Complexity Digest 2004.35

30-Aug-2004

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Content

  1. Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy, Phys. Rev. Lett.
  2. UN Drive To Boost Free Software, BBC News
    1. The ABCs of Linux, NPR TOTN
    2. Microsoft's Linux Ad 'Misleading', BBC News
  3. How Mutual Fund Managers Exploit Opportunities to Maximize Fees, Knowledge@Wharton
  4. The Law of Expanding Immediacy, Darwinmag.com
  5. The Pleasure of Punishment, Science Now
    1. Guilt is Good: A New Approach to Environmental Problems, Knowledge@Wharton
    2. Event Timing Turns Punishment To Reward, Nature
    3. From Schools To Security, A Reluctance To Fix Blame, The Christian Science Monitor
    4. Insect Policing Carries Costs, The Scientist
  6. Surprising Start for Snail Asymmetry, Science Now
    1. Researchers Listen to Yeast Cells, NPR ATC
  7. Earth Warned On 'Tipping Points', BBC News
    1. Impact Of Costal Embankment On The Flash Flood In Bangladesh: A Case Study, Appl. Geography
  8. Neuroscience: While You Were Sleeping, Nature
    1. Contextual Regularity And Complexity Of Neuronal Activity, Complexity
  9. The Hierarchical Backbone of Complex Networks, Phys. Rev. Lett.
    1. Cascade Control and Defense in Complex Networks, Phys. Rev. Lett.
  10. Stem-Cell Gene-Expression Studies Show Little Overlap, Indicate Greater-Than-Expected Complexity, The Scientist
    1. Anoikis: Cancer And The Homeless Cell, Nature
    2. Dedifferentiation: More Than Reversing Fate, The Scientist
  11. German Doctors Grow New Jaw Bone In Man's Back Muscle For Transplant, Canadian Press
    1. Stem Cell Sculpting - Study notes the power of shape on cell differentiation, The Scientist
  12. Sustainability For Nanotechnology - Making Smaller Safer, The Scientist
    1. Tools Design DNA-Nanotube Logic, Technology Research News
    2. The Ups and Downs of Nanobiotech, The Scientist
  13. Identifying Factors Of Comfort In Using Hand Tools, Appl. Ergon.
  14. New Fuel Cell Powered With Poison, Science Now
    1. 'Flower Power' Cars Could Be In Your Future, ScienceDaily
  15. Dynamic Ice: Surface Physics Technique Reveals Complex Chemical Reactions On Icy Surfaces, ScienceDaily
  16. The Emergence Of Dynamical Complexity: An Exploration Using Elementary Cellular Automata, Complexity
    1. Going Into Reverse, Nature
  17. Agent-Based Modeling, Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences
    1. Military Swarm Study 'At The Edge Of Chaos', Mail & Guardian
  18. Free Speech Vs. Paid Speech, Christian Science Monitor
  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks
    1. Intelligence Agencies Pose Complex Conundrum for Administration, Washington Post
    2. Americans Need to Connect the Dots, CommonDreams.org
    3. Crisis Alert in Critical State, Wired
  20. Links & Snippets
    1. Other Publications
    2. Webcast Announcements
    3. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
  1. Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy, Phys. Rev. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: We investigate by means of a simple theoretical model the emergence of prime numbers as life cycles, as those seen for some species of cicadas. The cicadas, more precisely the Magicicadas, spend most of their lives below the ground and then emerge and die in a short period of time. The Magicicadas display an uncommon behavior: their emergence is synchronized and these periods are usually prime numbers. In the current work, we develop a spatially extended model at which preys and predators coexist and can change their evolutionary dynamics through the occurrence of mutations. We verified that prime numbers as life cycles emerge as a result of the evolution of the population. Our results seem to be a first step in order to prove that the development of such strategy is selectively advantageous, especially for those organisms that are highly vulnerable to attacks of predators.
  2. UN Drive To Boost Free Software, BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Open source is seen as a cheap solution in bridging technology gaps
    The UN's International Open Source Network (IOSN) helped promote the first annual Software Freedom Day on 28 August, giving out CDs and booklets about the technology.

    Events took place in countries like India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

    Open source is free and can offer big opportunities for developing countries.

