This is very, very cool: breathingearth.net It is a real time simulation that displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates. Make sure you move your mouse over the countries to check out their stats. I’ve always been obsessed with maps. That’s why I love books like You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination and I am really interested to see how people are using new…

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the quote below from C.P. Scott’s A Hundred Years essay, written in 1921. Scott was Editor of the Manchester Guardian (now just The Guardian) for an extraordinary 57 years from 1872 until 1929 and he wrote A Hundred Years to celebrate the centenary of the paper: Comment is free, but facts are sacred. “Propaganda”, so called, by this means is hateful. The voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a…

I am a big fan of Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust: A History of Walking and I kept thinking about this book while I was watching Examined Life, directed by Astra Taylor who previously made Zizek! (having my beloved worlds of academia and documentary coming together like this is geek-bliss for me) At the Q&A after the screening in the lovely Bearsville Theater at the Woodstock Film Festival I was pleasantly surprised when Astra mentioned Wanderlust and said that the film wouldn’t…

Is it just me or is the LFF this year one of its strongest ever? I’ve just watched debut film ‘Hunger’ by (Turner prize winnning artist) Steve McQueen about the IRA hunger strike. I’m also an Australian. And despite knowing very little about critical events that took place between the IRA and British government, it is one of the most powerful and daring films I have seen for a very long time. It also feels like the film has been…

I had a wonderful time up at the Woodstock Film Festival a couple of weeks ago and I feel terrible that I haven’t had a chance to write about it until now. It was great to be up in the country as the leaves started turning and the air grew crisp. I even had a couple of nature epiphanies eating apples off trees and looking at deer in the woods (such a city girl!). Everything smelled of woodsmoke and patchouli…

The End of America, based on Naomi Wolf’s book of the same name and directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern (The Trials of Darryl Hunt, The Devil Came on Horseback), just premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival and will be screening at Sheffield Doc/Fest soon but you can watch it right now on SnagFilms. The film is a bit lecturey (it is actually structured around a lecture given by Wolf) but it makes some very important points about…

I have just returned from The Conversation in California where I learned a huge amount about what is possible for filmmakers given the technology (and thinking!) available these days. The good news for those of you in London is that film/tech whiz Liz Rosenthal has produced what I’m sure will be an equally mind-expanding couple of days at this year’s Power To The Pixel – in fact some of the same wonderful people will be there: Lance Weiler, Arin Crumley,…

I listened to The Giant Pool of Money show on This American Life earlier this year and felt like I finally understood how the subprime housing crisis had happened and how devastating it was for the people who bought houses they couldn’t afford (I’m sure the collapse of the subprime market was also devastating for the rip-off merchants earning huge amounts doing these deals but I find it hard to feel sorry for them). As one of the affected home-owners,…

Continuing with today’s politically-themed posts, I feel like it would be remiss of me not to post this clip from NBC’s Meet the Press where Colin Powell explains why he is endorsing Obama.

I just returned from California where many of my friends are involved with the fight against Prop 8, a proposed amendment to the Californian Constitution that would eliminate the rights of same-sex couples to marry. Inserting inequality into the Californian Constitution is not my idea of a good way to protect human rights for all and I would personally not want to get married knowing that same-sex couples don’t have the same rights as me. Check out these PSAs encouraging…