Timothy Wilken, MD
writes: In our present world, it is widely believed that mistakes are
the result of badness. So when mistakes occur, we investigate, blame
and punish.

This belief has resulted in a world where violence, hate
and judgment are common.

Synergic science reveals that mistakes are in
fact the result of ignorance. If we understand this, then when a
mistake occurs, we would analyze, determine responsibility, and
educate. This could soon lead to a world where public safety, love and
compassion are common. …

Our human science has revealed that our
knowing is incomplete and imperfect. This means that every human belief
is an assumption. We can never know for sure.

We can never know ALL. As
you sit in your chair reading these words, you assumed the chair would
hold you. You did not check under the chair to see if it had broken
since its last use. When you ate lunch at your favorite restaurant last
week, you assumed the waitress had washed her hands. You assumed the
cook did not have hepatitis. If you had assumed otherwise, you would
not have walked into that restaurant. You would not have eaten your
lunch.

We humans assume. Herein lies our uncertainty — that’s all we
humans can do. There is nothing wrong in our assuming, we are simply
obeying a fundamental ‘law’ of Nature.  (04/30/07)
more…

Robert Jensen writes:
We know that capitalism is not just the most sensible way to organize
an economy but is now the only possible way to organize an economy. We
know that dissenters to this conventional wisdom can, and should, be
ignored. There’s no longer even any need to persecute such heretics;
they are obviously irrelevant.

How do we know all this? Because we are told so, relentlessly —
typically by those who have the most to gain from such a claim, most
notably those in the business world and their functionaries and
apologists in the schools, universities, mass media, and mainstream
politics. Capitalism is not a choice, but rather simply is, like a
state of nature. Maybe not like a state of nature, but the state of
nature. To contest capitalism these days is like arguing against the
air that we breathe. Arguing against capitalism, we’re told, is simply
crazy.

We are told, over and over, that capitalism is not just the system we
have, but the only system we can ever have. Yet for many, something
nags at us about such a claim. Could this really be the only option?
We’re told we shouldn’t even think about such things. But we can’t help
thinking — is this really the “end of history,” in the sense that big
thinkers have used that phrase to signal the final victory of global
capitalism? If this is the end of history in that sense, we wonder, can
the actual end of the planet far behind?

We wonder, we fret, and these thoughts nag at us — for good reason.
Capitalism — or, more accurately, the predatory corporate capitalism
that defines and dominates our lives — will be our death if we don’t
escape it. Crucial to progressive politics is finding the language to
articulate that reality, not in outdated dogma that alienates but in
plain language that resonates with people. We should be searching for
ways to explain to co-workers in water-cooler conversations — radical
politics in five minutes or less — why we must abandon predatory
corporate capitalism. If we don’t, we may well be facing the end times,
and such an end will bring rupture not rapture.

Capitalism is admittedly an incredibly productive system that has
created a flood of goods unlike anything the world has ever seen. It
also is a system that is fundamentally (1) inhuman, (2)
anti-democratic, and (3) unsustainable. Capitalism has given those of
us in the First World lots of stuff (most of it of marginal or
questionable value) in exchange for our souls, our hope for progressive
politics, and the possibility of a decent future for children. (04/30/07)
more…

BBC Medical Science — Mental
stimulation and drug treatment could help people with degenerative
brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s recover their memories, a study
says. Scientists found mice with a similar condition to Alzheimer’s
were able to regain memories of tasks they had previously been taught.

A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found two methods -
brain stimulation and drugs - both worked. Their findings were
published in British journal Nature.

The researchers used genetically engineered mice in which a protein
linked to degenerative brain disease could be triggered. Scientists had
previously given the mice tests where they learnt to avoid an electric
shock and how to find their way through a maze to reach food.

After six weeks with the brain disease, the mice were no longer able to remember how to perform these tasks.

Some of the mice were then placed in a more stimulating environment
with toys, treadmills and other mice. The playground mice were able to
remember the shock test far better than the mice in other cages. They
were also better at learning new things.

Scientists then tested a class of drugs called histone deacetylase, or
HDAC, inhibitors on the mice. These also improved memory and learning,
similar to improvements made by environmental stimulation.

Neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the results could offer
hope to people with diseases like Alzheimer’s. “We show the first
evidence that even if the brain suffered some very severe
neurodegeneration and the individual exhibits very severe learning
impairment and memory loss, there is still the possibility to improve
learning ability and recover to a certain extent lost long-term
memories.” She said the study suggested that in people with
degenerative brain diseases, memories were not erased from the brain,
but rather could not be accessed because of the disease. She added that
while most treatments for Alzheimer’s targeted the disease’s early
stages, this research showed that even after major brain damage it was
still possible to improve learning and memory. (04/30/07)
more…

BBC Human Adaptation –
More than 100,000 people in rural India have benefited from an
innovative loan scheme that helps families buy home solar power
systems, the UN has said.

