'Brainwave' Cap Controls Computer, BBC News Online 
Excerpts:
The cursor movements were recorded: blue is slowest, and red fastest
|
"The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions," (...).
Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. (...)
"The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis," (...).
Control Of A Two-Dimensional Movement Signal By A Noninvasive, PNAS
Excerpt: Whereas noninvasive BCIs are already in use for simple applications, it
has been widely assumed that only invasive BCIs, which use electrodes
implanted in the brain, can provide multidimensional movement control
of a robotic arm or a neuroprosthesis. We now show that a noninvasive
BCI that uses scalp-recorded electroencephalographic activity and an
adaptive algorithm can provide humans, (...), with multidimensional
point-to-point movement control that falls within the range of that
reported with invasive methods in monkeys. (...) focuses on the
electroencephalographic features that the person is best able to
control and encourages further improvement in that control.
Thinking About Moving? Let Brain Waves Do The Walking, ISTweb
Excerpt: (...) researchers have already developed a working brain/computer interface (...) Users experiencing the system have a cap of electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes placed upon their head. These electrodes are then connected to a pocket PC that records the EEG data or brain waves in real-time. Sat in front of the PC screen, users imagine moving the cursor to the left and then to the right, (...). With the Presencia software trained to recognise the volunteer's brain wave patterns, activation of a control signal then allows the user to move the on-screen cursor either to the left or to the right, simply by imagining the movement! (...)
Dollar's Fall Tests Nerve of Asia's Central Bankers, NY Times
Excerpts: Mr. Asakawa, 46, is the top official at the Finance Ministry here responsible for managing the largest portfolio of United States government securities in the world, worth a staggering $720 billion. As the dollar has slumped this fall, many investors have started to worry that Mr. Asakawa and his counterparts elsewhere in Asia will be tempted to pare their holdings, perhaps causing the currency to plunge much further and setting off a round of interest rate increases in the United States that could send the global economy into a tailspin.
Consumption And Stock Markets In Asian Economies, Int. Rev. Appl. Econ.
Excerpts: This paper investigates the causal links between stock market performance and consumption for five Asian economies (...). We find two-way causal relationships between stock market performance and consumption in the cases of Hong Kong and Taiwan in the long run. The existence of such two-way causal links indicates that stock market performance and consumption mutually affect each other, implying that the previous studies may have overestimated the wealth effect of the stock markets without taking account of the reverse causation from consumption to the stock markets. The short-run effect of the stock market on consumption is more visible than the long-run effect (...).
A Field Guide to the Falling Dollar, NY Times
Excerpts: If the dollar loses value slowly, giving businesses and investors plenty of time to adjust their spending and portfolios, the main effect may be to make the American economy more competitive. That would be a happy conclusion.
But if the dollar takes an abrupt dive, the consequences may be dire. Companies and consumers alike may find themselves stripped of purchasing power and ground down by sky-high interest rates.
The repercussions of a long-term decline in the dollar could be far-reaching.
Fly Me to the Moon, NY Times
Excerpts: Of all the irresponsible aspects of the 2005 budget bill that the Republican-led Congress just passed, nothing could be more irresponsible than the fact that funding for the National Science Foundation was cut by nearly 2 percent, or $105 million. (...)
But because of the steady erosion of science, math and engineering education (...), our cold war generation of American scientists is not being fully replenished. We traditionally filled the gap with Indian, Chinese and other immigrant brainpower. But post-9/11, many of these foreign engineers are not coming here anymore, (...).
UCLA Physicist Applies Physics To Best-selling Books, ScienceDaily
Excerpts: Yes, says UCLA physicist and complex systems theorist Didier Sornette, who used statistical physics and mathematics to analyze 138 books that made Amazon.com's best-seller list between 1997 and April 2004. (...) "Complex systems can be understood, and the book market is a complex system," said Sornette, a professor of earth and space sciences, and a member of UCLA's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. "Each buyer is not predictable, but complex networks have a degree of predictability." Best-selling books typically reach their sales peaks in one of two ways. (...)
At Museums, Computers Get Creative, NY Times
Excerpts: At the Exploratorium, the hands-on science museum here, there is an exhibit called "Energy From Death" that staff members refer to as "the rotting carcass." In a small terrarium hundreds of dermestid beetles eat the flesh and bones of a dead baby mouse over several days.
