News Release
Contact: Barbara Haumann (413-774-7511, Ext. 20)

GREENFIELD, Mass. (April 2, 2008)-The Organic Trade Association's (OTA's) 2008 Annual Fund campaign surpassed its goal of $600,000, raising more than $630,000 to help fund OTA's public policy, marketing and public relations efforts planned for 2008. The theme for this year's fund campaign was "Today. Tomorrow, Together, Organic," reflecting OTA's vision to bring organic to the next level of growth and sustainability by industry members working together on issues and goals.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cosmic rays are so dangerous and so poorly understood that people are unlikely to get to Mars or even back to the moon until better ways are found to protect astronauts, experts said on Monday.

And NASA is not properly funding the right experiments to find out how, the National Research Council committee said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Climate change drove woolly mammoths to the edge of extinction and then humans finished them off, according to a Spanish study on Tuesday that adds to the debate over the demise of the Ice Age behemoths.

Using climate models and fossil remains, the researchers determined that warming temperatures had so shrunk the mammoths' habitat that when humans entered their territory about 6,000 years ago the species were already hanging by a thread.

Computers are becoming cheaper and easier to manufacture by the minute. Intel's new Atom processor is bound to create a whole new set of net-enabled devices at extremely low cost. While the processor is not out yet and prices are not set in stone, rumors price new "net-top" computers below $200.

Cheaper computers make electronic recycling all the more relevant. Computers and gadgets are being replaced more frequently as electronics become obsolete in a matter of months.

The Zero X Motorcycle was designed from the ground up to be a 100% electric bike. What makes this new bike truly different is that it contains 168 individual high-power lithium ion cells and is expected to endure six years of hard riding. Zero Motorcycle’s power grid technology has the highest power density (power storage per weight) battery pack on the market, delivering the full current of the battery pack immediately, safely and without overheating. Riders get the enjoyment of up to 2 hours of quality riding without seeing any impact on performance.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lead researcher for a study of Schering-Plough Corp and Merck & Co's controversial cholesterol drug Vytorin had expressed strong concern over the companies' decision to delay the findings, according to e-mails released on Monday.

In a note to Schering executive John Strony last July, John Kastelein said he was troubled that the drugmakers delayed publication of the results, which found that their jointly sold drug Vytorin failed to reverse heart disease any better than cheaper statin drugs.