|
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 30, 2001
To: Matt Taylor et al.
Subject: Memory in Science
Matt,
Thought you'd be interested in some recently reported memory
results from the pages of Science.
Persistence of Memory, Part I
Even casual computer users know the distinction between "memory"
or RAM, the electronic workspace where current material is held
for processing, and "storage," the hard drive, floppy disk, or
CD on which that work is saved for future access. A number of
*Science* papers during the 2001 first quarter explored the same
dichotomy that, in a crude sense, exists within the human brain.
Naya et al. (26 Jan. 2001; http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/291/5504/661)
found that the temporal cortexes of monkeys performing a visual
pair- association task exhibited two distinct signals: a perceptual
signal that propagated in the normal forward direction in the
brain, and a backward-projecting signal that likely represented
retrieval of object information from "storage" in long-term memory.
A month later, De Fockert et al. (2 Mar. 2001; http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/291/5509/1803)
shifted the focus to the brain's analog of RAM: working memory,
where the brain temporarily holds information used in reasoning
and planning. The group found that the amount of material being
held in working memory, in the prefrontal cortex, has a direct
bearing on the brain's ability to filter out irrelevant distractions
and focus on the task at hand -- a finding with some surprising
health and public-policy implications, as discussed in a related
news article (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/291/5509/1684).
Persistence of Memory, Part II
Another *Science* report put the spotlight on a different sort
of memory: the uncanny ability of the body's immune system to
"remember" the characteristics of defeated pathogens, and to mount
a quick and vigorous defense in the event of reinfection. Using
a fluorescent marker, Masopust et al., in a study published in
the 23 Mar. 2001 issue http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/291/5512/2413;
originally published online 1 Mar. 2001 on *Science* Express),
followed the journeys of CD8+, or memory, T cells through the
body. They found that these carriers of immunological memory tend
not to tarry in the lymphatic system, the set of tissues generally
associated with the immune system, but instead strike out to destinations
in nonlymphoid tissues such as the kidneys, liver, lung, and gut.
As C. R. Mackay and U. H. von Andrian note in an accompanying
Perspective (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/291/5512/2323),
the presence of these "local heroes in the struggle for immunity"
means that the body's immune memory is efficiently redistributed
the zones at which immune protection is most essential, to form
a frontline defense.
From: Patsy Kahoe
Date: March 23, 2001
To: Jeff Johnston et al.
Subject: Re: Candidate for downstream TANSTAAFL
Jeff,
This might fit in the 'closed' TANSTAAFL category we discussed
early on, another example being an aerospace invitational where
a number of organizations are invited and some selected individuals,
but it wouldn't be open to the general public. This event could
be sooner rather than later if we did a 'direct marketing' push.
Perhaps contact the author of the article, Tom Petzinger to see
if his wide network would have some good contacts, Gifford, Sallie
Lee has worked with the Forest Service, etc. I think that the
'closed' TANSTAAFLs can be pursued concurrently with the more
public ones.
Patsy
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 22, 2001
To: Matt Taylor et al.
Subject: Candidate for downstream TANSTAAFL
"WWF states that if well managed, one fifth of the World's forests
could meet global demand for wood and fiber, and that just 10
companies could make this a reality."
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/984715337/index_html
Clearly the potential for a high impact event by getting the
right participation from the timber/forest/paper industry. Perhaps
something to think about for a downstream TANSTAAFL event.
jcj
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 18, 2001
To: Lisa Piazza et al.
Subject: Our Future - Our Environment
Found a pretty interesting publication on the RAND site called
"Our Future - Our Environment." Looks like it has lots of good,
interesting stuff.
"Imagine environmental protection in the year 2010. How will
changes in our society, institutions, and technological world
affect our environment and impact our policies? This is a report
about our environmental future, our options, and our opportunities.
Feel free to explore this world, build on it, and pass it on to
others."
http://www.rand.org/scitech/stpi/ourfuture/
From: Matt Taylor
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 10:49:13 -0800
To: Russ White
Cc: Todd Johnston , jeff Johnston
Subject: FW: Rochester Reads 'A Lesson Before Dying'
Please call me on this. Important for your new web site.
Matt
-----Original Message-----
From: Daisy Birch (Knowing)
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 10:36 AM
To: Matt Taylor; Todd Johnston
Cc: Gail Taylor
Subject: Rochester Reads 'A Lesson Before Dying' (3)
Matt, Todd,
As we discussed--NPR's article describes how the Mayor and much
of Rochester NY are reading a short, simple, now powerful book.
Perhaps Palo Alto or the Valley is next with the book you discussed!
Do you know the Mayor? Have fun with it!
