News Stories

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by DRAGUN H.E.X.

ok-ok now, why so MANY famous people died in this year!!?

this is way too much, may all named celebrities come out safe in one piece after 2009 ended!!!

On December 31, we would have passed into the first decade of the new millennium (how time flies, it is like YESTERDAY when I just graduated from elementary school).

That would be 10 years after 2000, so it is time to create history.

[Zu Ra]

Came across this on Yahoo News

There were florals, thigh-high boots, Victoria Beckham in a painted-on tan and Madonna in Gucci and new wrinkle-less skin. But the true star of New York Fashion Week, which closed on Thursday, was Tavi Gevinson, a diminutive teenage fashion blogger from the suburbs of Chicago.


The fashion world has gone out of its way to court Tavi, who describes herself as a "tiny 13-year-old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats". This month she is on the cover of Dasha Zhukova's relaunched Pop magazine, interviewed by Pixie Geldof in Katie Grand's new issue of Love, and has been pictured on the front rows of this season's biggest fashion shows, with editors and celebrities seated behind her. Gevinson's blog was initially assumed to be a fake created by fashion insiders because it was so professional, and features analysis of magazines and photographs of her daily outfits. In December, eight months after she launched it, she received an email from Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind the award-winning fashion label Rodarte.


"Knowing that they read my blog, I had an extreme moment of 'fangirling'," Gevinson said. She has since become their muse, posting excitable photos of their studio and helping them present their line. "Tavi makes you think about things differently," said Kate Mulleavy, "makes you see things differently." Her swift rise to fashion fame highlights the role the internet has played in breaking down traditional barriers to entry, with bloggers being cited as influences by high-profile designers including Marc Jacobs." Tavi's amazing," says Charlie Porter, deputy editor of the style journal Fantastic Man. "She's so inquisitive, with such a sharp, curious eye. But I think she needs to be careful to grow on her own terms, and not let people treat her as a novelty fashion figure. There are 10 seasons of shows before she turns 18 – that's a long time in fashion. I hope she stays independent. I hope she keeps on blogging, and doesn't compromise herself. I hope she sees her blog as the thing, rather than as a path to somewhere else."


Gevinson recently posted an extract from her barmitzvah speech. "As I said earlier, the Nazarites wore just enough to keep them warm, believing that that was the wish of God. Over this past year I have become increasingly interested in clothing, and have developed a clearer understanding of the idea that clothing can be art... Rei Kawakubo, who many regard as the first conceptual designer and whose clothes can often inspire uncomfortable thoughts or feelings in people, is my favourite designer in the world... Using fashion as self-expression can go beyond wearing a shirt with a slogan, as clothing has the ability to evoke an entire feel, or atmosphere, or emotion, or world." She has also posted a video of her performing a rap about the Comme des Garcons collection for H&M. She took a week off school to attend New York Fashion Week. Her father, a teacher, chaperoned her from venue to venue, waiting outside while she was welcomed in. "I'm very surprised at how things have blown up," she said.


She is currently uploading her thoughts on the New York shows to Pop's website – her first foray into paid journalism. "For one week I was in a utopia full of people who can recognise that my jacket is Luella and appreciate that I stuck an upside-down doll in its chest pocket," she wrote on Friday. Asked earlier whether her classmates read her blog, she said no. Asked whether they understood her style, she admitted: "A lot of them don't get it, but some do."

Source

[mg1942]

goood news for net neutrality!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...998ZgD9AQKBL80

this should easily pass amirite?

[autobachs]

Originally Posted by mg1942

goood news for net neutrality!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...998ZgD9AQKBL80

this should easily pass amirite?

Not without a fight! It's another Obama and his cronies' plan to take over the internet! Down with the net neutrality!

Think about these before supporting it...

1. Is net neutrality -- is neutral?
2. Would net neutrality discourage innovation?
3. Are there potential unintended consequences from net neutrality?

1. NO!
There’s nothing neutral about the government: dictating one and only one way to design networks; creating an innovation double standard where innovation at the edge of the network is encouraged but discouraged inside the network; or rigging the game by picking winners before the game is played.

2. YES!
In truly Orwellian logic, net neutrality proposes that the only way to protect innovation is to restrict it. Innovation is all about being different, the freedom to be different. Net neutrality mandates sameness!

