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Complexity Digest 2003.40 Archive: http://www.comdig.org,
European Mirror:
http://www.comdig.de
Asian Mirror: http://www.phil.pku.edu.cn/resguide/comdig/
(Chinese GB-Code)
"I think the next
century will be the century of complexity." Stephen Hawking
_________________________________________________________________
Content:
01. Life and the Art of Networks, Science
01.01. Biological Networks: The Tinkerer as an Engineer, Science
01.02. Social Insect Networks, Science
01.03. Communication in Neuronal Networks, Science
01.04. A Bacterial Cell-Cycle Regulatory Network Operating in Time and
Space, Science
02. Stock Market Traders Show Signs Of Zero Intelligence, Nature
02.01. The Predictive Power Of Zero Intelligence In Financial Markets, arVix
03. On the Origin of Power Law Tails in Price Fluctuations, SFI Working Papers
03.01. Predict the Future? You Can Bet on It, NYTimes
04. A Study On Virtual Market Model For e-Marketplace Server, Elec. Comm.
Res. & Appl.
05. Universal Mechanisms in the Growth of Voluntary Organizations, arXiv
05.01. Volunteering Leads To Rock-Paper-Scissors Dynamics In A Public Goods
Game, Nature
06. Are More People Cheating?, NYTimes
07. Leading Takes More Than A Vision, Darwin Mag
08. Reducing Underage Drinking Requires Cooperative Effort, National Academies
09. Active Internet Traffic Filtering: Real-time Response to Denial of
Service Attacks, arXiv
09.01. Confessions of a Spam King, NYTimes
10. How to Find That Needle Hopelessly Lost in the Haystack, NYTimes
11. Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness, ScienceDaily
11.01. Long-Term Retention Of The Differential Values Of Arabic Numerals By
Chimpanzees, Animal
Cognition
12. Neuromaturation Of Human Locomotion Revealed By Non-Dimensional
Scaling, Experi. Brain Res.
13. An Age of Instability, Science
13.01. An Age-Induced Switch to a Hyper-Recombinational State, Science
14. Now Hear This, Quickly, NYTimes
15. Applied Physics: Spintronics Gets A Magnetic Flute, Nature
16. Uniform Resonant Chaotic Mixing In Fluid Flows, Nature
17. Particle Formation by Ion Nucleation in the Upper Troposphere and Lower
Stratosphere, Science
18. Interactions Between Ecological And Climatic Systems In Northern
Africa, Ecosystems
19. Complex Challenge: Terrorist Networks
19.01. Government Seeks Next-Generation Biosensors, The Scientist
19.02. U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue Crimes From Drugs to Swindling, NYTimes
19.03. Building Intelligence to Fight Terrorism, James Steinberg, Mary,
Brookings Policy Brief
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
20.04. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test
20.05. Special Announcement: Artists Explore Complex Systems, Federal
Reserve Board
_________________________________________________________________
01. Life and the Art of Networks , Science
Excerpts: Biologists are striving to move beyond a "parts list" to
more
fully understand the ways
in which network components interact with one another to influence complex
processes. Thus
attention has turned to the analysis of networks that operate at many
levels. At the scale of
networks of interacting proteins that govern cellular function, the
flagellated bacterium
Caulobacter crescentus has been a model system for cell cycle regulation (?.
The design principles for efficient coordination of cells that work
together in organ systems are
also under scrutiny.
* Life and the Art of Networks, Barbara R. Jasny, L. Bryan Ray
, Science Sep 26 2003: 1863
_________________________________________________________________
01.01. Biological Networks: The Tinkerer as an Engineer , Science
Excerpt: François Jacob pictured evolution as a tinkerer, not an engineer
(1). Engineers and
tinkerers arrive at their solutions by very different routes. Rather than
planning structures in
advance and drawing up blueprints (as an engineer would), evolution as a
tinkerer works with odds
and ends, assembling interactions until they are good enough to work. It is
therefore wondrous that
the solutions found by evolution have much in common with good engineering
design (2). This
Viewpoint comments on recent advances in understanding biological networks
using concepts from
engineering.
