复杂性文摘 NO：2003.46

Complexity Digest 2003.46 Nov. 17, 2003

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. Thought Leader Forum, Credit Suisse First Boston
01.01. Trying to Measure the Amount of Information That Humans Create, NYTimes
02. Capricious Things Don't Happen, Harvard University Gazette
02.01. A Model For Leveling Coalitions Among Primate Males, Behav. Ecology
& Sociobiol.
03. False Memories Have Characteristic Brain Activity, NewScientist
03.01. First Flush Of Love Not Emotional, New Scientist
03.02. Scientists Uncover Neurobiological Basis For Romantic Love, Trust,
And Self, ScienceDaily
04. Where is the real Matrix?, Salon.com
05. Heal Thyself: Patients' Bone Marrow Cells Restore Failing Hearts,
Eurekalert
06. Scientists Use DNA To Make Virus, BBC News
06.01. Scientists Create Artificial Form of Life, Voice of America
06.02. Designer Genomes, Pronto!, Science Now
07. Junk DNA Passed Down Through the Ages, Science
08. Neurobiology: Signals That Make Waves, Nature
09. Bad Eye For The Straight Fly: Male Flesh Flies Do Not Need
High-definition Vision, ScienceDaily
09.01. Honeybee Workers Compete For Producing Queen-Like Pheromone Signals,
Alphagalileo & Biol.
Lett.
09.02. Effect Of Queen Quality On Interactions Between Workers And Dueling
Queens In Honeybee
Colonies, Behav. Ecology & Sociobiol.
09.03. Females Drive Primate Social Evolution, Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.
10. Roles for Mating and Environment in C. elegans Sex Determination, Science
11. Evolution Of Cultural Communication Systems: Genes Encoding Learning
Preferences, J.
Evolutionary Biol.
11.01. Birds Can Put Two and Two Together, Science Now
12. Defence Against Multiple Enemies, J. Evolutionary Biol.
13. What Do Neural Nets and Quantum Theory Tell Us about Mind and Reality?,
arXiv
14. Quantum Coherence in an Exchange-Coupled Dimer of Single-Molecule
Magnets, Science
15. Femtophysics: Birth Of A Quasiparticle, Nature
16. Europe Exceeds U.S. in Refining Grid Computing, NYTimes
17. Maybe Hanging Chads Weren't So Bad After All, NYTimes
17.01. Machine Politics in the Digital Age, NYTimes
18. US War Dead in Iraq Exceeds Early Vietnam Years, Reuters-Yahoo!
18.01. Plan for Guerrilla Action May Have Predated War, NYTimes
18.02. Op-Chart - How are things really going in Iraq?, NYTimes
18.03. A Scary Afghan Road, NYTimes
18.04. The Sabotage of Democracy, NYTimes
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers, NYTimes
19.02. Analysis: Guantánamo Case About Federal Turf, NYTimes
19.03. Terrorism and the U.S. Criminal Justice System, Brookings News
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

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01. Thought Leader Forum , Credit Suisse First Boston

Excerpts: The  Thought Leader Forum  is a one-of-a-kind gathering that
seeks to help senior
investors shape and improve their mental models.


We can place this year's talks into one of  three categories . The first,
organizations, considers
the best organizational structure to solve complex problems. The second
category, markets,
considers how and why markets are efficient or inefficient. Finally, some
talks will pull investors
out of their typical time horizon and encourage a longer-term perspective.

The talks on organizational structure and problem solving tend to address
one of two angles: either
how informational diversity can help solve complex problems better than a
lack of diversity, or how
companies can think about and implement change.

* Thought Leader Forum, Credit Suisse First Boston
*Contributed by Dean LeBaron


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01.01. Trying to Measure the Amount of Information That Humans Create , NYTimes

Excerpts: The authors of the report estimate that in 2002 the human species
stored about five
exabytes of new information on paper, film, optical or magnetic media, a
number that doubled in the
past three years. Five exabytes, as it happens, is equivalent to all words
ever spoken by humans
since the dawn of time. (…)
In 2002, that telephone traffic added up to about 17 exabytes, more than
three times all the words
ever spoken by humans until that point.

* Trying to Measure the Amount of Information That Humans Create, Verlyn
Klinkenborg  , 03/11/12,
NYTimes


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02. Capricious Things Don't Happen , Harvard University Gazette

Excerpts: "I do think - and this is what my second lecture will be about -
that there is something
quasireligious in science, the sense of awe, the sense of wonder, the sense
of almost spiritual
response to the universe, which I believe I have and many other scientists
have developed to a high
degree, but I would resist confusing that with the supernatural."

By the supernatural, Dawkins has in mind forces that ostensibly override
the laws of nature. He
characterizes the religious view as the belief "that there are capricious
interventions by some
sort of supernatural being, some sort of intelligence, that interfere with
the world, that
interfere with the universe, in ways that violate the laws of physics.

