复杂性文摘 NO：2004.29

Complexity Digest 2004.29

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. Hawking Cracks Black Hole Paradox, NewScientist
01.01. Hawking Revises Theory On Escaping Black Holes, CBC.CA News
02. The Scientific Impact Of Nations, Nature
02.01. Science Education: Doing It For The Kid, Nature
02.02. Goal Setting And Cheating: Why They Often Go Together In The Workplace,
Knowledge@Wharton
03. Unbinding Biological Autonomy: Francisco Varela  Contributions to
Artificial Life, Artificial Life
04. Complexity In The Oil Market, Interciencia
05. Complexity Results For Flow-Shop And Open-Shop Scheduling Problems With
Transportation Delays, Annals Op. Res.
05.01. Scheduling with Fuzzy Methods, arXiv
06. Entrepreneurship, Chaos and the Tourism Area Lifecycle, Annals of Tourism
Research
06.01. On The Computational Complexity Of Consumer Decision Rules,
Computational Economics
07. A Survey Of Publication Bias Within Evolutionary Ecology, Alphagalileo &
Biol. Lett.
08. Simulation and Experiment of Extinction or Adaptation, arXiv
09. Migrating Birds Offer Insight Into Sleep, ScienceDaily
09.01. Hormone Boost That Helps Female Fish Tune In To Males' Love Songs,
Cornell News Release
09.02. Neural Constraints On The Complexity Of Avian Song, Brain, Behav. &
Evol.
10. Robotics, Motor Learning, And Neurologic Recovery, Annual Review of
Biomedical Engineering
11. Honey Bee Nest Thermoregulation: Diversity Promotes Stability, Science
12. Population Ecology: A Three-Player Solution, Nature
12.01. The Combined Effects Of Pathogens And Predators On Insect Outbreaks,
Nature
13. Embryology: Plane Talk, Nature
13.01. Plant Biology: Good Neighbours, Nature
14. Developmental Biology: Heading Away From The Rump, Nature
14.01. Fractal Patterns Of Early Life Revealed, NewScientist
15. Blood Traffic Control, Nature
16. Robots (Probably) Won  Turn Against Humanity, Experts Say in Their
Defense, The New York Sun
16.01. Polite Computers Win Users' Hearts And Minds, NewScientist
17. Devastated by AIDS, Africa Sees Life Expectancy Plunge, NY Times
17.01. An Emerging Catastrophe, NY Times
18. Reconsidering E-Voting, NY Times
18.01. When Elections Threaten Democracy, NY Times
18.02. Afghan President Describes Militias as the Top Threat, NY Times
19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks
19.01. Can The C.I.A. Really Be That Bad?, NY Times
19.02. Dress Code May Hinder Their Work, Air Marshals Say, NY Times
19.03. Al Qaida Evolves Into Regional Networks, Middle East Newsline
20. Links & Snippets
20.01. Other Publications
20.02. Webcast Announcements
20.03. Conference & Call for Papers Announcements

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01. Hawking Cracks Black Hole Paradox , NewScientist

Excerpts: After nearly 30 years of arguing that a black hole destroys
everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking is saying he was wrong. It seems
that black holes may after all allow information within them to escape. (...)

It was Hawking's own work that created the paradox. In 1976, he calculated that
once a black hole forms, it starts losing mass by radiating energy. This
"Hawking radiation" contains no information about the matter inside the black
hole and once the black hole evaporates, all information is lost.

* Hawking Cracks Black Hole Paradox, Jenny Hogan  , 04/07/14, New Scientist


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01.01. Hawking Revises Theory On Escaping Black Holes , CBC.CA News

Excerpts: He theorized that once a black hole forms, it never releases
information about the matter it has gobbled up.

This "Hawking radiation" created a paradox, because the laws of quantum physics
say such information can never be completely destroyed.

Hawking now says some of the information can be determined by what a black hole
emits.

"A black hole only appears to form but later opens up and releases information
about what fell inside," (...) "So we can be sure of the past and predict the
future."

* Hawking Revises Theory On Escaping Black Holes, 04/07/16, CBC.CA News


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02. The Scientific Impact Of Nations , Nature

Excerpts: What different countries get for their research spending.

The ability to judge a nation's scientific standing is vital for the
governments, businesses and trusts that must decide scientific priorities and
funding. In this paper I analyse the output and outcomes from research
investment over the past decade, to measure the quality of research on national
scales and to set it in an international context. There are many ways to
evaluate the quality of scientific research, but few have proved satisfactory.

* The Scientific Impact Of Nations, David A. King  , 04/07/15, DOI:
10.1038/430311a, Nature 430, 311 - 316


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02.01. Science Education: Doing It For The Kid , Nature

Excerpts: A few brave postdocs are mixing science with school teaching.

In collaboration with the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, it offers
three-year contracts to postdoctoral researchers, combined with a
teacher-training course. Richard Sykes, former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline and
current rector of Imperial College, is the driving force behind the scheme,
which began in September 2002. Since joining Imperial in 2001, he has become
concerned by the shrinking pool of science applicants.

Sykes believes that INSPIRE can shape the next generation of scientists while
they are still in the classroom.

* Science Education: Doing It For The Kid, Mark Peplow  , 04/07/15, DOI:
10.1038/430286a, Nature 430, 286 - 287


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02.02. Goal Setting And Cheating: Why They Often Go Together In The Workplace ,
Knowledge@Wharton

Excerpts: From childhood on, individuals are told that setting goals for
themselves will make them more diligent, more focused and generally more
successful (...).
But goal-setting also has a dark side to it (...). In addition to motivating
constructive behavior, goal setting ?especially when it involves rewards ?can
motivate unethical behavior when people fall short of the goals they set or
that are set for them. The relationship between goal setting and unethical
behavior is particularly strong when people fall just short of reaching the
goal.

