Blackwell Synergy: Development Policy Review, Vol 23, Issue 6, pp. 643-663: Why Do Aid Agencies Exist? (Abstract): aid services suppliers, or, in general, suppliers whose products and
services could be valuable in developing countries, may want to use aid
transfers to enhance their positions on developing country markets (technical
assistance, commercial suppliers, but also academic and research institutes,
laboratories, construction companies, etc.). Here, the aid is instrumental in
bringing about a preference re-alignment in the mind of the recipient – who
gets a subsidy to do something he would otherwise not do, or to do it
differently.
• Last but not least, a donor country government may use aid flows to enhance
political alliances with the recipient country government, to obtain political
goodwill and changes (non-alignment in the original preferences) in the
decisions and policy stance of that government. Donor governments may also
wish to nurture their relationship with particular interest groups in the recipient
country (preferences aligned with those of the donor government) who can be
influential in political and economic decisions of interest to the donor country.

Blackwell Synergy: Development Policy Review, Vol 23, Issue 6, pp. 643-663: Why Do Aid Agencies Exist? (Abstract): Despite these formidable barriers foreign aid has reached unprecedented
historical proportions. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, it has become a full-scale
multinational industry with an annual turnover estimated at nearly US$70 billion
(OECD, 2005). Direct contact between potential donors and recipients would not be
able to achieve such massive transfers. Some sort of organisational set-up is required to
facilitate intermediation between them and reduce ex-ante transaction costs as well as
ex-post uncertainty to an acceptable level.

Blackwell Synergy: Development Policy Review, Vol 23, Issue 6, pp. 643-663: Why Do Aid Agencies Exist? (Abstract)
Aid – income redistribution between humans – is a phenomenon that is deeply
embedded in human behaviour. Indeed, we could not survive without it. For instance,
sharing food and other basic resources in families and kin groups is essential for the
survival of human beings – as essential as it is for most other animals. What
distinguishes humans from other animals, however, is our ability to redistribute and
share resources within a much wider social setting, outside immediate family and kin
groups, even with persons we have never met or will never meet.

United Press International - Hi-Tech - Commentary: Living forever: "Singularity,' John Casti of Nature wrote, is 'a mind expanding account (that) is nothing less than a blueprint for how to shove Homo sapiens off center-stage in evolution's endless play...if you buy into Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns - and all empirical evidence currently available supports it completely - then the replacement of humans by machines as the primary intellectual force on Earth is indeed imminent.' "

United Press International - Hi-Tech - Commentary: Living forever: "Bill Gates praises futurist Kurzweil and his 'Singularity' as 'the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.' He has a 20-year track record of accurate predictions. Bill Joy, co-founder and former chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, is filled with foreboding about the perils of humanity's technological future. But Joy still concedes 'The Singularity Is Near' is 'a clear call for a continuing dialogue to address the greater concerns arising from these accelerating possibilities.'
What worries Joy in his book 'Why The Future Doesn't Need Us' is that 'we are being propelled into this new century with no plan, no control, no brakes.'
Joy has a point. There is a growing abyss between the economic, scientific and technological knowledge of the masses and their representatives on the one hand, and, on the other, the knowledge that is required to make logical, rational and moral decisions. "

United Press International - Hi-Tech - Commentary: Living forever: "Kurzweil's latest futuristic tome is the sequel to his last bestseller, 'The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence,' which posited that the ever-accelerating rate of technological change would lead to computers that would rival the full range of human intelligence. He now takes his readers to the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the fusion of human brain and machine. Thus, 'the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will merge with the vastly greater capacity, speed and knowledge-sharing ability of our own creations.' "

ASU News > Scholars debate whether to limit scientific research: "We have reached a point in human history where some of the scientific research we could do, perhaps we should not do for safety, national security or ethical reasons,� says Gary Marchant, executive director of the center. �We therefore must choose, for the first time, which science should be allowed, and which should not. How, and by whom, such decisions should be made will be the focus of this timely and path-breaking conference.�"

ASU News > Scholars debate whether to limit scientific research:The first day of the conference will provide an overview of the legal and policy questions, plus a discussion about the limitations of the “right” to conduct scientific research. The second day’s events will focus on three case studies involving emerging research controversies in the areas of pathogens and toxins, nanotechnology and cognitive enhancement.