3. YES!
Sweeping and rigid net neutrality legislation could: hinder public safety and homeland security; complicate protecting Americans privacy; erode the quality and responsiveness of the Internet; limit consumers’ competitive choices; and discourage investment in broadband deployment to all Americans!

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by autobachs

Not without a fight! It's another Obama and his cronies' plan to take over the internet! Down with the net neutrality!

Think about these before supporting it...

1. Is net neutrality -- is neutral?
2. Would net neutrality discourage innovation?
3. Are there potential unintended consequences from net neutrality?

1. NO!
There’s nothing neutral about the government: dictating one and only one way to design networks; creating an innovation double standard where innovation at the edge of the network is encouraged but discouraged inside the network; or rigging the game by picking winners before the game is played.

2. YES!
In truly Orwellian logic, net neutrality proposes that the only way to protect innovation is to restrict it. Innovation is all about being different, the freedom to be different. Net neutrality mandates sameness!

3. YES!
Sweeping and rigid net neutrality legislation could: hinder public safety and homeland security; complicate protecting Americans privacy; erode the quality and responsiveness of the Internet; limit consumers’ competitive choices; and discourage investment in broadband deployment to all Americans!

Why do I have a feeling that was copied and pasted from someplace?

[autobachs]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

Why do I have a feeling that was copied and pasted from someplace?

Get educated by reading this.
http://www.netcompetition.org/docs/p...mp/series2.pdf
Down with the FCC and Obama & his cronies for supporting it!

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by autobachs

Get educated by reading this.
http://www.netcompetition.org/docs/p...mp/series2.pdf
Down with the FCC and Obama & his cronies for supporting it!

I like how pointing out that your previous post was largely copypasta, something I don't see you denying by the way, means I'm not "educated" on the issue, especially when I stated no opinion either way in that post. Further, onesided propaganda isn't exactly getting educated on an issue. Now if I'm wrong about that being copied and pasted, I apologize, but if I'm correct there, I'd like the source please.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by autobachs

Get educated by reading this.
http://www.netcompetition.org/docs/p...mp/series2.pdf
Down with the FCC and Obama & his cronies for supporting it!

Um.... you really don't have any idea what you're talking about when you conflate net neutrality with silly Homeland Security proposals that were being discussed in the Bush administration, especially using a copy-paste of such royal idiocy and then adding a link to a front for the large content controlling corporations (Precursor LLC). A neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as one where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams.

Net neutrality keeps the "big boys" of Comcast from continuing their "man in the middle" and other forms of attack against legitimate packet protocols to keep the Internet from competing with their cable content. It allows all of us to provide services rather than simply be "consumers". It prevents the balkanization and corporatization of the Internet.

Want to turn the Internet into passive "tv"? Be against net neutrality. Go try that stunt on a technical forum and watch how fast you burst into flames from people who know what they're talking about. Oh and btw, the last administration was leaning towards net neutrality as well so it isn't even a "conservative/liberal" issue -- the attack on the *EXISTING* net neutrality is from a very small group of corporations that want to return to being the sole arbiter of the information and entertainment people can get.

The Internet is *designed* to be net neutral... non-neutrality, censorship, blocks are all considered forms of damage and the system tries to route around it.

[chikorita157]

Originally Posted by autobachs

Get educated by reading this.
http://www.netcompetition.org/docs/p...mp/series2.pdf
Down with the FCC and Obama & his cronies for supporting it!

I don't necessarily agree since Net Neutrality is meant to keep the internet from being controlled by Telephone and Cable companies alike. The problem with no net neutrality is that ISPs can do whatever they want. That means AT&T can prevent you from using from watching Slingbox or make VoIP calls using your 3G connection on any type of Smartphone such as a iPhone, which made a lot of publicity of AT&T preventing app developers to use their programs that uses a lot of bandwidth with 3G. This is the same case with many cable companies (with the notable exception of Cablevision, which gave up capped internet) like Comcast, which they do more than capping, but traffic shaping which not only makes bittorrent slow, but makes bandwidth intensive applications like video conferencing impossible. Also, do you remember Time Warner and AT&T wanting to do metered internet in certain areas with no competition, there is a lot of people who outraged about that.

