Complexity Digest 2003.42

20-Oct-2003

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Content

  1. Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, Conference Webcast
  2. Artificial Life: Organization, Adaptation and Complexity from the Bottom Up, Trends in Cognitive Sciences
  3. Art and Science Meet With Novel Results, NYTimes
    1. Welcome To The Labyrinth Of Consciousness, Lloyd Website
  4. Bridging The Gap Between Rationality And Adaptation In Social Explanation, J. Evolutionary Econ.
  5. Computer Researchers On The Prowl For Human "Common Sense", The Associated Press
    1. Web Site Synthesis Based On Computational Logic
  6. Neuroscience: Re-Recording Human Memories, Nature
    1. Dissociable Stages Of Human Memory Consolidation And Reconsolidation, Nature
    2. Consolidation During Sleep Of Perceptual Learning Of Spoken Language, Nature
  7. Plant Biology: Locks, Keys And Symbioses, Nature
    1. Mutualism Can Mediate Competition And Promote Coexistence, Ecol. Lett.
  8. Ultraviolet Vision In A Bat, Nature
  9. The Mother-In-Law Effect, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.
  10. The Automatic Pilot Of Honeybees, Alphagalileo & Proc. Biol. Sc.
  11. DNA Copied With Convection, Nature Science update
    1. Exponential DNA Replication by Laminar Convection, Physical Review Letters
  12. Complexity in the Immune System, arXiv
  13. Living Longer and Larger: It's in the Size of Cholesterol-Carrying Molecules, NYTimes
  14. How Cells Step Out, Science
    1. Mathematical Modeling Predicts Cellular Communication, ScienceDaily
  15. Magic Number Revealed For Flying And Swimming, NewScientist
    1. Symbolic Analysis Of Swimming Trajectories Reveals Scale Invariance For Fish Locomotion, Fractals
  16. Think Outside The Sandbox, Nature
    1. Non-Linear Response Of Shoreface-Connected Sand Ridges To Interventions, Ocean Dynamics
    2. Migrating Sand Waves, Ocean Dynamics
  17. Warming Indian Ocean Wringing Moisture From the Sahel, Science
    1. Can Rain Be Bought? Experts Seed Clouds and Seek Answers, NYTimes
  18. After Bitter Fight, Texas Senate Redraws Congressional Districts, NYTimes
    1. On Listening, NYTimes
  19. Complex Challenges
    1. Iraqi Arms Caches Cited in Attacks, NYTimes
    2. Iraq War Has Swollen Ranks Of Al-Qaida, Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, 03/10/16
    3. The Military Balance 2003-4, International Inst f Strategic Studies Press Conference
    4. Intelligence Puzzle: North Korean Bombs, NYTimes
    5. Feds Want All-Seeing Eye in Sky, Wired
    6. Spies Attack White House Secrecy, Wired
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test
    5. Special Announcement: Artists Explore Complex Systems, Federal Reserve Board

  1. Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, Conference Webcast Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Note: Audio files are in downloadable mp3 format for portable mp3 players or any mp3 software players. Video files are in asf format and can be played e.g. with windows media player. For the sound codec a (free) plugin might be required, but the download should be automatic.
    • Source: Behind the Spirit of the Hive: Complex Interaction Dynamics in Social Insects, Lars Chittka
    • AUDIO - Full talk
    • Source: Rules of Decsion Making: Trade-offs in Collective House Hunting, Anna Dornhaus, Nigel R. Franks
    • VIDEO - Summary
    • Source: Computational Models of Movement Control in Lampreys, Salamanders, and Humanoid Robots, Auke Jan Ijspeert
    • AUDIO - Full talk
    • Source: Simultaneous Learning of Basic and Compound Actions by Imitating Compound Action, Bart Jansen
    • VIDEO - Summary
    • Source: Simultaneous Development of Vocal and Physical Object Combinations by a Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus): An Evolutionary Comparison with Primates, Irene Pepperberg
    • VIDEO - Summary
    • Source: Evolving Interaction in Artificial Systems: An historical overview and future directions, Tim Taylor
    • VIDEO - Summary

  2. Artificial Life: Organization, Adaptation and Complexity from the Bottom Up, Trends in Cognitive Sciences Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Artificial life attempts to understand the essential general properties of living systems by synthesizing life-like behavior in software, hardware and biochemicals. As many of the essential abstract properties of living systems (e.g. autonomous adaptive and intelligent behavior) are also studied by cognitive science, artificial life and cognitive science have an essential overlap. This review highlights the state of the art in artificial life with respect to dynamical hierarchies, molecular self-organization, evolutionary robotics, the evolution of complexity and language, and other practical applications. It also speculates about future connections between artificial life and cognitive science.