War and disasters aside, 2005 brought world progress | csmonitor.com: "Armed conflict: While the 20th century was the bloodiest in human history, the number of armed conflicts has declined steadily from about 50 in 1990 to less than 30 today - nearly the lowest levels since the end of World War II. The number of men and women in uniform and total world military spending has eased from cold war peaks. Catastrophic wars between major states that pervaded Europe and Asia until the end of World War II have largely been replaced by smaller-scale internal conflicts, primarily in lower-income countries. Progress toward a safer world, however, unlike progress in health, education, and income, can be quickly reversed with the outbreak of a single major conflict. Recent brinkmanship between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan is the most chilling reminder of this danger."

War and disasters aside, 2005 brought world progress | csmonitor.com: "Political and civil rights: Fully one-half of the world's population now lives in countries that have multiparty electoral systems that respect basic human rights - the highest level in history. The breakup of the former Soviet Union in 1991 precipitated a move toward Western system democracies not only within the borders of the former Soviet Union but also within former 'client' states. During the past three decades, more than 80 countries in Central Europe, East Asia, Latin America, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa have all notched gains in political and civil rights and more than 30 military dictatorships have been replaced by civilian governments."

War and disasters aside, 2005 brought world progress | csmonitor.com: "Income: Worldwide incomes are at their highest levels in history and are rising. Since 1960, more than 1 billion people have pulled themselves out of the direst poverty. This trend caused the World Bank to conclude that 'the past two decades have witnessed one of the most rapid reductions in poverty in human history.' This success has been propelled by China, which alone has lifted more than 400 million out of poverty in the past 20 years. Other countries, such as Bangladesh, have made substantial strides in poverty reduction - without China's high rates of economic growth - through progressive government programs focused on improving healthcare and education. The rapid globalization of the world economy and industrialization of many formerly agricultural economies, which has unquestionably brought environmental loss and social upheaval, has raised incomes for billions of people."

War and disasters aside, 2005 brought world progress csmonitor.com: "Judging from the headlines, 2005 was a gloomy year, indeed. Gulf Coast hurricanes, the devastating earthquake in Kashmir, ongoing war in Iraq, civil war in Sudan, renewed famine in central Africa, and the threat of a worldwide pandemic flu darkened the news. These headlines, however, obscure a far brighter underlying trend: On average, people across the planet are living longer, healthier lives, with greater opportunities for education and political freedom than ever before.
We unavoidably view our world through news articles that break up an otherwise overwhelming stream of information into digestible bites. As a result, we often 'lose the forest for the trees' by focusing on sensational short-term stories that impact relatively few people."

Wired 14.01: The 50 Best Robots Ever: ". SPIRIT AND OPPORTUNITY
Some robots sit in labs for researchers to tinker with. These two bots are on frickin' Mars. Expected to last only three months when they touched down on the Red Planet in January 2004, the rovers are still going strong two years later - each sends back 100 megabits of data a day.
02. ASTROBOY
While American kids were daydreaming of Superman, Japanese tykes were worshipping at the altar of Tetsuwan Atom, aka Astroboy. First drawn in 1951, Astroboy has rocket boots, lasers that shoot from his fingertips, and, uh, an ass cannon. The lovable crime-fighting robot was an inspiration to a generation of kids -some of whom went on to become robotics researchers. He's a big reason why Japan is at the forefront of android development today. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.
And the #1 Robot of All Time Is...
01. STANLEY
The Stanford Racing Team's autonomous vehicle is a modified Volkswagen Touareg that can scan any terrain and pick out a drivable course to a preset destination. Cup holders optional."

Top 10 tech trends for 2006: "Video -- in the form of your favorite TV dramas or Hollywood hit movies -- will come to the big screen in your living room and to the small screen on your cell phone. Whenever you want it. No need to mess around with time-shifting TV devices or mail-order flicks."

Evolution whispers some secrets - Science - Specials - smh.com.auTHIS year, mankind's drive to explore the universe saw spacecraft either on their way, or already at, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, a comet, an asteroid and the very edge of the solar system.

The Globe and Mail: Creating first synthetic life formHaving launched a company called Synthetic Genomics, Dr. Venter believes "the whole world is open" in terms of the commercial applications of being able to build or redesign micro-organisms for specific tasks.

He insists the main goal of his project to build the first synthetic life form, however, is to understand the essence of life, how it evolved and the essential elements that sustain it.

