Bill Gates: Where are his billions going?

Like many great industrialists before him, Bill Gates cherished a dream: that after he retired, he would give his fortune away. But when his mother died prematurely, the techno-tycoon could wait no longer. Soon, billions were allocated to Aids, malaria and education projects. And now, with a $35bn donation from his friend Warren Buffett, Microsoft's founder truly has the power to change the world. Paul Vallely explains where the money goes - and why

It was already the most powerful charity in the world. And by a big margin. Last year it declared its assets at $35bn - more than the GDP of a medium-sized African country. It gave away $1.36bn in grants. And now it is to double in size - thanks to a massive donation from the world's second richest man.

The rich, F Scott Fitzgerald famously observed, are different from you and me (and not just because, as Ernest Hemingway waggishly riposted, they have more money). If you needed proof of that just put yourself in the shoes of yesterday's donor, 75-year-old Warren Buffett. If you had decided you were going to give all your money away, to whom would you give it? Here's one answer you probably wouldn't come up with. The second richest man in the world decided to give it to the richest man in the world - the Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Buffett, widely regarded as the world's most successful investor - who had previously said his fortune would go to charity after his death - changed his mind and decided to give it away now. The bulk of his $44bn fortune will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in annual instalments. It will be the biggest charitable gift ever. As part of the deal, Buffett will join the foundation's board, which will become a charity unparalleled in history, far larger than anything created by the great 19th-century philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie or the Rockefellers. The Gates Foundation has come a long was since it began, under a different name, barely 20 years ago. It was the offshoot off the iconic computer software company which Bill Gates had founded - with the dream of placing a personal computer in every home and business and through which he became the man who shaped the first half-century of the information age. In the intervening years it has given $2bn to education and learning projects and $4bn to fight diseases in the poorest countries, along with another $4bn on a range of other charitable activities in more than 100 nations around the world...

www.shoutwire.com

Study Says Earth's Temp
at 400-Year High

The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."

A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is running a fever and that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming." Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century. The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.

Last year, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, launched an investigation of three climate scientists, Boehlert said Barton should try to learn from scientists, not intimidate them. The Bush administration also has maintained that the threat is not severe enough to warrant new pollution controls that the White House says would have cost 5 million Americans their jobs...

www.breitbart.com

Keeley Malloy riding the Canadian Champion Sammy.
Keeleys regular horse Lyndsay (much taller) was injured, subsequently Christine provided a special ride for her. What an honour to ride the many time Canadian Champion.
Thanks Christina...

Super Dave with Kyle, Jenna and Dad

Certainly, Canada can ask more of itself, along with the rest of the World

THE NEW POWER PLANET

Around the world, energy innovations are gathering steam in some surprising places,
For An Interactive Display...

http://www.popsci.com

The Story of Father's Day

Father's Day, contrary to popular misconception, was not established as a holiday in order to help greeting card manufacturers sell more cards. In fact when a "father's day" was first proposed there were no Father's Day cards!

Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of a "father's day" in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife (Mrs. Dodd's mother) died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.

The first Father's Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane Washington. At about the same time in various towns and cities across American other people were beginning to celebrate a "father's day." In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.

Father's Day has become a day to not only honor your father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and adult male friends are all honored on Father's Day.

Wind Turbines as Art
It turns out that David Suzuki isn't the only one that thinks wind turbines are beautiful. This year's American Wind Energy Association's National Conference and Exhibition not only featured the usual array of speakers, meetings and poster presentations, but also hosted the National Wind Art Exhibit, a display of paintings all featuring wind turbines from a group of internationally-recognized artists. AWEA organized the show in partnership with REimaginations, an organization dedicated to promoting the aesthetic appeal of modern windmills.

As of December 31, 2005 Ontario Power Generations (Canada) electricity-generating portfolio had a total in-service capacity of 22, 173 megawatts (MW).
This consisted of:

* 3 operating nuclear stations with a capacity of 6,606 MW
* 5 fossil-fueled stations with a capacity of 8,578 MW;
* 35 hydroelectric stations with a capacity of 6,855 MW;
* and 29 EcoLogoM-certified green power hydroelectric stations,with a capacity of 127 MW.
* 3 wind power stations with a capacity of 7 MW.

