1.

Betty Friedan-Women's Rights Movement: 1-5

2. Health Problems Caused by Smoking: 5-9

3. How to Get the Most Out of a Workout :10-14

4. What Doctors Are Doing About Headaches, and What You Can
Do:15-19

How Strangers Can Make You Happy:19-20

Henry Ford: 20-30

Using water to produce electricity: 31

Betty Friedan, 1921-2006: A Leader in the Modern Women's

Rights Movement

I'm Faith Lapidus. And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN

AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Betty
Friedan. She was a powerful activist for the rights of women.

(MUSIC)

Betty Friedan is often called the mother of the modern women's

liberation movement. Her famous book, "The Feminine Mystique,"
changed America. Some people say it changed the world. It has
been called one of the most influential nonfiction books of the
twentieth century.

Friedan re-awakened the feminist movement in the United States.

That movement had helped women gain the right to vote in the
nineteen twenties. Modern feminists disagree about how to
describe themselves and their movement. But activists say men
and women should have equal chances for economic, social and
intellectual satisfaction in life.

Fifty years ago, life for women in the United States was very
different from today. Very few parents urged their daughters to
become lawyers or doctors or professors. Female workers doing
the same jobs as men earned much less money. Women often
lost their jobs when they had a baby. There were few child care
centers for working parents.

Betty Friedan once spoke to ABC television about her support for
sharing responsibility for the care of children:

"If child-rearing was considered the responsibility of women and

men or women and men and society, then we really could pull up
our skirts and declare victory and move on."

(MUSIC)

Betty Friedan was born Betty Goldstein in nineteen twenty-one in

Peoria, Illinois. Her immigrant father worked as a jeweler. Her
mother left her job with a local newspaper to stay home with her
family.

Betty attended Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. It

was one of the country's best colleges for women. She finished her
studies in psychology in nineteen forty-two.

After college she attended the University of California at Berkeley

to continue her studies. But her boyfriend at the time did not want
her to get an advanced degree in psychology. He apparently felt
threatened by her success. So Betty left California and her
boyfriend. She moved to New York City and worked as a reporter
and editor for labor union newspapers.

In nineteen forty-seven, Betty Goldstein married Carl Friedan, a

theater director who later became an advertising executive. They
had a child, the first of three. The Friedans were to remain married
until nineteen sixty-nine.

When Betty Friedan became pregnant for the second time, she
was dismissed from her job at the newspaper. After that she
worked as an independent reporter for magazines. But her editors
often rejected her attempts to write about subjects outside the
traditional interests of women.

In nineteen fifty-seven, Friedan started research that was to have

far-reaching results. Her class at Smith College was to gather for
the fifteenth anniversary of their graduation. Friedan prepared an
opinion study for the women. She sent questions to the women
about their lives. Most who took part in the study did not work
outside their homes.

Friedan was not completely satisfied with her life. She thought that
her former college classmates might also be dissatisfied. She was
right. Friedan thought these intelligent women could give a lot to
society if they had another identity besides being homemakers.

Friedan completed more studies. She talked to other women

across the country. She met with experts about the questions and
answers. She combined this research with observations and
examples from her own life. The result was her book, "The
Feminine Mystique," published in nineteen sixty-three.

The book attacked the popular idea of the time that women could
only find satisfaction through being married, having children and
taking care of their home. Friedan believed that women wanted
more from life than just to please their husbands and children.

The book said women suffered from feelings of lack of worth.

Friedan said this was because the women depended on their
husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support.

"The Feminine Mystique" was a huge success. It has sold more

than three million copies. It was reprinted in a number of other
languages. The book helped change the lives of women in
America. More women began working outside the home. More
women also began studying traditionally male subjects like law,
medicine and engineering.

Betty Friedan expressed the dissatisfaction of some American

women during the middle of the twentieth century. But she also
made many men feel threatened. Later, critics said her book only
dealt with the problems of white, educated, wealthy, married
women. It did not study the problems of poor white women, single
women or minorities.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen sixty-six, Betty Friedan helped establish NOW, the

National Organization for Women. She served as its first
president. She led campaigns to end unfair treatment of women
seeking jobs.

Friedan also worked on other issues. She wanted women to have

the choice to end their pregnancies. She wanted to create child-
care centers for working parents. She wanted women to take part
in social and political change. Betty Friedan once spoke about her
great hopes for women in the nineteen seventies:

"Liberating ourselves, we will then become a major political force,

perhaps the biggest political force for basic social and political
change in America in the seventies."

Betty Friedan led a huge demonstration in New York City for

women's rights. Demonstrations were also held in other cities. A
half-million women took part in the Women's Strike for Equality on
August twenty-sixth, nineteen seventy. The day marked the fiftieth
anniversary of American women gaining the right to vote.

A year after the march, Friedan helped establish the National

Women's Political Caucus. She said the group got started "to
make policy, not coffee." She said America needed more women
in public office if women were to gain equal treatment.
Friedan wanted a national guarantee of that equal treatment. She
worked tirelessly to get Congress and the states to approve an
amendment to the United States Constitution that would provide
equal rights for women.