Doesn't anyone remember 4-chan being blocked by AT&T last month? that caused outrage to. The problem is, the ISP shouldn't really control how the people use the internet since information should be free, not censored like it would in communist countries. Net neutrality is the solution to all the capping, traffic shaping and censorship out there, but ISPs are against it since they are too lazy to upgrade their networks to handle the extra traffic since they are not allowed to traffic shape.

[MrTerrorist]

Teacher jailed for sex with pupil
A private school teacher who admitted having an unlawful relationship with a 15-year-old pupil has been jailed for 15 months at Southwark Crown Court.

Just so you know, the teacher in question is female & a Musical prodigy & the student in question is also female.

Let's be honest. We all want know what that student looks like & the "activities" those two did.

[Cipher]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Just so you know, the teacher in question is female & is a Musical prodigy.

Let's be honest. We all want know what that student looks like & the "activities" those two did.

Luckily, the student was also female.

[LynnieS]

Originally Posted by Cipher

Luckily, the student was also female.

Well, at least they won't get the same case in the U.S. where the female teacher had children with her very young male student.

FDIC may seek to borrow billions from large banks and levy special fee

WASHINGTON – Regulators may borrow billions from big banks to shore up the dwindling fund that insures regular deposit accounts.

The loans would go to the fund maintained by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that insure depositors when banks fail, said one industry and one government official familiar with the FDIC board's thinking, who requested anonymity because the plans are still evolving.

Regulators also are considering levying a special emergency fee on all banks, charging regular fees early or tapping a $100 billion credit line with the U.S. Treasury, the officials said.

Oh, this cannot end well. Large banks had already received a lot of money from the U.S. Can they afford to make the loan first of all without massively denting their ledgers? Also, not all of the banks had paid off the initial funds, so if they are asked and then lend out the money, wouldn't that be the same cash? In the end, cash is fungible really. For smaller banks, can they afford to give to the special levy if the FDIC asks?

[TinyRedLeaf]

This belongs more appropriately in a China politics thread, but we don't have one and I don't want to create it.

China scholar hints at promotion of Hu's heir apparent

Beijing (Sept 22): A Chinese Communist official today held out the possibility that Vice-President Xi Jinping — currently the sixth-ranking official in the party — could still be promoted to a military position, in a step towards taking over the nation's top leadership post.

Some media had speculated that Mr Xi, who is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao in 2013, would be anointed vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission at a party plenum last week, reinforcing his succession claim. However, the plenum closed last Friday (Sept 18) with no word of any personnel changes.

If Mr Xi rises through the ranks according to schedule, it could reduce worries about instability among the secretive inner circles of the Communist Party, which has no transparent mechanism for choosing its leaders. "At the plenum, there was no reflection of personnel changes related to the party's leadership of the military, because this was not included in the agenda for discussion," Mr Wang Changjiang, director general of the Central Party School's department of education and research on party building, told reporters.

"But there will be personnel changes at some point," he told a news conference designed to explain the decisions of the just-concluded plenum when asked about Mr Xi's possible promotion. Mr Wang refused to be drawn any further on possible mechanisms for such a promotion, or the timing of future meetings at which it might be decided.

When Mr Hu took over the top party, military and government positions from his predecessor, Mr Jiang Zemin, it marked the first smooth transition of power since the Communist Party began ruling China in 1949. The lack of any announcement of Mr Xi getting the No. 2 job in the military commission suggested that Mr Hu, who still has three years left in his term as party chief, would wait to begin ceding positions, and influence, to his likely successors.

- REUTERS

• Profile of Xi Jinping
• Biography of Xi Jinping

Not much is known about Xi Jinping or his political views. His pedigree, however, is impeccable. Despite being a son of a Communist revolutionary hero and former vice-premier, he opted to go into grassroots politics. A chemical engineer by training, Xi spent more than 20 years working in the prospering coastal provinces, notably Fujian, and built a reputation for being a down-to-earth yet highly effective official with the common touch.

Fujian officials recall his "Do it now" motto, requiring high work efficiency and the quickest response to problems emerging from fierce competition in the coastal regions. In Zhejiang province, Xi is remembered for shutting down highly polluting and wasteful businesses, and for joining hands with the neighbouring Shanghai municipality and Jiangsu province to "achieve scientific and sustainable development".

