Business & management:
• Concern is so high over a demographic crisis of a very low birth rate, that Japanese companies are being asked to allow married employees to spend more time at home, and the government is considering legislation to allow more family time.
• The UK Employment Tribunal has made a ruling that people trying to combine work with caring for disabled or elderly relatives will have the right to claim against employers who discriminate against them in refusing to offer flexible working.
• A UK commentator promotes co-owned businesses as more successful in providing public services than either pure public services or private sector providers. A publication called “Innovation Included: why co-owned businesses are good for public services” can be downloaded from the Employee Ownership Association website
• An Oxford University professor believes he has traced the world’s earliest example of a credit crunch – in Rome in 88BC.
• The Commerce Commission has today released guidelines to businesses that make environmental, or ‘green’, claims in their marketing.
Education
• The Serious Virtual Worlds report focuses on virtual worlds for educational uses, and explores the ‘serious’ – as opposed to leisure-based – uses of virtual worlds.
Environment & sustainability:
• The current financial crisis is causing some to call for a return to the days when lawns were less important than vegetable gardens.
• The NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development has released surveys of more than 3,500 New Zealanders' experiences with their homes, and their policy preferences. Included is a policy to improve the performance of NZ houses.
Health & wellbeing:
• A UK commentator says that long term social care and support needs to be reintegrated with, and owned by, the wider community.
• An investigation in the UK has discovered that some schools are illegally discriminating against HIV-positive children and teachers.
• Scientists have discovered how stress physically reshapes the brain and causes long-lasting harm to humans and animals.
Law & Government:
• Victoria University of Wellington’s eighth Post-Election Conference will be held on 12 December 2008 at the Legislative Council Chamber at Parliament. Politicians, political scientists and journalists will contribute.
• Stratford District Council’s Information Centre has launched a new touch-window information system. The interactive window display allows visitors to tap the street-side window menu to browse for information at any time whether or not the centre is open.
• A US commentator lists the “Seven silent crises” facing metropolitan areas in the US – although these could be applied to metropolitan areas around the world.
• In the Office of the Ombudsmen’s Annual Report to Parliament, concern is expressed that some parts of the public service have been deliberately delaying responses to Official Information requests.
• Britain’s binge drinking culture is to be curbed by giving local authorities the power to ban happy hours, all you can drink offers and other price promotions in troublesome pubs and bars. Some other innovative ideas to modify drinkers’ behaviour are also being trialled by police.
• Mapping tools provided by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo might lead some local authorities in the UK to be in breach of the Ordnance Survey’s copyright on the original maps.
• Students studying a range of different courses at UK universities are being encouraged to think about the impact of terrorism - town and country planning students are taught to think about how to mitigate the effects of bomb blasts in public spaces.
People, culture & diversity:
• Social networking sites proved their immediacy in the last week during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, with many providing information and images much more quickly than the formal news agencies.
• An American commentator has written about the way the Bush administration has “done unspeakable violence” to the English language.
• The famous open-air booksellers in Paris may be under threat from online book dealers and tourism.
• A UK researcher’s study of the interaction between time poverty and income poverty shows that freeing lone parents from income poverty only comes at the price of deepening their existing time poverty, which is unlikely to improve their children's well-being, and that men are less likely to experience both time and income poverty than women.
• Developmental psychologists have provided evidence that children are naturally tuned to believe in gods of one sort or another.
Science, technology & transport:
• Brain scientists have succeeded in fooling people into thinking they are inside the body of another person or a plastic dummy.
• Traffic calming features used nowadays to reduce speed even include the unconventional, e.g. “psychological traffic calming” or if you are in India, sacred cows (mentioned in a recent book: Traffic: why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us) / Tom Vanderbilt.)
• The new .tel domain is intended to act as a universal contact point rather than as a hook on which to hang websites, and will work either via the web or mobile phones.
• Researchers say that the impact of emissions from today’s road traffic on the global temperature in 2100 will be six times greater than that from today’s air traffic.
• In the food vs fuel debate, new research shows that perennial grasses may be a better crop to use for producing ethanol than corn.
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 26/11):
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.
• 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.
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.
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