Artificial Intelligence at 50 | Moving Objects With Thought

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week -- thinking about artificial intelligence ...

VOICE ONE:

And technology that uses thought to control movement could offer hope to people with spinal cord injuries.

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VOICE ONE:

The animated face of a robot designed at Carnegie Mellon University for an artificial intelligence competition

Artificial intelligence is technology designed to perform jobs that require higher-level thinking skills. In other words, skills like those of human intelligence.

A.l. systems have many different uses. They are used in economics, to study things like stock market activity. They are used in medicine -- for example, to help doctors recognize disorders and choose the best treatments. And they are used in the military, to develop systems like self-guiding vehicles and so-called smart bombs that look for their targets.

Robotic systems with artificial intelligence can perform many industrial duties. These robots can also help doctors operate on patients. They can even pilot spacecraft.

VOICE TWO:

In the summer of nineteen fifty-six, a small group of scientists gathered in Hanover, New Hampshire. They discussed how to create computer programs and machines that could think the way humans do. The conference was proposed as a two-month study. It was called the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence.

The idea of intelligent machines is ancient. But the name of the Dartmouth project marked the first known use of the term "artificial intelligence." So says the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

Dartmouth College just marked the fiftieth anniversary of that summer study. In July the school held a conference called AI@50 to explore the next fifty years in artificial intelligence. Organizers say about one hundred seventy-five people attended the three-day event.

Young graduate students got to meet the two men often called the fathers of artificial intelligence: Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy. Fifty years ago, Mister Minsky was a junior fellow at Harvard University. Mister McCarthy was a professor of mathematics at Dartmouth. These two researchers, and two others, wrote a proposal for the summer research project. Mister McCarthy is the one credited for the name "artificial intelligence."

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VOICE ONE:

The organizers of the nineteen fifty-six conference based it on a theory. The idea was that every part of human intelligence could be described in such detail that a machine could be made to copy it.

James Moor is a philosophy professor at Dartmouth. He directed the AI@50 conference last month. Professor Moor says it is true that computers are being built that operate in some ways like the brain. These are known as neural net computers. But, he adds, machines are unlikely to fully capture all human emotions, feelings and creativity -- at least not anytime soon.

The professor says computers may never replace humans, but humans should expect to find more and more "smart machines." These devices could someday even be implanted in the body.

Research into artificial intelligence includes areas like learning, reasoning and action. The work brings together people from many different areas of expertise.

Yet progress with artificial intelligence has been slower than those scientists fifty years ago had hoped. For example, Professor Moor notes the continued difficulty to train computers to use and translate language. Using language correctly requires a knowledge of countless social and cultural situations and conditions.

So language is an area where humans can still consider themselves smarter than machines.

VOICE TWO:

Carey Heckman teaches in the philosophy and computer science departments at Dartmouth. He notes that artificial intelligence plays an important part in national security and anti-terrorism programs. For example, A.I. systems are used in collecting communications and recognizing faces in a crowd.

Uses like these incite debate about issues like government spying and loss of privacy. Artificial intelligence is not just fertile ground for science fiction writers. There are social and economic issues to consider as the technology spreads. Even just the idea of trying to get computers to think like humans is enough to frighten some people.

At the same time, A.I. research involves philosophical questions about intelligence and the mind. These questions relate to how humans work and think. Carey Heckman at Dartmouth says the more scientists learn about artificial intelligence, "the more we learn about ourselves."

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VOICE ONE:

You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Scientists and engineers have created all kinds of technology to make people's lives easier. This is true for disabled people as well. But what about those with severe spinal-cord injuries, who cannot move their arms or legs? A new device could make their lives easier, too. This may not be an example of artificial intelligence, but it is an example of what human intelligence can do with technology.

A report last month in Nature magazine described a study by a team led by researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island.

VOICE TWO:

Matthew Nagle, with a BrainGate sensor in his head, is assisted by Abraham Caplan of Cyberkinetics, the maker

For nine months, the researchers followed a twenty-five-year-old disabled man as he learned to move objects simply with thought. This ability was made possible by a small electronic device in his brain. The device is a neuromotor prosthesis called BrainGate. It measures four millimeters by four millimeters.

The BrainGate device acts as a brain-to-movement system. Doctors inserted it into the motor cortex, a part of the brain involved in controlling movements.

The man had suffered a spinal cord injury three years earlier. But the researchers found that nerve activity continued in his motor cortex. The team had not known for sure if movement signals would still be sent in this part of his brain.

The patient was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a knife wound that cut his spinal cord. But with the BrainGate system, he was able to guide a computer cursor and control objects on the screen. He could open e-mail and play "Neural Pong," a simple video game.

The patient could also operate a television. He was able to perform these actions while speaking at the same time. He was even able to pick up small objects with a robotic arm.

VOICE ONE:

Nerve activity recorded by the BrainGate sensor is processed into movement commands. The system used in the study includes wires attached to the skull. These wires pass through the skin to carry nerve signals to computers and other equipment to process them.

After the report was written, the scientists added a second patient with spinal cord injury to the study, a man fifty-five years old.

Research with neuromotor prosthetics has also been done with monkeys.

Experts say the BrainGate system marks a big improvement in what is known as brain-computer interface technology.

Scientists say the device could one day control a wheelchair or prosthetic arms and legs. They say the device, if combined with a muscle movement system, might even return the use of paralyzed limbs.

But a lot more work is needed before any of this might be possible.

VOICE TWO:

A company called Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems created the BrainGate device. Professors and students at Brown University formed Cyberkinetics in two thousand one. They based their work on research developed in the laboratory of neuroscientist John Donoghue. The government paid for much of the research.

Professor Donoghue has been working on the BrainGate technology for more than ten years. He is chief scientific officer at Cyberkinetics and helped lead the study published in Nature.

In a related paper, researchers at Stanford University say the device produces an even faster reaction when placed in a different area in the brain. They say it could someday be possible to communicate information at a rate equal to typing fifteen words per minute on a computer.

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VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss and produced by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Pat Bodnar.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

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Japan Imports U.S. Beef Again

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

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Jiro Kawasaki, Japan's health minister, announces the end of the ban on U.S. beef

American beef is returning to Japan. The Japanese government last week ended a ban in place since January over concerns about mad cow disease.

Japanese officials recently inspected thirty-five beef processing centers in the United States. They said all but one met Japanese safety requirements.

The ban on beef led to threats in Congress of trade restrictions against Japan.

The Japanese were the top buyer of American beef. The government first banned shipments in December of two thousand three. That was when the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease -- bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B.S.E.

The Japanese lifted their ban last December, but renewed it in January after the discovery of backbone material in a meat shipment.

In all, there have been three confirmed cases of B.S.E. in the United States. The first was in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. Last year a cow in Texas was found to have B.S.E.. And in March of this year, a cow in Alabama tested positive for the disease.

About twenty nations continue to ban American beef; others restrict some kinds of cattle products. Japan accepts only beef from cattle twenty months of age or younger. Also, processors must remove backbones and other parts that experts say could spread the disease.

Eating infected meat products has been blamed for more than one hundred fifty deaths, mostly in Britain.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says "American beef is extremely safe."

The Japanese ended their ban one week after Mister Johanns announced reductions in the B.S.E. testing program. The program will now test about forty thousand animals a year. That is still ten times the level suggested by the World Animal Health Organization.

Since June of two thousand four, the Agriculture Department has tested an average of more than one thousand animals per day. Two years of testing found two cases of B.S.E. Mister Johanns noted that both animals were born before the United States banned feeding cattle protein to other cattle.

A seven-year government study estimated the most likely number of cases at between four and seven out of forty-two million adult cattle.

