in the mind.
It also requires the ability to get the muscles in the hands and fingers to form those ideas, letter by letter, on paper.
Experts say teachers and parents should suspect dysgraphia if a child's handwriting is unusually difficult to read.
Letters might be sized or spaced incorrectly.
Capital letters might be in the wrong places.
The child's hand, body or paper might be in a strange position.
These can all be signs of dysgraphia.
Spelling problems can also be related to the disorder.
Many people have poor handwriting, but dysgraphia is more serious.
Dsygraphia is a neurological disorder that generally appears when children are first learning to write.
Writing by hand can be physically painful for people who have it.
There are different kinds of dysgraphia.
And it can appear with other learning disabilities, especially involving language.
Experts are not sure what causes it.
But they say early treatment can help prevent or reduce many problems.
For example, special exercises can increase strength in the hands and improve muscle memory.
This is training muscles to remember the shapes of letters and numbers.
Children can try a writing aid like a thick pencil to see if that helps.
Schools can also provide simple interventions like more time to complete writing activities or assistance from a note taker.
Teachers could have students with dysgraphia take tests by speaking the answers into a recorder, or type their work instead of writing it.
Children with dysgraphia might be able to avoid the problems of handwriting by using a computer.
Yet experts say they could still gain from special instruction to help them organize their thoughts and put them into writing.
Such skills become more important as children get older and schoolwork becomes more difficult.
On our show this week: We play music from artists nominated for the two thousand eight Grammy Awards ... And from some of very first Grammy Award winners, honored fifty years ago … And, we answer a listener’s question about the world’s tallest building.
Tallest Building Our listener question this week comes from Iran.
Ali Barati wants to know about the tallest building in the world.
The answer to this question is less clear than you might think.
Disputes over the answer to this question have to do with whether tall tower structures can be included as buildings.
Is a communications tower a building?
Do the metal antenna devices on top of some buildings count as additional height?
What about structures that are partly under water?
Or, communication towers that are supported by metal wires?
No matter the answer, a building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will be the tallest above-ground structure in the world when it is completed next year.
The Burj Dubai is expected to measure six hundred ninety-three meters tall, not counting a spire at the very top.
The current height of the Burj Dubai is about six hundred meters.
Its more than one hundred sixty levels will contain homes, offices, shops, and a hotel.
To make sure this building in Dubai will really be the tallest in the world, we checked with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
This organization is based in Chicago, Illinois.
It includes building designers, engineers and planning experts.
The group’s aim is to provide useful information on planning and building tall buildings around the world.
The council says a building’s height is measured from the sidewalk level of the main entry to the structural top of the building.
But the council says it looks at other ways to measure height as well.
These include from the sidewalk to the highest floor of a building, to the top of the building’s roof covering, or to the top of the antenna or spire on the top of the building.
Designers of the Burj Dubai have made sure that it is the tallest in all four ways of measuring.
Before the Burj Dubai, the tallest free-standing building in the world was the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.
That tower measures five hundred fifty-three meters.
And, the tallest structure in the world is currently a television transmission antenna in the American state of North Dakota.
It extends six hundred twenty-eight meters into the sky.
But it will not be the tallest structure for long.
Fiftieth Grammy Awards Photographers take pictures of country singer Taylor Swift with a large copy of a Grammy Award That was the Champs performing their hit song “Tequila.”?
In nineteen fifty-nine the band was honored for that song at the first ever Grammy Awards ceremony.
This Sunday night, music makers will gather for the fiftieth yearly Grammy Awards.
Barbara Klein plays music from some of this year’s nominees as well those honored at the first Grammys.
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presents Grammy Awards for the best recordings of the year.
The ceremony will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The event will be broadcast live on television as it has been since nineteen seventy-one.
Some of the nominees will perform at the show, like the Foo Fighters.
They are nominated for five awards including Record of the Year for this song, “The Pretender.”
Rolling Stone magazine made a list of which nominees it thought would win Grammys and which nominees it thought should win.
The magazine predicts that Christina Aguilera will win Best Female Vocal Performance for the song “Candyman.”?
But it says the singer Feist deserves the award for her performance of “1234.”
Ella Fitzgerald won that top prize at the first Grammy Awards.
It was for her album “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book.”?
Here is “Puttin’ On the Ritz,” from that album.
This year Amy Winehouse was nominated for six top Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
The spending plan for two thousand nine would give the federal government its first budget over three trillion dollars.
Deficit spending would come close to the record of four hundred thirteen billion dollars in two thousand four.
But the administration predicts a balanced budget by two thousand twelve.
The budget proposal for next year includes increases for the departments of defense and homeland security.
It calls for spending seventy billion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the full cost for the year is expected to be higher.
The president has been providing money for the wars through emergency spending measures.
The administration proposes cuts in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid.
Medicare is government health insurance for older people; Medicaid pays for medical care for the poor.
The move is unpopular in Congress.
But White House Budget Director Jim Nussle says the budget reduces growth in these programs to a level the nation can afford.
The president's budget includes a short-term economic growth plan.
It also includes an extension of tax cuts, along with assistance for homeowners and more spending for scientific research.
Democrats say the budget spends too little on important services -- and too much when it comes to increasing the national debt.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad says total debts were about six trillion dollars at the end of the president's first year.
At the end of eight years in office, he says, that number is expected to rise above ten trillion.
Conservatives in President Bush's Republican Party also criticize the growth in government spending.
He entered office with a budget surplus in January of two thousand one.
But his budget director notes that the United States later suffered terrorist attacks and natural disasters that required spending more.
The new budget year begins October first.
Generally, a lot of changes are made in the last budget of a president who is leaving office.
This is true especially when Congress is governed by the opposition party.
For the first time, Congress received the president's budget request in electronic form.
Lawmakers and members of the public can buy traditional printed copies of the huge document if they wish.
People often say that money talks.
They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done.
But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power.
Ask anyone in a business.
They will tell you that it is a jungle out there.
The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people.
Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals.
And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world threaten the survival of their business.
People in business have to be careful if they are to survive the jungle out there.
They must not be led into making bogus investments.
Bogus means something that is not real.
Nobody is sure how the word got started.
But it began to appear in American newspapers in the eighteen hundreds.
A newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, said the word came from a criminal whose name was Borghese.
The newspaper said Borghese wrote checks to people although he did not have enough money in the bank.
After he wrote the checks, he would flee from town.
So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing.
The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed the criminal's name Borghese, to bogus.
People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped off.
A person who is ripped off has had something stolen, or at least has been treated very unfairly.
It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest demonstration at a university.
The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off, or cheated.
Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly.
To be successful, a person in business works hard and tries to get down to brass tacks.
This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something.
For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price.
They clean the bottom of a boat.
When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper pieces that hold the boat together.
So, if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent ripoffs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there.
And, some good luck will help, too.
After Super Tuesday, Republicans have their likely nominee for president in the November election, John McCain.
But for Democrats, there was nothing super about the biggest day of voting in the nation's presidential nominating history.
Almost half the states voted on delegates for the conventions this summer where the parties will nominate their candidates.
California and other states that normally held their votes later in the year moved them up to have more influence.
Yet the Democrats are no closer to a clear front-runner than they were before Tuesday.
Senator McCain of Arizona is now the clear Republican front-runner.
He won nine states.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won seven.
And former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee won the remaining five states where Republicans voted Tuesday, all in the South.
But on Thursday Mitt Romney left the race.
He said taking his fight to the convention would delay the launch of a national campaign, and make it easier for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to win.
For Democrats, the fight continues between Senator Clinton of New York and Senator Obama of Illinois.
He won more states, but she won delegate-heavy states like New York and, the biggest of all, California.
They ended up with close delegate counts as a result of the complex process that the Democrats use for dividing delegates.
The primary season will continue through June.
Voters in eight states make their choices in the next week.
John McCain has well over half the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination.
Some Republicans think he is not conservative enough; he is asking his party to unite behind him.
A new Time magazine poll suggests that John McCain would lose to Barack Obama, forty-eight to forty-one percent.
But if the election were between John McCain and Hillary Clinton, the study shows that each would get forty-six percent.
As the Democratic race intensifies, so does the race for money.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each raised about one hundred million dollars last year.
But his campaign reported raising thirty-two million dollars in January, compared to thirteen million for her campaign.
Unlike many Obama supporters, many Clinton supporters have already given the limit permitted by law.
Hillary Clinton said this week that she loaned five million dollars of her own money to her campaign last month.
On Super Tuesday, voters who said they cared most about the economy were more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton or John McCain.
Democrats who said the Iraq war was the most important issue were more likely to choose Barack Obama.
On the Republican side, Mitt Romney captured the majority of voters who said immigration was the most important issue.
It is one of almost one thousand songs Cole Porter wrote.
In his seventy-three years, more than five hundred of those songs were published.
Porter wrote most of his songs in the nineteen twenties, thirties and forties.
Yet they remain as fresh as when he wrote them.
Cole Porter’s songs are still being sung and played today.
They are performed at musical theaters, jazz clubs, even rock-and-roll concerts.
A movie about his life, called “De-Lovely,” was released in two thousand four.
Kevin Kline stars in the movie as Cole Porter.
Ashley Judd plays his wife, Linda Porter.
Popular young performers of today sing his songs in the movie.
We will play some songs from that movie later in this program.
Cole Porter was born June ninth, eighteen ninety-one, in the middle western state of Indiana.
His family was wealthy and educated.
His mother, Kate, guided him to music at an early age.
He wrote his first song at the age of ten.
As a young man, he was sent east to study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
In his extra time, he continued to write songs.
After finishing his studies at Yale, Cole Porter went to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to study law.
That plan lasted only a year.
At a party one night, he played some of his songs for the students and professors.
Some actors and rock stars use their star power for social activism.
But how much power do they really have?
Daniel Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
He says measuring the effects of celebrity activism can be difficult.
He thinks perhaps the most successful example is Princess Diana's campaign against landmines in the nineteen nineties.
Yet in the end, he says, it was her death in a car crash that brought more attention to her work and to the issue.
Professor Drezner says celebrity activism can have influence.
Star power can bring public attention, donations and pressure for action on important issues.
It can also educate fans through stories in the entertainment media.
But at the same time there are risks.
Most people will grow tired of an issue, the professor says.
And they might also grow tired of a celebrity who keeps talking about it, especially if they think governments are already taking action.
Also, when star power is directed at one crisis, others could be forgotten.
Some people or governments could feel that celebrities are misusing their fame and wealth to influence policy.
They might think an entertainer should stick to entertaining.
Daniel Drezner says professional policy experts might feel deeper hostility.
Facing competition, they begin to question their own influence.
George Clooney, the Academy Award-winning actor, is no stranger to celebrity activism.
For more than four years he has campaigned to end the conflict in Darfur, in western Sudan.
Now, he is a newly appointed United Nations messenger of peace.
He just returned from a two-week trip to Darfur, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo with a U.N. peacekeeping official.
They also went to India, a big provider of U.N. peacekeepers.
Yet when George Clooney visited U.N. headquarters in New York, not everyone was excited to see him.
Fans clearly were.
But he was prevented from reporting on his trip at a meeting of countries that provide peacekeeping troops.
Diplomats told news agencies it was because of objections from several countries, including Russia.
But a U.N. spokeswoman said it was because of rules -- procedural reasons.
She added that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations hoped to have him talk to the countries in the future.
This week on our program, we tell about two skillful writers who tell stories about people living in the American West.
Cormac McCarthy has been writing intense stories about love, life and death for over forty years.
Many of Thomas McGuane’s intelligent and often funny novels take place in the western state of Montana.
Join us as we tell about both writers and their books.
We will also have a chance to talk with Mister McGuane.
Cormac McCarthy is considered one of the most important American writers alive today.
Critics often compare his writing to the works of the American writers William Faulkner and Herman Melville.
Mister McCarthy writes dark and intense stories that are often set in the southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico.
Some stories takes place in Mexico, or in his home state of Tennessee.
Mister McCarthy’s language is very simple and direct.
But each carefully chosen word is powerful and sometimes even heartbreaking in its effect on the reader.
Mister McCarthy is also known for being a very private person who does not talk to the media very often.
He has said that a writer should spend his or her time writing books rather than talking about them.
Charles McCarthy, Junior was born in nineteen thirty-three in the state of Rhode Island.
His Irish aunts gave him his nickname, Cormac, which is “Charles” in Gaelic.
Cormac studied at the University of Tennessee before joining the United States Air Force.
While he was stationed in the state of Alaska he discovered literature and began reading seriously.
Later, he began working on his first novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” in Chicago, Illinois while working part-time in a car repair shop.
The book was published in nineteen sixty-five.
Cormac McCarthy traveled through Europe with grant money from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rockefeller Foundation.
In nineteen sixty-seven he returned to the United States.
The next year, he published “Outer Dark,” followed by “Child of God” five years later.
One of Cormac McCarthy’s most popular novels, “All the Pretty Horses,” was published in nineteen ninety-two.
It is a story about John Grady Cole, a young cowboy who travels with his friends from Texas to Mexico.
The story is set in the late nineteen forties.
Yet Mister McCarthy’s descriptions of the landscapes of Texas and Mexico give the story a timeless quality.
It is an unforgettable story about loyalty, bravery and love.
This novel received a National Book Award as well as a National Book Critics Circle Award.
It was later made into a movie.
“All the Pretty Horses” was the first story in a three-part series called “The Border Trilogy.”
The two other books in the series are “The Crossing” and “Cities of the Plain.”?
Another Cormac McCarthy book, “No Country For Old Men,” was published in two thousand five.
It was made into a popular movie last year.
Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his most recent novel, “The Road.”
It is about a father and a son who struggle to survive in a destroyed America.
They travel under grey skies and burnt landscapes in an attempt to find safety.
The story describes a horrible world as it might be after a nuclear war.
But the most emotional part of the story is the father’s fierce and deep love for his son.
Mister McCarthy says the idea for the book came to him several years ago when his son was four years old.
Mister McCarthy and his son were in the town of El Paso, Texas staying at a hotel.
Late at night while his son was sleeping, the writer looked out his window and imagined what the town might look like in a hundred years.
He thought about his son and imagined the town with fires in the distance and everything destroyed.
He wrote down these thoughts.
Then, several years later he realized there was a novel to be written from this idea.
When Cormac McCarthy is not writing, he likes to spend time at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico.
This organization gathers researchers and scientists from around the world to work on important issues such as economics, technology and the environment.
Cormac McCarthy says he has always been interested in the way things work.
And, he says talking with researchers at the Institute helps him to think.
“Before they reached the edge of the stream the sun was upon them.
There was no bank as such, just the end of the wild roses and an uplifted ridge of thorn trees where magpies squawked at the intrusion.
But they could hear the stream, which emanated not far away from a series of blue spring holes at a water temperature that stayed constant, winter and summer.
Frank loved to arrive at a stream he knew as well as this one.
That was Thomas McGuane reading from his book “Nothing But Blue Skies” published in nineteen ninety-two.
The story tells about Frank Copenhaver, a man whose life starts to fall apart after his wife leaves him.
In the passage you just heard, Frank is out fishing with his daughter in the beautiful countryside of Montana where they live.
In the book, Frank has many unusual adventures and gets into some trouble as he works on understanding what he wants from life.
Thomas McGuane lives in Montana.
Many of his characters and stories take place in this state, which is known for its expansive skies and beautiful environment.
Mister McGuane says he likes to explore the conflicts between his main characters and the world in which they live.
Critics praise his books for their rich language, technical skill and often very funny situations.
Thomas McGuane was born in nineteen thirty-nine.
He attended Michigan State University then later continued his studies at Yale University in Connecticut.
He has written nine novels including “Panama”, “Ninety-Two in the Shade” and “The Cadence of Grass.”
He has also written two non-fiction books on subjects that are important to him.
These include “The Longest Silence” which is a collection of essays on fishing.
In “Some Horses” he explores the relationship between people and horses.
Mister McGuane has also written screenplays for several movies.
We asked Thomas McGuane what influenced him to become a writer:  “I wish I knew.
I think maybe it was that my parents were readers.
My father read a lot of adventurous, natural history books.
And I think I associated writing with a sort of an adventurous life.
That went away eventually.
But I know for a boy that was a great attraction.
And I come from an Irish family.
My parents and my grandparents are all Irish and my great grandparents are all Irish immigrants.
And that’s sort of a linguistic tradition, especially comical linguistic tradition, but it’s a very verbal household culture.
Later, he decides to go ice-skating on a large lake.
When night falls he gets very lost.
But, he faces his fears and finds a way to get home.
And, on the way back to safety, he makes a surprising discovery.
In the short story “Cowboy” Mister McGuane captures the local language and expressions of a man who works with cows and horses.
As the cowboy spends years working for a ranching family, you understand his love of nature and hard work.
And, you understand the difficult situation of being a cowboy who spends his life working on land he can never own.
Thomas McGuane recently spoke at a literature event held by the Pen Faulkner organization in Washington, D.C. He praised the group for inviting writers to speak from all areas of the United States.
Then he read two short stories.
He also talked about what it was like to make movies.
He talked about working with the actors Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson for a movie he wrote called “Missouri Breaks.”
He said that when he worked on movies in the nineteen seventies, the industry was very different from what it is today.
Thomas McGuane is currently working on a new novel about a doctor who works in a hospital emergency room.
And, it might not surprise you that the story takes place in Montana.
This week, we talk about a sickness called lupus and other autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases affect the immune system – the body’s natural defenses for fighting disease.
?
The immune system normally protects the body against foreign materials, such as viruses and bacteria.
Autoimmune diseases result from a failure of the body’s own defenses against disease.
The immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign materials and its own cells.
So the body starts attacking its own organs and tissues.
There are three kinds of lupus.
Discoid lupus affects only the skin and can be identified by red marks on the face or neck.
These marks on the skin can also be a sign of another form of lupus called systemic lupus.
Systemic lupus can affect almost any organ or organ system in the body.
When people talk about lupus, they usually mean the systemic form of the disease.
Some kinds of medicines can cause what is called drug-induced lupus.
This form of lupus usually goes away when the patient stops using the medicines.
High body temperature and pain in the elbows or knees are common signs of lupus.
Other signs are red marks on the skin, feelings of extreme tiredness and lack of iron in the body.
At different times, the effects of lupus can be either mild or serious.
The signs of the disease can come and go.
This makes identifying the disease difficult.
There is no single laboratory test to tell if someone has lupus.
Many people with lupus also suffer from depression.
Lupus can also lead to other health problems.
Women with lupus are at greater risk of developing heart disease.
And between thirty and fifty percent of lupus patients will develop lupus-related kidney disease.
Lupus affects an estimated one million five hundred thousand people in the United States.
Experts are not sure what causes lupus.
However, the disease has been known to attack members of the same family.
Recently, scientists identified genes they believe are linked to lupus.
They hope studying these genes more closely could help in development of new treatments for the disease, and possibly a cure.
Recent studies also support a theory that a combination of genes is linked to the development of lupus.
Other suspected causes include antibiotic drugs, mental or physical tension, infections and hormones.
In fact, hormones might explain why lupus affects women far more often then men.
The Lupus Foundation of America says more than ninety percent of the people with lupus are women.
Scientists do not know why women are more at risk than men.
They think it might involve female hormones, like estrogen.
Another idea is that it could involve the foreign cells left in a woman’s body after a pregnancy.
There is currently no cure for lupus.
Yet doctors have developed ways of treating the disease.
Treatments are based on the condition and needs of each patient.
No two individuals have the exact same problems.
A treatment could include a combination of stress-reduction methods and drugs such as painkillers and steroids.
Anti-malaria drugs also have been effective.
Recent research also suggests that supervised exercise training can improve the quality of life for lupus patients.
It has been about forty years since the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug especially for treating lupus.
Several companies are working to make drugs that can help lupus patients.
Groups like the Lupus Foundation of America are working to increase public understanding of the disease.
Lupus can be life threatening if left untreated.
Yet, many patients can lead a normal and healthy life if they follow their doctor’s advice.
Patients must take their medicines and keep looking for side effects or new signs of the disease.
Lupus is not the only autoimmune disease.
Doctors and scientists have identified at least eighty other diseases in which the body attacks its own organs and cells.
Some of the diseases attack just one area of the body, like the skin, eyes or muscles.
Others affect an organ system or even the whole body.
Some of the diseases are well known, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes.
Others are more difficult to identify and not as well known.
For example, celiac disease is difficult to identify because the signs of the disease are so common.
Patients may have low iron levels and experience stomach pain.
The uncontrolled release of bodily wastes is also a problem.
Doctors might treat those problems and not know they are caused by celiac disease.
Some people develop celiac disease after eating gluten, a protein found in all wheat products.
It is not always clear that eating something as harmless as wheat can be bad for a person’s health.
For some patients, it can be years before the problem is correctly identified.
The United States National Institutes of Health says autoimmune diseases affect an estimated five to eight percent of the country’s population.
Other groups disagree.
For example, the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association says autoimmune diseases affect about fifty million Americans.
That represents about one-sixth of the population.
The physical, emotional and financial cost of autoimmune diseases is huge.
Most of those affected are women.
While people of all ages are affected, women who are old enough to have children are especially at risk.
Some autoimmune diseases like lupus and scleroderma are more common in African Americans.
Diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes are more common among whites.
Doctors do not yet know why this is true.
New drugs are being tested to help treat autoimmune diseases.
Some drugs can be a problem because they suppress the immune system.
This means the body is less able to defend itself against infections.
As a result, the side effects of the drugs can be as dangerous as the disease itself.
Newer drugs attempt to suppress only one small part of the immune system, not all of it.
For example, drugs like Enbrel and Remicade block tumor necrosis factor.
This is a protein that causes inflammation, a physical reaction to infection, injury or other causes.
These drugs have been useful in treating autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease.
However, the drugs are very costly.
They have also been found to increase the risk of cancer.
Scientists continue searching for other methods of treatment.
For example, some scientists hope to use stem cells to replace tissues damaged by disease.
Stem cells have the ability to grow other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells.
Medical experts also are working together to improve the way autoimmune diseases are identified and treated.
Less than ten years ago, the Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Research Center was formed in the state of Maryland.
The aim of the center is to bring together experts to improve the study of autoimmune diseases.
Private groups like the center show how important it is for scientists to share information about such diseases.
Because each disease often affects different organs, many experts might be needed to treat the disorder.
Experts need to know about the most recent research and technology.
By sharing information about their patients, doctors also can learn from other cases.
Government agencies are also working to increase knowledge about autoimmune diseases.
In the United States, the National Institutes of Health created an autoimmune disease research plan in two thousand two.
The plan urges agencies from different areas to work together.
Both private and government organizations are working to increase public understanding of such diseases.
This can help individuals better understand what to do should they develop a health problem.
At the same time, researchers continue working to help patients have a better quality of life.
Farmers in the United States sometimes plant switchgrass as a border crop.
But could this tall grass lower the nation's dependence on foreign oil?
South Dakota State University professor Arvid Boe with switchgrass plantsThe Department of Energy plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to help produce fuels from materials that are not part of the food supply.
Growing corn, or maize, for fuel has raised concerns about the supply and cost of corn available for food and animal feed.
Fuel made from switchgrass or forestry waste like sawdust is known as cellulosic ethanol.
Department officials say it contains more energy and produces fewer greenhouse gases than ethanol made from corn.
Switchgrass is also easier to grow.
Last month, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study of switchgrass grown on low-quality land.
Government scientist Ken Vogel was the lead author.
The study says the switchgrass produced five times more energy than was needed to grow it.
Also, it says switchgrass, over its lifetime from crop to fuel, produces much less carbon compared to gasoline.
Fossil fuels like oil take carbon from the ground and release it as waste gas when the fuel is burned.
Biofuels like corn and cellulosic ethanol also produce greenhouse gases, through growing crops and making the fuel.
The difference is that biofuels remove carbon from the atmosphere through the growth of the feedstock, the material for the fuel.
Science magazine just published two studies of biofuels and the heat-trapping gases that scientists link to climate change.
One of the reports notes that most studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases.
But it says the earlier studies failed to count the carbon released into the atmosphere as farmers worldwide react to higher prices.
They are clearing forests and grasslands to make way for new cropland to replace the grain used for biofuels.
Doing so can release much of the carbon stored in the plants and soil, and sacrifice future storage.
The study found that corn-based ethanol could increase greenhouse gases for years from land use change.
And it found that biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on American corn land, could also increase emissions, though by less.
The study team, led by Timothy Searchinger at Princeton University, says the result shows the value of using waste products for fuel.
The other report says carbon savings depend on how biofuels are produced.
Today, we tell about the first attempts to settle what is now the western state of California.
These attempts began with Spanish settlers who built twenty-one Catholic churches called missions.
Our report is about those churches -- the missions of California.
Mission San Juan CapistranoOur story begins in seventeen sixty-eight in Madrid, Spain.
The king of Spain, Charles the Third, had recently received reports that worried him.
The reports said Russian explorers were in the northern part of the territory called California.
Spain had claimed most of that area more than two hundred years earlier.
But Spain had no settlements in California.
King Charles knew if the Russians began to settle the area, Spain might lose control of California forever.
King Charles decided the best way to keep the Spanish claim to California was to build settlements there.
California had good harbors for Spanish ships, good weather and good farmland.
King Charles decided to order the creation of a series of small farming communities along the Pacific Ocean coast of California.
The settlements would provide trade and grow into larger cities.
Spanish citizens might want to settle there.
Then the Spanish claim to California would be safe.
But there was no one on the coast of California to begin the work.
King Charles and his advisors decided that the farming settlements would begin with churches called missions.
Missions were places where Roman Catholic religious leaders converted people to the Christian religion.
They taught the religion to people who wanted to become members of the church.
King Charles decided Roman Catholic priests would build the missions and settlements with the help of Native American Indians.
The priests would teach the native people the Christian religion, the Spanish language and how to farm.
A religious group within the Catholic Church called the Franciscans would build the settlements.
The Franciscans chose a young priest named Junipero Serra to begin the work.
Many history experts say the Spanish government and the Catholic Church could not have chosen a better person for the task than Junipero Serra.
Junipero Serra was born in seventeen thirteen on the island of Mallorca, Spain.
After he became a Franciscan priest, he taught at a university in Mallorca.
Father Serra had always wanted to be a missionary.
In seventeen forty-nine he sailed to Mexico to begin his life as a missionary.
He spent several years studying the languages and customs of native people in Mexico.
In seventeen sixty-eight he was given the job of building the first of the California missions near the present day city of San Diego.
Mission San Diego de Alcala began on July sixteenth, seventeen sixty-nine.
But before the mission was completed, Father Serra decided to move it.
He did not like the way Spanish soldiers mistreated the Native Americans.
He wanted to keep them separate.
He moved the mission to an area that is still called Mission Valley.
The design of Mission San Diego de Alcala was similar to each of the missions that were built later.
There was a large church building.
A long wall formed a large square to the side and behind the church.
Large rooms inside and along the wall served as bedrooms, cooking areas, workshops, and classrooms.
Usually, the center of the large square was left open.
A garden with flowers was planted there.
Junipero Serra’s plan for the missions along the California coast was simple.
Each would be about the same distance from each other.
Members of the Franciscan religious group did not ride horses or travel in wagons.
They walked.
The missions were built about one day’s long walk from each other.
This made it easier to travel, trade goods and share information.
The missions begin with San Diego de Alcala in the south.
They end with San Francisco Solano about one thousand fifty kilometers to the north.
In time, the road from mission San Diego de Alcala to mission San Francisco Solano was given a name.
The Spanish name is still used today.
It is “El Camino Real.”
It means the “The Royal Highway”?
or “The King’s Highway.”??
Most of that old road is now part of the California highway system.
Millions of people use the road every day as they drive from San Diego to San Francisco.
Many people have criticized the mission system of settlement because it changed the way of life for the Native Americans in California.
Critics say many Native Americans were forced to work at the missions.
They say many were forced to become members of the Christian religion.
And many were treated badly by Spanish soldiers and died because of mistreatment or disease.
However, other experts say that Junipero Serra demanded that the priests and soldiers treat the Native Americans with respect.
Many of the Native Americans accepted the Christian religion, learned to farm and helped the missions become valuable settlements.
Many other Native Americans did not.
Some did not want to change the way they lived so they moved away from the missions.
Many Native Americans believed they would be forced into a new way of life.
In seventeen seventy-six, a group of Indians attacked the San Diego mission and burned it.
Eight months later, the mission was rebuilt where it still stands today.
King Charles’s plan was a success.
Settlements grew from the missions along the California coast.
It became his headquarters and the headquarters for all of the California missions.
In seventeen eighty-four, Junipero Serra died of tuberculosis at mission San Carlos.
The missions of California faced difficult times during the eighteen hundreds.
In eighteen twenty-two, California became part of Mexico, which had just won its independence from Spain.
But the Mexican government could not pay the cost of keeping the missions.
In eighteen thirty-four, the Mexican government sold much of the mission land and some of the buildings.
Several missions remained part of the communities they helped to build.
But many became little more than ruins.
Some of the land and the missions were returned to the Catholic Church.
In the eighteen forties, Mexico had trouble controlling the American settlers in California.
In eighteen forty-six, the settlers declared California a republic.
Less than two years later, the United States gained control of California during the Mexican War.
During this period, the Catholic Church tried to keep control of the missions.
They were only partly successful.
However, in eighteen sixty-three President Abraham Lincoln signed a law that said all twenty-one missions in California would be returned to the Catholic Church.
They have remained so ever since.
Today, the people of California consider the missions a treasure.
Eighteen of the twenty-one are still active Catholic churches.
All of the missions are museums that teach the early history of California.
Many visitors come to the missions to see the beautiful buildings.
Several of the missions have become famous.
One example is the Mission San Juan Capistrano.
It was planned and built by Junipero Serra.
Each year, on the same day, at almost the same hour, thousands of birds called swallows return to the mission.
They return from their winter homes thousands of kilometers to the south.
The swallows arrive on March nineteenth.
They build nests and raise their young in the old mission.
They leave on October twenty-third.
?
One story says the birds have been late only once because of a storm at sea.
This program was written by Paul Thompson.
Every year, malaria sickens about five hundred million people.
More than one million of them die, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa.
A Nigerian mother with an insecticide-treated bed netFor several years in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Fund and other groups have been paying for bed nets treated with long-lasting insect poison.
Malaria is spread by mosquito bites.
The groups have also invested in antimalaria drugs for A.C.T., artemisinin-based combination therapy.
Recently, a team from the World Health Organization visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia.
These countries were the first to distribute the bed nets and medicine.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria requested a study to see if the interventions were helping.
The researchers found that the answer is yes.
They looked at records of children under five.
They found that malaria deaths fell by sixty-six percent in Rwanda between two thousand five and two thousand seven.
Deaths fell by fifty-one percent in Ethiopia, thirty-four percent in Ghana and thirty-three percent in Zambia.
The team reported that limited supplies of bed nets could help explain the more limited effects in Zambia and Ghana.
But the findings in Ghana were more difficult to explain, because deaths from causes other than malaria fell more sharply.
The report says this was in keeping with general improvements in health services.
The full report can be found at who.int, on the page for the global malaria program.
In another new study, researchers reported that vitamin A and zinc treatments might also help protect young children from malaria.
Scientists in Burkina Faso found that malaria reinfection rates fell by thirty-four percent in a group of children treated with vitamin A and zinc.
The findings appear in Nutrition Journal, an open access publication that can be read free of charge at nutritionj.com.
Now, we turn from a disease that kills a million people a year to a behavior that kills more than five times that many: smoking.
A new report from the World Health Organization estimates that tobacco killed one hundred million people in the twentieth century.
And it says the number this century could reach one billion.
We will talk more about this major report next week, and new efforts to control tobacco.
You'll know what points come out of other points.
And as you flip through chapters, you'll see how the chapter is divided according to what kind of fonts or size or color or whatever is used for each section.
There are students who function better in groups; they need to say their thoughts out loud and explain things to other people and have people talk back to them about the ideas.
And for those people, absolutely, group work is the way to go, group discussion, group study.
But then there are other people who just fare better working on their own in like a quiet environment.
And in the recite portion, this is kind of like an oral recitation of what you can remember.
But this is also a good time to write things down on another piece of paper and try to prepare an outline of the chapter.
And go back and look at your annotations and work through those and put those into an outline format.
And that's WORDMASTER for this week.
In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia.
Over a period of four months, they worked on a document that would establish a system of government and guarantee the rights of citizens.
Today, Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael continue the story of the Constitution.
Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national executive.
Delegates spent several weeks debating details of the position and powers.
The delegates decided the executive would be chosen by electors named by state legislatures.
They decided he could veto laws.
And they decided he could be removed from office if found guilty of serious crimes.
The delegates did not call the executive 'president'.
That name for America's leader would be used later.
However, we will use it now to make our story easier to understand.
Another major issue debated by the convention was a national judiciary: a federal system of courts and judges.
The delegates knew a lot about the issue.
Thirty-four of them were lawyers.
Eight were judges in their home states.
One question hung heavy in the air.
The states had their own system of courts and judges.
Did the national government need them, too?
Several delegates said no. Roger Sherman of Connecticut said existing state courts were enough.
In addition, he said, a system of national courts would be too costly.
John Rutledge of South Carolina opposed a national system of lower courts.
But he argued for a national Supreme Court.
The convention voted for both.
There would be one Supreme Court and a system of lower courts.
These national courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrong-doing by foreign citizens in the United States.
The system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws.
James Wilson, a Pennsylvania delegate to the convention in PhiladelphiaThe next question concerned the appointment of national judges.
Some delegates believed judges should be appointed by the national legislature.
Others believed they should be appointed by the president.
James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued in support of having one person name judges.
He said experience showed that large bodies could not make appointments fairly or openly.
John Rutledge disagreed strongly.
By no means, he said, should the president appoint judges.
He said that method looked too much like monarchy.
Benjamin Franklin then told a funny little story.
In Scotland, Franklin said, he understood that judges were appointed by lawyers.
They always chose the very best lawyer to be a judge.
Then they divided his business among themselves.
The delegates voted on the issue.
They agreed only to create a Supreme Court.
Details of the system were left to the national legislature and the president.
The legislature could decide how many judges would sit on the Supreme Court.
The president would appoint the judges.
The legislature could establish lower courts from time to time.
The president would appoint those judges, too.
Throughout the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the Philadelphia convention based its debates on a plan of government offered by delegates from Virginia.
But the Virginia Plan was not the only one offered.
Another plan came from New Jersey.
William Paterson, a New Jersey delegateNew Jersey delegate William Paterson presented the plan about a month after the convention began.
The other delegates saw immediately that it was directly opposed to the Virginia Plan.
The Virginia Plan talked of a national government.
Under it, a national legislature, executive and judiciary would have supreme power over the states.
The New Jersey Plan talked about a federal government.
Under it, each state would keep its own independent powers over the union of states.
The New Jersey Plan proposed some changes in the existing Articles of Confederation.
It did not propose a completely new system of government.
Under the New Jersey Plan, the federal government would have a legislature with just one house.
Each state would have one vote in the legislature.
Big states and little states would be equal.
The federal government would have an executive of more than one person.
It would not have a system of lower federal courts.
And its powers would come from the states...not the people.
Supporters of the New Jersey Plan then talked about the true purpose of the Philadelphia convention.
They said the states had sent delegates to discuss changes in the Articles of Confederation.
The delegates, they said, did not have the right to throw the Articles away.
If the Union under the Articles is radically wrong, one said, let us return to our states.
Let our states give us more powers to negotiate.
Let us not take these powers upon ourselves.
Then James Wilson of Pennsylvania spoke.
He explained his own idea about the purpose of the convention.
Its instructions, he said, were to reach final agreement on nothing.
But it could propose and discuss anything.
Wilson also questioned the delegates' right to speak for the people.
Is it not true, he said, that the opinions of one's friends are commonly mistaken for the opinions of the general population?
He noted that some delegates firmly believed the people would never accept a national government.
They would never give up their state's rights.
He said the convention had no choice but to establish a national government.
It would be an act of treason not to do what was necessary to save the republic.
The following Monday, they heard yet another plan of government.
It was offered by the delegate from New York, Alexander Hamilton.
Hamilton had said little at the convention.
On this day, he spoke for five hours.
Hamilton said he did not offer his ideas as an official proposal.
But he said they could be considered amendments to the Virginia Plan.
Then he read the details.
I would like to see in America, Hamilton said, one executive.
He would be chosen by electors.
He could veto any law, and his veto could not be over-turned.
He would serve for life.
Next, he said, the national legislature would have two houses.
The upper house would be called the senate.
The lower house would be called the assembly.
Like the chief executive, senators would be chosen by electors for life.
Members of the assembly would be elected directly by the people for a term of three years.
Then Hamilton spoke about the states.
Under his plan, the states would lose many of their existing rights and powers.
State governors would be appointed by the national government.
And states no longer could have their own military forces.
Hamilton was sure America's existing form of government would not work when the country got bigger.
He believed America should follow the British form of government.
He called it the best in the world.
No one stopped Hamilton during his long speech to argue or ask questions.
Historians say this is surprising.
Hamilton's ideas were extreme.
His public support for the British government was unpopular.
His statements were unacceptable to everyone at the convention.
But the weather had been hot.
The speech had been long.
The delegates agreed to end their business for another day.? Our program was written by Christine Johnson.
The narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael.
We continue our series on learning disabilities with a look this week at a condition called dyspraxia.
Dyspraxia is a movement disorder.
The World Health Organization says about six percent of children show some sign of it.
The majority are male.
The National Center for Learning Disabilities says people with dyspraxia have trouble planning and completing fine motor tasks.
The brain has trouble sending messages to the body to do what the person wants.
Something as simple as waving goodbye may be difficult.
There are different levels of severity, and the effects can change over time.
Babies may not try to crawl or roll over.
They may have difficulty moving just their eyes instead of their heads.
As they get older, children may have trouble walking or holding a cup, riding a bicycle or throwing a ball.
Trouble with letter formation or slow writing can interfere with school work.
People with dyspraxia may even have trouble speaking.
So imagine the difficulty in learning a sport.
Adults can have problems driving a car, cleaning the house, or washing and dressing themselves.
Social skills are another issue.
People with dyspraxia can have trouble making friends.
Like other learning disabilities, it cannot be cured.
Children might be laughed at by other children.
Teachers might think they are slow.
The problem is not with intelligence but with motor skill development.
Yet experts say the result of these reactions can be depression and other emotional problems.
This is one reason why early intervention is important.
Children might feel a lot better about themselves if they understand why it takes longer for them to learn to do things.
Experts say it is important for parents to provide help and support to dyspraxic children from an early age.
Helping them learn easy physical activities that develop coordination can build their trust in themselves.
And simple activities can progress toward more complex tasks.
Working with occupational, speech and physical therapists can lead to further improvements.
A person with dyspraxia might also have other learning disabilities such as dyslexia or dysgraphia, which affect reading and writing.
We have transcripts and MP3s of our series on learning disabilities.
Next week the subject is dyscalculia, a disorder involving mathematical abilities.
On our show this week: We play music by Devendra Banhart … Answer a question about finding a job ... And report on a new Web site that gets you to “think big.”  BigThink.com
Where can you go to listen to a cook, a senator or a scientist talk about important subjects?
BigThink.com is a new Web site created to provide discussions between world experts and Internet users.
Subjects discussed on BigThink include the environment, music and questions about happiness and personal identity.
The Web site has been called a YouTube for thinkers.
Faith Lapidus has more.
Victoria Brown and Peter Hopkins created BigThink.com.
They see the Web site as a social project that permits Internet users around the world to share a discussion space with experts.
Miz Brown says that people need an international stage on which to exchange, discuss, and debate the important ideas of our time.
If you visit the BigThink Web site, you will find a series of subjects listed on the left side of the page.
There are “meta” subjects that deal with general ideas like faith, love, life, death and justice.
And there are “physical” subjects like art, culture, technology, history and politics.
Under their videos, you can read the comments and questions written by other visitors to the Web site.
More than one hundred experts express their ideas on the Web site.
BigThink also has an important list of financial supporters.
These include Peter Thiel who helped create the PayPal company; Larry Summers, a former United States secretary of the treasury, and David Frankel, a businessman from South Africa.
BigThink’s creators started the Web site by first getting famous people to agree to be videotaped.
They began by interviewing several well-known professors from Harvard University, which they had attended.
Then they used the names of these professors to gain the trust of others and get them to take part in the project.
The Web site says BigThink belongs to everyone.
The competition between Microsoft and Google took a new turn on February first.
Microsoft made a public offer to buy the Internet company Yahoo.
Microsoft says the combined companies would be in a better position to compete against Google in the online services market.
This week, Yahoo rejected the offer.
Its board of directors said the price undervalued the company.
The offer was worth almost forty-five billion dollars in cash and stock, or thirty-one dollars per Yahoo share.
Yahoo is said to want forty dollars a share.
Microsoft says it offered a full and fair price.
It says moving forward quickly with the deal would be in the best interest of shareholders.
Yet since February first, the value of Microsoft's offer has fallen to twenty-nine dollars a share because of a drop in its stock.
?
Microsoft thinks it could better compete against Google with Yahoo's expert knowledge.
Microsoft could attempt a hostile takeover.
But that is not the way it normally does business, and there is risk of angering Yahoo's employees.
In the last two weeks, Yahoo has discussed possible combinations with other companies, including the News Corporation, AOL and Google.
But Yahoo may not be able to avoid a buyout by Microsoft.
The latest reports are that some big Yahoo shareholders would support a deal if Microsoft raised its offer.
The purchase would be the largest ever by the world's leading software maker.
Yet Microsoft has made little progress in its Internet search abilities and in the growing business of online advertising.
Google, the leading Internet search company, is the strongest competitor for those advertising dollars.
Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington.
Yahoo and Google are in California's Silicon Valley.
Internet technology was also at the heart of the television and movie writers strike, which ended this week.
Writers voted in Los Angeles and New York to return to work after one hundred days on strike.
A proposed new contract would pay them for the first time for creative material that appears online and in other new media.
Members of the Writers Guild of America are expected to approve the three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Now the producers need to negotiate a new agreement with the Screen Actors Guild or risk another strike.
The current contract with the actors union ends June thirtieth.
Kosovo is expected to declare its independence from Serbia in the coming days, possibly on Sunday.
Serbia's newly re-elected President Boris Tadic says he will never give up his fight for Kosovo, but will also fight for Serbia to join the European Union.
He said Friday that Serbia would reduce diplomatic relations, but not cut ties, with countries that recognize an independent Kosovo.
Kosovo's leader, Hashim Thaci, is calling on displaced Serbs living outside Kosovo to return.
Serbia and its chief ally, Russia, say Kosovo's independence will lead to separatist efforts by other dissatisfied territories across the world.
Serbia has offered self-rule for Kosovo, which it considers an important part of its history and territory.
Yet Serbia has not controlled the southern province since nineteen ninety-nine.
That was when NATO bombed the former Yugoslavia until Yugoslav military leaders agreed to withdraw troops from Kosovo.
About two million people live there.
Ninety percent are ethnic Albanian.
The area is currently administered by the United Nations and policed by sixteen thousand NATO-led peacekeepers.
The United States and most European countries support independence.
Once Kosovo acts, the European Union plans to take over many of the administrative duties now held by the United Nations.
Serbia and Russia say that plan is illegal.
In March of two thousand four there was violence mainly against ethnic Serbs in Kosovo.
That led, almost two years later, to the opening of international negotiations on Kosovo.
Finally, in December, the United Nations Security Council declared itself in hopeless disagreement.
As Kosovo prepares to become the world's newest country, the six-year-old nation of East Timor struggles with a crisis.
Foreign troops are searching for suspected rebels after attacks against its leaders.
On Monday, president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was shot twice and seriously wounded.
Gunmen later shot at Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao but he escaped unhurt.
Wanted rebel leader Alfredo Reinado died in a gunfight with guards during the attack at the president's home in Dili, the capital.
He escaped from prison after being found guilty of inciting clashes between government forces and former rebels in two thousand six.
East Timor, or Timor-Leste, is a former province of Indonesia, and one of the world's poorest countries.
On Wednesday the government of the young democracy extended a state of emergency for ten days.
Australia has more than one thousand soldiers and police there, including extra forces sent after the shootings.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd briefly visited Dili Friday.
He later visited President Ramos-Horta at a hospital in Darwin, Australia.
Today we bring you the second part of our program about American songwriter Cole Porter.
Porter wrote his songs from the nineteen twenties to the nineteen fifties.
The title of the movie is from one of Porter’s popular songs, “It’s De-Lovely.”?
In the song, Porter plays with words that start with the letter “d.”? Robbie Williams sings the song.
As we said in our program last week, Cole Porter went to live in France in nineteen sixteen before he became famous.
He was a wealthy young man who was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life.
He and his wife, Linda, became well known for their costly and exciting parties.
Yet Cole Porter never let other pleasures interfere with what he loved most – writing songs.
He worked hard on his songs.
Both the words and music had to be perfect.
Porter gained fame as a musical theater writer by the early nineteen thirties.
His musical plays were produced in Broadway theaters in New York City.
He had a new musical every year or so during the years of America’s great economic depression.
His words and music gave people a few hours of pleasurable escape during difficult times.
Some critics still consider one of Porter’s early musical plays, “Anything Goes,” to be his best.
“Anything Goes” opened on Broadway in nineteen thirty-four.
It starred one of Porter’s favorite singers, Ethel Merman.
She sang a song that became famous immediately.
It is called “I Get a Kick Out of You.”?
That expression means I enjoy being with you.
For years, Porter was Broadway’s “King Cole.”?
His musical plays were very successful.
Later, he went to Los Angeles, California and wrote music for Hollywood movies.
They were very popular, too.
Cole and Linda Porter traveled all over the world.
They were happily married most of the time.
But Cole Porter was homosexual.
He had sex with men.
Homosexuality was both accepted and forbidden in high society at that time.
Love affairs between men were not exactly secret.
Yet they could never be admitted publicly.
All his life, Cole Porter wrote songs about love, desire and passion.
He included the names of foreign countries, famous people and comments on current events.
And he filled his songs with little jokes and hidden meanings.
Porter’s words stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable.
They spoke directly and indirectly about sex.
They admitted that love is not always pure.
It is often selfish.
And it rarely lasts forever.
Porter was not even sure what love really is.
It is sung by Lemar.
Cole Porter also wrote some of the most beautiful love songs ever, full of true, deep feeling.
Critics consider “Every Time We Say Goodbye” to be one of his finest songs.
Natalie Cole sings the song.
In nineteen thirty-seven, Cole Porter was injured while riding a horse.
The horse slid on a muddy hill and fell on top of him.
His legs were crushed.
Cole Porter spent the rest of his life, twenty-seven years, disabled and in severe pain.
Yet he continued writing wonderful songs, musical plays and movies.
In nineteen forty-eight, he wrote what some consider his greatest work.
It was a musical play called “Kiss Me, Kate.”?
It was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew.”?
But it takes place in modern times, among a group of actors.
The play was produced again on Broadway in nineteen ninety-nine.
One of the most famous songs in the musical is called “Too Darn Hot.”?
It was his final play.
That same year, Porter’s wife, Linda, died.
Porter was very sad, and increasingly disabled by his old injury.
He died at the age of seventy-three in nineteen sixty-four.
In nineteen ninety-one, America celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of Cole Porter’s birth.
Special concerts celebrated his music.
New recordings were issued.
Jazz singers and symphony orchestras recorded his songs.
So did several rock-and-roll artists.
They made a recording and special music video to honor him.
All the money earned from the recording and video was given to research on AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
is a disease that was first discovered among homosexual men.
Today, Cole Porter’s songs are still valued for their beauty, humor and intelligence.
And for their unexpected jokes and word play.
They shine like jewels, one critic wrote.
They are shot through with love that sometimes feels like pain.
There seems little doubt that Cole Porter’s songs will continue to be sung.
They will make us laugh.
They will make us cry.
It was produced by Lawan Davis.
Almost every language in the world has a saying that a person can never be too rich.
Americans, like people in other countries, always want more money.
One way they express this is by protesting that their jobs do not pay enough.
The expression probably began because seeds fed to chickens made people think of small change.
Small change means metal coins of not much value, like nickels which are worth five cents.
An early use of the word chickenfeed appeared in an American publication in nineteen thirty.
It told about a rich man and his son.
Spy expert Henry S. A. Becket writes that some German spies working in London during the war also worked for the British.
The British government had to make the Germans believe their spies were working.
So, British officials gave them mostly false information.
It was called chickenfeed.
It is a very different meaning from the main one in the dictionary.
That meaning is small nuts that grow on a plant.
No one knows for sure how a word for something to eat also came to mean something very small.
But, a peanut is a very small food.
The expression is an old one.
Word expert Mitford Mathews says that as early as eighteen fifty-four, an American publication used the words peanut agitators.
That meant political troublemakers who did not have a lot of support.
Another reason for the saying about working for peanuts may be linked to elephants.
Think of how elephants are paid for their work in the circus.
They receive food, not money.
One of the foods they like best is peanuts.
When you add the word gallery to the word peanut you have the name of an area in an American theater.
A gallery is a high seating area or balcony above the main floor.
The peanut gallery got its name because it is the part of the theater most distant from where the show takes place.
So, peanut gallery tickets usually cost less than other tickets.
People pay a small amount of money for them.
The United States Center for Citizen Diplomacy is a nonprofit group started in Iowa in two thousand six.
A two-day conference also took place to urge more Americans to become citizen diplomats.
Nineteen-year-old Anjali Bhatia of New Jersey was the youngest winner.
At sixteen, she started a group called Discover Worlds to build relations between the United States and Rwanda.
The aim is to help orphans from the nineteen ninety-four genocide and young people affected by H.I.V. to stay in school.
Discover Worlds has fifty-seven locally run student groups across the United States.
And there are hopes for partnerships in India soon.
Anjali Bhatia says that by the end of this year, Discover Worlds hopes to be supporting about two hundred fifty Rwandan orphans.
Its members also write letters to the children.
Another award winner, Tarik Daoud, is a business leader in Michigan who has led international delegations.
He was recognized for his work for cross-cultural understanding through groups like the International Visitors Council of Detroit.
Khris Nedam is an elementary school teacher in Michigan who has also taught in France, Turkey and Afghanistan.
Her work has helped arts and cultural groups deal with a free-market economy after years of depending on government support.
And Donna Tabor volunteers in Granada, Nicaragua, for Building New Hope, a community development group based in Pennsylvania.
It supports a small cooperative of coffee farmers in northern Nicaragua.
It also operates two schools and a lending library.
In the United States, the third Monday in February is a federal holiday.
Federal law calls it Washington's Birthday, honoring the nation's first president.
But Americans now commonly know it as Presidents Day.
And for this Presidents Day, or Washington's Birthday, we tell you about the presidents' home, the White House.
George Washington supervised the building of the White House.
Yet he and his wife, Martha, never had the chance to live there.
It was completed after he left office in seventeen ninety-seven.
Since then, America has had forty-two other presidents.
All of them have lived at sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, in Washington, D.C. George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, have lived there since two thousand one.
This November, Americans will elect a new president.
The new first family will meet with White House employees after the election to plan for the move.
Then the family will move in on January twentieth, two thousand nine -- Inauguration Day.
The White House has an East Wing and a West Wing.
The Oval Office, the large round room where the president works, is in the West Wing.
The first family lives in the East Wing.
The official home of the vice president is on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington.
The White House has more than one hundred thirty rooms.
It also has collections of more than forty thousand objects.
Presidential families often find things in storage that they like when they move in.
For example, Jimmy Carter's children found a chair that Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, had bought.
First ladies have all added to the White House in some way.
Jacqueline Kennedy, for example, created a colorful garden that is named in her honor.
George Washington entered office in seventeen eighty-nine.
He had great hopes for the house he started.
In seventeen ninety, he signed an act of Congress to create an area for the federal government in the District of Columbia, along the Potomac River.
President Washington and the French city planner Pierre L'Enfant chose the land for the new presidential home.
A competition took place to find a designer.
An architect named James Hoban entered a design similar to where the Irish Parliament meets, Leinster House in Dublin.
Hoban was from Ireland.
He won five hundred dollars and a piece of land for his winning design.
Grayish white sandstone was chosen for the walls.
Work started in seventeen ninety-two, while George Washington lived in Philadelphia.
America's second president was John Adams.
He and his wife, Abigail, were the first to live in the new home.
They moved in on November first, eighteen hundred.
The house was not yet finished.
John and Abigail Adams lived in six rooms and used others to entertain guests.
But they lived there for only four months.
?
John Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson tried to finish work on the home.
So did the next president, James Madison.
But in eighteen fourteen, British forces invaded Washington.
They burned the White House.
President Madison's wife, Dolly, tried to save valuable objects from the fire as she fled.
She rescued a painting of George Washington.
This famous portrait by Gilbert Stuart hangs in the White House to this day.
After the fire, James Hoban helped rebuild the house he had designed.
During this time, it was painted white.
Over the years, the White House has been enlarged and almost totally rebuilt.
One of the most recent projects was completed in July of two thousand seven.
Workers made about eight million dollars in improvements to the press briefing room.
The work included a better look for television, new electrical system, better air conditioning and more comfortable seats.
Some of the old ones were broken.
News organizations paid for part of the cost of the work.
Reporters moved to temporary offices across the street from the White House while the press room was closed for almost a year.
The room is named in honor of former White House press secretary James Brady.
He and President Ronald Reagan were shot and wounded by a man with mental problems outside a Washington hotel in nineteen eighty-one.
The press briefing room is built over Franklin Roosevelt's old swimming pool.
Polio disabled his legs, but President Roosevelt still swam.
The pool was built in nineteen thirty-three.
Roosevelt was president from nineteen thirty-three to nineteen forty-five.
The thirty-second president led the nation through the end of the great economic depression and most of World War Two.
He was elected four times, more than any other president.
He died in office.
Today, the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution limits a person to being elected president twice.
In nineteen sixty-one, Congress decided that furniture of historic and artistic value would always be White House property.
In effect, Congress made the White House a museum.
As visitors enter the White House, they see pictures of past presidents on the walls.
In another hall on the same floor are paintings of first ladies.
A room off this hallway contains a collection of fine dishes.
Each presidency has added to this collection.
Wide marble steps lead to the next floor.
It is called the State Floor.
Presidents use rooms here for official duties and to entertain guests.
The largest room on the State Floor is the East Room.
News conferences and music performances take place here.
But this room has had other uses over the years.
Abigail Adams hung her family’s clothes to dry from the wash.
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the thirty-fifth president, John F. Kennedy, rode her tricycle in the East Room.
Other rooms on the State Floor are named for their colors: the Blue Room, the Green Room and the Red Room.
The president meets with diplomats and other guests in these rooms.
They are also used for special events.
The twenty-second president, Grover Cleveland, married Frances Folsom in the Blue Room in eighteen eighty-six.
The Green Room held the body of President Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie, who died in eighteen sixty-two.
And the nineteenth president, Rutherford Hayes, took his oath of office in the Red Room in eighteen seventy-seven following a disputed election.
Nearby is the State Dining Room, where big events take place, like official dinners for visiting leaders.
The Treaty Room on the second floor is used for meetings.
Important documents have been signed there.
At different times, this was the cabinet room or the president's office.
The next floor of the White House contains bedrooms for guests.
One of these is the Lincoln Bedroom, named for the sixteenth president.
But Abraham Lincoln never slept there.
Lincoln used the room as an office while he led the country through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties.
President Lincoln was murdered days after the war ended with the surrender of Robert E. Lee, the Southern general.
John Wilkes Booth, a stage actor and supporter of the South, shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, not far from the White House.
Over the years, presidents and other people have reported seeing Lincoln's ghost or feeling his presence in the White House.
Long gone are the days when people could simply walk into the White House.
In fact, the White House was closed to visitors temporarily after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand-one.
Information about public tours can be found at whitehouse.gov.
Tours are available for groups of ten or more people.
Requests for these self-guided tours must be made through a member of Congress.
A limited number of tours are available.
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver.
This week, we will tell about a visit to the planet Mercury.
We will tell about the dangers of products for making skin lighter.
And, we report on how finger lengths could influence your health.
Image of Mercury taken during Messenger's approach last monthLast month, the American space agency returned to a planet it had not visited since nineteen seventy-five.
A space vehicle called Messenger reached the planet Mercury on January fourteenth.
Messenger passed only two hundred kilometers above the surface of Mercury.
It was the first trip to the planet closest to the sun since the Mariner Ten spacecraft visited Mercury more than thirty years ago.
Mercury is named for the Roman god who served as a messenger to the gods.
The name fits Mercury well because it orbits the sun faster than any planet, in only about eighty-eight days.
Yet Mercury is also one of the least explored planets.
Mercury is a world of extremes.
During the day, temperatures on the surface can reach four hundred fifty degrees Celsius.
The sun on Mercury is eleven times brighter than it is on Earth.
At night, temperatures can drop to one hundred eighty degrees below zero.
To survive these extremes, the Messenger spacecraft has been designed with a heat shield to protect its instruments from high temperatures.
The spacecraft also has heaters for use when temperatures drop.
Messenger is designed to keep its science instruments and its computer brain at nearly room temperature.
Messenger is taking a complex trip through the solar system.
The spacecraft was launched in March two thousand four.
It passed the Earth once and Venus two times, most recently in June of last year.
Its recent visit to Mercury is one of three visits it will make to the planet this year and next.
Then Messenger will enter orbit around Mercury in March of two thousand eleven.
Its scientific work is expected to last more than seven years.
The space agency says it hopes to answer several questions about Mercury with Messenger.
One question deals with the central part of the planet.
Mercury's center is rich in iron.
This metal center represents sixty percent of the planet's mass.
That is two times as great as on Earth.
Messenger is expected to provide information that will help scientists find why the planet is so dense.
Messenger will also help scientists learn more about Mercury's geologic history.
Currently, scientists have only seen about forty-five percent of the planet.
That is how much of the planet was seen by Mariner Ten.
Making a map of the whole planet will increase knowledge of what forces shaped this rocky world.
The biggest mystery surrounding Mercury is found at its north and south poles.
Radar images have shown bright areas in holes at the poles.
Scientists think that the bright areas might be ice forever hidden from the heat of the sun.
Messenger stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging.
The spacecraft has seven instruments to measure the chemical qualities of Mercury and its magnetic field.
Scientists are especially interested to learn more about the magnetic field.
Among the solid planets, only Earth and Mercury have strong magnetic fields.
Venus and Mars do not.
Messenger will return to Mercury in October.
Scientists will have until then to examine information provided by the first pass of the planet.
Then Messenger will gather more information about this little known world.
Skin lightening has become a common activity across Africa, Asia and other areas.
In such places, light skin often is more socially accepted than dark skin.
It also is considered a mark of beauty, intelligence and success.
More and more people with dark skin are using skin-lightening products, even if it means they may face greater health risks.
They believe that having whiter skin will improve their lives.
Many people think they will have a better chance of getting a job or marrying into a better family.
Or they want to look like what their society considers beautiful.
Some beauty care products and soaps contain chemicals that make skin lighter.
This process is also called bleaching.
However, some of the chemicals are extremely dangerous.
One of the most dangerous is hydroquinone.
Hydroquinone has been banned in several countries.
The chemical has been linked to some kinds of cancer and kidney damage.
It also causes low birth weight in babies when mothers use it during pregnancy.
At first, bleaching products make the skin color lighter.
But after long-term use they can cause problems.
They could even make some skin darker.
The chemicals in the products block and break down the natural process that gives skin color.
The skin loses its natural barrier to protect against sunlight.
Then the skin can become thick and discolored.
Usually the person will use more of the product in an effort to correct the problem but this makes it worse.
Fatimata Ly treats skin conditions in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Doctor Ly says skin bleaching has become a problem throughout Senegal.
She says the chemicals are now more dangerous because they are stronger.
And, she says, some cases have resulted in infections, permanent skin damage and blackened fingernails.
Some people suffer emotional problems because of the changes.
They feel regret and sadness.
They say instead of taking such health risks they should have learned to love and accept their skin color.
A British study has shown a possible link between the length of a person's fingers and the joint disorder osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis is the most common kind of arthritis.
It affects more than twenty million people in the United States.
The disorder is caused by a break down of cartilage, the rubbery tissue that protects bones and joints.
Before age forty-five years, osteoarthritis is more common among men than women.
After age fifty-five, it is more common among women.
Recently, researchers at the University of Nottingham studied finger lengths for clues about genetic qualities or physical conditions.
The researchers compared the difference in lengths of the second and fourth fingers.
The fourth finger is also known as the ring finger.
The second finger is often called the index finger.
The study included more than two thousand men and women.
Each person had osteoarthritis of the hip or knees.
Doctors had urged all the patients to consider a possible joint replacement.
The patients were then compared to more than one thousand people with no history or signs of osteoarthritis.
The study found that people whose index finger was shorter than their ring finger are two times as likely to suffer from osteoarthritis.
The strongest evidence was among women who had osteoarthritis of the knee and whose ring fingers were longer than their index fingers.
The findings were reported in the publication Arthritis and Rheumatism.
Research on finger lengths is not new.
Earlier studies have suggested their relation to several qualities, including musical and athletic ability.
But the difference between the index finger and ring finger length is most widely known for differences between men and women.
Men usually have shorter index fingers than ring fingers.
In women, the two fingers are often the same length.
Scientists have found this index-ring finger ratio is also linked to hormone levels in unborn babies.
It is believed that the longer the ring finger is to the index finger, the higher the level of the hormone testosterone in unborn babies.
The leader of the new study, Michael Doherty, says osteoarthritis is more common among men.
He and his research group believe that increased physical activity and sports could be a partly to blame for the problem.
The theory fits with the findings that the finger length ratio believed to be more common in men and athletes would be related to higher risk for osteoarthritis.
The findings do not confirm that people with these finger length differences will suffer from osteoarthritis.
But it does provide clues about the human body.
Back in the year two thousand, big producers of poplar trees in the American Pacific Northwest needed help.
Their hybrid poplars, nearly ten years old, were under threat.
Young insects were getting into the heartwood, weakening a tree and making it likely to break and fall.
Small, newly planted trees were being killed.
Two professors from Washington State University discovered that the threat was not from traditional poplar pests but from a new one.
Doug Walsh and John Brown found ninety-five western poplar clearwing moths in traps in a four-week period in two thousand one.
Then, during a four-week period in two thousand two, they found more than eighteen thousand moths in traps placed in the same locations.
Unlike most moths, this one is active during the day.
As a defense, it can make itself look like a yellow jacket.
It was a threat to fourteen thousand hectares of poplar planted in eastern Washington state and Oregon.
The producers used twenty thousand kilograms of a pesticide, Lorsban, in two thousand two to try to control the outbreak.
But that and other poisons failed to stop the moths.
So the professors asked for help from an expert at the University of California, Riverside.
Years earlier, Jocelyn Millar had copied the sex pheromone of the clearwing moth.
Pheromones produce chemical signals that animals and insects use to identify friends and enemies.
Pheromones also attract the opposite sex.
The Washington State team had used Jocelyn Millar's version of the pheromone in the traps.
The researchers began treating poplars with the synthetic pheromone in two thousand three.
The idea was to confuse male moths.
They would sense the presence of females and not be able to find them, and that would interfere with reproduction.
After the success of tests, and improvements to the treatment, it won full approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
That was in two thousand six.
Professor Brown says the synthetic pheromone is safe so workers can re-enter a forest after a few hours.
And only small amounts are needed -- as little as one gram per two and a half hectares.
Professor Walsh says the treatment reduces clearwing moth populations quickly.
Today, the population is under control, but preventive treatments continue.
For thousands of years, people have been debating the meaning of happiness and how to find it.
One big happy family -- or are they really?
From the ancient Greeks and Romans to current day writers and professors, the debate about happiness continues.
What makes someone happy?
In what parts of the world are people the happiest?
Why even study happiness?
Today, we explore these questions and learn about several new books on happiness studies.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that a person’s highest happiness comes from the use of his or her intelligence.
Religious books such as the Koran and Bible discuss faith as a form of happiness.
The British scientist Charles Darwin believed that all species were formed in a way so as to enjoy happiness.
And, the United States Declaration of Independence guarantees “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as a basic human right.
People throughout history may have had different ideas about happiness.
But today, many people are still searching for its meaning.
But how do you study something like happiness?
You could start with the World Database of Happiness at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
This set of information includes how to define and measure happiness.
It also includes happiness averages in countries around the world and compares that information through time.
Some findings are not surprising.
For example, the database suggests that married people are happier than single people.
People who like to be with other people are happier than unsocial people.
And people who have sex a lot are happier than people who do not.
But other findings are less expected: People with children are equally happy as couples without children.
And wealthier people are only a little happier than poorer people.
The database suggests that people who live in strongly democratic and wealthy countries are happier than those who do not.
This database also shows that studying happiness no longer involves just theories and ideas.
Economists, psychiatrists, doctors and social scientists are finding ways of understanding happiness by examining real sets of information.
Positive psychology is the new term for a method of scientific study that tries to examine the things that make life worth living instead of life’s problems.
Traditional psychology generally studies negative situations like mental suffering and sickness.
But positive psychology aims to study the strengths that allow people and communities to do well.
Martin Seligman is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
He says positive psychology has three main concerns: positive emotions, positive individual qualities and positive organizations and communities.
There is also an increasing amount of medical research on the physical qualities of happiness.
Doctors can now look at happiness at work in a person’s brain using a method called magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI.
For example, an MRI can show how one area of a person’s brain activates when he or she is shown happy pictures.
A different area of the brain becomes active when the person sees pictures of terrible subjects.
Doctors are studying brain activity to better understand the physical activity behind human emotions.
This research may lead to better understanding of depression and other mental problems.
Happiness is an extremely popular subject for books.
Experts from several areas of study recently published books on the subject.
The historian Darrin McMahon examines the development of happiness in “Happiness: A History.” Mister McMahon looks at two thousand years of politics and culture in western countries.
He says it is only in recent history that people think of happiness as a natural human right.
Darrin McMahon explains how the ancient Greeks thought happiness was linked to luck.
He says it was not until the Enlightenment period in eighteenth century Europe that people began to think they had the power to find happiness themselves.
He notes that in demanding happiness, people may think something is wrong with them or others if they are not happy.
Mister McMahon sees the pressure to be happy as actually creating unhappiness.
Darrin McMahon says his book will not make readers happier.
But he says that by comparing your situation with people throughout history, you can have a better understanding of the idea of happiness.
We are remarkable at our ability to adjust and adapt to almost any situation; but we seem not to know this about ourselves.
And so we mistakenly predict that good things will make us happy .
. .
really happy for a really long time .
Bad things, why they’ll just slay us.
The World Health Organization is urging countries to follow six policies to prevent millions of tobacco-related deaths.
The six policies are known as MPOWER, spelled M-P-O-W-E-R.
The M is for monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies.
The P is for protecting people by establishing smoke-free areas.
O stands for offering services to help people stop smoking.
W is for warning people about the dangers of tobacco.
