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Monday, December 16, 2002
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John Brand writes: Fact 1: On average, adults can live without water for about seven days. After that, they die. Fact 2: More people are becoming aware that soon, in a couple of decades or so, the world will experience a critical shortage of potable water. Recently, I attended a conference titled "Water for People and the Environment" at Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, sponsored by the Sierra Club. Mary Ann Dickinson, Exec. Dir., California Urban Water Conservation Council, was one of the main speakers. She started her presentation by projecting a chart indicating that in about 20 years, the population of the State of California is expected to double. She noted that a similar increase in population might be projected for Texas. She then devoted the main portion of her speech to water conservation. If everyone were to install a 1.6 gallon flush toilet, X million gallons of water would be saved. If everyone were to put in a certain showerhead, additional millions of gallons of water would be preserved. The list went on. It showed how a change in our behavior about water usage would save seas of water. During the question period I asked, "Given all the conservation measures you have outlined, would enough water be saved to sustain the population of California twenty years from now?" Her answer was immediate and to the point, "Of course not." (12/16/02) | |
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Donivan Bessinger writes: The trend of the recent decades has been to the exaltation of individual freedom and to the denial of collective interactive responsibility. Groups representing the single interests of economic, ethnic, religious, gender, or other constituencies increasingly claim "rights" for increasingly narrowly defined categories of persons, rather than affirming the collective rights of all people as persons. An organically balanced society must recognize that all citizens must learn to participate in the whole by taking equal responsibility as persons, without regard to categories. Individual human rights can flourish only in a fertile soil which supports collective human rights, for only when the rights of everyone are affirmed may the rights of any one individual be achieved and protected. Nor may the rights of an individual be affirmed without affirming the responsibility of each individual to the rights of all. There is an inherent interaction between right and responsibility. Since Marx and Lenin, world economic doctrine has been polarized between purist doctrines of capitalism and communism. The dramatically sudden collapse of communist systems in Europe attests that individual freedom and initiative may not be forfeited to central planning, nor may freedom of expression and worship forever be systematically denied if a human system is to survive. In the wake of that demonstration, many are declaiming the ultimate "victory" of capitalism. In the United States, the two poles of economic and political opinion are set closer together than on the world scale. In general, these positions cluster around the flags of the two major political parties, one "standard bearer" emphasizing public sector solutions, and the other, private sector initiative. Too often, however, these flags are marched forward by communities of fixed doctrine in the service of partisan power, rather than in organic response to the needs of the people. The collapse of European communism and of the cold war brings us to a major crossroads of world order. However, the increasing problems of American society underscore that we must also rethink our domestic order, and revive our understanding of free society as organic society. The polarizations and the alienations which have threatened to overcome us at all levels, economic and environmental, urban and rural, social and individual, must be broken down and overcome, being reconciled by a new grasp of an ancient worldview of wholeness. (12/16/02) | |
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World Net Daily -- President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been warned Osama bin Laden has 20 suitcase nuclear weapons obtained for cash from former KGB agents, the London Sunday Express reports in tomorrow's editions. Last October, WorldNetDaily broke the story of bin Laden’s suitcase nukes, detailed in a new book by an FBI consultant on international terrorism. The book,''Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror,'' by Paul L. Williams, says bin Laden purchased 20 suitcase nuclear weapons in 1998 from former KGB agents for $30 million. The deal is reportedly one of three in the last decade in which al-Qaida purchased small nuclear weapons or weapons-grade nuclear uranium. Williams says bin Laden's search for nuclear weapons began in 1988 when he hired a team of five nuclear scientists from Turkmenistan. These were former employees at the atomic reactor in Iraq before it was destroyed by Israel, Williams says. The team's project was the development of a nuclear reactor that could be used ''to transform a very small amount of material that could be placed in a package smaller than a backpack.'' (12/16/02) | |
