A while back I wrote about a disgusting little online game sponsored by the Australian government via the ABC. It appears that this game is being promoted in the public schools as well:
Professor Schpinkee’s “date one should die” exercise is meant to be a “fun” experience for primary students of public schools associated with the Australian Sustainability Schools Initiative.” According to a 2007 Schools Environment newsletter, written by the government sustainability officer in New South Wales and sent to schools in this program, teachers are encouraged to lead children to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Planet Slayer website and use Professor Schpinkee’s Greenhouse Calculator. The newsletter refers to the calculator as a “great game for kids.”
My original post has screenshots and more description. Via Tom Nelson
Here’s a blog almost as good as yours:
http://www.dailytech.com/blogs/rss.aspx?user=44
I honestly cannot remember this ABC (Australian Bullshit Company, not to be confused with American Bullshit Company) bullshit devotion to AGW when I was down under 3 years ago, but then this crap wasn’t politically fashionable.
Here’s ABC’s latest installment:
Plasma, LCDs blamed for accelerating global warming
Here’s the link for pseudoscientist:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/03/2293369.htm?section=justin
Heh. They must have been getting some complaints. I saw this a while ago, and as posted, they used to say, “You should die at age x.x.” It now has been changed and just says, “You’ll use your share of the planet in x.x years.”
Mesa, I read your link about NF3. Let’s see… As a gas it’s about 2.5 times as dense as air so will tend not to disperse rapidly, is rather reactive so probably has a short lifespan in the environment, and they haven’t been able to measure it in the atmosphere. Ooh, yeah. This looks like something to worry about. Do reporters even bother to do any research any more?
Jesus H. Christ, don’t you know that F is an enormous component of your dentifirice? You F usurping F holes? And it’s in the F’ing H2O, sometimes with dH2O.
How can you not know this?
You’re inherently too dense to grasp the F’ing importance of F.
FU.
(/funny)
Mesa, I think you’re channeling Scientist! And let’s not bring dihydrogen monoxide into this. I’ve heard that stuff is dangerous.
Personally, I’m spewing HCO4.
And cis- fatty acids.
Happy 4th everyone.
Just don’t spill your favorite C2H5OH beverage.
A happy 4th of July to you also!
Dreadful!! We’re surrounded by hordes of dangerous CHEMICALS. No wonder everyone is worried. 😀
I complained to the ABC on this issue some weeks ago & obviously many other people did. Here is their reply I received last Friday.
“Dear Mr Larsen,
Thank you for your email regarding Planet Slayer on ABC Online. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.
By way of background, I should explain that Planet Slayer was first made available on the ABC’s website in 2003. It is aimed at older teenagers, aged 14 years and over, and is clearly presented in an irreverent and satirical fashion, appropriate to that target audience. Planet Slayer is intended to be an educational and thought provoking site. It aims to encourage visitors to think about the impact their lifestyle choices can have on the environment. Visitors are encouraged to play around with the answers to each of the questions in the quiz to see the impact of their different choices. The site provides resource material to help visitors understand why the outcome changes when they select different answers.
Recent public discussion about this five year old site has increased traffic, potentially giving it something of a new life. Thus the editorial team felt that a review of the wording was appropriate. In its years of operation the site has attracted some 2 and a half to 3 million visits with minimal complaint about wording until very recently. However, the editorial team have elected to change the wording in recognition that young children are spending increasing amounts of time online and a minority of those may be doing so without adult supervision and may find their way to parts of the ABC site not designed for them. While the ABC is confident that the original wording was appropriate to the site’s target audience, the ‘call to action’ has been changed as a precautionary measure. The ‘call to action’ now talks about the age at which a person has used their “share” of the planet.
All ABC content – including Planet Slayer – must comply with the standards outlined in our Editorial Policies and Code of Practice (http://abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/edpol07.pdf and http://abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/codeprac07.pdf). While we do note your comments about the site, we are satisfied that Planet Slayer complies with these editorial standards.
Thank you for taking the time to contact the ABC. Your feedback is appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Kirstin McLiesh
Head, Audience & Consumer Affairs”
Very professional.