Yeah.

Why has the price gone up in recent years?

Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear, right?We see that uniquely in the U. S.  One vial of insulin in the U. S.  costs seven times what it does in Germany. So there's a huge disparity there. Some of the reasons have to do with reformulations of insulin that are, in fact, better than some of the older ones. Although, when I'm talking about that 1 in 7 price comparison, that's the same exact insulin.

In the U. S. , what's happened - and this is something that I know the Trump administration is looking at and many experts in the field have decried - the slow arrival of biosimilars or generic insulins onto the market, which are on the market in other countries. The problem in this country is the lowering of prices of insulin. And insulin patents have been held up in the courts for years now in suits and countersuits between the three big insulin drug makers, including by Eli Lilly, which is the former employer of our new HHS Secretary.

That's Alex Azar - has been appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services.

turn 3 : The slow arrival of biosimilars or generic insulins onto the market in the US, and insulin patents being held up in courts have resulted in high prices of insulin

How have biosimilars and insulin patents impacted insulin prices in the US?

Answer: high


And we also really want to have a voice on the job. As the ones on the ground, we have a lot of valuable information to share, both in terms of what our students need but also in terms of being, like, stewards of this practice. And so we really want to be able to stand up for the integrity of what we do, our work.

What kind of response have you received from YogaWorks in your effort to unionize?

The initial response we got was not exactly what we were hoping for. The emails that we got were actually full of quite a bit of misinformation and what I've come to see as, you know, a pretty typical union-busting tactics - telling us that we'd have to pay really high dues, that there would be a flat rate, that we'd lose all power. Since then, there's been a changeover in the CEO position. And his tone so far seems to be different. He seems to be taking a different approach. But we have yet to see what actually happened. So, you know, the proof will be in the action. And also, the offer to recognize us still stands, and he hasn't taken us up on that either. So we'll see.

Markella, how many yoga instructors are involved in this unionization effort?

turn 0 : "Voice" and "stand up" are both figurative. The first means have influence, the second means support (not physically stand up).

Which two words in turn 0 are used figuratively?

Answer: A


Mr.  Jones…

Yes?

…when you think about the issues of justice and in - for so long, we as African-Americans have and many of us have debated what does justice mean in this life, what does justice mean in the next life, do you think that there is racial justice?Do you think that there will be racial justice on this Earth?

Yes, I do. I believe that we are at a profound transition point. Martin King would say today, there's no way we can make the transition to the 21st century unless we leave the baggage of slavery and racism behind.

And I think to talk about current events, I think that he would both be disappointed and appalled in what's going on in the political discourse. He would be disappointed because when the Senator Obama is criticized in the speech he gave in Philadelphia, Martin would say, well, hold on, America seems to be deeply afflicted by amnesia about how it cheated these African-American people over the past 20th century.

But I think he'd applaud the fact that Senator Obama did what should have been done earlier and needs to be done. You see what Senator Obama did, he walked into the national living room of America and acknowledged and then talked to the 800-pound gorilla of race relations that everybody knew was sitting in there for the 20th century.

turn 2 : The speaker is asking if the listener believes in racial justice and if it is possible to achieve it. The speaker suggests that African-Americans have debated this issue for a long time, indicating that it is a complex issue.

What is the topic of the debate that the speaker mentions in turn 2?

Answer: Meaning


Mm-hmm. Some of the stories seem to have sort of a moral to them, like the one - mysterious one I'm going to call the rectum in a jar.

Yeah, this is the case of the rectum of the Bishop of Durham. If you go to London and you visit the Hunterian Museum, it's a wonderful, wonderful - one - in fact, one of the world's few remaining big medical museums. It's part of The Royal College of Surgeons of England. If you go and visit it, on display on the main floor inside a jar is something they call object RCSHC/P192. The label identifies it as being the preserved rectum of the Bishop of Durham, and we're talking about Thomas Thurlow, who was born in 1737, died in 1791. Would you like to hear the story of why it's in a jar in London on display?

With that kind of teaser, how could I not?

OK. The - that particular Bishop of Durham was a rich and powerful man. And he came down with some ailments and called in one of the celebrated doctors of the day, John Hunter, a man who, years later, went on to found this museum. Dr.  Hunter examined him and told him he had an incurable disease and that it was bad news. The bishop did not want to accept this news, so he was very insulting to this doctor and instead went and insult - and consulted a cattle doctor who gave him some kind of nostrum.

turn 3 : The Bishop insulted the doctor who diagnosed his incurable disease

How did the Bishop respond to the doctor's diagnosis?

Answer: Insulting


And we actually have a link to how to take the test up on our website at sciencefriday. com. People can try it out for themselves. What other things can you measure with this test besides bias in that way?

It's been very useful in measuring gender stereotypes. For example, it shows that there are strong stereotypes that associate male with science, female with arts, and we found that this is correlated with different countries. The strength of this implicit stereotype, is what we call it, predicts male-female differences in performance on standardized tests that are administered every few years.

There's a gender career stereotype that associates women with family, men with careers, and you'd think that this is something that men would show, but women would reject. Actually, the implicit association test shows that women have this stereotype, this implicit stereotype, even a little more strongly than men. And we found in research, others have found in research, that this stereotype is associated with women experiencing difficulty in the workplace.

It's sort of a force inside their head that gives them a source of conflict or a feeling of discomfort in career situations.

Speaking of inside your head, can you tell anything about people's mental health from the test?

turn 2 : Women have an implicit gender career stereotype associating them with family which contributes to their difficulties in the workplace.

Which gender is associated with family according to the implicit association test?

Answer: Women


I think, it means, that the voters, or the people being polled as voters, don't take their cues from the media, which is not really hard to believe. I think most people absorb a certain amount of media information that they choose from certain sources of media information. They generally tend to go to ones that they find simpatico. They may agree or not agree with a lot of what they hear, but they make up their own minds, and they make up their minds on the basis of things that were in their minds before they went to the media.

Well, Ron. Thanks so much.

My pleasure, Farai.

Ron Elving is NPR's senior Washington editor. He joined us from NPR's headquarters in Washington, D. C.

turn 0 : The media does not have as much influence over voters as people might think.

What is the reason behind most people going to certain sources of media information?

Answer: Simpatico


I want to talk a little bit about the words that are used to describe wine. You know, normally we hear things like dry, oaky, buttery - I kind of understand what those mean. But sommeliers have a much more creative way of describing tasting notes that you might not hear in a restaurant.

Well, you get everything from the more straightforward fruits and vegetables. So it could be pomegranate, raspberry, blackberry, apple, pear, lemon. They can also range to the far more imaginative. There were times where I was sitting in a tasting group and I thought that I was hearing someone read from a Wiccan book of love spells.

(Laughter).

Burnt hair, desiccated strawberry, armpit, you know (laughter).

turn 3 : "Burnt hair, desiccated strawberry, armpit, you know." This turn implies that the person is using unconventional and perhaps even unpleasant descriptions to convey the taste and aroma of the wine, rather than simply using literal and conventional terms like "sweet" or "fruity".

What are some examples of unconventional wine descriptions mentioned by person A?

Answer: Burnt,hair,desiccated,strawberry,armpit


I was listening back to some of the pieces that you've done in the past couple of months as we prepare for this broadcast. One of the things that China may have to change is the role of its banks. Banks like to take very few risks if possible, and that means investing in those big state-owned industries that have - well, they may not be spectacular returns anymore, but they are reliable.

Yeah. The banks do extremely well. You and I could sit back and run those banks and be very, very wealthy, though, communist.

The government sets the interest rates and so the banks can make a lot money. And if you're a Chinese person, you can't really get much of your capital out of the country. So where else are you going to put it?

One of the problems with the banks is that they tend to invest in state-owned enterprises. It's kind of part of their job, and it's less risky. But most of the jobs in China are really produced by private enterprise, as they are here in the United States. And it's much harder for them to get capital. So people are, in many ways, feelings that the economy is out of whack in a number ways and that there need to be some serious changes. The government knows this, but there are now very strong vested interests in state-owned enterprises and the banks. And so getting that done is not going to be easy politically.

turn 3 : The government is aware of the issues with state-owned enterprises and banks, but it will be difficult to make changes due to vested interests

Answer: house


Now, the netting, as I understand it, is not expensive - I mean, a scintilla of what a relief pitcher earns annually.

I think that's right, yeah.

But on the other hand, I mean, these modern stadiums that are being built want to get the fans close to the action.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, you've been very lucky as a Cubs fan. You've always had Wrigley Field, which is an intimate stadium. And that's what these new stadiums are trying to recreate. Even Yankee Stadium, if you go on their website today, Scott, they actually tout the fact that home plate is 27 feet closer than in the old Yankee Stadium.

turn 3 : (4) Implied meaning: The new stadiums are trying to recreate a similar atmosphere as the old Wrigley Field which was an intimate stadium.

What is the goal of modern stadiums being built?

Answer: Replicate


I know it does.

How you doing, Tony?

I'm doing great. Listen, you heard the conversation we just had with Dave Zirin about the intersection of sports and politics. Do you agree with the basic premise that it's an issue that is ongoing and ever changing?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely, you know, Dave makes great points. What I thought was very interesting, Tony, was before the Olympics, LeBron James was going to become very interested, you know, about slave trade, and slavery in Africa. And he was making some points, saying I really want to do this, I think I'm going to do it, I think I'm going to speak out, and by the time they got to the Olympics, Tony, they had sat on LeBron. And suddenly he had changed his tune, he was well, this is nothing but sports, and we just want to keep it to sports. And to me, once again, it reinforces this whole idea of here you've got this team of multi-millionaires led by LeBron and Kobe, and these guys basically were intimidated. They were intimidated into not saying anything. So yeah, sports is very political by definition, and by the absence of it. It's just a phenomenal contradiction.

turn 2 : "I'm doing great" is just a response to the question in order to lead into the conversation. Tony appears by the conversation to be a bit upset or excited

Which issue is Dave Zirin discussing with PersonB in turn 2?

