News on Youtube Mar 1 2018

When I was in eighth grade, I was very curious about how the states got their shapes.

Why are all the states so weirdly shaped

and then Wyoming and Colorado are just boxes?

Why are the states in the east real tiny, but the states in the west so huge?

I voiced this curiosity to my social studies teacher that year,

and she introduced me to the show, "How the States Got Their Shapes."

I loved this show.

I still tell people how some states got their shapes much to the annoyance of most of them.

If you're one of those people that would be annoyed by that, click away, go watch TheOdd1sOut or something

beacause I'm about to learn you a lesson on why the states are so weird.

Number one:

Why are the eastern states's borders squiggly lines, but the western states's borders straight and boxy?

Well it's because of choo-choo trains.

Back in the east they used rivers as borders because trains hadn't been invented yet,

and water was their primary source of transportations.

(That's also why most major cities are on water)

That's also why most state borders in the east are very squiggly.

Then comes the Industrial Revolution,

TRAINS ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, the U.S. is moving west and with that movement comes more states,

and when you have more states you have more borders, so what do you do to define these borders?

With the train tracks! That's why most state borders have straight lines and are so boxy.

Number two: Missouri.

Missouri seems like a pretty normally shaped state,

with the straight border on the bottom, top, and left side,

and the Mississippi River carving out the western side.

Everything's normal except for those two weird things on the side.

The little bit on the top left is the Platte Purchase which was acquired *FROM* the Natives there.

I don't get why it's called the Platte Purchase,

when I doubt there was any actual purchasing going on.

The bootheel of Missouri is actually an interesting story,

At least... it is to me.

Back when Missouri was first admitted to the Union, it didn't include the bootheel.

The people that lived there were all like,

"we have more in commom with Missouri,"

"Missouri is better than Arkansas,"

"Arkansas is bad," etc.

No,

after writing this I looked it up just to confirm if I was remembering it right,

and it turns out was I said was just a legend.

It turns out it was because the rich landowners didn't want to be part of Arkansas

and just wanted to govern themselves.

But that's boring.

Another version I heard from the aforementioned (ooh big word) social studies teacher was that

there was a huge earthquake in New Madrid, Missouri.

It rang bells in North Carolina,

made the Mississippi River run backwards,

and destroyed Memphis.

This earthquake devastated the area in what is now south-eastern Missouri,

which meant it was cheap to buy.

This guy bought the land,

and when Arkansas and Missouri were becoming states

he wanted to join Missouri because he felt that Missouri would have stronger political power.

I didn't see the version anywhere on Wikipedia, so I'm assuming it's not true.

That kinda makes me sad because it was pretty interesting.

I guess teachers can't always be right.

Next, Ohio and Michigan.

Have you ever wondered why Michigan has that upper peninsula?

No?

Well, too bad, I warned you I was going to nerd out.

Well,

back in the day Toledo was a pretty important city,

with it being on Lake Erie and all.

Michigan and Ohio both wanted Toledo,

and they actually had a war called the

Toledo War. Or the Michigan-Ohio War.

It depends on who you ask.

It lasted from 1835 to 1836

The U.S. government was all like,

"we can't have these states fighting, that's no good."

(Even though the Civil War would be like 30 years later)

So they proposed a deal.

Ohio would get Toledo,

and Michigan would get the land above Lake Michigan that no one had really explored or colonized yet.

Michigan was pretty sad at the time,

but I imagine they're just laughing now.

Finally, why is a part of Kentucky not actually in Kentucky?

Funny you should ask,

it's because that part of Kentucky actually used to be connected to Kentucky.

How did it end up looking like it either belongs to Missouri or Tennessee?

Interesting story, it's because of the Mississippi River.

Rivers, especailly rivers like the Mississippi or Missouri,

are constantly changing their position due to erosion and stuff.

The river eventually moved downward enough

that it separated that part of Fulton County from the rest of Fulton County.

I went onto Google Streetview to see if there were any houses or people living in the area

and all I saw was a bunch of farmland, which isn't really too weird for the U.S.

Quick note before I go to the end card,

while I was messing around with Google Maps

I found that someone had gone kayaking (or canoeing or whatever)

and took a 360 camera so you can do a streetview of that part of the Mississippi River

that surrounds that little part of Fulton County

Radical.

Alright, that's it,

I hope you enjoyed the video

and that I didn't nerd out too much.

This was really a fun video to make because it's just so interesting to me,

but yeah okay bye.

