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.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Thursday, 20 November 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 20/11):
Business & management:
• The NZ Tourism Strategy 2015 has been awarded ‘Overall Winner’ in the prestigious Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2008, competing alongside 1,900 international nominees.
• The credit crunch in the UK is causing major problems for residents who have bought homes in a partially completed private development suburb in affluent Cambridge. The "contemporary, attractive and vibrant" suburb of 900 homes is under half completed and is now starting to look like “a rubbish dump”.
• The CEO of a learning technology company warns that the “wisdom of crowds” idea of the benefit of collaboration over individual effort has been embraced as dogma and that the results of group effort are not always better than those produced by the efforts of skilled individuals.
• Researchers at Deutsche Bank's Asset Management (DeAM) Division have published a new white paper arguing that increased spending on green infrastructure can provide enough economic stimulus to avoid a severe recession.
• The US green building industry has been less affected by the downturn in the housing industry than the conventional building industry. One advantage is that homebuyers are willing to pay more for a green home.
Education
• The Asia Pacific Managing Director of Cambridge University Press has said, "All countries in the world are looking at ways to provide education online and in a digital format. This is the trend of education in the future.”
• A Canadian education researcher has reviewed his predictions from 1998 about the future of learning, in the light of the changes over the last 10 years.
• A number of articles in the US are suggesting that the higher education industry may be the next to be seeing the end of boom times with many independent colleges choosing between shutting down, merging, or being acquired.
Environment & sustainability:
• If you’ve felt confused about whether reusable nappies are better for the environment or not, then you’re in for good news. A recent research report has shown that there can be considerable environmental benefits to using reusable nappies.
• The UK recession is having an impact on the recycling industry in the UK, and local authorities have requested government permission for Ministry of Defence land to be used to stockpile growing amounts of recyclable waste for which there is no use and no market.
• Researchers have produced a new model of the Earth’s climate that suggests that human-generated carbon dioxide emissions may prevent the onset of the next ice age.
• Some companies aren’t sure where to begin with their green initiatives, so a group of green business owners and consultants provide their favorite high-impact, low cost and easy-to-implement green initiatives.
•The world can expect energy prices to continue their generally upward spiral in the years ahead if global energy policies remain the same, according to the latest World Energy Outlook report.
• Scientists studying man-made “atmospheric brown clouds” and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere say that they are resulting in Asian cities are getting darker, glaciers melting faster and weather systems becoming more extreme.
• Greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised nations rose 2.3% from 2000 to 2006, according to new figures from the UN's climate change agency.
• 2 new books in the LOGIS collection are available: Microgeneration: low energy strategies for larger buildings / Dave Parker, and The value of parks: inspire, refresh, conserve, protect, play / [developed by Parks Forum in partnership with IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, and The People and Parks Foundation ; foreword by John Landy]
Health & wellbeing:
• Diabetes NZ is concerned that the public health system is not meeting its targets for free basic annual diabetes checks and new figures show that there are now 500 NZ children between the ages of 10 and 18 with Type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease that used to only be known in adults over 45.
• A recent report in the US has shown that while the bottled water industry promotes an image of purity, contaminants in bottled water from some states exceed the industry’s own voluntary standards, and many contaminants are not legally regulated in bottled water in the US/
• Google has found that it can predict where 'flu outbreaks will take place in the USA because "certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity", and Google can estimate current flu levels one to two weeks faster than published US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
• Researchers have found that traffic pollution adversely affects respiratory health in asthmatic children.
Law & Government:
• The public’s attitude is moving away from the use of physical punishment of children, since the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 came into force. In a survey asking whether children should be entitled to the same protection from assault as adults, 80% of people surveyed responded positively.
• Internet identity and account theft is a global business with organised criminal groups making such details easily available online for a price.
• The Australian Senate has passed legislation that allows Australia access and property rights in its offshore waters for geological storage of CO2.
• Bhagidari is a UN award-winning system that actively encourages the participation of local citizen forums and community groups in collaboration with government officials to develop “joint ownership” of change processes. A British commentator contrasts the success of the Indian scheme with local governance in the UK.
People, culture & diversity:
• Nordic countries are still ranked top in the world for closing the gender gap between men and women, but in this year’s report from the World Economic Forum, NZ has kept its ranking of 5th.
