Complexity Digest 2005.30

25-Jul-2005

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Content

  1. Millennium Assessment Of Human Behavior, Science
    1. Global Consequences Of Land Use, Science
    2. Global Analyses Reveal Mammals Facing Risk Of Extinction, Science
    3. Global Mammal Conservation: What Must We Manage?, Science
    4. On The Regulation Of Populations Of Mammals, Birds, Fish, And Insects, Science
  2. Population Dynamics: Growing To Extremes, Science
    1. Harvard Researchers Discuss Systems Biology, Bio-IT World
  3. Good Connections Are Everything, ScienceDaily
  4. Stagnation Of R&D Intensity A Major Threat To The European Knowledge-Based Economy, IST News
    1. Asia Squeezes Europe's Lead In Science, Nature
    2. Research, Policy And Practice: Why Developing Countries Are Different, J. Int. Dev.
  5. UN Outlines Future Of US-Less Internet, IST News
    1. UN At Odds Over Internet's Future, BBC News
  6. Mapping The Large-Scale Structure Of The Universe, Science
    1. One-Atom-Thick Materials Promise A 'New Industrial Revolution', U Manchester News Release
    2. All Traffic, All The Time And Just A Click Away, NY Times
  7. Oil On Troubled Waters May Stop Hurricanes, New Scientist
  8. The Perils Of Kids On Speed, New Scientist
    1. Cocaine Use Prevents Adaptive Behaviour, New Scientist
    2. Midbrain Dopamine Neurons Encode A Quantitative Reward Prediction Error Signal, Neuron
  9. Similar Is Different In Hippocampal Networks, Science
    1. Reflections Of Primate Minds: Mirror Images Strike Monkeys As Special, Science News
    2. Deep Brain Stimulation For Phantom Limb Pain, J. Clinical Neurosc.
    3. Mind May Affect Machines, Wired
  10. Butterfly Unlocks Evolution Secret, BBC News
    1. Killer Caterpillar Stalks Snails, BBC News
    2. Attack of the Caterpillars, Science Now
  11. Honeybee Swarms: How Do Scouts Guide A Swarm Of Uninformed Bees?, Animal Behav.
    1. A Model For Seasonal Phytoplankton Blooms, J. Theor. Biol.
    2. Multicellular Organization In Bacteria As A Target For Drug Therapy, Ecol. Lett.
  12. Complex Worlds From Simpler Nervous Systems, MIT Press
    1. Battle Of The Bugs, Science Now
  13. Has Huygens Found Life On Titan?, New Scientist Space.com
    1. Toxic Surfs, Science News
  14. Climate Change Causing Phase Transitions Of Walleye Pollock Recruitment Dynamics, Proc. Biol. Sc.
  15. Robotics Show Lucy Walked Upright, BBC News
    1. Bike Science, NPR Science Friday
  16. Bill Wouldn't Wean U.S. Off Oil Imports, Analysts Say, Washington Post
  17. Georgia's Undemocratic Voter Law, NY Times
  18. The Best Army We Can Buy, NY Times
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networ
    1. Psychologists Warn Of More Suicide Attacks In The Wake Of London Bombs, Nature
    2. Insurgents 'Joining Iraqi Police', BBC News
    3. EMERGENT COMMUNITIES DEDICATED TO WAR (London, Iraq, and Al Qaeda), Global Guerrillas
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference Announcements
    4. Call for Papers

  1. Millennium Assessment Of Human Behavior, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A growing scientific consensus says that global society is under increasing threat from the impact of human activities: Climate change, loss of biological diversity and ecosystem services, and changes in patterns of land use and land cover are among the more troublesome problems (1-3). Some of these problems require attention from governments and other social institutions. But it is the collective actions of individuals that lie at the heart of the dilemma.