* Capricious Things Don't Happen, Ken Gewertz  , 03/11/13, Harvard
University Gazette


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02.01. A Model For Leveling Coalitions Among Primate Males , Behav. Ecology
& Sociobiol.

Abstract: We present a simple model of within-group leveling coalitions
among male primates. The
model assumes that the value of the coalition is the sum of the payoffs of
its members, that the
individuals payoff is monotonically decreasing with its rank (...). It
predicts that mainly mid- to
low rankers engage in leveling coalitions, (...). These predictions agree
reasonably well with
observations in nature. The model also makes the novel predictions that
leveling coalitions are
found where male mating competition has only a moderate contest component,
and that male dominance
ranks will become poorly differentiated where leveling coalitions are frequent.

* A Model For Leveling Coalitions Among Primate Males: Toward A Theory Of
Egalitarianism, S. A.
Pandit  , C. P. van Schaik vschaik@duke.edu , online:2003/10/18, DOI:
10.1007/s00265-003-0692-2,
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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03. False Memories Have Characteristic Brain Activity , NewScientist

Excerpts: A study has revealed characteristic activity in the brain that
predicts whether a memory
is accurate or false. The difference occurs at the time of recall,
suggesting that a test for false
memory might one day be possible.

(…) found that sensory areas of the brain, rather than the regions
thought to deal
specifically with memory, are more active when people recall information
correctly.
The researchers asked volunteers to try to recall whether a particular
shape had been in a
previously viewed group, while scanning their brains.

* False Memories Have Characteristic Brain Activity, Helen Phillips  ,
03/11/09, NewScientist


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03.01. First Flush Of Love Not Emotional , New Scientist

Excerpts: When you first fall in love, you are not experiencing an emotion,
but a motivation or
drive, new brain scanning studies have shown.

The early stages of a romantic relationship spark activity in dopamine-rich
brain regions
associated with motivation and reward. The more intense the relationship
is, the greater the
activity.

The regions associated with emotion, such as the insular cortex and parts
of the anterior cingulate
cortex, are not activated until the more mature phases of a relationship

* First Flush Of Love Not Emotional, Helen Phillips  , 03/11/12, New Scientist


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03.02. Scientists Uncover Neurobiological Basis For Romantic Love, Trust,
And Self , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: In new studies, scientists are discovering the neurobiological
underpinnings of romantic
love, trust, and even of self. New research also shows that a specific
brain area - the amygdala -
is involved in the process of understanding the intentions of others, in
particular when lying is
involved. Using brain imaging, (...) find that feelings of intense romantic
love are associated
with specific activity in dopamine-rich brain regions associated with
reward and motivation. The
researchers conclude that romantic love may be best classified as a
motivation system or drive
associated with a range of emotions.

* Scientists Uncover Neurobiological Basis For Romantic Love, Trust, And
Self, 2003/11/11,
ScienceDaily & Society For Neuroscience
* Contributed by Atin Das


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04. Where is the real Matrix? , Salon.com

Excerpts: In the futuristic vision of the Wachowski brothers' movie trilogy
"The Matrix," humans
dive into a virtual world by connecting their brains directly to a
computer. Most movie viewers may
consider direct interfaces with the nervous system as much of a fantasy as
the movie's
gravity-defying special effects. However, for a small group of engineers
and scientists this very
real idea underlies a medical technology that could help millions of
disabled people see and hear
-- and live normal lives. Unfortunately, serious real-world bureaucratic
hurdles have slowed the
development of this technology, and its potential remains largely untapped.

* Where is the real Matrix?, Shy Shoham , Sam Hall  , 03/11/11, Salon.com


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05. Heal Thyself: Patients' Bone Marrow Cells Restore Failing Hearts ,
Eurekalert

Excerpts: Bone marrow stem cells restored heart muscle that was damaged
from a heart attack,
providing a new treatment for failing hearts, (…).
The bone marrow cells came from patients' own blood and were injected into
their ailing hearts. The
cells fueled new cell growth, which strengthened the heart's pumping capacity.

"These results demonstrate for the first time that transplantation of a
person's own stem cells
through direct intracoronary injection increased cardiac function, blood
flow and metabolism in the
damaged zone,(…)
"If a prospective, randomized, multicenter study confirms these encouraging
results, a new therapy
for heart attacks could be in reach," he said.

* Heal Thyself: Patients' Bone Marrow Cells Restore Failing Hearts, ,
03/11/10, American Heart
Association meeting report


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06. Scientists Use DNA To Make Virus , BBC News

Excerpts: US scientists have produced a wholly artificial virus using a
method they claim could
lead to new lifeforms.
These synthetic organisms - on the scale of bacteria - could be engineered
to produce clean energy
or mop up pollution, the researchers say.
It is only the second time a virus has been constructed from scratch in the
lab, but the new effort
is said to produce substantially quicker results. (…)
The newly constructed microbe is a replica of the phiX virus, which occurs
naturally and infects
bacteria - not humans.

