Is US Losing an Important Part in the War on Terrorism?

  Sixteen years after the United States launched its war on terrorism, there are concerns that parts of the war have not succeeded. Some experts and U.S. government officials believe the country may be losing what they call “the battle of ideas.” Michael McCaul is a member of the House of Representatives and head of its Homeland Security Committee. McCaul notes that the U.S. military has used drone aircraft to kill jihadists and others sharply opposed to the West. “We have been able to stop and prevent a lot of (terror) plots from happening in the United States,” he says. But he adds that “drone strikes alone can’t win a war of ideology.” Current and former U.S. officials say the country has tried hard to fight propaganda that fuels groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. But they admit the results of the efforts have not been good. White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert says he is “alarmed at the spreading of the ideology.” He spoke at a security conference earlier this month in Washington, D.C. “We’ve got upwards of 17 or 18 nation states that might be failed, or viewed as close to failing, and they have a strong presence of either ISIS or al-Qaida or other groups,” Bossert said. “That is a troubling development.” Some U.S. officials once believed the problems would end with a military victory against Islamic State fighters in the Middle East. They believed that after the group’s self-declared caliphate collapsed, so would the appeal of the group.   But experts say the Islamic State’s continuing losses on the battlefield have failed to end the appeal of jihadist teachings. In July, Dan Coats, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told a group that “we’re putting a stake in the heart of ISIS.” He compared the effort to killing an octopus, “with all the tentacles moving out to different places.” Other American efforts to directly attack Islamic State communications and ideology quickly failed. Some critics say the State Department’s “Think Again, Turn Away” Twitter account feed was not effective or meaningful. Since then, the government has been empowering partner organizations to help beat back the Islamic State message. Progress has been slow, but some former officials say President Donald Trump needs to give these efforts more time. Joshua Geltzer is a former counterterrorism expert at the National Security Council. He said “it seems to me there’s actually been a stepping back, in particular, from some of the structures that were built” to fight terrorist ideology. Geltzer and other former officials have said they are worried about the Trump administration’s plans to cut money for such programs. But some current and former officials say there may be limits to what the U.S. government can do. “Truly altering the environment that gives rise to the terrorist threat we face, that’s a much more formidable task,” says Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He added “More resources are required, more time is required and more patience is required.” Some observers say there are signs that the U.S. may not even know what it wants to do. Jasmine El-Gamal was a cultural adviser for the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She now works for the Atlantic Council research center in Washington. She notes “we have a very militarized view of what this battle is. When we say ‘countering violent extremism’ it’s really counterterrorism. It’s really that we use bombs, we use drones, we use armies.” A report by New America’s International Security program noted that “there seems to be some conceptual confusion in the U.S. government about what ‘countering violent extremism’ programs are attempting to do.”  (Jihadist Terrorism 16 Years After 9/11: A Threat Assessment http://ift.tt/2jrrmC4) The report says “turning many millions of Muslims around the world away from radical ideas … seems both a nebulous mission and one that may not be achievable.” Some experts believe American allies in the Middle East could be doing much more to help fight extremists’ ideology. New America Fellow Nadia Oweidat said “most Arab states are not interested in uprooting the tree, but just taking the poisonous fruits when convenient.” Many Arab states have laws against blasphemy – the act of insulting God or religion. Oweidat notes, “As long as there are blasphemy laws, you don’t even dream about countering terrorism, because the very people who can take on these ideas from within -- who know the Quran by heart, people who went to school all their lives in the Middle East” -- are those who would be identified as blasphemous.” I’m Pete Musto. And I'm Jill Robbins.   VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted his report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. ____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story caliphate – n. the government of a caliph, a Muslim political and religious leader stake – n. a sharp, pointed stick octopus – n. a sea creature with eight arms tentacle – n. one of the long arms that stick out from an octopus alter – v. to change formidable – adj. causing fear; creating serious difficulties confusion – n. the feeling you have when you do not understand what is happening nebulous – adj. not clear; difficult to understand achievable – adj. doing something successfully convenient – adj. letting you do something easily or without trouble Quran – n. Islam’s holy book  

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English in a Minute: In Your Blood

What skills or qualities are "in your blood?" Watch this week's EIM to learn whether or not singing is in Anna's blood!