But critics say the United States should be testing more cattle, not fewer.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Recycling Scrap Metal Into Money

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

People have been recycling metals for hundreds of years. Today, re-using metal waste or scrap provides work for many people, especially in developing countries. Three kinds of metals are recycled. They are ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and precious metals.

Ferrous metals contain iron. They are low in cost and recycled in huge amounts. Metallic iron called pig iron is produced when iron is heated in a hot industrial stove. This kind of stove is called a blast furnace. Pig iron also contains another element, carbon. Pig iron is useful because it can be formed into solid, heavy objects or objects with unusual shapes.

Steel recycling

Another kind of iron is steel, which is iron without the carbon. Making steel is simply removing the carbon by burning it away. This makes the steel stronger and easier to cut than iron. Both pig iron and steel waste or scrap are useful because they can be melted to make new products.

In countries where there is a shortage of steel scrap, old tin cans are sometimes used. Tin cans are mostly steel. They can be melted. If the scrap is heated before the temperature gets to the melting point, the blast furnace can be more simply designed and less costly. These simpler furnaces are called foundries. Products are made in foundries all over the world, but especially in Asia.

Non-ferrous metals include copper and aluminum. Copper is the perfect material for recycling. It is valuable, easy to identify and easy to clean. People who operate foundries around the world buy copper wire and cable to recycle.

Aluminum is another very popular non-ferrous scrap metal. It is cheap to produce and very easy to work with. In developing countries, small foundries produce aluminum bars, sheets and wire.

Precious metals like silver also are recycled. Silver can be found in pictures made with old cameras. And it can be found in X-rays after they have been developed. X-ray film is very valuable for recycling silver, because both sides of the film are usually developed.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. You can learn more about recycling metals through VITA, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Web at enterpriseworks.org. And Internet users can find transcripts and archives of all of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal.

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Correction: This report describes steel as iron without the carbon, and as easier to cut than iron. Reduced amounts of carbon are still present, and steel is not necessarily easier to cut than iron. The report also states that aluminum is cheap to produce. The overall system cost, however, must include all the electricity needed to reduce bauxite into aluminum. Also, copper is not necessarily easy to clean, as the report suggests.

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All About Names: An Average Joe Was Walking Down the Street

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Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.

A person’s name is very important. Some names also have special meanings in popular American expressions. To better understand what I mean, sit back and listen. You might even want to get a cup of Joe, I mean, a cup of coffee.

One day, an average Joe was walking down the street. An average Joe is a common person – either male or female. This average Joe was lost. He did not know Jack about where he was going. By this, I mean he did not know anything about where to find things in the city.

So average Joe asked John Q. Public for directions to the nearest bank. John Q. Public is also a common person – male or female.

“Jeez Louise,” said John Q. Public. This is an expression of surprise. “Jeez Louise, don’t you know that all banks are closed today? It is Saturday.”

“For Pete’s sake,” said average Joe. This is also an expression used to show a feeling like surprise or disappointment.

“For Pete’s sake. I do not believe you,” said average Joe. He was being a doubting Thomas, someone who does not believe anything he is told.

At that moment, Joe Blow was walking down the street with a woman. Joe Blow is also an expression for a common man. Now this Joe Blow was NOT walking next to a plain Jane. A plain Jane is a woman who is neither ugly nor pretty. She is simply plain. No, the woman with Joe Blow was a real Sheila – a beautiful woman.

Average Joe asked the woman if all banks were closed on Saturday. “No way, Jose,” she answered. This is a way of saying “no.” “No way, Jose. Many banks are open on Saturdays.”

Average Joe did not know either of these two people from Adam. That is, he did not know them at all. But he followed their directions to the nearest bank.

When he arrived, he walked to the desk of the chief bank employee. Now this man was a true Jack of all trades. He knew how to do everything.

“I am here to withdraw some money so I can pay my taxes to Uncle Sam,” said average Joe. Uncle Sam represents the United States government. The banker produced some papers and told average Joe to sign his John Hancock at the bottom. A John Hancock is a person’s signed name – a signature. Historically, John Hancock was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. Hancock had a beautiful signature and signed his name larger than all the others.

As average Joe left the bank he began to sing. But sadly, average Joe was not a good singer. He was a Johnny One Note. He could only sing one note.

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This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.

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American Clergy: Still Mostly a Man's World, but Women Make Gains

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Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

And I'm Barbara Klein. This week our subject is women clergy.

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Katharine Jefferts Schori

A new leader begins a nine-year term this November as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. Katharine Jefferts Schori will become the first woman to lead one of the churches in the Worldwide Anglican Communion.

There are almost eighty million Anglicans in all. More than two million of them are members of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Bishop Jefferts Schori won election in June at the church’s General Convention in Columbus, Ohio. Episcopal bishops elected her on the fifth ballot. She was the only woman among seven candidates.

Some Episcopalians wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury to object to the new presiding bishop-elect. The archbishop, Rowan Williams, is leader of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. He says Bishop Jefferts Schori will bring "many intellectual and pastoral gifts to her new work." But he also noted that her election "brings into focus some continuing issues."

The Church of England has just recently begun steps toward letting women become bishops. But that might not happen before two thousand twelve.

The Episcopal Church is almost four hundred years old. The American church accepted women as priests and bishops thirty years ago. But church leaders in California, Illinois and Texas still bar women clergy.

The fact that the next leader is a woman is not the only issue. Bishop Jefferts Schori is now bishop of Nevada. The Episcopal Church in her state permits blessing ceremonies for the relationships between two people of the same sex. She believes homosexuals should be fully included in the church.

In two thousand three she supported the election of a gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire. The subject has divided Episcopalians and other Anglican churches.

Katharine Jefferts Schori is fifty-two years old. The next leader of the Episcopal Church says she brings “different life experiences” to her work. She has a doctorate in science. She studied oceans.

And this former oceanographer is also a pilot who likes to fly a small plane. She and her husband have a daughter who is a pilot in the Air Force.

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Antoinette Brown Blackwell is credited as the first woman in the United States to be officially appointed as a minister. She attended the seminary at Oberlin College and served in a Congregationalist church in South Butler, New York.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell became ordained in eighteen fifty-three. A person who is ordained is given the full responsibilities of a member of the clergy. But she left the church less than a year after that. She later became a Unitarian.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church is one of the oldest religious organizations in the United States. In two thousand, Vashti Murphy McKenzie became the first woman elected a bishop in the A.M.E. Church.

Now another woman minister hopes to become a bishop. She is Reverend Debora Grant of Saint John A.M.E. Church in Columbus, Georgia. The election for bishop of the A.M.E. churches in Georgia will take place in two thousand eight.

Religious groups in the United States commonly require ministers to have studied in a seminary. This is true especially of major denominations.

The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada collects information from more than two hundred fifty seminaries. In the school year that ended in two thousand five, the association says, one-third of students in ministry programs were women.

Future ministers learn not just about religion. They often study archeology and sociology, as well as art and music related to religion. And they learn about administration and about helping the sick and troubled. Most seminary students gain experience as student ministers before they graduate.

Many religious groups continue not to accept women clergy. Different groups offer different reasons. But custom, tradition and a desire to honor what is believed to be the will of God, often as expressed in holy writings, all play a part.

Leaders of the Mormons, for example, say men hold the priesthood offices of the church because God has stated that it should be so. However, the church says women have important leadership duties, and teach and pray The Roman Catholic Church has faced a lot of pressure to let women become priests. The church has expanded the duties that women can perform, but they still cannot become priests.

Among Protestants, not all groups accept women clergy. And some churches limit the service of women ministers.