E is for enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and other forms of marketing.
And R is for raising taxes on tobacco.
The W.H.O. says in a major new report that raising taxes is the single most effective way to reduce tobacco use.
A study found that governments now collect an average of five hundred times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on control efforts.
The W.H.O. says tobacco now causes more than five million deaths a year.
It predicts this number will rise to more than eight million by the year two thousand thirty.
By the end of the century, it says, tobacco could kill one billion people -- ten times as many as in the twentieth century.
The large majority of these deaths will take place in developing countries.
More than twenty-five percent of all smokers in the world are Chinese.
India, Indonesia, Russia and the United States, in that order, follow China in tobacco use.
The W.H.O. found that only five percent of all people live in countries with protections like national legislation on smoke-free areas or bans on tobacco advertising.
Forty percent of countries still permit smoking in hospitals and schools.
An international treaty on tobacco control came into force in two thousand five.
Tobacco companies face increasingly restrictive marketplaces in many wealthier countries.
The industry is now aiming at the developing world, especially young women.
The report says large numbers of people do not yet know the dangers of smoking.
W.H.O. Director General Margaret Chan points out that tobacco hurts economies in two ways.
One is through reduced productivity among workers who get lung cancer or other tobacco-related diseases.
The other way is through high health care costs for treating those diseases.
The W.H.O. study was announced in New York City.
New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has worked hard to restrict smoking in America's largest city.
And his charitable group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helped pay for the study.
In certain areas of the world, the OK symbol that we just discussed might actually mean something else.
In Belgium or in France it might mean that you're worthless.
Or it might mean zero.
You're making kind of an L with your thumb and index finger.
Nancy and I, neither one of us are anthropologists, so we actually relied on the research of a lot of other folks and kind of compiled it and made it very accessible for anyone to be able to understand.
You're making kind of an L with your thumb and index finger.
Nancy and I, neither one of us are anthropologists, so we actually relied on the research of a lot of other folks and kind of compiled it and made it very accessible for anyone to be able to understand.
Detail from ''Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention,'' by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1856In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia.
They planned to make changes in the Articles of Confederation, which created a weak union of the thirteen states.
But instead of changes, the convention produced a new document.
This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Richard Rael continue the story of the United States Constitution.
Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national judiciary.
Delegates approved a Supreme Court.
And they agreed that the national legislature should establish a system of lower national courts.
The national executive -- or president -- would appoint the judges.
These courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrongdoing by foreign citizens in the United States.
The existing system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws.
We also told how the convention heard different proposals for a national government.
Virginia and New Jersey offered their plans.
Alexander Hamilton of New York presented a third proposal.
It would give the national government almost unlimited powers.
Hamilton's ideas were not popular.
They did not even vote on Hamilton's plan.
From that time, all their discussions were about the plan presented by Virginia.
Detail from 'The United States Senate in Session'; the artist is unidentifiedThe delegates began to discuss creation of a national legislature.
This would be the most hotly debated issue of the convention.
It forced out into the open the question of equal representation.
Would small states and large states have an equal voice in the central government?
Delegates voted on proposals, then discussed other proposals, then voted again.
By the beginning of July, they were no closer to agreement than they had been in May.
They voted to create a committee.
The purpose of the committee was to develop a compromise on representation in the national legislature.
The rest of the delegates would rest and enjoy themselves during the July Fourth holiday.
July Fourth -- Independence Day.
It was a national holiday in the United States.
It marked the eleventh anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence from British rule.
It was a day for parades, fireworks, and patriotic speeches.
The celebration was especially important in Philadelphia.
It was the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Now it was the city where a new nation was being created.
Convention president George Washington led a group of delegates to a ceremony at a Philadelphia church.
We went back to ancient history for examples of government.
We examined different forms of republics which no longer exist.
We also examined modern states all around Europe.
They knew if they did not reach agreement, the convention would fail.
Those were dark days in Philadelphia.
Later, Luther Martin of Maryland noted that the newspapers reported how much the delegates agreed.
But George Mason of Virginia declared he would bury his bones in Philadelphia before he would leave without an agreement.
Even George Washington was depressed.
But that question was not the most serious issue facing the convention.
Many years later, James Madison explained.
He said the most serious issue was deciding how the states would be represented and would vote in a national government.
That question, he said, was the one which most threatened the writing of the Constitution.
That will be our story next week.
Our program was written by Christine Johnson and read by Frank Oliver and Richard Rael.
So far in our series on learning disabilities we have talked about problems with reading, writing and movement.
Today we talk about a problem that affects the brain's ability to process and understand the meaning of numbers.
The name for this is dyscalculia.
Children with dyscalculia have trouble reading numbers and picturing them in their mind.
For example, they might mistake a three for an eight because the numbers look similar.
They also have trouble counting objects and organizing them by size.
Memory is another issue.
Children with dyscalculia may not remember the correct order of operations to follow in solving math problems.
Difficulties like these can lead to a lifelong fear of mathematics.
Of course, just because people have trouble with math does not necessarily mean they have dyscalculia.
But experts say parents and teachers may begin to suspect a problem if a child is good at speaking, reading and writing but slow to develop math skills.
Does a child remember printed words but not numbers?
Does the child have trouble making sense of time or understanding the order of events, like yesterday, today and tomorrow?
People with dyscalculia might also have a poor sense of direction.
They might have difficulty keeping score during games, and limited ability to plan moves during games like chess.
Children suspected of being dyscalculic should be examined by a professional trained to recognize this condition.
Experts say the disorder never goes away.
But Sheldon Horowitz at the National Center for Learning Disabilities says carefully designed practice can improve math skills.
For example, a teacher might use a number line to help a child understand the difference between larger and smaller numbers.
The child could be asked to point to different numbers and to describe their relationship to other numbers on the line.
Or objects could be grouped to represent numbers.
Something else that can help children understand number relationships is to have a math problem described in the form of a story.
Experts say students with dyscalculia need extra time to complete their work.
Sheldon Horowitz also advises letting them work with a calculator in school.
On our show this week, we tell about the movies, actors and music nominated for Academy Awards.
The eightieth Academy Awards ceremony takes place Sunday at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California.
Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the show on television.
It is the most exciting event of the year for people who make movies and for people who love to watch them.
Barbara Klein has more.
Getting ready for the 80th Academy Awards On Sunday, actors, directors, writers, producers and others will gather in Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry.
They will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year.
The winners will receive an award called an Oscar.
This statue is shaped like a man.
It is made of several metals covered with gold.
The Oscar is only about thirty-four centimeters tall.
It weighs less than four kilograms.
But the award is extremely valuable for the people who receive it.
People who win an Oscar become much more famous.
They often get offers to work in the best movies.
They can also earn much more money.
Five movies are competing for Best Picture of the year.
A killer chases him across Texas to get the money back.
He is opposed by a young religious worker in a small town in California.
His law firm is trying to settle a case against an agricultural chemical company.
Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the Academy.
They nominate candidates for Academy Awards from their own professions.
For example, actors nominate actors.
Directors nominate directors.
Designers nominate designers.
All Academy members vote to choose the final winners.
More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented Sunday night.
The people who wrote the best screenplays and did the best film and sound editing will receive awards.
So will the people who designed the best costumes, makeup and special effects.
The composers who wrote the best song and music from a movie will also be honored.
Mario Ritter plays some of the music nominated for an Oscar.
Marketa Irglova and Glen HansardThat was “Falling Slowly,” a Best Song nominee from the movie “Once.”? Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova wrote the song, perform it and star in the movie.
“Once” is a musical about an Irish man and a Czech woman who meet and make music on the streets of Dublin.
The movie “Enchanted” makes gentle fun of fairy tales about princesses and true love.
Amy Adams plays a cartoon princess, Giselle, who becomes a real princess in New York City.
Her loving, joyful spirit incites the same feelings in the people she meets.
Here Giselle sings “That’s How You Know.”
The final nominated song is from the movie “August Rush.”? Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas wrote “Raise It Up.”?
The Best Musical Score Oscar is for the instrumental music made for a film.
James Newton Howard is nominated for the film “Michael Clayton.”?
It is his seventh Academy Award nomination.
Dario Marianelli wrote the nominated score for the movie?? “Atonement.”?
Here is one mysterious sounding melody.
And composer Marco Beltrami was honored for his music for the western “3:10 to Yuma.”?
We leave you now with music from the final nominated score from “The Kite Runner” by composer Alberto Iglesias.
The movie is about the relationship of two children in Afghanistan.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
The show was written by Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer.
Usually we think about material qualities when we think about the pleasure we will get from a product.
When something costs a lot, we might think about all the fine work that went into it.
But can price alone influence the pleasure we experience?
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the Stanford Graduate School of Business say yes.
Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty and Antonio Rangel at Caltech and Baba Shiv at Stanford did a study.
They had twenty people taste different wines.
Wine was chosen because it comes in many different qualities and prices, and because a lot of people enjoy tasting it.
The people were told they were tasting five different Cabernet Sauvignons.
The wines were identified only by price: five, ten, thirty-five, forty-five and ninety dollars.
But in truth there were only three different wines, and two of them were presented twice, at a high price and a low price.
For example, the wine that in fact cost ninety dollars a bottle was presented half the time as a ten dollar wine.
There were two important results from the study.
First, the individuals, on average, reported greater pleasure from drinking wine that they were told was higher in price.
Brain images taken while the people tasted the wine supported this finding.
The new findings will add to the limited knowledge of how marketing affects brain activity.
The second result has meaning for economists and marketers.
The experiment appears to confirm that raising the price can increase how much a product is enjoyed.
In other words, when it comes to expectations, it seems you really do get what you pay for.
The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Finally, we want to update our recent story on the fight over next-generation DVD technology for high definition televisions.
One of the world's longest serving leaders announced this week that he is leaving office after just short of fifty eventful years.
Fidel Castro of Cuba is eighty-one years old and in poor health.
He named his brother Raul as acting president in two thousand six.
In a letter published Tuesday, Fidel Castro said he was not saying goodbye to the Cuban people.
The two brothers appear to share very similar ideas about governing the communist-ruled island.
Fidel Castro will apparently remain a member of Parliament and is widely expected to still have strong influence.
He came to power as a socialist revolutionary in nineteen fifty-nine.
He overthrew the pro-American Fulgencio Batista, who himself had seized power.
Fidel Castro soon won the support of the Soviet Union at the height of its cold war tensions with the United States.
In nineteen sixty-one, a force of Cuban exiles trained by the American Central Intelligence Agency launched an invasion of the island.
The Cuban government learned of the plan.
Within days its troops defeated what became known as the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The failure was a public relations disaster for the United States and its president, John F. Kennedy.
In February of nineteen sixty-two Kennedy used power approved by Congress to ban all trade with Cuba.
The embargo of goods except food and medicine is still in effect.
In October of nineteen sixty-two, the United States found that the Soviets had missiles in Cuba.
Cuba is one hundred forty-five kilometers from the Florida coast.
President Kennedy warned of the risk of a nuclear strike on the United States.
He ordered a naval blockade which soon forced the Soviets to remove the missiles.
But the Soviets remained Cuba’s top ally and trade partner for thirty years.
The Cuban economy suffered after the Soviet Union collapsed in nineteen ninety-one.
But in recent years the economy has improved.
Venezuela, led by socialist President Hugo Chavez, has become an important ally.
Supporters of Fidel Castro praised a leader who provided free health care and education in Cuba.
But others condemned a dictator with a repressive government that spread communist revolution in Latin America and Africa.
Cuba has one legal political party, the Communist Party.
The media rights group Reporters Without Borders rates Cuba as the fifth worst nation for press freedoms.
Human rights groups say Cuba's eleven million citizens are denied privacy, free speech and fair legal process.
The Bush administration says it has no plans to end economic restrictions against Cuba without changes like free elections.
President Bush says he hopes the end of Fidel Castro’s rule can be the beginning of peaceful reform.
Today we report about Annie Oakley, a woman who became famous for her ability to shoot a gun and hit very small objects.
There are hundreds of stories about Annie Oakley.
Many of the stories involve her adventures in the American Wild West.
Others tell about her travels with Native American tribes.
However, most of the stories are not true.
She did not grow up in the Wild West, nor did she fight in any battles.
Annie Oakley was a performer in a traveling Wild West show.
She used her skill at shooting a gun to become one of the most famous sharp shooters in American history.
Annie Oakley was born in eighteen sixty in Darke County, Ohio.
Her real name was Phoebe Ann Mosey.
When she was six years old, her father died of pneumonia.
Her family was very poor.
She did not attend school.
When she was nine years old, Annie went to live with another family on a farm.
Then she became a servant for still another family.
She later said that this new family abused her.
When Annie returned to live with her own family, she decided to help them earn money.
She taught herself how to shoot her grandfather's gun and began hunting animals for food.
She could shoot the animals without ruining the important parts of the meat.
She sold the animals to the people in her town.
When she was fifteen years old, she had made enough money to pay for her family’s farm.
Soon her ability to shoot a gun became well known in her town.
When she was sixteen years old, she was invited to a shooting contest with a famous marksman named Frank Butler.
Frank Butler claimed that he could shoot better than anyone else.
Annie surprised everyone when she won the competition.
She shot all twenty-five targets, while Frank Butler was only able to shoot twenty-four of them.
Perhaps their shooting abilities attracted them to one another, because Annie and Frank married in eighteen seventy-six.
In eighteen eighty-two, Annie took the name Oakley.
She and Frank Butler started putting on shows together, demonstrating their abilities to shoot a gun.
Frank Butler was the star of the show and Annie Oakley was his assistant.
However, sometimes she did her own shooting.
Two years later, Annie Oakley met the famous Native American chief, Sitting Bull, at a performance.
The chief liked her skill in shooting and also her personality.
They became friends.
It was called “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.”?
William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, ran the show.
For sixteen years, Annie Oakley was the star of the show while Frank Butler was her assistant.
Posters for the show called her a “Champion Markswoman.”?
The Wild West show became very famous all over the United States.
All of the performers demonstrated their skills.
Many of the performers had fought in real gun battles while settling the western part of the United States.
They wanted to bring the excitement and mystery of the Wild West to a show that people would like to watch.
Annie Oakley did tricks that showed off how good she was at aiming and shooting a gun.
She could shoot a small metal coin thrown in the air from twenty-seven meters away.
She could shoot the thin edge of a playing card and then shoot it six more times as it fell to the ground.
She could shoot the ashes off of a cigarette her husband Frank Butler held in his mouth.
In eighteen eighty-seven, Buffalo Bill took the whole Wild West show to Europe.
They traveled to many countries and gave many performances.
They performed in England for Queen Victoria.
Annie Oakley received a lot of attention.
The newspapers wrote stories about her and she took part in many shooting contests.
The Wild West show returned to Europe two years later.
By this time, Annie Oakley had become even more famous.
The Wild West show performed in Paris, France, for six months.
Then the performers traveled to Germany, Italy and Spain.
In Germany, the Crown Prince asked Oakley to shoot the ashes off of a cigarette that he held in his mouth, as she famously had done with her husband.
She asked the Prince to hold the cigarette in his hand instead and did the trick easily.
When the Wild West show returned to the United States, Buffalo Bill decided to change it to include scenes from the life and culture of the Wild West.
These scenes included train robberies, gunfights and conflicts with Native American Indians.
In nineteen-oh-one, Annie Oakley was in a train crash that badly injured her back.
She had five operations.
Annie and Frank wanted to stop traveling so much and have their own home.
So they left the Wild West show.
They built a home in Cambridge, Maryland.
They liked this area because it had a nice community and there were many places they could go hunting.
Annie Oakley and Frank Butler took part in community activities.
Oakley gave shooting lessons and demonstrations at the local county fair.
Annie Oakley wrote a book about her life that was published in nineteen fourteen.
It was called “Powders I Have Used.”
She also wrote many stories about hunting and fishing.
Some of these articles tried to get other women to begin hunting.
She also tried to get women to learn how to shoot a gun so that they could defend themselves.
During World War One, Annie Oakley offered to help the military.
She proposed to train a group of women volunteers who would become soldiers in the war.
However, the United States did not accept this offer.
She also offered to give the American troops shooting lessons.
She traveled across the country and visited many training camps.
She gave shooting demonstrations and raised money for medicine and supplies.
In nineteen twenty-five, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler moved back to Ohio to be near her family.
They continued to give performances.
But Annie Oakley was sick.
She died on November third, nineteen twenty-six.
Her husband Frank Butler died eighteen days later.
Annie Oakley has been remembered in many ways.
People have written movies, songs, plays, books and television shows about her.
One of the most famous examples is the Broadway musical play called “Annie Get Your Gun.”? Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen forty-six.
She showed that women could be just as good, if not better, than men.
Some popular American expressions come from areas of the United States where people experience problems of living in cold winter weather.
Winters in the northern United States are always cold and snowy.
Sometimes, heavy snow is brought by violent storms with high winds and extremely low temperatures.
Americans call these storms, blizzards.
Blizzards are usually described as blinding, because no one can see through the blowing snow.
Until about one hundred twenty years ago, the word blizzard had nothing to do with snow.
It had several other meanings.
One was a sharp blow, like hitting a ball with a stick.
Another meaning was a gun shot.
?
A third was any sort of statement or event that was the most extreme of its kind.
An especially violent and heavy snowstorm struck the state of Iowa in eighteen seventy.
The newspaper editor in one small town called the terrible storm a blizzard, because it was the worst winter storm in a long time.
This use of the word spread across the country in the next few years.
Soon, any especially bad winter storm was called a blizzard.
Although no one likes a blizzard, many people love snow.
It changes the appearance of everything around us.
When snow is falling, the world seems somehow soft, peaceful and quiet.
Snow, especially in large amounts, covers everything.
But too much snow is a real problem.
Heavy, deep snow is difficult to move.
Clearing snow from roads and sidewalks is hard work.
Someone who is snowed under has a lot of snow to clear.
That expression, snowed under, also has another meaning.
Anyone who has too much work to do is snowed under.
You might explain to a friend that you cannot see her tonight, because you are snowed under with work.
It also is possible to snow someone under with words.
The idea is to change someone's mind by making a great many pleasant, but false, statements or claims.
That is a snow job.
A boy may use a snow job, for example, to try to get a girl to go out with him.
The pretty words of his snow job are like the snow flakes that cover the real world around us.
However, snow jobs, unlike blizzards, are easily seen through.
We hope you have enjoyed our attempts to explain some popular American winter expressions.
And that wish is no snow job.
The narrator was Maurice Joyce.
The narrator was Maurice Joyce.
Starting a business is never easy.
But an organization like TechnoServe can make it easier.
A businessman in the American state of Connecticut, Ed Bullard, launched this nonprofit group forty years ago.
The name comes from the idea of technology in the service of mankind.
TechnoServe looks for business solutions to rural poverty.
She tells us the group has an estimated budget this year of about forty-five million dollars.
She says much of that will support business training and development programs in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
In parts of Central America, for example, TechnoServe is helping coffee producers become competitive in new and growing markets.
In rural India the group is assisting farmers with crop production.
And in Mozambique, TechnoServe is helping develop the travel and tourism industry.
One way it identifies promising entrepreneurs is through a business plan competition called Believe Begin Become.
This is an intensive program that provides technical training and expert advice.
Winners receive money to bring their business plans to reality.
TechnoServe has held nine national competitions in Central America since two thousand two.
This week on our program, we look at the business of skiing and snowboarding in the United States.
Snow sports are a big business.
Ski areas help support local economies.
One hundred sixty-five thousand people work in the mountain resort industry.
It earns five billion dollars a year.
The president of the National Ski Areas Association provided these numbers to a Senate committee last May.
Michael Berry wanted lawmakers in Congress to know that his members are concerned about an issue: global warming.
Snow sports, after all, are not just a business, but a business that depends on the weather.
The ski season in the United States generally extends from late November until the middle of April.
But this season, areas in the West have experienced record amounts of snowfall.
Some ski resorts are planning to stay open longer.
Last season, thirty-seven of the fifty states had operating ski areas.
Nationally, close to five hundred ski areas were open for business.
The five states with the most ski areas were New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, California and Pennsylvania.
The industry recorded more than fifty-five million visits.
That was close to the average for the past ten seasons, but down six percent from the season before.
The National Ski Areas Association says the main reason was the weather.
The ski season was shortened in most of the United States because of warm temperatures and below-average snowfall.
This was true everywhere except the Rocky Mountains, in the West.
Resorts there reported a record twenty million visits last season.
The Rocky Mountains extend through several states including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho.
The largest ski resort in the United States is Vail, Colorado.
The town of Vail and the nearby Vail Mountain make up the resort.
The mountain is more than three thousand five hundred meters high.
A ski trip does not have to cost thousands of dollars.
Many people go for a day or two and rent skis instead of buying them.
But people with enough money to stay at a nice resort might also have enough for some special things.
Like riding to the top of the mountain in a helicopter instead of on a ski lift.
And ski areas do not have to be outdoors or open only in winter.
The first indoor ski dome in the United States is expected to open late this year in New Jersey.
The United States has three hundred million people.
The National Sporting Goods Association says more than six million of them participate in downhill skiing.
Two million are cross-country skiers.
And more than five million snowboard.
Snowboarding gained popularity in the nineteen sixties and seventies.
By the early eighties, less than ten percent of ski areas in the United States permitted snowboarding.
Many skiers considered it a danger.
But today only a few places still ban snowboarding.
Snowboarders are generally younger than skiers.
Alex Lebonitte is twenty-four years old and a personal trainer in Virginia.
He finds that snowboarding is not that much more fun than skiing.
He feels the speed more on a snowboard than on two skis, and he likes that.
But what he especially likes is that snowboarding is more comfortable than skiing, he says.
The boots are softer, not as much equipment is needed -- and, he says, everything stays attached when you fall.
When a mountain has a lot of snow, there may be danger of an avalanche.
Snow slides are powerful, and they can be deadly, burying anything in their path.
To reduce the risk of an avalanche, ski areas might use artillery and other explosives to produce controlled slides.
Ski areas need a lot of snow.
But what happens when there is not enough?
In that case, they make their own.
Snow making machines are the reason many ski resorts can stay open more than a few months a year.
These machines also make it possible to create better ski conditions than nature may provide.
Ski operators point out that their snow is really no different from the snow that falls from the sky.
Snow crystals are ice particles that usually form around a piece of dust in the atmosphere.
All snow crystals have six sides, but they form different shapes.
The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air.
Snow crystals produce snowflakes when they stick together.
Making snow requires water, cold temperatures and some dust particles.
A machine called a snow gun mixes cooled water and compressed air.
A pipe carries water into the gun from a lake or pond.
A second pipe pushes in high-pressure air from a compressor.
The compressed air causes the water to divide into many tiny particles.
It also blows the drops into the air and helps cool them at the same time.
The drops freeze before they hit the ground, producing snow.
Some ski areas place the snow guns on towers high above the ground, giving the particles more time to freeze.
But there is more to making snow than just the equipment.
Weather conditions must be correct.
These conditions involve air temperature and humidity, the amount of water in the air.
The drier the air, the easier it is to make snow.
Today many ski areas use computers to measure the conditions and start the snow making when the conditions are best.
And ski areas want snow making machines to produce different kinds of snow, just like nature.
Dry snow contains only a small amount of water.
This light, powdery snow is excellent for skiing.
Ski resorts want the top layer of snow on a mountain to be dry.
Under the dry snow, they want wet snow, to build up the levels for skiers.
Environmental groups are concerned about the use of large amounts of energy and water to make snow at ski areas.
Many ski operators in the United States are trying to improve the situation with machines that need less energy and water.
The Killington ski resort in the northeastern state of Vermont recently invested more than five million dollars to improve its snowmaking system.
Other resorts have reduced the amount of compressed air their machines use; producing it takes energy.
Some resorts are using snow guns that can make snow without the need for any compressed air.
Another ski area in the Northeast, the Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Massachusetts, has built a wind turbine to produce energy.
The turbine began operating in August of two thousand seven.
Jiminy Peak says it is the only mountain resort in North America to produce its own power using wind energy.
Katie Fogel is the director of public relations.
She says the wind turbine is producing fifty percent of the resort's energy needs, and thirty-five to forty percent of the energy needed to produce snow.
Snow making equipment is not the only technology found at ski areas.
Skiers can use global positioning satellites to avoid getting lost.
And, if there is wireless service, they can use their mobile phones to warn others of dangerous conditions, or to call for help.
Another modern safety device is the avalanche beacon.
Avalanche beacons are devices that send out a signal to help in locating people buried under snow.
There are also personal locator beacons which transmit an emergency signal to satellites.
Ski areas usually have programs to teach safety.
Many have also increased their number of employees to supervise visitors.
The National Ski Areas Association says accidents generally involve young men traveling at high speed.
An average of thirty-seven people a year have been killed skiing or snowboarding during the past ten years.
The association reports that last season there were twenty-two deaths, most of them skiers.
Forty other people were seriously injured; forty percent of them were snowboarders.
Amy Kemp is communications manager for Vail Resorts in Colorado.
She says one of the most important technological improvements in skiing in the past ten years is the ski itself.
She says the changes in design and shape have made skiing easier, safer and more fun.
For example, skis that turn up at both ends, instead of just the front, make it easier to do tricks.
And skiers do not have to work as hard as they used to, she says.
Now they can change direction without any more effort than moving an ankle.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson, and produced by Caty Weaver.
Today we tell about headaches, the head pain that strikes almost everyone at some time.
Have you had a headache recently??
If your answer is yes, you are like many millions of people worldwide who experience pain in the head.
The pain can be temporary, mild and cured by a simple painkiller like aspirin.
Or, it can be severe.
The National Headache Foundation says more than forty five million people in the United States suffer chronic headaches.
Such headaches cause severe pain that goes away but returns later.
Some headaches may prove difficult and require time to treat.
But many experts today are working toward cures or major help for chronic headaches.
The US Headache Consortium is a group with seven member organizations.
They are attempting to improve treatment of one kind of headache -- the migraine.
Some people experience this kind of pain as often as two weeks every month.
The National Headache Foundation says about seventy percent of migraine sufferers are women.
Some people describe the pain as similar to a repeated beat.
Others compare it to someone driving a sharp object into the head.
Migraine headaches cause Americans to miss more than one hundred fifty million workdays each year.
A migraine can be mild.
But it also can be so severe that a person cannot live a normal life.
One migraine sufferer lives in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Video producer Curtis Croley had head pain as a child.
He does not know what kind of headaches they were.
But when he suffered severe headaches as an adult, doctors identified the problem as migraine.
Today, Mister Croley says months can pass without a headache.
But then he will have three migraines within a month.
If he takes the medicine his doctor ordered early in his headache, it controls the pain.
If not, the pain in his head becomes extremely bad.
Sometimes he has had to be treated with a combination of drugs in a hospital.
Some people take medicine every day to prevent or ease migraine headaches.
Others use medicine to control pain already developed.
Doctors treating migraine sufferers often order medicines from a group of drugs known as triptans.
Most migraines react at least partly to existing medicine.
And most people can use existing medicine without experiencing bad effects.
Doctors sometimes use caffeine to treat migraine headaches.
Interestingly, caffeine also can cause some migraines.
Medical experts have long recognized the work of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The Mayo Clinic says several foods are suspected of causing migraines.
Cheese and alcoholic drinks are among them.
Food additives like nitrates and monosodium glutamate also are suspected causes.
The Mayo Clinic tells patients to avoid strong smells that have seemingly started migraines in the past.
Some people react badly to products like perfume, even if they have a pleasant smell.
The Clinic's experts say aerobic exercise can help migraine sufferers.
Aerobic exercise increases a person's heart rate.
It can include walking, swimming or riding a bicycle.
But a sudden start to hard exercise can cause headaches.
The experts advise that people should plan to exercise, eat and sleep at the same times each day.
The Mayo Clinic has advice about estrogen for women who suffer from migraines.
The female body makes estrogen.
Drugs like birth control pills contain a version of this chemical.
Such medicines may produce headaches or cause them to worsen, the Clinic says.
The same is true for estrogen replacement drugs for women.
Doctors sometimes order estrogen replacement for women who no longer able to have children.
The Clinic also says hypnotherapy might help suppress headaches.
It says the method could reduce the number and severity of a patient’s headaches.
In hypnotherapy, willing people are placed in a condition that lets them receive suggestions.
They look like they are sleeping.
The suggestions they receive may be able to direct their whole mental energy against pain.
The Mayo Clinic says the hypnotizer can never control the person under hypnosis.
More people suffer tension headaches than migraines.
But most tension headaches are not as powerful.
Events that start tension headaches may include emotional pressure and the deeper than normal sadness called depression.
Other tension headaches can start from something as simple as tiredness.
Common changes in atmospheric conditions also can be responsible.
The Mayo Clinic says you may feel a tension headache as tightness in the skin around your eyes.
Or, you may feel pressure around your head.
Episodic tension headaches strike from time to time.
Chronic tension headaches happen more often.
A tension headache can last from a half hour to a whole week.
The Mayo Clinic says the pain may come very early in the day.
Other signs can include pain in the neck or the lower part of the head.
Scientists are not sure what causes tension headaches.
For years, researchers blamed muscle tension from tightening in the face, neck and the skin on top of the head.
They believed emotional tension caused these movements.
But that belief has been disputed.
A test called an electromyogram shows that muscle tension does not increase in people with a tension headache.
The test records electrical currents caused by muscle activity.
Such research has caused the International Headache Society to re-name the tension headache.
The group now calls it a tension-type headache.
Some scientists now believe that tension headaches may result from changes among brain chemicals such as serotonin.
The changes may start sending pain messages to the brain.
These changes may interfere with brain activity that suppresses pain.
Medicines for tension headache can be as simple as aspirin or other painkillers.
But if your pain is too severe, you will need a doctor's advice.
A web site called Family Doctor dot org provides information from the American Academy of Family Physicians.
The group suggests steps to ease or end a tension headache.
For example, it says putting heat or ice on your head or neck can help.
So can standing under hot water while you are getting washed.
The group also advises exercising often.
Another idea is taking a holiday from work.
Ask anyone with a cluster headache, and they will tell you that the pain is terrible.
The Cleveland Clinic Headache Center in Ohio says the cluster headache can be many times more intense than a migraine.
Cluster headaches usually strike young people.
Smokers and persons who drink alcohol often get these headaches.
Men are about six times more likely than women to have them.
The Cleveland Clinic says this is especially true of younger men.
Doctors say cluster headaches often strike during changes of season.
Cluster headache patients describe the pain as burning.
The pain is almost always felt on one side of the face.
It can last for up to ninety minutes.
Then it stops.
But it often starts again later the same day.
Eighty to ninety percent of cluster headache patients have pain over a number of days to a whole year.
Pain-free periods separate these periods.
The Cleveland Clinic says the cause of cluster headaches is in a brain area known as a trigeminal-autonomic reflex pathway.
When the nerve is made active, it starts pain linked to cluster headaches.
The nerve starts a process that makes one eye watery and red.
Studies have shown that activation of the trigeminal nerve may come from a part of the brain called the hypothalamus.
The Cleveland Clinic says injections of the drug sumatriptan can help.
Many other drugs also could be used.
For example, doctors say breathing oxygen also can help.
Thankfully, modern medicine has ways to treat almost all of our headaches.
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Blake.
Wheat supplies around the world are at their lowest level in thirty years.
Wheat supplies in the United States are at their lowest in sixty years.
But the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome has some good news.
It says a big increase in winter wheat plantings in northern countries is likely to result in much higher production this year.
The F.A.O. points out, though, that these predictions are based on normal weather conditions.
Wheat production last year is now estimated at just over six hundred million tons.
That was up one percent from two thousand six -- not as much as had been hoped.
Almost all of the increase was among large producers in Asia.
Prices are up sharply for wheat but also for most other cereal crops.
The F.A.O. says big production increases may be required for more than one season for prices to fall much below their recent highs.
The United States Department of Agriculture has come out with its own agricultural predictions, to the year two thousand seventeen.
Wheat plantings in the United States are expected to rise sharply this year in reaction to high prices.
But wheat hectarage is expected to fall back for the longer term as a result of competition from other crops.
The United States is the leading exporter of wheat.
The government says that by summer, American farmers will export one-fifth more than earlier predicted.
But demand is also up at home.
More wheat is needed for animal feed to replace corn being grown to make fuel.
World wheat supplies are also down because in some countries, including the United States, bad weather has reduced production.
Something else that can reduce wheat production is the wheat curl mite.
In nineteen ninety-five, it caused about thirty-five million dollars in damage in the American Midwest.
It causes an infection called wheat streak mosaic virus.
Government experts say pesticides are not especially effective against the wheat curl mite.
But this year, the Agricultural Research Service at the Department of Agriculture is making a new winter wheat available to resist the virus.
Robert Graybosch developed it with scientists from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Kansas State University.
The new wheat is called Mace.
The scientists say in tests, two to three times more Mace was harvested from virus-infected fields than other kinds of wheat.
Many stories have been told about the old American West.
Some are true.
Many more are just interesting stories.
Today we will try to tell the true story of one of the most famous and dangerous American gun fighters.
His name was John Henry Holliday.
He was better known as “Doc”.
The little city of Glenwood Springs is deep in the Rocky Mountains in the western state of Colorado.
The mountains here rise sharply out of the ground and surround Glenwood Springs.
A small burial area in Glenwood Springs is called the Pioneer Cemetery.
You have to walk up a steep hill on an old dirt road to reach it.
The walk takes about twenty minutes.
Visitors can stop at several places along this walk to look at the city far blow.
In the cemetery, large stones mark most of the burial places.
Some of the stones look new.
Many are more than one hundred years old.
A dirt path leads to the back of the cemetery and one, lone, burial place.
This one is the reason most people come to the Pioneer Cemetery.
The stone over the burial place is colored red, and larger than most of the others.
A small black metal fence surrounds the grave.
The name on the stone says “Doc Holliday… He died in bed.”?
This man’s real name was John Henry Holliday.
He was called “Doc” because he was a doctor of dental surgery, a dentist.
But he was best known as a gunfighter and gambler, a person who plays games of chance for money.
Many people who knew him considered him the most dangerous man in the Old West.
It is extremely difficult to separate truth from the false stories that were spread about some of the more famous people in the Old West.
Many of these famous stories are very interesting and exciting.
But they are not true.
Many of these made-up stories tell about the man who was Doc Holliday.
History experts say he was a very dangerous man because he was already dying when he came to the West.
He knew he had the lung disease tuberculosis that causes a slow death.
Many experts said he was not afraid of a gunfight.
He thought a quick death from a bullet might be better than waiting to die a very slow, painful death from the disease.
Another interesting fact about Doc Holliday is that many history experts now believe he may have spread several of the stories that were told about him.
He may have done this because it caused people to fear him.
If they feared him, they would not cause him trouble.
It was not difficult to find trouble in many towns in the American West.
And disputes about who had won a game of chance were always a possibility for a professional gambler like Doc Holliday.
John Henry Holliday was born in the southern state of Georgia in eighteen fifty-one.
He was born into a family that included several medical doctors and dentists.
Like most young men of the American South at that time, John Henry Holliday learned to ride a horse well.
He learned to shoot several kinds of weapons.
He also was well educated.
He learned math and science.
He learned to read, write and speak Greek, Latin and French.
A young black women who worked for his family taught him to play card games.
John Holliday became a very good card player.
He could easily remember which cards had been played in a game.
This was very difficult to do.
It helped him much later in life when he became a professional gambler.
In eighteen seventy, John became a student at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia.
He graduated in eighteen seventy-two.
John Holliday was a tall man.
He was thin and always dressed well.
He was a quiet, friendly man who always smiled.
People liked him.
Doctor Holliday began working as a dentist in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia.
He soon began to show the signs of tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his mother.
His doctor said he would live longer if he went to a warm, very dry place -- perhaps the American West.
In eighteen seventy-three, John Holliday said goodbye to his family and left Georgia on a train.
He began his new life in the western city of Dallas, Texas.
Doctor Holliday tried to work as a dentist for about four years.
He was not very successful.
Many people did not want to be treated by a dentist they knew had tuberculosis.
He spent a great deal of time drinking alcohol in a saloon.
It was here that be became known as “Doc” Holliday.
Holliday traveled in Texas and Colorado for the next several years.
He became a professional gambler.
In eighteen seventy-seven, he was living in the small town of Fort Griffin, Texas.
Here he met a man who was to become one of his best friends.
That man was a former law officer, gunfighter and gambler.
His name was Wyatt Earp.
Soon after meeting Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday killed a man during a card game.
The man had reached for a gun.
Doc Holliday was much quicker using a long knife.
He had to leave Fort Griffin and Texas very quickly.
The friendship continued between Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.
In Dodge City, Kansas, Holliday saved Earp’s life late one night.
A man drew his gun behind Wyatt Earp.
Doc Holliday yelled a warning, drew his gun and shot the man.
Wyatt Earp had several brothers.
They were a close family.
Many experts believe that the Earp brothers were a replacement for the family Doc Holliday had left in Georgia.
Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil remained close friends with Doc Holliday for the rest of their lives.
Doc Holliday had become well known in the West.
He became even more famous after he followed the Earp brothers to the town of Tombstone, Arizona.
In Tombstone he took part in the most famous shooting incident in western history.
That shooting incident in Tombstone is known as “The Gunfight at the OK Corral.”?
It took place on October twenty-sixth, eighteen eighty-one.
It involved Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday.
?Virgil Earp was an officer of the law.
He was on his way to arrest several men.
Wyatt and Morgan went with him to help.
Doc Holliday joined them as they walked down the street.
The men they were going to arrest were also brothers -- Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury.
As the two groups came together, Virgil Earp demanded that the Clantons and McLaurys raise their hands and surrender.
They refused.
No one knows who fired the first shot.
All the men began shooting at once.
When it was over, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury were dead.
Ike Clanton had run away.
Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded, but they survived.
Neither Doc Holliday nor Wyatt Earp was hurt.
Political enemies of the Earp Brothers wanted a trial.
The Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday were arrested and tried.
The jury found them innocent.
It said they were trying to disarm a group of men who wanted a fight.
A few months later, an unknown gunman killed Morgan Earp.
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday began to hunt the killers.
They killed several men known to have been involved in the murder of Morgan Earp.
No one really knows how many gunfights Doc Holliday took part in.
No one knows just how many people died as a result.
Some books say he was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty men.
But most experts say the number is closer to eight.
History books will tell you Doc Holliday was arrested several times.
Most of the time he was arrested for playing illegal games of chance.
He was also arrested after several shootings.
Often the charges were dismissed because he was only defending himself.
The few times he faced a criminal trial he was found to be innocent.
In the last years of Doc Holliday’s life, the West had changed a great deal.
The people there no longer wanted gunfighters or gamblers.
Doc Holliday may have won in games of chance and in several gunfights.
However, he could not use his guns against tuberculosis.
He died in his bed, in the little city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on November eighth, eighteen eighty-seven.
He was thirty-six years old.
This program was written by Paul Thompson.
It was produced by Mario Ritter.
A new study shows that unhappiness in middle age, also known as midlife crisis, is a universal experience.
Two economists did the study: Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
They used information collected earlier on two million people from eighty nations.
They found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life.
That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Levels of happiness are highest when people are young and when they are old.
In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels drop.
Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others.
But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor and to those with and without children.
Generally speaking, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five.
But then, as they continue into old age, their happiness starts to climb back up.
What the research does not show is why all this happens.
Professor Oswald says one possibility is that people recognize their limitations in middle age and give up on some long-held dreams.
Or perhaps people who are happier live longer, and this is responsible for a growing percentage of happy older people.
Or, he says, maybe people have seen others their age die and they value more their own remaining years.
The report is to be published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.
Last December, government researchers reported a big increase in suicides among middle-aged people in the United States.
They looked at injury-related death rates by age group from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four.
They found that suicide increased almost twenty percent among people ages forty-five to fifty-four.
No one is sure why.
By comparison, rates generally fell for those sixty-five and older.
And for people twenty to twenty-nine the suicide rate was nearly unchanged.
The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the findings are subject to some limitations.
For example, accidental drug poisonings might sometimes be mistaken for suicides.
Over all, suicides in the United States increased four percent from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four.
That year thirty-two thousand four hundred people took their own lives.
The history of the United States Constitution is a long and interesting story that we have been telling now for several weeks.
Today w e continue with the convention in seventeen eighty-seven where it was written.
Here are Frank Oliver and Richard Rael.
Detail from ''Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention,'' by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1856Last week, we told about the most serious question facing the convention in Philadelphia.
It was the question of state representation in the national government.
Would small states and large states have an equal voice?
The convention could not agree on a plan.
So it created a special committee to develop a compromise.
The convention suspended its meetings for the July Fourth Independence Day holiday.
But the special committee continued its work.
When the convention re-opened, the delegates heard the committee's report.
This was its proposal: The national legislature would have two houses.
Representation in one house would be decided by population.
Each state would have one representative for every forty thousand people in that state.
Representation in the second house would be equal.
Each state would have the same number of representatives as the other states.
The debate between large states and small states lasted for weeks.
The small states truly believed they would lose power to the large states in a national government.
Now he asked that his words be heard.
So they debated other parts of the proposal.
One involved the names of the two houses of the legislature.
The delegates used several names.
Most, however, spoke of them simply as the First Branch and the Second Branch.
We will speak of them by the names used today: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Next came the questions: Who could be elected to the House and Senate?
Who would elect them?
Delegates did not take long to decide the first question.
Members of the House, they agreed, must be at least twenty-five years old.
They must be a citizen of the United States for seven years.
And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen.
Members of the Senate must be at least thirty years old.
They must be a citizen of the United States for nine years.
And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen.
How long would lawmakers serve?
Roger Sherman of Connecticut thought representatives to the House should be elected every year.
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts agreed.
But the delegates finally agreed on two years.
There were many ideas about the term for senators.
A few delegates thought they should be elected for life.
In the end, the convention agreed on a Senate term of six years.
Next came a debate about the lawmakers' pay.
How much should they get?
Or should they be paid at all?
Some delegates thought the states should pay their representatives to the national legislature.
Others said the national legislature should decide its own pay and take it from the national treasury.
That idea, James Madison argued, was shameful.
He thought the amount should be set by the Constitution.
Again, Madison lost the argument.
The Constitution says that lawmakers will be paid for their services and that the money will come from the national treasury.
The question of who should elect the lawmakers raised an interesting issue.
It concerned democracy.
To many of the men meeting in Philadelphia, it meant mob rule.
That, he said, was a basic condition for free government.
The majority of the convention agreed with Mason, Wilson, and Madison.
The delegates agreed that members of the House of Representatives should be elected directly by the people.
The convention now considered the method of choosing senators.
Four ideas were proposed.
Senators could be elected by the House, by the president, by the state legislatures, or by the people.
Arguments for and against were similar to those for choosing representatives for the House.
In the end, a majority of the delegates agreed that the state legislatures would choose the senators.
And that is what the Constitution says.
It remained that way for more than one hundred years.
In nineteen thirteen, the states approved the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution.
This amendment permits the people to vote directly to elect the senators.
The convention voting record.
This page shows the final vote on the draft Constitution, September 15, 1787 Finally, the time came for the convention to face the issue of representation in the House and Senate.
The large states wanted representation based on population.
The small states wanted equal representation.
The delegates had voted on the issue several times since the convention began.
But both sides stood firm.
Yet they knew they could not continue to vote forever, day after day.
On July fifth, the Grand Committee presented a two-part compromise based on Roger Sherman's ideas.
The compromise provided something for large states and something for small states.
It called for representation based on population in the House and equal representation in the Senate.
The committee said both parts of the compromise must be accepted or both rejected.
On July sixteenth, the convention voted on the issue for the last time.
It accepted the Great Compromise.
Our program was written by Christine Johnson.
The narrators were Frank Oliver and Richard Rael.
We have more to come in the story of the Constitution.
Then, in the weeks ahead, we introduce you to some of America’s early presidents.
And we tell the story of the Civil War.
More than two hundred programs are in our series.
This was number twenty-two.
The series was first heard on radio in nineteen sixty-nine.
New programs have continually been added, but many that were recorded long ago are still replayed.
We continue our series on learning disabilities with a problem that is not considered a learning disability by itself, but it can af fect learning.
Our subject is attention deficit disorder, A.D.D., and the related form A.D.H.D., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
These affect an estimated five to ten percent of children worldwide.
Children who forget easily and never seem to finish tasks or pay attention might be found to have A.D.D. If, in addition, they seem overly active and unable to control their behavior, a doctor might say it is A.D.H.D. Experts say the cause involves a chemical imbalance in the brain.
It can affect not only school, but also personal relationships and the ability to keep a job later in life.
Many of those affected also have learning disabilities or suffer from depression.
Medicines can produce calmer, clearer thinking for periods of time.
But the drugs can also have side effects like weight loss and sleep problems.
And there is debate about the morality of medicating children.
Susan Smalley is a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She just led a study of A.D.H.D. in northern Finland.
The study found that rates and signs of A.D.H.D. are about the same in children there as in the United States.
The Finnish children are rarely treated with medicine, while medication is widely used in the United States.
Yet the study found that the two populations have few differences with A.D.H.D. among older children and teenagers.
Professor Smalley says medication is very effective in the short term.
But she says the study raises important questions about the long-term effectiveness of current treatments.
The study also found that only about half the Finnish children diagnosed with A.D.H.D. had deficits in short-term memory and self-control.
These cognitive deficits are generally considered part of the definition of A.D.H.D.
The study also found more evidence that A.D.H.D. symptoms change with age.
Hyperactivity and lack of self-control decrease.
But about two-thirds of children continue to show high levels of inattention as teenagers.
The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry published the study.
Even if drugs are used, experts say children with A.D.H.D. also need other help.
For example, they need to learn organizational skills, and they need supportive adults.
This date only appears on the calendar once every four years.
But why?
Faith Lapidus explains.
Everyone knows the Earth takes three hundred sixty-five days to travel around the sun.
Well, that is not exactly correct.
The Earth really takes three hundred sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds to complete its orbit around the sun.
The problem for people developing calendars was what to do with the extra five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds.
People needed calendars to help them know when to plant crops and when to celebrate religious holidays.
The ancient Greeks and Chinese had a solution.
They produced calendars that included extra months every nineteen years.
The ancient Romans had a different solution.
In the year forty-six, the Roman ruler Julius Caesar made a new calendar.
The Julian calendar included an extra day every four years.
But there was a problem.
The Julian year was just over eleven minutes longer than the cycle of the seasons.
In fifteen eighty-two, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth established a new calendar to keep a better record of the days.
Pope Gregory was the religious leader of most of Europe.
He decided that years that could be divided by four would add a day.
However, years that ended in two zeros that could not be evenly divided by four hundred would not be leap years.
For example, the years seventeen hundred, eighteen hundred and nineteen hundred were not leap years.
But the years sixteen hundred and two thousand were leap years.
So leap years are years with three hundred sixty-six days, instead of the usual three hundred sixty-five.
This extra day is added to the calendar on February twenty-ninth, sometimes known as Leap Day.
They usually celebrate their birthdays on February twenty-eighth or March first.
But the general idea is that Many would say Rosen Sharma from India is enjoying the American dream.
It usually means a person has the chance to work hard, earn money and create a secure life.
For many people, this means being able to get a good education, have a good job and own a house.
The expression is often linked to immigrants who have come to this country seeking more freedom or a better life than they could have in their own countries.
The definition appeared in nineteen thirty-one in a history book by James Truslow Adams, “The Epic of America.”?
He wrote that the American dream is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”?
Some people would say that the United States Declaration of Independence first defined the American dream.
Thomas Jefferson wrote this document in seventeen seventy-six.
It expressed why the American colonies decided to fight British colonial rule in order to become an independent nation.
But he noted that this dream was not a reality.
He said that it was the moral duty of Americans to work so that racial minorities and people of different social levels could be treated equally.
An organization called the Center for a New American Dream deals with another kind of dream.
Its goal is to help Americans live in ways that protect the environment, improve the quality of life and support social justice.
Do you have any ideas about the American dream?
He is recognized as one of the leading singers of romantic, rhythm and blues music.
He has had many loyal fans since his first album in nineteen eighty-eight.
He recently released another successful album while dealing with a serious, life-changing sickness.
Katherine Cole has more.
It is his thirteenth album in twenty years.
It includes songs that combine rhythm and blues and his easy, jazz style of singing.
After recording a few songs for “After Tonight,” Will Downing became sick with a rare, incurable disease called polymyositis.
The condition causes severe muscle weakness that makes it difficult to move.
Yet, Downing worked very hard to complete his new record.
Instead of a studio, he sometimes recorded songs from a hospital bed or a wheelchair in his home.
Although he is facing difficult times, Will Downing says, he remains thankful.
He wrote the song “God Is So Amazing” to express his feelings.
The other songs on “After Tonight” are the kind of emotional love songs that make Will Downing so popular, especially among women.
The words in his songs and his smooth, rich voice tell a story of how wonderful love should be.
And so they have their accent and he has his accent, and they're not happy with his accent, and he's trying to speak English the way Americans do.
And there are all kinds of tools available where the student records a script or a text and this text contains all the sounds and all the features of English.
I would be listening very, very carefully especially to stress and intonation and linking.
I think one of the chief differences between the main Filipino language, which is Tagalog, and English, when I hear Tagalog speakers speaking English, is that they tend to place the stress on the wrong syllable of a word or they stress the wrong word in the sentence or in the question.
This year, something happened at the Academy Awards that had not happened since nineteen sixty-four.
All the winners for best acting were from outside the United States.
From left, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard and Javier BardemDaniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton are British.
He says that today, about fifty-four percent of the ticket sales for Hollywood studios now come from outside the United States.
For the last three months of two thousand seven, foreign sales totaled about eight hundred eighty million dollars.
But there is fierce competition for each movie dollar.
Hollywood has lost market share in some places as other countries develop their own film industries.
For example, in the mid-eighties, American films had eighty percent of the market in South Korea.
Today that share is about forty percent.
Hollywood also faces competition from illegally copied movies, a major issue to the Motion Picture Association of America.
The trade group estimated more than eighteen billion dollars in worldwide losses from piracy in two thousand five.
Hollywood reporter Alan Silverman says piracy has influenced how American movies are released.
In the past, Hollywood studios waited months after the American release of a film to release it in foreign markets.
Now, many aim to release films at the same time around the world.
Foreign markets may also influence how people get their movies.
Different nations have different levels of technology.
Yet DVD sales have dropped in recent years.
This may be a sign that people are increasingly getting their movies off the Internet.
The Internet is another front in Hollywood's war on piracy.
But more than that, it presents complex business questions for an industry now built mostly on DVD and ticket sales.
The New York Philharmonic orchestra performed in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, this week.
It was the first performance by an American symphony orchestra in the communist state.
More than one hundred performers made the trip to Pyongyang, led by the Philharmonic's musical director, Lorin Maazel.
The historic event was broadcast live on television and radio in North Korea.
It can also be seen on the Internet.
More than one thousand North Koreans attended the concert Tuesday night.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not attend.
However, other top North Korean officials did.
As a result, jazz, rock and most Western classical music are not permitted.
The North Korean government has always described the United States as a hostile aggressor.
But the American orchestra’s visit was widely described as a form of musical diplomacy.
Some Americans hoped the friendly cultural exchange will help improve relations between the United States and North Korea.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry praised the event as a chance to improve understanding and trust between North Korea and the United States.
South Korean experts say much has changed in North Korea since leaders from the North and South met in two thousand.
They say expanded contacts have increased the flow of information about the rest of the world into North Korea.
Many experts say the country is not as disconnected as it once was.
They say events like the Philharmonic performance make important gains in opening North Korea even further.
However, the White House spokeswoman said the performance neither hurt nor helped American diplomatic efforts.
She said relations between the two countries will only improve when North Korea provides information about its nuclear programs.
It was supposed to provide such information about two months ago to the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.
Those countries have promised aid and improved diplomatic relations if North Korea ends all of its nuclear programs.
Today we tell about Shirley Chisholm.
She was an educator, activist and politician.
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for president Shirley Chisholm is best known as the first black woman elected to United States Congress and the first black woman to run for president of the United States.
However, her life was filled with much more than being the first black woman to do important things.
She believed in being a person to fight for change.
All her life, she worked to improve the lives of others.
Shirley Anita Saint Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen twenty-four.
She was the oldest of four daughters.
Her father was a factory worker from Guyana.
He loved to read.
Her mother was from the British West Indies island of Barbados.
She made clothes and cleaned other people’s houses.
Shirley’s parents had very little money.
They wanted their daughters to get a good education and to have a better life.
When Shirley was three years old her parents sent her and her sisters to live with their grandmother in Barbados.
Shirley received a good education from the British school system.
She enjoyed the years she lived with her grandmother.
Her family in Barbados was a strong, organized group that believed in education.
Shirley always remembered the words her grandmother spoke.
“When I was reared in the British West Indies my grandmother used to always tell me, you may not be loved by certain forces in a society and you have to understand why.
But always speak the truth.”
In nineteen thirty-four Shirley moved back to Brooklyn.
She was ten years old.
She continued to do very well in school.
She later graduated from Brooklyn College with honors.
In nineteen forty-nine, she married Conrad Chisholm who worked as a private investigator.
Together they took part in local politics.
Their marriage ended almost thirty years later.
As a young woman, Shirley decided to become a teacher.
She believed she could improve society by helping children.
She worked for seven years at a child care center in the Harlem area of New York City.
She attended Columbia University at night and received an advanced degree in early childhood education in nineteen fifty-two.
She became known as an expert in children and early education.
From nineteen fifty-nine to nineteen sixty-four Shirley Chisholm was an education official in the day care division of the city’s office of child welfare.
In ninety sixty-four Shirley Chisholm’s political career began.
She was elected to the New York State Assembly.
She served for four years.
In nineteen sixty-eight she announced she would run for the United States Congress.
She was elected from the newly created Twelfth District of New York City.
She became the first black woman elected to Congress.
She represented a poor area of Brooklyn called Bedford-Stuyvesant.
In Congress, Miz Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee.
She protested this assignment.
She felt it was not important to the poor people of the city that she represented.
She was moved to the Veterans Affairs Committee.
She later served on the Education and Labor Committee, the position she wanted.
In nineteen seventy-seven she joined the important House Rules Committee.
Shirley Chisholm was very different from other members of Congress.
She looked different.
Her hair was a big cloud of curls.
She wore very large eyeglasses.
And she had dark skin.
She also spoke differently.
She had developed a minor Caribbean accent while living with her grandmother in Barbados.
Her voice was strong.
She spoke with power.
She said her greatest tool was her mouth.
She was not afraid to say the things others would not say before Congress and the public.
“But, my friends, I might be strong for some persons in this audience, but I believe in telling it like it is.”? Shirley Chisholm spoke strongly for the poor and for women.
She worked for civil rights for African Americans.
She opposed the Vietnam War.
In nineteen sixty-nine she helped form the Congressional Black Caucus.
She also was a member of the National Organization for Women.
Miz Chisholm was an activist for people of color, including Native Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants.
She often spoke about cultural and social issues.
“Increasing immigration to the United States suggests that we do face ( -- and we better own up to – we do face) new social and cultural problems as these new Americans are integrated into our society.
And because most of the new immigrants are people of color, cultural adjustments must be made by all groups in America if we are to learn to live together as one nation.”
Miz Chisholm wrote a book about her life in nineteen seventy called “Unbought and Unbossed.”?
She refused to be defined by party politics or racial comparisons.
Sometimes this worked against her.
In nineteen seventy-two Shirley Chisholm announced that she would run for president of the United States.
Many people thought it was a strange thing to do.
Miz Chisholm said during her life in politics she faced more discrimination as a woman than as a black person.
Shirley Chisholm became the first woman and the first black person to carry out a presidential campaign within one of the major parties.
When she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president this is what she said: “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud.
I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that.
I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests.
I am the candidate of the people.”
Miz Chisholm did not win the Democratic primaries or the nomination.
She said she did not run for president because she expected to win.
She ran to make a point.
In nineteen seventy-three Shirley Chisholm wrote another book, “The Good Fight.”?
In that book she told of her reasons for running for president even though she did not expect to win.
She said: “The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to the highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start.”
Shirley Chisholm left Congress in nineteen eighty-two after fourteen years.
She said many voters did not understand her.
She said her influence as a truthful, tough politician was decreasing in conservative times.
Also, she wanted to spend more time with her second husband, Arthur Hardwick.
Miz Chisholm went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Years after leaving Congress, she continued to be invited to speak before many groups and organizations.
A reporter once asked Miz Chisholm how she wanted to be remembered.
She said she did not want to be remembered as the nation’s first black congresswoman.
She wanted to be remembered as a brave person, a person who created change.
Shirley Chisholm died January first, two thousand five.
She suffered a series of strokes.
She was eighty years old.
Shirley Chisholm loved her country.
She wanted to serve all America, not just African Americans and women.
Her work for the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the state of New York and the nation continues through the changes she helped make in American society.
“America is a wonderful land.
It’s no question about it.
That is why every group from across the waters tries to come to America.
I am hopeful.
Every language has its own special words and expressions.
And a story can be told about each of them.
Hot is a simple, easily-understood word.
So are most of the expressions made with the word hot.
But not always, as we shall see.
The potato is a popular vegetable in the United States.
Many people like baked potatoes, cooked in an oven or fire.
?
Imagine trying to carry a hot, baked potato in your hand.
It would be difficult, even painful, to do so.
Now we are getting close to the meaning of hot potato.
Some publicly-disputed issues are highly emotional.
As difficult and painful as holding a hot potato.
One such hot potato is taxes.
And yet, if taxes are not raised, some very popular government programs could be cut.
And that also can make a politician very unpopular.
So the questions must be dealt with carefully...the same way you would handle any other hot potato.
Another expression is not so hot.
What she means is she does not feel well.
Not so hot also is a way of saying that you do not really like something.
You may tell a friend that the new play you saw last night is not so hot.
That means you did not consider it a success.
A hot shot is a person -- often a young person -- who thinks he can do anything.
At least he wants to try.
But often he fails.
The expression was born in the military forces.
A hot shot was a soldier who fired without aiming carefully.
Hot is a word that is often used to talk about anger.
A person who becomes angry easily is called a hothead.
An angry person's neck often becomes red.
We say he is hot under the collar.
You could say that your friend is no hothead.
But he got hot under the collar when someone took his radio.
In nineteen sixty-three, hot line appeared as a new expression.
The hot line had an important purpose: to prevent accidental war between the two competitors during the period known as the Cold War.
Our program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano.
Our program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano.
If you give something to someone for free, will that person value it and use it?
Development experts have debated this question for decades.
Some say the act of paying causes people to value something and use it more.
Others argue that selling necessary health treatments may deny them to the people who need them the most.
Consider, for example, chemically treated bed nets.
These bed nets kill mosquitoes and protect people against malaria while they are sleeping.
New York University economist William Easterly says this is one example of development gone wrong.
In a recent book, Professor Easterly suggests bed nets given freely in Africa are often used for the wrong purpose.
Yet, the World Health Organization recommends bed nets be given out freely and used by whole communities.
The success of a large free bed net campaign in Kenya led the W.H.O. to announce this recommendation last August.
This debate will likely influence social programs in the developing world.
Many non-governmental organizations support the creation of self-sustaining programs in poor countries.
Goods and services are sold for a price to help these programs survive.
Rachel Glennerster runs the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The research lab does development and poverty studies.
Its goal is to improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs in the United States and other countries.
Miz Glennerster tells us that several studies by the research group's economists have proven that small price changes have a big influence on the number of people who use a product.
A price change will reduce the total amount of use of the product as well, she says.
The economists have also found no evidence that the very act of paying for something changes how people use it.
Finally, some development experts argue that pricing is useful when targeting a product among special populations.
When it comes to bed nets, Miz Glennerster says research shows no evidence of this.
Our subject this week is immigration.
Many immigrant families entered the United States through Ellis Island in New York HarborJust about every family in the United States has at least one member, now or in the past, who came from another country.
Even American Indians may have immigrant ancestors through marriage.
The United States is one of the few industrial countries with a growing population.
The main reason is immigration.
Today America has just over three hundred million people.
A new report says if current growth rates continue, the nation will have four hundred thirty-eight million in two thousand fifty.
The Pew Research Center says more than eighty percent of the increase will be the result of immigrants and their American-born children or grandchildren.
Non-Hispanic whites are expected to be a minority, forty-seven percent of the population, in two thousand fifty.
Hispanics are currently the nation's largest ethnic minority.
By the middle of the century, their number is expected to double to twenty-nine percent of the population.
The Census Bureau estimates the foreign-born population of the United States at twelve percent as of two thousand four.
Just over half the people were born in Latin America, twenty-five percent in Asia and fourteen percent in Europe.
The remaining eight percent were from Africa and other areas.
Last year, six hundred fifty thousand immigrants became American citizens.
Yet even a nation of immigrants can find itself divided by the issue of immigration, especially when the economy is not doing well.
But the concerns expressed in public debate are usually not so much about immigration itself but about illegal immigration.
An estimated eleven million or more people are in the United States without permission.
Most of them came across the borders with Mexico or Canada illegally.
Others came to the United States on a temporary visa and never went home.
Supporters of stronger immigration laws say illegal immigrants use health care and public education systems without paying their fair share.
They say undocumented workers push down wages in some jobs, like in the building industry.
But others argue that illegal immigrants put money into local economies and often have taxes taken out of their wages.
Yet because their employment is against the law, it often involves identity theft to create false documents.
That crime hurts innocent people whose identities were stolen.
But a new report suggests that fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified.
The Public Policy Institute of California released a study done in that state.
In California, people born outside the United States represent about thirty-five percent of the adult population.
But researchers found that immigrants represent only about seventeen percent of the state prison population.
Still, supporters of stronger laws point out that some communities face greater problems than others with crime by illegal immigrants.
Debates about illegal immigration often go round and round like this: Employers have trouble finding Americans to take low-paying jobs so they need immigrants.
Maybe, but employers will never raise wages as long as they can find people willing to work for less.
Maybe, but if wages go up, so will prices, and that will create other problems.
Such arguments are nothing new.
What is new is that immigrants are moving beyond big states like California, Texas or New York.
They are settling all across the country, in big cities as well as small towns.
These new residents are bringing cultural changes to many areas.
Some of these changes are welcome, others are not.
Tensions may develop, often in reaction to an issue like day laborers.
These are groups of men who stand on the street, often outside home improvement centers, hoping for a day's work.
Many of these workers are illegal immigrants.
Language can also be a divisive issue when immigrants are seen as slow to learn English.
Yet English classes are often in such demand they have waiting lists.
In the year two thousand, eighteen percent of people in the United States over age five spoke a language other than English at home.
By two thousand six the Census Bureau says the number was twenty percent.
Many people say the immigration system is broken.
But few can agree on how to fix it.
Some say illegal immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for some time should have a chance to become legal residents.
For one thing, they say it would be impossible to arrest eleven million people and send them all home.
Others are against a path to legal residency if they see it as amnesty, pardoning millions of people who entered the country illegally.
For one thing, they say it would be unfair to those who follow the process to come here legally.
The last time there was an amnesty for illegal immigrants was in nineteen eighty-six.
Usually, the only punishment for being in the country illegally is expulsion, unless a person was arrested on other charges.
Technically it is not even considered a criminal offense.
Congress' efforts to rewrite immigration laws last year included hotly debated proposals to criminalize illegal immigration.
In the end Congress failed to pass an immigration reform plan.
In the presidential campaign, the major candidates appear to share fairly similar positions on illegal immigration.
Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both supported an immigration bill that failed in the Senate last year.
The reform legislation would have provided a path to legal residency and citizenship for some illegal immigrants.
The bill was supported by President Bush.
And it was co-sponsored by Senator John McCain, the expected Republican presidential nominee.
American immigration history presents a pattern of history repeating itself.
Hard times or conflict in other countries lead people to seek a better life in America.
When groups of Americans begin to feel threatened, the federal government moves to restrict immigration.
These days, the government does not seek to restrict immigration so much as manage it.
That was how a spokesman for the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services described it But with Congress unable to agree on immigration reform, states are not sure what to do.
Enforcing immigration law is the responsibility of the federal government.
But state and local officials say the government is not doing enough, so they are taking action on their own.
For example, a new law took effect January first in the southwestern state of Arizona.
It bans businesses from hiring people known to be in the country illegally, and cancels their operating licenses if they do.
Business groups in Arizona appealed the new measure.
They said only the federal government can enforce immigration laws.
In early February, a federal judge rejected their argument.
The judge said the Arizona law did not conflict with federal powers because states are responsible for licensing businesses.
But courts in other states have ruled differently in similar cases.
Last year, a federal judge ruled against a local law in the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
The law would have denied permits to businesses that hire illegal immigrants.
In Missouri, however, a judge upheld such a measure.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says immigration is being debated in all fifty state capitols.
Last year, forty-six states passed two hundred forty laws related to immigrants.
That was almost three times as many laws as in two thousand six.
The new laws deal with subjects like driver's licenses, employment and public benefits.
The legislation affects legal as well as illegal immigrants.
States are acting in policy areas including education, health care, human trafficking and law enforcement.
With the economy slowing, state and local governments are likely to feel more pressure to provide services to legal residents only.
So how does someone legally move to the United States?
This is a common question from listeners.
We will answer it next week.
On our program this week, we will examine efforts to defeat the disease polio.
An Afghan girl receives polio vaccine in Kandahar province last monthPakistan is working to protect more than thirty million children from polio.
Health workers are giving vaccine against the disease to children younger than five years.
Health officials in Pakistan plan to complete the current vaccination campaign next month.
But the government says efforts against polio are always in progress.
The efforts are part of an international campaign to stop the disease.
The struggle against polio has suffered unexpected problems.
But it has also made major progress.
The future also looks hopeful.
A top polio expert at the World Health Organization has praised success with a vaccine against the fastest spreading kind of polio.
Doctor David Heymann believes that this most threatening polio could be defeated this year.
He also says vaccines are being developed to prevent a slower spreading version of the disease.
Prevention is especially important because antibiotic drugs cannot help after someone is infected.
Antibiotics can kill only bacteria, not viruses.
The virus called wild poliovirus passes freely from person to person.
Wild poliovirus spreads through fluids in the mouth, waste material and water systems.
Another kind of polio is rare.
Vaccine-derived, or vaccine-linked, polio strikes when harmful genetic changes affect the vaccine.
Polio is mainly a children’s disease.
But adults also get it.
Many people are infected without knowing it.
They may just have a higher than normal body temperature and pain in the throat.
But when polio attacks the central nervous system, patients can be paralyzed.
They may not be able to stand or walk.
When the disease affects breathing, some patients die.
Polio paralyzed an estimated three hundred fifty thousand patients in nineteen eighty-eight.
That same year, a coalition of health workers started the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
By last year, the number of new paralytic polio cases dropped to about seven hundred sixty-five.
The Initiative coalition includes national governments and UNICEF -- the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Another partner is the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still another is the volunteer service organization Rotary International.
Other groups also take part.
Scientists say three polioviruses cause wild polio.
