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STEVE EMBER: I'm Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. A planetarium is a theater with a rounded ceiling onto which images of the stars and planets are projected. Planetariums give educational shows about astronomy and what you can see in the night sky. Today, we tell about the past, present, and future of planetariums. And, we visit the Albert Einstein Planetarium at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
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STEVE EMBER: Since ancient times, humans have worked on ways to understand and represent the movement of the stars and planets. Experts credit the Greek astronomer Archimedes with developing the earliest known device to show the daily movement of the planets. He lived more than two thousand years ago. These mechanical devices that show the relative placement and movement of the planets and moons are sometimes called orreries. Over the centuries, scientific thinkers worked to develop these devices and improve their accuracy and complexity.
The words "orrery" and "planetarium" were once used interchangeably. Today, the world "planetarium" generally means a theater inside a dome.
BARBARA KLEIN: The earliest planetarium that is still working today is in the Netherlands, although the device is actually an orrery. It was built by a man named Eise Eisinga starting in seventeen seventy-four. It took him seven years to build this moving device inside a room in his house. All the planets move at the same speed as the real planets in our solar system. So, it takes one year for Earth to move around the sun and about twenty-nine years for Saturn to do so. Eisinga made his device out of wood, metal nails, a clock and nine weights.
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Other versions of early planetariums were large globes. People could sit inside them. Holes were cut into the walls of these globes to represent stars.
STEVE EMBER: A group of German engineers and scientists helped develop the modern planetarium between nineteen ten and nineteen thirty. The creators of the Deutsches Museum of science and technology in Munich wanted to build a planetarium. So, they asked the Carl Zeiss company in Germany to help with this plan. This company was known for making scientific equipment such as microscopes.
It took engineers at Zeiss several years to invent a new planetarium technology. The complex mechanical device they made projected light through "star plates" of film that contained images of thousands of stars. Public viewings of the first Zeiss planetarium projector began in nineteen twenty-three.
BARBARA KLEIN: Soon, other cities in Europe and later in the United States began ordering planetarium devices from Zeiss. An American business leader named Max Adler learned about these planetariums and traveled to Germany to see one for himself.
He was so amazed with the Zeiss device that he donated the money for a planetarium to be built in his native Chicago, Illinois.
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The Adler Planetarium was the first modern planetarium in the United States. It opened its doors to the public in nineteen thirty. Planetariums soon opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California and New York City.
STEVE EMBER: Planetarium technology continues to evolve and improve to this day. But what if you live far away from a city with a planetarium?
Dan Neafus helps supervise the Gates Planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado. He says new technologies are helping to connect planetariums with viewers in other areas. There are relatively few digital planetariums around the world. But this technology could bring space education and the experience of a planetarium show to more people through the use of a computer and Internet connection.
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BARBARA KLEIN: The Loch Ness Production company in Colorado makes shows, images and music for the planetarium community. The company also gathers facts about planetariums around the world. It says there are over one thousand five hundred planetariums in the United States. Many kinds of organizations have planetariums. They include museums, science centers, universities, schools and even astronomy clubs. Some planetariums have domes that measure over twenty meters, while others are much smaller.
STEVE EMBER: Some planetariums use film projections. More technologically advanced planetariums use digital systems controlled by computers. Digital technologies offer planetariums many choices. These theaters can show movies about space. Or, these planetariums can serve as classrooms where live interactive presentations take place. For example, astronomers can guide viewers on a trip around the universe using image databases with real information about the placement of stars and planets.
BARBARA KLEIN: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has both a digital system and a projector system made by the Carl Zeiss company.
This Zeiss Model VI was a gift to the museum from West Germany in honor of the United States' two hundred year anniversary. Last week, we attended a live show called "The Stars Tonight." Astronomer Bill Dedmond showed visitors the night sky as the season changes from summer to fall.
BILL DEDMOND: "See, that's how night sky is supposed to look. You can see thousands of stars when you are away from the city light pollution. You can even see this bright band of light here all the way across the sky. What is that bright band of light?"
KIDS: "The Milky Way!"
BILL DEDMOND: "OK, Excellent!"
STEVE EMBER: Bill Dedmond talked about the groups of stars or constellations in the night sky. He pointed out an important constellation, the Big Dipper. If you can find this group of stars, you can easily find the North Star, or Polaris. Mr. Dedmond also gave viewers a tour of the planets.
BILL DEDMOND: "Our galaxy contains a couple hundred billion stars and we know there are about one hundred twenty-five billion other galaxies. Just incredible how many stars there are."
BARBARA KLEIN: Speaking of stars, one of the Air and Space Museum's planetarium shows is called "Journey to the Stars." The movie is presented by actress Whoopi Goldberg. It tells about the life of a star using our sun as an example.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: "The first stars changed everything, combining hydrogen and helium into new elements such as oxygen and carbon. Then supernovas blasted these elements into space, supplying ingredients for stars and planets to come. And though it may sound incredible, your body actually contains about a teaspoon's worth of this stuff formed thirteen billion years ago by the very first stars."
STEVE EMBER: The movie describes the many stages in the life of a star. Some stars known as super giants are about a thousand times bigger than our sun.
The movie "Journey to the Stars" is very helpful not only because it tells interesting facts about stars and space. The movie helps viewers get a better idea of the extraordinary size and volume of space and the huge number of stars within it. This sense of size is hard to understand by just reading a book. The planetarium makes it feel as if you are observing, moving through and exploring space.
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BARBARA KLEIN: Another show at the Smithsonian's planetarium is called "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity." Black Holes are not actually holes. They are extremely massive concentrations of matter. The actor Liam Neeson narrates the movie.
LIAM NEESON: "How do you find something that hides in the dark? You have to look for its tell-tale signs. Swift's instruments are designed to record bursts of high energy radiation. Gamma rays don't penetrate Earth's atmosphere, but out here in space, Swift's view of them is front row center. They erupt when a black hole is born. That happens when a large star dies in a blaze of glory called a super nova."
STEVE EMBER: It takes a lot of work to produce a good planetarium movie. Experts at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science made the "Black Holes" movie. They worked with movie producers, computer experts, astronomers, astrophysicists and other professionals. Their film is scientifically correct and also a lot of fun to watch. Many images in the movie are based on complex mathematical calculations about space gathered by scientists.
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BARBARA KLEIN: Next week, the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hawaii will host a six-day 'Imiloa Fulldome Film Festival. Museum and planetarium professionals from around the world will be able to watch some of the latest movies available for digital planetarium theaters.
The 'Imiloa Astronomy Center is part of the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The center's planetarium has the world's first three-dimensional planetarium system. Viewers wear special glasses to experience this effect. The Astronomy Center is an example of how technologies will continue to change and improve experiencing the night sky in planetariums of the future.
STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can comment on this program at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Every few years, two groups do a study of how many Americans wash their hands after using the toilet. These groups are the American Society for Microbiology and the American Cleaning Institute, formerly the Soap and Detergent Association.
There was good news in the latest study. Researchers found that eighty-five percent of adults washed their hands in public restrooms last month. That was the most yet since the studies began in nineteen ninety-six.
Researchers visited restrooms at a baseball park in Atlanta and a science museum and aquarium in Chicago. They also visited two train stations in New York City and a large farmers market in San Francisco. In all, they observed about six thousand adults.
The researchers found that seventy-seven percent of men and ninety-three percent of women washed their hands. That was up from sixty-six percent of men and eighty-eight percent of women in the last study three years ago.
The lowest rate of hand washing among men was at Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Only sixty-five percent of men washed their hands, compared to all but two percent of women.
Chicago and San Francisco had the most hand washers -- eighty-nine percent of adults. Atlanta followed at eighty-two percent. New York had the lowest rate, at seventy-nine percent of the adults observed at Grand Central Station and Penn Station.
The findings of the observational study conflicted with the findings of a separate telephone survey of about one thousand people. Ninety-six percent of them said they always wash their hands after using public restrooms.
Almost nine out of ten also said they always wash after using the bathroom at home.
Hand washing can help prevent the spread of many different infections.
To clean your hands well, wet them first and rub in soap for at least twenty seconds, including between the fingers and under the nails.
