复杂性文摘 NO：2003.42

Complexity Digest 2003.42 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

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Content:

01. EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION:Evolutionary Substrates of Communication,
Signaling, and Perception
in the Dynamics of Social Complexity
02. Artificial Life: Organization, Adaptation and Complexity from the
Bottom Up, Trends in
Cognitive Sciences
03. Art and Science Meet With Novel Results, NYTimes
03.01. Welcome To The Labyrinth Of Consciousness, Lloyd Website
04. Bridging The Gap Between Rationality And Adaptation In Social
Explanation, J. Evolutionary
Econ.
05. Computer Researchers On The Prowl For Human "Common Sense", The
Associated Press
05.01. Web Site Synthesis Based On Computational Logic
06. Neuroscience: Re-Recording Human Memories, Nature
06.01. Dissociable Stages Of Human Memory Consolidation And
Reconsolidation, Nature
06.02. Consolidation During Sleep Of Perceptual Learning Of Spoken
Language, Nature
07. Plant Biology: Locks, Keys And Symbioses, Nature
07.01. Mutualism Can Mediate Competition And Promote Coexistence, Ecol. Lett.
08. Ultraviolet Vision In A Bat, Nature
09. The Mother-In-Law Effect, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.
10. The Automatic Pilot Of Honeybees, Alphagalileo & Proc. Biol. Sc.
11. DNA Copied With Convection, Nature Science update
11.01. Exponential DNA Replication by Laminar Convection, Physical Review
Letters
12. Complexity in the Immune System, arXiv
13. Living Longer and Larger: It's in the Size of Cholesterol-Carrying
Molecules, NYTimes
14. How Cells Step Out, Science
14.01. Mathematical Modeling Predicts Cellular Communication, ScienceDaily
15. Magic Number Revealed For Flying And Swimming, NewScientist
15.01. Symbolic Analysis Of Swimming Trajectories Reveals Scale Invariance
For Fish Locomotion,
Fractals
16. Think Outside The Sandbox, Nature
16.01. Non-Linear Response Of Shoreface-Connected Sand Ridges To
Interventions, Ocean Dynamics
16.02. Migrating Sand Waves, Ocean Dynamics
17. Warming Indian Ocean Wringing Moisture From the Sahel, Science
17.01. Can Rain Be Bought? Experts Seed Clouds and Seek Answers, NYTimes
18. After Bitter Fight, Texas Senate Redraws Congressional Districts, NYTimes
18.01. On Listening, NYTimes
19. Complex Challenges
19.01. Iraqi Arms Caches Cited in Attacks, NYTimes
19.02. Iraq War Has Swollen Ranks Of Al-Qaida, Richard Norton-Taylor, The
Guardian, 03/10/16
19.03. The Military Balance 2003-4, International Inst f Strategic Studies
Press Conference
19.04. Intelligence Puzzle: North Korean Bombs, NYTimes
19.05. Feds Want All-Seeing Eye in Sky, Wired
19.06. Spies Attack White House Secrecy, Wired
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

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01. EVOLVABILITY & INTERACTION:Evolutionary Substrates of Communication,
Signaling, and Perception
in the Dynamics of Social Complexity

Note: Audio files are in downloadable mp3 format for portable mp3 players
or any mp3 software
players. Video files are in asf format and can be played e.g. with windows
media player. For the
sound codec a (free) plugin might be required, but the download should be
automatic.

, 2003-10-8->10
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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02. Artificial Life: Organization, Adaptation and Complexity from the
Bottom Up , Trends in
Cognitive Sciences

Abstract: Artificial life attempts to understand the essential general
properties of living systems
by synthesizing life-like behavior in software, hardware and biochemicals.
As many of the essential
abstract properties of living systems (e.g. autonomous adaptive and
intelligent behavior) are also
studied by cognitive science, artificial life and cognitive science have an
essential overlap. This
review highlights the state of the art in artificial life with respect to
dynamical hierarchies,
molecular self-organization, evolutionary robotics, the evolution of
complexity and language, and
other practical applications. It also speculates about future connections
between artificial life
and cognitive science.

* Artificial Life: Organization, Adaptation and Complexity from the Bottom
Up, Mark A. Bedau
http://www.reed.edu/~mab/, 2003-10-10, DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2003.09.012,
Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, Article in Press, Corrected Proof
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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03. Art and Science Meet With Novel Results , NYTimes

Excerpts: "Radiant Cool" has the makings of a gripping noir thriller: a
missing body, a
tough-talking female sleuth and a mustachioed Russian agent mixed up in a
shadowy plot to take over
the world. But the novel, by Dan Lloyd, (...), is also a serious work of
scholarship, the unlikely
vehicle for an abstruse new theory of consciousness.

Lured in by the sinister atmospherics (...) and clipped, Sam Spade
narration (...), readers soon
find themselves enrolled in a heady tutorial on Husserl, phenomenology,
neural networks and
multidimensional scaling.

* 3. Art and Science Meet With Novel Results, Emily Eakin  , 03/10/18, NYTimes


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03.01. Welcome To The Labyrinth Of Consciousness , Lloyd Website

Excerpts: What then? If the brain is not a bureucracy of functional
specialists, what is it? It is
-- in my view -- a radical democracy. A cooperative kibbutz in which
everyone pitches in a bit on
just about everything. Or, in the language of cognitive science, the brain
is a distributed
processor. But distributed processors are hard to understand, requiring
special interpretive
strategies. One microscope of complexity is multidimensional scaling, and
through its lenses we can
see terra cognita, the space of mind.

