To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Oct 8, 1999 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 08:33:55 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

8:00 PM Eastern

 USA - The Godfather III - Sicilian vendetta involving the Vatican.

9:00

 PBS - SIX BILLION AND BEYOND - World population will
   probably reach 6 billion by Oct. 12, 1999.(CC)(TVPG)

 DISC - DISCOVERY NEWS - "The Swarm: A New Plague of
   Killer Insects" - The mosquito-borne virus
   encephalitis.(CC)

 TLC - ANCIENT PROPHECIES III - Aztec and Mayan
   civilizations; vision of world destruction; sightings of the
   Virgin Mary; pre-life progression.(CC)(TVPG)

9:30

 DISC - DISCOVER MAGAZINE - "Tornado of the Century" - A
   1999 storm unleashes 45 tornadoes.(CC)

10:00

 PBS - THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING - Parental involvement and
   responsibility.(CC)(TVPG)

--- BPR

BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Israel's Water Basics
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:40:06 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

ISRAEL'S WATER BASICS
by Yedidya Atlas
Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio <http://www.arutzsheva.org>

In This Article:
  1. Israel Looks to the Skies.
  2. The Three Sources
  3. Coastal Aquifer in Trouble
  4. All-Important Mountain Aquifer - to the Palestinians?
  5. Mismanagement Alone Can Do Us In
  6. And Then What?

ISRAEL LOOKS TO THE SKIES
While the arguments go back and forth whether or not Israel's security
is threatened by unilateral territorial withdrawal from the
administered territories and the Golan Heights, one issue has been
studiously glossed over by advocates for territorial concessions:
water.

Israel has a water problem. No country can physically exist without
sufficient supply of this most vital liquid, and Israel is no
exception. Located on the fringe of a desert, Israel is almost wholly
dependent on seasonal rainfall for her water supply. Rarely do
Israelis experience rainfall outside of a five-month winter season
from November through March.

Moreover, Israel has a growing population that maintains a modest
level of western standard of living, where water (for bathing
regularly, drinking freely, etc. ) is not considered a luxury.
Nonetheless, it shouldn't be assumed that Israeli water consumption is
extravagant; by Western standards, it is low. Recent figures show
that Israeli average annual per capita municipal consumption is less
than half of that of domestic consumption in southern California, for
example - a region with similar climatic conditions.

THE THREE SOURCES
Israel's water supply is stored in three main sources, which together
comprise the National Water System: Lake Kinneret, the Coastal
Aquifer, and the Mountain (Yarkon-Taninim) Aquifer.

A series of extensive studies conducted by geologist Martin Sherman,
author of "The Politics of Water in the Middle East," indicate that
the permissible output of these sources varies from year to year,
according to the annual rainfall. This varies from 600 to 800 million
cubic meters per year. Current non-agricultural demand (e.g.,
showers, coffee, chicken soup, etc.) has reached the level of 600 to
700 million cubic meters. In other words, Israel's current population
needs virtually the entire permissible annual output of both the
surface and underground water reservoirs that make up the National
Water System. We see, then, that the necessary quantities of water
required by the agricultural sector can only be supplied by
over-exploiting the system and reaching the danger levels.

As a result, Israeli agriculture has become increasingly dependent on
recycled sewage and other types of low-grade waters which are
unsuitable for drinking. Hence, the oft-repeated argument that
Israel's water crisis can be resolved by reallocating water used by
the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector sounds good,
but is simply untrue - unless we are to drink these low-grade waters.

COASTAL AQUIFER IN TROUBLE
Moreover, while the population increases, the water supply is actually
shrinking. This is due to a deterioration of both the quantity and
quality of the country's water resources. As Sherman's study
logically stipulates, "the diminishing quantities and deteriorating
quality in one water source inevitably increases the importance of
other sources in the system."

Specifically, there is deterioration in the Coastal Aquifer, where
"the level of salting and other pollutants has reduced the quality in
numerous sites to below that permissible for drinking water. " A
similar pattern has begun in Lake Kinneret as well, albeit to a lesser
extent.