"Here we are trying to understand the human genome with 24,000 some odd genes and 100 trillion cells and we don't know how 300 or 400 genes work together to yield a simple living cell," he said.

The Globe and Mail: Creating first synthetic life form: "The work is an extreme example of a burgeoning new field in science known as synthetic biology. It relies on advances in computer technology that permit the easy assembly of the chemical bits, known as nucleotides, that make up DNA.
Several scientific groups are trying to make genes that do not exist in nature, in hopes of constructing microbes that perform useful tasks, such as producing industrial chemicals, clean energy or drugs. Dr. Venter and his colleagues are pushing the technology to its limits by trying to put together an entirely synthetic genome. "

FUTURIST UPDATE January 2006The next phase of the baby-boom watch will naturally focus on health
care and retirement issues. But throughout their lives, the baby
boomers have adamantly rejected the status quo in the institutions and
industries touching their lives. So some observers believe that,
instead of retiring, baby boomers will retool, retrain, and recareer.

KurzweilAI.net: "A detailed look at human DNA has shown that 1800 genes, or roughly 7 percent of the total in the human genome, have changed under the influence of natural selection within the past 50,000 years, probably in response to aspects of modern human culture such as the emergence of agriculture and the shift towards living in densely populated settlements."

Foreign Affairs - The Decline of America's Soft Power - Joseph S. Nye, Jr.: "Soft power, therefore, is not just a matter of ephemeral popularity; it is a means of obtaining outcomes the United States wants. When Washington discounts the importance of its attractiveness abroad, it pays a steep price. When the United States becomes so unpopular that being pro-American is a kiss of death in other countries' domestic politics, foreign political leaders are unlikely to make helpful concessions (witness the defiance of Chile, Mexico, and Turkey in March 2003). And when U.S. policies lose their legitimacy in the eyes of others, distrust grows, reducing U.S. leverage in international affairs."

Foreign Affairs - The Decline of America's Soft Power - Joseph S. Nye, Jr.: "Anti-Americanism has increased in recent years, and the United States' soft power -- its ability to attract others by the legitimacy of U.S. policies and the values that underlie them -- is in decline as a result. According to Gallup International polls, pluralities in 29 countries say that Washington's policies have had a negative effect on their view of the United States. A Eurobarometer poll found that a majority of Europeans believes that Washington has hindered efforts to fight global poverty, protect the environment, and maintain peace. Such attitudes undercut soft power, reducing the ability of the United States to achieve its goals without resorting to coercion or payment."

Foreign Affairs - The Decline of America's Soft Power - Joseph S. Nye, Jr.: "Summary: The Bush administration may dismiss the relevance of soft power, but it does so at great peril. Success in the war on terrorism depends on Washington's capacity to persuade others without force, and that capacity is in dangerous decline."

Foreign Affairs - America's Imperial Ambition - G. John Ikenberry: "The mainstream of American foreign policy has been defined since the 1940s by two grand strategies that have built the modern international order. One is realist in orientation, organized around containment, deterrence, and the maintenance of the global balance of power. Facing a dangerous and expansive Soviet Union after 1945, the United States stepped forward to fill the vacuum left by a waning British Empire and a collapsing European order to provide a counter-weight to Stalin and his Red Army.
The touchstone of this strategy was containment, which sought to deny the Soviet Union the ability to expand its sphere of influence."

Foreign Affairs - America's Imperial Ambition - G. John Ikenberry: "The twin new realities of our age -- catastrophic terrorism and American unipolar power -- do necessitate a rethinking of the organizing principles of international order. America and the other major states do need a new consensus on terrorist threats, weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the use of force, and the global rules of the game. This imperative requires a better appreciation of the ideas coming out of the administration. But in turn, the administration should understand the virtues of the old order that it wishes to displace."

Foreign Affairs - America's Imperial Ambition - G. John Ikenberry: "At the extreme, these notions form a neoimperial vision in which the United States arrogates to itself the global role of setting standards, determining threats, using force, and meting out justice. It is a vision in which sovereignty becomes more absolute for America even as it becomes more conditional for countries that challenge Washington's standards of internal and external behavior. "

Foreign Affairs - America's Imperial Ambition - G. John Ikenberry: "Summary: The concepts emerging from the Bush administration's war on terrorism form a neoimperial vision in which the United States arrogates to itself the global role of setting standards, determining threats, and using force. These radical ideas could transform today's world order in a way that the end of the Cold War did not. The administration's approach is fraught with peril and likely to fail. If history is any guide, it will trigger resistance that will leave America in a more hostile and divided world."