--Daisy
This segment is from the Thursday, March 15, 2001 Morning Edition
If the link doesn't work--www.npr.org/ then search for Rochester
Reads Rochester Reads 'A Lesson Before Dying' Brenda Tremblay
of member station WXXI reports that many people in the city of
Rochester, New York, are reading the same book. People in supermarkets
and malls wear pins that say they're reading, A Lesson Before
Dying by Ernest Gaines. Its the story of a young black man wrongly
sentenced to death. Rochester's mayor says its allowing residents
to talk about race relations in a way they'd usually avoid. (4:50)
------ End of Forwarded Message
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 16, 2001
To: Matt Taylor
Subject: More on Google
Hey Matt,
For more information on Google and what makes them different,
check out a recent article in Technology Review ...
http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/nov00/qa.asp
jcj
From: William Cockayne <cockayne@acm.org>
Date: March 16, 2001
To: William Cockayne <wcockayne@earthlink.net>
Subject: SPACES: Orange Studio
I just found this link off of the Orange main site (they are
offering the Motorola v.100 for sale and should have the Accompli
009 soon).
http://www.orangestudio.co.uk/space/
The Studio offers an interesting mix of activities, a good deal
of space, structured and unstructured opportunities, and a extensive
list of for-pay opportunities. It seems to have aspects of KnOwhere,
IDEO and Circadia, sf, for those of us lucky enough to play in
these spaces. It makes my daily cafe and cool space meandering
seem sad. This space seems to build on a trend that is more prevalent
and accepted in Europe in relation to the U.S; the socially-accepted
computer/interaction/coffee space...in that order and with tight
integration. I wonder what would happen if these spaces attempted
to integrate more of the team-building, brainstorming, prototyping,
et al, interactions that groups like IDEO and 3M as supposed to
facilitate so excellently. Isn't St. Luke's supposed to provide
some of this opportunity? When Tamara and I were in Amsterdam
recently we had the opportunity to use the EasyEverything Internet
Cafes http://www.easyeverything.com/.
They provided a wonderful experience for those of us with the
need to be habitually connected and appreciate (demand in my case)
a safe and social environment for work. Check out the site for
all of the other countries they support (now in NYC!). I recommend
them wholeheartedly. Oh, the costs for 1.5 hours of great computer
and net access ran from US$1.00 to $0.50 (it varies throughout
the day).
bill
From: Todd Johnston
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001
To: Jeff Johnston , Matt Taylor , Lisa Piazza , Gary Welty
Subject: dna-based computing conference
another interesting conference with topical similarities to a
couple of our TANSTAAFLs:
http://www.cas.usf.edu/dna7/
"Biomolecular computing has emerged as a an interdisciplinary
field that draws together molecular biology, chemistry, computer
science and mathematics. Our knowledge on DNA nanotechnology and
biomolecular computing increases exponentially with every passing
year. The annual international meeting has been a forum where
scientists with different backgrounds, yet sharing a common interest
in biomolecular computing meet, and present their latest results.
Continuing with this tradition, the 7th International Meeting
on DNA Based Computers will focus on the current theoretical and
experimental results with the greatest impact."
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 12, 2001
To: K. Base
Subject: Papers struggle ...
Add to the Future Views and Knight Ridder file ...
Papers Struggle With Slowdown and Investor Expectations
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/12/business/12PAPE.html
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 9, 2001
To: Matt Taylor et al.
Subject: FW: 4S Conference
Another interesting conference on the horizon ...
jcj
------ Forwarded Message
From: chopyak@loka.org
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 14:40:25 -0800
To: fastnet
Subject: 4S Conference
Please find below the final call for papers for this year's meeting
of the Society for the Social Study of science. The meeting will
take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from November 1-4. The
deadline for submission of abstracts is March 31, 2001.
Fashioning the Future: Science, Technology, and Visions of Progress
November 1-4, 2001 Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA
Scientists and engineers have played a central role in refashioning
the material and social worlds of modernity. They have provided
key resources with which human beings and institutions imagine,
and in part realize, particular visions of progress. These resources
can also destabilize identities, threaten security, and arouse
resistance. For example, in biomedicine, genetic breakthroughs
may allow us to remake the human body, profile individuals and
populations, and commodify nature in unprecedented ways; in the
information sciences, new technologies promise to provide ready
access to vast realms of information, facilitate new forms of
human interaction and consumption, and enable new forms of state
and corporate surveillance; in the military sphere, smart technologies
may offer unprecedented accuracy and striking power to the armed
forces of post-industrial states. These new knowledges and technological
forms are materializing at the same time that processes of globalization
are mobilizing novel flows of capital, commodities, ideas, technologies,
and human migration across borders and so giving rise to new forms
of social and technoscientific experimentation. The risks, possibilities,
and intellectual puzzles of such a moment invite conversation
across disciplinary and intellectual boundaries. Science and technology
studies has been an interdisciplinary field since its inception
a quarter century ago. In this anniversary year, we welcome contributions
from scholars in such fields as sociology, anthropology, history,
philosophy, political science, women's studies, ethnic studies,
communication studies, cultural studies, and law, as well as from
practitioners of science, engineering or public policy. While
panels showcasing particular issues or perspectives are always
welcome, we also encourage panels that cross conventional boundaries,
whether by combining perspectives from scholars of different nationalities,
by juxtaposing participants from different disciplines, or by
staging dialogues between practitioners and social analysts of
science. We invite proposals for entire panels and for individual
papers. Broad theme areas include: á Technology Studies á Science,
Technology & Environment á Information Technologies á Ethics and
Law á Medicine and Genetics á Science, Technology and War á Science
Policy and Politics á Innovation Studies á Theory and Philosophy
of Science á Race, Gender, and Class á Public Understanding of
Science Deadline for Submissions: March 31, 2001. Each panel will
be allotted 1.5 hours and should contain no more than 3 or 4 papers.
