Volume 9, Number 17
12/05/2006
Edited by John L. Petersen
johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org

See past issues in the Archives

In This Issue:

Future Facts - From Think Links
Think Links - The Future in the News…Today
A Final Quote

Dr. Don Beck, an authority on value systems and social change, will be hosting a series of lectures in the Washington D.C. area this coming January.

From the Clash to the Confluence of Civilizations: Cartography for the 21st Century:

The Spiral Dynamics Group and Global Center for Human Emergence warmly invite you to attend the 2007 SDi "Six Days in the Beltway" experience – a dynamic program of SDi training and certification, interactive learning, and 'meshworking' with some of the finest veterans in the global SDi constellation.

The week will consist of two workshops:

SDi Level One program January 8-10
This workshop is the standard introductory course to the Spiral Dynamics Integral technology. It is open to all.

SDi Level Two program January 11-13
This workshop is entitled, “From the Clash to the Confluence of Civilizations, Cultures and Religions: Positive Alternatives for the Emerging World System. Cartography for the 21st Century.” It is generally open only to those who have previously completed a Level One workshop.

If you would be interested in getting more information about attending either of the Spiral Dynamics events, please click here.

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

• Human saliva produces a pain-killing protein six times as powerful as morphine.
• Water shortages affect 538 million people in northern China.
• On average, each year 200,000 people in the United States are hospitalized from influenza virus infection, and 36,000 of them die.
• The average U.S. office worker prints 1,200 pages of paper a month.

NEW REALITIES

Greatest Mass Extinction Gave Oceans a Face Lift
Neanderthal DNA Secrets Unlocked
Humpback Whales Have 'Human' Brain Cells
The First Human Ritual
Hybrid Butterflies High in the Sierra
Mystery of Ancient Astronomical Calculator Unveiled

Greatest Mass Extinction Gave Oceans a Face Lift -- (Live Science -- November 23, 2006)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20061124/
sc_livescience/greatestmassextinctiongaveoceansafacelift
The largest extinction in Earth's history not only wiped out 95 percent of sea creatures and 70 percent of land animals, it also gave the oceans a fundamental "face lift," according to a new study. Before the end-Permian mass extinction 250 million years ago, the seas were home to a balance of both ecologically simple communities and complex ones. Following the extinction, complex communities displaced simple ones, coming to outnumber them three-to-one, a pattern that prevails today.

Neanderthal DNA Secrets Unlocked -- (BBC -- November 15, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6146908.stm
Scientists have reconstructed a chunk of DNA from the genome of a Neanderthal man who lived 38,000 years ago. The genetic information they extracted from a thigh bone has allowed them to identify more than a million building blocks of Neanderthal DNA so far.

Humpback Whales Have 'Human' Brain Cells -- (Reuters -- November 27, 2006)
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/11/27/humpback.whales.brains.reut/index.html
Humpback whales have a type of brain cell previously recognized only in humans, the great apes, and other cetaceans such as dolphins. This might mean such whales are more intelligent than they have been given credit for, and suggests the basis for complex brains either evolved more than once, or has gone unused by most species of animals.

The First Human Ritual -- (Live Science -- November 30, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/history/061130_oldest_ritual.html
The discovery of 70,000-year-old artifacts and a python's head carved of stone pushed back significantly the date of the first known human rituals. Until this, scientists had thought human intelligence had not evolved the capacity to perform group rituals until perhaps 40,000 years ago.

Hybrid Butterflies High in the Sierra -- (Physorg -- December 1, 2006)
http://www.physorg.com/news84206464.html
High in the Sierra Nevada mountains, a new species of butterfly has been determined to be a hybrid of two existing species. It is the first time that this type of species formation has been shown in animals. Researchers calculate that the hybrids arose about half a million years ago, when L. melissa and L. idas came into contact in the Sierra Nevada.

Mystery of Ancient Astronomical Calculator Unveiled -- (Science Daily -- December 1, 2006)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061129151439.htm
This calculator was able to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the Zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon - and scientists believe it was used by the Greeks as far back as the second century BC.

