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News Briefs 17-04-2007

By Katon

As novelist William Gibson observed, ‘The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed’. To whit, approximately 800m people now have access to the internet. (And it’s a huge news day for you privaleged few.) Unfortunately, the past also lingers, weighing us down like the proverbial pair of cement boots: half of Earth’s 6.6b humans have never used a telephone, and 1b are still illiterate.

  • A royal destruction: Throngs of tourists crowd daily into the priceless tombs in the Valley of the Kings, brushing against walls, and even tracing reliefs with sweaty fingers.
  • After lying almost untouched in the vaults of an Italian university for 500 years, a book on the magic arts written by Leonardo da Vinci’s best friend and teacher has been translated into English for the first time.
  • Legend of King Arthur lives on at Tintagel.
  • Quantum secrets of photosynthesis revealed.
  • Sci-Am tells you how to make your own quantum eraser.
  • Chimps are actually more evolved than humans.
  • Was Einstein right? Scientists provide first public peek at Gravity Probe B results.
  • How the internet could go from cyberspace to outer space.
  • Big Brother and 1984 meet at Mount Holly, Berkeley County, South Carolina.
  • Vehicle-to-grid technology: PG&E’s prototype Plug-in Electric Hybrid Vehicle, created by adding a lithium ion battery to a traditional Toyota Prius, gets 100 mpg, and would allow owners to sell energy back to their electricity provider.
  • Miniature chain-mail fabric has unique mechanical and electrical properties which promise fully-engineered electronic textiles.
  • Many useful inventions and innovations continue to be buried on college campuses because universities don’t think they’d be top-tier money-makers. To bring this wasted research to the marketplace, universities are being urged to try new marketing ideas such as free agency for researchers, and internet-based investment match-makers like ibridge.
  • From beneath Antarctica’s Ross Sea, scientists retrieve pristine record of the continent’s climate cycles.
  • Report by US Generals and Admirals warns that global warming is a threat to national security.
  • Zeppelin expedition to survey sea ice in the Arctic.
  • Selling off the rainforest – a modern-day scandal: Vast forests with trees each worth £4,000 sold for a few bags of sugar.
  • The (coal) burning issue: Shades of CO2 battles to come.
  • Using CO2 emissions from power plants yields more algae for making Omega-3 food additive and biofuel.
  • An inconvenient truth: Rapa Nui did not commit ecocide.
  • Can a biosphere be selfish?
  • Could digging up the lead-lined coffin of Sir Mark Sykes, the World War I general who carved up the Ottoman Empire, end up saving the world?
  • Cluster of UK cases shows bovine TB can spread from human to human.
  • Persistent organic pesticides in oily fish linked to type 2 diabetes.
  • Transfusions of patients’ own stem cells reverses type 1 diabetes.
  • Infection rate of highly antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea explodes in the U.S..
  • Scientists make immature sperm cells from human bone marrow. Humm… Could they make sperm cells from female bone marrow?
  • Dessert recipes printed in major newspapers across the US (such as this recipe for Supernatural Brownies?) may be contributing to obesity in large cities. What about the effects of the rest of what they print?
  • Dream journals being kept by students in a college psychology class have provided researchers with a unique look at how people experienced the events of 9/11.
  • 55-foot section of the Berlin Wall suddenly disappears.
  • Mammoth, meteorite and bezoar for sale at Christie’s auction. Just couldn’t resist that headline.
  • What is this anomalous object found in Google Maps? Perhaps the world’s largest disco ball?
  • 2007 crop circle ahoy!
  • Nick Redfern spoons up the dirt in his new book, Celebrity Secrets: Government Files on the Rich and Famous (Amazon US and UK).
  • Man awarded damages for hospital’s accidental overdose of ketamine, and his subsequent meeting with God.
  • Did Woody Harrelson’s daddy shoot JFK?
  • After visiting Kentucky’s new Creation Museum and Arizona’s Grand Canyon, the BBC’s Martin Redfern reports on the ongoing battle between science and religion. Includes podcast links.
  • In his new book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict takes wealthy nations to task for having ‘plundered and sacked’ Africa and other poor regions of the world. (Available at Amazon US & UK in mid-May)
  • Temperate fruits such as apples could curb Ugandan poverty. Sounds like Uganda’s highland farmers should apply for Kiva loans, where, due to Kiva.org’s 100% pay-back rate (so far), you can repeatedly engage in do-it-yourself foreign aid (NYT video). Read more about how you can participate – in this – revolution in couch potato – humanitarianism.
  • The Citizen’s Grand Jury, along with its Constitutionally guaranteed power of Presentiments, has been resurrected in response to the crimes of 9/11. (pdf)
  • Update: U.S. women who eat a lot of beef while pregnant give birth to sons who grow up to have low sperm counts. Researchers suspect pesticides, hormones or contaminants in cattle feed may be a factor.