Abstracts for panel sessions should be no more than 250 words
and should contain a list of panelists with their institutional
affiliations and proposed paper titles. Abstracts for individual
papers should likewise be no more than 250 words. Submissions
received after March 1 will be considered on a space-available
basis. For more detailed information, visit the conference website
at web.mit.edu/sts/www/4s
For inquiries contact: Hugh Gusterson, STS Program, MIT, E51-296F,
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139. Tel: 617-253-7270;
fax: 617-253-5363. Email: Guster@mit.edu. PLEASE NOTE: Watch our
website in coming weeks for an update on cheaper accommodation
alternatives in Cambridge.
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 9, 2001
To: Gail Taylor et al.
Subject: Interesting facts
Some interesting, and telling, facts from the REAL GOODS SOLAR
TIMES NEWSLETTER: ISSUE NUMBER 24
Along the same lines, check out: Bush preparing to slash renewable-energy
spending (http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/energycuts09.htm)
jcj
FASCINATING ELECTION 2000 TIDBITS (Courtesy Of Todd Hettenbach)
1.2 billion -- number of dollars raised by Democratic and Republican
candidates for federal office in the 2000 election cycle
110:1 -- ratio of anti-environmental (construction, chemical,
and energy/natural resource) PAC contributions to environmental
PAC contributions
9 -- estimated number of dollars spent by candidates for federal
office per registered voter in the United States
6 -- estimated number of dollars spent on national parks per
person in the United States
77 -- percentage of voters who want tougher environmental laws
and stricter enforcement of existing laws
124 million -- number of private dollars raised by George W.
Bush's presidential campaign
130 million -- number of dollars that Governor Bush cut from
Texas's environmental fund in 1997 to pay for a lawsuit stemming
from his cancellation of the state's tailpipe emission testing
program
104 -- number of years that passed between the time that scientists
first advanced the theory of global warming and George W. Bush's
announcement that more study was needed before the government
could take action on the issue
63.5 million -- number of PAC and soft money dollars donated
to federal candidates by members of the Global Climate Coalition
(an industry coalition opposed to action on global warming), Jan.
1998 through June 1999
From: Lisa Piazza
Date: March 6, 2001
To: Gail and Matt Taylor
Subject: Dana Meadows
Dana Meadows is someone whose work I admired.
-----Original Message-----
From: Postmaster@Mac.Dartmouth.EDU [mailto:Postmaster@Mac.Dartmouth.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2001 11:46 AM To: cyberlisa@cyberlisa.com
Subject: Donella H. Meadows -- Automatic Reply
Dana Meadows passed away on Tuesday, February 20, 2001.
An obituary will be available at the website of her Sustainability
Institute, www.sustainer.org Questions can be directed to Diana
Wright at 603-646-3375 or Diana.S.Wright@Dartmouth.edu
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 6, 2001
To: Lisa Piazza
Subject: Re: OSN
Hi Lisa,
OSN 2001 looks like an interesting event.
Along the same lines, an article in the latest First Monday
might be of interest:
Virtual Connections: Community Bonding on the Net by Stuart Glogoff
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_3/glogoff/
Jeff
on 3/6/01 8:40, Lisa Piazza at cyberlisa@cyberlisa.com wrote:
> I would recommend this opportunity to anyone with a passion
for online
> social networks.
> Lisa Piazza
From: Lisa Piazza
Date: March 6, 2001
To: K. Base et al.
Subject: osn
I would recommend this opportunity to anyone with a passion for
online social networks.
Lisa Piazza
-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Kimball [mailto:lisa@groupjazz.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2001 10:20 AM
To: lisa.piazza@mgtaylor.com
Subject: osn
Hi again,
Lisa ... would you pass this info along to folks in your network?
thanks!
Online Social Networks 2001, a two-week online conference featuring
experts in the field of online social networks and their application
in organizations. http://www.groupjazz.com/osn2001
Featured guests include Howard Rheingold, Lisa Kimball, Amy Jo
Kim, Cliff Figallo, Nancy Rhine, Jessica Lipnack, Jeffrey Stamps,
Doc Searls, Liz Rykert, and Mary Boone. Organizations are social
networks. As such, the business of organizations is largely accomplished
through conversations. Today, organizations rely upon those conversations
taking place despite the challenges of a distributed workforce.