* Goal Setting And Cheating: Why They Often Go Together In The Workplace, ,
04/07/15, Knowledge@Wharton


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03. Unbinding Biological Autonomy: Francisco Varela  Contributions to
Artificial Life , Artificial Life

Excerpts: To say that artificial life is a young discipline in name only is to
exaggerate, but it would be mistaken to think that its goals are new. The
marriage of synthetic scientific aims with computational techniques makes
artificial life a product of the last fifteen years, but its motivations have
much deeper roots in cybernetics, theoretical biology, and the age-old drive to
comprehend the mysteries of life and mind. (...) What is an organism? What is
cognition? Where do purposes come from?
See Also:  Artificial Life 10(3): Special Issue on Francisco Varela's
contributions to ALife ComDig Webcast: From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology:
A Tribute to Francisco Varela

* Unbinding Biological Autonomy: Francisco Varela  Contributions to Artificial
Life, Ezequeil A. Di Paolo http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/users/ezequiel/,
Summer 2004, DOI: nlin.CD/0407029, Artificial Life 10(3)
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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04. Complexity In The Oil Market , Interciencia

Abstract: Commodity prices are very difficult to predict. (....) ... the
pattern of the time series for the prices and volumes of Brent crude oil sold
in the London International Exchange, was analyzed using non linear analysis
techniques developed for complex systems. (...) the variations in the price
index and volume of oil exchanged are not random and differ among them. The
variations of prices are asymmetric regarding time, showing higher odds for
large decreases compared to increases in price. The price index values show
more or less stable short periods in time, suggesting strong historic
constrains for prices but not for volumes.

* Complexity In The Oil Market, Levy S. , Sabelli H. , Jaffe K.  ,
Interciencia. 2004. Vol. 29 (6): 320-323

Contributed by Angel Garcia




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05. Complexity Results For Flow-Shop And Open-Shop Scheduling Problems With
Transportation Delays , Annals Op. Res.

Excerpts: We consider shop problems with transportation delays where not only
the jobs on the machines have to be scheduled, but also transportation of the
jobs between the machines has to be taken into account. Jobs consisting of a
given number of operations have to be processed on machines (...).
Transportation delays occur if a job changes from one machine to another. The
objective is to find a feasible schedule which minimizes some objective
function. A survey of known complexity results for flow-shop and open-shop
environments is given and some new complexity results are derived.

* Complexity Results For Flow-Shop And Open-Shop Scheduling Problems With
Transportation Delays: Models And Algorithms For Planning And Scheduling
Problems, Brucker P. peter@mathematik.uni-osnabrueck.de , Knust S.
sigrid@mathematik.uni-osnabrueck.de , Cheng T. C. E. mscheng@polyu.edu.hk ,
Shakhlevich N. V. ns@comp.leeds.ac.uk , Jul. 2004, DOI:
10.1023/B:ANOR.0000030683.64615.c8, Annals of Operations Research
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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05.01. Scheduling with Fuzzy Methods , arXiv

Abstract: Nowadays, manufacturing industries -- driven by fierce competition
and rising customer requirements -- are forced to produce a broader range of
individual products of rising quality at the same (or preferably lower) cost.
Meeting these demands implies an even more complex production process and thus
also an appropriately increasing request to its scheduling. Aggravatingly,
vagueness of scheduling parameters -- such as times and conditions -- are often
inherent in the production process. In addition, the search for an optimal
schedule normally leads to very difficult problems (NP-hard problems in the
complexity theoretical sense), which cannot be solved effciently. With the
intent to minimize these problems, the introduced heuristic method combines
standard scheduling methods with fuzzy methods to get a nearly optimal schedule
within an appropriate time considering vagueness adequately.

* Scheduling with Fuzzy Methods, Wolfgang Anthony Eiden , 2004/07/12, DOI:
cs.OH/0407030, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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06. Entrepreneurship, Chaos and the Tourism Area Lifecycle , Annals of Tourism
Research

Abstract: Entrepreneurship is a critical factor in tourism development, both
globally and regionally. However, inadequate methodological tools have impeded
its study. Chaos and complexity theory provides a valuable perspective to
destination development research especially when combined with the Tourism Area
Lifecycle Model. The synthesis creates a framework that takes into account
different types of entrepreneurial activity while highlighting elements of
turbulence, change, and, unpredictability. This paper provides an example of
the development of two Australian destinations, illustrating how entrepreneurs
took advantage of chaos and turbulence, and applied their creativity in a
manner that gave one destination a competitive advantage over the other.

* Entrepreneurship, Chaos and the Tourism Area Lifecycle, Roslyn Russell , Bill
Faulkner , 2004/07, DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2004.01.008, Annals of Tourism
Research 31(3):556-579
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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06.01. On The Computational Complexity Of Consumer Decision Rules ,
Computational Economics

Abstract: A consumer entering a new bookstore can face more than 250,000
alternatives. The efficiency of compensatory and noncompensatory decision rules
for finding a preferred item depends on the efficiency of their associated
information operators. At best, item-by-item information operators lead to
linear computational complexity; set information operators, on the other hand,
can lead to constant complexity. We perform an experiment demonstrating that
subjects are approximately rational in selecting between sublinear and linear
rules. Many markets are organized by attributes that enable consumers to employ
a set-selection-by-aspect rule using set information operations. In cyberspace
decision rules are encoded as decision aids.

