Intel Sunflowers in The Second Life* World
http://www.intel.com/technology/sunflowers/virtual.htm


German Muslim Center Wraps Counseling in Faith
Women's centers in Germany that cater to Muslims provide counseling for domestic and religious issues that providers say sidestep thorny issues of identity that rise with secular services. Fourth in a series on women and Islam

Shocking the nose into action
An electric shock helps people to better discriminate between smells.

Restoring Tanzania's ecosystems
Degraded land in western Tanzania is gradually being reclaimed — two decades after work began to rehabilitate the declining ecosystems.

A boy band for the planet
Louis Walsh eat your heart out! Three Swedish Environmental Engineering students from the University of Lund have taken it upon themselves to form a boy band modelled on the likes of Westlife and Take That, but with a serious message. The Ekoboys’ euro-pop ballad “Echo in my Heart” is performed as an “eye-opener” on the state of the environment.

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For a Temporary Best-Friend Fix, Rent a Dog
The agency was Flexpetz, which rents dogs that have been rescued from animal shelters in the hope that they will eventually be adopted. Flexpetz operates out of the Wet Nose Doggy Gym at 34 East 13th Street, which provides day care and boarding for dogs. The company started in San Diego and opened in Los Angeles in June and in New York in October. It plans to expand to Boston, Washington, San Francisco and London.
"There are a lot of people out there looking for companionship," said Chris Haddix, 28, who runs the New York branch of Flexpetz. There are usually five or six dogs available for rent, many of them on display in the Wet Nose storefront window, attracting crowds.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/nyregion/30dogs.html?em&ex=1207108800&en=48b2aa4a12281088&ei=5087%0A


Thank God we are a website
NAA Reveals Biggest Ad Revenue Plunge in More Than 50 Years
The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years.
According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.
The drop-off points to an economic slowdown on top of the secular challenges faced by the industry. The second worst decline in advertising revenue occurred in 2001 when it fell 9.0%.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003781895


It's not you. It's your books
The Sunday Times included an essay on how certain books can be major turnoffs while dating, and already 162 people have posted their own "literary dealbreakers" to an nytimes.com blog post. There's also afollow up blog post, a follow-up column and of course blogger reaction (former Gawker Emily Gould has two posts up so far).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/review/Donadio-t.html?em&ex=1207108800&en=3c42341da951f2dd&ei=5087%0A
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http://gazzettino.quinordest.it/VisualizzaArticolo.php3?Luogo=Venezia&Codice=3733189&Data=2008-3-28&Pagina=4
The spritz makers football match
The two main and popular bar in Venice played a soccer match for charity last saturday next to Rialto Bridge.
The venician players, brave spritz drinkers, proudly showed their huge bellies -and run the risk of heart attack and wounds!- playing not on the grass but on stony tiles, in front of hundreads people being a fan of their favourite spritz makers.

http://www.livescience.com/health/080326-geeks-glasses.html
Four-eyes stop to be nerds
A reserach deteiled on the march issue of the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, says near-sighted people are more likely to be agreeable and open, rather than closed and introverted.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/mobile-phones-more-dangerous-than-smoking-802602.html
Smoking... ehm... Calling kills
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded.
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http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1725904,00.html
scientists at VaxDesign, a five-year-old biotechnology company based in Orlando, Florida, have created a simulated human immune system, called the Modular Immune In Vitro Construct (MIMIC for short). The dime-sized immune system can predict how humans will respond to new vaccines.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7318673.stm
Our noses can quickly learn to link even subtle changes in smell with danger, claim scientists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/nyregion/30dogs.html?em&ex=1207108800&en=48b2aa4a12281088&ei=5087%0A
A New York based business that deals in renting out dogs for a day…
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Karriere is a new designer bar in Copenhagen where the price you pay for your drinks depends on your look and personality. For example - Yuppies pay extra for beer. Hippies and activists pay extra for organic soda. The homeless get a discount on cafe cortado. Gay couples who French kiss for 30 seconds get a discount on apfelschorle. Immigrants, asians who speak Danish as well as blacks in company of whites get various discounts.
http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com/archives/2008/03/000646.php

The Q sleeper is a 'safe room bed' that promises protection frombio-chemical terrorist attacks, kidnappers, stalkers and natural disasters.
http://www.qsleeper.com/

A german vicar has a unique solution for people who are worried and depressed - he lets them lie in an open grave. But journalists are now giving him a hard time.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080328/od_nm/germany_burials_odd_dc;_ylt=Ahp2YGX9BvQBpqVtqP6HEiASH9EA