American Exceptionalism &The Forces That Shaped The Dulles Brothers

Massachusetts School of Law

Published on Dec 18, 2014

http://www.mslaw.edu
In this episode of the Massachusetts School of Law’s Program, Books Of Our Time, author Stephen Kinzer describes how the Dulles brothers, one as Secretary of State and the other as the head of the CIA, lead America into a series of foreign interventions that we are still dealing with to this day. “Understanding who they were and what they did is key to uncovering the obscure roots of upheaval in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.” The host is Lawrence R. Velvel, Dean of The Massachusetts School of Law
The Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public in television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit mslaw.edu.

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Massachusetts School of Law

Published on Dec 22, 2014

http://www.mslaw.edu
In this excerpt from the Massachusetts School of Law’s Program, Books Of Our Time, dedicated to Stephen Kinzer’s book The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allan Dulles and Their Secret World War; Mr. Kinzer discusses the early influences of the Dulles brothers, as well as the misleading arc of American history.The host is Lawrence R. Velvel, Dean of The Massachusetts School of Law.
The Massachusetts School of Law also presents information on important current affairs to the general public in television and radio broadcasts, an intellectual journal, conferences, author appearances, blogs and books. For more information visit mslaw.edu.

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Pope chides Curia for greed, gossip and getting ahead

PBS NewsHour

Published on Dec 22, 2014

In remarks for Christmas before the Roman Curia, Pope Francis delivered a scathing review of the behavior of Vatican officials, decrying the “spiritual Alzheimers” that makes them forget their real purpose. Gwen Ifill talks to Kevin Eckstrom of the Religion News Service about the pope’s latest effort at spurring reform in the Catholic church.

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BBC News – Pope Francis sharply criticises Vatican bureaucracy

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30577368
22 December 2014 Last updated at 14:00 ET

The Pope delivered his tough message in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall Related Stories

• What type of pontiff is Pope Francis?
• Pope Francis: A gentle revolution
• Profile: Pope Francis

Pope Francis has sharply criticised the Vatican bureaucracy in a pre-Christmas address to cardinals, complaining of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and “the terrorism of gossip”.

He said the Curia – the administrative pinnacle of the Roman Catholic Church – was suffering from 15 “ailments”, which he wanted cured in the New Year.

Pope Francis – the first Latin American pontiff – also criticised “those who look obsessively at their own image”.

He has demanded reform of the Curia.

There was silence at the end of the Pope’s speech.

…(read more).

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Massive Study Provides Best Look at Greenland Ice Loss Yet

VOAvideo

Published on Dec 22, 2014

The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than predicted, according to a new study released in the Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences that combines NASA satellite data and aerial missions. As VOA’s Rosanne Skirble reports, the finding means coastal communities worldwide could be at greater risk, sooner, from the impact of rising seas.
Originally published at – http://www.voanews.com/media/video/ma…

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Survive, Adapt, and Grow: EPA, Rockefeller Foundation Team Up for Resilient Cities

http://blog.epa.gov/science/2014/12/survive-adapt-and-grow-epa-rockefeller-foundation-team-up-for-resilient-cities/

EPA recently announced a partnership to help communities across the United States and around the world achieve that very definition of city resilience by supporting 100 Resilient Cities, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. Agency sustainability scientists and other experts will help urban communities take actions today to realize vibrant and healthy futures.

100 Resilient Cities was launched in 2013 to provide urban communities with access to a network of expertise, innovative tools, and models that will help them meet and bounce back even better from serious challenges—from chronic stresses such as air pollution and diminishing access to clean water, to more sudden events including floods, “superstorms” and other weather events, and acts of terrorism.

To support the partnership, EPA researchers will work directly with urban communities to share a variety of innovative tools and initiatives they have developed to meet just such challenges.

…(read more).

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What Happened to the Biggest Land Grab in Africa? Searching for ProSavana in Mozambique

20 December 2014

What if you threw a lavish party for foreign investors, and no one came? By all accounts, that is what’s happening in Mozambique’s Nacala Corridor.

(Bread for the World)

What if you threw a lavish party for foreign investors, and no one came? By all accounts, that is what’s happening in Mozambique’s Nacala Corridor, the intended site for Africa’s largest agricultural development scheme – or land grab, depending on your perspective.

