Ellen DeGeneres is always making other peoples' dreams come true -- even when it's her own birthday. This time, the lucky lady was Katy Perry, who apparently has always wanted to be a game show host.
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New York Magazine:
Time is running out to drink sodas as big as babies, with the city's ban on sugary drinks over sixteen ounces at certain stores and movie theaters set to start in March. As the clock ticks, those who stand to lose money because of the new rules, along with those who see Mayor Bloomberg's quick and quiet "health panel" as undemocratic, are counting on legal challenges. Joining the charge led by the soda lobby and movie theaters at this crucial juncture are the NAACP and the Hispanic Federation, which argue that the ban unfairly affects minority businesses and "freedom of choice in low-income communities."
Read the whole story at New York Magazine
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LONDON (Reuters) - One of the big investment shifts of our day may be at hand - regardless of how global markets actually perform this year.
What's already known as the "The Great Rotation" - a tilting of pension and insurance funds' strategic, long-term asset preference back toward equity from extreme positioning in bonds - has been one of themes of the new year so far.
The gist of the argument is that investor holdings of now expensive, ultra-low yielding government debt - following a virtually unbroken 20-year bull market in bonds - are ripe for rebalancing. The attraction of relative and absolute valuations in equity will coax the outflow to stocks.
It's this juncture that has some of the most persistent global equity bears of the past two decades, such as Societe Generale strategist Albert Edwards, rethinking the big picture.
While there's little thaw evident in his view of an investment 'Ice Age' over the next couple of years, Edwards now reckons that over 10 years long-term institutional funds are in danger of missing "the cheapest equity prices in a generation."
From such a committed bear, that's really saying something.
And there are no shortage of shorter-term players hoping to catch the slipstream whenever it comes. Some feel there's no time like the present.
With the whiff of global economic recovery in the air as major central banks floor cash rates, buy bonds and neutralize systemic stability fears, mutual fund and retail investment flows are already on the move in 2013.
According to Lipper, net flows to U.S.-based equity funds in the first two weeks of 2013 was, at $11.3 billion, the biggest fortnightly inflow since April 2000. Including exchange traded equity funds (ETFs), the number tops $18 billion - well over twice the flow to equivalent bond funds.
What's more, fund-tracker EPFR said some $7 billion of inflows to emerging market equities alone in the first week of the year were the biggest on record and these have outstripped demand for emerging bond funds five weeks running.
But as impressive as these numbers seem, they can still be all-too-easily dismissed as short-term, early-year noise and put in the context of full-year net outflows from equity mutual funds worldwide last year, for example, of some $215 billion - an exit that belied double-digit stock market price gains.
And the new year adrenalin rush can easily dissipate. JPMorgan Asset Management strategist David Shairp, for example, reckons January's buying has become a little indiscriminate, out of synch with a trend toward fewer positive economic data surprises and looking "overdone and in need of pause."
But if you buy the idea of a historic inflection point, then any temporary hiccups just help keep things in perspective.
"Our medium-term conviction in the Great Rotation remains very high," said Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief strategist Michael Harnett. "But following the sharp rally in risk assets in recent weeks, the jump higher in bullish sentiment, and the still low levels of volatility, we would view a near-term pullback as healthy."
20-YEAR SWEEPS
The flow picture that Edwards and others put so much store in is much bigger, stems from the equity exuberance of late 1990s and is rooted in the behavior of slower-moving pension and insurance funds.
It seems incredible by today's standards but by the early 1990s, British pension funds had almost doubled their allocation to equity over the prior 20 years to a staggering 80 percent of portfolios.
After the solvency shock of two subsequent mega-reversals, a powerful if glacial 20-year reversion to bonds ensued.
So much so that at 43 percent in 2012, UK pension funds' holdings of bonds exceeded that of equities for the first time in almost 40 years. The precise numbers may differ, but this broad trend played out similarly across the globe.
European final-salary pension funds surveyed by Mercer last year showed strategic equity allocation among the biggest funds - defined as those in excess of 2.5 billion euros - fell as low as 24 percent from almost 40 percent as recently as 2010.
Of course, never overestimate the speed of change in institutional fund allocations. Regulatory pressures to better match long liabilities, demographic trends and infrequent trustee reviews all sensibly militate against sudden shifts.
But that slow pace of change can also lead to inertia that could keep these funds buying some of the most expensive securities on the planet way past their sell-before date.
If market ebbs and flows or shifting economic winds are unlikely to alter the behavior of those who manage defined-benefit pension schemes any time soon, what will?
