The president's visit to the historic site, the pressure of re-creating "Roots", will a Libertarian candidate gain steam heading into the national election?
Rep. Mark Takano on President Obama's visit to Hiroshima
President Obama visited Hiroshima, Japan in the early morning hours Pacific Time today.
In a speech at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, he decried the use of nuclear weapons and paid homage to the victims of the atomic bomb blast that killed 140,000 people.
"Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated the mankind possessed the means to destroy itself."
Representative Mark Takano of Riverside urged President Obama to take that trip. He joined Take Two for his reaction to the President's remarks today.
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.
The Libertarian convention happens this weekend
Republicans and Democrats are still several weeks away from their respective conventions...
But a third party is hoping to capitalize on the growing tide of discontent with party politics-as-usual...And they plan to nominate a presidential candidate THIS weekend.
The Libertarian party's convention starts today in Orlando.
To give us an update on what's going on and what impact this could have on the rest of the election season, Take Two's Libby Denkmann spoke with Steven Lemongello, reporter with the Orlando Sentinel.
To hear the full conversation click the blue player above.
Baylor University fires head football coach amidst controversy
In Texas, college football is religion, so it takes a lot for a program to get rid of a winning coach, but things have gotten so bad at Baylor University that they've finally decided to do just that.
The news comes after an internal investigation revealed systematic indifference to sexual assaults and dating violence by players on the team.
covers the NFL for ESPN and she joins A Martinez to talk about what led to this decision.
Why computerized translators still have a long way to go
Imagine a world where you could speak to anyone, regardless of their native tongue.
Picture a reality in which you could walk up to a person and have your words translated in real time.
A new tech company raising money on Indiegogo says it’s made the holy grail of electronic translators:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxZfZPNMgBk
But the project’s not without its skeptics.
Words are just one part of the way we communicate, and even those can mean different things if said in various ways.
Spenser Mestel wrote about it for The Atlantic and joined Take Two to talk about it.
Why is it so hard to make the perfect machine translator?
I think that we’ve come to expect that anything that’s data computers can handle. Computers can handle so much more than they could a year or especially ten years ago. But language isn’t really like data; it’s not a good data set. So trying to work with it becomes very difficult very quickly.
You write that most of what humans learn about people come not from what they say, but how they say it. What challenge does that pose to translating machines?
It’s really difficult. The example that I use is the word ‘partner.’ If I tell you I’ve been dating my partner for the past five years, the word is very easy to translate; every language has a correla. But we understand that the word partner is a deliberate choice. It doesn’t have a gender. It’s communicating a lot of extra information beyond the literal definition of the word partner. Machines don’t understand that so all of that subtext is lost.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
‘Roots' remake director on retelling Kunta Kinte’s story to a 2016 audience
In 1977, ABC aired the mini-series "Roots" based on the Alex Haley novel of the same name.
It was an overwhelming success. Nine Emmy wins, a Golden Globe and a Peabody. The finale is still the 3rd highest-rated TV episode in history and the 2nd most watched series finale ever. David Wolper was executive producer of the series, which starred LeVar Burton as a young Kunta Kinte.
Fast-forward four decades, and we've got a remake.
The 2016 "Roots" will air on the History channel and run four consecutive nights. It'll star Forest Whitaker and Laurence Fishburne as well as Malachi Kirby as Kunte Kinte. In a unique turn, each night has a different director.
A Martinez started off the conversation with Van Peebles by asking:
Considering how successful and iconic the original was, why would anyone take on the remaking of "Roots"?
"That was my questions when they contacted me about doing it. And then, we started talking about music and Mark Walpert and LeVar Burton, who were both talking to me about the project, that the first 'Roots' when you re-watch it is sort of like music that doesn't speak to this next generation.
So, the idea was, could we retell 'Roots' now with so much more historical research done, and all this history done, so it's going to be much more accurate in a real cinematic way. "
On the impact of the original "Roots"
"I think 'Roots' was the first time I really saw in television, what it could do and I think it was the first time that America saw history, not from the colonizer's point of view and that was interesting. You know, typically dominant culture inserts itself in a dominant way cinematically, so for example Karate kid...won't get to be Asian, he'll be Ralph Macchio. Heavyweight champs look like Ali and Tyson, Hollywood makes them look more like Stallone. 'Dances with Wolves' won't star a Native American it stars someone white."
