From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 26/11):

Business & management:
• The third annual snapshot report of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015 has been released.
• From GreenBiz.com – 5 reasons why a company should consider generating its own green energy on site.
• One Japanese company’s approach to reducing carbon emissions is to put staff in an outdoor office on the rooftop for about a third of the work year.

Education
• Educators need to master the techniques of teaching via online in virtual worlds, as today’s online learners combine online and on-the-ground learning, even across time zones.

Environment & sustainability:
• The World Meteorological Organisation’s latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin indicates that climate-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase.
• A 7-year $5 million dollar research project is to improve the understanding of the vulnerability of the Auckland region to volcanic eruptions, by looking into physical models of how the Auckland area volcanoes work, risk and hazards from the volcanoes, and the social and economic impacts of these.
• A Spanish city is generating renewable energy by using a local cemetery to set up solar panels.
• A poll in 11 countries showed that about half of the respondents wanted governments to play a major role in curbing emissions.
• The LEED green building standards used in the US have resulted in millions of dollars saved for all concerned, but a report on the impact of green building shows that green building needs to become more universal for a real impact to show.

Health & wellbeing:
• Australia’s population is at increasing risk from dengue fever and malaria in the future, as global warming increases the spread of malaria and dengue in maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
• Sport and Recreation NZ’s report 2007/2008 Active New Zealand has been released, and shows that half the adult population are meeting the minimum recommended physical activity guidelines.

Law & Government:
• An International Standards Organisation Technical Committee meets in Wellington this week to discuss standards around preservation of digital records.
• A Russian academic and political analyst says the current financial crisis in the United States is confirming his long-held view that the country is headed for collapse and will break up into smaller pieces.
• The US National Intelligence Council is also predicting that the US will become less dominant on the world stage, in its report Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World
• A US New Jersey town is only the 2nd town to adopt a “precautionary principle” ordinance to guide its municipal policy. This means that the town “will strive to make decisions based on the least environmentally harmful alternatives in order to provide every resident with an equal right to a healthy and safe environment”.

People, culture & diversity:
• Children from a Wellington primary school have shared their beliefs with the Government and United Nations on what they think is important for young people.
• A 3-year research project (Digital Youth Research) has finished and the resulting report shows” that the stereotypical idea of the Internet as a soul-devouring, anti-social wasteland for our kids is just plain wrong”. The study’s implications for education are also considered to be significant.
• A new European Union website called Europeana, intended to be Europe's digital library, museum and archive of 3.5 million digital treasures, has been overwhelmed by users and crashed less than a day after launching, due to 10 million hits an hour.

Science, technology & transport:
• California’s Bay Area leaders are hoping to have the first electric vehicle capital of the US. The politicians have chosen Better Place to help them build a $1 billion electric vehicle infrastructure, with planning to start in 2009. At the same time, the State of Oregon is in negotiations with Nissan about developing electric cars and a car charging network there, and Portugal has announced a partnership with the Renault Nissan Alliance to deliver “zero emission mobility” from 2010.
• A report on broadcasting and changes in technology and the media shows that just over half of NZ households are receiving digital television services and that the young are spending less time watching TV and more time on the Internet than they were the last time the survey was done, just 3 years ago.
• The Pentagon has banned the use of external computer flash drives because of a virus threat officials detected.
• British researchers believe that UK transport’s contribution to climate change could be reduced by a quarter by 2020.
• A recent study of companies around the world using open source software (OSS), shows that 85% of the companies are using OSS and the rest expect to be using it within a year. The top 3 reasons for using OSS were: lower total cost of ownership, reduction in development of cost-prohibitive factors, and the ease to embark on new IT projects or software initiatives.
• Although NZ has a high penetration of Internet use and ranks high in educational use, NZ has one of the lowest penetration rates of broadband at home at 65 percent, according to the latest data from the World Internet Project.
• For those people with a Google account, access to the new SearchWiki tool will mean that they can tailor and personalise their Google searching.
• Greenpeace has released its latest Guide to Greener Electronics, a report that ranks 18 of the top electronics manufacturers in how they're addressing a range of environmental issues.