He is also remembered for arranging the timely evacuation of about one million people in Zhejiang "within three days ahead of the landing of Typhoon Saomai in August 2006, reducing casualties and property losses to a minimum".

Meanwhile, China is gearing up to celebrate its 60th year as a Communist nation on Oct 1. The country is fast approaching a significant crossroads, as the stresses of highly unequal development is exacerbating ethnic tensions in rural and border regions. Add to that the perennial problems of rampant corruption at all levels of the party hierarchy, and it becomes easier to see why there is great interest in who would become the country's next leader.

[mg1942]

Originally Posted by autobachs

Get educated by reading this.
http://www.netcompetition.org/docs/p...mp/series2.pdf
Down with the FCC and Obama & his cronies for supporting it!

sorry i don't want this future

[Vexx]

Net Neutrality is a complicated-sounding term for something very simple. The companies that carry your Internet traffic shouldn't be allowed to play favorites. At its root, that's the deal. It's a concept that has been an integral part of communications (and transportation) law for more than 100 years.The alternative would be like owning the only highway between Dallas and Houston and charging SOME businesses to use it but not others. Or like having 3 competing highways between Dallas and Houston... but only certain kinds or brands of vehicles are allowed on each one (so my Ford trucks have to use Hiway A, while my hybrids have to use Hiway B unless they carry packages and then they have to use Hiway C).

Net neutrality is the solution to all the capping, traffic shaping and censorship out there, but ISPs are against it since they are too lazy to upgrade their networks to handle the extra traffic since they are not allowed to traffic shape.

Actually, that isn't the root concern.... its that SOME of the major players are also content creators or in partnership with content creators and they're trying to slant what would be a balkanized Internet in their favor. mg1942's little pictorial example is just the beginning of the fracturing and denial of "full internet access" that would happen. A lot of readers here are probably too young to remember the early days when AOL first tried to connect to the Internet but in a highly restricted sandbox sort of way. The Comcast assertion that their "man in the middle" attack on P2P was "network traffic-shaping" was utter bullshit (ask any network engineer). It was purely an attempt to shut down what they see as direct competition to their royally priced cable television ("passive viewing experience") packages and "man in the middle" hijack attacks are *illegal* by any reading of the laws on computer communications.

[chikorita157]

Maybe I was wrong about the traffic shaping thing, but AT&T seems to be against net neutrality all the way. If you haven't heard recently, AT&T yanked the ability to use Slingbox Player on 3G network with the iPhone saying it will create congestion (an excuse not to update the network and preventing access for other people to watch TV over the internet) when it works perfectly on other devices such as Windows Mobile can use Slingbox player on 3G networks. The same thing with Skype, you only can use it wifi only on the iPhone while you can can use Skype on 3G on other smartphones because the assumption is that Skype will hurt AT&Ts business because more people would make calls without using AT&T's voice service. This is the same with Google Voice (although Apple/AT&T denying the rejection of the app) which allows free SMS messaging and free phone calls in the US and cheap international calls since it would hurt AT&T's business. This is the same example you have mentioned with Comcast trying to shut down competition with P2P since people would be downloading TV shows even though is illegal, which will hurt Comcast's business of providing the cable television.

People should be able to make Skype calls from the iPhone using 3G or watching Slingbox without being told they can't. The problem is, AT&T thinks that it would be against their interest to allow that since they provide phone and also cable (with AT&T U-vese.) Although net neutrality won't solve capping issues, it will address the issue of not being able to use Skype on 3G since it would be like a ISP preventing access to Youtube since it would be against their interests.