Type one is the most dangerous.
Type one can infect many people in a short time.
It has caused about eighty-five percent of all polio cases.
Type two wild polio disappeared worldwide in nineteen ninety-nine.
Cases caused by type three poliovirus do not spread as fast as polio caused by type one.
Today, polio continues to strike people in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In two thousand three, Nigeria stopped providing vaccine against polio for almost a year.
False reports about the vaccine caused the stoppage.
The reports said the vaccine gave people the disease AIDS.
Other reports said it made people unable to have children.
Nigeria reported many cases of polio after the vaccinations ended.
The disease also spread to other nations.
By last August, however, the polio news in the nation seemed hopeful.
Nigeria had reported a major reduction in polio cases after January.
But then came an unwelcome report.
Sixty-nine children in the northern part of the country had developed paralytic polio.
Some of the infected children had received Sabin oral polio vaccine.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative provided the vaccine to young children.
It is given by mouth several times during a child's earliest years.
The Sabin oral polio vaccine contains a live but weakened version of poliovirus.
The weakened virus protects well against type one poliovirus.
But in Nigeria, some of the vaccine had made a rare and harmful genetic change.
The children started getting sick with polio in two thousand six, or even earlier.
But these cases were not announced until late September, two thousand seven.
Critics say the news should have been reported quickly.
They say the delayed announcement helped to support the polio vaccine suspicions that had stopped vaccinations several years before.
Rotary International made a public statement about the new polio cases in October of two thousand seven.
The group said the vaccine did not, in itself, cause the children to get the disease.
Doctor Heymann of the W.H.O. said the children with vaccine-linked polio were more likely than others to get infected.
He said not enough vaccine had been provided in their area.
The doctor noted that sixty of the children had not received any vaccine.
Or, he said, they had not received enough vaccine to protect them.
Critics have questioned the continued use of the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the international campaign against polio.
They say its link to infection with the disease makes the vaccine unacceptable.
But Rotary International notes the vaccination's success over the years.
It says the oral polio vaccine has reduced polio cases by ninety nine percent since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began.
?? Eight years ago, American health officials stopped saying people should be given the Sabin oral polio vaccine.
They said the reason was to end the possibility of paralytic polio linked to the vaccine.
Olen Kew is an expert in viruses for the Centers for Disease Control.
He led a team that studied vaccine-linked polio in two thousand five.
He says the W.H.O. is creating a program to develop a vaccine for use after polio is defeated.
The new vaccine would not contain a live poliovirus.
It could not cause polio.
Jonas Salk developed the first major polio vaccine in the nineteen fifties.
Albert Sabin then developed the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the nineteen sixties.
Doctor Salk’s polio vaccine was injected.
An improved version of this vaccine is now the one used in the United States.
The improved Salk vaccine contains inactive viruses.
It cannot cause polio.
But experts say the oral polio vaccine works faster against the spread of type one polio.
And the Sabin vaccine is less costly.
Health care workers who direct its use need little training.
W.H.O. officials say only the oral poliovirus vaccine can quickly build very high body defenses against the disease.
They say only this kind of vaccine can stop polio in developing countries with warm climates.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative says it will continue to use the oral polio vaccine.
Over the years, polio experts have had to learn to deal with the unexpected.
New cases resulting from type one poliovirus decreased in India last year.
But the disease caused by type three poliovirus increased in two Indian states.
Almost three hundred people in Uttar Pradesh got polio.
Many others became infected in Bihar.
Devendra Khander leads the W.H.O. polio project in Bihar.
Doctor Khander says many people there live close together in unhealthful conditions.
He says the same is true for Uttar Pradesh.
The doctor says not enough children have received polio vaccine.
He also says flooding in Bihar made the situation worse.
A mark on the hand showed that a girl was vaccinated in Bangalore, India, last yearThe Indian capital, New Delhi, was free of type three poliovirus cases for about five years.
But last year, the disease was identified in two children.
Doctor Heymann of the W.H.O says a prevention called monovalent oral polio vaccine has been shown effective in treating type three poliovirus.
The news about polio, then, is hopeful.
But the Initiative to Eradicate Polio always needs money to launch vaccination campaigns.
Help may come from a two hundred million dollar award by an agency of Rotary International.
Late last year, the Rotary Foundation announced a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Gates Foundation has offered a one hundred million dollar matching grant to the Rotary Foundation.
Over three years, Rotary will raise money to equal each of those dollars.
The money can be used to provide more children a healthy future, a future without polio.
For years, most of the household waste collected in America's largest city went to a landfill on Staten Island.
Staten Island is one of the five boroughs that form the city of New York.
The others are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.
The landfill closed in two thousand one.
Now, local leaders hope Staten Island will become known for something else: fine wines.
Officials expect to break ground before summer for the Tuscan Garden Vineyard Project.
Wine grapes will be planted on most of one hectare in the Staten Island Botanical Garden.
Borough President James Molinaro has set aside one and one-half million dollars for the vineyard.
Officials say the project will be educational and nonprofit.
It will demonstrate the process of growing grapes and making wine.
Two Staten Island ferries sail past the Statue of LibertyIt could bring visitors who now ride the Staten Island ferry from Manhattan just to see the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
Organizers say the climate is similar to other winemaking areas of New York State, like the Finger Lakes area and Long Island.
For years, people have suggested that Staten Island should have a vineyard.
Several years ago, four business leaders decided to do something about it.
They formed the Founders’ Group.
One of them, Henry Salmon, recalls growing grapes on a friend’s farm while growing up on Staten Island.
Last November, to get ideas, the group went to Italy.
They visited a winemaking town in Tuscany.
Crespina, with about four thousand people, became a sister city to Staten Island.
And Tuscan winemaker Piergiorgio Castellani became a technical adviser to the project.
Advice has also come from others, including experts at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the University of Pisa in Italy.
The grapes chosen for the Staten Island climate and soil include cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sangiovese.
Plans call for two thousand vines on land that Henry Salmon says was once used for a retirement home for sailors.
The vineyard will be organic.
No chemical pesticides will be used.
Compost made from leaves and other organic material collected from city parks will serve as fertilizer.
If all goes well, the Tuscan Garden Vineyard Project on Staten Island should have its first wines ready in a few years.
The wine will not be sold.
Plans call for using it at tastings and special events.
Cacao fruit with seeds insideToday we travel around the world exploring the history of chocolate.
Its story begins with a plant whose scientific name, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.”
For centuries, people have been enjoying the rich flavor of chocolate, a product made from this plant.
Join us as we tell about the history of chocolate and how it is produced.
We will also meet Jane Morris, a chocolate maker in Washington, DC. Most people today think of chocolate as something sweet to eat or drink that can be easily found in stores around the world.
It might surprise you that chocolate was once highly treasured.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently released a study.
It suggested that people in Central and South America first gathered the cacao plant much earlier and for a different use than experts once thought.
The researchers examined the chemistry of substances found in ancient clay containers that were over three thousand years old.
They discovered that the substance came from an alcoholic drink made from the fruit of the cacao plant.
The researchers believe it was the interest in cacao as an alcoholic drink that led to the use of its bitter seeds to make what is now known as chocolate.
Historians believe the Maya people of Central America first learned to farm cacao plants around two thousand years ago.
The Maya took the cacao trees from the rainforests and grew them in their gardens.
They cooked the cacao seeds, then crushed them into a soft paste.
They mixed the paste with water and flavorful spices to make an unsweetened chocolate drink.
The Maya poured the chocolate drink back and forth between two containers so that the liquid had a layer of bubbles, or foam.
Cacao and chocolate were an important part of Maya culture.
There are often images of cacao plants on Maya buildings and art objects.
Ruling families drank chocolate at special ceremonies.
And, even poorer members of society could enjoy the drink once in a while.
Historians believe that cacao seeds were also used in marriage ceremonies as a sign of the union between a husband and wife.
The Aztec culture in current day Mexico also prized chocolate.
But, the cacao plant could not grow in the area where the Aztecs lived.
So, they traded to get cacao.
They even used cacao seeds as a form of money to pay taxes or give as holy offerings to the gods.
Only the very wealthy people in Aztec societies could afford to drink chocolate because cacao was so valuable.
The Aztec ruler Montezuma was believed to drink fifty cups of chocolate every day.
Some experts believe the word for chocolate came from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which in the Nahuatl language means “bitter water.”
Others believe the word “chocolate” was created by combining Mayan and Nahuatl words.
The explorer Christopher Columbus brought cacao seeds to Spain after his trip to Central America in fifteen oh two.
But it was the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes who understood that chocolate could be a valuable investment.
In fifteen nineteen, Cortes arrived in current day Mexico.
He believed the chocolate drink would become popular with Spaniards.
After the Spanish soldiers defeated the Aztec empire, they were able to seize the supplies of cacao and send them home.
Spain later began planting cacao in its colonies in the Americas in order to supply the large demand for chocolate.
The wealthy people of Spain first enjoyed a sweetened version of the chocolate drink.
Later, the popularity of the drink spread throughout Europe.
The English, Dutch and French began to plant cacao trees in their own colonies.
Chocolate remained a drink that only wealthy people could afford to drink until the eighteenth century.
During the period known as the Industrial Revolution, new technologies helped make chocolate less costly to produce.
Farmers grow cacao trees in many countries in Africa, Central and South America.
The trees grow in the shady areas of rainforests near the Earth’s equator.
But these trees can be difficult to grow.
They require an exact amount of water, warmth, soil and protection.
After about five years, cacao trees start producing large fruits called pods, which grow near the trunk of the tree.
The seeds inside this pod are harvested to make chocolate.
There are several kinds of cacao trees.
Most of the world’s chocolate is made from the forastero tree.
But farmers can also grow criollo or trinitario cacao plants.
Cacao trees grown on farms are much more easily threatened by disease and insects than wild trees are.
Growing cacao is very hard work for farmers.
They sell their harvest on a futures market.
This means that economic conditions beyond their control can affect the amount of money they will earn.
Today, chocolate industry officials, activists, and scientists are working with farmers.
They are trying to make sure that cacao can be grown in a way that is fair to the farmers and safe for the environment.
To become chocolate, cacao seeds go through a long production process in a factory.
Workers must sort, clean and cook the seeds.
Then they break off the covering of the seeds so that only the inside fruit, or nibs, remain.
Workers crush the nibs into a soft substance called chocolate liquor.
This gets separated into cocoa solids and a fat called cocoa butter.
Chocolate makers have their own special recipes in which they combine chocolate liquor with exact amounts of sugar, milk and cocoa fat.
They finely crush this “crumb” mixture so it is smooth.
The mixture then goes through two more processes before it is shaped into a mold form.
Chocolate making is a big business.
The market value of the yearly cacao crop around the world is more than five billion dollars.
Chocolate is especially popular in Europe and the United States.
For example, in two thousand five, the United States bought one point four billion dollars worth of cocoa products.
Each year, Americans eat an average of more than five kilograms of chocolate per person.
Specialty shops that sell costly chocolates are also very popular.
Many offer chocolate lovers the chance to taste chocolates grown in different areas of the world.
Jane Morris is a chocolate maker in Washington D.C.
She owns the company J Chocolatier.
She can give you a taste of a blended chocolate that contains cacao from around the world.
While another chocolate grown in Venezuela has a very different taste.
“Some people tell me when they taste this chocolate from El Rey that they can taste what they imagine the rainforest would smell like.”
Miz Morris uses these chocolates to make her own unusual creations.
“Sometimes I look for inspiration in professional books.
That’s always?
a good starting place.
Then I also think about what I eat and what flavors work well together.”
Her most popular chocolate is called Montezuma.
“People love this.
It’s a chocolate with chipotle spice and Vietnamese cinnamon.”
You may think it is just a normal chocolate until you begin to taste the deep and rich heat of these special spices.
For another chocolate creation, she uses Earl Grey Tea to give it a flavor of the bergamot fruit.
And, these chocolates are as nice to look at as they are to eat.
Jane Morris mainly sells her chocolates in local wine, candy and gift stores.
She says she does not use any preservative chemicals in her products, so they only last about two or three weeks.
But, she says she believes this is the way chocolate should be eaten.
We asked her if there was anything she wanted to tell Special English listeners.
It might not surprise you she suggested that everyone should eat chocolate!
In many societies, there is often greater acceptance of light skin than dark skin.
Light skin may be seen as a mark of beauty, intelligence and success.
These beliefs can lead to social pressures even within the same racial or ethnic group, if some members are darker skinned than others.
The result is that skin lightening has become a common activity across Africa, Asia and other areas of the world.
More and more people with dark skin are using skin-lightening products, even if it means they may face health risks.
They believe that having whiter skin will improve their lives.
Many people think they will have a better chance of getting a job or marrying into a better family.
Or they want to look like what their society generally considers beautiful.
Some beauty care products and soaps contain chemicals that make skin lighter.
This process is also called bleaching.
But some of the chemicals are extremely dangerous.
One of the most dangerous is hydroquinone.
Hydroquinone has been banned in several countries.
This chemical has been linked to kidney damage and some kinds of cancer.
It also causes low birth weight in babies when mothers use it during pregnancy.
At first, bleaching products make the skin color lighter.
But after long-term use they can cause problems.
They could even make some skin darker.
The chemicals in the products block and break down the natural process that gives color to skin.
The skin loses its natural barrier to protect against sunlight.
Then the skin can become thick and discolored.
Usually the person will use more of the product in an effort to correct the problem, but this only makes it worse.
Fatimata Ly treats skin conditions in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Doctor Ly says skin bleaching has become a problem throughout Senegal.
She says the chemicals are now more dangerous because they are stronger.
Some cases have resulted in blackened fingernails, infections and permanent skin damage.
And these are not the only risks.
Experts say some people who change their skin color suffer emotional damage.
They feel regret and sadness.
They feel that instead of risking their health, they should have learned to love and accept their skin color as it was.
This map of Philadelpia, drawn in 1777, shows streams, roads and the names of landowners.
Independence Hall, home of the federal convention of 1787, is shown at the bottom.
In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of the nation's early leaders opened a convention in Philadelphia.
They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which created a weak union of the thirteen states.
Instead, they wrote a new document.
This week in our series, we continue the story of the United States Constitution.
Here are Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs.
Last week, we told how the convention finally agreed on how states would be represented in the national government.
There would be two houses in the national legislature.
In one house -- the House of Representatives -- the number of representatives from each state would depend on the state's population.
In the other house -- the Senate -- all states would have an equal number of representatives.
But it saved the convention from failure.
The debate on representation in the House raised an important issue.
No one wanted to talk about it.
But all the delegates knew they must discuss it.
The issue was slavery.
If representation was based on population, who would you count?
Would you count just free people?
Or would you count Negro slaves, too?
There were thousands of slaves in the United States in seventeen eighty-seven.
Most lived in southern states.
But many could be found in the north, too.
And northern ship owners made a lot of money by importing slaves from Africa.
The Articles of Confederation said nothing about slavery.
Each state could decide to permit it or not.
Massachusetts, for example, had made slavery illegal.
Nine other states had stopped importing new slaves.
Only three states -- Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- continued to import slaves.
The issue was never easy to discuss.
Some of the most important men in America owned slaves.
They included George Washington and James Madison.
No one wanted to insult these men.
Yet the convention had to make some decisions about slavery.
Slavery affected laws on trade and taxes, as well as the question of representation in Congress.
During the debate, some delegates argued that slaves were property.
They could not be counted for purposes of representation.
He said Virginia attempted to do this when it was a British colony.
But he said the British government blocked Virginia's attempts.
Mason blamed the problem on British businessmen who made money from slavery.
In states where slaves were considered as persons before the law, they sued for, and sometimes won, their freedom in the courts.
Elizabeth Freeman was freed in Massachusetts in 1781.
Other delegates rose to denounce or defend slavery.
But the convention had no power to rule on whether slavery was right or wrong.
Everyone knew the convention would fail if it tried to write a Constitution that banned slavery.
The southern states would never accept such a document.
They would refuse to join the United States.
Rufus King of Massachusetts said the convention should consider slavery only as a political matter.
And that is what happened.
The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue.
James Wilson of Pennsylvania, for example, proposed a method of counting each state's population for purposes of representation.
All white persons and other free citizens would be counted as one each.
Every five slaves would be counted only as three persons.
This was called the 'three-fifths' rule.
The delegates accepted it.
The word 'slave' was never used in the Constitution.
Once again, the question was asked: Are slaves people?
Or are they property?
The answer would affect import taxes and the growth of new states.
The convention accepted several compromises on these questions, too.
It agreed that the national treasury could collect a tax of ten dollars for every imported slave.
It also agreed that slaves could be imported until the year eighteen-oh-eight.
Then no new slaves could be brought into the country.
Until then, each state had the power to make its own decisions about slavery.
After eighteen-oh-eight, the national government would make all decisions.
As debate on a new Constitution continued through the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, several delegates asked an important question.
Who would approve, or ratify, it?
The state legislatures?
The people?
Or, as Gouverneur Morris proposed, one big national convention?
He believed the people must ratify their new plan of government.
They could offer amendments, he said.
And then another general convention would decide on a final document.
Gouverneur Morris agreed, but for another reason.
Calling another general convention would mean the Philadelphia convention had failed.
It would mean the end of all his hard work and hopes.
When the debate was over, the delegates agreed that the people should ratify the new Constitution through conventions held in each state.
Finally, the delegates had to decide how many 'yes' votes by states would be needed to ratify the Constitution.
Any changes to the Articles of Confederation needed ratification by all thirteen states.
The Philadelphia convention was called only to change those Articles.
So all thirteen would have to approve.
This, as several delegates noted, would be impossible.
After all, Rhode Island never sent a representative to Philadelphia.
It was sure to reject the Constitution.
Also, as everyone knew, the Philadelphia convention went far past the point of changing the Articles of Confederation.
The delegates wrote a completely new plan of government.
They could agree to accept ratification by fewer than thirteen states.
Delegates who supported a strong central government acted quickly.
They raised the question of numbers.
How many states were needed to ratify?
By the end of the day, the convention had not decided.
But many of the delegates must have met that night.
Early the next day, the convention voted.
And the number it agreed on was nine.
The great convention in Philadelphia was nearing the end of its work.
It needed only to write out its agreements in final form and sign the document.
That will be our story next week.
Our program was written by Christine Johnson and narrated by Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs.
Executive function.
What do you suppose that is?
Mental health professionals, educators and others use this term when talking about ways that people exercise self-control.
Executive function involves the skills we need to organize our lives.
Experts at the National Center for Learning Disabilities say we use executive function to study situations, plan, act and change our minds.
They say problems with executive function are strongly linked to attention deficits and learning disabilities.
All of these problems can have some of the same signs -- for example, trouble with working memory.
What is working memory?
This term is commonly used now in place of short-term memory.
It describes the brain's ability to store recent information temporarily, but also to use and make sense of it.
Researchers say good executive function is important for success in school.
Students with poor executive function need help to organize research.
They have serious trouble deciding which of two or three tasks to do first.
They have difficulty changing tasks or working on one project for a long period of time.
A person might have trouble waiting and cooperating, and might say or do things even if it offends others.
Laura Berk in the psychology department at Illinois State University is an expert on the subject.
She says executive function skills can be improved.
For example, Professor Berk says games of Simon Says can help young children learn to exercise self-control by NOT doing something.
Children dance to music until the music stops.
Then they have to place their bodies in a position shown in a picture.
She says giving children a chance to use their imaginations for make-believe play can also help them develop executive function skills.
Teenagers and adults can write lists and establish ways to make sure they do important tasks.
Technology can help.
For example, online banking services can be set up to pay bills automatically.
And alarm clocks on cell phones can remind someone when it is time to go to work or be in class.
This was part seven in our series on learning disabilities.
On our show today, we: Play music by the newest members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ... Explain the mysterious fear of the number thirteen … And visit a new art show celebrating hip hop culture.
Hip Hop Art The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. recently opened an exciting new show called “Recognize!
Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture.”
The exhibit celebrates the importance of American hip hop culture by showing the work of six artists and a poet.
Faith Lapidus has more.
When you walk into the exhibit area of “Recognize!” you see the strikingly bright colors of large letters painted on the walls.
Two local artists, Tim Conlon and Dave Hupp, made these graffiti artworks.
The exhibit states that graffiti art is one of the four elements of hip hop.
The others are break dancing, rap music, and DJing, when a person plays different beats of recorded music.
You can also see the brightly colored paintings of the artist Kehinde Wiley.
He paints famous rap musicians like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
But he paints them in a way that is like traditional paintings created hundreds of years ago.
David Scheinbaum uses black and white photography to capture hip hop performers.
Since two thousand, he has taken pictures of more than one hundred artists.
More bad news for the American housing market: The Mortgage Bankers Association says housing repossessions are at their highest rates ever, led by California and Florida.
And loan payments at least thirty days late are at their highest since nineteen eighty-five.
Problems in the housing market represent the greatest risks to the economy.
Central bank chief Ben Bernanke says helping the economy is now more important than fighting inflation.
He told the Senate Banking Committee last week that conditions are more difficult now than they were in two thousand one.
That was the last year in which the American economy was in a recession.
Most economists define a recession as at least six months of economic shrinkage.
The economy was still growing at last report, but very little: just six-tenths of one percent from October to December.
That was down from almost five percent for the July-to-September period.
President Bush says the economy is in a slowdown and that he does not expect a recession.
Economic weakness has pulled down the value of the dollar.
One euro is now worth about a dollar and a half, a record high.
A weak dollar reduces the price of American exports.
But it means higher prices for oil, which is traded in dollars.
This week, oil broke the all-time record of one hundred three dollars and seventy-six cents a barrel.
That price, adjusted for inflation, was set in nineteen eighty.
The United States is the biggest buyer of oil.
On Wednesday, OPEC refused the second American request this year to produce more oil.
It said there is already plenty.
Falling prices in the housing market are feeding a credit crisis.
Home prices fell ten percent nationally in two thousand seven.
And experts say prices could fall another ten to fifteen percent this year.
The Bush administration has been urging lenders to negotiate new terms for loans held by people in danger of losing their homes.
Many people now owe more than their homes are worth.
Some are simply walking away from their homes, even though that damages their credit records.
This week, Arizona Senator John McCain claimed the Republican nomination for president.
His wins in four state primaries Tuesday gave him enough delegates to begin his national campaign for the November election.
But against which Democrat?
New York Senator Hillary Clinton won three out of the four primaries, including the big states of Ohio and Texas.
She also won Rhode Island.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama won Vermont.
Hillary Clinton's victories marked a major comeback.
She lost twelve straight caucuses and primaries to Barack Obama.
In her victory speech in Ohio, she spoke of the importance of that state.
She noted that no candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the presidency without winning Ohio.
She received the majority of white and Latino votes in Ohio and Texas.
But Barack Obama remained more popular among blacks and voters under the age of thirty.
Senator Obama still holds a small lead in the delegate count.
The next big primary is in Pennsylvania on April twenty-second.
Ten states along with Guam and Puerto Rico have yet to vote.
But it remains unlikely that either Democrat will win enough delegates to secure the nomination before the party's convention in late August.
The tight race has brought new attention to Florida and Michigan.
Those states want their votes to count at the national convention.
But they held their primaries too early, in violation of party rules which those states had agreed to.
As punishment, the party took away the two hundred ten delegates from Florida and one hundred fifty-six from Michigan.
Hillary Clinton won the primaries in both states, though Barack Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan.
The governors of Michigan and Florida have presented a joint request to the party to seat their delegates at the convention.
They say the national party is silencing the voices of more than five million people.
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean says Florida and Michigan should repeat their primaries.
But he says the national party will not pay the estimated several million dollars in costs.
As Michigan and Florida try to find a solution, the candidates look toward votes in Wyoming on Saturday and Mississippi on Tuesday.
The two Democrats are also trying to win the support of almost eight hundred superdelegates.
These are party leaders and elected officials who can vote for any candidate at the convention.
They represent about twenty percent of all the delegates who will vote at the convention.
On the Republican side, President Bush announced his support for John McCain at the White House on Wednesday.
The two men had competed for the Republican nomination in two thousand, and Mister Bush won.
The seventy-one-year-old Senator McCain now has to name a choice for vice president.
He says he has just begun that process.
Others said that of the many people he created in his books, Hemingway was his own best creation.
Ernest Hemingway was born in eighteen ninety-nine.
He grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, near the middle western City of Chicago.
He was the second child in a family of six.
His father was a doctor.
His mother liked to paint and play the piano.
Each summer the family traveled to their holiday home in northern Michigan.
Ernest's father taught him how to catch fish, hunt, set up a camp and cook over a fire.
At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper.
He tried to write like a famous sports writer of that time, Ring Lardner.
He developed his writing skills this way.
In nineteen seventeen, Hemingway decided not to go to a university.
The United States had just entered World War One and he wanted to join the army.
But the army rejected him because his eyesight was not good enough.
Ernest found a job with the Kansas City Star newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri.
He reported news from the hospital, police headquarters, and the railroad station.
It wanted reporters to see the unusual details in an incident.
Hemingway quickly learned to do both.
He worked for the newspaper only nine months before he joined the Red Cross to help on the battlefields of Europe.
His job was to drive a Red Cross truck carrying wounded away from battle.
The Red Cross sent him to Italy.
Soon he saw his first wounded when an arms factory in Milan exploded.
Later, he was sent to the battle front.
He went as close to the fighting as possible to see how he would act in the face of danger.
Before long, he was seriously wounded.
The war ended soon after he healed.
Hemingway returned to the United States.
Less than a year had passed since he went to Europe.
But in that short time he had changed forever.
He needed to write about what he had seen.
Ernest Hemingway left home for Chicago to prove to himself, and to his family, that he could earn a living from his writing.
But, he ran out of money and began to write for a newspaper again.
The Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Star, liked his reports about life in Chicago and paid him well.
In Chicago, Hemingway met the writer Sherwood Anderson.
Anderson was one of the first writers in America to write about the lives of common people.
Hemingway saw that Anderson's stories showed life as it really was, the way Hemingway was trying to do.
Anderson gave Hemingway advice about his writing.
He told Hemingway to move to Paris, where living was less costly.
He said Paris was full of young artists and writers from all over the world.
He had to believe he did everything for himself, even when he knew others helped him.
Hemingway decided to move to Paris.
But before he did he married a woman he had recently met.
Her name was Hadley Richardson.
Paris was cold and gray when Hemingway and his new wife arrived in nineteen twenty-one.
They lived in one of the poorer parts of the city.
Their rooms were small and had no running water.
But the Toronto Star employed him as its European reporter, so there was enough money for the two of them to live.
And the job gave Hemingway time to write his stories.
Hemingway enjoyed exploring Paris, making new friends, learning French customs and sports.
Some new friends were artists and writers who had come to Paris in the nineteen twenties.
Among them were poet Ezra Pound, and writers Gertrude Stein, John dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
They quickly saw that Hemingway was a good writer.
They helped him publish his stories in the United States.
He was thankful for their support at the time, but later denied that he had received help.
As a reporter, Hemingway traveled all over Europe.
He wrote about politics.
He wrote about peace conferences and border disputes.
And he wrote about sports, skiing and fishing.
Later he would write about bull fighting in Spain.
The Toronto Star was pleased with his work, and wanted more of his reports.
But Hemingway was busy with his own writing.
Hemingway had learned from his father when he was a boy about living in the wild.
The story is about two kinds of rivers.
One is calm and clear.
It is where the young man fishes.
The other is dark.
It is a swamp, a threatening place.
The story shows the young man trying to forget his past.
He is also trying to forget the war.
Yet he never really speaks about it.
It is often published in collections of best writing.
After the book was published in nineteen twenty-five, Hadley and Hemingway returned to the United States for the birth of their son.
They quickly returned to Paris.
Hemingway was working on a long story.
He wanted to publish a novel so he would be recognized as a serious writer.
And he wanted the money a novel would earn.
The war had destroyed their dreams.
And it had given them nothing to replace those dreams.
At the age of twenty-five Ernest Hemingway was famous.
Many people, however, could not recognize Hemingway's art because they did not like what he wrote about.
Hemingway's sentences were short, the way he had been taught to write at the Kansas City Star newspaper.
He wrote about what he knew and felt.
He used few descriptive words.
His statements were clear and easily understood.
He had learned from earlier writers, like Ring Lardner and Sherwood Anderson.
But Hemingway brought something new to his writing.
He was able to paint in words what he saw and felt.
In later books, sometimes he missed.
Sometimes he even looked foolish.
But when he was right he was almost perfect.
With the success of his novel, Hemingway became even more popular in Paris.
Many people came to see him.
One was an American woman, Pauline Pfeiffer.
She became Hadley's friend.
Then Pauline fell in love with Hemingway.
Hemingway and Pauline saw each other secretly.
One time, they went away together on a short trip.
He agreed to give her money he earned from his books.
In later years, he looked back at his marriage to Hadley as the happiest time of his life.
This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman.
Every machine is held together by its nuts and bolts.
Without them, the machine would fall apart.
That is also true of an organization.
Its nuts and bolts are its basic, necessary elements.
They are the parts that make the organization work.
In government, industry, diplomacy -- in most anything -- those who understand the nuts and bolts are the most important.
Success depends more on them than on almost anyone else.
In government, the president or prime minister may plan and shape programs and policies.
But, it takes much more work to get them approved and to make them successful.
There is a mass of detailed work to be done.
The nuts and bolts.
This is often put into the hands of specialists.
The top leaders are always well-known, but not those who work with the nuts and bolts.
This is equally true in the day-to-day operation of Congress.
The majority leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, together with the chairmen of committees, keep the business of Congress moving.
Behind every Senator and Congressman, however, are assistants.
These people do all the detailed work to prepare congressmen to vote wisely on each issue.
In diplomacy, the chief ministers are unquestionably important in negotiations.
But there are lesser officials who do the basic work and preparations on the different issues to be negotiated.
In a military operation, strategy decisions are important.
But much more time is spent on the nuts and bolts -- generally called logistics -- of how to transport and supply an army.
?
It has been said that Napoleon was successful because he knew the field position of every one of his guns.
He gave careful attention to the nuts and bolts of his operations.
The extreme importance of nuts and bolts was expressed by the Elizabethan poet, George Herbert.
He wrote: For want of a nail, the shoe is lost For want of a shoe, the horse is lost For want of a horse, the rider is lost.
Benjamin franklin carried these lines even further.
He wrote: For want of a rider, the battle was lost For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
The narrator was Maurice Joyce.
The narrator was Maurice Joyce.
Peanuts, or groundnuts, are an important crop in many developing countries.
But getting them out of their shell is tiring without a machine.
In two thousand one, a Canadian inventor, Jock Brandis, designed a hand-powered peanut sheller for a village in Mali.
In one hour it can shell about fifty-six kilograms of peanuts.
By the end of this year, twenty countries will be using the Universal Nut Sheller and other technologies from the Full Belly Project.
This nonprofit group was established in North Carolina in two thousand three.
The aim is to fight hunger and help rural economies with labor-saving agricultural devices that can be reproduced locally.
Former Peace Corps volunteer Jeff Rose heads the Full Belly Project.
He says a village in Malawi used a single sheller to process thirty tons of peanuts over two months.
Selling them raised sixteen thousand dollars.
The United States Agency for International Development also provided money, and the village was able to build a water well.
That single machine, says Jeff Rose, cost the village just twenty-eight dollars to make.
As described at fullbellyproject.org, the Universal Nut Sheller is basically a cement cone within a cone.
The top and bottom are open.
The user turns a handle and the peanuts fall between the surfaces and are rolled and squeezed.
The peanuts and broken shells drop through the bottom and are separated by hand.
The machine can also shell coffee, jatropha, shea nuts and neem nuts.
There are two main ways that the group provides its technologies.
One is where individuals or groups based in the United States donate seven hundred dollars.
In return, they take a kit and build the sheller in a developing country.
The kit contains fiberglass molds and enough metal pieces to build three machines.
With the molds an unlimited number of machines can be built with locally purchased metal parts.
The sheller generally costs about fifty to seventy-five dollars to make.
The second way the group distributes its machines is through partnerships with nongovernmental organizations.
The Full Belly Project also has a pedal-powered sheller.
Now, volunteers are designing a pedal-powered grain crusher.
Goals for the future include all the simple technologies needed to make ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition.
Today we have the second of two programs on the issue of immigration in America.
An estimated eleven million or more people are living in the United States illegally.
What to do about them is at the heart of the debate over immigration reform.
Yet questions about legal immigrants also remain unanswered.
For example, should the United States open its doors to more skilled workers?
Many employers would like that.
Or should Congress lower the current limits, to get employers to hire more American citizens?
Or would that only lead them to move more jobs to other countries.
What about a temporary worker program, as President Bush proposed?
Or what about welcoming more skilled workers but fewer less educated immigrants?
Or would that be seen as unfair in the land of the American dream?
Congress tried to pass an immigration reform bill last year.
But the Senate was unable to reach agreement.
So, in place of legislative action, the administration announced new measures to increase border security and immigration enforcement.
The steps include more workplace raids to catch illegal immigrants and higher civil fines for their employers.
Immigrant rights activists say stronger enforcement makes even legal immigrants fearful of being treated with suspicion.
But activists against illegal immigration say providing for millions of people has a huge cost for public services.
An activist in California says that state could be using the money to work on bridges and other public structures at risk from earthquakes.
Two men watch from the Mexican side of the border as they wait to cross illegally into the United States.
In the background, a man and woman return to San Diego, California, after a walk on the beach to Tijuana, Mexico.
In two thousand six, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act to build hundreds of kilometers of additional fencing along the southern border.
The reasoning goes that secure borders with Mexico and Canada will help keep out illegal immigrants as well as drugs and terrorists.
But securing thousands of kilometers of borderline is easier said than done.
We talked a lot last week about illegal immigration.
But how can someone legally move to the United States?
Listeners often ask this question.
There are five ways to become a permanent resident.
But the process can be difficult and involve much waiting.
An immigration rights activist in Los Angeles with a sign that looks like a United States green cardA permanent resident is a foreign-born person who has most of the same rights as an American citizen.
Permanent residents can work but they cannot vote or hold political office.
They can also face expulsion in addition to any other punishment if they are found guilty of a serious crime.
Proof of permanent residency is a small identification card commonly known as a green card.
The current color is light red.
But the card was green once and the name stuck.
Green cards come from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency in the Department of Homeland Security.
Christopher Bentley is an agency spokesman.
He says most people immigrate to the United States these days through family sponsorship.
This means that a family member already in the United States takes responsibility for the immigrant.
Sponsors must be United States citizens or permanent residents.
In addition, they must be at least eighteen years old and a blood relation of the person seeking residency.
Chris Bentley says immediate relatives can immigrate without waiting.
Immediate relatives include parents and unmarried children under the age of twenty-one.
Other relatives can also come to the United States but they must wait for their visas.
This can take, in some cases, as long as twelve to fifteen years.
People who marry American citizens are also immediate relatives.
But they receive a conditional green card at first.
It can be made permanent after two years if investigators are satisfied that the marriage was not just for immigration purposes.
Sponsors must meet financial requirements and accept responsibility for the immigrants they are sponsoring.
This financial responsibility continues until the immigrant becomes a citizen, or works in the United States for about ten years or moves away.
The Department of Homeland Security says one million two hundred thousand people received permanent residency in two thousand six.
More than sixty percent of them became permanent residents as a result of a family relationship.
Another way to gain permanent residency is to have a job offer, also called an employment-based preference.
About one hundred sixty thousand people became permanent residents this way in two thousand six.
Often the employers are technology companies.
But Chris Bentley gives an example of a sheep ranch in Texas.
The employer found a really good shepherd.
It was easier to sponsor him for residency than to continually bring him to the United States to help on the ranch.
A third way to immigrate to the United States is to be declared a refugee.
This immigration status is for people who fear physical harm if they remain in their home country.
They have to go to an American Embassy and provide proof of their situation, or be referred by the United Nations refugee agency.
Foreign citizens who are in the United States as students or visitors can ask to stay if returning home would endanger their lives.
People who are given asylum are called asylees.
Two hundred sixteen thousand refugees and asylees became permanent residents in two thousand six.
A fourth way to immigrate is to invest money in the United States.
A person must invest at least five hundred thousand dollars in a poor area of the country and create at least ten jobs.
Seven hundred fifty investors became permanent residents in two thousand six.
The fifth and final way to immigrate to the United States is through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the visa lottery.
People enter the lottery and hope their name will be chosen by a computer.
The winners, their spouses and unmarried children under the age of twenty-one get a chance for permanent residency.
The United States offers about fifty-five thousand diversity visas every year.
In two thousand six, more than forty-four thousand winners became permanent residents.
Congress established the program under a nineteen ninety immigration law.
But the process is not as simple as it might sound.
The program is open only to people born in countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
These countries must have sent fewer than fifty thousand immigrants in the past five years.
So the countries in the program change each year.
The State Department received more than six million applications in two thousand six, about one million higher than the year before.
The people who applied in two thousand six were entering the two thousand eight visa program.
Most of the applicants were from Africa and Asia.
Nineteen percent were from Europe and two percent from South America and the Caribbean.
The largest numbers of applications came from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ukraine.
All of the information needed to take part in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is online at travel.state.gov.
There are warnings about attempts to cheat people in connection with the visa lottery.
In some cases there have been Web sites falsely claiming to be official United States government sites.
?
Some companies claiming to be from the government have asked for money to complete lottery entries.
There is no charge to download and complete the electronic entry form.
No paper entries are accepted.
All applications must be made at travel.state.gov.
The application period is from early October through early December of each year.
Lida was with us last week to answer a question from an online English teacher in Manila.
It had to do with accent reduction.
Make sure it comes with tapes or CDs.
He wants to know if it's OK to correct students right after they commit an error.
And that's WORDMASTER for this week.
This week, we will tell about a device that makes electrical power from something as simple as walking.
We will tell about a common disease many people have never heard of.
And, we report on a study linking all blue-eyed people in the world.
Electrical devices could soon use power made by human energy.
Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking.
A report on the device was published recently in Science magazine.
Max Donelan is an assistant professor of kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Colombia.
He and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device.
Mister Donelan says the goal of the study was to store energy from walking in a way that can get electricity without having to increase effort.
The device connects to a person's knee.
As the person walks, the device captures energy each time the person slows down.
To do this, the device assists with the slowing down movement of the leg.
The movements of the person walking push parts of a small machine that produces electricity.
Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute.
Mister Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes.
There are several possible uses for the device.
Developers say it could help people who work in areas without electricity to operate small computers or wireless telephones.
The device could also be used to operate life-saving health devices like heart pacemakers.
The experimental version of the device currently weighs about one and a half kilograms.
It is too costly for most people to buy.
But the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version.
?
Mister Donelan says an improved version should be ready in one year.
The researchers also hope that soldiers could use the device.
The developers also hope the device will one-day help developing countries.
Nearly twenty-five percent of people around the world live without electric power.
A similar product was invented in two thousand five by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania.
He created a bag carried on a person’s back that also produces power from walking.
The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag.
But the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., affects more than two hundred million people around the world.
The World Health Organization says at least five million people died from it in two thousand five.
Ninety percent were in developing countries.
In the United States, C.O.P.D. is the fourth leading cause of death.
But even with these numbers, many people have never heard of it.
The Canadian Lung Association says C.O.P.D. is the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
These are the two most common forms of it.
Many people with C.O.P.D. have both of them.
The result is progressive and incurable lung damage.
The tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs become partly blocked.
This makes it difficult to breathe and often produces a cough that will not go away.
People with C.O.P.D. often have swelling that causes the airways to narrow.
And they often produce more mucus than normal.
This oily substance protects the airways, but too much of it blocks them.
Smoking is the most common cause of C.O.P.D. Nonsmokers can get the disease from breathing other people's tobacco smoke.
Air pollution can also cause the disease.
Miners and others who work around some kinds of dust and chemicals are at higher risk.
Children who repeatedly suffer lung infections have a greater chance of developing the disease as adults.
Genetics may also be involved.
Doctors can perform a quick breathing test with a machine called a spirometer that can help diagnose C.O.P.D.
But experts say people are often not tested or treated correctly for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Patients may not consider a continuous cough serious enough to seek medical attention.
Or doctors may mistakenly identify it as asthma or another infection.
Some of the early warning signs are a cough that will not go away and an increase in mucus production.
Another sign is difficulty breathing after minor activity like walking up stairs.
There are ways to slow the progress of the disease.
Doctors say the most important thing is to stop smoking.
There are medicines that can reduce inflammation and open air passages.
Also, exercise is often advised.
If the disease is severe, a doctor may order oxygen treatment or even operations to remove damaged lung tissue.
Researchers in Denmark say all human beings had brown eyes until a change in genetic orders produced the first blue eyes.
The researchers also say people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor.
They found that blue-eyed people are genetically linked to the first person ever to have blue eyes.
That person is said to have lived six thousand to ten thousand years ago.
The University of Copenhagen research team reported its findings in Human Genetics magazine.
Team members examined genes of blue-eyed individuals from countries like Denmark, India, Jordan and Turkey.
They found that most people with blue eyes had changed genetic orders near a gene called OCA Two.
More than ninety nine percent of those studied had the same difference in their genetic material.
Team member Hans Eiberg said they all have the same change at exactly the same place.
The researchers say the result of the changed orders is a lack of brown in the iris of the eye.
They say the orders stop production of melanin in the eye.
Melanin is a substance that gives color to eyes, skin and hair.
The researchers say the first person with the changed genetic orders did not have blue eyes.
That is because eye color results from genes passed from both the mother and the father.
Blue eyes do not appear unless both parents pass the same gene for it to a child.
So a child with one gene for brown eyes and one for blue will have brown eyes.
The first blue-eyed person was the product of two people with brown eyes.
But they both had one brown-eyed gene and the changed gene for blue eyes.
Those blue-eyed genes came together in the first person to have blue eyes.
The Danish researchers say that person probably lived in an area northwest of the Black Sea.
They say this would explain why blue eyes are mainly found in people from northern Europe and southern Russia.
The researchers say they do not yet know why the blue-eyed gene was able to survive and spread.
They estimate that the changed gene is now found in about three hundred million people.
Our producer was Brianna Blake.
In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of delegates met in Philadelphia to rewrite the Articles of Confederation.
They ended up writing a new document instead -- the United States Constitution.
For the past several weeks we have been telling the story of the Constitution.
Here are Maurice Joyce and Shep O’Neal.
George Washington watches the Constitution being signedLast week, we told how the convention discussed the difficult issue of slavery.
Slavery affected the decision on how to count the population for purposes of representation in Congress.
It also affected the powers proposed for the Congress.
The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue.
One compromise was the 'three-fifths' rule.
The population would be counted every ten years to decide how many representatives each state would have.
The delegates agreed that every five Negro slaves would be counted as three persons.
Another compromise permitted states to import slaves until the year eighteen-oh-eight.
After that, no new slaves could be brought into the country.
Many of the delegates in Philadelphia did not like these compromises.
But they knew the compromises kept the southern states from leaving the convention.
Without them, as one delegate said, no union could be formed.
After all the debates, bitter arguments, and compromises, the delegates were nearing the end of their work.
Four months had passed since the convention began.
The weather had been hot.
Emotions had been hot, too.
But that was expected…for the men in Philadelphia were deciding the future of their country.
Early in September, the convention appointed five men to a Committee of Style.
It was their job to write the document containing all the convention's decisions.
William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut was chairman of the committee.
The other members were Alexander Hamilton of New York, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, Rufus King of Massachusetts, and James Madison of Virginia.
Of these five men, Gouverneur Morris was known for the beauty of his language.
So Judge Johnson asked him to write the Constitution.
The convention approved twenty-three parts, or articles, for the Constitution.
Gouverneur Morris re-wrote them in a more simple form, so there were just seven.
Article One describes the powers of the Congress.
It explains how to count the population for purposes of representation.
And it says who can become senators or representatives, and how long they can serve.
Article Two describes the powers of the president.
It explains who can be president.
And it tells how he is to be elected.
Article Three describes the powers of the federal judiciary.
The first three articles provide a system of 'checks and balances'.
The purpose is to prevent any of the three branches of government -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- from becoming too powerful.
Article Four explains the rights and duties of the states under the new central government.
Article Five provides a system for amending the Constitution.
Article Six declares the Constitution to be the highest law of the land.
And Article Seven simply says the Constitution will be established when nine states approve it.
In addition to the seven articles, the Constitution contains an opening statement, or preamble.
The convention prepared its own preamble.
And it listed all thirteen states by name.
The Committee of Style did not think it was a good idea to list each state.
After all, Rhode Island never sent a delegate to Philadelphia.
And no one knew for sure if every state would approve the Constitution.
Who suspected they would cause angry debate during the fight to approve the Constitution??
For they made clear that the power of the central government came not from the nation's states, but directly from its citizens.
The rest of the preamble says why the Constitution was written:?In
order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, guarantee peace at home, provide for the common defense, work for the well-being of all, and hold on to the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our children.
The next step was to sign the document.
On September seventeenth, the delegates gathered for the last time.
One might think all their business finally was done.
And that, he said, would lead to civil war.
So he would not sign.
George Mason of Virginia also refused to sign, but he did not say why.
He wrote his thoughts, instead.
His chief reason for not signing:? the Constitution did not directly guarantee the rights of citizens.
The country would hear this argument again later.
Many people agreed with Mason.
The results were the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
Those amendments became known as the Bill of Rights.
Randolph, Gerry, and Mason were the only delegates in Philadelphia who did not sign the Constitution.
Four other delegates who opposed went home before the signing.
They were Luther Martin and John Mercer of Maryland.
And Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York.
Nine men who supported the Constitution also went home early and did not sign.
Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut.
Caleb Strong of Massachusetts.
William Houstoun and William Pierce of Georgia.
Alexander Martin and William Davie of North Carolina.
William Houston of New Jersey.
George Wythe and James McClurg of Virginia.
Few of the delegates in Philadelphia could be sure that enough states would approve the Constitution to make it the law of the land.
And few could know then that Americans of the future would honor them as fathers of the nation.
Containers of recalled beef being thrown away in Los AngelesOn February seventeenth, the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company of Chino, California, recalled almost sixty-five million kilograms of beef.
The government declared the products unfit for human food.
Officials at the Department of Agriculture said the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection.
The beef recall was the largest in American history.
But the government rated the health risk as low.
No cases of sickness have been reported.
The beef was produced over the last two years.
Almost all of it went to federal programs to provide lunches for schoolchildren.
Some also went to federal programs for Indian reservations and emergency food aid.
About half of the beef had already been used when the recall took place.
The recall followed the public release of video secretly recorded by the Humane Society of the United States.
The workers kicked them and shot water at their faces.
They also used electric shocks and forklift trucks to force the animals to their feet.
The Agriculture Department bans downer cattle from entering the food supply.
The ban is part of measures to protect against the human version of mad cow disease.
Westland/Hallmark is closed until investigations are completed, and its deals to supply federal programs are suspended.
Local officials have brought animal cruelty charges against two employees.
And lawmakers in Congress have ordered the head of the company to appear at a hearing this week, saying he refused an earlier invitation.
At the end of February, the Humane Society brought a lawsuit against the Agriculture Department over a change in its inspection rules.
The group says the change made last year could make it easier for sick and injured cows to enter the food supply.
Officials defend the inspection process, but have also announced new measures, including inspections outside approved hours of operation.
When food recalls are announced, they often include the names of some of the stores that were supplied with the products.
But under a new state law, California has published an online list of the names, addresses and phone numbers of thousands of places affected by the beef recall.
Today we tell about a very popular musical instrument.
Listen and see if you can guess what it is.
If you guessed it was a guitar, you are correct.
Probably no other musical instrument is as popular around the world as the guitar.
Musicians use the guitar for almost every kind of music.
Country and western music would not be the same without a guitar.
The traditional Spanish folk music called flamenco could not exist without a guitar.
The sound of American blues music would not be the same without the sad cry of the guitar.
And rock and roll music would almost be impossible without this instrument.
Music experts do not agree about where the guitar first was played.
Most agree it is ancient.
Some experts say an instrument very much like a guitar was played in Egypt more than one thousand years ago.
Some other experts say that the ancestor of the modern guitar was brought to Spain from Persia sometime in the twelfth century.
The guitar continued to develop in Spain.
In the seventeen hundreds it became similar to the instrument we know today.
Many famous musicians played the instrument.
The famous Italian violinist Niccolo Paganinni played and wrote music for the guitar in the early eighteen hundreds.
Franz Schubert used the guitar to write some of his famous works.
In modern times Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia helped make the instrument extremely popular.
One kind of music for the guitar developed in the southern area of Spain called Adalusia.
It will always be strongly linked with the Spanish guitar.
It is called flamenco.
Carlos Montoya was a Spanish Gypsy.
Listen as he plays a flamenco song called “Jerez.”
In the nineteen thirties, Les Paul began experimenting with ways to make an electric guitar.
He invented the solid body electric guitar in nineteen forty-six.
The Gibson Guitar Company began producing its famous Les Paul Guitar in nineteen fifty-two.
It became a powerful influence in popular music.
The instrument has the same shape and the same six strings as the traditional guitar, but it sounds very different.
Les Paul produced a series of extremely popular recordings that introduced the public to his music.
They included Paul playing as many as six musical parts at the same time.
Listen to this Les Paul recording.
It was the fifth most popular song in the United States in nineteen fifty-two.
It is called “Meet Mister Callaghan.”
The guitar has always been important to blues music.
The electric guitar Les Paul helped develop made modern blues music possible.
There have been many great blues guitarists.
Yet, music experts say all blues guitar players are measured against one man and his famous guitar.
That man is B.B. King.
?
Every blues fan knows that years ago B.B. King named his guitar Lucille.
Here B.B. King plays Lucille on his famous recording of “The Thrill Is Gone”.
Lucille, B.B. King’s large, beautiful black guitar, is important to American music.
Visitors can see King’s very first guitar at the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.
The museum is the only permanent exhibit organized by the Smithsonian Institution outside Washington, D.C., and New York City.
Another famous guitar in American music also has a name.
It belongs to country music star Willie Nelson.
His guitar is as famous in country music as Lucille is in blues music.
Its name is Trigger.
Trigger is really a very ugly guitar.
It looks like an old, broken instrument someone threw away.
Several famous people have written their names on it.
A huge hole was torn in the front of it a long time ago.
It looks severely damaged.
But the huge hole, the names and other marks seem to add to its sound.
A study has raised new questions about the effectiveness of several popular drugs for depression.
These antidepressants are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
A bottle of ProzacS.
S.R.I.s are designed to help keep serotonin, a brain chemical, at a continuous level.
The new study suggests that they provide little help to the large majority of the millions who take them.
Scientists from Britain, Canada and the United States did the study.
It was a meta-analysis, a study of studies.
The team used an American law, the Freedom of Information Act, to get unpublished reports on thirty-five clinical trials of four drugs.
Drug companies gave these and published studies to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of the medicines.
In the clinical trials, people with depression were treated with either an antidepressant or a placebo, a pill that contains no medicine.
They did not know which they got.
The new report says those who received medicine did improve.
But comparable numbers of those who received placebos also improved.
The report says the drugs had meaningful results only in the most severely depressed patients.
The two best-known drugs in the study were fluoxetine, better known as Prozac, and paroxetine, sold in the United States under the name Paxil.
The other drugs were venlafaxine and nefazodone.
The Public Library of Science published the findings last month in the journal PLoS Medicine.
Benedetto Vitiello is a psychiatrist at the United States National Institute of Mental Health.
Doctor Vitiello, who was not involved in the study, says the findings came as no great surprise.
He says psychiatrists have known for years that S.S.R.I.s work best in the sickest patients.
But he says it is important for people who need help not to delay seeking help as a result of the new report.
Critics of the report say S.S.R.I.s can take more time to begin working than the studies permitted.
They also note that doctors sometimes try several antidepressants on a patient before choosing one for treatment.
Future antidepressants might have targets other than serotonin.
Scientists funded by the National Institute of Mental Health have found that an enzyme called GSK3B might play a big part in depression.
They found that mice with low serotonin levels and signs of depression improved when the enzyme was blocked.
Welcome to WORDMASTER.
See if you can identify what these three sentences have in common:?
Found true love.
Married someone else.
Young, skinny: ridiculed.
Old, skinny: envied.
And one I can relate to: It gets lonely, behind a microphone.
The answer is: they are all self-contained memoirs, and they each contain just six words.
They are among the more than fifteen thousand six-word memoirs submitted to Smith Magazine, an online journal devoted to storytelling.
In late 2006, journal editors invited readers to send in their own six-word creations.
One cavity.
Life's cruel.
After meeting you, Rachel, I'd say that your own contribution -- 'Bespectacled, besneakered, read and ran around' -- describes you pretty well.
It's kind of playful, kind of fun, [and] no great masterful prose.
Then children come.
Now thumb, of course, the word just really means a digit on your hand.
But if you think about that image of hitchhiking, of sticking your thumb out in the middle of the road and getting picked up and going who knows where, it's such an image of youth and freedom.
And when you settle down and have babies, you are not traveling by thumb anymore.
A blank page that is filled with six words is not scary.
Now, we continue our series on learning disabilities.
We look this week at a process used to identify problems and help children avoid failure in school.
This process is called response to intervention, or R.T.I.
Lynn Fuchs is a special education professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
She studies R.T.I. and says more and more schools in the United States are using it.
Learning disabilities are neurological disorders that affect different skills.
Federal law requires public schools to help disabled students through special education services and individualized programs.
The first step is finding which children need help.
Professor Fuchs explains that the traditional way is to test students who are failing.
But research shows that failure can lead to depression, and that can make improvement in school very difficult.
So some schools are using response to intervention as a way to identify problems much earlier.
The growing interest also results from concerns that some children placed in special education programs do not truly have a learning disability.
They may just need extra help with skills like reading or math.
Response to intervention supplies that extra help.
R.T.I. provides specially designed instruction for children who have scored low on general tests.
Professor Fuchs says the process usually involves about eight to ten weeks of small group tutoring.
The intensive work uses research-based methods of instruction.
The students are tested, sometimes as often as every week, to measure progress.
Those who improve after the instructional intervention go back to their normal classroom activities.
Those who do not might be declared learning disabled.
But Professor Fuchs says most school systems require additional testing to confirm the presence of a disability.
Some teachers and administrators believe response to intervention can reduce the number of students put into special services.
Professor Fuchs tells us this has not been proven.
But studies have shown that R.T.I. can solve learning problems for some students, especially young children.
And, at the same time, it can identify others who need much more help.
Our series on learning disabilities continues next week.
On our show this week we play music from jazz singer Lizz Wright … Answer a listener question about the American presidential candidates … And, visit former President Abraham Lincoln’s cottage, now a museum near Washington, D.C.  Lincoln’s Cottage A newly restored house has opened in Washington, D.C.
The house looks like it did during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln in the early eighteen sixties.
In fact, Mister Lincoln and his family lived in the house while he was president.
Faith Lapidus explains.
President Lincoln's CottageThe house is known as President Lincoln’s Cottage.
He and his family lived there during the summers to escape the heat and noise of the White House during the Civil War.
The cottage is on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home.
More than one thousand retired American military veterans live there today.
Washington banker George Riggs built the cottage in eighteen forty-two.
He sold the house and land to the government about ten years later.
The government built a large home for military veterans on the land.
They also expanded the house nearby.
James Buchanan was the first president to use this house.
But the Lincolns used it the most.
They moved there each June or July, and did not return to the White House until early November.
Back then, the cottage was outside the city of Washington, about one and one-half kilometers north of the White House.
President Lincoln returned to the cottage every night from the White House.
Today, the cottage and the retirement home are inside the city limits, in an area where many people live.
The house has been open to visitors for only about one month.
It does not have a lot of furniture, yet it tells many stories about President Lincoln and his family.
One story that many people do not know is that President Lincoln was the object of an assassination attempt near the cottage in eighteen sixty-four.
Coming back from the White House, he was riding a horse alone at night when a bullet went through his tall hat.
He did not take the incident seriously.
But it led the War Department to increase security for the president.
Later, John Wilkes Booth watched the president ride from the cottage to the White House.
He had planned to kidnap Mister Lincoln and exchange him for captured Confederate soldiers.
But there were too many guards protecting the president.
So Booth changed his plans.
He shot and killed the president at Ford’s Theatre in Washington in eighteen sixty-five.
Right now the race for the Democratic Party nomination is close.
On Tuesday, Illinois Senator Barack Obama won the Democratic nominating election in Mississippi.
A week earlier, New York Senator Hillary Clinton won in nominating elections in three states -- Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas.
But she lost to Mister Obama in Vermont.
And he remains the overall leader in the competition.
The two candidates hold similar positions, especially on social issues.
For example, both support a woman’s right to seek an abortion.
Both also support stem cell research.
And both candidates believe homosexuals should have rights to form legal unions similar to marriage.
Senators Clinton and Obama also have plans that they say will provide health care to all Americans.
Both also have plans to end the war in Iraq.
Barack Obama says as president he would immediately begin troop withdrawals from Iraq.
He says he would get all American combat forces out of Iraq within sixteen months.
The senator says he would leave some troops in the country to protect the American embassy and diplomats.
But, he says he would not permit the building of any permanent American bases in Iraq.
Hillary Clinton says she would meet with America’s top military and civilian security officials shortly after taking office.
She says she would order them to make a plan to begin withdrawing troops within the first sixty days of her presidency.
Senator Clinton says she would also increase aid to Iraq and make sure it reaches the people who need it.
And she says she supports the appointment of a high level United Nations representative to help negotiate peace among Iraqi groups.
Last week, Senator John McCain of Arizona gained enough delegates to become the Republican Party nominee for president.
Senator McCain does not support ending the war in Iraq.
He believes more American troops need to be deployed to crush rebel forces, end fighting among different Muslim groups and disarm militias.
He says the United States must also help to strengthen the Iraqi armed forces and police.
Senator McCain says political progress in Iraq depends on its security.
Lizz Wright Lizz Wright is a singer with a rich and smoky voice.
The twenty-eight year old performer’s third album is “The Orchard.”?
She says her childhood in a small town in rural Georgia influenced the album.
Critics say it is her best yet.
Barbara Klein plays some of Wright’s music.
Before she began writing songs for a new album, Lizz Wright returned to her family’s home in Georgia.
She took photographs of the countryside and places that were important to her.
Then she showed the photographs to people at her record company, Verve.
She explained that this was the world she wanted to tell about in her album.
Here is the song “Coming Home.”  Lizz Wright first began singing and playing music as a young child at the religious center where her father worked.
You can hear the influence of this gospel music in many of her songs.
As an adult, Wright studied music at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Later, critics praised her singing in a traveling musical show honoring the blues singer Billie Holiday.
On her earlier albums, Wright borrowed the songs and stories of other performers.
She says that “The Orchard” mainly tells her own story.
Here is “My Heart.”  Lizz Wright also sings songs by other musicians on this album.
For example, she performs a version of “Strange” by the country and western singer Patsy Cline.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer.
Please include your full name and mailing address.
Must a country buy from its own defense suppliers?
This is one of the questions in Washington in a dispute over a deal worth at least thirty-five billion dollars.
The contract will supply the Air Force with one hundred seventy-nine tankers.
Boeing union workers in Everett, WashingtonThe Air Force says it has a serious need for new planes to refuel aircraft in mid-flight.
Boeing has a long history of supplying tankers to the Air Force.
But on February twenty-ninth, the Air Force awarded the contract to another American company, Northrop Grumman, teamed with EADS.
is the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, the parent of Airbus.
This week, Boeing protested the decision.
The Government Accountability Office will study the appeal and expects to have a report by June nineteenth.
Boeing says it found problems in the process used to reach the decision.
The Air Force has called the process fair and open.
But the decision not to give the contract to the Chicago-based company has angered lawmakers in Congress from states with Boeing factories.
These include Washington state and Kansas.
Boeing offered a version of its Seven Sixty-seven airplane for the new tankers.
Northrop Grumman and EADS based their tanker on the Airbus A-Three-Thirty.
That plane is larger and would be able to carry more fuel.
There is debate about the possible effect on American jobs because production would be split between Europe and the United States.
There is also dispute about what the deal could mean for national security.
In any case, Boeing says the Air Force changed requirements in the middle of the competition.
Boeing and Airbus each had record numbers of orders last year for commercial airplanes.
Demand is strong in Europe and Asia.
But this week, EADS reported a loss of six hundred eighty-five million dollars last year, after a profit in two thousand six.
Airbus has had delays with its huge, new A-Three-Eighty passenger plane.
A weak dollar also played a part in the loss.
Boeing has had its own problems with its new Seven Eighty-seven Dreamliner.
To build it, the company is using a new system of suppliers around the world.
Boeing says the Dreamliner could enter service early next year.
Many buyers are waiting, but the new plane has not even had its first flight.
The latest progress report is expected by the end of the month.
This week, America’s attention was directed away from a tight presidential race and troubled economy.
The nation watched the fall from power of a politician widely considered a hero.
The news of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s use of prostitutes shocked many because of his image as an aggressive crime fighter.
He resigned Wednesday, two days after reports linked him to a high-priced sex service.
Last week, the government charged four people with operating Emperors Club V.I.P. Court papers say it operated in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington, as well as London and Paris.
They say he paid to have a twenty-two-year-old woman travel from New York to meet him at a Washington hotel last month.
A century-old law, the Mann Act, makes it a federal crime to bring people across state lines for immoral purposes.
But if Eliot Spitzer faces any charges, legal experts say they would more likely involve how the services were paid for, not the services themselves.
Federal officials say they began investigating him after two banks last year reported suspicious activity in the way he was moving large amounts of money around.
That investigation, they say, led them to the Emperors Club, where reports say he may have spent tens of thousands of dollars.
Federal prosecutors are said to be investigating whether he used campaign money in connection with his meetings.
The New York Times says he has told aides in recent days that he used prostitutes only in the last eight months, and never spent campaign or public money.
The forty-eight-year-old governor made two brief statements to the press, with his wife at his side.
For eight years Eliot Spitzer was New York attorney general, the state's top law enforcement official.
He also brought two major cases against prostitution operators.
The Democrat became governor in January of last year, elected with sixty-nine percent of the vote.
Early in his term, he signed a law that increased the punishment for paying for sex.
It rose from a possible three months in jail to up to a year.
David Paterson This Monday, Lieutenant Governor David Paterson will be sworn-in to replace Eliot Spitzer.
Mister Paterson will become the state’s first black governor.
He is also legally blind.
The only other blind governor known in American history, Bob Riley, served for eleven days in Arkansas in nineteen seventy-five.
The state of New York faces a deficit, and a new budget must be completed by the end of the month.
Today we present the second part of the story of Ernest Hemingway's life and writings.
At twenty-five, Hemingway was living in Paris.
He was a famous writer.
But the end of his first marriage made him want to leave the place where he had first become famous.
They settled in Key West, an island with a fishing port near the southern coast of Florida.
Before leaving Paris, Hemingway sent a collection of his stories to New York to be published.
This was a new method of telling a story Nick opened the door and went into the room.
Ole Andreson was lying on the bed with all his clothes on.
He had been a heavyweight prizefighter and he was too long for the bed.
He lay with his head on two pillows.
Any new book by Hemingway was an important event for readers.
Some thought there was too much violence in his stories.
Others said he only wrote about gunmen, soldiers, fighters and drinkers.
This kind of criticism made Hemingway angry.
He felt that writers should not be judged by those who could not write a story.
Hemingway was happy in Key West.
In the morning he wrote, in the afternoon he fished, and at night he went to a public house and drank.
Soon afterward he heard that his father had killed himself.
Hemingway was shocked.
His new book told about an American soldier who served with the Italian army during World War One.
He meets an English nurse and they fall in love.
They flee from the army, but she dies during childbirth.
Some of the events are taken from Hemingway's service in Italy.
There was a long line of abandoned trucks and carts on a road leading up to a bridge.
No one was in sight.
The river was high and the bridge had been blown up in the center; the stone arch was fallen into the river and the brown water was going over it.
We went up the bank looking for a place to cross. .
. .
We did not see any troops; only abandoned trucks and stores.
If they do not hit you, there is no story.
Cold weather has a great effect on how our minds and our bodies work.
Maybe that is why there are so many expressions that use the word cold.
For centuries, the body's blood has been linked closely with the emotions.
People who show no human emotions or feelings, for example, are said to be cold-blooded.
Cold-blooded people act in cruel ways.
They may do brutal things to others, and not by accident.
For example, a newspaper says the police are searching for a cold-blooded killer.
The killer murdered someone, not in self-defense, or because he was reacting to anger or fear.
He seemed to kill for no reason, and with no emotion, as if taking someone's life meant nothing.
Cold can affect other parts of the body.
The feet, for example.
Heavy socks can warm your feet, if your feet are really cold.
But there is an expression -- to get cold feet -- that has nothing to do with cold or your feet.
The expression means being afraid to do something you had decided to do.
For example, you agree to be president of an organization.
But then you learn that all the other officers have resigned.
All the work of the organization will be your responsibility.
You are likely to get cold feet about being president when you understand the situation.
Cold can also affect your shoulder.
You give someone the cold shoulder when you refuse to speak to them.
You treat them in a distant, cold way.
The expression probably comes from the physical act of turning your back toward someone, instead of speaking to him face-to-face.
You may give a cold shoulder to a friend who has not kept a promise he made to you.
Or, to someone who has lied about you to others.
A cold fish is not a fish.
It is a person.
But it is a person who is unfriendly, unemotional and shows no love or warmth.
A cold fish does not offer much of himself to anyone.
Someone who is a cold fish could be cold-hearted.
A cold-hearted person is someone who has no sympathy.
Several popular songs in recent years were about cold-hearted men or cold-hearted women who, without feeling, broke the hearts of their lovers.
Out in the cold is an expression often heard.
It means not getting something that everybody else got.
A person might say that everybody but him got a pay raise, that he was left out in the cold.
And it is not a pleasant place to be.
Breathing smoke from cooking stoves or open fires is a common cause of lung infections in developing countries.
Indoor air pollution is blamed for an estimated four thousand deaths every day, mostly women and children.
A nonprofit group based in the American state of Colorado is working to save lives.
Researchers at Envirofit International have developed a clean-burning cook stove that uses less fuel and reduces smoke.
They say it cuts the smoke and dangerous gases by up to eighty percent compared to open fires or simple traditional stoves.
The cook stove was designed to produce the greatest amount of heat in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of fuel.
It can burn wood, animal waste or crop waste.
The Shell Foundation has formed a partnership with Envirofit to market the cook stoves.
The British charity, established by the Shell Group in the year two thousand, has invested ten million dollars in a pilot project for India.
Martha Kohlhagen at Envirofit tells us that as many as ten million stoves will be sent to southern India by the end of this year.
She says the stoves are being manufactured in China and will begin arriving in May.
The stoves are designed to have a lifetime of up to three years at a cost of about fifteen dollars.
After India, the plan is to market them to China and Brazil, and to other countries around the world.
Envirofit expects twenty-five million dollars from the Shell Foundation and other donors over the next five years to support its efforts.
