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Ax2009 ssrs 42 - a preview of dynamics ax 2012 report development

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Voa learning english - development report # 396

Issues that affect people in developing countries presented in Special English Category: Education Length: 00:03:21.750 Tags: Learning English .

 

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Voa learning english - development report: a service group built on 'friendship'

This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Amizade means friendship in Portuguese. It is also the name of a service organization in the United States that places volunteers in projects mostly in developing countries. Amizade's executive director, Eric Hartman, thought of the idea in Brazil in nineteen ninety-four, which explains the Portuguese name. The Amizade Global Service-Learning and Volunteer Programs placed three hundred volunteers in nine countries last year. These American university students and others worked in thirteen communities. Amizade works with local groups and individuals on service and learning projects. The local groups define and direct the projects. The volunteers learn about local culture and make friends as they work in the community. Amizade charges college students as much as ten thousand dollars for three months of experience. Volunteers generally provide labor and do things like teach and assist at health centers. They can also do research. College students can earn work-study credits. Participants in programs have included a twelve-year-old boy and a man in his eighties. There are programs in Ghana, Tanzania, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico and Jamaica. There are also programs in Germany, Poland, Northern Ireland and the United States. Recently, in Tanzania, thirteen Amizade volunteers worked on systems to harvest rainwater from the roofs of homes. They worked on the project in the Karagwe area, in the northwestern part of the country. Eric ... Category: Education Length: 00:03:21.750 Tags: .

 

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Human development report 2007 - english

The Human Development Report 2007/2008 warns that the world has less than a decade to avoid a climate change crisis that could bring unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction, nutrition, health and education to the world's poorest people. Category: News & Politics Length: 00:05:27 Tags: .

 

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Undp: why human development report?

Human Development is a development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value. And it is thus about much more than economic growth, which is only a means —if a very important one —of enlarging people's choices. Source: UNDP hdr.undp.org Category: Nonprofits & Activism Length: 00:07:15 Tags: .

 

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Linking education and employment in africa

This is the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http More than six hundred delegates recently met in Burkina Faso to discuss education in Africa. The aim is to find ways to support economic growth by improving education and job training programs.The delegates included education ministers and representatives of civil society, business, labor and youth groups. The meeting, held every three years, is known as the Triennial. Ahlin Byll-Cataria is executive secretary of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa. His group organized the weeklong conference.He says there is a missing link between education and employment in Africa. For example, schools need to improve technical training for students who do not continue to secondary education. Mr. Byll-Cataria says educational programs need to be reshaped to better fit the needs of employers. He says this is already happening in some countries including Tunisia, where the association is based. "For instance, where they have to train engineers, there is a lot of discussion between the schools and the companies in order to know the demands of the company, to take them into account in the curriculum, and even in the management of the schools."In Mali, an association of artisans is working to improve the skills of mechanics, wood workers and tradesmen. That association has also helped workers and companies to win government contracts.Several West African countries are working together ... Category: Education Length: 00:03:00.750 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Taking medicine, with a microchip under the skin

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Call it medicine on a microchip. Researchers in the United States have developed the first wirelessly controlled device that can supply a drug directly into the body. A small chip is implanted under the skin. It contains the medicine, which it releases at preset times. The developers say the device could improve the lives of millions of people who take medicine for long-term illnesses. A company called MicroCHIPS began developing the device about fifteen years ago. In February, the company released the results of its first successful tests in humans. The tests took place in Denmark with seven women with osteoporosis. Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and break easily. The disorder is common among older people, especially women. Many patients have to give themselves daily injections of medicine. One type of treatment requires injections for two years. Robert Farra is the president of MicroCHIPS. He says many patients stop taking the medicine because of the pain and stress of the injections. "As a result, only twenty-five percent of the patients will go through the entire twenty-four months of treatment."The microchip is a few centimeters long. It has small sections that each hold a single dose of medicine. Mr. Farra says the device has to be programmed with the times to release the drug. "For osteoporosis, the physician will program the device, and the device has the ability to ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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'you are your brand:' using social media to find a job

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Today we share some ideas for job hunters about presenting yourself online. Ben Kirshner is chief executive of a New York company he started in two thousand four. Elite SEM, or search engine marketing, has about twenty-five employees. Many companies use headhunters -- recruiting services that find workers for high-paying positions. But Mr. Kirshner says that would cost him probably ten to fifteen thousand dollars to find a one hundred fifty thousand dollar a year employee. He saves money by advertising jobs online and using social media. Sometimes finding the right person this way can take time. But recently Mr. Kirshner posted a job on the advertising site Craigslist. He says he had one hundred fifty good candidates within four hours.He says his company does not use sites that offer to search the Web for information about job candidates. His company does that itself. Social networks and other websites can provide a lot of details about people's lives. As Ben Kirshner points out, that may even include personal information that employment laws prevent employers from asking. He says: "Things we are not legally allowed to ask in an interview, we can find because they're publicly displaying it on the social networks." Leslie Stevenson directs the Career Development Center at the University of Richmond in Virginia. For young job-seekers, she says, the barrier between public and private is ... Category: Howto & Style Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Educational technology: not just computers

This is the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com We received a question from a listener about how American schools use educational technology. There is not a simple answer. It depends on the subject and level of students, of course. But it also depends on the interest and training of the teachers, and the goals and budgets of the schools. Schools are almost all connected to the Internet. But some have more technology, and use it more, than others. For example, some schools use computers for activities like video conferencing, to bring the world into the classroom. And some classrooms are equipped with things like a Smart Board, a kind of interactive whiteboard. Interactive whiteboards are large displays for presentations. They connect to a computer and can operate by touch. They can be used for documents or writing or to project video. Some teachers are trying creative new ways to teach with devices like iPods and mobile phones. But educators say the most important thing, as always, is the content. Yet technology can have special importance in some cases. Cosmobot is a therapy robot. It stands about half a meter tall and has a blue body and a friendly face with big eyes. One child who works with it is six-year-old Kevin Fitzgerald. Kevin has developmental dyspraxia; he has difficulty moving his mouth and tongue. He works with Carole Semango-Sprouse as he uses a set of buttons attached to a computer. He can make the silent robot move forward ... Category: Education Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Making power from coconut shells, mango pits

