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Wednesday, January 07, 2004
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Flemming Funch writes: Here's a couple of patterns that might be useful for various things. First of all, you can divide life into various spheres that encompass more and more, but that each work according to different rules. You could see them as somewhat concentric circles, starting with you as an individual as the innermost circle.  So, like this, for example: Personal domain - One individual person and everything that pertains to maintaining an individual existence. This includes one's body, one's name, one's belongings, one's personal interests and preferences. Relationship domain - The interactions between two or more individuals close to each other. That includes friendships, marriages, family, but also temporary connections and interchanges between individuals. Group domain - Several people associating to form group activities. That can be a company or club or cause, or any other association, permanent or temporary. A group tends to take on a life of its own, beyond the dynamics of the participating individuals. Society or Culture domain - Larger groups of people co-exist in adjacent space to form societies or cultures or movements. A society can consist of many diverse groups and interests, but something ties them together. Maybe it is shared history or traditions, or maybe it is just geographical boundaries. A country would fit in there, as would a religion, or a social movement. Global domain - A whole planetary system is a global domain. That includes societies and whatever else exists on a planetary sphere, like other life forms. This includes concern for ecology and whatever else is needed to manage co-existence of diverse groups and species and resources within a closed system. Ours is planet Earth. And we could tinue and describe domains of a solar system, a galaxy, a universe, a multi-verse, and All-that-is. Which is interesting too, and gets a bit more meta-physical. And it could be done in various kinds of ways. But the point I wanted to stress is that each of such domains or spheres of influence will work according to different rules. And there's a key principle there: A problem that can't be solved in a certain domain can often be solved if we move up to a higher domain, with more degrees of freedom. (01/05/04) | |
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 NASA --This is the first color image of Mars taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. It is the highest resolution image ever taken on the surface of another planet. ... The big science question for the Mars Exploration Rovers is how past water activity on Mars has influenced the red planet's environment over time. While there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars today, the record of past water activity on Mars can be found in the rocks, minerals, and geologic landforms, particularly in those that can only form in the presence of water. That's why the rovers are specially equipped with tools to study a diverse collection of rocks and soils that may hold clues to past water activity on Mars. ... The spacecraft are targeted to sites on opposite sides of Mars that appear to have been affected by liquid water in the past. The landing sites are at Gusev Crater, a possible former lake in a giant impact crater, and Meridiani Planum, where mineral deposits (hematite) suggest Mars had a wet past. (01/07/03)
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 New Scientist -- The average sperm count of men may have fallen by as much as 29 per cent over the past 12 years, according to a large new UK study. Sperm concentration among men attending the Aberdeen Fertility Centre in Scotland fell from 87 million per millilitre to 62 million per millilitre between 1989 and 2002. Nearly 16,000 samples were taken from 7500 men. The dramatic decrease surprised doctors at the clinic, although concentrations above 20 million per millilitre are considered to be healthy. Aberdeen University's Siladitya Bhattacharya, who led the study, acknowledges that the results might be skewed by the fact that the subjects were attending a fertility clinic. "That is an inescapable fact. We weren't able to get a truly random sample," he says. "Nevertheless, the drop in sperm counts must cause some concern, and needs to be explained." The results, presented on Monday at the Joint Meeting of the Association of Clinical Embryologists and British Fertility Society, may also not be typical of the whole of the UK. But there is growing evidence that environmental factors can cause sperm counts to fall. Drug use, smoking, excessive drinking, obesity, and even tight fitting trousers have all been blamed. Environmental toxins such as pesticides has also been proposed as causes of declining sperm counts, while a study published in July 2003 showed that chemicals mimicking the action of estrogen and found in some foods can impair the normal functioning of sperm. However, despite the large number of studies in many parts of the developed world, no consensus has been reached on why sperm counts are dropping. (01/07/04)
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7:47:39 AM 
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© TrustMark
2004
Timothy Wilken.
Last update:
2/2/2004; 6:15:26 AM.
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Timothy Wilken, MD writes: I was delighted to see my old friend the tensegrity in the news coverage of the Rover's landing on Mars. Since tensegrities are the strongest structures in Universe, I was not surprised to discover they had successfully protected the Rover during landing. ... Buckminster Fuller studied Universe's organizing strategies for over fifty years. Of all the synergic patterns in Universe, 
he found was the 