A mega shock to bonds may hurry some decision makers, but that's hard to see as long as central banks effectively underwrite these markets via quantitative easing.
Maybe a convincing 10-year horizon would focus minds.
British asset manager Standard Life Investments conducted that exercise this week, using its own assumptions on average inflation, dividend and rental growth and bond yields over the coming decade.
For one, the potential downside to 10-year inflation-adjusted returns on government bonds in the United States, Europe and Britain was seen as greater than best-guess gains.
SLI's conclusion was that longer-term investors should now shift to the riskier end of the spectrum in equity and real estate with good starting yields - seeking what strategist Andrew Milligan called "a sweet spot of investment returns over the coming decade."
(Additional reporting by Joel Dimmock; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-great-rotation-flight-equities-2013-055326929--sector.html
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Two weeks after Betfair Poker migrated away from the Ongame Network, the wheels have officially been set in motion for the poker arm of the world?s largest online betting exchange to shift its network provider to the iPoker Network. The online poker outfit recently made a successful debut on the iPoker Network, signaling the start of a shift in operations that will include a transitional period of six months wherein both networks will be available for existing players. The transitional period means that the poker arm of Betfair will operate on both the iPoker Network and the Ongame Network for the next six months with a gradual phasing out of operations on the latter, at which time, Betfair will solely operate on the iPoker Network in the summer.
For now, existing players will still be able to play on their old accounts for the next six months whereas new players will only be able to join Betfair Poker?s iPoker platform. As soon as the transition phase is completed, Betfair Poker, or as it?s calling itself now, ?New Betfair Poker? can now lay claim to belonging on iPoker?s Top Tier player pool, joining the likes of bet365 Poker, Paddy Power Poker, Titan Poker, William Hill, Winner, and Everest Poker in the fold.
Evolution Gaming hits milestone
Evolution Gaming has notched another feather in its cap with the launch of its 100th live casino at its Riga table studio complex in Latvia, effectively making it the largest single-site casino operation in Europe. No small achievement, whichever way you slice it. The rapid growth of Evolution?s live casino table comes in a year of what it describes as an ?unprecedented interest in live casino? stemming from a increased demand from operators to being dedicated live casino tables in their establishments. In particular, the company?s Latvia-based staff has experienced rapid growth, inching closer and closer to hitting 1,000 heads with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. ?We fully expect table and staff numbers to rise further as more and more operators choose to run their own dedicated tables out of our state-of-the-art studios,? said Evolution COO Svante Lilijevall.
While their 100th live casino table in Latvia is enough reason for the company to do high fives and chest bumps, Evolution is also taking the necessary steps to ensure that the continuous growth doesn?t experience any hiccups along the way. According to Lilijevall, the company is also expanding its training academy to provide regular training and assessments for both new and existing staff, ensuring that they have the best collection of live dealers working on their tables. After all, it takes more than just presentation for live dealers to work; these fine folks need to know what they?re doing too.
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Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, center, leaves the Centre County Courthouse after attending a post-sentence motion hearing in Bellefonte, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence after being convicted in June of 45 counts of child sexual abuse. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, center, leaves the Centre County Courthouse after attending a post-sentence motion hearing in Bellefonte, Pa., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence after being convicted in June of 45 counts of child sexual abuse. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? A young man who testified at a child sex abuse trial last summer that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky tickled and grabbed him in a campus shower in 1998 sued him, his charity and the university on Tuesday.
The man, previously described as Victim 6 in court papers, filed the federal lawsuit in Philadelphia as John Doe 6, claiming that Sandusky's behavior was "ratified" by The Second Mile charity and Penn State and that the organizations acted with reckless indifference to his rights. He is seeking at least $75,000 in damages.
The lawsuit alleges that Penn State intentionally didn't oversee Sandusky properly and failed to report him to authorities when he was suspected of abusing children, allowing him to commit "his criminally outrageous and depraved acts."
It claims Penn State and The Second Mile "turned a blind eye to Sandusky's sexual exploitation" of children and "fostered a culture and/or code of silence" that kept abuse allegations from being reported.
The lawsuit says Sandusky used The Second Mile, which he founded in the 1970s, as a "'hunting ground' for victims of his perverted desire to sexually abuse minor boys." The charity, in an email from official David Woodle, said it would respond to the lawsuit "through the legal process."
Penn State declined to comment on Tuesday. Messages left for Sandusky's civil lawyers in New Jersey were not immediately returned.
