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With Linda still out at the TCA gathering, TV is much on our minds. And as she noted yesterday, there's a whole big conversation going on about the newer modes of consuming what we still, for lack of a better word, generally call television.

(Actually, we probably don't need a better word, as "television" just means "far-sight" and doesn't have anything to do with broadcast or spectrum or modes of transmission or the technology involved, BUT I DIGRESS.)

One current case in point: Jack Irish, an Australian series based on the novels by Peter Temple, starring Guy Pearce. It's been aired by traditional broadcast in Oz, but here in the U.S. it's being offered digitally by Acorn TV, either as a Netflix-style stream on its website or via Roku and such. (For older-school types who'd still like to binge-watch it, it'll be out on DVD and Blu-ray in October.)

The series gets underway with a flashback in which an aggrieved former client visits Jack — a successful criminal attorney in Melbourne — to vent his unhappiness about the outcome of a case. It's an office confrontation of the sort that many shows would (and do) play for black comedy, but for Jack, it's a brutal life-changer. Once the opening credits have rolled, he's chucked his practice and is earning a living as a debt collector, and not in the nicer neighborhoods.

Pearce joins NPR's Linda Wertheimer on this Saturday's Weekend Edition to talk about the series, the Fitzroy district that gives the series its setting, and what the actor has in common with his character. Among the things we learn:

* Jack may have hit the bottom of the bottle he fell into after that office incident — or he may not have. He's "kind of coming out of that haze, and really trying to get his life back together, but he's obviously still quite wobbly, shall we say. He still drinks, but really knows it's time for him to sort himself out."

* The role of the series' Greek chorus is taken by a trio of veteran character actors with "a combined age of 240," who play a gang of bar regulars Jack likes to call the Fitzroy Youth Club. They hang at the local and watch Australian football, rooting for the Fitzroy team — which, and here's the thing, folded as a pro operation some years ago. So they're watching videotapes. "They still live it as if it exists," Pearce says. Oh, and Jack's dad used to play for the team, so he's their pet.

* Like Jack, Pearce lost his dad, a test pilot, when he was young. He tells Wertheimer that one way he found his way into the character was thinking about how, "throughout your life ... you keep projecting father-figuredom onto various men that come into your life. And sometimes that's a good choice, and sometimes that's a bad choice."

When you listen to the whole conversation, which you should do for The Guy Pearce Accent alone, you'll hear more about which Jack Irish character turns out to be a solid influence, how the hero uses a hands-on hobby to decompress, and what makes the series "quintessentially Australian." Just hit the play button above.

Those who hope, as I did, to trace Lin-Liu's noodle quest in one long, shining, unbroken strand will be disappointed. Lin-Liu travels through rice country (China and Iran) and bread country (everywhere else), and finds noodles relegated to secondary or zero status. Like all those who follow roads not knowing whether they lead to Oz or perdition, she must wrestle with whatever answer comes. It's an awkward predicament, and it ties Lin-Liu in knots: "Maybe noodles and filled pasta had taken a roundabout tour of the Middle East and North Africa on their journey to Italy. Or perhaps ... culinary exchanges had taken place between the Italian peninsula and Asia Minor. Or perhaps, it was a coincidence? After seven thousand miles, the connection was still a mystery."

The Salt

From Ramen To Rotini: Following The Noodles Of The Silk Road

The Thai Elephant Orchestra is, remarkably, just what it sounds like. At a conservation center in Thailand, made for former work animals with nowhere to go, a group of elephants has been assembled and trained to play enormous percussion instruments, holding mallets in their trunks and sometimes trumpeting along.

David Sulzer — known in the music world as Dave Soldier — is a neuroscientist at Columbia University, a composer and the co-founder of the orchestra.

"Elephants like to listen to music: If you play music they'll come over, and in the morning when the mahouts take them out of the jungle, they sing to to calm them down," Sulzer tells NPR's Jacki Lyden. "So what we came up with was, well, maybe if we made ergonomic instruments that would be easy for elephants to play — for instance, marimbas and drums that are giant — perhaps they would play music."

Among those instruments is a sort of oversized xylophone that Sulzer built in a metal shop in Lampang, using the music he heard locally as a guide.

A botched attack on an Indian consulate in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad has nine civilians dead in addition to the three suicide bombers, security officials say.

NPR's Sean Carberry reports from Kabul that the Taliban has disclaimed responsibility for the bombing in which two-dozen people were also wounded.

Sean says the explosion occurred outside the consulate but that most of the victims were at a neighboring mosque. Two other attackers died in a gun battle with security forces.

The BBC says the three bombers drove up in a car before detonating their explosives. It was unclear if the other two assailants were in the same car:

"Deputy police chief of Nangarhar province Masum Khan Hashimi said the blast, close to a mosque, had been a failed attempt to attack the Indian consulate.

He said two of the attackers wearing vests laden with explosives got out of the car and

The remaining occupant of the car then blew it up, he told Reuters news agency."

Employers added 162,000 workers in July, and the U.S. unemployment rate slipped to 7.4 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said Friday.

But while the number of jobs did increase, the hiring pace was slower than in the spring, marking a setback for unemployed Americans who had hoped for a better summer.

"The labor market begins the second half of 2013 with a fizzle," economist Heidi Shierholz, with the Economic Policy Institute, says in her analysis of the data. "At this rate, it would take six years to ... get back to health in the labor market."

Over the past year, the economy has added an average of 189,000 jobs per month. As jobs have grown, the jobless rate has dropped from 8.2 percent one year ago. In June, the rate was 7.6 percent.

To some extent, the falling unemployment rate also reflects a workforce that is shrinking as baby boomers retire and young people stay in college longer. Also, some people are staying home with children or elderly parents, and millions have stopped applying for jobs because they think it's hopeless. When fewer people seek work, then the unemployment rate looks smaller.

Another labor market measure that has been getting smaller is paychecks. The July report showed average hourly earnings slipped by 2 cents to $23.98. Over the past year, hourly earnings have risen only 1.9 percent. That's about the same rate of increase as consumer prices.

On 'Tell Me More'

NPR's Marilyn Geewax speaks with host Michel Martin about the latest jobs numbers.

Employers added 162,000 workers in July, and the U.S. unemployment rate slipped to 7.4 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said Friday.