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Let's Teach English Unit 3: Speaking Skills

In this lesson, the teacher helps students to overcome specific pronunciation problems. See the whole lesson at http://ift.tt/2yauCVZ

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Let's Learn English - Level 2 - Lesson 3: He Said - She Said

Anna and Pete are meeting a director. But they are late! See the whole lesson at: http://ift.tt/2yb9oqQ

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NASA's Cassini Death Dives into Saturn, Ending Mission

  The spacecraft Cassini ended its 20-year mission on Friday with a final death dive into the planet Saturn. NASA scientists and officials gathered at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for Cassini’s last moments. “Project manager, flight director. Go ahead. Ok, we call loss of signal at one-one, five-five, four-six.” Cassini had actually burned up like a meteor 83 minutes earlier, as it dove through Saturn’s atmosphere. But it took that many minutes for the news to reach Earth more than one-and-a-half billion kilometers away. Program manager Earl Maize marked the end of the spacecraft and praised the work of the NASA team. “I hope you’re all as deeply proud of this amazing accomplishment, congratulations to you all. This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft and you’re all an incredible team. I’m going to call this end of mission.” The crash was planned by scientists and engineers at NASA’s JPL. NASA is the United States space agency. They decided to end the mission this way because of an important find during the mission -- the possibility of life on one of Saturn’s moons. Saturn is the sixth planet in our solar system. It is known for its famous rings and many moons. Cassini’s study of the system of Saturn’s rings and moons brought many surprises. The researchers discovered ocean worlds that may contain the elements for life on some of Saturn's moons. Morgan Cable is an assistant project science systems engineer. "At the time of its design, we had no idea that ocean worlds existed in the outer solar system."     Another unexpected discovery came from the south pole of Enceladus, a moon that sits in one of Saturn's rings. Molly Bittner is a spacecraft operations systems engineer. She explains what they found out about Enceladus. "It has a liquid water ocean underneath and it shoots geysers. So these cracks open up and geysers shoot out." Instruments on Cassini have examined the grains and gas coming from that geyser plume. Engineer Morgan Cable explains that instruments on board Cassini helped researchers learn what was in that geyser plume. "We know that there are salts. Now this is important for life because life needs certain minerals and salts to exist. We have very strong evidence that there are hydro-thermal vents down at that base of that ocean, at the ocean flood. Now any time you find hydro-thermal vents here on Earth, you find rich communities of organisms." Cassini was also able to gather data from Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. It has lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane, instead of water. There is also evidence of a liquid ocean beneath the surface that probably contains ammonia and water.  Scientists and engineers say the environment could hold life. Morgan Cable says life may look different than on our planet.  "We're still open to trying to look for weird life in places like this and we found a strange place right here in our solar system." The possibility of life on Saturn’s moons made NASA engineers think about how to best end Cassini’s mission as it ran out of fuel. Cassini carried organisms from Earth. They did not want it to land on a moon like Enceladus because, if it already holds life, Cassini could have contaminated it. "I want to find life elsewhere in a place like Enceladus but I don't want to realize later on that we put it there." Scientists and engineers are already looking ahead to future missions back to Saturn and its moons.  Cable says they want to look deeper into the possibility of finding life there. "And I think with today's instrumentation, things that we could put on a spacecraft right now, we could find that life with our instruments of today." Right up until it crashed into Saturn, Cassini was still sending back important data to Earth. That information will keep researchers busy as they analyze it for years to come. I’m Anne Ball.  Anne Ball adapted this story for Learning English from several VOA News stories. Ashley Thompson was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit us on our Facebook page.     _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   meteor – n. a piece of rock or metal that burns and glows brightly in the sky as it falls from outer space into the Earth's atmosphere solar system – n. our sun and the planets that move around it geyser – n. a hole in the ground that shoots out hot water and steam plume – n. something (such as smoke, steam, or water) that rises into the air in a tall, thin shape hydro thermal – adj. of or relating to hot water —used especially of the formation of minerals by hot solutions rising from a cooling magma vent – n. an opening through which air, steam, smoke, liquid, etc., can go into or out contaminate – v. to make (something) dangerous, dirty, or impure by adding something harmful or undesirable to it

