Snow and ice storm gaining strength. Affecting more than 100 million americans. 2014. Why is it that we cant have the power lines buried studies Breast Cancer. Death rates were about the same for women who got mammograms and for those who did not. The upside of down. Why failing is the key to success. When you fail, fail smartly. The real life oscar the grouch. Ditched his home for a 33 for dumpster. World class, one of a kind. Trust me. [ music ] we begin with extreme weather. As another fierce winder storm was sweeping through the eastern u. S. Knocking out power, parlising businesses and frustrating travelers, a Senate HomelandSecurity Committee met to discuss how we prepare for extreme weather events. Lapses in preparedness are believed to have cost the u. S. 1. 5 trillion between 1980 and 2010. Yeses are beginning to pile up as quickly as the abandoned cars and Power Outages. When should local leaders act and at what cost . And can anything be done to fix an infrastructure that has left hundreds of thousands of people in the dark . Joining us from wilmington delaware, the secretary of environmental reesources. He spoke before the committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs about extreme weather events and the costs of not being prepared. We are joined here in new york by mark moreal, the current president of the National Urban league who served as the mayor of new orleans, louisiana and as the president of the u. S. Conference of mayors. It is great to have you both on the show on a day when weather is causing so many different problems . Its going to be bad tomorrow. What happened in atlanta a couple of weeks ago . Are we going to change the way we do things we have to change things in southern cities particularly who may not have seat extreme weather like snow and ice are now unnoticed that it may be part of the new reality. Means you have tighten up t invest in your Emergency Preparedness capabilities and infrastructure. Is the call that easy . Its better to be safe than sorry. Thats why you have to think ahead and prepare well in advance. Right now, weather forecasting is rather sophisticated. The National Weather service and how a weather sister may savaged your loc your. In cities where they may not have expertise, its better to close the city than to risk inconvenience and risk lives. But there are real costs to closing a city down. Yes. Big costs. Isnt the worry here now that politicians are going to be so worried about the political costs to their careers that they might jump the gun and close things down . The Airline Industry learned the hard way. They used to not cancel flights very early. Now, you see them cancelling well in advance of the the importants thing maybe the cost of adequate preparation is less than the cost of a catastfee. Lets talk about the cost of severe weather. You were at the senate commit hearing today. It was brought up 40 of businesses severely affected by bad weather never end up recovering and Power Outages cost 20s to 50,000,000,000 a year. 30 million flyers disrupted in january and billions more lost in all sorts of work wildfires. The list goes on and on. What can we do about this from an infrastructure standpoint to prepare . We have allowed a system to kind of develop where its easier to get funding after a crisis than it is to receive to do preparation work on the front end. The only plates we are seeing more. The science is settled. The quicker we can align the dollars with the science to make sure communities are more prepped, the better off we will be and the less of these, you know, catasttrough fees we will see across the country. Numbers are striking 1 spent on preparedness can save 4 in after events damages but the question becomes, how do you convince taxpayers in atlanta or charlotte. It comes down to sxhikdz. The more we can quaintfy the economic losses and impacts to tower communities t whether its, you know, a snowstorm in the south or the hurricanes we saw in delaware, you know, we are seeing more and more of this. I think the case is actually easier to make taxpayers. The bigger pieces are the resources that are available its more about existing dollars more intelligently so we have a more secure grid and Water Infrastructure in our communities. We can make the case more compellingly now than a couple of years ago. Every region of the country has been affected in some way. There was a lot of resistance to spend some money to protect the city. Thats incredinal. The science in southeastern louisiana, the science is there that the coast eroding. The scientists is clear that there is a natural barrier to protection to tidal surges but its difficult to get action on the idea of witch had irene, sandy, serious elected officials need to protect their citizens. I saw something about how the army corps of engineers spent more money on Hurricane Sandy after the fact than they had in 50 years of preparation projects. So, collin, i know you talked about this today when you were at the Senate Committee meeting. One thing you raised is if some states spend money and prepare and others dont, what happens . The ones that dont are in effect hurting the other states and hurting taxpayers because we are all paying for what was not done in some of those states. Sfwlrp some that were adjacent to each other where one community worked with the army corps to do projects and the adjacent community didnt do anything. The amount of money that flowed to communities that were unprotected. Its good money after bad you could have avoided a lot of that damage. One of the things we try to talk about with senator carpers committee today is making sure there are some incentsives and some kind of recognition of those communities that are trying