But while the number of jobs did increase, the hiring pace was slower than in the spring, marking a setback for unemployed Americans who had hoped for a better summer.

"The labor market begins the second half of 2013 with a fizzle," economist Heidi Shierholz, with the Economic Policy Institute, says in her analysis of the data. "At this rate, it would take six years to ... get back to health in the labor market."

Over the past year, the economy has added an average of 189,000 jobs per month. As jobs have grown, the jobless rate has dropped from 8.2 percent one year ago. In June, the rate was 7.6 percent.

To some extent, the falling unemployment rate also reflects a workforce that is shrinking as baby boomers retire and young people stay in college longer. Also, some people are staying home with children or elderly parents, and millions have stopped applying for jobs because they think it's hopeless. When fewer people seek work, then the unemployment rate looks smaller.

Another labor market measure that has been getting smaller is paychecks. The July report showed average hourly earnings slipped by 2 cents to $23.98. Over the past year, hourly earnings have risen only 1.9 percent. That's about the same rate of increase as consumer prices.

On 'Tell Me More'

NPR's Marilyn Geewax speaks with host Michel Martin about the latest jobs numbers.

Hey, baggage fees — happy fifth birthday!

Even if passengers aren't eager to celebrate, airlines are. The fees, born in 2008, helped financially desperate carriers stay aloft as the U.S. economy was spiraling down.

"That was a watershed year that scared the bejeezus out of the airline industry," said Mark Gerchick, an aviation consultant who has just released a book, Full Upright and Locked Position. Even as ticket sales were sliding, jet fuel prices were shooting to historic highs.

"Suddenly, everyone's thinking changed in the industry," he said. Rather than try to provide a single price for comprehensive service, airlines started charging fees — typically $15 per bag — to boost revenues.

Today, fees are not only the norm; they are heading higher still. Checking a bag now costs $25 to $35 on most domestic flights, and roughly three times that amount on many overseas flights. And on any given flight, just about everything comes with a price tag — from 2 more inches of legroom to a can of Coke.

One carrier, Denver-based Frontier Airlines, has announced it soon will begin charging up to $100 for a single carry-on bag for any customer who fails to book through the company's own website.

Having people book directly online eliminates payments to travel agents and "is a big cost saver for us," Frontier spokeswoman Kate O'Malley said. And, of course, it also generates yet another stream of revenues.

Now United Airlines is trying a new approach, offering annual "subscription" fees to allow customers to prepay a year's worth of baggage fees, seat upgrades or airport club access. The plans start at $349 and allow you and your family to check up to two bags per flight.

Related NPR Stories

Author Interviews

Flying High And Low In 'Full Upright And Locked Position'

Advertising for feminine hygiene products was traditionally so cheesy that it invited mockery far and wide. There was something so laughable and incongruent about maxi pad commercials that featured blue liquid and girls dancing on beaches.

In recent years, the marketing trend has shifted to a more honest approach. So honest that a new promotional video for the monthly tampon delivery service HelloFlo features a tween who got her period before other girls at camp.

"The red badge of courage," she calls it.

She then starts "Camp Gyno," schooling the other gals about her experience and dispensing the necessary sanitary products that come with it. But her reign as queen bee is short-lived once the ladies' parents start mailing the HelloFlo feminine care packages to camp. "It's like Santa for your vagina," the narrator exclaims.

A federal jury in New York City has found that Fabrice Tourre, the former Goldman Sachs trader who regulators say caused investors to lose $1 billion, is liable in the mortgage securities fraud case filed against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Regulators say Tourre, 34, a native of France who was nicknamed "Fab" in his office, packaged toxic subprime mortgages into a collateralized debt obligation that was sold to investors under the name Abacus in 2007.

"The U.S. Securities and Exchange claims Tourre hid the role of hedge fund Paulson & Co. in selecting the subprime mortgage bonds behind the investment, then made a $1 billion bet they'd fail," Bloomberg News reported earlier this week.

Tourre was found liable on six of the seven charges he faced. In 2010, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $550 million to settle SEC charges against it in the case. Tourre left the company last year.

The SEC pursued civil charges against Tourre, meaning that his punishment could now range from a fine to a lifetime ban from trading in securities.

Tourre, who had risen to the rank of vice president at Goldman Sachs, "is the only employee of a big American bank to lose a courtroom battle to Wall Street's top regulator," The New York Times reports. Most other cases were settled before coming to a court judgment.

During the trial that lasted more than two weeks, Tourre's defense team did not call any witnesses to testify, a move that had been interpreted as a message to the jury that the regulators had failed to prove their case.

"We're obviously gratified with the jury's verdict and we appreciate their hard work," SEC lead prosecutor Matthew Martens said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got hit so hard by the housing crisis that they required a massive federal rescue. Now lawmakers are looking to scale back the two entities' role — and the government's — in the mortgage market.

The Senate Banking Committee is expected to vote Thursday on President Obama's nominee to head the agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie.

The government took them over during the worst of the housing crisis, at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $200 billion. Now that the housing market is recovering, the companies have turned profitable, and they are sending money back to the Treasury.

But many lawmakers remain worried about the government's outsize role in the mortgage market, and they're looking to make a change.

Before Fannie and Freddie were taken over by the government in 2008, they operated in a kind of legal limbo. They were for-profit companies, helping to funnel money into the housing market. But they had an implicit guarantee that if they got into trouble, the government would bail them out.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker says that has always been a problem. He says "almost everybody would say" that it's not appropriate to have "private gain and public losses."

"This implicit guarantee is incredibly inappropriate," he says.

New Approaches

Corker, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia have crafted a plan to gradually do away with Fannie and Freddie, while handing one of their functions over to a new government agency. That agency would guarantee mortgage-backed securities, to keep money flowing into the housing market. But unlike Fannie and Freddie, the new agency would collect a fee for the government's backing.

The plan includes a number of other safeguards designed to protect taxpayers: Homebuyers would have to make a 5 percent down payment. And the companies issuing mortgage-backed securities would have to hold at least 10 percent capital in reserve. Corker says that's twice as much capital as Fannie and Freddie would have needed to weather the housing crisis without a government bailout.

"If Fannie and Freddie had had 5 percent capital, there would have been no taxpayer contributions," he says.

The Obama administration says it welcomes the bipartisan Senate approach.

