Business and management:
•The average weekly rent in Auckland has reached a record high.
•House prices in New Zealand are generally considered to be sky-high these days, and the future first New Zealand woman to go into space is a real estate agent. (The first New Zealand man booked on a space flight is a Christchurch businessman.)
•The Reserve Bank’s Financial Stability Report indicates that New Zealand’s financial system is sound, and has been reasonably resilient in a volatile world market.
•The Green Party expect that the Flexible Working Arrangements Bill could become law by the end of this year.
•The New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 was launched last week, with sustainability as a strong theme.
•The Manufacturers and Exporters Association has released its second Outlook Report “Assets, Tax and Productivity” – their previous Outlook Report “Research and Development” is also still available.
•A nationwide survey shows that over half of business people in NZ support the idea of emissions trading.
Health and wellbeing:
•The “2 nations, 10 cultures” conference of combined Australasian drug & alcohol agencies has been covering the wide-ranging effects of drug & alcohol abuse on society – amongst other discussions have been these: regular cannabis use affects the mental and physical health of teenagers; many young drinkers don’t realise the damage binge-drinking does until it’s too late; moderate drinking may not be so good for your heart; and should alcohol be classified as a high-risk drug, given its impact?
Environment and sustainability:
•A pilot website for what is intended to become the world’s most complete online repository for information on building sustainable cities has been launched by a partnership of UN-HABITAT and the University of British Columbia – the new website will be known as the UBC / UN-HABITAT Archives and will be at www.chs.ubc.ca/archives (At the time of writing, the pilot website was not available.).
•A public seminar in Wellington tomorrow will debate whether electric vehicles can help with New Zealand’s transport problems.
•Zero Emissions Ltd, the company which has the only emissions testing system used in NZ, believes that vehicle emissions may be worse than the government thinks.
Government, local and central:
•A world expert from the UK has been in NZ this month, talking about private public partnerships (PPPs) with local and central government officials. In the UK, 10-15% of finance in public service related infrastructure comes from PPPs or private finance.
People, culture and diversity:
•The Dept of Conservation has released a discussion document on the use of whalebone, from the point at which it is removed from the beach after a whale stranding, to its trade or use within NZ. (International trade in whalebone is covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) and is controlled by a separate permit system.) The proposed new system is intended to simplify the current process.
•An online game designed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2 years ago in Swedish is now available in an English language version on a US website. Called “Against All Odds”, the game is intended to give young people an idea of what it is like to be a refugee. The game was awarded the Austrian Multimedia and E-Business State Prize in the category for "Knowledge and Learning" in 2006.
Science, technology & transport:
• Land Transport NZ has launched a website providing motorists with information on safe, clean and fuel efficient vehicles.
•Google has launched an operating system called “Android” – an open platform for mobile devices, which contains all of the software necessary to make a mobile phone work, and is offering $10M to developers to build applications.
•The Foundation for Research Science and Technology provides investment support to NZ companies – for Wellington company Surveylab, this has meant that the company has been able to develop into a global company marketing a unique point-and-shoot handheld tool, which combines GPS, compass, inclinometer, laser distance meter and digital camera into a GPS based database.
•New Zealand’s ranking for broadband services among OECD countries has risen recently, but InternetNZ feels we can do better. The OECD maintains a dedicated broadband webpage providing statistics on the ranking of countries against a range of broadband criteria.
•The first National Energy Research Institute conference will be held in Auckland this month to discuss most aspects of energy in New Zealand (including transport issues) and the New Zealand Geothermal Workshop will be taking place just before, both hosted at the University of Auckland.
Education:
•The Ministry of Education has launched the new NZ education curriculum, with increased emphasis on learning a second language, statistics (within mathematics), and the recognition of NZ’s 3 official languages – English, Maori & NZ Sign Language.
•The Education (Establishment of Universities of Technology) Amendment Bill has been voted to select committee – the bill provides for a new type of tertiary institution that would aim to improve research and development, and workplace skills in the trade and vocational education sectors.
From the LOGIS desk.
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Friday, 9 November 2007
Some recent LOGIS books
The drag-and-drop, click-to-add features are an aspect of Blogspot I’m enjoying, because I like new techie toys as much as the next Kiwi, but I’m not into the nitty gritty of programming. So a nice feature that I’m going to use on a semi-regular basis, is the Link List option. If you look on the left, you’ll see that there's a new bit to the sidebar showing books on “Urban design”. It's rather taken over the top of the sidebar, since there've been a few bought on this subject in the last few months, and I’m using that term fairly widely to cover urban design, city planning and anything else that seems to fit into the category.
New subjects will appear as future Link Lists, replacing this one - sustainability books are an obvious choice for an upcoming one, but I’m happy to put one together if any of you want to know what LOGIS has in its book collection on a particular topic of your interest. I just can't guarantee how many recent ones there'll be on your topic!
Of course, your suggestion could result in me having to search out some more titles to order, but that’s all to the good – suggestions for new book titles that I may have missed are always welcome.
From the LOGIS Desk.
New subjects will appear as future Link Lists, replacing this one - sustainability books are an obvious choice for an upcoming one, but I’m happy to put one together if any of you want to know what LOGIS has in its book collection on a particular topic of your interest. I just can't guarantee how many recent ones there'll be on your topic!
Of course, your suggestion could result in me having to search out some more titles to order, but that’s all to the good – suggestions for new book titles that I may have missed are always welcome.
From the LOGIS Desk.
Monday, 5 November 2007
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions:
Business & management:
•The 2007 Business Budget Summit held recently to discuss health, the skills shortage and tax reform and provide recommendations to government. Background papers and surveys, speeches and a list of recommendations can be found at the Summit website.
