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Tuesday, May 06, 2003
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Raymond Kurzweil & Christopher Meyer discuss the future of organizations. ... We're entering an age of acceleration. The models underlying society at every level, which are largely based on a linear model of change, are going to have to be redefined. Because of the explosive power of exponential growth, the 21st century will be equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today's rate of progress; organizations have to be able to redefine themselves at a faster and faster pace. (05/06/03) | |
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Tim Hogan writes: When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book The Prince is. Its essential contribution to modern political thought lies in Machiavelli's assertion of the then revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena. "It must be understood," Machiavelli avers, "that a prince ... cannot observe all of those virtues for which men are reputed good, because it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state." With just a little imagination, readers can discern parallels between a 16th-century principality and a 20th-century presidency. (05/06/03) | |
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Madan Kataria writes: In March, 1995, I thought of writing an article on ‘Laughter - the best medicine’ for ‘My Doctor’ a health magazine that I edited. When I found a large amount of scientific literature on the benefits of laughter on the human mind and body, I was amazed that very few people laugh and smile in Mumbai. I was very impressed by American journalist Norman Cousins’ book ‘Anatomy of an Illness’ in which he described how he laughed his way out of incurable disease of the spine - Ankylosing Spondylitis. I also read about the research work done by Dr. Lee S. Berk from Loma Linda University, California, who showed how mirthful laughter reduced the stress hormone levels in the body and the effects of laughter on the immune system. Early morning at 4 a.m. on 13th March 1995, I was walking up and down in my living room and suddenly an idea flashed into my mind: If laughter is so good why not start a laughter club? Then I decided not to publish the article, but instead I went to a public park at Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri, in Mumbai and spoke to people about starting a Laughter Club. The remarkable thing about this idea was that I conceived it at 4 a.m. in the morning and within 3 hours a plan was put into action. (05/06/03) | |
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New Scientist -- Are we humans capable of taking long-term decisions? ... I think that we're still quite capable of doing that. But where is the political will? Who's going to run a campaign on it? Is it sexy enough? It will shortly become so, in my view. E. O. Wilson has been saying this. Between the times he started saying these things and campaigning, and now there has been a seismic shift. When he first started people were ignoring him or laughing at him. Now they're saying, wait a minute, we've got to do something. There was a huge palaver in Canada about whether global warming was true or not. Well, all the people who said it wasn't have now been disproved. Nobody is now saying there isn't any warming. They are saying they don't know whether it's due to people or not, maybe it's just part of a natural cycle. In tens of thousands of years, if we keep going the way we're going, we're not going to be here, certainly not in the form we're in now. Nature will be here. It's just a question of whether we want people to be around to observe it, and whether we want nature to be all cockroaches, dandelions and rats, or maybe a bit more variety. (05/06/03) | |
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CNN Health -- Violent lyrics in songs increase aggression-related thoughts and emotions and could indirectly create a more hostile social environment, a study released on Sunday by a U.S. psychology association found. The Washington, D.C.-based American Psychological Association (APA) released the study, resulting from five experiments involving over 500 college students, in the May issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The violent songs increased feelings of hostility without provocation or threat, according to the study. It said the effect was not the result of differences in musical style, specific performing artist or arousal properties of the songs. Even the humorous violent songs increased aggressive thoughts, the study said. (05/06/03) | |
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New Scientist -- An excessive immune reaction appears to be the fatal factor in patients who die of SARS, according to medical data from Hong Kong. The best estimate of the fatality rate of SARS is rising steadily and so understanding how the disease causes death is critical to finding the best treatments. ... The new information was revealed by Klaus Stöhr, the World Health Organization's chief scientist for SARS in a briefing earlier this week. "In the first week or so of disease the virus is replicating mainly in the upper respiratory tract, causing high fever and dry cough. But in the second week we see an over-reaction of the immune response, and in 20 per cent of cases that leads to very severe disease." ... This observation significantly strengthens the basis on which doctors can select the treatments given to patients. In particular, it suggests the use of corticosteroids, alongside other drugs that reduce the viral load such as interferon. Corticosteroids suppress the immune system and are normally used against asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and in transplant patients to reduce the risk of rejection. Their use does raise the risk of further infection, but Hong Kong hospitals are claiming success with combinations of the antiviral ribavirin and pulsed steroids, says Salter: "And once steroids are stopped, they see a flare up of the condition suggesting there is a significant immune component to the disease." (05/06/03) | |
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New Scientist -- The scheme is the brainchild of a retired US cell biologist, Gordon Sato. He wants to plant mangroves along hundreds of kilometres of coastline in Mexico, Arabia and elsewhere. His first 250,000 trees are already growing close to coral reefs on the shores of the Red Sea in Eritrea. "The object is to create whole new forests of mangrove trees in vast areas of the world," says Sato. He believes that mangroves will fight poverty by providing fodder for goats, and help combat global warming by absorbing carbon from the air. Sato estimates he could plant 50 million trees round the Red Sea alone, and 200 million on the shores of the Gulf of California in Mexico. If canals were used to take seawater inland, much of the Sahara, the Arabian Peninsula and the Atacama Desert of Chile could be planted, too. "Such forests would banish the problem of global warming," he says. ... But reef scientists say this flush of nutrients into the sea could harm nearby reefs and destroy the fisheries on which coastal communities now depend. "Coral reefs are extremely sensitive to nutrient pollution," says Mark Spalding, co-author of the UN-backed World Atlas of Coral Reefs. Sato "is working without external scientific advice and with no environmental impact assessment", he claims. (05/06/03) | |
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New Scientist -- A horrific venereal disease is preying on baboons in eastern Africa. An estimated 200 animals have been infected and scientists are scrambling to identify the mystery microbe that is attacking them. The disease targets the reproductive organs of the primate. The consequences for male baboons are particularly gruesome, says Elibariki Mtui, of the African Wildlife Foundation in Arusha, Tanzania. "The genitals kind of rot away, then they just drop off," he told New Scientist. The disease first appeared a month ago and while cases seem to be confined to Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania, there are fears it will spread from the affected troops of olive baboons to others nearby. "People are really concerned that it could be an epidemic," says Mtui. Wardens at the park confirm that some of the infected males had died. (05/06/03) | |
5:43:52 AM 
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© TrustMark
2003
Timothy Wilken.
Last update:
6/3/2003; 5:44:44 AM.
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