Peers in the past brought to life by those who were there this week amid the climate of fear after the 911 attacks in 2001 a new threat the shoe bomber somebody says something about he's trying to light something that's when you know everything is kind of stopped also the forced internment of more than 100000 Japanese Americans during the 2nd World War We can only take. In a suitcase we didn't know how long we would be gone plus a British theatrical group that toured the Sahara in the 1970 s. The real life behind the Mary Poppins story and from the 1960 s. How it came about that we all now need computer passwords. Based type a number up to 6 digits but that's 4 point one effect on the figure I don't get it . For you Ok. First here's today's. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Jim hock secretary of Homeland Security to Nielson was in Yuma Arizona Saturday as N.P.R.'s Jon Stewart reports the visit comes after 2 migrant children died in u.s. Custody this month citing a quote humanitarian crisis Nielson visited both human and El Paso Texas to meet with health officials and Border Patrol officers to review new medical check up policies for migrant kids all children detained at the border are now supposed to get secondary screenings for health issues Nielsen announced the more thorough exams earlier this week after the death of an 8 year old Guatemalan boy which she called deeply concerning and heartbreaking in a tweet President Trump blame Democrats for the deaths of the children without mentioning his administration's tightened immigration policies apprehensions of migrant families quadrupled in October in November from $27000.00 levels here on Stewart n.p.r. News Austria says it's going to impose more taxes on high tech companies like Facebook and Amazon Teri Schultz reports that the Austrian plan comes after the European Union failed to agree on a joint policy during its 6 month presidency of the European Union which ends Tuesday Austria wasn't able to gain consensus among the other $27.00 countries over forcing a higher tax rate on multinational tech giants so us tranches are Sebastian Kurt says his country will go it alone the aim is clear Kurt says in a statement taxation of companies that make large profits online but barely pay taxes he mentions Facebook and Amazon by name says there is agreement among all e.u. Countries that there should be a digital tax but how that will work and how much it should be remains under debate details of Austria's plan are expected to be announced in early January for n.p.r. News I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels health officials and guns as a Israeli troops killed a Palestinian along the Israeli border as N.P.R.'s Daniel Estrin reports guns are rocket fire and an Israeli airstrike followed the Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman. In Gaza says a 26 year old Palestinian with Down syndrome was shot in the head by Israeli troops Friday at the Gaza Israel border the Israeli Army declined to comment on the shooting it said some 5000 Palestinians gathered along the border fence with some throwing explosive devices rocks and burning tires Palestinians in Gaza have been holding protests for months demanding Israel ease restrictions on the territory Israel calls them violent riots more than 200 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed officials say and he Gyptian mediators have tried to lower tensions overnight Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel and Israel responded with an airstrike with no injuries on either side Israeli officials said Daniel Estrin n.p.r. News Jerusalem a passenger walkway collapsed at b.w.i. Airport outside Baltimore Saturday evening with at least 6 people reported injuries and all of the injuries non life threatening this is n.p.r. News. German police say a man forced open a locked gate on the security perimeter of Hanover airport and drove a car under the airfield the 21 year old from Poland was pursued by police until they came to a stop underneath a Greek Airlines Airbus a $320.00 that was standing on the tarmac with $172.00 passengers on board no one was hurt in the incident but flights were suspended for more than 4 hours in Florida there's been a reported sighting of a North Atlantic right whale calf the 1st in a year N.P.R.'s Jenny gas ride reports the whale population is critically endangered with not even a single calf spotted last season only 5 North Atlantic right whales have been born in the past 2 years the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says 19 of them died during that same period mostly from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear at the same time the whales have started to travel further north to find food which means they have to expend more energy travelling south to the areas of the Florida and Georgia coast where they gave birth for this struggling population a new calf is a sign of hope according to Florida's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute that baby and its mother were spotted near the entrance to the St John's River Jenny Backus right n.p.r. News a u.s. Health care worker who may have been exposed to the a bolt of virus while treating patients and Democratic Republic of Congo arrived in the United States on Saturday and was put in quarantine and the brassica the medic who was not exhibiting symptoms of Ebola will remain under observation for up to 2 weeks I'm Jim like n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the Wallace Foundation fostering improvements and learning and enrichment for disadvantaged children and the vitality of the arts for everyone ideas at Wallace Foundation dot org and the listeners who support this n.p.r. Station. Hello this is the history hour with Max Pearson this week an apology from the u.s. Government to Japanese Americans interned during the 2nd World War The man who helped make and then break computer passwords from the 1970 s. a Theatrical journey across the Sahara Desert and p.l. Travers the creator of Mary Poppins But we begin with a potentially terrifying moment from the early 21st century when the world was in a state of general anxiety following the al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington These were followed by President George w. Bush's so-called war on terror which in turn at the effect of turning many people in a variety of countries against the u.s. So it was that in late December 2001 a 28 year old British man tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoe on a transatlantic flight from Paris to Miami by clenching has been hearing from one of the passengers who helped to overcome Richard Reid the man known as the shoe bomber. Good afternoon the f.b.i. Is questioning