The Army says it plans to cut 40,000 troops in the next two years, the capabilities of hackers, crowdfunding untapped scientific ideas.
Army plan to cut 40,000 troops raises questions about readiness
U.S. military leaders say they're considering a plan to cut the size of the Army by 40,000 troops. That would bring the total size under 450,000 in the next two years. The plan, which could also include 17,000 civilian lay-offs, was first reported by USA Today and later confirmed by the Pentagon.
According to Tom Vanden Brook, Pentagon correspondent for USA Today, it's part of shifting priorities and budget issues, but it's causing concern both within the military and on Capitol Hill. He joined the show with more.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above.
Should we be worried about network meltdowns?
Major tech glitches took down three important systems yesterday; the New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and Wall Street Journal all experienced significant outages, each lasting for hours. The Department of Homeland Security said there are "no signs of malicious activity," but yesterday’s complications were a reminder of just how dependent we are on digital technology.
Take Two spoke to the vice president of product at computer security firm Shape about how prepared we are for future failures.
Press the play button above to hear Shuman Ghosemajumder’s thoughts about the software, hardware and security of the technology we depend on.
Honda expands recall; Is your car affected?
Honda Motor Co. is recalling 4.5 million more vehicles globally because of faulty Takata air bags, expanding the industry's largest recall ever.
This round of recalls involves vehicles ranging from the Fit small car to the CR-V cross-over, though the Associated Press reports it won't affect U.S. drivers. Previously, various Camry and Accord models were affected.
How do you know if your Honda vehicle is part of the massive recall?
Jeff Green is the Detroit Bureau Chief, covering auto safety for Bloomberg News. He told Take Two that the best thing Honda owners can do to find out if their vehicle is part of the recall is to go to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website and enter their Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) number.
Take Two asked Green what an unprecedented recall like this does for Honda's image. To hear his answer and the entire interview, please click on the audio player above.
Lab Notes: Music's effect on metal heads and cocktail party conversations
On this edition of Lab Notes, KPCC's science reporter
is all about the music:
- Mid-life metal heads: They used to be young and wild, but do they regret anything?
- The cocktail party effect: How do our brains help us hear conversation over the sound of booming Beyonce?
- Music vs. memory: This study puts young against old to see who can better remember names while music is playing.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above
#ISeeChange: Could San Francisco's famous fog disappear?
Grace Gornall grew up in the Bay Area. As a child, she remembers days that were cool, crisp, and foggy. “San Francisco as far as I’ve known, and I grew up here, has always been in the mid 50s, upper 60s at the most,” Gornall said.
She lived in Los Angeles for five years as an adult, and when she moved back to San Francisco, the city’s climate felt warmer and muggier. There also seemed to be a lot less fog. "I would compare it, personally, to more of the days that I was in Hollywood," she added.
This made her wonder, "are we looking towards San Francisco’s climate essentially becoming closer to Southern California’s climate?"
Travis O’Brien says yes, in some ways, we are. O’Brien is a research scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab at UC Berkeley. He studies things like fog and explains that, in the San Francisco area, the wind blows off the ocean and stirs up the water, and then some of that moisture blows onto land and creates that heavy mist
"You get the fog droplets on your skin, they evaporate off and it’s a very distinct cold," says O'Brien. "Whereas, when it’s muggy out, there’s not cloud droplets in the air, they’re not getting on your skin and re-evaporating away and sucking heat away from you."
The temperature in coastal cities is directly related to the temperature of the ocean, he explains. In the case of San Francisco, it’s about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, basically the same as what Gornall remembers as a kid.
But, O’Brien notes, the Pacific Ocean is getting warmer. And as the ocean warms up, the moisture in the fog warms up too and it evaporates. Research shows that fog in Northern California has decreased over the last hundred years by about a third. O’Brien says, if that continues, "We could expect to see a roughly fog-free San Francisco by the end of this century."
That could mean the end of those postcard-perfect images of the Golden Gate Bridge hidden in the mist. And while mornings in Berkeley could get a little sunnier, the effects could go beyond the Bay Area.
“There’s definitely a ‘it could be nicer weather in my backyard because of climate change,’ sort of side to this,’” O’Brien said, “but the other part of our backyard up here is the redwood forests.” He says less moisture in the air could be a big problem for California’s coastal Redwoods. “Something like a third of their water comes from fog water. And that comes during the driest time of year. It’s not clear whether they’ll be able to survive that.”
No one knows for sure if the fog will disappear from San Francisco, or what will happen to the redwoods. There are many variables. But if the ocean and the air continues to warm, O’Brien says it could be a dramatically different looking Bay Area.
A Bay Area where, as Gornall noticed, San Francisco’s weather is a lot more like Hollywood’s. "The temperature in general, it was lighter, you could wear a t-shirt, without a jacket," Gornall said. "Personally I love it, but I know that that’s not a good thing."
#ISeeChange is a national effort to track how climate change is affecting our daily lives.
Notice any bugs in your backyard lately? Wondering why you're seeing coyotes where you don't expect? Seen changes in your favorite tide pool? Snap a picture and tag it @KPCC and #ISeeChange on Twitter or Instagram, let us know through our Public Insight Network, or post your questions on www.iSeeChange.org. Then see what others have found and observed in their environment.
State of Affairs: Aid-in-dying bill, anti-smoking measures, and the immigration debate
On this week's State of Affairs, aid-in-dying bill stalls, the controversy over the Confederate flag comes to CA, and a killing in San Francisco rekindles a debate over illegal immigration.
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, USC Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Communication, and Katie Orr, state government reporter for Capital Public Radio, join Take Two.