The biggest Protestant denomination in the United States is the Southern Baptist Convention. For many years, women could serve as senior ministers in its churches. Senior ministers have the most responsibilities and earn the most pay. But in two thousand the Southern Baptists decided that women should no longer enter these jobs.

Many Protestant denominations do let women become senior ministers. Even so, some women believe there are unwritten rules that can keep them from getting jobs.

In some denominations, a church official appoints ministers to their jobs. In other denominations, ministers must find their own church.

A Protestant minister in Washington who works with hospital patients has looked for a senior ministry position for a long time. She asks not to be named. She says: “People would be happy for me to work with children or sick and old people. But many places do not want a woman for the top job.”

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In the Jewish religion, women can become Reform, Reconstructionist or Conservative spiritual leaders.

Rabbi Sally Priesand

In nineteen seventy-two Sally Priesand became the first woman rabbi to be ordained in the United States. Hebrew Union College in Ohio ordained her as a rabbi in Reform Judaism. Two years later the first woman graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Pennsylvania.

The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York serves as the academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism. The seminary ordained its first woman rabbi in nineteen eighty-five. That followed more than ten years of intense debate.

Orthodox Judaism does not ordain women as rabbis. But a small number of women are said to have completed studies in Orthodox seminaries.

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Amina Wadud teaches Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Professor Wadud made international news in March of two thousand five. She led a group of men and women in Friday prayers.

Amina Wadud leads Friday prayers in New York on March 18, 2005

At least eighty people gathered in the Synod House of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, an Episcopal church. Other places refused the event because of reports of bomb threats.

Some Muslims denounced Professor Wadud. They said the prayer leader, or imam, should be a man and that men and women should not have prayed together. Conservative Muslims said her actions violated traditions of Islam. But many liberal Muslims praised what she did.

A seventy-year-old woman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, says she has been a loyal Roman Catholic all her life. She says that years ago, she agreed with the belief that women should not become priests.

Now she disagrees with that. “Women have always cared for homes, families and communities. Why not let them care for people’s spiritual needs?" she asks. As long as people have an answer, this issue will continue to be debated in America and across the world.

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Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.

And I'm Barbara Klein. You can download transcripts and archives of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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Betty Friedan: A Leader in the Modern Women’s Rights Movement

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Betty Friedan. She was a powerful activist for the rights of women.

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VOICE ONE:

Betty Friedan is often called the mother of the modern women’s liberation movement. Her famous book, “The Feminine Mystique,” changed America. Some people say it changed the world. It has been called one of the most influential nonfiction books of the twentieth century.

Friedan re-awakened the feminist movement in the United States. That movement had helped women gain the right to vote in the nineteen twenties. Modern feminists disagree about how to describe themselves and their movement. But activists say men and women should have equal chances for economic, social and intellectual satisfaction in life.

VOICE TWO:

Fifty years ago, life for women in the United States was very different from today. Very few parents urged their daughters to become lawyers or doctors or professors. Female workers doing the same jobs as men earned much less money. Women often lost their jobs when they had a baby. There were few child care centers for working parents.

Betty Friedan once spoke to ABC television about her support for sharing responsibility for the care of children:

“If child-rearing was considered the responsibility of women and men or women and men and society, then we really could pull up our skirts and declare victory and move on.”

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VOICE ONE:

Betty Friedan was born Betty Goldstein in nineteen twenty-one in Peoria, Illinois. Her immigrant father worked as a jeweler. Her mother left her job with a local newspaper to stay home with her family.

Betty attended Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. It was one of the country’s best colleges for women. She finished her studies in psychology in nineteen forty-two.

After college she attended the University of California at Berkeley to continue her studies. But her boyfriend at the time did not want her to get an advanced degree in psychology. He apparently felt threatened by her success. So Betty left California and her boyfriend. She moved to New York City and worked as a reporter and editor for labor union newspapers.

In nineteen forty-seven, Betty Goldstein married Carl Friedan, a theater director who later became an advertising executive. They had a child, the first of three. The Friedans were to remain married until nineteen sixty-nine.

VOICE TWO:

When Betty Friedan became pregnant for the second time, she was dismissed from her job at the newspaper. After that she worked as an independent reporter for magazines. But her editors often rejected her attempts to write about subjects outside the traditional interests of women.

In nineteen fifty-seven, Friedan started research that was to have far-reaching results. Her class at Smith College was to gather for the fifteenth anniversary of their graduation. Friedan prepared an opinion study for the women. She sent questions to the women about their lives. Most who took part in the study did not work outside their homes.

Friedan was not completely satisfied with her life. She thought that her former college classmates might also be dissatisfied. She was right. Friedan thought these intelligent women could give a lot to society if they had another identity besides being homemakers.

VOICE ONE:

Friedan completed more studies. She talked to other women across the country. She met with experts about the questions and answers. She combined this research with observations and examples from her own life. The result was her book, “The Feminine Mystique,” published in nineteen sixty-three.

The book attacked the popular idea of the time that women could only find satisfaction through being married, having children and taking care of their home. Friedan believed that women wanted more from life than just to please their husbands and children.

The book said women suffered from feelings of lack of worth. Friedan said this was because the women depended on their husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support.

VOICE TWO:

“The Feminine Mystique” was a huge success. It has sold more than three million copies. It was reprinted in a number of other languages. The book helped change the lives of women in America. More women began working outside the home. More women also began studying traditionally male subjects like law, medicine and engineering.

Betty Friedan expressed the dissatisfaction of some American women during the middle of the twentieth century. But she also made many men feel threatened. Later, critics said her book only dealt with the problems of white, educated, wealthy, married women. It did not study the problems of poor white women, single women or minorities.

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VOICE ONE:

In nineteen sixty-six, Betty Friedan helped establish NOW, the National Organization for Women. She served as its first president. She led campaigns to end unfair treatment of women seeking jobs.

Friedan also worked on other issues. She wanted women to have the choice to end their pregnancies. She wanted to create child-care centers for working parents. She wanted women to take part in social and political change. Betty Friedan once spoke about her great hopes for women in the nineteen seventies:

“Liberating ourselves, we will then become a major political force, perhaps the biggest political force for basic social and political change in America in the seventies.”

VOICE TWO:

Betty Friedan led a huge demonstration in New York City for women’s rights. Demonstrations were also held in other cities. A half-million women took part in the Women’s Strike for Equality on August twenty-sixth, nineteen seventy. The day marked the fiftieth anniversary of American women gaining the right to vote.

A year after the march, Friedan helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus. She said the group got started “to make policy, not coffee.” She said America needed more women in public office if women were to gain equal treatment.

VOICE ONE:

Friedan wanted a national guarantee of that equal treatment. She worked tirelessly to get Congress and the states to approve an amendment to the United States Constitution that would provide equal rights for women.

The House of Representatives approved this Equal Rights Amendment in nineteen seventy-one. The Senate approved it the following year. Thirty-eight of the fifty state legislatures were required to approve the amendment. Congress set a time limit of seven years for the states to approve it. This was extended to June thirtieth, nineteen eighty-two. However, only thirty-five states approved the amendment by the deadline so it never went into effect.

The defeat of the E.R.A. was a sad event for Betty Friedan, NOW and other activists.

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VOICE TWO:

In nineteen eighty-one, Betty Friedan wrote about the condition of the women’s movement. Her book was called “The Second Stage.” Friedan wrote that the time for huge demonstrations and other such events had passed. She urged the movement to try to increase its influence on American political life.

Some younger members of the movement denounced her as too conservative.

As she grew older, Friedan studied conditions for older Americans. She wrote a book called “The Fountain of Age” in nineteen ninety-three. She wrote that society often dismisses old people as no longer important or useful. Friedan’s last book was published in two thousand. She was almost eighty years old at the time. Its title was “Life So Far.”