To successfully compete, organizations must learn to effectively
manage their online social networks both internally and externally.
>From March 28 to April 11, 2001, participants will interact
with the experts to learn how to design networks for communities
of practice, project teams, and learning cohorts; how to launch
networks that attract and engage; and how to sustain networks
that go beyond the early adopters and become mainstream. The unique
online conference environment may be accessed 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. * lisa
-- Lisa Kimball | Group Jazz lisa@groupjazz.com | http://www.groupjazz.com
office: 202-686-4848 | fax: 202-966-3772 Online Social Networks
2001: http://www.groupjazz.com/osn2001 --------------------------+--------------------------
From: Lisa Piazza
Date: March 5, 2001
To: Gail Taylor et al.
Subject: Healthcare Research/Awarenss and November TANSTAAFL
For general Healthcare research/awareness and the November TANSTAAFL:
The Institute of Medicine is a part of the National Academy of
Science. They've just published a new report: "Crossing the Quality
Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century" (March 1, 2001)
It can be purchased at: http://www.iom.edu/IOM/IOMHome.nsf/Pages/Recently+Released+Reports
Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental
change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping
redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching
principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care
leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this
comprehensive volume the committee offers:
* A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health
care system.
* A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships.
* A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives
inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality.
* Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen
clinical information systems.
Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing
the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap,
identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores
how systems approaches can be used to implement change.
Curt Lindberg provided this information. I spoke to Curt about
the November TANSTAAFL and MG Taylor and the Plexus Insititute
working together to make it happen. There are few with a better
informed network in the healthcare field than Curt. Plexus put
up their web page last week. http://www.plexusinstitute.com/
Here's part of Curt's Press Release about the Institute of Medicine
report: Crossing the Quality Chasm states that medical errors
are symptoms of a dysfunctional system. The report proposes a
broad overhaul based on bottom-up, evolutionary change. It identifies
ten simple rules that currently govern interactions between providers
and patients at the micro-system level (a nursing unit or physician's
practice) and proposes a new set of rules. "The entire report
is inspired by the science of complex adaptive systems (CAS),"
said Paul Plsek, a consultant and Senior Fellow at the Boston-based
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. "This is just-in-time visionary
thinking," praised Lindberg. "The health care system is showing
more signs of extreme stress. Consumers are feeling the biggest
surge in medical inflation since the early 1990's, and the incidence
of chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, and asthma is soaring.
Treating the health care system like a broken machine hasn't worked.
It behaves much more like an organism and needs to be treated
accordingly." Plexus is a federation of health care professionals,
scientists, business leaders and organizational theorists who've
been studying and using complex systems approaches. The Institute
works to improve the health of people, families, communities,
and organizations through application of complexity theory. "We've
witnessed the extremely encouraging impact that complexity-inspired
practices have on the quality of patient care," explained Lindberg.
BTW, Lisa Kimball is running the online dialogue space for Plexus.
lp
From: Lisa Piazza
Date: March 5, 2001
To: K. Base
Subject: workforce.com
This resource is pretty darned mundane but usefull from time
to time.
Welcome to thousands of articles, tips, forms, bulletin boards,
product listings, and humor at the most respected source of workforce
management information on the Web.
Workforce -- http://www.workforce.com.
WORKFORCE WEEK -- http://www.workforce.com
March 4-10, 2001
1 - HR's Role Must Be Expanded Into the Boardroom
2 - Stress Survival for HR Professionals
3 - News Poll: Does It Matter if You're Miss USA?
4 - Forum: Keeping High-Functioning Employees Motivated
5 - Manager/Employee Talent Inventory Form
6 - New Federal "Ticket to Work" Program
7 - Washington Watch: Minimum Wage, FMLA, Equal Pay
8 - New Free "Dear Workforce" Q & A Newsletter Available
lp
From: Christopher Allen [mailto:ChristopherA@AlacrityVentures.com]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2001 12:12 AM
To: Matt Taylor; Gail Taylor
Subject: FW: Glide an interactive exploration of visual language
I think you'll like this. http://www.academy.rpi.edu/glide/testbed/
-- Christopher Allen
From: Lisa Pizza
Date: March 1, 2001
To: Jeff Johnston et al.
Subject: @Brint.com BizTech Network Newsletter - February
2001
Jeff - this comes once a month ... lots of links, is sometimes
useful. You may want to subscribe.
lp
-----Original Message-----
From: @Brint.com BizTech Network [mailto:newsletter@BRINT.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 12:56 PM
To: lisa.piazza@mgtaylor.com
Subject: @Brint.com BizTech Network Newsletter - February 2001
***** @Brint.com BizTech Network Newsletter February 2001 Welcome
to the 21 latest in-depth full-text articles and reports on 'New
Economy' 'New Business Technology' issues relevant to business
and technology professionals. HTML version of this newsletter
issue is available online at: http://www.brint.com/members/01020528/
This is the only and monthly communication sent to our Network
members in accordance with our privacy policy available online.
