Kurt Cobb writes: Is Complexity bad for us? Joseph Tainter first posited in his book, The Collapse of Complex Societies,
that complex societies most frequently attempt to solve their problems
by increasing their complexity. This usually requires the input of
additional energy from people or fuel sources or both. This strategy
may be a good one when returns from complexity are high. But, such a
strategy may also subject a society to collapse. Returns tend to
diminish as complexity increases. Ultimately, returns go negative. In
short, more complexity isn’t necessarily better. For Tainter there are
many reasons to believe that contemporary civilization has reached the point of diminishing returns from complexity.
If he is correct, this calls into question proposals for technical
fixes for our energy problems since by definition those fixes will
increase complexity in an energy-starved world. Will solar platforms in
space or a vastly increased number of nuclear power plants lead to a
more stable, sustainable society? There are many ecological reasons to
doubt this in the long run. But there are historical reasons to believe
that these things might not even work in the short run, say, the next
several decades. Increased complexity may result in less resiliency in
our current world system making it vulnerable to novel or persistent
shocks. Terrorist attacks on infrastructure and proposals to militarize
space are just two that relate to the examples given above. The alternative would be to simplify our systems. (06/13/05)

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James Allen wrote in 1904: The
aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only
embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to
reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is
literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all
his thoughts. As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the
seed, so every
act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not
have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called
“spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those which are deliberately
executed. Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its
fruits;
thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own
husbandry. … Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice,
and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm
of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and
Godlike character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural
result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of
long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and
bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued
harboring of groveling thoughts. Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges
the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools
with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength
and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man
ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of
thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two
extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and
master.
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been
restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or
fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this - that man is the
master of thought, the molder of character, and maker and shaper of
condition, environment, and destiny. (06/13/05)
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CNN Money –
A new drug from Sanofi-Aventis is a weight loss pill and a diabetes
treatment at the same time, and could treat millions of Americans if
approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Separate studies have
shown the drug may be effective at helping smokers quit the habit. The
drug, Acomplia, has demonstrated multiple uses in treating and
preventing type 2 diabetes, including helping weight loss, reducing
blood sugar levels and trimming fat, said Dr. Andre Scheen, medical
professor and head of the diabetes division at the University of Liege
in Belgium. Scheen was the principal investigator in the study but is
otherwise “independent” of Sanofi-Aventis, according to Scheen. Scheen
was at the American Diabetes Association annual conference in San Diego
this weekend. Diabetics often suffer high blood pressure because they
have difficulty producing their own insulin, which converts blood sugar
into energy. According to Scheen, Sanofi-Aventis’s (Research) drug not
only lowered blood sugar in late-stage clinical tests, but also reduced
two of the leading risks to diabetics: obesity and fat cells. Combining
weight loss and blood sugar control could be beneficial to diabetics,
who often suffer from obesity, giving rise to the industry term
“diabesity.” Some analysts consider Acomplia a potential blockbuster.
Analyst Gbola Amusa with Bernstein projected 4.2 billion euros in
annual sales and an 80 percent chance of FDA approval. “It’s that high
because [obesity] is a vast market with unmet medical needs,” said
Amusa. … Acomplia acts
in the brain, where it blocks hunger-inducing receptors, and in fat
tissue, where it increases cytokine, a protein that is often lacking in
obese people. When people don’t have enough cytokine, it interferes with their
insulin levels and increases their chances of developing type 2
diabetes. In the same way that Acomplia can help reduce hunger, Sanofi-Aventis
says, it may also be effective in reducing cravings for
cigarettes. (06/13/05)
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BBC Environment –
Conservationists are warning that the south-east Asian island of Borneo
could lose almost all its lowland forest within a decade. A report from
the WWF says illegal logging and clearance for oil palm plantations is
destroying the habitats of several animals. Orang-utan and pygmy
elephants could become unviable in just 15 years. According to the WWF,
1.3m hectares of Borneo’s lowland forest is being destroyed each year.