Nongovernmental organizations and local stores, in some cases, will sell the stoves in villages.
The price in different countries will be based on demand and local economic conditions.
Martha Kohlhagen says Envirofit will also work with local micro lending organizations to help support the sale of the stoves.
Envirofit says it will use any future profits from the stoves for further research and development.
The group wants to develop combination technology, to be able use energy from the cook stove to provide things like heat or light.
Two students at Colorado State University, Tim Bauer and Nathan Lorenz, started Envirofit International in two thousand three.
The group has ties to the university.
Envirofit developed from research work in the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State.
This week on our program, we take you to President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington.
Our story begins on the evening of Wednesday, September seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two.
The Civil War between the Union North and Confederate South is in its second year.
The first major battle on Northern territory has just been fought that day a hundred kilometers from Washington.
Union troops defeated a rebel invasion in the Battle of Antietam in the state of Maryland.
In all, more than twenty thousand soldiers were killed or wounded.
September seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two, becomes the single bloodiest day in American military history.
President Abraham Lincoln is fighting to keep the Southern states of the Confederacy from leaving the Union.
But from his office in the White House, he must also attend to his other duties as president of the United States.
Photo from around 1860In summertime, which can get very hot in Washington, President Lincoln used a country house.
It was about five kilometers from the White House.
Each morning and evening, Lincoln rode between the two houses on horseback, unguarded.
Buildings would give way to farmland as he rode north out of the city.
In about thirty minutes, he would arrive at the grounds of the Soldiers' Home.
Just inside the gate was a large house used by the president and his family.
This house was on much higher ground than the White House, so the wind kept it cooler.
It was also quiet -- a place to think.
A meeting, with President Lincoln third from leftOn this day we imagine Lincoln climbing the stairs to his study on the second floor.
He places his tall black hat on his desk and opens a large window.
He feels cooler already.
He lights two lamps and sits down at the desk.
An important document that he has been writing, and rewriting, waits for him.
He began working on it soon after he became president in eighteen sixty-one.
Lincoln has been thinking long and hard to develop his ideas and capture them in words.
What he is writing sounds like it was written by a lawyer.
He was, after all, a lawyer in Illinois before he became president.
But this is different.
It involves the war, the ownership of human beings and the future of the divided nation.
He knows that some people will support it, some will reject it and some will say it changes nothing.
It will free the slaves, but only in areas where Lincoln has no power.
Slavery was legal in the Confederate States of America -- the South.
But it was also legal in several neighboring states that remained loyal to the Union.
Many Americans wanted Lincoln to free all the slaves.
Lincoln opposed slavery.
But he needed the continued loyalty of those border states, like Maryland and Kentucky, or risk losing the Civil War.
The sixteenth president looks again at what he has written.
Lincoln feels that what he is doing will give the war effort new meaning.
He feels that in time it will lead to the end of slavery in the United States.
On this day, September seventeenth, he has finished his second draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
Soon he will share it with his cabinet.
Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary version five days later, on September twenty-second, eighteen sixty-two.
It declared that slaves would be free anywhere that was still in rebellion on January first, eighteen sixty-three.
The Emancipation Proclamation is in the National Archives in Washington, and it can be seen online at archives.gov.
Lincoln was right that it would not be very popular.
But he was also right that it would be the first step toward ending slavery in the United States.
The proclamation also welcomed freed slaves to serve in the Union Army and Navy.
By the end of the war, more than two hundred thousand blacks had joined the armed services.
The Civil War lasted from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five.
Troops were stationed at the Soldiers' Home to protect President Lincoln during the war.
At first he did not welcome them.
He did not think he needed their protection.
But he began to enjoy talking to them.
In fact, much of what historians know about the president's time at the house is from stories told by those soldiers.
One soldier told of guarding the president's house on a day when Lincoln was sitting on the porch with his young son Tad.
They were playing a game of checkers.
The president asked the solder to put down his rifle and join them.
The young soldier was confused.
He was supposed to guard the president, not play a game.
But the president was also commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy.
The soldier decided he could not refuse the request.
He spent the afternoon playing checkers with the president.
Not far from the house was a military hospital.
The president would sometimes watch the wagons arriving with soldiers wounded in the war.
He would sometimes talk with the soldiers.
The man with the long, sad face wanted to hear news about the battles they had been fighting.
He said it helped him understand their experiences.
Today the house at the Soldiers' Home is known as President Lincoln's Cottage.
But Lincoln was not the first president to use it.
That was James Buchanan, the president just before him.
Later, presidents Rutherford Hayes and Chester Arthur also used it.
A Washington banker named George Washington Riggs built the house in eighteen forty-two.
In eighteen fifty-one, he sold the house and the land around it to the federal government.
The government later expanded the house and used the land to build the Soldiers' Home for veterans.
Today it is called the Armed Forces Retirement Home.
More than one thousand retired service members live there.
The location of President Lincoln's Cottage has not changed since Lincoln's day.
But the city of Washington has.
The house is now within the city limits.
Historians have compared it to the modern presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland.
They call it a kind of nineteenth century Camp David.
The thirty-four room house opened to the public in February of two thousand eight after fifteen million dollars in work.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has restored the building so it looks as it did when Lincoln and his family lived there.
For example, workers removed more than twenty layers of paint from one room.
The paint hid the wooden walls of what was Lincoln's library.
Visitors can see lines left by bookshelves on the walls.
Guides tell visitors that Lincoln lived at the house for one-fourth of his time as president.
He and his family would go to the house in June or early July and stay until early November.
They did this in eighteen sixty-two, sixty-three and sixty-four.
Records show that one year, White House workers moved nineteen wagonloads of belongings to the house.
These included toys, clothing and furniture.
One night in eighteen sixty-four, President Lincoln survived an assassination attempt.
He was alone, returning on horseback from Washington.
Someone shot at him.
It happened near the house.
His tall hat flew off and soldiers found it on the ground with a bullet hole through it.
He was not injured.
After that, the War Department increased his protection.
But it was not enough to save his life.
Records show that he visited his country house for the last time on April thirteenth, eighteen sixty-five.
The next day, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the defeated Confederacy, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver.
Internet users can learn more about President Lincoln's Cottage at lincolncottage.org.
On our program this week, we will tell about an international appeal to reduce smoking rates.
We will also tell about an American effort to find signs of climate change in spring flowers.
And, we will report on a product that can repair itself after breaking.
The World Health Organization is urging countries to follow six policies to prevent millions of deaths linked to tobacco use.
The six policies are known as MPOWER, spelled M-P-O-W-E-R.
The letter M means monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies.
The P is for protecting people by establishing smoke-free areas.
O is for offering services to help people stop smoking.
The letter W means warning people about the dangers of tobacco.
E is for enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and other forms of marketing.
And R is for raising taxes on tobacco.
A World Health Organization report says raising taxes is the single most effective way to reduce tobacco use.
A study found that governments now collect an average of five hundred times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on control efforts.
The report says tobacco now causes more than five million deaths a year.
It predicts this number will rise to more than eight million by the year two thousand thirty.
By the end of the century, it says, tobacco could kill one billion people -- ten times as many as in the twentieth century.
The large majority of these deaths will take place in developing countries.
More than twenty-five percent of all smokers in the world are Chinese.
India, Indonesia, Russia and the United States, in that order, follow China in tobacco use.
The W.H.O. found that only five percent of all people live in countries with protections like national legislation on smoke-free areas or bans on tobacco marketing.
Forty percent of countries still permit smoking in hospitals and schools.
An international treaty on tobacco control came into force in two thousand five.
Tobacco companies face increasingly restrictive marketplaces in many wealthier countries.
The industry is now aiming at the developing world, especially young women.
The report says large numbers of people do not yet know the dangers of smoking.
W.H.O. Director General Margaret Chan notes that tobacco hurts economies in two ways.
One is through reduced productivity among workers who get lung cancer or other diseases linked to tobacco use.
The other way is through high health care costs for treating those diseases.
The W.H.O. report was released in New York City.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has worked hard to restrict smoking in America's largest city.
His aid group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helped pay for the study.
Volunteers across the United States have begun searching for clues about rising temperatures on Earth.
A nationwide study is seeking volunteers to look for changes in flowers and flowering plants.
They are being asked to keep records of their observations in a database on the Internet.
Study organizers say the information will give scientists a better understanding of climate change.
The study, called Project Budburst, is to continue all year.
This will permit the observation of all plants in different parts of the country.
Plant lovers, students and other people in every state are welcome to take part.
The goal of the study is to help people of all ages understand the changing link between climate, seasons and plants.
It also gives them a way to share their findings with others through the Internet.
The University Corporation of Atmospheric Research is supervising Project Budburst.
The group says thousands of people in twenty-six states recorded their observations during the project’s first launch last year.
Scientists received information about hundreds of different kinds of plants.
Volunteers provided details about the appearance of their plant’s first bursts of growth for the season.
This is how Project BudBurst works.
Each volunteer agrees to watch one or more plants, usually a flower, plant or tree.
Volunteers can get help from the project’s Web site.
It suggests more than sixty trees and flowers with information about each of them.
Volunteers can also add their own choices.
Next, they begin examining their plants at least one week before the usual time when the new flower, or bud, bursts and leaves begin to form.
This is known as budburst.
Volunteers continue to observe their plant or flower for events following budburst.
They look for the first leaf, first flower and later, the spreading of seeds.
When volunteers record their findings on the Web site, they can see maps of other results across the United States.
Sandra Henderson is project coordinator for Project BudBurst.
She says climate change may be affecting our communities in ways that we do not notice.
Many different kinds of plants and animals are affected by climate change.
Rising temperatures cause some plants to extend their growing periods.
Many insects reproduce and develop because of increasing sunlight instead of temperature.
This can cause a difference between the behavior of insects like bees and flowers that open much earlier than the insects expect.
This problem has already been reported across many parts of the world.
Broken rubber bands and flat tires requiring replacement could soon be a thing of the past.
French researchers have developed a new kind of rubber that can repair itself when broken.
The new rubber is made from widely available materials including vegetable oil and a common industrial chemical.
All the materials are considered safe to the environment and can be easily reused.
The best part is the new rubber can be repaired and used again and again without losing its strength or ability to stretch.
When cut, the rubber can be made new again, simply by pressing the two broken ends back together.
The product can be repaired at room temperature, around twenty degrees Celsius.
Other self-healing materials require higher temperatures for repair.
Traditionally, rubber substances are made from huge molecules connected by strong chemical links, or bonds.
The new rubber is made of smaller molecules.
The molecules are linked together using hydrogen bonds.
When connected in this way, the molecules act like one long molecule, forming what is called supramolecular networks.
When the rubber is cut or breaks, the molecules attempt to connect with whatever molecule is near them.
When pressed together, the molecules are able to repair themselves at the molecular level, making the repaired rubber like new.
However, time is an important element in the process.
If the broken ends are not brought together quickly, a repair is not possible.
This is because molecules will form bonds with molecules on their own side.
The inventors say the surfaces of the rubber can be repaired within a week of being separated.
The rubber is the creation of scientists at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Education Institution in Paris.
The organization is part of France's National Center for Scientific Research.
The new material is described in greater detail in the research publication Nature.
The possibilities for the new rubber seem endless.
It could lead to clothing that fixes its own tears and children's toys that can be repaired.
It also could lead to inflatable products that do not leak, at least not for long.
A chemical company, Arkema, is already working on using the new rubber in its products.
When is a plant a weed?
When its undesirable qualities outweigh its good points, say experts at Penn State University.
A farmer in Washington state burns weeds to prepare for the new growing seasonWeeds can take control of productive land.
Crops generally produce several hundred seeds per plant.
But each weed plant can produce tens or even hundreds of thousands of seeds.
And some buried seeds can survive up to forty years, or even longer.
Eradicating weeds means you have to remove all the seeds and roots so the plants will not grow back.
But birds or the wind can reintroduce them to the land.
A more common way to deal with weeds is to control them enough so that the land can be used for planting.
Experts advise using two or more control methods.
Chemical weed killers or natural treatments like corn gluten can suppress weed growth.
Dense planting of a crop can also act as a natural control.
Bill Curran is a professor of weed science at Penn State, in University Park, Pennsylvania.
He says dense planting is one of the most common methods for suppressing weeds.
He says a dense, competitive crop that quickly shades the soil will help suppress many weeds.
The seeds need light to grow, so blocking the sun will reduce weed growth.
Other controls include turning over the soil, pulling the weeds by hand or covering them with mulch made from wood, garden waste or other material.
Mulch is widely used, but even mulch has its limits.
Natural resource specialists in the Queensland government in Australia note that weeds can be transported in mulch.
This is also true of soil, grain, hay and animals.
Yet animals like sheep or goats can provide a biological control by eating weeds.
Insects and other organisms can also act as biological controls.
Preventing the spread of weeds is an important part of weed management.
Farm vehicles should be kept out of areas with weeds.
If that is not possible, then clean off the equipment and your shoes when leaving.
People in Queensland are advised to take weeds and garden waste to a waste center or burn them, bury them deeply or make them into mulch.
Professor Curran says composting weeds is another way to make use of them.
The process of making organically rich compost produces heat.
This will kill many, though not all, weed seeds.
The same is true of seeds that pass through farm animals that graze on weeds.
Today we explore ways in which local governments around the world are working to protect the environment.
Roof garden on the Chicago City HallThese “green cities” are working to reduce energy use and pollution in new and creative ways.
Such efforts by city governments not only help reverse the effects of climate change.
They also help governments save large amounts of money on energy costs.
And, cities that are leaders in this green movement set a good example to their citizens about the importance of environmental issues.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement aimed at reducing the release of harmful gases that are believed to cause climate change.
The United States is not part of the agreement.
But since two thousand five, over eight hundred American mayors across the country have agreed to sign their own version of the protocol.
It is called the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.
Local leaders have agreed to follow the suggestions of the Kyoto Protocol in their communities.
The aim was to reduce energy costs, improve air quality and control the amount of rainwater entering the city’s waste system.
Green roofs also help reduce a problem called urban heat islands.
During hot weather, the building's tar roof could reach temperatures of up to seventy-six degrees Celsius.
With the garden, the temperature of the roof area was reduced by at least thirty degrees Celsius.
Workers planted over one hundred fifty kinds of plants that could survive severe weather.
Now, the area is cooler, the building requires less energy to keep cool, and the roof looks nice.
Chicago also offers money to help people pay for building their own green roof systems.
The city of Boston, Massachusetts has started developing a plan for a program to make compost fertilizer out of dead leaves, plants and food waste.
The gases released from the plant waste would provide the electrical power needed to operate the compost center.
After being processed in this environmentally safe center, the compost material could be sold locally.
This plan would reduce pollution made by the current waste center and could produce enough electricity to power up to one thousand five hundred homes.
New York City is experimenting with using waves in the East River to create energy.
And, in Oakland California, you can ride on one of several public hydrogen-powered buses.
These buses release zero pollution into the air.
However, they cost five times more than common buses.
These building materials usually cost more money than normal building materials.
But, homeowners are increasingly willing to pay more money to have lower energy costs in the future.
And, builders are increasingly offering green building methods as they become more and more important to buyers.
Investors are also betting on this interest.
The National Venture Capital Association says people invested more than two billion dollars in clean technologies last year.
Popular Science magazine recently published a list of the fifty “greenest” cities in the United States.
Researchers combined information from United States population records as well as the Green Guide made by the National Geographic Society.
The list rates cities by looking at their renewable energy sources, transportation programs, recycling efforts and “Green Living” grade.
The magazine defined Green Living as the number of buildings approved by the United States Green Building Council.
This nonprofit organization has a rating system for making environmentally safe buildings.
It is called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.
According to this list, the greenest city in the United States is Portland, Oregon.
San Francisco, California came in second on the list, while Boston, Massachusetts was third.
Fourth and fifth were Oakland, California and Eugene, Oregon.
Popular Science researchers used LEED’s rating system to define how green a building is.
But there are other rating systems as well.
For example, the National Association of Homebuilders has its own set of rules.
And, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy joined to create the Energy Star program.
Energy Star gives ratings to devices for the home based on how they use energy.
And the program helps homeowners learn how to make changes to their houses in a way that uses energy effectively.
Energy Star estimates that in two thousand six it helped Americans avoid the release of harmful gases equal to what twenty-five million cars would produce.
And, it says Americans saved fourteen billion dollars on energy costs.
One small town is not yet on any list of the greenest cities.
But it may soon be as green as its name.
In May of last year, a tornado windstorm destroyed most of the town of Greensburg, Kansas.
The city decided to rebuild in a better way, using green methods.
Greensburg officials have agreed that all public building projects will follow LEED top-level requirements.
The actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the Discovery Channel television station are working together to make a show about Greensburg.
The program will show how the people in Greensburg are working to rebuild their town into a green community.
Cities around the world are also taking action to protect the environment.
For example, the mayor of London, England has made environmental planning an important part of his work.
The city has created a Climate Change Action Plan to help cut pollution levels.
London has also started a Green Grid program in the eastern part of the city.
Its aim is to create and protect planted areas in which people can enjoy the outdoors.
In the Netherlands, a Dutch company has built a system that uses cold lake water to cool people’s homes in one area of Amsterdam.
This use of a renewable natural resource helps reduce pollution and energy costs.
About five years ago, officials in Thane, India decided to reduce its dependency on power from coal.
This city, near Mumbai, often experiences lack of power because of the large numbers of people using electricity.
Officials decided to save energy by putting water heaters powered by the sun on top of the city's main hospital.
The hospital saved thousands of dollars in energy costs each year.
Officials then began building solar powered water heaters around the city.
Thane later started requiring solar water heaters for all new buildings.
And, the city offers a reduced property tax rate for people who place these water heaters in their homes.
China has announced plans to create an eco-city called Dongtan.
The company designing the city says it will produce its energy from the wind, sun and reused waste.
The aim is for the city to be an example to the rest of China.
China is also working to make the Olympic games this year in Beijing as green as possible.
For example, the Olympic Village where athletes and officials live during the games uses solar power technologies and other renewable energy sources.
The United Arab Emirates and the environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature have taken green building a step further with the Masdar City project.
Its aim is to be the greenest city in the world.
The city will meet environmental rules set by the WWF One Living Planet and the company BioRegional.
The city is expected to produce no waste, no carbon pollution and contain no cars.
The city will create renewable energy from the wind, sun and other technologies.
And, buildings will be made using only recycled materials.
Masdar City is expected to be finished by two thousand sixteen.
The United Arab Emirates has given the company Masdar Initiative fifteen billion dollars to develop future energy sources.
The country aims to become a world leader in renewable energy technologies.
Experts say developments like this may lead to a greener future for all cities in the world.
That's right wing.
And, of course, left-wing means you're extremely liberal.
And the fairy godmother says, 'Oh, really?
So off they went to begin stumping.
Now stumping is the same thing as barnstorming.
Stumping simply means when you stand on a tree stump to make your speeches.
In a lot of communities that didn't have a lot of money to create a big area for a politician to stand to make speeches, the politician would simply get on top of a stump and make a speech.
So they began stumping all over the village.
They both pressed the flesh.
And they did nothing but grandstand for a week.
To grandstand means to try a little too hard to impress an audience through speeches.
But things got ugly when they debated together.
Yes, the mudslinging began.
Mudslinging means to insult and criticize each other.
Well, it was obvious at this point who was going to have the election all wrapped up.
This is another political idiom, for to win for sure.
But something strange happened at the polls.
So, according to the returns -- the votes -- everyone voted for the pumpkin -- I mean, Cinderella.
Fortunately, however, in the crowd was Cinderella's political adviser, who is her staff spin-doctor.
And, by the way, the spin-doctor just happened to be the village's prince.
Meningitis is an infection of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord.
Both bacteria and viruses can cause it.
Viral meningitis is the more common form, but bacterial meningitis is more dangerous.
Each year, almost four hundred thousand children under the age of five die from meningitis caused by a bacterium known as Hib.
Millions more suffer hearing loss, brain damage or other disabilities as a result of the disease.
Hib, or Haemophilus influenzae type b, requires intensive treatment with antibiotics.
But most of the children are poor and live in developing countries.
Hib vaccines for babies have been available since nineteen ninety-one.
But for most of that time, their use was limited to industrial countries, mostly because of cost.
Children in UgandaUganda began widespread child vaccinations against Hib in two thousand two.
Now, a study has found that in areas where cases were counted, the disease rate fell by eighty-five percent in the first four years.
Then it fell to zero in two thousand six.
Scientists from the government, the World Health Organization, a French agency and others have been studying the campaign.
They estimate that the program now prevents thirty thousand severe infections and five thousand deaths in children under five each year.
Their report is to be published next month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
The GAVI Alliance paid for the vaccines.
was formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.
This alliance of private and public interests was created in two thousand to widen the availability of immunizations.
With GAVI support, Uganda provided sixteen and a half million doses of Hib vaccine nationwide from two thousand two to two thousand six.
Other studies have found similar results with Hib vaccines in countries including Bangladesh, Kenya and Gambia.
But the executive secretary of the alliance, Julian Lob-Levyt, says this is the first time the group has seen rates drop to zero.
Uganda chose to use an injection that contains vaccines against five diseases: Hib as well as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and hepatitis B. In November, the GAVI board approved additional financing to pay for Hib vaccine in a total of forty-four countries.
In recent weeks, we told the story of how the United States Constitution was written.
In seventeen eighty-seven, a group of delegates gathered for a convention in Philadelphia.
Their plan was to rewrite the Articles of Confederation.
Those articles created a weak union of the thirteen states.
Instead of rewriting the articles, however, they spent that summer writing a completely new plan of government.
On September seventeenth, after four months of often bitter debate, the delegates finally signed the new document.
Now, they had to get at least nine of the thirteen states to approve it.
Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of ratifying the Constitution.
Delegates to the Philadelphia convention had met in secret.
They wanted to be able to debate proposals, and change their minds, without worrying about public reaction.
Now, they were free to speak openly.
Each had a copy of the new Constitution.
Newspapers also got copies.
They printed every word.
Public reaction was great indeed.
Arguments 'for' and 'against' were the same as those voiced by delegates to the convention: The Constitution would save the United States!?
The Constitution would create a dictator!
The leaders who supported the new Constitution understood quickly that to win ratification, they must speak out.
So, just a few weeks after the document was signed, they began writing statements supporting the proposed Constitution.
Their statements appeared first in newspapers in New York.
They were called the Federalist Papers.
They were printed under the name of 'Publius'.
But they were really written by three men: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Years later, historians said the Federalist Papers were the greatest explanation of the Constitution ever written.
But in seventeen eighty-seven, they had little effect on public opinion.
The debate over the Constitution divided Americans into two groups.
Those who supported it were known as Federalists.
Those who opposed it were known as anti-Federalists.
The anti-Federalists were not anti-American.
They were important leaders who loved their country.
They were governors, heroes of the Revolutionary War, and even a future president.
Yet they distrusted the idea of a strong central government.
Give too much power to the president, the Congress and the courts, they said, and citizens would no longer be free.
They would lose the liberties gained in the war for independence from Britain.
One anti-Federalist was Patrick Henry of Virginia.
James Madison called him the most dangerous enemy of the Constitution.
Patrick Henry and other anti-Federalists tried to create distrust and fear about the new plan of government.
Farmers against city people.
North against South.
Small states against big states.
There were both Federalists and anti-Federalists in the Continental Congress.
The Congress had few powers.
But it was the only central government the thirteen states had at that time.
It met in New York City.
The convention in Philadelphia had sent the Continental Congress a copy of the new Constitution.
Within eight days, the Congress agreed that each state should organize a convention to discuss ratification.
One by one, the states held their conventions.
Delaware was the first state to ratify, early in December, seventeen eighty-seven.
All the delegates voted to approve it.
Pennsylvania was the next to ratify, also in December.
New Jersey ratified the Constitution in December, followed by Georgia and Connecticut in January.
That made five states.
The Federalists needed just four more to win ratification.
Massachusetts voted in early February.
Delegates to the state convention wanted the Constitution amended to include guarantees to protect citizens' rights.
They agreed to ratify if these guarantees were added later.
Maryland ratified the Constitution at the end of April.
There, a number of delegates included a letter of protest with their vote.
They said if the proposed plan of government were not amended, the liberty and happiness of the people would be threatened.
South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify, at the end of May.
Just one more state and the new Constitution would become the law of the land.
All eyes turned to Virginia.
Virginia was the biggest of the thirteen states.
At that time, its western border stretched all the way to the Mississippi River.
One-fifth of all the people in America lived in Virginia.
The men who attended the ratifying convention were among the most famous names in the nation:?
James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe, Edmund Randolph and John Marshall.
Thomas Jefferson was still in Paris, serving as America's representative to France.
But others kept him informed of everything that happened at home.
Jefferson wrote back that he liked most of the Constitution.
But, he said, I do not like the fact that it does not contain a declaration of the rights of citizens.
The most famous Virginian, George Washington, stayed at his farm, Mount Vernon.
All during the month of June, however, riders brought him messages from the convention and carried messages back.
For three weeks, the Virginia delegates argued about the Constitution.
Virginia approved the Constitution.
However, like Massachusetts, it added that the document must include a declaration of rights for the nation's people.
Federalists in Virginia were proud.
They thought their state was the ninth to ratify, the one that made the Constitution the law of the land.
But they soon learned that New Hampshire had ratified a few days earlier.
Virginia was number ten.
That left three states:?
North Carolina, Rhode Island, and New York.
In a way, New York was the most important of all.
If New York refused to join the union under the Constitution, it would be almost impossible for a central government to rule the nation.
The twelve other states would be divided in two, geographically separated by New York state.
The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton.
They used their right to filibuster -- to make many long speeches -- to delay the vote.
They wanted to wait to hear what Virginia would do.
Early in July, they got the news.
But New York's anti-Federalists kept up the fight for three more weeks.
It was not until the end of July that New York finally ratified the Constitution.
The vote was extremely close:?
thirty to twenty-seven.
Like Massachusetts and Virginia, New York demanded a declaration of rights.
The long struggle to give the United States a strong central government was over.
It took four months to write a new Constitution.
It took ten months to ratify it.
The Continental Congress declared that the Constitution would become effective the first Wednesday in March, seventeen eighty-nine.
The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe.
Today we complete our series on learning disabilities.
In the United States, federal law requires public schools to provide special education services to children with any disability.
Specialists commonly provide these services while the children attend the same schools, and often the same classes, as other students.
But today we look at three private schools that serve only students with learning disabilities.
The Hillside School in Pennsylvania accepts up to one hundred twenty-eight children.
The students are ages five to thirteen.
They have disorders with language, writing or working with numbers.
They may also have attention deficit disorders.
Each class has no more than eight students.
Hillside administrators say the main goal is to prepare students to learn effectively in a regular school.
Teachers and specialists develop individual learning plans for the students, which is something a public school may also do.
Development director Kathy Greene says most students remain at Hillside for about three years before leaving for a regular classroom setting.
Its Web site says the school has about eight hundred fifty students in all twelve grades, and one teacher for every six students.
The Shelton School also says its goal is to prepare students to return to regular classes, although some do finish high school there.
The Web site says Shelton graduated forty-four students in two thousand six.
And it says they received acceptances from a total of seventy-seven colleges and universities.
Landmark College in Vermont is a college for students with learning difficulties.
It offers a two-year program that prepares students to continue their studies at a four-year school.
Each student has an adviser and an individual learning program.
Landmark has international students this year from South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
All three schools offer financial aid.
Hillside costs about seventeen thousand dollars a year.
Shelton costs between ten and twenty-one thousand, depending on the grade level.
Shelton and Hillside students live at home.
Landmark College costs about fifty thousand dollars a year, which includes housing.
On our show this week: Music from the Chemical Brothers … A question from Indonesia about the artful exercise of parkour … And a look at Washington's Environmental Film Festival.
Environmental Film Festival For sixteen years, the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C., has been showing movies that raise awareness about environmental issues.
This year, the twelve-day festival is showing one hundred fifteen movies from thirty countries.
Faith Lapidus has our story.
Flo Stone created the Environmental Film Festival in Washington in nineteen ninety-three.
She believed it was important for people to be able to see high-quality films about the environment and discuss them together.
She felt the subject of the environment, examined with the artistry of filmmakers, could be an influential source of learning.
People can see these films in embassies, movie theaters and museums around the nation's capital.
Some movies star wild animals.
The movie makes a powerful statement about the need to protect these animals before they disappear from the wild.
Some movies explore economic issues.
One Kenyan movie examines the lives of people struggling to survive in the Kibera part of Nairobi.
About a million people live in poverty in this area.
And several movies at the festival are old favorites.
The Environmental Film Festival ends on Saturday, which is also World Water Day.
The aim in parkour is to jump, climb or run over and around any wall, staircase, or fence blocking your path.
Usually, this is done in a city environment.
The name comes from the French word parcours, which means route or path.
A man who performs parkour is called a traceur.
A woman is a traceuse.
A young Frenchman, David Belle, developed parkour in the nineteen nineties.
His father’s stories of being a fireman as well as an acrobat influenced him.
His childhood friend, Sebastien Foucan, is the actor shown in the “Casino Royale” movie.
Foucan is considered to have developed free-running, which is a more artistic and expressive version of parkour.
David Belle traveled to India and says one way he trained was by watching monkeys jump from tree to tree.
But for Belle and others, parkour is as much a mental exercise as a physical one.
The aim is to become so skillful, it is almost unnecessary to think about the different actions in running through a path full of barriers.
Parkour is not exactly a sport.
It was not developed for competition.
It is more about learning to control mind and body in difficult situations.
There are many basic movements in parkour.
One example is where traceurs swing through the narrow space between two bars while keeping their body level with the ground.
This is called the underbar.
Other movements are the tic-tac and the kong vault jump.
Skillful traceurs seem to go against the laws of gravity.
The popularity has spread largely because of parkour videos and communities on the Internet.
To see David Belle at work, you can search for his name on YouTube -- his last name is spelled B-E-L-L-E.
Parkour is P-A-R-K-O-U-R.
And if you search on the Web, you might even find parkour groups performing their skills near you.
The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are a Grammy-winning British band.
Their electronic music combines different influences such as hip-hop, rock and techno.
Their songs are layers of sounds and sometimes voices, often sampling from other groups.
Barbara Klein has more.
They started as the Dust Brothers, but later changed the name.
In the United States, it also earned the two musicians a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental.
Over the years, the Chemical Brothers have continued making albums while also performing in concerts and dance halls.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written and produced by Dana Demange.
And please include your full name and mailing address.
This week, the crisis in credit markets claimed Bear Stearns.
The eighty-five year old investment bank in New York agreed on Sunday to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase.
The price: just two dollars a share, as part of a rescue plan organized by the government.
Bear stock had traded at seventy dollars last week, and one hundred seventy last year.
The fall of Bear Stearns developed quickly.
Banks were no longer willing to lend money to the company.
The problems largely involved short-term loans, called repo borrowings, that are secured by assets like securities.
The problem was that lenders no longer knew the value of the assets that secured Bear's debt.
Bear Stearns invested heavily in securities based on risky home loans.
Unable to get new loans, the bank suffered a liquidity crisis.
By last Thursday, investors started withdrawing their money.
This put more pressure on the bank to sell assets that no one wanted to buy.
The next day, Bear informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would fail if nothing was done.
Officials from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve wanted a deal to save Bear Stearns before markets opened this week in Asia.
They worried that if Bear failed, it could lead to even more problems.
The central bank agreed to lend J.P. Morgan up to thirty billion dollars to finance the purchase of Bear's less-liquid assets.
The loan will be secured with those assets, and the Fed will take responsibility for them.
To increase liquidity in the market, the Fed also agreed to lend money to securities dealers, including investment banks.
The central bank has not done this since the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties.
Last week the Fed offered banks up to two hundred billion dollars in loans.
And twice this week it cut its discount rate for direct loans to banks.
The Fed also lowered the target rate for overnight loans between banks for the sixth time in six months.
It cut the federal funds rate by seventy-five basis points, to two and a quarter percent.
Shareholders in Bear Stearns will vote on the takeover by J.P. Morgan.
Some are expected to oppose the low-cost deal.
Bear employees own about one-third of the stock in their company.
There was some good news this week for financial stocks.
Three major investment banks reported earnings that were better than expected for the three months ending February twenty-ninth.
This week, the war in Iraq entered its sixth year.
For millions of Americans, the economy is a more pressing concern now.
But the war is still an important political issue as Americans prepare to elect a new president.
Rebuilding Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein has proven more difficult than expected.
Free elections took place and a new government was formed, but an insurgency grew.
Last year President Bush ordered a temporary increase of thirty thousand troops.
The surge has reduced levels of violence.
But experts say long-term security will require political unity among the different groups in Iraq.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the war.
Several million have been displaced from their homes.
The fifth anniversary came as the United States had lost almost four thousand troops in the war.
More than sixty thousand have been wounded.
But she has stopped short of setting a time for completion.
The Democratic candidates say the war is taking away money from national needs like health care and education.
Congress will have approved about six hundred billion dollars for the war by the time the new budget year begins in October.
Experts disagree about the total long-term costs of the war.
Senator Obama noted that the Iraq war has lasted longer than the American Civil War and both world wars.
American involvement in World War Two lasted from nineteen forty-one to nineteen forty-five.
American losses, though, have been far smaller in Iraq compared to other major conflicts.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain supports the current war policy.
He has said he would keep troops in Iraq even for one hundred years if necessary.
Senator McCain visited Iraq last weekend with a congressional delegation.
A Reuters/Zogby poll this week suggested that both Democratic candidates would lose to John McCain in the November election.
Last month the same poll showed John McCain losing to Barack Obama.
Next month, Congress will get another report on the war from American ambassador Ryan Crocker and commanding General David Petraeus.
President Bush has to decide after that whether to order additional troop reductions after July.
This week, we tell about one of the most successful American businesswomen.
Mary Kay started a company in nineteen sixty-three with a five thousand dollar investment.
Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company worth thousands of millions of dollars.
Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in nineteen eighteen.
For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place.
Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was seventeen years old.
They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two.
When he returned, their marriage ended.
Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children.
Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products.
At first, she sold books.
Later, she visited peoples’ homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids and equipment helped ease housework.
One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore.
Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin care products.
The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas.
Mary Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth.
Mary Kay was successful selling home care products.
Her supervisors praised her work.
But they never increased her earnings.
She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had.
Mary Kay said later that she learned from this experience.
It taught her that men did not believe that a woman could succeed in business.
She decided to prove them wrong.
So she bought the rights to Mister Heath’s skin care products and started her own company.
She paid five hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products.
The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in nineteen sixty-three.
Mary Kay’s twenty-year-old son Richard was the company’s financial official.
The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices.
Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products.
The sales representatives were independent workers.
They bought products like soaps and skin softening liquids from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals.
Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new person’s earnings.
That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones.
Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family second and work third.
She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time learning how to succeed in work.
Two years later, in nineteen sixty-five, the company was selling almost one million dollars worth of products.
Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste.
She was already forty-five years old when she started the company.
She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older.
Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is one of the largest direct sellers of skin care products in the world.
It develops and tests skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails -- many more than it started selling in nineteen sixty-three.
Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than two billion dollars a year.
It has more than one million sales representatives in more than thirty countries around the world.
You can find Mary Kay products and sales representatives in Argentina, India, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, and China, to name a few.
Every year since nineteen sixty-five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly conference in Dallas for its sales representatives.
The first one took place in one large room.
Mary Kay cooked food for two hundred people and served it on paper plates.
As the company grew, so did the conference.
Now, more than thirty-five thousand sales representatives and company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference.
A special event at the three-day conference is Awards Night.
That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the year.
Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform.
The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles.
In Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota.
By nineteen ninety-four, seven thousand cars had been given to sales representatives.
The cars are pink because Mary Kay products come in pink containers.
Mary Kay liked that color.
Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company’s sales.
She said her company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win.
She did not want to organize the kind of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win.
So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself.
That means every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year.
Competition winners are rewarded well.
For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called the Ladder of Success.
Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products.
Then they earn jewels for the pin as they increase their sales.
Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others.
The pin of a top sales representative is covered with diamonds.
Mary Kay’s third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in nineteen eighty.
She wanted to help find a cure for the disease.
At first, she helped organizations raise money for research.
Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a non-profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting women.
In two thousand one, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop violence against women.
Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards.
She was named one of America’s twenty-five most influential women in nineteen eighty-five.
She became a member of the National Business Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-six.
Mary Kay Ash wrote three books.
The first book, “Mary Kay,” told the story of her life.
More than one million copies in several languages have been sold.
She described her business ideas in the book “Mary Kay on People Management.”?
Her third book was released in nineteen ninety-five.
It is called “Mary Kay--You Can Have It All.”?
The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer.
Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke in nineteen ninety-six.
She died in November, two thousand one.
Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people.
Mary Kay sales representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families.
One example is Valerie Yokie.
She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago.
She was an official at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children.
She became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a small amount of money.
She paid less than one hundred dollars for her supplies.
After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping other women become successful Mary Kay representatives.
Soon after this, her husband lost his job.
Then he developed cancer.
Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics.
She is an extremely successful businesswoman.
She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new pink Cadillac every two years.
Valerie Yokie’s story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives.
They agree that Mary Kay Ash changed the business world.
They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money that balances work and family.
An estimated five and a half million people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
Fifty-five percent of them are women.
Last May, the cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki approved a five-year plan to guide efforts against AIDS in South Africa.
For the plan to succeed, officials agreed that the nation had to deal with poverty, violence and discrimination facing women.
Now, a report from Amnesty International looks at the struggles of poor rural women living with H.I.V. in South Africa.
The human rights group says the women face oppression and human rights abuses.
And it says other women who feel socially and economically weak are at a higher risk of becoming infected with H.I.V. Amnesty researcher Mary Rayner says rural women have little control in their relationships with men.
Amnesty gathered statements from thirty-seven women in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal provinces.
They said that sometimes, when they tried to ask their sexual partners to use protection, they might experience verbal aggression or violence.
The report says many rural women with H.I.V. do not have enough money to travel to health centers for treatment.
They might not even have enough money for food.
Unemployment is a major problem.
Amnesty International released its report in London last week.
Almost every language in the world has a saying that a person can never be too rich.
Americans, like people in other countries, always want more money.
One way they express this is by protesting that their jobs do not pay enough.
It means working for very little money.
The expression probably began because seeds fed to chickens made people think of small change.
Small change means metal coins of not much value, like nickels which are worth five cents.
An early use of the word chickenfeed appeared in an American publication in nineteen thirty.
It told about a rich man and his son.
Spy expert Henry S. A. Becket writes that some German spies working in London during the war also worked for the British.
The British government had to make the Germans believe their spies were working.
So, British officials gave them mostly false information.
It was called chickenfeed.
It is a very different meaning from the main one in the dictionary.
That meaning is small nuts that grow on a plant.
No one knows for sure how a word for something to eat also came to mean something very small.
But, a peanut is a very small food.
The expression is an old one.
Word expert Mitford Mathews says that as early as eighteen fifty-four, an American publication used the words peanut agitators.
That meant political troublemakers who did not have a lot of support.
Another reason for the saying about working for peanuts may be linked to elephants.
Think of how elephants are paid for their work in the circus.
They receive food, not money.
One of the foods they like best is peanuts.
When you add the word gallery to the word peanut you have the name of an area in an American theater.
A gallery is a high seating area or balcony above the main floor.
The peanut gallery got its name because it is the part of the theater most distant from where the show takes place.
So, peanut gallery tickets usually cost less than other tickets.
People pay a small amount of money for them.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
Parsley is an ancient green and a respected addition to many foods.
But other times, its job is just to make a mealtime plate look pretty.
Poor parsley, valued for its looks, then thrown away.
Yet parsley is a good source of vitamins and other nutrients.
The taste is a little strong for some people, but others chew on parsley to freshen their breath.
Curly parsley is the kind that often ends up being used just for appearance.
Many gardeners grow curly parsley as a border for flowerbeds.
Flat-leaf parsley is easier to work with for cooking.
This kind is often called Italian or French parsley.
Do you know about a third kind of parsley?
Hamburg parsley has flat leaves that can be used for the same purposes as other parsley.
But Hamburg parsley has a large root which is used as a vegetable -- for example, to add flavor to soups.
Hamburg parsley is popular, not surprisingly, in Germany, home to the city of Hamburg.
Parsley is used in foods such as tabouli, a traditional Lebanese salad, and is often served with lamb, fish and beef dishes.
Parsley is an herb if you use just the greens.
If the root is used, then parsley is considered a vegetable.
Some gardeners suggest that to get the best tasting parsley, you should plant new seeds every year.
You can get parsley to grow faster by pouring warm water over the seeds.
Leave the seeds in the water overnight.
Then you can grow them in containers indoors or plant them outside.
Charlie Nardozzi is a writer for the National Gardening Association in the United States.
He says parsley grows best when temperatures are under twenty-one degrees Celsius.
In colder climates, parsley can go into the ground two to three weeks before the last freeze is likely to happen.
Charlie Nardozzi says parsley likes to grow in sunny places or in partial sun.
The seeds need rich, moist soil.
Plant the seeds about fifteen to twenty-five centimeters apart.
Water regularly during the first month.
After that, parsley does not need very much water.
Ron Waldrop is a county extension director for the University of Illinois.
He says you can harvest parsley by cutting most of the plant, or leave more of the plant in the ground for a second crop.
To dry parsley, tie the plant stems together and hang them upside down in a warm, dark, airy place.
The leaves should be dry in a week or two.
After that, store them in a tightly closed container.
This week, we will tell about recent studies of coral reefs.
Corals are groups of small organisms called polyps.
They are found in warm seawaters.
Millions of corals grow together to form coral reefs.
The reefs support many kinds of sea life.
A group from the United States was looking forward to diving in coastal waters near the Netherlands Antilles.
The Americans wanted to take underwater pictures of a colorful coral reef during their visit to the islands.
But they did not get their wish.
The coral reef they wanted to see had died.
Some scientists say rising temperatures have damaged almost half the world’s coral reefs.
They say the heating of Earth’s atmosphere has helped kill many reefs.
But climate change is not responsible for all damage to the reefs.
Many stay colorful and healthy.
Scientists are searching for answers about what harms coral reefs and what may protect them.
American scientist Joan Kleypas and her team recently studied an area called the Western Pacific Warm Pool.
It is northeast of Australia.
Their study suggests that natural processes in seawater may protect some coral reefs from harm.
But other scientists have reported less hopeful news about coral reefs.
A team from Australia and Indonesia recently observed many destroyed reefs in Indonesian waters.
A member of the team is warning that coral reefs might die off within fifty years if changes are not made.
Joan Kleypas is an oceans expert with America's National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Her study of coral reefs included scientists from the Australian National Institute of Marine Science.
Miz Kleypas says some reefs seem protected from harm.
But others suffer serious damage.
Many activities can threaten coral reefs.
They include coastal development and too much fishing.
Pollution is another problem.
But Miz Kleypas says the worst threat is climate change.
The joint American and Australian team studied warm, open seas.
The scientists examined records for many years, beginning more than fifty years ago.
They learned that warm water coral reefs may be less threatened than reefs in cooler water.
They say natural processes may protect some reefs.
But the processes are not understood.
A report on their study appeared in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The team used records kept by ships, satellites and markers in the water to measure sea-surface temperatures.
The records showed only a small temperature increase.
The sea-surface temperatures in the Western Pacific Warm Pool are some of the world’s highest.
The average temperature is about twenty-nine degrees Celsius.
But the temperatures has increased little since nineteen eighty.
The Western Pacific Warm Pool has warmed only half as much as cooler ocean areas.
Computer studies of the area also confirm slowly rising temperatures.
By comparison, sea-surface temperatures worldwide have risen faster.
They have risen about three-tenths to four-tenths of a degree over the past twenty or thirty years.
Some have increased even more.
Miz Klepas says something in the Western Pacific Warm Pool may prevent the water from getting too hot.
Her study seems to help confirm a scientific theory.
It states that natural activity prevents sea-surface temperatures from rising above thirty-one degrees in open waters.
Damage to the Warm Pool coral reefs has not increased much in recent years.
Most reefs appear not to have bleached.
In that process, reefs lose their color and may die.
The study found bleaching in the Western Pacific Warm Pool only four times over twenty-five years.
Bleaching happens when corals expel the algae that feed them.
The algae provide the bright colors of healthy coral reefs.
The reefs die if the water does not cool and the algae fail to return.
The Warm Pool scientists have considered several processes that might influence water temperatures.
For example, more water changes into a gas and rises when surface water temperatures rise.
Such evaporation can add wind and clouds.
Evaporation can also remove heat.
Winds and clouds can make water cooler.
Warming in some places can change water currents that bring in colder waters.
But Miz Klepas says these are only untested theories.
She says the theory that water can somehow limit its own temperature needs more investigation.
And she is urging other scientists to work to save coral reefs.
Part of the Western Pacific Warm Pool extends into an area called the Coral Triangle.
The area covers almost six million square kilometers.
The Coral Triangle contains up to six hundred or more coral reefs.
That is more than half the world’s reefs.
The Triangle also has larger mangrove forests than other areas.
About three thousand fish swim in its waters.
Coral reefs protect coastal communities from severe storms.
They also are important to some economies.
Reports say the Coral Triangle directly supports the lives of more than one hundred twenty million people.
Many people visit the area to see its reefs.
They buy colorful jewelry and other objects made from coral.
Coral also is used in making medicines and in building materials.
Recently, Australian and Indonesian scientists reported finding many dead coral reefs at Halmahera, Indonesia.
They noted the dead coral and many crown of thorns starfish on a trip in December.
But the scientists say the reefs can recover.
Andrew Baird of Australia’s James Cook University was a member of the team.
He says the crown of thorns starfish killed the corals.
The starfish are small animals that look like sharp sticks.
They kill reefs by spreading their stomachs over the corals.
Then they destroy the coral tissues with enzymes.
Crown of thorns starfish are among several threats to the Coral Triangle.
The Australian scientist says he did not yet see effects of climate change on the coral reefs.
Water currents have helped the area resist coral bleaching.
But he is calling for less human activity on many of the reefs.
Mister Baird works with the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies of the Australia Research Council, or A.R.C.
It and the Wildlife Conservation Society organized the study.
Mister Baird says agricultural fertilizers and wastes from coastal development pollute the water.
And, crown of thorns starfish spread in polluted water.
He urged that the water be cleared of pollution.
The scientist is proposing a ban on use of explosives in fishing.
He has also called for an end to overfishing -- the near-removal of all fish from an area.
He says few healthy reefs will be left in thirty to fifty years if conditions do not improve.
The Australian and Indonesian team noted that crown of thorns starfish have spread in another major reef area.
That happened three times since the nineteen sixties in the Great Barrier Reef, near Australia.
Each time, the coral reef recovered.
Mister Baird says fish were responsible for the recovery.
He believes the Coral Triangle will also recover if fish are present.
He says fish are necessary for the health of coral reefs.
Wildlife expert Stuart Campbell said the fish are in good condition.
Mister Campbell leads the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Marine Program in Indonesia.
Late last year, six nations in the Coral Triangle agreed to an action plan to help the area and its people.
The plan resulted from the Climate Change Conference on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The program is called the Coral Triangle Initiative in the East Asian/Pacific area.
The goal is to develop fisheries, protect the environment, and build food security.
But some scientists have expressed concern about the Coral Triangle Initiative.
They say it does not propose enough scientific research.
Mister Campbell says more studies are needed to find ways to fight loss of some of the world’s most beautiful and useful places.
Our producer was Brianna Blake.
Today, we tell about a museum in New York City.
It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller museums in New York City.
It lets visitors experience how early immigrants to the United States lived.
The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street.
It was built in eighteen sixty-three.
It was one of the first tenements in New York City.
The word “tenement” comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.” ?
A tenement building holds many rooms where different families lived.
The word is not used much anymore in the United States.
When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions.
But in the eighteen hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived.
Later, many immigrant families improved their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City.
Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger.
They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them apartment buildings instead.
History experts say more than half the people in New York City lived in tenements in eighteen sixty-three.
To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars.
This money gave the family the use of about one hundred square meters of living space, often divided into three rooms.
The building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of spaces where families lived.
The front room was the largest.
It was the only one with a window.
Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping.
The apartment had no running water, no bathroom, toilet or shower.
There were six places where people left their body wastes in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water.
Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of disease.
Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements.
The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the eighteen nineties.
They added water and indoor toilets in nineteen-oh-five, and electric power in nineteen twenty-four.
Then they refused to make any more improvements.
They closed the building in nineteen thirty-five.
In nineteen ninety-eight, the federal government declared the building a protected National Historic Place.
Museum officials researched the history of the building and its twenty apartments.
They found more than one thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there.
These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, money and pieces of cloth.
They also learned the histories of many of the seven thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there.
And they spoke with and recorded memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children.
Museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during different time periods in the building’s history.
These apartments are what people see when they visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.
Let us join one of the guided visits.
First we climb several flights of worn stairs.
It is a very hot day and we feel the heat in the dark, narrow hallway.
Now we enter the apartment of the Gumpertz family.
They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the eighteen seventies.
Nathalie GumpertzOn October seventh, eighteen seventy-four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned.
He left his wife Nathalie and their four children, ages eight months to seven years.
Nathalie was forced to support her children by making clothing in the apartment.
She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school.
The Gumpertz apartment has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work.
She made the largest room into her workspace.
That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired.
It was also where she did the sewing.
The next apartment we visit belonged to the Baldizzi family.
They came from Italy and were Catholic.
Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria and their two children moved to Orchard Street in nineteen twenty-eight.
They became friends with other families in the building.
Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people.
Every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family.
The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the start of the Jewish holy day and no work was permitted.
Josephine Baldizzi remembered those long ago days.
Here is a recording of her.
They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street between nineteen-oh-seven and nineteen ten.
Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children.
Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis.
We can see some of the things used to fight the disease.
But the efforts did not cure him.
Abraham Rogarshevsky died in nineteen eighteen.
On the table we see the kinds of foods that family and friends would have eaten after Abraham’s funeral.
They include hard-boiled eggs and round bread.
Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death.
Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem as Nathalie Gumpertz.
What could she do to support her family and continue to live in the apartment??
She got the building owner to let her clean apartments and do other work in exchange for rent.
Now we enter the apartment of the Levine family.
They were Jews from Poland.
Jennie and Harris Levine moved into the building in the early eighteen nineties.
They lived there for more than ten years.
During that time, Jennie gave birth to four children.
Her husband and his workers produced clothing in the front room.
We see Jennie in the bedroom awaiting the birth of her third child.
We also see the clothing shop as it looked after the workers had gone home at the end of the day.
We hear stories about the many immigrants who have worked in the clothing industry in New York City.
Still another apartment is an example of living history.
We can visit it on a special tour.
It belonged to the Confino family in nineteen sixteen.
Abraham and Rachel Confino came to New York from Turkey.
They were Sephardic Jews, people whose ancestors had been born in Spain, North Africa or Middle Eastern countries.
An actress who plays thirteen-year-old Victoria Confino welcomes us.
She tells about Victoria’s experience living in the building.
Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song: “Oh, it’s a very mixed up language.
It’s like a little bit Spanish...we call it Judeo Espagnol...and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew...a lot of languages mixed up all together.”
Officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to use history to explore modern social issues.
For example, what kinds of problems do recent immigrants face while trying to build new lives in America?
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum cooperates with other international historic places around the world.
These places are part of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience.
They include the District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum in Russia, and Project To Remember in Argentina.
Others are the Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Workhouse in England and the Slave House in Senegal.
Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies.
The admissions staffs know all those things already.
And the thing is, it's an important experience for students to have.
Schistosoma mansoni, one of three major kinds of worms that cause schistosomiasisScientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis.
More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease.
Most live in developing nations in tropical climates.
About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects.
A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can target an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma.
This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis.
The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice.
They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development – from larva to adult.
The study also showed that the compound was active against all three major species of Schistosoma worms that infect humans.
The National Institutes of Health supported the research.
Scientists from Illinois State University and the Chemical Genomics Center at N.I.H. reported their findings in the journal Nature Medicine.
Biology professor David Williams led the research.
He says the Schistosoma parasite needs oxygen to survive.
Oxygen use produces oxygen-free radicals that can destroy an organism.
The worm has a protective enzyme.
But Professor Williams says the experimental drug disables this enzyme, causing the worm to self-destruct.
Since the nineteen eighties, doctors in more than seventy tropical nations have used one main drug to treat schistosomiasis.
Public health experts worry that the worms will become resistant to this drug, praziquantel.
Each year, two hundred eighty thousand people die of schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever.
The microscopic worms infect snails, which in turn lay infected eggs.
Humans become infected when they enter fresh water where the snails live.
The worms dig through skin to enter the body.
They move into blood vessels that supply the intestinal and urinary systems.
Then, if worm eggs in human waste enter fresh water, more snails and people become infected.
More studies are needed on the experimental new drug.
The scientists say the results in mice were better than all the targets set by the World Health Organization for new schistosomiasis compounds.
They hope the drug will be ready for testing in humans in four to five years.
The Continental Congress set a date for the new plan of government to take effect.
The first Wednesday in March, seventeen eighty-nine.
Now, here are Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal to continue our story.
In seventeen eighty-nine, the population of the United States was about four million.
The thirteen states had been loosely united for a short time, only about ten years.
Before that, they were separate colonies of Britain.
Because the colonies were separate, their people developed different ways of life.
Their economies and traditions were different.
As a result, Americans were fiercely independent.
An emergency -- the crisis of the revolution -- brought them together.
Together, they celebrated the Fourth of July, the day America declared its independence from Britain.
Together, they fought British troops to make that declaration a political reality.
Together, they joined under the Latin phrase 'E Pluribus Unum' -- one out of many.
Yet when the war ended, the soldiers returned to their home states.
They still thought of themselves as New Yorkers, or Virginians, or Marylanders.
They did not consider themselves a national people.
Americans of seventeen eighty-nine were sharply divided on the need for a national government.
Many were afraid the new government would not survive.
They feared the anarchy that would result if it failed.
Others hoped it would fail.
They wanted strong state governments, not a strong central government.
For those who supported the national government, there were good reasons to hope for success.
The country had great natural resources.
And its people were honest and hard-working.
Also, in seventeen eighty-nine, the American economy was improving after the destruction of the Revolutionary War.
Agriculture, trade, and shipbuilding were coming back to life.
Roads, bridges, and canals were being built to improve travel and communication.
The country's economy had many problems, however.
Two major issues had to be settled.
One was repayment of loans made to support the Revolutionary Army.
The other was creation of a national money system.
Both issues needed quick action.
But before the new government could act, the old government had work to do.
It had to decide where the capital city of the new nation would be.
It also had to hold elections for president and Congress.
First, the question of a capital.
At the time the states ratified the new Constitution, the Continental Congress was meeting in New York City.
And that is where it decided to place the new government.
Later, the capital would be moved to Philadelphia for a while.
Finally, it would be established at Washington, D.C. Next, the Continental Congress had to decide when the states would choose a president.
It agreed on March fourth, seventeen eighty-nine.
That was when the new Constitution would go into effect.
The eleven states that ratified the Constitution chose electors to vote for a president.
The result was not a surprise.
They chose the hero of the Revolutionary War: George Washington.
No one opposed the choice.
Although not required by the Constitution, George Washington presented the first presidential inaugural address on April 30, 1789Washington learned of his election while at his home in Virginia, Mount Vernon.
He left for New York and was inaugurated there on April thirtieth.
Members of the new Congress also were elected on March fourth.
Now, for the first time, Americans had something many of them had talked about for years -- a working national government.
There was much work to be done.
The machinery of government was new, untested.
Quick decisions were needed to keep the new nation alive and healthy.
One of the first things the Congress did was to re-open debate on the Constitution itself.
Several states had set a condition for approving the document.
They said a Bill of Rights must be added to the Constitution, listing the rights of all citizens.
When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights.
So some delegates to the convention said a national bill was unnecessary.
Others argued that the Constitution would be the highest law of the land, higher than state laws.
So a national bill of rights was needed to guarantee the rights of the citizens of the new nation.
Time proved this to be a wise decision.
The Bill of Rights gave the Constitution a special strength.
Many Americans consider the Bill of Rights to be the heart and spirit of the Constitution.
Twelve amendments were proposed; the 10 that were ratified became the Bill of Rights in 1791What is this Bill of Rights that is so important to the citizens of the United States?
It is contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
The First Amendment is the basic statement of American freedoms.
It protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The First Amendment guarantees that religion and government will be separate in America.
It says Congress will make no law establishing an official religion.
Nor will Congress interfere in the peoples' right to worship as they choose.
The First Amendment also says Congress will not make laws restricting the peoples' right to gather peacefully and to make demands on the government.
The Second Amendment guarantees the peoples' right to keep weapons as part of an organized militia.
The Third Amendment says people may not be forced to let soldiers stay in their homes during peacetime.
The Fourth through the Eighth Amendments all protect the peoples' rights in the criminal justice system.
The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures.
If police want to search a suspect's house or papers, they must get special permission from a judge.
The document from the judge must say exactly what police are looking for.
And it must describe the place to be searched.
The Fifth Amendment says no one can be put on trial for a serious crime unless a grand jury has first examined the evidence and agreed that a trial is needed.
No one can be put on trial more than once on the same criminal charge.
And no one can be forced to give evidence against himself in court.
The Fifth Amendment also says no one can lose their freedom, property, or life except by the rules of law.
And the government cannot take people's property for public use without paying them a fair price.
The Sixth Amendment says all persons accused of crimes have the right to a fair and speedy public trial by a jury.
This guarantees that people cannot be kept in prison for a long time unless a jury has found them guilty of a crime.
The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the right of accused persons to be defended by a lawyer.
It says they must be informed of the nature and cause of the charges against them.
And it says they have the right to face and question their accusers.
The Seventh Amendment guarantees a person's right to have a jury decide his legal dispute with another person.
The Eighth Amendment bars all cruel and unusual punishments.
The Ninth Amendment provides protection for other rights not stated directly in the Constitution.
And the Tenth Amendment says any powers which the Constitution does not give to the national government belong to the states or to the people themselves.
A majority of the states approved the Bill of Rights by the end of seventeen ninety-one.
As we have seen, these amendments limited the powers of the national government.
As a result, many anti-Federalists ended their opposition.
They accepted the new government.
Many agreed to help with the job of building the new nation.
President Washington wanted the best men -- Federalist or anti-Federalist -- to be in his administration.
The new nation needed strong leadership.
George Washington provided it.
General Washington's work as the first president will be our story next week.? Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Carolyn Weaver.
The narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal.
Some American schools pay teachers more if their students improve on tests.
Now, there is a growing movement to pay the students -- in some cases, even just for coming to class.
Students at one school in New Mexico can earn up to three hundred dollars a year for good attendance.
A program in New York City pays up to five hundred dollars for good attendance and high test scores.
In Baltimore, Maryland, high scores on state graduation tests can be worth more than one hundred dollars.
And a New Jersey school system plans to pay students fifty dollars a week to attend after-school tutoring programs.
Schools that pay students can be found in more than one-fourth of the fifty states.
Other schools pay students with food or other rewards.
Robert Schaefer is public education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an activist group.
He says paying may improve performance in the short term, but students develop false expectations for the future.
He sees a lack of long-term planning in these programs because of pressure on schools to raise test scores.
Public schools need to show improvement under the education reform law signed by President Bush six years ago.
Low-performing schools may lose their federal money; teachers and administrators may lose their jobs.
Often these schools are in poor neighborhoods where getting students to go to school can be a continual problem.
Critics say paying students sends a message that money is the only valuable reward.
But some students say it makes school more exciting.
And some teachers have reported getting more requests for extra help.
In two thousand four, the city schools in Coshocton, Ohio, launched a program.
They wanted to see if paying elementary school students as much as one hundred dollars would help in passing state exams.
Now, Eric Bettinger of Case Western Reserve University has reported mixed results.
Math scores increased, but only while students were able to get paid.
And there was no evidence of higher scores in reading, social studies and science.
Officials will decide later this year whether to continue the program.
Yet adults get paid for their work.
And if teachers can be rewarded for their students' work, then why not the students themselves?
This is what some people say.
What do you think?
This week, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes in the United States increased almost three percent in February.
It was the first increase since last July.
A home for sale in Denver, ColoradoBut fueling that increase was a drop in prices.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of twenty major markets showed that home prices fell almost two and a half percent in January.
Prices were down almost eleven percent from a year before.
And still another report this week showed that sales of new single-family houses fell in February.
Sales were down almost two percent from January, to a thirteen-year low.
The Commerce Department estimated there was a ten-month supply of newly built houses waiting to be sold.
Experts say prices in many markets will have to fall further before more people are willing or able to buy.
Prices went up and up in recent years, before the housing bubble burst.
Many buyers now struggling to make payments took out loans that were too big.
They thought prices would keep rising and they could sell their home for a nice profit.
Rising values meant that people could also take out home equity loans and lines of credit.
They used their home as a cash machine by borrowing against its value.
Now, as those values fall, some people owe more than their home is worth.
Many buyers, often with risky credit histories, took out adjustable-rate mortgages, which started out low but later reset to higher rates.
About two percent of all home loans are in foreclosure.
Of course, that means ninety-eight percent of homes are not being reclaimed by lenders.
Still, this is the highest rate since the Mortgage Bankers Association began keeping records in nineteen seventy-nine.
The weak housing market is largely responsible for an economic crisis that is leading to new government steps in the financial system.
Last week, the Federal Reserve pushed through a deal for J.P. Morgan Chase to buy Bear Stearns for two dollars a share.
Bear, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, was near collapse after big losses on its mortgage-backed securities.
To help make the deal, the Fed agreed to take responsibility for up to thirty billion dollars in those securities.
But J.P. Morgan faced a rebellion by Bear shareholders, so this week it increased its offer to ten dollars a share.
It also agreed to take responsibility for one billion dollars of Bear's hard-to-sell securities.
March tenth was the anniversary of a failed nineteen fifty-nine uprising led by the Dalai Lama against Chinese rule in Tibet.
It was also the start of the recent unrest in Lhasa, the capital.
Cleaning up damage in Lhasa following violent protestsOn March fourteenth, largely peaceful protests turned into in the worst violence in Tibet in almost twenty years.
Rioters burned buildings and attacked ethnic Han Chinese and Chinese Muslims, known as Hui.
The unrest spread to other Tibetan areas of western China.
Tibetan exile groups say the situation turned violent after Chinese police used force against the demonstrators.
They say at least one hundred forty people have been killed.
Chinese officials put the number at about twenty.
The Chinese government blames the violence on supporters of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists.
He denies the accusations.
The Dalai Lama is seeking more political independence for Tibet.
But the large Tibetan exile community based in India is increasingly restless with his calls for nonviolence.
Many exiles are unhappy that in two thousand one, he changed the aim of his campaign from independence for Tibet to autonomy under Chinese rule.
On Thursday, about thirty Tibetan monks protested in front of a group of foreign reporters on a government-led visit in Lhasa.
It happened in the Jokhang Temple.
A Tibetan Buddhist monk, center, cries as foreign journalists visit the Jokhang TempleMany of the monks were crying as they told the reporters that they were not involved in the recent violence.
They said there is no religious freedom in Tibet.
And they said the Chinese government's version of events is not true.
On Friday, official Chinese media reported that a government official in Tibet?
said the monks were trying to mislead world opinion.
He said the monks would not be punished.
But he also said Jokhang's one hundred seventeen monks could not leave the temple.
Some are under investigation in the recent violence in Lhasa.
Chinese officials have said the unrest was especially aimed at the Beijing Olympics in August.
The situation in Tibet has drawn international criticism and talk of boycotts at the opening ceremonies.
President Bush has expressed concern about the situation in Tibet, but is planning to attend the Olympics.
On Friday, President Bush and Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, urged restraint in Tibet.
They met at the White House.
Mister Rudd said there are clearly human rights abuses in Tibet.
The months ahead could be very important.
Many young Tibetans feel that the Beijing Olympics may offer their last chance to bring more attention to their cause.
A North American Major League baseball record was established in nineteen thirty-nine.
The man who set it played in two thousand one hundred thirty games without missing one.
In nineteen ninety-five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles.
But there is not much chance that the man who set the first record will be forgotten.
Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig whose record lasted for fifty-six years.
Lou Gehrig was born on June nineteenth, nineteen-oh-three.
He was a huge baby.
He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms.
His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany.
They worked hard.
But they always had trouble earning enough money.
Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City, where he grew up.
Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams when he entered high school.
He thought of himself as a ball player only for informal games with friends.
Then one of Lou's high school teachers heard that he could hit the ball very hard.
The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the school games.
So Lou Gehrig went to that game.
He became a valued member of the high school team.
He also played other sports.
The boy who feared noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player.
A representative of a major league team, the New York Giants, came to watch him.
He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of the Giants' team, John McGraw.
McGraw thought Gehrig needed more experience before becoming a major league player.
It was suggested that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of Hartford, Connecticut.
Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school.
He earned money to help his parents.
His father was often sick and without a job.
The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University in New York City.
The university had offered him financial help if he would play baseball on the Columbia team.
But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing professional baseball got him into trouble.
Officials of teams in Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the professional team in Hartford.
The other teams got him banned from playing for Columbia during his first year at the college.
Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though.
He often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near the baseball field were in danger of being hit.
Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner.
But she became very sick.
The family could not make their monthly payments for their home.
The New York Yankees major league baseball organization came to the rescue.
The Yankees offered Lou three thousand five hundred dollars to finish the nineteen twenty-three baseball season.
That was a great deal of money in those days.
Gehrig happily accepted the offer.
His parents were sad that he was leaving Columbia.
Yet his decision ended their financial problems.
The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter.
They wanted him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player, Babe Ruth.
But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball.
So they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford.
While playing there he improved his fielding.
He also had sixty-nine hits in fifty-nine games.
The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the Yankees.
Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience.
And again, the Yankees called him back in September.
He hit six hits in twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended.
Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in early June of nineteen twenty-five.
He played well that day and for the two weeks that followed.
Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base.
He should have left the game.
But he refused to.
He thought that if he left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly.
Babe RuthGehrig continued to improve as a player.
By Nineteen twenty-seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.
Ruth hit sixty home runs that year.
Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award.
Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the World Series.
Gehrig, however, almost did not play.
His mother had to have an operation.
He felt he should be with her.
Missus Gehrig and the Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series.
His mother recovered.
More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played took place in nineteen twenty-nine.
His back, legs and hands were injured.
He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to reach home plate.
He said his secret was getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of water.
Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history.
He hit three home runs in the World Series of nineteen thirty-two.
His batting average was five-twenty-nine.
Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous players.
The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when he could.
The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly.
As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game.
He appeared not to have thought about his record number of continuous games played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it.
An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke the record.
Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the head with a pitch.
He played the next day, though.
He just wore a bigger hat so people could not see his injury.
Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May thirty-first, Nineteen thirty-eight.
That was almost two times as many continuous games as anyone ever had played before.
Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost three hundred.
He scored one hundred fifteen runs.