Next to the live beetles is a touch screen showing a video of the entire process, recorded with a different mouse carcass. A button can be used to speed it up, slow it down or pause it.
Urgent vs. Important, Darwin Mag
Excerpts: So while the crisis of the moment always appears urgent, it may not be the most important issue. The reality at work today is that almost everything at the moment seems urgent, which causes a lot of stress. In fact, our research shows that the number one cause of stress facing senior executives and managers involves meeting deadlines.
Always having to meet deadlines can cause hasty or incorrect decisions to be made. (...), always living on deadline can cause too much focus on the urgent at the sacrifice of the important.
The Hit We Almost Missed, NY Times
Excerpts: (...) I was invited to sort through a stack of records and demos that were to be junked. Among them I discovered a gem: a studio-cut acetate of "Like a Rolling Stone." Carefully packing it into an empty LP jacket, I carried it home and that weekend played it (...) in my apartment. The effect was the same as it had been the first time I had experienced it. Exhilaration. (...) Then, on Sunday evening, it came to me. I knew exactly where the song could be fully appreciated.
Don't Worry, Be Happy--Or Else, Science Now
Excerpts:  Don't get snippy. Chronic stress leads to shorter telomeres (yellow), a sign of cellular aging. Credit: Robert Moyzis/University Of California, Irvine; Doe |
We all know stress makes you look haggard and get gray hair. Now comes even more depressing news: Stress ages you at the most fundamental level of all--your DNA.
(...) the harried mothers of chronically ill children show more cellular aging than do mothers of healthy children as shown by the length of their telomeres, complexes of DNA and protein that cap the ends of chromosomes like the tips of shoelaces. Telomeres shorten with every cell replication and thus can serve as a marker of a cell's biological age.
Study Is First to Confirm That Stress Speeds Aging, Washington Post
Excerpts: The findings could lead to new ways to detect the early physical effects of stress and monitor whether attempts to alleviate its effects are working, she said.
While cautioning that the findings need to be confirmed by additional research, other scientists said the results represent an unprecedented step in deciphering the intricacies of the mind-body connection. (...)
The new study "demonstrated that there is no such thing as a separation of mind and body -- the very molecules in our bodies are responsive to our psychological environment."
Study: Stress Linked to Chromosome Damage, Aging, NPR D2D
Excerpts: NPR's Alex Chadwick talks with Rob Stein of The Washington Post about a new study that helps explain the link between stress and aging. Scientists believe stress shortens the tips of chromosomes in human cells, hastening the process of aging.
Stressed To Death: Mental Tension Ages Cells, Science News
Excerpts: "There was a very striking connection" between stress and telomere length, Blackburn reports. Mothers who perceived their stress levels as high had significantly shorter telomeres and less telomerase activity than did women reporting lower stress. From the telomere lengths, the researchers estimate that cells from the highly stressed women resembled cells of low-stressed volunteers who were 10 years older.
The researchers aren't sure how stress affects telomere length and telomerase activity, but they speculate that chemicals known as free radicals might impede telomerase function.
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Excerpts:
 Photo A. Researchers at Johns Hopkins are devising microchips to guide robotic legs as a first step in efforts to make an implant that could someday help paralyzed people walk again. Photo by Will Kirk |
"Our first step is to learn how the brain transmits electrical messages along the spinal cord that tell the legs what to do. Then, we want to make microchips that replicate this process. We've started by modeling the way swimming signals move along the spinal cord of a lamprey eel."(...)
"Even though the lamprey is a very primitive vertebrate, we and others have shown that it's remarkably like humans in the ways it makes and controls its locomotion," Cohen said. "But unlike that of humans, the lamprey's nervous system is remarkably easy to study."
The Logic Of Life Brings Order To Our Genes, ScienceDaily
Excerpt: It is tricky enough to get a soccer team of eleven players to cooperate and work as one - but what would it be like if there were 25,000 players on the field? What would the rules be like, and how many referees would it take to make sure that the rules were followed? As it happens, our genomes consist of networks of roughly 25,000 interacting genes, and these networks are obviously very stable and resilient to changed conditions. Out of billions of cells, not a single one falls into chaos. How can order be maintained? (...)
Mutating Bots May Save Lives, Wired
Excerpts: Picture walking up to a bucket of stuff in your garage and asking it to change the oil in your car.