Answer: Intersection


And he met a tragic end, I gather.

Yup. Much like Martin Luther King, he had his young life cut short by gunfire from a white assassin.

I don't understand how America doesn't know so much about him and why Philadelphia took so long to recognize him.

I think part of it is that in the decades after reconstruction, there was almost a big version of what we might now call a white backlash. America got into the birth of a nation era when that movie depicted Klansmen as heroes and black leaders of reconstruction as morons and sexual predators when in fact there's this whole rich history that lots of good historians have started to dig out in the last few decades of black political activists who even began their activism right at the tail end of slavery.

turn 1 : The actual meanings of these turns are: (2) Martin Luther King was killed by a white assassin; (3) America doesn't understand or appreciate the contributions of black leaders during Reconstruction; (4) America's history of racism and white supremacy has been ignored or minimized for many decades.

What era was America in when the movie "Birth of a Nation" depicted Klansmen as heroes and black leaders of reconstruction as morons and sexual predators?

Answer: birth-of-a-nation


So the root stocks that people today associated with French wines came from another country?

One part of the genetic signature is of the domesticated grape. And then as the domesticated grape travels across the Mediterranean, you get crosses with wild grapes because the wild Eurasian grape, Vitis vinifera, it grows all along the southern coast or along the Mediterranean. So as you get - bring in the domesticated grape vine, you know, starting over in, you know, the area of Lebanon today, and you move across to Crete and Greece and then on to Italy, you're getting crosses between that domesticated vine and the wild grapes that are growing there.

And so you get a whole series of cultivars springing up, and those are the ones that then, you know, get chosen for different reasons. It could be the color of the grape, it could be the thinness of the skin, the sugar, flavor and so forth. But the grapevine is very promiscuous. So it crosses quite easily.

Can you tell from the residue whether the wine was red or white that was in there?

turn 2 : springing up means to suddenly appear or to suddenly happen.

Answer: Appear


There are some conversations, some talks. Robert Townsend actually came to the opening, it was like, you know this is a movie, right?You know, this is a movie?You realize this is a movie?I'm like, yeah, I think it is, I think it is.

So, there's conversations about it, but I want people to come out now, and see it in this incarnation, because it's original story telling form. Very much John Leguizamo, I dance in the show, I become 15, 20 different characters, and I actually dip into some other guys. I actually look like the people when I do them. I actually have the elasticity to flip my face up, and be like, wait a minute, he kind of looks like a whole different human being now. The chameleon is here.

All right, on that note, Don, thanks so much.

Thank you so much. Everybody, come on out.

turn 1 : John Leguizamo has the ability to transform into different characters during his performance.

Which performer has the "elasticity" to transform into different characters during the show?

Answer: Incorporating


You've got lots of reasons to be concerned about this economy, not the least of which is the fact that the Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke has done yet another interest rate cut. And the question is, how many more cuts can he do?He has so many arrows in his quiver.

So, we're looking at a very fragile economy. And certainly, the employment piece is the most important piece for most Americans because most people don't have trust funds or extra money. Many who do have home equity have it tapped out. The way that 90 percent of us support ourselves is that we work every day, and increasing numbers of people don't have employment opportunities.

When you look at what's happening right now, there were - there have been times when there are certain, you know, white collar jobs that have really gotten hit hard, I'm thinking of the computer industry, the technology industry in the '90s when there was that dot bomb era. But is this really, for now, more of a blue collar job loss or is it mixed?

It's really a mixed bag. You see many corporations who are downsizing, they call it rightsizing, who are cutting even if it's by as little as 5 percent, Farai, it adds up. We see state governments also looking at a drop in revenue coming in because of a drop in tax revenue, and they are thinking of cutting in — may have already done some cutting.

turn 3 :  "downsizing" and "rightsizing" are both euphemisms for cutting jobs or reducing the size of a company, rather than referring to physically reducing the size of something.

What are "rightsizing" and "downsizing" referring to?

Answer: Job


Yeah, indeed. Tell us about the damage from the storm. And were people prepared?

You know, people had evacuated low-lying coastal areas that are prone to flooding and that were in danger of a storm surge that would come from a hurricane like this. So people were prepared. But it looks like the main issue is going to be flooding. Here in downtown Mobile, some streets are underwater. South of here in some neighborhoods, there were some high-water rescues overnight - people who lived along waterways stranded in their homes where there are floodwaters.

And as you mentioned earlier, like, something - like, more, than 100,000 people out of power. And this is over a wide area - Mississippi, Alabama and then the Florida Panhandle, as well. So now it's time to sort of see what the damage is and what's next. And this storm is still moving. So there are going to be impacts felt for the rest of the day.

Just briefly - we have about 30 seconds left - are there enough resources to cope with all these disasters?It's been such an intense hurricane season.

turn 2 : Over 100,000 people are without power due to the storm

Which resource is impacted due to the storm?

Answer: Resources


Well, actually, we - there's three records on the chart, the chart of this year. Within the top of 30, you have Flo Rida, and then there - a couple of other songs that were charting this year were Alicia Keys and one by Timbaland with "One Republic. "

So, you know, in the - if you look at the top ten, one thing I'm happy about in terms of grading on the curve, if you look at the top ten, every decade that this chart has touched, is represented here. We have one from the 50s, and we also have the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, and this decade represented.

But yeah, there's ample representation of recent hits here. One from this decade in the top 10 being by Mariah Carey, "We Belong Together. "

All right, what is changing about the music game with digital distribution?Does it affect how people buy singles, and what might be on the top 100 in the next 50 years?

turn 0 : The speaker is referring to the top 30 songs on the chart, not just three.

How many songs are mentioned in the top 30 chart?

Answer: Chart


The rules were meant to give people more control over the data that the Internet providers collect about them. Telecom and cable companies were supposed to start getting explicit consent from customers before selling some of the more sensitive information, things related to finances or health. And there were other requirements for increased transparency and security.

So they were going to have to get your actual consent before they could sell that information, right?

The technical term was opt in.

So given that those rules won't be going into effect, does that mean, let's say, my Internet provider - say Comcast - can sell to an advertiser a package that says here's what Lulu Garcia-Navarro reads online and watches on TV?

Well, so practically that's unlikely. You might have seen some stories of activists pouncing back against the lawmakers who repealed the rules. Folks were raising tons of money online, tens of thousands of dollars, to presumably buy the browsing history and other data about those lawmakers themselves - sort of you sold our privacy, well, we will buy yours. But that's not exactly how this market works. You can't go to Comcast and say, give me everything you've got on Senator Jeff Flake. And frankly, the advertisers don't really sit around and say, let's go after Lulu or Alina. They say, let's go after all women in a particular age group in the Washington area, and then, they buy ad targeting for individuals in that cohort.

OK. So what data do Internet providers actually collect then?

turn 4 : Literally, the turn means that activists were raising money to buy the browsing history and other data about lawmakers who repealed the rules, and that advertisers do not target individuals but rather a specific group.

Answer: Cohort


Yeah, bubbly jock. And an owl is a hoolet. And that, again, is based on the sound that it makes. And - but my favorite is a wood pigeon, is a cushie-doo.

That is an absolutely dead-on approximation of its sound.

Isn't it lovely?So a frog is a puddock and sparrow is a speug. So I've never used speug in a sentence, but when I was a boy, we used puddock. So I don't go around trying to convince everybody that my culture's better than theirs, but sometimes it suits my face better. It sits nicely in my mouth.

And explaining your culture, it goes with the way you do your material. You don't tell jokes, per se.

turn 2 : material in this context means the way someone performs

What does PersonA use to describe a sparrow?

Answer: Speug


Well, let's talk about the forecasting because one of the amazing parts of sort of science of this story was that hours before, the National Weather Service locally issued a warning that there might be a tornado. And it was pretty spot-on, it sounded like.

Yeah. You know, even days before. I mean, with this region was under the gun, we had outlooks noting this particular area would be prone to these types of storms on that particular date. Even that day, as you noted, some of our high resolution models indicated the possibility of tornadic storms. I know the National Weather Service put out some public communications, even warning, I think, somewhere around 11, 11:30, noontime hour that there was a possibility of storms later that afternoon. And even special warnings for schools.

So I want to give out a shout out to the colleagues and members of AMS there working at the National Weather Service and in the broadcast community because they were on top of it from the beginning. And I want to also emphasize that the Weather Service put out warnings 16 minutes before the storm even touched down. The average warning time these days is around 13 to 15 minutes, and that's up from five minutes in 1990. So although to many in the public that doesn't sound like a lot, that's actually above average so - and even more time before the storm reached Moore.

Talking with Marshall Shepherd, president of the American Meteorological Society. I'm Flora Lichtman, and this is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR. So what accounts for this change, this bettering of our prediction time?

turn 0 : The forecast for the tornado warning was exactly right for the place and time it issued it.

How was the National Weather Service's forecasting for the tornado warning?

Answer: Spot-on


I assume, Sean, you're not going to have anyone there kind of pulling in the CNN-type touchscreen - pulling up results from various provinces. When might we get a really solid indication of who the next president of Afghanistan will be?