If you find this Newsletter informative or useful, please feel
free to forward it to your friends and colleagues. Instructions
to subscribe are listed at the end.
***** FEBURARY 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Full-Text In-Depth Articles and Reports
2. Questions, Opinions, Arguments in the 'Think Tank'
3. News about @Brint.com for Network Members
4. Publish Articles and Reprints for Unmatched Exposure!!
5. Enter "Success" Sweepstakes... $335,000 Given Away!!
6. Latest "New Biztech" Executive Positions
7. Free Searchable Research Portals, News, and Articles
8. Advertise and Promote on @Brint.com Network
9. Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Change E-mail Address HTML version
of this newsletter issue is available online at: http://www.brint.com/members/01020528/
*****
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: March 1, 2001
To: Lisa Piazza et al.
Subject: Darwin - Business evolving in the information age
Just found a potentially interesting new magazine.
http://www.darwinmag.com/
The web site looks like it has some interesting stuff on it.
I signed up for a free subscription, so we'll see. If nothing
else, probably some good metaphor material!
jcj
From: Todd Johnston
Date: February 28, 2001
To: Matt Taylor
Subject: very useful Glass Bead Game web pages
http://home.earthlink.net/~hipbone/hesse.html
Good site for facilitators to check out prior to introducing
your next Glass Bead Game during an event, and provides informative
and interesting links to GBD game sites, papers, and applications.
Todd
From: Todd Johnston
Date: February 28, 2001
To: Jeff Johnston
Subject: VERY interesting stuff
I came upon this via a link suggested by a participant in our
Knowledge Ecology dialogue, that Matt began last week. I think
you'd find it interesting in general, and yet another 'hub' link
of info for the upcoming TANSTAAFL.
Journal of Commuter Mediated Communication
http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/index.html
Denham Grey, who at the moment is the only 'other' in the discussion
group, provided some very interesting links. Including Collaborative
Discourse Structures in Computer Mediated Group Communications
http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol4/issue4/turoff.html
"The goal of a collaborative discourse structure is to provide
a template for the group discussion so that the majority of the
discussion can be captured and categorized. Such a structure would
incorporate functionality to allow a group of experts to thoroughly
explore and analyze a problem domain by following a discourse
structure they could design, maintain and evolve as the knowledge
structure for that particular domain. This might be viewed as
a collaborative expert system where the experts maintain and evolve
the system for their benefit and for the benefit of practitioners
and future practitioners (students). " . . . the concept of a
discourse structure as we use it is defined as a template for
a discussion structure which allows individuals to classify their
contributions to the discussion into meaningful categories that
structure their relevance and significance according to the nature
of the topic, the objective of the discussion, and the characteristics
of the group [35]. This follows in the tradition of the work of
Zwicky [45] in morphological analysis and the related work in
such areas as Inquiry Systems [6] and the Delphi Method [23, 41].
Delphi was developed as a paper and pencil communication system
to allow large groups of knowledgeable individuals to collaboratively
examine a complex problem. Delphis are executed by small design
and facilitation teams and successful Delphi exercises of 200-300
individuals have been demonstrated."
Check out also Denham's link to Visualizing Conversation
http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol4/issue4/donath.html
I found the conversational interface section particularly interesting.
And after jumping around a bit, I came upon AgentSheets
http://www.agentsheets.com/home.html
Which you and RUSS will definitely want to check out, if you're
not already familiar with them. Group Design Support Systems,
and Jeffrey Conklin in particular, sounds like a good candidate
to participate in the Knowledge Work TANSTAAFL. A link to some
of their material:
http://www.gdss.com/wp/
Conklin has also authored some interesting stuff on other subjects
relevant to us, including MEMORY, which you'll find at the same
link.
Todd
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 27, 2001
To: Todd Johnston et al.
Subject: Book and publishing stories
Just noticed a couple stories on WIRED News that may be relevant
to White Wolf.
E-Books Are Now on the Shelf Electronic books are hitting the
bookstores in an experiment to see if new technology can be sold
the old-fashioned way. And an online bookshop is offering hands-on
customer service. Also: E-books do sell, publishers try to sell
and authors seek those who sell. All in M.J. Rose's notebook.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42021,00.html
Links to other articles are within the above story.
Jeff
From: Todd Johnston
Date: February 25, 2001
To: Jeff Johnston et al.
