Today we check in on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. What will motivate both sides to stop the fighting? The conflict isn't just being waged on the ground, but also via social media. Then, Wal-Mart employees nationwide are preparing for a series of protests on Black Friday. We talk to the author of "Bet The Farm" about why food prices are what they are, and much more.
What will motivate Israel and Palestine to stop the fighting?
The exchange of fire between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip is now into its sixth day. For the moment, the fighting shows no signs of abating.
Ten more Palestinians were reportedly killed in Israeli air strikes today, bringing the death toll to almost 90 killed, including 20 children. So far the Israelis have launched over 1,300 air strikes into Gaza.
Hamas fighters, on the other hand, have launched hundreds of rockets into Israel, killing three Israelis and wounding almost 60. Over the weekend, both sides sent diplomats to Cairo, Egypt to attempt to negotiate a truce.
But what will motivate them to actually stop the fighting?
, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, joins the show to discuss.
Israel-Palestine conflict also playing out via social media
Israel and Hamas haven't only been fighting on the ground, they've been fighting online as well. The two sides have been tweeting nasty messages at one another, posting assassination videos and images of their military might.
Here to talk about the roll that social media has played in the Gaza conflict is Andy Carvin, senior strategist at NPR.
Nintendo needs Wii U to hit big with holiday shoppers
One item expected to fly off shelves this shopping season is the latest video game console by Nintendo, the Wii U, which hit stores on Sunday.
The Wii U comes at time when Nintendo is in need of a new hit product. Earlier this year the gaming giant posted its first loss in five decades as a public company.
Here with more is Michael Packter, who tracks the video game industry for the financial firm WedBush.
Wal-Mart workers prepare for nationwide protest on Black Friday
Wal-Mart workers are preparing to take part in a series of demonstrations outside stores on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.
A union-backed employee coalition called Making Change at Wal-Mart and OUR Wal Mart is organizing the effort, which includes a 1,000-store protest in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C.
Part of the complaints come from workers saying that their health care costs are increasing, for jobs where the pay is so low, even the smallest decrease in take-home pay could create huge problems.
Wal Mart, despite the recession, is doing well financially, so that's creating a lot of worker discontent. However, protest organizers have not disclosed how many people are involved in the demonstration. Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the world, an analysts predict those participating will likely be just a small fraction of the company's workforce.
Wal-Mart Stores files a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board hoping to prevent the demonstrations from taking place.
China's 'gridlock' may slow clean energy conversion
As Superstorm Sandy showed, the "grid" that provides our electricity can be a fragile thing. Building a modern, more resilient version will cost hundreds of billions of dollars — but most agree — it's essential to a cleaner, more energy-efficient future.
It's a challenge confronting the United States and other nations — notably China.
The California Report's Marjorie Sun reports the country's aging grid is already proving to be an obstacle to "greening" China's energy production.
The woman who transformed Daniel Day-Lewis into Abraham Lincoln
There's just no denying that Daniel Day-Lewis completely nailed Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln." From head to toe, the actor fully embodied our 16th president, but he didn't do it on his own.
Sure, it was Day-Lewis's posture, gestures and well-controlled voice that really brought him to life, but it was Lois Burwell's make-up skills that transformed his visage into the spitting image of Lincoln.
Burwell has a long list of film and TV credits, including "Saving Private Ryan," "War Horse," and "Braveheart," for which she won the Oscar for make-up design.
She joins the show to talk about how she turned Day-Lewis into Abraham Lincoln.
Interview Highlights:
On working with Steven Spielberg to transform Daniel Day-Lewis:
“[Spielberg] wanted him to look like Mr. Lincoln. We worked together to try and formulate a make-up that wasn’t an impediment, didn’t become an impediment to Daniel’s magnificent performance and his process. That was actually very important. So that there was a time factor with how long one had in the morning each day to get him ready.”