to do the right thing . When you look at the investment that new orleans has made since 2003, they are much better prepared than they were before katrina. There is a lot to be done. There has to be some account ability and involvement of local leaders to make sure your community isnt one of those adversely affected by these storms. So many issues that are raised by this about what we do with our electricity lines, having them above ground instead of below ground like many places in europe. There is just so much to talk about. The reality. I think the important thing, there is a new reality. With this new reality this is a call to action and arms. Its great to see you. Thank you. Great to have you on the show, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, antonio. Turning to Breast Cancer. Should women over 40 get yearly mammograms . Conflicting studies had caused mass confusion but a new study, the largest ever, is leading to deeper pollarization who say screening saves lives and researchers say the evidence of that is murky. Al jazeera janet toboni reports reporter most doctors preach this message. Early detection saves lives. Start at age 40. Get a mammogram every year. Its nothing new. American doctors have valued it as a way to detect Breast Cancer since 1970 and women have listened. Nearly 75 of women over 40 safe they have received a pam gram at an average cost of 100 per screening. In total, thats 8 billion spent annually. But a new study by the british medical journal may change that. It states, quote, annual mammography in women age 40 to 59 does not reduce mortality from Breast Cancer beyond that of physical examination or usual care. Doctor san i cant prucy, at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center goes further by addressing risks involved frlthsdz you may be called back for an extra view. You may be asked to have an additional ultrasound or a biopsy and sometimes this can lead to a false positive. The ate for mentioned study states, overall, 22 of screened detected invasive Breast Cancers were over diagnosed. Thats over 20 of women who could be getting unnecessary biopsies, chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments which begs the question should women be getting mammograms . Joining us now is dr. Sandra pruthy. She is now associate professor of medicine at the mayo clinic. She joins us and dr. Malaka and on staff at Harvard Medical School joins us from boston. Great to have you ever both on the show. Malaka, i will start with you. What do women do with this information . Most women hate getting mammograms but they get them annually. But this says a breast exam is just as good . Here we go again with this information swirling around us. And i am one of those women who is very confused. I am confused and i know a lot of the information out there. So, he women need a good conversation with their physician, their risk of having Breast Cancer, concerns about being screened and come up with a plan based upon that conversation. The report says it can do more harm than good by leading to false position and serious unnecessary treatment. Malaka . Thats true. Thats true. Allotted of people say why dont we screen women . They will be relieved they dont have Breast Cancer. Having had a false positive myself, i know it can be alarming to women to have to undergo further tests. I thought about my children. I was worried that i might have cancer and studies have shown that sometimes, that anxiety can last for weeks. Sometimes it can last up to a few years. So what went women to be aware of is with dont really know the true benefit of getting regular screen with mammograms. We are teasing that out. With this study with a large comprehensive study falling on the side of mammograms may not be as effective as we thought they were. So again, this is by know means am i telling women out there not to get mammograms but i am telling women they need to sit down and have that conversation with their doctor. I sat down and talked to both of my doctors. They didnt even agree on what i should have done sonya, what do you make of the record . They used old data using old information we have did i knowitial mammography and good studies recently showing digit al maam okay raves is more effect i have especially for younger women, premenopausal under the age of 50. So weve got to be aware that the technology has change. Wary about the results of that study and how to generalize it to today when the technology has significantly improved. We have all heard so often, sonia its important to detect any cancer early. This Study Questions even that saying there was no advantage to finding cancers that are too small to feel. Do you agree . We can offer women Treatment Options to save their breasts and possibly avoid chemo therapy. The fact that they did not find cancers early is questionable because we know that by having the ability to find it on a mammogram at a time when you can treat it, women have a better prognosis and Early Detection saves lives. Doctor, michelle craig, a Breast Cancer survivor is skeptical of this study. She said this. I am a survivor. Theres no more i am going to wait more than a year. Is he she making the point you were making earlier, this has to be looked at different by different women . Absolutely. Woman had bran cancer. Other women may need to go down another path and may genetic counseling. In general, we are talking about average risk women. Again, i think it just means that we need to keep having that conversation. I dont think that we are going to come up with a definitive answer in the near future and that women need to understand that, that, you know, medical science is not static. I mean thats why we are continuing to do studies year