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.

------------------------------------------------
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
-------------------------------------------------------

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

ECOP:
NUOVO LOGO DEL BIOLOGICO. TUTTO DA RIFARE
La commissione Ue ha annullato l'assegnazione del nuovo marchio per il settore biologico. Il logo assomiglia troppo a quello di una catena di discount tedesca.

LIBERI DAI VELENI
Se si vogliono salvare le api, l'ambiente e il consumatore dal bombardamento degli agrochimici riversati dappertutto e dai tossici che finiscono negli alimenti è giunto il momento di impegnarsi in prima persona



BENET:
Comparing food products with their package photos
A German website, Pundo300, took photos of food products and compared them with the depictions on their packages.

Mapping Zimbabwe’s Election Breaches
Few people around Africa, or the world, are unaware of the injustices being perpetrated against Zimbabweans by their government. It has gone from being the “bread basket of Africa” to a place of staggering inflation and a broken economy. Through it all, there are a few voices online that help bring the real stories of what is happening there to the world.
One of those voices is Sokwanele (which means “enough is enough”), an excellent resource for background and news. Just recently they posted on their blog This is Zimbabwe about a project they have created to map breaches in the Zimbabwe elections using Google maps.

Zimbabwe: violazioni del diritto al voto mappate su Google
In vista delle imminenti elezioni in Zimbabwe, il sito africano Sokwanele ha creato una Google map che riporta le violazioni a sfondo politico subite nella varie città del paese (sequestri, atti di violenza, detenzione illegale).

A website which has a gallery of grannies, and lets you buy socks personally knitted for you by a granny of your choice.
http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com/archives/2008/03/000639.php


CORR:
Ants Are Experienced Fungus Farmers
Entomologists Ted Schultz and Seán Brady at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have been providing new insight into the agricultural abilities of ants and how these abilities have evolved throughout time. Using DNA sequencing, the scientists were able to construct an "evolutionary tree" of fungus-growing ants, which revealed a single pioneering ancestor that discovered agriculture approximately 50 million years ago.

Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami
MIAMI (Reuters) - Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime. A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades.

Air safety proposal: shock-bracelets controlled by flight attendants
Lamperd, a "firearm training system" company, has patented a bracelet that delivers debilitating shocks when remotely triggered. Their killer app for this is aviation safety: they're proposing that the TSA could force everyone who flies to wear one of these and then flight-attendants could zap us into a stupor if we turn out to be Al Quaeda

Fun Flickr pool: "Name that Film"
In this Flickr pool, you are invited to look at movie stills and try to be the first one to figure out what movies they're from. Most of them stumped me, even though I'm intrigued by the images. Link (Via Eye of the Goof)

Assegnati i premi di YouTube per i migliori video del 2007. Dodici le categorie tra cui le nuove: Film breve, Politica, Sport, Istruzione e Testimone oculare. Tra i vincitori: nella categoria Adorabile ha vinto il video del bimbo che ride a crepapelle mentre gioca col papà, il più creativo è stato giudicato il video del Tetris umano mentre nella categoria Istruzione il primo è andato al video che spiega come risolvere il cubo di Rubik.
http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07winners

Clueless Guys Can't Read Women
More often than not, guys interpret even friendly cues, such as a subtle smile from a gal, as a sexual come-on, and a new study discovers why: Guys are clueless.
________________________________________________________________________________
BA:
Man sells his life on ebay
An Australian man is auctioning off his life on the Internet - complete with house in Perth, job, clothes and even friends.
Ian Usher, who was born in Britain, made the decision to sell-off everything on the online auction site eBay after his marriage broke up.
He says he wants to start a new life.
The auction will take place on June 22.
http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=78561&videoChannel=4

Best publicity ever
Forget about sending a new product to celebrities or even having them wearing your dresses on the red carpet. Nothing can be better publicity than a TV Show hoster getting bruises (on his face!) because of your recently launched computer. Viewers of the Charlie Rose show tonight were stunned to see the normally composed Rose looking like he'd just been in a bar fight. He has a very bad black eye and a bandage over part of his forehead. I contacted the show's producers to hear what happened. Earlier today, they said, Rose tripped in a pothole while walking on 59th Street in Manhattan. He was carrying a newly purchased MacBook Air and made a quick (but ultimately flawed) decision while falling: sacrifice the face, protect the computer. "In doing so, he pretty much hit the pavement face first, unfortunately," they said.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/17/charlie-rose-face-plants-to-save-his-macbook-air/