* Scientists Use DNA To Make Virus, 03/11/13, BBC News


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06.01. Scientists Create Artificial Form of Life , Voice of America

Excerpts: "The team was actually more successful than any of us imagined,
and we got viruses with
100 percent of the activity, showing that the synthesis method was very
robust," (…)
Researchers had previously created an artificial poliovirus by stringing
together DNA fragments and
then letting a naturally occurring enzyme transform the string into
proteins that ultimately formed
an infectious microbe. But that process took three years and produced
organisms with defective
genes.
In contrast, the Phi-X virus took only 14 days to make and it was without
defects.

* Scientists Create Artificial Form of Life, David McAlary  , 03/11/14,
Voice of America


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06.02. Designer Genomes, Pronto! , Science Now

Excerpts: Made-to-order viral genomes came a step closer to reality today.
Molecular biologists
announced that, in just 2 weeks, they had assembled an artificial bacterial
virus from its
components. The virus was able to infect and kill bacteria almost as well
as the real thing. The
achievement, while celebrated as a major step forward in synthetic biology,
could also make it
easier for bioterrorists to make dangerous pathogens.

Ever since researchers began deciphering DNA, they have wondered if they
could use the sequences to
build synthetic genomes.

* Designer Genomes, Pronto!, Elizabeth Pennisi  , 03/11/13, Science Now


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07. Junk DNA Passed Down Through the Ages , Science

Summary: How important are the noncoding regions of the human genome in
evolution? Dermitzakis et
al. (p. 1033; see the Perspective by Johnston and Stormo) examined a set of
191 nongenic regions on
human chromosome 21 and found that they were even more conserved than
protein-coding regions in 14
mammalian species. Patterns of nucleotide substitution were different from
that seen in
protein-coding and noncoding RNA genes, which suggests that particular
evolutionary constraints may
have been in operation. The extent of conservation indicates that there is
some function for these
regions that remains to be determined.

* Evolutionary Discrimination of Mammalian Conserved Non-Genic Sequences
(CNGs), Dermitzakis ,
Emmanouil T. , Reymond , Alexandre , Scamuffa , Nathalie , Ucla , Catherine
, Kirkness , Ewen ,
Rossier , Colette , Antonarakis , Stylianos E.  , 03/11/07, Science 2003
302: 1033-1035
See also Junk DNA Passed Down Through the Ages


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08. Neurobiology: Signals That Make Waves , Nature

Excerpts: What is the significance of the waves of calcium release in
astroglia? (…) Calcium
waves can also propagate through many astroglia and regulate synapses over
wide areas by means of
gap junctions, which are connections between cells that allow molecules to
move from one cell to
another11.

It was known that BDNF promotes both short- and long-term enhancement of
synaptic strength, but the
underlying mechanisms were poorly understood. (…) it may exert its
effects on neuronal
synapses in part by triggering calcium signaling in astroglia.

* Neurobiology: Signals That Make Waves, Louis F. Reichardt  , 06 November
2003, DOI:
10.1038/426025a, Nature 426, 25 - 26


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09. Bad Eye For The Straight Fly: Male Flesh Flies Do Not Need
High-definition Vision ,
ScienceDaily

Excerpts: While examining the flight behavior of flesh flies, Cornell
University entomologists have
discovered that males of the species (Sarcophagidae: Neobellieria bullata )
- traveling at very
high speed, soaring in sexual pursuit and swiveling their heads like gun
turrets - literally can
lose sight of a target female. Yet the males compensate for the momentary
loss of vision and still
catch up to mate. "This fly has a very small brain, but it moves at
relatively fast speeds, over 2
meters per second. The male flesh fly is very successful at chasing and
catching the female even
without an elaborate, high-powered onboard computer."

* Bad Eye For The Straight Fly: Male Flesh Flies Do Not Need
High-definition Vision To Catch And
Mate With Females, 2003/11/11, ScienceDaily & Cornell University
* Contributed by Atin Das


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09.01. Honeybee Workers Compete For Producing Queen-Like Pheromone Signals
, Alphagalileo & Biol.
Lett.

Abstract: Physical fights are the usual means of establishing dominance
hierarchies among animals.
This behaviour is extreme in honeybee colonies. Virgin queens will fight
until all are dead but
one, which survives to gain the colony. Their stingers are designed to kill
the rival. Workers can
also compete for reproductive dominance, and can successfully establish
themselves as pseudoqueens
in the colony. However, when workers compete for dominance, they do not
engage each other
physically, but instead use chemicals to outcompete their rivals. The
result of this pheromonal
combat is not death but the sterility of the loser.