• A report from Manchester University and the London School of Economics claims that stories and their writers can do just as much as academics and policy researchers, perhaps even more, to explain and communicate the world's problems.
• The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said in October that Britain should take urgent action to stop the demonization of children, and Barnado’s has now discovered in a controversial survey of 2000 adults, that half of them are fundamentally prejudiced against the current generation of children.
• “Individualism and consumerism” have been identified as modern “social evils” in the UK, and 2 viewpoint articles discuss aspects: one article looks at why people are less happy in spite of the many liberties available to everyone, and the other looks at investing in civil society to change things.
• Ireland is introducing a citizenship test for immigrants, of which English would be the key precondition. "Increasingly throughout all the nations of the EU language of the host nation is the key requirement. Learning that language is no longer voluntary”
• One of the world’s biggest photo collections, with images from the 1750s through to the present day is being made available online by Google, in a deal with Life magazine and other archives.
Science, technology & transport:
• If you’ve seen the “invisible” moon-walking bear in the now-famous Youtube video, what you’ve been watching is a subtle road safety campaign planted by London transport officials.
• The co-founder of Second Life has made some predictions about what might be the next exciting areas in technology development.
• Loss of personal data records held on discs, laptops and USBs by corporate staff or government officials in the UK has prompted the suggestion that biometrics be used as a security measure. However, there are problems and issues with the use of biometrics for security purposes.
• A chief adviser to the UK government is suggesting that the future of broadband would be a "patchwork" of community-based networks.
• Verdiem, the producer of Edison software for cutting PC energy use, is introducing the free software to the UK market. Edison is a pared down version of Verdiem's corporate-level Surveyor software.
• There is discussion in the US about lowering speed limits to help conserve fuel. It may not work, as Purdue University researchers found few US drivers have any respect for speed limits, which they consider nothing more than vague guidelines they can ignore. Researchers attribute the attitude to a similar previous law passed in 1974.
• Popular Science has published its “Best of What’s New” list for 2008. Among the list are Honda’s hydrogen car, software that can start your PC in 20 seconds, and a machine that can power generators by using waste heat as low as 93°C (200°F).
• Microsoft will offer a free anti-virus and security solution from the second half of next year, and stop selling its OneCare security and PC management service.
• Two GPS systems to track traffic snarls that went into operation earlier this month, will be on show at the World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in New York this week.
• A Scots scientist uses a remote controlled helicopter that flies over active volcanoes to gather his data, to help predict when volcanoes will erupt.
• The NZ Tourism Strategy 2015 has been awarded ‘Overall Winner’ in the prestigious Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2008, competing alongside 1,900 international nominees.
• The credit crunch in the UK is causing major problems for residents who have bought homes in a partially completed private development suburb in affluent Cambridge. The "contemporary, attractive and vibrant" suburb of 900 homes is under half completed and is now starting to look like “a rubbish dump”.
• The CEO of a learning technology company warns that the “wisdom of crowds” idea of the benefit of collaboration over individual effort has been embraced as dogma and that the results of group effort are not always better than those produced by the efforts of skilled individuals.
• Researchers at Deutsche Bank's Asset Management (DeAM) Division have published a new white paper arguing that increased spending on green infrastructure can provide enough economic stimulus to avoid a severe recession.
• The US green building industry has been less affected by the downturn in the housing industry than the conventional building industry. One advantage is that homebuyers are willing to pay more for a green home.
Education
• The Asia Pacific Managing Director of Cambridge University Press has said, "All countries in the world are looking at ways to provide education online and in a digital format. This is the trend of education in the future.”
• A Canadian education researcher has reviewed his predictions from 1998 about the future of learning, in the light of the changes over the last 10 years.
• A number of articles in the US are suggesting that the higher education industry may be the next to be seeing the end of boom times with many independent colleges choosing between shutting down, merging, or being acquired.
Environment & sustainability:
• If you’ve felt confused about whether reusable nappies are better for the environment or not, then you’re in for good news. A recent research report has shown that there can be considerable environmental benefits to using reusable nappies.
• The UK recession is having an impact on the recycling industry in the UK, and local authorities have requested government permission for Ministry of Defence land to be used to stockpile growing amounts of recyclable waste for which there is no use and no market.
• Researchers have produced a new model of the Earth’s climate that suggests that human-generated carbon dioxide emissions may prevent the onset of the next ice age.
