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Cuba’s new challenges: Inequality, emigration

By Guest PostJanuary 19, 2016Culture, Politicsantagonism, anthropology professor, Cuba, emigration, inequality, new challenges, richard blanco, ruth behar

As she made her way through the busy streets of Havana earlier this year, Ruth Behar stopped to check out some of the new boutiques, cafes, salsa dancing studios and a gelato store. (more…)

Florida Lizards Evolve Rapidly, Within 15 Years and 20 Generations

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2014Natureatomic scale pattern, austin, azithromycin, ceftriaxone, charles darwin, coupling, Cuba, dylan selterman, evolution, evolutionary biologists, evolve, galapagos islands, horror superbug, ian mathieson, invasion, irene tsapelas, jaeger, justin garciad, multidrug resistant gonorrhoeae, quantum material, sammler, superrechner, taira giordani, terahertz laser pulse, university of texas

AUSTIN, Texas — Scientists working on islands in Florida have documented the rapid evolution of a native lizard species — in as little as 15 years — as a result of pressure from an invading lizard species, introduced from Cuba.

After contact with the invasive species, the native lizards began perching higher in trees, and, generation after generation, their feet evolved to become better at gripping the thinner, smoother branches found higher up. (more…)

In conversation: scientist Ruth Blake on life aboard the E/V Nautilus

By Guest PostSeptember 2, 2014Environmentatlantic ocean, beauty of politics, belize, court jew, Cuba, dry tortugas, evolution der chlamydien, geophysics, gulf of mexico, haiti, jew suess, joseph suess oppenheimer, many deaths, matthias horn, sattelzeit, scientist, straits of florida, truth in history, yair mintzker

Yale geology and geophysics professor Ruth Blake recently completed a tour of duty as lead scientist aboard the exploration vessel Nautilus, during the Windward Passage leg of the ship’s 2014 exploration season.

The Windward Passage is the body of water between Cuba and Haiti, where the Atlantic Ocean flows into and exchanges water with the Caribbean Sea. Blake’s stint as lead scientist lasted Aug. 18–28.

Blake spoke with YaleNews about the scientific mission at the heart of the journey. (more…)

New Book Traces Black Panthers’ Evolution from Local Activists to Global Anti-Imperialists

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2013Culture, Politicsafrican american culture, african americans, algeria, american, american black power, american jazz artists, anti colonial activist, anti colonial movement, anti imperialist movement, anti war activists, assassination, black activist, black against empire, black history, black panther movement, black panther party, black panthers, black power, bobby seale, business as usual, california legislature, China, civil rights movement, civil war, communist revolutionary, criminal charges, Cuba, evolution, folk heroes, frantz fanon, free huey, global anti imperialists, history, huey newton, jim crow segregations, joshua bloom, local activists, los angeles chapter, lowndes county, malcolm x, mao zedong, marcus garvey, martin luther king, mulford act, new york chapter, non violent activism, oakland, pan africanism, panther angela, peoples republic, political asylum, political genius, political power, politics of containment, poverty, president nixon, prisoners of war, revolutionary struggles, robert hill, robin kelley, rural alabama, scot brown, sociology, stokely carmichael, tom hayden, ucla, united states, university of california, us government, viet cong, vietnam war, voluntary manslaughter, waldo e martin, zhou enlai

History has long denied the political genius of the Black Panther Party. At worst, its members have been cast as unconscionable criminals. At best, such seminal figures as party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and early supporter Stokely Carmichael have been portrayed as outlaw folk heroes who, propelled by the progressive winds of the late 1960s, dared to take on the establishment.

But a UCLA graduate student in sociology who worked alongside former Panthers a decade ago as a community organizer in Oakland, Calif., didn’t buy the conventional wisdom. (more…)

Commentary: Sergei Khrushchev – The Cuban Missile Crisis, 50 years later

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Politics13 day, 50th anniversary, air strike, american, american mythology, balance, berlin, brown, Cuba, cuban, cuban invasion, diplomatic lesson, enemy, europeans, ex comm, executive committee, iranian republic, john kennedy, middle east, missile base, missile crisis, nikita khrushchev, nuclear exchange, nuclear weapons, october, power, president, president castro, president kennedy, President Obama, psychological crisis, resolution, russian premier, russians, secret, sergei khrushchev, slavic language, southern america, soviet bloc, soviet union, tense time, united states, victory, weapon

October marks the 50th anniversary of of the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis, when President John F. Kennedy discovered that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases in Cuba. Forgoing the option of a Cuban invasion or air strikes, Kennedy asked Russian Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to remove all weapons from the island, and on Oct. 28, 1962, Khrushchev conceded, halting the standoff. Here, Khrushchev’s son, Sergei Khrushchev, visiting professor of Slavic languages at Brown, reflects on the diplomatic lessons.

The perspective of the crisis has changed over time and today the history of the crisis is more focused not on the confrontation, but on cooperation.

The Cuban Missile Crisis showed that two leaders decided not to shoot first, but to think and negotiate with each other. And today that is very unusual, because we think we can only negotiate with friends. Today, we impose unconditional surrender and nobody surrenders unconditionally until fully defeated. (more…)

Color is Key in Controlling Flies, UF Researchers Find

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2012Sciencebehavioral test, carrier, cholera, Cuba, dysentery, electricity, florida fly baiter, fly control, haitian refugee, house fly, hurricane, jeff hertz, joseph diclaro, natural disaster, pest problem, phil koehler, plumbing, program, robert h wells, roberto pereira, tsunamis, typhoid fever, university of florida, war fighter protection

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As a carrier of as many as 100 types of germs, the common house fly is hardly as innocuous as its name might suggest.

Military personnel know this firsthand, and their need for effective fly control has helped University of Florida researchers create an innovative new fly control device. (more…)

UF-led study: Invasive Amphibians, Reptiles in Florida Outnumber World

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2011Environment, Scienceamerican alligator, bishop museum in honolulu, brown anole, burmese pythons, cargo ships, cement walls, Cuba, everglades, florida, florida museum of natural history, fred kraus, greenhouse frog, iguanas, invasion of lizards, invasive amphibian and reptile, kenneth krysko, lizards, python, turtles, university of florida, west indies, zootaxa

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has the world’s worst invasive amphibian and reptile problem, and a new 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher verifies the pet trade as the No. 1 cause of the species’ introductions.

From 1863 through 2010, 137 non-native amphibian and reptile species were introduced to Florida, with about 25 percent of those traced to one animal importer. The findings appear online today in Zootaxa. (more…)

Russia to Restore Naval Presence in All Oceans

By PravdaNovember 26, 2010Politics, WeaponsCuba, dmitry medvedev, konstantin sivkov, naval bases, poland, russia, russian vessels, soviet era, soviet union, usa, ussr, Vietnam

Russian guided missile cruiser SLAVA. Source: Wikipedia

Russia may open new naval bases in other countries, President Dmitry Medvedev stated November 25 at a meeting with Russia’s top brass.

“Unfortunately, the reality is that a number of our previous opportunities have disappeared,” Medvedev said. Medvedev said that he now had “certain ideas” about how these could be replaced. “But for obvious reasons, I will not say them out loud,” he added.

First and foremost, it goes about support points for Russian vessels on the territory of foreign countries. It is necessary to build such objects to support Russia’s military presence in strategically important parts of the globe. (more…)

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