My thoughts are with the people of Mumbai, India on this tragic and frightening day/night. I have friends in India although they no longer live in Mumbai, the last I heard.

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Which should, of course, also be every day.

Via Theriomorph’s post on this (linked above) I’ve learned of a great project called The Girl Effect, which seeks to promote the education of girls around the world as one way to stop the downward slide of many countries and also to make violence less likely to happen.

(While I love the concept I hate their site, which is all in flash and after sitting through some of the flash presentations I still have no idea what actions they are encouraging those who wish to help to take.)

From Phila’s Friday Hope Blogging, a cheetah conservationist, Dr. Laurie Marker, "has been awarded $50,000 by the Tech Museum of Innovation for her organization’s Bushblok program which uses a high-pressure extrusion process to convert invasive, habitat-destroying bush into a clean-burning fuel log. Bushblok provides an alternative to products such as firewood, coal, lump charcoal and charcoal briquettes that are costly or result in environmental harm".

Marker founded the non-profit Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in 1990 and based its international center in Namibia, the country with the last large remaining wild cheetah population.

Marker says that Namibia is considering using invasive bush as biomass to power electric plants to help energy-dependent Namibia generate its own electricity.

"Clearing invasive bush helps restore millions of acres of Namibian savannah to its original state and improve the habitat for both the cheetah and its prey," CCF explained in a statement.

I wonder if it would provide relief for us humans who can’t breathe wood smoke, as well? Regardless, I hope it catches on.

photo of school girls in India by Ajay Kumar Singh via morguefile.com