* Biological Networks: The Tinkerer as an Engineer, U. Alon
, Science Sep 26 2003: 1866-1867.
_________________________________________________________________
01.02. Social Insect Networks , Science
Excerpts: Social insect colonies have many of the properties of adaptive
networks. The simple rules
governing how local interactions among individuals translate into group
behaviors are found across
social groups, giving social insects the potential to have a profound
impact on our understanding
of the interplay between network dynamics and social evolution. (?, social
insects such as wasps,
ants, and honeybees provide a powerful system for examining how network
dynamics contribute to the
evolution of complex biological systems. (? have key network attributes
that appear consistently
in complex biological systems, (?.
* Social Insect Networks, Jennifer H. Fewell
, Science Sep 26 2003: 1867-1870.
_________________________________________________________________
01.03. Communication in Neuronal Networks , Science
Excerpts: Brains perform with remarkable efficiency, are capable of
prodigious computation, and are
marvels of communication. We are beginning to understand some of the
geometric, biophysical, and
energy constraints that have governed the evolution of cortical networks.
(?, nature has optimized
the structure and function of cortical networks with design principles
similar to those used in
electronic networks. The brain also exploits the adaptability of biological
systems to reconfigure
in response to changing needs. (?
The global connectivity in the cortex is very sparse, (? reduces the volume
occupied by long-range
connections.
* Communication in Neuronal Networks, Simon B. Laughlin, Terrence J. Sejnowski
, Science Sep 26 2003: 1870-1874
_________________________________________________________________
01.04. A Bacterial Cell-Cycle Regulatory Network Operating in Time and
Space , Science
Excerpts: Transcriptional regulatory circuits provide only a fraction of
the signaling pathways and
regulatory mechanisms that control the bacterial cell cycle. The CtrA
regulatory network, important
in control of the Caulobacter cell cycle, illustrates the critical role of
nontranscriptional
pathways and temporally and spatially localized regulatory proteins. The
system architecture of
Caulobacter cell-cycle control involves top-down control of modular
functions by a small number of
master regulatory proteins with cross-module signaling coordinating the
overall process. Modeling
the cell cycle probably requires a top-down modeling approach (?.
* A Bacterial Cell-Cycle Regulatory Network Operating in Time and Space,
Harley H. McAdams, Lucy
Shapiro
, Science Sep 26 2003: 1874-1877
_________________________________________________________________
02. Stock Market Traders Show Signs Of Zero Intelligence , Nature
Excerpts: Market traders are not mindless. But if they were we might not
notice the difference,
claim J. Doyne Farmer, of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, and
co-workers.
Their theoretical model assumes that traders place orders at random rather
than on the basis of
shrewd calculation and observation of economic trends. It reproduces some
of the statistical
features of financial markets.
Traders, it suggests, are rather like ants swarming chaotically through the
guts of a great clock,
barely affecting its ability to tick.
* Stock Market Traders Show Signs Of Zero Intelligence, Philip Ball , 24
September 2003, Nature
Science Update
_________________________________________________________________
02.01. The Predictive Power Of Zero Intelligence In Financial Markets , arVix
Excerpts: Standard models in economics are based on intelligent agents that
maximize utility.
However, there may be situations where constraints imposed by market
institutions are more
important than intelligent agent behavior. We use data from the London
Stock Exchange to test a
simple model in which zero intelligence agents place orders to trade at
random. (?. The agreement
between model and theory is excellent, explaining 96% of the variance of
the bid-ask spread across
stocks and 76% of the price diffusion rate. We also study the market impact
function, describing
the response of prices to orders. (? Thus, it appears that the price
formation mechanism strongly
constrains the statistical properties of the market, playing a more
important role than the
strategic behavior of agents.