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What It Takes: Jonas Salk

  00:00:02    OPRAH WINFREY: "Hattie Mae, this child is gifted," and I heard that enough that I started to believe it. 00:00:08    ROGER BANNISTER: If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another chance. 00:00:14    LAURYN HILL: It all was so clear. It was just, like, the picture started to form itself. 00:00:19    DESMOND TUTU: There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life. 00:00:32    CAROL BURNETT (quoting CARRIE HAMILTON): “Every day I wake up and decide, today I'm going to love my life. Decide.” 00:00:35    JOHNNY CASH: My advice is, if they're going to break your leg once when you go in that place, stay out of there. 00:00:40    JAMES MICHENER: And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for, but boy, you’d better not miss them. 00:00:52    ALICE WINKLER: This is What It Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement's recorded collection, a tremendous archive of intimate, thoughtful conversations with people who have changed the world. I'm Alice Winkler. The Academy of Achievement is based in Washington, D.C., and it was founded to inspire students by bringing them together with leaders in every field, but now, with this podcast, you also get to hear the stories and insights of these remarkable human beings, people like Dr. Jonas Salk. 00:01:33    But let's start a little farther back before the world learned his name. 00:01:38    MALE VOICE: This year, the enemy, poliomyelitis, struck with such impact and fury that it shook the entire nation. It spread its crypting tentacles from ocean to ocean and border to border. There has been no escape, no immunity. It has closed the gates on normal childhood. It has swept our beaches, stilled our boats, and emptied our pots, for this is epidemic. 00:02:04    ALICE WINKLER: In the 1940s and early '50s, summer was terrifying. The polio virus was most contagious during the hot months and struck tens of thousands of children every year, almost 60,000 in 1952 alone. It left wasted muscles, paralysis, and sometimes death, in its wake. If your child caught the virus, she might end up lying in an "iron lung" in a hospital lined up with rows and rows of other children in iron lungs, their heads all jutting out from the giant metal barrels, unable to move at all, but then finally, in 1955, a reprieve. 00:02:49    NEWSCASTER: CBS News presents a special report. The Salk polio vaccine is a success. The vaccine works. 00:02:58    ALICE WINKLER: The country and the whole world heaved a sigh of relief. Poliomyelitis, or polio, had come in menacing waves for hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years. Overnight, Dr. Jonas Salk became an unlikely celebrity, a national hero in a lab coat. 00:03:18    JONAS SALK: There was a great rejoicing, obviously, because of the freedom from fear, or the relief. It was not unlike the ending of a war, if you like. People meet me, even now, remembering exactly the moment when this announcement was made. I felt myself very much like someone in the eye of the hurricane because of all this swirling was going on around me. 00:03:45    And it was at that moment that everything changed, and it was Edward R. Murrow, the journalist and newscaster, who said to me that evening, "You had a great — " he said, "Young man, a great tragedy has just befallen you." I said, "What's that, Ed?" And he said, "You've just lost your anonymity." And it was then that I became looked upon as a public figure, and I had to fight and struggle to continue on with my work. 00:04:17    ALICE WINKLER: The Academy of Achievement invited Jonas Salk to sit for an interview in 1991 to record his reflections on a remarkable life. Salk was then 77 years old. The first question was whether he’d always wanted to be a doctor. 00:04:35    JONAS SALK: No, as a child I had in mind to study law, but my mother didn't think I'd make a very good lawyer. Her reasons were that I couldn’t really win an argument with her. 00:04:47    ALICE WINKLER: Thank you, Mrs. Salk. Without you, Jonas might have followed his interest in the law all the way to the halls of Congress, where he actually dreamed of serving, and then where would we be?  00:04:59    JONAS SALK: My mother had no schooling. She came to this country from Russia in 1901. She immediately, as a young girl, began to work and would help to support the family. She was very ambitious, in a sense, for her children. She wanted her children to have more than she had, so that she lived her life and invested her life to live through her children. 00:05:25    I was the eldest of three sons, and the favorite, and the one who had all of her attention. So my second — middle — brother was born when I was about five years old, and my youngest brother when I was about twelve, and she wanted to be sure that we all were going to advance in the world, and therefore we were encouraged in our studies and overly protected in many ways. 00:05:57    My father was a designer of ladies’ neckwear, blouses and things of that kind. He was a more artistic person, and he was in the — a designer in the garment industries, and he had not quite graduated from elementary school, so that we were not brought up in a family which was already cultured. And the — my mother's children and father's children were the first of their respective generations that went on to college. 