Teaching Kids To Accept Being Different

Children don’t have the same filter between their brains and their mouths that adults do, and if you need evidence of that, just think back to any moment of embarrassment caused by your child’s ultra-honesty. It’s one thing for an adult to see someone who is obese and think, he’s fat, but children are more than likely to point and say in a loud, non-indoor voice, Wow, Mommy, he’s fat!

Read this interesting article.

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Cartoon Cat Teaches Kids It's Okay To Be Different

Floppy Cat isn’t like all the other cats. Instead of strolling and running, he flips, flops and sways when he walks. But instead of treating his oddball crawl like a hindrance, he treats it like a gift, making his story a metaphor for any child who isn’t like everyone else. Kari Kay, author of Floppy Cat, from the Floppy Cat Company (www.floppycat.com) based her children’s book on the life of her real cat, Floppy.

Read this interesting article.

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Call That Justice

Every day, tens of thousands of children around the world wake up behind bars. Many of them will have committed no offence. BBC investigates children's rights in justice systems around the world. In a hard-hitting three-part series called ' Call That Justice', BBC uncovers a global scandal about the neglect and abuse of children's rights within the justice system, around the world.

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Capital Punishment

The question as to whether or not it is morally acceptable for the state to execute people, and if so under what circumstances, has been debated for centuries. The ethical problems involved include the general moral issues of punishment with the added problem of whether it is ever morally right to deprive a human being of life.

To learn more about various issues related to capital punishment, click on the URL below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/

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Exploring the Concept of National Identity

What is 'National Identity'? Why is important? Is it relevant in today's word? What are some important concepts, keywords and phrases involved when we talk about 'National Identity'?

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Watch PBS Evolution Series

PBS Evolution - Extinction

Five mass extinctions have occurred since life began on Earth. Some 99.9 percent of all the species that have ever lived are now extinct. Are humans causing the next mass extinction? And what does evolutionary theory predict for the world we will leave to our descendants?

PBS Evolution - Why Sex?

In evolutionary terms, sex is more important than life itself. Sex fuels evolutionary change by adding variation to the gene pool. The powerful urge to pass our genes on to the next generation has likely changed the face of human culture in ways we're only beginning to understand.

PBS Evolution - The Mind's Big Bang

Fifty thousand years ago, something happened -- the modern human mind emerged, triggering a creative, technological, and social explosion. What forces contributed to that breakthrough? Where might our power of mind ultimately lead us?

PBS Evolution - The Evolutionary Arms Race

Survival of the fittest: Raw competition? Intense cooperation? Both are essential. Interactions between and within species are among the most powerful evolutionary forces on Earth, and understanding them may be a key to our own survival.

PBS Evolution - Great Transformations

What underlies the incredible diversity of life on Earth? How have complex life forms evolved? The journey from water to land, the return of land mammals to the sea, and the emergence of humans all suggest that creatures past and present are members of a single tree of life.

PBS Evolution - What about God?

Of all species, we alone attempt to explain who we are and how we came to be. This final episode explores the struggle between science and religion. Through the personal stories of students and teachers, it offers the view that they are compatible.

PBS Evolution - Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Part 1

PBS Evolution - Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Part 2

Why does Charles Darwin's "dangerous idea" matter more today than ever, and how does it explain the past and predict the future of life on Earth? The first show interweaves the drama of Darwin's life with current documentary sequences, introducing key concepts of evolution.

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Animal Rights?

Rational argument about the right and wrong way to treat animals is made more difficult by the deep love that many of us feel for animals.

For philosophers it raises fundamental questions about the basis of moral rights.

To learn more about the issue, click here http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/

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Is Abortion Ethical?

The abortion debate asks whether it can be morally right to terminate a pregnancy before normal childbirth.

Some people think that abortion is always wrong. Some think that abortion is right when the mother's life is at risk. Others think that there is a range of circumstances in which abortion is morally acceptable.