    The initiative was organised by free and open source software advocates under the umbrella of the Software Freedom Day. (...)

    IOSN tries to encourage countries to adopt affordable software so that the digital divide can be overcome.

    1. The ABCs of Linux, NPR TOTN Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: If you're tired of paying high prices for software and having your machine filled with viruses and adware, there is an alternative. In this hour, we look at the ABC's of Linux, the open source alternative rapidly gaining in popularity.
    2. Microsoft's Linux Ad 'Misleading', BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The UK watchdog upheld complaints about a magazine advert which claimed that the open-source operating system Linux was more expensive than Windows.

      Referring to research, it read: "Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows Server 2003".

      The ASA concluded that the comparison was misleading because the operating systems ran on different hardware.

      Microsoft had said the Get the Facts ad campaign was intended to compare competing file-serving set-ups that met the same needs and were intended for the same purposes.

  3. How Mutual Fund Managers Exploit Opportunities to Maximize Fees, Knowledge@Wharton Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: According to the mutual fund industry's harshest critics, fund managers cannot properly serve investors when they must also serve their own bosses - the management companies' owners, public or private. Fund company owners make bigger profits when investors are charged high fees; investors get higher returns when fees are low. Yet industry defenders have long rejected the critics' charges, arguing, among other things, that the need to compete puts a natural brake on the impulse to maximize fees. Who's right? New research by Wharton management professor Nicolaj Siggelkow supports the critics.
  4. The Law of Expanding Immediacy, Darwinmag.com Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The law of expanding immediacy underlines a great truth of modern business life: Everybody is in the same situation, facing the same kinds of pressures for immediate action, demonstrable short-term results and more work to do than can be done. The more successful businesses and individuals are at managing in shorter-term increments, the more they reinforce and expand the need for it everywhere else.

    It also means that the situation is unlikely to change. Just as the networking of everything and everyone has become part of the fabric of business, so too will its effects. And one of those is the need to manage for shorter timeframes.

  5. The Pleasure of Punishment, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Pleasure point. The brain's reward centers flash when people punish wrongdoers. CREDIT: D. J.-F. DE QUERVAIN ET AL.
    There's a reason it feels good to nudge out the kid who cuts in line--it's how we're wired. New research shows that a reward center in the brain zings when people punish cheaters, (...).

    Humans have a sense of fairness unrivaled in the animal kingdom. (...) To investigate where this sense of fair play may reside in the brain, behavioral economist Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues scanned the brains of 15 men as they played a game that encouraged cheating.
    Editor's Note: Is it a coincidence that many of the research projects on this topic originate in Switzerland as opposed to, say, Taiwan?

    1. Guilt is Good: A New Approach to Environmental Problems, Knowledge@Wharton Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      Fines, fees, pollution credit-swaps - policymakers have advocated many different approaches for sustaining the economy, often with mixed success. Now two Wharton professors - Paul Kleindorfer and Ulku Oktem - have concluded that re-framing environmental issues in such a way that individuals feel encouraged to take a personal initiative may be a better approach. They presented their research at the first UN Global Compact academic conference in Turkey. The second phase of the conference, titled "Bridging the Gap: Sustainable Environment," takes place in Philadelphia on Sept. 17 and 18.
    2. Event Timing Turns Punishment To Reward, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Can relief from pain be a pleasure? If so, noxious events should - despite their typically aversive effects - also have a 'rewarding' after-effect. Through training fruitflies by using an electric shock paired with an odour, we show here that the shock can condition either avoidance of this odour or approach to it. These opposing behaviours depend on the relative timing of the shock and odour presentations during training, and indicate that a shock can act as either an aversive reinforcer or an appetitive one.
      Editor's Note: These results are reminiscent of old philosophical questions about the difference between heaven and hell. One philosopher poet claimed the only difference is that in heaven your are eventually allowed to die.
    3. From Schools To Security, A Reluctance To Fix Blame, The Christian Science Monitor Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: "The US does not have a long tradition of government officials resigning as a result of problems that might have occurred on their watch, as opposed to European countries," (...).

