tv Up Front Al Jazeera March 11, 2023 5:30pm-6:00pm AST
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some of the hong kong history is very special. most people come to rekey lands, antique store, to look for toys made in the seventy's, when hong kong with the largest toy manufacturer in the world to go with a little somehow to say, i played these toys when i was a kid. i feel emotionally connected to them. why do they also tell the story of old hong kong? there are also some customers who look for vintage products. they associate with their childhood memories to take with them before leaving hong kong for good. he says his store of his customers and opportunity to better understand the cities evolving identity. the chance to be in a style, jake had to carry those memories with them wherever they go. jessica washington, out as her uncle. ah, watching al jazeera, you're the headlines. it's been 3 years since the world health organization declared the corona virus outbreak. a pandemic. nearly 7000000 people across the globe lost their lives the coven. 19. since the 1st case was reported and the
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chinese city of juan california financial regulators have shut down silicon valley bank. this is the largest failure of a u. s. bank. since 2008, the firm failed to raise fresh capital after being affected by higher interest rates. there are recent development, the concern a few banks that i'm monitoring very carefully and when banks experience financial losses, it is and should be a matter of concern. at least 4 people have been killed and 14 injured in a blast in afghanistan, northern bulk province. the explosion took place that a sheer cultural center which is supported by iran. many journalists had been gathering there to celebrate national journalists stay over a 1000. people have been rescued by the italian coast guard from overcrowded boats in the mediterranean. on saturday, italy defense ministry says it is now working on transferring people to the
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mainland from an overcrowded migrant center on the island of land, producer, one in 17500 people have arrived in italy by c this year. that is nearly 3 times last year. the number of chin is president. can you say ed says he plans to restore diplomatic relations with syria? now she is broke off times with syria and protest after the civil war began in the assad government crackdown on political opponents. the syrian ambassador that unit here was expelled back in 2012. nearly a 1000000 people across france have taken to the streets for a 7 straight day of strikes and protests against president monroe mac pension reform plan. the build would raise retirement age from 62 to 64, still making its way through the legislature. the final vote expected as early as this month. i called twice turned down calls from unions to meet for tor this week . indonesia moran. people, okay, know his erupted volcano is located in the yoga cart there. region. it has been
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spewing out hot ash for up to 7 kilometers. are off the is one of the need his most active volcanoes as your headlines analysis 0 up next upfront. stay with us rank today, she's governed by the founding fathers, daughter. how is she facing the challenges brought on by the rowing, the refugee crisis? this paper should go back to their own land and his vote is prepare for a general election. will ask her about allegations of persecution of opposition. members shake athena talks to al jazeera. we are at an extraordinary moment for space exploration and 2022. for the 1st time ever, astronomers were able to capture an image of a super massive black hole at the center of our galaxy. nasa's hubble space telescope identified the most distant star ever observed. and the launch of the james web telescope delivered the sharper image of the distant universe to be. but despite these brown breaking advancement, 5 to facing a crisis of legitimacy,
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public distrust and finance on the right side to pick this information continues to flow, respond line. well, how do we win the battle for evidence base? true. and then up front special. i'll ask where now national physicists, the autograph type the near the graph, tyson, thank you so much for joining us. an upright. delighted to be with you. thanks for having me. there's a poll that says it over a quarter of americans don't believe that climate change is caused by human activity and 6 percent. don't believe it's happening at all right. there's another one that says that over quarter of americans are skeptical of vaccines. now, you actually just produced a documentary on misinformation. they're going to ask you when the science in scientific backs becomes something that's up for public debate. yeah, and so i hate to just sound so obvious about this, but part of it is a failure of the educational system which teaches science as a sort of