Then imagine that, in response to the command, a mass of self-reconfiguring robots moving around in the bucket climbs out, reconfigures on the fly into a shape that best suits the task, and proceeds.
(...) Instead of single-purpose robots, Yim and several research teams around the world are working on creating mutating machines made out of smart building blocks that can morph into different forms and perform a variety of tasks.
Proof for Water, Hints of Life?, Science
Excerpts: Could martian methane be formed by life? Might Meridiani Planum's salts be linked through life and water to regional concentrations of methane? Life exists on Earth at acidities and salinities comparable to those inferred for Meridiani Planum (...). Such "extreme environments" are rare on Earth, but may be common elsewhere. Few terrestrial species tolerate conditions that are simultaneously supercold, salty, and acidic; none of those that can survive such extremes also generate methane, but maybe on Mars they do, or maybe martian methanogens live in more alkaline and reducing regions.
Zapped Human Eggs Divide Without Sperm, New Scientist
Excerpts: The new technique could supply embryonic stem cells for research while avoiding ethical issues as embryos are not required
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Excerpts: Artificial stretches of DNA can be engineered so that stretches of DNA combine to form structures. DNA can also be engineered to connect to objects like carbon nanotubes.
The researchers attached DNA strands to carbon nanotubes and complementary strands to gold electrodes that were anchored to a silicon surface. The electrodes were prepared using standard chip-making techniques. (...)
The method could allow for real-time modifications of the electrical behavior of the devices by introducing biological molecules capable of interacting with the DNA, (...).
NIST Demonstrates Data 'Repair Kit' for Quantum Computers, NIST News Release
Excerpts: A practical method for automatically correcting data-handling errors in quantum computers has been developed and demonstrated (...).
(...) the NIST work is the first demonstration of all the steps of error correction for quantum computers, a futuristic, potentially very powerful form of computing that uses the quantum properties of atoms or other particles as 1s and 0s for processing data. The method was implemented using ions (electrically charged atoms) as quantum bits (qubits). Ions are arguably the leading candidate for use as qubits in a quantum computer.
-
Excerpts:
 These tiny orange particles surround a water droplet in a beaker of oil. The particles are magnetic, and can be moved, along with droplets, using magnetic fields. |
One of the main challenges in making labs-on-a-chip is finding ways to control and mix tiny amounts of liquids.
Researchers (...) are using minuscule silicon particles to carry out these tasks.
The researchers' have modified their previously developed smart dust by trapping magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles within the silicon particles. The particles are chemically coated so that they adhere to water on one side, and repel water on the other side.
The chemical coating causes the silicon particles to surround water droplets, and the dust changes color depending on the chemicals it is in contact with.
Cyber Detective Links Up Crimes, New Scientist
Excerpts: The artificial intelligence system works tirelessly to spot patterns of criminality - and finds 10 times more than human detectives
Teenagers Fail To See The Consequences, New Scientist
Excerpts: Research into juveniles' appreciation of ultimate outcomes is being used to support a ban on the US death penalty for under-18s
Humans Can Learn To Be Nice, New Scientist
Excerpts: Upbringing is a key contributor to a person's social responsibility, a new study suggests, reducing the overwhelming role of genetic factors
'Carved in Sand: Why Memory Fades in Midlife', NPR D2D
Excerpts: NPR's Alex Chadwick talks with Cathryn Jakobson Ramin about progressive memory loss among adults in their 50s and 60s. Ramin is author of the upcoming book Carved in Sand: Why Memory Fades in Midlife.
Corporate Model Proves an Imperfect Fit for School System, Washington Post
Excerpts: Plagued by falling enrollment and dismal test scores, the St. Louis school district hired a big-name New York bankruptcy firm to turn things around for a one-time fee of $5 million.
(...) He stepped down in June at the end of his contract, proclaiming that the district had made "tremendous strides" toward putting its affairs in order, (...).
(...) Student enrollment continues to decline, teachers complain about poor morale and low pay, parents are unhappy about school closures, and voters are up in arms about high salaries paid to top administrators.