The House of Representatives approved this Equal Rights

Amendment in nineteen seventy-one. The Senate approved it the
following year. Thirty-eight of the fifty state legislatures were
required to approve the amendment. Congress set a time limit of
seven years for the states to approve it. This was extended to June
thirtieth, nineteen eighty-two. However, only thirty-five states
approved the amendment by the deadline so it never went into
effect.

The defeat of the E.R.A. was a sad event for Betty Friedan, NOW
and other activists.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen eighty-one, Betty Friedan wrote about the condition of

the women's movement. Her book was called "The Second
Stage." Friedan wrote that the time for huge demonstrations and
other such events had passed. She urged the movement to try to
increase its influence on American political life.

Some younger members of the movement denounced her as too

conservative.

As she grew older, Friedan studied conditions for older Americans.

She wrote a book called "The Fountain of Age" in nineteen ninety-
three. She wrote that society often dismisses old people as no
longer important or useful. Friedan's last book was published in two
thousand. She was almost eighty years old at the time. Its title
was "Life So Far."

Betty Friedan died on February fourth, two thousand six. It was

her eighty-fifth birthday. Betty Friedan once told a television
reporter how she wanted to be remembered:
"She helps make it better for women to feel good about being
women, and therefore she helped make it possible for women to
more freely love men."

(MUSIC)

Health Problems Caused by Smoking

Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Im Faith Lapidus. And
I'm Bob Doughty.

This week, we talk about smoking – the leading cause of cancer

worldwide.

Barack Obama completed his first routine physical examination as

President of the United States last week. Doctors reported that Mr.
Obama is in excellent health. They say all evidence suggests that
he will remain so during his presidency.

The doctors gave the president suggestions so that he can stay

healthy. One is for him to continue with efforts to stop smoking.
Mr. Obama has spoken publicly about those efforts in the past.
The new report shows his battle against smoking is continuing.

President Obama is not alone. More than one billion people

around the world are smokers. Health experts have been warning
about links between smoking and disease for years.

Smoking kills an estimated five million people worldwide every

year. Experts say smoking is the leading cause of preventable
death. And, it is the second leading cause of death, after cancer.

Smoking is also the leading cause of cancer. Experts say forty

percent of cancers could be prevented by avoiding health risks like
smoking and tobacco use.

Smoking also causes forty-two percent of cases of chronic

respiratory disease, including asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.
And, it causes ten percent of cardiovascular diseases, like heart
disease and stroke.

The medical research community is continually reporting reasons

why smokers should stop. A recent study found that people who
smoke are nearly two times as likely as non-smokers to develop
Alzheimers disease. Alzheimers weakens or destroys memory and
reasoning.

In the study, researchers examined forty-three published studies

about the link between Alzheimers disease and smoking. They
found that smoking increased the risk of Alzheimers developing by
one and seven-tenths percent. The researchers work at the
University of California in San Francisco. Their findings were
published in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease.

In an earlier study, seven thousand people were observed for an

average of seven years. Each person was fifty-five years or older.
Those who smoked were fifty percent more likely to develop
memory loss than those who never smoked, or who had quit.

Other research has linked smoking to Amyotrophic Lateral

Sclerosis. ALS is a deadly disease affecting the motor nerves and
the voluntary muscles. Last year, a study in the medical journal
Neurology found smoking to be an established risk factor in
developing the disease. Some of the evidence even suggested
smoking may be directly responsible for ALS.

Smoking also increases the risk of developing age-related macular

degeneration. AMD is the leading cause of blindness among
adults fifty and older. Research has shown AMD is two to three
times more common among smokers than other people.

A recent study examined how smoking affects a persons risk of

AMD later in life. Researchers at the University of California in Los
Angeles studied nearly two thousand women.

Four percent of the women were smokers. Each woman had

pictures of her retinas taken at age seventy-eight. The researchers
compared these retinal images with pictures taken five years later
when the women were eighty-three. They studied the pictures for
signs of AMD and to see whether smoking influenced the womens
chances of developing the disease.

The women who smoked had an eleven percent higher rate of

AMD than the other women. In women over eighty, those who
smoked were five and a half times more likely to develop AMD than
the women who did not smoke. A report on the study was
published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

People who smoke are not only hurting themselves. They also can
harm non-smokers. The World Health Organization estimates that
secondhand smoke kills six hundred thousand people each year.

The International Union Against Cancer says about seven hundred

million children breathe smoke-filled air. Expectant mothers who
smoke are more likely to have babies with health problems and low
birth weight. Such babies may suffer health problems as they
grow.

Even after all the warnings, the WHO says one billion three
hundred million people still smoke. The number of smokers is
expected to grow to one billion seven hundred million by twenty
twenty-five. Smoking rates have decreased in the United States
and Europe. But rates have risen in other areas.

WHO officials say eighty-four percent of all smokers live in

developing countries. Nations in the Western Pacific Ocean have
the highest smoking rates. One-third of all smokers live in East
Asia and the Pacific. The area has the largest number of male
smokers. It also has the fastest growing number of female and
child smokers. Every day, diseases linked to tobacco use kill more
than three thousand people in the area.

Scientists have found more than four thousand chemicals in

cigarette smoke. At least two hundred fifty of them are known to
be harmful. And, fifty have been found to cause cancer. They
include arsenic, which can be used to kill plants and small
animals. Cigarette smoke also contains formaldehyde – a liquid
used to protect the look of dead bodies.

As bad as those chemicals are, nicotine may be the most

threatening of them all. Nicotine is a poison found in tobacco. It
gives smokers pleasure and keeps them coming back for more.

The body grows to depend on nicotine. Studies have found that

nicotine can be as difficult to resist as alcohol or the drug cocaine.
Experts say nicotine can kill a person when taken in large
amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing.

Menthol cigarettes are said to be no safer than other tobacco

products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smokers
throat. This may cause people to hold the smoke in their lungs
longer than smokers of other products. As a result, scientists
suspect that menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous than
other cigarettes.

Some smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer.
Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is
known to cause cancer. America's National Cancer Institute has
said that people who smoke low-tar cigarettes do not reduce their
risk of getting diseases linked to smoking.

So is there any way to smoke without harming your health? The

majority of available research suggests not. Smoking even a few
cigarettes can be dangerous. But, many of the harmful effects of
smoking ARE reversible. They can be undone. That is why most
medical experts advise people to stop smoking forever.

The American Cancer Society says blood pressure returns to

normal twenty minutes after the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide
levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. The chance
of heart attack decreases after one day. After one year, the risk of
heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker.

There are many products available to help people reduce their

dependence on cigarettes. Nicotine replacement products provide
the body with small amounts of the chemical through forms other
than cigarettes. The amounts of nicotine are slowly reduced over
time.

Chantix and Zyban are two prescription medicines that have also
been shown to help smokers quit. They do not contain nicotine.
Chantix works on nicotine receptors in the brain to reduce the urge
to smoke. Zyban works by increasing levels of dopamine in the
brain. Dopamine is a chemical that produces pleasure.

People who have quit smoking offer this helpful advice to those
who want to stop. Stay away from alcohol. Take a walk instead of
smoking. And, avoid people who are smoking. If possible, stay
away from situations that trouble you. It is not easy to quit
smoking. And, people never can completely control their own
health. But as one doctor advises her patients, becoming a non-
smoker is one way to gain control of your life.

How to Get the Most Out of a Workout

Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

This is the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. I’m Faith
Lapidus. And I’m Bob Doughty.

Today, we will tell about physical exercise. We will tell why

exercise is important, and some of the popular ways to get in
shape.

Summer officially returns to the United States in less than two

weeks. For many Americans, summer is a time to put on swim
wear and spend time at the sea or a lake. But before going
anywhere, they may want to lose any extra weight gained during
the winter.

So, where does one get started? Diet is surely important, but diet
alone will not do much good without an exercise plan. Health
experts have long noted the importance of physical activity.
Exercise not only improves your appearance. It can also improve
your health. Exercise helps to reduce the risk of some diseases.
They include heart disease, stroke, type-two diabetes,
osteoporosis and even some kinds of cancer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says heart

disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. In two
thousand six, heart disease killed more than six hundred thirty
thousand Americans. High blood pressure and high cholesterol
levels in blood can increase your risk of heart disease. Medical
experts say both can be reduced through normal exercise.

Physical activity is also known to increase the release of

endorphins. These chemicals reduce feelings of pain. They also
help people feel more happy and peaceful. There is some debate
about exactly what causes the brain to release endorphins. Some
experts believe it is the act of exercising itself. Others say it is the
feeling one gets from having met an exercise goal. Either way, the
two things work together when it comes to improving one’s
emotional health.

(MUSIC)

Surprisingly, exercise improves your energy levels by increasing

the flow of blood to the heart and blood vessels. One of the main
reasons people exercise is to control or reduce their weight.
Physical activity burns calories – the energy stored in food. The
more calories you burn, the easier it is to control or reduce your
weight.

So exactly how much exercise do you need to do to gain all of

these great health effects? Experts say it is easier than you think.
Two years ago, the Centers for Disease Control released its first
ever Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The report
included suggestions for young people, adults, disabled persons
and those with long-term health problems. One of the major ideas
noted in the report is that some activity is better than none. So if
you are not doing anything, now is the time to get started.
The C.D.C. defines physical activity as anything that gets your
body moving. And, it says there are two separate, but equally
important kinds of physical activity. Aerobic or cardio exercise gets
your heart rate going faster and increases your breathing. Some
examples are activities like walking at an increased speed,
dancing, swimming or riding a bicycle.

Muscle-strengthening activities help build and strengthen muscle

groups in the body. This kind of exercise includes things like lifting
weights, or doing sit-ups and push-ups.

To get the most from your exercise plan, experts say adults should
get at least two and a half hours of aerobic exercise each week.
More intense activities reduce the suggested amount of time to one
hour and fifteen minutes. Examples are playing basketball,
swimming and distance running.

Earlier advice from the C.D.C. said people need to exercise thirty
minutes each day for at least five days to get the health benefits of
exercise. More recent research suggested that those gains are the
same whether you exercise for short periods over five days or
longer sessions over two or three days.

In addition, the newer suggestions say any exercise plan should

include at least two days of muscle training. Each exercise period
should be at least ten minutes long. The total amount of activity
should be spread over at least three days throughout the week.
Most importantly, experts say people should choose physical
activities that they find fun. This helps to guarantee that they stay
with the program.