GENTICS/HEALTH TECHNOLOGY

Natural Chemical Beats Morphine
Regenerating Chicken Wings
An Appointment with Chance

Natural Chemical Beats Morphine -- (BBC -- November 14, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6142842.stm
The human body produces a natural painkiller several times more potent than morphine. When given to rats, the chemical, called opiorphin, was able to curb pain at much lower concentration than the powerful painkiller morphine.

Regenerating Chicken Wings -- (MIT Technology Review-- November 22, 2006)
http://www.technologyreview.com/BioTech/17821/
Salamanders and zebra fish can grow new limbs and fins, but chop off your own finger, and it's not going to grow back. Now, researchers have been able to regenerate wings in chicken embryos, which can't normally grow new limbs. The findings move scientists one step closer to understanding how to induce regenerative powers in humans.

An Appointment with Chance -- (Economist-- November 30, 2006)
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8348729
The defining feature of a stem cell is self-renewal. When such a cell divides, at least one of its daughters is also a stem cell (the other may set off on the route to specialization that allows stem cells to generate new tissue). The way to test whether a particular cell is a stem cell, therefore, is to grow it individually. And scientists have recently discovered that they could do just this with an exciting new class of cells: brain cells.

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotubes Tracked in Blood and Liver -- (Science Daily -- November 29, 2006)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061129094320.htm
Researchers have determined that carbon nanotubes injected directly into the bloodstream of research lab animals cause no immediate adverse health effects and circulate for more than one hour before they are removed by the liver. The findings are from the first in vivo animal study of chemically unmodified carbon nanotubes, which tracked where the nanotubes went within 24 hours of being injected, revealed trace amounts of nanotubes in the kidneys and liver - common expulsion routes for drugs. There was no evidence that nanotubes remained in other tissues in the body.

GLOBAL EPIDEMIC

Anti-Microbial Paint Kills Flu, Bacteria -- (Physorg -- December 1, 2006)
http://www.physorg.com/news84202306.html
A new anti-microbial "paint" can kill influenza viruses that land on surfaces coated with it, potentially offering a new weapon in the battle against a disease that kills nearly 40,000 Americans per year. The polymers are also effective against many types of bacteria, including human pathogens Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, deadly strains of which are often resistant to antibiotics.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Physics Promises Wireless Power
Xerox Developing Erasable Paper System
Me Translate Pretty One Day
Nike+ IPod = Surveillance

Physics Promises Wireless Power -- (BBC -- November 15, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6129460.stm
Researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires. The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many meters.

Xerox Developing Erasable Paper System -- (International Herald Tribune -- November 27, 2006)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/27/business/xerox.php
Researchers now have a prototype copier that will produce documents on a specially coated paper with a light yellow tint. The process works without toner and produces a low-resolution document that appears to be printed with purple ink. The printed information on the document "disappears" within 16 hours. The documents can be reused more quickly by simply placing them in the copier paper tray. Individual pieces of paper have been reused up to 50 times, and the only limit in the process appears to be paper life.

Me Translate Pretty One Day -- (Wired -- December Issue, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/translate.html
Language translation is a tricky problem, not only for a piece of software but also for the human mind. A single word in one language, for example, may map into three or more in another. Look at bank, for example, with its utterly divergent uses for the place you keep your money, the edge of a river, and what an airplane might do. Yet scientists are quickly homing in seamless computer translation.

Nike+ IPod = Surveillance -- (Wired -- November 30, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72202-0.html?tw=wn_index_16
If you enhance your workout with the new Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, you may be making yourself a surveillance target. A report from four University of Washington researchers reveals that security flaws in the new RFID-powered device from Nike and Apple make it easy for tech-savvy stalkers, thieves and corporations to track your movements. With just a few hundred dollars and a little know-how, someone could even plot your running routes on a Google map without your knowledge.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Energy Firms Come to Terms with Climate Change
Global Warming Goes to Court
Predicting the Timing of Major Earthquakes
Tibet's Disappearing Glaciers Threaten China
Emissions of Key Greenhouse Gas Stabilize
Dutch Bask in Warmest Autumn in Three Centuries
Global Warming May Explain India's Extreme Storm Rise

Energy Firms Come to Terms with Climate Change -- (Washington Post -- November 25, 2006)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/11/24/AR2006112401361.html?referrer=email
While the political debate over global warming continues, top executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable.