Meanwhile, House Republicans, led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, have crafted an alternative bill. It would move the government even further out of the mortgage market, leaving only a limited role for the Federal Housing Administration to help first-time homebuyers and low-income families.

But Warner told a gathering at the Bipartisan Policy Center on Wednesday that the House approach is a political nonstarter. He said Hensarling's bill is an "ideologically pure exercise which will never have a single Democrat ever support it."

What Change Could Mean For Homebuyers

Economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics says either bill would result in slightly higher interest rates on home loans.

But Zandi says the increase would be bigger under the House Republicans' bill because the measure would lack a government guarantee.

"More importantly for most Americans, there probably would be very few 30-year, fixed-rate loans out there — at least not for the typical homebuyer," Zandi says. "And the other thing to consider is that in really bad times, if the government really didn't step in, it would be pretty tough to get a mortgage loan for anybody at any time."

House Republicans insist their bill would not end 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages. They note such loans are already available for high-priced homes that are too expensive to qualify for a government guarantee.

But Zandi says the experience in other countries suggests that without a government backstop, long-term fixed-rate mortgages would not be widely available. He also says it's unrealistic to pretend the government would stay out of the mortgage market altogether.

"The reality is that when push comes to shove, if things are really bad, the government will step in," he says. "So it's important that we all understand that, make that explicit, price for it to make sure that taxpayers don't pay for it in the future."

These days, it's Fannie and Freddie who are paying taxpayers. The companies have returned $131 billion in dividends to the Treasury so far.

Corker argues that's one more reason the government should move quickly to wind down the mortgage giants — before lawmakers become too attached to that money, and it becomes harder than ever to cut the cord.

As August begins, retailers are stepping up sales promotions to attract back-to-school shoppers. And several states are offering tax-free shopping to encourage purchases.

But most economists say this year's sales will be slower than last summer's because consumers have been coping with more expensive gasoline and higher payroll taxes.

"This year's back-to-school shopping season appears slightly weaker than last year," economist Chris Christopher, with IHS Global Insight, said of the retail period that ranks second only to the holiday shopping season.

To get consumers in the mood to shop, many retailers started back-to-school advertising and sale pricing weeks ago. The data aren't in yet to show the final impact of those early promotions on July sales.

But traditionally, August is the key month for sales of kids' backpacks, shoes, clothes, lunchboxes and notebooks. Those sales are expected to total $635 for the average family with school-age children, down from last year's $689, according to the National Retail Federation.

Spending is higher for college-bound students, who need more expensive things like computers and textbooks, as well as bedding and beanbag chairs for dorm rooms. This year, the average family with a child in college will spend $837, down from last year's $907, the trade association estimates.

The NRF says school and college shopping combined will add up to $72.5 billion.

Looking To Cut Corners

"As they continue to grapple with the impact of increased payroll taxes, Americans will look to cut corners where they can, but will buy what their kids need," NRF President Matthew Shay said in a statement on the season's outlook.

Examples of corner-cutting include shopping for generic rather than brand-name goods, he said. Roughly 1 in 3 shoppers said in a recent NRF survey that he would do that, as well as wait for sales.

And more people will be heading to discount stores, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers. A survey done in mid-July by that group showed 9 in 10 consumers plan to shop in discount stores this year, up from 83 percent in 2012.

To give shoppers yet another way to reduce the hit to their pocketbooks, 18 states are offering sales tax holidays this summer.

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About Phil Plait

Phil Plait is behind the Bad Astronomy on Slate, where he deconstructs misconceptions and explores the wonder of the Universe. He debunks myths and misconceptions about astronomy — and also writes about the beauty, wonder, and importance of fundamental research.

He worked for six years on the Hubble Space Telescope, and directed public outreach for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. He is a past president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, and was the host of Phil Plait's Bad Universe, a documentary series on the Discovery Channel.

Pat McCrory hasn't fared too well with protesters.

The Republican governor of North Carolina has signed off on a vast array of conservative legislation this year, cutting taxes, slashing unemployment benefits and abolishing teacher tenure. So much change so fast has led to protests, including "Moral Monday" events staged at the capitol a dozen weeks in a row by the NAACP.

McCrory said last month he was "cussed" out by those protesters, but it turned out he hadn't met with them. Earlier this week, he dropped off a plate of cookies for women protesting new abortion restrictions, but they gave them back.

"Hey, Pat, that was rude, you wouldn't give cookies to a dude," they chanted.

The rafter of new laws enacted in the state last year has earned McCrory plenty of negative press, including critical coverage not only in The New York Times and Washington Post, but in state newspapers and blogs as well.

But in Raleigh, it's not at all clear how much any of this is hurting the governor. Democrats, of course, are unhappy — but they don't control the votes. After more than a century of Democratic domination, Republicans hold not just the governorship, but supermajorities in both legislative chambers as well.

North Carolina has long had a reputation for being perhaps the most progressive state in the South. Now, it may more closely resemble its neighbors. Throughout the region over the past 20 years, states that were long controlled by Democrats have almost entirely turned over power to the GOP — and then stayed that way.

"My view is that North Carolina will be leading the red-state resurgence," says Marc Rotterman, a GOP media strategist in the state. "I think McCrory is going to end up being one of the most popular governors in the country."

Democrats Set The Stage

Rotterman is a partisan and his predictions may come as a surprise, given the spate of critical attention the state's received. After all, from a national perspective, North Carolina has been looking more ripe for Democrats, not less.

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The Standard & Poor's 500 index, the benchmark of America's largest corporations, surpassed 1,700 points for the first time Thursday. The rise is being tied to assurances from central banks in the U.S. and Europe that they would continue to bolster their economies, as well as a drop in U.S. jobless claims.

"The S&P 500 has reversed course after pulling within 2 points of 1,700 three times in the past seven days," Bloomberg Businessweek reports. "The benchmark index is trading at 15.3 times estimated earnings, compared with an average valuation of 13.9 times profit over the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."

Here are the top 10 entities that are currently in the index:

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Apple Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Johnson & Johnson

General Electric Co.

Google Inc.

Chevron Corp.

Procter & Gamble

Berkshire Hathaway B

Wells Fargo & Co.

As August begins, retailers are stepping up sales promotions to attract back-to-school shoppers. And several states are offering tax-free shopping to encourage purchases.