(MUSIC)

So, what are some of the most popular physical activities in the
United States? Walking tops the list. A two thousand six report
from the C.D.C. found that more than seventy-nine million
Americans walk to stay physically fit. For many people it is
considered the easiest way to get exercise. It does not require a
health club membership. Walking is safe. And, it is said be to as
valuable for one’s health as more intense forms of exercise like
jogging. Walking is also reported to be less damaging to the knees
and feet. This makes it a better choice of exercise for older adults.

Another popular form of exercise is jogging, or running at a slow to

medium speed. USA Track and Field Hall of Famer, Bill
Bowerman, is credited with bringing jogging to the United States in
the nineteen seventies. He did so after witnessing the popularity of
the activity himself during a trip to New Zealand in the nineteen
sixties. He started the first running club in America and wrote a
book about jogging for fitness. Bill Bowerman also helped establish
Nike, the tennis shoe company.

Jogging provides great physical conditioning for the heart and

lungs. And, it increases the flow of blood and oxygen in the body.
All of these things combined help to improve heart activity, lower
blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and reduce bone and
muscle loss. Running is also a good way to lose weight. People
burn an average of one hundred sixty calories a kilometer while
running.

The Census Bureau says swimming was the third most popular
sports activity in the United States in two thousand seven. The top
two were walking and exercising with equipment. Swimming is said
to be one of the best ways to exercise. Nearly all of the major
muscle groups are put to work.

Swimming also presents less risk of muscle and joint injury

because of the body’s weightlessness in water. This makes it a
great choice of exercise for people with special needs, like
pregnant women, older adults, and persons who are overweight.

Water aerobics is another popular form of exercise. This can be

anything from walking or running against the resistance of water, to
doing jumping jacks in the water. There is a debate about whether
or not swimming burns as many calories as other forms of
exercise. But one thing is sure: the effects on your health are just
as great.
(MUSIC)

Whatever kind of exercise you choose, experts agree that you

should start small and work your way up. Start by exercising ten
minutes a day two times a week. After a few weeks, increase your
time to fifteen or twenty minutes, and increase the number of days.

Next, try to increase the intensity of your workout. If you have been
walking, try walking faster, or take turns between walking and
jogging. And try not to forget those muscle strengthening
exercises. The more time you spend exercising, the more health
benefits you get.

Health experts advise people who have been physically inactive to

have a complete physical exam before beginning a new exercise
program.

If one of your goals is to lose weight, you will also need to change
how and what you eat. To lose weight, you must use or burn off
more calories than you take in.

A pound of fat is equal to about four hundred fifty three grams or

three thousand five hundred calories. To lose that fat in a week,
you have to burn off at least that amount in calories or eat that
much less. The best thing to do is to combine both ideas. Eat fewer
calories and increase your activity so that you burn off more.

The National Institutes of Health suggests that women limit their

calories to no less than one thousand two hundred calories a day
without medical supervision. For men, the number is no less than
two thousand five hundred. The American government also says a
healthy diet is one that is high in fruits, vegetables and whole
grains.

What Doctors Are Doing About Headaches, and

What You Can Do

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This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. And I'm
Shirley Griffith.

Today we tell about headaches, the pain that strikes almost

everyone at some time.

Have you had a headache recently? If your answer is yes, you are
like many millions of people worldwide who experience pain in the
head. The pain can be temporary, mild and cured by a simple
painkiller like aspirin. Or it can be severe.

The National Headache Foundation says more than forty five

million people in the United States suffer chronic headaches. Such
a headache causes severe pain that goes away but returns later.

Some headaches may prove difficult and require time to treat. But
many experts today are working toward cures or major help for
chronic headaches.

The US Headache Consortium is a group with seven member

organizations. They are attempting to improve treatment of one
kind of headache -- the migraine. Some people experience this
kind of pain as often as two weeks every month. The National
Headache Foundation says about seventy percent of migraine
sufferers are women.

Some people describe the pain as throbbing, causing pressure in

the head. Others compare it to someone driving a sharp object into
the head. Migraine headaches cause Americans to miss at least
one hundred fifty million workdays each year. A migraine can be
mild. But it also can be so severe that a person cannot live a
normal life.

One migraine sufferer lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Video

producer Curtis Croley had head pain as a child. He does not know
what kind of headaches they were. But when he suffered severe
headaches as an adult, doctors identified the problem as migraine.

Today, Mister Croley says months can pass without a headache.

But then he will have three migraines within a month. If he takes
the medicine his doctor ordered early in his headache, it controls
the pain. If not, the pain in his head becomes extremely bad.
Sometimes he has had to be treated with a combination of drugs in
a hospital.

(MUSIC)

Some people take medicine every day to prevent or ease migraine

headaches. Others use medicine to control pain already
developed. Doctors treating migraine sufferers often order
medicines from a group of drugs known as triptans.

Most migraines react at least partly to existing medicine. And most

people can use existing medicine without experiencing bad effects.
Doctors sometimes use caffeine to treat migraine headaches.
Interestingly, caffeine also can cause some migraines.

Medical experts have long recognized the work of the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic says several foods are
suspected of causing migraines. Cheese and alcoholic drinks are
among them. Food additives like salt and monosodium glutamate
also are suspected causes.