Subject: weekend nyt clippings, 022501.tj
Thought you each might find a few stories of interest among these:
The Key Vanishes: Scientist Outlines Unbreakable Code computer
science professor at Harvard says he has found a way to send coded
messages that cannot be deciphered, even by an all-powerful adversary
with unlimited computing power. And, he says, he can prove it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/20/science/20CODE.html
Higher Medicare Drug Spending "The Congressional Budget Office
has sharply increased the estimates of spending on prescription
drugs for the elderly, revisions that will make it more difficult
for Congress to pay for drug benefits now under Medicare."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/24/politics/24DRUG.html
Suit Over Electric Car Policy "General Motors filed suit seeking
to invalidate a new California rule that would require automakers
to sell thousands of electric cars in the state each year, beginning
in 2003."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Electric-Car-Lawsuit.html
A New Superconductor "A readily available metallic compound,
magnesium boride, has unexpectedly turned into the latest breakthrough
superconductor."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/24/science/24SUPE.html
Learning to Celebrate Water-Cooler Gossip A story, interview,
and book review of In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations
Work, by Don Cohen and Laurence Prusak.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/25/business/25VALU.html
Beam Up My Info "Some scientists argue that the universe is essentially
a huge computer." A review of The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum
Computing to M Theory - the New Physics of Information, by Tom
Siegfried.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/25/reviews/010225.25alexant.html
Todd
Glacier Loss Seen as Clear Sign of
Human Role in Global Warming February 19, 2001
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Studies show that the icecap atop Mount Kilimanjaro is retreating
at such a pace that it will disappear in less than 15 years. The
vanishing is a clear sign that a global warming trend has exceeded
typical climate shifts .
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/19/science/19MELT.html
From: DavidC1016@aol.com
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 17:02:01 -0500
To: matt.taylor@matttaylor.com, Kahoe@aol.com, RKBRUCE@aol.com,
cyberlisa@earthlink.net, Todd.Johnston@mgtaylor.com
Subject: Check out Transcendental Destination
http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/rr.12.00/transcendental.html
I thought everyone might be interested in this article. Any ideas
on how we can piggyback on this work through our contacts, (or
Invitationals)?
Dave
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 21, 2001
To: Matt Taylor et al.
Subject: Re: E-mail and HTML
Mac again shows its superiority ... courtesy of Microsoft!?!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/8/17080.html
"MS protects Mac but not Windows users with web bug mail firewall"
jcj
From: Matt Taylor
Date: February 21, 2001
To: Jeff Johnston et al.
Subject: Re: E-mail and HTML
This seems to be the short term fix:
http://www.privacyfoundation.org/commentary/tipsheet.html
It is always something...
Matt
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 20, 2001
To: Matt Taylor et al.
Subject: E-mail and HTML
Before you continue using HTML as your default e-mail format,
I'd recommend checking out these stories:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,41639,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,41686,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,1282,41608,00.html
Some of these "features" are pretty cool. But seems to me like
HTML e-mail messages have some significant liabilities.
jcj
From: Jeffrey Johnston
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 16:43:47 -0800
To: Gail Taylor , Matt Taylor , Todd Johnston , Shari Johnston
Subject: An end to Alzheimer's?
An interesting article on progress in finding a cure.
http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/mar01/garber.asp
jcj
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 20, 2001
To: Gary Welty et al.
Suject: Another example
Check out this web page of info on an upcoming Technology Review
conference. We probably want to incorporate some of these elements
into our own advertising of the Invitationals.
http://www.technologyreview.com/events/conference/wired_wireless2001.asp
jcj
From: Christopher Allen
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 22:56:33 -0800
To: Gail Taylor , Matt Taylor
Subject: FW: A Semantic Web
http://www.netcrucible.com/semantic.html
a Semantic Web
Joshua Allen, joshuaa@microsoft.com
From: Todd Johnston
Date: February 19, 2001
To: Lisa Piazza et al.
Subject: more nytimes
In an article of possible value for the Heathcare Invitational,
as well as important Scan/'Spoze material for Borgess, Contniuum,
Long Island and Kaiser ...
Dr. Pepper Hospital? Perhaps, for a Price subhead: Company Names
Are Bursting Out All Over
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/18/business/18BRAN.html
Another for the same audience: From Hospital to Law Office "The
increasing number of lawsuits related to injury and health care
has fueled demand for such consultants to help lawyers interpret
most anything. did not find this one online. I read it in Saturday
or Sunday's paper - Feb 17 or 18. Hardcopy with iterations k-base.
Of possible interest to our Baltimore work: In Baltimore, a
Preservation Story Unfolds subhead: A revised plan for the West
Side will save historic buildings. Not found online. From Sunday,
Feb 11. Hardcopy with iterations k-base.
Miscellaneous: An Upbeat View of Virus "A 20 year old Dutch student
who unleashed the Anna Kournikova virus on millions of computers
may be offered a job by the mayor."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Tennis-Star-Virus.html
Youngest and Fastest Solo-Sailing Woman Receives Huge Welcomes
"Ed Gorman, the British sailing journalist, simply said: 'As a
single-handed racer, she's eclipsed all other Britons, past and
present.' Considering that Britons like Francis Chichester and
Robin Knox-Johnston practically invented the sport, and were knighted
for their exploits at sea, it was a startling statement. It was
also a correct one."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/18/sports/18BOAT.html
On the Mythic Dangers of exploitation of the Artic National Wildlife
Refuge: The Void Without the "Great Beyond"
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/18/weekinreview/18VERH.html
New Book Review: Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius
Reinvented Architecture, by Ross King.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/18/bib/010218.rv095830.html
From: Gail Taylor
Date: February 18, 2001
To: Todd Johnston et al.