You're right. It is going to take some time here. We should start to get some basic, preliminary results in the coming days. But the actual count won't be completed until April 20. But once that's released, there's going to be several weeks of challenges, and a period where another body evaluates fraud and complaints and challenges from candidates. And May 14th is when the final, certified results of today's vote will actually be released. And most analysts are convinced that there's no chance any of the candidates will get more than 50 percent of the vote today, which means the top two candidates will go to a runoff, probably to be held sometime in June; meaning, we're looking at sometime late summer, early fall, actually, before we know who the next president of Afghanistan's going to be.

NPR's Sean Carberry in Kabul. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Scott.

turn 1 : "the actual count won't be completed until April 20" is meant literally as it refers to the official count of the votes.

How long until the final, certified results of the vote are released?

Answer: May


And it's not just the president who's criticizing him. He's facing a lot of pressure from Republicans on the Hill, as well. Is that right?

That's very much so. McCabe was dragged up to Capitol Hill twice last week. He spent around eight hours testifying behind closed doors for the House Intelligence Committee. That was about Russia. And he spent a little more than eight hours with the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committees a few days later talking about the Clinton matter.

Now, there's one thing in particular that Republicans want to talk to McCabe about, and that's a senior FBI agent by the name of Peter Strzok, who's been in the news a lot. He worked on both the Mueller probe and the Clinton investigation, and he sent highly charged, politically charged text messages about Trump. Now, Strzok was removed from the Russia investigation, but those text messages have given Republicans a lot of ammunition for their allegations of political bias.

With about 30 seconds left, what sort of effect does all of this criticism from the president, from Republicans on the Hill have on the FBI?

turn 1 : McCabe faced intense questioning and scrutiny by Republicans.

What is the name of the FBI agent that Republicans want to talk to McCabe about?

Answer: Peter


The letters A-A-P-L no longer stand for the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world. The price for a share of Apple, Inc.  declined throughout the week, until Exxon reclaimed the top spot on the NASDAQ. Now, this news comes after Apple posted revenues that were lower than expected. And meanwhile, that other tech giant, Samsung, has been growing even larger. Samsung had a record-breaking report of its quarterly profits this week. Joe Nocera joins us - an op-ed columnist for the New York Times and financial expert. He joins us from Sag Harbor, New York. Joe, thanks for being with us.

Thanks for having me, Scott. And how the mighty have fallen.

Well, all right. First, let's take a measure of that. Exactly how huge was Apple last year?

Apple was by far the most valuable company in the world, far exceeding Exxon and everybody else. Its stock has tumbled not quite in half but it's basically gone from the low-700s to the mid-400s, and in the blink of an eyelash. It's really been very, very quick - the last maybe three months this has taken place.

Now, all of this, you know, being said, the reported profits this week are on the scale that a lot of companies would envy.

turn 1 : "I don't think it's my place to say" could imply that the speaker wants to avoid offending someone or getting involved in a situation they don't want to be part of.

What does the PersonA's turn 1 imply about their willingness to get involved?

Answer: Reluctance


Exactly. He's betting on this, and he's No. 1 in the polls.

I gather you were a protester in 2011. Do you believe these democratic elections are going to come closer to realizing the dreams that brought you into the protest movement?

I'm not thinking that these elections in 2019 will change anything major. But on the grand scheme of things, we're showing to the people in the Arab world that they can be free. We are writing this beautiful story of an Arab Muslim country that is able to sustain its democracy, that has a president that died. And after 48 days from his passing, we're having the elections being prepared, as the constitution mentioned. We didn't see a single boot (ph) in the street, no gunshots - nothing - no coups.

And we need the U. S.  and other allies to just realize that whatever we're doing here is a blueprint for the region as well.

turn 3 : They need the countries to realize this is the way things should be done in other countries.

What is the message that the speaker wants other countries to understand?

Answer: Message


Colin Powell - not one black candidate on the ticket, but two. That would be remarkable.

Well, let's also remember Colin Powell is a Republican. He would establish a kind of bipartisan bridge. And if you want to say, yes, it's a ticket of two African-Americans, which it would be, it is already a ticket of one African-American. So people who have perhaps a problem with that might not necessarily have that much more of a problem with two.

And I think that the advantage that it would have would be to say, we're kind of, in a sense, taking race off the table here. We're not talking about electing the first black president. We're asking you to vote for Barack Obama and Colin Powell and look at those two individuals.

It's a really interesting suggestion, I would imagine that a number of Democrats would say, wait a minute, he was on the wrong side on Iraq. Plus, we've got our own guys. We want a Democrat, a real Democrat. Who's out there?

turn 1 : Framing the ticket as Barack Obama and Colin Powell instead of the first black president could take race off the table.

Which issue could be avoided by framing the ticket as Barack Obama and Colin Powell instead of the first black president?

Answer: Race


It's far worse than that. The assumption that Social Security numbers were compromised was there at the beginning, but, you know, OPM has sort of slow-rolled how bad this really is. And what has been compromised includes security clearance information, background investigation information for millions of past and present employees across the U. S.  government, including the Pentagon and the intelligence community. This is really, really bad.

And, potentially, how could this information be used?

Well, this is very personal information, as anyone who's ever had a security clearance could tell you. This involves - especially at the higher levels of classification that are needed - very detailed personal information about lifestyle habits, anything you've done wrong - things you probably wouldn't want other people to know about, frankly - if you've had addiction issues, financial problems, marital problems, partner problems.

So it could be used to blackmail a federal employee. . .

turn 3 : implies that this sensitive information could be used by malicious individuals to blackmail federal employees.

What kind of information could potentially be used to blackmail federal employees?

Answer: Personal


The parallels between the two men were extraordinary, and, of course, I didn't know that when I started researching the story. But every step of the way, there was something else that was a mirror image. They both pursued lofty goals in childhood. They both suffered love and loss as young men. They both lost their wives and were left with infant daughters at very young ages. They both embraced public service, and they both emerged as leaders. And the thing is that in another more enlightened time, they could've held the other's job.

It is also interesting. We mentioned Frederick Douglass, obviously the first generation of African-American leaders in this country. He met with President Lincoln, was - discussed the race issue several times during the Civil War with him, and it is Booker T.  Washington who sort of picks up the mantle, along with W.  E.  B. Du Bois.

They did. But it was interesting to me that Booker T.  Washington and Du Bois came from completely different positions. Slavery was not a concept to Booker T.  Washington. He lived it. Whereas Du Bois grew up in Massachusetts and had a - was born free and had a completely different experience. It was really Booker T.  Washington's mission to lead his people out of slavery. He was actually called the Negro Moses, and it was Du Bois' mission to lead them into the 20th century. If they had been able to work together in concert, I think that what they would've achieved would've been remarkable.

Yet they had tensions, well, I think, that continue to this day.

turn 3 : The implied meaning of (4) is that the tensions between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois are still relevant today. This is different from the literal meaning, which is that the two men had tensions.

How are the tensions between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois relevant today?

Answer: Relevant


And for some young women in those societies, it was that just order. Those kind of dashed hopes were exploited. And part of the appeal of ISIS, I think, in those early days in countries like Tunisia and for girls like Nour, was that there was no other way to be politically active, to be a feminist of any kind. It was the only door that was open.

I was about to mention the story of Nour. She was a high school dropout from Tunisia. And you make the point in the book that she was sort of rebelling against a secular state. And it was her way of expressing her female identity.

Exactly. So Nour grew up in a Tunisia that was highly authoritarian but secular. So Nour was religious. She wanted to cover her hair. She went to school wearing a headscarf. And she was thrown out of high school for that because the headscarf was banned in public spaces like that in Tunisia before the 2011 uprisings.

You described this shocking scene where she's actually attacked by her teacher.

turn 0 : It's not a door but an opportunity that becomes available to them.

Which word describes the way young women in societies with dashed hopes viewed the opportunity that ISIS offered?

Answer: B


. . . which has its own problems. Arranged marriages are - people are speaking up for them nowadays.

Well, you know, I mean, that that is the time. The woman - he asked the hand of this woman, his late 20s. But this is also because of that, that you can have this kind of melodrama. I mean, "Romeo and Juliet" today, it cannot happen because if the father of Juliet today say to Juliet, you cannot marry Romeo; and she say, I don't care. And she will go out and marry him anyway. And if she marries him, then there is no more love story anymore. You know, they marry; then they had a - lots of children.

You know, imagine Romeo and Juliet and they have like, 12 kids. Who would care about their story, you know?

Romeo and Juliet go to Costco. . .

turn 1 : "But this is also because of that, that you can have this kind of melodrama." The literal meaning of this turn is difficult to determine because it is not grammatically correct. However, the actual meaning seems to be that the societal norms and traditions of the past allowed for dramatic love stories like Romeo and Juliet to occur, but modern society would not allow for such a story to unfold in the same way.

What is the reason behind the existence of melodramatic love stories like Romeo and Juliet?

Answer: Traditions


Exactly, exactly.

How often does this happen?This is quite rare, is it not?

Yeah, we haven't had an annular eclipse in the United States since 1994, and this is part of what's called a sero-cycle(ph) that repeats itself every 18 years, 11 days and six hours - but who's counting that?But it repeats itself very precisely, and so we'll have another eclipse just like this 18 years, 11 days and six hours from now.

And in a couple of weeks, there's going to be another big sky show, right?The Transit of Venus. Tell us about that.

turn 1 : This is a rare event that happens every 18 years

How often does the annular eclipse happen?

Answer: Every


Midterm elections are always a little tricky for pollsters. What do polls about national issues and inclinations mean when control the House and Senate will be decided district by district and state by state?But this time around, there's even less data and fewer polls to analyze. NPR's Domenico Montanaro joins us. Thanks very much for being with us, Domenico.

Always a pleasure. Thank you.

Fewer polls?