Victim 6 testified Sandusky called himself "the Tickle Monster" and grabbed the then-11-year-old boy inside a university shower, saying he was going to squeeze his guts out. He said Sandusky also grabbed him and lifted him to the shower head to rinse soap from his hair.
He testified that when he returned to his home in a State College apartment complex, he told him mother his hair was wet because he had showered. His mother's complaint began a police investigation into Sandusky, but no charges were filed until the attorney general's office arrested Sandusky in November 2011.
The lawsuit is critical of how authorities, including the Penn State Police Department, handled Victim 6's case, calling it an intimidating and otherwise abusive investigation.
Victim 6, now 26 years old, told jurors this summer he lived in Colorado.
Sandusky, a former assistant to longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, was convicted of sexually abusing Victim 6 and nine other boys. He is serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison but maintains his innocence.
For Victim 6, Sandusky was convicted of unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children. Victim 6 testified that on the day he was abused, Sandusky gave him a pair of Paterno's socks.
Three former university administrators also face trial on charges of perjury, obstruction and other offenses in the Sandusky case. They deny the allegations.
The abuse scandal at Penn State led to the dismissal of Paterno, who died months later, and elicited landmark NCAA sanctions including a four-year postseason ban and significant scholarship cuts. A vigil to mark the anniversary of Paterno's death, which occurred a year ago Tuesday, was being held in State College.
Several lawsuits have been filed by Sandusky's accusers. Penn State has been negotiating with them in an effort to settle their claims and avoid protracted litigation.
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NEAL CONAN, HOST:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Back in 1999, I went along with Robert Ballard on a radio expedition to the Black Sea, where he hoped to find evidence that what's now a vast inland ocean was once a small freshwater lake. A controversial theory holds that thousands of years ago, the waters of the Mediterranean Sea suddenly burst through in a flood that may have inspired the story of Noah.
Ballard had identified what looked like an ancient beach hundreds of feet below the surface and lowered an oyster dredge to haul up a sample of the bottom. As it happened, the great underwater archaeologist George Bass was also aboard that day, and Ballard told him he hoped to find round rocks, absolute evidence there used to be a beach down there.
When the dredge hauled up a cubic foot of muck, Ballard stuck his arm in elbow-deep and hauled out...
ROBERT BALLARD: Round, round.
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: Ballard turns and flips the stone to George Bass.
GEORGE BASS: Congratulations. That's very nice, very nice.
BALLARD: The most beautiful beach pebbles.
BASS: It was incredible. I mean, he just reached in, and I couldn't believe it. It was a rounded pebble, and he just tossed it over to me. There it was.
BALLARD: It was fun to tell him in advance what we're going to find.
CONAN: You heard that moment of discovery in an NPR National Geographic radio expedition and read about it in National Geographic magazine. This month, National Geographic celebrates its 125th birthday. So tell us: what one story, what one issue have you kept to read and reread? 800-989-8255. Email talk@npr.org. You can join the conversation on our website, too. Go to npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, the stories of Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall, but first, 125 years of National Geographic. And we begin with National Geographic explorer-in-residence Robert Ballard. He joins us from a studio at Yale University in New Haven, not too far from his Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut. Hey, Bob.
BALLARD: Good morning, or is it afternoon? It's afternoon now.
CONAN: I think it's afternoon here on the East Coast, anyway. That was just one day in the Black Sea. What else have you found there?
BALLARD: Well, it got even better. Last year, you know, remember that thought that we would find the perfectly preserved shipwreck? And we did, we found an amazingly well-preserved shipwreck with its mast up and rigging. Well, last year we found a shipwreck from the time of the Classical period, and it had human remains.
CONAN: My goodness, that's preserved down in water where there's no oxygen so no wood borers to eat the timbers.
BALLARD: Or eat the people. I mean, this is a skeleton of a sailor that sank, you know, 500 years before the birth of Christ. I mean, that's quite amazing.
CONAN: And so these shipwrecks, you theorized, would be there, turned out to be there, and we're learning things we never knew.
BALLARD: Exactly, and, you know, there's - the deep sea is the largest museum in the world. I mean, it has more history in it than all the museums of the world combined. But unfortunately there's no guard on the door. That's our biggest trouble.
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: Well, and there's a stiff entry fee, too.
BALLARD: Yes, well, but, you know, the damage being done by the trawlers is really quite sad. We've been documenting - one of my students actually did his Ph.D. on how much of ancient history has been destroyed by the fishing trawlers. They're not doing it on purpose, but they're down there after the fish, but in so doing just go over and destroy the ancient shipwrecks.