a man who tried to blow up a transatlantic passenger jet with explosives hidden in one of issues the plane was on its way from France to the United States when it was the 1st major terror attempt since the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington now in the hands of the f.b.i. In Boston the man traveling on a British passport under the name of Richard Reid had again used low tech weapons to evade airport security when he boarded a Paris the passenger became violent in part with 2 flight attendants who were injured one was transported on arrival here in Boston and other passengers joined in to subdue this individual one of those passengers who helped overcome Reid was professional basketball player ko Army James who'd been living in France he was a strapping well built and very tall young man a lot of people in general not as each other you know if you 630. $64.00 and above you walk in a room is anybody 6465 and above you tend to notice Kwame James is 6 feet 8 and Richard Reid 6 foot 4 both around 2 meters tall they were both standing in line for the night flight from Paris I think I kind of noticed he doesn't have any you know carry on but out there was that I didn't I didn't have any r.v. And anything towards him or anybody on the flight I was I was going to travel to the Caribbean so I was there when a good mood it was Christmas break so I was in good spirits apart from the fact that he didn't have a carry on and he was quite tall Did you notice anything else about I don't know what he was wearing or anything he was doing I did notice you know what he was wearing also but I try not to be judgment also but I did think to myself why he's he's traveling you know from Paris to the States in a tracksuit the fact that Richard Reid was casually dressed and more importantly without any hand luggage didn't set off any security alarm bells despite it being only 3 months since $911.00 and the 23 year old James didn't think any more of his fellow passenger as he boarded the flight and settled into his seat literally as we start rolling down the runway for takeoff started those of and what was the next thing you were aware of I was a walkin by some screams next to me and the girl to the left of me she was screaming and screaming like we're on a roller coaster scream it wasn't immediately clear why she was screaming though he was still groggy and half asleep James tried to get a better view towards the back of the plane where they seem to be some sort of commotion taking place it looked like a scuffle from a vantage point and if not a scuffle and somebody was having a seizure just like my mind didn't go to anything was completely wrong at that moment I was literally watching this and then a flight attendant came from the other direction from 1st class and tapped me on my shoulder and said you know can you please help I kind of they're like you know I'm not sure what we're. Going on she didn't say anything else again past that because well and back at her she was very pale like she was you could tell she was scared James followed her back down the aisle the commotion was about 10 rows back and as he got nearer he saw what he thought was a fight going on between passengers and I'm thinking Ok I got to break up a fight as I got closer and was about to start holding people back I realize there was another flight attendant that you couldn't see from just where I was sitting at looking back where she was on the ground and you know if somebody says something about trying to light something that's when you know everything just kind of stopped but you know it's very much of a September 11th there's a commotion a plane somebody says something by shine a light something I think the word bomb was used and it was just it was a surreal stop in your tracks moment there was still a lot of confusion about exactly what was going on one of the flight attendants said that she'd seen Richard Reid trying to set fire to his shoe some passengers had reported smelling smoke and it's seen him stuffing papers into his show another air hostess had been bitten by Reid as she tried to grab a box of matches from him whatever the sequence of events a struggle was still going on yet he was definitely fighting back with all his power I think it's like 642423240 so he was a big guy and it took you know every bit of effort to really control him you know we were able to kind of subdue Richard Reid get him under control still not quite understand what's going on and at this time a captain who was flying back to the states not the one flying the plane we just happen to be in 1st class and he came back and started to kind of taken control of what needed to be done so he looked at me and I was the biggest guy said you know we need you to stay here and be you know essentially in security mode one of the passengers kind of the guards to guard his reader the rest of the flight there was no marshals there. No Hank of so what exactly to do so we have passions you know hey we got a time somehow some way passengers pass belts and shoe strings and anything that could tie and we actually tie them to the seat and what would the other passengers doing at that stage do with a aware that there was something serious going on the rest of the plane was actually relatively calm to the point where our later while actually standing over each reed standing guard over him they actually put on the in-flight movie so you know just imagine the mental the mental sway in my mind of going back and forth between While this is happening here and they have the in-flight movie on for the rest of the passengers at some point the decision was taken to continue on to the u.s. And to land in Boston not in Miami Kwame James another passenger took up positions on guard in 6 directly behind the now subdued Richard Reid I just can't understand hate the hatred and you know why you want to you know kill somebody or kill people that you don't know who are attached to the course that you claim to be fighting towards So I remember you know call a you know where you're really trying to do something we're really trying to write something and I do remember him as calm as they saying you see. And I was that was that was probably the scariest moment for me because at that stage it still wasn't clear whether Reid was acting alone or whether there was another bomb on board perhaps in the luggage these fears proved unfounded but further precautions were still taken before the flight was allowed to land u.s. Air Force fighter jets escorted the plane as it was diverted to Boston while 2 doctors on board sedated the man 3 times and once on the ground a swat team came aboard and Richard Reid was arrested when his shoes were x. Rayed they were found to