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The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller museums in New York City. It lets visitors experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. It was built in eighteen sixty-three. It was one of the first tenements in New York City.

The word “tenement” comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.” A tenement building holds many rooms where different families lived.

The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the eighteen hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived.

Later, many immigrant families improved their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them apartment buildings instead.

History experts say more than half the people in New York City lived in tenements in eighteen sixty-three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one hundred square meters of living space, often divided into three rooms.

The building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of spaces where families lived. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. The apartment had no running water, no bathroom, toilet or shower. There were six places where people left their body wastes in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of disease.

Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the eighteen nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in nineteen-oh-five, and electric power in nineteen twenty-four. Then they refused to make any more improvements. They closed the building in nineteen thirty-five.

In nineteen ninety-eight, the federal government declared the building a protected National Historic Place.

Museum officials researched the history of the building and its twenty apartments. They found more than one thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there. These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, money and pieces of cloth. They also learned the histories of many of the seven thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they spoke with and recorded memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children.

Museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during different time periods in the building’s history. These apartments are what people see when they visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. First we climb several flights of worn stairs. It is a very hot day and we feel the heat in the dark, narrow hallway.

Now we enter the apartment of the Gumpertz family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the eighteen seventies.

On October seventh, eighteen seventy-four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned. He left his wife Nathalie and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making clothing in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school.

The Gumpertz apartment has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her workspace. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing.

The next apartment we visit belonged to the Baldizzi family. They came from Italy and were Catholic. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria and their two children moved to Orchard Street in nineteen twenty-eight. They became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. Every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the start of the Jewish holy day and no work was permitted.

Josephine Baldizzi remembered those long ago days. Here is a recording of her. She tells how she felt each week after when she saw Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning for her to come and turn on the lights:

JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI:

"It made me very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. And I can still see her till today—the vision of her in that window. It has never left my memory."

Now we visit the apartment that belonged to the Rogarshevsky family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street between nineteen-oh-seven and nineteen ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis. We can see some of the things used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in nineteen eighteen.

On the table we see the kinds of foods that family and friends would have eaten after Abraham’s funeral. They include hard-boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death.

Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem as Nathalie Gumpertz. What could she do to support her family and continue to live in the apartment? She got the building owner to let her clean apartments and do other work in exchange for rent.

Now we enter the apartment of the Levine family. They were Jews from Poland. Jennie and Harris Levine moved into the building in the early eighteen nineties. They lived there for more than ten years. During that time, Jennie gave birth to four children. Her husband and his workers produced clothing in the front room.

We see Jennie in the bedroom awaiting the birth of her third child. We also see the clothing shop as it looked after the workers had gone home at the end of the day. We hear stories about the many immigrants who have worked in the clothing industry in New York City.

Still another apartment is an example of living history. We can visit it on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino family in nineteen sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino came to New York from Turkey. They were Sephardic Jews, people whose ancestors had been born in Spain, North Africa or Middle Eastern countries.

An actress who plays thirteen-year-old Victoria Confino welcomes us. She tells about Victoria’s experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song:

VICTORIA CONFINO:

“Oh, it’s a very mixed up language. It’s like a little bit Spanish...we call it Judeo Espagnol...and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew...a lot of languages mixed up all together.”

Officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to use history to explore modern social issues. For example, what kinds of problems do recent immigrants face while trying to build new lives in America?

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum cooperates with other international historic places around the world. These places are part of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience.

They include the District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum in Russia, and Project To Remember in Argentina. Others are the Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Workhouse in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies.

Scientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis. More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease. Most live in developing nations in tropical climates. About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects.

A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can target an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma. This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis.

The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice. They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development – from larva to adult. The study also showed that the compound was active against all three major species of Schistosoma worms that infect humans.

The National Institutes of Health supported the research. Scientists from Illinois State University and the Chemical Genomics Center at N.I.H. reported their findings in the journal Nature Medicine.

Biology professor David Williams led the research. He says the Schistosoma parasite needs oxygen to survive. Oxygen use produces oxygen-free radicals that can destroy an organism. The worm has a protective enzyme. But Professor Williams says the experimental drug disables this enzyme, causing the worm to self-destruct.

Since the nineteen eighties, doctors in more than seventy tropical nations have used one main drug to treat schistosomiasis. Public health experts worry that the worms will become resistant to this drug, praziquantel.

Each year, two hundred eighty thousand people die of schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever. The microscopic worms infect snails, which in turn lay infected eggs. Humans become infected when they enter fresh water where the snails live.

The worms dig through skin to enter the body. They move into blood vessels that supply the intestinal and urinary systems. Then, if worm eggs in human waste enter fresh water, more snails and people become infected.

More studies are needed on the experimental new drug. The scientists say the results in mice were better than all the targets set by the World Health Organization for new schistosomiasis compounds. They hope the drug will be ready for testing in humans in four to five years.

Parsley is an ancient green and a respected addition to many foods. But other times, its job is just to make a mealtime plate look pretty. Poor parsley, valued for its looks, then thrown away.

Yet parsley is a good source of vitamins and other nutrients. The taste is a little strong for some people, but others chew on parsley to freshen their breath.

Curly parsley is the kind that often ends up being used just for appearance. Many gardeners grow curly parsley as a border for flowerbeds.

Flat-leaf parsley is easier to work with for cooking. This kind is often called Italian or French parsley.

Do you know about a third kind of parsley? Hamburg parsley has flat leaves that can be used for the same purposes as other parsley. But Hamburg parsley has a large root which is used as a vegetable -- for example, to add flavor to soups.

Hamburg parsley is popular, not surprisingly, in Germany, home to the city of Hamburg.

Parsley is used in foods such as tabouli, a traditional Lebanese salad, and is often served with lamb, fish and beef dishes. Parsley is an herb if you use just the greens. If the root is used, then parsley is considered a vegetable.

Some gardeners suggest that to get the best tasting parsley, you should plant new seeds every year. You can get parsley to grow faster by pouring warm water over the seeds. Leave the seeds in the water overnight. Then you can grow them in containers indoors or plant them outside.

Charlie Nardozzi is a writer for the National Gardening Association in the United States. He says parsley grows best when temperatures are under twenty-one degrees Celsius. In colder climates, parsley can go into the ground two to three weeks before the last freeze is likely to happen.

Charlie Nardozzi says parsley likes to grow in sunny places or in partial sun. The seeds need rich, moist soil. Plant the seeds about fifteen to twenty-five centimeters apart. Water regularly during the first month. After that, parsley does not need very much water.

Ron Waldrop is a county extension director for the University of Illinois. He says you can harvest parsley by cutting most of the plant, or leave more of the plant in the ground for a second crop.

To dry parsley, tie the plant stems together and hang them upside down in a warm, dark, airy place. The leaves should be dry in a week or two. After that, store them in a tightly closed container.

South Africa has the highest number of H.I.V. cases of any country in the world. An estimated five and a half million people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Fifty-five percent of them are women.

Last May, the cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki approved a five-year plan to guide efforts against AIDS in South Africa. For the plan to succeed, officials agreed that the nation had to deal with poverty, violence and discrimination facing women.

Now, a report from Amnesty International looks at the struggles of poor rural women living with H.I.V. in South Africa. The human rights group says the women face oppression and human rights abuses. And it says other women who feel socially and economically weak are at a higher risk of becoming infected with H.I.V.

Amnesty researcher Mary Rayner says rural women have little control in their relationships with men. Amnesty gathered statements from thirty-seven women in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal provinces. They said that sometimes, when they tried to ask their sexual partners to use protection, they might experience verbal aggression or violence.

The report says many rural women with H.I.V. do not have enough money to travel to health centers for treatment. They might not even have enough money for food. Unemployment is a major problem.

Amnesty International released its report in London last week. Also in London, Scottish singer Annie Lennox promoted her new charity single called "Sing." The aim is to raise money for the Treatment Action Campaign, an H.I.V./AIDS organization in South Africa.

The Continental Congress set a date for the new plan of government to take effect. The first Wednesday in March, seventeen eighty-nine.

In seventeen eighty-nine, the population of the United States was about four million. The thirteen states had been loosely united for a short time, only about ten years. Before that, they were separate colonies of Britain.

Because the colonies were separate, their people developed different ways of life. Their economies and traditions were different. As a result, Americans were fiercely independent. An emergency -- the crisis of the revolution -- brought them together.

Together, they celebrated the Fourth of July, the day America declared its independence from Britain. Together, they fought British troops to make that declaration a political reality. Together, they joined under the Latin phrase 'E Pluribus Unum' -- one out of many.

Yet when the war ended, the soldiers returned to their home states. They still thought of themselves as New Yorkers, or Virginians, or Marylanders. They did not consider themselves a national people.

Americans of seventeen eighty-nine were sharply divided on the need for a national government. Many were afraid the new government would not survive. They feared the anarchy that would result if it failed. Others hoped it would fail. They wanted strong state governments, not a strong central government.

For those who supported the national government, there were good reasons to hope for success. The country had great natural resources. And its people were honest and hard-working.

Also, in seventeen eighty-nine, the American economy was improving after the destruction of the Revolutionary War. Agriculture, trade, and shipbuilding were coming back to life. Roads, bridges, and canals were being built to improve travel and communication.

The country's economy had many problems, however. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the Revolutionary Army. The other was creation of a national money system. Both issues needed quick action.

But before the new government could act, the old government had work to do. It had to decide where the capital city of the new nation would be. It also had to hold elections for president and Congress. First, the question of a capital.

At the time the states ratified the new Constitution, the Continental Congress was meeting in New York City. And that is where it decided to place the new government. Later, the capital would be moved to Philadelphia for a while. Finally, it would be established at Washington, D.C.

Next, the Continental Congress had to decide when the states would choose a president. It agreed on March fourth, seventeen eighty-nine. That was when the new Constitution would go into effect.

The eleven states that ratified the Constitution chose electors to vote for a president. The result was not a surprise. They chose the hero of the Revolutionary War: George Washington. No one opposed the choice.

Washington learned of his election while at his home in Virginia, Mount Vernon. He left for New York and was inaugurated there on April thirtieth.

Members of the new Congress also were elected on March fourth.

Now, for the first time, Americans had something many of them had talked about for years -- a working national government. There was much work to be done. The machinery of government was new, untested. Quick decisions were needed to keep the new nation alive and healthy.

One of the first things the Congress did was to re-open debate on the Constitution itself. Several states had set a condition for approving the document. They said a Bill of Rights must be added to the Constitution, listing the rights of all citizens.

When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights. So some delegates to the convention said a national bill was unnecessary. Others argued that the Constitution would be the highest law of the land, higher than state laws. So a national bill of rights was needed to guarantee the rights of the citizens of the new nation.

Time proved this to be a wise decision. The Bill of Rights gave the Constitution a special strength. Many Americans consider the Bill of Rights to be the heart and spirit of the Constitution.

What is this Bill of Rights that is so important to the citizens of the United States? It is contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

The First Amendment is the basic statement of American freedoms. It protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

The First Amendment guarantees that religion and government will be separate in America. It says Congress will make no law establishing an official religion. Nor will Congress interfere in the peoples' right to worship as they choose. The First Amendment also says Congress will not make laws restricting the peoples' right to gather peacefully and to make demands on the government.

The Second Amendment guarantees the peoples' right to keep weapons as part of an organized militia. The Third Amendment says people may not be forced to let soldiers stay in their homes during peacetime.

The Fourth through the Eighth Amendments all protect the peoples' rights in the criminal justice system.

The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. If police want to search a suspect's house or papers, they must get special permission from a judge. The document from the judge must say exactly what police are looking for. And it must describe the place to be searched.

The Fifth Amendment says no one can be put on trial for a serious crime unless a grand jury has first examined the evidence and agreed that a trial is needed. No one can be put on trial more than once on the same criminal charge. And no one can be forced to give evidence against himself in court.

The Fifth Amendment also says no one can lose their freedom, property, or life except by the rules of law. And the government cannot take people's property for public use without paying them a fair price.

The Sixth Amendment says all persons accused of crimes have the right to a fair and speedy public trial by a jury. This guarantees that people cannot be kept in prison for a long time unless a jury has found them guilty of a crime.

The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the right of accused persons to be defended by a lawyer. It says they must be informed of the nature and cause of the charges against them. And it says they have the right to face and question their accusers.

The Seventh Amendment guarantees a person's right to have a jury decide his legal dispute with another person. The Eighth Amendment bars all cruel and unusual punishments.

The Ninth Amendment provides protection for other rights not stated directly in the Constitution. And the Tenth Amendment says any powers which the Constitution does not give to the national government belong to the states or to the people themselves.

A majority of the states approved the Bill of Rights by the end of seventeen ninety-one. As we have seen, these amendments limited the powers of the national government. As a result, many anti-Federalists ended their opposition. They accepted the new government. Many agreed to help with the job of building the new nation.

President Washington wanted the best men -- Federalist or anti-Federalist -- to be in his administration. The new nation needed strong leadership. George Washington provided it.

Mary Kay started a company in nineteen sixty-three with a five thousand dollar investment. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company worth thousands of millions of dollars.

Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in nineteen eighteen. For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was seventeen years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two. When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children.

Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products. At first, she sold books. Later, she visited peoples’ homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids and equipment helped ease housework.

One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore. Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth.

Mary Kay was successful selling home care products. Her supervisors praised her work. But they never increased her earnings. She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had.

Mary Kay said later that she learned from this experience. It taught her that men did not believe that a woman could succeed in business. She decided to prove them wrong. So she bought the rights to Mister Heath’s skin care products and started her own company. She paid five hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products.

The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in nineteen sixty-three. Mary Kay’s twenty-year-old son Richard was the company’s financial official. The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices. Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products.

The sales representatives were independent workers. They bought products like soaps and skin softening liquids from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals. Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new person’s earnings. That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones.

Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family second and work third. She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time learning how to succeed in work.

Two years later, in nineteen sixty-five, the company was selling almost one million dollars worth of products. Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste. She was already forty-five years old when she started the company. She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older.

Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is one of the largest direct sellers of skin care products in the world. It develops and tests skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails -- many more than it started selling in nineteen sixty-three. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than two billion dollars a year. It has more than one million sales representatives in more than thirty countries around the world. You can find Mary Kay products and sales representatives in Argentina, India, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, and China, to name a few.

Every year since nineteen sixty-five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly conference in Dallas for its sales representatives. The first one took place in one large room. Mary Kay cooked food for two hundred people and served it on paper plates.

As the company grew, so did the conference. Now, more than thirty-five thousand sales representatives and company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference. A special event at the three-day conference is Awards Night. That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the year. Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform.

The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles. In Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota. By nineteen ninety-four, seven thousand cars had been given to sales representatives. The cars are pink because Mary Kay products come in pink containers. Mary Kay liked that color.

Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company’s sales. She said her company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win. She did not want to organize the kind of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win.

So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself. That means every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year.

Competition winners are rewarded well. For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called the Ladder of Success. Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products. Then they earn jewels for the pin as they increase their sales. Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others. The pin of a top sales representative is covered with diamonds.

Mary Kay’s third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in nineteen eighty. She wanted to help find a cure for the disease. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research. Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a non-profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting women. In two thousand one, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop violence against women.

Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards. She was named one of America’s twenty-five most influential women in nineteen eighty-five. She became a member of the National Business Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-six.

Mary Kay Ash wrote three books. The first book, “Mary Kay,” told the story of her life. More than one million copies in several languages have been sold. She described her business ideas in the book “Mary Kay on People Management.” Her third book was released in nineteen ninety-five. It is called “Mary Kay--You Can Have It All.” The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer.

Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke in nineteen ninety-six. She died in November, two thousand one.

Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people. Mary Kay sales representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families.

One example is Valerie Yokie. She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago. She was an official at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children. She became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a small amount of money. She paid less than one hundred dollars for her supplies.

