Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company
FRIDAY REPORT OF 12/15/06
The Most Direct, Frequent Link to Knowledge Workers in the Eastern Forest Economy
“BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2006”
This valuable list appears in the 12/7/06 print edition of THE ECONOMIST. When I printed it on my computer, it ran to 8½ pages. To read it, click on http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8380365
“THE RACE TO BAN WHAT’S BAD FOR US
Trans fat, smoking, foie gras –what’s next?
by NICK GILLESPIE, Editor-in-chief of REASON”
Portions of an article on Reasononline
“Trans fats, which are made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils, are flavor-enhancing substances that many commercially prepared baked goods and fast foods so predictably artery clogging. They are reviled by physicians, nutritionists, and exercise gurus – everyone, in short, except for cooks and their customers…
“Such bans often are, by turns, mendacious, redundant and likely to be ineffective. The trans fat ban, averred Bloomberg, is ‘not going to take away anybody’s ability to go out and have the kind of food they want,’ even as it limits what ingredients can be used.
“Fast food chains such as Wendy’s and KFC had already committed to ridding their menus of trans fats, as had various high-end eateries in New York and elsewhere. And in a country in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say 65 percent of adults are overweight, it’s ridiculous to expect the ban to have any serious impact on the supersizing of American waistlines or cholesterol levels…
“But even when bans do have an impact that most of us would agree is positive, one-size-fits-all actions leave no place for individuals to make some intensely personal choices.
“They ignore the evolving social arrangements -- such as non-smoking sections, not to mention smoke-free businesses – that give people, especially the 20 percent of adults who still light up regularly, more options rather than fewer. By the time Washington state passed its ultra-restrictive smoking ban last year – a law that outlaws lighting up even in cigar bars! – 80 percent of restaurants there were already tobacco free.
“Most important, these bans reduce all of us to the status of children, incapable of making informed choices. Is it quaint to suggest that there’s something wrong with that in a country founded on the idea of the individual’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?”
To read the complete article, click on http://www.reason.com/news/show/117171.html
“NEW CHIPS ON THE BLOCK”
Portions of an article from Economist.com on 11/30/06
“Biotechnology: DNA chips have revolutionized biological research. This case history argues that they also have the power to make the practice of medicine much more precise.
“The sequencing of the 3 billion letters of the human genome was a scientific milestone. But it posed a big challenge to researchers in biology, who had to deal with the ensuing deluge of data. An essential part of the solution turned out to be the DNA microarray, a tiny glass chip dotted with thousands of DNA fragments that can be used to measure the activity of genes or identify variations in people’s genetic make-up…
“So far, the greatest impact of DNA chips has been in basic biology, allowing scientists to study which genes are active (or ‘expressed’) during normal or pathological cell processes and thus providing important insights into the functions of various genes. But in many cases those insights are now working their way into the clinic, either by helping in drug discovery or by aiding in disease diagnosis and treatment decisions…
To read the complete article, click on http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=8312232
“POCKET WORLD IN FIGURES, 2007 EDITION”
Each year THE ECONOMIST sends its subscribers a 250+page pocket book containing a huge array of facts about the countries of the world. Here are some samples:
Countries in m sq km: Russia 17,075, Canada 9,971, China 9,561, US 9,373<>
Rivers in km: Nile 6,695, Amazon 6,516, Yangtze 6,380, MissMissouri 6,019
Deserts in m sq km: Sahara 8,600, Arabia 2,300,…Great Basin SW US 492
2004 Populations m China 1,313, India 1,081, US 297, Indonesia 223
2050 “ “ “ 1,392 “ 1,593 “ 395 “ 285
2005 “ “ Tokyo 35.3, Mexico City 19.0, New York 18.5
Size of economy $bn: US 11,712, Japan 4,623, Germany 2,741, UK 2,124
Purchasing power: GDP per head: 1. Luxembourg 176, US 100, Canada 79
Forests, m hectares: Russia 808, Brazil 478, Canada 310, US 303
“BRITAIN PROVIDES A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING”
Portions of 12/13/06 article in The Economist print edition of 12/13/06:
“The future, noted William Gibson, a science-fiction writer, is already here – it is just unevenly distributed. To see the future of mobile phones, people look to Japan; to see the impact of broadband internet connections, they look to South Korea. And for a glimpse of the future of advertising, the place to look appears to be Britain. The country is a ‘test bed’ according to Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, which has just announced an alliance with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), a British pay-television company. On December 6th the two companies announced that the internet search and advertising giant would provide its search, e-mail, video and advertising services to BskyB’s broadband internet-service customers, with the aim of extending the partnership to BSkyB’s main television business…”
To read the complete article, click on http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=8419032
Visit our partner Wiley.com to save 15% on How
to Make Money Growing Trees and their entire selection of Forestry and Agricultural titles. Your discount will be applied automatically
upon checkout. If you do you not see the discount being applied, please enter
code aff15 in the Promotion Code field and click the Apply Discount button.
|