be packed with plastic explosives and a crew detonator enough so the f.b.i. To have had catastrophic consequences afterward. When you sort of sat back and had time to think about it what were your thoughts then in the following weeks you know it becomes a surreal is like having contact with f.b.i. Agents and and agencies and different things and you know they kind of give you the rundown of what could have happened that it was confirmed there was plastic explosives and and you know I guess he had matches a match box that had been wet in his shoes and had they not been wet I wouldn't be hit on a story so to just know that you were that close to not being here and that definitely things in on you but I just took the approach that I was going to be positive and turn that moment into a positive lesson of how everything can change in a split 2nd and you could not be here so you need to deliver every day to the force you need to do positive things and impact people's lives in a positive way and don't get caught up in the more day to day things that can bring you down Richard Reid the shoe bomber was sentenced in January of 2003 to serve 3 consecutive life sentences and 100 years in prison with no possibility of parole he said that he has been inspired by al Qaeda and considered the United States to be his enemy who Army James is now retired from professional basketball like luncheon the sense of paranoia which was in evidence during those years after the $911.00 attacks is something which has recurred throughout history when one country culture or group feels threatened by another it was certainly present in the 1940 s. When the world was at war and it led to some extreme and unjust actions to reflect on this we're going back to $988.00 and the signing of a Civil Liberties Act in the USA which awarded a presidential apology and compensation to Japanese Americans who were interned during World War 2. Has been speaking to Norman Minetta who campaigned for the act my fellow Americans we gather here today to write a. Grave wrong President Ronald Reagan and that grave wrong so 120000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese navy on December the 7th 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Mabel and the forces of the Empire of Japan yes the nation was then of war struggling for its survival and it's not for us today to pass judgment upon those who may have made mistakes while engaged in that great struggle yet we must recognize that the internment of Japanese Americans was just that a mistake. For through it took us close to 10 years to get the bill passed which is needed a lot of t.l.c. And a lot of attention to working on a nonpartisan basis with Republicans and Democrats to get supporters Nomen mean that a congressman from San Jose California was instrumental in pushing through the Civil Liberties Act as a child he drew me from his home with his family in 1940 along with tens of thousands of other Japanese American citizens now regarded as enemy aliens by the wartime u.s. Government President Reagan mentioned that his own experience at the signing ceremony Congressman Norman Minetta with us today was 10 years old when his family was interned in the congressman's words my own family was sent 1st to Santa Anita racetrack we showered in the horse paddocks some families lived in converted stables others in hastily thrown together barracks we left Santa say on May 29th 1942 and we could only take what we were able to carry in a suitcase we didn't know how long we would be gone until you remember that day in May 942 and how you all parents reacted Oh I can remember that very vividly some Caucasian friends of ours came to your house and then took us to the railfreight garden center is a I mean they weren't even going to let us board the trains at the passenger terminal and remember when the train was pulling out and I looked around and saw my dead crying and I'm almost all I saw my pride 3 times once was on March 29th 1942 as we were pulling out of Santa Fe The 2nd time was when my mother asked away and on December 7th 1941 because he couldn't understand why the land of his birth was attacking now the land of his heart off to the end of the war the family returned to San Jose. In 1906 picked up their lives after serving in the Army as an intelligence officer Norman joined his father in the family insurance business his experience of helplessness led memetic to become involved in politics as well as Japanese American community organizations in San Jose I saw the impact on my 3 older sisters my older brother my parents so you're cognizant about what was happening to you but not able to do anything so when I got into the whole political system I had this very strong desire to make sure that I represented those who had no voice who are 100 represented in 1971 he became mayor of San Jose the 1st Japanese American man of a major u.s. City and in 1974 he was elected the Democratic representative for California 13th district it was in 1978 that Norman Mehta and 3 other members of Congress of Japanese origin approached by the Japanese American citizens leak he was seeking an apology and compensation from the u.s. Government the congressman decided the best way to make it happen would be to investigate what exactly had gone on during World War 2 So in 1981 the Commission on water time you look Asian and intendment of civilians got the testimony from Japanese Americans across the u.s. After 2 years study they came to the conclusion that the evacuation and internment came about because of historical racial discrimination wartime hysteria and the lack of political leadership but it took several more years before the Civil Liberties Act came into being minister and his colleagues along with community groups lobbied Congress relentlessly He says it was a question of compensation that was the sticking point people would say why are we having to compensate people for something they have been in a. 142. Would you give up your liberties for 4 years for $20000.00 home no no no absolutely Yeah well that's why we have this provision in there because people were and deprived of their ability to exercise all of their constitutional rights as citizens and permanent residents of the United States of America finally it was announced that on August the 10th 1988 the bill would be signed by President Reagan but everyone was at the National Japanese American convention in Seattle when they got the call on a given Tuesday they announced there would be a signing the Civil Liberties Act by President Reagan on Thursday so everyone rushed to get on airplanes were you expecting the signing to happen on that day not at all it was sort of like a 2nd sound as everyone left Seattle to get to