What this means, however, is that the importance of the Mountain
Aquifer has increased. As Israel's State Comptroller's Annual Report
already reported by the early 1990's:
 "The Mountain Aquifer, extending eastward of the Coastal Aquifer,
 from the
slopes of Mt. Carmel to Beersheba, and from the crests of mountain
ridges in Judea and Samaria to the coastal plain, serves as the
principle reservoir of drinking water to the Dan region, Tel Aviv,
Jerusalem and Beersheba. Today, it is the most important long term
source in the [National] Water System. "

ALL-IMPORTANT MOUNTAIN AQUIFER - TO THE PALESTINIANS?
Now comes the political problem. This "most important long-term
source"physically straddles the pre-1967 cease fire lines, alias "the
Green Line", into Judea and Samaria. The Principle of Connecting
Vessels tells us that any activity affecting the water on one side
will affect that on the other side as well. So if pumping operations,
or uncontrolled flow of sewage or industrial waste, etc., occur on the
western slopes of Judea and Samaria, it would cause serious, and most
probably irreversible, damage to the key source of drinking water for
Israel's major urban centers and environs.

The political and strategic significance for Israel is clear.
Withdrawing from Judea and Samaria - i.e., the Mountain Aquifer - or
from the Golan Heights would create a situation in which the fate of
Israel's water supply would be determined by Mr. Arafat's Palestinian
Authority and the Syrians, respectively.

Can Israel really afford to trust her most valuable and irreplaceable
national resource in the hands of those who have had a long history of
trying to destroy the Jewish State? In the case of the Syrians, this
includes diverting and/or poisoning Israel's water supply.

MISMANAGEMENT ALONE CAN DO US IN
Even if we completely ignore Arafat & Co. 's consistent and deliberate
record of gross noncompliance with the Oslo accords - the Palestinian
Authority's municipal mismanagement, poor planning, insufficient
knowledge or policing, and just plain neglect would still cause the
irreparable damage to Israel's main supply of drinking water. The
present predicament of the Gaza Aquifer is proof enough.

When Gaza was turned over to the sole ruling authority of Arafat's PA,
it received total control of the Gaza aquifer - which at the time was
still functioning and producing potable water. Within less than two
years under Palestinian Arab management, the Gaza Aquifer was ruined,
contaminated beyond repair. If the PA is incapable of taking care of
its own aquifer to supply water to its residents, how can Israel place
its trust in the same Authority to care and conserve water sources
that supply Israeli taps?

On the Syrian front, let's even assume that the Syrians are genuinely
interested in keeping the peace. Nevertheless, a few years down the
road, with the increase in Syria's own population, and continued
Turkish diversion of water from the Euphrates River on the other side
of Syria, Damascus may decide to divert water from the Golan for
peaceful means, and not just to dry out Israel. Yet for Israel, the
effect would be the same.

AND THEN WHAT?
Although Israel's national survival would be at stake, at what point
could Jerusalem re-invade the Golan or Judea and Samaria? When the
water supply goes down to the danger levels, or when its irreversibly
damaged? What justification would be acceptable to the United States
and/or the UN who may feel there are more pressing problems to deal
with besides Palestinian municipal mismanagement or terrorist
well-digging, or Damascus' diverting the Jordan River's headwaters to
irrigate Syrian fields?

True, peace talks sub-committees continue to discuss the water issue.
But what is there to talk about? Either Israel has sole control of her
national water sources or her very survival is threatened. If
everything works out, fine. But if it doesn't, well, then what? As
an economics professor of mine once said, "All things being equal,
such and such is the case - but in real life things are never equal."
How much more so in the Middle East.

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Microchipped Cyborg ignores critics to push back boundaries
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:40:06 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

From http://www.news-real.com/story/19990928/15/54/6018102_st.html
-
Professor chipping away
Cybernetics pioneer ignores critics to push back boundaries
South China Morning Post

Professor Kevin Warwick, head of cybernetics at Reading University,
holds an extraordinary place in the history of technology. Last
August, he became the first human to host a microchip.