* On The Computational Complexity Of Consumer Decision Rules, A. Norman  , A.
Ahmed  , J. Chou  , A. Dalal  , K. Fortson  , M. Jindal  , C. Kurz  , H. Lee  ,
K. Payne  , R. Rando  , K. Sheppard  , E. Sublett  , J. Sussman  , I. White ,
Mar. 2004, DOI: 10.1023/B:CSEM.0000021676.64701.12, Computational Economics
* Contributed by Pritha Das


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07. A Survey Of Publication Bias Within Evolutionary Ecology , Alphagalileo &
Biol. Lett.

Abstract: Publication bias can be a serious research problem if results of
published studies consistently differ from any results that are left
unpublished. Cassey and colleagues used information gathered in a recent
meta-analysis of facultative sex ratio adjustment in birds (Proc. R. Soc., B
271: 1277-1282) to assess the magnitude of publication bias that can manifest
when a difference exists between results that are published with and without
statistical information of the strength or direction of research findings. The
authors show that publication bias is a persistent problem in evolutionary
ecology literature and suggest authors and editors should respond to this.

* A Survey Of Publication Bias Within Evolutionary Ecology, P. B. Cassey  , J.
G. Ewen  , T. M Blackburn  , A. P. M ler , 2004/07/12, Alphagalileo & Biology
Letters
* Contributed by Atin Das


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08. Simulation and Experiment of Extinction or Adaptation , arXiv

Abstract: Can unicellular organisms survive a drastic temperature change, and
adapt to it after many generations? In simulations of the Penna model of
biological ageing, both extinction and adaptation were found for asexual and
sexual reproduction as well as for parasex. These model investigations are the
basis for the design of evolution experiments with heterotrophic flagellates.

* Simulation and Experiment of Extinction or Adaptation, D. Stauffer , H. Arndt
, 2004/07/15, DOI: q-bio.PE/0407025, arXiv
* Contributed by Carlos Gershenson


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09. Migrating Birds Offer Insight Into Sleep , ScienceDaily

Excerpts: A newly published study (...) points the way to solving (...)
mysteries: how birds that migrate thousands of miles every year accomplish the
feat on very little sleep and what that ability means for humans who are
seriously sleep-deprived or face significant sleep problems. The study (...)
found that a group of sparrows studied in the laboratory dramatically reduced
how long they slept during the time they would ordinarily be migrating. But
(...) perform normally despite their sleep deprivation. During times when the
birds were not migrating, however, sleep deprivation appeared to impair their
performance - similar to what happens to sleep-deprived humans. (...)

* Migrating Birds Offer Insight Into Sleep, 2004/07/14, ScienceDaily &
University Of Wisconsin-Madison
* Contributed by Atin Das


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09.01. Hormone Boost That Helps Female Fish Tune In To Males' Love Songs ,
Cornell News Release

Excerpts: Without enough estrogen-like hormone in their systems, female
plainfin midshipman fish turn a deaf ear to the alluring love songs of the
males. And, according to Cornell University biologists, a similar
steroid-sensitive response could underlie changes in the hearing sensitivity of
humans. The biologists experimentally boosted levels of the steroid hormone in
non-reproductive females of the fish species Porichthys notatus, temporarily
altering their inner-ear auditory mechanism so they could hear the males'
hum-like advertisement call that says, essentially: "I have prepared a nest
under a rock in shallow water, so deposit your eggs for me to fertilize, and
together we'll make beautiful small fry."

* Hormone Boost That Helps Female Fish Tune In To Males' Love Songs , 04/07/17,
Cornell News Release
* AUDIO - Sounds of the Humming Fish


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09.02. Neural Constraints On The Complexity Of Avian Song , Brain, Behav. &
Evol.

Excerpts: Why do birds sing? In many species, because the song attracts or
retains a mate. Why do females pay attention? This paper reviews evidence that
females may do so because male song can be an honest indicator of attributes of
a male's brain that could contribute to his fitness (...). Male songbirds learn
and produce their songs using a set of brain regions collectively known as the
song system. The learning has distinct auditory and motor components, and
current data suggest that the neural changes that encode these forms of
learning primarily occur in different subdivisions of the song system. (...)

* Neural Constraints On The Complexity Of Avian Song, T. J. DeVoogd , Apr.
2004, DOI: 10.1159/000076783, Brain, Behavior and Evolution
* Contributed by Atin Das


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10. Robotics, Motor Learning, And Neurologic Recovery , Annual Review of
Biomedical Engineering

Excerpts: Robotic devices are helping shed light on human motor control in
health and injury. By using robots to apply novel force fields to the arm,
investigators are gaining insight into how the nervous system models its
external dynamic environment. (...) Robots can haptically assess sensorimotor
performance, administer training, quantify amount of training, and improve
motor recovery. In addition to providing insight into motor control, robotic
paradigms may eventually enhance motor learning and rehabilitation beyond the
levels possible with conventional training techniques.

* Robotics, Motor Learning, And Neurologic Recovery, David J. Reinkensmeyer ,
Jeremy L. Emken , Steven C. Cramer

, Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering; Volume 6, Page 497 - 525


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11. Honey Bee Nest Thermoregulation: Diversity Promotes Stability , Science

Excerpts: A honey bee colony is characterized by high genetic diversity among
its workers, generated by high levels of multiple mating by its queen. (...).
Here we show that brood nest temperatures in genetically diverse colonies
(i.e., those sired by several males) tend to be more stable than in genetically
uniform ones (i.e., those sired by one male). One reason this increased
stability arises is because genetically determined diversity in workers'
temperature response thresholds modulates the hive-ventilating behavior of
individual workers, preventing excessive colony-level responses to temperature
fluctuations.

