Complexity Digest 2007.47 7-Dec-2007 Archive: http://comdig.unam.mx "I think the next century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking, 2000 _________________________________________________________________ PDF files of our annual editions are available at www.comdig.de/AnnualEditions.html Aletter from Gottfried Mayer to our readers and friends is at http://www.comdig.de/GMLetter.html _________________________________________________________________ 01. Are You Smarter Than a Chimpanzee?, Wired 01.01. Software That Organizes Intelligently, Technology Review 01.02. Software That Learns from Users, Technology Review 02. What's Finland's secret?, Ynetnews.com 02.01. Pre-School Program Shown To Improve Key Cognitive Functions, Self-Control, ScienceDaily 03. Monuments And Instruments, Nature 04. Neuroscience: Sensors And Synchronicity, Nature 05. New Hypothesis For Origin Of Life Proposed, PhysOrg.com 06. Paleoanthropology: Hominid Harems: Big Males Competed For Small Australopithecine Females, Science 07. The Effect of Sensory Blind Zones on Milling Behavior of Self-Propelled Particle Swarms, arXiv 07.01. Cheating Honeybee Workers Produce Royal Offspring, Proc. Biol. Sc. 08. Review. Do Hormonal Control Systems Produce Evolutionary Inertia?, Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. 09. Journey to the Center of the Cell, Science 09.01. Return of the Matrix, Science 10. Age Research: A New Angle On 'Old' - Are Ageing And Disease Two Sides Of The Same Coin?, Nature 11. Reproduction: The Unusual Suspect, Nature 11.01. Researchers Aim To Harness Sperm Power For Nano-Robots, PhysOrg.com 12. New Form of Cell Death Discovered, ScienceNOW Daily News 13. Mass-Producing 3-D Particles, Technology Review 13.01. Splitting The Quark, News@Nature 14. The Feel Of Cancer Cells - Future Diagnostic Tests For Cancer May Probe Cell Stiffness., Technology Review 14.01. Radio Waves Fire Up Nanotubes Embedded in Tumors, Destroying Liver Cancer, PhysOrg.com 15. Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases, NY Times 15.01. Europe Looks To Draw Power From Africa - Sahara Desert Could Become Home To Solar-Power Plants., Nature 16. 2007 Hurricane Season Ending Raises Forecast Concerns, National Geographic News 17. Carbon Sequestration: Should Oceanographers Pump Iron?, Science 17.01. Where Does Stored Nuclear Waste Go?, Innovations-report 18. The Brain Drain, 'Educated Unemployment', Human Capital Formation, And Economic Betterment, Econ. Transition 18.01. The Dictatorship of Talent, NY Times 19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks 19.01. Frontlines And Interstices In The Global War On Terror, Dev. & Change 20. Links & Snippets 20.01. Other Publications 20.02. Webcast Announcements 20.03. Conference Announcements 20.04. Other Announcements _________________________________________________________________ 01. Are You Smarter Than a Chimpanzee? , Wired Excerpts: If the existential malaise of yet another Monday hasn't already got you down, here's something more: chimpanzees are probably better than you at math. Well, not all math -- let's see Bonzo do quadratics -- but at basic numerical memory. And while you shouldn't trade your Texas Instruments TI-89 for a chimp just yet, Kyoto University cognitive scientist Tetsuro Matsuzawa thinks you should change your conception of human. * Are You Smarter Than a Chimpanzee?, Brandon Keim , 07/12/03, Wired _________________________________________________________________ 01.01. Software That Organizes Intelligently , Technology Review Excerpts: Credit: Technology Review Smart Desktop automatically groups documents and communications by project. (...) "People's lives are inherently complex, and so everyone, no matter what their job description, has to break their lives into a series of manageable chunks," says Jon Herlocker, vice president of engineering and CTO of Pi's Smart Desktop division. "Those chunks become the context in which things get worked on." Smart Desktop is designed, accordingly, to group information by project. (...) "One way to think about Smart Desktop technology is automatic tagging," (,,,). * Software That Organizes Intelligently, Erica Naone , 07/12/03, Technology Review _________________________________________________________________ 01.02. Software That Learns from Users , Technology Review Excerpts: Credit: Technology Review A massive AI project called CALO [ "Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes", Ed.] could revolutionize machine learning. (...) CALO tries to assist users in three ways: by helping them manage information about key people and projects, by understanding and organizing information from meetings, and by learning and automating routine tasks. For example, CALO can learn about the people and