Betty Friedan died on February fourth, two thousand six. It was her eighty-fifth birthday. Betty Friedan once told a television reporter how she wanted to be remembered:

“She helps make it better for women to feel good about being women, and therefore she helped make it possible for women to more freely love men.”

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. You can download a transcript and audio of this show at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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W.T.O. Talks: As Nations Trade Blame, World Trade Goals Must Wait

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Pascal Lamy

Almost five years of talks among countries in the World Trade Organization came to a halt this week. Director-General Pascal Lamy in Geneva suspended the troubled negotiations. He says restarting them will require work within countries.

The talks began with the hope for an agreement that would open up world markets and reduce poverty in developing nations. But negotiators failed to agree on ways to permit more free trade in agricultural and industrial goods.

Since two thousand one, members of the World Trade Organization have debated how to reach goals they set in November of that year. The meeting took place in Doha, Qatar; the trade talks became known as the Doha Development Round.

A meeting in Seattle in nineteen ninety-nine had failed to begin a new round of trade talks then.

The Doha Round opened at a rough time, two months after the terrorist attacks on the United States. Negotiators set out to lower trade restrictions and take other steps to help poorer countries.

The main issue for many developing countries is government support programs for farmers. Farmers in developing nations say they cannot compete with agricultural prices driven down by farm subsidies in rich nations.

But the trade ministers could not reach agreement on what steps were needed to let the talks move forward. And soon, countries started blaming each other for the failure.

The European Union said the United States refused to cooperate. Peter Mandelson is the E.U. trade commissioner. He said the United States was making "very large demands," but was not willing to make new offers to cut aid to its farmers.

American officials called his statements false and misleading. They said the European Union and other W.T.O. members were not willing to do enough to lower their import barriers to farm products. American officials also said Brazil and India were refusing to cut barriers on industrial imports.

A Bush administration spokesman said American trade officials will continue discussions with other nations in the hope of an agreement.

So what does all this mean for the future of world trade?

Gawain Kripke is a trade expert with the aid group Oxfam International. Mister Kripke says the failure of the Doha round will hurt the poorest countries the most. He notes that under the rules of the World Trade Organization, each country's voice is given equal weight. He says this is often not the case when two countries, or countries in the same area, try to negotiate trade agreements themselves.

A successful trade deal in the Doha round could increase the world economy by as much as ninety-six thousand million dollars a year. It could pull sixty-six million people out of poverty. These are both estimates by the World Bank. Officially the talks are not dead, only suspended. But many countries believe it could take anywhere from months to years to restart them.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember.

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Four Internet Magazines Connect Young Professionals Near and Far

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

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I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We answer a question about women’s rights activist Betty Friedan …

Play some music from Los Lonely Boys …

And report about some young people who reach out to the world through the Internet.

The CulturalConnect

HOST:

Three young professional people recently started four magazines on the Internet. They expected other young professional people in the United States to read their magazines. But now there are readers in more than ninety-five countries. Barbara Klein tells us about The CulturalConnect.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Sumaya Kazi is twenty-three years old. She is an American whose family

Sumaya Kazi

comes from Bangladesh. Miz Kazi works for Sun Microsystems, a big technology company in California. Raymond Rouf and Kaiser Shahid are both twenty-five years old. They also work for technology companies.

Miz Kazi, Mister Rouf and Mister Shahid started an organization called The CulturalConnect. Their Internet magazines are for young people in their twenties and thirties whose families come from Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia.

The magazines tell about successful young people and organizations that help people or work to solve social problems. For example, The DesiConnect told about the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action. This group works on issues important to immigrants in San Francisco, California.

The LatinConnect told about the Latin American Folk Institute, which organizes music celebrations in Washington, D. C. In the magazine AsiaConnect, there is a story about a group called ASPIRE, which means Asian Sisters Participating in Reaching Excellence.

The MideastConnect told about Nihad Dukhan, a Palestinian American who teaches engineering at the University of Detroit in Michigan. He is also an artist who creates designs using Arabic words and letters.

Readers of CulturalConnect magazines learn about people like Max Ramirez of New York City. Mister Ramirez is twenty-eight years old. He has become very successful helping companies sell their goods to people in the United States who speak Spanish. Each magazine tells readers how to contact the individuals and the organizations.

Sumaya Kazi says the magazines have grown very big very fast. She says many college students want to learn about the kinds of jobs they could have when they graduate. She also says the magazines build bridges between people of different ethnic groups and professions. “Young adults around the world are learning about each other in meaningful and helpful ways,” says Sumaya Kazi.

The magazines are on the Internet at www.theculturalconnect.com.

Betty Friedan

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Japan. Motoji Okamoto asks

Betty Friedan

about women’s rights activist Betty Friedan.Fifty years ago, many Americans said, “A woman’s place is in the home.” Parents often urged their daughters to get married and let a man take care of them. Few girls studied science, law or engineering.

Betty Friedan was born in nineteen twenty-one in Peoria, Illinois. She graduated from Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Later she moved to New York City and worked for labor union newspapers.

But she stopped working when she had children. As a young wife and mother, Betty Friedan was dissatisfied with her life. She wondered if her former college classmates felt the same way. So she studied the opinions of other Smith College graduates during the nineteen fifties and early sixties. The study showed that other women also wanted to be more than homemakers.

Her research led her to write “The Feminine Mystique” in nineteen sixty-three. She wrote that women suffered from feelings of lack of worth. She said women felt that way because they depended on their husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support.

Millions of people read “The Feminine Mystique.” It became one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. It helped more women seek higher education and better jobs.

In her long life, Betty Friedan did much more than write an important book. In nineteen sixty-six she helped establish NOW, the National Organization for Women. She served as its first president. Four years later she led a march of one-half million women in New York City. The event was called “Women’s Strike for Equality.”

A year later, she helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus. She said America needed more women in public office if women were to gain equal treatment. She also worked hard for an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

Betty Friedan wrote more books as she grew older. One of these, “Life So Far”, was published when she was almost eighty. By that time, she had become deeply involved in the struggle for the rights of old people.

Betty Friedan died earlier this year, on her eighty-fifth birthday. You can hear more about her life and work Sunday on the Special English program People in America.

Los Lonely Boys

HOST:

The group called Los Lonely Boys has a new record called “Sacred.” Mario Ritter tells about the album and plays a few songs.

MARIO RITTER:

Critics say “Sacred” is a lively combination of dance songs and love songs that have great guitar playing and rich vocals.

The three Garza brothers in Los Lonely Boys are from Texas. Their father, Enrique Garza, taught the boys how to play all their instruments. He also let them play in his band while they were growing up.

The boys honor their father on the album with a special guest appearance in this song, “Outlaws.” The famous singer Willie Nelson also joins in.

(MUSIC)

The Garza brothers say their father taught them to always help each other while performing on stage. If one is having trouble with an instrument or makes a mistake, the other two just have to play harder. The main guitarist, Henry Garza, also says his father used to say, “If one string breaks, you still have five others.”

Here is a hit single from “Sacred” called “Diamonds.”

(MUSIC)

A music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle called Henry Garza, “the ball of fire at the center of Los Lonely Boys.” We leave you now with the band and its burning hot guitar sound in another song from “Sacred,” “Living My Life.”

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

This show was written by Karen Leggett, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

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The Rise of Foundations

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

As we told you last week, the United States has about seventy thousand foundations for charitable giving. They are required to give away at least five percent of their total holdings each year.

Most foundations are formed by wealthy individuals. People who put their wealth into foundations can become known for their social good works. At the same time, gifts to charity can bring tax savings.

Fifty percent of the value of a gift to a public charity can be used to reduce taxes. For private foundations, that percentage is smaller -- thirty percent -- but still a lot.