Yeah. There are fewer polls this time around, and that is a real problem. I mean, when you look at the fact that newspaper readership at a local level is dwindling, their revenue is being cut, they were the ones who used to fund a lot of these polls, especially in congressional districts. And on a statewide level, there are dozens of fewer polls. So take them all with a grain of salt.

turn 1 : the accuracy of polls during midterm elections is already questionable due to the nature of the district and state-by-state voting process.

How are polls affected during midterm elections?

Answer: MAJORITY


Four. Four. We have two children.

You're a fam of four. And you are in the hospital, all four of you?

Were in the hospital, yes.

So what do you plan to do when the storm stops?

turn 1 : A has two children and B is confirming the family size, but also asking if they are all in the hospital together.

Answer: Two


It's a love letter to my mother. I love my mother very, very much. She gave me everything. She was a wonderful mother. She gave me the most magnificent childhood in Edinburgh, and she had no pattern for that. She was suffering so much as a child. She was kept very closeted. Nobody ever told her anything of love. She was very, very solitary, lonely and unhappy child. And yet she invented herself and became this wonderful mother to me.

And at the same time, I felt that her version of events, which was utter doom and terrible villainy, couldn't necessarily be completely true because everybody's version of their story is slightly different.

Of course.

And so I wanted to turn it and turn it like a kaleidoscope to see whether I could see what these people's motives really were. And was it so terrible?

turn 3 : The literal meaning is that the speaker wants to examine the motives behind the actions of the people involved in the events. The implied meaning is that the speaker is questioning whether their mother's version of events was accurate and whether the motives behind the actions were as terrible as their mother portrayed them to be.

What is the speaker questioning in turn 3?

Answer: Motives


Good. So, you received about 8,500 questions in your Explainer inbox over the year, and it's your job to go through all of these and pick the ones that you then allow your readers to vote on for their top pick. Can you give us a sample of what's on the ballot?

Well, there's a wide range of questions. For example, one person asks, can an average person not in politics get a pardon from the president of the United States?

Good question.

Which is a - yeah, a question that we've actually gotten quite a few times, especially as Bush gets ready to leave office. But then this particular reader adds in parenthesis, possession of a forged instrument, October of 1989.

turn 0 : top pick usually means the number one choice

What is the significance of the term "top pick" in the dialogue?

Answer: Number


How embarrassing. How. . .

I love how you mention the head rag because it's like. . .

Exactly.

In my family, it was like - it's a disgrace to the race when you leave the house with your head rag.

turn 3 : Wearing a head rag is seen as a negative reflection on the race.

What kind of reflection does wearing a head rag have on the race according to PersonB's family?

Answer: Reflection


Well, it's just so different as to be almost unrecognizable to everything else they ever do. Well, first of all, there are over 4,000 credentialed members of the media. I have met many of these people, and I question their credentials. (Soundbite of laughter) But aside from the crush and the demands on their time, it is a weird travel schedule.

For a regular game, there is usually a week between games in the NFL. And a team will arrive in the visiting team's city usually, maybe, a day before the game. Here they arrive almost a week before the game. And that is just to accommodate the fact that the Super Bowl is this huge corporate affair, this huge media affair. So it's interviews and a little bit of practice, and interviews and a little bit of practice. And if a team losses focus, it could really hurt them come Sunday.

It sounds like a pretty intense week. Now, let's say I were a betting woman. Does this kind of hectic schedule favor one team over the other?

Well, you know, even if you weren't a betting woman, even if you were someone with, you know, who lives and dies with the Steelers or who bleeds Cardinals Burgundy - I think there probably are people like that - you might say that the Pittsburgh Steelers might have the edge, because in general, they are the more experienced team, having been to and won a Super Bowl just three years ago.

turn 3 : "Lives and dies" and "bleeds Burgundy" are not literal. They just refer to someone being a huge fan of the team.

How are "lives and dies" and "bleeds Burgundy" used in turn 3?

Answer: Metaphorically


Yup. And then, suddenly, it came back, and then it went back down. And they scratched their heads for quite a while. And finally, what they realized is that there was so much radiation there that it was doing what's called saturating the detector. So it just couldn't count anymore. It was just overwhelmed. And then when they would go out of the radiation belts, it would come back down to a reasonable level that it was designed for, and it would start counting again. And so it took them a little while to figure that out. But once they did, that was the discovery of the radiation belts.

And now we have the probes to follow up. Thanks, Craig Kletzing, for joining us today.

You're very welcome. Thanks for having me.

Craig Kletzing is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa.

turn 0 : The discovery of the radiation belts was a result of a long process of understanding what was causing the detector to be overwhelmed by radiation.

How did they discover the radiation belts?

Answer: Detector


Basically. Well, what hydrogen does is at soon as it escapes into the atmosphere it starts bonding with whatever it can find. You know either hydrocarbons or oxygen to create water or whatever. It doesn't sit in the environment once it leaks out, for example, out of a tank or whatever. It doesn't sit there, you know, waiting for something to happen. It moves very quickly, where as something like gasoline by comparison, does not do that.

How do you compare in terms of, you know, environmental impact and cost these developing hydrogen cars to hybrids like the Toyota Prius?

We'll, we're seeing things like the Prius that are already on the road and there are a number of other hybrids. We're developing a hybrid which will be on the road next year as well. Hydrogen is still in the development phase and so we're still a ways away from having vehicles on the road. So it's a little tough to make a direct cost comparison. I mean, the fleet of 100 hydrogen-powered seven series cars we've got on the road now were obviously very expensive to develop and to build just because of their very unique nature.

Who's your market?I mean, BMW is known a very quality brand, but that also means that your price point is probably above that of a lot of working folks who are commuters. So who do you find is your market?

turn 3 : BMW's market for their cars is not working-class commuters.

What is the target market for BMW's cars?

Answer: Quality


We've got two foreign vessels in Iranian custody. We've got one Iranian tanker in British custody and no sign of the tensions cooling off. So what happens next is the big question and a lot of the options are not that great. I mean, remember, this is all happening in the context of the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

Trump has been saying the return of American sanctions on Iran and other pressures are all designed to force Iran back to the negotiating table to hammer out a tougher version of the 2015 nuclear agreement - that's the one Trump pulled the U. S.  out of. So far, Iran's unanimous response from the military to the supreme leader has been, nope, Iran doesn't negotiate under pressure. We're not going to do it. So we'll have to see if this continuation of commercial vessels being seized in the Persian Gulf adds more pressure for some kind of international response.

That's NPR's Peter Kenyon in Istanbul.

Thank you very much.

turn 1 : The table simply means that Iran is being forced to return to negotiations.

Which response did Iran give to the pressure?

Answer: nope


They're using bank loans at a 15-year low. That is a response to tightening lender standards and so small business owners are increasingly turning to credit cards to finance their businesses which are obviously have much more high and volatile interest rates. It's one of the reason we've been advocating for credit card reform. Because of the acesss and restrictions to credit card capital, they're not expanding their businesses, hiring new employees, cutting back on business travel. You know, it runs the whole gamut.

So if these aren't expanding and they are having trouble getting loans to expand, what does that mean for their employees?

I'm not sure that it's come to the point yet that many are cutting back on employees, although some percentage is. But you know, I think a lot of small businesses are not hiring new employees at the moment, just sort of bunkering down and hoping to weather through this economic storm.

So, if I'm a small business and I need a loan.

turn 0 : Runs the whole gamut means that it covers all the options.

Answer: Covers


And what did the colleges say - the ones that were offering you these football scholarships?Did you talk to them about the possibility of head injuries?And what was their response?

Well, some of the coaches kind of - they kind of shrugged it off. They said, we've only had a couple concussions with our guys over the past years, and we have new helmets and pads that prevent these injuries, and - just trying to kind of downplay it a little bit, you know?

So you've now decided to play basketball, I read. Did you know that basketball was going to give you the same opportunities?

No, I didn't, actually. You know, I thought - you know, it was a possibility. We were kind of going into it blind, hoping we could - you know, my family and I, when I say we - we could get some money.

turn 2 : Task Don't just paraphase the words! Find the implicated meaning! We don't want answers like: to be silent means stay quiet and not making noise, bad answer!  Please read the examples above carefully!      (1)	A:	That's right.She's protesting and enlisting the support of past Republican nominees and other leaders on her behalf.But the threshold was finishing top three in Iowa or pulling in the top six in New Hampshire or top six nationally.And she fell short in all those metrics. (2)	B:	What do you foresee tonight? (3)	A:	In a sense, there are still two tiers.You've got Donald Trump and Ted Cruz at the top.And then the three remaining governors, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich, all chasing the fastest-rising star of the field, Marco Rubio.Now, Ben Carson will be there - maybe something of an afterthought, although it will be interesting to see if he calls out Ted Cruz for Cruz's campaign telling people that Carson was dropping out on Monday just before the caucuses began.There's been a bit of a controversy over that.And Trump has said that it taints Cruz's victory there. (4)	B:	The downside to getting more attention, like Marco Rubio, is more criticism.And he seems to get more direct criticism from his opponents as he rises in the polls.  Please choose the turns whose actual meanings are different from their literal meanings.   (1)  (2)  (3)  (4)

Answer: Metrics


Thank you.

They were concerned about the front wheel of the stroller. It's a three-wheeled stroller, and they were concerned with the wheel falling off suddenly. It's attached to the stroller with a quick release, the same thing that attaches the wheels on bicycles. And so parents would be out running, jogging with their strollers, their kid in the middle. And the wheel would spontaneously fall off.

So the agency spent months investigating. And in 2017, they decided that Britax should recall the stroller, that it wasn't safe. And they even sued to try and force the company to recall the stroller. Tell us why that didn't happen.

turn 1 :  "So what originally did the Consumer Product Safety Commission say was wrong with this stroller?" is a question that asks for specific information about the stroller. Its meaning is also literal and straightforward.