Foreign Affairs - Understanding China - Kishore Mahbubani: "Summary: The United States has done much to enable China's recent growth, but it has also sent mixed signals that have unnerved Beijing. More consistent engagement is in order, because the course of the twenty-first century will be determined by the relationship between the world's greatest power and the world's greatest emerging power."

Foreign Affairs - Taming American Power - Stephen M. Walt: "To be sure, many governments still value U.S. power and seek to use it to advance their own interests. Yet even Washington's close allies are now looking for ways to tame the United States' might. Many countries fear U.S. influence, and they have devised numerous strategies to manage and limit it. The United States will not and should not exit the world stage anytime soon. But it must make its dominant position acceptable to others -- by using military force sparingly, by fostering greater cooperation with key allies, and, most important of all, by rebuilding its crumbling international image."

Foreign Affairs - Taming American Power - Stephen M. Walt: "How do you deal with American power? This question is one for which every world leader must have an answer. And the response of other states to U.S. power is something Americans must care about as well. Basic security is at issue, as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks demonstrated. So is the health of the U.S. economy, with the market share of U.S. firms declining in key overseas markets due to anti-American sentiment. The time to worry is now."

Foreign Affairs - Taming American Power - Stephen M. Walt: "Imagine, for a moment, that you are the president of France. You regard U.S. foreign policy as often naive and overweening, and your ideal world order is one in which no single state is dominant. So what do you do about the United States? Now picture yourself as the president of Russia. The only remnants of your country's former superpower status are an aging nuclear arsenal and membership in the UN Security Council. How do you improve Russia's situation in a world dominated by U.S. power? Or perhaps you are the prime minister of India. You face serious regional challenges -- including the rising power of China -- but relations with Washington are sometimes prickly, and the United States' global dominance is disquieting. Can you take advantage of parallel U.S. interests to advance those of India?"

Foreign Affairs - Somebody Else's Civil War - Michael Scott Doran: "Polarizing the Islamic world between the umma and the regimes allied with the United States would help achieve bin Laden's primary goal: furthering the cause of Islamic revolution within the Muslim world itself, in the Arab lands especially and in Saudi Arabia above all. He had no intention of defeating America. War with the United States was not a goal in and of itself but rather an instrument designed to help his brand of extremist Islam survive and flourish among the believers. Americans, in short, have been drawn into somebody else's civil war."

Foreign Affairs - Somebody Else's Civil War - Michael Scott Doran: "Bin Laden produced a piece of high political theater he hoped would reach the audience that concerned him the most: the umma, or universal Islamic community. The script was obvious: America, cast as the villain, was supposed to use its military might like a cartoon character trying to kill a fly with a shotgun. The media would see to it that any use of force against the civilian population of Afghanistan was broadcast around the world, and the umma would find it shocking how Americans nonchalantly caused Muslims to suffer and die. The ensuing outrage would open a chasm between state and society in the Middle East, and the governments allied with the West -- many of which are repressive, corrupt, and illegitimate -- would find themselves adrift."

Foreign Affairs - Somebody Else's Civil War - Michael Scott Doran: "Summary: Osama bin Laden's attacks on the United States were aimed at another audience: the entire Muslim world. Hoping that U.S. retaliation would unite the faithful against the West, bin Laden sought to spark revolutions in Arab nations and elsewhere. War with America was never his end; it was just a means to promote radical Islam. The sooner Washington understands this, the better its chances of winning the wider struggle."

Foreign Affairs - China's "Peaceful Rise" to Great-Power Status - Zheng Bijian: "Since starting to open up and reform its economy in 1978, China has averaged 9.4 percent annual GDP growth, one of the highest growth rates in the world. In 1978, it accounted for less than one percent of the world economy, and its total foreign trade was worth $20.6 billion. Today, it accounts for four percent of the world economy and has foreign trade worth $851 billion -- the third-largest national total in the world. China has also attracted hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment and more than a trillion dollars of domestic nonpublic investment. A dozen years ago, China barely had mobile telecommunications services. Now it claims more than 300 million mobile-phone subscribers, more than any other nation. As of June 2004, nearly 100 million people there had access to the Internet."