An entire novel constructed using setences from women's magazine
The idea that Graham Rawle's dazzling new novel might end up stacked among the novelty books at Urban Outfitters (Boring Postcards; The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook) is upsetting. The concept for the book sounds, if ambitious, a bit gimmicky: an entire novel constructed from words cut out of women's magazines from the early 1960s. ButWoman's World is no gimmick. An addictive, zigzagging narrative as beautiful as it is demented, it succeeds on the truism that the more confining an artist's limitations, the more brilliant the resulting work
http://www.nerve.com/screeningroom/books/interview_grahamrawle/

GIU:
http://www.ansa.
it/opencms/export/site/notizie/rubriche/inbreve/visualizza_new.
html_41254920.html
Too fat to have an operation!
A 195 kilos obese man
cannot have his operation because the beds in the hospital are too
small for him.
Luckily, he needs an operation for a breathing problem
related to his deviated septum, but “what if I need a urgent operation?”
he says.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/03/20/Liberia.census.
ap/index.html
A catchy tune for census fear in Liberia.
Some don’t know
how old are they; some would probably hide their television in order to
get some help from the state (showing they are poor); some wonder if
its part of a military recruitment drive (a potent fear in a country
where boys as young as 5 were handed machine guns and forced to fight);
others believe it's in preparation for new taxes.
To try to dispel
these and other rumors, the government commissioned a pop star to
compose a catchy tune about the census.

http://www.livescience.
com/health/080320-clueless-guys.html
Flirting or not?
Guys have trouble
noticing and interpreting the subtleties of non-verbal cues, in either
direction.
The study, to be detailed in the April issue of the journal
Psychological Science, also found that it goes both ways for guys —
they mistake females' sexual signals as friendly one, and friendly
cues, such as a subtle smile from a gal, as a sexual come-on.

The worst food in the U.S.
David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of the magazine Men's Health, has written a book selecting the worst food in american. Here are some examples

* Worst Fast Food Meal: McDonald's Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips with creamy ranch sauce. Chicken sounds healthy, but not at 870 calories.
* Worst Drink: Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo'd Power Smoothie. With 166 grams of sugar, you could have had eight servings of Ben & Jerry's.
* Worst Supermarket Meal: Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie. One pie packs 64 grams of fat.
* Worst Airport Snack: Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll. Packed with 813 hot gooey calories and 5 grams of trans fats.
* Worst Kids' Meal: Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni 'n Cheese. With 62 fat grams, it's the equivalent of 1.5 full boxes of Kraft Mac 'n Cheese.
* Worst Salad: On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef. A salad with 102 grams of fat and 2,410 mg of sodium.
* Worst Dessert: Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. At 1,600 calories, it's like eating the caloric equivalent of three Big Macs.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/the-worst-foods-in-america/?em&ex=1206158400&en=75788d43ab603b0c&ei=5087%0A

Internet people
Meth Minute releases a viral video featuring people made famous by the Internet.As a public service, BuzzFeed provides you with a comprehensive list of the viral videos and memes mentioned in the video.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/Internet_People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pPCkhYMQgY

More ads on your videogames
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/03/ea-signs-two-ye.html

Microsoft subsidiary Massive Inc. closed a new will two-year deal to provide dynamic in-game advertising for Electronic Arts. So we'll be seeing see more ads for real-life products automatically inserted into EA's games using Massive's technology

Bluefields is a small Nicaraguan island which is very rich in spite of having an 85% unemployment rate. Locals make their money by looking for the 'White Lobsters' - bags of cocaine that are washed ashore after Columbian traffickers dump them in the sea when they spot the American coast guard.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10491443&pnum=4

A ghanian designer makes fashion bags by sewing together plastic packaging.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ghanaian-fashion-accessory-is-plastic-fantastic-797147.html

A quiz, in case you've ever wanted to know how many cannibals your body can feed.
http://www.oneplusyou.com/q/v/cannibal_lunch

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7233565.stm
A bib-bottom craze… A national dance craze in Ivory Coast has spawned a black market in treatments claiming to increase one's bottom size and women trying all sorts of bizarre treatments to increase the size of their bums.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200803200194.html
Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gadaffi said during a visit to Uganda that the current Bible was not the one revealed to Jesus and the current Old Testament is not the one Allah gave to Moses.