projects that are important to a user's work life by paying attention to e-mail patterns. It can then categorize and prioritize information for the user, based on the source of the information and the projects to which it is connected. * Software That Learns from Users, Erica Naone , 07/11/30, Technology Review _________________________________________________________________ 02. What's Finland's secret? , Ynetnews.com Excerpts: Teacher salaries seem to explain Finnish students' success, Israeli mediocrity (...) Does Finland invest more in education? No. (...) But do Finnish students study more? No, they study much less. (...) Are classrooms in Finland smaller? No. (...) But perhaps the Finnish curriculums earmark more teaching resources to math and sciences, which explains why students there excel? No. (...) But what about teacher salaries? Are differences between Finland and Israel blatant? The answer is positive. (...) In high school, the gap grows: 79 dollars per hour for a Finnish teacher, (...) Editor's Note: Finland scored at the top level of most of the categories of the most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study. The U.S. scored below average. * What's Finland's secret?, 07/12/03, Ynetnews.com _________________________________________________________________ 02.01. Pre-School Program Shown To Improve Key Cognitive Functions, Self-Control , ScienceDaily Excerpts: An innovative curriculum for pre-schoolers may improve academic performance, reduce diagnoses of attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and close the achievement gap between children from poor families and those from wealthier homes, according to research (...) led the first evaluation of a curriculum called Tools of the Mind (Tools), that focuses on executive functions (EFs) that depend on the prefrontal cortex area of the brain. Functions include resisting distraction, considering responses before speaking, mentally holding and using information, and mental flexibility to "think outside the box." (...) * Pre-School Program Shown To Improve Key Cognitive Functions, Self-Control, 2007/11/30, ScienceDaily * Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 03. Monuments And Instruments , Nature Excerpts: The architecture of the buildings in which researchers work can have a crucial effect on the fruits of their labour, (...). Openness has become something of an architectural obsession. At London's Natural History Museum, for example, the new Darwin Centre buildings expose curators to visitors through high glass walls. And the response is not uniformly favourable. At the inward-looking aquarium of the James H. Clark Center at Stanford University, researchers put posters up on the glass to get some privacy, says Kenneth Kornberg, who runs an architecture firm in California and Tokyo that specializes in research space. * Monuments And Instruments, Emma Marris , 07/11/29, DOI: 10.1038/450592a, Nature 450, 592-593 _________________________________________________________________ 04. Neuroscience: Sensors And Synchronicity , Nature Excerpts: Synaptic communication is triggered by action potentials, but neurons also talk to each other in between action potentials. Specific intracellular-calcium sensors regulate these conversations, (...) In the presynaptic neuron, voltage-gated calcium channels are activated in response to an action potential, allowing the entry of extracellular calcium. This triggers the fusion of neurotransmitter-laden synaptic vesicles with the plasma membrane and the release of neurotransmitter molecules. Released molecules bind to receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, initiating a postsynaptic response. * Neuroscience: Sensors And Synchronicity, Ruth Heidelberger , 07/11/29, DOI: 10.1038/450623a, Nature 450, 623-625 _________________________________________________________________ 05. New Hypothesis For Origin Of Life Proposed , PhysOrg.com Excerpts: Photo of mica from an abandoned mica mine, with water between some layers, showing edges of mica sheets [e.g., black arrows] and air bubbles in the water [red arrows] and brown bands of organic crud and dirt. Credit: Helen Greenwood Hansma, UC Santa Barbara Life may have begun in the protected spaces inside of layers of the mineral mica, in ancient oceans, according to a new hypothesis. (...) The Hansma mica hypothesis proposes that the narrow confined spaces between the thin layers of mica could have provided exactly the right conditions for the rise of the first biomolecules -- effectively creating cells without membranes. The separation of the layers would have also provided the isolation needed for Darwinian evolution. * New Hypothesis For Origin Of Life Proposed, 07/12/04, PhysOrg.com _________________________________________________________________ 