Psychotic Symptoms More Likely With Cannabis, New Scientist
Excerpts: Young adults using cannabis increase their risk of developing psychotic symptoms in later life, a large-scale study finds
Of Reefer and Madness, Science Now
Excerpts:  Don't bogart that joint. Marijuana increases the odds of psychotic illness for teens and young adults already at risk. Credit: Comstock Images |
Teens with a predisposition for psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia may increase their risk by smoking marijuana, according to a new study. The findings cast light on how cannabis use affects developing brains and hints at new strategies for educating teens about pot's potential dangers.
Marijuana use and psychosis often go hand in hand, but the question of which causes which has been enshrouded in haze.
(...) the researchers found that among young adults with a predisposition for mental illness, those who smoked pot were more likely to develop severe psychosis than those who abstained.
Whale And Dolphin Strandings Fit Predictions, New Scientist
Excerpts: The mass beachings have left over 170 animals dead on antipodean beaches within a few days - cold water currents could be to blame
How Do Fish Find And Recognise 'Friends'?, Univ. of Leicester
Excerpt: While millions of people across the world enjoyed the tale of a father fish in search of his lost son in the film Finding Nemo, a research project at the University of Leicester has delved into the reality of how fish find and recognise one another. (...) have discovered that there are techniques that 'friendly fish' use to find one another. (...) * fish are attentive to who they interact with * they use senses other than vision to find 'friends' * fish stick around with those who are most like them * fish like others from the same 'neighbourhood' (...).
Grow-Slow Potion: Pheromone Keeps Bee Youngsters Youthful, Science News
Excerpts: (...) identified a compound produced by the senior workers in a honeybee colony that prolongs the time that teenage bees stay home babysitting. (...)
The pheromone guides the division of labor. "When we think about this with a human bias, it seems like a problem that requires centralized control. But it's decentralized," (...). Should the colony run low on mature foragers, the supply of grow-slow pheromone dwindles, and young bees mature rapidly to fill in the ranks. When foragers abound, an abundance of the pheromone slows the replacement process.
Arrested Development Keeps Bees on Task, Science Now
Excerpts:  Pass the pheromone. Foraging honey bees regulate their own numbers by means of a pheromone that delays maturation in younger bees. Credit: Zachary Huang/Michigan State University |
The discovery suggests a nifty mechanism for negative feedback, (...). The bees most likely to receive the pheromone from the foragers are the nectar receivers, who are the next in line to become foragers, (...). If foragers abound in the colony--when it's raining, for example-(...) the development of receivers into foragers will be delayed. With fewer foragers present, levels will drop and receivers will mature more quickly. (...), the colony can regulate the division of labor to suit changing needs and environmental conditions without any centralized control, (...).
Sex...Only If Really Necessary in a Feminine Monarchy, Science
Excerpts: In social Hymenoptera, virgin queens make nuptial flights during which they acquire sperm from one or more males and store and nurture the sperm (...). Queens have perfect control over the sex of their offspring. To produce daughters, a queen lets sperm flow from the spermatheca into her oviduct (...). Whether the diploid eggs develop into sterile workers or fertile queens depends on the nutritional environment of the young larvae. To produce sons, however, a queen prevents the flow of sperm into the oviduct and lays unfertilized haploid eggs.
Ancestral Mammal's Genome Reconstructed, ScienceNOW
Excerpts:
Placental predecessor. The common ancestor of all placental mammals likely resembled this Eomaia scansoria, which lived 125 million years ago.
Credit: Mark A. Klingler/CMNH
|
The team started with 19 modern placental mammals, including humans, pigs, and mice, and fed a 1.1-million-base-pair region shared by all of the animals into a computer program, (...).
The program assumed that if a similar DNA sequence were present in a diverse set of the mammals, it must also have been present in the ancestor. For sequences that were different among the mammals, the program applied a complex set of criteria to determine which sequence most likely represented that of the ancestor.
U.S. Panel Recommends No Protection for Grouse, NY Times
Excerpts:  Associated Press The territory of the sage grouse has shrunk substantially. |
Amid an intense lobbying effort by energy and ranching interests in the West, a team of Interior Department biologists has recommended that the sage grouse, a bird whose sagebrush territory has been vastly reduced by farming and development, is not threatened with extinction and does not for the moment need to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Not since the spotted owl achieved protected status, prompting a 1991 court ruling that vastly curtailed logging in Northwestern forests, has a proposed listing had as much potential economic impact.