Newspaper headlines around the world screamed "cyborg". But Mr Warwick
does not mind the term because cybernetics is all about the
interaction of humans and technology. So, it is apt for a professor of
cybernetics to become a cyborg - part-man, part-machine - he says.

X-Files star Gillian Anderson called him "Britain's leading prophet of
the robot age", but he is not daunting. He says he has always been
attracted to the "sexy" side of science, inspired by futurist writers
such as H.G. Wells and Michael Crichton.

Mr Warwick's microchip, implanted in his left arm above the elbow,
connected him with a variety of gadgets so that every morning the door
of his lab opened as he approached and the lights came on.

"Hello, Professor Warwick," his computer said before letting him know
how many e-mail messages he had received.

He dismisses the myth that it chilled his wine and ran his bath,
although that would be technically possible. "Quite frankly you could
get it to do anything. You could get it so that as I walked through
this doorway it launched a nuclear weapon," Mr Warwick said.

He had the implant inserted because the lab was wired up for just such
an enterprise and no other scientist was investigating how people
could be enhanced through cybernetic technology.

The experiment caused him no pain. "I was surprised that I did feel
some sort of affinity with the computer. It opened my mind up much
more to what will be possible in the future," he said.

But there was a risk of the microchip leaking or shattering and so, in
line with medical advice, Mr Warwick had it removed after nine days.

"I think the decision to take it out at the time was completely
justified. I got asked by a number of TV companies to do what I might
describe as a circus act - come on our TV, wave your arm around and
get the lights to come on. I'm a scientist, not a circus freak," he
said.

Mr Warwick is now devising a microchip linked to the nervous system
and activated by nerve impulses. His ultimate aim is to make signals
travel from the human brain to a computer and back.

"When we have a thought, whether we like it or not, it is
electrochemical, whatever we do, whatever we say, wherever we move.
The initial spark is electronic. The computer is electronic. Let's
link the two together," he said.

The professor said that some people would take a long time to accept
such a development. Some Christians objected that he was interfering
with nature and called his implant the Mark of the Beast.

He does not seem bothered. He and his team have created a robot
menagerie, including a pair of six-legged walking robots, an enormous
cat called Hissing Sid and the Seven Dwarfs robots which actually
number 28 and are learning their own language.

He bonds with the robots. They are like pets and can behave just as
unpredictably. Once, he was experimenting with "messing up the
childhood" of one of his Seven Dwarfs, blocking its movements with his
hand. "I was just really nasty to it," he said.

In the end, it actually gave up, overriding its programmed goal to
keep moving. Mr Warwick was shocked at the time. Now he sees the
episode as evidence that machines can react with a kind of
emotionality.

He has even witnessed what he claims was hostility among robots. Once
at a demonstration in a cold school hall, a robot which had been
moving very awkwardly blundered into a wall and got stuck there. The
other robots crowded around it and, whenever it tried to step away
from the wall, they pushed it back.

There was a technical explanation for this behaviour, Mr Warwick said,
but the robot gang looked as though it were bullying "the weak one",
to the extent that when he lifted it up, he received a cheer.

The incident only strengthened Mr Warwick's fascination. "I mean, I'm
very, very excited. When I get up in the morning, I get a kick, I want
to get on with it. I want to find out," he said.

His book, In the Mind of the Machine (Arrow), reflects that enthusiasm
and makes some striking predictions, such as that robots as clever as
humans will exist in our lifetime.

He said it was beginning to happen. Machines could be more reliable
than people in flying planes, for example. People used to find the
idea of a machine flying an aircraft ridiculous.

"Now we think that the sooner we get rid of human pilots, the better,"
he said.

Machines would be superior to people at jobs that required touch and
feel, too, Mr Warwick said.