Washington d.c. Did you manage to make your did you all managed to make your planes I mean more Absolutely I mean I think we would've run or even drive across country but everyone was able to get there by their new legislation that I'm about to sign provides for a restitution payment to each of the 60000 surviving Japanese Americans of 120000 who are relocated or detained yet no payment can make up for those lost years so what is most important in this bill has less to do with property than with honor for here we had made a wrong the other aspect of it to me was the fact that country was willing to admit a wrong and try to make redress for having committed gross violation of constitutional rights Nomen Minetta went on to $76.00 chief of Comus under President Bill Clinton and with the election of George w. Bush in 2000 he was appointed section of transportation for the Republican administration key believe what happened to the Japanese American community kids could ever happen again the false a bill. Intendment of American citizens well on September 11th 2001 after the tragedy of terrorist attacks there was a great deal of clamor about keeping Muslims off airplanes on September 13th Thursday there was a cabinet meeting and towards the end of that meeting Congressman David on your chart said Mr President we have very large Middle East population in Michigan as well as Muslims and we're all very concerned about all this rhetoric about banning Middle Easterners and Muslims from flying there's even some talk about rounding them up and putting them in camps and President George w. Bush said you're absolutely correct we are equally concerned and we don't want to have happen today what happened in norm in 1942 and so when the president George w. Bush said that I mean you couldn't knock me off my cabinet chair with a feather year he was compassion and you know I've been near enough he could see that whole issue of ethnic profiling again and it's amazing because at the time of the passage of the Civil Liberties Act Everyone was acknowledging something like this should never ever happen again so they had something like this whole of us than rear its ugly head in 2001 for me was a big surprise but it also prompted people to want to take action to make sure it doesn't happen again so I was very proud to be part of that movement Norman Mineta has received numerous on this throughout his political career including the Presidential Medal of Freedom for a high there on the internment of Japanese Americans during the 2nd World War I'm joined now by Dr Rachel pistol research fellow at King's College London who knows a thing or 2 about this and they start off by talking about the process of internment in the u.s. Clearly we've heard about the. Japanese being interned Japanese Americans being interned during the 2nd World War But is there any precedent to that in the us but it follows on from a history of racial discrimination in the u.s. Particularly directed at Asians in terms of legislation from 1980 had the Chinese Exclusion Act and in 1907 there was a gentlemen's agreement to limit immigration coming to America from Japan and then in 1917 you saw the creation of the Asiatic Bard saying where any immigrants coming from Asia were not considered Welcome say it sort of follows on from from that Patterson every show discrimination in the us but outright in term of is a different thing is putting people into camps where they are restricted in their movements and a great deal of their natural liberties absolutely in 10 minutes is a recognized convention of war and depending on which country you are intending depends on how you are treated but for a nation to maintain its own citizens is something that some heard of and these are the Japanese Americans were intent so deep because of their racial ancestry even though they had been born in America and many of them had never set foot in Japan and during the 2nd World War The Americans were not the only ones to be doing this sort of thing as I said before recognized international conventions say he had other ally countries doing he had access powers and turning people as well in the u.k. The Germans Italians and Austrians where intense and there were a handful of Japanese as well that there wasn't as large a Japanese population in the u.k. In America they also intend people of German Austrian an Italian descent as well so the world than you know in historical terms would be read into the Civil Liberties Act of $988.00 which in effect was an apology on the part of the federal government in the us that they recognized that the way they treated Japanese Americans. During the 2nd World War was wrong yes a watershed in his in American history made a full 4 nation tear acknowledge they're actually what happened was wrong and then to make a symbolic payment which isn't to compensate for property really that's to compensate for the lack of constitutional rights and it's an it's an on a payment essentially as a as some form of compensation and I really groundbreaking because if you think immediately after the 2nd World War there was actually some calls for some sort of compensation for those who had been interned and that's the 948 Japanese American evacuation Claims Act But that was set up in such a way that all they $148000000.00 of claims was put for it by the members of the Japanese and Japanese American community only $37000000.00 was actually paid by the federal government because it was impossible to sort of prove what had been lost and the Federal Reserve Bank estimated that Japanese Americans lost over $400000000.00 in property and that isn't even counting the loss of their earnings or profits during the war say the $20000.00 in 1908 is very much a symbolic payment to recognize that actually there were there was a mistake made and history has proved this to be the case and yet as we heard in the piece the idea of rounding up people who are of a different color or creed at a time of war or not even more but perhaps just tension has not gone away no no when met a mentioned after 911 and how there were calls potentially to do something about rounding up Muslims and I think we've also had very similar claims recently and Donald Trump as well in terms of creation of Muslim registry and a travel ban Dr Rachel pistol from King's College London many thanks and don't forget to visit our website for a comprehensive back catalogue of our eyewitnesses to key events from the past much of it is. Been sorted into convenient collections and the Japanese internment story will be found alongside all our other remarkable recollections from the 2nd World War Just search online for b.b.c. Witness collections from the history in just a moment. This tradition of the