Wednesday, December 29, 2004

[Energy efficiency] La. fund would aid energy efficiency Louisiana's Public Service Commission is scheduled to begin considering plans to establish the Louisiana Public Benefits Fund in January. The fund would give incentives for making energy-saving improvements on buildings, would help some consumers pay their utility bills, and would educate consumers on the need for reducing energy use. [Source: WBRZ News] 9:20:19 AM Google It!    [Schools] School is Earth-friendly When the new W.G. Pearson Elementary School opens its glass doors in the fall of 2006, waterless urinals, carpets made of recycled plastic, verdant landscaping and other features will make it the first environmentally certified school in the county. Designers put more than two dozen elements into the $13.4 million school to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating. LEED certification comes from the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit coalition working to promote the construction of buildings that are "environmentally responsible and sustainable." [Source: Raleigh (NC) News & Observer] 9:18:30 AM Google It!    [Recycling] 2004 Christmas Tree Collection in Champaign-Urbana, IL Champaign The dates for the City of Champaign Christmas Tree Collection program have been set. Collection weeks are January 3 through January 7, 2005, AND January 10 through January 14, 2005. City of Champaign residents may participate in this natural Christmas Tree recycling program by placing their trees within four feet of their curb by 6:00 a.m. on their scheduled collection day. The schedule is as follows: Monday: South of Springfield - East of Prospect Tuesday: South of Springfield between Mattis and Prospect Wednesday: South of Springfield - West of Mattis Thursday: North of Springfield - West of Prospect Friday: North of Springfield - East of Prospect Residents participating should remove all decorations, stands, and plastic bags from their tree before setting it out for collection. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Schuh, Operations Manager, Public Works Operations Division, (217)403-4770 Information may also be found by calling the Public Works Hotline at 403-8852 Urbana The City of Urbana will provide Christmas tree collection to all residents during the weeks of January 3-7 and January 10-14 this holiday season. Residents must follow these requirements: Place tree along curb (on the parkway) by 6:00 a.m. on your regular U-CYCLE collection day. Remove all decorations, stands, and all metal from tree before collection. Remember: No Tinsel or Flocked Trees. Remove any Plastic Tree Bags. Trees may be taken to the Landscape Recycling Center (344-5323) at 1210 E. University Ave., Urbana, for FREE disposal. The site is open for recycling of yard waste year-round. Questions? Call 384-2342. 9:16:08 AM Google It!    [Fuel cells] Concept Car-Fuel Cell Nissan Effis Effis city commuter car combines Nissan's newly developed Super Motor and Compact Lithium-ion Battery with a fuel cell stack. [Source: Fuel Cell Works] 9:08:08 AM Google It!    [Web searching] Google Scholar's New Advanced Search Interface Web Search--Google Google Scholar's New Advanced Search Interface The Google Scholar team has released an advanced search interface. You can limit your search by: + Publication (No syntax available) + Date Range (No syntax available) + Words in the Title + Author + View up to 100 results per search Complete documentation and a few caveats here. We haven't had much time to use the new interface but quickly spotted a problem or two (yes, it's a beta) with the date restriction. For example, we limited our searches to only documents published in 2004 and got several non-2004 items. + #1 The first item, a book, was published in 1987. + #2 The first item, a journal article, was published in 1995. + This search is limited to documents published between 2003 and 2004. The first item was published in 2001. To Google's credit, they mention date limiting issues in the documentation. Bottom Line: Be careful! - gary [ResourceShelf] 8:54:00 AM Google It!    [Problem solving] Dave Pollard's Creative Problem Solving Process In previous articles I've described the Innovation Process of gurus like Clay Christensen and Peter Drucker (and my own), and a process for tapping the Wisdom of Crowds. Since then, I've talked to several business leaders about these processes, and they suggested I integrate them together to create a Creative Problem-Solving Process. It appears there may be as many as 12 steps in the process involved in solving problems or making critical decisions, whether in a business context or a broader social context. In most cases, many of these steps are side-stepped or short-circuited, often because the problem-solvers or decision-makers think they already have the information or perspective that doing them would provide. Perhaps this is why so many unimaginative solutions are developed and so many bad decisions are made? Click on the title link to read the full article. [How to Save the World] 8:53:10 AM Google It!    [Recycling] Recycled materials become far more profitable China and Brazil have begun importing more used materials from the United States. [Source: Des Moines Register] 8:29:11 AM Google It!

© Copyright 2005 Laura L. Barnes. Last update: 10/25/2005; 12:08:19 PM.