Not surprisingly, strong foundation growth takes place during strong economic growth. For example, foundations grew quickly during the nineteen forties and fifties. A growing economy and changes in tax laws also led to sharp growth during the eighties.

The economic expansion of the middle and late nineties resulted in record foundation growth. In two thousand, as the stock market reached its highest level, so did the number of new foundations. More than six thousand that year alone.

Researcher Steven Lawrence says foundation growth has shown surprising staying power since then, even as economic growth slowed. He says new foundations continued to appear at a rate of about two percent in two thousand four. Mister Lawrence is the top researcher at a group that studies such things, the Foundation Center.

But foundations can also run out of money and close. This happens at an average rate of one percent a year.

Many of the rules that govern foundations come from the Tax Reform Act of nineteen sixty-nine. Congress established a number of differences between public charities and private foundations. The new law defined all individual, corporate and operating foundations as private. That meant greater restrictions and different financial reporting rules than for community foundations.

At the time, some people thought the changes in the law would mean the end of private foundations. The number of public charities grew in the nineteen seventies. In some years, the holdings of private foundations even shrunk.

Today public charities represent just one percent of all foundations. But they are responsible for almost one-tenth of all foundation giving.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Next week, listen for the third and final part of our series on foundations. Part one can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

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Hoover's High Hopes for American Economy Come Crashing Down

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THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

The election of Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover in nineteen twenty-eight made Americans more hopeful than ever about their future.

Chief Justice William H. Taft, left, administers the oath of office to Herbert Hoover on March 4, 1929

In March nineteen twenty-nine, Hoover rode down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in the rain to become the new president. "I have no fears for the future of our country," he told the cheering crowd. "It is bright with hope."

Herbert Hoover seemed to have just the right experience to lead the nation to new economic progress. He had training in engineering, business, and national leadership. He understood economics and had faith in the future of private business.

The clearest evidence of the public's faith in the economy is the stock market. And the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the new president with a wild increase in prices. During the months after Hoover's election, prices generally rose like a rocket. Stocks valued at one hundred dollars climbed to two hundred, then three hundred, four hundred. Men and women made huge amounts of money overnight.

Publications and economic experts advised Americans to buy stocks before prices went even higher. Time and again, people heard how rich they could become if they found and bought stocks for companies growing into industrial giants.

"Never sell the United States short," said one publication. Another just said, "Everybody ought to be rich."

Herbert Hoover

A number of economic experts worried about the sharp increase in stock prices that followed Hoover's election. The president himself urged stock market officials to make trading more honest and safe. And he approved a move by the Federal Reserve Board to increase the interest charged to banks.

However, both efforts failed to stop the growing number of Americans who were spending their money wildly on stocks.

Some experts pointed to danger signs in the economy during the summer of nineteen twenty-nine. The number of houses being built was dropping. Industries were reducing the amount of products that they held in their factories. The rate of growth in spending by average Americans was falling sharply. And industrial production, employment, and prices were down.

These experts warned that the American economy was just not strong enough to support such rapid growth in stock prices. They said there was no real value behind many of the high prices. They said a stock price could not increase four times while a company's sales stayed the same. They said the high prices were built on foolish dreams of wealth, not real value.

But the prices went still higher. Buyers fought with each other to pay more and more for company stocks. The average price of all stocks almost doubled in just one year.

It seemed everybody was buying stocks, even people with little money or economic training.

A clothing salesman got advice from a stock trader visiting his store and made two hundred-thousand dollars. A nurse learned of a good company from someone in the hospital. She made thirty thousand dollars. There were thousands of such stories.

By early September, the stock market reached its high point of the past eighteen months. Shares of the Westinghouse company had climbed from ninety-one dollars to three hundred thirteen. The Anaconda Copper company had risen from fifty-four dollars to one hundred sixty-two. Union Carbide jumped from one hundred forty-five to four hundred thirteen.

Life was like a dream. But like any dream, it could not last forever.

In September, nineteen twenty-nine, stock prices stopped rising.

During the next month and a half, stock prices fell, but only slowly. Then suddenly, at the end of October, the market crashed. Prices dropped wildly. Leading stocks fell five, ten, twenty dollars in a single day. Everyone tried to sell their stocks. But no one was buying. Fear washed across the stock market. People were losing money even faster than they had made it.

The stock market collapsed on Thursday, October twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-nine. People remember the day as "Black Thursday," the day the dreams ended.

The day began with a wave of selling. People from across the country sent messages to their stock traders in New York. All the messages said the same thing: Sell! Sell the stocks at any price possible! But no one was buying. And so down the prices came.

The value of stock for the Montgomery Ward store dropped from eighty-three dollars to fifty in a single day. The R-C-A radio corporation fell from sixty-eight dollars to forty-four...twenty-four dollars in just a few hours. Down the stocks fell, lower and lower.

Several of the country's leading bankers met to discuss ways to stop the disaster. They agreed to buy stocks in large amounts to stop the wave of selling. The bankers moved quickly. And for two days, prices held steady.

But then, like snow falling down the side of a mountain, the stocks dropped again. Prices went to amazingly low levels. One business newspaper said simply: "The present week has witnessed the greatest stock market disaster of all time."

The stock market crash ruined thousands of Americans. In a few short weeks, traders lost thirty thousand million dollars, an amount almost as great as all the money the United States had spent in World War One.

Some businessmen could not accept what had happened. They jumped from the tops of buildings and killed themselves. In fact, one popular joke of the time said that hotel owners had to ask people if they wanted rooms for sleeping or jumping.

But the stock market crash was nothing to laugh about. It destroyed much of the money that Americans had saved. Even worse, it caused millions of people to worry and lose faith in the economy. They were not sure what to expect tomorrow. Business owners would not spend money for new factories or business operations. Instead, they decided to wait and see what would happen.

This reduced production and caused more workers to lose their jobs. Fewer workers meant fewer people with money to buy goods. And fewer people buying goods meant less need for factories to produce. So it went. In short, economic disaster.

Why did the stock market crash? One reason, people had been paying too much for stocks. Everyone believed that prices would go higher and higher forever. People paid more for stocks than the stocks were worth. They hoped to sell the stocks at even higher prices.

It was like a children's balloon that expands with air, blowing bigger and bigger until it bursts.

But there were other important reasons. Industrial profits were too high and wages too low. Five percent of the population owned one-third of all personal income. The average worker simply did not have enough money to buy enough of all the new goods that factories were producing. Another problem was that companies were not investing enough money in new factories and supplies.

There were also problems with the rules of the stock market itself. People were allowed to buy stocks when they did not have the money to do so.

Several government economic policies also helped cause the stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine. Government tax policies made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And the government did little to control the national money supply, even when the economy faced disaster.

The stock market crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression -- a long, slow, painful fall to the worst economic crisis in American history. The Depression would bring suffering to millions of people. It would cause major political changes. And it would be a major force in creating the conditions that led to World War Two.

We will look at the beginning of the Great Depression in our next program.

(MUSIC)

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION.

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'Iron Science Teacher' and More at the Exploratorium

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The Exploratorium is housed in San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts

The Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, calls itself "the museum of science, art and human perception." The museum gets more than five hundred thousand visitors each year. Millions more visit online at exploratorium.edu.

Exploratorium officials say their Web site averages more than eighteen million visitors a year. That makes it one of the most visited museum Web sites in the world.

And millions of people see displays designed by the Exploratorium at science centers around the world.

The museum has a Teacher Institute and is working to help teachers improve science education at all grade levels. There are professional development materials that teachers can download from the Web site at no cost.

The Exploratorium also offers professional development programs for scientists. This is a joint effort with the University of California, Santa Cruz, and King’s College London.