b.b.c. World Service in the us was made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio content. American Public Media with support from Carbonite offering data protection solutions for business including automatic backup for servers and point protection high availability and disaster recovery and data migration more and more at Carbonite dot com. I'm core of a Coleman politics dominated the headlines in 2018 but it was a big news year for a lot of other reasons too like the cave rescue in Thailand that captivated the world all the kids and their soccer coach have made it out of the flooded cave in northern Thailand so much happened in 2018 and we were there for it all here's how to help us tackle 2019 support the global and local news coverage you rely on with a contribution at k.c.l. You dot org Coming up in part 2 of the history of the evolution of the computer pos would way back in the 1960 s. The famous British theatre director Peter Brook leads a troop of actors across the Sahara in the 1970 s. And the writer as who gave the world Mary Poppins her whole demeanor was of course exactly like Mary Poppins in that she was slightly bigger Roeske and she was never announcer about endlessly a question that's coming up after we've had a summary of the latest world news. B.b.c. News with Nick Kelly the Democratic Republic of Congo is holding its long delayed presidential election which could lead to the country's 1st peaceful transfer of power President Joseph Kabila is stepping down after 17 years but the opposition fear the polls will be rigged in favor of his preferred successor Bangladesh's holding a general election with more than 100000000 people eligible to vote heavy security is in place after a campaign marred by violence and allegations of a crackdown against the opposition the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is seeking a 3rd successive term the Colombian government says it has uncovered a possible plot to assassinate President event do k. Police are questioning 3 Venezuelans arrested earlier this month in Colombia with military weapons President Duke is leading efforts to isolate the Venezuelan government a cyber attack thought of originated from outside the United States has been blamed for major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers one source said the intention was to disable infrastructure rather than stealing information police in Morocco so ever arrested the Swiss man with residence in Morocco in connection with the murder of 2 Scandinavian tourists this month young women were found dead in the mountains south of America to rock the members of Israel's coalition government of launched a new political party in attempt to win support from secular Jews in elections June April now tally Bennett an islet shack it so they knew right knew right party would aim to establish a real partnership between religious and non-religious voters and a French resistance hero who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during the 2nd World War has died at the age of 108 George lines you're used considerable ingenuity to help the children to escape from occupied France across the lightly guarded border with Switzerland. B.b.c. News. Welcome back to part 2 of the history with Max pissants Still to come the drama of a theatrical journey across the Sahara in the 1970 s. And p.l. Travers the author behind the original Mary Poppins book but before that an item which is very close to my heart I don't know about you but I really struggle with remembering passwords for all the computer applications which are now central to life almost everywhere in the world so let's hear who is responsible in 1962 that most essential requirement of modern living was developed in the USA Ashley Byrne has been speaking to the computer analyst Alan Scherr about using the 1st computer pos words I guess most of us are aware of the fact that the computer has come to play an increasingly important role in our everyday lives in December 1962 a brand new system for computer security was created at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States you had an account number which the Back then they called a problem number which today would be a user id a timesharing system involving uses connecting to the computer via telephone from all over the world not only opened up opportunities but also the potential for abuse mit had the 1st interactive time sharing system there was general purpose and you could run any program from a remote workstation and one of the 1st uses a computer password system was then ph d. Student Alan Scherr a team of people put the system together there was a guy named Fernando Corbett who was in charge of the system programming that was done and in order to provide even a little bit of security they came up with passwords. Nowadays security is one of the top would see computing and technology but back in the 1960. They were only just starting to get to grips with it people had to identify themselves so you log onto the computer in fact the command was logged on as I recall so the term log in or log on. Was invented back then. If. They want. To be seen. This profess a fan of the combat so creative computer passwords speaking through postage on fish in a short film The w. G.b.h. Of the mit in 1963 Why Don't We Do This For Ok. Please type a number up to 6 digits but that's the point I think when I think of what I don't think about it or you know I'm Ok. But. I think that a little there are actual plain hesitations but when I switching from one user to another because the computers work for other people and we're not losing any it is rather valuable if. People on the system were allocated a fixed amount of computer time and when you ran out of your allotment you were done they wouldn't let you log on anymore so the fact that you were who you said you were was very important to make sure that you didn't use up somebody else's time or you didn't go in as a privileged user which there were some and make changes to your own accounting or from Asia it might seem obvious now but did people realise that they should keep their passwords to themselves at the time I don't ever remember anybody saying anything I mean everywhere you look you were talking about mit people are broke or bright people they don't need you told to keep their password secret you know it's a little bit like you know telling people to keep their money in there won't resign obvious So how do people react to this new idea. Like Ok You know I need a need a password to get on it was not so who a password I mean it wasn't like that of course the concept of using pos woods as a means of security was Nelson e. Well to put it in more technical terms it's new technology in an