Friday, November 14, 2003

Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski Charlotte Schuchardt Read writing shortly after the death of Alfred Korzybski : Indeed, one may say that on 1 March 1950 his sudden death was characteristic of his life. But now, his organism could no longer handle the stress of his concern, and a coronary thrombosis was fatal. ... Regarding his work wrote in his last paper, in process of being completed at the time of his death: "There are many indications so far that the use of the extensional devises and even a partial 'consciousness of abstracting' have potentialities for our general human endeavor to understand ourselves and others. The extent of the revision required if we are to follow through from the premises as previously stated, is not yet generally realized. Our old habits of evaluation, ingrained for centuries if not milleniums, must first be re-evaluated and brought up to date in accordance with modern knowledge." While he had this large perspective, he remained keenly conscious of the limitations of his work, of himself as an individual, and of all humans. His theory of time-binding laid the embracing foundation for the study and realization of the potentialities of humans. "One of the key problems of my life work is that it is limited, limited," he said. "With the extensional devices you limit the seemingly unlimited." With a feeling that his formulations and methodological synthesis were but a part of the long processes of discovery of the natural laws of this universe, he was serene -- the mysteries of life remain to be solved. "As to the space-time problem of the 'beginning and the end of the world,' I have 'solved' it for myself effectively by the conviction that we are not yet evolved enough and so mature enough as humans to be able to understand such problems at this date. In scientific practice, however, I would go on, in search for structure, asking "why?" under consciously limited conditions," he wrote in his 'credo'. He had a deep reverence for the methods of mathematics and the exact sciences, as expressions of human behavior in our general search for the structure of the unknown. He had a strong social feeling of responsibility in a personal, and a historical sense. It may be said, perhaps, that Alfred Korzybski was very 'Polish': he was idealistic, yet practical, independent and staunch. He was unpretentious, lovable, earthy, vital, compelling, moved by a deep desire for feeling, knowing life, and around him there was a pervading warmth. He himself did not feel 'Polish' or 'European' or 'American'; he had, rather, a feeling of belonging to the world-in-time. In the long time-binding sweep of human life, he has welded together past, present and future into a new form. (11/14/03) Remember Martin Luther Craig Russell writes: It was on this day (October 31) in 1517 that Martin Luther, a German priest of the Catholic Church and a professor at the University of Wittenberg , nailed to the door of the church his 95 Theses.  Physically, it was a small act and not at all unusual.  Apparently, nailing a work to the door of the church in those days simply represented the potential beginning of a debate.  Indeed, the English translation of the short preface to his Theses states that, “out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following heads will be the subject of a public discussion at Wittenberg under the presidency of the reverend father, Martin Luther, Augustinian, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and duly appointed Lecturer on these subjects in that place. He requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing. Intellectually, however, and, perhaps more importantly, morally, this was an enormous act.  A single man had, in essence, come forward all alone, with nothing to defend him but his words and those of a book in which he had faith, to challenge the Power that had ruled the entire world for hundreds of years.  He knew as he pounded that nail into the door that this act could very well end his life.  And yet, for the sake of his own conscience, he was willing to take that chance.  For Luther, exposing his ideas to that world had more value than his one small life. His Theses systematically laid out why he had come to a major and fundamental disagreement with the Church concerning its practice of selling “indulgences.”  Simply put, for the right price, you could spring a dead loved one out of purgatory and get them straight into heaven. Now on one hand, you could make the case that this was simply the free market at work: one group with money, power, and intellectual influence profiting off those without those things.  The Church, certainly, did not force anyone to buy indulgences.  The churchmen merely advertised their wares and marketed them extremely well (after all, what better marketing can you imagine than a trusted spiritual leader convincing his flock that, for the small sum of just $10, Grandpa will get into heaven – especially when the one who takes the money can also officially certify that it’s been done?). Luther, if he had wanted, could easily have participated in this profiteering.  He was, after all, one of the select few – he was a priest of the greatest Power the world had ever known.  But his conscience wouldn’t let him.  