May 14, 2007, 10:42 PM CT

The "driving" force behind electric vehicles

Cultural differences between countries run right to the heart of government, thereby influencing technological innovation. This is reported in a comparative study by David Calef and Robert Goble published recently in the journal Policy Sciences(1). The authors outline efforts taken throughout the 1990s by both the US and French governments to adopt legislation fostering technological innovation to improve urban air quality by promoting clean vehicles, specifically electric vehicles (EVs). The study highlights the differences in approach and policy-making style by both governments and how this might have affected the final outcome.

In the Californian example, mandates were instituted that mandatory zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) to make up a certain percentage of car production and sales, with fines imposed for not reaching targets. Both the oil and auto industries opposed this and lobbied heavily against it. There was intensive media coverage of the debate and environmentalists spoke out on both sides. All parties were locked in a confrontational relationship fueled by a longstanding mutual mistrust. Public participation was openly sought.

The French mandate, however, was characterized by heavy government involvement. Much of the interaction between government and businesses was conducted 'behind closed doors', free of public scrutiny. Unlike in the US, no group ever complained that EVs were a problem. A treaty was made between the state-owned electricity company, the auto industry and local administrative institutions to contribute to the development of the EV. No penalties were imposed for failing to meet targets. Subsidies were provided to encourage individuals to buy EVs......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

Sun, 13 May 2007 16:38:48 GMT

How to Win Clients via E-mail?

Just the like dealing with people personally, the impression that you send to those you are communicating through e-mail with, can make or break your business dealings. Because once the impression is made, it is more often than not irreversible. In this article, I will discuss some tips that will help business owners and their employees in their every day e-mail communication with clients.

Let me start with the type of e-mail account a business owner should have. There are many free e-mail addresses being offered - Yahoo, MSN, and Gmail. Even AOL, which used to charge for their e-mail service is now offering it at no cost. But is this the way to go? Also, using these free e-mail services makes your business appear not legitimate. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against these providers, I love their services, but that is the impression that it gives.

I believe that having a personal business e-mail exudes a more corporate and professional image. This way, you will be taken more seriously as opposed to using a free e-mail service. You can try this acquiring a personal e-mail address for your business at proemailaddress.com, for as low as $9.95 for a year, and give your business the best possible chance to show its true value.

Be sure to also down edit your replies. On no account should you just hit the reply button and begin typing. Be certain to get rid of parts of the previous e-mail that do not apply to your response. Also, by replying point-by-point makes the discussion clear and avoid misunderstandings.

Don't have very long signature files, as this can be regarded as a bit selfish. Limit your signature to no more than 5 to 6 lines, reflecting your company name, offer/slogan or phone number, and web site link.

I hope these tips, though just a few may be useful. Always keep in mind that the professionalism and courteousness you will show on your e-mail business correspondences will help you gain clients over competition that lacks these. Posted by: noel      Read more     Source

Sun, 13 May 2007 11:02:40 GMT

Say What You Want About Windows Mobile

Apparently, the people over at CoolSmartPhone know the right people. That because they know a secret someone who'll be meeting with the CEO of Vodafone UK, Nick Read. The mystery service provider will base some of their questions they'll ask the CEO on the comments that this post. That's right, you have a chance to influence the conversation somewhat!

Kudos to CoolSmartPhone for coming up with this idea. Aside from giving people a chance to indirectly talk to the big honchos, it's also a great way to get people to get over the registration obstacle. For to leave a comment, you have to take the time to create a user account. Usually not a good idea in this world of instant gratification, but there are reasons. At the very least, 99% of spammers are stopped.

Start commenting! Posted by: Rico Mossesgeld      Read more     Source

Sun, 13 May 2007 07:35:42 GMT

Betting on Wolfie's final daze

The odds of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz resigning are getting shorter, according to fiintrade.com publisVillage Voice.

US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has come out in defence of Wolfowitz, saying he needs a fair hearing.

"He is a dedicated and committed public servant,"old Bloomberg. "I very much admire what he has done at the World Bank in terms of fighting poverty.'' A little matter about a conflict of interest has been glossed over.

The Bloomberg piece also let's us know that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been lobbying on Wolfowitz's behalf.

Wolfowitz might need all the friends he can get but it looks like a hopeless cause.

European leaders have given the Bush administration an ultimatum: either Wolfowitz goes or the Bank's board moves a vote of no confidence next week, rNew York Times.

The clock's ticking and the odds aren't looking good. Looks like it's now just a matter of time. Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Sun, 13 May 2007 01:00:20 GMT

More Money Fights

As promised yesterday, another post on the havoc that money can money can wreak upon a relationship. This time I don't so much have specific incidences from my own experience, but rather examples of general friction that money (or the lack of) has created in our lives.

#1: About two years after I graduated from college, my girlfriend and I moved in together. I had graduated into a very tough job market, and had had very little success finding a job. I had, however, managed to pick up some small freelance writing gigs here and there. After a while of this, I decided to see if I could just forgo the job and make an actual living as a freelancer. In short, I made very little money for the first year and a half that my wife and I lived together. She, on the other hand, was holding down a job that in retrospect didn't pay much, but was still twice what I was making.

This created some friction, in that I was determined that she would not start to pay for me. I'm not the most manly of men, but I do have a little bit of pride, and I wasn't about to freeload on her money. How this played out, however, is that I sometimes would refuse to go out if I didn't have any money, or even insist on us buying separate groceries so she wouldn't feel like she to scrimp on my account. I was often sweating my half of our measly rent payment, and thought I was doing her a favor. She thought I was being a loser, and that my pride was actually making both of us more miserable. She was indeed correct, but I have a feeling I would act the same exact way if the situation was to be replayed. (I eventually took a full-time job with a company I'd been freelancing for.)

