Billionaire Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is rising in the polls in the wake of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Democracy Now! co-host Juan González speaks with us about Bloomberg’s approach to campaign spending, the administration’s policies during his three terms as mayor of New York City and the scores of lawsuits filed against Bloomberg and his company. “It’s amazing to me that Michael Bloomberg is getting as much attention as he is,” González says.
“SERENITY” – A beautiful view of Earth from space. Our planet hangs in the darkness of space, a blue dot shining against the blackness. The endless seas and boundless clouds pass beneath us. This is our home and the only place we know of that inhabits life.
This video was created from thousands of individual photographs taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, ‘Serenity’ takes us on a journey over planet Earth.
Feb 11, 2020
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Billions of locusts are destroying crops across East Africa in the biggest outbreak the region has seen in decades. Now, the UN is calling for urgent action to avoid what could be a major humanitarian crisis.
Residents along a rain-swollen river in Mississippi are packing up belongings and fleeing to higher ground to escape what authorities warn could be devastating weekend flooding. (Feb. 14)
In yet another rebuke to Trump, the Senate passed a binding resolution to prevent Trump from going to war with Iran. Even though Trump will veto it, after it passes the House, it shows growing disagreement with his foreign policy
Journalists Bryn Nelson and Jane C. Hu talk about how the climate crisis means we could see more deadly outbreaks, plus the rise of xenophobia as the virus spreads.
Researchers suggest DNA from this group makes up between 2% and 19% of modern West Africans’ genetic ancestry.
They believe the interbreeding occurred about 43,000 years ago.
Scientists found links to the Mende people of Sierra Leone, Yoruba as well as Esan people in Nigeria, plus other groups in western areas of The Gambia.
It suggests that ancestors of modern West Africans interbred with a yet-undiscovered species of archaic human, similar to how ancient Europeans mated with Neanderthals, and Oceanic populations with Denisovans.
Maps are flat representations of our spherical planet. Johnny Harris cut open a plastic globe to understand just what it takes to turn a sphere into something flat.
His struggle to make a flat map out of the plastic globe is indicative of a challenge mapmakers have faced for centuries: It is mathematically impossible to translate the surface of a sphere onto a plane without some form of distortion.
To solve this problem, mathematicians and cartographers have developed a huge library of representations of the globe, each distorting a certain attribute and preserving others.
For instance, the Mercator projection preserves the shape of countries while distorting the size, especially near the north and south pole.
For a more accurate view of land area look at the Gall-Peters projection, which preserves area while distorting shape.
In the end, there’s not “right” map projection. Each comes with trade-offs, and cartographers make projection decisions based on the particular tasks at hand. But if you are interested in seeing an accurate depiction of the planet, it’s best to stick with a globe.
Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig makes the case that our democracy has become corrupt with money, leading to inequality that means only 0.02% of the United States population actually determines who’s in power. Lessig says that this fundamental breakdown of the democratic system must be fixed before we will ever be able to address major challenges like climate change, social security, and student debt. This is not the most important problem, it’s just the first problem.
Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and founder of Rootstrikers, a network of activists leading the fight against government corruption. He has authored numerous books, including Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Our Congress—and a Plan to Stop It, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Free Culture, and Remix.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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