After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping other women become successful Mary Kay representatives. Soon after this, her husband lost his job. Then he developed cancer. Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an extremely successful businesswoman. She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new pink Cadillac every two years.

Valerie Yokie’s story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives. They agree that Mary Kay Ash changed the business world. They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money that balances work and family.

The aim in parkour is to jump, climb or run over and around any wall, staircase, or fence blocking your path. Usually, this is done in a city environment. If you have seen the beginning of the James Bond movie "Casino Royale," then you have seen an excellent example of parkour.

The name comes from the French word parcours, which means route or path. A man who performs parkour is called a traceur. A woman is a traceuse.

A young Frenchman, David Belle, developed parkour in the nineteen nineties. His father’s stories of being a fireman as well as an acrobat influenced him. His childhood friend, Sebastien Foucan, is the actor shown in the “Casino Royale” movie. Foucan is considered to have developed free-running, which is a more artistic and expressive version of parkour.

David Belle traveled to India and says one way he trained was by watching monkeys jump from tree to tree. But for Belle and others, parkour is as much a mental exercise as a physical one. The aim is to become so skillful, it is almost unnecessary to think about the different actions in running through a path full of barriers.

Parkour is not exactly a sport. It was not developed for competition. It is more about learning to control mind and body in difficult situations.

There are many basic movements in parkour. One example is where traceurs swing through the narrow space between two bars while keeping their body level with the ground. This is called the underbar. Other movements are the tic-tac and the kong vault jump.

Skillful traceurs seem to go against the laws of gravity.

The popularity has spread largely because of parkour videos and communities on the Internet. To see David Belle at work, you can search for his name on YouTube -- his last name is spelled B-E-L-L-E. Parkour is P-A-R-K-O-U-R.

And if you search on the Web, you might even find parkour groups performing their skills near you.

For sixteen years, the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C., has been showing movies that raise awareness about environmental issues. This year, the twelve-day festival is showing one hundred fifteen movies from thirty countries. Faith Lapidus has our story.

Flo Stone created the Environmental Film Festival in Washington in nineteen ninety-three. She believed it was important for people to be able to see high-quality films about the environment and discuss them together. She felt the subject of the environment, examined with the artistry of filmmakers, could be an influential source of learning.

People can see these films in embassies, movie theaters and museums around the nation's capital.

Some movies star wild animals. This year, in "Edge of Eden: Living With Grizzlies," Canadian filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner explore the work of bear expert Charlie Russell. For over ten years Mister Russell worked to raise rescued baby bears in a protected area of eastern Russia.

"Edge of Eden" shows him playing with the bears, feeding them and even protecting them from larger wild bears. The movie makes a powerful statement about the need to protect these animals before they disappear from the wild.

In "Animals in Love" French director Laurent Charbonnier looks at the movements, songs and dances that eighty kinds of animals use in order to find a mate.

Some movies explore economic issues. One Kenyan movie examines the lives of people struggling to survive in the Kibera part of Nairobi. About a million people live in poverty in this area.

Another movie, "All in This Tea," looks at the way modern life has changed the traditions of the tea trade in China.

The movie "The Price of Sugar" examines the difficult life of Haitian immigrants working for sugar companies in the Dominican Republic.

And several movies at the festival are old favorites. These include the nineteen thirty-seven film "The River," a history of the Mississippi River by American director Pare Lorentz.

The Environmental Film Festival ends on Saturday, which is also World Water Day. All day around Washington, people can see movies about this most important of natural resources.

The crisis in credit markets claimed Bear Stearns. The eighty-five year old investment bank in New York agreed on Sunday to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase. The price: just two dollars a share, as part of a rescue plan organized by the government.

Bear stock had traded at seventy dollars last week, and one hundred seventy last year.

The fall of Bear Stearns developed quickly. Banks were no longer willing to lend money to the company. The problems largely involved short-term loans, called repo borrowings, that are secured by assets like securities.

The problem was that lenders no longer knew the value of the assets that secured Bear's debt. Bear Stearns invested heavily in securities based on risky home loans.

Unable to get new loans, the bank suffered a liquidity crisis. By last Thursday, investors started withdrawing their money. This put more pressure on the bank to sell assets that no one wanted to buy. The next day, Bear informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would fail if nothing was done.

Officials from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve wanted a deal to save Bear Stearns before markets opened this week in Asia. They worried that if Bear failed, it could lead to even more problems.

The central bank agreed to lend J.P. Morgan up to thirty billion dollars to finance the purchase of Bear's less-liquid assets. The loan will be secured with those assets, and the Fed will take responsibility for them.

To increase liquidity in the market, the Fed also agreed to lend money to securities dealers, including investment banks. The central bank has not done this since the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties.

Last week the Fed offered banks up to two hundred billion dollars in loans. And twice this week it cut its discount rate for direct loans to banks. The Fed also lowered the target rate for overnight loans between banks for the sixth time in six months. It cut the federal funds rate by seventy-five basis points, to two and a quarter percent.

Shareholders in Bear Stearns will vote on the takeover by J.P. Morgan. Some are expected to oppose the low-cost deal. Bear employees own about one-third of the stock in their company.

There was some good news this week for financial stocks. Three major investment banks reported earnings that were better than expected for the three months ending February twenty-ninth.

In the United States, federal law requires public schools to provide special education services to children with any disability. Specialists commonly provide these services while the children attend the same schools, and often the same classes, as other students.

But today we look at three private schools that serve only students with learning disabilities.

The Hillside School in Pennsylvania accepts up to one hundred twenty-eight children. The students are ages five to thirteen. They have disorders with language, writing or working with numbers. They may also have attention deficit disorders.

Each class has no more than eight students. Hillside administrators say the main goal is to prepare students to learn effectively in a regular school. Teachers and specialists develop individual learning plans for the students, which is something a public school may also do.

Development director Kathy Greene says most students remain at Hillside for about three years before leaving for a regular classroom setting.

"Serving intelligent students with learning differences" is the slogan of the Shelton School in Texas. Its Web site says the school has about eight hundred fifty students in all twelve grades, and one teacher for every six students.

The Shelton School also says its goal is to prepare students to return to regular classes, although some do finish high school there. The Web site says Shelton graduated forty-four students in two thousand six. And it says they received acceptances from a total of seventy-seven colleges and universities.

Landmark College in Vermont is a college for students with learning difficulties. It offers a two-year program that prepares students to continue their studies at a four-year school.

Each student has an adviser and an individual learning program. Landmark has international students this year from South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

All three schools offer financial aid. Hillside costs about seventeen thousand dollars a year. Shelton costs between ten and twenty-one thousand, depending on the grade level. Shelton and Hillside students live at home. Landmark College costs about fifty thousand dollars a year, which includes housing.

Meningitis is an infection of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Both bacteria and viruses can cause it. Viral meningitis is the more common form, but bacterial meningitis is more dangerous.

Each year, almost four hundred thousand children under the age of five die from meningitis caused by a bacterium known as Hib. Millions more suffer hearing loss, brain damage or other disabilities as a result of the disease.

Hib, or Haemophilus influenzae type b, requires intensive treatment with antibiotics. But most of the children are poor and live in developing countries.

Hib vaccines for babies have been available since nineteen ninety-one. But for most of that time, their use was limited to industrial countries, mostly because of cost.

Uganda began widespread child vaccinations against Hib in two thousand two. Now, a study has found that in areas where cases were counted, the disease rate fell by eighty-five percent in the first four years. Then it fell to zero in two thousand six.

Scientists from the government, the World Health Organization, a French agency and others have been studying the campaign. They estimate that the program now prevents thirty thousand severe infections and five thousand deaths in children under five each year. Their report is to be published next month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

The GAVI Alliance paid for the vaccines. GAVI was formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. This alliance of private and public interests was created in two thousand to widen the availability of immunizations.

With GAVI support, Uganda provided sixteen and a half million doses of Hib vaccine nationwide from two thousand two to two thousand six.

Other studies have found similar results with Hib vaccines in countries including Bangladesh, Kenya and Gambia. But the executive secretary of the alliance, Julian Lob-Levyt, says this is the first time the group has seen rates drop to zero.

Uganda chose to use an injection that contains vaccines against five diseases: Hib as well as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and hepatitis B.

In November, the GAVI board approved additional financing to pay for Hib vaccine in a total of forty-four countries.

Today we explore ways in which local governments around the world are working to protect the environment.

These “green cities” are working to reduce energy use and pollution in new and creative ways. Such efforts by city governments not only help reverse the effects of climate change. They also help governments save large amounts of money on energy costs. And, cities that are leaders in this green movement set a good example to their citizens about the importance of environmental issues.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement aimed at reducing the release of harmful gases that are believed to cause climate change. The United States is not part of the agreement. But since two thousand five, over eight hundred American mayors across the country have agreed to sign their own version of the protocol. It is called the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Local leaders have agreed to follow the suggestions of the Kyoto Protocol in their communities. These mayors have come together to show how acting locally can help solve world problems and protect the environment. "Going green" generally includes saving energy and water, using natural and renewable materials and re-using materials. Here are some interesting ways in which several American communities are "going green."

Eight years ago, officials in Chicago, Illinois, decided to replace the black tar roof on the city government building with a planted garden. The aim was to reduce energy costs, improve air quality and control the amount of rainwater entering the city’s waste system. Green roofs also help reduce a problem called urban heat islands. During hot weather, the building's tar roof could reach temperatures of up to seventy-six degrees Celsius. With the garden, the temperature of the roof area was reduced by at least thirty degrees Celsius. Workers planted over one hundred fifty kinds of plants that could survive severe weather. Now, the area is cooler, the building requires less energy to keep cool, and the roof looks nice. Chicago also offers money to help people pay for building their own green roof systems.

The city of Boston, Massachusetts has started developing a plan for a program to make compost fertilizer out of dead leaves, plants and food waste. The gases released from the plant waste would provide the electrical power needed to operate the compost center. After being processed in this environmentally safe center, the compost material could be sold locally. This plan would reduce pollution made by the current waste center and could produce enough electricity to power up to one thousand five hundred homes.

New York City is experimenting with using waves in the East River to create energy. And, in Oakland California, you can ride on one of several public hydrogen-powered buses. These buses release zero pollution into the air. However, they cost five times more than common buses.

Cost is also a major issue in creating "green" buildings and systems. These building materials usually cost more money than normal building materials. But, homeowners are increasingly willing to pay more money to have lower energy costs in the future. And, builders are increasingly offering green building methods as they become more and more important to buyers. Investors are also betting on this interest. The National Venture Capital Association says people invested more than two billion dollars in clean technologies last year.

Popular Science magazine recently published a list of the fifty “greenest” cities in the United States. Researchers combined information from United States population records as well as the Green Guide made by the National Geographic Society.

The list rates cities by looking at their renewable energy sources, transportation programs, recycling efforts and “Green Living” grade. The magazine defined Green Living as the number of buildings approved by the United States Green Building Council. This nonprofit organization has a rating system for making environmentally safe buildings. It is called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. According to this list, the greenest city in the United States is Portland, Oregon. San Francisco, California came in second on the list, while Boston, Massachusetts was third. Fourth and fifth were Oakland, California and Eugene, Oregon.

Popular Science researchers used LEED’s rating system to define how green a building is. But there are other rating systems as well. For example, the National Association of Homebuilders has its own set of rules. And, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy joined to create the Energy Star program. Energy Star gives ratings to devices for the home based on how they use energy. And the program helps homeowners learn how to make changes to their houses in a way that uses energy effectively. Energy Star estimates that in two thousand six it helped Americans avoid the release of harmful gases equal to what twenty-five million cars would produce. And, it says Americans saved fourteen billion dollars on energy costs.

One small town is not yet on any list of the greenest cities. But it may soon be as green as its name. In May of last year, a tornado windstorm destroyed most of the town of Greensburg, Kansas. The city decided to rebuild in a better way, using green methods.

Greensburg officials have agreed that all public building projects will follow LEED top-level requirements. The actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the Discovery Channel television station are working together to make a show about Greensburg. The program will show how the people in Greensburg are working to rebuild their town into a green community.

Cities around the world are also taking action to protect the environment. For example, the mayor of London, England has made environmental planning an important part of his work. The city has created a Climate Change Action Plan to help cut pollution levels. London has also started a Green Grid program in the eastern part of the city. Its aim is to create and protect planted areas in which people can enjoy the outdoors.

In the Netherlands, a Dutch company has built a system that uses cold lake water to cool people’s homes in one area of Amsterdam. This use of a renewable natural resource helps reduce pollution and energy costs.

About five years ago, officials in Thane, India decided to reduce its dependency on power from coal. This city, near Mumbai, often experiences lack of power because of the large numbers of people using electricity. Officials decided to save energy by putting water heaters powered by the sun on top of the city's main hospital. The hospital saved thousands of dollars in energy costs each year. Officials then began building solar powered water heaters around the city. Thane later started requiring solar water heaters for all new buildings. And, the city offers a reduced property tax rate for people who place these water heaters in their homes.

China has announced plans to create an eco-city called Dongtan. The company designing the city says it will produce its energy from the wind, sun and reused waste. The aim is for the city to be an example to the rest of China. China is also working to make the Olympic games this year in Beijing as green as possible. For example, the Olympic Village where athletes and officials live during the games uses solar power technologies and other renewable energy sources.

The United Arab Emirates and the environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature have taken green building a step further with the Masdar City project. Its aim is to be the greenest city in the world. The city will meet environmental rules set by the WWF One Living Planet and the company BioRegional. The city is expected to produce no waste, no carbon pollution and contain no cars. The city will create renewable energy from the wind, sun and other technologies. And, buildings will be made using only recycled materials. Masdar City is expected to be finished by two thousand sixteen.

The United Arab Emirates has given the company Masdar Initiative fifteen billion dollars to develop future energy sources. The country aims to become a world leader in renewable energy technologies. Experts say developments like this may lead to a greener future for all cities in the world.

When is a plant a weed? When its undesirable qualities outweigh its good points, say experts at Penn State University.

Weeds can take control of productive land. Crops generally produce several hundred seeds per plant. But each weed plant can produce tens or even hundreds of thousands of seeds. And some buried seeds can survive up to forty years, or even longer.

Eradicating weeds means you have to remove all the seeds and roots so the plants will not grow back. But birds or the wind can reintroduce them to the land.

A more common way to deal with weeds is to control them enough so that the land can be used for planting. Experts advise using two or more control methods.

Chemical weed killers or natural treatments like corn gluten can suppress weed growth. Dense planting of a crop can also act as a natural control. Bill Curran is a professor of weed science at Penn State, in University Park, Pennsylvania. He says dense planting is one of the most common methods for suppressing weeds.

He says a dense, competitive crop that quickly shades the soil will help suppress many weeds. The seeds need light to grow, so blocking the sun will reduce weed growth.

Other controls include turning over the soil, pulling the weeds by hand or covering them with mulch made from wood, garden waste or other material. Mulch is widely used, but even mulch has its limits. Natural resource specialists in the Queensland government in Australia note that weeds can be transported in mulch. This is also true of soil, grain, hay and animals.

Yet animals like sheep or goats can provide a biological control by eating weeds. Insects and other organisms can also act as biological controls.

Preventing the spread of weeds is an important part of weed management. Farm vehicles should be kept out of areas with weeds. If that is not possible, then clean off the equipment and your shoes when leaving.

People in Queensland are advised to take weeds and garden waste to a waste center or burn them, bury them deeply or make them into mulch.

Professor Curran says composting weeds is another way to make use of them. The process of making organically rich compost produces heat. This will kill many, though not all, weed seeds. The same is true of seeds that pass through farm animals that graze on weeds.

Broken rubber bands and flat tires requiring replacement could soon be a thing of the past.