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Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of a dynamic landscape on the persistence of many interacting species. We develop a multi-species community model with an evolving landscape in which the creation and destruction of habitat are dynamic and local in space. Species interactions are also local involving hierarchical competitive trade-offs. We show that dynamic landscapes can reverse the trend of increasing species richness with higher fragmentation observed in static landscapes. The increase in the species-area exponent from a homogeneous to a fragmented landscape does not occur when dynamics are turned on. Thus, temporal aspects of the processes that generate and destroy habitat appear dominant relative to spatial characteristics. We also demonstrate, however, that temporal and spatial aspects interact to influence the persistence time of individual species, and therefore, rank-abundance curves. Specifically, persistence in the model increases in habitats with faster local turnover because of the presence of dynamic corridors.
Wolves' Genetic Diversity Worryingly Low, New Scientist
Excerpts: Wolf hunting in the US had a devastating impact on the diversity of surviving populations, a new study reveals
The Deadly Rise Of Urban Malaria, New Scientist
Excerpts: With city populations growing in Africa, urban malaria is emerging as a potential crisis, scientists warn - but it could yet be averted
CT Scans Explain Mysterious 9/11 Cough, New Scientist
Excerpts: Toxic dust from the World Trade Center disaster has damaged rescuers' lungs more severely than years of smoking
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Excerpts: Since the painkiller Vioxx was withdrawn from the market, some medical researchers and journal editors say we need a better system for detecting the harmful effects of drugs once they're on the market. Is there a better way?
Americans Relying More On Prescription Drugs, NY Times
Excerpts: More than 40 percent of Americans take at least one prescription drug, and 17 percent take three or more, the government said Thursday in a comprehensive report on the nation's health.
The report documented the growing use of medications in the last decade, a trend that it attributed to the growth of insurance coverage for drugs, the discovery and marketing of new products, and clinical guidelines that recommend greater use of drugs to treat high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and other conditions.
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Excerpts:
 Suspicious hybrids. Gastric tumor cells that have both a bone-marrow-derived cell marker and a gastric epithelial cell marker (yellow label) are raising questions about the origins of stomach cancer. Credit: J. M. Houghton Et Al./Science |
Stem cells recruited to repair the stomach lining may cause gastric cancer
Stomach cancer is a major cause of cancer deaths, (...). About 15 years ago, researchers linked stomach cancer to infection with the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori. (...) Most researchers thought that inflammatory cells probably spurred epithelial cells in the stomach lining to become cancerous. (...) researchers offer a more radical possibility--that the cells that ultimately give rise to cancer are not the epithelial cells but bone marrow stem cells that are recruited to try to repair the stomach lining.
Clinical Trials and Public Trust, Science
Excerpts: (...) the United States has lacked a system than can detect things that go wrong with an already-marketed drug. Physicians are asked to make voluntary reports (...). Moreover, there is no centralized way of knowing how much of a given drug is being used, so there is no denominator and no adverse reaction rate can be calculated. (...) Instead of complaining about the FDA, Congress should fund it to support an effective Office of Drug Safety, with the authority needed to encourage physician reporting and a way to audit prescriptions.
Global Warming Tied to Heat Wave; Lawsuits Loom, NPR ATC
Excerpts: A new study in the journal Nature finds that global warming probably contributed to Europe's killer heat wave of 2003. Some experts say the evidence from such studies could potentially be used in court against utilities and other companies that emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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Excerpts: The president's scientific and policy advisers on global warming do not dispute these findings, but none of them has persuaded the White House to alter its current climate policy. Rather than endorsing mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions linked to warming, the course embraced by most of America's allies, the White House is focusing on technological fixes: developing energy sources that burn cleaner or finding ways to extract excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. (...)
"You can't wait another decade" to cut carbon dioxide emissions, he added.
The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change, Science
Excerpts: Policy-makers and the media, particularly in the United States, frequently assert that climate science is highly uncertain. Some have used this as an argument against adopting strong measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (...) Some corporations whose revenues might be adversely affected by controls on carbon dioxide emissions have also alleged major uncertainties in the science (...). Such statements suggest that there might be substantive disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of anthropogenic climate change. This is not the case.
Major Satellite In Mystery Shutdown, New Scientist
Excerpts: A communications satellite serving the Americas has unexpectedly failed - knocking some users offline
US Review Rekindles Cold Fusion Debate, Nature News
Excerpts: According to the report, the panel was "split approximately evenly" on the question of whether cold experiments were actually producing power in the form of heat. But members agreed that there is not enough evidence to prove that cold fusion has occurred, and they complained that much of the published work was poorly documented.