old paradigm and I think the idea of passwords is a very old paradigm you know during a war you know when you come up to a century scorning and then camp mit or something they ask you for the password so it's not something that people haven't heard of or that or they're not comfortable with so in my opinion you know what we've got here with passwords is a horseless carriage by the way electronic mail or email is the same kind of thing it's a new technology with a very old paradigm as with any full of security it was only about just time it's all so well thought the way to Hackett's So who was that this person wild out of the aisle and shot himself for my Ph d. Work one of the things I did was I measured the performance of the timesharing system in terms of response times how long it took users to respond to output what they were actually doing how big their programs were and so on so I had privileged access to the operating system to measure all those things the problem was I was only allocated maybe 10 hours of computer time all together and I wanted to do a series of probably 30 simulations so I was way short on computer time and when I went and asked for more they wouldn't give it to me so I figured out a way to 0 my usage. And then they came to me one day and said we need the space back so they basically rescinded my access to the operating system and I had to find a different way to do what I had been doing I discovered that the password file which I knew the name of because I was called User Account secret was secret spelled backwards what I finally figured out was that I could actually print out that file without any checking I went into the file and took out a listing of every password in the system. So now I had access anywhere I wanted and I could put my changes in and 0 out my usage which is what I did the time sharing system of the computer Ronald was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency and Allen realized that he had an opportunity to make a deal I called the guy who was in charge of all the spending that was going on and I told 'd him what I done and I asked for immunity in return for I'd send them the listing of all the password so he could have fun and he agreed and apparently then some of the management of the project is logged on as them and leave taunting messages so we say. At this point computer passwords wouldn't have been something a person in everyday life would experience but as Alan Scherr explains they would definitely around in the mid sixty's if you were a gate agent at airport you would log onto process reservations for a boarding cards all that kind of stuff now we're looking at 19707172 people and banks that were tellers would log on to systems and use passwords so it was there in the commercial side of usage you know in their early eighty's soon as they got into multiple user P.C.'s they had to use passwords in the technology already been developed. To teach the new book. Stores here again we. Didn't get to keep going. To people wake up one day and find out we'd be locked out of our lives and I'm sure it happens on some of the phones if you put the wrong password in for some number of times in a row the phone is disabled after leaving mit Alan Scherr found what with i.b.m. . Well he developed everything from mainframe architecture and communications software to up some mini computers so with a lifetime dealing with pos words and think of them now it's gotten out of hand I would say. I don't like cluttering my mind with all these password that's why I use a sap basically keeps track of all my passwords so I have one very warm very elaborate password that I remember and I use that to get into my password and it provides passwords for everything no. Single. User. Changing. One. And I think that's me idiot 123 when it comes to passwords. On the early evolution of the computer password and now not so much lobbies in the sand as sand in the levees in December 1902 the legendary theater director Peter Brook took a trip of British actors on a 3 month journey across the Sahara Desert Louise and Al Gore has been talking to the author and drama critic John he'll open who went with them. That there's nothing there there's only the imagination. Oh pooh Wow Long live the imagination which Brooks. Peter Brook was already known as one of the greatest missed in of us official directors of the age his production of Shakespeare as a Midsummer Night's Dream in 1970 and revolutionized theater the next year Peter Brooks left the Paris where he set up a theater that he still runs today and Tim bopped on a quest to discover the essence of what themes from. A 108500 mile journey across Central and West Africa with his company of actors was part of that quest. They laid out to cop it and remember villagers and that they tried to improvise a show a simple show like a shoe show all the buck shot as a simple as that those were the props and Brooke that set on the edge of the cockpit said he would wait for someone to enter the cup and when they entered the cop that the show had become so you're improvising a show that has no script and no shot language from village to remote village to remember village and how did the villages react remember this wasn't a matter of taking high culture to the natives wasn't about that it was about learning all you could from the audiences we came across Brookside there watching the show you know is to watch the audience and if you watch the audience it will tell you how the show's going nobody nowadays seems to watch or D.O.D.'s in fact they put the audience in darkness where they do that because in the glare of the desert as an all Peter Brooks production since there was no hiding the audience I mean thank God the African ordinances have to great sense of humor they just roared with laughter and women acted did something remarkable and they cheered. Don't help and had 1st met Peter Buck when he was asked about him in his new Paris theater for the London newspaper The Observer and he liked what I wrote and so he asked me would I report on the journey through Africa and flattered I said yes of course and so in December 1972 John Hill pened flew with Brooke and 11 of his activists among them a young Helen Mirren Peter Brooks wife the English actress Natasha Parry and the great Japanese actor and later director Yoshio Eda to Africa Peter Brook later explained what he hoped to find. And one take. Something as far as possible from our theater cultures I wanted to put ourselves in what rest was the most difficult place that is this thing called when we would have no references whatsoever I thought in the middle of an African village and I thank you to have a single just before it was the case so we would really be starting