Reference to Prophet Mohammed in the Bible, Gadaffi argued, could have been deleted. And he called for the the search for "the original Bible".

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=334824&area=/breaking_news/other_news/
Japanese businessman on Monday got one thing to cheer -underwear to tame their bulging waistlines.

Wacoal announced on Monday it was making a full entry into the men's market with undergarments especially for men with a bit of flab.

_______________________________________________________________
Radio stations bring new skills to farmers’ homes
March 18, 2008: When extension services offered to farmers by the Government were discontinued in the 1990s to cut on public expenditure, Mr Sammy Ng’etich and other farmers were wondering what they would do next.
The sad reality was that at their Kapswat village near Kapsabet town, no person had training in agriculture to offer them advice on crop or animal husbandry.

Ugandans Fishing For Self-Reliance in the North
Fish farming is proving to be a viable way of making a living for formerly displaced people who have returned to their villages in northern Uganda.

Census Takes on Unusual Meaning Across Africa
Performing a census is not easy task for any country's government, let alone countries recovering from conflict, whether the violence lasted a couple of months, such as in Kenya, or much longer, like Liberia and Sudan.

Enough water to go around?
Nature checks out the state of usable water on our planet.

Breakthrough energy discovery?
Calling it “the ultimate recycling” project, a Georgia agricultural researcher says he has found the solution to the world’s energy crisis. Read also

Man auctions his life
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A man in Australia is auctioning his life -- his house, his job, his clothes and his friends -- on eBay, after his marriage broke up, saying he wants to start a new life.

Going green, bookishly
If you collect books, you've probably noticed that they're made of paper, and that paper comes from trees. Raz Godelnik noticed -- he thinks green (not Irish, eco-ish) -- and he wanted to balance his books with new trees. So he started the website Eco-Libris; there, anyone can donate money to plant trees to offset book purchases.

India Tribe Sacrifices Animals To Stop Mine
BHUBANESWAR, India - An ancient Indian tribe opposed to an alumina refinery by Britain's Vedanta Resources has sacrificed dozens of chickens and goats in the hope their gods will prevent the firm's mining plans.

Night lights for millions
Campaign aims to give solar lighting to the developing world
Life may be about to get a bit brighter for some of the 1.6 billion people across the world with no access to electricity. A project aiming to provide cheap access to solar lighting has just received the backing of one of the heavyweights of global science policy.

New ladies' vodka gives doctors a headache
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Igor Volodin believes vodka is no more harmful than chocolate. He is proud to be the first Russian to produce the spirit in a special women's version, designed to be sipped with salad after a workout in the gym.

East and West Part Ways in Test of Facial Expressions
How do you know how someone is feeling? For people in Western societies, it is usually easy: look at the person’s face.

Recycle electronics free by mail
Just when you thought technology was making "snail mail" obsolete, the U.S. Postal Service announces a vital new service that lets you recycle cell phones, iPods and other electronics -- as well as printer inkjet cartridges -- via mail. For free!
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VID:
A British designer has created a card that imitates the sound of the Oyster card being swiped. You can fool the bus driver into thinking that you have swiped an Oyster card, and get free bus rides in London.
http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com/archives/2007/06/000599.php

A danish duo gives private concerts via telephone to anyone who buys their CD.
http://www.guerrilla-innovation.com/archives/2008/02/000637.php

The Israeli secret service has launched a new blog. It will be written by four secret agents in a chatty tone.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7301522.stm

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http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/scienza/scienza.html
Shopping therapy at the hospital
Hospitals have begun installing Internet systems, complete with dedicated shopping channels, to help patients pick up goods they will need for their recuperation. The idea is that patients and visitors who are busy shopping and browsing the Web will be happier, less prone to bother nurses, and more likely to arm themselves with health care information that can help smooth the patient’s recovery.

http://www.livescience.com/history/080317-hs-agora.html
The origin of Democracy
We usually think of Democracy as one of the most important conquest of the last century.
But the idea of democracy was born and perfected within the confines of the Athenian agora -by about 600 B.C- with some important differences.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/03/17/1371593-time-to-put-that-gorilla-on-a-diet
No more fat gorillas!
Today zoo staffers have a Weight Watchers-style plan for the beasts, focusing on diet and nutrition that parallels the fitness craze in humans.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BAR:
Being unfaithful is in your genes
It's hard to accept it if you think of your partner, but, come on, it's just so easy to accept it if you think of those many times you wanted to be with someone else (and the times you actually did). Researches prove that being unfaithful is actually a common behavior in many of our fellow friends animals. And so is the rage when you find out that you are the one being cheated on. Female baboons have lost some ears and male beetles have been knocked by their partners after checking out some other lady around.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/18angi.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin

Why Apple fans hate tech reporters
It happens to every fan: they hate any reporter that say a bad thing about the subject of their love. It doesn't matter if that slight criticism is followed by generous amounts of compliments. At the end, all they can think of is "what does this jerk have against me?". And that's no different with Apple's fans. Today, Farhad Manjoo, throw some light on the subject at his blog and tries to explain why there are so much anger in the heart of Apple's fans.
http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2008/03/18/true_enough_excerpt_2/


Cheeseburger in a can
It's exactly what you thought of. Cheeseburger in a can. It's for real and it's for sale.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/Cheeseburger_In_A_Can
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/taste

è lunedì :(

GIU:

http://www.boingboing.net/
Reality or fiction?
We have always been on a search for who we are.
Stem cell therapy, genetic sequencing, artificial intelligence, operational robots, new animal clones, trans-species hybrids, brain implants, memory enhancing drugs, limb prosthetics, social networks...What constitutes the authentic human being?
Where do our minds end and reality begin?

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/03/14/positive-heart.html
Think positive!
Positive expectations can not only make you feel better but also potentially live longer.
Further research is needed to determine exactly how positive expectations affect disease survival.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN1333370820080314
No more droopy britches.
Florida Senate passed a "saggy pants" bill for students wearing pants half way down their buttocks.
Should the State have the right to decide what student must wear at school?The debate is open.

VID:

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/tru4life201/141918
Major League Baseball has authorised a company to make sport-themed caskets and urns, so you can show your love for your favorite team even after you're dead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfPJeDssBOM
Charge an ipod using only electrolytes and an onion.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1720932,00.html
Nanaimo, a British Colombian coal mining community town has everything possible mapped onto a google database.

SAF:

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN1439471720080314
A man proposes by putting a $12,000 ring in a helium balloon and takes it outside to hand it to her on a windy day…
Hajji, of Hackney, east London, had concealed a $12,000 engagement ring inside a helium balloon.
But as he left the shop, a gust of wind pulled the balloon from his hand and he watched the ring -- and quite possibly the affections of his girlfriend -- sailing away over the rooftops.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/magazine/16Shariah-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th
British politician makes tentative suggestion that, subject to the agreement of all parties and the strict requirement of protecting equal rights for women, it might be a good idea to consider allowing Islamic and Orthodox Jewish courts to handle marriage and divorce.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/5619197.html
A Pennsylvania man is accused of attempted bank robbery — and if poor planning were a crime, he might be charged with that, too.


BAR:

In defense of Spoilers
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/03/spoilers.html
Right now, it's still an uncomfortable situation: you see the most recent episode of Lost, are dying to talk about it to someone but, because people haven't watched it yet, you can't. And if you do, you'll be hated. An article in the NYTimes Magazine argues that, soon, watching TV shows is gonna be like watching a football game: either you see it live or you'll have it spoiled by someone - and this someone is not a jerk.

Wanna get high? Just have a lollipop
The tequila lollipop is been around for a while. But now, the flavors have evolved to Absihthe and even Marijuana. An easy way to get high, specially in places like Chile or the U.S. where drinking in public places is forbidden.
http://www.slashfood.com/2008/03/12/tonight-were-gonna-party-like-its-1899-absinthe-lollipops/
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13071
http://www.kahsoon.com/2005/07/03/marijuana-flavored-lollipops/

Caleslaw wrestling
I guess the title says it all: the tradition of Coleslaw fighting endures in the Bike Week of Daytona.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/Coleslaw_Wrestling
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-bk-coleslaw030508,0,6066094.story

A local African Animation

World’s First Wave Powered Boat
Ken-ichi Horie, a 69 year old Japanese sailor, is planning a solo 4,350 mile trip from Hawaii to Japan using an innovative wave powered boat. If successful, the trip would earn him a Guinness record while simultaneously proving the viability of wave powered propulsion.

