Hopeful Times's topics - tribe.net

Billionaire Opens Mansions to Homeless

phoenixgoa — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:39:19 GMT

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2974418&page=1

pretty nifty...

posted in Hopeful Times - 1 reply

Harmful Lies Debunked

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:38:43 GMT

Among the other spam I find in my mail box the most obnoxious was about a book of lies calleed "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" Here is a link to the Skeptic's Dictionary article debunking the myth of a "Jewish conspiracy"

www.skepdic.com/protocols.html

posted in Hopeful Times - 1 reply

Go ACLU!

Laura — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:42:12 GMT

NORTH CAROLINA STATE COURT DECLARES BAN ON COHABITATION UNCONSTITUTIONAL

In North Carolina, a state court has struck down a ban on cohabitation that dates back to the year 1805. The ACLU filed the case on behalf of Debora Hobbs, an unmarried woman who lost her job as a 911 dispatcher simply because she chose to live with her unmarried boyfriend.

"I couldn't believe that I was being given this ultimatum to choose between my boyfriend or my livelihood because the Sheriff was enforcing a 201-year-old law that clearly violates my civil rights," said Hobbs. "I just didn't think it was any of my employer's business whether I was married or not, as long as I was good at my job, and I am happy that no one else will ever have to be subjected to this law."

In February 2004, shortly after starting her job as a dispatcher for the Pender County Sheriff's Office, Hobbs was told that she would be required to marry her partner, move out of the house they shared together, or leave her job.

The 201-year-old law states, "If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor."

posted in Hopeful Times - 1 reply

Save the seeds!

Laura — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 01:08:15 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/19/arctic.seedvault.ap/index.html

Norway building 'doomsday vault' to protect seeds

Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Posted: 10:05 a.m. EDT (14:05 GMT)

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- It sounds like something from a science fiction film -- a doomsday vault carved into a frozen mountainside on a secluded Arctic island ready to serve as a Noah's Ark for seeds in case of a global catastrophe.

But Norway's ambitious project is on its way to becoming reality. Construction began Monday on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed to house as many as 3 million of the world's crop seeds.

Prime ministers of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland were to attend the cornerstone ceremony on Monday morning near the town of Longyearbyen in Norway's remote Svalbard Islands, roughly 620 miles from the North Pole.

Norway's Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen has called the vault a "Noah's Ark on Svalbard."

Its purpose is to ensure the survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change, and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may have been wiped out.

The seeds, packaged in foil, would be stored at such cold temperatures that they could last hundreds, even thousands, of years, according to the independent Global Crop Diversity Trust. The trust, founded in 2004, has also worked on the project and will help run the vault, which is scheduled to open and start accepting seeds from around the world in September 2007.

Oil-rich Norway first proposed the idea a year ago, drawing wide international interest, Riis-Johansen said.

The Svalbard Archipelago, 300 miles north of the mainland, was selected because it is located far from many threats and has a consistently cold climate.

Those factors will help protect the seeds and safeguard their genetic makeup, Norway's Foreign Ministry said. The vault will have thick concrete walls, and even if all cooling systems fail, the temperature in the frozen mountain will never rise above freezing due to permafrost, it said.

While the facility will be fenced in and guarded, Svalbard's free-roaming polar bears, known for their ferocity, could also act as natural guardians, according to the Global Diversity Trust.

The Nordic nation is footing the bill, amounting to about $4.8 million for infrastructure costs.

"This facility will provide a practical means to re-establish crops obliterated by major disasters," Cary Fowler, the trust's executive secretary, said in a statement, adding that crop diversity is also threatened by "accidents, mismanagement and shortsighted budget cuts."

Already, some 1,400 seed banks around the world, most of them national, hold samples of their host country's crops.

But these banks are vulnerable to shutdowns, natural disasters, war and lack of funds, said Riis-Johansen.

Storing duplicate seeds in the Svalbard vault is meant to offer a fail-safe system for the planet.

The idea of a global seed bank has been around since the early 1980s, but unresolved issues, such as ownership rights to genetic material, stalled it until the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization adopted the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in 2001.

While Norway will own the vault facility, countries contributing seeds will own the material they deposit -- much as with a bank safe deposit box. The Global Crop Diversity Trust will help developing countries pay the cost of preparing and sending seeds.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Leave the Pot Smokers Alone

Laura — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:33:39 GMT

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2096129

Pot Resolution Adopted in West Hollywood
West Hollywood Leaders Vote to 'Leave the Pot Smokers Alone'

The Associated Press
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - City leaders adopted a resolution Monday night
calling on sheriff's deputies not to target certain adult marijuana
users.

The City Council backed the nonbinding resolution 4-0, said city
spokeswoman Tamara White. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca had no
immediate comment because he hadn't reviewed the motion, said sheriff's
spokeswoman Kerri Webb.

The resolution directs the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which
contracts with this left-leaning city, not to "target adult marijuana
users who consume this drug in private and pose no danger to the
community."

Minors and drug dealers would still be subject to arrest, and smoking in
public would still be prohibited, the resolution says.