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Seth DeBolt is a plant scientist at the University of Kentucky in the United States. He and other scientists wanted to find a source of fuel that poor people in rural areas of developing countries could use to make electricity. The United Nations Development Program says a billion and a half people have no electricity. A billion others have an undependable supply. Professor DeBolt went on a study trip to rural Indonesia. He saw that, everywhere he went, there was very little waste in the use of agricultural products. Everything that farmers grew was used for something. Even the remains of fruit that people did not eat were fed to chickens. Little waste meant there was little that could be used for fuel. Growing a separate fuel crop would take land away from food crops. That was something Professor DeBolt did not want to do. He says the people at most risk of energy poverty are often the same people who have food insecurity issues as well. Any change in food availability would hurt that group the most. But he found two items that were in plentiful supply and would not create competition between food and fuel. Coconut shells and mango pits are generally thrown out. Yet Professor DeBolt says they have a lot of energy stored in them. He says they have an "excellent" heating value which he compares to coal of low to moderate grade. The same is true for the pit of an olive, peach or cherry, or ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Oracle business intelligence (bi) 11g demo (high-definition)

www.kpipartners.com KPI Partners takes you through a journey into Oracle's most recent business Intelligence creation, OBIEE 11g. The demonstration of Oracle BI 11g includes - OBIEE 11g Interactive Visulization - Spatial Data in OBIEE 11g - BI Publisher & Interactive Report Development - Oracle BI Scorecarding - Improved Systems Management & Lifecycle - The OBIEE 11g Upgrade Path - Using Essbase with 11g Presented by Norm Dy, Director of Business Development, KPI Partners Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:11:54.750 Tags: .

 

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Webinar: oracle bi 11g overview & demo

www.kpipartners.com KPI Partners takes you through a journey into Oracle's most recent business Intelligence creation, OBIEE 11g. The one hour overview and demonstration of Oracle BI 11g will includes - OBIEE 11g Interactive Visulization - Spatial Data in OBIEE 11g - BI Publisher & Interactive Report Development - Oracle BI Scorecarding - Improved Systems Management & Lifecycle - The OBIEE 11g Upgrade Path - Using Essbase with 11g Presented by Mark Joslin, Director of Business Development, KPI Partners Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:35:30.750 Tags: .

 

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Syrian 'citizen journalists' use social media to spread news

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Social media networks have come to play an important part in the political unrest in Syria. The Syrian government barred most media from the country after the unrest began a year ago. But that has not stopped Syrians from getting out information to the rest of the world. Many Syrians have turned to social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to help spread reports about what is happening in the country. Hundreds, possibly thousands of videos have appeared on YouTube and other social media sites in the past few weeks. With few foreign reporters in Syria, social media have become a major tool for telling the world what is happening. Many news organizations have had to depend on reports and videos from people they call citizen journalists.Emanuelle Esposti is a blogger in Britain who has been studying the use of such videos by foreign media. She says it is very difficult to know where a video has actually come from or who made it or why. In early March Syria's deputy oil minister resigned to join the opposition. In a video on YouTube, Abdo Husameddine had a message for the government of President Bashar al-Assad. He said it had, in his words, "brought a year of sadness and misery to those you claim to be your people." He also said the government had deprived its people of basic needs and humanity and brought the country to the edge of disaster.Abdo Husameddine was the highest official to ... Category: People & Blogs Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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New findings on sleep in children, older adults

This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http "Sleep-disordered breathing" is a term for a group of conditions that can interfere with normal breathing while people sleep. These include snoring, mouth-breathing and sleep apnea. Sleep-disordered breathing can do more than just leave people feeling tired the next day. It can also affect people's health. In children the effects can include behavioral and emotional problems. In a new study, researchers asked parents about their children's breathing from when they were babies up to about age six. The parents also answered questions about behavior at ages four and seven. Karen Bonuck at the Einstein College of Medicine in New York led the study of about eleven thousand children. She says sleep-disordered breathing was associated with a fifty percent increase in what she calls "adverse neurobehavioral outcomes." These included hyperactivity, aggressiveness and problems relating to other children.Ms. Bonuck says the more serious the breathing problems, the more serious the behavioral issues were likely to be. Other studies have linked sleep with children's behavior, but this study was extensive enough to reject other possible causes. The study appeared in the journal Pediatrics. An estimated one child in ten snores regularly. A smaller number suffer from other sleep-disordered breathing. How well do you sleep? A popular belief is that sleep gets worse with age. But, in another new study, those ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:00 Tags: agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Students compete to find tech solutions for world problems

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Hundreds of students from around the world recently gathered in New York City for the Microsoft Imagine Cup finals. They came to present their ideas for using technology to solve world problems. Microsoft education director Suzi Levine says the nine-year-old program began mainly as a competition to create technology. She says, "When we realized that students really actually want to have a purpose for what they're creating, we introduced the idea of inspiring them with the UN Millennium Development Goals and suggesting that they use those for their muse." New sources for ideas this year included intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations and nonprofits. They can submit some of the technical challenges that they would like students to consider for their solutions.Microsoft says over three hundred fifty thousand high school and college students registered for this year's competition. Judges chose more than four hundred of them to attend the finals. Ms. Levine says several teams were inspired by current events, including floods last year in Thailand. A team from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand "created a Windows Phone 7 application that allows you to broadcast your location to your social network of friends so that you can be more easily rescued." There were also ideas from Egypt inspired by the revolution that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February. Ms. Levine says one ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Tv over the internet pushes broadband growth