06. Paleoanthropology: Hominid Harems: Big Males Competed For Small Australopithecine Females , Science Excerpts: Among living people, men are usually bigger than women--but not by much, averaging 5% to 10% larger. Now a study on page 1443 finds that the males of an extinct species of hominid in South Africa took longer to grow up than females--and got much larger. This suggests that these robust australopithecines chose a risky mating strategy: Top males invested energy in bodybuilding in order to possess a harem of females, much like silverback gorillas do today. * Paleoanthropology: Hominid Harems: Big Males Competed For Small Australopithecine Females, Ann Gibbons , 07/11/30, Science: 1363. _________________________________________________________________ 07. The Effect of Sensory Blind Zones on Milling Behavior of Self-Propelled Particle Swarms , arXiv Excerpts: Emergent pattern formation in systems of self-propelled particles is extensively studied because it addresses a range of swarming phenomena which occur without leadership. The models produced thus far assume rule sets and parameter settings that are general to many different species, and therefore not sufficient to explain why only certain species engage in super-structural organization such as milling formations in schools of fish and insects. (...) Results also show the extreme importance of nearly complete panoramic sensory ability for the emergence of milling behavior, suggesting why some species mill and some do not. * The Effect of Sensory Blind Zones on Milling Behavior of Self-Propelled Particle Swarms, Jonathan P. Newman and Hiroki Sayama , 2007/11/17, DOI: 0711.3253, arXiv _________________________________________________________________ 07.01. Cheating Honeybee Workers Produce Royal Offspring , Proc. Biol. Sc. Excerpts: The Cape bee (Apis mellifera capensis) is unique among honeybees in that workers can lay eggs that instead of developing into males develop into females (...). We show that this ability allows workers to compete directly with the queen over the production of new queens. Genetic analyses using microsatellites revealed that 23 out of 39 new queens produced by seven colonies were offspring of workers and not the resident queen. Of these, eight were laid by resident workers, but the majority were offspring of parasitic workers from other colonies. (...) Hence, these parasitic workers had the potential to become genetically reincarnated as queens. (...) * Cheating Honeybee Workers Produce Royal Offspring, L. A. Jordan , M. H. Allsopp , B. P. Oldroyd , T. C. Wossler , M. Beekman , 2007/11/27, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1422, Proceedings B: Biological Sciences * Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 08. Review. Do Hormonal Control Systems Produce Evolutionary Inertia? , Phil. Tran. Biol. Sc. Excerpts: Hormonal control systems are complex in design and well integrated. Concern has been raised that these systems might act as evolutionary constraints when animals are subject to anthropogenic environmental change. Three systems are examined in vertebrates, especially birds, that are important for assessing this possibility: (i) the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, (...). Consideration of how these systems actually work that takes adequate account of the brain's role and mechanisms suggests that the first two are unlikely to be impediments to evolution. The neural and molecular networks that regulate the HPG provide both phenotypic and evolutionary flexibility, and rapid evolutionary responses (...). * Review. Do Hormonal Control Systems Produce Evolutionary Inertia?, E. A.-Regan , 2007/11/28, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2007.0005, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences * Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 09. Journey to the Center of the Cell , Science Excerpts: In this issue, three Reviews examine various aspects of nuclear organization and dynamics. Trinkle-Mulcahy and Lamond (p. 1402) describe how a combination of state-of-the-art proteomics and imaging technologies is contributing to a greater understanding of the dynamics of nuclear function in living cells in real time. Stewart et al. (p. 1408) describe how the nuclear envelope influences events within the nucleus and throughout the cell. Terry et al. (p. 1412) explain how the bidirectional transport of proteins and nucleic acids through nuclear pores can be regulated at many levels, from individual cargoes to global changes in nuclear pore transport characteristics. * Journey to the Center of the Cell, Stella M. Hurtley , Elizabeth Pennisi , 07/11/30, Science: 1399. _________________________________________________________________ 