[VIDEO] Trump Looks to Strengthen U.S. Trade Ties with Japan
Posted: February 11, 2017 Filed under: Asia, Diplomacy, Japan, Mediasphere | Tags: ACLU of Massachusetts, American Civil Liberties Union, Americas, Angela Merkel, Asia Pacific, Donald Trump, Executive order, President of the United States, Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, United States Leave a comment
Boston Herald Columnist, Adriana Cohen, former Bush senior campaign advisor, Mark Serrano, and Club for Growth president, David McIntosh on President Trump’s trade policies and his desire to put America first.
Note: the above image is from Japanese social media. Original source unknown. But very typical of popular ‘kawaii’ image editing apps. See more of our Japan coverage here.
Mapping the United Swears of America
Posted: December 3, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Americas, Business Wire, Cursing, Language, Maps, Profanity, Slang, Swear words, Swearing, United States 1 CommentSource: Mapping the United Swears of America
Blood Moon/Supermoon Lunar Eclipse 2015 Live Stream: NASA, Slooh Coverage Online
Posted: September 27, 2015 Filed under: Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Americas, Celestial event, Earth, East Coast of the United States, Eastern Time Zone, Griffith Observatory, Lunar eclipse, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA, Orbit of the Moon Leave a commentTonight’s the night — a rare blood moon total lunar eclipse.
And you can watch it all live, as the supermoon turns blood red tonight during a total lunar eclipse September 2015.
[Find out more about tonight’s supermoon eclipse times here.]
NASA will offer the blood moon (supermoon) lunar eclipse live stream from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, and you can watch it unfold here.
Others will be live streaming it as well (see the end of this post for links to your favorite blood moon (supermoon) lunar eclipse live streams and feeds.
The supermoon will rise at about 6:30 p.m. CDT across Alabama. (Get moonrise times for other locations throughout the United States here.) The lunar eclipse will begin at 8:07 p.m. CDT (or 9:07 p.m. EDT and 6:07 p.m. PDT).
The total eclipse will last over a hour and begin at 9:11 p.m. CDT (or 10:11 p.m. EDT or 7:11 p.m. PDT)
Not only will there be an eclipse, but the moon will also be about 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than usual — a supermoon.
Supermoons are not not rare. In fact this is the fifth one in 2015 alone. But Sunday’s moon will be the closest to Earth in all of 2015, coming within 221,753 miles of our planet.
Tonight’s supermoon is rare because of its timing with the total lunar eclipse. The last time it happened was in 1982, and the next time it will happen will be in 2033.
This eclipse will also bring about the fourth and final blood moon of a lunar tetrad that began in 2014. (A lunar tetrad is used to describe four total lunar eclipses in a row, separated by six lunar months or six full moons).
So it will be a skywatcher’s extravaganza. But what if the weather doesn’t cooperate?
[Supermoon eclipse weather forecast: Who will get to see it?]
There are many opportunities to view the eclipse online tonight.
The Marshall Space Flight Center plans to offer views of the eclipse from the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, the Fernbank Observatory in Atlanta and other locations across the United States.
Here are other places to view the eclipse as well: Read the rest of this entry »
St. Helena Island’s Secret Weapon: Some of the Rarest, Most Expensive Coffee in the World
Posted: April 17, 2015 Filed under: Food & Drink, Global | Tags: Americas, Arabica coffee, Coffee, Coffee Plantation, London, Napoleon, St. Helena Island, Yemen 1 CommentThe rare beans have fans in independent coffee roasters and dealers in the European Union, Russia, Japan, the United States, South Korea and Taiwan
Jamestown (AFP) – Jean Liou reports: Most coffee snobs can only dream of sipping on a brew made from Saint Helena beans. Imported from Yemen in the 18th century, the tiny South Atlantic island’s green-tipped Bourbon Arabica coffee plant produces some of the world’s most expensive — and most delectable — beans.
St Helena coffee’s most famous fan was French emperor Napoleon, who said it was “the only good thing” about living in exile in a rat-infested house on the island for six years until his death in 1821.
“This coffee has a superb fragrant bouquet with no off flavours and pleasant floral fruity hints of citrus and caramel strongly hinting of its Yemeni origins.”
The sheer remoteness of the far-flung British island — stranded between South America and Africa — has preserved the genetic heritage of the coffee planted by the East India Company, the English trading company, almost 300 years ago.
But good luck getting your hands on the beans, which have become scarce after years of neglect.

The RMS Saint Helena anchored in the bay of the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena off the coast from Jamestown (AFP Photo/Jean Liou)
Coffee groves on the island, which has a varied climate despite being on the equator, were left deserted until some enthusiasts started cultivating the crop again in the 1990s.
That renaissance was short-lived. The main producer went bankrupt, even after putting the beans on sale in London’s exclusive Harrods store.
“Our market is global but the quantities are tiny. For example, the harvest this year is 200 kilos (440 pounds), which does not take us very far.”
— Peter de Bruyne, director of British importer St Helena Trading
Then in 2009, Solomon & Company — a public company known as Solomons on the island — took over and breathed new life into the Bamboo Hedge plantation.
“It had become overgrown and there was die-back on many of the trees,” said Mandy Peters, Solomons’ executive director.

Bill Bolton, 74, a pensioner from Britain who has lived in Saint Helena since 1991, walks in his coffee plantation in Jamestown on March 14, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jean Liou)
“It’s a hobby, really. It’s very slow and laborious, everything is done by hand.”
— Bill Bolton, who runs a cafe near the port of Jamestown, the capital of the island
“We have been slowly rebuilding the plantation.”
Still, the organic beans are in short supply.
Solomons produces between one and 1.5 tonnes a year, a tiny amount considering world coffee production was about 8.5 million tonnes in 2014. Read the rest of this entry »
Oldest Known Globe Depicting the Americas, Fashioned from Ostrich Eggs, 1504
Posted: February 8, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Global, History | Tags: 1500s, Americas, Antiques, Cartography, Central America, Colonies, Earth, Global, Globes, Latin America, Maps, North America, South America, United States Leave a commentOldest known globe depicting the Americas, made on two lower halves of ostrich eggs, 1504