The Mayo Clinic tells patients to avoid strong smells that have
seemingly started migraines in the past. Some people react badly
to products like perfume, even if they have a pleasant smell.

The clinic's experts say aerobic exercise can help migraine

sufferers. Aerobic exercise increases a person's heart rate. It can
include walking, swimming or riding a bicycle. But a sudden start to
hard exercise can cause headaches.

The experts advise that people should plan to exercise, eat and
sleep at the same times each day.

The Mayo Clinic has advice about estrogen for women who suffer
from migraines. The female body makes estrogen. Drugs like birth
control pills contain a version of this chemical.
Such medicines may produce headaches or cause them to
worsen, the clinic says. The same is true for estrogen replacement
drugs for women. Doctors sometimes order estrogen replacement
for women who no longer able to have children.

The clinic also says hypnotherapy might help suppress headaches.

It says the method could reduce the number and severity of a
patient’s headaches. In hypnotherapy, willing people are placed in
a condition that lets them receive suggestions. They look like they
are sleeping. The suggestions they receive may be able to direct
their whole mental energy against pain.

The Mayo Clinic says the hypnotizer can never control the person
under hypnosis. It also says the hypnotized person will remember
what happened during the treatment.

(MUSIC)

More people suffer tension headaches than migraines. But most

tension headaches are not as powerful.

Events that start tension headaches may include emotional

pressure and the deeper than normal sadness called depression.
Other tension headaches can start from something as simple as
tiredness. Common changes in atmospheric conditions also can be
responsible.

The Mayo Clinic says you may feel a tension headache as

tightness in the skin around your eyes. Or, you may feel pressure
around your head. Episodic tension headaches strike from time to
time. Chronic tension headaches happen more often. A tension
headache can last from a half hour to a whole week.

The Mayo Clinic says the pain may come very early in the day.
Other signs can include pain in the neck or the lower part of the
head. Scientists are not sure what causes tension headaches. For
years, researchers blamed muscle tension from tightening in the
face, neck and the skin on top of the head. They believed
emotional tension caused these movements.
But that belief has been disputed. A test called an electromyogram
shows that muscle tension does not increase in people with a
tension headache. The test records electrical currents caused by
muscle activity. Such research caused the International Headache
Society to re-name the tension headache. The group now calls it a
tension-type headache.

Some scientists now believe that tension headaches may result

from changes among brain chemicals such as serotonin. The
changes may start sending pain messages to the brain. These
changes may interfere with brain activity that suppresses pain.

Medicines for tension headache can be as simple as aspirin or

other painkillers. But if your pain is too severe, you will need a
doctor's advice.

A web site called Family Doctor dot org provides information from
the American Academy of Family Physicians. The group suggests
steps to ease or end a tension headache.

For example, it says putting heat or ice on your head or neck can
help. So can standing under hot water while you are getting
washed. The group also advises exercising often. Another idea is
taking a holiday from work. But you had better ask your employer
first.

(MUSIC)

Ask anyone with a cluster headache, and they will tell you that the
pain is terrible. The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio says the cluster
headache can be many times more intense than a migraine.

Cluster headaches usually strike young people. Smokers and

persons who drink alcohol often get these headaches. Men are
about six times more likely than women to have them. The
Cleveland Clinic says this is especially true of younger men.
Doctors say cluster headaches often strike during changes of
season.
Cluster headache patients describe the pain as burning. The pain
is almost always felt on one side of the face. It can last for up to
ninety minutes. Then it stops. But it often starts again later the
same day. Eighty to ninety percent of cluster headache patients
have pain over a number of days to a whole year. Pain-free
periods separate these periods.

The Cleveland Clinic says the cause of cluster headaches is in a

brain area known as a trigeminal-autonomic reflex pathway. When
the nerve is made active, it starts pain linked to cluster headaches.
The nerve starts a process that makes one eye watery and red.

Studies have shown that activation of the trigeminal nerve may

come from a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The
Cleveland Clinic says injections of the drug sumatriptan can help.
Many other drugs could be used. For example, doctors say
breathing oxygen also can help.

Thankfully, modern medicine has ways to treat almost all of our

headaches.

How Strangers Can Make You Happy

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This is the VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT.

What makes people happier: money or having happy friends and

neighbors? Researchers from Harvard University and the
University of California, San Diego, have found an answer as part
of a study.

Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler based the study on the

emotional health of almost five thousand people. They used
information gathered over a period of twenty years, until two
thousand three, in the Framingham Heart Study. That study began
sixty years ago in Framingham, Massachusetts, to learn more
about the risks of heart attack and stroke.
The new study found that friends of happy people had a greater
chance of being happy themselves. And the smaller the physical
distance between friends, the larger the effect they had on each
other's happiness.

For example, a person was twenty percent more likely to feel

happy if a friend living within one and a half kilometers was also
happy. Having a happy neighbor who lived next door increased an
individual's chance of being happy by thirty-four percent. The
effects of friends' happiness lasted for up to a year.

The researchers found that happiness really is contagious.

Sadness also spread among friends, but not as much as
happiness.

People removed by as much as three degrees of separation still

had an effect on a person's happiness. Three degrees of
separation means the friend of a friend of a friend.

The study showed that having an extra five thousand dollars

increased a person's chances of becoming happier by about two
percent. But the researchers found that the influence of a friend of
a friend of a friend can be greater than that.