* The Predictive Power Of Zero Intelligence In Financial Markets, Farmer,
J. D., Patelli, P. &
Zovko, I. I., 03/09/09, arXiv
_________________________________________________________________
03. On the Origin of Power Law Tails in Price Fluctuations , SFI Working Papers
Abstract: In a recent Nature paper, Gabaix et al. presented a theory to
explain the power-law tail
of price fluctuations. The main points of their theory are that volume
fluctuations, which have a
power-law tail with exponent roughly -1.5, are modulated by the average
market impact function,
which describes the response of prices to transactions. They argue that the
average market impact
function follows a square root law, which gives power-law tails for prices
with exponent roughly
-3. We demonstrate that the long-memory nature of order flow invalidates
their statistical analysis
of market impact, and present a more careful analysis that properly takes
this into account. This
makes it clear that the functional form of the average market impact
function varies from market to
market, and in some cases from stock to stock. In fact, for both the London
Stock Exchange and the
New York Stock Exchange the average market impact function grows much
slower than a square root
law; this implies that the exponent for price fluctuations predicted by
modulations of volume
fluctuations is much too big. We find that for LSE stocks the distribution
of transaction volumes
does not even have a power law tail. This makes it clear that volume
fluctuations do not determine
the power law tail of price returns.
* On the Origin of Power Law Tails in Price Fluctuations, J. Doyne Farmer,
Fabrizio Lillo, DOI:
SFI-WP 03-09-052
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
03.01. Predict the Future? You Can Bet on It , NYTimes
Excerpt: But in fact, marketplaces like the Foresight Exchange and the one
envisioned by Admiral
Poindexter are darlings of economists, who describe their workings with
sophisticated terms like
"price discovery," "opinion aggregation" or "risk
analysis." They argue
that the constant betting
is an efficient way for distilling the opinions of many people into one number.
In the simplest systems, players buy and sell contracts to pay 100 units of
fake or real money at
some future point - like the end of a game or an election.
* Predict the Future? You Can Bet on It, Peter Wayner , 03/10/02, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
04. A Study On Virtual Market Model For e-Marketplace Server , Elec. Comm.
Res. & Appl.
Abstract: Internet procurement is now in progress and is regarded as an
information infrastructure
for global business. As the number and diversity of EC (electronic
commerce) participants grows at
the agile environment, the complexity of purchasing from a vast and dynamic
array of goods and
services needs to be hidden from the end user. Putting the complexity into
the EC system instead
means providing flexible auction server for enabling commerce within
different business units. In
this paper, we propose an e-Marketplace server for B2B EC with multi-agent
paradigm (?.
* A Study On Virtual Market Model For e-Marketplace Server, T. Kaihara,
Autumn 2003, DOI:
10.1016/S1567-4223(03)00029-2
* Contributed by Pritha Das
_________________________________________________________________
05. Universal Mechanisms in the Growth of Voluntary Organizations , arXiv
Abstract: We analyze the growth statistics of Swedish trade unions and find
a universal functional
form for the probability distribution of growth rates of union size, and a
power law dependence of
the standard deviation of this distribution on the number of members of the
union. We also find
that the typical size and the typical number of local chapters scales as a
power law of the union
size. Intriguingly, our results are similar to results reported for other
human organizations of a
quite different nature. Our findings are consistent with the possibility
that universal mechanisms
may exist governing the growth patterns of human organizations.
* Universal Mechanisms in the Growth of Voluntary Organizations, Fredrik
Liljeros, Luis A Nunes
Amaral, H. Eugene Stanley, 2003-10-01, DOI: nlin.AO/0310001, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
05.01. Volunteering Leads To Rock-Paper-Scissors Dynamics In A Public Goods
Game , Nature
Excerpts: Collective efforts are a trademark of both insect and human
societies. They are achieved
through relatedness in the former and unknown mechanisms in the latter. (?
It can be maintained by
the opportunity to punish defectors (?. Both schemes require that defectors
are identified.
Theorists propose that a simple but effective mechanism operates under full
anonymity. (? Here we
show experimentally that volunteering generates these dynamics in public
goods games and that
manipulating initial conditions can produce each predicted direction. (? On
average, cooperation
is perpetuated at a substantial level.