French researchers have developed a new kind of rubber that can repair itself when broken. The new rubber is made from widely available materials including vegetable oil and a common industrial chemical. All the materials are considered safe to the environment and can be easily reused.

The best part is the new rubber can be repaired and used again and again without losing its strength or ability to stretch. When cut, the rubber can be made new again, simply by pressing the two broken ends back together.

The product can be repaired at room temperature, around twenty degrees Celsius. Other self-healing materials require higher temperatures for repair.

Traditionally, rubber substances are made from huge molecules connected by strong chemical links, or bonds. The new rubber is made of smaller molecules. The molecules are linked together using hydrogen bonds. When connected in this way, the molecules act like one long molecule, forming what is called supramolecular networks. When the rubber is cut or breaks, the molecules attempt to connect with whatever molecule is near them. When pressed together, the molecules are able to repair themselves at the molecular level, making the repaired rubber like new.

However, time is an important element in the process. If the broken ends are not brought together quickly, a repair is not possible. This is because molecules will form bonds with molecules on their own side. The inventors say the surfaces of the rubber can be repaired within a week of being separated.

The rubber is the creation of scientists at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Education Institution in Paris. The organization is part of France's National Center for Scientific Research. The new material is described in greater detail in the research publication Nature.

The possibilities for the new rubber seem endless. It could lead to clothing that fixes its own tears and children's toys that can be repaired. It also could lead to inflatable products that do not leak, at least not for long. A chemical company, Arkema, is already working on using the new rubber in its products. Products made with the rubber could be available within one or two years.

Volunteers across the United States have begun searching for clues about rising temperatures on Earth. A nationwide study is seeking volunteers to look for changes in flowers and flowering plants. They are being asked to keep records of their observations in a database on the Internet. Study organizers say the information will give scientists a better understanding of climate change.

The study, called Project Budburst, is to continue all year. This will permit the observation of all plants in different parts of the country. Plant lovers, students and other people in every state are welcome to take part.

The goal of the study is to help people of all ages understand the changing link between climate, seasons and plants. It also gives them a way to share their findings with others through the Internet.

The University Corporation of Atmospheric Research is supervising Project Budburst. The group says thousands of people in twenty-six states recorded their observations during the project’s first launch last year. Scientists received information about hundreds of different kinds of plants. Volunteers provided details about the appearance of their plant’s first bursts of growth for the season.

This is how Project BudBurst works. Each volunteer agrees to watch one or more plants, usually a flower, plant or tree. Volunteers can get help from the project’s Web site. It suggests more than sixty trees and flowers with information about each of them. Volunteers can also add their own choices.

Next, they begin examining their plants at least one week before the usual time when the new flower, or bud, bursts and leaves begin to form. This is known as budburst. Volunteers continue to observe their plant or flower for events following budburst. They look for the first leaf, first flower and later, the spreading of seeds. When volunteers record their findings on the Web site, they can see maps of other results across the United States.

Sandra Henderson is project coordinator for Project BudBurst. She says climate change may be affecting our communities in ways that we do not notice.

Many different kinds of plants and animals are affected by climate change. Rising temperatures cause some plants to extend their growing periods. Many insects reproduce and develop because of increasing sunlight instead of temperature. This can cause a difference between the behavior of insects like bees and flowers that open much earlier than the insects expect. This problem has already been reported across many parts of the world.

The World Health Organization is urging countries to follow six policies to prevent millions of deaths linked to tobacco use. The six policies are known as MPOWER, spelled M-P-O-W-E-R.

The letter M means monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. The P is for protecting people by establishing smoke-free areas. O is for offering services to help people stop smoking. The letter W means warning people about the dangers of tobacco. E is for enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and other forms of marketing. And R is for raising taxes on tobacco.

A World Health Organization report says raising taxes is the single most effective way to reduce tobacco use. A study found that governments now collect an average of five hundred times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on control efforts.

The report says tobacco now causes more than five million deaths a year. It predicts this number will rise to more than eight million by the year two thousand thirty. By the end of the century, it says, tobacco could kill one billion people -- ten times as many as in the twentieth century.

The large majority of these deaths will take place in developing countries. More than twenty-five percent of all smokers in the world are Chinese. India, Indonesia, Russia and the United States, in that order, follow China in tobacco use.

The W.H.O. found that only five percent of all people live in countries with protections like national legislation on smoke-free areas or bans on tobacco marketing. Forty percent of countries still permit smoking in hospitals and schools.

An international treaty on tobacco control came into force in two thousand five.

Tobacco companies face increasingly restrictive marketplaces in many wealthier countries. The industry is now aiming at the developing world, especially young women. The report says large numbers of people do not yet know the dangers of smoking.

W.H.O. Director General Margaret Chan notes that tobacco hurts economies in two ways. One is through reduced productivity among workers who get lung cancer or other diseases linked to tobacco use. The other way is through high health care costs for treating those diseases.

The W.H.O. report was released in New York City. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has worked hard to restrict smoking in America's largest city. His aid group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helped pay for the study.

In seventeen eighty-seven, a group of delegates gathered for a convention in Philadelphia. Their plan was to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. Those articles created a weak union of the thirteen states.

Instead of rewriting the articles, however, they spent that summer writing a completely new plan of government. On September seventeenth, after four months of often bitter debate, the delegates finally signed the new document. Now, they had to get at least nine of the thirteen states to approve it.

Delegates to the Philadelphia convention had met in secret. They wanted to be able to debate proposals, and change their minds, without worrying about public reaction. Now, they were free to speak openly. Each had a copy of the new Constitution.

Newspapers also got copies. They printed every word. Public reaction was great indeed. Arguments 'for' and 'against' were the same as those voiced by delegates to the convention:

The Constitution would save the United States! The Constitution would create a dictator!

The leaders who supported the new Constitution understood quickly that to win ratification, they must speak out. So, just a few weeks after the document was signed, they began writing statements supporting the proposed Constitution.

Their statements appeared first in newspapers in New York. They were called the Federalist Papers. They were printed under the name of 'Publius'. But they were really written by three men: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

Years later, historians said the Federalist Papers were the greatest explanation of the Constitution ever written. But in seventeen eighty-seven, they had little effect on public opinion.

The debate over the Constitution divided Americans into two groups. Those who supported it were known as Federalists. Those who opposed it were known as anti-Federalists.

The anti-Federalists were not anti-American. They were important leaders who loved their country. They were governors, heroes of the Revolutionary War, and even a future president. Yet they distrusted the idea of a strong central government.

Give too much power to the president, the Congress and the courts, they said, and citizens would no longer be free. They would lose the liberties gained in the war for independence from Britain.

One anti-Federalist was Patrick Henry of Virginia. James Madison called him the most dangerous enemy of the Constitution.

Patrick Henry and other anti-Federalists tried to create distrust and fear about the new plan of government. Farmers against city people. North against South. Small states against big states.

An anti-Federalist newspaper in Philadelphia carried this commentary: "Citizens! You are lucky to live in Pennsylvania, where we have the best government in the world. Do not let this government be destroyed by the new Constitution. Do not let a few men -- men with great names -- seize control of your lives."

One Federalist noted that it was easier to frighten the people than to teach them.

There were both Federalists and anti-Federalists in the Continental Congress. The Congress had few powers. But it was the only central government the thirteen states had at that time. It met in New York City.

The convention in Philadelphia had sent the Continental Congress a copy of the new Constitution. Within eight days, the Congress agreed that each state should organize a convention to discuss ratification. One by one, the states held their conventions.

Delaware was the first state to ratify, early in December, seventeen eighty-seven. All the delegates voted to approve it. Pennsylvania was the next to ratify, also in December.

New Jersey ratified the Constitution in December, followed by Georgia and Connecticut in January. That made five states. The Federalists needed just four more to win ratification.

Massachusetts voted in early February. Delegates to the state convention wanted the Constitution amended to include guarantees to protect citizens' rights. They agreed to ratify if these guarantees were added later.

Maryland ratified the Constitution at the end of April. There, a number of delegates included a letter of protest with their vote. They said if the proposed plan of government were not amended, the liberty and happiness of the people would be threatened.

South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify, at the end of May. Just one more state and the new Constitution would become the law of the land. All eyes turned to Virginia.

Virginia was the biggest of the thirteen states. At that time, its western border stretched all the way to the Mississippi River. One-fifth of all the people in America lived in Virginia. The men who attended the ratifying convention were among the most famous names in the nation: James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe, Edmund Randolph and John Marshall.

Thomas Jefferson was still in Paris, serving as America's representative to France. But others kept him informed of everything that happened at home. Jefferson wrote back that he liked most of the Constitution. But, he said, I do not like the fact that it does not contain a declaration of the rights of citizens.

The most famous Virginian, George Washington, stayed at his farm, Mount Vernon. All during the month of June, however, riders brought him messages from the convention and carried messages back.

For three weeks, the Virginia delegates argued about the Constitution. By the end of June, they were ready to vote. Patrick Henry, the outspoken anti-Federalist, asked to make a last statement.

"If this convention approves the Constitution," Henry said, "I will feel that I fought for good reasons…and lost the fight. If this happens, I will wait and hope. I will hope that the spirit of the American Revolution is not lost. I will hope that this new plan of government is changed to protect the safety, the liberty, and the happiness of the American people."

Then the convention voted. Virginia approved the Constitution. However, like Massachusetts, it added that the document must include a declaration of rights for the nation's people.

Federalists in Virginia were proud. They thought their state was the ninth to ratify, the one that made the Constitution the law of the land. But they soon learned that New Hampshire had ratified a few days earlier. Virginia was number ten. That left three states: North Carolina, Rhode Island, and New York.

In a way, New York was the most important of all. If New York refused to join the union under the Constitution, it would be almost impossible for a central government to rule the nation. The twelve other states would be divided in two, geographically separated by New York state.

The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton. They used their right to filibuster -- to make many long speeches -- to delay the vote. They wanted to wait to hear what Virginia would do. Early in July, they got the news. But New York's anti-Federalists kept up the fight for three more weeks.

It was not until the end of July that New York finally ratified the Constitution. The vote was extremely close: thirty to twenty-seven. Like Massachusetts and Virginia, New York demanded a declaration of rights.

The long struggle to give the United States a strong central government was over. It took four months to write a new Constitution. It took ten months to ratify it.

The Continental Congress declared that the Constitution would become effective the first Wednesday in March, seventeen eighty-nine. The last two states -- North Carolina and Rhode Island -- did not ratify it until many months after that date.

Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania, who had signed the Declaration of Independence, wrote down eight words when he heard that the Constitution had been ratified. "It is done," he said, "we have become a nation."

Our story begins on the evening of Wednesday, September seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two.

The Civil War between the Union North and Confederate South is in its second year. The first major battle on Northern territory has just been fought that day a hundred kilometers from Washington. Union troops defeated a rebel invasion in the Battle of Antietam in the state of Maryland.

In all, more than twenty thousand soldiers were killed or wounded. September seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two, becomes the single bloodiest day in American military history.

President Abraham Lincoln is fighting to keep the Southern states of the Confederacy from leaving the Union. But from his office in the White House, he must also attend to his other duties as president of the United States.

In summertime, which can get very hot in Washington, President Lincoln used a country house. It was about five kilometers from the White House. Each morning and evening, Lincoln rode between the two houses on horseback, unguarded.

Buildings would give way to farmland as he rode north out of the city. In about thirty minutes, he would arrive at the grounds of the Soldiers' Home.

Just inside the gate was a large house used by the president and his family. This house was on much higher ground than the White House, so the wind kept it cooler. It was also quiet -- a place to think.

On this day we imagine Lincoln climbing the stairs to his study on the second floor. He places his tall black hat on his desk and opens a large window. He feels cooler already. He lights two lamps and sits down at the desk.

An important document that he has been writing, and rewriting, waits for him. He began working on it soon after he became president in eighteen sixty-one.

Lincoln has been thinking long and hard to develop his ideas and capture them in words. What he is writing sounds like it was written by a lawyer. He was, after all, a lawyer in Illinois before he became president. But this is different. It involves the war, the ownership of human beings and the future of the divided nation.

He knows that some people will support it, some will reject it and some will say it changes nothing. It will free the slaves, but only in areas where Lincoln has no power.

Slavery was legal in the Confederate States of America -- the South. But it was also legal in several neighboring states that remained loyal to the Union.

Many Americans wanted Lincoln to free all the slaves. Lincoln opposed slavery. But he needed the continued loyalty of those border states, like Maryland and Kentucky, or risk losing the Civil War.

The sixteenth president looks again at what he has written. Lincoln feels that what he is doing will give the war effort new meaning. He feels that in time it will lead to the end of slavery in the United States.

On this day, September seventeenth, he has finished his second draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Soon he will share it with his cabinet.

Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary version five days later, on September twenty-second, eighteen sixty-two. It declared that slaves would be free anywhere that was still in rebellion on January first, eighteen sixty-three.

The final version of the Emancipation Proclamation came on January first, declaring: " ... all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free ... "

The document would become one of the most important in American history. The Emancipation Proclamation is in the National Archives in Washington, and it can be seen online at archives.gov.

Lincoln was right that it would not be very popular. But he was also right that it would be the first step toward ending slavery in the United States.

The proclamation also welcomed freed slaves to serve in the Union Army and Navy. By the end of the war, more than two hundred thousand blacks had joined the armed services.

The Civil War lasted from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five. Troops were stationed at the Soldiers' Home to protect President Lincoln during the war. At first he did not welcome them. He did not think he needed their protection. But he began to enjoy talking to them. In fact, much of what historians know about the president's time at the house is from stories told by those soldiers.

One soldier told of guarding the president's house on a day when Lincoln was sitting on the porch with his young son Tad. They were playing a game of checkers. The president asked the solder to put down his rifle and join them.

The young soldier was confused. He was supposed to guard the president, not play a game. But the president was also commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy. The soldier decided he could not refuse the request. He spent the afternoon playing checkers with the president.

Not far from the house was a military hospital. The president would sometimes watch the wagons arriving with soldiers wounded in the war. He would sometimes talk with the soldiers. The man with the long, sad face wanted to hear news about the battles they had been fighting. He said it helped him understand their experiences.

Today the house at the Soldiers' Home is known as President Lincoln's Cottage. But Lincoln was not the first president to use it. That was James Buchanan, the president just before him. Later, presidents Rutherford Hayes and Chester Arthur also used it.

A Washington banker named George Washington Riggs built the house in eighteen forty-two. In eighteen fifty-one, he sold the house and the land around it to the federal government.

The government later expanded the house and used the land to build the Soldiers' Home for veterans. Today it is called the Armed Forces Retirement Home. More than one thousand retired service members live there.

The location of President Lincoln's Cottage has not changed since Lincoln's day. But the city of Washington has. The house is now within the city limits.

Historians have compared it to the modern presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland. They call it a kind of nineteenth century Camp David.

The thirty-four room house opened to the public in February of two thousand eight after fifteen million dollars in work. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has restored the building so it looks as it did when Lincoln and his family lived there.

For example, workers removed more than twenty layers of paint from one room. The paint hid the wooden walls of what was Lincoln's library. Visitors can see lines left by bookshelves on the walls.

Guides tell visitors that Lincoln lived at the house for one-fourth of his time as president. He and his family would go to the house in June or early July and stay until early November. They did this in eighteen sixty-two, sixty-three and sixty-four.

Records show that one year, White House workers moved nineteen wagonloads of belongings to the house. These included toys, clothing and furniture.

One night in eighteen sixty-four, President Lincoln survived an assassination attempt. He was alone, returning on horseback from Washington. Someone shot at him. It happened near the house. His tall hat flew off and soldiers found it on the ground with a bullet hole through it. He was not injured.

After that, the War Department increased his protection. But it was not enough to save his life.

Records show that he visited his country house for the last time on April thirteenth, eighteen sixty-five. The next day, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the defeated Confederacy, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington.