    1. Global Consequences Of Land Use, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Land use has generally been considered a local environmental issue, but it is becoming a force of global importance. Worldwide changes to forests, farmlands, waterways, and air are being driven by the need to provide food, fiber, water, and shelter to more than six billion people. Global croplands, pastures, plantations, and urban areas have expanded in recent decades, accompanied by large increases in energy, water, and fertilizer consumption, along with considerable losses of biodiversity.
      • Source: Global Consequences Of Land Use, Jonathan A. Foley, Ruth DeFries, Gregory P. Asner, Carol Barford, Gordon Bonan, Stephen R. Carpenter, F. Stuart Chapin, Michael T. Coe, Gretchen C. Daily, Holly K. Gibbs, Joseph H. Helkowski, Tracey Holloway, Erica A. Howard, Christopher J. Kucharik, Chad Monfreda, Jonathan A. Patz, I. Colin Prentice, Navin Ramankutty, Peter K. Snyder, Science: 570-574, 05/07/22

    2. Global Analyses Reveal Mammals Facing Risk Of Extinction, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Two new studies are helping conservation biologists think big--in the case of one of the studies, as big as one-tenth of the continents.

      Conservationists typically set goals and priorities for relatively small regions. Although some have come up with priorities for the planet, these have often been wish lists rather than objectives drawn from rigorous analyses. Now a team of researchers, led by mammalogist Gerardo Ceballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has conducted the first global analysis of the conservation status of all known land mammals.

    3. Global Mammal Conservation: What Must We Manage?, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: We present a global conservation analysis for an entire "flagship" taxon, land mammals. A combination of rarity, anthropogenic impacts, and political endemism has put about a quarter of terrestrial mammal species, and a larger fraction of their populations, at risk of extinction. A new global database and complementarity analysis for selecting priority areas for conservation shows that 11% of Earth's land surface should be managed for conservation to preserve at least 10% of terrestrial mammal geographic ranges.

    4. On The Regulation Of Populations Of Mammals, Birds, Fish, And Insects, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A key unresolved question in population ecology concerns the relationship between a population's size and its growth rate. We estimated this relationship for 1780 time series of mammals, birds, fish, and insects. We found that rates of population growth are high at low population densities but, contrary to previous predictions, decline rapidly with increasing population size and then flatten out, for all four taxa. This produces a strongly concave relationship between a population's growth rate and its size.

  2. Population Dynamics: Growing To Extremes, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: We have all heard about the hypothetical pair of houseflies that could cover the Earth with their offspring in a matter of months if all of their descendants survived to reproduce. This hasn't happened yet because as populations grow, their numbers become limited by a lack of resources or by increases in predators and parasites. But how quickly do such limiting factors come into play and how do they affect dynamics of different species?

    1. Harvard Researchers Discuss Systems Biology, Bio-IT World Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Right now we're focusing on biochemical modeling, and we're using it to build fairly simple models called ODE (ordinary differential equations). You represent species as concentration or the amount of species as variables. We want to expand and use the language to describe other types of models like partial differential equations, and we're working on what it will take to write stochastic models. (...)

      The thing that makes little b different from some of the other platforms -- I can't say this completely authoritatively -- [is] we really focus on the issue of modularity.
      Editor's Note: This sounds very much like a top-down pre-complexity modeling approach thirty years ago, when people used simulation packages like ¡§Stella¡¨.

  3. Good Connections Are Everything, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The biosphere contains many scale-free networks. Prominent examples are provided by the functional networks within the human brain. (...) discovered that activity patterns in such biomimetic networks have unusual dynamic properties, which are controlled by a few, highly connected nodes. As a result, ordered activity patterns are very robust against random perturbations but rather sensitive to selective perturbations. Disordered patterns, on the other hand, decay very fast and relax towards an ordered pattern even if the network becomes infinitely large. In addition, these scale-free networks can also be used to store and retrieve a large number of fixed patterns (...).

  4. Stagnation Of R&D Intensity A Major Threat To The European Knowledge-Based Economy, IST News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The European Commission presents a new publication on Europe's position in research and innovation. The 'Key figures 2005 for science, technology and innovation' show worrying trends in R&D investment and innovation in Europe. The growth rate of R&D intensity (R&D expenditure as % of GDP) has been declining since 2000 and is now close to zero. Europe is on track to miss the objective it set itself to boost spending on R&D from 1.9 to 3 per cent by 2010. (...) "We must heed this wake-up call. If the current trends continue, Europe will lose the opportunity to become a leading global knowledge-based economy."

    1. Asia Squeezes Europe's Lead In Science, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Global share of scientific output rises in the East.