after year after year and unfortunately, sometimes we get conflicting data and we just have to look at the big picture and figure out whats best for everyone. In talking about conflicting data, sonia, this is not the first study to cause con plugs. In 2009, a study recommended women over 50 should only have mammograms every two years. Was studied bottom people who said it was about trying to save healthcare dollars at the cost of human lives. How much does cost come in to play . When you weigh the risks and benefits of having a mammogram, the benefits do oweigh the harm that the u. S. Preventative task force focused a lot of their paper on. I want to go back to the fact that en average risk women with no Family History can develop Breast Cancer. Its unfortunate because we really dont no. We cant tell a would with no Family History that she is free of getting Breast Cancer. You know, you can still see that happen today. I think we have to be careful about how we even try and cou e and customize it. It comes down to the personal values an aggressive cancer can grow fast. With the ability to have a mammogram average year is much more effective in fining it at a time cancer early than waiting two years or three years later when the cancer screw and it was a different prognosis, different treatment for her. Despite the 2009 study of the American Cancer Society continued to recommend mannual mammograms and the Cancer Institute does, too. Do you expect anything will change in light of this new report . I doubt there will be drastic changes from those two societies in the near future spiccists that are trying to figure out the best recommendations to make to women like the United StatesPreventive Services task force and the institute of medicine. They have come to different conclusions. Individual women need to talk to physicians they trust. We appreciate you joining us on this very important topic that affects all women. Thanks. K3578 anything shocking violence in ukraine and the issues of naggalism on different sides of the country what some started as a hash tag about sean white became about race. I will share some of the conversations on twitter with you coming up. What do you think . Join the conversation on twitter at ajconsiderthis and on our facebook and google plus pages. Scenes at our evolving world. Techknow ideas, invention, life. On Al Jazeera America what is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together the Fastest Internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future we must have encountered a temporal vortex. Further analytics are necessary. Beam us up. Thats my phone. Hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. Tv and internet together like never before. Th you will eyes are turned to the went 00limpics in sochi, the cold war seems to be playing out in ukraine where russia has accused the u. S. And the eu of medaling in its backyard. Police and protesters remain at a standoff in the capital kiev. Demonstrations broke out there aver ukraines president dropped the deal that would have pulled the country closer to europe and signed a packet with russia instead t back from eastern ukraine, he reports the situation there is very different from the situation in kiev. For more, i am joined on the set by Jonathan Alpari who recently returned from ukraine. We have seen those pictures. What did you say when you were there some of the deals and you use crane. So whether or not it is, is to stay put. You decided today go there because the situation there is quite differently from what it is in the capitol . The entire press corps was regrouped in kiev. It wasnt very interesting for us to stay there. We decided to stay for a couple i of of days on the russian border. And further south and the situation there is very different. We will see some of the pictures you brought back. These show a nighttime car quest in karkof. Who is involved in the protest and what effect are these protests having, if anything . They are the same groups that you can see 340e689d because the government has cracked down quite efficiently on these protesters, also by using armed men from the countryside. And they arm them with knives or batons or baseball bats and pay them to beat up people. A lot of people we interviewed and met, most people are proeuropean. Actually, they are more interested in russia partially for historical reasons as well. We have two of your pictures and it is a is it typical there to see reliefs like this one of vladimir lenin, this is closer to russia but its a good distance from moscow . It is interesting it was a strategic area for the russians for Space Program and rocket program. A lot of russians there now . Still today. Same is true in karkov. One of your reports, you quoted a pour lar ukrainian saying that says to be a patriot in west ukraine, the area thats far from russia, its easy. In kiev, its honorable and eastern ukraine, its heroic if not mortal. Is it proukraine kwan or prorussian . To be prorussian, some of the people, a fair amount of people we interviewed, my colleague did not understand, do not approve our city, our way of life. People are waiting to see whats going to happen next. They will probably decide after. Its important to say that ukraine is the largest country fully within europe. This is not a thirdworld country. This is a big important country where this is going on. The consequences of some sort of civil war there would be devastating. It will be. Vladimir putin most likely will not let that happen. This is a zone for syria. Its his way to stop the western world from expanding in this region. How concerned were you as a journalist because there have been attacks on journalists . In cache, not at all. The opposition dont