Archive for February 20th, 2010

more than 75 percent believe the Internet will make people smarter within the next decade

more than 75 percent believe the Internet will make people smarter within the next decade

Results released on Friday from an online survey of 895 Web surfers and experts, revealed that more than 75 percent believe the Internet will make people smarter within the next decade of IBM 92p1101 battery .The survey, conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University in North Carolina and the Pew Internet and American Life project, revealed that most of participants also feel the Internet would improve reading and writing skills within that time too.

Janna Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center and co-author of the survey, told Reuters “Three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence of Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery , and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge.”

In contrast, 21 percent of the respondents believe the Internet will be responsible for lowering the IQs of those who use it frequently.The online survey gathered opinions from people from all areas of the spectrum. Scientists, business leaders, writers, developers of vgp bps8a , and Internet users screened by the research team, as well as others partook in the study. Of the 895 people surveyed, 371 were considered “experts.”

This is going to be a painful process within OPEC. Compliance with output quotas has already slid to 58 percent in January from 61 percent in December, the International Energy Agency estimated. With the global energy balance seems preparing to enter a new phase, the issue of quota compliance could assume greater importance at IBM 92P1102 battery ,IBM 92P1087 battery ,IBM 92P1060 battery . Already the issue of peak oil has been pushed to sidelines and instead the peak demand mantra seems to be moving, albeit slowly and gradually, toward the center stage.

Oil demand has been on the decline in some industrialized nations since before 2008, when a sharp downturn first gripped the global economy. Since then, the downturn has continued and the trend of falling oil demand for Sony VGP-BPS9/B battery has expanded to the US, the world’s top oil consumer. Currently, the economic crisis is seen as the foremost driver of declining oil demand. But some expect longer-lasting influences, such as a new emphasis on conserving fuel and energy in the US, to carry the downward trend decades into the future.

In its monthly report, the International Energy Agency noted that the economic recovery could very well come without a recovery in oil demand in the OECD nations, warning that OECD demand has peaked for Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery ,Sony VGP-BPS8 battery .”And if oil demand has peaked in the developed world, oil producers have a lot to worry about-OECD nations will account for 53 percent of world demand in 2010.

The survey was conducted based partly on an August 2008 cover story in the Atlantic Monthly titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by tech writer Nicholas Carr for IBM 92p1101 battery ,IBM 92P1102 battery . The survey also revealed that 42 percent of experts think that anonymous online activity will be cracked down on by 2020, due to tighter security and ID systems. 55 percent believe it will still be fairly easy to surf the ‘Net anonymously by then.

In the article, Carr implied that heavy use of the Web was obstructing concentration and deep thinking of its users. He stated that the Internet shifts the emphasis of our intelligence away from vgp bps8a ,vgp bps2c of “what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence.”

Carr, who participated in the survey, told the authors he still agreed with his original stance. “The price of zipping among lots of bits of information is a loss of depth in our thinking on Sony VGP-BPS9/B battery ,Sony VGP-BPS9 battery .”But Craigslist founder Craig Newmark said that people are already using Websites such as Google like they were an appendage to their own memory.

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check out the Swedish model For The Nuclear Waste

check out the Swedish model For The Nuclear Waste

If the United States is at a loss over what to do about nuclear waste, it may be time to check out the Swedish model.A symposium at the annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science in San Diego this week highlighted the Swedish power industry in gaining public support for a geological repository for high-level radioactive waste of Sony VGP-BPS9/B battery .

The Scandinavian success comes in stark contrast to the progress in the U.S., where spent nuclear fuel rods have remained for decades in temporary storage at power plants around the country for IBM 92p1101 battery ,IBM 92P1102 battery,IBM 92P1087 battery . Meanwhile, Congress has debated where to bury them, decided on a repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and then changed its mind.

The Obama administration, mindful of the fierce resistance of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), has opposed Yucca and, in the 2011 budget, slashed all funding for the project led by the Department of Energy for Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery ,Sony VGP-BPS8 battery . At the same time, President Obama called for “a new generation of safe clean nuclear plants,” and has budgeted $36 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear power.

Like the U.S., Sweden, which gets 50% of its electricity from nuclear plants, has faced opposition in its three-decade quest to find a suitable long-term burial site. Protests halted studies at several sites for vgp bps8a .And the Swedes had a high barrier to overcome: Under Swedish law, any municipality can veto a repository within its borders.

The key, according to Claes Thegerstrom, chief executive of Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., was a methodical, deliberate process, with a dash of human psychological insight for Sony VGP-BPS9/S battery .Between 1977 and 1985, the private company acting on behalf of the nuclear industry studied the geological suitability of 12 sites. It then conducted scientific feasibility studies of eight sites.

By 2002, it had narrowed the search to two municipalities, one south of Stockholm and the other north of the capital.The industry worked closely with citizens groups, local politicians and civic groups throughout the process, listening to their views. It was a marked contrast, remarked one former Yucca engineer in the audience of Sony VGP-BPS9/B battery ,Sony VGP-BPS9 battery , to the process in the U.S., where the public comment period to review 60,000 pages of federal documents was 60 days.

“We looked at how we communicated,” Thegerstrom said, adding that the company gave no intimation that the waste was safe. Instead “we started with the basic message: This spent fuel is very dangerous. It exists, so we have to find a solution.”By the time the choice was narrowed to two sites, Thegerstrom noted, “some basic psychological things played a role of IBM 92P1060 battery . One was to have different options. In our case, we got to the point of having competition. That is a strong driving force.”

Each of the two municipalities came to see the repository as a source of jobs and international prestige and was “eager to be selected.”
Another difference: The U.S. effort was led by the Department of Energy for vgp bps2c , with Congress pulling the strings, canceling the original plan to have one repository in the East and another in the West, and instead anointing Yucca.

“There were selection criteria” for geological, tectonic and geochemical suitability, noted Allison Macfarlane, a George Mason University geologist who served on the symposium panel of IBM 92p1101 battery ,IBM 92P1102 battery , “but they were abandoned.”Thegerstrom said the national government in Sweden, once it enacted a law allowing a repository, maintained a hands-off policy as to its location, allowing industry officials to make the decision, in consultation with local government.

“In Sweden, the industry is responsible,” he said. “But in the U.S., the industry is absent from the nuclear waste discussion. That seems very strange.”The Swedish underground repository, in crystalline bedrock for vgp bps8a ,vgp bps2c is expected to be built by 2020.Macfarlane, recently appointed to Obama’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, said future decisions in the U.S. should include geologists “in a decision-making role” and allow communities to reject sites.

Multiple repositories will be needed, not only because there is too much waste for Yucca alone, if it were to be revived, but also, she said, “to restore a sense of fairness and share the burden of Sony VGP-BPS8 battery .”The U.S. should consider “moving waste management out” of the Department of Energy, Macfarlane suggested, perhaps into a public-private partnership.

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