Remember, AT&T is against net neutrality all the way... because if net neutrality did came into effect, they legally can't prevent access to Skype or Slingbox Mobile since it's obstructing someone's access of using that service.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by chikorita157

Maybe I was wrong about the traffic shaping thing, but AT&T seems to be against net neutrality all the way. If you haven't heard recently, AT&T yanked the ability to use Slingbox Player on 3G network with the iPhone saying it will create congestion (an excuse not to update the network and preventing access for other people to watch TV over the internet) when it works perfectly on other devices such as Windows Mobile can use Slingbox player on 3G networks. The same thing with Skype, you only can use it wifi only on the iPhone while you can can use Skype on 3G on other smartphones because the assumption is that Skype will hurt AT&Ts business because more people would make calls without using AT&T's voice service. This is the same with Google Voice (although Apple/AT&T denying the rejection of the app) which allows free SMS messaging and free phone calls in the US and cheap international calls since it would hurt AT&T's business. This is the same example you have mentioned with Comcast trying to shut down competition with P2P since people would be downloading TV shows even though is illegal, which will hurt Comcast's business of providing the cable television.

People should be able to make Skype calls from the iPhone using 3G or watching Slingbox without being told they can't. The problem is, AT&T thinks that it would be against their interest to allow that since they provide phone and also cable (with AT&T U-vese.) Although net neutrality won't solve capping issues, it will address the issue of not being able to use Skype on 3G since it would be like a ISP preventing access to Youtube since it would be against their interests.

Remember, AT&T is against net neutrality all the way... because if net neutrality did came into effect, they legally can't prevent access to Skype or Slingbox Mobile since it's obstructing someone's access of using that service.

That would be the "partnership" part of the problem (and less the "content"). AT&T is trying to restrict what hardware and software you can use. They're also trying to sandbox and protect their voice and entertainment channels. Of course, this is AT&T... who still charges 10cents per text message (which is almost 10 cents of pure profit using the SMS architecture) though its hugely cheaper than voice connection setup/takedown.

I remember when they were "Ma Bell" (the single Phone Company) and wouldn't allow you to use phones or wiring in your home unless they *rented* them to you. We had to *sneak* use modems (using a modem meant charging you for a Business line instead of a Home line... same line same equipment, just 3x the cost) ... we had to keep secondary phones disconnected (they'd test the voltage drops to see if a home was secretly using more phones "than permitted").

[Shadow Kira01]

Hatoyama, Obama agree Japan-U.S. alliance remains linchpin

''I told (President Obama) the Japan-U.S. alliance continues to be the central pillar of Japan's security policy,'' Hatoyama, president of the Democratic Party of Japan who took office just a week ago, told reporters after the talks.

Obama said, ''I'm very confident that not only will the prime minister succeed in his efforts and his campaign commitments, but that this will give us an opportunity to strengthen and renew a U.S.-Japan alliance that will be as strong in the 21st century as it was in the latter half of the 20th century.''

Hatoyama, Hu agree to work on N. Korea, get gas field project moving

Proposing forming an East Asian Community, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama agreed Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao to deepen bilateral ties, work closely toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, and make progress on the disputed joint gas-development project in the East China Sea.

Not sure if this will actually work smoothly as that a spate of issues remain unresolved but if it does work out, the world will no doubt undergo a major change. The "East Asian Community" ideal is a great one!

Okada urges Iran to halt uranium enrichment, open dialogue with U.S.

Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada urged his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki on Tuesday to cease uranium enrichment and open dialogue with the United States on its nuclear program, according to Japanese government officials.

I doubt Iran will listen..

Japan's new government stands by whaling

"During the meeting, our minister called for Australia's cooperation against groups like Sea Shepherd (Conservation Society), which resort to violent action," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

Smith stopped short of replying to the request, only saying Australia wants to resolve the dispute through dialogue to avoid straining relations.

"Our minister did not clearly state that the new Japanese government supports whaling, but I understand that his remarks were quite in line with the stance held by our previous cabinet on the subject," the official said.

Why is Australia not making promises when Mr. Okada had clearly requested cooperation on Australia's side to prevent inappropriate behavior by the anti-whaling activists on their journeys? Tossing acidic substances, as well as firing water cannons are definitely something the Australian government should not support.

Japan's Suntory makes binding offer for Orangina

The Japanese brewer Suntory is already in negotiations to merge with main domestic rival Kirin Holdings Co., which would create one of the world's largest food and drink companies.

Suntory is looking to acquire Orangina - bottler and distributor of its namesake orange drink - in part to strengthen its bargaining position with Kirin, according to Japanese media reports.

Suntory is one of my favorite brands, it is nice to hear its business is expanding will eventually sell products of a wide variety.