"In the not-too-distant future, it will be much better to have a
machine as a psychiatrist than another human because the machine can
look at all sorts of different angles and links and - as long as it
gets the information - can probably understand how a human brain is
working much better than any human can," he said.

The main difference between people and robots is our limitation,
according to the professor. Our bodies are just not designed to travel
through space and our senses have narrow parameters.

"We think of the world in three dimensions and that's all - we cannot
really conceive of the world in more dimensions," he said.

"You have a robot that senses the world in 20 different ways and
thinks about the world in 100 dimensions."

He disagreed that despite all this impressive agility, robots lacked
creativity, citing the computer that re-routed the British electricity
network far faster than any human could have done. His own robots have
even released a CD.

Once machines noticed they had outstripped human intelligence, the
human place in the pecking order would be lowly.

"They'll keep us as pets - if we're lucky - or in a zoo, a menagerie,"
he said.

Publication Date: September 28, 1999
Powered by NewsReal's IndustryWatch

via: isml@onelist.com

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Nanogirl News items (10/7/99)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:40:06 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

*TALKING PICTURES | A PICTURE MAY be worth a thousand words, but until
now it hasn't been able to say them. Kodak is now aiming to change
that and make snapshots talk (EP 926 879). A new digital stills camera
will have a microphone which stores around 10 seconds of sound when a
picture is taken. So the photographer can say what the picture shows,
where it was taken and why. An ink-jet prints the picture image onto
paper, with the speech data converted into a bar code strip running
along the bottom. This can then be read by an infrared scanner which
is swiped over the print. The scanner converts the code into sound-so
the picture speaks for itself.

*A study entitled 'New World Coming: American Security in the 21st
Century' has been released by the U.S. Commission on National
Security. It covers a lot of areas including electronic threats. It
also introduces a new term 'Weapon of Mass Disruption'.
http://www.nssg.gov/Reports/reports.htm

*You too could have seemingly superhuman mental skills. All you have
to do is switch off part of your brain. Sounds bizarre? Rita Carter
investigates. (New Scientist feature: Tune in, Turn off)
http://www.newscientist.co.uk/ns/19991009/tuneinturn.html

*Quake control. A professor of civil engineering at Washington
University in St. Louis has tested a new device on a model building
set atop an earthquake-simulating "shake table" that shows promise in
minimizing damage in earthquakes.
http://news-info.wustl.edu/feature/1999/Sept99-quake.html

*The orgin of the "speed of light may not be constant." Physicist at
University of Toronto.
http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin/19990930b.asp

*Synthetic enzyme shows promise as way to make hydrogen cheaply. A
look-alike enzyme active site synthesized by scientists at the
University of Illinois may move the world closer to an
energy-efficient, hydrogen-based economy, which could curb future
energy crises and ease global warming.
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uiuc-ses100599.html

*Pentium cluster makes a supercomputer. Cornell University has linked
a cluster of 256 Intel Pentium III microprocessors together to act as
a supercomputer, the largest "tightly-coupled" system of its kind so
far, and probably the most cost-effective, built entirely with off-
the-shelf components. Such a cluster could easily be built almost
anywhere and used for many scientific and business applications,
Cornell experts say.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Oct99/cluster.ws.html

*'Rainbow metal,' similar to opal, suggests light-steering computer
parts and catalysts Porous, rainbow-colored metal --inspired by opal--
may suggest new materials to steer light inside superfast computers,
or to more efficiently catalyze chemical reactions, University of
Delaware researchers report Oct. 7 in Nature. Because it's riddled
with regularly spaced holes only slightly wider than the wavelength of
light, the UD material acts like a prism, diffracting a spectrum of
colors--from gold and blue to red, green and purple.
http://www.udel.edu/PR/experts/rainbow.html

*The Nuts and Bolts of Cellular Engines. Whenever a cell changes its
shape--like immune cells engulfing a pathogen or neurons reaching out
to connect to one another--there's a tiny engine at work. Now
biochemists have assembled a test tube model of this miniature motor.
http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/10071999/grapha.htm

* Chinese herb enhances recovery in stressed cells. Researchers at the
University of Chicago have found that extracts from the Chinese herb
Scutellaria baicalensis, contain powerful antioxidants that can
significantly reduce cellular damage due to free radicals-highly
reactive compounds that are generated during metabolism and which
contribute to the normal wear and tear of the cell.
http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/chineseherb.html

via: transhumantech@onelist.com

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - ID system recognises body odor
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:40:06 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

From http://www.news-real.com/story/19990928/15/54/6018159_st.html
-
BO could gauge ID
South China Morning Post

First it was the PIN, now it is the pong.

