FE Archive Volume 9, Number 11

Volume 9, Number 11
9/12/2006
Edited by John L. Petersen
johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org

In This Issue:

TAI Presents - A public lecture with Daniel Pinchbeck*
Future Facts - From Think Links
Think Links - The Future in the News…Today
A Final Quote

*A note to our readers: For those wishing to RSVP for the TAI Presents event, please note - technical problems prevented us from receiving RSVP emails sent from the previous notice. To RSVP, contact Ken@arlingtoninstitute.org

At The Arlington Institute, we believe that to understand the future, you need to have an open mind and cast a very wide net. To that end, FUTUREdition explores a cross-disciplinary palette of issues, from the frontiers of science and technology to major developments in mass media, geopolitics, the environment, and social perspectives.

TAI PRESENTS:

DANIEL PINCHBECK
Author of
2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl
October 4th – 3PM
at
The Arlington Institute

The Arlington Institute is pleased to announce the second lecture in its TAI PRESENTS series related to different aspects of big global change. Acclaimed author of 2012 – The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Pinchbeck, will join us on Wednesday October 4th at 3pm, for a public presentation.

Mr. Pinchbeck will be speaking on the thesis of his latest book: We seem to be in the midst of an accelerating evolution of consciousness, and that this evolution has been predicted by the prophetic thought-streams of different traditions, particularly the Classical Mayan civilization. He will offer a series of hypotheses about this process, and discuss how it is linked to our immediate future as a sentient species on this planet. The severe ecological and social crises now facing us require a new mindset and a pragmatic approach to global problem-solving. If the number of individuals who can step beyond old paradigms and factionalisms reaches a critical mass, we have the potential of utilizing the current "tipping point" to create a compassionate planetary civilization within the next few years.

This promises to be a thought-provoking – and probably unconventional – exploration of the basic underpinnings of the increasing uncertainty that is growing around us.

Daniel Pinchbeck has written features for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Wired, Harper's Bazaar, The Village Voice, Salon, and many other publications. He is one of the founders of Open City, an art and literary journal, and an independent book publisher. He was a 1999 - 2000 Fellow of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. He has also been a columnist for The Art Newspaper of London, and an editor at Connoisseur Magazine.

Pinchbeck’s widely acclaimed first book, Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism, explored shamanism via ceremonies with tribal groups such as the Bwiti of Gabon and the Secoya in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Please RSVP for this lecture at Ken@arlingtoninstitute.org

The Arlington Institute is located at 1501 Lee Highway in Arlington, Virginia. Parking is available in the building. 1-703-812-7900

FUTURE FACTS - FROM THINK LINKS
DID YOU KNOW THAT...

2.6 billion people have no sanitation and, every year, 1.6 million children under the age of five die because of it.
New, super-sized yellow jacket nests have been found containing more than 100,000 workers - compared to an average size of 3,000 per nest, just years ago.
In Europe, spring is beginning on average six to eight days earlier than it did 30 years ago.
80% of species have already begun moving their traditional territorial ranges in response to the changing climatic conditions.
The happiest nation in the world is Denmark.

THINK LINKS – THE FUTURE IN THE NEWS...TODAY

INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

BFI expands online film archive
Ask a Question, Save the World
A Computer Game for Real-Life Crises

BFI expands online film archive -- (BBC -- September 6, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5327662.stm
Short films by Stephen Frears, the late John Schlesinger and brothers Tony and Ridley Scott can now be downloaded from the British Film Institute's website. The initiative allows users to watch rarely shown early works from some of Britain's leading film-makers. There are 230,000 films and 675,000 TV programmes in the BFI archive.

Post-9/11 Privacy and Secrecy: A report Card -- (Wired -- September 8, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,71741-0.html?tw=wn_index_9
For more than six hours activists and intellectuals will answer the world's most pressing questions as submitted and rated by the internet community. Every word will be translated and archived online as the seeds of a discussion site operated by a group called Dropping Knowledge. This round table marks the opening of an experiment in bringing protest, political dissent and activism into the internet age. The group wants to create and sustain a new kind of global dialog, by prompting people online to ask and answer the questions on their mind.

A Computer Game for Real-Life Crises -- (Washington Post -- August 30, 2006)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901487.html
Most cities do not have the budget for real-world emergency exercises - and Incident Commander, a training simulator, aims to fill that gap by giving players a lead role in managing crisis situations such as terrorist attacks and natural disasters. The game tutors players in how to build a budget and start a commissary under U.S government guidelines - and has already proved useful in real-life situations, according to rescue workers.

