Today's Highlight in History:

On November second, 1948, President Truman surprised the experts by being re-elected in a narrow upset over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey.

On this date:

In 1783, General George Washington issued his "Farewell Address to the Army" near Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1795, the eleventh president of the United States, James Knox Polk, was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

In 1865, the 29th president of the United States, Warren Gamaliel Harding, was born near Corsica, Ohio.

In 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states.

In 1920, radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast returns from the Harding-Cox presidential election.

In 1930, Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

In 1959, game show contestant Charles Van Doren admitted to a House subcommittee that he'd been given questions and answers in advance when he appeared on the NBC TV program "Twenty-One."

In 1963, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem (noh ding ZEE'-em) was assassinated in a military coup.

In 1979, black militant Joanne Chesimard escaped from a New Jersey prison, where she'd been serving a life sentence for the 1973 slaying of a New Jersey state trooper. (Chesimard, who has since taken the name Assata Shakur, now lives in Cuba.)

In 1994, a jury in Pensacola, Florida, convicted Paul Hill of murder for the shotgun slayings of an abortion provider and his bodyguard; Hill was sentenced to death.

Ten years ago: The White House announced that President Bush planned to spend Thanksgiving with American GI's in Saudi Arabia.

Five years ago: A man claiming to have a bomb hijacked a school bus with 13 learning-disabled children aboard, leading authorities around Miami-area highways for an hour and a-half before being fatally shot by police. The United States expelled Daiwa Bank Limited for allegedly covering up $1.1 billion in trading losses.

One year ago: Xerox repairman Byran Uyesugi opened fire on his co-workers in Honolulu, killing seven of them. (Uyesugi was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.) Republicans pushed the year's last and biggest spending bill through Congress toward a sure veto by President Clinton.

每日格言：

"Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference, as tenderness is under the love which it cannot return."

-- George Eliot, English author (1819-1880).

Download:  http://download.putclub.com/update/sest/200711/02/20071102apnews.mp3

Reference:

It looks like retirement for tennis' pro Martina Hingis as drug allegation swelled around the five-time Grand Slam champion and Wimbledon winner. Hingis says she has been accused of testing positive for cocaine but denies using the drug.

Police in Philadelphia say an officer who was shot in the head during a robbery yesterday in the Donuts shop has died. The gunman is at large, Phiadelphia police search the city to find the man seen on this store surveillance tape.

A tropical storm warning issue for the Southeast Florida coast has been dropt but the region is still bracing for heavy rains from tropical storm Noel. The storm's already produced flooding in the Bahamas, killing dozens as it passed through the Caribbean.

It's been a tough day for Wall Street. Stock has flung as investors considered the prospect of an end to interest cuts and slowing economy. The Dow Jones industrials finished down more than 300 points today.



[ 本帖最后由 vanbryan 于 2007-11-2  12:51 编辑 ]

Economic Report



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Reference:

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

This week directors of Investment Bank Merrill Lynch forced out its chief executive officer Stan O'Neal. He retired less than a week after Merrill reported its first quarterly loss in six years and the biggest in its ninety-three year history.

Merrill is the world's largest brokerage company. It lost over two billion dollars in the period from July through September. That was because of more than eight billion dollars in write-downs. A write-down represents a reduction in the value of investments or other assets. The results were mostly related to sub-prime mortgages - housing loans to people with risky credit histories.

Merrill has had the largest losses so far of any American bank with investments tie to sub-prime loans. Many of these investments are complex securities called collateralized debt obligations. Merrill had almost eight billion dollars in write-downs on CDOs and sub-prime mortgages. That was even more than the four and one half billion dollars expected. Its other divisions, however, remained profitable.

Stan O'Neal worked for Merrill Lynch for twenty-one years. He held the top job since 2002. Board members were angry at the losses and that reports that he proposed a merger deal with V. Bank without their approval. He chose most of the members of that board. Critics say he failed to listen to warnings about the risk of sub-prime debt. Yet his decisions to make riskier investments than chief executives before him help produce record profits for the company. He also pushed to reduce costs including thousands of job cuts. A coacher change for a company that was known as Mother Merrill.

He leaves with about one hundred sixty million dollars worth of stock and retirement pay. Stan O'Neal was the first African-American to lead a major Wall Street investment bank. He rose out of poverty. As a boy, he picked cotton on a family farm in Alabama. Later, he was a factory worker at General Motors.