He couldn’t participate in this because of what he saw, what he knew, and what he believed. (11/14/03) Helping the Earth BBC Nature -- Cuban farmers are working to make good years of deforestation and soil loss by planting trees on sensitive hillsides. The government pays land workers in the south-east of the island to establish trees in designated areas - giving them a large bonus only if they survive. This innovative approach ensures farmers continue to care for saplings. In many parts of Cuba, trees were cleared to grow tobacco and sugar cane. It resulted in unprotected soils - and even roads - being washed away by rain. And in Bayamo, for instance, where the trial reforestation is taking place, rivers became choked with the mud that poured off the bare hillsides. The farmers involved in the reforestation programme describe its beginnings in You Woodn't Know, a film in the Hands On series made by Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) and shown on BBC World. About 10 years ago, the government tried to halt the damage caused by deforestation, but local people say the results were very disappointing, because there was no attempt to follow up the scheme. Few of the millions of trees planted then survived, so the government is now trying a new tack - forest farms, managed by state-run enterprises. Families on the farms, which are known as forestals, are responsible for reforesting an average area of 30 to 50 hectares (75-125 acres). The farmers are chosen according to need, and are paid a wage: if 85% of their trees survive, they receive a 30% bonus. (11/14/03) The Global Spread of HIV BBC Health -- A total of 42 million people around the world are living with HIV - more than the population of Spain. More than two-thirds of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where in the hardest hit countries one in three adults have the virus. With 14,000 people infected every day worldwide, there are fears that HIV will sweep through Asia too. Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit hardest by HIV. The epidemic began to spread in the late 1970s and early 1980s, starting in a band from West Africa across to the Indian Ocean, before moving to the southern countries where its grip is now strongest. South Africa has the most cases in the world, with five million. Botswana and Swaziland have the highest percentage of people who are HIV positive. HIV is spreading fastest in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The number of people infected almost tripled between 1999 and 2002. These regions appeared to have escaped the epidemic until the late 1990s when cases increased sharply, largely driven by intravenous drug use. The number of people affected, however, is small compared to that in Africa. This study looked at how improved prevention measures could slow the spread of HIV. It predicted 45 million new infections in poor and middle income countries by 2010 if no improvements were made. But it said that 29 million of those infections could be averted if a set of prevention and care measures from successful projects around the world was implemented immediately. (11/14/03) Sick Potatoes BBC Nature -- Three more potato farms in the UK are under restriction after the world's most damaging potato disease was found on a mid Wales farm. The disease - ring rot - has never before been found in the UK. The source is at Middlewood Farm in Bwlch, near Brecon, where tuber were found to be contaminated with ring rot - described as the potato equivalent of foot-and-mouth. The discovery of the disease was confirmed during an annual survey for ring rot by Defra and it is thought the disease was brought into Wales on infected Dutch seed. The additional farms now under restriction - one in Wales and two in the Scilly Isles - had all taken delivery of seed potatoes from the Middlewood Farm over the last few weeks. Defra officials believe the outbreak is under control, and that it will be contained and eradicated. Experts are also talking to Spanish authorities about two consignments exported to the Canary Islands Although ring rot poses no risk to human health, farmers leaders in Wales had said the news is a "massive blow" to the industry. Annual losses to US potato farmers caused by ring rot have been as high as 50%. Farmers are also worried about the effect on the seed market if the UK loses its disease-free status. (11/14/03) Man Made Virus BBC Science -- For only the second time, scientists have used segments of dna to construct the genetic blueprint of an organism. Bits of DNA were assembled and spliced together to make the genome of a virus called Phi-X - which normally infects bacteria. The man behind the work is Craig Venter, hailed as a pioneer in reading the human genetic code. The work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in the United States. ... In an effort to improve the speed and accuracy of this genomic synthesis, Craig Venter and colleagues from the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives, have adapted a frequently used technique - the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) into one called the polymerase cycle assembly (PCA) - to reconstruct the genome of Phi-X. PCA is a technique that produces double-stranded copies of gene sequences, ideal for assembling a genome. ... The synthetic bacteriophage behaved just like the 'natural' one. It had the ability to infect and kill bacterial cells and is indistinguishable from its counterpart. The scientists say that although this technique is limited to simple organisms, the ability to quickly and accurately synthesise long segments of DNA could help them understand the function of particular genes, and may be a stepping stone to manipulating more complex organisms. (11/14/03) 5:52:08 AM

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