* Volunteering Leads To Rock-Paper-Scissors Dynamics In A Public Goods
Game, Dirk Semmann,
Hans-J¨¹rgen Krambeck, Manfred Milinski , 25 September 2003, DOI:
10.1038/nature01986, Nature 425,
390 - 393
_________________________________________________________________
06. Are More People Cheating? , NYTimes
Excerpts: (? "by its nature cheating is intended to go undetected, and
trends in unethical
behavior can be hard to document."
(? student cheating, because studies have documented its rise in recent
years. And there is broad
agreement that the Internet has certainly made it much easier to plunder
other people's work. Yet
even in this area educators, ethicists and lawmakers warn that the Internet
has created a murky
territory of outdated laws and shifting standards.
"Law, technology and ethics are not in sync right now,"(?.
* Are More People Cheating?, Felicia R. Lee , 03/10/04, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
07. Leading Takes More Than A Vision , Darwin Mag
Excerpts: Leading An organization today has become more complex, requiring
substantially more than
stating a vision or articulating a strategy.
In addition to being the facilitator between the inside and outside arenas
associated with the
corporation, the CEO and top management must juggle a variety of tasks to
help their managers and
employees become more effective in their jobs.
* Leading Takes More Than A Vision, Chuck Martin , 03/10, Darwin Mag
_________________________________________________________________
08. Reducing Underage Drinking Requires Cooperative Effort , National Academies
Excerpts: Reducing underage drinking requires a cooperative effort from all
levels of government,
alcohol manufacturers and retailers, the entertainment industry, parents
and other adults in a
community, says a new report from the National Academies' Institute of
Medicine and National
Research Council. The report proposes a comprehensive strategy to curb
underage drinking, a problem that costs the nation an estimated $53 billion
annually, due in part
to losses stemming from traffic fatalities and violent crime.
* Reducing Underage Drinking Requires Cooperative Effort, Mary Ellen
O'Connell et al., 03/09/09,
National Academies
_________________________________________________________________
09. Active Internet Traffic Filtering: Real-time Response to Denial of
Service Attacks , arXiv
Abstract: Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are one of the most challenging
threats to Internet
security. An attacker typically compromises a large number of vulnerable
hosts and uses them to
flood the victim's site with malicious traffic, clogging its tail circuit
and interfering with
normal traffic. At present, the network operator of a site under attack has
no other resolution but
to respond manually by inserting filters in the appropriate edge routers to
drop attack traffic.
However, as DoS attacks become increasingly sophisticated, manual filter
propagation becomes
unacceptably slow or even infeasible.
In this paper, we present Active Internet Traffic Filtering, a new
automatic filter propagation
protocol. We argue that this system provides a guaranteed, significant
level of protection against
DoS attacks in exchange for a reasonable, bounded amount of router
resources. We also argue that
the proposed system cannot be abused by a malicious node to interfere with
normal Internet
operation. Finally, we argue that it retains its efficiency in the face of
continued Internet
growth.
* Active Internet Traffic Filtering: Real-time Response to Denial of
Service Attacks, Katerina J.
Argyraki, David R. Cheriton, 2003-09-29, DOI: cs.NI/0309054, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson
_________________________________________________________________
09.01. Confessions of a Spam King , NYTimes
Excerpts: He likes to call it ''bulk e-mailing,'' for starters. And he
considers it just one of the
many exciting new markets available on the Internet. (? tell you about some
smart economic angle
he has figured out, some new edge. (?
(?good reason that so many spammers wind up on Spam Beach: ''Boca Raton is
where they used to run
those pump-and-dump investment scams and where the telemarketing sweatshops
are.'' (? pushed aside
by the new boys on the block, the bulk e-mailers of the Internet.
