Monday, July 14, 2003

The Scientific Basis for a Synergic Economy Timothy Wilken, MD writes: The human condition of INTERdependence means all humans need help. This is important enough that it can not be said too often. All humans need help unless they wish to live at the level of animal subsistence. INTERdependence means sometimes I depend on others and sometimes others depend on me. Sometimes self is a giver of help. Sometimes self is a receiver of help. Sometimes other is a giver of help. Sometimes other is a receiver of help. Sometimes my actions help others meet their needs. Sometimes other’s actions help me meet my needs. ... Now, how can I be sure I will get the help I need from others? 1) I can force others to give me help — this is adversary help.  2) I can pay others to give me help — this is neutral help. 3) Or, I can help others, and trust others to give me help — this is synergic help.  (07/14/03) Terraforming the Cosmos Howard Bloom writes: While others predict the impact of computer networks on the mankind's futurity, this book has told the saga of the rise of global mind from earth's primordial seas. Implantable communicators and quantum computers will vastly change the way we interface in this dawning century. Yet eons of evolution have long since networked our emotions and biology. ... Ancient stars in their death throes spat out atoms like iron which this universe had never known. The novel tidbits of debris were sucked up by infant suns which, in turn, created yet more atoms when their race was run. Now the iron of old nova coughings vivifies the redness of our blood. Deep Ecologists and fundamentalists urge that our faces point backwards and that our eyes turn down to contemplate a man-made hell. If stars step constantly upward, why should the global interlace of humans, microbes, plants, and animals not move upward steadily as well? The horizons toward which we must soar are within us, anxious to break free, to emerge from our imaginings, then to beckon us forward into fresh realities. We have a mission to create, for we are evolution incarnate. We are her self-awareness, her frontal lobes and fingertips. We are second-generation star stuff come alive. We are parts of something 3.5 billion years old, but pubertal in cosmic time. We are neurons of this planet's interspecies mind. (07/14/03) The Gift of Depleted Uranium Common Dreams -- Let's focus on the one real feelgood factor left in Iraq - depleted uranium. That it is left all over Iraq just shows how much we care, because DU is gorgeous stuff - gorgeous uranium-238 with a dash of gorgeous uranium-235. It's cheap, if you're subsidizing nuclear power to the hilt, and frankly we have whole slag heaps of it to dump. It's almost twice as heavy as lead, so it's great for armour plating, radiation shielding, ballast in missiles and aircraft counterweights. It's splendid for shells and - better yet - it's pyrophoric. Which is to say, if you bang it into anything, it produces blasting amounts of heat. War, naturally, involves many things banging into each other. If we're not wasting our own troops by mistake, there's always enemy action to consider, plus accidents and malfunctions - it's not all shiny flightsuits and blasphemous profiteering: combat has it's dark side, too. A few of you have heard that Depleted Uranium (DU) is toxic and radioactive, and maybe you're fretting about that. With so many vehicles containing DU and so much DU ammunition rattling about and the possibilities of violence being fairly high, DU could be released into the environment and come into contact with people, even British people.  And I won't lie to you, there is a tiny chance that the tons of DU fired at and in Iraq may also have landed there. And some of it may have been slightly damaged on impact. But that's no cause for concern, because measures are in place to deal absolutely effectively with every possible scenario. First, to prevent heavy metal poisoning from DU, we recommend that all personnel in a vehicle hit by DU, or in a vehicle made of DU and hit by something else, or in a vehicle hit by anything and containing DU ammunition or parts, should aim to be somewhere else during impact. If this proves impossible, DU should not be inhaled, allowed into open wounds or swallowed. Given that personnel do not always wear respiratory equipment and protective suits (because they're hot and may not work), we advise holding their breath until operations are concluded. Personnel should avoid being wounded and, above all, should avoid being wounded near DU dust or DU shrapnel. If they are wounded by DU, they should cover wounds with duct tape, to prevent contaminating others. They should also refrain from eating shrapnel, licking dust, licking each other, or having meals without washing their hands. They should avoid going to the toilet for the duration. (07/14/03) George Bush in Africa Common Dreams -- President Bush is doing a barnstorming tour of Africa to call attention to his administration's commitment to addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the continent. One problem: He's simultaneously trying to impose on African countries enhanced patent protections that would undermine their ability to gain access to affordable medicines. (Actually, there are lots of problems -- denial of debt relief, water privatization, insistence on the failed IMF "structural adjustment model," and much more -- but those are topics for another day.) The administration has just commenced free trade agreement negotiations with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), which consists of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. Among the key U.S negotiating aims, announced U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, is to "establish standards that reflect a standard of [patent] protection similar to that found in U.S. law and that build on the foundations established in the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS Agreement)." Pushing for equivalent patent standards in Africa will severely limit countries' ability to take appropriate measures to address HIV/AIDS and other serious health problems. It also happens to run contrary to repeated U.S. promises. (07/14/03) Sleeping on it, works! BBC Science -- Scientists have found new support for the age-old advice to "sleep on it." Their work suggests that the best way to make sense of new information may be to get some quality shut-eye. Mice allowed to sleep after being trained to perform a specific task remembered what they had learned far better than those deprived of sleep for several hours afterwards. The researchers, from the University of Pennsylvania, also found that the five hours following learning are the crucial period when new information is lodged in the brain's memory bank. Mice deprived of sleep five to 10 hours after learning a task showed no memory impairment. Lead research Dr Ted Abel said: "Memory consolidation happens over a period of hours after training for a task, and certain cellular processes have to occur at precise times. "We set out to pinpoint the specific window of time and area of the brain that are sensitive to sleep deprivation after learning." The researchers found that sleep deprivation in the five hours immediately after learning a new task appeared to impair spatial orientation and recognition of physical surroundings - known as contextual memory. (07/14/03) Saving the Corncrake BBC Science -- The corncrake, a shy bird once widespread across the British Isles, is poised to set a tentative foot on the road to recovery. Modern intensive farming has left corncrakes restricted largely to north and west Scotland. But the first brood of chicks hatched by a conservation project is almost ready for release. The corncrake is the only globally threatened bird to nest in the UK. The chicks' proud human foster parents are the members of the Corncrake Project. They are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Whipsnade Wild Animal Park (run by ZSL), and English Nature, the UK Government's wildlife advisers. The project aims to re-establish the corncrake, once famed for its croaking call, as a species nesting regularly in England. Grahame Madge of the RSPB told BBC News Online: "About 150 years ago, you'd have found corncrakes in just about every parish with suitable habitat across the British Isles. (07/14/03) 5:27:35 AM

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