On filming difficult scenes:
"There were days that I went home and thought deeply about what we as human beings are willing to do to each other...We're capable of harming each other, we're also capable of great grace. But what I find interesting when you really look at our history in America and you look at it straight in the eye, like you'll do when you see this 'Roots' series, you see a lot of echoes that -- past becomes prologue, history doesn't always repeat itself but it does rhyme. And there's some rhyming to it today and I think to really understand the today you've got to understand the yesterday."
The remake of "Roots" begins airing Monday, May 30th, Memorial Day, at 9 p.m. on the History Channel, and it will run for 4 consecutive nights.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
As a warning, during our conversation we play some clips from the film that are audibly graphic.
New program aims to help aging U.S. Filipino WWII veterans finally get help.
During World War Two, more than 250-thousand Filipinos fought alongside American soldiers in the Philippines.
They responded to a call from then-President Franklin Roosevelt to fight against Japanese occupation.
The Filipino soldiers were promised U.S. citizenship, full pay and benefits...
...but that offer was rescinded after the war.
Even when those former soldiers were granted U.S. citizenship in 1990 and began arriving in this country, they did not get what they felt was due.
"When they started arriving in the 1990's, they had this rude awakening they were not eligible for anything all," Luisa Antonio, executive director for the Veterans Equity Center, said to Take Two's A Martinez. "They were able to come to the US, but did not have any source of income and they were not able to go to the VA for medical services."
Additionally, many of their family members who were sponsored to join them have faced long waits for Visas.
But earlier this month a change in US immigration policy will speed up Visa approvals for dependents of those veterans so they can come to the US to take care of their elderly parents.
Antonio is helping families apply for the new program.
To hear the full conversation click the blue player above.
A portrait of veterans healing from PTSD
Nearly one in three veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan face post-traumatic stress from their military service, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
And that can have profound effects on their families, friends and community.
But there's a program based in rural California that's helping veterans deal with their experiences and find healing. It's called The Pathway Home.
And it's the focus of a new documentary film, called Of Men and War, airing this weekend on PBS.
"We the civilians don't understand what it is to be exposed to such an amount of violence," said director Laurent Bécue-Renard, who spent more than a decade filming the program. "They [veterans] need some kind of acknowledgement, and they need to be heard with their own words."
The film premieres on PBS Monday May 30, 2016. You can find more info and view excerpts here.
Lab Notes: Mars Ice Age, deep sea creatures the size of vans and more
On this week's segment of lab notes:
- Mars is leaving a massive ice age
- Mass dino extinction killed creatures way up in the icy north too
- Sponge the size of a van found in deep ocean
As always, Sanden Totten, KPCC's science reporter, joined the show to break down the latest in science news.
Squid and octopus populations are booming around the world
Squid population is increasing across the world’s oceans.
Those were the finding of researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia. And it’s not only squids, but cephalopods as a whole - which also includes octopus and cuttlefish - that has increased in the last 60 years.
This in time when marine populations have been declining due to climate change and pollution.
Zoë Doubleday was one of the lead authors of the study, and she looked at the global trends in abundance around the world. She thinks the increase might have to do with human behavior.
"Humans have been changing the marine environment particularly since the industrial revolution and European colonization a lot," says Doubleday.
"It might be from pollution, fishing, climate change, habitat modification and I think it’s a multiple of things that are changing the marine environment and are giving a competitive advantage to cephalopods."
Whatever the reason, the change could affect ocean life. Cephalopods are voracious eaters because they have a fast metabolism and they prey on shell fish, crustaceans and fish.
But they are also an important food source for many other animals in the sea so there's bound to be winners and losers.
"People ask me whether this is good or bad and I think that’s quite a difficult question to answer," says Doubleday. "It might be dependent on what your point of view is on the sea."
Whale sightings on the rise off Dana Point Harbor
Dana Point Harbor is the place to be this weekend if you’re in the mood to do some whale watching.
The Orange County coastline is experiencing a surge in the number of whale sightings.
Capt. Dave Anderson, who owns and operates Captain Dave’s Dolphin Safari and Whale Watch says they are seeing a little more of everything this time of year.
"It used to be if I saw…one blue whale, I’d be on some national news program because it’s that rare to see them in this area," says Anderson, who has been in the business for 21 years.
Blue whales aren't the only animal we're seeing more of. According to Anderson, there has also been a dramatic increase of humpback whales swimming in the area.
As far as a reason behind the increase, experts aren't really sure. But Anderson thinks it might have to do with their feeding habits.
"We do know that the population has not increased dramatically with the blue whales so we think they are just spreading out in their feeding areas and feeding a little closer to shore," says Anderson.
Whatever the reason, it's a welcomed surprise for those heading out to see the whales and dolphins.