Jamaica considers legalising cannabis
Jamaica is considering the legalisation of marijuana, a drug revered by members of the island's large Rastafarian population who say smoking it is part of their religion.
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=464243

California Cows Start Passing Gas To The Grid
RIVERDALE, Calif., - Imagine a vat of liquid cow manure covering the area of five football fields and 33 feet deep. Meet California's most alternative new energy.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47348/story.htm

Africa: AU Marks Environment Day
The African Union (AU) Commission on Monday celebrated African Environment Day, an annual event set aside to create awareness on land degradation and desertification that constitute the key causes of hunger, deprivation, poverty and underdevelopment in Africa.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803041273.html

Africa: Scientists Meet to Launch Multi-Million Dollar Project to Step Up Rice Production
National and international rice specialists are taking part in a meeting to launch a multi-million dollar project on “Stress-tolerant rice for poor farmers in Africa and South Asia” at the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), Cotonou, Benin, 5–7 March 2008.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803031140.html

Website picks 'gayest song'
IF you are "having the time of your life" you may be dancing to the gayest song ever.

C:
Foreign couples turn to India for surrogate mothers
Reproductive outsourcing is a new but rapidly expanding enterprise in
India. Clinics that provide surrogate mothers for foreigners say they have
been inundated with requests from the United States and Europe in recent
months, as word spreads of India's combination of skilled medical
professionals, relatively liberal laws and low prices.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/04/asia/mother.php

Cleaning up the biggest US oil spill you never heard of
Near Brooklyn, NY city, an estimated 17 million gallons of oil (at least
one-and-a-half times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez in Prince
William Sound in 1989) from spills at ExxonMobil’s Greenpoint refineries
and storage facilities soaked into the ground over the last century,
creating a 55-acre plume of oil floating on top of groundwater 30-40 feet
underground. Residents of this working-class neighborhood have been living
with the spill for more than 50 years, enduring vapors seeping into some
basements and wafting through the streets from nearby Newtown Creek, which
the petroleum trickles into. A cleanup has been going on for three decades,
but only about half of the oil has been removed. Only recently has the
government sought to force accelerated remediation.
http://www.plentymag.com/features/2008/02/greenpoint_oil_spill.php

Giulia:
Compulsive buyers like alcoholists?
These include massive credit-card debt? Spoiled relationships? Work problems and depression and anxiety?That is what happens, according to the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery.
http://www.livescience.com/health/080303-compulsive-shopper.html

A house made of wasted free newspapaer.
Annoyed by the mounds of free newspapers blowing around the streets of London, Karen Janody she decided to build a house with them to illustrate the degree of waste.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=47298&newsdate=03-Mar-2008

Motherese
Non-native language spoken in "baby talk" Motherese is the most understandable and universal language of the world, according to Greg Bryant’s and Clark Barrett’s study of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Moreover, prohibitive (warning a baby not do to something), approval (encouraging a behavior in a baby), comfort (calming down a crying baby) and attention (calling a baby when it isn't looking at you) seem to be the same for baby monkeys too.
http://www.livescience.com/health/070824_baby_talk.html