But most economists say this year's sales will be slower than last summer's because consumers have been coping with more expensive gasoline and higher payroll taxes.

"This year's back-to-school shopping season appears slightly weaker than last year," economist Chris Christopher, with IHS Global Insight, said of the retail period that ranks second only to the holiday shopping season.

To get consumers in the mood to shop, many retailers started back-to-school advertising and sale pricing weeks ago. The data aren't in yet to show the final impact of those early promotions on July sales.

But traditionally, August is the key month for sales of kids' backpacks, shoes, clothes, lunchboxes and notebooks. Those sales are expected to total $635 for the average family with school-age children, down from last year's $689, according to the National Retail Federation.

Spending is higher for college-bound students, who need more expensive things like computers and textbooks, as well as bedding and beanbag chairs for dorm rooms. This year, the average family with a child in college will spend $837, down from last year's $907, the trade association estimates.

The NRF says school and college shopping combined will add up to $72.5 billion.

Looking To Cut Corners

"As they continue to grapple with the impact of increased payroll taxes, Americans will look to cut corners where they can, but will buy what their kids need," NRF President Matthew Shay said in a statement on the season's outlook.

Examples of corner-cutting include shopping for generic rather than brand-name goods, he said. Roughly 1 in 3 shoppers said in a recent NRF survey that he would do that, as well as wait for sales.

And more people will be heading to discount stores, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers. A survey done in mid-July by that group showed 9 in 10 consumers plan to shop in discount stores this year, up from 83 percent in 2012.

To give shoppers yet another way to reduce the hit to their pocketbooks, 18 states are offering sales tax holidays this summer.

Enlarge image i

Andrew Carnegie was once the richest man in the world. Coming as a dirt poor kid from Scotland to the U.S., by the 1880s he'd built an empire in steel — and then gave it all away: $60 million to fund a system of 1,689 public libraries across the country.

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Back in the day, when Anthony Weiner was still a youthful Democratic representative from Brooklyn, before the dirty texts and the penis photos chased him from Washington, before his scrabbling, sinking campaign for New York City mayor, he strove to emulate his predecessor.

Chuck Schumer's frenetic energy and press-grabbing devotion to his constituents provided the model that Weiner followed when his longtime mentor moved on to the U.S. Senate. Former staffers almost universally describe Weiner as a demanding, New York-focused boss who kept them burning the midnight oil and running at a breathless pace that led to frequent staff turnover.

That same approach — a constant state of hyperdrive and a hunger for the spotlight — may explain more than anything else why Weiner, 48, can't seem to say "uncle" in a mayoral campaign that has taken on a monumental weirdness.

The latest debacle? In an interview Tuesday, his spokeswoman, Barbara Morgan, used a series of crude terms for female genitalia to describe a former campaign intern who wrote a mild "tell all" story for the New York Daily News.

Ex-intern Olivia Nuzzi's big revelation: Some people wanted to work on the former congressman's mayoral campaign as a means of burrowing into Clinton world through Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton.

Now, Clinton world may have had it with him, Abedin may be taking extended vacation time from her job as chief of Hillary Clinton's transition office, and his campaign manager may have quit, but Weiner keeps going.

"I am not terribly interested," he said Monday, "in what people who are not voters in the city of New York have to say." That's a reference, of course, to his wife's boss, herself a potential presidential candidate, and former President Bill Clinton, who officiated at the Weiner-Abedin nuptials three years ago.

Numerous recent reports suggest the Clintons are angry with Weiner both for his indiscretions and for comparing his troubles to the Bill Clinton sex scandal of the late 1990s.

While there are also reports of grumblings among Clinton loyalists about being hit up for more money to sustain Weiner's campaign, those familiar with his mayoral run say the complaints are overstated and that he has the funds to get through the final weeks should he stay in.

"Quit isn't the way we roll in New York City," a measured but defiant Weiner says in a new online ad. "We fight through tough things."

Weiner no doubt hopes that voters, even given the little time left before the Sept. 10 primary, will be persuaded to view his personal failure in a different context.

After all, as some voices have argued, it wasn't extramarital sex with a real prostitute, as in the cases of Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana or former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, another disgraced Democrat seeking a return to the public arena by running for New York City comptroller.

Was his voyeurism all that different from looking at Internet porn, a not-too-uncommon practice of the American male, or engaging in anonymous phone sex?

On the other hand, will New York voters continue to see Weiner as CBS News' Bob Schieffer views him — as "a new age flasher"?

Mentor Remains Mum

The relationship between Weiner and Schumer, who as a representative hired Weiner out of college and nurtured his political career, has cooled. The senator has refused to comment on Weiner's ongoing candidacy and the salacious controversy surrounding it.

And no one, except perhaps Weiner, knows whether there are more Sydney Leatherses out there waiting to share their stories of exchanging dirty texts and photos with the former congressman. Leathers, whose emergence last week forced Weiner to acknowledge that his sexting behavior continued after his 2011 resignation from Congress, told radio shock jock Howard Stern this week that she's considering an offer to star in a sex parody movie.

As Weiner's comeback from infamy sinks into ignominy, those who knew him during his dozen years in Washington are privately expressing bafflement and disappointment. But some are also quietly pushing back on characterizations of their former boss as a show horse, rather than a workhorse.

A Bottomless Talent For Self-Sabotage

Most of his dozen years in Congress were spent in the minority as a rank-and-file Democrat, one who became a voice for single-payer health care, for issues specific to New York, and who was singularly uninterested in the cozy, incestuous Washington scene described in the much talked about recent book This Town.

Says one former staffer: "If you were working for him, you were not getting invited to the White House Correspondents Dinner."

Weiner's days are likely numbered, and it's unclear whether the end will come before the September primary. The candidate's ability for self-sabotage seems bottomless.

But the Anthony Weiner who spent a dozen years in Washington is not known for giving up a fight. Even, it seems, one as humiliating and damaging as this.

So far, the human race has eliminated just one disease in history: smallpox. But it's on the cusp of adding a second virus — polio — to that list.

One special man in Somalia was at the battlefront of both eradication efforts. He died last week of a sudden illness at age 59.

Ali Maow Maalin was the last member of the general public — worldwide — to catch smallpox. And he spent the past decade working to end polio in Somalia.

World health leaders called Maalin "an inspiration." Even in the weeks before his death, he was leading anti-polio campaigns in some of the most unstable parts of Somalia.

Maalin's fight against polio began in 1977. Jimmy Carter had just been elected U.S. president. Apple Computer had just incorporated in California. And the world was on the verge of wiping out smallpox. Decades of vaccination efforts had pushed the virus into one last corner of the world: Somalia.

Maalin, then a hospital cook near Mogadishu, caught smallpox while driving an infected family to a clinic. He was careful not to spread the disease to anyone. About three years later, Somalia — and the world — were declared free of smallpox.

Shots - Health News

Polio Eradication Suffers A Setback As Somali Outbreak Worsens

Saudi Arabia will soon have a subway system in the capital, Riyadh, that's said to be the world's biggest current investment in public transport.

It's the latest such development in the Arabian peninsula: Dubai opened the first subway system in the Gulf back in 2009, while Qatar has commissioned a metro to be built in Doha ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

Riyadh's metro will have six lines and cost $22 billion, with driverless trains, state-of-the-art technology and stations designed by some of the world's leading architects.

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The driver of a Spanish train that derailed and killed 79 people was speaking on the phone and had taken the train to nearly twice the speed allowed on the stretch of track where the crash occurred, according to court investigators who reviewed the train's "black box" recorders.

After reaching speeds of 119 miles per hour, train conductor Francisco Jose Garzon Amo tried to slow the train down "seconds before the crash," according to an Associated Press report on the court's preliminary findings, which were released Tuesday.

Amo was speaking on the phone with staff members of the state rail service Renfe, the BBC reports.

The speed limit in the area of the crash is around 50 mph; investigators say they believe the train was going around 95 mph when it derailed.

The crash occurred Wednesday near the city of Santiago de Compostela. Amo faces dozens of charges of homicide and causing injury by professional neglect; those charges were announced Sunday.

The train had been carrying more than 200 people in northwestern Spain when it derailed. A mass was held Monday to memorialize those who lost their lives in the crash. As NPR's Lauren Frayer reported from Madrid on Monday, more than 70 people remain in the hospital, some of them in critical condition.

The train was a kind of hybrid that can run on either new high-speed rails, where they are known to reach speeds in excess of 100 mph, or on older tracks. As Lauren says, the portion of track where the crash occurred did not have newer safety systems that can override drivers' actions.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing, officials say.

For decades, Koreans have been pushing to preserve the legacy of women forced to provide sex to Japanese army soldiers during World War II. Glendale, Calif., will dedicate a statue memorializing the victims, known as "comfort women," on Tuesday. But the statue has spurred controversy in this Southern California city, where some area residents say it is a divisive reminder of the horrors of war.

The sculpture is a bronze statue of a young girl. She looks about 14 — around the same age as many comfort women when they were forced into military brothels run by Japan's imperial army.

Ok-seon Lee, 86, was one of them. She's in California, visiting with Korean-American activists. These activists don't say "comfort women" when she's around. Instead, they call her halmoni, Korean for "grandmother."

As she tells her story, Lee stares out at no one through her red-tinted glasses. She's back inside her darkest days, decades ago. Lee says she was taken to a facility in Yanji, China, at age 15, where she was abused for three years until the end of the war.

"The comfort station where we were taken was not a place for human beings to live," Lee says through an interpreter. "It was a slaughterhouse. I'm telling you, it was killing people."

The Picture Show

Comfort Women: Untold Stories Of Wartime Abuse

It's going to be a party in Minneapolis.

With gay marriages becoming legal in Minnesota on Thursday, courthouses in major cities across the state will be open after midnight to accommodate dozens of same-sex couples eager to tie the knot.

"It's good for our business," says Ron Stein, a jeweler in Minneapolis, where the mayor plans to conduct weddings for approximately 40 couples. "We've had orders already."

In recent days, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has published articles about the coming "boon" to the state's wedding industry, as well as the phenomenon of same-sex couples facing the same sort of pre-wedding "jitters" long known to straights.

But many people in the state are still shocked by the whole idea. When a gay marriage ban was on the ballot last fall, only a dozen among Minnesota's 87 counties opposed it.

Most rural counties supported the idea of banning gay marriage by margins of 3-to-2, or even 3-to-1. They were outvoted statewide by the urban centers.

In May, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill allowing gay weddings to go forward. Some parts of the state aren't ready for it.

"Away from the cities, you're going to see a lot of legislators voted out," says Dean Walters, a teacher in Owatonna. "People in rural areas are unhappy."

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The U.S. economy grew by an annualized rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013, according to Gross Domestic Product data released Wednesday morning. The Commerce Department says the rise stems from business investments, particularly in buildings, and an upturn in exports and the civilian aircraft industry.

The data represents the agency's first estimate of the value of all goods and services produced in the United States. The growth exceeds economists' expectations, which had called for a 1 percent rate of expansion, as Bloomberg News reports.

The new data shows a modest increase over the results for this year's first quarter, which were revised downward to 1.1 percent, according to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. It also reported gains in Americans' income.

"Real disposable personal income—personal income adjusted for taxes and inflation—rose 3.4 percent in the second quarter after falling 8.2 percent in the first quarter," the Bureau of Economic Analysis says.

Purchases of goods and services by U.S. residents rose by 2.4 percent in the second quarter, from 1.4 percent growth in the first.

Personal saving also rose by half a percentage point, from 4 to 4.5 percent. Rises in prices for goods and services were slight, at 0.3 percent, compared to a 1.2 percent rise in the first quarter of 2013.

In other economic data released today, the payroll firm ADP says U.S. companies added 200,000 new jobs from June to July. That means American businesses "hired in July at the fastest pace since December," according to the AP.

The payroll company also revised its June figures upward, from 188,000 to 198,000.

By industry, the biggest job gains were in professional and business services, as well as in trade, transportation, and utilities, ADP says. The construction sector added 22,000 jobs in the month, while manufacturing lost 5,000 jobs.

A year ago, Montana opened the nation's first clinic for free primary healthcare services to its state government employees. The Helena, Mont., clinic was pitched as a way to improve overall employee health, but the idea has faced its fair share of political opposition.

A year later, the state says the clinic is already saving money.

Pamela Weitz, a 61-year-old state library technician, was skeptical about the place at first.