Thanks, Greg and Richard.

Quote of the Day:

The blunting effects of slavery upon the slaveholder’s moral perceptions are known and conceded, the world over, and a privileged class, an aristocracy, is but a band of slaveholders under another name.

Mark Twain, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Kat
Related

9 Comments

  1. Africa
    Excellent news, Kat, and I’m surprised to find I agree with Pope Benedict regarding Africa. As Bono is fond of pointing out, only 8 miles of sea separates Europe from Africa. The way Europe acts towards Africa today, shirking responsibility for centuries of colonial abuse, the two continents may as well be on opposite ends of the universe. The EU needs to be reminded that Africa is not invisible, it’s right there, at their doorstep. If someone’s dying at your front door, you don’t stay inside and watch television.

    1. Africa
      The problems of Africa are many, but they all stem from the modern map of Africa. All those straight lines for borders. The European carved up Africa by geography, splitting tribes and amalgamating tribes in the same country. Inter-tribal cultural clashes were inevitable, with today’s African politics.
      The present Green Revolution is also doing its fair share, displacing people and decimating local culture. If you don’t feel your culture, you have no meaning, and without meaning, you’re nothing.
      Don’t know what the answer is, but I’m certain it will have to involve the only African country capable of regional super-powerdom, but at present South Africa seems to be shirking its regional responsibilities. One last thought, Benedict may be right, but doesn’t he represent the Faith that pulled them from their culture in the first place?

      1. Heart of Darkness
        Yep, Benedict represents the Faith that did the most cultural damage to Africa, which is why I’m surprised I agree with him.

        Good ol’ colonialism with their straight line borders. The British did the same with Iraq, which caused a whole lot of Shia, Sunni and Kurdish problems. The division of Pakistan and India is another example (not many know that Bangladesh was originally considered East Pakistan).

        I find it hard to be critical of South Africa for not doing more in its region. Many think that since the end of Apartheid, all is well in South Africa; but the country is struggling to cope with extreme violence and poverty. I can understand why they’re not doing as much to help the rest of Africa as we think they’re capable of, because South Africa is struggling to help itself.

        Zimbabwe has been abandoned as a lost cause by the West — the West has nothing to gain economically by removing Mugabe. So despite Britain and Australia having ties with Zimbabwe, we do nothing.

        It’s not just the West. China has blood on its hands. It’s no secret China has very plump trade deals with Somalia and enjoys a lucrative economic partnership, not caring about the consequences. You’d think Somalia being a hotbed of Islamic extremism would motivate the West. But the West doesn’t want to get involved because there’s no oil/economic gain to be made in Somalia, not to mention the US-led attempt to create a solution by military means failed dramatically in Mogadishu, 1993. After Mogadishu, no Western country wants to get involved in Somalia ever again, so this wound in Africa’s side is allowed to fester unchecked, the infection to grow and spread. Mark my words; if the Somalia/Ethiopia war escalates, the entire African continent will erupt.

        Incidentally, Bill Clinton was the only foreign leader to apologise to Rwanda for failing to help them, the only one. Silence from European leaders, and a belated half-apology from the UN (Kofi Annan at least made efforts).