00:06:30    So there was something special in the household, but there weren't any role models in my life in that sense. 00:06:38    ALICE WINKLER: Jonas Salk, without role models, and deterred by his mother from pursuing a legal career, settled for medicine, but from the start, he never intended to practice medicine. Instead, he wanted to work as a research scientist. Looking back on it, Salk said, whether he’d gone into law or medicine, his ambition was the same, to work in the service of humankind. He knew he wouldn't be satisfied helping people just on a one-to-one basis. 00:07:07    When journalist Gail Eichenthal, who conducted this interview, asked Dr. Salk whether his humanitarian spirit was fostered by his parents, he demurred. 00:07:17    JONAS SALK: Well, I think that this is part of our nature and part of an ancestral heritage. That's how we got to be where we are, through people who performed or functioned that way or had that drive or desire and ambition, which I look upon as a natural phenomenon. You know, born with that instinct, if you'd like. And then, in the course of life, if the opportunities present themselves and if there is either encouragement, or even if there's not encouragement, you overcome the resistances to any opposition, if that's the kind of person that you are. 00:08:01    Some people are constructive, if you'd like. Others are destructive, and it's necessary merely to have enough and make positive contributions to deal with, overcome, and help solve the problems of each age. 00:08:18    GAIL EICHENTHAL: When did you first have a vision of what you might accomplish in the world, of the exact field that you would devote yourself to? 00:08:26    JONAS SALK: You never have an idea of what you might accomplish. All that you do is you pursue a question and see where it leads. The first moment that I had — that a question occurred to me that did influence my future career occurred in my second year at medical school. 00:08:50    ALICE WINKLER: One day, as he sat in a lecture hall, Jonas Salk's professor explained that it was possible to immunize against diphtheria and tetanus, both bacterial infections, by chemically altering the bacterial toxins that cause the illnesses. In the very next lecture, the professor taught that for viral diseases, chemically treated virus wouldn’t do the trick. You'd have to actually experience the infection to develop immunity. 00:09:20    JONAS SALK: Well, somehow that struck me that both statements couldn’t be true, and I asked why this was so, and the answer that was given, there was no satisfactory answer. Perhaps it had been tried and had not succeeded, and I think that that, in fact, was true. 00:09:39    ALICE WINKLER: The doubts he had about his professor’s statement had a chance to fester for quite some time because World War II broke out, and Salk, by then at the University of Michigan on a fellowship, spent six years working with his mentor to find a vaccine against the flu. If you think back on your history, the influenza pandemic that broke out during World War I killed about three times as many people worldwide as died in the war itself. 00:10:09    Forty-three thousand U.S. soldiers serving in the Great War died of flu. So when World War II started, Salk and his colleagues received funding from the military to come up with a flu vaccine that would protect the troops, and, in fact, they succeeded. It was a killed virus. In other words, a chemically deactivated one. Salk took the lessons from that success, and he set his sights on polio. Why did he focus so intently on the killed virus, when others, like his legendary competitor Albert Sabin, were dead set on trying to develop a live virus? 00:10:49    JONAS SALK: It was very simple. Before the work on influenza, the effective vaccines were those made with what we call attenuated, or so-called weakened, viruses. They have the capacity to infect, cause serious reactions, and sometimes fatal reactions. But the principle that I tried to establish was that it was not necessary to run the risk, and so it seemed to me the safer and more certain way to proceed. 00:11:26    That if we could inactivate the virus, that we could move onto a vaccine very quickly, whereas if you worked only with weakened virus, you'd have to demonstrate its safety eventually. So that was the reasoning. 00:11:37    GAIL EICHENTHAL: You got quite a bit of flak for that approach because no one had done it before, and you were kind of going out on a limb here. 00:11:45    JONAS SALK: I wasn't going out on a limb, and the flak to which you refer is what taught me very early on not only about the human side of nature but about the human side of science. I soon discovered that there are three stages of truth. First is that it can't be true, and that's what they said. You couldn’t immunize against polio with a killed virus vaccine. Second phase, they say, "Well, if it's true, it's not very important." 