touch the us. Its not like e g egypt. Once the olympics are over and he doesnt have to be mr. Nice guy for the international community, are there concerns he is going to get more involved in ukraine . It is good to have you on the show. Keep going to all of the hot spots around the world and bringing those pictures back for us. Its good to always have you with us . Thank you for having me on. Time to see whats trending on the website. The hash tag if i was white is trending on twitter. This is a conception about 24 hours ago it was originally about olympic snowboarder sean white who failed to bring home a medal in the half pipe. It became about race, particularly what life would be like as a white person blaine said i would be on my yacht eating caviar while scoffing at my inept surf ants. Others were about racial privileged people in the criminal justice system. If i was white, i wouldnt be randomly searched for quote, unquote security purposes. Kiara said i will shoot 17yearold teenagers and getting away with t a lot of people refused to play along. Ryan didnt like the trend particularly in the month that we are in. He says matteroffactly, if i was white, i wouldnt be black adding its an ignorant trend. Black history trend was not made to bash other races but to educate so we can converge. I asked you what you thought about this trend. Viewer gabrie he will says i think we are bringing up a needed conversation about race and ross disagrees saying i think this is race baiting young people. Its also bullying. Let us know what you think about this hash tag. Tweet to us. That i recognize her mel a. Why you may not want to frown upon failure and instead more fully em embrace it. Later on, why the comic indicators that we base major Financial Decisions upon could be off the mark. Nobody likes to fail, but everyone does. And my next guest argues that failure can be the best thing that happens to us if we learn to use it wisely, whether its divorce, getting fired or just foll falling from the monkey bars when you are a kid. Embracing risk and learning from failure can be the key to suggestions in business and in life. I am joined by megan mccarder and she is the author of the upside of down, while failing well is the key to success. Megan, good to see you. By all accounts and everything i know about you, you are a spectacular success but right off the top of your book, you say, i am a spectacular for sale and you are proud of it. Why . Absolutely, because, frankly, i look at the things i have now, like my great job. I have this great job because i was unemployed for two years after Business School and it took me an enormous amount of time to find that thing that i guess i was always meant to do because i love my job. I get up every day excited to go to work. Had i not had that, that years beforehand, i might not have dared to become a journalit because i was coming out of bids school at almost 100,000 in Student Loans and my first job as journalistly paid 40,000 a year which was about a third of what i had been expecting. Period when i got to the point where i didnt know where else to turn found this amazing job i would always have wanted to take. Failure gave me the courage to do it. So thats what you address and you say there is a good way and a bad way to fail. If we are failing the wrong way, how do we learn to do it right . The first thing you have to do is stop. Insanity is the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting to get different results. A lot do that. We get stuck in a rut. We feel bad, so we rehurst over and over what we did wrong and the right way to look at it is failure is the price of doing something you dont know how to do and often you dont know how to do it because no one has never done it before, launching a new product, trying a new career. If you are going to do that, you will fail sfrement when we learn to play 10 advertise, we dont hit the ball a thousand times. Most of the time, it doesnt go where you want through that you find out how to make it go where you want. You quote or tell the story of the best example i have ever heard of this, you talk about thomas edison. Who said when he spent years and had the light bulk filament that worked 10,000 ways that wont work. Thats the right attitude. It is the right attitude, why he was so successful one of my favorite stories is Colonel Sanders was a serial failure. His wife left him because she was so sick of having him lose jobs. He gets a roadsighted cafe and it gets put out of business because the state of kentucky builds a new highway. He picks up at the age of 65, goes on the road with a Pressure Cooker and chickens, telling restaurant user, give me 0. 05 a checkin, i will show you how to make the best Fried Chicken youve ever had. Its not because he dreameda of being a Fried Chicken purveyor, he discovered something great in himself had he not failed, a Kentucky Town you have never heard of. You address the whole issue of coddling our kids, you bring up sports, a trophy. You mention a survey that more than 40 of College Freshman in some survey were found to have had an a average. My personal experience, my kids have both been very lucky. They go to spectacular schools but i remember in grade school, you were looked down upon if you asked how they were doing compared to the other kids and neither of these schools gives them class rankings. You say that if we really want them to do well, we need them to understand how to fail well, too. Absolutely. I think the best metaphor for this is the monkey bars. We have taken the high monkey bars out, they had concrete. They didnt have rubber mats. You know what . No one died. What you learned, you were afraid the first few times. You learned when you got to the top