Author Archives: Maria

The Story of Aaron Swartz – Film on Radio (ONE of ONE)

By MariaJuly 16, 20142014

This program is based on the soundtrack of the 2014 movie: The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz. His death at age 26 in 2013 made the internet light up with grief and also anger at a judicial system that haunted and hunted him. He was facing 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines for bulk-downloading from a site, JSTOR, that was freely available to Massachusetts Institute of Technology students.
“Aaron’s story touched a nerve with people far beyond the online communities in which he was a celebrity” said director, Brian Knappenberger. “This is the story of programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz. From Swartz’s help in development of the basic internet protocol RSS to his [ . . . ]

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Citizen Koch – A film on radio production

By MariaJuly 10, 20142014

Filmmakers Tia Lessen and Carl Deal worked with Michael Moore on Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, and made a movie, Trouble the Water, on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They made plans to deal with money in politics and the Citizens United Supreme Court decision when in early 2011 a grassroots rebellion began in Wisconsin.
The newly elected governor Scott Walker, deeply funded by money from the Koch brothers, had proposed eliminating bargaining rights for public employees. Tia Lessen and Carl Deal captured – over several months – one of the most inspiring social movements of our time and the first large scale rebellion against money in politics. The images of teachers, nurses and fire fighters occupying the State [ . . . ]

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No More Destruction of Historic Indian Villages (TWO of TWO)

By MariaJuly 2, 20142014Native Americans

The American Indian Spirit Run calls Attention to Caltrans and Global Construction Corporations  
Some people call this the David and Goliath story, Native Americans, farmers, environmentalists, school teachers and students, a sizable minority in a small former logging town of under 5,000 inhabitants in Northern California stand up against one of the most powerful agencies in any state, Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation. And against the multinational corporation behind Caltrans, Hochtief and its subsidiary Flatiron. Why Caltrans had to go across the ocean to hand taxpayer money to a freeway builder is a mystery. Unless you believe that only the corporation that built the Autobahn for Adolph Hitler has the credentials to do this very difficult job.
The $210 million plus [ . . . ]

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Yumi Kikuchi and Fukushima Kids, Hawaii (ONE of ONE)

By MariaJune 25, 20142014

(Part TWO of last week’s program on “No More Destruction of Historic Indian Villages” will run next week to include breaking news)
On June 11, 2014, a group of friends on the Mendocino coast met to welcome Yumi Kikuchi. She and her husband co-founded Fukushima Kids, Hawaii. Since children are most vulnerable to radiation Yumi and her husband Gen are bringing them, and even their mothers when they are very young, to Hawaii for healing periods of three or more weeks.
Yumi has for over 20 years worked on campaigns against nuclear power plants with Dr. Helen Caldicott and the artist and activist Mayumi Oda. That’s why she and her her husband immediately after the Fukushima accident decided to take [ . . . ]

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No More Destruction of Historic Indian Villages (ONE of TWO)

By MariaJune 18, 20142014Native Americans

An over 20 year resistance to a 6 mile four lane freeway bypass through protected wetlands in Northern California took an important turn. A meeting was held in June 2014 between Native American tribal leaders who see their ancient village sites bulldozed – and environmentalists who for so long had worked in vain to stop or at least downsize the project by lawsuits, appeals to politicians and to the agencies empowered to prevent wetland and salmon stream destruction.
The gathering was held on June 8, 2014, across from the so-called Northern Interchange in full view of the wasteland that was once verdant marshes and ash groves. Even though Caltrans had been given archeological maps of the 14 Little Lake Pomo trading [ . . . ]

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The Loss of West Antarctic Glaciers, FOUR of FOUR

By MariaJune 11, 20142014Antarctic, Climate Change

An Interview with Professor Chris Rapley
When NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, announced at a press conference on May 12, 2014, that the loss of the West Antarctic glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment appears unstoppable I asked Professor Chris Rapley for his comments. As former Director of the British Antarctic Survey it had been his job and expertise to know all aspects of Antarctic research.
Born and educated in Britain, Rapley became an international scientist. 40 years ago he began a six year term with NASA’s Solar Maximum Mission. Then he lectured at the Department of Space and Climate Physics of University College London from 1981 to 1987 and became Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) at [ . . . ]

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The Loss of West Antarctic Glaciers Appears Unstoppable (THREE of FOUR)

By MariaJune 4, 20142014Antarctic, Climate Change

Interview on Remote Sensing Technology with Professor Eric Rignot. He teaches Earth System Science at UC Irvine and is a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena
A new study by Professor Eric Rignot and researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, presented in May, 2014, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline.
The Amundsen Sea Embayment with its five glaciers is one of the hardest to reach areas of West Antarctica. The advent of over-flights by airplanes and now observation from satellites was a game changer for research, says Professor Rignot.
This is an interview about the current technology of observation, and the way in which [ . . . ]

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The Loss of West Antarctic Glaciers Appears Unstoppable (TWO of FOUR)

