The two started by talking about Jefferson’s first days at the school, 23 years ago. He admitted to being a little nervous — “just like a new student,” he said.

“My first boss, she was a nun — I never had met a nun before,” Jefferson said. “She was a nice lady, though.”

Jefferson has been married to Annie Lois Jefferson for 25 years. They have no children.

“But God made up for it,” Jefferson said. “I got all you guys.”

Smith told him, “You feel like parents to all us students. And so, you’re like family.”

“I feel the same way,” Jefferson said. “It’s like the whole school, all the kids are my family. And I’m going to watch out for you, just like I watch out for them.”

via School Custodian Has Big Role — And Big Heart : NPR.

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In both poor and wealthy countries and populations, mobile phone use has enabled and facilitated the expansion of markets, social business and public services. An entire range of economic services, enabled by mobile phones, has emerged – banking and financial transactions, marketing and distribution, employment services, personal services, and public services. [1] Beyond economic impacts, improvements are being made in other freedoms or dimensions of well-being: personal security, political participation and accountability, peace, dignity and opportunity.

…

via Publius Project.

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However in 2004, a group of 11 provinces and administrative regions along the Pearl River Basin, in southern China, joined together in a unique, bottom-up initiative. Members of the Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD) declared their willingness to cooperate in water pollution abatement and sustainable development. This suggested a new path for environmental resource management in China. But five years on, did this approach really represent a new horizon for managing transboundary rivers in China? Or did institutional issues still constrain the project?

…

Existing economic interdependencies between the provinces and their platform of cooperation – the PPRD economic development agreement – have allowed the promotion of cooperation in environmental protection in the region. But why has this cooperation not yielded active joint action to fight water pollution? I suggest that the main reasons for this limited cooperation are: the dependence of the EPBs on funding from local governments; the unwillingness of local governments of poorer upstream provinces to invest in joint efforts to reduce pollution; the inability of Guangdong province to oblige upstream provinces to act, because of the hierarchical rank structure of the respective governments; the unwillingness of Guangdong, though a rich province, to bear the burden of the costs of regional cooperation; and the efforts of Guangdong, as well as other provinces, to shift the responsibility for funding on to the central government.

Thus, the existing governance structure in China limits even this bottom-up initiative for environmental cooperation. It is also unlikely that this structure will be significantly reformed in the near future, since the central government continues to focus on strengthening its central power. However, under the existing structure there are some steps which could be taken to promote environmental cooperation and improve sustainable management of environmental resources in China.

First, environmental protection efforts should be included in the evaluation of local government officials, to enhance their incentives to invest in environmental protection programmes. Second, the independence of the MEP and EPBs should be strengthened through direct funding of their operations, in order to help them act independently of local governments and enhance their enforcement of regulations on environmental protection across China. Finally, the central government could improve the incentives of provinces and localities to participate in cooperative mechanisms, such as the PPRD. The central government could provide support both in clear administrative recognition of such mechanisms – and in financial assistance when it is needed.

via Fighting pollution on the Pearl River | Reut Barak – China Dialogue.

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Most people would assume that 20 years from now when historians look back at 2008-09, they will conclude that the most important thing to happen in this period was the Great Recession. I’d hold off on that. If we can continue stumbling out of this economic crisis, I believe future historians may well conclude that the most important thing to happen in the last 18 months was that Red China decided to become Green China.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The New Sputnik – NYTimes.com.

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Other members of the Group of 20 trail well behind in their percentages of such investment from stimulus money, the U.N. agency found.

via Stimulus Is Greenest in South Korea and China – NYTimes.com.

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One question is “What will China do?” said Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. And, just as importantly, he added, it’s “Will Congress accept it?”

The world may get an answer to the first question tomorrow, when Chinese President Hu Jintao speaks to the U.N. General Assembly. He is expected to announce a major climate change plan, which some experts say could include a new five-year commitment to reducing the greenhouse gas content of China’s economy, and may indicate when China plans to peak its emissions before lowering them.

via China Emerges as the Yin and the Yang of the Global Warming Problem – NYTimes.com.

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According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries, recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising worldwide. 90% of consumers surveyed said that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70% trusted consumer opinions posted online.

via MediaPost Publications Consumers Trust Recommendations From Friends Online, Opinions From Strangers 07/13/2009.

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A mobile phone application will help professional and “citizen” scientists collect and analyse data from “in the field”, anywhere in the world.

The EpiCollect software collates data from certain mobiles – on topics such as disease spread or the occurrence of rare species – in a web-based database.

The data is statistically analysed and plotted on maps that are instantly available to those same phones.

The approach is outlined in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.

The software has been developed for so-called smartphones that run Google’s Android open-source operating system.

via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Mobile app sees science go global.

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