Video: Glyphosate and GM threaten monarch butterflies

You may be aware that bees are under serious threat due to pesticides and other toxins in the environment. Likewise, the monarch butterfly risks becoming endangered, as genetically engineered corn and soya and other genetically modified crops have largely eliminated the monarch butterfly's sole food and breeding source, the milkweed. Glyphosate-based herbicides also destroy soil, plant, animal, and human health. A video explaining the plight of monarch butterflies as well as what you can do, is included with this article.

Video: "Cancer: The forbidden cures"

This article includes a video "Cancer: The forbidden cures", produced by the filmmaker Massimo Mazzucco. This video describes cures for cancer which are inexpensive and come from nature, but have been thwarted and suppressed by the drug-based medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry who cannot patent these natural cures.

Video: GMO Film Project

I decided to share the video trailer to an upcoming film, GMO Film Project, which shows a father's discovery of GMOs via the symbolic act of Haitian farmers burning seeds in defiance of Monsanto's "gift" of 430 t of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds after the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

Video: Civilisation types

In this lecture, theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku talks about the types of civilisation. A Type 1 civilisation would correspond to a Buck Rogers type civilisation, type 2 which would correspond to a Star Trek type civilisation, and type 3 which would correspond to a Star Wars type civilisation (specifically The Empire).

Apparently we are currently a Type 0 Civilisation, but transitioning towards a Type 1 civilisation, and according to current calculations we will reach Type 1 in approximately 100 years, but that this transition from Type 0 to Type 1 is also the most dangerous phase and that some people fear this transition. More details are in the video itself.

Video: Why batteries are primitive

This is an interesting video I found on batteries. In this video, the theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku explains why current battery technology is primitive, that today's batteries have far less energy per kilogram compared to petrol. The future possibilities look very interesting indeed - including using lots of carbon nanofibres or graphenes (a graphene sheet is a 2-dimensional layer of carbon atoms) to increase storage capacity dramatically, once nanotechnology matures of course.

Video: Future by design

I just came across this video, and thought this is worth sharing.

This documentary is called "Future by design" and looks at the life and designs of futurist, inventor, and architectural designer Jacque Fresco, along with his vision for the future which suggests using automation and technology to benefit people, a high standard of living for all, and no more warfare amongst other things.

Videos: Monsanto and GM

This article shows two videos about Monsanto and genetic modification (GM). The first film is a trailer: The world according to Monsanto, an award winning investigative documentary.  The second video clip is by Greenpeace explaining why biodiversity needs to be protected and why GM as practised by Monsanto (and others, but Monsanto has a 90% share in the market) threatens biodiversity, food security, and sustainable agriculture.

Video: Waste = Food (documentary)

Shown in this article is the documentary video, Waste = Food. Released in 2006 by the Dutch public broadcaster VPRO (English version in 2007), this documentary explains the Cradle to Cradle design concept created by chemist Michael Braungart, and designer-architect William McDonough. The principle of the Cradle to Cradle design concept is that instead of creating more and more landfills filled with waste and unwanted products, products can be designed and manufactured so that the waste would instead become "food" for the biosphere (our Earth) or the technosphere (the products we make).

Billed as the next industrial revolution, this design concept is not only a form of recycling, it is a really interesting design concept which could be a major change in the way products are made and built, and this concept is environmentally friendly and sustainable. This ecologically sound design concept is explained in more detail in the video itself.

Videos: The innovative SixthSense device

Imagine using a gadget which lets you use any surface such as a wall or even your hand as touchscreen. The MIT Media Labs have developed such a gadget called a SixthSense device, it is an augmented reality device, and a gestural interface device in that one can use gestures to determine what gets done (such as taking a photo, viewing the time, or even dialling your mobile), and you can have images projected on almost any surface.

Pattie Maes (associate professor of the MIT Media Labs), along with PhD student Pranav Mistry who invented this device, demonstrated a prototype in a TED Conference in February 2009, a video of which is shown below: