I've been away in Seattle for a few days so haven't had any time to blog. That means I do have quite a backlog of news items to post though, so here's a bit of a cleaning job of some stories you may have missed.

*The Bioneers conference is going on this weekend and there's a story about it at Alternet. I went last year and had mixed feelings about it, mainly because there were so many great speakers that a lot of that got lost in my mind with stuff like panels on psychedelics, shamanism, and a flavor of indeginous revolution. You're not going to reach Middle America with that.

*The UK's International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, speaks on the progress of funds for Africa, immunisation finances, and the UK's Millennium Development goals.

*Philipino business leaders get awards.

*Nobel for Yunus Is Not a Defeat for Adam Smith ...

*A story on Bill Strickland at Men's Daily News ...

*camila Batmanghelidjh wins the UK's Women of the Year 2006 award.

*What it takes to be a H.E.R.O, from BusinessWeek.