NFB Performance Rights

I just received this message from the Near North's Educational Technology Coordinator, Jane Henderson:

I received an update from the Ontario Educational Software people (OESS) and as of April 1st, the Ontario Government has paid for performance rights – classrooms, libraries, etc.. Please go to www.nfb.ca (The National Film Board). There are no passwords – all we need to do is go to the website and enjoy. This is a great educational site, so please make sure you forward this message to the staff at your school.

So, I don't need a lot of encouragement to pursue a diversion! And I have been looking for a film that I remember with fondness from my school days, The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes by Bill Mason. Not only did I find it, but I can embed it here. Besides its interesting geological information, it reminds us of the significant damage that is being done to the Great Lakes by human activity.



See my earlier post about another movie I remember with fondness, the Log Driver's Waltz.

Where are the Math Project sites?

Neil Munro shared a spreadsheet with me of the medal counts by country at the 2008 Olympic Games. You may know that the press in Canada was critical of the performance of the Canadian team, especially prior to a run of medals toward the end of the games. If you adjust the medal count for the population of the country, Canada does better than the United States and much better than China. Others have adjusted for a nation's GDP. Depending on the method used, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Zimbabwe fare very well.

It struck me that the question is a good one for a mathematics exploration - especially since the source data is available in lots of locations, including wikipedia and there are media reports and analysis all over the web. Vancouver 2010 is fast approaching too.

I went looking for a repository of good open-ended questions like this and came up with the square root of 0.

Surely, there is some interested wikiphile who is compiling such things. Isn't there?

If you know of some good resources, please let me know.