"I thought it was just the goofiest idea, but you know, it's really good," she says. In the last year, she's been there for checkups, blood tests and flu shots. She doesn't have to go; she still has her normal health insurance provided by the state. But at the clinic, she has no co-pays, no deductibles. It's free.

That's the case for the Helena area's 11,000 state workers and their dependents. With an appointment, patients wait just a couple minutes to see a doctor. Visitation is more than 75 percent higher than initial estimates.

"For goodness sakes, of course the employees and the retirees like it, it's free," says Republican State Sen. Dave Lewis.

He wonders what that free price tag is actually costing the state government as well as the wider Helena community.

"If they're taking money out of the hospital's pocket, the hospital's raising the price on other things to offset that," Lewis says.

He and others faulted then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer for moving ahead with the clinic last year without approval of the state legislature, although it was not needed.

Now, Lewis is a retired state employee himself. He says, personally, he does like going there, too.

"They're wonderful people, they do a great job, but as a legislator, I wonder how in the heck we can pay for it very long," Lewis says.

Lower Costs For Employees And Montana

The state contracts with a private company to run the facility and pays for everything — wages of the staff, total costs of all the visits. Those are all new expenses, and they all come from the budget for state employee healthcare.

Even so, division manager Russ Hill says it's actually costing the state $1,500,000 less for healthcare than before the clinic opened.

"Because there's no markup, our cost per visit is lower than in a private fee-for-service environment," Hill says.

Physicians are paid by the hour, not by the number of procedures they prescribe like many in the private sector. The state is able to buy supplies at lower prices.

“ Because there's no markup, our cost per visit is lower than in a private fee-for-service environment.

Home prices continue to rise, according to the latest numbers in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Home prices were up 12.2 percent in May from a year ago.

S&P/Case-Shiller's closely watched 20-city index found the average price of a home climbed 2.4 percent in May compared with April. The city with the biggest average monthly gain was San Francisco, where home prices jumped 4.3 percent.

Higher price tags haven't deterred home buyers, who pushed up sales of new homes in June by 8.3 percent, according to the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development, as Mark wrote last week.

Despite the boom in home sales, consumers in general aren't feeling as carefree. The Conference Board, a private business research organization, reported Tuesday that its monthly Consumer Confidence Index dropped slightly in June. It's down to 80.3, compared with May's 82.1.

Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a written statement, "Consumer confidence fell slightly in July, precipitated by a weakening in consumer's economic and job expectations. However, confidence remains well above the levels of a year ago."

Of all the contentious claims about the Affordable Care Act, few have been more contentious than over the impact it's having on employers.

It's hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on a television without seeing a story about some boss cutting workers' hours or saying he won't be doing any more hiring because of the health law.

But is the law really having an impact on the economy?

Not surprisingly, it depends whom you ask.

Opponents of the law point to anecdotes in industries with a lot of low-wage workers, like restaurants.

They also point to employer surveys like one from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. It found that nearly 1 in 5 small businesses said it was reducing hiring to try to stay under the 50-worker threshold that exempts companies from an ACA requirement that full-time employees be offered health insurance. An additional 16 percent said they planned to adjust hours so fewer workers would be eligible for health insurance.

But now the law's supporters, including the White House, are fighting back.

They're putting out their own data showing that part-time employment is no higher during this economic recovery than during other recent economic recoveries.

That includes people working part time who'd rather be working full time. Those data show that most of the people involuntarily working part time are in that situation owing to state and federal budget cuts, not the health law. They've also pointed out that weekly hours have risen since the health law was passed, including in the restaurant industry.

So who's right?

It's entirely likely that both sides are. One of the White House talking points is that only about 1 percent of the workforce would be impacted by the Affordable Care Act requirements. Those are typically people who don't have health coverage and who work more than 30 hours a week for companies with more than 50 employees.

That's not a big enough group, they point out, to really affect the economy on a macroeconomic level. And it's not.

But 1 percent of the workforce is more than 1 million people, more than enough to make for a lot of anecdotes. There's also the issue that the administration and its allies are looking back at what's happened so far, while opponents are looking mostly forward at what may happen in the future.

Still, there are efforts on Capitol Hill to address one point of contention: The law defines full-time work as more than 30 hours per week, rather than the traditional 40.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., have introduced the Forty Hours is Full Time Act of 2013, which they say would "ensure that the definition of full-time employee and full-time equivalent in the ACA is consistent with the traditional full-time 40-hour work week." A similar bill has been introduced in the House.

The prospects for the legislation, however, are not good.

One reason is that Congress is so gridlocked and Republicans are so dug in against the law that even when there is a consensus that something needs to be fixed there is little likelihood of its happening.

And on this issue there's no consensus that changing the definition of a full-time workweek would actually change employers' incentives.

University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan, writing in the New York Times, suggested that such a change could create its own set of disincentives, with a 39-hour-a-week job with no insurance potentially paying more than a 40-hour-a-week job with employer insurance, because of subsidies available for health insurance in the new health exchanges.

I read the other day that 16,000 people have been recruited as volunteers for next year's Super Bowl in New Jersey, and suddenly it occurred to me: the Super Bowl is one of the great financial bonanzas of modern times. From the players to the networks to the hotels, everybody involved with it makes a killing. Why would anybody volunteer to work for free for the Super Bowl? Would you volunteer to work free for Netflix or Disneyworld?

Apparently, though, there are more chumps in New Jersey than we see on television's Jersey Shore or hear about in the Rutgers athletic department.
I mean, if you want to volunteer, there are so many things that could really use your help. Like hospitals and schools and churches and museums and libraries and all sorts of wonderful charities. Why would anybody volunteer for the Super Bowl?

Of course, golf and tennis tournaments, where the players and promoters make hundreds of thousands of dollars, have been getting suckers to volunteer for years. It's amazing how sports seduces us fans.

We can take some comfort that it's not just American citizens who are such easy marks. Whole cities and countries throw themselves at sports. Most recently, no doubt you've heard about the riots in Rio de Janeiro, where the Brazilian people are a little put out that while such things as food, medicine and shelter may be hard to come by, the government has put up billions for both the World Cup next summer and the summer Olympics in 2016.