  3. Art and Science Meet With Novel Results, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: "Radiant Cool" has the makings of a gripping noir thriller: a missing body, a tough-talking female sleuth and a mustachioed Russian agent mixed up in a shadowy plot to take over the world. But the novel, by Dan Lloyd, (...), is also a serious work of scholarship, the unlikely vehicle for an abstruse new theory of consciousness. Lured in by the sinister atmospherics (...) and clipped, Sam Spade narration (...), readers soon find themselves enrolled in a heady tutorial on Husserl, phenomenology, neural networks and multidimensional scaling.

    1. Welcome To The Labyrinth Of Consciousness, Lloyd Website Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: What then? If the brain is not a bureucracy of functional specialists, what is it? It is -- in my view -- a radical democracy. A cooperative kibbutz in which everyone pitches in a bit on just about everything. Or, in the language of cognitive science, the brain is a distributed processor. But distributed processors are hard to understand, requiring special interpretive strategies. One microscope of complexity is multidimensional scaling, and through its lenses we can see terra cognita, the space of mind.

  4. Bridging The Gap Between Rationality And Adaptation In Social Explanation, J. Evolutionary Econ. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: This paper focuses on the uneasy alliance of rational choice and evolutionary explanations in modern economics. While direct evolutionary explanations rule out "purposeful" rational choice by assuming "zero-intelligence" and pure rational choice explanations leave no room for "selective" adaptation, the indirect evolutionary approach integrates both perspectives. Subsequently we go stepwise "from teleology to evolution" and thereby study the model spectrum ranging from pure rational choice over indirect to direct evolutionary approaches. We believe that knowledge of this spectrum can help us to choose more adequate models of economic behavior that incorporate both teleological and evolutionary elements.

  5. Computer Researchers On The Prowl For Human "Common Sense", The Associated Press Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The ESP game works by pairing a player with an anonymous Internet partner who are both asked to type in words that describe a series of images. The players win points when they match words _ and von Ahn and Blum have another label they can affix to the image in question. It would take too long for researchers to label every one of the hundreds of millions of images (...). But by getting a few thousand people to play the ESP game each day, von Ahn hopes that might be accomplished in a few months.

    1. Web Site Synthesis Based On Computational Logic Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Web site design and maintenance has become a challenging problem due to the increase in volume and complexity of information presented in this way. Web site applications can also benefit from systematic approaches to development that make design more methodical and maintenance less time consuming. One way to tackle this problem is via automated synthesis, automatically deriving a Web site from a high-level application description. Computational logic is well suited to this problem because of its support of a uniform view of data and computation, allowing reasoning with both specification and program via meta-rogramming.

  6. Neuroscience: Re-Recording Human Memories, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: New memories that weaken during the day can be strengthened by a period of sleep. And when memories are reactivated, they must be re-stored in order to persist. (...) No longer is memory thought to be a hard-wiring of information in the brain. Instead, it seems to be a process of storage and re-storage. (...) sleep can rescue memories that were lost during the day. (...) stabilized memories can be re-stored when they are reactivated - and that those memories are lost if this process is interfered with.

    1. Dissociable Stages Of Human Memory Consolidation And Reconsolidation, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Recent findings regarding the learning of skilled sensory and motor tasks ('procedural learning') have refined this definition, suggesting that consolidation can be more strictly determined by time spent in specific brain states such as wake, sleep or certain stages of sleep. There is also renewed interest in the possibility that recalling or 'reactivating' a previously consolidated memory renders it once again fragile and susceptible to interference, therefore requiring periods of reconsolidation. Using a motor skill finger-tapping task, here we provide evidence for at least three different stages (...).

    2. Consolidation During Sleep Of Perceptual Learning Of Spoken Language, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Memory consolidation resulting from sleep has been seen broadly: in verbal list learning, spatial learning, and skill acquisition in visual and motor tasks. These tasks do not generalize across spatial locations or motor sequences, (...). Although episodic rote learning constitutes a large part of any organism's learning, generalization is a hallmark of adaptive behaviour. In speech, the same phoneme often has different acoustic patterns depending on context. Training on a small set of words improves performance on novel words using the same phonemes but with different acoustic patterns, (...).

  7. Plant Biology: Locks, Keys And Symbioses, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The association between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria requires molecular recognition to allow bacterial entry into root hairs. The discovery of a novel type of plant receptor clarifies how this happens. Legumes, such as pea, bean, trefoil and peanut, are agricultural wonders. They form symbioses with bacteria, known as rhizobia, which means that they can make their own nitrogen fertilizer by 'fixing' atmospheric nitrogen. (...) molecular recognition system that enables root hairs to promote the entry of rhizobia while excluding a huge diversity of unwelcome intruders from the soil.