NEW REALITIES

Fossils of New Dinosaur Species Found
The Day the Earth Fell Over
Tool Use Observed in 2nd Group of Chimps

Fossils of New Dinosaur Species Found -- (Reuters -- August 28, 2006)
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8466
Paleontologists have discovered a new giant dinosaur species based on fossilized fragments of the herbivorous reptile that lived 80 million years ago. The Maxakalisaurus topai, of the Titanosauria group, was 13 yards long and weighed about nine tons.

The Day the Earth Fell Over -- (Live Science -- August 25, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060825_earth_tilt.html
The Earth might have spun on its side to keep its balance in the distant past, and could do so again. A new theory known as true polar wander suggests that if a very heavy object, like an oversized volcano forms far from the equator, the force of the planet's rotation would pull the object away from the axis the Earth spins around. This could make the Earth tilt and rotate itself until the extra weight moves somewhere near the equator.

Tool Use Observed in 2nd Group of Chimps -- (LA Times -- August 26, 2006)
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-chimps26aug26,0,1384382.story?coll=la-home-headlines
A second colony of chimpanzees has been found using rocks as hammers to break open tough-shelled nuts. It is believed that they acquired this skill independently - i.e., the chimps 'thought of' and implemented this idea on their own.

GENTICS/HEALTH TECHNOLOGY

Comatose Man's Brain Rewired Itself
Gene Therapy Rids Men of Cancer
Couples Cull Embryos to Halt Heritage of Cancer
Experts at International Congress on Obesity Warn of Deadly Global Pandemic
Back From the Dead
Gene Found to Switch Off Stem Cells During Aging
Vegetative Patient Shows Signs of Awareness, Study Says

Comatose Man's Brain Rewired Itself -- (ABC -- July 3, 2006)
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=2150606
Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash. The nerve fibers from the cells were severed, but the cells themselves remained intact and, surprisingly, regrew over the course of two decades.

Gene Therapy Rids Men of Cancer -- (BBC-- September 1, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5304910.stm
Two men have been cleared of deadly skin cancer using genetically modified versions of their own immune cells. Immune cells can now be modified to attack breast, liver and lung cancers. Tests showed the genetically modified T cells used in the new treatment became specialised tumour fighters. Although only two of the 17 people with advanced melanoma who received the treatment were completely free of cancer 18 months later, experts say the results are proof that this new therapy can work.

Couples Cull Embryos to Halt Heritage of Cancer -- (NY Times -- September 3, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/health/03gene.web.html?
ex=1158033600&en=79cb895471e8e309&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Parents are using P.G.D.- preimplantation genetic diagnosis - to detect a predisposition to cancers that may or may not develop later in life, and are often treatable if they do. The idea is that parents will only choose to implant completely genetically healthy embryos.

Experts at International Congress on Obesity Warn of Deadly Global Pandemic-- (Fox -- September 3, 2006)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,212009,00.html
An obesity pandemic threatens to overwhelm health systems around the globe with illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. More than 1 billion adults are overweight and 300 million of them are obese, putting them at much higher risk of diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, stroke and some forms of cancer.

Back From the Dead -- (Wired -- September, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/brainshock.html?pg=3&topic=brainshock&topic_set
A new theory claims that direct electrical stimulation can effectively 'reboot' the brain of comatose or otherwise severely brain-damaged individuals - possibly allowing their brains to regain some normal functionality.

Gene Found to Switch Off Stem Cells During Aging -- (NY Times -- September 6, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/science/06cnd-stem.html?
ex=1158206400&en=5bfe3c7d708fc156&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Biologists have uncovered a deep link between lifespan and cancer in the form of a gene that switches off stem cells as a person ages. To offset the increasing risk of cancer as a person ages, the gene gradually reduces the ability of stem cells to proliferate. The finding indicates that many of the degenerative diseases of aging are caused, in some part, by an active shutting down of the stem cells that renew the body’s various tissues.