Scientists in Australia have devised a security identification system
that recognises a person's individual body odour.

It will mean the PIN number and other methods of identification such
as the fingerprint or eye may become redundant.

The Australian Institute of Criminology said the newly developed
biometric identifiers could be used in the same way we now use PIN
numbers to access cash and credit facilities.

Just stand in front of the biometric identifier and the body odour
does the rest.

Quite what difference the use of deodorants and perfumes will have on
the sensor's ability to identify individuals remains unclear.

"That's still open to question," said senior researcher Russell Smith
.

ROGER MAYNARD

Publication Date: September 28, 1999
Powered by NewsReal's IndustryWatch

via: isml@onelist.com

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - A planet beyond Pluto
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:40:07 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_467000/467572.stm

Thursday, October 7, 1999 Published at 19:30 GMT 20:30 UK

Sci/Tech

A planet beyond Pluto

Jupiter would be dwarfed by the new planet

By News Online Science Editor Dr David
Whitehouse

A British astronomer may have discovered a new and
bizarre planet orbiting the Sun, 1,000 times further away
than the most distant known planet.

Currently, Pluto is the furthermost planet that circles our
Sun.

            But the new planet would be 30,000
            times more distant from the Sun than
            the Earth, putting it a significant
            fraction of the distance to the nearest
star.

What is more, it seems that the new planet cannot be a
true member of our Sun's family of planets. It may be a
planet that was born elsewhere, and roamed throughout
the galaxy only to be captured on the outskirts of our own
planetary system.

The controversial suggestion that there is another planet
in deep space comes from Dr John Murray, of the UK's
Open University. For several years, he has been studying
the peculiar motions of so-called long-period comets.

Comets deflected

            Comets - flying mountains of rock and
            ice - are thought to come from the
            cold and dark outer reaches of the
            Solar System, far beyond the planets
            in a region called the Oort cloud.

They spend millions of years in the Oort cloud, until they
are deflected into an orbit that takes them into the inner
Solar System where we can see them.

By analysing the orbits of 13 of these comets, Dr Murray
has detected the tell-tale signs of a single massive object
that deflected all of them into their current orbits.

"Although I have only analysed 13 comets in detail," he
told BBC News Online, "the effect is pretty conclusive. I
have calculated that there is only about a one in 1,700
chance that it is due to chance."

In a research paper to be published next week in the
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, he
suggests that the so-far unseen planet is several times
bigger than the largest known planet in our Solar System,
Jupiter.

Being so far from the Sun - three thousand billion miles -
it would take almost six million years to orbit it.

"This would explain why it has not been found," explained
Dr Murray to BBC News Online. "It would be faint and
moving very slowly."

Opposite direction

He has calculated that it lies in the constellation of
Delphinus (the Dolphin).

But the planet orbits our Sun in the "wrong" direction,
counter to the direction taken by all the other known
planets.

It is this which has led to the remarkable suggestion that it
did not form in this region of space along with the Sun's
other planets, and could be a planet that "escaped" from
another star.

But, if it is discovered, will Dr Murray get a chance to
name it?

"Probably not," he says. "That will be up to an
international committee. But it would be nice to make a
few suggestions."

Further evidence to support Dr Murray's claims will be
presented at a conference in Italy next week.