Breathing smoke from cooking stoves or open fires is a common cause of lung infections in developing countries. Indoor air pollution is blamed for an estimated four thousand deaths every day, mostly women and children.

A nonprofit group based in the American state of Colorado is working to save lives. Researchers at Envirofit International have developed a clean-burning cook stove that uses less fuel and reduces smoke.

They say it cuts the smoke and dangerous gases by up to eighty percent compared to open fires or simple traditional stoves. The cook stove was designed to produce the greatest amount of heat in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of fuel. It can burn wood, animal waste or crop waste.

The Shell Foundation has formed a partnership with Envirofit to market the cook stoves. The British charity, established by the Shell Group in the year two thousand, has invested ten million dollars in a pilot project for India.

Martha Kohlhagen at Envirofit tells us that as many as ten million stoves will be sent to southern India by the end of this year. She says the stoves are being manufactured in China and will begin arriving in May. The stoves are designed to have a lifetime of up to three years at a cost of about fifteen dollars.

After India, the plan is to market them to China and Brazil, and to other countries around the world. Envirofit expects twenty-five million dollars from the Shell Foundation and other donors over the next five years to support its efforts.

Nongovernmental organizations and local stores, in some cases, will sell the stoves in villages. The price in different countries will be based on demand and local economic conditions.

Martha Kohlhagen says Envirofit will also work with local micro lending organizations to help support the sale of the stoves.

Envirofit says it will use any future profits from the stoves for further research and development. The group wants to develop combination technology, to be able use energy from the cook stove to provide things like heat or light.

Two students at Colorado State University, Tim Bauer and Nathan Lorenz, started Envirofit International in two thousand three. The group has ties to the university. Envirofit developed from research work in the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State.

At twenty-five, Hemingway was living in Paris. He was a famous writer. But the end of his first marriage made him want to leave the place where he had first become famous.

Years later he said: "The city was never to be the same again. When I returned to it, I found it had changed as I had changed. Paris was never the same as when I was poor and very happy. "

Hemingway and his new wife returned to the United States in nineteen twenty-eight. They settled in Key West, an island with a fishing port near the southern coast of Florida.

Before leaving Paris, Hemingway sent a collection of his stories to New York to be published. The book of stories, called "Men Without Women," was published soon after Hemingway arrived in Key West.

One of the stories was called "The Killers." In it, Hemingway used a discussion between two men to create a feeling of tension and coming violence. This was a new method of telling a story.

STORYTELLER:

Nick opened the door and went into the room. Ole Andreson was lying on the bed with all his clothes on. He had been a heavyweight prizefighter and he was too long for the bed. He lay with his head on two pillows. He did not look at Nick.

"What was it?" he asked.

"I was up at Henry's," Nick said, "and two fellows came in and tied me up and the cook, and they said they were going to kill you. "

It sounded silly when he said it. Ole Andreson said nothing.

"They put us out in the kitchen," Nick went on. "They were going to shoot you when you came in to supper. "

Ole Andreson looked at the wall and did not say anything.

"George thought I ought to come and tell you about it. "

"There isn't anything I can do about it," Ole Andreson said.

Any new book by Hemingway was an important event for readers. But stories like "The Killers" shocked many people. Some thought there was too much violence in his stories. Others said he only wrote about gunmen, soldiers, fighters and drinkers.

This kind of criticism made Hemingway angry. He felt that writers should not be judged by those who could not write a story.

Hemingway was happy in Key West. In the morning he wrote, in the afternoon he fished, and at night he went to a public house and drank. One old fisherman said: "Hemingway was a man who talked slowly and very carefully. He asked a lot of questions. And he always wanted to get his information exactly right. "

Hemingway and his wife Pauline had a child in Key West. Soon afterward he heard that his father had killed himself. Hemingway was shocked. He said: "My father taught me so much. He was the only one I really cared about. "

When Hemingway returned to work there was a sadness about his writing that was not there before.

His new book told about an American soldier who served with the Italian army during World War One. He meets an English nurse and they fall in love. They flee from the army, but she dies during childbirth. Some of the events are taken from Hemingway's service in Italy. The book is called "A Farewell to Arms."

Part of the book talks about the defeat of the Italian army at a place called Caporetto.

"At noon we were stuck in a muddy road about as nearly as we could figure, ten kilometres from Udine. The rain had stopped during the forenoon and three times we had heard planes coming, seen them pass overhead, watched them go far to the left and heard them bombing on the main highroad. . . .

"Later we were on a road that led to a river. There was a long line of abandoned trucks and carts on a road leading up to a bridge. No one was in sight. The river was high and the bridge had been blown up in the center; the stone arch was fallen into the river and the brown water was going over it. We went up the bank looking for a place to cross. . . . We did not see any troops; only abandoned trucks and stores. Along the river bank was nothing and no one but the wet brush and muddy ground. "

"A Farewell to Arms" was very successful. It earned Hemingway a great deal of money. And it permitted him to travel. One place he visited was Spain, a country that he loved. He said: "I want to paint with words all the sights and sounds and smells of Spain. And if I can write any of it down truly, then it will represent all of Spain."

A book called "Death in the Afternoon" was the result. It describes the Spanish tradition of bull fighting. Hemingway believed that bull fighting was an art, just as much as writing was an art. And he believed it was a true test of a man's bravery, something that always concerned him.

Hemingway also traveled to Africa. He had been asked to write a series of reports about African hunting. He said: "Hunting in Africa is the kind of hunting I like. No riding in cars, just simple walking and feeling the grass under my feet. "

The trip to Africa resulted in a book called "The Green Hills of Africa" and a number of stories. One story is among Hemingway's best. He said a writer saves some stories to write when he knows enough to write them well.

The story is called "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." It tells of Hemingway's fears about himself. It is about a writer who betrays his art for money and is unable to remain true to himself.

In nineteen thirty-six, the Civil War in Spain gave him a chance to return to Spain and test his bravery again. He agreed to write about the war for an American news organization.

It was a dangerous job. One day, Hemingway and two other reporters were driving a car near a battlefield. The car carried two white flags. But rebel gunners thought the car was carrying enemy officers. Hemingway was almost killed. He said: "Shells are all the same. If they do not hit you, there is no story. If they do hit you, then you do not have to write it. "

The trip to Spain resulted in two works, a play called "The Fifth Column" and the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The novel tells the story of an American who has chosen to fight against the fascists. He realizes that there are lies and injustice on his side, as well as the other. But he sees no hope except the victory of his side. During the fighting, he escapes his fear of death and of being alone. He finds that "he can live as full a life in seventy hours as in seventy years. "

The book was a great success. Hemingway enjoyed being famous. His second marriage was ending. He divorced Pauline and married reporter Martha Gellhorn. He had met Martha while they were working in Spain. They decided to live in Cuba, near the city of Havana. Their house looked out over the Caribbean Sea.

But this marriage did not last long. Hemingway was changing. He began to feel that whatever he said was right. Martha went on long trips to be away from him. He drank heavily to forget his loneliness.

When America entered World War Two, Hemingway went to Britain as a reporter. Later he took part in the invasion of Europe and the freeing of Paris.

During the war Hemingway met another reporter, Mary Walsh. In nineteen forty-five, when his marriage to Martha was legally over, he married Mary.

After the war, Hemingway began work on his last important book, "The Old Man and the Sea." It is the story of a Cuban fisherman who refuses to be defeated by nature.

Hemingway said: "I was trying to show the experience of the fisherman so exactly and directly that it became part of the reader's experience. "

In nineteen fifty-four, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature. But he was too sick to take part in the ceremony.

Ernest Hemingway was sixty years old, but he said he felt like he was eighty-six. And, even worse, he felt that he no longer was able to write. He seemed to be living the story about the writer who had sold his writing skill in order to make money.

In nineteen sixty-one Ernest Hemingway killed himself. Among the papers he left was one that described what he liked best:

"To stay in places and to leave. . . to trust, to distrust. . . to no longer believe and believe again. . . to watch the changes in the seasons. . . to be out in boats. . . to watch the snow come, to watch it go. . . to hear the rain. . . and to know where I can find what I want. "

Must a country buy from its own defense suppliers? This is one of the questions in Washington in a dispute over a deal worth at least thirty-five billion dollars. The contract will supply the Air Force with one hundred seventy-nine tankers.

The Air Force says it has a serious need for new planes to refuel aircraft in mid-flight. Boeing has a long history of supplying tankers to the Air Force.

But on February twenty-ninth, the Air Force awarded the contract to another American company, Northrop Grumman, teamed with EADS. EADS is the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, the parent of Airbus.

This week, Boeing protested the decision. The Government Accountability Office will study the appeal and expects to have a report by June nineteenth.

Boeing says it found problems in the process used to reach the decision. The Air Force has called the process fair and open.

But the decision not to give the contract to the Chicago-based company has angered lawmakers in Congress from states with Boeing factories. These include Washington state and Kansas.

Boeing offered a version of its Seven Sixty-seven airplane for the new tankers. Northrop Grumman and EADS based their tanker on the Airbus A-Three-Thirty. That plane is larger and would be able to carry more fuel.

There is debate about the possible effect on American jobs because production would be split between Europe and the United States. There is also dispute about what the deal could mean for national security. In any case, Boeing says the Air Force changed requirements in the middle of the competition.

Boeing and Airbus each had record numbers of orders last year for commercial airplanes. Demand is strong in Europe and Asia. But this week, EADS reported a loss of six hundred eighty-five million dollars last year, after a profit in two thousand six.

Airbus has had delays with its huge, new A-Three-Eighty passenger plane. A weak dollar also played a part in the loss.

Boeing has had its own problems with its new Seven Eighty-seven Dreamliner. To build it, the company is using a new system of suppliers around the world. Boeing says the Dreamliner could enter service early next year. Many buyers are waiting, but the new plane has not even had its first flight. The latest progress report is expected by the end of the month.

Now, we continue our series on learning disabilities. We look this week at a process used to identify problems and help children avoid failure in school. This process is called response to intervention, or R.T.I.

Lynn Fuchs is a special education professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She studies R.T.I. and says more and more schools in the United States are using it.

Learning disabilities are neurological disorders that affect different skills. Federal law requires public schools to help disabled students through special education services and individualized programs.

The first step is finding which children need help. Professor Fuchs explains that the traditional way is to test students who are failing. But research shows that failure can lead to depression, and that can make improvement in school very difficult.

So some schools are using response to intervention as a way to identify problems much earlier. The growing interest also results from concerns that some children placed in special education programs do not truly have a learning disability. They may just need extra help with skills like reading or math.

Response to intervention supplies that extra help. R.T.I. provides specially designed instruction for children who have scored low on general tests.

Professor Fuchs says the process usually involves about eight to ten weeks of small group tutoring. The intensive work uses research-based methods of instruction. The students are tested, sometimes as often as every week, to measure progress.

Those who improve after the instructional intervention go back to their normal classroom activities. Those who do not might be declared learning disabled. But Professor Fuchs says most school systems require additional testing to confirm the presence of a disability.

Some teachers and administrators believe response to intervention can reduce the number of students put into special services. Professor Fuchs tells us this has not been proven. But studies have shown that R.T.I. can solve learning problems for some students, especially young children. And, at the same time, it can identify others who need much more help.

In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of delegates met in Philadelphia to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. They ended up writing a new document instead -- the United States Constitution.

The convention discussed the difficult issue of slavery. Slavery affected the decision on how to count the population for purposes of representation in Congress. It also affected the powers proposed for the Congress. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue.

One compromise was the 'three-fifths' rule. The population would be counted every ten years to decide how many representatives each state would have. The delegates agreed that every five Negro slaves would be counted as three persons.

Another compromise permitted states to import slaves until the year eighteen-oh-eight. After that, no new slaves could be brought into the country.

Many of the delegates in Philadelphia did not like these compromises. But they knew the compromises kept the southern states from leaving the convention. Without them, as one delegate said, no union could be formed.

After all the debates, bitter arguments, and compromises, the delegates were nearing the end of their work. Four months had passed since the convention began. The weather had been hot. Emotions had been hot, too. But that was expected…for the men in Philadelphia were deciding the future of their country.

Early in September, the convention appointed five men to a Committee of Style. It was their job to write the document containing all the convention's decisions. William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut was chairman of the committee. The other members were Alexander Hamilton of New York, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, Rufus King of Massachusetts, and James Madison of Virginia.

Of these five men, Gouverneur Morris was known for the beauty of his language. So Judge Johnson asked him to write the Constitution.

The convention approved twenty-three parts, or articles, for the Constitution. Gouverneur Morris re-wrote them in a more simple form, so there were just seven.

Article One describes the powers of the Congress. It explains how to count the population for purposes of representation. And it says who can become senators or representatives, and how long they can serve.

Article Two describes the powers of the president. It explains who can be president. And it tells how he is to be elected.

Article Three describes the powers of the federal judiciary.

The first three articles provide a system of 'checks and balances'. The purpose is to prevent any of the three branches of government -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- from becoming too powerful.

Article Four explains the rights and duties of the states under the new central government. Article Five provides a system for amending the Constitution. Article Six declares the Constitution to be the highest law of the land. And Article Seven simply says the Constitution will be established when nine states approve it.

In addition to the seven articles, the Constitution contains an opening statement, or preamble.

The convention prepared its own preamble. It began, "We the undersigned delegates of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts" and so on. And it listed all thirteen states by name.

The Committee of Style did not think it was a good idea to list each state. After all, Rhode Island never sent a delegate to Philadelphia. And no one knew for sure if every state would approve the Constitution.

So, Gouverneur Morris wrote down instead, "We the People of the United States of America ... "

Those simple words solved the committee's problem. Who suspected they would cause angry debate during the fight to approve the Constitution? For they made clear that the power of the central government came not from the nation's states, but directly from its citizens.

The rest of the preamble says why the Constitution was written: In order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, guarantee peace at home, provide for the common defense, work for the well-being of all, and hold on to the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our children.

The next step was to sign the document.

On September seventeenth, the delegates gathered for the last time. One might think all their business finally was done. But Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts rose to speak.

"If it is not too late," he said, "I would like to make a change. We have agreed that one congressman will represent every forty thousand persons. I think that number should be thirty thousand.

Gorham's proposal could have caused a bitter argument. Then, suddenly, George Washington stood up. The delegates were surprised, because he had said little all summer. "Now," Washington said, "I must speak out in support of the proposed change. It will guarantee a greater voice in the government for the people of the nation." General Washington's influence was strong. Every delegate agreed to accept the change.

Finally, it was time to sign the Constitution. It also was the last chance to speak against it. Many delegates did not like all parts of the Constitution. They stated their objections. Yet, they declared, for the good of the nation, they would sign.

Several, however, refused to put their name on the Constitution.

Edmund Randolph of Virginia said he could not sign the document because he believed it would not be approved. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts did believe the Constitution would be approved. And that, he said, would lead to civil war. So he would not sign.

George Mason of Virginia also refused to sign, but he did not say why. He wrote his thoughts, instead. His chief reason for not signing: the Constitution did not directly guarantee the rights of citizens.

The country would hear this argument again later. Many people agreed with Mason. The results were the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Those amendments became known as the Bill of Rights.

Randolph, Gerry, and Mason were the only delegates in Philadelphia who did not sign the Constitution. Four other delegates who opposed went home before the signing. They were Luther Martin and John Mercer of Maryland. And Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York.

Nine men who supported the Constitution also went home early and did not sign. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. Caleb Strong of Massachusetts. William Houstoun and William Pierce of Georgia. Alexander Martin and William Davie of North Carolina. William Houston of New Jersey. George Wythe and James McClurg of Virginia.

Few of the delegates in Philadelphia could be sure that enough states would approve the Constitution to make it the law of the land. And few could know then that Americans of the future would honor them as fathers of the nation. But, as several said later, they wrote the best Constitution they could. Without it, the young nation would break apart. The United States of America would disappear before it had a chance to succeed.

