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Good information about climate change.  Also addresses the skeptics of climate change. 

Tim Berners-Lee (2010) Short talk about collaborating on the web with "open" data. People from around the world using open data available on-line for making changes. Great graphics

Good for Information

This site ranks major news sources across the political spectrum.

* Running Time: 0:39\n* Description: Shows how Google Book scanners work. Google is making the\nattempt to scan in millions of books\n* Rating: Good (very short)\n* 7-Revolutioins: Information

Renowned\ninventor Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines) may be technology's most credibly\nhyperbolic optimist. Elsewhere he has argued that eliminating fat intake can prevent\ncancer; here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it\nruns, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical\nlimitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the\nstaggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a\nspecies of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so\non. The word "unrecognizable" is not chosen lightly: wherever this is heading, it won't look like us. Kurzweil's argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that\nthere are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that\nsuch developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation\nof the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable\nhands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a\nbewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would\nbe easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist-a large-minded one at that-and\ngives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many\npresumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to\nwhich Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convince-given the scope of his\nprojections, that's inevitable-but the degree to which it seems downright plausible.\n(Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights\nreserved.)

In this sobering but optimistic manifesto, development economist Sachs (The End of\nPoverty) argues that the crises facing humanity are daunting-but solutions to them are\nreadily at hand. Sachs focuses on four challenges for the coming decades: heading off\nglobal warming and environmental destruction; stabilizing the world's population;\nending extreme poverty; and breaking the political logjams that hinder global\ncooperation on these issues. The author analyzes economic data, demographic trends\nand climate science to create a lucid, accessible and suitably grim exposition of looming\nproblems, but his forte is elaborating concrete, pragmatic, low-cost remedies complete\nwith benchmarks and budgets. Sachs's entire agenda would cost less than 3% of the\nworld's annual income, and he notes that a mere two days' worth of Pentagon spending\nwould fund a comprehensive anti-malaria program for Africa, saving countless lives.\nForthright government action is the key to avoiding catastrophe, the author contends,\nnot the unilateral, militarized approach to international problems that he claims is\npursued by the Bush administration. Combining trenchant analysis with a resounding\ncall to arms, Sachs's book is an important contribution to the debate over the world's\nfuture. (Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All\nrights reserved.)

* Aired: January 2009 * Running time: 5:27 * Description: Provides information about energy prices and ethanol. * Rating: Good. Used during a lecture on biofuels. * 7-Revolutions Section: Resources, Technology

* Filmed: November 2006 * Running Time: 4:07 * Description: Short humorous poem about the Internet. Good way to break up a lecture. * Rating: Very good * 7-Revolutions: Information.

* Filmed: August 2006 * Running Time: 17.38 * Description: Nicholas Negroponte discusses his work to provide cheap ($100), portable, self-charging laptops to developing countries. He talks about how these laptops can change education and ultimately reduce poverty. * Rating: Good * 7-Revolutions Sections: Technology, Information Processing.

* Filmed: December 2007 * Running Time: 19.34 * Description: Kevin Kelly describes what the Internet is today and predicts where it is going. He begins with interesting statistics about how the Internet is used today, then makes some predictions of how the Internet will change in the next 10, 20 and 30 years. Draft 81 * Rating: Good: Interesting stats but it's a bit slow at times. * 7-Revolutions Sections: Technology, Information Processing.

* Originally released November 2006 * Running time: 96 minutes * Description: Former Vice President Al Gore presents a compelling look at the state of global warming in the fascinating and startling documentary. Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don't act now. Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous, frequently emotional, always fascinating. In the end, An Inconvenient Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the viewer shaken, involved and inspired. Description from http://www.climatecrisis.net/aboutthedvd/ and from amazon.com, where it is available for $16 * Rating: excellent; used inside and outside class; directly related to climate change topic within "resource management" revolution

* Aired: March 2008 * Running time: 58:58 * Description: This is a very entertaining and informative program on research in biotechnology and bioengineering. It talks about present research and makes some interesting predictions about the future. * Rating: Excellent * 7-Revolutions Section: Technology

* Running Time: 3:40 * Description: This is an animated short film about groundwater. It provides good information, but is also very humorous. * Rating: Very good * 7-Revolutioins: Resources, Technology

Discussion of the political impact of social media has focused on the power of mass protests to topple governments. In fact, social media's real potential lies in supporting civil society and the public sphere -- which will produce change over years and decades, not weeks or months.

Summary: Do the tools of social media make it possible for protesters to challenge their governments? Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no evidence that they do; Clay Shirky disagrees.