      Asian nations are catching up with Europe and the United States in terms of scientific output, says a US report. If current trends continue, publications from the Asia?Pacific region may outstrip those from the United States within six or seven years.

      In 2004, the report shows, countries from the Asia?Pacific region, including China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and India, produced 25% of the world's research papers. In 1990, Asia's share of the scientific output was just 16%.

    2. Research, Policy And Practice: Why Developing Countries Are Different, J. Int. Dev. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Better utilization of research and evidence in development policy and practice can help save lives, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life. However, there is limited systematic understanding of the links between research and policy in international development. The paper reviews existing literature and proposes an analytical framework with four key arenas: external influences, political context, evidence and links. Based on the findings of stakeholder workshops in developing countries around the world, the paper identifies four key issues that characterize many developing countries. These are: (i) troubled political contexts; (ii) problems of research supply; (iii) external interference; (...).

  5. UN Outlines Future Of US-Less Internet, IST News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpt: The United Nations has released its report into how it expects administration of the Internet to work in future. The report by the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) follows the outline previously presented at ICANN's tri-annual conference in Luxembourg. It provides four different models for future governance and none of the models allow the US government to retain overall control of the Internet's foundation.

    1. UN At Odds Over Internet's Future, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The report will be presented to Kofi Annan on 18 July A UN group charged with deciding how the net should be run has failed to reach a decision. The group's report suggests four possible futures for net governance that range from no change to complete overhaul. The proposals will go forward to a key UN net and society conference due to take place in November. The report comes as the US says it plans to keep its role as overseer of the net's core administrative body.

  6. Mapping The Large-Scale Structure Of The Universe, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In a large-scale view of the universe, galaxies are the basic unit of structure. A typical bright galaxy may contain 100 billion stars and span tens of thousands of light-years, but the empty expanses between the galaxies are much larger still. Galaxies are not randomly distributed in space, but instead reside in groups and clusters, which are themselves arranged in an intricate lattice of filaments and walls, threaded by tunnels and pocked with bubbles.

    1. One-Atom-Thick Materials Promise A 'New Industrial Revolution', U Manchester News Release Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Scientists at The University of Manchester have discovered a new class of materials which have previously only existed in science fiction films and books.

      A team of British and Russian scientists led by Professor Geim have discovered a whole family of previously unknown materials, which are one atom thick and exhibit properties which scientists had never thought possible.

      Not only are they ultra-thin, but depending on circumstances they can also be ultra-strong, highly-insulating or highly-conductive, offering a wide range of unique properties for space-age engineers and designers to choose from.

    2. All Traffic, All The Time And Just A Click Away, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Though traffic helicopters are still on the job, traffic is increasingly monitored from roadside digital sensors.

      Thanks to this kind of digital data-gathering, broadcast stations are now able to put on comprehensive and highly accurate reports, augmented by animated graphics, on traffic flows and traffic jams. And thanks to personal digital wireless technology, it's now possible to get this data, in some cases coupled with road navigation guidance, customized and delivered right to you.

  7. Oil On Troubled Waters May Stop Hurricanes, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Sailors who traditionally dumped barrels of oil into the sea to calm stormy waters may have been on to something, a new study suggests. The old practice reduces wind speeds in tropical hurricanes by damping ocean spray, according to a new mathematical ¡§sandwich model¡¨.

    As hurricane winds kick up ocean waves, large water droplets become suspended in the air. This cloud of spray can be treated mathematically as a third fluid sandwiched between the air and sea.

  8. The Perils Of Kids On Speed, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: And with the surge in illegal use has come a slew of research on amphetamines' devastating health effects.

    So it seems surprising, on the face of it, that amphetamines are increasingly being prescribed as therapeutic drugs, not just for adults but also for children as young as 2. In 2001 doctors wrote 20 million prescriptions a month for amphetamines and related drugs in the US alone, according to drug industry monitor IMS Health. That represents an increase of over 500 per cent during the 1990s. A similar pattern is evident around the world.

    1. Cocaine Use Prevents Adaptive Behaviour, New Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Cocaine may keep users from adapting to new situations by disrupting connections between key brain regions, suggests a new study in rats. The finding may shed light on the impulsive behaviour seen in cocaine addicts, researchers say.