    1. Mutualism Can Mediate Competition And Promote Coexistence, Ecol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: Mutualistic interactions are not believed to promote coexistence of competitors because mutualisms produce positive feedbacks on abundances whereas coexistence requires negative feedbacks. Here we show that a mutualism between an anemonefish (Amphiprion) and its sea anemone host mediates the effect of asymmetrical competition for space (...) fosters their coexistence. Amphiprion stimulates increases in host area, the shared resource, but social interactions cap the number of anemonefish to two adults per host. Space generated by the mutualism becomes differentially available to Dascyllus because the effectiveness of an anemonefish in excluding its competitor declines with increases in the area it defends.

  8. Ultraviolet Vision In A Bat, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Most mammals, with the exception of primates, have dichromatic vision and correspondingly limited colour perception. Ultraviolet vision was discovered in mammals only a decade ago, and in the few rodents and marsupials where it has been found (...). Bats orient primarily by echolocation, but they also use vision. Here we show that a phyllostomid flower bat, Glossophaga soricina, is colour-blind but sensitive to ultraviolet light down to a wavelength of 310 nm. Behavioural experiments revealed a spectral-sensitivity function with maxima at 510 nm (green) and above 365 nm (ultraviolet).
    • Source: Ultraviolet Vision In A Bat, York Winter, Jorge L& - 37845;ez, Otto Von Helversen, DOI: 10.1038/nature01971, Nature 425, 612 - 614, 09 October 2003

  9. The Mother-In-Law Effect, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Individuals often benefit by manipulating others. In most cases, manipulation involves direct, physical interactions between individuals. In the dung beetle, Onthophagus taurus, mothers provide more food to offspring when mated with large males. In this article, we demonstrate that this manipulation may extend across generations - the care a mother provides to a developing son influences the parental effort of his mate (the mother's daughter-in-law). In contrast to previous studies demonstrating the considerable advantages of increased maternal care, this mother-in-law effect is mediated by the ability to produce large sons from relatively lower levels of care.

  10. The Automatic Pilot Of Honeybees, Alphagalileo & Proc. Biol. Sc. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The 'automatic pilot' facility allows a pilot to set a desired compass course, and his aircraft will then fly that course for the required distance. Using harmonic radar, we have found that honeybees returning to their hive from food sources apparently navigate in this way, and remarkably, compensate for wind drift while doing so. If captured and released elsewhere, they still fly this course for the distance that should take them home, ignoring unfamiliar landmarks encountered on the way. Conversely, if these bees perceive landmarks they can recognise, they sometimes abandon the 'auto-pilot' mode and return home using other methods.
    • Source: The Automatic Pilot Of Honeybees, J. R. Riley, U. Greggers, A. D. Smith, S. Stach, D. Reynolds, N. Stollhoff, R. Brandt, F. Schaupp & R. Menzel, 2003/10/13
    • Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinayahoo.co.in

  11. DNA Copied With Convection, Nature Science update Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: (...) PCR in a circular chamber 5 millimetres wide, heated from beneath its centre. This sets up a convection current - hot water rises in the middle of the chamber and flows towards its edge, where it cools and sinks. (...) The enzyme copies single DNA strands at the chamber's cool periphery, and these strands then pair up. The convection current carries the double strands to the hot centre, where they are prised apart before being borne back to the edges.

    1. Exponential DNA Replication by Laminar Convection, Physical Review Letters Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: It is shown that laminar thermal convection can drive a chain reaction of DNA replication. The convection is triggered by a constant horizontal temperature gradient, moving molecules along stationary paths between hot and cold regions. This implements the temperature cycling for the classical polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The amplification is shown to be exponential and reaches 100 000-fold gains within 25 min. Besides direct applications, the mechanism might have implications for the molecular evolution of life.

  12. Complexity in the Immune System, arXiv Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: The immune system is a real-time example of an evolving system that navigates the essentially infinite complexity of protein sequence space. How this system responds to disease and vaccination is discussed. Of particular focus is the case when vaccination leads to increased susceptibility to disease, a phenomenon termed original antigenic sin. A physical theory of protein evolution to explain limitations in the immune system response to vaccination and disease is discussed, and original antigenic sin is explained as stemming from localization of the immune system response in antibody sequence space. This localization is a result of the roughness in sequence space of the evolved antibody affinity constant for antigen and is observed for diseases with high year-to-year mutation rates, such as influenza.