For more infomation >> How the States Got Their Shapes - Duration: 4:20.

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An Open Letter to President Trump and Members of the United States Congress on Gun Violence - Duration: 2:22.

I'm Father Michael Sheeran, the president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.

This is an open letter to President Trump and the members of Congress.

Our grief and solemn prayers are with the victims, the families,

the friends of our sisters and brothers in Parkland, Florida.

Ours is a national tragedy. Yet we have hope because we have watched in admiration and awe

as the poised articulate young survivors of the Parkland massacre have beseeched adults

to fix this plague of gun violence in America. It is not lost on us that none

of them were even born when the Columbine High killings in Littleton, Colorado

claimed 13 lives. And yet the shootings have gone on and on.

We adults have repeatedly failed to fix this singularly American phenomenon.

Now we must listen to our youth. We must not cruelly disparage them in this time of trauma and grief and anger.

As Pope Francis has said, "Dear young people, do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you.

Do not be afraid to dream of great things."

Ending the horrific mass killings in our schools and streets is a great thing we are all called to do.

Now we urge you, as President and Members of Congress,

to listen and to fix this indeed.

For more infomation >> An Open Letter to President Trump and Members of the United States Congress on Gun Violence - Duration: 2:22.

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United States Congress Honors Billy Graham - Duration: 1:42.

I think we have over 20 speakers that

are going to the floor of the House of Representatives

and just speaking about the personal impact

that Reverend Graham had on their life, or just the impact

that he's had on the entire nation and the entire world.

Today it was just a sense of awe and respect.

Even those who weren't in there to speak,

you could see on their faces a sense of reverence.

Seemed to be nothing partisan in there, but just

a universal respect for somebody who is--

I mean, he'd be the fourth civilian

to lay in a state of honor in the rotunda.

It's incredible because we live in a city that's

full of monuments to people who have

had a tremendous impact on America, on the world,

to freedom.

If you think about that the platform

that they're going to set his casket on

was the same platform that Lincoln sat on.

That in itself shows the reverence

that this nation gives to him.

I mean, we have suspended the rest of the week.

The House chamber closes.

Members of Congress will assemble on that floor simply

to walk down to the rotunda and be there

when they bring that shell of a man who is already in heaven

rejoicing with his Savior.

His message was simple.

God loves you.

He loves you personally.

He walks with you.

He's there with you.

He knows the pain that you're going through.

And he knows the joy that you'll find when you finally get

to that relationship with him.

For more infomation >> United States Congress Honors Billy Graham - Duration: 1:42.

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Russia's sights are set on U.S. elections. Can states secure their voting systems in time? - Duration: 7:14.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Russia's government has set its sight on undermining American democracy

and attacking the U.S. election system.

The scope of the Russian efforts were recently outlined in indictments filed by special counsel

Robert Mueller.

The threat they pose has been confirmed by the heads of all the U.S. intelligence agencies.

Yesterday, the leader of the National Security Agency testified before the Senate that President

Trump has not granted any additional authorities to respond to this threat.

We get reaction now from David Becker, the founder of the Center for Election Innovation

and Research, and Denise Merrill.

She's the secretary of state in Connecticut.

She oversees the state's elections.

Welcome to both of you to the "NewsHour."

David Becker, to you first.

In sum, what did the Russians do to election systems in this country in 2016?

DAVID BECKER, Founder, Center for Election Innovation and Research: Well what, we know

from testimony from the intelligence community and elsewhere is that they attempted to probe

or scan several state systems, probably most notably voter registration database systems.

Almost all of those scans and probes were unsuccessful.

There was one instance in Illinois where they successfully accessed voter data, about 70,000

records or so, in June and July of 2016, but no records were altered or deleted.

We also know from the intelligence community and from multiple investigations all around

the country that there were no successful efforts to change votes or change vote totals

or tallies throughout the United States.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Denise Merrill, what about what happened in your state of Connecticut?

We know there was an effort made by the Russians there.

DENISE MERRILL, Connecticut Secretary of State: Yes, we were one of 21 states, apparently,

that were scanned at least by Russian I.P. addresses.

Again, our firewalls and our systems held.

They were trying to get into our voter registration database, which I think is similar to what

happened in the other states.

I think the good news is, they didn't get in.

And I think that's pretty much true in all the other states, with that one exception

that David mentioned.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Denise Merrill, staying with you, what evidence or belief do you have

right now that that they are continuing to try to do that in this 2018 midterm election

year?