He batted in almost as many runs.
But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier years.
He walked and ran like an old man.
He had trouble with easy catches and throws.
Then he fell several times the next winter while ice skating with Eleanor.
He had trouble holding onto things.
And he failed to hit in three games as the next season opened.
In May, nineteen thirty-nine, he finally told his manager he could not play.
Lou Gehrig had played in two thousand one hundred thirty games without missing any that his team played.
Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June nineteenth.
That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks the muscles in the body.
The disease is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though.
He refused to act frightened or sad.
On July fourth, nineteen thirty-nine, more than sixty thousand people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest baseball players.
Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky.
But he became weaker and weaker.
He died on June second, nineteen forty-one.
He was thirty-seven years old.
America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero.
Those who knew him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of a gentle man.
This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Lawan Davis.
Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember.
This week on our program, we talk about foreign exchange students in the United States.
More than twenty-nine thousand foreign exchange students attended American high schools last year.
The State Department says the teenagers came from one hundred nine countries.
Foreign exchange students get the chance to learn more about a culture and its people.
They make new friends and experience new places.
But they can also experience problems being far from home, among people they do not know and may not understand.
The way many describe it, the experience is exciting and frightening at the same time.
In the past, exchange students usually had limited contact with their host families before meeting them.
But times have changed.
Today, exchange students may know a lot about their host family before they ever leave home.
E-mails go back and forth; pictures of families, homes and pets are shared.
E-mail and cell phones also make it easier for the students to keep in contact with their own families back home.
Some exchange students attending high schools in VirginiaExchange groups are supposed to provide a contact person, or liaison, to help students in case they have any problems.
This is what happened with a boy from Argentina we'll call Juan Carlos.
Juan Carlos liked sports; his American host family did not.
He liked to go out with friends; his host parents did not approve.
And they did not think he was doing well enough in school: he was getting average grades.
The host parents discussed these issues with his liaison.
And the solution?
A new family was found for Juan Carlos.
The new family included two boys who played soccer on local teams.
Juan Carlos joined those teams and was much happier with his new family.
Not only that, his grades improved.
Exchange students have to speak English well enough to attend an American high school.
But some students find it takes weeks or months for them to understand everything they read or hear.
One girl from Switzerland told her exchange group that some students at her American high school made fun of her accent.
An exchange volunteer asked how many languages she spoke.
The girl said her native language was Swiss-German and she also spoke Italian, French, English and Spanish.
The volunteer had this advice: Tell those students that you have an accent in four of the five languages you speak.
And then ask them how many languages they speak.
The majority of Americans speak only English.
Seventeen-year-old Nadia Gerstgrasser is from Italy.
She is attending a Fairfax County high school with more than one thousand seven hundred students.
Nineteen percent of them are limited English speakers.
They can have three, four, even five thousand students.
It is easy to feel lost at first in a huge building and moving from class to class.
Changing classrooms might also be a new experience for exchange students.
Some students come from countries where the teachers move from room to room, not the students.
More than one hundred organizations are involved in the State Department's Exchange Visitor Program for secondary school students.
These groups are responsible for choosing, placing and supervising exchange students.
In many cases, families pay an organization to place their child with an American family and supervise their time in the United States.
In the case of Rotary International, local Rotary clubs pay some of the expenses of exchange students.
The clubs place students with three different families during the school year.
As of last year there were twelve schools and school districts involved in the State Department program.
Schools often want foreign exchange students as a way to increase the diversity of their student population.
These programs may be true exchanges.
A student from the school goes to a foreign country for a school year while a foreign student comes to the United States.
Secondary-school exchange students normally come to the United States with J-One visas provided by the State Department.
Some, however, come with an F-One study visa from the Department of Homeland Security.
But an F-One visa does not provide the same protections as a J-One visa.
These protections include making sure all adults in host families have been checked for criminal records.
Another protection is making sure exchange students have placements waiting for them in American schools.
The Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students is a nonprofit organization in California.
It works to strengthen protections for exchange students in the United States and around the world.
Sally Smith is a family law attorney who works with the committee.
She says exchange students should know how to report any cases of sexual abuse or other crimes.
In the United States, the number to call for police or other emergency services is nine-one-one.
Sally Smith advises parents of teens who are considering an exchange program to discuss the possible dangers with the sponsoring group.
Exchange students should never leave home without knowing who their host family will be, and that the family has been investigated.
Sally Smith notes that the rules in the United States do not say how a criminal background check must be carried out.
The Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students wants the government to require criminal checks based on fingerprint records.
A State Department representative tells us that officials are now studying the possibility of strengthening the requirements for background checks.
But she says the details are not known at this time.
The State Department has programs to bring exchange students to the United States from different areas of the world.
One program, for example, is for German teenagers.
Another is for students from countries of the former Soviet Union.
Other programs offer exchanges for students in Serbia and Montenegro and countries with large Muslim populations.
Gauri Noolkar from India is in Virginia as part of the State Department's Youth Exchange and Study, or YES, program.
They must be between the ages of fifteen and eighteen and a half.
They must also speak English well.
And they must agree to accept the rules of the exchange program and their host families.
Host families are supposed to receive training in hosting an exchange student.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Dana Demange.
A new study says Asia must do more to prevent AIDS, or the number of people infected with H.I.V. could double by two thousand twenty.
Today about five million people in Asia are living with the virus that causes AIDS.
An estimated three hundred thousand people died of H.I.V.-related diseases in Asia last year.
At current rates, that number could rise to almost five hundred thousand.
The United Nations program on H.I.V./AIDS requested the study, led by Indian economist Chakravarthi Rangarajan.
The report says three main groups are driving the spread of AIDS in Asia.
One group is sex workers and the men who use them.
Another is injection drug users who share needles.
Researchers estimate that as many as ten million women in Asia sell sex.
At least seventy-five million men buy on a regular basis.
In many Asian countries, these men, and their female partners, represent the largest group of people living with H.I.V. The study found that AIDS is the most likely cause of death and lost work days for people in Asia between the ages of fifteen and forty-four.
The report says prevention programs can be effective if governments invest at least thirty cents a year per person.
For more than twenty years, scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine to prevent H.I.V. infection.
The latest failures came last September.
Researchers halted two studies of an experimental AIDS vaccine from the drug company Merck.
Early results showed that the vaccine not only failed to protect, it appeared to put some people at higher risk of infection.
Last Tuesday, several hundred researchers and activists met in Bethesda, Maryland, for a Summit on H.I.V. Vaccine Research and Development.
They debated what to do now.
Many of the scientists agreed that experimental vaccines should continue to be tested on humans.
But many said there should be less dependence on human trials.
Anthony Fauci is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which called the meeting.
He and others said there should be more tests on animals, to add to discoveries from human studies.
There also were calls for a return to more basic science, first identifying and answering major scientific questions.
But Doctor Fauci said the search for an AIDS vaccine will not stop.
The hand has been a symbol through the ages and in many cultures.
There are hundreds of expressions and combinations of words using hand in the English language.
Let us examine some of the expressions that use hand.
We will get a hand in this way.
To get a hand in is to begin a job, to begin to know something about it.
When we learn the job completely, it will be easy for us.
?
We will be able to do it hands down.
If we do the job well, we may end up with the upper hand.
And that means to be in control, or to have gained complete understanding of a situation.
On the other hand, if the situation gets out of hand, then it is out of control.
?
We must act quickly to regain the upper hand over these expressions.
But, wait.
We still do not have the upper hand in this business.
We must consider another way of expressing praise, to hand it to someone.
For example: I must hand it to you for understanding what we have discussed this far.
You can also lend a hand to someone, but without really giving up your hand.
You lend a hand when you help someone.
You offer them a helping hand.
If someone is kind enough to lend us a hand, then we surely do not want to bite the hand that feeds us.
We do not want to repay his kindness by treating him badly.
Now, with that out of the way, we have a free hand to continue examining other hand expressions.
To have a free hand in a situation is good.
It means you are free to act without getting permission from someone else.
If we continue moving along, we will make progress hand over fist, or very rapidly.
This expression began in the early seventeen hundreds.
It reportedly comes from a sailing expression hand over hand, the way of quickly raising or lowering a sail.
Maybe you can find a friend who wants to take a hand in our project.
?
It would have to be someone who is interested in these expressions.
Your friend may want to work hand in glove with us.
That is good, because that means he wants to work as closely with us as a glove covers the hand.
Of course there is a danger that he may look at our project and decide to take it in hand.
That means he wants to take it over.
If that happens, we may throw up our hands because the situation seems hopeless.
In fact, we may decide that it is time for us to end this project, to wash our hands of hand expressions.
On our program this week, we discuss scientific findings about how intelligence develops in babies.
Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry.
Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old.
Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life.
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is a federal government agency.
Its goal is to identify which experiences can influence healthy development in human beings.
Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment.
They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes.
A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver.
This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other human beings.
The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth.
They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing in their mothers.
One study shows that babies can learn before they are born.
The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman.
Then, they played a recording of a short story.
On the day the baby was born, the researchers attempted to find if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while in his mother.
They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby.
The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way.
If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story.
The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born.
They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again.
Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development.
An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children.
The study involved more than one thousand two hundred mothers and children.
Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years.
They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period.
The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers.
The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily.
They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old.
Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of depression.
The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression.
The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear.
These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people.
The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children.
Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression.
Another study suggests that low-birth weight babies with no evidence of disability may be more likely than other children to have physical and mental problems.
American researchers studied nearly five hundred boys and girls.
They were born in, or admitted to, one of three hospitals in New Jersey between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-seven.
At birth, each child weighed less than two thousand grams.
The boys and girls had an average age of sixteen years at the time of the study.
They were asked to complete intelligence and motor skill tests in their homes.
Their test results were compared with those of other children their age.
The study found that the young people with low birth weight often had more problems with motor skills than others.
A motor skill is a skill that requires a living thing to use its skeletal muscles effectively.
Motor problems were more common among males, those with injured nerve tissue in the brain, and those who had been connected to oxygen supplies for days as a baby.
The first three years of a child's life is the most intensive period of language and speech development.
This is the time when the brain is developing.
Language and communication skills are believed to develop best in an environment that is rich with sounds and sights.
Also, the child should repeatedly hear the speech and language of other people.
America's National Institutes of Health says evidence suggests there are important periods of speech and language development in children.
This means the brain is best able to learn a language during this period.
Officials say the ability to learn a language will be more difficult if these periods pass without early contact with a language.
The first signs of communication happen during the first few days of life when a baby learns that crying will bring food and attention.
Research shows that most children recognize the general sounds of their native language by six months of age.
At that time, a baby also usually begins to make sounds.
These sounds become a kind of nonsense speech over time.
By the end of the first year, most children are able to say a few simple words.
But they may not understand the meaning of their words.
By eighteen months of age, most children can say eight to ten words.
By two years, most children are able to form simple statements, or sentences.
By ages three, four and five, the number of words a child can understand quickly increases.
It is at this age that children begin to understand the rules of language.
A long-term American study shows the effect of early education on future learning abilities.
The study followed more than one thousand?
three hundred children from birth through the ages of ten or eleven years.
It found that children who received higher quality care before starting school had better language skills by those ages than children who had lower quality care.
The study is known as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development.
It is said to be the largest, longest lasting and most complete study of child care in the United States.
The children included in the study were born around nineteen ninety-one in ten areas of the country.
Researchers examined the quality and amount of child care the children received until they were fifty-four months old.
Child care included any care provided by people other than the child’s mother that lasted at least ten hours a week.
This included any care given by fathers or other family members.
The researchers then examined each child’s performance in school and social development.
They also measured other influences, such as the quality of classroom education and parenting.
Recently, the researchers examined whether the developmental qualities that had been observed in young children were still present a few years later.
They found that the older children who had received higher quality child care continued to show better ability in measures of language skills.
The children’s understanding was observed using a method which shows their ability to name objects shown in a series of pictures.
The study confirmed a link between high quality child care and better test results continued as the children grew older.
It also found that the children’s ability was not dependent on the amount of time they had spent in child care.
Interestingly, children who had been in child care before entering school were also more likely to have shown aggression or disobedience in their early school years.
However, the researchers said the children's behavior was considered normal.
James Griffith was the science officer for the study.
He says the findings add to the growing research that shows the quality and kind of child care a person experiences early in life can have lasting effects.
Today, we tell about how people learned an important piece of information necessary for safely sailing on the oceans.
It is called longitude.
Navigators could find a ship's latitude, but not longitude, by observing the starsOn a foggy October night in seventeen-oh-seven, four English navy ships hit rocks in the Atlantic Ocean and sank.
Two thousand men drowned.
The ships had been sailing in the thick fog for twelve days.
There was no sure way to know where they were.
The commander of the ships had been worried that they could hit rocks if they were not careful.
He asked his navigators for their opinion on their location in the ocean.
The navigators did not really know.
They told the commander they thought they were west of a small island near the coast of northwestern France.
They were wrong.
Instead, they sailed onto rocks near a small group of islands southwest of England's Atlantic coast.
The navigators' lack of knowledge led to the loss of four ships and two thousand lives.
When people began sailing out of sight of land, sailors did not know how to tell where they were on the open sea.
Land travelers can look at a mountain, or a river, or an object that shows them where they are in relation to where they came from.
On the ocean, however, there is no sign to tell a sailor where he is.
The most important device for knowing directions on the ocean is a compass.
A compass is a device containing a metal object that points toward the magnetic north pole.
This shows navigators the direction of north, and therefore also south, east, and west.
But sailors need more information to sail safely on the open sea.
Most maps of the world show lines that are not on the Earth's surface.
One line is the equator.
It is an imaginary line around the widest part of the Earth.
There are similar lines both north and south of the equator.
These circles become smaller and smaller toward the north pole and the south pole.
These lines, or circles, are parallel - meaning that they are equally distant from each other at any point around the world.
These lines show what is called latitude.
A navigator can know the latitude of his ship by observing the location of stars, where the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, and what time of year it is.
With this information he knows where his ship is in relation to the north or south pole and the equator.
Still, there is one more important piece of information necessary for safely sailing the oceans.
For many centuries, scientists, astronomers and inventors searched for a way to tell longitude.
The lines of longitude go the other way from latitude lines.
They stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole, and back again in great circles of the same size.
All of the lines of longitude meet at the top and bottom of the world.
In her book, “Longitude,” writer Dava Sobel tells the story about longitude and how the problem of knowing it was solved.
For centuries, the great scientists of the world struggled to develop a way to learn longitude.
A navigator needs to know what time it is on his ship and also the time at another place of known longitude - at the very same moment.
The Earth takes twenty-four hours to complete one full turn or revolution of three-hundred-sixty degrees.
One hour marks one twenty-fourth of a turn, or fifteen degrees.
So each hour's time difference between the ship and the starting point marks a ship's progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west.
Those fifteen degrees of longitude mark a distance traveled.
At the equator, where the Earth is widest, fifteen degrees stretches about one thousand six hundred kilometers.
North or south of that line, however, the distance value of each degree decreases.
One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time all around the world.
But in measuring distance, one degree shrinks from about one hundred nine kilometers at the equator to nothing at the north and south poles.
For many centuries, navigators hoped they could find longitude by observing the movement of stars at night.
During the day, the sun provided information about the time on a ship, and its direction.
However, it did not provide necessary information about the time somewhere else.
In the sixteenth century, one astronomer suggested that navigators could observe the moon as it passed in front of different known stars to tell longitude.
But, there was not enough information about the stars to use this method effectively.
Astronomers could not tell exactly where the moon would be from one night or day to the next.
Yet it seemed to those seeking to solve the longitude problem that the only solution was in the moon and stars.
During the seventeenth century, English astronomers began a major effort to map the stars and their relationship to the moon as it passed across the sky.
Royal astronomer John Flamsteed worked at this task for forty years.
The next royal astronomer, Edmund Halley, spent another forty years gathering information about the moon's orbit.
After many years of gathering the necessary information, it became possible to learn longitude by observing the stars and the moon.
In seventeen sixty-six, Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne published the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris.
It contained all the necessary information about the moon and stars that sailors would need to help them learn their longitude.
This new method was not simple.
A navigator had to use complex observing instruments to note the position of the moon and stars.
Then he had to seek the correct information in the Nautical Almanac about the moon and stars at that time of night or day.
The final step in the process was to take the mathematical information from the book, link it to the current information and solve the resulting problem.
This took an average of four hours to do.
While scientists were studying the stars and moon to solve the longitude problem, a man named John Harrison was working on another project.
He was trying to build a clock that would help sailors learn longitude.
His task also was difficult and complex.
Mister Harrison had to develop a clock that was not affected by the movement of a ship on the ocean or changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure.
He began developing his clock in seventeen thirty.
It took five years to complete.
The complex device weighed thirty-four kilograms.
Several years later, Mister Harrison built a second clock.
It was smaller, but weighed more than the first.
Mister Harrison was not satisfied and began working on yet another device.
Twenty years later, he completed a device that was smaller than the first two, and weighed less.
But still Mister Harrison was not satisfied.
Two years later, in seventeen fifty-seven, he produced a small clock that he could hold in his hand.
The clock could tell the correct time in two places, meeting the requirements for learning longitude on the sea.
For many years after Mister Harrison's work was completed, the idea of using a clock to learn longitude was rejected.
However, that opinion changed when manufacturers learned how to make better and less costly versions of Mister Harrison's clocks.
The clocks became known as chronometers.
By eighteen?
fifteen, five thousand chronometers were in use on ships sailing the world's oceans.
The complex documents and mathematical work were no longer necessary.
Almost any sailor could tell what his longitude was by simply looking at a clock.
The world had changed.
John Harrison's clocks can be seen today at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England.
The first three are still operating, showing the correct time.
To look at them is to see the simple solution to a problem that worried people for many centuries.
Today, the solution to the problem is so common that it is difficult to understand that there was a problem at all.
This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson.
Our studio engineer was Al Alaby.
Next Monday is World Health Day, observed by the World Health Organization.
The objective chosen for this year is to get people involved in the campaign to protect against the health effects of climate change.
The World Health Organization is a United Nations agency.
The W.H.O. says there is already evidence of health problems related to climate change.
It says more people are dying from extreme heat, and that diseases spread by insects are also on the rise.
And it says climate change has increased the risk of natural disasters, especially severe dry weather, wildfires, major storms and floods.
Disasters like these can kill directly or indirectly.
People can die or get sick from food shortages or conditions like the spread of disease.
Several years ago, the W.H.O. blamed climate change for two percent of diarrhea cases worldwide in the year two thousand.
Last month, researchers in Canada predicted that temperature increases there will spread insects like ticks and mosquitoes farther north.
These insects can carry disease.
The scientists also predict that climate change will lead in Canada to an increase in outbreaks of diseases that can be carried in water and food.
They note that flooding, heavy rains and warmer temperatures are linked to the spread of bacteria, viruses and other organisms.
This is true even in the presence of water treatment systems, they say.
The report by scientists at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
World Health Day marks the establishment of the World Health Organization on April seventh, nineteen forty-eight.
One goal this year is to call for local and international partnerships that will seek to improve health through efforts to stabilize climate change.
The W.H.O. says it aims to put public health at the center of U.N. efforts on climate change.
A major message of this World Health Day is that the health of poor people will be hurt the most.
The W.H.O. says different areas of the world will experience different problems from climate change.
But it says countries with high levels of poverty and underdevelopment will be the least prepared to deal with them.
A new report says only about half of all students in the main school systems of America's largest cities finish high school.
The report notes higher rates of graduation -- more than seventy percent -- in areas surrounding the cities.
The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center prepared the report.
Researchers studied high school graduation rates from the two thousand three, two thousand four school year.
They also identified the nation's fifty largest cities.
The largest, New York City, had a population of more than eight million.
The smallest city was Wichita, Kansas.
It had about three hundred sixty thousand people.
Researchers used a system of measurement called the cumulative promotion index to find graduation rates.
School officials in many of the cities studied say the resulting numbers were too low.
That is because different areas use different methods to find graduation rates.
Critics say many methods do not give a true picture of the number of students who leave high school before finishing.
Other studies have put the national graduation rate at about seventy percent.
But experts agree that too many students are not completing high school.
They estimate the number at more than one million each year.
The report was prepared for America’s Promise Alliance.
The private group aims to help children receive services they need to succeed.
General Colin Powell was chairman of America's Promise Alliance when it was formed in nineteen ninety-seven.
He attended the press conference Tuesday where the report was released.
He said studies have shown that the United States must do more to educate the leaders and work force of the future.
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings also spoke.
She said the government will propose that states use the same methods when reporting graduation rates.
Alliance officials also announced the start of a nationwide campaign to improve graduation rates.
It is to include a series of meetings to be held in every state over the next two years.
?
The meetings will bring together elected leaders, business owners, students, parents and education officials.
They will develop plans to increase the number of Americans who finish high school.
This week, the Bush administration proposed major changes to the way the financial system is supervised.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the plan Monday.
He said the changes should not and will not be put in place until the current financial crisis is over.
The plan is divided into short-term, intermediate-term and long-term goals.
Among the short-term goals is an expansion of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.
The proposal would bring banking supervisors into the group and expand its responsibility to the entire financial industry.
Other short-term goals include creating a group to set rules for the home loan industry.
Many people blame irresponsible lending to people with risky credit histories for the current subprime mortgage crisis.
Intermediate goals include combining or closing some financial supervising agencies that perform similar duties.
The proposal would close the Office of Thrift Supervision, which oversees non-bank savings organizations.
It would also combine the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The C.F.T.C. currently supervises the market for financial contracts known as futures while the S.E.C. regulates securities markets.
Another aim would be to take the first steps toward the federal government supervising the insurance industry.
This industry has been supervised mainly by the states for about one hundred thirty-five years.
In the long term, the plan calls for strengthening the Central Bank to guard against all threats to the financial system.
But, the proposal would also create new agencies.
It calls for a Prudential Financial Regulator, which would combine all federal bank regulators into a single agency.
Also, a Conduct of Business Regulator would be responsible for investor protection.
This agency would perform many duties currently done by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Small banks and some state officials strongly oppose the plan.
Small banks see the plan as a way to make big financial companies more competitive.
Other groups have criticized the plan because it does not provide help for the current mortgage crisis.
Forty years ago, African-American civil rights leader, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior, was shot and killed.
He died on April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight, in Memphis, Tennessee.
On Friday, in that city, presidential candidates, civil rights leaders, labor activists and thousands of citizens came together.
They honored Doctor King for leading the struggle for racial equality and economic justice.
During the nineteen fifties and sixties, Doctor King had led a campaign of nonviolent protests.
His work was aimed at ending racial separation and discrimination against African-Americans.
His efforts led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four.
That year, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Forty years ago, Doctor King was in Memphis to organize a strike for workers' rights.
The sanitation workers in the city were protesting their low wages and poor working conditions.
Doctor King was thirty-nine years old at the time, and had become the nation’s chief civil rights leader.
His murder incited riots in more than one hundred American cities.
The race riots lasted for days.
Many African-American neighborhoods burned.
The government ordered about fifty thousand soldiers to help control the violence.
An estimated twenty-one thousand people were arrested.
Almost fifty people were killed.
And millions of dollars in property was damaged or destroyed.
His murder also brought about a divisive and difficult period for race relations in the United States.
In the years since his death, Doctor King has often been called one of the most honored Americans in history.
But for many, his work for racial equality remains unfinished.
In the past forty years, African-Americans have become successful in education, business, entertainment and politics.
The rise of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama is a powerful sign of racial progress.
If elected in November, Mister Obama would become America’s first black president.
Yet experts say the black population as a whole has not reached equality with white people socially and economically.
Black Americans experience greater rates of poverty and crime than whites.
Civil rights leaders say that forty years after his death, many African-Americans still seek Doctor King’s dream of equality and opportunity.
Martin Luther King Junior is best remembered for his nineteen sixty-three “I Have a Dream” speech.
Today, we tell about writer Langston Hughes, who has been called the poet voice of African-Americans.
Langston Hughes is usually thought of as a poet.
But he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, autobiographies, newspaper columns, children’s books, and the words to operas.
He also translated into English the works of foreign poets.
Hughes was one of the first black writers who could support himself by his writings.
He is praised for his ability to say what was important to millions of black people.
Hughes produced a huge amount of work during his lifetime.
He also has influenced the work of many other writers.
He wrote for almost fifty years.
Langston Hughes was famous for his descriptions of black American life.
He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice.
His work is known all around the world and has been translated into many languages.
Hughes’s poetry had serious messages.
He often wrote about racial issues, describing his people in a realistic way.
Although his story was not often pleasant, he told it with understanding and with hope.
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in nineteen-oh-two.
His parents were separated.
He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas.
She told him stories about their family and their fight to end slavery.
Her storytelling filled him with pride in himself and his race.
He first began to write poetry when he was living with her.
When he was fourteen, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to stay with his mother and her new husband.
He attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio.
Langston was named Class Poet one year.
He published his first short stories while he was still in high school.
Langston Hughes struggled with a feeling of loneliness caused by his parent’s divorce.
He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with the lack of time his parents spent with him.
His love for reading grew into a desire to write.
He wanted to reproduce the powerful effect other writers had made upon him.
Among the early influences on his writing were poets Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
After graduating from high school in nineteen twenty, Langston moved to Mexico City to live with his father for one year.
His father had moved there to escape racism in America.
His father did not offer much warmth to his son.
Yet, Langston turned the pain caused by his family problems into one of his most famous poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”?
His ability to speak Spanish and his brown skin often made it easy for him to appear to be a native.
Many of his works, including a play for children, deal with his days in Mexico.
During the time he stayed with his father in Mexico, Langston wrote many poems because he was always unhappy.
He once said that he usually created his best work when he was really not happy.
Langston had a troubled relationship with his father from which he never recovered fully.
His father did not think he could earn a living as a writer.
His mother, however, recognized his need to be a poet.
Langston’s father agreed to pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City, if he studied engineering.
Langston arrived in New York when he was nineteen years old.
At the end of that first year at Columbia, he left school, broke with his father, and began traveling.
Traveling was a lifelong love that would take him throughout the world before he died.
In nineteen twenty-two, Hughes took a job on a ship and sailed to Africa.
He would later sail to France, Russia, Spain and Italy.
He wrote poems and short stories during his travels.
His experiences while traveling greatly influenced his work.
He sent a few of his writings back home.
They were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer.
Financial problems ended Hughes’s travels.
He tried to find work on a ship so he could return to the United States.
But in Italy, he had problems finding work on a ship because he was black.
In the poem, “I, Too”, he noted that the American color line even reached all the way over there.
( “I, Too”) In nineteen twenty-four, Langston Hughes returned to the United States to live with his mother in Washington, D.C.
The poet Vachel Lindsay ate in a hotel where Hughes was working.
Hughes put some poems he had written next to Lindsay’s dinner plate.
Lindsay gave a poetry reading later that night.
He read some of Hughes’s poetry, too.
Newspapers across the country wrote about Lindsay’s poetry reading.
Hughes became known as a new black poet.
A year later, Hughes returned to New York.
Through the years he lived in many places, but always came back to New York’s Harlem area.
Harlem was the center of black life in New York City.
Hughes’s creativity was influenced by his life in Harlem.
Langston Hughes returned to New York during a period called the Harlem Renaissance.
It took place during the nineteen twenties and thirties.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great artistic creativity among black people.
For the first time, black artistic expression was being widely recognized.
Hughes became friends with other great black writers of the time, such as Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Zora Neal Hurston.
They hoped that great art could change the racist ideas in America about African Americans.
Hughes was considered one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance.
He was the first poet to use the rhythms of black music.
He often wrote about the everyday experiences of black working people.
And he helped bring the movement of jazz and the sound of black speech into poetry.
Langston Hughes experimented with his writing.
Other Harlem Renaissance writers wrote traditional poems like those of English classic poets, such as William Shakespeare.
Hughes broke free with his writing and helped change literature forever.
Hughes became firmly established as a successful writer in nineteen twenty-six with the publication of a collection of jazz poems called “The Weary Blues.”? Hughes wrote the poems in a place in Harlem where blues music was played.
He loved to write while sitting in clubs listening to blues and jazz.
The title poem, “The Weary Blues,” was written to be played with musical instruments.
The poem perfectly expressed the desire of Langston Hughes to combine black music and speech in his poetry.
?“I got the Weary Blues and I can’t be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues and can’t be satisfied.
I ain’t happy no mo’ and I wish that I had died.” ?“And
far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed – while the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.”
Poems in “The Weary Blues” are warm and full of color.
They have a sense of freedom, like that of jazz music.
Langston Hughes was excited about the new form of poetry he had discovered for himself.
This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk.
It was produced by Caty Weaver.
The program, called 10,000 Women, will support partnerships between American and European universities and business schools in mostly developing countries.
Partners will work together to establish or expand education programs lasting from five weeks to six months.
Several partnerships may also offer full college degrees in business.
The 10,000 Women program hopes to expand into the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and throughout Africa.
Sixteen schools have agreed to take part in the program so far.
They include Columbia, Harvard and Stanford Universities in the United States.
Other schools are in India, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.
The Pan-African University in Lagos, Nigeria is also a partner.
Peter Bamkoleh heads that university's Enterprise Development Services.
He says about fifty women will receive training at the school every year.
The women will take classes several times a week, then use what they have learned.
Dina Powell is the managing director of Goldman Sachs.
She says that 10,000 Women is not a “one size fits all” program.
Each university decides what to teach to fulfill local needs.
At the American University of Afghanistan, for example, women will study the general ideas of business management.
But at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, the partner school will offer beginning and higher-level business classes to the first five hundred women.
Such classes may include financial record-keeping, market research and advertising.
Women also could learn how to write a business plan, do business over the Internet or gain investors.
Goldman Sachs plans to give one hundred million dollars to the 10,000 Women program over the next five years.
It will also urge its employees to donate their time and knowledge in the classroom.
This week on our program, we visit the historic center of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is a big city on the Delaware River in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania.
It has about a million and a half people and is often called Philly.
The city was designed by William Penn.
The Englishman and Quaker founded Pennsylvania in the sixteen eighties.
It served as the nation's capital from seventeen eighty-five to seventeen ninety.
And earlier, it was the capital of the American colonies during most of the Revolutionary War against Britain.
The buildings where they worked can be seen today in an area called the Old City, or Independence National Historical Park.
The main building is Independence Hall.
That was where colonial leaders declared independence and later debated the creation of a government.
A guide takes us into the room in Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The signing took place on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.
During the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the room had another important use.
Delegates held a federal convention there and wrote the Constitution.
In the seventeen hundreds, Independence Hall was the Pennsylvania statehouse.
Philadelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania at the time; today the capital is Harrisburg.
A bell was ordered for the building.
But the bell cracked soon after it arrived from England.
So in seventeen fifty-three, the bell was melted down for its metal and a new bell was made.
The new bell was rung many times for public announcements, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
In the eighteen thirties, a group that was trying to ban slavery in the United States began calling it the Liberty Bell.
No one knows why it cracked.
The Liberty Bell has not been rung since, but it remains an important national symbol.
The National Park Service says more than two million people visited Independence National Historical Park last year.
Across the street from the park is the National Liberty Museum.
This museum has a collection of more than ninety paintings and sculptures.
They represent the idea that liberty is a freedom that is easily violated.
The museum also celebrates more than three hundred fifty world heroes.
One example is Jonas Salk, the American doctor who developed a polio vaccine.
Another is Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who helped the poor and sick.
Time for a meal.
A few blocks from the Liberty Bell is the City Tavern.
The restaurant serves food based on recipes as old as the nation itself.
For example, there is beer brewed from a recipe developed by Thomas Jefferson, the third president, and his sweet potato biscuits.
In fact, the City Tavern is three years older than the United States.
It was completed in seventeen seventy-three.
Historians say it was considered the best restaurant in British North America.
When the nation was a year old, the first Independence Day celebration was held there on July fourth, seventeen seventy-seven.
And ten years later, after approving the Constitution, what did the delegates do?
Tavern records show they went to the City Tavern for a meal.
Speaking of food, another good place to eat in Philadelphia is the Reading Terminal Market.
It opened in eighteen ninety-two with spaces for almost eight hundred sellers.
Today, the huge building is filled with stores selling local farm products as well as seafood, clothing, jewelry and crafts from many countries.
One hundred thousand people a week visit the Reading Terminal Market.
Visitors can find all kinds of foods -- including, of course, Philly cheesesteak.
The city is known for these sandwiches made of thinly sliced meat covered with cheese.
A cheesesteak is offered with onions and other toppings and served on a long roll.
Now it is time to get back to the Visitor Center at Independence Park for a tour of Philadelphia on a Duck.
This is a kind of vehicle that can drive on land or ride on water.
Other cities also have these kinds of tours.
The seventy-minute ride includes about twenty minutes on the Delaware River, which separates Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
As we travel through Philadelphia, the riders blow on duck noisemakers, like this.
As we pass through Independence Park, our driver points out Carpenters’ Hall.
That was where colonial delegates first gathered in seventeen seventy-four to discuss their problems with British rule.
We also pass by the houses of important people during colonial times.
One of these buildings was where Betsy Ross lived when tradition tells us she sewed the first United States flag.
Outside the historical area, the Duck passes by Elfreth's Alley.
This is one of the oldest streets in Philadelphia.
It dates back to the beginning of the seventeen hundreds.
We also drive down South Street, a well-known area of shops and restaurants.
We just have time to see the National Constitution Center.
This privately operated museum opened in Philadelphia on July fourth, two thousand three.
It was created to increase public recognition of the Constitution, its history and its importance today.
The museum is near Independence Hall, where the document was written.
Visitors are presented with the idea that the most important part of American constitutional democracy is the individual citizen.
Children and adults can learn about the United States through interactive technology programs.
For example, visitors can serve on a jury or decide cases as if they were on the Supreme Court.
Signers' Hall at the National Constitution CenterThe National Constitution Center also has a big room called Signers' Hall.
It looks like the room at Independence Hall where thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution on September seventeenth, seventeen eighty-seven.
Included among the delegates were George Washington, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.
There are life-size statues of forty-two delegates -- the ones who signed the Constitution and three others who did not.
American visitors have fun finding the delegates from their home states and having their pictures taken with them.
Nearby is a rare first public printing of the Constitution.
The Pennsylvania Packet Constitution was published in a newspaper two days after the Constitution was signed in Independence Hall.
A copy of the Constitution itself is on display at the National Archives in Washington.
The National Constitution Center is not just about political events in the past.
On April sixteenth, Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton plan to be there for a debate.
Six days later is the Pennsylvania primary election.
The city of Philadelphia has much to see, both historic and modern, but that's all we have time for today.
For anyone planning a visit, one place to get information on the Internet is gophila.com,
spelled g-o-p-h-i-l-a, the official visitor site for Greater Philadelphia.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver.
Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions.
Many everyday American expressions are based on colors.
Red is a hot color.
Americans often use it to express heat.
They may say they are red hot about something unfair.
When they are red hot they are very angry about something.
The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste.
Fast loud music is popular with many people.
They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.
Pink is a lighter kind of red.
People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health.
The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century.
It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health.
Blue is a cool color.
The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music.
Blues is slow, sad and soulful.
Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song – Mood Indigo – about the deep blue color, indigo.
In the words of the song: “You ain’t been blue till you’ve had that Mood Indigo.”? Someone who is blue is very sad.
The color green is natural for trees and grass.
But it is an unnatural color for humans.
A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green.
A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.
Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car.
That person may say he is green with envy.
Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks.
Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money.
The color black is used often in expressions.
People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day.
The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day.
A blacklist is illegal now.
But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations.
In some cases, colors describe a situation.
A brown out is an expression for a reduction in electric power.
Brown outs happen when there is too much demand for electricity.
The electric system is unable to offer all the power needed in an area.
Black outs were common during World War Two.
This week, we will tell about icy material shooting up from a moon of the planet Saturn.
We will also tell about an experimental drug for the disease schistosomiasis.
And, we tell about a new study of the Grand Canyon -- one of America's greatest natural wonders.
Enceladus, photographed by the Cassini spacecraftSaturn is best known for the rings of icy material that surround the planet.
But Saturn's moons interest scientists because some may hold liquid water and other materials necessary for life.
Recently, the American space agency NASA ordered the Cassini spacecraft to visit one of Saturn's most interesting moons.
jointly operates Cassini with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
The moon is Enceladus.
It is not Saturn's largest moon.
It is only five hundred kilometers across.
But the forces that affect the surface of Enceladus are very active.
Periodically, huge amounts of material shoot up from the surface.
officials have called these events geysers, like the hot water that is forced out from under the ground on Earth.
Cassini first captured pictures of such an event three years ago.
The pictures have proved so scientifically important that NASA made changes to its plans for Cassini just to study the geysers.
On March twelfth, the space agency directed Cassini to pass only about fifty kilometers from the surface of Enceladus.
Cassini got so close that it passed through material shooting out of the moon.
The spacecraft was traveling at a speed of fifteen kilometers a second.
What Cassini found has only increased scientists' interest in the moon.
New maps of temperatures on Enceladus show that an area on the southern part of the moon is ninety-three degrees below zero Celsius.
Temperatures on Enceladus are normally about one hundred thirty degrees below zero.
John Spencer is a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
?
He says the new temperature information makes it more likely that there is liquid water not far below the surface.
Liquid water is believed to be one of the things needed for life.
Organic material is another.
Cassini also found that the geysers are releasing organic material.
Hunter Waite is an investigator for the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
The spectrometer is a device that helps identify the chemistry of substances.
Mister Waite says the chemicals gathered from the geysers of Enceladus are much like those found on comets in our solar system.
Cassini found water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and also organic material shooting from the geyser.
It is not known what causes the geysers on Enceladus.
Cassini's deputy project scientist, Linda Spilker, says scientists know that heat causes the geysers to shoot from the surface of Enceladus.
But, she says, it is not known what causes the heat.
Gravity from Saturn and the moon Dione are known to affect Enceladus.
But it is not clear if this gravitational force is enough to cause the moon's energetic geysers.
The geysers are powerful.
The material is leaving the surface at four hundred meters a second.
And there is a link between the geysers and the objects for which Saturn is most famous.
Material from Enceladus helps form the E-ring, the most distant of Saturn's many beautiful rings.
The most recent visit is only the beginning of close study of Enceladus.
Scientists will have another chance to observe Enceladus when Cassini passes very near the moon again in August.
Scientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis.
More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease.
Most live in developing nations.
About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects.
A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can attack an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma.
This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis.
The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice.
They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development.
He says the Schistosoma parasite needs oxygen to survive.
Oxygen use produces oxygen-free radicals that can destroy an organism.
The worm has a protective enzyme.
But Professor Williams says the experimental drug disables this enzyme, causing the worm to self-destruct.
Each year, two hundred eighty thousand people die of schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever.
The microscopic worms infect snails, which produce infected eggs.
People become infected when they enter fresh water where the snails live.
The worms dig through skin to enter the body.
They move into blood passages that supply the intestinal and urinary systems.
Then, if worm eggs in human waste enter fresh water, more snails and people become infected.
Since the nineteen eighties, doctors have used one main drug to treat schistosomiasis.
Public health experts worry that the worms will become resistant to this drug, praziquantel.
More studies are needed on the experimental drug.
The scientists say the results in mice were better than all the targets set by the World Health Organization for new schistosomiasis compounds.
They hope the drug will be ready for testing in humans in four to five years.
Scientists in the United States say the Grand Canyon is nearly three times as old as earlier estimates.
They say they found evidence that the Grand Canyon began forming seventeen million years ago.
That is eleven million years earlier than other studies have shown.
Geologists at the University of New Mexico carried out the new study.
Their findings were published last month in Science magazine.
Other scientists say the findings fit with earlier theories about how the Grand Canyon may have been formed.
But some experts on Earth's development disagree.
They say the study fails to support earlier findings.
The Grand Canyon is a popular stop for visitors to the southwestern United States.
It stretches up to twenty-nine kilometers wide and nearly two kilometers deep.
Yet its age has long been an issue of scientific debate.
Scientists have often used geologic events to describe the history of the Grand Canyon.
Such events have included rock flows and sedimentary rock, or rock formed from other rocks.
Generally, this method is only able to confirm ages of rock formations up to one million years ago.
Instead, the American geologists used a uranium-lead dating method that finds ages of minerals back tens to hundreds of millions of years.
They dated minerals from caves at different depths of the canyon’s walls.
Minerals from openings on hillsides are less likely to suffer damage from water or other causes of erosion.
The uranium-lead dating system helped the geologists estimate water levels over time as river water cut through the rock to form the Grand Canyon.
Their findings suggest that the rate of erosion was much slower in the western canyon than in the eastern part.
Today the Colorado River runs along the four hundred forty-six kilometer long canyon.
Based on their findings, the geologists believe a separate river began the formation of the Grand Canyon.
They say the canyon started instead from the west by a river about seventeen million years ago.
Another river began forming a canyon from the east.
Over time, the rivers connected to each other.
The geologists estimate the two canyons joined together about six million years ago.
Desertification is a process.
It changes productive land into useless land.
One example of desertification is when a desert spreads into nearby cropland.
In time, the cropland becomes an extension of the desert.
But that is not the only way farmers lose fertile soil.
Long dry periods, warmer temperatures and the removal of trees can all lead to the loss of good cropland.
Floods can remove fertile topsoil and begin a process resulting in the loss of planting areas.
Another danger to good land is poor farming methods.
Farmers should avoid continually planting crops in the same places, or letting animals feed year after year on the same lands.
Countries from Guatemala to Greece to Vietnam are working against the loss of cropland.
Africa especially faces the risk of desertification.
Nigeria, for example, says it loses three hundred fifty thousand hectares of usable land each year.
Hills of sand now cover places where people once lived.
When cropland turns to desert, people move to other places for better land and better jobs.
This migration can cause political and social tensions.
A nonprofit organization in Nigeria is working to bring public attention to the problem.
He says desert encroachment could cause widespread hunger.
Newton Jibunoh is currently leading a delegation to thirteen African countries to discuss the dangers of losing farmlands.
In northern Nigeria, the group organized a competition between schools in seven areas.
The goal was to see who could plant the most trees.
Trees are often cut down for fuel wood.
But lines of trees around cropland can catch blowing sand.
In addition, tree roots can hold soil in place.
Even within a desert, trees can be planted as borders around grassy areas.
For many years, China has been building a wall of trees in the northern part of the country.
The goal is to stop the Gobi Desert from extending toward Beijing.
The Great Green Wall will extend about five thousand kilometers.
Completion is expected in two thousand fifty.
It was an interview with an English professor who, after going blind, devoted his time to making the Internet more accessible.
As it turned out, three years later, John Slatin was diagnosed with leukemia, blood cancer.
He died last month at the age of fifty-five.
This week on Wordmaster -- making the Web more welcoming to the disabled.
John Slatin is director of the Institute for Technology and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin.
He travels near and far, promoting ways to make the Internet more accessible to persons with disabilities.
His fellow frequent flier is Dillon.
The longer answer is that it depends partly on what kind of disability you have.
He died on March twenty-fourth after a nearly three-year struggle with leukemia.
He was fifty-five years old.
And that's WORDMASTER for this week.
Research suggests that the belly is the worst place to have fat Being overweight can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attacks.
But now there may be another reason to lose the fat, especially around the middle of the body.
A recent study suggested that people in their forties with belly fat have an increased risk of dementia later in life.
Dementia is the name for a group of brain disorders that affect memory, behavior, learning and language.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause.
Dementia rarely appears before the age of sixty.
The new study added to growing evidence that people with large stomachs can face greater health risks than others who are overweight.
The study involved more than six thousand northern California members of Kaiser Permanente, a health care organization.
Researchers looked at the patients' medical records from between nineteen sixty-four and nineteen seventy-three.
The people were in their early to mid-forties at the time.
They were all part of a long-term health study that included measurements of belly fat.
The researchers compared the records with those from when the patients were in their seventies.
By that time, almost one out of six of them had dementia.
The researchers found that dementia was more common in those with wider bellies.
Those with the highest belly measurements had almost three times the risk of dementia compared to those with the lowest.
Belly size appeared to make a difference even in patients with normal body weight.
Belly size is linked to a kind of fat that grows around organs and produces harmful substances.
Experts believe that belly fat is more dangerous than other kinds of fat cells that grow just under the skin.
The researchers say this is the first study to demonstrate a link between midlife belly fat and the risk of dementia.
Still, it is possible that this apparent connection could be the result of a complex set of health-related behaviors.
The findings appeared in the journal Neurology.
Rachel Whitmer from the Kaiser Permanente research division led the study.
She says the findings do not explain why belly fat may be linked to dementia.
But she says the study should send a warning.
Other research has shown that brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease might begin as early as young adulthood.
And another study showed that belly fat in old people was tied to increased loss of brain cells.
A committee has released its final report on ways to improve math education for American students.
President Bush created the National Mathematics Advisory Panel two years ago.
The panel examined thousands of reports, along with survey results from more than seven hundred algebra teachers.
Yet the report, released last month, is short on detailed advice.
It says existing research does not show just what knowledge or skills are needed for effective math teaching.
The solution?
More research.
The report does say basic math skills must be taught completely in the early years of school.
Children should be able to add and subtract in the third grade.
By the end of fifth grade, they should be able to multiply and divide.
Teachers should avoid revisiting skills year after year.
The report says a major goal for kindergarten through eighth grade should be understanding fractions.
These skills are needed for algebra.
Yet, the report says, at the present time they seem to be severely underdeveloped in American students.
Schools are urged to prepare more students to take algebra by the eighth grade.
Many people think math success depends largely on natural talent or ability; the experts say it depends on effort.
And it urges publishers to shorten math textbooks, which are often up to a thousand pages long.
The panel said math books are much smaller in many nations where students do better in math than American children.
Publishers say American textbooks have to meet the goals of different states for what should be taught in each grade.
The report also calls for more research on the effects of using calculators.
Many algebra teachers expressed concern about their use in the lower grades.
And the report says gifted students who can move through the material much faster than others should be permitted to do so.
The math panel says the educational system needs major changes.
If not, it warns that the United States will lose the mathematical leadership it possessed during most of the twentieth century.
A house for sale in Cleveland, OhioInvestment banks have long played a part in the financial system.
But the recent crisis over securities based on risky home loans has brought them new attention.
Investment banks handle stocks, bonds and other securities.
They underwrite new offerings.
That means they take the risk of buying the securities and reselling them to the public.
They also provide business advice and market research, and deal in existing securities.
Investment bankers have structured some newer securities in highly complex ways.
Their value could be tied to lists of stocks or prices of goods or, as the world now knows, groups of risky home loans.
These mortgage-backed securities were sold to investors worldwide as a way to spread the risk.
But as more and more loans went bad, the market collapsed.
Before the nineteen thirties, the United States had no separation between traditional banking and investment banking activities.
Bank holding companies could own other financial companies that would underwrite new stocks.
They would also provide stockbroker services for the public.
People often bought shares with money borrowed from the banks.
Then, in nineteen twenty-nine, the stock market crashed.
Between nineteen thirty and nineteen thirty-three almost ten thousand banks failed.
Congress passed a banking act in nineteen thirty-three known as the Glass-Steagall Act.
It banned commercial banks from buying and selling securities; their job was to pay interest on savings and lend to borrowers.
This ban remained until nineteen ninety-nine.
That year the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act permitted commercial banks to deal in securities and sell insurance.
They can again own investment companies that underwrite securities.
Many banks now regret that they got involved with high-risk mortgage securities.
The collapse last month of the nation's fifth largest investment bank, Bear Stearns, showed the risks.
The International Monetary Fund says total losses related to American subprime mortgages could reach almost one trillion dollars.
On March seventeenth, the Federal Reserve started offering loans to investment banks, as it does for other banks.
The program will continue for at least six months.
The central bank used a power described in section thirteen of the Federal Reserve Act.
But this power has not been used since the law was updated in nineteen thirty-two.
Fifteen months ago, he ordered a temporary increase of thirty thousand troops.
The last of those troops return home in July.
After that, any withdrawals will be suspended for at least forty-five days while the American commander studies conditions in Iraq.
General David Petraeus will decide if further reductions are possible.
The change will affect Army soldiers going to Iraq and Afghanistan after August first.
Deployments were twelve months, but were lengthened a year ago as part of the so-called surge in Iraq.
After the extra troops leave, the United States will have about one hundred forty thousand troops in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he no longer believes troops levels will drop to one hundred thousand by the time Mister Bush leaves office.
President Bush meets with General David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker on ThursdayThe president based his plans on the latest progress reports by General Petraeus and the American ambassador in Iraq, Ryan Crocker.
They appeared before lawmakers in Congress this week.
He said the war is difficult but not endless.
And he said he expects that as conditions continue to improve, they will permit him to continue a policy known as return on success.
Democratic leaders are demanding answers about when American troops can return home.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the president of lengthening the war.
She says he wants to leave the difficult decisions to the next president who replaces him in January.
All three leading candidates for the November election returned to Washington to attend this week's hearings on the war.
The two Democratic senators fighting for their party's nomination renewed their calls for a withdrawal.
Hillary Clinton said it is time to begin an orderly process.
Barack Obama called for setting a time period for a withdrawal, to increase pressure on the Iraqis to make political compromises.
Senator Obama often notes that he was an early critic of the invasion, while Senator Clinton voted for a war resolution in two thousand two.
That was three years before Barack Obama became a senator.
Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate, warned against a withdrawal before enough security is established in Iraq.
He said it could lead to a civil war with effects across the Middle East.
And he said an American failure would most likely require the United States to return to Iraq for a wider and far costlier war.
Today we finish telling about the life of Langston Hughes, known as the poet voice of African Americans.
He was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Langston Hughes was born in nineteen-oh-two.
His parents separated when he was little.
Langston grew up with his grandmother who told him stories about their family’s fight against racial injustice.
He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with loneliness and a feeling of rejection from his parents.
His love for reading grew into a desire to write.
As a young man, Langston traveled to Europe and Africa working on ships.
He wrote poems and short stories during his travels.
A few of the writings he sent home were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer.
By nineteen twenty-five, Langston Hughes had returned to the United States and was living in Harlem in New York City.
This was during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of great artistic creativity among blacks who lived there.
Hughes discovered a new way of writing poetry, using the rhythms of jazz and blues to support his words.
His first collection of poetry, called the “Weary Blues,” was published in nineteen twenty-six.
Hughes wrote poetry about the common experiences of black people.
People said they could see themselves in the words of his poetry.
Hughes had worked many different jobs, but wished to make a living as a writer.
Wealthy white supporters of the Harlem Renaissance helped Hughes until he could support himself.
Critic Carl Van Vechten had helped to get the “The Weary Blues” published.
Van Vechten was one of the first to recognize the new styles of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and their importance in African American literature.
Another supporter of the arts, Amy Spingarn, gave Hughes money to complete his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Missus Charlotte Mason began supporting Hughes in nineteen twenty-seven.
In nineteen thirty, he published a novel, “Not Without Laughter,” that made him very famous.
His relationship with Missus Mason ended about the time the book appeared.
After that, Hughes sank into a period of intense personal unhappiness.
In the early nineteen thirties, Langston Hughes traveled to Cuba and Haiti.
He later traveled across the southern United States, doing poetry readings and trying to sell his books.
Hughes was likeable and gained many readers during his visit to the South.
He also began to write many different short stories that were published in magazines.
In these, he was able to discuss ideas related to black pride, racism and other issues of black life.
In nineteen thirty-two, Hughes traveled to the Soviet Union.
He became an active supporter of communism.
He believed communism was fairer to minorities.
During this time, his writing also became more militant.
Several of his poems expressed support for social and political protests.
Later, his writings began to examine the unfairness of life in America.
He wrote about people whose lives were affected by racism and sexual conflicts, violence in the southern United States, Harlem street life, poverty, racism, hunger and hopelessness.
Hughes wrote one of his most important works in nineteen twenty-six, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”?
It spoke of black writers and poets who want to be considered as poets, not black poets.
Hughes thought this meant they wanted to write like white poets.
He argued there was a need for race pride and artistic independence: “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.
If white people are pleased we are glad.
If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter.
We know we are beautiful.
And ugly too…If colored people are pleased we are glad.
If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either.
We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how.
And we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”
As his success as a writer grew, Langston Hughes began to explore other ways to spread his message.
He wrote children’s stories and several plays.
By nineteen forty, he had opened black theater groups in Harlem, Chicago and Los Angeles.
While writing for a black newspaper, Hughes created someone called “Jesse B. Semple.”
The name “Jesse B. Semple” represented Hughes’s writing style: Just Be Simple.
Semple was a common man of the people who “tells it like it is.”?
His experiences help other people understand the world in a clearer light.
Hughes spoke through his character:  Here is more of “Jesse B. Semple” read by Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes was known to be very supportive of young writers and poets.
Some said his willingness to help young writers was a result of his unhappy childhood.
Wherever he went, from the Caribbean to Africa to Russia, he connected with writers and gave them support.
He also translated some of their writings into English and included them in collections he produced.
Not everyone praised Hughes’ work.
Some critics said his writings were too simple and lacked depth.
Some blacks condemned his informal writing style and honest descriptions of black life.
They also criticized his use of blues and jazz in his poetry and his expressions of sympathy for working people.
However, his supporters praised his straightforward writing style.
They said he demonstrated that writing does not have to be complex to be great.
In nineteen fifty-one, Hughes wrote one of his most successful collections of jazz poetry called, “Montage of a Dream Deferred.”?
The poems are expressions of everyday life in Harlem.
They take the reader through one complete day and night in Harlem.
In some of the poems, Hughes uses a new kind of jazz played in Harlem at the time, called “Be-Bop.”?
The poems deal with the problem of being black in America.
Conservatives in the United States were suspicious of his ties to extremist movements, his activism, and his support of the Soviet Union for its treatment of minorities.
In nineteen-fifty-three, he was forced to appear before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee on subversive activities to explain his interest in communism.
Under pressure during the nineteen fifties, Hughes softened the voice of his poems and rejected his militant past.
He was criticized later by some black activists for not being militant enough.
Hughes continued to write and publish throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties.
And he won several important awards during that time.
He also taught at Atlanta University and the University of Chicago.
Hughes died of cancer in nineteen sixty-seven in Harlem, New York.
His home on One Hundred Twenty-Seventh Street has been made a national landmark.
Experts say Langston Hughes helped to change the sound of American literature.
They say he wrote poems the world will always know.
Five women were honored last week in Washington for their efforts to increase the economic and political progress of women.
Vital Voices, an international nonprofit organization, presented its Global Leadership Awards to the winners from Argentina, Burma, France, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.
Laura Alonso heads a group in Argentina called Poder Ciudadano, or Citizen Power.
Its members work to make the government more open.
They investigate corruption, observe elections and watch for government influence over the media.
They also educate citizens about their rights.
Burmese activist Charm Tong received Vital Voices' human rights award, presented by first lady Laura Bush.
Charm Tong co-founded the Shan Women’s Action Network.
In a report six years ago, the group detailed how the Burmese military uses rape as a weapon against women and girls.
Charm Tong also helped establish a school for ethnic Shan young people whose families live in exile in Thailand.
Author and journalist Mariane Pearl of France was recognized for writing about women who work for change in their countries.
She also wrote a book about the death of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
He was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in two thousand two.
Actress and activist Angelina Jolie presented the award; she played Mariane Pearl in the film version of the book.
Another winner, Kakenya Ntaiya of Kenya, travels widely as the first youth adviser to the United Nations Population Fund.
She speaks about girls' education as a way to end child marriage and the painful custom in some cultures of cutting the sex organs of girls.
She agreed to follow this tradition if her father would let her finish high school instead of getting married.
Then she persuaded leaders in her rural village to help send her to college in the United States.
Kakenya Ntaiya expects to receive a doctorate in education next year.
She plans to return to Kenya to establish a school for girls.
The final winner was Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi in the United Arab Emirates.
In two thousand four she became the first woman appointed as a finance minister in the Middle East.
Now she heads a newly formed ministry of foreign trade.
She is also a businesswoman and works with information technology.
Another baseball season is here.
This will be the final season for one of the best-known ballparks in America.
This week on our program, we tell you the story of the House That Ruth Built.
Babe Ruth hit home runs farther and more often than any player before himThe House That Ruth Built is the popular name for Yankee Stadium, the home of the New York Yankees.
Ruth was Babe Ruth.
His playing made the Yankees so popular, they built the stadium.
Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx area of New York City.
Babe Ruth hit the first home run in the stadium on the day it opened: April eighteenth, nineteen twenty-three.
That day, the Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox, four to one.
Babe Ruth had played for Boston.
But the Red Sox traded him to the Yankees after the nineteen nineteen season.
It was a decision the Red Sox would soon regret.
In nineteen twenty Babe Ruth hit more than fifty home runs.
Over the years, the Babe set many baseball records.
Tradition says he also changed history for the Yankees and the Red Sox.
The Yankees had not played in a World Series until he joined the team.
Since then, they have won a record twenty-six championships.
The Red Sox had been one of the most successful teams in baseball before Babe Ruth left.
After that, Boston played in four World Series and lost them all.
It was also another nickname for Babe Ruth, who was born George Herman Ruth.
Finally, in two thousand four, the supposed curse ended after more than eighty years.
The Red Sox defeated the Yankees for the American League championship.
Then Boston won the World Series that year against the Saint Louis Cardinals.
And the Red Sox are currently the defending major league champions.
They defeated the Colorado Rockies four games to none in last year's World Series.
This is the eighty-sixth season the Yankees have played in Yankee Stadium.
It was standing-room only as more than fifty-five thousand people watched them defeat the Toronto Blue Jays in the season opener on April first.
The game was supposed to be played the day before, but got rained out.
Former Yankee hitter Reggie Jackson threw out the first pitch.
He hit three home runs in Yankee Stadium during the sixth game of that series.
Eighty-two year old Yogi Berra was also at Yankee Stadium for opening day.
He was the Yankees' catcher from nineteen forty-six to nineteen sixty-three.
He played in fourteen World Series.
He later became a manager and coach for several teams and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He jumped into the arms of pitcher Don Larsen to celebrate the no-hitter.
An area of the outfield at Yankee Stadium is known as Monument Park.
There are stone monuments and plaques honoring players and team officials.
The players include Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.
They also include Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson and Roger Maris.
He hit sixty-one home runs in nineteen sixty-one.
That broke Babe Ruth's record of sixty home runs in one season.
The first monument in Monument Park dates from nineteen thirty-two.
It honors Miller Huggins, manager of the team for eleven seasons.
His Yankees won three World Series.
Another manager honored in Monument Park is Casey Stengel.
He led the Yankees to seven championships.
A special monument honors the New Yorkers killed in the terrorist attacks on their city on September eleventh, two thousand one.
Yankees radio announcer Mel Allen is also honored in Monument Park.
He was the voice of the Yankees for twenty-five years.
Over the years, the ballpark has also been used for other sports as well as religious and political gatherings, concerts and more.
This coming Sunday, Pope Benedict will become the third leader of the world's Roman Catholics to celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium.
The others were Pope John Paul the Second in nineteen seventy-nine and Pope Paul the Sixth in nineteen sixty-five.
In nineteen thirty-eight, one of the most famous boxing matches of all time was held at Yankee Stadium.
Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling in the first round to win the world heavyweight championship.
The New York Giants of the National Football League played at Yankee Stadium from nineteen fifty-six to nineteen seventy-three.
They settled into their own stadium in nineteen seventy-six.
They are still called the New York Giants even though they play in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
In nineteen forty-six, lights were added to Yankee Stadium so games could be played at night.
In nineteen seventy-three, after its fiftieth anniversary, the stadium was rebuilt.
The project took two years.
During that time the Yankees played at Shea Stadium, the home of the Mets, New York's other Major League Baseball team.
Some fans liked the nineteen twenty-three Yankee Stadium better.
But the rebuilt ballpark was designed to give fans a better view of the field.
The changes reduced the number of seats.
The original stadium had sixty-five thousand wooden seats.
It was rebuilt with fifty-four thousand wider seats made of plastic.
The new Yankee Stadium is going up across the street from the existing one.
It will be almost two-thirds larger, with more space for food, stores, even an art gallery.
Yet it will hold fewer people.
The new Yankee Stadium will seat about fifty-three thousand people.
Fans are being promised improved sight lines for watching games.
The big video screen will be six times larger, and the sound system will also be improved.
The billion-dollar ballpark is to open next year at this time.
Yankee officials say it will continue to honor team history but will provide what they call a modern fan experience.
The New York Yankees play in the American League; the New York Mets play in the National League.
From time to time they play each other.
The cross-town rivals met in the World Series in two thousand.
The Yankees won the major league championship.
That was the last time the Yankees have won a World Series.
They returned to the series twice more, but lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Florida Marlins.
This year, the Yankees have a new manager, Joe Girardi, a former Yankee player.
And they are getting ready to say goodbye to the House That Ruth Built.
But the Yankees are not the only players in New York who will be moving.
The Mets will also play on a new field next year.
This is their final season in Shea Stadium which will also be torn down.
It was built in the nineteen sixties and was designed for baseball and football.
The new home of the Yankees will still be called Yankee Stadium.
But the new home of the Mets will be called Citi Field.
Citibank will pay twenty million dollars a year for naming rights.
The new ballpark is being built next to the existing one in the Queens part of the city.
New stadiums these days offer expanded services for people with more money to spend.
This will be true for the new ballparks in New York.
But the teams say games will not be priced out of reach of average fans.
And when they win?
They play the version sung by Frank Sinatra.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver.
A burning barricade in Port-au-Prince, HaitiFood inflation has led to growing protests in developing countries.
In Haiti, the government fell Saturday after riots in which several people died.
Some rice-producing countries have cut exports to protect their own supplies.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said last week that rice prices have risen around seventy-five percent in just two months, to near historical levels.
Wheat prices have risen one hundred twenty percent in the past year.
Senegal has had repeated protests over food pricesFarmers are planting more wheat and rice.
But population growth is raising demand.
So is the use of food crops to produce biofuels.
At the same time, record oil prices have meant higher costs for petroleum-based fertilizers and for energy and transportation.
Food also costs more because more people are eating meat and dairy products in growing economies like India and China.
More grain is going to feed cattle.
Weather has also pushed up prices.
For example, Australia, a major wheat exporter, faces a drought.
High food prices hit the poor the hardest.
Agricultural economist Christopher Barrett at Cornell University says many poor farmers use more of their crops than they sell.
He says more investment is needed in agricultural research.
What is needed, says another expert, Gerald Nelson at the University of Illinois, is another Green Revolution to increase productivity.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick holds up bread as he speaks to reportersThis past weekend, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank held their spring meetings in Washington.
The bank president said hunger, malnutrition and food policy were a central issue.
The United Nations World Food Program has appealed for five hundred million dollars by May first.
Bob Zoellick said donor countries had promised almost half of the money, but that was not enough.
He said a doubling of food prices over the last three years could push one hundred million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty.
And that could hurt future generations.
I.M.F. chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the real problem is a food deficit which will probably last for years.
He says it can be argued that there are good reasons, connected to climate change, to try to push countries to substitute some kind of biofuel for oil.
But he says nations have to balance the production of biofuel from food crops with biofuel from nonfood resources.
Some of the finance ministers in Washington said using food for fuel is a crime against humanity.
This week, we will tell about a large piece of ice breaking away from Antarctica.
We also tell about a study of human emotions and discovery of an ancient flying reptile.
We also have new information about a product widely used to prevent insect bites.
These satellite images show the Wilkins Ice Shelf as it began to break up.
The large image is from March 6; the images at right, from top to bottom, are from February 28, February 29 and March 8.Satellite images show that a large piece of Antarctica’s Wilkins Ice Shelf has collapsed.
Scientists are blaming rising temperatures for the break-up of the four hundred square-kilometer piece of ice.
The Wilkins Ice Shelf is an area of huge, thick ice on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula.
It is about one thousand miles south of South America.
The satellite images came from America's National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.
The images show the ice began moving away from the ice shelf on February twenty-eighth.
After seeing the pictures, scientists flew over the area.
They saw huge pieces of broken ice floating in all directions.
A large part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf is now being supported by a thin piece of ice.
Some scientists say the ice shelf could completely break up within a few years.
However, it is expected to survive until next year because summer is now ending in Antarctica.
The Arctic Peninsula has experienced warming conditions over the past half century.
Several ice shelves have collapsed during the past thirty years.
Six of them have collapsed completely.
Ice shelves float on seawater, but are connected to land.
They are made of fresh water that once fell as snow.
Scientists believe the recent activity in the Wilkins Ice Shelf will not have an immediate effect.
Since ice shelves are already floating, their break-up does not affect sea levels.
But glaciers are different.
They sit on land.
Ice shelves are able to prevent some glaciers from sliding into the ocean.
These glaciers can begin moving at a faster rate after ice shelves break apart.
If large amounts of ice slide into the sea at a high rate of speed, new mass is added to the ocean.
This, scientists say, can raise the world’s sea levels.
Rising sea levels can lead to coastal flooding.
Some scientists have urged that more be done to limit the effects of human-caused climate change.
A new study shows that unhappiness in middle age is a common experience.
Two economists carried out the study.
They are Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
They used information collected earlier on two million people from eighty nations.
Their study is being reported this month in the publication Social Science and Medicine.
The economists found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life.
That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Happiness levels are highest when people are young and when they are old.
In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels decrease.
Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others.
But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, and to those with and without children.
Generally, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five.
But then, as they become older, their happiness starts to climb back up.
What the research does not show is why all this happens.
Professor Oswald says one possibility is that people recognize their limitations in middle age and give up on some long-held dreams.
Or perhaps people who are happier live longer, and this is responsible for a growing percentage of happy older people.
Or, he says, maybe people have seen others their age die and they value more their own remaining years.
Researchers have found remains of a small, flying reptile that existed about one hundred twenty million years ago.
The researchers say it was about the size of a modern bird -- the sparrow.
The reptile was not fully developed when it died.
But neither was it a newborn or just hatched from an egg.
Scientists had not known about the ancient creature before its fossils were discovered in northeastern China.
Researchers from Brazil and China published their discovery in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers named the reptile Nemicolopterus crypticus.
The name describes a hidden flying creature that lived in forests.
The researchers say its bone structure is almost complete.
From wing to wing, the reptile measured only two hundred fifty millimeters.
The wings were covered with skin instead of feathers.
Because the skeleton was almost complete, the researchers described it as one of the smallest lizards with wings ever found.
The reptile looked like a flying mouse.
But it shared a common ancestor with dinosaurs.
The researchers say some foot bones make Nemicolopterus crypticus different from other reptiles.
They believe the shape of the bones shows it lived mainly in treetops.
They say the creature had no teeth.
But it could eat insects.
Researcher Alexander Kellner works at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University.
He says the animal probably lived in what is now eastern China.
The remains were found in a rocky inland area.
The surroundings are rich in fossils of its kind.
Others were found nearby.
Nemicolopterus crypticus belonged to the scientific group called Pterosaurs.
The group's biggest member was called Quetzalcoatlus.
From wing to wing, it measured eleven meters.