  13. Living Longer and Larger: It's in the Size of Cholesterol-Carrying Molecules, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The study, to be published today, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, adds to an emerging collection of evidence that suggests that the size of lipoproteins, both good and bad, may play a significant role in heart disease, diabetes and, consequently, longevity. "Large particle size seems to give people an extra 20 years of life, with very little disability to go along with it," said Dr. Nir Barzilai, who directed the study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Dr. Barzilai also traced large lipoproteins to a specific gene that influences lipoprotein size.(...) The gene may be one reason why some centenarians in Dr. Barzilai's study have lived to 100, even though they were overweight or ate badly. "I hate to say it," he said. "but I think it's true. If you have this gene, you can smoke and you can be fat and you can not exercise. This sounds to me terrible."

  14. How Cells Step Out, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Some gaps and controversies remain, but cell biologists are beginning to develop a clearer picture of how cells move by remodeling their filaments composed of the protein actin

    1. Mathematical Modeling Predicts Cellular Communication, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: From the moment its life begins, the fate of a multicellular organism depends on how well its cells communicate. Proteins act as molecular switchboard operators to keep the lines of communication open and the flow of cellular messages on track. But charting the protein interactions, signaling pathways, and other elements that regulate these networks is no small feat. (...) focused their efforts on a well-studied signaling pathway--the Wnt pathway (...). Consequently, developing tools that elucidate the Wnt pathway will not only provide insights into this important pathway but have implications for understanding communication pathways in animals from jellyfish to humans.

  15. Magic Number Revealed For Flying And Swimming, NewScientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A simple number called the Strouhal number describes locomotion produced by the flapping of wings. It equals the frequency of flapping multiplied by its amplitude, divided by forward speed. Theory suggests that in most cases peak efficiency is reached when this number lies between 0.2 and 0.4. (...)they rounded up data on wing movements and speed for 42 species of bats, insects and birds. It turned out that the Strouhal number for almost all these animals once again fell in the 0.2 to 0.4 range.

    1. Symbolic Analysis Of Swimming Trajectories Reveals Scale Invariance For Fish Locomotion, Fractals Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: We have questioned whether a complex behavior, such as fish swimming, can be better described quantitatively as a sequence of discrete events or states (...). Here, the different states, expressed as combinations of symbols, were defined on the basis of the animal's location (A: periphery, and B: inner part of the aquarium) and speed (Fast and Slow). We observed that the distributions of time intervals spent in the successive states were not gaussian. Rather, they were fit by power laws (...). Furthermore, our data suggest that the swimming behavior can be attributed to interactions between two intrinsic systems.

  16. Think Outside The Sandbox, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: One grain of sand is a solid. But a lot of grains together can behave like a solid or a liquid. By probing this dual personality, physicists hope to understand a host of real-world systems (...). Weaker vibration corresponds to a lower effective temperature. So, by analogy, a progressively less vigorously shaken granular liquid should reach a point at which it 'freezes' into a solid. (...) As Jaeger's group suggested, this is similar to the way in which glassy materials solidify.

    1. Non-Linear Response Of Shoreface-Connected Sand Ridges To Interventions, Ocean Dynamics Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: A non-linear morphodynamic model of a microtidal coastal shelf is used to study the response of shoreface-connected sand ridges and the net sand balance of the shelf to large-scale interventions. The model describes the interaction between storm-driven currents and the erodible bottom. The model results indicate that for all interventions studied a relatively fast local recovery (time scale of decades to centuries) of the disturbed bathymetry to its original pattern takes place. Readjustment of the global system to its original equilibrium state (the saturation process) occurs on a longer time scale (several centuries).

    2. Migrating Sand Waves, Ocean Dynamics Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Abstract: A simple mathematical model is described, which reproduces the major features of sand waves' appearance and growth and in particular predicts their migration speed. The model is based on the linear stability analysis of the flat configuration of the sea bottom subject to tidal currents. Attention is focused on the prediction of the complex growth rate that bottom perturbations undergo because of both oscillatory fluid motions and residual currents. While the real part r of controls the amplification or decay of the amplitude of the bedforms, the imaginary part i is related to their migration speed.
      • Source: Migrating Sand Waves, G. Besio - giospudadiam.unige.it, P. Blondeaux, M. Brocchini & G. Vittori, DOI: 10.1007/s10236-003-0043-x, Sep. 2003
      • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com

  17. Warming Indian Ocean Wringing Moisture From the Sahel, Science Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: When drought hit the 5000-kilometer-long strip of marginally habitable land along the southern edge of the Sahara in the 1970s and '80s, the people of the Sahel suffered greatly. Soon some researchers were hypothesizing that intensive use of the land might have altered the surface of the Sahel enough to dry it out. The locals, although they have clearly used the land heavily, have since been absolved of fooling with the climate (Science, 31 July 1998, p. 633 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/281/5377/633). Now researchers are pointing to another culprit--the warming Indian Ocean--but humans may still be to blame.

