Reflectorites
Below are web article links, headlines and paragraphs for the period 25
February - 3 March, with my comments in square brackets.
Steve
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http://abcnews.go.com/onair/CloserLook/wnt_000303_CL_parrot_feature.html
ABCNEWS ... Conversing With Parrots Some Parrots Have Ability to
Talk With Humans And now we move a step further. Alex, an African gray
parrot is unlike any other animal: he can talk. When he says, "come here!"
he really wants his owner to come here. (ABCNEWS.com) By Ned Potter
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 3 - What is it that elevates human beings
above the rest of the animal kingdom? It's getting complicated.
Researchers once thought it was our ability to use tools, but, no, it turned
out chimps use twigs or leaves as crude tools. Then the researchers
seized on our ability to use language, but it has turned out that dolphins
make certain sounds for certain things and gorillas can learn sign
language. ... And now we move a step further. Alex, an African gray
parrot, is unlike any other animal: he can talk. When he says, "come
here!" he really wants his owner to come here. That is remarkable to the
scientist studying him, Irene Pepperberg of the University of Arizona. She
says Alex understands that words have meaning and he does not just
mimic random sounds he has been taught. "These birds have the
emotional and social skills of about a 2-and-a-half year-old, 3- year-old
child, says Pepperberg. "Their intellectual skills are more like a 5 or 6 year
old in some cases." Differentiating Objects' Characteristics Alex can
identify about 50 different objects, can name seven colors, and knows
numbers up to six. "You can ask him what color, what shape, what
material," says Pepperberg, "and he knows what set of answers belong in
those categories."... Once again, the line blurs between humans and
animals. The one remaining distinction, in the end, may be that humans
are better at things, but it is still surprising what a bird with a walnut-sized
brain can learn. ... [This is a big problem for those who claim that chimps
and gorillas can talk. If the claim is that chimps can really use sign
language because they are closest to humans, then what is the
explanation for a *parrot* who talk as well, if not better? I saw a parrot sing
"Happy Birthday" in an opera-singer voice at the Singapore bird park but I
no one claimed that it knew what it was singing. Parrots are just very
clever mimics and human beings are very good at training them and
reading into their pets' behaviour their own human feelings. Maybe this
exposes as an anthropomorphic delusion the whole field of talking apes?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000302/sc/axes_1.html Yahoo! ...
March 2 ... Oldest Stone Axes in China Found By Maggie Fox, Health and
Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eight hundred
thousand years ago, a meteorite blasted into what is now Vietnam,
burning forests, killing off wildlife and probably badly frightening the pre-
humans who lived there. But eventually, the hominids came back...They
found a freshly exposed outcropping of rock, perfect for making stone
tools. Archeologists ... found those tools -- the oldest stone axes ever
found in China. They date to 803,000 years ago. They say the tools show
that the Asian Homo erectus was every bit as advanced as his African
cousins and suggest this species of early humans shared a global
culture....What has been found is a rich collection of stone tools. Potts and
colleagues report in the journal Science that they have dated the tools and
the tektites to 803,000 years ago. ... It is known that Homo erectus lived in
the area at the time...It's a darn shame we don't have fossil bones from
this area." ... "There has been this long, over 50 years, viewpoint that
because we don't find stone tools in eastern Asia like what we find in
Africa, that there must have been great deep cultural isolation and
behavioral differences," Potts said. "This suggests that this is not the
case." ... Also at:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/03/06/fancystones.ap/index.html CNN
... Refined stone tools show skill of ancient East Asians The Asian tools
are about 800,000 years old March 6, 2000 ......Such advanced tools
have long been missing from the human geological record in East Asia,
leading some anthropologists to speculate that early humans in Asia were
less sophisticated and inventive than those elsewhere. Fifty years ago, a
Harvard University anthropologist, Hallam Movius, even divided the
ancient world into halves based on stone age tool-making skill. What
became known as the Movius line divided Africa, the Middle East and
Europe from the presumed backwaters of India, China and Southeast
Asia. ... [This does not really settle the "Movius line" question. If Asian
Homo erectus could make stone tools in one area why didn't he make
them elsewhere? Since African Homo erectus definitely did make stone
tools, a possible answer is that these stone tools were made by African
Homo erectus.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/02/28/dark.matter.ap/index.html ... CNN
.. Stanford experiment contradicts 'dark matter' findings February 28, 2000 ...
