Syrian School Term Begins, for Some
September 17, 2012
The school term has begun in Syria, but the violence in cities across the country has kept thousands of students away from school. The government reported that more than 5 million students attended school at 22,000 schools across the country, but that figure is well below the number of children who live in Syria. Many schools have been unaffected by the violence. At others, teachers are making do with the resources that they have.

Japan Targets Nuclear-Free Economy by 2040
September 15, 2012
Prompted in large part by the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, the Japanese government has announced plans to eliminate nuclear power from its energy program within 30 years.

N.Y. Park Proposal to Transform Old Subway Station
September 17, 2012
Don Barasch and James Ramsay, the creators of the High Line park, have moved their sights underground, with plans for a park in an abandoned subway station. The High Line was an elevated train platform on the West Side that once hummed with business from the meatpacking industry but fallen into disuse; now it's a green area favored by families, with gardens, sidewalks, and play areas. The plan is the same for the Lowline, in an underground space built in 1903 but not used since 1948.

The GPS System
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a group of satellites that can provide anyone with the exact location of anyone else or anything on earth. How? By using the signals coming from those satellites and with a tracking system designed to triangulate the signals and make sense of them, of course.

What used to be rare is now commonplace. GPS is tracked by many things these days, including timepieces. Find out more about this no longer mysterious system.

Nathan Hale Gives His Life for His Country
One of early America's most famous quotes came from a man who was found guilty of spying against Britain and paid for his crimes with his life. This was Nathan Hale. Among his last words were these: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

He wasn't always in the "spy" mode, however. He grew up an athletic boy who became a schoolteacher. Find out more about this famous man and what drove him to do and say what he most famously did.