Some market watchers think Merrill Lynch may have to write down an additional four billion dollars in the fourth quarter of the year. But the company was not alone in reporting big third quarter losses. In Europe, the investment bank UBS said it lost about seven hundred million dollars. It wrote down more than three billion dollars of investments linked to sub-prime loans. And UBS warned that it could end the year with more losses.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter.

[ 本帖最后由 vanbryan 于 2007-11-2  13:06 编辑 ]

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Reference:

Hi,there,I’m Virginia Cha at the CNN center in Atlanta. Here’s a look at what’s happening NOW IN THE NEWS.

A Philadelphia police officer is dead after being shot by a robber.This is / surveillance video from the doughnut shop where it happened. Police say the gunman in the hood shot / officer Charles Cassidy in the head just as the officer entered the shop.The gunman is still on the run.Police are hoping someone might recognize his walk. He appears to have a limp. Cassidy is the third police officer shot this week in Philadelphia.

The southern water wars have moved to the nation’s capital.The governors of Georgia, / Alabama and Florida are in Washington trying to hammer out a water agreement. The states have been fighting of / water rights for nearly 20 years but it's become desperate this year because of a record drought. At issue is the amount of / water released from a Georgia reservoir down stream to Florida and Alabama.

October ended with the deaths of two more US troops in Iraq.The US military says they were killed yesterday when an explosion went off near their vehicle in a northern province.The blast also injured two other soldiers.Thirty-nine US troops died in October.That is well below the 65 deaths in September.


[ 本帖最后由 vanbryan 于 2007-11-2  13:29 编辑 ]

谢谢，能否在发表每日格言的同时，把它翻译成英文啊

引用:

The southern water wars have moved to the nation’s capital.The governors of Georgia, / Alabama and Florida are in Washington trying to hammer out a water agreement. The states have been fighting of / water rights for nearly 20 years but it's become desperate this year because of a record drought. At issue is the amount of / water released from a Georgia reservoir down stream to Florida and Alabama.

四楼这一段是关于水资源的，大意是：
水资源的争端已经从南方转移到了首都。在华盛顿，乔治亚、佛罗里达、阿拉巴马州的长官们正商讨出台一个用水协议。这些州为水权争斗了近20年，因今年遭遇史无前例的大旱，用水矛盾变的不可调和。争论焦点在于乔治亚水库究竟应该下泄多少水量给佛罗里达和阿拉巴马州。

来了呵呵！

Today's Highlight in History:

On November third, 1900, the first automobile show in the United States opened at New York's Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the Automobile Club of America.

On this date:

In 1868, Republican Ulysses S. Grant won the presidential election over Democrat Horatio Seymour.

In 1896, Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan for the presidency.

In 1903, Panama proclaimed its independence from Colombia.

In 1908, Republican William Howard Taft was elected president, outpolling William Jennings Bryan.

In 1936, President Roosevelt won a landslide election victory over Republican challenger Alfred M. "Alf" Landon.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched "Sputnik Two," the second manmade satellite, into orbit; on board was a dog named "Laika" who was sacrificed in the experiment.

In 1964, President Johnson soundly defeated Republican challenger Barry Goldwater to win a White House term in his own right.

In 1970, Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile.

In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected 42nd president of the United States, defeating President Bush.

In 1992, Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the US Senate.

Ten years ago: Secretary of State James A. Baker the Third embarked on a fast-paced tour of seven countries to "lay the foundation" for possible military action against Iraq. Broadway musical actress Mary Martin died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 76.

Five years ago: President Clinton dedicated a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery to the 270 victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The Labor Department reported the nation's unemployment rate had edged down to five-point-five percent in October, a seven-month low. Typhoon "Angela" ripped through the Philippines, killing more than 880 people.

One year ago: Aaron McKinney was convicted of murder in the beating of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard. (McKinney and Russell Henderson, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder, are serving life prison sentences.)

每日格言：

"You must be true to yourself. Strong enough to be true to yourself. Brave enough to be strong enough to be true to yourself. Wise enough to be brave enough, to be strong enough to shape yourself from what you actually are."

-- Sylvia Constance Ashton-Warner, New Zealander author and educator (1908-1984).

Download:  http://download.putclub.com/update/sest/200711/03/20071103apnews.mp3

Reference:

1.Authorities have detained a contract worker at the nation's largest nuclear power plant. They say he tried to enter the plant for the small explosive device in the back of his pickup truck. The plant about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix was put on lockdown.

