Timothy Wilken, MD writes: The Ortegrity is a system
for organizing two or more humans. It produces win-win relationships
between all individuals within the organization.

This results in a
conflict free environment which optimizes the two processes of human
behavior — decision and action. The resultant is that efficiency,
productivity, and quality of work-life are optimized. …

All relationships between all individuals within
the system are win-win. This is a design characteristic of the system.

It is veto power that forces the third alternative — the win-win
solution. It is synergic relationship that unlocks human potential.
This is the relationship that elimates all conflict. …

The D-A Tensegrity is a group of between two and twenty
humans. The size of a D-A Tensegrity is limited by the complexity of
decision making. In a complex area such as in research &
development, the ideal size may be six or seven members. In a system
with simpler decison making as many as 16 to 20 individuals may form a
production D-A Tensegrity.

During decision making the D-A Tensegrity uses the
heterarchical form. A heterarchy with seven members is a base seven
tensegrity. A two member heterarchy would be called a base two. A three
member heterarchy is a base three and so on. The illustration is of a base seven D-A Tensegrity
represents the heterarchical relationship on the perimeter and the
hierarchical relationships with direct lines of communication.

All
individuals have a dual idenity. Their heterarchical role in decision
and their hierarchical role in action. …

A level 12
Ortegrity would be adequate for organizing the entire humans species
within a single organization.

Recalling that the larger a tensegrity
the more powerful it will is. Synergic science predicts this will also
be true for human organizations structured as Ortegrities. Therefore, I
would expect a trend towards very large organizations.

Imagine, what
could be possible if the entire human species were a single
organization. No conflict, no wars, no crimes. Is there anything we
could not accomplish? (04/25/08)
more…

David W. Straight writes: This is a finely-written view of a post-collapse America. Cormac Mccarthy’s novel Road was an altogether darker vision: James Howard Kunstler’s book World Made by Hand
is neither as dark or foreboding. Society functions, but only
locally–there are no national or even regional governments, as far as
is known. We’ve gone from Friedman’s The World is Flat to a world where
communication and trade resembles that of, say, 800AD. “Here be
Dragons” might as well appear on maps. The number of people in Union
Grove in upstate New York who have travelled more than 50 miles from
home is small, at least until a flock of The New Faith arrive from
Virginia.

The amenities are gone: no gasoline, no bicycles (for want of rubber
tires), no antibiotics, no anaesthesia, roads and bridges crumbling
into complete disrepair. Yet life goes on, as America in 1700 got by
without bicycles and antibiotics. Robert Earle, the central fugure in
the novel, works as a carpenter–his former life in computing is gone
forever. Lack of oil, nuclear explosions, and the Mexican Flu all
contributed to the collapse. The Flu took most of Earle’s family except
for his son, who left on his own many years before and never heard from
again. Earle takes things philosophically and with grace, and is more
at ease with his world than most of us could be. In Earle, Kunstler has
provided a rock about which life swirls: he provides a foundation of
normality, insofar as normality can exist, and his character prevents a
doom-and-gloom view type book from prevailing.

Kunstler presents a well-drawn picture of a world where there are no
chain saws and power tools, no refrigeration, very little electric
power anywhere. Paper money is disappearing, bartering is returning,
work is done by hand. Horses are great assets. You will probably find
yourself asking some questions: some of these are answered, some are
not. After 20 or 30 years of life in places such as Union Grove, where
are the clothes coming from? How many people could weave a shirt? There
do not seem to be many sheep around for wool, and you get the
impression from the book that everything isn’t animal skins. What about
glassmaking for storage jars and windows? There should perhaps be a
cottage industry for saltpeter to make gunpowder. But these are
relatively minor. The primary thing is the wonderfully detailed, finely
crafted view of a world where people have had to return to the
amenities of colonial times, or even long before that. This is a novel
that’s creative and well thought out: very worth reading. (04/25/08)
more…

John  Nichols of The Nation
writes: The current global food system, which was designed by US-based
agribusiness conglomerates like Cargill, Monsanto and ADM and forced
into place by the US government and its allies at the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, has
planted the seeds of disaster by pressuring farmers here and abroad to
produce cash crops for export and alternative fuels rather than grow
healthy food for local consumption and regional stability. The only
smart short-term response is to throw money at the problem. George W.
Bush’s release of $200 million in emergency aid to the UN’s World Food
Program was appropriate, but Washington must do more. Rising food
prices may not be causing riots in the United States, but food banks
here are struggling to meet demand as joblessness grows. Congress
should answer Senator Sherrod Brown’s call to allocate $100 million
more to domestic food programs and make sure, as Representative Jim
McGovern urges, that an overdue farm bill expands programs for getting
fresh food from local farms to local consumers.