On building infrastructure on an actor’s face, while still allowing them to express emotion:
“Well, the key to it is exactly that, which is that you do the minimum to the maximum effect and that doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot there. Actually, there is. The process we used is called stretch and stipple to create those furrows. And basically, it’s a medium that you paint on the skin while stretching the skin. And then you dry it. And then move it with your hands and with the actor’s face as well into the shapes and forms that you want to actually define and create furrows or whatever. But you underpaint that, we underpainted it. We did it double-handed, myself with my colleague, Kenny Myers. And we underpainted it and then did the stretch and stipple process and then painted over the top. So all in all, really it should have been a three-hour makeup, but it was done in an hour and fifteen, including hair and dressing.”
On forming a team with the actor in the efforts of creating the character:
“Well, I think it’s rather hard to describe. It’s something that does take place, but I would never be comfortable with the idea that somehow, you know, we helped with that magnificent performance. But obviously you helped visually, and therefore in turn, that helps them embody the character, possibly. But yes, that’s what you aim at. And you can’t work as a team with someone if you’re at odds with them, so obviously we want to be as in synch as is possible, because you’re in their space so often. And it can be so intrusive and you have to be mindful of that. Our job is to be invisible. Our job is to be the last person sort of in there touching them up before we go in for a take, but not be noticed.
On James Spader's physical portrayal of character Bilbo:
"The character of Bilbo is an interesting one because out of all the historical characters that we had, we actually managed to find photographic reference of most of them, mainly from the Library of Congress, which was a marvelous resource. So we could actually base the actor’s look from the historical character, but with Bilbo there weren’t any. There were written descriptions of how Bilbo dressed and there were a couple of remarks about a flamboyant waistcoat. So when we went to do the initial fitting at James Spader’s house, he had read that and so had I, which was handy. And he started off saying, ‘I don’t want any facial hair, they never look real and they’re always uncomfortable.’ And by the time, we’d been there 40 minutes, he wanted the biggest moustache in the world, which you see him sporting in the film, which is funny. But yes, he was a real character.
20th Century Fox takes a rare chance with 'Life of Pi'
Transforming the magical novel, "Life of Pi," about a boy and a tiger stuck on a lifeboat, into something camera-ready was a major challenge for director Ang Lee.
Unlike almost every big-budget Hollywood movie these days, "Life of Pi" is not a sequel, it doesn't feature comic book characters, and it's based on a novel that was widely believed to be impossible to adapt as a film. Despite this, the film opens in theatres this weekend.
John Horn of the L.A. Times says all this makes "Life of Pi" a very expensive gamble.
Fiscal-cliff anxiety continues amid bipartisan talks
It's looking more optimistic that Washington will come to a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. After last Friday's meeting between the President and Congressional leaders, Wall Street is reacting with positivity this mornin, and all indices are up by more than a percent.
That doesn't mean the worrying has stopped. Anxiety about what may or may not happen is driving small businesses and investors to take precautionary measures, just in case they're hit with higher tax rates.
Daniel Gross, the global finance editor for The Daily Beast and Newsweek, joins the show.
US, Mexico to sign landmark Colorado River agreement
Climate change is making the issue of water rights increasingly important ... And tomorrow the U.S. and Mexico are set to sign a landmark deal over rights to the Colorado River. About 30 million people in the US and Mexico depend on that water source, and it's taken years of negotiation to reach this agreement.
Fronteras Desk reporter Laurel Morales has the story.
The Hoover Dam was built to control the powerful Colorado River, which for many years flooded farms and cities.
“‘Ladies and gentlemen, here is where man conquered the mighty river placing a concrete yoke about its neck to harness its tremendous power and water resources,’” a 1955 educational video explained.
In 1922 the Colorado River Compact divvied up the water to the upper and lower basin states. This allowed for cities like Las Vegas and San Diego to mushroom rapidly, and for farmers to grow acre upon acre of alfalfa and other crops.
About 20 years later, Arizona and Mexico signed on to receive their shares.
So let’s do a little math. Water is measured in acre-feet. An acre-foot is enough water for about two households a year. The upper and lower basin states were allocated 7.5 million acre-feet each, and 1.5 million acre-feet to Mexico, add in the loss to evaporation (remember we’re in the desert here) and you get a grand total of about 18 million acre-feet a year. But today -- in this extended drought period -- the river is flowing at best 15 million acre-feet.
