“The Hunger Games” is capturing the attention of moviegoers. The film is set in the future, in the ruins of what was once North America. Teenage boys and girls are forced to compete in a televised event in which they must fight to the death until only one survives. “Primrose Everdeen!” “Prim! I volunteer! I volunteer […]
Kenyan marathon runners are world-famous for winning races. So some foreignathletes are traveling to Kenya to learn their secrets. Many of them go to the small town of Iten – about 2,400 meters above sea level and about 350 kilometers north of Nairobi. Lornah Kiplagat was born in Kenya. She has won marathons throughout the world and holds […]
Many young Americans with no farming experience are entering agriculture. They are learning about agriculture in college. Emily Sloss is showing visitors around Duke University’s new campus farm in North Carolina. EMILY SLOSS: “We don’t use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.” Emily Sloss studied public policy at Duke. Now, she supervises the university’s new campus farm. EMILY SLOSS: […]
Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. There are mountains that reach more than three thousand meters into the sky. There is a place called Badwater that is the lowest area of land in the Western Hemisphere. If there were water there, it would be eighty-six meters below the level of the ocean. Death Valley can […]
Before World War II, the United States did not let African-Americans serve as pilots in military aircraft. A group known as the Tuskegee Airmen helped to end that policy. BEVERLY DUNJILL: ” Information about the pilots in the news is – was a big secret to – as far as this country was concerned.” Stories about the […]
The United States Department of Defense has announced plans to open 14,000 more military positions to women. Lieutenant Megan Donnelly is one of the 770 women on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. LT. MEGAN DONNELLY: “Managing 15 – 20 people on the bridge at a time, and it’s my job to manage all of […]
The government in Burma is taking steps to reduce its controls over media and the arts. The musician who calls himself Darko C says he is pleased with the action, but unsure of the new limits. DARKO C: “Yeah, it’s going to take some time to really change, you know. What, so now they reduced the rules […]
New York’s Guggenheim Museum has some sculptures made of automobile parts. The sculptures are the work of American artist John Chamberlain. He died in December of 2011 at the age of 84. The Guggenheim Museum organized a show of Chamberlain’s work. Susan Davidson tells how he reshaped the cars. SUSAN DAVIDSON: “He is able to choose the […]
A week later, Germany attacked Poland. (SOUND) Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. (MUSIC) Germany’s invasion of Poland, and the beginning of the war, presented a giant challenge to the United States. On the one hand, almost all Americans supported the European democracies opposing the aggression by Hitler, Mussolini, and other Fascists. But on the other […]
St. Andrews in Scotland is famous for many things. It is the home of golf. It is also famous for being home to the university where Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton met for the first time as students. Now, scientists at the university have developed a small device that shows whether whiskey is real. One of […]