    1. Can Rain Be Bought? Experts Seed Clouds and Seek Answers, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: With a severe drought parching Colorado and much of the American West in recent years, Denver's water department decided to take a gamble in the hope of squeezing more precipitation out of the atmosphere. It has invested more than $1 million in cloud seeding in the last two years. Has it paid off? Possibly, some research suggests. The most recent report, (...), is inconclusive. "Evaluation methodologies vary but in general do not provide convincing scientific evidence for either success or failure," (...), titled "Critical Issues in Weather Modification Research."

  18. After Bitter Fight, Texas Senate Redraws Congressional Districts, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: After more than five months of bitter party squabbles and two quorum-busting flights into exile by Democratic lawmakers, the Republican-controlled Texas Senate gave final approval Sunday night, without debate, to new Congressional districts that put the Republicans in a far stronger position to dominate the Texas delegation in the 2004 elections and beyond. (...) The Republicans, who now trail the Democrats 17 to 15 in Washington, are likely to gain seven seats by some accounts. Editor's Note: Through this procedure the legislative power in the next election could shift significantly without any influence from voters (unless they move to a new district and register there.). This might explain why some experts insist on pointing out that the U.S. is not a democracy (see e.g. H. CON. RES. 48 of March 6, 2001).

    1. On Listening, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: There was a headline that grabbed me in The Times on Saturday. It said, "Cheney Lashes Out at Critics of Policy on Iraq." "Wow," I thought, "that must have been an interesting encounter." Then I read the fine print. Mr. Cheney was speaking to 200 invited guests at the conservative Heritage Foundation - and even they were not allowed to ask any questions. Great. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein issue messages from their caves through Al Jazeera, and Mr. Cheney issues messages from his bunker through Fox.

  19. Complex Challenges Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Iraqi Arms Caches Cited in Attacks, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The two most recent suicide bombings here (...) were carried out with explosives and material taken from Saddam Hussein's former weapons dumps, which are much larger than previously estimated and remain, for the most part, unguarded by American troops, (...). Officials also say that Mr. Hussein stockpiled at least 5,000 shoulder-fired missiles, and that fewer than a third have been recovered. They fear that many have been smuggled out of the country and may have fallen into the hands of terrorist organizations.

    2. Iraq War Has Swollen Ranks Of Al-Qaida, Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, 03/10/16 Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: War in Iraq has swollen the ranks of al-Qaida and "galvanised its will" by increasing radical passions among Muslims, an authoritative think-tank said yesterday. The warning, echoing earlier ones by MI5 and MI6, was made in the annual report of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance. (...) It disclosed that in February, a month before the invasion, (...) said that "al-Qaida and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest threat to western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq".

    3. The Military Balance 2003-4, International Inst f Strategic Studies Press Conference Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The US-led invasion of Iraq brought about a collapse in the security structures of the country including the structures for guarding arms dumps, and the state's border regime. The coalition was unprepared for the scale of the problem, and had no way of securing the quantity of ammunition and weapons storage sites. Some five months on the situation has hardly improved and small arms and light weapons are readily available to criminals and insurgents alike. Alarmingly, the report produced by David Kay of the Iraq Survey Group earlier this month noted that 'there are approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points (ASP) many of which exceed 50 square miles and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of ordinance.... Of these approximately 120 still remain unexamined.' While the number of un-inspected sites may be interesting in terms of the struggle to find evidence of WMD, it is even more interesting as a comment on the ammunition that may be available to terrorists who can get access to unguarded or poorly guarded depots. A particular issue concerns man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS) which exist in large quantities.

    4. Intelligence Puzzle: North Korean Bombs, NYTimes Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: New intelligence estimates that North Korea may have produced one or two nuclear weapons in recent months - or perhaps more - have immersed the administration in another internal debate about the quality of intelligence about illegal weapons. With President Bush just days from embarking on his longest foray in Asia, some of his advisers say it is possible that North Korea is telling the truth about having turned 8,000 nuclear fuel rods into enough weapons-grade plutonium for several warheads. Others, (...), say there is still no proof, (...).