CONAN: And these have been waters that have trawled for literally thousands of years.
BALLARD: Yes, but more, you know, deeper recently. They're getting deeper and deeper, and that's the problem. They're down now to 500 meters. So it's sad to think how much history has been destroyed by these trawlers - a lot.
CONAN: You grew up, of course all of us did, with National Geographic. Is there some issue that you keep and reread?
BALLARD: Absolutely, Beebe's books on creatures of the deep scattering layer. When I first saw those as a kid, they scared the living bejeeniors(ph) out of me, and these things look like saber-toothed tigers in the wrappings of a fish, and the only thing that saved me was when I read they were two inches. I'm so glad they weren't bigger. I would never have gone into the ocean.
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: Beebe went, descended into the depths in a giant cannonball with a window on it.
BALLARD: Yeah, a Bathysphere. It was lowered on a cable, I mean, and he saw these amazing creatures of the deep scattering layer and then took pictures of them but also sketched them and published them in National Geographic. And those are the issues that I remember the most.
CONAN: And interestingly the similar kind of construction, not too different, well, that was Alvin, the submarine that you used.
BALLARD: Well, actually it had a ball like that, but it was on a cable. I mean, this was a wrecking ball. I mean, I wouldn't do that. It was crazy. And he went down in a wrecking ball. And in fact the pressure pushed the cable down inside the pressure hull, and they - back then, this is in the '20s and '30s, they didn't have the technology for camera systems. So he literally shined - he had two portholes.
He shined a light out of one of them and photographed with a camera with the other one. It was a hoot.
CONAN: We're talking with Robert Ballard, who among his many other honors is a explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic. We want to hear what issue of the Geographic you've kept all these years, 800-989-8255. Email talk@npr.org. Russ is on the line with us from Boone in North Carolina.
RUSS: Hi there.
CONAN: Hi, go ahead.
RUSS: Yeah, I was blessed to have a gift from my grandmother. She sent me, every year for my birthday, National Geographic magazine. And the one that I find most interesting was 1981, December, and that was on the ocean. And it talked about even then, back in 1981, there were only two billion people on the planet, and they were talking about how they felt that it could support energy, and they were looking ahead to the ocean to support us energywise, foodwise.
But they were also talking about the United Nations prediction that by the year 2100, the swarms will reach the staggering figure of 11 billion. And so I find that, I find it, you know, sad really that by, you know, 2013 most of our oceans are becoming depleted. But it's still I find it's interesting that we know more about the moon than we do about the ocean.
BALLARD: Well, you must have been born in December because that was the December issue, wasn't it, 1981? And in that issue, if you still have it, I published a piece of artwork that was sort of the vision of the future in underwater exploration of telepresence, and it took us all these years, but that vision published in the December 1981 issue of the magazine that you have is now coming online at our Inner Space Center, so cool.
RUSS: Very nice. Very nice.
CONAN: Russ, thanks very much for the call.
RUSS: Thank you very much.
CONAN: Joining us here...
BALLARD: I didn't set that up, Neal, I want you to know.
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: I know, when you (unintelligible). Terry Garcia is with us here in Studio 3A, executive vice president for Mission Programs for the National Geographic Society. Other than seeding our telephone lines with serendipitous callers, he's in charge of, well, looking at some of these missions that National Geographic funds. And what's your criterion?
TERRY GARCIA: Oh, I have the pleasure of seeing all of them. It's an unusual job. You know, we've - over the years I've learned that you never say no; never reject anything out of hand...
CONAN: Oh, I have this project...
GARCIA: You know, and I will listen to you. And I get a lot of strange ideas and proposals that come my way, but you never know. And the reason I say that is that - and Bob is an example of this, his work is an example. We are just beginning to explore. We believe, I believe that the 21st century is going to be the greatest age of exploration in the history of mankind.
And we're embarking upon an exciting new era in exploration, and a lot of that is due to technology, to new technology that's, you know, opening doors that have been closed to us in the past and giving us insight into sometimes the unknown, but sometimes it gives us the ability to see things that we've been watching, we've been looking at for centuries, but you have a different outlook or a different take on it.
CONAN: Bob, you told me once a story, speaking of technology, of going down in Alvin with a couple of scientists, and you were in charge of the dive and after hours descending to the ocean depths, you turned around and said, well, here we are, and the scientists weren't looking at the portholes, they weren't looking at the windows, they weren't using those lights, they were looking at their computer screens.