•New Zealand has dropped from 21st to 24th in ranking, on the World Economic Forum’s 2007/08 Global Competitiveness Index.
•Big investors, foundations and advocacy groups are beginning to show their strength in influencing the way companies do business around environmental and ethical issues –the US Securities and Exchange Commission is being asked to require publicly traded companies to provide information about their risk from climate change in their formal reporting statements, and a charitable trust has removed their investment from a large publisher, because of an exhibition for the arms trade.
• A recent US survey has found that 92% of young people want to work for an environmentally friendly companies, or in a job that has a positive impact on the environment.
Health & well-being:
•The Ministry of Health has just released the 2007 edition of An indication of New Zealanders’ health – it’s a snapshot of the health of the nation, and “includes 71 different health and health-related indicators relating to key issues affecting the health status of New Zealanders”.
•The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs has opened a new office intended to utilize space technologies to respond to disasters globally. The office will carry out the aims of the UN Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response UN-SPIDER, and workshops were held recently.
•In the UK, big changes are going on in the way local government there handles its social care functions. A recent Guardian article outlines the way local government is partnering with different parts of the NHS to change their local services.
•At the same time as the NZ Drug Foundation wants NZers to talk more about the issues around cannabis use/misuse, the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NZ Inc included a news item on its website from the UK, indicating that Home Office statistics show that among 16-24 year old users in the UK , marijuana use has dropped since possession became a non-arrestable offense.
•The World Cancer Research Fund’s report on diet, exercise and cancer can be found online as well as continuous updates since publication.
•Downloads of information are available on the Commonwealth Fund’s International Health Policy Survey in Seven Countries (which includes NZ).
•Results of a survey in NZ on ethnic differences in drug and alcohol use will be released at a conference today, but key findings from the last 12 months are already available.
Environment & sustainability:
•The first hybrid-only taxi company Matakabs started business in the Matakana region in July 2007.
•The UK Housing & Planning Minister has announced an ideas competition to develop and set the design standards for 10 new eco-towns. Judging will include a citizen’s panel & ideas resulting from the competition will be drawn together to help inform local authorities and developers.
•The US Conference of Mayors has just met in Seattle for a Climate Protection Summit.
People, culture and diversity:
•The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is warning of the possibility of an increase in sexual violence and trafficking of women, as the rise in prenatal son selection in Asian countries results in the birth of fewer girls.
•Lonely Planet has just released the 2008 annual from its Bluelist website, with several NZ attractions making some of the top ten lists.
Science, technology & transport:
•The wireless and broadband conference Convergence Oceania 2007 will be on in Auckland next week, showcasing leading technologies in the industry.
•Consumer’s latest ISP survey reveals a lot of dissatisfaction with internet and broadband services in NZ.
•The 2007 Business Budget Summit held recently to discuss health, the skills shortage and tax reform and provide recommendations to government. Background papers and surveys, speeches and a list of recommendations can be found at the Summit website.
•New Zealand has dropped from 21st to 24th in ranking, on the World Economic Forum’s 2007/08 Global Competitiveness Index.
•Big investors, foundations and advocacy groups are beginning to show their strength in influencing the way companies do business around environmental and ethical issues –the US Securities and Exchange Commission is being asked to require publicly traded companies to provide information about their risk from climate change in their formal reporting statements, and a charitable trust has removed their investment from a large publisher, because of an exhibition for the arms trade.
• A recent US survey has found that 92% of young people want to work for an environmentally friendly companies, or in a job that has a positive impact on the environment.
Health & well-being:
•The Ministry of Health has just released the 2007 edition of An indication of New Zealanders’ health – it’s a snapshot of the health of the nation, and “includes 71 different health and health-related indicators relating to key issues affecting the health status of New Zealanders”.
•The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs has opened a new office intended to utilize space technologies to respond to disasters globally. The office will carry out the aims of the UN Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response UN-SPIDER, and workshops were held recently.
•In the UK, big changes are going on in the way local government there handles its social care functions. A recent Guardian article outlines the way local government is partnering with different parts of the NHS to change their local services.
•At the same time as the NZ Drug Foundation wants NZers to talk more about the issues around cannabis use/misuse, the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, NZ Inc included a news item on its website from the UK, indicating that Home Office statistics show that among 16-24 year old users in the UK , marijuana use has dropped since possession became a non-arrestable offense.
•The World Cancer Research Fund’s report on diet, exercise and cancer can be found online as well as continuous updates since publication.
•Downloads of information are available on the Commonwealth Fund’s International Health Policy Survey in Seven Countries (which includes NZ).
•Results of a survey in NZ on ethnic differences in drug and alcohol use will be released at a conference today, but key findings from the last 12 months are already available.
Environment & sustainability:
•The first hybrid-only taxi company Matakabs started business in the Matakana region in July 2007.
•The UK Housing & Planning Minister has announced an ideas competition to develop and set the design standards for 10 new eco-towns. Judging will include a citizen’s panel & ideas resulting from the competition will be drawn together to help inform local authorities and developers.
•The US Conference of Mayors has just met in Seattle for a Climate Protection Summit.
People, culture and diversity:
•The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is warning of the possibility of an increase in sexual violence and trafficking of women, as the rise in prenatal son selection in Asian countries results in the birth of fewer girls.
•Lonely Planet has just released the 2008 annual from its Bluelist website, with several NZ attractions making some of the top ten lists.
Science, technology & transport:
•The wireless and broadband conference Convergence Oceania 2007 will be on in Auckland next week, showcasing leading technologies in the industry.
•Consumer’s latest ISP survey reveals a lot of dissatisfaction with internet and broadband services in NZ.
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