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.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Thursday, 8 January 2009
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 08/01):
Welcome back, everybody. Here's the first round-up of the year
(which inevitably includes some round-ups of last year
and the usual predictions for the future.)
Business & management:
• A purely commercial Kenyan bank that concentrates on providing services to the low-income population, is now the 3rd most profitable bank in the country.
• Online collaboration is not just something used in education, but is increasingly in use in business. An “open collaborative map” has been created that provides links to the best online collaboration tools from 2008.
• In theory, alternative currencies encourage consumers to make purchases within their communities rather than elsewhere in the country or abroad. The Berkshires in Massachusetts have an alternative currency called Berkshares, one of the most successful currencies in the US.
Education
• The New Media Consortium (of more than 250 learning-focused organisations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies) has released their 2008 Horizon Report: Australia-New Zealand edition. The report provides an indicator for the next 5 years of emerging technologies as they appear in and affect higher education.
• A new UK survey has found that “helicopter parents” are using social networking sites to keep in touch with their offspring and meddle in their university life from afar.
• A secondary school in the US now offers 3 levels of online learning to its students, and new research shows that working with technology helps students learn some basic social and technical skills they'll need to participate in society.
• Alternative reality games are a new field in higher education, but initial results from a course in the UK that teaches key historical research skills, show that students were more engaged, and learnt the skills more easily.
• UK schools will receive funding to teach pupils how to listen to each other's problems and help classmates who struggle to form friendships or cope with bullying.
Environment & sustainability:
• Next month an Australian company will turn on its 1‑megawatt pilot geothermal plant in the Cooper Basin – where there are no existing underground reservoirs of water and steam. The plant will use an engineered geothermal system (EGS) to take advantage of Australia’s natural nuclear geology.
• A leading UK food specialist says that the current global food system needs to be rebuilt to address key fundamentals like biodiversity, energy, water and urbanisation.
• The Green Microgym in Portland, Oregon, aims to be a carbon neutral exercise facility through the use of solar power and human-generated energy from clients as they pedal and run.
• From The Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience / Rob Hopkins – “6 reasons why nuclear power can’t save us”.
• The world’s first cargo ship using 328 solar panels to provide some of its power was launched in Japan last month, intended initially to transport export vehicles.
• New York City has announced that LED bulbs may soon be used to power standard streetlights across the city.
• Public buildings in England and Wales are pumping out 11m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, more than Kenya's entire carbon footprint.
• The 5 top green building stories in the US for 2008 show that the green building sector is doing well in spite of the recession, companies are taking on more measures to save cost and green their buildings, and litigation over green building codes is a new phenomenon.
• Britain is now the world's leading generator of offshore wind power, recently overtaking Denmark (other countries have greater onshore capacity). The potential is enormous, with turbines quadrupling in size, vastly increasing their efficiency and the power they can harvest.
• The Environment Agency in the UK is launching a project to reclaim urban rivers, streams and brooks around London. Under the plan, 92 projects will be announced (un)covering 14 different waterways in London, at least seven of which have been buried by history.
Health & wellbeing:
• New research shows that people who sleep fewer than 5 hours a night are more likely to develop hardening of the arteries. There is a growing body of evidence that short sleep may have subtle health consequences.
• Drinking 2 units of alcohol a day increases the risk of liver and bowel cancers by a fifth (i.e. one pint of beer, a large glass of wine or a couple of measures of spirits) and just a few sessions of heavy drinking can damage someone's ability to pay attention, remember things and make good judgments.
Law & Government:
• A “pay-as-you-throw” incentive trial for reducing rubbish and increasing recycling is not going to be taken up by over 100 councils surveyed in the UK, as the councils feel it would "damage the goodwill that has been built up over the years".
• An urban development called Western Harbour in Malmo, Sweden is built on reclaimed industrial land, but is unusual for the requirements by planners, that developers choose 10 green features out of a list of 35 to incorporate into their designs, that will promote biodiversity.
