Sunday, March 25th, 2012
News that the construction industry has been facing a downturn in terms of its economic contribution since 2008 (going down from a 4.8 per cent gross-value-added contribution in 2008 to a four per cent contribution in 2011), despite a boom in the local real estate market, is food for thought. Read More
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Minister of State for Railways K.H. Muniyappa on Saturday said that survey work for six high-speed rail corridors, including the Bangalore-Chennai and Bangalore-Pune routes, was in progress. Speaking at a meet-the-press programme organised here by the Bangalore Reporters Guild, Mr. Muniyappa said the other corridors were Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Pune, Delhi-Agra, and Delhi-Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur. Read More
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has been appointed to lead a new UN commission on life-saving commodities together with co-chair President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. Stoltenberg accepted the invitation to lead the commission from the UN’s secretary general Ban Ki-Moon Friday. The newly launched commission aims to work to increase access to medicines and health supplies for
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
To reduce fuel consumption, Airbus used extremely lightweight materials in its flagship A380. Now cracks have appeared in the wings, and repairs will cost the company hundreds of millions of euros. The problem highlights the engineering dilemma caused by the industry drive for fuel efficiency. Read More
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
The state spends a fraction of what countries like Mexico and Japan spend on their systems. One reason for the lack of interest, experts say, is that California has not experienced a catastrophic quake in more than a century. Read More
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
Recent studies show that satellite radar data can be exploited to map forest height, 3D forest structure and their natural or anthropogenic disturbance with high spatial resolution and accuracy. Since forests assist in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this could prove to be an important tool for assessing carbon stocks and monitoring our planet’s resources. Polarimetric
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
Norway’s oil major Statoil announces it will be opening an office in Harstad, Northern Norway, as part of its push towards the north. Statoil is setting up a separate operational area in Northern Norway due to the considerable increase in activities taking place off the three northernmost counties in Norway. Read More
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
A wind farm developer has paid for archaeologists to scan a cluster of seven Neolithic horned cairns near to where 21 turbines will be erected. The 5,000 year old structures at Hill of Shebster, near Thurso, in Caithness, were used for burials and rituals. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) equipment was used to map the cairns. Read
Saturday, March 24th, 2012
Over 56 million jobs worldwide and $2.2 trillion in GDP are supported by aviation, according to a new report released today at the global Aviation & Environment Summit in Geneva. The report, Aviation: benefits beyond borders, was produced by the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) and Oxford Economics. It outlines an industry that plays a larger role in the global
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
Environment Action Programmes have guided the development of EU environment policy since the early seventies. During this period, environment legislation was consolidated and completed to cover almost all environmental media, with the exception of soil. With the 6th EAP in its final year, the Commission continues to pursue an ambitious environment policy aimed at ensuring