BALLARD: Exactly, in fact that was Holger Jannasch, when we returned with biologists for the first time in 1979 to the hydrothermal vents we'd discovered in the Galapagos Islands, which rewrote the biology books, rewrote our thoughts about the origin of life on our planet and elsewhere in the universe.
And we had brought our - the first digital camera had been developed by RCA in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and we had this little camera on the front. And we landed amongst these giant tubeworms, and I turned my back to the window because I was operating the camera from a rack, and all of a sudden Holger Jannasch was on my shoulder.
And I said: What are you doing? He said: Well, I'm looking at the TV monitor. And I said: Well, why are you doing that? He says: Better than out the window. I can see better. And I went: Wait a minute, we went to all this trouble to get down here, and you're going to look at a TV monitor.
And that's what triggered that article in the December 1981 issue, the realization that you could bring your spirit to the bottom, but you could leave your body behind.
CONAN: Terry Garcia?
GARCIA: And this technology is allowing us to do things not just underwater but above it. For example, we have a project that we've been working on for about five years now, where we're using the science of genetics to understand the migratory history of the human race, how we as a species came to populate this planet after that great diaspora out of Africa.
So it's opening up windows there. We use CT scanning to understand, you know, the health and possibly the death of King Tut. So it's opening up a whole array of opportunities to answer questions that we've had for centuries.
CONAN: Let's get Steve...
BALLARD: Now they're looking for Genghis Khan, too, with technology.
CONAN: They found Richard III, but that's...
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: Steven(ph) is on the line with us from Sunnyvale, California.
STEVEN: Hi.
CONAN: Which issue of the Geographic do you keep?
STEVEN: Well, for me it was the 1972 issue, and it featured a story called "Happy Birthday Otto Lilienthal." It was about the first hang gliding competition that had ever happened in the United States. And it was a pivotal experience for me because both myself and everyone I know who hang glides from that generation saw that issue, and that's what inspired them and motivated them to get into the sport.
CONAN: Otto Lilienthal of course the experimenter and glider who, among other people, inspired the Wright Brothers.
STEVEN: Yes, and so this was in the '70s, and this was the first - it was sort of an informally organized meet, and the author in the article took a flight on a bamboo and plastic hang glider, and there were beautiful pictures. And as an 11-year-old kid, and when I saw this I just had to go hang gliding, and I've been hang gliding for 30-some years, ever since I saw that article.
CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Steven, and maybe you'd order a back issue to keep that one from getting too dog-eared.
STEVEN: OK, yeah, I probably will, thanks.
CONAN: Tell us, what's the one story from an issue of National Geographic you turn back to over and over again? 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. You can let us know on Twitter, as well. We're @totn. We'll have more in a minute. I'm Neal Conan. Stay with us. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan. In some households, a collection of National Geographics was kind of like a row of encyclopedias, an essential reference, a source of information for grade-school reports on whales or geology, an inspiration for dreams in the time between classes.
These days, it's rare to turn to an actual physical encyclopedia. Indeed, the Encyclopedia Britannica released its final print edition last year, though you can still buy sets of the World Book Encyclopedia. But those stacks of NatGeos, with their golden spines, arresting photography and stories of discovery still beckon.
So call, tell us: What's the one story or issue of the magazine you've held onto to read again and again? 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. And you can join the conversation on our website. Go npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Our guests - Robert Ballard, explorer-in-residence; and Terry Garcia, executive vice president for Mission Programs - are here to mark 125 years of the National Geographic Society. Let's go to Jeanie(ph), Jeanie on the line with us from Medford in Oregon.
JEANIE: Hi, I remember in the past whenever I had to move, my friends would offer to help. And they'd go: Wait, you're not still lugging around that 100 pounds of National Geographics, are you?
(LAUGHTER)
JEANIE: My favorite of all time was called "Alone Across the Outback," May 1978, the woman and her camels that went all the way to the Indian Ocean. And I also loved "Battle of Midway" and "The Blues Highway."
CONAN: The "Battle of Midway," Bob, you had something to do with that.
BALLARD: Yeah, we did that one. That was hunting down the Yorktown. That was a tough one.
CONAN: A long expedition. It was a childhood dream of mine to eventually get someday to Midway Island, which I'd read so much about as a kid, and the battle there, of course. And to actually be along with Bob in the hunt for the USS Yorktown was quite an honor. Jeanie, thanks very much for the call.