Vegetative Patient Shows Signs of Awareness, Study Says -- (NY Times -- September 7, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/health/07cnd-brain.html?
ex=1158292800&en=5d9aa71e8129ec80&ei=5070&emc=eta1
A severely brain-damaged woman in an unresponsive, vegetative state showed clear signs of conscious awareness on brain imaging tests. In response to commands, the patient’s brain flared with activity, lighting the same language and planning regions that are active when healthy people hear the commands. Previous studies had found similar activity in partly conscious patients, who occasionally respond to commands, but never before in someone who was totally unresponsive.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Cure for Cancer, Age-Related Diseases Coming Into View
Nano Bullets for Ovarian Cancer
Physicists Trap, Map Tiny Magnetic Vortex

Cure for Cancer, Age-Related Diseases Coming Into View -- (LEF -- August 22, 2006)
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=4248&Section=AGING&sourc
When a cell divides, the DNA in its chromosomes is replicated and passed on to the new cell. Telomeres keep the replication process on track. With each replication, the telomeres shorten, becoming exhausted as a person or organism ages, resulting in cell deterioration - i.e., ageing, cancer and other age-related diseases. Nanocircles (a new nanotechnology) and vTert (a new synthetic enzyme) are now capable of repairing damaged telomeres.

Nano Bullets for Ovarian Cancer -- (Technology Review -- September 1, 2006)
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17396&ch=nanotech
Studies show that nanoparticles filled with tumor-destroying drugs have promise as a way to effectively target and kill ovarian cancer cells. A pH-sensitive nanoparticle encapsulates the therapeutics, and delivers them directly to cancer sites, suppressing tumor growth - and effectively targeting only the cancer cells, a major feat compared to less selective therapies that kill large quantities of both healthy and cancerous cells.

Physicists Trap, Map Tiny Magnetic Vortex -- (Rice University -- September 7, 2006)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/ru-ptm090706.php
Physicists have decoded the three-dimensional structure of a tornado-like magnetic vortex no larger than a red blood cell. This could also allow breakthroughs in the design of nanostructures for ultra-high-density hard disk media, non-volatile magnetic random access memory and novel magnetic logic gates that could replace volatile semiconductor logic. The magnetic devices would be faster, smaller, use less power, create less heat and they wouldn't lose information when power was turned off.

GLOBAL EPIDEMIC

Virtually untreatable TB found -- (BBC -- September 6, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5317624.stm
A "virtually untreatable" form of TB has emerged - known as extreme drug resistant TB (XDR TB), it has been seen worldwide, including in the US, Eastern Europe and Africa. XDR TB is defined as strains that are not only resistant to the front-line drugs, but also three or more of the six classes of second-line drugs. We may be getting close to confrontation with a deadly bacteria against which we have no effective drugs.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Top Prize for Light Inventor
Fastest Supercomputer to be Built
India Attracts Western Tech Talent
Tracking Those Roaming Around Rome

Top Prize for Light Inventor -- (BBC -- September 8, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5328446.stm
A Japanese scientist who invented environmentally-friendly sources of light has been awarded this year's Millennium Technology Prize. The award recognised his inventions of blue, green and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the blue laser diode. White LEDs could provide a sustainable, low-cost alternative to lightbulbs, especially in developing countries.

Fastest Supercomputer to be Built -- (BBC -- September 7, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5322704.stm
IBM is set to build the world's most powerful supercomputer at a US government laboratory. The machine, codenamed Roadrunner, could be four times more potent than the current fastest machine, BlueGene/L, also built by IBM. The new computer is a "hybrid" design, using both conventional supercomputer processors and the new "cell" chip design.

India Attracts Western Tech Talent -- (BBC -- September 5, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5272672.stm
India has long been noted for 'stealing' U.S. jobs, particularly in the field of I.T. However, as the Indian economy continues to expand, it has been attracting Westerners in all fields and has come full circle: Westerners are now beginning to come to India for I.T. jobs.

Tracking Those Roaming Around Rome -- (CNET -- September 8, 2006)
http://news.com.com/Images+Tracking+those+roaming+around+Rome
/2300-11386_3-6113691.html?tag=nefd.lede
New technology is being field-tested in Rome that allows authorities to monitor - well, not everything, but close to it. Graphical visualizations - spread out over four sections in the attached article - display population movements, bus activity and even cell phone call density and frequency.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Risky Business: US Insurers Adapting to Climate Change
Top Scientist's Fears for Climate
Climate Changes Shift Springtime
Giant Nests Perplex Experts
Japan Bans Contaminated US Rice
Global Warming Fuels U.S. Forest Fires
Brazil's Other Disappearing Rainforest
Dry as a Dead Dingo's Donger
Climate Change Drives Genetic Changes

Risky Business: US Insurers Adapting to Climate Change -- (Fortune -- August 24, 2006)
http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=6051&method=full
In 18 states, from southern Texas to the northern tip of Maine, insurance companies are scrambling to reduce the risk of major hurricane-related payouts. The upshot: For the 43% of the U.S. population who live and do business in these states, rates are likely to rise between 20% and 100% over the next year. In the rest of the country, premiums are expected to rise about 4%. Publicly, insurers have not accepted the theory of global warming. What the industry does believe is that, for whatever reason, weather isn't what it used to be.