* Welcome To The Labyrinth Of Consciousness, Dan Lloyd  , 2003, Lloyd Website


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04. Bridging The Gap Between Rationality And Adaptation In Social
Explanation , J. Evolutionary
Econ.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the uneasy alliance of rational choice and
evolutionary
explanations in modern economics. While direct evolutionary explanations
rule out "purposeful"
rational choice by assuming "zero-intelligence" and pure rational choice
explanations leave no room
for "selective" adaptation, the indirect evolutionary approach integrates
both perspectives.
Subsequently we go stepwise "from teleology to evolution" and thereby study
the model spectrum
ranging from pure rational choice over indirect to direct evolutionary
approaches. We believe that
knowledge of this spectrum can help us to choose more adequate models of
economic behavior that
incorporate both teleological and evolutionary elements.

* From Teleology To Evolution: Bridging The Gap Between Rationality And
Adaptation In Social
Explanation, S. Berninghaus Siegfried.Berninghaus@wiwi.uni-karlsruhe.de ,
W. Güth & H. Kliemt ,
Oct. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00191-003-0161-0
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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05. Computer Researchers On The Prowl For Human "Common Sense" , The
Associated Press

Excerpts: The  ESP game  works by pairing a player with an anonymous
Internet partner who are both
asked to type in words that describe a series of images. The players win
points when they match
words _ and von Ahn and Blum have another label they can affix to the image
in question.


It would take too long for researchers to label every one of the hundreds
of millions of images
(...). But by getting a few thousand people to play the ESP game each day,
von Ahn hopes that might
be accomplished in a few months.

* Computer Researchers On The Prowl For Human "Common Sense", 03/10/15, The
Associated Press,


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05.01. Web Site Synthesis Based On Computational Logic

Abstract: Web site design and maintenance has become
a challenging problem due to the increase in volume and complexity of
information presented in this
way. Web site applications can also benefit from systematic approaches to
development that make
design more methodical and maintenance less time consuming. One way to
tackle this problem is via
automated synthesis, automatically deriving a Web site from a high-level
application description.
Computational logic is well suited to this problem because of its support
of a uniform view of data
and computation, allowing reasoning
with both specification and program via meta-rogramming.

* Web Site Synthesis Based On Computational Logic,
J. M. B. Cavalcanti & D. Robertson, Knowledge &
Info. Sys.,
Vol. 5, Number 3, Sep. 2003, pp:263-287, DOI:
10.1007/s10115-002-0088-z


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06. Neuroscience: Re-Recording Human Memories , Nature

Excerpts: New memories that weaken during the day can be strengthened by a
period of sleep. And
when memories are reactivated, they must be re-stored in order to persist.
(...) No longer is memory thought to be a hard-wiring of information in the
brain. Instead, it
seems to be a process of storage and re-storage. (...) sleep can rescue
memories that were lost
during the day. (...) stabilized memories can be re-stored when they are
reactivated - and that
those memories are lost if this process is interfered with.

* Neuroscience: Re-Recording Human Memories, Karim Nader  , 09 October
2003, DOI: 10.1038/425571a,
Nature 425, 571 - 572


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06.01. Dissociable Stages Of Human Memory Consolidation And Reconsolidation
, Nature

Excerpts: Recent findings regarding the learning of skilled sensory and
motor tasks ('procedural
learning') have refined this definition, suggesting that consolidation can
be more strictly
determined by time spent in specific brain states such as wake, sleep or
certain stages of sleep.
There is also renewed interest in the possibility that recalling or
'reactivating' a previously
consolidated memory renders it once again fragile and susceptible to
interference, therefore
requiring periods of reconsolidation. Using a motor skill finger-tapping
task, here we provide
evidence for at least three different stages (...).

* Dissociable Stages Of Human Memory Consolidation And Reconsolidation,
Matthew P. Walker , Tiffany
Brakefield , J. Allan Hobson , Robert Stickgold  , 09 October 2003, DOI:
10.1038/nature01930,
Nature 425, 616 - 620


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06.02. Consolidation During Sleep Of Perceptual Learning Of Spoken Language
, Nature

Excerpts: Memory consolidation resulting from sleep has been seen broadly:
in verbal list learning,
spatial learning, and skill acquisition in visual and motor tasks. These
tasks do not generalize
across spatial locations or motor sequences, (...). Although episodic rote
learning constitutes a
large part of any organism's learning, generalization is a hallmark of
adaptive behaviour. In
speech, the same phoneme often has different acoustic patterns depending on
context. Training on a
small set of words improves performance on novel words using the same
phonemes but with different
acoustic patterns, (...).

* Consolidation During Sleep Of Perceptual Learning Of Spoken Language,
Kimberly M. Fenn , Howard
C. Nusbaum , Daniel Margoliash  , 09 October 2003, DOI:
10.1038/nature01951, Nature 425, 614 - 616


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07. Plant Biology: Locks, Keys And Symbioses , Nature

Excerpts: The association between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria
requires molecular
recognition to allow bacterial entry into root hairs. The discovery of a
novel type of plant
receptor clarifies how this happens.
Legumes, such as pea, bean, trefoil and peanut, are agricultural wonders.
They form symbioses with
bacteria, known as rhizobia, which means that they can make their own
nitrogen fertilizer by
'fixing' atmospheric nitrogen. (...) molecular recognition system that
enables root hairs to
promote the entry of rhizobia while excluding a huge diversity of unwelcome
intruders from the
soil.

* Plant Biology: Locks, Keys And Symbioses, Martin Parniske, J. Allan
Downie  , 09 October 2003,
DOI: 10.1038/425569a, Nature 425, 569 - 570


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07.01. Mutualism Can Mediate Competition And Promote Coexistence , Ecol. Lett.