* Honeybee Workers (Apis Mellifera Capensis) Compete For Producing
Queen-Like Pheromone Signals, R.
F. A. Moritz  , H. M. G Lattorff  , R. M. Crewe , 2003/11/10, Alphagalileo
& Biology Letters
* Contributed by Atin Das


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09.02. Effect Of Queen Quality On Interactions Between Workers And Dueling
Queens In Honeybee
Colonies , Behav. Ecology & Sociobiol.

Abstract: The fitness of a social insect colony depends greatly on the
quality (i.e., mating
ability, fecundity, and offspring viability) of its queen(s). (...) young
queens that compete in a
series of lethal duels to replace a colonys previous queen. Workers
interact with queens during
these duels and could increase their inclusive fitness by biasing the
outcomes of the duels in
favor of high-quality queens. We conclude that if workers actively select
high-quality queens, then
they do so prior to queen duels, during queen development. We suggest that
each worker-queen
interaction has a distinct adaptive significance rather than forming a
suite of behavior that
favors particular queens.

* Effect Of Queen Quality On Interactions Between Workers And Dueling
Queens In Honeybee (Apis
mellifera L.) Colonies, D. C. Gilley dgilley@tucson.ars.ag.gov , D. R.
Tarpy  , B. B. Land ,
online:2003/10/30, DOI: 10.1007/s00265-003-0708-y, Behavioral Ecology and
Sociobiology
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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09.03. Females Drive Primate Social Evolution , Alphagalileo & Biol. Lett.

Abstract: Theories on why some primate species live in groups while others
do not mainly revolve
around predictions from sexual selection theory; while females are expected
to group according to
circumstances set by the environment, males should simply go where the
females are. It follows that
changes in male sociality should lag behind changes in female sociality. By
comparing group size
evolution for males and females using a dated phylogeny and a statistical
method specifically aimed
at detecting such evolutionary lag, we were able to confirm this
expectation. Our results therefore
support the view that females drive primate social evolution.

* Females Drive Primate Social Evolution, P. Lindenfors  , L. Froberg  , C.
L. Nunn , 2003/11/10,
Alphagalileo & Biology Letters
* Contributed by Atin Das


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10. Roles for Mating and Environment in C. elegans Sex Determination , Science

Abstract: In Caenorhabditis elegans the two sexes, hermaphrodites and
males, are thought to be
irreversibly determined at fertilization by the ratio of X chromosomes to
sets of autosomes: XX
embryos develop as hermaphrodites and XO embryos as males. We show instead
that both sex and
genotype of C. elegans can be altered postembryonically and that this
flexibility requires sexual
reproduction. When grown in specific bacterial metabolites, some XX larvae
generated by mating
males and hermaphrodites develop as males and lose one X chromosome.
However, XX larvae produced by
hermaphrodite self-fertilization show no such changes. We propose that
sexual reproduction
increases developmental flexibility of progeny, allowing for better
adaptation to changing
environments.

* Roles for Mating and Environment in C. elegans Sex Determination, Veena
Prahlad , Dave Pilgrim ,
Elizabeth B. Goodwin , Science Nov 7 2003: 1046-1049


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11. Evolution Of Cultural Communication Systems: Genes Encoding Learning
Preferences , J.
Evolutionary Biol.

Abstract: In several communication systems that rely on social learning,
such as bird song, and
possibly human language, the range of signals that can be learned is
limited by perceptual biases -
predispositions - that are presumably based on genes. (...) we examine the
coevolution of such
genes with the culturally transmitted communication traits themselves,
using deterministic
population genetic models. We argue that examining how restrictive genetic
predispositions are is a
useful way of examining the evolutionary origin and maintenance of
learning. (...) In contrast,
cultural conformity (where the most common cultural trait is favoured)
leads to selection in favour
of more restrictive genes.

* Evolution Of Cultural Communication Systems: The Coevolution Of Cultural
Signals And Genes
Encoding Learning Preferences, R. F. Lachlan  , M. W. Feldman , Nov. 2003,
Journal of Evolutionary
Biology
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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11.01. Birds Can Put Two and Two Together , Science Now

Excerpts: Baby birds are all ears, and they remember what they hear.
White-crowned sparrows that
hatch in the late summer listen to the seasonal songs of nearby males.
After a silent winter,
(…), the young sparrows start to perform the song they heard as chicks
a year earlier.
Neuroscientists have searched in vain for neurons that harbor a song
"template"--cells that encode
a complete version of the bird's song. Instead, they've found neurons that
respond to a portion of
the song, usually a few notes, or syllables, at a time.

* Birds Can Put Two and Two Together, Laura Helmuth  , 03/11/11, Science Now


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12. Defence Against Multiple Enemies , J. Evolutionary Biol.