Cartoonist may have slipped taking photo, fallen to death

Yoshito Usui, the "Crayon Shin-chan" cartoonist whose body was found on Mt. Arafune in Gunma Prefecture on Saturday, may have slipped from a rock face while taking a photograph, according to the publisher of the work.

Futabasha Publishers Ltd. held a press conference in Tokyo on Monday--the day after the body was confirmed as being that of the manga artist. A spokesman said Usui's digital camera, which was found near his body, contained photographs taken from the Tomoiwa rock face from which he is believed to have fallen.

"Perhaps his foot slipped at the moment he took a photograph from the rock face," the spokesman said, adding that the photograph in question was the last of about 30 that Usui took during his hike.

The detached strap of the camera was wrapped around Usui's wrist when he was found, according to a senior editor to whom the police showed the photographs. The camera, which was still on, may have been torn from the strap when Usui fell.

Usui was said to have an inquisitive nature and often took photographs, including shots on which he based his drawings.

"We are deeply saddened [by Usui's death], and it has come as a tremendous shock to us," the spokesman said at the press conference, before passing on a message of thanks from Usui's family for support received from members of the public.

The publisher plans to carry a condolence message in October's issue of Manga Town, the manga magazine that carries the "Crayon Shin-chan" strip.

[CrossoverManiac]

From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/ed...tuff.html?_r=2:

The thick-lined drawings of the Earth, a factory and a house, meant to convey the cycle of human consumption, are straightforward and child-friendly. So are the pictures of dark puffs of factory smoke and an outlined skull and crossbones, representing polluting chemicals floating in the air.

Which is one reason “The Story of Stuff,” a 20-minute video about the effects of human consumption, has become a sleeper hit in classrooms across the nation. The video is a cheerful but brutal assessment of how much Americans waste, and it has its detractors. But it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution. And many children who watch it take it to heart: riding in the car one day with his parents in Tacoma, Wash., Rafael de la Torre Batker, 9, was worried about whether it would be bad for the planet if he got a new set of Legos.

“When driving by a big-box store, you could see he was struggling with it,” his father, David Batker, said. But then Rafael said, “It’s O.K. if I have Legos because I’m going to keep them for a very long time,” Mr. Batker recalled.

The video was created by Annie Leonard, a former Greenpeace employee and an independent lecturer who paints a picture of how American habits result in forests being felled, mountaintops being destroyed, water being polluted and people and animals being poisoned. Ms. Leonard, who describes herself as an “unapologetic activist,” is also critical of corporations and the federal government, which she says spends too much on the military.

Ms. Leonard put the video on the Internet in December 2007. Word quickly spread among teachers, who recommended it to one another as a brief, provocative way of drawing students into a dialogue about how buying a cellphone or jeans could contribute to environmental devastation.

So far, six million people have viewed the film at its site, storyofstuff.com, and millions more have seen it on YouTube. More than 7,000 schools, churches and others have ordered a DVD version, and hundreds of teachers have written Ms. Leonard to say they have assigned students to view it on the Web.

It has also won support from independent groups that advise teachers on curriculum choices. Facing the Future, a curriculum developer for schools in all 50 states, is drafting lesson plans based on the video. And Ms. Leonard has a contract with Simon & Schuster to write a book based on the video.

The enthusiasm is not universal. In January, a school board in Missoula County, Mont., decided that screening the video treaded on academic freedom after a parent complained that its message was anticapitalist.
But many educators say the video is a boon to teachers as they struggle to address the gap in what textbooks say about the environment and what science has revealed in recent years.

“Frankly, a lot of the textbooks are awful on the subject of the environment,” said Bill Bigelow, the curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools, a quarterly magazine that has promoted “The Story of Stuff” to its subscribers and on its Web site, which reaches about 600,000 educators a month. “The one used out here in Oregon for global studies — it’s required — has only three paragraphs on climate change. So, yes, teachers are looking for alternative resources.”

Environmental education is still a young and variable field, according to Frank Niepold, the climate education coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There are few state or local school mandates on how to teach the subject.

The agency is seeking to change that, but in the interim many teachers are developing their own lesson plans on climate change, taking some elements from established sources like the National Wildlife Federation and others from less conventional ones like “The Story of Stuff.”