Which question is literal and straightforward?

Answer: Wrong


So, you know, Emily, when your sister is in and out of the hospital, and you're bringing her books, you talk about teaching her about emotions. Can you just give an example of what you mean by that?Like, what is a conversation you had to have with your sister?

Well, it mostly happened, like, your emotions are biological events that happen in your body. It's physiological, real. Emotions are not just in your head. They are all over your body, in your chemistry. So she's reading these books, and she sees the word rage on the page and spontaneously bursts into sobs. And she calls me on the phone, and is like, your book here says that feelings are physical.

I was like, you're a choral conductor who expresses emotion through your body. You practice yoga. And she still, sort of, had not put it together that just because you've dealt with the stressors, that doesn't mean that you've dealt with the physical event of the stress in your body.

One of the lessons in your book is about completing the stress cycle. I loved this analogy of yours, this idea of a lion. Explain the concept of completing the stress cycle through the lion, Emily.

turn 2 : Managing stress requires dealing with its physical effects on the body.

Answer: Completing


After Army Private First Class Brian Orolin returned from Afghanistan in 2011, his wife, Donna, could tell something wasn't quite right. He became paranoid. He suffered constant headaches and would isolate himself in his bedroom with the lights dimmed. And then on November 19, Brian left his wife and two children in Spring, Texas. He has been missing ever since.

At StoryCorps, Donna Orolin remembered the day he returned from Afghanistan.

He was literally the last person off the plane, and he was just so excited to see his daughters. I dressed the girls up and put little bows in their hair with his unit on them. And I put a sign out front that said welcome home, Specialist Orolin. He just couldn't wait to be dad - husband again, but then, things were different.

We used to hold hands all the time before he left. When he came back, he didn't like to be touched, so I had to remind myself to not rub his back, not sneak up behind him and give him hugs. And pretty much his sense of purpose was gone. He would say that he was just going to go away somewhere some day and disappear, and we'd never find him.

turn 1 : implies that Donna is reflecting on the day Brian returned from Afghanistan and feeling emotional about it;

What was the sign that Donna put out front when Brian returned from Afghanistan?

Answer: Welcome


Exactly.

At the same time, she's this very sassy character. And, you know, so many of the characters here are very, you know, just sexy, kind of contemporary figures. And there's a joie-de-vivre about this, and even though she touches on a lot of heavy themes, including race and patriotism, there's a certain sass to this. Is that what attracted you to her work?

Well, I was astounded at her work. I was actually looking for something else in her cartoon that is in the late '40s. Most of her cartooning was done in the late '40s and early '50s. This one year of '37 was kind of a little different thing.

I was looking for evidence of a doll. I knew that she created a doll, and I thought I could find some evidence of that in her cartoons. And then yeah, I found the doll, but then I went on to see all of the different topics that she took on, and that got fascinating.

turn 3 : A's turn contains figurative language. The phrase "looking for evidence of a doll" is not meant to be taken literally. The speaker is referring to the fact that they were searching for any visual or textual reference to the doll that the artist had created.

What is PersonA referring to when they say they were "looking for evidence of a doll"?

Answer: Visual


We also heard singer-songwriter Ben Harper on that track. He wrote most of the songs on this album. He produced it. How did you two meet?Why do you think you clicked with him?

Well, Ben had written me a song for one of my other albums - "Livin' On A High Note. "And that song was "Love And Trust"

(Singing) Do what you can. Do what you must. Everybody's trying to find some love and trust. I walk the line. I walk it for us. See me out here trying to find some love and trust.

I fell so in love with that song. And every time we'd sing it, the audience - they would just roar, you know. It turned out so well. So I - we'd been singing it for a couple of years then. I ran into Ben on the road. That's where we would always meet up - somewhere on the road. And I told him. I said, Ben, that song - you have got to write me another song. He said, well, Mavis, why don't I write you 11 songs?I said, why don't you do that?He said, let's make an album. I said, sounds good to me. You know, I said, I don't know if I could handle 11 good songs from Ben Harper. He said, oh, yeah, you can handle it, Mavis.

turn 1 :  Ben Harper wrote a song for A in the past and that's how they first met.

Which album did Ben Harper write a song for A?

Answer: Livin


You know, I heard - I heard myself say that and thought maybe I should rethink that phrase. The reunification of the country would've been another way of saying it.

Well, it's just interesting to me - and I have no opinion on it - there are members of the Vietnamese Diaspora who refer to it as the fall. They refer to the month of April as Black April so there's definitely that camp. There's another camp that says normalizing relations between Vietnam and France and the United States and these kinds of things is good for Vietnam. And I think the thing that I'm most interested in, it's the idea of possibility and how so much can change in 40 years.

Yeah.

You know, I was there, like I said, three weeks ago. And there's tourists from all over the world - there are Russians, you know, they are people in Germany. Who would have thought 40 years ago that this would have been impossible for me and for these Russians and for all these people to be here in Vietnam?

turn 1 : Turn (2) implies that the speaker has no opinion on the subject but is interested in hearing the opinions of others and is marveling at the idea of how much can change in 40 years.

What is the PersonA's opinion on the idea of possibility in relation to the changes that have occurred in Vietnam over the last 40 years?

Answer: Possibility


Well, I've said for a long time that I think the president needs an assistant to the president for Twitter control. And once again, we have an example of why you would want that. In this case though, I have to say, when I first read the tweet, you know, you're just shocked. I was shocked at the the mayor's speech last night begging for help and saying that people were dying. That was heartbreaking to hear. But this feels to me like it fits in a theme that he has had for a while starting with his inaugural, which is to side on the side of the forgotten people. In this case, he names the military, the first responders and the aid workers.

Yeah. But nobody feels more forgotten than the people of Puerto Rico.

And - yeah. I was gonna say, and the people of Puerto Rico - versus what he sees as the elite, which would be the mayor and questioning the mayor's poor leadership ability - can't get workers to help, was told to be nasty to Donald Trump is in the tweet also. And this fits with his M. O. of going against the elites. And this fits with the rest of the news this week as well. I'm not surprised.

Is the Trump administration failing Puerto Rico now?

turn 0 : The president is trying to prioritize the needs of those who have been forgotten by society.

Which group is the president trying to prioritize?

Answer: people


No, not at all. And I've been pretty much apolitical my entire adult life. But this election is obviously quite different than previous presidential elections. So I just thought - I thought it was necessary to jump in and use my voice.

Why?

The prospects of Donald Trump being president just scare the hell out of me. And that's coming after having initially, you know, supported him and hoped that he would be 180 degrees different from what he turned out to be.

I mean, am I wrong?I seem to remember there was a time when you offered to be the running mate for either of them.

Oh, sure. Yeah, a lot of that was a little bit tongue-in-cheek. I didn't really expect that to happen. But, you know, there was a time when Donald first got into the race where I would talk to him on the phone.

turn 0 : "use my voice" - This is a metaphorical expression that means to speak out and express one's opinions.

Which expression is used metaphorically to mean "to speak out and express one's opinions"?

Answer: Voice


We're talking about huge issues here like, you know, what's the difference between the generations, between the Vietnam war generation and the younger generation?What's the role of African Americans in leadership in society?Is there a glass ceiling for women to break through?These are huge societal issues and they're being represented by these larger than life candidates.

Speaking of archetypes and demographics when it came to the primary season, how did Senator McCain stack up not just against Senator Obama, but also Senator Clinton?

Yeah, absolutely. The best way to see the primary campaign, you know, the first five months of this year is really too see it as a three-way race rather than a two-way race. And basically the major contest was between the young, attractive, good-speaking oratorical black man and the experienced glass-ceiling breaking woman, and the wily grizzled vets came in, sort of had a third place role there, but nevertheless got some coverage. If you rank - once ranked the number of minutes that they got, Obama got most of the - Rodham Clinton got second, and McCain got about half as much as Obama got.

All right. Just very briefly, what do you see ahead in terms of the parity or lack thereof for Obama and McCain?

turn 1 : Senator McCain's demographic characteristics were compared to Senator Obama and Senator Clinton.

How was Senator McCain compared to Senator Obama and Senator Clinton?

Answer: Compared


Yeah. Moving on to Merriam-Webster. They've added 1,700 new words. I can't begin to keep up with that, but I do want to ask you about this one in particular - eggcorn?

Eggcorn. Maybe we should spell it. E-G-G-C-O-R-N. It's defined as a word or phrase that sounds like and is mistakingly used in what seems like a logical or plausible way for another word or phrase. It's been around since about 2003. It's a play on how some people say the word acorn, and a linguist thought, well, it makes a little bit of sense. An acorn looks kind of like an egg. Let's come up with a word for another word or phrase when it's reshaped but kind of makes a little bit of sense if you think about it. So here's a classic one - some people will say all intensive purposes when they mean all intents and purposes.

There's a website I found called the Eggcorn Database - has more than 600 of these. Some of my favorites include self-phone.

(Laughter). That's perfect, actually.

turn 1 : All intensive purposes is actually a misused phrase for all intents and purposes.

Which phrase is mistakenly used in place of "all intents and purposes"?

Answer: Allintensivepurposes


So what is this thing about turning Girl Scout cookies into graphene?

All right, we'll start with a little reminder about graphene. Graphene is just a form of carbon. It's a form of carbon people knew existed, but just about eight or so years ago, for the first time, people were able to get enough of it to actually look at it. It's the two-dimensional form. It's like a big sheet of chicken wire, that's the shape, and it's really hard to get.