        Africa is a total mess, and I agree Andy … where do you begin to sort it all out? The task looks hopeless. Africa is a massive continent. There are no easy answers and in my opinion, I can’t see Africa getting better in my lifetime. Which is why we fix Africa one country at a time. South Africa, then Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, and so on. One step at a time, and hope for the best.

        And the best place to start is by helping those who help Africans. Medecins Sans Frontieres, the One campaign, Africa Aid, UNICEF, etc. The more we help those who help others, the bigger the chance our world will eventually be a better place. I’ll never directly help Africa, but my $39 a month will.

        PS After two decades of listening to Bono go on about Africa, I’ve started doing it too! 😉

        1. pressure, confinement, and release
          South Africa is an interesting case. One might think that the country has everything in terms of natural resources, at least some modern infrastructure, certainly some good universities, good climate. So why are they in trouble?

          I give you two other examples of countries that have problems, even though they are, or should be, filthy rich and living in peace and harmony.

          Consider Germany and Russia, as well as South Africa.

          In these three very different country, a substantial part of the population was essentially in jail for all their life, and for all their parent’s life. Then they we “set free” quite suddenly.

          The result is that a significant number of people don’t know how to deal with that. They have been under external pressure all their lives, or their parent’s lives.

          Look at a smaller scale, children of dominant parents after they leave the home. Or prisoners released from a traditional jail. Sailors coming to a port after months at sea. In all of these, you see some people behaving badly.

          While this sort of thing is not the only reason for the problems in Africa, I think it is a negatively contributing factor. As it is in Germany and Russia.

          —-
          Failure is not an option — it comes bundled with Windows

          1. Negativity
            An interesting idea, earthling – I’ll have to think about that one. But one thing that may validate it is work done by some penologists in 1950s America. The main one was Dan Macdougald – I think that was his name.
            Studying sociopaths, they noticed they had no understanding of words such as ‘love’, ‘loyalty’ or ‘responsibility.’ They only understood negative words such as ‘hate.’
            The idea was dubbed ‘negative blocking.’ The theory was that if you’re brutalised for too long, it is impossible to think in positive ways.
            I’m not sure I agree with the latter. There are brutalised people who do good always. I think the answer may lie in not being taught affection, rather than being brutalised. But the idea would add to your hypothesis.

          2. large numbers
            I actually think this is a statistical thing, as opposed to something automatic for any given individual. The pressure-release effect just shifts the distribution, you get a few more people with no respect for law and order under these conditions.

            —-
            Failure is not an option — it comes bundled with Windows

          3. That’s a very good point,
            That’s a very good point, Earthling. It’s no secret that when a prisoner is released after serving a long sentence, they struggle to reintegrate with society. I can imagine it’d be no different for an entire culture that has been oppressed for generations, suddenly having freedom. There are rehabilitation programs in place for ex-cons, but how do you cope with millions of people who were wrongly oppressed? No easy answers.

            “Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.” – Philip Pullman

  2. Internet in Space Article
    What a relief to know that in a few years we’ll be able to peruse The Daily Grail from the comfort of our spaceship!

    (Sooner or later someone will hijack a UFO, leading to mass production. Eventually you’ll be able to buy a used model, lots of lightyears on it but still spaceworthy.)

    Bill I.

    1. Earthling’s Theory
      Earthling, I’ve been thinking about your theory. Can we agree that, unless caused by a riot, the vast majority of people remain peaceful in any circumstance. Therefore, we’re talking about a minority who cause the trouble.
      If so, then we’re looking at the same problem from different directions. On the individual level, brutalisation, etc, can cause the negative blocking I speak about, whilst your statistics will apply with the increasing amount of people involved.
      We must then look at the degrees of trouble. Some countries don’t experience the same level of disruption, even if the imprisonment, etc, has been on a similar level. I think it is the strength of culture they come out to which decides to what degree the problem arises. This would certainly apply in South Africa, where the culture has been continuously changed and they don’t really know who they are.
      One final point. I’ve noticed that the first stage of an emerging capitalist economy always involves a crimewave. At the poor level I think this is down to expectation of ‘rights’ they haven’t got yet. At another level, Mafia jockeys for its place in the pecking order.

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