Foreign Affairs - China's "Peaceful Rise" to Great-Power Status - Zheng Bijian: "Despite widespread fears about China's growing economic clout and political stature, Beijing remains committed to a 'peaceful rise': bringing its people out of poverty by embracing economic globalization and improving relations with the rest of the world. As it emerges as a great power, China knows that its continued development depends on world peace -- a peace that its development will in turn reinforce."

Foreign Affairs - China's Global Hunt for Energy - David Zweig and Bi Jianhai: "China's resources hunt has been a boon to some states, especially developing countries, as it has allowed them to exploit as yet untapped resources or gain leverage to negotiate better deals with older customers. But for other states, particularly the United States and Japan, China's insatiability is causing concern. Some governments worry as Beijing enters their spheres of influence or strikes deals with states they have tried to marginalize. "

Foreign Affairs - China's Global Hunt for Energy - David Zweig and Bi Jianhai: "Partly on these people's advice, Beijing has been encouraging representatives of state-controlled companies to secure exploration and supply agreements with states that produce oil, gas, and other resources. Meanwhile, it has been courting the governments of these states aggressively, building goodwill by strengthening bilateral trade relations, awarding aid, forgiving national debt, and helping build roads, bridges, stadiums, and harbors. In return, China has won access to key resources, from gold in Bolivia and coal in the Philippines to oil in Ecuador and natural gas in Australia."

Foreign Affairs - China's Global Hunt for Energy - David Zweig and Bi Jianhai: "Twenty years ago, China was East Asia's largest oil exporter. Now it is the world's second-largest importer; last year, it alone accounted for 31 percent of global growth in oil demand. Now that China is the workshop of the world, its hunger for electricity and industrial resources has soared. China's combined share of the world's consumption of aluminum, copper, nickel, and iron ore more than doubled within only ten years, from 7 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2000; it has now reached about 20 percent and is likely to double again by the end of the decade. Despite calls by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and other politicians to cut consumption of energy and other resources, there is little sign of this appetite abating. Justin Yifu Lin, director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, in Beijing, says the country's economy could grow at 9 percent per year for the next 20 years."

Foreign Affairs - China's Global Hunt for Energy - David Zweig and Bi Jianhai: "Chinese foreign policy is now driven by China's unprecendented need for resources. In exchange for access to oil and other raw materials to fuel its booming economy, Beijing has boosted its bilateral relations with resource-rich states, sometimes striking deals with rogue governments or treading on U.S. turf. Beijing's hunger may worry some in Washington, but it also creates new grounds for cooperation."

Foreign Affairs - Understanding Madrasahs - Alexander Evans: "The Western consensus on madrasahs assumes that some of them produce terrorists and many others contribute to radicalization in less direct ways. But the evidence of a direct link to terrorism remains weak. Indeed, according to Marc Sageman's recent study Understanding Terror Networks, two-thirds of contemporary al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists went to state or Western-style colleges. Like the terrorist Ahmed Sheikh (who was a contemporary of mine at the London School of Economics), terrorists today are more likely to have gone through the regular educational system. Many are newly religious rebels rather than regular ulama "

Vital Signs Facts: Coal, China, and India: A Deadly Combination for Air Pollution?: "The rapid growth in coal use in China and India, where pollution controls are minimal, is adding to local and long-distance pollution. More than 80 percent of Chinese cities in a recent World Bank survey had sulfur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide emissions above the World Health Organization's threshold. "

Member states of the UN cannot agree on what constitutes terrorism, human rights abuse or even armed confl ict. In many parts of the world, the claim that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fi ghter’ still resonates. And defi ning armed confl ict can be just as controversial. Some governments ar-
gue that violent political opposition to their rule is simply criminal violence.

The me-
dia focused on the new wars—largely ignoring those that were ending.

First, the world’s media pay more attention to new eruptions of political violence than to wars that end quietly. Between 1989 and 2002, some 100 armed conflicts came to an end.2 Very few of these endings were widely reported.

This misperception is not restricted to the media or the general public. A surprising number of government offi - cials and scholars are also unaware of the decline. Some, indeed, believe that political violence has increased.1 In fact, in terms of battle-deaths, the 1990s was the least violent decade since the end of World War II. By the beginning of the 21st century, the probability of any coun- try being embroiled in an armed confl ict was lower than at any time since the early 1950s.