Professor John Matese, of the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette, has carried out a similar study and reached
broadly similar conclusions. His research is to be
published in Icarus, the journal of solar system studies.

via: transhumantech@onelist.com

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Computers that think outside the box
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:40:07 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

From the New York Times,
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/circuits/articles/07next.htm
l - October 7, 1999

WHAT'S NEXT
Computers That Think Outside the Box

By ANNE EISENBERG

One of the latest problems computers are taking on is evolution --
their own, that is.

Mary Ann Smith

In many spots in the United States and abroad, scientists have created
computer programs that can change and refine their own software
through successive generations; the process continues until the
software does what needs to be done with no help whatsoever from the
pesky humans who initiated it.

One such project involves computer programs that are given algorithms
-- math-based strategies -- and the rules of physics and then assigned
certain architectural tasks to perform. They wind up reinventing
structures like the triangle. The scientists who set the programs in
action in the first place have built the designs, using Lego
components, and given the artificial architects a limited vote of
confidence.

"I'm not saying a computer can replace an architect -- at least, not
yet," said Jordan B. Pollack, a professor in the computer science
department at Brandeis University's Center for Complex Systems in
Waltham, Mass. "But our computer did start with a simple algorithm and
end with blueprints for structures that it took humans hundreds of
years to develop.

And when we built the structures, they were functional."

The structures Dr. Pollack is talking about are modest ones: tables,
bridges and cranes made from toy blocks. But as he and Pablo Funes, an
Argentine graduate student, report in the current issue of the journal
Artificial Life, the computer came up with structures that could be
built without specific guidance from them.

What the computer was given was a program that included the laws of
physics and some random patterns of Lego bricks. It was also given the
ability to let its designs evolve, in a "survival of the fittest"
system. Then the programmers stepped back.

Dr. Pollack's field, evolutionary computing, is a futuristic place
where computers solve problems without being programmed to do so,
selecting the fittest solutions by mimicking natural selection. Dr.
Pollack predicts that evolutionary computing may one day lead to
robots smart enough to generate and test themselves with no human
engineering costs whatsoever, making them cheap enough to be
disposable. For now, though, Dr. Pollack and his graduate student are
at an early stage.

The computer did have some initial input from the two scientists.

Funes wrote the program that gave the computer the background in
physics it needed to get started -- no small job. And Dr. Pollack and
Funes together developed an evolutionary strategy for generating and
testing designs.

Then the computer was given randomly chosen initial designs and
permitted to proceed through "mutations" -- random modifications of
the locations of the bricks -- or "crossovers" -- random switches of
pieces of two parent designs.

Each "offspring" design was then rated for fitness.

"We didn't teach the computer how to design triangles or
counterbalances," Dr. Pollack explained. "It figured this out without
any engineering advice from us." As the computer designed a crane, for
example, it selected a triangle to make the crane's base more stable
-- something it knew how to do by applying the laws of physics.

"It used the interaction of evolutionary algorithms and the laws of
physics to produce these interesting, very functional structures that
carry weights effectively at certain heights," Dr. Pollack said. "It
came up with fairly sophisticated solutions."

When the computer was done with a task, Dr. Pollack and his student
built the design according to the blueprint produced, building a crane
that lifts one kilogram, a two-meter bridge, a table. "Ours are one of
the first systems in evolutionary robotics where
evolution-in-simulation translated into reality," Dr. Pollack said.

His long-term vision is for computers to produce robots by specifying
both the mechanical bodies and the neural networks to control them.

The blueprint would be turned over to a fully automated factory that
would fabricate the robots "as cheaply as today they make Sony
Walkmans," he said.

Dr. David Fogel, the chief scientist at Natural Selection, a company
in La Jolla, Calif., that uses evolutionary algorithms to solve
problems in medicine and industry, works in areas related to Dr.
Pollack's.

"The most critical thing in Pollack's work is that he demonstrates
that you do not need to have specific expertise in, say, mechanical
engineering to design a useful construct," he said. "All you need is a
simple evolutionary algorithm and a good model of the physics of the
environment. The significant thing is that he didn't design the crane
-- the program did."