      A team looked at the connections between two regions of the brain: one involved with learning, memory and processing information - the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus - and one involved with pleasure seeking, emotion and reward behaviour - the nucleus accumbens in the limbic system.

    2. Midbrain Dopamine Neurons Encode A Quantitative Reward Prediction Error Signal, Neuron Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The midbrain dopamine neurons are hypothesized to provide a physiological correlate of the reward prediction error signal required by current models of reinforcement learning. We examined the activity of single dopamine neurons during a task in which subjects learned by trial and error when to make an eye movement for a juice reward. We found that these neurons encoded the difference between the current reward and a weighted average of previous rewards, a reward prediction error, but only for outcomes that were better than expected. Thus, the firing rate of midbrain dopamine neurons is quantitatively predicted (...).

  9. Similar Is Different In Hippocampal Networks, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When driving your car to work on two alternate but familiar routes, different combinations of neurons in the hippocampal region of the brain assist you in the navigation process. This is because ensembles of hippocampal "place cells" form a map-like representation of the environment (a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/309/5734/568#ref1">1). In addition to spatial cues such as shopping malls and other salient landmarks, hippocampal neurons respond to other features during the drive, including speed changes and local information (such as the type of transmission and the shape and size of the car's interior).

    1. Reflections Of Primate Minds: Mirror Images Strike Monkeys As Special, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: When a capuchin monkey looks at its own image in a mirror, something strange happens. The diminutive creature reacts not as if it sees a stranger, as many researchers had assumed. Instead, the reflection gets treated as a special phenomenon, generally eliciting curiosity and friendly overtures from females and a mix of distress and fear from males, a new study finds.

    2. Deep Brain Stimulation For Phantom Limb Pain, J. Clinical Neurosc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Phantom limb pain is an often severe and debilitating phenomenon that has been reported in up to 85% of amputees. Its pathophysiology is poorly understood. Peripheral and spinal mechanisms are thought to play a role in pain modulation in affected individuals; however central mechanisms are also likely to be of importance. The neuromatrix theory postulates a genetically determined representation of body image, which is modified by sensory input to create a neurosignature. Persistence of the neurosignature may be responsible for painless phantom limb sensations, whereas phantom limb pain may be due to abnormal reorganisation within the neuromatrix. (...)
      • Source: Deep Brain Stimulation For Phantom Limb Pain, R. G. Bittar - neurosurgeonaampsclinic.com, S. Otero, T. Z. Aziz, DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2004.07.013, Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, May 2005, online 2005/04/26
      • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

    3. Mind May Affect Machines, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Researchers at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program, or Pear, have been attempting to measure the effect of human consciousness on machines since 1979.

      Using random event generators -- computers that spew random output -- they have participants focus their intent on controlling the machines' output. Out of several million trials, they've detected small but "statistically significant" signs that minds may be able to interact with machines. However, researchers are careful not to claim that minds cause an effect or that they know the nature of the communication.

  10. Butterfly Unlocks Evolution Secret, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    The butterflies' wings offer clues to speciation
    Why one species branches into two is a question that has haunted evolutionary biologists since Darwin.

    Given our planet's rich biodiversity, "speciation" clearly happens regularly, but scientists cannot quite pinpoint the driving forces behind it.

    Now, researchers studying a family of butterflies think they have witnessed a subtle process, which could be forcing a wedge between newly formed species.

    The team, from Harvard University, US, discovered that closely related species living in the same geographical space displayed unusually distinct wing markings.

    1. Killer Caterpillar Stalks Snails, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A team of scientists has discovered a tiny caterpillar in Hawaii that binds snails with silk webbing before devouring them whole.

      The caterpillar starts munching at the wide opening of the helpless snail's shell and continues until there is nothing left, Science magazine reports.

      The creature is a first because scientists have never before witnessed a caterpillar eating a snail.

      The team wants to know why this strange caterpillar lives only in Hawaii.

    2. Attack of the Caterpillars, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Most caterpillars are docile vegetarians, content to while away their days munching leaves. But a new study has found a glaring exception to this rule: a Hawaiian caterpillar that ensnares snails in spiderlike webs of silk before devouring their flesh.

