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EU BODY ADOPTS STRICTER RULES FOR AIRLINE EMISSIONS
The European Parliament has voted that airlines flying in and out of the European Union should join the bloc’s emissions trading system in 2011 and submit to strict caps on their output of greenhouse gases.
The EU assembly, in its first reading on a bill that has drawn ire from the United States and other nations, voted to set a tighter limit on aviation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than first proposed by the European Commission.
It also set one date, 2011, for inclusion of internal EU and intercontinental f
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ELECTRICITY FOR ALL TO
PREVENT CIVIL UNREST
Some of the billions in the world with no electricity might resort to civil unrest unless they are given the power supplies that are a route out of poverty, the head of the World’s Energy Council said recently.
The WEC has said energy supplies must double by 2050 to meet the demands of all households in a report published this week to coincide with the World Energy Congress - a showcase that takes place every three years as part of the group’s ongoing research.
Andre Caille, outgoing chairman of the WEC, said he
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DHL EXPRESS TO INVEST IN SHANGHAI
Deutsche Post’s delivery arm DHL Express will build a $175m air hub in Shanghai as it moves to strengthen its foothold in the fast-growing market, the company has said.
It hopes the new facility, due to be up and running in the second half of 2010, will help it to maintain rapid sales growth in mainland China.
“In the last few years, we have been growing 35 to 40 percent in China,” said Jerry Hsu, also DHL Express’ executive vice president for Asia Pacific.
He added that he hoped to maintain that rate of annu
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BUSINESSES SHOULD LEARN LESSONS WITH ID FRAUD BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT
With the security breach by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the media glare, businesses should be learning lessons about the importance of protecting confidential information, says the British Security Industry Association.
“Compliance with the Data Protection Act is imperative for every business,” says BSIA Information Destruction Section Chairman, Anthony Pearlgood. “By contravening the requirements of the Act and not sufficiently protecting confidential information, businesses run the risk of prosecution by
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PRINTED ELECTRONICS
Printed electronics hold the potential to be a game-changer in a wide variety of end markets, according to a new study from ABI Research. Innovative printing techniques that have the capability to facilitate high volume, low cost manufacturing of electronics components, which will enable new applications that were not previously addressable with traditional electronics manufacturing techniques. ABI Research forecasts that the printed electronics industry will see very high growth rates through 2012 and beyond.
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DAVOS TRADE MEETING
Key trade ministers will meet in Switzerland on January 26 to take stock of the long-running Doha round of trade talks. The informal meeting, at a lunch hosted by Swiss Economy Minister Doris Leuthard, will be an opportunity to discuss some of the major issues holding up a deal in the talks, launched at the end of 2001 to bolster world trade. Leuthard is holding the lunch on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of political and business leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos. Trade ministers ha
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2010 ANTENNA SYSTEMS
The European Space Agency plans to send three miniature satellites into orbit at an altitude of about 450 kms above the earth. The task of the ‘Swarm’ mission is to study the earth’s magnetic field and its changes more thoroughly than ever before. The researchers expect to gain a better understanding of the processes deep inside the Earth and of the global climate.
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SEARCH ENGINAE PLEDGES TO PLANT TREES
An internet search engine has launched the first ever carbon offsetting mouse scheme.
Every time you use your mouse to search the web or shop online using MagicTaxi.com they will give 50 percent of the revenue they receive through advertising and commission referrals to the Woodland Trust to plant trees.
A spokesman for MagicTaxi.com said: “We chose to partner with the Woodland Trust as we wanted the trees purchased to be grown within the UK, so that we could be confident they would reach full maturity and our use
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3D-TV MADE POSSIBLE
BY ARTIFICIAL ‘WORMHOLES’
Artificial ‘wormholes’ can make construction of a three-dimensional TV screen possible, according to newly published research.
In the proposed device the ends of the wormholes act in a fashion similar to pixels and could be used to generate three-dimensional images. An international group of mathematicians have now created a model for constructing a wormhole.
Matti Lassas, Professor in Mathematics, who works in the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in Inverse Problems at Helsinki University of Technology, an
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ENGINEERS DEVELOP BEAM TO GIVE INDUSTRY A MOTH’S EYE VIEW
When a moth flies at night, its eyes need to capture all the light available. To do this, certain species have evolved nanoscopic structures on the surface of their eyes which allow almost no light to reflect off the surface and hence to escape.
Now scientists at MicroBridge, a project at the Manufacturing Engineering Centre (MEC), at Cardiff University, have adopted the model to create an industrial lens for use in a low light environment.
The structures on the surface of the new lens are less than 100 nanometres
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| Brains and beauty |
Furness and West Cumbria’s West Coast is about to experience a major investment that will strengthen the tourism and industry s ...
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| National Stadium, Beijing |
At the pinnacle of its construction, the National Stadium in Beijing had 7,000 workers toiling over the infrastructure. ...
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No smoke without fire
It seems that commentators, industry heads, central bankers and, dare I say it, Industrial Focus’s own journalists have made so ...
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Innovation for the nations
Hope for the future has arisen from the turmoil of the last few months, as industrial technologies have spun out some marvels o ...
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Supposedly the construction
materials of the future, composites are increasingly seen in
applications where optimum efficiency is paramount including
aircraft construction and renewable energy. As two research
examples show in this video, composites really are the future
for efficiency.
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