Then rinse under running water. In a public restroom, if you dry your hands with a paper towel, you should also use the towel to shut off the water and open the door.
Hand washing is also important when preparing food and after changing a baby's diaper. You should also wash if you cough or sneeze into your hands.
If you use an alcohol-based product instead of soap and water, make sure it contains at least sixty percent alcohol.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty.
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KATHERINE COLE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a program in VOA Special English. I'm Katherine Cole.
BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today, we will tell about head injuries in sports. We will tell about evidence of hearing loss among younger Americans. We will also tell about a study involving more than ten thousand scientists.
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KATHERINE COLE: American researchers are urging athletes to take head injuries seriously. Their comments come after tests showed that a football player suffered serious brain damage from repeated blows to the head. Chris Henry played five years with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. He died last December when he either fell or jumped from a truck.
Researchers reported in June that Chris Henry had a serious kind of brain damage. It is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C-T-E.
Doctors believe that each hit to the head causes a harmful protein to build up in the brain. This causes the inside of neurons to become tangled together, similar to what doctors find in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Other studies have linked C-T-E to dementia, depression and memory loss. The condition also is sometimes linked to drug and alcohol use.
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BOB DOUGHTY: The death of Chris Henry is something of a mystery. He was arguing with his girlfriend before he died. It is unclear whether he fell from the vehicle or jumped on purpose. Tests show that more than fifty former athletes had C-T-E. However, doctors are unable to confirm its presence until after the person dies.
In the past, researchers believed that the only cause of C-T-E was a concussion. Chris Henry, for example, never missed a game with the Bengals or in college because of a concussion. This means one of two things. Either he hid the problem from his trainers and coaches. Or less severe hits can lead to C-T-E.
Researchers say his death should be a warning to other athletes. Concussions are not like most injuries. They can become life-threatening, but cannot be seen.
KATHERINE COLE: America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention receives reports of about four million sports-related concussions every year. Concussions can result when an athlete is hit in the head. The brain will move around and sometimes strike the skull, or bony inside of the head. This can result in swelling. In extreme cases, it causes bleeding in the brain.
After suffering a concussion, a player might feel light-headed and pass out. He or she may also have problems with memory and feel sick to the stomach. Researchers are not saying that no one should play contact sports. They just want athletes to know that head injuries are serious. And, repeated head injuries are cause for concern.
The best thing to do is seek medical attention. This way doctors can document the injury before it becomes too late.
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BOB DOUGHTY: American teenagers hear it all the time from their parents. "Are you listening to me? Turn down that music or you will hurt your ears." A new study has found the parents may be right. The Journal of the American Medical Association published results of the study last month.
The study found that many young people in the United States do not hear as well as they used to. One out of five American teenagers has some hearing loss. That is a thirty percent increase in the past fifteen years. One out of twenty teens has a large hearing loss. That is a fifty percent increase.
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KATHERINE COLE: The study used results of hearing tests taken from nineteen eighty-eight through nineteen ninety-four. The researchers compared that information with studies done in two thousand five and two thousand six.
They found that boys are more likely to have hearing problems than girls. The researchers say that teenagers from poor families had more hearing loss than those from more wealthy families. The age or race of the teens who were tested had no effect on their chances for hearing loss.
BOB DOUGHTY: The researchers say they are not sure why some teenagers are losing their hearing. Not enough studies have been done and more are needed. Some say the causes may be found in their diet, exposure to poisons, or in their genes. Others believe that listening to loud music on mp3 players with earphones is the major cause.
Researchers think that some teenagers do not realize that they are listening to music at very loud levels. To them, loud rock music may seem normal.
KATHERINE COLE: Ron Eavey is head of the Department of Otolaryngology at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center. He says that parents should stand next to their children while they are wearing earphones. If the parents can hear the music, the sound is too loud. He says that teenagers should set the volume control on their music players to somewhere between one-half and two-thirds the highest level, never louder.
Even a small hearing loss can affect a child's social development. Communication skills and grades in school can also suffer. Doctor Eavey says, "What we're seeing is a big jump in the prevalence of hearing loss in a very short time, in less than one generation."
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BOB DOUGHTY: Finally, an international study has shown that scientists in Denmark are the happiest with their work. The journal "Nature" published the findings.
More than ten thousand five hundred scientists rated their satisfaction with issues like their pay, health care and retirement plan. Sixteen countries provided large enough sample sizes for study organizers to comment on the findings. They said Denmark seems to be the most likely place for a fine research experience. Other countries where scientists seemed happiest were the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Switzerland.
KATHERINE COLE: In the study, those questioned rated themselves. One area they judged was the amount of independence they had in their work. They also rated the guidance they received from other workers and more experienced researchers. The scientists said they found those qualities the most important to their happiness.
Those who took part in the study work for government or private laboratories, businesses and educational centers. The study showed a big difference between money paid to scientists in private industry as compared with universities. Those in private industry received much more.
Scientists in Japan who answered the study expressed the least satisfaction. Only a small percentage said they were very satisfied. Two percent thought their retirement plan was good. Just ten percent thought they had enough independence to do their work.
BOB DOUGHTY: Scientists in India and China also reported low levels of job satisfaction. Still, more of these scientists than those from other countries noted improved work satisfaction during the past year. The journal "Nature" reported that India and China are now spending more money for research. In two thousand seven, China had as many researchers as the European Union or the United States.
America's National Science Foundation noted the number of Chinese studying engineering and natural sciences. It said they complete almost as many doctoral degree programs as students in the United States.
KATHERINE COLE: Mohamed H.A. Hassan is president of the African Academy of Sciences in Nairobi, Kenya. He noted fast-increasing wages for scientists in China, India and Brazil. He said countries where wages for scientists are increasing are the same places where job satisfaction is increasing. He said one simple message of the study is, pay them and they will stay.
Mister Hassan noted that scientists are not wealthy. But he said they are well-paid in places where science is important.
BOB DOUGHTY: An American psychological expert commented on study results involving women. The study found that, six to ten years after receiving doctoral degrees, women scientists are paid less than men. And, this difference in pay widens over time.
Kathleen Christensen directs the Workplace, Work Force and Working Families program at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York. She questioned why women stay in lower positions although they have skills to deal with more responsibility. She also questioned whether women are getting better jobs, but earning less for the same level of work as men. She said there is proof for both possibilities.
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KATHERINE COLE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mike DeFabo, Jim Tedder and Jerilyn Watson. June Simms was our producer. I'm Katherine Cole.
BOB DOUGHTY: And, I'm Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.
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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Farmers and gardeners have turned the soil for centuries. But many now believe in no-till or reduced tillage, a method also called conservation tillage. The Conservation Technology Information Center says forty percent of American cropland used this method at last report.
Tilling can remove weeds and the waste from last season's crops and help break down old plant material into fertilizer. But it can also increase the risk of soil erosion by rain or wind.
Tilling also releases carbon dioxide from the soil into the atmosphere. No-till keeps carbon in the soil and avoids the release of heat-trapping gases from motorized equipment. It also keeps water in the soil and protects helpful organisms like earthworms. And it saves money on labor, machinery and fuel.
A recent study reported on almost twenty years of different tillage methods in the American states of Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska.
The researchers say tillage makes soil less resistant to being broken apart by raindrops than plowed soil. They say no-till stores more soil carbon, which helps the soil particles stick together. They found that the first two and a half centimeters of topsoil are up to seven times stronger against rain than plowed soil.
The study also noted that when tilled soil particles come in contact with air, soil organic matter is lost through the process of oxidation.
The findings appeared in the Soil Science Society of America Journal. Humberto Blanco-Canqui from Kansas State University and Maysoon Mikha from the Agricultural Research Service led the study.
Another recent study found that a single tillage does not harm yield or soil structure in land that is normally not tilled. Charles Wortmann at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says a one-time tillage may be used to correct a problem like aggressive weeds. His five-year study appeared in the Agronomy Journal.
Fabian Fernandez, a soil and plant nutrition expert at the University of Illinois, says no-till means less intensive labor. But he also says it does not mean an end to preparing the ground for planting.
Jimmy Wagner works at the American Plant garden center in Bethesda, Maryland. He says hand tools like tilling forks, shovels and thatching rakes require more work than a rotary tiller, but they work well and cost less.