Exploratorium.edu also includes experiments that people can do at home. And it offers many Webcasts -- including a show called “Iron Science Teacher.”

The idea came from the popular "Iron Chef" cooking competition on Japanese television. At the Exploratorium, people watch science teachers develop demonstrations around everyday objects. The teachers have ten minutes to put together an interesting classroom activity.

The teachers come to the competition already knowing what the object will be. Recently it was fruit. Winners are chosen by the reaction of the audience. The loudest applause went to a science teacher at Opportunity Charter School in Harlem, in New York City. Linda Paparella stuck pieces of zinc and copper into oranges cut in half.

The oranges acted as a "fruit battery." Free electrons naturally stored in the fruit flowed through wires connected to the pieces of metal. There was enough electricity to power a calculator. The teacher also demonstrated with a stopwatch and a buzzer.

Museum officials say the "Iron Science Teacher" competition started as a joke. It was meant to be just a one-time show, but it was so popular they continued it. The next live Webcast is set for nineteen hours Universal Time on August eleventh.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find a link to archives of Iron Science Teacher Webcasts. I’m Steve Ember.

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Getting Scientists to Tell All About Possible Conflicts of Interest

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week -- dealing with possible conflicts of interest in scientific research.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, is changing its publication policy. The editors say they are strengthening the rules as a result of recent cases involving possible conflicts of interest.

JAMA says a conflict may exist when relationships with other organizations could influence a researcher.

Those possible conflicts recently have led to corrections to a few studies that appeared in the journal. The corrections listed ties to the drug industry that researchers had not reported.

VOICE TWO:

In May, the journal published a report on the risks of rare harmful effects from two drugs used for rheumatoid arthritis. The report said studies of the drugs, Humira and Remicade, suggested an increased risk of serious infections and cancers.

JAMA published a correction after the authors of the report provided more information about possible conflicts of interest. The two doctors who listed a drug industry connection had more extensive ties than were reported with the study. Still, the two doctors say they do not believe these financial relationships influenced their scientific work.

VOICE ONE:

That was also what researchers involved in another study said after JAMA editors learned of their financial ties to drug companies. That study appeared in February. It found that pregnant women who stop taking antidepressant drugs increase their chances of becoming depressed again. The report listed thirteen researchers involved in the study. Later, the editors of JAMA learned that most of the thirteen had ties to drug companies that make antidepressants.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the authors failed to list more than sixty different financial links to drug companies. The researchers told the newspaper that these links have no effect on their work. Before the study appeared, only two of the thirteen researchers provided information about possible conflicts.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

A third study that led to a correction appeared in the journal dated July nineteenth. The study involved migraine headaches and cardiovascular disease in women. The report did not list any possible conflicts of interest.

But a reporter informed JAMA about financial relationships between the researchers and drug companies. The journal published a correction on its Web site on July eighteenth to list these ties.

They include research support and payments for advice and for acting as a speaker. These are all common forms of relationships between drug companies and researchers.

The researchers say they believe they have no financial interests or relationships that are important to this study. The journal editors disagreed. In any case, the researchers say they have learned it is best to report all relationships with for-profit companies. That way, they say, the publication can decide what is "relevant."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Readers might have no trouble with a study that offers good news for a company even if they know that the company paid for the study. Or if they know that the authors of the study have close ties to the industry.

But people cannot know what to think of these relationships unless they know about them. They need to consider all the information as they weigh the study in their mind. If they find out later about possible conflicts, then their trust in the scientists and possibly in the publication may be damaged. If enough situations like this happen, then science in general is the loser.

This, in short, is the argument of those who criticize researchers for not reporting possible conflicts.

And there are more immediate concerns. The studies that appear in medical journals also help guide doctors in their treatment decisions.

VOICE TWO:

For example, many doctors who treat women on antidepressants are now unsure what to advise them if they become pregnant. The findings of the study suggested that women on antidepressants should continue to take them throughout their pregnancy. But doctors may now wonder if they can be sure that drug company connections did not influence these findings.

This issue of trust and reporting possible conflicts of interest is not limited to publications. Government agencies have to deal with similar concerns. People could question the independence of government scientists who have close ties to private industry.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Drug companies have to test their products. They can do it themselves. Or they can seek the services of experts at universities and other research centers. Independent testing is important especially if a drug requires government approval.

Sometimes, so many experts have close ties to companies, it can seem difficult to find some who do not. People could argue that the situation has gotten out of control and represents a threat to public health.

But others would say business is business, even in the business of medicine. Scientists who are investigating a new drug for a company today may have done work for a competitor in the past.

VOICE TWO:

By this argument, problems exist only when researchers fail to report financial relationships that present real conflicts.

Scientists can be accused of misleading people if they do not disclose their industry ties. Yet what might appear to be a conflict of interest to some might not to others.

As a result, it can be difficult for scientists to know what to report. Could the gift of a medical book for speaking at training programs put on by a drug company represent a conflict?

Scientists may truly believe they have nothing to hide. At the same time, they do not want to give people a reason to question their scientific judgment.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Studies in major publications like the Journal of the American Medical Association are peer-reviewed. That means other researchers have to agree that a study should be published. These reviewers have to decide that the study was designed well and that the findings have scientific value.

Since the late nineteen eighties, JAMA policy has required complete reporting of all ties related to the subject discussed in an article. There is a special form for each member of a research team to list any possible conflicts of interest.

VOICE TWO:

JAMA is amending this policy beginning next year. Researchers will have to include all possible conflicts of interest in their article at the time they send it in for consideration. Researchers will have to list at the end of their article all company connections or other financial support for their work. They will be expected to include information from within the past five years and for the near future.

Journal editors say each researcher’s list will be considered part of the study if the report is accepted for publication. They say more information is always better than less. Researchers who are not sure what to list are being told to call the journal office for guidance.

VOICE ONE:

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says violators of the policy should face a three-year ban from the journal. A JAMA spokeswoman, Jann Ingmire, says that is not likely to happen. She says a ban could be considered illegal, a restraint of trade.

Jann Ingmire says the most important question when deciding to accept research for publication should be this: is the science good? She says research that uses good science and study design is the one that should be published and used to guide medical decisions.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Pat Bodnar.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

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Rains Help Ease Crop Worries in U.S. Corn Belt

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

America's leading food crop is corn. Most of that corn comes from the middle of the country. Recently, farmers in the Corn Belt states of the Midwest have been concerned about the weather. They have been worried that dry conditions and unusually high temperatures could mean a smaller crop this year.

Rains and cooler weather last week improved conditions in many fields and helped ease concerns, at least for now.

The thought of a hot, dry summer may be enough to worry any farmer. But July is an extremely important month for maize pollination. Corn kernels may not develop if the soil gets too dry or the sun too hot.

Drought conditions are the leading threat each year to farmers in the United States.

The area of the country known as the Corn Belt includes Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana and Wisconsin. Other states are South Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky.

The Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service says producers have planted thirty-two million hectares of corn this year. That is a little less than last year, but more than they had expected in March.

As of July tenth, sixty-three percent of the corn crop was rated good to excellent. That number was up from fifty-eight percent last year. But it was down from sixty-eight percent the week before.

In the past few weeks, corn futures reached their highest prices in two years on the Chicago Board of Trade. On July twelfth, a bushel of corn for shipment in December cost about two dollars and eighty-five cents.

The rains last week brought corn prices down from their recent highs. Now the question is how far those prices will drop.

Demand for corn is growing, not just to feed cattle and people but also to feed engines. Ethanol from corn is becoming more popular as a plant-based fuel because of high oil prices.

Corn is used in thousands of products. Last year, American farmers produced more than eleven thousand million bushels of corn.