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Representatives from some of the world's leading broadband service providers and equipment manufacturers met in San Diego, California in December. They talked about the future of broadband and the Internet Protocols that govern it. Broadband is a high data rate connection to the Internet. A group called Broadband Forum organized the meeting. It was the group's fourth meeting in two thousand ten. The Broadband Forum has almost two hundred members from around the world. They work to develop broadband network standards across the industry. Laurie Adams Gonzalez is the marketing director for Broadband Forum. She says the group has been helping service providers move to the newest Internet Protocol, known as IPv6. Mrs. Gonzalez says the current version of the Internet, known as IPv4, could soon run out of space.Broadband is one of the fastest growing areas of the telecommunications industry. A report from the Broadband Forum says the number of broadband subscribers reached four hundred ninety-eight million worldwide in June. By the third week of July it had passed five hundred million. That represents one in five homes worldwide. Mrs. Gonzalez says much of the growth has come from an unexpected source -- developing countries. Asia represents almost forty-one percent of the total broadband subscriptions. More than one hundred twenty million of those subscribers are in China ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:01.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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For martin luther king, a memorial in washington designed by a chinese artist

From voaspecialenglish.com | http MARTIN LUTHER KING: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, and live out the true meaning of its creed." Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior helped to change American history. He led protests against racial separation. And he taught non-violence, even when threatened with violence. His efforts helped lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. MARTIN LUTHER KING: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!" Four years later, King was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. Now, a memorial on the National Mall in Washington will honor him. The memorial is set to open in August. Harry Johnson heads the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation. HARRY JOHNSON: "I think we are overjoyed here at the Memorial Foundation. Knowing, understanding and believing that this is going to come to fruition. And that we are soon going to have a Martin Luther King Memorial here on our nation's Mall." The memorial will occupy land close to the Washington Monument and other famous memorials. HARRY JOHNSON:"We have a small water feature on each side of the Mountain of Despair." The memorial will have a 1600-metric-ton granite structure called the Mountain of Despair and a 10-meter-high statue of King himself. HARRY JOHNSON: "This model was more of what is going to be there. You see he has a scroll of paper here." The granite marker is the work of Chinese artist Lei Yixin. Harry Johnson explains why the artist was chosen. HARRY ... Category: Nonprofits & Activism Length: 00:02:05.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Will cost of cocoa raise the price of valentine's day?

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Valentine's Day, February fourteenth, is one of the biggest days of the year for lovers of chocolate. Americans were expected to spend more than one billion dollars on chocolates and other candies for their sweethearts this year. But the chocolate industry worries that prices for its sweets could rise in the years ahead. Susan Smith is a spokeswoman for the National Confectioners Association, a trade group for the candy, chocolate and gum industries. She says, "They're very aware that an everyday candy product needs to be an affordable treat." Americans buy more than eighteen billion dollars worth of chocolate each year. But keeping chocolate at prices that people can afford may be a challenge in the future. Demand is growing, especially in Asia. More people in Asia are developing a taste for chocolate, and have more money to buy it. The chocolate industry worries that supply will not keep up with demand. Cocoa is the main ingredient in chocolate. Millions of poor farmers in West Africa grow about seventy percent of the world's cocoa. Each farmer has just a few hectares of land. "And they don't have a lot of additional capital. They may not have the management skills that are required to actually do a better job." So says Lyndel Meinhardt. He supervises cocoa research at the United States Department of Agriculture. Mr. Meinhardt says these farmers often do not have the money to buy ... Category: Nonprofits & Activism Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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A false sense of security on the internet?

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Sony officials held a news conference in early May in Tokyo. They apologized for the theft of personal information from millions of users of the company's online services. Hackers targeted Sony's PlayStation Network, Sony Online Entertainment and Qriocity music systems. In all, Sony says information may have been stolen from more than one hundred million accounts. The data includes information like names, addresses, phone numbers and birthdates. In some cases, even credit and debit card numbers may have been stolen. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the cyber attacks. Sony shut down its PlayStation Network on April twentieth. The company is being criticized for not telling its users about the stolen information until a week later. Sony has also been criticized for not making its accounts more secure by encrypting the data. Sony officials say they have now taken steps to improve security. Peter Warren is chairman of the Cyber Security Research Institute in London. His group studies technology crimes and their effects on our computer-dependent world. Mr. Warren points out that what happened at Sony is not rare: "We've seen a number of very large companies that have suffered some tremendously embarrassing losses of data."The problem, he says, is that there is far more interest in developing technology than in keeping it safe. As he puts it: "Lots and lots of ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:56.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Voa's carolyn presutti and avi arditti chat with callers

Avi and Carolyn take calls on Skype and discuss English learning, the Republican presidential race and other subjects Category: People & Blogs Length: 00:27:07.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Brain-computer interfaces could mean more freedom for the disabled

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Since the nineteen seventies, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface, or BCI, technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines. Recently, scientists demonstrated a small robotic vehicle directed by a person's thoughts. The demonstration took place at the Swiss embassy in Washington. Jose Millan and Michele Tavella developed the system. Mr. Tavella can even talk as he watches the vehicle and guides it with his thoughts.Mr. Tavella is a researcher at the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland. In the laboratory, he can operate a wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand.Professor Millan is the team leader. He says systems like those being developed in Lausanne and other places may be available in less than ten years. The aim is to give people with physical disabilities new ways to communicate and control devices through brain-machine interfaces.Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles.The researchers designed a special cap for the user. It captures the signals from the scalp and redirect them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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A soccer ball that gives you energy -- really