DENISE MERRILL: Well, I do think the threat of Russian interference in our elections is

real.

I have become convinced of that, not only by what has happened, but what could happen.

I think, as we're all on alert now that there could be other attempts, I honestly think

that the biggest goal that they have at this point is to sow distrust in the American public

in their elections.

That may be the most dangerous thing of all.

JUDY WOODRUFF: David Becker, why are U.S. election systems vulnerable?

DAVID BECKER: Well, the more we rely upon technology, all technology has some vulnerabilities

to it.

And that's why it's important to have systems in place to double-check the technology.

So, for instance, paper ballots, auditable ballots that can be audited after the election

are very, very important.

The good news is that about 75 percent to 80 percent of Americans currently vote on

paper, and that number is increasing as Virginia has moved to all paper.

Pennsylvania is about to move to all paper.

And about 17 states are considering ways to improve their audits.

Systems like that are very, very important to make sure that we can trust the electronic

machines that are counting our votes.

But the good news is, most states are doing it, and even more states are moving in that

direction.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, David Becker, just to clarify, this is a state-by-state situation,

right?

There's no federal election overlay, as I understand it.

DAVID BECKER: That's right.

In a major federal election, we not only don't hold one election or 50 elections.

We actually hold about nearly 10,000 elections, because all of the local jurisdictions are

actually running the elections.

That does give us some protection against hacking, because it's difficult to hack into

8,000 to 10,000 different systems.

But we do have to be vigilant.

Secretary Merrill is exactly right.

Russia is trying to do this.

The intelligence community is unanimous in that determination.

And their goal is probably not actually to change vote totals, but rather to get us all

to lose confidence in our own election system.

So it's very important that we all understand that the election officials, like Secretary

Merrill and her colleagues, are working very hard with the with federal agencies and other

agencies to secure the election systems, as they have never done before.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, Secretary Merrill, Denise Merrill, what is it that Connecticut needs?

What do you need in your state to be sure that there's not interference this year?

And how much support, what kind of support are you getting from the federal government

to make sure that that happens?

DENISE MERRILL: We, of course, as a state, already have a lot of equipment in place,

cyber-hygiene, the kinds of firewalls, I guess you would call them, against this sort of

thing.

But we are getting help now from the Department of Homeland Security.

They do have resources that can help, not enough of them, and not enough to go around.

So I think we could use more of that.

Some states are much further along than others as well.

And, of course, you know, there are some federal laws that came into play after the 2000 election,

which was the last time this sort of thing came up with the hanging chads and so forth.

And the Help America Vote Act did provide much of the funding that you're seeing in

place for the current election systems.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

DENISE MERRILL: They're getting older.

So, at some point, we should look at replacing some of that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And I think what we have seen in the news in the last few days is questions,

concerns about whether the federal government is taking this seriously enough, doing enough

to help the states.

And I just hear you say, Denise Merrill, that you're not getting all the help you need.

DENISE MERRILL: No.

And I'm not sure it's DHS' fault.

I think they are trying to be helpful, but they have limited resources.

And I was rather surprised, but not entirely surprised, to learn of the statements by the

FBI director, I guess it was yesterday or today, that he didn't have direct authority

to act to prevent some of this.

So, I am concerned about that.

I think the state officials, election officials all over the country are on alert.

We're ready, willing, and able to help.

We're very familiar with this risk assessment kind of thing.

We have been doing it for years in elections.

This is just a new venue and a new kind of a threat.

And I'm waiting for a direction from them.

I think they could be immensely helpful.

We're doing better.

We have a great communications system we're developing, but they could do more for us,

yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Right.

Very quickly, in just a few seconds, David Becker, what would be most important to help

states around the country harden up their systems, so they're not vulnerable?

DAVID BECKER: Well, there's unprecedented cooperation between the federal government

and the states and the local election officials, but the one thing they really need right now

is resources and funding.

There's no finish line in cyber-security.

When you improve cyber-security, the bad guys get better, too.

So, there needs to be better funding streams, both at the state legislative level and perhaps

through Congress, provide the sources to Secretary Merrill and her colleagues and all of the

election officials at the local level as well.

JUDY WOODRUFF: David Becker with the federal Center for Election Innovation and Research,

and Secretary of State Denise Merrill from Connecticut, we thank you both.

DENISE MERRILL: Thank you.

DAVID BECKER: Thank you.