Another finding is that people who are married or work together do

not have as much of an effect on happiness as friends do.

The findings appeared in the British Medical Journal. The National

Institute on Aging in the United States helped pay for the study.

The study is described as the first to demonstrate the indirect

spread of happiness. In other words, that your emotions can be
affected by someone you do not directly know.

Earlier studies by the two researchers described the effects of

social networks on obesity and efforts to stop smoking. The new
study shows that happiness spreads through social networks like
an emotional virus -- a virus people would be happy to catch.
And that's the VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT, written by
Brianna Blake. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are
at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember

Henry Ford, 1863-1947: He Revolutionized the

Automobile Industry

Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English on the

VOICE of America.

Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person was important
in the history of the United States. Today Steve Ember and Frank
Oliver begin the story of industrialist Henry Ford.

(MUSIC)

Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile. But

Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until eighteen ninety-
six. That was eleven years after two Germans -- Gottlieb Daimler
and Karl Benz -- developed the first gasoline-powered automobile.

Many people believe Henry Ford invented the factory system that
moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker
move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many manufacturers
used this system before Ford.

What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make
them better.

Others made cars. Henry Ford made better cars. And he sold them
for less money. Others built car factories. Henry Ford built the
biggest factory of its time. And he made the whole factory a moving
production line.

Henry Ford had great skills in making machines work. He also had
great skills as an organizer. His efforts produced a huge
manufacturing company. But those same efforts almost ruined the
company he built.

(MUSIC)

Henry Ford was born on a farm in the state of Michigan on July

thirtieth, eighteen sixty-three. The farm was near the city of Detroit.

Henry was always interested in machines. He was always

experimenting with them. He enjoyed fixing clocks. And he helped
repair farm equipment. When Henry was sixteen years old, he left
the family farm. He went to Detroit to learn more about machines.

In eighteen seventy-nine, when Henry began work in Detroit, the

city was a center of industrial development. Travelers could tell
they were near Detroit by the cloud of smoke that hung over the
city. Detroit was a center of iron and steel making. Nearby mines of
lead and salt brought chemical companies to the city. And Detroit's
copper and brass business was the largest in the world.

ONE thing Henry Ford learned in Detroit was to have the right tool
to do the job. It was something he would never forget.

After three years in Detroit, Henry returned to his family farm. He

remained on the farm until he was thirty years old. But he was not
a real farmer. He was a machine man. A nearby farmer, for
example, had bought a small steam engine to be used in farming.
The machine did not work correctly. Henry agreed to try to fix it. At
the end of just one day, Henry knew everything about the machine.
And he made it work again.

Henry remembered that time as the happiest in his life. He said: "I
was paid three dollars a day, and had eighty-three days of steady
work. I have never been better satisfied with myself. "

Another thing that made those days happy was meeting a young
woman. Her name was Clara Jane Bryant. Years later Henry said:
"I knew in half an hour she was the one for me. " They were
married in eighteen eighty-eight, on Clara's twenty-second
birthday.
(MUSIC)

Henry and Clara lived on a farm near Detroit. But, still, Henry was
not a real farmer. He grew some food in a small garden. And he
kept a few animals. But he made money mostly by selling trees
from his farm. And he continued to fix farm equipment. It was really
machines that he loved.

In eighteen ninety-one, Henry visited Detroit. There he saw a

machine called the "silent otto. " It was a device powered by
gasoline. It had been developed by a German, Nikolaus August
Otto. He was one of the men who had worked with Gottlieb
Daimler, who developed the first gasoline-powered automobile.

The silent otto did not move. But Henry saw immediately that if the
machine could be put on wheels, it would move by itself.

He returned home to Clara with an idea to build such a machine.

He was sure he could do it. But the machine would need electricity
to make the engine work. And Henry had not learned enough
about electricity. So he took a job with an electric power company
in Detroit. Henry, his wife Clara, and his young son Edsel moved to
the city.

While Henry worked for the power company, he and a few other
men developed a small engine. In June, eighteen ninety-six, Henry
had his first automobile. He called it a "quadricycle. " It looked like
two bicycles, side by side. It had thin tires like a bicycle. And it had
a bicycle seat.

In eighteen ninety-nine, Henry resigned from the power company

to work on his automobile. He won the support of a small group of
rich men who formed the Detroit automobile company. By the start
of nineteen-oh-one, however, the company had failed.

Another man might have decided that the automobile business was
not the best business for him. He might have stopped. Henry Ford
was just getting started.

(MUSIC)
In the early days of the automobile, almost every car-maker raced
his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford
decided to build a racing car.

Ford's most famous race was his first. It also was the last race in
which he drove the car himself.

The race was in nineteen-oh-one, at a field near Detroit. All of the

most famous cars had entered. And all withdrew, except two. The
Winton. And Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most
people thought the race was over before it began.

The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it
began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the
race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the
champion. His name appeared in newspapers. His fame began to
spread.

Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile

company. He left soon after, however, because he could not agree
with the investors. He had no trouble finding new ones.

Henry continued to build racing cars. His most famous cars of the
time were the "Arrow" and the "Nine Ninety-Nine. " Both won races.
And they helped make the name Henry Ford more famous.

