Friday, August 16, 2002

Towards Sustainability Kermit Schlansker writes: To most people, sustainability means the indefinite maintenance of present day living standards. This can not happen. Within 50 years, the high cost of energy and other raw materials will cause the cost of living to sky rocket so that most people will not be able to afford what we have today. The result may be anarchy and chaos. The only society that can really survive is a society based on planning, ultimate thrift, hard work, and technology. Running out of energy and other raw materials is inevitable. Malthus predicted that populations would over run food supply and famine would result. His predictions have been delayed by the usage of fossil fuels and mined fertilizers. However as populations increase and these materials are depleted, his predictions will come true. There can be only temporary definitions of sustainability because as the threat increases, the countermeasures will have to be more desperate. A society that can be maintained for 200 years must cut energy consumption to levels which can be sustained by solar, wind, biomass, and other renewable sources. It must take countermeasures against catastrophic events such as Global warming. It must recycle and use with thrift all raw materials. The bulk of the population must give up single family houses and private transportation. (08/15/02) Artificial Vision: Helping the Blind to SEE! Wired Magazine -- The human eye occupies a weird place in history. For more than a century, creationists, staring down Darwin's evolutionary barrel, claimed sight as proof positive of God's existence. The eye was too complicated for anything as seemingly accidental as natural selection. By extension, curing blindness was the sole province of faith healers. "It used to be a religious miracle," says Tom Hoglund of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, "but now it's a scientific miracle." On June 13 Dobelle addressed the annual meeting of the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs in New York. He told the stunned, packed house about eight patients of his who'd had the surgery, with Jens the first to have his implant turned on. Then he showed a tape of Jens driving. "I got the most applause," Dobelle told me, "but I don't think anyone really knew what they were seeing." In fact, to most of the artificial-vision community, Dobelle's breakthrough came out of the blue. For years he had been merely a footnote, known mainly for his early work in phosphene stimulation. People had heard of Jerry, but because the testing was done privately, outside of academia, many felt the work suspect. Dobelle leads one of a dozen teams spread out over four continents racing ahead with all sorts of artificial-vision systems. (08/16/02) If the Mouse Talks ... Washington Post -- Two critical mutations appeared roughly 200,000 years ago in a gene linked to language, then swept through the population at roughly the same time anatomically modern humans began to dominate the planet, according to new research. The findings, released online yesterday and due for publication soon in the journal Nature, provide the most compelling evidence to date that the gene, which researchers described in detail only last year, may have played a central role in the development of modern humans' ability to speak. Researchers said that could have given them a critical advantage that allowed them to supplant more primitive rivals. A mounting body of research suggests that the mutant gene conferred on human ancestors a finer degree of control over muscles of the mouth and throat, possibly giving those ancestors a rich new palette of sounds that could serve as the foundation of language. "It's a very exciting discovery," said Steven Pinker, a top language expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "This could be a watershed, because now that the technique has been successfully used, we can apply it to other genes with psychological effects. I think it opens the door for a new field of study." ... The next logical step for the researchers is to create a research animal, probably a mouse, that carries the human mutations in FOXP2. ... "If the mouse talks, then the circumstantial evidence will be pretty good," joked Wolfgang Enard, the Leipzig graduate student who is lead author on the new Nature paper.  (08/16/02) Concentration Camps in America ? Los Angeles Times -- Jonathan Turley, a professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, writes: Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace. Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants. The proposed camp plan should trigger immediate congressional hearings and reconsideration of Ashcroft's fitness for this important office. Whereas Al Qaeda is a threat to the lives of our citizens, Ashcroft has become a clear and present threat to our liberties. The camp plan was forged at an optimistic time for Ashcroft's small inner circle, which has been carefully watching two test cases to see whether this vision could become a reality. The cases of Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi will determine whether U.S. citizens can be held without charges and subject to the arbitrary and unchecked authority of the government. (08/16/02) Charodic Design Process -- Participants From  Chaordic Commons: Participants encompass the range of individuals and institutions likely to see the Purpose and Principles as their own, and empowered to create the organization and guide its evolution. With clarity about Purpose and Principles, the next step is to identify all relevant and affected parties - the Participants whose needs, interests and perspectives must be considered in conceiving (or reconceiving) the organization. As design team members pursue their work, their perceptions of who constitutes a stakeholder will typically expand. They now have an opportunity to ensure that all concerned individuals and groups are considered when a new Organizational Concept is sought. Work on Participants typically results in a list of the types (or classes) of individuals or institutions presently or potentially participating in the organization or community. These classes may be further divided into sub-classes, or categories, if necessary to distinguish key groups whose interests and perspectives should be represented in the organization. Understanding the diversity of individuals and institutions who might participate in the organization is essential for development of an appropriate Organizational Concept. Classes and categories of participation are also listed in the Constitution and enable the specification of distinct rights and responsibilities if necessary or desirable, such as participation on decision-making bodies, voting rights, record keeping and other functions. Work on Participants provides an opportunity to review the Principles by asking, "Do these Principles represent the values of these parties?" Exploration of all relevant and affected parties is also likely to stimulate creative thinking about Practices that the organization might pursue - especially activities that are not possible now because of constraints on participation. (08/16/02) 10:57:05 AM

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