Timothy Wilken, MD writes: Within
this half century, we humans have developed ergometric science to help
us improve our tool-making.  Ergometric scientists tell us how to
best design tools to fit the human form. By carefully measuring both
the physiology and psychology of the human body, today’s scientists are
seeking to determine the best designs for new tools. They know that the
best tools are those that fit you like a well-tailored glove fits your
hand.

Recently ergometric science has been much advanced by a breakthrough in
our understanding of human intelligence. With the development of the
“dual mind” model of human intelligence it is now possible to design
tools that fit the human “mind-brain”. In other words, we can now
ergometrically engineer tools to fit the way we humans think.

We humans are the toolmakers, and in our history we have made many
tools—both simple and complex. The most complex and complicated of all
our tools are our organizations—the corporations, institutions,
militaries, and governments of earth. These are also the most important
tools in all our lives, for they significantly influence both the
quality and quanity of our lives. Of all the tools we might seek to
ergometrically engineer to fit the human “mind-brain”, there exists no
greater potential benefit for all mankind then by applying this science
to our most complex tools—the organizations.

One such tool has recently completed development, and is now available
to organizations for immediate application.   This first
ergometrically designed tool for human organizations is called the
“organizational tensegrity” or simply ORTEGRITY.

The ORTEGRITY is a “mind-brain” compatible “system of organizing humans. It can be used by a small group of
individuals or a giant corporation with hundreds of thousands of
employees.

The ORTEGRITY is a “system of human organization that creates a
conflict-free environment for decision making and action
implementation”. This is an environment so ergometrically suited to
human thinking that efficiency and productivity are predicted to
increase 10 to 1000 times. Yes, that’s 10 to 1000 times more efficient
and productive.

The ORTEGRITY achieves its great power by creating an ideal
psychological environment for human thinking. One important finding of
recent mind-brain research, is “that whenever humans experience
conflict they lose access to their full intelligence”. When humans are
confronted with conflict, their mind-brains shift to a very primitive
and highly reactive way of thinking called the survive mode. The
survive mode evolved in the jungle to insure physical survival. Its
primary skills are fighting and fleeing. Its extremes are rage and
terror. All humans thinking in the survive mode will find their
intelligence to be severely limited. Access is lost to the faculties of
reason and intuition. In severe conflict, many of us lose even our
ability to speak. Unfortunately, the survive mode turns on with the
slightest conflict, and instantaneously our intelligence begins to
decrease. It is not simply on or off. It is more like the rheostat
dimmer switch controlling a dinning room light. A little conflict will
produce a little loss of intelligence, while a large conflict will
produce a large loss of intelligence. If we remain in conflict for
weeks, then we will operate at limited intelligence for weeks. And in
full rage or terror, we humans access only a tiny fraction of our
potential intelligence. Conflict is to organizations as friction is to
machinery. 

The power of the ORTEGRITY results then from its unique ability
to create a conflict-free state. It is this conflict-free state that
optimizes human intelligence and creativity. It is this conflict-free
state that maximizes efficiency and productivity. It is this
conflict-free state that increases the quality of work-life. It is the
conflict-free state that allows all relationships between all members
to become win-win.

In the difficult political-economic times ahead organizations must
learn to work smarter. Only by optimizing the human factor can they
hope to survive. The ORTEGRITY promises to increase efficiency
and productivity by 10 to 1000 times. It accomplishes this by
increasing the intelligence and creativity of all members in the
system. This is working “smartest”. The ORTEGRITY was designed to
fit the human “mind-brain” like a well tailored glove fits your hand,
it could change the way we all work and live in the future. (05/08/08)
more…

David Cohen writes: The disconnect between peak oil concerns and the presidential race
is almost total. As prices at the pump rise, each candidate is now
talking about their so-called solutions to the problem. Despite clear new warning signs from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Nigeria
that peak oil is nigh, the candidates remain unwaveringly oblivious to
the true causes of rising fuel prices, preferring instead to dwell on
irrelevant—actually, counterproductive—measures like suspending the
federal gas tax during the summer months or taxing Big Oil. This is
akin to putting a band-aid on a melanoma.

Our nation’s capital is a self-reinforcing bastion of ignorance
about the longer term oil supply issues, Roscoe Bartlett (R, Md) and a
few others excepted. The candidates and their energy advisers are
full-fledged members of the “Washington Insiders” club, a group that
only talks to each other and gets all of its information from inside
the Beltway or pollsters. A brief example suffices to demonstrate the
problem. Everybody in our nation’s capital reads the Washington Post. If you want to “know” what’s going on, it’s in the Post. Here are the results of a Google advanced search survey
of references to the exact phrase “peak oil” in four newspapers — Wall
Street Journal: 3820 Hits, New York Times: 1970 Hits, Houston
Chronicle: 617 Hits, and the Washington Post: 389 Hits.

The Wall Street Journal has about 10 times more allusions to “peak oil” than the Post does. Bear in mind that this informal survey includes comments by readers, guest editorials, and assorted other references that are not part of the newspaper’s reporting. You will be hard-pressed to find a news article in the Washington Post that uses the term “peak oil.” Earth to the Post’s Editors, this is Earth calling—”peak oil” is a growing concern outside the Beltway, so it’s time to get with the program.