The Brazilian sports honorarium pales before what the Russians are laying out for next winter's Olympics, though: a record $50 billion, which is only $38 billion more than the original bid proposal. Sports events always cost a tad more than the officials — who desperately want the event — estimate. And the Olympics and World Cup always lead cities and countries on by saying that the infrastructure built for their games will be a long-term boon for the country. Like Greece, which, as you know, has been living high on the hog ever since Athens overspent for the 2004 Olympics.

But, there's always a new sucker somewhere out there. The Olympics and the World Cup scramble to find novel places to go to. Like the 2022 soccer championship will be in Qatar, where it is known to be too hot for soccer. Or next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, where it seldom gets to be winter. They have stockpiled snow there. All of Russia, suburban Siberia, and they pick a place where you have to save snow?

But, if you got the money, the Olympics or the World Cup will only be too happy to come on over and enjoy the facilities you've built just for them. Oh my, what we all do for sports.

Why would anybody volunteer to work for free for the Super Bowl?

The reigning king in the truck world is the Ford F-150, and it's been that way for a couple of decades. But staying on top is getting harder.

With new, tougher fuel standards looming there is a lot of emphasis on efficiency and innovation. On Wednesday, Ford is announcing its flagship truck is taking a step into the alternative fuel world with a vehicle that can run on natural gas.

When you look at their bottom lines and their advertising you realize that the Detroit Three make cars, but they're really truck companies, especially Ford.

"Well I think the F-150 pickup truck is probably the single most important vehicle to Ford Motor Company and arguably it might be the single most important vehicle period," says Jack Nerad, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book. "It's just an 800-pound gorilla in the marketplace."

Nerad says when Ford takes a step there is a potential that the rest of the truck world will follow. Ford is making compressed natural gas an option on the truck that is its best selling vehicle.

Compressed Natural Gas, or CNG, is cheaper than petroleum, it emits less carbon dioxide and the U.S. has a whole lot of it.

Advocates for natural gas say this is a big step toward using more of it. John Hoffmeister used to be CEO of Shell, the oil giant. He now runs a group called Citizens for Affordable Energy.

"The fact that Ford would begin to put CNG into a very popular consumer vehicle ... is a major step along the way to a transformation of the total fleet of American vehicles," Hoffmeister says.

The F-150 will run on both CNG and regular gas, but it won't be cheap. The CNG option runs upwards of $7,000.

Nerad doesn't think there's a huge consumer market, but he says large companies and city and county governments will be interested.

"A lot of these vehicles are purchased on a cost-to-own basis," he says, "and if you can get the cost of fuel down, as natural gas has the possibility of doing, it's going to be pretty successful with fleet customers."

For regular consumers there is a classic chicken and egg problem. Out on the road, there just aren't a lot of places where you can get compressed natural gas.

"Because before you will spend the money to put in the [CNG] infrastructure, you want to know that you're going to be able to sell enough [CNG] to enough vehicles to pay the bill," says Hoffmeister.

But Hoffmeister says a popular vehicle like the F-150 taking natural gas could help spark the building of the missing infrastructure.

Environmentalists though aren't on board with using natural gas because of the controversial way much of the gas is extracted — through hydraulic fracturing or "fracking."

Roland Hwang with the Natural Resources Defense Council says he's not opposed to the fuel, but he doesn't like how the U.S. is getting it.

"When you look at that F-150 or whatever vehicle in the showroom, you're thinking about whether [it] is a good choice for the environment," Hwang says. "You got to keep in mind and you got to ask the question [of] how this fuel is being produced. Is it better or is it just different?"

But the automakers are under pressure to increase fuel economy and it's not that hard to adapt current engines to run on compressed natural gas. So that's why you'll soon be seeing them in showrooms.

But it's not clear yet whether average consumers are ready to step up and pay thousands of dollars extra for a natural gas option.

House Republicans investigating IRS targeting of groups for extra scrutiny say they have proof conservatives had it worse.

A House Ways and Means Committee staff analysis of the applications of 111 conservative and progressive groups applying for tax exempt status found conservative applicants faced, "more questions, more denials, more delays," says committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich.

That is, when the IRS sent groups letters asking for further information, conservative groups were asked more questions — on average, three times more. All of the groups with "progressive" in their name were ultimately approved, while only 46 percent of conservative groups won approval. Others are still waiting for an answer or gave up.

Here's a chart laying out the committee's findings:

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The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

Caroline Criado-Perez, the feminist activist who successfully campaigned to make Jane Austen the new face of Britain's 10-pound note, has been inundated with hundreds of death and rape threats on Twitter after the banknote news broke last week. Criado-Perez responded by retweeting the threats to her followers. Some of the more printable examples include: "I will find you and you don't want to know what I will do when I do, you're pathetic, kill yourself before i do." and "Hey sweetheart, give me a call when you're ready to be put in your place." British police arrested a man over the weekend "on suspicion of harassment offences," but the threats didn't stop. When British Parliament member Stella Creasy spoke out in support of Criado-Perez, she also received rape threats, which she in turn retweeted. This has sparked debate in the U.K. about whether Twitter is responsible for regulating such threats. CNN reports: "Twitter UK's General Manager Tony Wang said the social-networking company takes online abuse very seriously, offering to suspend accounts, and called on people to report any 'violation of Twitter rules.' " Separately, one of the world's most eminent classicists, Mary Beard, promised Monday to publicly shame those who send her misogynistic messages on Twitter, tweeting, "I'm not going to be terrorised." A man who purportedly sent the Cambridge professor crude messages Monday swiftly begged her forgiveness after another Twitter user threatened to tell his mother what he had written.

The Four Way Review published three new poems from Craig Morgan Teicher. The second, "Drunkenness," reads, "Sip by sip, life becomes tolerable, then pleasant, then milky — as soft and gregarious as a lamb. ... Not even happiness feels this good."

Mary Karr tells The New York Times about the unique experience of finding out your literary idols are jerks: "If we didn't read people who were bastards, we'd never read anything. Even the best of us are at least part-time bastards."

The novelist Gary Shteyngart writes about wearing a Google Glass around New York: "Wearing Glass takes its toll. 'You look like you have a lazy eye,' I'm told at a barbecue, my right eye instinctively scanning upward for more info. 'You look like you have a nervous tic,' when I tap at the touch pad. 'You have that faraway look again,' whenever there's something more interesting happening on my screen."

