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Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman interviews Eurasia Group analyst Damien Ma on China's political transition, economic slowdown, and social inequality.

"The following presentation contains dozens of the most popular tools being used in classrooms right now."

A TedTalk by Peter Janse van Rensburg about the use of nanotechnology in our everyday lives and to make the world better. It is very short and rather interesting.

Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens -- and the environment.

How much more water will we need?

This is a link to an excellent set of pieces from the LA Times looking at the implications of demographic changes in the 21st century. It includes photos, videos, maps, and more. I highly recommend it.

This is a link to a school at Oxford that has a trove of resources dealing with a variety of 21st century issues. There are multimedia materials and lots of publications on different topics available as free pdf downloads.

TED Talk that connects urbanization (and the global need for housing) to climate change. Might be good to stop the video about half way through to ask students about potential problems, and then restart to hear the speaker address some of these issues.

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

* Running time: 20 minutes * From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. Description directly from http://www.storyofstuff.com/ web site, from which the animation can be played directly * Rating: Excellent; used in class as an example of a systems perspective; related to "resource management" and "economic integration"

* Released 2004 * Running time: 85 minutes * The film places these children's stories in the broader context of the worldwide struggle against child labor. Stolen Childhoods provides an understanding of the causes of child labor, what it costs the global community, how it contributes to global insecurity and what it will take to eliminate it, available as a DVD http://store.galenfilms.com/un.html and, perhaps more useful, clips can be viewed on line, for example, this one about children working on an onion farm in Texas http://www.stolenchildhoods.org/mt/archives/videostories/texas_fields/inde x.php