The resolution is not legally enforceable, but sends a message that law
enforcement officers should "leave the pot smokers alone" and go after
more serious crimes, said Councilman John Duran, the resolution's
sponsor.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright (c) 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Go Google, Go!

Laura — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 23:09:18 GMT

From BusinessWeek, 2/22/06 http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060222_088020.htm

Google's Brilliant Philanthropist

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have tapped Dr. Larry Brilliant to spend up to $1.1 billion of the outfit's money on what ails the world

Dr. Larry Brilliant has helped the blind to see and has been instrumental in eradicating small pox in India. But these feats may pale in comparison to the challenge that now lies before him. On Feb. 21, Google said Brilliant, an epidemiologist and tech entrepreneur, will become the executive director of Google.org, the Web-search giant's charitable arm.

Google (GOOG) founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have promised shareholders they will make a social impact that will eventually "eclipse Google itself" by tackling the world's problems. In autumn, 2005, they outlined plans for Google.org, a network that includes both a charitable foundation with a $90 million endowment and other forms of social investing (see BW Online, 10/20/05, "Googling for Charity").

The network will focus its charitable endeavors on global poverty, energy, and the environment. Ultimately, Google.org will spend a sum that equals about 1% of the number of shares Google had when it went public. Based on the current stock price, that implies spending of more than $1.1 billion. Says Brilliant, "I'm drinking from a firehose."

"TWO DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES." Brilliant has just the eclectic background that makes him a natural fit for Google's philanthropic thrust. He is a physican and epidemiologist who has also been heralded as a tech visionary. He spent a decade studying religion in at a Himalayan monastery in India, followed by a stint as a diplomat with the U.N. He helped lead a World Health Organization program to eradicate smallpox and later founded the Berkeley (Calif.)-based Seva Foundation, an international health nonprofit group credited with restoring sight to more than 2 million blind people.

His tech credentials are also impressive. In 1985, Brilliant co-founded the Well, one of the oldest online communities, and he has been involved in a number of tech startups in the past two decades. "I've lived these two different personalities," says Brilliant. "I understand how a technology company works and will commit those resources to helping Google make the world a better place."

This is why the tech company chose Brilliant, says Sheryl Sandberg, Google's vice-president of global online sales and operations. "Larry Brilliant has the true passion to change the world, combined with proven ability to do so."

Brilliant plans to start his tenure with a pilgrimage to other foundations that are making a difference on a large scale. First stop: the Gates Foundation, where he says Dr. William Foege, senior fellow in global health, is a dear friend and former mentor. "He's the first person I'll call," Brilliant says.

VOLUNTEERS ABOUND. Brilliant expects to hire experts over the next few months to build knowledge in the fields where the network aims to make its mark. Apart from that, he says he has no immediate hiring plans, and reckons the organization doesn't need to be big to be effective. Meanwhile, Brilliant has no shortage of folks who are lining up to volunteer with Google.org, starting from within the Googleplex itself. More than 400 Google employees currently help administer the Google Grants program, which has donated $33 million in advertising to more than 850 nonprofit groups.

For now, Brilliant's not divulging much more about how the network plans to spend its windfall. The Google.org Web site remains skeletal, providing only broad brush strokes for the network's long-term plans. Google.org currently supports the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit that addresses global poverty through capital markets.

It is also funding TechnoServe's attempt to launch a business-plan competition and entrepreneurship-development program in Ghana. And it backs PlanetRead, a literacy group in India that is adding subtitles to song videos and Bollywood films to encourage reading among people with low literacy skills.

Those who've worked with Brilliant express faith in his ability to execute Google.org's mission. "Larry is able to get his vision across and really rev up people and have them buy into what he's trying to tell them," says Anthony Kozlowski, executive director of Seva, founded 27 years ago by Brilliant.

As Brilliant prepares for his new role, he's already clear on his vision. He says: "In 10 years, I'd like people to say Google changed the world less for its search engine than for the way in which it changed philanthropy to make the world a better place." Given Google's revolutionary impact on the way people search for information, Brilliant's order is a tall one indeed.

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

hello you guys

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:04:50 GMT

I just found this place, and had to join, because contrary to what you guys have seen me post, i prefer to see the lighter side of things.
There is enough shit in the world.

It's a bit quiet in here though.

posted in Hopeful Times - 1 reply

awesome gesture

stuartscanlon — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 20:43:08 GMT

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=1615528

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Music lives, through Paul McCartney

Laura — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 07:12:06 GMT

USA Today 10/17/05

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

The man who is arguably the most famous musician on the planet had a lousy musical education in school.

"It was very bad," says Paul McCartney. "I don't think the teacher was interested remotely."

Growing up in working-class Liverpool, England, in the 1950s, he remembers, "we had a music class kind of once a week, but the guy used to just put on a record and leave us alone with the record. So I'm afraid that didn't do an awful lot. We turned it down and told jokes."

No wonder, then, that the former Beatle, who is in the thick of a sold-out U.S. tour, is promoting music education in schools. On Tuesday he kicks off a national campaign for Music Lives, his non-profit foundation.