      Hawaii is full of oddball insects. Scientists attribute this to the island's remoteness--it's the most isolated landmass on Earth. Some of the more bizarre finds include the oxymoronic flightless fly and the spearing spider that uses enlarged claws to impale prey.

  11. Honeybee Swarms: How Do Scouts Guide A Swarm Of Uninformed Bees?, Animal Behav. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The organized movement of a swarm of honeybees towards its new home is a perplexing phenomenon because only a small number of scout bees, approximately 5%, know the direction in which the swarm has to move. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases a swarm, comprising about 10 000 mainly uninformed bees, reaches the new home. How do the scouts transfer directional information en route to the uninformed bees? (...) We developed a model (...) and showed that when scouts fly through the swarm at a speed slightly higher than the speed of the other (uninformed) bees, (...).

    1. A Model For Seasonal Phytoplankton Blooms, J. Theor. Biol. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: We analyse a generic bottom-up nutrient phytoplankton model to help understand the dynamics of seasonally recurring algae blooms. The deterministic model displays a wide spectrum of dynamical behaviours, from simple cyclical blooms which trigger annually, to irregular chaotic blooms in which both the time between outbreaks and their magnitudes are erratic. Unusually, despite the persistent seasonal forcing, it is extremely difficult to generate blooms that are both annually recurring and also chaotic or irregular (i.e. in amplitude) even though this characterizes many real time-series. Instead the model has a tendency to 'skip' with outbreaks (...).
      • Source: A Model For Seasonal Phytoplankton Blooms, A. Huppert - ahuppertawhoi.edu, B. Blasius, R. Olinky, L. Stone - lew521ayahoo.com, DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.03.012, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Oct. 2005, online 2005/05/23
      • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

    2. Multicellular Organization In Bacteria As A Target For Drug Therapy, Ecol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Antibiotic treatments are now reaching the limit of their efficiency(...). The development of new drugs against which resistance would be slower to evolve is an important challenge. Recent advances have shown that a potential strategy is to target global properties of infections instead of harming each individual bacterium. Consider an analogy with multicellular organisms. In order to kill an animal two strategies are possible. One can kill each of its cells individually. This is what antibiotics do to get rid of bacterial infections. (...) The present paper aims at analysing the consequence of this peculiarity on the evolution of bacterial resistance. (...)

  12. Complex Worlds From Simpler Nervous Systems, MIT Press Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The authors of (...) explain how animals with small, often minuscule, nervous systems -- jumping spiders, bees, praying mantids, toads, and others -- are not the simple "reflex machines" they were once thought to be. Because these animals live in the same world as do much larger species, they must meet the same environmental challenges. They do so by constructing complex perceptual worlds within which they can weigh options, make decisions, integrate unique experiences, apply complex algorithms, and execute plans -- and they must do this with thousands rather than the billions of neurons necessary for their larger counterparts.

    1. Battle Of The Bugs, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The inside of our nose resembles a crowded subway car at rush hour. Millions of microbes jostle for seats, but only a select few will get settled. Now scientists have uncovered a clever mechanism by which Haemophilus influenzae, a bug that commonly instigates childhood sinus infections, uses the body's immune response to crush its competition.

      Our bodies tolerate a wide range of resident microbes, but when these bugs grow out of control, the immune system hits them with a slew of fighter cells.

  13. Has Huygens Found Life On Titan?, New Scientist Space.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: If life exists on Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, we could soon know about it - as long as it's the methane-spewing variety. The chemical signature of microbial life could be hidden in readings taken by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe when it landed on Titan in January.

    Titan's atmosphere is about 5 per cent methane, and Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California, thinks that some of it could be coming from methanogens, or methane-producing microbes. #body_type2

    1. Toxic Surfs, Science News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: On a warm, sunny day, you can hear the presence of a "red tide" of toxic algae on popular Florida beaches, says Barbara Kirkpatrick. It's not the roar of coastal waves or the gurgle of flowing water, she explains, but "one continuous cough," as thousands of sunbathers and swimmers respond to airborne irritants that the algae expel in the surf.

      Kirkpatrick, manager of environmental health at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., heard the sound last February when she visited Siesta Key Beach.