      That's due, at least in part, to a growing tendency in American culture in the 1980s and '90s to frame issues in terms of victims - buffeted by larger forces around them - rather than individual responsibility, he says. "We talk a great deal about accountability, but we never seem to find the people who are directly responsible."
      Editor's Note: For a European it might be especially interesting to observe the distinction between "being responsible" and "being culpable". Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has accepted full responsibility for prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison but he also was declared not "culpable" which seems to apply that there will be no personal consequences. It would be interesting to look at the history of the word "culpable" and its tradition of how it has been used. Or is it simply a case of "Orwellian newspeak".

    4. Insect Policing Carries Costs, The Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) worker policing in social insects has a more complex evolutionary basis than even their unusual patterns of genetic relatedness allow. Instead, it is the 'colony efficiency'-the cost that reproducing workers impose on the colony as a whole-that determines how many are tolerated, (...).

      "Our study looked for large-scale patterns, but at this scale, there is no relationship between relatedness and worker reproduction," (...).

      "The main conclusion-that relatedness explains little or nothing about who produces males-is certainly interesting if it's true," (...).

  6. Surprising Start for Snail Asymmetry, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    New twist on shell development. (...) CREDIT: SHIBAZAKI ET AL., CURRENT BIOLOGY 14, 1462-1467 (2004)

    Editor's Note: For most animals, the left half of the body is pretty much a mirror image of the right half, at least on the outside. One exception to this bilateral symmetry is found in snails, whose shells spiral to either the right or the left. A new study overturns a long-held theory about how these asymmetries develop, and the researchers say their work could help explain left-right asymmetries in other animals, such as the position and shape of the heart and liver in humans and other vertebrates.
    1. Researchers Listen to Yeast Cells, NPR ATC Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A team of scientists has found a way to listen in on the strange sounds produced by a single cell. The recordings, reported in the journal Science, were made with yeast cells by using a small probe thousands of times thinner than a hair. (...)

      UCLA scientist James Gimzewski positioned a sensitive instrument called an atomic force microscope over a cell to try to detect its motion. To his surprise, the microscope picked up regular vibrations.

  7. Earth Warned On 'Tipping Points', BBC News Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Antarctic ice shelf: One of the Earth's critical locations
    The world has barely begun to recognise the danger of setting off rapid and irreversible changes in some crucial natural systems, a scientist says.

    Professor John Schellnhuber says the most important environmental issues for humans are among the least understood.

    (...) the Asian monsoon was one of the "tipping points" that could change very quickly.

    (...) 12 "hotspots" had been identified so far, areas which acted like massive regulators of the Earth's environment.

    If these critical regions were subjected to stress, they could trigger large-scale, rapid changes across the entire planet.

    1. Impact Of Costal Embankment On The Flash Flood In Bangladesh: A Case Study, Appl. Geography Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Coastal areas of Bangladesh frequently experience tropical cyclones and associated tidal bore. In order to prevent cyclonic or storm-surge flooding and to increase crop production by preventing intrusion of saline ocean water, many coastal embankment projects were initiated in the 1960s by the Bangladesh government. After construction of these embankments, particularly their reconstruction in 1991 has increased the frequency of flash floods in coastal areas. The objective of this study is to examine to what extent the reconstruction of embankment is responsible for the increased severity of flash flooding (...).
  8. Neuroscience: While You Were Sleeping, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: But despite years of research, the evidence linking REM sleep to procedural learning is contradictory and confusing1.(...)

    So in the past few years, researchers interested in procedural learning have started to focus on slow-wave sleep - and in doing so have begun to make progress. Perhaps the most convincing evidence linking the quieter phase of sleep to procedural learning comes from Tononi. His team recently published a paper in Nature that for the first time linked local changes in short-wave activity to learning a specific task.

