Complexity Digest 2004.43 - 07

25-Oct-2004

New Complexity Digest Milestones Reached

Complexity Digest remains dedicated to improving the network
information of the community of complex systems researchers and
practitioners. ComDig is now in its sixth year, we have over 5k email
subscribers and some10k or so who see our issues from radiation on
comdig.com and other sites and a dedicated global editorial and
software team. You may have seen our editors at a conference or two
with a video camera in hand capturing speakers for video abstracts
adding a sense of presence to the items we read.

Otherwise the team is transparent by choice so the content will carry
the message that complexity is solving problems. We are entirely
virtual....we meet once every two years but otherwise in constant
contact electronically. A standard method and quality is demanded by
Gottfried Mayer (Taiwan) as editor in chief. At his side in Taiwan is
Stella who formats the letter and manages the data base. The editorial
staff is Pritha and Atin Das, India, Nadia and Carlos Gershenson in
Belgium. Software, including the new format you see today, has been
developed by Matus Marko, Andrej Probst, and Lubos Kmetko, Slovakia.

You may note an increase in archiving capability including videos
thanks to the webserver space kindly provided by the Centrum Leo
Apostel of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Daily webmaster chores are
done by Steve Gage (US). And various financial and administrative
function are done by Elaine Gilpin (US) and Marilyn Pitchford (US).

I am proud of what we have accomplished.

Dean LeBaron
Complexity Digest Publisher

Palaeontology: Leg Feathers In An Early Cretaceous Bird, Nature Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: Here we describe a fossil of an enantiornithine bird from the Early Cretaceous period in China that has substantial plumage feathers attached to its upper leg (tibiotarsus). The discovery could be important in view of the relative length and aerodynamic features of these leg feathers compared with those of the small 'four-winged' gliding dinosaur Microraptor and of the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx. They may be remnants of earlier long, aerodynamic leg feathers, in keeping with the hypothesis that birds went through a four-winged stage during the evolution of flight.