WINE
As a result of the heatwave that gripped Europe this summer, French wine growers began their earliest harvests ever betting that this year's vintage will be one of the most flavourful in years. The hot sun means everything will be concentrated, the flavour, the sugar and the taste. The alcohol content will also be higher. Wines that are normally at 12 per cent will be at 12.5 or even 13 per cent.
STUDENTS
Canadian students who worked moderate hours at a paid job during their last year of high school were least likely to drop out of school, according to a new report. This report used data covering youth aged 18 to 20 from the 2000 Youth in Transition Survey. However, those who worked 30 or more hours a week during their last year of high school were the most likely to end up leaving. The report confirmed previous research showing that there is a strong relationship between the number of hours students worked and dropping out of high school.
PETS
Japan's largest home and office security company is about to offer a service for pets. Owners can place a sensor, weighing about 48 grams, in a small pouch around the neck or on the back of a dog. Using satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) and mobile phone networks, the owner can locate their missing pet to within 50 metres. The service will require a $48.00 registration fee and a monthly fee of $7.00. The company hopes to register 10,000 canines by the end of the first year.
CHEMICALS
High natural gas prices are causing turmoil among U.S. chemical manufacturers, stripping the industry of long-held global advantages and speeding the move of chemicals, plastics and fertilizer production overseas. U.S. chemical companies are closing plants, laying off workers and looking to expand their own production abroad. Meanwhile, foreign producers are grabbing bigger chunks of the U.S. market for chemical-based products such as plastic shopping bags.
FRAUD
Canada and other major countries are teaming up to fight an explosion of cross-border fraud schemes, many of them Internet- based. Canada is the leading source of international business fraud schemes targeting Americans, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. It is estimated that they cost Americans US$11-billion last year. U.S consumers filed 13,992 complaints about Canadian-based companies, accounting for more than half of the 24,213 international cross-border complaints it received.
CATFISH
Vietnamese catfish farmers say that the U.S. will destroy thousands of jobs by imposing sanctions on frozen filets shipped to America and will hamper future trade relations between the two former enemies. The U.S. has ruled that Vietnamese exporters dumped catfish on the American market at unfairly low prices. Tariffs will now range from 36.84 to 63.88 percent. Vietnam's catfish industry employs up to 400,000 people in the southern Mekong Delta and ships about a third of its exports to the U.S.
TIDES
Energy pioneers have launched the world's first offshore tidal energy turbine about a mile offshore in Lynmouth, England. The C$6-million dollar, single 11-metre long rotor blade, will be capable of producing 300 kilowatts of electricity and will be a testbed for further tidal turbines. It is hoped to convert the system to twin rotors by the end of next year.
TELEMATICS
The Canadian government is so worried about drivers being distracted by vehicle information systems that it is preparing to regulate the devices, perhaps even forcing automakers to ensure they wont operate when cars are in gear. The growing use of so-called telematics --which started with cellphones, but are now extending to computer screens offering navigation help and alarms that warn drivers when they are straying out of their lanes, threatens road safety. A British study showed drivers talking on cellphones had far slower reaction times than even drunk drivers.
WATER
Alaskan glaciers add 13.2 trillion gallons of melted water to the seas each year. Their rate of water runoff has doubled over just a few decades. Scientists believe that Alaska's melting glaciers are the number one reason the world's oceans are rising.
PHARMACIES
Growing demand from Americans has caused rapid growth in web-based Canadian pharmacies. More than 50 of these pharmacies are operating in Canada, employing roughly 2,000 Canadians and generating sales of as much as C$1-billion annually. Internet stores have also sprung up in Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, all mainly supplying the U.S. market.
REWARDS
Parents in the wealthy southern Chinese city of Guangzhou have been rewarding their children with cosmetic surgery when they pass their high school exams. Girls are being given nose jobs and work around their eyes while boys have operations to cut out excess fat as a treat for winning places to university. Guangzhou, formerly Canton, is one of the richest cities in China.
POSTCARDS
The tourism sector in Singapore has been battered badly due to the SARS epidemic and its airline pushed into the red for the first time ever. Now the government is fighting back delivering three postcards with pre-paid international postage to every household in Singapore. The aim is to encourage Singaporeans to get friends and relations to pay them a visit and in the process help revitalize the island's flagging economy.
