Archive &#8211; Front Page 3-2015

STUDIO SOCAL – The LA River: From Concrete Ditch to an Oasis in the City

Click Here to Get To The Web Cams

Marine Webcams:

Monterey Bay Aquarium – Live Web Cams

Ocean Classrooms – Live Video Cams

Click Here to Get To The Video Cams

Channel Islands National Park – Live Ocean Webcams

Click Here to Get To The Webcams

Nature has “reactivated” Earth Flight’s series of fabulous videos illustrating birds around the world. There are seven videos in the series: Earth Flight (EF) North America, EF South America, EF Europe, EF Africa, EF Asia and EF “How it was made…” You can get to the Earth Flight videos in this blog by going to “Classified Videos by Subject” then click on the section of “Earth Amazing Diversity of Life”. I also have some of the links here on this front page for those of you who are viewing with a smart phone.

NATURE – Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation – Preview

NATURE – Earthflight: North America (expired?)

NATURE – Earthflight: Africa (expired?)

NATURE – Earthflight: Europe (expired?)

Click Here to View the Website

Try www.pbs.org to see if these videos have been re-installed on the PBS server.

ScienceWonder Earth Day Report 2014

Scientific American (April, 2014) has an article that analyzes what seems to be happening with the Earth’s Climate and the models that are attempting to assess the risk to our various ways of life. A number of reasonably moderate assumptions lead us toward a very real Danger Zone in the year 2036 (22 years from the present!), where we will have to deal with a 2 degree Celsius increase in global temperature and there will be no way to turn back the Climate Change for hundreds if not thousands of years!

The article also has an interesting list of sectors of our civilization that would be dramatically effected. The sectors seriously effected by a 2 degree increase in global temperature are:

Food
Water
Health
Land
National Security
Energy
Economic Prosperity

I wonder if humanity will address Climate Change Issues now knowing the pain we will experience in the future if we don’t act now or if it is necessary for us to actually suffer the pain in order for us to take action?

HOW TO BE PREPARED FOR NATURAL DISASTERS (Fires? Earthquakes? Outrageous Weather Events?)

A very useful list of 23 steps in developing a good plan!

It might be useful to view the following programs to get a better idea of what you might need to plan for in terms of Natural Disasters:

NOVA – Megastorm Aftermath

NOVA – Inside the Megastorm

Click Here to View Program

NOVA – The Deadliest Tornadoes

NOVA – Deadliest Earthquakes

NOVA – Killer Typhoon

Click here to get to the Website

Up-to-date websites to learn about current Wild Fires:

http://www.wildlandfire.com/

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/

Click here to get to the Website

http://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm

Click here to get to the Websire

http://www.esri.com/services/disaster-response/wildlandfire/latest-news-map

Click here to get to the Website

New PBS Videos well worth viewing:

NOVA – First Air War

OPERATION MANEATER – Great White Shark

Click Here to Link with the Website

NOVA – Why Sharks Attack

Click Here to View Program

It is well worth the time to check out The Astronomy Picture of the Day

The web site has a searchable archive going back to June 16, 1995!

The following is one of the most amazing videos in the NOVA series:

NOVA: Earth from Space (full 2 hour version)

NOVA PreView: Earth from Space Preview

Click Here to View Video clip

NOVA and NATURE have some “Video Clips” (3-7 minutes in length) that summarize important issues. The following are several examples of NOVA Video Clips:

Nature Video Clip: How Beavers Build Dams

Click Here to View Clip

NATURE – Bullfrog Dad Protects the Brood

NOVA – Nature’s Time Capsules (Bogs)

NOVA – A Never Ending Supply (Energy)

NATURE – Emperor Penguins Huddle to Keep Warm

Click Here to View the Video Clip

Newly Released Full Length Programs:

NOVA – Vaccines—Calling the Shots

FRONTLINE – Ebola Outbreak/Hunting Boko Haram

NOVA – Surviving Ebola

LIFE ON THE LINE: COMING OF AGE BETWEEN NATIONS

Full Episode

STUDIO SOCAL – Mental Illness, What’s New?