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BBC NEWS: Science -- A tropical fish's ability to "grow a new heart" may help scientists find a way of aiding the recovery of human patients. The zebrafish is one of the only vertebrates whose heart can recover in this way, even when a fifth of the organ's tissue is removed. In humans, even minor damage to the heart leaves a trail of scar tissue which makes full recovery difficult. Experts from the US hope that the secrets of the zebrafish's scar-free regeneration could be harnessed in human patients. They have found a gene in the zebrafish which appears to play a role in this remarkable healing process. Dr Mark Keating from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute led a team that removed 20% of the two-chambered heart in dozens of zebrafish. While one-fifth of the fish did not survive this initial trauma, the rest set about curing the problem. (12/16/02) | |
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BBC NEWS: Science -- A Japanese H-2A rocket has blasted into space carrying an Australian satellite - the first time the rocket has been launched with an international payload. The satellite should provide remote parts of Australia with broadband internet services. The rocket was also carrying Japanese satellites to track the movements of whales and the effects of global warming. Japan hopes the successful launch will help it gain a foothold in the commercial satellite business. The H-2A made its first flight in August 2001 and this is its fourth mission. ... The rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima spaceport, a remote island about 1,000 kilometres (625 miles) south-west of Tokyo. All four satellites on board were successfully placed into orbit. "It went without a hitch. By building upon this track record, I would like to convey to the world the value of Japanese rockets," said Shuichiro Yamanouchi, the president of the National Space Development Agency. (12/16/02) | |
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BBC NEWS: Science -- Thousands of penguins are being washed up dead and dying in the Falklands. The islands are famous for their huge populations of the sea birds, but in the past they have been hit by mysterious ailments. Now thousands of the Gentoo and Magellanic penguins have been found on beaches partially paralysed and dying. The birds have failed to reach breeding grounds and naturalists have no definite explanation. One possible cause is poisoning by a "red tide" caused by an explosion of a type of microscopic sea plant. Researchers from Falklands Conservation have been sent to areas where birds have been found, and specialist vets are also studying the problem. (12/16/02) | |
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BBC NEWS: Technology -- Japan is taking the lead in developing hi-tech products that protect the planet as a recent exhibition in Tokyo showed. Thousands of environmentally friendly products were on display at the Eco-Products exhibition, which attracted over 100,000 visitors. Japan has a lot to teach the rest of the world when it comes to being green and that is precisely what the exhibitors at Eco-Products had in mind. One of the biggest draws at the show was Toyota's fuel-cell car. Four of the clean vehicles have just been leased by the Japanese Government to improve its green credentials. ... Equally popular, and a lot more accessible, was the electric car-sharing scheme from CEV Sharing. Operating in much the same way as bicycle-sharing schemes in some European cities, registered users pick up the Suzuki-made cars from a parking stand, unlock them with a special card and drive away. The cars have to be left at a similar stand at the end of the journey. Costs are low, starting at 52 pence for a 15-minute trip, plus a monthly membership fee of £105. The scheme is currently only running in Yokohama, but visitors were enthusiastic. Junko Hasegawa, from Tokyo, said she would use the car if it were available to her. "I'd like to share ownership like this, as it's more convenient than public transport and cheaper than owning a car by myself," she said. "Of course, as it's electric, there's no problem with exhaust gases." (12/16/02) | |
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BBC NEWS: Science -- Researchers in the US are studying a relative of the starfish, known as a brittlestar, whose arms are covered with perfect lenses. The lenses provide the brittlestar with all-round vision. Scientists say they are better than any optical devices developed in the lab. "Instead of trying to come up with new ideas and technology, we can learn from this marine creature," said Joanna Aizenberg of Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs. The remarkable vision of the brittlestar is due to thousands of chalk-like calcite crystals in its skeleton. ... "These lenses surround the whole body, looking in all different directions and providing peripheral vision to the organism," Dr Aizenberg told the BBC programme Go Digital. "This is the quality we all want to incorporate in optical devices, in cameras in particular. "Instead of having one lens pointing in one direction, you could have thousands of lenses pointing in different directions," she explained. "This will give you perhaps a 360-degree view of the whole space." ... Most of the optic fibre in the world today is used in the telecommunications industry to carry voice and data communications from exchange to exchange. Lenses are used to focus and redirect light which carries digital ones and zeros down a link. Scientists believe the brittlestar can teach them how to do this more effectively, potentially increasing the amount of information that can be sent through optical fibres. "These creatures are able to focus light about 20 times better than any manufactured lenses that we have now," said Dr Aizenberg. (12/16/02) | |
1:46:33 AM 
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Timothy Wilken.
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