STANFORD, California (AP) -- A group of physicists says their Stanford
University experiment to detect so-called "dark matter" particles that hold the
universe together could contradict earlier findings by an Italian team. Physicists
have long theorized that "dark matter" particles could account for much of the
universe's mass. But new research presented Friday by University of California-
Berkeley physicist Richard Gaitskell suggests that it is unlikely that a Stanford
University detector had found as many of the elusive particles as an Italian
experiment recorded, The New York Times reported Saturday. The Stanford
experiment recorded 13 particle detections, about the same number as expected by
the Italian group. But the detection of weakly interacting massive particles -dubbed
WIMPS -- was likely caused by ordinary atomic particles called neutrons. ... It is
not yet known if WIMPs -- part of the "dark matter" that keeps galaxies from
breaking apart -- exist. .... Also at:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/022600sci-dark-matter.html &
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20000226_1955.html ... [So WIMPs may not
exist after all? According to the previous article I posted, WIMPs are important to
the theory of supersymmetry, which itself is important to a Theory of Everything.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000228/sc/science_meteorite_1.html ...
Museum Sues Indians Over Meteorite Ownership By Gail Appleson, Law
Correspondent NEW YORK (Reuters) - The American Museum of Natural
History sued an American Indian group Monday to block its claim to the 15.5-ton
Willamette Meteorite, one of the museum's oldest treasures and a centerpiece of its
newly opened planetarium. The suit seeks a court ruling that the museum is the
rightful owner of the largest meteorite ever found in the United States. It also
seeks a ruling that it does not have to repatriate the extraterrestrial object to an
Oregon Indian group that alleges that the gigantic meteorite is a holy tribal object
that brought messages from the spirit world long before the arrival of white men.
... The lawsuit alleged that the meteorite's ownership history dates back to at least
1855 when various Indian tribes voluntarily ceded the meteorite, which was once
located in the upper Willamette Valley in Oregon, to the United States in exchange
for reservation land and other considerations. ... To obtain repatriation of a sacred
object, a tribe must show that it is a sacred object, that the tribe owned or
controlled it and that the museum does not have a right of possession, the suit said.
The museum alleged that the Oregon Indian group did not meet these
requirements. ... Also at:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/02/29/museum.meteorite.ap/index.html &
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/meteorite000228.html [This is
shaping up to be an fascinating test between a prior indigenous religious claim and
a member of the dominant scientific culture's legal claim. This could eventually
have big ramifications elsewhere.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000228/sc/diabetes_stemcells_2.html ...
Yahoo! ... February 28 ... Scientists Reverse Mouse Diabetes With Stem Cells By
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Scientists said on Monday they had used stem cells -- "master cells" that are the
source of new cells in the body -- to reverse diabetes in mice. They said their
experiment is a first demonstration that the cells are as valuable as people had said
they would be in treating disease. The team ... has already started testing human
cells in the laboratory and think they will work, too. Stem cells have been in the
headlines since their real potential was discovered just over a year ago.
Researchers said they could be used as tissue transplants, or even as a source to
grow whole new organs. ... they said they isolated stem cells from the pancreases
of mice, got them to grow, transplanted them into diabetic mice and showed they
worked to produce insulin. ... No one really knows what a stem cell looks like.
Scientists only know of their existence because of their final product -- more cells.
So Schatz's team just hoped they would get stem cells, and they did. ... "The next
step is take this into humans," Schatz said. "In preliminary experiments it appears
that we can take human pancreatic duct cells and show that they can differentiate
into islet cells as well." Schatz said the source of the stem cells was organ donors -
- people who have died of various causes and donated their organs. ... One of the
controversial sources of stem cells is early embryos -- usually left over from
attempts to make test-tube babies. Schatz said if organ donors can be used as a
source, "you could potentially bypass (the need for) embryonic cells." .... In a
second study ... said they had found a place in the adult brain that might serve as a
source of neural stem cells. They described a method to identify and isolate cells
from the adult human dentate gyrus section of the hippocampus and said these
might be used for brain cell transplants, perhaps to treat patients with Parkinson's
or other diseases caused by brain degeneration. ... Also at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_660000/660947.stm [I didn't realise
that no one knows what a stem cell looks like. I personally can see nothing wrong
with obtaining stem cells from deceased or even live consenting donors.]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/022600sci-geog-viking.html
The New York Times February 26, 2000 Study Casts Disputed Map as
False Link to Vikings ... By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD A study conducted in
preparation for an exhibition on the Vikings at the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington in April has concluded that the Vinland Map, which purports
to show that Norse explorers charted North America long before the
voyages of Columbus, is almost certainly a fake. ... In an analysis of
chemical tests of the map's ink and comparisons with authenticated maps
of the 15th and 16th centuries, Dr. Douglas McNaughton, a physicist and
independent scholar of early maps, found what he said was persuasive
evidence that the map, whose value has been assessed at $25 million,
appeared to have been contrived in the early 20th century and modeled
after 16th century Portuguese maps of the North Atlantic. ... "It has been
called a fake since it was first seen by cartographic historians," ... One of
the most telling clues calling the map's authenticity into question, Dr.
