Tag Archives: new zealand

Cultural “Tightness” Can Hold Back Female Leadership – But not Always, Says University of Toronto Study

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2012Culture, Politicscultural norms, cultural tightness, deutsche telekom, geoffrey leonardelli, german company, germanic europe, hungary, ken mcguffin, leader, new zealand, Pakistan, scandinavian country, sex, society, soo min toh, south korea, statistics, turkey, ukraine, university of toronto, women, women leaders, world bank

Normative support for equality can make the difference

Countries that more strictly uphold their cultural norms are less likely to promote women as leaders, unless those norms support equal opportunity for both sexes, shows a new paper from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

“Cultural tightness can prevent the emergence of women leaders because tighter cultures may make a society’s people more resistant to changing the traditionally-held practice that placed men in leadership roles,” said Professor Soo Min Toh, who is cross-appointed to the Rotman School and the University of Toronto Mississauga, and co-wrote the paper with Professor Geoffrey Leonardelli at the Rotman School and U of T’s Department of Psychology. (more…)

NASA Satellite Finds Earth’s Clouds are Getting Lower

By Guest PostFebruary 23, 2012Environmentadvanced radar, cloud climate feedback, cloud height, clouds, cloudsat, global climate, global cloud, global temperature, global warming, height measurement, indian ocean, misr, NASA, negative feedback, new zealand, roger davies, satellite data, terra spacecraft, university of auckland

Earth’s clouds got a little lower — about one percent on average — during the first decade of this century, finds a new NASA-funded university study based on NASA satellite data. The results have potential implications for future global climate.

Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analyzed the first 10 years of global cloud-top height measurements (from March 2000 to February 2010) from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft. The study, published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed an overall trend of decreasing cloud height. Global average cloud height declined by around one percent over the decade, or by around 100 to 130 feet (30 to 40 meters). Most of the reduction was due to fewer clouds occurring at very high altitudes. (more…)

NASA Map Sees Earth’s Trees in a New Light

By Guest PostFebruary 19, 2012Environment, Scienceaustralia, caltech, carbon, carbon cycle, climate change, cloud, data, earth, effects of topography, eucalyptus, flowering plants, forest, forest canopy, forest habitat, global map of forest height, height, high resolution map, icesat, laser pulse measurements, lidar, light detection and ranging, marc simard, modis, monitor, NASA, new zealand, satellites, south latitude, southern tropical forests, Space, spatial modeling, spatial resolution, trmm sensors, vegetation, worldclim database

PASADENA, Calif. – A NASA-led science team has created an accurate, high-resolution map of the height of Earth’s forests. The map will help scientists better understand the role forests play in climate change and how their heights influence wildlife habitats within them, while also helping them quantify the carbon stored in Earth’s vegetation.

Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the University of Maryland, College Park; and Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Mass., created the map using 2.5 million carefully screened, globally distributed laser pulse measurements from space. The light detection and ranging (lidar) data were collected in 2005 by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System instrument on NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). (more…)

Predators Hunt for A Balanced Diet

By Guest PostJanuary 16, 2012Natureaarhus university, anchomenus dorsalis, ants, aphids, balance of nutrients, balanced diet, beetle larvae, butterfly larvae, calorie content, crickets, denmark, female beetles, food webs, fruit flies, garden insect, grasshoppers, ground beetle, kim jensen, massey university, moths, new zealand, nutritional value, offspring, omnivores, predators, predatory animals, slugs, university of exeter

Predators select their prey in order to eat a nutritionally balanced diet and give themselves the best chance of producing healthy offspring.

A University of Exeter and Oxford-led study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows for the first time that predatory animals choose their food on the basis of its nutritional value, rather than just overall calorie content.

An international team of scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Oxford in the UK, University of Sydney (Australia), Aarhus University (Denmark) and Massey University (New Zealand) based their research on the ground beetle, Anchomenus dorsalis, a well-known garden insect that feasts on slugs, aphids, moths, beetle larvae and ants. (more…)

What’s so Unique About the Tropics?

