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Largest Science Teachers Organization Rejects Gore Video... Why?
By John F. Borowski, Truthout
The National Science Teachers Association recently rebuffed an offer of 50,000 free DVD copies of Al Gore's climate change film, 'An Inconvenient Truth.' The 55,000-member organization claimed that it saw little benefit to teachers in accepting the DVDs and didn't want to politically endorse the film. This is the same organization that, according to science teacher John Borowski, passes along donated items to science teachers that include everything from 'coal coloring books' to videos such as 'Fuel-less: You Can't Be Cool Without Fuel.' -- Jenna Fisher
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806N.shtml

Swapping Striga for Patents
By Staff, Seedling
With Monsanto taking heavy criticism for its genetically engineered crops, the genetically mutated seeds of biotech giant BASF seem to have snuck under the radar. Both companies create genetically engineered herbicide-resistant plants; the difference is that while Monsanto uses gene splicing, BASF mutates plants' genetic code by exposing them to chemicals. When it comes to intellectual property tactics, though, the companies are strikingly similar. This year, many Kenyan farmers will be choosing whether or not to use BASF's new seeds to help them conquer the maize-killing Striga weed -- an arrangement that would require them to sign strict contracts agreeing not to save seeds and to buy only BASF herbicide. -- Suzanne Lindgren
http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=440

Too Disturbing
By Daynah Burnett, Pop Matters
Last month, movie theaters across the country hosted a weekend of horror flicks entitled '8 Films to Die For: After Dark Horrorfest' -- films billed as 'too graphic or too disturbing for wide release.' Daynah Burnett investigated whether 'graphic' and 'disturbing' could possibly mean 'groundbreaking.' It didn't. What Burnett found was 'a lack of imagination' made evident by, yet again, casting women as terrorizers' targets of choice. In lieu of subversion or innovation, the filmmakers offered only more extreme, more repulsive, and more sexualized violence. -- Rachel Anderson
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/features/article/8153/too-disturbing-after-dark-horrorfest-17-19-november-2006/

Happy Un-Thanksgiving
By Very Short List
There's a lot to complain about in the world: 'When you buy furniture, all you get is a pile of boards,' or 'Nice shirts get discoloured in the wash, but ugly shirts never do.' Luckily, the Complaints Choir of Helsinki, the brainchild of husband-and-wife artistic team Oliver Kochta Kalleinen and Tellervo Kalleinen, is lending its Finnish voice to get the unfairness of life known in the form of a swelling choral number. Check out this clip at YouTube, but be warned: you may be humming 'On se niin v??rin!' ('It's not fair!') all afternoon. (Thanks, MoJo Blog.) -- Rachel Anderson
http://www.veryshortlist.com/lists/pick.cfm?email_key=0354d60f-9696-401a-aaf1-4028fb935620

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