    1. Contextual Regularity And Complexity Of Neuronal Activity, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Precursors of the superior information processing capabilities of our cortex can most probably be traced back to simple invertebrate systems. (...) we show that insect neurons have the ability to self-regulate the information capacity of their electrical activity. We characterize the activity of a distinct population of neurons under progressive levels of structural and functional constraints: self-formed networks of neuron clusters in vitro (...). We show common motifs and identify trends of increasing self-regulated complexity. This important principle may have played a key role in the gradual transition from simple neuronal motor control to complex information processing.
  9. The Hierarchical Backbone of Complex Networks, Phys. Rev. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Abstract: Given any complex directed network, a set of acyclic subgraphs can be extracted that will provide valuable information about its hierarchical structure. This Letter presents how the interpretation of the network weight matrix as a transition matrix allows the hierarchical backbone to be identified and characterized in terms of the concepts of hierarchical degree, which expresses the total weights of virtual edges established along successive transitions. The potential of the proposed approach is illustrated with respect to simulated random and preferential-attachment networks as well as real data related to word associations and gene sequencing.
    1. Cascade Control and Defense in Complex Networks, Phys. Rev. Lett. Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Complex networks with a heterogeneous distribution of loads may undergo a global cascade of overload failures when highly loaded nodes or edges are removed due to attacks or failures. Since a small attack or failure has the potential to trigger a global cascade, a fundamental question regards the possible strategies of defense to prevent the cascade from propagating through the entire network. Here we introduce and investigate a costless strategy of defense based on a selective further removal of nodes and edges, right after the initial attack or failure. This intentional removal of network elements is shown to drastically reduce the size of the cascade.
      Editor's Note: This is a theoretical approach for building efficient protections against network failures such as the recent big blackout in the north eastern U.S.
  10. Stem-Cell Gene-Expression Studies Show Little Overlap, Indicate Greater-Than-Expected Complexity, The Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    FLAP ABOUT OVERLAP: Human embryonic stem cells, pictured here, probably share some expressed genes with neural and hematopoietic stem cells, but perhaps not to the extent that was first anticipated, based on studies with mouse cells.
    Courtesy of the University of Wisconsin, Madison
    (...) to identify expressed genes shared among the stem-cell types as well as unique to each. "The main idea is to get at the core program that makes these cells tick, to see how they decide to self-renew and proliferate, or commit to lineages,"(...).

    (...) investigators are now taking a more systems-oriented view that echoes engineering. "A network of transcription factors emerges that responds to inputs and can compute them into outputs, which are the decisions that stem cells make,"(...).

    1. Anoikis: Cancer And The Homeless Cell, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: A protein has been identified that enables cells to survive when dislodged from their substrate, (...). Such a mechanism might give cancer cells a significant advantage. Usually, the cells of an organ stay close to home. In fact, their lives depend on it. Within their own neighbourhood, they communicate to mutual benefit with the cells around them, while signals from the matrix beneath tell them that they are on home ground. When they lose contact with the matrix they die, in a process named 'anoikis' (from the Greek for 'homelessness').
    2. Dedifferentiation: More Than Reversing Fate, The Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      CELLULAR REWIND: An assay screening compounds for the ability to revert myoblasts into progenitor cells turned up reversine, a 2,6-disubstituted purine. (From Nat Biotecnol, 22:833-840, 2004.)
      Differentiation, the stepwise specialization of cells, (...), capture much of the stem cell spotlight. But dedifferentiation, the developmental reversal of a cell before it reinvents itself, is an important process, too. This loss of specialization is believed to factor heavily into stem-cell culture techniques and pathological conditions such as cancer.(...)

      The classic example of dedifferentiation is limb and tail regeneration in Urodele amphibians, such as salamanders.(...)

      Cells of the stump then lose their specializations, muscle cells shed their contractile scaffolds and telltale surface markers (...).

  11. German Doctors Grow New Jaw Bone In Man's Back Muscle For Transplant, Canadian Press Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    A patient three weeks after a titanium cage in which his new jaw was grown was implanted under his right shoulder blade. (AP \Handout\The Lancet)
    A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has enjoyed his first meal in nine years -a bratwurst sandwich -after surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it to his mouth (...).

    According to this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal, the German doctors used a mesh cage, a growth chemical and the patient's own bone marrow, containing stem cells, to create a new jaw bone that fit exactly into the gap left by the cancer surgery.

    1. Stem Cell Sculpting - Study notes the power of shape on cell differentiation, The Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Researchers have tried for years to make stem cells differentiate into specific cell types. This work usually involves bathing the cells in molecular signals that affect their fate. Some are finding, though, that cellular shape may be at least as influential as signal molecules in the differentiation process. (...) cellular spatial structure affects many activities, including proliferation, apoptosis, and tumorigenesis.

      (...) shape and related characteristics of human mesenchymal stem cells (bone marrow cells that become fat, bone, cartilage, or muscle) are the strongest known factors determining their fate.