Ms. Leonard is self-educated on where waste goes and worked for Greenpeace to prevent richer nations from dumping their trash in poorer ones. She produced the video, with the Free Range Studios company, and with money from numerous nonprofit groups; the largest single giver was the Tides Foundation. She did so, she said, after tiring of traveling often to present her views at philanthropic and environmental conferences. She attributes the response to the video’s simplicity.

“A lot of what’s in the film was already out there,” Ms. Leonard said, “but the style of the animation makes it easy to watch. It is a nice counterbalance to the starkness of the facts.”

The video certainly makes the facts stark and at times very political: “We’ll start with extraction, which is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation, which is a fancy word for trashing the planet,” she says at one point. “What this looks like is we chop down the trees, we blow up mountains to get the metals inside, we use up all the water and we wipe out the animals.”

Mark Lukach, who teaches global studies at Woodside Priory, a Catholic college-preparatory school in Portola Valley, Calif., acknowledged that the film is edgy, but said the 20-minute length gives students time to challenge it in class after viewing it.

“Compared to ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ ” he said, referring to Al Gore’s one-and-a-half-hour documentary on climate change, “it is much shorter and easier to compact into a class segment. You can watch it and then segue into a discussion.”

Mr. Lukach’s students made a response video and posted it on YouTube, asking Ms. Leonard to scare them less and give them ideas on how to make things better. That in turn inspired high school students in Mendocino, Calif., to post an answer to Woodside, with suggested activities.

Dawn Zweig, who teaches environmental studies at the Putney School, a private academy in Vermont, said that the very reason the video appealed to teachers — it shows students how their own behavior is linked to what is happening across the globe — could also raise sensitive issues. She said students, particularly affluent ones, might take the critique personally. “If you offend a student, they turn off the learning button and then you won’t get anywhere,” Ms. Zweig said.

Sometimes teachers observe the opposite: children who become environmental advocates at home after seeing the video. After Jasmine Madavi, 18, saw it last year in Mr. Lukach’s class at Woodside Priory, she began nagging her parents to stop buying bottled water. Her mother resisted, saying that filtered tap water, Jasmine’s suggested alternative, would not taste as good. But Jasmine bought the filter on her own, and the household is now converted.

“You just have to be persistent,” said Ms. Madavi, who is now a community college student. “When you use a water bottle, it just doesn’t disappear. That’s Annie’s message.”

Most parents take such needling with humor. But Mark Zuber, a parent of a child at Big Sky High School in Missoula, had a stronger reaction when a teacher showed the video to his daughter last year. “There was not one positive thing about capitalism in the whole thing,” Mr. Zuber said.

Corporations, for example, are portrayed as a bloated person sporting a top hat and with a dollar sign etched on its front.

He described the video as one-sided. “It was very well done, very effective advocacy, but it was just that,” he said.

Mr. Zuber argued before the Missoula County School Board that the way in which “The Story of Stuff” was presented, without an alternative point of view, violated its standards on bias, and the board agreed in a 4-to-3 vote.

Still, Ms. Leonard is hoping the video will circle the globe. “I’ve heard from teachers in Palestine and Papua New Guinea,” she said. “It is just spreading and spreading.”

Original video for your viewing

And a critique of the video by Youtuber HowTheWorldWorks:

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4

It's sad that children will only see the lying propagandist and not the other side presented by HowTheWorldWorks.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by CrossoverManiac

From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/ed...tuff.html?_r=2:



Original video for your viewing

And a critique of the video by Youtuber HowTheWorldWorks:

part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4

It's sad that children will only see the lying propagandist and not the other side presented by HowTheWorldWorks.

Sure it's probably a horribly simplified video, but I don't know, maybe it might be good to post a refutation from someone who doesn't have a video about how Al Gore is trying to bring about a world government through cap and trade policies. I mean sure that could be considered an ad hominium attack, but I believe it also addresses a fundamental issue, that the guy is nuts and does not have an informed opinion on environmental issues. He clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. 'There's no need to worry about running out of resources, when we start to run out they'll cost more so people won't use as much!" Sure that might be true, but he's leaving out that what that would mean is a massive drop in standard of living for our decendents.