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April 12, 2002 - 1:23pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Science

Louis Lingg writes "Business consultant in Network Analysis Valdis Krebs has posted (as a PDF) 'Mapping Networks of Terrorist Cells,' an examiniation of the network of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attack.

Social Network Analysis 'is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities.'

Social Network Analysis has long been applied by prosecuters in mapping fraud and criminal conspiracy cases. Valdis advocates use of this tool as a preventative measure by law enforcement and intelligence agencies while acknowledging the difficulties in mapping covert networks."

February 12, 2002 - 3:25pm -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Science

A number of texts by Rene Riesel
concerning the first direct action campaign in France against
organically modified seeds, as first published in English translation in
the anthology RESTRUCTURING AND RESISTANCE (London: resresrev, 2001),
are now available at the following web address:

http://directaction.piranho.com/riesel.html

Biotechnology Public and Private (Riesel)

Some months ago a team of French psychiatrists was asked to evaluate the motivation of the opponents of genetic engineering. Curiously, this reassuring news was not widely reported. Nor does anyone seem to have noticed the remarkable self-imposed discretion of the devotees of transgenetics with respect to the doings of their enemies. Only on the rarest of occasions do they let slip some faint condemnation of the over-sensitivity, the old-fogeyism or the obscurantism of the anti-GMO crew, or mutter under their breath that the dissenters' virulent hatred of progress is really a matter for the psychiatrists. True enough, the most exemplary aspect of the first campaign waged in France against genetic engineering - a campaign that began with the Nérac sabotage of January 1998 and ended with the Montpellier action of June 1999, and included ten or so destructions of experimental crops and brief occupations of premises of Novartis, of CIRAD (Centre for International Co-operation in Agronomic Research for Development) and of INRA (National Institute of Agronomic Research) - lay in its renewal of the Luddite tradition. Considering that some participants are eager to downplay this aspect, no doubt because they need to forget the implications of what they have got caught up in, it is probably worth recalling the bases of this modern-day Luddite madness.

December 23, 2001 - 12:49pm -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Science

After the movie theatres had record crowds during the projections
of the movie, Robocop, years ago, for a short time one of the TV
networks broadcast a series of shows in which the protagonist was
the famous anti-crime character from the movie.

It all remains circumscribed in the sphere of the projections of
science fiction. Fortunately, it is unthinkable, for us poor mortals,
that the creation of a cybernetic police officer could happen. We turn
off the TV and sleep peacefully, some a little worried, some
comforted by the existence by the existence, however improbable,
of a weapon of this kind.

The TV series goes on so that without even thinking about it , we
find ourselves wrapped up in the adventures of this pile of scrap
metal.

When a well-known daily newspaper communicates the
realization of a cybernetic human, with an article accompanied by
the photo of Robocop, we are no longer particularly disturbed,
because that figure is so familiar to us since we have become so
habituated to the televised hammering on the subject.

November 17, 2001 - 7:18am -- nick
Science

polo writes:

"US Government's $2.5 Million
Biopiracy Project in Mexico Cancelled

Victory for Indigenous Peoples in Chiapas

After two years of intense local opposition from
indigenous peoples'organizations in Chiapas, Mexico,
the US government-funded ICBG-Maya project aimed at
the bioprospecting of Mayan medicinal plants and
traditional knowledge has been "definitively
cancelled" by the Project's Chiapas-based partner,
ECOSUR - El Colegio de la Frontera Sur. The US
government confirmed today that the ICBG-Maya Project
has been terminated.

"The definitive cancellation of the ICBG-Maya project
is important for all indigenous peoples in Mexico.
Indigenous communities are asking for a moratorium on
all biopiracy projects in Mexico, so that we can
discuss, understand and propose our own alternative
approaches to using our resources and knowledge. We
want to insure that no one can patent these resources
and that the benefits are shared by all."
- Antonio Perez Mendez, indigenous doctor and
secretary of the Council of Traditional Indigenous
Doctors and Midwives from Chiapas
(Consejo de Médicos y Parteras Indígenas Tradicionales
de Chiapas - COMPITCH).

October 10, 2001 - 1:19am -- Stenglander
Science

The London Guardian has posted an article by Rebecca Allison on the disease anthrax and the organism Bacillus anthracis.

June 28, 2001 - 1:27pm -- autonomedia
Science

The Independent is reporting:
For those who love cats but do not love itchy or watery eyes,
there could soon be a solution. Scientists in America are
developing genetically engineered moggies that will not cause
allergies – potentially allowing millions of cat enthusiasts to
become cat owners...

...Carol Barbee, president of the American Cat Fanciers
Association, said many people would welcome such cats. But

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