France elected a new President a few weeks ago, and its not just a change of faces but a full change of attitude, policies, and direction for the Fifth Republic. Left-of-center, socialist President François Hollande took office on May 15th, and has been on a flurry of...
Watch plaidcastVladimir Putin is back in the saddle of the Russian presidency, and one of his first moves involved a double-diss throw down on the US! He refused to attend the big G-8 Summit being hosted in the US! What is up with that? Plenty my friends, and it’s not all about the...
Watch plaidcast9000 US Marines are about to say “so long!” to Okinawa, Japan…from a much-contested US military base that has been a source of friction between these two allies for decades. In this podcast, the Professor sets the Okinawa stage of background for this saga, and more...
Watch plaidcastSometimes the news can be good news! The historic April 1st election in Burma that saw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy win 43/45 parliamentary seats is being hailed as the first free and fair elections for 50 years! And it has caused a flurry of...
Watch plaidcastWas ist das? Germany is bailing out Greece, and will likely have to bail out other failing EU countries too? Why Germany, and not France or the UK? Oh, that’s because Germany has the most dynamic, vibrant, growing, powerhouse, awesome economy of Europe and the 4th...
Watch plaidcastOn December 5, 2011 Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi had a Skype interview with Virginia Tech geography Professor John Boyer and his 3000 student World Regions class.
Watch plaidcastMultiple high-profile al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders have recently been taken by the newest of new in death-dealing technologies: the drone! But what are these drone things? How long have they been around? Who is using them, and where? And why are they exploding in...
Watch plaidcastSo China is on the rise in the world, and China is specifically on the move on the water: assertively and aggressively pushing out its power and influence into the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean in general. Can their power now ever be checked? Is Chinese world...
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Ujwal
Country: India
City: Hyderabad
Occupation: PhD student in mechanical engerineering
Pedro
Country: Chile
City: Santiago
Richard
Country: United Kingdom
City: Salisbury
Denis
Country: Bosinia/Croatia
City: Zagreb
Shaowei
Country: Taiwan
City: Taipei
Wow…where do we even start with this mess? What mess? The convoluted, chaotic, corrupted and conflict-riddled mess that is the Congo, of course! The Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC to be precise…although even that ‘democratic’ label is questionable given that...
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He may be a secretary, but Leon Panetta ain’t your typical coffee-fetchin, folder-filing assistant…au contraire!... he is the most powerful secretary on the planet as the US Secretary of Defense! The power he wields is virtually second-to-none…okay actually it is...
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Ben “Big Bucks” Bernanke is the main man of monetary policy in the US, the big Kahuna of the bucks, the head of the Fed! Technically the title is “The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System” is the head of the central banking system of...
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