The guys who figured it out did it in a goofy way, using pencil and scotch tape. When you write with a pencil, that stuff that comes off, that graphite, that's really sheets, and sheets and sheets of this thin stuff. But separating those, that was expensive.

The numbers you've tossed around show you how expensive. People have been able to do experiments. They've found all kinds of really interesting possibly valuable properties, but nothing, no industry is really going to start until they can make enough of this stuff cheaply to use it.

turn 3 : tossed around refers to putting ideas out there without much thought

How did PersonA describe the numbers that PersonB has mentioned?

Answer: Expensive


Now, when we look at this, what they're doing, there was a - you know, in some ways perhaps a minor incident, but a telling one where the British publication, the Telegraph, reported online that the G8 leaders enjoyed a six course lunch followed by an eight course dinner. African leaders were not invited and of course they're talking about the global hunger situation. There was a lot of static about that. Do you think that, that was symbolic in any way or just, you know, big time world business as usual?

Well, Farai now you're going to draw the cynical side out of me. This was an incredibly stupid, careless move, by the G8 leaders where they basically seemed to have thought off camera they could do whatever they wanted to. And they demonstrated, for all to see, the contempt actually that they have towards the rest of the world.

That they basically - they see themselves, as in effect, the rulers of this planet. So, when they're on camera there'll be the tears, there'll be the concern. Off camera you saw this hideous example of consumption.

What do you think the G8 leaders should be doing in terms of an Africa agenda?I'm going to get to a couple of specific things, specific national issues of Zimbabwe and Nigeria in a second.

turn 0 : The G8 leaders showed disregard for global hunger by indulging in lavish meals without inviting African leaders.

Which leaders enjoyed a six course lunch followed by an eight course dinner?

Answer: G8


That's a great question. Things are definitely improving in the eurozone. It is unfortunately too early to say that they're out of the woods or even completely out of their recession.

I gather that most of the growth appears to be centered in Germany and to a lesser degree France. And is this then just a case of work with the best economies to begin with getting a little bit better?

Well, Germany has been the better of the European economies, since they're getting a little bit better. France has struggled. Portugal had some good numbers last quarter. That's encouraging. But you're right, we are still deeply worried about other places, such as Italy, Spain and, of course, Greece.

Well, that brings up the question because unemployment still continues to be perniciously high in Spain and Greece. Does this improvement somehow filter through to them?

Well, it certainly will - should if it continues, but you need faster growth rates than this. The hope is that this is the beginning of a faster recovery. But the way the European economy is, roughly speaking, you need more than 1 percent per year annualized growth rate in order to reduce unemployment. Unemployment's very high. We want to be seeing on an annualized basis 2 percent, perhaps even 3 percent in this recovery phase in order to feel that they've really turned the corner.

You need greater growth to be able to spur greater hiring and to lower the unemployment.

turn 0 : The eurozone is still in a precarious economic position and not fully recovered yet.

Answer: Economy


Yeah, it was. And you know, people did everything from bringing full-on sleeping bags to wearing what looked like, you know, fall clothes for a stroll in the park. People had very different strategies about what they were going to bring. They had very different understandings of what the security lines would let them bring in. There were huge piles of debris afterwards from things people couldn't bring onto the Mall. You know, it was organized chaos. I mean, it went off really smoothly considering, but there was certainly moments where people didn't completely know what to do, but there was no one who I've heard of who had a bad time. The only time that things are bad here is when you're trying to catch a taxi because there aren't any.

Well, you know, Metro police said there were no arrests, at least initially, as a result of all those people being there, which is remarkable in and of itself. You could have that large a crowd and everyone be that well behaved.

People were amazing. I saw these young brothers last night, and they were like, where's the Mall?And this is one o'clock in the morning. And I went, oh, there's not going to be any parking over there. They're like, we just drove from Chicago. Where's the Mall?I was like, that way. So, people just brought their A-game.

All right. Farai, thank you very much.

turn 2 : People were determined and enthusiastic despite the late hour and lack of parking.

How were people's attitudes towards attending the event?

Answer: Enthusiastic


That was where I really developed my love for music. That was where all the walls and lines between music were just taken down for me when I was a kid because I just loved everything. I couldn't understand why everybody wouldn't listen to a country song, everybody wasn't listening to, you know, Rock n Rolls songs. I thought it was awesome.

Radio's gotten a lot more segregated since then, hasn't it?

Yeah. That's an understatement. I mean, the - today everything is so specialty oriented. It's one kind of music and that's all you get to hear on the radio and, you know, I liked it when I was a kid and you could hear anybody on the radio station as long as it was a good song or a hit.

So you go - you're in Hootie & the Blowfish, you have any number of talents and interests musically. "Learn To Live" is doing so well commercially. Your R&B record did not find quite the same home.

turn 1 : LOVE FOR MUSIC AND RADIO HELPS MORE TO HEAR MUSIC LIKE COUNTRYSIDE MUSIC

How did the speaker feel about the walls and lines between music being taken down?

Answer: Awesome


I also translated my previous novel, "The Corpse Washer" - I translated it from Arabic to English.

But with this novel, you chose to have someone else translate it into English. Why?

Well, in all honesty, the subject matter of the novel is quite intimate and has a lot to do with my own memories of my home city and what it means also to be an Iraqi living in the U. S.  and watching the - my new country bomb my homeland. So it's very traumatic. So when Jonathan Wright offered - as soon as the novel came out in Arabic, he offered to translate it. I - he's an experienced, excellent translator, so I said, why not, you know?

I think I hear you telling me you could not go through that story twice.

turn 2 : The traumatic memories of the author made it hard for him to translate the novel himself, so he had someone else do it

Which novel did the author choose to have someone else translate into English?

Answer: This


Well, nearby, we had flooding was the most significant problem we had here. And one our neighbor's patios turned basically into a swimming pool and the water was pouring into her home. And we took the wet-vac up and towels and other neighbors brought mops and we all pitched in to get her at least toward the stages of recovery. Of course, that will continue. And the emergency officials in Oklahoma City reported they had as much as eight, 10, even 12 inches of rain in just, you know, four hours or so last night.

What are the recovery efforts like today, Kurt?

Canadian County, just to the west of Oklahoma City, looks like it was the hardest hit by the actual tornado. Now, the flooding seems to have been worse in the metro Oklahoma City area. The response will depend on what we see. Now, of course, we also still have all those people in, you know, the Shawnee area and Moore, Oklahoma, of course, and in Carney that were hit by storms May 19th and 20th. That recovery is going to be even more of a mess now too because of what happened last night.

Well, the sad fact is Oklahomans know how to do this, don't they?

turn 0 : The patio had a great deal of water on it that it could have been swum in.

What was the main problem with one of the neighbor's patios during the flooding?

Answer: Water


Oh yes, in fact the conventional laser was only two years old, and it taught us that light could be coherent. But it didn't say anything about a semiconductor and whether the semiconductor would do this. And actually the furor started with Rediker's group from Lincoln Laboratories, MIT, reporting that they had gotten good spontaneous light out of gallium arsenide.

And then several of us went home and realized there ought to be a way to make that coherent, into a laser, and we did it. And - but I'm the guy that was crazy enough to make my own homemade alloy, which a lot of people didn't think would work, and shift it up to where the eye could see. And that's the whole basis of it.

Ah, did you - why did it take 50 years?

Well because these crystal systems are complicated, how to grow them is complicated. There are wrong methods and arguments about right ways to proceed, and it just - it's a zig-zag process. You make a bad move, and then you're going to make another move to find your way, and it just took a long while to get there.

turn 1 : Developing the semiconductor laser required experimentation and risk-taking.

How did the development of the semiconductor laser require effort?

Answer: Experimentation


I think so. I mean, I think that these experiences, again, they tend to get spectacularized, you know, and day to day things like, you know, at other universities, it might not have had these types of you, know, well-known explosive incidents. Maybe like a University of Cape Town or University of Witwatersrand.

Still, you know, it's well known on those campuses that once the dorms of the residences are for blacks, once they integrated, white students moved out. They didn't perform those same sort of stunts, but they still, you know, walked out, in protest, that they didn't want to live, you know, side by side, with blacks.

So I think that, you know, when these incidents happen, you know, they kind of shed a light on something that's kind of insidious in a lot of different universities. And again, the message that gets sent is that we're not going backwards on this, you know, that we know it's going to take time. You know, we know that it's not going to happen overnight, but universities will be integrated spaces. This country will be an integrated country, where, again, black and whites have to live side by side with mutual respect.

Zine, thank you.

turn 1 : This implies the level of Racial discrimination on Campuses.

How does the dialogue shed light on discrimination?

Answer: Protesting


Yes, absolutely.

What do you mean?

Well, I've been through a lot. People don't like talking about things that hurt. Usually we like to skip over that stuff because it brings up something that's unpleasant, but honestly it's the only way that I feel like some of those things have purpose because of somebody else's journey. And I really believe, you know, the quote from the Scriptures that says, all things work together for my good. All things work together for my good, not just the stuff I liked, not just the stuff that felt really great in the highs in my life that were wonderful, even not selling records has worked for my good because my ego is not in a place where you can't be in the same room with me and fit.

I'm not in a place that when I see an unwed mother at 17, that I go, she probably didn't have no mama that cared about her. I had a mama that cared and I could have been that girl. And because of knowing that it could have been me, when I see them the emphatically in heart is different than somebody else's who doesn't know what it's like to be that girl whose been manipulated and her innocence stolen from her. It was stolen from me, and I know what that feels like. And you feel by yourself, you feel damaged goods.

turn 2 : Talking about unpleasant things can have a purpose

Which quote from the Scriptures does the speaker mention, stating that all things work together for their good?