Examining
the “oil dependency” positions of the candidates’ energy advisers gives
us little hope our newly elected government will meet the peak oil
challenges head-on in 2009. …

Mitigating anthropogenic climate change is the imperative driving
the policies of all the presidential candidates, so their primary
energy initiative is a carbon emissions cap & trade system.
Problems arising from our oil dependency take a backseat—these are not
perceived as urgent and thus can be solved gradually. This approach to
our “oil dependency” only makes sense from a climate perspective, which
requires us to change our energy consumption and infrastructure over
several decades.

The soaring oil price and its underlying
causes are the invisible elephant in the room in the presidential race.
While many of the candidates’ proposals can be chalked up to pandering
in an election year, there is no evidence that I can find that any of
the candidates gets this “peak oil” problem. For example, Robert Hirsch
and Roger Bezdek briefed two low level Clinton staffers on the dangers
of a dwindling oil supply. No evidence supports the idea that this
briefing has had the slightest effect on thinking in the Clinton
campaign. We are all being sold down the river in this year’s
election. As the first DOE secretary James Schlesinger said, “We have
only two modes—complacency and panic.” Complacency rules, and panic
awaits. I don’t know who the next president will be, but I can foresee
that anxious day when our leader-to-be (or Jason Grumet?) exclaims “Oh,
no! Oil is $161/barrel! The economy is falling apart! What do we do
now?” Don’t say we didn’t warn you.  (05/08/08)
more…

Tom Whipple
writes: With crude oil now above $120 a barrel and threatening to go
higher, it is clear that our preferred and convenient means of going
places, our car, the airplane and the rental car soon are going to be
parked because they will be too expensive to operate.

Like it or not, most of us are going to be riding some form of mass
transit or multiple passenger vehicle – trains, buses, trolleys, car
pools, van pools etc.- while waiting for our cars to be replaced with
electric or higher mileage vehicles. As there are currently about 220
million cars and light trucks registered in the U.S. and 700 million or
so elsewhere, the replacement process is going to be lengthy one.

In America, our accustomed daily transportation needs are so diverse
that it is difficult to foresee how new transportation methods and
patterns will come about. For some simply accepting the inconvenience
of taking public transit to work or joining a car pool will save enough
gasoline each week that much higher prices, shortages and ultimately
rationing can be accommodated without undue hardship.

For others whose livelihood depends on a large vehicle that moves
frequently throughout the work day there is more of a problem for mass
transit as currently configured is unlikely to be of much use. At some
point driving around at 10 mpg to mow lawns will no longer be
economically viable for customers will no longer be willing to pay the
fuel surcharges. Someday there probably will be satisfactory electric
or ultra high mileage vehicles, but it is likely to be a while before
they filter down from better off organizations such UPS, FedEx and the
grocery stores to local maintenance contractors.

One day soon, it will simply be too expensive for electricians,
plumbers and a myriad of other household service providers to drive 50
or 60 miles in large, inefficient vehicles to perform some relatively
minor maintenance task. The very nature of such services will have to
change, be localized, and planned so that travel is minimized. Someday,
your electrician may arrive on a city bus pulling his tools and parts
behind.

The speed with which we have to transition from unlimited, cheap,
personal travel to some form of public or at least multiple passenger
transport will determine how transit works in the coming decades. (05/08/08)
more…

BBC Medical Science –
Scientists have been looking at ways liver disease could be treated
using embryonic stem cells, reducing the need for transplantation.

The
research is one of two projects at Edinburgh University receiving
£3.6m from Scottish Enterprise and the Medical Research Council (MRC).
The second project, which also involves embryonic stem cells, will look
at new ways to repair damaged bone.

Liver disease is the fifth most common cause of death in the UK.

Professor John Iredale, of the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at
the University of Edinburgh, said: “In the first instance, the
successful development of liver cells from embryonic stem cells will
revolutionise and improve the way we are able to test drugs and novel
therapies both for the liver and other organs and ultimately may lead
to a stem-cell based approach to regenerate the liver.

“This would have a significant impact on reducing the need for donated
organs and provide less invasive and traumatic treatment for those
patients for whom transplantation is currently the only option.”

Scientists will research how liver cells derived from embryonic stem
cells can be used in therapies for acute and chronic liver disease.

The research will gain greater understanding as to how embryonic stem
cells differentiate to become liver cells, and how these can be made to
repair damaged livers. (05/08/08)
more…

BBC Science — At least one of Britain’s birds appears to be coping well as climate change alters the availability of a key food.

Researchers found that great tits are laying eggs earlier in the spring
than they used to, keeping step with the earlier emergence of
caterpillars.

Writing in the journal Science, they point out that the same birds in
the Netherlands have not managed to adjust. Understanding why some
species in some places are affected more than others by climatic shifts
is vital, they say.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) commented that
other species are likely to fare much worse than great tits as
temperatures rise.

The research uses a long record of great tits in a breeding site at
Wytham Woods near Oxford, where observations began in 1947. …

The RSPB and other conservation bodies have regularly warned that
climate shifts could have a devastating impact on some species; and
they believe the new research does not change that picture.

“It’s great to hear that the great tit is able to keep pace with the
rapid rate of climate change, but then it’s probably in the best place
to do that,” observed RSPB spokesman Grahame Madge.

“They’re abundant birds, they can live in gardens, woodland and open
country, and they churn out large numbers of young in a short space of
time, so they’re better able to learn changes in behaviour.”

The organisation believes - as do others - that climate change is one
of the main cuplrits for the abrupt declines in some seabird
populations around UK coasts in recent years.

The Oxford and Heteren groups are now planning to collaborate on a
study to elucidate why some populations apparently adapt well to
climate change, and others do not. (05/08/08)
more…