From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 22/01):

Business & management:
• To improve the performance of local economies, the UK Improvement and Development Agency is providing local authorities with an economic diagnostic tool “to assist [them] in fulfilling their enhanced role in place-shaping and promoting economic prosperity”.
• A recent UK poll showed “a great number of people reported being discriminated against [because of] mental illness – people being demoted, refused promotion or having job offers withdrawn after having disclosed a mental health problem.”
• The sustainable design director of a US-based international architecture, design and planning firm was interviewed recently about “adaptive reuse”, the practice of taking existing old buildings and making smarter use of them, rather than demolishing and building again.
• Migration of highly skilled workers around the world is on the increase. The “brain drain” may become a “brain gain” for some countries, but the movement of highly skilled workers could be seen in terms of “brain circulation”.
• In spite of equal rights, the gender gap for women in pay, benefits, etc still exists to varying degrees around the world. A recent US research paper shows that women workers in unions earned, on average, 11.2% more than their non-union peers. In addition, women in unions were much more likely to have health insurance benefits and a pension plan.

Education
• For the first time, a study in the UK has tried to establish whether there are links between a neighbourhood's physical decline and pupil behaviour, truancy, teacher morale and a school's ability to deliver exam results.
• A report commissioned by the Independent Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning in the UK, says that older people must be given more chances to learn if they are to contribute to society rather than be a financial burden. The historic concentration of policy attention and resources on young people can’t meet the new needs.

Environment & sustainability:
• Future roads, buildings and infrastructure in NZ’s largest city are likely to be based on volcanic risk models developed from ancient eruptions that occurred on a South Korean island.
• A US website provides a database called “An atlas of bark and wood boring beetles of the world”. (There are NZ entries, but no data on our most widely known native lemon tree borer).
• A US company has designed a generator that uses waste vegetable oil to produce up to 25% of the electrical power a restaurant requires for lights and hot water.
• Studies have shown that buildings with white roofs stay cooler during the summer. The change reduces the way heat accumulates in built-up areas and allows people who live and work inside to switch off power-hungry air conditioning units.
• The UN warns that water supplies for over a billion people around the world are under threat from increasing populations, expanding cities, industrialization, climate change and the rising demand for food.

Health & wellbeing:
• Australian researchers have discovered that binge drinking in the early months of pregnancy can lead to women giving birth prematurely, even if they stop once they realise they are expecting a baby.
• A recent Lancet article describes how emerging infections around the world have been a regular phenomenon in human history. A number of factors occurring together can result in the emergence of a new disease.

Law & Government:
• Carry a plastic bag in Delhi and you could be imprisoned for five years. Officials in India's capital have decided that the only way to stem the rising tide of polythene is to outlaw the plastic shopping bag.
• So many people in the UK want to scatter the ashes of family and friends in beauty spots that the government has been forced to step in with anti-pollution rules.
• “Transition Towns” is about transitioning communities into a post-carbon future. It is about rallying local networks to explore how their town, village, or city will tackle the twin threats of climate change and peak oil.
• Utah is closed for business on Fridays. The state is in the middle of an ambitious one-year trial of a 4-day / 10-hour alternative schedule that cities and states across the US are starting to adopt.
• Who has the right to censor is a question being asked increasingly about the Internet and service providers or large Internet companies like Google. Even though the Web seems to offer free speech, Google controls 2/3 of the world’s Internet searches and has huge influence over who has an audience on the Web.
• An IT adviser at KPMG in the US says of state and local government there, “governments can either play an active role in transforming themselves” with wikis and other new web tools, or “wait and let change hit them”.
• The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management is calling for comment on their draft “Building safety evaluation guidelines”. (Lower right side of web page.)

People, culture & diversity:
• An annual UK trend survey by Childwise shows that UK children are spending increasing amounts of their lives in front of televisions, computers and games consoles, cramming in nearly six hours of screen time a day.
• Action for Children, UK, is launching a campaign to promote awareness about the problems that pre-teen children face. A survey by the group shows that the lives of some of Britain's children are being blighted by problems of loneliness and low self-esteem during the vulnerable years between 6 and 13.
• A British report shows that mixed-race relationships are now so common in the UK that some ethnic groups - starting with African-Caribbean - will virtually disappear.
• An article from Futurist talks about global trends in culture, infrastructure and values. US culture has had less influence than previously thought and factors like the spread of new ideas, electrification, mobility, ethical consumption, women's rights, social freedom, and transparency will be important. (Note: Futurist is available in full text via the Libraries Digital Library through a number of databases.)

Science, technology & transport:
• A recent letter to Scientific American, asked the question: Is it better to drive an older, well-maintained car that gets about 25 miles per gallon or to buy a new car that gets about 35 miles per gallon?
• A graph that extracts some figures from International Road Federation statistics on Economist.com shows NZ as the 3rd in car ownership per 1000 of population. Australia is 8th, and the US is 16th.
• Google Transit allows users to see public transport routes in some cities internationally (or the national network for Japan or Austria). The type of information varies depending on the city –some cities show the entire network, others show only stops. Perth and Adelaide are available for Australia.
• An international team of researchers has found another form of light pollution that could have an adverse effect on wildlife. Polarised light pollution triggers potentially dangerous changes in many species' behaviour.
• 61% of people interviewed about the complexity of mobile phones in the UK and US, said setting up a new handset is as challenging as moving bank accounts.
• Do-it-yourself broadband schemes are springing up around the UK as communities refuse to wait for big firms to roll out faster networks. Many of the schemes are being planned in partnership with either the local council or the relevant Regional Development Agency.
• Increasing mass transit systems in cities is necessary when moving large numbers of people within cities. There is also a need to look at transportation issues within the outlying areas of the suburban sprawl. Telecommuting helps but providing walkable mixed-use communities and “retrofitting” these suburbs and the houses within them can be more effective.