(Higher Level to Advanced) A surprising solution to Climate Change

"Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert," begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it's happening to about two-thirds of the world's grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes -- and his work so far shows -- that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.

Watch:

Allan Savory

(Higher Level to Advanced) 19-year-old's Ocean Cleaner

19-year-young Boyan Slat has ingeniously created the Ocean Array Plan, a project that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic from the world’s oceans in just five years.

Read About it here:

The Ocean Array Plan

(Mid Level-Advanced) The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

HIGH above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt. He was very much admired indeed.

Listen:

The Happy Prince

(Any Level) Shifting tides of humanity

Watch and be amazed:

Map of Europe: 1000 AD to present day

(Any Level) Where's the Octopus?

When marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the scene in this video he started screaming.  Hanlon, senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, studies camouflage in cephalopods - squid, cuttlefish and octopus. They are masters of optical illusion.

Where's the octopus?

Blending Times

Berlin 1945/2010 by Sergey Larenkov

Sergey Larenkov is a Russian-based artist/photographer who was deeply impacted by World War II. On his Live Journal blog, the Saint Petersburg native has put together a tremendous set of collages of historic World War II photographs blended into the same locations as they currently look today.

Through collaboratiion with the the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg and the Russian State Documentary Film & Photo Archive, in Krasnogorsk; Sergey then travelled to various battle scenes from World War II, snapping a picture in present day for his blended collages. Sergey has travelled to Paris, Berlin, Prague and around Russia, revisiting historic war sites. By snapping these locations from a similar angle as the original war photographs, we get a chilling glimpse into a very different and scary time.

The photographs below are haunting, telling and incredibly fascinating. Be sure to check out the entire collection at:http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/

See photos:

Sergey Larenkov

Gather and Hunt

Often my students in Auckland are at a loss to grasp what the city has to offer in terms of shops, cafes and activities. Gather and Hunt has a commercial directory for what's basically worthwhile and classy in Auckland. I haven't found another directory as astute as this.

Link:

Gather and Hunt