If you till, wait until the soil is warm and dry enough. If the soil stays together in a ball, it is too wet to till.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder.
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BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we talk about lobbying and think tanks -- two important parts of making policy in the United States.
BARBARA KLEIN: Many groups are involved in public policy decisions. Representatives of corporations and interest groups interact with Congress and the Executive Branch to influence those decisions. This activity is called lobbying.
Some people say lobbying supports special interests at the expense of the public interest. But lobbying is an activity protected by the United States Constitution. And it has become an important part of how laws are made and carried out.
STEVE EMBER: Laws are made in the United States in what is supposed to be a very public process. Bills are proposed in Congress, debated and voted on. Those that pass are sent to the president with the goal of being signed into law.
Then the Executive Branch of the government carries out those laws, and the rules based on them, through its many departments and agencies.
Individuals and businesses that are affected by these laws and rules want to influence their creation and their enforcement. This effort to influence is called lobbying.
BARBARA KLEIN:A lobby is a public area near the entrance of a building. It is also a public room next to the assembly room of a legislative body.
The verb "to lobby" first appeared in print in the United States in the eighteen thirties, according to a website about Washington. The term is believed to have started in the British Parliament. It meant the lobbies outside the houses of Parliament where deals took place.
STEVE EMBER: Lobbying is a major industry in Washington. A company or interest group often hires professional lobbyists to do the job.
Estimates for two thousand nine show that close to three and a half billion dollars was spent to influence Congress and the Executive Branch.
Much of the work is done by law firms that specialize in influencing the legislative process and rules enforcement. One of these law firms is Patton Boggs.
Nicholas Allard is a partner at the firm, and says lawyers play an important part in lobbying.
NICHOLAS ALLARD: "If laws are not drafted correctly, or if they're not implemented in a fair way so that you have a common rule applied universally in similar situations, you have bad results and bad policy."
BARBARA KLEIN:
Ken Vogel is with the Politico newspaper in Washington. He says sometimes lawmakers follow the lead of the lobbyists.
KEN VOGEL: "Some cases, there are lobbying groups that are actually so successful and have so much influence they're able to write bills, propose bills, for members of Congress. And these members of Congress will introduce them without changing a word of them."
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STEVE EMBER: Federal laws govern the process of lobbying. There are also ethics rules for members of Congress and the administration. Mark Rom, a professor at Georgetown University, talks about these rules.
MARK ROM: "We're always testing where those boundaries are and where those rules are. Here's the big thing: giving money to get something done – that's illegal. Talking with someone to get something done – that's not illegal. But there are lots of ways that money comes into the political process that make those boundaries hard to define and always open to dispute."
BARBARA KLEIN:
The news media and self-appointed ethics "watchdog" groups observe how lobbying is carried out. Lobbyists have to report how much money they spend on different kinds of lobbying. Some members of Congress have been sent to jail for illegal actions like taking gifts from lobbyists to influence votes.
Another ethics issue is government decision-makers becoming lobbyists and lobbyists becoming decision-makers. Critics call this a "revolving door." It enables former lawmakers and administration officials to have a large amount of influence on laws and regulations.
The Washington Post newspaper recently found that three of out four lobbyists for the oil and gas industry used to work in the federal government. Many worked in positions that regulated those industries.
Lobbyist Nicholas Allard says this is the important question when someone leaves the government: Is there a conflict of interest, and is the person benefiting from his or her former government service?
Former senator John Breaux left the Senate and became a lobbyist for Patton Boggs. He was criticized for doing that. His answer? "I have been in government my entire life. What do you expect me to become -- an auto mechanic?"
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STEVE EMBER: Lobbyists are expected to be able to reach important people who decide on laws and policies. Reporter Tim Carney at the Washington Examiner newspaper says knowing the right people is important.
He says a lobbyist might be somebody who used to work for a particular congressman. So the lobbyist can easily get a meeting with that congressman.
Ken Vogel of the newspaper Politico says lawmakers are targeted in many ways. Traditional lobbying is meeting in an office. But there are also advertisements in newspapers, on the subway and on television.
All of this is designed to do the same thing -- to influence the decisions that are made in Washington.
One example of a multimedia lobbying campaign involves two aircraft makers, Boeing and EADS, parent company of Europe's Airbus. They are competing to win an Air Force contract to build new refueling planes.
Both companies have used traditional lobbyists. They have also put out their messages through television and newspaper advertisements and other media.
The fight also shows the growing effort of foreign corporations and even nations to use lobbyists to influence decisions in Washington.
Nicholas Allard talks about how international problems lead to international involvement.
NICHOLAS ALLARD: "Perhaps the biggest change in lobbying is that it is increasingly international and multinational. On most big policy issues -- climate change, financial services regulation – there's widespread, almost universal, understanding around the world that you can't act unilaterally."
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BARBARA KLEIN: Washington has many research organizations known as think tanks. They examine issues and sometimes provide opinions on policy decisions.
Some think tanks research subjects like social problems, economics or defense. There are liberal and conservative think tanks. Some are neutral and some have strong political beliefs.
One of the oldest public policy research organizations is the RAND Corporation. Its headquarters are in California. The name is a short form of the term "research and development."
RAND was created after World War Two. Media Relations Director Jeffrey Hiday says the term "think tank" dates back to that time. He says the idea was that RAND was a place where people were "putting their heads together" and thinking.
But RAND likes to call itself a research organization instead of a think tank. It says it remains neutral on the issues it studies.
STEVE EMBER: John Bolton was United States ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. Mr. Bolton is now with a think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, or AEI. He says think tanks differ in many ways.
JOHN BOLTON: "There's a huge range of difference among the various institutions. Some are philosophically based. Some do work for the government on government contracts addressing particular issues. Others, like AEI, and Brookings, Heritage, CSIS are completely funded independently of the government."
Brookings and Heritage are the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation. CSIS is the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
BARBARA KLEIN: Most think tanks are set up as nonprofit organizations. They get money to operate from foundations, individuals and corporations.
Mark Rom at Georgetown University says some think tank experts not only do research on issues. They also develop proposals for legislation and then try to gain support for them. In effect, they become lobbyists.
They meet with members of Congress and the Executive Branch and say "Here is what we found and here is what you should do." Mr. Rom says examples of such advocacy can be found among think tanks that deal with social issues, the environment and nuclear disarmament.
STEVE EMBER:
Some think tanks separate research and activism. The idea is to avoid possible conflicts as an organization doing both activities.
One example is the Center for American Progress. Chief Operating Officer Neera Tanden says her group is interested in moving ideas in a progressive direction.
She says part of the organization works like a traditional think tank. Policy experts study problems and decide what the solutions should be.
Then the American Progress Action Fund tries to gain support for the ideas in Congress, in the White House and in the media.
BARBARA KLEIN: Think tanks have yet another role in Washington.
They provide a place where officials of former administrations can continue to work on policy issues. And wait for a possible return to government when their party comes back to power.
STEVE EMBER: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust with reporting by Jeffrey Young. I'm Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced a plan to get cleaner-burning cooking stoves into developing countries. The plan aims to reduce deaths caused by smoke from the traditional use of solid fuels and open fires.
Almost half the world's people breathe smoke from coal and biomass fuels like wood, dung and crop waste. The smoke can lead to lung cancer, heart disease, low birth weight and other problems. It also increases the risk of pneumonia, a leading cause of death in young children.
Women and children are most at risk because they spend the most time in the kitchen. Also, in areas of conflict, the search for fuel puts women at increased risk of violence.
The goal of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is one hundred million homes using safer cookstoves and fuels by twenty twenty.
Secretary Clinton said last week in New York that clean stoves could make as big a difference in the world as bed nets or vaccines.
HILLARY CLINTON: "The World Health Organization considers smoke from dirty stoves to be one of the five most serious health risks that face people in poor, developing countries. Nearly two million people die from its effects each year, more than twice the number from malaria. And because the smoke contains greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, as well as black carbon, it contributes to climate change."
Founding partners in the alliance include governments and United Nations agencies, nonprofit groups and the energy company Shell. The alliance hopes to raise at least two hundred fifty million dollars within ten years. The United States has promised to donate more than fifty million dollars over the next five years.