09.01. Return of the Matrix , Science Excerpts: The researchers ultimately identified the tagged nuclear protein, dubbing it skeletor. Since then, they have fished out megator, chromator, and EAST, three other nuclear proteins that, like skeletor, redistribute into a filamentous oval before the spindle itself takes shape. These ovals persist even if a chemical that breaks up microtubules is added to a dividing cell. To the Johansens, these results are suggestive of a nontubulin mesh of molecules that provides a platform upon which the spindle can assemble. The mesh may also offer a substrate for motor proteins to move along. * Return of the Matrix, John Travis , 07/11/30, Science: 1400-1401. _________________________________________________________________ 10. Age Research: A New Angle On 'Old' - Are Ageing And Disease Two Sides Of The Same Coin? , Nature Excerpts: The Buck was founded on the premise that ageing and disease are manifestations of the same biological processes, and they can be understood only by working across disciplines. It is a modern take, but it has its supporters, including the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2005, the agency named the Buck as one of five national Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. And in September, it gave the institute US$25 million to create a new 'interdiscipline' called geroscience: defined as the study of connections between ageing and age-related disease. * Age Research: A New Angle On 'Old' - Are Ageing And Disease Two Sides Of The Same Coin?, Erika Check Hayden , 07/11/29, DOI: 10.1038/450603a, Nature 450, 603-605 _________________________________________________________________ 11. Reproduction: The Unusual Suspect , Nature Excerpts: The p53 protein is widely studied for its function as a tumour suppressor, preventing cancer. It emerges that this protein also has an essential physiological role in regulating embryo implantation in mice. The p53 protein, which has been given the accolade 'guardian of the genome', is a celebrity among cellular proteins. If you search the PubMed database for p53, you'll get more than 44,000 hits, the vast majority of which discuss the role of this protein in protecting cells from the consequences of stress-induced DNA damage. * Reproduction: The Unusual Suspect, Colin L. Stewart , 07/11/29, DOI: 10.1038/450619a, Nature 450, 619 _________________________________________________________________ 11.01. Researchers Aim To Harness Sperm Power For Nano-Robots , PhysOrg.com Excerpts: A mouse sperm. The long tail gets the energy it needs to swim from both mitochondria in the midpiece and glycolysis in the principal piece. Cornell scientists have borrowed a strategy from the sperm's principal piece in attempts to generate energy for nanodevices. Credit: Atsushi Asano A midsection between the head and the long tail of sperm contains mitochondria, organelles that generate a cell's power. But sperm have also developed a second energy source to power their long tail. They employ a process known as glycolysis, which breaks down glucose to derive ATP, which cells use for energy. The pathway for glycolysis requires 10 enzymes. Using special "targeting domains," sperm tether these to a fibrous sheath that runs the length of the tail. * Researchers Aim To Harness Sperm Power For Nano-Robots, 07/12/03, PhysOrg.com _________________________________________________________________ 12. New Form of Cell Death Discovered , ScienceNOW Daily News Excerpts: Swallowed. A cancer cell (left) and a normal breast cell (right) sit inside other cells (green rings). Scientists have discovered a novel form of cell death in which cells crawl inside other cells to die. The process, dubbed entosis, may be a method of suppressing tumors, the researchers say, but others aren't so sure. (...) Overholtzer's team found that up to 70% of the detached cells died once engulfed by another detached cell. However, up to 9% divided while enveloped and up to 18% were eventually released unharmed. Blocking the mechanisms involved in other methods of cell death including apoptosis and phagocytosis did not disrupt the process, confirming that entosis operates in a different way. (...) * New Form of Cell Death Discovered, Steve Mitchell , 07/11/29, ScienceNOW Daily News _________________________________________________________________ 13. Mass-Producing 3-D Particles , Technology Review Excerpts: 3-D inside: The precise three-dimensional lattice within these prism-shaped bits of plastic could enable more sensitive medical diagnostics and dynamic sorting of nanoscale particles. Credit: Ji-Hyun Jang, MIT Last winter, researchers at MIT demonstrated a way to generate bar-coded microparticles by the millions. The technique, based on a novel microfluidic