Continue reading »]]> This weekend on FORA.tv, we present one of our most popular live events: the Maker Faire Bay Area 2012. There really isn’t anything quite like it: Put together a bunch of mind-bending inventors, erudite, but slightly crazy, engineers, arts-and-crafts creative geniuses and people who consume technology the way the rest of us eat snacks, and you have the Maker Faire. You also have 3D printers, robots, laser cutters and Tesla coils.

At the center of it all is Adam Savage, the star of Mythbusters, who is known to do one or two outrageous things on stage, such as dance with lightning. He appears on Sunday at 11 am PST.

To get you primed we have put together a series: Sparks, Explosions and Cattle Prods:
The Best of Mythbuster Adam Savage

Continue reading »]]> A few weeks ago we covered the story of Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights activist who became embroiled in a cat-and-mouse game with Chinese authorities and created a minor diplomatic incident when he sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The good news from that story is Chen was eventually granted permission to leave China along with family, where they will settle in the United States. The bad news is, the friends and family that Chen does leave behind could be subject to continued harassment by local authorities.

Chen’s story is just one of thousands in China. Though it is an emerging power that cautiously courts the Western world; when it comes to human rights, China resembles a brutal dictatorship– with systematic crackdowns on dissidents in Tibet and forcible assimilations of other cultures such the Uyghur people in the country’s western Xinjiang province.

Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Foundation described China’s human rights record as “taking one step forward, three steps backward.” When ask what the “one step forward” is, Neier alluded to the role journalists play in the country.

China’s Human Rights: Three Steps Back, One Step Forward from Open Society Foundations on FORA.tv

Continue reading »]]> Is the United States system of higher education among best in the world? The answer is a resounding yes, at least according to a recent analysis by Universitas 21 (via GOOD), which gave the American system the top ranking in the world ahead of Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark. Universitas 21, a global network for research universities, compiled data based on several criteria, including available resources, educational environment, connectivity, and graduate output.

But leading education experts in the United States have a different point of view. At a Miller Center for Public Affairs debate in 2010, several prominent figures in policy and administration took American universities to task on accountability, saying that grades and degrees don’t describe the full picture as to whether or not a university is achieving its goals.

The Low Quality of Higher Education from Miller Center of Public Affairs on FORA.tv

And at a Compass Summit event last year, Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University–the largest public university in the United States by enrollment–discussed a lingering hidden crisis at the university level.

The Hidden Crisis of Public Universities from Compass Summit on FORA.tv

Continue reading »]]> As one of the major banking institutions that weathered the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008, JPMorgan Chase emerged relatively unscathed, making last week’s announcement of a $2 billion loss in a surprising risk management failure all the more troubling.

It’s unclear how the bank will reorganize its risk strategy after shareholders expressed their ire at JPMorgan’s annual meeting today. However, what is clear is how Washington will react: this week Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner alluded to dropping the proverbial regulatory hammer down on JPMorgan following a close scrutiny of their current practices.

Charles Ferguson, director of the 2010 Academy Award-winning film Inside Job, offered his take on regulations at the Commonwealth Club last year and explained why they are essential to Wall Street reform.

Charles Ferguson: A Proposal to Reform Wall Street from Commonwealth Club on FORA.tv

Continue reading »]]> From the plight of the Kurdish people in the Middle East to the troubling impact of the oil industry in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, award-winning photographer and experimental filmmaker Ed Kashi has traveled the world as a documentarian of modern socioeconomic and political issues.

Aside from his in-depth pieces that document global issues, Kashi chronicles his photography and and his experiences in small notebooks which he dubs “photojournalisms.” Kashi joined National Geographic Live to discuss his travels and reveal how he copes through varying degrees of struggle while he is on assignment.

Ed Kashi: Photojournalisms from National Geographic Live on FORA.tv

Continue reading »]]> Here’s a quick look at two events coming up on FORA.tv.

Last week’s dramatic discovery of an Al-Qaeda plot to blow-up an airliner, and how it was foiled by an operative working with the CIA, MI6, and Saudi intelligence services, revealed how the terrorist organization is evolving in its methods. Though intelligence agencies have the ability to counter such plots, general aviation security is still an important tool in preventing terrorism. On May 16, the National Journal presents Securing the Skies: Aviation Security for Safer Global Airways, an event that will discuss how various international security services must act in concert to keep flying safe as well as consider privacy concerns.

This weekend, FORA.tv gears up for Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, a two day extravaganza featuring the best in arts, engineering, technology and other creative projects among the do-it-yourself community. Demonstrations with 3D printers, lasers, robots and Tesla coils are only a few of the exciting projects on tap for this weekend. And in usual fashion, Adam Savage from the Discovery Channel’s hit show Mythbusters will join the stage to offer his usual inspirational, keynote speech. Here’s Savage speaking at last year’s Maker Faire.

Get Inspired with MythBuster Adam Savage at Maker Faire from Maker Faire on FORA.tv

Continue reading »]]> George Clooney’s fundraiser for President Obama’s reelection bid, which was held at the actor’s Los Angeles house, netted $15 million, according to an article in the Huffington Post.  Jokes and drinks were served aplenty.

Let’s just hope Clooney, who is known for practical jokes, didn’t pull this one last night on the president:

Weintraub on Drinking with George Clooney and Brad Pitt from Commonwealth Club on FORA.tv

Continue reading »]]> Seahorse sex wouldn’t be nearly as exciting without the human commentary:

On to other matters of sperm. Undersea photographer Eric Cheng traveled to a little island 25 hours off the Tokyo coast to see sperm whales. Look for the giant bulge in the male’s  head, which holds spermaceti–at one time used to lubricate machines.

Jump to 7:25

Eric Cheng: Flashlight Fish, Giant Squid, & Sperm Whales from Maker Faire on FORA.tv

Image courtesy of MattSullivan

Continue reading »]]> How much water do we have on earth? In the grand scheme of things, not a whole lot according to this illustration from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute:

The United States Geological Survey estimates the blue sphere in the photo would be about 860 miles (about 1,385 kilometers) in diameter with a volume of about 332,500,000 cubic miles (1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers.) The sphere counts the amount of water in our oceans, lakes, rivers as well as in animals, plants and other life forms.

As the population of the earth approaches 7 billion people, the fresh water resources contained within that blue sphere will become even more scarce. Are we on the verge of a global water crisis?

The Global Water Crisis from Compass Summit on FORA.tv