The ProSavana project, a Brazilian-and-Japanese-led development project, was supposed to be turning Mozambique’s fertile savannah lands in the north into an export zone, replicating Brazil’s success taming its own savannah – the cerrado – and transforming it into industrial mega-farms of soybeans. The vision, hatched in 2009, but only revealed to Mozambicans in 2013, called for 35 million hectares (nearly 100 million acres) of “underutilized” land to be converted by Brazilian agribusiness into soybean plantations for cheaper export to China and Japan.

In my two weeks in Mozambique, including one week in the Nacala Corridor, I had a hard time finding evidence of any such transformation. It was easy, though, to find outrage at a plan seen by many in the region as a secret land grab. That resistance, which has evolved into a tri-national campaign in Japan, Brazil, and Mozambique to stop ProSavana, is one of the reasons the project is a currently a dud.

The new face of South-South investment?

I came to look at ProSavana because, out of all the large-scale projects I studied over the course of the last year, this one sounded almost plausible. It wasn’t started by some fly-by-night venture capitalist, growing a biofuel crop he’d never produced commercially for a market that barely existed. That’s what I saw in Tanzania, and such failed land grabs litter the African landscape.

ProSavana at least knew its investors: Brazil’s agribusiness giants. The planners also knew their technology: Brazil’s soybeans, which had adapted to the harsh tropical conditions of Brazil’s cerrado. And they knew their market: Japan’s and China’s hog farms and their insatiable appetite for feed, generally made with soybeans. That was already more than a lot of these grand schemes had going for them.

I was also compelled by the sheer scale of the project. When first announced, ProSavana was to encompass 35 million hectares of land, an area the size of North Carolina. That would have made it the largest land acquisition in Africa.

…(read more).

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Politifact Names Climate Change Denial “Lie of the Year”

The hoax

Readers of Politifact, the journalistic fact checking site, have named Climate Denial the year’s Dumbest Idea. Above, a prime example of piping hot dumbness.

Politifact:

Climate change was in the news this year, starting with the polar vortex at the beginning of 2014 and continuing with the Keystone XL pipeline and proposed carbon-cutting regulations on power plants.

But what stuck with readers were the claims that flat-out denied climate change science. The statement “Climate change is a hoax” won PolitiFact’s annual Readers’ Poll for Lie of the Year with 31.8 percent of the vote.

That claim was the title of a five-minute video released by congressional hopeful Lenar Whitney, a Republican from Louisiana. Several climate scientists told PolitiFact that Whitney’s claim was “laughable,” “deeply misguided,” “uninformed,” “disgusting” and “absurd.” We called it Pants on Fire. Whitney, meanwhile, didn’t even make the run-off.

Here, then, are other highlights from our fact-checks about climate change in 2014.

Politicians with much higher profiles than Whitney also have argued with basic climate change science, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a potential 2016 presidential contender. He said in May that human activity is not “causing these dramatic changes to our climate.” We rated that claim False.

How do we know climate change isn’t a mass conspiracy to pull the wool over the world’s eyes, as Whitney and others claim?

Such a scenario seems near impossible, considering the overwhelming consensus among respected climate scientists that anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming is indisputable.

Research also shows that climate change denial is concentrated among those who have less expertise in the subject or no scientific training at all.

New Polling continues to swing hard against climate denial, with the latest AP poll showing a majority of even Republican voters wanting regulation of greenhouse gases.

…(read more).

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Climate Paranoia Distilled

greenmanbucket

Published on Jun 30, 2014

Distilled climate change paranoia perfectly captured by Sara Palin clone running for Congress. For her Grandchildren, this will haunt them – somewhat as if Grandma had come out for lynching and a return to slavery.

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The next generation of hurricane hunters: Marvels of engineering

ExxonMobil

Published on Sep 25, 2014

CNN’s Rachel Crane explains what $35 million dollars can do for the next generation of hurricane hunters. Build Tomorrow is dedicated to celebrating engineers and their innovations making our lives better each day. The tools and creativity of modern engineering are expanding in life-changing ways. To learn more about Build Tomorrow- Marvels of Engineering, visit: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/0…

To learn more about ExxonMobil, visit: http://www.exxonmobil.com

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Clean water, a $16 solution: Marvels of engineering

ExxonMobil

Published on Sep 25, 2014

Could there be a $16 answer to the global challenge of clean drinking water? CNN’s Rachel Crane explains. Build Tomorrow is a dedicated to celebrating engineers and their innovations making our lives better each day. The tools and creativity of modern engineering are expanding in life-changing ways. To learn more about Build Tomorrow – Marvels of Engineering, visit: http://cnn.com/interactive/2014/09/sp…

To learn more about ExxonMobil, visit: http://exxonmobil.com

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