Married couples in cities were limited to just one child as part of the government’s family planning programme implemented in 1979, when the birth rate was three children per woman.

By 2008 the birth rate had dropped to 1.8 children per woman.

The government says over 400 million births have been prevented as a result of the policy without it, the population today would have been 1.7 billion people, instead of 1.3 billion.

But the city of Yicheng has challenged this claim.

Chinese authorities selected Yicheng 30 years ago for a secret experiment: to act as a control group to see what would happen if families had the freedom to have more than one child.

And the population there has actually grown at a slower rate than the national average, as Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports. (June 20, 2010)

Duration : 0:3:4

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This is our revised and updated documentary for National History Day 2007, entitled “The High Cost of a Lower Population: The Triumph and Tragedy of China’s One-Child Policy.” We first began research in the fall of 2006, and only now is the documentary presented here in its final form.

This documentary placed 2nd in Washington State (senior level), and will be competing in the National competition in Washington D.C. on June 9th, 2007 against 99 other finalists from around the country. Wish us best of luck! Thanks for all of the support so far.

-W.C. and T.T.; 10th grade Shorewood High School

Duration : 0:9:58

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Thanks to Karen Kavett at http://www.youtube.com/xperpetualmotion for the illustration.

Debt Chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Federal_Debt_as_Percent_of_GDP_by_President.jpg

Duration : 0:3:49

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Obama promised to break away from his predecessor George Bushs polices and rebuild ties with disgruntled allies and reach out to the Muslim world. Over the course of the year, his administration attempted to re-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and engage with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programmes. Obama also had to maintain a delicate alliance with Pakistan, deal with Chinas enormous economic clout and reconnect with former cold war foe Russia.

In this episode of Riz Khan, we examine whether Obamas foreign policy agenda has been effective so far. Is it multilateral and can it repair the U.S.s reputation around the world? Anand Naidoo is joined by academic and author Philip Bobbit, who served under three U.S. Presidents; Stephen Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard University; and Christopher Dickey, the Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek Magazine.

Duration : 0:22:30

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But among some quarters in Washington, questions over unqualified US support for Israel remain.

The US military is starting to show concern over the cost of supporting Israel, at a time when it has thousands of troops in the Arab and Muslim world.

Al Jazeera’s Clayton Swisher explains. (June 01, 2010)

Duration : 0:2:57

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Central Banks, originally created as bankers’ banks, implement monetary policy using their leverage over the supply of money and credit standards. Since the Bank of England was founded in 1694, through the gold standard which lasted until the 1930s, and into modern times, central banks have pursued monetary policy to stabilize the banking system. Central banks monitor currency flows and inflation, acting when crises, such as bank runs, emerged. More recently, central banks have taken an increasingly expansive role in stabilizing economic fluctuations. In the yet to be confirmed current recession, the Federal Reserve has used open market operations and innovative financial arrangements to try to forestall the recession and bail out failing financial institutions.

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2008.

Duration : 1:10:17

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Duration : 0:9:57

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Duration : 0:3:45

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Description: George Bush Discusses Stem Cell Research Policy Date: 7/19/2006 Length: 15.42 minutes Political Video Link: http://www.politicalvideo.org/node/1927Original Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060719-3.html

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Congress has just passed and sent to my desk two bills concerning the use of stem cells in biomedical research. These bills illustrate both the promise and perils we face in the age of biotechnology. In this new era, our challenge is to harness the power of science to ease human suffering without sanctioning the practices that violate the dignity of human life. (Applause.)

In 2001, I spoke to the American people and set forth a new policy on stem cell research that struck a balance between the needs of science and the demands of conscience. When I took office, there was no federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Under the policy I announced five years ago, my administration became the first to make federal funds available for this research, yet only on embryonic stem cell lines derived from embryos that had already been destroyed.

My administration has made available more than $90 million for research on these lines. This policy has allowed important research to go forward without using taxpayer funds to encourage the further deliberate destruction of human embryos.

One of the bills Congress has passed builds on the progress we have made over the last five years. So I signed it into law. (Applause.) Congress has also passed a second bill that attempts to overturn the balanced policy I set. This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it. (Applause.)

Like all Americans, I believe our nation must vigorously pursue the tremendous possibility that science offers to cure disease and improve the lives of millions. We have opportunities to discover cures and treatments that were unthinkable generations ago. Some scientists believe that one source of these cures might be embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to grow into specialized adult tissues, and this may give them the potential to replace damaged or defective cells or body parts and treat a variety of diseases.

Yet we must also remember that embryonic stem cells come from human embryos that are destroyed for their cells. Each of these human embryos is a unique human life with inherent dignity and matchless value. We see that value in the children who are with us today. Each of these children began his or her life as a frozen embryo that was created for in vitro fertilization, but remained unused after the fertility treatments were complete. Each of these children was adopted while still an embryo, and has been blessed with the chance to grow up in a loving family.

These boys and girls are not spare parts. (Applause.) They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells. And they remind us that in our zeal for new treatments and cures, America must never abandon our fundamental morals.

Some people argue that finding new cures for disease requires the destruction of human embryos like the ones that these families adopted. I disagree. I believe that with the right techniques and the right policies, we can achieve scientific progress while living up to our ethical responsibilities. That’s what I sought in 2001, when I set forth my administration’s policy allowing federal funding for research on embryonic stem cell lines where the life and death decision had already been made.

This balanced approach has worked. Under this policy, 21 human embryonic stem cell lines are currently in use in research that is eligible for federal funding. Each of these lines can be replicated many times. And as a result, the National Institutes of Health have helped make more than 700 shipments to researchers since 2001. There is no ban on embryonic stem cell research. To the contrary, even critics of my policy concede that these federally funded lines are being used in research every day by scientists around the world. My policy has allowed us to explore the potential of embryonic stem cells, and it has allowed America to continue to lead the world in this area.

Since I announced my policy in 2001, advances in scientific research have also shown the great potential of stem cells that are derived without harming human embryos. My administration has expanded the funding of research into stem cells that can be drawn from children, adults, and the blood in umbilical cords, with no harm to the donor. And these stem cells are already being used in medical treatments…..

Duration : 0:15:25

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