* Honey Bee Nest Thermoregulation: Diversity Promotes Stability, Julia C.
Jones, Mary R. Myerscough, Sonia Graham, and Benjamin P. Oldroyd
, 04/07/16, DOI: 10.1126/science.1096340, Science : 402-404. Published online
24 June 2004


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12. Population Ecology: A Three-Player Solution , Nature

Excerpts: Mathematical models based on experimental data can provide insights
about the extent to which these different factors are at play. Beyond this,
however, there are some strange circumstances in need of an explanation. For
example, of the approximately 80 different forest species of moths and
butterflies (Lepidoptera) that exhibit large outbreaks, at least 18 are to some
degree cyclical. That is, outbreaks recur in a regular fashion, and although
not perfectly cyclical they have an average periodicity of 8?4 years.

* Population Ecology: A Three-Player Solution, Lewi Stone  , 04/07/15, DOI:
10.1038/430299a, Nature 430, 299 - 300


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12.01. The Combined Effects Of Pathogens And Predators On Insect Outbreaks ,
Nature

Excerpts: The economic damage caused by episodic outbreaks of
forest-defoliating insects has spurred much research, yet why such outbreaks
occur remains unclear. (...)Here we show that insect outbreaks can be explained
by a model that includes both a generalist predator and a specialist pathogen.
In this host athogen redator model, stochasticity causes defoliator densities
to fluctuate erratically between an equilibrium maintained by the predator, and
cycles driven by the pathogen. Outbreaks in this model occur at long but
irregular intervals, matching the data. (...) consider interactions among
multiple species.

* The Combined Effects Of Pathogens And Predators On Insect Outbreaks, Greg
Dwyer , Jonathan Dushoff , Susan Harrell Yee  , 04/07/15, DOI:
10.1038/nature02569, Nature 430, 341 - 345


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13. Embryology: Plane Talk , Nature

Excerpts: In mammals, is the three-dimensional body plan ingrained in the egg
at or before fertilization? The answer is 'maybe, but then again maybe not'.
Less invasive techniques might help to resolve matters.

Hans Spemann neatly summed up the importance of embryonic axes for correct
animal development: "We are standing and walking with parts of our body which
could have been used for thinking had they developed in another part of the
embryo." But how and when are the embryonic axes established?

* Embryology: Plane Talk, Gerald Schatten , Peter Donovan  , 04/07/15, DOI:
10.1038/430301a, Nature 430, 301 - 302


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13.01. Plant Biology: Good Neighbours , Nature

Excerpts:
* Plant Biology: Good Neighbours, Laura Serna  , 04/07/15, DOI:
10.1038/430302a, Nature 430, 302 - 304


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14. Developmental Biology: Heading Away From The Rump , Nature

Excerpts: Plants depend on structures called stomata to regulate gas exchange
with the air, and their positioning is crucial. A key factor controlling
stomatal development and arrangement has now been found.

We all need good neighbours, but plant guard cells need them more than most.
Destined to remain where they are produced, these cells cannot function
efficiently without help from adjacent cells. (...) a recently identified
enzyme in the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, christened YODA (YDA), is
crucial to the formation and arrangement of stomata.

* Developmental Biology: Heading Away From The Rump, Ray Keller  , 04/07/15,
DOI: 10.1038/430305a, Nature 430, 305 - 306


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14.01. Fractal Patterns Of Early Life Revealed , NewScientist

Excerpts: Newly uncovered fossils reveal in extraordinary clarity the
strangeness of the Earth's earliest complex life.

The finds show that the organisms were assembled in fractal patterns from
frond-like building blocks. They were unable to move and had no reproductive
organs, perhaps reproducing by dropping off new fronds.

The creatures, which were neither animals or plants, are called "rangeomorphs".
They first appeared on the ocean floor 575 million years ago, after the last
global glaciation, and were among the first of the soft-bodied creatures in the
Ediacaran period.



This fractal-like "colony" of tubes is about 1.5 cm across and 2.5 cm long
(Image: Science)



* Fractal Patterns Of Early Life Revealed, Jeff Hecht  , 04/07/15, NewScientist


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15. Blood Traffic Control , Nature

Excerpts: Red blood cell vasodilation: nitric oxide and haemoglobin help to
match blood flow to metabolic demand.

Textbook ideas regarding the delivery of oxygen to the body's tissues tend to
focus on the cooperativity in the binding and release of oxygen from the
transport protein haemoglobin. (...) ?the main determinant of oxygen delivery
is blood flow.

In the microcirculation, blood flow is regulated by physiological oxygen
gradients. The progressive decrease in the oxygen content of blood (...) as the
diameter of the arteriolar blood vessels decreases is coupled to graded
vasodilation.

* Blood Traffic Control, David J. Singel , Jonathan S. Stamler  , 04/07/15,
DOI: 10.1038/430297, Nature 430, 297


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16. Robots (Probably) Won  Turn Against Humanity, Experts Say in Their Defense
, The New York Sun

Excerpts: SIMO is designed by people. It  designed to help people,?(...).
t  designed to do good.?

  The robots in the film are also designed to do good, (...) robots can
possibly harm humans because of the three laws of robotics encoded into their
computerized brains. The first law is not to harm people; the second is to obey
people as long as doing so doesn  conflict with the first law, and the third
is that the robot should protect itself as long as it doesn  conflict with the
first two laws.

* Robots (Probably) Won  Turn Against Humanity, Experts Say in Their Defense,
Eric Wolff  , 04/07/14, The New York Sun


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16.01. Polite Computers Win Users' Hearts And Minds , NewScientist

Excerpts: Computer glitches would be a lot less annoying if the machines were
programmed to acknowledge errors gracefully when something goes wrong, instead
of merely flashing up a brusque "you goofed" message.

The trick, according to a researcher who has analysed users' responses to their
computers, is to make operating systems and software more "civilised" by saying
sorry more often. That way people won't feel they are stupid or at fault, so
they become less apprehensive about using computers, and perhaps more
productive and creative.