At that rate, it claims, by 2020 the remaining pockets of jungle may be
too small and broken up for some species to be genetically viable. In
other words, each tiny area of woodland that remains will not support a
healthy breeding population of large animals like pygmy elephants or
orang-utan. Just 55,000 orang-utan are thought to remain in Borneo, a
decline of two-thirds since 1990. The biggest culprits are the illegal
loggers. In the Indonesian south of the island, the trade is believed
to be controlled by the army. Logs are often then smuggled into
Malaysia, whose territory covers most of the north of Borneo. From
there, the timber is shipped out, having been illegally relabelled as
sustainably grown. Malaysia has recently moved to close illegal
crossing points between the countries used by the loggers. But the
trade continues and conservationists this week called on European
governments to ban the import of illegal timber from countries like
Indonesia and Malaysia. (06/13/05)
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BBC Society — Sudha
in Nepal helps boost her family’s small earnings from farming by
working as a stone crusher, providing material to build roads near her
home - a job she began when she was 12. Her job helps lift her family’s
income to a combined 1,400 rupees, or $20 a week. She’d prefer to be at
school, but now believes it is too late to start her education. When
asked why she continues to do the dangerous work, she says simply:
“There is no alternative.” Sudha is one of an estimated one million
children who work in small-scale mining and quarrying across the globe,
the International Labour Organization (ILO) says in a report released
to mark World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June. The million children
bring the total number of workers in small mines to 13 million, so the
proportion made up by the young and vulnerable is relatively small.
That, insists the ILO, makes it a realistic target to eliminate such
practices. Doing so is urgent. The children work in unregulated
conditions, are forced into tiny tunnels to lug loads heavier than
themselves. Dangerous surroundings mean they also risk serious illness
and injury from explosives and toxic chemicals. Those involved in such
small mines endure a subsistence lifestyle. … Some companies,
particularly in the gold and precious gemstones sector, still condone
child labour, if only through the “back door”, Mr Jennings observes.
“Companies are really keen to let people know that children are not
involved in cutting and polishing stones, but if you take one step back
the stone is being dug out of the ground by children.” Meanwhile, gold
is mined in tiny amounts and sold to intermediaries for $5 to $10 a
time - offering little profit or benefit to the miners themselves. The
buyers then sell the gold to bigger firms to refine, or they smuggle it
out of the country. There is no way to check whether that wedding ring
or bracelet in the jewellers has been produced with the help of child
labour, Mr Jennings adds. The ILO has long been calling for action from
governments, employers, donors and trade unions, as well as local
communities and other organisations, to eliminate the practice of using
children, some as young as five, as workers in mines. (06/13/05)
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BBC Technology –
The world’s smallest brushes, with bristles more than a thousand times
finer than a human hair, have been created by researchers in the US.
The brushes can be used for sweeping up nano-dust, painting
microstructures and even cleaning up pollutants in water. The bristles’
secret is carbon nanotubes, tiny straw-like molecules just 30
billionths of a metre across. They are incredibly tough and yet
flexible enough that they will yield when pushed from the side. The
researchers behind the brushes were led from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Troy, New York. Their work is reported in the journal
Nature Materials. The group of lead scientist Pulickel Ajayan has
previously shown how carbon nanotubes can be grown controllably, and
the team has now used the trick to make nanobrushes shaped like
toothbrushes, bottle brushes and cotton-buds. Thin coats of gold steer
the carbon away from the brush handle and on to the brush head. Like
normal brushes, the nano varieties have many uses. In their Nature
Materials paper, the researchers show how the brushes can sweep up
piles of nano-dust - though so far they have omitted to supply the
nano-pan to collect it in. They have also shown the brushes can be used
to paint microstructures - dipped into a solution of iron oxide (rust),
the minute brush hairs will pick up the red oxide particles which can
then be wiped on to a bare surface. … Dr Cao speculates the invention
will also have medical uses. However, the scientists will have to make
sure their brushes do not shed bristles first - as there are concerns
about possible health effects of nanotubes when loose in the
environment - and have already started testing how easily they can be
pulled off. But tiny nanotube-tipped medical brushes might be used
either to coat protective substances on to damaged surfaces in our
bodies - for example veins - or to clean up unwanted deposits. With
appropriate chemical coatings, they might be able to pick out
biomolecules such as DNA, specific proteins, or even whole viruses. (06/13/05)
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