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Have you ever heard the expression "a ball of energy"? People often use the term to describe very active children. But today we tell about an invention called the sOccket, that is a real ball of energy. A woman who developed the sOccket calls it, a cutting-edge, portable generator in the form of a soccer ball. Julia Silverman developed the sOccket with Jessica Matthews as part of a group project for an engineering class at Harvard University. To better understand what a sOccket is, you first need to understand how it works. When you play with a ball, a lot of energy is transferred, or moves, to the ball. Julia Silverman says the sOccket captures this energy before it is lost or breaks up into the environment. Her invention attempts to capture the energy, and then store it for future use. The sOccket collects and stores this energy with every kick, hit or throw of the ball. Julia Silverman says users can connect small electrical devices, like a light, directly into the ball. For every fifteen minutes of game play, the sOccket can provide enough electricity to power an LED lamp for up to three hours. The ball can store up to twenty-four hours' worth of power. The International Energy Association reported last year that nearly one and a half billion people did not have access to electricity. Most of them live in India, other Asian nations and in Africa, south of the Sahara. Julia Silverman ... Category: Sports Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Seeking cleaner and greener electronics

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Technology experts, government officials, policy makers and engineers recently met in Italy. They gathered in Rome for the first Green Standards Week conference. Italy's Ministry of Economic Development and the International Telecommunications Union organized the conference. The event called attention to the need for information and communication technologies to fight climate change and to build greener, more environmentally friendly economies. In recent years, the world has changed because so many people now use computers, mobile phones and other kinds of electronic devices. But the increasing use of information and communication technologies, also known as ICTs, also has led to more pollution, especially greenhouse gas emissions. This is mostly because of the energy used to manufacture, transport and operate such equipment. Still, many experts say ICTs offer the best chance for reducing greenhouse gases. The Global Information Society Watch reported last year that ICTs could help to cut total production of greenhouse gases by as much as fifteen percent by twenty twenty. Alan Finlay is with the Association for Progressive Communications. He also helped to prepare the GISWatch report. He says the effect of using ICTs to build cleaner environments is far more powerful than their harmful effects. "When you're look at greening with ITs, you're looking at the impact of ICTs on the environment ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:58.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Iron, vitamin d may lead to smarter, healthier children

I'mAlex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Many people have low amounts of iron in their blood. But pregnant women need extra iron for their own health and their baby's health. Iron is important to the development of a baby's brain and central nervous system. In poor countries, however, providing all pregnant women with iron supplements can be a financial issue. Some experts say giving supplements to babies after they are born is enough. Someone who disagrees is Parul Christian, a nutritionist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Maryland. She and other scientists have been doing research in Nepal. She says their latest findings should settle any question about the value of making sure every pregnant woman receives iron supplements. Iron is a micronutrient. Micronutrients are important substances that are found in small amounts in foods. The researchers first completed a study among poor women in Nepal ten years ago. During pregnancy some of the women received supplements containing iron and another micronutrient, folic acid.Ms. Christian says that study showed the supplements could improve child survival. Now the children are older. The researchers returned to Nepal and tested their neurological development. They found improved abilities among those whose mothers had received iron and folic acid during pregnancy and for three months after. Another new study looks at levels of vitamin D in babies. It says ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:00.750 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Death valley: beauty and danger

Get the full story: bit.ly Photos: National Park Service (www.nps.gov Category: Travel & Events Length: 00:00:46.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Who finding adds to debate over mobile phones, brain cancer

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http The World Health Organization has added to the debate over the risk of brain cancer from mobile phone use. The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer recently listed the signals from wireless devices as "possibly carcinogenic." This finding puts cell phones in the same risk group as the pesticide DDT -- but also in the same group as coffee. A group of thirty-one scientists from fourteen countries made the finding. The announcement came at the end of a meeting at the agency's headquarters in Lyon, France. The concern is that extended contact with radiofrequency electromagnetic fields may increase a user's risk for glioma. Glioma is the most common form of brain cancer.The scientists spent a week examining existing research. Dr. Jonathan Samet from the University of Southern California led the group. He says the finding that there could be some risk means scientists need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer. The statement noted that the number of mobile phone users is large and growing, especially among young adults and children. Mobile phone subscriptions are estimated at five billion worldwide. The scientists called for more research into long-term, heavy use of mobile phones. They also suggested taking measures to reduce exposure to the signals, like hands‐free devices or texting.Camilla Rees from an American group called Electromagnetic Health ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:42 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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A cool way to keep food from spoiling

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world's poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity. Yet spoiled food not only creates health risks but also economic losses. Farmers lose money when they have to throw away products that they cannot sell quickly.But in nineteen ninety-five a teacher in northern Nigeria named Mohammed Bah Abba found a solution. He developed the "Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System." It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system. Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving. The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks.People throughout Nigeria began using the invention. And it became popular with farmers in other African countries. Mohammed Bah Abba personally financed the first five ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:01.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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A social network aims to speed up progress in science

This is the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http A few years ago, a university researcher was having problems with an experiment that involved medical imaging. His adviser and his friends had no solutions. The researcher was Ijad Madisch at Harvard in Massachusetts. "I was so frustrated," he says. His solution was to start a scientific network for researchers. It lets them connect with each other and share information about their research and their publications. ResearchGate is similar to another social network developed at Harvard -- Facebook. But Mister Madisch says the purpose of his site is to make scientists more productive. He says his goal is to win a Nobel Prize: "If we think that ResearchGate will accelerate research in all the different fields, it will change the speed of science significantly in the future. So I definitely do believe that ResearchGate could win the Nobel Prize for that one day."Mister Madisch received the support of investors including a former Facebook executive and the same investment group that put money into Twitter. So far, nine hundred thousand people have signed up as members of ResearchGate.One of those users is Caroline Moore-Kochlacs at Boston University. Her profile page shows her picture and her specialty -- neuroscience. It also lists her doctoral adviser and the work she has published. She can follow other researchers and click onto group pages that discuss different subjects.She also uses ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Obama urges steps to strengthen economy