Frontline – Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria

Nature – Outback Pelicans

Objects and Memory

FRONTLINE – Prison State

NOVA – Autopsying a Roman Catacomb

PBS NEWSHOUR – Why solar technology cannot save us

Nature – Sardine Run in South Africa

A Never Ending S

Recent Additions:

Nature – Leave it to Beavers

NOVA – D-Day’s Sunken Secrets

Bill Moyers – Full Show: Is Net Neutrality Dead?

THE LEXICON OF SUSTAINABILITY – What is Sustainability?

Science and Nature Videos

NATURE – Touching the Wild (man befriends “wild” deer…very touching!)

Nature – Love in the Animal Kingdom

Nature – Shark Mountain

The following three NOVA programs “Inside Animal Minds” have been removed from the PBS site. In the future you should be sure to view programs when they are available. If you wait too long you will not be able to view them! If we’re lucky the videos will be re-installed into PBS.org

Condition Black: Surfers Take On Huge Hawaii Waves

Epic Waves – Walls of Death!! – Biggest Wednesday Condition Black

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Prepared-for-Natural-Disasters

Regarding “Formal Education”, and the educational process it includes, the Next Generation Science Standards are very interesting, very detailed, and worth a careful examination by all who wish to help our youth get a good handle on science issues and the role science will play in future societal activities. I feel that the videos that are linked with this blog will serve these standards very well. Anyone trying to sort out, and think through, these new standards must have a base of experience with nature in order to fully take advantage of these new goals for their growth as well as for our youth. The Children & Nature Network, for example, tries to get youth to venture outside and into natural settings, and these goals will serve the new standards very well. But there is so much of nature that is beyond the capability of kids to personally experience that there must be other means to gather this information. These “real experiences” in nature (utilizing all your senses) are undoubtedly the best for constructing meaningful relationships with science and an individual’s personal future. But video does utilize our powerful senses of sight and hearing and may well substitute for totally real experiences, at least I hope so. I believe that this blog provides an excellent environment for this endeavor.

A Major Question: How can we get adolescents (and other folks) out into nature or if that is not possible to view these video programs when their schedules are so full? Maybe a school classroom is the only reasonable place?

This front page of my blog contains a few of the links to videos, and their related websites, that I feel are particularly interesting or important. Many more videos on the subject can be found within the full section.

It also provides a convenient format for iphone access to the videos. Many more links to videos in this blog can be accessed within the general section titled: “Classified Videos (by subject)”, but these are more difficult for an iphone to access. I generally will put a link to a video in several sections as it could be classified from a number of perspectives.

Many people today seem to be questioning the validity of science. Our understanding of, and confidence in, science is fundamentally grounded in our personal experiences and interactions with nature. I challenge you to visit sections within “Classified Videos (by subject)” and not wonder more about issues the titles raise. Through the past year and a half I have found many videos, mostly available through PBS, on a number of very interesting issues related to the development of our understanding of the world of science. Look at the titles of the videos in a section and consider reasons for why I placed the videos where I have. Please let us know what the sections have caused you to wonder.

Look below for a link to assist you in exploring 23 issues you will need to address in developing an effective and comprehensive plan for Natural Disasters in your area!

The following is one of the most amazing videos in the NOVA series:

NOVA: Earth from Space

NOVA PreView: Earth from Space Preview

Click Here to View Software

An interesting software discovery:

A NullSchool Map of Surface Winds (Global)

A map of the Ocean’s Surface Currents (Pacific Ocean)

Click Here to View Software

Upwelling off the North West Coast of New Guinea

Click Here to View Upwelling

PBS Programs to watch for…

FRONTLINE – “The Trouble with Antibiotics” – Preview

NOVA – Why Planes Vanish Preview

The Men Who Made Us Fat

NOVA – Solar Power’s Promise

NOVA – Wild Predator Invasion

NATURE – My Bionic Pet

Many more videos are under

“Videos Classified (by subject)”

I have also sorted videos by general subject area into different sections. You can find these under “Videos Classified (by subject)”. There are many more videos that you can find within these sections than can be found on this “front page”.

COURTSHIP, SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, FRIENDSHIPS AND COMMUNICATION IN NATURE

Do you have raccoons in your community? Do they eat your cat food and dog food left outdoors overnight and get in your trash can? Check out the following Nature program about these very interesting creatures. Their adaptability will amaze you.