00:12:11    And the third stage is, "Well, we've known it all along." And so, what you are describing is the process that you have to go through when you come up with an idea that has not yet been tried or tested. And so I — while it is true that this involves personalities, it also involves different ways of seeing, and it was not a matter of a popularity contest. It was not a matter of anything other than that my curiosity drove me to find out whether it could work or not. 00:12:48    ALICE WINKLER: Time for a little backstory to fill you in on some tension in the scientific world you might be detecting. Actually, it’s a long and extremely fascinating backstory worth a read. But, briefly, the other vaccine researchers who were working on the live vaccine — Albert Sabin most famous among them — believed that their approach would result in a vaccine that would provide a lifetime of immunity in a single oral dose — a tiny, syrupy drop — and that it would therefore have a better chance of eradicating the disease worldwide. 00:13:25    Jonas Salk’s killed vaccine required an injection and several booster shots over years, but Salk, as he just said, believed it was safer and could be developed more quickly. It was a genuine scientific dispute, with a lot of research money at stake. The March of Dimes, which began as a massively successful fundraising campaign to end polio, chose to back Salk’s research. 00:13:55    Here’s a TV clip from 1954 with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz making a pitch for the March of Dimes. 00:14:02    LUCILLE BALL: You know, every child has a right to their health and happiness. 00:14:06    DESI ARNAZ: That's right, but there are an awful lot of children that don't even have that. 00:14:11    LUCILLE BALL: Yes, Desi, and there are a lot of parents whose children are healthy and happy now, who live in fear. I know I do. The fear, my friends, is polio, infantile paralysis. 00:14:23    DESI ARNAZ: Polio is no respecter of people. The rich, the poor, the strong, the weak. No one is immune. 00:14:32    LUCILLE BALL: But soon, perhaps within a year, there may be a vaccine, a vaccine available to all that may be the answer. 00:14:40    DESI ARNAZ: That's right. There is a trial vaccine now being tested. It has been tested successfully on 700 people, but now the vital large-scale tests must be conducted. Hundreds of thousands of people will be inoculated starting next month. 00:14:57    LUCILLE BALL: Vaccines and tests cost a great deal of money. Now here is your chance to help get this test done as quickly as possible. Give every dime and dollar that you can spare to the 1954 March of Dimes. 00:15:11    ALICE WINKLER: Salk’s research did bring a vaccine to market the following year. Albert Sabin’s vaccine didn’t become available for another seven, but it did, in fact, win out over the Salk vaccine for the next four decades. Salk’s, though, is more recently back in favor in the United States, so the rivalry continues, in a sense, long after their deaths. 00:15:36    But back in 1955, the issue of who got credit also led to a lot of sore feelings. The work of many other scientists laid the groundwork for Jonas Salk’s vaccine, as is often the case in research, but many felt bitter about Salk’s celebrity status. He was embraced by the media and by the public as the conquering hero who'd saved the world from the enemy polio’s clutches. 00:16:04    Salk didn’t create the media circus, but still, his spot in the limelight was seen as kind of untoward by his peers. Most vocal, and probably most damning, was his rival, Albert Sabin, who was quoted as saying, "Salk was a kitchen chemist. He never had an original idea in his life." Didn't Jonas Salk feel hurt by the disdain or the jealousy of some of his colleagues? 00:16:31    JONAS SALK: Oh, I just plowed on. Hurt is one thing. Being deterred is another thing, and so, while we prefer to have an open path, one thing you learn in life is that there's no such thing as a free lunch. There's no way that everybody's going to agree, and particularly if you go against the mainstream. 00:16:55    And since everyone at that time had already been — had their minds set on how they thought the problem ought to be dealt with, whether it was influenza or poliomyelitis, or now even the work on AIDS, that's a characteristic of how what I like to call the evolutionary process proceeds. What comes to mind now is I often think of this, it's like a seagull syndrome. I call it the seagull syndrome. 00:17:21    When I walk on the beach, I see the seagulls going out and getting a fish or a piece of bread on the beach, and then the others go after him, that one, rather than go get their own. 00:17:31    GAIL EICHENTHAL: It's unnerving to find that scientists who seem to be bent on helping mankind tend to get into these very bitter sort of rivalries. 