McNaughton said, was that outlines of coasts and islands in the North
Atlantic seemed to be based in large part on a 1503-5 chart by Nicolo
Caneiro, a Genovese cartographer who worked with secret map material
of the Portuguese. ...But some defenders of the map's medieval origins
have taken sharp issue with the new interpretations. ... Dr. Babcock said
that he and others at Yale remained open-minded in the debate over
whether the map is genuine. ... [I have no stake in whether this is a fake,
but I would have thought that the any similarity between the Vinland Map
and medieval Portuguese maps could be explained by the latter having
been based on earlier Norse maps.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000225/sc/science_chip_1.html ... Yahoo! ...
February 25 ... Scientists Create Half-Human, Half-Silicon Chip WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Scientists said on Friday they have created a bionic chip that mixes
human cells with layers of silicon, a device they hope to use in research and to
treat disease. The chip is a sandwich that traps a cell within three layers of silicon.
The cell acts to complete an electrical circuit, and can be altered -- perhaps to add
a new gene -- as part of the process. ... their invention ... is used for a process
called electroporation. "We have developed a micro-electroporation chip that
incorporates a live biological cell in the electrical circuit," ... Electroporation is
used extensively in genetic engineering and other forms of research on cells. It uses
an electrical current to open pores in the membranes that surround cells, allowing
scientists to put in new genes or other compounds. The chip integrates the cell,
using it to complete the needed electrical circuit and trapping it in place so the new
genes or compounds can be inserted. ... "Because of the low cost of the chip and
the possibility to completely automate the process, it is conceivable that in
industrial operation there could be hundreds of chips operating under computer
control," they wrote. ... They think the process could eventually be used to treat
diseased cells and then replace them in the body. One of the weaknesses of gene
therapy -- which attempts to use new genes to treat disease -- is that is hard to
make sure cells actually absorb the new genes. The new process might make it
easier to ensure that genes get into cells. ... Also at:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20000226_1955.html [This sounds like a way
to mass-produce gene therapy!]
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/exped_seti000225_part2.html
ABCNEWS ... Finding the Signal ... By Seth Shostak Special to
ABCNEWS.com Feb. 25 - "So where do you analyze the data for
signals?" I've heard this question a thousand times ... many are surprised
by the absence of a supercomputer, humming away as it plows through
gobs of data in pursuit of ET's call. So I explain it once more to the
visitors: our search is conducted entirely at a telescope. Sure, we have a
supercomputer, a custom-built hunk of hardware that packs a multi-
teraflop punch. But there's a good reason for doing all the data processing
at the `scope. Interstellar signals, if they come from far away (more than a
thousand light-years), are subject to fading. In the course of a few hours,
their strength will rise and fall sometimes by as much as a factor of ten.
This is an unavoidable fate for radio waves that pass through the clouds of
hot, thin gas that float between the stars. Clearly, if we wait a few hours to
check out a signal, it might fade into temporary oblivion. In the worst case,
we could miss the evidence of a hailing alien. So we don't wait. We check
out all signals right at the telescope within 20 minutes, a job that is tougher
than a two-dollar steak. The Project Phoenix system monitors 28 million
channels simultaneously, and is hooked up to an antenna that's the
equivalent of ten thousand large, backyard satellite dishes. Signals pour in
at the rate of several a minute. So how does our hapless telescope
hardware keep up? ... It does so by using pipeline processing. This
sounds like something that would interest an oil company, but pipeline
processing is just a computer term. It refers to handling the signals in a
sequence of steps, with a different system at each stage. If the signal
makes it through stage two, a second telescope, the 250-foot metal
monster at Jodrell Bank, England, is called into play. It checks to see if it
can find the candidate. In addition, it reckons with the fact that a true
extraterrestrial broadcast should be at a slightly different spot on the dial in
England than in Puerto Rico. This is because of frequency shifts
introduced by Earth's rotation. About once an hour, a signal will make it
through stage three and a few additional, automatic tests thrown at it by a
piece of software dubbed the Kitchen Sink Module. If a candidate
broadcast has leapt all these hurdles, then life at the telescope gets
interesting. ... The Arecibo `scope swings away from the star system under
scrutiny, and tries again to dig up the signal. If it can, then we know that
we're just looking at interference. Signals that can be found no matter
where you point the antenna are merely the bright glow from a nearby
radar station or an overhead satellite, leaking into our system. If the signal
doesn't show, then the telescope swings back to the star and looks again.
