From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 15/09):

Business & management:
• A crash in commodity prices has seen the global market for recycled paper, cardboard, plastic, metals and glass all but disappear.
• There are ways to maintain levels of training within companies, in spite of the need to look for ways to cut costs during a recession.
• Hundreds of the largest private and state-owned companies and institutional investors in Denmark must include corporate social responsibility information in their annual financial reports beginning in 2010.
• The North American Green Purchasing Initiative provides a fact sheet intended to help institutions easily adopt a greener purchasing program for printers, copiers and fax machines that accounts for social and environmental concerns.
• A research firm specialising in the worldwide carbon market says the value of the worldwide carbon market soared 84 percent in 2008 to reach $118 billion, and could reach $150 billion this year.

Education
• It is hoped that the UK government’s funding for an anti-bullying campaign in schools will change attitudes to all forms of bullying, including sexual bullying. A documentary shown in the UK last week and recent surveys about sexual bullying show that it exists even in primary schools, that women teachers are also victims, and that teenage boys think it is acceptable to pressure girls into sex and to use alcohol to get them into bed.
• MIT University is changing the way it teaches 1st year physics. Moving away from lecturing 300 students at once in a vast lecture room, the university now teaches the introductory course with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning. Attendance and pass rates improve dramatically using this approach.

Environment & sustainability:
• The International Energy Agency is being accused of consistently underestimating the potential of wind, solar and sea power while promoting oil, coal and nuclear as 'irreplaceable' technologies.
• A recent study by an American research firm suggested that IT now causes two percent of global emissions, and Google is disputing the level of CO2 produced by a typical Google search.
• The 2nd World Future Energy Conference this month in Abu Dhabi, will be the world’s largest conference and exhibition on renewable and future energy solutions, innovations, investments, policy and vision. (Abu Dhabi is the site of the Masdar Initiative zero carbon, zero waste, car-free city, due to have its first residents this year.)
• A new model projecting future sea level rises, suggests that the rise by 2100 could be 3 times higher than that predicted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• Scientists warn that half of the world's population could face severe food shortages by the end of the century as rising temperatures take their toll on farmers' crops.
• The campaign against litter in Britain is made a lot harder due to litter from the customers of the fast food industry. In England, McDonald's, Greggs, KFC and Subway are named as the most littered brands.
• A UK study (7Mb) that looked into microgeneration in both urban and rural areas, warns against customers being “poorly advised” about setting up wind turbines in urban areas that don’t get adequate wind, but those set up in the right places are a good investment.
• Energy companies in the US already rent the space on commercial roof tops for solar panels, but they are now moving into renting space on residential rooftops. Consumers for the utility companies may not be happy, as everyone is charged extra to raise the investment capital to put the panels on only some roofs.
A recent US study suggests that global yields of most biofuels crops, e.g. corn, rapeseed and wheat, have been overestimated by 100% to 150% or more, suggesting many countries need to have more realistic expectations of agricultural biofuels.

Health & wellbeing:
• A 40-year UK study of 3,500 adults whose behaviour had been rated by their teachers when they were aged 13 and 15, has shown that “tearaway” teenagers identified by teachers as misbehaving at school are more likely to go on to experience difficulties in their adult lives, including depression and divorce.

Law & Government:
• Internet NZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) is calling on the government to urgently resolve problems with Section 92A of the Copyright Act, since it seems that the act now allows an individual’s or business’s connection to the Internet to ultimately be disconnected “on the basis of allegations of copyright infringement, potentially by-passing court involvement.” (There has been discussion amongst librarians as to whether this could also result in problems for libraries, if customers breach copyright while using computers within a library.)
• American teenagers are increasingly facing prosecution as sex offenders as a result of the rapidly spreading practice of sending explicit photos of themselves by mobile phone — a trend known as "sexting".
• New, more stringent pesticide regulations have been voted in by the EU, raising concerns in the UK about future harvests of winter vegetables.
• New rules expected to be agreed across the EU this year, will phase out energy-guzzling flat-screen televisions, and introduce a compulsory labelling system to identify the best and worst devices.
• Nearly a quarter of local authorities in England have frozen recruitment and more than one in eight have axed jobs in response to a decline in income caused by the credit crunch.

People, culture & diversity:
• An Australian commentator talks about what an apartment building would need to be like, if urban developers and planners are to hope to persuade people to leave behind the Great Australian Dream (the big house with a big back yard) and move to a high-rise apartment block within walking distance of a new mass transit scheme.

Science, technology & transport:
• Netbook sales jumped in 2008, as frustration with access to the Internet via a smart phone’s small screen, persuades people to move to something bigger than a phone, but still smaller than a laptop.
• Electric bicycles such as the latest model from a well-known US bicycle company are unlikely to be imported into Australasia, as the Australian distributer is loathe to import a bicycle that would be classified as a motorcycle under Australian law.
• The US National Security Agency has helped put together a list of the world's most dangerous coding mistakes. The 25 entry list contains computer programming errors that can lead to security holes or vulnerable areas that can be targeted by cyber criminals.