Answer: Scriptures


So you say that some of his actions have been uncharacteristically un-Trumpian and that they're reminiscent of Obama. But what is Trumpian is that he's been conducting Syria policy over Twitter.

That's right, and he previewed the strikes. He said they were coming fast and smart. The missiles were coming. He then backtracked and said, maybe I haven't decided on a strike. And then, he tweeted something that really got everyone's attention. He said mission accomplished, which are two words that. . .

Very infamous words. . .

. . . George W.  Bush famously used. And he used them the last time we were involved in a Middle East conflict, declared it accomplished. And it turns out it wasn't.

turn 1 : Mission accomplished doesn't necessarily mean that the mission was successful.

How did George W. Bush use the phrase "Mission accomplished"?

Answer: declarative


I am. I am. Otherwise I would've been scared to go fishing at the fishing places I was going to. Or I would've been scared to go hang out with my friends at the end of this road in the field, like, you know I'm saying?I didn't think - I didn't have to think about those things. I just got to be me and form my own opinions.

(Singing) See, I'm black. I'm not white, but I'm that. No. No. I'm this, right?I'm one drop of three-fifths, right?

Toward the end, you're questioning. You're like, wait, I'm this?No. I'm that?No. I'm one drop of three-fifths?And it struck me as unusual for you - an unusual way to deliver a song. Do you have questions about your identity?Are there things that, for you, are still not answered?

Well, to me, growing up, I was just an oddity no matter where I went. It was like - you feel me?

turn 1 : The speaker is expressing frustration with the limitations imposed on them by their identity.

Which limitations is the speaker frustrated with?

Answer: Limitations


Yeah, Scott, well it began with - you know, it was a warm night last night, and people were out - it was a Friday night - sitting at a restaurant out at a cafe. And that's how it started. The attackers drove by with Kalashnikovs and just fired into everyone at that outdoor cafe. And there was also an attack on the stadium - the national stadium - where Francois Hollande was watching a game - a friendly game - match between France and Germany - a soccer match. And two assailants blew themselves up with - they were suicide bombers outside the stadium. And everyone ran to the grass to take cover. There was complete chaos. It had to be evacuated. The thing authorities are saying that's so striking is that they were perfectly coordinated.

To occur at the same time. . .

Exactly.

. . . Which, of course, would deplete the emergency resources the city could bring to it. In the. . .

turn 2 : The speaker is agreeing with the previous speaker's statement about the attacks being coordinated, and the use of the word "exactly" suggests a shared understanding between the two speakers. This also implies that there may be more to the story than what has been reported so far, and that further investigation may be necessary to fully understand the nature and motives of the attackers.

How did the speaker respond to the previous PersonA's statement about the attacks?

Answer: Agreeing


His anatomy turns out to be such that when he tastes something, he experiences it as much more intense than someone who has a lower density of taste buds on his tongue and. . .

Well, let me go through - let me ask you - well, let me just remind everybody that this is SCIENCE FRIDAY, from NPR. And I'm talking with Barbara Stuckey, author of "Taste What You're Missing. "Are you saying that we each have different numbers of taste buds on our tongues?Not - we all don't have the same number of taste buds?

We all live in our own private sensory world. So yes, the answer is we all have a different anatomy picture that really influences how we experience. . .

Wow.

turn 0 : A: His anatomy turns out to be such that when he tastes something, he experiences it as much more intense than someone who has a lower density of taste buds on his tongue...

How does the density of taste buds on one's tongue affect their experience of taste?

Answer: Intensity


Well, this is really interesting. They say they've found evidence that the Sacklers were trying to conceal their wealth in order to avoid paying an appropriate settlement. This is something we've heard even from sources who support the deal on the table, the idea that the Sacklers have worked strategically over the years to drain money out of Purdue Pharma and position those assets all over the world to make them harder to seize. In a statement, Letitia James accused the Sacklers of lowballing victims to skirt a responsible settlement while trying to shield their financial misconduct.

The Sacklers say James and other attorneys general are on a fishing expedition with these suits. They've countersued to squash the investigation. And they also say they're making a good-faith effort now to settle all these lawsuits.

Brian, you cover opioid litigation for NPR. More than 218,000 Americans have died from prescription opioid overdoses. What do you see as the likelihood of communities and families actually getting money or some kind of compensation?

Yeah. I think it's unlikely that it will happen anytime soon, Scott. The legal fight is happening on a lot of fronts right now, so that's going to slow things down. Ohio - just let me give you one example. They've already received tens of millions of dollars in compensation from other drug companies that sold opioid medications and settlements. But because of a legal fight there, none of that money can be spent helping people. It's just sitting in a bank account. And as the money amounts grow here, up into the billions now, the legal fight over who gets all of this cash will likely grow, too.

turn 0 : There is a deal that has been offered to the Sacklers from the attorneys general.

What is the Sacklers' response to the attorneys general's deal?

Answer: Settle


So there are always lines in invoices - in the case of remains excavations, taking care of the remains, maintaining them, transfer - all of these kind of things. It happens. It exists. In other hostage cases, you would see not necessarily - and I have to distinguish between hostages and political prisoners because Otto Warmbier was a political prisoner, not a hostage.

And the difference being that hostages are held generally by nongovernmental. . .

Correct.

. . . Entities. . .

turn 3 : Political prisoners are not the same as hostages and should be distinguished.

How should political prisoners be distinguished from hostages?

Answer: Difference


Right.

You know, she said, he's sort of Ralph Lauren type. Do you like that type?And here I am thinking, like, God, no.

What did she ask you to do?

She didn't tell me to do anything. She just said, just do whatever he asks, and you'll be fine. And again, that's another comment that was made as we were leaving the car as we walked into the house that didn't land right away. But obviously, in hindsight now, that - the comment, you know, landed pretty hard with me.

turn 1 : A dislikes Ralph Lauren type, but she thinks B might like them

How did PersonA feel about the comment made as they walked into the house?

Answer: Hard


Ibiza being the Spanish island where this video was filmed.

Exactly - just blathering on and on to a Russian woman who they believed was the niece of a prominent Russian oligarch.

And I'll just insert here that I have not had the opportunity to verify exactly what is being documented on this video. But what it has done is raise all of these questions in Austria about the extent of Russian influence in Austrian politics. Is that right?

Absolutely. And, I mean, it's funny because these are actually fake Russians. This is - these are not necessarily people that were sent from the Kremlin. We don't really know the provenance of the video. Some people believe it's an activist collective. Other people are speculating that some secret services of various countries were involved. But the most important thing to say is that Vice Chancellor Strache hasn't denied any of the assertions.

Right. Well, let me insert a practical question here. Where does this leave the government of Austria?Who's in charge today?

turn 3 : Vice Chancellor Strache has not denied any of the assertions

How did Vice Chancellor Strache respond to the assertions?

Answer: denied


Well, their explanation was largely that this is mostly normal. There were several years where they sort of deprioritized taking people out of this program and allowed families that they say were no longer eligible to stay in. And now they have restarted disenrolling people and expected a significant number of children to be cut from enrollment. I think there are still very large questions about how many of those families were removed because they are no longer eligible and how many were removed because they did not properly do paperwork.

What's your response to people who say, look, this is the responsibility of the parents - what's so difficult about filling out some forms?

Well, I have seen the packet, for one, and it's not easy. And two, even if tens of thousands of parents drop the ball, it's not the kids' fault. Is that really what we want, is a state where lots and lots of kids don't get health insurance, to which they are legally entitled, because their family didn't fill out paperwork or the state sent that paperwork to the wrong address or it got lost in the mail or any of many possible procedural errors that could have happened somewhere in this paperwork?

Your story came out earlier this week, and the governor has since acknowledged this reporting. What's been the fallout so far?

turn 2 : (3) - Well, I have seen the packet, for one, and it's not easy.And two, even if tens of thousands of parents drop the ball, it's not the kids' fault.Is that really what we want, is a state where lots and lots of kids don't get health insurance, to which they are legally entitled, because their family didn't fill out paperwork or the state sent that paperwork to the wrong address or it got lost in the mail or any of many possible procedural errors that could have happened somewhere in this paperwork? - Implied meaning: Is it fair to punish children for adults' mistakes and errors in paperwork?

What is the reason for the potential disenrollment of children?

Answer: Paperwork


Controversies erupted around a condolence call made by President Trump to a grieving widow whose husband died in armed service to the United States. The president called Myeshia Johnson, widow of the late Sergeant La David Johnson who was one of four soldiers killed in an ambush this month in an operation in Niger. His body was found nearly a mile from the scene of the fight. And Sergeant Johnson is being laid to rest today. The call of the president to a widow seems to be remembered differently by everyone involved. We're joined now by Seth Moulton. He's a retired Marine Corps officer and a Democrat who represents northeast Massachusetts in Congress. Mr.  Moulton, thanks so much for being with us.

It's good to be here.

Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida said that the president upset a soldier's widow when he told her he knew what he signed up for. If I can follow this, she's been criticized by both the president and his chief of staff, General John Kelly - also a Gold Star father - for politicizing the issue, in their judgment. General Kelly said that phrase was one he suggested to the president because it had been said of Robert Kelly, the general's son, when he died.

Is it possible that everyone is just misunderstanding each other at a stressful time?

turn 2 :  The phrase "he knew what he signed up for" is being interpreted and remembered differently by different individuals involved in the situation. The actual meaning of the phrase may vary depending on the context and the perspective of the people involved.

Which phrase is being remembered differently by different individuals?

Answer: Phrase


Well, you have roots in the South, so what are some of the food prep and food producing traditions of the South that you think we need to reconnect with?