    5. Feds Want All-Seeing Eye in Sky, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: "We need an illuminator, throwing into relief all the pictures and activities on the Earth's surface. And then we need to be able to switch on the spotlight, or alert other systems, to dive deep." (...). Space-based radar, or SBR, is Cambone's preferred method for fulfilling these aims. America's current imaging satellites can cover only thin slices of the Earth at any one time as the spacecraft pass overhead. A constellation of 10 to 24 SBR satellites, slated for 2012 or so, would cover almost the entire globe at once.

    6. Spies Attack White House Secrecy, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Moves to classify documents are up 400 percent from a decade ago, to more than 23 million such actions in 2002, according to the Information Security Oversight Office , a division of the National Archives. (...) To counter far-reaching, stealthy terrorist cabals, the country needs more openness, not less, they said Wednesday at Geo-Intel 2003, a first-of-its-kind conference here on the use of satellites in war, intelligence and homeland security. "Our secrecy system is all about protecting secrecy officers, and has nothing to do with protecting secrets. It's a self-licking ice-cream cone," (...).

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Fighting the War at Home, The "letter home" that was published in 11 hometown papers before it was uncovered as a fraud looks suspiciously like propaganda.
      2. Swords-to-Plowshares Program Suffers Meltdown, Last month the U.S. government quietly opted not to renew a 5-year agreement with Russia on the Nuclear Cities Initiative, a U.S. Department of Energy effort that has channeled, 87 million into business development at three once-secret cities devoted to nuclear weapons R&D. Paul Webster, Science 302: 207
      3. Restoring Recall: Memories may form and reform, with sleep, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in Audible format
      4. Visionary Research, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in Audible format
      5. When Genes Escape, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in Audible format
      6. Faint Smells Of Schizophrenia, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in Audible format
      7. Weekend Weather Really Is Different, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in Audible format
      8. Warmer Ocean Blamed for Drought, The Indian Ocean is wringing moisture from the Sahel
      9. Ozone Loss Changes Weather, Thinned Ozone Layer Influences Antarctic Winds, Temperatures
      10. Genes Keep Bee's Brain on Job, Active genes tell whether bees nurse the brood or look for food
      11. Complexity Science and Software Development, Marilyn Lamoreux introduced her team of software engineers to the world of complexity. She shares the PowerPoint slides from her presentation. How does her story compare and contrast with your own? What do we all have to learn from each other about making these concepts accessible to others? Marilyn Lamoreux, 03/10/08, PATTERNS - Newsletter of the HSD Institute - Volume 1, No. 9
      12. The Learning Society, Bill Butler, 03/10/08, PATTERNS - Newsletter of the HSD Institute - Volume 1, No. 9
      13. Astronomers Date Universe's 'Cosmic Jerk', 03/10/13, New Scientist
      14. MIT Engineers Report New Approach To Tissue Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press Release,, 03/10/13
      15. Genetically Modified Food and the Poor, 03/10/13, NYTimes
      16. Brain Implant In Monkeys Called Breakthrough, Rick Weiss, 03/10/13, Boston Globe
      17. In Pioneering Study, Monkey Think, Robot Do, Sandra Blakeslee, 03/10/13, NYTimes
      18. Parasitism Derived Genomic Analysis Of A Parasitic Archaeon Suggests Nonreductive Evolution, Cathy Holding, 03/10/14, The Scientist
      19. Don't Look Down, A third world country with America's recent numbers would definitely be on the economic crisis watch list. Paul Krugman, 03/10/14, NYTimes
      20. Leading Humanity Forward, A. Asohan, 03/10/14, The Star Online (Malaysia)
      21. Data Faster Than Speeding Bullet, (...) new world speed record for sending data across the Internet, equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD film in seven seconds., 03/10/15, Reuters , Wired News
      22. Study Says Making Cars Lighter Would Cost Lives, Danny Hakim, 03/10/15, NYTimes
      23. Coca Culture, Leonida Zurita-Vargas, 03/10/15, NYTimes
      24. Holding Our Noses, Nicholas D. Kristof, 03/10/15, NYTimes
      25. Senior Federal Prosecutors and F.B.I. Officials Fault Ashcroft Over Leak Inquiry, DAVID JOHNSTON, ERIC LICHTBLAU, 03/10/16, NYTimes
      26. Digging for Nuggets of Wisdom, Text-mining programs go further, categorizing information, making links between otherwise unconnected documents, LISA GUERNSEY, 03/10/16, NYTimes
      27. The American Prison Camp, 03/10/16, NYTimes
      28. Dedicated Fibre Delivers Net Speed Record , 03/10/17, New Scientist