Japan's Unique Cow/Whale Hybrid Experiments
Controversial scientific research happens all the time, but a review conducted by scientists in Japan uncovered a list of 'bizarre' trials - including one program designed to crossbreed cows with whales.
http://inventorspot.com/articles/testtube_whale_babies_cowwhale_h_11578

Nigerian clinches Writers’ Prize again
A Nigerian, Karen King-Aribisala, has won this year’s Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, dashing the hopes of Kenyan writer Ken Kamoche. King-Aribisala was awarded the prize for The Hangman’s Game. This is her second Commonwealth Writers’ Prize award. In 1999 she won the Best First Book award for her collection of short stories Our Wife and Other Stories.

Macedonian Court Convicts Bear Of Stealing Honey
SKOPJE - A Macedonian court convicted a bear of theft and damage for stealing honey from a beekeeper who fought off the attacks with thumping "turbo-folk" music.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7295559.stm
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47495/story.htm

BAR:
Go on. Just deceive the young.
Go on. Just deceive the young.
Apparently, the Ministery of Defense in England is more interested in getting soldiers into Iraq then in the education of British children. Teachers claim that their worksheets for students age 16 present an unbalanced description of the army actibvities in Iraq.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2265284,00.html

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2265284,00.html

Read my mind!
There is no trick or joke on the title. We are, in fact, close to the day that we'll be able to see people's thoughts. Scientists from University of California came up with impressive results on their "reading thoughts" machine. And, in The Guardian, James Randerson discuss today whether this is a great thing or a dangerous thing to our world.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/06/medicalresearch
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2008/mar/10/science.weekly.podcast

Sinkpositive
Finally, a really simple and great (great!) idea to help us save some water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrGyG8pGFMo

SAF:
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=727373
The world's top 20 polluters gathered here today for a meeting that host Japan hopes will set a positive tone for negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/education/12education.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Under the statute popularly known as Proposition 300, illegal immigrants could not receive in-state tuition at public colleges and universities in Arizona. Nor could school administrators like Ms. Watterson use state money to pay it. New Arizona law does not allow schools to provide the same education to illegal immigrants – one headmistress is contesting it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/14/tibet.china1
Buddhist monks in Tibet have begun a hunger strike and two others attempted suicide as troops surrounded monasteries in a government crackdown on protests against Chinese rule taking place across the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=334523&area=/breaking_news/other_news/
Man burned alive for 'not washing feet'
A Chinese bride burned her new husband to death after he got into bed after a drunken argument without washing his feet, state media reported on Wednesday.

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3519/context/cover/
Traditional female leaders in Ghana are beginning to open their communal gatherings to discussions of women's legal rights to abortion. The country has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the continent, but women are dying in ignorance of it.

VID:
Happy Pi Day! Mathematicians everywhere (at least the crazy ones) celebrate today,March 14 (3.14) as Pi day.
http://www.piday.org/

A new Wall Street Journal research says that bigger computer screens make you more productive
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/03/10/bigger-computer-monitors-more-productivity/

A water pump in Africa that is powered by a merry-go-round. Children generate energy when they play on it, so their mothers don't have to pump out the water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQu_Jppvzyk

Mali's 'infertility cooking oil'
Many Malian families sitting around a wide brightly coloured plastic bowl and tucking into tasty traditional dishes such as "riz gras" - fatty rice, groundnut sauce and fried mutton - may be running the risk of becoming infertile.

‘Skika’ finally hits the screens this evening
Skika presenter Aimee Ongeso. The programme will promote Kenyan music.

Mastodon for auction
A family in Sebastopol, California (hometown of the MAKE: headquarters!) is auctioning off a beautiful fossilized mastodon. Found on the Fiddler family farm in 1997, the specimen spent several years on display at the Oakland Museum and then in a wine bar

BARB:
Have fun checking for cancer
http://www.coolhunting.com/
Shanon Gerdard decided to make it nicer for us to check if our testicles and boobs are safe from cancer
+
The uncool is the new cool
theuncoolhunting.com (by a Fabricanti)
http://www.uncoolhunting.org/
http://uncoollibrarian.blogspot.com/
It started with the nerds, then it went to the clothes and now it's everywhere. Whatever you used to think it's not cool it's actually the new cool - and all the recent launched websites hunting uncool are a proof of that

Are you doing enough push-ups?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/nutrition/11well.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The most well-known and complete exercise of you fitness routine is scrutinized on this article. It would be a post about the best way to do it and we can link a calculator for you to find out how many you have to do everyday.