The aim is to create a strong global market for clean cookstoves. The alliance will identify target markets and work to get women involved in business operations. It will also develop indoor air-quality guidelines, test clean stoves and fuels and develop "research roadmaps."
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has donated six million dollars towards the effort. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says the problem of cookstove pollution is really an issue of poverty.
LISA JACKSON: "This is in many ways the ultimate environmental justice issue. We can't fix everything in their lives immediately but today we're starting a process to help them meet the most basic human need -- cooking a meal in a way that won't cause them harm."
And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. You can read and listen to our programs -- and learn more about projects in the developing world -- at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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Correction attached
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
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Baloney is a kind of sausage that many Americans eat often. The word also has another meaning in English. It is used to describe something – usually something someone says – that is false or wrong or foolish.
Baloney sausage comes from the name of the Italian city, Bologna. The city is famous for its sausage, a mixture of smoked, spiced meat from cows and pigs. But, boloney sausage does not taste the same as beef or pork alone.
Some language experts think this different taste is responsible for the birth of the expression baloney. Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth, in the same way that baloney sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it.
Baloney is a word often used by politicians to describe the ideas of their opponents.
The expression has been used for years. A former governor of New York state, Alfred Smith, criticized some claims by President Franklin Roosevelt about the successes of the Roosevelt administration. Smith said, "No matter how thin you slice it, it is still baloney."
A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same. The word is blarney. It began in Ireland about sixteen hundred.
The lord of Blarney castle, near Cork, agreed to surrender the castle to British troops. But he kept making excuses for postponing the surrender. And, he made them sound like very good excuses, "this is just more of the same blarney."
The Irish castle now is famous for its Blarney stone. Kissing the stone is thought to give a person special powers of speech. One who has kissed the Blarney stone, so the story goes, can speak words of praise so smoothly and sweetly that you believe them, even when you know they are false.
A former Roman Catholic bishop of New York City, Fulton Sheen, once explained, "Baloney is praise so thick it cannot be true. And blarney is praise so thin we like it."
Another expression is pulling the wool over someone's eyes. It means to make someone believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore false hair, or wigs, similar to those worn by judges today in British courts.
The word wool was a popular joking word for hair. If you pulled a man's wig over his eyes, he could not see what was happening. Today, when you pull the wool over someone's eyes, he cannot see the truth.
(MUSIC)
This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Warren Scheer.
___
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this page contained outdated information. President Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945, so he was not still alive "50 years ago." (That was true when this program originally aired.)
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I'm Shirley Griffith.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Lady Bird Johnson. She is best known for being the wife of President Lyndon Baines Johnson who led the nation during the nineteen sixties. But Mrs. Johnson was also an influential environmental activist, tireless campaigner and successful businesswoman.
She showed great strength and heroism during a tense period in American history. Her work to make America beautiful can still be seen today in flowering fields, roads, and parks across the country.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Lady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor in nineteen twelve. The Taylor family lived in the small town of Karnack, Texas. Claudia's father, Thomas Jefferson Taylor, owned two stores as well as thousands of hectares for cotton production. Her mother, Minnie Taylor, died when Claudia was only five years old. A woman who worked for the Taylor family gave Claudia her nickname. Alice Tittle said the small child was "as purty as a lady bird."
STEVE EMBER: Claudia had two older brothers who went away to school. She spent many hours by herself exploring the natural beauty of the fields and forests near her home. She said she grew up listening to the wind in the pine trees of the East Texas woods. She said her heart found its home in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth.
Claudia attended public schools and worked hard at her studies. But she was very shy and did not like attention. When she graduated from high school, she had the third highest grades in the class. She reportedly made sure she finished third to avoid giving the graduation speech required by the top two students in the class.
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen thirty-four Lady Bird graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with degrees in history and journalism. She planned to teach or work as a theater critic. But then she met an energetic congressional assistant named Lyndon Baines Johnson. The young politician from Texas asked her to marry him on their first date. After weeks of pressure from Mr. Johnson, Lady Bird accepted his marriage proposal. Here is Mrs. Johnson talking about her first meeting with her future husband:
LADY BIRD JOHNSON: "We had a breakfast date, but we wound up by spending the whole day together, riding and talking. Well, he really let me know before the day was over that he wanted to marry me. And I thought this impossible. But on the other hand, there was one thing I knew I just couldn't bear to have happen and that was to say goodbye, goodbye period."
STEVE EMBER: Lyndon Johnson was busy planning his political career. Within three years, he ran for a seat in the United States Congress and won. Lady Bird Johnson had given him ten thousand dollars to get his campaign started.
When Japanese planes attacked American ships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in nineteen forty-one, Mr. Johnson joined the navy to fight in World War Two. Mrs. Johnson stayed in Washington, D.C. and supervised his congressional office during the eight months he was away. Her excellent organizational skills and smart political sense made her perfect for the job.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: After Mr. Johnson returned, Lady Bird Johnson soon found a new project. She used about seventeen thousand dollars of family money to buy a small radio station in Austin, Texas. The radio station was in debt and had a small broadcast range. Mrs. Johnson used her husband's connections with the Federal Communications Commission to increase the radio station's power and range.
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Soon, the station started making money and the company expanded into television as well. Mrs. Johnson was president of the family company, LBJ Company. She traveled from Washington to Austin every week to take care of business.
During this time the Johnson family started to grow. Lady Bird had a daughter, Lynda Bird, in nineteen forty-four. A second daughter, Luci Baines, was born three years later. Lyndon Johnson's power in politics also continued to grow. In nineteen forty-eight he was elected to the United States Senate.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: In nineteen sixty, John F. Kennedy ran for president of the United States with Lyndon Johnson as vice president. Mrs. Kennedy was unable to travel and campaign for the candidates because of her pregnancy. Mrs. Johnson bravely accepted the job. She visited eleven states to help express the goals of the candidates. They won the election.
Mrs. Johnson was also at her husband's side when he visited Texas with President and Mrs. Kennedy on November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three.
After the tragic shooting of President Kennedy in Dallas, security officials led the Johnsons to the presidential plane to fly back to Washington. During the flight, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Kennedy watched as Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In the weeks after this national tragedy Lyndon Johnson worked hard to show Americans that he could be a strong president. With his strong support, he got Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four. This law banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in public places and federal programs. But the law was not popular with many white voters in the southern part of the country.
Once again, Lady Bird Johnson came to the rescue. As part of Lyndon Johnson's nineteen sixty-four campaign for president she became a spokesman for the law. Lady Bird Johnson visited important southern states although Democratic governors feared for her safety. She traveled through poor areas talking to angry crowds who were against her husband's civil rights policies. Lady Bird Johnson knew how to give a powerful and expressive speech.
She won over the loud crowds with her gentle manner and calming southern accent. She told them that it was time to end the South's racist past and move into the modern world. The media later wrote that she stood as a fearless moral representative of her husband. And, her work paid off. Lyndon Johnson won the election.
(MUSIC)
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STEVE EMBER: The historian Lewis Gould has said Mrs. Johnson and her press secretary Liz Carpenter were the first to establish the job of the modern first lady. Mrs. Johnson realized that the wife of the president needed to have her own team of workers. She made sure she had a director of employees as well as a social director. Lady Bird Johnson's business experience and sense of organization helped create a very effective system for future first ladies and their causes.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: As first lady, Mrs. Johnson became an energetic activist for educational and environmental issues. She helped support Head Start, a public program aimed at giving educational and health services to young children from poor families.
She started the Society for a More Beautiful National Capitol. Its aim was to improve the beauty of Washington by planting trees and flowers in public areas and parks. Mrs. Johnson understood that these improvements were also linked to important issues such as pollution, public transportation, mental health, and crime rates.
STEVE EMBER: But she is most well known for helping to create The Beautification Act of nineteen sixty-five. It aimed to protect America's natural beauty by limiting advertising signs and cleaning up waste areas on the country's roads and highways. The law also supported the planting of local flowers and trees. Here is Mrs. Johnson talking about her environmental efforts:
LADY BIRD JOHNSON: "Clean water, clean up the rivers, wilderness areas, more national parks, all of that was a part of our aim and thrust and what we tried to do. I've had a life long love affair with nature, a particular accent on wildflowers, native plants for the whole broad face of America. I hope everybody could enjoy their little piece of America as much as I have enjoyed mine."