* Confessions of a Spam King, Jack Hitt , 03/09/28, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
10. How to Find That Needle Hopelessly Lost in the Haystack , NYTimes
Excerpts: New product tags equipped with microchips and tiny antennas could
one day make it easy to
scan all the groceries in a bag simultaneously, allow businesses to locate
any item in a warehouse
instantly (? . Hitachi announced this month that it has developed tags so
small that they can be
embedded in bank notes to foil money launderers and counterfeiters.
Tags with the technology known as radio frequency identification, or
R.F.I.D., transmit a digital
response when contacted by radio signals from scanning devices.
* How to Find That Needle Hopelessly Lost in the Haystack, Barnaby J. Feder
, 03/09/29, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
11. Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness , ScienceDaily
Excerpts: Psychologists (...) have identified one of the biological bases
of creativity. (...)
brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from
the surrounding
environment. Other people's brains might shut out this same information
through a process called
"latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to
ignore
stimuli that experience
has shown are irrelevant to its needs. "Scientists have wondered for a long
time why madness and
creativity seem linked. (...) low levels of latent inhibition and
exceptional flexibility in
thought might predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to
creative accomplishment
under others."
* Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness, 2003/10/01,
ScienceDaily & Univ. Of
Toronto
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
11.01. Long-Term Retention Of The Differential Values Of Arabic Numerals By
Chimpanzees , Animal
Cognition
Abstract: (...) two chimpanzees used a joystick to collect dots,
one-at-a-time, on a computer
monitor, and then ended a trial when the number of dots collected was equal
to the Arabic numeral
presented for the trial. Here, the chimpanzees were presented with the task
again after an interval
of 6 months and then again after an additional interval of 3.25 years.
(...) both chimpanzees
performed above chance levels in collecting a quantity of dots equal to the
target numeral, one
chimpanzee for the numerals 1-7, and the second chimpanzee for the numerals
1-6.
* Long-Term Retention Of The Differential Values Of Arabic Numerals By
Chimpanzees (Pan
Troglodytes), I. Kurtzer, 2003/09/18, DOI: 10.1007/s10071-003-0191-x
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
12. Neuromaturation Of Human Locomotion Revealed By Non-Dimensional Scaling
, Experi. Brain Res.
Abstract: When two fundamental gait parameters-step length and step
frequency-are scaled
non-dimensionally, thereby accounting for increases in a child's physical
size, ontogenetic changes
in the locomotor control strategy are revealed. We believe dimensionless
velocity, the product of
dimensionless step length and frequency, serves as a measure of neural
development. It increases
from the age of 18 months and reaches a plateau between 50 and 90 months,
attaining the adult value
of 0.45. Based on a study of 200 children, our findings lend support to a
theory that posits a
neuromaturation growth curve (...).
* Neuromaturation Of Human Locomotion Revealed By Non-Dimensional Scaling,
C. L. Vaughan,
2003/09/12, DOI: 10.1007/s00221-003-1635-x
* Contributed by Atin Das
_________________________________________________________________
13. An Age of Instability , Science
Excerpts: (? yeast cell aging is accompanied by increased genetic
instability, a hallmark of
cancer. This finding might help researchers to understand the link between
cancer and old age in
humans.
In the final decades of life, one's chance of developing cancer rises
exponentially. (? Certainly,
cells isolated from the elderly have more chromosomal abnormalities than
cells from the young. (?
rates of spontaneous mutation are too low to account for the extensive
genome rearrangements found
in tumors. Experiments in mice have confirmed the suspicion that mutation
rates increase with age.
* An Age of Instability, David A. Sinclair
, Science 2003 301: 1859-1860
_________________________________________________________________
13.01. An Age-Induced Switch to a Hyper-Recombinational State , Science
Abstract: There is a strong correlation between age and cancer, but the
mechanism by which this
phenomenon occurs is unclear. We chose Saccharomyces cerevisiae to examine
one of the hallmarks of
cancer-genomic instability?as a function of cellular age. As diploid yeast
mother cells aged, an
100-fold increase in loss of heterozygosity (LOH) occurred. Extending
life-span altered neither the
onset nor the frequency of age-induced LOH; the switch to hyper-LOH appears
to be on its own clock.