As the last delegates moved to the table to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin looked at a painting behind the president's chair. He spoke softly to the men around him.

Franklin noted that it is difficult to paint a morning sun that appears different from an evening sun. "During the past four months of this convention," he said, "I have often looked at that painting. And I was never able to know if the picture showed a morning sun or an evening sun. But now, at last, I know. I am happy to say it is a morning sun, the beginning of a new day."

Probably no other musical instrument is as popular around the world as the guitar. Musicians use the guitar for almost every kind of music. Country and western music would not be the same without a guitar. The traditional Spanish folk music called flamenco could not exist without a guitar. The sound of American blues music would not be the same without the sad cry of the guitar. And rock and roll music would almost be impossible without this instrument.

Music experts do not agree about where the guitar first was played. Most agree it is ancient. Some experts say an instrument very much like a guitar was played in Egypt more than one thousand years ago.

Some other experts say that the ancestor of the modern guitar was brought to Spain from Persia sometime in the twelfth century. The guitar continued to develop in Spain. In the seventeen hundreds it became similar to the instrument we know today.

Many famous musicians played the instrument. The famous Italian violinist Niccolo Paganinni played and wrote music for the guitar in the early eighteen hundreds. Franz Schubert used the guitar to write some of his famous works. In modern times Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia helped make the instrument extremely popular.

One kind of music for the guitar developed in the southern area of Spain called Adalusia. It will always be strongly linked with the Spanish guitar. It is called flamenco. Carlos Montoya was a Spanish Gypsy.

In the nineteen thirties, Les Paul began experimenting with ways to make an electric guitar. He invented the solid body electric guitar in nineteen forty-six. The Gibson Guitar Company began producing its famous Les Paul Guitar in nineteen fifty-two. It became a powerful influence in popular music. The instrument has the same shape and the same six strings as the traditional guitar, but it sounds very different.

Les Paul produced a series of extremely popular recordings that introduced the public to his music. They included Paul playing as many as six musical parts at the same time. Listen to this Les Paul recording. It was the fifth most popular song in the United States in nineteen fifty-two. It is called “Meet Mister Callaghan.”

The guitar has always been important to blues music. The electric guitar Les Paul helped develop made modern blues music possible. There have been many great blues guitarists. Yet, music experts say all blues guitar players are measured against one man and his famous guitar. That man is B.B. King. Every blues fan knows that years ago B.B. King named his guitar Lucille.

Lucille, B.B. King’s large, beautiful black guitar, is important to American music. Visitors can see King’s very first guitar at the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The museum is the only permanent exhibit organized by the Smithsonian Institution outside Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Another famous guitar in American music also has a name. It belongs to country music star Willie Nelson. His guitar is as famous in country music as Lucille is in blues music. Its name is Trigger.

Trigger is really a very ugly guitar. It looks like an old, broken instrument someone threw away. Several famous people have written their names on it. A huge hole was torn in the front of it a long time ago. It looks severely damaged. But the huge hole, the names and other marks seem to add to its sound.

Many rock and roll performers are very good with a guitar. One of the best is Chuck Berry. Berry’s method of playing the guitar very fast was extremely popular when rock music began. He still is an important influence on rock and roll music.

There are almost as many different kinds of guitar music as there are musicians. We cannot play them all in one program. So we leave you with one guitar player who often mixes several kinds of music.

His name is Jose Feliciano. Here he plays a song that is based on traditional Spanish guitar music. He mixes this with a little jazz and a little blues and adds a Latin sound.

A study has raised new questions about the effectiveness of several popular drugs for depression. These antidepressants are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

S.S.R.I.s are designed to help keep serotonin, a brain chemical, at a continuous level. The new study suggests that they provide little help to the large majority of the millions who take them.

Scientists from Britain, Canada and the United States did the study. It was a meta-analysis, a study of studies.

The team used an American law, the Freedom of Information Act, to get unpublished reports on thirty-five clinical trials of four drugs. Drug companies gave these and published studies to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of the medicines.

In the clinical trials, people with depression were treated with either an antidepressant or a placebo, a pill that contains no medicine. They did not know which they got.

The new report says those who received medicine did improve. But comparable numbers of those who received placebos also improved. The report says the drugs had meaningful results only in the most severely depressed patients.

The two best-known drugs in the study were fluoxetine, better known as Prozac, and paroxetine, sold in the United States under the name Paxil. The other drugs were venlafaxine and nefazodone.

The Public Library of Science published the findings last month in the journal PLoS Medicine.

Benedetto Vitiello is a psychiatrist at the United States National Institute of Mental Health. Doctor Vitiello, who was not involved in the study, says the findings came as no great surprise. He says psychiatrists have known for years that S.S.R.I.s work best in the sickest patients.

But he says it is important for people who need help not to delay seeking help as a result of the new report.

Critics of the report say S.S.R.I.s can take more time to begin working than the studies permitted. They also note that doctors sometimes try several antidepressants on a patient before choosing one for treatment.

Future antidepressants might have targets other than serotonin. Scientists funded by the National Institute of Mental Health have found that an enzyme called GSK3B might play a big part in depression. They found that mice with low serotonin levels and signs of depression improved when the enzyme was blocked.

Researchers in Denmark say all human beings had brown eyes until a change in genetic orders produced the first blue eyes. The researchers also say people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. They found that blue-eyed people are genetically linked to the first person ever to have blue eyes. That person is said to have lived six thousand to ten thousand years ago.

The University of Copenhagen research team reported its findings in Human Genetics magazine.

Team members examined genes of blue-eyed individuals from countries like Denmark, India, Jordan and Turkey. They found that most people with blue eyes had changed genetic orders near a gene called OCA Two. More than ninety nine percent of those studied had the same difference in their genetic material. Team member Hans Eiberg said they all have the same change at exactly the same place.

The researchers say the result of the changed orders is a lack of brown in the iris of the eye. They say the orders stop production of melanin in the eye. Melanin is a substance that gives color to eyes, skin and hair.

The researchers say the first person with the changed genetic orders did not have blue eyes. That is because eye color results from genes passed from both the mother and the father. Blue eyes do not appear unless both parents pass the same gene for it to a child. So a child with one gene for brown eyes and one for blue will have brown eyes.

The first blue-eyed person was the product of two people with brown eyes. But they both had one brown-eyed gene and the changed gene for blue eyes. Those blue-eyed genes came together in the first person to have blue eyes.

The Danish researchers say that person probably lived in an area northwest of the Black Sea. They say this would explain why blue eyes are mainly found in people from northern Europe and southern Russia.

The researchers say they do not yet know why the blue-eyed gene was able to survive and spread. They estimate that the changed gene is now found in about three hundred million people. And, they say that about eight percent of all the people today have blue eyes.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., affects more than two hundred million people around the world. The World Health Organization says at least five million people died from it in two thousand five. Ninety percent were in developing countries.

In the United States, C.O.P.D. is the fourth leading cause of death. But even with these numbers, many people have never heard of it.

The Canadian Lung Association says C.O.P.D. is the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis. These are the two most common forms of it. Many people with C.O.P.D. have both of them.

The result is progressive and incurable lung damage. The tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs become partly blocked. This makes it difficult to breathe and often produces a cough that will not go away.

People with C.O.P.D. often have swelling that causes the airways to narrow. And they often produce more mucus than normal. This oily substance protects the airways, but too much of it blocks them.

Smoking is the most common cause of C.O.P.D. Nonsmokers can get the disease from breathing other people's tobacco smoke.

Air pollution can also cause the disease. Miners and others who work around some kinds of dust and chemicals are at higher risk. Children who repeatedly suffer lung infections have a greater chance of developing the disease as adults. Genetics may also be involved.

Doctors can perform a quick breathing test with a machine called a spirometer that can help diagnose C.O.P.D. But experts say people are often not tested or treated correctly for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Patients may not consider a continuous cough serious enough to seek medical attention. Or doctors may mistakenly identify it as asthma or another infection.

Some of the early warning signs are a cough that will not go away and an increase in mucus production. Another sign is difficulty breathing after minor activity like walking up stairs.

There are ways to slow the progress of the disease. Doctors say the most important thing is to stop smoking. There are medicines that can reduce inflammation and open air passages. Also, exercise is often advised. If the disease is severe, a doctor may order oxygen treatment or even operations to remove damaged lung tissue.

Electrical devices could soon use power made by human energy. Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking. A report on the device was published recently in Science magazine.

Max Donelan is an assistant professor of kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Colombia. He and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device.

Mister Donelan says the goal of the study was to store energy from walking in a way that can get electricity without having to increase effort.

The device connects to a person's knee. As the person walks, the device captures energy each time the person slows down. To do this, the device assists with the slowing down movement of the leg. The movements of the person walking push parts of a small machine that produces electricity.

Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute. Mister Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes.

There are several possible uses for the device. Developers say it could help people who work in areas without electricity to operate small computers or wireless telephones. The device could also be used to operate life-saving health devices like heart pacemakers. It could even be used to assist in the movement of robotic arms and legs.

The experimental version of the device currently weighs about one and a half kilograms. It is too costly for most people to buy. But the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version.

Mister Donelan says an improved version should be ready in one year. The researchers also hope that soldiers could use the device. The machine could supply power to electronic devices with a battery that would re-gain power as the soldier walked.

The developers also hope the device will one-day help developing countries. Nearly twenty-five percent of people around the world live without electric power.

A similar product was invented in two thousand five by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania. He created a bag carried on a person’s back that also produces power from walking. The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag. But the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms.

On February seventeenth, the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company of Chino, California, recalled almost sixty-five million kilograms of beef. The government declared the products unfit for human food. Officials at the Department of Agriculture said the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection.

The beef recall was the largest in American history. But the government rated the health risk as low. No cases of sickness have been reported.

The beef was produced over the last two years. Almost all of it went to federal programs to provide lunches for schoolchildren. Some also went to federal programs for Indian reservations and emergency food aid.

About half of the beef had already been used when the recall took place. The recall followed the public release of video secretly recorded by the Humane Society of the United States. The video showed workers at the Chino slaughterhouse mistreating "downers" -- the name for sick or injured cows unable to stand.

The workers kicked them and shot water at their faces. They also used electric shocks and forklift trucks to force the animals to their feet. The Agriculture Department bans downer cattle from entering the food supply. The ban is part of measures to protect against the human version of mad cow disease.

Westland/Hallmark is closed until investigations are completed, and its deals to supply federal programs are suspended. Local officials have brought animal cruelty charges against two employees. And lawmakers in Congress have ordered the head of the company to appear at a hearing this week, saying he refused an earlier invitation.

At the end of February, the Humane Society brought a lawsuit against the Agriculture Department over a change in its inspection rules. The group says the change made last year could make it easier for sick and injured cows to enter the food supply.

Officials defend the inspection process, but have also announced new measures, including inspections outside approved hours of operation.

When food recalls are announced, they often include the names of some of the stores that were supplied with the products. But under a new state law, California has published an online list of the names, addresses and phone numbers of thousands of places affected by the beef recall. These include markets, restaurants, hotels and school systems.

An estimated eleven million or more people are living in the United States illegally. What to do about them is at the heart of the debate over immigration reform. Yet questions about legal immigrants also remain unanswered.

For example, should the United States open its doors to more skilled workers? Many employers would like that. Or should Congress lower the current limits, to get employers to hire more American citizens? Or would that only lead them to move more jobs to other countries.

What about a temporary worker program, as President Bush proposed?

Or what about welcoming more skilled workers but fewer less educated immigrants? Or would that be seen as unfair in the land of the American dream?

Congress tried to pass an immigration reform bill last year. But the Senate was unable to reach agreement. So, in place of legislative action, the administration announced new measures to increase border security and immigration enforcement. The steps include more workplace raids to catch illegal immigrants and higher civil fines for their employers.

Immigrant rights activists say stronger enforcement makes even legal immigrants fearful of being treated with suspicion. But activists against illegal immigration say providing for millions of people has a huge cost for public services. An activist in California says that state could be using the money to work on bridges and other public structures at risk from earthquakes.

In two thousand six, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act to build hundreds of kilometers of additional fencing along the southern border. The reasoning goes that secure borders with Mexico and Canada will help keep out illegal immigrants as well as drugs and terrorists.

But securing thousands of kilometers of borderline is easier said than done. A high-tech "virtual fence" using sensors, cameras and radar systems has met with technical problems in a test project in Arizona.

We talked a lot last week about illegal immigration. But how can someone legally move to the United States? Listeners often ask this question. There are five ways to become a permanent resident. But the process can be difficult and involve much waiting.

A permanent resident is a foreign-born person who has most of the same rights as an American citizen. Permanent residents can work but they cannot vote or hold political office. They can also face expulsion in addition to any other punishment if they are found guilty of a serious crime.

Proof of permanent residency is a small identification card commonly known as a green card. The current color is light red. But the card was green once and the name stuck.

Green cards come from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency in the Department of Homeland Security.

Christopher Bentley is an agency spokesman. He says most people immigrate to the United States these days through family sponsorship. This means that a family member already in the United States takes responsibility for the immigrant.

Sponsors must be United States citizens or permanent residents. In addition, they must be at least eighteen years old and a blood relation of the person seeking residency.

Chris Bentley says immediate relatives can immigrate without waiting. Immediate relatives include parents and unmarried children under the age of twenty-one. Other relatives can also come to the United States but they must wait for their visas. This can take, in some cases, as long as twelve to fifteen years.

People who marry American citizens are also immediate relatives. But they receive a conditional green card at first. It can be made permanent after two years if investigators are satisfied that the marriage was not just for immigration purposes.

Sponsors must meet financial requirements and accept responsibility for the immigrants they are sponsoring. This financial responsibility continues until the immigrant becomes a citizen, or works in the United States for about ten years or moves away.

The Department of Homeland Security says one million two hundred thousand people received permanent residency in two thousand six. More than sixty percent of them became permanent residents as a result of a family relationship.

Another way to gain permanent residency is to have a job offer, also called an employment-based preference. About one hundred sixty thousand people became permanent residents this way in two thousand six.

Often the employers are technology companies. But Chris Bentley gives an example of a sheep ranch in Texas. The employer found a really good shepherd. It was easier to sponsor him for residency than to continually bring him to the United States to help on the ranch.

A third way to immigrate to the United States is to be declared a refugee. This immigration status is for people who fear physical harm if they remain in their home country. They have to go to an American Embassy and provide proof of their situation, or be referred by the United Nations refugee agency.

Foreign citizens who are in the United States as students or visitors can ask to stay if returning home would endanger their lives. People who are given asylum are called asylees. Two hundred sixteen thousand refugees and asylees became permanent residents in two thousand six.

A fourth way to immigrate is to invest money in the United States. A person must invest at least five hundred thousand dollars in a poor area of the country and create at least ten jobs. Seven hundred fifty investors became permanent residents in two thousand six.

The fifth and final way to immigrate to the United States is through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the visa lottery. People enter the lottery and hope their name will be chosen by a computer.

The winners, their spouses and unmarried children under the age of twenty-one get a chance for permanent residency. The United States offers about fifty-five thousand diversity visas every year. In two thousand six, more than forty-four thousand winners became permanent residents.

Congress established the program under a nineteen ninety immigration law. But the process is not as simple as it might sound. The program is open only to people born in countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

These countries must have sent fewer than fifty thousand immigrants in the past five years. So the countries in the program change each year.

The State Department received more than six million applications in two thousand six, about one million higher than the year before. The people who applied in two thousand six were entering the two thousand eight visa program.

Most of the applicants were from Africa and Asia. Nineteen percent were from Europe and two percent from South America and the Caribbean. The largest numbers of applications came from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ukraine.

All of the information needed to take part in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is online at travel.state.gov.

There are warnings about attempts to cheat people in connection with the visa lottery. In some cases there have been Web sites falsely claiming to be official United States government sites.