SAF:
http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2008/03/12/hey-knock-yourself-out/
These crack troops are learning to subdue themselves in the event they become dangerous.
…
The soldiers will learn to kick themselves into submission, grab themselves in a choke-hold from behind, and head-butt their own stomachs to knock the wind out of themselves.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/5613590.html
Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years — so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the man finally called police.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/5613051.html
Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate.

GIU
http://www.ansa.it/ambiente/notizie/fdg/200803121401307441/200803121401307441.html
Australia killing 400 kangaroos... to do them a good turn?!
An overabundance of kangaroos munching on native grasses near Australia's capital, Canberra, has left the government little choice but to kill some of the pesky marsupials risking to die of hunger, authorities say.
As veterianarians suggest “Letal injection is the most human solution”.

http://www.alternet.org/story/79521/
Since 1972, women's self-described levels of happiness have fallen a few percentage points and now rest below that of men, on average, in every age category.
Has Feminism led to full time in the workforce and a second full-time job at home? Choice is a wonderful thing, but it's such a double-edged sword.

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=41523
Save Indigenous to go green.
Let’s consider how they can make important contributions to sustainable environmental management: they often have very sophisticated knowledge about biodiversity, forest management, and dry areas management; but social marginalisation, alienation from government, forced relocations and land encroachment by farmers are some of the threats to indigenous.

VI:
http://www.ask500people.com/
A website that lets you ask any question to 500 people across the world. The results are then displayed on a google map.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibg-iiecl794l9FUlAuU3Cq41iIAD8VB32O81
The Sea Shepherds, a conservation society had vowed to stop Japan's annual whale hunt. After weeks of clashes on the sea (which included bullets and stink bombs) the Sea Shepherds have decided to head back to port, because they are running out of fuel.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/21/news/japan.php
Japan's anti crime devices - Some Japanese people evade thieves by dressing up as vending machines and fire hydrants.

Go Green, Save the Indigenous
OSLO, Mar 10 (IPS) - African indigenous peoples are important custodians of their natural environments with valuable local knowledge and skills, but are struggling to survive, according to a report.

Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls
The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

How Google Earth Ate Our Town
When they hear the telltale sirens of a fire truck bursting out of the station in Nanaimo, the locals don't need to look out of the window or tune in to newscasts to find out where the action is. Instead, they can simply log on to Google Maps or Google Earth and track the firefighters in real time as they tear down the streets of this Vancouver Island port community. The Google-enabling of Nanaimo's fire service, launched just weeks ago, is the latest venture in a British Columbia town that has been dubbed the capital of Google Earth.

Life Expectancy Tied to Education
HealthDay News) -- Life expectancy in the United States is on the increase, but only among people with more than 12 years of education, a new study finds.

Australian Cemetery To Offer Carbon-Free Funerals
An Australian cemetery has unveiled plans to take the carbon out of cremations by offering new green funerals to help combat global warming

Mexican Authorities Return Illegal Logs to Forest Communities
Thanks to the movie Homegrown, we know that the police often burn marijuana once they confiscate it. But what do authorities do with the illegally logged timber they seize? According to the Mexican daily Reforma, officials with Mexico's Environmental Attorney General's office, known as Profepa, in Mexico State have begun returning the timber to the forest communities from which they have been logged.

ECO:
Trains, Planes and Automobiles Affected by Climate Change

Vatican comes up with a new list of Seven Sins
In the sixth century, Pope Gregory handed down a list of "seven cardinal vices." Now the Vatican has issued an additional seven "social sins."

Sicily's Mafia-free department store
A 29-year-old Sicilian named Fabio Messina opened a department store in Palermo that offers goods that are guaranteed to be supplied by shops that refuse to pay protection money (pizzo) to the Mafia.

G:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7287135.stm
Camera 'looks' through clothing has been invented.
It can "see" explosives, drugs and weapons hidden under clothing from 25 metres has been invented.
And it does not subject people to harmful radiation.


http://www.ansa.it/ambiente/notizie/notiziari/mondo/20080307182734610601.html
Terminator/Inquinator!
The governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who last year was featured on magazine covers as an environmental hero, pays for his jet-set commute from his own pocket -- more than half-a-million dollars a year. The same one who flexed his muscles to lead California's fight against global warming? The one who must be aware of the vast amount of global-warming gases and air pollution his jet is spewing?

http://www.boingboing.net/
Palermo, Sicily: a shop mafia-free.
All products and staff are 100 per cent guaranteed Mafia-free, supplied only by shops and producers which have stood up to Sicily's Cosa Nostra and refused to pay protection money.

