Nepal is in crisis after Saturday's 7.8 earthquake devastated the countryside and its capital of Kathmandu, a week after seismologists from all the world met at the annual meeting of the 2015 Seismological Society of America in Pasadena. Also, how will Bruce Jenner’s interview affect visibility for the LGBT community? Then, what disclosure mistakes from the Clinton Foundation could mean for the 2016 race.
Los Angeles’ likelihood of surviving a Nepal-size earthquake
Nepal is in crisis after Saturday's 7.8 earthquake devastated the countryside and its capital of Kathmandu.
The official death toll is more than 4,000, but it's expected to go far higher. There have been around a hundred quakes and aftershocks. The largest hit yesterday and registered 6.7. The quake was felt in India, Tibet, and triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest. The tragic news came a week after seismologists from all the world met at the annual meeting of the 2015 Seismological Society of America in Pasadena, where a couple of big earthquake studies with implications for Southern California were presented.
One of them, led by USC earth science professor James Dolan, looks at how big seismic events could trigger other sizable earthquakes in Southern California. The other study is one released by the U.S. Geological Survey linking gas and oil drilling to increased earthquake activities in a number of states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Guests:
James Dolan, Professor of Earth Sciences at USC. He is the lead author of a study that finds that a large-scale earthquake on the San Andreas can lead to other sizable quakes
Justin Rubinstein, Research Geophysicist at the US Geological Survey and a co-author of a study looking at the relationship between oil and gas drilling and increased seismic activities
As Bruce Jenner comes out as transgender, how will he change the narrative?
In an exclusive interview last Friday with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Bruce Jenner came out as transgender.
Jenner, who asked that the pronoun “he” would continue to be used until he finished his transformation into “her,” revealed that he had struggled with his gender identity for his entire life. The interview focused on his battle throughout his entire life, from his childhood home where he first began to crossdress to his 1976 Olympic victory in the decathlon to his role on the hit reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
One topic that appeared throughout the interview was how he slowly opened his true self to his family. Another was how gender, anatomy, and sexuality can be and are independent, even if they are in concurrence for the vast majority of people. As the transgender community faces a disproportionate amount of discrimination and very high suicide rates, Jenner said that by coming out, “What I’m doing is going to do some good, and we’re going to change the world.”
How will Bruce Jenner’s interview affect visibility for the LGBT community? Will more people come out as transgender as a result? As people watch his upcoming reality show, will society and its institutions begin to adapt?
Guests:
Kevin Fallon, Entertainment Reporter, The Daily Beast; (Briefly) a Red Carpet Reporter for US Weekly; The Daily Beast: "Bruce Jenner Comes Out as Trans in a Landmark Television Moment”
Thomas Page McBee, advocate on transgender issues and author of "Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man." He’s contributed stories about gender and culture to The New York Times, the Atlantic.com, BuzzFeed, and VICE. He is currently the Director of Growth at the news site Quartz.
Creators of RapeJoke PSA aim to reshape conversation about sexual assault
"What were you wearing?"
"Did you fight back?" These are among the questions that the creators of a new advocacy campaign never want to hear asked of a sexual assault victim.
The creators of RapeJoke.com were victims of sexual violence who say their overall message is that sexual assault victims should not be treated like fragile freaks, because it suggests that rape isn't a common occurrence. In their video, they also implore viewers to believe people who say they've been raped.
The campaign comes at a time when the national conversation about sexual assault is heated.
In a recent Los Angeles Times column, Meghan Daum questions the lack of nuance coming from some circles.
"What are we to make of activists who say things like 'All women should be believed unconditionally?,'" Daum asks.
What do you think of the messages in the public service announcement (PSA) video?
Guests:
, LA-based advocate on sexual assault issues; co-creator of RapeJoke.com
Heather Mac Donald, the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of “City Journal.”
Strategists disagree on degree of misconduct at Clinton Foundation
Republicans and Democrats are divided over what disclosure mistakes from the Clinton Foundation could mean for the 2016 race.
After investigations from The New York Times, The Washington Post and the forthcoming book, Clinton Cash, by conservative journalist Peter Schweizer, her global philanthropy acknowledged over the weekend that it made mistakes in disclosing its donors by “mistakenly combin[ing]” government grants and donations.
The Foundation, started by Clinton and her husband back in 2001, was quick to point out that total revenue reports on the website remained accurate, but Republicans and other Clinton foes say this misstep could seriously hurt Clinton’s 2016 campaign, which has already been trying to avoid what she’s characterized as “distractions and attacks” from Republicans questioning the financial support of her family charity.
Guest:
Katie Packer Gage, partner at Burning Glass Consulting, an all woman Republican political consulting firm based in Alexandria, VA. In 2012, she served as Deputy Campaign Manager of the Romney for President Campaign
Hal Dash, Chairman and CEO of Cerrell, a public affairs and political consulting firm in Los Angeles
Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: Analyzing the fight and the media landscape
Millions of eyeballs will be trained on television sets this Saturday as two of the most prolific boxers in the world finally step in to the ring for a fight that has been years in the making.
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao is being billed as “The Fight of the Century” and the all the hype leading up to the fight is certainly helping it live up to its name.
The two men involved in the fight couldn’t be cut from more different cloth. Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Jr., is best known for his absurd net worth (hence the nickname), cocky attitude, ever-present entourage, and his undefeated professional record. Manny Pacquiao hails from the Philippines, and in addition to being a world-class boxer, he is also a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, the head coach of a Filipino professional basketball team, and has even dabbled in acting.
Beyond the two fighters, there’s also hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in pay-per-view revenue. The fight will cost $90 to order in your home (closer to $100 if you want it in HD), and is expected to shatter pay-per-view records in purchases and revenue. For bars and restaurants planning to broadcast the fight, they’ll be paying a much higher price for the match and will have to be on the lookout for people hired by pay per view companies and the sports production firms that represent them who will be making sure bars and restaurants aren’t allowing more people in to watch the fight than they paid for.
Who do you think will win, Mayweather or Pacquiao? Why did it take so long for the fight to come together? What is the significance of this fight to the world of boxing? How much money stands to be made in pay-per-view sales? How are pay-per-view companies policing viewings of the fight? What steps are they taking to protect their own interest?
Guests:
Lance Pugmire, boxing and MMA beat writer for the Los Angeles Times. He’s at Manny Pacquiao’s gym today.
Rick Horrow, sports business analyst and coordinator of the sports law & business program at the Harvard Business School.
Kicking, crushing, burning, shooting: Your worst technology revenge horror stories
We’ve all reached our breaking point with technology, and maybe have even wanted to go "Office Space" on the offending machine...
A Colorado man was recently ticketed for shooting his 2012 Dell XPS 410 computer eight times in a back alley.
While he faces a possible fine, Lucas Hinch says, “It was glorious, angels sung on high.” While there’s no law on the books about machine homicide, it is illegal to fire a gun in the city limits of Hinch’s hometown of Colorado Springs. Hinch says the incident was premeditated, after his computer continued giving him the “blue screen of death.”
We’ve all reached that point with our smartphones, computers and wearables -- whether shooting, burning, crushing, driving or throwing off a cliff, what’s the craziest thing you’ve done to retaliate against your technology?