Some companies claiming to be from the government have asked for money to complete lottery entries. There is no charge to download and complete the electronic entry form.

No paper entries are accepted. All applications must be made at travel.state.gov. The application period is from early October through early December of each year. That is the only time people can enter.

Peanuts, or groundnuts, are an important crop in many developing countries. But getting them out of their shell is tiring without a machine.

In two thousand one, a Canadian inventor, Jock Brandis, designed a hand-powered peanut sheller for a village in Mali. In one hour it can shell about fifty-six kilograms of peanuts.

By the end of this year, twenty countries will be using the Universal Nut Sheller and other technologies from the Full Belly Project.

This nonprofit group was established in North Carolina in two thousand three. The aim is to fight hunger and help rural economies with labor-saving agricultural devices that can be reproduced locally.

Former Peace Corps volunteer Jeff Rose heads the Full Belly Project. He says a village in Malawi used a single sheller to process thirty tons of peanuts over two months.

Selling them raised sixteen thousand dollars. The United States Agency for International Development also provided money, and the village was able to build a water well.

That single machine, says Jeff Rose, cost the village just twenty-eight dollars to make.

As described at fullbellyproject.org, the Universal Nut Sheller is basically a cement cone within a cone. The top and bottom are open. The user turns a handle and the peanuts fall between the surfaces and are rolled and squeezed. The peanuts and broken shells drop through the bottom and are separated by hand.

The machine can also shell coffee, jatropha, shea nuts and neem nuts.

There are two main ways that the group provides its technologies. One is where individuals or groups based in the United States donate seven hundred dollars. In return, they take a kit and build the sheller in a developing country.

The kit contains fiberglass molds and enough metal pieces to build three machines. With the molds an unlimited number of machines can be built with locally purchased metal parts. The sheller generally costs about fifty to seventy-five dollars to make.

The second way the group distributes its machines is through partnerships with nongovernmental organizations.

The Full Belly Project also has a pedal-powered sheller. Now, volunteers are designing a pedal-powered grain crusher. Goals for the future include all the simple technologies needed to make ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition.

It is not only Americans who consider this number to be unlucky. People around the world have what are called superstitions about the number thirteen. Superstitions are popular beliefs that are not based on reason or science. A person believes something brings good or bad luck. The fear of the number thirteen is called triskaidekaphobia.

This fear is so strong around the world that many tall buildings do not have a thirteenth level. And, many airports do not have a gate numbered thirteen.

Some experts say fears about this number come from ancient religious stories. One Norse myth is about twelve gods who were having a party in their heaven, Valhalla. Loki, the god of evil and disorder, arrived at the dinner party uninvited. He became the thirteenth person at the table. Loki then helped cause the death of Balder, the god of joy.

In the Christian book, the Bible, Judas is the thirteenth guest at the dinner called the Last Supper. Judas is the man who betrays Jesus, leading to his death.

Many people around the world also consider Fridays that fall on the thirteenth day of a month to be especially bad luck.

Thomas Fernsler is an associate policy scientist at the University of Delaware in Newark. He is also known as “Doctor 13” because of his interest in this famous number. He says numerology shows that thirteen suffers because of its position next to the “complete” number twelve. He notes there are many sets of twelve, such as twelve months in the year and twelve signs of the zodiac. Mister Fernsler says thirteen is one more than twelve which makes it what he calls a “restless” number.

Thomas Fernsler can tell you many interesting facts about the number thirteen. He can tell you that if February has a Friday the thirteenth in a non-leap year, March and November will also have Friday the thirteenths. Mister Fernsler can also tell you many examples of good and bad events that have taken place throughout history on Friday the thirteenth.

But do not worry. The only Friday the thirteenth this year will take place in June.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. recently opened an exciting new show called “Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture.” The exhibit celebrates the importance of American hip hop culture by showing the work of six artists and a poet.

When you walk into the exhibit area of “Recognize!” you see the strikingly bright colors of large letters painted on the walls. Two local artists, Tim Conlon and Dave Hupp, made these graffiti artworks. The exhibit states that graffiti art is one of the four elements of hip hop. The others are break dancing, rap music, and DJing, when a person plays different beats of recorded music.

You can also see the brightly colored paintings of the artist Kehinde Wiley. He paints famous rap musicians like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. But he paints them in a way that is like traditional paintings created hundreds of years ago.

David Scheinbaum uses black and white photography to capture hip hop performers. Since two thousand, he has taken pictures of more than one hundred artists. Looking at his photographs, you can feel the energy of these performers and the surrounding crowds of listeners.

Jefferson Pinder makes video art that explores hip hop culture, the identity of African-Americans and his own personal experiences. For example, in the video “Mule," Pinder wears business clothes as he walks down city streets. He must struggle because he is dragging a heavy object that is attached to him with metal chains.

Earlier, we said the show included the work of a poet. You might be wondering how you would show poetry in a museum. The words of one poem by Nikki Giovanni are written on a large white wall. While you look at the words, you can hear a recording of Giovanni reading the poem.

Across the room is a work by Shinique Smith. Her sculpture, “No Thief to Blame,” looks like a graffiti painting that has come out of and off the wall. It is an exciting explosion of paper, paint and found objects. These many forms of art honor the energetic and inventive world of hip hop culture.

More bad news for the American housing market:

The Mortgage Bankers Association says housing repossessions are at their highest rates ever, led by California and Florida. And loan payments at least thirty days late are at their highest since nineteen eighty-five.

Problems in the housing market represent the greatest risks to the economy.

Central bank chief Ben Bernanke says helping the economy is now more important than fighting inflation. He told the Senate Banking Committee last week that conditions are more difficult now than they were in two thousand one. That was the last year in which the American economy was in a recession.

Most economists define a recession as at least six months of economic shrinkage. The economy was still growing at last report, but very little: just six-tenths of one percent from October to December. That was down from almost five percent for the July-to-September period.

President Bush says the economy is in a slowdown and that he does not expect a recession. But investor Warren Buffett, just listed by Forbes magazine as the world's richest man, gave his opinion Monday. "By any common sense definition we are in a recession," he said on CNBC television.

Economic weakness has pulled down the value of the dollar. One euro is now worth about a dollar and a half, a record high. A weak dollar reduces the price of American exports. But it means higher prices for oil, which is traded in dollars.

This week, oil broke the all-time record of one hundred three dollars and seventy-six cents a barrel. That price, adjusted for inflation, was set in nineteen eighty.

The United States is the biggest buyer of oil. On Wednesday, OPEC refused the second American request this year to produce more oil. It said there is already plenty. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said high prices were the result of "mismanagement" in the United States economy.

Falling prices in the housing market are feeding a credit crisis. Home prices fell ten percent nationally in two thousand seven. And experts say prices could fall another ten to fifteen percent this year.

The Bush administration has been urging lenders to negotiate new terms for loans held by people in danger of losing their homes.

Many people now owe more than their homes are worth. Some are simply walking away from their homes, even though that damages their credit records.

In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of the nation's early leaders opened a convention in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which created a weak union of the thirteen states. Instead, they wrote a new document.

Last week, we told how the convention finally agreed on how states would be represented in the national government.

There would be two houses in the national legislature. In one house -- the House of Representatives -- the number of representatives from each state would depend on the state's population. In the other house -- the Senate -- all states would have an equal number of representatives.

The agreement on representation was known as the "Great Compromise." Not all the delegates in Philadelphia were pleased with it. But it saved the convention from failure.

The debate on representation in the House raised an important issue. No one wanted to talk about it. But all the delegates knew they must discuss it. The issue was slavery. If representation was based on population, who would you count? Would you count just free people? Or would you count Negro slaves, too?

There were thousands of slaves in the United States in seventeen eighty-seven. Most lived in southern states. But many could be found in the north, too. And northern ship owners made a lot of money by importing slaves from Africa.

The Articles of Confederation said nothing about slavery. Each state could decide to permit it or not. Massachusetts, for example, had made slavery illegal. Nine other states had stopped importing new slaves. Only three states -- Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- continued to import slaves.

The issue was never easy to discuss. Some of the most important men in America owned slaves. They included George Washington and James Madison.

No one wanted to insult these men. Yet the convention had to make some decisions about slavery. Slavery affected laws on trade and taxes, as well as the question of representation in Congress.

During the debate, some delegates argued that slaves were property. They could not be counted for purposes of representation. Others argued that slaves were people and should be counted with everyone else.

Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania made an angry speech. "Slavery," he declared, "is an evil institution. It has caused great sadness and poverty in all the states where it is permitted."

Charles Pinckney of South Carolina defended the existence of slavery in the United States. "In all ages," he said, "one half of mankind have been slaves."

George Mason of Virginia, a slave owner, wanted to free all slaves. He said Virginia attempted to do this when it was a British colony. But he said the British government blocked Virginia's attempts. Mason blamed the problem on British businessmen who made money from slavery.

Other delegates rose to denounce or defend slavery. But the convention had no power to rule on whether slavery was right or wrong.

Everyone knew the convention would fail if it tried to write a Constitution that banned slavery. The southern states would never accept such a document. They would refuse to join the United States.

Rufus King of Massachusetts said the convention should consider slavery only as a political matter. And that is what happened. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue.

James Wilson of Pennsylvania, for example, proposed a method of counting each state's population for purposes of representation. All white persons and other free citizens would be counted as one each. Every five slaves would be counted only as three persons. This was called the 'three-fifths' rule. The delegates accepted it.

The word 'slave' was never used in the Constitution. It simply used the words 'all other persons.' The 'three-fifths rule' remained law until the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in eighteen sixty-eight.

Alexander Hamilton said the three-fifths compromise was necessary. "Without it," he said, "no union could possibly have been formed."

Slavery also became an issue when the convention began discussing the powers of the national legislature. Once again, the question was asked: Are slaves people? Or are they property? The answer would affect import taxes and the growth of new states.

The convention accepted several compromises on these questions, too. It agreed that the national treasury could collect a tax of ten dollars for every imported slave. It also agreed that slaves could be imported until the year eighteen-oh-eight. Then no new slaves could be brought into the country.

Until then, each state had the power to make its own decisions about slavery. After eighteen-oh-eight, the national government would make all decisions.

As debate on a new Constitution continued through the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, several delegates asked an important question. Who would approve, or ratify, it?

The state legislatures? The people? Or, as Gouverneur Morris proposed, one big national convention? As always, Elbridge Gerry opposed giving this power to the people. "The people," he said, "have the wildest ideas of government in the world."

James Madison disagreed. He believed the people must ratify their new plan of government. Madison said, "I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a treaty and a constitution."

Edmund Randolph of Virginia proposed that state conventions should consider the document prepared by the Philadelphia convention. They could offer amendments, he said. And then another general convention would decide on a final document.

Gouverneur Morris agreed, but for another reason. He said, "I have long wished for another convention that would have the firmness to provide a strong central government…which we are afraid to do."

James Madison hated the idea. Calling another general convention would mean the Philadelphia convention had failed. It would mean the end of all his hard work and hopes. When the debate was over, the delegates agreed that the people should ratify the new Constitution through conventions held in each state.

Finally, the delegates had to decide how many 'yes' votes by states would be needed to ratify the Constitution.

Any changes to the Articles of Confederation needed ratification by all thirteen states. The Philadelphia convention was called only to change those Articles. So all thirteen would have to approve. This, as several delegates noted, would be impossible. After all, Rhode Island never sent a representative to Philadelphia. It was sure to reject the Constitution.

Also, as everyone knew, the Philadelphia convention went far past the point of changing the Articles of Confederation. The delegates wrote a completely new plan of government. They could agree to accept ratification by fewer than thirteen states.

Delegates who supported a strong central government acted quickly. They raised the question of numbers. How many states were needed to ratify? By the end of the day, the convention had not decided. But many of the delegates must have met that night. Early the next day, the convention voted. And the number it agreed on was nine.

The great convention in Philadelphia was nearing the end of its work. It needed only to write out its agreements in final form and sign the document.

Executive function. What do you suppose that is? Mental health professionals, educators and others use this term when talking about ways that people exercise self-control. Executive function involves the skills we need to organize our lives.

Experts at the National Center for Learning Disabilities say we use executive function to study situations, plan, act and change our minds. They say problems with executive function are strongly linked to attention deficits and learning disabilities.

All of these problems can have some of the same signs -- for example, trouble with working memory.

What is working memory? This term is commonly used now in place of short-term memory. It describes the brain's ability to store recent information temporarily, but also to use and make sense of it.

Researchers say good executive function is important for success in school.

Students with poor executive function need help to organize research. They have serious trouble deciding which of two or three tasks to do first. They have difficulty changing tasks or working on one project for a long period of time.

A person might have trouble waiting and cooperating, and might say or do things even if it offends others.

Laura Berk in the psychology department at Illinois State University is an expert on the subject. She says executive function skills can be improved.

For example, Professor Berk says games of Simon Says can help young children learn to exercise self-control by NOT doing something. Children are given directions but told to follow them only when the leader begins a direction by saying "Simon says ... "

She also suggests a game called Freeze. Children dance to music until the music stops. Then they have to place their bodies in a position shown in a picture.

She says giving children a chance to use their imaginations for make-believe play can also help them develop executive function skills.

Teenagers and adults can write lists and establish ways to make sure they do important tasks. Technology can help. For example, online banking services can be set up to pay bills automatically. And alarm clocks on cell phones can remind someone when it is time to go to work or be in class.

Chocolate's story begins with a plant whose scientific name, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.” For centuries, people have been enjoying the rich flavor of chocolate, a product made from this plant.

Most people today think of chocolate as something sweet to eat or drink than can be easily found in stores around the world. It might surprise you that chocolate was once highly treasured.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently released a study. It suggested that people in Central and South America first gathered the cacao plant much earlier and for a different use than experts once thought. The researchers examined the chemistry of substances found in ancient clay containers that were over three thousand years old. They discovered that the substance came from an alcoholic drink made from the fruit of the cacao plant. The researchers believe it was the interest in cacao as an alcoholic drink that led to the use of its bitter seeds to make what is now known as chocolate.

Historians believe the Maya people of Central America first learned to farm cacao plants around two thousand years ago. The Maya took the cacao trees from the rainforests and grew them in their gardens. They cooked the cacao seeds, then crushed them into a soft paste. They mixed the paste with water and flavorful spices to make an unsweetened chocolate drink. The Maya poured the chocolate drink back and forth between two containers so that the liquid had a layer of bubbles, or foam.

Cacao and chocolate were an important part of Maya culture. There are often images of cacao plants on Maya buildings and art objects. Ruling families drank chocolate at special ceremonies. And, even poorer members of society could enjoy the drink once in a while. Historians believe that cacao seeds were also used in marriage ceremonies as a sign of the union between a husband and wife.

The Aztec culture in current day Mexico also prized chocolate. But, the cacao plant could not grow in the area where the Aztecs lived. So, they traded to get cacao. They even used cacao seeds as a form of money to pay taxes or give as holy offerings to the gods.

Only the very wealthy people in Aztec societies could afford to drink chocolate because cacao was so valuable. The Aztec ruler Montezuma was believed to drink fifty cups of chocolate every day.

Some experts believe the word for chocolate came from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which in the Nahuatl language means “bitter water.” Others believe the word “chocolate” was created by combining Mayan and Nahuatl words.

The explorer Christopher Columbus brought cacao seeds to Spain after his trip to Central America in fifteen oh two. But it was the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes who understood that chocolate could be a valuable investment. In fifteen nineteen, Cortes arrived in current day Mexico. He believed the chocolate drink would become popular with Spaniards. After the Spanish soldiers defeated the Aztec empire, they were able to seize the supplies of cacao and send them home. Spain later began planting cacao in its colonies in the Americas in order to supply the large demand for chocolate.

