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United States

Group: Lupus Foundation of America — National Office
Event: World Lupus Day is just one of the featured events in a month-long observance of Lupus Awareness Month in the United States. As part of the observance, the LFA is engaging constituents through its social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the LFA Blog to secure commitments by individuals and organizations to do one thing to raise awareness of lupus. The LFA has developed two eCards and is urging people with lupus to Send an ecard to 10 friends on May 10. We’re also are asking people worldwide to make a commitment to Band Together for Lupus by signing an online petition that already has exceeed its original goal of 5,000 signatures, which now has been doubled to 10,000. Likely that goal will be increased again as momentum continues to build to engage people from all walks of life to help raise awareness of lupus. The LFA will conduct The Butterfly Gala, Seventh Annual National Awards Dinner on May 12. Musicians Julian Lennon and James Scott Cook will perform, “LUCY,” in memory of Lucy Vodden, Julian’s childhood friend who passed away from lupus last year. Julian’s drawing of Lucy, made when he was only five years old, inspired Julian’s father John to co-write one of The Beatle’s most memorable songs, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Proceeds from the sale of “LUCY” are being donated to the LFA and St. Thomas’s Lupus Trust to support lupus research. Date: May 10th, 2010
Website: www.lupus.org
Contact: webmaster@lupus.org

Find events in your country here.

When I was a kid my grandmother would always talk about how she wished she had married a pilot because a pilot would be “the perfect husband” he would be gone all the time so she would be able to live her life and do whatever she wanted, he would make good money so they could have whatever they wanted in life and vacations to everywhere would be a free flight. What happened?

The simple fact is pilots become pilots because they love to fly, who wouldn’t? Unless that sort of thing scares you, either way you should be able to empathize with LOVING to fly. The catch is, once the men upstairs figured out they were flying for the love of flying they started paying them in love instead of money. Pilots for major airlines have been forced to take second and third jobs just to be able to afford to keep flying. Ever seen a tired pilot? Yea, thanks for that. I really want the person with my entire families life in his hands to be on his 3rd day without sleep, good game guys. They aren’t just tired either, they are hungry according to Michael Moore.

Think about that next time you are planning a cross country trip and opt for Amtrak. Sure, it will take longer to get where you are going but you will spend time with your family along the way. Life doesn’t need to be about getting where you need to go as fast as you can, sometimes the ride there is where the true prize is.

Habitat loss is threatening the survival of wildlife worldwide. Natural environments are being destroyed and fragmented by human activity, wiping out species’ food sources, dispersing populations and leaving animals around the world literally homeless or displaced.

Born Free believes wild animals need their wild habitats; their home, nothing can compare. Habitat loss is caused by deforestation, war, expansion of human populations and agriculture, climate change and much more. Where habitat loss occurs, species (whether large carnivore or amphibian) are forced into ever-decreasing, fragmented areas which in turn decreases prey numbers, water availability and species’ range. Additionally, human-wildlife conflict increases as encroachment occurs resulting in major problems for wildlife and local communities. Ultimately, habitat loss leads to wildlife population decline and extinction.

Using the spectacular photography of George Logan and the skills of Steve Hawthorne and Katy Hopkins at advertising company WCRS Limited, these images of wild animals placed within an urban setting aim to provide a shocking reminder that wildlife is losing its habitat at an alarming rate. All services involved in this campaign, including advertising space and printing, have been kindly donated and together we are working to raise awareness of the issue and the work which Born Free is doing to “keep wildlife in the wild” – without strong, well-connected areas of habitat, this will be impossible.

Brilliant ad campaign. Feel like doing your part? You can start by boycotting all products containing palm oil, since palm oil is harvested by destroying Orangutan habitat, which in case you haven’t been paying attention is also our rain forests… we kinda need those.

Often “vegetable oil” is written on a product’s ingredient list, the consumer then does not know if they are eating sunflower seed oil, rape oil or palm oil. Palm oil it is often a hidden ingredient, spreading awareness is our best defense.

Remember, saving the animals also saves us. The animals may be the first to go but we’re next.

Here is this same digital photography set by George Logan without the “born free” signs added.

If you haven’t already heard the big drug companies have screwed up once again, big surprise eh? Well this time it is your children that are in potential danger. Please take the time to review this list and check to make sure you aren’t using any of these products. Take the time to tell any friends you have with children. Click “read the rest of this story” in order to view the full list.

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“We take a closer look at the science behind the Haiti earthquake of 12th January 2009 – as well as other earthquakes. For the first time here on GSGE we interview leading experts;

Prof. Timothy Dixon from Geodesy Lab at University of Miami: published an article already back in 1998 revealing the risks of earthquakes in Haiti. He works with both Paul Mann from University of Texas who in 2008 confirmed that the risks were eminent, and Eric Calais, Purdue University who manages the GPS network that monitor tectonic plate movements in Haiti. These three groups have sent geodesists with GPS equipment, to Haiti where they gather data that will reveal the crustal movements caused by the quake. You can follow this National Science Foundation funded team via their blog.

Ass. Prof. William Hammond from University of Nevada in Reno: Explains how they use GPS to monitor plate movements – and earthquake swarms. Bill Hammond also appears in National Geographic’s Naked Science: Earthquake Swarms.

Dr. Amir Kaynia from the International Centre for Geohazards in Oslo, Norway: Talks about the difference between predictions and early warning and discuss other geohazards connected to earthquakes.” More on this

This month’s Star Stumbler Pick is Stellare an Earth science expert and astrophysicist interested in Earth observation, geodesy, climate change, geohazards, water cycle and other science related topics.