"There simply isn’t enough water to go around even if we drained the river dry every year to satisfy those who have legal rights to the water," said Robert Glennon, a University of Arizona regents professor and the author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to do About it. In addition to the over-allocation of river water, the states are now facing climate change and population growth.
"You add all of those things up and it’s a train wreck," Glennon said. "So the states and the two national governments cannot put their heads in the sand and pretend that there’s not a problem. I commend them for tackling the issue head on."
The issue came to a head five years ago when Lake Mead, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam, reached a critical low point. The western states devised a backup plan. But the real question -- will Mexico go along?
"It was never clear when the river went into shortage conditions that Mexico was going to agree to accept a cutback in supply that went to Mexico," said David Modeer, the general manager of the Central Arizona Project, which provides 80 percent of the state’s water. "That’s an uncertainty and a threat to us that if we were going have to cutback supplies, there was no guarantee that the amount of water Mexico gets on an annual basis would be reduced similarly in fashion."
There was an added urgency to the negotiations for Mexico when, in 2010, an earthquake damaged pipelines in a major farming area south of the border. Mexico asked the U.S. to let it store water in Lake Mead while repairs were made. The new water agreement extends this emergency storage program.
It’s a precedent-setting agreement and many other nations dealing with water scarcity -- like Australia and some Asian countries -- are watching with interest.
"Just the notion that one country would use its facilities to store the waters of another country is a huge issue across the globe and this agreement will go down as a blueprint," said Pat Mulroy, the general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
The agreement also has some gains for environmentalists.
It calls for a pilot program of water releases from the U.S. to replenish the now mostly dry wetlands in the Colorado River delta in Northern Mexico -- once a major stopover for North American birds.
The most important element of this agreement is that Mexico will share in times of surplus and shortage with the western United States. Still, water experts say more needs to be done to plan for climate change, which will likely reduce Colorado River flows by as much as 9 percent.
New study examines role of climate change in decline of Mayan civilization
It has been three weeks since Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast. The aftermath of the storm left 209 people dead and its price tag so far is more than $50 billion dollars
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says rising sea levels and warming waters contributed to the strength of the storm. Now a new study on the decline of Mayan civilization reveals that climate change might have had dramatic effects in the past.
And that looking back to the Mayans might serve as a window into our future.
Doug Kennett, an environmental anthropologist at Penn State, authored the study which was published this month in the journal Science.
'Bet The Farm' author traces cost of Domino's Pizza from farm to delivery box
This year, nearly 1 billion people in the world will go hungry. But at the same time, farmers around the globe are producing more than enough food to feed every single person on the planet.
So what's going wrong?
In his new book, "Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food," author Frederick Kaufman uses a global favorite, pizza, to find the answer.
Bet the Farm; How Food Stopped Being Food
Campbell's soup aggressively markets to Millennials with new packaging
The Campbell's soup can, which inspired one of Andy Warhol's iconic pieces of pop art, is getting pushed aside in a bid to attract younger consumers.
Campbell's Soup is repackaging its product in an effort to appeal to the Millennial Generation, which is generally understood as consisting of those born between the late 1970s and and 2000.
Called Campbell's Go, the new line of "globally-inspired" soup comes in a microwaveable bag that the company hopes will appeal to millennials who are, "on the go." The design of the packaging includes millennial-aged faces looking excited about the new soup flavors, which include "Coconut Curry" and "Chicken & Quinoa," among others.
The company even has a website specificially for Campbell's Go products, which looks like a cross between a Tumblr blog and a Pinterest page, and includes cat gifs offering nutritional information. Campbell's is even encouraging Millennials to create Spotify playlists inspired by its soup flavors.
However, reception of the new effort has come under criticism by places like Gawker, and Consumerist. Even Stephen Colbert spent an entire segment on making fun of company's new strategy:
So will Millennials bite, or rather, slurp? For expert analysis, we turn to Sharalyn Hartwell, a strategist for Frank N. Magid Associates.