The wealthy people of Spain first enjoyed a sweetened version of the chocolate drink. Later, the popularity of the drink spread throughout Europe. The English, Dutch and French began to plant cacao trees in their own colonies. Chocolate remained a drink that only wealthy people could afford to drink until the eighteenth century. During the period known as the Industrial Revolution, new technologies helped make chocolate less costly to produce.

Farmers grow cacao trees in many countries in Africa, Central and South America. The trees grow in the shady areas of rainforests near the Earth’s equator. But these trees can be difficult to grow. They require an exact amount of water, warmth, soil and protection. After about five years, cacao trees start producing large fruits called pods, which grow near the trunk of the tree. The seeds inside this pod are harvested to make chocolate.

There are several kinds of cacao trees. Most of the world’s chocolate is made from the forastero tree. But farmers can also grow criollo or trinitario cacao plants. Cacao trees grown on farms are much more easily threatened by disease and insects than wild trees are.

Growing cacao is very hard work for farmers. They sell their harvest on a futures market. This means that economic conditions beyond their control can affect the amount of money they will earn.

Today, chocolate industry officials, activists, and scientists are working with farmers. They are trying to make sure that cacao can be grown in a way that is fair to the farmers and safe for the environment.

To become chocolate, cacao seeds go through a long production process in a factory. Workers must sort, clean and cook the seeds. Then they break off the covering of the seeds so that only the inside fruit, or nibs, remain. Workers crush the nibs into a soft substance called chocolate liquor. This gets separated into cocoa solids and a fat called cocoa butter.

Chocolate makers have their own special recipes in which they combine chocolate liquor with exact amounts of sugar, milk and cocoa fat. They finely crush this “crumb” mixture so it is smooth. The mixture then goes through two more processes before it is shaped into a mold form.

Chocolate making is a big business. The market value of the yearly cacao crop around the world is more than five billion dollars. Chocolate is especially popular in Europe and the United States. For example, in two thousand five, the United States bought one point four billion dollars worth of cocoa products. Each year, Americans eat an average of more than five kilograms of chocolate per person. Specialty shops that sell costly chocolates are also very popular. Many offer chocolate lovers the chance to taste chocolates grown in different areas of the world.

Jane Morris is a chocolate maker in Washington D.C. She owns the company J Chocolatier. Here is her opinion on why people like chocolate so much:

JANE MORRIS:

"Well, scientists tell us that we all love chocolate because there’s a chemical response that takes place in our brains. But I like to think that people love chocolate because everybody has an experience that they can relate to eating chocolate, and usually it’s a good one. It’s a memory from childhood or its eating something that you know you weren’t supposed to, but you did it anyway and really enjoyed it. And chocolate marries well with almost any ingredient from any corner of the globe. It really is a perfect food."

Jane Morris can give you an entire lesson on different kinds of chocolate. She can give you a taste of a blended chocolate that contains cacao from around the world. Or, she can let you try a "single origin" chocolate grown in only one area of the world. For example, one fine chocolate made with cacao grown in Madagascar has a very interesting sour taste. While another chocolate grown in Venezuela has a very different taste.

JANE MORRIS: “Some people tell me when they taste this chocolate from El Rey that they can taste what they imagine the rainforest would smell like.”

Miz Morris uses these chocolates to make her own unusual creations.

JANE MORRIS: “Sometimes I look for inspiration in professional books. That’s always a good starting place. Then I also think about what I eat and what flavors work well together.”

Her most popular chocolate is called Montezuma.

JANE MORRIS: “People love this. It’s a chocolate with chipotle spice and Vietnamese cinnamon.”

You may think it is just a normal chocolate until you begin to taste the deep and rich heat of these special spices.

For another chocolate creation, she uses Earl Grey Tea to give it a flavor of the bergamot fruit. And, these chocolates are as nice to look at as they are to eat.

Jane Morris mainly sells her chocolates in local wine, candy and gift stores. She says she does not use any preservative chemicals in her products, so they only last about two or three weeks. But, she says she believes this is the way chocolate should be eaten.

It might not surprise you she suggested that everyone should eat chocolate!

In many societies, there is often greater acceptance of light skin than dark skin. Light skin may be seen as a mark of beauty, intelligence and success. These beliefs can lead to social pressures even within the same racial or ethnic group, if some members are darker skinned than others.

The result is that skin lightening has become a common activity across Africa, Asia and other areas of the world. More and more people with dark skin are using skin-lightening products, even if it means they may face health risks.

They believe that having whiter skin will improve their lives. Many people think they will have a better chance of getting a job or marrying into a better family. Or they want to look like what their society generally considers beautiful.

Some beauty care products and soaps contain chemicals that make skin lighter. This process is also called bleaching. But some of the chemicals are extremely dangerous. One of the most dangerous is hydroquinone.

Hydroquinone has been banned in several countries. This chemical has been linked to kidney damage and some kinds of cancer. It also causes low birth weight in babies when mothers use it during pregnancy.

At first, bleaching products make the skin color lighter. But after long-term use they can cause problems. They could even make some skin darker.

The chemicals in the products block and break down the natural process that gives color to skin. The skin loses its natural barrier to protect against sunlight. Then the skin can become thick and discolored. Usually the person will use more of the product in an effort to correct the problem, but this only makes it worse.

Fatimata Ly treats skin conditions in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Doctor Ly says skin bleaching has become a problem throughout Senegal. She says the chemicals are now more dangerous because they are stronger. Some cases have resulted in blackened fingernails, infections and permanent skin damage.

And these are not the only risks. Experts say some people who change their skin color suffer emotional damage. They feel regret and sadness. They feel that instead of risking their health, they should have learned to love and accept their skin color as it was.

Pakistan is working to protect more than thirty million children from polio. Health workers are giving vaccine against the disease to children younger than five years.

Health officials in Pakistan plan to complete the current vaccination campaign next month. But the government says efforts against polio are always in progress. The efforts are part of an international campaign to stop the disease.

The struggle against polio has suffered unexpected problems. But it has also made major progress.

The future also looks hopeful. A top polio expert at the World Health Organization has praised success with a vaccine against the fastest spreading kind of polio. Doctor David Heymann believes that this most threatening polio could be defeated this year. He also says vaccines are being developed to prevent a slower spreading version of the disease.

Prevention is especially important because antibiotic drugs cannot help after someone is infected. Antibiotics can kill only bacteria, not viruses.

The virus called wild poliovirus passes freely from person to person. Wild poliovirus spreads through fluids in the mouth, waste material and water systems. Another kind of polio is rare. Vaccine-derived, or vaccine-linked, polio strikes when harmful genetic changes affect the vaccine.

Polio is mainly a children’s disease. But adults also get it. Many people are infected without knowing it. They may just have a higher than normal body temperature and pain in the throat. But when polio attacks the central nervous system, patients can be paralyzed. They may not be able to stand or walk. When the disease affects breathing, some patients die.

Polio paralyzed an estimated three hundred fifty thousand patients in nineteen eighty-eight. That same year, a coalition of health workers started the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. By last year, the number of new paralytic polio cases dropped to about seven hundred sixty-five.

The Initiative coalition includes national governments and UNICEF -- the United Nations Children’s Fund. Another partner is the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still another is the volunteer service organization Rotary International. Other groups also take part.

Scientists say three polioviruses cause wild polio. Type One is the most dangerous. Type One can infect many people in a short time. It has caused about eighty-five percent of all polio cases. Type Two wild polio disappeared worldwide in nineteen ninety-nine. Cases caused by Type Three poliovirus do not spread as fast as polio caused by Type One.

Today, polio continues to strike people in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In two thousand three, Nigeria stopped providing vaccine against polio for almost a year.

False reports about the vaccine caused the stoppage. The reports said the vaccine gave people the disease AIDS. Other reports said it made people unable to have children. Nigeria reported many cases of polio after the vaccinations ended. The disease also spread to other nations.

By last August, however, the polio news in the nation seemed hopeful. Nigeria had reported a major reduction in polio cases after January. But then came an unwelcome report. Sixty-nine children in the northern part of the country had developed paralytic polio.

Some of the infected children had received Sabin oral polio vaccine. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative provided the vaccine to young children. It is given by mouth several times during a child's earliest years.

The Sabin oral polio vaccine contains a live but weakened version of poliovirus. The weakened virus protects well against Type-One poliovirus. But in Nigeria, some of the vaccine had made a rare and harmful genetic change.

The children started getting sick with polio in two thousand six, or even earlier. But these cases were not announced until late September, two thousand seven.

Critics say the news should have been reported quickly. They say the delayed announcement helped to support the polio vaccine suspicions that had stopped vaccinations several years before.

Rotary International made a public statement about the new polio cases in October of two thousand seven. The group said the vaccine did not, in itself, cause the children to get the disease.

Doctor Heymann of the W.H.O. said the children with vaccine-linked polio were more likely than others to get infected. He said not enough vaccine had been provided in their area. The doctor noted that sixty of the children had not received any vaccine. Or, he said, they had not received enough vaccine to protect them.

Critics have questioned the continued use of the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the international campaign against polio. They say its link to infection with the disease makes the vaccine unacceptable. But Rotary International notes the vaccination's success over the years. It says the oral polio vaccine has reduced polio cases by ninety nine percent since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began.

Eight years ago, American health officials stopped saying people should be given the Sabin oral polio vaccine. They said the reason was to end the possibility of paralytic polio linked to the vaccine.

Olen Kew is an expert in viruses for the Centers for Disease Control. He led a team that studied vaccine-linked polio in two thousand five. He says the W.H.O. is creating a program to develop a vaccine for use after polio is defeated. The new vaccine would not contain a live poliovirus. It could not cause polio.

Jonas Salk developed the first major polio vaccine in the nineteen fifties. Albert Sabin then developed the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the nineteen sixties. Doctor Salk’s polio vaccine was injected. An improved version of this vaccine is now the one used in the United States.

The improved Salk vaccine contains inactive viruses. It cannot cause polio. But experts say the oral polio vaccine works faster against the spread of Type-One polio. And the Sabin vaccine is less costly. Health care workers who direct its use need little training.

W.H.O. officials say only the oral poliovirus vaccine can quickly build very high body defenses against the disease. They say only this kind of vaccine can stop polio in developing countries with warm climates.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative says it will continue to use the oral polio vaccine.

Over the years, polio experts have had to learn to deal with the unexpected. New cases resulting from Type One poliovirus decreased in India last year. But the disease caused by Type-Three poliovirus increased in two Indian states.

Almost three hundred people in Uttar Pradesh got polio. Many others became infected in Bihar.

Devendra Khander leads the W.H.O. polio project in Bihar. Doctor Khander says many people there live close together in unhealthful conditions. He says the same is true for Uttar Pradesh. The doctor says not enough children have received polio vaccine. He also says flooding in Bihar made the situation worse.

The Indian capital, New Delhi, was free of Type-Three poliovirus cases for about five years. But last year, the disease was identified in two children. Doctor Heymann of the W.H.O says a prevention called monovalent oral polio vaccine has been shown effective in treating Type Three poliovirus.

The news about polio, then, is hopeful. But the Initiative to Eradicate Polio always needs money to launch vaccination campaigns.

VOICE ONE:

Help may come from a two hundred million dollar award by an agency of Rotary International. Late last year, the Rotary Foundation announced a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has offered a one hundred million dollar matching grant to the Rotary Foundation. Over three years, Rotary will raise money to equal each of those dollars.

The money can be used to provide more children a healthy future, a future without polio.

For years, most of the household waste collected in America's largest city went to a landfill on Staten Island. Staten Island is one of the five boroughs that form the city of New York. The others are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

The landfill closed in two thousand one. Now, local leaders hope Staten Island will become known for something else: fine wines. Officials expect to break ground before summer for the Tuscan Garden Vineyard Project. Wine grapes will be planted on most of one hectare in the Staten Island Botanical Garden.

Borough President James Molinaro has set aside one and one-half millions dollars for the vineyard. Officials say the project will be educational and nonprofit. It will demonstrate the process of growing grapes and making wine.

It could bring visitors who now ride the Staten Island ferry from Manhattan just to see the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

Organizers say the climate is similar to other winemaking areas of New York State, like the Finger Lakes area and Long Island. For years, people have suggested that Staten Island should have a vineyard.

Several years ago, four business leaders decided to do something about it. They formed the Founders’ Group. One of them, Henry Salmon, recalls growing grapes on a friend’s farm while growing up on Staten Island.

Last November, to get ideas, the group went to Italy. They visited a winemaking town in Tuscany. Crespina, with about four thousand people, became a sister city to Staten Island. And Tuscan winemaker Piergiorgio Castellani became a technical adviser to the project.

Advice has also come from others, including experts at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the University of Pisa in Italy. The grapes chosen for the Staten Island climate and soil include cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sangiovese.

Plans call for two thousand vines on land that Henry Salmon says was once used for a retirement home for sailors.

The vineyard will be organic. No chemical pesticides will be used. Compost made from leaves and other organic material collected from city parks will serve as fertilizer.

If all goes well, the Tuscan Garden Vineyard Project on Staten Island should have its first wines ready in a few years. The wine will not be sold. Plans call for using it at tastings and special events.

Just about every family in the United States has at least one member, now or in the past, who came from another country. Even American Indians may have immigrant ancestors through marriage.

The United States is one of the few industrial countries with a growing population. The main reason is immigration. Today America has just over three hundred million people. A new report says if current growth rates continue, the nation will have four hundred thirty-eight million in two thousand fifty.

The Pew Research Center says more than eighty percent of the increase will be the result of immigrants and their American-born children or grandchildren. Non-Hispanic whites are expected to be a minority, forty-seven percent of the population, in two thousand fifty.

Hispanics are currently the nation's largest ethnic minority. By the middle of the century, their number is expected to double to twenty-nine percent of the population.

The Census Bureau estimates the foreign-born population of the United States at twelve percent as of two thousand four. Just over half the people were born in Latin America, twenty-five percent in Asia and fourteen percent in Europe. The remaining eight percent were from Africa and other areas.

Last year, six hundred fifty thousand immigrants became American citizens. Yet even a nation of immigrants can find itself divided by the issue of immigration, especially when the economy is not doing well.

But the concerns expressed in public debate are usually not so much about immigration itself but about illegal immigration. An estimated eleven million or more people are in the United States without permission. Most of them came across the borders with Mexico or Canada illegally. Others came to the United States on a temporary visa and never went home.

Supporters of stronger immigration laws say illegal immigrants use health care and public education systems without paying their fair share. They say undocumented workers push down wages in some jobs, like in the building industry.

But others argue that illegal immigrants put money into local economies and often have taxes taken out of their wages. Yet because their employment is against the law, it often involves identity theft to create false documents. That crime hurts innocent people whose identities were stolen.

But a new report suggests that fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified. The Public Policy Institute of California released a study done in that state.

In California, people born outside the United States represent about thirty-five percent of the adult population. But researchers found that immigrants represent only about seventeen percent of the state prison population.

Still, supporters of stronger laws point out that some communities face greater problems than others with crime by illegal immigrants.

Debates about illegal immigration often go round and round like this:

Employers have trouble finding Americans to take low-paying jobs so they need immigrants.

Maybe, but employers will never raise wages as long as they can find people willing to work for less.

Maybe, but if wages go up, so will prices, and that will create other problems.

Such arguments are nothing new. What is new is that immigrants are moving beyond big states like California, Texas or New York. They are settling all across the country, in big cities as well as small towns.

These new residents are bringing cultural changes to many areas. Some of these changes are welcome, others are not. Tensions may develop, often in reaction to an issue like day laborers. These are groups of men who stand on the street, often outside home improvement centers, hoping for a day's work. Many of these workers are illegal immigrants.

Language can also be a divisive issue when immigrants are seen as slow to learn English. Yet English classes are often in such demand they have waiting lists.

In the year two thousand, eighteen percent of people in the United States over age five spoke a language other than English at home. By two thousand six the Census Bureau says the number was twenty percent.