Abstract: Mutualistic interactions are not believed to promote coexistence
of competitors because
mutualisms produce positive feedbacks on abundances whereas coexistence
requires negative
feedbacks. Here we show that a mutualism between an anemonefish
(Amphiprion) and its sea anemone
host mediates the effect of asymmetrical competition for space (...)
fosters their coexistence.
Amphiprion stimulates increases in host area, the shared resource, but
social interactions cap the
number of anemonefish to two adults per host. Space generated by the
mutualism becomes
differentially available to Dascyllus because the effectiveness of an
anemonefish in excluding its
competitor declines with increases in the area it defends.

* Mutualism Can Mediate Competition And Promote Coexistence, R. J. Schmitt
& S. J. Holbrook , Oct.
2003
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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08. Ultraviolet Vision In A Bat , Nature

Excerpts: Most mammals, with the exception of primates, have dichromatic
vision and correspondingly
limited colour perception. Ultraviolet vision was discovered in mammals
only a decade ago, and in
the few rodents and marsupials where it has been found (...). Bats orient
primarily by
echolocation, but they also use vision. Here we show that a phyllostomid
flower bat, Glossophaga
soricina, is colour-blind but sensitive to ultraviolet light down to a
wavelength of 310 nm.
Behavioural experiments revealed a spectral-sensitivity function with
maxima at 510 nm (green) and
above 365 nm (ultraviolet).

* Ultraviolet Vision In A Bat, York Winter , Jorge L& 37845;ez , Otto Von
Helversen  , 09 October
2003, DOI: 10.1038/nature01971, Nature 425, 612 - 614


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09. The Mother-In-Law Effect , Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.

Abstract: Individuals often benefit by manipulating others. In most cases,
manipulation involves
direct, physical interactions between individuals. In the dung beetle,
Onthophagus taurus, mothers
provide more food to offspring when mated with large males. In this
article, we demonstrate that
this manipulation may extend across generations - the care a mother
provides to a developing son
influences the parental effort of his mate (the mother's daughter-in-law).
In contrast to previous
studies demonstrating the considerable advantages of increased maternal
care, this mother-in-law
effect is mediated by the ability to produce large sons from relatively
lower levels of care.

* The Mother-In-Law Effect, J. Hunt & R. Brooks , 2003/10/13
* Contributed by Atin Das


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10. The Automatic Pilot Of Honeybees , Alphagalileo & Proc. Biol. Sc.

Abstract: The 'automatic pilot' facility allows a pilot to set a desired
compass course, and his
aircraft will then fly that course for the required distance. Using
harmonic radar, we have found
that honeybees returning to their hive from food sources apparently
navigate in this way, and
remarkably, compensate for wind drift while doing so. If captured and
released elsewhere, they
still fly this course for the distance that should take them home, ignoring
unfamiliar landmarks
encountered on the way. Conversely, if these bees perceive landmarks they
can recognise, they
sometimes abandon the 'auto-pilot' mode and return home using other methods.

* The Automatic Pilot Of Honeybees, J. R. Riley, U. Greggers, A. D. Smith,
S. Stach, D. Reynolds,
N. Stollhoff, R. Brandt, F. Schaupp & R. Menzel , 2003/10/13
* Contributed by Atin Das


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11. DNA Copied With Convection , Nature Science update

Excerpts: (...) PCR in a circular chamber 5 millimetres wide, heated from
beneath its centre. This
sets up a convection current - hot water rises in the middle of the chamber
and flows towards its
edge, where it cools and sinks.

(...) The enzyme copies single DNA strands at the chamber's cool periphery,
and these strands then
pair up. The convection current carries the double strands to the hot
centre, where they are prised
apart before being borne back to the edges.

* DNA Copied With Convection, Philip Ball  , 03/10/15, Nature Science update


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11.01. Exponential DNA Replication by Laminar Convection , Physical Review
Letters

Abstract: It is shown that laminar thermal convection can drive a chain
reaction of DNA
replication. The convection is triggered by a constant horizontal
temperature gradient, moving
molecules along stationary paths between hot and cold regions. This
implements the temperature
cycling for the classical polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The
amplification is shown to be
exponential and reaches 100 000-fold gains within 25 min. Besides direct
applications, the
mechanism might have implications for the molecular evolution of life.

* Exponential DNA Replication by Laminar Convection, Braun, D., Goddard, N.
L. , Libchaber A. ,
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.158103 (2003)., Physical Review Letters, 91, 158103


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12. Complexity in the Immune System , arXiv

Abstract: The immune system is a real-time example of an evolving system
that navigates the
essentially infinite complexity of protein sequence space. How this system
responds to disease and
vaccination is discussed. Of particular focus is the case when vaccination
leads to increased
susceptibility to disease, a phenomenon termed original antigenic sin. A
physical theory of protein
evolution to explain limitations in the immune system response to
vaccination and disease is
discussed, and original antigenic sin is explained as stemming from
localization of the immune
system response in antibody sequence space. This localization is a result
of the roughness in
sequence space of the evolved antibody affinity constant for antigen and is
observed for diseases
with high year-to-year mutation rates, such as influenza.

* Complexity in the Immune System, Michael W. Deem , 2003-10-15, DOI:
q-bio.CB/0310019, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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13. Living Longer and Larger: It's in the Size of Cholesterol-Carrying
Molecules , NYTimes

Excerpts: The study, to be published today, in The Journal of the American
Medical Association,
adds to an emerging collection of evidence that suggests that the size of
lipoproteins, both good
and bad, may play a significant role in heart disease, diabetes and,
consequently, longevity.
"Large particle size seems to give people an extra 20 years of life, with
very little disability to
go along with it," said Dr. Nir Barzilai, who directed the study at the
Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in the Bronx. Dr. Barzilai also traced large lipoproteins to a
specific gene that
influences lipoprotein size.(...) The gene may be one reason why some
centenarians in Dr.
Barzilai's study have lived to 100, even though they were overweight or ate
badly. "I hate to say
it," he said. "but I think it's true. If you have this gene, you can smoke
and you can be fat and
you can not exercise. This sounds to me terrible."