2.Officials say the exact cause of a North Carolina beach house fire that killed seven college students is undetermined. But improperly discarded smoking materials cannot be ruled out.

3.A federal judge has ruled that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other senior US Intelligence officials would be subpoenaed to discuss their talks with pro-Israel lobbiers in an espionage case. If Rice testifies, her words could offer behind the scenes look at the way US foreign policy is drafted.

4.If you are planning pizza for dinner, you might want to check the brand. General Mills says he's recalling about five million frozen pizzas sold nationwide under the Totinos and Jeno's labels due to possible E.coli contamination.



[ 本帖最后由 vanbryan 于 2007-11-3  13:30 编辑 ]

Dancing All the Dances as Long as I Can

Writer and minister Robert Fulghum believes learning to tango is the perfect way to age gracefully



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From NPR news, this is weekend addition. I’m Leyan Hansen

I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.

Today’s This I Believe essay comes from writer Robert Fulghum. He is best known for his book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” Fulghum was parish minister of Unitarian churches for many years. He also taught painting and philosophy. Fulghum turns 70 this year. Nowadays, he splits his time between Seattle and the Greek island of Crete. Here is our series curator, independent producer Jay Allison.

If anyone has devoted himself to the notion of credo, it is Robert Fulghum. His most popular book opens with the fact that every spring he undertakes the writing of a personal statement of belief. The same text that defines our series. Personal belief is Fulghum's beat. When he sat down to write for us though, he struck in a subject that’s not in his books, but is something you could fairly say, that he’s obsessed with these days. Here is Robert Fulghum with his essay for This I Believe.

I believe in dancing. I believe it is in my nature to dance by virtue of the beat of my heart, the pulse of my blood and the music in my mind. So I dance daily. The seldom used dinning room of my house is now an often used ballroom, an open space with a hard wood floor, stereo and a disco ball. The CD changer has six discs at the ready--waltz, swing, country, rock’n’roll, salsa and tango. Each morning, when I walk through the house on the way to my coffee, I turn on the music, hit the shuffle button and it’s dance time. And I dance alone, do whatever splaying. It’s a full move existential aerobics, a moving meditation. Tango is a recent enthusiasm. It’s a complex and difficult dance so I’m up to three lessons a week, three nights out dancing. And I’m off to Buenos Aires for three months of immersion in tango culture.

The first time I went tango dancing, I was too intimidated to get out on the floor. I remembered another time I had stayed on the sidelines when the dancing began after a village wedding on the Greek Island of Crete. The fancy foot work confused me. Don’t make a fool of yourself, I thought, just watch. Reading my mind, an older woman dropped out of the dance, sat down beside me and said, if you join / the dancing you will feel foolish; if you do not, you will also feel foolish. So why not dance? And she said she had a secret for me. She whispered, if you do not dance, we will know you are a fool. But if you dance, we will think well of you for trying. Recalling her wise words, I took up the challenge of tango. A friend asked me if my tango-mania wasn't a little ambitious. Tango, at you age? You must be out of your mind. On the contrary, it’s a deeply pondered decision. My passion for tango disguises a fearfulness. I fear the shrinking of life that goes with aging. I fear the boredom that comes with not learning and not taking chances. I fear the dying that goes on inside you. When you leave the game of life to wait in the final checkout line. I seek the sharp scary pleasure that comes from beginning something new. That causes all my resources and challenges my mind my body and my spirit all at once. And my goal now is to dance. All the dances as long as I can. And then to sit down contented after the last elegant tango some sweet night and pass on, because there wasn't another dance left in me. So when people say, tango? At you age? Have you lost your mind? I answer, no, and I don’t intend to.

Robert Fulghum with his essay for This I Believe. Fulghum is in Buenos Aires right now for his three months of tango immersion. Two hours in the morning, music over lunch, two hours in the afternoon and then dancing all night. We asked if he thinks it might be hard to adjust when he comes back, he said, I may not come back.

We hope you might accept our invitation to write a statement of your belief at our website npr.org/thisibelieve. You will find details and you can see what thousands of others have written . for This I Believe, I’m Jay Allison.

Jay Allison is co-editor with Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick of the book "This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women."

Support for This I Believe comes from Prudential Retirement.

[ 本帖最后由 vanbryan 于 2007-11-3  13:35 编辑 ]