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Daniel Goldin
Space Exploration
Exploration could take a whole variety of forms. It could be studying the evolution of life. It could be studying inner space to understand the structure of matter. It could be going to Mars. But the only way you make progress is doing things that have never been done before and push the boundaries. Take on tasks that make your head hurt. Take on tasks that are so difficult there's a 50/50 chance you're going to fail. We know, as a society, every time we operate that way we make progress.
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Daniel Goldin
Space Exploration
We wouldn't have jet travel today if we didn't explore. Hundreds of people lost their lives flying these crazy planes. We called it the X1 and the X2 and the X3. Why did they do it? People were dying of disease and we had social problems in the '40s and the '50s, but we all like to ride in jet planes because it brings us closer together. Space is something that's visible. It's dangerous. We know that there's danger, but we can't shirk away from it. If we intend to be a society that's going to be rich for our children, we've got to explore.
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Alberto Gonzales
Former Attorney General of the United States
I enlisted in the Air Force, and my first assignment was at Fort Yukon, Alaska, it's a little remote radar site north of the Arctic Circle. There were about 100 GIs there, and the nearest civilization was an Indian village about a mile away. There were 600 native Americans who lived there. And the only way you could get to Fort Yukon during the winter was by airplane, in the summer by airplane and by boat, down the Fort Yukon River. But it was a very isolated assignment. I took that assignment, I volunteered for that assignment because the Air Force told me that during my four-year commitment, that I would have one remote assignment in Alaska, and I could choose to do it up front or wait until it came up in my rotation. And my first assignment was Key West, Florida, and so I made the decision to bypass Key West and go to Fort Yukon because I wanted to get the hard stuff out of the way first. And it really -- it was one of the best decisions I ever made, because when I was stationed there, there were two Air Force Academy graduates, and I listened to them talk about their experiences at the Academy, and I thought this is something I'd like to do. So I began the process of seeking an appointment to the Academy and was fortunate enough to get in.
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Alberto Gonzales
Former Attorney General of the United States
Alberto Gonzales: I have learned that the media often times writes things that are incorrect because they don't have all the information, and so you learn to live with it. I mean that's just the way it is. There's some information that cannot be shared, should not be shared, and so you don't share it. And so people write stories, and it's really hard on the family sometimes because they feel it and it's frustrating for them, but that's part of the business, and if you can't handle the criticism, then you shouldn't be in government, because it's a fish bowl, it really is. Everything you say and everything you do is certainly analyzed by critics and by the media. If you make a mistake, everybody knows about it, and so it's something that you just have to learn to deal with. And, you know, criticism or analysis is not a bad thing. I think that we should be accountable to the American people. We are their public servants, and so that's not something that I think is a bad thing, I think that it's a good thing. I wish more of it was accurate. But to the extent that you're talking simply about the analysis or criticism or scrutiny of the way that we do our jobs, absolutely, we should be totally accountable to the American people.
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Jane Goodall
The Great Conservationist
Who was going to give money to a crazy project like a young girl straight from England, no degree, going out into a potentially dangerous situation? And finally, he found some money for six months. And then the second problem, which was, I think, harder to overcome, was that in those days what we call Tanzania today was Tanganyika. It was a British protectorate, part of the British colonial empire, and the British authorities would not take responsibility for this young girl going out in the bush alone. But in the end, they said, "Well, if she brings a companion " So who volunteered to come for four of those six months? We had money for six months. For four of those months, my same amazing mother! She packed up in England. She came out. We had so little money for this expedition, a couple of tin plates and cups. Food in tins, very little at that. One cook; we had to have somebody out there. An ex-army tent. No sewn-in groundsheet like all the fancy tents have today, just a piece of canvass on the ground and the flaps at the bottom you rolled up and tied with strings. All the centipedes and spiders and snakes could come in.
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Jane Goodall
The Great Conservationist
Jane Goodall: The toughest part of my study initially was getting the confidence of the chimps. So it started off, they were afraid. Then, when they began to lose their fear they became belligerent. They treated me a bit as though I was a predator, and that is very scary. I mean they're about eight times stronger than I am. And when the big males were bristling their hair -- and often it was in the rain, so they looked very black, because they feel kind of more belligerent in the rain, I guess -- and shaking branches, and even sort of the ends of the branches were hitting my head. And knowing they could actually tear me to bits if they'd wanted to. And then the belligerence went away. And it was David Greybeard who really helped me get into their world, because he lost his fear. He wasn't belligerent. He visited my camp one day to eat palm nuts. Saw some bananas lying around, took them, and then came back for more. So I would wait down in the camp instead of getting up at half past five every day. And one day David took a banana from my hand. That was just after my mother had left.
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Jane Goodall
The Great Conservationist
Jane Goodall: I've been dragged, hit, buffeted. It's a chimpanzee trying to prove he's stronger, which we know anyway, but they like to prove it. One -- Fifi's second son, Frodo -- is a bully. He bullies other chimps, he bullies people, and especially bullied me. And it's actually very scary because he's the biggest, toughest, strongest chimp we've ever known. And it's like being charged by a tank. There's nothing you can do except pray, really. Hang on to a tree and hope.
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