Subject: Re: "Head of U. of California Seeks To End SAT Use
in Admissions"
The interesting thing about this is of course, while ETS is out
reengineering with Six Sigma -- others are throwing out the whole
thing. This company needs invention.
However, I bet you a lot of money that Wiggenhorn (Motorola U
director and ETS board member) is behind the either/or choice
of SixSigma and creativity/innovation/invention.
Gail
From: Todd Johnston
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 08:33:46 +0800
To: Lisa Piazza , John Joseph, Matt Taylor, Patsy Kahoe
Cc: kbase@iterations.com, Gail Taylor
Subject: "Head of U. of California Seeks To End SAT Use in
Admissions"
I know our work with ETS has wound down, but still thought you
might be > interested to know: Front page of today's NY Times
reports that the president of U. of CA contends "that standardized
college tests have distorted the way young people learn and worsened
educational inequities." Online, the article is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/17/national/17TEST.html
Todd
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 15, 2001
To: Matt Taylor et al.
Subject: For the Cone of Silence Dept.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/newsletter.jsp?id=ns9999423
A new earpiece that screens out unwanted noise could make yelling
to make yourself heard in a crowded bar a thing of the past. The
Personal Active Radio/Audio Terminal (PARAT) earpiece was developed
by engineers at the SINTEF research lab in Trondheim, Norway for
the Norwegian military. The aim is to help troops talk to each
other in noisy tanks, planes or artillery placements.
jcj
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 12, 2001
To: Gail Taylor
Subject: Spectrum
The spectrum figure from the October Scientific American
is available (for a fee) from:
http://www.sciamarchive.com/
Clich here for a
pdf document showing the spectrum allocation.
jcj
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 12, 2001
To: Matt Taylor, Gail Taylor
Subject: Davos Hack: 'Good' Sabotage
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41760,00.html
It was easy to hack into the World Economic Forum's computer
system, said the four crackers who wormed their way into the Forum's
registration database in Davos, Switzerland earlier this month.
A group called Virtual Monkeywrench has taken credit for the hack
and said it is an example of "good sabotage" that was intended
to block "the operation of this well-oiled machine."
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 8, 2001
To: Gail Taylor et al.
Suject: New twist on distributed computing
http://clickworkers.arc.nasa.gov/
Welcome to the clickworkers study, NASA Ames's new experiment
in volunteer science.
There are many scientific tasks that require human perception
and common sense, but may not require a lot of scientific training.
Identifying craters on Mars is something almost anyone can do,
and classifying them by age is only a little harder. This an experiment
to see if public volunteers, each working for a few minutes here
and there, can do some routine science analysis that would normally
be done by a scientist or graduate student working for months
on end.
From: John Poparad
Date: February 7, 2001
To: Ralph E. Graham et al.
Subject: WHAT IS TODAY'S MOST IMPORTANT UNREPORTED STORY?
MIRROR NEURONS and imitation learning as the driving force behind
"the great leap forward" in human evolution
By V.S. Ramachandran
The discovery of mirror neurons in the frontal lobes of monkeys,
and their potential relevance to human brain evolution - which
I speculate on in this essay - is the single most important "unreported"
(or at least, unpublicized) story of the decade. I predict that
mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for biology:
they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host
of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and
inaccessible to experiments. MIRROR NEURONS and imitation learning
as the driving force behind "the great leap forward" in human
evolution.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ramachandran/ramachandran_index.html
From: Jeff Johnston
Date: February 7, 2001
To: Gail Taylor et al.
Subject: History of the Mac
http://library.stanford.edu/mac/
Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley
Welcome "Making the Macintosh" is an online project documenting
the history of the Macintosh computer. The Macintosh stands at
a cusp in the history of computing and Silicon Valley: it brought
together (and sometimes transformed) a number of technical and
conceptual threads in computing that developed in the 1960s and
1970s, but it also was responsible for sparking new movements
in computing. This project collects and publishes primary material
on the Macintosh's development and early reception. It draws on
the extensive holdings of the Stanford University Library's Department
of Special Collections, the personal papers of engineers and technical
writers involved in the Macintosh project, and interviews conducted
for the project.
