Clipmarks | mugofcoffee's good deeds collection

Call to end animal pain research...

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:58:06 GMT

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Using animals to research pain has "limited value" and should be replaced by newer technologies, argues a panel of medical experts from across England.

Animal tests can only simulate some aspects of chronic pain and are too simplistic, their report says.

With newer brain-imaging techniques, more studies could be done in humans, they write in the journal Neuroimage.

It is critical that these often simplistic experiments are replaced with more advanced techniques that don't involve inflicting animal suffering

Ministers said at present "licensed animal use remains essential to develop improved healthcare technologies".

There are few effective and safe treatments for chronic pain, such as that suffered by people with osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, the researchers from London, Manchester, Liverpool and Oxford say.

"New and highly sophisticated brain-imaging technology is providing vital insights that animal research has failed to produce.

Legal milestone for open source

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:26:46 GMT

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Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Advocates of open source software have hailed a court ruling protecting its use even though it is given away free.

The US federal appeals court move overturned a lower court decision involving free software used in model trains that a hobbyist put online.

The court has now said conditions of an agreement called the Artistic Licence were enforceable under copyright law.

"For non-lawgeeks, this won't seem important but this is huge," said Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig.

"In non-technical terms, the Court has held that free licences set conditions on the use of copyrighted work. When you violate the condition, the licence disappears, meaning you're simply a copyright infringer.

"This is a very important victory."

anyone using that free code had to attribute the author, highlight the original source of the files and explain how the code had been modified.

Individual credit for contributions not cash drives the community

Brazil launches rainforest fund...

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:31:16 GMT

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Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has launched an international fund to protect the Amazon rainforest and help combat climate change.

The fund will promote alternatives to forest-clearing for people living in the Amazon, and support conservation and sustainable development

Officials will seek donations abroad and aim to raise $21bn (£11bn) by 2021.

The environmental group Greenpeace said it was the first time Brazil had accepted a link between global warming and preserving the rainforest.

A look at the rainforest Brazil has launched a fund to protect

Largest continuous tropical forest

Shared by nine countries

65% Brazilian territory

Covers 6.6m sq km in total

Pop: 30m - 23.5m are in Brazil

10 Most Inspiring Inspirational ...Change Your Outlook in Life

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:44:44 GMT

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clipper's remarks: visit to the web page is a must, as I could not clip more of this...

Clip Source: www.socyberty.com

By the end of the day, we don't live in our work place: we return home to our family.

The rush outs, the meetings, the preparations and the presentations…all these we do for the simple fact that we can earn a decent income, live a comfortable life and can provide a comfortable living for our family.

No one and nothing is worth loosing our time and energy, in anyway!

Then again, it is not that easy to let go off all our negative emotions which we had learned and had accumulated all through our lives: such emotions, though injurious to our health, tend to become a vital part of our personality and of our life pattern! We obviously cannot throw them away and start living like Buddha or Mahatma Gandhi! If changes can be brought into our life that easier, then we won't be having our inspirational gurus and heroes to learn from and follow through!

importance of persistence, patience and of the secret of not quitting, when you are so close to achieving your target in life!

Maasailand Lions Emergency Fund

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:54:46 GMT

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Clip Source: www.nationalgeographic.com

National Geographic has created an emergency fund to help avert a potential conservation disaster: the complete loss of lions in and around Amboseli National Park, one of Kenya’s most important tourist destinations. As they teeter on the brink of extinction, these lions do not have the luxury of time. The decline in the lion population in this region has reached a critical status that needs addressing on a major scale.

In partnership with Explorers-in-Residence Beverly and Dereck Joubert, filmmakers and conservationists who have worked in some of Africa’s most remote wildlife areas for more than 25 years, National Geographic is committed to this urgent conservation issue. In addition to the fund, National Geographic is providing an emergency $150,000 grant to the Maasailand Preservation Trust, co-led by Richard Bonham and Tom Hill. The grant will aid the trust’s Predator Compensation Fund, which provides compensation to local Maasai herdsmen for livestock killed by lions

Fund manager pays $2.1 million to lunch with Warren Buffett

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:27:26 GMT

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Clip Source: www.reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Chinese fund manager has won a lunch with famed U.S. investor Warren Buffett after bidding $2.11 million for the opportunity in a charity auction, more than three times what the lunch fetched last year.