was all of those attempts and all of that fear ultimately ended up, the best feeling that you have ever had. We deny kids that because we are too afraid to let them take any risks a lot all. Its the gearweirdest system bee they get to 18 and they are in this pass fail contest where they get school they have been dreaming of or go to a Safety School and it feels terrible. So we should set people up along the way to understand, failure is not my favorite is new coke and what happened with the Cocacola Company in the 80s when they introduced new coke. You have to pretty much recognize failure. One big thing wrong is that they bet the farm. Instead of trying to introduce the new soda alongside the old brand, they replaced their iconic product. On the other hand, they did one thing very right, which was once they saw that things were not going well, they turned around really quickly. Thats often hard for companies to do. Replaced it with old coke in a matter of months. General motors and how that led to the multibillion dollar bailout a few years ago. You use a term groupity how that happened and how it led to the failure of gm . It is the idea that we styles act stupider in groups than we would in person. The reason is that you look around and when everyone else is acting like things are okay, you figure well, the parents who are so much more protective than their their parents were itch ebb though none of us died. Yes have any classmates who died growing up, but, you know, they are producting against this tiny risk because it feels like the other parents are doing it, that must be what you need to do to keep your kids safe. On the flip side of that when onner people are acting like something that seems objectively dangerous and scary like gms declining market share for decades, but when Everything Else is acting like it must can okay its okay to say i guess this is safe. You discussed real life situations involving parents and kids. Provacative and interesting comments, but in the end, do you see i dont think the book was meant to be that. Does it i need up being a selfhelp book that gives advice to people on how they should lead their lives . It does. It ended up being a selfhelp book for me because despite the fact i failed a lot and pulled myself back out of it and that was a lot of the genesis of the book, you know, the first chapter on researching why do people proceed cast nature in i ended up talking to a psychologist named carol blebbing, i realize i andy cap myself by being afraid to take risk, beating myself up too much when they have happened instead of saying that didnt go well. Lets learn lessons that was when i realized they can change this. I heard myself saying wow, i suck at this. This is really fun. It took her a long time i have been on that same journey these days, when i am doing something that i am not necessarily good at instead of thinking wow i be a an untalented person. I am doing something i have never done before and learning a new skill. It does help. Yeah, i am a big fan of selfhelp books. I could still use some improvement. Good advice for companies and people at all stages in their lives in the book, its the upside of down, why failing well is the key to success. Megan thank you. . Thanks for having me. What if we are failing because we dont have the right information. Every economic decision from the highest level of Government Economic policy down to an individuals decision to buy a house or start a business is informed by what are called leading indicators, the National Mortgage rates and the rate of inflation. The next guest says those indicators dont giver us the information we need. Why do we keep using them and whats the alternative . Joining us in new york is zachry carabel. He is the author of the new book, the leading indicators good to have you with us. Thighs indicators helped approximate president ial e elections. Whether the you know employment was above or below 8 was a big deal in that election. You go into this and look at gdp and say these things came out. You actually said in the book that the world those numbers measured back then was a world of nation states out of touch with todays world . I am no the going to say they are an akronistic but they are increasingly show and the world shifted dramatically. We live in an economy in the United States that is largely one of services and international property. It is not grounded on factories making stuff. You have far fewer manufacturing jobs. We have this set of numbers that do good jobs. Idea output even though most of us probably didnt know this. But last summer, the u. S. Economy became 400,000,000,000 bigger because the bureau of Economic Analysis having recognized this point tried to factor in things like the int intellectual property in an iphone or lady gaga in all of the work that goes into is a song that sells millions of copies. Its hard to quantify that stuff. For all of the flaws they have, how else can the government make decisions . How does the federal reserve. Two things going on, these usesfus numbers for a very limited set of policy makers at the highest levels of government whether its the u. S. Government or the Chinese Government or any government to understands whats going on for the system. Right . I think you can make an argument there is such a thing called macro Economic Policy and there is such a thing as money policy whereby some of these numbers are useful. There, its interest can like if you listened and i am not sure many of us listened to six hours of janet yellses testimony the other day. She said even though the federal says ever said they would shift their policies based upon the Unemployment Rate, the headline Unemployment Rate she started saying that rate is become less useful. It doesnt cature under emptied. A little under 100,000 jobs to be created but the Household Survey showing more than 600,000 jobs. Is there an issue of accuracy . Its these are like any statistics are a set of human beings trying to match a lot of data into simple numbers. 