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http In September, President Obama proposed new measures to lift the economy. The central bank in its latest report said there was continued growth in the past several weeks, but with "widespread signs" of slowing. Congressional elections are November second. One new survey showed that forty-nine percent of likely voters think Republicans should control Congress. Other polls find that about sixty percent of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction. President Obama gave a speech near Cleveland, Ohio. He proposed a tax plan for businesses that make capital improvements, like buying new equipment. The president said: "And I'm proposing that all American businesses should be allowed to write off all the investment they do in 2011." He said this will help small businesses upgrade their plants and equipment, and will encourage large corporations to start putting their profits to work.Mr. Obama also proposed to permanently extend a tax credit for research and development.And he offered a plan for "rebuilding and modernizing" America's roads, rails and runways. He said it would create jobs and improve transportation. The plan would cost fifty billion dollars, but he promised it would not add to the budget deficit over time. The president spoke in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Both speeches were in the Midwest, an area hit hard by the recession. He said almost every ... Category: News & Politics Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Are you learning english? these songs may help

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Songs teach language. Consider a song like "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. An American teaching English overseas once told us that students love that song.Recently we asked people on the Special English Facebook page to suggest other songs that English learners might like. Noemi Nito wrote: I'm one of those English students who love "Tom's Diner." I started learning English with "Lemon Tree" by Fool's Garden. Another favorite is "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden. Another person, Asi Tambunan, suggested the song "God Only Knows" by Orianthi. Gyongyi Jako wrote that ABBA's songs from Sweden are perfect for class work. Other good songs for learning English are songs by the Beatles and John Lennon, as well as Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World." Paul Cifuentes says Bob Marley's songs are amazing for teaching. Another teacher, Joseph Deka, says songs by Johnny Cash have always worked in his classroom. He says his students can hear the words, plus the songs often have stories. He also likes "We Will Rock You" by Queen and "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston. He says young children love "C Is for Cookie" by Cookie Monster from the TV show "Sesame Street." Nina John Smith suggested these songs: "It's My Life" and "We Weren't Born to Follow" by Bon Jovi. Also "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica.Aurelio Lourenco Costa Gusmao says he began to like English after his teacher played ... Category: Education Length: 00:02:58.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Comparing american and chinese parents

I'm Mario Ritter with the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Some American parents might think their children need better educations to compete with China and other countries. But how much do the parents themselves need to change? A new book called "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua has caused a debate about cultural differences in parenting. Ms. Chua is a professor at the Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, and the mother of two daughters. She was raised in the American Midwest by immigrant Chinese parents. In the Chinese culture, the tiger represents strength and power. In her book, Ms. Chua writes about how she demanded excellence from her daughters. For example, she threatened to burn her daughter's stuffed animals unless she played a piece of music perfectly. She would insult her daughters if they failed to meet her expectations. Ms. Chua says she had a clear list of what her daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were not permitted to do. They could not attend a sleepover, have a play date, watch TV or play computer games, be in a school play or get any grade less than an A.Many people have criticized Amy Chua. Some say her parenting methods were abusive. She even admits that her husband, who is not Chinese, sometimes objected to her parenting style. But she says that was the way her parents raised her and her three sisters. Ms. Chua makes fun of her own extreme style of parenting. She says she eased some of the pressure ... Category: Education Length: 00:03:02.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Facebook finds new friends in the world of private finance

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Facebook is the world's biggest social network -- and the subject of the movie "The Social Network."The real Mark Zuckerberg and his friends at Harvard University launched the site in two thousand four. Facebook says it reached five hundred million users last July.Now, the American bank Goldman Sachs and the Russian company Digital Sky Technologies have friended Facebook. They are investing a total of five hundred million dollars in the company. The deal values Facebook at fifty billion dollars -- more than many publicly traded Internet companies. Goldman Sachs is expected to raise a billion and a half dollars more by selling shares of ownership in Facebook to rich investors. The plan does not include a public stock offering -- at least not right now. For now, Facebook would remain a private company -- meaning a company that does not sell shares to the public. The plan has brought new attention to the largely secretive world of private financing and the rules for private companies in the United States.The idea is that investors in public companies have protections that investors in private companies do not. The Securities and Exchange Commission says a private company must report financial information if it has more than five hundred shareholders. A new business, a startup company, is usually considered too risky for average investors. But a promising startup may find a ... Category: News & Politics Length: 00:03:01.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Mobile phones may soon test for stis and blood pressure

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Mobile phone technology is quickly changing the way the world operates. Today, we tell about two new projects involving mobile health, also known as m-health. Doctors and technology experts in London are developing a new way to test for sexual infections. The new device uses mobile phones and computers to help people find out if they have been infected with a sexual disease. People will be able to perform the test in the privacy of their own homes. People place urine or saliva on a small piece of paper. They place the test strip in a small device that contains a computer chip. Then they place the device in their mobile phone or a computer for testing. Within minutes, they receive information telling them if they have a sexual disease. And they receive advice on what to do next. Claudia Estcourt is with Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. She is also part of the research team working on the project. She says: "This isn't designed to replace traditional clinics. This is really opening testing up to people who might find it embarrassing or difficult to get into their clinic."Health experts say many young people are too ashamed to visit a clinic to be tested. This increases the risk of them passing on sexual diseases. The researchers hope the tests will help persuade people to be tested and reduce the number of sexually transmitted infections. Dr. Estcourt ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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New system may let you appear someplace you have never been

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http A hologram is a three-dimensional image -- an image that appears to have height, width and depth.More than thirty years ago, Princess Leia gave her famous holographic plea for help in the original "Star Wars" movie. Since then, holograms have become bigger, better and more widely used. Now, researchers have developed a holographic telepresence system. Traditional telepresence systems are used in video conferencing. They present two-dimensional images. But the new system might be able to send a moving 3-D image of a person over great distances -- and show it in close to real time. Nasser Peyghambarian is the lead researcher for the project at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He says holographic technology can make people appear in places where they have never been. With the new system, the image is refreshed so often that it seems to look like a person's natural movement. An important part of the system is a screen that can refresh the holographic image every two seconds. The screen is made from a special photorefractive material. In experiments, the researchers placed sixteen cameras in a half-circle. They took pictures of people from different positions. Then the researchers sent the images to a different place over the Internet. Lasers at the other end received the pictures and produced holographs on the screen. Mr. Peyghambarian says the new material permits the ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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2011 elections test peace in liberia

This year's coming presidential elections will serve as a true test of Liberia's commitment to peace, as well as the United Nations' ability to build a sustained peace and prevent future atrocities. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 72, is running for a second term in the second election since Liberia's bloody 14-year civil war ended. Category: Nonprofits & Activism Length: 00:07:01.500 Tags: .