The review is a positive step for the field of cold fusion, (...). "Most scientists think that cold fusion is laughable, but when the dust settled, the researchers reviewing our work were evenly split," (...).
Star's Pulse Of Radiation Is Strongest Ever, New Scientist
Not-So-Cosmic Microwaves?, Science Now
Excerpts:  Reading the ripples. Subtle signals suggest that some of the cosmic microwave background originates in our solar system. CREDIT: WMAP |
(...) astrophysicists and cosmologists have nailed down the age and composition of the universe by studying the all-pervading radiation left over from the big bang. But subtleties in that cosmic microwave background (CMB) suggest that our own solar system may be producing or absorbing some of the microwaves, a team of astrophysicists reports. If the finding holds up, researchers may have to rethink their theory of how the universe ballooned into existence.
The radiation in the CMB has lingered since atoms first formed some 300,000 years after the big bang (...)
Aliens Invade Kuiper Belt, Science Now
Excerpts:  Star hoppers. During a close stellar encounter, some Kuiper belt objects from one solar system (purple) may end up in another system (blue), and vice versa. Credit: University Of Utah And Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory |
(...), frozen miniplanets may hop from one star to another, astronomers have proposed. Computer simulations show that some of the icy objects in the outermost reaches of our solar system may actually be alien invaders that originally orbited another star. The exchange would have occurred when the other star had a close encounter with our newborn sun. (...)
These Kuiper belt objects are thought to be leftovers from the formation of our solar system. However, the remote and extremely elongated orbits of some of these objects are hard to explain.
Detecting Synchronization in Spatially Extended Discrete Systems by Complexity Measurements, arXiv
Abstract: The synchronization of two stochastically coupled one-dimensional cellular automata (CA) is analyzed. It is shown that the transition to synchronization is characterized by a dramatic increase of the statistical complexity of the patterns generated by the difference automaton. This singular behavior is verified to be present in several CA rules displaying complex behavior.
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Excerpt: We investigate the causes of civil war, using a new data set of wars during 1960-99. Rebellion may be explained by atypically severe grievances, such as high inequality, a lack of political rights, or ethnic and religious divisions in society. Alternatively, it might be explained by atypical opportunities for building a rebel organization. While it is difficult to find proxies for grievances and opportunities, we find that political and social variables that are most obviously related to grievances have little explanatory power. By contrast, economic variables, which could proxy some grievances (...) provide considerably more explanatory power.
- Source: Greed And Grievance In Civil War, P. Collier, A. Hoeffler - anke.hoeffler
economics.ox.ac.uk, DOI: 10.1093/oep/gpf064, Oxford Economic Papers, Oct. 2004, online 2004/08/20 - Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com
Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
Big Changes Seen in Choice for Homeland Security, NY Times
Excerpts: A Washington outsider, Mr. Kerik brings to the job a reputation (...) as a tough-talking, sometimes brash manager unafraid to trample on convention and ruffle feathers in shaking up an organization. (...)
Few expect Mr. Kerik's arrival at homeland security to produce the kind of upheaval seen in recent weeks at the C.I.A., (...). But Mr. Kerik's selection caused no shortage of nervousness at the Department of Homeland Security, a department created last year out of 22 separate agencies in what amounted to the biggest government reorganization in a half-century.
For Kerik, a Blunt New Yorker, a Complex Washington Task, NY Times
Excerpts: But as he approaches the job of federal Homeland Security secretary, the task before him is exceedingly more complex. The department he has been nominated to lead was created by a shotgun marriage of 22 government agencies in the wake of 9/11 and has nearly four times as many employees as the New York Police Department. (...) Already, some are questioning whether that unwieldy structure can be tamed by a man who operated most comfortably within the ordered world of paramilitary organizations.
U.S. Public Concerns In The Aftermath Of 9-11: A Test Of Second Level Agenda-Setting, Int. J. Public Opinion Res.
Excerpts: The terrorist attacks (...) profound impact on American society. Travelers are more cautious (...). Legislators have instituted homeland security measures. U.S. armed forces waged a war in Afghanistan and another with Iraq. All of these issues related to the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks have received extensive coverage in the news media, as have related topics, such as future terrorist attacks, the threat of chemical warfare and the effects on the economy. Of concern here is whether the media coverage of these related, or sub-, issues dealing with the 9-11 aftermath have had a 'second-level' agenda-setting influence on members of the public.