Henry used what he learned from racing to develop a better

engine. In nineteen-oh-three, he was ready to start building cars for
the public. On July fifteenth, nineteen-oh-three, a man named
Doctor Pfenning bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company.

The sale to Doctor Pfenning was the beginning of a huge number

of requests for Ford cars. By the end of March, nineteen-oh-four,
almost six hundred Ford cars had been sold. The company had
earned almost one hundred thousand dollars. Sales were so great
that a new factory had to be found.

At the start of nineteen-oh-five, the Ford Motor Company was

producing twenty-five cars each day. It employed three hundred
men. The company produced several kinds of cars. First there was
the "Model A. " Then there were the "Model B," "Model C" and
"Model F. " They were just a little different from the "Model A" --
one of Ford's most famous cars.

Ford's "Model K" car was for wealthy buyers. One of the company's
investors was sure the future of the automobile industry was in this
costly car. Henry Ford did not agree. He was sure the future of the
automobile industry was in a low-priced car for the general public.
He said then, and many times after, "I want to make a car that
anybody can buy. "

(MUSIC)

These conflicting beliefs led to a battle for control of the company.

In the end, Henry bought the stock of the investors who wanted to
make costly cars. He was then free to make the low-cost car he
believed in.

The story shows the way Henry's mind worked. When he thought
he was correct, he was willing to invest his efforts and his money.
Earlier, he had walked away from the business of making cars
when he could not control the business. Now he had the money to
buy the stock of those who disagreed with him.

In nineteen-oh-seven, Henry Ford said: "I will build a motor car for
the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but
small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built
of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be
employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern
engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man
making good money will be unable to own one. "

That was what Henry Ford wanted. To reach his goal, his life took
many interesting turns. That will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

You have been listening to the Special English program PEOPLE

IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver.
Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman
 Henry Ford Made the Automobile Industry an
Important Part of the Nation's Economy

Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.)

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English on the

Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a
person important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve
Ember and Frank Oliver complete the story of industrialist Henry
Ford.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen-oh-three, a doctor in Detroit, Michigan, bought the first

car from the Ford Motor Company. That sale was the beginning of
Henry Ford's dream. He wanted to build good, low-priced cars for
the general public. As he said many times: "I want to make a car
that anybody can buy." To keep prices low, Henry Ford decided
that he would build just one kind of car. He called it the "Model T. "

The "Model T" was ready for sale in October, nineteen-oh-eight.

The "Model T" cost eight hundred fifty dollars. It was a simple
machine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the "Model
T. " So did farmers. Even criminals. They considered it the fastest
and surest form of transportation. Americans loved the "Model T. "
They wrote stories and songs about it.

Thousands of "Model T's" were built in the first few years. The
public wanted the car. And Henry Ford made more and more.

To Make the "Model T,' Ford built the largest factory of its time.
Inside the factory, car parts moved to the workers exactly when
they needed them. Other factories moved some parts to the
workers. But Ford was the first to design his factory completely
around this system. Production rose sharply.

As production rose, Ford lowered prices. By nineteen sixteen, the

price had dropped to three hundred forty-five dollars.
The last step in Ford's production success was to raise his workers'
pay. His workers had always earned about two dollars for ten
hours of work. That was the same daily rate as at other factories.

With wages the same everywhere, factory workers often changed

jobs. Henry Ford wanted loyal workers who would remain. He
raised wages to five dollars a day.

That made Henry Ford popular with working men. He became

popular with car buyers in nineteen thirteen when he gave back
fifty dollars to each person who had bought a Ford car. Henry Ford
was demonstrating his idea that if workers received good wages,
they became better buyers. And if manufactures sold more
products, they could lower prices and still earn money.

This system worked for Ford because people continued to demand

his "Model T. " And they had the money to buy it. But what would
happen when people no longer wanted the "Model T," or did not
have the money?

(MUSIC)

In nineteen nineteen, Henry was involved in a dispute with the

other people who owned stock in the Ford Motor Company. In the
end, Henry bought the stock of the other investors. He gained
complete control of the company.

The investors did not do badly, however. An investment of ten

thousand dollars when the company was first established produced
a return of twenty-five million dollars.

A few years later, another group of investors offered Ford one

thousand million dollars for the company. But he was not interested
in selling. He wanted complete control of the company that had his
name. In a sense, Henry Ford was the company.

Henry's son, Edsel, was named president of the company before

nineteen twenty. No one truly believed that Edsel was running the
company. Whatever Edsel said, people believed he was speaking
for his father.
 In nineteen twenty-three, fifty-seven percent of the cars produced
in America were "Model T" fords. About half the cars produced in
the world were Fords. Taxicabs in Hong Kong. Most of the cars in
South America. Never before -- or since -- has one car company so
controlled world car production.

The success of the Ford Motor Company permitted Henry Ford to

work on other projects. He became a newspaper publisher. He
bought a railway. He built airplanes. He helped build a hospital. He
even ran for the United States Senate.

Some of Henry's projects were almost unbelievable. For example,

he tried to end World War One by sailing to Europe with a group of
peace supporters.

(MUSIC)

While Henry Ford enjoyed his success, a dangerous situation was

developing. Other companies began to sell what only Ford had
been selling: good, low-priced cars. Ford's biggest competitor was
the General Motors Company. General Motors produced the
Chevrolet automobile.