The trend in international terrorist attacks is much less clear. Several datasets suggest that the number of terrorist attacks of all kinds has declined over the past 20 years, but the most recent data from the US government indicate a significant increase in both the number of attacks and casualties in 2004.

The UK, France and the US have the dubious distinction of having fought more international wars since World War II than any other countries.

War The data also show that the overwhelming majority of today’s armed confl icts are fought within, not between, states and that most take place in the poorest parts of the world.

In the past decade and a half, the UN has been more successful in reaching this goal than many critics allow. Since the end of the Cold War, armed confl icts around the world have declined dramatically.

New Scientist Breaking News - Did humans colonise north Europe earlier than thought?: "Humans may have colonised northern Europe 200,000 years earlier than previously thought. Stone tools found in eastern England suggest that humans were there at least 700,000 years ago.
'We don't know for sure what species it was,' says team member Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, 'but my bet is it's an early form of Homo heidelbergensis or Homo antecessor.'"

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "The December 15 elections will do little to halt the trend toward the regionalization, and potential fragmentation, of Iraq. The Kurdish north and religious Shi'a in the south seem inclined to force the disintegration of Iraq's central government by shifting power to the regions that they control. "

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "The removal of Saddam Hussein's secular establishment and the empowerment of the Iraqi Shi'a were developments welcomed by Iran, and Tehran will no doubt look to exploit its newfound influence in the country. Indeed, there is always the concern that Iran hopes to one day incorporate, either officially or unofficially, southern Iraq and its rich oilfields into the Iranian state, a development that would greatly increase Iran's power in the region. Nevertheless, even without this development, Iran stands to gain the most from the empowerment of the Shi'a in southern Iran."

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "Additionally, with reduced U.S. oversight in the cities of Iraq, militant groups that consider themselves part of the Islamic revolutionary movement may have more opportunity to plan attacks against U.S. and related targets. The recent attacks in Aqaba and Amman may be the preludes to more Islamist military operations in the region that emanate from Iraq. Just as Afghanistan provided sanctuary for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, Iraq already provides sanctuary -- due to the lack of central government oversight -- to various militant groups; a withdrawal of U.S. troops may advance this development. "

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "In order to handle this mission, Washington has relied heavily on the Army's Reserves and National Guard units, and this has had an effect on the U.S. military's ability to recruit new soldiers since all new recruits know that they will likely serve a tour of duty in Iraq -- a commitment many potential recruits are unwilling to make. Both the Reserves and the Active Duty forces are behind their recruiting goals for 2005. These series of issues make Washington's present troop commitment to Iraq unsustainable over the long term."

Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Art, truth and politics: " have said earlier that the United States is now totally frank about putting its cards on the table. That is the case. Its official declared policy is now defined as 'full spectrum dominance'. That is not my term, it is theirs. 'Full spectrum dominance' means control of land, sea, air and space and all attendant resources.
The United States now occupies 702 military installations throughout the world in 132 countries, with the honourable exception of Sweden, of course. We don't quite know how they got there but they are there all right.
The United States possesses 8,000 active and operational nuclear warheads. Two thousand are on hair trigger alert, ready to be launched with 15 minutes warning. It is developing new systems of nuclear force, known as bunker busters."

EFMN - European Foresight Monitoring Network - MISSION: "The EFMN is a NETWORK of policy professionals, foresight experts and practitioners as well as analysts of Science, Technology and Innovation related issues. The EFMN develops foresight related CONTENT, analyzed in an annual WORKSHOP and disseminated via a WEBSITE and MAILING LIST. Membership of the network is free"

People's Daily Online -- China publishes first international trade risk report: "According to the report, China's most important trade partners, like the United States, Japan, Singapore, Germany and the Netherlands, are graded to have the lowest risk in international trade.
On the contrary, some new overseas trading markets, including countries from Asia, Africa, the Latin America and the east Europe, are graded at a higher risk level when trading with China, for the cases of their economic development and industry structure, said the handbook.
The 1.568 million-words Handbook of Country Risk was written by the China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (SINOSURE), China's only state-owned export credit insurance company which helps Chinese exporters avoid international trade risk. "

