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Archive for April, 2011

64,000 trees planted in 15 minutes

This past Thursday, over 64,000 trees were planted in 15 minutes, breaking the world record for the most trees planted simultaneously…The Independent reports that almost 7,000 people helped to plant saplings in the Philippines province of Camrines Sur. The planting was part of a government-backed program aiming to plant 12 million trees in the region’s logged forests. Forests in the Philippines are considered to be one of the ten most threatened forests in the world.

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Goodness Pays

Higher Job Performance Linked to People Who Are More Honest and Humble

This study shows that those who possess the combination of honesty and humility have better job performance. In fact, we found that humility and honesty not only correspond with job performance, but it predicted job performance above and beyond any of the other five personality traits like agreeableness and conscientiousness.

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Wanna See God?

Face to face with the central throb

A section of the solar disk recorded in 30mph winds at the Winter Star Party on West Summerland Key. The massive detached prominence was visible for hours. Skies were quite steady despite the wind.

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Funniest women on the planet?

In honor of International Women’s Day and the upcoming Women In Comedy Festival in Boston, we wanted to put together a list of some of our favorite female comedians. The only problem is we ran out of time to add the couple hundred more we wanted to include. So, we admit that this list is by no means complete. Nevertheless, we hope it puts a little bit of a damper on the notion that funny women are few and far between. As you click through, you’ll see some faces you recognize as well as, possibly, a lot that you don’t. But all are worthy of your immediate attention.

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2012: Time for a Change is Daniel Pinchbeck’s film. It presents an alternate view of the numinous transformations ahead.

Rather than breakdown and barbarism, 2012 will herald the birth of a regenerative planetary culture, where collaboration replaces competition, where exploration of psyche and spirit becomes the new cutting edge, replacing the sterile materialism that has pushed our world to the brink.”

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Pretty pictures from the edge of reality

From the icy Arctic to Africa’s dense jungles – and the mountain tops of Mongolia to the deep waters of the Pacific – the BBC series Human Planet has explored mankind’s incredible relationship with nature.

Accompanying the film crews was photographer Timothy Allen. His stunning still images captured unique glimpses of people living in the world’s most extreme environments. Take a look at some of them, and listen to him explain how he snapped the most arresting shots.

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Fixing the free market. How co-ops — businesses in which the employees are also the owners of the company — merge economic growth with social goals.

Eufrecina De Jesus, ICDC’s founder and director, says the cooperative model—in which the employees are also the owners of a company—is the only solution for combining the power of business with the social goal of solidarity.

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Elephants are as smart as dolphins and great apes

In a series of tests, the giant mammals learned to cooperate to solve a problem, researchers report in Monday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Elephants are socially complex, explained lead researcher Joshua M. Plotnik.

“They help others in distress,” he said. “They seem in some ways emotionally attached to each other, so you would expect there would be some level of cooperation.”

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Solar prominence eruption

One of the most spectacular solar sights is an erupting prominence. Two weeks ago, NASA’s Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressively large prominence erupting from the surface…The scale of the prominence is huge — the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing curtain of hot gas.

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Duh! Happiness Improves Health and Lengthens Life

“We reviewed eight different types of studies,” Diener said. “And the general conclusion from each type of study is that your subjective well-being — that is, feeling positive about your life, not stressed out, not depressed — contributes to both longevity and better health among healthy populations.”

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Lots more funding for young scientists exploring radical new directions in cancer research.

The “war on cancer” has been going on for decades, yet victory is still nowhere in sight. Andy Rachleff, a venture capitalist turned philanthropist, is trying to speed things up by funding research by young scientists with new ideas.

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West African farmers have succeeded in cutting the use of toxic pesticides, increasing yields and incomes and diversifying farming systems.

Working in small groups, called Farmer Field Schools, smallholders are developing and adopting ‘good agricultural practices’ through learning-by-doing and hands-on field experiments.

To grow healthy crops, IPPM promotes soil improvement and alternatives to chemical pesticides such as the use of beneficial insects, adapted varieties, natural pesticides and cropping practices. Marketing and food safety issues are also part of the training programme.

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Save the Bees!

Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us? Critics call the film “entertaining, gorgeous, and relevant…You are engulfed by wonder.”

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