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a satchel of facts that you sort of pour into the empty vessel that you are as you sit there in the classroom and you and you're given this fat book and there are these words that are boldface. and you gotta remember, i remember those words for the exam, and then you move on. and at no time, really, i think not even in the lab sections of the classes, do you really deeply learn what science is and how and why it works? and so if somebody comes out with a research result that's intriguing or controversial, depressed typically rushes towards it, but it's not really an authentic result until it's verified by other researchers. because there could be bias manifested within it. maybe the wall current fluctuated when they got their result. anything could have happened. so a fundamental feature of science is that whatever result you get,
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i'm going to try to verify it or falsify it, alright, effect, i might be a competitor of yours and i don't trust anything. the guy that i'm going to do it myself. okay. i got the same result and somebody in another country does it somebody with a different might. and then once you get agreement of these research results, then you have an objective truth. but if you only sample science on that bleeding frontier, that messy frontier, you would think we didn't know what the hell we were doing at any time when it's a feature of science that we have these, that frontier information is contested. your book start messenger, cosmic perspective civilization. you say that certain beliefs about science become true in people's minds when they are constantly repeated in the media. and you call this a fundamental feature of propaganda. talk to me a little bit about this propaganda. where did these police come from? and what's the primary source of the propaganda as you put it in,
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who's the most culpable outside of the media itself? thank you. great question. you know, i tried to think what is truth mean? and i don't want to usurp the word and give it only one definition, because then you get into fights. so i'll give people how they use the word. so i split the kingdom of truths into 3 categories. so one of them is objective truths. these are the, these are things that are true, whether or not you believe in them. and the methods and tools of science are exquisitely tuned to establish objective truths in this world, then is personal truths. these are truths that are true to you, but you, they may not be true to some one else. is jesus, your savior. is mohammed your last profit on earth? these are your personal truth. and in a free country, no one can take those away from you. a 3rd kind of truth, i call it political truth is just something that becomes true in your head simply because it's repeated so often. and we have this sis,
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which evolved to say to ourselves, well, if we hear something often it must be true. otherwise, why would it happen that often? and so the brain, we wires and is it. yep, that's the truth. and this is the soul a propaganda. so. so what's our response to that? i'm thinking specifically. for example, during the pandemic, when you had people spreading all kinds of misinformation on line, not just people. ah, who said this isn't so bad, right? but people who are actually promoting ivr met in awe hydro chloral quinn as actual miracle cures for coven, i mean that's dangerous stuff. all of this stuff is happening in a, in a sphere on line the political sphere sometimes in a white house press room, even when this stuff is happening. what should be our response? should we be regulating speech online? i'm not talking about, oh, just saying people don't have a right to express their opinions. but so what about this other stuff?
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there's a whole chapter in the book called risk and reward. and i make the point, which i'm going to make here, that our brains, the human brain, is not natively wired to think statistically, or probabilistically about anything. ok. and some people know this and fully exploit this fact. and so they've created what we call casino to completely exploit our inability to understand probability and statistics. they exploit this fact and they take your money and you go home without it. ok, but typically that's what happens. and so, because we don't think statistically about it, we think anecdotally about it. and this infuses in all decisions we make in our lives. and what we say, why don't trust the cdc, but i'm going to trust my aunt matilda. i'm going to trust this guy on the internet, and you know what? cells on a youtube? just watch that, okay, you ready?