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson had a difficult four-year term. The president faced strong opposition about the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam. In nineteen sixty-eight, President Johnson surprised the nation by announcing that he would not seek reelection as president. The Johnsons left politics and returned home to Texas. Mr. Johnson died of a heart attack in nineteen seventy-three.
STEVE EMBER: Lady Bird Johnson continued her tireless work to improve the country's natural environment. She created the National Wildflower Research Center in nineteen eighty-two. The center helps to educate people about the environmental importance and value of native plants. Mrs. Johnson died in two thousand seven at the age of ninety-four. Her memory lives in the many fields of wildflowers that color the roads of America.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Shirley Griffith.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember. You can download scripts and audio of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
When did the problems begin between the United States and Iran? Many Iranians say it was nineteen fifty-three. That year the United States supported the military overthrow of Mohammed Mossadeq. He was the nationalist prime minister of an elected government .
Later, the United States supported the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. He fled the Islamic Revolution in nineteen seventy-nine.
That November, supporters of a new religious leader in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, captured the United States embassy in Tehran. They held more than fifty American hostages for four hundred forty-four days.
The two countries ended diplomatic relations in nineteen eighty. And, when the Iran-Iraq war began that year, the United States supported Iraq.
In nineteen ninety-seven, Iranians elected a president who raised American hopes, Mohammad Khatami. The next year, American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called for the two countries to "explore further ways to build mutual confidence and avoid misunderstandings." She said it could be a step toward normal relations.
But President Khatami said the United States would have to apologize for its part in the nineteen fifty-three overthrow. He said this in two thousand:
MOHAMMED KHATAMI: "Through their confession, if the Americans accept to do it, I think that this will be a very big step toward removing our misunderstandings, but unfortunately in action, they have not done this."
When President Obama took office in January of two thousand nine, he had a message for nations hostile to the United States.
BARACK OBAMA: "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit, and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history -- but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
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The main target of that message was Iran's current president. This is what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the Associated Press this week during his visit to New York:
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD (INTERPRETER): "The United States administrations must recognize that Iran is a big power, and accept it as such."
(SOUND)
Outside the United Nations, demonstrators protested his yearly appearance among world leaders speaking at the General Assembly.
President Obama said Iran had failed to respond to what he called the "extended hand" that he offered a year ago. He said new Security Council sanctions approved in June make clear that international law is not an empty promise.
BARACK OBAMA: "Now let me be clear once more. The United States and the international community seek a resolution to our differences with Iran, and the door remains open to diplomacy should Iran choose to walk through it. But the Iranian government must demonstrate a clear and credible commitment, and confirm to the world the peaceful intent of its nuclear program."
A few hours later, Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke. He said Iran remains ready for what he called "serious and free debate" with American officials on the nuclear issue.
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He also suggested that the majority of the American people believe that their government planned the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one.
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD (INTERPRETER): "That some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime."
He comments led American diplomats and delegates from several European countries to walk out of the assembly hall. President Obama told the BBC that the accusation was inexcusable, offensive and hateful.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
___
Reported by Arash Arabasadi, Margaret Basheer, David Gollust and Jeffrey Young
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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Businesses are still slow to hire and unemployment remains near ten percent. But an economic research group reported this week that the recession in the United States ended in June of last year.
It was the longest since the nineteen thirties.
James Stock is on the committee that dates the rises and falls of the business cycle for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Harvard professor says this recession was in some ways a lot like others since World War Two.
JAMES STOCK: "I think what I've been struck by is how these numbers basically look like all the other recessions we've had in the postwar period."
But one difference was the length -- eighteen months. Many recessions since the nineteen forties lasted less than a year.
Another difference was the severity. The economy shrank by more than four percent. About eight million people lost their jobs.
Professor Stock thinks job growth is likely to increase in the coming months based on current levels of productivity.
JAMES STOCK: "I think that we are at a point right now where productivity has increased so much that for output to continue to grow, we will be seeing increases in hiring."
Some economic signs have improved. Manufacturing, industrial production and consumer spending have made small gains. But a Labor Department report shows that new claims for unemployment insurance rose unexpectedly last week.
On Monday, President Obama took questions at a meeting shown on CNBC television. One questioner wondered if today's young Americans still could hope for a good life.
QUESTIONER: "What I'm really hoping to hear from you is several concrete steps that you're going to take moving forward that will be able to re-ignite my generation, re-ignite the youth who are beset by student loans. And I really want to know, is the American Dream dead for me?"
BARRACK OBAMA: "Absolutely not. Look, we still have the best universities in the world. We've got the most dynamic private sector in the world. We've got the most productive workers in the world. There is not a country in the world that would not want to change places with us."
But the economy could change the balance of power in Congress in the November elections.
Critics say the president's economic stimulus programs have only put the country deeper in debt. Economists disagree about the extent to which the spending has helped. But many agree that the president's policies avoided a worse situation.
Or, as Mr. Obama put it at the United Nations on Thursday: "The global economy has been pulled back from the brink of a depression."
In Washington, central bank policy makers said inflation remains low. In fact, they said it may be too low to support their aims for price and wage stability.
And, Lawrence Summers, director of the president's National Economic Council, said he will leave at the end of the year to return to Harvard University.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
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DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson.
Today, we listen to "Wake Up," a new album from John Legend and the Roots.
And we answer a question about a famous Tennessee Williams play.
But first, we tell about YouTube videos appearing at the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Europe.
(MUSIC)
YouTube at the Guggenheim
The video sharing website, YouTube, was created in two thousand five and became an overnight success. Google bought YouTube for more than one billion six hundred thousand dollars the following year. In May, YouTube announced that two billion videos were watched each day.
In June, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City announced it would hold a competition among YouTube videos. Now, the judges have chosen the top one hundred twenty-five videos. Mario Ritter has more.
MARIO RITTER: The Guggenheim and YouTube launched the competition called "YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video." The information technology companies HP and Intel are supporting the event. Twenty-three thousand videos entered the competition. They represented ninety-one countries and every possible style of moviemaking.
The rules of the competition were few. Videomakers had to be eighteen years or older. They could enter only one video. It had to be no more than ten minutes long. Any language, subject, sound and style were considered.
Eleven people are judging the videos. They include artists, musicians and filmmakers. Laurie Anderson is all three. She says all her art starts with a story. So she looks for a story as she judges the videos.
Other judges include the filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the band Animal Collective and artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat.
New Jersey artist Dahlia Elsayed's video is one of the finalists. She used the camera in her computer to record herself describing her daily food desires for one month. The video is simple, short and interesting.
A frightening but beautiful video came from Chile. The video by Niles Atallah, Joaquin Cociña Varas and Cristobal Leon is called "Luis." It is an animated ghostly story of a tense, angry boy. It is very dark but impossible to stop watching.
"Mars to Jupiter" is a video from Canada by Sterling Pache. It is about a survivor of the nineteen ninety-four genocide in Rwanda. The video explores how her past still haunts her.
Other chosen videos are from France, Spain, Taiwan, Australia and Israel. Almost thirty countries are represented. You can see them if you link to YouTube Play from our website at voaspecialenglish.com.
People can also see the one hundred twenty-five videos at the Guggenheim museums in New York; Bilbao, Spain; Berlin, Germany, and Venice, Italy.
On October twenty-first, the YouTube Play judges will announce the final twenty winning videos at a special event at the Guggenheim in New York. The videos will be on view there until October twenty-fourth.
(MUSIC)
"A Streetcar Named Desire"
DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Tuan Nong would like to know about the famous play, "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Tennessee Williams wrote the play in nineteen forty-seven. "A Streetcar Named Desire" is filled with emotion and tension. The story has three main characters. They are Stanley Kowalski, his wife Stella, and her sister, Blanche DuBois.
Blanche comes to New Orleans to visit her sister. She stays with Stella and Stanley in their crowded, noisy apartment. Stanley is a violent and abusive man. He is not happy that Blanche is there. From the beginning, Blanche says things that are not true. She pretends to be a Southern lady with high morals.