Zhao Danyang, who runs Hong Kong-based Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund, had the winning bid in the eBay Inc auction that ended late on Friday.

Buffett began donating lunches in 2000 after his wife Susan introduced him to the Rev. Cecil Williams, who founded Glide and runs the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. The auctions, including the current one, have grossed more than $4 million for the organization. Last year's winning bidder paid $650,000 for lunch with Buffett.

called the Sage of Omaha, Buffett

for his preference for investing in larger companies with easy-to-understand businesses, large or

dominant market shares, consistent earnings, and strong management

Terror label from Mandela's name shall be removed!

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:19:54 GMT

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clipper's remarks: Who cares? We have never thought of him as a terrorist! He is the Mahatma Gandhi of the modern times! Simple, nice and easy!
MOC.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; editing by Chris Wilson)

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As celebrities threw an early 90th birthday party for Nelson Mandela in London's Hyde Park on Friday, U.S. lawmakers erased references to the former South African leader as a terrorist from national databases.

Legislation proposing the move received final congressional approval late on Thursday when the Senate unanimously passed it on a voice vote. The House of Representatives approved it on May 8.

It removes the "terrorist" label and travel restrictions imposed on Mandela and other cadres from the African National Congress, which fought to end white minority rule in South Africa.

"I am gratified that we were able to show our respect and high esteem for a man who is loved and admired around the world," said Payne.

Some lawmakers wanted the changes made to the legislation before Mandela turned 90 on July 18 and there were fears that it would be delayed by Congress' summer recess for much of August and a break over the July 4 week.

Front line battle to save Amazon forest

Tue, 13 May 2008 18:23:54 GMT

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Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

By Gary Duffy
BBC News, Paragominas

In the small town of Paragominas, in the Brazilian state of Para, watching operation Arc of Fire can be an impressive sight.

This is the front line in the battle to contain deforestation - police and environmental officials setting off in a convoy of vehicles, with armed soldiers from the national security force for added protection.

Illegal charcoal ovens are being destroyed as part of Arc of Fire

"The police are every day investing more in equipment and recently got new recruits - who are being brought as a priority to states in the north to combat deforestation."

"In regard to the wood, we have all sorts of problems -illegal logging, illegal transportation, illegal processing of the wood, fraud," he says.

Gandhi daughter visits assassin!

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:47:08 GMT

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Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, says she has met a woman serving a jail term for her father's assassination.

Ms Gandhi said she met Nalini Sriharan last month in a prison in Vellore in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomb in May 1991 while he addressed an election rally. India has always blamed the attack on Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sriharan was convicted for being part of the assassination squad.

She was initially given a death sentence along with three others.

But her sentence was changed into a life term, following a plea for clemency by Rajiv Gandhi's widow and Congress Party president, Sonia Gandhi.

Mrs Gandhi appealed on Sriharan's behalf because she had a young child.

In 2006, they expressed "regret" for the murder in a move which correspondents say was a realisation by the rebels that the assassination was a huge mistake.

World Bank Donors pledge record sum

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:37:40 GMT

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clipper's remarks: to the poor nations! That's the spirit friends!

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

BERLIN (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Friday it had raised a total of $41.6 billion in funds to help around 80 poor countries with grants and loans through June 2011, an increase of $9.5 billion over the previous funding period.

The Washington-based lender conducts a fund-raising campaign among its richer members every three years to determine funding for the International Development Association (IDA), the bank's lending arm.

Some 45 donor countries had gathered in Berlin starting on Thursday to try to secure sufficient pledges to ensure that future lending by the IDA is not undermined

The fund is the world's largest single provider of development assistance to poor countries

The IDA raised $32.1 billion in the last fund-raising round completed in February 2005.