People's Daily Online -- Gates launches talent hunt for smart techies in India: "Microsoft chief Bill Gates Friday launched a nationwide talent hunt in Bangalore to pick the best tech students who will work with him at the global firm's headquarters in Redmond, Seattle.
Titled 'Code 4 Bill,' the contest will provide the best pre- final and final year student technologists an opportunity to showcase their talent and join Gates' technical assistants team for a year.
'India is the first country where students will get this opportunity to learn about cutting-edge product development and innovations that are powering the world by working directly with our product development and research teams,' Indo-Asian News Service quoted Gates, at the 'Bill Gates Live -- Ready 2005' event, as saying. "

News - Press ReviewsAfter the collapse of communism, millions moved abroad for political reasons: Jews to Israel, ethnic Germans home from the Soviet Union, Russians back to Russia. Others were refugees from wars, or migrated illegally. But, says Ali Mansoor, a World Bank economist working on a study of post-communist migration due to be published next year, this one is different: driven by economics not politics, and largely legal not illegal. One of his biggest problems is measuring the scale of the new migration.
For a start, the era of migration is likely to be temporary. “We have ten years before the demographics kick in,” says Mansoor, “after which there just won't be the young people to emigrate.” That is not wholly good news: most central and east European countries face the nasty combination of a rich-country age structure with a poor-country economy. But it highlights the biggest cause of migration now: a big pool of unemployed, underpaid or under-appreciated people for whom going abroad makes a lot of sense.

automates-intelligents-html@kiosqueist.com: "'Vast government contracts have corrupted the American university system, turning off the fountainhead of unfettered ideas and scientific discovery. Multibillion-dollar federal R&D budgets have replaced the solitary inventor with veritable armies of scientists and engineers in laboratories across the country. Public policy itself has become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.' "

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "Nothing is harder than diamond, right? Wrong. Scientists from Bar-Ilan University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology say that using nanotechnology, they have discovered a material 40 times harder. Professors Eli Altus, Harold Basch and Shmaryahu Hoz, with doctoral student Lior Itzhaki have published their findings in the Internet edition of the world's most influential chemistry journal, Angewdte Chemie. "

Philosophy of Nonviolence: The Inevitability of Conflict (Nonviolence.org): "Gandhian philosophy assumes that the ?reality? we see is transitory, that change and struggle is the rule, not the exception"

: "KOSIMO is the name of a database containing (at this time) 693 political conflicts from 1945 to 1999. Each conflict is coded with 28 variables. "

People's Daily Online -- US research restrictions spark controversy: "The news that the US Government proposes to prevent Chinese and other nations' citizens participating in advanced scientific projects in the United States has prompted an outcry among overseas Chinese students and scholars in the United States, according to a Xinhua report.
The proposal is, for the so-called sake of US national security, aimed at the prevention of the theft of technical secrets by foreign spies, said Xinhua, quoting relevant reports. "

People's Daily Online -- Greenspan warns of possible "painful" adjustment for world economy: "Addressing a meeting of Group of Seven (G7) economic powers in London, Greenspan said the rise of the US current account deficit over the past decade appears to have coincided with a pronounced new phase of globalization.
He mentioned that so far the United States has had no problem financing its current account trade deficit, which last year hit record high 668 billion US dollars, because of the flexibility of the American economy.
But he also expressed concerns about the possibility that US debts grow to unsustainable levels and the move to open global markets is halted. "

Wired News: Science Makes Sex Obsolete: "It gets even more interesting when you learn what Brinster did with sperm stem cells in 2001. In that study, he and his team changed the genetic program of SSCs. Because these are sex cells, any changes scientists might introduce to their genes will be carried from generation to generation. This is called a 'germ line' change, and it's a line that the majority of bioethicists agree should not be crossed, because it raises the specter of DNA eugenics. "

Wired News: Science Makes Sex Obsolete: "The idea of 'designer babies' is one of those concepts that is fun to discuss over a pitcher of Mojitos, but the practical reality is sobering.
Designer babies have already been born. Well over 1,000 children have been screened as embryos by preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. In PGD, a cell taken from an embryo is analyzed to see if the chromosomes or genes are normal. Families use PGD to weed out genetic diseases and to make a baby who will be immunologically compatible with an existing sibling in need of a blood or bone-marrow donation. More controversially, it can be, and has been, used to select the sex of babies. "