LONDON, July 8 /PRNewswire/ --

Perenco Ecuador Limited (Perenco Ecuador) today called on the Government of
Ecuador to cease efforts to sell oil seized from Blocks 7 and 21 in defiance of
orders by international arbitration tribunals, and instead to seek a negotiated
solution to the dispute concerning the applicability of Law 42 to Blocks 7 and
21.

Rising levels of smokestack emissions from oceangoing ships will cause an estimated 87,000 deaths worldwide each year by 2012 — so more than heat wave deaths in French elderly people in 2003 while French young people protested much fewer deaths in the American invasion of Iraq but far less than the nearly 15,000,000 who die annually from cancer.

And it's almost one-third higher than the previously claimed 60,000 deaths but, like many things in pollution-related deaths, accurate numbers are hard to pin down.   You take some sample data and you extrapolate.

If nanotechnology has a dream future, it is self-assembling and self-organizing systems - something nature has been producing for millions of years.

A team of scientists has examined how thousands of bacterial membrane proteins are able to assemble into clusters that direct cell movement to select chemicals in their environment and they say their results provide valuable insight into how complex periodic patterns in biological systems can be generated and repaired.

The Swan Nebula, also called the Omega Nebula because when seen through a small telescope the nebula has a shape that reminds some observers of the final letter of the Greek alphabet, omega, while others see a swan with its distinctive long, curved neck, is a dazzling stellar nursery located about 5500 light-years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer).

Don't feel left out, lawn games and crustaceans, it is also called  the Horseshoe and the Lobster Nebula.

No matter its name, it is an active star-forming region of gas and dust about 15 light-years across and has recently spawned a cluster of massive, hot stars. The intense light and strong winds from these hulking infants have carved remarkable filigree structures in the gas and dust.

The Young People's Development Programme (YPDP) in England, a government-backed youth development pilot program aimed at reducing teenage pregnancies, drunkenness and cannabis use not only didn't reduce teenage pregnancies or drunkenness or marijuana use, it might actually have increased pregnancies, according to research led by Meg Wiggins of the Institute of Education, University of London and Chris Bonell at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

They were commissioned by the Department of Health to carry out an independent evaluation of the YPDP, which was initiated in 2004.

HONG KONG, July 8 /PRNewswire/ --

After an intense competition among finalists chosen from a pool of more than 300,000 students from more than 100 countries and regions, Microsoft Corp. announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2009. Celebrating first place, Romania's Team SYTECH won the worldwide Software Design invitational, South Korea's Team Wafree won the Embedded Development invitational and Brazil's Team LEVV It won the Game Development challenge.

Imagine Cup, the world's premier student technology competition, empowers students to unlock their creative genius and build solutions that tackle real-world issues facing society today.

NEW YORK and BERLIN, July 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Now through July 23, artnet Auctions is presenting a special online auction of
Urban Art from 1972-Present. The sale traces the evolution of Urban Art from the
1970s to today with a spectacular range of 175 artworks by 60 artists including
Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, CRASH, Faile, Keith Haring, and Mr. Brainwash.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to:
http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/artnet/39039/

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090707/NY42488 )

Early New York Graffiti Art

Leading the sale is a collection of early works by some of the most influential
New York Graffiti artists of the 1970s and 1980s.  

SAO PAULO, July 7 /PRNewswire/ --

- Technology to Link Loyalty Programs From Companies in Different Industries,
Including TAM Fidelidade

Multiplus Fidelidade, the new business unit at TAM (NYSE: TAM; Bovespa: TAMM4),
and Oracle have signed a contract to implement the technological platform using
the Oracle Siebel Call Center and Oracle Siebel CRM Loyalty solutions, which
will link the loyalty programs of companies representing diverse industries --
from an airline company to gas stations, phone companies, supermarkets, hotels,
bookstores, movie theaters, banks, credit cards, internet service providers,
automobile manufacturers, and more -- and integrate them into a network of
loyalty initiative programs.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080221/SPTH002LOGO )

We decide  

I have pondered writing about the transhumanism movement for a while, and the opportunity has finally landed on my desktop when I read a brief article by Kyle Munkittrick of the Institute for Emerging Ethics&Technologies. The article is in the form of a FAQ expressly addressing the question of whether aging is a moral good, and in it Munkittrick briefly explains and (thinks that he) refutes some of the standard arguments against transhumanism. Let’s take a look.