A story on Motherhood and Social Entrepreneurship from Bliss Browne, part 2
September 30, 2010 by · View Comments
Do you want to have a baby or create a family? Do you aspire to build a start-up or a long-term values-based business? How would you sustain the promise of new life over a period of time? What is the creative context that could help the family or business grow and realize its full potential? The world of a mother, and the world of an entrepreneur are similar. Watch on the story and thoughts of Bliss Browne, the Mother of Three, the President of Imagine Chicago, the Priest, and the Corporate Banker, at the Hub Picnic in Kyiv, September 26, 2010.
Poisonous? Really? Some Surprisingly Toxic Animals
September 30, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Marc in Animals & Habitats, Nature & Ecosystems. ]

Everyone knows scorpions are poisonous, but what about Slow Loris? Those cute and cuddly primates you see all over the web? The Stonefish is cool looking, but did you know it could pack a wollop? Keep your distance from all these critters, because these are some surprisingly toxic animals:
Stonefish

(Images via midnightwriter, sunseekerdiving, accommodationperth, noahsboats, neaq)
Difficult to see, and easy to step on, these are the most venomous fish in the world. Their powerful neurotoxins are hidden in spines that line their dorsal fin. One wrong foot placement and that “rock” you rested your foot on will make you regret it (and it may end your life). They’re mostly marine, but can also be found in some rivers.
Slow Loris

(Images via thefigtreeforum, indonesiatraveling, dalesdesigns, silflayhraka, nazley)
The Slow Loris is on the endangered list because they’re hunted for their giant, heart meltingly cute eyes, for use in traditional medicine. This makes me wish their toxins were a bit stronger. Unfortunately for the Slow Loris, they don’t have any hidden spines or powerful neurotoxins hidden up their sleeves; they have a toxin produced on the inside of their elbow that they will lick and then transfer onto their young. Similar to the toxin in cat dander, it causes bites from Slow Loris to swell painfully, but unless you’re allergic, you’ll be just fine. Their plan B when in danger? They fall to the ground and curl up into a fuzzy ball.
Komodo Dragon

(Images via pbs, cthuliz, chicagoist, thestar, albuquerquehub)
Able to grow to nearly 10 feet long and weigh up to 150 pounds, the Komodo Dragon doesn’t need venom to intimidate. This lizard does have a nasty surprise hiding in its rancid mouth, however: over 57 strains of bacteria that ensure even the mildest bite will result in a horrible infection. Komodo Dragons can sprint over 12 miles per hour, so I hope you’re faster than your friends.
Blue-ringed Octopus

(Images via pollsb, whyevolutionistrue, underwater, blueboard, wonderquest)
Blue-ringed Octopi are small and docile, whiling their time away eating shrimp and small crabs in tide pools, but if they feel threatened, their dull colors light up into a fantastic blue display. At 5-8 inches long, this Octopus may look harmless, but it contains a neurotoxin that has no available antivenom, and can kill a full grown adult within minutes. The venom targets motor function, causing paralysis in the lungs (and everywhere else), and ending with cardiac arrest due to lack of oxygen.
Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebEcoist:
12 Unassuming Predators of the Animal Kingdom
Not all deadly creatures of the animal kingdom advertise the fact that they can do some serious damage. Some are cute and furry, resembling household pets, while others appear deceptively s…
3 Comments - Click Here to Read More
CSRminute: Accion International Reports on Microfinance Summit in India
September 30, 2010 by · View Comments
Corporate Social Responsibility News: Accion International Reports on Microfinance Summit in India; Italy’s Cinque Terre National Park Bans Plastic Water Bottles
CSRminute: Accion International Reports on Microfinance Summit in India
September 30, 2010 by · View Comments
Corporate Social Responsibility News: Accion International Reports on Microfinance Summit in India; Italy’s Cinque Terre National Park Bans Plastic Water Bottles
ET Insight Microfinance Prt 1
September 30, 2010 by · View Comments
A story on Motherhood and Social Entrepreneurship from Bliss Browne, part 1
September 30, 2010 by · View Comments
Do you want to have a baby or create a family? Do you aspire to build a start-up or a long-term values-based business? How would you sustain the promise of new life over a period of time? What is the creative context that could help the family or business grow and realize its full potential? The world of a mother, and the world of an entrepreneur are similar. Watch on the story and thoughts of Bliss Browne, the Mother of Three, the President of Imagine Chicago, the Priest, and the Corporate Banker, at the Hub Picnic in Kyiv, September 26, 2010.
Social Entrepreneurship - Bringing Literacy to People
September 29, 2010 by · View Comments
This group will go into impoverished communities and teach people how to read and write. Once the community becomes literate it can bring prosperity and hope. Lastly, it will create jobs and opportunity to members of the community and decrease poverty.
Positive Quote Wednesday - On Flying
September 29, 2010 by admin · View Comments
I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be? - it is the same the angels breathe. ~Mark Twain, “Roughing It”
You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky. ~Amelia Earhart
How strange is this combination of proximity and separation. That ground - seconds away - thousands of miles away. ~Charles A. Lindbergh
There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ~Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror. ~Orson Welles
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. ~Gil Stern
Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history. ~James Dickey
O! for a horse with wings! ~William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
The butterfly is a flying flower… ~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun
More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination. ~Wilbur Wright
Beth
The case for social finance in Canada
September 29, 2010 by · View Comments
Tim Draimin introduces us to the world of social finance. Enabling the social finance marketplace is key to tackling Canada’s social and environmental challenges — both through entrepreneurship and a more flexible national policy framework. Tim Draimin is the Executive Director of Social Innovation Generation (SiG) and Chair of CAUSEWAY Social Finance. SiG is a partnership between The JW McConnell Family Foundation, MaRS Discovery District, the University of Waterloo and PLAN Institute.
Boy Survives After One Hour of No Hearbeat
September 28, 2010 by admin · View Comments
There’s always hope, even in the most trying circumstances.
2-year-old Gore Otteson disappeared from the family cabin on the evening of July 6th, while his mother was getting her other children dressed for bed. Immediately, she began to panic and search the grounds of their Gunnison, Colorado cabin. But it was 25 minutes before they found him—lying cold and pale, facedown, in a nearby irrigation ditch.
Gore wasn’t breathing. “He was just pale, like someone — frankly, someone that’s dead. And that’s what he was,” Gore’s grandfather, Dr. Kirk Fry, told The TODAY Show.
“I thought I had lost him,” said his mother, Amy Otteson. “I thought for almost an hour that he was dead.”
Gore’s family members began CPR on his cold body immediately, and called for an ambulance, but his chances seemed dim. His heart had stopped beating.
At the hospital, though, doctors restarted his heart, and then decided to try an experimental treatment in which the body temperature was lowered to 90 degrees, which they hoped would protect him from permanent brain damage.
As the doctors gradually brought Gore back up to normal body temperature, no one was sure what the toddler would be like, and if he would ever be a normal child again. But as soon as the boy opened his eyes, he signed the word “hungry,” using the symbol his parents had taught him.
An MRI exam was even more reassuring: there were absolutely no abnormalities. Several days later, Gore walked out of the hospital, as good as new.
The Ottesons have the experimental treatment to thank for their son’s good fortune. Therapeutic cooling has been shown to increase the odds of adult heart attack patients, but its effects on children were unknown. Fortunately for the Ottesons, science saved the day.
Check out this TODAY Show video about the family’s amazing story.
Source: Gimundo
Beth




