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January 16, 2004

It is darker outside

A researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has found that over almost 30 years the amount of sunlight reaching earth has declined more than 10 percent, according to this article from the The Guardian (U.K.). No explanation on why this has happened or whether it is a cyclical event. Even though scientists had noticed it for awhile, no believed it. They thought the instruments were off.

Posted by eubie at 10:08 PM permalink

On Tuesdays, many won't receive your email

A couple of recent email studies found that 40% of valid email is not being received by recipients and that Tuesday is the heaviest day businesses to send email.

The recipient study, published in InformationWeek was from a test of 10,000 persons who had asked to participate in the study. The biggest reason the email doesn't go through are poor attempts by email administrators to block spam.

Bizjournals sends lots of email, which has been requested, and we constantly have to explain to customers that it was probably their own email administrator that blocked our email. Since the block is often done without any explanation by their IT department, customers are reluctant initially to believe us.

EmailLabs in its first Delivery Trends Report found that Tuesday is the busiest day for companies to send email (25.4%) followed by Wednesday (23.3%). Tip on both items was Lockergnome's Technology News.

Posted by eubie at 9:55 PM permalink

Looks like car, but it's really a truck

From NY Times -- Subaru is changing the design of its Outback sedan which will let it qualify as a truck for fuel standards.

The changes sound cosmetic, such as raising the bottom clearance height less than two inches. But the difference in fuel milage standards for light trucks is lower, 21.2 miles a gallon, than for cars, 27.5 miles a gallon.

The main issue is how much longer the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation will continue to use outdated rules defining cars and trucks. Many of the rules go back to the late '70s, before mini-vans and SUVs, which are also classified as trucks.

Posted by eubie at 9:20 PM permalink