      29. Astronomers Find First 'Dark Galaxy' , 03/10/20, New Scientist
      30. Environmentally Mediated Synergy Between Perception And Behaviour In Mobile Robots, Paul F. M. J. Verschure, Thomas Voegtlin, Rodney J. Douglas, 09 October 2003, Nature 425, 620 - 624 , DOI: 10.1038/nature02024
      31. Breaking Synchrony by Heterogeneity in Complex Networks, Michael Denker, Marc Timme, Markus Diesmann, Fred Wolf, Theo Geisel, 2003-09-04, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0309103
      32. Beyond Input-Output Computings: Error-driven Emergence with Parallel Non-distributed Slime Mold Computer, Masashi Aono, Yukio-Pegio Gunji, 2003-10, Biosystems 71(3):257-287, DOI: 10.1016/S0303-2647(03)00085-6
      33. Transient Diversity in Multi-Agent Systems, David Lyback, 2003-10-06, arXiv, DOI: cs.AI/0310010
      34. The Yeast Cell-Cycle Network Is Robustly Designed, Fangting Li, Tao Long, Ying Lu, Qi Ouyang, Chao Tang, 2003-10-09, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.MN/0310010
      35. Monkey's Brain Signals Control 'Third Arm', 2003-10-13, NewScientist.com
      36. A Short Account of a Connection of Power Laws to the Information Entropy, Yaniv Dover, 2003-10-8, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Article in Press, Uncorrected Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.029
      37. Sinister Strategies Succeed At The Cricket World Cup, R. Brooks, L. Bussiere, M. D. Jennions & J. Hunt, 2003/10/13
      38. Environmental Calcium Modifies Induced Defences In Snails, S. D. Rundle, J. I. Spicer, R. A. Coleman, J. Vosper & J. Soane, 2003/10/13
      39. Fitness Reduction And Potential Extinction Of Wild Populations Of Atlantic Salmon Salmo Salar As A Result Of Interactions With Escaped Farm Salmon, P. McGinnity, P. Prodohl, A. Ferguson, R. Hynes, N. O. Maoileidigh, N. Baker, D. Cotter, B. O'Hea, D. Cooke, G. Rogan, J. Taggart & T. Cross, 2003/10/13
      40. Evolution, Climate Change And Species Boundaries: Perspectives From Tracing Lemmiscus Curtatus Populations Through Time And Space, A. D. Barnosky & C. J. Bell, 2003/10/13
      41. African Ancestor Of The Russian, Chinese And American Indian, S. Komarov - textmasterainformnauka.ru, 2003/10/13
      42. Monkeys Consciously Control A Robot Arm Using Only Brain Signals; Appear To 'Assimilate' Arm As If It Were Their Own, 2003/10/13, ScienceDaily & Duke Univ. Med. Center
      43. Researchers Discover Genes That Distinguish Human, Nonhuman Primate Brains, 2003/10/14, ScienceDaily & Emory Univ. Health Sc. Center
      44. Patterns Of Brain Activity Differ With Musical Training, Not Cultural Familarity, 2003/10/15, ScienceDaily & Univ. Of Washington
      45. The Evolution Of A Technological System: The Case Of CNC Machine Tools In Korea, T. K. Sung - sungtkajeonju.ac.kr, B. Carlsson, Oct. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00191-003-0160-1
      46. Design Enables Large Neural Nets, , October 8/15, 2003, Technology Research News
      47. Modeling And Analysis Of The Spread Of Carrier Dependent Infectious Diseases With Environmental Effects, S. Singh, P. Chandra & J. B. Shukla, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1142/S0218339003000877
      48. Smoothing Before Estimating Uncertainty, Scaling And Intermittency: Application To Short Heart Rate Signals, D. R. Bickel - http://www.davidbickel.com, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1142/S0218348X03002130
      49. Self-Similar Criticality, S. F. Tebbens & S. M. Burroughs, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1142/S0218348X03002117
      50. Modeling Spatial-Temporal Data With A Short Observation History, D. Pokrajac - pokieaist.temple.edu, R. L. Hoskinson & Z. Obradovic, Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s10115-002-0094-1

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
      2. The Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Potential and Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
      3. ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      4. Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998
      5. IMA International Conference Bifurcation 2003, Univ. Southampton, UK, 27-30 July, 2003
      6. New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
      7. Edge Videos
      8. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      9. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      10. Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and Unknowable, The University of Texas Austin, Texas USA, 2003/04/10-12
      11. New Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management At European Research Laboratories, CERN, Geneva, 2003/03/19 (with webcast)
      12. CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events
      13. 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      14. Fair Value; The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown, Financial Executives International (FEI), 03/08/26, 5:00-6:00 p.m. GMT