00:17:43    JONAS SALK: You see, there's — the contradiction is in your assertion. You say scientists who are — have a bent to help mankind. That's not what their objective is. If that was their objective, they might approach it somewhat differently, and so you must — you see, you project your own perception of what a scientist is like or what he should do, what you'd expect him to do. 00:18:10    But you soon find out that that's not necessarily the case, and that the motivation that drives us to do what we do is different in each of us. And so we begin to see that there are two aspects to our pursuits: one is the pursuit of our curiosity; the other is how other people react to that, and you have to deal with both. 00:18:38     ALICE WINKLER: Jonas Salk never won the esteem of some of those colleagues. He never won the Nobel Prize, either, nor did the National Academy of Sciences even invite him to join, a harsh snub. But as he told Gail Eichenthal in this interview, he’d spent much of his life thinking, observing, and reflecting about science and about human nature, and he’d come to the conclusion that obstacles, failures, and even plain old disappointments are no cause for regret. 00:19:10     JONAS SALK: In fact, my entering the field that led to work in vaccines came about as a result of my being denied an opportunity to work in another laboratory or at another institution. And that's when I began to recognize that there are two great tragedies in life. One is to not get what you want. The other's to get what you want. And if I had gotten what I'd wanted, it would have been a greater tragedy than my not getting what I wanted, because it allowed me to get something else. 00:19:44    I know how disappointed we all are not to get what we want, but then the question is, should that discourage us and say, well, if not that then nothing? 00:19:56     GAIL EICHENTHAL: Did you ever doubt yourself when you got turned down from these places? 00:20:00     JONAS SALK: I would say evidently not, because I was merely looking for opportunity, and it was not a test of me, and then in many instances — or in some instances, I was aware that there were — or was a tendency toward either favoritism, or there was a tendency toward discrimination, and in some instances anti-Semitism played a role. 00:20:30     And I always realized that that was always a factor. In fact, almost didn't get into medical school because of quotas at that time. And so I was prepared for other eventualities. I was already prepared to go to graduate school to study endocrinology, for example, if I had not gone into medical school. And so it becomes necessary to be prepared for alternative paths. There may be a greater opportunity when something is denied. 00:21:03     ALICE WINKLER: Obviously, alternative paths landed Jonas Salk in some extraordinary places that spared tremendous suffering and countless lives. Not all those paths were the result of rejection. Here's one last story from Dr. Salk about an opportunity he was given as a young medical student. 00:21:23     JONAS SALK: At the end of my first year of medical school, the professor of chemistry, Dr. R. Keith Cannon, tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to come to see him. And I was quite sure that he was going to tell me that I was failing and give me some bad news, instead of which he offered me an opportunity to drop out for a year and work with him, during which time I had my first experience in research and also as a student teacher, so to speak. 00:21:55    And since my desire from the time I entered medical school was to enter into research and to do the scientific research, that was the break that I seized upon. It was a difficult decision to make because I would have had to leave my class, be alone, and, in a sense, be exceptional for that year, and then return to another class that I was participating in teaching. 00:22:30    Nevertheless, I had the courage to do so. Well, I didn’t get very much work done in that sense. It was not an accomplished year, but it was the year that initiated a process. That was what was important. It was not the product of that year but the initiation of a process, setting me on a path, and it's important to recognize that sometimes at a turning point, what's important is to let go of where you have been going, or where you are, to explore a new direction. 00:23:06     GAIL EICHENTHAL: Taking a risk in that sense really paid off. 00:23:09     JONAS SALK: Risks always pay off. You learn what to do or what not to do. And those who don't take risks, you would never know. Therefore, not infrequently, I’d go into the laboratory, and people would say, "Something didn't work," and I said, "Great," and "We've made a great discovery." So my attitude is not one of pitfalls, and so the — this idealized notion that — of discovery just suddenly falling into your lap — it's recognizing something that you might not have anticipated. 00:23:47    Basically it's entering into a dialogue with nature, and if you see it that way then it becomes a process, not a series of events. 00:24:02     ALICE WINKLER: That’s Jonas Salk, creator of the first polio vaccine. Dr. Salk went on to establish an institute for innovative scientific research that bears his name, and he spent the last years of his life searching for a vaccine against AIDS. Jonas Salk died in 1995, four years after he recorded this conversation for the Academy of Achievement. There’s a longer version of the interview and more information available about Dr. Salk at achievement.org. 00:24:33     When you have time for the stories and insights of another pioneer, be sure to come back. I’m Alice Winkler, and this is What It Takes. See you next time. 00:24:54    ALICE WINKLER: Many thanks to the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation for funding What It Takes.

