By the Numbers – 2007-04-01

1lb of honey requires 2 million bee-to-flower visits, according to the Canadian Honey Council. Bee counters can use photoelectric and capacitance sensors, CHC says. Capacitance sensors allow detection of direction (arriving or exiting) as well as mass (pollen load or empty). Wax and hive debris do not interfere with the measurements.www.honeycouncil.ca

50greatest government endeavors, says the Brookings Institution, include scientific and technological research, air and water quality, safe food, and energy supply. Technologies also figure prominently in helping with 50 priorities for the first half of the 21st Century. www.brook.edu/GS/CPS/50ge/50greatest.htm

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6cable color charts are on Northwire’s technical resources page, with forms for cable specification, ampacity, unified copper stranding, flame testing, and unit conversion. www.northwire.com/resources

4points to AeA’s “American Innovation Proclamation” are 1) Renew America’s commitment to discovery by doubling the basic research budgets at National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and Department of Defense; 2) Improve student achievement in math and science through increased funding and incentives for science and math teachers; 3) Welcome highly educated foreign professionals, particularly those holding advanced science, technology, engineering, or mathematics degrees from U.S. universities, by reforming U.S. visa policies; 4) Make permanent a strengthened R&D tax credit to encourage continued private-sector innovation investment. AeA has an area of its site to add your company’s support. www.aeanet.org

5nuclear reactor types each have Standard Technical Specifications (STS) published by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). STS, Revision 3, is continuously modified by NRC, with approved generic changes. www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/techspecs.html .

21,000new jobs a year are expected in Singapore, despite the country’s higher cost of production compared to China. The manufacturing component of Singapore GDP increased by more than 10% in 1994-2004, in part by upgrading manufacturing and decreasing dependence on electronics to expand into pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals, saysControl EngineeringGlobal supplement. Read it under March 2007 at www.globalelove.com/archive

>20U.S. federal agencies fund R&D, says RaDiUS, a free-use database that tracks the annual U.S. government investment in research and development, along with information about hundreds of thousands of grants, contracts, and taskings that constitute the federal R&D enterprise. https://radius.rand.org

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