By Guest PostSeptember 23, 2011Environment, Sciencebeta diversity, brad boyle, calgary, canada, costa rica, distribution of biodiversity across the globe, ecological mechanisms, ecologists, elevations in mountain regions, extinctions, geographical scales, latitudinal diversity gradient, nathan j b kraft, new zealand, northern europe, panama, south america, speciation, temperate forests of canada, tropical rainforests of southeast asia, tropics, university of arizona ecologist, university of british columbia, university of maryland

“Less than we thought,” researchers say in a new study providing insights into the distribution of biodiversity across the globe.

The temperate forests of Canada or Northern Europe may have much more in common with the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia or South America than previously believed, according to a research group including a University of Arizona ecologist.

The assertion, published as the cover article in the journal Science, is focused on the concept of “beta-diversity” – a measure of the change in species composition between two sites, such as neighboring patches of forest. High beta-diversity means that two given sites have few species in common. (more…)

‘Gears of War 3’ is an Action-Packed Father and Son Story

By Guest PostSeptember 20, 2011Technologyamerican chopper, anya stroud, chris wynn, christmas, delta squad, discovery channel, dlcs, downloadable content, epic games, gears of war, gears of war 3, locust horde, marcus fenix, microsoft studios, new york city, new zealand, paul teutul, role playing games, rpgs, sci fi warfare trilogy, times square, troops of delta squad, xbox 360, xbox live

*Thousands of retailers around the world are opening their doors at midnight for the launch of the long-awaited “Gears of War 3,” a dramatic, action-packed finale to the Xbox 360 sci-fi warfare trilogy.*

REDMOND, Wash. – “Gears of War 3,” the dramatic, action-packed, much-anticipated conclusion to the blockbuster Xbox 360 trilogy, marches out at midnight.

Fans who have been waiting for the final chapter in the sci-fi warfare saga are lining up around the world to buy the game, which goes on sale at 12 a.m. on Tuesday, September 20. With 20,000 launch locations, the release is the franchise’s biggest, stretching from New Zealand to Times Square. (more…)

First Global Picture of Greenhouse Gases Emerges from Pole-to-Pole Research Flights

By Guest PostSeptember 10, 2011Environmentandy watt, anne-marie schmoltner, Antarctic, Arctic, black carbon particles, britton stephens, carbon dioxide, climate, concentrations of greenhouse gases, earth, global distribution of gases, gulfstream v aircraft, harvard university, hiaper, hiaper pole to pole observations, high performance instrumented airborne platform for environmental research, hippo, Houston, industrial age, los angeles, national science foundation, natural carbon dioxide uptake and storage, new zealand, nsf, pacific, particles in the atmosphere, portrait of greenhouse gases, ryan spackman, steven wofsy

*Three-year series of scientific missions from Arctic to Antarctic produces new views of atmospheric chemistry*

A three-year series of research flights from the Arctic to the Antarctic has successfully produced an unprecedented portrait of greenhouse gases and particles in the atmosphere.

The far-reaching field project, known as HIPPO, ends this week, and has enabled researchers to generate the first detailed mapping of the global distribution of gases and particles that affect Earth’s climate. (more…)

Imagine Cup Competitors Fired Up by Ballmer, Sachs, and Crowley; Finalists Announced

By Guest PostJuly 12, 2011Technologyarthur vanderveen, Bangladesh, brazil, bulgaria, columbia university, cyber knightz, dennis crowley, earth institute, economist, foursquare, france, imagine cup, imagine cup 2011, India, information technology, Japan, jeffrey sachs, limits of ecosystems, limits of food supply, malaysia, Microsoft, microsoft ceo, Netherlands, new york city, new york city department of education, new zealand, resource limits, romania, senegal, steve ballmer, Thailand, wai lun chan, world finals

*Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, economist Jeffrey Sachs, and Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley opened the Imagine Cup 2011 World Finals on Friday night. The competition heated up over the weekend with the first set of finalists being announced Sunday night.*

NEW YORK CITY – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer inspired them to be great, economist Jeffrey Sachs gave them the homework assignment of saving the world, and Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley showed them how tangibly close they are to success.

Students representing 70 countries and regions descended on New York City over the weekend to participate in the Imagine Cup 2011 Worldwide Finals, which challenges students from across the globe to use technology to solve world problems like feeding the hungry, fighting disease, and creating new forms of energy. Finalists in the competition’s nine categories were announced on Sunday and the overall winners will be announced on Wednesday. (more…)