Barbara:
Gays hold the record on prejudice
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2264048,00.html
It's hard to be black. It's hard to be south american. It's still harder being a woman than a man. But, being a homossexual is definately worse nowadays when it comes to facing prejudice. While nobody will even dream of writing a racist joke, TV shows are full of jokes that humiliate gay people. And that's not about to change. A recent survey in England heard nearly 300 teachers and found out that our kids are not ashamed at all to insult someone calling them gay.


Don't call the baby Madenusa
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/science/11tier.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
New study suggest that children with ugly names get worse grades and are more likely to fail in life.


Government wants you to be illegal
http://www.metamute.org/en/Putting-Illegality-to-Work
Illegal workers are obliged to accept bad wages and bad work conditions. So, maybe that's why governments are not really trying to stop illegality. At least, that's the point Seemab Gul tries to prove on a recent article for Mute Magazine.

Bolivia: Twittbo Twitter Community
The Bolivian community of Twitter users is growing slowly, but it received a big boost with the creation of the page TwittBo

Food Fight
An abridged history of American-centric warfare, from WWII to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict.

Ghana's Queen Moms Hold Court on Abortion
Traditional female leaders in Ghana are beginning to open their communal gatherings to discussions of women's legal rights to abortion. The country has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the continent, but women are dying in ignorance of it.

Liberia's pygmy hippos survive two civil wars
LONDON (Reuters) - Rare pygmy hippos are surviving hidden in Liberia's forests against all the odds, despite two civil wars that have ravaged their habitat, British scientists said on Monday.

Horseradish smell fire-alarm for waking up deaf people
Nelson sez, "Japanese researchers have developed a fire alarm that sprays the aroma of horseradish instead of ringing an alarm.

Bench with integrated bookcases

Map of choose your own adventure book

Starbucks To Sell Exclusive Rwanda Coffee In Europe
AVENTURA - Starbucks Corp, the world's largest coffee chain, is set to sell an exclusive coffee from Rwanda on the international market for the first time, a spokesman said, as consumer demand for origin-specific flavors grows.

A Picture is Worth... Ocean Dead Zones Expanding (5/03)
The black areas represent the least productive areas of the ocean, which have increased 15% from 1998 to 2007.
www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080305_oceandesert.html

Africa: International Women's Day 2008 - Message From Unifem
This year on International Women's Day we have an opportunity to break new ground in the struggle for women's rights and gender equality, including the urgent need to end violence against women in all of its forms.
+
Ethiopia: Prominent Artists Engage UNFPA's 'Stop Early Marriage' Campaign
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organized a canvas painting event at Meskel Square on 7& 8 March 2008 participating Ethiopia's prominent artists in its campaign under a theme "Stop Early Marriage".

Green Pyjama Jobs: Dutch Student Gets Rich Staying In Bed
a student in the Netherlands is actually doing it. Yde Van Deutekom, 22, from Zoetermeer, is selling advertising on a website featuring a webcam showing him in bed. He says ""Sleeping is just a hobby of me, and it is the only thing I'm very good at. Everyone is asking what I want to do with me life, but what I really want to do is sleep. I stay in bed all day, except for taking a shower, going to the bathroom and making something to eat. That's all I want to do. And I want to stay in bed until I'm very rich."

Happiness Is Partly Inherited
"Although happiness is subject to a wide range of external influences we have found that there is a heritable component of happiness which can be entirely explained by genetic architecture of personality," said study team leader Alexander Weiss of the University of Edinburgh.
http://www.livescience.com/health/080304-happy-genes.html

Mr Wilders' Dutch film called Fitna, an Arabic word used to describe strife or discord, will show how the Koran is "an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror".
Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to protest against the film.
"We don't want Danish and Dutch troops in Afghanistan. They should be kicked out of the Nato forces here."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7274259.stm


An innovative online party planning tool that provides children and their parents with the opportunity to protect the environment while saving time and money in the process. Perhaps not surprisingly, co-founder Alison Smith declares that “ ECHOage is convenience and conscience wrapped up in a big green ribbon!”
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/eco-birthdays-with-a-twist.php

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

Americans are working harder on less sleep
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Steve Nichols, a middle manager at a technology company in Ohio, gets home late from work and spends most evenings sending work-related e-mails...