Beyond humanitarian responses, the cure for what ails the global food
system — and an unsteady US farm economy — is not more of the same
globalization and genetic gimmickry. That way has left thirty-seven
nations with food crises while global grain giant Cargill harvests an
86 percent rise in profits and Monsanto reaps record sales from its
herbicides and seeds. For years, corporations have promised farmers
that problems would be solved by trade deals and technology —
especially GM seeds, which University of Kansas research now suggests
reduce food production and the International Assessment of Agricultural
Science and Technology for Development says won’t end global hunger.
The “market,” at least as defined by agribusiness, isn’t working. We
“have a herd of market traders, speculators and financial bandits who
have turned wild and constructed a world of inequality and horror,”
says Jean Ziegler, the UN’s right-to-food advocate. But try telling
that to the Bush Administration or to World Bank president (and former
White House trade rep) Robert Zoellick, who’s busy exploiting tragedy
to promote trade liberalization. “If ever there is a time to cut
distorting agricultural subsidies and open markets for food imports, it
must be now,” says Zoellick. “Wait a second,” replies Dani Rodrik, a
Harvard political economist who tracks trade policy. “Wouldn’t the
removal of these distorting policies raise world prices in agriculture
even further?” Yes. World Bank studies confirm that wheat and rice
prices will rise if Zoellick gets his way.

Instead of listening to the White House or the World Bank, Congress
should recognize — as a handful of visionary members like Ohio
Representative Marcy Kaptur have — that current trends confirm the
wisdom of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s call for “an
urgent rethink of the respective roles of markets and governments.” (04/25/08)
more…

BBC Science –
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the
elimination of malaria deaths by the end of 2010 as he marked the first
World Malaria Day.

The disease causes over a million deaths a year, with 90% of all cases occurring in Africa.

Mr Ban wants all of Africa to have access to basic measures to control the disease such as bed nets and sprays.

“We have the resources and the know-how but we have less than 1,000 days before the end of 2010,” he said of the goal.

More than half a billion people are infected with malaria each year.

Despite this, it is preventable and treatable. …

Previous efforts to control malaria have proved less than successful.

In 1998 the Roll Back Malaria initiative aimed to halve malaria deaths
by 2010 - but halfway through the programme deaths had actually risen.

Reversing the trend of increase in malaria and other diseases is one of
the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, aimed at reducing poverty and
improving the quality of life by 2015. (04/25/08)
more…

BBC Science — Research has cast new doubt on the wisdom of using Sun-blocking sulphate particles to cool the planet.

Sulphate injections are one of several “geo-engineering” solutions to climate change being discussed by scientists.

But data published in Science journal suggests the strategy would lead to drastic thinning of the ozone layer.

This would delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by decades,
and cause significant ozone loss over the Arctic, say US researchers.

The idea of pumping sulphur into the upper atmosphere ito counteract global warming comes from nature.

Major volcanic eruptions emit vast quantities of sulphur particles that can cool the planet significantly. …

Dr Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCar)
in Boulder, Colorado, and colleagues used a combination of measurements
and computer simulations to estimate future ozone loss if sulphate
injections were carried out.

Quantities capable of mitigating climate change would destroy as much
as three-quarters of the ozone layer over the Arctic, if carried out in
the next few decades, they said.

This would also delay the expected recovery of the ozone layer over the Antarctic by about 30 to 70 years, they concluded. (04/25/08)
more…

BBC Science — Ancient
humans started down the path of evolving into two separate species
before merging back into a single population, a genetic study suggests.

The genetic split in Africa resulted in distinct populations that lived
in isolation for as much as 100,000 years, the scientists say.

This could have been caused by arid conditions driving a wedge between humans in eastern and southern Africa.

Details have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

It would be the longest period for which modern human populations have been isolated from one another. …

The latest conclusions are based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA in
present-day African populations. This type of DNA is the genetic
material stored in mitochondria - the “powerhouses” of cells.

It is passed down from a mother to her offspring, providing a unique record of maternal inheritance.

“We don’t know how long it takes for hominids to fission off into
separate species, but clearly they were separated for a very long
time,” said Dr Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project.

“They came back together again during the Late Stone Age - driven by population expansion.” (04/25/08)
more…