From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 01/05):

Business & management:
• A prominent UK businessman has provoked controversy by suggesting that a law that prohibits interviewers discriminating against women by asking them whether they have or plan to have children, should be removed.
• A series of articles from Fast Company, looks at the nature and importance of teamwork, and how to lead teams.

Education
• A collaboration between a district care trust and the local public library now means that people with various learning disabilities feel more encouraged to use the library’s learning centre, when they may have previously felt libraries weren’t for them.

Environment & sustainability:
• A London tree officer has devised a new method of valuing a tree (other than just for its visual value), so that large trees aren’t felled because of doubtful suspicions about problems like subsidence. (A description of the valuation system can be found in a case study from the Trees in Towns II project.)
• Community gardens are a growing movement worldwide. Good information is available from the American Community Gardening Association, and locally Christchurch City Council has donated money to the Christchurch Community Gardens Association.
• An alternative approach to starting gardens in cities is the one taken by the world’s guerrilla gardeners. (LOGIS has ordered a copy of the author’s book, but in the meantime a US book “Guerrilla gardening: a manualfesto” is already in the LOGIS collection.)
• The Product Stewardship Foundation commissioned a report on “Waste Levies and Product Stewardship”, and results show that there is increasing support amongst NZers to pay more for a product, if it will ensure that they are disposed of correctly at the end of their useful life.
• The Asia-Pacific region is lagging behind In terms of providing access to energy services such as electricity, and must promote the sustainable and efficient use of energy.
• A United Nations Special Rapporteur says the US and the EU are one of the main causes of the current worldwide food crisis.

Health & wellbeing:
• While a third of people suffering depression in the UK say that they’ve been turned down for jobs due to their mental health status, many people also admit that if they discovered they had a serious illness, they wouldn’t tell colleagues or management at work.
• A Victoria University researcher has collaborated in a study that shows that a person’s memory of their decisions about end-of-life medical treatments and the contents of their living wills may not be as strong as they think. A high proportion of people falsely remembered that their original views on the issues matched their new ones.

Law & Government:
• Electronic methods of recording election votes were introduced in the US after the problems with punch-card voting systems in the 2000 elections. However, a number of states are now going back to paper-based ballot systems.
• Much can be learned for local government from “cross-national learning”. Some of the advantages and disadvantages are outlined by Robin Hambleton, Professor of City Leadership in the Faculty of Environment and Technology, University of the West of England, Bristol.

People, culture & diversity:
• A general increase in concerns about terrorism, paedophiles and privacy has meant that some innocent amateur photographers in the UK are being challenged by police and others in authority when they try to take photos out in public.
• Voicing your opinion via the Internet has become such an accepted part of life, that Time has announced its first annual list of their choices for the top 25 blogs.
• The Joint Information Systems Committee and the British Library commissioned research as part of their “Google Generation” project, which has produced a report called “Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future”. It shows that although the young have ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web.
• The Urban Libraries Council in the US have published “Welcome, stranger: public libraries build the global village” (118Mb). The report covers 5 strategies for successful immigrant inclusion and community adaption, and shows how they can be translated into public library outreach and programmes.
• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation was set up in the UK to work towards overcoming poverty, disadvantage and social evil. 100 years after Rowntree named the evils of his day, a survey commissioned by the Foundation has found that Britons’ modern view of social evils has covered some of the old ones, but includes some new ones, such as the decline of the family, immigration and responses to it, crime and violence, and young people as victims or perpetrators.
• A UK think tank says that the London Olympics in 2012 may improve tourism, leisure and infrastructure, but it won’t help to improve the lives of east London’s poorest residents. It says that local businesses will be unable to compete and local people will be priced out of the housing market because of gentrification.
• A “State of the Nation” survey by CIGNA Life Insurance shows that 64 percent of respondents said they thought life in New Zealand is getting harder.

Science, technology & transport:
• Royal Dutch Shell says "We don't understand the oil price at this stage", while announcing a 25% increase in 1st quarter profits.