That wingspan made it one of the biggest of animals that could fly.
The Quetzalcoatlus were also the first animals with backbones to fly.
?
Finally, we have new findings about an old method for keeping away insects.
Scientists have uncovered the molecular workings of DEET, the most widely used product for preventing insect bites.
The scientists say their findings could lead to improved products that are safe enough for children to use.
Fifty years ago, the United States Army and Department of Agriculture developed DEET to protect soldiers from disease-carrying insects.
Since then, it has been used to guard against blood-sucking insects, like mosquitoes carrying malaria.
has been shown to work on almost all insects, including ticks, which spread Lyme disease.
Until recently, no one had explained exactly how the product keeps insects away from skin.
Some people thought that because DEET’s strong smell is not pleasing to human beings, it also smelled bad to insects.
But the new study shows that DEET temporarily interferes with an insect’s ability to smell.
Leslie Vosshall is a professor of neurogenetics at Rockefeller University in New York.
She was the lead investigator of the study.
Her team carried out experiments with mosquitoes and fruit flies.
She says they discovered proteins in the antennae of both insects that identify several smells.
The antennae help the insects identify smells, including those of human breath and sweat.
As a result, the insects are able to identify human beings as food.
Professor Vosshall says DEET works by stopping some of the smell proteins, or receptors, in the antennae.
When insects come in contact with DEET, they are no longer able to guide themselves to their target.
She says the insects do not bite people wearing DEET because they cannot smell them.
Other studies have suggested that DEET affects the smelling abilities of insects.
But the new study is the first to identify DEET’s molecular targets.
is widely used and found in more than one hundred products.
It is not considered dangerous when placed on clothing and unprotected arms and legs.
But DEET is not advised for young children, especially those under two months old.
Concerns about possible health risks have led scientists to work on improvements.
Professor Vosshall says the new information about DEET could help in the development of other, safer products.
She says such products could even be used on babies.
Today we tell about five important building designers widely considered some of the top architects at work today.
They are Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, and Daniel Libeskind.
They have all created important examples of modern architecture in very different ways.
You can see their energizing and imaginative contributions to modern design in buildings around the world.
The writings and buildings of American architect Robert Venturi have helped redefine The Vanna Venturi house in Philadelphiathe path of modern architecture since the nineteen sixties.
The Vanna Venturi house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was one of his first important projects.
Venturi designed the house for his mother in nineteen sixty-two.
He has said that the house is complex and full of contradictions.
For example, the house is small, but it has large details that make it seem big.
And, the house is modern while also containing details from traditional architecture.
In his buildings and writings, Robert Venturi calls for a kind of modern architecture that shows the influences of history while also including popular culture.
He rejected the kind of modern design that was pure and simple in favor of a modern look that was a mixture of styles and influences.
His writings helped begin what is often called the post-modern movement.
Examples of his buildings include the addition to the National Gallery in London, England.
Venturi designed this large building on Trafalgar Square as a more modern version of the museum’s nineteenth century main building.
His other museum projects include the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California and the Seattle Museum of Art in Washington.
Venturi also designed buildings at many American colleges, including Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Frank Gehry grew up in Canada.
In his free time as a child, he would make small versions of buildings out of pieces of wood.
In nineteen forty-seven, his family moved to the United States, where Gehry began his university studies in architecture.
Frank Gehry believes that architecture is art.
He has said that in some ways he has been more influenced by artists and sculptors than by architects.
This may be why his buildings often look like energetic sculptures made from bold geometric forms.
Famous examples of his designs include the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, finished in nineteen-eighty nine.
His “Dancing House” is in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
This playful building, finished in nineteen ninety-six, looks like two dancers.
Gehry’s most famous building is the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao in Spain which was completed in nineteen ninety-seven.
Most of the curving building is covered in titanium.
It looks like a dancing metal wave sitting on the edge of a river.
The curved surfaces of this building and others by Gehry are so complex to build that they require computer programs.
More recently, Frank Gehry designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California.
This huge metal covered building was designed to look like the sails of a boat.
Frank Gehry’s buildings are so popular that some people say they create a “Gehry effect.”
This term is used for a building that attracts visitors because of the famous architect who designed it.
We have described some famous buildings around the world that are architectural wonders.
You might not think that a parking area near a tram station would be a project of one of the most famous names in modern architecture.
But the car park and terminus in Strasbourg, France are a good example of the skill and creativity of Zaha Hadid.
This parking area for seven hundred cars is a play of energetic lines.
Nearby, the futuristic tram station is made up of sharp angles and geometric shapes.
Zaha Hadid has designed other striking buildings such as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio.
For this boldly boxy design, she created an entry walkway area that slowly curves and becomes a wall inside the building.
Hadid is known for designing and completing structures that seem almost impossible on paper.
She says that architecture is clearly about shelter, but it must also bring pleasure.
Born in Iraq, Zaha Hadid completed her architectural studies in Britain, where she now lives.
In two thousand four, Hadid became the first woman to win the important Pritzker Prize for architecture.
Thomas Pritzker presented the award.
He said that her work organizes land, space, structure, and person so that each is inseparable from the other, and each calls to the other.
Current projects of Hadid and her architects include the Glasgow Transport Museum in Scotland and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.
Tadao Ando is a Japanese architect who has mainly worked in and around his city of Osaka.
Ando never studied for a degree in architecture.
Instead, he taught himself about modern architecture by visiting buildings and reading books.
Tadao Ando’s first projects were houses.
In nineteen ninety-three he won Japan’s Culture Design Prize for the Rokko housing project.
These simple but striking concrete houses are built along the side of a hill overlooking Osaka Bay.
Ando is known for using unfinished reinforced concrete as a building material.
And he is known for making buildings with simple designs that are closely connected to the natural environment.
Tadao Ando says that when you create a building, you cannot simply put something new in a place.
He says you have to understand what you see around you, what is on the land.
He says you must use that knowledge along with modern thinking to plan a building design.
Ando also built the Church of Light.
This religious building in Osaka is very simple in its design, but very beautiful.
The main room is made of concrete.
There is nothing on the walls except an opening in the concrete.
The opening creates two bars of light in the form of a cross.
In two thousand two, his Modern Art Museum opened in Fort Worth, Texas.
The building is so striking that you have to remind yourself to also look at the art.
The concrete and glass museum is built next to a body of water, so it almost seems to float.
The glass walls let natural light into the space while also allowing visitors to look out across the water to see the city.
A part of the Jewish Museum, BerlinDaniel Libeskind was born in Poland, but grew up in the United States.
He began his career as a teacher of building design.
Libeskind’s first project was the new building of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, which opened to the public in two thousand one.
It is a zinc-covered building made up of bold bending lines and sharp angles.
Many areas of the building were designed to represent different parts of Jewish history and culture.
Libeskind has said that architecture is about communicating.
He says that he built this museum to tell a complex story in many different ways.
His extension to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada opened in June of last year.
The sharp angles of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal building make it look like a large glass and aluminum gem.
The five interlocking spaces of this building required very complex engineering skills to create.
Daniel Libeskind also has many projects in the United States.
The tall extensions of the Denver Art Museum in Colorado are covered in silver-colored titanium metal.
Libeskind says the building was influenced by the light and environment of the nearby Rocky Mountains.
Libeskind and his team of architects are currently working on an apartment building in Covington, Kentucky and a shopping center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
His Creative Media Centre at the City University of Hong Kong in China is expected to be finished in two thousand ten.
We did not have time to talk about all the other imaginative architects at work today.
But the designs of Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, and Daniel Libeskind are a good start for learning about the exciting world of modern building design.
Researchers in China have reported on a rare human-to-human case of bird flu.
They say it is likely that a twenty-four year old man in the eastern province of Jiangsu infected his father last December.
They believe it happened while the father cared for the son in a hospital.
The son died.
The father lived.
Government researchers say genetic tests showed almost identical forms of the H5N1 virus in the two men.
Ninety-one other people came in close contact with them but did not get infected.
The report appeared last week in the Lancet medical journal.
On April third, the World Health Organization said a family in Pakistan showed a high probability of human-to-human infection in a case last year.
In that case, an animal doctor was infected with the avian flu virus when he helped destroy diseased birds in Peshawar.
His three brothers became infected later although they had no contact with diseased birds.
Gregory Hartl is a project leader in the W.H.O.’s Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response office in Geneva.
He says experts can never confirm one hundred percent that human-to-human infection with the virus has taken place.
But he says there seems to have been at least six cases, including the ones in Pakistan and China in two thousand seven.
Scientists worry that the virus might change over time into a form that passes easily among humans.
In other developments, Egypt reported its third death from H5N1 in the last two weeks.
Health officials said a thirty year old woman got sick on April second.
She was taken to a hospital seven days later.
She was the twenty-second person to die from the virus in Egypt.
Health officials destroy birds on a farm in Muan, South Korea, to fight the spread of bird flu South Korea this month reported new outbreaks in birds.
And the United States health secretary urged Indonesia to cooperate more with the World Health Organization to share virus samples.
Mike Leavitt spoke Monday in Jakarta.
He noted that many life-saving vaccines have resulted from international cooperation.
Indonesia has had the most deaths of any country from H5N1, more than one hundred people.
But it wants the right to approve any drug company's use of virus samples from Indonesia.
Indonesia also wants guarantees that poor countries would be able to get low-cost vaccines developed from their samples.
Today we play music from Jack Johnson … Answer a listener question about the Amish people … And report on the winner of a major prize for architecture.
Pritzker Architecture Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is widely considered one of the most important honors a building designer can receive.
It is given by the Hyatt Foundation of Los Angeles, California.
Every year a jury of building experts chooses the winner.
This year, the prize went to the French architect Jean Nouvel.
Barbara Klein tells us about this inventive architect.
As you walk along the Seine River in Paris, France, you might see a striking building covered with colorful boxes and walls with growing plants.
The Quai Branly Museum houses a large collection of art from different areas of Africa and Asia.
The French architect Jean Nouvel designed this building.
The Pritzker jury said Nouvel’s work is a brave exploration of new ideas that has stretched the limits of architectural design.
Jean Nouvel at his office in ParisJean Nouvel has designed two other museums in Paris, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Arab World Institute.
Windows on one side of the Arab World Institute are covered in metal sheets that have been cut with complex designs.
The metal surfaces open and close depending on the strength of the sunshine outside.
The design is both traditional and modern, beautiful and useful.
Nouvel has said that context is the most important part of his buildings.
He does not design a building just to look good.
Instead, he studies the culture, place, and requirements of the building so that it fits in well with its environment and is useful.
More recently, Jean Nouvel designed the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This building has an industrial style that is very modern and inventive.
One part of the building extends over the Mississippi River.
Jean Nouvel is currently working on several new projects.
These include a “Tour de Verre” building with many levels in New York City.
Another new project is the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum in the United Arab Emirates.
Amish immigrants began arriving from Germany and Switzerland in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds.
They were expelled from their home countries or chose to leave because of religious oppression.
Most settled in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.
Today, Ohio has the largest Amish population.
Amish people live in nineteen other American states and in Ontario, Canada.
Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country.
About sixteen to eighteen thousand Old Order Amish live there.
Dutch is a name for people from the Netherlands, yet many of the Amish came from Germany.
Old stories say they were called “Dutch” because English colonists could not say the correct word, “Deutsch.”?
But language experts now say that people in England often used the term Dutch to mean German.
The Amish continue to speak a version of German.
However, children learn English in their schools.
Many Amish communities live as their ancestors did long ago.
They do not use cars, electricity, telephones, televisions or other common devices.
They use horses for agriculture and transportation.
They heat their houses by burning wood.
They get their water from wells.
The Amish Christian religion is based on the idea of total surrender to God.
They are pacifists – opposed to violence and war.
They do not want to be part of American society, which they call “English.”?
Most Amish people are easy to recognize.
The women wear long, dark-colored dresses.
They cover their hair with white cloth hats.
The men wear black clothing and dark hats.
They grow long beards.
Most Amish couples have many children.
Communities usually have their own small schools and children complete their studies in eighth grade.
Most Amish families work together in their fields to grow crops.
They also raise farm animals.
The Amish make their own furniture and clothing.
Amish women are famous around the world for making beautiful bed covers called quilts.
The Amish community works together to build houses or barns for their people.
They also gather for religious services.
The Amish permit few differences among their own people.
They continue to live separate from the world around them.
Jack Johnson Jack Johnson is a singer and songwriter known for his smooth voice and calming songs.
His most recent album is “Sleep Through the Static.”?
It is filled with personal songs about love, family and life.
When they met in college, Johnson was not a professional musician.
In fact, he used to be a professional surfer who rode ocean waves on a surfboard.
Johnson has said that he started writing music and playing the guitar after a surfing accident.
He later wrote several songs for a movie he made about surfing.
Today, the Johnsons divide their time between homes in California and Hawaii.
Here is the song “Go On.” Jack Johnson expresses what it is like to watch his two young sons grow up.
Jack Johnson may be a famous musician, but he does not like to lead a very public life.
He likes to spend time with his family doing sports outdoors.
Johnson is also very involved in environmental activism.
Five years ago, he and his wife started the Kokua Hawaii Foundation to provide environmental education to schoolchildren.
Jack Johnson’s new album represents another environmental effort.
The entire album was made using energy power from the sun in his environmentally friendly recording studio.
This spring Jack Johnson will travel around Australia, New Zealand and Japan to perform his music.
After events in Washington, including his eighty-first birthday, Benedict flew to New York City on Friday for three days there.
He said in a speech to the United Nations that all nations have a duty to protect people from human rights violations and humanitarian crises.
If states are unable to guarantee such protection, he said, then the international community must intervene.
He said supporting human rights remains the most effective way to eliminate inequalities between countries and social groups, and to increase security.
Catholics are the largest single religious group in the United States.
A recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated that almost one-fourth of adults belong to the church.
A large number of American Catholics, however, have left the church or dissented from its teachings.
Yet, in the last thirty years, the share of Catholics in America has remained almost unchanged.
This is mainly because of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America.
Throughout the week, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth expressed regret about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy.
He said the abuse has caused great suffering for the church in America and for him personally.
He said the situation has sometimes been handled very badly.
The American church says almost fourteen thousand claims of abuse have been brought against Catholic clergy since nineteen fifty.
So far, the church has paid more than two billion dollars to victims, largely in the last six years.
On Thursday the pope met with several victims and apologized to them.
Reaction to the meeting was mixed.
Some activists said it was just for show; others said it was an important step.
Now, we answer a question.
Sholeh from Indonesia wants to know how religions compare in size in the United States.
That recent study said almost eight out of ten adults are Christian.
Catholics are the largest Christian group.
More than half of Christians are Protestant, but the Protestant tradition has many different denominations.
The study said less than two percent of adults in the United States are Jewish and six-tenths of one percent are Muslim.
Among other religions, Buddhists and Hindus also each represent less than one percent.
The researchers found that sixteen percent of American adults do not identify with any religion.
And they said a surprisingly high number of Americans change religions.
The study found that more than one-fourth of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion.
That jumps to forty-four percent if it includes movement from one Protestant denomination to another.
Today we tell about actor Charlton Heston.
He is best known for playing powerful and heroic leaders in movies such as “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur.”
Heston had a strong face and body that could express great physical and emotional force.
Heston made about one hundred movies during his sixty-year career.
He was also known for his social and political activism.
Charlton Heston was born John Carter in nineteen twenty-three in Evanston, Illinois.
He spent his early childhood in Saint Helen, Michigan.
His parents ended their marriage when he was a boy.
Later, he decided to change his name.
He took the last name of his mother’s second husband, Heston.
And, for his first name he used his mother’s former last name, Charlton.
Charlton Heston discovered his interest in acting while performing in plays at his high school.
He later spent two years studying theater at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
But he left college to join the Army Air Forces during World War Two.
In nineteen forty-four he married a college classmate, Lydia Clarke.
The young couple moved to New York City after the war.
They tried to find acting jobs.
Heston found small roles in the theater as well as in television shows.
His performance in a television version of the book “Jane Eyre” caught the attention of the Hollywood producer Hal B. This Tuesday is Earth Day.
On April twenty-second, nineteen seventy, millions of Americans took part in activities to bring attention to the environment.
Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin had called for a huge protest against pollution and other threats.
An environmental movement was born, and Earth Day is now observed around the world.
Last week, the seven winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize were announced in San Francisco, California.
Winners are chosen from each part of the world.
The winners of the Goldman Prize for South and Central America are Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza in Ecuador.
The two men are leading a major legal case against the Chevron oil company.
It involves petroleum pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon between nineteen sixty-four and nineteen ninety.
The case was brought against Texaco; Chevron bought that company in two thousand one.
The winner of this year's Goldman Prize for Africa is Feliciano dos Santos in Mozambique.
He and his band, Massukos, use traditional music to educate villagers about the importance of clean water.
He also works to bring better sanitation to poor villages.
The prize winner for islands and island nations is Rosa Hilda Ramos of Puerto Rico.
She is leading a movement to protect the Las Cucharillas Marsh from factory pollution.
The wetland area is one of the last open spaces near San Juan’s community of Catano.
The Goldman prize winner for North America is Jesus Leon Santos.
He is leading a land renewal and economic development program in Oaxaca, Mexico.
He has worked with local farmers to dig waterways and plant about one million trees.
Poor land-use methods have done much damage to the soil.
The prize winner from Asia is Marina Rikhvanova.
She is working to protect Lake Baikal in Siberia from damage by Russia's growing oil and nuclear industries.
And the winner from Europe is Ignace Schops.
He helped raise ninety million dollars to establish the first and only national park in Belgium.
The Goldman Prize is the world's largest prize for environmental activism.
The winners each receive one hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Rhonda and Richard Goldman established the award.
The prize has gone to one hundred twenty-six people over the past eighteen years.
Afterward, they receive a picture of themselves and instructions about how to download a video of their performance.
The Newseum opened on Pennsylvania Avenue, next to the Canadian Embassy, on April eleventh.
It was formerly located across the Potomac River from Washington.
The Newseum opened in Arlington, Virginia, in nineteen ninety-seven.
But it closed in two thousand two after a decision to move to a bigger space.
The newly built museum has fourteen galleries, fifteen theaters and sixteen zillion video screens.
One of the galleries is the Berlin Wall Gallery.
It tells the story of the four meter high concrete wall built in nineteen sixty-one.
Communist East Germany built the wall to separate itself from democratic West Germany.
The wall was torn down, and the two Germanies reunited, in nineteen eighty-nine.
The gallery contains eight pieces of the Berlin Wall.
Three large screens in the gallery show three different movies about the history of news reporting on the Berlin Wall.
Another gallery tells the story of the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September eleventh, two thousand one.
In the center of the gallery is a burned and twisted part of the broadcast antenna that stood on the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Also in the gallery is a damaged piece of the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters, which was also struck by a plane.
And there is a piece of the fourth plane used in the attacks.
Investigators found that the hijackers of United Flight Ninety-three crashed the plane in a Pennsylvania field after passengers revolted.
The gallery also has items from news photographer William Biggart.
He was covering the attacks in New York City when the second tower collapsed and he was killed.
On the wall of the gallery are front pages from one hundred twenty-seven newspapers reporting the attacks.
The newspapers are from across the United States and thirty-four other nations.
The Newseum has a newspaper gallery that changes daily.
Copies of front pages are received electronically from more than five hundred newspapers around the world.
Eighty are printed for display.
The others can be seen on touch screens.
A nearby gallery displays thousands of historic publications.
The oldest is a clay brick from more than three thousand years ago.
The brick has cuneiform writing on it.
The symbols tell about the building of a chapel in a temple of a Sumerian king.
Also in the Early News Gallery are reports on the Battle of Agincourt and the Salem witch trials.
The battle took place in France in fourteen fifteen; the handwritten news report appeared the following year.
The Salem witch trials took place in Massachusetts in sixteen ninety-two.
The gallery describes the many ways news traveled before and after the arrival of the printing press in the fifteenth century.
Included in the collection is a nineteenth century West African harp.
It was played by musicians who sang about current events and spread gossip.
The display also deals with the use of unidentified sources, and the risk of mistakes when reporters try to be first with a story.
Another gallery at the Newseum presents photographs that have won Pulitzer Prizes.
The display also includes recorded comments from some of the prize-winning photographers.
And the Newseum has a gallery to honor journalists who were killed doing their jobs.
Glass panels in the Memorial Gallery list more than one thousand eight hundred names.
An independent group, the Freedom Forum, operates the Newseum.
The group spent one hundred million dollars to buy the land and four hundred fifty million dollars to build the new museum.
The Freedom Forum teaches people about the importance of free speech and a free press.
One reporter called newspapers a dying industry and asked the chief executive officer, Charles Overby, why the Newseum gives them so much attention.
The C.E.O. said the Newseum is about news and the changing delivery systems for reporting it.
The Newseum has a large gallery dealing with news in the digital age, including blogging and social networking sites.
But the Internet, TV and Radio Gallery also presents broadcasts from the past.
The display includes comments from Virginia Tech graduate student Jamal Albarghouti.
Children six and younger are free.
The nearby Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art are free to all visitors.
But Newseum officials note that those museums are publicly supported.
Almost eleven thousand people toured the Newseum on opening day when admission was free.
The Newseum calls itself the world's most interactive museum.
But some people wondered how a pricey museum will succeed, especially in difficult economic times, in a city with so many free attractions.
The president of the Newseum, Peter Pritchard, says the hunger for news and information has never been greater around the world.
Chief executive Charles Overby says the Freedom Forum believes the Newseum is where it belongs, among monuments to freedom.
Today we tell about some American expressions that are commonly used in business.
Bells sound.
Lighted messages appear.
Men and women work at computers.
They talk on the telephone.
At times they shout and run around.
This noisy place is a stock exchange.
Here expert salespeople called brokers buy and sell shares of companies.
The shares are known as stocks.
People who own stock in a company, own part of that company.
People pay brokers to buy and sell stocks for them.
If a company earns money, its stock increases in value.
If the company does not earn money,?the stock decreases in value.
Brokers and investors carefully watch for any changes on the Big Board.
That is the name given to a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange.
The first written use of the word with that meaning was in a newspaper in Illinois in eighteen thirty-seven.
In a bear market, prices go down.
In a bull market, prices go up.
Investors in a bear market promise to sell a stock in the future at a set price.
But the investor does not own the stock yet.
He or she waits to buy it when the price drops.
The meaning of a bear market is thought to come from an old story about a man who sold the skin of a bear before he caught the bear.
But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals -- bulls and bears -- in sports that were popular years ago in England.
Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing.
In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly up.
A company that goes belly up dies like a fish.
Fish turn over on their backs when they die.
So they are stomach, or belly, up.
Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company.
They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected.
This would sharply increase the value of the stock.
Investors are hoping for a windfall.
The word windfall comes from England of centuries ago.
There, poor people were banned from cutting trees in forests owned by rich land owners.
But, if the wind blew down a tree, a poor person could take the wood for fuel.
So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
This week, we tell about sharks.
They are among the world's most feared animals.
But studies show that sharks are in far more danger from people than people are from sharks.
An Austrian man was diving in the Bahamas Islands two months ago when he was bitten by a shark.
Markus Groh was taking part in a sport known as shark diving.
He died in a hospital a day after the attack.
Many people fear sharks.
But others put on underwater diving equipment and swim in search of the big fish.
You may have seen shark diving on television.
If so, you know that some divers observe the animals from the safety of a steel cage or container.
Or they wear special equipment made of metal.
But some divers have no extra protection when they watch sharks.
A few swim in waters containing food.
People drop it in the water to bring fish close to them.
Reports say Markus Groh was in the water with food when he was bitten.
His death is the first deadly attack during shark feeding recorded by the International Shark Attack File.
But the group has reported many injuries in the sport.
Many shark divers say it is exciting to swim near the animals.
They are likely to dismiss any danger.
Those who like shark diving say it increases people’s interest in sharks.
Such persons say it helps the public understand how important the animals are to the environment.
They say it makes people want to protect sharks at a time when some kinds of shark are dying out.
Some ocean experts criticize shark diving that involves feeding the animals.
They say the fish can become aggressive after having contact with the people feeding them.
They say feeding sharks is bad for both animals and human beings.
The American state of Florida seemingly agrees.
Several companies offer diving trips near the Bahamas Islands.
That is where Markus Groh died.
Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures organized the diving trip taken by the Austrian man.
The company has provided passenger boat trips for divers in the Bahamas for several years.
Last year, the Bahamas Diving Association criticized such trips.
The group wrote to Mister Abernethy’s company and others like it.
The Association asked that they stop taking people to shark dives without protective cages.
It also proposed an end to cageless dives in open waters with possibly dangerous sharks.
Markus Groh’s death brought criticism of this kind of shark diving.
But a group called Shark Savers has praised Jim Abernethy and his company.
The group says Mister Abernethy is an ambassador of protection of sharks in the Bahamas.
Shark Savers says he brings public attention to sharks’ importance in the environment.
It says Mister Abernethy’s work helps warn people of the danger that some sharks could disappear from Earth.
Shark Savers operates a Web site called Sharksavers.org.
It has asked people to add their names in support of cageless shark diving in the Bahamas.
The Web site also contains a list of supporters of shark diving in general.
But an activist organization opposes the feeding of sharks.
The Marine Safety Group led the movement for the Florida ban on feeding sharks and other water creatures.
The head of the group, Bob Dimond, says sharks normally do not want to be with people.
?
But their excellent sense of smell leads them to food.
The smell also causes more sharks than normal to enter the same waters.
Mister Dimond says the presence of many sharks increases risk to humans.
He adds that shark feeders do not face the most danger from the animals.
Instead, people who come near a shark later face the greater threat.
By then, he says the fish has linked people with food.
George Burgess heads the International Shark Attack File and the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
He also opposes the feeding of sharks.
He supports watching them doing normal activities in their natural surroundings.
Professor Burgess notes that hundreds of millions of people use the world’s oceans.
He says this has caused shark attacks to increase during the past century.
Still, the Shark Attack File reported only one deadly shark attack last year.
The victim was skin-diving off Tonga.
Professor Burgess says the total number of shark attack deaths through two thousand seven was the lowest in twenty years.
He says people have more to fear from some snakes, insects and lightning than from sharks.
The International Shark Attack File describes shark attacks as either provoked or unprovoked.
An unprovoked attack means the person is alive when bitten.
The person is in the shark's environment.
Also, the person must not have interfered with the shark.
Professor Burgess says the death of Markus Groh will surely be recorded as provoked.
Surprisingly, the International Shark Attack File has records of attacks back to the sixteenth century.
How does the group know about attacks hundreds of years ago??
With some difficulty, says the professor.
His volunteer team of researchers investigates reports.
They study old newspapers, books and historic documents.
He also says the media provide stories about shark bites.
Many people think of sharks as a deadly enemy.
But these fish help the environment.
They perform activities that help people.
They eat injured and diseased fish.
Their hunting means that the many other fish in ocean waters do not become too great.
This protects other creatures and plants in the oceans.
Sharks also may someday be valuable for treatment of human diseases.
During a recent year, business and sport fishing killed an estimated one million or more sharks.
Most sharks reproduce only every two years and give birth to fewer than ten young.
For this reason, over-fishing of sharks is a danger to the future of the animal.
Julia Baum of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography worries that some sharks may disappear from Earth.
She has noted major decreases in sharks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
Miz Baum and scientist Ransom Meyers carried out studies for Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
Their work showed special danger to large coastal sharks.
Populations of tiger, scalloped hammerhead, bull and dusky sharks all had dropped by ninety five percent over five years.
The two researchers placed most blame on intensive fishing.
This overfishing included catching sharks by mistake.
Some scientists say about half of the thousands of sharks caught each year were not the target of the fishing.
But no one really knows whether these sharks would survive if they returned to the water.
People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and shark skin.
Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jawbones of a shark.
Shark liver oil is a popular source of Vitamin A. Sharkskin can be used like the skin of other animals.
Some people enjoy a soup made from shark meat.
The popularity of the soup has grown greatly over the years.
Today, fishing companies can earn a lot of money for even one kilogram of shark fins.
Some restaurants serve shark fin soup for one hundred dollars a bowl.
Finning, as it is called, means cutting the fins off a live shark.
Some areas ban finning.
But illegal shark-fishing is big business.
Fishermen often cut off the shark’s fins and throw the animal back into the water.
The shark is left to bleed to death to save space on the boat.
In two thousand four, sixty-three nations approved laws to protect sharks.
Some rules are effective near land.
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson.
Bovine tuberculosis is a progressive wasting disease.
It affects mainly cattle but also sheep, goats, pigs and other animals.
People who get bovine TB have to take strong antibiotics for up to nine months to cure them.
Humans can get sick from infected cows by drinking milk that has not been heated to kill germs.
Another risk is eating meat that has not been cooked to seventy-four degrees Celsius.
If an infected animal is processed, cutting through lung or lymph tissue can spread the M. bovis bacteria to other parts of the meat.
Bovine TB is a major problem in parts of Africa.
Farmers in Canada and Britain have also lost many cattle in recent years.
In Britain, debate continues about whether badgers pass TB to other animals.
Infected cows might lose weight and develop a cough, which spreads the bacteria through the air.
Or they can appear healthy.
Then, when they give birth, their calves can get infected by drinking their milk.
In the early twentieth century, bovine TB probably killed more animals in the United States than all other diseases combined.
To control it, the government launched a highly successful testing program.
Historians say animal doctors ordered the destruction of about four million cattle between nineteen seventeen and nineteen forty.
But currently, the state of Michigan in the Midwest is fighting an outbreak of tuberculosis in cattle.
Experts identified wild deer as the source of infection.
More recently the neighboring state of Minnesota has also had to deal with TB in cattle and deer.
Cows and wild deer can infect each other -- for example, if they share cattle feed left in fields during winter.
Possible solutions might include building fences or leaving smaller amounts of hay.
Michigan's agriculture director announced this month that the state will receive more than three million dollars in emergency federal aid.
Michigan will use the money to increase prevention and testing activities, and to pay farmers who have to destroy infected cattle.
Since nineteen ninety-four, the state has spent close to one hundred million dollars on control efforts.
Michigan officials say no TB has been found in cattle outside the containment area.
Experts say the most effective form of control is to destroy cattle herds that have been exposed to bovine tuberculosis.
This prevents any chance that infected cows might be moved to another farm.
Today we tell about growing food problems around the world.
Food prices are rising in many countries.
Economic policy makers warn that the effect of rising food prices could push millions of people into poverty.
Aid organizations are concerned that they will not be able to feed the poorest people.
The rising cost of food caused riots in a number of countries in recent weeks.
International officials met this month to take steps in an effort to ease the problem.
Last Friday, the United Nations World Food Program urgently appealed for two hundred fifty-six million dollars in donations.
She says this is forcing the agency to either raise more money or help fewer people.
She says higher food prices are threatening the security of countries around the world.
Another aid agency says rising food prices are hurting efforts to fight poverty.
The Asian Development Bank has asked governments to avoid trade restrictions that might increase the crisis.
International aid officials met in Italy last week to discuss ways of dealing with food problems around the world.
The meetings involved representatives of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, CARE and Oxfam.
The aid agencies say about eight hundred fifty million people have been suffering from hunger.
And that was before the latest price increases began causing food shortages and unrest.
At least ten million people die from the effects of poor diet each year and that number is increasing.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank met earlier this month in Washington, D.C. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said hunger, malnutrition and food policy are important issues.
He urged food donor nations to provide immediate aid to help poor countries deal with the crisis.
Rice farmers harvest their crops in Malang, East Java, IndonesiaMister Zoellick said a doubling of food prices over the last three years could push one hundred million people in poor countries deeper into poverty.
And that could hurt future generations.
He also said the price of rice has increased about seventy-five percent in just two months, to near historic levels.
Wheat prices have risen one hundred twenty percent in the past year.
There are several reasons for this food crisis.
Farmers are planting more wheat and rice.
But some rice-producing countries have cut exports to protect their own supplies.
And population growth is raising demand.
Higher fuel prices are also partly to blame for rising food prices.
The International Food Policy Research Council says rising prices for fuel affect the cost of production.
Record oil prices have meant higher costs for oil-based fertilizers, and for energy and transportation.
Increased oil prices and concerns about climate change have led some farmers to raise crops for use in biofuels, such as ethanol.
These fuels are made at least partly from biological material, such as corn.
Biofuels burn cleaner than oil or gasoline.
As the price of oil rises, farmers are finding it more profitable to raise corn for ethanol, instead of for food.
The World Bank says concerns about oil prices, energy security and climate change have led governments to urge people to make and use biofuels.
That means greater demand for unprocessed materials, including wheat, soy, palm oil and corn.
Bank officials say this results in costlier food.
Some critics of biofuels say that using food-based fuel for transportation leads to a competition for food between people and cars.
Kimberly Elliott of the Center for Global Development says governments should stop placing so much importance on biofuels like ethanol.
The American state of Iowa is among the nation's leaders in growing corn and ethanol production.
Michael Ott is the head of a trade group for biofuel producers.
He says ethanol production is not really a choice between food and fuel.
He says people cannot eat the corn used to make fuel.
People eat only about five percent of the corn crop.
The rest is fed to animals or used in other products.
Kimberly Elliott says the long-term answer is to put more effort on developing new kinds of biofuels.
These include ethanol that comes from switchgrass or from the outer area of the corn plant instead of the corn itself.
Food also costs more because more people are eating meat and milk products in economies like China and India.
More grain is being used to feed farm animals.
Weather has also pushed up prices.
For example, Australia, a major wheat exporter, has received little rain recently.
Crop diseases in other parts of the world have also added to the problem.
High food prices have the most serious effect on the poorest people.
For example, World Bank President Robert Zoellick says two kilograms of rice now cost about half of the daily wages of a poor family in Bangladesh.
Christopher Barrett is an agricultural economist at Cornell University in New York State.
He says many poor farmers use more of their crops than they sell.
He says more investment is needed in agricultural research.
Last week, President Bush released two hundred million dollars in emergency food aid.
It will be sent to countries in Africa and other areas.
The Bush administration said the President has urged his administration to develop a long-term plan that helps poor and hungry people around the world.
In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his nation would double its emergency food aid to meet the food crisis.
Mister Sarkozy said French aid would increase to about one hundred million dollars this year.
He also urged aid agencies, financial organizations, private industry and governments to work together to solve the crisis.
The food crisis has caused rioting in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia.
In Haiti, days of protests against rising food prices turned violent earlier this month.
Several people were killed.
The Haitian parliament ousted the country's prime minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis.
Haiti's president, Rene Preval, approved a series of emergency aid measures.
He announced plans to work with local suppliers and international aid groups to cut the price of rice by fifteen percent.
The World Bank also said it would provide ten million dollars to help Haiti.
People in Haiti's capital say higher fuel prices and the changing value of the American dollar are to blame for the rising costs of imported foods and other goods.
Many Haitians earn less than two dollars a day.
They have suffered the most from the rising cost of rice and other products.
The United Nations World Food Program warned last week that North Korea is also facing a food crisis.
The main reasons are food price increases and the lasting effects of severe flooding last year.
U.N. officials said prices for foods like corn and grain have at least doubled since last year.
They say urgent action is needed to prevent a serious tragedy in North Korea.
But there was some good news from another country.
Bangladesh says its current rice harvest is very successful.
Rice is the main crop in Bangladesh.
The majority of the population works in agriculture.
The government has ordered the country's five hundred thousand-member army to eat potatoes instead of rice and wheat.
This is meant to guarantee that civilians have enough rice to eat.
A World Food Program official in Bangladesh says the general population will also need to eat more potatoes, which is not a traditional food.
Bangladesh suffered two serious floods and a powerful storm in the past year.
The natural disasters ruined several million tons of food grains.
And that's WORDMASTER for this week.
A Brazilian drug company and a nonprofit group have developed a new, simplified malaria treatment.
Patients have to take only one tablet a day for three days for some ages, or two tablets a day for three days for other ages.
The medicine combines two existing malaria drugs, artesunate and mefloquine.
This combination has been widely used in recent years in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
The Brazilian government will make the new treatment available throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia over this year and next.
He says the new formulation is safe and fast-acting, and effective for children and adults.
The World Health Organization says artemisinin-based combination treatments are the best way to treat common malaria.
Research shows that the simpler the treatment, the more likely people are to complete it.
People increase the risk of drug resistance when they do not complete a full treatment.
Researchers tested the new medicine in a one-year study of seventeen thousand patients in the state of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon.
Health care resources in the area were also expanded, including early identification of malaria.
Health officials say the result was a thirty-six percent drop in cases.
Malaria is caused by a parasite which is passed to humans though mosquito bites.
As many as five hundred million infections happen every year.
Around sixty percent of the cases, and more than eighty percent of the deaths, happen in Africa south of the Sahara.
Africa suffers more than a million deaths, mostly children.
Doctor Pecoul says his organization is supporting a study in Tanzania to see if the new drug could be used successfully in Africa.
Currently in Africa, there are two first-line treatments with artesunate and other drugs.
He says artesunate and mefloquine could have a use in places like eastern Africa where there are high levels of resistance to several drugs.
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative began in two thousand three.
It was established by the Pasteur Institute and Doctors Without Borders along with four publicly supported research organizations.
He had commanded the forces of the American colonies in their successful rebellion against Britain.
Washington was elected without opposition.
But American politics were about to change.
This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Ray Freeman describe the beginnings of the two-party political system in the United States.George WashingtonGeorge Washington did not belong to a political party.
There were no political parties in America at that time.
This does not mean all Americans held the same political beliefs.
They did not.
But there were no established organizations that offered candidates for elections.
Two such organizations began to take shape during President Washington's first administration.
One was called the Federalists.
Its leader was Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.
The other was called the Republicans.
Its leader was Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.
Each group represented the political beliefs of its leader.
Hamilton and the Federalists wanted a strong national government with a powerful president and courts.
They supported policies that helped bankers and wealthy businessmen.
They urged close economic and diplomatic ties with Britain.
They did not like democracy, which they described as mob rule.
The Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton was not the same as an earlier group also called Federalists.
The word was used to describe those who supported the new American Constitution.
Those who opposed the Constitution were known as anti-Federalists.
Some early Federalists, like Hamilton, later became members of the Federalist Party.
They were extremely powerful.
They controlled the Congress during the presidency of George Washington.
And they almost controlled Washington himself, through his dependence on Alexander Hamilton.Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans supported the Constitution as a plan of government.
But they did not think the Constitution gave the national government unlimited powers.
They supported policies that helped the nation's farmers and small businessmen.
They urged closer ties with the French people, who were rebelling against their king.
And they demanded more rights, more democracy, for the people of the United States.
The men who led these two groups were very different.Alexander Hamilton of the aristocratic Federalists was not born to an established, upper-class American family.
He was born in the West Indies to a man and woman who were not married.
However, Hamilton was educated in America.
And he gained a place in society by marrying the daughter of a wealthy landowner in New York state.
Money and position were important to Hamilton.
He believed men of money and position should govern the nation.Thomas
Jefferson of the Democratic Republicans could have been what Alexander Hamilton wanted to be.
Through his mother, he was distantly related to British noblemen.
And he liked fine food, wine, books, and music.
But Jefferson had great respect for simple farmers and for the men who opened America's western lands to settlement.
He believed they, too, had a right to govern the nation.
Both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were loyal Americans.
Yet they held completely opposing opinions on how America's government should operate.
Their personal disagreements turned into a public dispute when they served in President Washington's cabinet.
The two men did not argue directly in public, however.
They fought their war of words in two newspapers.
Both knew the power of the press.
Jefferson, especially, felt the need for newspapers in a democracy.
He believed they provided the only way for a large population to know the truth.
During the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as an assistant to George Washington, the commander-in-chief.
One of his jobs was to get money and supplies for the army.
Hamilton asked the thirteen state governments.
He also asked the Congress, which had little political power at that time.
He got almost no help from either.
Hamilton felt the new system of government under the Articles of Confederation was weak and disorganized.
He did not think the states should have so much power.
What America needed, he said, was a strong central government.
Without it, the Confederation would break apart.
Hamilton expressed his opinions in several newspaper articles.
He did not put his own name on the articles.
This was the convention that finally met in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven and wrote the American Constitution.
Hamilton was one of the delegates.
Afterwards, he helped write a series of newspaper articles to win support for the Constitution.
These were the Federalist Papers, written together with James Madison and John Jay.Philip Freneau's National Gazette was the first official Republican newspaper.
During its two-year existence, it was the leading critic of Federalist policies.
When Hamilton became treasury secretary under President Washington, he continued to use the press.
Only now, he was trying to win support for his own policies.
Hamilton spoke through a newspaper called the Gazette of the United States.
Its editor was John Fenno.
Jefferson won the support of several newspapers.
But these were not part of his political movement.
It was important, he felt, to have one newspaper speak for him.
James Madison found it for him.
It would be edited by Madison's old friend Philip Freneau.
It would be called the National Gazette.
Most of the people who supported Hamilton lived in the cities of the northeast.
They were the nation's bankers and big businessmen.
They were lawyers, doctors, and clergymen.
Jefferson respected Hamilton's political power.
But he saw that Hamilton did not have a national organization of common people.
The cotton gin made cotton a profitable crop in the U.S. The machine shown, invented by Eli Whitney, received a patent in 1794.In the seventeen nineties, ninety percent of Americans were farmers, laborers, and small businessmen.
They were bitter over government policies that always seemed to help bankers, big landowners, and wealthy businessmen.
They had no political party to speak for them.
These were the people Thomas Jefferson wanted to reach.
Jefferson's task was big.
Many of these Americans knew little of what was happening outside their local area.
Many were not permitted to vote, because they did not own property.
Jefferson looked at the situation in each state.
Almost everywhere he found local political groups fighting against state laws that helped the rich.
Here was what Jefferson needed.
If these local groups could be brought together into a national party, the Federalists would finally have some organized opposition.
Jefferson's party included rich men and poor men.
They joined together to fight what they saw as a misuse of power by Federalists in the national government.
We will continue our story next week.
Our program was written by Christine Johnson and read by Frank Oliver and Ray Freeman.
Common sense would tell us that physically active children may be more likely to become active and healthy adults.
A high school gym classIn the United States, elementary and middle schools are advised to give students two and a half hours of physical activity a week.
That is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association recommend.
They say high schools should provide about four hours of physical activity each week.
Yet many schools across the country have reduced their physical education programs.
Criticism of the cuts has led in some places to efforts to give students more time for exercise, not less.
The future health of Americans may depend on it.
Just this week, a study reported that life expectancy has fallen or is no longer increasing in some parts of the United States.
The situation is worst among poor people in the southern states, and especially women.
Public health researchers say it is largely the result of increases in obesity, smoking and high blood pressure.
They also blame differences in health services around the country.
In two thousand six, a study found that only four percent of elementary schools provided daily physical education all year for all grades.
This was true of eight percent of middle schools and two percent of high schools.
She says one problem for P.E. teachers is that schools are under pressure to put more time into academic subjects.
Also, parents may agree that children need exercise in school.
Yet many parents today still have bad memories of being chosen last for teams because teachers favored the good athletes in class.
But experts say P.E. classes have changed.
They say the goal has moved away from competition and toward personal performance, as a way to build a lifetime of activity.
These days, teachers often lead activities like weight training and yoga.
Some parents like the idea of avoiding competitive sports in P.E. class.
Yet others surely dislike that idea.
In the end, schools may find themselves in a no-win situation.
Today we play music from Dengue Fever … Answer a listener question about the oldest university in America … And report on four Kings of fiction writing.
The Kings of Fiction Stephen King is one of the most popular living writers in the world.
He has written more than forty books and two hundred short stories.
His books have sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world.
Most of his stories are about frightening and mysterious events.
Stephen King is not the only writer in his family.
His wife and two sons have also published books.
Barbara Klein tells us about the writers of the King family.
Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha, met in college in the state of Maine.
Both were already writers.
They did not have much money or much time for writing because they soon had three children.
But, both worked hard to find time to write.
Tabitha King helped start Stephen's career.
She rescued his early version of the book “Carrie” from the waste basket where he had thrown it in a moment of hopelessness.
Stephen King published “Carrie” in nineteen seventy-four.
It became a best seller.
The money from this book as well as his short stories meant that the Kings could spend their time writing.
Over the years Stephen King has written many famous horror stories.
These include “The Shining,” “Cujo” “It” and “Misery.”
All of these popular books have been made into movies.
His imaginative and unforgettable stories have made him one of the most famous writers in the world.
Tabitha King has published nine books.
Her latest book is called “Candles Burning.”
Her friend, writer Michael McDowell, started writing the book.
When he died, she was asked to complete the book.
He waited eight years to tell his book agent that his father was Stephen King.
Joe’s book, “Heart-Shaped Box,” has received great critical praise.
And, Stephen and Tabitha’s son Owen King also writes books.
His published short story collection is called “We’re All in This Together.”
Tabitha, Stephen and Owen King recently came to Washington, D.C., for a reading event at the PEN/Faulkner organization.
The three writers gave entertaining and often funny readings of their work.
They also met with local students to speak about the importance of reading and writing.
Stephen King said reading is like exercise.
The more you read, he said, the easier and more pleasurable it becomes.
Oldest U.S. University?
Our listener question this week comes from Ali Awod.
He wants to know which university in the United States is the oldest.
That question is not as easy to answer as it sounds.
There are disputes among a few schools over the claim to being the oldest.
The problem??
Not everyone agrees on what a university is.
That being said, we are going to go with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The school's Web site avoids the “oldest university” debate this way.
It says Harvard is the “oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.” Harvard is three hundred seventy-two years old.
It opened as Harvard College in sixteen thirty-six when the American colonies were under British rule.
It had nine students at the time.
Harvard was named after its first financial supporter, John Harvard.
He was a Christian clergyman from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
He left his library and half of everything else he owned to the school when he died in sixteen thirty-eight.
Harvard admitted only men for most of its history.
It opened an allied college for women called the Harvard Annex in eighteen seventy-nine.
This was later established as Radcliffe College.
Women were permitted to attend Harvard classes beginning in the nineteen forties.
But it was nineteen sixty-three before women were officially enrolled in Harvard University and permitted to earn Harvard degrees.
Today, Harvard has about eighteen thousand students in undergraduate and graduate programs.
It is considered one of the best universities in the country, the richest, and the most difficult to gain admission.
Drew Gilpin Faust is the twenty-eighth president of Harvard.
She is the first female president in the university's history.
Harvard has had many famous graduates.
Several American presidents are among them, including the current president, George Bush.
He graduated from Harvard's business school.
A current American presidential candidate is also a former Harvard student.
Senator Barack Obama graduated from its law school.
Harvard has also had its share of famous drop-outs.
?Bill Gates began at Harvard in nineteen seventy-three and left two years later without graduating.
We think he did pretty well in life, even without the Harvard degree, but the school gave him an honorary degree last year.
Dengue Fever (the Band) Dengue Fever is a six-member rock band based in California.
They are influenced by Cambodian rock music from the nineteen sixties.
Two brothers, Zac and Ethan Holtzman, formed the group seven years ago.
Dengue Fever’s latest album, “Venus on Earth,” has songs in English as well as in Khmer.
Critics are praising this record for its inventive and energetic sound.
Faith Lapidus has more.
About eleven years ago, Ethan Holtzman visited Cambodia.
He discovered that he liked Cambodian popular music from the nineteen sixties.
So, he brought back recordings of this music when he returned home to the United States.
Later, Ethan Holtzman and his brother decided to form a band to play their own version of Cambodian rock music.
But first they had to find a singer who would be true to the Cambodian music tradition.
They asked the well-known Cambodian performer Chhom Nimol to join their group.
She was performing in an area of Long Beach, California that has a large Cambodian population.
Here is the song “Sober Driver” from Dengue Fever's album “Venus on Earth.”  Chhom Nimol comes from a family of well-known Cambodian singers.
She and the American members of her band returned to Cambodia in two thousand five to perform there.
Chhom Nimol has said that it was important to her to bring Cambodian rock music back to her country.
Many of the stars of Cambodian popular music were killed or disappeared during the rule of the Khmer Rouge in the nineteen seventies.
Dengue Fever has helped revive this tradition in an inventive way.
Here is the song “Monsoon of Perfume.”  Dengue Fever will be playing their music in Europe in May and June.
Crowds there might hear them sing “Tiger Phone Card.”
It tells about two people in love who live far apart.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also the producer.
And please include your full name and mailing address.
The debate over free trade has intensified in this election year in the United States.
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if they could not renegotiate it as president.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, they say, has cost high-wage jobs in the United States.
Hillary Clinton after her 10-point victory over Barack Obama in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primaryTheir message is clear to people in states like Pennsylvania that have lost thousands of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has criticized such talk about NAFTA.
Senator McCain says the biggest problem is not free trade, but the inability to change with the new world economy.
Congress passed the agreement with Canada and Mexico in nineteen ninety-three.
President Bill Clinton signed it into law, though this is the first year NAFTA is fully in effect.
United States trade officials say trade among the NAFTA nations more than tripled from nineteen ninety-three to last year.
They say jobs, manufacturing and wages in the United States increased faster in the last fourteen years than in the fourteen years before NAFTA.
Senators Clinton and Obama say Canada and Mexico should agree to add protections for the environment and organized labor.
Separate agreements deal with these issues now, but critics say the provisions are weak.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, right, with President Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
All three said now is not the time to renegotiate NAFTA.
The Bush administration wants Congress to approve new trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
The free trade agreement with South Korea would be the biggest since NAFTA.
South Korea would cut import taxes on American goods like beef and cars, but duties on rice would stay in place.
Last week South Korea announced plans to fully reopen its beef market to American products.
It banned imports at the end of two thousand three over a case of mad cow disease in Washington state.
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. labor group in the United States opposes the free trade agreement with Colombia.
It says Colombia has a poor record on labor rights.
Seventeen labor organizers have been killed in Colombia this year.
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives voted to delay action on the agreement.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi says economic issues at home are more pressing.
January first.
The beginning of a new year.
As far back in history as we can tell, people have celebrated the start of a new year.
The people of ancient Egypt began their new year in summer.
That is when the Nile River flooded its banks, bringing water and fertility to the land.
Today, most people celebrate New Year’s Day on January first.
People observe the New Year’s holiday in many different ways.
The ancient Babylonians celebrated by forcing their king to give up his crown and royal clothing.
They made him get down on his knees and admit all the mistakes he had made during the past year.
The idea of admitting mistakes and finishing the business of the old year is found in many cultures at New Year’s.
So is the idea of making New Year’s resolutions.
A resolution is a promise to change or do something different in the coming year.
Making New Year’s resolutions is a common American tradition.
Today, popular resolutions might include the promise to lose weight, stop smoking, or be more productive at work.
Some of our Special English writers and announcers offered New Year’s resolutions of their own.
One person decided to get a new cat to replace a beloved one that recently died.
Another promised to stop telling stories about other people.
And another staff member promised to spend more time with his family.
Other people use New Year’s resolutions to make major changes in their lives.
One such resolution might be to “stop and smell the flowers.”?
This means to take time to enjoy simple pleasures instead of always being too busy and in a hurry.
Another resolution might be “don’t sweat the small stuff.”?
This means not to worry or get angry about unimportant things.
Another resolution might be to be happy now and to forget about bad things that happened in the past.
Or, to be thankful for the most important things in life, like family and friends.
Our resolution is to wish all of our listeners a happy, healthy and productive New Year!?
We present fifteen minutes of music about . . .
time.  We celebrate the New Year with a few examples of music about time.
In nineteen fifty-four, the group Bill Haley and His Comets provided musical proof that any time on the clock is a good time to dance.
In nineteen sixty-five, a group named the Byrds recorded a song that seemed modern.
But the words are old.
They are from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Countless songs have been written about time.
Many songs are also about two other forces that seem just as unstoppable -- love and desire.
This song by Jim Croce captures these emotions.
Jim Croce did not have much time to live.
The singer died in an airplane crash in nineteen seventy-three.
He was thirty years old.
Another song about love and time is sung by one of the most famous groups of our time, the Rolling Stones.
In this song, time is an ally.
Americans sing a traditional Scottish song at New Year's celebrations.
Eighteen century Poet Robert Burns wrote the words.
It is about keeping alive the memory of old friends.
The song has become a well- known signal of the beginning of another year.
This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Caty Weaver.
This week, we talk about last year.
We tell about some important science stories of two thousand six -- discoveries in medicine, space and the environment.
Some of the biggest science stories last year were in health and medicine.
And two of them came late in two thousand six.
First is a major finding about the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
In December, AIDS researchers announced findings about adult male circumcision.
Two studies in Africa found that circumcised men had about half the risk of getting HIV from sex with women as uncircumcised men had.
The studies took place in Kenya and Uganda.
rates are generally lower in areas of the world where the removal of the foreskin from the penis is common in babies or young boys.
The findings of the African studies were so clear that the United States National Institutes of Health decided to end both studies early.
All the men involved now are being offered circumcision.
The researchers said male circumcision could also lead to fewer infections in women where HIV is spread through heterosexual sex.
Health experts say they hope circumcision will become one of the basic tools to fight HIV and AIDS.
But they expect some cultural and economic barriers.
Some people have also expressed another concern about circumcision.
They say it might make men think they do not need to do anything else to prevent HIV infection.
Another major health story last month concerned breast cancer.
The news came from cancer researchers at the University of Texas in Houston.
They had found a sharp decrease in newly found breast cancer rates between two thousand two and two thousand three.
It was the first such drop in seventy years.
For years doctors treated these conditions of menopause with the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
But in two thousand two a large study showed hormone replacement therapy seemed to increase the risk of breast cancer.
The use of hormone replacement therapy then dropped by fifty percent.
The researchers at the University of Texas say overall rates of new breast cancers dropped seven percent the next year.
And they said breast cancer that is linked to estrogen decreased by at least twelve percent.
However, health experts say the findings do not prove that hormone replacement therapy causes breast cancer.
There was also news about a new vaccine to prevent another cancer in women -- cervical cancer.
United Nations health officials called for the wide use of the vaccine against the human papilloma virus, or H.P.V. H.P.V. causes seventy percent of all cervical cancers.
It is a leading cause of cancer deaths in women in developing countries.
The vaccine could prevent more than two-thirds of deaths from cervical cancer around the world.
Officials say the vaccine is safe and effective for females between the ages of nine and twenty-six.
Not all the science news last year was medical.
In August, more than two thousand members of the International Astronomical Union met in the Czech capital, Prague.
They agreed to a new definition of planet.
They also agreed that Pluto did not meet the terms of the new definition.
So, now the solar system has eight planets instead of nine.
But do not cry for the former ninth planet.
The astronomical union says we should not think we have lost a planet but that we have gained a new kind of space object: the dwarf planet, Pluto.
Astronomers and physicists were also interested in some information provided by the Hubble Space Telescope last year.
It provided some light on the mysterious force known as dark energy.
The Hubble examined stars that exploded billions of years ago.
The findings: dark energy has been present for most of the history of the universe.
Dark energy is a mysterious force that causes the universe to expand at an increasing rate.
Scientists do not know much about dark energy.
But they say it makes up about seventy percent of the energy in the universe.
It appears to balance the force of gravity.
Most physicists consider dark energy to be the force that Albert Einstein called the cosmological constant.
It prevents gravity from pulling all matter together in a cosmic crush.
This latest study shows dark energy was present in the universe as long as nine billion years ago.
Over the next four billion years the power of dark energy grew.
The expansion rate of the universe began speeding up about five billion years ago.
That is when scientists believe that dark energy's force overtook gravity.
Adam Reiss of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland led this research.
Hubble also got some good news of its own last year.
announced it would fly a shuttle crew to the space telescope to make repairs and add new equipment.
The telescope orbits six hundred kilometers above the Earth.
The shuttle crew is expected to make the trip in May of next year.
They hope to fix Hubble so it can continue operating until two thousand thirteen.
In other news from last year, the American space agency, NASA, returned to space.
Three successful launches of the space shuttle visited the International Space Station.
NASA's two Mars vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, continued their exploration of the red planet.
They found signs of recently flowing water on the planet.
An orbiting spacecraft gave the world extraordinary images of the planet Saturn and its rings.
also announced important plans for the future.
It will update the design of the space shuttles.
And it is planning an international permanent base on the moon by the year twenty twenty.
Global warming remained a hot subject of earth science last year.
Scientists declared that the ice at both the North and South Poles was melting.
A long-term study showed that Greenland lost one hundred billion metric tons of ice between two thousand three and two thousand five.
Antarctica at the South Pole contains almost seventy percent of the world’s fresh water.
The continent is almost all ice.
In some areas that ice is close to two thousand meters thick.
Scientists said the Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as one hundred fifty-two cubic kilometers of ice every year.
One study suggests that melting ice from both poles could cause sea levels in the world to rise by several meters by the end of this century.
As a result, low-lying areas of land could be under water.
Some international ecology scientists and economists gave a serious warning about the future for fish.
They reported that seafood supplies from the world's oceans could be almost gone within fifty years because of overfishing.
The researchers reported their findings in Science magazine in November.
They said there had already been a collapse in wild populations of almost one-third of currently fished seafoods.
The study says that means the catch has fallen by ninety percent from the highest levels.
The scientists said that species have recently been disappearing from oceans at increasing speed.
The scientists said it is not too late to repair the damage done to the oceans from overfishing, climate change and other forces.
These days, if we hear about two different plants being combined, the first thing we think of is modern biotechnology.
But the low-technology process of grafting remains an extremely important form of genetic engineering in agriculture.
Many kinds of plants are grown not from seeds but from pieces cut from existing plants.
Farmers cut branches or buds, young growths, from one plant and place them on a related kind of plant.
The branch or bud that is grafted is called a scion [pronounced SY-uhn].
The plant that accepts the graft is called the root stock.
Over time, the parts from the two plants grow together.
The grafted plant begins to produce the leaves and fruit of the scion, not the root stock.
A graft can be cut in several ways.
A cleft graft, for example, requires a scion with several buds on it.
The bottom of the scion is cut in the shape of the letter V. A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion.
The scion is then securely placed into the cut on the root stock.
Material called a growth medium is put on the joint to keep it wet and help the growth.
Grafting can join scions with desirable qualities to root stock that is strong and resists disease and insects.
Smaller trees can be grafted with older scions.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency says producing stronger plants by grafting can reduce the need to use pesticides.
Agriculture could not exist as we know it without grafting.
Many fruits and nuts have been improved through this method.
Some common fruit trees such as sweet cherries and McIntosh apples have to be grafted.
Bing cherries, for example, are one of the most popular kinds of cherries.
But a Bing cherry tree is not grown from seed.
Branches that produce Bing cherries must be grafted onto root stock.
All sweet cherries on the market are grown this way.
And then there are seedless fruits like navel oranges and seedless watermelons.
Have you ever wondered how farmers grow them??
Through grafting.
The grapefruit tree is another plant that depends on grafting to reproduce.
Grapes, apples, pears and also flowers can be improved through grafting.
In an age of high-technology agriculture, grafting still holds an important place.
At the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia, you can see the work of jewelry designer Susan Sanders.
Her many gold and silver designs have a clean and modern look.
One of her silver rings has a bold geometric design with small smooth stones inlayed into the metal.
How did she make this ring?
Today we answer this question as we explore the history and methods of jewelry design.
People from almost all cultures throughout history have been making and wearing jewelry.
Jewelry is valued for its visual quality, the richness of its materials and the expert way it is made.
Since ancient times people have worn jewelry like rings, bracelets and necklaces to decorate their fingers, wrists and necks.
Ancient peoples who lived near the ocean used the shells of sea creatures to make jewelry.
Other ancient peoples used materials like small colored rocks and animal bones and teeth.
Jewelry often was made from whatever material was considered rare and costly.
It expressed the wealth and social importance of its wearer.
Later cultures learned how to find and work with gold.
One of gold’s important qualities is that it is a very soft metal.
It can be easily formed or even flattened into extremely thin sheets of metal.
Some of the oldest and finest known jewelry comes from the burial site of the Sumerian ruler Queen Pu-abi.
This Mesopotamian culture existed more than four thousand five hundred years ago.
In this area that is now Iraq, archeologists discovered fine examples of gold jewelry.
Many of the jewelry designs combined the brightness of gold with the intense blue stone called lapus lazuli.
This jewelry shows some of the earliest examples of metalworking methods such as filigree and granulation.
Granulation is a technique in which tiny gold balls are placed in a decorative pattern and joined onto a gold surface.
Filigree is made by arranging fine gold or silver wires into patterns or images.
Filigree work can either be joined onto a metal surface, or left as openwork.
Many cultures have left extraordinary examples of this technique.
Examples include the jewelry of ancient Greeks and the eighteenth century Qing period in China.
Several other metal working methods were developed in ancient times and still define jewelry design today.
They include cloisonn?
work and casting.
Cloisonn? involves forming metal borders to make different contained areas on the surface of the piece of jewelry.
These spaces are then filled with different pieces of finely carved precious stones or with small bits of glass that are melted together.
The ancient Egyptians were experts of the cloisonn?
method.
For example, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City you can see a beautiful cloisonn?
necklace made more than four thousand years ago.
More than three hundred small stones make up a detailed image of Egyptian symbols such as birds and snake creatures.
The symbols tell about the sun god giving long life to the Egyptian ruler of that time, King Senwosret the Second.
For thousands of years, Egyptian jewelry represented a great tradition of artistic skill.
Many of the pieces were not only beautiful, but also believed to be magical.
Amulet jewelry was believed to protect people or give them special powers.
For example, scarabs in the form of the beetle insect were believed to be the symbol of new life.
Jewelers in ancient Egypt made many examples of finely carved scarab rings and necklaces that still exist today.
One very old technique of metal casting is called the lost-wax method.
With this method, an artist carves the shape of jewelry he or she wants to make out of wax material.
This shape is placed into a piece of clay, which is heated at high temperatures.
The clay takes the form of the ring, but the wax inside melts away because of the heat.
This is why the method is called lost-wax.
The original carved wax model is lost, but its form remains in the clay.
Hot liquid metal such as gold is placed inside this clay form.
As the metal cools and hardens, it takes the form left by the wax.
The rulers of Asante in modern day Ghana wore gold jewelry made with the lost-wax method.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Asante jewelers made beautiful, fine, detailed gold objects.
The ruling family and other leaders wore objects as symbols of their importance, wealth and power.
Granulation, filigree, cloisonn?
and casting are only a few of the metalworking methods used by jewelers both in the past and today.
Of course, not all jewelry is made by metalworking.
Many cultures throughout history used other valuable materials as well.
For example, in China, carved jade stone was part of an ancient jewelry tradition.
This green stone was beautiful and also thought to have magical powers.
In southern Nigeria during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, only the ruling family of Benin had the right to wear jewelry carved of white ivory material.
These are only a few examples of the creativity humans have demonstrated with the art of making jewelry.
What kinds of jewelry traditions exist where you live?
The methods we have described are still being used by artists today.
Modern technology and newer methods have only added to the countless ways that stones, metals and other materials can be formed.
Today, jewelry designers combine old and new methods with styles from around the world.
Many also use unexpected materials, such as plastics, cotton and wood.
The creative possibilities of modern jewelry making are limitless.
The Torpedo Factory Art Center is in the old area of Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.
Here, on the second floor is a workroom and store called Susan Sanders Design.
I'm a jewelry designer at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
I started making jewelry when I was in college but my desire to make things started much earlier than that.
My father was a graphics designer and brought me home professional supplies.
My original plan was to be a furniture designer, but I like things I can hold in my hand.”
Susan Sanders says this ring is not the easiest of her rings to wear.
It is more like a finger sculpture.
She carved the main sterling silver form of the ring from a piece of hard wax material.
With the lost-wax method we told about earlier, she carved the wax model to make the silver form.
Then, she used a milling machine to create a perfect circle opening for a finger.
She also used this milling tool to carve out the areas where she placed small pieces of onyx and jasper stone.
Once the stones were in place, she ground the surface to a smooth finish.
Like most of her work, this ring is very modern and geometric.
Susan Sanders says she is not exactly sure where her ideas come from.
Some ideas come from subjects she loves such as modern architecture.
But the hardest part is choosing an idea for a piece of jewelry since she does not have the time or resources to make every design she imagines.
Susan Sanders sells most of her work in her store in Alexandria.
If you visit the store, you can see her hard at work on new jewelry.
Galleries in California also carry her designs.
She has even shown her work in countries such as Italy and South Korea.
Listen as Susan Sanders tells about an exciting show she helped put together in Russia: “I have had quite a number of shows in different countries.
The most exciting of which was a show that we had in Moscow in Russia that was called Two Capitals which was jewelry designers from the Washington, D.C., area and artists also from the Moscow area.
We put together a show and went over there with it.
In recent years, research has suggested more health value from vitamin D than had once been thought.
Vitamin D is found in eggs and other foods and is also added to milkVitamin D is produced naturally in the blood.
Sunlight is a major source.
It is also found in some foods.
These include eggs, liver and some fish.
Vitamin D is also found in pills.
Vitamin D helps to increase levels of calcium in the blood.
It helps build strong bones and teeth.
It also helps in muscle development.
It also appears to do more than just protect against rickets.
That serious bone disease was the reason vitamin D was added to milk.
Rickets is now rare in the western world.
But it is still a common childhood disease in developing countries.
Rickets can cause bone pain and weakness, teeth problems and muscle loss.
Now researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston say vitamin D might protect against multiple sclerosis, also called MS. is a progressive disease of the central nervous system that affects about two million people around the world.
There is no cure.
causes problems with speech and movement.
The level of severity can differ from person to person.
But is usually seriously disabling.
The study in Boston involved blood samples from more than seven million members of the American military.
It found that people with higher levels of vitamin D had lower rates of MS.
It found that the chance of developing MS was sixty-two percent lower among those with the highest level of vitamin D than those with the lowest level.
Alberto Ascherio led the study.
He says vitamin D may become a future treatment for MS.
But, he says first scientists must carry out a large, controlled study in which some people get vitamin D and others do not.
This is not the first study to show a possible relationship between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis.
But it has provided the clearest evidence of a direct link.
The National Institutes of Health says some studies also suggest vitamin D may protect against some kinds of cancer, especially colon cancer.
But it says more human studies are needed to learn if a lack of vitamin D increases the risk of cancer…or if treatment with large amounts of vitamin D could protect against the disease.
And that's the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver.
Financial aid is the subject this week in our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States.
Students who want to study in the United States may find that their chances for financial aid are limited.
They often have to pay for their education with their own savings or their family's money.
?
A recent report from the Institute of International Education in New York looked at the two thousand five-two thousand six school year: Colleges and universities in the United States had more than half a million foreign students.
Sixty-three percent of them paid for school mostly by themselves or with family help.
Twenty-six percent were supported by the school they attended.
There are other sources of financial aid for international students.
These include a student's home government or university, or the United States government.
Private sponsors, international organizations and employers may also provide support.
Yet during the last school year, not many students were able to depend on any of these other sources.
Current employers provided the most help.
Still, they represented the main support for just four percent of international students.
Those at the graduate level, however, are more likely than undergraduates to receive financial aid in the United States.