• Some companies aren’t sure where to begin with their green initiatives, so a group of green business owners and consultants provide their favorite high-impact, low cost and easy-to-implement green initiatives.
•The world can expect energy prices to continue their generally upward spiral in the years ahead if global energy policies remain the same, according to the latest World Energy Outlook report.
• Scientists studying man-made “atmospheric brown clouds” and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere say that they are resulting in Asian cities are getting darker, glaciers melting faster and weather systems becoming more extreme.
• Greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised nations rose 2.3% from 2000 to 2006, according to new figures from the UN's climate change agency.
• 2 new books in the LOGIS collection are available: Microgeneration: low energy strategies for larger buildings / Dave Parker, and The value of parks: inspire, refresh, conserve, protect, play / [developed by Parks Forum in partnership with IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, and The People and Parks Foundation ; foreword by John Landy]
Health & wellbeing:
• Diabetes NZ is concerned that the public health system is not meeting its targets for free basic annual diabetes checks and new figures show that there are now 500 NZ children between the ages of 10 and 18 with Type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease that used to only be known in adults over 45.
• A recent report in the US has shown that while the bottled water industry promotes an image of purity, contaminants in bottled water from some states exceed the industry’s own voluntary standards, and many contaminants are not legally regulated in bottled water in the US/
• Google has found that it can predict where 'flu outbreaks will take place in the USA because "certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity", and Google can estimate current flu levels one to two weeks faster than published US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
• Researchers have found that traffic pollution adversely affects respiratory health in asthmatic children.
Law & Government:
• The public’s attitude is moving away from the use of physical punishment of children, since the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 came into force. In a survey asking whether children should be entitled to the same protection from assault as adults, 80% of people surveyed responded positively.
• Internet identity and account theft is a global business with organised criminal groups making such details easily available online for a price.
• The Australian Senate has passed legislation that allows Australia access and property rights in its offshore waters for geological storage of CO2.
• Bhagidari is a UN award-winning system that actively encourages the participation of local citizen forums and community groups in collaboration with government officials to develop “joint ownership” of change processes. A British commentator contrasts the success of the Indian scheme with local governance in the UK.
People, culture & diversity:
• Nordic countries are still ranked top in the world for closing the gender gap between men and women, but in this year’s report from the World Economic Forum, NZ has kept its ranking of 5th.
• A report from Manchester University and the London School of Economics claims that stories and their writers can do just as much as academics and policy researchers, perhaps even more, to explain and communicate the world's problems.
• The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said in October that Britain should take urgent action to stop the demonization of children, and Barnado’s has now discovered in a controversial survey of 2000 adults, that half of them are fundamentally prejudiced against the current generation of children.
• “Individualism and consumerism” have been identified as modern “social evils” in the UK, and 2 viewpoint articles discuss aspects: one article looks at why people are less happy in spite of the many liberties available to everyone, and the other looks at investing in civil society to change things.
• Ireland is introducing a citizenship test for immigrants, of which English would be the key precondition. "Increasingly throughout all the nations of the EU language of the host nation is the key requirement. Learning that language is no longer voluntary”
• One of the world’s biggest photo collections, with images from the 1750s through to the present day is being made available online by Google, in a deal with Life magazine and other archives.
Science, technology & transport:
• If you’ve seen the “invisible” moon-walking bear in the now-famous Youtube video, what you’ve been watching is a subtle road safety campaign planted by London transport officials.
• The co-founder of Second Life has made some predictions about what might be the next exciting areas in technology development.
• Loss of personal data records held on discs, laptops and USBs by corporate staff or government officials in the UK has prompted the suggestion that biometrics be used as a security measure. However, there are problems and issues with the use of biometrics for security purposes.
• A chief adviser to the UK government is suggesting that the future of broadband would be a "patchwork" of community-based networks.
• Verdiem, the producer of Edison software for cutting PC energy use, is introducing the free software to the UK market. Edison is a pared down version of Verdiem's corporate-level Surveyor software.
• There is discussion in the US about lowering speed limits to help conserve fuel. It may not work, as Purdue University researchers found few US drivers have any respect for speed limits, which they consider nothing more than vague guidelines they can ignore. Researchers attribute the attitude to a similar previous law passed in 1974.
• Popular Science has published its “Best of What’s New” list for 2008. Among the list are Honda’s hydrogen car, software that can start your PC in 20 seconds, and a machine that can power generators by using waste heat as low as 93°C (200°F).
