In a move meant to combat the growing trend of ‘biopiracy’ (companies or countries patenting organisms or techniques which originated elsewhere), India will be releasing an encyclopedia of traditional ayurvedic, unani, and siddha medicine next year.
The project, dubbed Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, is meant to showcase and protect India’s cultural heritage.
Category: Health
White Ribbon Campaign
December 6th marks the end of White Ribbon Days. Not coincidentally, the day is also the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, a tragedy that occurred in 1989 when 14 women were murdered at the city’s L’Ecole Polytechnique. Vigils were held across Canada today to mark this sombre anniversary.
White Ribbon Days are sponsored by the White Ribbon Campaign. The WRC is the largest movement of its kind in the world, and is organized by men in an effort to eradicate male violence against women. However, the WRC does not make any public statements on December 6 because it believes that men should “step back and listen to the voices of women.”
While certainly not good news, these statistics are worth repeating: Girls are four times more likely than boys to be victims of sexual assault by family members. 12 per cent of girls in grade nine are pressured to have sex. Adolescent wives are three times more likely to be murdered. (Stats courtesy of The Toronto Star)
P.S. (9:55 pm) Just came across this great website created by the National Film Board and the Global Women’s Memorial Society. “The Global Women’s Memorial Website project is dedicated to remembering women who have been murdered & promoting women’s memorials as an act of resistance to violence against women.” It’s worth checking out.
Mazda Pays to Walk
Japanese automaker Mazda will start paying employees to walk to work. The car company is promoting the pay to walk program to improve the health of their workers and to protect the environment.
All 20,000 of the company’s workers in Japan are eligible to receive the 1,500 Yen incentive each month.
Fake Trees Can Clean Air
Ironically, a plan for fake trees only exists on paper right now. Dr Klaus Lackner, from Columbia University, has proposed a “fake tree” that can clean the air of CO2. The tree can the air of 90,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
Right now it is cost-prohibitve to build the fake trees because the filtering material is very expensive to recycle. Dr. Lackner sees making artificial ways to clean the air of car emissions ,and other CO2 sources, has a very important step in saving the planet.
Anti-Cancer Compound Found in Beer
Drinking beer may prevent some cancers. A micronutrient found only in hops (the main ingredient to making beer) have properties that make it a combatant of cancers.
And currently many “scientists in programs around the world are also beginning to look at the value of these hops flavonoids for everything from preventing prostate or colon cancer to hormone replacement therapy for women.”
Thanks, Digg.com!