 

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Apple's lion is latest to join download-only trend in software

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Apple's new version of its desktop operating system for Mac computers is called Mac OS X Lion. Apple says this latest OS X upgrade has over two hundred new features. But one big difference is how the company will sell it -- only by download at its Mac App Store. The price is twenty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. Users without the current version, Snow Leopard, will have to pay an extra thirty dollars to download the new release. Last year, Apple had more than five hundred million dollars in sales of its desktop operating system. Experts say download-only software is getting more common. Dave Wolf is a vice president at Cynergy Systems in Washington. His company helps software designers to develop and market products. He says the computer that many people use most is their mobile phone. People who download apps to smartphones have come to expect quick and easy software updates. Now, Dave Wolf says phones are shaping expectations for other computers.Downloadable programs mean fewer trips to stores to buy software. But that can also mean fewer sales for stores that depend on physical products, including most video games. And not everyone has a high-speed Internet connection to make downloads quick and easy. But Dave Wolf says the cost savings are a big help to small businesses trying to reach a wide market. "I think it's a boon to small software companies and entrepreneurs who have ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:00.750 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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India's experimental thorium fuel cycle nuclear reactor [ndtv report]

Owing to the abundant availability of Thorium within the country, India has steadfastly pursued with its R&D programme to make use of its Thorium supply to generate electricity. As a result, two types of Reactors using Thorium -- the Fast-Breeder Reactor & the Thorium Cycle based Nuclear Reactors are being developed in India & India is considered one the leading countries in the field of Nuclear energy involving Thorium. The NDTV report covered the experimental Thorium Fuel Cycle Nuclear currently in operation at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre [BARC] in Mumbai. The deployment of Nuclear Reactors running the Thorium Fuel Cycle is part of the third stage of India's 3-Stage Nuclear programme. Nuclear power in India en.wikipedia.org Thorium en.wikipedia.org Thorium fuel cycle en.wikipedia.org Shaping the Third Stage of Indian Nuclear Power Programme [PDF] www.dae.gov.in Why three-stage nuclear power programme www.domain-b.com Video courtesy: New Delhi Television [NDTV] www.ndtv.com Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:05:09.750 Tags: India Nuclear Technology Engineering Thorium .

 

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What do you know about the common cold?

This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Do you think getting cold can give you a cold? Is it bad to drink milk when you have a cold? Can chicken soup cure a cold? Ranit Mishori is a family medicine doctor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. She says colds are more common in winter, but not because of low temperatures. The cold weather just means people stay inside more, often with other people. "And the way the common cold virus is transmitted from one person to another is through handshakes, through sneezing, or through coughing on one another." Adults generally get two to three colds a year. Children are likely to catch four or five. Dr. Mishori says some people mistakenly believe they can become resistant to colds. She says, "There are about two hundred different viruses that cause the common cold. People think that once you get infected one time you develop immunity for the rest of your life. This is wrong."There is still no cure for the common cold. But Dr. Mishori says there are ways to feel better sooner. "So if you catch a cold and on day one you start taking about two grams of vitamin C a day, there is evidence you might shorten the number of days that you will be suffering with these symptoms." She says honey can also help. There is evidence that it can shorten the length of the common cold sometimes even by two to three days. She says honey seems to be especially effective in children with colds. But ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:57 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Egypt not alone in its economic problems

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Egypt is the biggest of the nations hit by recent protests in North Africa and the Middle East. One of the causes of this spreading wave of popular dissatisfaction is a lack of economic progress.Egypt is not a major oil exporter. Its economy is not big enough to affect world economic growth. But important pipelines cross Egypt. And Egypt controls the Suez Canal. About eight percent of world shipping passes through this link between Europe and Asia. That includes two million barrels of oil each day, mainly to Europe. Many experts say they expect the canal to remain open. Still, concerns about the Suez have pushed oil prices to their highest levels since two thousand eight. Fariborz Ghadar heads the Center for Global Business Studies at Penn State University. He says poverty in Egypt remains high -- up to forty percent in some areas.Yet Egypt is not alone. Foreign investors worry about corruption, mismanagement and security problems across North Africa and the Middle East. Every year millions of young people enter the job market. Populations are young and growing fast. In Egypt, the economy grew about five percent last year -- too little growth to create enough jobs. Fariborz Ghadar says the United States in a good year creates fewer than two million jobs. He says Europe and the US together generate three million jobs. Middle Eastern countries have to generate up to eight ... Category: News & Politics Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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A kitchen that talks? this one teaches you french

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report , from voaspecialenglish.com | http A "talking kitchen" teaches students how to cook French and speak French. Researchers at New Castle University in Britain have developed the French Digital Kitchen. Professors Paul Seedhouse and Patrick Olivier led the project. Professor Seedhouse says it works like a satellite navigation system in a car. "The sat nav speaks to you and it tells you, for example, to turn left. And if you turn left then it continues with the program. If, for example, you turn right, then it's a mistake, so it loops back and it gives you further instructions."The kitchen equipment and tools use motion sensor technology similar to the Nintendo Wii game system. The sensors help a computer guide the students through instructions in French. "The system can tell whether you've done what you were asked to do or not. So let's say, for example, the system tells you to take some butter and cut it with a knife ... The sensor in the knife not only knows that the knife is moving, but it also knows what motion the knife is making."Students can ask the computer to repeat the instructions or translate them into English. There are vocabulary lessons before and after the cooking.Professor Seedhouse became interested in the idea after he visited a talking kitchen designed for a different purpose. "It was actually for communicating with people who suffer from dementia ... It can tell them, for example, that they've left the ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:03:00.750 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Teaching children how to think internationally