Deal In Place To Overhaul Intelligence, Boston Globe
Excerpts: (...) national intelligence director, who would control their budgets and key personnel decisions. That powerful official would be given the responsibility and authority for trying to ensure that the agencies coordinate their efforts to prevent terrorist attacks (...). On paper, the CIA director has long had the responsibility for coordinating all spy agencies, but the Defense Department and other Cabinet agencies blocked any director from ever playing that role.
Under the proposed changes, the spy services would also pool their resources to combat terrorism and nuclear proliferation in joint centers.
Links & Snippets
Other Publications
- Archaeology: Greater Expectations, Peter W. Stahl, 04/12/02, Nature 432, 561 - 562, DOI: 10.1038/432561a
- The Cost of Congressional Caprice, 04/12/03, NYTimes
- X-ray Movies of Wiggling Crystals, Philip H. Bucksbaum, 04/12/03, Science : 1691-1692
- Prion Dormancy and Disease, Robin W. Carrell, 04/12/03, Science : 1692-169
- Consortium Hopes to Map Human History in Asia, Dennis Normile, 04/12/03, Science : 1667
- South American Surprise: Ancient Farmers Settled In Uruguay's Wetlands, 04/12/04, Science News, The discovery of a 4,200-year-old farming settlement in Uruguay challenges traditional notions of where early South American societies took root.
- Antioxidant Booster: Protein Curbs Lung Damage Caused By Smoke, 04/12/04, Science News, A protein called Nrf2 defends against emphysema by activating dozens of genes that combat free radicals and toxic pollutants, a study in mice suggests.
- DNA Bar Codes, 04/12/04, Science News, Scientists are using a small piece of DNA as a molecular bar code, a unique identifier to separate organisms into species.
- Clock Genes Regulate Blood Sugar, 04/12/04, Science News, Circadian-clock genes may play an important role in governing the body's metabolism of dietary sugars and fats.
- Some Temblors Probably Were Triggered By Tides, 04/12/04, Science News, Detailed analyses of large earthquakes suggest that some of them may have been triggered by strong tides in Earth's crust.
- Preventive Drugs Protect Children, 04/12/04, Science News, Preventive treatment with inexpensive drugs decreases rainy-season cases of malaria in Senegal.
- Probing A Parasite For Vulnerability, 04/12/04, Science News, Researchers have discovered an enzyme that is indispensable to the parasite that causes sleeping sickness, and disabling that enzyme could offer a novel treatment strategy for the disease.
- Musharraf: Bin Laden's Location Is Unknown, Robin Wright, Peter Baker, 04/12/05, Washington Post
- The News As Molder Of Campaign Ad Effects, A. E. Jasperson - ajaspersonutsa.edu, D. P. Fan, 16:4, 2004, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, DOI: 10.1093/ijpor/edh037
- Periodicity of Extinctions Does Not Require Any Extraterrestrial Cause, Adam Lipowski, 2004/11/29, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0411729
- Ranking Pages by Topology and Popularity within Web Sites, Jose Borges, Mark Levene, 2004/12/01, arXiv, DOI: cs.AI/0412002
- Peripheral Timekeeping: Mammalian Cells Outside The Brain Have Their Own Circadian Clocks, 2004/12/02, ScienceDaily & Cell Press
- URI Researcher Shows That Dinosaur Extinction Occurred At Peak Of Diversity, 2004/12/02, ScienceDaily & University Of Rhode Island
- Improved Molecular Switch Could Serve As Sensor, Medical Tool, 2004/12/03, ScienceDaily & Johns Hopkins University
- Hello, Hello, Earth?, 2004/12/03, ScienceDaily & University Of Michigan
- Dynamics Of Group Formation In Collective Motion Of Organisms, P. Babak - petroraunvis.hi.is, K. G. Magnússon - kgmhi.is, S. Sigurdsson - svenhi.is, 21:4, 2004, Mathematical Medicine and Biology, DOI: 10.1093/imammb21.4.269
- A Bayesian Change Point Model For Historical Time Series Analysis, B. Western - westernopr.princeton.edu, M. Kleykamp, Autumn 2004, Political Analysis, DOI: 10.1093/pan/mph023
- Physics For Taxi-Drivers, D. Reid - david.reidiop.org, Dec. 2004, Physics World Digest & Institute of Physics
- Industrial Development In Buyer-Driven Networks: The Garment Industry In Vietnam And Sri Lanka, H. M. Knutsen - h.m.knutsensgeo.uio.no, Nov. 2004, Journal of Economic Geography, DOI: 10.1093/jnlecg/lbh032
- International Differences In Information Privacy Concerns: A Global Survey Of Consumers, S. Bellman, E. Johnson, S. Kobrin, G. Lohse, Nov.-Dec. 2004, The Information Society, DOI: 10.1080/01972240490507956
- Monetary Integration Strategies And Perspectives Of New EU Countries, S. Rossi, Oct. 2004, International Review of Applied Economics, DOI: 10.1080/0269217042000266454
- Education Choice, Neoclassical Growth, And Class Structure, B. A. Cardak - b.cardaklatrobe.edu.au, Oct. 2004, online 2004/08/20, Oxford Economic Papers, DOI: 10.1093/oep/gpf067
- Something New In Old Europe?, J. Wickham, Sep. 2004, Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, DOI: 10.1080/1351161042000241135
- Language Socialization In Theory And Practice, S. R. Schecter, R. Bayley, Sep.-Oct. 2004, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, DOI: 10.1080/0951839042000253621