Global Warming Goes to Court -- (International Herald Tribune -- November 28, 2006)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/28/opinion/edwarm.php
A group of states is suing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to properly do its job. These states, backed by environmental groups and scientists, say that the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to impose limits on greenhouse gases emitted by new cars. The Bush Administration contends that these gasses are not "air pollutants" under the Clean Air Act

Predicting the Timing of Major Earthquakes -- (Physorg -- December 1, 2006)
http://www.physorg.com/news84206626.html
Forecasting when a major earthquake will erupt -- within a window of two to three years -- could be possible, based on new mathematical studies. The new approach narrows the time window of predictions, but does so at the cost of expanding the forecast over a broader geographical area.

Tibet's Disappearing Glaciers Threaten China -- (Bloomberg -- November 14, 2006)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=
20601086&sid=as.VsLN0AqhA&refer=latin_america
Tibet's glaciers may disappear within 100 years due to global warming, threatening China's overused and polluted water supplies. Almost all glaciers in China have already shown substantial melting, which could have devastating consequences for literally hundreds of millions of farmers in China's western regions.

Emissions of Key Greenhouse Gas Stabilize -- (New Scientist -- November 22, 2006)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10643
-emissions-of-key-greenhouse-gas-stabilise.html
Levels of the second most important greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere -methane - have leveled off. Between 1978 to 1987, methane levels increased by 11% - an average growth rate of more than 1% a year. Over the following decade, growth rates slowed to between 0.3% and 0.6% a year. From December 1998 to December 2005, they dropped down to near-zero, ranging from a 0.3% increase to a 0.2% decrease.

Dutch Bask in Warmest Autumn in Three Centuries -- (AFP -- November 19, 2006)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061119/sc_afp/netherlandsclimate
The autumn of 2006 has been the warmest in the Netherlands for over 300 years, 12.5 percent hotter than the previous year which was already a record. The average temperature for the months leading up to November 17 was up to 13.5 degrees Celsius, as compared to 12 degrees last year, which was already the hottest autumn on record.

Global Warming May Explain India's Extreme Storm Rise -- (AFP -- November 30, 2006)
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Global_Warming
_May_Explain_India_Extreme_Storm_Rise_999.html
A rise in the number and strength of "extreme" rainstorms over the past fifty years in central India could be linked to global warming. While average annual rainfall has generally gone unchanged, there was a 10 percent increase each decade in the number of heavy rainstorms (more than 100 millimeters a day) and a doubling over the five decades of very heavy storms (more than 150 millimeters a day).

TERRORISM, SECURITY AND THE FUTURE OF WARFARE

Registered Traveler Program Is Fake Security
U.S. Finds Iraq Insurgency Has Funds to Sustain Itself
New Airport X-rays Reveal Passengers' Bodies

Registered Traveler Program Is Fake Security -- (Wired -- November 30, 2006)
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2006/11/registered_trav.html
The Registered Traveler program, which was just cleared for deployment the nation's airports, has nothing to do with security and is simply a way to pay $100 to cut to the front of the line. While $28 out of the approximately $100 fee goes to a security check performed by the Department of Homeland Security, there's actually no rational reason to do the check other than to make the program look like it's security-related.

U.S. Finds Iraq Insurgency Has Funds to Sustain Itself -- (NY Times -- November 26, 2006)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112606Z.shtml
The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising between $70-200 million a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, connivance by corrupt Islamic charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded. This will almost certainly damp hopes for an improvement in the insurgent situation anytime in the near future.

New Airport X-rays Reveal Passengers' Bodies -- (Live Science -- December 1, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/technology/061201_ap_airport_xray.html
Sky Harbor International Airport here will test a new federal screening system that takes X-rays of passenger's bodies to detect concealed explosives and other weapons. The technology, called backscatter, has been around for several years but has not been widely used in the U.S. as an anti-terrorism tool because of privacy concerns.

AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE AND ROBOTICS

Robotic Recovery
Evolving Robots

Robotic Recovery -- (MIT Technology Review -- Fall 2006)
http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/17804/
Roboticists have designed a robot that is capable of building internal models of its own body to enable it to sense and recover from damage. It continuously models itself and updates those models on the fly to reflect the current state of its body.