JEANIE: You're right. Thank you.
CONAN: Here's a - this is a tweet, actually, that we have from Joe in Janesville. He says: I have a mental image preserved of the National Geographic story from the late 1950s to early 1960s of Death Valley. I made two trips covering all the highlights from the magazine piece.
Joining us now is Sarah Parcak, she's an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham one of the National Geographic's emerging explorers. Good of you to be with us today.
SARAH PARCAK: Thank you for having me.
CONAN: And you use satellite imagery. Well, people will understand that. But then the next part they may have a hard time understanding - as an archaeologist.
PARCAK: That's right. You know, when you think about the scale of human populations all over the world and the fact that there's so much here, you know, really the only way to be able to visualize that is to pull back in space. And that not only gives us this incredible perspective of height, but it allows us to see in different parts of the light spectrum and allows us to see things that we literally have been walking over on the ground for many, many years.
It allows us to see hidden temples and tombs and pyramids and even entire settlements.
CONAN: Wait a minute, pyramids?
PARCAK: Pyramids, yes. There are so many previously unknown sites and structures all over the world. And I think most importantly what satellites help to show us is we've actually only found a fraction of a percent of ancient settlements and sites all over the world.
So what Terry was saying earlier about the 21st century being the greatest exploration, the greatest period of time for discovery, it's true for archaeology. It's the most exciting time in history to be an archaeologist.
CONAN: And what Bob Ballard says about the ocean floor, we haven't even begun to touch it. Well, obviously we've explored much more of the Earth's surface, the earthen part of it. But you're saying we didn't know what we were seeing.
PARCAK: That's right. I mean, all over the world, we're finding out that, you know, whether it's Egypt or Syria or Central America, what satellites are showing is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of previously unknown settlements all over the world, and what archaeology does it helps us to understand this common humanity that we have.
And by understanding that, you know, it really gives us a great sense of purpose and helps us understand why we're here.
CONAN: Can you give us a for instance of something you spotted from space and then were able to confirm?
PARCAK: Sure, well, in Egypt I do survey work on the ground. That's really the most important part of using satellite images. You know, it helps us to find potential locations for sites, and then we get to go there on the ground and confirm what we've seen.
And one particular instance is I was able to do remote sensing work and do a big survey project in Middle Egypt, and I was able to find about 70 previously unknown sites. And what that helps to do is to confirm the methodology I was using and helped me to realize that there were actually thousands of unknown sites all over Egypt.
So we used similar techniques and actually mapped all of Egypt and found over 3,000 potential sites all over Egypt that weren't known previously.
CONAN: Terry Garcia, what did you...?
GARCIA: Yeah, you know, another good example is the work that Albert Lin has been doing in Mongolia, where he's using satellite imagery and actually enlisting the public in the search for Genghis Khan's tomb. And so what he has done is to take high-resolution satellite imagery, chop it up, put it out to the public and say, look, we're looking for these anomalies. Help us find the tomb.
And so there - this technology is being used all around the world now by explorers, by archaeologists, anthropologists and others.
CONAN: Bob Ballard, we have also used satellite technology to create maps of the underwater world.
BALLARD: Yeah, actually you can get a rough idea of the main features beneath the sea from synthetic aperture radar in outer space, and you're able to actually - when water moves over a mountain, it actually rises slightly. When it goes over a trench, it goes down slightly. And we're actually able to sort out the normal wave patterns and actually see that reflection of topography.
But it's sort of like taking a wet blanket and putting it over a dinner table. you know where the candelabra might be, but you don't know what's underneath it. So it gives you a first-order look. And we use it all the time to then home in on places that look really exciting. So yes, that's been a very important guide to first-order figuring out what's down there.
CONAN: Let's get another caller in, go to Scott, Scott with us from Jacksonville.
SCOTT: Hi, how are you doing? My comment was just about an issue I kept. My father was a professor at Arizona State. He specialized in conservation biology. And I kept an issue, I actually have one, that the Japanese National Geographic crew was sent into an area in Mexico, Cuatro Cienegas. And NASA had given ASU a grant to understand and study isolated ecosystems.
And there was a hot spring in a valley there, and these springs, some of them were hot, but the thing was that these springs were isolated, and it kept the local flora and fauna in a very arid region, but these springs were right there, and he would study the systems. And it's just an issue I kept to remember him, so...
CONAN: So your father was in the issue?
SCOTT: Yes he was, he was.