  12. Sustainability For Nanotechnology - Making Smaller Safer, The Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: When materials and devices are fabricated with tiny dimensions, their properties and applications expand enormously. Small size, which for nanotechnology means less than 100 nm, confers on devices and materials enhanced flexibility and improved performance. We've begun exploiting such properties in a multitude of emerging areas ranging from computing to translational medicine. Yet, just as the promise of nanotechnology becomes more defined, skeptics raise questions about the unforeseen risks this new technology may present for the environment and our health.
    1. Tools Design DNA-Nanotube Logic, Technology Research News Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Researchers have recently begun to use DNA to assemble carbon nanotubes into transistors, the building blocks of computer circuits.

      Biological DNA molecules, made from long strings of four types of bases attached to a sugar-phosphate backbone, hold instructions for making the proteins that enable life's processes. Artificial DNA molecules can be caused to self-assemble into various patterns, and can also be coaxed to attach to objects like carbon nanotubes. Given the right design, DNA molecules can assemble objects.

    2. The Ups and Downs of Nanobiotech, The Scientist Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts:
      CANCER COOKER? Triton BioSystems is developing an anticancer therapy using antibody-coated iron nanoparticles. Application of a magnetic field causes the particles to heat up and literally cook the tumors from the inside out.
      Ten years from now, a visit to the doctor could be quite different than it is today. How different? Imagine tiny particles that "cook " cancers from the inside out; "smart bomb" drugs that detonate only over their targets; and finely structured scaffolds that guide tissue regeneration.

      But it's not just imagination. In academic labs, small startups, and giant pharmaceutical companies, researchers in the blossoming field of nanotechnology have shown that these concepts can work -- at least in lab animals and tissue culture dishes.

  13. Identifying Factors Of Comfort In Using Hand Tools, Appl. Ergon. Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: To design comfortable hand tools, knowledge about comfort/discomfort in using hand tools is required. We investigated which factors determine comfort/discomfort (...). Six comfort factors could be distinguished (functionality, posture and muscles, irritation and pain of hand and fingers, irritation of hand surface, handle characteristics, aesthetics). These six factors can be classified into three meaningful groups: functionality, physical interaction and appearance. The main conclusions were that (1) the same descriptors were related to comfort and discomfort in using hand tools, (2) descriptors of functionality are most related to comfort in using hand tools followed by descriptors of physical interaction (...).
    • Source: Identifying Factors Of Comfort In Using Hand Tools, L. F. M. K.-Evers - l.kuijtaarbeid.tno.nl, L. Groenesteijn, M. P. de Looze, P. Vink, DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2004.04.001, Applied Ergonomics, Sep. 2004, online 2004/06/24
    • Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01ayahoo.com
  14. New Fuel Cell Powered With Poison, Science Now Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts:
    Interception. Aided by a stream of electron-ferrying polyoxometalates, a gold-catalyst reactor strains out carbon monoxide that could otherwise wreck a fuel cell. CREDIT: ADAPTED FROM W. B. KIM ET AL., SCIENCE
    Scientists working on automotive fuel cells have come up with a way to turn a molecular contaminant into a power source. Others say the advance may help open the door to using renewable energy resources. Low-temperature fuel cells use platinum catalysts to extract electricity from hydrogen gas. But if the gas is produced from fossil fuels--the most common source--it invariably contains carbon monoxide (CO), which poisons the catalysts. (...)

    On the nanoscale, Dumesic explains, normally unreactive gold becomes so active that it catalyzes reactions swiftly even at low temperatures.

