By INQUIRER.net

THE CONFERENCE of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) recently elected Dr. William D. Dar as the new chair of its Committee for Science and Technology (CST). He was nominated as a distinguished Filipino by the cluster of Asian states on behalf of the region at the 8th COP session in Madrid.

A TOYM awardee for agriculture, Dr. Dar was Secretary of Agriculture and Presidential Adviser on Rural Development in the Estrada government, the first alumnus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) to assume the position.

After the Estrada government, he became the first Filipino and Asian Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Andhra Pradesh, India — a global institute serving Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK–Internet search giant Google on Thursday offered $30 million in prize money for companies to land a robot camera to roam on the moon and send back high-resolution snaps and data.

Google launched Google Moon, a page on its site with images mapping out stretches of the orb’s pock-marked surface. They are compiled from photographs taken by previous moon missions including the historic first landing by the Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong and crew in 1969.

The site is aimed at encouraging companies interested in the challenge, giving them visuals of the moon “so the teams can scout locations” for a robot camera, Google joked in a blog announcing the competition, launched jointly with the X Prize Foundation which promotes technological innovation.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

ENVIRONMENTAL group Greenpeace recently announced the start of a photo contest that aims to encourage people to protect the environment.

The contest, called “Celebrating Philippine Freshwaters and Looking at the Threats,” is open to amateur and professional photographers and photography enthusiasts, who are Filipino-born or are legal residents of the Philippines.

Greenpeace is looking for dramatic photographs whose subjects depict the protection of freshwater resources, particularly rivers, streams, lakes, springs, and groundwater reservoirs, among others.

Photos can depict the effects of pollution and drought on these freshwater sources in the Philippines.

The deadline for submission of entries is September 28, 2007.

About 20 finalists will be chosen. Prizes range from P10, 000 pesos for the third prize winner, P20, 000 pesos for the second placer and P30, 000 pesos for the top prize.

More details about the contest as well as the entry forms are available at the Greenpeace site.

CHECK out this cool clip from National Geographic.

HERE’S an interesting video of astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman sharing his photos from space, courtesy of New Scientist’s YouTube channel.