Future News

What were the Top News Stories of 2010?

What will the Headlines be 10, 20, or 50 years from now?

Brave New World

A recent spate of mass animal deaths around the world has sparked a rash of conspiracy theories and doomsday predictions with many people taking to the internet to have their say, news.com.au reported Thursday.

From the U.S. to New Zealand, from Britain to Brazil, bizarre cases of birds, fish and crabs turning up dead en masse have been reported in the past two weeks and no one seems to know why.

Is this global warming, a government conspiracy, or could it be these animals have just become Overpopulated?

Environmentalists have long been concerned about the resources threatened by rapidly growing human populations, focusing on phenomenon such as deforestation, desertification, air pollution and global warming. But the worst-case scenario for people experiencing overpopulation, according to Lawrence Smith, president of the Population Institute, is a lack of fresh, clean water.

"If the water goes, the species goes," he said.

What are the consequences of overpopulation?

What are the solutions?

Oh Deer!

What are some of the problems deer create for our community?

What is the solution?

Read and evaluate the draft of the City of Oxford's Deer Management Plan. What letter grade would you give the plan? Do you prefer lethal or non-lethal alternatives? Choose the management option you think to be the best and be prepared to defend it in a class debate.

Why not release predators?

Who Killed Bambi?

The Ethical Implications of Charitable Giving

The material Slavoj Zizek discusses in this animated lecture is (not surprisingly, given its title) primarily from First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, published in 2009 by Verso. However, the topic of philanthro-capitalism is also found in Zizek’s (lesser read) Violence, published in 2008 as part of Picador’s brilliant and aesthetically pleasing BIG IDEAS//small books series. An excerpt:

“Good old Andrew Carnegie employed a private army brutally to suppress organised labour in his steelworks and then distributed large parts of his wealth to educational, artistic, and humanitarian causes. A man of steel, he proved he had a heart of gold. In the same way, today’s liberal communists give away with one hand what they first took with the other. This brings to mind a chocolate laxative available in the U.S. It is publicised with the paradoxical injunction: ‘Do you have constipation? Eat more of this chocolate!’ In other words, eat the very thing that causes constipation in order to be cured of it.”

Why do we buy Starbucks, Tom's shoes, or Organic Apples? What is the hypocrisy of buying these things?

Do you agree or disagree with what Mr. Zizek is saying? Is charity good or bad? Why?

We Care Alot

Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, giving $300 billion a year to charities. Sounds like a lot, right? But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the over One Trillion Dollars needed to keep U.S. charities in operation, more than the U.S. government collects in taxes. The rest comes from their own assets, government support, and foreign investment. Our visual guide to giving shows who’s paying and offers some tips on how to pick a charity of your own.

Lemonade Stand

CLICK HERE TO PLAY GAME
Welcome young entrepreneur! Your objective is to make as much money as you can in 15 days running a simple lemonade stand.

What strategies did you discover to increase your profits?

Identify any problems you encountered? How do these problems compare to the real business world? What problems were out of your control?

This classic game has been around since 1979. Are the Business lessons it teaches still appropriate today?

How has the Economic Climate of our country affected small businesses in this era of mega-stores like WalMart ?

Get a Job!

Big election losses suffered by Democrats were "first and foremost" a reflection of the economy's weakness rather than a wholesale rejection of his policies, President Barack Obama said on Sunday.

"The party in power was held responsible for an economy that is still underperforming and where a lot of folks are still hurting," Obama told the CBS program "60 Minutes" in an interview.

But just how bad is it?

Today in class you will all be given jobs and paid comparatively in 'skittles.'

Who made the most? The least? What do these salaries say about what we value as a society? In a perfect world who would you pay the most?