From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 10/04):

Business & management:
• The US and Australia don’t have paid statutory maternity leave. A few US companies are talking a lateral approach to the issues surrounding maternity leave, by allowing parents (mostly women) to bring their baby to work. Some UK journalists describe their experience of bringing Baby into the office for the day.
• Rankers is a ranking and review website that takes the results of interviews with travellers in NZ about their experiences, and makes the rankings available to travellers globally via the website. Rankings are in the categories of “Activities”, “Tours”, “Transport” and “Regions” – under Auckland, the Maritime Museum has an 88% ranking, the Zoo has 85%, and the Museum has 82%.
• Kiwihost is telling people working in customer services not to be so fast to ask customers the “Can I help you?” question. What was once a golden rule of good customer service has become something most people find irritating.

Environment & sustainability:
• The NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development has surveyed NZers on their preferred source of energy – wind and solar power are most preferred, coal, gas and nuclear power are least preferred.
• The NZ Freedom Camping Forum convened by the Tourism Industry Association of NZ is developing a responsible freedom camping code that will help visitors to NZ to respect the environment and camp responsibly.
• A report to be released on 15th April from the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), says that modern agricultural practices may be highly productive, but have also done a lot of damage. The group recommends more emphasis on ‘agro-ecological’ practices.

Health & wellbeing:
• As part of the Children’s Plan in the UK, (the government’s strategy on children’s play), local councils could be required to achieve targets for improving children’s play facilities and families will be surveyed for their opinions as a measure of achieving the target.
• This year’s session of the UN Commission on Population and Development has started with officials stressing that although the number of people living in cities this year outranks those living in rural areas for the first time, it is important to understand how successful cities have dealt with pollution, slums and other ills.
• German scientists are warning about studies show that airborne mould spores from organic waste could lead to allergic reactions, asthma attacks, hayfever-like symptoms and itchy skin lesions.
• The ALAC Partnerships Conference in Nelson this week (Local government – Planning for alcohol in the community) has been told that an Australian study has found increased domestic violence linked to new liquor licences.
• The US Federal Communications Commission is to establish a nationwide cell phone alert system that can be used to send text messages in an area where a crisis or an emergency has occurred.

Law & Government:
• Thefts of copper power transmission lines in the Waikato, and aluminium covers in Manukau pumping facilities are local examples of the rise in crime related to scrap metals. In cities in the US, metal theft is often the result of high scrap metal prices combining with a need by local drug addicts to make money, and million dollar sculptures have been stolen simply for their (much) lower scrap value. The US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries now provides advice to recyclers, also suffering from the thefts.
• In the UK, councils will now have more powers to hold their members to account for their conduct and local standards committees will have the responsibility for initially assessing all allegations of misconduct by councillors.
• The first all-of-government survey asking NZers how they feel about public services has been released. Local government has a service group satisfaction level of 73%, with the environment and recreation service group taking the top satisfaction level with 79%.
• Over the next fortnight, the UN Human Rights Council will survey 16 member nations by examining their human rights records and gathering information from a variety of sources. The new mechanism will eventually survey all member nations once every four years.

People, culture & diversity:
• In the NZ Herald this week, was the report by the Asia NZ Foundation: “Diverse Auckland: The Face of New Zealand in the 21st Century”. The report is the latest from the Foundation’s Outlook series.
• British grandmothers think their daughters are being put under huge pressure to rigidly control everything in their own babies' lives.
• Parents are more likely to use the Internet for information and entertainment more often than adults with no children.

Science, technology & transport:
• What can the world of ancient Rome tell modern analysts about protecting infrastructure? A US infrastructure protection strategist draws comparisons between the ancient Roman aqueducts and modern infrastructure security. And what lessons can be learned from a Bronze-Age fort about developing Internet security in the Digital Age?
• Microsoft has sponsored research on human-computer interactions, predicting that computers will be able to anticipate what we want from them. A report has been published: “Beyond human: human-computer interaction in the year 2020”.
• The Internet has had a profound effect on the profession of journalism and broadcast media, to the extent that one journalist has predicted that there will be no need for foreign correspondents within 5 years time.