NATURE – Raccoon Nation

NATURE – Earthflight: North America

NATURE – Earthflight: Flying High

Please Click Here To View Video

(Unfortunately the Earthflight series has been removed from the PBS server. Nature is beginning to re-authorizes the use of these spectacular videos as they are extremely interesting. There is a lesson in this—be sure to watch the PBS programs, particularly Nature programs, as they are allowed for us to access only for a limited time!)

Nature – In The Valley Of The Wolves

NATURE – Dogs That Changed the World: Rise of the Dog

NATURE – Dogs That Changed the World: Dogs By Design

INDEPENDENT LENS – Twin Sisters

INDEPENDENT LENS – Powerless

INDEPENDENT LENS – The Graduates – The Girls

INDEPENDENT LENS – Los Graduados – Las Jóvenes

INDEPENDENT LENS – The Graduates – The Boys

INDEPENDENT LENS – Los Graduados – Los Jóvenes

INDEPENDENT LENS – Happiness

INDEPENDENT LENS – Coming to Independent Lens: Rich Hill

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “COURTSHIP, SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, FRIENDSHIPS AND COMMUNICATION IN NATURE”!

EARTH’S AMAZING DIVERSITY OF LIFE

NATURE – Ireland’s Wild River

NATURE – Honey Badgers: Masters of Mayhem

NATURE – Meet the Coywolf

Moment of Impact: Jungle

Moment of Impact: Hunters and Herds

NATURE – Black Mamba

Click Here to view Program

The following Special Nature Program on New Guinea has been saved on YouTube. The 2 hour program shows some of the most spectacular natural organisms on our planet. I would hope that this program is broadcast again on PBS.

PBS Nature: New Guinea – Land of the Unexpected

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “EARTH’S AMAZING DIVERSITY OF LIFE”!

ENERGY SYSTEMS THAT EFFECT US (INCLUDING FOODS)

Secrets of the Sun

NOVA – Solar Power’s Promise

Food, Nutrition and Health

There are many “fads” related to nutrition and our diet, most driven by corporations and their lust for profits. But the challenge of obtaining good quality information related to healthy diets remains huge, and the health sciences are hard at work learning more about what makes up a healthy diet. I will link to Public Broadcast System video programs (or YouTube video saved from PBS) that I feel try hard to look behind the money and find the best information based on science. Of course we should all be cynical about what we see and hear and carefully analyse information to determine it’s true quality! When videos become a bit “aged” (and links are no longer on this front page), you will be able to find these videos within the section titled “Human Health Issues” found under “Classified Videos (by subject)”.

Michael Pollan – Food Rules for Healthy People and Planet

BOTANY OF DESIRE – (Michael Pollan) Full-Length Program

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “ENERGY SYSTEMS THAT EFFECT US (INCLUDING FOODS)”!

EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

New “Climate Change” Additions to the Blog: EARTH: The Operators Manual Energy Quest USA

This video presents Possible Immediate and Serious Impact on our Modern Way of Life!

Why the strongest storms are getting stronger

NOVA – Megastorm Aftermath

NOVA – Inside the Megastorm

NOVA – Secrets Beneath the Ice

NOVA – Extreme Ice

Moyers & Company – Saving the Earth from Ourselves -Can now be found in the “Classified Videos by Subject – Restoring Nature’s Health” and “Evidence of Climate Change”

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE ‘!

EVOLUTION – PARTICULARLY HUMAN EVOLUTION

NOVA – Cracking Your Genetic Code

NOVA – What Darwin Never Knew

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/

PBS has a new NOVA “Evolution Web Site”, check it out:

Short Videos on Issues within Evolution:

NATURE – Dogs That Changed the World: Rise of the Dog

NATURE – Dogs That Changed the World: Dogs By Design

NOVA -Intelligent Design on Trial

NOVA – Becoming Human Full Series Preview

(The full series of videos can be found within the section titled: “Evolution – Particularly Human Evolution”)

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “EVOLUTION – PARTICULARLY HUMAN EVOLUTION”!