Abstract: Although very common under natural conditions, the consequences
of multiple enemies
(parasites, predators, herbivores, or even 'chemical' enemies like
insecticides) on investment in
defence has scarcely been investigated. In this paper, we present a simple
model of the joint
evolution of two defences targeted against two enemies. We illustrate how
the respective level of
each defence can be influenced by the presence of the two enemies. We show
that, depending on
certain conditions (costs, interference or synergy between defences), an
increase in selection
pressure by one enemy can have dramatic effects on defence against another
enemy.

* Defence Against Multiple Enemies, K. Poitrineau  , S. P. Brown  , M. E.
Hochberg , Nov. 2003,
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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13. What Do Neural Nets and Quantum Theory Tell Us about Mind and Reality?
, arXiv

Abstract: This paper proposes an approach to framing and answering
fundamental questions about
consciousness. It argues that many of the more theoretical debates about
consciousness, such as
debates about "when does it begin?", are misplaced and meaningless, in part
because "consciousness"
as a word has many valid and interesting definitions, and in part because
consciousness qua mind or
intelligence (the main focus here)is a matter of degree or level, not a
binary variable. It
proposes that new mathematical work related to functional neural network
designs -- designs so
functional that they can be used in engineering -- is essential to a
functional understanding of
intelligence as such, and outlines some key mathematics as of 1999, citing
earlier work for more
details. Quantum theory is relevant, but not in the simple ways proposed in
more popular
philosophies.

* What Do Neural Nets and Quantum Theory Tell Us about Mind and Reality?,
Paul J. Werbos ,
2003-11-7, DOI: q-bio.NC/0311006, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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14. Quantum Coherence in an Exchange-Coupled Dimer of Single-Molecule
Magnets , Science

Summary: One of the proposed architectures for quantum computing, the use
of nanomagnets as the
spin-based building blocks for qubits, is a step closer experimentally.
Hill et al. (p. 1015) show
that pairs of single molecular magnets (SMMs) can be assembled to form
coupled quantum systems that
exhibit coherent superposed states and sufficiently long coherence times
that could enable quantum
computing applications. The SMM approach may also offer a bottom-up,
self-assembled approach to
fabricating a quantum computer architecture.

* Quantum Coherence in an Exchange-Coupled Dimer of Single-Molecule
Magnets, Hill, S. , Edwards, R.
S. , Aliaga-Alcalde, N. , Christou, G. , 03/11/07, Science 2003 302: 1015-1018


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15. Femtophysics: Birth Of A Quasiparticle , Nature

Excerpts: Extremely close in time to the initial excitation, Hase et al.
have uncovered signatures
of the force exerted by the electronic charge on the lattice, and by the
lattice on the developing
quasiparticles. The most remarkable feature is a dip in their spectra
(…). The authors
attribute this to a so-called Fano interaction5, originating from a
coherent superposition of
phonons and the broad continuum of electronic excitations. Solid-state
physicists talk about
'quantum correlations' in this context; researchers from the field of
quantum optics might use the
term 'entanglement'.

* Femtophysics: Birth Of A Quasiparticle, Alfred Leitenstorfer  , 06
November 2003, DOI:
10.1038/426023b, Nature 426, 23 - 24


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16. Europe Exceeds U.S. in Refining Grid Computing , NYTimes

Excerpts: When the Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis needed a new
supercomputer for
designing drugs, the company found it already had one. It was hidden in the
unused computing power
the company had available in the thousands of PC's that were already being
used in its offices.

Novartis used American software technology to harness the power of its
office personal computers,
but European and American scientists and government officials said that
Europe was moving faster
than the United States to capitalize on the approach, which is called grid
computing.

* Europe Exceeds U.S. in Refining Grid Computing, John Markoff , Jennifer
L. Schenker  , 03/11/09


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17. Maybe Hanging Chads Weren't So Bad After All , NYTimes

Excerpts: (…) software is inspected and tested by election officials
before it's certified.
There's only one problem: Diebold engineers can slip in and make changes to
the software even AFTER
it's been certified.
(...) made no fewer than three rounds of software changes to the machines
in Georgia's 2002
election for governor--after the machines had been certified but before the
election began. (That
election "ended in a major upset that defied all polls and put a Republican
in the governor's seat
for the first time in more than 130 years.")

* Maybe Hanging Chads Weren't So Bad After All, David Pogue  , 03/11/13,
NYTimes


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17.01. Machine Politics in the Digital Age , NYTimes

Excerpts: "(…) I could put something in the software (…) would
change the votes from one
party to another. (…) ''
But Professor Dill says the inherent complexity of software code makes it
nearly impossible to
ensure that computerized elections are fair. He advocates that machines be
required to print out a
paper ballot, which voters can use to verify their selections and which
will serve as an audit
trail in the event of irregularities or recounts.
Touch-screen machines from Diebold, called AccuVotes, do not have such a
"voter verified" paper
trail.