* Living Longer and Larger: It's in the Size of Cholesterol-Carrying
Molecules, 2003-10-17, NYTimes
* Contributed by Nadia Gershenson


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14. How Cells Step Out , Science

Excerpts: Some gaps and controversies remain, but cell biologists are
beginning to develop a
clearer picture of how cells move by remodeling their filaments composed of
the protein actin

* How Cells Step Out, Jean Marx  , Science 302: 214-216


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14.01. Mathematical Modeling Predicts Cellular Communication , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: From the moment its life begins, the fate of a multicellular
organism depends on how well
its cells communicate. Proteins act as molecular switchboard operators to
keep the lines of
communication open and the flow of cellular messages on track. But charting
the protein
interactions, signaling pathways, and other elements that regulate these
networks is no small feat.
(...) focused their efforts on a well-studied signaling pathway--the Wnt
pathway (...).
Consequently, developing tools that elucidate the Wnt pathway will not only
provide insights into
this important pathway but have implications for understanding
communication pathways in animals
from jellyfish to humans.

* Mathematical Modeling Predicts Cellular Communication, 2003/10/15,
ScienceDaily & Public Lib. Of
Sc.
* Contributed by Atin Das


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15. Magic Number Revealed For Flying And Swimming , NewScientist

Excerpts: A simple number called the Strouhal number describes locomotion
produced by the flapping
of wings. It equals the frequency of flapping multiplied by its amplitude,
divided by forward
speed. Theory suggests that in most cases peak efficiency is reached when
this number lies between
0.2 and 0.4.
(...)they rounded up data on wing movements and speed for 42 species of
bats, insects and birds. It
turned out that the Strouhal number for almost all these animals once again
fell in the 0.2 to 0.4
range.

* Magic Number Revealed For Flying And Swimming, Hazel Muir  , 03/10/15,
New Scientist


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15.01. Symbolic Analysis Of Swimming Trajectories Reveals Scale Invariance
For Fish Locomotion ,
Fractals

Abstract: We have questioned whether a complex behavior, such as fish
swimming, can be better
described quantitatively as a sequence of discrete events or states (...).
Here, the different
states, expressed as combinations of symbols, were defined on the basis of
the animal's location
(A: periphery, and B: inner part of the aquarium) and speed (Fast and
Slow). We observed that the
distributions of time intervals spent in the successive states were not
gaussian. Rather, they were
fit by power laws (...). Furthermore, our data suggest that the swimming
behavior can be attributed
to interactions between two intrinsic systems.

* Symbolic Analysis Of Swimming Trajectories Reveals Scale Invariance And
Provides A Model For Fish
Locomotion, P. Faure , H. Neumeister , D. S. Faber  , H. Korn
hkorn@pasteur.fr , Sep. 2003, DOI:
10.1142/S0218348X03002166
* Contributed by Atin Das


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16. Think Outside The Sandbox , Nature

Excerpts: One grain of sand is a solid. But a lot of grains together can
behave like a solid or a
liquid. By probing this dual personality, physicists hope to understand a
host of real-world
systems (...).
Weaker vibration corresponds to a lower effective temperature. So, by
analogy, a progressively less
vigorously shaken granular liquid should reach a point at which it
'freezes' into a solid. (...)

As Jaeger's group suggested, this is similar to the way in which glassy
materials solidify.

* Think Outside The Sandbox, Mark Buchanan  , 09 October 2003, DOI:
10.1038/425556a, Nature 425,
556 - 557


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16.01. Non-Linear Response Of Shoreface-Connected Sand Ridges To
Interventions , Ocean Dynamics

Abstract: A non-linear morphodynamic model of a microtidal coastal shelf is
used to study the
response of shoreface-connected sand ridges and the net sand balance of the
shelf to large-scale
interventions. The model describes the interaction between storm-driven
currents and the erodible
bottom. The model results indicate that for all interventions studied a
relatively fast local
recovery (time scale of decades to centuries) of the disturbed bathymetry
to its original pattern
takes place. Readjustment of the global system to its original equilibrium
state (the saturation
process) occurs on a longer time scale (several centuries).

* Non-Linear Response Of Shoreface-Connected Sand Ridges To Interventions,
H. E. de Swart
h.e.deswart@phys.uu.nl , D. Calvete , Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s10236-003-0044-9
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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16.02. Migrating Sand Waves , Ocean Dynamics

Abstract: A simple mathematical model is described, which reproduces the
major features of sand
waves' appearance and growth and in particular predicts their migration
speed. The model is based
on the linear stability analysis of the flat configuration of the sea
bottom subject to tidal
currents. Attention is focused on the prediction of the complex growth rate
that bottom
perturbations undergo because of both oscillatory fluid motions and
residual currents. While the
real part r of controls the amplification or decay of the amplitude of the
bedforms, the imaginary
part i is related to their migration speed.

* Migrating Sand Waves, G. Besio giospud@diam.unige.it , P. Blondeaux, M.
Brocchini & G. Vittori ,
Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s10236-003-0043-x
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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17. Warming Indian Ocean Wringing Moisture From the Sahel , Science

Abstract: When drought hit the 5000-kilometer-long strip of marginally
habitable land along the
southern edge of the Sahara in the 1970s and '80s, the people of the Sahel
suffered greatly. Soon
some researchers were hypothesizing that intensive use of the land might
have altered the surface
of the Sahel enough to dry it out. The locals, although they have clearly
used the land heavily,
have since been absolved of fooling with the climate (Science, 31 July
1998, p. 633
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/281/5377/633). Now researchers
are pointing to another
culprit--the warming Indian Ocean--but humans may still be to blame.