- 'Targeted Killings' In An Age Of Terror: The Legality Of The Yemen Strike, C. Downes, Summer 2004, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, DOI: 10.1093/jcsl/9.2.277
Webcast Announcements
Neurobiological Foundation For The Meaning Of Information, Kolkata, India, Conference Webcast, 04/11/22-25- ALife 9: Ninth International Conference on Artificial Life, Boston, MA, 04/09/12-15
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The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China, 04/07/22-23
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Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
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From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
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ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
04/06/14-17
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Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
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International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
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Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28
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Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27
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Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01
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Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
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Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
- World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland
- Riding the Next Democratic Wave, Al-Thani, Khan, Vike-Freiberga, Wade, Soros, Zakaria, World Economic Forum, 04/01/25
- The Future of Global Interdependence, Kharrazi, Held, Owens, Shourie, Annan, Martin, Schwab, World Economic Forum, 04/01/25
- Why Victory Against Terrorism Demands Shared Values
- CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And Intelligent Systems, 2004 Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
- EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
- The Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Po tential and Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
- ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
- New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
- SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
- NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
- 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
- CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
- Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
- Edge Videos
Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
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Improving Health of the Chronically Ill: Insights from Complexity Science, Rockville,巠MD USA, 04/12/07-08
- The 7th Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
- 17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
- Cellular Computing Symposium, U Warwick
(UK), 04/12/09-10
- International Conference On Computational Intelligence (Icci 2004) , Istanbul, Turkey, 04/12/15-17
- Kondratieff Waves, Warfare And World Security, NATO Advanced Research Workshop
, Covilh? Portugal, 05/02/14-17
- 2005 Meeting Arbeitskreis
Physik sozio-onomischer Systeme, AKSOE (Socio-Economic-Physics), Physik seit Einstein,
Berlin, Germany, 05/03/04-09
- 2005 World Exposition "
Nature's Wisdom, Aichi, Japan, 05/03/25-09/25
- FINCO 2005: Foundations Of Interactive Computation, Edinburgh, Scotland, 05/04/09
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5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15
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Social Intelligence and Interaction in Animals, Robots and Agents, Hatfield, UK, 05/04/12-15
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2005 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show
Nanotech 2005, Anaheim, California, U.S.A., 05/05/08-12
- 2ndShanghai Intl Symposium on Nonlinear Science and Applications, Shanghai, 05/06/03-07
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IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium
Pasadena, California, USA, 05/06/08-10
- Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
- 6th Intl Conf Symmetry in Nonlinear Mathematical Physics, Kiev, Ukraine, 05/06/20-26
- Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24
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2005 Genetic And Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2005), Washington, DC, USA, 05/06/25-29
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5th Gathering on?Biosemiotics, Urbino, Italy, 05/07/22-24
- ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK, 05/09/05-09
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Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14
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18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23
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CSDS-2005 Intl Conf on CONTROL AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS,/a>, Leon, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 05/10/04-07