* Machine Politics in the Digital Age, Melanie Warner  , 03/11/09, NYTimes


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18. US War Dead in Iraq Exceeds Early Vietnam Years , Reuters-Yahoo!

Excerpts: The U.S. death toll in Iraq (…) has surpassed the number of
American soldiers killed
during the first three years of the Vietnam War, the brutal Cold War
conflict that cast a shadow
over U.S. affairs for more than a generation.

A Reuters analysis of Defense Department statistics showed on Thursday that
the Vietnam War, which
the Army says officially began on Dec. 11, 1961, produced a combined 392
fatal casualties from 1962
through 1964, when American troop levels in Indochina stood at just over
17,000.

* US War Dead in Iraq Exceeds Early Vietnam Years, David Morgan,  ,
03/11/13, Reuters-Yahoo!


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18.01. Plan for Guerrilla Action May Have Predated War , NYTimes

Excerpts: American intelligence agencies have found increasing evidence
that the broad outlines of
the guerrilla campaign being waged against American forces in Iraq were
laid down before the war by
the Iraqi Intelligence Service, (…).
That view is based on interrogations of former senior Iraqi officials who
are now in American
custody and on documents found in Iraq, government officials said. They
acknowledged that
intelligence agencies had earlier underestimated the strength of the
resistance and the degree to
which it now appears to have reflected central planning and organization.

* Plan for Guerrilla Action May Have Predated War, Douglas Jehl  ,
03/11/15, NYTimes


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18.02. Op-Chart - How are things really going in Iraq? , NYTimes

Excerpts: That's a tricky question. First, it is inherently difficult to
measure progress in
counterinsurgency warfare and nation-building efforts. Second, reports of
the latest violence -
including the deaths of more than 50 American and other coalition troops in
the first two weeks of
November - and the highly partisan debate in Washington dominate the news
coverage, overshadowing
more in-depth analysis.
This chart, compiled largely using United States government information,
tracks a number of trends
in Iraq that can help shed light on how the situation is evolving.

* Op-Chart - How are things really going in Iraq?, Adriana Lins De
Albuquerque , Michael O'hanlon
  , 03/11/14, NYTimes


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18.03. A Scary Afghan Road , NYTimes

Excerpts: "Things are definitely deteriorating on the security front,"
notes Paul Barker, the
Afghan country director for CARE International. (…)

The opium boom is one indication of the downward spiral. The Taliban banned
opium production in
2000, so the 2001 crop was only 185 metric tons. The U.N. estimates that
this year's crop was 3,600
tons, the second-largest in Afghan history. The crop is worth twice the
Afghan government's annual
budget, and much of the profit will support warlords and the Taliban.

* A Scary Afghan Road, Nicholas D. Kristof  , 03/11/15, NYTimes


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18.04. The Sabotage of Democracy , NYTimes

Excerpts: The administration is now going to grant the Governing Council's
wish: it will become
more or less an autonomous provisional government. (…) This new
approach, the White House
hopes, will make Iraqis feel more responsible for their own fate, and thus
more willing to take
over security from coalition forces. In sum, the administration that waged
a war for democracy now
wants an exit strategy that is not at all dependent upon Iraq's democratic
progress.

(…) administration's efforts to improve internal security and midwife
democracy are now
seriously at odds.

* The Sabotage of Democracy, Reuel Marc Gerecht  , 03/11/14, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks





_________________________________________________________________

19.01. Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers , NYTimes

Excerpts: The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said on
Thursday that its deal
with the White House for access to highly classified Oval Office
intelligence reports would let the
White House edit the documents before they were released to the
commission's representatives.
(…) Two Democrats on the 10-member panel say that the commission
should have demanded full
access to the intelligence summaries, known as the President's Daily Brief,
and that the White
House should not be allowed to determine what is relevant to the investigation.

* Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers, Philip Shenon  ,
03/11/14, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19.02. Analysis: Guantánamo Case About Federal Turf , NYTimes

Excerpts: In its decision to accept the Guant嫕amo Bay prisoners'
appeals despite the Bush
administration's objections, the Supreme Court brushed past the "judges
keep out" fence the
administration had tried to erect around its open-ended detention policy.
(…)

Though it may not have been clear that the court was ready to join the
post-Sept. 11 debate, it now
appears that the administration laid down a challenge the justices were
unwilling to ignore. This
was a moment long in coming: the imperial presidency meets the imperial
judiciary.

* Analysis: Guantánamo Case About Federal Turf, Linda Greenhouse  ,
03/11/12, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

19.03. Terrorism and the U.S. Criminal Justice System , Brookings News

Excerpts: In a recent speech, Larry D. Thompson, former deputy attorney
general and now a Brookings
scholar, argued that success in fighting terrorism depends on public
confidence that the government
can ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice for all
Americans while carrying out
its essential and aggressive national security efforts.