Top Scientist's Fears for Climate -- (BBC -- August 31, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5303574.stm
One of America's top scientists has said that the world has already entered a state of dangerous climate change. If the current pace of change continues, so the theory goes, a catastrophic sea level rise of 13 feet this century was within the realm of possibility; much higher than previous forecasts. To put this in perspective, the melting of the Greenland ice cap, alone, could increase world-wide sea levels by 23 feet.

Climate Changes Shift Springtime-- (BBC-- August 26, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5279390.stm
A Europe-wide study has provided "conclusive proof" that the seasons are changing, with spring arriving earlier each year. The results showed that 78% of all leafing, flowering and fruiting records were happening earlier in the year, while only 3% were significantly delayed. In regions such as Spain, which saw the greatest increases in temperatures, this meant that spring began up to two weeks earlier.

Giant Nests Perplex Experts -- (AP -- September 8, 2006)
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS02/607170317/1009
Gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities. At one site, a nest was as large as a Volkswagen Beetle. In previous years, the largest nests were no larger than basketballs. It could be the result of a mild winter and drought conditions, which allow the insects to live, and build, throughout the year.

Japan Bans Contaminated US Rice -- (BBC-- August 21, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5271384.stm
Japan has suspended US long-grain rice imports after supplies were found to contain a genetically engineered variety that is unapproved for sale. The genetically engineered rice variety, LLRICE 601, possesses bacterial DNA that makes the rice plants resistant to a weedkiller. It is not yet known where the contaminated rice originated, or how it became intermixed with normal, unmodified rice.

Global Warming Fuels U.S. Forest Fires -- (Live Science -- July 6, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/environment/060706_globalwarming_fire.html
A recent increase in wildfire activity has been correlated with rising seasonal temperatures and the earlier arrival of spring. Wildfire season and potency increased "suddenly and dramatically" in the late 1980's- and appears to be another part of a chain of reactions to climate warming. 56% of the wildfires and 72% of the total burnt area occurred during the years when the snow melted early. When the snowmelt season occurred later than average, only 11% of wildfires occurred.

Brazil's Other Disappearing Rainforest -- (Al Jazeera -- September 10, 2006)
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F8647F3F-64B8-4333-8A8E-8F51E359A388.htm
It is the Atlantic rainforest - not the better known Amazon - that contains the greatest concentration of different trees on the planet. There are more species of birds here than in the whole of Europe. Yet every four minutes an area the size of a football field is cut down. Two hundred years ago it covered the entire Atlantic coastline of Brazil, sometimes stretching 300 kilometres deep into the interior. Now there is just 7% of the original area left.

Dry as a Dead Dingo's Donger -- (Economist -- August 31, 2006)
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7855606
The world's driest inhabited continent, Australia is facing water shortages unprecedented in last two centuries. There is a long-running drought in the country's east, the main farming belt. Sydney, whose main supply reservoir is just 40% full, and Canberra, are both on indefinite water restrictions. The Murray River and Darling River, which supply more than two-thirds of Australia's farming irrigation, are flowing at their lowest levels in a century.

Climate Change Drives Genetic Changes -- (The Scientist-- August 31, 2006)
http://www.the-scientist.com/news/daily/24573/
Recent studies suggest that climate change is rapidly leading to genetic impacts "in widespread organisms." Small shifts in average temperature, about ½ degrees C, which seems trivial on a temperature scale, are still managing to effect genetic changes in living organisms.