• The drive to create communities that balance environmental, economic and social responsibilities through planned development is growing as shown by projects in Texas, Georgia and Tennessee.
• There is concern in the UK that mass building schemes such as the Thames Gateway Plan, will repeat the same mistakes made in the high-rise developments of 40 years ago, creating more soulless settlements of high-density, low-quality homes where people simply won't want to live.
People, culture & diversity:
• A survey in the UK for Post Office Broadband called “Web I’m 64: ageing, the Internet and digital inclusion” has found that one in five people (18%) who can’t use the internet say they feel ignored by society and 20% hate being excluded from public information web users take for granted.
•
Science, technology & transport:
• Edge.org poses a question every year to the world’s most influential thinkers. This year’s question is “What will change everything? – what game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?”
• Futurist magazine has published its Outlook 2009 report, and the top 10 predictions for the future include urbanization reaching 60% by 2030 and a warning that most professions will require continuous instruction and retraining due to the pace of change.
• For a visual representation of the “megatrends” of the future, check the image: Trend Blend 2009+: a map of time and tide.
• Even US government departments are getting involved in making use of virtual worlds as a means of communication.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people. Version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) will apply to text, images, audio and video.
• Microsoft has put in place a scheme that will allow hardware firms to get hold of XP licences until 30 May 2009.
• The prospects for the space elevator have been shaken up with a simple prototype using a broomstick, demonstrated at the Second International Conference on Space Elevator and Tether Design in Luxembourg.
• Last November’s ban on USBs by the Dept of Defence in the US, was intended to help stop the spread of a virus that is a self-propagating program, which lurks unseen on USB drives. Businesses need to be aware of the use of USBs and have a security protocol that is not a hindrance that users will try to avoid.
• One commentator’s believes that the top ten predictions for green IT in 2009 all emphasise that green IT will move towards becoming the norm, and that the economic crisis will encourage green IT, not hold it back.
• Computing magazine Which? has discovered that the only way to stop fraudsters stealing information from old computer hard drives is by destroying them completely.
Friday, 19 December 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 19/12):
Business & management:
• If the GM, Chevrolet and Ford companies go out of business, not just American jobs would be affected. A new study in Canada indicates that half a million jobs there would also be at risk in the next 6 years.
• Research published in the UK by a drugs think tank (“Working towards recovery: getting problem drug users into jobs”) suggests that anti-discrimination laws might be needed to boost the chances of job-seeking former addicts, and that firms might be more willing to employ them in return for tax breaks.
Environment & sustainability:
• 2008 is likely to rank as the 10th warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization.
• The UK’s Public Interest Research Centre has published “Climate safety: in case of emergency…”. It’s a simple summary of the latest science that explains the science behind climate change and explains the actions needed.
• The planned Wembley City development is huge - 4,200 homes as well as retail and commercial property over an 85-acre site. Once complete the whole site will be served by a system of underground vacuum pipes that transport rubbish from strategically positioned bins to a single sorting station.
• A North Carolina, US energy company is planning to pay businesses, schools and homeowners to rent their rooftops or ground area, so that solar arrays can be installed to generate power.
Health & wellbeing:
• A nation-wide long-term study in the US reveals that trucking workers with an estimated 20 years on the job have an increased risk of lung cancer.
• Medical teams working at some of the UK’s busiest music festivals noticed that as soon as a young patient was well enough to text their friends, they were generally well enough to rejoin the action. The test could work in busy A&E units, for assessing whether a patient could be discharged.
• Unsurprisingly, US researchers have found that there is a strong link between “active transportation” such as walking, cycling or using mass transit systems, and reducing the incidence of obesity in the population.
Law & Government:
• The UN has launched “Data against natural disasters: establishing effective systems for relief, recovery, and reconstruction.” The guidelines aim to help states pre-emptively amass the data vital for effective relief operations that will enable them to avoid compounding the original catastrophe.
• The Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks will enter into force on 16 March 2009, since Australia became the 10th country to ratify the agreement adopted by member States of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization in 2006. The Treaty standardizes procedural aspects of trademark registration and licensing and takes advantage of efficiencies in using modern communications technologies.