SUN
The Sun, at 4.55 billion years old has already burned up 50 per cent of the hydrogen fuel in its core. As it slowly converts the core from hydrogen to helium it grows bigger and brighter. By the time it is nine billion years old, it will be about 40 per cent brighter than today.
MIRRORS
Some fashion shops in Beijing are using "magic mirrors" to fool fat women customers into thinking they look slimmer in their clothes. The shops are buying specially-made mirrors with a curved surface to make people look more slender when they try on items in the fitting rooms.
MEXICO
After a decade of lavish Spanish investment in Mexico, a broad range of Mexican companies are returning the favour. In the past two years, Mexican companies have invested about US$300-million in Spanish projects and acquisitions. This is small compared to the billions Spanish companies have invested in Latin America, but it does send an important message to Europe that Mexican companies are gearing up to compete well beyond the Americas.
OBESITY
Two out of three households surveyed by ACNielsen said the parent or guardian was to blame for obesity in children 17 and under, with fast-food manufacturers blamed by only 10 per cent and food manufacturers named by only one per cent. Three quarter of those surveyed said that schools should adopt new policies to address child obesity.
BAGS
Picnickers in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh could soon have a shock if they carry their lunch in a polythene bag. Under a new law, anyone found using a polythene bag could face seven years in jail or a fine. The law bans the production, storage, use, sale and distribution of plastic bags. In May, the South African government banned the use of thin plastic bags, threatening a ten-year jail sentence for offenders. In Ireland, a tax on plastic shopping bags has significantly reduced their use.
CALLS
More than 30 million Americans have so far signed up for the government's do-not-call list, a free registry for blocking unsolicited telephone sales pitches. 3.4 million have signed up in California, 2.2. million in Florida and 2 million in Texas. Eight out of every ten people who joined did so on-line rather than by telephone. Telemarketers have challenged the list in court, saying the registry will cost them US$50-billion in business and cause the loss of two million jobs.
PIGS
The little country of Denmark, with 5.4 million humans, raises 24 million pigs each year making it the world's biggest exporter of pork. While the number of farms is decreasing, their size is increasing. Twenty years ago, 60,000 Danish farms produced 13 million pigs. Now some 13,000 farmers produce twice as many. Environmentalists are concerned because pig waste would fill the equivalent of 90,000 average-size swimming pools annually. The tourist industry is worried because of the smell.
TRENDS
Firefighters in Fife, Scotland, have been given photo messaging mobile phones to enable them to send images of injuries to doctors before patients reach hospital. Doctors can also make a decision on whether to go to assist at an accident scene. The trial will run for six months and then be reviewed.
AIR
General Motors and DaimlerChrysler are dropping lawsuits against California over a landmark clean-air regulation that requires the production of low-emission cars and trucks over the next decade and a half. The move creates a temporary but monumental environmental truce between the auto industry and California which wields enormous influence over the global industry.
VANILLA
For many consumers, a tiny bottle of vanilla extract is as common to their kitchen as bread and butter. In 2000, a 4-ounce bottle of pure vanilla extract cost consumers about US$5.00. They now pay US$15.00. On the commodities market, vanilla beans cost importers about US$33.00 per kilogram in 2000: that costs is now about US$156.00. Madagascar, an island off Africa, produces 70 per cent of the world's vanilla crop. Political and environmental issues caused the spike in prices. Between 2000 and 2003, consumers began to buy much more imitation vanilla and many food companies are taking vanilla out of their recipes alltogether.
COSTS
According to an Economist survey of 134 cities, Tokyo is still the world's most expensive city. The cost of living there is 37 per cent more than in New York. However, as a result of a stronger euro, Paris has now overtaken London, which itself is nine per cent costlier than New York. At the other extreme, one can live in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo or Manila for half the cost of New York. Toronto is eighteenth on the list.
DROPPINGS
There is a 120 -year-old statue in Japan on which birds never perch and plaster with droppings. After several experiments, a scientist has determined that the gallium content of the bronze is repelling the birds. The researcher is now developing a gallium-rich spray for statues and public buildings.
SUCCESS
Britain's Royal Mail celebrated a landmark recently that many companies would have kept quiet by revealing that it is losing around 280,000 letters each week. The chief executive said that the Royal Mail's ability to mislay the equivalent of 14.5 million letters each year was "a major step in the right direction" as it had been losing 500,000 letters a week last year.
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