I'm Carolyn Presutti with the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http The International Primary Curriculum is an idea that began in Britain eight years ago. Today this curriculum is taught in more than one thousand primary schools in fifty-eight countries, including the United States.Educator Martin Skelton co-wrote the International Primary Curriculum, or IPC. He says for children to learn and succeed, they need a program that permits them to learn individually. He says the idea with the curriculum is to help today's children become good citizens of the world and twenty-first century leaders. He says most of world problems are going to be solved internationally. No single country is going to solve the environment or terrorism. Mr. Skelton says the curriculum has activities built around the development of "international mindedness" starting from the age of five. The British American School of Los Angeles is one of a few American private schools that teach the International Primary Curriculum. Second grade teacher Alison Kerr says the main goal is to engage children in the learning process. This term, for example, her class is learning about people important in history. She says the children dressed like famous people. They had to research and bring ten written clues and the rest of the class had to guess who the people were.The British School in Boston held a fair for students and parents called Around the World in a Day. Emma Northey, head ... Category: Education Length: 00:03:00.750 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Grow it yourself: diving into aquaponics

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report , from voaspecialenglish.com | http Aquaponics is the idea of producing vegetables and fish in the same closed system. It combines aquaculture, or fish farming, with hydroponics, a way to grow plants without soil. Supporters see aquaponics as a way to increase world food supplies and reduce climate change, groundwater pollution and overfishing. Sylvia Bernstein says the idea is as old as nature. "Aquaponics is really a recirculating wetland system, so it's happening right on the banks of our lakes." She grew plants in water with a chemical fertilizer for years. Then she discovered she could use wastewater from fish to grow organic vegetables and fruit. She says she "couldn't believe that something as simple as fish waste could become a complete fertilizer. So I had to actually see a system that was in a friend's basement. But when I did, it changed my life." That was three years ago. Ms. Bernstein built her first system with her son outside her home in Boulder, Colorado. Today she raises tilapia and trout. She feeds them once a day. Her plants -- including herbs, tomatoes, peppers -- grow in containers. There are no weeds in her aquaponics garden, and no need to worry about watering. Ms. Bernstein started her own business called the Aquaponics Source. She has a YouTube channel, teaches aquaponics at the Denver Botanic Gardens and recently published a book. Aquaponics farmer James Godsil says the Internet is helping many ... Category: Howto & Style Length: 00:03:00.750 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Getting paid to play sick at school

This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Some people act sick to get out of work. Others act sick to get work. For medical actors like Ted Bell, the stage is an examination room with a future doctor, nurse or other health care professional. On a recent day, he was playing a fifty-five-year-old patient with stomach pains that began three months ago. He was describing the problem to a nursing student at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Ted Bell was playing a schoolteacher. But in a way he really does teach. He helps future doctors, nurses and other health care professionals learn to work with patients. In real life, Mr. Bell is a retired civil engineer. He now works as what is known as a "standardized patient." He stays busy working as one of about seven hundred standardized patients in the Baltimore-Washington area. Pay starts at seventeen dollars an hour. It can go as high as thirty-five dollars an hour depending on the project. Becoming a standardized patient does not require medical knowledge. The schools provide the training. Nor does it require acting experience. In fact, standardized patient Tom Wyatt is a professional actor -- yet he does not even think of his work with the students as acting. He says, "I use some of the acting skills, but honestly when its going well, I'm not really acting, I am reacting. I'm listening to them and reacting naturally and honestly to what they're saying to me and what they're ... Category: Education Length: 00:03:00.750 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Laying the roots for healthy teeth in young children

This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Bad teeth can be painful -- and worse. They can even be deadly. Infections of the gums and teeth can release bacteria into the blood system. Those bacteria can increase the chances of a heart attack or stroke and worsen the effects of other diseases. And adults are not the only ones at risk. For example, in two thousand seven, doctors in the Washington area said a boy died when a tooth infection spread to his brain. They said it might have been prevented had he received the dental care he needed. He was twelve years old. Experts at the National Institutes of Health say good dental care starts at birth. Breast milk, they say, is the best food for the healthy development of teeth. Breast milk can help slow bacterial growth and acid production in the mouth.But dentists say a baby's gums and early teeth should be cleaned after each feeding. Use a cloth with a little warm water. Do the same if a baby is fed with a bottle. Experts say if you decide to put your baby to sleep with a bottle, only give the child water. When baby teeth begin to appear, you can clean them with a wet toothbrush. Dentists say it is important to find soft toothbrushes made especially for babies and to use them very gently. The use of fluoride to protect teeth is common in many parts of the world. For example, it is often added to drinking water supplies. The fluoride mixes with enamel, the hard surface on teeth, to help ... Category: Howto & Style Length: 00:03:02.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Does physical activity lead to higher grades?