• The Law Commission’s latest report “Presentation of New Zealand Statute Law” notes that the law is often difficult to find, and difficult to understand when it has been found.
• A series of papers for consultation on the UK government’s policy commitments set out in their White Paper, “Communities in control: real people, real power” are being released. A recent consultation paper looks at proposals to make it easier to get local leaders to hold a referendum on their leadership structure: “Changing Council Governance Arrangements: Mayors and Indirectly Elected Leaders - A Consultation”.
• A member of the UK think tank Demos, argues for updating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a declaration of digital rights.
• The Australian government’s attempts to have ISPs block or filter over 10 000 web sites believed to hold illegal content, are running into difficulties.
People, culture & diversity:
• Freedom of expression on the Internet is not possible in more than 20 countries around the world, and for the first time, online writers have become the largest group among imprisoned journalists.
• In the UK, the “No One Left Out Strategy” is an approach to reducing rough sleeping (London has been having its rough sleeping conference this week). The Homeless Link website provides resources and examples of good practice in handling this issue, via its Rough Sleeping Portal, and lays out the 15 Actions of the strategy.
• Uncritical users may think that Google is a service providing them with greater access to information. Americans have discovered since the settlement of the 3-year lawsuit between Google and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Authors Guild, that their access via Google to all those books scanned from the collections of great American libraries is not that universal – even for the libraries whose books were scanned.
Science, technology & transport:
• Internet NZ has released research that concludes that utility expansion provides the best opportunity for dramatic improvement of NZ's broadband infrastructure.
• 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky. Amongst the many projects going on, Jennie McCormick of Auckland is the coordinator on the Task Group of the 100 Hours of Astronomy IYA2009 Cornerstone Project.
• In the US, a recent survey shows that consumer preferences for community design is shifting away from suburban areas and towards infill sites with better access to public transportation options.
• A referendum in Manchester has seen the rejection by voters of the proposal to bring in a congestion tax.
• A storm of protest in the UK over the blocking of access to controversial Wikipedia pages, has resulted in the block being lifted again. It has been pointed out that due to the Internet Watch Foundation blocking access, the image that they were concerned about is now getting more hits than previously.
• The latest forecast from the Pew Internet / American Life Project, “The Future of the Internet III” shows that it’s expected that major technical advances will become an everyday part of life, and the architecture of the Internet will improve. But the experts disagree on how this will impact on social tolerance, human relations and home life.
• The International Correspondence School based in Glasgow, is offering a 300-hour accredited course in ethical hacking.
• After users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer were urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw had been fixed, Microsoft rushed out a patch to fix it.
• A tidal turbine near the mouth of Strangford Lough has begun producing electricity at full capacity for the first time.
• The French government is being accused of suppressing a report on electric vehicles. The report is said to warn that the cost of all-electric cars, roughly double that of conventional cars, is not economically viable, and it points to limited driving range and performance, and unsatisfactory battery technology, as major obstacles.
• If the GM, Chevrolet and Ford companies go out of business, not just American jobs would be affected. A new study in Canada indicates that half a million jobs there would also be at risk in the next 6 years.
• Research published in the UK by a drugs think tank (“Working towards recovery: getting problem drug users into jobs”) suggests that anti-discrimination laws might be needed to boost the chances of job-seeking former addicts, and that firms might be more willing to employ them in return for tax breaks.
Environment & sustainability:
• 2008 is likely to rank as the 10th warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization.
• The UK’s Public Interest Research Centre has published “Climate safety: in case of emergency…”. It’s a simple summary of the latest science that explains the science behind climate change and explains the actions needed.
• The planned Wembley City development is huge - 4,200 homes as well as retail and commercial property over an 85-acre site. Once complete the whole site will be served by a system of underground vacuum pipes that transport rubbish from strategically positioned bins to a single sorting station.
• A North Carolina, US energy company is planning to pay businesses, schools and homeowners to rent their rooftops or ground area, so that solar arrays can be installed to generate power.
