Fascination with tornadoes

This last Sunday, a string of deadly tornadoes wreaked havoc in the USA. 29 deaths have been accounted for, numerous towns have been destroyed, and people are still making sense of what happened. Meanwhile, the news channels are showing the same wreckage again and again.

But if we seperate the risk from the phenomenon, tornadoes take on a whole different allure. When you watch tornado videos on Youtube, you can't help but feel oddly fascinated by them. I mean, it's like God extended a finger down from heaven and swirled it around, like one would swirl a tequila.

South Dakota tornado, by Carsten Peter for National Geographic.

Most everyone falls into two categories: either you're morbidly fascinated by tornadoes, or you're panicked by them. You can't really ignore it. Such extreme power demands attention.

To understand tornadoes, meterologists dedicate their lives to studying their formation. Some go out on the field to film the supercells that are responsible for making tornadoes. But it's obviously a high-risk job. Last May, a famous Storm-chaser, Tim Samara, was killed doing what he loved best.

Here's what happens: Springtime in the USA means that cold air from Canada meets warmer air coming in from Mexico. Since the two masses of air come from different directions and at different speeds, this creates a vortex between the lower layer of air and the higher air. The vortex is horizontal; however, it can be tilted upwards until it forms a funnel cloud, which you probably recognize as the tail of a tornado. To understand more, watch the video below by Science America.

But why do the US have so many tornadoes? They have over 1000 tornadoes per year, making them the planet's favorite tornado place, being that the second is Canada (more than 100 tornadoes per year). Well, it's because of the convergence of air from the Gulf of Mexico and Canada and the enormous difference of temperature between them. The temperature shock creates greater winds, which in turn create thunderstorm supercells, nearly essential for tornadoes. Furthermore, the two American mountain ranges (the Appalachians and the Rockies) channel the convergence of the two air masses over the giant plains that stretch across the Midwest. This combination is so dangerous that part of this area is called the Tornado Alley.

Tornado alley by NOAA.

But tornadoes can be seen in nearly all parts of the world, such as demonstrated by the video below of a waterspout in Florianopolis, Brazil, in 2008.

Sometimes I wonder if the reason that we're truly fascinated by tornadoes isn't because they're great and powerful- it's because they have the power to kill us, and because we're naturally fascinated with everything that can kill us. Just like Formula One- nobody really watches it for the race itself.  You watch it because people race each other in combustible machines that reach 270 km/h. It's the brush with death that captivates us.

But that's another story.

Keep tuned for more on Tracking Stories.

Cultural shock

Part of Tracking Stories is, actually,  tracking stories. What this means is that either I do some research, or ask other people about their life experiences, and hopefully write about something you haven't seen before. Thus, today's article is about cultural shock based on several experiences I've heard from people of different ethnic groups.

 Part of living on planet Earth is accepting that there are people who live in cultures that are radically different from yours and learning not to get offended by them. And part of living in other countries is getting to use cultural difference as an excuse for your weirdness.

"You mean that French don't drink tea five times a day? Well, that's just the way we do it in Brazil. . ." (NOT).

Below I've compiled a list of the most shocking cultural shocks that you might come across in your wordly travels.

#1. Greating people

This was the most fun and awkward cultural shock ever. Chances are that if you are American or Canadian (pratically the only two countries in the world to not engage in some sort of physical contact at greetings), you've experienced it too.

Horses by National Geographic. Photo by Anthony M. Tortoriello.

In most countries of Europe and in Brazil, people greet each other by kissing each other on the cheek. Usually there is no lip-cheek contact, and people press their cheeks together making kissing sounds. It sounds weird, but it's not.

To make matters more confusing, in Brazil, people greet each other with one kiss on the RIGHT cheek. In France, it's two kisses starting on the LEFT cheek. You can imagine the awkardness of trying to kiss the right cheek when you've recently changed from one country to another.

Even more complicated is that in France, depending in what region you live in, the number of "bisous" changes. People can give two, three, or even four kisses depending on their regional culture. Here in Marseille, the rule is two, but near Avignon which is just a hundred kilometers away, people greet each other with three kisses.

#2. See you at seven o'clock

Ah, the famous ponctuality and the fashionably-late statement. In which countries does seven o'clock mean seven o'clock?

Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain

7:00 PM (as in, 'I will meet you at the café at 7:00').

USA: 6:55-7:03
France: 6:59-7:01
Russia: 7:15-7:20
Brazil: 7:30- ???

Being a radically ponctual person means spending a long, long time waiting for other people to show up in Brazil. But Brazilians don't mean harm by it. It's just part of Brazilian culture. This started with showing up a little late at events, so you get the 'best' of the party, the time that people are already tipsy but not too drunk. Unfortunately, this habit spread like wild-fire to the point that even when meeting a single person at a café, you can count on the person being late.

And in Russia, it isn't appreciated if you show up "early" at someone's house (by early, I mean seven o'clock sharp). Showing up fifteen minutes after the fixed rendez-vous gives the host time to prepare its house.

But as a general rule, it's safe to be ponctual (unless you're going to a Brazilian party, in which case you should be two hours late. Not kidding).


#3. When you're in a completely different universe that hasn't had contact with white people before

You've embarked on a journey to the end of the Earth on a do-gooder mission. The only problem is that when you finally meet the natives of the village you're visiting, they run away crying because they've never seen a white person before and they think you're a demon.

Harvest Festival in Swaziland. National Geographic, photo by Joyce McClure

This can happen on several different levels, whether you're visiting a neighboring country and everyone starts to stare at you funny when you wear sandals, to certain radical countries who may arrest you for your religion or political beliefs. The trick here is to know what to expect and when the unexpected happens, to handle it as calmly as possible.