To find out more about this debate, visit this site http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/

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Shifting Legal Boundaries : Gay Issues

Find out more at these sites:

http://www.yawningbread.org/apdx_2007/imp-308.htm

http://safesingapore.blogspot.com/2007/05/straits-times-forum-letter-whether.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/gay_divide.shtml

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Incarceration without trial at Guantanamo Bay

Crime & Punishment : Does everyone deserve a shot at a fair trail?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4720962.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4502411.stm

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Trying War Criminals

Chemical Ali

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=6644&start=0&&&edition=2&ttl=20070625154335

Charles Taylor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6707551.stm

Slobodan Milosevic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/milosevic_trial_01.shtml

Saddam Trail

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6118226.stm

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About Euthanasia & Death

Links to help you learn more about euthanasia controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6710643.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3143112.stm

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/13163/an_overview_of_the_debate_over_euthanasia.html

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Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

FRONTLINE explores the relationship between U.S. job losses and the American consumer's insatiable desire for bargains in "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Through interviews with retail executives, product manufacturers, economists, and trade experts, correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the growing controversy over the Wal-Mart way of doing business and asks whether a single retail giant has changed the American economy.

"Wal-Mart's power and influence are awesome," Smith says. "By figuring out how to exploit two powerful forces that converged in the 1990s -- the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy -- Wal-Mart has dramatically changed the balance of power in the world of business. Retailers are now more powerful than manufacturers, and they are forcing the decision to move production offshore."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart

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Breathing Earth!!!

A wonderful presentation with pollution statistics!!!

http://www.breathingearth.net/

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Cyber War

In "Cyber War!" FRONTLINE investigates a number of cyber attacks that have already occurred in recent years, including "Slammer," which last January took down the Internet in South Korea and affected 911 systems and the banking system in the United States, and the "Nimda" virus that quietly attacked Wall Street in 2001.

FRONTLINE talks to cyber security experts about what these defining wake-up calls reveal about the vulnerabilities of cyberspace. This report also follows efforts by the United States to go on the offensive.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cyberwar

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Diet Wars

Americans spend $40 billion a year on books, products, and programs designed to do one thing: help us lose weight. From Atkins to Ornish and Weight Watchers to South Beach, today's dieters have a dizzying array of weight loss programs from which to choose -- yet the underlying principles of these diets are often contradictory.

In "Diet Wars," FRONTLINE examines the great diet debate. Viewers follow FRONTLINE correspondent Steve Talbot, whose discovery that those "few extra pounds" have put him perilously close to the clinical definition of obesity prompts him to evaluate the myriad diets now available to overweight Americans.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/diet

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The Age of AIDS

On the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosed cases of AIDS, FRONTLINE examines one of the worst pandemics the world has ever known in "The Age of AIDS." After a quarter century of political denial and social stigma, of stunning scientific breakthroughs, bitter policy battles and inadequate prevention campaigns, HIV/AIDS continues to spread rapidly throughout much of the world, particularly in developing nations. To date, some 30 million people worldwide have already died of AIDS.

"It's a very human virus, a very human epidemic. It touches right to the heart of our existence," says Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS. "When you think of it, that in let's say 25 years, about 70 million people have become infected with this virus, probably coming from one [transmission] ... it's mind blowing."

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The Merchants of Cool

They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.

They are the merchants of cool: creators and sellers of popular culture who have made teenagers the hottest consumer demographic in America. But are they simply reflecting teen desires or have they begun to manufacture those desires in a bid to secure this lucrative market? And have they gone too far in their attempts to reach the hearts--and wallets--of America's youth?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/

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News War

Drawing on more than 80 interviews with key figures in the print, broadcast and electronic media, and with unequaled, behind-the-scenes access to some of today's most important news organizations, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman examines the challenges facing the mainstream news media, and the media's reaction, in "News War," a special four-part series.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar

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Can You Afford to Retire?

The baby boomer generation is headed for a shock as it hits retirement: many of them will be long on life expectancy but short on savings. The two main strategies for funding retirement -- lifetime pensions and 401(k)-style savings plans -- are in serious trouble.

In "Can You Afford to Retire?" FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith ("Is Wal-Mart Good for America?") investigates this looming financial crisis and the outlook for middle-class Americans. (more) »

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement

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