* Terrorism and the U.S. Criminal Justice System, Larry Thompson  ,
03/10/12, Brookings News


_________________________________________________________________

20. Links & Snippets





_________________________________________________________________

20.01. Other Publications



- General-Purpose Computation With Neural Networks: A Survey Of Complexity
Theoretic Results, J.
íma  , P. Orponen , Dec. 2003, Neural Computation, DOI:
10.1162/089976603322518731
- Ships And Movies, P. B. Andersen pba@cs.auc.dk , 2003/10/23, Cognition,
Technology & Work
- Sharing The Mighty Mouse, Shepherd G. M. , Oct. 2003, Neuroinformatics
- Informatics Center For Mouse Genomics: The Dissection Of Complex Traits
Of The Nervous System,
Rosen G.D.  , La Porte N.T.  , Diechtiareff B.  , Pung C.J.  , Nissanov
J.  , Gustafson C.  ,
Bertrand L.  , Gefen S.  , Fan Y.  , Tretiak O.J.  , Manly K.F.  , Park
M.R.  , Williams A.G.  ,
Connolly M.T.  , Capra J.A.  , Williams R.W. , Oct. 2003, Neuroinformatics
- WebQTL: Web-Based Complex Trait Analysis, Wang J.  , Williams R. W.  ,
Manly K. F. , Oct. 2003,
Neuroinformatics
- Should Opposites Attract? - Bird Success Depends On Personality, F.
Rienks f.rienks@nioo.knaw.nl
, 2003/11/07, Alphagalileo
- Let Your Enemy Do The Work: Within-Host Interactions Between Two Fungal
Parasites Of Leaf-Cutting
Ants, W. O. H. Hughes  , J. J. Boomsma , 2003/11/10, Alphagalileo & Biology
Letters
- Evolutionary Dynamics Of Escape From Biomedical Intervention, Y. Iwasa  ,
F. Michor  , M. A.
Nowak , 2003/11/10, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
- Is Humanity Sustainable?, C. W. Fowler  , L. Hobbs , 2003/11/10,
Alphagalileo & Proceedings B
(Biological Sciences)
- Maternal Effects And The Response To Selection In Red Squirrels, A. G.
McAdam  , S. Boutin ,
2003/11/10, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
- New Studies Show Factors Responsible For Enhanced Response To Music,
2003/11/13, ScienceDaily &
Society For Neuroscience
- Illinois Researchers Create World's Fastest Transistor - Again,
2003/11/10, ScienceDaily &
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- How Parasites Divide Resources: A Test Of The Niche Apportionment
Hypothesis, D. Mouillot  , M.
G.-Nascimento  , Robert Poulin , Sep. 2003, Journal of Animal Ecology
- The Hurdle-Race Problem, S. Vanduffe  , J. Dhaene  , M. Goovaertsa  , R.
Kaas , 2003/10/20,
Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, DOI: 10.1016/j.insmatheco.2003.08.008
- Lessons from the Adventure in Iraq, Muqtedar Khan , 03/11/03, Brookings Views
- 'Reversible' Computers More Energy Efficient, Faster, 03/10/31, AScribe
- Misperceptions On the War, Michael O'Hanlon  , 03/11/05, The Washington Times
- Europe Exceeds U.S. in Refining Grid Computing, John Markoff , Jennifer
L. Schenker  , 03/11/10,
NYTimes
- Plastic Memory Promises Cheap, Dense Storage, Celeste Biever  , 03/11/13,
New Scientist
- Single Speaker Unit Creates Surround Sound , Will Knight  , 03/11/12, New
Scientist
- Why Do We Sleep?, Erica Goode  , 03/11/11, NYTimes
- How Did Life Begin?, Nicholas Wade  , 03/11/11, NYTimes
- Do Paranormal Phenomena Exist?, Kenneth Chang  , 03/11/11, NYTimes
- US Fossil Spins Web Of Intrigue, Helen Briggs
, BBC News Online
- Error-Prone Dna Polymerases: When Making a Mistake is the Only Way to Get
Ahead, Alison J.
Rattray , Jeffrey N. Strathern
, Annual Review of Genetics; Volume 37, Page 31 - 66
- Pseudogenes: Are They "Junk" or Functional DNA? , Evgeniy S. Balakirev ,
Francisco J. Ayala
, Annual Review of Genetics; Volume 37, Page 123 - 151
- Emerging Viral Infections In A Rapidly Changing World , Thijs Kuiken ,
Ron Fouchier , Guus
Rimmelzwaan , Albert Osterhaus
, 03/11/07, Current Opinion in Biotechnology. Emerging viral infections in
both humans and animals
have been reported with increased frequency in recent years. Recent
advances have been made in our
knowledge of some of these, including severe acute respiratory
syndrome-associated
coronavirus,(…)
- Coding And Learning Of Behavioral Sequences , Ofer Melamed , Wulfram
Gerstner , Wolfgang Maass ,
Misha Tsodyks , Henry Markram,