The $1.5m project, led by the UN Environment Programme (Unep), supports
Indian bankers who offer finance to people who want to purchase a unit.
The sunlight-powered systems are used to light homes and shops instead
of expensive and polluting kerosene lamps.

Officials hope to expand the scheme to Tunisia, China, Ghana and
Indonesia. Since the project began in 2003, there has been a 13-fold
increase in the number of the solar power units being financed within
the scheme’s pilot area in southern India.

A system capable of powering two to four small appliances, or lights,
costs about $300-$500. Before the UN project was set up, purchases were
predominately cash only - making the devices too expensive for most
people. The Indian Loan Programme helps its bank partners offer lower
interest rates, longer payback periods and smaller deposits.

“This project removes one of the main barriers to the shift to solar
power - lack of financing,” said Jyoti Painuly, a UN senior energy
planner. “Asking customers… to pay cash for solar systems meant
asking them to pay upfront an amount equal to 20 years of electricity
bills.”

Project workers have credited solar powered lighting with helping
schoolchildren achieve higher grades, and better productivity for
cottage industries. …

The scheme has led to similar projects being set up in Tunisia, which is financing loans to buy solar water heaters.

Similar UN-led “cash to credit” programmes are in the pipeline for China, Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico, Ghana, Morocco and Algeria. (04/30/07)
more…

BBC Biological Science — The
giant Galapagos tortoise that became a conservation icon when it
appeared he was the last of his kind is not so alone after all.

“Lonesome George” was thought to be the only survivor of a tortoise species native to the isle of Pinta. Now, the journal Current Biology reports the discovery of a hybrid -
the offspring from the union of a Pinta tortoise and another island
species.

The
“new” animal thus shares about half its genes in common with George.
Unfortunately for efforts to get George to reproduce, this hybrid
tortoise, recently found on Isabela isle, is also a male. Nonetheless,
its discovery in a relatively small sample of tortoises raises fresh
hope for the future of George’s species (Geochelone abingdoni).

A more thorough sampling of the 2,000 tortoises living on Isabela could
yet reveal a genetically pure Pinta tortoise, say the researchers.

But even if they did find one, getting George to mate with it could be
an uphill struggle: he has a stubborn aversion to the opposite sex.
When George was placed in captivity at the Charles Darwin Research
Station on the island of Santa Cruz, he was housed with two female
tortoises from a species taken from Isabela.

After 35 years, he has failed to produce any offspring, turning his
nose up at entire harems of female tortoises; though, admittedly, none
of these tortoises has belonged to George’s species. Most giant
tortoises on Isabela belong to the distinct species Geochelone becki instead. …

“The
continuing saga surrounding the search for a mate has positioned
Lonesome George as a potent conservation icon, not just for Galapagos,
but worldwide,” said Dr Russello. Upwards of 50,000 people visit George
each year at his home on the Charles Darwin Research Station.

The collapse of the giant tortoise population on Pinta is thought to
have been due in large part to whaling activities in the Pacific during
the 18th and 19th Centuries. Sailors would preferentially take female animals to store as food on
their ships - the females of the species were smaller and easier
targets in lowland areas during the egg-laying season. By the middle of the 20th Century, only male giant tortoises were left
on Pinta. George is thought to have been born in the 1920s. (04/30/07)

more…

BBC Science — Arctic ice is melting faster than computer models of climate calculate, according to a group of US researchers.

Since 1979, the Arctic has been losing summer ice at about 9% per
decade, but models on average produce a melting rate less than half
that figure.

The
scientists suggest forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) may be too cautious. The latest observations
indicate that Arctic summers could be ice-free by the middle of the
century.

Dr Scambos co-authored the latest study, published in
the journal
Geophysical Research Letters, with other scientists from NSIDC and from
the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), also in Boulder,
Colorado. “Somewhere in the second half of the century, it would
happen. Some computer models show periods of great sensitivity where
the
Arctic ice system collapses suddenly, and that trend may occur a bit
earlier; that’s the best guess, but exactly when it’s hard to say,” he
told the BBC News website.

They also calculate that about half, if not more, of the warming
observed since 1979 originates in humanity’s emissions of greenhouse
gases. (04/30/07)
more…