In some cases, the signal reappears, as it should if it's coming from deep
space. The antenna begins to nod back and forth between star and blank
sky, checking whether the signal comes and goes appropriately. The
telescope may be nodding, but you can bet that the astronomer on duty is
paying close attention. Few signals have made it as far through the
pipeline as I've described here. But some have. Were they possibly alien
broadcasts? Our first sign of extraterrestrial intelligence? ... [Interesting
need for speed. Also the use for a type of `explanatory filter' to eliminate
law and chance so that what's left is possibly design.]
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DyeHard/dyehard.html
ABCNEWS ... [undated - downloaded 29 February 2000] A Forest From
the Past Ice Age Trees Record the Toll of the Last Time the World
Warmed ... By Lee Dye Special to ABCNEWS.com About 10,000 years
ago, as Ice Age glaciers thawed in what is now Michigan, a forest of
spruce trees sprouted and flourished. Then, quickly, the forest died.
Preserved in rising water and sand, the ancient trees are giving scientists
a remarkable look at the last time the world's climate warmed rapidly and
may offer compelling lessons for the present, when most experts believe
the Earth is warming again. ... Earthen dikes were built to keep water from
flooding the excavation as researchers carefully removed the sand. What
they found was astonishing: five acres of ancient forest, still standing and
nearly perfectly preserved, down to the moss on the limbs of the trees...."It
had to have been a very rapid but gentle burial," Bornhorst says, because
even tiny "limblets" of new growth survived the process. ... It seems
reasonable that such a dramatic change in climate would be reflected in
the annual growth rings of the trees in the doomed forest, but that is not
the case. "If you look at the tree rings you can look at the microclimate
(which determines growth) in this area right before it warmed up," ... "One
of the really fascinating things is we don't see any indicators that the
climate was going to warm up. ... The trees in the ancient forest, he
suggests, should have sensed that it was getting warmer and that should
have been reflected in their rate of growth. But apparently they didn't.
Now, all these years later, those ancient trees seem to be raising the
same question today that they did 10,000 years ago: Does anybody really
know what's going on? ... [This could be interesting to Flood geologists. A
whole forest buried rapidly but gently only 10,000 years ago and no
evidence in the trees themselves for the alternative, global warming and
glacier melting!]
HIV/AIDS:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/aids/stories/economic.impact/ CNN
... AIDS leaves Africa's economic future in doubt The worst of the AIDS
epidemic may be yet to come, say U.N. economists ... AIDS now kills
around 2 million people a year in sub-Saharan Africa By Peter Wehrwein
As the HIV epidemic deepens in Africa, it is leaving an economically
devastated continent in its wake. More than one-quarter of working-age
adults are infected with HIV in some communities in sub-Saharan Africa, a
statistic that brings profound economic repercussions for families and
communities. Families that must care for a member who is ill with AIDS
often deplete monetary resources that would otherwise be used to cover
necessities and to invest in children's futures. And when AIDS claims the
lives of people in their most productive years, grieving orphans and elderly
must contend with the sudden loss of financial support, communities must
bear the burden of caring for those left behind, and countries must draw
on a diminishing pool of trained and talented workers. Anita Alban, an
economist for the United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS),
cites a study of urbanites in Cote d'Ivoire that showed families with a
member sick from AIDS cut spending on their children's education in half
and reduced food consumption by about 40 percent as they struggled to
cover health expenditures that soared to four times their usual level. ...
One of the paradoxes of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is that for
most of this decade it has not made a dent on standard macroeconomic
yardsticks such as gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the total
value of goods and services produced by an economy over a period of
time. ... Besides, says Daniel Tarantola, a senior policy adviser to World
Health Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, the scope
of the epidemic is now so large now that numbers are no longer necessary
to make the argument for the epidemic's economic consequences. ...
Because it is difficult to measure the macroeconomic impact of an
epidemic directly, economists have generally depended on economic
models, which are built on a set of assumptions. Naturally, different
assumptions yield different numbers. ... [Another strange AIDS story. It is
supposed to be having a devastating economic impact but in fact "it has
not made a dent on standard macroeconomic yardsticks such as gross
domestic product (GDP)." So "numbers are no longer necessary to make
the argument for the epidemic's economic consequences"!]
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Stephen E. (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ Email: sejones@iinet.net.au
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Web: http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
Warwick 6024 -> *_,--\_/ Phone: +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, Western Australia v "Test everything." (1 Thess. 5:21)
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