#2: Following from number one, my wife was very interested in getting married at this point in our relationship where I still was not working full-time. I did not feel comfortable making that commitment until I felt like I had some sort of security finance-wise. She didn't see the problem---if we were already living together and I was broke, why did it matter if we got married and I was broke? My view, of course, was the opposite---we're already living together, why the hurry to get married? Let me get my career moving and then we can take that next step.

In the end, we split the difference---we got engaged but strung it out for a while, not actually getting married until a couple of years later, by which time we both felt better about our money situation.

Money's a dangerous thing to a relationship. You really have to talk about it a lot, and oftentimes you just have to agree to disagree, which basically means you're agreeing to live with all sorts of ongoing tension. But, of course, that's marriage :) Posted by: Justin McHenry      Read more     Source

May 6, 2007, 4:46 PM CT

Creating corn for cars

A new variety of corn developed and patented by Michigan State University researchers could turn corn leaves and stalks into products that are just as valuable as the golden kernels.

Right now, most U.S. ethanol is made from corn kernels. This is because breaking down the cellulose in corn leaves and stalks into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol is difficult and expensive.

"We've developed two generations of Spartan Corn," said Mariam Sticklen, MSU professor of crop and soil sciences. "Both corn varieties contain the enzymes necessary to break down cellulose and hemicellulose into simple sugars in their leaves. This will allow for more cost-effective, efficient production of ethanol".

Sticklen will co-chair a panel on energy crops for biofuels today at BIO2007, the annual international convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

"In the future, corn growers will be able to sell their corn stalks and leaves as well as their corn grain for ethanol production," Sticklen said. "What is now a waste product will become an economically viable commodity"......... Posted by: Kevin      Read more         Source

April 30, 2007, 8:01 PM CT

What People Say May Not Be What They Know

What a person says is not necessarily an indication of what that person knows because speech is motivated by social circumstances and the desire to influence the listener. Two scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia have applied this principle to local environmental knowledge by indigenous peoples and are urging other researchers to incorporate more observation and skepticism into their studies.

"We need to treat talk for what it is," said Craig Palmer, assistant professor of anthropology in MU's College of Arts and Science. "Talk influences people. It's used as a social and political tool, and it may or may not reflect actual knowledge. People's answers to questions may have more to do with social relationships than with their knowledge."

Palmer and Reed Wadley, also an MU assistant professor of anthropology, wrote a paper on this subject that has been published electronically and will appear in October in the journal Human Ecology. The paper argued that because researchers often study local environmental knowledge by asking questions, it is important to recognize that answers to such questions may not reflect true knowledge. Revealing true local environmental knowledge is important because it gives people in other parts of the world another possible way to deal with environmental change, Wadley said......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source

April 23, 2007, 10:20 PM CT

Theory predicts aging process in DVDs

Polymer glasses are versatile plastics widely used in applications ranging from aircraft windshields to DVDs. Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a theory that predicts how these materials age. The theory also explains why motions at the molecular level can have macroscopic consequences.

"Glasses, including polymer glasses, are essentially frozen liquids," said Kenneth S. Schweizer, the G. Ronald and Margaret H. Morris Professor of Materials Science at the University of Illinois. "They appear solid, but because they are frozen liquids, the molecules continually undergo small motions that lead to a time dependence of properties".

Three years ago, Schweizer and graduate student Erica Saltzman developed a theory that described the transition upon cooling of a polymeric material from a liquid to an amorphous solid or glass. The theory explained how the viscosity of a polymer glass changes dramatically over a narrow temperature range. The researchers reported that work in the July 22, 2004, issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics.

Now, in the April 20 issue of Physical Review Letters, Schweizer and postdoctoral research associate Kang Chen present a theory to describe the aging process in polymer glasses. The new theory predicts not only how polymer molecules move, but also the material properties, at a wide variety of times and temperatures......... Posted by: Gina      Read more         Source

April 23, 2007, 9:53 PM CT

First European Voyage Up the Delaware

A University of Pennsylvania scholar has pinpointed 1616 as the year of the first European voyage up the Delaware River.

Jaap Jacobs, a senior fellow at Penn's McNeil Center for Early American Studies, detailed his findings in a paper, "Truffle Hunting with an Iron Hog: The First Dutch Voyage up the Delaware River," presented to the McNeil Center Seminar Series on April 20.

Scholarly discoveries tend to be the outcome of a deliberate process, but serendipity played an important role in Jacobs' discovery of the significance of a centuries-old deposition pinpointing the year of the first Dutch voyage up the Delaware.

Sometime between 1993 and 1994 while doing research for his dissertation, Jacobs copied a summary of a document he found at the Gemeentearchief Amsterdam, the Amsterdam notarial archives. He said that the summary didn't indicate that the document was important, so he didn't look at the original until July 2000. At that point it became clear to him that the document referred to the Delaware River rather than the Hudson River, as he had originally thought. Years later, in 2007, while preparing his paper on early Dutch exploration of the Delaware and Hudson rivers, he revisited the historiography and realized that the document pertained to the first voyage up the Delaware by Europeans......... Posted by: William      Read more         Source

April 14, 2007, 1:09 PM CT

How to speak English

Do you know how hard it is for a non-native speaker to learn English.

Watch this video and see for yourself......... Posted by: Tom      Read more