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it's at the establishment thinks this. but what i have is actually true and they don't want you to know it. oh my gosh, if you lead off your youtube video that way, millions of use guaranteed. there's something about doing something that is not the establishment that is irresistibly attractive to us. and i don't full, i'm not a psychologist. i don't fully understand it, but it's pernicious in our environment and it could be the seeds of the unraveling of an informed democracy. there's another pasted this though because i agree with you. there are people who say, look, you can't trust the state, you can't trust the government. you can't trust the establishment because i had this great story, this great anecdote that appeals more to your desires, true, but then there are legitimate reasons, not to trust the establishment. i'm thinking, for example, about the history of medical abuse and medical racism in the united states and thinking about the tuskegee study ah, ah, i'm thinking about of
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a low point in the medical, any annals of medical treatment. absolutely, an informal way to think of course, that's a study that started in the 19 thirty's when black men were left to die untreated of syphilis. a we've indigenous people who use the subject for tuberculosis vaccine trout also in the 30s. and in the seventy's, thousands of indigenous women were also forcibly sterilized. so against the backdrop of that, for example, there's legitimate reasons why a certain community, certain people, or maybe all of us say, look, i can't trust the establishment. that's why i'm vaccine hesitant. how do we get to the ways to do that? so you say, especially in the black community, or what if you're worried that the vaccines oh, you know, ah, what if you're worried about their weather go harm you. and there is some racist motive for it because of this, these cases in the past, what you do is step in the vaccine line between 2 white people that through the solution, it's not going to make light of these re, very real problems that,
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that institutionalized racism sexism and practically every other ism has manifested. yes. ok. you have to ask yourself is reason to never trust anything they ever do since. and if so this is, this is sort of cancellation principles that have been rampant and especially social media. so if, if an institution is one thing wrong, if you don't trust anything they do. yeah. but it is that, that one thing it's, there's a fundamental belief that the state, as such, almost by definition is untrustworthy. that's a different position in. oh, you messed up. one is about a saying, the medical establishment, scientific 1000, the politicization of medicine is untrodden. i grew up. yeah. you know what i mean? yes. yes, it's hard. line them up. so you line them up. he said, that's bad. and they, we were deceived. yes. now, next to that, make a list of achievements earned by the state. ok. look at
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the distribution of the polio vaccine and how many lives were stay, stay look at the statistics of that. look at the increased longevity of the human species everywhere in the world brought about by advances in medical technologies and, and the science associated with it. put that alongside you realize 150 years ago. the life expectancy of humans on earth was only slightly higher than when we were living in caves 30000 years ago. so put it next to it. what else has the quote state done? the state runs, nasa. ok and put stuff on the moon and on mars and on asteroids. very you talk in talk about nasa. i want to think about nasa little bit because last year was a huge picture nasa right there on you. all right there the, the james webb telescope on the saudi are set up last year. last year was
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a significant year for it for space discoveries. for the 1st time, astronomers captured an image of a super massive black hole in the center of our galaxy. also on the hubble space telescope identified the most distant star ever observed, and of course, at the james web, ah, base house got delivered a deep field image of the quote invisible universe showing us unseen parts of the casualties. it's quite fascinating stuff, and the most distant galaxy we've ever observed are now accessible to us in a certain kind of way. can you talk to me about 2022? i'm everything that happened. what was the biggest discovery in your estimation, and how does it influence our understanding of space, maybe even science in the years to collect europe? i'm, i'm delighted to report that investments in this country and others who are partners in science continues and continues to push the frontier of cosmic discovery. and that image of a black hole, we always knew it was there. but to get evidence of what it's doing to the distorted fabric of space some time around it,
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that was justifiably banner headlines and the deployment of the james web space telescope. oh, my gosh. i mean, that's so much could have gone wrong. you know, doesn't get enough credit in this, or the engineers figured out how to build this thing. how do you make an 8 meter telescope fit into the ferrying of a rocket? well, you fold it, astro physicists didn't figure that out. engineers did you fold it? and then on furlough when you get to your destination. all right, they figure that out. and so i'd a tip, my hat with my hat tip, my hat to the engineers that enable our discoveries in astrophysics. so. so yeah, people who are into science, you could also be into engineering and still participate on that frontier research . so it was all good on the year. you said something interesting and an interview with steven co bear talking about the web telescope. and you said that as our area of knowledge grows, so to does the perimeter of our ignorance,