CONAN: And was that one of the Japanese magazines?
SCOTT: No, it ran in the U.S. one, as well. I have an English copy. But the crew that went down with us was Japanese, and it was interesting that they sent a Japanese crew down to study and do underwater shots with us.
CONAN: All right, Scott, thank you very much.
SCOTT: Thank you.
CONAN: Terry?
GARCIA: You know, we've touched on this now a couple of times, but I think I should point out to your listeners that National Geographic has made more than 10,000 grants. So oftentimes people think of us as a magazine, or they may think of us as a television broadcaster, but really our heart is in exploration. That was the original intent of the founders, to fill in those blank spaces in the map, and then to communicate what we found to a broad public.
So it's important to keep that in mind, that we're still making those grants. In fact, we've decided to up the ante and increase that grant enterprise and support field research around the world and go way beyond just 10,000 grants.
CONAN: I was interested to read, in fact, that a couple of early members of the board quit in disgust upon the publication of photographs in the magazine. They said it was becoming a mere picture book.
GARCIA: Well, you know, it was quite scandalous, and Alexander Graham Bell, who was one of the first presidents - in fact he was the second president - he said, pictures and plenty of them, and instructed the editor, Gilbert Grosvenor, then to publish photographs. And it was scandalous. Several trustees threatened to resign, and fortunately he stuck to his guns, and it's the National Geographic we have today.
CONAN: Here's an email, this is from Nancy: One photo a day, a famous photographer set himself a task he would take only one photo a day. The photographer was Jim Brandenburg, and the issue was published November 1997. And he took one photograph a day for 90 days.
Let's see if we can get Patrick on the line, Patrick with us from St. Louis.
PATRICK: Hi, how are you doing? My father has had a wall filled with National Geographics that went back to the '20s and predating those, I'm sure. And I used many of those for school activities and projects. One of those was on the moon and on Mars, and I'm reminded of these old issues that he had that had fold-out maps and were beautiful.
And Mr. Garcia, I want to say thank you very much for all that you do and all the National Geographic does. And, Mr. Bob Ballard, you are a hero to child explorers everywhere. Thank you.
GARCIA: Our pleasure.
BALLARD: Thank you.
CONAN: Patrick, thanks very much for the call. And Bob, not just the activities that most people will know about, but you do a lot of work with kids.
BALLARD: Oh, very much so, with Geographic as well, our JASON Project, over 11 million children. And actually, it's just about to take off. We're going to establish what's called the Exploration Room. We've got other ships now coming into our Inner Space Center, and we hope to launch in June an amazing program for kids where we have ships at sea every day.
CONAN: Sarah Parcak, we wanted to go back to you in Alabama, there. What is the one issue of National Geographic you've kept all these years?
PARCAK: Well, I'd say anything with Egypt in it. That's...
CONAN: That's a lot of issues.
PARCAK: Yeah, it's quite a few issues. It's what I would look forward to. And, in fact, I credit - it's both Indiana Jones and National Geographic that inspired me to be an Egyptologist. I would just wait every month by my parents' mailbox and just hope that that month, something about Egypt would appear, and I would just devour it and read it again and again. So I credit National Geographic with inspiring me to do what I do.
CONAN: And how much more work do you have to do with your satellite imagery? I assume there's lots of Earth left to be pored over.
PARCAK: Oh, I mean, I have enough for a thousand lifetimes, which is why it's critical that we train future generations. I have funding now from the National Science Foundation to help set up a training program in Egypt for young Egyptians to help train them in the use of these new technologies.
And it's absolutely critical, you know, to train young men and women not just to find sites, but also to protect sites, especially in the wake of the Arab Spring. There's been significant site-looting in Egypt and elsewhere across the Middle East. So it's an amazing tool, and we have to train future generations not only to be able to find sites, but to protect them for future generations.
CONAN: Here's an email we have from Shelly in Maryland: We've moved 12 times - Marine Corps - and have carried our boxes of Nat Geo along for each. Many were saved from my grandfather from the 1930s. My favorites are the original space-race issues, and the issue about sailing the Nile before the Aswan Dam was finished. Love the mag. Thank you very much.
We're talking about the 125th anniversary of National Geographic. Terry Garcia, vice president for Mission Programs of the National Geographic Society. With us also, Bob Ballard, ocean explorer and explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic, and Sarah Parcak, a associate professor of archaeology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and she's joining us from there. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.
And let's see if we can go to Jennifer, Jennifer with us from Indianapolis.