From: Gail Taylor
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 06:55:48 -0800
To: jeff johnston
Subject: Do you have this?
http://www.businessworldnews.com/episode_70.html
http://www.businessworldnews.com/episode_79.html
Not sure where I got this but re-found it on my "favorites"
list. Should have found them before Liberty! :-)
From: Lisa Piazza
Reply-To: lisa.piazza@mgtaylor.com
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 22:11:03 -0500
To: Jeff Johnston
Subject: MeansBusiness
Haven't looked at this much yet, but it might be useful:
Welcome to MeansBusiness, a unique concept database of 20,000
key ideas from business and management books
http://www.meansbusiness.com/
We have 958 book summaries in our database to date!
lp
From: Matt Taylor
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 06:44:02 -0800
To: Christopher Allen , Todd Johnston , Gail Taylor , Mark
Sander
Cc: jeff Johnston , Russ White
Subject: RE: Alacrity Ventures Report: Future of Magnetic
Storage
There is a business here. One that has a sufficient lead time
to approach it right and one that can have a number of profitable
steps to it. Lets talk about this.
Matt
-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Allen [mailto:ChristopherA@AlacrityVentures.com]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 11:21 PM
To: Todd Johnston; Gail Taylor; Mark Sander
Cc: Matt Taylor
Subject: Alacrity Ventures Report: Future of Magnetic Storage
Future of Magnetic Storage by Christopher Allen, Alacrity Ventures
www.alacrityventures.com
(Unedited Draft 12/16/2000)
I've spoken before about the future impact of the availability
of huge amounts of cheap, small, data storage to the consumer,
but until recently all my numbers were off the cuff. However,
in the latest issue of IEEE Spectrum I found an overview of a
number of new magnetic storage technologies -- those that have
been demonstrated, which ones are practical, and which ones still
have some ways to go.
From the numbers in the article you can speculate on what the
impact of these technologies will have on the consumer. The current
shipping leader is IBM's 1GB drive 27mm square drive which has
an areal density of 2.4GB/cm^2, which is for sale at outpost.com
for $499.00.
Fujitsu is expected to deliver a drive with 8.7GB/cm^2 sometime
in 2002. Thus a drive with the same form factor as the IBM microdrive
would have a total storage of 3.62GB. They are actually expected
to deliver it in a 36x43x5mm package which would give the hard
drive the same capacity as a DVD -- 4.7GB.
A standard audio CD-ROM has uncompressed, stereo, 74 minutes
of audio, or about 650MB of data, or 8.67MB per minute. The Fujitsu
drive above would store about 540 minutes of the same, uncompressed
stereo sound, or about 9 hours. Monosound, uncompressed, would
be 18 hours.
MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3), the most well known compression technique,
at its highest quality (384 kbps) compresses at about 1:4 ratio.
Thus that same Fujitsu drive, mono sound, would store 3 days of
sound (72 hours).
Most MP3's, such as those used by students and Napster, have
much more compression, typically 10:1, so the Fujitsu drive in
this scenario could hold 180 hours, or 7.5 days.
The IEEE article speculates that Fujitsu's technology, using
existing giant-magnetoresistive heads and no spectacular breakthroughs
should be able to achieve 50GB/cm^2. Thus that same small format
drive would hold 27GB, or roughly 1034 hours, or 43 days of audio.
There are a number of technologies that have been demonstrated,
but are not yet ready for commercial deployment. If perpendicular
recording techniques, and new 8nm film techniques pay off (and
they are expected to be so) they think it is reasonable to assume
that 700GB/cm^2 is possible.
Thus that same drive format would be 378GB, or 14,476 hours of
mono-audio, or 604 days, or 1.6 years.
Now, for reliability, let's stack them in a 7 deep cube, giving
the new dimensions 36x43x35mm, as a RAID 5 redundant array. Striped
and mirrored, with 2/7th redundancy, this cube can store 1.9 terabytes
of information, or 3020 days, or 8.3 years of audio.
Now MP3 at telephone quality compression is 96:1, so if you
compressed that audio using that method you get 28,992 days, or
79 years.
So other then the power problem, you could give a baby an amulet
that could record everything that that child would hear during
a normal life.
Now, this is speculation based on top of speculation, but even
if I am an order of magnitude off, 190GB in a cube half the size
of a deck of cards is quite spectacular.
The issues of people trying to manage this amount of personal
information I think will be very fruitful field of endeavor.
-- Christopher Allen
From: Matt Taylor
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 06:34:07 -0800
To: Christopher Allen , Todd Johnston , Gail Taylor , Mark
Sander
Cc: jeff Johnston , Russ White
Subject: RE: State of Internet Advertising
Thanks Chris... Very interesting. There was more optimisim at
Davos about this than I expected. The feeling there was that content
will be paid for eventually.
Matt
-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Allen
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 11:59 PM
To: Todd Johnston; Gail Taylor; Mark Sander Cc: Matt Taylor
Subject: FW: State of Internet Advertising
01.15.2001: Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka - "The State of the Internet"
http://somethingawful.efront.com/features/stateoftheinternet/
From: Jeffrey Johnston
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 08:38:07 -0800
To: Todd Johnston
Cc: Matt Taylor , Gail Taylor
Subject: Davos workshops in the news
Check out: http://www.earthtimes.org/jan/featureideaslaborcollectivejan25_01.htm
For an article on Group Genius at the World Economic Forum in
Davos.
Jeff
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