More than eighty percent of foreign undergraduates depended mostly on personal and family money to pay for school last year.
The same was true of less than half of graduate students.
Most of the others received financial aid from their college or university in the United States.
A list of American schools that offer financial aid to foreign students can be found at a useful Web site.
The address is edupass.org -- e-d-u-p-a-s-s dot o-r-g.
This site also provides information about scholarship programs.
But it warns foreign students not to pay if there is any charge for scholarship application forms.
You could be cheated out of your money.
Our Foreign Student Series continues next week with more information from the Institute of International Education.
Be sure to include your name and country.
The House of Representatives of the Congress closed for business early on the rainy afternoon of April twelfth, nineteen forty-five.
But it was a quiet afternoon in Washington.
President Franklin Roosevelt was in the state of Georgia.
He was resting after his recent trip to Yalta to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
The president's wife, Eleanor, was at the White House, working on a speech supporting the new United Nations organization.
Vice President Harry Truman was at the Senate.
But he was not interested in the debate.
He spent most of his time writing a letter to his mother and sister back in the state of Missouri.
When the debate finished, he went to the office of House leader Rayburn to join him for a drink.
It was an afternoon Truman would never forget.
Rayburn and his other friend were talking in the office before Truman arrived.
Suddenly the telephone rang.
It was the White House.
He immediately called the White House.
As he talked, his face became white.
He put down the phone and raced out the door to find his car.
Truman arrived at the White House within minutes.
He asked Missus Roosevelt if there was anything he could do to help her.
Americans were shocked and afraid.
Roosevelt had led them since early nineteen thirty-three.
He was the only president many young Americans had ever known.
Who would lead them now.
The answer was Harry Truman, the vice president.
Truman had been a surprise choice for vice president.
Delegates at the Democratic presidential convention of nineteen forty-four chose him to be with Roosevelt only after considering several other candidates.
Roosevelt and Truman easily defeated their Republican Party opponents.
And, when Roosevelt died, Truman became president.
Truman lacked the fame, the rich family, and the strong speaking voice of Franklin Roosevelt.
He was a much simpler man.
He grew up in the central state of Missouri.
Truman only studied through high school and some night-time law school classes.
He worked for many years as a farmer and a small businessman, but without much success.
Truman had long been interested in politics.
When he was almost forty years old, he finally won several low-level jobs in his home state.
By nineteen thirty-four, he was popular enough in the state to be nominated and elected to the United States Senate.
And he won re-election six years later.
Most Americans, however, knew little about Truman when he became president.
They knew he had close ties to the Democratic Party political machine in his home state.
But they also had heard that he was a very honest man.
But they could not be sure what kind of president Truman would become.
History gave Truman little time to learn about his new job.
In one of his first weeks as president, Truman signed a paper on his desk without reading it completely.
Truman's mistake caused problems for people in both the United States and Britain.
But it also taught the new president how much power he now had, and how carefully he must use it.
The most important power he now possessed was the power of atomic weapons.
And, soon after he became president, he faced the decision to use that terrible power or not.
Truman understood the tragic importance of using atomic bombs to end World War Two.
Yet he firmly believed that using such bombs was the only way to force Japan to surrender.
So in August, nineteen forty-five, he gave the orders to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The war in Europe had ended several months earlier.
Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to plan the peace.
The three leaders agreed that their nations and France would occupy Germany jointly.
They also agreed to end the Nazi party in Germany, to hold trials for Nazi war criminals, and to break up some German businesses.
Foreign ministers of the Allied nations later negotiated peace treaties with Germany's wartime allies and other countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Romania.
The east European nations all agreed to protect the political and economic freedom of their citizens.
However, western political experts were becoming more fearful each day that the Soviet Union would block any effort for real democracy in eastern Europe.
Truman did not trust the soviets.
And as he made plans for Asia, he promised himself that he would not allow Moscow any part in controlling Japan.
For this reason, the Allied occupation of Japan was mainly American.
General Douglas MacArthurThe American leader in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, acted quickly to hold a series of trials for Japanese war crimes.
He also launched a series of reforms to move Japan toward becoming a modern Western democracy.
Women were given the right to vote.
Land was divided among farmers.
Shinto was ended as the national religion.
And the educational system was reorganized.
Japan began to recover very soon, becoming stronger than ever before as an economic power.
While Truman and other world leaders dealt with the problems of making peace, they also were trying to establish a new system for keeping the peace.
The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the other Allies had formed the United Nations as a wartime organization.
But soon after Truman took office, they met in San Francisco to discuss ways to make the United Nations a permanent organization for peace.
At the same time, many of the world's economic experts were meeting to organize a new economic system for the world.
They created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help nations rebuild their economies.
At the center of all the action was Harry Truman.
It was not long before he showed Americans and the world that he had the ability to be a good president.
Somehow, the best of them just went ahead and did what they had to do.
Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt.
Our program was written by David Jarmul.
The NYSE Group and Euronext hope to create the world's largest financial exchange group by the end of March.
Their shareholders voted last month to approve a plan to combine the two exchange operators.
The proposed fourteen billion dollar deal will create the first trans-Atlantic stock exchange.
American and European government officials must still approve the merger plan.
The new group, to be called NYSE Euronext, will have a combined market value of about twenty-seven billion dollars.
The deal has been developing since June.
The New York Stock Exchange is the world's biggest stock market.
Euronext is Europe's leading international exchange.
It operates the stock markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris.
Germany's Deutsche Borse withdrew its own offer for Euronext in November.
Financial markets have grown increasingly international and competitive.
The planned merger of Euronext and the NYSE Group is a good example of this new climate.
Euronext is itself the product of mergers.
The Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris exchanges joined in two thousand to create Euronext.
It was first traded publicly in two thousand one, and has since added other exchanges in Lisbon and London.
In the past, stock markets were organized unlike the companies they listed.
Now many financial markets operate as publicly traded businesses.
That means they must answer to their own shareholders.
The New York Stock Exchange was a nonprofit organization that was largely self-supervising.
Then, last March, the NYSE Group was formed as a publicly traded company.
That happened when the Big Board combined with the electronic trading exchange Archipelago Holdings.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange became the first publicly traded exchange in the United States at the end of two thousand two.
Some markets have sought to buy or link with other exchanges.
These deals have created bigger markets, often selling highly complex financial products.
Bigger markets offer more liquidity -- investors have a greater chance of selling quickly if needed.
NYSE Euronext will trade not only stocks but options, futures, bonds and more.
Total value of the listed companies??
About twenty-six trillion dollars.
The stock prices of the NYSE Group and Euronext both doubled last year.
This has other big exchanges considering deals of their own.
They have been friends since college.
They are well educated and intelligent but are not successful.
Julian Clarke and Danielle Minkoff have jobs that are not satisfying.
Marina Thwaite has been writing a book she cannot seem to finish.
The young people respect Marina's father who is a famous intellectual, journalist and social activist.
He gives advice about life and work but privately violates these ideas.
At the end of the book, all of the characters are affected by the terrorist attack on New York City on September eleventh, two thousand one.
It describes the end of the world as we know it.
A father and his young son try to survive in a land destroyed by a nuclear disaster.
They are two of the last survivors on Earth.
They must continue walking along the road so they do not become victims of attacks by other survivors.
They must also search for food and safe places to rest.
One critic said this frightening book takes readers to places they do not want to go.
It forces them to ask questions they do not want to ask.
Others praise the descriptions of the relationship between the boy and the father, and the sights and sounds of their horrible world.
It is a fictional story about a real person, Valentino Achak Deng.
He was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war.
The book tells his story from the age of seven when soldiers destroy his village and he is separated from his family.
Valentino finally reaches the United States as a young man.
But he finds life there in some ways more difficult than it was in Africa.
Best Movies of 2006 At the end of each year, critics list what they consider to be the best movies released that year.
Many critics praised two historical films directed by Clint Eastwood.
Both were released near the end of the year.
They tell about the World War Two battle between American and Japanese forces for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.
The movies describe both sides of the battle that killed almost seven thousand American troops and more than twenty thousand Japanese.
Critics especially praised the movie that tells the Japanese story.
The Japanese soldiers sent to Iwo Jima to defend the island against the American attack did not expect to survive.
The movie tells about those who took part in the battle and their commander.
Critics say the movie paints a detailed picture of the island, the lives of the Japanese defending it and the horrors of war.
It is about three American servicemen who helped raise the American flag on Iwo Jima.
They were sent back to the United States to help the government gain money for the war effort.
It shows the events that might have happened on the hijacked airplane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
It is about what Americans call a dysfunctional family.
That is, a family with problems.
The movie follows six members of the Hoover family on a road trip together from New Mexico to California.
They make the trip so that the daughter, seven-year-old Olive, can compete in a beauty contest.
She did so in two thousand three, right before the invasion of Iraq.
The group said the comment and the reaction to it changed their lives and their music.
One of the songs on their album expresses the importance of standing up for what you believe.
In fact, Billboard Magazine reports that one of the songs on the album was the number one modern rock song of the year.
Critics at Billboard Magazine voted this album the best of the year.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Nancy Steinbach.
Caty Weaver was our producer.
Please include your full name and mailing address.
American history was made, and remembered, this week in Washington.
On Thursday, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
The new Congress opened with Democrats in the majority in both houses for the first time in twelve years.
New members in the House include the first Muslim member of Congress.
Keith Ellison of Minnesota placed his left hand on a Koran during a ceremonial swearing-in.
He used a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson, America's third president.
But before the one hundred tenth Congress opened, Americans looked back at an earlier chapter in their history.
Funeral services and a national day of mourning took place this week for Gerald Ford.
America's thirty-eighth president died on December twenty-sixth at his home in California.
Mister Ford, a Republican, was ninety-three years old.
He was remembered as a likeable man who brought calm and healing to a nation torn by the political dirty tricks known as Watergate.
But for many, that time in the early nineteen seventies also represents the end of a period of high public trust in government.
Gerald Ford became the only American ever to serve as president and vice president without election to either office.
That was after he served in Congress for more than twenty years.
President Richard Nixon asked him to replace vice president Spiro Agnew.
Agnew had resigned over accusations of financial corruption.
But less than a year later, in August of nineteen seventy-four, Nixon resigned because of Watergate.
Had he not, Congress might have removed him from office.
The Watergate scandal is the name given to illegal activities by President Nixon's nineteen seventy-two re-election committee.
The name comes from a group of buildings in Washington, the Watergate complex.
A failed break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices there led to the discovery of the illegal activities.
The discovery came from an investigation by two young reporters at the Washington Post -- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
President Nixon ordered his aides to hide evidence of the wrongdoing.
A White House recording proved it.
Soon after the tapes became public, he resigned.
Then, a month after Gerald Ford became president, he pardoned Richard Nixon for all offenses he may have committed.
Mister Ford often said the pardon was a necessary step to unite the country.
To this day, there is debate about whether he acted correctly.
It meant Richard Nixon never had to face trial.
About forty people were charged with Watergate-related crimes.
Gerald Ford's decision may have cost him the nineteen seventy-six election.
He lost to Jimmy Carter in a close race.
Mister Ford's presidency lasted just twenty-nine months.
The former president was buried Wednesday at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Today we tell about some American expressions that are commonly used in business.
Bells sound.
Lighted messages appear.
Men and women work at computers.
They talk on the telephone.
At times they shout and run around.
This noisy place is a stock exchange.
Here expert salespeople called brokers buy and sell shares of companies.
The shares are known as stocks.
People who own stock in a company, own part of that company.
People pay brokers to buy and sell stocks for them.
If a company earns money, its stock increases in value.
If the company does not earn money,?the stock decreases in value.
Brokers and investors carefully watch for any changes on the Big Board.
That is the name given to a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange.
The first written use of the word with that meaning was in a newspaper in Illinois in eighteen thirty-seven.
In a bear market, prices go down.
In a bull market, prices go up.
Investors in a bear market promise to sell a stock in the future at a set price.
But the investor does not own the stock yet.
He or she waits to buy it when the price drops.
The meaning of a bear market is thought to come from an old story about a man who sold the skin of a bear before he caught the bear.
But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals -- bulls and bears -- in sports that were popular years ago in England.
Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing.
In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly up.
A company that goes belly up dies like a fish.
Fish turn over on their backs when they die.
So they are stomach, or belly, up.
Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company.
They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected.
This would sharply increase the value of the stock.
Investors are hoping for a windfall.
The word windfall comes from England of centuries ago.
There, poor people were banned from cutting trees in forests owned by rich land owners.
But, if the wind blew down a tree, a poor person could take the wood for fuel.
So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
Today we tell about Jane Jacobs.
She was an activist for improving cities.
Jane Jacobs was an activist, writer, moral thinker and economist.
She believed cities should be densely populated and full of different kinds of people and activities.
She believed in the value of natural growth and big open spaces.
She opposed the kind of city planning that involves big development and urban renewal projects that tear down old communities.
She was also a critic of public planning officials who were unwilling to compromise.
Jacobs helped lead fights to save neighborhoods and local communities within cities.
She helped stop major highways from being built, first in New York City and later in Toronto, Canada.
Developers and city planners often criticized her ideas.
Yet, many urban planning experts agree that her work helped shape modern thinking about cities.
Jane Butzner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in nineteen sixteen.
Her father was a doctor.
Her mother was a former teacher and nurse.
After graduating from high school, Jane took an unpaid position at the Scranton Tribune newspaper.
A year later she left Scranton for New York City.
During her first several years in the city she held many kinds of jobs.
One job was to write about workers in the city.
She said these experiences gave her a better idea about what working in the city was like.
As a young woman, Jacobs had many interests, including economics, law, science and politics.
Her higher education was brief, however.
She studied for just two years at Columbia University in New York.
Jacobs did not complete her college education, but she did become an excellent writer and editor.
While working as a writer for the Office of War Information she met a building designer named Robert Jacobs.
In nineteen forty-four, they married.
They later had three children.
Her husband's work led to her interest in the monthly magazine, Architectural Forum.
Jacobs became a top editor for the publication.
Experts have described Jacobs as a writer who wrote well, but not often.
She is best known for her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”?
The book was published in nineteen sixty-one.
It is still widely read today by both city planning professionals and the general public.
Experts say “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” is the most influential book written about city planning in the twentieth century.
In the book, Jacobs criticized the urban renewal projects of the nineteen fifties.
She believed these policies destroyed existing inner-city communities and their economies.
She also thought that modern planning policies separated communities and created unnatural city areas.
Jacobs described the nature of cities – their streets and parks, the different cultures represented by citizens and the safety of a well-planned city.
Safety was an important issue in big cities that had high rates of crime.
Jacobs wrote that peace on the streets of cities is not kept mainly by the police even though police are necessary.
It is kept by a system of controls among the people themselves.
She believed the problem of insecurity cannot be solved by spreading people out more thinly.
Jacobs argued that a well-used city street is safer than an empty street.
Safety, she argued, is guaranteed by people who watch the streets every day because they use the streets every day.
“The Death and Life of Great American Cities” became a guide for neighborhood organizers and the people who Jacobs called “foot people.”?
These are citizens who perform their everyday jobs on foot.
They walk to stores and to work.
They walk to eating places, theaters, parks, gardens and sports stadiums.
They are not who Jacobs called “car people” – those who drive their cars everywhere.
Jane Jacobs also believed that buildings of different sizes, kinds and condition should exist together.
She pointed to several communities as models of excellence.
These include Georgetown in Washington, D.C.; the North End in Boston, Massachusetts; Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California.
She also supported mixed-use buildings as a way to increase social interaction.
Such buildings have stores and offices on the ground floor.
People live on the upper floors.
Mixed-use buildings are a lot more common in American cities than in the suburban areas around them.
Jane Jacobs also noted New York City’s Greenwich Village as an example of an exciting city community.
This is one of the communities that was saved, in part at least, because of her writings and activism.
In nineteen sixty-two, Jacobs headed a committee to stop the development of a highway through Lower Manhattan in New York City.
The expressway would have cut right through Greenwich Village and the popular SoHo area.
Influential New York City developer Robert Moses proposed the plan.
But huge public protests in nineteen sixty-four led the city government to reject it.
Jacobs’ book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” helped influence public opinion against the expressway.
In nineteen sixty-nine, Jacobs moved to the Canadian city of Toronto where she lived for the rest of her life.
Part of her reason for leaving the United States was because she opposed the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam.
At that time, she had two sons almost old enough to be called for duty.
Jacobs continued to be a community activist in Toronto.
She was involved in a campaign to stop the Spadina Expressway through Toronto.
This highway would have permitted people living in suburban areas outside Toronto to travel into and out of the city easily.
Jacobs organized citizens against the Spadina Expressway and the politicians who supported it.
Many experts believe this is because of the anti-Spadina movement led by Jane Jacobs.
Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities.
She wrote seven books on urban planning, the economy of cities, and issues of commerce and politics.
Her last book, published in two thousand four, was “Dark Age Ahead.”?
In it, Jacobs described several major values that she believed were threatened in the United States and Canada.
These included community and family, higher education, science and technology and a government responsive to citizens' needs.
In “Dark Age Ahead,” Jacobs argued that Western society could be threatened if changes were not made immediately.
She said that people were losing important values that helped families succeed.
In “Dark Age Ahead,” Jacobs also criticized how political decision-making is influenced by economics.
Governments, she said, have become more interested in wealthy interest groups than the needs of the citizens.
Jacobs also warned against a culture that prevents people from preventing the destruction of resources upon which all citizens depend.
Jane Jacobs had her critics.
?
Many of them argued that her ideas failed to represent the reality of city politics, which land developers and politicians often control.
Others argued that Jacobs had little sympathy for people who want a lifestyle different from the one she proposed.
Still, many urban planning experts say her ideas shaped modern thinking about cities.
She has had a major influenced on those who design buildings and towns that aim to increase social interaction among citizens.
Jane Jacobs died in two thousand six in Toronto at the age of eighty-nine.
Her family released a statement on her death.
It was produced by Lawan Davis.
In Pakistan, a company called Saiban creates housing communities for the poor.
About thirty percent of the country's population is estimated to live in unplanned settlements without legal right to the land.
Saiban buys land, then sells pieces of it to families to build houses.
Roads, water and electricity are provided.
In India, a small company makes and sells low-cost drip irrigation systems to poor farmers.
IDE-India spent seven years researching and developing the equipment.
More than seventy-five thousand have been sold.
Both Saiban and IDE-India operate thanks to the Acumen Fund.
This nonprofit organization in New York helps people in developing countries build businesses to help the poor.
The Acumen Fund provides loans, equity investments and grants to entrepreneurs and existing businesses.
It operates like a venture capital organization.
Acumen works with local companies to create business plans for their goods and services.
Then it guides them through the marketing and production process.
Expert knowledge and technical assistance are provided.
The Acumen Fund supports development in three areas: water, health and housing.
In Tanzania, it helped a company get the knowledge and equipment needed to produce chemically treated bed nets.
These protect against mosquitoes that spread malaria.
Today, A to Z Textile Mills is the third largest company in Tanzania.
It has five thousand employees and produces about seven million bed nets a year.
Jacqueline Novogratz, a social entrepreneur, launched the Acumen Fund in two thousand one.
The Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individuals donated money to start it.
Acumen has built a network of investors and experts.
The fund now supervises about twenty million dollars in investments in six countries: Egypt, India, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa and Tanzania.
Spokeswoman Mariko Tada says Acumen is considering several new projects.
Within months, it hopes to invest more than one million dollars in a Kenyan company that helps farmers grow Artemisia.
The plant is used as a compound in the malaria drug artemisinin.
And Acumen may invest in a private ambulance service in Mumbai, India.
Lots of people have a favorite city.
Maybe it is the city where they were born, or the place of their happiest memories.
Or maybe it is just a place they would like to call home.
Today, we present some songs about favorite American cities.
Your travel guides are Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt.
Lower Manhattan, in New York CityNew York.
New York.
More songs have been written about America's biggest city than about any other city.
More than eight million people live in New York.
Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there.
They want to become rich and famous.
Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York.
Almost three million people live in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois.
It is now America's third largest city.
It used to be the second largest city.
In the musical, a young boy sings about his hometown.
It is the largest city in the state of Missouri.
In the nineteen-sixties, songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote about going to Kansas City.
One of the most popular is Miami, Florida.
Visitors go there all year because the weather is warm.
This song about Miami was written in nineteen thirty-five.
There you can play games of chance all night long.
The city's entertainment centers are open all night, too.
Here is the song from that movie.
It is sung by the group ZZ Top.
One of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California.
It is between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in the northern part of the state.
It sold more than three million records.
Los AngelesMany people love Los Angeles, California.
It is now America's second largest city.
Some people do not like all the big roads around the city.
They like living in a smaller place.
A place like San Jose, California.
Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city.
It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis.
On our program this week, we tell about sharks.
They are among the oldest animals on Earth.
Not long ago, Kyle Gruen was swimming near the Hawaiian island of Maui when he felt something bite him.
Mister Gruen was wearing special eyeglasses for use in water.
He could see his attacker.
It was a purple and gray shark.
The twenty-nine-year old Canadian was wounded on his left upper leg and hand.
But he turned and pushed away the shark with his other foot.
He watched the blood flow from his body as he swam away.
Others hurried to help Mister Gruen.
Soon the Canadian man was in a hospital operating room, having his injuries repaired.
Before leaving the hospital, Mister Gruen had a visit from Nicolette Raleigh.
A shark had bitten Miz Raleigh earlier near Maui.
The shark struck the fifteen-year-old girl as she stood in water only about a half-meter deep.
She suffered a serious wound in her right leg.
Like Mister Gruen, she needed an operation.
But she has recovered.
Shortly after his operation, Kyle Gruen left the hospital to take part in the marriage ceremony of a friend.
Miz Raleigh and Mister Gruen survived shark bites.
But a young member of America's Peace Corps did not.
Tessa Marie Horan was swimming near Tonga when a shark attacked and killed her.
It was one of four such tragic incidents worldwide last year.
That is about the same as in two thousand five.
Chinese visitors watch a diver interact with a shark at Ocean World in Chengdu, Sichuan Taken together, shark attacks are far from the most dangerous incidents that can harm human beings.
George Burgess directs the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.
As the name suggests, his group keeps records of shark attacks.
Mister Burgess says people have more to fear from some snakes, insects and lightning than from sharks.
It is hard to get people to think of sharks as anything but a deadly enemy.
But these fish perform a valuable service for earth's waters and for human beings.
Yet business and sport fishing are threatening their existence.
Some sharks are at risk of disappearing from Earth.
The nineteen seventy-four film takes place in an American coastal town.
The people there sought protection from a great white shark that killed swimmers in the ocean.
The number of shark attacks reported has risen during the past century.
But the worldwide attack totals in two thousand five were similar to those of recent years.
Shark expert George Burgess says more bites have been reported in this century because more people are in ocean waters.
Surprisingly, the International Shark Attack File has records of attacks back to the sixteenth century.
It says five hundred ninety-nine unprovoked attacks took place between fifteen eighty and March fifteenth of last year.
Of that number, one hundred thirty three were deadly.
An unprovoked attack means the person is alive when bitten and in the shark's living space or habitat.
Also, the person must not have interfered with the shark.
How does the I.S.A.F. know about attacks hundreds of years ago??
With some difficulty, says Mister Burgess.
His team of scientific researchers works hard to confirm them.
They investigate stories in old newspapers, which sometimes noted reports of seagoing ships and swimmers.
The researchers investigate stories of attacks in books and historic documents.
Mister Burgess says the I.S.A.F. has a worldwide team of scientists who offer their time to report attacks.
He says the media also provide stories about shark bites.
And people who have observed attacks communicate with his team.
Mister Burgess says modern technology has made it easier to get the news of shark bites.
Every report is investigated for confirmation and placed in computer record systems.
In two thousand five, fifty-eight unprovoked shark attacks took place around the world.
That was seven less than the year before.
The majority of the attacks took place in American waters.
Four were deadly.
During the same year, business and sport fishing killed an estimated one million or more sharks.
Warm weather may influence both fish and shark activity.
Many fish swim near coastal areas because of their warm waters.
Experts say sharks may follow the fish into the same areas, where people also swim.
Mister Burgess says most shark activity during the current season is taking place in the Southern hemisphere.
Waters near Australia and South Africa are popular with these fish.
Mister Burgess says most sharks do not purposely bite humans.
They are thought to mistake a person for a sea animal, like a seal or sea lion.
That is why people should not swim in the ocean when the sun goes down or comes up.
Those are the times when sharks are looking for food.
Experts also say that bright colors and shiny jewelry may cause sharks to attack.
There are hundreds of kinds of sharks.
Most are about two meters long.
The dogfish shark, however, is less than twenty centimeters in length.
The biggest whale shark can grow to twenty meters in length.
Sharks do not have bones.
The skeleton of a shark is made of cartilage.
Human noses and ears are also made of cartilage.
A shark has an extremely good sense of smell.
It can find small amounts of substances in water, such as blood, body liquids and chemicals produced by animals.
Sharks also sense electrical and magnetic energy linked to nerves and muscles of living animals.
These powerful senses help sharks find their food.
Sharks eat fish, other sharks, and plants that live in the ocean.
Some sharks will eat just about anything.
Many unusual things have been found in the stomachs of tiger sharks.
They include shoes, dogs, a cow’s foot and metal protective clothing.
Sharks grow slowly.
About forty percent of all sharks lay eggs.
The others give birth to live young.
Some sharks carry their young inside their bodies as humans do.
A cord connects the mother to the fetus.
Some sharks are not able to reproduce until they are twenty years old.
Most reproduce only every two years.
And they give birth to fewer than ten young sharks.
For this reason, over-fishing of sharks is of special danger to the future of the animal.
Medical researchers want to learn more about the shark’s body defense system against disease.
Researchers know that sharks recover quickly from injuries.
They study the shark in hopes of finding a way to fight human disease.
Sharks are important for the world’s oceans.
They eat injured and diseased fish.
Their hunting activities mean that the numbers of other fish in ocean waters do not become too great.
This protects the plants and other forms of life that exist in the oceans.
People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and their skin.
Experts say the international market for some kinds of sharks has increased because many parts of a shark are valuable.
Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jaws of a shark.
Shark liver oil is a popular source of Vitamin A. The skin of a shark can be used like leather.
In Asia, people enjoy a kind of soup made from shark fins.
Experts say a fisherman can earn a lot of money for even one kilogram of shark fins.
Finning, as it is called, means cutting the fins off a live shark.
Many times, the fish is then thrown back into the water.
The goal is to save space on the boats.
Animal activists denounce this as cruel.
Each year, thousands of sharks die in traps set for other fish.
Some scientists say that about the half the sharks caught were not the target of the fishing.
But no one really knows that if returned to the water, these sharks go on living.
If too many sharks in one area are killed, that group of sharks may never return to normal population levels.
In two thousand four, sixty-three nations approved laws to protect sharks.
But, as George Burgess says, some laws are effective near land.
Laws can be difficult to enforce on the high seas.
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson.
The United States government wants to know what the public thinks about its findings on the safety of cloned animals.
The Food and Drug Administration says meat and milk from clones of adult cattle, pigs and goats are safe to eat.
And when those clones reproduce sexually, the agency says, their offspring are safe to eat as well.
But research on cloned sheep is limited.
So the F.D.A. proposes that sheep clones not be used for human food.
The United States this year could become the first country to approve the sale of foods from cloned animals.
First, however, the public will have ninety days to comment on three proposed documents.
On December twenty-eighth the F.D.A. released a long report, called a draft risk assessment, along with two policy documents.
The agency says it must receive comments by April second.
The F.D.A. seemed ready to act several years ago, but an advisory committee called for more research.
For now, the government will continue to ask producers to honor a request that they not sell foods from cloned animals.
Clones are still rare.
They cost a lot and are difficult to produce.
Some people think farmers might find it difficult to export products from cloned animals.
Critics question the safety.
Animal rights activists also have objections.
The F.D.A. says most food from cloning is expected to come not from clones themselves, but from their sexually reproduced offspring.
It says clones are expected to be used mostly as breeding animals to spread desirable qualities.
Public opinion studies show that most Americans do not like the idea of food from cloned animals.
But this research also shows that the public knows little about cloning.
Cloning differs from genetic engineering.
A cell taken from a so-called donor animal is grown into an embryo in the laboratory.
Next, the embryo is placed into the uterus of a female animal.
If the process is successful, the pregnancy reaches full term and a genetic copy of the donor animal is born.
The F.D.A. sees no scientific reason to require special labels on products that involved cloning.
Today we begin a series about ways older Americans are keeping mentally active.
We tell about Elderhostel, an organization that considers the world its classroom.
The American Census Bureau estimates that more than seventy-five million of the three hundred million Americans are baby boomers.
Baby boomers were born between nineteen forty-six and nineteen sixty-four.
That was when the birth rate in the United States rose sharply, or boomed, after the end of World War Two.
Every day in two thousand six, almost eight thousand baby boomers turned sixty years old.
They are at the age when they are beginning to think about retiring from their jobs.
They are wondering what they want to do with this new period in their lives.
Policy makers are concerned about the problems government must try to solve because of the rising percentage of older Americans.
Each year fewer people will be working and paying into the Social Security System to support an increasing number of retired people.
Medical costs are rising sharply.
More housing is needed for older people who cannot care for themselves.
Most people who have already retired, or are about to, have other concerns about growing older.
They do not want to sit at home and slowly die.
They know to stay healthy they need to keep active – not just physically but mentally.
Private groups and non-profit organizations are meeting this need.
They offer many kinds of programs for aging Americans to keep their minds active.
Experts say these programs will expand and change as baby boomers join them.
The Art Institute of Chicago offers an Elderhostel programDifferent kinds of continuing education programs exist now in all areas of the United States.
For example, colleges let older Americans take classes at a reduced cost.
Museums, cultural organizations and non-profit groups offer many educational experiences, especially for retired people.
Older Americans can learn new skills or improve old ones through schools that offer classes in art, photography, writing, handcrafts or languages.
And hundreds of thousands of people over the age of fifty-five take part every year in educational and travel programs offered by Elderhostel.
It was nineteen seventy-five.
Marty Knowlton, a former teacher, had recently returned to the United States.
He had spent four years walking through Europe.
He had enjoyed all the things he saw and did.
He had enjoyed sleeping in the low-cost hotels for young people, called youth hostels.
And he had noted that many older Europeans seemed more active than older Americans.
Mister Knowlton thought there should be ways older Americans could remain active and continue to learn after retiring from their jobs.
The name became the idea for a program for older people providing exciting learning experiences in simple but comfortable places to stay.
In the summer of nineteen seventy-five, five colleges in New Hampshire offered the first Elderhostel programs to two hundred twenty people.
The idea was an immediate success.
Five years later, twenty thousand people took part in Elderhostels in all fifty states and most of Canada.
Many different subjects were taught in the Elderhostels -- from history to nature to music to art.
People stayed in rooms at colleges, motels or cabins.
The cost of an Elderhostel included all meals, a place to stay and teachers or guides.
The model remained the same as Elderhostel grew.
It now is the largest non-profit education travel organization for adults over fifty-five.
Elderhostel now offers more than eight thousand programs a year in the United States, Canada and more than ninety other countries.
More than one hundred sixty thousand people take part every year.
Their average age is seventy-two.
One man who is one hundred three has taken part in more than one hundred Elderhostels and is still going strong.
People go on Elderhostels for different reasons.
Nancy Gallagher of Silver Spring, Maryland, has gone on thirty-nine Elderhostels.
The first one she and a friend tried was a cross-country skiing trip in Vermont.
They liked the activities and the people a lot so next they went to a music program at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
And they just kept going.
One year, Nancy Gallagher and her friend flew to New Mexico and went to three different Elderhostels while they were there.
Another time they flew to Europe for one Elderhostel in Florence, Italy and a second one in Paris, France.
Recently she went to an Elderhostel that followed the path taken in eighteen-oh-four by the North American explorers, Lewis and Clark.
Carol Honsa of Washington, D.C. recently went on a two-week Elderhostel to explore national and state parks in California.
It was her third Elderhostel.
She says about thirty interesting and lively people were part of the group.
Most of their time was spent outdoors learning while experiencing the beauty of the parks.
Miz Honsa says the people she has met in Elderhostel are serious about learning.
So, she says, it is important that the leaders are knowledgeable and that local experts such as geologists and naturalists also talk to the group.
An Elderhostel changed the lives of John and Brenda Bell.
They lived for many years between two big cities on the East Coast.
Mister Bell was interested in astronomy.
They both liked to watch birds.
Yet it was difficult to see the stars or find many birds where they lived.
Missus Bell says they went to Elderhostels about birding and astronomy in different areas of the United States.
They visited places they would not have gone to on their own.
And they met people who shared their interests in learning and having a good time doing it.
Then Mister and Missus Bell went to an Elderhostel program in the small town of Fort Davis, Texas.
He found it perfect for observing the stars.
The area was so far from big cities that the sky was very dark at night.
She liked the warm climate and wide-open space.
So they returned to the East Coast, sold their home, and moved to Fort Davis.
Elderhostel develops its programs in cooperation with more than five hundred independent educational and cultural organizations.
They include colleges, museums, scientific research centers, performing arts centers, and national and state parks.
Traditional Elderhostels were held in one place and two or three subjects were taught.
One example was an Elderhostel held years ago at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico.
People made pit- fired pottery, heard from Native American storytellers and learned about Spanish history in the Southwest.
In recent years, most non-travel programs center on one subject.
Elderhostel has developed many other kinds of learning experiences.
Intergenerational programs are for grandparents and their grandchildren.
Adventures Afloat programs are held on ships.
Active Outdoor programs combine learning with sports such as horseback riding and bicycling.
Individual Skills programs offer older adults a chance to learn new skills such as painting, cooking or pottery-making.
Adam Hurtubise is director of public relations for Elderhostel.
He says Elderhostel began a new program in two?
thousand four because of requests from baby boomers.
It is called Road Scholar.
Some of these programs are trips to unusual places such as Bhutan or Antarctica.
Others are five- to seven-day programs in one place.
Mister Hurtubise says many baby boomers do not plan to completely retire.
They want to work part-time.
So they want shorter programs that are more intense.
They want a high level of activity and learning in a shorter period of time.
He says they also want more free time to learn on their own and fewer people in a program.
Mister Hurtubise says Elderhostel is always developing new programs.
It is creating different kinds of learning experiences to meet the demands of the growing number of older Americans.
This program was written by Marilyn Christiano.
It was produced by Mario Ritter.
A mother in Tamil Nadu, India, recently had a question for our new series on children and parenting.
This woman in Tuticorin has a son who is almost three years old.
He attends a pre-kindergarten school.
She wonders why he often suffers from a blocked or leaky nose and a cough.
Along with these, he gets a temperature of thirty-eight and three-tenths degrees Celsius.
Of course, the only advice we can give our listeners is to ask a medical professional about any conditions.
But this is a good chance to talk about young children in group settings.
There is a reason why schools and child care centers are known as germ factories.
Children can come in contact with all sorts of bacteria, viruses and other organisms as they share toys, toilets and towels.
Some will make them sick, others are harmless.
Good hand washing is an important way to reduce the spread of infections.
Caregivers should also be trained in ways to clean, sanitize and disinfect.
The Web site for the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care explains the differences.
This government-financed center is part of the University of Colorado in Denver.
It says parents should look around child care centers.
?
Make sure toys, furniture and other equipment are clean and in good condition.
Not only that, ask how often things get cleaned -- there should be an established program.
The experts in Colorado say parents should not take sick children to day care if they might infect others.
They also advise child care operators to keep a sick child away from healthy children whenever possible.
Some places are not equipped to deal with a sick child.
Many day care centers and schools require children to be without fever for at least twenty-four hours before they can come back.
Some experts believe that children exposed early to common germs develop a greater resistance to them when they reach school age.
Next week, we are going to continue talking about childhood health.
And please be sure to tell us who you are and where you are writing from.
And that's the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver.
Do you find certain patterns of reductions?
There are fifty to seventy common reduced forms that everyone should know from a listening point of view.
Sometimes, I think, teachers feel that students will just pick this up.
And we're talking about common, everyday speech.
And yet I could see maybe some students who are learning English who want to maybe apply for a job or meet with an employer or someone, a professor, and maybe they're afraid that they're going to sound uneducated or that they're too informal.
And as I tell my students, the majority of English is informal, though we do have situations that call for formality.
I don't think that students should worry about their own use of the reduced forms because non-native speakers generally don't reach the speed of speech to have reductions.
If I were to just give you some really common ones, one of the more common question forms would be 'what do you/what are you' changing to whaddaya.
That's Wordmaster for this week.
Throughout history, power passes from one nation to another.
Persia, for example, was the world's most powerful nation at the time of Alexander the Great.
Rome became a great power under Julius Caesar.
And France was so under Napoleon.
Through the middle of the twentieth century, Britain was the most powerful nation in the world.
Britain, however, suffered terribly during World War Two.
And, after the war, power passed to the United States.
One can almost name the day when this happened.
It was February twenty-first, nineteen forty-seven.
Officials at the British Embassy in Washington called the American State Department.
They had two messages from their government.
The first was about Greece.
The situation there was critical.
Greece had been occupied by Germany during the war.
Now it was split by a bitter civil war.
On one side of the fighting was the royal family supported by Britain.
On the other side were communist-led rebels supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
British forces had helped keep Greece from becoming communist during nineteen forty-four and nineteen forty-five.
A few years later, Britain could no longer help.
It needed all its strength to rebuild from the world war.
So, on that February day in nineteen forty-seven, Britain told the United States it would soon end all support for Greece.
Britain's second message that day was about Turkey.
Turkey was stronger than Greece.
But it, too, might become communist unless it received outside help.
Britain warned the United States that the Soviet Union would soon extend its control all the way across Eastern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean.
It called on President Harry Truman to provide strong American support to help Greece and Turkey resist the communist threat.
Britain, in effect, was asking the United States to take over leadership of the Western world.
The United States was ready to accept its new position.
For months, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been growing worse.
The two countries had fought together as allies in the Second World War.
But Soviet actions after the war shocked the American people.
The Soviet Union wanted to block western political and economic influence in central and Eastern Europe.
It wanted to extend its own influence, instead.
So, after the war, it forced the establishment of communist governments in a number of countries.
In Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, it sent troops to make sure its political demands were met.
Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, spoke about the situation in a speech at a college in the American state of Missouri.
Churchill warned that the Soviet Union was trying to expand its power.
The iron curtain divided Europe into a communist east and a democratic west.
The situation was made even more tense by news coming from China.
China was a divided nation at the end of World War Two.
The forces of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek controlled the southwest part of the country.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union expected that Chiang Kai-shek would be able to unite China.
Chiang and the Nationalists won several early victories over the Communists.
But Mao and his forces used the people's growing hatred of the Nationalist government to win support.
Slowly, they began to win battles and capture arms.
Early in nineteen forty-nine, communist forces took control of Beijing and Tientsin.
Then they captured Shanghai and Canton.
By the end of the year, Chiang and his Nationalist forces had to flee to the island of Taiwan.
The fall of the Nationalist government in China caused a bitter political debate in America.
Some critics of the Truman administration charged that the United States had not done enough to help the Nationalists.
The Truman administration rejected the charges.
The British warnings about the communist threat in Greece and Turkey caused President Truman to speak to the Congress.
After a brief but intense national debate, the Congress agreed.
Truman then launched an effort to save the Greek economy and reorganize the Greek army.
Soon after that, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their aid to Greek rebels.
The civil war in Greece ended.
American help for Greece and Turkey was the first step in what became known as the Truman Doctrine.
The goal of this policy was to stop Soviet aggression anywhere in the world.
Truman was willing to use military force to stop the spread of communism.
But he also believed it was equally important to build up western European nations so they would be strong enough to defend themselves.
Europe was suffering terribly after World War Two.
There were severe shortages of food and fuel.
Crops were destroyed.
Many Europeans were beginning to look to the communists -- to anybody -- to save them.
This is one reason why Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the economies of Europe.
Secretary of State George Marshall proposed the idea.
It soon became known as the Marshall Plan.
President Truman explained why there had to be a Marshall Plan.
People were starving, he said.
There had been food riots in France and Italy.
People were cold.
There was not enough fuel.
And people were sick.
Sixteen other countries, however, welcomed the aid.
From nineteen forty-eight to nineteen fifty-two, the economic cooperation administration of the Marshall Plan worked with these countries.
It spent thirteen thousand million dollars.
The plan worked.
Agricultural production in Marshall Plan countries increased by ten percent.
Overall industrial production increased by thirty-five percent.
Production in some industries, such as steel, increased by much more.
There were political results, too.
Stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the governments in France and Italy.
Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan.
They said it increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years after the war.
Yet few people could argue that the plan was one of the most successful international economic programs in history.
Your narrators have been Rich Kleinfeldt and Ray Freeman.
Our program was written by David Jarmul.
Join us again next week at this same time for another program about the history of the United States.
More than five hundred sixty thousand foreign students attended an American college or university during the last school year.
It was the seventh straight year with more than half a million international students in the United States.
Last year's group was about the same size as the year before -- which was good news for schools.
Because the number of students coming to the United States had been falling for two years.
The information is from the Institute of International Education, based in New York.
India again sent the most students in the school year that began in autumn of two thousand five.
India passed China in two thousand one as the leading sender of foreign students to the United States.
American schools last year had more than seventy-six thousand Indian students.
That was a five percent drop from the year before -- the first reduction since nineteen ninety-six.
China had more than sixty-two thousand students in American schools, roughly the same as the year before.
South Korea was third with an increase of ten percent.
And Japan was fourth -- but with an eight percent drop.
The report says there were also sharp decreases in students from Turkey, Colombia, Pakistan and Malaysia.
But there were notable increases in students from Nepal and Vietnam.
For the fifth year, the school with the most foreign students was the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
It had almost seven thousand.
Columbia University in New York was second.
Others with large numbers included Purdue, New York University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
What were the most popular areas of study??
Eighteen percent studied business and management.
Sixteen percent studied engineering.
Nine percent were in the physical and life sciences.
Eight percent studied social sciences, and another eight percent studied mathematics and computer science.
There were fewer international students in computer science and engineering last year.
But there were more in areas including art, health and intensive English language.
Our Foreign Student Series is also there.
On our show this week: We answer a question about sales … Play some music from a new movie … And report about a famous American whose life is celebrated about this time every year.
Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. Monday, January fifteenth, is Martin Luther King Junior Day in the United States.
It celebrates the life and work of the great American civil rights leader.
Faith Lapidus has more.
Martin Luther King Junior was born on January fifteenth, nineteen twenty-nine, in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia.
His father was a minister of a Christian Baptist Church.
At that time, laws in the American south kept black people separate from white people.
The laws forced African-Americans to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of cities.
They did not have the same civil rights as white people.
Martin Luther King Junior attended Morehouse College in Atlanta.
There he studied the ideas of India's spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi.
He also studied American philosopher Henry David Thoreau.
Both Gandhi and Thoreau wrote about ways to fight injustice.
They urged people to disobey unjust laws, but not to use violence.
Martin Luther King Junior wanted to spread these ideas about peaceful protest.
He became a Baptist minister like his father.
He and his wife Coretta moved to Montgomery, Alabama.
One day in nineteen fifty-five, a black woman got on a city bus in Montgomery.
Rosa Parks sat in a seat saved for white people.
She refused to move and was arrested.
Reverend King organized a peaceful protest against the city bus system.
The protest succeeded.
The United States Supreme Court later ruled that racial separation on the bus system was illegal.
Martin Luther King Junior became well known.
Groups formed to protest racial separation.
He became the leader of the struggle.
Reverend King led many peaceful demonstrations.
These included the nineteen sixty-three March on Washington, D.C.
Each year, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Junior's life and work on the Monday closest to his birthday.
Schools and government offices are closed.
Cities and towns hold special ceremonies to honor him.
Sales, Sales and More Sales Our listener question this week comes from China.
When a store sells goods or services at a cost lower than usual, it is called a sale.
Sales last for a limited time.
Then the cost is returned to its usual amount.
Parents can save money on clothes and school supplies for their children.
This kind of sale is popular the day after Thanksgiving in November.
You buy one thing and get a second one without cost.
When people see the word “free” in an advertisement they know they are getting a good deal.
This is when a storeowner tries to sell all the goods in the store before closing the business permanently.
Let us say the store sells floor coverings.
People who buy the floor coverings think they are getting a special deal because everything must be sold in a short period of time.
And they see the same sign that claims the store is going out of business.
Some business owners really do not end the business.
They just want to earn more money.
People also hold their own sales.
They hold garage sales and yard sales outside their home.
They sell things they no longer want.
Groups such as religious centers or schools hold bake sales.
They sell, cakes, cookies and other baked goods to raise money.
In America, you can always find a good sale, no matter the day or time of year.
It tells the story of a group of three black female singers, called the Dreams, who became famous in the nineteen sixties.
The story is based on the real group called the Supremes.
The movie stars the famous singer Beyonce Knowles as Deena.
It also stars Jennifer Hudson as Effie.
Deena, Effie and the third member of their group, Lorrell, perform in a local singing contest.
They do not win the competition.
But a car salesman named Curtis Taylor thinks they can become famous.
Taylor becomes their manager and producer.
He also starts a relationship with Effie who loves him.
He replaces Effie with the more beautiful Deena as the lead singer.
Effie is later forced out of the group.
But she does not go quietly.
Deena becomes the most famous of all.
She decides to break away from Taylor's influence over her.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Lawan Davis, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach.
Caty Weaver was theproducer.
And, at its MacWorld conference, he also presented the iPhone.
It combines a wireless phone, music and video player, and Internet communications device in one handheld product.
The next day, Cisco Systems brought a civil case.
That company owns trademark rights to the name iPhone.
Apple was negotiating for permission to use it.
It said there were already several companies using that name.
Recently, Apple has had to deal with another issue: backdated stock options.
A stock option is an agreement to trade a stock by a set date.
Companies use options as a form of pay, often for their top people.
Imagine you work for the XYZ Company.
You are given an option to buy one hundred shares of its stock at the current price, ten dollars a share; the option is good for one year.
A year later, XYZ stock has risen to twenty dollars.
You use the option to buy the shares at ten dollars.
Now you can sell them for twenty -- for a profit of one thousand dollars.
But what if the company backdated the option?? Remember, XYZ stock was ten dollars when the option was created.
But a month earlier, it was six dollars.
Using that point as the starting date means more profit.
Instead of buying at ten dollars, you can buy at six and sell at twenty.
In August of two thousand one, the Apple board of directors approved more than seven million shares in stock options for Steve Jobs.
The options were created that December, but with an October date.
That added twenty million dollars to their value, because the stock price was three dollars less. Steve Jobs never exercised the options; he received five million shares instead.
But Apple had to restate its earnings to correct its options accounting.
Last month the company restated its financial results for four years.
Apple reduced its results by eighty-four million dollars.
In general, backdating options is not illegal but companies can get in trouble if they violate financial reporting rules.
Options are taxed differently from normal pay.
They can reduce taxes for companies and individuals.
Since two thousand two, backdating has been more difficult under the Sarbanes-Oxley law.
Last fall, a Securities and Exchange Commission official said more than one hundred companies were under investigation.
The president spoke Wednesday night from the White House.
Mister Bush said past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two main reasons.
First, there were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure areas that had been cleared.
Secondly, he said, there were too many restrictions on American forces.
Under the new plan, more than twenty thousand American troops will join the roughly one hundred thirty thousand already in the war.
Most will go to Baghdad to help Iraqi forces.
Others will go to the most violent area outside the capital, Anbar province in the west.
The president called Anbar the home base for al-Qaida in Iraq.
He says an increase is needed first, to prevent the collapse of the democratically elected Iraqi government.
But the newspaper USA Today, for example, found that just twelve percent of the American people support sending more troops.
President Bush said the Iraqi government will deploy Iraqi Army and National Police across Baghdad to support local police.
He said he has made it clear to Iraqi leaders that America's presence in Iraq is not open-ended.
If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, he said, it will lose the support of the American people.
He expressed the belief that victory is still possible, in the sense of a democratic Iraq that would serve as an example for the Arab world.
He said succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territory.
But Senator Dick Durbin, in the Democratic answer to the speech, said the president is ignoring the advice of most of his top generals.
The war was a major cause of the Republican loss of Congress in the November elections.
The new Democratic leaders in Congress condemned the troop increase even before Mister Bush presented it.
They are planning advisory votes in both houses to urge the president not to send more troops.
But many Democrats say that is not enough.
Some Republicans are also against the plan.
Separately, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a plan to increase the Army and Marine Corps by ninety-two thousand troops.
The increase, over five years, requires congressional approval.
He also announced that some part-time forces will be called to duty for a second time before the usual five-year waiting period.
Today we tell about an unusual man who had many abilities.
Building designer.
Not five people.
His aim in life was to make the human race a success in the universe.
Bucky Fuller spent most of his life searching for new ideas.
He also searched for unusual connections between existing ideas.
Through technology, he said, people can do anything they need to do.
R. Buckminster Fuller died in nineteen eighty-three at the age of eighty-seven.
During his long life, he discussed his idea about technology and human survival.
Dynamic, meaning a force.
Maximum, meaning the most.
And ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with an electrical charge.
Fuller explained the word dymaxion as a method of doing more with less.
Everything he did was guided by this idea.
He designed a dymaxion car, a dymaxion house, and a dymaxion map of the world.
But he probably is known best for another invention -- the geodesic dome.
A geodesic dome is a round building made of many straight-sided pieces.
Talking about R. Buckminster Fuller means using strange words.
This is because Fuller himself invented words to describe his ideas and designs.
His designs were way ahead of his time.
They still are.
R. Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in eighteen ninety-five.
Bucky could not see clearly, because his eyes did not point straight ahead.
So, his world was filled with masses of color without clear shapes.
When he was four years old, he got eyeglasses to correct the problem.
Suddenly, he could see the shapes of people's faces.
He could see stars in the sky and leaves on the trees.
He never lost his joy at the beauty he discovered in the world.
As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything.
He was a very independent thinker at an early age.
His refusal to accept other people’s ideas and rules continued as he grew older.
One result was that he never completed his university studies.
He was expelled two times from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He thought his time was better spent having fun than studying.
Yet Bucky Fuller was very serious about learning.
He proved this when he joined the American Navy during World War One.
In the navy, he learned all about navigation, mathematics, mechanics, communications and electronics engineering.
He loved this world of modern technology.
Soon after he joined the Navy, he designed new rescue equipment.
It helped save the lives of some pilots during training.
Fuller's good Navy record won him a short-term appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
It was there he first developed two ideas that were important for the rest of his life.
While studying warships, Fuller realized that they weighed much less than buildings, yet were able to do much more.
He decided better designs could also help humans do more, using fewer materials.
In nineteen seventeen, Bucky Fuller married Anne Hewlett.
Their daughter, Alexandra, was born about a year later.
Bucky was a very emotional man, as well as an intellectual one.
He loved his little daughter.
She was the wonder of his world.
Then Alexandra became very sick.
The medicine to cure her had not been invented yet.
She died at the age of four.
Bucky Fuller blamed himself, although he had done everything he could to save her.
His sorrow overcame him.
He began to drink too much alcohol.
Yet he continued to work hard.
Fuller was head of a company that made a light-weight building material.
He was not a successful businessman, however.
And the company began to fail.
He was dismissed by the owners.
It was nineteen twenty-seven.
His wife had just given birth to another baby girl.
They were living in Chicago, Illinois.
He had no job and no money.
He felt he was a complete failure.
Bucky Fuller walked through the streets of Chicago along lake Michigan.
He stood silently on the shore.
He considered killing himself.
Then, as he explained later, he realized he did not have the right to kill himself.
He said he had felt something inside him that day.
He called it the Greater Intelligence or God.
It told him he belonged to the universe.
So Bucky Fuller decided to live.
And he would live the way he thought best.
He promised to spend his remaining years in search of designs that could make human existence on Earth easier.
This began his great creative period.
Fuller's first design was the dymaxion house.
It was not built at the place it would stand.
It was built in a factory, then moved.
It did not cost much to build.
And it did not look like a traditional house in America.
Its roof hung from a huge stick in the center.
Its walls were made of glass.
It contained everything needed for people to live.
Power came from the sun.
Water was cleaned and re-used.
Fuller then designed and built the dymaxion car.
It looked a little like the body of an airplane.
It had three wheels instead of four.
It could go as fast as one hundred eighty kilometers an hour.
It carried up to twelve passengers.
Several companies were interested in building and selling Fuller's house and car.
But his designs were so different, so extreme, that banks were not willing to lend money for the projects.
So the dymaxion house -- which could have provided low-cost housing for everyone -- was never built.
And the dymaxion car -- which could have provided safe, pollution-free transportation using little gasoline -- was never produced.
Bucky Fuller did not give up his idea of doing more with less.
He had an idea for another building design.
It would provide the most strength with the least amount of material.
He began looking for the perfect shape.
Fuller found it in nature.
It appeared in the shapes of organic compounds and metals.
The main part of his design is a four-sided pyramid.
To create a building, many pyramids are connected to each other.
The connecting piece has eight sides.
Together, these two shapes create a very strong, light-weight rounded structure.
The structure can be covered with any kind of material.
And it can stand without any supports inside.
Fuller named this structure the geodesic dome.
It covers more space with less material than any other building ever designed.
After a number of experimental geodesic domes were built, industry began to understand the value of the design.
Today, there are about one hundred thousand different large and small geodesic domes in use around the world.
However, no one yet has acted on one of Fuller's ideas for the geodesic dome.
There are no limits to the size of a geodesic dome.
So Fuller proposed using them over cities or over areas that had severe weather.
A geodesic dome that size would make it possible to have complete control over the environment inside it.
Most of Bucky Fuller's inventions did not earn him much money.
A lot of what he did earn he spent travelling around the world.
He told anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on this planet.
They are travelling one hundred thousand kilometers an hour around the sun.
He said the Earth is like a large mechanical device that will survive only if people living on it know how to operate it correctly.
People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship.
They must use their supplies wisely, and re-use them.
Buckminster Fuller said humans are able, through planning and wise use of natural supplies, to feed and house themselves forever.
It was produced by Lawan Davis.
Fifty years ago, most people lived in rural areas.
But the world has changed.
By some point next year, more than half of all people will live in cities, for the first time in history.
So says the most recent estimate from the United Nations.
City life is not always a bad thing, but many experts worry about this process of urbanization.
A new report from the Worldwatch Institute says it is having a huge effect on human health and the quality of the environment.
Of the three billion people who live in cities now, the report says, about one billion live in unplanned settlements.
These are areas of poverty, slums, that generally lack basic services like clean water, or even permanent housing.
The report says more than sixty million people are added to cities and surrounding areas each year, mostly in slums in developing countries.
Molly O'Meara Sheehan led the Worldwatch report.
She says the international community has been too slow to recognize the growth of urban poverty.
Policymakers, she says, need to increase investments in education, health care and other areas.
The report talks about some successful efforts by local governments and community groups.
For example, it says Freetown, Sierra Leone, has established farming within the city limits to meet much of its growing food demands.
In Colombia, engineers have created a bus system in Bogota that the report says has helped reduce air pollution and improve quality of life.
Olav Kjorven heads the Environment and Energy Group at the United Nations Development Program.
He agrees that the link between urban poverty and the environment is serious.
But he says governments also need to consider why people are moving out of rural areas.
Climate change, drought, floods -- there are many reasons forcing people to leave, he says.
Olav Kjorven says the two issues of poverty reduction and the environment have existed side by side, but rarely have they connected -- until now.
He says governments are starting to understand that environmental collapse is not a natural cost of economic development.
Instead, he says, it is hurting the possibility for growth.
Today we begin a series of reports about living with a disability in America.
Our series will explore a number of subjects.
These include laws that are meant to give people with disabilities the same chances that able-bodied people have to succeed.
We will talk about employment and about technologies designed to assist people living with disabilities.
But first we look at special education programs for children with disabilities.
Years ago, children with mental or physical disabilities were usually kept at home or in a hospital.
Mental hospitals especially were often dirty, horrible places.
Early reforms demanded better care for the people who had to live in them.
By the second half of the twentieth century, however, these laws were not enough.
There was a movement to demand not just better care but human rights for people with disabilities.
All they wanted, people said, was fair treatment and an equal chance to succeed.
These efforts continue.
On December thirteenth, the United Nations General Assembly approved a treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This is the first treaty designed to protect the rights of the world's estimated six hundred fifty million disabled.
It includes rights to education, health care, work and other protections.
For example, it says people with disabilities have the right to free expression.
It says they have a right to privacy and justice, to live independently and to take part in sports and daily social life.
The treaty calls on nations to pass laws and other measures to improve disability rights.
It also urges them to end any legislation or customs that discriminate against persons with disabilities.
The treaty will be open for signing beginning March thirtieth.
It will come into force after twenty countries have approved it.
For a long time, many schools in the United States refused to admit children who were blind, deaf or mentally delayed.
In nineteen seventy, only twenty percent of American children with disabilities attended public school.
It was nineteen seventy-five before the nation had a law to require a free and appropriate public education for all children with disabilities.
Appropriate means that the education is designed to meet the needs of an individual student.
The law is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or I.D.E.A. New versions are approved by Congress every few years.
The newest version of the law requires schools to increase the number of students with disabilities who receive a diploma.
This shows that a student has successfully completed high school.
Today more than six million children in the United States receive special education services from public schools.
These services are available from birth to age twenty-one.
Schools also provide testing services to help parents decide if their children need special education.
Susan is a young woman who lives in the state of Maryland.
She was not talking very much by the time she was two years old.
Tests showed that her hearing was fine, but her ability to speak was delayed.
So she attended a special private school when she was three and four years old.
Her family did not have to pay for it.
At the school, Susan learned to communicate with her hands, using sign language the way deaf people do.
But remember, she could hear just fine.
When Susan was five years old, she started going to the same public school as her brother and the other children in her community.
?
Susan spent part of each day with a teacher who was trained to work with children with delayed speech.
And she spent another part of the day with children who were developing normally.
Many educators and parents believe inclusion is important.
At Susan's school, music teacher Teri Burdette directed a group of hearing children and deaf children.
These tests found that some of her mental abilities were also delayed.
She could not think very clearly.
Sometimes she was taught only with students who had delays like hers.
Other times, she was with groups of children of different ability levels.
In these groups, the teachers sometimes asked Susan to do work that was different from what other students had to do.
For example, while some children wrote a paper about a book they had read, Susan would complete an art project.
This way she could show that she, too, understood some parts of the book.
Susan received special education services from the time she was two years old until she was nineteen.
Now she goes to a small college in her community.
All of the students in her classes share something in common -- they all have disabilities like hers.
They are learning simple mathematics.
They are also learning better reading skills, and how to find a job.
Schoolchildren who need special services have what is called an individual education plan, or I.E.P. It describes what the child needs to learn during the school year.
For example, with children who have severe disabilities, the goal could be to help them learn to feed themselves or hold a pencil.
For other children, the plan could require that the student receive extra help in reading or math.
Creating an individual education plan for each child who needs one takes time and effort.
Parents and educators do not always agree about the services that a child needs.
?
Parents can go to school officials to try to settle a disagreement.
They also have a right to go to court.
Some special education cases have gone all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
It costs a lot for schools to provide special education services.
The teachers usually work with a much smaller number of students than teachers normally do.
Schools must also provide services like transportation for students in wheelchairs.
American public schools currently spend an average of almost eight thousand dollars a year to educate one student.
But the cost for a special education student can be thousands of dollars more -- especially if it includes placement in a private school.
Over the years, the federal government has promised to pay forty percent of the costs of special education.
But the National Education Association, a teachers union, says that by two thousand four, the government was paying less than twenty percent.
As a result, state governments and local schools must find billions of dollars to pay for the services that the federal government requires.
This can create disagreements in communities.
Schools may find they have to cut regular education services so they can have enough money to pay for special education.
But these programs have enabled many more young people with disabilities to attend college, find jobs and live life more independently.
Jobs will be the subject next month in the second part of our series on living with a disability in America.
Our program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Caty Weaver.
Almost every language in the world has a saying that a person can never be too rich.
Americans, like people in other countries, always want more money.
One way they express this is by protesting that their jobs do not pay enough.
The expression probably began because seeds fed to chickens made people think of small change.
Small change means metal coins of not much value, like nickels which are worth five cents.
An early use of the word chickenfeed appeared in an American publication in nineteen thirty.
It told about a rich man and his son.
Spy expert Henry S. A. Becket writes that some German spies working in London during the war also worked for the British.
The British government had to make the Germans believe their spies were working.
So, British officials gave them mostly false information.
It was called chickenfeed.
It is a very different meaning from the main one in the dictionary.
That meaning is small nuts that grow on a plant.
No one knows for sure how a word for something to eat also came to mean something very small.
But, a peanut is a very small food.
The expression is an old one.
Word expert Mitford Mathews says that as early as eighteen fifty-four, an American publication used the words peanut agitators.
That meant political troublemakers who did not have a lot of support.
Another reason for the saying about working for peanuts may be linked to elephants.
Think of how elephants are paid for their work in the circus.
They receive food, not money.
One of the foods they like best is peanuts.
When you add the word gallery to the word peanut you have the name of an area in an American theater.
A gallery is a high seating area or balcony above the main floor.
The peanut gallery got its name because it is the part of the theater most distant from where the show takes place.
So, peanut gallery tickets usually cost less than other tickets.
People pay a small amount of money for them.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson.
The department has an official label to mark products that have met the requirements of its National Organic Program.
Should wild salmon be labeled organic?
A question for US officials.
Organic products usually cost more, but their sales are growing.
As a result, so is competition to label more products organic because many people believe they are healthier.
Now Agriculture Department officials are trying to decide whether fish can be called organic.
There are rules for organic produce, organic dairy products, organic meat and chicken -- but nothing about fish.
Many operators of fish farms believe they could sell more fish if they could label them organic.
The industry that sells wild-caught fish is already under pressure from farm-raised seafood.
That pressure could increase if the Agriculture Department approves proposed requirements for labeling fish organic.
Earning the organic label requires controlled conditions.
The question is whether fish that swim wild and free -- like Alaskan salmon -- could meet the proposed requirements.
Yet fish farms might not all be able to meet them either.
Some operations are criticized for their treatment of fish and the risk of pollution to waterways.
Fish farmers and the wild-caught industry also argue about the possible presence of harmful chemicals in each other's products.
In two thousand, an advisory committee considered requests by fish farmers to call their products organic.
The experts said farm-raised fish should be labeled organic only if they were fed almost completely organic plant food.
Farmed fish often have little or no fish in their diet.
But those proposed guidelines were not used.
In two thousand five, the Agriculture Department formed another group to examine possible requirements.
This time, the committee suggested several kinds of food that farmed fish could eat and still be called organic.
A decision about whether fish can be sold with the organic label may still take two years or more.
For now, the American fishing industry has to deal with growing competition from imported seafood.
Today we tell about Alzheimer’s disease.
One century after its discovery, the cause of the disease is still unknown.
In November of nineteen ninety-four, Ronald Reagan wrote a letter to the American people.
The former president shared the news that he had Alzheimer’s disease.
Mister Reagan began what he called his journey into the sunset of his life.
That ten year journey ended on June fifth, two thousand four, at the age of ninety-three.
Ronald ReaganIn his letter, America's fortieth President wrote about the fears and difficulties presented by Alzheimer’s disease.
He said that he and his wife Nancy hoped their public announcement would lead to greater understanding of the condition among individuals and families affected by it.
Ronald Reagan was probably the most famous person to suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
In the United States, about four million five hundred thousand people have the disease.
Many millions more are expected to have it in years to come.
Doctors describe Alzheimer's as a slowly increasing brain disorder.
It affects memory and personality -- those qualities that make a person an individual.
There is no known cure.
Victims slowly lose their abilities to deal with everyday life.
At first they forget simple things, like where they put something or a person’s name.
As time passes, they forget more and more.
They forget the names of their husband, wife or children.
Then they forget who they are.
Finally, they remember nothing.
It is as if their brain dies before the other parts of the body.
Victims of Alzheimer’s do die from the disease, but it many take many years.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common kind of a disability or mental sickness called dementia.
Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily activities.
It is not a disease itself.
Instead, dementia is a group of signs of some conditions and diseases.
Karen Denbo feeds her mother, Betty O'Brien, who has Alzheimer'sSome kinds of dementia can be cured or corrected.
This is especially true if they are caused by drugs, alcohol, infection sight or hearing problems, heart or lung problems or head injury.
Other kinds of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones or vitamins in the body.
However, brain cells of Alzheimer’s victims die and are not replaced.
Victims can become angry and violent as the ability to remember and think decreases.
Often they shout and move about with no purpose or goal.
Media reports often tell about older people found walking in places far from their homes, not knowing where they are or where they came from.
Generally, these people are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease generally develops differently in each person.
Yet some early signs of the disease are common.
Often, the victims may not recognize changes in themselves.
Others see the changes and the struggle to hide them.
Probably the most common early sign is short-term memory loss.
The victim cannot remember something that happened yesterday, for example.
Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information.
Slowly, thinking becomes much more difficult.
The victims cannot understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or perform simple work.
Another sign of Alzheimer’s disease is difficulty solving simple problems, such as what to do if food on a stove is burning.
Also, people have trouble following directions or finding their way to nearby places.
Another sign is struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed.
Finally, people with Alzheimer’s seem to change.
Quiet people may become noisier and aggressive.
They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others.
Alzheimer’s disease normally affects people more than sixty-five years old.
But a few rare cases have been discovered in people younger than fifty.
The average age of those found to have the disease is about eighty years old.
Alzheimer’s is found in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five.
But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty.
By ninety, half of all people are found to have some signs of the disease.
Alzheimer’s disease affects people of all races equally.
Yet women are more likely to develop the disease than men.
This is partly because women generally live longer than men.
There is no simple test to show if someone has Alzheimer’s disease.
Doctors who suspect Alzheimer’s must test the patient for many other disabilities first.
Alzheimer’s is considered the cause if the tests fail to show the presence of other disabilities.
The only way to tell for sure if a person has Alzheimer’s is to examine the victim’s brain after death.
Recently, scientists reported progress in efforts to identify persons who will develop Alzheimer’s disease.
For example, one study examined brain and spinal cord fluid from sixty-eight people.
It found twenty-three proteins that showed evidence of the disease.
Study organizers said the protein test was correct in about ninety percent of patients involved in the study.
The results were confirmed with brain examinations after the patients died.
Another study found evidence of Alzheimer's by using a chemical known as F-D-D-N-P.
This study used a process called positron emission tomography to make brain images of eighty-three adults.
American scientists said the test was ninety-eight percent correct in showing differences between Alzheimer's and normal memory problems.
Scientists say all these results must be repeated with larger groups of patients.
But they said that being able to find the presence of the disease in such ways would make early treatment possible.
In his book “The Notebook,” Nicholas Sparks calls Alzheimer’s disease, “a thief of hearts and souls and memories.”?
British writer Iris Murdoch died of the disease.
She said it was a dark and terrible place.
