Digital native or information alien?
Special report from IAALD 2010: Are young people really the digital jugglers we’ve been led to believe? We’ve grown accustomed to seeing many young people as multi-tasking wiz kids who operate freely in technology rich space on the internet, free to interact with who they choose, and able to conjure relevant information at the drop of…
Can librarians, scientists and IT geeks feed the world?
Special report from IAALD 2010: At the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists (IAALD) meeting in Montpellier this week, representatives from these groups have got together to discuss just this issue. Mark Holderness, Executive Secretary of GFAR thinks these ‘knowledge managers’ have a key role to play in ensuring that agricultural information is accessible…
Tree rings help predict monsoon weather patterns
Historical rainfall across Asia has been documented for the first time from tree-ring data from more than 300 sites in the region. This data has provided information on monsoon rains dating back as far as 1300 AD, which will prove valuable for climate modelling. Much of the world's population lives in monsoon Asia and depends…
Challenges of sharing knowledge – including volcanoes
The struggle to make agricultural information more widely available faces many challenges, but they do not normally include volcanic eruptions. For the last few days, the IAALD conference on Scientific and Technical Information and Rural Development’s website has been providing updates on the effects of activity from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. So it was a big…
Don’t kill birds with kindness
With my son starting to show an interest in feeding our garden birds, I was interested to read two reports this month reminding us to do so with care. Researchers from the Scottish Agricultural College have highlighted the fact that Salmonella can build up on feeders or drinkers, with the potential to kill birds already…
The effects of the Icelandic volcano that didn’t make the news!
Image from National Geographic. Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption on 12th April made the news yesterday (3 days later) mainly because of its effect on air traffic movement around the UK, Scandinavian countries and other European countries, with airports in many countries still being shut today. The particles of rock and silica in the volcanic ash…
Capturing and reusing rainwater in L A – it’s the law!
In a news item I read in the IWA publication online, Water 21, it was reported that the Los Angeles Department of Public Works has agreed a new law that will require the use of one of several means of capturing, reusing or redirecting rainwater runoff such as rain gardens, infiltration swales and rain storage…
Wot no conference bag?
Leading by example is important in public health. How can you convince someone to change if you haven’t tried yourself? UKPHA was leading by example by reducing its carbon footprint this week in Bournemouth. Bag making workshop at UKPHA. (photo courtesy Wendie Norris)
World Water Day 2010 – Clean Water for a Healthy World
World Water Day is held annually on the 22nd of March and this year’s UN selected theme is “Clean Water for a Healthy World.” With over 1.1 billion people (around one sixth of the world’s population) in the world today lacking access to clean water and with less than 1% of the world’s freshwater being…
Vitamin D and flu
Since my recent post on the growing health claims for vitamin D (see: Bring on the sunshine!), the 'sunshine vitamin' has continued to appear in the headlines. Of note is a study from Japan (just published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)1 suggesting that the risk of children contracting influenza A may be reduced if…