ENERGY DEVELOPMENTS

Big Oil Find is Reported Deep in Gulf
Iran to Miss OPEC Oil production Target
New York to L.A. in Two Hours
Redefining Battery Operated
Rethinking the Concept of the Automobile
Redesigning Crops to Harvest Fuel

Big Oil Find Is Reported Deep in Gulf -- (NY Times-- September 6, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/business/worldbusiness/06oil.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
A successful production test in the Gulf of Mexico has revealed what is likely the largest American oil find in a generation. The find represents approximately 3 billion to 15 billion barrels in several fields 175 miles offshore, 30,000 feet below the gulf’s surface, among formations of rock and salt hundreds of feet thick. The United States has reserves of 29 billion barrels, meaning that at the high end of the estimates, the discovery could increase reserves by 50 percent.

Iran to Miss OPEC Oil production Targets -- (Al Jazeera-- August 29, 2006)
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E621230F-2E81-44D4-94D7-E70FAF815E21.htm
Iran is projected to miss its production target of crude oil by 2010. Crude oil production could reach 4.5 million barrels per day between 2005 and 2010, well under the original production target of 5 million bpd. More than 80% of the current total oil output is being provided from aged oilfields that need serious investment to increase production.

New York to L.A. in Two Hours -- (Wired-- August 28, 2006)
http://www.wirednews.com/news/technology/0,71665-0.html?tw=wn_index_2
A new generation of supersonic private jets could trigger a boom in luxury high-speed flight -- without the sonic boom normally associated with breaking the sound barrier. These jets would have all the speed of the now-retired Concorde, but would produce only a whisper of the annoying crack once emitted by the Concorde, allowing for significantly expanded flight plans and a substantial increase in the jets' utility.

Redefining Battery Operated -- (Technology Review -- July 11, 2006)
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17096
A bird in flight makes small adjustments to its wings as it soars, hovers, or dives. If airplanes and helicopters could do the same to their wings and rotors, they'd fly more efficiently and need less fuel. Now, using batteries, MIT researchers have designed a model helicopter rotor that's able to do just that - well, almost.

Rethinking the Concept of the Automobile -- (BBC Prime -- March, 2006)
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=ry6w3mRm-FM&eurl=&iurl=http%3A//
sjl-static16.sjl.youtube.com/vi/ry6w3mRm-FM/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskLxx6OF93aNaDBmMDN058Sp
GM has developed the car of the future – sans petroleum. This fully-functional prototype could fit right in on the highway. Only, this car runs on hydrogen-powered fuel cells and has absolutely no harmful emissions. And it should be rolling out in little more than a decade’s time.

Redesigning Crops to Harvest Fuel -- (NY Times-- September 8, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/business/08crop.html?ref=science
Seed and biotechnology companies see a big new opportunity in developing corn and other crops tailored for use in ethanol and other biofuels, in an era of $3-a-gallon gasoline and growing concern about global warming from fossil fuels. One such genetically modified plant may come to market as soon as 2008 - a genetically engineered corn designed to help convert itself into ethanol.

TERRORISM, SECURITY AND THE FUTURE OF WARFARE

Future Be Warned: Keep Out
Post-9/11 Privacy and Secrecy: A report Card
Airport Screening Technology Developed

Future Be Warned: Keep Out -- (Wired -- September 7, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,71724-0.html?tw=wn_technology_7
The U.S. government plans to bury thousands of tons of nuclear weapons and feul waste under the New Mexico desert. And while it may be safe and secure for our current generations and a few thereafter, the government is taking additional steps to insure that those in the distant future - up to 10,000 years from now - the site will be clearly demarcated as dangerous, in a manner understandable to any human being, regardless of language or technological sophistication.

Post-9/11 Privacy and Secrecy: A report Card -- ( CNET -- September 8, 2006)
http://news.com.com/Post-911+privacy+and+secrecy+A+report+card
/2100-1028_3-6113518.html?tag=nefd.top
In the five years since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it has been a clear trend for the federal government to conceal more information about its own activities, while engaging in more surveillance of Americans' private lives. The change has been dramatic. In the 1997 fiscal year, the federal government spent $3.4 billion on securing classified information, a figure that rose to $7.7 billion for 2005. Similarly, the government declassified 204 million pages of documents in 1997 but a mere 29.6 million in 2005.

Airport Screening Technology Developed -- ( Lycos -- September 8, 2006)
http://news.lycos.com/dynamic/stories/S/SEPT_11_AIRPORT_SECURITY?SITE=LYCOS&SECTION
=TECHNOLOGY&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-08-17-25-00
What will airport security look like in the decades to come? It is possible that the long lines of today will have vanished, made obsolete by sophisticated screening devices that could do everything from detecting dangerous trace particles on a traveler's person to automatically identifying all liquids within any containers being carried aboard.