Farmers reported planting fifty-two percent of their corn last year from genetically engineered seed. The Economic Research Service says reports this year put the number at just over sixty percent.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Doug Johnson.

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Learning English by Listening, Um, to How People, Uh, Really Speak It

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AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about authentic listening materials.

RS: It's the subject of her latest textbook, called "Real Talk 1."

LIDA BAKER: "One of the trends in the field in the last few years has been to try to expose students to authentic language, which is language -- English the way people really talk."

AA: "So you got your tape recorder out and you walked around and eavesdropped or what did you do?"

LIDA BAKER: "That's one of the ways that we collected the authentic language samples. So, yeah, we would put a microphone on a table and we would ask people to talk about a certain topic. In-person recordings were one kind of authentic speech samples that we collected.

"The second kind was phone interviews and phone conversations. And we tried to make these as relevant to real life as we could. So we had, for example, we asked somebody to call up two different car rental agencies and find out about the price of renting a car. Now the student's task in that case is to listen to both phone recordings and decide if they were going to rent a car, which company would they go to.

"So that's an example of where not only the input, the recording itself, is authentic, but the task is also authentic, which is another aspect in this movement in our profession towards authentic language teaching. It's not only authentic language teaching, but it's authentic language use."

AA: "Let me ask you, obviously when people talk we don't always follow the rules of grammar and syntax and all that.

So how does it benefit students to learn from authentic materials rather than maybe a more traditional approach?"

LIDA BAKER: "By listening to the way people really talk, what students have to do is learn how to filter out the parts of the language that are not part of the message they are supposed to get, and tune in to the parts of the utterance that are part of the message. Does that make sense? So if I say 'ummm .... ummm ... well, let's see ...'"

AA: "I filter that out."

LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, as a native speaker you know that that's not part of the message that I'm trying to convey. We actively teach students how to filter that stuff out, because natural language has all kinds of junk in it, if you want to call it that -- we make grammatical errors when we talk, we hesitate, we repeat ourselves, we use fillers which are things like 'uh,' 'um,' 'you know,' 'kind of' and, of course, the famous 'like.' And like is a really interesting example of something that students have to learn how to either tune out or attend to depending on the meaning."

AA: "Let me ask you, at what level would you start using authentic materials -- beginner, intermediate, where would you start?"

LIDA BAKER: "Believe it or not, you can do it at any level -- you can do it with absolute beginners. But you have to take care to present the language in very small segments with beginners and you also have to create tasks that are at the student's level of ability. Now let me give you a really simple example of what I mean. Very low level students, you might ask them to listen for instance to ... let's say to a weather report.

"And things like weather reports are good because they're short. Now you can give them a list of words related to the weather: it's windy, it's raining, it's cloudy and so on. And you can have students listen to the weather report, which could be as short as ten or fifteen seconds and they have to put a check mark next to the adjectives that they hear. Now that's a really simple task that you can do with beginning students using an authentic recording."

AA: Lida Baker, co-author with Judy Tanka of "Real Talk 1: Authentic English in Context."

RS: There are even some Wordmaster scripts in their textbook, so you know we're authentic!

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com.

RS: And you can find other segments with Lida Baker at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti.

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'Light This Candle': Alan Shepard Is Launched Into Space in 1961

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VOICE ONE:

This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we finish the story of the first American program to send a person into space. It was called Project Mercury.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Alan Shepard in Freedom 7 before launch

The American space agency opened for business October first, nineteen fifty-eight. NASA's most important job was to send an American into space and return him safely to Earth. Project Mercury was the plan for doing this. It would use one of several dependable military rockets to launch a small, one-man spacecraft. The space vehicle would return to Earth and land in the ocean.

Astronauts would be chosen for the program from the best military test pilots who had education in science or engineering.

The idea was simple. But making it happen was not a simple job. Thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians and other workers were needed. And money was needed -- thousands of millions of dollars.

VOICE TWO:

Congress approved the money. NASA organized the program. The McDonnell Company designed and built the spacecraft. The Army and Air Force built the Redstone, Jupiter and Atlas rockets. NASA announced the seven astronauts it had chosen on April nineth, nineteen fifty-nine. They immediately began training for space flight.

No time was wasted. The first test flights began later that year. Those test flights did not carry astronauts. Men would fly the Mercury spacecraft only after it was proved safe.

The final test flight was made at the end of January, nineteen sixty-one. A Mercury spacecraft carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven hundred kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. There were some problems. But the animal survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. ]

VOICE ONE:

Three months later, NASA sent an astronaut into space. He was Navy pilot Alan Shepard. Shepard crawled into his little Mercury spacecraft early on the morning of May fifth. There was almost no room to move inside it. One description said it was like sitting in the driver's seat of a small car, while wearing two heavy raincoats.

Alan Shepard waited in the spacecraft for four hours. The weather caused part of the delay. Clouds would prevent filming of the launch. And some last-minute repairs were made to his radio system. Tired of waiting, he told the ground crew, "Why don't you fellows solve your little problems and light this candle. "

VOICE TWO:

Finally, they did start the rocket. With a roar, it began to rise slowly from the

Shepard is launched into space

launch pad. Its speed increased. Soon, it was out of sight.

Shepard's flight lasted only a few seconds longer than fifteen minutes. But he flew one hundred eighty-seven kilometers high, and four hundred eighty kilometers from the launch pad. He re-entered the atmosphere and slowed the Mercury spacecraft. The first flight ended with a soft splash into the ocean, as planned.

Shepard reported, "Everything is a-okay. " Within minutes, a helicopter lifted him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship. The first manned flight of project Mercury was a complete success.

VOICE ONE:

Radio, television and newspaper reporters made it possible for millions of people to share the excitement of the flight. The United States had decided at the very beginning of its space program that all launches would be open to news reporters. Successes and failures would all be reported to the world. Television and news film showed flight preparations and launch. People could hear -- on radio and television -- the talk between the astronaut and the flight controllers.

VOICE TWO:

Ten weeks later, there was another Mercury launch. Astronaut Gus Grissom repeated Shepard's successful short flight. But there was a serious problem after the landing. Grissom almost drowned when the door of the spacecraft opened too soon.

The spacecraft filled with water and sank. Grissom escaped. He had to swim for a few minutes before helicopters rescued him.

VOICE ONE:

The results of the two short flights made space officials believe the Mercury program was ready for its first orbital flight. Again, an animal would fly first.

A chimpanzee named Enos was launched on a three-orbit flight. The flight tested the worldwide communications system that linked the spacecraft to flight controllers at Cape Canaveral. It also tested the effect of weightlessness on living creatures.

A problem developed during the second orbit. One of the small thruster rockets that turned the spacecraft stopped working. Flight controllers decided to bring it down at the end of the second orbit. The landing was perfect. Enos suffered no bad effects.

VOICE TWO:

Now, everything was ready for an astronaut to make an orbital flight. NASA announced that the astronaut would be John Glenn. He would circle the Earth three times during a five-hour Mercury flight.

The launch was planned for January twenty-seventh, nineteen sixty-two. But it was postponed for almost a month because of weather and mechanical problems. Finally, on February twentieth, John Glenn climbed into his tiny spacecraft on top of the huge Atlas rocket.

After several short delays, the final seconds were counted off.

(SOUND: Countdown)

VOICE ONE:

Five minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the Atlas rocket. John Glenn was in orbit – one hundred sixty kilometers above the Earth. His speed was twenty-eight thousand kilometers an hour. Glenn reported that all systems were "go. " Everything was "a-okay" for an orbital flight.

Glenn's flight plan called for him to spend most of the first orbit getting used to the feeling of being weightless. After about an hour of being beyond the pull of Earth's gravity, Glenn reported he felt fine. He said being weightless was not a problem.