Evolving Robots -- (Live Science -- November 17, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/technology/061117_robot_tadpole.html
Scientists have created robot-tadpoles to help explore the evolution of vertebrae and backbones in human ancestors. The distant forebears of humans and other vertebrates were much squashier than their descendants. They possessed flexible rods known as notochords that served as primitive backbones, but no vertebrae. Scientists think vertebrae evolved to help our ancient predecessors swim more powerfully by stiffening the body so attached muscles could generate more force.

CONTACT AND THE EXPLORATION OF SPACE

NASA Okays the Polluting of Space with Space Station Waste
Russia Will Develop Space Elevators
Europeans Plan for Mega-Telescope

NASA Okays the Polluting of Space with Space Station Waste -- (News Target -- November 25, 2006)
http://www.newstarget.com/021169.html
The buildup of unwanted clutter from the International Space station has sparked years of debate, so NASA has finally decided that the best approach is to jettison some of the waste into space. Most of the debris should burn up in the atmosphere, but they will present a problem until that happens. Currently, NASA is tracking about 13,000 of the largest items in orbit so that the space station can steer around them.

Russia Will Develop Space Elevators -- (Space Daily-- December 1, 2006)
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russia
_Will_Develop_Space_Elevators_999.html
Scientists from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a unique space elevator for lunar and Martian missions. Although a bit slower than traditional solid-rocket propulsion systems, the new system will cut back on interplanetary delivery expenses.

Europeans Plan for Mega-Telescope -- (Physorg -- December 1, 2006)
http://www.physorg.com/news84207963.html
European astronomers gathered in a meeting to achieve consensus on the technical specifications for what will be the world's biggest optical telescope. The so-called Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), budgeted at around a billion euros (1.3 billion dollars), will have a 42-metre (136.5-feet) -diameter composite mirror.

DEMOGRAPHICS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Sex Change, No Surgery Required
Virtual Pals Soar in Importance
Nomadic Herders go High-Tech

Sex Change, No Surgery Required -- (Wired -- November 29, 2006)
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/
medtech/0,72174-0.html?tw=wn_index_24
Creating a new outpost in the battle for transgender rights, both New York City and Spain are expected to soon allow people to officially change their gender without actually undergoing a sex-change operation. If people can switch genders in the eyes of the government with only some documentation from a doctor, will fewer feel the need for surgery? And what about military service, marriage and the supposed threat of cross-dressing peeping toms?

Virtual Pals Soar in Importance -- (BBC -- November 30, 2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6158935.stm
Virtual communities are as important as their real-world counterparts, many members of online communities believe. A survey found 43% of online networkers from the US felt "as strongly" about their web community as they did about their real-world friends.

Nomadic Herders go High-Tech-- (CNN -- December 1, 2006)
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/12/01/hightechherders/index.html
Afghanistan is the latest location for projects to provide early warning systems about animal health and to help pinpoint the location of the healthiest grazing areas. Computer models provide researchers and herders with predictions on how plants will grow, based on soil conditions and rainfall. This data is then used to forecast where the richest vegetation will be, especially if drought or other crisis conditions exist.

JUST FOR FUN

Michigan Teen Creates Nuclear Fusion
Scientists Levitate Small Animals

Michigan Teen Creates Nuclear Fusion -- (UPI -- November 19, 2006)
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?
StoryID=20061119-071856-1844r
An ambitious teenager in Rochester Hills, Mich., is ranked as the 18th amateur in the world to create nuclear fusion - combining atoms to create energy. 17-year-old Thiago Olson set up a machine in his parents' garage and has been working exhaustively for more than two years. His machine creates nuclear fusion on a small scale.

Scientists Levitate Small Animals -- (Live Science -- November 29, 2006)
http://www.livescience.com/technology/061129_acoustic_levitation.html
Scientists have now levitated small live animals using sounds that are, well, uplifting. In the past, researchers have used ultrasound fields to successfully levitate globs of the heaviest solid and liquid—iridium and mercury, respectively. The question arose, "What will happen if a living animal is put into the acoustic field?", and these researchers decided to find an answer.

A FINAL QUOTE...

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. -Isaac Asimov

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