But the truth is she was fired from a teaching job because she had sex with a teenage student. She was thrown out of a hotel for having sex with many different men. She also has lost her house and land and has no money. She drinks a lot of alcohol, but tries to hide it from everyone. Her entire life is one big lie.
When Stanley finds out about her past, he violently tries to force Blanche to face the truth. But Blanche is not just a liar. She is emotionally sick. In the end, she is sent to a mental hospital.
<!--IMAGE-->
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is considered a great American play. Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize in nineteen forty-eight. The play was a success on Broadway and was then made into a movie in nineteen fifty-one. Elia Kazan directed both the Broadway play and film. On stage and in the film, the part of Stanley Kowalski was played by a young Marlon Brando.
MARLON BRANDO AS STANLEY KOWALSKI: "And I never met a dame yet that didn't know whether she was good looking or not without being told. And some of them give themselves credit for more than they've got."
"A Streetcar Named Desire" has been restaged several times on Broadway and in many other cities. It has won many awards. The movie won four Academy Awards, including best actress for Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois.
And there really was a streetcar named Desire in New Orleans. It carried passengers through the French Quarter from nineteen twenty until nineteen forty-eight.
(MUSIC)
"Wake Up"
DOUG JOHNSON: John Legend and the hip-hop group the Roots released a new album together this week. "Wake Up!" is a collection of mostly protest songs from the nineteen sixties and seventies. John Legend says the idea for the album came in the heat of the summer and an important American presidential campaign. Katherine Cole has more.
KATHERINE COLE: John Legend says he sought the help of the Roots because it is one of the best bands in the business. Legend says he had wanted to work with the musicians since college.
<!--IMAGE-->
He also says he knew that Roots leader Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson would understand the message Legend wanted to create with "Wake Up!" Thompson told Billboard Magazine that the album is filled with music his parents played when he was a very young child. He said he hopes parents today will play "Wake Up!" for their two and three-year-olds.
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes were the first to record "Wake Up Everybody." Here John Legend and the Roots perform their version.
(MUSIC)
Donny Hathaway recorded "Little Ghetto Boy" in nineteen seventy-two. Here is how it is done on "Wake Up!"
(MUSIC)
John Legend and the Roots also perform this reggae song from nineteen seventy-nine, "Humanity (Love the Way it Should Be)."
(MUSIC)
There is one new song on the album "Wake Up!" John Legend wrote it for Davis Guggenheim's new film about America's public schools called "Waiting for Superman." We leave you with Legend and the Roots performing "Shine."
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jim Tedder and Caty Weaver, who also was the producer.
You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. If you have a question about American life, send an e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)
DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson.
Today, we listen to "Wake Up," a new album from John Legend and the Roots.
And we answer a question about a famous Tennessee Williams play.
But first, we tell about YouTube videos appearing at the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Europe.
(MUSIC)
YouTube at the Guggenheim
The video sharing website, YouTube, was created in two thousand five and became an overnight success. Google bought YouTube for more than one billion six hundred thousand dollars the following year. In May, YouTube announced that two billion videos were watched each day.
In June, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City announced it would hold a competition among YouTube videos. Now, the judges have chosen the top one hundred twenty-five videos. Mario Ritter has more.
MARIO RITTER: The Guggenheim and YouTube launched the competition called "YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video." The information technology companies HP and Intel are supporting the event. Twenty-three thousand videos entered the competition. They represented ninety-one countries and every possible style of moviemaking.
The rules of the competition were few. Videomakers had to be eighteen years or older. They could enter only one video. It had to be no more than ten minutes long. Any language, subject, sound and style were considered.
Eleven people are judging the videos. They include artists, musicians and filmmakers. Laurie Anderson is all three. She says all her art starts with a story. So she looks for a story as she judges the videos.
Other judges include the filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the band Animal Collective and artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat.
New Jersey artist Dahlia Elsayed's video is one of the finalists. She used the camera in her computer to record herself describing her daily food desires for one month. The video is simple, short and interesting.
A frightening but beautiful video came from Chile. The video by Niles Atallah, Joaquin Cociña Varas and Cristobal Leon is called "Luis." It is an animated ghostly story of a tense, angry boy. It is very dark but impossible to stop watching.
"Mars to Jupiter" is a video from Canada by Sterling Pache. It is about a survivor of the nineteen ninety-four genocide in Rwanda. The video explores how her past still haunts her.
Other chosen videos are from France, Spain, Taiwan, Australia and Israel. Almost thirty countries are represented. You can see them if you link to YouTube Play from our website at voaspecialenglish.com.
People can also see the one hundred twenty-five videos at the Guggenheim museums in New York; Bilbao, Spain; Berlin, Germany, and Venice, Italy.
On October twenty-first, the YouTube Play judges will announce the final twenty winning videos at a special event at the Guggenheim in New York. The videos will be on view there until October twenty-fourth.
(MUSIC)
"A Streetcar Named Desire"
DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Tuan Nong would like to know about the famous play, "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Tennessee Williams wrote the play in nineteen forty-seven. "A Streetcar Named Desire" is filled with emotion and tension. The story has three main characters. They are Stanley Kowalski, his wife Stella, and her sister, Blanche DuBois.
Blanche comes to New Orleans to visit her sister. She stays with Stella and Stanley in their crowded, noisy apartment. Stanley is a violent and abusive man. He is not happy that Blanche is there. From the beginning, Blanche says things that are not true. She pretends to be a Southern lady with high morals.
But the truth is she was fired from a teaching job because she had sex with a teenage student. She was thrown out of a hotel for having sex with many different men. She also has lost her house and land and has no money. She drinks a lot of alcohol, but tries to hide it from everyone. Her entire life is one big lie.
When Stanley finds out about her past, he violently tries to force Blanche to face the truth. But Blanche is not just a liar. She is emotionally sick. In the end, she is sent to a mental hospital.
<!--IMAGE-->
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is considered a great American play. Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer Prize in nineteen forty-eight. The play was a success on Broadway and was then made into a movie in nineteen fifty-one. Elia Kazan directed both the Broadway play and film. On stage and in the film, the part of Stanley Kowalski was played by a young Marlon Brando.
MARLON BRANDO AS STANLEY KOWALSKI: "And I never met a dame yet that didn't know whether she was good looking or not without being told. And some of them give themselves credit for more than they've got."
"A Streetcar Named Desire" has been restaged several times on Broadway and in many other cities. It has won many awards. The movie won four Academy Awards, including best actress for Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois.
And there really was a streetcar named Desire in New Orleans. It carried passengers through the French Quarter from nineteen twenty until nineteen forty-eight.
(MUSIC)
"Wake Up"
DOUG JOHNSON: John Legend and the hip-hop group the Roots released a new album together this week. "Wake Up!" is a collection of mostly protest songs from the nineteen sixties and seventies. John Legend says the idea for the album came in the heat of the summer and an important American presidential campaign. Katherine Cole has more.
KATHERINE COLE: John Legend says he sought the help of the Roots because it is one of the best bands in the business. Legend says he had wanted to work with the musicians since college.
<!--IMAGE-->
He also says he knew that Roots leader Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson would understand the message Legend wanted to create with "Wake Up!" Thompson told Billboard Magazine that the album is filled with music his parents played when he was a very young child. He said he hopes parents today will play "Wake Up!" for their two and three-year-olds.
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes were the first to record "Wake Up Everybody." Here John Legend and the Roots perform their version.
(MUSIC)
Donny Hathaway recorded "Little Ghetto Boy" in nineteen seventy-two. Here is how it is done on "Wake Up!"
(MUSIC)
John Legend and the Roots also perform this reggae song from nineteen seventy-nine, "Humanity (Love the Way it Should Be)."
(MUSIC)
There is one new song on the album "Wake Up!" John Legend wrote it for Davis Guggenheim's new film about America's public schools called "Waiting for Superman." We leave you with Legend and the Roots performing "Shine."
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jim Tedder and Caty Weaver, who also was the producer.
You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English. If you have a question about American life, send an e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Next year, the Peace Corps will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. Peace Corps volunteers are Americans who teach and work on projects in developing countries.
The United States created the Peace Corps during the cold war with the Soviet Union. Today, technology has changed how the volunteers do their work and stay connected with friends and family back home.