New Niagara tunnel will boost hydro generation

A Niagara Falls generating project that will power the annual electricity needs of an estimated 160,000 Ontario homes has been given a green light by the province as it searches for new energy supply.

The Niagara Tunnel Project, expected to be completed by 2009 and to cost an estimated $600 million, will be one way to help the province deal with its electricity supply challenges, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said in an interview from Niagara Falls.

"It will give us enough juice for a city of about 160,000 people but it's only one step," Duncan said. The province has also put a call out to the private sector to build 300 megawatts of renewable energy and 2,500 megawatts of other energy, he added.

"We're moving quickly. We're almost at the halfway point in terms of the generation we need to replace coal," he said, referring to the government's promise to close the five coal plants, which produce more than 20 per cent of the province's power, by 2007. In 2005, OPG's stations producted 108.5 terawatt-hours** (TWh) of electricity...

www.energyprobe.org

If the polar ice caps melted, how much would the oceans rise?

You may have heard about global warming. It seems that in the last 100 years the earth's temperature has increased about half a degree Celsius. This may not sound like much, but even half a degree can have an effect on our planet. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the sea level has risen 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) in the last 100 years (see How do they measure sea level?).

This higher temperature may be causing some floating icebergs to melt, but this will not make the oceans rise. Icebergs are large floating chunks of ice. In order to float, the iceberg displaces a volume of water that has a weight equal to that of the iceberg. Submarines use this principle to rise and sink in the water by changing their weight.

But the rising temperature and icebergs could play a small role in the rising ocean level. Icebergs are chunks of frozen glaciers that break off from landmasses and fall into the ocean. The rising temperature may be causing more icebergs to form by weakening the glaciers, causing more cracks and making ice more likely to break off. As soon as the ice falls into the ocean, the ocean rises a little.

If the rising temperature affects glaciers and icebergs, could the polar ice caps be in danger of melting and causing the oceans to rise? This could happen, but no one knows when it might happen. The main ice covered landmass is Antarctica at the South Pole, with about 90 percent of the world's ice (and 70 percent of its fresh water). Antarctica is covered with ice an average of 2,133 meters (7,000 feet) thick. If all of the Antarctic ice melted, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters (200 feet). But the average temperature in Antarctica is -37°C, so the ice there is in no danger of melting. In fact in most parts of the continent it never gets above freezing...

science.howstuffworks.com

Follow the Money — If You Can …

Remember that $9 billion that somehow got “lost” in Iraq? Boxes of cash were shipped from the Federal Reserve to Iraq, where a former Coalition Provisional Authority official testified that our guys were playing football with blocks of $100 bills and an investigator described the atmosphere as “a free-fraud zone.” The U.S. government was supposed to follow up on that somewhat dismaying discovery with an audit — but that has now been nixed by President George W. Bush, who recently issued a presidential “finding” that heads off an investigation at the pass:

“Title III of the Act creates an Inspector General (IG) of the CPA. Title III shall be construed in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authorities to conduct the Nation’s foreign affairs, to supervise the unitary executive branch, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The CPA IG shall refrain from initiating, carrying out, or completing an audit or investigation, or from issuing a subpoena, which requires access to sensitive operation plans, intelligence matters, counterintelligence matters, ongoing criminal investiga-tions by other administrative units of the Department of Defense related to national security, or other matters the disclosure of which would constitute a serious threat to national security.”

All power to the “unitary executive” — and let the good times roll!

www.anti-war.com

U.S. Birth Rate Hits All-Time Low

Teen birth rate also falls to record low. Continuing a 12-year decline, the U.S. birth rate has dropped to the lowest level since national data have been available, according to statistics just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The rate of births among teenagers also fell to a new record low, continuing a decline that began in 1991.

The birth rate fell to 13.9 per 1,000 persons in 2002, down from 14.1 per 1,000 in 2001 and down a full 17 percent from the recent peak in 1990 (16.7 per 1,000), according to a new CDC report, "Births: Preliminary Data for 2002." CDC analysts say the birth rate is dropping as the increasing life span of Americans results in a smaller proportion of women of child childbearing age...

http://usgovinfo.about.com