Wednesday, May 14, 2003

Saving Britain's Bitterns BBC Science -- One of the UK's rarest birds, the bittern, can look forward to a more secure future. Conservationists hope work to improve the reedbeds where they live will double the numbers of bitterns within a decade. In 1997 the population was so small there were fears the bittern could become extinct. ... "When nesting, bitterns need large reedbeds with areas of open shallow water. By 1997, conservationists feared they were on the edge in Britain, when only 11 calling males were noted in just four counties." The project hopes to expand the bittern's range by creating seven new reedbeds, enlarging five smaller ones, restoring three dry reedbeds and increasing the potential of four that currently host bitterns. This strategic network of 19 sites will stretch from Kent and Suffolk in eastern England to Cornwall in the far west and Lancashire in the north. (05/14/03) A Human Being is Part of a Whole Timothy Wilken, MD writes: The synergic relationship originates in the human world. As Korzybski foresaw: “The human class of life is a part and a product of nature, therefore, there must be fundamental laws which are natural for this class of life. A stone obeys the natural laws of stones; a liquid conforms to the natural law of liquids; a plant, to the natural laws of plants; an animal, to the natural laws of animals; it follows inevitably that there must be natural laws for humans.”  ... Universe provides unlimited time for humans. This is in the sense of time-binding. Human lives are finite, but human ‘knowing’ is not. Humans discovered control of fire ~1.5 million years ago, and it has been in daily use since then. Humans invented the wheel ~5500 years ago and its use is everywhere today. Because humans pass their knowing to their descendants, in a sense, collective human life is not limited. Understanding is not limited. Knowing is not limited. Technology is not limited. Quality of human life based on knowing and technology is not limited. We first discover synergic relationship in the microscopic universe. It is the basis of human cellular organization. Each of us has approximately 40 trillion cells organized within our bodies. These cells are related synergically, each acting in a highly co-Operative way. Synergic relationship becomes available to human individuals because of time-binding. Our ability to invent and to understand new ways of doing things creates a new possibility for co-Operation which does not exist in the world of the plants and animals. (04/06/02) Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Fritjof Capra writes: The 1960s were the period of my life during which I experienced the most profound and most radical personal transformation. For those of us who identify with the cultural and political movements of the sixties, that period represents not so much a decade as a state of consciousness, characterized by "transpersonal" expansion, the questioning of authority, a sense of empowerment, and the experience of sensuous beauty and community. ... The era of the sixties was dominated by an expansion of consciousness in two directions. One movement, in reaction to the increasing materialism and secularism of Western society, embraced a new kind of spirituality akin to the mystical traditions of the East. This involved an expansion of consciousness toward experiences involving nonordinary modes of awareness, which are traditionally achieved through meditation but may also occur in various other contexts, and which psychologists at the time began to call "transpersonal." Psychedelic drugs played a significant role in that movement, as did the human potential movement's promotion of expanded sensory awareness, expressed in its exhortation, "Get out of your head and into your senses!" ... The other movement was an expansion of social consciousness, triggered by a radical questioning of authority. This happened independently in several areas. While the American civil rights movement demanded that Black citizens be included in the political process, the free speech movement at Berkeley and student movements at other universities throughout the United States and Europe demanded the same for students. (05/14/03) Playing with Nuclear Fire! Common Dreams -- A dozen years after the Cold War's close raised hopes for an end to the nuclear threat, the Bush administration is embarking on a quest for a new generation of nuclear bombs that are smaller, less powerful — and that the Pentagon might actually use in battle. In the administration's view, the frightening size of Cold War strategic nuclear weapons diminishes their deterrent value today: No one believes that the United States would use them against a smaller foe. As a result, they argue, the United States needs the option of smaller nuclear weapons to deter the terrorist groups and rogue states, such as North Korea, that are today's foremost dangers. ... This month, the administration is taking a step toward a new generation of weapons as Congress moves to repeal a 10-year-old ban on the development of small nuclear arms. Over the protests of outnumbered arms control advocates, the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday voted 15 to 10 to lift the ban; the repeal language is expected to survive as the defense authorization bill moves through the full House and Senate this month. (05/14/03) Steps Towards an Artificial Eye BBC Science -- Blind patients given a pioneering retinal implant have managed to receive and decipher pictures sent from a video camera. The artificial implant receives visual signals then converts them into an "image" which is transmitted into remaining healthy retinal cells via 16 electrodes. So far patients, in the first trials of the device, have been able to distinguish between everyday objects such as a cup or a plate. However, they have not yet "seen" these objects entirely through their own eyes - the pictures are taken by a video camera then sent to the implant. (05/14/03) Sap from African milkbush activates Cancer Virus New Scientist -- Sticky plant sap may cause the most common deadly cancer affecting children in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers have discovered. White sap from the African milkbush is used by children as a gooey toy or as glue in their schoolbooks, while adults use it to make herbal remedies. But scientists have now found that even tiny amounts of the plant sap can boost the activity of a cancer-causing virus in human cells. The Epstein-Barr virus is thought to be a major cause of Burkitt's lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system that is rare in Western countries. In countries like Kenya and Tanzania, it is common for people to use the milkbush as fencing, and the gooey sap as medicine or a toy, says Rosemary Rochford, a virologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "Yet we've found evidence that they may unknowingly be putting themselves in danger," she says. (05/13/03) What is the mark up on Bottled Water ? New York Times: Environment -- 600,000% ... Some New Yorkers are complaining about the recent increased price of tap water. Many of the complainers currently drink bottled water. The city's new water rate of $1.52 for 748 gallons is a minimal increase and a bargain for New Yorkers. At this rate (lower than many large United States cities'), New Yorkers could buy enough water to fill nearly 6,000 16-ounce bottles with the same $1.52. New York City's drinking-water supply is one of the safest and purest in the world. Our water rate increases are necessary to maintain the integrity and security of the water supply system and to make sure that the environment remains safe and healthy. (05/14/03) Scientific Research--Polar Style New York Times: Science -- IN THE SEA ICE 30 MILES FROM THE NORTH POLE: Three broken bolts. A vital part of the first sustained effort to monitor big climate shifts at the top of the world was being threatened by three broken bolts. The bolts were in a simple winch used to haul up a $200,000 array of instruments, strung on a two-mile Kevlar strand, that had spent a year collecting data on currents, salinity and other conditions in the ocean at the pole. Six leading polar oceanographers and marine engineers huddled around the broken winch next to a manhole-size opening that had been melted the day before through the nine-foot-thick ice, staring at the line dangling in the slushy green water. If they could find no replacements for a few dollars' worth of fasteners, the winch would be useless scrap, the instruments might be stuck in the sea, and the replacements for the coming year would not be deployed. Such is the craft of science at the ends of the earth — particularly this end of the earth, where the pole sits over a 14,000-foot-deep ocean cloaked in shifting ice. (05/14/03) 5:54:35 AM

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