In young cells, LOH occurs by reciprocal recombination, whereas LOH in old
cells was nonreciprocal,
occurring predominantly in the old mother's progeny. Thus, nuclear genomes
may be inherently
unstable with age.
* An Age-Induced Switch to a Hyper-Recombinational State, Michael A.
McMurray, Daniel E.
Gottschling
, Science 2003 301: 1908-1911.
_________________________________________________________________
14. Now Hear This, Quickly , NYTimes
Excerpts: The new software programs, DVD players and phone services rising
to this challenge all
take advantage of the human ability to comprehend speech much more quickly
than the typical spoken
rate of 140 to 180 words a minute. How many times as fast? "I've heard of
instances where people go
to 4X, and they still want it to go faster," (?.
Scientists have long known that people can understand speech at a rate of
up to 400 words a minute
and beyond.
* Now Hear This, Quickly, Douglas Heingartner , 03/10/02, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
15. Applied Physics: Spintronics Gets A Magnetic Flute , Nature
Excerpts: Magnetic-memory devices of the future could be based on
'spintronics', through switching
the directions of electron spins. (?
Progress in understanding the microscopic behaviour of electrons continues
to open up new frontiers
for materials and device research, and vice versa. Watching how electrons
move, at high current
density, through structures that are less than 100 nm in size has revealed
a wealth of new physics
based on the 'spin' properties of these particles, and potentially a new
class of electronic
device: a spin-transfer switch for magnetic-memory 'spintronics'.
* Applied Physics: Spintronics Gets A Magnetic Flute, Jonathan Sun , 25
September 2003, DOI:
10.1038/425359a, Nature 425, 359 - 361
_________________________________________________________________
16. Uniform Resonant Chaotic Mixing In Fluid Flows , Nature
Excerpts: Laminar flows can produce particle trajectories that are chaotic,
with nearby tracers
separating exponentially in time. For time-periodic, two-dimensional flows
and steady
three-dimensional (3D) flows, enhancements in mixing due to chaotic
advection are typically limited
by impenetrable transport barriers that form at the boundaries between
ordered and chaotic mixing
regions. (...).The system is an oscillating horizontal vortex chain (...),
occurring in many
geophysical, industrial and biophysical flows. We observe completely
uniform mixing, as
predicted3-5 by singularity-induced diffusion, but only for oscillation
periods close to typical
circulation times.
* Uniform Resonant Chaotic Mixing In Fluid Flows, T. H. Solomon, Igor Mezi
, 25 September 2003,
DOI: 10.1038/nature01993, Nature 425, 376 - 380
_________________________________________________________________
17. Particle Formation by Ion Nucleation in the Upper Troposphere and Lower
Stratosphere , Science
Summary: Clouds and Cosmic Rays
Particle nucleation in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere is an
important step in the
chain of events that produces clouds, but the mechanisms that contribute to
this process are poorly
understood. One possible avenue of particle nucleation is by the ionization
of gas phase particles
by galactic cosmic rays, which can then act as seeds for droplets. Lee et
al. (p. 1886) describe
observations of new particle formation in the upper troposphere and lower
stratosphere, and results
from a numerical model, which together show that the abundance and size
distribution of these
particles are consistent with production by this type of ion-induced
nucleation. Hence, galactic
cosmic rays appear to affect the production of aerosol particles and, in
turn, Earth's radiative
energy balance and climate.