Health & wellbeing:
• A nation-wide long-term study in the US reveals that trucking workers with an estimated 20 years on the job have an increased risk of lung cancer.
• Medical teams working at some of the UK’s busiest music festivals noticed that as soon as a young patient was well enough to text their friends, they were generally well enough to rejoin the action. The test could work in busy A&E units, for assessing whether a patient could be discharged.
• Unsurprisingly, US researchers have found that there is a strong link between “active transportation” such as walking, cycling or using mass transit systems, and reducing the incidence of obesity in the population.
Law & Government:
• The UN has launched “Data against natural disasters: establishing effective systems for relief, recovery, and reconstruction.” The guidelines aim to help states pre-emptively amass the data vital for effective relief operations that will enable them to avoid compounding the original catastrophe.
• The Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks will enter into force on 16 March 2009, since Australia became the 10th country to ratify the agreement adopted by member States of the UN World Intellectual Property Organization in 2006. The Treaty standardizes procedural aspects of trademark registration and licensing and takes advantage of efficiencies in using modern communications technologies.
• The Law Commission’s latest report “Presentation of New Zealand Statute Law” notes that the law is often difficult to find, and difficult to understand when it has been found.
• A series of papers for consultation on the UK government’s policy commitments set out in their White Paper, “Communities in control: real people, real power” are being released. A recent consultation paper looks at proposals to make it easier to get local leaders to hold a referendum on their leadership structure: “Changing Council Governance Arrangements: Mayors and Indirectly Elected Leaders - A Consultation”.
• A member of the UK think tank Demos, argues for updating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with a declaration of digital rights.
• The Australian government’s attempts to have ISPs block or filter over 10 000 web sites believed to hold illegal content, are running into difficulties.
People, culture & diversity:
• Freedom of expression on the Internet is not possible in more than 20 countries around the world, and for the first time, online writers have become the largest group among imprisoned journalists.
• In the UK, the “No One Left Out Strategy” is an approach to reducing rough sleeping (London has been having its rough sleeping conference this week). The Homeless Link website provides resources and examples of good practice in handling this issue, via its Rough Sleeping Portal, and lays out the 15 Actions of the strategy.
• Uncritical users may think that Google is a service providing them with greater access to information. Americans have discovered since the settlement of the 3-year lawsuit between Google and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and Authors Guild, that their access via Google to all those books scanned from the collections of great American libraries is not that universal – even for the libraries whose books were scanned.
Science, technology & transport:
• Internet NZ has released research that concludes that utility expansion provides the best opportunity for dramatic improvement of NZ's broadband infrastructure.
• 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky. Amongst the many projects going on, Jennie McCormick of Auckland is the coordinator on the Task Group of the 100 Hours of Astronomy IYA2009 Cornerstone Project.
• In the US, a recent survey shows that consumer preferences for community design is shifting away from suburban areas and towards infill sites with better access to public transportation options.
• A referendum in Manchester has seen the rejection by voters of the proposal to bring in a congestion tax.
• A storm of protest in the UK over the blocking of access to controversial Wikipedia pages, has resulted in the block being lifted again. It has been pointed out that due to the Internet Watch Foundation blocking access, the image that they were concerned about is now getting more hits than previously.
• The latest forecast from the Pew Internet / American Life Project, “The Future of the Internet III” shows that it’s expected that major technical advances will become an everyday part of life, and the architecture of the Internet will improve. But the experts disagree on how this will impact on social tolerance, human relations and home life.
• The International Correspondence School based in Glasgow, is offering a 300-hour accredited course in ethical hacking.
• After users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer were urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw had been fixed, Microsoft rushed out a patch to fix it.
• A tidal turbine near the mouth of Strangford Lough has begun producing electricity at full capacity for the first time.
• The French government is being accused of suppressing a report on electric vehicles. The report is said to warn that the cost of all-electric cars, roughly double that of conventional cars, is not economically viable, and it points to limited driving range and performance, and unsatisfactory battery technology, as major obstacles.
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