At concert dates and online through musiclives.org, he is raising money by selling $40 pewter bracelets engraved with his signature. The entire $40 goes to children, McCartney says, in many cases covering the entire cost of putting a musical instrument into the hands of a child who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

The foundation is co-sponsored by Fidelity Investments, which is also co-sponsoring the tour. McCartney hopes to get kids excited about learning to play an instrument. "The thing that I always try and do is just to try and engage them — let them know what fun it is, how easy it is, how uplifting it is."

The effort comes as music programs in many cities fall victim to cash crunches and a national focus on math and reading. "School boards and other decision-makers are having to make some very hard choices," says Michael Blakeslee of the National Association for Music Education.

Though federal surveys show that about 90% of students get at least a minimal music education, only 43% get three or more classes a week.

In a telephone interview from Detroit, McCartney recalled that while his music education at school was "zero," he was lucky because his father played the piano and his childhood home was filled with music.

"He would point out things to me on the radio and stuff, you know, like the bass on a piece of music. He'd say, 'Hear that low noise? That's the bass.' So I was lucky that way."

Relatives shared their records. "Everyone would sing all the old songs. There was a lot of music around."

The man who would write Yesterday and Hey Jude still composes and plays by ear, without reading music. He actually took three cracks at formal piano lessons, once when he was still in primary school, but got "very bored with the five-finger exercises."

He tried again at age 16, "but then of course they took me back to the five-finger exercises again." By then he already had composed When I'm 64 and was playing in clubs with John Lennon and George Harrison.

Eventually he tried piano lessons a third time, at age 21. It was 1963.

"Again they took me back to the basics, and took me, really, too far back," he says, "because by then I'd written Eleanor Rigby."

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Alaska high court favors benefits for gay partners

Laura — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 06:54:03 GMT

USA Today 10/28/05

ANCHORAGE (AP) — The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Friday it is unconstitutional to deny benefits to the same-sex partners of public employees, a victory for gay rights advocates in one of the first states to pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Overturning a lower court ruling, the state high court said barring benefits for state and city employees' same-sex partners violates the Alaska Constitution's equal protection clause.

"It's a good day for Alaska families," said Carrie Evans, state legislative director for the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign.

She said the unanimous decision sets the stage for Alaska to join 11 other states that already have laws, policies or union contracts providing employee benefits in all eligible same-sex unions.

Anchorage city attorney Fred Boness said city officials would not appeal the court's decision.

But Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski was "outraged" by the ruling and directed the attorney general's office to determine the best way to overturn it, said his spokeswoman, Becky Hultberg.

The high court said the disputed benefits plans will stand until a remedy is reached in future court hearings.

Nine gay or lesbian government workers and their partners in 2002 joined the Alaska American Civil Liberties Union in appealing the lower court ruling. The case stems from a 1999 lawsuit filed against the state and the Municipality of Anchorage after voters passed a constitutional amendment blocking state recognition of gay marriage.

In the 2001 Superior Court ruling overturned Friday, Judge Stephanie Joannides said the state and city did not have to extend benefits to same-sex couples, equating them with unmarried heterosexual couples who also are not eligible.

The high court said that comparison failed to acknowledge the fact that heterosexual couples can choose to get married, while homosexual couples cannot.

Michael Macleod-Ball, director of the Alaska ACLU, said the Alaska Supreme Court ruling could have an effect on other states.

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Possible Cause of Prostate Cancer Found

Laura — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 06:44:22 GMT

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 28, 2005
Filed at 8:17 p.m. ET

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School are part of a team that has discovered a possible cause of prostate cancer, a finding they say could result in better forms of treatment or possibly a cure.

The findings show a recurring pattern of scrambled chromosomes that leads to the merging of specific genes. The activity occurs only in prostate cancer.

The Michigan researchers, with researchers at the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, found the abnormality in the majority of prostate cancer tissue samples they analyzed. The gene fusion was not found in non-cancerous prostate tissue.

The study is being published in Friday's issue of Science.

The research could lead to a more accurate prostate cancer diagnostic test and -- with more research -- to a new, effective treatment for the disease, said Dr. Arul M. Chinnaiyan, a Michigan pathology professor who directed the study.

''We'd like to think it's the first step,'' Chinnaiyan told The Detroit News. ''A lot of work still needs to be done.''

The finding suggests that a similar chromosomal rearrangement could be involved in the development of other solid tumor cancers such as cancers of the lung, breast, colon, ovary and liver.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men, according to the American Cancer Society. The society estimates that, in 2005, 232,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with the disease and 30,350 men will die from it.

Support for the study came from the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network and the institute's Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Prostate Cancer, the Department of Defense, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center Bioinformatics Core and the university's Medical Scientist Training Program.

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Hurricane database could aid forecasters

Laura — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:38:27 GMT

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/research/2005-10-27-hurricane-history_x.htm

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Robots may allow surgery in space

Laura — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:35:55 GMT

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/robotics/2005-10-26-robot-surgery_x.htm

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Students launch satellite into space

Laura — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:25:35 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/10/27/space.students.reut/index.html

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Genetic Catalog May Aid Search for Roots of Disease

Laura — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:23:17 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/science/27genome.html

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies

Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible

Laura — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 00:11:00 GMT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.html

posted in Hopeful Times - 0 replies