• Microsoft will offer a free anti-virus and security solution from the second half of next year, and stop selling its OneCare security and PC management service.
• Two GPS systems to track traffic snarls that went into operation earlier this month, will be on show at the World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in New York this week.
• A Scots scientist uses a remote controlled helicopter that flies over active volcanoes to gather his data, to help predict when volcanoes will erupt.
Thursday, 13 November 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 13/11):
Business & management:
• The UN is predicting that due to the global financial crisis, there could be a food price surge in the coming year, in spite of record cereal production around the world and a recent drop in food prices.
• New graduates from the formal education system may think they’ve escaped bullying, but as some UK graduates have discovered, they may well face workplace bullies in their first job.
Education
• Paramedic students at a UK hospital are using Second Life to learn procedures they’ll need in their work, practising the skills in a safe environment before they face the real thing.
• The UK government is looking at ways to increase flexibility for students at university, increasing the possibility of part-time or interrupted study, getting employers to fund degrees and requiring universities to show what benefit they give to students. A new report suggests pick and mix degrees.
• Will the global recession force academics to attend expensive conferences in virtual worlds like Second Life?
Environment & sustainability:
• Bristol has been voted the UK’s most sustainable city by experts who looked at indicators such as environmental performance, quality of life and readiness for challenges ahead.
• A team of international scientists has demonstrated for the first time that rising temperatures in both the Arctic and the Antarctic are caused by human activity.
Health & wellbeing:
• Life expectancy figures for NZers have increased, and over the last 30 years, life expectancy for men has increased more than for women, although women are still expected to live about 4 years longer.
• 96% of NZ smokers support a ban on smoking in cars carrying pre-school children, according to research from the University of Otago in Wellington.
• The UK National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence provides “intervention guidance” documents for employers and professionals in small, medium and large organisations who have a direct or indirect role in, and responsibility for, improving health in the workplace.
• US researchers have found that obese children have the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart defects.
• The EU drugs agency estimates that 17.5 million young Europeans between 15 and 34 used cannabis in the last year but there are "stronger signals" that its popularity is beginning to wane, especially among British school students.
• The number of under-age drinkers getting treatment for alcohol-related problems overall jumped 40% in just one year in the UK, from 2006 to 2007.
• A review on a book about the 1918 flu in the UK compares actions then with planning now. Planners today are privately admitting that if an avian flu’ epidemic broke out again, the armed forces might need to be called on to provide support.
• Researchers in Scotland have found that even small parks in the heart of our cities may protect us from strokes and heart disease, perhaps by cutting stress or boosting exercise.
Law & Government:
• The worlds top thought leaders at the Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai, say that the world needs to examine the basic operating systems that drive its economies, markets and societies and aim for a “fundamental reboot” to establish a fresh platform based on renewed confidence and trust, and on sustainability, responsibility and ethical principles.
• The UN has had difficulties in previous years getting Member States to pay their financial dues in full in a timely manner. Ban Ki Moon has paid tribute to the 31 Member States that have paid their 2008 dues in full for all sectors of the UN budgets (of which NZ is one), warning of possible cash shortfalls.
• The UK government has sponsored a competition called Show Us A Better Way, to find ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated. The finalists and winner were announced this week.
People, culture & diversity:
• The 15th of November is Courage Day in NZ, the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. The day is named jointly after James Courage, whose novel A way of love was banned because he dared to express homosexuality in his writing, and his grandmother Sarah Courage whose book describing colonial life in NZ was burned by neighbours who resented comments she made about them.
• A British Rotary Club has been running the World Poohsticks Championships for years. Held on the Thames, the event attracts huge interest but the club’s members (average age almost 70) can no longer cope with running the event.
Science, technology & transport:
• A company that provides pre-purchase vehicle checks is warning that close to half the used cars offered for sale in New Zealand now have money owing or other serious issues which could potentially rebound on the new owner.
• Ernest Rutherford’s great-granddaughter Professor C Mary Fowler is a geophysicist. She is on a celebratory lecture tour of New Zealand to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the award to Rutherford of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
• American scientists have discovered a fungus that produces its own version of diesel (dubbed “mycodiesel”) as part of its natural lifecycle.
• A Texas-based company is manufacturing a completely automated mini-refinery for consumer use that can manufacture both ethanol and biodiesel, and can fit in an area about 2.8 meters square.