Chaz Bono and his newest role as a serial killer
This week a new production of a play opens in Hollywood. While that's not unusual - the man that plays the lead role is.
The play, Down the Road, centers on a convicted serial killer named Bill Reach - who's admitted to killing nineteen women and a husband and wife hired to write about him. Playing the role of Bill Reach will be Chaz Bono.
Bono was born Chastity, the only child of Cher and her late husband Sonny Bono, but several years ago went through a gender change to become a man. He stopped by recently to talk to host Alex Cohen.
Actor re-edits films to demonstrate Hollywood's lack of diversity
Hollywood has a diversity problem. That fact has been well-documented. But actor Dylan Marron is drilling the point home in a new and interesting way — by editing down popular movies, leaving in only the lines spoken by people of color.
Marron, known to many as Carlos the Scientist on the podcast, "Welcome to Night Vale," is posting the edited-down versions to his YouTube channel and a Tumblr called, "Every Single Word."
As it turns out, cutting the lines spoken by white actors out of many Hollywood films makes them extremely short.
Like in the case of the acclaimed Wes Anderson film, "Moonrise Kingdom." Marron's edited version is less than 10 seconds long.
Or the Oscar-winning film, "Black Swan." Marron's edited version is a measly 24 seconds long.
Marron said growing up as a person of color in the U.S., he rarely saw people like him in movies. It was a problem that would follow him into his career as an adult actor.
"As I was invited into more and more meetings with agents who would repeatedly tell me things like, 'Oh there's not going to be much work out there for you,' or, 'You're never going to play the romantic male lead,' you only hear that so many times before you stop accepting it as a reasonable response," he said.
Those experiences prompted him to edit down popular films.
"I think it is so much more direct to share a problem by laying out a pattern for people to see, rather than getting on your megaphone and just screaming into it," Marron said.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above.
FNX: SoCal TV network tells the stories of Native Americans
The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians is well-known in the Inland Empire. The tribe’s name is on a minor league baseball stadium, an amphitheater and the casino that the tribe runs. But now it’s also involved in a public broadcasting venture.
Earlier this year, San Manuel gave $6 million to San Bernardino public TV station KVCR to help expand First Nations Experience (FNX), a 3-year-old public TV network that airs programming about Native Americans and world indigenous groups. San Manuel also gave $6 million to help launch the station in 2011.
“The second commitment of funding from San Manuel really is a testament to not just the trust that they have in FNX now, but also to how far we’ve come in the three years that we’ve been on the air,” said Alfredo Cruz, general manager of KVCR and FNX.
Before FNX was established, KVCR had collaborated with San Manuel on a documentary series chronicling the history of Native American groups in California. Cruz and San Manuel spokesman Jacob Coin say the station is the first network of its kind to air programming focused on Native Americans.
“When this opportunity came up, we jumped at the chance at least to have some discussion with KVCR and learned about the potential, the possibilities, and eventually came around,” said Coin.
First Nations
FNX gets its name from a term traditionally used to describe Native Americans: First Nations. The station carries some of your usual public TV fare: documentaries, cooking and gardening shows. They’re mixed with programs about Native American languages and tribal history.
Much of the programming is from outside content producers but the station is trying to expand the number of shows it makes in-house. FNX currently produces several programs, including Aboriginal Unity Experience, a show that features music videos by Native American and indigenous artists.
KVCR has also teamed up with the Sundance Institute on a show called “Native Shorts,” which features short films by Native American filmmakers.
“It really seemed like a great place for us to take the content that we supported through Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute to kind of extend the life of some of these short films,” said Bird Runningwater, co-host of “Native Shorts” and director of Sundance Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Program.
San Manuel tribe's investment
The multimillion-dollar gift from San Manuel to establish and expand FNX is a sign of the wealth that the tribe has gained through gaming and other economic ventures. The tribe is also a major donor in the Inland Empire. Last year, San Manuel pledged $10 million to Loma Linda University Health to establish a center in San Bernardino that will help prepare high school graduates for careers in the health care field.
“I think San Manuel’s example is really amazing because it’s a fairly small tribe in comparison to some of the other tribes and yet they’ve used their wealth and their political clout to really advance themselves and advance the things that they can do for other people,” said Clifford Trafzer, who teaches Native American history at UC Riverside.
San Manuel has an advisory role in the station. KVCR and San Manuel say the tribe offers input but does not control the programming.
Right now, about a dozen stations across the country carry FNX and the network is also trying to put more of its programs online. Cruz’s dreams for the station don’t stop there: he hopes to make it as well-known as Discovery or the History Channel.
“We want to make this a long-lasting initiative, not just for three years, not just for five years, but 25 years, 50 years from now,” said Cruz.
Using crowd financing to fuel scientific breakthroughs
Each year, billions of tax payer dollars are funneled into universities for scientific research projects. But while some scientific breakthroughs end up as actual products that transform our lives, many more just stay there in the lab.
ieCrowd, a company based in Riverside, California, plans to change that by using crowd financing to bring these untapped scientific ideas to market.
They've selected a number of different university innovations to develop, including things like a new way to combat malaria, a digital nose for smart phones to detect gases, and an intelligent breathing device for people who rely on oxygen.
The way they're raising the money is also innovative. They're launching a public offering (IPO) that will allow anyone to buy shares in the company.
ieCrowd's CEO, Amro Albanna, and Dave Gibbons, assistant director of Physical Science Licensing at UC San Diego -- the university behind the smart oxygen device -- talked to Tess Vigeland.
To learn more, visit ieCrowd.com.
Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue audio player above.