device, could provide a way to create millions of labeled tags for medical diagnostics. (...) Now the researchers have converted the microfluidic fab to turn out particles with precisely structured internal parts. MIT materials scientist Ned Thomas, who co-led the team with MIT chemical engineer Patrick Doyle, says that the new system could increase the sensitivity of the mass-produced diagnostic probes by 10,000-fold. * Mass-Producing 3-D Particles, Peter Fairley , 07/12/03, Technology Review _________________________________________________________________ 13.01. Splitting The Quark , News@Nature Excerpt: Bits within bits: is there something smaller than a quark, which in turn makes up protons and neutrons? ArSciMed / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Are there pea-sized objects as heavy as the Moon out there in space? Perhaps so, if quarks, the constituent particles of atoms, are themselves made up of still smaller particles. * Splitting The Quark, Philip Ball , 2007/11/30, DOI: 10.1038/news.2007.292, News@Nature _________________________________________________________________ 14. The Feel Of Cancer Cells - Future Diagnostic Tests For Cancer May Probe Cell Stiffness. , Technology Review Excerpts: Squishy cells: Using the sharp point of an atomic-force microscope, UCLA researchers apply pressure to living cancer cells taken from patients. Credit: Sarah Cross and James K. Gimzewski, UCLA Aggressive cancer cells are about 70 percent softer than normal cells, according to research from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The UCLA researchers are the first to mechanically probe the physical properties of live cancer cells taken directly from a patient. The researchers suggest that such nanomechanical tests of cancer cells might be incorporated into future cancer diagnosis and treatment. * The Feel Of Cancer Cells - Future Diagnostic Tests For Cancer May Probe Cell Stiffness., Katherine Bourzac , 07/12/04, Technology Review _________________________________________________________________ 14.01. Radio Waves Fire Up Nanotubes Embedded in Tumors, Destroying Liver Cancer , PhysOrg.com Excerpts: Cancer cells treated with carbon nanotubes can be destroyed by noninvasive radio waves that heat up the nanotubes while sparing untreated tissue, (...). In the liver cancer experiment, a solution of single-walled carbon nanotubes was injected directly into the tumors. Four treated rabbits were then exposed to 2 minutes of radiofrequency treatment, resulting in thermal destruction of their tumors. Control group tumors that were treated only by radiofrequency exposure or only by nanotubes were undamaged. In lab experiments, two lines of liver cancer cells and one pancreatic cancer cell line were destroyed after being incubated with nanotubes and exposed to the radiofrequency field. * Radio Waves Fire Up Nanotubes Embedded in Tumors, Destroying Liver Cancer, 07/12/03, PhysOrg.com _________________________________________________________________ 15. Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases , NY Times Excerpts: The United States could shave as much as 28 percent off the amount of greenhouse gases it emits at fairly modest cost and with only small technology innovations, according to a new report. (...) The cost of electricity or other fuels to operate the equipment is borne by a tenant or home buyer. That means the landlord or builder has no incentive to spend more upfront for efficient equipment, even though doing so would save a lot of money in the long run. * Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases, Matthew L. Wald , 07/11/30, NYTimes _________________________________________________________________ 15.01. Europe Looks To Draw Power From Africa - Sahara Desert Could Become Home To Solar-Power Plants. , Nature Excerpts: The power needs of Europe, the Middle Eastand North Africa could be met by an ambitious idea to network renewable energies across the region. The cornerstone of the plan, developed by a group of scientists, economists and businessmen,involves peppering the Sahara Desert with solar thermal power plants, then transmitting the electricity through massive grids. (...) The vision is ambitious: it would require roughly 1,000 100-megawatt power plants, using mirrors to concentrate energy from the Sun's rays, throughout the Middle East and North Africa to meet the region's projected energy needs. * Europe Looks To Draw Power From Africa - Sahara Desert Could Become Home To Solar-Power Plants., Emiliano Feresin , 07/11/29, DOI: 10.1038/450595a, Nature _________________________________________________________________ 16. 