* Polite Computers Win Users' Hearts And Minds, Celeste Biever  , 04/07/17, New
Scientist


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17. Devastated by AIDS, Africa Sees Life Expectancy Plunge , NY Times

Excerpts: Africa is getting poorer and hungrier as life expectancy continues
its steep decline in the countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic, (...). It
said infants born now in seven nations with high rates of H.I.V. infection
could expect to live less than 40 years.

The report, by the United Nations Development Program, also said the
sub-Saharan African region as a whole was getting poorer, with the prospect
that rising numbers of Africans will subsist on less than $1 a day in the years
to come.

* Devastated by AIDS, Africa Sees Life Expectancy Plunge, Celia W. Dugger  ,
04/07/16, NYTimes


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17.01. An Emerging Catastrophe , NY Times

Excerpts: The staggering level of joblessness among black men mocks the very
idea of stable communities. (...)

A new study of black male employment trends has come up with the following
extremely depressing finding: "By 2002, one of every four black men in the U.S.
was idle all year long. This idleness rate was twice as high as that of white
and Hispanic males." (...)
It is believed that up to 10 percent of the black male population under age 40
is incarcerated.

* An Emerging Catastrophe, Bob Herbert  , 04/07/19, NYTimes


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18. Reconsidering E-Voting , NY Times

Excerpts: (...) a nefarious programmer could escape detection by exploiting the
write-in candidate feature of every touchscreen voting machine. (You tap the
Write-In button, and then type on-screen keys to enter your write-in's name.)
Dill points out that the trigger for switching the software into
election-stealing mode could be writing in "an implausible candidate name. How
about a last minute campaign to write in a joke candidate? The joke candidate
wouldn't be in the tests, and voters wouldn't even know they were triggering
the code." (See also: Voting-Expert Roundtable Transcript

* Reconsidering E-Voting, David Pogue  , 04/07/15, NYTimes


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18.01. When Elections Threaten Democracy , NY Times

Excerpts: In the rush to hold elections in Afghanistan, basic democratic
principles are being wholly ignored or bypassed. (...)


Moreover, the territorial boundaries for the district-level elections have yet
to be ascertained. Having open hearings in order to avoid gerrymandering is a
mere afterthought at this point. And the few months postponement in the
elections won't be much help ?measuring voting boundaries during winter is
virtually impossible, as most of the country becomes inaccessible. Thus, the
delay only increases already heightened suspicions against unchecked
presidential powers.

* When Elections Threaten Democracy, Ansar Rahel  , 04/07/19, NYTimes


_________________________________________________________________

18.02. Afghan President Describes Militias as the Top Threat , NY Times

Excerpts: President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that Afghanistan's private
militias had become the country's greatest danger -- greater than the Taliban
insurgency -- and that new action was required to disarm ... ''We tried to do
it by persuasion,'' Mr. Karzai said in an interview with The New York Times
(...)

* Afghan President Describes Militias as the Top Threat, Carlotta Gall , David
Rohde  , 04/0712, NYTimes


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19. Complex Challenges: Global Terrorist Networks





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19.01. Can The C.I.A. Really Be That Bad? , NY Times

Excerpts: (...) a score of 33 percent is not a passing grade. (...) In
particular, the agencies' willingness to trust human sources whose credibility
should have been much more suspect was a serious institutional error. And, on
the status of Iraq's nuclear program, the agencies clearly stopped looking at
the evidence and bought into Washington groupthink.
Even if they were not directly pressured by the Bush administration, many
analysts do seem to have wanted to please the White House a bit too much.

* Can The C.I.A. Really Be That Bad?, Michael O'Hanlon , 7/13/04, The New York
Times


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19.02. Dress Code May Hinder Their Work, Air Marshals Say , NY Times

Excerpts: The dress code imposed by the Department of Homeland Security makes
federal air marshals uneasy that it is too easy for terrorists to spot them.

(...) a dress code was put in place in April 2002 after the airline industry
complained that air marshals' attire was too casual. (...)

"In order to gain respect in a situation, you must be attired to gain respect,"
(...). He said if air marshals were allowed to be too casual in their dress,
"they probably would not gain the respect of passengers (...)."

* Dress Code May Hinder Their Work, Air Marshals Say, Brian Wingfield  ,
04/07/17, NYTimes


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19.03. Al Qaida Evolves Into Regional Networks , Middle East Newsline

Excerpts: Al Qaida has adjusted to the U.S.-led war by transforming into
regional autonomous networks.

A report said Al Qaida has become a different organization over the last 32
months in wake of the suicide strikes on New York and Washington. Without its
haven in Afghanistan, Al Qaida has decentralized with an emerging presence in
Iraq.

"Al Qaida has adjusted to the relentless assault on its leadership structure by
devolving into a set of regional networks -- each with its own political agenda
and operational schedule (...)

