NCET

Some in the aviation industry say they could one day be flying the biggest jets across the planet without contributing to climate change — using biofuels.

They also say that it will be easier to convert planes to biofuels than land transport, because there are fewer planes than cars, trucks and buses, and there is a far less complex infrastructure to deal with, comprising only a few hundred airport fueling stations across the globe.

On Tuesday, Air New Zealand joined a clutch of other commercial airlines in testing out alternative fuels.

During a two-hour flight to and from Auckland International Airport, the Air New Zealand crew sought to test how the fuel, made from jatropha plants and blended 50:50 with Jet A1 fuel in the tank of one of four Rolls-Royce engines on a 747-400, stood up to use at high altitudes and in other demanding conditions.

Air New Zealand and the other companies participating the project were to “review all the results as part of our drive to have jatropha certified as an aviation fuel,” said Air New Zealand Chief Pilot Captain David Morgan, who was part of the test flight.

Using jatropha-based fuel still emits carbon dioxide, but the gas is typically recycled in the growing of the feedstock, so there is ostensibly no additional CO₂ added to the atmosphere.

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Groups that provide free counseling to business owners have seen a modest uptick in calls for help as the economy has weakened.

Counseling groups suspect, however, that they’re hearing from only a small portion of the business owners that need assistance.

“The ones we are seeing now — I wish we could have gotten hold of them six months ago,” says Rod Jorgensen, director of business counseling at the Nevada Small Business Development Center in Reno.

And six months from now, Jorgensen said, he expects the center’s counselors will be even more aware that early intervention might have saved some troubled businesses. Read more:

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Inventors of an academic social networking Web site will launch at all Reno high schools and University of Nevada, Reno in January. Mark Garro and Rajan Chakrabarty of Isotome LLC made a pitch for funding at the Silver and Gold Venture Capital Conference, but the economy caused investors to become cautious, says Garro. Instead, Chakrabarty contacted a host of Nevada investors directly. The founders also added John Dunlap and Cecile McCumber to the team, and partnered with Exyst Design Firm to develop a more robust protoype. Isotome expects to serve 40,000 students next year under the Web site brand classcommon.com The founders had redesigned the program three times to satisfy their taste for perfection and to be competitive in the market, says Garro.

Technorati Tags: University of Nevada Reno,Mark Garro,Rajan Chakrabarty,Isotome LLC,Silver and Gold Venture Capital Conference,John Dunlap,Cecile McCumber,Exyst Design Firm,classcommon.com,NCET. Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology,Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology,Northern Nevada Business Weekly

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Nevada Policy Research Institute Policy Summit – January 14, 2009 – The Orleans, Las Vegas, Nevada

AGENDA:
7:15 a.m. Registration
8:00 a.m. Breakfast – How Business Leaders Make Genuine Education Reform Happen
Dr. Matthew Ladner, Vice-President Research, Goldwater Institute, Phoenix, AZ
9:00 a.m. break
9:15 a.m. Charter schools in the real world
Charters are the future
Presenter: Karen Elzey, Executive Director, The Institute for a Competitive Workforce of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The Broadening School Choice Movement
Presenter: Scott Jensen, National Director of State Projects, Alliance for School Choice
10:15 a.m. break
10:30 a.m. How Value-added assessment reveals which schools – and teachers – are succeeding
Presenter: Dr. John Stone, President, Education Consumers Foundation, Phoenix, AZ
Discussants:
Dr. Karlene McCormick-Lee, Associate Superintendent, Clark County School District
Monte Miller, CEO, KeyState Corporate Management, Las Vegas, NV and Wilmington, DE
11:30 a.m. break
11:45 a.m  The fiscal impact on Nevada of corporation tax credits foreducation
Presenter: Andrew Coulson, Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute
Discussants:
Dr. Susan Aud, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Education, and consultant, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice
Leigh Berdrow, Founder and Administrator, ACE High School, Reno, NV
12:45 p.m. break
1:00 p.m. luncheon -How business can build great schools
Making change in the real world
Presenters: Gary Jacobs and Larry Rosenstock, founders, High Tech High schools
High Tech High began in 2000 as a single charter high school launched by a coalition of San Diego business leaders and educators. It has evolved into a school development organization with a growing portfolio of innovative charter schools spanning grades
K-12. HTH combats the twin problems of student disengagement and low academic achievement by creating personalized, project-based learning environments where all students are well known by their teachers and are challenged to meet high expectations.

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has just released its Small Business Survival Index 2008, an attempt to rank the 50 states based on the quality of the policy environment for entrepreneurs. What that means, given the SBEC’s pro-free-market leanings, is that a good policy environment is determined by how much the government gets out of the way and does not drain wealth from businesses. So, the variables used in the report include income tax rates, state and local property tax rates, minimum wages, legal liability costs, and more. Read more:

Technorati Tags: Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council,Small Business Survival Index 2008,NCET. Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology,entrepreneurs

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