JENNIFER: Hi. A couple of years ago, there was a fabulous issue where they descended into a volcanic crater on Papua, New Guinea. And there apparently was an isolated breeding population there, and they discovered several hitherto unknown species, including some mammals that apparently just walked right up to the photographers and weren't afraid of them at all. So maybe you can tell us more about it. I haven't read it in a while. I'm going to go home to reread it right now, but it was just amazing.
CONAN: I'm not sure that we can give you an answer on that particular story, but is there any count on the numbers of new and unknown creatures that have been uncovered by Geographic explorers over the years?
GARCIA: No. I don't know that there's a count. But I can tell you, almost every time we send a biologist into the field, we find something new.
CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Jennifer. Sorry we couldn't help...
JENNIFER: Thank you.
CONAN: ...more with that. Here's an email from Arum(ph): My Nat Geo story is in the mid-'80s issue about Australia, maybe 1986, in the middle of America's fascination with Aus. It was fuel for my dreams of the land down under. In '06, I fulfilled my dream and spent a month in Australia. So glad I went. So glad I lived my dream.
And let's go now to Heather, and Heather's on the line with us from Honolulu.
HEATHER: Hi. This is about an issue that I wish I had kept, but it's been burned into my memory since I was a little kid. It was the late '70s, and we received an issue about whales. And growing up in Hawaii, we had always - we could see whales, but I had no idea what they sounded like.
And included in this issue was a very thin vinyl record, a 45, that you could tear out and put on the old-school record player. And I would sit and listen to it over and over, mesmerized by the sound of what those huge creatures - what they sounded like.
CONAN: The songs of the humpbacked whale.
HEATHER: Incredible. And I just - it's just - I have a four-year-old daughter now, and we live in Hawaii still, and I - you know, we talk about whales. And I had to go online, unfortunately - I was so sad to not have this record - so that I can play for her what the sounds were. But, yeah, it was - it's incredible.
CONAN: Bob Ballard, we think of the underwater world as silent. As we just heard, obviously, it's not and, obviously, that's not the only sound.
BALLARD: Oh, no. There's a tremendous amount of noise, so to speak, but beautiful noise. And the whales learned long ago that there's a particular layer in the ocean called the sound channel. It's about a thousand meters down. We discovered it in the '50s, but the whales discovered it, like, millions of years ago, and they can make sounds that will travel great distances in the sound channel. So, no, there's a lot of noise going on down there, but you just have to listen.
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: Terry Garcia?
GARCIA: Well, I wanted to bring up another point. You know, I've had the pleasure of having hundreds of photographers and explorers come through my office over the years, and they've all stopped on their way into the field as they were going out to search for the truth, whatever that truth might be.
And I can tell you that almost without exception, when they return, they return as individuals who are committed to conserving what we're losing. Because what they're seeing out there as we send these people into the field is that the natural, cultural and historical resources that we've highlighted in the magazine and that we've highlighted on our television programs over the years are disappearing. They're starting to slip away from us. And one thing that we believe is that exploration can do more than just explore, just answer those unknown questions, but it can inspire. And it can inspire people to care. It can inspire them to act. And we have a number of examples of where that's happened, which I'll tell you about in a moment.
CONAN: Heather, well, you know, you won't - but Heather...
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: ...we have - you have a kindred soul, Anne in Burlington, Washington: Most memorable, sitting, as a middle-schooler, listening to the whale sounds on a little plastic record included in my magazine. Don't know what year it was, early '70s. I think they printed 10 million copies of that particular record. But thank you very much for the call and for the - refreshing our recollection.
HEATHER: Thank you.
CONAN: Here's another emailer, this from Maria in Tucson: My mother told me she was in an issue of the magazine before I was born. It was about Cape Cod, where she spent summers with her family. I found the magazine in the stack at a thrift shop in Seattle, and there she was: a wide-faced teenager singing by the firelight on the beach. I think it was a 1962 issue. But at the moment, I can't find it. I think she may spend the rest of the day looking for it. But Terry Garcia, thank you very much...
GARCIA: My pleasure.
CONAN: ...for your time today. And our thanks, as well, to Sarah Parcak at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Good to speak with you.
PARCAK: Thanks very much.
CONAN: And, Bob, hope to see you soon.
BALLARD: Well, come with us to sea again.
CONAN: I'd love to. In yesterday's inaugural address, President Obama drew a line from Seneca Falls through Selma to Stonewall. We'll hear those stories of those places next, on NPR News.
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