Ford's "Model T" was still a dependable car. But it had not changed
in years. People said the "Model T" engine was too loud. They said
it was too slow.

The Chevrolet, however, had a different look every year. And you
could pay for one over a long period of time. Ford demanded full
payment at the time of sale. Ford's share of the car market began
to fall.

Everyone at Ford agreed that the "Model T" must go. Henry Ford
disagreed. And it was his decision that mattered. Finally, in
nineteen twenty-six, even Henry admitted that the age of the
"Model T" was over. A new Ford was needed. A year later, the
"Model T" was gone.
 Strangely enough, people mourned its end. They did not want to
buy it anymore. But they recognized that the "Model T" was the last
of the first cars in the brave new world of automobile development.

The success of Ford's new cars did not last long. After nineteen-
thirty, Ford would always be second to General Motors.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen twenty-nine, the United States suffered a great

economic recession. Many businesses failed. Millions of people
lost their jobs. In nineteen thirty-one, the Ford Motor Company sold
only half as many cars as it had the year before. It lost thirty-seven
million dollars. Working conditions at Ford grew worse.

In nineteen thirty-two, hungry, unemployed men marched near the

Ford factory. Police, firefighters and Ford security guards tried to
stop them with sticks, high-pressure water and guns. Four of the
marchers died, and twenty were wounded.

Newspapers all over the United States condemned the police,

firefighters and security guards for attacking unarmed men. And to
make a bad situation worse, Ford dismissed all workers who
attended funeral services for the dead.

More violence was to come. For several years, automobile workers

had been attempting to form a labor union. Union leaders
negotiated first with America's two other major automobile makers:
the Chrysler Company and General Motors. Those companies
quickly agreed to permit a union in their factories. That left Ford
alone to fight against the union. And fight he did.

In nineteen thirty-seven, union organizers were passing out

pamphlets to workers at the Ford factory. Company security guards
struck. They were led by the chief of security, Harry Bennett.

Harry Bennett knew nothing about cars. But he did know what
Henry Ford wanted done. And he did it. Bennett's power came
from Henry. The only person who might have had the power to
stop Bennett was Henry's son, Edsel, who was president of the
 company. But Edsel himself was fighting Henry and his
unwillingness to change.

Bennett's power in the company continued to grow. His violence

against the union of automobile workers also grew.

The Ford Motor Company did not agree to negotiate with the union
until nineteen forty-one. Henry Ford accepted an agreement. If he
had not, his company would have lost millions of dollars in
government business.

In nineteen forty-three, Edsel Ford died. With Edsel gone, Henry

again became president of the Ford Motor Company. It was difficult
to know if Henry or Harry Bennett was running the company.
America was at war. And Henry was eighty years old -- too old to
deal with the problems of wartime production. And Bennett knew
nothing at all about production.

So Henry's grandson, also Henry Ford, was recalled from the Navy
to run the company. Young Henry's first act was to dismiss Harry
Bennett.

Old Henry Ford retired from business. His thoughts were in the
past. He died in his sleep in nineteen forty-seven, at the age of
eighty-three.

Henry Ford was not the first man whose name was given to an
automobile. But his name -- more than any other -- was linked to
that machine. And his dream changed the lives of millions of
people.

Some still wonder if Henry Ford was a simple man who seemed
difficult -- or a difficult man who seemed simple. No one, however,
questions the fact that he made the automobile industry one of the
great industries in the world.

(MUSIC)
 You have been listening to the Special English program PEOPLE
IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver.
Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman.

Using Water to Produce Electricity

The power of flowing water can be used to produce electricity. This

can be done anywhere there is water and a hill for it to flow down
rapidly.

Micro-hydro systems produce electric power from water. These

small water-powered systems can produce up to fifteen kilowatts of
electrical power. This is enough to provide electricity for a village of
fifty to eighty houses to use to power lights and small motors. It
does not provide enough power for industrial uses. Micro-hydro
systems are important for villages that are near water and do not
have electric power.

Before you begin the project, you should make sure that people
living near you approve. People protest if there is less water for
them to use for their crops or for washing clothes.

Building or buying a micro-hydro system requires planning. First,

someone has to estimate the amount of electrical power the falling
water can produce. It is a complex process. It is necessary to find
out how far the water drops and to measure the amount of water
that flows past an area each second. These numbers can show
how much electrical power can be produced. Then you can buy or
build a micro-hydro system of the right size.

Next you need to decide if falling water needs to flow inside a pipe
or can flow freely. A long pipe costs more, but the water is easier to
control. Even if the water flows freely, it must enter a piece of pipe
just before it flows into a machine called a turbine. The water
flowing through the pipe turns a large wheel in the turbine around.
The turbine sends the power to a generator that creates electricity.

Heavy rain can cause a problem for a micro-hydro system. The

rain carries grass, leaves and other material into waterways. This
can cause the turbine to stop turning. The problem can be
prevented by placing steel bars in the pipe before the water flows
into the turbine. These steel bars catch the material before it can
damage the machine.

People who can use flowing water to produce electricity have a

free supply of energy. You can get more information about projects
like this from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is
on the Internet at vita.org.