It has been more than a century since a German doctor, Alois Alzheimer, told about a dementia patient whose brain was studied after death.
Her brain had sticky structures and nerve cells that appeared to be mixed together.
Later studies showed these tangled nerves are made of a protein called tau.
The tau protein changes so that it sticks together in groups.
The sticky structures were shown to be amyloid plaques.
Scientists are still not sure what causes Alzheimer’s disease.
The leading theory blames amyloid plaques.
Reports say about one hundred different drugs are being tested to treat or slow the progress of the disease.
Some American scientists have found a way to reduce amyloid plaque development.
Researchers in New York say they reduced the amount of amyloid protein in the brains of mice by fifty percent.
They say they did this by stopping interaction between amyloid and a protein known as apo E. Apo E moves cholesterol and other fats around the brain.
Not all scientists are sure that amyloid plaques cause Alzheimer’s disease.
Some say the plaques could be an effect of the disease, not the cause.
Reports say some people who die of Alzheimer's do not have any plaques in their brains.
Others who have the sticky structures showed no signs of Alzheimer's.
Many scientists now say doctors are considering other possibilities.
These include studies of enzymes that act on proteins to produce the plaques, and using antibodies against amyloid.
Yet amyloid and enzymes are important for health and scientists do not want to destroy them completely.
Other scientists are working with a gene called apoE4.
Scientists in nineteen ninety-three discovered that its presence increases the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
They now say that apoE4 is present in fifty to seventy percent of the patients with the disease.
Some scientists are attempting to change the protein that apoE4 makes.
Others are working to block an enzyme that divides the apoE4 protein into different pieces that kill nerve cells.
Our producer was Brianna Blake.
We continue our series about ways older Americans are keeping mentally active.
Today, we tell about lifelong learning programs.
Older Americans who are either retired or reaching retirement age are concerned about keeping active when they leave their jobs.
They know that staying physically and mentally active is necessary for good health.
It is easy for an individual to get exercise by walking, swimming or bicycling.
But keeping mentally active is easier in a group.
So, many programs have been created for aging Americans where they can continue to learn and experience new things.
There are many education programs in communities across the United States.
More than three hundred fifty of these learning programs belong to the Elderhostel Institute Network.
It is part of Elderhostel, an organization that provides travel and learning experiences for hundreds of thousands of older Americans every year.
Programs in the Elderhostel Institute Network are connected with the colleges and universities in the communities.
Yet they are independent.
Members elect leaders and help make decisions about what will be taught and by whom.
There are no tests to take or papers to write.
Anyone over the age of fifty can pay to belong.
People do not have to travel to take the courses.
The Elderhostel Institute Network provides an Internet Web site where groups from all over the United States can exchange experiences.
It helps organize conferences and offers advice for people wanting to start new programs.
Some community-based education programs for people over fifty-five are called Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes.
Many of these programs also belong to the Elderhostel Institute Network.
The difference is that the Bernard Osher Foundation gives money to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes to help support them.
Bernard Osher was born in the state of Maine.
He was a very successful businessman.
He started a foundation thirty years ago to give money to help educational and cultural organizations in Maine and in California.
In nineteen ninety-seven, the University of Southern Maine invited older adults who lived in the area to a meeting to talk about an exciting new chance to learn.
The program would offer study groups and discussions on many different subjects, but there would be no tests or grades.
It would be open to people who were at least fifty years old.
Organizers expected one hundred fifty people to attend.
Five hundred showed up.
The program, known as Senior College, quickly became successful.
In two thousand one, the Osher Foundation provided financial support that let the program expand its offerings to almost one thousand adults.
The University of Southern Maine’s Senior College became the first Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
A national movement had begun.
Mary Bitterman is president of the Bernard Osher Foundation.
She says Bernard Osher always placed a high value on education.
He had been giving financial assistance to people who wanted to continue their education but lacked money.
Miz Bitterman says Mister Osher became interested in supporting educational programs for older people when he visited his hometown in Maine in two thousand.
He found differences among his friends.
Some were inactive and depressed.
Others were lively and happy.
They were attending Senior College at the University of Southern Maine.
Miz Bitterman says Mister Osher was surprised that people could gain so much by learning new things every day.
Osher members at the University of Alaska FairbanksMister Osher decided his Foundation should support the development of more learning communities of older adults.
He wanted to create Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes in as many states as possible and to be in different kinds of communities.
Mary Bitterman says the Osher Foundation gives one hundred thousand dollars a year for up to four years to the programs that are accepted as members.
An Osher Lifelong Learning Institute may request a grant of one million dollars for its long term needs when it has about five hundred members and is offering college level courses.
So far, seventeen of them have received the grants.
Mary Bitterman thinks that the lifelong learning movement is just beginning.
Americans today are living longer.
Yet she says the important issue is not how long we live but how many exciting, productive years we have ahead of us.
Miz Bitterman says that taking part in Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes gives people energy.
It confirms the importance of continued personal development.
She says it lets older people feel that every day there is the possibility of learning something new that will open doors to a new life.
Kali Lightfoot is executive director of the National Resource Center for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes.
The center is at the University of Southern Maine.
Miz Lightfoot says there are now almost one hundred Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes in about forty states.
More than forty thousand people are members of them.
The resource center helps member groups exchange information about their problems, solutions and experiences.
They do so through an Internet Web site, national conferences and a research journal.
Miz Lightfoot says she has discovered that lifelong learners are looking to the future and not living in the past.
One example, she says, is a ninety-three year old member who talks about how excited she is to be learning about Afghanistan.
This woman forgets about the difficulty she has climbing the stairs to the classroom.
Thirty adults fill the hallway in a university building in Washington, D.C. talking and drinking coffee.
They are having loud, lively discussions about current international and national events.
The class is part of the continuing education program at American University.
It began in nineteen eighty-two as the Institute for Learning in Retirement.
It is a new member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Sidney Steinitz is chairman of its Board of Directors.
He says the name has changed, but nothing else has.
Fifty courses are offered in the autumn and fifty different courses in the spring.
Each course meets for two hours once a week for eight to ten weeks.
Mister Steinitz says members decide what will be taught.
They find the study group leaders or teachers.
Study group leaders are experts in the subjects.
Some have taught in colleges or high schools.
Others have knowledge of the subject from their work.
Still others have become experts by learning on their own.
Teachers are not paid.
They teach because they are interested in sharing their knowledge and learning from other members.
Some of the teachers are members of the group.
Mister Steinitz was a lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission before he retired.
Anne Wallace is executive director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University.
She says the subjects of most courses are similar to what is taught at colleges.
They include history, politics, philosophy, archeology, science and literature.
Courses taught by retired scientists about the universe, genetic research and the history of science are always popular.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University has about five hundred thirty members.
They pay four hundred dollars for a year’s membership.
Members are able to take up to three courses in the fall and three more in the spring.
Anne Wallace says almost all of the members say they belong because they enjoy the intellectual activity.
They also enjoy the new friends they make, and the community spirit they experience.
Miz Wallace says the members are what make the Lifelong Learning Institute so special.
This program was written by Marilyn Christiano.
It was produced by Mario Ritter.
The surrender of Japan in August nineteen forty-five ended the Second World War.
Americans looked to their new president, Harry Truman of the state of Missouri, to lead them into a new period of peace.
No one expected President Truman to be as strong a leader as Franklin Roosevelt had been.
And at first, they were right.
Truman had one problem after another during his first months in the White House.
Truman's first big problem was the economy.
In the days after the war ended, almost two million Americans lost their jobs as arms factories closed.
Americans everywhere worried about what would happen next.
Only a few years before, the nation had suffered through the worst economic crisis in American history.
No one wanted to return to the closed banks, hungry children, and other sad memories of the Great Depression.
In some ways, the economy did better than experts hoped.
The gross national product dropped only a small amount.
Many Americans still had money they had saved during the war.
And Congress passed a law to help people to keep their jobs.
The situation could have been much worse than it was.
However, the economy also could have been better -- much better.
Suddenly, almost overnight, the price of everything began to rise.
Clothes that cost five or six dollars yesterday now cost ten to fifteen dollars.
Used automobile tires sold for the surprisingly high price of twenty dollars.
President Truman tried to stop the increases through a special price control agency that had been created during the war.
However, people by the thousands refused to follow the government price control rules.
Instead, they set their own prices for goods.
Store owners would tell government officials that they were still obeying the price rules.
But often they charged whatever they wanted for goods.
A meat salesman, for example, might say there was no good meat that day.
But for three dollars extra, he would suddenly find a thick piece of meat to sell.
A car salesman would sell his cars at the controlled price.
But he might insist that the buyers also buy his dog for five hundred dollars.
And his dog would return home that night.
It was not just store owners who were charging more and refusing to obey government price rules.
It was also the woman who rented a house to a young family…the farmer selling food…and finally, most importantly, it was organized labor.
President Truman had always been a friend of labor unions.
But during the first months of his administration, he became involved in a fierce struggle with coal miners and railroad workers.
The first sign of trouble came in September nineteen forty-five.
A group of workers closed down automobile factories at the Ford Company.
Then, workers at the General Motors auto company went on strike.
Soon there were strikes everywhere.
Workers went on strike in the oil industry, the clothing industry, the wood-cutting industry and the electrical industry.
The strikes made Truman angry.
He believed the striking workers were threatening the economy and security of the United States.
And within a short time, the striking coal miners returned to work.
However, the president had less success with the railroad workers.
He became so angry with them that he asked Congress to give him the power to draft all striking rail workers into the armed forces.
The rail strike finally ended.
But millions of Americans lost faith in Truman's ability to lead the country, to bring people together, and end disputes peacefully.
By late nineteen forty-six, most Americans believed that the man in the White House did not know what he was doing.
Truman seemed weak and unable to control events.
Union members disliked him because of his violent opposition to the coal and rail strikes.
Farmers opposed Truman because of the administration's effort to keep meat prices low.
Conservatives did not trust the reforms that Truman promised in his speeches.
And liberal Democrats watched with worry as many old advisers of Franklin Roosevelt left the government because they could not work well with Truman.
In November, nineteen forty-six, the people voted in congressional and state elections.
The results showed they were not satisfied with Truman and the Democratic Party.
Republicans won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in eighteen years.
And Republicans were elected governor in twenty-five states.
The election was a serious defeat for the Democrats.
But it was a disaster for Truman.
Some members of his party even called on him to resign.
Few people gave Truman much chance of winning a second term in the White House.
However, Harry Truman began to change in the months that followed.
He started speaking with more strength and firmness.
He showed more understanding of the powers of the presidency.
And in matters of foreign policy, he began to act more like a president.
This was especially true in Truman's reaction to Soviet aggression in Germany.
Truman wanted to rebuild Germany, as well as the other countries of Western Europe.
His administration worked closely with west European leaders to rescue their broken economies through the Marshall Plan.
But the Soviets did not want to see Germany rebuild, at least not so quickly.
So at first, they flooded Germany with extra German currency in an effort to destroy the value of the German mark.
They walked out of economic conferences.
And finally, in early nineteen forty-eight, they blocked all the roads to Berlin to try to cut off the city from the western powers.
The Soviet actions were a direct threat to the west.
Truman had three difficult choices.
If he did nothing, the world would think the United States was weak and unable to stop Soviet aggression.
If he fought the blockade with armed force, he might start a third world war.
But there was another choice.
That was to fly supplies to the city.
The American military commander in Germany proposed the idea of dropping thousands of kilograms of food, fuel, and other goods to the people of Berlin by parachute.
Not just once, but every day, as long as the Russians continued their blockade.
It would be a difficult job.
West Berlin was home to two-and-a-half-million people.
No one had ever tried to supply so large a city by air.
Large C forty-seven transport airplanes would have to take off every three-and-a-half-minutes all through the day and night, every day, to supply the people of Berlin with enough food.
The people of Berlin gave needed support from the ground.
More than twenty thousand Berliners worked day and night to build an extra landing field for the American airplanes.
It was not long before it became clear that the American air rescue would succeed.
West Berlin would remain free of Soviet control.
The Russians soon understood this fact, too.
In May of nineteen forty-nine, almost one year after they had started their blockade, they ended it.
The crisis in Berlin changed the way many Americans saw their president.
Harry Truman no longer seemed so weak or unsure of himself.
Instead, he was acting as a leader who could take an active part in world affairs.
Truman's popularity increased.
However, most Americans did not expect him to win the presidential election in nineteen forty-eight.
Almost everyone believed that the Republican candidate would capture the office.
The election campaign that year turned out to be one of the most exciting and surprising in the entire history of the nation.
That nineteen forty-eight election will be our story next week.
Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt.
Our program was written by David Jarmul.
Our subject this week is children and AIDS.
The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, has just released a report on a campaign launched in October of two thousand five.
UNICEF, the U.N. AIDS program and other groups wanted to bring greater attention to the needs of children affected by AIDS.
One of the biggest problems is the spread of HIV from mothers to children.
Mother-to-child transmission was the main cause of the estimated half-million new infections last year in children under the age of fifteen.
reports that several countries in eastern and southern Africa have made what it calls breakthroughs.
It says they greatly increased the number of mothers who receive antiretroviral drugs.
These medicines can prevent mother-to-child transmission.
For example, the report says Namibia increased coverage from six percent of mothers to twenty-nine percent.
That was between two thousand four and two thousand five.
And in South Africa, it says, the number rose during that same period from twenty-two percent of mothers to thirty percent.
However, the report says there are still far too many pregnant women infected with HIV who do not get antiretroviral treatment.
Only nine percent of them in poor countries were getting the medicines in two thousand five.
also reports gains in providing treatment to children who already have HIV or AIDS.
The agency says testing programs and health worker skills have improved.
Lower drug prices and simpler treatments have also helped in the care of children with HIV/AIDS.
Several countries increased HIV treatment for children by combining it with programs at treatment centers for adults.
The report says the countries include Botswana, India, Rwanda, South Africa and Thailand.
Still there is much more room for progress.
says just one in ten infected children worldwide gets antiretroviral treatment.
And only four percent of children born to HIV-infected mothers receive drugs to prevent infections that can be deadly.
The UNICEF report also discusses efforts to help the millions of children who have lost parents to AIDS.
It says more and more are getting educations, thanks in part to the cancellation of school charges in several countries.
Both describe a living situation.
With us from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker, who says that some online resources can help clear up confusion over words.
In what context?
Is there an emotional sense that the word conveys?
And that's what we mean by the word 'connotation': does it have a positive or a negative meaning?
Lida Baker says another good online source is the Web site WordReference.com.
My point is that if you have a computer in your classroom, when students ask questions like this, you can get the answer on the spot.
We come to the twentieth week of our series on higher education in the United States.
Today we answer two e-mails from Thailand.
A refugee from Burma and another listener in Thailand both want to know more about the Fulbright Program.
The Fulbright Program gives Americans a chance to study, teach or do research in other countries.
And it gives people in other countries a chance to do the same in America.
Hala al-Sarraf, an Iraqi Fulbright scholar, appears before lawmakers in Congress in July of last yearFulbright grants are given to graduate students, scholars and professionals.
There is also a Fulbright exchange program just for teachers and administrators.
Each year about six thousand people receive Fulbright grants.
The United States government pays most of the costs.
Foreign governments and schools help by sharing costs and providing other support.
The Fulbright Program operates in about one hundred fifty countries.
Around two hundred seventy thousand Fulbrighters have taken part over the years.
Legislation by Senator William Fulbright established the program in nineteen forty-six.
He saw educational exchange as a way to help people understand other ideas and ways of life.
Senator Fulbright also believed the program could educate future world leaders.
In nineteen sixty-eight, the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program began.
This Fulbright program brings foreign teachers to the United States to work with high school or college students.
Two other Fulbright programs that offer ways to come to the United States are the foreign student and visiting scholar programs.
The Foreign Student Program brings graduate students to study and do research at a college or university.
The Visiting Scholar Program brings foreign experts to speak and do research for up to a year.
The list of countries in the Fulbright Program changes each year.
And the requirements may differ from country to country.
You can learn more about the program from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department.
You can also contact the local Fulbright Commission or American Embassy in your country for more information.
This week on our show: Getting ready for the newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Their careers were unusual in Major League baseball today.
Barbara Klein explains why.
Cal Ripken Jr., left, and Tony Gwynn after their election to the Hall of FameTony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Junior played all their years in the major leagues with just one team.
Cal Ripken played for the Baltimore Orioles from nineteen eighty-one to two thousand one.
He played shortstop for most of his career and later moved to third base.
He played in nineteen All-Star Games and was named the most valuable player in two of them.
Also, he was the American League's most valuable player in nineteen eighty-three when Baltimore won the World Series.
But baseball history may best remember him for playing two thousand six hundred thirty-two consecutive games.
The city of Baltimore celebrated in nineteen ninety-five when he broke the record set by Lou Gehrig for not missing any games.
He played for the San Diego Padres from nineteen eighty-two until two thousand one.
His hitting earned him the twentieth highest batting average in the major leagues.
He won eight National League batting championships.
But he also won five Golden Glove awards for his fielding.
Tony Gwynn played in fifteen All-Star Games and two World Series.
Both new Hall of Famers are still active in the sport.
Cal Ripken owns minor league teams and supervises a baseball league for young people.
And Tony Gwynn is the baseball coach at San Diego State University.
They were the only candidates on the two thousand seven Hall of Fame ballot to receive the required seventy-five percent of the votes.
Five hundred forty-five members of the American Baseball Writers' Association voted.
All but eight of them voted for Cal Ripken.
He received five hundred thirty-seven votes.
Tony Gwynn received five hundred thirty-two.
They will be honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, at ceremonies on July twenty-ninth.
Sears Tower Our listener question this week comes from Abdul Qadir Usman of Gombe, Nigeria.
He wants to know more about the Sears Tower.
The Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, is the tallest office building in the United States.
It was built between nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy-four.
For more than twenty years, it was the tallest building in the world.
The tower rises more than four hundred forty meters -- five hundred ten if you add the two broadcasting towers on top.
Either way, it stands as a tall, dark presence over the area of Chicago known as the Loop.
The facing material is black aluminum.
The windows are bronze colored glass.
The building has one hundred ten floors.
Architect Bruce Graham of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the tower for Sears, Roebuck and Company.
The company later moved its main offices to the greater Chicago area.
Sears, Roebuck was once the nation's leading operator of department stores and a mail-order business.
Its competitor Kmart bought the company in two thousand five.
Most of the Sears Tower is office space.
But people also live in apartments and there are stores and restaurants.
The building has an observation area called the Skydeck.
On cloudy days, people on the street cannot even see all the way to the top of the Sears Tower.
But on clear days, visitors to the Skydeck can see three other states -- Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Explanations of the sights appear in English, Spanish, Polish, French, Japanese and German.
And there are windows placed low, at eye level for children.
People also can see local sights like the Millennium Park and the shining white Wrigley Building along the Chicago River.
They can watch the ships on Lake Michigan.
And, in the summer, they can follow the little dots that really are people swimming, or sailing in boats with colorful sails.
Tween Music Some of the biggest buyers in today's music world are not very big at all.
They are children between the ages of eight and twelve -- between early childhood and the teen years.
Lately, record companies have been finding it harder to sell albums to adults.
At the same time, online music stores and free sharing services on the Web have brought changes to the industry.
The show is about a high school student who has a secret life as a pop star named Hannah Montana.
The young actress is Miley Cyrus.
Her father is country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, who also appears on the show.
What began as a series of books has grown into two movies.
The actresses in the movies play colorfully dressed performers who sing and dance.
They are now performing their music live all over the country.
This is the story of two students who decide to try out for singing parts in a high school play.
By following their dream, they set an example for others.
The album has sold millions of copies all over the world -- there is even a version in Hindi.
I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson.
Caty Weaver was our producer.
Companies combined or bought other businesses at record levels last year.
Almost four trillion dollars in deals worldwide represented an increase of nearly forty percent from the year before.
So far in January, merger and acquisition activity has remained strong.
Delta Air Lines, currently in Federal Bankruptcy Court protection, is a target of US AirwaysIn the airline industry, US Airways this month raised its recent offer to buy Delta to ten billion dollars.
If that goes through, there could be other airline deals coming.
General Electric has recently added some new manufacturers to its mix of businesses.
But in the biggest deal of last year, AT&T merged with the telecommunications company BellSouth.
That deal in the United States was valued at seventy-three billion dollars, not including debt.
The satellite radio industry has had increasing talk of a merger between XM and Sirius, the two major companies.
But the head of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington said this week that one company could not own both operating licenses.
With all the deals last year, investment banks did well.
Goldman Sachs advised on more than four hundred mergers -- valued at over one trillion dollars.
Citicorp and Morgan Stanley were not far behind.
A merger is when two or more companies combine their operations.
Generally the combined company is able to negotiate lower prices with suppliers because of its bigger size and market.
Jobs are sometimes also cut in mergers to save money.
The idea is to increase the value of the combined company for shareholders.
But that does not always happen.
Some experts suggest that only one merger in three creates big gains for shareholders.
At the same time, mergers can reduce competition, resulting in higher prices.
The simplest way for companies to combine is through an acquisition.
One company buys another.
A hostile takeover is when the target company did not invite or approve an offer to its shareholders.
Last year, the world's biggest steelmaker, Mittal of India, succeeded in buying all the shares of its top competitor, Arcelor of Luxembourg.
Companies may take a large part or a small part in guiding the policies of the businesses they acquire.
Investor Warren Buffett is known for buying controlling shares of stock in companies but leaving their management teams in place.
He says he is not interested in companies without established management.
This week -- new developments in two stories we reported on last year.
In August, a federal judge tried to stop what the Bush administration calls the Terrorist Surveillance Program.
A presidential order let the National Security Agency read e-mails and listen to calls to or from al-Qaida suspects in the United States without a court order.
The judge in Detroit said the program violated rights of free speech and privacy.
She ruled it unconstitutional and in violation of a federal intelligence law.
In October, an appeals court said the government could continue the program while it appealed the ruling.
But this week the administration said it has ended the use of surveillance without court approval.
It says the program now operates under rules prepared by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Democrats, newly in control of Congress, praised the move but said it should have happened sooner.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said there are still questions about exactly how the program will work.
The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week.
He says officials do not want to release too many details, for security reasons.
President Bush secretly approved the surveillance program after the September eleventh, two thousand one, attacks on the United States.
After the attacks, Congress gave him the power to use all necessary force against those responsible.
The New York Times reported the existence of the program at the end of two thousand five.
Last June, we reported on the situation in Somalia.
The Islamic Courts movement had just captured Mogadishu, the capital.
Last month, Ethiopian troops entered Somalia.
They helped its temporary government to force Islamist fighters from Mogadishu and other parts of the country.
But this week there was a political move that American and European officials say could hurt efforts to unite Somalis.
The Somali parliament voted its pro-Islamist speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, out of his job.
Last year, Mister Aden tried to negotiate peace with the Islamic movement.
President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi rejected his efforts.
At that time, the movement controlled Mogadishu.
Ethiopian troops are expected to leave the country soon.
There are worries of renewed anarchy and civil war.
Eight thousand troops are needed for a proposed African peacekeeping force.
Uganda was the first to offer any.
Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in nineteen ninety-one.
Last week, the United States launched an air strike in an area of southern Somalia believed to be a hiding place for members of al-Qaida.
With this song, Brown went from a rhythm and blues singer to a pop music star.
It helped him gain a huge number of white fans as well as black ones.
He became a famous and wealthy singer, songwriter and performer.
But this huge success was very different from the poverty of his early life.
James Brown was born in nineteen thirty-three in a one-room house near Barnwell, South Carolina.
His father, Joe Brown, had a job removing fluids from pine trees in the surrounding woods.
He sold the sap for making turpentine.
The boy's mother left the family when he was seven years old.
James and his father moved to Augusta, Georgia.
Young James had musical abilities.
He learned to play the guitar, piano and drums.
He did this while picking crops in the fields and shining people's shoes to earn money to survive.
James loved the African-American church music called gospel.
He loved it when the church's religious leader would sing this music and?
drop to his knees with emotional shouts and screams.
Brown later used this kind of emotional singing in his own performances.
He also liked the sound of the jazz and rhythm and blues performer Louis Jordan.
By the time he was thirteen, James Brown had formed his own music group.
He later joined a group called the Flames.
The band played at drinking places, restaurants, colleges and other places in the South.
These young performers copied the sounds of successful rhythm and blues groups.
They also included in their shows a song co-written by James Brown.
He was able to stop doing low-paying jobs.
It sold more than one million copies.
It made James Brown famous in the United States.
And it became part of his electrifying stage performances.
Brown would be on stage with an eighteen-piece band and a group of dancers.
?
His emotional singing included unusual sounds and screams.
He danced around the stage performing movements that had not been seen before.
He created his own musical and performing style.
Brown said that song was one of the most important things he ever did in the way of changing music rhythms.
At the same time, Brown worked for civil rights for African-Americans.
He urged black people to be proud of themselves.
And he urged young people to continue their education and not drop out of school.
His message was positive instead of angry.
During the nineteen seventies, his popularity decreased as disco music became popular.
In nineteen eighty-six, James Brown was one of the first performers invited into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He became one of the most successful recording artists in history.
With the exception of Elvis Presley, no pop artist had more hit records.
He had ninety-four songs in the Top One Hundred songs.
And he had more Top Twenty single records than any other recording artist up to that time.
But, in nineteen eighty-eight, he committed some crimes.
He spent two and one-half years in prison.
He was pardoned of his crimes in two thousand three.
James Brown received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in nineteen ninety-two.
He later talked about what he had tried to do to help young people.
He said he tried to teach through his music.
He thought it was very important to make young people proud of themselves and willing to work for what they wanted.
That means that a person can rise from poverty to wealth and success if he or she works hard.
Brown influenced the music of his time and many performers who came after him.
Three days before his death, he joined volunteers at his yearly event to give toys to needy children in Augusta, Georgia.
He was seventy-three.
Imagine a world without manufacturers.
Or at least not as we now think of them.
Instead, we as individuals control the technology to design and make most anything we want.
That world exists now in the mind of Neil Gershenfeld.
Professor Gershenfeld is a computer scientist and physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He directs the Center for Bits and Atoms at M.I.T.
The center is exploring the relationship between computer science and physical science.
The work is receiving financial support from the National Science Foundation.
Neil Gershenfeld wants to help developing countries create technological tools to solve their own problems.
He says this is one way to bring the results of the digital revolution to the developing world.
So far the center has set up about fifteen of these laboratories around the world.
Each FabLab comes equipped with about twenty thousand dollars' worth of electronics, design tools and computers.
The labs are all similar but they are put to use in very different ways.
In Costa Rica, for example, students used a FabLab to develop new educational technologies.
They also developed environmental sensing systems for farmers.
In Pabal, India, villagers used a FabLab to improve the design process for diesel engines that are used for many purposes in the community.
That was one of their first projects.
A FabLab in Takoradi, Ghana, is developing machines powered by the sun for cooking and other uses.
Developing countries are not the only ones with FabLabs.
They wanted a radio frequency identification system to be able to follow a sheep from birth to market.
People have also used FabLabs to test new designs for business ideas.
Sherry Lassiter works at the Center for Bits and Atoms at M.I.T.
She says three laboratories recently opened in South Africa.
The hope is that in the future, FabLabs will become economically self-supporting.
They might even be able to design new versions of themselves to keep up with demand.
In fact, Professor Gershenfeld imagines a time when personal fabrication laboratories are truly personal -- a FabLab in every home.
Details below.
Women in American politics is our report this week.
Nancy Pelosi won her first election to Congress twenty years ago this June.
She led the California State Democratic Party in the early eighties.
After that she served at the national level as finance chair of the campaign committee for Democrats in the Senate.
She also kept busy with her five children.
Nancy Pelosi came from a political family.
She was good at raising money but had never been a candidate for public office herself.
Then in nineteen eighty-seven, the death of a Democratic representative in San Francisco led to a special election.
Nancy Pelosi narrowly won her party's nomination to enter the race.
Since then, voters in the heavily Democratic district have re-elected her to Congress ten times.
Now she holds the powerful job of speaker of the House of Representatives.
Under the Constitution, the speaker becomes president of the United States if ever the president and vice president are unable to serve.
Displeasure with the Iraq war was a driving force in the victory for the Democrats in the elections last November.
The Republican Party lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in twelve years.
Nancy Pelosi was the minority leader in the House.
Twenty years ago, when Nancy Pelosi was first elected, men filled all but twenty-two seats in the House.
Now seventy-one of the four hundred thirty-five members, or sixteen percent, are women.
Most are Democrats.
?
Historically many of the women who have served in the Senate were never elected.
They were appointed to complete the term of a husband or other male relative who resigned or died.
Seeds of Peace campers from the Middle East with Maine Senator Olympia Snowe on Capitol HillFifteen years ago, only two of the one hundred senators were women.
Now the number is a record sixteen.
One of the five Republicans, Olympia Snowe of Maine, has served in both houses of Congress and both houses of her state legislature.
Two women are new to the Senate this year.
Both are Democrats.
Amy Klobuchar enforced the law as chief prosecutor in the largest county in Minnesota.
Claire McCaskill served as state auditor before she became the first woman ever elected a senator from Missouri.
At the state level, women are governors of nine of the fifty states.
Across the country, the victory for Democratic candidates in November brought back memories.
It was similar to the elections of nineteen ninety-four -- only then, it was the other way around.
That was the year of what became known as the Republican revolution.
In Congress, all of the representatives and a third of the senators are elected every two years.
America won its independence in seventeen seventy-six.
But it was not until nineteen twenty that American women won a constitutional right to vote.
The sixty-six-year-old speaker quickly set to work on the legislative goals of House Democrats for the first one hundred hours of the new Congress.
The issues were as different as increasing the federal minimum wage and reducing interest rates on student loans.
But there were disputes among Democrats over some of her early decisions.
For example, some members of her party disagreed with her choice for chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
She chose Silvestre Reyes of Texas over Jane Harman of California -- the longest-serving Democrat on the committee.
Nancy Pelosi was born Nancy D'Alesandro.
She was one of five children in a family in the Little Italy area of Baltimore, Maryland.
Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Junior, was the mayor of Baltimore.
Before that he represented the city for five terms in the House of Representatives.
Later, his son Thomas the Third also became mayor of Baltimore.
Daughter Nancy graduated in nineteen sixty-two from Trinity College -- now Trinity Washington University -- in the nation's capital.
The following year she married Paul Pelosi, a wealthy businessman from San Francisco.
In Congress, Nancy Pelosi served on the House Appropriations Committee, which deals with federal spending.
In two thousand two she was elected minority leader.
Many women are proud of her success.
But women are fifty-one percent of the population and their numbers in Congress fall far short of that.
Last year, even extra money from the Democratic Party failed to help many female candidates win seats in Congress.
One woman who appeared likely to win a seat in the House was Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.
She was a helicopter pilot in the Iraq war.
She lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down.
Before the election, Tammy Duckworth was ahead in public opinion.
But when the ballots were counted, Republican Peter Roskam had narrowly defeated her.
Some people say it is harder for women than men to win elections.
They say voters may worry that women will be soft on issues like illegal immigration.
Or voters, male as well as female, are suspicious of women in power.
Others argue that while some voters might discriminate against women, most base their choices on a candidate's positions.
Political observers can argue all day about why Congress does not have more women.
And the fact is, they can all be right.
America is a big country.
What influences voters in one area may have no effect in another.
In some cases, what might count most is the ability of a candidate to raise enough money for an effective media campaign.
Even a candidate for local office may have to raise money for a campaign.
Some groups make special efforts to help female candidates.
But in political fund-raising there are no guarantees.
For example, Elizabeth Dole sought the Republican nomination for president in two thousand.
She dropped out, saying she could not raise enough money for a campaign.
No major American party has ever nominated a woman for president.
And only one woman, Democrat Geraldine Ferraro, was a candidate for vice president.
That was in nineteen eighty-four.
Most Americans say they would vote for a female president.
But lately there has been a lot of excitement about another Democrat.
Illinois Senator Barack Obama announced last Tuesday that he has formed a presidential exploratory committee.
A number of other Democrats and Republicans have also announced exploratory committees.
They can raise money and see if they have enough public support before officially declaring themselves candidates.
Condoleezza Rice has often been spoken of as a possible Republican presidential candidate.
But the secretary of state says she does not want to be president.
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver.
People often say that money talks.
They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done.
But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power.
Ask anyone in a business.
They will tell you that it is a jungle out there.
The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people.
Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals.
And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world threaten the survival of their business.
People in business have to be careful if they are to survive the jungle out there.
They must not be led into making bogus investments.
Bogus means something that is not real.
Nobody is sure how the word got started.
But it began to appear in American newspapers in the eighteen hundreds.
A newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, said the word came from a criminal whose name was Borghese.
The newspaper said Borghese wrote checks to people although he did not have enough money in the bank.
After he wrote the checks, he would flee from town.
So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing.
The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed the criminal's name Borghese, to bogus.
People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped off.
A person who is ripped off has had something stolen, or at least has been treated very unfairly.
It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest demonstration at a university.
The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off, or cheated.
Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly.
To be successful, a person in business works hard and tries to get down to brass tacks.
This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something.
For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price.
They clean the bottom of a boat.
When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper pieces that hold the boat together.
So, if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent ripoffs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there.
And, some good luck will help, too.
This Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson.
This Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson.
In California, frozen oranges In California, citrus growers are facing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from a freeze earlier this month.
Oranges and lemons in California's main growing areas were not the only victims.
The arctic cold front known as the Siberian Express also damaged other fruit and vegetable crops.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated losses at one billion dollars.
?
He declared an emergency in ten counties to provide state assistance to those affected.
The freeze could mean months without work for thousands of farm laborers, packing house workers and truck drivers.
It will also mean higher food prices across the country.
Much of the damage happened in the San Joaquin Valley, but it was spread around the state.
Citrus growers in California store their fruit on the tree.
Less than a third of this year's crop had been harvested when the freeze hit.
Avocados, strawberries and blueberries were also hit hard.
The strawberries were nearly ready for harvest, and only about five percent of the avocados had been picked.
Some avocado growers said this was their worst winter in sixteen years.
Spinach, lettuce and other greens were also affected.
California is the nation's top agricultural state, and top grower of fresh citrus.
Florida's big orange crop is used mostly for juice.
Right now, other states are struggling with the effects of snow and ice storms in recent weeks.
In some places, there was six meters of snow on the ground.
Animal losses are still being counted in the Great Plains.
The affected states include Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.
Some states have been approved for emergency federal aid.
Some ranchers still do not know where all their cattle have gone, or how many are dead.
The Colorado Cattlemen's Association estimates that the final count in that state alone could be eight thousand to fifteen thousand.
That would mean a loss of more than ten million dollars just in cattle.
In some states, National Guard helicopters not only rescued people but also dropped hay to cattle trapped without food in the snow.
Shortages of hay have pushed up prices, adding to economic losses.
And even cattle that have been saved may not be out of danger.
Many cows were pregnant, and many could lose their calves.
Other cattle weakened by the conditions may not survive the winter.
Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow.
Digging out from a blizzardWinter weather has returned to northern areas of the world.
In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow.
Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts.
Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall.
One reason is that heavy amounts of snow fall in surprisingly small areas.
Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain.
Snow is a form of frozen water.
It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals.
These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds.
They usually grow around a piece of dust.
All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes.
The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air.
Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar.
Platelike crystals are flat.
They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius.
Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice.
They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero.
The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures.
When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet.
Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets.
Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail.
When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes.
Snowflakes come in different sizes.
As many as one hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two and one-half centimeters.
Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long.
Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth’s atmosphere.
Snow contains much less water than rain.
About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two and one-half centimeters of rain.
About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two and one-half centimeters of rain.
Much of the water we use comes from snow.
Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops.
In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies.
Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather.
Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals.
Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced.
Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves.
When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves.
However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds.
Then the snow’s surface will help to send back sound waves.
Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther.
Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white.
This is because the light we see from the sun is white.
Most natural materials take in some sunlight.
This gives them their color.
However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected.
Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight.
Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight.
It is this light that gives snow its white appearance.
Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue.
The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice.
In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter.
A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through.
In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick.
If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen.
Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year.
However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter.
These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains in the United States.
In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four thousand nine hundred meters above sea level.
Each year, the continental United States has an average of one hundred snowstorms.
An average storm produces snow for two to five days.
Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another.
Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes.
The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine.
Two thousand eight hundred ninety-five centimeters of snow fell at the Mount Baker Ski area in the northwestern state of Washington.
People in many other areas have little or no snowfall.
In nineteen thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory.
During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas.
Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals.
Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used.
Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas.
Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year.
Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice.
Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity.
Several years ago, a major storm caused serious problems in the eastern United States.
It struck the Southeast in January, ninety ninety-six, before moving up the East Coast.
The storm was blamed for more than one hundred deaths.
It forced nine states to declare emergency measures.
Virginia and West Virginia were hit hardest.
In some areas there, snowfall amounts were more than one meter high.
Several states limited driving to emergency vehicles.
Most major airports were closed for at least a day or two.
A week later, two other storms brought additional snow to the East Coast.
In the New York City area, the added weight of the snow forced the tops of some buildings to break down.
Many travelers were forced to walk long distances through deep snow to get to train stations.
People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often.
However, they can avoid becoming victims of winter snowstorms.
People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed.
While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often.
Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack.
It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins.
These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies.
Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm.
If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help.
They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning.
People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue.
Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat.
People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle.
These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry.
People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies.
Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous.
Our producer was Brianna Blake.
We continue the series about how older Americans are keeping their minds active.
Today we tell about some of the adult education programs offered by colleges and universities.
Martin Feldman was a chemistry professor for forty years.
He retired from Howard University in Washington, D.C. about five years ago.
Mister Feldman says when he retired he thought he would like to do something he had not done before.
Yet, he says, he was not really interested in spending a lot of time as a student in a classroom, writing papers and taking tests.
One day Mister Feldman found a list of classes offered at Montgomery College near his home in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The college lets people sixty years and older who live in Montgomery County take classes.
They do not have to pay the normal tuition cost, just the cost of supplies.
Mister Feldman decided to try a sculpture class.
It teaches students how to make art out of clay, wood, metal and plastic.
And it meets only one day a week.
Martin Feldman says he quickly decided he really liked sculpture.
So he has continued with the class, experimenting with combining different materials and shapes.
About half of the members of the sculpture class are older adults who live in the area.
They take the class for no college credit.
The other students are college age.
They are taking the class for credit to get a degree and are paying tuition to take it.
Martin Feldman is also taking a class at a private school of art and design as a regular student.
His artwork had to be judged good enough for him to be accepted in the class.
And he has to pay the full cost.
Mister Feldman is happy he was able to try something completely new when he retired.
He has decided to spend a month at an art school in San Miguel Allende, Mexico.
He will try something else new while he is there?
– learning to make sculpture by welding metal.
Most big universities have continuing education programs that offer traditional classes for older adults who want to continue learning.
Some provide training programs that give people who complete them a certificate to prove they have gained new skills.
The cost for university classes can be high, even for continuing education students.
Many smaller colleges offer traditional classes at lower cost and provide other programs for older adults in their area who have different educational needs.
Prince George’s Community College in Maryland is one of them.
Camille Crawford is head of a program called Seasoned Adults Growing Educationally, or SAGE, at Prince George’s Community College.
It is part of the Workforce Development and Continuing Education division of the college.
The program is thirty years old.
Miz Crawford says SAGE offers more than four hundred classes every four months.
The classes are held in about sixty places all around Prince George’s County.
About five thousand older adults are taking classes at any one time.
They do not have to travel to the college.
They can take classes near where they live.
People can take SAGE classes in community centers, retirement communities and religious centers.
The cost is very low.
For fifty dollars, people over sixty who live in Prince George’s County can take as many classes as they want in a four-month period.
offers classes in art, computers, finance, heath, history, languages and music.
Professors who teach at Prince George’s Community College also teach the SAGE classes.
One professor told Miz Crawford that when he started teaching a SAGE class he realized again why he became a teacher.
He said the older adults were a joy to teach.
They were in the class because they wanted to learn, not because they had to be there to get a college degree.
Miz Crawford says some of the SAGE students never finished high school so they would not have been admitted to most colleges.
classes are open to everyone.
Adults who never thought they would have a chance to take college level classes are able to do so in the SAGE program.
Camille Crawford says many of the college’s continuing education classes are related to work.
Some of the older adults in the area need to keep working to earn money, even if they have retired from their jobs.
So the Workforce and Continuing Education division of Prince George’s Community College has programs to help provide new job skills for older adults.
Some of these people moved to the area from another country and do not have the skills needed for jobs in the United States.
Prince George’s County Department of Family Services identifies the people who should be given training for a job.
The college provides free training and placement in an internship program with a non-profit organization or a government agency.
The adult students are paid a minimum wage while they are in training.
So the Workforce and Continuing Education division of Prince George’s Community College combines job preparation skills with computer training.
Those who successfully finish the program receive certificates to prove they are trained to work in an office.
Miz Crawford says the training and continuing education programs have provided older adults with new skills.
Many who are now working part time feel they are doing something meaningful in their retirement years.
The University Continuing Education Association is the oldest organization in the United States of continuing education programs in colleges and universities.
It began in nineteen fifteen.
The organization now has about four hundred fifty members.
These college and universities are in most of the American states and in about thirty countries from Australia to Kuwait.
Timothy Sloate is director of research for the University Continuing Education Association.
He says studies have shown that many baby boomers plan to keep working at least part time after they retire.
Baby boomers are the large group of Americans born between nineteen forty-six and nineteen sixty-four.
The oldest members of the group are just turning sixty and thinking of retiring from their jobs.
Mister Sloate says many baby boomers are planning to learn new things in retirement.
Others, he says, are looking for job training.
They want to learn new skills to use when they are retired.
Timothy Sloate says the members of the University Continuing Education Association are expanding their learning in retirement programs.
One way is through the growth of classes that are offered online.
These online classes let adults far from the college or university take a class through their computers in their homes.
The University Continuing Education Association organizes about fifteen conferences a year for its members in different areas of the country.
It provides a monthly newsletter.
It does research that helps members develop new programs.
And it offers professional development for continuing education administrators.
In November, two thousand six, the University Continuing Education Association held a unity conference with the China Continuing Education Association at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
Thirty officials from major American universities and thirty from Chinese universities shared common problems and solutions.
One educator from China and one from the United States discussed the continuing education situation in their countries at each meeting during the two days of the conference.
They talked about a single subject such as new developments in online teaching for adults or changes in the market for continuing education.
Organizers are planning to hold an American and Chinese continuing education conference each year.
The next one will be held later this year at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
?
This program was written by Marilyn Christiano.
It was produced by Mario Ritter.
That's obvious.
But the more surprising part is, the more often you actually named the thing in Spanish, the harder it is for you to generate the corresponding English word, suggesting that that word has actually been inhibited.
But I think that most people would be surprised by a finding like that.
You know, at first, it may sound like it is a scary and bad thing [that] you might be losing your native language by acquiring a second one.
Personally I took Spanish for many years, then actually a few years ago I married a woman who speaks German among her family.
And so I decided that I wanted to learn a little bit more German myself, so I could sort of be in on what they were talking about.
His study, with Professor Michael Anderson, appears in the January issue of Psychological Science.
And that's Wordmaster for this week.
Measles is one of the most infectious viruses known.
It spreads through the air when people infected with the disease cough or sneeze.
Children in wealthier countries are usually vaccinated to protect against measles.
An international campaign called the Measles Initiative was launched in two thousand one to vaccinate children in developing countries.
The aim was a fifty percent reduction in deaths related to measles by two thousand five.
Last week, organizers of the Measles Initiative announced that the final numbers showed a sixty percent drop in deaths.
In nineteen ninety-nine, the year used for comparison, there were eight hundred seventy-three thousand deaths.
Six years later that number had dropped to three hundred forty-five thousand.
The organizers say more than two million lives have been saved, mostly in Africa.
Health officials report a seventy-five percent drop in deaths in Africa connected to measles.
Measles itself is usually not a direct cause of death.
Deaths are commonly the result of infections like pneumonia or severe diarrhea.
Those who survive can suffer brain damage, blindness or other disabilities.
The first sign of infection is usually a high body temperature for as long as a week.
Patients may develop a runny nose, cough, red and watery eyes and white spots inside the mouth.
After several days, a skin rash develops, first usually on the face and upper neck.
A case of measles can be just a mild and unpleasant part of childhood.
But severe cases are more likely in children with poor diets or weakened defenses from conditions like HIV/AIDS.
Children under the age of five and adults over the age of twenty are more likely to suffer severe cases.
People who recover from measles can never get it again.
The Measles Initiative includes the American Red Cross, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
The campaign has cost almost four hundred million dollars.
Officials say about five hundred million more will be needed to meet a new goal by two thousand ten.
The goal now is to reduce measles deaths worldwide to less than ten percent of the rate in the year two thousand.
The campaign will now center its efforts in Asian countries, especially India.
Each year, about one hundred thousand Indian children die as a result of measles.
Presidential elections are exciting events in American politics.
Few elections for the White House have been as exciting as the one in nineteen forty-eight.
And few have had such surprising results.
Four candidates were nominated for president in the nineteen forty-eight election.
One was the man already in the White House, the candidate of the Democratic Party, President Harry Truman.
Truman had been the party's successful vice presidential candidate in nineteen forty-four.
When President Franklin Roosevelt died a year later, Truman became president.
Truman did not do well during his first few months in office.
He made several serious mistakes.
He had trouble with the economy and organized labor.
His party lost control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the congressional elections of nineteen forty-six.
Most Americans had little faith in Truman's ability as a leader.
They expected that he would lose the presidential election in nineteen forty-eight if he chose to be a candidate.
President Truman chose to run for another term in the White House.
And he planned to win.
In the months following the democratic defeat in the congressional election, he took several strong steps to show his leadership.
Truman called on the Congress to pass a number of laws to help black people.
He took firm actions in his foreign policy toward the Soviet Union.
And he began to speak out with much more strength to the American people.
Dewey was a wise and courageous man.
He also was very serious.
Truman campaigned by telling the voters that Dewey did not understand the needs of the average American.
He called Dewey a candidate of rich people.
One day, Dewey got angry at a railroad engineer because his campaign train was late for a speech.
Truman charged that this proved that Dewey did not understand the problems of railroad engineers and other working Americans.
He tried to make the election a choice between hard-working Democrats and rich Republicans.
Two other men also were candidates for the presidency.
Both were from newly created parties.
One was Strom Thurmond of the state of South Carolina.
He was the candidate of the States Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrat Party.
Most of his supporters were white Americans from the southeastern part of the country.
They opposed giving full rights to black people.
The other candidate was Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party.
His supporters believed that Truman had turned away from the progressive ideas of Franklin Roosevelt.
Both Thurmond and Wallace had broken away from the Democratic Party.
Most political experts believed those two candidates would take votes away from President Truman.
They believed Republican candidate Dewey surely would win the election.
This seemed especially true because President Truman did not have strong public support.
Harry Truman, however, was a fighter.
He did not believe the election was lost.
I wanted to talk to them face to face.
Graduate students often work as teaching assistants while they study in the United States.
Teaching assistants may get money or get to take classes for free, or both.
A T.A. usually works about twenty hours each week.
In some cases, the professors they assist have big undergraduate classes with hundreds of students.
The professor gives one or two lectures a week, and teaching assistants lead smaller discussions at other times.
They also give tests, grade work, provide laboratory assistance and meet with students who need help.
And they have their own educations to think about.
Labor unions have been working to organize teaching assistants who feel overworked and underpaid.
Some schools have had strikes.
Another issue is the language barrier.
Many states have proposed to require that teaching assistants be able to speak English well enough for students to understand them.
Universities have increased their efforts to deal with this problem.
Our example school this week is the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles.
The Institute of International Education says more foreign students go to USC than any other American university.
The American Language Institute at USC provides training to help international teaching assistants improve their English.
The university requires most non-native English speakers to pass a test before they can become a T.A. Those who went to college in an English-speaking country do not have to take the test.
The same is true for those who scored at least twenty-seven on the speaking part of the TOEFL Internet-based test.
The exam at USC is a fifteen-minute spoken test that involves two examiners.
Students talk about their education and interest in the school.
Then they present some issue or idea from their area of study, and answer questions about it from the examiners.
Those who do not score high enough on the test have to take classes to improve their English.
Until their English is better, some departments give them jobs that do not require them to communicate with students.
Listen next week for the next part in our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States.
On our show this week: We answer a question about American lawmakers … Play some music from the North Mississippi Allstars … .
And report about a world famous expert on dogs.
Many people have problems training their animals.
Millan has also written a book about his life and ideas about dog training.
Millan also works with difficult dogs at his Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles, California.
Cesar Millan says dogs are happy and calm when they know and trust their leader.
He says dog owners must be the leader or the dog will become confused and act in anti-social ways.
The animal might become uncontrollable.
It may bark all the time or even bite someone.
Cesar Millan says the best way to train a dog is to prevent this behavior in the first place.
He says the owner must be a good leader and provide a lot of exercise to keep the dog happy.
Pet owners call on him when they have a problem.
The dog was afraid of the noise, and its loud barking was interfering with the lives of its owners.
Cesar Millan placed the dog in a small space.
Then he operated the equipment very close to the animal until the dog stopped barking.
The owners said the dog stopped being afraid of the noise after that.
However, not all dog experts agree with all of Millan's methods.
They say it is true that dogs need good leadership and a lot of exercise.
But they say it can be cruel and dangerous to force a dog to face its fears as in the example we described.
They say the animal might attack.
Some dog experts are concerned about people trying the methods they see on television without getting good advice about their own dog.
Cesar Millan has said that his methods are not the only ways to train dogs successfully.
He also has said that people should seek professional help when trying to change their pet's behavior.
And his television show repeatedly tells people not to try the methods without professional help.
Terms in Congress Our listener question this week comes from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
House lawmakers are called representatives.
Those in the Senate are called senators.
All of them can be called legislators.
They can also be called members of Congress.
But not all can be called congressmen.
Because some of them are women.
Currently, seventy-one of the four hundred thirty-five members of the House of Representatives are women.
In the Senate, sixteen of the one hundred senators are women.
You might hear the media use the title of congressman or congresswoman for members of the House of Representatives.
Rarely is a senator addressed this way, although it would not be wrong.
When Congress meets, there are special rules about how members behave.
One of the rules deals with what to call a member.
They are not permitted to call members by name.
This is also true in the Senate.
Members of the House of Representatives must not speak until the speaker of the House calls on them to do so.
In the Senate, the presiding officer gives permission for members to speak.
Members of both houses of Congress are also barred from using offensive language in meetings.
All these rules deal with what is called congressional decorum.
And, like all rules, sometimes they are violated.
Punishment differs based on the violation.
However, sometimes the worst punishment is unofficial.
For example, offensive language on the floor of the House or Senate can seriously harm an elected official's public image.
The North Mississippi Allstars The North Mississippi Allstars play music that combines the sounds of southern blues with rock and roll.
Their songs are an energetic mixture of old and new styles.
Critics have praised the six albums this group has made over the years.
They say the North Mississippi Allstars represent a new kind of musicians.
Barbara Klein has more.
The North Mississippi Allstars are three musicians.
Chris Chew and the brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson are all from the southern state of Mississippi.
This is an area with a rich and old tradition of music.
But these men do not just recreate music of the past.
They have reinvented the sound of the blues into something fresh and different.
In fact, he helped the North Mississippi Allstars make this latest record.
He says there is a special musical spirit in the Mississippi hill country.
Here is a song the band sings with the country singer Lucinda Williams.
It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver,?
who was also our producer.
One of the top issues this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was climate change.
But the business and political leaders gathered for the yearly event in the Swiss Alps were not the only ones talking about the subject.
President Bush, in his State of the Union message Tuesday, proposed rules to increase production of renewable fuels, like ethanol from corn.
California recently passed rules to require industries to release less carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for trapping heat.
Some companies believe it is just a question of time before the federal government could do the same.
So they are positioning themselves to have a voice in the policy-making.
On Monday, leaders of ten big companies proposed federal rules to limit the release of greenhouse gases.
The companies are members of the United States Climate Action Partnership.
One possibility for the country is a trading system like the European Union has.
Companies would have permits to release a set amount of greenhouse gases.
Businesses that stay within their limits could trade their surplus to bigger polluters.
Since nineteen ninety-five, the United States has had a trading system for sulfur emissions that cause acid rain.
But some companies think other ideas, like new taxes on polluters, are a better way to cut greenhouse gases.
Any new rules would hit some industries harder than others.
For example, forty percent of the carbon dioxide from American industry comes from power producers, especially those that burn coal.
The United States is the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, followed by China.
On February second, in Paris, a scientific group established by the United Nations plans to release a major report on climate change.
The report, six years after the last one, is expected to take the strongest position yet about the influence of human activity.
The group is said to be at least ninety percent sure that human activity is the main cause of global warming in the last half-century.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change puts most of the blame on the burning of fossil fuels.
And the report is expected to say that scientists around the world believe temperatures will continue to rise.
He defended his plan to send more than twenty thousand additional troops there.
He warned that if American forces leave Iraq before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would fall to extremists.
He said nothing is more important to America right now than to succeed in Iraq and the Middle East.
On other foreign policy issues, Mister Bush said the United States will continue to speak out for freedom in places like Cuba, Belarus and Burma.
And continue to call on the world to save the people of Darfur, Sudan.
Mister Bush has two years left in office.
This was the Republican president's first speech to a Democratic-controlled Congress.
On policy issues at home, he announced proposals to help more Americans get health insurance.
And he called for a twenty percent cut in the nation's gasoline use within ten years, to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
To reach this goal, he said there must be improved fuel economy in cars and higher requirements for renewable and alternative fuels.
And he said he will propose a budget that would end the federal deficit within five years.
The president faces low public approval ratings and high disapproval of his plan for more troops in Iraq.
Democrats and some Republicans in Congress oppose the idea.
The Democratic Party chose newly elected Senator Jim Webb of Virginia to give its official reaction to the State of the Union speech.
On Friday, the Senate confirmed Army General David Petraeus as the new commander of American troops in Iraq.
There were no dissenting votes.
But that was two days after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution to oppose a troop increase as not in the national interest.
The measure is without legal force.
The vote was twelve to nine; the full Senate is expected to debate the resolution next week.
A similar one is planned in the House of Representatives.
He told reporters that most of the people in Congress recognize that failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.
Some are condemning a plan before it has even had a chance to work, he said.
In that case, Mister Bush says they have a responsibility to put up their own plan.
Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States.
Today we tell about Madam C. J. Walker.
She was a businesswoman, the first female African American to become very rich.
In the early nineteen hundreds, life for most African-Americans was very difficult.
Mobs of white people attacked and killed black people.
It was legal to separate groups of people by race.
Women, both black and white, did not have the same rights as men.
Black women worked very long hours for little wages.
They worked mostly as servants or farm workers.
Or they washed clothes.
Madam C. J. Walker worked as a washerwoman for twenty years.
She then started her own business of developing and selling hair-care products for black women.
Madam Walker, however, did more than build a successful business.
Her products helped women have a better sense of their own beauty.
Her business also gave work to many black women.
And, she helped other people, especially black artists and civil rights supporters.
She was born Sarah Breedlove in the southern state of Louisiana in eighteen sixty-seven.
Her parents were former slaves.
The family lived and worked on a cotton farm along the Mississippi River.
Cotton was a crop that grew well in the rich, dark soil near the river.
Most children of slaves did not go to school.
They had to work.
By the time Sarah was five years old, she was picking cotton in the fields with her family.
She also helped her mother and sister earn money by washing clothes for white people.
There was no water or machine to wash clothes in their home.
The water from the Mississippi River was too dirty.
So, they used rainwater.
Sarah helped her mother and sister carry water to fill big wooden containers.
They heated the water over the fire.
Then they rubbed the clothes on flat pieces of wood, squeezed out the water and hung each piece to dry.
It was hard work.
The wet clothes were heavy, and the soap had lye in it.
Lye is a strong substance that cleaned the clothes well.
But it hurt people's skin.
When Sarah was seven years old, her parents died of the disease yellow fever.
She and her sister moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
At the age of fourteen, Sarah married Moses McWilliams.
They had a daughter after they were married for three years.
They named their daughter Lelia.
Two years later, Moses McWilliams died in an accident.
Sarah was alone with her baby.
She decided to move to Saint Louis, Missouri.
She had heard that washerwomen earned more money there.
Sarah washed clothes all day.
At night, she went to school to get the education she had missed as a child.
She also made sure that her daughter Lelia went to school.
Sarah saved enough money to send Lelia to college.
Sarah began to think about how she was going to continue to earn money in the future.
What was she going to do when she grew old and her back grew weak?
She also worried about her hair.
It was dry and broken.
Her hair was falling out in some places on her head.
Sarah tried different products to improve her hair but nothing worked.
Then she got an idea.
If she could create a hair product that worked for her, she could start her own business.
At the age of thirty-seven, Sarah invented a mixture that helped her hair and made curly hair straight.
But Sarah said she invented the mixture with God's help.
By solving her hair problem, she had found a way to improve her life.
Sarah decided to move west to Denver, Colorado.
She did not want to compete with companies in Saint Louis that made hair-care products.
For the first time in her life, Sarah left the area along the Mississippi River where she was born.
Sarah found a job in Denver as a cook.
She cooked and washed clothes during the day.
At night she worked on her hair products.
She tested them on herself and on her friends.
The products helped their hair.
Sarah began selling her products from house to house.
In nineteen-oh-six, she married Charles Joseph Walker.
He was a newspaperman who had become her friend and adviser.
From then on, Sarah used the name Madam C. J. Walker.
Madam Walker organized women to sell her hair treatment.
She established Walker schools of beauty culture throughout the country to train the saleswomen.
She traveled to many American cities to help sell her products.
She also traveled to the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Panama, and Cuba.
Her products had become popular there, too.
Madam Walker's business grew quickly.
It soon was employing three thousand people.
Black women who could not attend her schools could learn the Walker hair care method through a course by mail.
Hundreds, and later thousands, of black women learned her hair-care methods.
Madam Walker's products helped these women earn money to educate their children, build homes and start businesses.
Madam Walker was very proud of what she had done.
Pittsburgh was closer to cities on the Atlantic coast with large black populations, cities such as New York, Washington, D. C. and Baltimore.
Two years later, she established a laboratory and a factory in Indianapolis, Indiana.
There, her products were developed and made.
Some people criticized Madam Walker's products.
They accused her of straightening black women's hair to make it look like white women's hair.
Some black clergymen said that if black people were supposed to have straight hair, God would have given it to them.
But Madam Walker said her purpose was to help women have healthy hair.
She also said cleanliness was important.
She established rules for cleanliness for her employees.
Her rules later led to state laws covering jobs involving beauty treatment.
Madam C. J. Walker became very rich and famous.
She enjoyed her new life.
She also shared her money.
She became one of the few black people at the time wealthy enough to give huge amounts of money to help people and organizations.
She gave money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to churches and to cultural centers.
Madam Walker also supported many black artists and writers.
And, she worked hard to end violations against the rights of black people.
In nineteen seventeen, she was part of a group that went to Washington, D. C. to meet with President Woodrow Wilson.
The group urged him and Congress to make mob violence a federal crime.
In nineteen eighteen, Madam Walker finally settled in a town near New York City where she built a large, beautiful house.
She continued her work, but her health began to weaken.
Her doctors advised her to slow down.
But she would not listen.
She died the next year.
She was fifty-one years old.
Madam C. J. Walker never forgot where she came from.
Nor did she stop dreaming of how life could be.
Its advice can influence government policies as well as its own future policies.
The question is, how valuable is that advice??
Not even the bank's chief economist, Senior Vice President Francois Bourguignon, could answer that.
So he asked a group of economists, led by Angus Deaton at Princeton University, to do an independent study.
They examined all research activities carried out by the World Bank between nineteen ninety-eight and two thousand five.
Last September, they reported finding many valuable studies.
But they also found that advice from the bank was not always balanced.
They said the bank sometimes gave greater weight to information that supported its positions and ignored other findings.
Professor Deaton tells us this was especially true with research on the relationship between globalization and poverty reduction.
He says the bank has a right to defend its own policies.
But he says untested research cannot be used as evidence that policies work.
Over the years, the World Bank has been a research leader in measuring poverty and inequality.
Still, the economists found some studies poorly organized or based on old research methods.
They also found the bank's Web site difficult to use.
Angus Deaton says the bank needs a research-based ability to learn from its projects and policies.
Without that, he says, it cannot remain the world's leading development agency.
The report says the World Bank should create an independent research group, protected against any political influences.
The bank now spends two and one-half percent of its administrative budget on research.
Professor Deaton says this is too low, given all the research the bank has to do.
He says the need for high-quality advice will only grow as the world becomes richer, and the need for lending shrinks.
Chief economist Francois Bourguignon says research at the bank is a complex process that requires compromises.
Yet even with their criticisms, he noted that the economists rated sixty-one percent of the studies they read as being of higher quality.
An additional twenty-eight percent were rated average.
He says the advice in the report will be extremely valuable to the bank.
Every society has its heroes.
This week on our program, we present several stories of heroism in action.
We start in New York City earlier this month -- January fourth, to be exact.
Two friends, Julio Gonzalez and Pedro Nevarez, were standing on the street talking.
Suddenly, people in a nearby apartment building screamed for help.
A three-year-old boy was hanging from the steps of the fire escape outside the building.
Timothy Addo was twelve meters above the ground, and scared.
The men saw that he was going to fall.
The two mechanics ran across the street and positioned themselves to catch him.
They got there just in time.
Timothy lost his hold and dropped.
His feet hit Mister Nevarez and pushed him over onto the sidewalk.
But the little boy landed in the arms of Mister Gonzalez, who also fell.
Timothy was shaken by the experience, but he was safe.
Experts in human behavior tell us that some situations bring out the best in people.
But something made this event all the more newsworthy.
Just two days earlier, New York City had another accidental hero.
?
Wesley Autrey is a ten-year member of the Construction and General Building Laborers union.
Construction workers have to think fast: one wrong move and they might fall off a building.
But his act of heroism took place underground.
The fifty-year-old former Navy sailor was waiting for a subway train in Harlem.
He was with his two young daughters, ages four and six.
Mister Autrey and two women waiting for the train saw that a young man nearby appeared to be having a seizure.
They tried to help him, but the man fell onto the tracks.
Wesley Autrey saw the light of an oncoming train.
Still, he threw himself down, onto the man, in the space between the rails.
It was too late for the train to stop.
Several of the cars rolled over them, close enough to Mister Autrey's head to leave a grease mark on his hat.
His two daughters watched in terror as all this happened.
But their father and the man he had just saved were safe.
And lucky.
?
A little more than a half-meter separated the ground from the underside of the train.
In some systems, the trains ride closer to the rail bed.
Wesley Autrey received the city's highest honor, the Bronze Medallion.
And there have been other rewards and honors.
But Wesley Autrey says he is not a hero.
They were among the guests of first lady Laura Bush as the president gave his State of the Union speech to Congress.
Less than two weeks after Wesley Autrey's act of bravery, Daniel Fitzpatrick saved a woman in the New York subway.
The woman may have been trying to kill herself.
Daniel Fitzpatrick is an emergency medical technician with the New York Fire Department.
But the thirty-eight-year-old rescuer was off duty when he saw the woman walk down a subway catwalk.
The catwalk passes close to the trains.
?
Mister Fitzpatrick followed the woman even though a train was coming.
He pressed her against a wall.
The woman was large and struggling.
He kept hold of her.
Luckily, another man who had been talking to Mister Fitzpatrick ran after him and held his head back, out of the way of the train.
The woman was taken to a hospital.
Daniel Fitzpatrick used to be a finance officer in business.
He says he decided to change careers when he saw rescuers at work after hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in two thousand one.
This month was the twenty-fifth anniversary of a plane crash during a snowstorm in Washington, D.C.
On January thirteenth, nineteen eighty-two, a passenger plane hit a bridge over the Potomac River.
The plane had just taken off for Florida.
With it wings weighed down with ice, the plane failed to climb quickly enough.
It crashed into Fourteenth Street Bridge and then dropped into the Potomac.
Parts of the river were covered in ice.
Seventy-nine passengers and crew were on the flight.
Only five of them survived.
Four people on the bridge were also killed.
He could have been saved, but he repeatedly handed a helicopter rescue line to others.
Then, when the helicopter came back for him, he was gone in the icy waters.
The unknown hero was later identified as Arland Williams Junior, a bank examiner.
He was the only victim of the Air Florida crash whose death was blamed on drowning.
The bridge was renamed in his honor.
Someone else who received a Gold Lifesaving Medal was Roger Olian, a sheet-metal worker in Washington.
Roger Olian jumped into the river with the end of a lifeline that people on shore had made out of clothes and other materials.
Unable to see through the snowstorm, he followed the screams of the survivors.
He reached people hanging onto the broken tail of the plane.
The storm and heavy traffic slowed the arrival of emergency services.
Don Usher was a helicopter pilot with the United States Park Police.
He flew close to the water and ice, through the blinding snow, to look for survivors.
With him was Gene Windsor, a Park Police officer with special medical training.
It was almost impossible to see.
But they rescued two people who could hold onto the helicopter lifeline long enough to be pulled to shore.
Mister Windsor also jumped into the water to save one woman too weak to hold the line.
The National Transportation Safety Board recognized the actions of the only crew member who survived the crash.
From the side of the river, a federal worker named Lenny Skutnik saw another woman in the water.
He jumped into the river, swam to her and got her to shore.
The rescue was filmed and shown on the news.
Two weeks later, President Reagan introduced Lenny Skutnik during his State of the Union speech to Congress.
Mister Skutnik received a Gold Lifesaving Medal from the Coast Guard.
But to this day, as he told the Washington Post, he says he was not a hero, just someone who helped another human being.
?? On January eleventh, at the White House, President Bush presented the Medal of Honor to the parents of Marine Corporal Jason Dunham.
The Medal of Honor is the military's highest award for bravery.
Corporal Dunham died in April of two thousand four during a fight with an attacker in western Iraq, near the Syrian border.
As they struggled, Corporal Dunham saw a hand grenade that was about to explode.
He jumped on it to save other Marines.
He used his helmet and his body to try to contain the explosion.
He died of his wounds a week later.
He was the second person to receive a Medal of Honor in the Iraq war.
The first was Army Sergeant Paul Smith, killed in two thousand three.
He was organizing a defense to protect other soldiers from an attack near Baghdad International Airport.
In two thousand five, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester became the first woman soldier since World War Two to receive the Silver Star.
She earned it as a military police officer in Iraq with the Kentucky National Guard.
Sergeant Hester helped lead a defense against a large group of attackers.
That same battle led to a Bronze Star for another woman in the Kentucky National Guard.
Specialist Ashley Pullen risked her life to help severely wounded soldiers under fire.
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver.
Our first expression is in the red.
It is another way of saying that a business is losing money.
In the past, numbers in the financial records of a company were written in red ink to show a loss.
A business magazine recently published a report about a television company.
The