* Warming Indian Ocean Wringing Moisture From the Sahel, Richard A. Kerr  ,
Science 302: 210a-211a


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17.01. Can Rain Be Bought? Experts Seed Clouds and Seek Answers , NYTimes

Excerpts: With a severe drought parching Colorado and much of the American
West in recent years,
Denver's water department decided to take a gamble in the hope of squeezing
more precipitation out
of the atmosphere. It has invested more than $1 million in cloud seeding in
the last two years.

Has it paid off? Possibly, some research suggests.

The most recent report, (...), is inconclusive. "Evaluation methodologies
vary but in general do
not provide convincing scientific evidence for either success or failure,"
(...), titled "Critical
Issues in Weather Modification Research."

* Can Rain Be Bought? Experts Seed Clouds and Seek Answers, Mindy Sink  ,
03/10/14, NYTimes


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18. After Bitter Fight, Texas Senate Redraws Congressional Districts , NYTimes

Excerpts: After more than five months of bitter party squabbles and two
quorum-busting flights into
exile by Democratic lawmakers, the Republican-controlled Texas Senate gave
final approval Sunday
night, without debate, to new Congressional districts that put the
Republicans in a far stronger
position to dominate the Texas delegation in the 2004 elections and beyond.
(...) The Republicans,
who now trail the Democrats 17 to 15 in Washington, are likely to gain
seven seats by some
accounts.
Editor's Note: Through this procedure the legislative power in the next
election could shift
significantly without any influence from voters (unless they move to a new
district and register
there.). This might explain why some experts insist on pointing out that
the U.S. is not a
democracy (see e.g. H. CON. RES. 48 of March 6, 2001).

* After Bitter Fight, Texas Senate Redraws Congressional Districts, Ralph
Blumenthal  , 03/10/13,
NYTimes
* See also: Texas Legislative Council
* Texas Map of Congressional Districts before / after redistricting. Note
e.g. the peculiar shapes
of the 15th and 23rd districts.



_________________________________________________________________

18.01. On Listening , NYTimes

Excerpts: There was a headline that grabbed me in The Times on Saturday. It
said, "Cheney Lashes
Out at Critics of Policy on Iraq."

"Wow," I thought, "that must have been an interesting encounter." Then I
read the fine print. Mr.
Cheney was speaking to 200 invited guests at the conservative Heritage
Foundation - and even they
were not allowed to ask any questions. Great. Osama bin Laden and Saddam
Hussein issue messages
from their caves through Al Jazeera, and Mr. Cheney issues messages from
his bunker through Fox.

* On Listening, Thomas L. Friedman  , 03/10/16, NYTimes


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19. Complex Challenges





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19.01. Iraqi Arms Caches Cited in Attacks , NYTimes

Excerpts: The two most recent suicide bombings here (...) were carried out
with explosives and
material taken from Saddam Hussein's former weapons dumps, which are much
larger than previously
estimated and remain, for the most part, unguarded by American troops, (...).
Officials also say that Mr. Hussein stockpiled at least 5,000
shoulder-fired missiles, and that
fewer than a third have been recovered. They fear that many have been
smuggled out of the country
and may have fallen into the hands of terrorist organizations.

* Iraqi Arms Caches Cited in Attacks, Raymond Bonner  , 03/10/14, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19.02. Iraq War Has Swollen Ranks Of Al-Qaida , Richard Norton-Taylor, The
Guardian, 03/10/16

Excerpts: War in Iraq has swollen the ranks of al-Qaida and "galvanised its
will" by increasing
radical passions among Muslims, an authoritative think-tank said yesterday.

The warning, echoing earlier ones by MI5 and MI6, was made in the annual
report of the London-based
International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance.

(...)
It disclosed that in February, a month before the invasion, (...) said that
"al-Qaida and
associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest threat to
western interests, and that
threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq".

* Iraq War Has Swollen Ranks Of Al-Qaida, Richard Norton-Taylor  ,
03/10/16, The Guardian
* See also: Iraq war 'swells al Qaeda ranks', CNN, 03/10/15


_________________________________________________________________

19.03. The Military Balance 2003-4 , International Inst f Strategic Studies
Press Conference

Excerpts: The US-led invasion of Iraq brought about a collapse in the
security structures of the
country including the structures for guarding arms dumps, and the state's
border regime. The
coalition was unprepared for the scale of the problem, and had no way of
securing the quantity of
ammunition and weapons storage sites.
Some five months on the situation has hardly improved and small arms and
light weapons are readily
available to criminals and insurgents alike. Alarmingly, the report
produced by David Kay of the
Iraq Survey Group earlier this month noted that 'there are approximately
130 known Iraqi Ammunition
Storage Points (ASP) many of which exceed 50 square miles and hold an
estimated 600,000 tons of
ordinance.... Of these approximately 120 still remain unexamined.' While
the number of un-inspected
sites may be interesting in terms of the struggle to find evidence of WMD,
it is even more
interesting as a comment on the ammunition that may be available to
terrorists who can get access
to unguarded or poorly guarded depots. A particular issue concerns
man-portable air defence systems
(MANPADS) which exist in large quantities.

* The Military Balance 2003-4, John Chipman  , 03/10/15, The International
Institute for Strategic
Studies Press Conference


_________________________________________________________________

19.04. Intelligence Puzzle: North Korean Bombs , NYTimes

Excerpts: New intelligence estimates that North Korea may have produced one
or two nuclear weapons
in recent months - or perhaps more - have immersed the administration in
another internal debate
about the quality of intelligence about illegal weapons.
With President Bush just days from embarking on his longest foray in Asia,
some of his advisers say
it is possible that North Korea is telling the truth about having turned
8,000 nuclear fuel rods
into enough weapons-grade plutonium for several warheads.
Others, (...), say there is still no proof, (...).