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Delta Blues: The Birth of American Music

Grammy award wining blues musician Bobby Rush, playing the harmonica.

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'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' by Edgar Allen Poe, Part One

We present the first of five parts of the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," by Edgar Allen Poe. The story was originally adapted and recorded by VOA Learning English. Paris! It was in Paris during the summer of 1840. There and then, I met a strange and interesting young man named August Dupin. Dupin was the last member of a well-known family, a family which had once been rich and famous. August Dupin, however, was far from rich. He cared little about money. He had enough to buy necessities — and a few books. That was all. Just books. With books, he was happy. In fact, we first met in an old bookstore. A few more chance meetings at such stores followed. Soon, we began to talk. I was deeply interested in the family history he told me. I was surprised, too, at how much and how widely he had read; more important, the force of his busy mind was like a bright light in my soul. I felt that the friendship of such a man would be, for me, riches without price. So, I told him how I felt and asked him to come and live with me. He would enjoy using my many fine books. And I would have the pleasure of company, for I was not happy alone. We passed the days reading, writing and talking. But Dupin was a lover of the night. So, often, we walked the streets of Paris after dark. I soon noticed that Dupin had a special way of understanding people. Using it gave him great pleasure. He told me once, with a soft laugh, that he could see through the windows that most men have over their hearts. He could look into their souls. Then, he surprised me by telling what he knew about my own soul. He knew things about me that I had thought only I could possibly know. At these times, he acted cold and emotionally distant. His eyes looked empty and far away. His voice became high and nervous. At such times it seemed to me that I saw not just Dupin, but two Dupins — one who coldly put things together, and another who just as coldly took them apart. One night we were walking down one of Paris’s long, dirty streets. We were quiet, both busy in our own thoughts. But, suddenly Dupin spoke: “You’re right,” he said. “He is a very little fellow, that’s true, and he would be more successful if he acted in lighter, less serious plays.” “Yes, there can be no doubt of that!” I said. At first I saw nothing strange in this. Dupin had agreed with me. This, of course, seemed to me quite natural. A few moments passed. Then it hit me. Dupin had not agreed with something I had said. He had agreed directly with my thoughts. I had not spoken a word! Dupin had read my mind. I stopped walking. “Dupin,” I said, “Dupin, I don’t understand. How could you know that I was thinking of…?” Here, I stopped speaking. If he really had heard my thoughts, he would have to prove it. And he did. He said, “How did I know you were thinking of Chantilly? You were thinking that Chantilly is too small for the plays in which he acts.” “That is indeed what I was thinking. But, tell me, in Heaven’s name, how did you know?” “It was the fruit-seller,” Dupin answered. “Fruit-seller!?” “I mean the man who bumped into you as we entered this street. Maybe fifteen minutes ago.”  “Oh, yes…I remember, now. A fruit-seller, with a large basket of apples, bumped into me. But what does that have to do with you knowing I was thinking of Chantilly?” “I will explain. Listen closely now. Let us follow your thoughts from the fruit-seller to the stage actor, Chantilly. Those thoughts must have gone like this: fruit-seller to cobblestones, cobblestones to stereotomy, stereotomy to Epicurus, to Orion, and then to Chantilly.” He continued: “As we turned onto this street the fruit-seller bumped you. You stepped on some uneven cobblestones. I could see that it hurt your foot. “You spoke a few angry words to yourself, and continued walking. But you kept looking at the cobblestones in the street, so I knew you were thinking of them. “Then we came to a small street where they are putting down new street stones. Here your face became brighter. You were looking at these more even stones. And your lips moved. I was sure they formed the word stereotomy, which is the name for how these new stones are cut. Stereotomy takes a large block and divides it evenly into smaller pieces.  You will remember that we read about it in the newspaper only yesterday. “I thought that the word stereotomy must make you think of the old Greek writer and thinker Epicurus. His ideas are also about dividing objects into smaller and smaller pieces called atoms. He argued that the world and everything else are made of these atoms. “You and I were talking about Epicurus and his ideas, his atoms, recently. We were talking about how much those old ideas are like today’s scientific study of the planets and stars. So, I felt sure that, now, as we walked, you would look up to the sky. And you did.   “I looked also at the sky. I saw that the group of stars we call Orion is very bright and clear tonight. “I knew you would notice this and that you would think about the name Orion. “Now, keep listening carefully. Only yesterday, in the newspaper, there was a report about the actor Chantilly. The critic did not praise him. And he used a Latin saying that had also been used to describe Orion. So I knew you would put together the two ideas of Orion and Chantilly. “I saw you smile, remembering the article and the mean words in it. “Then, I saw you straighten up, as tall as you could make yourself. I was sure you were thinking of Chantilly’s size, and especially his height. He is small; he is short. And so I spoke, saying that he is indeed a very little man, this Chantilly, and he would be more successful if he acted in lighter, less serious plays.” I cannot say I was surprised by what Dupin had just reported. My reaction was much bigger than just surprise. I was astonished. Dupin was right, as right as he could be. Those were in fact my thoughts, my unspoken thoughts, as my mind moved from one thought to the next. But if I was astonished by this, I would soon be more than astonished. One morning this strangely interesting man showed me once again his unusual reasoning power. We heard that an old woman had been killed by unknown persons. The killer, or the killers, had cut her head off — and escaped into the night. Who was this killer, this murderer? The police had no answer. They had looked everywhere and found nothing that helped them. They did not know what to do next. And so — they did nothing. But not Dupin. He knew what to do.   Download activities to help you understand this story here. Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. Do you or any of your friends or family have strong mental abilities? How are those mental abilities expressed? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story soul – n. the spiritual part of a person that is believed to give life to the body and in many religions is believed to live forever nervous – adj. having or showing feelings of being worried and afraid about what might happen fellow – n. (informal) a male person moment(s) – n. a very short period of time Heaven – n. the place where God lives and where good people go after they die, according to some religions bump(ed) – v. to move into or against someone or something in a sudden and forceful way stage actor – term. a person who acts in a theater play cobblestone(s) – n. a round stone used in paving streets block – n. a solid piece of material that has flat sides and is usually square or rectangular in shape astonish(ed) – v. to cause a feeling of great wonder or surprise in someone