7 billion people, you live in a world of interconnected states with trade that flows much more freely than it did in the 1950s and money that flows. A simple average that will say you had on, you know, understand that there is a much more complicated work than whats going on here. You mentioned the Unemployment Rate. Its, you know, varies geographically. It varies demographically. The way we use it is like an absolute statement of we are doing well, badly. Unemployment rate greater than 7. 2 . We have only been collecting this rate since 1948. Its never happened. We dont have enough information to make the kind of conclusion we make we routinely make. Again, you know, the Unemployment Rate is a classic case of north dac owed a there hasnt been an Unemployment Rate. You know, 4 . Africanamerican mail without a high school degree, you are in the mid 20 . You have an incarceration rate north of 30 and the job picture is dismal beyond belief. On the show last week, he said inflation, the numbers are its hard to believe that these numbers are accurate. Now, there is a school and i think jim is in this. He is a colorful interesting guy who beliefs the government is cooking the books. Jack welch said this, all of the boys in chicago. I dont think thats whats going on. I think these numbers measure what they were designed to measure. The measurement of inflation is supposed to talk about pricestability for the whole economy not whether you and i are experiencing some sort of disconnect between what we need to live on. Its not meant as a you and me, are things too expensive number . You warn people shouldnt focus on the National Mortgage rate. It could be completely different in place you live. You talk about the china trade rate disparity and that its not neil as the numbers show. There are real issues when it comes to american creativity and what it makes us not do. These numbers are treated as absolute guide posts we then decide how are we doing . As just say, very little of our individual decisions, very little of the Small Business decisions, very few of the larger companys decisions are going to be meaningfully guided by these numbers because, again, it doesnt matter what the national Unemployment Rate is. Someone many people joked, if you are a person, you are only Unemployment Rate is zero or 100 , maybe 50 if you are not working enough. It doesnt matter what the National Mortgage rate is or, you know, our housing prices going up because of an index that says they are nationally. It matters what it is in a 20 mile radius of whether you are going to buy a home. It matters what the unemployment dynamics are for the profession you are in. It doesnt matter if the national Unemployment Rate. It matters what it is for that profession. We place a lot of stock in these numbers. The stockmarket places a lot of stock in these numbers. I am suggesting that these are okay because of the 24 hour news cycle, they have become absolute markers in a way that he they just should not be. We focus on them too much . A lot of thought provoking things. The leading indicators. Ho is a soap opera producer equal feud to be an American Ambassador . A history of curious diplomatic questions is next. Redefining what 1 means and here we are talking about about living in a dumpster. Attacks, chaos in the streets. Unspeakable horrors. This is a crime against humanity is libya unraveling . Theres coffin after coffin being carried into the cemetery. Fault lines libya state of insecurity only on Al Jazeera America start with one issue education. Gun control. The gap between rich and poor. Job creation. Climate change. Tax policy. The economy. Iran. Healthcare. Ad guests on all sides of the debate. This is a right we should all have. Its just the way it is. Theres something seriously wrong. Theres been acrimony. The conservative ideal. Its an urgent need. And a host willing to ask the tough questions how do you explain it to yourself . And youll get. The inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on Al Jazeera America todays data dive digs into the process of becoming a u. S. Ambassador. Clean bradley bell is a successful t. V. Producer whose credits include the bold and the beautiful but her latest soap opera turned out to be her confirmation to be the ambassador to hungary after stumbling over a question from john mccain after americans interests in that country, her qualifications came into question. The Sticking Point was that her main credential was that she raised a contributed a total of more than 2 m 2 mil beian dolla for president obama. Hungaryys ambassador has 27 years of experience at the International Monetary fund. Two other am boss dors, a hotel mag nat and political consultant hadnt been to argentina, the countries they are supposed to represents our interests. They had raised mega bucks for the president and Democratic Party candidates. There were some with max bauschus, the designated ambassador to china. During his confirmation hearing, this is how he responded to a National Security issue. Senator, i am no real expert on china, but its my strong belief that Chinese People are just as proud as we americas are proud. He was confirmed. But to be fair, there is a bipartisan habit of nominating focus but who have raised a lot of money for the party in power. In since world war ii, about a third of ambassadorships have been offered to those without any real diplomatic experience. While some work out, others