    1. 'Flower Power' Cars Could Be In Your Future, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Researchers in England have found a promising method for producing hydrogen from sunflower oil, a development that could lead to cleaner and more efficient hydrogen production for powering automobile fuel cells as well as homes, factories and offices. (...) Fuel cells show much promise for supplying the energy needs of the future, and their demand is growing with increasing use of the technology. But one of their drawbacks, experts say, is that the hydrogen required to run them generally comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which generate pollutants such as carbon monoxide and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. (...)
  15. Dynamic Ice: Surface Physics Technique Reveals Complex Chemical Reactions On Icy Surfaces, ScienceDaily Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: A technique borrowed from the surface physics community is helping chemists and atmospheric scientists understand the complex chemical reactions that occur on low-temperature ice. Known as electron-stimulated desorption (ESD), the technique uses low-energy electrons to locally probe surfaces, differentiating their characteristics from those of the bulk material below them. Using ESD, (...) demonstrated that hydrochloric acid (HCl) quickly dissociates upon contact with icy surfaces - even at temperatures well below 100 degrees Kelvin, conditions seen naturally only in the outer solar system. The work could lead to a better understanding of the complex atmospheric chemistry occurring in stratospheric ice crystals, (...).
  16. The Emergence Of Dynamical Complexity: An Exploration Using Elementary Cellular Automata, Complexity Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: This work concerns the interaction between two classical problems: the forecasting of the dynamical behaviors of elementary cellular automata (ECA) from its intrinsic mathematical laws and the conditions that determine the emergence of complex dynamics. To approach these problems, and inspired by the theory of reversible logical gates, we decompose the ECA laws in a spectrum of dyadic Boolean gates. Emergent properties due to interactions are captured generating another spectrum of logical gates. (...) These results suggest the existence of signatures capable to indicate the propensity to develop complex dynamics. Logical gates exclusive-or and equivalence are among these signatures of complexity. (...)
    1. Going Into Reverse, Nature Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and the second law of thermodynamics. All three are processes in which useful or accessible forms of some quantity, such as energy or money, are transformed into useless, inaccessible forms of the same quantity. That is not to say that these three processes don't have fringe benefits: taxes pay for roads and schools; the second law of thermodynamics drives cars, computers and metabolisms; and death, at the very least, opens up tenured faculty positions.
  17. Agent-Based Modeling, Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: The lessons learned from the science of complex adaptive systems have important implications for students of the behavioral and social sciences. An especially troubling feature of complex adaptive systems (or CAS) is that the usual tools of statisticians, econometricians and others may be of only limited usefulness due to the presence of higher dimensional nonlinearities and complex interactions between "agents". Agent Based Modeling or ABM provides an important methodological tool for dealing with these often intractable problems.
    • Source: Agent-Based Modeling, Elliott, E., Kiel, L. D., (Eds., 2004), Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences, pb., 182 p.
    1. Military Swarm Study 'At The Edge Of Chaos', Mail & Guardian Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: Australian scientists are using the collective intelligence found in insect swarms to develop the next generation of hi-tech military hardware. (...)

      "We would have thousands of these unmanned vehicles communicating with one another to carry out missions," (...).

      "We want to give them an overall goal, as in carrying out surveillance of a region, but you don't want to tell every one of 1 000 different vehicles exactly what to do, you want them to figure it out for themselves.

      "That's the challenge: give them a goal; then when something changes, have them adapt."

  18. Free Speech Vs. Paid Speech, Christian Science Monitor Next Article Bookmark and Share

    Excerpts: Two of the most prominent examples are the anti-Bush movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" by Michael Moore, and the anti-Kerry TV ads put out by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), funded in large part by Texan Bob Perry.

    Both messages make strong claims, both have been questioned, and it's up to the rest of us to sort fact from fiction. (...) Viewers paid to see Moore's movie, while Perry paid to have viewers see his ads. Therein lies the difference between free speech and purchased speech.

  19. Complex Challenges: Global Terroist Networks Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Intelligence Agencies Pose Complex Conundrum for Administration, Washington Post Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: (...) intelligence reorganization bill -- one that would essentially dismantle the CIA -- has suddenly awakened Congress and the Bush administration to the difficulties of changing the complex interrelationships in the U.S. intelligence community.

      Even the relatively simple notions of "putting one man in charge" by creating the post of a national intelligence director, giving that person budgetary authority over the 15 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community, and establishing a national counterterrorism center have raised questions that Congress and the administration have only begun to deal with.