  14. Climate Change Causing Phase Transitions Of Walleye Pollock Recruitment Dynamics, Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: In 1976 the North Pacific climate shifted, resulting in an average increase of the water temperature. In the Gulf of Alaska the climate shift was followed (i.e. early 1980s) by a gradual but dramatic increase in the abundance of groundfish species that typically prey on pre-recruitment stages of walleye pollock. In the present study we (...) investigate the effect of these climate and biological changes (...). Our findings demonstrate that the dominant mechanisms of pollock survival change over contrasting climate regimes. Such changes may in turn cause a phase transition of recruitment dynamics with profound implications for the management of the entire stock.

  15. Robotics Show Lucy Walked Upright, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Australopithecus afarensis, the early human who lived about 3.2 million years ago, walked upright, according to an "evolutionary robotics" model.

    The model, which uses footprints to predict gait, suggests "Lucy", as the first fossil afarensis was called, walked rather like us.

    This contradicts earlier suggestions that Lucy shuffled like a bipedally walking chimpanzee.

    The research is published in the Royal Society Interface journal.

    "I think it is very interesting work," Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, told the BBC News website.

    1. Bike Science, NPR Science Friday Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Cyclist Lance Armstrong appears to be on his way to a seventh consecutive win in the Tour de France bicycling race. But is Armstrong a genetic aberration, or merely a very determined, very well trained rider? In this hour of Science Friday, we'll talk about the physiology needed to be a top bicyclist. From lung capacity to muscular endurance, the biology beneath the yellow jersey is quite demanding. We'll also look at high-tech bicycling designs that can boost a rider's performance.

  16. Bill Wouldn't Wean U.S. Off Oil Imports, Analysts Say, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Despite repeated calls by President Bush and members of Congress to decrease U.S. dependence on oil imports, a major energy bill that appears headed for passage this week would not significantly reduce the country's need for foreign oil, according to analysts and interest groups.

    The United States imports 58 percent of the oil it consumes. Federal officials project that by 2025, the country will have to import 68 percent of its oil to meet demand. At best, analysts say, the energy legislation would slightly slow that rate of growth of dependence.

  17. Georgia's Undemocratic Voter Law, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Georgia has passed a disturbing new law that bars people from voting without government-issued photo identification and seems primarily focused on putting up obstacles for black and poor voters. The Justice Department is now weighing whether the law violates the Voting Rights Act. Clearly it does, and it should be blocked from taking effect.

    The new law's supporters claim that it is an attempt to reduce voter fraud, but Secretary of State Cathy Cox has said she cannot recall a single case during her tenure when anyone impersonated a voter.

  18. The Best Army We Can Buy, NY Times Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today's volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits - a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify.

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networ Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Psychologists Warn Of More Suicide Attacks In The Wake Of London Bombs, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Terror threat to the West 'will remain high for years to come', says analyst.

      When bombers struck London on the morning of 7 July, the city's inhabitants were shocked but not surprised. Since the 11 September attacks in New York, intelligence officials had warned that Britain's capital was a terrorist target. The real surprise came five days later, when police said that they believed the attacks were the work of suicide bombers.

    2. Insurgents 'Joining Iraqi Police', BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Iraq's police force is recruiting insurgents and former criminals to its ranks, according to a report released by the US defence department.

      It blames poor vetting procedures and recommends that the quality of records at Iraq's interior ministry be checked.

      US-run training programmes, in which more than 60,000 Iraqi recruits have taken part, are only a qualified success, the Pentagon report says.

      An earlier report found only 50% of battalions able to combat insurgents.