The Dutch are Cradle to Cradle Crazy. or: How the Town of Venlo Turns Waste into Food.
We heart a rumour that an entire town in the Netherlands had adopted McDonough and Braungart’s concept of Cradle to Cradle. Not really knowing what to expect we visited the Dutch town called Venlo in the province of Limburg.

"Eat Whale And Save The Planet" - Norwegian Lobby
Environmental group Greenpeace dismissed the survey, saying almost every kind of food was more climate friendly than meat.
The survey, focused on whale boats' fuel use, showed that a kilo (2.2 lbs) of whale meat represented just 1.9 kilo (4.2 lbs) of greenhouse gases against 15.8 for beef, 6.4 for pork and 4.6 for chicken.

K:
High heels 'may improve sex life'
Wearing higher heels - although perhaps not stilettos
- may improve your pelvic floor muscles and in doing
so boost your sex life, a study suggests.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7225828.stm

Story of Jesus Through Iranian Eyes
A new movie in Iran depicts the life of Jesus from an
Islamic perspective.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=4297085&page=1

G:

Frog skin as a diabetes treatment hope
A compound isolated from the frog stimulates insulin release.
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/scienza/news/2008-03-03_103179076.html

West Got Dusty Thanks to People.
The American west's dusty portrayal in movies and literature is no exaggeration - after the first settlers arrived, dust levels in the region soared.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/080225-west-dustier.html

Parents: daily talks about sex are more effective
Repetition was good, the researchers found. "We found that kids whose sexual communication with their parents involved more repetition felt closer to their parents, better able to communicate with them in general and about sex in particular, and they perceived their discussions about sex happened more easily and with more openness in comparison to kids whose communication involved less repetition.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/03/health/webmd/main3899922.shtml

Appeals court rejects sonar waiver for Navy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal appeals court has rejected White House efforts to exempt the U.S. Navy from laws intended to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals by curbing the use of sonar off the California coast.

Future ”˜Battlegrounds’ for Habitat Conservation Very Different to Those in Past
Their study, published online February 28 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides a guide for conservationists of the areas of our planet where conservation investments would have the most impact in the future to limit extinctions and damage to ecosystems due to rapid human-driven climate and land-use change.

Dogs, Robots Compete for Human Attention
Dogs may have a hard time wrapping their paws around this one: Robotic competition is nipping at their heels in the man's-best-friend department. A study by Saint Louis University found that a lovable pooch named Sparky and a robotic dog, AIBO, were about equally effective at relieving the loneliness of nursing home residents and fostering attachments.

Despite fences, immigrants still broach U.S. border
Daily, U.S. Border Patrol agents in this Arizona town
faced groups of up to 200 illegal immigrants who would
swarm across the border from Mexico, sprinting past
the agents to a new life in the United States.

Gun that killed JFK assassin in pop culture auction
It is billed as the best pop culture collection ever
assembled -- ranging from the gun used to kill the
assassin of President John F. Kennedy to the Wicked
Witch of the West's hat from "The Wizard of Oz."

Nepal's 'living goddess' retires
A young girl worshipped in Nepal as a living goddess
has retired early from this ritual status.


Smokers'
brains recognize potential negative consequences but fail to act.
An investment game and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
test the precise effects of "what if" outcomes on decisions and brain
activity in smokers and non-smokers reveals that "The brain's might-
have-been signal in smokers is identical to nonsmokers, but the smokers
don't act on it," said Dr. Terry Lohrenz.

Arabia felix?
Yemen was long envied for its rainfall, terraced fields and irrigation channels. The Romans called it Arabia Felix, a name that mocks the unhappy modern reality of
water scarcity. Yemen relies on groundwater Wells and cisterns in villages like Beit Hujaira fill during short rainy seasons and gradually run dry as water is consumed or evaporates. "Then we die of thirst," a woman said.

Maya May Have Caused
Civilization-Ending Climate Change. The data suggest that the combination of slash-and-burn agriculture and conversion of the wetlands induced local drought and turned up the thermostat. And that could have fueled many of the suspected factors that led to the Maya decline—even seemingly unrelated issues like disease and war.

Fuori concorso:
Kit Houses from Sears Hold Their Value
It Arrived in an Awfully Big Kit

Urinal graffiti on a piss-wall