from 0 and knowing that everything 2nd by 2nd would be made or lost by what we were doing and that way we could really explore what works what doesn't work what the nature of direct fear is really all about nothing like it had been attempted before and nothing like it I believe has been attempted since it was 100 days and nights traveling across these remote areas and Landry of his sleeping under the stars it must've been hard physically it was a very very demanding journey one of my happiest memories of Brooke was that he was leafing through a slim volume and titled camping for beginners because the majority of the troops had never come through and their lives would come to around a lot but nobody least of all me and I slept in a tent in fact everybody sooner or later fell ill with and or exhaustion and at the same time was a spiritual journey in the sense that one hoped and prayed for a result of fear that had never happened before because almost every time you stopped or improvising these pieces when it is performances new pieces and obviously without language that's what this was about social wasn't finding a theatrical way of communicating that transcended language yes I mean it was half mad it's as if we were conducting this interview with no known shared language between us how do we do that. And of course it wasn't just about language was it there wasn't even a said concept of a theater Peter Brook got you to write one of these performances into you called at the Shusha can you tell me about it it was basically the same story as an English pantomime so a beautiful girl like say Mirren answers the carpet and seeing a pair of shoes picks them up and immediately a giant leaps out of an empty box into the shoes to take them from her and you go on like this all the time using the boots as an experiment in transformation and where it went wrong completely wrong imagine the us let's say someone enters pretending to be an old man right going towards the shoes so all eyes are on this young actor because everyone was so young in those days and he crouches and stoops and coughs bike old men do why should an African see anything other than a young actor has entered the carpet and has suddenly become ill because they didn't show the convention and in the house the language there is no word for theatre there is no word for drama Well that wasn't bad so what do you do then as a writer Well you have to became again and invent your own conventions that transcends the standard rise ation some of the performances were better received than others John says Peter Brook used to travel ahead to tell the village leaders they were coming then the actors would arrive and the show the picking. Innocents carried through they didn't know the lot an earth was going on when guys of camels arrived and children would mop the carpet to this day you will find any book production it has a carpet it's a sort of good luck set in vogue but then it was very real. Years later Helen Mirren. Called their 1st performance in an out year really racist and a little $112.00 x. And we were probably very excited about that we can. Never see any time I think in the whole of Ottawa that spontaneously quality was extraordinary. I thought it would make me less frightened of anything else because. I haven't done. And of course things didn't do with go to plan one actor got lost temporarily in the desert while the great English poet Ted Hughes who was supposed to join them on route with poems from the sci fi classic the conference of the birds failed to turn up but it didn't really matter did it because what mattered was this great theatrical experiment this journey what was the impact of it do you think on Peter Brookes later work I believe very very much but everything he's done since has been informed by this journey through Africa it's like the great line from a Midsummer Night's Dream the wall is down which is the center of Brooks work in the center of what we were trying to do is no war between performer and audience warm the very time you went to the theater it was performed so spontaneously and so beautifully that it became about a performance but an event Peter Brook is now in his ninety's is one too many awards to list he's still working on he'll paint as a bestselling book about the journey and lives in New York. Algo and the drama in the desert finally this week a character and an author who have become associated with the Christmas period if you were to scour the Christmas television set jewels around the world you would find that among the favorite films for this time of year is the musical Mary Poppins the story didn't start as a musical vote but when the 1st Mary Poppins book came out in 90. That it for the lead character did quickly become a favorite with young readers now a new Disney film Barry Poppins returns is introducing the fictional nanny to a new generation the woman who created Mary Poppins was the any magic author p l Travers Vincent Dowd has been talking to 2 people who knew her well now when you're in this show you can struggle resist all you can just by the light dusting. Since the 1st Mary Poppins film in 1964 it's been the Disney version of Mary and the characters around her most children know the facts her creator could never quite accept what did you think of the film now you're asking me a very difficult and delicate question I whipped Well actually I thought a lot of I've done when I saw their name coming up Mary Poppins I thought What have I done and you must admit is not really like the book. And if you're inside a tunnel making the 2nd Mary Poppins film 54 years later Disney no longer had to work with an author openly critical of how they treated her story. Pamela Linden Travers born Helen goth in Australia in 1909 or ways knew her mind she came to London to become an actress in the mid 1920 s. Gradually she shifted towards writing though many details of her life remain obscure writer Brian Sibley met her in the early 1980 s. She held you with her gaze in a way which was slightly disconcerting she wore flounce see frocks and outfits big heavy necklaces that were kind of jade or something clunky her whole demeanor was of course exactly like Mary Poppins in that she was slightly bigger Roeske she certainly didn't tolerate foals gladly and she. Was never an answer about endlessly a question or would she give you straight answers to straight questions never. There were eventually 8 Mary Poppins books about the adventures of the bank's children after their new nanny mysteriously arrives at their home 17 Cherry Tree Lane If you want to find cherry tree. Have to do is ask the policeman across will push his helmet slightly to one side. He will point his huge white gloved finger