    3. EMERGENT COMMUNITIES DEDICATED TO WAR (London, Iraq, and Al Qaeda), Global Guerrillas Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: This premise-based community of war is an ancient method of warfare updated by modern communications technology -- cell phones, e-mail, Web sites, etc. Its structure likely follows similar topic/interest/goal centric communities that use similar tools of coordination. Valdis Krebs, an extremely talented social network analyst (listen to interview with Valdis), sent me a diagram of this type of community (see attached graphic, click for greater detail). He points out that this pattern is routinely found in emergent communities he has mapped.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Independent Codes for Spatial and Episodic Memory in Hippocampal Neuronal Ensembles, Stefan Leutgeb, Jill K. Leutgeb, Carol A. Barnes, Edvard I. Moser, Bruce L. McNaughton, May-Britt Moser, 05/07/22, Science : 619-623.
      2. Plant Circadian Clocks Increase Photosynthesis, Growth, Survival, and Competitive Advantage, Antony N. Dodd, Neeraj Salathia, Anthony Hall, Eva K?vei, R?ka T¡Xth, Ferenc Nagy, Julian M. Hibberd, Andrew J. Millar, Alex A. R. Webb, 05/07/22, Science: 630-633
      3. North Atlantic Right Whales in Crisis, Scott D. Kraus, Moira W. Brown, Hal Caswell, Christopher W. Clark, Masami Fujiwara, Philip K. Hamilton, Robert D. Kenney, Amy R. Knowlton, Scott Landry, Charles A. Mayo, William A. McLellan, Michael J. Moore, Douglas P. Nowacek, D. Ann Pabst, Andrew J. Read, Rosalind M. Rolland, 05/07/22, Science : 561-562
      4. Bacterial Snitch: Species Competes By Telling On Another, 05/07/23, Science News, A bacterial species that typically colonizes people's noses may win out over another bacterium by tattling to the host's immune system.
      5. Tumors in Touch: Cancer cells spur vessel formation through contact, 05/07/23, Science News, Some tumor cells use a newfound mechanism to prompt neighboring cells into forming blood vessels that then nourish the cancer.
      6. Mommy Greenest, 05/07/23, Science News, Green leafy moms take care of their offspring in ways that go beyond wrapping them in nice, snug seed coats and packing a nutritious lunch for them.
      7. Grand Illusion, 05/07/23, Science News, Astronomers have detected the most distant cosmic mirage ever recorded.
      8. Ultrasound Solution To Toxin Pollution, 05/07/23, Science News, Ultrasound treatment of water can generate reactive chemicals that destroy potentially lethal algal toxins.
      9. Fundamental Limitation To Quantum Computers, 2005/07/18, ScienceDaily & Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
      10. Fish And Chips: A Fast Track To Understanding Blood Development, 2005/07/18, ScienceDaily & Public Library of Science
      11. Language And Imagery: Effects Of Language Modality, G. Vigliocco, D. P. Vinson, T. Woolfe, M. W.G. Dye, B. Woll, 2005/07/19, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3169
      12. Photoreceptor Spectral Sensitivities In Terrestrial Animals: Adaptations For Luminance And Colour Vision, D. Osorio, M. Vorobyev, 2005/07/19, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3156
      13. Spiders That Decorate Their Webs At Higher Frequency Intercept More Prey And Grow Faster, D. Li, 2005/07/19, Proceedings: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3160
      14. Genetic Discovery Could Lead To Drought-resistant Plants, 2005/07/20, ScienceDaily & University of Toronto
      15. Communicating About Danger: Urgency Alarm Calling In A Bird, A. J. Leavesley, R. D. Magrath - robert.magrathaanu.edu.au, Aug. 2005, online 2005/05/23, Animal Behaviour, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.10.017
      16. Social Learning Of Food Preferences By White-Tailed Ptarmigan Chicks, T. Allen - rkymtnptarmiganayahoo.com, J. A. Clarke, Aug. 2005, online 2005/05/23, Animal Behaviour, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.10.022
      17. An Analytical Study Of The Number Of Steady States In Gene Regulatory Networks, A. Mochizuki - mochianibb.ac.jp, Oct. 2005, online 2005/05/10, Journal of Theoretical Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2005.03.015
      18. Stickiness In Mushroom Billiards, E. G. Altmann, A. E. Motter, H. Kantz, Sep. 2005, online 2005/07/21, Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, DOI: 10.1063/1.1979211
      19. Stability Of Functions In Boolean Models Of Gene Regulatory Networks, P. Rämö, J. Kesseli, O. Y.-Harja, Sep. 2005, online 2005/07/21, Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, DOI: 10.1063/1.1996927