#4. Hair 

 Another thing that may shock you when you cross hemispheres is how people (for fairness sake, I'll only mention the ladies) use their hair. Many, many girls pointed this out to me as being the first cultural shock they experienced when crossing the Equator (in both directions). But if you think about it, it's only a matter of resources. Americans have a wider variety of hair products at hand, so why not make life fun with a bit of chop n'dye? Brazilians, on the other hand, tend to care less about the actual color and length of the hair, but use other products (like bananas) to make it shinier. That said, American girls also tend to spend more time on their hair before leaving the house each morning, straightening/curling, as Brazilians tend to go with the towel-dry/shake hair method. While this obviously isn't true for all Americans and Brazilians, it gives you a general idea of how women's hair behave in these countries.

Brazilian actress Camila Pitanga. Source: Globo

American actress Jennifer Aniston. Source: Getty Images

#5. Snow

It's funny how snow is treated in different countries. The more rare snow is in a city, the more panicked the population becomes when there are a couple of flurries outside, and the more unprepared the city is in case there is a significant precipitation.

But what's even more funny is when your school has been canceled due to mere flurries in the South of France, while in the Alps, just a couple hundred kilometers away, people are still going to school if they have snow up to their knees. And in Russia, kids still go to school when it's -20°C outside. Talk about harsh.

Culture shock happens when you've moved from a non-snowy/snowy environment to one that's the complete opposite. No one shares your opinion of snow, and you're either the only one that's super enthusiastic about seeing lots of snow or laughing at what people call "winter".

What you think of snow (beautiful, dangerous, cold, annoying) also defines who you are and where you come from. And if you're from North-East Brazil, chances are you'll explode with happiness at the chance of seeing snowflakes, while a German will just shake its head and prepare its snowboots.

Snow dusting the mountain tops in Palhoça, Brazil, 2013. It probably hasn't snowed there in a hundred years. Source: Diario Catarinense

Why is American college so expensive compared to other countries? Part I

U.C. Berkeley Tower. Photo by me

Universities and colleges in the United States are one of the most expensive on the planet. The average tuition in 2011 for a four-year institution was 22 thousand dollars. Students living in the United States know that they have to start saving early and apply for financial aid and government loans in order to deal with the hefty debt later. According to President Obama in his August 24^th weekly address, students graduate with an average of 26 thousand dollars in debt, which they slowly pay off in the years to come.

But why is American college expensive? In Europe, France offers higher education in public universities for 180€ a year. In Brazil, free excellent-quality higher education is offered to those that can pass the vestibular, a competitive exam (though arguably one would have to pay for good K-12 education in order to pass). But in the United States, studying at a public university can still reach 15 thousand dollars a year.

The answer to this question is no doubt, more complex than I’d thought- I figured I could type in Google and blindly ask: Why is college so expensive in the U.S. when it’s almost for free in France? Turns out, not even Google had an answer for that. I had to break my initial question down into pieces to get a full view of what was really going on. I broke it into three parts:

-Why is American college so expensive?

-Why is French college not expensive, and how can it afford to pay for foreign students’ education?

-Where does the U.S. tax money go, anyway?

Today I’ll be discussing the first one. Why is college in the United States so expensive?

Now, if you look for the answer for this question, you’ll find that many articles and magazines explain why college tuition is going up and why it’s expensive today. Washington post has an excellent explanation with charts that you can check out here.

If you’re wondering why the cost of going to college is so high in the first place, well, it’s because it is costly. Students have to pay for room and board, for instruction, academic support, and all those nifty things that makes each college unique. It’s also a price that’s fixed high, just like airplane tickets are high, and one that people are prepared to pay for. The usual way to go is to start a saving’s account for your kid to go to college once he/she starts kindergarten. You’re not paying the full expenses of tuition either- part of it is funded through tax revenue. Check out where tax money goes in Part III.

But still, colleges weren’t always this expensive. Tuition at U.C. Berkeley used to cost $700 in the 1970’s, and today it costs 15 thousand grand, which corresponds tlo an increase of over 2 000 percent. College tuition has been going up, making debts even harder to pay off in the future. Here’s why:

è         Schools are spending more on research now than they used to.

è  Schools are investing in more technology to stay on top of the list. The more technology colleges invest in, the more attractive it becomes and more students will want to attend. But getting top-notch technology costs money and who’s paying for it are the students through tuition increases.

è  Schools are offering more scholarships to become more attractive to some, and often they take the money to pay for them by increasing tuition.

è  In general, more people are attending college than before. It’s getting more competitive, and in some cases, those that can pay are priority. Many schools offer merit-based scholarships however, so my message to fellow Americans would be: study as hard as you can. It might pay off sooner than you think.

The truth is that college is so expensive because it’s not subsidized, which means that the government doesn’t pay for the complete cost of college. The current system allows individual students make their decisions, i.e. choose what they will study, at whatever college they choose that accepts them, and deal with the costs. That might seem like a given, but there are other systems which won’t let you do that. In Brazil, for example, if you want to become a doctor and receive good education at your chosen college, you better study real hard because there’s fierce competition. For example, 100 places are offered to study medicine at the University of Santa Catarina (public university) but as many as 5000 people apply to take the vestibular test. Only those with the 100 top grades on this test will get in.

There are also entrepreneurs out there who realize the gain in opening a college, simply because they can make profit out of it. Kids are getting their education, but meanwhile, someone’s making money out of it. Happily, those colleges are listed as ‘FOR-PROFIT’ colleges and there’s a big list of them on Wikipedia.

Check out how France allows for its citizens and even non-citizens to go to college for the lowly cost of 180 euros a year in my next post, Part II.