Defense Spending, Helping Teachers Bloom, Saving Dory

"Emergency" War Fund Allows Defense Budget to Skirt Spending Caps Guest: Laicie Heeley, Defense Fellow at The Stimson Center in Washington, DC The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are drawing down and troops are coming home, but the budget used for fighting those wars is not declining as you’d expect. The reasons are worrisome both to those who believe defense spending is out of control and to the people responsible for America’s national security. Helping Teachers Stick with It Guest: Melissa Scheve, Project Director of Hollyhock Fellows at Stanford Teaching in America’s public schools is a tough job, as evidenced by the data showing 30 to 40 percent of teachers last less than five years in the classroom before quitting the profession. Brand new teachers who start off in low-income schools with a lot of needs and few resources are at particular risk of calling it quits within a few years. They’re generally replaced with a new crop of inexperienced teachers working in classrooms full of students who – you could argue – need seasoned teacher the most. Saving Dory Guest: Karen Burke Da Silva, Professor of Biodiversity and Conservation at Flinders University in South Australia and Director of the nonprofit Saving Nemo Conservation Fund The new Pixar film Finding Dory set a new record over the weekend for the highest-grossing animated film debut of all time. Nemo’s forgetful friend Dory – voiced by Ellen Degeneres – is searching for her parents. Dory is a Blue Tang and her popularity on the silver screen has conservation groups worried. Back when Finding Nemo came out in 2003, there was a spike in people buying up clownfish for their aquariums. If the same thing happens for Dory fish, the Blue Tang population could be in serious trouble. Absorbing Water from the Atmosphere Guest: Tadd Truscott, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Principle Investigator of the Splash Lab at Utah State As you’re zipping through a desert at 70 miles an hour with the A/C on in your car, the eye catches mostly a wide-