* Intelligence Puzzle: North Korean Bombs, David E. Sanger  , 03/10/14, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19.05. Feds Want All-Seeing Eye in Sky , Wired

Excerpts: "We need an illuminator, throwing into relief all the pictures
and activities on the
Earth's surface. And then we need to be able to switch on the spotlight, or
alert other systems, to
dive deep." (...).

Space-based radar, or SBR, is Cambone's preferred method for fulfilling
these aims. America's
current imaging satellites can cover only thin slices of the Earth at any
one time as the
spacecraft pass overhead. A constellation of 10 to 24 SBR satellites,
slated for 2012 or so, would
cover almost the entire globe at once.

* Feds Want All-Seeing Eye in Sky, Noah Shachtman  , 03/10/17, Wired


_________________________________________________________________

19.06. Spies Attack White House Secrecy , Wired

Excerpts: Moves to classify documents are up 400 percent from a decade ago,
to more than 23 million
such actions in 2002, according to the Information Security Oversight Office
, a division of the National Archives. (...)

To counter far-reaching, stealthy terrorist cabals, the country needs more
openness, not less, they
said Wednesday at Geo-Intel 2003, a first-of-its-kind conference here on
the use of satellites in
war, intelligence and homeland security.

"Our secrecy system is all about protecting secrecy officers, and has
nothing to do with protecting
secrets. It's a self-licking ice-cream cone," (...).

* Spies Attack White House Secrecy, Noah Shachtman  , 03/10/16, Wired


_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets





_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications



- Breaking Synchrony by Heterogeneity in Complex Networks, Michael Denker ,
Marc Timme , Markus
Diesmann , Fred Wolf , Theo Geisel , 2003-09-04, arXiv, DOI: cond-mat/0309103
- Transient Diversity in Multi-Agent Systems, David Lyback , 2003-10-06,
arXiv, DOI: cs.AI/0310010
- Modeling And Analysis Of The Spread Of Carrier Dependent Infectious
Diseases With Environmental
Effects, S. Singh, P. Chandra & J. B. Shukla , Sep. 2003, DOI:
10.1142/S0218339003000877
- The Evolution Of A Technological System: The Case Of CNC Machine Tools In
Korea, T. K. Sung
sungtk@jeonju.ac.kr , B. Carlsson , Oct. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s00191-003-0160-1
- Smoothing Before Estimating Uncertainty, Scaling And Intermittency:
Application To Short Heart
Rate Signals, D. R. Bickel http://www.davidbickel.com , Sep. 2003, DOI:
10.1142/S0218348X03002130
- Self-Similar Criticality, S. F. Tebbens & S. M. Burroughs , Sep. 2003, DOI:
10.1142/S0218348X03002117
- Modeling Spatial-Temporal Data With A Short Observation History, D.
Pokrajac pokie@ist.temple.edu
, R. L. Hoskinson & Z. Obradovic , Sep. 2003, DOI: 10.1007/s10115-002-0094-1
- Sinister Strategies Succeed At The Cricket World Cup, R. Brooks, L.
Bussiere, M. D. Jennions & J.
Hunt , 2003/10/13
- Environmental Calcium Modifies Induced Defences In Snails, S. D. Rundle,
J. I. Spicer, R. A.
Coleman, J. Vosper & J. Soane , 2003/10/13
- Fitness Reduction And Potential Extinction Of Wild Populations Of
Atlantic Salmon Salmo Salar As
A Result Of Interactions With Escaped Farm Salmon, P. McGinnity, P.
Prodohl, A. Ferguson, R. Hynes,
N. O. Maoileidigh, N. Baker, D. Cotter, B. O'Hea, D. Cooke, G. Rogan, J.
Taggart & T. Cross ,
2003/10/13
- Evolution, Climate Change And Species Boundaries: Perspectives From
Tracing Lemmiscus Curtatus
Populations Through Time And Space, A. D. Barnosky & C. J. Bell , 2003/10/13
- African Ancestor Of The Russian, Chinese And American Indian, S. Komarov
textmaster@informnauka.ru , 2003/10/13
- Monkeys Consciously Control A Robot Arm Using Only Brain Signals; Appear
To 'Assimilate' Arm As
If It Were Their Own, 2003/10/13, ScienceDaily & Duke Univ. Med. Center
- Researchers Discover Genes That Distinguish Human, Nonhuman Primate
Brains, 2003/10/14,
ScienceDaily & Emory Univ. Health Sc. Center
- Patterns Of Brain Activity Differ With Musical Training, Not Cultural
Familarity, 2003/10/15,
ScienceDaily & Univ. Of Washington
- Monkey's Brain Signals Control 'Third Arm', 2003-10-13, NewScientist.com
- Beyond Input-Output Computings: Error-driven Emergence with Parallel
Non-distributed Slime Mold
Computer, Masashi Aono , Yukio-Pegio Gunji , 2003-10, Biosystems
71(3):257-287, DOI:
10.1016/S0303-2647(03)00085-6
- A Short Account of a Connection of Power Laws to the Information Entropy,
Yaniv Dover ,
2003-10-8, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Article
in Press, Uncorrected
Proof, DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.029
- The Yeast Cell-Cycle Network Is Robustly Designed, Fangting Li , Tao Long
, Ying Lu , Qi Ouyang ,
Chao Tang , 2003-10-09, arXiv, DOI: q-bio.MN/0310010
- Astronomers Find First 'Dark Galaxy' , 03/10/20, New Scientist
- Parasitism Derived Genomic Analysis Of A Parasitic Archaeon Suggests
Nonreductive Evolution,
Cathy Holding  , 03/10/14, The Scientist
- Data Faster Than Speeding Bullet, (...) new world speed record for
sending data across the
Internet, equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD film in seven seconds.
, 03/10/15, Reuters , Wired News
- Dedicated Fibre Delivers Net Speed Record , 03/10/17, New Scientist
- Astronomers Date Universe's 'Cosmic Jerk', 03/10/13, New Scientist
- Environmentally Mediated Synergy Between Perception And Behaviour In
Mobile Robots, Paul F. M. J.
Verschure , Thomas Voegtlin , Rodney J. Douglas  , 09 October 2003, Nature
425, 620 - 624, DOI:
10.1038/nature02024
- Don't Look Down, A third world country with America's recent numbers
would definitely be on the
economic crisis watch list. Paul Krugman  , 03/10/14, NYTimes
- Study Says Making Cars Lighter Would Cost Lives, Danny Hakim  , 03/10/15,
NYTimes
- Fighting the War at Home, The "letter home" that was published in 11
hometown papers before it
was uncovered as a fraud looks suspiciously like propaganda.