* Particle Formation by Ion Nucleation in the Upper Troposphere and Lower
Stratosphere, S.-H. Lee,
J. M. Reeves, J. C. Wilson, D. E. Hunton, A. A. Viggiano, T. M. Miller, J.
O. Ballenthin, L. R.
Lait
, Science Sep 26 2003: 1886-1889
_________________________________________________________________
18. Interactions Between Ecological And Climatic Systems In Northern Africa
, Ecosystems
Abstract: The Sahara and Sahel regions of northern Africa have complex
environmental histories
punctuated by sudden and dramatic "regime shifts" in climate and
ecological
conditions. Here we
review the current understanding of the causes and consequences of two
environmental regime shifts
in the Sahara and Sahel. (...) we conclude that the existence of
alternative stable states (or
regimes) in the climate and ecosystems of the Sahara and Sahel may be the
result of strong,
nonlinear interactions between vegetation and the atmosphere. Although the
shifts between these
regimes occur rapidly, they are made possible by slow, subtle changes in
underlying environmental
conditions (...).
* Regime Shifts In The Sahara And Sahel: Interactions Between Ecological
And Climatic Systems In
Northern Africa, J. A. Foley, 2003/09/09, DOI: 10.1007/s10021-002-0227-0
* Contributed by Pritha Das
_________________________________________________________________
19. Complex Challenge: Terrorist Networks
_________________________________________________________________
19.01. Government Seeks Next-Generation Biosensors , The Scientist
Excerpts: (?new agency plans to award upwards of $350 million in contracts (?.
HSARPA is seeking proposals to develop, field test, and commercialize
sensors capable of detecting
a wide range of biological and chemical agents in the open air as well as
inside buildings. The
systems should operate continuously, be fully autonomous, and be able to
identify and signal alerts
for a minimum of 20 bioterror agents and "a large range" of toxic
chemicals. The detectors must
also be highly accurate, reliable, low maintenance, modest in size, and
affordable.
Editor's Note: This total research budget is comparable to the amount
allocated so far for the
search of WMD in Iraq.
* Government Seeks Next-Generation Biosensors, Ted Agres , 03/09/30, The
Scientist
_________________________________________________________________
19.02. U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue Crimes From Drugs to Swindling , NYTimes
Excerpts: The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps
its most essential tool
in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency
in many criminal
investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.
The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law
to investigate suspected
drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child
pornographers, money launderers,
spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, (?.
Justice Department officials say they are simply using all the tools now
available to them to
pursue criminals ?terrorists or otherwise.
* U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue Crimes From Drugs to Swindling, Eric
Lichtblau , 03/09/28, NYTimes
_________________________________________________________________
19.03. Building Intelligence to Fight Terrorism, James Steinberg, Mary ,
Brookings Policy Brief
Excerpts: Policymakers must go further to build a new intelligence system
to support transformed
national security needs. Threats involving unknown perpetrators, methods,
and targets cannot be
countered with strategies designed for use by federal officials to combat
more predictable
adversaries. Today, state and local law enforcement, public health, and
emergency response
personnel are on the front lines of detecting and responding to terrorist
threats; corporate
managers are responsible for securing key infrastructure such as energy
supplies, chemical plants,
and telecommunications; and workers and neighborhood residents may hold
information that can help
prevent attacks.
* Building Intelligence to Fight Terrorism, James Steinberg, Mary, James B.
Steinberg, Mary Graham,
Andrew Eggers, 03/09, Brookings Policy Brief #125
_________________________________________________________________
20. Links & Snippets
_________________________________________________________________
20.01. Other Publications
_________________________________________________________________
20.02. Webcast Announcements
_________________________________________________________________
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements
_________________________________________________________________
20.04. ComDig Announcement: New ComDig Archive in Beta Test
We are in the process of upgrading the Complexity Digest archives to a
format with improved search
capabilities. Also, we will finally be able to adequately publish the
valuable feedback and
comments from our knowledgable readers. You are cordially invited to become
a beta tester of our
new ComDig2 archive.
_________________________________________________________________
20.05. Special Announcement: Artists Explore Complex Systems , Federal
Reserve Board
COMPLEXITY, the first major museum exhibition about complex systems, is on
display at the Federal
Reserve Board in Washington, DC, ongoing - 03/11/28. The Washington
exhibition is being
co-sponsored by the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy and
the Fine Arts Program of
the Federal Reserve Board. Contributed by Irene Sanders
_________________________________________________________________
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