In the early nineteen eighties, Gordy Mengel served in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Letters from home would take weeks, or months.
As a result, he socialized more with people in the local community. He lost contact with friends and family back in the States.
Today, Gordy Mengel is a Peace Corps programming and training officer in Rwanda.
GORDY MENGEL: "These days with the advent of the Internet and cell phone service and so forth, I still see volunteers having some of that experience. But again, when they go back to their homes, instead of turning out the kerosene light and going to bed, they can get on Skype or they give a quick call to Mom and Dad back at home. And that part of the experience, I guess, has changed."
(SOUND: Call on Skype)
SONIA MORHANGE: "Hey!" FRIEND: "What's going on? I'm connecting my webcam." SONIA MORHANGE: "Oh, awesome, I'll get to see you as well." FRIEND: "I look like a mess right now. I was gonna get ready, but ... " SONIA MORHANGE: "Did you just wake up?" FRIEND: "Can you see me?" SONIA MORHANGE: "Yeah, I can see you."
Sonia Morhange is one of about one hundred Peace Corps volunteers in Rwanda. She talks with a friend in California on Skype, an Internet calling service. She talks with her mother on the phone and e-mails her father.
SONIA MORHANGE: "I can't imagine having been a Peace Corps volunteer in the seventies or the eighties or even the early nineties. I'm just so used to everyone having a cell phone that works internationally. I'm very, very lucky in the fact that where I live I have wireless Internet and that makes it a lot easier."
Peace Corps volunteers receive a living allowance and other benefits in return for twenty-seven months of training and service.
John Reddy is the country director in Rwanda. He says fairly easy access to the Internet means that volunteers can do more than just call home.
They can research subjects to help their communities. And, through the Peace Corps Partnership Program, they can get donations online for their projects.
But John Reddy admits he sometimes misses the old days, before the Internet and good phone service. He says volunteers had more independence.
JOHN REDDY: "It's not always helpful to Peace Corps staff. If a volunteer is telling their family they're having a bad day or a bad week, and then the family member calls Peace Corps Washington and Peace Corps Washington calls me and I have to find the volunteer and see what the problem was."
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, available online at voaspecialenglish.com. We're also on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.
Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
A new leader stood before the American people on March fourth, nineteen thirteen. He was Woodrow Wilson -- the twenty-eighth president of the United States.
Wilson belonged to the Democratic Party. He was progressive in his belief that government should take an active part in efforts for social reforms.
This week in our series, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe begin the story of Wilson's presidency.
KAY GALANT: Woodrow Wilson had spent most of his life at Princeton University. First he was a professor. Then he was university president. Next, Wilson was elected governor of the state of New Jersey. His early success as governor made him a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen twelve.
Wilson traveled widely around the country during the campaign. He made speeches to many groups. He tried to make himself and his ideas known to as many Americans as possible.
HARRY MONROE: Wilson called his program "the New Freedom." One of his campaign promises was to fight for better conditions for America's small business owners.
Such proposals helped him win the Democratic nomination for president. Then he defeated President William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt in the election. Woodrow Wilson, the former president of a university, had become the president of a nation.
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The largest crowd in Washington, D.C.'s history welcomed Wilson outside the Capitol Building on the day of his inauguration. He called on the American people to join him in making the country a better place. "Our duty," Wilson said, "is to correct the evil without hurting the good. I call all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men to my side."
KAY GALANT: Wilson wasted no time. He immediately called a special session of Congress to act on Democratic campaign promises to reduce import taxes, or tariffs. Wilson felt strongly about the need to reform these taxes. He broke tradition by leaving the White House to appear before Congress, in person, to appeal for his tariff proposals.
Many members of Congress opposed Wilson's plans. But the new president used the results of a Senate investigation to win the fight. The investigation showed that a number of senators owned companies that depended on high tariffs for their profits. The votes of these senators were influenced by their property holdings.
Public knowledge of the situation forced many of them to give up their holdings and stop resisting tariff reform. Congress finally approved Wilson's proposals.
HARRY MONROE: Lower tariffs reduced the amount of money taken in by the federal government. So the Senate also approved a tax on income, or earnings. A constitutional amendment had been passed earlier to permit such a tax.
President Wilson and the Democratic Party were pleased with the new tariff and income tax bills. But they were far from finished. Next they turned their efforts to reform of the banking industry.
For several years, many people had recognized the need for changes in the banking system. The old system of uncontrolled private banks had developed years earlier, before the United States became a major industrial nation. Many people agreed that a more modern system was needed. But they could not agree on details.
KAY GALANT: President Wilson said control of the nation's wealth was held by too few men. He noted a report that said just two men controlled ten percent of the total wealth of the United States.
Wilson said the nation needed a money supply that could be increased or reduced, when necessary, to correct economic conditions. He said a method was needed to let banks help each other during economic emergencies. And he said laws were needed to prevent a few wealthy men from using the economic resources of the country for their own purposes.
Finally, Wilson said, "The control of this system of banking must be public, not private. It must belong to the government itself."
HARRY MONROE: Wilson called his proposal for a central bank the Federal Reserve System.
Under the plan, the nation would be divided into twelve areas. Each area would have its own federal reserve bank. These area banks would not do business with the public. They would serve only as "bankers' banks." And they would issue a new form of money supported by the federal government. Most important, the leaders of the new system would be chosen by the government--not by private business.
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KAY GALANT: Bankers, business leaders, and their representatives in Congress sharply criticized President Wilson's proposals. They said government control of the banking system was socialism, not capitalism.
But Wilson refused to change his proposals. And he helped to lead the fight to make them law. Finally, Congress agreed.
It did not take long for bankers to discover that the new system was much better than the old one. Today, the Federal Reserve System is one of the most important institutions in the United States.
HARRY MONROE: For Woodrow Wilson, the fight over the banking system was yet another political success. He had won major reforms in the nation's tariffs, taxes, and banking systems. Now he told Congress that new legislation was needed to control the power of monopolies and trusts. These were the giant companies and business alliances that controlled complete industries.
Wilson proposed a new anti-trust law to control the actions of large companies. His supporters in Congress wrote a bill that listed a number of business activities that no longer would be permitted.
For example, no longer could a company set prices that would reduce competition or create a monopoly. No longer could corporations buy stocks of competing companies. No longer could they demand that a store refuse to sell competing products. The new bill also protected labor unions from being charged with anti-trust violations. It gave unions more power to organize and protect workers.
KAY GALANT: At President Wilson's request, Congress also prepared a law that set up a government agency called the Federal Trade Commission. The commission was given the job of investigating wrong-doing in business. It had the power to force companies to obey the new anti-trust laws and other rules.
Both the anti-trust law and the Federal Trade Commission helped protect small business owners from the power of business giants. Once again, the proposals caused fierce debate. But, once again, Congress finally voted to give Wilson most of what he wanted.
HARRY MONROE: The early months of Wilson's term were one of the most successful times in the history of any president. The new president had won the election by promising major reforms in the economic life of the country. And he had kept that promise.
The reforms were not only a victory for Woodrow Wilson. They also changed the face of American business and economics for many years to come. The income tax, for example, grew to become the federal government's main source of money.
KAY GALANT: Woodrow Wilson had taught history in the days when he was a professor at Princeton University. He knew his actions as president could influence the country for a long time. But, as a historian, he also knew his own term in the White House could be changed by unexpected events. That is just what happened.
Wilson campaigned for president mainly on national issues. But he soon was forced to spend more and more time on international issues. His first big problem was across the United States' southern border, in Mexico. That will be our story next week.
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe.
You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and images at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.
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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Every year, one million women around the world are found to have breast cancer. Almost two hundred thousand others are told they have ovarian cancer.
The decisions for treatment are more difficult when the women have abnormal versions of two genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2. The mutations in these genes can increase the risk for other kinds of cancer, including cancer of the cervix, uterus and pancreas.
SANDRA COHEN: "It's kinds of like you are sitting on a time bomb waiting for cancer to occur, and it really does a number on you mentally to deal with that every single day."
Sandra Cohen has never had breast cancer or ovarian cancer. But she has the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. So she decided to have doctors remove her breasts and ovaries. She made the decision after her mother and grandmother both died from the same kind of cancers.