• Honda has developed and is testing set of robotic legs on one of its assembly lines to help reduce injuries in people spending a lot of time on their feet. The device could also be used to make it easier for the elderly or the sick to walk.
• The UN is predicting that due to the global financial crisis, there could be a food price surge in the coming year, in spite of record cereal production around the world and a recent drop in food prices.
• New graduates from the formal education system may think they’ve escaped bullying, but as some UK graduates have discovered, they may well face workplace bullies in their first job.
Education
• Paramedic students at a UK hospital are using Second Life to learn procedures they’ll need in their work, practising the skills in a safe environment before they face the real thing.
• The UK government is looking at ways to increase flexibility for students at university, increasing the possibility of part-time or interrupted study, getting employers to fund degrees and requiring universities to show what benefit they give to students. A new report suggests pick and mix degrees.
• Will the global recession force academics to attend expensive conferences in virtual worlds like Second Life?
Environment & sustainability:
• Bristol has been voted the UK’s most sustainable city by experts who looked at indicators such as environmental performance, quality of life and readiness for challenges ahead.
• A team of international scientists has demonstrated for the first time that rising temperatures in both the Arctic and the Antarctic are caused by human activity.
Health & wellbeing:
• Life expectancy figures for NZers have increased, and over the last 30 years, life expectancy for men has increased more than for women, although women are still expected to live about 4 years longer.
• 96% of NZ smokers support a ban on smoking in cars carrying pre-school children, according to research from the University of Otago in Wellington.
• The UK National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence provides “intervention guidance” documents for employers and professionals in small, medium and large organisations who have a direct or indirect role in, and responsibility for, improving health in the workplace.
• US researchers have found that obese children have the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart defects.
• The EU drugs agency estimates that 17.5 million young Europeans between 15 and 34 used cannabis in the last year but there are "stronger signals" that its popularity is beginning to wane, especially among British school students.
• The number of under-age drinkers getting treatment for alcohol-related problems overall jumped 40% in just one year in the UK, from 2006 to 2007.
• A review on a book about the 1918 flu in the UK compares actions then with planning now. Planners today are privately admitting that if an avian flu’ epidemic broke out again, the armed forces might need to be called on to provide support.
• Researchers in Scotland have found that even small parks in the heart of our cities may protect us from strokes and heart disease, perhaps by cutting stress or boosting exercise.
Law & Government:
• The worlds top thought leaders at the Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai, say that the world needs to examine the basic operating systems that drive its economies, markets and societies and aim for a “fundamental reboot” to establish a fresh platform based on renewed confidence and trust, and on sustainability, responsibility and ethical principles.
• The UN has had difficulties in previous years getting Member States to pay their financial dues in full in a timely manner. Ban Ki Moon has paid tribute to the 31 Member States that have paid their 2008 dues in full for all sectors of the UN budgets (of which NZ is one), warning of possible cash shortfalls.
• The UK government has sponsored a competition called Show Us A Better Way, to find ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated. The finalists and winner were announced this week.
People, culture & diversity:
• The 15th of November is Courage Day in NZ, the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. The day is named jointly after James Courage, whose novel A way of love was banned because he dared to express homosexuality in his writing, and his grandmother Sarah Courage whose book describing colonial life in NZ was burned by neighbours who resented comments she made about them.
• A British Rotary Club has been running the World Poohsticks Championships for years. Held on the Thames, the event attracts huge interest but the club’s members (average age almost 70) can no longer cope with running the event.
Science, technology & transport:
• A company that provides pre-purchase vehicle checks is warning that close to half the used cars offered for sale in New Zealand now have money owing or other serious issues which could potentially rebound on the new owner.
• Ernest Rutherford’s great-granddaughter Professor C Mary Fowler is a geophysicist. She is on a celebratory lecture tour of New Zealand to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the award to Rutherford of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
• American scientists have discovered a fungus that produces its own version of diesel (dubbed “mycodiesel”) as part of its natural lifecycle.
• A Texas-based company is manufacturing a completely automated mini-refinery for consumer use that can manufacture both ethanol and biodiesel, and can fit in an area about 2.8 meters square.
• Honda has developed and is testing set of robotic legs on one of its assembly lines to help reduce injuries in people spending a lot of time on their feet. The device could also be used to make it easier for the elderly or the sick to walk.
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