and say 1st your right 2nd you left shot right again and you're there good morning p.l. Travers never married but in 139 she adopted as a baby Camillus own who'd been born in Ireland his daughter Kitty Travers saw her grandmother almost every week when she was a child we grew up in Twickenham in the suburbs and every Sunday we had to drive down to Chelsea and have tea with her and she take us to Cafe to cast on the Kings for it and we'd be able to choose ice cream sundaes from the slightly greasy menu sometimes we'd go back to her house and show field straight and have a strange piece there I think she was a really early enthusiastic of wheat grass too she might have had cups of wheat grass j. She often had quite strange diets and maybe some lightly poached brains on a teacher on her lap kitty Travers says the house in Chelsea reflected her grandmother's spiritual beliefs influenced by Eastern religions it was very serene and Zen like in its design it's very white world and she had a better in her study as she had the economy in quite a good children's library so every time we visited her I'd be given a book and then she wanted me to review it for her but I think she quite enjoyed it when I didn't like the books I was reading and I think she took a little better if. Pleasure in me not enjoying other children's literature feasted where these and mazing Mooney's these long cotton Indian printed dresses draped with this silver and turquoise jewelry that been given to her by well an Indian tribe she lived with post-war in America and she absolutely wasn't friendly or huggy or in the way that you might imagine a granny to be she was quite regal she would sit in her chair and you sort of got presented to her one by one to give her a kiss which we'll dreaded doing because she kissed me on the lips. P.l. Travers allowed Brian Sibley a glimpse into her in a life but she rejected any question she regarded as banal I said to her had she ever known in her life somebody like Mary Poppins and she immediately replied What did you ever know anybody who could slide up the bannisters those were the kind of conversations you had with her as she was any Matic incredibly enigmatic there was an element of performance in everything that she did and everything that she said but one element of it always remained the same as an inquirer somebody who looked for answers answers to the whole mystery of the world why people were what they are and if you wanted to be a friend of hers you had to be someone who had that quest for knowledge for understanding for wisdom as a young woman p.l. Travers had fallen in love with Celtic mysticism later she regarded the Armenian born spiritual teacher good yes as a guru Kitty Travers saw those beliefs in action when at 16 she moved into her grandmother's house in London I moved out of my house and went and lived in her up stairs study very in with the butter in the corner she had these amazing candy striped curtains that was so Mary Poppins that we just spoke very little our. Off to college every day and then came back to my room and I didn't spend any time talking 10 or 12 Strangely I would let myself in and go upstairs to my room and be aware of her having had meetings with her go Jeff followers and there would be a group of people sitting on her carpet sort of around her hemline gazing up at her I think she enjoyed that I don't think she got what she needed from a chaotic family our relationship with her was quite different I think when p.l. Travers died in 1996 the a bit sure is concentrated on the Mary Poppins books and on the 964 Disney film which she disliked her other books were almost entirely ignored since her death p.l. Travers has been portrayed as a woman who was tough and could even be cold Brian Sibley doesn't agree she liked to keep people slightly at arm's length she had to being control of the circumstances around her and the people with whom she communicated many times since her death I've pondered on what my relationship with her was I think that eventually there came a point where I would say that I actually loved her as a person she was someone whom I considered to have a warm and strong relationship with but I was always aware of the fact that I was actually out aware of so much about her that I had to be a point at which you took the step and thought I'm going to try and embrace you as a person of course in many ways I wish that I could have penetrated some of those dark recesses of her life held sort of all those psychological questions but on another level I don't care because she was 1st and foremost a question and she taught me to question and to look for answers so when she asked me Did you ever know anybody like Mary Poppins of course the answer I should have given was yes and if you Brian Sibley and Katie Travers were talking to Vincent out and hearing that is cleared up something which is why me almost all my life you see I was always a bit afraid of Mary Poppins Now I know why this is Max b.s. And thanks for listening. From the polluted studios of California Lutheran University this is listener supported k.c.l. You were live online at k.c.l. You dot org And on the k.c.a.l. You mobile app. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees still aren't getting paychecks a look back on Afghanistan America's longest war Plus Martha Stewart We've had a struggling year this year so many natural disasters so much political unrest that we can actually try to be optimistic for the New Year we get her tips for hosting New Year's Eve Sunday on Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News from Wake up until 10 Sunday morning on k.c.a.l. You. It's 9 o'clock. Bringing you the sounds and stories of the California coast. Family and h.d. Thousands of k.c.a.l. Use out of Bob Casey Santa Maria and everywhere at k.c.a.l. . Welcome to city out some that turns the season of talks and on stage cool to say some of the most celebrated writers think is a. Recorded before an audience and in San Francisco. Our guest is Peter Segall host of N.P.R.'s Wait Wait Don't Tell Me an accomplished playwright actor and now marathon runner Sakal came to the north theater on November 9th 2018 he talked to Michael Krasny about the work of putting together a public radio's most popular human news program as well as his dedication to running. For everybody. Michael thank you well I thought we'd begin by talking with Peter about his career I must say I don't think I've ever said this publicly but I've been doing it for a program now for 25 years and when I was at about my 2nd or 3rd year some producers came and said we're going to do a humor program would you be interested in trying out to be the host and I said you're coming to the wrong person I think.