Contributed by Hugh Trenchard

* Al Qaida Evolves Into Regional Networks, 04/07/19, Middle East Newsline
Contributed by Hugh Trenchard



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20. Links & Snippets





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20.01. Other Publications



- Brains, Innovations And Evolution In Birds And Primates, L. Lefebvre
louis.lefebvre@mcgill.ca , S. M. Reader  , D. Sol , Apr. 2004, Brain, Behavior
and Evolution, DOI: 10.1159/000076784
- Causes And Consequences Of Limited Attention, R. Dukas , Apr. 2004, Brain,
Behavior and Evolution, DOI: 10.1159/000076781
- Spatial Learning And Memory In Birds, S. D. Healya s.healy@ed.ac.uk , T. A.
Hurlyb , Apr. 2004, Brain, Behavior and Evolution, DOI: 10.1159/000076782
- Circular Languages, H. Leitgeb hannes.leitgeb@sbg.ac.at , A. Hieke
alexander.hieke@sbg.ac.at , Summer 2004, Journal of Logic, Language and
Information, DOI: 10.1023/B:JLLI.0000028335.19112.1d
- Large-Scale Geographical Variation Confirms That Climate Change Causes Birds
To Lay Earlier, C. Both  , A. V. Artemyev  , B. Blaauw  , R. J. Cowie  , A. J.
Dekhuizen  , T. Eeva  , A. Enemar  , L. Gustafsson  , E. V. Ivankina  , J.
J vinen  , N. B. Metcalfe  , N. E. I. Nyholm  , J. Potti  , P. A. Ravussin  ,
J. J. Sanz  , B. Silverin  , F. M. Slater  , L. V. Sokolov  , J. T   , W.
Winkel  , J. Wright  , H. Zang  , M. E. Visser , 2004/07/12, Alphagalileo &
Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
- Dynamical Mechanisms For Skeletal Pattern Formation In The Vertebrate Limb,
H. G. E. Hentschel  , T. Glimm  , J. A. Glazier  , S. A. Newman , 2004/07/12,
Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
- Genome Size And Extinction Risk In Vertebrates, A. E. Vinogradov ,
2004/07/12, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
- Multiple Origins Of Parasitism In Lice, K. P. Johnson  , K Yoshizawa  , V. S.
Smith , 2004/07/12, Alphagalileo & Proceedings B (Biological Sciences)
- Will Computers Think, Machines Invent, And Humans Live Forever?, J. Harris
jharris@wiley.co.uk , 2004/07/15, Alphagalileo
- Powerful Market Forces Over-Rule Science Ethics, Says Nobel Laureate, E.
Snell elaine.snell@which.net , 2004/07/16, Alphagalileo & BioScience2004
- Activity Of Enzyme That Affects Mood Decreased In Brains Of Teenage Suicide
Victims, 2004/07/12, ScienceDaily & Journal Of The American Medical Association
- Is Small Different? Not Necessarily Say Georgia Tech Researchers, 2004/07/13,
ScienceDaily & Georgia Institute Of Technology
- Study Shows Vitamins C And E Can Prevent Metabolic Damaage In Extreme
Exercise, 2004/07/15, ScienceDaily & Oregon State University
- Memory Consolidation And Forgetting During Sleep: A Neural Network, R. Walker
richard.walker@unina2.it , V. Russo , Apr. 2004, Neural Processing Letters,
DOI: 10.1023/B:NEPL.0000023445.96334.eb
- LSISOM - A Latent Semantic Indexing Approach to Self-Organizing Maps of
Document Collections, N. Ampazis n.ampazis@fme.aegean.gr , S. J. Perantonis
sper@iit.demokritos.gr , Apr. 2004, Neural Processing Letters, DOI:
10.1023/B:NEPL.0000023449.95030.8f
- Restricted Complexity Framework For Nonlinear Adaptive Control In Complex
Systems, R. B. Williams , Feb. 2004, AIP Conference Proceedings, DOI:
10.1063/1.1649624
- Physical Activity And Genetic Influences In Risk Factors And Aging: A Study
On Twins, M. Pittaluga  , B. Casini  , P. Parisi , Jul. 2004, International
Journal of Sports Medicine, DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2004.04.013
- An Agent-based Intelligent Environmental Monitoring System, Ioannis N
Athanasiadis , Pericles A Mitkas , 2004/07/10, arXiv, DOI: cs.MA/0407024
- Brownian Motion and Diffusion: From Stochastic Processes to Chaos and Beyond,
Fabio Cecconi , Massimo Cencini , Massimo Falcioni , Angelo Vulpiani ,
2004/07/13, arXiv, DOI: nlin.CD/0407029
- Base of Nonlinear Dynamics or Real Dynamics, Ideal Dynamics, Unpredictable
Dynamics and "Schrodinger cat", Oleg Kupervasser , 2004/07/02, arXiv, DOI:
nlin.CD/0407033
- Intelligent Agents and Data Mining for Cognitive Systems, Ning Zhong , Jiming
Liu , Ron Sun , 2004/09, Cognitive Systems Research 5(3):169-170. Special Issue
on Intelligent Agents and Data Mining for Cognitive Systems, DOI:
10.1016/j.cogsys.2004.03.002
- Dust Worms Hold The Key To Planet Formation, Maggie McKee  , 04/07/13, New
Scientist, A six-minute experiment aboard an unmanned rocket suggests that dust
orbiting a young star coalesces to form tiny elongated "worms"
- Self-Propelled, With a Mission: Clean House, William Grimes  , 04/07/15,
NYTimes
- Jesus and Jihad, NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF , 04/07/17, NYTimes, The best-selling
novels for adults in the United States celebrate religious intolerance and
violence against infidels.
- Monster Raindrops Delight Experts, Paul Rincon  , 04/07/16, BBC News Online
- Tissue Growth And Remodeling, Stephen C. Cowin , Annual Review of Biomedical
Engineering, August 2004, Vol. 6: 77-107, DOI:
10.1146/annurev.bioeng.6.040803.140250
- Molecular Machines , C. Mavroidis , A. Dubey , M.L. Yarmush

, Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering; Volume 6, Page 363 - 395
- Fractal Analysis Of The Vascular Tree In The Human Retina , Barry R. Masters
, Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering; Volume 6, Page 427 - 452
- Ammonia On Mars Could Mean Life, David Whitehouse
  , 04/07/15, BBC News Online
- Muscles Release Secret Of Strength, Helen Pearson
, Genetic tests may one day measure athletic potential.
- Neuropsychology: Pitch Discrimination In The Early Blind, Fr ic Gougoux ,
Franco Lepore , Maryse Lassonde , Patrice Voss , Robert J. Zatorre , Pascal
Belin  , 04/07/15, Nature 430, 309, DOI: 10.1038/430309a
- Bar Code D ente: U.S. Finally Adds One More Digit, Steve Lohr , 04/0712,
NYTimes, On the 30th anniversary of the lowly bar code, it is at last becoming
standardized for world trade.
- The Evolution of Modern Eukaryotic Phytoplankton, Paul G. Falkowski , Miriam
E. Katz , Andrew H. Knoll , Antonietta Quigg , John A. Raven , Oscar Schofield
, F. J. R. Taylor  , 04/07/16, Science : 354-360.
- Spatial Coordination of Cytokinetic Events by Compartmentalization of the
Cell Cortex, Jeroen Dobbelaere , Yves Barral  , 04/07/16, Science : 393-396.
- Exobiology: It's Life...Isn't It?, John Whitfield , 04/07/15, Nature 430, 288
- 290 Scientists find it hard enough to pin down evidence of early life on our
own planet. How on Earth do we plan to determine whether life exists
elsewhere?, DOI: 10.1038/430288a
- Music of the Spheres at the Atomic Scale, Alex de Lozanne
, 04/07/16, Science : 348-349.
- Single-Electron Spin Measurement Heralds Deeper Look at Atoms, Erik Stokstad
, 04/07/16, Science : 322-323.
- Pain Research:Why Other People May Not Feel Your Pain, 04/07/16, Science :
328
- Who's Still Afloat? Who Went Under? And Why? , Ellen McCarthy , Michael
Barbaro
  , 04/07/19, Washington Post
- Multimedia Scrapbooks to Share, Neil McManu  , 04/07/15, NYTimes
- Sea Change: Carbon dioxide imperils marine ecosystems, Almost half the carbon
dioxide produced by human activity in the past 2 centuries is now dissolved in
the oceans, resulting in chemical changes that, if unchecked, could threaten
some marine ecosystems.
- A Toxic Side of Weight Loss: Pollutants may slow body's metabolism, Weight
loss releases toxic chemicals into the bloodstream, which may slow the body's
metabolism.
- Groomed DNA Handles Threats: Mothering styles alter rats' stress responses,
Bruce Bower
- Nitrogen Power: New crystal packs a lot of punch, Alexandra Goho
- Sparrows Cheat on Sleep: Migratory birds are up at night but still stay
sharp, During their fall migration season, white-crowned sparrows sleep only
about a third as much as they do at other times of the year without becoming
slow-witted.
- Diatom Menagerie, Materials scientists are trying to coerce diatoms into
making silicon-based microdevices with specific features.
- Treaty Enacted To Preserve Crop Biodiversity, The United Nations enacted a
new international treaty to halt the erosion of genetic diversity of crops.
- Nanorods Go For The Gold, Gold blobs grown onto the ends of tiny, rod-shaped
crystals provide potential points for electric contact and chemical liaisons
that could enable such semiconductor bits to self-organize into complex
circuits or structures.
- Quantum Snare Entraps Key Fifth Photon, By coaxing five quantum particles
into a state of entanglement, physicists have taken an important step toward
dependable quantum computers and more-versatile schemes for transferring
quantum information.
- Female Brains Know How To Fold 'Em, Women compensate for the smaller overall
volume of their brains by squeezing more folds into some of the space than men
do.
- Iraq Gives Order to Reopen Paper G.I.'s Had Closed, Ian Fisher , 04/07/19,
NYTimes, The closing of the radical Shiite newspaper was a catalyst for some of
the worst anti-American mayhem of the occupation.
- Kerry Building Legal Network for Vote Fights, David M. Halbfinger , 04/07/19,
NYTimes, Mindful of election problems four years ago, John Kerry is assembling
legal safeguards in an effort to monitor the election.
- Election Troubles Already Descending on Florida, Abby Goodnough  , 04/07/15,
NYTimes
- All Together Now, Barbara Ehrenreich , 04/07/15, NYTimes, The Senate
Intelligence Committee has uncovered the reason for the war in Iraq:
groupthink. Was it really a surprise?
- Just Say No to Vetoes, Gregory Khalil , 04/07/19, NYTimes, The International
Court of Justice is charting a path to counter America's abuse of veto power in
the United Nations.
- A Radio Giant Moves to Limit Commercials, Nat Ives , 04/07/19, NYTimes, Clear
Channel Radio plans to announce that it will begin limiting the number of
commercials its more than 1,200 stations can play.
- The Eyespots Have It, Henry Nicholls , 04/07/12, Science Now, Timing of gene
expression generates the variety of patterns on butterfly
wings
- Crossing the Frontlines in Mucosal Immunity, A. Nicola Schweitzer , 04/07/19,
The Scientist
- Governing Globalization, Diana Farrell , 04/07, The McKinsey Quarterly, 2004
Number 3, The public and private sectors must collaborate closely to ensure
that all workers benefit from the global economic integration.
- The Hidden Dangers Of The Informal Economy, 04/07, The McKinsey Quarterly,
2004 Number 3, Reducing the size of the informal economy would generate huge
positive economic gains. To reap them, governments must correct the root causes
of informality eavy tax burdens and complex regulatory schemes nd enforce the
law more rigorously.
- A Streetcar Named Productivity, 04/07, The McKinsey Quarterly, 2004 Number 3,
By adopting best practices in the utilization of drivers, the integration of
maintenance and operations, and the collection of tickets, transit operators
around the world could save millions in operating costs while improving the
quality of service.
- Dripping-Jetting Transitions in a Dripping Faucet, Bala Ambravaneswaran ,
Hariprasad J. Subramani , Scott D. Phillips , Osman A. Basaran , 04/07/15,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 034501 (2004), Fascinating dynamics is known to result
when the flow rate Q at which water drips from a faucet varies. Starting with
simple (period-1) dripping, the system transitions as Q increases to complex
dripping, where it exhibits period-n (n = 2,4,) and chaotic responses, and then
jets once Q exceeds a threshold.
- Pattern Control via Multifrequency Parametric Forcing, Jeff Porter , Chad M.
Topaz , Mary Silber  , 04/07/16, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 034502 (2004)



