The Nile: battle for control

The 9 countries bordering the Nile are finding it hard to agree on who can do what with the water flowing along the world's longest river. Xan Rice reports.

Sourcemap

Sourcemap.org is a web site which shows exactly where things come from. So you can see where all the components in a lap top originate, how far they've travelled, and how much carbon's been used in the process. Matthew Hockenberry is Sourcemap's executive director.

Digital classrooms

David Glover of Learning Media's just got back from a gathering of the world's largest educational publishers. So how will the good old school textbook survive in the digital age?

China: Rent-a-white-guy

Mitch Moxley recently got paid US$1,000 a week for being a suit-wearing foreigner in China, no other qualifications required. All he had to do was act like the quality control manager at a Chinese factory.

Mouldy bread: to eat or not to eat?

Most of us have found a bit of mould on a slice of bread. But is it safe to eat it or should you throw it in the bin? Professor Phil Bremer is the Head of the Department of Food Science at the University of Otago.

Global loo roll

The average American wipes their way through 23 kilos of toilet paper a year, but demand's rising fast across Asia and Africa. Noelle Robbins has been researching the global toilet paper market.

Sugar: a history

Sugar's history hasn't always been all that sweet. In the early days it was produced by slave labour and now it's implicated in obesity issues. Elizabeth Abbott's the writer of 'Sugar: A Bittersweet History'.

Mekong River 3: Golden Triangle

Part three of Michael Sullivan of NPR's odyssey down the Mekong River from China to Vietnam. We enter the notorious drug producing region, the Golden Triangle, on the Laos/Thailand border.