The London Fire Brigade says a recent rise in the number of calls involving people trapped in handcuffs may be tied to Fifty Shades of Grey. A spokesman comments, "I don't know whether it's the Fifty Shades effect, but the number of incidents involving items like handcuffs seems to have gone up." Either way, the fire brigade has some practical advice: "If you use handcuffs, always keep the keys handy."

Regional disparities over the abortion issue have grown during the past two decades, leading to an ever widening gulf between the nation's most conservative and most liberal regions.

A new Pew Research Center survey reports that an eight-state region — Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma — has grown significantly more conservative when it comes to abortion, with opposition to legal abortion increasing by 12 percentage points since 1995-96. That's the biggest jump of any region in the nation over that period.

The result is a much wider divide between the South Central states and the region at the other end of the spectrum, New England, where support for legal abortion grew by 5 percentage points between 1995-96 and 2012-13.

The two regions are now separated by a 35-percentage-point difference when it comes to views on legal abortion.

Pew found that public opinion on abortion in those eight South Central states has essentially flipped, going from majority support for legal abortion in 1995-96 (52 percent) to just 40 percent today. More than half of adults (52 percent) in the South Central region now say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

In most other regions, the numbers have been fairly stable. But there have been a few notable changes. In the Midwest, support for legal abortion declined by 8 percentage points. And in New England, the most liberal region on the issue, support for legal abortion increased from 70 to 75 percent.

I asked Michael Dimock, the Pew center's director and a political scientist, what explains the more conservative tilt of the South Central states. For now, he had more questions than answers.

"There are interesting questions it raises about the composition of those states and whether this fits into broader thinking about whether people in this country are sorting themselves out more and more in terms of where they live and whether we are becoming more separated into our enclaves of similar-minded people."

It's possible, he said, that the shift has something to do with a "sorting out" linked to religiosity like evangelical Christianity. He promised to dig further into Pew's religion data to search for possible correlations between abortion, geography and religiosity. I'll update this post when he gets back to me.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that the region that saw the most dramatic shift in opposition to abortion includes some of the reddest states on the political map. But it doesn't include any of the early presidential primary and caucus states like New Hampshire, South Carolina or Iowa.

So this trend seems unlikely to affect 2016 presidential politics, as none of the South Central states are early primary or general election battleground states.

Gay people should be integrated into society instead of being ostracized, Pope Francis told journalists after his week-long trip to Brazil. Answering a question about reports of homosexuals in the clergy, the pope answered, "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

In what's being called an unusually broad and candid news conference, Pope Francis took questions from reporters for more than an hour as he flew from Brazil to the Vatican; his plane landed Monday.

One question centered on recent reports in Italian media that accused the Vatican Bank's Monsignor Battista Ricca of conducting an affair with a Swiss army captain. In response, Pope Francis said that he looked into the reports, but found nothing to support the allegations.

The pope also used the occasion to expand on his June remarks about a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, clarifying that "he was against all lobbies, not just gay ones," the Italian news agency ANSA reports.

"Being gay is a tendency. The problem is the lobby," ANSA quotes the pontiff saying. "The lobby is unacceptable, the gay one, the political one, the Masonic one."

The pope's view of gays is being seen as diverging from his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. As the AP reminds us, Benedict "signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten."

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well," Pope Francis said, according to the BBC. "It says they should not be marginalized because of this but that they must be integrated into society."

During the news conference on the 12-hour flight home, the pope also addressed a less serious question: What did he have in the black bag he carried during his trip?

The AP reports:

"'The keys to the atomic bomb weren't in it,' Francis quipped. Rather, he said, the bag merely contained a razor, his breviary prayer book, his agenda and a book on St. Terese of Lisieux, to whom he is particularly devoted.

"'It's normal' to carry a bag when traveling, he said. 'We have to get use to this being normal, this normalcy of life,' for a pope, he added."

Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't been shy about showing off his macho — and often shirtless — side.

There was that picture with the gun ...

the one with the tiger cub ...

On whether he has seen everything there is to see on the farm

"Well, there are days when I wonder that, but the fact is that there's an endless variation. And the weather patterns are never the same; the way the pastures are grazed is never the same. Odd things happen. ... Basically, there's always an errand or a task or a burden that leads you out onto the land. And the moment you get onto the land, everything changes in front of you, no matter what you think you've seen before."

On advice to aspiring writers

"The simplest way to put it, I think, is to make sure you're keeping your language as simple, as straightforward as possible, and to trust the reader. And by that I mean trust that the reader's perceptions resemble your own perceptions. ...

"So many young people I meet are just as perceptive about the world around them as I or any other writer happens to be, but they don't believe that their perceptions actually matter because nobody's really taught them that they do. And acquiring that conviction, that what you notice really makes a difference and can be communicated in a way that makes a difference, is really a huge step forward."

Read an excerpt of More Scenes from the Rural Life

As the ailing Nelson Mandela turned 95 this month, the international community celebrated his legacy and rooted for his recovery.

Just to the north in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, 89, is running for re-election this week. He's looking to extend his 33 years in power, which have been marked by authoritarian rule, economic collapse and international isolation.

These two men have shaped their neighboring countries in dramatically different ways. Mandela is a global icon in a country often cited as a land of hope. Mugabe is a widely seen as pariah in a country that has endured a precipitous decline.

Their global reputations could hardly be more different. With both men in the news, we took a look at their legacies, and two things stand out.

First, before Mandela and Mugabe came to power, they had remarkably similar biographies. Second, neither South Africa's successes under Mandela nor Zimbabwe's failings under Mugabe were foregone conclusions.

Parallel Lives

First, the similarities between the two men. Martin Meredith, a British author who has written biographies of both men, sums them up this way:

"Both were born in an era when white power prevailed throughout Africa, Mandela in 1918, Mugabe in 1924. Both were products of the Christian mission school system, Mandela of the Methodist variety, Mugabe of the Catholic. Both attended the same university, Fort Hare in South Africa. Both emerged as members of the small African professional elite, Mandela a lawyer, Mugabe a teacher. Both were drawn into the struggle against white minority rule, Mandela in South Africa, Mugabe in neighboring Rhodesia. Both advocated violence to bring down white-run regimes. Both endured long terms of imprisonment, Mandela, 27 years, Mugabe, 11 years."