Yeah, for me, it's really about helping people remember and as you said, reconnect with these issues - or these ways of connecting with the land and producing our foods that we saw just a couple of generations ago. As Will Allen said, you know, most people in America were producing their own food. And when I think about the African-American community that I grew up in, you know, my grandparents had practically an urban farm in their backyard. You know, everyone on the street was growing some type of food, small plots, people had mini- orchards.

And you go back to the same neighborhood now and it's, you know, practically a shell of itself. And I think we need to just kind of like remember that the way that people are advocating for eating local, healthy, sustainable food, you know, these ways that many of us were eating. And this isn't just about African-Americans. I think that a couple of generations ago a lot of us were eating this way, and we just need to get back to that.

Well, some argue that the locally sourced organic food movement is elitist and out of reach for the budget of lower-income city folks. So, what do you think?

turn 2 : Food is the most important think for each any every human.

What issue does Will Allen talk about regarding food production in America?

Answer: Producing


It was the claim that Clinton had been personally responsible for people's deaths that set off alarm bells for Russell. So he decided to do some fact-checking.

I came to the realization pretty quickly that someone may have been probably lying to me on social media.

It turned out there were many false stories circulating that year. But Russell was skeptical of claims that Russia had anything to do with them until lists of Russian troll accounts began to appear online. He was shocked.

My god, they're right. They're exactly right. What they've been telling me about this is literally happening. I can go look this stuff up. It's right there.

turn 2 : troll accounts implies that the user intentionally spreads misinformation to others

What was Russell's initial reaction to the claims about Russia's involvement in spreading false stories?

Answer: Skeptical


But today, the Reverend Al Sharpton, members of Bell's family, and other community leaders are taking these protests one step further. They'll march and stage pray-ins throughout New York City. One of the sites is House of the Lord Church in downtown Brooklyn, led by the Reverend Herb Daughtry. We talked to the reverend yesterday about his plans for the protest.

What we're supposed to do is assemble at various sites around the city and then march to the action site. That is the place where we will submit ourselves, some of us, to an arrest. Hopefully, in so doing, we will tie up the city so that there will be - there would be no movement, no motion. And everybody in the city and indeed across the nation will get the message that we will not stand for policemen, the people we pay to protect us, to kill us.

Reverend, when you talk about blocking things off and shutting things down, does that mean that you will literally block the streets?

Obviously, I don't want to be too specific, but we have assembling points. Points where we tell people to assemble. Here in Brooklyn, it's at our church, the House of the Lord Church. Now, once people have assembled, then we will go to the designated sites of action, where the civil disobedience will take place.

Sean Bell was a young man. Have you been able to reach out to people who are in their 20s or even in their teens to try to get them to join on to this protest?

turn 1 : "submit ourselves... to an arrest" - This phrase means that the protestors are intentionally getting themselves arrested as a form of civil disobedience, rather than trying to avoid arrest.

How will the protestors demonstrate their civil disobedience?

Answer: Arrest


Flora, continue with the. . .

Well, yes. So there are two things going on here. One is there's a bone difference between owls and humans. And this is already known. Owls have the double the number of vertebrae in their necks than we do. They have 14 and we have seven, and more segments gives them more flexibility.

Right.

You imagine, like. . .

turn 2 : to give them more flexibility in this context means they are allowed to do more things

What does the phrase "more things" refer to in the dialogue?

Answer: Activities


A judge on Friday, before his disappearance, had slapped him with a half-million-dollar judgment in relation to some of his previous business dealings. His wife had filed for divorce. His stepfather had also been buried on the same day that the judgment came down.

Mr.  Schrenker is from Indiana. His plane crashed in Florida. He landed in your state, Alabama. Where exactly will he face charges?

He already faces charges in Indiana from the secretary of state's office. He likely will face charges in Florida. The Coast Guard Investigative Services now are working with the Pensacola U. S.  attorney's office. They are tallying up the cost of the search for him. That will include manpower hours; that will include two helicopters, a boat and a cutter that they had put into the water. So, he will face a felony charge there, which has not been filed yet, of making a false distress call, and likely will be asked to repay the cost of the search for him.

Carol, has anything been heard from his wife or those who had invested money with him?

turn 2 : The Coast Guard will charge Mr. Schrenker for making a false distress call, and he will have to pay for the cost of the search.

Which charge will Mr. Schrenker face and have to pay for?

Answer: False


Absolutely. They are - they don't trust now any promises that they will not be prosecuted or taken in front of a judge. And also, you know, the standards of human rights internationally have changed. And there is a very active community - globally - that chases after dictators and people that have violated human rights and have committed the crimes against humanity, which is the case for many of them.

Now, isn't the logic of that - the humanitarian logic of that - that knowing they might have to face criminal charges will discourage dictators from striking out at their own people?

Absolutely. But strangely enough, we see that continuing to happen. We don't know how many thought about it and decided not to do it because they were fearful of being prosecuted internationally. But we do know that there are still many that go ahead with all kinds of crimes and violations of human rights. And Nicolas Maduro is a paramount example of that.

What about people who work for somebody who's in power and might not get the same guarantees?

turn 0 : an active community in this context means the community is doing a lot of things

What is the reason for some dictators to continue committing crimes against humanity despite the risk of international prosecution?

Answer: Fear


As we move forward, though, and as you see President Trump continue to backtrack on his comments on background checks, in the last 30 seconds we have, what would you like to tell him to stay on the message that you would like him to stay on?

Listen to the American people. We're a democracy. That's what we're supposed to be doing. There can be special interests that are whispering in his ear. They represent the past. What the future is are the kids in our elementary schools or high schools that practice a mass shooting drill during the first couple days of school. That's not the United States of America.

Democratic Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, thank you very much.

Thank you.

turn 1 : 'Special interests whispering in his ear' is figurative. It means that special interest groups - probably the NRA - have too much influence over the President.

How is "special interests whispering in his ear" interpreted?

Answer: Figurative


Well, it's about four, five, six percent. But we also asked questions about whether or not people would change their minds. You can add an additional about 20 percent of voters who are picking a candidate in the month of September, but are still saying they might change their mind how they're going to vote. When you add those two numbers together, you get almost to a quarter of the electorate in Ohio that could change its mind between now and Election Day.

And the number one issue, as it is in many places in the country, the economy?

The economy is the number one issue. And one of the things that makes it very difficult for a candidate to campaign in Ohio is that when they come to Ohio to talk about the economy, they can't just talk about a single aspect. When you talk to folks in the northern part of the state, northeast Ohio which includes Cleveland, and northwest Ohio which includes Toledo, when you're talking about the economy there, oftentimes the discussion is about trade.

When you talk about the economy in southwest Ohio, which is the Cincinnati area, there's much less talk about trade, and more discussion about wages and the salaries that people are making. The southeast area of the state, which is also known in part because of the Appalachian history of that part of the state, has high unemployment. A number of counties in southeast Ohio have double-digit unemployment. Many people in that region are talking about and focused on unemployment, solely as their economic concern.

turn 3 : None found - the turns "less talk about trade" and "focused on unemployment" appear to have their literal meanings.

What specific aspect of the economy is discussed more in southwest Ohio?

Answer: wages


(Laughter).

David Hockney is obviously not myself. But it's the same process of writing. I'm trying to understand from the inside. I am not interested in the factual truth. My book is very factual. I read everything. It's as accurate as it can be. I cannot invent. He's alive. The man is alive. He's 81. I cannot invent his life. But what interested me is really the emotional truth. How could he be a figurative artist at a time when everybody was abstract?Try to imagine this young David Hockney arriving from his provincial town in London at the age of 22 and discovering that figurative painting, which is what he's doing, is not done.

He has a friend at the school who says, oh, you cannot paint like Monet after Pollock. And David Hockney hears this and thinks, oh, my God, if I continue painting the way I was painting, I'm done for. I will never be well-known. So it is complicated. And I tried to place myself in his mind. He tried to become an abstract painter. But he was very depressed. And his friend, at some point, told him, you know, stop thinking about being a contemporary artist. It doesn't matter. You are contemporary. You live in your time. Just paint what matters to you.

You - I mean, it's extraordinary that you didn't know David Hockney before you started looking into this only a few years ago. And now that you've done so much research into his life, what is the thing that is more resonant to you?

turn 2 : trying to place myself in his mind implies a persons way of thinking and/or their point of view

What is the focus of the emotional truth in the book?

Answer: Emotional


It's only about $3 billion. So compared to the whole Defense Department, which is, you know, 500 or more billion, or NASA, which is around 16 billion, or something.

A couple of big bombers.

Yeah, one and a half B-2 bombers. That's it. I think DARPA should be inspiring to anyone who wants to create innovative things, come up with new ideas, do things that really make a difference, with a relatively small amount of money and resources.

And what stuff do you think, percentage of stuff, that you actually saw going on?What couldn't you see that they wouldn't let you see inside of DARPA?

turn 0 : The amount of $3 billion is relatively small compared to the Defense Department and NASA budgets.

Which department has a budget of around 16 billion?

Answer: DARPA


If you take that vial and set it down next to a trail of crazy ants, rather than fleeing from that plume of odor, they actually turn and head towards the vial. So they seem to be attracted to their alarm pheromones - their alarm pheromone. And so as a result, that's kind of snowballs. So you're getting an ant that's electrocuted, it releases alarm pheromones, more ants to pile on.

That seems odd that they would be attracted to the alarm.

There - it is a little odd, except for - a lot of ants do this. It's part of how ants organize the defensives nests, for example, so if there's an intruder you release alarm pheromones and nest mates know that there's a threat that they need to be defending against.

Hmm. Do they bite?

turn 0 : more ants pile on means that more ants are attracted to the sent.

How do ants react to the alarm pheromones released by an electrocuted ant?

Answer: attraction