CONTACT AND THE EXPLORATION OF SPACE

NASA’s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet
Scientists Detect New Kind of Cosmic Explosion
Earth-Like Planets May be Common

NASA’s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet -- (NY Times -- July 22, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/science/22nasa.html?
ex=1311220800&en=74c926c8939e58e0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.” In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted - coming as an unwelcome surprise to many NASA scientists, who say the “understand and protect” phrase was not merely window dressing but actively influenced the shaping and execution of critical research priorities.

Scientists Detect New Kind of Cosmic Explosion -- (Space -- September 1, 2006)
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Scientists_Detect_New_Kind_Of_Cosmic_Explosion_999.html
Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite have detected a new kind of cosmic explosion. The event appears to be a precursor to a supernova, which is expected to reach peak brightness in one week. The explosion has the trappings of a gamma-ray burst, the most distant and powerful type of explosion known. Yet this explosion was about 25 times closer and 100 times longer than the typical gamma-ray burst.

Earth-Like Planets May be Common -- (BBC -- September 7, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5325476.stm
Earth-like planets orbiting other stars may be far more common than had once been thought. Because of the way we currently look for planets around other stars, most that have been detected so far have been gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn. But one third of these giant planet systems may also harbour worlds like our own.

DEMOGRAPHICS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Water Access Progress Too Slow
First Ever World Map of Happiness Produced
Human Family Tree: Shallow Roots
Digital Divide? It's Still There

Water Access Progress Too Slow -- (BBC -- September 5, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5317376.stm
The UN had hoped to halve the number of people without access to clean drinking water and sanitation by 2015. But progress has slowed due to population increases and unexpectedly high migration to urban areas, say the World Health Organisation and Unicef. They estimate some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack clean drinking water.

First Ever World Map of Happiness Produced -- (Physorg -- July 28, 2006)
http://www.physorg.com/news73321785.html
Participants in the various studies were asked questions related to happiness and satisfaction with life. The meta-analysis is based on the findings of over 100 different studies around the world, which questioned 80,000 people worldwide. For this study data has also been analysed in relation to health, wealth and access to education.

Human Family Tree: Shallow Roots -- (Wired -- July 1, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,71298-0.html?tw=wn_index_9
Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia -- Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations. He or she did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die. Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth -- the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5 billion people on the planet today.

Digital Divide? It's Still There -- (Wired -- September 6, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/computers/0,71731-0.html?tw=wn_index_24
Many more white children use the internet than do Hispanic and black students, a reminder that going online is hardly a way of life for everyone. Two of every three white students - 67% - use the internet. For Hispanics the figure is 44% ; for blacks, it's 47%.

JUST FOR FUN

Greenland Ice Cap Beer Launched
Of Mice and....The Universe?
Redwood May be Tallest Living Thing

Greenland Ice Cap Beer Launched -- (BBC -- August 1, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5234194.stm
A brewery in Greenland is producing beer using water melted from the ice cap of the vast Arctic island. The brewers claim that the water is at least 2,000 years old and free of minerals and pollutants. The first 66,000 litres of the new dark and pale ales are on their way to the Danish market.

Of Mice and....The Universe? -- (NY Times -- August 14, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/08/14/science/20060815_SCILL_GRAPHIC.html
One is only micrometers wide. The other is billions of light-years across. One image shows neurons in a mouse brain - the other is a simulated image of the universe. Together, they suggest the surprisingly similar patterns found in vastly different natural phenomena.

Redwood May be Tallest Living Thing -- (NY Times -- September 8, 2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Tallest-Tree.html
A redwood in a remote Northern California coastal forest has been tentatively measured as the world's tallest living thing. The tree called Hyperion stands at 378.1 feet, eight feet taller than the previous record holder.

A FINAL QUOTE...

If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee. That will do them in.
- Bradley's Bromide

A special thanks to Hanna Adeyema, Bernard Calil, Ken Dabkowski, Neil Freer, Humera Khan, KurzweilAI, Sher Patterson-Black, Diane C. Petersen, John C. Petersen, the Schwartzreport, Joel Snell and Matthew W. Sollenberger our contributors to this issue. If you see something we should know about, do send it along - thanks.
johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org

Brief About:

TAI Presents - A public lecture with Daniel Pinchbeck

Publication Date:

09/12/2006

User login