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity 2005 Conference, Virtual Conference Network, St. Pete's Beach, Florida, 05/06/09-11
      2. Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19
      3. Changing Habitats...Vanishing Species , Harvard University Science Center, 04/11/12
      4. Symposium : Energy For The Future, Taipei, Taiwan, 05/04/08
      5. Nonlinearity, Fluctuations, and Complexity, with a celebration of the 65th birthday of Gregoire Nicolis. , Complexity Session, Universite' Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, 05/03/16
      6. World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 05/01/26-30
      7. 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7
      8. Neurobiological Foundation For The Meaning Of Information, Kolkata, India, Conference Webcast, 04/11/22-25
      9. ALife 9: Ninth International Conference on Artificial Life, Boston, MA, 04/09/12-15
      10. The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China, 04/07/22-23
      11. Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
      12. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      13. ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy, 04/06/14-17
      14. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      15. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      16. Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28
      17. Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27
      18. Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01
      19. Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
      20. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      21. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      22. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      23. Edge Videos

    3. Conference Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. 2005 World Exposition "Nature's Wisdom", Aichi, Japan, 05/03/25-09/25
      2. First Summer School on Aspects of Complexity, Bertinoro (Forlì), Italy, 05/07/18-28
      3. Soc for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences 15th Annual Intl Conf, Denver, CO, USA, 05/08/04-06
      4. North American Computing and Philosophy conference, Corvallis, Oregon, USA, 05/08/04-06
      5. 2005 Intl Conf on Natural Computation (ICNC'05), Intl Conf on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD'05), Changsha, China, 05/08/27-29
      6. Projected Perception. At the Edge of Natural and Artificial Reality and Abstraction, Bolzano, Italy, 05/09/01-03
      7. Summer School on Econophysics and Complexity, Romania, 05/09/02-09
      8. ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK, 05/09/05-09
      9. 4th Intl School "Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics: Synchronization of Dynamical Systems and Complex Networks", Florence, Italy, 05/09/08-10
      10. Complexity, Science and Society Conf 2005, Liverpool, UK, 05/09/11-14
      11. 2005 Plexus Annual Summit: On the Verge: Changing Lives, Organizations and Minds-Complexity Science in a Changing World, Delray Beach, Florida, 05/09/11-13
      12. A General Overview On Complex Adaptive Systems, Santa Clara, CA, 05/09/15-16
      13. Dynamics Of Socio-Economic Systems: A Physics Perspective, Physics Center Bad Honnef, Germany, 05/09/18-24
      14. 18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23
      15. Genomics in Context, University of Exeter, UK, 05/09/28-30
      16. Intl Master of Science in Complexity And Its Interdisciplinary Applications, Academic Year 2005-2006 deadline for applications 05/09/30
      17. CSDS-2005 Intl Conf on Control And Synchronization Of Dynamical Systems , Leon, Guanajuato, MEXICO, 05/10/04-07
      18. Traffic and Granular Flow, Berlin, Germany, 05/10/10-12
      19. Intl Congress of Nanotechnology 2005, San Francisco, USA, 05/10/31-11/04
      20. Adaptive And Resilient Computing Security Workshop, Santa Fe, NM, 05/11/02-03
      21. 5th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Kobe, 05/11/14-17 (MCS'05 is also as a symposium of the 1st World Congress of International Federation for Systems Research)
      22. European Conference on Complex Systems, Paris, France, 05/11/14-18
      23. Econophysics Colloquium, Canberra (ANU), 05/11/14-18
      24. 3rd International Complexity Science and Educational Research Conference, Robert, Louisiana, 05/11/20-22, see also: Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education, Inaugural issue - Free Online Access
      25. Systems Thinking and Complexity Science: Insights for Action, , 11th Ann ANZSYS Conf/Managing the Complex V Christchurch, New Zealand, 05/12/05-07
      26. 2005 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Security (CIS'2005), Hong Kong, China, 05/12/15-19
      27. 3rd Biennial Seminar on the Philosophical, Methodological, and Epistemological Implications of Complexity Theory, Havana, Cuba, 06/01/09-12
      28. The Second International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology , Senri Life Science Center, Osaka, Japan, 06/01/26-27
      29. FRACTAL 2006 Complexity and Fractals in Nature, 9th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vienna, Austria, 06/02/12-15
      30. 18th European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR), Vienna, Austria, 06/04/18-21

    4. Call for Papers Bookmark and Share

      1. IEEE Intelligent Systems, Special Issue on Self-Management through Self-Organization in Information Systems, , Submissions due 05/09/02

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