Many people say the immigration system is broken. But few can agree on how to fix it.

Some say illegal immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for some time should have a chance to become legal residents. For one thing, they say it would be impossible to arrest eleven million people and send them all home.

Others are against a path to legal residency if they see it as amnesty, pardoning millions of people who entered the country illegally. For one thing, they say it would be unfair to those who follow the process to come here legally.

The last time there was an amnesty for illegal immigrants was in nineteen eighty-six.

Usually, the only punishment for being in the country illegally is expulsion, unless a person was arrested on other charges. Technically it is not even considered a criminal offense. Congress' efforts to rewrite immigration laws last year included hotly debated proposals to criminalize illegal immigration. In the end Congress failed to pass an immigration reform plan.

In the presidential campaign, the major candidates appear to share fairly similar positions on illegal immigration.

Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both supported an immigration bill that failed in the Senate last year. The reform legislation would have provided a path to legal residency and citizenship for some illegal immigrants.

The bill was supported by President Bush. And it was co-sponsored by Senator John McCain, the expected Republican presidential nominee.

American immigration history presents a pattern of history repeating itself. Hard times or conflict in other countries lead people to seek a better life in America. When groups of Americans begin to feel threatened, the federal government moves to restrict immigration.

These days, the government does not seek to restrict immigration so much as manage it. That was how a spokesman for the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services described it

But with Congress unable to agree on immigration reform, states are not sure what to do.

Enforcing immigration law is the responsibility of the federal government. But state and local officials say the government is not doing enough, so they are taking action on their own.

For example, a new law took effect January first in the southwestern state of Arizona. It bans businesses from hiring people known to be in the country illegally, and cancels their operating licenses if they do.

Business groups in Arizona appealed the new measure. They said only the federal government can enforce immigration laws. In early February, a federal judge rejected their argument. The judge said the Arizona law did not conflict with federal powers because states are responsible for licensing businesses.

But courts in other states have ruled differently in similar cases. Last year, a federal judge ruled against a local law in the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The law would have denied permits to businesses that hire illegal immigrants. In Missouri, however, a judge upheld such a measure.

The National Conference of State Legislatures says immigration is being debated in all fifty state capitols. Last year, forty-six states passed two hundred forty laws related to immigrants. That was almost three times as many laws as in two thousand six.

The new laws deal with subjects like driver's licenses, employment and public benefits. The legislation affects legal as well as illegal immigrants. States are acting in policy areas including education, health care, human trafficking and law enforcement.

With the economy slowing, state and local governments are likely to feel more pressure to provide services to legal residents only.

If you give something to someone for free, will that person value it and use it? Development experts have debated this question for decades. Some say the act of paying causes people to value something and use it more. Others argue that selling necessary health treatments may deny them to the people who need them the most.

Consider, for example, chemically treated bed nets. These bed nets kill mosquitoes and protect people against malaria while they are sleeping. New York University economist William Easterly says this is one example of development gone wrong. In a recent book, Professor Easterly suggests bed nets given freely in Africa are often used for the wrong purpose.

Yet, the World Health Organization recommends bed nets be given out freely and used by whole communities. The success of a large free bed net campaign in Kenya led the W.H.O. to announce this recommendation last August.

This debate will likely influence social programs in the developing world. Many non-governmental organizations support the creation of self-sustaining programs in poor countries. Goods and services are sold for a price to help these programs survive.

Rachel Glennerster runs the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The research lab does development and poverty studies. Its goal is to improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs in the United States and other countries.

Miz Glennerster tells us that several studies by the research group's economists have proven that small price changes have a big influence on the number of people who use a product. A price change will reduce the total amount of use of the product as well, she says. The economists have also found no evidence that the very act of paying for something changes how people use it.

Finally, some development experts argue that pricing is useful when targeting a product among special populations. When it comes to bed nets, Miz Glennerster says research shows no evidence of this. People are just as likely to use a bed net if they paid for it or not.

Shirley Chisholm is best known as the first black woman elected to United States Congress and the first black woman to run for president of the United States. However, her life was filled with much more than being the first black woman to do important things. She believed in being a person to fight for change. All her life, she worked to improve the lives of others.

Shirley Anita Saint Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen twenty-four. She was the oldest of four daughters. Her father was a factory worker from Guyana. He loved to read. Her mother was from the British West Indies island of Barbados. She made clothes and cleaned other people’s houses.

Shirley’s parents had very little money. They wanted their daughters to get a good education and to have a better life. When Shirley was three years old her parents sent her and her sisters to live with their grandmother in Barbados.

Shirley received a good education from the British school system. She enjoyed the years she lived with her grandmother. Her family in Barbados was a strong, organized group that believed in education. Shirley always remembered the words her grandmother spoke.

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM:

“When I was reared in the British West Indies my grandmother used to always tell me, you may not be loved by certain forces in a society and you have to understand why. But always speak the truth.”

In nineteen thirty-four Shirley moved back to Brooklyn. She was ten years old. She continued to do very well in school. She later graduated from Brooklyn College with honors. In nineteen forty-nine, she married Conrad Chisholm who worked as a private investigator. Together they took part in local politics. Their marriage ended almost thirty years later.

As a young woman, Shirley decided to become a teacher. She believed she could improve society by helping children. She worked for seven years at a child care center in the Harlem area of New York City. She attended Columbia University at night and received an advanced degree in early childhood education in nineteen fifty-two. She became known as an expert in children and early education. From nineteen fifty-nine to nineteen sixty-four Shirley Chisholm was an education official in the day care division of the city’s office of child welfare.

In ninety sixty-four Shirley Chisholm’s political career began. She was elected to the New York State Assembly. She served for four years.

In nineteen sixty-eight she announced she would run for the United States Congress. She was elected from the newly created Twelfth District of New York City. She became the first black woman elected to Congress. She represented a poor area of Brooklyn called Bedford-Stuyvesant.

In Congress, Miz Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. She protested this assignment. She felt it was not important to the poor people of the city that she represented. She was moved to the Veterans Affairs Committee. She later served on the Education and Labor Committee, the position she wanted. In nineteen seventy-seven she joined the important House Rules Committee.
Shirley Chisholm was very different from other members of Congress. She looked different. Her hair was a big cloud of curls. She wore very large eyeglasses. And she had dark skin.

She also spoke differently. She had developed a minor Caribbean accent while living with her grandmother in Barbados. Her voice was strong. She spoke with power. She said her greatest tool was her mouth. She was not afraid to say the things others would not say before Congress and the public.

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM:

“But, my friends, I might be strong for some persons in this audience, but I believe in telling it like it is.”

Shirley Chisholm spoke strongly for the poor and for women. She worked for civil rights for African Americans. She opposed the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-nine she helped form the Congressional Black Caucus. She also was a member of the National Organization for Women. Miz Chisholm was an activist for people of color, including Native Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants. She often spoke about cultural and social issues.

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM:

“Increasing immigration to the United States suggests that we do face ( -- and we better own up to – we do face) new social and cultural problems as these new Americans are integrated into our society. And because most of the new immigrants are people of color, cultural adjustments must be made by all groups in America if we are to learn to live together as one nation.”

Miz Chisholm wrote a book about her life in nineteen seventy called “Unbought and Unbossed.” She refused to be defined by party politics or racial comparisons. Sometimes this worked against her.

In nineteen seventy-two Shirley Chisholm announced that she would run for president of the United States. Many people thought it was a strange thing to do. Miz Chisholm said during her life in politics she faced more discrimination as a woman than as a black person.

Shirley Chisholm became the first woman and the first black person to carry out a presidential campaign within one of the major parties. When she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president this is what she said: “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.”

Miz Chisholm did not win the Democratic primaries or the nomination. She said she did not run for president because she expected to win. She ran to make a point.

In nineteen seventy-three Shirley Chisholm wrote another book, “The Good Fight.” In that book she told of her reasons for running for president even though she did not expect to win. She said: “The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to the highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start.”

Shirley Chisholm left Congress in nineteen eighty-two after fourteen years. She said many voters did not understand her. She said her influence as a truthful, tough politician was decreasing in conservative times. Also, she wanted to spend more time with her second husband, Arthur Hardwick.

Miz Chisholm went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Years after leaving Congress, she continued to be invited to speak before many groups and organizations.

A reporter once asked Miz Chisholm how she wanted to be remembered. She said she did not want to be remembered as the nation’s first black congresswoman. She wanted to be remembered as a brave person, a person who created change.

Shirley Chisholm died January first, two thousand five. She suffered a series of strokes. She was eighty years old.

Shirley Chisholm loved her country. She wanted to serve all America, not just African Americans and women. Her work for the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the state of New York and the nation continues through the changes she helped make in American society.

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM:

“America is a wonderful land. It’s no question about it. That is why every group from across the waters tries to come to America. I am hopeful. Oh God am I hopeful that before I die that I will see that America will move toward a period of real enlightenment (not rhetorical enlightenment, real enlightenment), and that when we are finally faced with the choice of exclusion or inclusion we will choose inclusion because that’s what America is suppose to be all about.”

The New York Philharmonic orchestra performed in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, this week. It was the first performance by an American symphony orchestra in the communist state. More than one hundred performers made the trip to Pyongyang, led by the Philharmonic's musical director, Lorin Maazel. The historic event was broadcast live on television and radio in North Korea. It can also be seen on the Internet.

More than one thousand North Koreans attended the concert Tuesday night. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not attend. However, other top North Korean officials did.

The New York City orchestra performed the North Korean national song and America's national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." The musicians played famous music, including Antonin Dvorak’s "New World Symphony" and George Gershwin’s "An American in Paris." The performance ended with a version of "Arirang," a Korean folk song that is considered an unofficial national anthem in both North and South Korea.

North Korea’s government usually bans music that is not approved by officials. As a result, jazz, rock and most Western classical music are not permitted.

The North Korean government has always described the United States as a hostile aggressor. But the American orchestra’s visit was widely described as a form of musical diplomacy. Some Americans hoped the friendly cultural exchange will help improve relations between the United States and North Korea.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry praised the event as a chance to improve understanding and trust between North Korea and the United States. South Korean experts say much has changed in North Korea since leaders from the North and South met in two thousand. They say expanded contacts have increased the flow of information about the rest of the world into North Korea. Many experts say the country is not as disconnected as it once was. They say events like the Philharmonic performance make important gains in opening North Korea even further.

However, the White House spokeswoman said the performance neither hurt nor helped American diplomatic efforts. She said relations between the two countries will only improve when North Korea provides information about its nuclear programs. It was supposed to provide such information about two months ago to the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. Those countries have promised aid and improved diplomatic relations if North Korea ends all of its nuclear programs.

Each individual may define the American dream differently. But the general idea is that a person in the United States has the freedom to carry out his or her goals. It usually means a person has the chance to work hard, earn money and create a secure life. For many people, this means being able to get a good education, have a good job and own a house. The expression is often linked to immigrants who have come to this country seeking more freedom or a better life than they could have in their own countries.

Many would say Rosen Sharma from India is enjoying the American dream. He leads an information technology company in Palo Alto, California.

The definition appeared in nineteen thirty-one in a history book by James Truslow Adams, “The Epic of America.” He wrote that the American dream is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”

Some people would say that the United States Declaration of Independence first defined the American dream. Thomas Jefferson wrote this document in seventeen seventy-six. It expressed why the American colonies decided to fight British colonial rule in order to become an independent nation. The Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal." And that they have the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In the nineteen sixties, the African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior had his own dream for America. He said that America’s declaration that "all men are created equal" is a great expression of the idea of democracy. But he noted that this dream was not a reality. He said that it was the moral duty of Americans to work so that racial minorities and people of different social levels could be treated equally.

An organization called the Center for a New American Dream deals with another kind of dream. Its goal is to help Americans live in ways that protect the environment, improve the quality of life and support social justice.

February twenty-ninth, is Leap Day. This date only appears on the calendar once every four years. But why?

Everyone knows the Earth takes three hundred sixty-five days to travel around the sun. Well, that is not exactly correct. The Earth really takes three hundred sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds to complete its orbit around the sun.

The problem for people developing calendars was what to do with the extra five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds.

People needed calendars to help them know when to plant crops and when to celebrate religious holidays. The ancient Greeks and Chinese had a solution. They produced calendars that included extra months every nineteen years.

The ancient Romans had a different solution. In the year forty-six, the Roman ruler Julius Caesar made a new calendar. The Julian calendar included an extra day every four years. But there was a problem. The Julian year was just over eleven minutes longer than the cycle of the seasons. In fifteen eighty-two, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth established a new calendar to keep a better record of the days. Pope Gregory was the religious leader of most of Europe. He decided that years that could be divided by four would add a day. However, years that ended in two zeros that could not be evenly divided by four hundred would not be leap years.

For example, the years seventeen hundred, eighteen hundred and nineteen hundred were not leap years. But the years sixteen hundred and two thousand were leap years.

So leap years are years with three hundred sixty-six days, instead of the usual three hundred sixty-five. This extra day is added to the calendar on February twenty-ninth, sometimes known as Leap Day. People born on Leap Day may be called "leaplings." They usually celebrate their birthdays on February twenty-eighth or March first.

Music critics and fans of Will Downing know him as a skillful singer and songwriter. He is recognized as one of the leading singers of romantic, rhythm and blues music. He has had many loyal fans since his first album in nineteen eighty-eight. He recently released another successful album while dealing with a serious, life-changing sickness.

(MUSIC)

That was “Will’s Groove” from Will Downing's latest record called "After Tonight." It is his thirteenth album in twenty years. It includes songs that combine rhythm and blues and his easy, jazz style of singing.

After recording a few songs for “After Tonight,” Will Downing became sick with a rare, incurable disease called polymyositis. The condition causes severe muscle weakness that makes it difficult to move. Yet, Downing worked very hard to complete his new record. Instead of a studio, he sometimes recorded songs from a hospital bed or a wheelchair in his home.

Although he is facing difficult times, Will Downing says, he remains thankful. He wrote the song “God Is So Amazing” to express his feelings.

The other songs on “After Tonight” are the kind of emotional love songs that make Will Downing so popular, especially among women. The words in his songs and his smooth, rich voice tell a story of how wonderful love should be.

This year, something happened at the Academy Awards that had not happened since nineteen sixty-four. All the winners for best acting were from outside the United States.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton are British. He won best actor for "There Will Be Blood"; she won best supporting actress for "Michael Clayton." French actress Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for best actress for "La Vie en Rose." And Spain's Javier Bardem won best supporting actor in "No Country for Old Men."

Hollywood is increasingly looking outside America's borders for stars and profit.

Jonathan Taplin is a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He says that today, about fifty-four percent of the ticket sales for Hollywood studios now come from outside the United States.

For the last three months of two thousand seven, foreign sales totaled about eight hundred eighty million dollars. But there is fierce competition for each movie dollar.

Hollywood has lost market share in some places as other countries develop their own film industries. For example, in the mid-eighties, American films had eighty percent of the market in South Korea. Today that share is about forty percent.

Hollywood also faces competition from illegally copied movies, a major issue to the Motion Picture Association of America. The trade group estimated more than eighteen billion dollars in worldwide losses from piracy in two thousand five.

Hollywood reporter Alan Silverman says piracy has influenced how American movies are released. In the past, Hollywood studios waited months after the American release of a film to release it in foreign markets. Now, many aim to release films at the same time around the world.

Foreign markets may also influence how people get their movies. Different nations have different levels of technology.

Efforts to settle on the next-generation DVD got a lot of attention recently. Sony's Blu-ray technology for high-definition televisions won the competition with Toshiba's HD DVD format.

Yet DVD sales have dropped in recent years. This may be a sign that people are increasingly getting their movies off the Internet. The Internet is another front in Hollywood's war on piracy. But more than that, it presents complex business questions for an industry now built mostly on DVD and ticket sales.