2007 Hurricane Season Ending Raises Forecast Concerns , National Geographic News Excerpts: On August 21, 2007, Hurricane Dean made landfall on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 5 storm - one of only two major hurricanes to form in the Atlantic Basin in 2007. Overall, 14 named storms formed between June 1 and November 30, falling short of preseason predictions for the second year in a row. Image courtesy NOAA The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends today, has - like last year - failed to live up to the predictions of forecasters. Now some experts fear the second year of inaccurate preseason predictions will shake the public's faith in all hurricane forecasts - even when a storm is bearing down upon them.(...) Meteorologists at Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted as many as 17 named storms in the Atlantic Basin this summer. * 2007 Hurricane Season Ending Raises Forecast Concerns, Willie Drye , 07/11/30, National Geographic News _________________________________________________________________ 17. Carbon Sequestration: Should Oceanographers Pump Iron? , Science Excerpts: Companies and countries are planning a series of controversial experiments to help determine if seeding the ocean with iron can mitigate global warming. (...) EIFEX (European Iron Fertilization Experiment , Ed.) offered preliminary confirmation of one method for sucking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The researchers hoped to demonstrate that iron would fertilize the growth of phytoplankton, which, like nearly all plants, form carbon compounds from CO2. If the algal bloom promptly sank to the sea floor, taking the carbon with it, fertilizing the oceans with iron might help remove some of the greenhouse gases that humans are pouring into the atmosphere. * Carbon Sequestration: Should Oceanographers Pump Iron?, Eli Kintisch , 07/11/30, Science : 1368-1370. _________________________________________________________________ 17.01. Where Does Stored Nuclear Waste Go? , Innovations-report Excerpt: Millions of gallons of hazardous waste resulting from the nation's nuclear weapons program lie in a remote location in southeastern Washington state called Hanford. Beneath this desert landscape about two million curies of radioactivity and hundreds of thousands of tons of chemicals are captured within the stratified vadose zone below which gives rise to complex subsurface flow paths. These paths create uncertainties about where the contaminants go and what happens to them. With the mighty Columbia River bordering much of the site, where these nuclear wastes migrate, their composition and how fast they are traveling are of vital importance (...). * Where Does Stored Nuclear Waste Go? Researchers Uncover Complex Pathways For Waste's Journey From The Hanaford Site To The Columbia River, 2007/11/29, Innovations-report * Contributed by Atin Das - dasatinyahoo.co.in _________________________________________________________________ 18. The Brain Drain, 'Educated Unemployment', Human Capital Formation, And Economic Betterment , Econ. Transition Excerpt: Extending both the 'harmful brain drain' literature and the 'beneficial brain gain' literature, this paper analyzes both the negative and the positive impact of migration by skilled individuals in a unified framework. The paper extends the received literature on the 'harmful brain drain' by showing that in the short run, international migration can result in 'educated unemployment' and overeducation in developing countries, as well as a brain drain from these countries. A simulation suggests that the costs of 'educated unemployment' and overeducation can amount to significant losses for the individuals concerned, who may constitute a substantial proportion of the educated individuals. (...) * The Brain Drain, 'Educated Unemployment', Human Capital Formation, And Economic Betterment, C. S. Fan fansimon@ln.edu.hk , O. Stark ostark@uni-bonn.de , Oct. 2007, online 2007/09/21, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0351.2007.00299.x, The Economics Of Transition * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 18.01. The Dictatorship of Talent , NY Times Excerpts: You quickly understand what a visitor understands after dozens of conversations: that today's China is a society obsessed with talent, and that the Chinese ruling elite recruits talent the way the N.B.A. does - rigorously, ruthless, in a completely elitist manner. (...) You feel pride in what the corpocracy has achieved and now expect it to lead China's next stage of modernization - the transition from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. But in the back of your mind you wonder: Perhaps it's simply impossible for a top-down memorization-based elite to organize a flexible, innovative information economy, no matter how brilliant its members are. * The Dictatorship of Talent, David Brooks , 07/12/04, NYTimes _________________________________________________________________ 19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks _________________________________________________________________ 19.01. Frontlines And Interstices In The Global War On Terror , Dev. & Change Excerpt: In the context of the 'global war on terror' and related debates about development and the new imperialism, this essay looks at the involvement of religious absolutist militias in humanitarian aid following the Kashmir earthquake in 2005. By analysing how organizations which are considered 'terrorist' are simultaneously working with and fighting against US 'Empire', the essay considers the form of the Pakistani 'development' state, its geostrategic importance and how this relates to a religious absolutist militia infrastructure. The transformation of (often violent) religious right groups since the 1990s into development and welfare agencies is considered within the broader context of new 'hypergovernance' processes (...). * Frontlines And Interstices In The Global War On Terror, C. Bhatt c.bhatt@gold.ac.uk , Nov.2007, online 2007/11/13, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00444.x, Development and Change * Contributed by Pritha Das - prithadas01yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________ 20. Links & Snippets _________________________________________________________________ 20.01. Other Publications - The Second Law as a Cause of the Evolution, Oded Kafri , 2007/11/28, arXiv, DOI: 0711.4507 - Effects of Feedback and Feedforward Loops On Dynamics of Transcriptional, Chikoo Oosawa, Kazuhiro Takemoto, Micheal A. Savageau , 2007/11/17, arXiv, DOI: 0711.2730 - Violent Video Games Pose Public Health Risk: Raised Aggression Levels A Serious Concern, Claims US Study, I. Thomson , 2007/11/29, vnunet.com - (Blue) Lighting Up The Human Brain At Work, 2007/11/28, Innovations-report - Happiness Comes Cheap - Even For Millionaires, 2007/11/29, Innovations-report - The Effect Of Spatial Structure On Adaptation In Escherichia Coli, L. Perfeito , M. Inês Pereira , P. R.A. Campos , I. Gordo , 2007/11/20, Biological Letters, DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0481 - Review. Hormone-Mediated Suites As Adaptations And Evolutionary Constraints, J. W. McGlothlin , E. D. Ketterson , 2007/11/28, Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2007.0002 - Autistic Children May Have Abnormal Functioning Of Mirror Neuron System, 2007/11/29, ScienceDaily - Group Selection, A Theory Whose Time Has Come ... Again, 2007/11/29, ScienceDaily - Morning Jolt Of Caffeine Might Mask Serious Sleep Problems, 2007/12/01, ScienceDaily - New War, Good War And The War On Terror: Explaining, Excusing And Creating Western Neo-Interventionism, H. Dexter , Nov.2007, online 2007/11/13, Development and Change, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00446.x - Oscillating Trophic Control Induces Community Reorganization In A Marine Ecosystem, M. A. Litzow , L. Ciannelli lciannel@coas.oregonstate.edu , Dec. 2007, online 2007/09/19, Ecology Letters, DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01111.x _________________________________________________________________ 20.02. Webcast Announcements 7th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 07/10/28-11/02 Reseau Nationale des Systemes Complexes , (in French), 2007 World Economic Forum , Davos, Switzerland, 07/01/24-28 TED Talks, TED Conferences LLC , since 2006 Talking Robots: The PodCast on Robotics and AI, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, 06/11/03 Potentials of Complexity Science for Business, Governments, and the Media 2006, Budapest, Hungary, 06/08/03-05 6th Intl Conf on Complex Systems (ICCS), Boston, MA, 06/06/25-30 Artificial Life X, 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, Bloomington, IN, USA. 2006/06/03-07 6th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium, Urbana-Champaign, Il, 06/05/15-18 Ralph Abraham on Complexity Digest, , Calcutta, India, 05/12/27 An Afternoon with Michael Crichton, Washington, 05/11/06 Illuminating the Shadow of the Future, Ann Arbor, Mi 05/09/23-25 Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems - Brainstorming Meeting, Paris, France 05/09/19-23 Complexity, Science & Society Conference 2005, U. Liverpool, UK 2005/09/11-14 ECAL 2005 - VIIIth European Conference on Artificial Life, Canterbury, Kent, UK 2005/09/5-9 T. Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder, The Washington Center for Complexity & Public Policy, 05/08/27, QuickTime video (10:38 min), Podcast 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 Understanding Complex Systems - Computational Complexity and Bioinformatics, Virtual Conference Network, Urbana-Champaign, Il, UIUC, 05/05/16-19 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 1st European Conference on Complex Systems, Torino, Italy, 04/12/5-7 From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20 Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium, 04/05/26-28 International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21 Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H., Internet-First University Press, 1994 CERN Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live Events Dean LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since February 1998 Edge Videos _________________________________________________________________ 20.03. Conference Announcements The 3rd Indian Intl Conf on Artificial Intelligence (IICAI-07), Pune, INDIA, 07/12/17-19 Winter School 2008: Chemical Discrimination and Localization using Biologically Based Olfactory Processing, San Diego, CA, 08/01/10-12 Evolution and Physics Concepts, Models and Applications, Bad Honnef, Germany, 08/01/21-23 The 1st Conf on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 08/03/01-03 The 3rd Intl Nonlinear Sciences Conference (INSC), Tokyo, Japan, 08/03/13-15 19th European Meeting On Cybernetics And Systems Research, (EMCSR 2008), Vienna, Austria, 08/03/25-28 2nd KES Intl Symp on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems : Technologies and Applications, Incheon, Korea, 08/03/26-28 1st Intl Conf on Social Entrepreneurship & Complexity, Garden City, NY, USA, 08/04/10-12 Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Tenth Annual... Applying Systems Biology, San Francisco, CA, 08/06/09-11 The 14th Intl Conf on Auditory Display (ICAD), Paris, France, 08/06/24-27 The 12th World Multi-Conf on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics: WMSCI 2008, Orlando, Florida, USA, 08/06/29-07/02 From Animals To Animats 10 - The 10th Intl Conf on the Simulation Of Adaptive Behavior (SAB'08), Osaka, Japan, 08/07/07-12 Stochastic Resonance 2008, Perugia, Italy, 08/08/17-21 _________________________________________________________________ 20.04. Other Announcements " Wolfram Research is Now the Official Math Brain Trust for the Hit CBS Series NUMB3RS. 07/10/05 A short notice from Dean LeBaron Dear ComDig Readers, Our editor, Dr. Gottfried Mayer, is affectionately esteemed by many of you -- as readers, you know he devotes himself unselfishly to widening our knowledge of complexity science. He was recently diagnosed with advanced colon cancer and given a timetable of a very few years. Knowing Gottfried, you can imagine that, in addition to the customary processes of chemotherapy, he would explore other frontier therapies, especially those arising out of interdisciplinary applications of complexity. These are expensive ... if he can find them. Many of you have sent your good wishes and indicated your desire to assist. With Gottfried’s permission, I am posting this note with information, below, about how to send contributions to him. Please indicate the source since Gottfried will want to express his warm gratitude. I know that Gottfried, the good scientist that he is, will explain from time to time what he is doing and what the results are ... and we will follow his progress with great interest and hope. Dean LeBaron Publisher, Complexity Digest Bank Information: If your contribution is made by check: Please mail the check, payable to “Gottfried Mayer”, to: Manufacturers & Traders Trust 2080 Western Avenue 20 Mall Guilderland, NY 12084 USA (on the back of the check, please write: “For Deposit Only: Account # 983 338 3814”) If your contribution is made by wire: Manufacturers & Traders Trust 2080 Western Avenue 20 Mall Guilderland, NY 12084 USA SWIFT Code# MANTUS33 UID: 209 791 ABA routing # 022 00 00 46 [for US wire transfers] Account # 983 338 3814 Ref. Gottfried Mayer Intl Master of Science in Methods For Management Of Complex Systems - Academic Year 2007-2008, Institute for Advanced Study, Pavia, Italy, 08/01/01 News notes on Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE) for July 2007 are now available on-line, 07/08/04 National Humanities Center Launches Humanities/Sciences Website, 07/04, As part of its ongoing “Autonomy, Singularity, Creativity: The Human & The Humanities” project (ASC), the National Humanities Center makes public a new website for the initiative which significantly expands the potential pool of humanists and scientists engaged in the exploration and examination of topics surrounding the question of human being. _________________________________________________________________ Complexity Digest is an independent publication available to organizations that may wish to repost ComDig (http://comdig.unam.mx/) to their own mailing lists. 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