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Six months ago, American whistleblower Edward Snowden started leaking the US National Security Agency\\\'s surveillance documents. Now the former NSA contractor says his mission has been accomplished. In an interview with The Washington Post, Snowden has said he\\\'s happy because the public is now informed about the US massive sweep of Internet and phone records. This is Snowden\\\'s first in-person interview since his June arrival in Russia under temporary asylum, that will expire in August. US federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against Snowden, charging him with espionage and felony theft of government property. But Snowden says he\\\'s working to improve the NSA, adding this is the only thing Washington does not realize. Snowden\\\'s revelations have outraged civil liberties advocates. Even US allies have been angered by reports that Washington has been monitoring their leaders\\\' cellphone calls and other virtual communications.

The Syrian foreign minister has accused foreign supporters of insurgents of leaking information about the locations of the country\'s chemical weapons. Walid Moallem slammed the countries that help militants locate Syria\'s chemical weapons, saying Damascus holds such states responsible for the consequences of their actions. The Syrian foreign ministry also called on international organizations to take action and help stop these acts. It also noted that government forces have foiled two insurgent attacks on the locations of chemical weapons in central and southern Syria. Earlier this week, militants tried to storm two facilities that stored the countries\' chemical arms. They attempted to break into the facilities with an armored vehicle loaded with explosives.

Some things in this world just don\'t mix - dogs and cats, oil and water, needles and balloons. Everyone knows that a balloon\'s worst fear is a sharp object...even a sharpened, wooden cooking skewer. With a little scientific knowledge about polymers you\'ll be able to perform a seemingly impossible task... pierce a balloon with a wooden skewer without popping it. Suddenly piercing takes on a whole new meaning! How Does it Work? The secret is to uncover the portion of the balloon where the latex molecules are under the least amount of stress or strain. If you could see the rubber that makes up a balloon on a microscopic level, you would see many long strands or chains of molecules. These long strands of molecules are called polymers, and the elasticity of these polymer chains causes rubber to stretch. Blowing up the balloon stretches these strands of polymer chains. Even before drawing the dots on the balloon, you probably noticed that the middle of the balloon stretches more than either end. You wisely chose to pierce the balloon at a point where the polymer molecules were stretched out the least. The long strands of molecules stretched around the skewer and kept the air inside the balloon from rushing out. It’s easy to accidentally tear the rubber if you use a dull skewer or forget to coat the end of the skewer with vegetable oil. When you remove the skewer, you feel the air leaking out through the holes where the polymer strands were pushed apart. Eventually the balloon deflates… but it never pops. Oh, just to prove your point, try pushing the skewer through the middle part of an inflated balloon. Well, at least you went out with a bang!

This session: - 3 Types of secrets - A personal secret - A secret of someone else - A state or military secret - The risk of leaking a secret - To what extent can a secret be shared? Hujjatul Islam Haq Panah is a Howza teacher in Qom, Iran.