Check out her Flickr photostream, its worth it, she has  some really cool pictures of the moon and skies. She resides in Åsa, Norway so there are some pretty neat pictures of areas near where she lives and works as well as shots from her travels such as her most recent trip to San Francisco but don’t stop there, make sure to thoroughly comb her SU blog so you don’t miss out on all the wonderful links to incredibly cool science and astronomy websites and  links to her other blogs!

Oh and by the way, hers is the voice you hear in the video at the top of this post!

So spot on its sick. I love this! Case point on why *I* don’t watch the news.

“Amid the recession and the cold winter months, Cynthia Magnus made a shocking discovery at the H&M in Manhattan’s Herald Square. It wasn’t a sale on the season’s hottest trends–it was garbage bags upon garbage bags of unsold merchandise, most of it slashed with razors to ensure that no one would ever wear or sell it, the New York Times reports.

“Gloves with the fingers cut off,” Ms. Magnus said, reciting the inventory of ruined items. “Warm socks. Cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor. Men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.” The jackets were tagged $59, $79 and $129.

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times Cynthia Magnus with mutilated clothing she found on West 35th Street last month.

And right around the corner from this particular H&M is a popular collection point for New York Cares’ coat drive. The organization’s spokeswoman Colleen Farrell told the Times, “We’d be glad to take unworn coats, and companies often send them to us.”

While H&M’s destroy-and-discard policy is a missed opportunity in this time of need, the fast fashion retailer isn’t the only one to practice these extreme measures. Magnus also found bags full of clothes priced with Wal-Mart tags, and each item had a hole punched through it.

Melissa Hill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart told the Times that the company typically donates its unsold pieces to charity and would investigate why those bags were discarded.”

Yes, of course they would say that. “Oh wow, you caught us destroying clothing, I assure you that we don’t normally do that, we donate stuff and save kittens from trees, I swear”. Rrrrright.

“Light-emitting wallpaper may begin to replace light bulbs from 2012, according to a government body that supports low-carbon technology.

A chemical coating on the walls will illuminate all parts of the room with an even glow, which mimics sunlight and avoids the shadows and glare of conventional bulbs.

Although an electrical current will be used to stimulate the chemicals to produce light, the voltage will be very low and the walls will be safe to touch. Dimmer switches will control brightness, as with traditional lighting.

The Carbon Trust has awarded a £454,000 grant to Lomox, a Welsh company that is developing the organic light-emitting diode technology. The trust said it would be two and a half times more efficient than energy-saving bulbs and could make a big contribution to meeting Britain’s target of cutting carbon emissions by 34 per cent by 2020. Indoor lighting accounts for a sixth of total electricity use.

The chemical coating, which can be applied in the form of specially treated wallpaper or simply painted straight on to walls, can also be used for flat-screen televisions, computers and mobile phone displays.

As the system uses only between three and five volts, it can be powered by solar panels or batteries. Lomox, which will use the grant to prove the durability of the technology, believes it could be used in the first instance to illuminate road signs or barriers where there is no mains electricity.

Ken Lacey, the chief executive of Lomox, said that the first products would go on sale in 2012. “The light is a very natural, sunlight-type of lighting with the full color range. It gives you all kinds of potential for how you do lighting,” he said.

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“Victims call him a one-man crime wave who ought to be in prison. Fans say he’s a misunderstood folk hero in the grand tradition of Robin Hood, Huckleberry Finn, and Jesse James. To police near Seattle, who are once more on his elusive tail, Colton Harris-Moore can be summed up in two words: most wanted.

The young fugitive is just 18, and has nothing to his name except a resourceful personality and an apparent inability to understand the meaning of fear. But for 18 months, he has led police, the FBI, and several divisions of Canada’s Royal Mounted Police on a merry dance across thousands of miles of the Pacific North-west. During the man hunt, Harris-Moore, who is thought to have committed at least 50 burglaries, has stolen three planes, two speedboats, and countless cars. He’s walked away from crashes that ought to have killed him, inspired a folk song, got his face on T-shirts, and accumulated almost 4,000 “supporters” on the internet site Facebook.

Now, with Hollywood eager to buy-up his life story, police believe the juvenile delinquent’s odyssey has returned to where it all started: the dense forests that cover Camano Island, a 40sq-mile piece of land in the middle of Puget Sound.

A string of recent break-ins on Camano, where Harris-Moore grew up, and neighbouring Whidbey Island have convinced the forces of law and order that the troubled youth who became known as the “barefoot burglar” on account of his habit of leaving a footprint at the scene of his crimes, has managed to make it back home.

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Welcome to Oregon where the grass is green! Just kidding..sorta…

“Medical marijuana advocates have opened a school where people can learn how to grow and use pot to manage illness, KPTV in Portland, Ore., reported.

The Oregon Medical Cannabis University, located in a warehouse off Cornelius Pass Road in Hillsboro, opened in October. The school offers classes and community centers where people can access the drug.

The school is growing, organizers said, and it has already helped dozens of sick people.

“We’ve had people with cancer, Parkinson’s, broken bones. We had a guy with hip surgery who was in a wheelchair when he came here and (now) he’s walking around with a cane,” said Claudia Lavander, the university’s president.

The Cannabis University is currently funded by the owner, but she said she hopes the school will eventually have enough paid memberships to make the university self-sufficient.”

I ran into the above motivational poster purely by coincidence and I really couldn’t stop myself from posting it here… For the record I support the use of medical marijuana but this poster made me giggle so I wanted to share, I am guessing the marijuana activists might just snicker too.