From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 30/04):

Business & management:
• A top UN official has warned that the resilience of the Asia-Pacific region in the global recession will be chipped away unless several key issues are addressed.
• A Swiss employee is accusing her company of spying on her while she was ill, because the company has sacked her for destroying their trust by using Facebook while home on sick leave.
• The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has released a report on energy efficiency in buildings. The report shows that under current financial and policy conditions, building decisionmakers around the world will not spend sufficiently on energy efficiency, and the report provides a roadmap on achieving a worldwide average of a 55 percent reduction in building energy use by 2050.

Education
• If you’re not sure about how well your Powerpoint presentations are working you could view an amusing online slideshow: “Presenting with Visuals”.

Environment & sustainability:
• The fifth biennial survey of Public Perceptions of New Zealand’s Environment released this month, shows that NZers believe water pollution and water related issues are the most important environmental issues facing NZ.
• Scientists writing in Nature, say that politicians should focus on limiting humanity's total output of CO2 rather than setting a "safe" level for annual emissions, and that three-quarters of the world's fossil fuel reserves must be left unused if society is to avoid dangerous climate change.

Health & wellbeing:
• A study funded by the US National Dairy Council, compares bone properties (in rats) between calcium from supplements and milk, and shows that milk or dairy products produce greater bone growth and strength than calcium supplements.
• NZ scientists are monitoring influenza virus resistance to Tamiflu, as there is a possibility that as the swine influenza spreads among people already exposed to Tamiflu-resistant strains of influenza, the swine flu may evolve resistance to the drug.
• Microsoft has launched a trial product designed to keep family and friends in touch when other communications fail or falter in a crisis.
• A California study has found that childhood asthma rates can increase as much as 30% with exposure to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution.

Law & Government:
• It has been reported that the US Dept of Justice is investigating Google, due to accusations of anti-competitive behaviour. The accusations concern a $125million deal between Google and author groups that would give Google exclusive digital rights to some books.
• UK communication firms will be asked to track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to social network sites, as part of modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics.
• The European Parliament is voting on a set of new regulations next week, that may free European Internet providers to decide which content, services and applications European users can access and use. The new regulations will force users to choose among pre-packaged options of accessibility.
• Leeds and Greater Manchester are being proposed as pilot citiy-regions that may get central government functions devolved to them, so that they have more powers in a similar way to the mayor of London and his administration.
• Vancouver City has released a list of tangible actions and policies to guide the city to becoming the world’s greenest in a report: “Greenest City Quick Start Recommendations”.

Science, technology & transport:
• The UK Energy Research Centre has released a report that reviews over 500 other international reports and papers on policies to reduce CO2 emissions, and shows that policies can have a large impact in the reduction in car use and therefore, emissions.
• Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego and Microsoft Research have created a plug-and-play hardware prototype for personal computers that induces a new energy saving state known as “sleep talking.”
• General Electric has unveiled a new optical disc that can store 500 gigabytes of data, equivalent to 100 DVDs.
• A British survey has found that people are still confused about technology jargon. The survey company says that companies should use language people understand, rather than resorting to jargon. Among the most confusing terms, are “phone jack” and “desktop”.
• Companies with heavy investment in the Internet may believe that its future is with mobile phones, but others say that the mobile web is far from realising its potential.
• British designers have built a racing car that runs on a mixture of chocolate and vegetable oil, and has components made of soy or potato.
• Norway has had a law proposed that would ban vehicles that run solely on fuel after 2015. Hybrid vehicles would still be legal after that date.