By MariaMay 28, 20142014Antarctic, Climate Change

Professor Eric Rignot, NASA and Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine
Program TWO of FOUR
A new study presented by Professor Eric Rignot and researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, presented in May, 2014, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline. The Pine Island, Thwaites, and four other glaciers contain enough ice to raise global sea level by 4 feet and they are melting faster than most scientists had expected. These new findings, we are told, will require an upward revision to current predictions of sea level rise.
The NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot who is also Professor of Earth System Science at [ . . . ]

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The loss of West Antarctic Glaciers Appears Unstoppable (ONE of FOUR)

By MariaMay 21, 20142014Antarctic

Professor Chris Rapley, former Director, British Antarctic Survey
Program ONE of FOUR
A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, presented on May 12, 2014, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea. The Pine Island, Thwaites, Haynes, Pope, Smith, and Kohler glaciers discharge ever more rapidly into the Amundsen Sea. And even though the Amundsen Sea Embayment is a very small area of the continent of Antarctica these glaciers contain enough ice to raise global sea level by 4 feet and they are melting faster than most scientists had expected. [ . . . ]

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Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu TWO of TWO

By MariaMay 14, 20142014Native Americans

on ceremony, broken treaties, corporate theft and the relationship between salmon and water
It has been argued that no state or even country of comparable size has changed its water distribution as dramatically as the state of California. There is some truth to the worn out joke that the water from Northern California is pumped hundred of miles to fill the swimming pools of Southern California where huge cities such as Los Angeles were built in the desert. In the process of building reservoirs, pipelines, pumping stations and canals whole landscapes were destroyed or flooded, Native American settlements and cultures obliterated, and species such as the Chinook Salmon taken to the brink of extinction.
But the swimming pool reference is also misleading. [ . . . ]

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Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu ONE of TWO

By MariaMay 14, 20142014

on ceremony, broken treaties, corporate theft and the relationship between salmon and water
In 1941 Winnemem Wintu land that would be flooded by Lake Shasta had been taken under three provisions. The Wintu were to receive like land to that they had lost, a cemetery to re-bury their dead and money to rebuild. By 2014, none of the promises had been fulfilled. And worse. In 1986 the Wintu also were excluded from federal recognition as a bonified Indian tribe.
As the Winnemem Wintu began fighting for the compensation of their losses as well as federal recognition a new threat emerged. Plans to raise the Shasta Dam are well underway and such a dam raise would submerge another 1.5 miles of the McCloud [ . . . ]

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The US Israel “Special Relationship” – Is Israel really a U.S. ally?

By MariaApril 30, 20142014

The National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel Special Relationship – Three retired members of the CIA present their answers.
Three former high level CIA employees were the speakers on the last panel of the one day summit at the National Press Club in Washington DC. held on March 7, 2014. Paul Pillar, Ray McGovern and Philip Giraldi addressed the question: Is Israel really a U.S. ally?
Professor Paul Pillar retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the CIA. His last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. He was Executive Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster. He studied at Oxford and Princeton and is now a non-resident senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for [ . . . ]

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The US Israel “Special Relationship” – Grant Smith on Weapons and Uranium Smuggling and Alison Weir on The History of Zionism

By MariaApril 23, 20142014

A brief history of un-prosecuted Israeli smuggling and espionage cases by Grant F. Smith – AND
What every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine
by Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew
Alison Weir and Grant Smith were the lead organizers of The National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship” on March 7, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington DC.
By strange coincidence one of the topics covered by Grant Smith became international news exactly as I was preparing his talk for broadcast on TUC Radio. On April 17th, 2014, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists released an article with the intriguing title: Did Israel steal bomb-grade uranium from the United States? 
The authors, Victor Gilinsky and Roger J. Mattson, had suspected that [ . . . ]

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The U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship” – Gareth Porter on Iran

By MariaApril 15, 20142014

The historian, investigative journalist, and author Gareth Porter specializes in U.S. national security policy. He was one of the speakers on Panel 2 at the National Summit: “Does Israel and its lobby exercise too much influence on U.S. decisions to wage war in the Middle East?”
His talk on the “manufactured crisis” and drive for U.S./Israel military actions against Iran was seen by many as an expose of government malfeasance – going as far back as the George Herbert Walker Bush and Clinton administrations and maintained through Bush Junior and the Obama White House.
Porter researched for his book, the Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare, published in February 2014, what he calls the false evidence that [ . . . ]

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The U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship” – Keynote: Stephen Walt

By MariaApril 9, 20142014

The National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship,” was held March 7, 2014 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. It was the most high profile, public response and critique to-date of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel’s foremost US Lobby, whose mission is to quote “urge(s) all members of Congress to support Israel through foreign aid, government partnerships, (and) joint anti-terrorism efforts.”   Just days earlier, from March 1st through 3rd, AIPAC had held its annual policy conference in our nation’s capital, celebrating the US Special Relationship with Israel. According to AIPAC’s web site more than half of the Senate, a third of the House of Representatives and countless Israeli and American policymakers were among the [ . . . ]

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