The National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society Pilots New Fundraising Opportunities in Virtual World

In a move symbolic of the National MS Society's goal to achieve a world free of multiple sclerosis (MS), the organization's Southern California Chapter is expanding on the success of its signature annual fundraising events to create the first-ever MS Fly, taking participants through an engaging scavenger hunt in Second Life.

Produced by The Illusion Factory and Bullpen Advertising, the captivating and interactive MS Fly will take place June 10th through the 17th. With the support of Scion and MovieTickets.com, the National MS Society is calling on participants worldwide to enter the Second Life world, adorn a MS cape, and join the movement to help achieve a world free of MS. Registration is open until close of event on June 17th at www.themsfly.org. Proceeds for this pilot event will benefit the Society's Southern California Chapter.  read more »

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - When Oscar the Cat visits residents of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, the staff jumps into action -- Oscar can sense within hours when someone is about to die.

In his two years living in Steere's end-stage dementia unit, Oscar has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died, according to Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence.

He wrote about Oscar in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"It's not that the cat is consistently there first," Dr. Joan Teno, a professor of community health at Brown University, who sees patients in the unit. "But the cat always does manage to make an appearance, and it always seems to be in the last two hours."  read more »

We all are not perfect. We are just authentic, we are just humans. The paradise, the universe, the earth is not based on perfection. The complete purity doesn´t exist, it will never exist. Nothing is 100% something and 0% its opposite. Let´s face it: nobody is 100% light and 0% shadow, nobody is 0% light and 100% shadow. Everything is based on small unbalances that we try to fix along our journey. Although our current way of life is based on full accomplishment of results, on complete and eternal possession of things (and, for some, even possession of people), on expectation of ideal behaviours, etc. That is just a bunch of lies. When we reach one result, one new unbalance appears. When we die, all possessions are lost (most possessions are lost much earlier). We never find someone who always behaves as we expect. Does it mean that we are not in our paradise?  read more »

BBC News 

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

A Nigerian court has refused to allow more cases to be added to a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical giant accused of improper drugs trials on children.

Pfizer lawyers argued in Abuja that the amendments had been improperly filed.

The Nigerian government wants $7bn in damages and compensation for the families of the children who died or suffered serious side-effects.

Some 200 children took part in trials for a new anti-meningitis drug in 1996. Pfizer says the trials were lawful.

The court rejected a bid by the Nigerian government's counsel to include 85 new claims - in addition to an earlier 54, agreeing with Pfizer that it had been improperly filed.

Officials in Kano say more than 50 children died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities.  read more »

Thursday, Jun. 21, 2007 By JOHN CLOUD

 All but the wealthiest readers will have noticed by now that food costs have risen this year. In May grocery prices were 4.4% higher than they were the previous May. If 4.4% doesn't sound like much--you spend $104.40 now for a cartful that was $100 a year ago--it's a huge deal to food producers and to budget shoppers, who are making lots of casseroles. The Department of Agriculture anticipates that grocery prices won't significantly fall before January; if the USDA is right, you would have to go back to 1990 to find a bigger single-year increase.  read more »