dont mark evans ofstad made several undip lom attic remarks about his country and caused an incidents when he was drunk, yelling and banging on a womans door at 3 00 a. M. At a similar time, another appointee was asked to leave because he was found to have kept two prostitutes at his residence in denmark. More recently, cynthia shrom was forced to resign after two years the state departments inspector found irregular latories. Many were unhappy wither handwritingment style and transferred to hot spots that ranged from kabul afghanistan to baghdad. Things must have been bad to leave luxem burg to live near the taliban. While one man wants to make living in a dumpster a trend as a gift to the environment. We will explain next. Why would anyone choose to live in a 33 square foot dumpster . A College Professor in texas recently moved in to one and plans to live there for a full year. His mission is to raise awareness for a number of societal and environmental issues. He wants to show students they can live with less, a lot less. Doctor geoff wilson is known as professor dumpster. He is a professor of biological sciences at houston til son university and he joins us from austin, texas. Geoff, good to have you with us. You are a harvard educated Environmental Science professor. You lived in a nice house. Why in the world are you doing this . Well, antonio, the major premise that we are trying to test here is that one can live in win the size of an average American Home and have a pretty darn good life. In this case, 1 the sides of average American Home happens to be a 10 cubic yard trash container. All right lets look into what life is going to be like in there. You moved in to the dumpster about eight days ago. You are planning on staying for a year. Again, this thing isnt even 6 by 6. I know you are going to upgrade the dumpster in phases. What do you do for the basics, to bathe, for power and to regulate the temperature . Its winter down there. It is 6 by 6. We are sleeping diagonally. We, my girl has not designed to join me in there yet. We are doing damp sister camping. We have clean did he have dumpster. We sanitized it, tested it. I am sleeping in there at a negative 15 degree bag. This is texas. We do have snow days when it hits 40 degrees in central texas. We have had three of those in the first week i chose to be in the dumpster but it will be a while before it hits negative 15. What do you do for ventilation in there . You have to get air in there. This can be pretty we will sealed . It is a convertible model. You can pop the top on the dumpster. You can also crack a window door if you need to. Its a fairly large space, 6 by 6 by about 8 feet tall. Through 3 to 36 square feet depending upon where you are measuring. You mentioned your girlfriend. I read she is going to make you take a shower when you visit her. How much time do you expect to spend in the dumpster . Mostly sleep there . I am going to live my life as i did before i lived in a dumpster. So work most of the time during the week, spend more time at home during the weekend, so, yeah, we are spending a little more time during the day because she has not quite committed to making that leap, you know, to becoming such a trashy kind of date, if you will. Yeah. I am sure she wouldnt want to be described that way. The basics here toilet. What are you going to do . Toilet, depends upon which direction you are going, number 1, weve got that taken care of, number 2, we are working that in the second and third phase. I know if those phases, you are planning on getting a shower in there and a toilet in there . How do you fit it . Thats right. So this is not just some crazy guy living and camping in a dumpster for a year. In the second phase, which will start in about two months, we will build the average american dumpster home where we will outfit this thing with the most common watsher, dryer, air conditioner from amazon. Com thats bought in the u. S. In the last phase, we are going to go Super Low Energy efficiency. No second face we will Measure Energy and water. In then, we will use 1 the energy and 1 the water that the average American Home used and it will all fit into this dutch sister space capsule. Where does the water go . So we are going to build a false floor. Right now, there is about a 9 foot ceiling or so. We will build a fall floor. Its like having an rv you might take south but it happens to be a dump sister. You clean it out every once in a while. Why go to this extreme . We have done segments on the tiny house movement. They are small, a couple of hundred square feet. They reduced peoples carbon for the print . Wouldnt that be more comfortable . We just need to juice science up a little bit. I have been in the academics sphere, science for about 12 yearsor so and the whole realm of sustainability of greene type learning has become boring. The idea to our students at the University Level and k through 12 kids of a professor dumpster residing in this actually, i think, brings a lot more excitement to the pros. Right. Number 2 connects with the kids. Spherule i will have to cut you off there because 11 00 oclock is coming up upon us and the show is going to be over. Geoff, good luck in the dumpster. You had your dumpster Warming Party today. Best of luck. Keep us posted on how it goes. We have a spot for you in april. Thanks. Have a great night. Sif saturd night live good evening, everyone. Welcome to Al Jazeera America. Im John Seigenthaler in new york. Deep freeze power cut off, drivers stranded, flights grounded. The latest on the crippling winter storm grinding its way up the east coast. Gay rights reversal, kansas door makers denying service to samesex couples. Disappearing act, a fleet of core vets swallowed by the