Dr. Fogel, too, uses evolutionary programming, but he does not test
designs with Legos.

Perhaps one day, robots that contain the seeds of their own
construction.

Instead, he focuses on the game of checkers, in addition to looking at
more serious building blocks like molecules. Using as little expert
information as possible, he and a colleague wrote an evolutionary
program to see if the computer could teach itself to play checkers at
an expert level.

The computer's tactics evolved as it played against itself.

After 10 generations, it defeated both Dr. Fogel and a graduate
student.

"After 100 evolutions, we put it on the Internet," he said, "and let
it play against opponents without telling them they were playing a
program, not a person." The program has moved up to the fourth-highest
ranking, Class A, for checkers players.

Dr. John Koza, an expert in evolutionary programming who is president
of Genetic Programming, in Los Altos, Calif., cited many examples of
automatically created solutions that were competitive with results
produced by people. As one example, he pointed to circuits that are so
original they infringe on patents. "This is significant because if you
automatically create something that infringes, you have created the
essence of that invention," he said.

via: isml@onelist.com

========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Bridges for Peace items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:46:49 +0000

From: research-bpr@philologos.org (Moza)

SEVERE EARTHQUAKE LIKELY WITHIN 50 YEARS

Two earthquakes hit the Eilat region early morning on October
5. The two earthquakes measured 4.1 and 4.8 on the Richter
scale, respectively. The quakes' epicenter were located
approximately 60 kilometers (36 miles) south of Eilat. No
damages or injuries were reported. Another quake, more intense,
hit Turkey October 6; 70 people are reported injured. Israel is
likely to be rocked by a severe earthquake sometime in the next
50 years, Dr. Avi Shapira, head of the Seismology Division of
the Geophysical Institute, warned. Shapira said that according
to statistics, historical records, and monitoring carried out by
the division, there is a "high probability" of such an event.
Shapira said the division's monitors recorded an initial tremor
that measured 4.1 on the Richter scale around 7a.m. This was
followed by another quake around 7.45 a.m., which measured 4.8.
"There are three basins in the Gulf of Eilat and one of them
started becoming active in the early 1980s, reaching a peak in
November 1985, when there was a strong earthquake in the
region," said Shapira. He said there has been relatively little
earthquake activity here in the past year compared to previous
years. "Except for the Gulf of Eilat, the .. [Syria-Africa rift]
has been quite calm in comparison say to the beginning of the
century." Nevertheless, he noted that in the past there was
serious activity along the line of the Syrian-African rift,
which runs roughly from the Lebanese border along the Jordan
Valley, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), the southern reaches of
the Jordan, and the Dead Sea into the Gulf of Eilat.

Shapira said most of the earthquake activity in the past decade
has been in the Gulf of Eilat region, and the area to the north
was relatively quiet. "It is impossible to predict what might
happen in the future. If, however, we accumulate all the
information we have about earthquakes in our region, then we can
see that there is a high probability of a quake occurring in the
next 50 years." (Jerusalem Post, Arutz 7, October 6, 1999)

ARAB DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST DISNEY CONTINUE

Arab demonstrators on October 4 demonstrated against the
opening of the Jerusalem Pavilion in the Epcot Center in
Florida, part of the Millennium Village sponsored by the Disney
Corporation. Student demonstrators burned a model of the Jewish
Temple, which had a Disney sticker on it. Sources in Nablus
report some 800 students participated in the demonstration,
which protested the exhibit, which depicts Jerusalem as the
capital of the Jewish people. Reports from the PLO Authority
(PA) autonomous area in Gaza detail protests, which took place
on October 1. Arab children set toys ablaze to protest the
opening of the controversial Israeli exhibit at Walt Disney
World's Epcot theme park in Florida. Witnesses to the
demonstration in Gaza report that about 70 children took part in
the Rafiah protest in southern Gaza during which young
protesters set light to toys on which they had painted the word
"Disney" and burned two American flags. (IsraelWire, October 3,
and 6 1999)

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