From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 30/10):

Business & management:
• An interview with a team collaboration expert shows that the “command and control“ style of team or team leadership is not the only way to run effective teams, whether virtual or not. “Bioteaming” is a way to learn from nature's teams in terms of our organizational teams and our networks.
• There are concerns in the UK about future agricultural production, as heavy machinery, drier summers and changing growing seasons are all taking their toll on the soil.
• BSI British Standards will be managing the UK’s new standard (PAS 2050), that allows UK firms to measure the size of their goods' carbon footprints.
• “E-billing” is a green practice that customers generally prefer, and can save money for companies while improving their sustainability and environmental practices. A US survey shows that 85 percent of identity theft cases (one concern about online security) are from paper transactions like lost checkbooks and statements.
• KPMG has found that nearly three-quarters of the top 100 U.S. companies by revenue reported sustainability data this year, twice as many as three years ago.

Education
• Sex education will be compulsory in all UK schools in the future (including religious schools), starting with teaching about body parts and the fact that animals reproduce at the age of 5, puberty and intercourse at 7, and contraception and abortion from the age of 11. Effective drug and alcohol education in schools is also under review.
• Research has discovered that distance learning courses consume nearly 90% less energy and produced 85% fewer CO2 emissions than conventional campus university courses.
• Academics and educators are asking about the way students use the Internet for research. Is the vast amount of information at students' fingertips changing the way they gather and process information for the better--or for worse?
• As part of a debate over degree standards, 77% of UK academics surveyed recently say pressure on them to give better marks had increased, and 78% believed that student plagiarism was an increasing problem in their institution.
• Officials in Australia report a 66% drop in applications for naturalisation to the country, within 3 months of the introduction of basic English exam to the application process. The head of the evaluation team for the test said the level of English requires was higher than basic, and the structure of the test was flawed.

Environment & sustainability:
• Talk of greenhouse gases makes most people think of the need to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. What is not so well known, is the role that nitrogen trifluoride plays as a greenhouse gas, and the fact that its presence in the atmosphere is sharply rising.
• Companies in Australia have partnered with Better Place to have a subscription-based scheme for users to recharge their electric vehicles. Over 200 000 charging stations will be built in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
• The U.S. Department of the Interior has decided to offer up leases for geothermal development on 190 million acres of Federal land, estimating that up to 5,540 megawatts of power could be generated from these lands by the middle of the next decade.
• The Water Footprint Network is a new global organisation formed to foster sustainable water management and help individuals and producers accurately measure use by developing standards and tools.
• Aggressively replacing the world's incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) could reduce lighting energy demand by nearly 40 percent and cut greenhouse gas emissions from day one

Law & Government:
• Amongst a number of reports released in the UK about the impacts of childhood poverty, is one that outlines the extra cost to public services of child poverty
• A UK financial journalist points out to a local council, the value of using plain English in its communication with its local community.
• Virtual worlds are sparking off their own crimes – a woman is in jail in Japan awaiting charges for data crimes after she illegally accessed login details of the man playing her husband, and killed off his character because he divorced her in the online game without warning.
• On Nov 12th, there is a Brookers Environmental Law Seminar at the Auckland District Law Society. Information about other Brookers events (they are the providers of our law databases on Citynet) is available.
• Argentina’s government is the first in the world to require that companies involved in potentially hazardous activities purchase insurance covering environmental damage to the country.
• A review of New Zealand's electoral administration is underway and is now seeking the views of the public.
• A US federal judge has ruled that homeless voters can use park benches and other places that aren't buildings as addresses on their voter registration.

People, culture & diversity:
• A survey of 10-15 year-olds in the UK has discovered that half of those surveyed said that their futures are now a major concern compared with just 30% in last year’s survey, while a third admitted to having been drunk, and drugs and bullying impact on many.

Science, technology & transport:
• Attitudes to using public transport in some US cities seem to be very different to the general attitude in NZ. In some states, people are allowed by law to carry concealed weapons, and the opinion has been expressed in Minnesota, that the new Minneapolis light rail system might not work that well because “Minnesotans' are not comfortable riding in closed vehicles with people they do not know.”
• People who have mobile phones with a good enough data transmission plan in their contract can now use video streaming technology to broadcast out on the Internet whatever they are doing – and one company is about to make it possible for people to stream their live video from their phone straight to their Facebook profile.
• Australia has already trialled an Internet content filtering system it plans to introduce, that will be mandatory for all users. Online libertarians are concerned about how the filtering could be expanded to cover controversial topics, and there’s concern that some users may believe that the opt out options provide for no content filtering, which will not be the case.
• All of which get interesting now that Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have signed a global code of conduct (known as the Global Network Initiative) promising to offer better protection for online free speech and against official intrusion in countries censoring the Internet.
• Microsoft has launched Windows 7 and its new Azure platform, described as "Windows for the cloud".
• The UK is investing in algae-based biofuels in the hope that the country can reduce automotive and aviation emissions by 2030, and cut overall emissions by 80% by 2050.
• From next month, Nissan is running a trial in Japan test an intelligent transportation system that has the primary focus of safety and improved traffic flow. The big side benefit of such systems is reduce fuel consumption and pollution.
• Cost rather than environmental factors are more important to drivers in the UK when they are purchasing more energy-efficient cars. 75% of motorists there would only purchase a low-emission car if it saved them money.