- Coca Culture, Leonida Zurita-Vargas  , 03/10/15, NYTimes
- MIT Engineers Report New Approach To Tissue Engineering, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Press Release,  , 03/10/13
- Holding Our Noses, Nicholas D. Kristof  , 03/10/15, NYTimes
- Complexity Science and Software Development, Marilyn Lamoreux introduced
her team of software
engineers to the world of complexity. She shares the PowerPoint slides from
her presentation. How
does her story compare and contrast with your own? What do we all have to
learn from each other
about making these concepts accessible to others? Marilyn Lamoreux ,
03/10/08, PATTERNS -
Newsletter of the HSD Institute - Volume 1, No. 9
- The Learning Society, Bill Butler , 03/10/08, PATTERNS - Newsletter of
the HSD Institute - Volume
1, No. 9
- Design Enables Large Neural Nets, , October 8/15, 2003, Technology
Research News
- Senior Federal Prosecutors and F.B.I. Officials Fault Ashcroft Over Leak
Inquiry, DAVID JOHNSTON
, ERIC LICHTBLAU  , 03/10/16, NYTimes
- Digging for Nuggets of Wisdom, Text-mining programs go further,
categorizing information, making
links between otherwise unconnected documents, LISA GUERNSEY  , 03/10/16,
NYTimes
- The American Prison Camp, 03/10/16, NYTimes
- Swords-to-Plowshares Program Suffers Meltdown, Last month the U.S.
government quietly opted not
to renew a 5-year agreement with Russia on the Nuclear Cities Initiative, a
U.S. Department of
Energy effort that has channeled  , 87 million into business development at
three once-secret
cities devoted to nuclear weapons R&D. Paul Webster  , Science 302: 207
- Leading Humanity Forward, A. Asohan , 03/10/14, The Star Online (Malaysia)
- Genetically Modified Food and the Poor, 03/10/13, NYTimes
- Restoring Recall: Memories may form and reform, with sleep, Science News,
03/10/11, Also
available in  Audible format
- Visionary Research, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in  Audible
format
- When Genes Escape, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in  Audible format
- Faint Smells Of Schizophrenia, Science News, 03/10/11, Also available in
Audible format
- Weekend Weather Really Is Different, Science News, 03/10/11, Also
available in Audible format
- Brain Implant In Monkeys Called Breakthrough, Rick Weiss  , 03/10/13,
Boston Globe
- In Pioneering Study, Monkey Think, Robot Do, Sandra Blakeslee  ,
03/10/13, NYTimes
- Warmer Ocean Blamed for Drought, The Indian Ocean is wringing moisture
from the Sahel
- Ozone Loss Changes Weather, Thinned Ozone Layer Influences Antarctic
Winds, Temperatures
- Genes Keep Bee's Brain on Job, Active genes tell whether bees nurse the
brood or look for food



_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements


     EVOLVABILITY
     & INTERACTION: Evolutionary Substrates of Communication,
     Signaling, and Perception in the Dynamics of Social
     Complexity, London, UK, 03/10/08-10

     The
     Semantic Web and Language Technology - Its Potential and
     Practicalities, Bucharest, Romania,
     03/07/28-08/08

     ECAL
     2003, 7th European Conference on Artificial
     Life, Dortmund, Germany,
     03/09/14-17

     Dean
     LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video
     Commentary, Ongoing Since February
     1998

     IMA
     International Conference Bifurcation
     2003, Univ. Southampton, UK, 27-30
     July, 2003

     New
     Santa Fe Institute President About His Vision for SFI's
     Future Role, (Video, Santa Fe, NM,
     03/06/04)

     Edge
     Videos

     SPIE's
     1st Intl Symp on Fluctuations and
     Noise, Santa Fe, NM,
     2003/06/01-04

     NAS
     Sackler Colloquium on Mapping Knowledge
     Domains, Video/Audio Report,
     03/05/11

     Uncertainty
     and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and
     Unknowable, The University of Texas
     Austin, Texas USA, 2003/04/10-12

     New
     Trends In Industrial Partnership And Innovation Management
     At European Research Laboratories,
     CERN, Geneva, 2003/03/19 (with webcast)

      CERN
      Webcast Service,
      Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and Live
      Events

     13th
     Ann Intl Conf, Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life
     Sciences, Boston, MA, USA,
     2003/08/08-10

     Fair
     Value; The Good, The Bad, and The
     Unknown, Financial Executives
     International (FEI), 03/08/26, 5:00-6:00 p.m.
     GMT