This is the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Recently we told you about a finding that more years of school could help students get higher scores on intelligence tests. That was the finding of a study of teenage males in Norway. Now, other research shows that physical activity may help students do better in their classes. The research comes as educators in some countries are reducing time for activities like physical education. They are using the time instead for academic subjects like math and reading. Researchers at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam reviewed the results of fourteen studies. Twelve were from the United States, one from Canada and one from South Africa. The studies appeared between nineteen ninety-seven and two thousand nine. They included more than fifty-five thousand children, ages six to eighteen. Researcher Amika Singh says the studies showed a link between physical activity and scores on subjects such as math, English and reading. "Based on the results of our study we can conclude that being physically active is beneficial for academic performance." Ms. Singh offers some possible explanations. "There are, first, physiological explanations, like more blood flow, and so more oxygen to the brain. Being physically active means there are more hormones produced like endorphins. And endorphins make your stress level lower and your mood improved, which means you also perform better." Also, students involved in ... Category: Education Length: 00:03:15 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Limits on rare earth exports get china in trade dispute

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report , from voaspecialenglish.com | http The United States, the European Union and Japan have called for talks with China under the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization. They want to discuss China's export limits on rare earth metals and two other minerals. WTO rules give talks sixty days to work. If they do not settle the dispute, a WTO panel can then be requested to help reach a settlement.Rare earth metals are used in the manufacture of almost every high-technology device -- from mobile phones and computers to batteries for electric cars. And demand is only growing.China says it follows WTO rules in exporting the minerals. In twenty ten, China mined about one hundred thirty thousand metric tons of rare earth metals. That was about ninety-seven percent of world production. But information from China's government and the United States Geological Survey shows that China has reduced its export limits sharply in the past two years. Critics say this unfairly helps Chinese companies in the production of high-technology products. And, they say, it is a violation of World Trade Organization rules. President Obama explained why the United States was involved in the case. He said American manufacturers use rare earth materials to make high-tech products like advanced batteries. "We want our companies building those products right here in America," he said. To do that they need access to materials that China supplies ... Category: News & Politics Length: 00:03:00 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Public debt, protests made economic news in 2011

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Today we look back at some of the top stories of twenty-eleven. In Europe, the debt crisis that started in two thousand ten in Greece and Ireland spread to other countries. Portugal needed a financial rescue, and Italy needed a new prime minister. Silvio Berlusconi lost his job over Italy's debt problems. Former European Union official Mario Monti replaced him in November.Pressures on Europe's financial system called into question the future of the euro. European finance officials called for greater cooperation and new rules. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Europe would have to find its own answers to its debt problems. "Europe has to rescue Europe, OK? And it's very important. If there's any message when I'm asked, "Well, what can the US do and what can China do?" The best thing they can do is clean up their act at home, be a source of growth at home."Mr. Zoellick also said it was important for other big economies to deal with their own budget imbalances. "The downgrade of America from triple A didn't affect the finances today, but it may be one of those events people look back on ten years from now and say, 'Did they get the warning?'" In August, a credit rating agency cut the United States' credit rating from the highest level, triple A, to double A-plus. Also in August, Steve Jobs stepped down as chief at Apple because of his failing health. He died of cancer in October at ... Category: News & Politics Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Paying someone else to worry about your online image

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http A reputation -- what people think of you, good or bad -- is built one message at a time. The difference today is that people can get their messages out to lots of other people at lightning speed through websites and social media. So, not surprisingly, an industry is fast developing around managing online reputations for individuals and businesses. Ken Wisnefski is chief executive of Webimax, a company he started in two thousand eight. He says, "Up to eighty percent of people have been influenced in a purchasing decision by what they've read or seen online." Webimax is a search engine optimization, or SEO, company. Search engine optimization involves different ways to improve the results of online searches. Webimax offers several different services, but Ken Wisnefski says reputation management is growing the fastest. Some of his customers need help with urgent publicity problems. Others are seeking long-term management of their online image. Mr. Wisnefski says about one-fifth of his business is with companies and individuals outside the United States. How does reputation management work? Webimax has two sides to its business. The company can organize online publicity campaigns to try to limit the harm done by negative comments or bad news. Mr. Wisnefski says when a client gets in the news for the wrong reasons, his company does not try to hide what happened. Instead, it develops a campaign ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:58.500 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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For some, free citizenship classes; for others, a dream delayed again

I'm Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Education Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Americans talk a lot about illegal immigration but not as much about legal immigration. Legal immigrants who want to become citizens must learn English and show a knowledge of American history and government. They must also pay a fee and meet other requirements. Immigrants may take citizenship classes to help them prepare for the naturalization test. Last year, thirteen groups received a total of just over one million dollars from the government to offer these classes. This year, that support has grown to almost eight million dollars. The money is going to seventy-five organizations across the country. Now many classes are being offered free of charge through a program supported by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Alejandro Mayorkas is the agency's director. He says the agency wants to make it easier for people to become American citizens. Elsy Ventura from El Salvador paid one hundred dollars to take a class near Washington. She says it is a lot of money for her to pay. She is a single mother who supports her own mother. But her goal is to become an American. She says she wants to have rights like anybody else in this country.Other immigrants share that goal. But for some young people, hopes of citizenship were recently blocked in Congress for the fifth time in ten years. The United States has an estimated eleven million illegal immigrants. About two ... Category: Education Length: 00:02:59.250 Tags: captioned subtitled videos voa learning report development agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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Is nasa's james webb space telescope a time machine?

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http If you could build a time machine, what would it look like? Maybe, it should look like a telescope. American scientists are building a space telescope that they hope will look back over distance and time to show the universe close to its beginning. But this distant past will mainly be seen in infrared light which telescopes and cameras can see, but not the human eye. The American space agency, NASA, is now building the largest space telescope ever. The James Webb Space Telescope is named after NASA's second director. It will have a mirror seven times the size of the one on the Hubble Space Telescope. The mirror is six and a half meters wide, made of lightweight beryllium and covered in gold. But it will mainly study the universe in infrared light. We usually experience infrared light as heat. But, if you have ever used a TV remote control, you know there are many uses for it. The James Webb Space Telescope is a complex engineering project. It will be huge -- about the size of a passenger jet. And it will have to be super-cooled. Because the telescope studies infrared heat, its mirror must be kept very close to absolute zero. That is minus two hundred seventy-three degrees Celsius. NASA is building the Webb telescope at the Goddard Space Center, outside Washington. The agency hopes to launch it in twenty-fourteen.Jonathan Gardner is a project scientist for the telescope. We asked him how ... Category: Science & Technology Length: 00:02:58.500 Tags: agriculture food farming gardening health medicine international students .

 

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