Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened its doors on February 26, 2008 to the world. This ‘Doomsday Vault’ is part of an effort to protect the planet’s diminishing biodiversity. The facility was dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain on Spitsbergen, one of 3 Arpichelago Islands in Norway. Any seeds stored here will be secure for centuries, or longer. As well as protecting against the loss of multicultural diversity, the vault is going to provide the salvation for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster. Contingencies for climate change have been worked into the plan. Even in the worst-case scenarios of global warming, the vault rooms will remain naturally frozen for up to 200 years. Find out more about signs of 2012 doomsday preparations at PlanetXing.com

One of the world’s largest home appliances manufacturers , Bosch, along with the Siemens Group, have proposed to invest nearly Rs 500 crore to set up a manufacturing facility near Chennai. This factory will be a formidable addition to the list of appliance brands that have chosen the city to set up large manufacturing units.Samsung has invested over $100 million in their factory in Sriperumbudur .

Panasonic too has a factory in Sholavaram and Chennai is also home to original equipment manufacturers such as Foxconn and Flextronics. Bosch, through its subsidiary BSH Household Appliances Manufacturing, will invest Rs 479.27 crore to set up a manufacturing facility at Sipcot Industrial Park in Pillaipakkam , near Sriperumbudur.

The company has requested the state government to allot 42 acres to set up the facility to manufacture home appliances like air-conditioners , refrigerators and washing machines . Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at a function here on Friday presented the letter of allotment of land to the company’s zonal manager VK Viswanathan . With the setting up of the facility, the company would provide employment to around 2,000 persons.

The world’s best fests
Somewhere, right now, chances are there’s a music festival going on. Even though you can download all the tunes you want, there’s no comparison to hearing a live performance surrounded by a few thousand friendly strangers.

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More big snowstorms on the way as world’s climate warms
Massive snowstorms like those that hit the US and Europe last winter are likely to become more frequent, says the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), thanks to global warming. read more

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Vulkano – World’s First Universal and Affordable Video Platform for Smartphones, PC/Macs, iPads and TVs
Monsoon Multimedia, a leading provider of video convergence products, today announced it is now taking pre-orders for Vulkano, which is shipping in early August 2010. Vulkano is a sleek consumer device as easy to set up as a video game console.

Read more on PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance

It is being called the world’s cheapest new car. Priced at just $2500 – the makers of India’s Tata Nano says it aims to meet the needs of the country’s growing middle class. But critics say the Nano will lead only to more congestion on India’s roads, and increase air and noise pollution. Matt McClure has more from New Delhi.

Technology Vision Group LLC (TVG) announced at the 17th Annual biopartnering Europe (BPE) conference in London, the launch of a new worldwide network of biopartnering conferences that will span the globe. BPE, Europe`s longest running life science networking event was a great success with 525 companies attending from over 31 countries. The global nature of BPE has been reflected in an extensive living network of worldwide conferences spanning six countries with established events in the UK, Canada and the United States, and new conferences in China, India and Latin America. Once again, BPE was a great success with over 946 delegates attending the London conference, scheduling well over 4100 meetings via TVG`s unique biopartering.com software. Highlights of the conference included five leadership sessions covering topics such as leveraging unpartnered assets and planning for the economic resurgence. Presentations were also given by nine of the top global pharmaceutical companies, giving insight into future strategy and partnering insights. The ever popular Bioforecaster – Fall 2009 session provided a review of the sector over the last year and the panel`s predictions for the coming year. Attendance to next year`s session is a must to see whether the panel`s predictions were right! Robert Lee Kilpatrick, Partner at TVG commented, “This year`s BPE was a fantastic success and we are proud to be here to help so many biotechnology companies grow. TVG is moving in new directions and as we go global we do so together with our partners, sponsors and delegates. Through our new worldwide strategy, TVG will now give even more access to global innovation, global talent, global markets and global opportunities. I very much look forward to 2010 and growing the exciting global partnering network that we have created.” A special one-day event, biopartnering China also took place straight after the BPE conference and sought to give delegates more of a grasp of this exciting market. Sessions were on topics such as doing business in China, R&D in China and how best to find a partner for China. BPE`s continuing success is mirrored by the ever growing TVG conferences; biopartnering North America in Vancouver, Canada (24-26 January, 2010) and C21 (25-27 May, 2010), the Californian based private equity conference. This year BPN takes place before the 2010 Winter Olympics which is taking place in Vancouver, BC. More information can be found at www.techvision.com/bpn. Commenting on BPN, Soren Harbel from lifesciences British Columbia said, “Vancouver is a great city to partner in and sits well in terms of the Pacific West coast. We have seen some terrific results over the years.” C21 gives private companies the opportunity to network with some of the most significant private capital companies in the world, all in the beautiful setting of the Napa Valley. Paul Grayson, President & CEO from Fate Therapeutics said of C21, “C21 is an incredible and powerful opportunity for private companies to get together with Venture Capital. Capital is the `C` in C21!” Starting in 2010, TVG is involved with three more exciting global conferences. biopartnering India (BPI) in Bangalore (2-4 June, 2010), biopartnering Latin America (BLA) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (September, 2010), and biopartnering China (BPC) taking place in Shanghai (November, 2010). At BPE,Jagdish Patankar, Managing Director from MM Activ, talked of how the Indian market was becoming increasingly significant globally. He outlined his vision for Bangalore Bio saying, “It is an honour to be part of this fantastic global biopartnering network.” Eduardo Emrich Soares, Director – Presidente / President & CEO, Biominas, presented his hopes for BLA in Brazil, saying, “Latin America is a new player in biotechnology and life sciences, but the industry is growing very fast and there are plenty of opportunities here.” TVG`s plan for BPC is to ensure that it is the “Bio-Olympics of Shanghai.”Darren Ji, CEO from pharmalegacy in China, who was also at BPE, added, “It is a really exciting time to talk about China; over the next ten years the Shanghai region is going to be the biggest biocluster in the world. It is risky going to China, but it is riskier not to! Attending BPC will ensure that you have all the information and networking opportunities to make your move into China a success.” For more information on all of TVG`s global conferences and how to get involved, please visit: www.techvision.com.

Magazine: World’s Largest Spider roams the grounds at Critchlow in Dumfries
The Crichton Development Co., responsible for the estate and buildings management at the Crichton in Dumfries, have taken delivery of a Ransomes Spider slope mower from local Ransomes Jacobsen dealer, Rickerby Ltd of Carlisle. Ransomes Jacobsen is a Textron Inc (NYSE:TXT) company.

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Where would the world’s best finance brains invest $1bn
Business editor, BBC News website, in Davos Stockmarkets are wobbly again. Global economic prospects are uncertain. So where would big money managers invest?Davos – where the world’s rich and …

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