Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Old Chinese Curse: "May you live in interesting times." Why We're So Nice Natalie Angier writes: "It's reassuring," Dr. Berns said. "In some ways, it says that we're wired to cooperate with each other." The study is among the first to use M.R.I. technology to examine social interactions in real time, as opposed to taking brain images while subjects stared at static pictures or thought-prescribed thoughts. It is also a novel approach to exploring an ancient conundrum, why are humans so, well, nice? Why are they willing to cooperate with people whom they barely know and to do good deeds and to play fair a surprisingly high percentage of the time? Scientists have no trouble explaining the evolution of competitive behavior. But the depth and breadth of human altruism, the willingness to forgo immediate personal gain for the long-term common good, far exceeds behaviors seen even in other large-brained highly social species like chimpanzees and dolphins, and it has as such been difficult to understand. "I've pointed out to my students how impressive it is that you can take a group of young men and women of prime reproductive age, have them come into a classroom, sit down and be perfectly comfortable and civil to each other," said Dr. Peter J. Richerson, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California at Davis and an influential theorist in the field of cultural evolution. "If you put 50 male and 50 female chimpanzees that don't know each other into a lecture hall, it would be a social explosion." (07/24/02) Infinite Wealth Barry Carter writes: Since one idea can be shared by billions of people and they all win and ideas and knowledge are infinite, wealth has become infinite. Paul Pilzer, in Unlimited Wealth, shows how technology, which rests entirely on knowledge power, is the driver of a new alchemic world with new rules of wealth-creation. The dream of past alchemists was to turn lead into gold. Today, using knowledge and ideas, we, for example, turn sand into something more valuable per pound than gold, computer semiconductor chips. Infinite wealth goes against common sense and our ex­perience. Infinite wealth is too good to be true. It is like creating something from nothing. This nothing, however, is actually something. It is ideas in people’s heads that comes from knowledge, which is created from information inside of billions of neurons and neural connections. Tangible wealth is today created from information. Deepak Chopra, in Creating Affluence, approaches infinite wealth from a scientific and spiritual perspective showing that ideas, beliefs and knowledge are the creators of physical and non-physical wealth as well as the universe itself. Using quantum physics, he shows that atoms, which make up everything in the universe, are made of infor­mation, knowl­edge and intelligence and not solid material. Though the nature of quantum physics will be explained in more detail later, the bottom line is: Information, knowledge and intelligence today are the pri­mary forces driving wealth-creation and the human brain is the primary creator of knowledge. For the first time in history the masses of individuals own the means of production—their own minds and brains. Wealth-creation, therefore, can no longer be controlled, it must be liberated and based upon individual freedom. (07/23/02) Blizzard Hits South Africa Yahoo News -- JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Although the climate is generally mild and sunny throughout the year. On the whole it is a dry country with a mean annual rainfall of 502 mm.  Snowfall is usually limited to the highest mountain peaks.  However, major storms have hit some areas in eastern South Africa and they were declared disaster zones Monday after heavy rains and snowfall caused power failures, destroyed homes and trapped commuters, killing at least 22 people, officials said. "Everybody's on high alert and ready," said John Fobian, the police rescue coordinator. "It's very devastating." Most deaths were from hypothermia and drownings and more than 3,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces, the hardest hit regions.  More bodies were likely trapped beneath the snow, which rose as high as a meter (3.3 feet) in some areas, Fobian said.  (07/24/02) Are Banks the next to FAIL ? Yahoo News -- Citigroup Inc.  and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co . , already facing scrutiny for devising allegedly deceptive transactions for Enron Corp., marketed similarly structured deals to a slew of other companies, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported, citing testimony that a senior congressional investigator will give at hearings that start today. ... "The evidence indicates that Enron would not have been able to engage in the extent of the accounting deception it did, involving billions of dollars, were it not for the active participation of major financial institutions," says a copy of the testimony. Banks such as J.P. Morgan and Citigroup were "willing to go along with and even expand upon Enron's activities." J.P. Morgan , in fact, had a "pitch book" to sell other companies on similar financing vehicles, according to a copy of the testimony. J.P. Morgan entered into similar transactions with seven other companies, while Citigroup shopped such deals around to as many as 14, with at least three entering into such relationships, the testimony says. (07/24/02) 6:15:22 AM

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