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i for those beautifully put, you should be a poet in addition to that book. how, how ignorant are we of the vastness of the universe? that's a great question. by the way, i wrote an essay some years ago called the perimeter of ignorance. the point is, as you learn what is going on in the universe, then your area of knowledge grow so that this is a, this is a highly potent analogy. i think the area grows, but wait a minute. the perimeter of that area is also growing. so so, so for example, i know to ask questions today because i'm standing in a new place brought to you by the james web space telescope and the hobble. if you want to go back a couple of decade, i can ask a question today that i didn't even think to ask 20 years ago, 10 years ago, in some cases,
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5 years ago. so your curiosity fed by this, that the, that the intent, the intention to advance this moving frontier puts you in a new vista. you can see where you've never seen before. so now you going to say, well, how vass is that field of ignorance? we don't know, but i tell you what we do know. there are 2 drivers in the universe. we have terms for them, but we don't know what they are, but we call them dark matter and dark energy. these are some of the longest unsolved problems in astrophysics. if you add up their effect on the universe, it is 96 percent of what's going on. and we do not know or understand what they are or what causes them. every thing you, no one love about that we all know in love about this universe, the chemistry, the biology, the physics, the aerodynamics the, the, the, the orbital dynamics,
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everything we understand is contained in 4 percent of what's driving the universe. so we're in a odd situation where we know enough about the universe to quantify what we don't know. and that's exciting to the scientists. it's not terrifying it's excite that is exciting to the science is exciting to the everyday nerd. it's exciting to lots of us, right. and then there's a part of me though that says yes, as much as i'd like to know more as much as i'd like to use your quote to make the entire solar system like our a back yard. that sounds great, but that investment both of time, of intellectual resources and of money to some is, is what should be devoted to our problems here on the ground on this planet that they're systemic issues, institutional, asian, structural issues that we have to deal with. and it's, and that it's a 0 sum game that when we spend too much time out there, we're not dealing with what's going on down here. what do you say to that argument? well, you can ask, how much do you think we're spending in space?
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the space station, the james web, the hubble, the mission to the moon, the artemus missions. what fraction of your tax dollar? if you're an american, do you think we're spending? and when i ask that to people, it's out of 10 percent. maybe 15 percent were spending 4 tenths of a penny of your tax dollar, doing all those activities. so you can take a, a green back, take a dollar bill, and cut 4 tenths of one percent off of the edge. and it doesn't even get you into the ink. so you're saying why we spending it there when we should be solving these problems here. we're spending 99.6 percent of a budget down here. and you want to grab it from this point 4 percent and say that's gonna solve the problem. really take a look at the budgets. take a look at how and where and why we're spending money to a person. none of them have actually look at how that 99.6 percent of the budget is
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invested. and i think if you did, you might be say, well, we're spending too much over here or we're here. 29 dozen places you could point to . meanwhile, when nasa makes a discovery, it has headlines in a why because people care, they want to look up. they want some kind of hope for what science and technology can be and do for their future. and, and, and it, it, transformative, it space technology. they gave you gps that you take for granted this sitting on your smartphone. and that's how you can find the short the quickest way to grandma in the that grandma's house in traffic. yeah. without thinking why these are satellites or been sent to middle earth orbit. ok, middle earth, not middle earth, and it's sort of the rice, but so, so, so it's space that how do you know the hurricane is coming and what pass it's gonna take satellite technology bought that to you. girl was spread money and space and
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we shouldn't spend it down here. so i can't, here's what i'm going to do. will sneak into your house in the dark of night and remove everything in your home. that was inspired or enabled by investments in space technology, and you'll buy that when you wake up in the morning. it might be indistinguishable from a cave because that's kind of where we be without what those investments have delivered to modern civilization. those investments have also delivered some other stuff. in 2001 you, you propose creating a space force which eventually came into existence in 2019 under president donald trump. the u. s. space force is now defined as a, quote, a military service that organizes trains and equips space forces in order to protect us and allied interests in space, you examine the relationship between astrophysics in the military and accessory, to war, your book, accessory, to war some. i'm curious at the same time that we think about these extraordinary advances in technological benefits. do you worry about potential consequences of