Glenn explained later that at times it helped to be free of gravity. He said he was busy taking pictures when he suddenly had to do something else. So he left the camera floating in the air. It stayed there, as if he had laid it on a table!

VOICE TWO:

Near the end of the first orbit, Glenn reported a problem. One of the small rockets of his automatic control system stopped working. This caused the spacecraft to turn to one side. Glenn solved the problem by turning off the automatic system. He took control of the system to correct the movement.

All of the systems on the Mercury spacecraft sent radio signals to flight controllers. The signals, or telemetry, reported on the condition of the systems.

During the second orbit, one of these signals warned that the heat shield might not be locked firmly to the bottom of the spacecraft. This could be a serious problem. The shield protected the spacecraft from burning up from the extreme heat of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.

Engineers believed the warning signal was wrong and the shield was locked. But they told Glenn not to release rockets connected to the heat shield. The rockets, normally released before returning to Earth, could help keep a loose heat shield in place.

VOICE ONE:

Near the end of his third orbit, Glenn fired other rockets to slow his speed. The spacecraft began to return to Earth. As it re-entered the atmosphere, radio communications stopped. Flight controllers could no longer hear Glenn. Everyone was worried about the heat shield. The radio silence, caused by the heat of re-entry, lasted for seven minutes. Then the controllers heard the astronaut again.

Glenn reported that he was okay. The heat shield had been locked.

Parachutes lowered the Mercury spacecraft to the ocean surface. Glenn remained inside. A navy ship reached it in seventeen minutes, and lifted it aboard. Glenn opened the door and stepped out.

John Glenn got a hero's welcome when he returned to Cape Canaveral. President John Kennedy flew to Florida and presented a special award to the astronaut. Glenn became famous. He later was elected to the United States Senate from the state of Ohio. And in nineteen ninety-eight, at age seventy-seven, he returned to space in an historic flight.

VOICE TWO:

Three more flights were made in Mercury spacecraft. The last one, by astronaut Gordon Cooper, circled the Earth twenty-one times. It lasted thirty-four hours.

Cooper spent much of the time doing medical checks and taking pictures. His work cleared the way for project Gemini.

Gemini was the next step toward President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the nineteen sixties. Project Mercury astronauts made the goal seem possible.

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VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Frank Beardsley. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America.

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A One-Pill Answer to Treating H.I.V.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

The first treatment for H.I.V. in the form of one pill taken once a day is going to market in the United States. A spokesman for the drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb says the new product, called Atripla, has already been shipped to suppliers.

Atripla is the result of some unusual cooperation among drug companies. The government approved the treatment on July twelfth. Food and Drug Administration officials had until October to make a decision. But they acted quickly.

Doctors believe a one-pill-a-day plan will be more successful than current treatments which can involve several pills a day. Patients are less likely to miss treatments. Missed treatments can help the virus gain resistance to drugs.

Atripla combines three medicines widely used to treat the most common form of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. One of the three is Sustiva, made by Bristol-Myers. The other two are Viread and Emtriva, both from Gilead Sciences.

The new tablets are approved for use alone or with other antiretroviral products to treat adults.

Earlier this year, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study of Atripla. Gilead paid for the study. Researchers compared the effectiveness of Atripla to the widely used combination of Sustiva and Combivir, from GlaxoSmithKline.

They reported that Atripla suppressed virus levels in more patients and with fewer side effects. A one-month supply in the United States will cost more than one thousand dollars, the same price as for the separate drugs it contains.

Gilead and Bristol-Myers will jointly market Atripla. AIDS activists praised the cooperation between drug makers as historic. They also called on them to provide the treatment to developing nations.

The Bristol-Myers spokesman says his company and Gilead want to do that. They are currently negotiating with Merck. That company has rights to market the active substance in Sustiva in a number of countries outside the United States.

The spokesman says the new product could be offered as early as September through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The plan provides drugs to fifteen poor countries, mostly in Africa. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a two-pill-a-day H.I.V. treatment for use under the emergency plan.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein.

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Fighting Malaria in Africa From Your Home Computer

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Personal computers can spend a lot of time doing nothing. But scientists keep finding reasons for computers connected to the Internet to stay busy. And maybe even help the world.

A boy suffering from severe malaria in Sudan

Now researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute have developed a program called MalariaControl.net. The idea is to use surplus computing power to test how well a vaccine and other malaria interventions might work in Africa. The findings could help direct the best use of resources.

The World Health Organization estimates that almost one million people each year die from malaria. Most of them are young children in Africa south of the Sahara Desert.

The scientists say their research with mathematical models could take up to forty years on their own computers. Now imagine thousands of computers worldwide, working together and linked to the University of Geneva over the Web. They might be able to do the job in just a few months.

MalariaControl.net is another example of volunteer computing. This is based on the idea that most computers are inactive most of the time. During these times when they are not being used, they can help solve complex scientific or engineering problems.

Volunteers download a program from a Web site. Usually, the software works as a screensaver. Every so often, using the Internet, the program uploads results or downloads more information to be processed.

In nineteen ninety-nine, scientists launched the SETI@home project developed at the University of California, Berkeley. SETI is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The search involves listening by radio telescope for signals from space. Computers process the information collected. The software has been downloaded onto millions of personal computers worldwide.

Now the idea of SETI@home has led to Africa@home. The Web site is africaathome.net. This is a site for volunteer computing projects involving humanitarian issues in Africa.

The first project, MalariaControl.net, is still early in its development. By last week the scientists had reached a target of about two thousand users. They said they would not accept new users for the next few weeks.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. You can find a link to Africa@home and transcripts of our reports at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal.

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Nose and Ears: He Has His Nose In the Air

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(MUSIC)

Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.

A person’s nose is important for breathing and smelling. The nose is also used in many popular expressions.

Some people are able to “lead other people by the nose.” For example, if a wife “leads her husband by the nose,” she makes him do whatever she wants him to do.

Some people are said to be “hard-nosed.” They will not change their opinions or positions on anything. If someone is hard-nosed, chances are he will never “pay through the nose”, or pay too much money, for an object or service.

It is always helpful when people “keep their nose out of other people’s business.” They do not interfere. The opposite of this is someone who “noses around” all the time. This kind of person is interested in other people’s private matters. He is considered “nosey.”

Someone who keeps his “nose to the grindstone” works very hard. This can help a worker “keep his nose clean” or stay out of trouble.

One unusual expression is “that is no skin off my nose.” This means that a situation does not affect or concern me. We also say that sometimes a person “cuts off his nose to spite his face.” That is, he makes a situation worse for himself by doing something foolish because he is angry.

More problems can develop if a person “looks down his nose” at someone or something. The person acts like something is unimportant or worthless. This person might also “turn up his nose” at something that he considers not good enough. This person thinks he is better than everyone else. He has his “nose in the air.”

In school, some students “thumb their nose” at their teacher. They refuse to obey orders or do any work. Maybe these students do not know the correct answers. My mother always told me, if you study hard, the answers should be “right under your nose” or easily seen.

I think we have explained the “nose” expressions. What about ears? Well, I hope you are “all ears”, or very interested in hearing more expressions. We might even “put a bug in your ear,” or give you an idea about something. We also advise you to “keep your ear to the ground.” This means to be interested in what is happening around you and what people are thinking.

If you are a good person, you will “lend an ear” to your friends. You will listen to them when they have a problem they need to talk about. Our last expression is to “play it by ear.” This has two meanings. One is to play a song on a musical instrument by remembering the tune and not by reading the music. “Play it by ear” also means to decide what to do at the last minute instead of making detailed plans.

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This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.

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