      1. Turn That PC Into a Supercomputer, A small chip-design firm will unveil a new processor Tuesday it says will transform ordinary desktop PCs and laptops into supercomputers. Leander Kahney, 03/10/14, Wired News
      2. Big Mac To Storm Supercomputer List , 03/10/15, New Scientist
      3. Mac Supercomputer: Fast, Cheap , The brand new "Big Mac" supercomputer at Virginia Tech could be the second most powerful supercomputer on the planet (...). Leander Kahney, 03/10/15, Wired News

    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. Exystence Thematic Institute - Algorithms And Challenges In Hard Combinatorial Problems, Turin, Italy, 03/10/01-30
      2. 2003 IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13-17
        1. Workshop on Collaboration Agents: Autonomous Agents for Collaborative Environments, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13
      3. Complexity Science and Educational Research, U Alberta Edmonton, AB Canada , 03/10/16-18
      4. Art & Artificial Life International Competition, Deadline: 03/10/31
      5. Systems-Based Practice: Competency for Medical Professionals, Boston, MA, 03/11/02
      6. Intl Congress on Computational Intelligence, Medellin, Colombia, 03/11/06-08,(Mirror)
      7. American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2003 Conference (H.v.Foerster), Vienna, Austria, 03/11/10-15
      8. Modeling Workshop, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 03/11/15-16
      9. Trends And Perspectives In Extensive And Non-Extensive Statistical Mechanics, In Honour Of The 60th Birthday Of Constantino Tsallis, Angra Dos Reis, Brazil, 2003/11/19-21
      10. ICDM '03: 3rd IEEE International Conference on Data Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 03/11/19-22
      11. 4th Intl Conf on Systems Science and Systems Engineering, Hong Kong, 03/11/25-28
      12. 3rd International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex System, Guangzhou, China, 03/11/29-30
      13. Artificial Intelligence and Law, Special Issue on Electronic Democracy, Submissions Deadline: 03/11/30
      14. Plexusinstitute Organizational Management Conference With Ralph Stacey, Washington, DC, 03/12/02-04
      15. Learning with Everett Rogers and Ralph Stacey: Bridging the Quality Chasm Between Medical Knowledge and Clinical Practice, Rockville, MD, 03/12/02-03
      16. Learning with Ralph Stacey: On Thinking and Learning About Complex Responsive Processes, Rockville, MD, 03/12/03-04
      17. 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 03/12/15-17
      18. 2nd WSEAS Intl Conf on Non-linear Analysis, Non-linear Systems and Chaos, Athens, Greece, 03/12/29-31
      19. Complex Physical, Biological and Social Systems, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 04/01/05-09
      20. 2nd Biennial Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory, Havana, Cuba, 04/01/07-10
      21. 2004 Western Simulation MultiConference (WMC'04), San Diego, CA., USA, 04/01/18-24)
      22. 1st International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
      23. Leadership in Rapidly Changing Business Environments -Learning and Adapting in Time, Cambridge, MA, 04/02/26-27
      24. 4th Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS 2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02
      25. Arbeitskreis Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme Jahrestagung, Regensburg, Germany, 04/03/08-12
      26. Capital Science 2004, Washington, 04/03/20-21
      27. Fractal 2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 04/04/04-07
      28. 2004 Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC'04), Arlington, VA., USA, 04/04/18-22
      29. Urban Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse, Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30
      30. 5th International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004), Boston, MA, USA, 04/05/16-21
      31. 3rd Intl Conf on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success", Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 04/05/19-21
      32. 9th Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction Agents (WEHIA04),, Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29
      33. 13th International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05
      34. From Animals To Animats 8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA, 04/07/13-17
      35. 8th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21
      36. 2004 Summer Simulation MultiConference (SummerSim'04), San Jose Hyatt, San Jose, California, 04/07/25-29
      37. ANTS 2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium, 04/09/05-08
      38. The 8th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22
      39. XVII Brazilian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao - Brazil, 04/09/22-24

    4. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test Next Article Bookmark and Share

      We are in the process of upgrading the Complexity Digest archives to a format with improved search capabilities. Also, we will finally be able to adequately publish the valuable feedback and comments from our knowledgable readers. You are cordially invited to become a beta tester of our new ComDig2 archive.

    5. Special Announcement: Artists Explore Complex Systems, Federal Reserve Board Bookmark and Share

      COMPLEXITY, the first major museum exhibition about complex systems, is on display at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC, ongoing - 03/11/28. The Washington exhibition is being co-sponsored by the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy and the Fine Arts Program of the Federal Reserve Board.

      • Source: Special Announcement: Artists Explore Complex Systems

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