, Trends in Neurosciences, (November 07, 2003),
10.1016/S0166-2236(03)00373-4. A major challenge to
understanding behavior is how the nervous system allows the learning of
behavioral sequences that
can occur over arbitrary timescales, ranging from milliseconds up to
seconds, using a fixed
millisecond learning rule.
- Cheney Theme of Qaeda Ties to Iraq Bombings Are Questioned by Some, Eric
Schmitt  , 03/11/11,
NYTimes
- New C.I.A. Concerns on North Korean Weapons, David E. Sanger  , 03/11/09,
NYTimes. The Central
Intelligence Agency has told Congress that it now believes that North Korea
has mastered the
technology of turning its nuclear fuel into functioning weapons, without
having to prove their
effectiveness through nuclear tests.
- Suddenly, the end game, Wayne Brown  , 03/11/16, The Jamaica Observer.
Quipped comedian Jay Leno
recently: 'The United States is putting together a Constitution now for
Iraq. Why don't we just
give them ours? It's served us well for 200 years, and we don't appear to
be using it anymore, so
what the hell?'
- Planet hunters target nearby star, Helen Briggs  , BBC News Online. A
little-known star about 42
light-years away is the top target for European astronomers searching for
planets that might
harbour life.
- Liquid Trust, Does a hormone let us known when others trust us?, Greg
Miller  , 03/11/11, Science
Now
- Nonlinear Optics in Fibers, Linn F. Mollenauer
, Science Nov 7 2003: 996-997
- Sewage Linked To Fish-Gender Quirks, Science News, Vol. 164, No. 19,
03/11/08, Also available in

Audible format . Releases from sewage treatment plants appear to impair
reproductive tissues in
fish.
- Pollutants Shape Baby-Gator Gonads, Science News, Vol. 164, No. 19,
03/11/08, Also available in

Audible format . The same pollutants that appear to shorten the length of a
grown-alligator's
phallus actually lead to this organ's lengthening in baby gators.
- Getting Back to Normal: Protein Enables The Liver To Regenerate Quickly,
Science News, Vol. 164,
No. 19, 03/11/08, Also available in
Audible format . A protein called stem cell factor enables the liver to
regenerate and may even
protect people from acute liver failure.
- Hot and Heavy Star Birth: Young Cosmos Delivers Massive Stars, Science
News, Vol. 164, No. 19,
03/11/08, Also available in
Audible format . Aided by a gravitational zoom lens, astronomers have
discovered the hottest,
brightest, and most crowded star-forming region ever observed.
- The Immune Response Of Drosophila , Jules A. Hoffmann  , 06 November
2003, Nature 426, 33 - 38,
DOI: 10.1038/nature02021
- Research On ESL Children Has Surprising Results, Beth Potie  , 03/11/13,
Harvard University
Gazette, GSE's Nonie Lesaux says non-native speaking kindergartners may
read better
- Forgetting To Remember: Emotion Robs Memory While Reviving It, Science
News, Vol. 164, No. 19,
03/11/08, Also available in
Audible format . A common biological mechanism may boost memory for
emotional events and block
recall for what happened just before those events occurred, at least over
the short run.
- The Shape of Space, Science News, Vol. 164, No. 19, 03/11/08, Also
available in
Audible format . The debate over the shape of space has taken some new
twists with the analysis of
satellite snapshots of the universe's temperature waves.



_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements


   Presentation Webcasts from Scientific Sessions 2003,
   American Heart Association
   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
   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)
   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
   13th Ann Intl Conf,
   Soc f Chaos Theory in Psych & Life Sciences, Boston, MA, USA,
   2003/08/08-10
   CERN
   Webcast Service, Streamed videos of Archived Lectures and
   Live Events
   Dean
   LeBaron's Archive of Daily Video Commentary, Ongoing Since
   February 1998
   Edge Videos





_________________________________________________________________

20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements


   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

   Images
   of the Sciences and Scientists in Visual Media, New
   York, NY, 03/11/21-22

   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

   Intl Wkshp Networks
   of Interacting Machines: Industrial Production Systems and
   Biological Cells, Berlin, Germany, 03/12/11-13

   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
   (AKSOE), 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

   The
   9th IEEE Intl Conf on Engineering of Complex
   Computer Systems, Florence, Italy, 04/04/14-16

   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

   Dynamic
   Ontology, An Inquiry into Systems, Emergence, Levels of
   Reality, and Forms of Causality, Trento, Italy,
   04/09/08-11

   9th
   Intl Conf on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems
   (ALIFE9), Boston, Massachusetts, 04/09/12-15

   The
   8th Intl Conf 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.





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