- Big Mac To Storm Supercomputer List , 03/10/15, New Scientist
- Mac Supercomputer: Fast, Cheap , The brand new "Big Mac" supercomputer at
Virginia Tech could be
the second most powerful supercomputer on the planet (...). Leander
Kahney  , 03/10/15, Wired News
- Turn That PC Into a Supercomputer, A small chip-design firm will unveil a
new processor Tuesday
it says will transform ordinary desktop PCs and laptops into
supercomputers. Leander Kahney  ,
03/10/14, Wired News



_________________________________________________________________

20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements


   Exystence
   Thematic Institute - Algorithms And Challenges In Hard
   Combinatorial Problems, Turin, Italy, 03/10/01-30

   2003
   IEEE/WIC Intl Joint Conf. Web Intelligence and Intelligent
   Agent Technology, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13-17


     Workshop on Collaboration
     Agents: Autonomous Agents for Collaborative
     Environments, Halifax, Canada, 03/10/13



   Complexity
   Science and Educational Research, U Alberta Edmonton,
   AB Canada , 03/10/16-18

   Art
   & Artificial Life International Competition,
   Deadline: 03/10/31

   Systems-Based
   Practice: Competency for Medical Professionals, Boston,
   MA, 03/11/02

   Intl Congress
   on Computational Intelligence, Medellin, Colombia,
   03/11/06-08,(Mirror)

   American
   Society for Cybernetics (ASC) 2003 Conference
   (H.v.Foerster), Vienna, Austria, 03/11/10-15

   Modeling
   Workshop, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 03/11/15-16

   Trends And
   Perspectives In Extensive And Non-Extensive Statistical
   Mechanics, In Honour Of The 60th Birthday Of Constantino
   Tsallis, Angra Dos Reis, Brazil, 2003/11/19-21

   ICDM
   '03: 3rd IEEE International Conference on Data
   Mining, Melbourne, Florida, USA, 03/11/19-22

   4th
   Intl Conf on Systems Science and Systems Engineering,
   Hong Kong, 03/11/25-28

   3rd
   International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex
   System, Guangzhou, China, 03/11/29-30

   Artificial
   Intelligence and Law, Special Issue on Electronic
   Democracy, Submissions Deadline: 03/11/30

   Plexusinstitute
   Organizational Management Conference With Ralph Stacey,
   Washington, DC, 03/12/02-04

   Learning
   with Everett Rogers and Ralph Stacey: Bridging the Quality
   Chasm Between Medical Knowledge and Clinical Practice,
   Rockville, MD, 03/12/02-03

   Learning
   with Ralph Stacey: On Thinking and Learning About Complex
   Responsive Processes, Rockville, MD, 03/12/03-04

   2nd
   International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of
   Social Insects, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;
   03/12/15-17

   2nd
   WSEAS Intl Conf on Non-linear Analysis, Non-linear
   Systems and Chaos, Athens, Greece, 03/12/29-31

   Complex
   Physical, Biological and Social Systems, MIT,
   Cambridge, MA, 04/01/05-09

   2nd
   Biennial Seminar on the Philosophical, Epistemological, and
   Methodological Implications of Complexity Theory,
   Havana, Cuba, 04/01/07-10

   2004
   Western Simulation MultiConference (WMC'04), San Diego,
   CA., USA, 04/01/18-24)

   1st
   International Workshop on Biologically Inspired Approaches to
   Advanced Information Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland,
   04/01/29-30

   Leadership in
   Rapidly Changing Business Environments -Learning and Adapting
   in Time, Cambridge, MA, 04/02/26-27

   4th
   Intl ICSC Symposium Engineering Of Intelligent Systems (EIS
   2004), Island of Madeira, Portugal, 04/02/29-03/02

   Arbeitskreis
   Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme Jahrestagung,
   Regensburg, Germany, 04/03/08-12

   Capital
   Science 2004, Washington, 04/03/20-21

   Fractal
   2004, "Complexity and Fractals in Nature", 8th Intl
   Multidisciplinary Conf, Vancouver, Canada, 04/04/04-07

   2004
   Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference (ASTC'04),
   Arlington, VA., USA, 04/04/18-22

   Urban
   Vulnerability and Network Failure: Constructions and
   Experiences of Emergencies, Crises and Collapse,
   Manchester, UK, 04/04/29-30

   5th
   International Conference on Complex Systems (ICCS2004),
   Boston, MA, USA, 04/05/16-21

   3rd Intl Conf
   on Systems Thinking in Management (ICSTM 2004) "Transforming
   Organizations to Achieve Sustainable Success",
   Philadelphia, Pa, USA, 04/05/19-21

   9th
   Annual Workshop on Economics and Heterogeneous Interaction
   Agents (WEHIA04),, Kyoto, Japan, 2004/05/27-29

   13th
   International Symposium on HIV & Emerging Infectious
   Diseases, Toulon, France, 04/06/03-05

   From Animals To
   Animats 8, 8th Intl Conf On The Simulation Of
   Adaptive Behavior (SAB'04), Los Angeles, USA,
   04/07/13-17

   8th
   World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
   Informatics, Orlando, Florida, USA, 04/07/18-21

   2004
   Summer Simulation MultiConference (SummerSim'04), San
   Jose Hyatt, San Jose, California, 04/07/25-29

   ANTS
   2004, 4th International Workshop on Ant Colony
   Optimization and Swarm Intelligence, Brussels, Belgium,
   04/09/05-08

   The
   8th International Conference on Parallel Problem
   Solving from Nature (PPSN VIII), Birmingham, UK,
   04/09/18-22

   XVII
   Brazilian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Sao
   Luis, Maranhao - Brazil, 04/09/22-24





_________________________________________________________________

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

* Special Announcement: Artists Explore Complex Systems



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