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Media Should Not 'Sensationalize' Suicide

  In the United States, September is Suicide Prevention Month. The World Health Organization says that every year about 800,000 people commit suicide around the world.   September 10 was international suicide prevention day. To mark that day in 2017, the WHO stressed the important part that the media can play in stopping people from taking their own lives.   The WHO reports that for every suicide, 20 other people attempt to take their own lives. These people are mostly young. The WHO says suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 years. The health organization also finds most suicides -- more than 78 percent -- happen in low-and middle-income countries. Issues that put people at risk include mental problems as well as depression and anxiety resulting from alcohol use.   WHO also states growing evidence shows that the media can play an important role in preventing suicide. The role media can play is to responsibly report on the problem. Alexandra Fleischmann is a scientist in the WHO’s department of mental health and substance abuse. Fleischmann tells VOA that people are often unwilling to talk about suicide because of the stigma. She says journalists can help to overcome this taboo by encouraging people to seek help and to speak openly about their distress. "It is also important to stress that the encouragement to work with the media and not just to talk about the don'ts. Don't put it in the headlines. Don't put the picture of the person who died. Don't sensationalize it. Don't glamorize it."   WHO also warns that when the media reports on suicide in an exciting or attractive way, it may put others at risk. That’s the Health & Lifestyle report. I’m Anna Matteo.   From Geneva, Lisa Schlein reported this story for VOA News. Anna Matteo adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor. ____________________________________________ Words in This Story   commit – v.  to do (something that is illegal or harmful)​ stress – v.  to give special attention to (something)​ stigma – n. a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something taboo – n. not acceptable to talk about or do encourage – v. to make (someone) more determined, hopeful, or confident​ anxiety – n. fear or nervousness about what might happen​ distress – n.  unhappiness or pain : suffering that affects the mind or body​ sensationalize – v. to describe or show something in a way that makes it seem more shocking than it really is glamorize – v. to make (something) seem exciting and attractive

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Cassini's Amazing Photos of Saturn, Rings & Moons

 Until Cassini's arrival at Saturn in 2004, humanity had never viewed Saturn up close and personal. In all, Cassini has provided more than 453,000 pictures of Saturn, its rings and moons. The final snapshots will be coming down hours before the spacecraft's fiery finish on Friday, Sept. 15. Cassini will burn up like a meteor in Saturn's sky.

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September 15, 2017

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

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