_________________________________________________________________

20.02. Webcast Announcements




Intl Conf on Complex Networks: Structure, Function and Processes, Kolkata,
India, 04/06/27-30


 From Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology: A Tribute to Francisco Varela
(1946-2001),, Paris, France, 2004/06/18-20



ECC8 Experimental Chaos Conference, Florence, Italy,
  04/06/14-17



Evolutionary Epistemology, Language, and Culture, Brussels, Belgium,
04/05/26-28


International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, 04/05/16-21


Life, a Nobel Story, Brussels, Belgium, 04/04/28


Nonlinear Dynamics and Statistical Mechanics Days, Brussels, Belgium,
04/04/26-27


Science Education Forum for Chinese Language Culture, , Panel Discussion,
Taipei, Taiwan, 04/05/01


Biologically Inspired Approaches to Advanced Information Technology, ,
Lausanne,Switzerland, 04/01/29-30


Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: Lab Demonstrations, Strogatz, Steven H.,
Internet-First University Press, 1994

World Economic Forum 2004, Davos, Switzerland   Riding the Next Democratic
Wave, Al-Thani, Khan, Vike-Freiberga, Wade, Soros, Zakaria, World Economic
Forum, 04/01/25
  The Future of Global Interdependence, Kharrazi, Held, Owens, Shourie, Annan,
Martin, Schwab, World Economic Forum, 04/01/25  Why Victory Against Terrorism
Demands Shared Values

  CODIS 2004, International Conference On Communications, Devices And
Intelligent Systems, 2004 Calcutta, India, 04/01/09-10 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 Po tential and Practicalities,
Bucharest, Romania, 03/07/28-08/08 ECAL 2003, 7th European Conference on
Artificial Life, Dortmund, Germany, 03/09/14-17 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 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



  Gordon Research Conference on "Oscillations & Dynamic Instabilities In
Chemical Systems", Lewiston, ME, 04/07/18-23

  3rd
Intl Conf Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems Conference (AAMAS 2004), New
York City, 04/07/19-23

7th
Intl Workshop on: Trust in Agent Societies , New York City, 04/07/19-20

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


The 4 th International Workshop on Meta-Synthesis and Complex Systems
(MCS'2004) , Beijing, 04/07/22-23

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

  SME 2004 Symposium on Modeling
  and Control of Economic Systems , University in Redlands, CA, 04/07/28-31

  6th
  International Mathematica Symposium (IMS 2004), Banff,
  Canada, 04/08/02-06

4th
  intl seminar on Collective Intelligence
, U of Ottawa, Canada, 04/08/08-10


Real-Life Complex Adaptive Systems: Modelling And Control, session in Intl Conf
on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT'04, Austin, Texas,
04/08/14-17

   Fractals and Natural Hazards at
32nd Intl Geological Congress (IGC), Florence, Italy, 04/08/20-28


Intl Conf on Science of Complex Networks: from Biology
to the Internet and WWW (CNET2004), Aveiro
(Portugal), 04/08/29-09/02




ICCC 2004, IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics, ,
Vienna, Austria, 04/08/30-09/01

  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

  Dynamics Days 2004, XXIV Annual Conf,
Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 04/09/13-17

  Neuroeconomics 2004, Charleston, SC, 04/09/16-19

  TNew Economic Windows 2004: Complexity Hints for Economic Policy, Salerno,
Italy, 04/09/16-18

  The
Verhulst 200 on Chaos, Brussels, BELGIUM, 04/09/16-18

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

  The
  Nonlinear Waves in Fluids: Recent Advances and Modern Applications, Udine,
Italy, 04/09/18-22

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

  3rd Natll Conf on Systems Science ,
Trento (Italy), 04/10/07-09

   TEDMED Conference ,
Charleston SC, 04/10/12-15

  Intl Workshop On Bifurcations In Nonsmooth And Hybrid Dynamical Systems  ,
Milano (Italy), 04/10/21-22

  Wolfram
  Technology Conference, Champaign, Illinois,
  04/10/21-23

  6th Intl Conf on Electronic Commerce
ICEC'2004: Towards A New Services Landscape,  Delft, The Netherlands,
04/10/25-27

   Complexity and Philosophy Workshop - 2-Day Conference ,  Rio de Janeiro,
04/11


ICDM '04: The Fourth IEEE Intl Conf on Data Mining, Brighton, UK, 04/11/01-04

Denaturing Darwin: International Conference on Evolution and Organization
, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 04/11/12-14


  The 7th Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference,  Queensland, Australia,
04/12/06-10

  17th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence,  Queensland,
Australia, 04/12/06-10

Cellular Computing Symposium, U Warwick
(UK), 04/12/09-10

  Kondratieff Waves, Warfare And World Security, NATO Advanced Research
Workshop
, Covilh? Portugal, 05/02/14-17



  Powders & Grains 2005, Stuttgart, Germany, 05/06/18-22

  Workshop on Complexity and Policy Analysis, Cork, Ireland, 05/06/22-24


18th International Conference on Noise and Fluctuations (ICNF 2005), Salamanca,
Spain, 05/09/19-23







_________________________________________________________________
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