    2. Americans Need to Connect the Dots, CommonDreams.org Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: The authors of the Boykin report steered clear of the fact that the general traveled the country telling churches that George W. Bush was appointed by God to defend America, that he was raising a spiritual army of Christians to destroy the Muslim terrorists whose commander is Satan, that Muslims hate America because it is a Christian nation and so many other comments that crossed well understood lines of acceptable speech while wearing a military uniform. Instead, they focused their energies towards determining if Boykin committed administrative violations in the pursuit of defaming Islam and Muslims before twenty-three congregations.
    3. Crisis Alert in Critical State, Wired Next Article Bookmark and Share

      Excerpts: On Sept. 11, 2001, the Emergency Alert System in New York City -- the same one that annoys listeners and viewers with test alerts -- didn't go off. Nor did the same system warn Southern California residents in time to escape a deadly wildfire last year.

      Not that everyone would have heard the messages in the first place. Even if the president were to declare a national emergency and take over the nation's airwaves for an announcement, cumbersome alert systems and the glut of unmanned radio stations would make it hard to get the word out.

  20. Links & Snippets Next Article Bookmark and Share

    1. Other Publications Next Article Bookmark and Share

    2. Webcast Announcements Next Article Bookmark and Share

      1. The 4th Intl Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Complex System, Beijing, China, 04/07/22-23
      2. Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata, India, 04/06/27-30
      3. From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20
      4. ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy, 04/06/14-17
      5. Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28
      6. International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21
      7. Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28
      8. Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/26-27
      9. Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, Panel Discussion, Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01
      10. Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, , Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30
      11. Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994
      12. World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland
      13. CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And Intelligent Systems, 2004 Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10
      14. EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication, Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10
      15. The Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Po tential and Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08
      16. ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17
      17. New Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM, 03/06/04)
      18. SPIE's 1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and Noise, Santa Fe, NM, 2003/06/01-04
      19. NAS Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge Domains, Video/Audio Report, 03/05/11
      20. 13th Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA, 2003/08/08-10
      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 & Call for Papers Announcements Bookmark and Share


      1. Gabriele Leidloff, Ugly Casting 1.4 , Berlin, Germany, 04/08/19-10/08
      2. Intl Conf on Science of Complex Networks: from Biology to the Internet and WWW (CNET2004), Aveiro (Portugal), 04/08/29-09/02
      3. ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, s Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01
      4. ANTS 2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium, 04/09/05-08
      5. Dynamic Ontology, An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of Reality, and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy, 04/09/08-11
      6. 9th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15
      7. Dynamics Days 2004, XXIV Annual Conf , Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 04/09/13-17
      8. II. Socrates Workshop on Chaotic Systems, Maribor, Slovenia, 04/09/13-17
      9. Inquiries, Indices and Incommensurabilities: Managing Emergence, Complexity and Organization, Washington, DC, 04/09/18-19
      10. Neuroeconomics 2004, Charleston, SC, 04/09/16-19
      11. New Economic Windows 2004: Complexity Hints for Economic Policy, Salerno, Italy, 04/09/16-18
      12. The Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18
      13. The 8th Intl Conf on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK, 04/09/18-22
      14. The Nonlinear Waves in Fluids: Recent Advances and Modern Applications, Udine, Italy, 04/09/18-22
      15. XVII Brazilian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao Luis, Maranhao - Brazil, 04/09/22-24
      16. 3rd Natll Conf on Systems Science , Trento (Italy), 04/10/07-09
      17. TEDMED Conference , Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15
      18. Intl Workshop On Bifurcations In Nonsmooth And Hybrid Dynamical Systems , Milano (Italy), 04/10/21-22
      19. Wolfram Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois, 04/10/21-23
      20. 6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape, Delft, The Netherlands, 04/10/25-27
      21. Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference , Rio de Janeiro, 04/11
      22. ICDM '04: The Fourth IEEE Intl Conf on Data Mining, Brighton, UK, 04/11/01-04
      23. Denaturing Darwin: International Conference on Evolution and Organization , Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 04/11/12-14
      24. The 7th Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
      25. 17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Queensland, Australia, 04/12/06-10
      26. Cellular Computing Symposium, U Warwick (UK), 04/12/09-10
      27. International Conference On Computational Intelligence (Icci 2004) , Istanbul, Turkey, 04/12/15-17
      28. Kondratieff Waves, Warfare And World Security, NATO Advanced Research Workshop , Covilh? Portugal, 05/02/14-17
      29. 5th Creativity And Cognition Conference, London.UK, 05/04/12-15
      30. Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22
      31. Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24
      32. 18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca, Spain, 05/09/19-23


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