Doctors have known for several years that preventative surgery reduces the risk of ovarian and breast cancer for women with the mutations. But a new study also shows that these operations help those patients live longer.
The four-year study involved about two thousand five hundred women with the genetic mutations.
One of the researchers was Doctor Susan Domchek at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
SUSAN DOMCHECK: "Women who had their ovaries removed had a decrease in the risk of breast cancer, a decrease in the risk of ovarian cancer and, in addition, they were less likely to die of breast cancer, less likely to die of ovarian cancer and also had an improvement in their overall survival."
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The study found that none of the women who had preventative breast removal developed breast cancer. Seven percent later did among those who decided against the surgery.
The rate of breast cancer was also seven percent among women who did not have their ovaries removed. Among those who did, the breast cancer rate was one percent.
The study also found that the women who had ovarian removal lowered their risk of death from ovarian cancer by almost eighty percent. Their risk of death from breast cancer was fifty-six percent lower, says Doctor Susan Domchek.
SUSAN DOMCHEK: "Our conclusion is that removing the ovaries particularly is very beneficial to women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations."
The researchers say women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancers should get genetic testing. Sandra Cohen did.
SANDRA COHEN: "Do some research with a genetic counselor. Meet some other women who have gone through it. It really will empower you and give you strength to take some action."
The study appeared in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, with reporting by Melinda Smith and sound provided by JAMA. You can find our programs online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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STEVE EMBER: I'm Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Once a year, the National Geographic Society honors a group of scientists, activists, wildlife experts and artists for their work as explorers and thinkers. Honorees receive a ten thousand dollar award to help them continue their research and projects. Today we tell about this year's fourteen Emerging Explorers and talk to two of them.
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STEVE EMBER: Three of this year's Emerging Explorers study the ancient past.
BETH SHAPIRO: "I am interested to understand why some animals went extinct and others animals didn't at the end of the last Ice Age."
That is Beth Shapiro, a molecular biologist at Pennsylvania State University. She studies the genetic information found in the remains of ancient animals in order to learn about the climate and environment of long ago.
Beth Shapiro takes pieces of ancient bones, teeth and hair found mostly in the high Arctic area. Then, she studies the DNA in these samples to learn how animal populations have grown and shrunk over the last hundred thousand years. Her findings help show how evolution takes place over time and in an area.
This DNA testing is helping to change long held theories about animals such as the bison.
BETH SHAPIRO: "We were interested in bison because we know that today bison have almost no genetic diversity at all. And we suspected that this was because when Europeans first arrived in North America they killed almost all of the bison."
Her team found unexpected results -- that the bison had been losing its genetic differences long before Europeans arrived on the continent.
BETH SHAPIRO: "We found that bison population began to shrink and get smaller and smaller in size and in genetic diversity about ten thousand years before the Ice Age even started. And this means that there is something much more complicated going on with these large mammal populations."
BARBARA KLEIN: Christine Lee combines biology and archeology. She studies the remains of humans to learn about different ancient cultures in China.
She says studying ancient bones can tell about a population's background, movement, and even about marriages between different groups. For example, a tooth can tell about an individual's diet and social level. Comparing teeth across an area can show genetic links between populations.
STEVE EMBER: Paleontologist Bolortsetseg Minjin studies the ancient remains of dinosaurs in her native Mongolia. She has also started programs to get a new generation of Mongolian students interested in paleontology.
She says she would like to help create a dinosaur museum in Mongolia that would house the country's rich collection of ancient creatures.
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BARBARA KLEIN: Several Emerging Explorers work with animals and protecting natural areas. Emma Stokes works with organizations, governments and companies to help study and protect animals that are in danger of disappearing. Her research in Asia with the Wildlife Conservation Society is helping to identify the most effective ways to protect the tiger and its natural environment.
STEVE EMBER: Biologist Aparajita Datta works in the forests of India's Arunachal Pradesh area. She has been studying the Namdapha National Park for more than ten years. She says the area has five hundred kinds of mammals and more than one thousand different kinds of plants.
The Lisu tribal group also lives in this area. Aparajita Datta helped create a program to reduce hunting and plant destruction. It helps the Lisu grow food, open schools and earn money in ways that do not harm the environment.
BARBARA KLEIN: Jose Urteaga leads a program in Nicaragua to protect the sea turtle. He works to stop local communities from hunting the turtle by showing other ways they can earn money. His program also helps educate children about the importance of protecting these ancient creatures.
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STEVE EMBER: Zoltan Takacs has traveled all over the world studying snakes and the poisons they produce. He gathers DNA from snakes to learn which molecules protect them from their own poison. Some poisons these animals use to kill contain valuable chemicals that have been made into medicines. But studying these poisons and how they might be useful in fighting disease is extremely hard and slow work. Mr. Takacs works with a team of researchers at the University of Chicago. They have created a technology that helps organize information about snake poisons so it will be easier to study their possible use as cures.
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BARBARA KLEIN: Several National Geographic Emerging Explorers are technology experts. Ken Banks was working on a project in Africa. He saw a need for a kind of technology that would permit people in rural areas to communicate to groups without the use of the Internet. He knew that many organizations in rural areas did not have an Internet connection. He knew they needed a communication method that was easy and low cost. So, he developed a computer program that permits people to send information to groups using text messages on wireless telephones. He made his FrontlineSMS program free so that anyone can use it.
KEN BANKS: "We are always trying to lower the barrier to entry for nonprofits. So we are trying to use mobile technology. So we are always trying to keep the solutions simple and solutions which actually make use of the technology that is most easily available to those organizations."
BARBARA KLEIN: His technology is now being used in more than fifty countries by people including doctors, activists, farmers and aid workers. Ken Banks' Kiwanja organization is working on other projects to empower and educate non-profits around the world.
STEVE EMBER: Aydogan Ozcan is also interested in the power of the wireless telephone. He and a team of researchers have developed a way to use wireless telephones to bring medical help to poor people in rural areas. His phones have special cameras. Medical workers in rural areas can use the phone to take pictures of a patient's blood samples. They can then send the images to a hospital where doctors can tell what is wrong with the patient.
Testing of this technology will begin with patients who may have malaria.
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BARBARA KLEIN: Albert Yu-Min Lin uses computer technologies to gather and organize information taken from underground sensors and satellite images of Earth. This information is combined to create three-dimensional images that help him do archeological explorations.
Mr. Lin says he can then investigate the computer images of an archeological area without actually being at the physical place. He says this technology is helping experts explore places that would otherwise be impossible to investigate because of political, cultural or environmental barriers.
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STEVE EMBER: Jerry Glover and Saleem Ali work in different fields. But both pay careful attention to how human relationships are linked to the environment. Jerry Glover studies agriculture, the environment and food security. He says in the past, humans lived from crops that were perennials.
These kinds of plants stay alive throughout the year. They make effective use of water and nutrients. As populations grew, humans started planting crops every year that require fertilizers, insecticides and water. He says these annuals also require more time, effort and money to grow.
Jerry Glover says it is time to put natural plant communities back in control of our land. Through his work at the Land Institute in Kansas, he is working with plant experts and scientists to develop perennial crops. These crops would revolutionize agriculture by increasing food production while also supporting a healthier environment.
BARBARA KLEIN: Saleem Ali is an expert on environmental conflicts and how to solve them. He acts as a negotiator for governments, companies and native communities when dealing with environmental problems.
He says that working together to save the environment can sometimes bring conflicting sides together around the shared goal of protecting resources.
STEVE EMBER: Our last two National Geographic explorers are activists in Africa. Kakenya Ntaiya grew up in an extremely poor family in Kenya. Like other girls in her village, she was expected to end her schooling and marry at the age of thirteen. But she decided this future was not for her.
She worked hard to continue her studies and is completing her doctorate degree in the United States. She has opened a girl's school in her village so that others can have an education and the chance for a better future.
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BARBARA KLEIN: We close with music by the performer and activist Feliciano dos Santos from Mozambique. He uses his fame as a musician in the band Massukos.
He spreads health information that will improve the lives of poor people in rural areas around his country. He has helped communicate the importance of washing hands, boiling water, and building toilets in order to prevent disease.
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STEVE EMBER: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can comment on this story at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
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