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militarized space? so a couple of points are in 2001 i was in a white house commission where that was discussed. yes, but we were not the only commission were that was discuss, i'm so that the space force has been percolating for decades and odd. so a donald trump decided to act on it. so trumpeters would, would associate it with trump, but really it's been in discussion long did long predates donald trump just to be clear about that. second. i'm no, nobody wants war. nobody want know, nobody wants that. all right, so, so i want to 1st say that the space force wasn't created out of in or out of the ether. it kind of already existed how in what was called the u. s. space command, which was a branch of the u. s. air force. it already existed, they're the ones who launched the gps. so when you create a space 4th,
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what primarily occurred was that this branch of the air force was separated out and given its own budget line, but metaphysical, or expanding that the theatre of war. i mean, i hear donald trump saying, ah, he once said that the space force was created because quote, space is the world's newest war fighting domain and amid grave threats to our national security, americans appear already in space is absolutely vital. i agree. i know you don't want war and i know most saying normal people don't want war with it, but, but as out of money was a lot of investment war. so, so now we're in modern times and ask yourself, i'm how much space assets do we have? and how much of our economy depends on it. you know, what is wilbur valued at in the billions? oprah does not exist without space assets. neither does directv. neither does the weather channel. neither does i of the apple tinder. ok. just to take an absurd,
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limiting example of the financial value of our space assets. so you say to yourself, what should the military be doing as in their got well, i want them to protect our assets. i said, i think that's a natural need of a sovereign nation to have any military that they fund to protect their assets and our assets in space to day are huge. yeah. huge. and i on that i way asked is attorney, and i appreciate that i, i think though, the idea that this sort of posture in these investments are purely to protect assets rather than to expand power and maybe empire. that's where the tension comes in. right? so we're not just protecting our stuff, we're getting other stuff. and in that, well, it's a car. that's a, that's a, a caricature of our presence in space. ok, so the military is going to protect our assets, make sure we can conduct business,
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make sure we can do the things we normally do, based on all the things we have put into space. now if, if there is someone else that's perceived as a threat, then we can think of military actions rather than just a defensive action. so offensive actions or, or let me, let me not say offense, right? let me say if there's a satellite that we believe is putting us at risk, then i wouldn't put it past the space forced to take out that satellite in by some way and a lot of ways to do that. but this whole thing with star wars with, with ships fighting each other. no, that is not what's going on. okay. it is not what's happening here is not how space works. you said something in your bookstore a messenger that stick sticks with me. you said cosmic perspectives, can force us to take pause and reflect on the meaning of life. and when the value of piece that sustains it, that, that really resonates with me. what does it mean? what does the significant for all of us regular folk to have a cosmic perspective?
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yeah, so what happens is it takes you out of yourself and out of your own ego. and it forces you to look, i really don't like this. we're been able to use it here holistically at life on earth, not as humans on earth, but life on earth and the eco system that sustains us. and it's not just a stratus ferric view, it say, it's higher than that. and with your permission, i want to quote appalled 14 astronaut, edgar mitchell. you develop an instant global consciousness. a people orientation an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world and a compulsion to do something about it from out there on the moon, international politics look so betty. you want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter 1000000 miles out and say, look at deck, son of a wolf. that,
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that is, that is a cosmic perspective. i only knew that i'm telling you that is the cost perspective to end all cosmick perspective. so i have, you have these fantasies where the lawn creates a space bus and was air bus. the company space bus. get all the worrying leaders, put him on the bus, set him to the moon and have him look back at earth. and you say, you see the border between your country and the one you're fighting? no. do you see the people dying? no, do you see that the havoc your weekend? no, that's just earth and we're all in it together and it's all we have. and there's no hope that there's no hint that that, that, that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. it's up to us to do something about a carl sagan wrote about this in the pale blue dot decades ago. so yeah, it can transform the world. and yes, bring it out everlasting piece. a to sound like a beauty pageant contestant,
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a difference. a legacy of southern africa, colonial history family, a blend of traditional music with western instrument. valentino like guy, big horn in the villages of this little dog. now echoes in apartheid disused minds where a new illegal gold rush has taken hold. god has organized crime, gangs. battle for control of this lucrative industry feuds that started in song too often and in bloodshed. the accordion was on her jazeera ah ah.
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