FOOD, WATER, SHELTER AND SPACE (4 REQUIREMENTS FOR LIFE)

With the West Coast of the United States in a severe drought, particularly in this current year, and both reservoir storage and the snow pack both at very low levels, you might want to learn more about Southern California’s water supply and how it has come to be what is is. Watch Cadillac Desert to learn more:

Cadillac Desert (a 9 part series on Southern California’s Water Supply)

Most communities have a water supply that is dependent on either Rain, Snow, or Fossil Water Supplies (in the form of Aquafers). We must take better care to protect these resources as evidenced in the past week in West Virginia! Learn more within the Frontline Program linked below on Poisoned Waters. The Frontline focuses on the destruction of coastal marine environments particularly by chicken farming and industrial activities, but similar activities are polluting our fresh water resources as well.

Frontline has a number of very informative programs that shed light into issues within the science domain! Below is one of Frontline’s 2 hour Specials!

FRONTLINE – Poisoned Waters

Click Here to View the Website

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “FOOD, WATER, SHELTER AND SPACE (4 REQUIREMENTS FOR LIFE)”!

How to Be Prepared for Natural Disasters

A very useful list of 23 steps in developing a good plan!

GEOLOGICAL AND ATMOSPHERIC ISSUES THAT EFFECT US

Check out the following recently broadcast PBS videos…links can also be found in “Videos Classified (by Subject) – Geological and Atmospheric Issues that Effect Us”

NOVA – Killer Typhoon

LIFE ON FIRE – Icelandic Volcanoes

NATURE – Survivors of the Firestorm

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “GEOLOGICAL AND ATMOSPHERIC ISSUES THAT EFFECT US”!

HUMAN BIRTH, DEVELOPMENT, PHYSIOLOGY AND GENETICS

I have found one of the most closely watched PBS videos when shown to my high school science classes. Warning! It contains a human birth sequence and thus may not be suitable for very young viewers!

NOVA – Life’s Greatest Miracle

Click Here to View Website

Also…

NOVA – 18 Ways to Make a Baby (1st broadcast 2001)

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “HUMAN BIRTH, DEVELOPMENT, PHYSIOLOGY AND GENETICS”!

HUMAN HEALTH ISSUES

An excellent source of information about Health Issues, particularly about sex, can be obtained from the Columbia University web site titled “GoAskAlice”.

Click Here to View Website

FRONTLINE – Ebola Outbreak/Hunting Boko Haram

UNIVERSITY PLACE – Medication and Behavior Issues in Disabilities

NOVA – Dying to Be Thin

NOVA – Ghosts of Murdered Kings

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “HUMAN HEALTH ISSUES”!

INTERESTING TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS

Most Spectacular Video (in my opinion): NOVA: Earth from Space

Click Here to View Software

A NullSchool Map of Surface Winds (Global)

EVERYTHING BUT THE NEWS – Ep 09 | Lost in YouTube Space: Touring YouTube LA Studios

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “INTERESTING TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS”!

NATURAL SYSTEMS IN THE OCEANS (AND OTHER BODIES OF WATER)

NOVA – Kings of Camouflage

Saving the Oceans: Part 1

Click Here to Play Video

Saving the Oceans: Part 2

Click Here to Play Video

Saving the Oceans: Destination Baja CA

Click Here to Play Video

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “NATURAL SYSTEMS IN THE OCEANS (AND OTHER BODIES OF WATER)”!

RESTORING NATURE’S HEALTH

I’ve recently discovered a series of videos entitled “NatureWorks”. These videos are directly focused on specific concepts and would be very easily linked to “Standards” within a course of study. You might find them of interest?

NOVA – Ocean Animal Emergency

NATUREWORKS – Invasive Species

QUEST, a part of KQED in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a number of interesting programs about science. Check out the one below:

QUEST – Tagging Pacific Predators

Click Here to View Progam

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “RESTORING NATURE’S HEALTH”!

THE MODERN WORLD OF PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY

Curiosity is about to do some interesting experiments on Mars. Check out the following NOVA that discusses the robot on Mars and a little about how it got there!

NOVA – Ultimate Mars Challenge

The question “Are we alone?” in our galaxy (or the Universe) has been absorbing the minds of people for many years. The following NOVA shows how far we’ve come in resolving this issue!

NOVA – Alien Planets Revealed

NOVA – At the Edge of Space

NOVA – Cold Case JFK

Many more interesting videos on this subject can be found within the section entitled “THE MODERN WORLD OF PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY”!

THE WORLD OF MODERN CHEMISTRY

NOVA – Making More Stuff Preview

NOVA – Making Stuff Safer